From the straight boulevards that smashed their way through rambling old Paris to create the city we know today to the televised implosion of Las Vegas casinos to make room for America’s ever grander desert of dreams; demolition has long played an ambiguous role in our lives. In lively; colorful prose; Rubble rides the wrecking ball through key episodes in the world of demolition. Stretching over more than five hundred years of razing and toppling; this story looks back to London’s Great Fire of 1666; where self-deputized wreckers artfully blew houses apart with barrels of gunpowder to halt the furious blaze; and spotlights the advent of dynamite—courtesy of demolition’s patron saint; Alfred Nobel—that would later fuel epochal feats of unbuilding such as the implosion of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis.Rubble also delves beyond these bravura blasts to survey the world-jarring invention of the wrecking ball; the oddly stirring ruin of New York’s old Pennsylvania Station; that potent symbol of the wrecker run amok; and the ever busy bulldozers in places as diverse as Detroit; Berlin; and the British countryside. Rich with stories of demolition’s quirky impresarios—including Mark Loizeaux; the world-famous engineer of destruction who brought Seattle’s Kingdome to the ground in mere seconds—this account makes first-hand forays to implosion sites and digs extensively into wrecking’s little-known historical record.Rubble is also an exploration of what happens when buildings fall; when monuments topple into memory; and when “destructive creativity†tears down to build again. It unearths the world of demolition for the first time and; along the way; throws a penetrating light on the role that destruction must play in our lives as a necessary prelude to renewal. Told with arresting detail and energy; this tale goes to the heart of the scientific; social; economic; and personal meaning of how we unbuild our world.Rubble is the first-ever biography of the wrecking trade; a riveting; character-filled narrative of how the black art of demolition grew to become a multibillion-dollar business; an extreme spectator sport; and a touchstone for what we value; what we disdain; who we were; and what we wish to become.From the Hardcover edition.
#159460 in eBooks 2007-12-18 2007-12-18File Name: B000XUBBSC
Review
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. A seminal biography but needlessly incompleteBy Michael HoffmanI had to struggle when it came to awarding "Will You Miss Me When Im Gone" four stars or three. I chose four because if it werent for Zwonitzer and Hirshberg we would know far less about the Carters. Their contribution to knowledge in this field is signal and I take nothing away from what they accomplished. It would be a truism to repeat what other reviewers have already said ("Love American music? Read this book!"). The writing is brisk and the readers interest is maintained to the end.So what is the problem? Perhaps because the authors have done half their job so well; the missing half is glaring. Its usually a compliment to say that the writing left you wishing for more; but here its excruciating; because Zwonitzer and Hirshberg could have given us more and did not. Because this book helps us to appreciate the Carters; we want to know all you can about them. When you realize that at least some of the gaps could have been filled in by the authors; its frustrating.Whats missing? 1. A timeline. With three main characters and numerous descendants a timeline is indispensable for following the action intelligently. Who was born when and to whom? When were they married and where? How old were they when they died? 2. An epilogue. Half way through the book the focus shifts from the three principals; Alvin Pleasant ("A.P.") Carter; his wife; Sara Dougherty; and her first cousin Maybelle Addington; wife of A.P.s brother; Ezra J. ("Eck") Carter -- to their children; especially Maybelles three talented daughters; the famous June Carter Cash and the lesser known Anita and Helen. In the last half of the book their story almost comes to predominate; which is fine; but upon the death of Sara; the book stops; like a locomotive that has fallen off a bridge; and the story of the descendants is abruptly and frustratingly halted. A two page epilogue telling us what happened to Maybelles three daughters and their children; Saras children and her second husband Coy; and how fares the Carter Family Museum and their legacy; is the least the authors could have done after building our interest. 3. There are numerous rare photos without dates. They should be dated; even approximately. 4. While its probably asking too much; a genealogical chart would have been a helpful supplement to the rather dizzying chronicle provided in the text. The book takes a leisurely detour to delve into the minutiae of the life of a quack doctor; John Romulus Brinkley; who sponsored the Carters on his powerful radio station across the Mexican border from Texas. The Brinkley excursion could have been shortened to make room for the preceding missing elements.Were told Saras age when she died (80); but not Maybelles age at her death. Were informed at one point that June has $37;000 in cash in her wallet. Shortly thereafter we see her Country Music icon mother Maybelle; toiling on the night shift as a practical nurse for $12 an hour! Why? Was it because Maybelle was extremely frugal; or was she nearly broke at this juncture? The authors dont tell us. They