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African Americans constitute one of the most interesting and dynamic components of the population of the United States. Unfortunately, an accurate assessment of their demographic characteristics is beset by inaccuracies in the underlying data. Using a novel strategy that combines record linkage and demographic/statistical analysis, the authors produce an internally consistent and robust set of estimates of the African-American population during the period 1930-1990. They interpret the record that emerges, with special reference to longevity trends and differentials. This work is of particular interest to demographers, sociologists and students of ethnic studies. ... Read more

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The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a growing interest in America's folk heritage, as Americans began to enthusiastically collect, present, market, and consume the nation's folk traditions. Examining one of this century's most prominent "folk revivals"—the reemergence of Southern Appalachian handicraft traditions in the 1930s—Jane Becker unravels the cultural politics that bound together a complex network of producers, reformers, government officials, industries, museums, urban markets, and consumers, all of whom helped to redefine Appalachian craft production in the context of a national cultural identity.

Becker uses this craft revival as a way of exploring the construction of the cultural categories "folk" and "tradition." She also addresses the consequences such labels have had on the people to whom they have been assigned. Though the revival of domestic arts in the Southern Appalachians reflected an attempt to aid the people of an impoverished region, she says, as well as a desire to recapture an important part of the nation's folk heritage, in reality the new craft production owed less to tradition than to middle-class tastes and consumer culture—forces that obscured the techniques used by mountain laborers and the conditions in which they worked. ... Read more

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The first collection in a two-volume set celebrating American crime fiction contains classic novels of the 1930s and 1940s, including The Postman Always Rings Twice, Thieves Like Us, Nightmare Alley, The Big Clock, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and I Married a Dead Man. "Amazon.com Review
Literature and film buffs will be delighted by this collectionof pulp novels, most of which were made into important films. JamesM. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice is a literarymasterpiece with its spare prose invoking a savage, sexy, desperateworld. It inspired no less than three great movies: Luchino Visconti'sclassic Ossessione, in1942; the 1946 remake,starring John Garfield and Lana Turner and directed by theextraordinary Tay Garnett; and Bob Rafelson's underrated 1981 version with JackNicholson and Jessica Lange. When you read the magnificent source forthese movies, you'll be astonished at how three different incarnationscould all, in their own ways, be faithful to the novel.

Cornell Woolrich's I Married a Dead Man also became threemovies: No Man of Her Own, with Barbara Stanwyk; the FrenchI Married a Shadow; and the American comedy, Mrs.Winterborne, which starred Shirley MacLaine and Ricki Lake.Edward Anderson's vivid Thieves Like Us was transformed intoThey Live by Night, Nicholas Ray's first important movie andone of the seminal noir films of the 1940s. It was brilliantly remadein 1974 by the great revisionist director Robert Altman. KennethFearing's The Big Clock was transformed into a marvelous film starring CharlesLaughton; 40 years later, the same source, retitled No Way Out,brought Kevin Costner to stardom. William Lindsay Gresham'sNightmare Alley was the source for Tyrone Power's best movie;Horace McCoy's experimental They Shoot Horses, Don't They?became one of the seminal films of the 1960s.

These dark, evocative novels, when taken together, are a fascinatingstudy of how words can inspire a magnificent variety of cinematicimages and styles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Human but immoral
The LOA volumes are special. They open flat, and have thin but durable paper, readable type and built-in bookmark. Included are writer bios, manuscript histories, and a glossary of archaic slang and topical references. These stories will be familiar to movie buffs; all have been filmed once and some more. I knew all, but that did not lessen the reading experience. Generally, the tales humanize immoral souls. I especially enjoyed the trickery of "The Big Clock," and though it started well, I found "Nightmare Alley" a bit of a slog. Other reviewers provide in-depth coverage of each title (some TOO detailed, in my opinion) so I won't repeat. This is a special treat for fans of the genre and worth the price.

