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Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe
Book Description
Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men--the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America’s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.
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In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson, author of Isaac's Storm, tells the spellbinding true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were linked by the greatest fair in American history: the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, nicknamed "The White City."
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century.
The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C.
The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds -- a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.
Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.
The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. In this book, the smoke, romance and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.
Erik Larson's gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.
"Engrossing... exceedingly well documented... utterly fascinating."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"A dynamic, enveloping book.... Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramtic effect of a novel.... It doesn't hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"So good, you find yourself asking how you could not know this already."
ESQUIRE
"Another successful exploration of American history.... Larson skillfully balances the grisly details with the far-reaching implications of the World's Fair."
USA TODAY
"As absorbing a piece of popular history as one will ever hope to find."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"Paints a dazzling picture of the Gilded Age and prefigure the American century to come."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"A wonderfully unexpected book... Larson is a historian... with a novelist's soul."
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
Customer Reviews:
Fact and Speculation.......2007-10-10
The Devil In the White City raises troublesome questions about what is factual and what is pure authorial speculation. At times the Larson even privaledges his own imagination as being closer to the truth than statements provided by key players in the book. (See the first three paragraphs on page 39 for an example.) Stronger documentation and clear indications of when the text was meandering into the imaginative realm would have helped this book tremendously.
Great book, though leaves a bit to be desired...........2007-10-09
I am not a huge reader (too busy with college) but this book really caught my eye and, let me tell you, I made time for it once I realized how good it was. The book is incredibly informative and it is immediately apparent that the author did an ENORMOUS amount of research. As one of the reviewers says on a page at the front of the book, you will be left wondering how you DIDN'T know these stories already (for example, you learn about the first Ferris wheel.)
All of that said, I was hoping for much more information about the serial killer aspect... the author would devote maybe 4 pages worth of Holmes for every 10 pages worth of the Chicago Fair. I was mistakenly led to believe that the ratio was about equal and throughout the book, kept hoping that the Fair's historical accounts would become less frequent and instead would be replaced with more of the true crime aspect. At the end of the book, I came to find out that there simply wasn't enough information about the crimes to fill the book as most readers might have liked.
In short, this book is excellent and I highly recommend it. Just be forewarned, it is much more about the Chicago World Fair (and in more detail than most people probably prefer) and less about the serial killer and his
Very interesting.......2007-10-01
The book goes into more detail than what I care for, but it is very very interesting in everything you learn about American History
Amazing.......2007-09-29
Belonging to a book club for several years, we all agreed this book rated as one of our top ten books. Not only was it historically accurate but it was written in a style that captivated the reader with a serial killer on the loose and a race against time to accomplish an almost impossible feat. A book to be read and reread.
discover your darker side.......2007-09-26
i read the book in less than a week - fascinating descriptions, great narrative, etc! this book is beyond fiction..
i especially enjoyed the description of chicago at the height of the "gilded age" and the workings of burnham, olmstead and others involved in the design/architecture and execution of the "white city" - i can't imagine anything of this scale happening in the current social and economic environments and its a pleasure to read about it
but more than anything, i looked forward to the holmes ("the devil") chapters. i'm not much of a rubber-necker, and this book provided me a first-hand experience in fascination-by-destruction. wow!!
Book Description
Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as "a masterpiece" (John A. Gable, Newsday), it is the winner of the Los Angeles Times 1981 Book Prize for Biography and the National Book Award for Biography. Written by David McCullough, the author of Truman, this is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and almost fatal asthma attacks, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household in which he was raised.
The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. The mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and a celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR's first love. All are brought to life to make "a beautifully told story, filled with fresh detail", wrote The New York Times Book Review.
A book to be read on many levels, it is at once an enthralling story, a brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. It is a book about life intensely lived, about family love and loyalty, about grief and courage, about "blessed" mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the Badlands.
Customer Reviews:
American Aristocrat.......2007-09-11
I commend the author for forging a career as a non-academic historian. Few of our tenured scholars write this well, few could get tenure in this day and age expressing affection and admiration for this great republican President and his family of Dutch aristocrats. McCullough is thorough and critical, but never hesitates to show his warm-hearted respect for this extraordinary man who devoted his life to conservation and social advocacy, two fields of life-endeavor totally abandoned by the modern Republicans. Founder of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum, TD was the product of that strange era in American life when the rich identified with America but were not duped into celebrating mediocrity and such popular institutions as the public schools. TD was tutored at home and kept away from the "coarsening" influences of the general public. He then set about to enrich the masses by supporting great institutions. Interesting, TD's arch-rival, John D. Rockefeller, dedicated his life to the same goals. In the 19th century, the rich held the public in contempt for their "commonness" but also felt obliged to "give." This is a charming study of this most charmed family.
TR Fan.......2007-09-06
Excellent, well written book! One of the better biography's of the late, great TR. A must read for all TR fan's.
Bully for This Book!.......2007-09-01
This has to be one of the best biographies I have ever read. David Mccullough's storytelling draws you in, and gives you an intimate look at Teddy's pre-presidential days. The only negative is that it isn't long enough!
