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"Perhaps there was a dim awareness that the industrial age was about to break out of this wild, desolate, uninhabitable wilderness-wholly incongruous, as if Etienne Brule shoud step up to shake hands with Henry Ford. Once again, what modern America had to have in unstinted plenty was waiting here in an abundance beyond anyone's dreams. After it was found and used, everything everywhere would be different. But the setting was strange. The past was still here, and it was impossible to avoid looking at it... " - Pg. 112, 1976 ed. If you find this kind of prose spine-tingling (and I, as a bit of a sentimentalist, definitely do), then this book might be for you. Present in most passages is a well-realized feel for the everyday details of Michigan history, but Catton's greatest strength lies in giving a theme to lives of Michigan's people. His is the "everlasting road" of a land that exists "less for itself than what it leads to"; the "prodigal society" that necessitates self reinvention through self destruction; the ongoing cycles of boom and bust. "Michigan" is highly narrative history, and Catton uses the flexibility of this medium well: he imaginatively frames Michigan's varied economic, natural, and political epochs, infusing these subjects with a unique and imaginative perspective

2022-12-22 20:25