tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64245917613162625522024-03-18T06:50:06.842-04:00The Histocrats' BookshelfWe are experienced educators and history enthusiasts who share the joys of experiencing history and ways to bring that joy to the classroom.Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.comBlogger206125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-80204921791910610852024-03-15T04:59:00.495-04:002024-03-15T04:59:00.136-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts March 1 - March 15, 2024<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSraI4sRGqTFHTUELUHAmF_9ogQi-WR52ufHjO2j-XAc6KCpvguhdFx8g8d_9hyz-9O56QQLtpoirqmXKt4NE_xqGmWkNV0lVP1MBnveBWJhWI9zCxQovgZvWVRW4VQvm5uXu_aE2L0Ms-5n58fJnAWryiczI-gRLGHqtW3r861vkagG9pGJiYBpaGQ/s1530/Image-8649.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSraI4sRGqTFHTUELUHAmF_9ogQi-WR52ufHjO2j-XAc6KCpvguhdFx8g8d_9hyz-9O56QQLtpoirqmXKt4NE_xqGmWkNV0lVP1MBnveBWJhWI9zCxQovgZvWVRW4VQvm5uXu_aE2L0Ms-5n58fJnAWryiczI-gRLGHqtW3r861vkagG9pGJiYBpaGQ/w283-h400/Image-8649.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cnDnPY4NhNw" width="320" youtube-src-id="cnDnPY4NhNw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Audiobook preview</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers From Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta --- and Then Got Written Out of History.</u> Howell Raines. Crown, 2023. 576 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Again, I feel misled. I thought I was getting book about a really fascinating and overlooked piece of Civil War history, the role of anti-secession southerners in the Civil War. It's a great premise. There were notable pockets of white resistance to the Confederacy throughout the South. West Virginia actually broke from Virginia in order to remain with the Union, and there were sizable groups of people in North Georgia and North Alabama who opposed secession. Some southern men actively resisted the Confederate conscription laws. Some actively resisted by harassing Confederate officials and military units tasked with rounding up draft-dodgers and deserter. Some provided assistance to escaped Union prisoners and soldiers trapped behind Confederate lines. Some men actually chose to don Union uniforms and fight for the Yankee "invaders." It's a subject that I would love to learn more about.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Alas, this is not the book for that. It purports to be about the First Alabama Cavalry, USA, a unit of over 2,000 men from the northeastern corner of Alabama that General William T. Sherman hand picked as his personal bodyguard unit. He tasked them with setting up and protecting his personal encampment on the March to the Sea, and they often rode point -lead - on the March itself. It is a story that should be told, and, until recently, it is a story that was intentionally covered up by so-called Alabama historians and archivists. THAT'S the story I wanted to read, both the story of the unit and of the cover-up.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Instead of that, I got what appears to be a growing genre: books written by retired or unemployed southern-born "journalists" that purport to be historical, but they're really memoirs that lay out how awful the South is and was and how their families were and are historic outliers, always proudly standing on "the right side of history." And seemingly every other paragraph includes a damnation of Donald Trump and "red-state Republicans." (How many books would never have been written if Trump had never run for President? My guess is lots and lots.) I was listening to this book and had to quit after about a third of the way through, after learning nothing about the First Alabama, except that they existed and they came from the area around Winston County. What I learned was the political views of the author and his family. I don't read history for lectures about 2024 politics, and I couldn't care less about his politics.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9W-ffo2y_HbdBV6oDvw4zfG4KCxHYfOc5Sz46A1idm6OZSUifjW90MdjHk-iNSUI1KzAw4xTWsT4d17HKFDJNaKYcKTK60cGa8qCjl7_Nb5cldLCmMaomihVD-fbNrTLQ9a-Lt9eiVRgWP0dMyo3aatIWIKaaTfBM9LLpcCbRblrv4m2wu5LtRHf-A/s1530/Image-3573.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9W-ffo2y_HbdBV6oDvw4zfG4KCxHYfOc5Sz46A1idm6OZSUifjW90MdjHk-iNSUI1KzAw4xTWsT4d17HKFDJNaKYcKTK60cGa8qCjl7_Nb5cldLCmMaomihVD-fbNrTLQ9a-Lt9eiVRgWP0dMyo3aatIWIKaaTfBM9LLpcCbRblrv4m2wu5LtRHf-A/w283-h400/Image-3573.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BrhjCubftkU" width="320" youtube-src-id="BrhjCubftkU"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Preview of Secrets of the Dead: A Samurai in the Vatican City, PBS</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Samurai.</u> Shusaku Endo. Harper and Row. 336 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unfortunately, this is another book I didn't finish. Shusaku Endo is considered a great Japanese novelist, and <u>The Samurai</u> is considered a classic. A few years ago, I slogged through another of his classics, <u>Silence</u>. I tried again, and I've decided that maybe I'm not cut out for Japanese fiction, and Endo specifically.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The problem is the pace. It's so slow and and spiritual. Not my cup of tea. I would prefer a more historical book about the real story. In this case, <u>The Samurai</u> is the fictionalized story of Hasekura Tsunenaga, a Japanese Christian samurai who traveled as an official ambassador to the Americas and to Europe from 1613 to 1620. Tsunenaga was well received in Spain and by the Vatican. It's a really interesting story, and there was an episode of PBS' show "Secrets of the Dead" (preview linked above) about the mission.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Endo's fictionalized version moves so slowly, and it's focused more on the samurai's personal spiritual journey than the diplomatic one. Again, not my cup of tea, but I'm sure there are many who would appreciate the read.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTnUrkLa3_FHO5zggfIRoCp4_g_5UpKJEp08sCmO3x5T_tB-2ZVybIzb_tyb3R5i_i0Zwp_tAuMoM-EGrj4WDw43D04hZl6JhyxFBamQbI2ACjbZyoUgLXpv3AR1AYsW6P1B09bfVDlkJOhY251oyWrEVIldXK2Ig7hKRvIBS8w_GtHyRKV4Kq6tsIQ/s1242/FullSizeRender_98780cc0-95bd-4d87-b837-8d03ead2cddb_1242x.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1242" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTnUrkLa3_FHO5zggfIRoCp4_g_5UpKJEp08sCmO3x5T_tB-2ZVybIzb_tyb3R5i_i0Zwp_tAuMoM-EGrj4WDw43D04hZl6JhyxFBamQbI2ACjbZyoUgLXpv3AR1AYsW6P1B09bfVDlkJOhY251oyWrEVIldXK2Ig7hKRvIBS8w_GtHyRKV4Kq6tsIQ/s320/FullSizeRender_98780cc0-95bd-4d87-b837-8d03ead2cddb_1242x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LAPmDKnBRYc" width="320" youtube-src-id="LAPmDKnBRYc"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.</u> James McBride. Riverhead Books, 2023. 400 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In recent years, James McBride has published two of the most highly acclaimed and popular novels of the century: <u>Deacon King Kong</u> and <u>The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.</u> I'm of two minds when I read McBride. On one hand, I can easily see why they're so popular. The reader is set down in an incredibly rich world populated by some of the most complex and fully developed characters and storytelling that has ever been published. It doesn't matter who the reader is, black, white, northern, southern, the world that McBride reveals is foreign and strange, and, yet, it is so inviting. On the other hand, McBride's writing is so detailed and complex that his books can seem to drag. Like Faulkner, he seems to have an aversion to ending sentences. Some tangents seem to go on too long. Every scene has to have pages and pages of backstory, sometimes reaching back generations. One would not ask McBride to write a technical manual or anything else that requires bluntness or directness.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Heaven and Earth</u> is set in the 1930s in the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown Pennsylvania. Chicken Hill is predominantly black with a few dozen Jewish families mixed in. The groups tend to keep to themselves, but the nexus is a Jewish couple named Moshe and Chona. Moshe owns a theater, and he brings in jazz, blues, and klesmer musical acts, drawing black and Jewish audiences to Pottstown, to the chagrin of white Pottstownians. Chona runs the grocery store on Chicken Hill, never making a profit because she always extends credit and gives away candy, toys, food, and merchandise to anyone in need. Women gather at the store to gossip and problem-solve. Moshe and Chona's lives are changed when they take in a deaf black orphan boy to protect him from being committed to an asylum. His plight soon involves lots of Chicken Hill's most vivid characters, and it's entwined, somehow, in the mystery that opens the book. In 1972, police uncover remains of an unknown person murdered in 1936, and the mystery is solved at the end of the book, but not until the reader is totally immersed in the lives of the people of Chicken Hill. It's amazing writing.</div><div> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI02niTqqgUJsC_WEyVD-Wq8pHVjOoCyvSIs3AncIJmKKGnnuqjxjZ621dJJuaLtjpN8kOCEve_sm9yZoCL_aSMt0U6VgA_JzHh7VIlPoi6dBwObPlXBKGxcM2Alp2jQGdXbgXbjR2zR0hKpPMqXReMKR3smh63rMMF-fLlQVA-yJulnb1hqE1aZVPgA/s1530/Image-5568.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI02niTqqgUJsC_WEyVD-Wq8pHVjOoCyvSIs3AncIJmKKGnnuqjxjZ621dJJuaLtjpN8kOCEve_sm9yZoCL_aSMt0U6VgA_JzHh7VIlPoi6dBwObPlXBKGxcM2Alp2jQGdXbgXbjR2zR0hKpPMqXReMKR3smh63rMMF-fLlQVA-yJulnb1hqE1aZVPgA/w283-h400/Image-5568.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mq2wDpvh9sk" width="320" youtube-src-id="mq2wDpvh9sk"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">author talk</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Tropic of Stupid</u>. Tim Dorsey. William Morrow, 2021. 368 pages. (Serge Storms novel #24)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is my third Serge Storms novel written by Tim Dorsey, the Godfather of Florida Man fiction. Serge, you may remember, is the Florida native who is an absolute fanatic about Florida's history and environment. He travels around Florida with his perpetually stoned traveling buddy Coleman. Along the way he geeks out - like no history lover has geeked out ever - traveling from site to site and explaining the historical significance of each to Coleman and to the readers. Along the way, he rights wrongs by kidnapping, torturing, and killing in bizarre ways an assortment of swindlers, crooks, and criminals who have hurt some poor innocents --- sort of a psychotic, homicidal maniac Robin Hood. I see Serge and Coleman as a demented version of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the super-genius dog and boy who travel through time as Mr. Peabody teaches Sherman history. Dorsey filled each Serge Storms novel with lots and lots of true Florida history, human and natural, lots of true Florida Man and Woman stories, and lots of humor.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In <u>Tropic of Stupid</u>, Serge and Coleman make the rounds of Florida's State Parks, visiting many to collect stamps in Serge's Park Passport book. Each visit becomes a lesson on the park's history. Meanwhile Serge decides to use a DNA service to work on his family tree. He discovers the stories of several ancestors, allowing Serge to hold forth on sponge diving, turpentining, and cigar rolling. However, a savvy Florida state investigator is also investigating Serge's family tree, having discovered that his DNA has similarities to DNA found at crime scenes connected to a cold case serial killer. Is she on Serge's trail? You have to read the book to find out.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0WKVXZYv08AgBWwnOzYyuG4_BizhJBN9yiVs9lwjQQ8j4pbjXGdgUqHmI6bp29WOhtdTRYM93ha1LLtVOxl-LiRhhCr4J9c6oa2UPYR9wlaq_Seo8WniLdsR-74wCgkC81AkVlWk9GtWiZ9oZd08PUjbQ4I8RJX-nplGQM7jvPhFNlW4NurmbZ1SAA/s1530/Image-1307.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0WKVXZYv08AgBWwnOzYyuG4_BizhJBN9yiVs9lwjQQ8j4pbjXGdgUqHmI6bp29WOhtdTRYM93ha1LLtVOxl-LiRhhCr4J9c6oa2UPYR9wlaq_Seo8WniLdsR-74wCgkC81AkVlWk9GtWiZ9oZd08PUjbQ4I8RJX-nplGQM7jvPhFNlW4NurmbZ1SAA/w283-h400/Image-1307.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/50GvR1h0vNk" width="320" youtube-src-id="50GvR1h0vNk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive</u>. Philippe Sands. Knopf, 2021. 448 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On one level, it's a love story, the story of the marriage and love between Otto and Charlotte Wachter, just two people who stick together despite multiple affairs and attractions to others (on both parts), held together by their mutual fervent, undying, and never repentant devotion to Nazism. Otto was committed to the Austrian Nazi arty from its beginning, and he was a leading organizer of the failed Nazi coup to take over the Austrian government before Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Hitler). He joined the SS and rose to high ranks as an administrator of occupied eastern Europe, highly regarded by SS head Heinrich Himmler and other superiors. He oversaw the establishment and operation of Jewish ghettos and of deportations, and he was linked to multiple instances of the mass murder of civilians. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Declared a war criminal, he evaded capture by the Allies until 1949, when he died in a hospital in Rome. How did he escape capture? Like hundreds, if not thousands, of other war criminals, he escaped via ratlines. "Ratlines" is the term used to refer to the formal and informal complex web of underground escape routes by which these murderers escaped capture, adopted new identities, and lived the rest of their lives usually in Europe or eventually South America. The Cold War began as WWII ended, and the Americans and Soviets immediately began collecting Nazis whom they thought might be useful scientifically or in the intelligence realm. There were also many Nazi sympathizers who saw it as their duty to protect the criminals. And there were vast international organizations who knowingly aided thousands of war criminals to escape, including the Red Cross and the Vatican.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In this book, Sands attempts to unravel the ratline that kept Wachter safe for four years. He works closely with Wachter's son Horst, who gives him unprecedented access to Otto and Charlotte's papers and letters. Horst himself becomes a sad character, maintaining until the end (still alive at 84) that his father, whom he doesn't even remember, was innocent, "the good Nazi," despite all evidence to the contrary.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-7440696449729614592024-02-29T05:00:00.382-05:002024-02-29T05:00:00.363-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts February 16 to 29, 2024<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqAAutr20sxenj9Yn_34P-6_Bx-nN0TiIG-mYn55JuRN9q320yA0DMInyYmNvoIIigGvneTykMc_Yx-aREZUF1HNOlVhuc5Cq62BxsWP13d0buCDmF_Hv2KEN0KlDtwrfvTPtyw_2kuS06MSLMW94MCGpGksgSVQeYVzUEpXs41RZrBkDpB1XCUkBHA/s1530/Image-9663.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqAAutr20sxenj9Yn_34P-6_Bx-nN0TiIG-mYn55JuRN9q320yA0DMInyYmNvoIIigGvneTykMc_Yx-aREZUF1HNOlVhuc5Cq62BxsWP13d0buCDmF_Hv2KEN0KlDtwrfvTPtyw_2kuS06MSLMW94MCGpGksgSVQeYVzUEpXs41RZrBkDpB1XCUkBHA/w283-h400/Image-9663.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LyyjT7iQsm4" width="320" youtube-src-id="LyyjT7iQsm4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Audiobook preview</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Naked Came the Florida Man</u>. Tim Dorsey. Serge Storms book 23 of 26. William Morrow, 2020. 336 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tim Dorsey is considered by readers and writers of Florida-based fiction as the master, maybe the creator, of "Florida Man" fiction, writing outrageous, unbelievable stories of Florida's unbelievable characters. Following Tim Dorsey's death a few months ago, I read his first Serge Storms novel. While I liked it and recognized some great writing, I wasn't sure about his leading character. I just read the 23rd Serge novel, published in 2020, <u>Naked Came the Florida Man,</u> and I found it much more enjoyable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Serge Storms is an incredible character, an anti-hero. He is an obsessive, misanthropic, schizophrenic, homicidal psychopath, but he has a very strong sense of morality and justice, in his own way, if that makes any sense. He absolutely loves Florida, its history, its nature, and its people - at least those people who don't violate his moral code. He constantly shares this love and knowledge with his drugs-and-alcohol-impaired traveling companion, and thus with the readers. Are you familiar with the animated duo Mr. Peabody and Sherman? Well, picture Mr. Peabody as a homicidal psychopath and Sherman constantly doing drugs. But it's funny and entertaining, I swear! Serge Storms books are great fiction for history lovers, especially lovers of Florida history. Dorsey's books are packed full of real history and information; they're like Florida guidebooks. His most outrageous plot elements and scenes are often based on actual Florida events and people. I've learned lots of tidbits of Florida info and about sites that I've added to my list of places to visit. It's obvious that the character of has developed over the course of Dorsey's books, and I want to read more.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiq-nFyLhncMYawPRJvKSZ0UqhLmK45xRXKO-F6SelkwABS2-nft0AaEcJVQmxlCPjNehlT6PhHFqHL_GeRuQttJZ-o9WBygIt203J3ZfFUmhB5hbxuKSLkbN3sBVIHCoHx9dlQ0ZyBlfzh8FIDGnx_JvxdHcrPSWRqhRdR41D0QXj1eW2_AFh9hiDtA/s1530/Image-9530.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiq-nFyLhncMYawPRJvKSZ0UqhLmK45xRXKO-F6SelkwABS2-nft0AaEcJVQmxlCPjNehlT6PhHFqHL_GeRuQttJZ-o9WBygIt203J3ZfFUmhB5hbxuKSLkbN3sBVIHCoHx9dlQ0ZyBlfzh8FIDGnx_JvxdHcrPSWRqhRdR41D0QXj1eW2_AFh9hiDtA/w283-h400/Image-9530.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0vLm3MVtWNE" width="320" youtube-src-id="0vLm3MVtWNE"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><u>The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession.</u> Michael Finkel. Knopf, 2023. 240 pages.<div><br /></div><div>Author Michael Finkel is attracted to seriously narcissistic and manipulative sociopaths and the stupid women who love them, and he forms relationships with them, starting with hand-written letters, that result in them telling all to him. I'm not sure what that says about him, but it makes for incredibly interesting books, like this one.</div><div><br /></div><div>Picture an art thief, and you probably pictured an egomaniac stocking a private vault with works for his own viewing like in the movies. Or maybe you picture brazen robbers sneaking in at night and defeating high-tech security measures. Or maybe armed men tying up guards and slashing paintings from their frames like in the Isabella Gardner Museum heist in Boston. I bet you would never in your life picture a lazy, spoiled, unemployed-and-living-on-handouts, twentysomething Frenchman named Stephane Breitwieser. Nevertheless, over about 10 years from the 1990s into the early 2000s, Breitwieser and his girlfriend stole about 300 pieces of art from over 200 museums across Europe, with an estimated value of $2 billion. They chose mostly local and regional museums with little to no security, bought tickets, and stole in broad daylight, often with guards or visitors in the room. His intent was never to sell and make profits. They displayed the art in the attic bedroom they shared over his mother's house, purely for their own pleasure. The acts and how they were committed is incredible enough, but then when you read what happened to the art and how European courts have treated the pair (and Breitwieser's mother), your mind will be blown. Equally mindblowing is the sheer scale of art theft in the world and how little stolen art is ever recovered.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiLC9y7arSALclFNc-frfIg8n6aYllXpHJIA-KS55usn2Te3pg-fuizPEmlPpeBTmTSzr4KD63bqtgKs6qiWvE7KKBxJWcpfJV7q9ze2Dw5UGcS1hK01onuKqVSbB3n3IeO9Qvs_UIrmBe6vDsD4xus072HDo0KUCZBQanR8Fb86UUd8Ws7ZZeCS4A-w/s1530/Image-2370.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiLC9y7arSALclFNc-frfIg8n6aYllXpHJIA-KS55usn2Te3pg-fuizPEmlPpeBTmTSzr4KD63bqtgKs6qiWvE7KKBxJWcpfJV7q9ze2Dw5UGcS1hK01onuKqVSbB3n3IeO9Qvs_UIrmBe6vDsD4xus072HDo0KUCZBQanR8Fb86UUd8Ws7ZZeCS4A-w/w283-h400/Image-2370.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GT3ecv01xDE" width="320" youtube-src-id="GT3ecv01xDE"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Mothership lands. Live, Houston, 1976</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><u>...And Your Ass Will Follow.</u> George Clinton. Audible Original, Words + Music, Volume 39.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you love music and audiobooks and are an Audible subscriber, you may have already discovered the "Words + Music" series there. Each volume is about two hours long and features a particular artist discussing his/her life and work, complete with lots of music samples.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This particular volume features legendary funkster George Clinton who blended everything from doo-wop and soul to funk and rock and sprinkled in bits like songs he heard at friends' bar mitzvahs to create the one and only Parliament-Funkadelic sound, becoming one of the most influential and sampled artists in history. He talks about the musical influences that literally surrounded him growing up in his New Jersey neighborhood where he interacted with diverse people and cultures and knew people famous and becoming famous from Sarah Vaughn to Dionne Warwick to the Shirelles. He talks about his own musical journey from assembling a group in junior high to rejection by Motown to the Mothership. It's a fun ride. Check this one out or look for your own favorite artists on Audible.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLOPvQHsrGgezhsWE0Hesb1PyYrB1vqn-Stl8g1VWtiqa_Z6OJVCPEDmVKr2YMFP8x7U2YAa-v4HrsE7w65gLy_IiubTAkyxsgYcCPbzBH3fHea1Z1b314KVx33LKYEyLA4r1-IFRpyInbl98bRdiKRN8Ti1EyounXegmuwFZUggd8KRqzvZiMXCFrXQ/s1530/Image-1408.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLOPvQHsrGgezhsWE0Hesb1PyYrB1vqn-Stl8g1VWtiqa_Z6OJVCPEDmVKr2YMFP8x7U2YAa-v4HrsE7w65gLy_IiubTAkyxsgYcCPbzBH3fHea1Z1b314KVx33LKYEyLA4r1-IFRpyInbl98bRdiKRN8Ti1EyounXegmuwFZUggd8KRqzvZiMXCFrXQ/w283-h400/Image-1408.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-6V-0DK6aoA" width="320" youtube-src-id="-6V-0DK6aoA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York.</u> Francis Spufford. Scribner, 2017. 320 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's November 1746, and a young man named Richard Smith arrives in New York City from London. He has no connections in the colony and seemingly no business, but he does have a line of credit worth a thousand British pounds sterling, almost 2,000 pounds in New York currency (or whatever crazy mix of paper, coins, and trade goods New Yorkers call currency at the time), an absolute fortune. He's very guarded and secretive about his background and his intentions. He's also a little off-balance himself, having to adjust from the huge metropolis of London to the small backwater town that New York was in comparison. His strange and closed-mouth character instantly raises red flags among the New York merchants and politicians that he meets. Who is he? What does he want? Is the money real? Is he a con man, a criminal? Does he plan to use his money -if it exists - to involve himself in the unsettled commerce and politics of the city, on one side or the other? These are all questions that the author leaves hanging in the readers' minds for most of the book as well, only providing answers at the end, and the answers are genuinely surprising, once revealed. The ending was impossible to predict, but not too incredible or crazy to accept.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Spufford is a British author who has written several nonfiction books, and this was his first novel. It won several awards and paced on several Best lists. It's a very interesting depiction of colonial New York. <u>Golden Hill </u> is kind of in the picaresque genre, like <u>Tom Jones,</u> <u>Joseph Andrews</u>, and <u>Candide,</u> rollicking adventures of a rough, dishonest, but likable hero, complete with romance, intrigue, and swordplay. However, like <u>Candide,</u> Richard Smith is not dishonest, just naive. Or is he? The reader really doesn't learn the truth until the end. It's a fun adventure.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-7519361841157551052024-02-15T05:37:00.260-05:002024-02-15T05:37:00.143-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts February 1 to 15, 2024<p> </p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWPvOosrlyHWOSLgcy2X2BQOBgvwLpsdCmxOOC3HgEm_LFkCypCLiwrauEt3ejk0BXd54bMQ9R6pDxDVPdwsMG4LJg2hYV_VHUNb4OGm_rPgWCKp1Te5xc2MZyMDb_w2F65IHl56IJozw3d0B8oYCoq23bl3EAuhhAJqOaAcguljkgDkF0N6COHSEwEQ/s1530/Image-8538.png"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWPvOosrlyHWOSLgcy2X2BQOBgvwLpsdCmxOOC3HgEm_LFkCypCLiwrauEt3ejk0BXd54bMQ9R6pDxDVPdwsMG4LJg2hYV_VHUNb4OGm_rPgWCKp1Te5xc2MZyMDb_w2F65IHl56IJozw3d0B8oYCoq23bl3EAuhhAJqOaAcguljkgDkF0N6COHSEwEQ/w283-h400/Image-8538.png" width="283" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mbm6dzOeSnc" width="320" youtube-src-id="Mbm6dzOeSnc"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Author Talk</span></div><p></p><p><u>The Auburn Conference: A Novel.</u> Tom Piazza. University of Iowa Press, 2023. 199 pages.</p><p>Imagine that it's 1883, and you are in the audience for a "writers conference," whatever that is - no one has ever heard of one before. Some of the biggest literary and cultural icons on 19th century America are the event's participants: Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. Their stated mission is to discuss not only the craft of writing, but also America, its present and its future. The thought of such an event is enough to excite any history buff.</p><p>Well, the Auburn Conference never happened, but author Tom Piazza created it in this novel. He dreamed up the conference, gave voice to the above mentioned historical figures, and included a couple of fictional panelists: a Confederate general and "Lost Cause" apologist and a popular romance novelist. There are even a couple of surprise appearances by other historical figures. He captures their personalities and uses their speeches and thoughts as commentary not only on America in 1883 but present-day America. </p><p>I am often leery of historical fiction and alternative history fiction (and, sadly, more and more historical non-fiction) when the author endeavors to force 21st century sensibilities into historical events and onto historical figures, usually to push the author's own personal point of view. In spite of what seemed to me to be a slow start, the novel turned out to be interesting, and the personalities and discussions were well crafted. However, the audiobook version that I listened to was kind of a disappointment. The narrator's voice was like that of a 1930s radio melodrama actor and got on my nerves. I had a quibble with the author as well. The story is told by multiple narrators, and the narrator frequently changed abruptly and without warning (at least in the audiobook version), taking me several sentences sometimes to figure out who was speaking. All in all, the book leaves the reader with questions about the true character of America, questions worth thinking about in 1883 and in 2024.</p><p></p><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVhT5o3fGvHCm57gAdxbOk16qiqutzlbJ7OBa5myXaYGID3vshwaHLQ-EcHEgcLhtemichiufvn92aDeGs4eBttCR09w3HnodjROXFa45tDUNCvyD4q7jdM2r3UrZG2YL74B0HzlpRnj389Qs5afpaeWmG_dIRxuJDH-dYRYz-bDT8LhE_3kKhocoMg/s1530/Image-5176.png"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVhT5o3fGvHCm57gAdxbOk16qiqutzlbJ7OBa5myXaYGID3vshwaHLQ-EcHEgcLhtemichiufvn92aDeGs4eBttCR09w3HnodjROXFa45tDUNCvyD4q7jdM2r3UrZG2YL74B0HzlpRnj389Qs5afpaeWmG_dIRxuJDH-dYRYz-bDT8LhE_3kKhocoMg/w283-h400/Image-5176.png" width="283" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mKfL8qu288M" width="320" youtube-src-id="mKfL8qu288M"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">Author Talk</div><div><br /></div><div><u>On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe.</u> Caroline Dodds Pennock. Knopf, 2023. 320 pages.</div><div><br /></div><div>First, kudos to the longest "Introduction" in publishing history. It has set a record. It went on and on and on and on. Why? Basically so that the author could explain, justify, and apologize for all the word choices that she made because the language of writing history is so triggering these days.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, this book is by no means thrilling, exciting, suspenseful, or a page-turner, but it is groundbreaking in a major way. There are lots and lots of histories of European contacts with indigenous Americans and the African slave trade and the African Diaspora, but this book is unique because it literally takes the opposite direction. From 1492 to the early 17th century, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people from the Caribbean and the Americas were taken to Europe, mostly to the Iberian Peninsula. Some were captured and enslaved, some volunteered or were sent by their rulers, maybe in hopes of receiving benefits for their people or for themselves. Some never returned home, some did, and some made multiple trips back and forth. Some were treated cruelly as property, some were presented as ambassadors in royal courts, some become affiliated with religious orders, and some used European laws and courts to fight for their freedom and equality. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pennock has scoured archives and contemporary accounts to present the stories of these people, those who moved between two worlds. It's a fresh and necessary perspective.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYf9todAp3dqxS0xTRJrCKjTOltuycvA8aGmY1KTDTnFPK7Ns8dKXM6ycITRnFXEnPqsIZssrIlPWB8FTelkGYkEHMFAievgNtEnKABwRw-qr00ilDbE_xmOUtC8bi2dnd8orYhAGJhM1GEaR8iNgkd9Kg10D_qGEH5pkDZuc_qSp0B2QH3QT7CDjQiQ/s1530/Image-7149.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYf9todAp3dqxS0xTRJrCKjTOltuycvA8aGmY1KTDTnFPK7Ns8dKXM6ycITRnFXEnPqsIZssrIlPWB8FTelkGYkEHMFAievgNtEnKABwRw-qr00ilDbE_xmOUtC8bi2dnd8orYhAGJhM1GEaR8iNgkd9Kg10D_qGEH5pkDZuc_qSp0B2QH3QT7CDjQiQ/w283-h400/Image-7149.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>A Life in Red: A Story of Forbidden Love, the Great Depression, and the Communist Fight for a Black Nation in the Deep South</u>. David Beasley. John F. Blair, Publisher, 2015. 224 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During the 1920s and 1930s, maybe as many as million Americans called themselves Communists or leaned toward the principles of communism, attracted by the promise of economic equality. It is not at all surprising that a large number of black Americans were drawn to communism, not only for economic equality and opportunity, but also for the promised racial equality. Jim Crow laws, lynchings and racial violence, and racial discrimination were ubiquitous throughout the United States, and, in the 1930s, the hardships of being black in America were exacerbated by the Great Depression, the rise of the KKK and racist demagoguery, and the racist implementation of the New Deal. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Communist Party of the Soviet Union worked to capitalize - pun intended - on the situation by inserting agents on college campuses and in black neighborhoods to recruit and to promote communism. Some promising organizers were educated and trained in the USSR and then returned to the US as paid agents and agitators. Some even saw their ultimate goal as the creation of a black state in the Deep South, following a violent revolution if necessary.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Herbert Newton was one of those black agents. Along the way, he met and married Jane Emery, the white upper-middle class daughter of a former national commander of the American Legion. His activities got him beaten, arrested, and indicted for promoting insurrection in Georgia for passing out party literature. An insurrection law in Georgia at the time (struck down by the US Supreme Court in 1937) made that activity a capital offense. For her communist beliefs and for marrying a black man, Jane was committed to a mental institution by a Chicago judge. <u>A Life in Red</u> makes the most of limited information to depict the lives of the couple, including their friendship with author Richard Wright, who lived with them for years. Jane served as a sounding board and inspiration for many of his works including <u>Native Son</u>. Not a great book, but not bad. 3/5 stars.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdS1oCRkTB_IGk7tvZLqfN5UqqJDy86gVzL8jeQzS7wkYMk4NYGUYUCxQ3WLJWu_5PwLJlrWXD4qW0PXaPgxCOwkDYpQkHw-kyjAh4LVwmO_IUS3SawkCHrCBmiOkeJ1OFtIjmSfhxi3QJBvvxepRLT3soL6KZYWcO9E2eKhXBS5QizNF0bpYqt3Y7sg/s1530/Image-4874.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdS1oCRkTB_IGk7tvZLqfN5UqqJDy86gVzL8jeQzS7wkYMk4NYGUYUCxQ3WLJWu_5PwLJlrWXD4qW0PXaPgxCOwkDYpQkHw-kyjAh4LVwmO_IUS3SawkCHrCBmiOkeJ1OFtIjmSfhxi3QJBvvxepRLT3soL6KZYWcO9E2eKhXBS5QizNF0bpYqt3Y7sg/w283-h400/Image-4874.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kBj7ubbWmR8" width="320" youtube-src-id="kBj7ubbWmR8"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"I Have Seen The Future: A Tour of the 1939 New York World's Fair"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War</u>. James Mauro. Ballantine Books, 2010. 432 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I don't know who to blame, the author or the publisher. Most likely the publisher. The title of this book is very misleading, but it was still an enjoyable read. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Forget the subtitle and approach this book as a history of the 1939 World's Fair in New York. The goal was to showcase "The World of Tomorrow" - well, actually, the goal was to make lots of money and bring millions of visitors and hundreds of millions of dollars into the city - when a group of men decided it was time to host a World's Fair that would outshine the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and restore New York City's supremacy. Where? On top of a huge landfill in Flushing, Queens. It was doomed from the start. The country was still in the throes of the Great Depression, the effort got off to a late start, it was difficult to raise money, and the world was on the brink of World War II. Even the weather was a disaster, rain on top of rain. In the end, the fair was a huge disaster, losing millions. The anticipated crowds never materialized. Exhibits and pavilions fell apart as countries fell to the German blitzkrieg. Americans complained that the 75 cents admission was too expensive and that the fair was too high-brow for common folks. Labor unions held construction and maintenance hostage to outrageous demands. Bomb threats became common. Power went out, and rides malfunctioned. Issue piled on top of issue. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">James Mauro's book is an interesting and thorough account of the history of the fair, from the first idea of it through closing day. The title should have stopped there. I assume the "Genius" referred to is Albert Einstein, who is a bit player in the story at best, and could have been left out entirely. I'm not really sure what "Madness" refers to. And the "Murder" doesn't really show up until the last quarter of the book. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Maybe the publisher's idea was to market the book as another <u>Devil in the White City</u>, but the book falls short, mainly because the story is just not there, and Mauro is no Erik Larson. Still, it's a good companion read. If you enjoyed <u>Devil</u>, you will probably like <u>Twilight</u>, as long as you lower your expectations just a tiny bit.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-25025967206109206502024-01-31T05:17:00.566-05:002024-01-31T05:57:43.242-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts January 16 - 31, 2024<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGJidRg_KLkU6FhD1Ca5B1zlCGHiZb9AKbfxIKSMFUE5c65kPx9-1soNSb9uAhCVgoF-t0pSpGUn2BZzh7B3if_QNqQ2R9a9i0p-X2sWGRzu-0as7s4Zm52IMiVAMioNeqSY2pf9uFpn9gr8d-i0pWNrrC0nB6cbmajc91h0H3EjMQMR9gPhSn2wYTuQ/s1530/Image-9181.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGJidRg_KLkU6FhD1Ca5B1zlCGHiZb9AKbfxIKSMFUE5c65kPx9-1soNSb9uAhCVgoF-t0pSpGUn2BZzh7B3if_QNqQ2R9a9i0p-X2sWGRzu-0as7s4Zm52IMiVAMioNeqSY2pf9uFpn9gr8d-i0pWNrrC0nB6cbmajc91h0H3EjMQMR9gPhSn2wYTuQ/w283-h400/Image-9181.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7bWekMNDfT8" width="320" youtube-src-id="7bWekMNDfT8"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Devil In A Blue Dress Trailer 1995</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Devil In A Blue Dress</u>. Walter Mosley. W.W. Norton, 1990. 220 pages. Book 1 of 15 Easy Rawlins novels.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Walter Mosley has been one of the hottest names in crime fiction since at least the publication of the book in 1990, but I'm only now getting around to reading <u>Devil,</u> the first in his series of novels centered on Easy Rawlins. Easy, the nickname of Ezekiel, is a Houston transplant to Los Angeles in 1948. He's working and has bought a small house, living a life that attracted many black southerners to California during the Great Migration and WWII days. Then, he loses his job and finds himself involved in a complicated mystery involving a powerful and wealthy man who has absolutely no qualms about using violence and hires Easy to look for a woman on the run. She's on the run in LA's black neighborhood, where Easy would have easier access. The story is a page-turner, and Easy Rawlins is a great character. I will definitely be continuing his saga.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQY39dP8B4lBOnfzwXzRBBuWVxcZErL2XG2eb31m6tU5BL7tQqGy8FzOVsf-bUtoq15J9EwoW8ZUGswerQ-eePnA417sEaKiodpWMs-VDPGHgpBhQgJYBoX-YTJAELgWn3hm9zvTtUfT3Fz3QaEPx4IV1gefx9Fpxrwclmo_Yyx8_l2FWzSN8MdQorg/s1530/Image-6913.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQY39dP8B4lBOnfzwXzRBBuWVxcZErL2XG2eb31m6tU5BL7tQqGy8FzOVsf-bUtoq15J9EwoW8ZUGswerQ-eePnA417sEaKiodpWMs-VDPGHgpBhQgJYBoX-YTJAELgWn3hm9zvTtUfT3Fz3QaEPx4IV1gefx9Fpxrwclmo_Yyx8_l2FWzSN8MdQorg/w283-h400/Image-6913.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ewkvV3hj_M" width="320" youtube-src-id="-ewkvV3hj_M"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>All That Is Wicked: A Gilded-Age Story of Murder and the Race to Decode the Criminal Mind</u>. Kate Winkler Dawson. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2022. 320 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the early 1870s, the people living in upstate New York were caught up in an extremely sensational true crime story; Edward Ruloff was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder of a store clerk during a robbery. It wasn't his first brush with the law. Decades earlier, he had been charged and tried for the murders of his wife and baby and suspected of murdering his sister-in-law and her child. Eventually, he served 10 years in New York's infamous Auburn Prison, famous for its strictly enforced solitary confinement and silence rules, after being convicted of kidnapping his wife, but not of her murder.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ruloff was infamous for another reason. He was considered by many to be an academic genius specializing in the study of classical languages, and he spent his life working on a manuscript outlining his earthshattering and brilliant (in his opinion) theory on the origins and evolution of language. Acknowledged classical scholars read his theory and interviewed him. Generally, they concluded that his theory was garbage, but he had an unrivaled knowledge of and talent for interpreting classical Greek and Latin texts. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ruloff was interviewed by scholars, reporters, and alienists - the 19th century forerunners of psychiatrists. His case was iconic because it stimulated debate in the academic, medical, and legal worlds on three major questions?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. How can such a brilliant mind be so evil?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. Was Ruloff too evil to live?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. Would the destruction of such a brilliant mind be harmful to society?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The word psychopath didn't exist in Ruloff's time, but Dawson lays out the characteristics of psychopathy in her book and uses them, and comparisons to infamous 20th century psychopaths, to prove Ruloff's condition, and the importance of his case in creating modern criminal psychiatry. Even after his death, Ruloff was important because his story, and his brain itself, discredited faulty 19th century pseudoscience like phrenology and the racist idea that there were physical differences in the brains of the different races.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Overall, this was an interesting book, that is, until the last few pages when the author decided to do something I absolutely hate. She was telling a perfectly good historical story, but then she couldn't resist throwing in biased political statement twisting and outright lies in order to prove that she is "on the right side of history." That's not why I read the book, and it has no place. </div><div><br /></div> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Q7C2Xu-4eY4ACOm5KSfceWflEg_3SvBsa7b4Uea_90FE3yqAf0oK18hiYOjj-FswpaGixGZgoffhjRFk2uz_p0X5PXIc4BnaavtqkM7sdhzEVurEuLqqq8mH98mzvINmUrBruN-_fcKd7j9yJYfVW7IKHvSKNphlpPyc4vwsxrlIp5T9SXU5ZZGvsA/s1530/Image-962.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Q7C2Xu-4eY4ACOm5KSfceWflEg_3SvBsa7b4Uea_90FE3yqAf0oK18hiYOjj-FswpaGixGZgoffhjRFk2uz_p0X5PXIc4BnaavtqkM7sdhzEVurEuLqqq8mH98mzvINmUrBruN-_fcKd7j9yJYfVW7IKHvSKNphlpPyc4vwsxrlIp5T9SXU5ZZGvsA/w283-h400/Image-962.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3daYQmplHZc" width="320" youtube-src-id="3daYQmplHZc"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia</u>. Christina Thompson. Harper, 2019. 384 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The puzzle of Polynesia has existed for hundreds of years and is three-fold: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. Who are the people we call Polynesians?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. Where did they originate?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. How did they populate the Pacific?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From the initial contacts made by Europeans in the 17th and 18th centuries to the present, scholars, archaeologists, and anthropologists have tried to answer those questions. Christina Thompson published this account of the puzzle and the various theories put forward over the years. While linguistic, cultural, and physical characteristics indicate that Pacific Islanders share many commonalities, they are still a mystery. As Thompson points out, a major impediment is the completely different mindsets of Pacific and European peoples. Pacific Islander history is oral. It is not literal, and it is non-sequential - there is no concept of dates or chronological order as Europeans see time. Over the years, various theories have emerged about their origins, and the theorists have often shaped the oral stories to fit their particular theories. One interesting theory that gained popularity in the 19th century was that Polynesians were "Aryans" - not THAT "Aryan"- originating in central Asia and migrating eastward before spreading across the ocean. Now, 20th and 21st century anthropologists and archaeologists are making new discoveries that challenge previously held ideas. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thompson's book is an interesting and informative history of European contact with Pacific Islanders and the theories that have developed to solve the puzzle, and it hints at just how much more there is to learn.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUerGgtvcgxUzJdMB4pwMhu-1uj1rukqetx_9iNx5kGFT-Y_zaPNnF0eFpXPBMZP8CkzD2306Jxy655hS8MUQ-YJZSRrSLwyB-EqLmjgFnNc1A_x3Mem2uAOiYqDUMLWCxX67VvbV0CwV-aUNBmOUjABdKL0seEYSNup_hcn8pNOx7dTBJ8kJo1Yqz1Q/s2000/1.132.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUerGgtvcgxUzJdMB4pwMhu-1uj1rukqetx_9iNx5kGFT-Y_zaPNnF0eFpXPBMZP8CkzD2306Jxy655hS8MUQ-YJZSRrSLwyB-EqLmjgFnNc1A_x3Mem2uAOiYqDUMLWCxX67VvbV0CwV-aUNBmOUjABdKL0seEYSNup_hcn8pNOx7dTBJ8kJo1Yqz1Q/w400-h400/1.132.png" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSbcDaJTnrdw5lNpxKisdj_TG_OKXWSMy3PEUC1xSWSzXwFezui0ew10zdbntbTdHHLdpQKftMjO99i0Trvblxhj5tUyIiHfoGGPOLhiSJDUoK_F6UP9qgulCkhWfXNXP8wyc1rBp-K7VOGn0AC6URxfTEUKXlwTOMUV8Zz3uF66n-d2XOz81M9gYvw/s4000/1.131.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSbcDaJTnrdw5lNpxKisdj_TG_OKXWSMy3PEUC1xSWSzXwFezui0ew10zdbntbTdHHLdpQKftMjO99i0Trvblxhj5tUyIiHfoGGPOLhiSJDUoK_F6UP9qgulCkhWfXNXP8wyc1rBp-K7VOGn0AC6URxfTEUKXlwTOMUV8Zz3uF66n-d2XOz81M9gYvw/w300-h400/1.131.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Wish You Were Here: Photos From The American South. </u> The Bitter Southerner, 2023. 256 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Bitter Southerner</u> is one of my favorite online magazines. There are always great stories by wonderful writers about the South and its past, present, and future. These are stories about people, places, and things that make the South what it is. Some of the stories are about things familiar to me, to one degree or another, and some are about things that I've never heard of or thought about. They almost always make for good reading.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Great photos also accompany the great stories, and the editors have just released a collection of some of the best photos from the magazine's first 10 years, 2013 to 2023. It's a beautiful book. It was kind of jarring when I first opened it and found that there were no captions and no context at all, just page after page of photos. (The credits and brief captions are listed at the end of the book, but they're still not "captions" by any definition. They tell you nothing about the photos.) Like I said, kind of jarring, but as I paged through I realized that it was the perfect showcase for the photos. The viewer can appreciate the photos as the art that they are. A very few of the people photographed are recognizable; but the vast majority are just people going about their lives, making the patchwork quilt - or crazy quilt ? - that is the South. It's a great collection.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyFnEAQgkZMhipyoy7R1D2fckfKmgScICOq8tk93Y5pNdNkTL_La3qZqk1o-E5PENWUDjvCR3BdNtFdRFR2twuBJ_qfO4DsQxSoR_iD97qIuwRjhvwk9l1PhWfigJTCdFXFmJmATHulATYJsJ5A5Cq1G9HLhwP2daVrGmKE2MD6ntbg2-n8J_UwAOkg/s1530/Image-43.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyFnEAQgkZMhipyoy7R1D2fckfKmgScICOq8tk93Y5pNdNkTL_La3qZqk1o-E5PENWUDjvCR3BdNtFdRFR2twuBJ_qfO4DsQxSoR_iD97qIuwRjhvwk9l1PhWfigJTCdFXFmJmATHulATYJsJ5A5Cq1G9HLhwP2daVrGmKE2MD6ntbg2-n8J_UwAOkg/w283-h400/Image-43.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tsBPkTLYxuo" width="320" youtube-src-id="tsBPkTLYxuo"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author Book Talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.</u> Casey Cep. Knopf, 2019. 336 pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 1977, the Reverend Willie Maxwell was attending his step-daughter's funeral in rural Tallapoosa County Alabama when the girl's uncle pulled a gun out and shot him dead. Reverend Maxwell had become a well known figure in eastern Alabama over the previous decade. He first built a reputation as a handsome, well-dressed man who was often called upon to preach in country churches and at revivals throughout that part of his state. Then, his wife was found murdered in her car on a dark road. Over the next decade, other relatives of the minister died under mysterious circumstances, and, lo and behold, each one had a small life insurance policy in his/her name, with the beneficiary named, you guessed it, the Reverend Willie Maxwell. Alabama investigators were sure that Maxwell was responsible, but they were unable to prove it. Insurance companies fought claims, but they couldn't prove anything either. Meanwhile, Maxwell's neighbors all knew what happened. According to the rumor mill, Maxwell was not only a serial killer committing insurance fraud, but he was also a practitioner and priest of Hoodoo, the peculiar Alabama brand of spiritualism that blended Christianity, with African, Caribbean, and southern beliefs, rituals, and magic. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Author Harper Lee grew interested in the story as it played out in court, and she decided that it would make a great subject for a book. Unfortunately, that book was never published. Casey Cep's book tells the story, but they're actually multiple stories in one, and each story is great. There's the story of Maxwell and the murders, and his own murder. Then, there's the story of Tom Radney, the progressive liberal white Alabama attorney and politician, who defended Maxwell throughout his legal troubles due to the deaths and the insurance claims and THEN defended the man who killed Maxwell. Finally, there's the life of Harper Lee, her personal and professional struggles, and her incredibly complex and interesting relationship with Truman Capote, the childhood friend whose most famous work, <u>In Cold Blood</u>, would probably not have been as successful - or even published, without her involvement. All the stories make <u>Furious Hours</u> a great read.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWqTZaWjZeJzIA8lo1iw2azt9a439S4bCPfm76e4kdg-Qs5UBDk3xlStMrSWqR2wXudtM40QiGWKyCFORjXVkPvbqEM4LIhKo0EA56SkPkTV4LTY1yWXM9d1otEwBhi3k4hqTo_sHIrm9k2lj3Rz1Ej9-_QE4ntwb9n0sMRDXx7bLr7aAHXq5yewsuQ/s1530/Image-1990.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWqTZaWjZeJzIA8lo1iw2azt9a439S4bCPfm76e4kdg-Qs5UBDk3xlStMrSWqR2wXudtM40QiGWKyCFORjXVkPvbqEM4LIhKo0EA56SkPkTV4LTY1yWXM9d1otEwBhi3k4hqTo_sHIrm9k2lj3Rz1Ej9-_QE4ntwb9n0sMRDXx7bLr7aAHXq5yewsuQ/w283-h400/Image-1990.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story From Deep In Africa to the Heart of Paris.</u> Michael Allin. Walker Books, 1998. 224 pages.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I tend to avoid books, movies, and television shows that are centered on animals because, quite frankly, human beings are horrible and frightening creatures, and it seems like most animal stories have cruelty, suffering, and death at their center. I can't stand that. (And yet I read lots of dark human history. I just like animals more than people.) However, I remembered hearing good things about <u>Zarafa</u> when it was published, and it's one of several books about the first "so-and-so" animal to arrive in "such and such" place, usually Europe or the US. These stories are interesting because, in each case, there's usually some cultural impact that surrounds the animal's arrival and makes for a good story.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fortunately, <u>Zarafa,</u> the book, is not all cruelty. There are a couple of pages about how animals like Zarafa were captured (The necessity of capturing them very young means slaughtering the mother, and for every animal successfully transported like Zarafa, several more die in the capture and transport.), and there are a few pages on the importation of animals by the Romans for slaughter in arenas, when thousands of animals may die for the pleasure of the crowds over the course of a few days. Aside from being ripped from her family unit and spending most of her life apart from her kind, Zarafa is fairly well taken care of. Yeah, I know, "aside from all that." It's bad, but not unreadable.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, the story begins in 1826 when Egypt's viceroy Muhammad Ali decides to gift French King Charles X with a giraffe, the first giraffe in France. Following the French Revolution and Napoleon Wars, Europeans returned to Enlightenment ideals, and royals and wealthy individuals began to assemble new curiosity cabinets, museums, and menageries. Collection fever was high. Ali hoped to capitalize on that by currying favor with Charles with the gift of exotic animals. Zarafa was captured, floated 2,000 miles on the Nile, crossed the Mediterranean, and then walked 550 miles from Marseilles to Paris. She became an instant celebrity, drawing crowds, inspiring souvenirs and fashions, and stirring French imaginations.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Author Michael Allin paints a vivid picture of Ali's Egypt and of late 1820s France.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are several children's books that tell the tale and a 2012 animated movie.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-57878243429241482702024-01-15T05:57:00.335-05:002024-01-15T05:57:00.137-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts January 1 - 15, 2024<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZls-Ma5pW2-HSbMuzvS4BSDoGgSYLRTam6KppW0gJvVpcVpxQKG3Z2oYFnAudj1sPofHEjSlmwrGIv7CbPTi_szz4v0VuV_bnE176zQQ3SjLPwPzjL-egCMImClIiJUw3nHFD0WFRJyXOJNI6ms6-JtQvGiznTFZ6JBSJrUBUqBd4npvtYC0qS_vU6g/s1530/Image-6426.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZls-Ma5pW2-HSbMuzvS4BSDoGgSYLRTam6KppW0gJvVpcVpxQKG3Z2oYFnAudj1sPofHEjSlmwrGIv7CbPTi_szz4v0VuV_bnE176zQQ3SjLPwPzjL-egCMImClIiJUw3nHFD0WFRJyXOJNI6ms6-JtQvGiznTFZ6JBSJrUBUqBd4npvtYC0qS_vU6g/w283-h400/Image-6426.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DcB1W6jVbcw" width="320" youtube-src-id="DcB1W6jVbcw"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Book trailer</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://chattingwiththehistocrats.blogspot.com/2023/12/7-questions-with-mb-zucker-author-of.html">Histocrats 7 Questions with Author</a> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Middle Generation: A Novel of John Quincy Adams and the Monroe Doctrine.</u> M.B. Zucker. Historium Press, 2023. 507 pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I first heard of <u>The Middle Generation</u>, my interest was immediately piqued. Historical fiction about John Quincy Adams, probably the most intellectual president ever and one of the most accomplished American figures in history who is unfortunately often placed on lists of worst presidents ever, set during one of the most critical time periods in American history? And it was implied that the book was something of a political thriller, well researched by the author who based it on Adams' personal journals and letters. What a unique idea! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">John Quincy Adams himself represents a major transition between the classical revolutionary America and the America that became a world player. He was groomed for greatness from childhood b his father and revolutionary leader John Adams, acting as his personal secretary by his early teens, bridging generations of American political leaders. He was the first President to wear long trousers instead of knee britches. He was a staunch opponent of slavery and an advocate of industrializing and diversifying the national economy. He envisioned the United States as an equal to the European powers, ready for a seat at the table. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Like his father, though, he was never a politician, and he never had the personality for it. He was blunt, direct, and found social situations and everyday small talk tedious and pointless. In short (pun, get it?), like his father, he was "obnoxious and disliked." Quincy comes off poorly in this book, cold and distant, a terrible father and husband. His constant struggle is to live up to his parents' expectations for greatness and legacy. His wife is portrayed as perpetually miserable, grieving the loss of a child, dealing with Adams' distance, and always overshadowed by her mother-in-law who was a very strong woman and equal partner to husband, yet Quincy never seemed to see Louisa as a real partner. Their children come across as spoiled, entitled, whiny brattish losers who constantly disappointed their parents and grandparents.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Alas, the book is not a political thriller. Instead, it focuses on Adams' service as Monroe's Secretary of State and his role in securing US borders with Canada, acquiring Florida, and negotiating the Missouri Compromise and the Monroe Doctrine. It's kind of like a "West Wing" 1820, mostly debates and discussions with and amongst the President's cabinet, Speaker of the House (and presidential rival) Henry Clay, and various foreign ambassadors. It's interesting if you're a political wonk, but political thriller it definitely is not.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgK2tE6iBNBABy2-Y_xzGq1o0zXZa1vHKk1PAzqV01eQ52eUuNLzlUJj-B4fBn71O5i0buR5LZEK37tgFqiZvErr6gocQdnIn_FPl5-JvmwsJOKxJrS3fQI3NNRi-pQDzvI6dXz4_BUVJSLtXgCD_9PhQwUaBTSLBp4awZvUJVXTXQ74jarW3gElwscg/s1530/atomic.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgK2tE6iBNBABy2-Y_xzGq1o0zXZa1vHKk1PAzqV01eQ52eUuNLzlUJj-B4fBn71O5i0buR5LZEK37tgFqiZvErr6gocQdnIn_FPl5-JvmwsJOKxJrS3fQI3NNRi-pQDzvI6dXz4_BUVJSLtXgCD_9PhQwUaBTSLBp4awZvUJVXTXQ74jarW3gElwscg/w283-h400/atomic.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KrWF4i4GJVc" width="320" youtube-src-id="KrWF4i4GJVc"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A review</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://chattingwiththehistocrats.blogspot.com/2023/11/7-questions-with-robert-deis-editor-of.html">Histocrats 7 Questions with editor Robert Deis</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants: When Men's Adventure Magazines Got Weird (Men's Adventure Library).</u> Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle, editors. New Texture, 2023. 328 pages</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Men's Adventure Magazines were a popular genre of magazines from the late 1940s into the 1970s. Each issue was an anthology of adventure stories, crime tales, and science fiction deliberately targeted at young men seeking an escape from their daily lives. While there were a few true stories, most of the stories were fiction, often very sensationalistic, sexy, thrilling, and violent, often set on battlefields, in jungles, or faraway planets. By today's standards, the tales are in no way politically correct or "woke." They very much reflect the time period in which they were published, and many wouldn't be published today. Although some of the authors never really achieved much fame aside from the magazines, many famous authors contributed stories as well, and the illustrations on the covers and in the stories, created by the leading graphic artists of the day, are every bit as amazing as the stories.