How the last "renaissance man" president was created.......2007-07-15
I'll admit up front that I believe Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite president and certainly one of our greatest. He was probably one of the last "renaissance men" of our time; a successful politician, reformer, war hero, historian, naturalist, and rancher (ok, not too successful as a rancher).
But the beauty of Mornings On Horseback is that it adds another dimension to Roosevelt. Unlike many other books on the man, which focus on his accomplishments as a politician and leader, McCullough has used diaries and letters to paint a picture of the family side of TR. Not just a more developed picture of TR himself, but also of his family and the impact of their relationships on each other and on the future president himself.
If you're looking for a book about TR's accomplishments, this is not the book. However, if you're looking for a book that provides insights into how the great man was created Mornings on Horseback fills that need. McCullough notes that he ended his story after TR came back from the "badlands" and ran for mayor of New York. Although the TR story goes beyond that time, the author feels that the essential TR had been created by then, and McCullough's focus is on that story.
Typical McCollough Masterpiece.......2007-06-15
With completion of this biography, I've read all of McCollough's works and am somewhat saddened that there are no more to enjoy. He is quite simply the greatest biographer I've ever read.
In this work, McCollough explores the formative years of Theodore Roosevelt, perhaps the most American U.S. President in our nation's history. In doing so, he tries to identify the upbringing and experiences that resulted in this fascinating individual. As always, McCollough's writing is riveting, his research is rigorous and his analysis is flawless. Typical McCollough. Enjoy.
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The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
Cristina Lafont
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Hermeneutics
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Epistemology
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History & Surveys
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Logic & Language
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Linguistics
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Germany
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0262122170 |
Book Description
The linguistic turn in German philosophy was initiated in the eighteenth century in the work of Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried von Herder, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. It was further developed in this century by Martin Heidegger, and Hans-Georg Gadamer extended its influence to contemporary philosophers such as Karl-Otto Apel and J?Habermas. This tradition focuses on the world-disclosing dimension of language, emphasizing its communicative over its cognitive function.
Although this study is concerned primarily with the German tradition of linguistic philosophy, it is very much informed by the parallel linguistic turn in Anglo-American philosophy, especially the development of theories of direct reference. Cristina Lafont draws upon Hilary Putnam's work in particular to criticize the linguistic idealism and relativism of the German tradition, which she traces back to the assumption that meaning determines reference. Part I is a reconstruction of the linguistic turn in German philosophy from Hamann to Gadamer. Part II offers the deepest account to date of Habermas's approach to language. Part III shows how the shortcomings of German linguistic philosophy can be avoided by developing a consistent and more defensible version of Habermas' theory of communicative rationality.
Book Description
From the best-selling author of Kitchen Confidential comes this true, thrilling tale of pursuit through the kitchens of New York City at the turn of the century.
By the late nineteenth century, it seemed that New York City had put an end to the outbreaks of typhoid fever that had so frequently decimated the city's population. That is until 1904, when the disease broke out in a household in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Authorities suspected the family cook, Mary Mallon, of being a carrier. But before she could be tested, the woman, soon to be known as Typhoid Mary, had disappeared. Over the course of the next three years, Mary worked at several residences, spreading her pestilence as she went. In 1907, she was traced to a home on Park Avenue, and taken into custody. Institutionalized at Riverside Hospital for three years, she was released only when she promised never to work as a cook again. She promptly disappeared.
For the next five years Mary worked in homes and institutions in and around New York, often under assumed names. In February 1915, a devastating outbreak of typhoid at the Sloane Hospital for Women was traced to her. She was finally apprehended and reinstitutionalized at Riverside Hospital, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
Typhoid Mary is the story of her infamous life. Anthony Bourdain reveals the seedier side of the early 1900s, and writes with his renowned panache about life in the kitchen, uncovering the horrifying conditions that allowed the deadly spread of typhoid over a decade. Typhoid Mary is a true feast for history lovers and Bourdain lovers alike.
Customer Reviews:
ANTHONY BOURDAIN DELIVERS.......2007-08-11
Anthony Bourdain provides a good, solid story, written in his fluid, irreverent prose. Too bad he says he'll not revisit this genre (non-fiction, historical), because he makes history fun to read. He puts Typhoid Mary in an historical and culinary context, as only he can do.
Entertaining, But Lightweight.......2006-12-04
An entertaining urban historical of the infamous Typhoid Mary Mallon - the Irish cook with pestilence coursing through her ... um... bum. This one is a bit different because it's written by a chef who looks at Mary's life from the perspective of what it must have been like for a hard-working immigrant cook at the turn of the century, and he throws in a lot of details regarding the lack of cleanliness of the time which makes it a bit more understandable why Mary didn't tend to wash her hands after relieving herself, and thus prevent the spread of Typhoid Fever. Bourdain is decidedly sympathetic of Mary, when it's pretty obvious that Mary had a whole lot to do with bringing her misfortune upon herself... which makes you wonder: if Bourdain were offered some of Mary's trademark peach ice cream, would he have eaten it?
Love Bourdain!.......2006-07-13
I really like Anthony Bourdain's writing style. It's conversational and unpretentious. This is a great book if you don't know the story of Typhoid Mary; however, if you are already familiar with it and are looking for something in depth with lots of details, this might not be perfect.
I'm looking forward to reading more from Bourdain.
