Professional Tourguiding Blog

LAST CALL: Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Daniel Okrent, New York: Scribner, 2010, pps. 468
10/1/2010

On January 20, 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of American took effect, beginning Prohibition, that is, laws preventing the sale, shipment, and distribution of alcohol beverages in the U.S.A. It was no sudden impulse of Congress and the states, but came after eighty years of agitation, mega personalities and political posturing. Daniel Okrent seeks to explain the build up to the era, passage of the Amendment, the publics activities in the age of Prohibition, the ultimate repeal of the law by the Twenty-first Amendment, and the final outcomes. (more…)

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The Singular Mark Twain, Fred Kaplan, Random Hse: NY, 2003, 726 pps.

Bill Norris’ notes 9/14/04

Born 11/30/1835 Samuel Langhorn Clemens (hereafter Sam or MT) to John Marshall Clemens & Jane Langhorn Clemens. He assumed “Mark Twain” as a pen name while in the West in 1863 (‘Claimed he stole the name from the corpse of an old Ms R steamboat captain!) He ranks with Freud, Lincoln, Napoleon, Dickens and Marx as a “cultural signifier” evoking memories of the 19^th Century. P. 3 (more…)

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BOOK NOTES by Bill Norris – Feb 2010
 
Cook, Don, THE LONG FUSE: How England Lost the American Colonies 1760-1785. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995. 416 pps.
 
The British Empire rose to its apogee in 1763 with the signing of the peace treaty in Paris, ending the Seven Years War. France and Spain had been defeated and their lands in the new world were lost. England’s empire stretched from Canada to the Caribbean to Africa to the Mediterranean to India and the Orient. Twenty-five thousand Americans had fought alongside the British. America was secure from any threats of foreign invasions with France and Spain vanquished. America’s population grew to a million and a half. Philadelphia was second in population only to London.
 
King George III was crowned at age twenty-two. He ruled sternly while surrounding himself poor diplomats and ministers. The all powerful nation could do no wrong, so they thought. Later, researchers concluded that he suffered from porphyria, a debilitating disease that finally attacks the brain. He first suffered an attack in 1765 the year of the Stamp Act. By the War of 1812 he was confined to Winsor Castle for the remainder of his years. The Seven Years War and George III’s obstinate reign lit the long fuse that ignited a revolution. (more…)

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