America, 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, the Invention of the Model T, and the Making of a Modern Nation

the 2005 Ashes Series Was The Most Eagerly Anticipated For Decades. Not Since 1989 Had The Famous Urn Left The Hands Of The All-conquering Australians, And With England In The Ascendant After A String Of Test Successes, Hopes Were High That The Balance Of Power Inworld Cricket Would At Last Shift.

the Series Did Not Disappoint. From The Rip-roaring First Day At Lord's, With Seventeen Wickets Falling, It Was Clear We Were In For Something Special. Although The Visitors Went Onto Win That Match England Bounced Back With A Spectacular Win At Edgbaston, And Further Nailbiting Finishes Followed At Old Trafford, Trent Bridge And The Oval. In This Sparkling Account Of An Amazing Summer, England's Coach Duncan Fletcher Reveals The Strategies, The Stresses And Successes Of One Of The Greatest Series In The History Of The Game.

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former vanity Faircontributing Editor Rasenberger (high Steel) Provides An Entertaining Survey Of 366 Distant American Days (1908 Was A Leap Year). As The Author Admits, History Does Not Fit Neatly Into 12-month Segments, And Rasenberger Frequently Has To Reach For Benchmarks. Yes, During 1908, Henry Ford Introduced The Model-t: The First Affordable Automobile. However, He'd Actually Invented The Horseless Buggy Years Before. These Quibbles Aside, What A Difference A Century Makes, And How Easy The Confidence Of 1908 Looks By Contrast With Today. The Imperially Ambitious Theodore Roosevelt Was President, And The World Seemed Ripe For Redemption Through American Innovation, Exploration And Colonization. All Righteous Patriots Applauded As Tr Dispatched His Great White Fleet On A Friendship Cruise Round The World, To Show Off American Might. Yet, As Rasenberger Shows, A Different Reality Lurked Behind The Red, White And Blue Banners. That Same Year, Anarchist Selig Silverstein Exploded A Bomb In New York City, And Throughout The South Blacks Died At The Ends Of Nooses Hoisted By Lynch Mobs. Rasenberger Renders 1908 As A Series Of Snapshots, And His Camera Never Blinks. 44 B&w Illus. (nov.)

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