Welcome to Omaha


Book Description

Millions of people traveling America's railroads and highways pass through Omaha, breaking for an overnight stay. At the end of the day, the traveler's experience is in the hands of transportation workers, hoteliers, and restaurateurs who promise comfort, food, and safety. Omaha's hospitality industry offerings ranged from the modest Scandinavian Young Women's Christian Association and the Hotel Harley bachelor lodgings to the lofty Fontenelle and Blackstone Hotels. The resilient Paxton has been a fixture since 1882. Visitors to Omaha took in the bright lights and culture, documenting their impressions on postcards that picture the city's hotels, restaurants, train depots, bridges, and weather events.




Upstream Metropolis


Book Description

"Being a man, like being a woman, is something you have to learn," Aaron Raz Link remarks. Few would know this better than the coauthor of What Becomes You , who began life as a girl named Sarah and twenty-nine years later began life anew as a gay man.




Nebraska


Book Description

Nebraska is the first comprehensive examination of the patterns of Nebraska’s resources, population, economy, climate, and landscape to be published in many years. Focusing especially on the people of Nebraska and the interaction between the environment and human use of the earth, Professor Baltensperger begins with a discussion of the physical environment and resources of the state and ties early patterns of development to the need to adjust settlement systems and agricultural practices to a subhumid climate. The role of energy-intensive agriculture in the state’s economy is a central aspect of the book’s examination of human interaction with the environment: The impact of modern technology on Nebraska’s agricultural system and on its population receives considerable attention, as do the problems associated with recent agricultural developments. Also scrutinized are the land-use conflicts generated by urban growth and by the demands of an urban society on rural Nebraska.




Buffett


Book Description

Since its hardcover publication in August of 1995, Buffett has appeared on the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Newsday and Business Week bestseller lists. Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century—an astounding net worth of $10 billion, and counting. His awesome investment record has made him a cult figure popularly known for his seeming contradictions: a billionaire who has a modest lifestyle, a phenomenally successful investor who eschews the revolving-door trading of modern Wall Street, a brilliant dealmaker who cultivates a homespun aura. Journalist Roger Lowenstein draws on three years of unprecedented access to Buffett’s family, friends, and colleagues to provide the first definitive, inside account of the life and career of this American original. Buffett explains Buffett’s investment strategy—a long-term philosophy grounded in buying stock in companies that are undervalued on the market and hanging on until their worth invariably surfaces—and shows how it is a reflection of his inner self.







My Omaha Obsession


Book Description

My Omaha Obsession takes the reader on an idiosyncratic tour through some of Omaha’s neighborhoods, buildings, architecture, and people—celebrating the city’s unusual and overlooked history







Re-creating the American Past


Book Description

Although individually and collectively Americans have many histories, the dominant view of our national past focuses on the colonial era. The reasons for this are many and complex, touching on stories of the country's origins and of the founding fathers, the privileged position in history granted the thirteen original colonies, and the ways in which the nation has adjusted to change and modernity. But no matter the cause, the result is obvious: images and forms derived from and related to America's colonial past are the single most popular form of cultural expression. Often conceived solely in architectural terms, from the red-brick and white-trimmed buildings that recall eighteenth-century James River estates to the clapboarded saltboxes that recall early New England, Colonial Revival is in fact better understood as a process of remembering. In Re-creating the American Past, architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson and a host of other scholars examine how and why Colonial Revival has persisted in modern times. The volume contains essays that explore Colonial Revival expressions in architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, decorative arts, and painting and sculpture, as well as the social, intellectual, and cultural background of the phenomena. Based on the University of Virginia's landmark 2000 conference "The Colonial Revival in America," Re-creating the American Past is a comprehensive and handsome volume that recovers the origins, characteristics, diversity, and significance of the Colonial Revival, situating it within the broader history of American design, culture, and society.