Gotham at War: New York City, 1860-1865 is a concise, highly readable account of New York City during the greatest internal crisis in American history. A growing metropolis that was by far America's biggest and most powerful city, New York played a major role in the Civil War, mobilizing an enthusiastic though poorly trained military force during the first month of the war that helped protect Washington, D.C., from Confederate capture. Urban historian Edward K. Spann provides insights on both the varied ways in which the war affected the city and the ways in which the city's people and industry influenced the divided nation. Gotham at War includes observations regarding political, racial, ethnic, and economic aspects of this wartime society and shows how New York served as a center for manpower, military supplies, and shipbuilding, and for assisting sick and wounded soldiers. The efforts of its great Republican newspapers, local leaders such as William E. Dodge and Mayor George Opdyke, women, African-Americans, New Englanders, and the Irish and Germans of New York are all explored. The most southern of the northern cities, New York became a center for many citizens who opposed th
Ideals and Politics is a group biography that examines the shifting personal, moral, and intellectual relationships of several prominent Americans from 1820 to 1880. It considers the divergent social visions of William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, William Leggett, Gulian C. Verplanck, Parke Goodwin, and members of the Sedgwick family in an effort to understand various attitudes within a basic liberal democratic ideology, amid the changing demands and opportunities of an American pluralistic society. The members of this group left a considerable record of newspaper editorials, novels, poems, essays, and letters from which the author draws judiciously to illustrate his subjects, whose involvement in the political and social questions of their day demanded from them efforts to reconcile their ideals with political realities. The author discusses in detail the positions of Bryant and the others regarding the issues of government economic policy, the roles of parties and newspapers in a democratic society, poverty, and slavery and race. At another level, this book illustrates the fundamental attitudinal differences that exist beneath the apparent ideological conformity of Americans. Although based on some new information and sound interpretation, the greatest value of this book is in its approach—a group biography which emphasizes not only the members of the group but their relationships with one another. The author succeeds in giving essential human meaning to the major developments of the period.
They burned bras, draft cards, and even the American flag. But what drove a group of young Americans to democratic revolution in the tumultuous years of the 1960s, and what made them think they could win? In this book, Edward K. Spann looks at the motivations and values of the young rebels of the 1960s. He links their fight for equality for African Americans, women, and other marginalized groups to the democratic values of their World War II-era parents. Spann provides a cultural portrait of who the rebels were, what they thought, what they did, and what became of them after they crossed that magical divide of age thirty. Democracy's Children will fascinate readers with its colorful depictions of the individuals, events, and drama of the 1960s.
Ideals and Politics is a group biography that examines the shifting personal, moral, and intellectual relationships of several prominent Americans from 1820 to 1880. It considers the divergent social visions of William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, William Leggett, Gulian C. Verplanck, Parke Goodwin, and members of the Sedgwick family in an effort to understand various attitudes within a basic liberal democratic ideology, amid the changing demands and opportunities of an American pluralistic society. The members of this group left a considerable record of newspaper editorials, novels, poems, essays, and letters from which the author draws judiciously to illustrate his subjects, whose involvement in the political and social questions of their day demanded from them efforts to reconcile their ideals with political realities. The author discusses in detail the positions of Bryant and the others regarding the issues of government economic policy, the roles of parties and newspapers in a democratic society, poverty, and slavery and race. At another level, this book illustrates the fundamental attitudinal differences that exist beneath the apparent ideological conformity of Americans. Although based on some new information and sound interpretation, the greatest value of this book is in its approach—a group biography which emphasizes not only the members of the group but their relationships with one another. The author succeeds in giving essential human meaning to the major developments of the period.
Edward Spann's study of a town shaped by two distinct dreams of a good society provides new insight into the development of utopian societies ... for those interested in utopian and religious communities, nineteenth-century American history, urban history, and business communities." --book jacket.
Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.
They burned bras, draft cards, and even the American flag. But what drove a group of young Americans to democratic revolution in the tumultuous years of the 1960s, and what made them think they could win? In this book, Edward K. Spann looks at the motivations and values of the young rebels of the 1960s. He links their fight for equality for African Americans, women, and other marginalized groups to the democratic values of their World War II-era parents. Spann provides a cultural portrait of who the rebels were, what they thought, what they did, and what became of them after they crossed that magical divide of age thirty. Democracy's Children will fascinate readers with its colorful depictions of the individuals, events, and drama of the 1960s.
Gotham at War: New York City, 1860-1865 is a concise, highly readable account of New York City during the greatest internal crisis in American history. A growing metropolis that was by far America's biggest and most powerful city, New York played a major role in the Civil War, mobilizing an enthusiastic though poorly trained military force during the first month of the war that helped protect Washington, D.C., from Confederate capture. Urban historian Edward K. Spann provides insights on both the varied ways in which the war affected the city and the ways in which the city's people and industry influenced the divided nation. Gotham at War includes observations regarding political, racial, ethnic, and economic aspects of this wartime society and shows how New York served as a center for manpower, military supplies, and shipbuilding, and for assisting sick and wounded soldiers. The efforts of its great Republican newspapers, local leaders such as William E. Dodge and Mayor George Opdyke, women, African-Americans, New Englanders, and the Irish and Germans of New York are all explored. The most southern of the northern cities, New York became a center for many citizens who opposed th
This fascinating study examines the meteoric career of a vigorous intellectual movement rising out of the Age of Jackson. As Americans argued over their destiny in the decades preceding the Civil War, an outspoken new generation of "ultra-democratic" writers entered the fray, staking out positions on politics, literature, art, and any other territory they could annex. They called themselves Young America--and they proclaimed a "Manifest Destiny" to push back frontiers in every category of achievement. Their swagger found a natural home in New York City, already bursting at the seams and ready to take on the world. Young America's mouthpiece was the Democratic Review, a highly influential magazine funded by the Democratic Party and edited by the brash and charismatic John O'Sullivan. The Review offered a fresh voice in political journalism, and sponsored young writers like Hawthorne and Whitman early in their careers. Melville, too, was influenced by Young America, and provided a running commentary on its many excesses. Despite brilliant promise, the movement fell apart in the 1850s, leaving its original leaders troubled over the darker destiny they had ushered in. Their ambitious generation had failed to rewrite history as promised. Instead, their perpetual agitation helped set the stage for the Civil War. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City is without question the most complete examination of this captivating and original movement. It also provides the first published biography of its leader, John O'Sullivan, one of America's great rhetoricians. Edward L. Widmer enriches his unique volume by offering a new theory of Manifest Destiny as part of a broader movement of intellectual expansion in nineteenth-century America.
Before Renaissance examines a half-century epoch during which planners, public officials, and civic leaders engaged in a dialogue about the meaning of planning and its application for improving life in Pittsburgh.Planning emerged from the concerns of progressive reformers and businessmen over the social and physical problems of the city. In the Steel City enlightened planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and Frederick Bigger pioneered the practical approach to reordering the chaotic urban-industrial landscape. In the face of obstacles that included the embedded tradition of privatism, rugged topography, inherited built environment, and chronic political fragmentation, they established a tradition of modern planning in Pittsburgh.Over the years a melange of other distinguished local and national figures joined in the planning dialogue, among them the park founder Edward Bigelow, political bosses Christopher Magee and William Flinn, mayors George Guthrie and William Magee, industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Howard Heinz, financier Richard King Mellon, and planning luminaries Charles Mulford Robinson, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Harland Bartholomew, Robert Moses, and Pittsburgh's Frederick Bigger. The famed alliance of Richard King Mellon and Mayor David Lawrence, which heralded the Renaissance, owed a great debt to Pittsburgh's prior planning experience. John Bauman and Edward Muller recount the city's long tradition of public/private partnerships as an important factor in the pursuit of orderly and stable urban growth. Before Renaissance provides insights into the major themes, benchmarks, successes, and limitations that marked the formative days of urban planning. It defines Pittsburgh's key role in the vanguard of the national movement and reveals the individuals and processes that impacted the physical shape and form of a city for generations to come.
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