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Architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston: Harvard's H. Langford Warren
Maureen Meister
Manufacturer: University Press of New England
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1584653515 |
Book Description
H. Langford Warren (1857-1917) was an important link in the chain of individuals who contributed to the architectural practice, theories of design, and the teaching of architectural history in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Best known in the Boston area, Warren first worked under the renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson before establishing his own practice. Friends and colleagues during this period included Charles Eliot Norton, the noted art historian, and Harvard's Charles Herbert Moore, a leading Ruskinian painter. Hired by Harvard University in 1893, Warren developed its architectural curriculum. In 1897 he helped found Boston's Society of Arts and Crafts. At the time of his death in 1917, Warren was Dean of the School of Architecture at Harvard and President of the Society of Arts and Crafts.
At the turn of the century, Warren's philosophical vision offered a conservative and ethnocentric perspective attractive to many Bostonians and to a significant segment of Americans nationwide. According to this view, English culture was the basis of American culture. Through his work at Harvard and in the Arts and Crafts movement, he articulated and promoted an aesthetic guided by an attachment to the past, and he encouraged his students at Harvard to revive and reinterpret English and Anglo-American models. Another characteristic of Warren's aesthetic was "restraint," a quality generally attributed to the region's Puritan settlers. "Restraint" also meant a rejection of both the lavish ornamentation of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the more original styles such as Art Nouveau that were emerging at the turn of the century.
Following the ideals of John Ruskin, William Morris, and later leaders of the English Arts and Crafts movement, Warren and his architect-colleagues promoted a close collaboration with the craftsmen who enhanced their buildings. The resulting building designs represent a significant contribution to the development of American Arts and Crafts architecture, complementing the proto-modern work of designers such as Frank Lloyd Wright. In fact, Arts and Crafts architecture in North America was extremely diverse. Meister examines the greater complexity of this architecture by exploring the eclectic historicism of Warren, a key figure in the movement that was centered in Boston.
Book Description
Every material has an active presence and every material is susceptible to change. The task of the sculptor is to understand the natural properties of a chosen material, to know in the process of creation how best to work with, or against, its characteristics. In this generously illustrated studio manual, sculptor Oliver Andrews takes a new approach to sculpture, focusing on how the innate assertiveness of materials affects the complex act of making a sculpture.
Customer Reviews:
Good, but dated.......2001-11-16
The good news is that this is probably the best book available on the materials of sculpture. The bad new is that it was written twenty years ago. (This paperback edition may have been published in 1988, but AFAIK, the text was unchanged from the original 1983 version.)
If you are interested in traditional forms, then this book probably covers everything you need. But if you want information on any materials and/or techniques that came into use post-1970's, you're out of luck. Plastics are a good example: urethane and silicone molding rubbers are given a cursory mention, even though they are quite common now. I don't think polyurethane casting resins (Por-a-kast, Poly 15, etc.) or polyurethane glues (Gorilla Glue, ProBond, etc.) are mentioned at all.
The wood section is surprisingly thin, with a bias toward subtractive methods (carving), even though wood construction is as common--if not more common--in contemporary work.
While there are plenty of photos (all black and white) of classic sculptures, there are a lot of unbelievably bad pieces illustrated--probably chosen for their materials rather than quality. Some are downright hideous.
This is a good resource, but be aware that it is no longer comprehensive.
supurb book that covers both modern and antique materials.......1998-08-01
This is a supurb reference book for a working sculptor. It covers stone and wood carving, as well as most major 20th century materials, from plastics to masonry to metal fabrication techniques. Nothing on fabrics or paper though. The illustrations are exciting and fairly thorough, with an emphasis is on innovative work. This is the one book I would want to take with me if shipwrecked on a desert island!
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- Beautiful photos of all types of subjects
- It's good and well marketed but not great
- A Collection of Achingly Beautiful Photographs
- A Candidate for Best Photo Book of 2000
- A Personal Album
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Robert Maxwell: Photographs
Robert Maxwell , and
Genevieve Field
Manufacturer: Arena Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1892041324 |
Book Description
Robert Maxwell is one of the most exciting new photographers to have emerged on the savagely competitive scene of fashion and editorial photography. In Photographs, Maxwell shares his edgy nudes, portraits, and still lifes that are at once modern and, strangely, part of the past. Much has been written about the lack of innovation in contemporary photography, and this book, Maxwell's first, underscores why he is widely considered to be one of the most interesting photographers of his generation. Combining a rough-edged eroticism with a genuine interest in form and beauty, Maxwell's nudes-perhaps the most difficult genre to master-are in a class by themselves. His elegant portrait studies of his family, friends, and passersby, are fresh and original and bring to mind the groundbreaking work of Irving Penn or of Richard Avedon. But Maxwell is distinguished from his modernist forebears both aesthetically and by his unique approach to the medium: He utilizes the nineteenth-century glass wetplate technology known as the ambrotype-called the "black art" of photography for its rich, dark and reflective surfaces. These gorgeous glass objects, as well as the artist's platinum and silver prints, come alive in this striking book that is certain to become a milestone in the art of bookmaking.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful photos of all types of subjects.......2002-06-10
Maxwell has turned his camera toward a variety of subjects, from flowers, to fish, to beautiful women. The women range from his babysitter to the world-famous actress Milla. He finds beauty everywhere, and the quality of his originals and the printing of this book are superb.
It's good and well marketed but not great.......2001-05-10
When I first saw this book I thought the pictures were polaroid prints. I then found out that a bunch were ambrotypes. That's pretty cool, but they don't knock me out. Lots of nudes and flowers (some nudes and flowers in the same picture) and it starts to get repetitive. Aside from the process, the subject matter has been done and he is not breaking new ground. I like his editorial work. He is a gifted photographer and works very hard. This is a book of cash cows. If you have to buy this book, go ahead. You'll get bored with it after a while....
A Collection of Achingly Beautiful Photographs.......2001-03-23
I've seen some of Maxwell's work in various magazines (Vanity Fair, W, etc.) and have always found myself drawn to his pictures. The lighting and staging of his photos are always interesting, and they just draw the viewer in. His photos have such a unique style, that I can almost always tell immediately if they were taken by him. Anybody who would like a book they can pore over and over again should buy this one! The photos are mesmerizing!!!!
A Candidate for Best Photo Book of 2000.......2001-01-05
This is an amazing, beautiful book--beautifully made and filled with beautiful images. I had not heard of Maxwell before seeing it, but he is, without doubt, one of the finest of today's photographers. There are nudes, flowers, children, old men (including a great picture of a tough old face that could have walked right out of a Cormac McCarthy novel), animals, even spoons clothespinned to a line, which is one of the most beautiful compositions in the book, and some very touching pictures of children, especially some of his son. One of the finest images appears on the back dustjacket: a girl with long, ringlet curls, her back to us, sits atop an old wooden fence. It has a poignancy and touch of nostalgia that makes it nearly seem a glimpse into the past. Maxwell uses a 19th century technique to make his work and that technique often heightens this effect. The book seems very modern with its bold nudes but also partakes of the past with all the innocent images of old people, children, and animals. It's a great and happy book, a celebration of life: adulthood and sexuality, childhood and innocence, nature and the things of our making. I just wish more books like this were being published. And it also includes a fine interview with the artist.
A Personal Album.......2000-08-31
In Robert Maxwell's first book of photographs, the viewer turns the last pages knowing they have been made privy to what is essentially a very personal photo album. With the exception of a limited few, most images are heartfelt displays of Maxwell's family and friends. Even his still life images have a personal feel, as if taken in the home rather than a studio. Maxwell's nudes are more intimate than his contemporaries. His use of the ambrotype process renders a timeless quality to the nudes, eliciting a romantic look that brings the viewer closer to the image, with all of its dark imperfections. The female nudes done in silver gelatin are actually taken from a closer perspective, with torsos and sections of the body on display, evoking a statuesque quality that can almost be touched. At times Maxwell needs to make it overwhelmingly clear we know he's a family man, both in pictures and words. Photographs of his son and various other children fill a significant portion of the book. This is the book's only shortcoming, partially due to the subjective nature of the material. In the interview by Genevieve Field that begins "Photographs" Maxwell asserts he's just a simple, family guy from suburbia who loves his wife, and his wife trusts him. Who cares? The interview is about as significant as Maxwell's introductory quote that informs the reader he'd blind himself and forsake his art for his wife - and go "love her with everything he's got." Fortunately, the interview is short and the photographs that follow are brilliant. Aside from Maxwell's dramatic, verbal posturing and family man sentimentality, "Photographs" is a significant monograph, and an insightful introduction to a promising photographer.
