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Documentary-Collection Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Documentary-Collection
One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001
Published in Hardcover by Little, Brown and Company (2001-12-06)
Authors: Life Magazine and editors of LIFE magazine
List price: $29.99
New price: $6.44
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $28.00

Average review score:

Excellent transaction. Great communication with seller.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-06
Wonderful experience. Seller worked out all the details with me and I was so pleased with the purchase. Would definitely refer others to him and also buy from him again. Thanks so much.

Lest we forget
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-14
Pictures. These will remind you. Haunting. Sad. Heart wrenching. Moving. These words won't do it for you. The book will give you more. Over 3000 people died that day. This book will help you to never forget what happened to them and us.

Effective
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-23
The point comes across, but I think there is plenty of other work that should have been included.

A portrayal of any kind... is the truth of 9/11/01...
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-04
A message to each and every reviewer who takes time to add thoughts to a any media of memorial of 9/11, World Trade Center Towers tragedy... thank you from my heart.

My spouse and I resided on the Lower West Side, Battery Park City, Gateway Plaza, So. End Ave. As survivors of the 9/11 World Trade Center Towers tragedy... From our Gateway Plaza apartment, facing the street and 300 yards from the Towers, we helplessly witnessed all from our apartment windows. The closeness of the Towers viewed from our windows - gave an illusion that one could reach out and touch the Towers; their beauty with night lights reaching toward the sky promoted a contemplative emotion.

We viewed the planes entering the Towers, the overwhelming inferno, individuals jumping, the collapse of the Towers, the darkness as debris hit our windows with a fury. What occurred over a period of hours, seemed like a much shorter time span. The darkness was darker than an eclipse, darker than the darkest night; and then a momentary hush after the air cleared. Viewing the roof garden one floor below, with the human reaction of looking out to see if someone might be on that roof garden and in need of help. Debris strewn everywhere, recording tape and paper hung from the trees of the garden and oh, so much ash. The momentary hush, whether real or imagined, then the viewing of debris for a second, fantasized that a parade had just passed by on our short street. I now really understand the expression a "feeling of helplessness", I couldn't fix what had just happened.

We vacated our apartment finally at 5:15 p.m. that day, waiting for someone to knock on our door, with only a battery radio to keep us abreast of happenings. "In a New York minute", we evacuated via the stairwell touched with ash, the result of a first floor door left open. With a few belongings, gathered with a tad of thought of what was being left behind, we stepped out of the door onto the pavement, seeing and standing in ever so much ash & debris, I wanted to turn around and go back to our home. It was one moment of reality in time, I carry to this day.

We planned to walk up the East Side, glimpsed the tired fire, police, volunteers, and med techs in our immediate driveway and street, so instead opted to pass through the building in back of the apartment complex. We gained access to the Esplanade walking the short distance to reach the Hudson River North Cove dock. We were escorted to the New Jersey shore via New York Police boat. From the boat deck, we viewed even more damage to the Manhattan skyline, especially noting the zigzag shape of the side of the American Express building, housed in one of the World Financial Center buildings along with the glorious Winter Garden, as well as the fall of World Trade Center Building 7. We were taken to the Jersey City Hospital, attended to by compassionate staff. Then traveled by National Guard truck to Hoboken, NJ where we were housed by a wonderful family who with great trust welcomed strangers to their home.

On Friday 9/14, our eldest son & daughter-in-law drove from New Hampshire via New Jersey routes to Hoboken for transport us to New Hampshire for temporary residence with our daughter, who along with her friend and our youngest son, greeted us with open arms & the overwhelming feeling of not wanting to let go with each hug that followed. Our daughter and son had spent that Friday in New Hampshire collecting items of clothing and necessities which the Concord community generously opened their hearts and donated by churches, stores, individuals, employers, American Red Cross, et al.

One of our grandchildren -- he was 8 at that time - arrived home from a few days with his Dad. He hugged us so tight, understanding the depth of 9/11 events for someone so young and yet so wise. He told Grandpa & Babcia that he had something for them... his Mom was not even aware of his gift. He had spoken to his classmates about his grandparents' closeness in location of the World Trade Center Towers. Presented to us was a large envelope full of hand-made cards from each of his classmates. And if that isn't love and caring, I don't know what is - from the hearts and minds of children!

