American History Revised (82 page)

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Authors: Jr. Seymour Morris

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The Twitter of Its Day

Mark Twain,
1601, and Is Shakespeare Dead?
, p. 7; Lawrence Levine, “William Shakespeare in America,”
Highbrow/Lowbrow
, p. 17–20, 25, 28, 32; Nigel Cliff,
The Shakespeare Riots
, p. 13–18;
www.shakespeareinamericanlife.org
.

Transforming the Shopping Experience

“best known man” from Thomas Kessner,
Capital City
, p. 37; retailing innovation from Bellamy Partridge and Otto Bettman,
As We Were: Family Life in America, 1850–1900
, p. 108; Wolfgang Schivelbusch,
The Railway Journey
, pp. 188–90; Ulysses Grant story from William S. McFeely,
Grant
, p. 10; see Stephen N. Elias,
Alexander T. Stewart.

A Country of 300 Local Times

Railroad compared to the church from Thomas Kessner,
Capital City
, p. 96; 4.8 mph from L. J. K. Setright,
Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car
, p. 7; Vanderbilt time from John Steele Gordon,
An Empire of Wealth
, p. 236; see Jack Beatty, “The Track to Modernity,”
Atlantic Monthly
, January 2003.

Answering the Phone

Telegraph from Henry David Thoreau,
Walden
, p. 52; Rutherford Hayes quote from Cerf and Navasky,
The Experts Speak
, p. 206; Cleveland answering his own phone from Thomas A. Bailey,
Presidential Greatness
, p. 37.

America in 1900

William Randolph Hearst from Judy Crichton,
America 1900
, p. 2; “electric changing stations” from James Surowieki,
The Wisdom of Crowds
, p. 25; automobile imports from James J. Flink,
The Automobile Age
, pp. 13, 19.

Belief in Infallibility …

Carpathia
captain quote from Marshall Everett,
Wreck and Sinking of the
Titanic, p. 255; British Inquiry judgment of Captain Smith,
Carpathia
extra precautions, Lightoller quote, Captain Smith quote, photo and
Carpathia
captain quote from Mark Chirnside,
The
Olympic
-Class Ships
, pp. 212–13, 187, 205, 70, 186, and 79; essential rule of good seamanship from Captain L. M. Collins,
The Sinking of the
Titanic, pp. 137, 34, 99; survivor lookout quote from Tom Kuntz, ed.,
The
Titanic
Disaster Hearings
, p. 178; Daniel Allen Butler quote from letter to the author, July 15, 2009; see Butler,
The Other Side of the Night.

The Might of General Motors

David Halberstam,
The Fifties
, p. 118; Harlow Curtice from Richard Beales, “GM Swings a Cautionary Tale on Deficit,” London
Financial Times
, April 29–30, 2006, p. 11; Douglas Brinkley,
Wheels for the World
, pp. 525–28; Peter F. Drucker,
Adventures of a Bystander
, p. 292; Toyota from John Dower,
Embracing Defeat
, p. 512.

Recycling Coca-Cola Bottles

Phil Patton,
Made in U.S.A.
, p. 24.

FOUR
: American Self-Identity and Ideals

David Brooks,
New York Times
, May 24, 2009, book review section, p. 6; Tocqueville from Howard Fineman,
The Thirteen American Arguments
, p. 19; “log cabin built with his own hands” from Stephen B. Adams,
Mr. Kaiser Goes to Washington
, p. 5; Emerson from David Walker Howe,
What Hath God Wrought
, p. 853; Adams, Wilson, and TR from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Disuniting of America
, pp. 25, 35, 118; Washington from Andrew Roberts,
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
, p. 23; Baron von Steuben from Robert Harvey,
A Few Bloody Noses
, p. 291, and A. J. Langguth,
Patriots
, p. 470; Thoreau, Agar, Macaulay, and Henry Ford from John Lukacs,
Outgrowing Democracy
, pp. 157, 161, 37–38; Emerson from Christophe Canto and Odile Faliu,
The History of the Future
, p. 85; Benjamin Franklin quoted by Gerald J. Gruman in
http:///www.cyron-ics.org/prefacela.html
; David Halberstam and Earl Warren “no dissents” from David Halberstam, ed.,
Defining a Nation
, pp. 20, 80; Gladstone from Maxim E. Armbruster,
The Presidents of the United States
, p. 85; American abundance from David M. Potter,
People of Plenty
, pp. 134–41; Earl Warren sports pages from LeRoy Ashby,
With Amusement for All
, p. 284.

