Download or read book Jock The Life and Times of John Hay Whitney written by E.J. Kahn, Jr. and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2021-07-22 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into one of America’s wealthiest and most distinguished families, John (“Jock”) Hay Whitney (1904-1982) spent his childhood in an Italian Renaissance town house on New York’s Fifth Avenue, in Westbury, Long Island and Greentree, South Carolina. Groton, the prestigious prep school, transformed the pudgy, awkward, stuttering young boy with a penchant for day-dreaming into an accomplished young man with direction, who went on to study at Yale and Oxford. Jock pursued a life dedicated to leadership, to using his money responsibly and wisely, and to cultivating diverse interests. He brought patrician quality and flair to an incredible array of worlds: to café society as a redoubtable playboy; to sports as a polo player who appeared on the cover of Time and as a stable owner who raced horses on a prodigious scale; to family life as the husband of two of the era’s great beauties, the second being Betsey Cushing Roosevelt, FDR’s favorite daughter-in-law; to Hollywood as the producer, with David O. Selznick, of “Gone With the Wind,” “A Star is Born,” and “Rebecca”; to Broadway as the backer of “Life with Father” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”; to the arts as a collector and as president and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; to World War II as a volunteer and as a German prisoner of war who made a dramatic escape from a moving train; to politics as an early supporter of Eisenhower and later as a close friend of the President; to diplomacy as ambassador to Great Britain from 1956 to 1961; to education as Yale’s Senior Fellow; to philanthropy as an innovator; to investing as founder, in 1946, of one of the earliest venture-capital firms; and to journalism as the publisher who battled valiantly to save the troubled New York Herald Tribune. “Mr. Kahn covers, apparently in full, the life of Mr. Whitney. It is by writing down the ascertainable that the picture of his personality — an intelligent, concerned man with a talent for bringing together those who are poles apart — emerges... Each sentence, with style and sophistication, pushes forward the narrative with an offering of new information, laced at times with witty comment. There are no unanswered questions... [A] wholly absorbing... story of an unusual life.” — Richard F. Shepard, New York Times “In relating Whitney’s always-interesting story and in setting it in the texture of the times, Kahn writes with awe. In fact, there are times when he is irreverent. That is all to the good, but his Whitney is a thoroughly credible person, a genuinely well-mannered and nice person, who has wanted to do well whatever he started out to accomplish. He’s a delight to meet.” — Alden Whitman, Boston Globe “Kahn’s New Yorker style, richly anecdotal and detailed... does justice to this highly likable millionaire sportsman, diplomat, newspaper publisher, stage and Hollywood angel and Maecenas, who played all these roles with zest and imagination... A delightful tribute to a man who ‘epitomized, in a world of increasing egalitarianism, the vanishing patrician.’” — Publishers Weekly

Download or read book The Embassy in Grosvenor Square written by Alison R. Holmes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-02 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the period 1938 to 2008, The Embassy in Grosvenor Square explores the role of the embassy in the Anglo-American 'special relationship', both in terms of transatlantic affairs and issues of international relations.

Download or read book Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City written by Wendell E. Pritchett and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From his role as Franklin Roosevelt’s “negro advisor” to his appointment under Lyndon Johnson as the first secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Clifton Weaver was one of the most influential domestic policy makers and civil rights advocates of the twentieth century. This volume, the first biography of the first African American to hold a cabinet position in the federal government, rescues from obscurity the story of a man whose legacy continues to affect American race relations and the cities in which they largely play out. Tracing Weaver’s career through the creation, expansion, and contraction of New Deal liberalism, Wendell E. Pritchett illuminates his instrumental role in the birth of almost every urban initiative of the period, from public housing and urban renewal to affirmative action and rent control. Beyond these policy achievements, Weaver also founded racial liberalism, a new approach to race relations that propelled him through a series of high-level positions in public and private agencies working to promote racial cooperation in American cities. But Pritchett shows that despite Weaver’s efforts to make race irrelevant, white and black Americans continued to call on him to mediate between the races—a position that grew increasingly untenable as Weaver remained caught between the white power structure to which he pledged his allegiance and the African Americans whose lives he devoted his career to improving.

Download or read book Skulls and Keys written by David Alan Richards and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mysterious, highly influential hidden world of Yale’s secret societies is revealed in a definitive and scholarly history. Secret societies have fundamentally shaped America’s cultural and political landscapes. In ways that are expected but never explicit, the bonds made through the most elite of secret societies have won members Pulitzer Prizes, governorships, and even presidencies. At the apex of these institutions stands Yale University and its rumored twenty-six secret societies. Tracing a history that has intrigued and enthralled for centuries, alluring the attention of such luminaries as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Skulls and Keys traces the history of Yale’s societies as they set the foundation for America’s future secret clubs and helped define the modern age of politics. But there is a progressive side to Yale’s secret societies that we rarely hear about, one that, in the cultural tumult of the nineteen-sixties, resulted in the election of people of color, women, and gay men, even in proportions beyond their percentages in the class. It’s a side that is often overlooked in favor of sensational legends of blood oaths and toe-curling conspiracies. Dave Richards, an alum of Yale, sheds some light on the lesser known stories of Yale’s secret societies. He takes us through the history from Phi Beta Kappa in the American Revolution (originally a social and drinking society) through Skull and Bones and its rivals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While there have been articles and books on some of those societies, there has never been a scholarly history of the system as a whole.

Download or read book Hemingway s Boat written by Paul Hendrickson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • National Bestseller • A brilliantly conceived and illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will forever change the way he is perceived and understood. "Hendrickson’s two strongest gifts—that compassion and his research and reporting prowess—combine to masterly effect.” —Arthur Phillips, The New York Times Book Review Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961—from Hemingway’s pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide—Paul Hendrickson traces the writer's exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, Pilar. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway's sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writer's boorishness, depression and alcoholism, and despite his choleric anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity—to struggling writers, to lost souls, to the dying son of a friend. Hemingway's Boat is both stunningly original and deeply gripping, an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this great American writer, published fifty years after his death.

Download or read book Museum Movies written by Haidee Wasson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2005-05-27 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1935, the foundation of the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York marked the transformation of the film medium from a passing amusement to an enduring art form. Haidee Wasson maps the work of the MoMA film library as it pioneered the preservation of film & promoted the concept of art cinema.

Download or read book Colonel Albert Pope and His American Dream Machines written by Stephen B. Goddard and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1890s Colonel Albert A. Pope was hailed as a leading American automaker. That his name is not a household word today is the very essence of his story. Pope's production methods as the world's largest manufacturer of bicycles led to the building of automobiles with lightweight metals, rubber tires, precision machining, interchangeable parts, and vertical integration. The founder of the Good Roads Movement, Pope entered automobile manufacturing while steam, electricity, and gasoline power were still vying for supremacy. The story of his failed dream of dominating U.S. automobile production is an engrossing view into America's industrial history.

Download or read book All the Great Prizes written by John Taliaferro and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A portrait of Lincoln's private secretary and the Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt traces his constant presence at Lincoln's side and his role in major historical events for more than half a century.

Download or read book Stardust Monuments written by Alison Trope and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2011 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood is placeless, timeless, and iconic, a key fabricator and forger of American cultural myths and stories. How, then, will the history of Hollywood be written?

