Author: William J. ETTENPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Book Description
A Citizens' History of Grand Rapids, Michigan ... Compiled and Edited by W.J. Etten
Author: William J. ETTENThin Ice
Author: Reinder Van TilPublisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802824781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Book Description
DESCRIPTION This unique volume contains twenty-eight fascinating life stories of people -- many of whom went on to become famous -- who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The coming-of-age stories in Thin Ice relate a range of experiences both good and bad, including happy memories and heartwarming recollections but also personal traumas, intergenerational and racial conflicts, the strictures of religious belief and practice, the joys and sorrows of young romance, and more. Above and beyond the stories of the more notable personalities -- Jim Harrison, Roger Wilkins, John Hockenberry, President Gerald Ford, Betty Ford, Al Green, Paul Schrader, William Brashler -- the book as a whole is chock-full of crisp, humorous, irreverent, and moving writing. Reinder Van Til and Gordon Olson have excerpted half of the pieces from previous publications, while they directly solicited the other half from active writers specifically for this book. The earliest stories go back to the 1830s and 1850s, and the most recent are a cluster of contemporary pieces that describe coming of age in the Grand Rapids of the 1960s through the 1980s. Together they paint a multifaceted, impressionistic portrait of a century and a half in the fair city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. All in all, Thin Ice is a nostalgic treasure for any Grand Rapidian and literary treasure for e v e r y one. Contributors Albert Baxter Charles E. Belknap A. J. Muste Arnold Gingrich David Cornel DeJong Gerald R. Ford Betty Ford Edward V. Gillis John Thompson Roger Wilkins Jim Harrison Glen Peterson Max Apple John Otterbacher Reinder Van Til Al Green Paul Schrader Robert VanderMolen William Brashler Sheri Venema Hank Meijer Charles Honey Tom Rademacher Levi Rickert John Hockenberry Laura Kasischke Kaye Longberg Bich Minh Nguyen
A Citizens' History of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Author: William J. EttenPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Grand Rapids (Mich.)
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Book Description
Grand Rapids in Vintage Postcards, 1890-1940
Author: Thomas R. DilleyPublisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 0738539503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
Grand Rapids, Michigan, began to take shape when settlers found power, transportation, and abundant natural resources on the banks of the Grand River. A gateway to the settlement of western and northern Michigan in the mid- to late 19th century, Grand Rapids became home to a fledgling cottage industry in the manufacture of furniture. In the decades that followed, the furniture industry brought employment and prosperity to the city, and significantly influenced its physical landscape and character. The history of Grand Rapids during the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been documented in the postcards of the period. Hundreds of scenes of buildings and institutions, and the people who lived, worked, and played here were recorded on these cards.
History and Directory of Kent County, Michigan
Author: History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Author: Albert BaxterPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Grand Rapids (Mich.)
Languages : en
Pages : 1106
Book Description
A Citizens' History of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Author: William J. EttenHistorical Outlook
Author: Michigan History Magazine
Author: The People's Network
Author: Robert MacDougallPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812245695
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Book Description
The Bell System dominated telecommunications in the United States and Canada for most of the twentieth century, but its monopoly was not inevitable. In the decades around 1900, ordinary citizens—farmers, doctors, small-town entrepreneurs—established tens of thousands of independent telephone systems, stringing their own wires to bring this new technology to the people. Managed by opportunists and idealists alike, these small businesses were motivated not only by profit but also by the promise of open communication as a weapon against monopoly capital and for protection of regional autonomy. As the Bell empire grew, independents fought fiercely to retain control of their local networks and companies—a struggle with an emerging corporate giant that has been almost entirely forgotten. The People's Network reconstructs the story of the telephone's contentious beginnings, exploring the interplay of political economy, business strategy, and social practice in the creation of modern North American telecommunications. Drawing from government documents in the United States and Canada, independent telephone journals and publications, and the archives of regional Bell operating companies and their rivals, Robert MacDougall locates the national debates over the meaning, use, and organization of the telephone industry as a turning point in the history of information networks. The competing businesses represented dueling political philosophies: regional versus national identity and local versus centralized power. Although independent telephone companies did not win their fight with big business, they fundamentally changed the way telecommunications were conceived.