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, not...
I also recommend Joe Mitchell's "Up in the Old Hotel."
ReplyDeleteWHAT IS THE FULL QUOTE: We are learning more and more about less and less, until...?
ReplyDeleteWas this the book that had a brief story where a self styled reformist distributed greeting cards that said,
ReplyDeleteHAVE NO MORE CURSING!
I don't know where the quote originally came from, but I see Flipswap cellphones have co-opted it,
ReplyDelete"Do more and more with less and less until you can do everything with nothing"
Seems that Harris and Blanck subscribed to the same adage.
It is always appalling to read how greedy manufacturers try to squeeze every last drop out of their workers. The sweat shops in Indonesia, China and Vietnam are no better than what you read in this account. Worse even. All we have managed to do is transport the same attitude abroad, which is why American unions find themselves with the short end of the stick.
ReplyDeleteJoesph Mitchell's"Up in the old Hotel" is a wonderful wonderful book.I heartily second Rick's thumbs up.And today the 29th would have been Chartres's 61st BDay so Happy BDay Mary!!
ReplyDeleteIndeed! She is missed.
ReplyDeleteDid some research and found that it was Mitchell's ''Up In the Old Hotel'' which had the story of that anti-cursing reformer -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vqronline.org/articles/1996/winter/carrington-grammar/
quote:
''a man who has devoted his life to the eradication of profanity''
HAVE NO MORE CURSING
Where has Avrds been of late.Busy with her degree I hope.
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