Invisible Enemies of Atomic Veterans

Product Description

To educate the public and tell my true story of how dangerous it is to be exposed to ionized radiation and to seek support in helping Atomic Veterans receive restitution.

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Loss of a child after several years

Best book for bereaved parents I read after the death of my son

Needed in Your Library

It confirms the long term aspects of our grief

Nice try, but too light

After the Death of a Child: Living With Loss Through the Years

Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

When The Bough Breaks: Forever After the Death of a Son or Daughter

The Worst Loss: How Families Heal from the Death of a Child

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After the Darkest Hour the Sun Will Shine Again: A Parent's Guide to Coping with the Loss of a Child

The Bereaved Parent

ASIN: B000F7BPAW

Amazon.com

A book that explores our own resilience in the midst of one of the most distressful forms of human suffering, the death of a child. Because children aren't supposed to die, the loss is not only painful but profoundly disorienting. Finkbeiner, whose only child died in 1987, refers to her own experience and the experience of others to show that while bereaved parents can never really let go, they can and do recover, often developing a new appreciation for their own lives. Says one parent: "You just don't treat life as lightly, and if you don't treat things lightly, they do become richer."

Book Description

For a parent, losing a child is the most devastating event that can occur. Most books on the subject focus on grieving and recovery, but as most parents agree, there is no recovery from such a loss. This book examines the continued love parents feel for their child and the many poignant and ingenious ways they devise to preserve the bond. Through detailed profiles of parents, Ann Finkbeiner shows how new activities and changed relationships with their spouse, friends, and other children can all help parents preserve a bond with the lost child.

Based on extensive interviews and grief research, Finkbeiner explains how parents have changed five to twenty-five years after the deaths of their children. The first half of the book discusses the short- and long-term effects of the child's death on the parents' relationships with the outside world, that is, with their spouses, other children, friends, and relatives.

The second half of the book details the effect on the parents' internal world: their continuing sense of guilt; their need to place the death in some larger context and their inability sometimes to consistently do so; their new set of priorities; the nature of their bond with the lost child and the subtle and creative ways they have of continuing that bond. Finkbeiner's central point is not so much how parents grieve for their children, but how they love them.

Refusing to fall back on pop jargon about "recovery" or to offer easy suggestions or standardized timelines, Finkbeiner's is a genuine and moving search to come to terms with loss. Her complex profiles of parents resonate with the honesty and authenticity of uncomfortable emotions expressed and, most importantly, shared with others experiencing a similar loss. Finally, each profile exemplifies the many heroic ways parents learn to live with their pain, and by so doing, honor the lives their children should have lived.

Customer Reviews:

Loss of a child after several years.......2006-03-16

I would recommend this book only to those who lost a child a few years before. For those who just lost a child, it may be too difficult to realize right away how long this will affect your life. Also, that you never "get over it", as long as you live.
It was well written and honest, by an author who experienced the loss of a child.

Best book for bereaved parents I read after the death of my son.......2005-11-30

This was by far the best book I read after my son died. It gave me a roadmap of grief to help me know what to expect down the road at the earliest stage to many years out. I give it to anyone in my community who has lost a child recently.

Needed in Your Library.......2001-08-26

Powerful and covering so many aspects of the grieving life, After The Death of A Child, speaks to the hearts of bereaved parents everywhere. Read this book and know that you are not crazy for holding the feelings you have since the loss of your own child. Chapter 12 on Job was a comfort to read, providing me with many insights into my own faith as I read the thoughts of others. Read this book to know you are not alone. (Author "Slices of Sunlight, A Cookbook of Memories" Daniel's House Publications, 2000)

It confirms the long term aspects of our grief.......1999-09-22

As others have written, this book explains what we are still going though years later and that there is no quick fix for the newly bereaved. But there are things that friends and family can do to help, at any stage; from the funeral to 40 years later. Julane Grant's book, When Your Friend's Child Dies, offers easy to understand, practical ways for friends to help us live with (we don't get over it)the grief. When our friends know what we are feeling, then they know that we want our child mentioned, we want to grab a hold of everyone's memory of our child. This book told my unspoken feelings and now I leave my copy on the coffee table and friends pick it up. I already know how I feel, I want them to know!