Residing now in New Hampshire, not because of 9/11 drove us away, but circumstances just went that way as we continue to put our lives into perspective.

We Miss - New York City deeply; events found nowhere else in the USA, the introduction to & interaction with so many wonderful cultures. There isn't a day or night over these years that we do not think of 9/11... the Lady of Liberty & Ellis Island both on the merge of the East and Hudson Rivers. And that Lady of Liberty wept, I just know it, & still stands with pride that the USA is a democracy that will prevail.

We Remember - the victims, the survivors, their friends and families, the workers from the public and private sector, the volunteers, our neighbors in Gateway Plaza and staff in the small group of stores on South End Avenue, Battery Park City.

We Remember - the places we visited, the book signings attended, the celebrities we met, the concerts and theater plays, the movies, the arts, the parks, the strangers we talked with, on streets, on subway and those while standing in line for an event...

We Remember - Always In Our Hearts, Forever In Our Souls, Heroes, Victims, Survivors One and All... We Were There.

Painfully, the lump in my throat and the twist in my stomach, the tears in my eyes and the pain in my heart, to the depth of my soul, forever reside.

Remember 9/11
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-14
LIFE has done a first class job of putting together a book covering this horrific act by such a cowardly enemy.Rather than to make the Americans cower as these fanatics probably thought and probably thought and hoped for;it showed what a good and strong nation it is.History will remember both 9/11 and Pearl Harbor for the terrible and misguided acts of hatred they were.
This act conjours up different thoughts for everyone who witnessed it ,in whatever fashion,but no more so than those who had friends and particularly those who lost loved ones.
To those who may turn a little soft on the War on Terror a review of this book should remind one of what we are dealing with.
A great book TIME and thanks.

Documentary-Collection
Material World: A Global Family Portrait
Published in Hardcover by Sierra Club Books (1994-10-11)
Authors: Peter Menzel and Charles C. Mann
List price: $39.95
New price: $22.99
Used price: $9.99
Collectible price: $39.95

Average review score:

Material World...
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-31
This is a great book and it came in two days - way earlier than we anticipated! Good shape , great product!

Fascinating Book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-08
This is a fascinating look at how people all over the world live. My children have enjoyed thumbing through it, & our realtor gives it out as gifts to his clients! A unique project indeed.

Outdated but valuable
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-24
This book was created from pictures taken in the early 90's, so it is s bit dated, especially in the more developed nations. Things like computers and other tech is obviously missing. I know that many destitute Africans now even have cell phones, not shown here. Otherwise, this is a great book and is very educational. After reading it, I got to wondering what my possesions on the street would look like...

this was an eye opener
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-11
I thoroughly have enjoyed this book, looking at the people from around the world and their possessions and realizing how different I live from another. It was amazing to see each family so proud, of either how little they have or how much they have, and to have all that they own on display (from in the dead of winter to floating on a boat!).

A must see!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-17
This book is absolutely a wake-up call for many people out there who think they don't have enough! Beautifully put together. Outstanding.

Documentary-Collection
Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America
Published in Hardcover by Twin Palms Publishers (2000-02-01)
Authors: Jon Lewis, Leon F. Litwack, and Hilton Als
List price: $60.00
New price: $35.00
Used price: $39.98
Collectible price: $74.99

Average review score:

My great uncle
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-27
One of the men that was shown in this book is my great uncle on my mother side. My mother told me of the story when I was a senior in high school. My grandpa never talked about it and neither did his dad but my grandpa was told but other relatives about and shown the picture. But what made my grna father tell us the story was when a show touch by angle was on they had an episode about lynching and my grandpa saw his uncle and he called my mom and was very upset about it and told my mom the story about his uncle who was lynch as a teenager in Center,Tx and how the family had left the town when it happened because they knew they could do nothing for him and didn't want to become victims.Lige Daniel is my great uncle I never knew him but to see the picture and know that this person is my blood and that he was just a kid when he died. It stuck with me it scared I was a seventeen when I first learned of this a year older than him its scary and sad to think of the pain and torment he must have went through.