Worth it just for Nightmare Alley
Nightmare Alley is, in my opinion, the best novel ever published in the English language. It's the story of the rise and fall of the magician and spiritualist Stan Carlisle. Aristotle would've liked it. It has a tragic reversal that beats Oedipus Rex. The prose writing is finely honed. William Lindsay Gresham doesn't waste a word. Nightmare Alley is frightening, mystical, satiric... it's more than everything you could hope for in a novel. I read that the author got the material for it while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway also covered that war, and how many books about the war did he milk out of it? Yet somehow William Gresham came out of it with a tale of an American carnival.

Crime Back When it Took Talent to Commit It
Excellent selection of fine writing about crime and vice - another winner provided us by the LOA. It's early era merely extends it's charm into a time past that's as vibrant as if it were set in the last decade, allowing us a nostalgic glimpse into our own literary birthright.

One, entitled "The Big Clock", is about the highly sophisticated and competitive world of big city publishing and involves a murder committed by it's top executive who is losing his ability to cope; a uniquely arranged set of chapters detailing the thoughts and actions of each player through their own individual eyes and each written in the "first person" which adds another layer of intrigue and dimension to it.An innocent man, fearing he will be the prime suspect, becomes enmeshed in an incredibly intricate plot trying to keep himself out of it, wading in deeper and deeper even though he has had nothing to do with the actual murder, but definitely has knowledge of certain of the events that will bring his family - that means his wife - into it which must be avoided at all costs.

In "Thieves Like Us",a gangof bank robbers is on the run through the Oklahoma countryside, living by their wits and for the day because tomorrow may never come; the doomed rampage is prolonged by the lack of law enforcement technology of the era.The visual image projected into the mind of the reader is vivid; of 1930's automobiles, dust and sweat, of desperate, reckless men who have nothing more to lose except their lives, which have never been good anyway - to them, for them or because of them.The old phrase of "Honor among the Thieves" becomes duly recognizable for a few chapters, as does the necessary bonding, and uneasy, false friendship that was tantamount to survival. This, due to it's very nature begins to unravel just when dependence upon one another is needed most; and the loser's urge to "do just one more job" to compensate for the money that seems to run through their fingers like sand through an hourglass overrides any thought process any of them may have had.It has it's anti-hero in one man who seems straight enough to maybe make it if he can just manage to split from his bad seed influences; but nothing can alter his headlong rush down the lonely path to perdition, taking the one lonely person who actually cares about him down with him. He has known nothing else; he has never been nurtured, never been taught the good lessons of life to offset the problems of it; he simply reacts to stimulus; the once child of clay has hardened to brittle nothingness.

Highly recommended for anyone enjoying mystery and suspense in it's finest form.

Splendid Read
This collection of novels from the 30s and 40s was terrific fun and an outstanding introduction to the genre.You can debate whether they're all noir (at least what I expected noir to be); but nonetheless they each convey a distinct impression and view of the time.Without getting into lengthy reviews, I enjoyed Woolrich's "I Married a Dead Man" the most--from his eloquent style to the actual story-line.You know you're reading a master story-teller.Second was Gresham's "Nightmare Alley;" although sometimes I thought he could have expanded on some aspects of the story and shortened other passages (i.e., a little bit of editing would help).But each novel was distinct and enjoyable.Highly recommended.

Thank God for the 1930's and 1940's/
First of all, the Library Of America collection provides the reader with some of the most beautiful hardcover editions available today.That said, the selections chosesn for this edition are all first class; for someone just getting into hard-boiled fiction, this is the ideal place to start.If you're like me and have been reading this genre for many years, this is a perfect volume to add to one's collection. ... Read more

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Most historical studies bury us in wars and politics, paying scant attention to the everyday effects of pop culture. Welcome to America's other history--the arts, activities, common items, and popular opinions that profoundly impacted our national way of life. The twelve narrative chapters in this volume provide a textured look at everyday life, youth, and the many different sides of American culture during the 1930s. Additional resources include a cost comparison of common goods and services, a timeline of important events, notes arranged by chapter, an extensive bibliography for further reading, and a subject index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Non-profound but interest-holding
This is a volume in the series "American Popular Culture Through History."It discusses some dozen topics as reflected by the 1930s, such as Adverising, Fashion, Food and Drink, etc.There is nothing about history except as it relates to the topics discussed.Having been a farm boy in that decade not much of what the authors talk about resonated especially with me, though I do not dispute any of the conclusions which the authors come to. It is a pleasant book but not very erudite, though obviously there was a lot of research done: the 24 page bibliography demonstates that. ... Read more

