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March 19, 2007

Old Money, New South

Finally finished Dean Arnold's book "Old Money, New South". In general, it was an absolute blast to read, if you're into the whole Chattanooga history / oligarchy thing.

My only real problem with the book was the author's bizarre need to interject himself and his own family's history into the narrative, despite the stories & anecdotes having absolutely nothing to do with either Chattanooga or families that founded and/or run the City.

While I'm sorry that the author's great great great grandfather was the actual inventor of the "Sleeping Train Car", and that his invention was stolen by George Pullman and Andrew Carnegie, the story of a reputable Chattanooga couple staying in a Pullman car on their honeymoon hardly counts as justification for a multi-page tangent on what should have been called the "Woodruff Car" or the inclusion of pictures of the defrauded ancestor in question.

That aside, the section on Adolph Ochs and the rise of the Chattanooga Times and New York Times respectively is well worth the price of admission. It's a fascinating story, a large portion of which is comprised of anecdotes from Ruth Holmberg, and the author should be commended for doing such a great job digging into the nitty gritty of how Adolph Ochs made his fortune and founding modern journalism.

I still really want to know where he got the $75,000 to buy the New York Times. Now there's the biggest secret in all of journalism!