History is Not Boring discussion
What are you reading May 2008?
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Duckie
(last edited May 03, 2008 03:55PM)
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May 03, 2008 03:53PM
So what history did you finish up in April and what are you reading in May?
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i just went to the used bookstore today and picked up The Life and Death of Trotsky by Robert Payne (1977) and Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer (2004)
at 50 cents a piece i can't go too wrong
is anyone familiar with these authors?
any good?
at 50 cents a piece i can't go too wrong
is anyone familiar with these authors?
any good?
Mod
I just finished Ottoman Centuries which I enjoyed. It was a good survey history. Lots of battle scenes but that's how they kept the empire alive -- and one of the reasons it went into decline once the sultans stopped leading armies and their troops got restless and outdated.As a fitting conclusion to that history, I just started A Peace to End all Peace about the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and the European involvement in partitioning the Middle East. It covers 1914-1922. I hear it's a good background history to understanding the conflicts of the Middle East today.
I finished Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. It took me almost the whole month to do so. I read two non fiction books afterwards in three days.I am about to start The Presidency of James Monroe by Cunningham, Noble E.
I finished Rounding's Catherine the Great over the weekend. It's a long book, but because it's so well-researched, informative and objective, it was worth the time that I had invested. Arminius, I'm with you on how sometimes it takes so long to read these types of books.I'm switching to some fiction for the next 2-3 weeks, and then at the end of the month, I'm going to pick up a good history book. I've really been wanting to read Team of Rivals, so I might start that one, or I might read another biography. I'll keep you posted.
I've been read Plantagenet history but put them on pause to go to ancient Rome for a while, especially the period from 44 BC - AD 180. I would appreciate any suggestions of your recommended books on that topic.
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Just finished "Into the Wild" by Krakauer, and should be starting "Colonial Ste. Genevieve: an adventure on the frontier" by Carl Ekberg at any moment.
I'm currently finishing off Mussolini and His Generals, covering the period up to Italy's entry into the war in 1940, and I'll be getting into Franco and Hitler shortly. Mussolini is crammed with all sorts of facts, if it's not a definitive work on the subject it comes closer than anything else I've ever read.
Currently reading The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence. I didn't finish it last month. I have made it to the Long March, which is only about halfway.
I would like to say I've learned a lot, but I feel I can't. There is so much in this book, I've already forgotten great portions.
I would like to say I've learned a lot, but I feel I can't. There is so much in this book, I've already forgotten great portions.
i find most times with historical topics
especially books that cover broad eras
i don't retain that much
but over time if i read more on the same topic
it begins to stick
especially books that cover broad eras
i don't retain that much
but over time if i read more on the same topic
it begins to stick
I agree. The first history book on a certain topic just lays the base so that you can build on the knowledge in subsequent books.Plus, it's fun when you read different perspectives on the same events. I finding that right now with A Peace to End All Peace since the beginning of that book overlaps with the end of Ottoman Centuries.
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Just finished Dresden by Frederick Taylor about the Allied bombings in WW2. Just started Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. And I plan to finish off History Wars about the Enola Gay exhibit controversy, which I started in February but got shelved when other books took priority.
hi jessica
what is the enola gay exhibit controversy?
i had an art prof who's father served on one of the launching islands and was then lost in korea years later
the professor painted a series of paintings for the 50th anniversary so i would be curious to hear of any controversy as i assume his artwork is part of the memorial to the soldiers who served
what is the enola gay exhibit controversy?
i had an art prof who's father served on one of the launching islands and was then lost in korea years later
the professor painted a series of paintings for the 50th anniversary so i would be curious to hear of any controversy as i assume his artwork is part of the memorial to the soldiers who served
Goodreader: Hello! The controversy the book talks about has to do with the exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum. In 1995, NASM wanted to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay along with a museum display that also addressed issue surrounding the atomic bomb. The script was controversial in that it steered away from the typical commemorative approach that NASM had employed in the past. There was some concern from veterans' groups that the script wasn't balanced enough and, from there, the proposed display got drawn up into a larger political issue of how to portray American history and culture. In the end the entire museum display was canceled except for the fuselage. So, if you went to NASM today you can see the Enola Gay fuselage on display but there isn't an accompanying feature within the museum.