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3 pp.
Book Description
Well-known comics creators take comicdom's greatest challenge: to completely write and draw a full 24 page comics story in 24 straight hours. A combination of energetic improvisational effort and a marathon effort, the 24 hour comics challenge is a rite of passage in the comics field. Stories include: The very first 24 hour comic, created by Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), comicdom's leading theoretician and inventor of the challenge. Instead of doing one 24 page story, former X-Men artist Paul Smith (Leave It to Chance) created six shorter stories totaling 24 pages, including the true tale of his father's capture and rescue during World War II. "Counter" by Mary Jane writer Sean McKeever is a tale of awakening in a slightly different dimension. Dave Sim provides "Bigger, Blacker Kiss," a story created in the midst of his work on the recently completed 300 issue opus Cerebus the Aardvark. Tone Rodriguez, the artist of The Adventures of Snake Plissken, provides an original science fiction action adventure. And more!
Book Description
Charles Fletcher Lummis began his spectacular career in 1884 by walking from Ohio to start a new job at the three-year old Los Angeles Times. By the time of his death in 1928, the 3,500 mile "tramp across the continent" was just a footnote in his astonishingly varied career: crusading journalist, author of nearly two dozen books, editor of the influential political and literary magazine Out West, Los Angeles city librarian, preserver of Spanish missions, and Indian rights gadfly. Lummis both embodied and defined our vision of the West, and of America itself.
Customer Reviews:
Readable bio of a complicated life.......2006-05-29
I live within walking distance of Lummis' home El Alisal. It's fitting that it perches on the edge of what was the Arroyo Seco (dry gulch) whose raw beauty had attracted Lummis and early settlers. And symbolic in that the world's first freeway rushes past it now. In fact, El Alisal faced demolition until preservationists--always outnumbered in L.A.--saved the site. Lummis gave his adopted city a complicated heritage: he boosted its Spanish Californian image and so lured many newcomers who overwhelmed the vistas of fragile arroyo, hills and valleys with millions more homes. The millions clogged the roads, and so freeways followed, along the riverbeds now encased in concrete.
Mark Thompson's biography follows that assembled two decades earlier by Lummis' daughter and edited by his son from Lummis' own manuscripts, and one biography from the mid-70s that dwelt on Lummis but with far less access to personal papers. Thompson has access, and has used his resources well to more fully explore the complexity of a truly memorable character whose legacy spanned the Southwest, as he sought to preserve and conserve Native American artifacts and cultures as well as restore the California missions, create a world-class municipal library, write for what became the city's leading newspaper, and still found time to build El Alisal from boulders in the arroyo, hold there wonderfully wacky parties, carry on love affairs, conduct archeological research, ruin three marriages, keep a menagerie of animals and people at his home, and roam off from it on even more travels that followed his first publicity stunt--he sought sponsorship by keeping a travelogue weekly sent to newspapers in an early commercial tie-in for one who sought celebrity-- on his "tramp across the continent" (or most of it!) to Los Angeles from Chillicothe, Ohio, a Harvard dropout at 25 in 1888.
Naturally an exciting story, but Thompson digs deeper into how Lummis reflected but overcame some of the prejudices common to the East Coast elite from whose lower ranks he came, and how he struggled with a tempestuous personal life and a libido that created tension, led to an early stroke, and led him on even more intimate adventures much less documented. The readable yet thoroughly documented text reads at a brisk pace; all facets of Lummis' many angles gain clarity. Well-chosen photos capture the idiosyncracies of this unforgettable sombrero-bright green corduroy suit-and-Navajo belt attired eccentric, who did so much to both sustain and unwittingly erase the traces of the Spanish and Native California he came to love.
