Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream (origineel 2013; editie 2014)door Thomas L. Dyja (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkThe Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream door Thomas L. Dyja (2013)
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Started the audiobook but disc 2 was defective and wouldn't play. Seems to be the sort of book that would be better for me to read than listen to anyway. Also, the narrator, David Drummond, annoyed me. I've heard him read at least one other audiobook (Talent is Overrated) and don't recall him bothering me that much, but in this reading he sounds like a cross between an authoritarian 1940s/50s documentary voice and a computer generated voice. It made it hard to hang ideas and facts in my mind--every sentence seemed to have the same pattern, the same rhythm, the same weight. "The Third Coast" should have a certain appeal to Chicago "baby-boomers", but the book never seemed to pull all the elements together into a cohesive story. While the book contained a ton of factoids about a wide range of Chicagoans, especially in the 1940's and 1950's, many people included were individuals I'd never heard of before, and am quite sure I'll never hear of again. I thought Dyja spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and its school of architecture, including what seemed to be a discussion about every faculty member and department head over the years. In addition to the information about the architectural school of Chicago, there are smatterings of discussions about the music scene, political bosses, the music scene, development of public housing and racial segregation, Chicago theater, etc., but the story ended up disjointed and never quite seemed to find its focus. Author Thomas Dyja contends that Chicago was a center of American culture – “a third coast” – during the first part of the 20th century (up until 1960). He cites the Chicago architectural tradition, headed by Louis Sullivan and Mies van der Rowe; the flourishing of early television, that produced Dave Garroway and Kukla, Fran and Ollie; writers Gwendolyn Brooks and Nelson Algren; and the city as the headquarters of blues, with Chess Records, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, and Sun Ra. He also cites two unknowns that flourished during the time, photographer Vivian Maier and collage artist/novelist Henry Darger. He’s somewhat more dubious about the city as the birthplace of Playboy and McDonald’s. Dyja’s narrative focuses on biographies of his protagonists interspersed with regional, national and international events. I was surprised there was little mention of organized crime – something Chicago’s always been famous for (unless you count the political machine, which gets extensive coverage). Mayor Daley is credited/blamed for much of the demise of Chicago as a cultural center for allowing demolition of many of the city’s architectural landmarks and for using public housing to cement the city’s racial divide (despite being immensely popular with black voters. Well, he always got a lot of votes from black neighborhoods, anyway.) A second factor was the advent of extensive air transportation; you no longer had to change trains in Chicago and it became “flyover country”. A pleasant read, and instructive; I’d never heard of Henry Darger. If anything, I think Dyja is a little too easy on the Democratic political machine; I lived in Chicago (although after the time period he covers) and I saw it in action. A plate section with appropriate photographs; maps, endnotes, bibliography and good index. Watching television and the movies, one could be fooled into thinking that everyone in the U.S.A. lives in either Southern California or a very large apartment in Manhattan. When I was a kid, some of the more "ordinary" people I saw in tv and movies were instead from Chicago, ranging from the working class family on Good Times, to the professional couple on The Bob Newhart Show, to the suburban teenagers of John Hughes movies. In this sprawling work of cultural history, Thomas Dyja explores how mid-century Chicago became the template for a lot of what was considered the typical American experience for "regular" people. Freed from the restraints of New York and Los Angeles to be extraordinary, Chicagoans could excel at being ordinary in architecture, books, music, arts, and television. At the same time, though, racist white communities rose up in violence against the increasing number of Black families moving into the city (or they fled the city entirely) and the Richard Daley political machine rose up by exploiting the city's divisions.
For a book that is all over the place in the topic it covers, Dyja is good at focusing in on the details of the characters' stories and connecting them to the theme of the mid-century Chicago aesthetic. He also has a lively writing style that incorporates quotations in their unvarnished vulgarity. This is an interesting book for understanding a city at certain time, and an entertaining read. Favorite Passages: "Daley's retail politics was to democratic government what McDonald's was to food and Playboy to sex: a processed and mass-marketed simulation." geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Prijzen
Much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to coast journey included a stop there, and this flow of people and commodities made it America's central clearinghouse, laboratory, and factory. And even as Chicago led the way in creating mass-market culture, its artists pushed back in their own distinct voices. Chicago native Thomas Dyja re-creates the story of the city in its postwar prime and explains its profound impact on modern America. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)977.3History and Geography North America Midwestern U.S. IllinoisLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |