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
I've long been tempted in the Caro series on Johnson myself, but still haven't gotten around to reading The Power Broker on Robert Moses.
ReplyDeleteThey are some of the best biographies I've ever read -- and I have no interest in Johnson otherwise.
ReplyDelete760 pages! I'd love to read it here but it isn't the size of the book that worries me. It's the size of the print in such a large tome.
ReplyDeleteIf the print is good sized then you can count on me to join with the group. That is, after all, a fascinating topic.
Wow! I didn't notice that. But he is an amazing writer. And Johnson, through his eyes, a fascinating subject. I've already put an order in for it so will let you know about the font size.
ReplyDeleteTrippler, sounds like we need to get you a kindle. I'm not big on electronic books, but that way you can make the font size larger. If this is one of those books with tiny print crammed into 760 pages, I may need one, too!
Since libraries now "lend out" electronic books, I wonder if they might also lend out the readers? Be worth asking.
ReplyDeleteI see I was confusing this book with the first in the series, Path to Power. I suppose you can pick up the series at any point. Pretty amazing that Caro has now devoted five books to Johnson.
ReplyDeleteAnd from what I can tell, this isn't even the last one ... although that would be hard to believe.
ReplyDeleteSometime in the 1990s, I was looking for something good to read and the bookseller (bless the independent booksellers) suggested the 2nd in the series. I think that's where I started reading them. She also suggested the American Sphinx.
After that I was hooked on reading history again.
Robert loves these books which begs the question what is going on with Robert these days.
ReplyDeleteJohnson is a vastly underrated president. When you think that FDR didn't even have the guts to sign onto an anti-lynching bill for fear of losing Southern voters, Johnson deserves all the credit in the world for getting Civil Rights legislation passed in 1964, even if it opened the door to the South for Republicans, which Nixon, Reagan and others would fully exploit.
ReplyDeleteBo, my hope is that Robert might be on the mend by the time this book comes out that he won't be able to resist joining in with us.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Gintaras, Caro makes it clear that Johnson was about as crooked as they come in those early years but my guess is this volume will bring out his best. I'm really looking forward to reading it when it becomes available.
I don't think anyone other than Johnson could have gotten the Civil Rights Bill through Congress, calling in favors like he did. Kennedy didn't have the stomach for domestic issues like this. From what I read he had to be pulled by his "Jimmy" to make a response to Wallace and his attempt to stop Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at U.A.
ReplyDeleteSounds like we have a good book to read this summer, and from the length sounds like it might take all summer to read!
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I've picked up American Nations again. The description of the founding of Jamestown is definitely worth the price of the book. It might be a fun one to read together.
You can preview it at google (if this link doesn't work, put in the chapter title "founding tidewater"):
http://books.google.com/books?id=Sb40EosBr90C&printsec=frontcover&dq=american+nations&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0tg_T6K5MeW0iQLirdyoAQ&ved=0CEIQuwUwAg#v=snippet&q=founding%20tidewater&f=false
I have these books. The only one I read completely was Master of the Senate. That was how I discovered the NY Times history book group. After that I bought the two earlier books.
ReplyDeleteI do almost all of my book reading on e-readers now.
I have Charlie Rose on (10 min. into it). He has presidential historians/biographers on, including ROBERT CARO. They are so far talking about President Obama. Jim Fallows has an article in The Atlantic about Obama. Fallows, Jon Meacham, Michael Beschloss, Doris Kearns Goodwin are also on.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a link handy, but if you are interested and missing it, I'm sure it will be available on Charlie Rose's website. It's the 2/20/12 show (President's Day).
Sounds like a great series, Marti. I catch Rose on Bloomberg Channel.
ReplyDelete