Book Description
A rich historical and personal portrait of Manhattan from the bestselling writer who is for many the living embodiment of the city.
Manhattan, the keystone of New York City, is a place of ghosts and buried memory. One can still see remnants of the British colony, the mansions of the robber barons, and the speakeasies of the 1920s. These are the places that have captivated the imaginations of writers for centuries. Now Pete Hamill brings his unique knowledge and deep love of the city to a New York chronicle like no other.
During his 40 years as a newspaperman, Pete Hamill has been getting to know Manhattans neighborhoods and inhabitants intimately, bearing witness to their greatest triumphs and tragedies. From the winding, bohemian streets of Greenwich Village to the seedy alleyways of the meatpacking district and to the weathered cobblestones of South Street Seaport, Hamill peels back the layers of history to reveal the citys past, present, and future.
More than just history or reporting, this is an elegy by a native son who has lived through some of New Yorks most historic moments, and who continues to call this magnificent, haunted city his home.
Customer Reviews:
a gem of a tour through Manhattan..........2007-04-20
being an ex-NYer and having been changed forever by the years I lived there this book was a whirlwind tour through my favorite city. Pete Hamill knows his history and takes you through the history of buildings, people and the vibrant city that it's always been. Parsing bits of his own life with the life of the city it's like being on personal guided tour by one of NY's finest writers. My only problem was it was too short, I wanted to read more.
Romancing the Island.......2006-09-20
Mr. Hamill takes on every bit of New York and discusses why he loves even the worst parts of it. He crafts a walk downtown thru the 1800's past buildings and men who shaped this city and produces a novel that inspires.
Start Spreading the News..........2006-08-28
This book was much more than I had expected. Thinking that it would be more autobiographical, I was pleasantly suprised to find that it was really the story of New York City, specifically the downtown area of Manhattan. Being a native New Yorker, Hamill gives great insight not only into the historical facts surrounding the city's origin, but also its lore, its people, its music, its drama, and its tradition. This book is so heaped with history, yet it reads so easily like a great love story. Like most New Yorkers, the names and faces of those who came before are soon forgotten, but Hamill brings them back to life again in a very real way. He leaves us with this feeling of connectedness to our past and a sense of longing nostalgia for old New York. However, he reminds us that New Yorkers do not live in the past and that self-pity is a mortal sin. The story of New York is very much one of constant difficult change, earned renewal, progressiveness, tolerance and optimism. These traits have been a part of the city since its origins and more important than ever as we see these traits come alive once again after 9/11. This book is a treasure to anyone who loves New York and wants to understand its history and its people without having to sift through textbooks that only gives facts. Put your vagabond reading glasses on and be a part of it.
A Lyrical and Lucid Glance at New York.......2006-02-24
Pete Hamill's "Downtown: My Manhattan" is part of the latest spate of books that combine personal New York City experience and New York City history, as do Colson Whitehead's "The Colossus of New York" (in a way) and Phillip Lopate's "Waterfront". However, Hamill's is as different from those two other books as those two books are different from each other. I don't know what is causing these authors to write such material--maybe the nostalgia brought about by the horrors of 9/11--but I'm glad they did.
Nostalgia is the key word for Hamill's "Downtown". And it is not just the strong, personal nostalgia that Hamill luxuriates in: it's also the nostalgia that every true New Yorker feels for his City. Whether it was the Dutch or British who longed for their roots in the "Old World", as did the Irish, Eastern Europeans, Italians, Asians, Latinos, etc., or the people born here who cherish the memories of people and places now locked forever in the past, New York's ever-changing "scene" quickly compels our present into history. Hamill's sensitivity to this is brilliantly conveyed on every page.
However, "Downtown" is by no means a treacly, misty-eyed glimpse backward. It is a studied and educational examination of several of New York's neighborhoods--some well-known, some not. The pieces about the Bowling Green area and Times Square were the most fascinating.
What, to me, is special about this history is how it intertwines with other histories: with America's history, with Hamill's history, with my history, and, if you are a New Yorker, your history. I could not put down "Downtown"; in fact, I read it cover to cover in two sittings (I had to go to sleep) and then read it again. It's that amazing a book.
Pete Hamill's Downtown.......2006-02-22
Ex-newspaper editor of the New York Post and New York Daily News, Pete Hamill, was born in Brooklyn, moved around a bit, and returned to Manhattan where he lives and works. Having intimate knowledge of a city so revered, respected, and loved, but also scary and intimidating such as New York City, is surely grist for many a writer. Each time there are different aspects a writer will concentrate on, and many times one will not see what the other does, hence the many books on or about this awe-inspiring place. Mr. Hamill has a fluidity about his account which makes for easy, interesting, and page-turning reading about "his" downtown in Manhattan. It's a compelling read as Hamill tells the history of New York - easy to follow and it all fits into place - unlike other confusing "historical" accounts I've come across. From the late 1700s and through the 1800s and 1900s, so much exquisite change flourished in the then, and now, ever-growing city of New York. He not only covers the buildings and streets and avenues, but also the many peoples (the Dutch, the English, the Germans, Russians, Italians, Irish, and so many more) who so long ago had a huge hand in shaping the city.
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Downtown: My Manhattan
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0739453750 |
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Downtown: My Manhattan
Pete Hamill
Manufacturer: RB Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 New York
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| Americas
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ASIN: 1419327615 |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly:
Hamill has spent most of his life in New York City, and he knows its history and its pulse intimately. In this paean to his hometown, he moves from southernmost Manhattan to its center, and from the city's origins to its current state. Each CD focuses on one area, beginning with Battery Park and working through Trinity Church, the Bowery and the Villages before jumping to the city's heart: Times Square. The only sound effects (brief jazzy riffs) can be heard at the beginning and end of each disc, and the stark quiet of Hamill's narration seems odd for a book about such a noisy city. However, his gruff, seen-it-all voice, filled alternately with wonder at the beauty of a building, disdain for modern trends and indignation at how some worthy historical character has been forgotten, is that of a wise older relative revealing the true past of a place he loves. He speaks often of the "human alloy" of new and old immigrants that comprises Manhattan, and intersperses his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn and coming of age in the Lower East Side. Hamill's narration is somewhat monotonous, but his way of traveling seamlessly through neighborhoods and years, relating fascinating anecdotes and little-known facts, keeps the tour lively. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 15, 2004). (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Downtown: My Manhatten
Pete Hamill
Manufacturer: Books On Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 1415908257 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Irish Literary Supplement, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1597 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Wonderful town.(Downtown: My Manhattan New York)(Book Review)
Author: Vivian Valvano Lynch
Publication:
Irish Literary Supplement (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 25
Issue: 1
Page: 22(1)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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- A "kriegy" tells his story
- Superbly informative, engaging, eye-witness reading.
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Americans Behind the Barbed Wire: World War II--Inside a German POW Camp
J. Frank Diggs , and
J. Diggs
Manufacturer: I Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0743474821 |
Book Description
They went from being soldiers fighting on the front line to being prisoners of war-"kriegies"-fighting for survival. Imprisoned behind the barbed wire of a German POW camp, their enemies were hunger, cold, and boredom. This is the uplifting story of endurance, sacrifice, and courage that never made the headlines, but was just as real as the great battles of World War II.
Customer Reviews:
A "kriegy" tells his story.......2004-11-14
"Americans Behind the Barbed Wire" is J. Frank Diggs' memoir of life in a German-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. A short author bio at the start of the book notes that after the war Diggs spent nearly 40 years as a writer, reporter, and editor with "U.S. News and World Report."
Diggs recalls serving as an American military officer and being captured by the Germans. He winds up in a POW camp in Poland. The book vividly recalls the realities of life in camp: the cold, lack of sufficient food, and elaborate escape attempts. Most remarkable is the way Diggs and the other "kriegies" (that's a slang term they used for inmates) truly formed a community. They developed their own subculture that resisted the German captors in both blatant and subtle ways. Diggs offers fascinating details about the camp newspaper, the educational system the inmates developed in order to make constructive use of their time, and much more.
Diggs creates affectionate portraits of fellow kriegies who used their talents to make imprisonment more bearable for their fellow Americans. He also discusses the important role played by Henry Soederberg, an international YMCA representative who was allowed to make humanitarian visits to the camp. The book also covers Diggs' odyssey after leaving the camp.
The book includes an appendix with excerpts from the Geneva Convention. Indeed, Diggs' narrative is not just a fascinating personal narrative, but raises issues pertaining to POW treatment that remain relevant. As an intriguing companion text, I would recommend a narrative of Japanese-American internment during WW2, such as Yoshiko Uchida's "Desert Exile" or Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston's "Farewell to Manzanar."
Superbly informative, engaging, eye-witness reading........2000-02-04
In Americans Behind The Barbed Wire, author Frank Diggs shares his unique view of World War II that he gained from the inside of Oflag 64, a German POW camp located in Schubin Poland. Diggs and his fellow "kriegies" (German guard slang for prisoners), demonstrates the resoluteness and sense of purpose shared by his fellow POWs. As kriegies they worked and plotted for more food, searched for more heat and warm clothes, worked to improve themselves and their condition, established a camp newspaper to help improve the flow of information and relieve the mind-numbing boredom. Above all, they never stopped striving for their freedom. Americans Behind The Barbed Wire catches a glimpse of history that never made the headlines, but was just as real a war-time condition as aerial bombing, submarine warfare, or amphibious lands. Americans Behind The Barbed Wire also includes a diary of the author's escape from the Germans and (along with many of his fellow prisoners) their involvement in the Russian/American repatriation crises at the end of the war, as well as their eventual return to the United States. Americans Behind The Barbed Wire is a superbly informative, engaging, invaluable contribution to the growing library of World War II personal histories.