"AWAKENING AND HEART BREAKING "
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-05
THIS IS THE SECOND COPY FOR ME . SOMEONE STOLE THE FIRST ONE. WHEN I ALLOWED MY STUDENTS TO VIEW THE PICTURES.... A FUNERAL ATMOSPHERE ENTERED THE ROOM COUPLED WITH TEARS AND REQUEST FOR ME TO CLOSE THE BOOK !!! SHOCKING AND EDUCATIONAL... A MUST FOR ANY REAL BLACKMAN AND WOMAN'S HALL OF KNOWLEDGE !!

A lesson for all of us.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-07
I haven't read the book yet, but plan to in the future. I went to a website dedicated to it the other day' and it featured those photos and the history behind them. I was saddened and horrified, and am still haunted by what I read and saw. I cannot for the life of me understand how so many of those people, including women and children, could have taken such pleasure in those unspeakable atrocities. I only hope and pray that none of those people involved were in my family.

What I wish they could have added to this book, however, were a few bits on the Native Americans. I'm 1/4 Native American myself and some of my ancestors walked the Trail of Tears. Their people were also persecuted and murdered and treated as non-human---and whites who killed "Injuns" were considered heroes. I imagine some Native Americans were lynched and tortured as well, and likely there were photos.

The pity of it is, I wonder if America has learned from its past? Even now we are tolerating human rights abuses in other countries, and it's only recently that the UN is acknowledging the horrors of Darfur. It's time for America to face its "demons" and really work to change things. If not, God will surely judge this nation for its crimes against humanity. Maybe He has already.

But what I definitely hope people will learn from this book is what hatred and bigotry can do to all of us. Don't hate ANYBODY for their color---black, white, whatever---or for their nationality, religion, etc. If we want to honor the memory of these poor victims, let's rise above the hatred of their murderers and strive to defeat the evil that led to these acts. By learning from history, we can hopefully not repeat it.

without sanctuary
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-29
As a white man over sixty, growing up in the Northeast, I was sheltered from the realities of racism by my surroundings. "Colored people" were simply not socially acceptable, thats all.
When you go through this book you will cringe and shutter. What reason and why would white people do this. Not only lynch but torture and maim before they allowed the subject to die, and often for no reason - just because it was Saturday night and people needed something to do. Truly a wakeup call for white America to reflect on what we were and really how far have we come.

Buy this book !

Z

Profound Metaphor, for the graphic brutality of Slavery in America
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-30
This book is the ultimate metaphor for the graphic brutality of Black people in America.
The British poet William Wordsworth once said, "Man know thee thyself, presume God not to scan, the sturdy of mankind is man". How do you begin to understand the nature of evil? The sheer barbarity of these pictures, the nonchalant attitude of the perpetrators and the wicked glee on the faces of the participants (even children) confirms the graphic truth of the institutionalization of racism and evil in our world. Dr. Martin L. King once said that "God will not so much punish the wicked for their evil deed, but for the appalling silence of the good people. For all those lily livered fools in our world, who are quick to parrot that idiotic sentence "slavery was before my time", let me remind you of James Byrd of Texas in 2000. Without a Sanctuary: Lynching photography in America is a profound documentary of unimaginable evil and wickedness. These horrible pictures can only appeal to our conscience as a society to do the right thing. I agree with Dante in his 'Inferno' that the worst place in hell will be reserved for all those who are neutral on the great issues of life. I am profoundly grateful to the authors of this great human document James Allen, John Lewis, Hilton Als and Leon F. Litwack. May the souls of these beings who endured these horrific brutality rest with God forever.

Documentary-Collection
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Published in Hardcover by Ten Speed Press (2005-10-01)
Authors: Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
List price: $40.00
New price: $14.95
Used price: $11.99

Average review score:

Interesting & informative
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-29
An interesting book to peruse - a good mix of text and photos explains what cultures around the world (including the U.S.) typically eat and how they shop for/obtain their food. It makes a good coffee table, waiting room, gift-giving book.

Outstanding
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-05
Hungry Planet is a moving look at what families of the world live on...it combines incredible photography, well chosen statistics and outstanding commentary to clearly portray the diversity and real life economic situations of our fellows on planet earth. I love this book for the way it influences my children to see compassionately and with greater gratitude (and me too!)

Great book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-25
An through and interesting way to present the food of different cultures. The book not only shows a picture of what a week's worth of food looks like across the globe, but puts how much it costs and in USD. The book also elaborates on the eating habits, culture, and daily life of the people. There are also recipes! A great book with an eye opening perspective of people all over the world.

