|
Bookclub: "The Great Bridge"
Presented by Marie Arana
Washington Post Book World Editor
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002; Noon EDT
Welcome to the online meeting of The Washington Post Book Club, a monthly program presented by the editors and writers of Washington Post Book World.
This month Post Book World Editor Marie Arana will be leading a discussion on this month's selection, David McCullough's "The Great Bridge." Read this month's review of "The Great Bridge."
Born in Lima, Peru, Arana hails from a long career in books. She currently published "American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood," a memoir about growing up in Peru and the U.S. Before her current post, she was Deputy Editor of Book World for seven years. Previously, she was a vice president and senior editor at Simon & Schuster as well as Harcourt Brace Publishers. Arana earned her BA in Russian literature at Northwestern University, studied Mandarin at Yale University in China, and completed an MA in Linguistics at the British University of Hong Kong. An award-winning book editor, she sits on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, and has served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Marie Arana: Hello, everyone in Cyberland. Marie Arana, here. A little something to get us started:
“If nations annointed historians laureate,” Ed Yoder recently wrote in Book World, “David McCullough would surely be ours. Among our many fine historians, a number of whom maintain, as he does, the narrative tradition of Parkman and Prescott, it’s hard to think of another who has ranged so widely. McCullough has rebuilt the Brooklyn Bridge, redug the Panama Canal, suffered through the Johnstown Flood and, not least, given us fine personal studies of Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman.”
Most recently, he has given us a splendid new biography of John Adams—literally pulling the man from the shadows of history and turning him in the light—allowing us to see the story of our founding years through the bright prism of Adams’s persona.
The Great Bridge has long been a favorite of mine. Why? Because it is a gloriously textured account of a monumentally difficult undertaking. Because it manages to relay not only the intricacies of engineering and construction, but the devilishly complicated politics of the day, the enormous wheelwork of history between the Civil War and the turn of the century, and the very human story of one man, his father, and their vision for a structure that embodied the energy of their time.
It is a magnificent work that reminds us what America is and what Americans value. Hard work. Big plans. A soaring span between two open roads, whose sole function is to connect. Bring together. Unite.
I look forward to chatting with you about The Great Bridge. Please let me know what you think of McCullough’s work in general, and this book in particular.
Baltimore, Md.:
First, thanks to you Ms. Arana, the Washington Post, and to David McCullough for an enjoyable evening on September 17th. What I wanted to know is how much work has been done to the structure of the Brooklyn Bridge through the years to compensate for the traffic of modern times?
Thank you.
Marie Arana: Ah, so you were there. And so you surely will recognize my introductory words as cribbed from my introduction for that evening. It was a lovely event, mainly because David McCullough is as generous as he is gifted. He told so many wonderful anecdotes about the Roeblings and his own pursuit of them.
Among his anecdotes, he told about the changes that the Brooklyn bridge has undergone. All of them to accommodate traffic. Unfortunately, the pedestrian walk, which is an esplanade unmatched in bridgework, is all but gone. Roebling had meant it to be a pedestrian's bridge, to be enjoyed at leisure, but it is now clearly all zoom-zoom.
Arlington, Va.:
Is this book non-fiction or a fictionalized account of the building of the bridge? Does it explore the life of Paul Roebling and are there any other books on the same subject you'd recommend?
Marie Arana: This is adamantly nonfiction. McCullough used primary sources, going back to unearth papers all but lost to the public eye.
It explores the life of John Roebling, his extraordinary genius as an engineer; his original design for the Brooklyn bridge; his horrible death; and the subsequent adoption, by his son Washington A. Roebling, of all the subsequent construction work.
It's quite a story.
I honestly don't know of another work on the bridge that could approximate it. Does anyone else out there?
Arlington, Va.:
Have you ever thought of doing a D.C.-themed bookclub year. Books about the city? By local authors?
Marie Arana: What a marvelous idea.
No I hadn't thought of this.
What struck me at the Special Book Club Event on 9/17, at which McCullough spoke, was how many people stood up and identified themselves as born in Brooklyn, or former Brooklyn residents. Perhaps we could do the same, at least in a few selections, for Washington. I'd love to have suggestions from any of you out there for possible books that would be naturals.
Somewhere, USA:
When will they make the book into a film?
