Customer Reviews

Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Kit Hinrichs has done Americans a great favor by both collecting and sharing with the world his remarkable flag-based memorabilia. Nothing will get and keep you in the mood of the Fourth of July quite like this book. The book displays on huge color pages more varieties of the flag, and flag-incorporating designs than you would normally see in a lifetime. The remarkable artifacts are framed by an interesting essay about the American flag's origins and a colorful chronological history of the flag. The book also serves as an indirect source of perspective on American culture, by looking at how we employ symbols.

The American flag developed into a national symbol fairly slowly. The Continental Congress did not get around to legislating what it was to look like until 1777. Even then, the description was pretty loose so designs varied a lot. The original purpose was to help ships tell friend from foe. The book also places doubts about the role of Betsy Ross in making the first flag. So you will probably learn a lot here. Did you know that the pledge of allegiance was not made official until 1942?

The flag is displayed here in celebrations, commerce, art, folk art, Native American art, toys, politics, political protests, and war. The most moving examples to me are the battle flags from the Civil War. A family heirloom flag from that war helped Mr. Hinrichs become interested in collecting.

My favorite images in the book included 10,000 cadets making a living flag in a photograph appearing on a postcard from Great Lakes, Illinois; sparkling rhinestone pins; a flag-shaped cancellation of a postage stamp from around 1890; two op art flags using complementary colors; woven ribbons; a Time Magazine souvenir flag; the Sports Illustrated "Great American Sport" image using baseballs and bats; a Nokia cell phone from 1999; the variations on the design used as protests; and a flag from World War II used to promote war bonds that proclaims "Remember Pearl Harbor."

You will see American flags in tattoos, on cigar wrappers, carried on car hood ornaments, held by toy soldiers, embroidered into samplers, and woven into all kinds of materials. The huge sprawling energy of a pioneering nation is well captured by the diversity of the media and designs represented here.

After you read about and look at these images, think about what the American flag means to you. How do you convey those meanings to your family and friends?

Our flag means to us what we make of it!

I stumbled on this title when it appeared as the centerpiece to a local store display of flag books that went up in the wake of September 11th. The stunning production and the breadth of material represented provide a truly unique insight into the power of the American flag as a symbol (of freedom, to be sure, but also as a symbol of revolution, grief, and pride). If you want the full impact of the flag's place in our history, as a graphic element that appears in everything from memorials to toys to pop art to protest banners (and more), this is the book. The text is limited but insightful, just enough to complement the tremendous variety of objects from the author's personal collection. I never failed to find new wonders on each page (including manifestations of the flag I would never have imagined), and in sum the book also amounts to a testament to American ingenuity. There's nothing else like it.

This book is fascinating. It is one you can pick up and browse a bit and become lost in the art and imagery of an icon that is so familiar we rarely take a good look at it. By sharing his collection with us, Mr. Hinrichs takes us beyond the simple stars and stripes to a visual history of our country.

Anyone familiar with graphic design should recognize Mr. Hinrichs' work. The overall presentation of the piece is incredible. I call it "the true coffee table book" because I think it is one can be opened and looked at and enjoyed a few pages at a time, and isn't that the purpose of a coffee table book?

The timing of the work is fascinating. Although initially published this spring, it is extremely appropriate for the new wave of patriotism that has swept this country since the tragic events in September.

This is a coffee table book , Very over sized . I am very disappointed in this book . The pictures are great but few and no to little information is given on the pictures or the subject .. The variety is small and the picture take up whole page and often two pages for one picture which is fine but not as interesting as you would expect . a better book is " The Stars and Stripes " by Boleslaw and Mastai as it is a larger collection and more varies .

With the 9/11 display at the local history center, I took pictures of the tattered flag and other quilts and such there and at the Dogwood Festival quilt shows. Always, the flag is a major item in the photography exhibit.

In Tennessee, we've had some stubborn retaliations about the original flag. According to this book, the first flag was the one used in the Civil War (which the KKK) adopted, the Confederate fighting flag. I had read and related how Betsy Ross had not designed the American Stars and Stripes but merely sewed it for her friend, George Washington. It seems that many primary school teachers were instructing the young minds that Betsy Ross had indeed made it from her own design. She used her own material, true, as she was a seamstress and used what she had on hand with this request for a national flag with no preparation.

Thank God for the South being first again! Even after the American Revolution in which we were granted our freedom from the British, we continued to use the (red,white&blue) color combination (Spain has yellow and red) as no one was in a hurry to be original. They came up with something in 1777, a year after the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia.

A nearby high school has had their Rebel flag taken from them after all of the heritage and history of the school. In Nashville, a crude silver & gold statute of Nathan Bedford Forrest, as designed and welded by a local attorney, was installed out by I65 with several Rebel flags in a semi-circle. Much was made of this desecreation to a united nation, and they were told to remove them promptly. Years later, they are still in place where they can be seen by all of the travelers going South of Nashville and the locals as they use the Interstate to work.

A flag is a flag is a flag. In the review I did about Civil War poems and songs, there were some about the Stars & Stripes as important to all of the soldiers. In Knoxville, the families were split and all I knew about this dat-blame war was that it was 'brother against brother.' That's how it was in this town and the counties surrounding the Smoky Mountains as shown so clearly in the movie, 'Cold Mountain.'

We paid for a U. S. flag which had hung over the Capital building in Washington, D.C. at the urging of Robin Beard, later an ambassador to (?) He was our district representative and I had chased him down the halls with my red, white and blue hat flapping.

The flag is a symbol of this country and decorates the caskets of all veterans. It is a venerable treasure, but I let my brother take the one off my dad's, as he already had the one from his son's coffin earlier. Neither died in any war, but had been a member of the armed forces of this country. The flag is for all of us to revere and every family should own one. I know someone who said he would hang the Confederate flag out of his office window if he could get away with it, and yet his family were for the North. He is not a Rebel, nor ever would be, so I was proud of his claims, which proved to be false. He just likes to write controversial things to create some kind of action. This is such a boring, old town. The flag perks up any rally, picnic or gathering (political or non-political). Everyone in America loves that glorious old flag which stands for freedom.

Beautiful book of American flag items from long ago to today. What a wonderful collection and interesting items. I love just looking and looking.

It is hard to see why the authors of "Long May She Wave" chose to burden it with a title that not only parades a demeaning stereotype misrepresenting objects as female, but rudely misquotes the words of our national anthem to do so. A check of the Smithsonian Institution's excellent web page on the history of the Star Spangled Banner and the drafting and publication of the National Anthem confirms that no one associated with the flag or the anthem ever referred to it as "she" as this book title so insultingly does. In documents from those patriots who made the famous banner, used it in battle, preserved it for posterity, and memorialized it in the inspiring poem that became our national anthem, the flag is sensibly termed it, not the coy and historically false "she" invented by the authors of this book. Since the the title signalled the authors' disregard for historical accuracy, I left it on the display shelf unopened.