Illinois Books

This story tells the story of the Polks (which was not the original name), who were a family that came to the USA from Europe with big dreams and hopes. These dreams were fulfilled when Polk Bros., the first retailer of its kind became successfull. Polk Bros. set the tone for all future retailers with its new ideas. My favorite part of the book, was reading about the many big and weird promotions Polk Bros. had, including renting out the Chicago Stadium for a humungous b-day celebration. Read this book (of course) to find out more.

This wonderful book captures the memories and spirit of the Polk Brothers retail establishment. Long before Circuit City and Best Buy, Polk Brothers sold hard goods (TV's, Radios, etc) to the families of Chicagoland. It was quite the event for my father to pile the family into the stationwagon to go to Polk City and purchase a counsole Zenith television for several hundred dollars. As a child I remember receiving a toy premium after a purchase. We received inflatable airplanes, 7-UP, and Ann Landers books. Our family home was furnished by Polk City. Polk City was a warm, chaotic, intoxicating place to make a purchase. The book reflects this and brings Polk Brothers alive. The author paints a warm, interesting story of a Chicago institution and captures the family event of what it was to go to Polk Brothers. A real connection to Chicago and its families. A nice read even if you are not from Chicago.

This book was really helpful. I passed my content area test on the first try and I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a great way to study for it. The book has circulated through my circle of friends nad they have all been successful with the test as well.ICTS Elementary-Middle Grades 110 (Teacher Certification Exam)

This study guide is well-researched and an excellent reference for aspiring teachers as they prepare for certification. The book is aligned to Illinois' outlined guidelines for elementary educators, and it provides specific information for the skills creating each competency. Written by teachers, this practical guide covers the basics of elementary subjects including Reading, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education/Health, and the Arts. Whether used for a new teacher just entering the classroom or as a reference during your teaching career, this book is a must-have for teachers!

I embrace these spaces as I travel through Southern Illinois, thanks to Gary. How about a book on Indiana!

My husband is from Oakland Illinois, the 'gateway to corn country' We moved to Texas nearly 10 years, and at one point bought Mr. Irving's book for my father-in-law, who brokers corn from his office at the elevator in Greenview, IL. Every Christmas we return to Illinois, visiting relatives in towns like Petersburg, Arcola, and Hindsboro - the kind of towns that form the heart of Illinois, and the heart of this book. This past Christmas, flipping once again through the familiar images of Mr. Irving's book, I was struck by the elemental and easily underestimated beauty of the midwest. Sure, Illinois is flat and seamingly plain - but it does have it's own mysteries. You can see time passing by standing outside a desserted, sagging barn, where only the whirring of bird wings and the sound of a far-off combine interrupt the silence. In the corn fields, growth is something you smell rather than see or hear, and the smell is green and yellow and rustling; walk a few feet into the rows and you will learn the true meaning of solitude. You can lay on a hillock and the sky will wrap itself around your peripheral vision. The two-lane highways ('the hard road' to locals) snake between bean and corn fields, past the barn handpainted with the sign "Chewing (tobacco) serves to steady nerves!", and through towns that all have a single flashing stoplight and a town square w/ parking on the slant all around. If you've been away for awhile, you drive slowly on these roads - in part because of the deer, in part because of the Amish, in part to safely pass the combines rolling along on the shoulder, in part to wave at passing cars (you almost always know the driver, or know someone who knows the driver - in the cornfields of Illinois, everyone is either friend or family once-removed), but mostly you drive slowly because of the plain beauty of the farmhouses and elevators and the hypnotic horizon of the sky. My love of the ocean was born on the Illinois plains - the undulating cornfields, the far horizons, the renewing sunrise - the ocean is my way of staying in touch with the land I learned I actually loved only after I left it. Mr.Irving's book illustrates the poetry of life in the corn belt under the Illinois sky.

Being the grandson of a former superintendant of the Illinois Central Railroad, this book brought back some great memories and solidified some of the stories my grandfather had told me growing up about the IC. Great pitures too! If you are a rail fan, I strongly recommend this book! A tribute to a great road still running to this day via the Canadian National.

The Illinois Central was another of America's premeir railroads that helped to develop the contry and which now is no more. From its start in 1838 (with 24 miles of track) it grew to over 6,500 miles. Alas, in 1999 it passed into the hands of the Canadial National.

This is a colorful history of the Illinois Central from its early day through its acquisition. It is profusely illustrated,with a lot of color pictures. The text that accompanies the pictures gives an accurate telling of the story of the line and its operation down through the years.

The IC grew by acquiring other lines as well as by expanding its own tract into new areas. It remained, however a north-wouth line with its solid anchors in Chicago and New Orleans. It grew west to meet with the Union Pacific in Omaha. It grew to the south east, eventually connecting to Birmingham and eventually Miami.

Only in the last couple of pages in the book is the Canadian National merger. It has become a major railroad, from the original IC trackage from Chicago to New Orleans and CN all across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But alas, it's under the CN name, not the IC.

Loved it! Its full of real myths passed down over time. They collected from the older (and now gone) generations.

I have had this book for more than 30 years (a 17th birthday gift), and it remains my all-time favorite on the region where I was born, but never really got to know. John W. Allen wrote a column, "It Happened in Southern Illinois," in the Carbondale newspaper for many years, and these columns are collected in this fine book. Allen himself was born in a log cabin in 1887, and knew the folkways of his region well.
Included are profiles of prominent Southen Illinoisians like William Jennings Bryan, Pierre Menard, and William Edgar Borah; and legendary figures like riverman Mike Fink (who could outshoot Davy Crockett and who once jumped halfway across the Mississippi and, realizing he would fall a few feet short of the opposite shore, turned around and went back)and tavern-keeping outlaw Willlie Potts. There are stories of Abraham Lincoln, Lafayette, George Rogers Clark, Pontiac, Robert Ingersoll, Ned Buntline, Johnny Appleseed, Daniel Boone, and other historical figures who came here.
Ghost tales, local superstitions, home remedies, sketches of pioneer and farm life, are not neglected. We learn the differing theories on how "Egypt" came by its name, how numerous towns acquired theirs, and how industry and business developed in the area.
We meet William Newby, the soldier who disappeared during the Civil War and whose attempts to reunite with his family many years later led to persecution and imprisonment as an old man. There are also blacksmiths, itinerant peddlers, river pirates, tall-tale tellers, and other long-vanished characters of the American scene.
Allen's affectionate yet clear-eyed prose avoids the usual traps of books on the folkways of the rural past. This is neither a dry piece of scholarship ("A variant on Tale 17 was found in __________, on September 7, 19__, related by Mrs. __________________.")nor a collection of rose-colored, sentimental reminiscences of interest only to the teller. And at some 400 pages, it's no skimpy sampler. It's a 10-gallon jug of cider, a big bushel basket of freshly-picked Southern Illinois peaches; and you can reach in anywhere and pull out a good one.
Reading this book is like taking a long, leisurely stroll with the author along the town streets, through the woods, along the rivers, and even in the graveyards. You can almost smell the musty barns, lye soap, and sorghum; and hear the drawling voice of the local sage holding court around the pot-bellied stove in the general store, and the kids playing in the yard of a one-room school.
I still read this fine book on cold nights, and never tire of its winding trails of information. Whether you come from this fascinating and mysterious part of the country (closer to the Tennesse hills than to Chicago)or simply are curious about a vanished past, Legends and Lore will keep you both informed and entertained.
P.S. Editor Irving Dilliard's introduction alone is almost worth the price of the book. He gives us a (too brief) introduction to the long and often adventurous life of John W. Allen, known as "The best friend Southern Illinois ever had." What a pity Allen never wrote his autobiography.

Reissued in 1998, this 50-year-old work is an excellent overview of the makeup, decisions, and controversies revolving around President Lincoln and his Supreme Court. The battles between Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, especially in the Prize cases, Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus, the Merryman case, and the issuance of paper money, were bitterly contested, with the ability of the government to rule and maintain itself during civil war at issue. Taney was a hated man throughout the country ever since his decision in the Dred Scott case, and the reader can almost here the sigh of relief (even glee in some quarters) when he died in October of 1864 at age 87. Lincoln's habeus corpus suspensions, especially in the case of former Representative Clement Vallandigham, brought much criticism down on the president's head, though, as Silver makes clear, Lincoln was against certain people using "the rights and privileges of the Constitution in order to undermine the authority of the Federal Union." Lincoln "packing the court" and the fact that each Supreme Court justice had to ride a circuit court (something I didn't know) are also deftly discussed. The book is a handsome introduction to the subject, which is an important and often neglected one: indeed, some of Lincoln's Supreme Court battles were as critical to the fate of the Union as Antietam or Gettysburg.

David M. Silver was a student of the famous Lincoln scholar Dr. James G. Randall at the University of Illinois. Seeking further information on Constitutional issues encountered by Lincoln during his presidency, Dr. Randall encouraged my father to write this book. He also supervised much of the research. A hardcover copy of Lincoln's Supreme Court was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1956.

