The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror
by Beverly Gage (Author)
Just after noon on September 16, 1920, as hundreds of workers poured onto Wall Street for their lunchtime break, a horse-drawn cart packed with dynamite exploded in a spray of metal and fire, turning the busiest corner of the financial center into a war zone. Thirty-nine people died and hundreds more lay wounded, making the Wall Street explosion the worst terrorist attack to that point in U.S. history. In The Day Wall Street Exploded, Beverly Gage tells the story of that once infamous but now largely forgotten event.
"The fearful politics of the last decade are a tale foretold in this extraordinary history of the original 'war on terrorism' and its sinister legacies." --Mike Davis, author of Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb
"Like all good historians, Beverly Gage is a great story-teller, and what a timely tale she has to tell in The Day Wall Street Exploded. With subtlety, precision, and in a captivating prose style, she recalls for us that moment in September 1920 when 'a bomb planted on a horse-drawn wagon exploded into the lunchtime crowd at Wall and Broad.' Her story begins with the deed, but goes far beyond it to describe the nationwide search for the responsible 'terrorists' and the short- and long-range effects on American politics, society, and culture of that extended manhunt." --David Nasaw, author of Andrew Carnegie and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Chief: The Life and Times of William Randolph Hearst
- posted on 03/06/2009
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann (Author)
In April of 1925, a legendary British explorer named Percy Fawcett launched his final expedition into the depths of the Amazon in Brazil. His destination was the lost city of El Dorado, the “City of Gold,” an ancient kingdom of great sophistication, architecture, and culture that, for some reason, had vanished. The idea of El Dorado had captivated anthropologists, adventurers, and scientists for 400 years, though there was no evidence it ever existed. Hundreds of expeditions had gone looking for it. Thousands of men had perished in the jungles searching for it. Fawcett himself had barely survived several previous expeditions and was more determined than ever to find the lost city with its streets and temples of gold.
The world was watching. Fawcett, the last of the great Victorian adventurers, was financed by the Royal Geographical Society in London, the world’s foremost repository of research gathered by explorers. Fawcett, then age 57, had proclaimed for decades his belief in the City of Z, as he had nicknamed it. His writings, speeches, and exploits had captured the imagination of millions, and reports of his last expedition were front page news.
His expeditionary force consisted of three men--himself, his 21-year-old son Jack, and one of Jack’s friends. Fawcett believed that only a small group had any chance of surviving the horrors of the Amazon. He had seen large forces decimated by malaria, insects, snakes, poison darts, starvation, and insanity. He knew better. He and his two companions would travel light, carry their own supplies, eat off the land, pose no threat to the natives, and endure months of hardship in their search for the Lost City of Z.
They were never seen again. Fawcett’s daily dispatches trickled to a stop. Months passed with no word. Because he had survived several similar forays into the Amazon, his family and friends considered him to be near super-human. As before, they expected Fawcett to stumble out of the jungle, bearded and emaciated and announcing some fantastic discovery. It did not happen.
Over the years, the search for Fawcett became more alluring than the search for El Dorado itself. Rescue efforts, from the serious to the farcical, materialized in the years that followed, and hundreds of others lost their lives in the search. Rewards were posted. Psychics were brought in by the family. Articles and books were written. For decades the legend of Percy Fawcett refused to die.
The great mystery of what happened to Fawcett has never been solved, perhaps until now. In 2004, author David Grann discovered the story while researching another one. Soon, like hundreds before him, he became obsessed with the legend of the colorful adventurer and his baffling disappearance. Grann, a lifelong New Yorker with an admitted aversion to camping and mountain climbing, a lousy sense of direction, and an affinity for take-out food and air conditioning, soon found himself in the jungles of the Amazon. What he found there, some 80 years after Fawcett’s disappearance, is a startling conclusion to this absorbing narrative.
The Lost City of Z is a riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure.