Download or read book Capote s Women written by Laurence Leamer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-08-29 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DON’T MISS FX’s FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS—THE ORIGINAL SERIES BASED ON THE BESTSELLING BOOK—NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON HULU! New York Times bestselling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers—the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his "swans." "There are certain women," Truman Capote wrote, "who, though perhaps not born rich, are born to be rich." Barbara "Babe" Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Hayward, Pamela Churchill, C. Z. Guest, Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy's sister)—they were the toast of midcentury New York. Capote befriended them, received their deepest confidences, and ingratiated himself into their lives. Then, in one fell swoop, he betrayed them in the most surprising and shocking way possible. Bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer delves into the years following the acclaimed publication of Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1958 and In Cold Blood in 1966, when Capote struggled with a crippling case of writer's block. While enjoying all the fruits of his success, he was struck with an idea for what he was sure would be his most celebrated novel...one based on the remarkable, racy lives of his very, very rich friends. For years, Capote attempted to write what he believed would have been his magnum opus, Answered Prayers. But when he eventually published a few chapters in Esquire, the thinly fictionalized lives (and scandals) of his swans were laid bare for all to see, and he was banished from their high-society world forever. Laurence Leamer recreates the lives of these fascinating women, their friendships with Capote and one another, and the doomed quest to write what could have been one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Hollywood at the Races written by Alan Shuback and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An informative and amusing look at the close relationship between Golden Age Hollywood and West Coast horse racing. A fascinating read.” —Christina Rice, author of Mean . . . Moody . . . Magnificent! Horse racing was so popular and influential between 1930 and 1960 that nearly 150 racing themed films were released, including A Day at the Races, Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, and National Velvet. This fast-paced, gossipy history explores the relationship between the Hollywood film industry, the horse racing industry, and the extraordinary participation of producers, directors, and actors in the Sport of Kings. Alan Shuback details how all three of Southern California’s major racetracks were founded by Hollywood luminaries: Hal Roach was cofounder of Santa Anita Park, Bing Crosby founded Del Mar with help from Pat O’Brien, and Jack and Harry Warner founded Hollywood Park with help from dozens of people in the film community. The races also provided a social and sporting outlet for the film community—studios encouraged film stars to spend a day at the races, especially when a new film was being released. The stars’ presence at the track generated a bevy of attention from eager photographers and movie columnists, as well as free publicity for their new films. Moreover, Louis B. Mayer, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Betty Grable, and Don Ameche were all major Thoroughbred owners, while Mickey Rooney, Chico Marx, and John Huston were notorious for their unsuccessful forays to the betting windows. “The more entertaining vignettes pair the names of old-time screen stars with ribald tales of racetrack depravity.” —Thoroughbred Daily News

Download or read book Winthrop Rockefeller written by John A. Kirk and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2022-03-04 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did Winthrop Rockefeller, scion of one of the most powerful families in American history, leave New York for an Arkansas mountaintop in the 1950s? In this richly detailed biography of the former Arkansas governor, John A. Kirk delves into the historical record to fully unravel that mystery for the first time. Kirk pursues clues threaded throughout Rockefeller’s life, tracing his family background, childhood, and education; his rise in the oil industry from roustabout to junior executive; his military service in the Pacific during World War II, including his involvement in the battles of Guam, Leyte, and Okinawa; his postwar work in race relations, health, education, and philanthropy; his marriage to and divorce from Barbara “Bobo” Sears; and the birth of his only child, future Arkansas lieutenant governor Win Paul Rockefeller. This careful examination of Winthrop Rockefeller’s first forty-four years casts a powerful new light on his relationship with his adopted state, where his legacy continues to be felt more than half a century after his governorship.

Download or read book Patronizing the Public written by William J. Buxton and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2009-08-16 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patronizing the Public: American Philanthropy's Transformation of Culture, Communication, and the Humanities is the first detailed and comprehensive examination of how American philanthropic foundations have shaped numerous fields, including dance, drama, education, film, film-music, folklore, journalism, local history, museums, radio, television, as well as the performing arts and the humanities in general. Drawing on an impressive range of archival and secondary sources, the chapters in the volume give particular attention to the period from the late 1920s to the late 1970s, a crucial time for the development of philanthropic practice. To this end, it examines how patterns and directions of funding have been based on complex negotiations involving philanthropic family members, elite networks, foundation trustees and officers, cultural workers, academics, state officials, corporate interests, and the general public. By addressing both the contours of philanthropic power as well as the processes through which that power has been enacted, it is hoped that this collection will reinforce and amplify the critical study of philanthropy's history.

Download or read book Reflected Glory written by Sally Bedell Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman, based on over 800 interviews and archival research, charting her life from marriage to Churchill’s son, Randolph, through two further marriages to her eventual appointment as US Ambassador to France.