Nice try, but too light.......1999-04-21

I'd agree with Charleston; better books exist on the subject. ("Gili's Book", for one)

Average customer rating:

underwhelmed

bagels galore

The best bagels are made at home

The best bagels are made at home

The first and only bagel recipes that really worked!

The Best Bagels Are Made at Home (Nitty Gritty Cookbooks)
Dona Z. Meilach
Manufacturer: Bristol Publishing Enterprises
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bread | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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The Donut Book

The New Book of Waffles and Pizzelles (Nitty Gritty Cookbooks - Bread Machine-Related)

ASIN: 1558671315

Product Description

Dozens of toppings and spreads accent recipes for more than 60 varieties of bagels! Author Dona Meilach includes careful instructions for making bagels with the bread machine, heavy-duty mixer and food processor and describes bagel ingredients thoroughly. An introductory section gives the legends of the bagel and describes the many types of bagel paraphernalia available.

Customer Reviews:

underwhelmed.......2007-02-06

I was expecting more of this little book. It certainly tells you how to make bagels and I guess there's only so much you can say about boiled bread dough . I wanted more about process and less filler than this book supplied. Still I think it would do just fine for someone with a passing interest in a little novelty baking, as its recipes are workable and fun.

bagels galore.......2006-06-25

I just received this book in the mail and cannot wait to get started on my first batch of bagels! The author has a great variety of recipes (much more than I was expecting!), plus a great selection of normal to unique spreads for your bagels. I am particulary excited about the recipe for curing my own lox, which is next to impossible to get (especially decent lox) in the small town that I live in. With what appear to be nicely detailed instructions, including a trouble-shooting section, I think this book is going to be getting quite a bit of use!

The best bagels are made at home.......2000-03-12

One of my favorite books. The recipes are great .Now without a bagel store just around the corner I can bake my own homemade bagels. Donna is right, the best bagels are really made at home. Freshly baked and lukewarm eaten is one of the best things of life.

The best bagels are made at home.......2000-03-12

The first and only bagel recipes that really worked!.......1997-08-12

I've tried recipes in other bagel books and they were all more like Easter bread. These taste like store-bought bagels only better

Book Description

This book concentrates on Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson and the other members of the Group of Seven's preference for painting the flowing world.

Average customer rating:

simple and concise!

Big Book of Best-Loved Quilt Patterns
Leisure Arts
Manufacturer: Oxmoor House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Quilts & Quilting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Encyclopedia of Classic Quilt Patterns

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501 Quilt Blocks: A Treasury of Patterns for Patchwork & Appliqué

ASIN: 0848725557

Book Description

As every quilting fanatic knows, there's no such thing as too many quilts. (Or too many quilt books, for that matter!) This new must-have collection brings together time-honored patterns-including many favorite antique and reproduction quilts-with the latest in modern quilting techniques. Concise instructions, step-by-step photographs, and detailed color diagrams guide both beginning and master quilters through all the steps necessary to complete the quilt of their choice. Separate chapters group types of quilts by technique, including Diamonds and Stars, Picture Blocks, Patchwork Mosaics, and more. An essential new comprehensive edition for veteran and novice quilters alike, the Big Book of Best Loved Quilt Patterns includes the history and origins behind unusual pattern names like Drunkard's Path, Currants Coxcombs, and Burgoyne Surrounded, plus resources for ordering fabric and supplies.

Customer Reviews:

simple and concise!.......2004-09-19

This book is similar to Leisure Arts "Encylopedia of Classic Quilt Patterns" with simple patterns, AMAZING photos of antique quilts, and info on how these patterns originated. With 82 patterns, it is a great reference book, and the 11 applique patterns are easy, even for a relative beginner! Something for all skill levels. A real steal at this price!

BIG BOOK OF BEST-LOVED QUILT PATTERNS (LEISURE ARTS PRESENTS)

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BIG BOOK OF BEST-LOVED QUILT PATTERNS (LEISURE ARTS PRESENTS)

Manufacturer: LEISURE ARTS & OXMORE HOUSE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0848728505

Product Description

CHOCK FULL OF PATTERNS AND ILLUSTRATIONS IN FULL COLOR

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The No Work Garden: Getting the Most Out of Your Garden with the Least Amount of Work
Bob Flowerdew
Manufacturer: Laurel Glen Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Reference | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Techniques | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Bob Flowerdew's Organic Bible: Successful Gardening the Natural Way

The Organic Gardening Bible: Successful Gardening the Natural Way

All New Square Foot Gardening

ASIN: 1571459294

Book Description

Bob Flowerdew has been investigating and testing cultivation techniques for more than 20 years, and the result of his efforts is an approach to gardening that produces high yield and high quality with relatively little effort. This guide to more efficient gardening includes tips on easier mowing, weeding, digging, and saving time and effort in the yard. 185 color photographs and illustrations, tried-and-true tips, and shortcuts for working less and growing more are included in this beautiful gardening book.

Book Description

This is Lulu's story-all about her family and her favorite things-her pets, the snacks she loves to eat, her best friend, even her brand new red shoes! Focusing on the daily details that toddlers and preschoolers are fascinated by, Caroline Uff offers a charming introduction to an adorable girl. Young readers will be glad to welcome the lovable Lulu into their circle of friends.

Customer Reviews:

Sweet, simple, charming.......2007-10-14

Pig-tailed Lulu is a little girl who shares her life with her parents, grandma, baby brother, older sister, and three pets. The up-beat, matter-of-fact text gives an overview of her life, and the bright close-ups of people's faces makes this book compelling for a young child. Very cute.

Our household favorite hands down!!!.......2006-04-06

I agreed with all the reviews. This is my 18 month old's favorite by far. It is the first book she picks up in the morning for us to read together and the last book before she goes to bed.

great family book.......2005-09-20

In this book we get to meet Lulu's family. My 19 mo-old daughter loves to point out the mama and papa and look at Lulu's pets. With the sweet drawings and simple story, it is a frequent request.

Becoming Lulu.......2003-10-21

My almost 2 year old daughter loves this book (and the other Lulu books ) so much that we now have to call her "NuNu" (close sister to Lulu) and braid her hair just like Lulu's.
These books rock. I love that the characters are multi-racial as well. Lulu's family looks much like ours ! (except that her Mama is cuter)

bright colors.......2002-04-11

This is my six month old daughter's most favorite picture book. The introduction to Lulu's family members appeals to her love for bright colors and to her need for limited text. The "Lulu likes snack time at grandma's house" page tickles her fancy. I give this book my top rating and recommendation.

Average customer rating:

Exhilarating and painful

Hightly recommended

Lots of hype, but still a pretty good read

Getting to know a Pedro Pan

I am without words

Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
Carlos Eire
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Family & Childhood | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Cuba | Caribbean & West Indies | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0743246411

Book Description

"Have mercy on me, Lord, I am Cuban." In 1962, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba -- exiled from his family, his country, and his own childhood by the revolution. The memories of Carlos's life in Havana, cut short when he was just eleven years old, are at the heart of this stunning, evocative, and unforgettable memoir.

Waiting for Snow in Havana is both an exorcism and an ode to a paradise lost. For the Cuba of Carlos's youth -- with its lizards and turquoise seas and sun-drenched siestas -- becomes an island of condemnation once a cigar-smoking guerrilla named Fidel Castro ousts President Batista on January 1, 1959. Suddenly the music in the streets sounds like gunfire. Christmas is made illegal, political dissent leads to imprisonment, and too many of Carlos's friends are leaving Cuba for a place as far away and unthinkable as the United States. Carlos will end up there, too, and fulfill his mother's dreams by becoming a modern American man -- even if his soul remains in the country he left behind.

Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is a eulogy for a native land and a loving testament to the collective spirit of Cubans everywhere.

Download Description

"In 1962, at the age of eleven, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba, his parents left behind. His life until then is the subject of Waiting for Snow in Havana, a wry, heartbreaking, intoxicatingly beautiful memoir of growing up in a privileged Havana household -- and of being exiled from his own childhood by the Cuban revolution. That childhood, until his world changes, is as joyous and troubled as any other -- but with exotic differences. Lizards roam the house and grounds. Fights aren't waged with snowballs but with breadfruit. The rich are outlandishly rich, like the eight-year-old son of a sugar baron who has a real miniature race car, or the neighbor with a private animal garden, complete with tiger. All this is bathed in sunlight and shades of turquoise and tangerine: the island of Cuba, says one of the stern monks at Carlos's school, might have been the original Paradise -- and it is tempting to believe. His father is a municipal judge and an obsessive collector of art and antiques, convinced that in a past life he was Louis XVI and that his wife was Marie Antoinette. His mother looks to the future; conceived on a transatlantic liner bound for Cuba from Spain, she wants her children to be modern, which means embracing all things American. His older brother electrocutes lizards. Surrounded by eccentrics, in a home crammed with portraits of Jesus that speak to him in dreams and nightmares, Carlos searches for secret proofs of the existence of God. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is an both an exorcism and an ode to a paradise lost. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died -- and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn. "

Customer Reviews:

Exhilarating and painful.......2007-09-27

I left Cuba -with my parents- at the age of eight in 1963. Although my exile experience was much less trumatic than Dr. Eiré's, his depiction of life in that place at that time, seen through the eyes of a child, awakened so many emotions, dormant in my conciousness for so many years! What some reviewers have deplored as aimless ramblings brings me as close as I will ever come to a long conversation with a lost childhood friend, with all the complicity of shared experiences. The familiar sights, the smells, the terrors, real and surreal -I still am both terrified and eerily fascinated by lizards, specially the Cuban anolí, which changes colors to match its surroundings, the magic all around me in those days, Catholic school, birthday parties, fear for your life, shameful mischief... I laughed harder than I had in years and also cried too real tears!

I visited Cuba about four years ago, to witness the death of a family member who meant very much to me during my childhood. Despite the tragic circumstances and the terrible destruction of my little town, I unexpectedly felt an overwhelming peace and sense of "home" which I would not have imagined until then, having left so young. I don't recall having slept better in many years before or since. I discovered that there is a part of our being that does not travel. I left it in Placetas when I went away and there it was, intact, waiting for me. And there it stayed again.

I thank Dr. Eiré with all my heart for having brought me as close as it can be to that profusely bleeding chunk of who I am, which will never be in my present address.

Another Cuban boy.

Hightly recommended.......2007-09-19

This book was Great! I believe every person who struggled to get to the US to find freedom would enjoy this book. Eventhough I came much later in life, i believe his accounts really hit home with what i remember.

Lots of hype, but still a pretty good read.......2007-07-18

Wonderful delivery of characters throughout the book, but Eire's relentless weaving of timelines was distracting. It was almost incoherent or redundant at times, rambling from one period to another. I also had a little difficulty understanding the "wistful" invocation of philosophical and spiritual jargon throughout the book.

Despite the distractions, a good read for the first few hundred pages. Probably could have dropped a hundred easily.

Getting to know a Pedro Pan.......2007-06-25

During my career I have worked with and developed close friendships with several Cuban Americans, including two "Pedro Pans" - one of whom is currently a US Ambassador to an important European country. I could never quite imagine what life might have been like for them as boys in Cuba and how their lives were turned upside down. Their resilience has been an inspiration.

Eire's book, mentioned to me by a former high school English teacher, answers many of my questions far better than I could have hoped. It is a literary masterpiece that provides anthropological insights about the life of the privileged under Batista. Remarkably Eire does not whitewash this era - he makes it clear that the sons of Batista, of his chief torturer, and of upper class professionals enjoyed privileges unavailable to most. He admits to serial shop-lifting as a boy and the materialism that made birthday parties stressful events. But it came to a sudden end when Castro took power and banned Christmas, persecuted his opponents, and caused families to send their children abroad.

Over the weekend I had a conversation with someone whose family fled Tehran after the ouster of the Shah. Somehow her stories were evocative of Eire describing Cuba under Batista.

I am without words.......2007-06-20

Nothing I can say can do this book -- and Dr. Eire -- justice. I read this book on a (Cuban-American) friend's recommendation. I knew very little about Cuba or Castro. I have never been so moved by a book in my life. This is a must-read for everyone on the planet.

Editores de EU premian las memorias del cubano Carlos Eire.(autor)(Entrevista): An article from: Proceso

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Editores de EU premian las memorias del cubano Carlos Eire.(autor)(Entrevista): An article from: Proceso
Midiala Rosales Rosa
Manufacturer: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008IQPS0
Release Date: 2006-06-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by Thomson Gale on January 4, 2004. The length of the article is 1861 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Editores de EU premian las memorias del cubano Carlos Eire.(autor)(Entrevista)
Author: Midiala Rosales Rosa
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 4, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 1418 Page: 74(2)

Article Type: Entrevista

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy

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Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
Carlos M. N. Eire
Manufacturer: Bt Bound
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 141774085X

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Waiting for Snow in Havana Confessions of a Cuban Boy
Eire Carlos
Manufacturer: The Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000U65QPS

Book Description

A narrative in correspondence from the “Guggenheim Letters,” a remarkable archive that, in its entirety, would make a stack equal in height to the model of the Guggenheim Frank Lloyd Wright made in 1946. Here is a very personal and detailed account of the creative struggle required to build the extraordinary Guggenheim Museum.

It is a seventeen-year saga which saw the firing of the first curator, the death of the donor, and the creation of six complete sets of plans and 749 drawings. Ironically, Wright died six months before its completion.

From its opening in October 1959, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has been recognized as Frank Lloyd Wright’s crowning achievement. Pfeiffer demonstrates that the story of its construction is arresting drama as well. The Guggenheim, while periodically modified and adapted to meet its changing needs, continues to give expression to Wright’s artistic vision and is a testament to the spirit of both Wright and Guggenheim.

Growing Up Guggenheim: A Personal History of a Family Enterprise

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Growing up Guggenheim: A Personal History of a Family Enterprise
An insider's view of a family museum-building achievement

Growing Up Guggenheim: A Personal History of a Family Enterprise
Peter Lawson-Johnston
Manufacturer: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Business of Art | Reference | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Business | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1933859199

Book Description

In Growing Up Guggenheim, Peter Lawson-Johnston, a Guggenheim himself, and the board president who oversaw the transformation of the renowned museum from a local New York institution to a global art venture, shares a personal memoir that includes intimate portraits of the five people principally responsible for the entire Guggenheim art legacy. In addition to first-hand biographical accounts of his grandfather Solomon Guggenheim (the museum's founder), his cousin Harry (Solomon's successor), and his famously rebellious cousin Peggy (whose magnificent Venice art collection he helped bring under New York Guggenheim management), the author tells the stories of long-time museum director Thomas Messer, who initiated the bold expansion of Frank Lloyd Wright's original museum building, and current director Thomas Krens, whose controversial tenure has featured such innovations as the Guggenheim's wildly successful first international outpost in Bilbao, Spain, and exhibits devoted to fashion and motorcycles. Lawson-Johnston also traces his own career, from his first job as sales manager of a remote feldspar mine, to his rapid ascent to the family summit, to his extension of the Guggenheim legacy in ways none of his predecessors could have envisioned. Despite his native and tangible humility, this evocative narrative makes clear Lawson-Johnston's indispensable role as the loyal steward of one of America?s most famous family enterprises.

Customer Reviews:

Growing up Guggenheim: A Personal History of a Family Enterprise.......2006-08-12

This is a wonderful tell all story about one of the most prestigious families in the United States told by a Guggenheim descendant who has been at the helm of the family empire for several decades. It is a historical biography of his family. The chapters on the Guggenheim Museum provide tremendous insight into the creation of the world wide Guggenheim Museum franchise. I enjoyed the chapter on Peggy Guggenheim the most. One learns how she dropped out of the family mainstream to amass a priceless art fortune in Venice Italy which she ultimately bequeathed to the Guggenheim Foundation. I highly recommend this book.

An insider's view of a family museum-building achievement.......2006-04-27

The author is a Guggenheim himself and the board president who saw the museum changed from a local New York institution to a world-wide art venture: his background lends an insider's eye and appreciation to GROWING UP GUGGENHEIM: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF A FAMILY ENTERPRISE. His accounts of his grandfather Solomon Guggenheim begins with the museum's founder's achievements and family interactions and tells stories of the institution's evolution within and outside the family. His memoirs of personalities over the decades, controversies which affected its efforts to expand, and the author's own career makes for a colorful series of vignettes which come packed with business financials, insights, and art history. A 'must' for any who would understand the Guggenheim enterprise.

Average customer rating:

Thorough
This book has multiple stories that each make great reading
A Book With Everything

The Guggenheims
Debi Unger , and Irwin Unger
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Business | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Rich & Famous | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060188073
Release Date: 2005-01-18

Book Description

A portrait of a great American dynasty and its legacy in business, technology, the arts, and philanthropy

Meyer Guggenheim, a Swiss immigrant, founded a great American business dynasty. At their peak in the early twentieth century, the Guggenheims were reckoned among America's wealthiest, and the richest Jewish family in the world after the Rothschilds. They belonged to Our Crowd, that tight social circle of New York Jewish plutocrats, but unlike the others -- primarily merchants and financiers -- they made their money by extracting and refining copper, silver, lead, tin, and gold.

