October 2023 MBR The American History Shelf

The American History Shelf

Before the Gilded Age
Mark L. Godlstein
Georgetown University Press
www.press.georgetown.edu
9781647123611, $29.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Before-Gilded-Age-Corcoran-American/dp/1647123615

Synopsis: The Gilded Age is a term coined by Mark Twain and used by some historians to refer roughly to the period between 1877 to 1900.

With the publication of "Before the Gilded Age: W. W. Corcoran and the Rise of American Capital and Culture", Mark L. Goldstein reveals the extraordinary ways in which entrepreneur W. W. Corcoran shaped the emerging cultural elite and changed the capital and the country both for better and for worse. A complex and controversial character, Corcoran influenced banking and finance, art and American culture, philanthropy, and the nation's capital.

Based on extensive archival research, "Before the Gilded Age" examines the fascinating life of an entrepreneur ahead of his time. A generation before Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller donated vast sums of money, Corcoran gave away most of his fortune and helped shape American philanthropy. His dedication to landscaping the emerging National Mall predates plans for New York's Central Park. Other legacies included cofounding the Riggs Bank and founding the Corcoran Gallery of Art, whose collection has been dispersed among other arts organizations in Washington, DC, including the National Gallery of Art.

As a biographer, historian, and author, Mark L. Goldstein provides a colorful account of a political chameleon who successfully transcended political party, geography, and ideology to become one of the richest and most influential people in the country even as he navigated such controversies as rumors that he was linked to plots to kill President Lincoln. "Before the Gilded Age" also offers readers a detailed historical perspective on the development of banking, investing, lobbying, art collecting, and philanthropy.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of an eight page Introduction, forty-six pages of Notes, a sixteen page Bibliography, and an eight page Index, "Before the Gilded Age: W. W. Corcoran and the Rise of American Capital and Culture" is a seminal work of detailed and meticulous scholarship resulting in an exceptionally well written and impressively comprehensive biography that is unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library 19th Century American History/Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Before the Gilded Age" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49).

Editorial Note: Mark L. Goldstein has held senior positions at the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the US Government Accountability Office. He holds a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University and a PhD in US history from the University of Maryland, College Park.

A History of Boston
Daniel Dain, author
Peter Vanderwarker, photographer
Peter E. Randall Publisher
www.perpublisher.com
9781942155614, $55.00, HC, 832pp

https://www.amazon.com/History-Boston-Daniel-Dain/dp/1942155611

Synopsis: Boston is today one of the world's greatest cities, first in higher education, hospitals, life science companies, and sports teams. It was the home of the Great Puritan Migration, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the first civil rights movement, the abolition movement, and the women's rights movement.

But the city that gave us the first use of ether as anesthesia, the telephone, technicolor film, and the mutual fund (the city where Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott founded their world-changing partnership) was also the hub of the anti-immigration movement, the divisive race-based busing era, and decades of self-inflicted decay.

Boston has the most important history of any American city. Yet its history has never been given a comprehensive treatment until now. With the publication of "A History of Boston", author and history Dan Dain provides a tour guide through the city's history from the arrival of First Peoples up to the election of Boston's first woman and person of color as mayor. Dain's masterful historical study explores the policies and practices that took Boston from its highest heights to its lowest lows and back again, and examines the central role that density, diversity, and good urban design play in the success of cities like Boston.

Critique: This hefty edition (7.5 x 2 x 10.5 inches, 3.5 pounds) of "A History of Boston" features contemporary photographs by Peter Vanderwarker and is impressively researched, detailed, documented, and informative, as well as thoroughly 'reader friendly' in both organization and presentation by Daniel Dain. While an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library American History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "A History of Boston" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note #1: Daniel Dain was born in Boston and grew up in Newton before leaving the area to attend Vassar College and Michigan Law School. Since then, he has spent his entire professional career as a lawyer in Boston, working with commercial property owners and developers on issues related to their use and development of real estate. Dan is the founder and president of the law firm Dain Torpy, where he chairs the firm's real estate litigation practice. He writes and lectures widely on land-use law and urban planning. Dan is active in the community. He loves giving tours of Boston to friends and visitors, and is known for his ability to give restaurant recommendations for any cuisine or location around Greater Boston.

Editorial Note #2: Peter Vanderwarker is a photographer and artist. His photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Recent exhibitions include The Language of Landscape at Gallery NAGA, 2023; Seaport Views at the US District Courthouse in 2016; and Vanderwarker's Pantheon, at the Boston Athenaeum in 2009. Vanderwarker's work received Institute Honors from the American Institute of Architects in 1991. Peter has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from University of California, Berkeley, and he was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University in 1997. His work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation. (https://www.gallerynaga.com/artists-list/peter-vanderwarker)

America's Good Terrorist: John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid
Charles P. Roland Jr.
Casemate Publishers
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636243221, $24.95, PB, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Good-Terrorist-Brown-Harpers/dp/1636243223

Synopsis: John Brown is a common name, but the John Brown who masterminded the failed raid at Harpers Ferry was anything but common. His failed efforts have left an imprint upon our history, and his story still swirls in controversy. Was he a madman who felt his violent solution to slavery was ordained by Providence or a heroic freedom fighter who tried to liberate the downtrodden slave? These polar opposite characterizations of the violent abolitionist have captivated Americans. The prevailing view from the time of the raid to well into the twentieth century (that his actions were the product of an unbalanced mind) has shifted to the idea that he committed courageous acts to undo a terrible injustice.

The debate still rages, but not as much about his ultimate goal as the method he used in attempting to right what he considered an intolerable wrong. Are citizens justified in bypassing the normal legal or governmental processes in a violent way when they fail, in the eyes of the dissenter, to correct a wrong that touched so many? Brown's use of violence was to strike terror in the heart of slave owners, terror that Brown hoped would intimidate them to free their slaves to ensure their families' safety.

Despite the differences between modern terrorist acts and Brown's own violent acts, when Brown's characteristics are compared to the definition of terrorism as set forth by scholars of terrorism, he fits the profile. Nevertheless, today Brown is a martyred hero who gave his life attempting to terminate the evil institution of human bondage. Brown's violent method of using terrorism to accomplish this is downplayed or ignored, despite being labeled by historians as America's first terrorist. The modern view of Brown has unintentionally made him a "good terrorist," despite the repugnance of terrorism that makes the thought of a benevolent or good terrorist an oxymoron.

"America's Good Terrorist: John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid" by Dr. Charles P. Poland Jr. is new biography covers Brown's background and the context to his decision to carry out the raid, a detailed narrative of the raid and its consequences for both those involved and America; and an exploration of the changing characterization of Brown since his death.

Critique: Originally published in 2020 and now newly releases in a paperback edition, "America's Good Terrorist: John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid" is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a three page Bibliographical Comment, twenty-six pages of Endnotes, and a seven page Index. An inherently fascinating and iconoclastic work of impressive, meticulous, and seminal scholarship, "America's Good Terrorist: John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid" is highly recommended for community and academic 19th Century American History/Biography collections and supplemental American Civil War History curriculums studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "America's Good Terrorist: John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.51).

Editorial Note: Dr. Charles Poland has taught history for more than five decades, touching the lives of thousands of students and community members in Northern Virginia. A scholar of the American Civil War, he promotes direct engagement with history and its tools. For example, from 1977 to 2015 he conducted celebrated field-trip courses to the major and minor battlefields of the Civil War. He is the creator of a mobile Civil War Museum with hundreds of artifacts and documents that he toured to public schools across the region. The author of eight books, he has appeared on television and radio and made countless presentations to historic, civic, and educational groups on the Civil War and the impact of unfettered development in Northern Virginia.

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