Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statue of Liberty

The fascinating story of the Statue of Liberty deserves to be told and to be told well, but this author is not quite up to the task. The book lacks lightness of touch and suffers from an over-earnest academic approach.The author has cerainly conducted painstaking research which shows in the amount of detail included. One often wonders, however, whether many minute biographical details of persons often loosely connected to the Statue of Liberty project bear much relevance to the subject matter at hand. There are lengthy passages devoted to the monument's import and meaning supported by numerous quotes - but they often seem repetitious, superfluous or overly didactic.On the other hand, not enough is told about the technical aspects of this magnificent feat of sculptural art and engineering, with some important details missing entirely. Readers do not learn for instance the interesting story of Miss Liberty's torch: contrary to the sculptor's original design, it was made into a lighthouse, with latticed metal-and-glass grid; the gold plated copper skin was only reinstated in the course of the 1980s renovation.The biggest disappointment of the book, however, are the pictures: few and far between, all black-and-white and some of very poor quality. Sadly, not one of the photos included gives justice to the majestic beauty of this unique monument.

This book is a very detailed one. The information provided is absolutely priceless and so are all the references and detailed explanations.It may be a little "too much" if one reads it to have more information about Bartholdi and the Statue in general. If coupled with another book, such as Elizabeth Mitchell's "Liberty's Torch," It can be all you need to know about this great monument and all the minds behind it.

About 200 pages long. The first 100 pages was an EXPLORATION of the CONCEPT of Liberty. The second half of the book was about the statue itself.

Great read! Highly recommend!

The book provides valuable isight as to how and why the Statue came into being. The fact that the statue ever came to America is a sheer miracle and the author's historical review details why. A must read if you want to know the entire story of this iconic creation.