Uniforms of the NSDAP: Uniforms - Headgear - Insignia of the Nazi Party
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • excellent reference resource
Uniforms of the NSDAP: Uniforms - Headgear - Insignia of the Nazi Party
Jeff Clark
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0764325795

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars excellent reference resource.......2007-07-05

The photos are large and clear. The details are profuse. I used this as reference for a political illustration where pinpoint accuracy was paramount. This book filled the bill. I realize the applications for such a text are limited. However when you need the information you need it. I would recommend this book unequivocally to anyone who needs this specific information. It is informative and very well formatted.
Bt-Nazi Regalia
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • Causual Interest in Topic
  • In it's totality a decent book.
Bt-Nazi Regalia
JACK PIA
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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  1. SS Regalia SS Regalia
  2. Nazi Regalia Nazi Regalia

ASIN: 0345294483
Release Date: 1980-10-12

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Causual Interest in Topic.......2002-04-07

This book is obviously geared for the person that is really into this topic. For that point of view the book is average and there are better, more detailed volumes out there. If you are looking at this just as a curiosity or as a casual reader then it fits the bill. There are a large number of color photos / pictures that give you a taste for the look and feel but the quality of the pictures are not all that good. Personally I would have liked more detail but as a primer to the topic the book is antiquate.

3 out of 5 stars In it's totality a decent book........1998-06-12

I liked this book overall for a couple of reasons. The main one being in that there were an abundance of color pictures to accomodate thier extensive research. The book only about 100-125 pages is chock full of information regarding Nazi regalia and history and purpose. The few downfalls of the book were some of the following. The items pictured seemed like they were a small sampling of the items that were offered by the Third reich. They were shown in no real order without ryhme or reason. Another reason I was turned off by the book was that it showed some old photographs of that time period that were colorized (yuk) and were badly out of focus. They should have gone for pictures that may have been black and white but more in focus. Another problem was the artist rendering of the uniforms, they would have done much better if they acquired pictures of that time period (as stated above) or simply went without them all together. This book is not for the dedicated collector but is for the curious onlooker. It is worth the money and quite interesting despite it's downfalls.
In Nazi Uniform
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Interesting insight into the world at war and those that served the German Navy
In Nazi Uniform
Siegfried Born
Manufacturer: Ivy House Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 157197041X

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Interesting insight into the world at war and those that served the German Navy.......2006-06-05

Amazing story told by the man that lived it. I cannot remember what happened to me last month. Mr. Born gives us a very detailed account of his duties during the war. He was not a very good politician but managed to survive the hazards of war. A good read. I highly recommend it.

Gordan Van Alstine
Uniforms of the SS: volume 3, SS-Verfugungstruppe 1933-1939" (Uniforms of the SS, 3)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Uniforms of the SS: volume 3, SS-Verfugungstruppe 1933-1939" (Uniforms of the SS, 3)
    Andrew Mollo and Hugh Page Taylor
    Manufacturer: Historical Research Unit Publishing
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: B000NZ52HI

    Product Description

    A detailed and illustrated examination of World War II SS uniforms
    Antifaschisten in SS-Uniform: Schicksal und Widerstand der deutschen politischen KZ-Haftlinge, Zuchthaus- und Wehrmachtstrafgefangenen in der SS-Sonderformation ... Abbildungen und Dokumenten (DIZ-Schriften)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Antifaschisten in SS-Uniform: Schicksal und Widerstand der deutschen politischen KZ-Haftlinge, Zuchthaus- und Wehrmachtstrafgefangenen in der SS-Sonderformation ... Abbildungen und Dokumenten (DIZ-Schriften)
      Hans-Peter Klausch
      Manufacturer: Edition Temmen
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Perfect Paperback

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      ASIN: 3861082012
      Death wore a Nazi uniform: Memoirs of a survivor of Lodz-Ghetto, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Salzwedel
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Death wore a Nazi uniform: Memoirs of a survivor of Lodz-Ghetto, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Salzwedel
        Henrietta Liebmann
        Manufacturer: The Author
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Unknown Binding

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        ASIN: B0007C42SW
        Nazis out of uniform: The dangers of neo-nazi terrorism in Australia
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Nazis out of uniform: The dangers of neo-nazi terrorism in Australia
          Denis Freney
          Manufacturer: D. Freney
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Unknown Binding
          ASIN: B0007BJ1U2
          Refusing Nazi Orders to Kill: Germans in Uniform Who Resisted the Holocaust
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Refusing Nazi Orders to Kill: Germans in Uniform Who Resisted the Holocaust
            David H. Kitterman
            Manufacturer: New York University Press
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Paperback

