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 don't know where to put this photo but guarantee you will be startled to see George Armstrong Custer and friends in a new light:
ReplyDeletehttp://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7900/95108997.png
That looks like Nathan Bedford Forrest to his right. Do you have any info to go with the photo, trip, you can start a new post.
ReplyDeleteAmazing photo -- usually these colored ones look artificial, garish even. The power of the computer.
ReplyDeleteI assumed it was a Matthew Brady photo but I was wrong. It was someone named James Gibson:
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/custer/pictures/custer-fitz-porter.htm
Regret I don't have more info. But I believe that's Custer with the pooch
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