This was another great recommendation from my colleague, Kris, and while it doesn’t seem like beach reading, that’s exactly what it was. America, 1908 was published in 2008, with the idea of both broadly looking anew at the America of a century ago as well as revisiting a singularly impressive year. To recap, in 1908 the following happened: Henry Ford produced the first Model T, the Wright brothers publicly and repeatedly proved the possibilities of flight (as well as recorded the first aviation fatality), the world’s military powers grasped the implications of flight on and for future conflicts, Teddy Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet ‘round the world, and Robert Peary put his boot print (or was it a snow shoe print?) on the North Pole.
Jim Rasenberger recounts all of these feats, as well as less earth shattering anecdotes about women’s fashions, holiday celebrations, and the zany New York-to-Paris (by-way-of-the-Bering-Strait) automobile race. His prose is lively and vivid and all the richer for a liberal sprinkling of excerpts from 1908 papers; I often felt that I had been transported back in time and was reading the accounts as they were happening. Very often I couldn't help thinking, "it's hard to believe this was only 100 years ago." At the same time, as my great-grandfather was born in the opening weeks of 1909, it was fun to contemplate the world he was born into and consider yet again how completely the world had changed in his lifetime. Reflecting on 1908, and therefore 2008 – or any other recent year for that matter – I can only hope that in 100 years a future author will be up to the task of such a fun and, yes, beachworthy retelling of the year that was. Not that books will still exist in another 100 years.
Jim Rasenberger recounts all of these feats, as well as less earth shattering anecdotes about women’s fashions, holiday celebrations, and the zany New York-to-Paris (by-way-of-the-Bering-Strait) automobile race. His prose is lively and vivid and all the richer for a liberal sprinkling of excerpts from 1908 papers; I often felt that I had been transported back in time and was reading the accounts as they were happening. Very often I couldn't help thinking, "it's hard to believe this was only 100 years ago." At the same time, as my great-grandfather was born in the opening weeks of 1909, it was fun to contemplate the world he was born into and consider yet again how completely the world had changed in his lifetime. Reflecting on 1908, and therefore 2008 – or any other recent year for that matter – I can only hope that in 100 years a future author will be up to the task of such a fun and, yes, beachworthy retelling of the year that was. Not that books will still exist in another 100 years.
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