Books, Noted
The Texture of Industry:
An Archeological View of the Industrialization of North America
Robert B. Gordon and Patrick M. Malone, Oxford University Press, 1994
Like most industrial archeology texts, this book focuses primarily on historic industries and sites, mostly within the 19th century. None the less, this is one of the best books on the subject.
Farewell, Promised Land: Waking from the California Dream
Robert Dawson and Gray Brechin, University of California Press, 1999
Nice new big book on today's California. The volume roams around the state looking for trouble (which it seems is easy to find around here). Dawson's photographs depict places with a satisfying geometric formality and often a sort of ironic symmetry.
Desert Airliners
John E. Tuhy, Maverick Publications, 1992
Lots of color photos and straightforward text about the five major civilian airliner storage sites in the USA (at Mojave, California; Kingman, Marana, and Tucson, Arizona; and Las Vegas). Interesting stories about individual aircraft (Rod Stewarts's old Vickers Viscount still bears his name as it rots away in Tucson) as well as unusual information about the airline industry, such as the fact that sometimes brand new aircraft are dispatched to desert storage sites where they sit sometimes more than a year before being delivered. Another gem from Motorbooks publishing
Henry J. Kaiser: Western Colossus
Albert P. Heiner, Halo Books, 1991
Written by a former public relations officer for Kaiser Steel, this "insiders view" is full of celebratory tales of the life of one of the "great industrialists" of this century. Anecdotal, but sort of useful.
Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere
John E. Tuhy, Maverick Publications, 1992
The saying "What in the name of Sam Hill?" actually has nothing to do with this guy (it allegedly is a much earlier exclamation), however it fits with the many unlikely edifices constructed by this romantic Victorian visionary of the Pacific Northwest, who made such things as a replica of stonehenge on the Columbia River, near the drive-thru chateau he built for the queen of Romania, and the huge Peace Arch at the westernmost border crossing of the USA and Canada. The book is a satisfying biography of Sam's life and work.
The Corps and the Shore
Orrin H. Pilkey and Katherine L. Dixon, Island Press, 1996
An examination and critique (very negative, of course) of the Army Corps of Engineers attempts to prevent erosion along America's coastline. With case studies of a few East Coast communities battling with the sea.
Bill Mann's Guide to 50 Interesting and Mysterious Sites in the Mojave
Bill Mann, Shortfuse Publishing, 1998
Bill Mann (aka Shortfuse - he's a former explosives distributor), has been exploring the Mojave Desert for over 50 years. He put together this book, volume 1, to tell of some of his favorite discoveries in the desert over the years, which include geoglyphs, petroglyphs, grave sites, ruins, and a few oddities. Each site has directions and geographic coordinates.
On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art, and Place
Lucy Lippard, New Press, 1999
Another far-ranging, contemporary culture cruising odyssey from Lucy Lippard. This one is a follow-up on last years Lure of the Local, and it is an excellent anthology of thinking on the "culture of tourism."