Diver is an honest; moving and sometimes hilarious account of a hair-raisingly exciting career; both in the Royal Navy and in commercial deep-sea diving—training the most unlikely of raw recruits ... handling unexploded bombs while under air attack ... living for months in a pressurized bottle with a voice like Donald Duck ... commuting to work through a hole in the floor in the freezing; black depths of the North Sea.
#3229924 in Books Univ Tennessee Press 2010-05-29Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 10.20 x 1.00 x 8.30l; 2.40 #File Name: 1572336870269 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. BIrmingham bookBy J SummersPerfect book; price and delivery...what a pleasure to have this kind of service! The book is so detailed and is full of information about Birmingham; AL. It was a personal gift for a person who lives and grew up in that city.Thank you!!!5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Architecture Tells the StoryBy Rob HardyBirmingham; Alabama; (and also at least eight other American cities) has the nickname "The Magic City" but any magic accruing to it is merely due to the geology related to its founding. The geological magic has tarnished over time and perhaps has been replaced by the city's current emphasis on education and medicine; but the geology was the foundation. From it grew the iron industry; which spawned both the hovels of worker housing and the luxurious suburbs; and the eventual civic and academic buildings. Its origin and rise is unique among American cities; and its history is told in a unique way in _Landscape of Transformations: Architecture and Birmingham; Alabama_ (The University of Tennessee Press) by Michael W. Fazio. The author is a professor emeritus of architecture; and while he is obviously most interested in the architects and architecture of the city; this is a broad social; industrial; and civic history. It is a large-format book with hundreds of pictures; maps; and blueprints. I have never done anything but drive through Birmingham myself; and so I don't have a particular interest in the city or its history; but this attractive volume laid out the story in a way that kept my interest throughout.Red Mountain that had the mineral riches for ironmaking. Significantly; the Red Mountain that drew all the industry and the population also divided the city into two; in other cities you might come from the right or wrong side of the tracks; but in Birmingham; there was a have and a have-not side of the mountain. The mountain was in the center of the city; and so were the furnaces; the noise; dirt; and smoke were originally viewed as civic assets before they turned into environmental liabilities. The housing for the workers was shacks that one observer wrote "look as if they too were made of slag;" not homes but makeshift shelters. The better subdivisions took advantage of elevation from the smoke and grime of industry; and featured luxuriantly curving roads and large lots of romantic sensibility. The Depression did see the building of various retail establishments in the "moderne" style of angles and curves; a style "only cautiously modern; just right for tightly wound Birmingham; where the restrictions of race discouraged any provocative acts or symbols that might challenge the status quo." Ironically; a special feature of the retail stores in this style was the lunch counters which were sleek; inviting; and conspicuous. They were also by law for whites only; and were the targets starting in 1960 of students who were organized and were sent in teams to "place food orders at the lunch counters while sitting on those iconic rotating stools - just as if they were white and deserved to be there." Fazio plots the routes and tactics of the marchers through Kelly Ingram Park in the spring of 1963. He notes that there is a famous photo of Dr. Martin Luther King; Jr. and Ralph David Abernathy in the courtyard of the A. G. Gaston Motel; where civil rights leaders stayed because black people could stay nowhere else. The motel is now near the Civil Rights Institute; boarded up but otherwise the same as in the photo. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is in the same area. It was the target of the heinous bombing by Klansmen in September 1963 which killed four little girls. In a way; this represented Birmingham's past reaching out to try to quell the push for civil rights; as there had been a "culture of explosives" used in the mines.Fazio winds up with a chapter on postindustrial Birmingham. There is still mining in the area; but nothing like that which jump-started the city. Rather; there has been a shift from heavy industry toward information; specifically medical research through the University of Alabama at Birmingham and its associated medical center. The growth of the facilities tended to be almost comically haphazard. The university and medical center had a pattern of contracting and paying for architectural and land-use plans and then consistently disregarding such plans. Fazio reviews the buildings that have sprung up; some of them distinguished; but without any unifying theme. He reflects that although the visionary creators of the university and medical center made them into progressive institutions; "these institutions have thrived _despite_ these creators' relative disinterest in physical-planning order and architectural unity." What Birmingham's future will hold is anyone's guess; but from his in-depth understanding; Fazio demonstrates with clarity that architecture will tell its story.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Excellent BookBy Keyser SozeExcellent book about the history of Birmingham using its architecture; industry; and neighborhoods to tell the story. You will enjoy it if you like history; old buildings; and old houses. I certainly did.
