Illinois Books

It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that in future generations the twentieth century will be remembered more for the rise of aviation than for any other single attribute. Certainly the invention and development of the airplane has fundamentally altered the lives of all individuals on this planet. It has made possible the movement of both inanimate cargo and living things anywhere in the world in less than a day. That means that both lifesaving medicines and the most deadly viruses are only a planeride away from anywhere on the globe. The airplane has also made possible both pathbreaking scientific research not duplicable in any other environment and the dropping of devastating bombs on targets far removed from the front line of battle. Its positive and its destructive uses became an important part of the fabric of human life during the century just past.

The state of Illinois has been a place important to the development of the airplane in the twentieth century and this book by Howard L. Scamehorn is an welcome chronicle of that role for the first half of the century. "Balloons to Jets" is a reprint of a classic work that first appeared in 1957. Well-received at the time, and justifiably so, it has remained the standard work on aeronautics in Illinois to the present.

Scamehorn covered the full range of activities in aviation during the period between 1855 and 1955, beginning with ballooning in the latter half of the nineteenth century through the various activities taking place in Illinois to mid-century. Accordingly, he deals with the rise of the aviation industry, air meets and contests, barnstorming, the air mail, military aeronautics, the development of airlines, sport and utility flying, the growth of airports from bonfires and grass strips to navigational transponders and rental care agencies, and the development of the regulatory environment. Of course, appearing as it did in 1957, "Balloons to Jets" only touched on the revolution in aeronautics that came with the development of jet transports.

Nearly fifty years have passed since "Balloons to Jets" was first published and no one has yet provided an overview narrative of aviation in Illinois that updates this work for the period since the 1950s. Since that is the case, I wish the author had written a few additional chapters that could have been included in this reprint to "Balloons to Jets." I do not want to complain too loudly, however, for it is nonetheless an excellent work. Perhaps someone else will yet write a history of aviation in Illinois that takes up where Scamehorn left off.

This is an outstanding work of synthesis and a model entrée for students into the history of aeronautics in one region. It outlines the major themes and offers a valuable perspective on the rise of one of the core technologies of the twentieth century. Its availability in this paperback reprint is most welcome.

Professor of History Ken Albala presents The Banquet, an examination of the tradition of fine and extravagant dining in Western Europe during 1520-1660. During this era, banquets were used to display a host's wealth and power, gather nobles from disparate places together, and disseminate political propaganda; The Banquet explores the evolving nuances of this practice and trends such as the increased use of dairy products, a move toward lighter meats such as veal and chicken, refinement of aesthetic senses and aromatics, and other style progressions notable in their parallel of other aspects of Renaissance art and culture. Though scholarly in tone, The Banquet is surprisingly accessible to readers of all backgrounds curious about what the Renaissance aristocracy ate and how they ate it; notes, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index round out this fascinating contribution to Renaissance and culinary history shelves.

What really happened at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial? What was Judge Hoffman's courtroom like? What was the nature of the defendant's contempt? Who was responsible for politicizing the trial? In answer to such questions, Mr. Lukas, the New York Times reporter for the trial, gives a firsthand account of that extraordinary event.

It was certain from the outset that the trial would be extraordinary. The eight defendants alone would have assured that. Together they represented all the strands of dissent of the sixties - student, black, cultural, antiwar. That it took place in Mayor Daley's Chicago and in the courtroom of conservative Judge Hoffman made it a confrontation of the opposing forces in contemporary American society.

Mr. Lukas reports the confrontation with skill and irony. He describes the judge, the jury, the defendants. He tells of the considerable differences between the prosecution and the defense - one cool and sterile, the other impassioned and lively - and quotes the defense witnesses, such people as Ginsberg, Mailer, Staughton Lynd. Excerpts from news stories, testimony and observers' statements enliven the book.

Not offered as a definitive book on the trial, The Barnyard Epithet and Other Obscenities greatly expands and enriches the reporting of it.
--- from book's dustjacket

Kanin's research is solid, and for those interested in San Francisco during the Gilded Age, or labor history, this is a must-read. Focusing in on a clique of unionists that seized contol of the city government, with a particular emphasis on Patrick Henry McCarthy. No, he was not a typical business unionist, but rather a urban progressive who combined a pratical wage-worker consciousness with a social reform mentality. On the other hand, he had no problem fusing a racist ideology into his form of progresivism. If you bothered to read this review, buy this book.

Ira Sadoff, Barter (University of Illinois Press, 2003)

Few things make my heart leap like the prospect of a new, unread book of poetry by Ira Sadoff, one of the best poets presently working in America. The only problem is that I tend to read them all too quickly, and am then stuck waiting for another two or three years until Sadoff releases his next book.

Barter fits all those angles exactly. It's a book that begs to be consumed in one sitting, despite the reader's knowledge that it's going to be a while before you get any more. From the very first poem, Sadoff lets you know he's going to be breaking every conventional rule, and doing it in such a way that you can't help but be awed:

"Nevertheless, I want to talk about it. Those scarred bodies
on the hospital table, they're white chalk children use
to deface the sidewalk. The deer fed in the gazebo,
where the salt lick was barely safe from the fox." ("The Soul")

Not only does the man use "soul," the most overused word in poetry, in a poem, he uses it as the title. And despite its subject matter, the poem still comes off as brilliant, original, a combination of the nature poetry of Hayden Carruth and the language poetry of John Ashbery, but with Sadoff's distinctive, authoritative voice.

This is what poetry is supposed to be. A while ago, I proposed (in a review of Clay Eshleman's delicious Hotel Cro-Magnon) changing the canon that gets taught in schools to something that kids will actually like. Barter is a book that should fit well with a new curriculum. Don't let this one get away without reading it. **** ½

For anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of big city politics in the 80's should get their hands on this out of print book. This is not abstract poli sci, but a detailed journalistic account of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's last campaign in 1987 and his polarized battles with City Council and the powerful white ethnic ward machines.
This book packs a lot of detail and personal accounts and goes beyond just Washington but deals with his various opponents including ex-Mayor Jane Byrd and City Council leader Eddie Vrdolyak. Even if you're not from Chicago, this is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in raw street level big city politics; the kind of politics that is Chicago as an ice-cold Old Style and a big brat on a hot July day at Wrigley.

This work fully measures up in quality and importance to the original four-volume Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, first published in the 1880's. Articles by such key participants as Longstreet, Sherman, Custer, Grant, and Joe Johnston make this an essential work for any Civil War collection

I enjoyed every single poem! Thanks for sharing these with us, Amy!

Mike Spence is a Viet Nam vet and published novelist who has quit writing, opting for employment with the Chicago PD: "I won't keep letting some dream humiliate me." He's paid too high a price for that dream and is now confronted by a city filled with entitlement, well-dressed young men in SUVs who don't have any idea of what soldiering means, Mike's world as separated as two continents, this one and Viet Nam. Yet another vet, Donald Goetzler spent his time in country policing his brothers in uniform, returning to the security of a corporate job, from which he has just retired. Donald also views everything through the prism of the war, both men's futures shaped by an exotic, brutal experience that delivered harsh lessons in loyalty, survival and the profitable ways of war.

Now the US is on the cusp of another war, this time in Iraq, Viet Nam a distant memory save to those whose lives have been profoundly changed by the conflict. A murder and a photograph trigger Spence's identification with the frustrations of soldiers returned to a home country that hardly remembers the nightmare, tuned into the fine points of the murder while other cops look away, molding theories to fit the crime. In such subtle measures does the author build his story on the troubled histories of two vets, each involved, if only tangentially, with Anne, a Vietnamese woman who has assumed a particular place in each man's imagination: "Without her the cop will become junkie sick." She is the link to their past, the history that follows them like a black cloud, infecting their days and burdening their dreams while the rest of the world moves on, oblivious: "You have to realize the inevitability of things or you'll never move on."

A complex tale, the intensely poetic prose creates fractured images, leaking from the protagonists' psyches, blink-quick insights that fade before the picture is complete. The author imbues his novel with an otherworldly ambiance, the wet of rain a reminder of Vietnamese jungles and endless tears, of brokenness and loss, of cynicism and despair. In the end, a haunted past leaves three people without words, the ravages of war all consuming in a blind city, remnants of Viet Nam embedded in their souls, a long-awaited vengeance surfacing like a sleek shark. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

On Marianne Moore ...

"The keynote of Williams's 1925 characterization of Moore, and of the diminution of Moore subsequently, is his image of the porcelain garden. As used within Williams's essay, this is a positive image. It is meant to underscore Moore's uniqueness and originality."

On Emily Dickinson . . .

"a tiny friend of tiny living things. Since she supposedly never left her home and garden, she could be read as the poet of the conservatory, the potted exotic of American verse."

BECOMING CANONICAL IN AMERICAN POETRY by Timothy Morris offers a brilliant compendium of essays on Walt Whitman as the "American Homer," Emily Dickinson as the "Supposed Person," Marianne Moore as William's "Porcelain Garden," along with articles on the early reception of Elizabeth Bishop, and the continuing presence of Emily Dickinson.

With humor, history, and wonderment en excellent introduction to how these great writers became "great' in orthodox and unorthodox scholarahip.