History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

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Excellent Product & Prompt Delivery
Escher and imagination
Worlds Above the Rest
I'm a big fan.
fun and imaginative!

Sector 7 (Caldecott Honor Book)

Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0395746566

Amazon.com

In another wondrous, wordless picture book by Caldecott Medal winner David Wiesner (Tuesday and June 29, 1999), a class visiting the Empire State Building finds complete cloud cover and no visibility. One boy makes friends with a cloud (identifiable in the mists by the red mittens, hat, and scarf and swipes from the boy), and goes AWOL on a wonderful adventure. The cloud whisks him away to the "Sector 7" floating cloud factory, a bizarre sky station that looks like a Victorian design for a submarine.

Hiding behind his new cumulonimbus friend, the boy enters an area resembling Grand Central Station (complete with "Arrivals" and "Departures" boards) and watches officious human types in uniform giving the clouds their weather assignments. When the clouds complain to the boy that their assigned shapes are boring, he, a talented artist, creates new blueprints for them. The stuffy grownups are furious when clouds start emerging in the shape of fantastic fish; they shout at the clouds, tear up the new designs, and escort the boy back to his school group. But the revolt of the clouds is unstoppable now, and in the last few pages the skies over Manhattan suddenly get a lot more interesting. (Click to see a sample spread. Copyright 1999 by David Wiesner. With permission of Clarion Books.) (Ages 2 to 8) --Richard Farr

Book Description

Only the person who gave us Tuesday could have devised this fantastic tale, which begins with a school trip to the Empire State Building. There a boy makes friends with a mischievous little cloud, who whisks him away to the Cloud Dispatch Center for Sector 7 (the region that includes New York City). The clouds are bored with their everyday shapes, so the boy obligingly starts to sketch some new ones. . . . The wordless yet eloquent account of this unparalleled adventure is a funny, touching story about art, friendship, and the weather, as well as a visual tour de force.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Product & Prompt Delivery.......2007-09-15

This item was exactly as described in the item description. It was in the original packaging and is in excellent condition. I am very satisfied and I highly recommend this seller and product to everyone. This is an excellent book by an excellent author!

Escher and imagination.......2007-08-05

Flotsam and Freefall were the first two books I explored by David Wiesner. Sector 7 is not to be missed either. Wiesner's style and creativity are wonderful explorations for all humans(and especially children). M.C. Escher has an honored presence in this book, as he does in Freefall. The theme of flying is present here, as in all of Wiesner's books, and the fanciful creative nature of Wiesner's story and illustrations (paintings?) are not to be missed. Second language learners will immediately have something to say (in their own language) about this book. So will everyone else who reads it. Anyone who has taken the time to sit back and enjoy the show clouds put on will appreciate the ideas within this book. Don't hesitate!

Worlds Above the Rest.......2007-05-07

Wiesner, D. (1999). Sector 7. New York: Clarion Books.

Synopsis: Cloud watching on a lazy day while lying in the grass, is a fun summertime activity for adults and children of all ages. But how are these clouds formed? Who created them? David Wiesner amazes readers once again with another wordless book that tells the incredible adventure of a young boy who goes on a field trip to the Empire State Building. The imaginative and creative young boy yearns to express his creativity meanwhile he is approached by a friendly cloud that takes for a tour of Sector 7 where clouds are created for this portion New York City. Sector 7 resembles an old train station with departure and arrival times posted which provide clouds with their assigned locations. The boy encounters clouds that are bored with their usual shapes. With a wild imagination and skilled artistry, he designs inspiring shapes that excite the clouds. When the staff discovers the changes, they are perturbed by the clouds that stray from their usual and regimented routines. The boy is sent back to his class field trip. However there is no undoing the chaos he has created which begins to spread out across Sector 7.

Evaluation: David Wiesner's Caldecott Honor award winning book allows readers to create the text and interpretations within their minds. Wiesner's wordless tale captures your mind with its full page watercolor illustrations and story board formatted frames. The vivid, yet soft watercolor illustrations provide humor combined with elegance. Readers can create their own individual stories based on their personal experiences. The main character is wildly imaginative with a talent for skilled artistry. Wiesner's tale leaves readers wondering if there are depots like Sector 7 where imaginative clouds are created. Educators will find that this tale allows children to create their own words to this magical adventure. It will encourage struggling writers to utilize their imaginations and picture themselves in the boy's position and be able to write a terrific tale of visiting the place where clouds are made. Children ages 6-10 will love this enchanting journey.

I'm a big fan........2007-02-25

I loved the art in this book. A great story told through pictures.

fun and imaginative!.......2006-11-07

My 5 year old loves this book and wants to read it a couple of times a week. He always asks new questions as he points out things he hadn't discovered last time. Even telling this story (since there are no words) changes each time as you(as the reader) will surely discover more things as well.

