In 1857; Captain William Lewis Herndon sacrificed his life trying to save 600 passengers and crew when his ship foundered in a hurricane off the Carolina coast. Memorialized in Gary Kinder's best-selling book Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea; Herndon; with this final courageous act; epitomized a lifetime of heroism. Seven years earlier; the secretary of the Navy had appointed Herndon to lead the first American expedition into the Amazon Valley. Herndon departed Lima; Peru; on May 20; 1851; and arrived at Para; Brazil; nearly a year later; traveling 4;000 miles by foot; mule; canoe; and small boat. He cataloged the scientific and commercial observations requested by Congress; but he filed his report as a narrative; creating an intimate portrait of an exotic land before the outside world rushed in. Herndon's report so far surpassed his superiors' expectations that instead of printing the obligatory few hundred copies for Congress; the secretary of the Navy ordered 10;000 copies in the first print run; three months later; he ordered 20;000 more. Herndon described his adventures with such insight; such compassion and wit; and such literary grace that he came to symbolize the new spirit of exploration and discovery sweeping mid-nineteenth-century America. For the next hundred years; Herndon's report languished out of print before being revived briefly in 1951. Now; for the first time in nearly fifty years; Gary Kinder and Grove Press bring to readers one of the greatest chronicles of travel and exploration ever written.
#175927 in Books Johns Hopkins University Press 2009Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .94 x 6.00l; 1.15 #File Name: 0801890071368 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Great Polemic. Capitalism is Slavery.By RDDSeth Rockman’s Scraping By: Wage Labor; Slavery; and Survival in Early Baltimore examines the economics of the working class in early republic Baltimore. The book speaks to economic history; social history; labor history; the history of the South; and gender history. Rockman wants to know what life was like for the average person in the early republic and how that differed from the groups historians typically examine in this period.Rockman argues; “Early republic capitalism thrived on its ability to exploit the labor of workers unable fully to claim the prerogatives of market freedom.†Rockman structures his work around examinations of different types of work; from drudgery; like on the mud machine; to women’s work; in the form of sewing and domestic service; to the options available to the poor. While much history of the early republic focuses on the new opportunities; Rockman demonstrates that; in Baltimore; the employers were the most opportunistic; relying on a combination of free and slave labor from men; women; and children. Rockman’s analysis of women’s work offers a counterpoint to the usual narrative of Republican Motherhood. He writes of female labor; “Reputation could trump both skill and demographic background as a qualification for hire.†Rockman continues; “The creation of knowledge around women was particularly problematic in a patriarchal culture that reduced female character to sexual chastity and condoned misogynistic violence against ‘disorderly’ women.†After a woman had secured a job and navigated the intricacies of the gendered system; she still might not receive a decent wage. Rockman writes; “Women acting collectively in the early republic had to carefully navigate the gender boundaries of American society…Arguing from the position of motherhood enabled some women to make claims on government.†Even then; however; their options were limited in a society that continued to view men as the primary wage earners and considered women’s work a temporary measure until they married.Rockman’s discussion of slavery in Baltimore draws heavily upon Walter Johnson’s capitalist examination of chattel slavery. Rockman argues against historians such as Gordon Wood; Joyce Appleby; and Daviel Walker Howe who argued that “political democratization and economic posperity went hand-in-hand†in the early republic. Rockman relies on tax records; letters; and job advertisements for his source base. He frequently writes that the individuals upon whom he focuses left very few records as most did not earn enough in their day-to-day living to appear on the tax records. Payroll records often omitted the names of employees as well.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. By uncovering history of the working poor; Rockman provides not only a window into the ...By LoveshistoryBy uncovering history of the working poor; Rockman provides not only a window into the development of capitalism in the early American Republic; but also a moving portrait of a group of people whose lives and labor are too often overlooked. This is a carefully researched and clearly written book that should be required reading for anyone who has ever relied on the labor of others.7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Simply the BestBy John G. SharpI recently read Seth Rockman's Scraping By; with surprise and delight. Scraping By is simply the best study of wage labor that I have read. Particularly helpful for me was Rockman's discussion; of race; labor and working class culture. Reading this fine account of Baltimore's; enslaved mariners; mud machine operators; white seamstresses; Irish dockhands; free and enslaved black domestic servants; and native-born street sweepers brought to mind E.P. Thompson's; The Making of the English Working Class and Sean Wilentz`s Chants Democratic New York City the Rise of the American Working Class 1788-1850.What I found most remarkable in Scraping By; was Rockman's ability to recover the lives and aspirations of a hitherto largely ignored group; day labors or per diem workers; here they truely come alive. While Thompson and Wilentz can rely on political pamphlets of the early 19th century; autobiographical accounts; and related literary sources to gain their insights; Rockman faced and overcame a more daunting challenge. Day laborers; enslaved and free; rarely have a voice in labor history; Rockman has made certain they will no longer remain in the margins of labor history. His brilliant use of the newspapers of the era and his impressive array of data from the early business; census and tax records support his study superbly and make his work unique.Fortunately for the reading public; Rockman's Scraping By shares with Wilentz and Thompson; that unique ability to write well and honestly about working men and women without resorting to academic jargon or as E.P.Thompson once put it "the enormous condensation of posterity."This is by far one of the best books on labor history ever!
