Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake 1805 (Dover Books on Americana)

Book Description

This reprint of an actual early-19th-century diary provides today's readers with an engaging rarity: a 15-year-old's brief, concise notebook and Sloane's 72 drawings and explanatory narrative. "An extraordinary glimpse into everyday Early American rural life . . . will delight readers of all ages." — History in Review.

Customer Reviews:

So... what happened to Noah Blake and Sarah Trowbridge?.......2007-04-20

I echo what everyone else has written here - an excellent book. Noah's diary is very terse, but Sloane fleshes it out with fascinating details of what living on a farm must have been like for Noah.

Sad thing, though... as I was reading this I wondered if Noah and Sarah Trowbridge, whom he frequently writes about (it's clear he was attacted to this girl) ever married. Alas! I can find no mention at all of Noah Blake or his parents on any online genealogical database. Other than via Sloane's book, Noah Blake seems to be unremembered... but that's sufficient, I guess. (I can find a Sarah Trowbridge born in 1791, but it might or might not be the right one. Not enough genealogical details in Sloane's book.)

Not really a diary.......2007-03-22

Like the previous reviewer, this book was not what I was expecting. Thinking that most teenage boys hundreds of years ago are just like teenage boys today, I was very surprised to find a published diary of a kid who was willing to write down his thoughts on life. With many entries consisting entirely of one or two words like "Plowed today." and "Do." (ditto), this book does little to offer the reader insight into the thoughts of this boy. The diary portion of the book is disappointing, and is used as a jumping off point for the author to explain in words and pictures about the technology of the early 19th century. The explanations are fascinating, the technology amazing. Anyone who has ever thought about how the pyramids could have been built by thousands of slaves should take a gander at how a covered bridge (that could hold the weight of oxen and a cart and it's load and driver) was constructed by a few neighborhood farmers. The illustrations are the backbone of this book and they are excellent. I wish the author would strike a deal with the publishers of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series to draw and explain the machinery described in those books. I would recommend this book as a gift for anyone, kid or adult, who is interested in architecture or engineering, or who loves history.

Not what I expected.......2007-03-11

I read the other reviews before I bought. I guess this wasn't for me. I love diaries but this wasn't really a diary.

One of the best.......2007-03-09

Somehow the sum of the story, descriptions of tools and techniques, and simple drawings adds up to one of the most compelling, accessible, and effective depictions of life in 19th century America I've every read. I came across this wonderful book while doing research for my undergraduate thesis over thirty years ago, I used it very effectively to teach high school history, and just last year I had a great time reading it with my 11 year old son. In all those years I have never seen it fail to engage and energize the reader, often compelling them out of their seats to try one the contraptions for themselves (the ink recipe works well). How cool is that!

This Book Should Be In Classrooms.......2006-04-09

What a unique and interesting concept: take a diary of a 15 year old boy and write a virtual living history book around it! That takes quite a bit of writing talent, knowledge of the time period, and, for the detailed sketches, an artistic talent. And, thankfully for all of us, Mr. Sloane had it all, as he is the one with all of the above said talent to put such a piece together.
Interspersing the original 1805 writings of Noah Blake and Mr. Sloane's own "liberties" was a stroke of genius that brings to life the lives of early Americana - farming, milling, building, forging, as well as interaction of parent and child, friendships, and courtley love.
This is the sort of style that would get school-age kids, from the upper El through high school, interested in our historical past. What did the folks of 200 years ago do during rainy days? It's here. How about the affects on their lives do to seasonal changes? Yep, that info is here, as well.
Mr. Sloane has a passion for history and it shows in his writing and detailed sketches. He tends to bring up the minute details of daily life that is rarely - if ever - brought up in the "scholarly" history books that cost five times as much. Mr. Sloane's work is always interesting and never stodgy. I have numerous books by this author and have yet to be disappointed.
If you have any interest in American social history, then Diary of an Early American Boy (and all of Eric Sloane's books) come highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

A solid story of achievement under the worst of odds
Farm Boys Dream Comes True

Versatile Tractors: A Farm Boy's Dream
Jarrod Pakosh
Manufacturer: Boston Mills Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Pictorial | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1550464167

Book Description

An inspiring story of struggle and success.