On March 4, 1861, the Chicago Tribune expressed the view that no Republican victory was complete until a national convention could be called and a constitutional amendment enacted to modify the power of a Supreme Court that had enunciated the "evil" principles of the Dred Scott decision. It proposed reconstructing the Court "by dropping off a few of its members, and the appointment of better men in their places." A few weeks later, the New York Tribune published a similar message and proposed increasing the size of the Court to 13. On December 4, 1861, the day after Lincoln's first annual message to Congress, Radicals led by Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire introduced a resolution that proposed "to inquire into the expediency and propriety of abolishing the present Supreme Court" and establish a new one. Senator Hale charged that the Court had failed in its duty to the nation and that it lacked the confidence and respect of the people. Shortly thereafter, the New York Tribune renewed its call to reform the Court by stating "The present rebellion...is due quite as much to an unsound and unwise decision of the Supreme Court as to any other single cause."

In response to Brian McGinty's review posted below, it should be noted that President Lincoln appointed four associate justices (Noah H. Swayne, Samuel F. Miller, David Davis and Stephen J. Field) to the Supreme Court. The Field appointment increased the size of the Court to 10 and ensured that a majority of the Court would be sympathetic to the Lincoln administration. In addition, Lincoln appointed Salmon P. Chase to replace Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who died on October 12, 1864.

President Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney disagreed on the scope of the president's powers in a time of war. It was a bitter controversy involving civil liberties and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus (the Vallandigham case) and continued until the aged Taney died in 1864. Sources indicate the Lincoln administration delayed the famous Prize Cases, dealing with Lincoln's presidential powers, until he had made three appointments to fill Court vacancies. The validity of the blockade along the coast of the Confederate states, ordered by Lincoln in April 1861, was at stake. The cases were argued before the Court on February 10-25, 1863. Lincoln expected his three appointees to join other loyal members of the Court to uphold his policy, which they did.

On February 20, 1863, while the Prize Cases were being argued, Milton S. Latham of California introduced into the Senate a bill to provide for a tenth circuit consisting of California and Oregon. Believing that swift action was necessary, the Senate passed the bill on February 26, and the House concurred shortly thereafter. The bill creating a tenth justice was signed by House Speaker Galusha A. Grow on March 3 and sent to President Lincoln, who approved it the same day, exactly one week before the decision in the Prize Cases (a vote of 5 to 4 in Lincoln's favor) was announced. By increasing the size of the Court from 9 to 10, the largest it has ever been, President Lincoln and Congress were sending a clear message to the Court. A tenth justice increased the margin of safety necessary to ensure that Lincoln administration policies were sustained. Above all, President Lincoln was devoted to the restoration of the Union. He was willing to use judicial appointments and emergency powers in a time of war to his advantage. To say it was Lincoln's Supreme Court is, indeed, appropriate and correct.

This book is primarily a reference work for those looking for deeply detailed information from primary sources. It has other excellent background material as well, but if you want to see a nice cross-section of actual Sousa Band programs, or you want to find out if your great-grandfather actually played in Sousa's Band like your grandmother always told you, this is the most definitive reference available.

This author has written extensively about Sousa and his band before. Much of that information is repeated here, but there are some new additions as well. The author has nicely highlighted each aspect of Sousa's career which makes for easy reading.

The problem with Sousa is that we tend to exclude all other band composers and their music. There were many other great band composers around including R. B. Hall, Karl King, and Henry Fillmore to name some of the prominent American ones. Their music deserves notice as well, as Sousa often played their works.

Sousa's band also tends to be somewhat over-rated by hero worship. Sure it was a great band, probably the best in the US at that time. But it was not the greatest in the world! Too many other European bands were around to deny Sousa that title. Sousa knew that any British Guards band like the Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards etc. was certainly as good. The French Garde Republicanne were also. In Prussia you had William Wieprect who did much to modernize the modern military band. His combined Prussian Guards band got top ratings in Paris during a band festival there just before the Franco-Prussian War. How ironic indeed!

So Sousa was not the only around with a great band, and any serious reader should know this. Certainly Sousa did. But what Sousa did was market himself far better than anyone else. He saw that as a civy street guy he could make a lot more fame and money than he was as director of the US Marine band. This was Sousa's main advantage, and he knew how to make the most of it. His conducting style was flamboyant, his programing entertaining and interesting. The whole concept of the encore march after a long piece of music was unique, and introduced excitment to his concerts. These things are what made him and his band great.

Unfortunately Sousa developed the cult of his personality so much for his concerts that when he was not on the podium concert hall attendence often suffered. This indicated that his band would not likely outlive him. Americans came to see Sousa the man as much as the great music his superb band played. I doubt Sousa could have promoted his works any other way in this country. In that regard he was the first super-star who got his name all over the media. Many have followed in his foot-steps since.

Some might think I am trying to downgrade Sousa and his great band here. Certainly not. One should merely have a little sense of perspective when reading about him. His marches were first-rate. He wrote 136 of them, of which only the top 10-15 often get played now. Most of them were excellent, some certainly were better than others. While this sounds like a lot of music, keep in mind some famous German march composers wrote hundreds of marches. Blackenberg is believed to have composed over a thousand! Kenneth Alford, the Great British march composer did only about 20, but they are all classics. Alford was a regimental bandmaster, and thus did not have the means to promote himself like Sousa did.