Hungry Planet
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-27
Everyone I have shown this book to has been fascinated. The photos are stunning.

Superb reading!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-17
I couldn't put this book down! I was drawn to it because it mixed my loves of both food and culture into one superb read.The photography is stunning,the cultural facts immersing and the reading about different families addictive.

Documentary-Collection
Shelter Dogs
Published in Hardcover by Merrell (2006-09-30)
Author: Traer Scott
List price: $19.95
New price: $18.14
Used price: $14.41

Average review score:

Beautiful
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-24
I love this book. I wish I could afford the prints, but the book itself is a treasure.

Shelter Dogs
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-14
This was a very good book. The descriptions were great. The pictures were beautiful. I really enjoyed reading it. There was alot of information. Shelter Dogs

So good
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-11
I'm an aspiring photographer/shelter owner...and this book just confirmed why I want to do each of those things. I cried when I read some of the stories in the back, and each picture was so darn cute. I love this book, and (when I get one) will sit on my coffee table for all my guests to look at!

A disappointment
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-09
I bought this book because I read all the wonderful reviews and frankly I was extremely disappointed. I am a real dog lover and melt at the sight of any dog but these photos lack life. They look like mannequins and very few of them show the wonderful expressions we so often see in dogs and which make dogs so utterly lovable. For a book that is trying to tug at your heart on the subject of shelter dogs, it has failed spectacularly.
Give this book a miss.

Be prepared to cry...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-06
This book gives us details on shelter dogs, who the author Traer Scott, has met in her travels. So touching, uplifting and heartbreaking, especially when we learn so much about them and are told at the end which dogs lived and were adopted...and which ones were not (sniffle)...If this book doesn't convince you to adopt from an animal shelter, then I don't know what will! A portion of the proceeds from this book and Scott's other book, Street Dogs, are donated to animal charities. Worth it to buy both! Thanks for this great, insightful look at America's animal shelters.

Documentary-Collection
Americans
Published in Hardcover by Aperture Book (1978-11)
Author: Robert Frank
List price: $50.00
Used price: $53.92
Collectible price: $250.00

Average review score:

Very inspirational
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-21
Great book, not much new to say about it. But I find it fantastically inspirational in that it again show a series of very successful images based in vision and imagery instead of tools and mechanics. For today's photographers its very easy to get trapped in megapixel and the latest lens race.. this is a book shot for images. If you are a photographer or into photography, just buy the book and start enjoying, you will come back to this over and over again.

Documentary Photography at its best!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-06
Robert Frank's "The Americans" is a great lesson in documentary photography - the images transport you to the moment, making you part of what is happening, as an observer. Robert Frank even lets the subject realize his presence by direct eye contact, letting the viewer know S/he is also being observed. I like his breaking of symmetry of lines, creating tension in his compositions, making us ask questions, search for answers about the image. A great book!

The Americans
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-06
Robert Frank is an iconic photographer of American life. For people in their 50's or older it is nostalgic. And for those younger, it is a visual slice of our history. There are many stories here. A good book.

Robert Frank, not Jack Kerouac
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-31
contrary to what is listed, The Americans is by Robert Frank, the photographer. the photos are timeless and i still use them to teach photography to college students
jack kerouac only wrote the forward.
set the record straight for non-photographers.
thank you.

iNTERESTING
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-24
Excellent print quality.. A glance at common people in random daily-life shots. It's a book worth a place in your hands

Documentary-Collection
Brotherhood
Published in Hardcover by American Express Publishing (2001-12)
Author: Tony Hendra
List price: $29.95
New price: $47.95
Used price: $0.79

Average review score:

pictures
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-08
Thought it would have more written by Frank McCourt. Even though, I still appreciate great photographs, especially having to do with 9/11.

Heart-rending images of emptied firehouses
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-09
For New York City firefighters, "September 11, 2001" is a reminder of the dark, hollow place that their brothers once filled. 341 firefighters lost in a single day -- half the total number lost in all the years prior to that date. This volume of photographs eloquently memorializes the lost by recording the images of the firehouses from which they served their community. The images, taken not long after 9/11, show the firehouses bedecked by mounds of flowers, photos of the lost, images of the things they left behind and banners proclaiming to never forget.