Amazon.com
Students of politics and political reporting should cheer: This too- long-out-of-print classic is coming back. The book and the campaign it covered are throwbacks to an era more and more citizens, increasingly mired in sound-bites and tabloidism, are at least subconsciously desperate to resuscitate. You'll be amazed at how knowledgeable (and sometimes even wise) both White and the candidates he covers--Kennedy and Nixon--seem. Yes, it was too good to be true, but what a nice idea.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, well written history of a milestone election.......2007-08-29
I very much enjoyed reading this book - having polished it off in a day. This book really takes you back into a very different era of American politics and culture. Indeed, there were only 3 major television networks, 2 wire services (which fed local newspapers), and no cable or internet. Moreover, the Presidential nomination process was quite different from what it is today. Back then, party conventions actually conducted substantive business, with deals and compromises being made, and floor battles beign waged (whereas today's conventions are largely a waste of time and money). Also, both major Presidential candidates sought to carry the broad segment of the electorate, jot just certain geographic regions (there was not the concept of "Red" states and "Blue" states that exists today - many of the states were "in play" for most of the campaign).
I also enjoyed Mr. White's interesting analysis of American culture and society, circa 1960. He takes readers through a colorful discussion of trends and changes that have occurred and connects them with the political scene. This definitely puts the unfolding of the campaign and election into a greater perspective.
I have read a number of criticisms that Mr. White was unduly biased toward John F. Kennedy in this book. I do not see this as being accurate - he does not present Kennedy as a some sort of secular saint. Moreover, (and I am no great admirer of Kennedy), Kennedy did have a great deal of charisma that almost lent itself to postive press coverage. In a later book, Mr. White takes a similar tack toward Ronald Reagan. Mr. White does show some empathy toward Richard Nixon, though he rightly cricizes him for not making better use of President Eisenhower's immense popularity and goodwill with the American people. Nixon, of course, will ultimately win a Presidential contest, though under a different set of circumstances.
Interestingly, I don't think that either Kennedy or Nixon would have won their respective party's Presidential nomination in the current political climate. This is because both men were, at heart, center-leaning pragmatists, not given to being in lockstep with the ideological orthodoxy that exists today in both parties.
On a critical note, Mr. White does not mention the controversial election returns that took place in Chicago and Texas, or about the dubious (to put it nicely) dealings of Joseph P. Kennedy, who took an active role in the campaign, despite an appearance of aloofness. I think that Mr. White should have included this, and that doing so would not have harmed the book.
A well-paced book.......2007-08-12
While it would seem this book would be very dated, I found it to be incredibly interesting and unintentionally relevant to the modern political world. First though, the book reads incredibly easy. Ted White was a journalist and thus this feels more like a direct piece, rather than an academic's thesis. The story of the election moves along with a few pauses for in-depth analysis. The focus shifts in every chapter, so it doesn't become monotonous.
I especially liked reading the book because it was about John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon and written from a perspective that is hard to find: before JFK was shot and Nixon resigned. Instead the book treats them just as two young pols, eager to ascend to the highest office.
Additionally, many of the positions of the Democrats and Republicans, as well as response by the American people seems unchanged despite the past nearly 50 years. Looking at the parties as they began to form their present state provides insight into how our political scene today developed.
All in all, I recommend this book to anyone who's interested either in Nixon, Kennedy, or presidential campaigning in general. They'll find it almost humorous in how some descriptions written in 1961 still apply in 2007, and how most tactics are still being used.
Interesting view, primarily from the Kennedy side of campaign.......2007-05-17
Gave a great deal of insight into the Kennedy campaigns, but less useful comparison from Nixon side. Would have been more useful if were more equal, as was the campaign of the insider against the new face, but the writer was more involved with the Kennedy side. Nonetheless, gave some insight on both sides.
Not as sure as some historians are that it is going to give much added understanding of how the 2008 campaigns are likely to be run, or the problems they are going to face.
A Lively History that presages Today.......2006-02-25
I reread this recently to provide context to today's turmoil. Ted White gives us a hint 45 years ago of the two parties and the process of becoming the leader of the US. It is extremely readable and most informative.
