Steve Goddard's History Wire

Book Alert / Presidential Temples

Presidential Temples -- How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory by Benjamin Hufbauer, UPress of Kansas '06, $35, 270 pages, ISBN #070061422-2. Index, bibliography, source notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.

Ever wonder why many of us draw a blank when we hear the names of such U.S. presidents as John Tyler, Millard Fillmore or Benjamin Harrison? Perhaps it's because they held office before the era of presidential museums and libraries, a custom begun by FDR. Now George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were already larger than life and didn't need the continual burnishing of their legacy that a presidential museum insures. But it's the fate of most of the lesser lights to languish for eternity in virtual anonymity.

In his new book, University of Louisville Prof. Benjamin Hufbauer describes how presidential libraries are built in the image of their subject and to serve his agenda. Harry Truman wanted his "to boldly tackle controversial issues related to racism, McCarthyism, and nuclear anxiety." But Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were more defensive, using library exhibits to downplay the fallout from Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandals. Gerald Ford saw to it that distinguished historian Richard Norton Smith served as director of his museum, so that each time an issue bearing on Ford's legacy hit the news, Smith could appear on such respected shows as the Lehrer News Hour to give a positive, post-presidential spin on things.

The overall theme of Hufbauer's book is the notion of presidential commemoration, both before and after the era of presidential libraries. In so doing, he delves in depth into a handful of libraries -- Roosevelt's in Hyde Park, N.Y., Truman's in Independence, MO, replete with a replica of the Oval Office; and the monumental Johnson Library in Austin, TX. In a separate section, he discusses the commemoration of first ladies and examines the salubrious effect most presidential libraries have on their subject's home town.

Honoring the Bergmans. They Wrote "The Way We Were"

Market Wire:

Academy Award-winning lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman will be celebrating their 50-year collaboration at the Lincoln Center in New York City Friday, February 2 at 8:30pm.

The Bergmans are among the most prolific and highly acclaimed popular songwriter teams in American history, having penned some of the most cherished songs of the last 50 years, including "The Way We Were," "The Windmills of Your Mind," "How Do You Keep the Music Playing," and "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life." American Songbook celebrates their enormous contribution with an evening featuring a roster of artists that includes Tony Bennett, Lucie Arnaz, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Capathia Jenkins, Sandy Stewart, Lari White, Lillias White, Nicki Richards, and Melissa Errico.

Virginia's Cape Henry Cross At Risk

The Weekly Standard:

"The 400th anniversary of Act One, Scene One of American history will be celebrated on April 29, 2007.

"On that day in 1607, English colonists, who ultimately settled at Jamestown, first landed at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay near Virginia Beach. In one of their first acts, they erected a cross to give thanks to God for safe passage across the ocean. The settlers called the place Cape Henry, and every year the raising of this cross is commemorated. A memorial cross of granite was erected on the site in 1935 by the Daughters of the American Colonists and is part of the Colonial National Historic Park, administered by the National Park Service. Today, a representation of the Cape Henry Cross is found on the seal of Virginia Beach, a city understandably proud of its heritage.

"Four hundred years after the raising of the Cape Henry Cross, the symbol is under assault in Virginia. In the face of this attack, many political leaders across the Commonwealth, including Governor Tim Kaine and Rector Michael Powell, of the College of William & Mary, have been largely silent. Apparently they are poised to accept a radical argument about the appropriateness of the public display of crosses offered by the new president of William and Mary. If accepted, this argument will directly and logically lead to the repudiation and dismantling of the historic Cape Henry Cross, and other important crosses in Virginia.

Freedom Riders On The Way To Alabama in 1961: "Even If It Meant Death"

CourierPostOnline:

"Diane Nash has no trouble remembering one telephone call she received in May of 1961. On the other end of the phone was Nashville, Tenn., native John Seigenthaler, an aide to U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, warning Nash that sending Freedom Riders from Nashville to Alabama could very well be a suicide mission.

"'But our people had already decided they were going to go, even if it meant death,' Nash said Saturday. 'This is what we had committed ourselves to, and we were going to follow through.' Nash also pointed out the role of Nashville citizens in helping the effort of what she labels the 'Nashville Movement.' "People in Nashville, ordinary people, made time in their lives to do what they could do," she said.

"Nash, Seigenthaler and a handful of other original Freedom Riders joined nearly 200 students, faculty, staff and administrators from Nashville colleges on a trip to Montgomery on Saturday. Stops included the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which is located just down the street from the Alabama State Capitol. There, the original Freedom Riders took turns recalling the May 1961 events.

"Other stops on the ride included the Montgomery Bus Terminal and the State Capitol steps before heading for Birmingham, Ala., where a panel discussion and a trip to the Birmingham Civil Rights museum Sunday wrap up the tour. For the students, it is an opportunity to hear stories from the people who actually lived through the events."

Out in Paperback / At Canaan's Edge and Western Places

At Canaan's Edge -- America in the King Years 1965-68, Simon & Schuster '07, $20, 1039 pages, ISBN 0-684-85713-8. Index, bibliography, 202 pages of source notes, grouping of b&w glossy images.

By 1965, Martin Luther King was no longer the wunderkind of the Montgomery bus boycott or the prophetic young preacher who dazzled crowds at the Washington Monument in 1963 with his eloquence. The hard, grinding days of risking one's life for social justice were upon King and his acolytes. Branch, in the third book of his trilogy about the King years, trails the charasmatic preacher to "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, to the march on Montgomery, to a bill signing for the Voting Rights Act, to his fight for housing and schools in Chicago, to Washington in protest against the Vietnam War, and in 1968, fatefully, to a motel balcony in Memphis.

Western Places, American Myths -- How We Think About The West, Edited by Gary J. Hausladen, UNevada Press '03, 343 pages, ISBN #0-87417-662-X. Index, List of Contributors, source notes at the end of each essay.

The editors have gathered a dozen essays from varied disciplines, examining the West both on the ground, as it were, and as an element of American culture. Included are studies of the changing role of ranch and rancher, roles of ethnic minorities in the development of the West, the Western experience in creation of the National Park System, whose footprint covers so many of the Western states; ghost towns, gender roles, gambling, and the effect on American culture of Western films.

Book Alert / In Spite of the Gods

In Spite of the Gods -- The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce, Doubleday '07, $26, 383 pages, ISBN #0-385-51474-3. Index, source notes, no bibliography, two groupings of b&w and color glossy images.

During his tenure as U.S. Ambassador to India in the 1960s, the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith described life in India as "functioning anarchy." Forty-five years later, the author wouldn't quarrel with that characterization. In his highly-readable new book, Edward Luce describes India, then and now. But even more importantly, he focuses on the future, since by 2032, the nation's population of 1.1 billion is likely to surpass China to make it the most populous nation on earth.

Mohandas Ghandi left an indelible mark on the nation for which he helped win independence prior to his assassination in 1947. Part of his legacy is the notion that India should forever be a nation of villages rather than booming metropolises. Big cities and the quest for materialism are inimical to the human condition, which he said thrives on the simple, agrarian life of people living in huts and mingling easily together.

Partially in consequence, 90 per cent of Indians live not only in the country's 600,000 villages but in desperate poverty. Only some 3 per cent of its citizens earn enough to pay taxes. Yet the next time you call your computer company with a problem, you may be connected to a literate, articulate young person in Bangalore, part of India's revolution in information technology. The contrast, the author finds, between the poor majority and the increasingly affluent, aspiring minority is marked, if not staggering.

Still and all, Luce finds highly stable conditions in the country in terms of social conditions, a slow progression that leads one analyst to call it the "one percent society." India's literacy rate is increasing steadily about one per cent per year, the same amount by which poverty is decreasing. Yet given the population explosion, it's clear that India will be a predominantly poor country for the next century or more.

In looking to the future, Luce examines four critical problems, the solution to which will help determine whether future India is a success or a failure as a nation: the challenge of lifting 300 million people out of poverty, overcoming the dangers of environmental pollution, heading off an threatening HIV-AIDS epidemic, and protecting and strengthening India's system of democracy. This is a must-read book for anyone who cares how globalization will play out over their lifetimes.

Peripatetic Veteran Finally Gets A Home, Finds Himself In A Time Warp

Jefferson City (MO) News Tribune:

"City Administrator Steve Rasmussen has never seen an older house he hasn't wanted to fix up. His passion for historical architecture has been with him all his life, but he hasn't been able to indulge it regularly because an active military career kept him on the move - 17 moves, actually. Now, he's relishing the opportunity to restore the Burch House, an Italianate-style building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"The building dates back to 1862, when Oscar Burch - a prisoner-of-war captured after the surrender of Vicksburg - came to Jefferson City to take a job at the state library. Born in New York and raised in Iowa, Burch held several governmental posts here before settling into a lucrative position as cashier of First National Bank, the position which probably allowed Burch to build the home's grandest front section, visible from Jefferson Street.

