Getting tuberculosis in the middle of your life is like starting downtown to do a lot of urgent errands and being hit by a bus. When you regain consciousness you remember nothing about the urgent errands. You can't even remember where you were going. Thus begins Betty MacDonald's memoir of her year in a sanatorium just outside Seattle battling the "White Plague." MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium―making all of us laugh in the process.
#2350875 in Books 2009-10-26Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 10.42 x 1.42 x 8.80l; 2.79 #File Name: 0295989556344 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy John S. BiedlerFrom the first paragraph; the language; the thought flow; the intrigue of what happened had me!8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. A Salty; Serious HistoryBy Jeremiah J. SullivanIf you have ever been to sea; sailed; or even simply enjoyed looking at the ocean; Warship Under Sail will be a delightful read. The author recreates life on a 19th century naval vessel; based on exhaustive research and detailed examination of the log books of the USS Decatur. But she does more than simply energize a work of popular history. The book is a serious illumination of how the idea of "manifest destiny" played itself out in the decade prior to the Civil War.Collingwood; in The Idea of History; argued that history fostered self knowledge by illuminating the actions of people in the past in light of the presuppositions that guided them. As we see what drove them; we can examine what drives us. So it is with Warship Under Sail. The book identifies presuppositions which are relevant still: that the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and reason reached their culmination in the United States; that it was the mission;indeed the manifest destiny; of the US to spread these ideas throughout the hemispheres; employing military power to do so if necessary; and that the economic self interests of people(slavers; capitalists; and freebooters) ordinarily not supported by decent folk could be legitimately pursued under the noble cloak of the Enlightenment project. In Seattle; San Francisco; Nicaragua; and Panama; Warship Under Sail shows these presuppositions driving the men and officers of the USS Decatur just as surely as the winds of the Pacific drove the Decatur itself.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A stirring history of the early US NavyBy RVOThis astonishing book grabs your attention with its great research and takes you on a fantastic voyage with colorful characters. You can practically smell the sea air; and taste the questionable food; of a voyage under sail.It's a wonderfully documented book and part of its enormous readability is that it deals with some interesting back roads of history. I picked it up thinking it would capture Seattle's early; pioneer days. Well it does that beautifully. But the book is really about the lives of sailors in the early history of the navy. And what a different time it was. Captains and officers ruled with a strong arm. The captain of the USS Decatur is part Captain Ahab and part Captain Horatio Hornblower.If you love the books of Patrick O'Brian or C.S. Forester; you'll be amazed by this true story. If you crave history of the US Navy; you won't find a better book. And if you just like a good; old-fashioned story; told in stirring fashion; this is the book for you.Magnificent.