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Co-editors Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle began collecting these stories and publishing special editions under the name "Men's Adventure Library." This collection has everything for lovers of fantasy adventure: werewolves, dinosaurs, mad scientists, supernatural, vampires, killer robots, cryptids, and more. I enjoy the collections for the stories and the illustrations themselves but also for both the historical subtext and context, providing windows into another time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA85VQ9h92JXfSFgqG4YBpZIJblhgKJZuYA8ShNA9pWtOBVRTlbWNZdGb5HfDsPkPAsPUCXO54Jg6h0Ujz9YIbFMkl8AHOzDlcQ-xMWscm8BkFq1kv8YR6Nlt6UCxWoDHuDXS3J9_DNWJjuw1b43e2o6PndBIEPpuNJiR4XCYAZLSsLGx7o_FJtCYgnw/s1530/Image-1288.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA85VQ9h92JXfSFgqG4YBpZIJblhgKJZuYA8ShNA9pWtOBVRTlbWNZdGb5HfDsPkPAsPUCXO54Jg6h0Ujz9YIbFMkl8AHOzDlcQ-xMWscm8BkFq1kv8YR6Nlt6UCxWoDHuDXS3J9_DNWJjuw1b43e2o6PndBIEPpuNJiR4XCYAZLSsLGx7o_FJtCYgnw/w283-h400/Image-1288.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WNYumbDiGmQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="WNYumbDiGmQ"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham</u>. Steve Kemper. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. 448 pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Frederick Russell Burnham was one of the best known American men of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a celebrity whose exploits were breathlessly reported by the press throughout North America, Africa, and Europe. He was friends with, and admired by, Buffalo Bill Cody, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Cecil Rhodes, adventure author H. Rider Haggard, Robert Baden-Powell, and some of the wealthiest men in the world with names like Hammond, Whitney, and Guggenheim, just to name a few. He was known as the greatest military scout in the world, typically known by the phrase "The American Scout," having served in the Apache Wars, the Ndebele and Shona Wars in South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the Boer War, and the Yaqui War in northern Mexico in the early 1900s. He amassed huge fortunes for himself, and others, in gold, land, and stocks and then lost them, always in search of the next big bonanza and always having to start over. Lord Baden-Powell was inspired to create the Boy Scouts by Burnham, even adopting Burnham's preferred hat and kerchief uniform as the official Boy Scout uniform; without Burnham, there may never have been a Boy Scouts organization. In his amazing life, Burnham acquired stories that enthralled the world. It was said of Burnham that he was the only man alive who could tell true adventure stories that made Theodore Roosevelt shut up and listen.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And yet, you, like me, have probably never heard of him. I was definitely intrigued when I saw this as an earlier book written by Steve Kemper, the author of <u>Our Man in Tokyo</u> which I enjoyed reading, so I had to read it as well. It is definitely an incredible story about an incredible life, but why is he forgotten now? Well, he is, as they say, problematic. He espoused socialist ideas, but he lived his entire life constantly searching for his next big fortune. He was definitely a white supremacist, and he flirted with the ideas of eugenics. He was a major big game sport hunter, but he became a leading conservationist, very influential in the creation of many national and California state parks and forests. He was never able to sit still for long, always leaving his wife and family for long stretches to go to war or on expeditions. If given the option, he was always pro-war and pro-conquest, constantly decrying the softness and decline of America and Americans. He was definitely an imperialist. He believed that "real men" should always take risks and be willing to die for it. In other words, he was a multifaceted, complicated man that defies simplistic categorization --- you know, human.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFNFUVLKN8-kU49LUDOaOJwFfhIf8AGNpvoGLfSwxjfDwm162r_FeWePCFZ7sXA2seKlHOjzDsmzqM4cMSWDOMre2cf8CNcmeQcjT7R1Nx29nywpCgsKeOzleZJCNNby5i2yPSwYGv52-O-IPW30X_MnEgh0UQN-2TR6rCN6TvpC8w_6mEAWNNiUc_BA/s1530/Image-9520.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFNFUVLKN8-kU49LUDOaOJwFfhIf8AGNpvoGLfSwxjfDwm162r_FeWePCFZ7sXA2seKlHOjzDsmzqM4cMSWDOMre2cf8CNcmeQcjT7R1Nx29nywpCgsKeOzleZJCNNby5i2yPSwYGv52-O-IPW30X_MnEgh0UQN-2TR6rCN6TvpC8w_6mEAWNNiUc_BA/w283-h400/Image-9520.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Story of the Sarasota Assassination Society</u>. Tony Dunbar. Blind Pass Publications LLC, 2022. 248 pages. Book 1 of 3 in Florida Fables series.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During Reconstruction and throughout the late 1800s, the South was roiled by economic and political division and turmoil, and violence and lawlessness often occurred. Hollywood and the American imagination have always romanticized and focused on the Old West during this time, but there's no need to travel that far to taste the wild frontier. Florida was every bit as wild, rugged, violent, and dangerous as Tombstone and Deadwood, with alligators, hurricanes, and swamps thrown in. There were new lands to be claimed, fortunes to be made, and lots of opportunities for people to invent new lives or simply to hide from their old ones.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Author Tony Dunbar has written a three volume series of historical fiction novels focused on the McFarland family of southwest Florida, in and around Sarasota and based on real people and events. Today, people think of Sarasota as a sleepy beach town, populated by old people with rich and famous people living in extremely expensive beach communities, but, in the 1880s, it was a very small fishing community surrounded by dirt poor farmers and ranchers trying to scratch out a living. Still, politics and division invaded, along with greedy developers from the north, and turned residents against each other. The Sarasota Assassination Society was formed, with members calling it a "political association." Members swore oaths of secrecy, loyalty, and obedience, complete with secret handshakes and identifying signs, in order to protect their vision of Florida. The result was murder. Young deputy Gawain McFarland is thrown into the middle of the ensuing manhunt for the killers. It's quite an interesting read and look into historical Florida.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJSu4rDrgcweC2FX6Q_wcYv9k_KblrCe1rdiqnoZm0D0KNBRVIGLGz8_YklU4HLkt9WuM6vQoTDs9-I5fK4smhpwWdA9KrnyqFnI0_IQF9CPYRLtD22EfP5jh6Edmgeu2br_qVtCx7ErxWiBIfgpDqW8tsZORrjdd9C8g4_eiRCA5xcziEa0XPFwWXw/s1530/Image-5420.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJSu4rDrgcweC2FX6Q_wcYv9k_KblrCe1rdiqnoZm0D0KNBRVIGLGz8_YklU4HLkt9WuM6vQoTDs9-I5fK4smhpwWdA9KrnyqFnI0_IQF9CPYRLtD22EfP5jh6Edmgeu2br_qVtCx7ErxWiBIfgpDqW8tsZORrjdd9C8g4_eiRCA5xcziEa0XPFwWXw/w283-h400/Image-5420.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ZVgNAoC9E8" width="320" youtube-src-id="5ZVgNAoC9E8"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author Talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching For James Brown and the American Soul</u>. James McBride. Spiegel & Grau, 2016. 256 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the past few years, author James McBride has published two extremely well-received novels, <u>Deacon King Kong</u> and <u>The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store</u>, but, in 2016, he published <u>Kill 'Em and Leave</u>, a biography, of sorts, of James Brown. It's biography-ish, but it's also a book about McBride's process and efforts to discover the truth about The Godfather of Soul, and along the way McBride also reveals a bit, and learns a bit, about himself. It's a difficult process because throughout his life Brown constantly told different stories to different audiences and made a concerted effort to keep almost everyone he ever knew from getting too close to the real James Brown.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the opening pages, McBride posits that Brown was and is perhaps the most recognized, most famous, and most influential black man to ever live, and he sets out to make his case. It's a remarkable story. Abandoned by his mother (It's still disputed whether she left or was driven away by his father.), at a very young age, Brown was mostly raised by his father's extended family, several female cousins and aunts. He dropped out of school and did a three year stretch in a Georgia youth prison, becoming a school janitor after his release and singing in churches and juke joints in Georgia and South Carolina before becoming one of the biggest names in music. What a life. The spending, the women, the bands, the career. Quirks on top of quirks. Brown never went anywhere without thousands in cash and cashiers checks on him. He, like many old-school black performers, having been cheated before, demanded cash payments before taking the stage. In his Augusta Georgia home, he had a "money room" filled with shoeboxes of $100 bills and wheelbarrows of silver dollars. He frequently gave cash, jewelry, and cars to friends and associates. The IRS came after him, wiping him out twice. Each time, he back. When he died in 2006, his tax troubles were resolved, and his estate was estimated at $100 to 150 million. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In spite of all the tragedies and hardships Brown experienced (in some cases, caused) in his life, the biggest tragedy may have been what happened after his death. Brown's will left everything but personal belongings, about $100 million, earmarked to create an educational foundation for poor Georgia and South Carolina children. To date, none of that money has been used for that purpose. Instead, it has gone to lawyers hired by Brown's various children and wives to fight the will, and the fortune fell to $2-4 million. In 2021, a resolution of sorts was finally reached, maybe, but legal battles continue, and Brown's wishes haven't been met.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was a great read. I really enjoyed it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><br /><p></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-62096163929566067492023-12-29T05:50:00.002-05:002023-12-29T05:50:00.131-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts December 16 - 31, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDTB4nqvOERx68VyzuYQMAMvULRiUIR3BBH2IWgeoXdFrPTktuaXUZK2jHpXE00FPepg1Rx_TT2K_g2bygM1lLpVku2_fKjp45SyOCqAy_NJKEeHJX3wEJZGa3tEVLxvp8mhyphenhyphenI8iFaZKrZ4qQl0MMe73H0P1FrvQ6tS7haOiNmZtwdS-0DVwFXR3B8OQ/s1530/Image-8792.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDTB4nqvOERx68VyzuYQMAMvULRiUIR3BBH2IWgeoXdFrPTktuaXUZK2jHpXE00FPepg1Rx_TT2K_g2bygM1lLpVku2_fKjp45SyOCqAy_NJKEeHJX3wEJZGa3tEVLxvp8mhyphenhyphenI8iFaZKrZ4qQl0MMe73H0P1FrvQ6tS7haOiNmZtwdS-0DVwFXR3B8OQ/w283-h400/Image-8792.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Razor Girl</u>. Book 2 of 2 Andrew Yancy series. Carl Hiaasen. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2019. 432 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Stormy Weather</u>. Book of 3 of 7 Skink series. Carl Hiaasen. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2021. 448 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Florida Roadkill</u>. Book 1 of 26 Serge Storms series. Tim Dorsey. William Morrow Paperbacks, 2006.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I went for another run through some "Florida Man" fiction recently: two Carl Hiaasen titles that I found at a used bookstore (a rarity to find them on a shelf, I'm told) and a Tim Dorsey title. Dorsey passed away in November at age 62 and has been called the "Father of Florida Man Fiction." Again, they're fast, often fun, poolside or beach reads, not exactly memorable, or even distinguishable, or life-changing. More defining genre characteristics come to mind. Here are some more "Florida Man fiction" commonalities:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. Everybody in Florida is an alcoholic, sex addict, and/or drug addict.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. Everybody in Florida is a scammer, con artist, criminal, or liar.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. Many, many Floridians have Daddy issues, both male and female characters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">4. One reason they're so popular among Floridians and regular visitors is that they are chock full of real-life locations or very thinly-disguised real locations with fake names. Every paragraph contains the names of local restaurants, bars, hotels/motels, highways and other landmarks. The reader can easily picture the location and feel a familiarity because they've been there.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">5. Most books seem to contain at least one character who is an outspoken environmentalist, valiantly trying to sound the alarm over overdevelopment, even resorting to violence if necessary. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">6. Each book contains truly inventive and violent methods of assaulting, torturing, or murdering people. It seems as if "Florida Man fiction" writers have a really sick and twisted side of their personalities that they successfully exorcise by writing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">7. Florida Man fiction authors like to name check each other and plug each other's books in their own books. It's quite a tight clique.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As formulaic as the writing is, I do have to admit that a stampeding herd of Ernest Hemingway look-alikes (Dorsey) is pure genius.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yHhVnVtJdeZ3L0Q4TPh0fckkW1kTDYmjyvKRHUVQ8cZi_epbsccOaOB98gFKm0D9VaAiBqWS5j6viUcBJGNar2r44Zy9p7mApsNa90auuNjNo1BnfgMYUcFyIYOa6wsR2sFLiuwRRXBp0OD3qvYADqlHNLJjI5B-5YUZgqyPH_iDo0RNt3PzggyKVw/s1530/Image-7918%20(1).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yHhVnVtJdeZ3L0Q4TPh0fckkW1kTDYmjyvKRHUVQ8cZi_epbsccOaOB98gFKm0D9VaAiBqWS5j6viUcBJGNar2r44Zy9p7mApsNa90auuNjNo1BnfgMYUcFyIYOa6wsR2sFLiuwRRXBp0OD3qvYADqlHNLJjI5B-5YUZgqyPH_iDo0RNt3PzggyKVw/w283-h400/Image-7918%20(1).png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling, and the MGM Publicity Machine</u>. E.J. Fleming. McFarland & Company, 2004. 325 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Think back on all the scandals you've heard of in the entertainment industry. All of them, the most disgusting and disturbing and shocking. Then consider that, no matter what rumors or stories you've heard, NOTHING compares to the real-life true scandals that occurred routinely in Hollywood under the old studio system: slander, libel, rape, perversion, drugs, alcohol, and murder. And a huge chunk of it happened at MGM studios, at the direction of studio head Louis B. Mayer and his closest aides, Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. Mannix and Strickling were MGM's "Fixers." For three decades, when MGM stars and employees were involved in criminal activities, trapped in a sex scandal, got into an automobile accident, or caused some sort of public scene, they didn't call police or ambulances or doctors. They called Mannix or Strickling, and the fixers took over. They sent the proper "authorities" with bags of money to pay off any witnesses or injured parties in order to keep the event out of the news. In order to fix the problems, policemen, nurses, doctors, ambulance attendants, reporters, bartenders, servers, morgue attendants, medical examiners, and district attorneys were all paid by MGM to report misbehavior to the fixers and to hide it from the public.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Fleming has published numerous books about Hollywood scandals over decades, and he writes in the introduction of this book that he only published stories that he was able to corroborate with evidence. There were many more stories that he did not write because of lack of corroboration. The stories that he does include are enough to destroy any positive feelings you might have had about the "Golden Days of Hollywood" or about the legendary stars of that era. Fleming paints a picture of a Hollywood populated by closeted gays, lesbians, and bisexuals who were often forced into "lavender marriages" to conceal their truths from the public, drug addicts and alcoholics, rapists, pedophiles, bullies, and murderers. The fixers' loyalty was to the studio. It was their job to procure drugs, arrange abortions, create cover stories to explain hospital and asylum stays, pay off injured civilians, cover up suicides, assaults, rapes, and murders, and, quite probably, even to arrange murders --- all to protect the studio's investments in its stars.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In this book, you can read about the tragic lives - more tragic than any Hollywood screenwriter could possibly dream - of Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Rudolph Valentino, Spencer Tracy, Carole Lombard, Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, George Reeves, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, and Judy Garland, and many others. Their stories will forever change your perception of Hollywood.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9B_TxUS0hPSaaHpkH4W-GSccmEnK3sP5Ih5FaBAcYoegpweVd9Xs3Cyk-V4lZIS1D6wvcmKDDSFLJnAZpEmhYHu4pu7doNCXIKjZyiudvddV9W7GXeozv2gLvzGKiNKjebsLYuRKiOsGRR4vjaTy1BR_09jCVpYtnaJx1HSj9Xs9NGepfkEeJrwUARg/s1530/Image-4900.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9B_TxUS0hPSaaHpkH4W-GSccmEnK3sP5Ih5FaBAcYoegpweVd9Xs3Cyk-V4lZIS1D6wvcmKDDSFLJnAZpEmhYHu4pu7doNCXIKjZyiudvddV9W7GXeozv2gLvzGKiNKjebsLYuRKiOsGRR4vjaTy1BR_09jCVpYtnaJx1HSj9Xs9NGepfkEeJrwUARg/w283-h400/Image-4900.png" width="283" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2CIqe7lTiWw" width="320" youtube-src-id="2CIqe7lTiWw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author Talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder.</u> Douglas Preston. Grand Central Publishing, 2023. 320 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have read most of Douglas Preston's collaborative novels written with Lincoln Child and a couple of his nonfiction works, particularly <u>The Monster of Florence</u> and <u>The Lost City of the Monkey God,</u> and I have enjoyed them. Preston is more than a novelist though; he is a journalist, often published in <u>National Geographic,</u> <u>The New Yorker</u>, <u>Natural History</u>, <u>Smithsonian</u>, and others. His deep interest in archaeology and history is evident in everything he writes. <u>The Lost Tomb</u> is a collection of 13 of his past articles, from 1989 forward. These are stories that have special meaning for Preston; they have inspired and shaped his novels over the years.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The stories are about mysteries that are familiar to many like Dyatlov Pass where a group of Soviet mountain climbers were mysteriously killed, the discovery of ancient Egypt's largest tomb complex in the Valley of the Kings, and the mysterious money pit of Oak Island. Several of the stories deal with ongoing archaeological debates about the peopling of the Americas. Exactly who were the First Americans and how and when did they arrive? Who were the Clovis and Folsom peoples and where did they come from? He also investigates major paleontological discoveries like Hell Creek Montana and the site of the asteroid crash that ended the Cretaceous Period and the Age of the Dinosaurs. There are even stories about two of the biggest crime events in recent Italian history, the "Monster of Florence" serial killer case in which Preston found himself inadvertently deeply involved and the murder for which American student Amanda Knox was prosecuted. Those stories leave the reader with serious doubts and questions about the Italian legal system.