Synopses & Reviews
When the more than 18 million visitors poured into the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco in 1915, they encountered a vision of the world born out of San Franciscoand#8217;s particular local political and social climate. By seeking to please various constituent groups ranging from the government of Japan to local labor unions and neighborhood associations, fair organizers generated heated debate and conflict about who and what represented San Francisco, California, and the United States at the worldand#8217;s fair. The PPIE encapsulated the social and political tensions and conflicts of preand#8211;World War I California and presaged the emergence of San Francisco as a cosmopolitan cultural and economic center of the Pacific Rim.
and#160;Empress San Francisco offers a fresh examination of this, one of the largest and most influential worldand#8217;s fairs, by considering the local social and political climate of Progressive Era San Francisco. Focusing on the influence exerted by women, Asians and Asian Americans, and working-class labor unions, among others, Abigail M. Markwyn offers a unique analysis both of this worldand#8217;s fair and the social construction of preand#8211;World War I America and the West.
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Review
and#8220;San Franciscoand#8217;s Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 was a signal event for imagining the Pacific Rim in the early years of the twentieth century. Markwynand#8217;s wonderful bookand#160;makes clear that the fair was also a defining moment for the political culture of San Francisco. Hers is a finely crafted analysis and a well-told story of a city-state in the making.and#8221;and#8212;Robert Rydell, author of All the Worldand#8217;s a Fair and World of Fairs
Review
and#8220;By taking a new look at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, Abigail Markwyn provides an important addition to the existing literature on worldand#8217;s fairs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her major contribution is to explore the ways in which San Franciscoand#8217;s ethnic, class, and gender groups developed their own counternarratives and, sometimes just by their presence, posed a challenge to the dominant views.and#8221;and#8212;Robert W. Cherny, author of American Politics in the Gilded Age, 1868and#8211;1900
Review
andldquo;Leonard Freedandrsquo;s photographs provide one of the best records of the geographic, racial and generational diversity of the marchers and the groups they represented. . . . These photographs unveil the intimate human connections that together produced one of the nationandrsquo;s most consequential events.andrdquo;andmdash;New York Times
Review
andldquo;Riveting. . . . Leonard Freed focused on the details: People arriving by buses and vans to join in the protest. Shots of the many volunteers preparing placards for distribution show the marchersandrsquo; determination. But then he pulls back to get some of the most stunning images in the book: wide-angle shots of an overflowing crowd yearning for freedom.andrdquo;andmdash;Chicago Tribune
Review
andldquo;A visual document showcasing the diversity of marchers who gathered that day.andrdquo;andmdash;CNN
Review
andldquo;Leonard Freedandrsquo;s work exposed the racial inequalities and tensions that plagued a growing nation. He captured the emotions of a group of people whose past were filled with struggles and futures were populated with great hope.andrdquo;andmdash;ABC News
Review
andldquo;This Is the Day is an important lens through which to relive one of the peak moments of the civil rights movement.andrdquo;andmdash;Washington Post
Review
andldquo;This handsome black-and-white collection of 79 photos showcases Magnum Photos photographer Leonard Freedandrsquo;s . . . deft eye for capturing important and emotional moments.andrdquo;andmdash;Publishers Weekly
Review
andldquo;Leonard Freedandrsquo;s statement that andlsquo;photography is an emotional thing, a graceful thingandrsquo; is most evident on these pages, where determined individuals of all colors, who were willing to literally stand up for equal rights for all, are aptly represented.andrdquo;andmdash;Choice
Review
andquot;This book offers a fresh consideration that focuses on the social and political climate of the Fair, and is essential to any study of early San Francisco in general and the PPIE in particular.andquot;andmdash;Midwest Book Review
Review
andquot;The beautifully illustrated Empress San Francisco is much more than a social and cultural history of the PPIE; it will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of urban history, U.S. imperialism and foreign policy, womenandrsquo;s history, labor history, and the study of race, ethnicity, and nationality in Progressive-era America.andquot;andmdash;Bonnie M. Miller, Western Historical Quarterly
Review
andquot;Empress San Francisco provides an impressive, little-known account of this important fair.andquot;andmdash;Charles Fracchia, Panorama
Review
andquot;This close study of a fleeting but significant event underscores the diversity, vitality, and complexity of not only a city on the cusp of the continent and the century, but also the foundation upon which it, and the nation itself, continues to wrestle with fundamental questions of the meaning of andquot;Americaandquot; and its place in the world today.andquot;andmdash;Sherry L. Smith, American Studies
Synopsis
This Is the Day: The March on Washington is a stirring photo-essay by photographer Leonard Freed documenting the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom of August 28, 1963, the historic day on which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his andldquo;I Have a Dreamandrdquo; speech at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. This book commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the historic march that ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.and#160;
Never before published in book form, the seventy-five photographs in this volume were chosen from among the hundreds of images that Freed made in the nationandrsquo;s capitolandmdash;before, during, and after the march. These images not only present us with stunning wide-angle views of hundreds of thousands of marchers overflowing the National Mall but also focus on small groups of people straining to see the speakers and on individual faces, each one filled with hope and yearning, epitomized by the beautiful young woman who throws her entire being into singing andquot;We Shall Overcome.andrdquo; In addition are eighteen pictures from the twentieth-anniversary march of August 1983, conveying a sense of celebration coupled with peaceful protest.
Accompanying the photographs are a first-hand, backstage account of the preparations leading up to the march by social activist and civil rights leader Julian Bond; anand#160;essay onand#160;the importance of the march and Dr. King's involvement by sociology professor and author Michael Eric Dyson; and an informative discussion of Freedandrsquo;s approach to the photographic project by scholar Paul Farber.
About the Author
Leonard Freed (American, 1929andndash;2006) was a pioneer in the genre of socially conscious photojournalism. Freedandrsquo;s photographs are represented in many public and private collections. His book Black in White America, first published in 1967/68, was reissued by Getty Publications in 2010. Julian Bond helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and is currently professor of history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and the author of sixteen books, including April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.andrsquo;s Death and How It Changed America (Basic Civitas Books, 2008). Paul Farber is currently completing his doctorate in American studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.