PRESERVING AMERICA'S PASTby BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN: THIS ARTICLE IS EXCERPTED FROM ''REMAKING AMERICA: NEW USES, OLD PLACES'' BY BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF CROWN PUBLISHERS INC. C 1986, BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN. January 18, 1987(read article)
Introduction to Birminghamby FROMMER'SNovember 20, 2006 Birmingham has come a long way since the 1960s, when the civil rights struggles erupted in bombings, riots, and arrests that drew international attention to this city in north-central Alabama. The pioneer farm settlement of the mid-1850s expanded with the advent of railroads and influence of land barons that helped establish Birmingham as a city in 1871. Fueled by the area's coal, iron ore, and limestone resources, the city earned the nickname the "Magic City" for the rapidity with which Birmingham grew and prospered. Its fortunes waned with the Great Depression in the 1930s, even though the city was largely ruled by wealthy Northern industrialists. (read article)
Introduction to Birminghamby FROMMER'SNovember 20, 2006 England's second-largest city may lay claim fairly to the title "Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution." It was here that James Watt first used the steam engine with success to mine the Black Country. Watt and other famous 18th-century members of the Lunar Society regularly met under a full moon in the nearby Soho mansion of manufacturer Matthew Boulton. Together, Watt, Boulton, and other "lunatics," as Joseph Priestly, Charles Darwin, and Josiah Wedgwood cheerfully called themselves, launched the revolution that thrust England and the world into the modern era. Today, this brawny, unpretentious metropolis still bears some of the scars of industrial excess and the devastation of the Nazi Luftwaffe bombing during World War II. But an energetic building boom has occurred recently, and Brummies have nurtured the city's modern rebirth by fashioning Birmingham into a convention city that hosts 80% of all trade exhibitions in the country. (read article)