Rope Walker
Cód:
491_9781735362304
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It sounds like fiction, but its not: in 1884, a tightrope walker with a wooden leg arrived in Corsicana, Texas. He attempted to carry a stove on his back as he crossed, he fell, and the stove landed on him, crushing him. Before he died he refused to give his name or disclose anything about his identity, except to say he was Jewish. His gravestone, in Corsicanas Hebrew cemetery, bears exactly two words: ROPE WALKER. Thats the legend.Now, 137 years later, the man called Rope Walker is finally identified and the truth about the legend and the man revealed.Both a microhistory and historiography, there is a close examination of the fall, a moment in history viewed from multiple angles; an anatomy of a legend; a Rashomon-type report of an actual historical event. The analysis is used in an attempt to solve the real-life mystery -- his name, undiscoverable for many generations. His identity is revealed in the middle of the book, proven with incontrovertible evidence. The true story of the crippled acrobat, it turns out, is just as unusual as the long-standing legend. Sorry, no spoilers here! The final chapters go beyond the legend, beyond newly discovered facts, and beyond the truth to find answers to lingering questions particular to the man and broader questions pertaining to the verification and accuracy of historical accounts.Readers are transported to Corsicana during the Gilded Age and meet the real-life characters who made it their home, all tied somehow to Rope Walker. Many were members of Corsicanas once-thriving Jewish community: merchants and swindlers, bankers and gamblers, and everyone in between.Three appendixes supplement the Rope Walker story, describing Corsicanas synagogues, rabbis, and early Jewish burials. This is not your Zaydes (grandfathers) local history!Rope Walker is supported with numerous endnotes, hundreds of graphics, subject and name indexes, and two maps. Epigraphs are from Moby Dick.History enthusiasts and novices alike will find
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