Book Description
An excellent firsthand account of the Civil War from a soldier's point of view. It is a masterful description of war's grim reality.--VFW Magazine
Customer Reviews:
Soldiering.......2007-03-04
This books provides us with the knowledge of day to day survival in the union army. He, Rice C. Bull, was severely wounded and captured by the Confederate Army. He describes the conditions surrounding him while he lay unable to move. It's not a pretty picture and many died that could have been saved. He seems to have been a gentleman of high moral standing. There didn't seem to be any bitterness or hate in him. He was simply doing what he felt to be his duty to the best of his ability.
It's in reading these diaries that contain little parts of the war that we can piece together a more accurate complete picture. Read it and find out what was thought of the food and how marching became a way of like.
The privates tale gives a valuable insight to life during the Civil War.
A great adventure written by a first rate story teller........2001-05-22
For those readers who are interested in a good first account of life as a Yankee soldier during the American Civil War, this is the book. I found the account written by Elijah Hunt Rhodes to be quite bland. Full of patriotic sentiment that sheds little light on his vulnerability. Rhodes' may have been a great soldier but he is an amateur storyteller. Rice Bull on the other hand, is a natural born writer. I found this book hard to put down. The pictures Bull paints are startling, amazing, hilarious and terrifying. This book's depiction of war lives in an entirely different universe than, John Wayne, Turner Classics, or any of the tedious accounts written by the Civil War Generals attempting to clear their name. Full of fantastic insight and ironies this book is right up there with "Catch 22" and "Journey to the End of the Night".
Soldiering : The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull.......2001-02-03
This is an excellent book to get an understanding in the daily life of a Northern soldier. The R.C. Bull's journal is an "easy" read and allows the reader to grasp what it was like to be in the infantry during the Civil War. R.C. Bull writes about the types of rations they were issued, their living conditions, and the marches they had to endure. He writes about trading goods with the Confederate "rebs" and his treatment as wounded prisoner. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the life of an enlist man during the Civil War.
Very Good Account of the Civil War.......1998-11-13
After reading three diaries (Diary of Daniel Chisholm, Three Years in Co. K, and this book) I place this one at the top (for now.) The description of Bull's experience following Chancellorsville, wounded in the hip and face, lying in the mud, while men are dying all around him, is particularly moving. I'm a novice Civil War buff, and would recommend this title to someone who has more than a passing interest in the daily life of a Northern soldier.
Product Description
GREAT HOUSES OF NEW YORK, 1880-1930 presents the stories of 43 most elegant houses built in New York. With over 300 archival photographs and floor plans and a decade of research, Michael Kathrens profiles New York houses known only for their magisterial presence on the city s most elegant boulevards, some of which still exist today. IN the book the lavish rooms are brought to life again polished black and white columns reflect in the marble floor of a grand entryway, Dutch master paintings line damask walls in the second floor reception room, a crystal chandelier softly lights a dining rooms whose boiserie glows with paintings by Boucher evoking the elegant private life that has become a trademark of the wealthy New Yorker.
Customer Reviews:
Architectural Joy.......2007-08-16
A fascinating book, covering the now mostly demolished great homes of New York, during the extraordinary flowering of wealth and enterprise in the late C19th.
All the famous families appear together with Edith Wharton style stories of scandal and excess...
The book boasts beautiful photographs, attractively reproduced, and fascinating floor plans.
Great Houses is exceptionally well written and a joy to the eye. One for architecture enthusiasts everywhere!
awesome book.......2006-06-23
A must read for design, architecture and house enthusiasts. Well written and althought all pictures are in black and white they are fabulous. An easy read full of great backgound and rich in history.
Gilded Age New York.......2005-07-15
I have been waiting for a book like this for some time, and this one does not disappoint. It is well researched with wonderful historic black and white photos. The book is of the finest quality and the text is well put together. This is such an interesting subject and the authors are very thorough in their research, the book really feels complete. I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in wonderful Gilded Age residental architecture or just an interest in the rich history of this great city. I can't imagine anyone being disappointed in this book and I commend the authors on doing such a fine job on a most worthy subject. Thank you.