Building the Empire State (Norton Book for Architects & Designers)

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The "Dead Sea Scrolls" of the Empire State Building.
Astonishing insight in the building process of this landmark

Building the Empire State (Norton Book for Architects & Designers)

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393730301

Book Description

A rediscovered 1930s notebook charts the construction of the Empire State Building. Constructed in eleven months, the 1250-foot Empire State Building, the world's tallest skyscraper from 1931 to 1971, was a marvel of modern engineering. The frame rose more than a story a day; no comparable building since has matched that rate of ascent. The construction of the Empire State Building was orchestrated by general contractors Starrett Brothers and Eken, premier "skyline builders" of the 1920s. They scheduled the delivery of materials and the construction and recorded daily the number of workers by trade. Compiled from these records, an in-house notebook documented the construction process. Meticulously typed on graph paper and illustrated with construction photographs, this unique document combines a professional specificity of detail with a charming rhapsody to the firm's crowning achievement.

Customer Reviews:

The "Dead Sea Scrolls" of the Empire State Building........2000-08-11

This is actually three stories in one. First, the discovery of a personal notebook documenting the construction of the ESB by an involved, but unknown author. Meticuously typed, with photographs, the manuscript was obviously a labor of love. Second, the written manuscript provides details of the construction which are engrossing, and the notebook's photos show the processes of constuction - not what was done but how they did it. Finally, the first 40+ pages provide a great summary of the ESB's history for the uninitiated. One of the most intriguing aspects of this book are the full-page photocopies of the notebook's actual pages, which only add to the historical sense and mystique of the manuscript. A great gift for the "construction-type" in your life, which is how I got mine...after numerous hints.

Astonishing insight in the building process of this landmark.......2000-06-19

Based on actual records the construction company kept during the building process, this book gives an insight of how such an astonishing effort was completed. The whole process of buying the spot, finding an architect(!), tearing down the existing building, design, and building the Empire State took only 22 months. It's an outstanding example of how the management of a very complex project can be done and a must read for everyone in the software industry ;-). Fun to browse through yourself, a sure hit as a gift to anyone interested or working in architecture, construction or project management.

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GOLDEN AGE OF NYC
New York, Empire City: 1920-1945
Every brick and window
Ageless and timeless New York
New York, Empire City 1920-1945

New York, Empire City: 1920-1945
David Stravitz
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810950111

Book Description

New York between the wars: the city of Babe Ruth, Checker cabs, and Zelda Fitzgerald's infamous dip in the fountain at the Plaza Hotel. That is the city that comes gloriously to life in this fascinating collection of 100 historical photographs of New York's notable streetscapes and landmarks. Discovered serendipitously by author David Stravitz when he was on a hunt for used camera equipment, these rare photographs of the city are accompanied here by informative captions and an insightful essay by architectural historian Christopher Gray.

Not only are these photographs being published for the first time, but the clarity and detail of the images, taken with a large-format camera, are astonishing. One can read the signage on the sides of buildings, examine the items in store windows, and see how people on the streets and sidewalks are dressed. From Trinity Church to Harlem, from Coney Island to Yankee Stadium, these images transport the reader into the heart of a vanished era, when men wore fedoras and the Empire City sparkled with promise. AUTHOR BIO: David Stravitz is a professional photographer, an industrial design consultant and product creator for many Fortune 500 companies, and the author of The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon Day by Day. Christopher Gray, the author of Abrams' New York Streetscapes and other books on New York City architecture, has written the "Streetscapes" column in The New York Times since 1987. Both authors live in New York City.

Customer Reviews:

GOLDEN AGE OF NYC.......2006-10-26

I love the fantastic black and white images in this book, you forget how spectacularly beautiful the New York skyline was before the 50's, 60's and 70's international style of Mies and SOM ruined the skyline blocking many of these breathtaking buildings from view and altering an iconic american image forever. At any rate, this is a really good book, with well researched, interesting text and aforementioned great photo's. As you look at all the beautiful buildings and lament the loss of so many over the years, you can't help but want to throttle Robert Moses and David Rockefeller.

New York, Empire City: 1920-1945 .......2006-06-28

No regrets but I wish there were more photos of the city and street scenes.

Every brick and window.......2006-06-04

When David Stravitz bought around five hundred glass negatives from a New Jersey photo shop in the late seventies I bet he didn't realise what a nice little earner he was onto. This treasure trove of images has so far produced two books, the amazing day-by-day building of the Chrysler Building (ISBN 1568983549) and now 'New York, Empire State'.

Both books follow the same format, page after page of very detailed architectural photographs of the city in the first fifty years of the last century. This book has a hundred images (thankfully in 175dpi) taken by commercial photographers Peyser and Patzig probably for architects and builders as a record of their endeavours.

It is the detail in the photos that makes the book so fascinating. Taken on eight by ten glass negs after carefully selecting the right position reveals street scenes and buildings where you can read the road signs and study the detail work on skyscrapers that would be impossible to see from street level. Nearly all the photos are of commercial property though near the end there shots of tenements, shops, sport arenas and Coney Island. Needless to say many of the buildings shown came down years ago.

Each picture has the name of the building or city area and Christopher Gray adds more detail on six pages at the back of the book and this is where I felt the reader has been badly let down by the publishers. There are 130 photo pages yet only sixteen have page numbers, which makes nonsense of Gray's page numbered captions and the three page comprehensive index. Strangely page 105, with a whole page photo does have a number and this, I assume, was to be the case with every page but someone screwed up! Very frustrating (and do I get a refund?).

I recently reviewed a similar architectural photo book about New York City with 170 stunning photos taken by Samuel Gottscho between 1925 and 1940. Included are some marvellous Manhattan night photos as well as shop and house interiors. Gottscho's work helped to define the popular skyline silhouette image of the big American city. Have a look at 'The Mythic City' (ISBN 1568985622) by Donald Albrecht.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Ageless and timeless New York.......2005-07-19

A wonderful pictoral history of early 20th century New York. One will be astounded at the space between the buildings of the city and the level of architecture throughout. In our daily hustle, this book reminds us of the beauty of the many buildings that make up the skyline of New York. Enjoy.

New York, Empire City 1920-1945.......2004-12-01

I found David Stravitz's new book (New York, Empire City 1920-1945) every bit as thrilling as his book on the Construction of the Chrysler Building, building an Icon Day-by-Day. The photos are spectacular, oversized and chuck full of detail of a grand era in the history of the greatest city in the world. The big question for me is "is there another book to follow?". Can't wait! Lisa Franciosi

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: The Making of a Landmark

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A Book So Nice They Named It Twice
The History of the ESB
American emblem
Great Building, Great Story
Wonderful! Fun To Read! Educational!

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: The Making of a Landmark
John Tauranac
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0684196786

Book Description

The Empire State Building is the companion volume to the Museum of the City of New York's definitive exhibition: "A Dream Well Planned: The Empire State Building."

Customer Reviews:

A Book So Nice They Named It Twice.......2004-10-09

Well, they didn't, but it's a classic anyway.

This is a terrific book for anyone who wants to learn how great projects are visualized, actualized, and pressed through extremely challenging environmental circumstances. It's a source of inspiration for the dreamers and the practical alike.

If you want to read about architecture and engineering, you get only a small dose here. It's more about the capitalization, visioning and building. But that story is magnetic and wonderful.

Only thing they left out: that it was to this (then half-empty) building that Annhaeuser-Busch delivered the "first" case of legal beer to Al Smith at the end of Prohibition. Smith, the "wet" and the eternal optimist, exemplifies what this building was conceived to be: a vibrant and living testimony to the human spirit.

So, it stands to reason that it survives now as New York's essential symbol.

The History of the ESB.......2004-08-11

This book is a must read for anyone interested in not only the Empire State Building, but in New York City history of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Who would think that a building completed in 1931 at 1250 feet high would still be the tallest building in NYC in 2007 (of course, we can't forget the tragic loss of the taller WTC Towers). This book covers the quick construction of the ESB, but also covers the politics and history behind the building's location (the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel used to be at the corner of 5th Ave and 34th Street) and the people involved. This is an interesting book about an exciting time where anything seemed possible in one of the world's greatest cities.

American emblem.......2004-07-02

From the outset, the Empire State Building seemed to have had everything going against it. Although conceived during the 1920s boom years, most of the construction went on during the earliest years of the Depression, thereby putting the idea of high occupancy in the severest doubt. Its location wasn't ideal either. It was three miles north of the Wall Street district and a mile south of the center of the midtown business center. And it was ten blocks south of Grand Central Station and three avenues east of old Pennsylvania Station. The idea of mooring dirigibles was quickly scrapped after failed attempts. And sure enough, although the Empire State Building did get built, the tenants did not come. King Kong did, but he didn't pay rent.

John Tauranac describes all this and more in his exhaustive book, THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: THE MAKING OF A LANDMARK. Written in an engaging style, Tauranac's book is as elegant and interesting as the subject itself, while his wit is as colorful as the characters surrounding the Empire State Building's creation. The book covers the idea for the building, Raskob's and Smith's supervision, the monumental task of the construction workers, and, most importantly, the survival of the building to become THE emblem of America's cultural and economic reach while become THE identifying symbol of New York City. The generous amount of photographs add to the understanding and enjoyment of the book. Highly recommended.

Great Building, Great Story.......2001-09-25

This is an excellent work that details the history of the Empire State Building. I was a bit surprised to find how much the author managed to pack into my paperback. Everything from skyscraper height restrictions to land leases and modern restructuring of ownership for tax purposes (and all the "interesting" stuff in between). If you buy this book and you're not from New York, do yourself a favor and get a map of the area. So you can follow along in the early chapters.

Wonderful! Fun To Read! Educational!.......2001-07-08

I bought this book shortly after a trip to NYC in 2000, and found it to be an excellent history of one of the Big Apple's architectural jewels, the Empire State Building. It is full of intrigue, history, great anecdotes and one-of-a-kind photographs. If you're a visitor to Manhattan or a local resident, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building

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"So Tall It Will Scrape the Sky"
Loaded with color illustrations which bring to life the builder's experience

Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building
Deborah Hopkinson
Manufacturer: Schwartz & Wade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375836101
Release Date: 2006-02-28

Book Description

The acclaimed team that brought readers the IRA Children’s Book Award—winning Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt is back with a riveting brick-by-brick account of how one of the most amazing accomplishments in American architecture came to be. It’s 1930 and times are tough for Pop and his son. But look! On the corner of 34th Street and 5th Avenue, a building straight and simple as a pencil is being built in record time. Hundreds of men are leveling, shoveling, hauling. They’re hoisting 60,000 tons of steal, stacking 10 million bricks, eating lunch in the clouds. And when they cut ribbon and the crowds rush in, the boy and his father will be among the first to zoom up to the top of the tallest building in the world and see all of Manhattan spread at their feet.

Customer Reviews:

"So Tall It Will Scrape the Sky".......2007-07-11

In Depression-era New York City, dreams collide with reality. Our unnamed young narrator's father has just lost his job, and so the boy must wander the harsh, cold streets of Manhattan, looking for firewood. However, one day near 34th and 5th streets, he sees a dream unfold, as 3,000 men construct a symbol of triumph and tenacity: the 102-story Empire Stae Building.

The book is magnificent: Powerful images, poetic language, and construction scenes and details merge into a dramatic tale that's both historic and personal. The boy (and sometimes his father) joins other New Yorkers who look in awe at the evolving building. Ms. Hopkinson uses facts and simple, strong words in her descriptions: We see men sinking "210 massive steel columns" 55-feet into the ground, building "a steel forest" that "can bear the full weight of this giant-to-be: 365,000 tons." Flatbeds carry steel beams "from the fiery furnaces of Pittsburgh" through the streets, looking "river surging through the concrete canyons of Manhattan." While strong and almost terse, the writing is somehow concommitantly lyrical. The story teems with action ("hoisting, swinging, spinning") and facts that will fascinate any young reader (and most adults as well).

Two-page action sequences set within the story slow down time so that one can appreciate the danger, the men's skill, and the scope of the project. We see four men (there are no female workers--accurate as far as I know), working as a team to rivet steel girders together: The "Heater Man" tosses hot metal to "the Catcher," who fits it into the girder hole steadied by the "Bucker-up," finally hammered into place by "the Gunman." For adults, it's is a testosterone kick; kids will enjoy the heroism and the sheer grandeur of the construction leading to the finished tower.

Although the city is not as dirty-looking, nor the people as poor as one might expect, there's still a Depression-based realism that doesn't sanitize the workers' hard lives. In one of her best lines, Ms. Hopkinson writes that while each man works as fast as possible, he does so knowing that hundreds down below him would "take his place over his spot in a flash. Yet knowing that the quicker he finishes, the sooner he'll be back in line himself, waiting and desparate for work." There's a subtle but unmistakeable contrast between the gleaming building--and the hard-working but generally vigorous men working on the gleaming building, and those hundreds below them. Another wonderful two-page spread shows the building reaching skyward between June and November. culminating in an illustration of 15 men astride the building's top in March 1931, proud and even gleeful, but also tired.

James E. Ransome's pictures are uniformly spectacular, and it culminates in his noil painting of the Empire State Building at dawn, majestically overlooking the island and beyond, towering over everything else. WE also see the golden placque of the building inside the lobby, the apprehension of the boy and his dad as they ride the elevator to the top, the father's hope ("If we can do this, we can do anything") and one last nighttime view as they head back home, their heads and hearts uplifted ("Look, Pop, we can see it from here.").

'Sky Boys' concludes with some facts about the building and the making of the book, including an acknowledgement to the EMpire State Building Archive at Columbia for the endpaper photographs of workers in dangerous positions. Certainly one of the top 20 books I've read this year, the dramatic words and pictures ensure that this wil be a favorite at home or school.

Note: A good companion book is "Pop's Bridge," a fictionalized history of peril and comraderie while building the Golden Gate Bridge.

Loaded with color illustrations which bring to life the builder's experience.......2006-04-11

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Empire State Building's construction is Sky Boys: How They Built The Empire State Building. While vintage black and white photos from the era greet the eye on the inside and back cover pages, the book is loaded with color illustrations which bring to life the builder's experience. The journey to Depression-era Manhattan and a boy who watches its construction brings the promise, hope and allure of the Empire State Building to life.

The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines

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The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines
Paul A. Kramer
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807856533

Book Description

In 1899 the United States, having announced its arrival as a world power during the Spanish-Cuban-American War, inaugurated a brutal war of imperial conquest against the Philippine Republic. Over the next five decades, U.S. imperialists justified their colonial empire by crafting novel racial ideologies adapted to new realities of collaboration and anticolonial resistance. In this pathbreaking, transnational study, Paul Kramer reveals how racial politics served U.S. empire, and how empire-building in turn transformed ideas of race and nation in both the United States and the Philippines.

Kramer argues that Philippine-American colonial history was characterized by struggles over sovereignty and recognition. In the wake of a racial-exterminist war, U.S. colonialists, in dialogue with Filipino elites, divided the Philippine population into "civilized" Christians and "savage" animists and Muslims. The former were subjected to a calibrated colonialism that gradually extended them self-government as they demonstrated their "capacities." The latter were governed first by Americans, then by Christian Filipinos who had proven themselves worthy of shouldering the "white man's burden." Ultimately, however, this racial vision of imperial nation-building collided with U.S. nativist efforts to insulate the United States from its colonies, even at the cost of Philippine independence. Kramer provides an innovative account of the global transformations of race and the centrality of empire to twentieth-century U.S. and Philippine histories.

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A work of incredible historical significance.

Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian Hating & Empire Building
Richard Drinnon
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805209786
Release Date: 1990-04-14

Customer Reviews:

A work of incredible historical significance........1998-12-04

"To all appearances," wrote Richard Drinnon, "it all began innocently enough with a first victim" (Indian-Hating 35). Indeed, in Drinnon's 'Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building,'those first victims finally have the chance to tell their story through the records of their conquerors. From John Endicott's war on the Niantics and Pequots, to the horrors of the My Lai massacre, Drinnon illustrates, with passion, power and unrelenting wit, how Indian-hating in the Americas became a national pastime, and how that same hate was turned against the native populations of the Phillipines and Southeast Asia. A tremendous feat of scholarship that should not be missed.

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When the Irish syndicate was king
A Fine Historical Novel And Thomas Kelly's Best
Very good historical novel
You Gotta Be Tough
Get it Read it Now

Empire Rising: A Novel
Thomas Kelly
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374147817
Release Date: 2005-01-27

Book Description

A Novel of High-Stakes Romance and Betrayal, Set During the Race to Finish the World's Tallest Building

In Empire Rising, his extraordinary third book, Thomas Kelly tells a story of love and work, of intrigue and jealousy, with the narrative verve that led the Village Voice's reviewer to dub him "Dostoevsky with a hard hat and lead pipe."
As the novel opens, it is 1930-the Depression-and ground has just been broken for the Empire State Building. One of the thousands of men erecting the building high above the city is Michael Briody, an Irish immigrant torn between his desire to make a new life in America and his pledge to gather money and arms for the Irish republican cause. When he meets Grace Masterson, an alluring artist who is depicting the great skyscraper's ascent from her houseboat on the East River, Briody's life turns exhilarating-and dangerous, for Grace is also a paramour of Johnny Farrell, Mayor Jimmy Walker's liaison with Tammany Hall and the underworld.
Their heartbreaking love story-which takes place both in the immigrant neighborhoods of the Bronx and amid the swanky nightlife of the '21' Club--is also a chronicle of the city's rough passage from a working-class enclave to a world-class metropolis, and a vivid reimagining of the conflict that pitted the Tammany Hall political machine and its popular mayor against the boundlessly ambitious Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Colin Harrison, in The New York Times Book Review, called Kelly's The Rackets "A well-paced, violent thriller, [and] an elegy for the city's old Irish working class." In Empire Rising, Kelly takes his work to a new level: telling of the story of the people who built the "eighth wonder of the world," he makes old New York the setting for a rich and unforgettable story.

