Readers' Advisory

Race Underground: Boston, New York and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway
by Doug Most (2014)

In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding, horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast, a solution had to be found. Two brothers from one of the nation's great families—Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York—pursued the dream of his city digging America's first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Shirley Temple Black

Actress / Diplomat

1928-2014

Shirley Temple, Hollywood's quintessential child star during the 1930s and 1940s, became a diplomat in later years, serving as Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under her married name, Shirley Temple Black.

For books and DVDs about  and featuring Shirley Temple, click here.


Source:
"Shirley Temple." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. Biography in Context. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

 

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Pete Seeger

Folk Singer

1919-2014 

 

 

 

Pete Seeger became the most influential folk artist in America. He was instrumental in popularizing both the five-string banjo and the songs of populist America that could be played on it.  Seeger's songs such as "If I Had a Hammer," "We Shall Overcome," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" served as anthems in the protests of the late 1960s.

 

Click here for material by and about Pete Seeger.