Book Description
The first book in the Circles of the Twentieth Century series which focuses on writers, artists, poets, hostesses and patrons who played a role in moderism as we know it. Watson explores the lively and fascinating people who helped bring about what became known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Customer Reviews:
It's good.......2006-06-28
This is a worthwhile and well-researched book. It is more scholarly than I expected, and as a result, it took me a while to get fully engaged in. By the time I got to the section discussing the jazz artists, it was hard to put down. I was familiar with most of the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance to some extent. The book painted a more vivid picture of many of them, and gave keen perspectives on the social and economic milieu that helped to shape the period. It was fascinating to read about some of the interlocking relationships, in particular the relationships between Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Charlotte Mason. Examples such as this changed my notion of writing always being an insular profession. The men and women of the Harlem Renaissance benefited by each other's support as well as competition.
Outlined the experience but no depth.......1998-06-12
In my journey to explore the Harlem Renaissance, I started with this book. I felt the author gave a good basic view of the era but he left out the soul. He focused on six or seven primary personalities of the time, from Langston Hughes to Zora Neale Hurston, and tied the times into their existence. I was left feeling like there had to be more about the era. The author also chases around issues of major character homosexuality, stating it but not really being clear about it. I was ready for it to end.
This book is informative, entertaining, coherent........1998-02-07
I read this book in hardcover as well as several others for a paper I wrote. The author was able to take the disparate threads of musicians, artists, writers and benefactors who contributed to the Renaissance and weave together a chronology that contained pictures, specific information about the "hotspots" in Harlem and complete, sometimes intimate portraits of all concerned. If the Harlem Renaissance was ever to be depicted in a movie, this book would be a ready-made screen play. The hardcover edition is worth the extra money.
Their Eyes Were Watching God= A Great Book!!.......1997-11-03
I really enjoyed this book. I had to read it for an english class. At first I thought it was going to be hard to read and dumb due to the dialect, but as I read further into the book, I found out what a great book it was and why it was on the required reading list. I would greatly recommmend reading this book to any one who hasnot. It deals with a black woman's search for indeoendence over 25 years and 3 marriages. It is a great book and gets TWO thumbs up from me!!!
Book Description
This highly acclaimed volume is the ultimate reference on this period, closely documents the alternately giddy and depressed decades between the two world wars when New York first transformed itself into a skyscraper city. Every important building of the era is described with vital background information and ample archival photographs.
Customer Reviews:
GOLDEN AGE OF NYC ARCHITECTURE.......2007-01-22
This is the New York people fall in love with, the iconic Art Deco skyline, the great skyscrapers of the 20's and 30's. When you see pictures of the skyline of the late 30's you can't help but be impressed by the awesome beauty of the all the spires. The modern skyline today is full of mediocre "modern" skyscarpers and post modern pretenders, I mean have you seen the pictures of the proposed Freedom Tower of SOM's David Childs, the very definition of bland; 1,776 feet of boring. As for this fantastic book, it's perfect; the images are well presented and the text scholarly, really an education on NYC architecture between the Great Wars. Highly Recommended.
Another of Robert A.M. Stern's excellent books.......2007-01-11
on NY architecture.
The entire collection is a MUST for every lover of NY.
The Golden Age of New York City.......2001-11-18
When people talk about New York's Golden Age, they're usually referring to the late 1800s, but I would argue that New York's true Golden Age was the 1920s. With over 800 pages, this tome is difficult to handle, but nevertheless, it covers New York at its peak of glory, and is the best of Robert Stern's books about New York architecture (e.g., New York 1880, New York 1900, New York 1960). Especially noteworthy are the beautiful b&w photos, averaging more than one per page. There are also approximately 40 floor plans, although most page space is given over to text. The authors give attention to both exteriors and interiors of the era's buildings. Each chapter covers a specific type of building, with a special emphasis on Rockefeller Center, the 1939 World's Fair, 57th Street, and the works of architects Kahn, Walker, and Hood.
An excellent record of the idealized city.......2000-06-23
This is an encyclopedic description of New York as I remember it from my student years. The numerous neat clean photographs and drawings present an idealized city. But what is additionally fascinating are the rich background histories that illustrate the social and economic complexity of Gotham. I enjoy this book at two levels: one, as a valuable artistic document, two, as an encapsulation of the memories and fantasies of my youth. I bought a sport coat at Finchleys; I lived in the Greenpoint Housing Project; I wanted to work or live in those buildings; I wanted to draw like those architects and engineers. I loved these last embodiments of Art Deco construction and the grand civic projects.
This history presents New York from the viewpoint of the upper crust and the insulated, the planning was grand and well funded. The slums, the dirt, the menace of some streets and the ethnic tapestry are ignored. Just as memory tends to purge the unpleasent, so does this book, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.