Customer Reviews:

When the Irish syndicate was king.......2007-08-12

Hop aboard as Thomas Kelly rolls out another Big Apple white-knuckler. Leading readers to the gaping Manhattan cavity left by the demolition of the old Waldorf Astoria, we meet Michael Briody, late of Cavan Town in Ireland, who drives the first rivet into the first steel column placed at the Empire State Building site. Cigars glow, flash bulbs pop, backs get slapped and Irish dandy Mayor Jimmy Walker smiles the smile of a man who gets a kickback, a commission he calls it, on every construction project in New York. Yet the winds of reform swirl. Its 1930 and the feds are on to miscreant Walker---Jimmy knows his time is short.

Walker runs New York under the guise of benefactor and patron to the city's immigrant poor and teeming masses. Behind his dapper, populist front lurks a man who controls Tammany Hall, arguably the most ruthless and corrupt political machine in American history. Walker's silky smile and engaging manner belie the pyramidal network of crooked cops, judges, assassins and thugs of every ilk who execute the misdeeds of the Tammany machine. American-born Irish like Walker and his right-hand `judges and jackhammers' man, Johnny Farrell, pull the strings while immigrant Irish like Briody fight to rise out of the gutter, keeping one foot in the aulde sod and one foot in their adopted America. Michael Briody served time in Curragh prison for anti-Free State, republican foot soldiering after Ireland's 1916 Rising. A man possessing knowledge of explosives, Briody curiously joins the British Army and fights in World War I before coming to America. He remains a staunch Irish republican.

Under Mayor Walker money talks and illegal liquor flows in the speakeasies, or speaks, as they're called. The Market crashed in 1929 and former big-time players peddle apples in the streets. A smart, tough Irishman can rise up in this environment and become wealthy if he knows who to pay homage and money to. He can also wind up in a grave if he backs the wrong horse. As the Empire State Building and city rise metaphorically in tandem, we find Briody as he connects with Bronx-born Tough Tommy Touhey, a homicidal brute who owns a few speaks and a piece of the Empire State project. He's a former childhood friend to Walker's Johnny Farrell, but takes umbrage as Farrell disdains his lower-class Bronx roots.

Tough Tommy coaxes Briody into entering a cops-only boxing match. That Briody is not a cop is no stumbling block to him beating his cop opponent to a pulp. In attendance at the match is our Johnny Farrell, who squires Grace Masterson, a fatally-flawed femme fatale. She takes a liking to Briody, and him to her, when they meet in a speakeasy after the fight. She's an artist and late of Cavan herself, having lost heart, two sons, a husband and her faith on the trail from Ireland to Spain to Cuba, to Florida and finally New York. She's also mistress to the married Farrell---infidelity's seemingly a requisite to Hall membership. Grace also performs as bag woman to Farrell, to wit, she makes money drops at banks around town. Ill advisedly, Grace occasionally siphons a little pre-deposit money off the top.

Clan Na Gael, the arm of the Irish republicanism in New York, hovers in the background. Michael Briody is a natural recruit for Clan Na Gael, having demonstrated his willingness to kill for a cause. As his relationship with Grace burgeons, Briody enlists and partners with Clan Na Gael, participating in gun and explosives running to Ireland----and worse.

Inching its way to the forefront is the Italian syndicate and the sadistic `Dago', of whom Tough Tommy Touhey says, "He wants what we got," meaning the rackets, speaks and protection payoffs. Observing a soft spot in the Tammany machine, the Dago glad hands and threatens Farrell into working with him to acquire a piece of the action. As the reform movement gathers steam in Albany and Washington, the world of our players turns upside down. A judge formerly on the take suffers an untimely demise after demonstrating reluctance to adhere to a machine directive. The philandering Farrell discovers that his pilfering girlfriend Grace is unfaithful. Touhey disappears and turns up dead. But is it really him? After a moment of epiphany, Briody decides that killing only begets more killing and suffers a dangerous falling out with Clan Na Gael. Hoohah! I just had my own moment of epiphany. It's best to turn the rest of the tale over to Thomas Kelly.

The author takes readers on a wonderful ride through the gritty urban landscape that was New York City during Prohibition. Tales of power, greed and corruption get mixed in with liberal doses of violence in Empire Rising. Along with his previous novels, Payback and The Rackets, Rising is a must for readers fascinated by crafty historical fiction.

A Fine Historical Novel And Thomas Kelly's Best.......2007-08-10

As a chronicler of the dark, gritty underworld of New York City's working-class labor, Thomas Kelly has definitely become its poet laureate in his novel "Empire Rising", among the finest novels I have read of Depression-Era New York City (It actually deserves 4.5 stars from me and I wish Amazon.com had the option of bestowing an additional half star.). This is a dramatic, vivid, and richly-textured, no-holds-bar examination of New York City in 1931, as seen through the eyes of recent Irish immigrant Michael Briody, who works by day building the Empire State Building, and then, by night as both a boxer and an unrepentant soldier of the Irish Republican Army. In New York City he soon meets another, more worldly, recent Irish immigrant, Grace Masterson, and falls in love with her, even though he knows that she is the "concubine" of powerful Tammany Hall leader Johnny Farrell. This is indeed far from a romantic look of the Empire State Building's construction, since Kelly depicts his characters being immersed in a dark, often bloody, underworld of Tammany Hall political intrigue, Irish-run organized crime, and Irish Republican Army strife. Without question, "Empire Rising" is not only Kelly's best work of fiction, but also among the finest I have seen from the latest generation of Irish-American writers residing here in New York City.

