Midwest Books - Page 2

Wisconsin Death Trip

Michael Lesy

List Price: $12.95 By: Pantheon Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> United States -> Other
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Midwest

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

American Gothic Death Rattle 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I read this book over 16 years ago. It left a lasting impression that will stay with me forever. It may not have the same affect on others but reading some of the reviews posted here, I know that it has on most. You can't really ask somebody "did this really happen?" becuase they either died then or in the 100 years that have past. We have no perspective on these people, places and times other than to read books like this. If any of these folks were alive today and heard someone say, "those were the good old days." They might be inclined to give the speaker a quick education. This book will do it for them. I have pictures just like this in a family archive. You wonder how anybody lived into middle or old age. Disease, starvation, hypothermia, and farm accidents all took their toll. Winters are hard enough in the south. Why did these people decide to stop the wagon in Wisconsin or if they lived thru their first winter there, why didn't they head south? I went to a Brewers baseball game at the end of May some 25 years ago and wore a down parka and was cold. You can still see houses in small towns outside of Milwaukee that look like the houses in this book and you can feel the desolation, pain and suffering looking out at you thru 100 year old panes of glass.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1973, this remarkable book about life in a small turn-of-the-century Wisconsin town has become a cult classic. Lesy has collected and arranged photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 by a Black River Falls photographer, Charles Van Schaik.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio : How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less

Terry Ryan

List Price: $24.00 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 102 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 123 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s.

Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. Mom's winning ways defied the Church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to securing a happy home for her six sons and four daughters. Evelyn, who would surely be a Madison Avenue executive if she were working today, composed her jingles not in the boardroom, but at the ironing board.

By entering contests wherever she found them -- TV, radio, newspapers, direct-mail ads -- Evelyn Ryan was able to win every appliance her family ever owned, not to mention cars, television sets, bicycles, watches, a jukebox, and even trips to New York, Dallas, and Switzerland. But it wasn't just the winning that was miraculous; it was the timing. If a toaster died, one was sure to arrive in the mail from a forgotten contest. Days after the bank called in the second mortgage on the house, a call came from the Dr Pepper company: Evelyn was the grand-prize winner in its national contest -- and had won enough to pay the bank.

Graced with a rare appreciation for life's inherent hilarity, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for fun and profit. From her frenetic supermarket shopping spree -- worth $3,000 today -- to her clever entries worthy of Erma Bombeck, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash, the story of this irrepressible woman whose talents reached far beyond her formidable verbal skills is told in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio with an infectious joy that shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.

Chicago Then and Now (Then & Now)

Elizabeth McNulty

Amazon Price: $15.66 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thunder Bay Press Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $2.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> United States -> Midwest
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> United States -> West

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

flawed but fun Chicago historical pictorial 3 out of 5 stars.
26 of 27 people found this review helpful.

I have several of these "then and now" books, and I would say this is the weakest of the bunch. I dearly love Chicago, and some of the old photographs were very interesting, but the book has a few problems. First, the photographic perspectives are rarely in synch, so it is difficult to compare the two pictures directly; either the angle is off to the side, or it's at a different distance. This seems rather to defeat the purpose of a "then and now" theme, which is to facilitate comparison. Secondly, a great many of the buildings and scenes are virtually identical to what they were, so one wonders why they were included. Finally, a map should have been included.

On the positive side, many of Chicago's key spots are targeted, such as the Water Tower, the stockyards and Hull House, and the paragraphs that accompany each picture do convey a lot of interesting information.

If you are interested in Chicago or urban history you will undoubtedly still enjoy this volume, but lower your expectations a bit before the book arrives so you won't be disappointed.

Editorial Review:

The latest installment in the popular Then and Now series showcases the capital of the Heartland and one of the premier cities in the nation and the world: Chicago. Chicago's change and growth over the last century is captured in this photographic history. Modern color photos sit side by side with black and white archival photographs. Every important building, avenue, neighborhood, and point of interest is documented. It covers all of Chicago's landmarks from Navy Pier to the Stockyards and from the Southside all the way up the Magnificent Mile. Take in a game at Wrigley Field, then take it all in from the top of the Sear's Tower. The Water Tower and all the other architectural features that make Chicago great are also included.

City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America

Donald L. Miller

List Price: $35.00 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $5.40

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Illinois
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Midwest

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Now I Know Why Chicago is Chicago! 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 23 people found this review helpful.

Donald L. Miller's "City of the Century" is one of the best books of its genre. The book has the sweep of a novel with the detail of an exegesis. Miller's forte is the taking of several historical characters and weaving the truth of their lives into the fabric of the history he would have us read. And in "City", he has excelled at his own methodology.

