Steve Goddard's History Wire

FOCUS: A Little of This, A Little of That -- Hall of Mirrors / Page One / Don't Know Much About History

Hall of Mirrors -- Roy Lichtenstein and the Face of Painting in the 1960s by Graham Bader, MIT Press '10, in oversized format on glossy stock, $17.95, 202 pages, ISBN #0262026473. Index, bibliography, notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.

Roy Lichtenstein's graphic, comics-inspired artwork makes one scratch one's head and say, "I know I've seen that before." Since gaining wide attention nearly a half-century ago, his popular appeal has spread through pop culture, "seen in everything from greeting cards to sitcoms." In so doing, it has proved "truly unsettling to art-world orthodoxies..." He "consistently savaged the rules of painting -- while remaining committed to the most traditional procedures and goals of the medium." The volume Graham Bader has put together includes "early reviews, artist interviews and statements (some never before published), and recent reassessments." Graham Bader is Mellon Assistant Professor of Art History at Rice University.

Page One -- Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism, Edited by David Folkenflik, Public Affairs '11 paperback. $15.99, 256 pages, ISBN #1586489607. Index, unillustrated.

As one who delivered the evening newspaper on his bicycle nearly 60 years ago, the serious prospect that print editions of such iconic dailies as The New York Times might cease publication before too long is too stunning to believe. In this companion to the documentary of the same name now in your neighborhood theater, Editor David Folkenflik has amassed a series of essays on such subjects as "The future of print," "How to stop worrying and love the blog," "Who should pay for journalism?," "The rise and recurring challenges of public radio," "Watching Al Jazeera," and "Investing in the future of news." Editor David Folkenflik is the media correspondent for NPR News. He previously covered politics and media for The Baltimore Sun.

Don't Know Much About History -- Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis, Harper '11 20th Anniversary Edition, $26.99, 719 pages, ISBN #0061960535. Index, selected reading, three appendices, unillustrated.

In the mid-1990s, I agreed to teach an adjunct American history course at a local university. When I noticed the course catalog described it as "Discovering America," I inquired of the department head, who told me, "Well, if we called it 'American History, no one would ever take it." Kenneth C. Davis's now-venerable work, with 1.6 million sales to its credit, is the best antidote to that attitude. Described by its publisher as the "classic anti-textbook," it is witty and irreverent as it tackles the past 500 years of American history in question and answer form. Since the last revised edition of Davis's book was published in 1992, this update includes events since then, from 9/11 to the Great Recession, from the financial meltdown to America's first African-American President. Kenneth C. Davis's first edition of this book spent 35 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He is a frequent commentator on TV and radio.

FOCUS: American States -- How Kentucky Became Southern / How Florida Happened

How Kentucky Became Southern -- A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and Breeders by Maryjean Wall, UKentucky Press '11, $29.95, 291 pages, ISBN #0813126053. Index, select bibliography, notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.

Those of us who wouldn't miss the Kentucky Derby each first Saturday of May have some sense of Kentucky as a focal point of Thoroughbred breeding and racing. But author Mary Jean Wall broadens our understanding by showing the state is so much more. In a brief Q&A, she discusses the writing of her new book:

Q. In the book, you mention that Kentucky's state identity is really quite varied. What impact did this shift to a "southern" mentality in the Bluegras have on the rest of the state?

A. I am not well-grounded in all the many geographical sections of Kentucky. I am most familiar with the Bluegrass and with Eastern Kentucky. And we should never make the mistake of generalizing for all of Kentucky, because as state historian James Klotter has often pointed out, there are many Kentuckys. I can tell you that as the shift to southern identity occurred for the Bluegrass, the stereotype for Eastern Kentucky became more entrenched in the national consciousness: as a place of feuding, backwards people. Eastern Kentucky experienced no more violence than did any portion of Kentucky but, arguably, the shift in the Bluegrass towards a mythical Eden of the South had the effect of sharply contrasting the Bluegrass with Eastern Kentucky. If nothing else, this bespoke the locus of power and influence in Kentucky.

Q. You worked as a turf writer for 35 years, a tenure which undoubtedly gave you ample insight into the industry. Did you learn anything about the industry in Kentucky that surprised you?

A. The longer I remained a turf writer, the more I saw the same debates occurring, without the sport reaching solutions. Interestingly, these same debates were taking place during the nineteenth century: whether 2-year-olds should be racing, what to do about illegal drug use, was there too much racing, and had racing become too commercialized. You could just change the years and you had the same debates. The rhetoric that flew across the sports pages during the 1800s changed little each time these same debates emerged in subsequent generations. It is unfortunate these debates never have been resolved because every time they re-emerge on the radar screen of fandom, they detract from the reason people are enchanted with this sport: the beauty of elegant Thoroughbreds running at high speed for the finish line.

Maryjean Wall was a turf writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader for 35 years.

How Florida Happened -- The Political Education of Buddy MacKay by Buddy MacKay with Rick Edmonds, UPress of Florida '10, $32, 208 pages, ISBN #0813034841. Index, no notes or bibliography, grouping of b&w images.