Peter Pakosh was born to poor immigrants and raised on a remote Canadian farm. This is the story of his dream of making farming easier for his family and farmers everywhere. Today, his Versatile farm machinery company is recognized the world over for its outstanding and dominant product line.

Young Pakosh left the farm to take a job as a draftsman for the farm implement giant Massey Harris in Toronto. Soon Pakosh began designing and producing grain augers and sprayers in the basement of his small Toronto home. By the late 1970s, his Versatile tractors captured a 30% market share of large tractor sales in North America.

Versatile was the first to mass-produce four-wheel-drive tractors and the first to develop the bi-directional tractor (pushing or pulling with equal power). The company has long been a leader on the global agricultural scene and Ford, New Holland and Fiat have all had ownership roles in Versatile. Today this company thrives as Buhler Versatile Inc. and is recognized for its innovation and dependability.

Lavishly illustrated with contemporary and archival photographs, as well as selections from company catalogs from decades past, this book is a must-have for any tractor or farm history buff.

Customer Reviews:

A solid story of achievement under the worst of odds.......2004-11-07

In 1993 the Equipment Manufacturers Institute honored author Peter Pakosh for his contributions toward the manufacture of forestry and farm equipment: Versatile Tractors: A Farm Boy's Dream traces his life and achievements. Peter was born in 1911 on a farm in eastern Canada, and became an engineer denied the change to design equipment for a large farm equipment manufacturer. Undaunted, Pakosh built his first machine at home - and founded his own line of products. All ages will find his story involving and a solid story of achievement under the worst of odds.

Farm Boys Dream Comes True.......2003-12-18

This is splendidly written book all the way around. Pakosh did an excellent job bringing a modern, insightful look to the life of a legend in the farming industry. It is easy to read and well organized. It has great original photographs of most models. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, whether in the industry or not.

Average customer rating:

Boys Farm
James L., III Skinner
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

South | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1401025633

Book Description

The history of a wealthy couple?s decision to reject their worldly success, money, and status and to live in virtual poverty in order to dedicate themselves to realizing their impossible dream of redeeming homeless, helpless, neglected, abused, or abandoned boys.

Average customer rating:

Early American Material Culture
This Book Is GREAT!!!
I'd give it six stars if I could!
Excellent! I loved the intriguing drawings.
A found diary, beautifully embellished by Sloane.

Diary of an Early American Boy
Eric Sloane
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0345321006
Release Date: 1984-06-12

Book Description

Part the diary of Noah Blake, who was 15 in 1805, and part a re-creation of the life that a boy in his circumstances would have lived, this book is a loving tribute to a vanished way of life. Profusely illustrated, it will give its readers a sense of participation in the past that is all too rare in conventional histories.

Customer Reviews:

Early American Material Culture.......2005-09-03

While rumaging through an old house, Eric Sloane came across the diary of 15 year old Noah Blake. Written in 1805, the diary has short entries about Noah's life on a farm. Sloane uses these brief notations as a starting point to recreate a compelling story about farm life on the American frontier. Eric Soane's talent as an illustrator takes this book to the next level. It is one thing to read about early American life and it is another level of pleasure to see beautiful illustrations that explain the material culture in which Noah Blake lived.

The audience for this book is very large. Written at a high school freshman level, this book will be of interest to anyone interested in learning how common people lived during the Federalist Period. This book will also appeal to all those who are interested in the material culture of 19th Century America. Sloane provides beautiful illustrations of how things like a water mill worked or how a simple wooden bridge was built.