Very good historical novel.......2006-07-24

Combine Depression era Manhattan, Irish nationalism and the workings of Tammany Hall, all in the ever growing shadow of the construction of the Empire State Building - Add well portrayed real and fictional characters in a plot line that ties the above together and the result is an entertaining read and a very good novel. The only fault I found with this book is that the author, at times, steps into the story to "explain" his characters, which is not necessary. This may sound like a nit but the rest of the writing is so good that these "intrusions" were somewhat jarring. That being said this book is still highly recommended.

You Gotta Be Tough.......2006-01-19

This is not the type of book I have a reputation for reading. It's a hard-core, bare-knuckles, get-to-the-top kind of fictional tale, set in Depression-era New York City, and it features among its fine cast of characters a number of real life personas, including future President Franklin Roosevelt, and New York's irrepressible "born for office" governor, Al Smith.

Empire Rising tells the story of New York City at all levels of society during this tough time, and uses the construction of the Empire State Building as a backdrop and metaphor. As Kelly pulls no punches in stating, it is the Irish, those first, second, and third generation rough-souled immigrants who make New York City function. Not only is it the Irish who run the city at both the street level and into the halls of power, but it is Irish working men who provide the backbone of the labor force that is building New York's most prized showpiece, the Empire State Building. (Think it's a coincidence that construction on the project began on Saint Patrick's Day?)

The character of Michael Briody, who has gone from a terrorist group's hitman to a soul in love with the dream that is the skyscraper he's struggling to see completed, is Kelly's best figure in this novel. He seems a very realistic individual, leagues removed from the stick-figure stereotypes so many other authors would have employed here in this sort of situation.

I enjoyed this novel, even if it was definitely at times a little cold and lacking in human kindness. I think it shines light onto what is both a forgotten and mysterious period in American history, and it also gives a reader an excellent plot that never slows or grows tiresome, and which reaches masterful heights in its climactic moments.

Get it Read it Now.......2006-01-11

This is one of the most engrossing novels i have read in some time. in an era where the novel has become nothing more than a hodge podge pastiche of cleverness Kelly delivers good story, good characters and a great backdrop. Everything that makes a great novel is here. get it read it now!

Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad

Average customer rating:

Light at the End of the Tunnel
A good start to an interesting economic history
Read about how the Gilded Age built up a head of steam
Very Good!
Expansive tome not for occasional non-fiction reader

Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
David Haward Bain
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0140084991
Release Date: 2000-08-08

Amazon.com

On the morning of May 10, 1869, a gang of Irish immigrants met a party of Chinese laborers on a windy bluff northwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. Tired to the bone, the two groups laid down the last of countless wooden ties, bought at the exorbitant cost of six dollars apiece, and thus joined two great rail lines, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, to form a single transcontinental route. That rail line made possible the mass settlement of the West, and, as those who conceived it well knew, it changed the course of American history.

David Haward Bain's superb narrative of westward rail history, weighing in at 800 pages, ends not with this great achievement but with the political and financial scandal that would almost overshadow it. Along the way Bain looks closely at the entrepreneurial men who foresaw the possibilities of a vast nation joined by a steel ribbon--most memorably the hit-and-miss businessman Asa Whitney, who proposed to Congress an ingenious scheme to fund the building of the railroad through commercializing the right of way. Some of the men who came after Whitney, such as Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington, and Leland Stanford, amassed great fortunes in realizing this dream. Others died penniless and nearly forgotten in the wake of political maneuverings and bad deals. Bain's vigorous, well-written narrative does much to restore those overlooked actors to history. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

After the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad was the nineteenth century's most transformative event. Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with twin bands of iron, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. From self--made entrepreneurs such as the Union Pacific's Thomas Durant and era--defining figures such as President Lincoln to the thousands of laborers whose backbreaking work made the railroad possible, this extraordinary narrative summons an astonishing array of voices to give new dimension not only to this epic endeavor but also to the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of an unforgettable period in American history.