Mark Thompson does a fantastic job.......2002-12-31
Charles Lummis is a very interesting person in American and Southwest history, but author Thompson goes way beyond what most biographers would do and produced a richly researched and highly readable story. I read this book in my car, under a streetlight, while my wife attended a Christmas function. Does that tell you how interesting it is? I've passed Lummis's home/museum thousands of times but never visited--now I will.
a fascinating man of his time!.......2002-05-28
Mark Thompson's long & deeply researched biography of a forgotten, complex American born just before the Civil War, is fascinating. Over a long & restless life, Charles Lummis became a poet, prolific letter writer, journalist, photographer, archaeologist, editor, champion of Spanish heritage in the Americas, & Indian Rights advocate - the classic workaholic of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries.
It was his TRAMP ACROSS THE CONTINENT in 1884, which he weekly serialized in newspaper articles, that catapulted him into the public's eye. In time, as his assignments for the newly-formed Los Angeles Times, took him deeper into the Southwest which would capture his heart & soul, & closer to the American Indians for whom he would advocate mightily, he caught the ear of a President. Theodore Roosevelt came to consider Lummis a vital part of his "cowboy cabinet," & often invited him to Washington. Lummis enjoyed a life-long influence, via his editorials & many books, on the way Americans thought of themselves.
In this era of bland plasticity, AMERICAN CHARACTER, reminds us of how individualistic, passionate, offensive & charming our forefathers were. It also reminds us of how devastating was our impact upon the people & the land in a time when a man could bemoan the wholesale slaughter of buffalo & Indians, while not batting an eye as he shot other critters just for the thrill of it!
In the light of today's political correctness, Charles Fletcher Lummis' love life was as gilded with misogyny as you would expect from a man of his time - he kept his first marriage secret all through his Harvard years. As in every other aspect of his life, his thirst for affection & companionship was both utilitarian & fascinatingly eccentric.
AMERICAN CHARACTER: Charles Fletcher Lummis & the Rediscovery of the Southwest, has been named by the Western Writers of America as Winner of the 2002 Spur Award in the biography category.
A great story.......2001-03-06
Charles Fletcher Lummis was a phenomenon--journalist, poet, cross-country tramp, outdoorsman, hunter, newspaper and magazine editor, historian, archaeologist, folklorist, photographer, publicist, Indian rights activist, librarian, preservationist, museum founder, and prodigious lover of dozens of beautiful women. His life story makes for fascinating reading. This book is marred by some factual errors (a "new millennium" did not begin in 1900, and the territory of the Chiricahua Apaches was not "as big as Europe"), but the errors are mostly inconsequential (this is popular history, not a scholarly treatise). Thompson has told a great story, and he has done it very well.
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This digital document is an article from California History, published by California Historical Society on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 638 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: American Character: The Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest. (Reviews). (book review)
Author: James J. Rawls
Publication:
California History (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: California Historical Society
Volume: 81
Issue: 1
Page: 69(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Island Days: Galapagos Island, Christmas Island, Tristan da Cunha
Roger Perry
Manufacturer: Stacey International Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1900988801 |
Book Description
It's the day before Sophia's seventh birthday, and she can't wait to learn what tomorrow will bring! To find the answer to her question, she patiently makes her way around her house, asking family and friends about what the future holds. But try as she might, the mystery of tomorrow remains unsolved. Even Mr. Butterscotch Toes, her faithful cat and trusty sidekick seems content to let tomorrow come when it may, choosing to purr and snuggle instead of pondering difficult questions. But fortunately, Sophia's journey leads her to discover the splendor of what tomorrow will bring. Beautifully illustrated and narrated with an effortless purity, What Will Tomorrow Bring? will charm children and their parents with its gentle beauty and reflection of a positive and hopeful future.
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What Will Tomorrow Bring?
Monika Wates
Manufacturer: Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0805968792 |
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Fleeing from their native Poland to escape communism, Monikas mother and father have only the best interests of their children in mind, hoping to find a better life in another country. Settling in South Africa after many months of uncertainty, anxiety, and deprivation, they eventually pick up their dreams, dust themselves off, and achieve a comfortable existence.
