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New River Press/Barking Cat Books
Rhode Island: A Genial History
Rhode Island: A Genial History
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The greatest crime a history teacher can commit is to bore students. And it takes real talent to do it. Now, math can be boring. Unless the lab ends up in smithereens, so can chemistry. Helminthology (the study of parasitic worms): Take it or leave it. But history — never!
This book is a tribute to that. How can it not be with a subject like Rhode Island! Ours is a state with more history than many places ten times its size, a state with more characters than a Dickens novel, a state with more heroes and villains than a TV cop show and, when it comes to politics, a state with more special effects than a Spielberg film.
And who better to tell the story in their own breezy way than two longtime Rhode Island journalists, both old friends of mine, who witnessed the latest years of that history first-hand, one from the newspaper end and one from in front of the news camera. They wrote this book not because they had some academic need to “publish or perish,” but simply out of love for our state and its rich historical experience.
The core of the book is taken from the series of prize-winning newspaper articles Paul F. Eno wrote for the Rhode Island Historical Society to celebrate the state’s 350th anniversary in 1986, while I was executive director there. Now revised and updated, they form the main chapter material. Emmy Award-winning journalist Glenn Laxton’s contribution, a result of his long research and great respect for our common experience, helps us peer into corners of our history that even I had never heard of. Both authors bring a humanity to the tale that is too seldom seen even in popular historical writing.
So whether you’re a native or a newcomer, read, learn and enjoy! You’ll be surprised, enlightened and entertained. And if you happen to be a history teacher – this book is your big chance to avoid a life of crime.
Albert T. Klyberg, Director Emeritus, Rhode Island Historical Society
This book is a tribute to that. How can it not be with a subject like Rhode Island! Ours is a state with more history than many places ten times its size, a state with more characters than a Dickens novel, a state with more heroes and villains than a TV cop show and, when it comes to politics, a state with more special effects than a Spielberg film.
And who better to tell the story in their own breezy way than two longtime Rhode Island journalists, both old friends of mine, who witnessed the latest years of that history first-hand, one from the newspaper end and one from in front of the news camera. They wrote this book not because they had some academic need to “publish or perish,” but simply out of love for our state and its rich historical experience.
The core of the book is taken from the series of prize-winning newspaper articles Paul F. Eno wrote for the Rhode Island Historical Society to celebrate the state’s 350th anniversary in 1986, while I was executive director there. Now revised and updated, they form the main chapter material. Emmy Award-winning journalist Glenn Laxton’s contribution, a result of his long research and great respect for our common experience, helps us peer into corners of our history that even I had never heard of. Both authors bring a humanity to the tale that is too seldom seen even in popular historical writing.
So whether you’re a native or a newcomer, read, learn and enjoy! You’ll be surprised, enlightened and entertained. And if you happen to be a history teacher – this book is your big chance to avoid a life of crime.
Albert T. Klyberg, Director Emeritus, Rhode Island Historical Society
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