Customer Reviews:

Light at the End of the Tunnel.......2007-06-09

Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad

"Light at the End of the Tunnel"

It took me nearly as long to read this mammoth book as it took to build the Railroad upon which it is based. But the effort was worth it in both instances: the Great Transcontinental Railroad literally united the Union at the same time the Civil War was jeopardizing it. There is enough material here for several books: the Railroad Surveys which opened the west to exploration; the visionary dreams of the Chief Engineers (of which there were several); the desperate attempts to fund the project; the physical and logistical challenges; and the political scandal that nearly wrecked it (the Credit Mobilier Scandal).

A lot to attempt, and to a large degree David Howard Bain accomplishes it. But there is simply too much detail, too many names and dates, too involved a plot. I can't help but compare it to David McCullough's excellent history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Great Bridge. Had he written the story, it might have been more manageable. But Bain deserves an A for effort.

In a highly-visual story like this, the publisher could have made better use of the ample photographic record of the railroad.

A good start to an interesting economic history.......2006-12-14

For those interested in technological history this is a great book to start with. While it may look daunting this book analyzes the social, political and technological implications of building a railroad that spans the country. It looks at the corruption and mismanagement of workers as well as looking at how the country benefited from being made whole. This is a great place to start for understanding the United States economic rise to power after the Civil War.

Read about how the Gilded Age built up a head of steam.......2006-01-21

Holding companies, stock watering, stock certificate bribery on the floor of Congress, no less!

The story of the building of the transcontinental railroad is far more than the story of Irish and Chinese laborers moving toward an unknown meeting point in the west. And Bain paints that story in detail.

Changes in railroad legislation were bought off by stock contributions and other favors. Congress was for sale rather than dealing with serious measures like Reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Union Pacific VP Thomas Durant was bleeding and skimming the company dry, including changing the UP's course and more.

Read all about America's first huge business scandal, intertwined with one of its biggest political ones, in this hard hitting book. And, read about those Irish and Chinese laborers as well.

Very Good!.......2004-11-22

Empire Express is an amazingly well done epic.

Starting at the beginning of the Age of Steam when only dreamers thought that America's greatest mid century engineering feat was a remote possibility, and winding up at the beginning of the Gilded Age, when only scoundrels seemed to be the survivors of this series of events, David Haward Bain weavers the tale of the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad. From the passes and tunnels of the Sierra Pacific and the Indian dislocations caused by the construction of the route, to the New York Boardroom skirmishes and battles, the swindles and the amazing Washington bribery that embittered two US Presidencies, Bain leaves no stone unturned in the description of THE event that finally bound the East and West coasts of the United States together for the for the time.

Starting in the mid 1840's when mountain men still roamed the American West and finishing in the early 1870's amid complex scandals quite beyond belief, Bain highlights just what an economic driver capitalism has been in the settlement and development of America as we know it today. For over 250 years men of all nations searched for the fabled Northwest Passage, the non existent sea lane that supposedly connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It wasn't until 1862, during the height of the American Civil War that America decided to create on land the passage that did not exist by sea.

This is the story of that incredible undertaking, truly the final step in America's Manifest Destiny.

Expansive tome not for occasional non-fiction reader.......2003-03-14

David Haward Bain's exhaustive work on the Transcontinental Railroad is probably the most complete novel on the subject with 711 pages of text but I would not recommend it to the casual non-fiction reader.

Bain does not have the talent to liven up his literature like other western authors (i.e. David Lavender or Evan S. Connell) but he makes up for it with a plethora of information on almost every aspect of the vast project.
Bain covers the initial dreams of Asa Whitney and Theodore Judah, the creation of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific, the acceptance of Congress with the project, the perils of laying tracks through a mountain range and on a vast and at times, a hostile plain, and continues his writing past the meeting at Promontory Summit with a 35-page Epilogue.

But Bain goes a step further than most authors on the subject by intricately detailing the boardroom battles that the Big Four and the U.P.'s Durant and Ames waged throughout the building of the RR lines. More of the book is spent in Washington, San Francisco and New York than it is out on the prairie or up in the Sierra Nevadas. Bain also writes ad nauseam about the Credit Mobilier scandal which rocked the nation during Grant's administration. I can only award four stars though as I wish that less text would've been spent on the corporate aspect and more writing would've covered the common track layer's plights, everyday life and work details.

It all makes for interesting reading for someone searching for the entire story (and getting even more) of the Transcontinental Railroad but Bain's book is not the right source for the casual reader looking to refresh one's History 101 knowledge of the subject before taking the family vacation out west to visit a few of the sites. There are other books that are half the length of this that will work just fine for that. Do be cautious with Ambrose's "Nothing Like it in the World" though as railroad experts accused him of plagiarism and inventing colorful stories in said work.

- One final note, the book has eight highly detailed maps (which include basic relief, rivers and RR tent towns) which I found sufficient enough to follow along both of the railroadsý progress towards meeting in Utah.

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