James W. Buel (1849–1920)

For its time an excellent and lavishly illustrated history of Westerners' explorations of Africa. The revised edition, has an appendix which is very interesting, as it discusses Stanley's terrible expedition management skills, and how several of the expeditions were not so much to explore as to acquire valuable resources.

My copy is of the 'New Edition' published 1889 in Philadelphia and St. Louis by the Historical Publishing Co.

Text available here: rel="nofollow" target="_top">http://www.erbzine.com/mag18/buel.htm… (meer)

Which contains more useful information, a two-year-old World Almanac or a two-hundred-year-old Poor Richard's Almanac? Without question, the former. Which is worth more? The latter.

Most of the greater value is due simply to rarity; there are a lot more World Almanacs around than early American books. But there is also a value to age. The World Almanac has lots of still-current information -- but it's information you already know, and you have a modern's perspective on it. Poor Richard's Almanac has information you won't instinctively know, told from the perspective of the time.

It's that different perspective that makes J. Franklin Jameson's historical dictionary so interesting. It is a good dictionary, and mostly accurate insofar as I have checked it -- but the real value lies in the fact that it sees things from the perspective of the 1890s. Civil Rights issues, e.g., are seen from a viewpoint that not only precedes Brown v. Board of Education but even Plessy v. Ferguson. Economics is seen from the perspective of a nation much more rural than today. Labor issues are very different. The list is endless.

The bottom line is that a person doing historical research will find this a very useful book. It won't be the last word on any particular topic, but it can give you insight into a period now very foreign to us. I found my copy on clearance for $2. It may be the best $2 I ever spent on a book.… (meer)

Large format (11 in by 13 1/2 in) hardcover photo book. Many of the photos are printed in a purple-tinged hue. Cover is red and embossed. It reads simply "The Magic City" on the front and "Photographs" on the edge.
The inside title page reads "The Magic City: a Massive Portfolio of Original Photographic Views of the Great World's Fair and its treasures of art, including a vivid representation of the famous Midway Plaisance, with graphic descriptions by America's brilliant and descriptive writer J.W. Buel, a graphic and historical representation of, The 'Magic City' By-the-lake, with its Vast treasures of the World's Art, Reproduced in Splendid Realism, as it was seen by millions of visitors, in a series of, 300 Magnificent Photographic Views"… (meer)