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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
The Erie Canal: Well-written Factual HistoryOverall, a good book. Readers should note that this book, despite the publish date of 2016, was actually first published in 1964 by American Heritage Press, and Mr. Andrist had published other historical books before passing away in 2004. I researched this because I was curious about some of the dated expressions the author used.These expressions, however, did not take away from the book. It is crammed full of facts concerning the planning, building, years of use, and eventual decay of the Erie Canal and other canals built in the United States, and readers will learn the basic story as well as many of the interesting tidbits of info concerning this era in American history.I personally enjoyed the back third of the book. For some reason, Mr. Andrist crammed fact after fact in the first two-thirds of the book, telling the story of the conception and building of the Erie Canal while leaving out much of the human element. This made for some dry reading. The last third of the book includes many personal stories of those who worked or traveled on the canal, which was much more engaging. Equally interesting were the descriptions of how different villages were affected (some of which grew up to be large cities).Bottom Line: If you know nothing or little about the Erie Canal, this is an excellent book. You will learn about the major players involved as well as how the Erie Canal affected the growth of America.