Modern History Notes

by Cliopatria

Eric Foner,"The Master and the Mistress," NYT, 3 October, reviews Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.

Barbara Ehrenreich,"The Communist Manifesto Turns 160," The Nation, 1 October, celebrates an anniversary.

Ron Cowen,"The First Sound Bites," Science News, 26 September, argues that the"political sound bite" was born in the presidential campaign of 1908, when candidates recorded brief messages for phonographs. The piece is illustrated with fine political cartoons of the period and accompanied by early sound bites.

Owen Hatherley,"Dreams of Leaving," New Statesman, 25 September, reviews Alastair Gordon's Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World's Most Revolutionary Structure and Mark B Salter, ed., Politics at the Airport. Hat tip.

"Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Trial Photographs," is a selection of photographs from the trial, now deposited at the Smithsonian Institution. They, and others, are published for the first time in Marcel C. LaFollette's Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century.

Patrick Cockburn,"Man in the Middle," NYT, 3 October, reviews Nigel Ashton's King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life and Avi Schlaim's Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace.

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Andrew D. Todd - 10/7/2008

As a matter of physics, airplanes cannot ultimately compete with trains for peaceable transportation. An airplane, like an off-road vehicle such as a jeep, is a machine for going where you haven't been properly invited. What is happening in Europe is that railroads are in the process of driving airplanes out. The trains are getting steadily faster, but the airplanes cannot do so without producing sonic booms. One recent event has been the opening of the new Berlin train station, more or less consciously designed to be an anti-airport.

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Here are some recent interesting items:

Benjamin B. Bachman, "Jake's World: Visit Seattle's gritty realm near King Street Station (Secrets of an Urban Terminal)," Trains Magazine, March 2007. A sentimental look at "Urban Railroad Space," the zone around an American train station which incorporates bars, brothels, flophouses, soup kitchens, and bail bondsmen. The pictures are all taken in the Pacific Northwest's six-month rainy season.

R. David Read, "Reunited: And in Berlin's new Central Station, it feels so good," Trains Magazine, September 2008. The new station is built in the reclaimed no-mans-land of the Berlin Wall, at the heart of the city, with trains arriving through tunnels and on viaducts. It is a structure of five different levels, two of them train platforms, with a shopping mall and office space built around them. As well as the usual fast-food franchises, it apparently contains a supermarket, presumably for commuters shopping on their way home. However the station also handles long-distance trains.

Scott Lothes, "Busiest Station in the World: Shinjuku Station keeps the masses moving through Tokyo," Trains Magazine, August 2008. People scurrying back and forth in tunnels between gigantic buildings, in something out of a dystopian science-fiction epic, but a couple of teenage street musicians have "stolen" a venue, and are playing South American folk music on the sidewalk.

Matt Van Hatten, "Continental Drifter: Uncovering Europe's latest surprises on a three wee trip with 83 trains, 37 transit systems,and at least 50 cups of coffee," Trains Magazine, November 2008. An overview of new projects.

I'm afraid this material is not available online, at least, not to nonsubscribers-- Trains Magazine tends to be a bit backwards about doing internet stuff.