Creating Camelot.......2005-08-11
On a desolate Wisconsin road, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy quizzes his driver about the smelts in Lake Superior and reveals a boundless curiosity. His Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, addresses an audience "the way the man in a white smock selling an analgesic does on the television screen."
Before "The Making Of The President 1960," writing about presidential races was stiff and by-the-numbers. Author Theodore H. White saw the potential to capture a democratic nation in transition with near-stroboscopic precision, not to mention all the hothouse drama and character that tended to get swept away with the ballot stubs on Election Day.
The book won a Pulitzer, coined a lingering phrase in its title, and became the first of four successive presidential campaign write-ups by White. More significantly, and perhaps more to the point of its winning the Pulitzer, it presented a lovingly detailed account of Kennedy's victory. The first man born in the 20th century to win the presidency, Kennedy seemed to augur a transformation of the Republic from stolid, old-fashioned virtues to something fresh and dynamic, a compassionate liberalism willing to stretch further than Roosevelt's stodgy New Deal, and there were many in the writing class like White who saw this as something worth celebrating.
"Imagine, just imagine kids who never drink milk," Kennedy asks aloud while visiting the poor hills of West Virginia, a state he manfully toils in despite deep suspicions there about his Catholic faith.
White was writing about himself as well describing Kennedy's "national press cult," but his close identification with the Democrat helps more than hurts "Making '60." He starts the book with a characteristically atmospheric look at the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts, a lonely gull floating over the Hyannisport shore while the candidate, finally away from the cameras on Election Day, shows confidants the calluses and scratches from all the flesh-pressing he did.
Of course, Kennedy benefited from having Dick Nixon to kick around. I almost wrote "Kennedy and White" in the last sentence, but White doesn't attack Nixon so much as expose a degree of torpor in his campaign, noting that Nixon was less hard-boiled than his opponent. For a long period, Nixon avoided saying anything negative, fearful it would only augment the Neanderthal image the press had saddled him with. Then, during the first-ever televised debate, Nixon made the mistake of focusing on the ideas at hand while Kennedy played to the cameras, looking terrific.
Unlike Kennedy, Nixon didn't give White an interview, let alone invite him to hang out with his inner circle. White doesn't provide the less seemly details of Kennedy's rise, like the rumors of cooked vote tabulations in Chicago and West Virginia, and only raises the issue of what role his father's money played as something to refute. But White gives you a sense of riding alongside Kennedy as he rises to his moment of history, and communicates such exhilaration relating the details of democracy in action, it's understandable why so many political journalists point to "Making '60" as a key influence in their career choice.
The only problem I had with "Making '60" was a long chapter about the 1960 census, and what it says about the shifting character of the nation. This is White at his most tedious. As he burrows into numbers and data points, we lose the human connection and sense of everyday life that makes the rest of his book so alive.
It's a shame the other "Making Of..." books are out of print; all are worthy histories and the final two are more compelling than this, as White's rose-colored glasses came off and his ability to sense history grew sharper. But he was off to a fine start.
Product Description
1961 Common Reader Classic Bestseller. A narrative history of American politics in action. 2004 Barnes and Noble edition.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant political writing.......2007-06-22
A reprint of the original edition from 1961; has the look and feel of a classic, especially if you are too poor to own one. Amazing photos of the Kennedy campaign.
Amazon.com
A photographic account of Jackie's life as First Lady by the man who took some of the couple's most famous portraits: Jack and Jackie with baby Caroline nibbling on Jackie's pearls; Jackie at Hyannis Port wearing a fabulous yellow and white check dress; the couple on a trip to Paris. Lowe is an exceptional photographer, and of course the Kennedys make an excellent subject as Jackie herself is the very essence of photogenic. The result is a glowing record of the First Lady.
Customer Reviews:
A REAL TREASURE.......2000-08-08
Jacques Lowe is a wonderful photographer, which is evident in these wonderful photographs of Jackie Kennedy. Thank you, Jacques, for creating such a beautiful book. FOR QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSIONS ABOUT JACKIE ONASSIS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT MellissaLD@aol.com. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A great coffee table book!.......1998-07-05
The photographs of the young Mrs. Kennedy are absolutely spectacular. Congratulations Jacques!
Book Description
This book examines national fair housing policy from 1960 through 2000 in the context of the American presidency and the country's segregated suburban housing market. Arguing that a principal reason for suburban housing segregation lies in Richard Nixon's 1971 fair housing policy, it traces Nixon's housing legacy through each presidential administration from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton and as detected in the decisions of Nixon's Federal Court appointees.
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The Handbook of Aviculture
Frank Woolham
Manufacturer: Blandford
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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ASIN: 071371428X |
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