Personally, my interest in American vernacular architecture. I loved this book because Eric Sloane has done a masterful job of explaining early American building techniques. I knew that one had to be very knowledgable to survive 200 years ago and this book only reinforces my admiration for our ancestors. For those who like these types of books, check out the illustrated works of Edwin Tunis, another talented artist with an interest in material culture.

This Book Is GREAT!!!.......2000-09-14

I love this book! It is so real and life like! The drawings and all the actual entrys from his diary. I sent this book to a friend who lives in africa and HE LOVED IT!

I'd give it six stars if I could!.......2000-06-29

I read this book as a young adult. It was like turning back the clock one hundred and fifty years, but unlike a lot of history books, it has no political, social or moral agenda. Indeed, it paints a luminous picture of rural life, while giving more useful information in the text of the diary and in the annotated pen-and-ink illustrations than most "country living" manuals. Check out Eric Sloane's barn books as well - more masterful work!

Excellent! I loved the intriguing drawings........1999-03-12

This is an excellent book for kids and adults. The book is fully illustrated with drawings that detail how things were built and how they worked. They capture kid's attention better than "Where's Waldo?", but unlike that meaningless book, there's a lot to be learned from this little gem! Lance Greenlee

A found diary, beautifully embellished by Sloane........1999-01-21

I read this book while visiting my mother in her Connecticut country home. It was the perfect place to read it as I suddenly made sense of the street names like Old Mill Road and Stoneboat Road. Eric Sloane paints an intoxicating portrait of a boy's coming of age and falling in love with the girl next door (even if next door was over the meadow and through the woods) in the earliest years of the 19th century. Life was a focus on survival, when your days were spent working your land for all the fruits that it bears to sustain you and your family. Close bonds form with neighbors and community is not only important, but a way of life. Aside from being a true (if admittedly embellished) story, it is an intense study of life at that time. How we made and used our tools; the many properties and uses of wood; how the farmer's almanac was an indispensible item in every household. You learn great little triva facts in every chapter, such as... Did you know every house was allowed only ten panes of window glass... if they had more, they would have to pay a stiff tax on each pane.

The book opens with our young protagonist lying in bed, staring out through four brand new panes of glass that his parents got him for his birthday, watching the snow fall. He is as happy as can be for having these simple panes of glass. Nintendo pales in comparison.

Book Description

Tells the story of the Graves Family Dairy, whose three horses pulled the wagons delivering milk to families in the years before trucks and shopping centers replaced them.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful story and illustrations.......2004-12-17

This is a wonderful story about a family dairy farm at the turn of the 20th century and how they struggled to adapt to changing technology and the growth of the population around them. The illustrations are also beautiful and give the story a warm, historic feel.

Chesapeake Boyhood: Memoirs of a Farm Boy (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf)

Average customer rating:

Chesapeake Boyhood: Memoirs of a Farm Boy
Earthy author
Chesapeake Boyhood

Chesapeake Boyhood: Memoirs of a Farm Boy (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf)
William H. Turner
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Mid Atlantic | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Issues | Teens | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Biographies & Memoirs | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Teens | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

East of the Chesapeake

ASIN: 0801855896

Book Description

Chesapeake Boyhood is an account of growing up on the lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake during the years following the Great Depression. Turner's stories include rousing tales of 'coon hunting, crabbing, boat building, duck hunting, oyster tonging, and Saturday jaunts to town. Turner brings the characters, experiences, waterscape, and landscape of rural Virginia to life as no one has done before or is likely ever to do again. His own drawings illustrate the stories, and they, too, win us over with their honesty and charm.

