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Rating: 
Summary: Thomas Wharton's World
Review: Journals are my favorite historical reading. I was amazed at TKW's World - and his view of the final antebellum years in New Orleans.The read is interesting for what it includes and what it excludes. TKW knew and met every major citizen of the time; from Polk to Beauregard to Dr. Barton. You get a very detailed picture of what it was like for a man of the times; his everyday travels and travails. What it excludes is equally interesting - very little on the women he lived with, slavery, Mardi Gras and occupation. The accent is definitely architecture and I found myself scanning - rather than reading - page after page of discussions on bricks and beams. Also, novice that I am, I found two errors (in the footnotes). Still when I reached the end, it was a shock to the system. It felt as though TKW could not deal with occupation - of New Orleans and of his beloved Custom House - and just decided to die. It left me wanting more. A very luxurious book, richly printed with tons of illustrations. Favorite passage: "Some are Americans, but the French predominate, and the difference between them appears to be that the former have a little to say about everything, the latter a great deal to say about nothing at all."
Rating:
Summary: Thomas Wharton's World
Review: Journals are my favorite historical reading. I was amazed at TKW's World - and his view of the final antebellum years in New Orleans. The read is interesting for what it includes and what it excludes. TKW knew and met every major citizen of the time; from Polk to Beauregard to Dr. Barton. You get a very detailed picture of what it was like for a man of the times; his everyday travels and travails. What it excludes is equally interesting - very little on the women he lived with, slavery, Mardi Gras and occupation. The accent is definitely architecture and I found myself scanning - rather than reading - page after page of discussions on bricks and beams. Also, novice that I am, I found two errors (in the footnotes). Still when I reached the end, it was a shock to the system. It felt as though TKW could not deal with occupation - of New Orleans and of his beloved Custom House - and just decided to die. It left me wanting more. A very luxurious book, richly printed with tons of illustrations. Favorite passage: "Some are Americans, but the French predominate, and the difference between them appears to be that the former have a little to say about everything, the latter a great deal to say about nothing at all."
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