Street-name

Every visitor going to New Orleans should take this book along. There is a quick, easy to read history of the city filled with many pictures of important people, flags flown over New Orleans and a map. There is a lot of information put into this small book. I found that it added a lot to read it just before we visited New Orleans.

Mardi Grais takes on new meaning when you know the history and importance of the places and people of old New Orleans. This pocket size handy guide helps one come away with a sense of the importance of this place in our American history.

This small book offers both the tourist and historian insights on little known facts about the origin of street names for the tour of historic New Orleans. It is written with humor and history. Excellent for one's first or tenth trip to this wonderful city. Map of the old city is helpful.

This book contains the finest collection of the history of Baltimore streets I have ever seen. The book describes the general history of many major streets and numerous minor streets throughout Baltimore. The streets are listed in alphabetical order. Many photos of historical landmarks accompany the book. Mention of numerous notable persons is made in regards to the history of many streets.
Although this reference work is not comprehensively exhaustive ( it doesn't mention every Baltimore street ) it is very worth your while to peruse. For instance, this book doesn't list Fear Avenue which is located two blocks from the Pimlico Racetrack. Fear Avenue was named in honor of my great-grandfather Boston Fear and his two sons: George Fear and Frederick Fear. They were major contributors to the Pimlico Racetrack during the early part of the twentieth century. My great-grandfather Boston Fear was a German immigrant who created the suburb of Walbook: Baltimore's very first suburb. Walbrook was originally named Fearville in honor of Boston Fear. Boston Fear gave Francis X. Bushman ( Hollywood's very first film superstar) his very first job in life.
I would highly recommend that all libraries in the state of Maryland possess a copy of this book for their Baltimore history section.

This book is excellent for anyone who has family they are working on from Baltimore. It goes alphabetically street by street and lists many interesting facts about the history of the street. Often in our research we find that a relative lived for instance on Charles Street. But we have NO idea what it was like 100 years ago. Streetwise Baltimore provides just that. Additionally at the back of the book they go through a similiar process with some Baltimore neighborhoods. When I bought the book I had NO idea I would find a picture of my great grandfathers store front on page 145.... This brought tears to my eyes and made my Mother a very happy lady. This is a quality book... well worth the dollars spent.

I once used this book for a task for school. From the big mainstreets to the most narrow street, you all find them back. For people intrested in the creation of street names this book is very good. Eg. if you see in the street Ghoedele and it says Old Land Owner, then this book will tell you more about this Land Owner, or that building that gave his name to the street, or that person that was so influent to put his name on the street.

This is a fun, colorful, and educational book. The familar characters and the rhyming verses make the book fun to read. I have a 20 month old son that loves it, he has me read it to him at least five times a day. He knows what the pictures are of and enjoys pointing them out to me. I highly recommend this book to parents. You and your child (or children) will thoroughly enjoy it.

My daughter loves this book. I think just about any 3, 4 or 5 year old girl can relate to Zoe. She talks about where she lives on Sesame Street, things she likes to do (play tea party, cars, ride on Big Bird's shoulders and look at books), she talks about loving to wear bracelets.

But she does NOT like to be cootchie-cootchie-cooed. The expression on her face, as she's enduring a lady cootchie-cootchie-cooing her is just hilarious. She looks just like my daughtr does when SHE'S being patronized and doesn't like it.

Zoe does explain that Elmo likes it, so you can cootchi-cootchie-coo him all you want. (Then you see Elmo, offering up his chin for just such affection!)

This book is interactive - very ingenious. This is a playful book. Original and fun, bright illustrations and sturdy binding.

Highly recommended!

Andrew Dickos has written both a brilliant overview of the history and development of film noir -- tracing it back to German films of the 20s and French movie from the 30s -- and an astute examination of individual works and filmmakers.

The author's writing style is sharp and lively and his critiques of the movies are incisive, original and provocative.

A fascinating book; a must-have for the serious movie fan.

This book explains the origin of every named street in Manhattan, New York. A native of Topeka, Kansas may rightly be inclined to say "So what?" but, to anyone interested in NYC, this book will provide plenty of raised eyebrows of new found insight about "Gotham". The book is broken down into sections on Lower Manhattan, Mid-Lower Manhattan, The Villages, Midtown South, Midtown, East Side, West Side, and Upper Manhattan with additional sectional breakdowns in each group. A page and a half of historical background for each area is given along with a very basic map of the area. The story of the name for each street in the area is then explained in a couple well written lines. Many pictures are included of the persons or places named. The only detracting points are the paucity of effective maps detailing where some of the more obscure places are.

Highly recommended if you are into New York City history.

