Pam 's comments (member since Dec 10, 2007)

Pam 's comments from the History is Not Boring group.

Thanks to PBS I am having my 3rd Give-Away

This time 2 copies of ...

WWII Behind Closed Doors - Stalin, The Nazis and The West

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Pantheon (April 28, 2009)
ISBN-10: 030737730X
ISBN-13: 978-0307377302

This book ties in with the wonderful BBC/PBS series which I highly recommend. Absolutely fascinating, it discloses many of the previously secret documents that where released from various communist countries in recent years.

http://www.pageinhistory.com

FYI--

The WINNERS of my last contest were drawn by my daughter this morning. (My son ran off to the sandbox and wouldn't come in when called!)

She would like to thank Garp and Sgt.BigG for the chocolate bunnies and sweet yellow peeps. I'm not sure what that means, but those are the names she drew ;p

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By way of a heads-up, I'd like to let you now that because of my crazy contest that I was contacted by a PBS publicist to run a contest for them that ties in to their new TV series... WWII Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis, and The West

http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/

The first show is on the 6th. I have 2 books to give-away. Will get back with you'all on details.

Hi guys!

This Give-away is on my History Blog. The subject though is Walt Whitman. The book is "NOW THE DRUM OF WAR: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War".

I don't know if anyone here is interested in Whitman, his poetry, and family, but I thought I'd check. Personally, I found this book to be a good read. So much so that I got up the nerve to write the publisher. To my amazement they sent 2 lovely hardbacks to give away.

I didn't know anything about the Whitman Family before reading this book. Turns out that each one of them was pretty unique in their own way. Brother George was a Civil War hero. Walt, of course, was a writer/editor and volunteer in the hospitals during the war. And Mother Whitman, it turns out, was a very strong character in her own right. She'd have to be to handle all the family tragedies.

In any case, if you're interested drop on by and say high.

http://tinyurl.com/DrumofWar

Btw, I should say that the rowing book I talked about --the title of which is "Pearl in the Storm"-- turned out to be absolutely wonderful.

I don't read this autobiographical genre generally, but this book turned out to be gripping. Well written.

Terence, what sources does Burns use in his discussion of Romans and Barbarians?

This sounds like a book I might like.

Jim wrote: "Pam wrote: "Sooooo many books, so little time..."

Isn't it a frustrating, but wonderful problem?"

Indeed. The bigger the TBR**, the better.


**to be read :)

Jim wrote: "Mary Roach is an excellent author & I highly recommend her. She has a sense of humor that just hits my funny spot dead ..."

Jim, I have heard of Stiff so now I have a context to put her book in.

Sooooo many books, so little time...

Jim wrote: "I'm reading Spook Science Tackles the Afterlife. Right now, I'm on the sec..."

That sounds interesting, Jim. I'll have to check it out.

I just finished reviewing "Joker One" about a Marine platoon in Ramadi circa 2004. Liked it very much.

And I'm starting "A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean" about the woman that rowed across the Atlantic. So far, enjoying it.

What's odd is that I don't read 'recent history'; but I have been blessed with stumbling over good books recently. Go Figure.

So what are history are you reading?

I tried to find some place to put this post, but alas, didn't see any likely spots except for perhaps Trivia.

In any case, I am giving away 3 history books for the heck of it. Two are recent review copies, and one is a 1961 Loeb of Aristophanes.

I'm not expecting a bunch of entries as it's more or less just for fun and only for my buds here and at LibraryThing.

The other two books are: Alive in Africa, and The Lost City of Z.

If you're interested pop on by. All you have to do is leave a comment saying Howdy. Well... and leave a way to contact you should you win.

http://www.pageinhistory.com

I received two great books. The first was "Now the Drum of War". It's about Walt Whitman's family in and around the Civil War. I like that the book covers all of Walt's family. His brother was quite an amazing officer who managed, somehow, to survive some of the worst of the battles. Walt, of course, volunteered in the hospitals. It is interesting seeing how his experiences play into his writing and poetry.

The other book was "The Lost City of Z". It's about Percy Fawcett. A member of Britains Royal Geographic Society, he was a famous explorer back in the early part of the last century. Anyway, he latched on this notion that there was an ancient civilization lost in the Amazon. After all, he and others did fine signs of ancient roadways and piles of broken pottery out in the middle of nowhere in the jungle. He went in looking for it, and never returned. Hundreds lost their lives looking for him.

The book's got a cheesy title in my opinion. But it's a great, quick read.

Wow. Interesting post, Susanna. Thanks.

I thought the photo was very cool.

The destruction of the statues made me almost physically ill, Manuel. A staggering loss.

And Isabella... do you know if there are any records of what was buried with these individuals. Maybe it's just Sunday laziness, but I can't recall if Herodotus or anyone else ever said what sorts of things were buried with Alexander. And my knowledge of Egyptian historians is too slight to bare mentioning.

I would have to say that the defeat of the French, which made the US so predominantly British in tone and attitude, was the most crucial event that shaped this country. The relationship with the land, and with the Indians in conjunction with religious attitudes were all profoundly effected.

I could have sworn we had a "What RU Reading" thread... but in any case here's another one.

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I just finished re-reading [Mountain Scouting: A Handbook for Officers and Soldiers on the Frontier] for the second time and posted a review on me blog. http://www.pageinhistory.com/

This is an awesomely entertaining book, imo. Published in 1881, it gives all kinds of how-to information on Army field life. Available free on-line.

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Next is... [Alive in Africa:] by [[Dr. William F. Wheeler:]]. This has got to be one of the "prettiest" books I have seen in a long time. Beautiful glossy, heavy pages. Well bound... you name it. Must have cost a fortune to print.

It's about Wheelers recent journeys in the backwaters of Africa.

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Soooo whatcha reading...

I don't know if this is of interest but there were some wonderful unearthings in Greece recently. (Can't figure out how to get pictures to post here. Maybe it's not allowed.)

IMG alt=""... i give up :(

Excerpt:
"The warriors, whose remains have been dated to the late Archaic period, between 580BC and 460BC, were among 43 graves excavated in the latest dig, with the other bodies ranging from 650BC to 279BC."

Sources:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...

Not to be difficult, Lisa (this is a great question btw), but I don't think most journalists do a good job with history. They generally aren't objective enough, nor have a good enough background to put events into perspective, nor to interpret evidence. At least not in the obscure and distanct areas.

But if you had a room full of eager historians, I'd like to see a good write up on what happened to the Cahokian culture and it's predecessors and replacements.

"Caesar's Gallic War" by Olivia Coolidge is very, very good.

Essentially, she retells Caesar's Commentaries through the eyes of one Quintus. It's a wonderful vehicle because it allows her to explain a lot of the background information on Roman politics and warfare without once getting dull.

Unfortunately it's somewhat hard to come by. Perhaps the publisher would let you do photocopies. We did this with some of my classes.

Okay, I can go with this theme.

I HATE any history that isn't at least 100 years old. History of Viet Nam... no thank you. WWI or WWII... ho hum.

Political history bores me to tears. American Revolution... snooze-fest.

I think the problem is that I've got a sociologist streak in me. Don't care much for big leaders. Find the average-joe much more interesting.

What an intelligent comment, Peter. I quite agree with your analysis and am giving you a heads-up that I'm going to "copy of the how and why of historical interpretation and conflict about same.

I'm also going to give you a heads-up that I'm going to "copy and paste" (ie steal) your nice 'white blindfold people' phrase.

Cheers!