The Best History Books are NOT Written by Historians.......2005-03-10
It just goes to show what someone with some desire to learn and a talent for writing can do. Tony Bourdain proves it yet again with his interesting and well-researched look at Typhoid Mary. Who knew she was a cook? I bet most people think she was a prostitute (I did). Bravo to Tony for having the ingenuity and the humility to do some top notch historical research here and produce a useful work of historical scholarship.
Tasty morsel.......2005-01-30
This slender volume is a lot like the sumptuous meals that were popular among the wealthy turn-of-the-last-century New Yorkers: it's rich and overstuffed. "Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical" by Anthony Bourdain is loaded with references to that milieu's passion for all things fancy, especially food, and how one woman, without intent or malice, sent a panic throughout it.
Mr. Boudain, a very successful chef in his own right, is the perfect chronicler of this saga. His sympathy/empathy for Mary (Typhoid Mary) Mallon is evident throughout the text. (His final gesture of burying a gift at her grave was very moving.) He understands Mary's territorial sprayings in the kitchen, and how she felt that no one had the right to prevent her from working in it. And although he feels for her, he is not callous to the havoc and tragedy she created.
There is also a little bit of a detective story here. And I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the first time Mary was tracked down and the last time. The limited range of the book is the only drawback. I felt as though I had read something that was part of a larger work. In gustatory terms, I felt I had eaten a tasty main course with some side dishes, but was denied the appetizer and dessert. Again, Mr. Bourdain's final farewell to Mary at the gravesite was moving, but sort of abruptly ended the story. But I'm nitpicking. "Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical" is a wonderful diversion.
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- After nearly five decades, enlightenment at last
- Anatomy of a Train Wreck
- A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
- The American Dream or the American Nightmare...
- Information Overload
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Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation
Elizabeth Jacoway
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
1950s
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
History
| African Americans
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Arkansas
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
South
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Education Theory
| Education
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0743297199 |
Book Description
In September 1957, the nation was transfixed by nine black students attempting to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. Governor Orval Faubus had defied the city's integration plan by calling out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school. Newspapers across the nation ran front-page photographs of whites, both students and parents, screaming epithets at the quiet, well-dressed black children. President Eisenhower reluctantly deployed troops from the 101st Air-borne, both outside and inside the school.
Integration proceeded, but the turmoil of Little Rock had only just begun. Public schools were soon shut down for a full year. Black students endured outrageous provocation by white classmates. Governor Faubus's popularity skyrocketed, while the landmark case Cooper v. Aaron worked its way to the Supreme Court and eventually paved the way for the integration of the south.
Betsy Jacoway was a Little Rock student just two years younger than the youngest of the Little Rock Nine. Her "Uncle Virgil" was Superintendent of Schools Virgil Blossom. Congressman Brooks Hays was an old family friend, and her "Uncle Dick" was Richard Butler, the lawyer who argued Cooper v. Aaron before the Supreme Court. Yet, at the time, she was cocooned away from the controversy in a protective shell that was typical for white southern "good girls." Only in graduate school did she begin to question the foundations of her native world, and her own distance from the controversy.
Turn Away Thy Son is the product of thirty years of digging behind the conventional account of the crisis, interviewing whites and blacks, officials and students, activists and ordinary citizens. A tour de force of history and memory, it is also a brilliant, multifaceted mirror to hold up to America today. She knows what happened to the brave black students once they got inside the doors of the school. She knows how the whites' fear of "race mixing" drove many locals to extremes of anger, paranoia, and even violence. She knows that Orval Faubus was only a reluctant segregationist, and that her own cousin's timid tokenism precipitated the crisis.
Above all, Turn Away Thy Son shows in vivid detail why school desegregation was the hottest of hot-button issues in the Jim Crow south. In the deepest recesses of the southern psyche, Jacoway encounters the fear of giving black men sexual access to white women. The truth about Little Rock differs in many ways from the caricature that emerged in the press and in many histories -- but those differences pale in comparison to the fundamental driving force behind the story. Turn Away Thy Son is a riveting, heartbreaking, eye-opening book.
Customer Reviews:
After nearly five decades, enlightenment at last.......2007-07-31
I attended Little Rock Central High School as a sophomore in the 1957-58 school year, and during the intervening five decades I have often attempted to make sense of the bewildering events that occurred at my school then and that gained such massive international attention. After all of these years, a talented and meticulous historian has finally created the definitive history of this crucial episode in recent American life. Drawing upon her exhaustive research of the primary documents and by conducting a huge number of interviews with most of the principal participants in the Central High crisis, Elizabeth Jacoway has written the book that should achieve recognition as the single work requiring citation whenever a future historian undertakes a serious examination of the integration of Central High. In this volume readers will encounter the naivete, bumbling ineptitude, treachery, malevolence, sporadic acts of grace and heroism, or misguided policies and decisions of so many of the major community, state, and national leaders and officials of the 1950's. Congratulations to Professor Jacoway for possessing the dedication, courage, and persistence necessary to produce this seminal work of history.