"The home has lovely, deep eaves; stately rounded windows; and an elegant winding staircase, milled from walnut harvested on-site. For Rasmussen, finding it available at the same time the city administrator position was open (he won the job last winter) was just perfect, because the house needs enough work to keep him busy many weekends, yet it was still 'walk-in livable,' meaning he didn't have to find another place to live during the construction.

"Each room tends to reflect a different era in American history. The living room is pure 1890s; the dining room has federal touches. 'It's like living in a time warp,' he said."

Railtown 1897 Recaptures Steam Locomotives Of Yore

The Mercury News:

"'Jamestown, CA - It's so sadly 'Sunset Boulevard,' a faded Hollywood legend truly gone to pieces. Here at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, the far-flung Tuolumne County outpost of Sacramento's California State Railroad Museum, lie the disconnected parts of perhaps the most famous steam locomotive in movie history.

"In better times, Sierra Railway No. 3 was a star. Her first onscreen appearance was in a 1919 silent-movie serial called 'The Red Glove.' Her first feature-film role was alongside Gary Cooper in 'The Virginian' (1929), the first 'talkie' shot on location.

"In the 1950s and `60s, the locomotive appeared in a slew of Westerns, from the classic 'High Noon' (again starring Cooper) to TV's 'Bonanza' and 'Death Valley Days.' Also among her 72 movie and TV credits are 'Gunsmoke,' 'Petticoat Junction,' 'Bound for Glory' and 'Back to the Future III.'"

"But the old girl (locomotives, like ships, have traditionally been considered 'female') has been out of commission for the past decade. She needs major work to bring her boiler in line with new Federal Railroad Administration safety standards, and she's due extensive general repairs and a good sprucing-up. The price tag for full restoration, which will make her look like she did for her 1929 big-screen debut, is around $600,000.

"'We are determined to go forward with the project, even if we need to borrow from other funds,' says Kathy Daigle, associate director of the nonprofit California State Railroad Museum Foundation."

Cookie And Stevie Recall A League Of Their Own

Holland Sentinel.com:

"Doris 'Cookie' Cook of Muskegon and Rosemary 'Stevie' Stevenson of Nunica gave students at Lakewood Elementary Friday a lesson in history learned first hand.

"Cook and Stevenson both played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and '50s. The league, featured in the movie 'A League of Our Own,' was started during World War II when men's professional baseball suspended play. Women from their teens to mid-30s played baseball professionally throughout the Midwest from 1943 to 1954.

"'Our league was formed in Chicago and we played throughout the Midwest,' said Cook, who played for the Kalamazoo Lassies. The Lassies originally were a Muskegon team, but were later transferred to Kalamazoo, she said. Stevenson played for the Grand Rapids Chicks. 'I did steal bases and slid in those skirts,' Stevenson said, referring to the uniforms the players wore. 'I never healed up. I always slid on my left side.' 'Yes, it did hurt,' she said in response to a student's question. 'It was like one big sore, all the time.'

"Cook and Stevenson were visiting Lakewood in connection with the school's Reading is Fundamental program. Stevenson recently wrote a book about her experiences. The book's title, 'Don't Die on Third,' was based on advice a coach gave her."

Book Alert / God's War

God's War -- A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman, Belknap/Harvard '06, $35, 1024 pages, ISBN #067402387-0.  Index, selected further reading, source notes, grouping of full-color images.

For four centuries they raged across Europe, this combination of "genuine piety, military ferocity and plain greed" that we have come to know as the Crusades. In a bid to write the definitive history of this era, Christopher Tyerman, Fellow in History at Hertford College, Oxford, has penned a thousand page tome. From legend, motion pictures and novels, the reader is reintroduced to such historic icons as Philip Augustus, Saladin and Richard the Lionheart.

The motivation for the Crusades wasn't entirely venal, as some have suggested. Given the breadth of its participation, it is far too complex to be considered one orchestrated movement. And so the players include pious believers alongside rapacious killers, both buying into "a system of belief bound by aggression, paranoia, and wishful thinking, and a culture founded on war as an expression of worship, social discipline, and Christian charity."

Tyerman's work is divided into eight sections: The Origins of Christian Holy War and the First Crusade, The Frankish Outremer, The Second Crusade, featuring a 45-year holy war; The Third Crusade and the Palestine War of 1191-2; The  Fourth Crusade, The Expansion of Crusading and the Fifth Crusade, The Defense of the Holy Land, and The Later Crusades.