Many years later, a young couple are pursuing their dreams of moving to the United States to seek out better opportunities and closer family ties; however, there is a dark cloud on the horizon in the form of a suspicious lump in Jeanines breast. Soon their dreams are shattered as their worst fears come true.
Not long after, Monika and Jamies paths cross for the first time in a common way; however, this meeting will have lasting repercussions. As their hearts and souls and destinies become more entwined, they come to realize that the things that have impacted their lives both good and bad did not happen as a part of random happenstance, but that mankinds Creator had a purpose in every step they took on the path that brought them together.
With laughter and tears, unimaginable joy and heart-wrenching pain, Monika Wates has woven a skillful story of love lost, found, and celebrated in What Will Tomorrow Bring?
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What Will Tomorrow Bring?
Virginia E. Peace
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 142088817X |
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The Life-Story of Ralph and Esther Choate
Book Description
If there is one thing most people can agree on, it's that time goes by too quickly. One day you are a parent carpooling children to soccer practice, and before you know it, you're moving them into their college dormitories.
This inspiring book represents one woman's soul-searching journey to rediscover herself after her children have grown up and moved away from home. In the process of putting her newly-turned upside-down life in perspective, author Deanna Beisser learns some valuable lessons that she hopes will encourage others to…
Think about what you really want from life. Reevaluate your past and set new goals for your future. Uncover new or hidden interests and talents. Embrace life's changes with a positive attitude. Keep yourself motivated and confident in your abilities. Start living the life you've always wanted.
Rarely are we given an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. When those moments occur, we can choose to sit at home and wait for life to come to us, or we can grab ahold of it and steer it in the direction we want to go. For those who are willing to make some choices and take some chances, life can be anything you want it to be. It all begins by asking yourself: WHAT WILL TOMORROW BRING?
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What Will Tomorrow Bring?
Betty M. Hockett
Manufacturer: Barclay Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0943701104 |
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See God at work in Burundi, Africa, through the dedication of Ralph and Esther Choate, pioneer missionaries.
Book Description
At the beginning of the 20th century, the military importance of the Hawaiian Islands became clear. Oahu in particular was a key bastion in projecting America's military power in the Pacific. The island was turned into a military fortress - and yet it also became the site of one of America's greatest defensive failures, the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941. By the end of World War II, the harbor itself was the most heavily defended in the world, and the island had earned the sobriquet "Fortress Oahu". This title documents the development of the coastal, air and land defense systems that served to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu from 1907 to 1950, and seeks to understand why these failed at a critical point.
Customer Reviews:
Coastal Artillery and Fortifications on Oahu.......2007-01-05
I grew up in the shadow of Diamond Head shortly after WWII. As a kid I climbed up the crater and into all the fortifications and batteries I could get into. These days I remember fondly exploring the massive concrete fortifications and wondering what size gun was formerly in each casemate and which FDC pillbox controlled which battery. This book tells all and was worth the 45 year wait. I never lost interest and although it doesn't answer every question I had it provided me with more information on the defences of Oahu than I ever expected to lay my hands on.
I was told about the book by the curator at the Military Museum at Ft. DeRussy built right into the former Battery Randolph (14 in.) The battery was amazing and finding out about this wonderful book topped off my first visit back to Hawaii since 1963. If this an area of interest for you....don't let this book escape you.
Excellent look at Fortress Oahu.......2005-12-13
This Osprey Fortress series book provided some very interesting information on the development of military installations in and around the Hawaiian island of Oahu from 1907 to 1950. The book got some interesting photos, maps and drawing of many of these defensive positions all over the island. The book reflects on the design concepts, the cost and idea behind these fortifications. Its interesting to note that even during 1944 and 1945 when there was almost zero chance of Japanese invasion of Oahu, defenses on that island was stil being built, improved and redesigned.
The book also shows that while many of these military forts are long gone, some still existed even to this day on Oahu. One of the more famous ones like the trail up to the top of Diamond Head, is a popular hiking trail that cut through the heart of the old military defense fort. This book was pretty handy in learning more about the Diamond Head installation.
Overall, its an excellent book that relates to the history of military presence on the island of Oahu during the first half of the 20th Century. The book should interest anyone living on Oahu who got interest in military history or anyone visiting there with the same interest.
A Shallow Look at the Defenses of Pearl Harbor.......2005-10-26
The harbor was believed to be too shallow for torpedo bombers and this book makes it seem like the Marianas Trench. Some good pictures and maps and a lot of the history of coastal defense works, but little depth in the actual integrated defenses of the island -- of which the Pearl Harbor defenses were key elements. When in high school, I have walked many of the installations when they were more accessible than today (development takes its toll) but had neither the information nor the time -- more important a lack of commitment -- to really understand the Fortress-Oahu concept. 50 years later I'm still looking and this book has helped very little.
Superb Study.......2003-07-14
This is the best volume so far of the Osprey Fortress Series.
It was written by two long time members of the Coast Defense Study Group, the preminent organization dedicated to the history and preservation of US Coast Defense Installations. The book is crammed full of details and facts, and is accompanied by beautiful drawings, plans, maps and photos. This book is a perfect example of how histories of fortification should be written.
The Dinosaurs of Oahu.......2003-06-30
Osprey's Fortress #8, Defenses of Pearl Harbor & Oahu 1907-1950 by Glen Williford and Terrence McGovern, is an excellent summary of the extensive American efforts to fortify the Hawaiian Islands during the first half of the 20th Century. This volume is also markedly superior to the authors' previous volume on US defenses in the Philippines (which lacked details on costs or duration of fortification development). For those readers interested in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, this thin volume can add a great deal about the extent of American defensive preparations. This volume is also very useful as a case study on the long-term efficacy of a specific US defense policy (i.e. was the expense worthwhile?).
Defenses of Pearl Harbor & Oahu 1907-1950 begins with a short introduction on the American acquisition of Hawaii in 1898 and a chronology of US military activities in the islands. Short sections follow on the initial plans for the defense of Oahu, building the main defenses in 1915-1925, garrison life on Oahu, defense modifications between the wars, Hawaii during the Second World War, and postwar changes. The final sections comprise a short assessment, notes on the sites today, a bibliography and two appendices (characteristics of US coastal artillery and a list of all fixed coastal batteries on Oahu). The volume also has three maps (Pacific overview, Oahu geography, Oahu south seacoast defenses) and eight color plates (Leahi Peak fire control complex, Fort Ruger in 1916, Fort Kamehameha in 1921, Battery Harlow in mid-1930s, range of Oahu defenses in 1941, casemating Battery Hatch in 1942, Battery Arizona, coastal battery range fans in 1940s). The supporting photographs are also quite good. The only shortcoming in the volume is that the authors are overly-focused on fixed coastal defenses and skimp on details of mobile forces such as aircraft or ground units - for example, they should have listed the aircraft available to the Hawaiian Air Force in December 1941 (after all, at least a few P-40 fighters participated in the defense of Pearl Harbor, unlike the coastal batteries).
Beginning in 1907 - before there was even a significant Japanese threat to Hawaii - the United States embarked upon a major effort to develop a system of coastal fortifications and batteries to protect the incipient naval facility at Pearl Harbor. Interestingly, the US Army developed the coastal defenses for Pearl Harbor much faster than the US Navy developed the port itself (which required extensive dredging and base construction), and the US Pacific Fleet did not even homeport major units in Hawaii until 1939. Nonetheless, Williford and McGovern note that, "between 1907 and 1938, the Army had spent about $150 million on the defenses of Oahu - twice as much as was spent on the naval base itself." For a cash-strapped US military, this was a huge, sustained investment (the US defense budget in the 1930s was $700-800 million per year).
The authors also do a wonderful job detailing the battery construction effort, which on paper provided Pearl Harbor with very formidable defenses against seaborne attack by 1920. However, both the early defenses and those added in the interwar period paid little heed to the possibility of air attack; most of the batteries were sited out in the open, completely exposed to air attack or overhead shell bursts. Although the US Army had 60 anti-aircraft guns in Hawaii by 1941, they were obsolescent types lacking modern fire control. It was not until September 1940 that the US began adding overhead protection to some of the smaller batteries, but all the big 12", 14" and 16" guns in Hawaii were open-air mounts on December 7, 1941. If the Japanese had intended to follow-up the Pearl Harbor raid with an invasion, these large coastal guns would have been easy meat for Japanese "Val" dive-bombers.
