Heaven's Ditch by Jack Kelly
The Erie Canal rubbed Aladdin's lamp. America awoke, catching for the first time the wondrous vision of its own dimensions and power.--Francis Kimball, American architectThe technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history. Zealots invented new religions and new modes of living. The Erie Canal made New York the financial capital of America and brought the modern world crashing into the frontier. Men and women saw God face-to-face, gained and lost fortunes, and reveled in a period of intense spiritual creativity.Heaven's Ditch illuminates the spiritual and political upheavals along this psychic highway, from its opening in 1825 through 1844. Wage slave Sam Patch became America's first celebrity daredevil. William Miller envisioned the apocalypse. Farm boy Joseph Smith gave birth to Mormonism, a new and distinctly American religion. Along the way, one encounters America's very first crime of the century, a treasure hunt, searing acts of violence, a visionary cross-dresser, and a panoply of fanatics, mystics, and hoaxers. A page-turning narrative, Heaven's Ditch offers an excitingly fresh look at a heady, foundational moment in American history.
Kelly, Jack: - Jack Kelly is a journalist, novelist, and historian. He has contributed to American Heritage, American Legacy, Invention & Technology, among other national periodicals, and he is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in nonfiction literature, as well as the author of Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World. He has appeared on the History Channel, been interviewed on National Public Radio, and conducted book signings across the country. He lives near Kingston in New York's Hudson Valley, where much of the action of the Revolutionary War took place.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781137280091 |
| ISBN 10 | 1137280093 |
| Title | Heaven's Ditch |
| Author | Jack Kelly |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
| Year published | 2016-07-05 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |