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The Good Years: From 1900 to the First World War.
The Good Years From 1900 to the First World War Author:Walter, Lord This is a book about the years from the turn of the century to the First World War, when for a span of time that was never going to end, Americans enjoyed the best of all possible worlds. — Walter Lord, who combines a love of great events with a passion for the people who lived through then, brings to life the big moments of this era. You will fi... more »ght the Boxer Rebellion with an American missionary of amazing military talent. You will see McKinley shot and be convinced that everything will be all right-that he will recover; watch Theodore Roosevelt go trust-busting; visit that stifling armory the night men went wild for Woodrow Wilson. You will tour the world with the Great White Fleet; battle the flames of San Francisco that day when Caruso, Wiliam James, John Barrymore, and Jack London were among those present; race with Peary to the Pole, and parade with the suffragettes down Fifth Avenue. You will see how Pierpont Morgan handled a Wall Street panic; and you will meet remarkable forgotten figures (who today remembers Harry Orchard?).
It was tine of triumph-the Titanic. Day of opulence-a $200,000 ball; and poverty-a child in a cotton mill, earning $3.45 a week. But through it all ran an exciting thread of boundless confidence and hope. No one ever accused these people of national apathy. It is this spirit of tingling optimism, along with the pageant of great events, that makes this book such a rewarding reading.
In gathering his material Mr. Lord has pored over letters, diaries, unpublished reminiscences, even Pinkerton reports, filled with fascinating, hitherto unknown detail. He had traveled thousands of miles, interviewed the people who were there. They are old now, living quietly, well out of the limelight. But they are not sorry. They feel they have had the greatest experiences anyone could ever have; they knew and enjoyed the years when there was no limit to what we could do and would do.« less