Centennial

Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A. Michener's magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America's past, the story of Colorado--the Centennial State--is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe. In Centennial, trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters are brought together in the dramatic conflicts that shape the destiny of the legendary West--and the entire country. Praise for Centennial "A hell of a book . . . While he fascinates and engrosses, Michener also educates." -- Los Angeles Times "An engrossing book . . . imaginative and intricate . . . teeming with people and giving a marvelous sense of the land." -- The Plain Dealer "Michener is America's best writer, and he proves it once again in Centennial . . . . If you're a Michener fan, this book is a must. And if you're not a Michener fan, Centennial will make you one." -- The Pittsburgh Press "An absorbing work . . . Michener is a superb storyteller." -- BusinessWeek

Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A. Michener's magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America's past, the story of Colorado--the Centennial State--is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe. In Centennial, trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters are brought together in the dramatic conflicts that shape the destiny of the legendary West--and the entire country. Praise for Centennial "A hell of a book . . . While he fascinates and engrosses, Michener also educates." -- Los Angeles Times "An engrossing book . . . imaginative and intricate . . . teeming with people and giving a marvelous sense of the land." -- The Plain Dealer "Michener is America's best writer, and he proves it once again in Centennial . . . . If you're a Michener fan, this book is a must. And if you're not a Michener fan, Centennial will make you one." -- The Pittsburgh Press "An absorbing work . . . Michener is a superb storyteller." -- BusinessWeek

The spectacular story of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a world's fair to mark America's hundredth birthday--and a moment of reckoning for a nation barrelling toward the Gilded Age "Those who were there felt that the wheel of history itself had turned before their eyes." Held at Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia, the extravaganza attracted 10 million Americans--nearly 20 percent of the population, among them P. T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain--and visitors from around the world, including the emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro (who couldn't get enough of the exhibition). On display were inventions that signaled the changing landscape of American life, from the typewriter to the telephone to Heinz Tomato Ketchup. This celebration of America's first century came at a moment when its future seemed more precarious than ever--as big money threatened to overwhelm the government, underpaid workers waged the first national labor strike, feminists demanded rights for women, Native tribes went to war to repel the advancing settlement in the West, and Black Americans struggled to exercise their hard-won freedom. Looming over the fair was the presidential race of 1876--a highly contested election that would determine the fate of Reconstruction and permanently shape the Republican party as we know it today. Fergus Bordewich animates these converging crises through the lives of four protagonists--Rutherford B. Hayes, Alexander Graham Bell, railroad magnate Tom Scott, and sculptor Edmonia Lewis--revealing a country striving to live up to the promise of its founders while bracing for the tidal wave of the twentieth century.

The spectacular story of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a world's fair to mark America's hundredth birthday--and a moment of reckoning for a nation barrelling toward the Gilded Age "Those who were there felt that the wheel of history itself had turned before their eyes." Held at Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia, the extravaganza attracted 10 million Americans--nearly 20 percent of the population, among them P. T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain--and visitors from around the world, including the emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro (who couldn't get enough of the exhibition). On display were inventions that signaled the changing landscape of American life, from the typewriter to the telephone to Heinz Tomato Ketchup. This celebration of America's first century came at a moment when its future seemed more precarious than ever--as big money threatened to overwhelm the government, underpaid workers waged the first national labor strike, feminists demanded rights for women, Native tribes went to war to repel the advancing settlement in the West, and Black Americans struggled to exercise their hard-won freedom. Looming over the fair was the presidential race of 1876--a highly contested election that would determine the fate of Reconstruction and permanently shape the Republican party as we know it today. Fergus Bordewich animates these converging crises through the lives of four protagonists--Rutherford B. Hayes, Alexander Graham Bell, railroad magnate Tom Scott, and sculptor Edmonia Lewis--revealing a country striving to live up to the promise of its founders while bracing for the tidal wave of the twentieth century.