Paul E. Johnson, a professor of history at the University of South Carolina, is the author of A Shopkeeper's Millennium (H&W, 1978) and co-author, with Sean Wilentz, of The Kingdom of Matthias. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina, and Onancock, Virginia.
"Nudged forward by Paul Johnson's consummate storytelling, the reader plunges headlong into the raging torrents of antebellum America, where manly artisans thrash about with scheming capitalists, incorrigible wastrels with prim reformers. Having taken the leap, the reader will find, as did Sam Patch, that you cannot go back. This is a wonderful, clever book." --Mark C. Carnes, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University "With this little masterpiece, Paul Johnson proves yet again that he is one of the greatest artists currently writing history anywhere. Scholar, stylist, and intellectual daredevil, Johnson brings to life a forlorn and intrepid American hero--and an entire era in our past--while operating at the highest levels of subtlety, wit, and seriousness. Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper contains the kind of genius one expects from fine literature as well as from fine history. It is stunning." --Sean Wilentz, Princeton University "On Friday, November 13, 1829, a cheering crowd watched a drunken factory hand named Sam Patch step bravely off the top of Genesee Falls at Rochester, New York--and vanish into legend. In this compact masterpiece of historical detective work, Paul E. Johnson manages both to bring this unlikely early American hero back to vivid life, and to say a good many fresh and provocative things about Jacksonian America, the industrial revolution and the cult of celebrity." --Geoffrey C. Ward, author of A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin D. Roosevelt
A boss spinner in a New England textile mill in the 1820s, Sam Patch was a tough, hard-drinking son of a tough, hard-drinking father. His claim to fame was his willingness to leap into waterfalls-at first for his friends' amusement but later as a political statement to divert attention from local politicians. Finally, Patch became a showman, jumping off cliffs for a percentage of the ticket sales. His last jump was at Genesee Falls at Rochester, NY; as usual, he leaped from a scaffold but never surfaced. His body was found six months later and several miles downriver. Patch's legend lived on in the 1830s and 1840s, as popular literature and plays resurrected the jumper for later generations. Johnson (history, Univ. of South Carolina; A Shopkeeper's Millennium) tells Patch's story against a detailed background of early 19th-century New England. Since little record of Patch survives, Johnson uses his life as a framework on which to hang his interesting and accessible narrative, exploring the lives of local politicians, entertainers, and entrepreneurs. Though not an essential purchase for most libraries, this book should be considered by libraries collecting in early 19th-century American history. (Index not seen.)-Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
"Nudged forward by Paul Johnson's consummate storytelling, the reader plunges headlong into the raging torrents of antebellum America, where manly artisans thrash about with scheming capitalists, incorrigible wastrels with prim reformers. Having taken the leap, the reader will find, as did Sam Patch, that you cannot go back. This is a wonderful, clever book." --Mark C. Carnes, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University "With this little masterpiece, Paul Johnson proves yet again that he is one of the greatest artists currently writing history anywhere. Scholar, stylist, and intellectual daredevil, Johnson brings to life a forlorn and intrepid American hero--and an entire era in our past--while operating at the highest levels of subtlety, wit, and seriousness. Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper contains the kind of genius one expects from fine literature as well as from fine history. It is stunning." --Sean Wilentz, Princeton University "On Friday, November 13, 1829, a cheering crowd watched a drunken factory hand named Sam Patch step bravely off the top of Genesee Falls at Rochester, New York--and vanish into legend. In this compact masterpiece of historical detective work, Paul E. Johnson manages both to bring this unlikely early American hero back to vivid life, and to say a good many fresh and provocative things about Jacksonian America, the industrial revolution and the cult of celebrity." --Geoffrey C. Ward, author of A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin D. Roosevelt
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