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A groundbreaking anthology that will incite a major reappraisal of the role of women playwrights in the creation of modern drama, Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s offers English-language readers and performers a first-ever sampling of once-prominent plays by women from around the world. Featured are twelve plays by women from the Americas, Europe, and Asia, spanning a national and stylistic range from Swedish realism to Russian symbolism. Six of these plays are appearing in their first English-language translation. Playwrights and plays include: * Anne-Charlotte Leffler Edgren, True Women, (Sweden) * Amelia Pincherle Rosselli, Her Soul, (Italy) * Elsa Bernstein, Maria Arndt, (Germany) * Elizabeth Robins, Votes for Women, (Britain) * Marie Leneru, Woman Triumphant, (France) * Alfonsina Storni, Master of the World, (Argentina) * Hella Wuolijoki, Hulda Juurakko, (Finland) * Hasegawa Shigure, Wayward Traces, (Japan) * Rachilde, Crystal Spider, (France) * Zinaida Gippius, Sacred Blood, (Russia) * Djuna Barnes, The Dove, (USA) * Marita Bonner, The Purple Flower, (USA)

These playwrights represent the New Woman -- herself, her relationships, her crises -- in all of the styles and genres available to the modern dramatist. Unprecedented in diversity and scope, Modern Drama by Women is a collection which no scholar, student, or lover of modern drama can afford to miss.

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Men and Women of the 1930s is an original and challenging critique of the issues of memory and gender during this trying decade.Montefiore asks two principle questions; what part does memory play in the political literature of and about 1930s Britain?And what were the roles of women, both as writers and as signifying objects in constructing that literature? Montefiore's topical analysis of 1930s mass unemployment, fascist uprise and 'appeasement' is shockingly relevant in society today. Issues of class, anti-fascist historical novels, post war memoirs of 'Auden generation' writers and neglected women poets are discussed at length and help explain how we understand and imagine history through literature.

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Bridging African and Arab histories, this book examines the relationship between Islam, nationalism and the evolution of identity politics from late 19^th Century to World War II. It provides a cross-national, cross-regional analysis of religious reform, nationalism, anti-colonialism and the intellectual and political networks between Zanzibar, Oman, Algeria, Egypt, Istanbul and the Levant. ... Read more

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An examination of the settlement history of the alluvial bottomlands of the lower Mississippi Valley from 1880 to 1930, this study details how cotton-growers transformed the swamplands of northwestern Mississippi, northeastern Louisiana, northeastern Arkansas, and southern Missouri into cotton fields. Although these alluvial bottomlands contained the richest cotton soils in the American South, cotton-growers in the Southern bottomlands faced a host of environmental problems, including dense forests, seasonal floods, water-logged soils, poor transportation, malarial fevers and insect pests. This interdisciplinary approach uses primary and secondary sources from the fields of history, geography, sociology, agronomy, and ecology to fill an important gap in our knowledge of American environmental history. ... Read more

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On the evening of May 16, 1937, the train doors opened at the Porte Dorée station in the Paris Métro to reveal a dying woman slumped by a window, an eight-inch stiletto buried to its hilt in her neck. No one witnessed the crime, and the killer left behind little forensic evidence. This first-ever murder in the Paris Métro dominated the headlines for weeks during the summer of 1937, as journalists and the police slowly uncovered the shocking truth about the victim: a twenty-nine-year-old Italian immigrant, the beautiful and elusive Laetitia Toureaux. Toureaux toiled each day in a factory, but spent her nights working as a spy in the seamy Parisian underworld. Just as the dangerous spy Mata Hari fascinated Parisians of an earlier generation, the mystery of Toureaux's murder held the French public spellbound in pre-war Paris, as the police tried and failed to identify her assassin.