Marie Arana: Oh, boy. This would be a doozy. Sort of like Cheops building the pyramids, I imagine. (Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra?) The film would be enormously expensive if it were to deliver on the sturm and drang of all the engineering conundrums, the hoisting, the plunging, the deaths, the drownings, the many personages parading through.
Lenexa, Kan.:
Ms. Arana,
It's fun thinking of our young bilinguist--once tricked (kindly) with the blue toy telephone--off in the Orient learning a 3rd lang. and turning to "The Great Bridge" to combat homesickness (the "bridge" metaphor important in her later writing and speeches).
I remembered Ken Burn's Brooklyn Bridge some and knew the story was replete with drama but had forgotten how drama-packed till reading McCullough's book. It's a fascinating story. I enjoyed esp. the illustrations and the masterful way the engineering was presented. Just wondering: How much of your father's MIT aptitude did you inherit? Did he read the book?
I assume the Special Event was a big hit. Did McCullough speak about his Ken Burns experience? Also, I heard him say on C-SPAN2 that he's fallen in love with the 18th cent. and his next book would likely be there (he likes a lot of primary sources). Are you privileged to know where he might focus? Thanks much.
Marie Arana: Ah, you are too kind. The writer here refers to my memoir, "American Chica," which described life with my Peruvian engineer father, etc. In fact, my father built bridges, but not glorious ones like the Brooklyn or the Verrazano. His structures went up over the deep ravines of the Amazon jungle or the gorges of the Altiplano. But I suppose it was he who instilled a love of engineering in me.
I first read The Great Bridge back in the 1970's when I was living in Hong Kong. It gave me great satisfaction to read about America in such an energetic age.
washingtonpost.com:
Transcript: Award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns was online Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 to discuss his work, the remastered broadcast of "Civil War" and the upcoming new PBS series "Ken Burns American Stories."
Washington, D.C.:
Why was this book chosen as a selection for the bookclub and how far in advance do you know what books will be read each month?
Marie Arana: Thanks for this question. We usually select our books anywhere from 4-6 months in advance. The only rule is that they be in print. We are not persuaded by publicists, prizes, bestseller lists. The editors and writers on Book World's staff choose the books they love.
And there you have the reason why I chose The Great Bridge.
It's a book I love. I love it because it gathers in so much history. Where can you read in one place about: Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Chester Arthur, the Roeblings, America coming out of the Civil War, America going into the industrial age. It's all pretty terrific and McCullough makes it all sing.
Somewhere, USA:
Would you say that The Great Bridge should be an American classic?
Marie Arana: Good question.
You know, I had occasion to peruse E.Hirsch's latest edition of Cultural Literacy, which is his list for "educated Americans." That is, if you call yourself educated, you should know all the things he lists. He does not list the Brooklyn Bridge. He does not list John or Washington Roebling.
I was struck when I saw that rather extraordinary lacunae. The bridge, at one time, was considered one of the Wonders of the World. The energy that went in to building it was nothing short of astonishing.
Yes, is the answer, this book should be a classic of American history. At least, in my humble opinion.
Baltimore, Md.:
This is more a statement than a question. David McCullough is a master story teller who can bring history alive better than anyone else. He's one of America's national treasures. I don't believe there is any other book, either in print or out of print, that tells the story of the Brooklyn Bridge quite like "The Great Bridge". Also, I understand that the book event you did with Mr. McCullough is to be broadcast on Book Tv (C-Span2) this sunday evening (September 29th) to those who may be interested.
Marie Arana: Oh, how nice to know when the C-Span date for this is. I myself did not know it. Thank you for sending this along.
McCullough is an interesting fellow, is he not? Here's a little information on his background: (taken from my intro at the Special Event with DM)
McCullough was born in Pittsburgh in 1933, one of four sons of an electrical supply wholesaler. His father was a salesman, a natural storyteller, and it was perhaps from him that McCullough inherited a love of story, of politics, a sense of drama, and a touch for the telling detail, that tiny filament of connective tissue that draws a listener in.
As a young boy, McCullough loved to paint and attended Pittsburgh’s Shady Side Academy believing that some day he would become an artist. He still paints landscapes and finds great pleasure in creating canvases. He started as a trainee at Time-Life, graduating to a job in Sports Illustrated. In 1960, he decided to come to Washington, where he got a job at the United States Information Agency, editing a magazine for the Arab world. It was then he began reading histories and preparing himself for the career that has brought him so much renown.
washingtonpost.com:
Transcript: Award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns was online Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 to discuss his work, the remastered broadcast of "Civil War" and the upcoming new PBS series "Ken Burns American Stories."
