Dreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

Michael Lesy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1997

A haunting look at America at the beginning of the century, fro ma cult favorite. A hit from coast to coast when it was published last year in hardcover, Michael Lesy's breathtaking view of the beginning of the twentieth century is now available in an affordable paperback edition. One of the most fascinating photographic explorations of the American past in years, Dreamland features 200 photographs taken between 1900 and 1910 that capture the extraordinary vigor and high hopes of those years. The photographs were culled from a single postcard company collection by acclaimed photo historian Michael Lesy, whose cult hit Wisconsin Death Trip (1974) has been praised as "an American classic" by National Geographic and "a small masterpiece of the historian's art" by the Chicago Daily News.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Historian Michael Lesy, author of Wisconsin Death Trip, has produced another haunting volume with Dreamland. The book chronicles a day in the life of America at the turn of the 20th century, an optimistic, peaceful time. Lesy chose 208 black-and-white pictures from the archive of the Detroit Publishing Company, the hugely successful postcard business. The images depict skyscrapers under construction, bustling urban streets, farmers and dusty country roads, and the glories of the newly charted American West, with its cowboys, miners, and distant prairie towns. The atmosphere of order and calm portrayed in the photographs is deceptive, as Lesy's thoughtful essays reveal.

From The New Yorker

Poignantly contrasting with the serenity of the photos are thumbnail histories of the time's roiling social, political, and cultural changes....

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The; First Edition edition (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565843827
• ISBN-13: 978-1565843820
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, haunting volume of America at the cusp of change, March 29, 1998

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[e-mail] (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

Dreamland is a wonderful, wistful volume of photographs produced just after the turn of the century by William Henry Jackson and the Detroit Publishing Company and collected recently by editor Michael Lesy. The book, with its spare design and reverse-type pages, is beautifully constructed; pairing the photographs with summaries of carefully-chosen events from the first decade of this century, it slowly builds a clear and compelling portrayal of both the similarities (politicians and scandals seem to be a constant) and differences (crushing loss of life and wilderness) between the America it pictures and that of today. From its cover image of children rushing into the surf near the Cliff House in San Francisco through its ever-contrasting procession of burgeoning cities, pristine scenery, alternately solemn and carefree faces, and towns sprouting on the edge of the not-quite-tamed wilderness, Dreamland continually surprises with its ability to communicate strong emotions of a time long past yet often resonant with today. In my mind, one of the most important aspects of the book is buried at the end: its coda, "The Enterprise and the Undertaking" which provides a history of Mr. Jackson and the making of the photographs, as well as a personal statement by the author, Michael Lesy, providing insight into his personal obsession with the collection. This would have made an equally enjoyable preface, anchoring the tone for both photos and text. My comlpaints are few; the book suffers from less than perfect printing, showing unfortunate flaws in the black ink on many of the pages. Also, the decision to relegate the captions of the photographs to an appendix leaves the pages clear and unadorned, but also leads to a great deal of page-shuffling; I found this an inconvenience, as every photo leads you to wonder "where and when was this; who were these people?" In balance, I very much enjoyed Dreamland - for the overall quality of its presentation, for the emotional impact of its subject matter, and especially for its striking evocation of America on the cusp of its irrevocable transition to the modern age. Recommended.