In Murder in the Métro, Gayle K. Brunelle and Annette Finley-Croswhite unravel Toureaux's complicated and mysterious life, assessing her complex identity within the larger political context of the time. They follow the trail of Toureaux's murder investigation to the Comité Secret d'Action Révolutionnaire, a secret right-wing political organization popularly known as the Cagoule, or "hooded ones." Obsessed with the Communist threat they perceived in the growing power of labor unions and the French left wing, the Cagoule's leaders aimed to overthrow France's Third Republic and install an authoritarian regime allied with Italy. With Mussolini as their ally and Italian fascism as their model, they did not shrink from committing violent crimes and fomenting terror to accomplish their goal. In 1936, Toureaux--at the behest of the French police--infiltrated this dangerous group of terrorists and seduced one of its leaders, Gabriel Jeantet, to gain more information. This operation, the authors show, eventually cost Toureaux her life.

The tale of Laetitia Toureaux epitomizes the turbulence of 1930s France, as the country prepared for a war most people dreaded but assumed would come. This period, therefore, generated great anxiety but also offered new opportunities--and risks--to Toureaux as she embraced the identity of a "modern" woman. The authors unravel her murder as they detail her story and that of the Cagoule, within the popular culture and conflicted politics of 1930s France.

By examining documents related to Toureaux's murder--documents the French government has sealed from public view until 2038--Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite link Toureaux's death not only to the Cagoule but also to the Italian secret service, for whom she acted as an informant. Their research provides likely answers to the question of the identity of Toureaux's murderer and offers a fascinating look at the dark and dangerous streets of pre-World War II Paris. ... Read more

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The only major U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only railroad built from west to east, the Southern Pacific acquired a unique history and character. It also acquired a reputation, especially in California, as a railroad that people loved to hate. This magisterial history tells the full story of the Southern Pacific for the first time, shattering myths about the company that have prevailed to this day. A landmark account, Sunset Limited explores the railroad's development and influence--especially as it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment--and offers a new perspective on the tremendous, often surprising, role the company played in shaping the American West.
Based on his unprecedented and extensive research into the company's historical archives, Richard Orsi finds that, contrary to conventional understanding, the Southern Pacific Company identified its corporate well-being with population growth and social and economic development in the railroad's hinterland. As he traces the complex and shifting intersections between corporate and public interest, Orsi documents the railroad's little-known promotion of land distribution, small-scale farming, scientific agriculture, and less wasteful environmental practices and policies--including water conservation and wilderness and recreational parklands preservation.
Meticulously researched, lucidly written, and judiciously balanced, Sunset Limited opens a new window onto the American West in a crucial phase of its development and will forever change our perceptions of one of the largest and most important western corporations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fascinating look at the Southern Pacific's non-railroad activities
This is a wonderful railroad history, that actually has little to do with the railroad.As (eventually) a large landowner from land grants, and greatly dependent on the success of its farmer customers, the railroad was forced to take an active interest in the stewardship of the West's resources, at a time when government was either unwilling or unable to do much.Massively researched, evidently over a long period of years (there are 177 pages of notes),Orsi shows how the railroad did a lot to develop the West without destroying its resources.Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, and Lake Tahoe, owe much of their current beauty and protected status to the efforts of the railroad and its managers.A lawsuit pushed by the SP ended hydraulic mining (which was burying farmland below under barren gravel).It sold its land to farmers on very easy terms (better than the government's terms), with the its land divided up to form viable farms.The railroad did much to establish and organize water supplies in its (mostly) arid territory, it organized stock trails so stockmen could get their herds to market, and it helped establish the first forest fire fighting services.Orsi also takes a long look at the Mussel Slough Affair, showing that it was an organized attempt by squatters to steal land.The judge who ordered theevictions of these thieves was incidentally the same one who ended hydraulic mining in California, and the SP's local land agent later lobbied in Washington to get the first Yosemite and Seqouia Parks bill passed.So many charter members of John Muir's Sierra Club were railroad officials that some feared the organization was contaminated.
Well written, the book is a tremendously interesting look at how the railroad established the West, for its own benefit of course but also in awareness of the responsibility to maintain the West's resources.Highly recommended.

