EDITORS’ BOOKSHELF

Editors’ Bookshelf

July 2026

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August/September 1986

15 years ago By admin

Volume

37

Issue

5

Among recently published books that fall within our bailiwick, the editors of American Heritage have selected some outstanding titles.

Franklin of Philadelphia Symbols of America Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century Edison’s Electric Light: Biography of an Invention Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape The Language of the American South

Stories published from "August/September 1986"

The Blighted Life of the Writer, Circa 1840

Authored by: Carol Sheppard

The urge to create literature was as strong in the mid-1800s as it is today, but rejections were brutal and the pay was even worse.

Indians on the Land

Authored by: William Cronon

Did the Indians have a special, almost noble, affinity with the American environment, or were they despoilers of it? Two historians of the environment explain the profound clash of cultures between Indians and whites that has made each group almost incomprehensible to the other.

The Fuller Brush Man

Authored by: Gerald Carson

Connoisseurs have long regarded him as the master of cold-turkey peddling. He’s been at it for 80 years.

A Fascination with the Common Place

Authored by: Walter Karp

The vast jumble of objects that once brought solace to an eccentric heiress has become a great museum of the middle class.

Gods of Pennsylvania Station

Authored by: Lorraine B. Diehl

A trackside album of celebrities from the days when the world went by train

“A Fair, Honorable, and Legitimate Trade”

Authored by: Frederic Delano Grant, Jr.

The opium trade is remembered as a British outrage: English merchants, protected by English bayonets, turning China into a nation of addicts. But Americans got rich from this traffic—among them, a young man named Warren Delano. He didn’t talk about it afterward, of course. And neither did his grandson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The Toughest Flying in the World

Authored by: Richard Rhodes

These World War II airmen had one of the most dangerous missions of all, piloting unarmed cargo planes over the Hump - the high and treacherous Himalayas.

The High Art of George Hadfield

Authored by: John Walker

Some of our finest public buildings were designed by a tormented young English architect whom the world has forgotten.

Positively the Last Word on Baseball

Authored by: Elting E. Morison

Forget football, basketball, and all the other sports that are artificially regulated by the clock. Only baseball can truly reveal our national character. Only baseball can light our path to the future.

The Big Picture of the Great Depression

Authored by: John A. Garraty

The crisis swept over France and Germany and Britain alike, and they all nearly foundered. Now more than ever, it is important to remember that it didn’t just happen here.

EDITORS’ BOOKSHELF

Editors’ Bookshelf

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