"Its chief virtue (besides its highly literate style), it seems to me, is its intimate, sensory knowledge of a vanishing Chesapeake landscape: its sounds and smells, the way things feel to the touch, the lore lodged in the names of the commonest creatures and activities... At one point Turner likens the local farmers and fishermen sitting around the table in the country store to fixed positions on a compass, with `all the cardinal points taken,' and I think of this [book] as a kind of compass too, that describes one man's orientation to the Eastern Shore."--Andrea Hammer, St. Mary's College

"Modern outdoor writing has enough anemic adventures by faint-hearted writers reared in the suburbs. What it needs more of is the droll wit of an Ed Zern, the robust foolishness of a Patrick McManus, and the lean prose of an Ernest Hemingway. It gets all three in the tales of Bill Turner."--George Regier, author of Heron Hill Chronicle and Wanderer on My Native Shore

"Storms, boat wrecks, childhood pranks and even old dogs are remembered with a sense of humor in Turner's book. He has captured the rhythms of country life in a time before fast cars, credit cards, and air pollution." -- Waterman's Gazette

Customer Reviews:

Chesapeake Boyhood: Memoirs of a Farm Boy.......2004-01-01

Loved the book, couldn't wait for the next chapter. Easy to read. Turner has another book East of the Chesapeake and it is a must also. After you read the first one it's nice to check out his museum. In his books he has such an interest in people, he finds something interesting in anyone he seems to meet. Very enjoyable writer.

Earthy author.......2003-02-17

Dr. Turner writes with dry wit and intimate understanding of the beauty, complexity, and mystery of the Eastern Shore of VA.

Chesapeake Boyhood.......2000-03-03

With the recent purchase of a 1926 farmhouse on Hoopers Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore, I wanted to learn more about life on the Bay. My family and I hoped this book would shed light on perhaps a gentler time, with a return to "the basics." William Turner has written a wonderful account of his life growing up on the Chesapeake Bay in the 40's and '50s. The stories are entertaining, with laughs, as well as gasps, as well as tears. My sons, ages 10 and 6, beg me to retell his stories on our drives to our new Eastern Shore retreat home. From bear sightings to pig butchering to duck hunting adventures to sinking boats in the dead of winter, William Turner paints vivid images in our minds of life on the Chesapeake Bay during a time of neighborly help and family closeness. He is an artist, and shares his sketches in this book as well, which further brings home the true meaning of his stories. This is a treasure!

Memories Of World War II: A Mississippi Farm Boy's Story

Average customer rating:

Memories Of World War II: A Mississippi Farm Boy's Story
Kenneth Kyle Bailey
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Military & Spies | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Description

About the Book The book provides an account of the author's experiences in the army from October 1942 to September 1945, and, to a substantial extent, a narrative about the operations of the Army Air Force's 404th Fighter Group from the time of its activation early in 1943 to September 1945-the thirty-month interval during which he served in it as a nonflying enlisted man and noncommissioned officer. From April 1944 until V-E Day, the group operated successively from seven bases and strips in England, Normandy, elsewhere in France, in Belgium, and in Germany, with its pilots completing an aggregate of some 30,346 combat hours. For its war activities, it became the recipient of a U. S. Presidential Unit Citation and a Croix de guerre with palm bestowed by the President of France. Each member of the group was decorated with a Belgian fourragere. Of the some 1,000 individuals serving in the group, forty-three lost their lives during the months of combat, almost all of them pilots. Though deactivated in November 1945, the unit's survivors have retained ties through periodic reunions and through a newsletter entitled Poop Sheet, which continues to be issued several times a year.

Road, River, And Ol'boy Politics: A Texas Country's Path from Farm to Supersuburb

Average customer rating:

An impressively researched, superbly written and quite original perspective of the complete history of the state Texas
AN IMPORTANT ADDITION TO TEXAS HISTORY

Road, River, And Ol'boy Politics: A Texas Country's Path from Farm to Supersuburb
Linda Scarbrough
Manufacturer: Texas State Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0876112025

Book Description

In 1946, Williamson County, Texas, was profoundly rural. Reflecting the Democratic Party represented in Congress by Lyndon Baines Johnson, the county was based on an isolated agricultural economy and contained a rich brew of ethnic groups and cultures. Half a century later, Williamson County was one of the five fastest growing counties in the United States, a staunchly Republican homogeneous supersuburb north of Austin whose economy depended on the global market for computers and other high-technology products. How did this radical transformation occur?

