ePub Wu: The Chinese Empress who schemed; seduced and murdered her way to become a living God by Jonathan Clements in History

Description

Residents and visitors know the city of Memphis by many names--Bluff City; Big Shelby; Blues City; and the Good Samaritan of the Mississippi. In this new book of 122 full-color photographs; Larry E. McPherson captures the history and sense of place that make Memphis what it is often called today; the Crossroads of the Mid-South. Memphis brings to life the streets; buildings; and outskirts of the river-powered city where sumptuous homes of cotton planters verged on rough shanties of slaves and later poor blacks; dock workers; and boatmen. McPherson's Memphis is an artistic rendering of the city's soul. His full-color photographs tap the entrepreneurial and creative energy of Sun Studios; Beale Street; Graceland; Cotton Row; and Federal Express. They focus on civil rights history in photographs of the Lorraine Motel; Mason Temple; and City Hall. This photographic panorama comprises all areas in and around Memphis--the downtown; the midtown; the suburbs; nearby farms; and surrounding natural areas along the Mississippi and Wolf rivers--and draws attention to the complex relationship between urban development and natural environment. The photographs include locations important to business; architecture; musical heritage; and the legacy of civil rights. Scenes of road building; suburban development; and the revitalization of the downtown dramatize the city's dynamic change in the twentieth century. In accompanying captions; the photographer turns an extra lens on history. Giving an overview to the splendid photography; the introductory essay by Charles Reagan Wilson; an esteemed scholar of southern cultures; recounts the history of the city's development and connects Memphis to the heart of the Mid-South. Larry E. McPherson is associate professor of art at the University of Memphis. His photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Charles Reagan Wilson is director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.