The Vagabonds

by Jacob Grimm

3 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

German philologist and folklorist Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm in 1822 formulated Grimm's Law, the basis for much of modern comparative linguistics. With his brother Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786-1859), he collected Germanic folk tales and published them as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812-1815).

Indo-European stop consonants, represented in Germanic, underwent the regular changes that Grimm's Law describes; this law essentially states that Indo-European p shifted to Germanic f, t shifted to th, and k shifted to h. Indo-European b shifted to Germanic p, d shifted to t, and g shifted to k. Indo-European bh shifted to Germanic b, dh shifted to d, and gh shifted to g.

This jurist and mythologist also authored the monumental German Dictionary and his Deutsche Mythologie .

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Roger Smitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guinn’s book gives us an insight into how entrepreneurs and innovators work when brought together. Or, at least, he gives us how it worked in the early decades of the 20th century.

Ford and Edison developed a friendship that lead to an annual shared vacation. What seems strange today is how the two could take two+ weeks to have a vacation using only an automobile. Guinn lets us know that the co-vacations were supported by lots of staff. But, the surprise was that the two leaders of industries could talk to ordinary people as they drove the beginnings of our highway systems.

The book shows the differences between Ford and Edison. Their differences were tolerated, even welcomed. At the same time, Ford’s believed that poor people should get support when there are jobs to be dad. (110)

Some of the pages are difficult to get through when we have plenty of details about the two men, the things they invented and the people they met on their trips. While the book title holds up two famous people, it focuses on Ford. And much of that focus shows his very conservative politics and industrial theory.

We learn the full story about Ford’s decision to pay the amazing (for the time) $5/day to the workers. The wives of these two inventors get only a few pages.

The authors say that the friendships among them and their travels together ushered in a new national lifestyle. (253)

Historians of the early 20th century will like the read as will anyone who is interested in the history of technology.

[Marcia Chocinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in Dayton, OH for several decades and history there includes Charles Kettering and others as the barn gang. Kettering worked for Ford at some point and I honestly thought he traveled with The Vagabonds but he is not mentioned here. When we retired we moved to Western MD to be closer to family in Pittsburgh where we grew up. There I saw a sign in Swallow Falls State Park proclaiming that Ford, Edison and their friends had camped there early in the 20th century. In our travels to the Casselman Bridge and some places we saw other signs. So when I saw this book in our local bookstore I had to have it. It is a well written piece of our history. It is probably more interesting if you are familiar with some of the places mentioned such as the hotels in Pittsburgh and The Summit Inn on top of the very steep grade going south out of Uniontown. My interest is peaked and I wonder if our local library has a copy of Harvey Firestone’s diaries.
Great read for those who enjoy history. Interesting to learn of Fords failure to see beyond his early successes, along with more about Thomas Edison. I was also able to place family members within this historical framework. I know I had great grandparents who were very successful until they lost it all in the Great Depression. Since I also knew that she had/drove her own car way back then, it also made me realize that they were better off than I thought back in the days. You can’t imagine times long ago that you never lived through.