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Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies

Ginger Strand

Hardcover | Pages: 337 pages

Rating: 3.84 | 180 Users | 48 Reviews

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Original Title:	Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies
ISBN:	1416546561 (ISBN13: 9781416546566)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Orion Book Award Nominee (2009)

Relation In Favor Of Books Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies

Americans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny, they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power, they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty, they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force while claiming to submit to its will.Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, "Inventing Niagara" traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at Niagara.

From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn, Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis, "Inventing Niagara" shows us how understanding the cultural history of nature might help us rethink our place in it today.

Point Out Of Books Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies

Title	:	Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies
Author	:	Ginger Strand
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 337 pages
Published	:	May 6th 2008 by Simon & Schuster (first published 2008)
Categories	:	History. Nonfiction. Travel. Science. The United States Of America

Rating Out Of Books Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies

Ratings: 3.84 From 180 Users | 48 Reviews

Criticism Out Of Books Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies

There was a lot of history in this book, but I felt that sometimes it was slanted to fit the premise. I had no idea that water levels could be controlled, but some the measures just make sense.

The best example of using history + pop culture to learn. An easy and fascinating read. The perfect travel book for anyone who is going to Niagara Falls, or has been there. It's the story of America, from the British and the French, Indians, the first state park, democracy, the Erie Canal, Harriet Tubman crossing to freedom in Canada and the Underground Railroad, daredevils in the news, the power of advertising, hydroelectric plants transforming society, industrialist greed and corruption, toxic

Wow, there are a lot of interesting things to think about when it comes to Niagara Falls: there's the history of European exploration and conflict with First Nations in the area, the early and continuing history of tourism, the extent to which the Falls as we know them today are a manmade (or remade) creation, the development of hydro power, the terrible pollution and industrial decay wrought by ready access to hydro power, including waste from the area's role in nuclear weapons production.

I really enjoyed her style of writing. I didn't think I'd ever laugh so much reading about Niagara. I'm going to try one of her other books hoping that I'll like it as much.

I'd first heard about this book on the NPR Fresh Air program 26 May 2008; however, it was as a pass-along from my Mom that I finally had a chance to sit down and read it. I visited the Niagara Falls area back in 1999 and remember clearly the disparity between the US and Canadian sides - now, thanks to this book I want to go back to explore the nooks and crannies a bit more thoroughly. Inventing Niagara reads a bit like a Sarah Vowell book - Strand explores the history and sociology of the

Niagara Falls, New York is my birthplace and where I spent the first thirty years of life. Immediate reaction: 1. Pretty decent for a non-native. 2. Obvious non-native because she goes deep enough to give a direct mention to Viola's, but an oblique mention to my own family's now-defunct business. Which was a heck of a lot more...iconic...than Viola's.But that's clearly personal. The Wall Street Journal reviewed this book favorably and I agree. She gets Niagara Falls right, in all of its