Charles Chappell
Professor of English
Hendrix College
Conway, Arkansas
Anatomy of a Train Wreck.......2007-07-19
This wonderful piece of scholarship is not in keeping with our time. Today, we are asked to look to crack-pot talking heads on television who are experts-on-nothing with opinions on everything, and who think every issue can be reduced to an eight-second sound bite, plus three more seconds for the personal insult. This incredible work is nothing like that. Dr. Jacoway approaches the subject matter like the trained historian that she is: fairly, dispassionately, and factually. Her uncle is a key player, and even he gets no pass. This is the story of a train wreck - the Little Rock desegregation crisis. The characters are huge. There is Harry Ashmore, editor of the editorial page of the Arkansas Gazette, who was always the darling of Little Rock's goat cheese liberals, but who in fact was self-important, self-congratulatory, and self-absorbed. When he wasn't editorializing, he was giving speeches to Democratic Party groups, conduct which would be considered appalling by what little passes as journalistic standards today. There is Virgil Blossom, school superintendent (and the author's uncle) who comes across as a nervous and manic Mr. Whipple of please-don't-squeeze-the-Charmin fame. There is Congressman Brooks Hays, trying very hard to be the peace maker between Faubus and Eisenhower, but who in fact was unsuccessful in doing so, and accordingly, had to resort to making it up as he went along. There is the Establishment, school board members and attorneys, all claiming to be doing the right thing, but some of whom had noses so high in the air they would drown in a drizzle. There is Jim Johnson, a lieutenant of Gerald L.K. Smith, and an unreconstructed racist who, along with his wife, had more in common with Juan and Eva Peron than main-stream white middle class Americana. There is U.S. District Judge John Miller whose ex parte communications with the school district attorneys would get him in serious ethical trouble by today's standards. And then, there is Orval Eugene Faubus. I have often characterized Faubus as the Darth Vadar of Southern politics. This book brings that image home in a more authentic way than I had ever imagined. It reinforces the point made by Roy Reed in his magnificent biography, that Faubus's journey to the dark side was uncomplicated and breathtakingly political. Without pointing fingers, the author reports that Faubus accused Blossom and others of "double-crossing" him in publicly down-playing the facts and circumstances of the "crisis" and the extent of potential violence, thereby failing to give Faubus cover. Whether as a consequence of their public views or whether it was strictly retaliatory to gain political advantage (my personal view), or whether for some other reason, the author does not say. To do so would be an attempt to read the mind of a mastermind of politics. But,the author reports that the next thing that happened, quite literally, was Faubus's calling out the National Guard. The rest, as they say, is history. But not quite. Eisenhower sent in the 101 Airborne Division, the Little Rock Nine were escorted into the front door of Central High, and the rest is history. Well, not quite. A year later, the schools didn't open at all. Faubus was elected to a third term in a campaign uncharacteristically filled with race hatred. I say uncharacteristic because in '54 and '56, he had run as the liberal populist reformer, accused by his opponent of being a communist, with Ashmore as his chief water carrier and speech writer. Ashmore took a leave of absence from the Gazette to serve as Adlai Stevenson's spinmeister in '56. Faubus headed the Arkansas delegation to the convention, and would not deliver Arkansas's support to Stevenson on the first ballot. Ashmore remained bitter toward Faubus for years after that, and the author invites speculation, but does not opine herself, that the resentment may have been the reason for the "Ashmore-Gazette" version of events at Central High.
This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the history of the American civil rights movement. As a liberal Democrat, I had difficulty with some of the material - not because I didn't think the material was true, but because I knew in my heart and mind that it was true. But there is nothing here for the conservative, either. Those who want to go back to a time when "everybody was good" and American values were "held high" should read this book. Segregation, racial discrimination, bigotry, and hatred are not American values. There are no conservative heroes, and very few liberal heroes (Daisy Bates, Elizabeth Eckford, Wiley Branton). In the aftermath of this train wreck, bodies are strewn up and down the track. It's very bloody. History is that way sometimes.
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY.......2007-03-30
I am impressed with the depth of research, and I think Ms. Jacoway writes rather well. Given the extensive research, this book COULD HAVE have stood as the definitive study of the Little Rock Central High School episode. (Several other books on the crisis were written by the key figures themselves, and thus are not detached overviews of the episode. Also, Roy Reed's superb book on Faubus, since it is a biography, does not deal with Central High in as much detail as this book does.) I say "could have" because Ms. Jacoway allows her personal feelings about her uncle, Virgil Blossom, and about Governor Faubus to lead her to paint a distorted picture. Superintendent Blossom certainly had his faults, which the book identifies and then greatly overemphasizes. As for Faubus, it is absurd to argue, as the author does, that betrayal by Blossom and others left him with no choice but to defy the federal courts. This is revisionist history and a fatal flaw in the book. There are other omissions and misunderstandings, but those could be forgiven were it not for the fatal flaw. An example: The author misunderstands the role of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker. Since he was the ranking Army officer in Arkansas (he was in charge of Army Reserve units in the state), protocol dictated that he be the nominal commander of the 101st Airborne units sent to Little Rock. But he was purely a front man, not a decision-maker as the book suggests. Although the end of the book follows other key figures through the years after the Central High crisis, it amazingly fails to note the irony that ex-Gen. Walker helped lead the charge against federal marshals during the desegregation of Ole Miss in 1962.
The American Dream or the American Nightmare..........2007-03-11
Even in politically-charged 2007, what Elizabeth Jacoway has written is an honest, behind-the-scenes look at one of the darkest periods of American history. This is a must read book, especially for African Americans, because it shows us why we should be steadfastly embracing educational and economic opportunities before us and not browbeating each other. Racism, segregation, etc., has left segments of our society forever scarred. "Turn Away Thy Son" is the American history that you won't get from a public school history book.
Information Overload.......2007-02-23
I was born shortly after the attempt to intergrate Central High School by using the Little Rock nine. The nine black students faced a firestorm that was years in the making. Elizabeth Jacoway has impressive family connections to many of the movers and shakers in the integration struggle. Many of us recognize the iconic photo of a dignified young black woman walking seemilnly alone, surrounded by white faces, the face of a young white woman behind her contorted with scorn. Jacoway peels away layer after layer of the actions and attitudes on all sides of the integration battle and lays it out for the reader to absorb, and encourages them to draw their own conclusion. There is also the little remembered episode of the closing of all the city's schools the following year when authorities said they couldn't (or wouldn't) keep the peace. The school administration has very few shining moments in this book.The heros were the black students, some teachers, Daisy Bates, parents and countless citizens who stepped out from the crowd to lend support, comfort and safety. In many cases,local women were not only trying to keep their children in school,keep their children safe, they are also the forces that nudged the general populace into doing the right thing. There are also examples of others who sought the spotlight to continue to threaten and bully their peers into keeping the status quo. I often wondered while reading this, what became of Sammie Dean Parker, is she still a bully? I went to school a decade later in a school system in the south that was still struggling with integration. I was more than familiar with the dynamics. I found Jacoway was more than familiar with the dynamics and uses all the information available, as well as the information gleened from family and political connections. That is where the book struggles. There is too much detail. Some parts of the saga simply fall away in the effort to stick to a liniar storyline. I closed the book feeling as if I had focused so much on the details that I had somehow lost sight of the overall picture.
Book Description
Since the early 1990s, while mainland China’s state-owned movie studios have struggled with financial and ideological constraints, an exciting alternative cinema has developed. Dubbed the âUrban Generation,â this new cinema is driven by young filmmakers who emerged in the shadow of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What unites diverse directors under the âUrban Generationâ rubric is their creative engagement with the wrenching economic and social transformations underway in China. Urban Generation filmmakers are vanguard interpreters of the confusion and anxiety triggered by the massive urbanization of contemporary China. This collection brings together some of the most recent original research on this emerging cinema and its relationship to Chinese society.
The contributors analyze the historical and social conditions that gave rise to the Urban Generation, its aesthetic innovation, and its ambivalent relationship to China’s mainstream film industry and the international film market. Focusing attention on the Urban Generation’s sense of social urgency, its documentary impulses, and its representations of gender and sexuality, the contributors highlight the characters who populate this new urban cinemaâordinary and marginalized city dwellers including aimless bohemians, petty thieves, prostitutes, postal workers, taxi drivers, migrant workersâand the fact that these âfloating urban subjectsâ are often portrayed by non-professional actors. Some essays concentrate on specific films (such as Shower and Suzhou River) or filmmakers (including Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yuan), while others survey broader concerns. Together the thirteen essays in this collection give a multifaceted account of a significant, ongoing cinematic and cultural phenomenon.
Contributors. Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Shuqin Cui, Linda Chiu-han Lai, Charles Leary, Sheldon H. Lu, Jason McGrath, Augusta Palmer, Bérénice Reynaud, Yaohua Shi, Yingjin Zhang, Zhang Zhen, Xueping Zhong
Amazon.com
Everyone will compare Kurt Andersen's scathingly funny first novel to Tom Wolfe's fictional debut, The Bonfire of the Vanities. Like Wolfe, Andersen is a merry terrorist, a status-attuned assassin with liquid nitrogen in his veins, a prose style with the cool purr of an Uzi, and the entire society in his crosshairs. And like the Man in White's protagonist, Sherman McCoy, Andersen's George Mactier is a master of the contemporary universe--not just Manhattan, but decadent post fin-de-siècle Hollywood, the globe-gobbling, infotainment-tainted news media, and cyberspace from Seattle to Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley.
Turn of the Century opens in February 2000, in a bizarro world with just a tangy twist of futuristic extrapolation. George has parlayed a Newsweek writing job into a PBS documentary into a $16,575-a-week job as a producer at the sinister MBC network. His series, NARCS, is a veritable Cuisinart of fact and fiction in which the actors get to participate in real drug busts and get all the best lines, since they're working from scripts. In the most notorious episode, the dealer they arrest turns out to be an Actors Equity member (thanks to Rent), so he gets union scale and a recurring role.
As George stumbles into a Wolfesque calamity spiral, his wife, Lizzie Zimbalist, ascends to power. Lizzie is a brilliant software entrepreneur: her "force-feedback technology" alternative-history game can sense players' fear. "If you travel to 1792 Paris, for instance, you are designated a besotted peasant or a frightened aristocrat or an angry sansculotte according to your heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductance; too many twitches, the wrong sort of palpitation, and you're a marquess (or marchioness) headed for the guillotine." Needless to say, her insights into the year 2000 earn her bigtime interest from George's boss and Microsoft. Lizzie is a character at least as vivid as George, and their hectic family life is uncloying and acutely observed.
Andersen's plot (involving Bill Gates's potential death) has more hairy turns than the Hana Highway--read carefully or you'll go off the road. But you're guaranteed a wild ride with amazing characters: an irreverent investor inspired by James Cramer, a hilarious MBC toady, Timothy Featherstone--who's as marvelous a creation as Tony Curtis in The Sweet Smell of Success--and worlds' worth of social caricatures. Kurt Andersen has an uncanny ear for the way we talk now and Turn of the Century is sharp, knowing, and subversive. Let's all pray that it isn't prescient as well. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
The millennium is here. BarbieWorld has opened in Vegas. Charles Manson's parole hearing is on live TV. And George and Lizzie are a Manhattan power couple with three kids in private school and take-out from Hiroshima Boy waiting at the door. Lizzie owns a software start-up. George is a TV producer. With cell phones tickling their thighs and gossip buzzing in their ears, their future couldn't be brighter. Until, that is, Lizzie cuts a deal with George's boss and gets an office twenty-one floors above her husband's... Until all the glitter and the hype threaten to destroy George's and Lizzie's sanity and their marriage... Until the only thing that can save them is a little understanding--at a time when everyone is talking but no one can hear a thing.
In his brash, brilliant first novel, media insider Kurt Andersen casts a penetrating eye on our giddy, media-obsessed era. With a keen sense of irony and a storyteller's grace, the co-founder of Spy magazine weaves a tale that is at once a biting satire of America in the near future and a wickedly incisive portrait of marriage, family, love, and friendship. A crackling, cybercharged joyride through our millennium, Turn of the Century is pure, eye-popping entertainment.
Customer Reviews:
a big messy satire.......2007-09-28
I can understand why so many people gave up on this book, but I can't help but feel sorry that they did. For me, Kurt Andersen wrote a novel that perfectly reflects the CNN/Fox News sound bite journalism and MTV/YouTube short attention span entertainment that rules our culture today not just with his story, but with the structure of the book. He overloads the reader with information which he repeats again and again until it finally comes together like the sections of a pointillist painting to present Andersen's very cynical and very funny view of the Information Age. It's like a mirror reflecting a mirror, reflecting a mirror, ad infinitum. I admit it's not an easy read, but if you can dance through it, you'll find a story and point of view that's unusually original, entertaining, and most definitely worthwhile. As for me, I'm off to buy Heyday.
A meditation and satire on America's media culture.......2002-12-02
I picked up Andersen's long novel with hesitation but found it all but impossible to put down. His plotting is intricate but impeccable in terms of plausibility and every thread was quite satisfyingly resolved. His characters, down to the marginal bit players, are nailed in three dimensions. Finally, as a contemporary morality tale it will stand the test of time.
Is it art imitating life, or the other way around?.......2002-05-26
This book has marvelously drawn characters and a deft plot. But what lingers in my mind are the constant, droll little absurdities that abound in the characters' world, understated seeming little asides which charactertize postmodern American urban and media life. And give Andersen credit that he was actually prescient, in that things we accept as unremarkable are getting more postmodern and more absurd all the time. Every time I see or read about something like the Secretary of the Treasury touring the Third World with Bono, I think to myself, "this is just like something out of 'Turn of the Century.'"
best book on cultural mores since Count of Monte Cristo.......2002-05-03
Anyone who worked on the net or in media will relate in a big time way, especially if they can keep up with the cultural references - Incroyable...even better the second time through.
A Truly Inventive Satire.......2002-03-13
Kurt Andersen's got one heck of an imagination. Some of the scenarios he comes up with for the not-so-distant future are just downright neat!
I also enjoyed the almost soap-operatic feel of watching George and Lizzie's day to day lives progress, both at the office and in their home. It was interesting to watch how different they were to each other in the world of business and the world of matrimony/family. (Brings to mind the saying, "One never really knows anyone.")
I've heard that perhaps the book doesn't appeal to people who live too far outside large urban centers, but I can't see why that would be true. Most of us are attached to the Internet these days, most love "modern conveniences," and most would like to have more money than we do. Seems like that would be enough to make this a book that could appeal to anyone, despite geography. I mean, yes, it might appeal to New Yorkers MORE, but that's because we're reading about our hometown here. I also love Motherless Brooklyn (which takes place in the neighborhood where I grew up), but just because I can recognize what deli Letham's talking about doesn't mean it isn't worthy of its National Book Critic's Circle Award, ya know?
In summary, I loved the book. I also loved the end, which a lot of people seem to think was a disappointment. The book might run on a bit long, but for me it was an extremely satisfying read, and one that I've personally recommended -- especially to people who DO like books based in New York.
Customer Reviews:
A Must-Read for the U.S. History Student!.......2006-03-09
What a wonderful book! Teddy Roosevelt was brilliantly ressurected for us by George Grant in this comprehensive, yet easy-to-read work (because of the chapter lengths). Section 1 is a biography of his life; Section 2 contains short chapters on his character, and many sides to his life; Section 3 deals with his legacy.
