American Places: Encounters with History : a Celebration of Sheldon MeyerWilliam Edward Leuchtenburg In American Places, more than two dozen of America's most gifted historians write about their encounters with historic places, bringing a personal viewpoint to bear on a wide variety of sites, ranging from Monticello to Fenway Park. Here James M. McPherson writes about the battlefield of Gettysburg, and how walking the ground of Pickett's Charge inspired one of his books. Kevin Starr visits the Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood and finds many of the flavors of California history there. Joel Williamson takes a bemused tour of Elvis Presley's Graceland, and David Kennedy tells the story of the "Pig War" on San Juan Island, where a spat between Britain and America over a speck of land in the Pacific Northwest helped determine the shape of the U.S. and Canada. William Freehling compares two places, Charleston's Battery and New Orleans' Jackson Square, showing how each reveals the different spirit of the society that created it. And Edward Ayers talks about spending time in Cyberspace, U.S.A. Other pieces include Robert Dallek on the FDR Memorial, David Hackett Fischer on the Boston Common, and William Leuchtenburg on his native borough of Queens. American Places celebrates the career of Sheldon Meyer, who over his years at Oxford University Press has published some of America's most distinguished historians, including many Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize winners, virtually all of whom have contributed to this volume. |
Contents
CYBERSPACE USA | 3 |
The Avenue of the Presidents | 15 |
Memory in a Massachusetts Town | 29 |
A Window on Race in the American South | 41 |
American Cemetery and Memorial | 53 |
THE FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL WASHINGTON DC | 67 |
THE AMERICANIZED MANNHEIM OF 19451946 | 79 |
VASSAR COLLEGE | 93 |
Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft Community at East Aurora New York | 201 |
The Pig War and the Vagaries of Identity and History | 219 |
1048 FIFTH AVENUE | 233 |
QUEENS | 241 |
GETTYSBURG | 261 |
MONTICELLO | 269 |
THE MUSSO FRANK GRILL IN HOLLYWOOD | 283 |
THE POLO GROUNDS | 295 |
Or Why We Love It When They Always Break Our Hearts | 105 |
FINDING HISTORY IN WOODSIDE CALIFORNIA | 115 |
BOSTON COMMON | 125 |
CHARLESTONS BATTERY AND NEW ORLEANSS JACKSON SQUARE | 145 |
CLIMBING STONE MOUNTAIN | 157 |
The Rise and Fall of Main Street | 169 |
A Tale of Two Speeches | 185 |
NASSAU HALL PRINCETON NEW JERSEY | 311 |
GRACELAND | 325 |
MONTGOMERY | 339 |
THE GRAND CANYON | 353 |
Memories of the 1940s | 365 |
NOTES | 389 |
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Common terms and phrases
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