Did Slavery Generate Racism …

Henry N. Drewry, “Slavery and the Plantation,” in Rhoda L. Goldstein, ed.,
Black Life and Culture in the United States
, pp. 116, 118, 127–29; Thomas Jefferson from
Notes on the State of Virginia
, Query XVIII, 1787,
www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/jevifram.htm
; Frederick Law Olmsted,
The Cotton Kingdom
, vol. 2, pp. 275, 280, 281; Colin Powell from
Newsweek
, Oct. 10, 1994, p. 32.

The Plaque with No Name

Geoffrey C. Ward, “The Great Traitor,”
American Heritage
, May–June 1994, pp. 14, 16; see Clare Brandt,
The Man in the Mirror.

Twenty-Four Hours that Changed the World

Dennis Brindell Fradin,
The Signers
, introduction p. viii–ix, p. 32, illustration p. 38; A. J. Langguth,
Patriots
, pp. 342, 359–63; smallpox scare from Charles C. Mann,
1491
, p. 107.

A Nation Legally, But Not Emotionally

English requirement from Don Cook,
The Long Fuse
, p. 368; New Jersey secession threat from Walter LaFeber,
The American Age
, pp. 47–48; only one British envoy, three New England governors, and new constitution from Richard J. Barnet,
The Rockets’ Red Glare
, pp. 24, 67–68; Garry Wills, “The Words That Remade America: Lincoln at Gettysburg,”
The Atlantic Monthly
, June 1992, p. 79; Marcus Cunliffe,
George Washington
, p. 155; Scott proposal from Clarence Macartney,
Lincoln and His Generals
, p. 17.

Religion, the Bane of Freedom

Alexis de Tocqueville,
Democracy in America
, p. 303; twelve colonial religions from Robert Leckie,
From Sea to Shining Sea
, p. 133; Quaker hangings from Kenneth C. Davis,
Don’t Know Much About History
, p. 29.

“We Think in English”

Alexander Hamilton from Richard J. Barnet,
The Rockets’ Red Glare
, p. 25; Nancy Astor from Andrew Roberts,
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
, p. 285; John Lukacs,
Outgrowing Democracy
, pp. 148–49; Nathan Rosenberg and L. E. Birdzell Jr.,
How the West Grew Rich
, pp. 116–17; John Adams from Paul Johnson,
A History of the American People
, p. 212; Benjamin Franklin from Gordon Wood,
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
, p. 197; John Locke, Horace Greeley, and the Homestead Act from John C. Weaver,
The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World 1650–1900
, pp. 48, 62, 66; Butler, Bismarck, and Hay from Roberts,
A History
, pp. 39, 5, 32; British Army Bureau of Current Affairs from Juliet Gardiner,
Wartime
, p. 470; Winston Churchill’s parents from Henry G. Prout,
George Westinghouse
, p. 8; British philologist from Roberts,
A History
, p. 572.

Generosity and Unselfishness

Howard Swiggett,
The Extraordinary Mr. Morris
, p. 441.

Black Affiliation with America …

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Disuniting of America
, pp. 82–84; African slave trade from Herbert S. Klein,
The Atlantic Slave Trade
, pp. 57, 72, 102, 103; blacks enslaving blacks from Nathan Huggins,
Black Odyssey: The Afro-American Ordeal in Slavery
, pp. 20, 22; Thomas Sowell from Duane Lester, “Five Black Minds Obama Supporters Should Get Behind,”
www.allamericanblogger.com/2655/five-black-minds-obama-supporters-should-get-behind.

Ban the Book!

William Noble,
Bookbanning in America
, pp. 209–10, 221, 269, 325–27; Concord, Massachusetts, public library banning from Baumann Rare Books ad,
New York Times Book Review
, Jan. 13, 1994, p. 13; Emerson from Louis Menand,
The Metaphysical Club
, p. 18; U.S. military from Richard Severo and Lewis Milford,
The Wages of War
, p. 292; Gore Vidal from Paul McLeary book review of Vidal’s
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
, March 10, 2002,
http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/march_2002/gore_vidal.html
.

Imaginative Philanthropy

James Bryce from Richard Severo and Lewis Milford,
The Wages of War
, p. 184; Carnegie quote from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande2.html
; Nathan Straus from John Steele Gordon, “Saint Straus,”
American Heritage
, July–August 1990, p. 14, 16; Edward Harkness from Samuel Eliot Morison,
Three Centuries of Harvard: 1636–1936
, p. 476; Julius Rosenwald from James V. Carmichael Jr., “Imaginative Philanthropy,”
American Heritage
, May–June 1994, Letters to the Editor, p. 12; Laszlo Tauber from Vance Packard,
The Ultra Rich
, pp. 122–23; Henry Aaron Yeomans,
Abbott Lawrence Lowell: 1856–1943
, pp. 182, 188, 189.

The Eastern View of the Wild West …

David McCullough,
Brave Companions
, p. 70.

Immortalized in Granite

Bruce Tindall and Mark Watson,
Did Mohawks Wear Mohawks?
, pp. 68–70.

Special Consideration …

David Brinkley,
Washington Goes to War
, p. 105; grandson quote about “sob stuff” from Curtis Roosevelt, “FDR: A Giant Despite His Disability,”
International Herald Tribune
, August 5, 1998, newspaper editorial, “Show FDR’s Disability,” and grandson’s quote “FDR guarded his condition closely” from David Roosevelt, “Show Him As He Wished,”
USA Today
, Dec. 7, 1994; FDR’s physical strength from Joseph Persico,
Roosevelt’s Secret War
, p. 221, and Winston S. Churchill,
The Second World War
, vol. 4,
The Hinge of Fate
, p. 338.

The Word “Impossible” …

Calvin Gene Sims, “Hoover Dam Was a Test of Engineers’ Theories,”
New York Times
, Oct. 15, 1985; Richard Wolkomir, “Inside the Lab and Out, Concrete Is More Than It’s Cracked Up to Be,”
Smithsonian
, Jan. 1994, p. 28; Marc Reisner,
Cadillac Desert
, p. 134; Samuel Eliot Morison,
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
, vol. IV, p. 81; Victor Davis Hanson,
Carnage and Culture
, pp. 373–75; Peter Elphick,
Liberty: The Ships that Won the War
, pp. 20, 80, 83, 91, 100; Samuel B. Adams,
Mr. Kaiser Goes to Washington
, p. 9; Frederic C. Lane,
Ships for Victory
, p. 258.

America’s Most Notable Aristocratic Family

FDR like “an English lord” from Harold Evans,
The American Century
, p. 238; TR genealogy from Kathleen Dalton,
Theodore Roosevelt
, p. 15; Roosevelt family lifestyle and newsboy anecdote from Betty Boyd Caroli,
The Roosevelt Women
, pp. 5, 7, 53, 75; Peter Collier, “The Roosevelt Dynasty,” in Brian Lamb, ed.,
Booknotes: Stories from American History
, pp. 230–33; China trade fortune from Edward P. Crapol,
John Tyler
, p. 132; H. Paul Jeffers,
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
, pp. 1, 3, 31–35; A. J. Liebling from Edward J. Renehan Jr.,
The Lion’s Pride
, p. 239.

History 101 …

Hamilton and Jefferson from Walter Williams, “Do We Want Democracy?”
http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1670
; Carl J. Vipperman,
William Lowndes and the Transition of American Politics
, p. xv; Adams from Walter Williams, “Are We a Republic or a Democracy?”
http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4080
; number of French governments from Gore Vidal,
United States: Essays 1952–2002
, p. 670.

FIVE
: A Warlike Nation, Not a Militarist One

Gen. Tommy Franks, Richard Armitage, Gen. Colin Powell, and George Washington from Andrew J. Bacevich,
The New American Militarism
, pp. 22, 24, 202, 214; Robert Leckie,
The Wars of Amer
ica, vol. II, p. 835; George Washington “Where’s the money?” from David McCullough,
1776
, p. 79; Washington and Eisenhower farewell address quotes from
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/johnson-chalmers3.html
; Gen. George Marshall from Earl Wavell,
Soldiers and Soldering
, p. 47; Congress belief in short war from Thomas Fleming,
1776: Year of Illusions
, p. 38, and Thomas K. McCraw,
The American Scholar
, Winter 1994, pp. 42, 50; 1791–97 interest payments from Lewis H. Kimmel,
Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy, 1789–1958
, p. 10; $2 billion cost to compensate slave owners, and value of the slaves, from Paul Johnson,
A History of the American People
, pp. 312, 557; post–Civil War downsizing from Robert Leckie,
The Wars of America
, vol. I, pp. 538–39; post–World War II downsizing and Soviet strength from Ronald Schaffer,
Wings of Judgment
, pp. 190–91; FDR refusing to launch a preemptive strike from Harold Evans,
The American Century
, p. 308; Truman and U.S. eagle from David McCullough,
Truman
, pp. 474, 488; John Freeman Clarke from John Lukacs, “America and Russia, Americans and Russians,”
American Heritage
, Feb.–March 1992, p. 66; Oliver Wendell Holmes from Louis Menand,
The Metaphysical Club
, p. 45; Charles Eliot from Barbara Tuchman,
Practicing History
, p. 35; National Security Council from Peter G. Peterson,
Facing Up
, pp. 187–88; Abraham Lincoln as military leader from Stephen B. Oates,
Abraham Lincoln
, p. 128.

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