prone to enthusiasms….
The title speaks for itself. I’m very much a Michigan patriot.
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This book is “based on” Liesch’s Masters Thesis at UW-Madison, so (as you’d expect) he knows his material. Occasionally the thesis peeks through, but in the main the book is a well-selected set of photographs documenting the boom and bust life of the mining district.
Filed under
Bookworm Alley
History Scrapbook
Mitten State
Posted on
April 13th 2009
MSU/Detroit College of Law prof Brian Kalt explores the politics of the creation of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the 1960s. This is a well-researched and well-argued book on a subject dear to my heart. While he’s not a stylish writer, the book’s well worth reading if you’re interested in Michigan’s Dunes park.
Filed under
Bookworm Alley
Mitten State
Posted on
November 10th 2008
Absolutely essential if you’re studying iron ore shipping on the great lakes, or iron mining along the shores of Lake Superior. This book contains a surprising, and wonderful, amount of information about individual mines, and about the companies which ran those mines.
Filed under
Bookworm Alley
History Scrapbook
Mitten State
Posted on
March 23rd 2008
Eber Brock Ward was Michigan’s most famous and most innovative Rich Man for much of the 19th century; his best comp
is certainly Henry Ford, who flourished about 75 years later. I don’t think anyone’s written a full-blown biography of Ward, but there are pieces of him all over my library.
Filed under
History Scrapbook
Mitten State
Posted on
November 28th 2007
The entire nation had the Railroad Fever in 1869. Michigan was nursing two outbreaks: Promoters were raising money to build a more direct line (an “air line”) between Detroit and Chicago which would roughly follow the route of the Chicago Road, and actual construction was occurring for a line connecting Jackson and Grand Rapids. Both remain interesting, for different reasons.
Filed under
Along the Rail Line
Dear Old Macalester
History Scrapbook
Mitten State
Posted on
October 17th 2007
In June of every year the Corps of Engineers holds an open house at the Soo Locks, and thousands of fans show up to explore the grounds, view the passing ships from an unusual perspective, and look over the exhibits. Yesterday was that day, and Joan and I were among the crowd. Here we see some of the visitors crossing the massive gate which holds back Lake Superior at the the downriver end of the 105 foot wide Poe Lock.
Filed under
History Scrapbook
Mitten State
Posted on
June 25th 2005
This pretty pergola is my favorite picture from last week’s outing; the play of light on the trellis worked very well. If the rest of the fence at Old Mission Light was this attractive, folks would stop complaining about it….
Filed under
Mitten State
Picture Show
Posted on
March 7th 2005
While I really dislike the short term limits we’ve put on the legislature, I don’t see this connection. Methought one purpose of the term limits was to reduce the proportion of career politicians in office, thus reducing those officials’ institutional commitments and freeing up the creative juices. That objective was certainly worthwhile, and ought to still apply.
Filed under
Mitten State
Politickin'
Posted on
July 28th 2004
Lowell’s tribute to Tiger Stadium is a wonderful thing. Read it, and read all the Detour panels about the stadium. Read it even if you hate baseball, and despised the old ballyard. This is love, and it’s something beautiful.
Filed under Mitten State Posted on July 27th 2004
American government is designed to accomodate disagreement, though the tension often makes folks uncomfortable. What we need, sometime soon, is a civil discussion about what Michigan’s government is for, how we get to that point, and what tax structure we need to support that effort. The (less-than-complete) success of the Michigan budget efforts demonstrates that it’s not necessary to continue talking past each other just because we’ve been doing so in the past. Discussion isn’t helped when each side caricatures the other’s positions. The habit many have of simplifying and dismissing the other party’s position is really poisonous to the civil culture. It’s time we stopped, and started finding solutions.
Filed under
Mitten State
Politickin'
Posted on
June 29th 2004
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