We are introduced to those who settled the "City" and become close to those who not only grew Chicago but soon after it had reached new heights in the 19th century were faced with the destruction by fire of most of what had been built. And we learn that they were not daunted by this monumental task of re-building the "City". And reading the gripping description of the ruins, we are yet elated by the notion that Chicago is not finished. In less than a decade Chicago rose from the ashes -- to become by the end of the century on of America's greatest cities.

Dr. Miller takes us through the whole of Chicago's century of growth, destruction, and rebirth never losing command of the many threads that made the final fabric. And in the telling of Chicago's story we also learn much about the America that contributed its people and its wealth, along with their hopes and dreams to making the "City of the Century".

Read this book and you will agree that the only thing lacking is a volume two depicting the continuing evolution of Chicago through the 20th century.

Editorial Review:

A compelling chronicle of the coming of the Industrial Age to one American city traces the explosive entrepreneurial, technological, and artistic growth that converted Chicago from a trading post to a modern industrial metropolis by the 1890s. 20,000 first printing.

Nuer Journeys, Nuer Lives: Sudanese Refugees in Minnesota (Part of the New Immigrants Series) (New Immigrants)

Jon D. Holtzman, Nancy Foner

Amazon Price: $30.60 List Price: $30.60 Usually ships in 7 to 12 days By: Allyn & Bacon Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $0.02

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Midwest
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Law -> Administrative Law -> Emigration & Immigration

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book examines contemporary migration to the United States through a surprising and compelling case study the Nuer of Sudan, whose traditional life represents one of the most important case studies in the history of anthropology. In understanding the experiences of the Nuer, readers will not only gain insights into the world of the refugee problem and the role of immigration in the Unites States, they will also learn about the features of Nuer life which are considered a standard part of the anthropology curriculum. The book juxtaposes elements of Nuer culture which are well-known within anthropology and featured in most anthropology textbooks with new developments arising from the immigration of many other Nuer to the U.S. in the 1990s as refugees from civil war in southern Sudan. Consequently, this book will fit well within existing anthropology curricula, while providing an important update on descriptions of traditional life. In addition to fascinating vignettes and case studies, this book provides an opportunity to examine issues of current importance within anthropology, such as social change, transnationalism, displacement, and diaspora in a way which is easy to understand and through a familiar example. For anyone interested in cultural anthropology, race, and ethnicity.

A Sorrow in Our Heart

Allan Eckert

List Price: $27.50 By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $0.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Tecumseh
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fair Warning 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Straight up front I'll admit I'm a quitter. With grim determination I made it to page 55 and there, gentle readers, I had had it. I couldn't go any farther. I just couldn't. But then, one doesn't need to drink the whole glass to know if the milk is sour.

Maybe the tipping point lay in having reason several Francis Parkman's works ("The Frances Parkman Reader", the volumns on Pontiac, "Montcalm and Wolfe") before starting this thing. It was this book breaker.

Usually in re: to a one or two star book I'll say, "If you can get it at a yard sale, or real cheap, or someone give it to you, go ahead and read it." But not this one, brother. Your's truly got it real cheap and...well, and I'm writting this review.

What wrong with this book? For one thing, the preface is something like 34 pages long! Good grief. And when several other reviewers said this book as written like a novel, take it from me -- they weren't kidding. But, heck, I knew that going in and made allowances for it. But nothing could prepare me for early-era Political Correctness/New Age tone of this thing.

The yellow flags went up when I read the opening quote (supposedly by Tecumseh's elder brother) chosen by the author which read, in part,

'...The white man seeks to conquer nature, to bend it to his will and to use it wastefully until it is goneand then he simply moves one, leaving the waste behind him...The whole white race is a monster...'

I thought: Uh-Oh. According to this "story" the red Indianas -- particularly the Shawnee -- were the beau sauvages, the enfants de nature, of the sixities: the 1960s and the 1760s. The white man, particular the British, were the snake in this Garden of Eden. The Great Spirit, surprise surprise, is refered to as a woman. ("The Great Spirit watched over her Indian children...") The men tall and handsome, the women loving and lovely, the elders calm and wise, the children serious yet happy. The whites, esp. the British, insensitive brutes. Shades of being oh-so politically correct!

This sort of view might have been the bee's knees in the late 1980s- early 1990s but today it is 18th c. romantism at best, teeth-gritting at worst. The red Indians in this book are painted in a very different manner than can be found in Parkman, and a good many others.

Editorial Review:

A biography of the famous Shawnee describes Tecumseh's plan to amalgamate all North American tribes into one people, his role as statesman and military strategist, and his death in the Battle of Thames. 35,500 first printing.

Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans

T.R. Fehrenbach

Amazon Price: $18.46 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $12.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Midwest
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Texas

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From prehistory right up to the present-a classic, comprehensive, and superbly readable guide to the panoramic saga of Texas history

Here is an up-to-the-moment history of the Lone Star State, together with an insider's look at the people, politics, and events that have shaped Texas from the beginning right up to our days. Never before has the story been told with more vitality and immediacy. Fehrenbach re-creates the Texas saga from prehistory to the Spanish and French invasions to the heyday of the cotton and cattle empires. He dramatically describes the emergence of Texas as a republic, the vote for secession before the Civil War, and the state's readmission to the Union after the War. In the twentieth century oil would emerge as an important economic resource and social change would come. But Texas would remain unmistakably Texas, because Texans "have been made different by the crucible of history; they think and act in different ways, according to the history that shaped their hearts and minds."

That Dark and Bloody River: Chronicles of the Ohio River Valley

Allan Eckert

List Price: $27.95 By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $19.62

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Midwest
Subjects -> History -> World -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Bloody Frontier 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Regardless of the Indian slaughters people kept moving west. They were not innocent in their fight to populate the frontier west of the Alleghenies. Indians took scalps and sold them to the British. The settlers given the opportunity also took Indian scalps for revenge. It took a long time before the people east of the Alleghenies to become concerned about the troubles in the west. In this book "Grity" is a troubled frontiersman rather than a monster. I agree with the author's viewpoint. By Ruth Thompson Author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Too much chronicle. 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Frontiersman but this was too much data - I enjoy Eckert's descriptives and narratives - should have known as it is described as a chronicle of events.

Editorial Review:

The author of A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh traces the settling of the Ohio River Valley, in a fictional account of the battle between Native Americans and settlers that marked a turning point in the history of the frontier.

American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation

Adam Cohen, Elizabeth Taylor

Amazon Price: $40.00 List Price: $40.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Little, Brown and Company Amazon Marketplace: 127 new & used starting at $1.16

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Regional U.S. -> Midwest
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For more than two decades, Mayor Richard J. Daley ruled Chicago with an iron fist. The last of the big city bosses, Daley ran an unbeatable political machine that controlled over one million votes. From 1955 until his death in 1976, every decision went through his office and he was a major player in national politics too: Kennedy and Johnson owed their presidencies to his control of the Illinois vote, and he made sure they never forgot it! In a city legendary for its corruption and backroom politics, Daley's power was unrivalled. He transformed Chicago, once a dying city, into a modern metropolis but he also made it America's most segregated city. A man of profound prejudices and a deep authoritarian streak, he constructed the nations largest and worst ghettos, sidestepped civil rights laws, and successfully thwarted Martin Luther King's campaign. A quarter-century after his death, journalists Cohen and Taylor present a biography of the man, drawn from newly uncovered material and interviews with his contemporaries. It is the story of his rise from the working-class Irish neighbourhood of his childhood to his role as one of the most important figures in modern American history.

Huey Long

T. Harry Williams

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $8.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Post Katrina Huey Blues 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

My motive for reading this book was, admittedly, not very historical. Watching TV, reading the newspapers, I concluded that there was a major flood in 1927 which came down the Mississippi. Because the monied of New Orleans feared that the "better part of town" might be in danger, they arranged to dynamite the levees in such a way that would divert the waters into St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. Certain eminent domain and financial arrangements were made (and later reneged on) and those who could and would be were evacuated. All the same, many died and many more would made homeless, for the potential benefit to the few. Then, or so I heard, the outrage of the masses in Louisiana at this miscarriage of power and justice by the rich led to the election of Huey P. Long (as champion of the "little guy") as Governor and launched a career.

Well, too bad. This book doesn't go down that road at all. The flood of 1927 is barely touched on. Yes, it happened, but there is no mention of the dynamited dams. Yes, Hoover came down and was in charge of federal relocation and recovery. And in the meantime, Huey was running about the same campaign he would run for the rest of his life: Down with the Rich! Up with the Poor! and All Hail Huey!

Williams' biography is incredibly well documented. You get the feeling that if you just tore out the bibliography, the notes, and the index, you would be forced to write the same book yourself, with one caveat: some parts of the book were written from the author's notes of interviews and private communications the author had with some of the principals who were still alive when it was written through the 1950s and 60s. The author has promised that all the notes have been archived and that while not of them can be released as yet, eventually, they all will be. Williams is quite vigorous not so much in defense of Long as in definition of the man and his vision. If you want to decide for yourself just what sort of man Huey Long was and where he might have been going, this biography is an excellent place to start.

Editorial Review:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this work describes the life of one of the most extraordinary figures in American political history.