Documenting America

Docuamerica was a six-year photographic project supported by Gifford Hampshire, who hoped to bring the impact of environmental damage home by evoking Barry Commoner's laws of ecology. Commoner had stated that "everything is connected to everything else." By stressing the human dimension, Hampshire thought the project would more deeply touch Americans.

The National Archives resurrected the project this year, sponsoring a traveling exhibit and the EPA has created a "then and now" photo-sharing campaign on Flickr. There were over 22,000 photos in the original collection, and with Flickr no doubt that will increase exponentially.

The 70s were a time of ecological awakening, with numerous attempts to spur interest in the environment. Books like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and Barry Commoner's Four Laws of Ecology became required reading. Another great book of the era is E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, which promoted small sustainable economies, less reliant on fossil fuels. The big event that decade was Expo '74 in Spokane, which stressed the environment, getting away from the high-tech themes of the past. Jimmy Carter made sustainable design and renewable energy a signature part of his presidential term, only to be unceremoniously ripped apart when Reagan had the solar panels removed from the White House.

Apparently, Barry wasn't satisfied with Carter's administration either, mounting a third party candidacy in 1980. He headed the Citizens Party ticket, and had La Donna Harris as a running mate. This was their platform, but environmental awareness didn't top their list of issues. They managed to get over 200,000 votes.

Fortunately, today there seems to be a renewed awareness that is becoming so persuasive that it is virtually impossible to ignore, although most Republicans still try to do so. It is nice to see the EPA revisiting Docuamerica.

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Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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