New York's Golden Age of Bridges, Paintings by Antonio Masi, Essays by Joan Marans Dim, Empire State Editions, Fordham UPress '11 in oversized format, on glossy stock, $34.95, 117 pages, ASIN #0823240657. Index, selected bibliography, scores of color glossy images, some full-page.
As you might imagine, this isn't a book that appeals exclusively (or even mainly) to New Yorkers. So if you've ever jogged over the Verrazano Bridge at the start of the New York Marathon or driven the upper or lower level of the George Washington Bridge on a drive to Washington, D.C., the text and paintings gathered here will surely be evocative. Antonio Masi, whose grandfather Francesco Masi helped build some of the nine massive structures described herein a century ago, now provides exquisitely impressionistic color paintings of the same. Brooklynite Joan Marans Dim, a native New Yorker, provides accompanying text.
Compellingly, this team probes what a bridge is all about -- not simply how it's built, with engineering to withstand windshear and such -- but the bridge's urban role as a connector of people, neighborhoods and cities; and as a creator of commercial settlements. Most notable is their narrative of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 by engineer John Roebling and his son, Colonel Washington Roebling -- a feat that created a huge city unto itself across the East River from Manhattan. Other bridges profiled include Williamsburg, Queensboro, Manhattan, Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, and Throgs Neck. Illustrator Antonio Masi, fascinated by bridges since childhood, began painting them a decade ago. Author Joan Marans Dim, who has written two books, grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and has traveled New York City's bridges all her life.
Catlin's Lament -- Indians, Manifest Destiny, and the Ethics of Nature by John Hausdoerffer, Kansas UP '09, 184 pages, ASIN #0700616314. Index, works cited, notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.
From the book jacket:
"George Catlin gained renown for his nineteenth-century paintings of Indians and their lands, sympathetic portraits that counterbalanced those of other Americans eager to conquer and dominate both. In this first book to probe the attitudes that shaped and constrained Catlin's career, John Hausdoerffer argues that, despite his sympathies, Catlin's work embodied the same prevailing sentiment toward Nature that sanctioned Indian removal and thus undercut his own alternate vision for westward expansion."
"Some see Catlin as an ethical spokesman for Indians, others as a mere exploiter. Hausdoerffer steers a middle course, recognizing Catlin as an entrepreneur without invalidating his ethical perceptions. Yet through a close reading of Catlin's writings, Hausdoerffer adjusts interpretations of Catlin as a protoenvironmentalist and friend of the Indian, arguing that contradictions in his work reveal his failure to comprehend his own complicity in Native America's demise."
John Hausdoerffer is director of environmental studies and assistant professor of environmental studies and philosophy at Western State College in Gunnison, CO.