It came about largely through the machinations of a handful of local political and economic "bosses" who brought to Williamson County two great federal public works projects: Interstate Highway 35 and a dam on the tiny San Gabriel River. Those projects swept away the farmers and ranchers whose way of life had defined the county for 100 years and triggered explosive population growth. In Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics, Linda Scarbrough tells a cautionary tale about the difficulties of anticipating ripple effects from large-scale public works "solutions" and of adequately planning for their environmental, economic, and cultural consequences. It is a central Texas tale that is pertinent in all of America's "oasis" cities across the dry Sun Belt, a repeating story that has come to define American patterns of suburban development.

In her examination of the roots of the transformation of traditional agricultural land in an American county into modern suburbia, Scarbrough identifies three essential ingredients that are necessary for dynamic growth: the promise of a new source of water, the promise of a new major highway, and a politically skillful and determined local leader. Without these three key ingredients, the kind of growth that has occurred outside Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City is not likely to happen.

This book analyzes the spectacular growth and radical transformationof one American county in the last half of the twentieth century in the same way that Robert Caro's The Power Broker parsed the development of New York City and Long Island, New York, by looking at the public works projects of Robert Moses and how they set the stage for New York's economic domination over the eastern United States. The chief difference is that in Williamson County, Texas, no Robert Moses existed; instead, there were several "little Moses" characters who profoundly altered this agricultural outpost outside Austin through the public works they brought to fruition.

Customer Reviews:

An impressively researched, superbly written and quite original perspective of the complete history of the state Texas.......2006-03-07

Road, River, And Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas Country's Path From Farm To Supersuburb by Linda Scarbrough is an impressively researched, superbly written and quite original perspective of the complete history of the state Texas. Scarbrough's depiction of Texas' history is outstanding for its individuality and historical documentation in that its approach is of a philosophical outlook more oriented to the political reasoning for Texas' development. A highly notable and strongly recommended read, Road, River, And Ol' Boy Politics is an excellent read for historians of American history in general and students of Texas history in particular.

AN IMPORTANT ADDITION TO TEXAS HISTORY.......2005-10-25

Some lines from the introduction to "Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics" concisely relate author Scarbrough's thesis: " The story of Williamson County's metamorphosis from agrarian backwater to suburban juggernaut reveals a pattern of how several of America's most successful agricultural counties became supersuburbs over the last half of the twentieth century. The twin pillars of this growth surge, most notably in the Dry Sun Belt, were dams and interstate highways funded by the federal government.....Who decided where to put these massive projects and why?..."

While this is the story of the transformation of one American county, Williamson, County, Texas, it is indicative of what has occurred across our nation. Yes, times they are achangin', and to read about how some of it happened is fascinating.

The author identifies three essential ingredients which are necessary for dynamic growth: a new water source, a new major highway, and "a politically skillful and determined leader." In Texas, these men are simply called good ol' boys. If you wish to dispute Scarbrough's premise just take a look at the booming areas outside of Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City.

Scarbrough is publisher of the Williamson County Sun in Georgetown, Texas. With advanced degrees in American Civilization from the University of Texas, she knows her subject well. She was among the first to write about environmental issues for the New York Daily News, and when she returned to Texas in 1978 she continued to discuss that subject on the pages of her family newspaper.

"Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics" is replete with illustrations, maps, bibliography, and index. It's an important addition to the archives of Texas history, and that of our country as well.

- Gail Cooke

Average customer rating:

Aunt Cora's bad boy
Marcelle (Mason) Birta
Manufacturer: Marcelle (Mason) Birta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Charlie's Days: Recollections of a One-time Farm Boy - How It Was on the Orange-Sullivan Border Back in the l920s and 1930s

Average customer rating:

Charlie's Days: Recollections of a One-time Farm Boy - How It Was on the Orange-Sullivan Border Back in the l920s and 1930s
Charlie Crist
Manufacturer: Catskill-Delaware Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0915681005

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books