Ever wondered how Hell's Kitchen got it's name or why Bowling Green is called that? Well, finally there is a book that can answer these and many other place name questions. "Naming New York: Manhattan Places and How They Got Their Names" by Sanna Feirstein, and published by the respectable folks at New York University Press is a great, well organized book that discusses how most places in the borough of Manhattan got their names.

Chapters, which are divided by areas on the island such as Upper East Side, Inwood, and Harlem, discusses the origin of many street, park, and neighborhood names. The author, who briefly gives the origin of the place name in a simple sentence or two, apparently has done some deep research at a local library or archive in order to amass such an extensive list of information. With a great cover design and feel, the book captured my attention at a local bookstore. Overall, the book is a must for anyone who loves the City that Never Sleeps. It's a great book for a great price, which today can be a rarity.

This book is great for everyone - from history experts to casual street walkers. I highly recommend it!!!

This book was very interesting and i enjoyed the courage of a young black man to stand up for his rights.

I love James Baldwin--I think he's a tremendous writer, so Toni Morrison could hardly go wrong in selecting essays for this volume. All of the selections are excellent. Notes of a Native Son contains a touching eulogy for Richard Wright ("Alas, Poor Richard"), explaining the lonliness and problems Mr. Wright had at the end of his life. Baldwin displays his tremendous range as both a political commentator and a literary critic. The Devil Finds Work, in particular, is very insightful--and several parts humourous.

What I don't understand--and why I struck a star off this collection--is why Ms. Morrison did not include "Evidence of Things Unseen," Baldwin's analysis of the Atlanta child murders from the early eighties. Perhaps Library of America is planning later volumes of Baldwin's works--The companion volume to these essays is his "Early Novels," most notably "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "Giovani's Room." I can't imagine that Library of America would not produce a volume including Mr. Baldwin's later works--especially "Just Above my Head."

This particular edition is well worth having--despite the price. First, this is a good collection of Baldwin's essays, many of which are difficult to find. Second, the Library of America really does a commendable job in paper quality and binding. This is not a leather bound edition on 50 pound paper, so stiff you can't open it and printed so the back binding looks impressive on your bookshelf--this is tightly bound, cardboard cover that lies flat, and is easy to read. The paper is not heavy--but acid free, and tear resistant. The Library of America series are good collections that are meant to be read many times, by many people--these books hold up very well.

I am afraid that Mr. Baldwin's works and opinions may fall by the wayside as time passes. The fact that Ms. Morrison--one of our best and most respected authors--put these collections together will certainly help keep Mr. Baldwin's works alive. But if you have any interest in what it means to be African American--in the twenties, to contemporary america--through even tomorrow--You need to read and appreciate Mr. Baldwin's insights. And you will also enjoy his clear, careful, and pointed writing.

In Egypt, I met an extraordinary American.
"I was born in New York, but have only lived in pockets of it. In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city - on the Right Bank and on the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les miserables, and knew all kinds of people from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Nueilly. This may sound unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen," he said.
"The perpetual dealing with people very different from myself caused a shattering in me of preconceptions I scarcely knew I held. This reassessment, which can be very painful, is also very valuable."
His name is Mr. Baldwin, and I cherish this new acquaintance because his ideas have had such profound impact on my views of Egypt. I wanted to know the people, but as I reach out for them, sometimes, I'm shocked by what I see. I see people sleeping on the concrete patios along the Nile - many of them have migrated from the farmlands because they can make more money for their families if they work in Cairo. But desert nights can be bitter cold in January, and it cuts my heart. Yet, Mr. Baldwin's message is well heeded. The same problems of inner city growth that come with development in Egypt also came with development in Britain one hundred years ago. American inner city schools and slums still reflect this challenge.
Would I have walked into the slums of Chicago if I were there? Would I have strolled through the southwest side of Kansas City or east St. Louis? Would I have walked into the anti-developing city blocks of L.A. if I were in America? Of course not. So why is it that traveling abroad opens my eyes to poverty in America? Why couldn't I see it when I was there? I don't know why this happens, but James Baldwin was right - absolutely right when he said that this reassessment, which can be very painful is also very valuable.
I have been told that the housing shortage in Egypt provided the impetus for many people to move into the spacious mausoleums in the old city graveyard. The international visitors call it, "The City of the Dead," and tourists go there and gawk at poverty creating a makeshift freak show out of human suffering. Then I learned that the housing shortage in Los Angeles provided the impetus for many people to move into mausoleums, but no one goes to gawk at them. In fact, there seems to be a kind of American denial that such things could ever happen in the land of milk and honey.
As I hear of people talking about human rights violations in Egypt, I think of the title of James Baldwin's book: Nobody Knows My Name. I think of James Byrd who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck. I think of the threats of millennium violence that frightened black American families so much that they bought guns and stayed home for the New Year. I think of the tiny city in Texas who voted Spanish as their city's official language and then received death threats from all over the nation. Of course, if you asked any American about human rights violations, they would tell you that this is something that happens in China or Africa. It's a painful realization that it might happen in MY country. Growing up in the American school system, I came to idolize Abraham Lincoln's courage and George Washington's integrity. The universal ideas of human value and dignity that we believe to be inalienable are not, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely told us, being applied universally in our country. These facts go against the ideals and values of our nation - they don't support the concepts of the free and the brave.
"It is a complex fate to be an American," Henry James observed. James Baldwin awakened me to that complexity in a way so subtle, so gentle and yet, so powerfully painful.
He awakened me to the hard realities of the American people, most of whom will never read or digest his work. They would dismiss him. But his vision is not to be dismissed. His writing illustrates that the responsibility of this future lies in the hands of blind people. People who refuse to see American neighborhoods and American people for what they really are. We can't improve until we accept the starting point. This lofty ideal of what we should be and blind obstinacy to what we are is killing us.
"Europe has what we do not have yet," Baldwin said. "A sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need: a new sense of life's possibilities."
Egypt has what we do not yet have - a clear and present sense of unity - an admiration for sacrifice for the whole of the group - the nuclear family, the extended family, the community. And we have absolutely nothing that Egypt needs, except, if you ask the younger generation: Nike shoes. In fact, this is precisely what Egyptians do not need. They do not need the destructive, greed-inspiring and greed-glorifying economic development of the West.

"In this endeavor to wed the vision of the Old World with that of the New, it is the writer, not the statesman, who is our strongest arm. Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have tangible effect on the world." - James Baldwin

This is a reference book. It is not amusing or entertaining. I was looking forward to learning more about my new home, and I did learn a few things. However, the consumer should be warned: this is a dry, factual scholarly work, not a piece of light reading.

This is a wonderful collection of ancedotes and historical tidbits about Philadelphia's streets. The street names are listed alphabetically, with a few paragraphs about how each street got its name. Some listings have more content than others. There's also an interesting section on house-numbering, which didn't start until the late 1700s. Another section lists when specific roads operated as toll roads between 1711 and 1918.

In the book's introduction, which I also found interesting, the author explains some of the obstacles in doing this project--particularly the 'lack of cohesive record-keeping by the city' and the misinformation and erroneous data in the 'seemingly authoritative newspaper clippings.'

I would've liked to have seen longer descriptions and some street maps included for reference. Overall though, it's an excellent book for anyone interested in Philadelphia. In addition to teachers, I think it would also benefit anyone putting together local tours or a 'historical neighborhood' association.

If you have ever wondered how a street got its name, this is the book you! Robert I. Alotta did an impressive amount of research and has compiled a fascinating little resource on Philadelphia street names. While most Philadelphians can easily figure out who Ben Franklin Parkway or John F. Kennedy Boulevard is named after, how about some of the more obscure names? Even the streets that aren't named after people have interesting historical facts. Presented in alphabetical encyclopedic style order, this book makes a better reference than an interesting read. However, I found it to be good fun to look up familiar street names and discover the meanings behind them. For the interested, this book is well worth the investment.

I purchased this book for much less, but it apparently has become a collectible.
However, it might be worth it to you, if you spent hours riding your bike through the streets of Parma, Ohio, as I did.
Once "the softball capital of the world" Parma was also the [subject of jokes about "white socks, pierogies and pink flamingoes in front yards". But it was, and still is, a pleasant, "nothing fancy" American city, born in the post-war boom of the 50s, and one that has lots to offer. For a child growing up in Parma during the 60s and 70s, the streets of Parma were the blueprint for fun and adventure. It's really enjoyable to be able to read the street names again, and see the many, many aerial photos of the streets we called home.
I would have enjoyed seeing some well-known landmarks, like the Ridge Variety store, State Road Park, Ridgewood Pool or Wolfert's Pharmacy, but bottom line, the book is about the streets. (How about a second book, devoted to Parma businesses, Mr. Horley?)
This is an important historical work, as more of those landmarks and special places that we knew and loved as children are paved over to make room for the very kinds of housing developments that fill this book. Places like "Hales' Woods", with the "big rock", located at the end of Kenilworth Avenue.
This is a unique, nostalgic and entertaining work; a legacy of sorts for the author, and one that must have given him much satisfaction.