America Then & Now

Fülszöveg

In the last hundred and fifty years the North American continent has seen what was arguably the most rapid growth and dramatic change of any region in the history of the world. Between 1850 and 1860 the population grew from 23 millión to over 31 millión; it more than doubled over the next thirty years, reaching 63 millión in 18 90. The vast, rich continent was a magnet to the rest of the world-10 millión immigrants arrived in the decades after the Civil War, and 15 millión more followed between 1890 and 1920. The railroad linked the Atlantic and Pacific, and barely-mapped territories like Colorado and the Dakotas became populous states. Both gold and grain lured settlers to the West. In the North, cities like New York, Boston and Chicago grew to rival the centers of Europe in their art, architecture, and culture. Fortunately for us, the art of photography, although in its infancy at the start of this great expansion, was there to record a wealth of images that offer us fascinating... Tovább

Fülszöveg

In the last hundred and fifty years the North American continent has seen what was arguably the most rapid growth and dramatic change of any region in the history of the world. Between 1850 and 1860 the population grew from 23 millión to over 31 millión; it more than doubled over the next thirty years, reaching 63 millión in 18 90. The vast, rich continent was a magnet to the rest of the world-10 millión immigrants arrived in the decades after the Civil War, and 15 millión more followed between 1890 and 1920. The railroad linked the Atlantic and Pacific, and barely-mapped territories like Colorado and the Dakotas became populous states. Both gold and grain lured settlers to the West. In the North, cities like New York, Boston and Chicago grew to rival the centers of Europe in their art, architecture, and culture. Fortunately for us, the art of photography, although in its infancy at the start of this great expansion, was there to record a wealth of images that offer us fascinating glimpses of our nation's growth. By contrasting the images of the present with those of the past, America Then & Now shows how much (and in a few cases, how litde) the face of the nation has changed. Here are the monuments of our past that have survived the years, but whose current surroundings reflect the intervening decades: Faneuil Hall in Boston, Philadelphias Independence Hall, St. Michael's Church in Charleston, Denver's Union Station, and the tiny adobe structure of the Alamo, so much larger in our imagination than in reality. The tremendous energy responsible for our growth alsó resulted in a passión for tearing down and building anew. Many of the images in this volume are of sites that are lost forever: New York's magnificent Pennsylvania Station, the Vissza