Hudson River School

"As a historian, James T. Flexner posseses modern insights into human motives and behavior..." -? "This omnibus collection of Flexner's lucid and informative writing is an invaluable addition for collections of art, history, and American culture." -? James Thomas Flexner has been a professional writer for most of his adult life. After several years spent at the City desk at the New York Herald Tribune after graduating from Harvard University, Flexner went on to become one of America's foremost historians. He has written with great distinction in a unique style accessible to and enjoyed by the scholar and general reader, twenty-six books in the fields of American history and art. Although he is principally known for his kistorical books, notably his four-volume biography of George Washington, Flexner has written in many forms and for many outlets. He has written for print and television; he has been a lecturer, columnist, reviewer, andeven a fiction writer. Collected here are samplings of Flexner's literary accomplishments throughout his long career (spanning over 60 years). In Random Harvest you will find pieces that appeared in Esquire Magaine, Time, The New York Times, Travel and Leisure, and even TV Guide. Included is an essay on George Washington and Watergate, on the art of biography, and many more. For the fan of Flexner, American history, and the art of a writer, in Random Harvest there is something to be enjoyed for everyone.

For more than sixty years, James Thomas Flexner, one of America's most distinguished men of letters, has written with distinction about American history and American art. Praised by reviewers and scholars alike, his works have garnered the most prestigious awards, including the National Book Award, a Special Pulitzer Prize, and the esteemed Gold Medal for Eminence in Biography from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Despite this wide acceptance of his work, Flexner entitles the story of his life Maverick's Progress; one need only read through these pages to understand why. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard, Flexner worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune before taking up his career as a biographer. His first book, Doctors on Horseback, published in 1937, was an immediate success. In 1939, Flexner's America's Old Masters was hailed by a distinguished biographer as "the best book of its kind". In 1947, Flexner began what would become a three-volume study of America's artists, History of American Painting. Of the first volume, First Flowers of Our Wilderness, Allan Nevins wrote: "This book is indispensable to any student of our civilization". From art Flexner shifted his focus to the infamous American traitor Benedict Arnold, and from there to our illustrious Founding Father George Washington. Flexner explains his transition in subjects: "I had hardly realized, and in any case did not care, that according to established scholarly conceptions what I intended was heresy, presumption, and insanity. Heresy because a scholar was required to occupy a single field of study, hardly looking over the surrounding fences. Presumption because scholars should notinvade each other's fields. Insanity because I lacked the formal training in any directions I intended to explore. But all of the fields would be integral parts of the same American landscape, and I was concerned with human na

The works of 12 American artists, including Homer, Eakins, Church, and Ryder, are introduced.

"For anyone who has labored long in compiling a photocopy reader for their introductory courses in American art, this anthology offers a balanced & inexpensive alternative. Mixing thematic with artist- & object-based reading, Critical Issues in American Art represents a variety of new approaches to American art which will challenge students without bewildering them." Angela Miller Washington University "A stimulating & useful resource for teachers & students that will broaden our understanding of American art." Matthew Baigell Rutgers University

This clear, thorough, and reliable survey of American painting and sculpture from colonial times to the present day covers the major artists and their works, outlines the social and cultural backgrounds of each period, and includes 409 illustrations integrated with the text. The book begins with a discussion of seventeenth-century art along the eastern seaboard and ends with sections on current realistic process and technological art. The eight chapters are arranged chronologically and each generally follows the same organizational sequence. From time to time the author suggests continuities of themes, ideas, and images; and contrasts or comparisons are made between artists of the same or different centuries to show continuities or discontinuities. Some determining factors in American art are considered, but Baigell views the rich and diverse achievements of American art as the result of the efforts and talents of pluralistic society rather than as fitting into a particular mold. This edition includes corrections and revisions to the text, an updated bibliography, and thirteen new illustrations.

This scrupulously revised edition offers a comprehensive introduction to the beauty and wonder of the Catskill mountain region. Combining a wealth of information with abundant illustrations, the book falls into four main sections. The first section deals principally with the geography of the area. Part Two focuses on the region's history, with subsections on Railroad Fever, The Romantic Era, War and Revolution, and Famous Hotels. Part Three- devoted to the Catskill's legends, literature, and art-features descriptive passages from the work of such famous writers as James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. The final section is an extensive gazetteer that provides succint descriptions of the mountains, ranges, rivers, brooks, kills, creeks, and other geographical features of the region.

This book describes the river and shorelines point by point, with historical background. Emphasis is upon points as seen from the water. Inland points of interest are also covered in self-guiding road routes along either shore.

How and why have Americans living at particular times and places used and transformed their environment? How have political systems dealt with conflicts over resources and conservation? This is the only major reference work to explore all the major themes and debates in the burgeoning field of environmental history. Humanity's relationship with the natural world is one of the oldest and newest topics in human history. The issue emerged as a distinct field of scholarship in the early 1970s and has been growing steadily ever since. The discipline's territory and sources are rich and varied and include climatic and geological data, court records, archaeological digs, and the writings of naturalists, as well as federal and state economic and resource development and conservation policy. Environmental historians investigate how and why natural and human-created surroundings affect a society's development. Merchant provides a context-setting overview of American environmental history from the precolonial land-use practice of Native Americans and concluding with twenty-first concerns over global warming. The book also includes a glossary of important concepts, people, agencies, and legislation; a chronology of major events; and an extensive bibliography including films, videos, CD-ROMs, and websites. This concise reference for students and general readers contains an accessible overview of American environmental history; a mini-encyclopedia of ideas, people, legislation, and agencies; a chronology of events and their significance; and a bibliography of books, magazines, and journals as well as films, videos, CD-ROMs, and online resources. In addition to providing a wealth of factual information, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History explores contentious issues in this much-debated field, from the idea of wilderness to global warming.

The Antebellum Era was a complex time in American culture. Young ladies had suitors call upon them, while men often settled quarrels by dueling, and "mill girls" worked 16-hour days to help their families make ends meet. Yet at the same time, a new America was emerging. The rapid growth of cities inspired Frederick Law Olmstead to lead the movement for public parks. Stephen Foster helped forge a catalog of American popular music; writers such as Washington Irving and Ralph Waldo Emerson raised the level of American literature; artists such as Thomas Cole and Thomas Doughty defined a new style of painting called the Hudson River School. All the while, schisms between northern and southern culture threatened to divide the nation. This volume in Greenwood's "American Popular Culture Through History" recounts the ways in which things old and new intersected in the decades before the Civil War.