Product Description
Here, Owen Gutfreund offers a fascinating look at how highways have dramatically transformed American communities nationwide, aiding growth and development in unsettled areas and undermining existing urban centers. Gutfreund uses a "follow the money" approach, showing how government policies subsidized suburban development, ] and fueled a chronic nationwide dependence on cars and roadbuilding, with little regard for expense, efficiency, ecological damage, or social equity.The consequence was a combination of unstoppable suburban sprawl, along with ballooning municipal debt burdens, deteriorating center cities, and profound changes in American society and culture. Gutfreund tells the story via case studies of three communities--Denver, Colorado; Middlebury, Vermont; and Smyrna, Tennessee.Different as these places are, they all show the ways that government-sponsored highway development radically transformed America's cities and towns. Based on original research and vividly written, Twentieth-Century Sprawl brings to light the benefits and consequences of the spread of American highways and makes a major contribution to our understanding of ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wonderful book
This book delivers detailed, thorough insight into how federal and state highway policies affected cities of varied size and circumstance. Its excellent historical background reminds us why twenty-first century cities and their transportation are facing the challenges they are today.

A Book About USA's Sins
After reading this book, you will know why we should change the way we are building our cities, and the way we are living. ... Read more

Product Description
Nostalgic tribute to the heyday of ocean liners. 186 photos, many never published, of Île de France, Normandie, Europa, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Leviathan, United States, many others. Lavish interiors, disasters, shipboard life, celebrities, war years, etc. 101 ships depicted. Captions.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Great and Comprehensive Book
People who have already read my reviews on other books, will think that this review is overly cliche', but I must say that William H. Miller has got to be the greatest ocean liner author and historian in the world. Thisis a wonderful book, with many fabulous photos, and well written linearnotes. You don't have to believe me, for I'm just a 15 year old teenager,but I can truthfully say that this book is great, and will entertain peopleof all ages, and interests. Another William H. Miller success story!

A superbly illustrated reference work
Breathtaking rare photographs to complement the informative potted histories. ... Read more

Product Description
The building of a wooden ship in 1870 becomes a New England vision of purpose, skill and strength. This intimate and detailed book begins with the need for a new whaling vessel, follows its design and lofting, and moves in time with the massively powerful interlocking structure of the hull with the adroit workmen who deftly ply their trades in succession: sawyers cutting hackmatack knees, adzmen shaping double-sawn ribs, dubbers and plankers bonding the white oak planks to the skeleton with trunnels, the work of caulkers, joiners, and riggers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"Wooden Ship" a modeler's review
"Wooden Ship" has a writing style and simple drawings that at first look rather like a children's book (which it may be).However, the drawings are accurate and informative, the nomenclature (of various ship parts) is careful and accurate, and the story line is complete.Rather than showing some part of a wooden ship, with a label, like "keel", the illustration shows some shipwrights making a keel.Accurately.
Well done. ... Read more

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The tumultuous history of inventors and corporations whohave tried to bring the electric car to market.

Amazingly, in 1900 28 percent of all cars were electric. By 1920 theelectric car had all but vanished and gas-powered cars dominated themarket. In Taking Charge, Schiffer deftly explores how culturalfactors, not technological ones, explain the rise of gas-guzzlingcars. For this edition, Schiffer brings the history of the electriccar into the present, arguing that despite the Detroit Big Three’sreluctance to make electric cars, their time has finally arrived. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

60 electric cabs once ran in New York city, read how they did it!
Amazon is a wonderful place to go book browsing. Not only will you find new books but also a staggering cross-referenced selection of out of print materials, iconizisized and eligible for super-saver shipping. Taking Charge The Electric Automobile In America came up in a search for electric vehicle book. Weighing in at 225 pages, I felt a book on electric vehicle history was worth a read. Michael Schiffer surprised me though with the truth about how wide spread electric vehicle usage was in early America. The discussion of how the power industry operates will give you the reader a better view of how much energy is out there and ready to be used. All of this combines into a somewhat stale yet important volume about early American history.

The goal of the book is to examine and explain why electric vehicles disappeared in the early 1920's. The author walks us through the initial distribution of power in the United States and the problems associated with DC in a wide area network. Then, the rollout and problems associated with lead-acid batteries of the time, particularly when used in a fleet of sixty cabs in New York city. The lead-acid batteries were sensitive to the bumps and vibrations of daily travel causing them to last less than six months. Today we expect no less than a two year life-span out of our lead-acid batteries in cars. Moving on, Thomas Edison, a prominent figure in early battery research, and Henry Ford converge in a battle of gasoline vs electric. We all know the ultimate conclusion but the methods both men used are quite sinister.

Michael covers three theories at the opening of this book to explain why this happened: vested interest, technological constraint and consumerist. The theories were new to me and gave me a much needed foundation to debate the demise of electric vehicles in the 1990's. While coverage of the theories here would be worthwhile, I leave you the reader the opportunity to examine them and offer your opinion in a followup review to my own. These theories are being tested even now in Key West, FL on a smaller scale. Over the past two years electric vehicle rentals have quietly pressed the gasoline moped rental market share to an alarming 50% by my best estimates and through interviews over the past weekend. Hotels now offer charging services for these six passenger mini cars to guests at no extra charge (no pun intended). I wish you could have seen my face as my cab pulled me up to the Casa Marina hotel and I saw a line of Think EV's being charged!

We can learn a lot from studying the past. You can also see proof of this "history repeats itself" proverb in this book. Taking Charge was published in 1994, before GM's EV1 program was leasing cars. The vested interest theory presented herein is eerily similar to how GM squashed the EV1. To drive the point home, General Motors and Ford are credited in this book with killing the first generation of electric cars!

Light and interesting
This kind of book is an worthwhile since so many people are discussing the pros and cons of electric cars. Invariably mention is made of the fact that electric cars have as long a history as gasoline cars. This book is more or less about that history. It is not heavy on lots of details so it makes for a fairly interesting and fast-moving read. In covering the history of the electric car, the author also covers the history of gasoline cars, the development of central power stations in the US, and some social customs such as touring. There are a number of interesting details about that time period, and some of the main characters like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, that you may not have thought about before. While the book talks about different issues surrounding the rise and fall of the electric car, the main conclusion appears to be that battery capacity and range have, and will continue to be the main obstacle to acceptance of electric cars. The last chapter of the book attempts to look ahead. Since the book dates to before the whole GM EV-1 fiasco, the predictions seems a bit naive and optimistic in light of what we now know happened, and the whole issue of high gas prices was not a factor when the book was written. While this book doesn't contribute a whole lot of new information relevant to the current discussion of electric cars, it does give a nice background to their history in the US.

Great early history of the electric car
This book concentrates on the early commercial history of the electric car. Only a small final chapter is devoted to progress in electric cars since the 20's.

What makes the book so interesting are the recurring themes of electric cars, present since their inception. "They're too slow", "They don't have the range", "new batteries will be coming out next year"... all of which apply to the current discussion of electric cars in 2007.

Even hybrid cars were experimented with very early on, and one wishes for a bit more technical information on those. Plus it would be nice to know what happened to Edison's replacement for the lead-acid battery. Is it still in use today? Or is it extinct?

The last chapter is also fun. His prognostications are not too far off the mark. He predicted the next innovation would not come from the Big 3 automakers, no matter what they said they were going to do. That turned out to be true. He also predicted we would have some options for buying electric cars by now. In that he was wrong, but we do have the Prius and Insight.

So, all in all, a fine early history, but you'll still want to know more to fill in that gap from 1920-2007!

Mobile America, history of electric cars & the choices we ma
This book starts out with a history of how Americans became mobile and the choices we made with respect to bicycles, mass transit and cars.It then goes into modest detail about the development of power generating stations needed to support electric cars and into great detail about the development of electric cars and how they fit into U.S. society.Development of gas cars is covered in depth only to compare the technologies and illustrate the choices we made.By reading this, you know a great deal about transportation technology and the society that developed it.The last chapter is all about the present and near term future of electric cars.The book offers an excellent depiction of how we have become the mobile society (or mobile mess?) that we became.Recommended for history buffs and especially for electric car enthusiasts. ... Read more

Product Description
The motor car has had a firm grip on our col lective imagination since the first prototypes were designed over 100 years ago. Highlighting the years 1945-1975, this book covers the history & development of the car, as well as its place in popular culture. ' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Good Overview of the Classics
The book has a good approach to the subject, and an excellent array of colour pictures of great vehicles.A safe buy for any enthusiast. ... Read more

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Winner of the Society of Architectural Historians' 1999 Spiro KostofAward

"[A]n engaging look at the neglected history of retail architecture andits relationship to the automobile." -- Mary Marien, ChristianScience Monitor

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Los Angeles did for the shopping centerwhat New York and Chicago had done for the skyscraper. In a singlegeneration, the American retail center shifted from the downtown core tothe regional shopping center.

Ten years in the making, City Center to Regional Mall is asweeping yet detailed account of the development of the regionalshopping center. Richard Longstreth takes a historical perspective,relating retail development to broader architectural, urban, andcultural issues. His story is far from linear; the topics he coversinclude the emergence of Hollywood as a downtown in miniature,experiments with the shopping center as an amenity of plannedresidential developments, the branch department store as a landmark ofdecentralization, the evolution of off-street parking facilities, andthe obscure origins of the pedestrian mall as a spine for retailcomplexes.

Longstreth takes seriously the task of looking at retail buildings--oneof the most neglected yet common building types--and the economics ofreal estate in the American city. He shows that Los Angeles in theperiod covered was a harbinger of American metropolitan trends duringthe second half of this century. Over 250 illustrations, culled from awide variety of sources, constitute one of the best collections of oldLA photographs published anywhere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very Informative Book about Los Angeles
If you ever wanted to know about the history of Los Angeles and how it became a large metropolitian area, this is the book for you. Hundreds of pictures from the late 1800's to the 1950's makes this book a veryresourceful tool.

Well researched documentation of retailing change in L.A
The changes in retailing which have taken place in L.A. which are examined in this book have occured throughout the United States and are taking place throughout the world right noe. The population shift to the suburbs and shopping in regional malls.

This has causedthe value of retail space to decline in many area of America. ... Read more

Product Description
Railroad Ferries of the Hudson and the Stories of a Deckhand is a complete business, economic, technical, and social history of the ferryboats that were once operated across the Hudson River to Manhattan from New Jersey and that were owned and operated by various railroad companies in conjunction with their commuter and long-distance passenger trains. The work also covers the Staten Island Ferry (formerly operated by the B&O Railroad) and New York Waterway's present-day revival of services connecting with New Jersey Transit commuter-train services. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

commuting on the railroad ferries
co-author raymond baxter's authentic deckhand stories blend well with the historic photos and brief histories of the railroad ferry companies. dispatching of the chambers street boats had been "dumped" somewhere over the years on the gatemen. Once the rush hour ferry Youngstownleft two minutes earlier than the scheduled 5:28PM departure. As a result a large number of angry commuters missed their Erie suburban commuter trains out of Jersey City. Many interesting stories abound. The photos of the ferries and the deckhand stories enabled me to relive my years of New York commuting by train and boat. Fordham University Press deserves praise for this book.

that was the way to go
There was always the view of the busy harbor-ocean liners,freighters,tugsand barges.In the hot summer months there was always a breeze on the opendeck. During heavy fogs there were close calls-making the trip a realadventure. This authenic book brought back good memories of my dayscommuting on the railroad ferries of the Hudson.The many rare photos andthe short histories of the ferry operators add to the local color, andincrease the value of this book.

that was the way to go
There was always the view of the busy harbor-ocean liners,freighters,tugsand barges.In the hot summer months there was always a breeze on the opendeck. During heavy fogs there were close calls-making the trip a realadventure. This authenic book brought back good memories of my dayscommuting on the railroad ferries of the Hudson.The many rare photos andthe short histories of the ferry operators add to the local color, andincrease the value of this book. ... Read more

Product Description

In this account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage, Stephen E. Ambrose offers a historical successor to his universally acclaimed Undaunted Courage, which recounted the explorations of the West by Lewis and Clark.

Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad -- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.

The Union had won the Civil War and slavery had been abolished, but Abraham Lincoln, who was an early and constant champion of railroads, would not live to see the great achievement. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes to life.

The U.S. government pitted two companies -- the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads -- against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomo-tives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. This was the last great building project to be done mostly by hand: excavating dirt, cutting through ridges, filling gorges, blasting tunnels through mountains.

At its peak, the workforce -- primarily Chinese on the Central Pacific, Irish on the Union Pacific -- approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as fifteen thousand workers on each line. The Union Pacific was led by Thomas "Doc" Durant, Oakes Ames, and Oliver Ames, with Grenville Dodge -- America's greatest railroad builder -- as chief engineer. The Central Pacific was led by California's "Big Four": Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. The surveyors, the men who picked the route, were latter-day Lewis and Clark types who led the way through the wilderness, living off buffalo, deer, elk, and antelope.

In building a railroad, there is only one decisive spot -- the end of the track. Nothing like this great work had been seen in the world when the last spike, a golden one, was driven in atPromontory Summit, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific tracks were joined.

Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men -- the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary -- who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation.Amazon.com Review
Abraham Lincoln, who had worked as a riverboat pilot beforeturning to politics, knew a thing or two about the problems oftransporting goods and people from place to place. He was alsoconvinced that the United States would flourish only if its far-flungregions were linked, replacing sectional loyalties with an overarchingsense of national destiny.

Building a transcontinental railroad, writes the prolific historian StephenAmbrose, was second only to the abolition of slavery on Lincoln'spresidential agenda. Through an ambitious program of land grants andlow-interest government loans, he encouraged entrepreneurs such asCalifornia's "Big Four"--Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, MarkHopkins, and Leland Stanford--to take on the task of stringing steelrails from ocean to ocean.The real work of doing so, of course, wason the shoulders of immigrant men and women, mostly Chinese andIrish. These often-overlooked actors and what a contemporary calledtheir "dreadful vitality" figure prominently in Ambrose's narrative,alongside the great financiers and surveyors who populate the standardtextbooks.

In the end, Ambrose writes, Lincoln's dream transformed the nation,marking "the first great triumph over time and space" and inauguratingwhat has come to be known as the American Century. DavidHaward Bain's Empire Express, whichcovers the same ground, is more substantial, but Ambrose provides aneminently readable study of a complex episode in Americanhistory. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (230)

This book gets stuck on the tracks
The topic seemed very interesting to me and in the end I did learn a lot about the making of the Continental Railroad, how it came to be and the players involved. However, the writing style was really dry at times and the material yawn inspiring. Ambrose seems to throw as much filler in the book as he can.

The characters were interesting but all the mundane info and rambling of stats and dead end sentences really watered them down. If you interested in Railroad history, American History, etc then this book will still serve a purpose but you very well might find it a grind to finish.

Nothing like it in the world
Excellent read. It gives a great appreciation for the railroads that we take for granted today. It tells a magnificent story of the complexity of building a railroad where there was nothing to work with or mountains to go over, through or around, and the people who believed in it and worked so hard to accomplish the task.I loved this book!

Train Book
Very satisfied with purchase.Fast shipping, and great condition of book.
Very educational and entertaining....

Great review of history
This is a great review of history for a stretch and shows just how good engineers were in the 1800's.

[...]
Nothing Like It in the World
By
Stephen E. Ambrose

"The men who built the transcontinental Railroad 1863 - 1869"

"Nothing Like It in the World" illustrates what an accomplishment the building of the transcontinental railroad was and what it actually symbolized.This is the story of the building of The Central Pacific and The Union Pacific Railroads and the joining of the East and West Coasts of the United States by rail.