Product Description
HOUSES OF THE HAMPTONS, 1880 1930 explores more than 30 houses, many designed by some of America s leading architects McKim, Mead & White, John Russell Pope, Harrie T. Lindeberg and by less well-known but equally gifted designers such as Edward Purcel Mellon, Isaac H. Green, and John Custis Lawrence. Less enamored with showy grandeur than Newport, but clearly a place apart from the whitewashed cottages of New England, the great summer places of the Hamptons present an ensemble of exceptional architectural variety and achievement. Here, American Colonial, half-timbered Tudor, and red brick Georgian vie with shingled cottage and Mediterranean fantasy. The book is illustrated with more than 300 photographs and floor plans, and its text provides a rich and informative portrait of the American leisure class at play. Authors Gary Lawrance and Anne Surchin lead the reader on a tour of a bygone era when couples in white flannel played tennis or croquet on verdant lawns or when America s aristocracy flocked to watch the students of William Merritt Chase s Shinnecock Art School at their paintings. The volume also contains biographical sketches of individual architects, a comprehensive bibliography, and a portfolio of some 40 grand residences of this beautiful and unsurpassed vacation enclave. Through word and image, HOUSES OF THE HAMPTONS recaptures the grace and beauty of an era long vanished. Lovingly researched and chronicled by the authors, that era lives again in these vibrant pages.
Customer Reviews:
SUMPTUOUS HAMPTONS.......2007-06-09
This is yet another well researched, beautiful book put out by Acanthus Press. Ms. Surchin does the Hamptons proud, with her insightful text and wonderful period images, I had no idea that there where so many period houses in the Hamptons, of course I knew all about the North Shore of Long Island, the famous Gold Coast, but i had thought all the huge houses in the Hamptons where fairly new, needless to say this book was a very pleasant surprise. If you have any interest in the Hamptons or just have an appreciation of beautiful books then I highly recommend this book; well done, indeed.
Average customer rating:
|
The Moral Frameworks of Public Life: Gender, Politics, and the State in Rural New York, 1870-1930
Paula Baker
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| 19th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
New York
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Northeast
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
State & Local Government
| Government
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| AIDS
| Abuse
| Adults
| Aging
| Children
| Class
| Communities
| Culture
| Death
| General
| History
| Leisure
| Marriage & Family
| Medicine
| Men
| Occupational
| Race Relations
| Religion
| Research & Measurement
| Rural
| Social Groups
| Social Situations
| Social Theory
| Suburban
| Urban
| Women
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0195064526 |
Book Description
This book explores the connections between gender and public life and the role of government in shaping those connections. Baker examines the public and private lives of men and women in New York State to provide a richly detailed account of the ways in which gender, politics, and government have shaped one anothers' future. She delineates widely held beliefs about religion, change, and work in the late nineteenth century and shows how men and women applied these ideas to politics in different ways. The increasing importance of state government in rural life helped recast men's and women's political ideas and behavior. Baker's close reading of the writings of rural men and women and the work of local and state government provides new insights into the achievement of the suffrage movement, the fate of the nineteenth-century ideal of domesticity, the decline of localism, and the importance of government to people's political expectations and daily lives.
Customer Reviews:
History of Residential Architecture in New York City.......2005-01-19
This book relates the history of residential architecture in New York City from 1869-1930, the period covering the transition from single family houses to apartment dwellings. The book is into four sections organized by era: Old New York (1869-1879), the Gilded Age (1880-1899), the New Metropolis (1900-1919), and the Manhattan Skyline (1920-1930). According to Hawes, an architect named Richard Morris Hunt was the leader in bringing apartment buildings to New York. Hunt had been educated in Paris, where apartment buildings were the norm. Indeed, when he began designing apartment buildings for New York, they were first called "French flats." Hawes takes us on a tour through neighborhoods where the new apartment buildings were being constructed, and she also describes how the millionaires living on Fifth Avenue were determined to keep apartments out of their neighborhood. She introduces the architects of the time, and provides detailed descriptions of both buildings and the interior layouts of the new luxury apartments. This book is very much about New York City--there is little, if any, discussion of architectural changes in other American cites. The book is amply illustrated with high-quality black-and-white period photographs. End material includes an appendix of extant buildings of the style described in the text, endnotes, selected references, and an index.
Throughout the book, the focus is on housing for the rich and the upper-middle class, those who kept a social distance between themselves and the lower classes who lived in tenements. The book chronicles not only the architects of the time and the buildings they designed, but also how high society gradually accepted and even warmed up to the idea of living in multiple-family dwellings. In order to make the new apartment buildings attractive to upper-class tenants, architects included every luxury they could think of, from ample servants' quarters, to independent electrical power stations and cold storage rooms.
Though the book is well-researched, I'm still not entirely convinced by several of Hawes; claims, however. The book is sub-titled "How the apartment house transformed the life of the city." While the apartment house was certainly a new way of living for the rich, I suspect that the majority of the population did not belong to the upper classes, and did not have access to these buildings. What's more, the shift in architectural style that Hawes describes doesn't seem to be of the type that would filter down to the masses, so it's hard to see how these new luxury apartment houses transformed the life of the city beyond the rich. If the life of the city actually was transformed, it's hard to discover the details in this book, since the book focuses more on the architects and their buildings than on cultural change. Hawes also seems to be at least implicitly claiming that it was the new architecture style that convinced people to live in multiple-family dwellings. She notes that the population of New York exploded during this time period. If so, then land values must have been increasing as well, and there must have been quite a bit of pressure to use the land more efficiently. Hawes notes that as land values went up, some of the very rich finally sold their land, and had the exact layout of their houses duplicated on the uppermost floor of the new buildings that went onto the plots. This suggests that perhaps the shift from single family houses to apartment dwellings may have been inevitable rather than simply following fashion, especially given the limited amount of land that was available in the island setting of the city.
Architectural history of the New York apartment house.......2001-11-01
Elizabeth Hawes traces the development of the New York apartment house, beginning with the Stuyvesant (1869), and then discussing the earliest middle-class and upper-class buildings of the 1870s. As Hawes explains how design evolved through the decades, she examines such classic buildings as the Villard Houses (1885), the Dakota (1884), and the Osborne (1885), as well as others of lesser fame. My favorite chapter is the 13th (of 14 chapters), in which Hawes compares three famous architects of the 1920s: Roth, Carpenter, and Candella. As the title indicates, the book's coverage ends at 1930. The author has done more than merely catalogue buildings; instead, she shows how changes in design reflect changes in society and an effort to learn from past design errors. There are 5 floor plans and approximately 50 photographs. As much as I enjoyed this book, I prefer Cromley's 'Alone Together,' which struck me as a slightly better treatment of the same material, with more illustrations. However, Hawes' 'New York, New York' covers the 1920s, a pivotal decade in New York apartment architecture, which was not covered in Cromley's book.
Average customer rating:
- A FINE REMEMBRANCE OF A REMARKABLE TEAM
- George, Billy, Reggie, Thurman and more
- MUCH DETAIL
- Collision At Home
- Distractions? yes. A waste of time? Certainly not...
|
October Men : Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978
Roger Kahn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Baseball
| Sports
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
General
| Baseball
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
New York
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees
-
The Era, 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World
-
The Boys of Summer
-
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City
-
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
ASIN: B000FUO0FQ |
Amazon.com
October Men reads like a night spent in the dugout with a veteran manager during a lopsided game. Roger Kahn sits beside you occasionally narrating the events of each inning as it unfolds while frequently digressing into anecdotes from his lifetime as a baseball writer. The digressions--everything from Yankees's VP Al Rosen's connections to the Las Vegas boxing scene to a brief history of the 1903 New York Highlanders (the "Pleistocene Yankees")--are all interesting, but one frequently loses track of the main reason for being there.
In this case, the main story is the tumultuous 1978 Yankees's season. What makes this particular season an interesting subject for a book is that it is not the story of a group of young heroes who rallied together to make a team that was somehow larger than its parts. Rather, the 1978 Yankees was a team patched together with aging stars (Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Catfish Hunter) from other teams, held fast by George Steinbrenner's money, and piloted by the tempestuous Billy Martin. This was a team expected to win a world championship. The story Kahn tries to tell is how this boatload of talent nearly ran aground because of bickering, paranoia, and racism.
Kahn's breadth of knowledge is impressive, and the many insider tales he relates are entertaining; but October Men does not flow effortlessly as a narrative of the 1978 team. If one can excuse the digressions and occasional disjointed transitions, though, there is much pleasure to be had from this prime spectator's seat. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
The author of the modern classic The Boys of Summer brings his unparalleled narrative gifts to another unforgettable team
On the morning of October 2nd, 1978, the World Champion New York Yankees found themselves tied for first place with the Boston Red Sox. That day these rousing ball clubs would meet at Fenway Park. Both had won 99 games. Only one would win 100.