Even without the sense of loss, the book would have been fascinating. The firehouses are in all shapes, sizes and ages, from tiny, one-engine 19th-century brick filigreed music boxes to post-modern buildings that could be anything -- college student center, post office or shopping center. But the reminders of that day of darkness are what give the images an emotional punch -- oversized American flags fluttering in afternoon breezes; the list of names snaking across the bottom of the pages; the empty boots and racks of empty coats that grimly recall our minds to those who will no longer return.

"Brothers" contains some text -- short and eloquent testimonials written by former Mayor Giuliani, novelist Frank McCourt, satirist Tony Hendra and others. But these are deliberately placed second to the images that remind us of the brave men who face fire every day, advancing into an elemental reality that our very nature prompts us to flee, men who on an obscenely-blue-skied day in 2001, courageously entered towers from which they would never return.

A beautiful, near-wordless and moving elegy to the human American spirit that no enemy can destroy.

Excellence..
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-26
Simple and to the point, yet poingint and touching, this book shows like no other how the world's greatest fire department dealt with the aftermath of tragedy.

Brotherhood
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-17
Outstanding It shows the amazing grief and resolve of New York and its firefighters. It is is visual history of the Sept.11 attacks and their aftermath

Fallen Heroes
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-04
As you are reading though the tribute to the fallen, you see thenamesof each of the lost Firefighters scrolled across the bottom of the pages. Each page left me more and more with a sense of loss. I did not lose anyone that fateful day, yet, we all lost. The words you read are quite moving, the pictures mean more than the words and poems. Yet i am most moved by the names of those precious and brave firefighters name across the pages from the front cover to the back cover.

Documentary-Collection
Ernie: A Photographer's Memoir
Published in Hardcover by Chronicle Books (2001-04)
Author: Tony Mendoza
List price: $12.95
New price: $6.98
Used price: $0.50

Average review score:

An odd little present for the person who has everything
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2009-01-06
The character of cat a cat caught on film. I still laugh at it.

Who could resist that face?
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-09
I actually bought this book from a Museum of Fine Arts bookstore (for more than it cost on Amazon, but I digress) simply after glancing at it. I am an admitted cat lady and I couldn't resist such a playful yet respectful study of a cat. What a personality! Highly recommended for cat people.

As if my cat ERNIE pose for it himself
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-16
This book was very well titled and illustrated. It looked as if my own cat ERNIE posed for many of the pictures himself. If you have a black and white(tuxedo cat), I strongly urge you to purchase this book. It will mean so much to you later when you lose your cat(to death) like it did with my ERNIE. I highly recommend it.

Outstanding portfolio
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-13
I was recommended this book by a colleague as I was starting to get into photography. My first thought was that it'd be boring - I mean photos of cats?! If I wanted that I'd buy a calendar. However I ordered it and it is brilliant. The photos are outstanding - nothing like your typical cat-calendar shots, but rather they capture the essence of the subject, which in this case just happens to be a cat. Add to that, the fact that it is beautifully presented, it could only be 5 stars.

Hi Ernie, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-21
I encountered Ernie while visiting the Tate Modern bookstore here in London over the weekend, and was instantly won over by his crazy, self-possessed ways. The genius of Mendoza's work lies in his ability to faithfully capture the personality of his feline subject, with the same amount of detail and devotion one would expect to see in photographs of people. As a filmmaker and photography enthusiast, I have accumulated a library of photography books by those renowned in their field, and Mendoza's masterful memoir deserves its place amongst them. Sure, he is not a Pulitzer Prize winning war photographer, the subject is light-hearted but it is also sincere, which is the most you can ask of an artist. Ernie is a fine example of what photography and portraiture should be: an engaging and revealing insight into its subject, one that compels the viewer to revisit the photographs again and again, delighting and inspiring with each subsequent reading.

