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PASSAGE TO UNION

Name: PASSAGE TO UNION
Author: Sarah H. Gordon
ISBN: 1-56663-138-6

HOW THE RAILROADS TRANSFORMED AMERICAN LIFE, 1829-1929

by Sarah H. Gordon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 1997

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As social historian Gordon (Quinnipiac Coll.) ably demonstrates, the creation of a national railroad was anything but an easy ride. Early proponents of an interstate rail network faced enormous troubles. There were Luddites, like Nathaniel Hawthorne, who objected to the noise and smell of progress; legal battles, such as the Supreme Court case in which a man named Beers was awarded damages when a train killed several of his oxen (the court found for the plaintiff because the train had been ``speeding'' at 20 m.p.h.); tensions between the rural and urban populations; and not least of all, the budding conflict between North and South, involving sectionalism and slavery, that would eventually explode into the Civil War. Railroads were so deeply associated with the industrial, urban North that they became a natural metaphor for emancipation. No wonder railroad ``union'' was almost as difficult to attain in that era as national union was. Gordon analyzes the various disputes that went into the making of the railroads, and she offers plenty of railroad lore along the way, citing liberally from James Fenimore Cooper, Walt Whitman, and Charles Dickens, among others, all of whom had much to say about the American railways. Of the casual rural stations, for example, Dickens noted wryly: ``The train calls at stations in the woods, where the wild impossibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out is only to be equaled by the apparently desperate hopelessness of there being anybody to get in.'' And mores of railroad travel had more than one contemporary observer up in arms: ``To restore herself to her caste, let a lady move in select company at 5 miles an hour,'' declared one disgruntled gentleman. A solid, readable history of America's fledgling railroad system. (20 b&w illustrations, 2 maps)

Pub Date: Jan. 10, 1997

ISBN: 1-56663-138-6

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.