{"title":"Richard Snow","description":"Richard Snow spent nearly four decades at American Heritage magazine, serving as editor in chief for seventeen years, and has been a consultant on historical motion pictures, among them Glory, and has written for documentaries, including the Burns brothers' Civil War, and Ric Burns's award-winning PBS film Coney Island, whose screenplay he wrote. He is the author of multiple books, including, most recently, Disney's Land.","products":[{"product_id":"i-invented-the-modern-age-the-rise-of-henry-ford-paperback","title":"I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fresh, meticulous, and entertaining account of Henry Ford, the Model-T, and the invention of the American car industry in the early twentieth century that \"will make you rethink the man whose legacy sits in your garage\" (\u003ci\u003eParade\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow, who \"writes with verve and a keen eye\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e), comes a fresh and entertaining account of Henry Ford and his invention of the Model T--the ugly, cranky, invincible machine that defined twentieth-century America.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEvery century or so, our republic has been remade by a new technology: 170 years ago the railroad changed Americans' conception of space and time; in our era, the microprocessor revolutionized how humans communicate. But in the early twentieth century the agent of creative destruction was the gasoline engine, as put to work by an unknown and relentlessly industrious young man named Henry Ford. Born the same year as the battle of Gettysburg, Ford died two years after the atomic bombs fell, and his life personified the tremendous technological changes achieved in that span. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGrowing up as a Michigan farm boy with a bone-deep loathing of farming, Ford intuitively saw the advantages of internal combustion. Resourceful and fearless, he built his first gasoline engine out of scavenged industrial scraps. It was the size of a sewing machine. From there, scene by scene, Richard Snow vividly shows Ford using his innate mechanical abilities, hard work, and radical imagination as he transformed American industry. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn many ways, of course, Ford's story is well known; in many more ways, it is not. Richard Snow masterfully weaves together a fascinating narrative of Ford's rise to fame through his greatest invention, the Model T. When Ford first unveiled this car, it took twelve and a half hours to build one. A little more than a decade later, it took exactly one minute. In making his car so quickly and so cheaply that his own workers could easily afford it, Ford created the cycle of consumerism that we still inhabit. Our country changed in a mere decade, and Ford became a national hero. But then he soured, and the benevolent side of his character went into an ever-deepening eclipse, even as the America he had remade evolved beyond all imagining into a global power capable of producing on a vast scale not only cars, but airplanes, ships, machinery, and an infinity of household devices. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA highly pleasurable read, filled with scenes and incidents from Ford's life, particularly during the intense phase of his secretive competition with other early car manufacturers, \u003ci\u003eI Invented the Modern Age \u003c\/i\u003eshows Richard Snow at the height of his powers as a popular historian and reclaims from history Henry Ford, the remarkable man who, indeed, invented the modern world as we know it.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367064568031,"sku":"9781451645583","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/FU_uGwDFLH9781451645583.webp?v=1789102294"},{"product_id":"iron-dawn-the-monitor-the-merrimack-and-the-civil-war-sea-battle-that-changed-history-paperback","title":"Iron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle That Changed History - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An utterly absorbing account of one of history's most momentous battles\" (\u003ci\u003eForbes\u003c\/i\u003e) that not only changed the Civil War but the future of all sea power--from acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow, who \"writes with verve and a keen eye\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNo single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, took a radical step to combat the Union blockade, building an iron fort containing ten heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the \u003ci\u003eMerrimack\u003c\/i\u003e. The North got word of the project, and, in panicky desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the \u003ci\u003eMonitor\u003c\/i\u003e, an entirely revolutionary iron warship. Rushed through to completion in just one hundred days, it mounted only two guns, but they were housed in a shot-proof revolving turret. The ship hurried south from Brooklyn, only to arrive to find the \u003ci\u003eMerrimack \u003c\/i\u003ehad already sunk half the Union fleet--and would be back to finish the job. When she returned, the \u003ci\u003eMonitor \u003c\/i\u003ewas there. She fought the \u003ci\u003eMerrimack\u003c\/i\u003e to a standstill, and, many believe, saved the Union cause. As soon as word of the fight spread, Great Britain--the foremost sea power of the day--ceased work on all wooden ships. A thousand-year-old tradition ended and the naval future opened. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Richly illustrated with photos, maps, and engravings, \u003ci\u003eIron Dawn\u003c\/i\u003e \"renders all previous accounts of the encounter between the \u003ci\u003eMonitor\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eMerrimack\u003c\/i\u003e as obsolete as wooden war ships\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Dallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e). Richard Snow brings to vivid life the tensions of the time in this \"lively tale of science, war, and clashing personalities\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367078428895,"sku":"9781476794198","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/RiFY6zXm6k9781476794198.webp?v=1789102320"},{"product_id":"disneys-land-walt-disney-and-the-invention-of-the-amusement-park-that-changed-the-world-paperback","title":"Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eA propulsive and \"entertaining\" (The Wall Street Journal) history chronicling the conception and creation of the iconic Disneyland theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow.One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people \"could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.\" Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company's finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin. But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates...and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney's Land, \"Snow brings a historian's eye and a child's delight, not to mention superb writing, to the telling of this fascinating narrative\" (Ken Burns) that \"will entertain Disneyphiles and readers of popular American history\" (Publishers Weekly).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367981973727,"sku":"9781501190810","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/aaytMsa9jP9781501190810.webp?v=1789117009"},{"product_id":"sailing-the-graveyard-sea-the-deathly-voyage-of-the-somers-the-u-s-navys-only-mutiny-and-the-trial-that-gripped-the-nation-paperback","title":"Sailing the Graveyard Sea: The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \"compelling\" (\u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e) account of the only mutiny in the history of the United States Navy--a little-known but once notorious event that cost three young men their lives--part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, and as propulsive and dramatic as the bestselling novels of Patrick O'Brian.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOn December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war \u003ci\u003eSomers\u003c\/i\u003e dropped anchor in the New York Harbor at the end of a voyage intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this routine exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie came ashore claiming he had prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had already been hanged at sea: Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell, Seaman Elisha Small, and Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, whose father was the secretary of war, John Spencer. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEighteen-year-old Philip Spencer, according to his commander, had been the ringleader who encouraged the crew to seize the ship and become pirates so that they might rape and pillage their way through the northern coast of South America and the Caribbean. While the young man might have been fascinated by stories of pirates, it soon became clear the order that condemned the three men had no legal basis. And, worse, it appeared possible that no mutiny had actually occurred, and that the ship might instead have been seized by a creeping hysteria that ended in the sacrifice of three innocents. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMonths of accusations and counteraccusations were followed by a highly public court-martial that put Mackenzie on trial for his life, and a storm of anti-Navy sentiment drew the attention of such leading writers of the day as Herman Melville and James Fenimore Cooper. But some good did come out of it: public disgust with Mackenzie's hapless \"training\" gave birth to Annapolis, the distinguished naval academ that within a century would produce the mightiest navy the world had ever known. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVividly told and filled with tense shown directly in court-martial transcripts, Richard Snow's masterly account of this all-but-forgotten episode is \"a hell of a yarn\" (\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e) and naval history at its finest.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368274591967,"sku":"9781982185459","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/pc_yUuKoBh9781982185459.webp?v=1789125161"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/richard-snow.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}