Documentary-Collection
LIFE : Our Century in Pictures
Published in Hardcover by Bulfinch (1999-10-07)
Author: Richard B. Stolley
List price: $65.00
New price: $28.49
Used price: $0.87
Collectible price: $127.50

Average review score:

A great treasure trove
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-20
This massive coffeetable book does exactly what it sets out to do: photographically chronicle the 20th century, showcasing the famous and the not-so-famous. Along with familiar images such as the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, the Buddhist monk immolating himself, the sailor kissing the woman in Times Square on V-J Day, the kneeling girl screaming over the body of one of the Kent State dead, and the man facing down the tanks in Tiananmen Square, there are lesser-known images such as Soviet soldiers leaving Afghanistan in 1989, an alternate scene of a flag-raising at Iwo Jima, a very young Dick Clark sitting among the chart-topping records of 1957, old men lining up to get their social security benefits, and a Muslim groom and Christian bride picking their way through the rubble of Beirut on their way to crossing the Green Line so they could reach her church and get married.

Instead of dividing the book up by decades, it goes by historical era--1900-13, 1914-19, 1920-29, 1930-39, 1940-45, 1946-63, 1964-75, 1976-92, and 1993-99. After all, more often than not things from the previous era are still influencing a new decade, such as how the Seventies were by and large a continuation of the Sixties instead of an entirely new era. Each chapter begins with a short essay by a prominent historian, and each features a "Turning Point" section, focusing on subjects such as space travel, discovering our prehistoric ancestors, closing the gender gap, outlaws, bandits, and mobsters, civil rights, and the conquest of the atom. Each chapter ends with a requiem, highlighting some of the prominent people who passed away during that era. In addition to the usual suspects such as James Dean, Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Charlie Chaplin, and Susan B. Anthony, there are also some lesser-known personalities, such as Albert Woolson (the last surviving Civil War vet), Martha the passenger pigeon (the last of her kind as well), Sen. Cornelius Cole (the last surviving person who voted in President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial), Aimee Semple McPherson (the now-largely-forgotten evangelist who faked her own kidnapping in the Twenties), and James Naismith (the inventor of basketball).

This is a great book for all those who are interested in 20th century history, and many of the images are bound to bring back memories the readers, whether they were born in the early century, at mid-century, in the later decades of the century, or anywhere in between. (Although it should be noted that some of the pictures are a bit disturbing and graphic and might upset children or even some adults, such as the ones on page 8 and page 178.) One wishes the book were even longer and had been able to include even more images of the past century; there were a couple of events and images I was rather surprised to see excluded, such as the killing fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia, the Armenian Genocide, the fiery end to the stand-off in Waco, the disastrous U.S. excursion into Somalia, the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, and the war in Bosnia. Still, in a book this size, one can't expect absolutely everything to be included, and all of the images that are included are stupendous.

Amazing!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-17
I first noticed this book in fourth grade, as my teacher liked collecting interesting books. I ended up reading it cover-to-cover about 6 times. I am a major fan of history, and always have been. I am in the seventh grade now, and when we talk about things in history class, some of the beautiful pictures still come back to me. I also really like how the written part of the chapters are written by authors like Avi. This falls in the class of my "most favorite books of all time," including the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card, The Breadwinner, and any and all E.L. Koningsburg books. A great read!

It's a family favorite!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-17
I bought this book for my 85+ year old mother in law for Christmas 2005. She loved it so much, she later asked me to help her find one for a close family friend. A few weeks later, her sister Corrine came to visit, and they poured over the pictures in her copy of the book - "remembering when" they had seen this or that. They especially loved the pics of San Francisco in 1940's when they were young and going clubbing. I later ordered (yet) another copy for Aunt Corrine's 87th birthday - and she just loved it! It's so hard to buy gifts for someone over 80 - this is a sure fire hit!

A scrapbook of the century...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-11-11
Life has done a superb job of pulling the whole century together into one book.I wont't tell you what picture was the first picture the started the book off with.But I'll tell you this;they got it right! This in not only the most important and best picture of the 20th century, but also; the most significient picture to portray what man has done;ever.Check out the book and see if you don't agree.
It must have have been a difficult,but rewarding, task to decide what to include and what had to be sacrificed.Everyone must have their favorite pictures of the century and will find many of them in the book.A very good balance was made between text and pictures.
An excellent book to have or to give as a gift regardless of r age.

A scrapbook of the century...
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-11-11
Life has done a superb job of pulling the whole century together into one book.I wont't tell you what picture was the first picture the started the book off with.But I'll tell you this;they got it right! This in not only the most important and best picture of the 20th century, but also; the most significient picture to portray what man has done;ever.Check out the book and see if you don't agree.
It must have have been a difficult,but rewarding, task to decide what to include and what had to be sacrificed.Everyone must have their favorite pictures of the century and will find many of them in the book.A very good balance was made between text and pictures.
An excellent book to have or to give as a gift regardless of age.
There are other similar books;but none better.What else would you expect from TIME!

Documentary-Collection
Wisconsin Death Trip
Published in Paperback by University of New Mexico Press (2000-01-01)
Author: Michael Lesy
List price: $34.95
New price: $21.15
Used price: $19.98
Collectible price: $89.99

Average review score:

Moving, effective, original, singular
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-24
Michael Lesy's Wisconsin Death Trip, originally a doctoral thesis, is one of the most touching, poetic, beautiful, harrowing, moving and dislocating works I have read. Basically a compendium of found glass plate negative photos taken by the (himself knock-knees odd) Charles Vam Schaik in and around the rural community of Black River Falls WI, and leavened by snippets taken from the Badger State Banner newspaper and the Mendota State Record Book (an insane asylum), as well as a few personal reminisces, the book instead is a commentary and an indictment of a brutal time of economic dislocation, social upheaval, religious confusion and obsession, and personal decay in a farming community. It is an endless repitition of suicide, madness, arson, children dying of disease, and of a mostly sternly religious people living the grimmest of lives of back breaking work in the country. The photos by their sheer repetition and some of the games played with them by the author, pound out a tattoo of strain, people only barely suppressing their madness, and a society truly on the edge of collapse. Hardly the bucolic paradise so often evoked in our time.

The afterword by the author provides some backstory and statistics backing the point up, and illustrating in numbers and facts what the pictures and excerpts made clear by anecdote, and is also well written.

This was something of a cult book in the mid 70s, a most unusual way of looking at local history, lifting up the rock under which society had crawled. It is haunting, tragic, striking. You will never forgot it.

Wisconsin Death Trip
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-22
Buying a classic again. This is the U of New Mexico Press version. The earlier publisher had the picture of the baby in a coffin on the cover. That was better, but the contents are the same.

Wisconsin Death Trio
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-18
This is an interesting and slightly macabre book which is strangely beautiful. My son, who is Sam Witt, the poet, told me about it because he had been so moved by it that he wrote a poem associated with it in his soon to be published book, SUNFLOWER BROTHER. The old photos are stunning from the horses to the dead children. I am hoping to get the dvd soon.

Accurate,but not singular
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-14
"Wisconsin death trip"is an accurate documentation,not only of "agrarian white"culture at the end of the 19th century but,in many ways,the whole of white culture in america at that time..Contrary to popular belief,the"good"old days were not really so good..Yes,they may well have been less complex,but infant mortality was very high,illnesses which today are highly treatable being killers not only of children but of adults as well,daily life being,for most,a drudgery,with little to show for one's efforts...There were few saftey nets,no antibiotics,no pensions to speak of,no recourse against the harshness life,or against a system that,like today,favors the wealthy..
Insanity was not understood,and "treatment"such as it was,often did little to help the afflicted...Wisconsin did not have a monopoly on such things,anymore than,say,los angles has a monopoly on street gangs,or newark has a monopoly on ghetto housing...
The novelty is perhaps in the seeing of the photographs and the documents all together in one volume,so that one can peruse the sorrowful aspects of that period as it affected one particular area...

American Gothic Death Rattle
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-15
I read this book over 16 years ago. It left a lasting impression that will stay with me forever. It may not have the same affect on others but reading some of the reviews posted here, I know that it has on most. You can't really ask somebody "did this really happen?" becuase they either died then or in the 100 years that have past. We have no perspective on these people, places and times other than to read books like this. If any of these folks were alive today and heard someone say, "those were the good old days." They might be inclined to give the speaker a quick education. This book will do it for them. I have pictures just like this in a family archive. You wonder how anybody lived into middle or old age. Disease, starvation, hypothermia, and farm accidents all took their toll. Winters are hard enough in the south. Why did these people decide to stop the wagon in Wisconsin or if they lived thru their first winter there, why didn't they head south? I went to a Brewers baseball game at the end of May some 25 years ago and wore a down parka and was cold. You can still see houses in small towns outside of Milwaukee that look like the houses in this book and you can feel the desolation, pain and suffering looking out at you thru 100 year old panes of glass.


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