Ann Kramer Hoffer, Twentieth Century Thoughts. Carlisle: The Past Hundred Years. Carlisle: Cumberland County Historical Society, 2001.
This book is not a monograph bur a reflective essay that the author describes as "an introduction to the century" (p. viii). Twentieth Century Thoughts consists of eleven topical chapters devoted to such subjects as the community's photographers, its place makers, its lost landmarks and neighborhoods, business and industry, and institutions. A series of "insights"-poems, descriptions of important events such as Jim Thorpe's wedding, a trip to Alaska, and sports separate the chapters and provide opportunities to address a wider range of activities that defined life in Carlisle at important moments. Hundreds of images capture important buildings, events, everyday occupations and recreations, and the individuals who gave shape to the community in the twentieth century.
Twentieth Century Thoughts is largely a recounting of important people and institutions. The three longest chapters address residential development, small businesses, and industry. Most of the houses depicted, and the neighborhoods that receive the greatest amount of attention are those of the wealthy and upper middle class; the chapters devoted to family-owned businesses and industries similarly describe the owners in detail bur not the workers. Indeed, there is no attention to the jobs and concerns of working women and men, no evidence of labor unrest, and no sense of class conflict. A statement such as "domestic help ... would become part of the family" (p. 79), for example, suggests the perspective of the employer rather than the employee. The lives and livelihoods of black Carlislers also merit greater attention: the only mention of the Civil Rights movement or the emergence of an African American community within Carlisle is an all allusive reference to "the time or racial unrest in the late 1960s" (p. 182.)
But if Twentieth Century Thoughts portrays only the experiences of some of Carlisle's citizens, it suggests a number of important topics that are worth fuller investigation. During the twentieth century Carlisle lost much of its historic identify as a market town for nearby farms: the market house has closed, and the largest event in the old agricultural fairgrounds today is a car show. Downtown also lost its historic function as the retail hub of the county, and the suburbanization of homes, shopping centers, and industries has left the borough with a shrinking population, a declining tax base, and fewer jobs to support its residents. The hospital, once a powerful emblem of community pride, is now owned by a for-profit corporation headquartered in Naples, Florida. Each of these developments reflects the consequences of public policies adopted in Washington or Harrisburg. How Carlisle, and hundreds of small communities throughout the United States, has been affected by these national and state policies, as well as the emergence of a postindustrial economy, is an important but largely unstudied aspect of our recent history.
Most of us are familiar with contemporary descriptions of the near-death experience: the bright light, the tunnel, and the feeling of being "out of the body." Those who have had the near death experience also describe being taken to the other side, only to be told that they had died before their time and that they must go back.