Overview

In this work, Flexner chronicles the lives of three men, all striving to invent the first steamboat, and shows the pattern of their interwoven fates. In his introduction, Flexner profiles his first protagonist, John Fitch, as ""an archetypal wild man of genius ...born to create what would not be accepted, to fight man and God for what he considered justice, and in the end, destroy himself"". Fitch's rival and enemy, James Rumsey, was ""A backwoods gambler, suave and humorous where Fitch was torrential, Rumsey was also (but how differently!) self-destroyed"". Enter Robert Fulton, an inventor born to succeed, with whom the tale of ""anguished pioneering"" ends. Flexner paints the final hero as an able and cynical opportunist who became ""rich, socially elevated, and down through the generations, famous"".

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9780823213764

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aThe answer to the question awho invented the steamboat?a makes exceptionally good reading. Flexner recounts steps that led to the steamboat as an accomplished fact, and recreates the living personalities of Fitch, Rumsey, and Fulton as they reacted to the times, their environment, and the inventive urge within them.a

GCGBPThe answer to the question GCywho invented the steamboat?GCO makes exceptionally good reading. Flexner recounts steps that led to the steamboat as an accomplished fact, and recreates the living personalities of Fitch, Rumsey, and Fulton as they reacted to the times, their environment, and the inventive urge within them.GC[yen] GCoLibrary Journal

The answer to the question 'who invented the steamboat?' makes exceptionally good reading. Flexner recounts steps that led to the steamboat as an accomplished fact, and recreates the living personalities of Fitch, Rumsey, and Fulton as they reacted to the times, their environment, and the inventive urge within them. -Library Journal

A judicious approach to the controversy of the steamboat, and the careful evidence and deliberate objectivity enlightens the strange history of our greatest scientific contribution. Was it Fitch, the misfit, who constructed the boat which made its first run in ?? Fitch' ?? the final time but not first time but not the second, but gaining greater political and financial support who made the famous steamboat run which was him fame at the ?? Worthwhile approach for young ??. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

James Thomas Flexner is a National Book Award Laureate; recipient of a special Pulitzer Prize Citation; winner of the Society of American Historians' Parkman Prize, the gold medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for ""Eminence in Biography."" James Thomas Flexner has won a Special Pulitzer Prize Citation, a National Book Award, and a Christopher's Award for his four-volume biography, Washignton: An Indispensable Man. A foremost man of letters, Flexner has written with equal distinction in the fields of American history, biography and art.

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