The name "Buddy MacKay" may not resonate even with political junkies as strongly as fellow Floridians Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush. Such is the fate of those who lose a U.S. Senate race by less than one percentage point as well as losing a gubernatorial race to Jeb Bush. But Buddy MacKay, who did serve three terms in Congress, had as good a grasp as anyone of the fine points of Florida politics and governance and, as such, was a sought-after media source. In his first book, MacKay recaptures what the life of a prominent Sunshine State politician was like during the years the state grew "from a semi-rural to a mega-state, where political dominance shifted from the left to the right." Buddy MacKay served nearly a decade in the Florida House of Representatives in the '60s and '70s and won a number of awards as most effective legislator.

George Harrison Documentary to Get October Debut on HBO

The New York Times:

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new George Harrison documentary featuring home movies, interviews and never before seen material will make its debut in October on HBO, the cable channel said on Wednesday.

"Produced by Oscar-winner Martin Scorsese and Harrison's widow Olivia, 'George Harrison: Living in the Material World', traces the life of the late Beatle from his musical beginnings in Liverpool to his fame with the Fab Four in the 1960s as well as his work as a philanthropist and filmmaker.

"Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001 in Los Angeles at the age of 58. Although often referred to as the quiet Beatle, he wrote hit songs like 'Here Comes the Sun' and 'Something' for The Beatles before playing with the 1980s supergroup, Traveling Wilburys."

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Nashville Chrome Novel Recalls Elvis, the Beatles, and 3 Brown Siblings

The Los Angeles Times:

"Late in 1959, the Brown siblings--Maxine, Bonnie, and Jim Ed--were enjoying unprecedented international success, rivaled only by their longtime friend Elvis Presley. They had a bona fide megahit on their hands, which topped both the country and pop charts and gave rise to the polished sound of the multibillion dollar country music industry we know today. Mesmerized by the Browns' haunting harmonies, the Beatles even tried to learn their secret. Their unique harmony, however, was only achievable through shared blood, and the trio's perfect pitch was honed by a childhood spent listening for the elusive pulse and tone of an impeccably tempered blade at their parent's Arkansas sawmill.

"But the Browns' celebrity couldn't survive the world changing around them, and the bonds of family began to fray along with the fame. Heartbreakingly, the novel jumps between the Browns' promising past and the present, which finds Maxine--once supremely confident and ravenous in her pursuit of applause--ailing and alone. As her world increasingly narrows, her hunger for just one more chance to secure her legacy only grows, as does her need for human connection.

"Lyrical and nuanced, Nashville Chrome hits all the right grace notes with its vivid evocation of an era in American music, while at its heart it is a wrenching meditation on the complexities of fame and of one family--forgotten yet utterly unforgettable when reclaimed by Bass--who experienced them firsthand."

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FOCUS: A Potpourri -- Maritime Maryland / The Molecule that Shook the World

Maritime Maryland -- A History by William S. Dudley, Johns Hopkins UP '10, in oversized format on glossy stock, 293 pages, ISBN #0801894751. Index, essay on sources, glossary, notes, color and b&w glossy images sprinkled through text.

A brief excerpt from Chapter One: "The inhabitants of Maryland have depended, since earliest times, on the sea and its tributaries for their transportation, trade, and warfare. The geography of Maryland ordained it one of the most navigable of the thirteen original colonies. That distinction can still be claimed today, as Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries provide an estimated 8,100 miles of shoreline.

"Almost 200 miles in length and relatively slender in breadth, ranging from 5 to 35 miles, the bay has an extraordinary wealth of tidal estuaries. Maryland shares with Virginia the blessings of Chesapeake Bay, characterized by historian Arthur P. Middleton as 'the Mediterranean of America.'"

Longtime maritime historian William S. Dudley currently serves in positions with the Maryland Historical Society, the Naval Historical Foundation, and Sea History magazine.

A Graphic Guide to the DNA Molecule that Shook the World by Israel Rosenfield, Edward Ziff & Borin van Loon, Columbia UP '11 paperback. 257 pages, ISBN #0231142714. Bibliography, glossary, b&w images sprinkled through text.

"In December of 1949," write the authors, "almost four years before James Watson and Francis Crick published their model of DNA, launching the revolution in modern biology, the mathematician and designer of the computer, John von Neumann, gave a lecture exploring how a machine could reproduce. All it needs, he said, is a description of itself." This slim paperback describes graphically the achievement of this seemingly easy task, describing not only how a machine could reproduce itself but how "the machine's offspring could reproduce as well." Within the scope of this readable narrative are a brief history of genetics, descriptions of genes and chromosomes, the process of cloning, and the history of the Human Genome Project. Israel Rosenfield teaches at the City University of New York. Edward Ziff teaches biochemistry and neural science at the New York University School of Medicine. Borin van Loon has been a freelance illustrator since 1977.

Out, Damned Tweet! -- Shakespeare Meets the Internet

Newsweek.com:

"America was built by work, but it was created by words. A declaration, heady with classical eloquence, pitch perfect in the gravity of its steady polemical meter, brought the republic into the world. Knowing that one rebels in poetry but governs in prose, the Constitution gave the nation its institutions in more austerely workmanlike English. Where its language is sharp and clear, arguments are contained; where ambiguous and elastic, contention is invited, never more so than now.