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Each and every story is fascinating, and each one is updated at the end. For Preston and Child fans, it's extra fun to get a glimpse of the "origin stories" of several of their novels. One can see direct lines from germination to fictionalization.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjp_SoMKgFYOSy00sRY_man43TpfNGv_cDFlLOXTb18l-rJc_DZY9k6XkIrb4sNWsPPFuAnf0cQpYob7Yp837Ia0D4fCnXLx4ASAP2V79I0Qi2p3msiym5mmE6dyU1yfQWQgljy1o8C8r9Jbap0xKfnB_Lzdw1va1uAV-8-7pw0DTdLjbHuDpbpVwaQ/s1530/Image-8296.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjp_SoMKgFYOSy00sRY_man43TpfNGv_cDFlLOXTb18l-rJc_DZY9k6XkIrb4sNWsPPFuAnf0cQpYob7Yp837Ia0D4fCnXLx4ASAP2V79I0Qi2p3msiym5mmE6dyU1yfQWQgljy1o8C8r9Jbap0xKfnB_Lzdw1va1uAV-8-7pw0DTdLjbHuDpbpVwaQ/w283-h400/Image-8296.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4J0-XtKnEpM" width="320" youtube-src-id="4J0-XtKnEpM"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor</u>. Steve Kemper. Mariner Books, 2022. 448 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Before reading this book, I knew very little about Japan in the decades before World War II. In the U.S., I think that we are very Eurocentric in our interest in World War II, and the Pacific too often gets short shrift. Few Americans have knowledge of much of anything leading up to Pearl Harbor or between Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. <u>Our Man in Tokyo</u> is a great step in filling that gap.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The 1930s were a chaotic decade in Japan. The completely powerless Emperor oversaw a dozen different governments (Prime Ministers and Cabinets) rise and fall. Japan was in reality a military dictatorship dominated by ultra-nationalistic, power-hungry, hardline conservative generals and admirals who called all the shots. The military and secret police controlled every aspect of Japanese government and society, all in the name of the Emperor but totally without his input or involvement. The Japanese press whipped up nationalistic Japanese fervor, touting Japanese superiority, condemning American and European interference in Japan's natural dominance of Asia and the Pacific, attacking and destroying moderate politicians, and preparing the population for war. The press was totally controlled by the military. Political assassinations, coups, and their attempts became a regular part of Japanese life. Assassins and insurrectionists proclaimed that they acted out of loyalty to the Emperor, and they were generally praised, made into heroes, and went unpunished or lightly punished.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Joseph C. Grew, a friend and college classmate of Franklin Roosevelt, was <u>Our Man in Tokyo</u> from 1932 to 1941, the American ambassador. He was America's point man in Asia for the decade. He grew to really know and appreciate the culture of Japan, and many moderate Japanese seemed to respect and appreciate him. He had access, knowledge, and insight that no other foreign diplomat had. He tried his best to change the collision course that Japan and the US seemed to be on, often putting himself at odds with Secretary of State Cordell Hull and other State Department higher-ups who seemed partial to China and may even have intentionally nudged the ship of state on that collision course. Author Kemper used Grew's own diaries, State Department correspondence, and first-hand Japanese accounts to paint a very detailed picture of US-Japanese relations and the state of the Japanese government at the time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I enjoyed the book a lot and learned much. It makes a fantastic companion read with Erik Larson's book <u>In the Garden of Beasts</u>, about US Ambassador William E. Dodd in 1930s Berlin.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">#histocratsbookshelf #histocratsbotd #histocratsread #bookstagram #ourmanintokyo #stevekemper #wwii #diplomatichistory #foreignpolicyhistory #wwiiinjapan #pearlharbor #pacifictheaterwwii </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSTYJgfcTQykLQuL4d1D5stB2CBFMbSgA-QgYXAeqy9P913FU5HoI4Lcjykls1j0-Pe7RvkCaf3qk3rl_xzOiF2xLnvVmtbgd7qsQNBV4w9tpsme7lsPRPiBNLAcX8lMrPf996TY84JsW4W1Cy7GWaJRjwgvEenvKNI2m9S3qbMaiFmqQI_FjlAsiwQ/s1530/Image-6796.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSTYJgfcTQykLQuL4d1D5stB2CBFMbSgA-QgYXAeqy9P913FU5HoI4Lcjykls1j0-Pe7RvkCaf3qk3rl_xzOiF2xLnvVmtbgd7qsQNBV4w9tpsme7lsPRPiBNLAcX8lMrPf996TY84JsW4W1Cy7GWaJRjwgvEenvKNI2m9S3qbMaiFmqQI_FjlAsiwQ/w283-h400/Image-6796.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XLJ8QdiQml4" width="320" youtube-src-id="XLJ8QdiQml4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author Talk</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge</u>. Erica Armstrong Dunbar. 37Ink, 2017. 272 pages. </div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">In 1789, sixteen-year old Ona Judge was one of the few enslaved people taken by President George Washington to run his official household in New York. She was Martha Washington's personal servant and seamstress, and her job was to accompany the First Lady at all times and to attend to all of her personal needs. New York represented a whole new world for her. In the city, she saw more black people than she could have even imagined, having lived her life in the insular, very heavily-majority black, world of Mount Vernon and the surrounding Virginia. She also went from the wide open spaces of the plantation where she actually managed to have alone time occasionally to the cramped executive mansion where she shared space with her fellow slaves and with paid white servants when not working, losing privacy. However, one of the greatest cultural chocks for Judge may have been exposure to both free and enslaved blacks, engaged in all sorts of positions and living varied lives. Perhaps this was inspirational to her.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fast forward to 1796. The Washingtons were now in the temporary (until the new Federal City is completed on the Potomac) capital of Philadelphia, and Judge was one of the even fewer enslaved people from Mount Vernon chosen to serve. Public and private sentiment against slavery was much more pronounced in Philadelphia than in New York. There were even more free black people and free black institutions in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania passed a law stating that any slaves brought into the state would be automatically emancipated after six month of residence. This law forced the Washingtons to shuttle their slaves back and forth to Mount Vernon for short stays every six months. Then, Judge learned that she was to be given to Martha's granddaughter as a wedding gift. That convinced her to take action, an action that would mean permanent separation from her family still living at Mount Vernon. As the Washingtons packed for their regular trip back to Virginia, she packed to run away, slipping out the night before the family departed. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Washingtons were dumbfounded. How could this ungrateful wench give up her privileged life to run away? They decided that she obviously didn't make the decision on her own; she was spirited away, perhaps by a lover who left her destitute on some cold northern streets. Ads were placed and rewards offered, but Judge was never returned. Although historical evidence about Judge's life are pretty slim, this book is her story. There's little mystery. The Washingtons knew exactly where she was a year after she escaped, and the story is not as dramatic as other escape stories. "Relentless" should never have been considered as a word in the title. The story of the Washingtons' personal chef, Hercules Posey, his own escape less than a year later, and life as a fugitive is probably more interesting. (See 2020's fictionalized <u>The General's Cook</u> by Ramin Ganeshram.) However, <u>Never Caught</u> is an interesting look at the intricacies and legalities of slavery as practiced by the Washingtons and in multiple states.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-83354062557768242342023-12-15T05:06:00.355-05:002023-12-23T10:59:09.351-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts December 1 - 15, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5-Eu6tEnQQvUHk4P51RW6R4ErLOD447tx4QTi8pkSxYrLXPfeM8eAJPzx_pZnm4qjh44dTS6sgaYac57TgzGt-S7NBh0vxDQsqkGpy_m9hZo40yFbC6A0EP0jq0vjNFlhwzUDIp09yd72BOi7EkwFbNuCKNeP9EdvxH-MJaDZ3bt3sG8JL7gdYUhlg/s1530/Image-5610.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5-Eu6tEnQQvUHk4P51RW6R4ErLOD447tx4QTi8pkSxYrLXPfeM8eAJPzx_pZnm4qjh44dTS6sgaYac57TgzGt-S7NBh0vxDQsqkGpy_m9hZo40yFbC6A0EP0jq0vjNFlhwzUDIp09yd72BOi7EkwFbNuCKNeP9EdvxH-MJaDZ3bt3sG8JL7gdYUhlg/w283-h400/Image-5610.png" width="283" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yoJB0VudwaA" width="320" youtube-src-id="yoJB0VudwaA"></iframe> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MpaJIjlwgAM" width="320" youtube-src-id="MpaJIjlwgAM"></iframe><br />Christian Longo Story True Story Movie Trailer (2015)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>True Story: Murder, Memoir, and Mea Culpa</u>. Michael Finkel. Harper, 2005. 312 pages.</span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In 2001, Oregon police discovered the bodies of a mother and her three young children. Husband and father Christian Longo was arrested in Mexico and charged with their murders. As it turns out, Longo had used a pseudonym in Mexico, introducing himself as New York Times Magazine journalist Michael Finkel. Finkel was totally unaware of Longo and the murders until after the arrest. He had his own troubles. He had just been fired from the New York Times for fabricating a story about labor conditions on West African cacao plantations, derailing his climb into the stratosphere of top-ranked journalists.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In the depths of his despair, Finkel learned of Longo's case and the use of his name and began a weird relationship with the accused murderer by letter, weekly phone calls from jail, and jailhouse visits. He envisioned writing an article that might lead to his professional redemption, and it became this book. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">The story is incredible. Finkel comes across at times as an entitled, self-absorbed, arrogant elitist - just the type of person I picture writing for the New York Times Magazine. He also inadvertently paints his editor in a bad light for refusing to print his original story because it would make journalists look bad. As for Longo, it's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that people like him exist: intelligent, cold, calculating, manipulative. He's able to speak so convincingly of his love for his family, the same family he murdered. It's a disturbing story and a look into a truly disturbed mind.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9WwBZTzDLay8n3Q1iYoDplVMmV6SYj9phkQhf0HeSU9cToltxTq-cgXvOSPOXrsFjVLS1LgSZfJbFzRQWBiTP6Hyqkfc35OxpkrdXYIcXr4kgCNyAQ4oUMRyuzu4ke8Cx0DsY71ZuEjm7EXSxQUo7H1eZwfqK6gByL8y6-BT2wvYkMaGcByxAuGnP9A/s1504/Image-2648.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9WwBZTzDLay8n3Q1iYoDplVMmV6SYj9phkQhf0HeSU9cToltxTq-cgXvOSPOXrsFjVLS1LgSZfJbFzRQWBiTP6Hyqkfc35OxpkrdXYIcXr4kgCNyAQ4oUMRyuzu4ke8Cx0DsY71ZuEjm7EXSxQUo7H1eZwfqK6gByL8y6-BT2wvYkMaGcByxAuGnP9A/s320/Image-2648.png" width="230" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_1CUbZuDvjzbrJAPrjeTKKdPGz56wHKxZ_kaTzZQeUpqT_XVjUGUsRR_ggQLbxQEyv89_qAzHH10V4748lVIK8QK5rEUP0x8JDQnk3DITkXnC1UlB5bBZRF1ELWZnU8pIkFDMeTmuBu6yEhhZoVEfhlCy3qncjfiCFYysK3ygURaUF7gp7M99RtTYw/s1504/Image-9644.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_1CUbZuDvjzbrJAPrjeTKKdPGz56wHKxZ_kaTzZQeUpqT_XVjUGUsRR_ggQLbxQEyv89_qAzHH10V4748lVIK8QK5rEUP0x8JDQnk3DITkXnC1UlB5bBZRF1ELWZnU8pIkFDMeTmuBu6yEhhZoVEfhlCy3qncjfiCFYysK3ygURaUF7gp7M99RtTYw/s320/Image-9644.png" width="230" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZMlP2Rhr6oY" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZMlP2Rhr6oY"></iframe></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">Short history of Vidalia Onions</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://chattingwiththehistocrats.blogspot.com/2023/11/7-questions-with-lee-lancaster.html">Histocrats 7 Questions with Author</a><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>Vidalia Onions: A History of Georgia's State Vegetable.</u> Lee Lancaster. The History Press, 2023. 160 pages.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I must admit that I was fully prepared to dislike this book even though I had ordered a copy as soon as I saw an ad pop up. I'm a native Vidalian and figure I know something about local area history and about the official Georgia state vegetable, the Vidalia Onion, but I am no expert by any means. My family had nothing to do with onion production, except that a couple of my mother's cousins grew some, we ate a couple of hundred pounds every season, and my aunt was the very first "Vidalia Onion Queen" in about 1950. In the back of my mind, I was thinking "what kind of a book could this young state Department of Agriculture kid (Yes, I'm reaching the point at which everybody becomes a "young kid.") write in a few months?". </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I was pleasantly surprised. Lancaster immediately scored points on page one by explaining the correct, native, pronunciation, "Vi-day-ya," no L. then he wrote a perfectly fine, concise history of Vidalia and Toombs and Tattnall Counties, the area where the onions were first grown. From there, he documents the onion's rapid rise to the special food status that it enjoys today as well as its position as Georgia's greatest single vegetable revenue producer, generating $150 million or so each year. Alas, he made no mention of my aunt's royalty, but she was always a queen nevertheless. Overall, it's a great book to add to my library.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbVlW_jC_c-Oa4YgMQOaicCA-Hlv4BPoMFkD-bs_B1xYsrmBIhK17Dqq9NbwDJayQkoErSqnrNYKvHYfCI9Dg-GMk6eKqoZ2K6Z0zgJXK85QrYfUTSr6EAPDKnkyEdlXJ-NZdjxvpTxBqeo1NMHJcgXit8uCmndk4G6owNPwvt-vH7F9-2_OqKhMUew/s1530/Image-5538.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbVlW_jC_c-Oa4YgMQOaicCA-Hlv4BPoMFkD-bs_B1xYsrmBIhK17Dqq9NbwDJayQkoErSqnrNYKvHYfCI9Dg-GMk6eKqoZ2K6Z0zgJXK85QrYfUTSr6EAPDKnkyEdlXJ-NZdjxvpTxBqeo1NMHJcgXit8uCmndk4G6owNPwvt-vH7F9-2_OqKhMUew/w283-h400/Image-5538.png" width="283" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h_u4j80abFg" width="320" youtube-src-id="h_u4j80abFg"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">Author Talk</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h1 class="a-spacing-none a-text-normal" id="title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; line-height: 36px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span class="a-size-extra-large celwidget" data-cel-widget="productTitle" data-csa-c-id="90v9yf-xacouz-qbrpbi-e9b2uu" id="productTitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 36px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><u>The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West.</u> Chris Wimmer. St. Martin's Press, 2023. 320 pages. </span></span></h1><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">1876 is a landmark year in American history. The country celebrated its centennial with a major exposition in Philadelphia, where visitors marveled at exhibits showcasing inventions like the telephone. Baseball team owners joined together to create the National League. Mark Twain published <u>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.</u> Legendary Old West lawman Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down in a Deadwood saloon, and the James-Younger Brothers gang attempted to rob the bank in Northfield Minnesota. In June of 1876, the US military suffered its greatest defeat of the Indian Wars at the Little Bighorn when Lakota and Cheyenne warriors devastated the 7th cavalry. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">In <u>The Summer of 1876,</u> Chris Wimmer attempts to weave together the stories of these men and events that made 1876 such a landmark year. He doesn't quite succeed. The stories are told well, but there's really nothing new here, and he never really ties everything together cohesively. However, it all makes for an interesting snapshot of a particularly significant summer.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixEhJi2xHdBcztmpo6W54Y4qO6H6zoVTztthICBNMnoE7m2mDcb2RiqM6bgI6iEGZIRuyIu_aPFjKuit6ICtI-OMEkCGLkkwhSIcxA5TZZK58jf0axSE4JoH4RxUAM3mBCfk31B-QrY8I8SfHeTjnQ_rUqv3as6vacN0fV-YIp27WjlotbF9L9WQP1KQ/s1530/Image-4749.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixEhJi2xHdBcztmpo6W54Y4qO6H6zoVTztthICBNMnoE7m2mDcb2RiqM6bgI6iEGZIRuyIu_aPFjKuit6ICtI-OMEkCGLkkwhSIcxA5TZZK58jf0axSE4JoH4RxUAM3mBCfk31B-QrY8I8SfHeTjnQ_rUqv3as6vacN0fV-YIp27WjlotbF9L9WQP1KQ/w283-h400/Image-4749.png" width="283" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZX3szJMBk9g" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZX3szJMBk9g"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">Author Talk</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South.</u> Ben Montgomery. Little, Brown Spark, 2021. 304 pages.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On January 21, 1899, 25 masked and armed white men gathered in the middle of the night at the home of George and Mollie Dinning and their ten children in Simpson County Kentucky. Dinning, formerly enslaved, worked as a farm laborer and farmed himself, and he had purchased 125 acres and built a home for his family. The mob accused him of stealing livestock, smoked hams, and other property and ordered to leave the county within ten days. Shots were fired, and one of the trespassers was mortally wounded. Dinning knew what was likely to happen next and fled in order to save himself and his family. The next day, the men returned, burned down the Dinning home and outbuildings, and drove Mollie and the children out of the county. Dinning turned himself in to the sheriff and faced trial for murder, while mobs planned his lynching.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Fortunately, Kentucky had some white men step forward in support. Several major newspapers defended him and his right to defend his home and family. A former Confederate officer stepped up and served as his attorney, alongside other attorneys. The sheriff, jailer, and soldiers protected him while he was in custody, and Governor W.O. Bradley closely monitored every development in the ensuing trials, exercising his authority to make them as fair as possible. The Dinning cases, criminal and civil, became landmarks in the Jim Crow South, but they were largely forgotten until Ben Montgomery published <u>A Shot in the Moonlight</u> in 2021. While the events and the outcome are not pretty, it's a story about seeking justice "in a time and place where justice was all too rare." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYBivx41mJ4WHauAzpt4MnWLNk8XCJBUrVM1Xjc8vTk8JSMFQXoRRkmK5ShhGQJfbFCadQdnOuvho3CL69AGJqzWpidpYCLGYy3gixKG5Kkegjpm-EsSiR_26osNTfvpjtvz12RogK7HPxrrZpoUHsrzTEFEmmH95n0TL-RaHpl1zQPKNzGEtZ68Opqw/s1495/Image-4106.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1495" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYBivx41mJ4WHauAzpt4MnWLNk8XCJBUrVM1Xjc8vTk8JSMFQXoRRkmK5ShhGQJfbFCadQdnOuvho3CL69AGJqzWpidpYCLGYy3gixKG5Kkegjpm-EsSiR_26osNTfvpjtvz12RogK7HPxrrZpoUHsrzTEFEmmH95n0TL-RaHpl1zQPKNzGEtZ68Opqw/w289-h400/Image-4106.png" width="289" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UGT-Bw9N40M" width="320" youtube-src-id="UGT-Bw9N40M"></iframe></div>23 Creatures and Characters Associated with Christmas</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Scary Book of Christmas Lore: 50 Terrifying Yuletide Tales From Around the World.</u> Tim Rayborn. Cider Mill press, 2023. 144 pages.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">"<span class="a-text-italic" face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake. </span><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;">This lighthearted song is a bit more ominous in the context of other Christmas traditions. From beasts that threaten to cook children into stew to sinister crones who snatch little ones from their beds, you won’t find any dancing sugar plums here. Outside of the heartwarming Christmas tales we all know and love, there are an abundance of frightening stories to chill all who hear them to the bone." (Amazon blurb)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;">Santa Claus is kind of creepy when you think about it, right? He knows all and determines if you've been good or not. The original St. Nicholas supposedly performed miracles like reanimating murdered and dismembered children. And then Dr. Seuss went and created The Grinch. However, there have been dozens and dozens of winter creatures created over hundreds of years around the world, and some of these have been conflated with Christmas celebrations or as companions of St. Nick. Why winter creatures? Winter was truly a terrifying time hundreds of years ago, especially among Europeans - cold, gloomy, dead, with the ever-present threat of illness or starvation, so people created stories and characters that reflected their despair and dread. It seems like the most fertile ground for such stories was central Europe, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, for whatever reasons.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;">This book collects some of the scariest stories in one volume. Not just Krampus, familiar to many people now, but also mischief makers like the Kallikantzari of Greece and Mari Lwyd of Wales and cannibals on the prowl for naughty children on which to feast like Pere Fouettard, Hans Trapp, Gryla, and Frau Perchta. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;">This is a really fun read and a quick cultural history trip around the world.</span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-21373986309603228902023-11-30T05:54:00.002-05:002023-11-30T05:54:00.144-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts November 16 - 30, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEto441ULCo5IwXpEw9IPB-_r69mtBMcJ6KDUtrhkyEBoLgvXDqadGVGNG3yPPk4GfeyT4sPO2yzykfW8J2i8rCWMEaWziDbmU8Czoic7Q7TjhgLcmmCJEwfZMelm7aQ1twbfOkKd0sfDZDmeNT-6qL-kbDCdxi5PlNq8ydKvROgfslQnmkUXfRbwpcg/s1504/Image-9251.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEto441ULCo5IwXpEw9IPB-_r69mtBMcJ6KDUtrhkyEBoLgvXDqadGVGNG3yPPk4GfeyT4sPO2yzykfW8J2i8rCWMEaWziDbmU8Czoic7Q7TjhgLcmmCJEwfZMelm7aQ1twbfOkKd0sfDZDmeNT-6qL-kbDCdxi5PlNq8ydKvROgfslQnmkUXfRbwpcg/w288-h400/Image-9251.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tX1fdRjGCMk" width="320" youtube-src-id="tX1fdRjGCMk"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>All the Sinners Bleed.</u> S A Crosby. Flatiron Books, 2023. 352 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Mystery/Thriller/Suspense" is not a usual genre for me to read, but I've read great things about author S.A. Crosby, and he is one of the guest authors at February's Savannah Book Festival, so I decided to give his latest a try. It ended up being a good read. The "Mystery/Thriller/Suspense" part is a pretty good thriller that definitely kept me engaged, but there's more to Crosby's books. He's gotten a lot of attention because he's very good at writing thrillers through the southern history lens. His books incorporate all the southern threads: race, class, poverty, religion, change, and resistance to change. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>All the Sinners Bleed</u>'s main character is Sheriff Titus Crown, former FBI agent and the first black sheriff in a rural Virginia county. He has a lot to deal with. Memories of his last major FBI case, which left him mentally and physically damaged, affect every aspect of his personal and professional life as he steps into his new role as Sheriff of the county he was born and raised in. He knows the people, their stories, and their attitudes. A year into his tenure, a serial killer emerges, and it becomes Titus' job to stop him. History is a major part of the story, the characters' histories, the community history, and southern history in general.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Great quote from the book: "It occurred to him that no place was confused about its past or more terrified of the future than the South." </div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjqDqhkepyO9OijuZK_NTa2U7R9o8D0mwui67BgWid-jS1-Fa4qDhYjiNk-AjesGWRxjKODRCAHneLIxeSSpeUPrPAG3_oDkr0Wh04dUNg-VcC0HGXEVE5x9RqUY_rBreN3pXwc8pySHJ1C_clCeLxUDrmpg_lNuBYmP2QH7yPLRdm5xIhlOfN7t2JA/s1504/Image-806%20(1).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjqDqhkepyO9OijuZK_NTa2U7R9o8D0mwui67BgWid-jS1-Fa4qDhYjiNk-AjesGWRxjKODRCAHneLIxeSSpeUPrPAG3_oDkr0Wh04dUNg-VcC0HGXEVE5x9RqUY_rBreN3pXwc8pySHJ1C_clCeLxUDrmpg_lNuBYmP2QH7yPLRdm5xIhlOfN7t2JA/w288-h400/Image-806%20(1).png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/exzwIX112D0" width="320" youtube-src-id="exzwIX112D0"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">James Garner on The Tonight Show</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Garner Files</u>. James Garner and Jon Winokur. Simon & Schuster, 2011. 288 pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">James Garner may be the most beloved man in the history of the entertainment industry. No one has ever had a bad word to say about him, and co-stars, crewmembers, and friends speak in glowing terms. Men love his common sense, humble, smart, and funny on -screen characters, and women love his tall, dark, handsome, sensitive, and humorous side. As the saying goes, women want to be with him, and men want to be him or at least be buddies with him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm no exception. "Maverick" is my all-time favorite western tv show and character, and I still watch often. I watched "The Rockford Files" as a kid and still watch occasionally. I discovered his autobiography from a social media reel that quoted from it. The man was everything you would expect. James Bumgarner grew up in Depression-era Oklahoma, and he had a really hard life with an alcoholic father and an abusive step-mother. He got into acting because he didn't want to be a carpet-layer, and he carved out a fantastic career. The whole book is a great read, and my impressions of Garner are confirmed. He does seem to really have been a great guy. OK, he did have one major defect: even the scent of garlic or onions made him physically ill, but I can overlook that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Garner, Maverick, and Rockford fans will really enjoy the book with all of its behind the scenes stories. Garner created two of the most unique, interesting, and beloved characters in television history. "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files" are both genre-benders that have endured for decades. Throughout his career, Garner hated all of the trappings of Hollywood stardom, the awards, the pretensions, the publicity, and the business aspects. He simply saw acting as a job (better than laying carpet), and he did his best at it. Along the way, he treated co-stars, crew members, and fans respectfully and became one of the most admired and universally loved people in entertainment history.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZmDLc4Vd6vF_3SBh2damLDR8nUFGATS5RFLOcvk8QP3sUsAHIM4MdGJC_BjN4DGiq_HI7hwEf0-x2e3KjdTpqZDEKwqScLdhlzOz8YzyqCUAmyndGS4Y7FjshssQkaaFxYQ5f4C_sHJxm0PoKUJcRnNt62Zb7VWncQLqlkSw7Cnjjgzs3KTnjj9bsQ/s1504/Image-2449.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZmDLc4Vd6vF_3SBh2damLDR8nUFGATS5RFLOcvk8QP3sUsAHIM4MdGJC_BjN4DGiq_HI7hwEf0-x2e3KjdTpqZDEKwqScLdhlzOz8YzyqCUAmyndGS4Y7FjshssQkaaFxYQ5f4C_sHJxm0PoKUJcRnNt62Zb7VWncQLqlkSw7Cnjjgzs3KTnjj9bsQ/w288-h400/Image-2449.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PpdlfVVLPQ4" width="320" youtube-src-id="PpdlfVVLPQ4"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">CBS Sunday morning segment </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Self Agin): A Memoir.</u> AUWA, 2023. 320 pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>I have always been aware of Sly and the Family Stone. Peripherally, growing up in the 70s and 80s. Mostly country music was played in our house, and my older brother was listening to rock, especially southern rock, but I heard Sly Stone music and caught variety and talk show appearances here and there. Then, he seemingly disappeared. I discovered funk as a teen and saw huge connections between Sly Stone and Prince, Rick James, George Clinton, and The Time, so I went back and dug slightly deeper into Family Stone music, still didn't know much beyond the hits.</div><div><br /></div><div>As Sly and the Family Stone climbed the charts, Stone, aka Sylvester Stewart, fell into the trap of drug addiction and developed an unprofessional reputation of no-shows, tardiness, abbreviated and bad performances, incoherent interviews, tantrums, excess, and even gunplay. As a result, he disappeared from the music industry. (Actually, he still worked, sometimes in front of very small audiences.) Thankfully, he's now in a period of sobriety, at age 80, and he tells his own story in this just published autobiography. In spite of his struggles with drug use, the story is clearly and thoughtfully told. I'm amazed by his memory. His genius also shines through as it becomes clear that he became a real student of music and music theory at an early age, and he was calculating and methodical about so much of his career, not just the music itself, but also how he put the band together, how he dealt with record company executives, and how he managed the band, He created a new kind of music and brought people together during a very divisive period, creating iconic and unique songs that have stood the test of time, and he was a major influence on many performers since, but he wasn't always the best human being. It's great that he is still around to tell his story and perhaps still be recognized during his lifetime. Most people around him in the 1970s probably never imagined that would have been possible.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNLAlJREaoAJ6d7u0OkK6GCSyU6gunEkKDbU-9nEKSutV-BSs82AbnAvxWVXoPKzDWuG6UrJujIUQVJuJbw8gZIKCM7scQ9-FdtFPGYY8n7cMsMlHk3vcj5hRU3Tz4hi7OleJCqLeEhY5Aa0jRQKEQSQ8pWQpWcUxViqB2lBYXsynPeyrgoe7PJP6tw/s1504/Image-3083.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNLAlJREaoAJ6d7u0OkK6GCSyU6gunEkKDbU-9nEKSutV-BSs82AbnAvxWVXoPKzDWuG6UrJujIUQVJuJbw8gZIKCM7scQ9-FdtFPGYY8n7cMsMlHk3vcj5hRU3Tz4hi7OleJCqLeEhY5Aa0jRQKEQSQ8pWQpWcUxViqB2lBYXsynPeyrgoe7PJP6tw/w288-h400/Image-3083.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fx9IQ_T8ESM" width="320" youtube-src-id="Fx9IQ_T8ESM"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hdKMfVp2WfE" width="320" youtube-src-id="hdKMfVp2WfE"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Interview in two parts (audio)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>An Edible History of Humanity.</u> Tom Standage. Bloomsbury USA, 2010. 288 pages.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In 2005, Tom Standage published <u>A History of the World in 6 Glasses</u>, telling history through the histories of 6 of the most common drinks in the world, including coffee, tea, beer, and Coke. It became one of my favorite reads. In 2010, he published An Edible History of Humanity, a more general look at world history.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">"More than simply sustenance, food historically has been a kind of technology, changing the course of human progress by helping to build empires, promote industrialization, and decide the outcomes of wars. Tom Standage draws on archaeology, anthropology, and economics to reveal how food has helped shape and transform societies around the world, from the emergence of farming in China by 7500 b.c. to the use of sugar cane and corn to make ethanol today. <span class="a-text-italic">An Edible History of Humanity </span>is a fully satisfying account of human history." (publisher's blurb)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The result is a really engrossing new perspective on history, but it's not quite as engrossing, in my opinion, as<u> Six Glasses</u>. It reads a little drier --- no pun intended -- and at times is a little dense in science. As the title implies, it's not as much about specific foods as about the impact of certain foods, like grains, sugar, and spices, and the use of food by governments to drive economies, force change, and even to wage war. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDo2MPuq-04mAhp4TxWM-RPGTEq39fNOlxgc7UXf_oS6olSmMzVOGL4ZlRNux6ndiac0s4sLbuGuWqaYY9krXDL9Ja6jSNruoY3tBOv-LNvhon0mPbmI3wipQcMFnkTNZloAzaSA2dO1yBwXEzAf_7q57cOyeFbEbU11Bx0fNDVeoSs-0mGA7M54jY9Q/s1504/Image-1480.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDo2MPuq-04mAhp4TxWM-RPGTEq39fNOlxgc7UXf_oS6olSmMzVOGL4ZlRNux6ndiac0s4sLbuGuWqaYY9krXDL9Ja6jSNruoY3tBOv-LNvhon0mPbmI3wipQcMFnkTNZloAzaSA2dO1yBwXEzAf_7q57cOyeFbEbU11Bx0fNDVeoSs-0mGA7M54jY9Q/w288-h400/Image-1480.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MmVu2NtlMV8" width="320" youtube-src-id="MmVu2NtlMV8"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">Author interview</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America From the Bubonic Plague.</u> David K. Randall. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019. 304 pages. (American Experience documentary here <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/plague-golden-gate/">https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/plague-golden-gate/</a> )</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A deadly epidemic, originating in Asia, threatens the US. Politicians, the press, and scientists are divided and at odds with each other on how to deal with the threat. Various jurisdictions discuss and implement quarantines and start requiring health documents for travel. At-risk people are isolated. Large portions of the population lose faith in the government and the healthcare system. Many refuse vaccinations. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">No, not 2020 and the pandemic. All of this took place in California in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1900, the first cases of bubonic plague, black death, occurred in San Francisco's Chinatown. Eventually, there are over 100 confirmed deaths, and probably many, many more hidden from authorities. While one bacteriologist, one of the first in America, recognizes the grave threat and fights it, politicians, the press, the US Surgeon General ( his boss), Chinese business and tong leaders, and President McKinley all actively conspire to deny the plague's existence and to destroy the career of the one man who knows what's going on.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This book, published in 2019, very much reads like an Erik Larsen or David Grann work- in other words, first-rate. ... And if you're that rare bird that has any remaining trust in politicians, journalists, or humanity in general, be prepared to lose some of it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-82268794106435091332023-11-16T05:21:00.386-05:002023-11-21T05:52:17.334-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts November 1 - 15, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjifph4nE3sZXtP06j1geo3wAB3y8kH0TgQCphUZMbaPuQItF6givCgGyGGL3vPX_gWFaIIYLGUoDTIMPBqkSuIqq8FoSYozobnrNqY7z0GjBdwbklx2pBE50vqQ87ckhK5rabkmXlMotazcH4bKpxuJPAlrOkdEyq7CWOfDQdMjs7CogfxYimq24KP8Q/s1504/Image-3465.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjifph4nE3sZXtP06j1geo3wAB3y8kH0TgQCphUZMbaPuQItF6givCgGyGGL3vPX_gWFaIIYLGUoDTIMPBqkSuIqq8FoSYozobnrNqY7z0GjBdwbklx2pBE50vqQ87ckhK5rabkmXlMotazcH4bKpxuJPAlrOkdEyq7CWOfDQdMjs7CogfxYimq24KP8Q/w288-h400/Image-3465.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VOxCU3wY3kA" width="320" youtube-src-id="VOxCU3wY3kA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"The Bizarre Origins of Florida Man"</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Florida Hustle</u>. Paul Wilborn. St Petersburg Press, 2022. 310 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Swamp Story.</u> Dave Barry. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 320 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Tourist Season</u>. Carl Hiaasen. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1986. 272 pages. (One of many "Florida Man" books by Hiaasen)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The "Florida Man"/"Florida Woman" trope is ubiquitous. When you see it in a headline or hear it in a tease, you know you're in for some weird and wacky story that you will most likely repeat to friends. There are jokes, tv shows, podcasts, newsletters, books, memes galore, and tons of merchandise. Many of the true stories are documented and archived by our friend, author and journalist Craig Pittman in his "Welcome to Florida" podcast, weekly newsletter, and books and articles. (Website <a href="https://craigpittman.com/">https://craigpittman.com/</a> )</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">However, I don't think I realized that "Florida Man" also covers a whole unique genre of fiction, and I've sampled several in the last couple of years, including the three featured here. I've noticed some similar characteristics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. written by former newspaper writers, especially of Tampa, St. Petersburg, or Miami newspapers</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. All of the characters are losers in some way: damaged, lonely, addicted, abused, busted relationships.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. Rich people are all especially miserable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">4. There always weird, gross, criminal, violent, incompetent pairs of brothers to hire as henchmen.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">5. Women are all incredibly sexy and end up with the loser hero who always forgives their treachery (and their always treacherous to one degree r another).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">6. Every good story involves Seminoles, the Everglades, or at the very least, alligators. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">7. All Florida biological families are broken. "Chosen" families are forever. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Look, they're not great literature or necessarily historical,, but they're fun reads usually.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipNAwKFbgoNaZVnWOwENnCfrPnAqOg97z-jc3Dvd-lHh3LJG9oh0HlT4UYreLqcBZZFpiCZjxeLY1d8yzv4j_Bl1UW5ES-7JUE7_3g4Z-DWnd6mV7Ou4xkpqnzu3hGFfY7s02E_NCAI1ErnUs4AdVliCaSoiyhpHUYeA3KIKz5zq2YqnDOyVysxXOFPQ/s1504/Image-8235.