Martin W. Sandler Biography

wife's name, Carol.

Addresses

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016.

Career

Writer, educator, and producer of television programs. University of Massachusetts and Smith College, Amherst, MA, taught American history and history of photography; has also taught American studies in junior high and high schools.

Honors Awards

Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, for The Story of American Photography; seven Emmy Awards; two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee; Golden Cine award.

Writings

NONFICTION

The Way We Lived: A Photographic Record of Work in a Vanished America, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977.

(With T. S. Bronson) This Was Connecticut: Images of a Vanished World, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977.

This Was New England: Images of a Vanished Past, New York Graphic Society (Boston, MA), 1977.

(With Sherry Reisner and Steve Schlow) This Was America (television series; also see below), Boston Broadcasters Inc., 1978–79.

The Story of American Photography: An Illustrated History for Young People, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1979.

As New Englanders Played, Globe Pequot Press (Chester, CT), 1979.

This Was America (based on the television series), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1980.

Changing Channels: Living (Sensibly) with Television, Addison-Wesley (Reading, MA), 1983.

American Image: Photographing One Hundred Fifty Years in the Life of a Nation, Contemporary Books (Chicago, IL), 1989.

Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic (screenplay) WETA-TV (Washington, DC), 1990.

Celebrating the American Family, Entrepreneurial Management Co. (Washington, DC), 1992.

(With Deborah A. Hudson, Carol Weiss, and Neil de-Guzmán) Beyond the Bottom Line: How to Do More with Less in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

America!: A Celebration, foreword by Walter Cronkite, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 2000.

Vaqueros: America's First Cowmen, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2001.

Against the Odds: Women Pioneers in the First Hundred Years of Photography, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 2002.

Photography: An Illustrated History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

America's Great Disasters, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Island of Hope: The Story of Ellis Island and the Journey to America, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004.

America through the Lens: Photographers Who Changed the Nation, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2005.

Also author of screenplay and producer for several television programs, including Excellence in the Public Sector, American Image, American Treasure, and The Entrepreneurs.

TEXTBOOKS

(With Edwin C. Rozwenc and Edward C. Martin) The People Make a Nation, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 1971.

(Editor, with Edwin C. Rozwenc and Edward C. Martin) The Restless Americans: The Challenge of Change in American History, illustrated by Judy Poe, 1972.

In Search of America, Ginn (Lexington, MA), 1975.

"LIBRARY OF CONGRESS YOUNG PEOPLE'S AMERICAN HISTORY" SERIES

Pioneers, introduction by James Billington, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Cowboys, introduction by James Billington, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Presidents, introduction by James Billington, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Immigrants, introduction by James Billington, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Civil War, introduction by James Billington, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Inventors, introduction by James Billington, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

"TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA" SERIES

Straphanging in the USA: Trolleys and Subways in American Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Galloping across the USA: Horses in American Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Riding the Rails in the USA: Trains in American Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Driving around the USA: Automobiles in American Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

On the Waters of the USA: Ships and Boats in American Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Flying over the USA: Airplanes in American Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Sidelights

Martin W. Sandler is the author of numerous books about American history, as well as screenplays for documentaries on the same subject. His series include the "Library of Congress Young People's American History" books and "Transportation in America." For the former series, Sandler drew on the archives of the Library of Congress, making use of that organization's many historical photographs and primary sources to teach middle-grades students about the history of the United States. These books span a wide range of subjects, from presidents to immigrants to cowboys, but all are notable for the many photographs and other period illustrations that they contain. This "multitude of illustrations," as Janice Del Negro noted in a Booklist review of Immigrants, "is nicely designed for browsing." A Publishers Weekly contributor also praised the format of Cowboys and Pioneers, calling the books "crisply written, beautifully designed and blessed with an abundance of art" and "a valuable addition to American history for the middle grades."

The "Transportation in America" books cover the entire range of ways that people have gotten around the United States throughout its history, from horses and dugout Martin W. Sandler's Island of Hope introduces readers to the challenges faced by families who left their homelands and braved a long voyage, a new language, and a new culture to find a home in America. (Photograph courtesy of National Parks Service.) canoes through modern supertanker ships, airplanes, and cars. Like the "Library of Congress Young People's American History" series, the books that make up "Transportation in America" contain "many well-captioned photographs, documents, and prints from various periods," Carolyn Phelan noted in a Booklist review of Galloping across the USA: Horses in American Life and Riding the Rails in the USA: Trains in American Life. The books also consider the wider effects of the technologies they discuss, explaining, for example, how the invention of the car made both life in the suburbs and the modern tourism industry possible and how transcontinental railroads helped to tie a younger United States together. The books were generally praised by critics; Driving around the USA: Automobiles in American Life is "brief but entertaining," "logically organized and readable," Jeffrey A. French wrote in School Library Journal, and in the same publication Pamela K. Bomboy described Straphanging in the USA: Trolleys and Subways in American Life as a "fascinating narrative."

Sandler has a special interest in photography; his books on the history of this art include The Story of American Photography: An Illustrated History for Young People, American Image: Photographing One Hundred Fifty Years in the Life of a Nation, Photography: An Illustrated History, and Against the Odds: Women Pioneers in the First Hundred Years of Photography. Photography is an "authoritative history" of the subject, Joel Shoemaker declared in School Library Journal, that is also "compact … engaging and literate." Photography covers the technical side of the process, explaining the innovations that led from the early daguerreotype to digital photography and Photoshopping, and also the artists who worked and work in this medium. All in all, Gillian Engberg concluded in Booklist, this is a "well-done, clearly written overview."

America's Great Disasters combines "dramatic material, archival photography, and an accessible text," Edith Ching explained in School Library Journal, "to create an appealing title." The disasters Sandler covers include the well known, such as the Johnstown Flood in 1889, the Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but also more obscure catastrophes, including the explosion of the Sultana riverboat during the Civil War and the Blizzard of 1888. "The accounts are competently written, ascribing blame, where appropriate, to human greed or negligence," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor, and Sandler also discusses the lessons that policymakers learned from each event. In addition to the educational aspects, America's Great Disasters is a "rousing reading for disaster buffs," John Peters concluded in Booklist.

Sandler is also the author of Island of Hope: The Story of Ellis Island and the Journey to America. The book is similar to the Immigrants volume that Sandler wrote for the "Library of Congress Young People's American History" series, John Peter noted in Booklist, but in Island of Hope Sandler "expands the scope considerably." The book follows immigrants through the steps of being processed at Ellis Island (the major immigrant processing center in the United States from 1892 through 1954), then explains where they wound up once admitted to the United States—living in crowded city tenements, going West to stake their claim on a farm, or working as laborers building the railroads or in other heavy industries. Of particular interest to young readers, noted a Publishers Weekly contributor, is that the book "emphasizes the role of children and teens, who often learned the language and customs more quickly than their parents and assumed great responsibility in families." In telling the tales of these young immigrants and their parents Sandler "seamlessly blends factual information with the moving words and stories of those passing through Ellis Island," Diane S. Marton declared in School Library Journal, making Island of Hope a "lucid, well-composed work."