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            Uniforms of the SS: volume 3, SS-Verfugungstruppe 1933-1939" (Uniforms of the SS, 3)
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              Uniforms of the SS: volume 3, SS-Verfugungstruppe 1933-1939" (Uniforms of the SS, 3)
              Andrew Mollo and Hugh Page Taylor
              Manufacturer: Historical Research Unit Publishing
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Hardcover
              ASIN: B000NZ1EAM

              Product Description

              A detailed and illustrated examination of SS uniforms in World War II
              Uniforms Of The SS: Volume 7, Waffen SS Badges and Unit Distinctions 1939-1945 (Uniforms Of The SS, 7)
              Average customer rating: Not rated
                Uniforms Of The SS: Volume 7, Waffen SS Badges and Unit Distinctions 1939-1945 (Uniforms Of The SS, 7)
                Andrew Mollo
                Manufacturer: Historical Research Unit Publishing
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Hardcover

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                ASIN: B000NZ35XG

                Product Description

                A detailed and illustrated examination of Waffen SS badges and distinctions.

                One Man Caravan ("Incredible Journeys" Books)
                Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
                • Simply an incredible, timeless book ...
                • ONE MAN CARAVAN
                • Candy for the imagination ..
                • Best book i have ever read
                • Great read for 'bikers' and other travellers!
                One Man Caravan ("Incredible Journeys" Books)
                Robert Fulton
                Manufacturer: Whitehorse Press
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback

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                ASIN: 1884313051

                Book Description

                This adventurous work records Robert Edison Fulton's solo round-the-world tour on a two-cylinder Douglas motorcycle between July, 1932 and December, 1933. First published in 1937.

                Customer Reviews:

                5 out of 5 stars Simply an incredible, timeless book ..........2007-10-17

                This book would be a fantastic story if it was written TODAY. It's even more incredible that it all happened in 1932-33.

                There are so many levels to enjoy in this book ...

                * The pure adventure of it all - setting out on a motorcycle (a 750 pound, 6-horsepower monster, no less!) to travel around the world in 1932. It simply is mind-boggling that he pulled it off.

                * The observations he makes along the way and how relevant they are even today. His observations of Afghanistan, in particular give insights into what has always been a war-torn country. If Bush & Co. had read this book, maybe we'd have left well enough alone.

                * His pure tenacity and luck to get in-and-out of the situations he stumbles into. Being in jail is just part of the gig, and he takes it all in stride.

                * The writing itself ... clean, crisp, and engaging. I couldn't put this book down.

                This book is fantastic whether or not you ride a motorcycle.

                HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

                5 out of 5 stars ONE MAN CARAVAN.......2007-04-12

                this book was a pleasure to read, since I have been to many of the places he has been. It is true and wonderful and I am glad that from now on it is mine.

                5 out of 5 stars Candy for the imagination .........2007-01-10

                I really enjoyed this book; it was too soon over.

                I have ridden motorcycles for many years and would liked to have seen more comments on the practical aspects of the trip, even though it was many years ago. I suspect that Mr. Fulton did not keep daily notes but probably wrote down his memories at the conclusion of the trip, thus the detail is not always there.

                The portrait of the middle East gives something for the people of today something to think about - basic beliefs and attitudes in that region may not have changed at all. Our expectations may need to be adjusted.

                A long trip on a motorcycle is an unforgettable experience for anyone, even today. Four or five days from home, and the resources available there, projects the rider into a state of independence and freedom that I have not found any other way - imagine what it was like for Fulton to be riding across the desert, months from home, no road in some cases, towards the unknown, his life dependent upon his machine continuing to run, and totally on his own.

                Every rider should get to read this book - a great treat for the imagination.

                5 out of 5 stars Best book i have ever read.......2007-01-04

                I could not put this one down. The story is so fantastic that you almost can't believe it happened. To see the world a little as it was 70 years ago was truly a window into the past.

                Robert Fulton is a suprizingly good author in that the book flows smoothly and he only talks about what he finds interesting.

