Inventing Niagara

Author : Ginger Strand
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 9781416564812
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Niagara written by Ginger Strand and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny, they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power, they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty, they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force while claiming to submit to its will. Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, Inventing Niagara traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at Niagara. From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn, Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis, Inventing Niagara shows us how understanding the cultural history of nature might help us rethink our place in it today.

Author : Ginger Strand
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416546561
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Niagara written by Ginger Strand and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strand reveals the hidden history of America's most iconic natural wonder, Niagara Falls, illuminating what it says about our history, our relationship with the environment, and ourselves.

Author : Janet Dorothy Larkin
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438468253
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Overcoming Niagara written by Janet Dorothy Larkin and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes the nineteenth century canal age in the Niagara-Great Lakes borderland region as a transnational phenomenon. In Overcoming Niagara Janet Dorothy Larkin analyzes the canal age from the perspective of the Niagara–Great Lakes borderland between 1792 and 1837. She shows what drove the transportation revolution, not the conventional story of westward expansion and the international/metropolitan rivalry between Great Britain and the United States, but a dynamic connection, cooperation, and healthy competition in a transnational-borderland region. Larkin focuses on North America’s three most vital waterways—the Erie, Oswego, and Welland Canals. Canadian and American transportation leaders and promoters mutually sought to overcome the natural and artificial barriers presented by Niagara Falls by building an integrated, interconnected canal system, thus strengthening the borderland economy and propelling westward expansion, market development, and the Niagara tourist industry. On the heels of the Erie Canal's bicentennial in 2017, Overcoming Niagara explores the transnational nature of the canal age within the Niagara–Great Lakes borderland, and its impact on the commercial and cultural landscape of this porous region. Janet Dorothy Larkin has taught history at several colleges and universities and specializes in early nineteenth-century American history with a focus on the United States–Canada borderland.

Author : James D. McNiven
Publisher : Wheatmark, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1627871411
Total Pages : 579 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Yankee Road written by James D. McNiven and published by Wheatmark, Inc.. This book was released on 2015 with total page 579 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Brenda Z. Guiberson
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company (BYR)
ISBN 13 : 125089056X
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Yours 'Til Niagara Falls written by Brenda Z. Guiberson and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling, fact-filled history of Niagara Falls, following its evolution from the age of dinosaurs to its future disintegration. Millions of years ago, Niagara Falls was not a waterfall. Back then, ocean covered the land. Eighteen thousand years ago, all that water was locked up in ice. Then 12,500 years ago, the ice melted! It gushed into lakes that flowed into a river that plunged over a steep cliff. Crash! Roar! Sploosh! That was the noisy beginning of one of the world’s most majestic waterfalls. Experience the incredible history of this misty, mystical cascade of water, told from the perspective of Niagara Falls itself. Godwin Books

Author : Andrew A. Robichaud
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674243196
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Animal City written by Andrew A. Robichaud and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do America’s cities look the way they do? If we want to know the answer, we should start by looking at our relationship with animals. Americans once lived alongside animals. They raised them, worked them, ate them, and lived off their products. This was true not just in rural areas but also in cities, which were crowded with livestock and beasts of burden. But as urban areas grew in the nineteenth century, these relationships changed. Slaughterhouses, dairies, and hog ranches receded into suburbs and hinterlands. Milk and meat increasingly came from stores, while the family cow and pig gave way to the household pet. This great shift, Andrew Robichaud reveals, transformed people’s relationships with animals and nature and radically altered ideas about what it means to be human. As Animal City illustrates, these transformations in human and animal lives were not inevitable results of population growth but rather followed decades of social and political struggles. City officials sought to control urban animal populations and developed sweeping regulatory powers that ushered in new forms of urban life. Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals worked to enhance certain animals’ moral standing in law and culture, in turn inspiring new child welfare laws and spurring other wide-ranging reforms. The animal city is still with us today. The urban landscapes we inhabit are products of the transformations of the nineteenth century. From urban development to environmental inequality, our cities still bear the scars of the domestication of urban America.

Author : Peter H. Christensen
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 150174979X
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Buffalo at the Crossroads written by Peter H. Christensen and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buffalo at the Crossroads is a diverse set of cutting-edge essays. Twelve authors highlight the outsized importance of Buffalo, New York, within the story of American urbanism. Across the collection, they consider the history of Buffalo's built environment in light of contemporary developments and in relationship to the evolving interplay between nature, industry, and architecture. The essays examine Buffalo's architectural heritage in rich context: the Second Industrial Revolution; the City Beautiful movement; world's fairs; grain, railroad, and shipping industries; urban renewal and so-called white flight; and the larger networks of labor and production that set the city's economic fate. The contributors pay attention to currents that connect contemporary architectural work in Buffalo to the legacies established by its esteemed architectural founders: Richardson, Olmsted, Adler, Sullivan, Bethune, Wright, Saarinen, and others. Buffalo at the Crossroads is a compelling introduction to Buffalo's architecture and developed landscape that will frame discussion about the city for years to come. Contributors: Marta Cieslak, University of Arkansas - Little Rock; Francis R. Kowsky; Erkin Özay, University at Buffalo; Jack Quinan, University at Buffalo; A. Joan Saab, University of Rochester; Annie Schentag, KTA Preservation Specialists; Hadas Steiner, University at Buffalo; Julia Tulke, University of Rochester; Stewart Weaver, University of Rochester; Mary N. Woods, Cornell University; Claire Zimmerman, University of Michigan