Marie Arana: Someone mentioned Ken Burns earlier. Does anyone have anything to add about his Brooklyn Bridge documentary? I myself have not seen it.
Lenexa, Kan.:
Heat-Moon says the best way to view a river and a bridge is to be on and under it. I've been under the Brooklyn Bridge a number of times on the tourist circle-boats. McCullough said the changes made following the 1948 study fortunately "altered the over-all appearance of the bridge very little."
A philosophical question: Circling Manhattan, a tour guide told us to look back at the George Washington Bridge and note the 2nd deck which had been added for six more lanes of cars. It had unmistakenly weakened--some say destroyed--the beautiful Cass Gilbert-lines the bridge once had. Fortunately, Gilbert didn't live to see it. Any Arana "aesthetics wisdom" re the quandary? Thanks.
Marie Arana: There's no question that the changes have altered the aesthetics of the bridge.
Driving over a bridge, of course, has its own satisfactions--that feeling of soaring. But the real, physical pleasure of a bridge is in the walking. The being in the middle. The looking out at the two antipodes connected by the structure. I love your quote of Heat-Moon.
How interesting to bring his name into this: a very different point of view from a historian's. A traveler.
Vienna, Va.:
What other McCullough books do you recommend?
Marie Arana: Yes, thank you for asking this. There are, of course, so many more:
His books include: "The Johnstown Flood," "The Great Bridge," "The Path Between the Seas," "Mornings on Horseback," "Brave Companions," "Truman," and now "John Adams." None of his books has ever gone out of print.
I'm a big fan of Mornings, which is a book about Teddy Roosevelt. He makes TR fairly leap from the page.
Truman, too, is a magnificent book.
Ironically, the book that has won him most attention, and the best sales--quite extraordinary, really--John Adams, is my least favorite. But that's just relative.
All his books are enormously worthwhile.
Washington, D.C.:
I'm sorry I missed such a great event! When is your next one? Do you have to be a Washington Post Book club member? Do you have any get togethers during the week?
Marie Arana: It was a very well-attended do. Almost 1,500 people came, and I should say poor McCullough was swamped. But never mind, you can see it on C-Span this Sunday. See above.
Our next author event is with Joan Didion. Very exciting. Michael Dirda has chosen her "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" as the January selection of the Book Club, and she has agreed to come and put on a show with us.
Please watch our pages for a firm date. And plan to come.
Washington, D.C.:
Hi Ms. Arana -- Wonderful selection. I'm generally a fiction reader, so had to "make" myself start this book. Then, of course, I couldn't stop!
An unrelated question: when is Michael Dirda going to start doing his weekly online chats again?
Thanks.
Marie Arana: Most of the Book Club selections *are* fiction, so it was a rather pleasant surprise to see a sea of faces responding so avidly to this work of history.
One of the marks of a great historian is to see a kind of narrative arc a history book can travel. The story in The Great Bridge turns out to be the story of poor Washington Roebling, his maladies, his challenges, his work in the shadow of his father.
Thanks for asking about Dirda. He's on leave writing a memoir, and I'm greatly looking forward to his return (not to mention looking forward to his memoir!), which will be in mid-October. At that point, he'll be back on our pages in Book World, and up on your screen in online discussions. We miss him.
Maryland:
Why didn't you like John Adams? It's been a top seller and a great book.
Marie Arana: No no no!
I apologize if I made it sound as if I DIDN't like John Adams. I said, I liked it the least of McCullough's many good books.
The portrait he paints of Adams is quite vivid. He is a thorny man who embraced difficulty and conflict. DM's revelations about his relationship with Abigail are quite wonderful. And the contrast with Jefferson, who was, in contrast, manorial, fussy, too compromised by slaveholding--is fascinating.
I just happen to like the other books I mentioned more: The Great Bridge, and Mornings on Horseback. Oh, and I loved The Path Between the Seas.
Lenexa, Kan.:
I found the Roeblings--and wife Emily--to be marvelously talented. As to John A., I can't think of a nicer tribute than being perhaps Hegel's favorite pupil. I also liked Washington for his wit and his poetic expressions: calling Emily "a strong tower to lean upon," and saying "Soon I will be the last leaf on the tree." when his assistants died (improbably) before him.
