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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why wasn't history this much fun in school?,
By Hikey (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sons of the Profits: There's no business like grow Business. The Seattle Story 1851-1901 (Paperback)
Although i got slightly bored at times by a chapter or two, I really appreciated Spiedal's irreverent take on Seattle's history. I got an honest opinion of some local heroes, and learned much about the real reasons behind Seattle's regional dominance. I found the writing style interesting and funny, and refreshingly honest.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Riot! Explains the mentality of Seattle then and now.,
By
This review is from: Sons of the Profits: There's no business like grow Business. The Seattle Story 1851-1901 (Paperback)
Bill Speidel tells us how Seattle was "saved" by its seamstresses, or so they were called. But really when Tacoma got the rail deadhead, Seattle citizens thought they were doomed. However those miners and loggers needed some companionship and something to wet their whistle and Seattle was only too happy to oblige. There was a tax on these businesses and they allowed the city to thrive and prosper.Anyway the attitude of lets make a buck before anyone else figures it out is very prevalant here and explains the large software company to the East, and the coffee house just South of downtown. All in all a good read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly underwhelmed.,
By
This review is from: Sons Of The Profits Or, There's No Business Like Grow Business! The Seattle Story, 1851-1901 (Paperback)
Well, I made it through the book. It was way more strenuous than I expected, especially considering Speidel's informal writing style. Where to begin?
Let's start with the good, seeing as I intend for this to be a less than favorable review. First, I do have a greater understanding of the history of my city of residence. I like and appreciate that. I deeply value honest history (not necessarily "revisionist," but definitely honest, which is what we don't get most of the time in America), and this is an honest account of the real people that started and developed this city over its first fifty years. I'm glad to know that I won't be fooled into thinking that Henry Yesler was one of the most generous men to ever live, or that Arthur Denny landed at Alki Point with only a dream in his heart and a twinkle in his eye . . . but those are the things that I walk away from the book knowing. What about the book itself? First, Speidel wrote this book in 1967 to the intended audience of other long-to-lifetime Seattle residents. The former can't be helped. The latter is a huge problem. If you're going to brave Sons of the Profits, I strongly--STRONGLY--suggest doing some deep research on the chronological history of Seattle from 1851-1901 before picking this up. It also might help you to get out a map and memorize the street grid in Pioneer Square, most of Downtown, SODO and the International District, and have a pretty good understanding of the layout of the Central District and the University District. After that, spend a long time studying the geography of the Pacific Northwest, specifically the locations of every small town you can find in relation to Seattle. Speidel's not going to help you out. The chapters are topic based, not time-based. That can work if done the right way, but it's a headache to follow in this case. I didn't start out completely green on the general topic--in fact, I (a 5-year-so-far Seattle resident) know more about the city than many of my native friends do. But in a single chapter he bounces back and forth dozens of times over multiple decades--ending up in, say, 1879, then references something from, say, 1865, gets lost in a tangent in '65, then bounces back several pages later to '79, expecting you to keep up, and then before long he jumps back to 1870. Maybe I'm just not as bright as I need to be. Maybe readers in 1967 followed this stuff better. But *I* found it frustrating. Second, he spits out numbers and values and names all over the pages (it is "Profits," after all) and it all ends up getting jumbled. "Person A payed $12,000 for a 300 acre claim from Person B who, in 1858, payed $450, and Person A sold it again in 1890 for $300,000! Well isn't that something!" Imagine that for a 50 page chapter on the railroad wars with Tacoma, and in every other chapter in the book. You know what's interesting about the railroad wars of the 1860-1880's? The fact that they happened, and the events that happened around them. Seattle vs. Tacoma, Union Pacific vs. Northern Pacific, Thomas Burke's speech against Northern Pacific wanting to put a fancy train station along the northwestern 8 blocks of what is now Western Avenue, and so on. In those 50 pages, I could tell that there was an interesting story there, but Speidel rambles off the names and the dollars and mundane details like the lengths of track as if those are the important things, and I would have to take notes to follow him so I could weed out the story buried in it all. Third, I like Speidel's wit. I don't think I liked it as much as Speidel liked it, though. I've had fun history teachers, and their excitement over the subjects was energizing, and when they projected their clearly fun personalities into the lessons, it made me forget how sore my wrist was from all the note taking I was doing. If Speidel was my history teacher, I'd likely feel that way about him. But in this book, more than a few times I was almost screaming for him to tell me the history and quit trying to set up some witty banter than he can put into a single-sentence paragraph. Sometimes, admittedly, it was funny. Plus, I'm sure that in 1967 his approach was a direct retaliation to the way history was likely taught to him. But there's such a thing as balance. Lastly . . . this also might be a 1967 vs. 2011 thing, but his celebration of prostitution was pretty over-the-top. Yeah, I get it--the existence of prostitution in Seattle is one of the most important factors of it becoming as important of a city as it is. And the emphasis was no doubt to the degree it was due to the late-60's retaliation against conservative 1950's values. But it's annoying. Especially the way he writes seeming so high and mighty over traditional religious values by pointing all this out, but almost seems to justify or have no issue with the fact that John Pinnell (the first major pimp of Seattle) took young Native American girls from their tribes to work in his house. I could go on with that, but there's not much of a point. So in closing, I will say that I have nothing over all against Speidel. Speidel's Undergound Tour is awesome. I've heard of some people getting pretty crummy tour guides that apparently did nothing but make poop jokes in basements for 90 minutes; that's unfortunate. I got a guy with a goatee and a ball cap named Jim, and he was very thorough, engaging, interesting, and knowledgeable. Jim and his coworkers all celebrate Mr. Speidel's work for the city quite a bit, which is very warranted, but their promotion of this book is very biased. I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad it's over.
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