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Loading... The Age of Daredevilsby Michael Clarkson
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. There's some great material in this book, but too often it lost me. When it's good, it's really good, but at other times it feels padded. There's enough fascinating detail in here to make it worth your while though, and the subject matter (people going over Niagara Falls in barrels) is irresistible ( ) The story line of The Age of Daredevils pulled me in, I've always admired those in the past brave enough to try the impossible. This book was well researched and is about the Hill family and their escapades and knowledge of the falls. It spans from the early 1900's to the 1950's covering their daredevil challenges with the falls. It made me want to visit the falls, having been there at age 6, I have no memory now so visiting would make this book more meaningful. Although the topic is fascinating, I found the writing style to be dry and the book read more like a travel guide. I wanted more story and less facts, it was just difficult to read. That's why I gave it this rating. An interesting, at times sad, story of the Hill family of Niagara, Ontario, Canada. Beginning with Red Hill, Senior, the Hill family involvement in life on and around the river included studying the waters, exploring the off-the-path treasures of Niagara falls, fishing bodies out of the water, running liquor across the USA/Canada border, riding barrels through rapids and whirlpools, assisting those who dared ride over the falls, and, eventually, riding over the falls themselves. As the history of the family, and those they associated with, unfolds, you find yourself amazed, rooting for them, and wondering why they did what they did. no reviews | add a review
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a small but determined band of barrel jumpers risked their lives in one of the world's most wondrous waterfalls. Only a few survived.By turns a family drama and an action-adventure story, The Age of Daredevils chronicles the lives of the men and women who devoted themselves to the extraordinary sport of jumping over Niagara Falls in a barrel--a death-defying gamble that proved a powerful temptation to a hardy few.Internationally known in the 1920s and '30s for their barrel-jumping exploits, the Hills were a father-son team of daredevils who also rescued dozens of misguided thrill seekers and accident victims who followed them into the river. The publicity surrounding the Hills' spectacular feats ushered in tourism, making Niagara Falls the nation's foremost honeymoon destination, but ultimately set Red Hill Jr. on a perilous path to surpass his father's extraordinary leaps into the void.Like the works of Jon Krakauer and David McCullough, The Age of Daredevils explores the primal force of fear and the thirst for adventure that drive humans to the brink of death to see if they can somehow escape. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)974.799History and Geography North America Northeastern U.S. New York Western countiesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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