This book gives the reader a good look a life in the U.S. during the last half of the 19th century, as well as one of the period's most beloved of heroes.
Biased -- Better Stuff Available.......2005-06-08
I just wanted a simple biography on Theodore Roosevelt, but this was pretty openly and obviously a book with an agenda. True, the basics about Theodore Roosevelt are here, but the emphasis is on spiritual faith and values. Since I read this book, I read Roosevlet's autobiography and came to realize that he is much more complex than this book suggests.
Carry A Big Stick.......2003-08-29
This is an incredible book, that truly gives you the insight of one of the greatest men that ever lived. Filled with many incredible principles to live by, you WILL enjoy this book and the excitement it brings to your life!
Errors galore in this Conservative Christian propaganda!.......2003-04-22
I've read 40+ plus books by or about TR and this is the worst, one-sided view of this complex, multi-facted man. This is as bad as the radical-left "Howard Zinn-ism" revisionist history of TR's foreign policies.
There are too many "blatant" errors to list in this mini-review, but just for starters:
1). TR did not, as the author claims, visit his mother's Georgia plantation "10 or more times". It is well documented that TR only visited Bulloch Hall twice -once as president and once post-White House. He did not have a very high opinion of most Southerners, despite the author's claims to the contrary. His wife abhorred most Southerners.
2). TR did not force his children, particulary Alice, to attend church every Sunday. Edith was the religious task master of the family and in her quiet manner usually rounded up all kids, except for Alice. Alice was a well-known, open atheist from her teen years until she died. TR and Edith had accepted the teenager's refusal to be confirmed in the Episcopal church or any other church. Their son Archie also grew up to be an agnostic.
3). TR most certainly did NOT shower Edith with flowers and jewels. He never even remembered her birthday (though he never forgot the date of their engagement and wedding anniversay). Edith hated receiving extravagent gifts from anyone, especially her husband. They did have a very happy marriage and home life but he also known for taking off on 3-month hunting trips soon after Edith would deliver another baby.
4). TR most certainly did like to attend parties and was a professional social butterfly because he knew he would probably end up as the main attraction - just what his ego needed. The author paints TR as a man who shunned social gatherings to be with his family 24/7. Definitely not true. He LOVED being around people of all and any type, though his wife certainly like to stoke the home fires more than making the social rounds.
5). TR never made any speeches about abortion. Abortion was not on the radar screen in his time. The author uses quotes that TR said about women not wanting to get married and raise families to make it seem as though TR were speaking direcly on the subject of abortion.
6). TR believed in and preached on the separation of Church and State. He wanted to remove "In God We Trust" from the US coinnage and even pushed one of the leading artists of that time, Grant LaFarge, to create a new design. The "religious right" of his time went ballistic over this decision and he later backed down. He made many speeches proclaiming that the Church stay out of the affairs of the State. Indeed, he was a strong, "old school" Christian who did preach to the citizens the value of religion, a happy home life, and following the morals one teaches to his/her children. However, he also thought a country would head down the dangerous path if a certain religion or belief were forced upon its citizens.
I would not recommend this book on TR to ANYONE.
My, wasn't that just bully!.......2003-04-20
George Grant has written a delightful book about a delightful man.
Customer Reviews:
Must read.......2007-05-13
This is a must read for all Christians who care about meaningful worship.
Marva is marvelous!.......2007-04-28
Marva is marvelous and if you cannot have her as a guest speaker then this book is the next best thing. It will help you resist the temptation to dumb down your worship in order to "attract" new members.
Instead of the thoughtless quick fix method to filing pews (which has a mixed record of success at best) Marva makes the case for quality worship with outstanding, scripturally sound content that will last the week for one and all.
Do buy this book. Share it with the worship committee, your pastor and your governing board of your church. Indeed it would be a great adult education study book or circle study. Before you and your church toss out all that is good and faithful, read why what we do in worship matters so much, in this, the best rationale I know for staying a faithful church.
If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.
A one-sided attack.......2006-12-27
Though a great deal of her book deals with a one-sided attack against what she sees and trivial and "dumbed down" modern worship music, Dawn correctly warns us against going to either of the extremes of traditionalism versus contemporary worship and falls us instead to hold a "dialectical tension of traditionalism and reformation" (Page 93).
While appropriately trivializing some of the more trivial modern praise songs, Dawn seems to ignore the fact that a good deal of modern praise music is simply a verse or two from the Psalms being put to music.
Dawn endorses Thomas Gieschen's criteria for acceptable worship music. First it must not give an invitation to repent or believe the gospel. In support of this point, it is argued that worship is for edification rather than for evangelism. However, all edification necessarily begins with the cross and does not stop short of our appropriation of it. Secondly it rejects any form of synergism that pictures man as searching for God. I would conclude that this means we cannot set Deuteronomy 4:30 or other similar passages of Scripture to music.
Dawn quote Gaddy as stating that "worship is for God. Only!" She then concludes that this foundational criteria would eliminate most battles over worship styles. While it is true that we must never lose sight of the vertical relationship of worship, 1 Corinthians 14 points out a horizontal dimension to worship when it speaks of the legitimate concern we ought to take when an unbeliever attends a worship service.
