Audiobook12 hours
Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Written by Jean H. Baker
Narrated by Laural Merlington
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this audiobook
An English emigre who became America's first professional architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe put his stamp on the built landscape of the new republic. Latrobe contributed to such iconic structures as the south wing of the US Capitol building, the White House, and the Navy Yard. He created some of the early republic's greatest neoclassical interiors, including the Statuary Hall.
As a young man, Latrobe was apprenticed to both a leading architect and civil engineer in London, studied the European continent's architectural and engineering monuments, worked on canals, and designed private houses. After the death of his first wife, he was bankrupt and emigrated to the United States in 1796 to restart his career. For the new nation with grand political expectations, he intended buildings and engineering projects to match those aspirations. Like his patron Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe saw his neoclassical designs as a way to convey American democracy. He envisioned his engineering projects as a way to unite the nation and improve public health.
Building America masterfully narrates the life and legacy of a key figure in creating an American aesthetic in the new United States.
As a young man, Latrobe was apprenticed to both a leading architect and civil engineer in London, studied the European continent's architectural and engineering monuments, worked on canals, and designed private houses. After the death of his first wife, he was bankrupt and emigrated to the United States in 1796 to restart his career. For the new nation with grand political expectations, he intended buildings and engineering projects to match those aspirations. Like his patron Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe saw his neoclassical designs as a way to convey American democracy. He envisioned his engineering projects as a way to unite the nation and improve public health.
Building America masterfully narrates the life and legacy of a key figure in creating an American aesthetic in the new United States.
Author
Jean H. Baker
Jean H. Baker is a professor of history at Goucher College. She is the author of several books, including The Stevensons, Mary Todd Lincoln, Margaret Sanger, and Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Related to Building America
Related audiobooks
The King and the Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh: The Secret Partners Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Founding Fortunes: How the Wealthy Paid for and Profited from America's Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Upheaval Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Volcano: A Man, a Romance, and the Quest to Understand Nature's Most Magnificent Fury Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Insider's History of the Florida-Alabama Coast Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Urbanist: How William H. Whyte's Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelee Disaster: May 7, 1902 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assembling the Dinosaur Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding the First Pyramid: The History of the Ancient Egyptian Religious Beliefs and Archaeology Behind Djoser’s Step Pyramid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemy of Architecture: Memories and Insights from Ken Tate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Election of 1860: A Nation Divides on the Eve of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath the Sands of Egypt: Adventures of an Unconventional Archaeologist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell's Quest to End Deafness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Deluge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Francisco Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden History of Florida Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lone Star: A History Of Texas And The Texans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
United States History For You
Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): An American History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Building America
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews