loves a good scenic description

animals and landscapes and plants and weather as they appear in books

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So appalling was the pollution spewing into the Chicago river that the city, with a massive series of canals and locks, reversed its flow: Instead of running into Lake Michigan, the river now defies nature and flows out of the lake in the opposite direction.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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The skyscraping wealth of downtown Chicago was indeed founded on bodies – of cattle and also, let it be acknowledged, of men and women.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Every minute . . . the colors of things became dingier; the fields were grown parched and yellow, the landscape hideous and bare.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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The film's opening scenes depict a land of colonnaded mansions and rolling acres, of cotton fields and magnolia blossoms.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Born in 1899, he started out as a sharecropper in rural Georgia, spending day after day plowing behind a mule. Defiantly he shouted, "I may smell like a mule, but I don't think like a mule."

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Some enterprising local real-estate men saw that the local deposits of iron, coal, and limestone were ideal for steelmaking.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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On the proceeds he purchased one of the best mansions in the South, furnished at the state's expense, and laid out the gardens in the style of Versailles.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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He told one man who wanted a bond issue passed: "I want a pair of horses – good horses, you understand. See that I get them; give me $1,000 to-day and I'll pass the bill."

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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In the cold dawn, it started to rain.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Grant started to insist that only officers could take their horses with them but then he reflected: "I take it that most of the men in the ranks are small farmers, and as the country has been so raided by the two armies, it is doubtful whether they will be able to put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter without the aid of the horses they are now riding."

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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But, as a concession, he said he would allow Southern officers to keep their swords and horses. Lee replied, "This will have a very happy effect on my army" and then added, "The cavalrymen and artillerists own their own horses in our army. Its organization in this respect differs from the United States."

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Next day, the Fourth of July, in pouring rain, Lee started the retreat to Virginia.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Right on they move, as with one soul, in perfect order, without impediment of ditch, or wall or stream, over ridge and slope, through orchard and meadow, and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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The hills are so honeycombed with caves that the streets look like avenues in a cemetery.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Citizens burrowed deep into the clay for shelter.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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Over two days in September 1862 Lee and McClellan slugged it out across the little town of Sharpsburg, Maryland – in rolling farmland, along a stubborn road, and across Antietam creek.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds

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The Unionists rallied and there was bitter fighting in a peach orchard, with pink blossoms raining down in the hail of bullets.

"America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States," revised and updated edition - David Reynolds