Acquisitions, 08/19

by Kevin Levin on August 19, 2011 · 6 comments · Follow me on Twitter

Adam Arenson, The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War (Harvard University Press, 2011).

Karen Cox, Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture, (University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

Anthony J. Gaughan, The Last Battle of the Civil War: United States Versus Lee, 1861-1883 (Louisiana State University Press, 2011).

Mark Neely, Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation: Constitutional Conflict in the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

Cathy Stanton, The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City (University of Massachusetts Press, 2006).

Tagged as: Books

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Matt McKeon August 19, 2011 at 3:26 am 1

I notice a pretty good book about Lowell on this list. Have you been to the park there? It’s interesting, both because Lowell is interesting, and how the park has been trying to interpret economic, labor and industrial history, not always successfully.

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Kevin Levin August 19, 2011 at 3:28 am 2

Hi Matt,

I have yet to visit Lowell, but I am thoroughly enjoying Stanton’s book, though at times I think she goes a bit too far off the sociological deep end. I am reading a lot of public history these days.

Reply

Ray O'Hara August 19, 2011 at 9:29 am 3: I agree with Matt, get thee to Lowell, tour the mills, they have actual working looms running on water power. If you have kids they will enjoy the street trolley ride from the visitors center to the mill and the canal boat ride on the Pawtucket Canal.
make a day of it and catch a concert at Boarding House Park which is next to the visitor center, some excellent bands are still to play, from folk to rock.

http://www.lowellsummermusic.org/page.php?wpage=home/home.htm
you can see the mill that is the park in the background of the photo, the stage blocks the park HQ from view.

the mills played an important part in cotton cultivation as that was where it ended up. and they did have a sociological aspect with all the young women recruited to work in them and the way it was thought that improved things for them. and it’s important as LNP was the first urban park that isn’t abot r scenery.

and since Lowell was built at a falls the white water rafting is some of the best in New England, people associate wwr with unspoiled wilderness but here is some of the best as you cruise through a city

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Rob Baker August 19, 2011 at 7:38 am 4