America Revised


Book Description

"Almost all of the book appeared initially in the New Yorker." Bibliography: p. [227]-240.




Karl Bodmer's America Revisited


Book Description

Less than thirty years after Lewis and Clark completed their epic journey, Prince Maximilian of Wied—a German naturalist—and his entourage set off on their own daring expedition across North America. Accompanying the prince on this 1832–34 voyage was Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, whose drawings and watercolors—designed to illustrate Maximilian’s journals—now rank among the great treasures of nineteenth-century American art. This lavishly illustrated book juxtaposes Bodmer’s landscape images with modern-day photographs of the same views, allowing readers to see what has changed, and what seems unchanged, since the time Maximilian and Bodmer made their storied trip up the Missouri River. To discover how the areas Bodmer depicted have changed over time, photographer Robert M. Lindholm and anthropologist W. Raymond Wood made several trips over a period of years, from 1985 to 2002, to locate and record the same sites—all the way from Boston Harbor, where Maximilian and Bodmer began their journey, to Fort McKenzie, in modern-day western Montana. Pairing sixty-seven Bodmer works side by side with Lindholm’s photographs of the same sites, this volume uses the comparison of old and new images to reveal alterations through time—and the encroachment of a built environment—across diverse landscapes. Karl Bodmer’s America Revisited is at once a tribute to the artistic achievements of a premier landscape artist and a photographer who followed in his footsteps, and a valuable record of America’s ever-changing environment.




Hemp: American History Revisited


Book Description

A look at major events in U.S. and world history as they influenced, and as they may have been influenced by, the cultivation and use of hemp.




Early America Revisited


Book Description

Early America Revisited is a vigorous defense and amplification of Ivan Van Sertima's classic work, They Came Before Columbus. The book makes a carefully balanced case for an African presence in America before Columbus' voyages. At the same time, the work in no way denies the importance of the Columbus voyages for opening up the New World to Europe, and hence changing the economic and political map of the world for all time. Van Sertima's critical cutting edge is that there is an anthropological and ethnographic dimension to the process of discovery, one in which black Africans of non-European origins played a central role. He marshals literary and pictorial evidence and shows its authenticity to be beyond question. The impact of these early discoveries is of far more than historical interest. They serve as a basis to examine anew the study of culture contacts between civilizations, and in so doing, offer a serious base to a multifaceted re-examination of earlier hypotheses of influences in both directions. Early America Revisited provides anthropological evidence about the physical presence of Africans in pre-Columbian America. It is also the study of how two peoples and cultures can lead to cross-fertilization. The borrowing of artifacts and ideas does not mean that the outsider is superior to the native, or that indigenous cultures are insignificant. Van Sertima contends that such relationships can be unpleasant as well as pleasant, conflictual as well as consensual. But, whatever the character of the interaction, its very existence merits awareness. This book is likely to engender disputes and disagreements. But there is no question that it will enrich the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and result in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy. It should be of wide interest to social scientists, historians, and all those for whom the question of race and culture is a central facet of their own work and lives. Jacqueline L. Patten Van Sertima, who is responsible for the photographic materials in this volume, has had her work exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, the National Urban League, Columbia University, and many galleries across the country. Her publications include The Black Photographers Annual and Black Photographers.




Repairing the American Metropolis


Book Description

Repairing the American Metropolis is based on Douglas Kelbaugh’s Common Place: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design, first published in 1997. It is more timely and significant than ever, with new text, charts, and images on architecture, sprawl, and New Urbanism, a movement that he helped pioneer. Theory and policies have been revised, refined, updated, and developed as compelling ways to plan and design the built environment. This is an indispensable book for architects, urban designers and planners, landscape architects, architecture and urban planning students and scholars, government officials, developers, environmentalists, and citizens interested in understanding and shaping the American metropolis.







Main Street Revisited


Book Description

As an archetype for an entire class of places, Main Street has become one of America's most popular and idealized images. In Main Street Revisited, the first book to place the design of small downtowns in spatial and chronological context, Richard Francaviglia finds the sources of romanticized images of this archetype, including Walt Disney's Main Street USA, in towns as diverse as Marceline, Missouri, and Fort Collins, Colorado. Francaviglia interprets Main Street both as a real place and as an expression of collective assumptions, designs, and myths; his Main Streets are treasure troves of historic patterns. Using many historical and contemporary photographs and maps for his extensive fieldwork and research, he reveals a rich regional pattern of small-town development that serves as the basis for American community design. He underscores the significance of time in the development of Main Street's distinctive personality, focuses on the importance of space in the creation of place, and concentrates on popular images that have enshrined Main Street in the collective American consciousness.




Cicero Revisited


Book Description

Strategically located seven miles west of Chicagos Loop, multifaceted Cicero is one of the oldest and largest municipalities in Illinois. In the late 19th century, this unique industrial suburb developed as an ethnic patchwork of self-sufficient immigrant neighborhoods. Since the Roaring Twenties, when mobster kingpin Al Capone set up shop there, the town has often been characterized by corruption and controversy. Yet the Cicero story continues to be full of promise and adventure, vision and accomplishment. As its population has shifted from heavily eastern European to predominantly Hispanic, Cicero remains a vibrant community where residents maintain strong civic pride, work ethic, and family values.




The American Environment Revisited


Book Description

This innovative book provides a dynamic—and often surprising—view of the range of environmental issues facing the United States today. A distinguished group of scholars examines the growing temporal, spatial, and thematic breadth of topics historical geographers are now exploring. Seventeen original chapters examine topics such as forest conservation, mining landscapes, urban environment justice, solid waste, exotic species, environmental photography, national and state park management, recreation and tourism, and pest control. Commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the seminal work The American Environment: Interpretations of Past Geographies, the book clearly shows much has changed since 1992. Indeed, not only has the range of issues expanded, but an increasing number of geographers are forging links with environmental historians, promoting a level of intellectual cross-fertilization that benefits both disciplines. As a result, environmental historical geographies today are richer and more diverse than ever. The American Environment Revisited offers a comprehensive overview that gives both specialist and general readers a fascinating look at our changing relationships with nature over time.




Blowing Rock Revisited


Book Description

Voted "the Prettiest Small Town in North Carolina" and often referred to as the Crown of the Blue Ridge, Blowing Rock is the highlight of the High Country. Named for a unique, natural feature itself, Blowing Rock has always represented a distinctive blend of natural and cultural heritage. The town was first developed as an early resort area, which grew quickly in the 1890s. Modern boardinghouses, hotels, and inns were the first significant businesses in Blowing Rock and helped the town survive--even flourish--during the Great Depression. Added attractions in the 1950s and 1960s made Blowing Rock a year-round vacation paradise for families, which it still is today. Yet the heart of Blowing Rock lies within its community and residents who make their small town a wonderful place to visit and an even better place to live.