The secret of their success, the patriarch believed, was their unity, and in the early years Meyer's seven sons, under the leadership of Daniel, worked as one to expand their growing mining and smelting empire. Family solidarity eventually decayed (along with their Jewish faith), but even more damaging was the paucity of male heirs as Meyer and the original set of brothers passed from the scene.

In the third generation, Harry Guggenheim, Daniel's son, took over leadership and made the family a force in aviation, publishing, and horse-racing. He desperately sought a successor but tragically failed and was forced to watch as the great Guggenheim business enterprise crumbled.

Meanwhile, "Guggenheim" came to mean art more than industry. In the mid-twentieth century, led by Meyer's son Solomon and Solomon's niece Peggy, the Guggenheims became the agents of modernism in the visual arts. Peggy, in America during the war years, midwifed the school of abstract expressionism, which brought art leadership to New York City. Solomon's museum has been innovative in spreading the riches of Western art around the world. After the generation of Harry and Peggy, the family has continued to produce many accomplished members, such as publisher Roger Straus II and archaeologist Iris Love.

In The Guggenheims, through meticulous research and absorbing prose, Irwin Unger, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in history, and his wife, Debi Unger, convey a unique and remarkable story -- epic in its scope -- of one family's amazing rise to prominence.

Customer Reviews:

Thorough.......2006-04-24

This biography was very thorough in the way it captured the mining, nitrate explorations of the Guggenheims. But it lost steam when it focused on more present-day Guggenheims and their work in making Twentieth Century Art especially in America of great importance. It seemed to lack a soul and a family tree chart. If it had a soul, it would have given the reader a chance to feel empathy with a Guggenheim and if it included a chart, it would have helped the reader keep track of each offspring. Overall, it shed light on a family that helped to enrich America.

This book has multiple stories that each make great reading.......2005-02-04

I can think of several reasons to read this fascinating story of an iconic American dynasty. A reader might want to know why the name Guggenheim is on a number of important art museums around the world and want to know how they got there. Another might know about the glory days of the seven brothers when they ruled copper mining and smelting. Another might know about the flamboyant Peggy Guggenheim and want to get more context for her life. Then there is Harry Guggenheim and his participation in and support of early aviation (he actually participated in air combat in BOTH world wars), his support of Robert Goddard's early rocketry research, and his friendship with Charles Lindbergh.

Personally, I am fascinated by multi-generational family stories. How was the success that founded the dynasty achieved? How is the next generation formed to continue that success? Because business changes, the family will have to adapt. Can they continue the success? How do they hold things together or why does it fall apart? Splits within the family are inevitable simply because people will want to establish their own lives apart from somebody else's path.

This book has a huge cast of characters because there were so many people coming in and out of this family. There is a great deal of divorce, faithlessness in the marriages that do occur, a shocking amount of suicide, and proof that money, fame, hedonistic sex, and intoxicants do not lead to happiness. This book does tell the story of certain members of the clan more fully. The story of the seven sons of Meyer Guggenheim (who founded the dynasty a $5,000 dollar investment in a mine in Colorado) is quite fascinating.

One of the sons, Ben, went down with the Titanic. The strongest son and the one who became the head of the family after Meyer was Daniel. However, another brother became a United States Senator, and all of them made their contributions to the family dynasty. Even so, the youngest brother, William, did split with the family and that has had repercussions to the present day.

Solomon lived the longest of the seven brothers and it is his name on the spiraled Frank Lloyd Wright museum in New York. The story of how that museum came to be is itself reason to read this book. What a strange cast of characters brought that loved and derided institution into being.

The second generation was ruled by Harry Guggenheim, younger son of Daniel. He led an amazing life, however unsuccessful in marriage. He was an early pilot in WWI and created a private foundation that accomplished a great deal to make commercial aviation safe and reliable (if not profitable). One of his friends was Charles Lindbergh and through Lindbergh's advocacy, he funded Robert Goddard's early work in experimental rocketry. He raised thoroughbreds and his horse, Dark Star, won the 1953 Kentucky Derby. Through his third wife he founded Newsday and ended up running that for many years and sold it at a huge gain. You will find his life very interesting and its pains awfully sad.