The place where I agree with Dawn is in her endorsement of a variety of styles that can be used in worship (page 180). She is not inherently opposed to any particular style, but only against limiting worship to one style (Page 187). She quotes Martin Luther's rhetorical question: "Why let the devil have all the good tunes?"
Re-Educating Youth Through God's Intervention........2006-10-31
By the 1990s, the dumbing down of the educational system had infiltrated and become a quandry for the religious establishment. In the thirty years since Johnson had started this dumbing down process for all of the children to be equal in America, they must talk alike whether they think alike or not. The churches had to intervene and train children who did not live in the ghettoes that what they had been learning was brainwashing and they had to reach out to put some semblance of intelligent design to the thinking of most of the population. We are not all New Orleans where they've always talked that way.
The church schools had to try to put matters straight so that upper class and middle class students could return to the level of their parents in the educational system. Our Methodist college in Pulaski never did dumb down as we had only a few foreigners who wished to be taught proper English and not the dumbed down slang out of the projects of America. It took a dumb and stupid person in authority to make this country into the uneducated nation it has become. Drugs and crime proliferated as the language skills hit skid row. Movies were as bad and apparently the teachers were forced to teach in an inferior way. Surely, their higher education courses did not use that kind of language.
Some of the lower classes still don't know grammar in this enlightened age of history. We have a lot to answer to as a person who only pretended to be a historian was only a creative writer. Now, the local daily newspaper has one named Jamie Satterfield, could be female or male, who uses adjectives for complete sentences and uses opinions instead of facts in front page articles. It riles me no end and I complain. But trying to get anything done properly in this town is almost impossible.
Churches have the most influence on young people than the schools these days and the trend can be reversed with the right leaders. Tutors can be used to show them proper English. Now, I understand why the Orientals who come to this town refuse to speak English. Today's version of English grammar is not correct in any language. They prefer to talk in their own dialects and funny-sounding fast talk so that we can't understand what they are saying. The churches could do the same by teaching the old way of Bible talk.
Don't Let Worship Be Flushed Down America's Cultural Toilet.......2005-07-16
This book, along with Thomas Long's "Beyond the Worship Wars" is a must read for all committed Christians, particularly those who are worried about where both Christ-centered worship and church membership numbers are headed in the current wasteland of contemporary culture.
Dawn goes into how we got into the current cultural mess in our society, though given the book's age it is a bit dated as it refers primarily to "Boomers" (from what I've gathered in other research, the situation is similar for GenX, just worse). She then critiques the well meaning (I hope) attempts to reach America's dumbed down, short attention span, commitment phobic generation with worship styles that would be attractive to them, no matter the cost to the Gospel.
Dawn critiques not only contemporary worship but traditionalISM as well. She sees the function of worship (quite correctly, I might add) not as means of attracting numbers (AKA "worship evangelism"), but of having a personal experience with part of God, forming the character of the worshiper, and building community. Both extremes are the antithesis of this.
I have two minor criticisms of this book. Dawn, who I guess has no training in science or technology, tends to present as scientific fact the results of single research studies which appear to be unverified by independent work (to be fair, some are unlikely to be reproduced anytime soon) and might not have had significant peer review. Second she, unlike Long, is a little vague when it comes to solutions, though they seem to be there somewhere. In other words, she can ramble a bit.
Book Description
"In the year 2001, you will not see a single horse on Broadway, New York; only autos will be seen. The people of the Earth will be in close communication with Mars by being shot off in great cannons." -Arthur Palm, age 14 years, Milwaukee, 1901
One hundred years ago, Americans celebrated the beginning of a new century. Yesterday's Future gathers nearly one hundred excerpts-some wildly funny, others somber and thoughtful-that show Wisconsin citizens reflecting on America's accomplishments in the previous century and speculating about changes the future would bring. They are drawn from the mainstream press, school newspapers, church bulletins, and periodicals aimed at such audiences as German-language speakers, African-Americans, farmers, and the hearing impaired.
Some speculations come strikingly close to future realities: medical imaging like x-rays and MRI, central air conditioning, snowmobiles, air travel, motion pictures and radio, woman suffrage, and the growth of the suburbs. Other predictions were simply wrong ("the electric stove will never prove much of a factor in the kitchen"), a reflection of their era's interests (admission of Nicaragua and Mexico to the Union), or overly optimistic (communication with beings from other planets). Voices of the Wisconsin Past Series Edited by Michael E. Stevens
Distributed for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin
* A related exhibit at the State Historical Museum in Madison, Wisconsin, opens in November 1999 and continues through 2000.
Books:
- The Friars Club Encyclopaedia of Jokes: 2,000 One-Liners, Straight Lines, Stories, Gags, Roasts, Ribs and Put-Downs
- The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 8)
- The Kissing Hand
- The Little White Horse
- The Master Cleanser
- The Nanny Diaries: A Novel
- The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny
- The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
- The World Of Normal Boys: A Novel
- Theory of Modeling and Simulation
Books Index
Books Home
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- The Way Of The Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Woman, Work, and Sexua
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Cases in Financial Reporting, Revised Edition
- The Firm, the Market, and the Law
- Phases of Capitalist Development: Booms, Crises and Globalizations
Thunderstruck
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