never give a hint that there is a breach between Maybelle and Sara but they gloss over the fact that Sara apparently did not attend Maybelles funeral (p. 392). We also are not told why Sara; who divorced A.P. in her passion for Coy; and took up a new life near Stockton; California; asked to be buried close to A.P. back in Maces Springs; Virginia; against the wishes of her second husband (p. 395).The subtitle of this Carter family biography is: "Their Legacy in American Music." But Zwonitzer and Hirshberg never ruminate on what exactly that legacy consists. They track the waning and eventual permanent waxing of the Carters influence with admirable narrative skill and solid research. But the authors never pause to offer the kind of musicological retrospective suggested by the books subtitle. The reader is left to surmise that Grand Ole Opry + Johnny Cash +Newport Folk Festival + the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band = something or other; admittedly momentous; but the authors shy away from ever saying precisely what that is. They never truly assess the Carters legacy; leaving it to the reader to glean from all the details just what precisely it was and is.Any competent writer who comes to craft the story of the Carters is going to pen a haunting tale; and from the early music itself with its litany of heartbreak and tragic death; moderated by invocations to "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life;" to the artists; this is a compelling and deeply moving story. Maybelle Carter is the familys lay saint; imbued with what the authors term the "forgiving progressivism" of her Primitive Baptist upbringing. A.P. Carter is the song-writing prodigy; afflicted nearly from birth with a tremor in his arm that would be a harbinger of the extent to which his tunes would shake 20th century America with a roots music it had nearly abandoned. He was the architect of the Carter sound and yet another devout Christian imbued with a fundamental decency - his was the first major country group to have the lead vocals sung by a woman; a controversial move made good by the powerful voice of his formidable wife Sara; a strong-willed; proto-feminist.What struck me the most about the Carters was their lack of pride and ego. They were ambitious; certainly; and reveled in hard work; grueling tour schedules and living conditions that would challenge all but the toughest of hardscrabble wannabe recording artists today. Yet they came from an era that predated the cult of celebrity and never bought into it for themselves or other stars. Midway through the book; Zwonitzer and Hirshberg spring a delightful surprise on the reader. All of a sudden; beginning in the 1940s; we find the Carters nose to nose with some of the centurys greatest music legends. Hank Williams Sr. is a love sick puppy in the presence of Maybelles singing daughter Anita; gifted with one of the finest voices in all of popular music. Williams; tormented by his unfaithful wife Audrey; constantly half-drunk or high on pills (he narrowly misses June with a pistol shot during one of his benders); is nursed and mothered by Maybelle and her girls. They treat him just as if he was a farm boy from across the road. Williams is only the first of a parade of superstars who will seek the comfort of their hearth. After Williams died of an overdose; a frightened and tearful singing Adonis by the name of Elvis Presley shared their home; and like Hank; sought the hand of Anita Carter. Maybelle; Eck and her daughters treated Elvis like the lost country boy he was in 1955. There is no sign they were awed by him or sought to hop on what was obviously going to be the gravy train of the decade. When Anita said no to Presley and the Colonel beckoned; it was Johnny Cashs turn to enter their lives and be nursed off the pills and the booze. He was a successful suitor; winning the love of the soon to be twice-divorced June; and from then on he proved as good a friend as any of the Carters could want. Besides June; Maybelle and her husband Eck were the main recipients of the rewards of the relationship with Cash.Maybelle was really something. She was a good mom and a fine cook who could handle an automobile like a NASCAR racer (for years she was the main driver while the Carters toured the nation); a shrewd and avid card-player; and a faithful wife to her eccentric; bibliophile-husband Eck; a student of Edward Gibbon and Josephus and a lover of Bach and Beethoven. Moreover; the Carters remained open to strangers all of their lives. In fact; some of their closest; lifelong friends were just regular folk they had met in stores or on the street. Throughout their lives they rejected celebrity and snobbery and made themselves available to "ordinary" people with an astonishing degree of access and hospitality.Sarah; after years of separation from A.P. and pining after her estranged lover; the handsome; fun-loving Coy; married him and moved to the far west; where initially the fire of their ardor sufficed to compensate for the distance from her children and the final dissolution of the original Carter Family trio. But as the years passed; Coy; a maintenance man; took to drinking; and the trailer the couple inhabited in straitened circumstances began to stifle. In old age; Sara confided to a friend that marrying Coy had been "the worst mistake of my life." A.P. meanwhile; roamed the hills and railroad tracks of his native mountain Virginia. He never stopped loving Sara; believing she would return