Description:
With the same ability to make personalities and events come alive that characterizes his classic Skid Road, Murray Morgan here tells the colorful story of Tacoma, "the City of Destiny," and southern Puget Sound, where many major events of Washington's history took place. Drawing upon original journals and reports, Morgan builds Puget's Sound around individuals, interweaving portraits of well-known historical figures with a raucous parade of saloonkeepers, politicians, union organizers, schemers, and swindlers. His account begins with the landing of Captain Vancouver in Puget Sound in 1792 and ends with the founding of Fort Lewis in 1916. Between are the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, the boom-and-bust of lumber mills, the anti-Chinese riots of 1885, and more distinctive Northwest history that will intrigue both new arrivals and longtime residents.
With a new introduction by historian and historic preservationist Michael Sean Sullivan, this redesigned edition of Puget's Sound brings new life to Morgan's landmark history.
Brief description: Murray Morgan (1916-2000), a journalist and historian, was the author of more than twenty books, including Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle and The Last Wilderness. He worked for Time magazine, the New York Herald Tribune, and CBS News before returning to Washington where he taught at Tacoma Community College and for fifteen years hosted the early morning radio show "Our Town, Our World."
Review Quotes:
"[An] encompassing, timeless retelling of Tacoma's history . . . Today, as it was upon its release, it's seen as both a work of history and a work of uncompromising adoration for the place its author called home. . . . Puget's Sound remains revered in Tacoma, particularly among those with an undying affinity for the city's colorful past."
--Matt Driscoll "Tacoma News Tribune"