Download or read book From the American System to Mass Production 1800 1932 The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States written by David Hounshell and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2023-11-25 with total page 745 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In From the American System to Mass Production, David A. Hounshell has provided a detailed, thoughtful, and comprehensive examination of American industrial technology from the early 1800s through the 1930s. Lavishly illustrated with 19th-century prints and more recent photographs of factory interiors and industrial products, this important work traces the direct and indirect routes down the road toward modern American industrial civilization. For business and labor historians and for historians of American technology and industrialization, Hounshell’s book will fill many gaps in the history of the technical contours of modern industrial America... [the book] begins with an examination of the origins of the American system of manufactures in government and private arms production and then moves to the sewing machine, woodworking, agricultural equipment, bicycle, and automobile industries. It touches on the important inventors and innovators and describes their fundamental contributions in these American industries. Most of the principal figures and institutions are covered: Simeon North, Eli Whitney, Thomas Blanchard, John H. Hall, and Samuel Colt in armories, Eli Terry and Seth Thomas in the clockmaking industry, the Wheeler and Wilson, Willcox and Gibbs, and Singer sewing machine firms, the Singer woodworking plant, the McCormick Reaper works, the Columbia, Pope, and Western Wheel Works bicycle companies, and the Ford and General Motors automotive corporations... Hounshell’s work is a major contribution to the social history of technical innovators and their innovations... All in all, From the American System to Mass Production is an impressive work. In his documentation of the history of American industrial technology, Hounshell has demonstrated the slow evolution and the near-failure of large-scale, capital-intensive, and work-degrading industrial systems. Whereas other historians of technology have tended to tread too lightly on the social dimensions of technical change, Hounshell has provided an excellent social analysis of the networks of innovators and their role in the diffusion of armory practices and other industrial advances from industry to industry.” — Technology and Culture “Mr. Hounshell is an enthusiastic, lively writer, yet very careful scholar. He is cautious in his conclusions and candid about what is debatable. He offers several sides of every issue; he does not judge particular technologies as good or bad... What stands out in this history is how slowly what appears to be a sensible, productive and efficient system of manufacturing was adopted, chiefly because it required a change in the mind-set of managers, changes in skills and work habits of workers, and disciplined procedures and practices throughout the plants.” — New York Times Book Review “David Hounshell’s history of the evolution of American production methods has few rivals; in execution of the theme, it has none... Hounshell carefully documents the development, transfer, and modification of the technology of the manufacture of interchangeable parts from firm to firm and industry to industry... A series of excellent technical photographs and Hounshell’s own field trials support his argument.” — Science “[A] meticulous study of mass production’s roots and early flowering... An able researcher, [Hounshell] follows the trail of early manufacturing ideas and shows how they were gradually perfected and diffused throughout different industries before converging in Ford’s miracle at Highland Park.” — Wall Street Journal “[An] important study which offers a convincing reinterpretation of the development of mass production in the United States. [Hounshell] has combined substantial new archival research with a synthesis of the mass of new work completed by others in the past three decades.” — Journal of Economic History

Download or read book Bunny Mellon written by Meryl Gordon and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion. Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon's family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands of pages of her letters, diaries and appointment calendars and has interviewed more than 175 people to capture the spirit of this talented American original.

Download or read book The Cultural Cold War written by Frances Stonor Saunders and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Cold War, freedom of expression was vaunted as liberal democracy's most cherished possession—but such freedom was put in service of a hidden agenda. In The Cultural Cold War, Frances Stonor Saunders reveals the extraordinary efforts of a secret campaign in which some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom in the West were working for or subsidized by the CIA—whether they knew it or not. Called "the most comprehensive account yet of the [CIA's] activities between 1947 and 1967" by the New York Times, the book presents shocking evidence of the CIA's undercover program of cultural interventions in Western Europe and at home, drawing together declassified documents and exclusive interviews to expose the CIA's astonishing campaign to deploy the likes of Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Lowell, George Orwell, and Jackson Pollock as weapons in the Cold War. Translated into ten languages, this classic work—now with a new preface by the author—is "a real contribution to popular understanding of the postwar period" (The Wall Street Journal), and its story of covert cultural efforts to win hearts and minds continues to be relevant today.