to him one day. He ran a grocery store and owned land; but the store was seldom open and he was surely distracted and troubled in mind by the departure of his wife.We are told that the Carters were very private people and left few letters or extended revelations of what they thought about their music or each other. No doubt an enterprising investigative writer will mine more from their story than is found in "Will You Miss Me When Im Gone." The peregrination of the Carters coincided with the 20th century change-of-era time; a headlong rush into modernity that left much of what had made America what it was; from passenger trains to old time music; on the junk heap of history. The Carters; along with others of similar background; were the carriers of ancient voices and tried and true traditions; and while their lives were to some extent warped by the enormous deterioration the country experienced in the 1960s and 70s; in the end they proved themselves worthy of the legacy they were fated to keep alive for posterity.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Overall; a well told story.By rogs stuffI am not yet finished with the book; but I am enjoying it immensely. My review may be a little biased as I have had the pleasure of meeting Janette personally at The Carter Fold. We had gotten to the Fold early on a Saturday afternoon and Janette personally greeted us and invited us to visit the museum next door. That evening we watched Janette (and Joe) perform. Joe put on a comedy routine. At that time Gladys was still alive and helped with the show. We went back to the Carter Fold a year or two later and I swear that Jeanette remembered us!Another reviewer has stated that there are mistakes in this book. There really isnt any excuse for mistaking Johnny Cash for Carl Smith. As for other mistakes; one needs to remember that not everyone keeps diaries and a lot of time has elapsed since the Carters hit the music scene.This is probably the only book I will ever read where I have met those interviewed. That alone makes this book worth reading for me. And the added history of country music that is included adds to its worth. (The part dealing with Chet Atkins is a good example).Another book well worth reading is Sing A Sad Song; The Life Of Hank Williams.41 of 41 people found the following review helpful. A Book By Which Others Will Be MeasuredBy Foster CorbinThere is not a dull page in this 397 page account of The Carter Family. The writers manage to strike a happy medium between a scholarly treatise and a popular biography; something I find very appealing. In addition to being a biography of the Carters; the book also is a history of country music in the first half of the Twentieth Century roughly and a statement on rural Southern sociology of the time as well.The book is full of information that I suspect is told for the first time as well as trivia many of us knew but had forgotten: For example; there was a time when soft drinks were called "dopes" in East Tennessee. I had forgotten that and that my aunt wore Blue Waltz perfume. (There is a funny account of Maybelles breaking a bottle of this dreadful perfume she was using as a slide for her guitar in a recording session.) I laughed out loud to learn that Helen Carter; who could learn to play any instrument almost immediately; was having trouble with her first accordian. It took Pee Wee Kings telling her she was playing the instrument upside down to get her on the right track. The Original Carter Family was the first group to let the women lead as opposed to being backup singers. The less than admirable Ralph Peer of the recording industry coined the term "hillbilly" for the kind of music Carters and other country Southerners played in the early part of the 20th Century. There is a good account of A. P.s collecting mountain songs all over the South. That contribution alone would make him a giant in folk/country music. Finally we learn a great deal about both generations of this great family; from A. P.; Sarah and Maybelle to "Mama" Maybelle and her daughters. I was pleased to learn; for example; that Maybelle was as good and kind a person as she always seemed to be. (She even sat with sick people for part-time employment at one point in her later life when country music was in an eclipse.) There is a poignant contrast between what apparently was the long and happy marriage of Maybelle and A. P. Carters brother Eck and A. P. and Sarahs marriage that ended in divorce. Certainly there is nothing more heart wrenching than Sarahs dedicating a song over the radio (apparently in the presence of A. P.) to the man she married after her divorce. The song was "Im Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes." Coy Bays; the intended recipient; heard the song all the way in California and came to Texas for his woman. In the many years that A. P. lived alone thereafter; he never stopped loving Sara. She was preceded in death by him. Both of them are buried; however; only two rows from each other (even though Sara died in California and had been divorced from A. P. for many years) in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Maces Springs; Virginia with identical tombstones. Above their names and dates in beautiful pink marble are perfectly round 78 records and the words "Keep on the Sunny Side."This is a really fine book. Even folks not interested much in this sort of music should find it fascinating. It is the one by which later biographies of the Carters will be judged.