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From 1944 to 1946, as the world pivoted from the Second World War
to an unsteady peace, Americans in more than two hundred cities and
towns mobilized to chase an implausible dream. The newly-created
United Nations needed a meeting place, a central place for global
diplomacy-a Capital of the World. But what would it look like, and
where would it be? Without invitation, civic boosters in every
region of the United States leapt at the prospect of transforming
their hometowns into the Capital of the World. The idea stirred in
big cities-Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver,
and more. It fired imaginations in the Black Hills of South Dakota
and in small towns from coast to coast. Meanwhile, within the
United Nations the search for a headquarters site became a debacle
that threatened to undermine the organization in its earliest days.
At times it seemed the world's diplomats could agree on only one
thing: under no circumstances did they want the United Nations to
be based in New York. And for its part, New York worked mightily
just to stay in the race it would eventually win. With a sweeping
view of the United States' place in the world at the end of World
War II, Capital of the World tells the dramatic, surprising, and at
times comic story of hometown promoters in pursuit of an
extraordinary prize and the diplomats who struggled with the
balance of power at a pivotal moment in history.
Independence Hall is a place Americans think they know well. Within
its walls the Continental Congress declared independence in 1776,
and in 1787 the Founding Fathers drafted the U.S. Constitution
there. Painstakingly restored to evoke these momentous events, the
building appears to have passed through time unscathed, from the
heady days of the American Revolution to today. But Independence
Hall is more than a symbol of the young nation. Beyond this,
according to Charlene Mires, it has a long and varied history of
changing uses in an urban environment, almost all of which have
been forgotten. In Independence Hall, Mires rediscovers and
chronicles the lost history of Independence Hall, in the process
exploring the shifting perceptions of this most important building
in America's popular imagination. According to Mires, the
significance of Independence Hall cannot be fully appreciated
without assessing the full range of political, cultural, and social
history that has swirled about it for nearly three centuries.
During its existence, it has functioned as a civic and cultural
center, a political arena and courtroom, and a magnet for public
celebrations and demonstrations. Artists such as Thomas Sully
frequented Independence Square when Philadelphia served as the
nation's capital during the 1790s, and portraitist Charles Willson
Peale merged the arts, sciences, and public interest when he
transformed a portion of the hall into a center for natural science
in 1802. In the 1850s, hearings for accused fugitive slaves who
faced the loss of freedom were held, ironically, in this famous
birthplace of American independence. Over the years Philadelphians
have used the old state house and its public square in a multitude
of ways that have transformed it into an arena of conflict: labor
grievances have echoed regularly in Independence Square since the
1830s, while civil rights protesters exercised their right to free
speech in the turbulent 1960s. As much as the Founding Fathers,
these people and events illuminate the building's significance as a
cultural symbol.
From 1944 to 1946, as the world pivoted from the Second World War
to an unsteady peace, Americans in more than two hundred cities and
towns mobilized to chase an implausible dream. The newly-created
United Nations needed a meeting place, a central place for global
diplomacy-a Capital of the World. But what would it look like, and
where would it be? Without invitation, civic boosters in every
region of the United States leapt at the prospect of transforming
their hometowns into the Capital of the World. The idea stirred in
big cities-Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver,
and more. It fired imaginations in the Black Hills of South Dakota
and in small towns from coast to coast. Meanwhile, within the
United Nations the search for a headquarters site became a debacle
that threatened to undermine the organization in its earliest days.
At times it seemed the world's diplomats could agree on only one
thing: under no circumstances did they want the United Nations to
be based in New York. And for its part, New York worked mightily
just to stay in the race it would eventually win. With a sweeping
view of the United States' place in the world at the end of World
War II, Capital of the World tells the dramatic, surprising, and at
times comic story of hometown promoters in pursuit of an
extraordinary prize and the diplomats who struggled with the
balance of power at a pivotal moment in history.
Providing students with a thought-provoking account of America's
past, "The American People" examines how American society assumed
its present shape and developed its present forms of government.
Emphasizing the interaction of ordinary Americans with
extraordinary events, the text combines the discussion of political
events with analysis of their impact on social and economic life.
The comprehensive narrative encompasses description of the lives
and experiences of Americans of all national origins and cultural
backgrounds, at all class levels of society, and in all regions of
the country. The thoughtful analysis seeks the connections among
the political, social, economic, technological, and cultural
factors that have shaped and reshaped American society over four
centuries.
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Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
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