Sousa should also be known for his many opperettas, novelty pieces, and classical transcriptions. In this regard he greatly expanded the musical level in the US during this time. Orchestras were around as well, but these did not travel like Sousa. There were also other great bands, like the Allentown band, far odler than Sousa's from 1828. In fact Sousa took many players from this great band which still exists today, and which probably recreates the approximate sound and style of Sousa better than any other.

The great strength of this book are the many details provided of the personnel who played in the band, as well as concert programs, and tour iternary. There is one chapter devoted entirely to a band memebers diary recording his expereinces during Sousa's great World Tour of 1911. Great stuff, if perhaps a little too much at times. There is a lot of detail here, perhaps excessive at times, but obviously a labor of love by the author. This is certainly THE book to have about Sousa and his incredible band who left their mark in the world's concert halls.

This is a beautiful book with many photographs which bring back special memories to those who have a connection with U of IL. It will be a special treasure for anyone who attended the university. Many different aspects of university life are covered by Don Hamerman's fabulous photographs. A great gift for alumni, current students or those who hold a special place for Urbana/Champaign and the University of Illinois in their memories.

This is an absolute must have for Univ. of Illinois alumni who appreciate good photography. In talking with other alumni who have seen and/or own this book, the images bring up memories from their time on campus. It also tweaks the curiosity, because Hamerman shows a penchant for finding new perspectives (close-ups, etc.) that can be overlooked in the rush of campus life. Compared to other photography of the UI campus I've seen, this is very original. And Ebert's introduction is a nice read -- it ties in wonderfully to the book. I highly recommend!

Written in the late 1970s, this disturbing essay on Russian anti-Semitism provides - in hindsight - a clear example of one of the many corrupting, self-destructive forces that operated within the Soviet bureaucracy and contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet empire. The author, Grigori Freiman, was a noted mathematician, a professor, and a member of the Communist Party. His samizdat essay was a plea for fairness and justice in the selection of Jewish candidates for advance training in mathematics. He also warned that Russian anti-Semitism was undermining the future of mathematics in the Soviet Union.

Samizdat refers to the self-publishing of underground literature in Russia under Communism. A copy of Grigori Freiman's samizdat essay reached the United States in 1978. Southern Illinois University Press in 1980 published this small book, It Seems I Am a Jew, in cooperation with the Committee of Concerned Scientists. Melvyn Nathanson prepared the introduction as well as translated Freiman's essay into English.

It Seems I Am A Jew is less than 100 pages (even including the forward, introduction, and a three part appendix). The essay itself is riveting, and most readers will likely read this disturbing essay in a single sitting. I highly recommend Freiman's remarkable essay to a wide audience that includes essentially any reader interested in history, concerned with the current political situation in Russia, or concerned with injustice wherever it occurs.

The appendix will appeal more to readers that have an interest in mathematics. Extremely difficult test questions were reserved for Jewish students (and sometimes for testing non-Russians from the more distant Soviet republics). These questions were designed to ensure that all Jewish candidates failed, even Jewish winners of the Soviet Union's Mathematics Olympiad. By the late 1970s the mathematics section of the Soviet Academy of Sciences had nearly achieved the goal of Judenfrei mathematics.

The memoir of a Jewish mathematician. Freiman recalls the special obstacles he and other Jewish students of mathematics faced in the USSR. To get a doctorate in mathematics one had to pass an oral exam given by a member of the anti-semetic Stekov Institute. Only it seems if you were Jewish you got an especially difficult and in most cases impossible exam to pass. Because the exam was oral with no paper record of the questions asked, the examiner could easily fail the Jewish students by asking research level questions. A grim reminder of the policies of a terrible regime.

Jack Dempsy: The Manassa Mauler by Randy Roberts (Professor of History, Purdue University) is a solidly written biography of the famous Heavyweight Champion of the World who held that title from 1919 to 1926. From Jack Dempsy's childhood and his rough-and-tumble beginning of a boxing career at 16; to his rise to the top -- and eventual defeat; to his retirement from boxing in 1940 with sixty-four victories (forty-nine of them by knockout), and more, Jack Dempsy: The Manassa Mauler is an excellent and very highly recommended contribution to Professional Boxing History, and a "must read" biography for dedicated fans of "the sweet science".

Jack Dempsey has always been my favorite boxer, , Randy Roberts did his home work before writing this wonderful book. He went into great detail, when Dempsey fought Firpo ,and when he lost his title to Gene Tunney.Anyone who enjoys reading about heavyweight champions from the past, will really love this book. i still go back and read my favorite chapters over again. Kenny Hetrick