The Rise and Fall of the Southernpacific
The Sunset Limited is a fitting name for this book. Of course it's the name of the flagship train of the Southern Pacific that ran between New Orleans and Los Angeles. It's also fitting because sunset came to the Southern Pacific and ended its identity - although most of its trackage is still being operated by the successor Union Pacific.

The story of railroading in the United States is the story of little railroads getting started to serve some particular market and thendozens to hundreds of theae smaller roads eventually being bought or merged together. The Southern Pacific started and ended exactly this way.

This book is an excellent telling of the story of the Southern Pacific from it's beginning as a bunch of small independents through its glory years as one of the major railroads in the country down to its inglorious years.The only real surprise in the book is the benevolent attitude towards the company compared with the writing of many who condemed for a variety of evils.

Orsi Gets it Right
As an historian said about this book; "It should be required reading for those interested in the West, the environment and business". Indeed it should. Because more than just blowing away all the dis-information that the Southern Pacific suffered from for decades (and contributed to its collapse), this book provides excellent case studies of how industry, government, NGO's, and the Press cooperated on solving complex and politically charged problems. In fact it was amazing to me to see how well and patiently these disparate groups worked with each other. Much more so than today.There is a lesson here.

Not for Model Railroaders
Orsi has written an extensive history of the SP that I found informative and interesting from the viewpoint of a historian. I was looking for help/insight in my planning of a model railroad centered around the Southern Pacific and quickly discovered I was looking in the wrong place.
Fortunately one of my other hobbies is History, and Orsi came through for me in that respect. His research was quite extensive and his access to the SP records uncovered much that I had never read or heard about previously.
What caused me to rate this book at 3 stars instead of 4 0r 5 was Orsi's tendency to repeat events in different chapters. I found myself frequently going back to an earlier chapter to verify I had read the information eariler.
History buffs, particularlly those interested in California History will find this a good read. Model railroaders that are looking for specific information should probably look elsewhere.

All Hail the S & P!
This actually could have been a three star review, but I have to give credit to the thuroughness of the scholarship, the excellent photographs and the superb 200+ end notes, which are a mini-book in themselves.

Orsi's book is "revisionist" if it is proper to call a thesis that glorifies a massive American corporation "revisionist".I suppose that it qualifies if one is taking the scholarship of major American and French universities from the sixties onward as the standard.

Simply put, Orsi's goal is to set the record straight about the Southern Pacific.No "Octopus" in his eyes, the Southern Pacific was an important innovator in the area of agriculture, conservation and scientific forestry.Indeed, without the Southern Pacific, California and the west as we know it would not have been possible.

Aside from rewriting bits of history from the railroad's perspective, Orsi's main scholarly contribution is his access to the Southern Pacific's own corporate records.Certainly this is an approach that gives a more complicated picture of the corporations motives and morals then the simplistic "Octopus" portrait of Frank Norris.

Orsi also has access to better statistics then scholars operating in the past had (i.e. the railroad's internal statistics), so that allows him to fairly castigate those who have painted an unrealistic portrait of, say, the size of the Southern Pacific's land grants.

Although I am sympathetic to his attempt to rehabilitate the image of the Southern Pacific, I found some of the assertions regarding the tremendous difficulties the S & P had in carrying out its good intentions hard to take.If one was to rely on Orsi's book as one's only source, you might believe that the Southern Pacific was a money losing venture, operated out of sheer philanthropy of the "Big Four".

I'm serious about that comment: There is no mention about the tremendous personal fortunes of Stanford, Huntington and Co., let alone any discussion of the profit of the railroad as a whole.On the other hand, Orsi goes out of his way to demonstrate expenditures the railroad made in support of the common good.

Of course, I can hear the authorial response: Everyone already knows about the money that was made, I'm trying to fill in the stuff that everyone doesn't know.

Still, one example: The S & P operated the Pacific Land Company, which operated at the behest of the Big Four by subdividing land for sale.Orsi says that there wasn't any record of how much money that Land Company made and says it's impossible to even determine how the land and profit was accounted for within the S & P.Is that so? I find it curious, as I found the curious the almost complete lack of (positive) financial data.

On the whole, I thought Orsi does a great job. However, I would have liked more balance, even if he is writing this book to even the score. ... Read more

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There is an increasing demand for a textbook which will bring the student into direct contact with the great current issues of American life, and which will afford practical training to those who soon must grapple with the economic, social, and political problems of our own time. It is with the hope of meeting such a demand that this text has been prepared.

The plan of the book calls for a word of explanation. It is poor pedagogy to expect the student to attack the defects of American life, and at the same time to place in his hands a book which deals predominantly with the mechanism of government. As well send a boy to a hardware store to buy tools before he is told whether he is to make a mouse-trap or a boat. Furthermore, to spend much more time on the mechanism of government than on the actual problems of democracy is a mistake in emphasis. Government is a means, not an end. It is a tool by means of which we attack and solve our problems.

Therefore the student of this text begins, not with the mechanism of government, but with the historical background of American democracy, its origin, development, and promise for the future. Following this is a brief survey of the economic life of the nation, because that economic life constitutes the fundamental basis of our problems. Considerable space has been devoted to a problem growing directly out of economic conditions, _i.e._ the question of social justice or industrial reform. This is the most pressing question before any modern people, but strangely enough one which heretofore has been neglected by our schools.

Because they tend to arise primarily from a bad economic situation, such social problems as industrial relations, health in industry, and immigration are next considered. From social problems the text passes to the economic and social functions of government, and thence to the question of making government effective. The mechanism of government has been placed last, and for the reason already given, _i.e._ because a knowledge of the framework of government is valuable only after the citizen knows something of the needs which that mechanism must be made to fill.




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I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking--with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking but more particularly with the overwhelming majority who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be. I recognize that the many proclamations from state capitols and from Washington, the legislation, the treasury regulations, etc., couched for the most part in banking and legal terms should be explained for the benefit of the average citizen. I owe this in particular because of the fortitude and good temper with which everybody has accepted the inconvenience and hardships of the banking holiday. I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and help during the past week.

First of all let me state the simple fact that when you deposit money in a bank the bank does not put the money into a safe deposit vault. It invests your money in many different forms of credit-- bonds, commercial paper, mortgages and many other kinds of loans. In other words, the bank puts your money to work to keep the wheels of industry and of agriculture turning around. A comparatively small part of the money you put into the bank is kept in currency-- an amount which in normal times is wholly sufficient to cover the cash needs of the average citizen. In other words, the total amount of all the currency in the country is only a small fraction of the total deposits in all of the banks.

What, then, happened during the last few days of February and the first few days of March? Because of undermined confidence on the part of the public, there was a general rush by a large portion of our population to turn bank deposits into currency or gold--a rush so great that the soundest banks could not get enough currency to meet the demand. The reason for this was that on the spur of the moment it was, of course, impossible to sell perfectly sound assets of a bank and convert them into cash except at panic prices far below their real value.

By the afternoon of March 3d scarcely a bank in the country was open to do business. Proclamations temporarily closing them in whole or in part had been issued by the governors in almost all the states.