By any rational standard the Yankees should have been reaching for their golf clubs. They had feuded, barked, and roared all season, until by mid-July they were fourteen games out of first place. Then came the spectacular self-destruction of Billy Martin: The Yankees' fortunes turned and a fractious band of ballplayers finally became a team. They capped one of the most thrilling comebacks in baseball history by defeating the Red Sox that October afternoon in a game that many still remember as the greatest ever played.
Richly lyrical and raffishly funny, October Men weaves the first in-depth account of the legendary season of '78. Transporting us into the midst of the Bronx menagerie, Kahn reviews New York's colorful baseball history; takes us to the clubhouses and hotel bars where the season's dramatics played out; and introduces us to the outsized October Men: imperious George Steinbrenner; force of nature Reggie Jackson; Bucky Dent, whose three-run homer in the playoff left Boston a wash of tears; and others from Bob Lemon to Thurman Munson.
1978 was a troubled year for America, not just for the Yankees, and the team reflected its ills: alcoholism, broken homes, social unrest and racism. But in rising above turmoil, the October Men became an inspiration for the country. Roger Kahn has rendered their story into a classic of American literature.
Customer Reviews:
A FINE REMEMBRANCE OF A REMARKABLE TEAM.......2007-09-25
The author of The Boys of Summer has now written a book about the men of October. October 1978 to be specific. Roger Kahn gives us a rambling, desultory, non linear history of that remarkable comeback season for the Yankees. His prose wanderings take us back to the 1880s and forward, past 1978, to 2003. OCTOBER MEN is like sitting down with a grand uncle and listening to the colorful musings of his life, except that here, Mr Kahn is musing about baseball history. This can be frustrating to some who want a story told in a straight forward fashion. The actual wordage given to the games played by the Yankees in 1978 would probably reduce to twenty pages. In between and before are the politics, the trades, the personality conflicts, the rows, the blustering, the bickering and the history of each persona plus related history of the game itself. But it is a great story, well-told and for those of us who remember the Yankees of that year (Reggie, Munson, Guidry, Pinella, Nettles, Dent, Sparky Lyle, Gossage, Mickey Rivers) we are treated to a fine remembrance. And, for those who were too young or too distracted to remember, it is well worth reading, for seldom comes such a remarkable team and this was one.
George, Billy, Reggie, Thurman and more.......2006-01-27
"October Men" was one of a spate of books that came out in time for the New York Yankees' 100th anniversary. This time though, its focus is on another milestone -- the Bronx Bombers' 1978 championship run, especially their comback from 14 games out to win the American League East title.
Roger Kahn ("The Boys of Summer") brings first-hand observations, strong research and a love of both sports and history to the batter's box. Kahn's insights into the insecurities of the key players are intriguing. He raises the key point that the troubled childhoods of Yankees like Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson and Bucky Dent both gnawed at these baseball fixtures and provided a fuel for their success.
Kahn's eye for the sensitivities of these and other tough guys of the era gives the book its charm. He helps you both shake your head at their excesses and understand where they come from. (And he smartly indicates just how much Ron Guidry, the quiet pitcher who went 25-3 in '78 was a stable and stabilizing force during the team's roller-coaster year.)
Where "October Men" bogs down is in the style. Kahn spends nearly half the book on the 1977 campaign. While the previous season, Reggie Jackson's first in pinstripes, sets the tone for the soap opera that followed the next year, it's not the main course. Kahn also spends too much time with extraneous insights about his friendships with Yankee execs George Steinbrenner and Al Rosen, troubles with short-sighted editors during his sportswriter years, and jabs at the writing style of fellow sportswriter Murray Chass.
Get past Kahn's asides, and you find a book that is enjoyable.
MUCH DETAIL.......2005-07-24
THID BOOK IS ABOUT THE NEW YORK YANKEES 1978 SEASON. ROGER KAHN DOES A GOOD JOB OF DESCRIBING THE EVENTS WHICH LEAD UP TO THE ASTONISHING COMEBACK FROM NOWHERE TO WIN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE PENNANT IN A PLAYOFF GAME FROM THE BOSTON REDSOX. MUCH DETAIL AND TIME IS PUT TOGETHER IN THIS ENTERTAINING READ FROM THE MAN WHO GAVE US THE BOYS OF SUMMER. I ENJOYED THIS BOOK BUT FOUND IT OVER LONG AND BORING AT TIMES. OVERALL I DID LIKE IT AND RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL YANKEE FANS. BUT A BOOK OF PAIN FOR REDSOX FANS.