                5 out of 5 stars Great read for 'bikers' and other travellers!.......2005-08-02

                In One Man Caravan, Robert Fulton has caught the magic of exploring new places and meeting people from cultures very different to his own. He writes with real fluency and his words evoke the graphic images of the colourful lands through which he takes the reader on this wonderful journey.
                A Head Full of Notions: A Story About Robert Fulton (Creative Minds)
                Average customer rating: Not rated
                  A Head Full of Notions: A Story About Robert Fulton (Creative Minds)
                  Andy Russell Bowen
                  Manufacturer: First Avenue Editions
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Paperback

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                  ASIN: 1575050269
                  Robert Fulton: A Biography
                  Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
                  • The essential, if flawed, Fulton biography
                  Robert Fulton: A Biography
                  Cynthia Owen Philip
                  Manufacturer: Backinprint.Com
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Paperback

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                  ASIN: 0595262031

                  Book Description

                  Robert Fulton was a renaissance man. Starting out as a fine arts painter, he produced the world's first steamboat empire, thrusting America to the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. At the same time, he invented a means of raising boats on canals and a system of submarine warfare. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvainia, he flourished in Philadelphia, London, Paris and New York City.

                  Customer Reviews:

                  4 out of 5 stars The essential, if flawed, Fulton biography.......2005-02-15

                  In the 100 years after Robert Fulton's death in 1815, biographers produced several accounts of his life. All were largely admiring of his far-reaching achievements, mechanical and intellectual, one to the point of obsequiousness (Thurston, 1878). ( See www.history.rochester.edu/steam for two of them, Thurston and Dickinson, 1913.) Then, after a gap of 60 years, Cynthia Philip provided a different picture of Fulton in "Robert Fulton: A Biography" (1985), which dealt in far greater depth and detail with his personal and business life -- and that paints a picture of a promoter who engages in double-dealing, industrial blackmail and even treason. For the thoroughness of its biographical research, Philip's is the essential Fulton biography now extant. It was followed 15 or so years later by Kirkpatrick Sale's shorter and less formal account ("The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream," 2001), which sought to put Fulton's accomplishments in a broader perspective and so shifted the balance back somewhat toward the positive. But not a lot, since the narrative essentially reflects Philip's account.
                  The evolution of the view of Fulton is understandable: To the 19th Century, his achievements were real and palpable; the use of steam power to move people and goods revolutionized transportation and opened the American West (then comprising the land over the Alleghenies), as Kirkpatrick notes; its impact was as great, if less obviously, in a myriad other applications as well. But to the late 20th Century, all those developments are taken for granted or are long forgotten: Steam locomotives no longer move Americans; airplanes do. So today, there's far more room to examine Fulton's life critically.
                  But there's a cost to lost context. The weakness of both Philip's and Sale's accounts is that they are biography, not history: They offer too little perspective to evaluate Fulton personal peccadilloes or intellectual contributions. Was his towering drive to enrich himself and benefit mankind an individual trait, or was it a motivation shared by ambitious men of the age? Were his erratic business relationships a personal fault, or did they reflect the conduct of entrepreneurship of the times? Were his calculations of the benefits of canal construction (an early Fulton passion) a sign of his genius or a common device of canal promoters? Without that kind of background, it's hard for the reader to sort out whether Robert Fulton was really the scoundrel he sometimes seems in the modern biographies or the unequivocal benefactor to mankind of an earlier era that 19th Century biographers depict.
                  Robert Fulton: From Submarine to Steamboat
                  Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
                  • Amazing man with many dreams but one true goal for life!
                  Robert Fulton: From Submarine to Steamboat
                  Steven Kroll , and Bill Farnsworth
                  Manufacturer: Holiday House
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Hardcover

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                  ASIN: 0823414337

                  Customer Reviews:

                  4 out of 5 stars Amazing man with many dreams but one true goal for life!.......2000-05-02

                  Well the book gave many details on his life of where he was born and so on but the main information was given in such context that one could read it if he had not tried! The book also tells a point! It's point would pretain to the mear fact of survival! You never stick to one idea, you let your mind flower!
                  Robert Fulton: Inventor and Steamboat Builder (Historical American Biographies)
                  Average customer rating: Not rated
                    Robert Fulton: Inventor and Steamboat Builder (Historical American Biographies)
                    James M. Flammang
                    Manufacturer: Enslow Publishers
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Library Binding

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                    ASIN: 0766011410
                    Robert Fulton and the Development of the Steamboat: And the Development of the Steamboat (The Library of American Lives and Times)
                    Average customer rating: Not rated
                      Robert Fulton and the Development of the Steamboat: And the Development of the Steamboat (The Library of American Lives and Times)
                      Morris A. Pierce
                      Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Library Binding

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                      Watt Got You Started, Mr. Fulton?: A Story of James Watt & Robert Fulton
                      Average customer rating: Not rated
                        Watt Got You Started, Mr. Fulton?: A Story of James Watt & Robert Fulton
                        Robert M. Quackenbush
                        Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: School & Library Binding

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                        ASIN: 0139443975
                        Robert Fulton (Lives and Times (Des Plaines, Ill.).)
                        Average customer rating: Not rated
                          Robert Fulton (Lives and Times (Des Plaines, Ill.).)
                          Jennifer Blizin Gillis
                          Manufacturer: Heinemann
                          ProductGroup: Book
                          Binding: Paperback

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                          ASIN: 1403453365
                          The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream
                          Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
                          • Striking a balance
                          • Probably the best work on Fulton to date
                          • Fulton and America
                          • A FULL HEAD OF STEAM
                          • pre-industrial genius
                          The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream
                          Kirkpatrick Sale
                          Manufacturer: Free Press
                          ProductGroup: Book
                          Binding: Paperback

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                          ASIN: 0743223217

                          Amazon.com

                          Robert Fulton is often enshrined in American history texts as the inventor of the steamship. He did no such thing, as Kirkpatrick Sale is quick to point out, but that does not detract from his genuine accomplishments as an entrepreneur and technician.

                          Born in 1765 into a poor family on the Pennsylvania frontier, Fulton showed an early aptitude for working with machinery of all kinds, as well as an all-consuming drive to avoid his father's poverty. As a young man he contrived useful inventions at an astonishing rate, a marble-cutting saw here, a canal-digging engine there; he also cultivated friendships and connections with influential men on both sides of the Atlantic, and soon he was doing business with the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte (to whom he sold a prototype submarine, the Nautilus). Fulton's most lasting accomplishment, however, may have been to develop a steamboat fleet that dependably plied the waters in and around New York and eventually extended to rivers in the western interior, providing "a tool by which the dominant commercial interests could extend their reach and power, by which the reigning political forces could communicate and consolidate their influence, by which a restless people could penetrate new lands and develop new industries."

                          Sale, who has written several books that take modern technology to task, considers Fulton's legacy to be mixed: his steamship line helped enable the settlement of the frontier, but also the destruction of American Indian nations, and it "served to sanction and encourage the domination of technology itself in American society." His critique may not sway all readers, but his well-written life of Robert Fulton will be of interest to students of economic history, transportation history, and early America alike. --Gregory McNamee

                          Book Description

                          None of the spectators who gathered on the Hudson River shore on August 17, 1808, could have known the importance of the object they had come to see and, mostly, deride: Robert Fulton's new steamboat. But as Kirkpatrick Sale shows in this remarkable biography, Fulton's "large, noisy, showy, fast, brash, exciting, powerful, and audacious" machine would -- for better or worse -- irrevocably transform nineteenth-century America.

                          Set against a brilliant portrait of a dynamic period in history, The Fire of His Genius tells the story of the fiercely driven man whose invention opened up America's interior to waves of settlers, created and sustained industrial and plantation economies in the nation's heartland, and facilitated the destruction of the remaining Indian civilizations. Probing Fulton's genius but also laying bare the darker side of the man -- and the darker side of the American dream -- Kirkpatrick Sale tells an extraordinary tale with deftness, zest, and unflagging verve.

                          Customer Reviews:

                          4 out of 5 stars Striking a balance.......2005-02-15

                          In the 100 years after Robert Fulton's death in 1815, biographers produced several accounts of his life. All were largely admiring of his far-reaching achievements, mechanical and intellectual, one to the point of obsequiousness (Thurston, 1878). ( See www.history.rochester.edu/steam for two of them, Thurston and Dickinson, 1913.) Then, after a gap of 60 years, Cynthia Philip provided a different picture of Fulton in "Robert Fulton: A Biography" (1985), which dealt in far greater depth and detail with his personal and business life -- and that paints a picture of a promoter who engages in double-dealing, industrial blackmail and even treason. For the thoroughness of its biographical research, Philip's is the essential Fulton biography now extant. It was followed 15 or so years later by Kirkpatrick Sale's shorter and less formal account ("The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream," 2001), which sought to put Fulton's accomplishments in a broader perspective and so shifted the balance back somewhat toward the positive. But not a lot, since the narrative essentially reflects Philip's account.
                          The evolution of the view of Fulton is understandable: To the 19th Century, his achievements were real and palpable; the use of steam power to move people and goods revolutionized transportation and opened the American West (then comprising the land over the Alleghenies), as Kirkpatrick notes; its impact was as great, if less obviously, in a myriad other applications as well. But to the late 20th Century, all those developments are taken for granted or are long forgotten: Steam locomotives no longer move Americans; airplanes do. So today, there's far more room to examine Fulton's life critically.
                          But there's a cost to lost context. The weakness of both Philip's and Sale's accounts is that they are biography, not history: They offer too little perspective to evaluate Fulton personal peccadilloes or intellectual contributions. Was his towering drive to enrich himself and benefit mankind an individual trait, or was it a motivation shared by ambitious men of the age? Were his erratic business relationships a personal fault, or did they reflect the conduct of entrepreneurship of the times? Were his calculations of the benefits of canal construction (an early Fulton passion) a sign of his genius or a common device of canal promoters? Without that kind of background, it's hard for the reader to sort out whether Robert Fulton was really the scoundrel he sometimes seems in the modern biographies or the unequivocal benefactor to mankind of an earlier era that 19th Century biographers depict.

                          4 out of 5 stars Probably the best work on Fulton to date.......2004-06-16

                          It does seem odd that the Secretary of the socialistic and luddite E. F. Schumaker Society would produce the best work to date on one of America's pioneering industrialists, but Kirkpatrick Sale is, first and foremost, and excellent historian. His first work of note, "SDS", was a brilliantly detailed work, and although Sale's sympathies were clearly with the founding members of SDS, he never let that prevent him from telling all the truth as he saw it.

                          And so it is with "The Fire of His Genius". Sale goes back to original documents to present the real Fulton, a rich and complex character, and to clear up a number of errors that have crept into the popular histories, such as the claim that Fulton's boat was named the "Claremount". (It was in fact called the North River Boat, after the popular name for the stretch of the Hudson it operated on).

                          Sale goes into some detail on Fulton's finacing, his relationships with friends and backers (some real surprises here) and his various dealings with governments. The picture that emerges is of an egocentric, but talented entrepeneur, less engineer than salesman, who nonetheless was instrumental in creating the technology of riverboat navigation that was instrumental in opening up commerce and trade throughout the expanding United States in the Nineteenth Century. All in all, excellent history and entertaining reading.

                          5 out of 5 stars Fulton and America.......2004-05-16

                          This slim volume (only 250-odd pages) is perhaps more informative than most biographies of Robert Fulton. Author Kirkpatrick Sale has done a marvelous job, in "The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream", of capturing the brilliance and the importance of Fulton's vision. Robert Fulton did not invent the steamboat but he did know how to perfect and sell it. This young man led an incredibly full and active life, considering how young he was when he died.

                          But "The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream" also differs from other works on Fulton because of the second half of the subtitle: Fulton's influence on America. Much has been made of the New York City that Fulton lived in, and how his work would be part of that city's transformation from a major city in America to an international cosmopolis. (The creation of the Erie Canal in 1820 would really propel that metamorphosis.) But Sale's book also looks beyond the borders of the East and North (or Hudson) Rivers. It takes a long hard look at the westward spreading nation that needed new forms of transportation and a new navy. How Fulton was inextricably wrapped in both concerns is a major component of this very readable book. It helps complete the picture of an era of American History--and of a great American like Robert Fulton--that sorely needed investigation. We are all indebted to Kirkpatrick Sale for this scholarly examination.

                          5 out of 5 stars A FULL HEAD OF STEAM.......2004-03-09

                          Today with jet passenger aircraft crisscrossing the country, with nuclear powdered naval craft sailing for months without refueling, and with cruise ships carrying more passengers than the populations of some American Colonial villages, Robert Fulton and the first practical steamboat is largely forgotten. However, the author, Kirkpatrick Sale, states "....the steamboat would be the single most important instrument in the transformation of America in the first half of the nineteenth century: it promoted the penetration and settlement of the American interior...." The text narrates Fulton's life placing him in proper historical context.

                          Chapter 1 is an account of the very successful August 1807 maiden voyage of the Fulton's steamboat, North River (erroneously called the Claremont in textbooks), from New York to Albany and return. Following this successful trip, Fulton initiated regular steamboat service on the Hudson from New York to Albany which ceased only when the Hudson River froze. While not the inventor of the steamboat, Fulton was successful because he built the North River "on sound engineering principles and scientific techniques."

                          The text states that little is known about Fulton's early life, He was born on a farm in 1765 in Pennsylvania to Irish immigrant parents. He developed a strong drive to avoid his father's poverty, and in his mid-teens he moved alone to Philadelphia and was apprenticed to a jeweler. In 1787 he arrived in London (source of funds unknown) for further art study under Benjamin West. It was a difficult time for would-be artists and in 1793 he began devolving into engineering concentrating first on canals. He conceived many inventions such as a marble-cutting saw, a canal-digging engine, prefabricated iron bridges, etc. In 1797 he went to France. Sale gives an intriguing account of Fulton's attempt to sell a submarine and mines (Fulton called them torpedoes) first to Napoleon in France; then later to England when he was rejected by France. Amazingly Fulton tried unsuccessfully to blackmail both countries by threatening to reveal his work to their enemies.

                          In Paris in 1802 Fulton met Robert Livingston who wanted to build and operate a steamboat on the Hudson River. A partnership was formed and Fulton was obligated to build a steamboat to ply the Hudson; however, the author notes "Fulton knew from the outset that it would be on the Mississippi and its major tributaries that the steamboat would have its most consequential impact...." In 1803 he conducted a successful trial run of a prototype steamboat on the Seine, and in December 1806 Fulton returned to America where in 1807 Fulton's commercially successful North River began operations. The book gives a good account of how Fulton and Livingston with state granted monopolies developed steamboat traffic on the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers plus steam ferries to New Jersey. Incredibly, in 1808-09, he lobbied for his torpedoes in Washington.

                          For the 1808 season, Fulton refurbished the North River "offering accommodations of some taste and luxuriousness" rather than the somewhat spartan 1807 conditions. Later steamboats would continue this luxurious accommodation pattern. By early 1813, he had six steamboats at work and six more ready to launch.
                          The author notes "Steamboating was too obviously lucrative an enterprise-everyone of Fulton's boats was making money, some robustly so-not to attract any craftsman or entrepreneur who could find a source of modest capital and a machine shop with a few experience hands. By 1814 at least a dozen other men had launched vessels of their own...." Fulton and Livingston would spend the last years of their lives defending their monopolies with Fulton carrying on alone after Livingston's death in 1813. When Fulton died in 1815 his monopolies were essentially ended. Strangely, until the end of his life, his passion was his weapons of war, none of which were successful, rather than the steamboat.

                          The book's last chapter, titled Legacies, is most interesting as it outlines the history of the steamboat after Fulton's death noting that the steamboat was central to drawing people to middle America. Mark Twain wrote "The 19th Century began the most prolific age of invention, bringing into our daily life the convenience of machines which were recently unknown but in our dreams. At the beginning of that period of material progress stands the name of Robert Fulton." The author notes sadly on page 176 "No lasting monuments, not even a gravestone, were erected [to Robert Fulton] until 1901 when the American Society of Mechanical Engineers put up a bronze plaque on a squat column along the south wall of Trinity churchyard."

                          The book's closing sentence states "And none who ever rode its throbbing decks, or watched its majestic motility on the water, ever failed to realize that it was this the symbol, as it was for many years the agency, of the American dream."

                          4 out of 5 stars pre-industrial genius.......2003-02-09

                          What stands out to me in this biography are his early years as a portrait painter in England; the attempts to sell his inventions, the submarine and his mines, to Napoleon and later to the British, for profit; the erotic tryst he had with his friends the Barlows in Paris; his later attempts to maintain his patents on his steamboats on the Hudson and in New Jersey ,which he operated for his own profit, against competition; and the surrounding American history, which included the Lousiana Purchase and the Lewis & Clark expedition. Fulton was a true American entrepreneur who died at a premature age, burned out by his efforts. The final chapter on his legacy to the commerce of the American heartland, the effects of which took place largely after his death, is also very impressive.
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