Rating: 
Summary: So long to 'the good old days'
Review: I purchased this book about a year ago when it was first republished. After reading it, I was amazed that it was ever out of print in the first place. Lesy uses a unique technique to depict what life was really like in the latter part of the 19th century. Was Lesy too focused on finding the negative aspects of life in the local paper? Perhaps, but Lesy was trying to make a point here and he succeded admirably. It is difficult to comprehend today the hardship, dullness and claustrophobia of country life back then. It is small wonder why so many fled to the cities. I hesitate to rate anything five stars but for anyone interested in what life was really like in 'the good old days' this book is indispensible.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid Truth of agrarian White American History
Review: I read this book frequently during the 70's after leaving Wisconsin where I went to college and lived briefly on a farm. The impact has remained with me throughout my life; the devastating loneliness and alienation and great griefs that actually are so much a part of the 'roots' of white America. The spectre of the end of the timeless native american cultures, without a media to sensationalize or distort, were nevertheless traumatic to watch. Especially to people for whom there were few social holding places- in a world plagued and stark. The style of the book with entries from the State Assylum intake log, the local newspapers, some journals and the shocking family pictures, and pictures of the dead, constitutes a multiple fact assault that feels nothing less than gothic fiction.
I don't believe it is possible to get a clearer understanding of the European agrarian foundations of America- and the incipient madness that was never far from the essence of that life. My Antonia is like a fairy tale by comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Forever stuck in my memory
Review: I remember the book from the 1970's, the stark reality of life in Wisconsin during the migration of the industrial revolution into rural Wisconsin Life, and will never forget it. It truly proves that real life is far more bizarre than fiction! One of those books that one would want for their library due to its departure from the mainstream and searing look into the past.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, interesting read
Review: I was able to read this book in one day, and wanted more. Being a former resident of this area of Wisconsin made it even more interesting for me, but all that aside, it was one of the most intriguing books I've read in a long time. The photographs are a wonderful testament to life in that era & locale, if you're a collector of old photographs & post-mortem shots this is a great book for your library. Reading about all of the madness surrounding these people, their bizarre and sad behaviors really makes you think. The author's conclusion really draws it all together for you.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, interesting read
Review: I was able to read this book in one day, and wanted more. Being a former resident of this area of Wisconsin made it even more interesting for me, but all that aside, it was one of the most intriguing books I've read in a long time. The photographs are a wonderful testament to life in that era & locale, if you're a collector of old photographs & post-mortem shots this is a great book for your library. Reading about all of the madness surrounding these people, their bizarre and sad behaviors really makes you think. The author's conclusion really draws it all together for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent history of a people going mad
Review: One of the most interesting and visually disconcerning books I have read for a long time. This book will make you feel uncomfortable but fascinate you at the same time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in hsitory.
Rating:
Summary: A little corner of the world goes mad.
Review: Reading this book was like watching a ten-car pile up in slow motion. At the turn of the century, the bottom dropped out of the local economy in a rural area of Wisconsin. Soon after, local newspapers that had reported nothing more exciting than hog births begin to fill up with stories about arson, murder, madness, and infanticide. Truly creepy.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting book
Review: The author discovered a huge cache of old glass photographic plates belonging to the town's photographer and writer, who, along with his son, published a local Wisconsin paper. One is struck by how such a simple collection of photographs and articles, offered without editorial comment, can be so powerfully affecting. Perhaps it is the haunted, mad eyes of some of the subjects, or the babies in coffins, their images preserved for posterity, or the intermittent reports from the state mental hospital, or the subtle way in which some of the photographs have been altered to emphasize some quality of the image. There is something powerfully haunting about this book - all the moreso since one gets the impression that small-town America of this time must have lived the same way.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent history of a people going mad
Review: The first of Michael Lesy's books, 'Wisconsin death trip' is as harrowing and breathtaking today as when it was first published, back in the early 1970s. Utilizing a veritable treasure-trove of miraculously preserved glass negative plates taken in rural Wisconsin during the period of the 1880s-early 20th Century, and combining them with newspaper clippings and other snippets of local news from the area and era, Lesy has pieced together an amazing (if bleak) view of life in that day and age. Times were hard, and the challenges faced were many and daunting -- anyone bemoaning the state of life in America today should read this book...anyone who wants a truer sense of American history should read this book. You will never forget it. On a related note, readers might be interested to know that this book inspired Stewart O'Nan's great novel 'A prayer for the dying' (also available through amazon.com).
Rating:
Summary: A HARROWING PORTRAIT
Review: The first of Michael Lesy's books, 'Wisconsin death trip' is as harrowing and breathtaking today as when it was first published, back in the early 1970s. Utilizing a veritable treasure-trove of miraculously preserved glass negative plates taken in rural Wisconsin during the period of the 1880s-early 20th Century, and combining them with newspaper clippings and other snippets of local news from the area and era, Lesy has pieced together an amazing (if bleak) view of life in that day and age. Times were hard, and the challenges faced were many and daunting -- anyone bemoaning the state of life in America today should read this book...anyone who wants a truer sense of American history should read this book. You will never forget it. On a related note, readers might be interested to know that this book inspired Stewart O'Nan's great novel 'A prayer for the dying' (also available through amazon.com).
| 