Collision At Home.......2005-05-03
Roger Kahn writes a book about the 1976-1978 Yankee Baseball seasons. The book is a mixture of parallel biographies of Billy Martin,George Steinbrenner and Reggie Jackson. Kahn gives a good primer and sets up the story well. For the non New York baseball fan he explains well the Brooklyn Dodger, New York Giant legacy and shows the New York Yankee rivarly with them.
The book might have been better if the entire focus was on the dyanmics of Billy, George and Reggie. Those characters had everything and reflected the currents of the 1970's. There was racism,big business, high salaries,large ego's .Instead Kahn detracts from the bio angle by digressing about New York Giant managers of 1905 !
Kahn does not appear to be a Yankee fan at least in terms of his writing . He gives an objective look of the Yankees. In terms of dealing with the Red Sox swoon this book was written before last years' Yankee debacle . Kanh does not mercifully (and luckily in view of last years result) beat up the Red Sox. Kahn is a bit of a Billy basher and he does not mention once the Howie Spira -Dave Winfield scandal at all.This led to George's expulsion but Kahn does not find the room to mention this fact. In fact he praises the modern George Steinbreener.
Kahn appears to be the most objective about Reggie . He praises the feats but shows the ego of the man. If you are a baseball fan you will probably enjoy this book. If you are a Met fan you should read this book.But if you are a Billy Martin guy you may think the writing is somewhat biased.
Since 25 years have past this reviewer wished Kahn was a little more objective about Billy Martin and George.
Distractions? yes. A waste of time? Certainly not..........2005-04-26
Yes, Kahn gets off topic; yes, it takes neraly 200 pages to get to the 1978 New York Yankees; and yes, the final 150 pages of the book are peppered with Kahn's customary "Look who I knew..." But, altogether, I found this book quite a page turner and surprisingly quick read. As promised, Martin, Steinbrenner and Jackson provide fireworks throughout the text, but so do, for example, the pitching trio of Sparky, Goose and Catfish. There are fact errors (like Kahn's 'Doc Ellis' and 'Dock Ellis'), and the author does interject with his own boasting a bit too often, but I found it read similar to Jeff Pearlman's "The Bad Guys Won" - the story of the '86 Mets, which is perhaps THE MOST underrated baseball book in print.
Average customer rating:
- Birth of the "Mouth Marines"
|
Hostage Cop
Frank, Jr. Bolz ,
Edward Hershey , and
Frank Bolz
Manufacturer: Rawson Assoc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| AIDS
| Abuse
| Adults
| Aging
| Children
| Class
| Communities
| Culture
| Death
| General
| History
| Leisure
| Marriage & Family
| Medicine
| Men
| Occupational
| Race Relations
| Religion
| Research & Measurement
| Rural
| Social Groups
| Social Situations
| Social Theory
| Suburban
| Urban
| Women
ASIN: 0892561025 |
Customer Reviews:
Birth of the "Mouth Marines".......2000-04-03
The author, a member of the German segment of the New York Police Department's "establishment" teamed with a Jewish psychiatrist police officer to introduce the concept of organized hostage negotiation into the United States. The principles they taught and practiced are fleshed out in the real case stories that Bolz has collected.
In addition to the cases themselves, the collision between the newer practices, vastly weighted toward saving all lives in the situation, and the older lines of thought, in which prevailing quickly was foremost, offers useful insight into how some police think about the issue.
As well as information, "Hostage Cop" offers a good read for the time invested. Some standoffs are tense and exciting and others offer wonderful absurdities, often the very essence of a successful end to a crisis.
If you like the big roundup and shootout, this book will probably bore you silly. If, however, you like tales of the power of the state calmed, idiocy avoided, and nasty situations brought to benign ends, this one will suit you down to the ground.
Book Description
"Wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh, the writer to whom she's most often compared." (Lisa Zeidner, The New York Times)
For decades after her death, Dawn Powell's work was out of print, cherished by a small band of admirers. Only recently has there been renewed awareness of the novelist who was such a vital presence in literary Greenwich Village from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Dawn Powell was the tirelessly observant chronicler of two very different worlds: the small-town Ohio of her childhood and the sophisticated Manhattan to which she gravitated. If her Ohio novels are more melancholy and compassionate in their depiction of often frustrated lives, her Manhattan novels, with their cast of writers, show people, businessmen, and hustling hangers-on, are more exuberant and incisive. But all show rich characterization and a flair for the gist of social complexities. A playful satirist, an unsentimental observer of failed hopes and misguided longings, Dawn Powell is a literary rediscovery of rare importance.
Edited by Tim Page.
Customer Reviews:
An author to meet.......2003-08-19
If you are unacquainted with Dawn Powell, as I was until just recently, this is an excellent means to begin your acquaintance, with five of her early novels arranged chronologically in one volume. Powell draws the reader along as she unwinds the thread of her narrative, slowing her pace for extended dialogue and description let her stories breath and speeding it to keep the narrative moving and reader engaged. A major benefit of having these five novels together is that the reader can trace the development of Powell's satiric style as it progresses from a spot here and there in "Dance Night" to all pervading in "Angels on Toast" and "A time to be Born".
The earlier works "Dance Night" and "Come Back to Sorrento", both of which have Midwestern small-town settings, have elements of Willa Cather, while the latter three, all New York satire, fall somewhere between Dorothy Parker and P.G. Woodhouse with punchy, sarcastic dialogue and vivid description. Like Woodhouse, Powell understands the humor of being anthropomorphic in describing inanimate objects.
The brief chronology at the end of the book, which I recommend readers unfamiliar with Powell read first, explains some of Powells returning motifs: absent parents, children farmed out to relatives, traveling salesmen, dysfunctional families and American class consciousness. She is masterful in presenting the "happily" part of the ending, but at the same time, registering misgivings about the "ever after."
"Dance Night", set in a generic Lamptown, is the story of Morry Abbot, a young man coming to maturity and sexual awareness. Powell sets this against the story of his dysfunctional parents, an absentee traveling salesman father and a mother who falls in love with the dance instructor. A whole set of fully-fleshed minor characters fill out the narrative.
In "Come Back to Sorrento", another small town narrative, Connie Benjamin's life changes when a new music teacher comes to teach at the school in Dell River. Connie, who has shown great promise as a singer, but who was restrained by her domineering grandfather who had raised her, has lived alone in her dream world for almost two decades. Professor Decker, who lives in his own artificial world, arrives and the two become fast friends. Although their pretensions, played out for before a spinster school teacher pass well into the realm of embarrassing, Powell deftly keeps them sympathetic simply by keeping the reader fully aware that these characters are lost in a world they only partly created.
Dennis Orphen, the hero of "Turn, Magic Wheel", a New York satire, has written a novelized book in which he satirizes a world-famous novelist, Andrew Callingham, having gleaned most of his information from Callingham's ex-wife, Effie. Dennis, an inveterate womanizer, has unbeknownst to himself, fallen in love with Effie and she with him.
The traveling salesman motif returns in "Angels on Toast", a story of the contrasting marital infidelities of Lou and Jay, who are continually on the road. Replete with wives, girlfriends, and at least one ex-wife, this is the fastest paced of the five novels in this volume.
"A Time to be Born", reportedly based on Clare Booth Luce, is the most complex of the five. Interspersed within the interwoven narratives of Amanda Evans and Vicky Haven are the workplace politics at Peabody Publications, the riotous family life of the McElroy's, (one of Vicky's colleague in the office) and a return of Dennis Orphen from "Turn, Magic Wheel", along with his writing and drinking buddy, Ken Saunders. Although Powell fully exploits her satiric wit in this novel, it does turn grim, especially towards the end.
These are all excellent reads and well worth the investment in this Library of America edition which has the same quality of their other publications. Library of America has also produced a second volume of Powell's works that include later novels.
An American Novelist Attains Stature.......2003-02-12
Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote 15 novels which received little notice during her lifetime. Powell was born in rural Ohio. After college, she moved to Grenwich Village in New York City where she lived most of her life. Her novels have a strong element of autobiography. She wrote novels of her early experience in Ohio and novels of her life in New York City and often contrasted the different pacings and values of life in the Midwest and in New York. Her later books are sharply satirical and often cynical. She wrote of love and of affairs and of loss in unconventional situations.