Did the millions invested in the fixed defenses of Hawaii pay-off when attack did come in December 1941? Of course not. Indeed, the authors are too kind in suggesting that some US Army AA guns participated in the final moments of the Japanese attack (expert Gordon Prange said they did not) and they overlook Major General Walter Short's dumb decision to leave all AA guns and ammunition locked up to prevent sabotage. In fact, none of the fixed defenses of Oahu fired a shot against the Japanese attack that devastated the US Pacific Fleet at anchor and thus, the defenses completely failed in their mission. It is also odd that after the Pearl Harbor attack, the US redoubled its fortification efforts on Oahu and continued to add more batteries right up to the end of the war. The most ambitious project was the salvaging of two triple 14" gun turrets from the sunken USS Arizona and then mounted on coastal batteries; the first turret was operational in August 1945. Given the overwhelming nature of US airpower by 1944, it is amazing that money and resources were still being poured into obvious dinosaur projects like coastal batteries. There is a lesson in these pages about inertia in defense spending that might be useful for modern readers to consider.
The final question this book arises is about "opportunity cost." If the US had not lavished so much funds on highly vulnerable and fixed fortifications, more money would have been available to the cash-starved US military of the 1930s to develop mobile weapons. On one page, the authors provide a photograph of obsolete B-18 "Bolo" bombers on Hickam Field in the 1930s - the aircraft that comprised the bulk of the US bomber force on Oahu in December 1941. The $150 million spent on fortifications could have been spent on improving US aircraft before the war, or buying more search planes. Indeed, the fortifications on Oahu should provide a salutary lesson on the dangers of over-investing in legacy technology designed for only limited applications.
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Growing of America: 1789-1848 (Forum's American History Series)
Raymond H. Robinson
Manufacturer: Forum Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0882731718 |
Average customer rating:
- If you're truly bright, you will read this and enjoy it
- Exceptional book
- Good grief!
|
The Cooling Continuum: The Rise and Fall of Species on Earth (Copernican Series)
Peter Bros
Manufacturer: Financial Book Partners
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0962776939 |
Customer Reviews:
If you're truly bright, you will read this and enjoy it.......2005-01-15
The reviewer below needs to get over it: Newton was wrong and Bros shows why. The negative reviews I've seen of this and other books from Bros are all the same--simple emotional attacks based on the reviewer's disagreement with Bros, but none of the reviewers can explain logically how or why Bros is wrong.
I don't agree with everything Bros says, and in some of his theories he is clearly engaging in speculation, but his attacks on mainstream science are 100% accurate.
If you are truly intelligent and capable of truly logical thought you will enjoy this book even if you disagree with parts of it. It is so rare to read a book from someone so committed to logical thought that it is a huge surprise and an immense pleasure.
Exceptional book.......2004-01-02
Bros carefully and logically takes apart some of science's most sacred beliefs. A totally new, and far more logical approach, to evolutionary issues and some basic physics issues.
Sure to trouble those who have been brainwashed by scientific academia.
Good grief!.......2000-02-01
This allegedly factual book is almost as far out as the science fiction novel "Newton's Cannon: Book One in the Age of Unreason", which is actually pretty good fiction. "Newton's Cannon" presents a fictional world in which Newton's thirty years of carefully investigating the claims of alchemy actually led him to discover the philosopher's stone and demonstrate the transmutation of metals, instead of laying the foundations of modern mechanical philosophy as he did in our world. "The Cooling Continuum" presents a similarly fictional world, in which Newton's (and Hooke's, to some extent) inverse-square law of gravitational attraction is not true. But "The Cooling Continuum"--apparently in complete seriousness--puts forward the claim that the world it describes is actually the one we live in.
In my opinion, Peter Bros is serving donuts on another planet, and quite possibly in a dimension orthogonal to ours.
Good grief!
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