Ken Burns's quotes from Washington Roebling's Civil War diary in his Civil War piece are tremendous as well. Outraged by the carnage, the young Washington says something like, "Only the buzzards and worms are impartial--feeding on the Blue and Grey corpses alike." Wars seem almost always the promotions of the non-combatants. Your thoughts? Thanks.
Marie Arana: Nice comments. Thank you.
Speaking of worms, W. Roebling knew a little something about them. And not from the Civil War.
Do you remember DM's description of the "teredos" in The GB? Those tiny worms that could bore holes into the caissons? They were diabolical little things, threatening to undo the whole colossus.
Reading your comment about the worms in the corpses makes me think perhaps Roebling was taking an engineer's view of the physical destruction.
Marie Arana: McCullough is twice winner of the National Book Award, twice winner of the Francis Parkman Prize. His rich biography of Truman won him the Pulitzer Prize. For his many achievements, he has been honored with a National Book Foundation Award, the National Humanities Medal, the Carl Sandburg Award, and countless other prizes.
But surely there are other historians out there we favor.
How do you out there think McCullough compares to Edmund Morris, or Joseph Ellis, or Stephen Ambrose.
Do you have recommendations to make?
Marie Arana: Ah, someone has just shot me a private little message to encourage me to talk about the conflagrations of certain contemporary historians, ie. the problems with Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose, who, perhaps as you will recall, were accused of plagiarizing material. And then Joe Ellis, who was accused of making up his military background out of whole cloth.
I'm looking forward to a little book coming from John Lewis Gaddis this fall. It's called The Landscape of History. In it, he promises to consider the current state of American historians. What is their responsibility? Where have been the failures? I'd encourage you to look for it, if you're interested in these questions.
Somewhere, USA:
Ambrose most definitely.
Marie Arana: Yes, Ambrose makes things come alive, doesn't he?
I liked Citizen Soldiers, because I tend to like war stories.
But his Undaunted Courage, about Lewis and Jefferson, was quite a tale. Vibrant--is the word.
Lenexa, Kans.:
I would enjoy Joseph Ellis's "The Founding Brothers" or Kevin Philips's "The Cousins' War" as possible suggestions. NOTE: I'm not sure I have either the names or the titles correct.
Marie Arana: I think you have the names and titles exactly right.
The Ellis book does what McCullough encourages historians to do: Look at the time as if you were a journalist covering it.
History only looks locked when you are gazing back at it. What a good historian must remember, and get across, is that these weren't people standing around thinking how quaint they looked in their leggings and wigs. They were real people, with aches and pains, family issues, nagging responsibilities, fears, and limitations.
Ellis does that.
Arlington, Va.:
Will you be bringing any of the authors online with you for the bookclub discussions?
Marie Arana: I wish McCullough could have come on with me today. Alas, he claims he is a hopeless Luddite. He doesn't even own a computer! Much less do e-mail.
In the future, we'd like to involve authors. Of course, if they are alive!
Stay tuned.
Marie Arana: Thank you all for joining me in discussing The Great Bridge.
The great bridge of today, of course, is this quite phenomenal technology with which we're communicating.
Some day a historian (only in kindergarten now, I suppose) will write about the building of THAT. I only hope he records the events as vividly as McCullough, Ellis, etc.
Please join our next Book Club discussion, hosted by Kunio Francis Tanabe. He will be discussing Shusaku Endo's "Silence," a wonderful book, on Thursday, Oct. 31 at noon.
READ ON!
washingtonpost.com:
That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the
discussion.
Stay tuned to Live Online:
Election
2002: Money & Politics at 1 p.m. ET
Entertainment
Guide: Got Plans? at 1 p.m. ET
"Carter
Beats the Devil" Author Glen David Gold at 1 p.m. ET
IMF
Protests: Metro Transit Police at 1:30 p.m. ET
Barbara
Burtoff: The Apartment Adviser at 2 p.m. ET
Did you know that you can follow more than one Live Online discussion at
the same time? Just open another browser window and toggle back and
forth between discussions! And, if you miss one, catch up with the Live
Online transcripts.
Keep up with the latest in news, sports, politics and entertainment with
washingtonpost.com
e-mail newsletters.
NEW! Personalize your Post with mywashingtonpost.com.
Get customized news, traffic, weather and more.
| |
© Copyright 2002 The Washington Post Company | 