Of course, the most famous of the Guggenheims nowadays is the art collector and flamboyant socialite, Peggy Guggenheim. The book recounts her life and struggles. Her demons were many and it ends up being a sad story. Even her art collection, her life's triumph, is surrounded with a pathetic air because of the way her obsession with it walled her off from so much else in life.

There is so much more that this story has to offer that I will simply urge you to take the time to read about these lives and what happens to people, both ordinary and extraordinary people, when they find themselves in possession of a dream of great wealth. It seems that too often they end possessed by the money and it ends up doing them as much personal harm as it does anybody any good.

Of course, being miserable without money is fairly easy to accomplish as well. By the fourth and fifth generation most of the family has settled into comfortable lives in the various reaches of the middle class. Many do not have much personal connection to the Guggenheim story and that is also a very interesting story that this book tells.

Fine job, and recommended to everyone interested in business, American social history, and dynastic families as well as those personally interested in the Guggenheims.

A Book With Everything.......2005-02-02

Most family biographies are hard to read and even harder to follow, as the generations begin to amass, narrative thrust seems to take a vacation. So it is with great pleasure that I can report THE GUGGENHEIMS by Irwin Unger and Debi Unger "good to the last drop." The authors begin with a panoply of anti-Semitism in Europe and make it clear just how limited career prospects were for Jews of the second millennium, when they were forbidden all but the very lousiest jobs, and the jobs most guaranteed to annoy their Christian "brethren" (such as collecting rents and taxes). Unike the other great Jewish families of "Our Crowd," the Guggenheims made their money primarily from mining, in the farawy and exotic paradise of Chile (mostly in copper, and silver and lead as well). By the turn of the century (1900) they were well on their way towards their legend.

The biography has sweep and a certain falling grandeur, but I liked best the authors' marvelous pen portraits of the many younger Guggenheims. I liked finding out that Gladys Guggenheim wrote two cookbooks and was named "nutrition commissioner" of New York by Thomas Dewey in 1934. There's the shocking battle between the sisters Hazel and Peggy, over who could score with the most men sexually--when each got up to a thousand, the numbers started to blur. I bet! And then the terrible story of Hazel's 1928 rooftop tragedy. She had taken her two little toddlers, Ben and Terrence, up to an unlikely section of her apartment's roof garden, and somehow the two tykes tumbled off t their deaths. She was suspected as being some kind of Alice Crimmins-type Medea, but the family turned up a window cleaner nearby who claimed to have witnessed the whole thing and said Hazel was innocent and had indeed tried to save the kids!

Who remembers now that Harry Guggenheim, the bigwig of the third generation of Guggenheims, once owned Dark Star, the horse that beat Native Dancer to the 1953 Kentucky Derby? Harry and his wife, Alicia Patterson, started NEWSDAY, the Long Island paper, and he seemed to share her with the Democratic also-ran Adlai Stevenson with whom she fell quite desperately in love.

The Ungers also tell the story of Diane, Harry's daughter, who sought escape from hr family in an unlikely place, the postwar "folk music boom" that led her to Ireland, of all places, where she began an intrigue with young Liam Clancy, then a teen and not yet famous for sparking the Clancy Brothers + Tommy Makem. Diane changed her name and began recording her own folk music, which made me curious to hear what she did with her career. She seems to have been kind of a Peggy Seeger, and just as adventurous.

The last half of the book brings forward Solomon, whose legacy was the Guggenheim museum, and Peggy, the art dealer who married Max Ernst, discovered Jackson Pollock, and invented "Art Of This Century." In each case, the Ungers surpass all previois biographical treatments of their very complicated subjects. Peggy in particular comes to life, not as a freak or a groupie, but as a woman with a particular historical and aesthetic mission which she graciously fulfilled. Good for them. I expect this book will do quite well, and may restore some of the tarnished luster of the Guggenheim name. In any case you'll be reading it all night long trying to get to the end before morning.

The Guggenheims, 1848-1988: An American Epic

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The Guggenheims, 1848-1988: An American Epic
John H. Davis
Manufacturer: Shapolsky Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0944007074

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The Guggenheims: A Family History
Debi Unger
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEJTRC

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