Description
Book SynopsisIn American Places, more than two dozen of America''s most gifted historians write about their encounters with historic places, bringing a personal viewpoint to bear on a wide variety of sites, ranging from Monticello to Fenway Park. Here James M. McPherson writes about the battlefield of Gettysburg, and how walking the ground of Pickett''s Charge inspired one of his books. Kevin Starr visits the Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood and finds many of the flavors of California history there. Joel Williamson takes a bemused tour of Elvis Presley''s Graceland, and David Kennedy tells the story of the Pig War on San Juan Island, where a spat between Britain and America over a speck of land in the Pacific Northwest helped determine the shape of the U.S. and Canada. William Freehling compares two places, Charleston''s Battery and New Orleans'' Jackson Square, showing how each reveals the different spirit of the society that created it. And Edward Ayers talks about spending time in Cyberspace, U.
Trade ReviewThis edition is likely to appeal to the interested reader in addition to the scholar or student. * American Studies Today *
This is an appealing and useful collection that would be an extremely beneficial supplement to classroom teaching, allowing students access to the work of a selection of America's foremost historians and illustrating that history can be both personal and convincing. * American Studies Today *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Cyberspace, U.S.A. ; Pennsylvania Avenue: The Avenue of The Presidents ; A Monument for Barre: Memory in a Massachusetts Town ; Greensboro, North Carolina: A Window on Race in the American South ; World War II Normandy: American Cemetery and Memorial ; The Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, D.C. ; The Americanized Mannheim of 1945-1946 ; Vassar College ; A Fan's Homage to Fenway ; Finding History in Woodside, California ; Boston Common ; Charleston ; Climbing Stone Mountain ; Memphis, Tennessee ; Illinois' Old State Capitol: A Tale of Two Speeches ; "A Little Journey": Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft Community at East Aurora, New York ; San Juan Island, Washington ; 1048 Fifth Avenue ; Queens ; Gettysburg ; Monticello ; The Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood ; The Polo Ground ; Graceland ; Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey ; Montgomery ; The Grand Canyon ; Sewanee - How to Make a Yankee Southern: Memories of the 1940s