In the 1990s, many people discovered Powell's works, sparked largely by the biography and other writings on Powell by Tim Page. In 2001, the Library of America published a two volumes of Dawn Powell, with notes by Tim Page, including 9 of her novels. The LOA is a wonderful and ambitious project which aims to capture the best in American writing, novels, poetry, history, philosophy. It is a record of American thought and of the American experience.
This volume consists of five novels that Powell wrote between 1930 and 1952. The first two books center upon life in the Midwest while the latter three books are satires of urban life.
The first novel in the book, Dance Night (1930), was Powell's fourth published novel and her own favorite of her works. It is a coming-of-age novel set in a town called Lamptown, Ohio. It deals with the restlessness of adolescence in a small town and with sexual frustration. The book points the way for its hero to leave Lamptown on a train bound, presumably, to seek his chance in New York City.
"Come Back to Sorrento", Powell's next novel was written in 1932 and sold very poorly. But the novel is a gem. It is set in a small midwestern town and its two main characters are a woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage who had dreamed in her youth of becoming a singer, and the town music teacher who had aspired to become a concert pianist and who is likely homosexual. The book is on the whole subdued and understated and centers upon the frustrating relationship between the two protagonists.
The next book in the collection, "Turn, Magic Wheel" (1936), is the first of Powell's novels satirizing life in New York City. Its characters are a young man who has published one successful novel lampooning a literary idol of the day, the literary idol himself, (modelled on Earnest Hemingway), and the women who are involved with both of them. There are great descriptions of the streets, bars and sites of New York City. The story is sharply, but compassionately, told. The book, I think, is ultimately a love story with an ambiguous message about the possiblity of happiness.
"Angels on Toast" (1940) is a satire of the world of business with its two main characters commuting by train from Chicago to New York City in search of money and mistresses. It is sharp and engaging, if one-dimensional. I don't think it as good as the other four novels in this volume.
The final work in this collection, "A Time to be Born" (1942) was one of Powell's few novels to achieve commercial success during her lifetime. One of the main characters in this book is modelled in part on Clare Boothe Luce. In this book, Powell juxtaposes life in midwest Ohio with life in New York City. The two major women characters in the book move to New York from the same small town in Ohio with very different results. This book is satirical but it is also -- actually primarily -- a coming-of-age novel for its young woman heroine. It gives an unforgettable picture of life in New York City just at the eve of United States entry into WW II.
Powell is best known as a satirist, but the books in this series show she was that and more. Her themes as a novelist are somewhat limited, but they are developed well and embroidered in each successive work. Her writing style develops with time until in her final novels (the second volume of the series) it becomes beautiful. She offers a vision of New York City and of the loss of innocence that is her own. The Library of America series is to be commended for finding writers describing American experience in somewhat unexpected places. Powell deserves her place in this series and in American literature. This volume will give the reader a good exposure to the work of Dawn Powell.
Satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction.......2001-10-15
An author of immense popularity, Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction that went out of print following her death. Then in the early 1990s a renewed awareness of this major literary figure saw the reissuing of her work, only to have it fall back into obscurity once again. Now The Library Of America has brought her work back into print again and in a format that will insure that her fiction will continue to be available to both scholarship and the general reading public for decades to come. Volume 1: Novels 1930-1942 includes Dance Night; Come Back to Sorrento; Turn, Magic Wheel; Angels on Toast; and A Time To be Born. Volume 2: Novels 1944-1962 features My Home Is Far Away; The Locusts Have No King; The Wicked Pavilion; and The Golden Spur. Dawn Powell: Volumes 1 & 2 is a very highly recommended addition to both academic and community library literary fiction collections.
Books:
- Stink and the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers (Stink)
- Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right
- Superpuppy: How to Choose, Raise, and Train the Best Possible Dog for You (How to Choose, Raise, and Train the Best Possible Dog for You)
- Techniques of Natural Light Photography
- The Book Thief (Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature (Awards))
- The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining
- The Light of Paris
- The Little Black Journal Of Wine: A Wine Lover's Record Keeper (Guided Journal Series)
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (20 Volume Set
- The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Redhunter: A Novel Based on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy
- Respect and Protect - Manual: A Practical, Step-by-Step Violence Prevention and Intervention Program
- Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood
- Make a Quilt in a Day : Log Cabin Pattern
- Not for Tourists 2007 Guide to New York City
- Microbiology: Principles and Explorations
- Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humank
- The Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced: A Century of Change, 1899-2001
- Innsights: An Innsitter's Tale
- Wandering Through World War II