Author : Katherine Dugan
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 1531504892
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book American Patroness written by Katherine Dugan and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2024-01-02 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vital collection of interdisciplinary essays that illuminates the significance of Marian shrines and promises to teach scholars how to “read” them for decades to come. American Patroness: Marian Shrines and the Making of US Catholicism is a collection of twelve essays that examine the historical and contemporary roles of Marian shrines in US Catholicism. The essays in this collection use historical, ethnographic, and comparative methods to explore how Catholics have used Marian devotion to make an imprint on the physical and religious landscape of the United States. Using the dynamic malleability of Marian shrines as a starting place for studying US Catholicism, each chapter reconsiders the American religious landscape from the perspective of a single shrine to Mary and asks: What does this shrine reveal about US Catholicism and about American religion? Each of the contributors in American Patroness examines why and how Marian shrines persist in the twenty-first century and subsequently uses that examination to re-read contemporary US Catholicism. Because shrines are not neutral spaces—they reflect and shape the elastic yet strict boundaries of what counts as Catholic identity, and who controls prayer practices—the studies in this collection also shed light on the contested dynamics of these holy sites. American Patroness demonstrates that Marian shrines continue to be places where an American Catholic identity is continuously worked on, negotiations about power occur, and Marian relationships are fostered and nurtured in spaces that are simultaneously public and intimate.

Author : Martin V. Melosi
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000592634
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Water in North American Environmental History written by Martin V. Melosi and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water in North American Environmental History offers 25 cases studies that explore the range of uses and perceptions of water throughout Canadian, Mexican, and United States history. Water has served a myriad of purposes historically as human sustenance, agricultural irrigation, sanitation, fire protection, military defense, power generation, transportation, and much more. Water and its uses provide an excellent entrée into the study of humans and the environment, not only because water is a vital resource for life, but also because water as a medium is so intimately woven into the everyday experiences of humans and into society’s economic, political, and social fabric. A North American perspective is not representative of the world’s water use, but it is an area with a linked history and many overlapping human and environmental features and concerns. With a continental perspective, the book explores many disparate topics without being confined to the history and experiences of just one country. The chapters are short, but descriptive, and departure points for what they tell us about the human experience in dealing with water and the environmental implications of water use. The text leads students to consider water in relation to society, and to the past. The book will be of interest to students of environmental history, geography, and the environmental sciences.

Author : Todd Miller
Publisher : City Lights Publishers
ISBN 13 : 0872866327
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Border Patrol Nation written by Todd Miller and published by City Lights Publishers. This book was released on 2014-03-24 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In his scathing and deeply reported examination of the U.S. Border Patrol, Todd Miller argues that the agency has gone rogue since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, trampling on the dignity and rights of the undocumented with military-style tactics. . . . Miller's book arrives at a moment when it appears that part of the Homeland Security apparatus is backpedaling by promising to tone down its tactics, maybe prodded by investigative journalism, maybe by the revelations of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. . . . Border Patrol is quite possibly the right book at the right time . . . "--Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times “At the start of his unsettling and important new book, Border Patrol Nation, Miller observes that these days 'it is common to see the Border Patrol in places--such as Erie, Pennsylvania; Rochester, New York; or Forks, Washington--where only fifteen years ago it would have seemed far-fetched, if not unfathomable.'”--Barbara Spindel, Christian Science Monitor "Miller’s approach in Border Patrol Nation is to offer a glimpse into the secretive operations of the Border Patrol, reporting with a journalist’s objectivity and nose for a good story. Miller’s book is full of facts, and it’s clear he’s outraged, but he gives voices to people on every side of the issue. . . . Miller’s book is a fascinating read.. . . and bring the work of Susan Orlean to mind."--Amanda Eyre Ward Kirkus Reviews "Todd Miller's invaluable and gripping book, Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security is the story of how this country’s borders are being transformed into up-armored, heavily militarized zones run by a border-industrial complex. It's an achievement and an eye opener."--Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch "What Jeremy Scahill was to Blackwater, Todd Miller is to the U.S. Border Patrol!"--Tom Miller, author, On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier "Todd Miller has entered a secret world, and he has gone deep. . . . Powerful."--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway: A True Story "Journalist Miller tells an alarming story of U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security's ever-widening reach into the lives of American citizens and legal immigrants as well as the undocumented. In addition to readers interested in immigration issues, those concerned about the NSA’s privacy violations will likely be even more shocked by the actions of Homeland Security."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review Armed authorities watch from a military-grade surveillance tower as lines of people stream toward the security checkpoint, tickets in hand, anxious and excited to get through the gate. Few seem to notice or care that the US Border Patrol is monitoring the Super Bowl, as they have for years, one of the many ways that forces created to police the borders are now being used, in an increasingly militarized fashion, to survey and monitor the whole of American society. In fast-paced prose, Todd Miller sounds an alarm as he chronicles the changing landscape. Traveling the country—and beyond—to speak with the people most involved with and impacted by the Border Patrol, he combines these first-hand encounters with careful research to expose a vast and booming industry for high-end technology, weapons, surveillance, and prisons. While politicians and corporations reap substantial profits, the experiences of millions of men, women, and children point to staggering humanitarian consequences. Border Patrol Nation shows us in stark relief how the entire country has become a militarized border zone, with consequences that affect us all. Todd Miller has worked on and written about US border issues for over fifteen years.