The first major collaborative national project for the United States was the Civil War; the second was the building of The Central pacific and The Union Pacific Railroads.This project served as a model for the combining of government financing, private industry, lobbying, fraud, graft, and the accomplishment of huge endeavors by the United States.A real mix of what was a prelude to government and industry today.

Abraham Lincoln and General Grenville M. Dodge were two of the most influential figures in the beginning and building of the Union Pacific.Lincoln was a nationally renowned railroad lawyer (and, of course a future President) who believed strongly that the two coasts needed to be united by a railroad.Dodge was a future Civil War hero who spent much of the war building and repairing railroads for the Union Army.

Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins were the "Big Four" from the West Coast who laid out their personal fortunes (and risked them) to get the Central Pacific built.

Dodge became Chief Engineer for the Union Pacific and applied military organization to the building of that railroad.He hired many Civil War veterans (officers and enlisted) and ran the company like an army.Military protocol, a huge supply of men available after the end of the Civil War and government backing were major reasons they were able to accomplish their mission.

The Central Pacific would have to blast 13 tunnels through granite before it was over and it all had to be done by hand.The largest tunnel near Donner Pass was 1,659 feet long.They worked in 20 man crews in eight hour shifts 24 hours a day.Three of the men would work at once, one holding the drill, and two swinging 18 pound sledge hammers until the hole was large enough to insert the powder and then ignite it.It was not a refined operation and resulted in many accidents and people being maimed.With this method they were able to penetrate the granite anywhere between six and 12 inches every 24 hours.

The brutal manual labor performed by these Chinese, Mormons, Irish, and ex-soldiers (both Union and Confederate) is described in great detail by Mr. Ambrose.

Before the joining of the two railroads, it took months and cost over [...] to travel from one coast to the other.Within one week of the final spike being driven at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory folks were making the trip in seven days for as little as [...] for a first class ticket and [...] for third class.Also, remember that while the railroad was being built, telegraph lines were being installed for instant coast to coast communication for the first time.This not only sounded the death knell for the pony express, it opened communications, trade, family visitations, migration, and a host of other opportunities for much more of the population.

Also, what is noteworthy is that for all of the talk of the government bonds being a gift or bad deal, that is simply not true.The bonds were 30 year bonds and by 1899 the government had received [...] on an initial loan of [...].Not a bad deal.

There are many other notable precedents and major lasting effects of this project, but too many to mention in this venue.I would recommend that you read the book.
... Read more

Product Description
Jerusalem is not just another city that illustrates the conflict between interests of professional planners and competing political perspectives. It is the Holy City, with a history of some 3,000 years. Moreover, numerous layers of historical remains have importance for intense and competitive religious and national interests. Israelis claim it as the capital of their country, and Palestinians want it--or part of it--as the capital of their not yet created state.

Jerusalem is also a place where more than 700,000 people live, and the center of a metropolitan area with more than twice that number. Along with religious and national interests, there are the customary conflicts between what various groups--property developers, politicians, professional planners, neighborhood residents, and environmental activists--want to do with the land. Politics and Planning in the Holy City describes and analyzes the tensions between politics and planning.

The authors tackle the economic, social, and political contexts that shape conflicts. Such problems include deciding what should be called "Jerusalem" and difficulties surrounding the construction of a defense barrier to protect Israelis from Palestinian terrorists--in the framework of a multicultural city where 30 to 40 percent of its residents are Palestinians. There is dissent over locating rail lines to the city, as some interests want them here, there, or nowhere, and over building a light rail line within a city already crowded and beset with conflicting interests. The creation of a football stadium is another venue for conflict, as many religious Jews view sports as a threat to their way of life.

Issues include locating a site for housing new immigrants, as few Jerusalemites want large numbers of newcomers in their neighborhoods, and deciding which sites merit preservation in a city with many deserving candidates, but severely limited resources. This volume will attract urban specialists as well as those concerned with larger political issues.

Gedalia Auerbach has published several monographs, textbooks, and articles on politics and administration of local government, urban planning, and intergovernmental relations in Israel.

Ira Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science and public administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is author of several works, including The Political Economy of Israel and Governing Israel, both available from Transaction ... Read more