- posted on 03/06/2009
Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future
by Will Bunch
Review
"The Ronald Reagan who won the cold war, cut taxes, shrank the government, saved the economy, and was the most beloved president since FDR is a myth, Bunch says....The truculent jingoist of the myth was concocted after Alzheimer's silenced the man and the would-be juggernaut launched by the GOP's 1994 election triumph crashed and burned before a Democratic president who shrank government and the deficit, balanced the budget, and even racked up surpluses. Bunch names the leading, venal mythmakers and shames the myth exploiters, too. Anyone interested in America's immediate future should read this book."-- "Booklist"
Review
"With help from a loving Beltway press corps, Republicans sold Reagan as the iconic American leader. From promotions like the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project and Operation Serenade, the GOP marketing machine worked to perfection. Will Bunch's long overdue book, Tear Down This Myth, pulls back the curtain and looks at Reagan, minus the branding. It's a sobering sight."-- Eric Boehlert, author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush
"Will Bunch's subtle account of Reagan's legacy carefully dismantles the image of conservative purism that has been painted over the real Ronald Reagan. But in tearing down the myth, Bunch also gives us a fascinating portrait of Reagan the pragmatist, able to compromise, to change his ground and to govern from the center as political winds shifted. This is a buried Reagan, hidden even at the time but still perceptible, in some ways, to those of us who fought him at the time. Tear Down This Myth is historical revisionism for which both Reagan's supporters and his opponents should be grateful."-- James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too
"Tear Down This Myth is as feisty as it is fearless. In it, Will Bunch begins the process, long overdue, of deflating Ronald Reagan's overinflated reputation." -- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
"Will Bunch's iconoclasm is deeply necessary. It is also splendidly entertaining. The myth that Ronald Reagan was loved by everybody all the time is one of the greatest PR swindles of the age. This is a must-read for all who cherish truth in history."-- Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
"Will Bunch's book couldn't come at a better time. Following an election that saw America reject Reaganism, Tear Down This Myth explores how that conservative ideology came to power and what was so destructive about it."-- David Sirota, author of The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington
- posted on 03/06/2009
The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia
by James Palmer
Review
"Economist"
"James Palmer's account of [Baron Ungern-Sternberg's] brutal and ill-starred life is elegant, waspish and evocative.
"Russian Life"
"This is an epic biography (ranging from WWI battles, to the Civil War, to Manchuria) told in an easy style that infects the reader with curiosity, peeling back myths to reveal the strange and twisted man that was Ungern-Sternberg."
"Bookforum"
"Palmer effectively evokes both the enormous scope and the small absurdities of war."
Simon Sebag-Montefiore, "Sunday Telegraph"
"The rise and fall of Baron Ungern-Sternberg is one of the most demented, savage and grotesque stories of modern times. Palmer, with his special knowledge of Mongolia and enthusiasm for Ungern's blend of lunacy, politics and war, delivers an enjoyable, exciting biography that recounts the crimes and conquests of this monster compellingly, colourfully and with cinematic relish."
Review
Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph
“The rise and fall of Baron Ungern-Sternberg is one of the most demented, savage and grotesque stories of modern times. Palmer, with his special knowledge of Mongolia and enthusiasm for Ungern's blend of lunacy, politics and war, delivers an enjoyable, exciting biography that recounts the crimes and conquests of this monster compellingly, colourfully and with cinematic relish.”
New York Times
“What makes ‘The Bloody White Baron’ so exceptional is Palmer’s lucid scholarship, his ability to make perfect sense of the maelstrom of a forgotten war. This is a brilliant book, and I’m already looking forward to his next.”
- Re: 新书介绍posted on 03/06/2009
想看第二本:the lost city of z - posted on 03/06/2009
July, thank you so much for recommending these books. I'd like to know your old book list too. BTW, I am reading President Obama's book: Dreams from My Father, and thoroughly enjoying it. He is a good and intelligent writer (of course he is, we know that from his speeches). But I mean it is a good book, I can relate to many of his experiences (identity lost) and stories (living in Indonesia). His English is so elegant and well-structured, not too many Americans write like that any more... You will like this book. - posted on 03/06/2009
Here is a link I wrote little bit about :
dream from my father
http://www.mayacafe.com/forum/topic1sp.php3?tkey=1227379205
As the matter of fact, I found it later that most of Chicago middle schools put this book in their required reading list back to 2004.
Spring wrote:
July, thank you so much for recommending these books. I'd like to know your old book list too. BTW, I am reading President Obama's book: Dreams from My Father, and thoroughly enjoying it. He is a good and intelligent writer (of course he is, we know that from his speeches). But I mean it is a good book, I can relate to many of his experiences (identity lost) and stories (living in Indonesia). His English is so elegant and well-structured, not too many Americans write like that any more... You will like this book. - posted on 03/06/2009
是啊,是啊,July, 他的文字简洁又耐人寻味,表达得十分明确又有思想的深度。他小的时候真是吃了不少苦,却是个沉静爱思考的少年。从小就与众不同,会观察,富有同情心,尊重长辈师长。我完全相信他真的是想为老百姓谋福利。他在穷人中长大,知道他们的挣扎,无奈,向往。可他没有失去信心,态度正面积极,书中处处透着幽默。真难得。真为有这么一个总统自豪,过去八年的耻辱可以慢慢洗去一些了。
周末快乐!
July wrote:
Here is a link I wrote little bit about :
dream from my father
http://www.mayacafe.com/forum/topic1sp.php3?tkey=1227379205 As the matter of fact, I found it later that most of Chicago middle schools put this book in their required reading list back to 2004.
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