finally finished 1908 (took long enough!)
Feb. 19th, 2008 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellboyI finally finished America 1908. It really should of taken me less time. I would sit in a hot bath, start reading, then fall asleep.
If you are into a bit of Americana, and how the author weaves small unimportant newspaper headlines and stories with the big picture it is interesting. The author feels, and I agree, that 1908 was probably one of the most pivotal years in US history. As in 2008, there was a change in attitudes, both political and social. And of course that yr paved the way for technical invention beyond mans dreams. I was close to my grandmother, who was born in 1889 and lived with a sound mind to the age of 102. She told me stories of her time growing up. It seems to mirror so much from this book.
Some interesting things that are mentioned in the book struck me
1. Although the first to innovate the auto industry, Henry Ford was antisemitic. In fact many Jews boycotted Ford products, and purchased Buick, Chevrolets for years to come, and to this day.
2.Interestingly, many writings from immigrants arriving into New York harbor mention, that it was not the Statue of Liberty that was first seen, but the glowing and fantastical lights of Coney Island. This land of make believe was important in giving the immigrant and lower and middle class, the first glimpse of fantasy, and of the future, which for many, in time, became a reality.
3. Kitty Hawk, although an important location for the Wright Brothers 3 minute flight, it was Wilbur Wrights contracted time in France, that year, where his repetitive flights for the public finally succeeded in his breaking the record for the flight of a 90 mile distance.
4. The riots of Springfield, Lincoln's home town, and in Chicago that year, was the impetus for the creation of a small group of men, that would later evolve into the NAACP.
5. The Progressive movement of the time, although in one sense, Victorian in the ideas of sexuality, was the foundation of many ideas of civil rights and the creation of regulations with regards to occupational safety and working standards.
6. This was also, even though still years before womens Suffragettes, a time of changing thoughts of human sexuality. Physiologists were now beginning to study and question human sexuality with a passion.
7. To this day, no one for sure knows if Cook or Peary were the first to reach the North Pole. Due to lack of proper record keeping, and the confusion of the geography with the added effect of the bending of time and space.... no one really knows for sure.
8. My next book: The Alchemist - "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation."
If you are into a bit of Americana, and how the author weaves small unimportant newspaper headlines and stories with the big picture it is interesting. The author feels, and I agree, that 1908 was probably one of the most pivotal years in US history. As in 2008, there was a change in attitudes, both political and social. And of course that yr paved the way for technical invention beyond mans dreams. I was close to my grandmother, who was born in 1889 and lived with a sound mind to the age of 102. She told me stories of her time growing up. It seems to mirror so much from this book.
Some interesting things that are mentioned in the book struck me
1. Although the first to innovate the auto industry, Henry Ford was antisemitic. In fact many Jews boycotted Ford products, and purchased Buick, Chevrolets for years to come, and to this day.
2.Interestingly, many writings from immigrants arriving into New York harbor mention, that it was not the Statue of Liberty that was first seen, but the glowing and fantastical lights of Coney Island. This land of make believe was important in giving the immigrant and lower and middle class, the first glimpse of fantasy, and of the future, which for many, in time, became a reality.
3. Kitty Hawk, although an important location for the Wright Brothers 3 minute flight, it was Wilbur Wrights contracted time in France, that year, where his repetitive flights for the public finally succeeded in his breaking the record for the flight of a 90 mile distance.
4. The riots of Springfield, Lincoln's home town, and in Chicago that year, was the impetus for the creation of a small group of men, that would later evolve into the NAACP.
5. The Progressive movement of the time, although in one sense, Victorian in the ideas of sexuality, was the foundation of many ideas of civil rights and the creation of regulations with regards to occupational safety and working standards.
6. This was also, even though still years before womens Suffragettes, a time of changing thoughts of human sexuality. Physiologists were now beginning to study and question human sexuality with a passion.
7. To this day, no one for sure knows if Cook or Peary were the first to reach the North Pole. Due to lack of proper record keeping, and the confusion of the geography with the added effect of the bending of time and space.... no one really knows for sure.
8. My next book: The Alchemist - "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation."
