PDF Ebook Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword)
This letter may not affect you to be smarter, however guide Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) that we offer will evoke you to be smarter. Yeah, a minimum of you'll understand more than others that don't. This is just what called as the quality life improvisation. Why should this Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) It's since this is your preferred motif to review. If you such as this Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) motif around, why don't you read guide Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) to enhance your conversation?
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword)
PDF Ebook Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword)
Do you assume that reading is an essential task? Find your factors why including is essential. Checking out an e-book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) is one component of delightful tasks that will make your life quality better. It is not concerning only exactly what sort of e-book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) you check out, it is not only regarding exactly how many publications you read, it's concerning the habit. Checking out routine will certainly be a method to make e-book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) as her or his friend. It will despite if they spend cash as well as spend more publications to complete reading, so does this book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword)
Why should be this publication Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) to review? You will certainly never obtain the knowledge and experience without getting by on your own there or attempting by on your own to do it. Hence, reviewing this book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) is needed. You can be fine as well as correct sufficient to obtain exactly how essential is reading this Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) Even you constantly check out by commitment, you can support on your own to have reading publication habit. It will certainly be so helpful as well as fun after that.
But, just how is the means to obtain this book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) Still confused? It does not matter. You can take pleasure in reading this e-book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) by on-line or soft file. Merely download guide Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) in the web link given to go to. You will get this Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) by online. After downloading, you could conserve the soft file in your computer or device. So, it will ease you to review this book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) in particular time or area. It could be not exactly sure to enjoy reading this book Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword), because you have great deals of job. Yet, with this soft data, you could delight in reading in the extra time also in the spaces of your jobs in workplace.
Once again, reviewing habit will certainly consistently provide valuable perks for you. You might not require to invest sometimes to check out guide Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) Simply alloted several times in our spare or downtimes while having meal or in your workplace to read. This Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) will certainly show you brand-new point that you can do now. It will certainly aid you to improve the quality of your life. Occasion it is just a fun publication Flag: An American Biography, By Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword), you could be healthier and more fun to delight in reading.
The nation turns to it as an emotional, political, and patriotic symbol in good times and bad. Americans fly it everywhere we live and everywhere we go, from front porches in Florida to pickup trucks in Alaska. We display the red-white-and-blue American flag at festive events to celebrate and, at times of national tragedy, to grieve and show our resolve. We wrap ourselves in it in displays of patriotism, politics, nationalism, and jingoism.
The thirteen-stripe, fifty-star flag is as familiar an American icon as any that has existed in the nation’s history. It stirs something in the hearts of Americans like no other symbol. Yet the history of the flag, especially its origins, is cloaked in myth and misinformation. Flag: An American Biography rectifies that situation by presenting a lively, comprehensive, illuminating look at the history of the American flag from its beginnings to today.
Journalist, historian, and author of the highly acclaimed Saving Monticello, Leepson uncovers scores of little-known, fascinating facts as he traces the evolution of the American flag from the Colonial period to its prominent role as a symbol of American resolve in today’s war against terrorism.
Flag sifts through the historical evidence to---among many other things---uncover the truth behind the Betsy Ross myth and to discover the true designer of the stars and stripes. The book also shines informing light on a string of colorful and influential Americans who shaped the history of the American flag.
Leepson analyzes the influence and impact of the maker of the star-spangled banner, Mary Pickersgill; the author of the national anthem, Francis Scott Key; the coiner of the phrase “Old Glory,” U.S. Navy Capt. Samuel Driver; the first officer killed in the Civil War, Union Col. Elmer Ellsworth, who died defending the flag; the first African-American Medal of Honor recipient, William Carney, who carried the flag and led troops through a viciously bloody Civil War battle; the creator of Flag Day, Wisconsin schoolteacher B. J. Cigrand; the father of the pledge of allegiance, Francis Bellamy; and Joe Rosenthal, the AP photographer who took the most reproduced image of the twentieth century, the marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima.
The American flag was seen as a symbol of a “divine plan” for the American ideal during the Civil War; as a symbol of the nation’s historical heritage at the 1876 centennial celebrations; as a symbol conveying respect for the government and our social institutions---the so-called “cult of the flag”---in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During the Vietnam War, the flag was a divisive emblem in a bitterly divided nation. In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, the flag became an instant and widely used symbol of a nation united against terrorism.
“Flag,” as the novelist Nelson DeMille says in his preface, “is not a book with an agenda or a subjective point of view. It is an objective history of the American flag, well researched, well presented, easy to read and understand, and very informative and entertaining.”
- Sales Rank: #702521 in Books
- Published on: 2005-06-01
- Released on: 2005-05-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.52" h x 1.13" w x 6.40" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Leepson notes that "no country in the world can match the intensity of the American citizenry's attachment to the... Stars and Stripes." He goes on to chart the evolution of the flag and Americans' relationship with it in its detail-packed history. Despite the famous image in George Washington Crossing the Delaware, Leepson (Saving Monticello) says, the general's boat did not display the Stars and Stripes; the Continental Congress hadn't yet determined what the American flag would be. And "flagmania," as a 19th-century newspaper termed it, began only with the start of the Civil War. Embraced by the Ku Klux Klan, burned by Vietnam War protestors, the Stars and Stripes was again embraced in the wake of 9/11 as a ubiquitous symbol of American solidarity. Such was the revived flagmania, Leepson relates, that the flag was used to sell everything from contact lenses to disposable diapers. From reverence to kitsch, Americans' attitudes to their flag and its mythology have changed over the years, and Leepson does a creditable job of recounting those changes just in time for July 4.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Chronicling the two-centuries-plus history of the U.S. flag, Leepson considers the abundant stories that purport to be the truth about Old Glory. That moniker, like Francis Scott Key's naming the flag the "star-spangled banner," arose from reliable historical sources. But other commonly accepted views of the flag are more dubious, such as its depiction in historical paintings of the Revolutionary War--impossible, rules Leepson, since the Continental Army marched under regimental flags, not the drapery Betsy Ross stitched together under George Washington's approving eye, a legend almost certainly made from whole cloth. In truth, explains the author, interest in the flag's origins dates from the Civil War and its aftermath, when nationalistic feeling about the flag first welled up, and ever since, in times of crisis, has been a distinctive American trait. Previously, the Stars and Stripes simply identified government installations. Its evolution into a symbol of popular affection, though one invested with divergent emotions, as laws and lawsuits concerning its proper display evince, animate Leepson's evenhanded, myth-sifting account. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Comprehensive, dispassionate chronicle of the potent banner that stirs up passions of every stripe.
Leepson (Saving Monticello, 2001) compiles the curious history of Old Glory and the special veneration it often evokes. Few readers will be shocked by his revelation that the legend of Betsy Ross and her little shop may not be entirely factual. We're reminded that in early American history the flag was used principally as a military or naval ensign and rarely flown by individual citizens. It is within living memory that Flag Day, the Flag Code, the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance received official recognition. After the strife of the Civil War, the Confederate Stars and Bars battle flag became part of history, along with the yarn about old Barbara Frietschie, and in efforts to display national unity the Starts and Stripes appeared all over, becoming a part of everyday commercial and political battles. The Union veterans' organization promoted dsiplay of the Red, White (Kirkus)
Chronicling the two-centuries-plus history of the U.S. flag, Leepson considers the abundant stories that purport to be the truth about Old Glory. That moniker, like Francis Scott Key's naming the flag the "star-spangled banner," arose from reliable historical sources. But other commonly accepted views of the flag are more dubious, such as its depiction in historical paintings of the Revolutionary War--impossible, rules Leepson, since the Continental Army marched under regimental flags, not the drapery Betsy Ross stitched together under George Washington's approving eye, a legend almost certainly made from whole cloth. In truth, explains the author, interest in the flag's orgins dates from the Civil War and its aftermath, when nationalistic feeling about the flag first welled up, and ever since, in times of crisis, has been a distinctive American trait. Previously, the Stars and Stripes simply identified government installations. Its evolution into a symbol of popular affection, th (Taylor, Gilbert Booklist)
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
One Star
By Phyllis G. Chadwick
had i know it was a library book i never would have ordered it
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
A Crisp Salute
By Denis J. Cotter
Flag: An American Biography (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005)
In his latest work of popular historiography, Marc Leepson - author of Saving Monticello - takes on the daunting challenges of writing a concise, comprehensive and objective "biography" of the flag of the Untied States of America. His special attention is directed to the symbolic value which the flag has held for Americans since it was first authorized by Congress on 14 June 1777.
In terms of concision, comprehensiveness and objectivity, Mr. Leepson has done remarkably well and has produced a readable, entertaining volume which contains within its 266 pages a small ocean of educational information about the American flag. With a view specifically towards objectivity, the author does not air-brush from his narrative incidents which show lovers of the American flag in a less than favorable light. The hanging of William Mumford (1862) or of Paul Prager (1918) for flag desecration would not have made it into a less well-balanced book.
Mr. Leepson, a Vietnam War veteran, also exhibits considerable empathy with the anti-war movement of those days, going so far as to include a John Prine lyric as one of the book's two epigraphs: "Your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore". He is aware, too, of the jingoism and commercialism - crass or otherwise - which have frequently attended the American flag and duly records their place in the "life" of the flag. Flag, it might be noted, is, in its own quiet way, another all-American commercial product, exploiting the enduringly popular, quintessential symbol of the USA.
Mr. Leepson is aware that he is an American writing for Americans about an American icon, but he maintains, for the most part, a third-person approach to his material. He is a journalist and an historian, a recorder of fact and a debunker of myth - not a cheerleader. He writes, almost always, about "the flag" not "our flag". He is conscious that his book might, perhaps, be read by non-Americans. The pride of place, however, the first of the book's two epigraphs, belongs to Harriet Ward Beecher. Its highly charged rhetoric, from 1861, is the one that resonates more strongly with the author: "our flag carries American ideas, American history and American feelings. It is not a painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the Government. It is the emblem of the sovereignty of the people. It is the NATION."
Mr. Leepson's hope in writing this book was, he says, "to throw an informing light on what has become an object of veneration for so many Americans and the very visible symbol of this amazing nation". He diligently records the various changes made to the actual flag over the years to accommodate the accession of new states into the union. He also diligently records the changing meanings attached to the flag over the years. One detects, however, an understated sense of awe beneath the entire narrative.
Mr. Leepson has chosen for the end-papers of his book an 18-point diagram which illustrates how to fold the flag into a triangle, as is done at U.S. military funerals today. This diagram is an analogue to the 18 chapters into which Mr. Leepson has folded the story of the flag's "life" to date. The diagram is also a testament to his sense of propriety and reverence. One imagines that he has attended a number of U.S. military funerals and seen "Old Glory" folded, tight as swallowed tears.
His excellent, compact volume of U.S. vexillogical lore strongly suggests that for Mr. Leepson, the "Stars and Stripes", the "Star-Spangled Banner" is, primarily, the Battle Flag of the Republic. His book's one word title is sharp as a surname at roll-call or a summons to attention. The book itself is a crisp salute to that demanding national emblem.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
"Flag" - a review
By Peter Nardie
"Flag" is the kind of book serious students of American history will love. Marc Leepson has written an account of our nation's most enduring symbol that includes all the scholarly elements but still brings a popular history to those of us that wouldn't know a monograph from a monorail. The book begins with the initial uses of flags in our nation's history through the controversey surrounding its creation up through its modern day use as a statement of patriotism and politics. The book hits all the highlights and some of the abuses without being overly pedantic or preachy. Leepson has accomplished a rare feat - bringing scholarship to the masses and doing so in a delightfully entertaining way. It is exactly the kind of history that should be read by everyone who has an interest in our nation's history - and that should be all of us.
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) PDF
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) EPub
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) Doc
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) iBooks
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) rtf
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) Mobipocket
Flag: An American Biography, by Marc Leepson, Nelson DeMille (Foreword) Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment