Reviews for History of the Philadelphia Brigade

The average rating for History of the Philadelphia Brigade based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-10-31 00:00:00 Fred Pride In the 1830's, Passenger Trains were very bad, uncomfortable and cramped out. People thought this field of business would fail, but then a small cabin boy named George Pullman moved to Chicago to create the Pullman Car Company. The first car he built was the Pioneer for the Alton Railroad. After the Chicago Fire, he founded a town called Pullman, Illinois, where he made more sleeper cars than anybody else – even in Europe they had some Pullman cars. By 1916, passenger trains were luxurious thanks to the Pullman Car Company. The book is good and historical, because it is about the company from the humble 1830's all the way to 1916. The reason I knocked out one star is because of the book being out of date. The Pullman Company had more history to make all the way until 1981 when it was merged by Bombardier. I'd like to read a book about those years too.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-04-07 00:00:00 Mark Caruso In my mind, biographies are supposed to make the subject likable, or if not likable, then at least understandable. If we're not going to learn why the person is who he or she is, why read the book? Even a horrible person can be made understandable, that's why biographies like "The Lobotomist" are amazing. This book is simply a collection of quotes by people who knew Chapman. The author never tries to get into his head. He does paint a balanced picture of one of my favorite Pythons but these are simply surface details. The only depth in the book comes from David Sherlock, Chapman's long-time boyfriend, which makes sense as he knew him best. It's easy to see that Sherlock glosses over Chapman's glaring faults as some do for loved ones. But he did have some insight into Chapman's thought processes at times. The author would have done better had he taken all those hours of interviews and constructed a story out of it. Without a narrative, the book read like what it was: a series of statements made about Chapman, flattering or not, that left a gaping hole where Chapman's personal journey should have been.