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The substance of the following volume was delivered in the form of lectures in the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh during Session 1904-5. As "Alexander Robertson" lecturer in the University of Glasgow, the writer dealt with the new religious ideas that have been impressing themselves upon India during the British period of her history. As "Gunning" lecturer in the University of Edinburgh, the writer dwelt more upon the new social and political ideas. The popular belief of Hindu India is, that there are no new ideas in India, that nought in India suffers change, and that as things are, so they have always been. Even educated Indians are reluctant to admit that things have changed and that their community has had to submit to education and improvement--that suttee, for example, was ever an honoured institution in the province now most advanced. But to the observant student of the Indian people, the _evolution_ of India is almost as noteworthy as the more apparent rigidity. There is a flowering plant common in Northern India, and chiefly notable for the marvel of bearing flowers of different colours upon the same root. The Hindus call it "the sport of Krishna"; Mahomedans, "the flower of Abbas"; for the plant is now incorporate with both the great religions of India, and even with their far-back beginnings. Yet it is a comparatively recent importation into India; it is only the flower known in Britain as "the marvel of Peru," and cannot have been introduced into India more than three hundred years ago. It was then that the Portuguese of India and the Spaniards of Peru were first in touch within the home lands in Europe. In our own day may be seen the potato and the cauliflower from Europe establishing themselves upon the dietary of Hindus in defiance of the punctiliously orthodox. _A fortiori_--strange that we should reason thus from the trifling to the fundamental, yet not strange to the Anglo-Indian and the Indian,--_a fortiori_, we shall not be surprised to find novel and alien ideas taking root in Indian soil.

Seeds, we are told, may be transported to a new soil, either wind-borne or water-borne, carried in the stomachs of birds, or clinging by their burs to the fur of animals. In the cocoa-nut, botanists point out, the cocoa-nut palms possess a most serviceable ark wherein the seed may be floated in safety over the sea to other shores. It is thus that the cocoa-nut palm is one of the first of the larger plants to show themselves upon a new coral reef or a bare volcano-born island. Into India itself, it is declared, the cocoa-nut tree has thus come over-sea, nor is yet found growing freely much farther than seventy miles from the shore. One of the chief interests of the subject before us is that the seeds of the new ideas in India during the past century are so clearly water-borne. They are the outcome of British influence, direct or indirect.

Here are true test and evidence of the character of British influence and effort, if we can distil from modern India some of the new ideas prevailing, particularly in the new middle class. Where shall we find evidence reliable of what British influence has been? Government Reports, largely statistical, of "The Moral and Material Progress of India," are so far serviceable, but only as _crude_ material from which the answer is to be distilled. Members of the Indian Civil Service, and others belonging to the British Government of India, may volunteer as expert witnesses regarding British influence, but they are interested parties; they really stand with others at the bar. The testimony of the missionary is not infrequently heard, less exactly informed, perhaps, than the Civil Servant's, but more sympathetic.



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The traveller from the Old World, who has a few weeks at his disposal for a visit to the United States, usually passes straight from one to another of our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Washington, or Chicago, stopping for a day or two perhaps at Niagara Falls,--or, perhaps, after traversing a distance like that which separates England from Mesopotamia, reaches the vast table-lands of the Far West and inspects their interesting fauna of antelopes and buffaloes, red Indians and Mormons. In a journey of this sort one gets a very superficial view of the peculiarities, physical and social, which characterize the different portions of our country; and in this there is nothing to complain of, since the knowledge gained in a vacation-journey cannot well be expected to be thorough or profound. The traveller, however, who should visit the United States in a more leisurely way, with the purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, would find it well to proceed somewhat differently. He would find himself richly repaid for a sojourn in some insignificant place the very name of which is unknown beyond sea,--just as Mr. Mackenzie Wallace--whose book on Russia is a model of what such books should be--got so much invaluable experience from his months of voluntary exile at Ivanofka in the province of Novgorod. Out of the innumerable places which one might visit in America, there are none which would better reward such careful observation, or which are more full of interest for the comparative historian, than the rural towns and mountain villages of New England; that part of English America which is oldest in civilization (though not in actual date of settlement), and which, while most completely English in blood and in traditions, is at the same time most completely American in so far as it has most distinctly illustrated and most successfully represented those political ideas which have given to American history its chief significance in the general work of civilization.

The United States are not unfrequently spoken of as a "new country," in terms which would be appropriate if applied to Australia or New Zealand, and which are not inappropriate as applied to the vast region west of the Mississippi River, where the white man had hardly set foot before the beginning of the present century. New England, however, has a history which carries us back to the times of James I.; and while its cities are full of such bustling modern life as one sees in Liverpool or Manchester or Glasgow, its rural towns show us much that is old-fashioned in aspect,--much that one can approach in an antiquarian spirit. We are there introduced to a phase of social life which is highly interesting on its own account and which has played an important part in the world, yet which, if not actually passing away, is at least becoming so rapidly modified as to afford a theme for grave reflections to those who have learned how to appreciate its value. As any far-reaching change in the condition of landed property in England, due to agricultural causes, might seriously affect the position of one of the noblest and most useful aristocracies that has ever existed; so, on the other hand, as we consider the possible action of similar causes upon the _personnel_ and upon the occupations of rural New England, we are unwillingly forced to contemplate the possibility of a deterioration in the character of the most perfect democracy the world has ever seen.


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Since the third edition of the present work issued from the press, the nineteenth century has run its course and finished its record. A new era has dawned, not by chronological prescription alone, but to the vital sense of humanity. Novel thoughts are rife; fresh impulses stir the nations; the soughing of the wind of progress strikes every ear. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A superb resource
Relevant today as 100 years ago when this edition was first published.
Astrophysics described from its infancy. ... Read more

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his Henry Hutson left the Texel on the 6th of April, 1609, doubled the Cape of Norway the 5th of May, and directed his course along the northern coasts towards Nova Zembia; but he there found the sea as full of ice as he had found it in the preceding year, so that they lost the hope of effecting anything during the season. This circumstance, and the cold, which some of his men, who had been in the East Indies, could not bear, caused quarrels among the crew, they being partly English, partly Dutch, upon which Captain Hutson laid before them two propositions. The first of these was to go to the coast of America, to the latitude of 40 degrees, moved thereto mostly by letters and maps which a certain Captain Smith had sent him from Virginia, and by which he indicated to him a sea leading into the western ocean, by the north of the southern English colony. Had this information been true (experience goes as yet to the contrary), it would have been of great advantage, as indicating a short way to India. The other proposition was to direct their search through Davis's Straits. This meeting with general approval, they sailed thitherward on the 14th of May, and arrived on the last day of May with a good wind at the Faroe Islands, where they stopped but twenty-four hours, to supply themselves with fresh water. After leaving these islands, they sailed on, till on the 18th of July they reached the coast of Nova Francia, under 44 degrees, where they were obliged to run in, in order to get a new foremast, having lost theirs. They found one, and set it up.

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Excellent rare photographs of the Great Depression Era. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Why Buy This
If you bought this book you just wasted your 5 dollars you could have spent on another book. Which just did about half an hour ago. Anyway I heard from another website that the author just took these pictures from another website. So stupid./

Save your money
This is a dozen of the pictures all taken off of the Library of Congress web site that you can view for free online. Not sure why Karen Peebles thought the world needed her to put these few pictures up for the Kindle but it is not worth your time in my opinion.

EDIT: Feb 2010 - Karen Peebles is now showing author as "The Editors", however, a search for Kindle or the paper books under Karen Peebles still shows the slew of questionable quality material she is publishing here on Amazon under her name still. Look at these reviews for what I am referring to as an example:
The Complete Book of Knitting Stitches
How To Solve The Rubik's Cube 3X3X3, The 4X4X4, And The 5X5X5
Crack It! The Rubik's Professor's 5x5x5 Cube Solution

I hope readers who download or buy any of her material that they are less than happy with will continue to post their reviews to help readers double think what she has been offering for sale.Also note the high prices attached to her material vs what is the subject matter. There is a trend for charging huge amounts for narrow subject matter. ... Read more

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I know. Earth's mercantile policies and so forth, said Lindgren. He fancies himself a student of interplanetary history. This has led to quite a few arguments since Amspaugh, who teaches in that field, joined the Club. Mostly they're good. I went to the bar and got myself another drink, listening as the mine owner's big voice went on:
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