Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862 by Carol Sheriff ISBN: 0-8090-1605-2 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: 12 June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Informative, graceful writing
Comment: The Artificial River is one of those history books that is not only illuminating, but fun to read. Sheriff writes with an easy grace that takes you along her narrative path, intelligently putting together the pieces that tell the compelling history of the individuals who built, used, and lived near the Erie Canal. But the book raises larger issues to contemplate: the effect of technology on social interaction, and the contradiction that when distances between points are foreshortened, the alienation of individuals locally can increase. In light of the Internet, this is still a pertinent history lesson.
Rating: 1
Summary: Repetition personified
Comment: Sheriff spends too much time repeating interesting
facts. She seems obsessed with explaining "God and nature"
Fortunately the book is a fast read,so I did'nt waste too much time.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating Read
Comment: This book describes the complicated and fascinating social history of the canal that shrunk time and distance and transformed western New York, brought great wealth to many and opened up the west. But this progress came at a price and the book explores some of the paradoxes of progress.
The progress and transformation that the Erie Canal brought also brought a new set of challenges for residents and legislators. The canal split many farms causing great problems to many farmers who wanted bridges to get to their farms, the low bridges were a hazard to canal passengers and traffic. Water diverted for the canal and locks created water shortages though the region. Leaks in the canal caused flooding on some farms and created mosquito infested ponds, which were fertile grounds for malaria epidemics.
Cultural issues came to the forefront. Ditch diggers who lived in shantytowns, who drank and cusses, who tore down fences caused consternation among the inhabitants who feared that the county was creating a permanent underclass. When the digging was done and the diggers gone they were replaces with another underclass, the boat drivers, who drank, cussed, robbed and hored making the areas adjoining the canal crime-ridden.
This book takes you to the time when the canal was being built and is a joy to read.
 |
Title: Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792-1854 by Ronald E. Shaw ISBN: 0813108012 Publisher: University Press of Kentucky Pub. Date: 01 August, 1990 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: The Erie Canal Reader, 1790-1950 by Roger W. Hecht ISBN: 0815607598 Publisher: Syracuse University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: The Kingdom of Matthias/a Story of Sex and Salvation in 19Th-Century America: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19Th-Centtury America by Paul E. Johnson, Sean Wilentz ISBN: 0195098358 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State (Iroquois & Their Neighbors (Paperback)) by Laurence M. Hauptman ISBN: 0815607121 Publisher: Syracuse University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Canals for a Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790-1860 by Ronald E. Shaw ISBN: 0813108152 Publisher: University Press of Kentucky Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