"Along the way to the present, rhetoric of great passion and moral intelligence—that of Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, William Jennings Bryan, and Franklin Roosevelt—reminded Americans of the highest purposes of the Union and of the terrible penalties of falling short. The greatest of their speeches—Gettysburg, 'Cross of Gold,' 'Four Freedoms'—endure through the generations when no one can remember a word of what British prime ministers other than Winston Churchill (who was, as he reminded Congress, half-American) had to say about anything.

"America was once a nation of high-school and college rhetoricians schooled by oratory manuals like the one written by the Scottish clergyman Hugh Blair, a Cicero for modern times. Lawyers and clergymen aspired to be Hancocks and Clays. To be American was to sound off stylishly. Jefferson’s 1777 draft for the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom could be read as much for the blazing force of its diction as for the nobility of its principles. Mark Twain could growl tigerishly at the follies of American imperial overreach, but even those, like Teddy Roosevelt, who hated what he said were provoked by the cunning of his voice."

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New Book Claims Hitler Gave Sex Dolls to Nazi Soldiers

Time.com: 

"A new book reveals that Adolf Hitler ordered the manufacture of Aryan blow up dolls to discourage his troops from sleeping with disease-ridden prostitutes.

"The so-called 'Borghild Project' reportedly kicked off in 1940 when SS chief Heinrich Himmler wrote to Hitler alerting him of the health risks posed to his men by liaisons with French women. 'The greatest danger in Paris is the widespread and uncontrolled presence of whores, picking up clients in bars, dance halls, and other places,' he wrote. 'It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health just for the sake of a quick adventure.'

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FOCUS: Wartime -- Mightier Than the Sword / The Great War

Mightier Than the Sword -- Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America by David S. Reynolds, Norton '11, $27.95, 351 pages, ISBN #039308132X. Index, no bibliography, illustration credits, notes, b&w images sprinkled throughout text.

In late 1862, Hartford author Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the White House in the wake of the unprecedented popularity generated by her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Towering Abe Lincoln reportedly greeted the five-foot tall author with the words, "Is this the little woman who made this great war?" Stowe repeatedly disclaimed such a feat, explaining simply in the words of David S. Reynolds, "God wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin." When a friend expressed amazement when Harriet told her she didn't write this iconic book, Stowe replied "No. I only put down what I saw....It all came before me in visions, one after another, and I put them down in words." On the 200th anniversary of Stowe's birth and the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, author Reynolds stitches together the novel and the resultant war in a gripping narrative. David S. Reynolds teaches English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

The Great War and the Making of the Modern World by Jeremy Black, Continuum '11, $29.95, 360 pages, ISBN #0826440932. Index, selected further reading, notes, unillustrated.

A great irony of the 20th century is that while nearly triple the number of people died in World War II as in World War I, the latter has seemed to earn the label of "The Great War." In his new book, historian Jeremy Black revisits the events that led up to the conflict of 1914--1918 and considers "how we now look at the impact of the conflict across the globe and how it came to be the First World War in our consciousness." Black not only deconstructs the key events of the war "but its consequences in restructuring the old order....and finally he also analyzes its memorialization today." Jeremy Black teaches history at the University of Exeter, UK, and is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Tahrir Square Was a Foreseeable Surprise

Slate.com:

"Over the last several months, there has been seemingly endless discussion about how social media activisms have changed the political landscape of Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

     Iranians shout slogans during

           a protest in Tehran

"But for all the headlines, there is very little research devoted to deepening our understanding of this phenomenon. A more thorough investigation on these movements in Egypt shows that the historical movement that happened in Tahrir Square was actually an imaginable surprise. It was tightly connected to the ongoing consolidation of disparate opposition groups and the expansion of online activism networks over time.

"To fully understand the Tahrir revolt, we need to look beyond January 2011, past the usage of Facebook and Twitter, and focus instead on how the protest networks emerged, expanded, and were translated into a momentous collective action—and how the Internet and social media became entangled in these processes. The social media activism in the recent mass protests is anchored in the burgeoning online activisms that have been happening in the region for years."

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The Celebrated Roots of a Fascist Designer

Salon.com:

"There was hardly a noteworthy American magazine that had not published Paolo Garretto's work at one time. There were virtually no French, Italian, English, and German poster hoardings or kiosks on which his advertisements did not regularly appear. His airbrushed caricature epitomized Deco styling. During the Twenties and Thirties he was a master of international advertising design and editorial art, as inventive as A.M. Cassandre, as prolific as Jean Carlu, as witty as Miguel Covarrubias.

"His geometric conceits captured the romance of the industrial age. Paul Rand called him 'one of the world's most formidable draftsmen.' Yet by the Fifties his ubiquity was on the wane. Art directors called his work a vestige of pre-war innocence. As happens to all stylists, the vagaries of fashion took its toll. Garretto's approach was no longer in demand, eclipsed by Modern and faux Modern tendencies. Though he never completely vanished from view, and continued working until his death in 1989, his memory might have been forever consigned to the years between the wars if not for the post-modern ethos that caused designers to quote, borrow and steal from history."

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