I'm reading Brutal Journey -- The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America by Paul Schneider. I haven't finished it yet. All I had read before this was the Cabeza de Vaca account. This book concentrates on the beginning of the story, a time only briefly mentioned in the official account written by Cabeza de Vaca. I;m not sure how accurate the narrative is, but it sure is a great story.
listening to THE COLDEST WAR BY HALBERSTAMthe forgotten Korean War - kind of like Afghanistan
today
really good so far
Picking up on Jessica's comment about the political issue of how to portray American history and culture, I can see now where our late and unlamented Australian Prime Minister got his ideas from. Our dull lump of a PM decided that English-speaking dead white males where the best sort of chaps around, so only they and their white picket fences ought to be celebrated.And so we got our History Wars, with one side castigated by the PM's thugs (a term I use with due consideration, having worked with one of them) as having a "black arm-band view", while they were dismissed as suffering from a white blindfold.
What was at stake was the question of whether Aborigines were killed (they undoubtedly were) and whether it was genocide. My belief is that it was not genocide, but that entails making a judgment along a continuum. The white blindfold people claimed that NOBODY was killed, which is farcically stupid: any number of written sources attest to murders that took place.
Anyhow, John Howard decided that he, as a suburban solicitor knew all the good things that needed to be known, and that amounted to a string of dates involving heroic white chaps.
Now he has been swept away, and there seems to be no oxygen available for the white blindfold brigade. We can admit that there were deaths without risking having a grant taken away and such things. Life is good for honest brokers.
OPINION: I don't believe that the US had much choice about using nuclear weapons when it did. It was sad, but it saved lives -- and I have to wonder how long the US public would have been prepared to wear more soldiers being killed. That could have resulted in an "honourable peace" that let the aggressor keep some of its ill-gotten spoils, and that would have been bad for world peace.
Not books but articles:"Of Agues and Fevers: Malaria in the Early Chesapeake"
and
"Heavy Shadows and Black Night": Disease and Depopulation in Colonial Spanish America"
I'm still reading Letters of Robert E Lee! It's a really thick one... may take me through most of summer!
Pam who is reading on Agues and Fevers may appreciate this from Scientific American, May 23, 1857, p. 293. This is available through Cornell University's "Making of America" site as page images and spotty OCR text, good enough for searches only. Go to http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/br... to access it. This is my clean-up from the OCR version."Whether the sun flowers planted in a miasmatic situation will prevent persons who re side in the neighborhood from being affected with fever and ague or not, we personally cannot tell, but others who have tried the experiment have asserted “they will.” Lieut Maury, of Washington, through the columns of the Rural New Yorker, has given his views on the subject. He states that he made an experiment last year with the cultivation of sun flowers as a preventive or protection against ague and fever. At the risk of spoiling a beautiful lawn, he made the gardener trench up to the depth of two a half feet a belt about forty-five feet broad around the Observatory on the marshy side, and from l50 to 200 yards from the buildings. After being well manured from the stable yard, the ground was properly prepared and planted in sun flowers in the spring of l836. They grew finely. The sickly season was expected with more than the usual anxiety. Finally it set in, and there was shaking at the President’s House and other places, as usual, but for the first time since the Observatory was built the watchmen about it weathered the summer clear of chills and fevers. These men, being most exposed to the night air, suffer most, and heretofore two or three relays of them would be attacked during the season; for, as one fills sick, another is employed in his place, who, in turn, being attacked, would in like manner give way to a fresh hand."
Mod
Next up is Love and Louis XIV, by Antonia Fraser. I hope it's a little lighter!
Re-reading "My Li(f)e On the Plains" by G.A. Custer; as well as/accompanied by "Tenting on the Plains" by Elizabeth Bacon Custer.
Elizabeth (Libby) Custer wrote several books about her experiences traveling with her husband, Gen. George A. Custer after she was widowed. They are still available. "Boots & Saddles" is the most popular. As a source of life in the Army on the western plains they are invaluable.
I read Catherine the Great and The Kitchen Boy in May, the latter of which was historical fiction regarding the imprisonment of the last tsar. I just picked up The Flight of the Romanovs, which I really want to read, and I am also interested in Alice, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, which seems to provide a different perspective. One group read that I am in read Weir's Lady Elizabeth, which is historical fiction. I want to read it, but I am thinking about reading Bloody Mary by Carolyn Erickson first so that there is some continuity in regard to that historical period for me as a reader.
Mod
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!
listening to The Coldest Winter about Korean Warvery interesting and informative about 1 of the forgotten wars and how McArthur's narcissism led to a catastrophe and how the civilian leadreship failed to control McArthur
it seems either the military and then the civilain sector deceive the American Public about why it is necessary to go to war or fail to prosecute the war effectively if it is necessary
any good books about thie above?
I am reading 'Our longest days - a peoples history of the second world war' its really interesting and gives a more personal account of the war years in the UK.
Note back to Pam T -- by all means use the "white blindfold" term -- it is common use in Australia, and I didn't originate it. In any case, if it had been mine, if I don't want to share my ideas, I don't post them :-)