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipNAwKFbgoNaZVnWOwENnCfrPnAqOg97z-jc3Dvd-lHh3LJG9oh0HlT4UYreLqcBZZFpiCZjxeLY1d8yzv4j_Bl1UW5ES-7JUE7_3g4Z-DWnd6mV7Ou4xkpqnzu3hGFfY7s02E_NCAI1ErnUs4AdVliCaSoiyhpHUYeA3KIKz5zq2YqnDOyVysxXOFPQ/w288-h400/Image-8235.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dbigLvszIJY" width="320" youtube-src-id="dbigLvszIJY"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author Talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Through the Groves: A Memoir</u>. Anne Hull. Henry Holt & Co., 2023. 224 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I guess it's mandatory: if you've ever written for a Tampa, St. Petersburg, or Miami newspaper, you are required to publish at least one book of some sort.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Journalist Anne Hull published her memoir of growing up in 1960s Central Florida. My wife grew up near Orlando, and I have a couple of friends and multiple cousins who grew up in Central Florida and on the Gulf Coast around the same time, but none of them had connections to the state citrus industry that Hull and her family had. Meanwhile, I grew up in rural South Georgia. So, even though Hull's experiences are different, there are definitely familiarities.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Through the Groves</u> has gotten a lot of buzz and acclaim, and it has appeared on many lists of best books of the year. I realize there is a huge audience for this story, and some readers will absolutely love it. However, it's just not for me. Don't get me wrong, Hull is an excellent writer and storyteller. I simply found the story lacking. There are some family difficulties and there is inner turmoil within the young Hull, nothing groundbreaking or incredibly shocking or publishing worthy. There are a lot more interesting lives out there. Just my opinion, but I'm sure some of you will enjoy it, and that's fine too.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ipWU6dvfTNksbwRsOeIMFKmpLwRc8yUAo13b49YsAfW4cUDG3HY3Y8Ovpvh0C5jNeOGYaDfJWmlV8FpqbGwJNMFM0NHnCEHokCyy6C0AnusAcxTZmjeK_H7sDpRgxdQHLT3z-1BWrWkjFzWhikuIayhXLkJBOw6T3KwJDGKnbJKS46ac6IKTYp7ZlQ/s1504/Image-853.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ipWU6dvfTNksbwRsOeIMFKmpLwRc8yUAo13b49YsAfW4cUDG3HY3Y8Ovpvh0C5jNeOGYaDfJWmlV8FpqbGwJNMFM0NHnCEHokCyy6C0AnusAcxTZmjeK_H7sDpRgxdQHLT3z-1BWrWkjFzWhikuIayhXLkJBOw6T3KwJDGKnbJKS46ac6IKTYp7ZlQ/w288-h400/Image-853.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QpbPcosXO-4" width="320" youtube-src-id="QpbPcosXO-4"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Finding Traces of a Failed Aryan Colony in Paraguay" New York Times</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Forgotten Fatherland: The True Story of Nietzsche's Sister and Her Lost Aryan Colony</u>. Ben Macintyre. Crown, 2011. 320 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I didn't think this was possible: a Ben Macintyre book that disappointed me. Macintyre is a British journalist and author who has written many books and created many documentaries, mostly about World War II. He's highly regarded, and I enjoyed a couple of his previous books. In 2011, he published a book about his quest for Nueva Germania, a German colony within Paraguay founded by the sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and her husband in the 1880s. Nueva Germania was to be a New Germany, free of non-Aryan handicaps. It failed miserably, but Elisabeth Nietzsche's greatest work was still ahead of her. First, she singlehandedly edited, shaped, made up, and published her brother's works as he declined into dementia and death. Without her work, the world at large probably would never have heard Friedrich Nietzsche. Only a very few academics ever read his philosophy during his lifetime, and it was universally dismissed until Elisabeth got her hands on it. Second, she linked him and his work forever with the burgeoning Nazi movement and with Hitler. There is absolutely no evidence that Hitler ever personally read or embraced Nietzsche's ideas, and, in fact, Macintyre makes the case that Nietzsche himself would have fervently opposed fascism, antisemitism, and Nazism just as much as Elisabeth embraced them all. Hitler, however, realized the potential propaganda value in using the dead philosopher and his living sister's celebrity status among some Germans, and he used them very effectively, so much so that we now associate Nietzsche with Nazism. Macintyre argues that our connection of the two is faulty.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unfortunately for me, the book devotes too much time to Nietzsche's philosophy and too little time to the actual colony itself. I wanted to know more about the colony and about the remnants of the colony that still exists. Yes, there is a small community of German-Paraguayans descended from the original colonists who struggle to maintain their German purity today. Alas, there are very few pages about the colony itself. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozK7SA0qmQkTYgmtaQ53u5AK3-t4731EAkCuJhH6bwlsVhlZAm9-Yvq7BSbZOzPBJ5UepukEBNQioHRidx_oMXHRhdPmKc5SM_JCe02T3PxFke81cBQMI6V22xrENUucF4eEMB9LHErKTynT0Kqngxa7fbLLZjm9XVihJjnFfeUclmU3X2XumhhaADA/s1504/Image-3613.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozK7SA0qmQkTYgmtaQ53u5AK3-t4731EAkCuJhH6bwlsVhlZAm9-Yvq7BSbZOzPBJ5UepukEBNQioHRidx_oMXHRhdPmKc5SM_JCe02T3PxFke81cBQMI6V22xrENUucF4eEMB9LHErKTynT0Kqngxa7fbLLZjm9XVihJjnFfeUclmU3X2XumhhaADA/w288-h400/Image-3613.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2y1Ty2Gqdmg" width="320" youtube-src-id="2y1Ty2Gqdmg"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Panel discussion on SAS including Damien Lewis</div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Brothers in Arms: Churchill's Special Forces During WWII's Darkest Hour.</u> Damien Lewis. Citadel, 2023. 400 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Regardless of his faults, Winston Churchill was ahead of his time when it came to recognizing the importance of propaganda and espionage as major parts of the war effort. He was very involved in those areas throughout World War II. When he called for volunteers to join the Special Forces and undertake espionage and sabotage missions behind enemy lines, scores of men answered his call, and the SAS was formed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you are a military history buff, this book is definitely for you. Damien Lewis exhaustively searched through declassified archives, letters, diaries, military reports, and rare photos and films. Much of the material he researched had never been seen by the public before. Along with all of that documentation, he conducted numerous interviews with surviving veterans and family members. The result is an exciting narrative of incredible acts committed by an incredible assortment of unbelievable real-life characters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iEa1BtJr_9sDqDtFd9LYIyn1XpKngaRe39umYg8R1mGuNmx3fDAgwQZTLsLAQwrpK4Vp_mgEIylFIWbkBeP7i3pdve0MKrVPWZ38fcptv_E2HCiWjj0cXJIiAfL-3sSWMeumQlKU256rCkGdkT2igAjnbqPlubWl3y5outB8cWJFCxE0g0vZgppzAw/s1504/Image-7400.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iEa1BtJr_9sDqDtFd9LYIyn1XpKngaRe39umYg8R1mGuNmx3fDAgwQZTLsLAQwrpK4Vp_mgEIylFIWbkBeP7i3pdve0MKrVPWZ38fcptv_E2HCiWjj0cXJIiAfL-3sSWMeumQlKU256rCkGdkT2igAjnbqPlubWl3y5outB8cWJFCxE0g0vZgppzAw/w288-h400/Image-7400.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w9jKyFffM2M" width="320" youtube-src-id="w9jKyFffM2M"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author's Lecture</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><u>The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.</u> Debra Blum. Penguin Press, 2010. 336 pages. (American Experience PBS documentary <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poisoners/">https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poisoners/</a> )<div><br /></div><div>The Roaring 20s saw a lot of "booms." The economy boomed, women's rights boomed with the passage of the 19th amendment granting suffrage and with flappers doing things respectable women of past generations never dreamed of, new literary and art movements boomed, jazz dominated the music scene, and there were literal booms of violence as anarchists and racists used bombs, guns, riots, and lynchings to reach their goals. There was also an epidemic of deaths by poison that swept through New York City during the 1920s. Chloroform, arsenic, strychnine, and other chemicals, natural and man-made, were easy to get, and historically difficult to detect. Before the 1920s, it was extremely difficult to prove murder by poisoning in a court of law; science just wasn't up to the task. However, that began to change in the 1920s. NYC's Chief Medical Examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler undertook groundbreaking work in a laboratory at the city's Bellevue Hospital. Their work was instrumental in the development of forensics and toxicology.</div><div><br /></div><div>Author Debra Blum examines their work in this book which is a mixture of true crime, 1920s history, and science history. The final product is a very interesting read. </div><div><br /></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-45913722161397774972023-11-01T05:22:00.004-04:002023-12-23T11:25:28.051-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts October 16 - 31, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxTGZuWkaJBMCc4-Pp307tXBxe3-Ry8tEkCBuDw-J1ebbAkm0HobZGKTbOJrh3MKjnUXxsdx5yJox9bpt2s9zegZNJOG_AKt-HR9iw7sdm947wumG05QK6RBpL786qpVJtQY6hZZpGEExqlG3-l2B5L59FMuBnCM0_0m9ecUHaiQUf4C2zct8cgKTow/s1504/Image-284.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxTGZuWkaJBMCc4-Pp307tXBxe3-Ry8tEkCBuDw-J1ebbAkm0HobZGKTbOJrh3MKjnUXxsdx5yJox9bpt2s9zegZNJOG_AKt-HR9iw7sdm947wumG05QK6RBpL786qpVJtQY6hZZpGEExqlG3-l2B5L59FMuBnCM0_0m9ecUHaiQUf4C2zct8cgKTow/w288-h400/Image-284.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S1NhMJ38LKY" width="320" youtube-src-id="S1NhMJ38LKY"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk at the Museum of Jewish Heritage</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe. </u> Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 384 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I love connections in history, and <u>The American Way</u> is a great example of connections done in a great and thoroughly entertaining way. What connections? In <u>The American Way</u>, co-author Bonnie Siegler manages to connect her Jewish grandparents' story of escaping Nazi Germany to New York to fellow Jewish refugee and Hollywood movie writer/director Billy Wilder to the creators of Superman to Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio to New York mob boss Frank Costello to a softcore porn magazine publisher. Each one of the stories told is amazing and interesting, especially the story of Superman's creation and how the creators were cheated out of their just rewards by the publisher, the aforementioned smut peddler. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, OK, true, the hub of the story is the story of Siegler's grandparents, Jules and Edith Schulback, a young Jewish furrier and his wife who managed to escape Nazi Germany just before the start of WWII. Their experiences in Germany and those of their family members who were unable to escape are well documented and told. The stories of the other individuals are the spokes radiating from the Schulback hub. Altogether, the parts make for a very satisfying wheel of reading.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic4X3bpmJRKhYecSZxOPzQF7vp8HR83hx5UJlHvUqhxJEhkUQtdddP4xfYRv-NlWVF29olMzBexyekNvXQK_YDfHpSFkzW0py-qTecNLlhFesFArlOqZCUsLBEYEYtO8FDGRkUsAm4-8snL0qk74B9eyaUai690C7lBZG2Gjsde7CaJzENHtpbnedLVA/s1504/Image-1791.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic4X3bpmJRKhYecSZxOPzQF7vp8HR83hx5UJlHvUqhxJEhkUQtdddP4xfYRv-NlWVF29olMzBexyekNvXQK_YDfHpSFkzW0py-qTecNLlhFesFArlOqZCUsLBEYEYtO8FDGRkUsAm4-8snL0qk74B9eyaUai690C7lBZG2Gjsde7CaJzENHtpbnedLVA/w288-h400/Image-1791.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HqwMLCh8RnE" width="320" youtube-src-id="HqwMLCh8RnE"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">"Who was the best English monarch?" David Mitchell ranks</p><p style="text-align: left;"><u>Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens.</u> David Mitchell. Crown, 2023. 448 pages. </p><p style="text-align: left;">A couple of weeks ago, David Mitchell appeared on my favorite talk show, "The Graham Norton Show," to promote his newly published history of English monarchs. I had never heard of the book, but I immediately grabbed my phone and downloaded the audiobook version before he even sat down on the couch. Mitchell is one of my favorite British comic actors, and I'm a huge fan of his appearances on the British celebrity panel comedy/quiz shows. He's incredibly witty, very snarky, and totally out of touch with popular culture, constantly ribbed by co-panelists for being ultra-"posh." And he has a history degree. I relate to him on many levels.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><u>Unruly</u> is all that I expected it to be. Mitchell takes the reader from the beginning - the fictional King Arthur - up to the reign of Elizabeth I (meaning that a volume 2 is in the works, I hope). He is a true iconoclast throughout, fully exposing the foibles and ridiculousness of the monarchs, their supporters and challengers, and the historians who have chronicled them over them over the centuries, with his characteristically biting Bitter humor in every paragraph. However, don't be misled. As the publisher's blurb says, <u>Unruly</u> is "A funny book that takes history seriously." It's also a seriously funny history book. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-X0NBt_4YKPOrvYsFXrEPyb6cvwNugE1BjC9c6nl7C1HiKG4UPf9N646WW0G3_k22p7agNp5HU-OHPF_2jknW_21MEc7we2f1F3Fw1ztT7g459Zmz4-EslGan-3POkhVa-OWNxem-lgLwVFac-VKm_GMAPVj8ZGVwnO-Ef1Yg2BcV9fWTgEqjEpD7-Q/s1505/Image-9899.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1505" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-X0NBt_4YKPOrvYsFXrEPyb6cvwNugE1BjC9c6nl7C1HiKG4UPf9N646WW0G3_k22p7agNp5HU-OHPF_2jknW_21MEc7we2f1F3Fw1ztT7g459Zmz4-EslGan-3POkhVa-OWNxem-lgLwVFac-VKm_GMAPVj8ZGVwnO-Ef1Yg2BcV9fWTgEqjEpD7-Q/w288-h400/Image-9899.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KdKPmm9s96k" width="320" youtube-src-id="KdKPmm9s96k"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">Lecture on the Election of 1932</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://chattingwiththehistocrats.blogspot.com/2023/10/7-questions-with-scott-martelle-author.html">Histocrats 7 Questions with Author</a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><u>1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America.</u> Scott Martelle. Citadel Press, 2023. 407 pages.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Authors use phrases like "Dawn of a New America" and "turning point" in subtitles all the time, but some authors fail to prove their case. In <u>1932</u>, Scott Martelle succeeds in laying out evidence that shows the significance of the presidential election between President Herbert Hoover and New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt, and he's written an excellent book about the candidates and the election.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Hoover and Roosevelt represented two different approaches to politics. Hoover was the traditionalist, believing voters would choose his record of administrative competence and conservative leadership over a naive, unproven upstart just spouting off platitudes. He saw campaigning as beneath him. Like nominees before him, he did not appear at the nominating convention and never really displayed a desire for the presidency. He played hard to get, "Well, if you really, really want me to be your president, I guess I will." For a large chunk of American history, it was considered unseemly to campaign for yourself; the candidates relied on surrogates to sling the political mud. On the other hand, FDR was one of the most politically astute politicians in history, in my mind second only to Lincoln among US presidents, and every waking moment for over a decade was spent preparing for his presidential campaigns. Rags to Riches orphan exemplar Hoover was seen as aloof, cold, uncaring and out of touch with average Americans, while privileged millionaire FDR convinced the poorest farmers that he understood their plight, and he won black voters over despite blocking all civil rights and anti-lynching legislation and even though blacks were often excluded from New Deal benefits. FDR's new political style changed presidential politics forever.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Martelle also does a great job of putting the election into the context of 1932. Many forces came together, creating a "perfect storm" that led to the transition: the Great Depression, the farming crisis, the Bonus Army, the Scottsboro Boys case, labor riots, the rise of socialism and communism, the KKK. I learned things from reading the book about each one, and Martelle weaves all of the threads together to tell a compelling story.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicd65sc4C4ZO0DDUBauKAr9vBP3y-19EFV8EjOH9V8vIzKjwbcIyxc46nIxSTZkNonA_EE9NYYx4bi4IYdZPHAPk3QWEeUtWro6cgP8fOChk9wUm6V-Gqg4YxdEqQlvV7fvc3M6wTErlgjwjM20_76BUIeOu4YBv7F2B2VGnDpMqxET6DowYhiSXuuaA/s1504/Image-208.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicd65sc4C4ZO0DDUBauKAr9vBP3y-19EFV8EjOH9V8vIzKjwbcIyxc46nIxSTZkNonA_EE9NYYx4bi4IYdZPHAPk3QWEeUtWro6cgP8fOChk9wUm6V-Gqg4YxdEqQlvV7fvc3M6wTErlgjwjM20_76BUIeOu4YBv7F2B2VGnDpMqxET6DowYhiSXuuaA/w288-h400/Image-208.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wuNTB3yJs44" width="320" youtube-src-id="wuNTB3yJs44"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">Monty Python - Ypres 1914</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><u>Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire.</u> Michael Palin. Random House Canada, 2023. 336 pages.</p><p style="text-align: left;">You might know Michael Palin as a member of the great Monty Python comedy troupe or maybe from one or more of his excellent television travel series, but <u>Great-Uncle Harry</u> is a bit of a departure for Palin because it's a very personal family history, a quest in a way, decades in the making. During the height of the Monty Python days, Palin's family inherited a collection of diaries, photos, and letters, a treasure trove of family documents. Many of the items had to do with his Great-Uncle Harry, the brother of his grandfather. Harry had never really been spoken of in the family before. In fact, Palin had not known he had a Great-Uncle Harry, but he discovered that Harry had been one of thousands of young British men killed in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. Palin was intrigued, but life intervened. Only in recent years did he decide to really dig deep and try to discover who Harry was. This book is the result. The finished product is an engrossing story, told of course with Palin's wit, not just of one victim of the Great War, but of the British Empire, as the subtitle foreshadows. The reader is drawn in for glimpses of British education, class system, and society as a whole through Harry's eyes, and Harry comes across as an ordinary, average bloke kind of flailing around and trying to find his place and fit in a rapidly changing world. Palin makes a real connection, not complete but at least a connection, to a family member he never knew and makes him accessible to the rest of us as well.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMEFrZD2JqkHk1P_2U4Mx2btNZPShkJabUqZcTV_43CwbMvltOxjVlZCzsFltbYnxEObrADd59pH65kfBghzrjQv7OeuPMYuxhH1zxHhi4O9PllvmZyewnZ3_0JsQBGpCvRrnzOoHawjJDeMCLHu2rR0htJDR39j5A_BX5Yqwyb4xeZnWEe40bn6o3gg/s1504/Image-8797.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMEFrZD2JqkHk1P_2U4Mx2btNZPShkJabUqZcTV_43CwbMvltOxjVlZCzsFltbYnxEObrADd59pH65kfBghzrjQv7OeuPMYuxhH1zxHhi4O9PllvmZyewnZ3_0JsQBGpCvRrnzOoHawjJDeMCLHu2rR0htJDR39j5A_BX5Yqwyb4xeZnWEe40bn6o3gg/w288-h400/Image-8797.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1U5lDfAeSK8" width="320" youtube-src-id="1U5lDfAeSK8"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author's podcast appearance</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women</u>. Lisa Perrin. Chronicle Books, 2023. 208 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You say you're looking for a fun read and a beautifully illustrated book about infamous women in history who used poisons to murder? Well, look no further. <u>The League of Lady Poisoners</u> is the book for you. Lisa Perrin has illustrated many books in her career, but this is the first book that she's both written and illustrated. She's obviously a little different; she dedicates the book to her parents, saying they hoped that she would create a beautiful children's book as her first book, and yet....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">She tells the stories of 25 women from all over the world and across centuries who were accused of poisoning people, and they are organized by motive. Some used their knowledge of plants to attain wealth and position, even becoming official, or unofficial, functionaries, providing their services to the powerful or to those hungry for power. Some used poisons to collect insurance money or inheritances. Others may have seen poison as their only chance to escape a life of abuse and mistreatment. Some were just pure evil. In the stories of the women, the reader learns a lot about their times and societies and where women actually stood in those societies. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The book starts with a really interesting history of poisons, detailing their origins, uses, and effects. Perrin also delves into the reasons that poisoning was seen as women's work. As you might expect from Perrin's background, it's also a beautiful hardcover book with gold foil details on the outside and great illustrations throughout. </div><br /><p></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-78967894172442009622023-10-16T05:57:00.016-04:002023-12-23T11:27:03.222-05:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts October 1 - 15, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqTQlk3hmeFUQF_DVNRRA_mWwcuit5pyYZd1ZNHw8C0vzT2TqMUkjuuK1TwrA1WZARSLCie4Uz9AVMgJoJIr2eypUWv2sYBJvz5F94Dg3s2XP8-YSB3C2T_3wx4M0-FonlPlKNqpqnl4UYpUXx4g8qbdbjSsZOLcwaDXgUffZXTakBxaITSR2IwxwCg/s1504/Image-1180.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqTQlk3hmeFUQF_DVNRRA_mWwcuit5pyYZd1ZNHw8C0vzT2TqMUkjuuK1TwrA1WZARSLCie4Uz9AVMgJoJIr2eypUWv2sYBJvz5F94Dg3s2XP8-YSB3C2T_3wx4M0-FonlPlKNqpqnl4UYpUXx4g8qbdbjSsZOLcwaDXgUffZXTakBxaITSR2IwxwCg/s320/Image-1180.png" width="230" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CEXxUJnXuRk" width="320" youtube-src-id="CEXxUJnXuRk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Mary Musgrove, inspiration for Creek Mary</div><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Creek Mary's Blood</b>. Dee Brown. Henry Holt & Company, 1980. 401 pages.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Students of Georgia history learn the story of Mary Musgrove, a Creek Indian woman who was an important part of Georgia's founding. She served as an interpreter and intermediary between the local Creeks and Georgia's first colonists. Lovers of history, and western history in particular, recognize the name Dee Brown as one of the leading historians and writers specializing in America's western history, the author of <u>Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee</u>, a landmark re-interpretation. Published in 1970, <u>Bury</u> was at the forefront of the movement to end the romanticization of the Old West and Indian Wars to tell the real history of white-indigenous relations. </p><p style="text-align: left;">In 1980, Brown published <u>Creek Mary's Blood,</u> a highly fictionalized story obviously inspired by Mary Musgrove. It's also very reminiscent of the great 1964 novel <u>Little Big Man </u>because it's a sprawling, multi-generational novel that covers a long period of time in the lives of the main characters as their lives intersect with real historical figures, from James Oglethorpe (the founder of Georgia) to Theodore Roosevelt. In fact, I could easily see this novel as a movie like "Little Big Man" or a 1980s tv miniseries like "Centennial."</p><p style="text-align: left;">The story of Creek Mary and her progeny is told in the novel by Dane, her 91-year old grandson, speaking to a journalist in 1905. He recounts Mary's life in Georgia, the Trail of Tears and the violent division within the Cherokee tribe that resulted, his move west to live among the Cheyenne, and his children's and grandchildren's involvement in the Civil War, the Battle of Little Bighorn, and the Wounded Knee Massacre. It's an epic story of five generations of a family that covers two centuries and serves as a crash course in Native American history. The novel may stretch credulity here and there, and a few elements make it a little awkward in terms of fiction quality, but it's entertaining.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJg6L1FCJ_RCTpUDTRiJvj4wxpvNsKWObvejdOiaR5EcUknoPkGpR5O34vv1PJt0VW2LZoJJzFdG69DE6tPvuMHTE5-8GMX0lC5UsmD78m9rZgr8UA_tW0hFydDIfsmToKF95JYEr0dXNQ4x9uX6x29HwXNxT2B6RiTlAGGNzo8o9-IzhtE7AdKsyytw/s1504/Image-2899.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJg6L1FCJ_RCTpUDTRiJvj4wxpvNsKWObvejdOiaR5EcUknoPkGpR5O34vv1PJt0VW2LZoJJzFdG69DE6tPvuMHTE5-8GMX0lC5UsmD78m9rZgr8UA_tW0hFydDIfsmToKF95JYEr0dXNQ4x9uX6x29HwXNxT2B6RiTlAGGNzo8o9-IzhtE7AdKsyytw/s320/Image-2899.png" width="230" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oguquYcYMKk" width="320" youtube-src-id="oguquYcYMKk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author podcast appearance</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I</u>. Douglas Brunt. Atria Books, 2023. 384 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Like the author, Douglas Brunt, I initially knew next to nothing about Rudolf Diesel, what a diesel engine actually is, or how the invention of the engine was really one of the greatest technological advances in human development. I also had no idea that Diesel's body was fished out of the North Sea in 1913. He was on a steamship headed from Belgium to the UK when he mysteriously disappeared. Was it an accident, suicide, or murder? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Diesel's engine was absolutely revolutionary. It was powerful and efficient. It cut down on noxious fumes and smoke created by burning coal and traditional petroleum products. It could power factories and vehicles. It allowed for immediate starts. It could be fueled by nut or vegetable oils. It transformed military and commercial navies, provided more power and speed, saved space once taken up by tons of coal, eliminated the need for many refueling stops and for the dozens of crewmen who were normally required to shovel coal, and making submarines more feasible. All of these factors made Rudolf Diesel the leading engineering superstar of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Did his engine also make him the target of a murder plot?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The chief suspects were very powerful men. John D. Rockefeller saw the diesel engine as an existential threat to his business and to his fortune. Kaiser Wilhelm II was determined to make Germany a world superpower, taking over the UK's supremacy. Although his ancestral home and home for much of his life was Germany, Diesel preferred to think of himself as a "citizen of the world" rather than a German. He worked to make his technology accessible in every country. He was on his way to the UK to offer support to that country's growing submarine development program. Did Rockefeller of Wilhelm decide to eliminate the engineer ?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Douglas Brunt's book is an excellent biography of Diesel, and it tells the story of the engine's development, both the science and the business, without bogging down into too much technical detail. He explains the significance of the engine and expertly puts it into the context of the age, the eve of WWI, with great insights into the lives and personalities of Rockefeller and Wilhelm, with sketches of Edison, Ford, Marconi and others along the way. Finally, he puts forward his own theory as to what happened. I highly recommend this book.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQUjCqy3ToB5Lk7B4tCHUtveAK3giWLZENhI_VI6mhHalE9_81959zzYkncorxpoGYElodfsrF9zulmm1ZdP2e9Eus8cj5EESrcbwxQ37PUApxm6c4QQ7Mup5wiW8lEGdP8CoVWDTan2fGPlavNDmQG8vF7Njc9ZPQ81miGYOaVpGD2nm_vYYMOEpUw/s1452/Image-1577.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1452" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQUjCqy3ToB5Lk7B4tCHUtveAK3giWLZENhI_VI6mhHalE9_81959zzYkncorxpoGYElodfsrF9zulmm1ZdP2e9Eus8cj5EESrcbwxQ37PUApxm6c4QQ7Mup5wiW8lEGdP8CoVWDTan2fGPlavNDmQG8vF7Njc9ZPQ81miGYOaVpGD2nm_vYYMOEpUw/s320/Image-1577.png" width="238" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AK1hX_j0-E4" width="320" youtube-src-id="AK1hX_j0-E4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"But, Mr. Adams" 1776</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u9KZY54M_Zs" width="320" youtube-src-id="u9KZY54M_Zs"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Dr. Craig watches "Wheel of Fortune", "St. Elsewhere"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>There I Go Again: How I Came to be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others.</u> William Daniels. Potomac Books, 2017. 240 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">William Daniels has had a long and distinguished career as an actor. I first became aware of him when I watched "St. Elsewhere" as a teen in the 1980s. It is still regarded as one of TV's greatest series and probably the best medical-themed series. The acting, writing, storylines, and technical innovations have influenced every single medical show that has aired since, from "ER" to "Scrubs." The show was the first big acting break for many including Ed Begley Jr, Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, and Denzel Washington. William Daniels was at its center as Dr. Mark Craig.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But then, I discovered him in the greatest historically based musical ever produced in the history of man: "1776." Everyone knows I generally detest musicals, but this one grabbed me. Historically accurate, with great songs and lots of humor, I showed the entire movie to practically every American history class I taught. It was the basis of my teaching of the Declaration of independence. Daniels starred as John Adams. Later, he would also play John Quincy Adams, joining a select group of actors who have played more than one President.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And yes, he also was the only redeeming feature of a couple of garbage shows: "Boy Meets World" and "Knight Rider." But an actor's gotta act.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to meet the 96-year old William Daniels, and he graciously signed a copy of his autobiography and a "1776" poster for me.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">His autobiography is a terrific read, full of his wit and memories from a decades long career that started when his mother forced him onto the stage as a small boy in Great Depression era Brooklyn. He and his younger sisters had a family act culminating in their own radio show. He started acting on Broadway at 15 in one of the longest-running Broadway plays ever even though he had never been in or even seen a play before being cast (as understudy originally). He writes about encounters with famous people like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Billie Holiday, Veronica Lake, and Marilyn Monroe, and in great detail about the roles for which he's most famous. It's fun and fast, especially for a fan.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh733pWoQmh7KhZjcUJRDGYoB2lZMNOEPCyxqr8Huleom4vm9_bX9ewJA0sA-yvsNv_YeRzJbjx6Y3ajXATDgs3SwcJwVtBaikZOOHftcWaa26ua-esir2-5CnJ0jaepMl-F6UTMEsnt5i77aLLWpHodAi9rsRjVLAtl1jzX_lblUwQ6D59gp73T9hVnA/s1504/Image-9940.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh733pWoQmh7KhZjcUJRDGYoB2lZMNOEPCyxqr8Huleom4vm9_bX9ewJA0sA-yvsNv_YeRzJbjx6Y3ajXATDgs3SwcJwVtBaikZOOHftcWaa26ua-esir2-5CnJ0jaepMl-F6UTMEsnt5i77aLLWpHodAi9rsRjVLAtl1jzX_lblUwQ6D59gp73T9hVnA/w288-h400/Image-9940.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HU_WX8fpDao" width="320" youtube-src-id="HU_WX8fpDao"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author podcast appearance</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://chattingwiththehistocrats.blogspot.com/2023/10/7-questions-with-tony-bernard-author-of.html">Histocrats 7 Questions with Author</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Ghost Tattoo.</u> Tony Bernard. Citadel, 2023. 336 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tony Bernard and his siblings grew up as typical Australian beach bums. Tony was an adult before he met somebody for whom surfing, sailing, and the ocean weren't all that important. They knew things about their father growing up, too. They knew that he was a successful and popular doctor and that he was a Holocaust survivor; he carried the tattooed number on his arm. They also knew that their mother divorced their father and had no contact with them for a decade. What they didn't know was that their father's Holocaust experiences were at the center of the failed marriage, and they didn't know just how deeply and profoundly his experiences had damaged him. He was that good at shielding his children, but the shields failed when it came to himself and his marriage.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then, cracks in the shield started developing in 1970 when he, and Tony, flew to West Germany so that he could testify in the trial of a Holocaust murder case. Later, in the 1970s, Tony accompanied him to his Polish hometown, and he learned more of the story. Still, it took another few decades to pull the story out in its entirety. Henry, Tony's father, had not only seen most of his family killed while he himself survived concentration camps, but he had lived through another whole tragedy before being deported to the camps - the source of the majority of the anguish and torment that plagued the rest of his life. He had been a member of the Jewish Order Service in his hometown. Just as the name suggests, the JOS was created to serve the German occupiers by enforcing order among the Jewish population. Henry soon found himself facing seemingly impossible dilemmas and being forced to do terrible things in order to keep himself and his loved ones alive. As Tony Bernard writes in an upcoming 7 Questions with Histocrats (to be published October 13th), this story forces the reader to ask himself what he would have done. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This book is a unique twist on the usual Holocaust story and worth a read. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmsaCnPKBtAwqyKwKJPcPrBLTxq2RcO_gdXhTfUcYipqXlWXE_cyQLexY9pTfkYIBYgc2g9961W5ld5lO-0zE_JL64wKDl-e-SX-exwRGX-f-0-WM64KBjL48xudmcblxO-IwPzCIkU4MBwaKjKT7dF4j5qDjh8fBFKpslVZSZXOj3mct0noK0gCR_g/s1504/Image-9680.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmsaCnPKBtAwqyKwKJPcPrBLTxq2RcO_gdXhTfUcYipqXlWXE_cyQLexY9pTfkYIBYgc2g9961W5ld5lO-0zE_JL64wKDl-e-SX-exwRGX-f-0-WM64KBjL48xudmcblxO-IwPzCIkU4MBwaKjKT7dF4j5qDjh8fBFKpslVZSZXOj3mct0noK0gCR_g/w288-h400/Image-9680.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oiDNFBSNt80" width="320" youtube-src-id="oiDNFBSNt80"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story</u>. Kermit Roosevelt III. University of Chicago Press, 2022, 256 pages.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">If you are interested in reading a thoughtful and thought-provoking take on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the true character of the United States, <u>The Nation That Never Was</u> may be a book for you. It is challenging, but not in a difficult-to read, legal-ese, constitutional-theorists-having-a-scotch-in-a-wood-paneled-library-esoteric-debate kind of way. It challenges what Americans have been taught and think they know about the founding of America and its two most important founding documents, and it challenges our ideas about American ideals, but it's written in very accessible language.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: times;">Kermit Roosevelt III is an American author, lawyer, constitutional scholar, and a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a great-great-grandson of United States President Theodore Roosevelt and a distant cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: times;">From the beginning, Roosevelt describes the American dilemma: Do we acknowledge and address the shortcomings of America's history and move forward together from there? Or do we continue perpetuating the "standard" story of the founding, created as part of the effort to build a nation but not truthful and accurate, and simply erase the negative elements? In the book, he thoroughly examines the "standard" simplistic and sentimentalized story we've all learned (and taught) and breaks it down, pointing out exaggerations, truths, and untruths. Then he lays out a new way of looking at America's story. That new story is that we should define our national identity around the promises, challenges, and aspirations (some still unachieved) of Reconstruction instead of the founding period. Like Reconstruction historian Eric Foner, he lays out the case for 1865, rather than 1776 or 1619, as modern America's starting point. However, he also distinguishes and separates his argument from those, like Foner, who have called Reconstruction "the Second Founding."</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: times;">I don't agree with everything Roosevelt wrote, but it was definitely worth reading and thinking about.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-71209149930555906052023-09-30T06:40:00.001-04:002023-09-30T06:41:59.178-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts September 16 - September 30, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMNIaLcGfubiWl4n4pIdKTUGx8o0R5SzxlS1IYgfZeBCQK2t9SDChx8YdGgOteHQHsEIkf_OgdJvh3R8c8oMjTMbBuWoU94KwaytvYLfuOFkmHs-tc_Q5a6gYFsPhfFrZVZ8QPVJv_D0JcxfIwDf2rANmvOPI_qfXpf4pzxbiwXQe7NnLVqAuCIH70A/s1504/Image-1544.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_zIARH3xZqi2VS5rn2T2hP3CjWuAGayB2bnh5M290BDf_Blz6DIBGTuLdyPIuWcbrO5BaXOJwjek7Yj7_sG-oBh1EJhJS4PXQrdkEjU2ZXDkrnNJCJ0FpUbI0LNIovlaVvJKixWpYjERHCfbNotMQntsha6xTXa7pw98b5hhmm6lig26NrLxo9C5TKA/s1504/Image-3237.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_zIARH3xZqi2VS5rn2T2hP3CjWuAGayB2bnh5M290BDf_Blz6DIBGTuLdyPIuWcbrO5BaXOJwjek7Yj7_sG-oBh1EJhJS4PXQrdkEjU2ZXDkrnNJCJ0FpUbI0LNIovlaVvJKixWpYjERHCfbNotMQntsha6xTXa7pw98b5hhmm6lig26NrLxo9C5TKA/s320/Image-3237.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YXwokSiZmQA" width="320" youtube-src-id="YXwokSiZmQA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author Talk, C-Span, American History TV</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Life of a Klansman.</u> Edward Ball. Farrar, Straus, and Giraux, 2020. 416 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Twenty-five years ago, Edward Ball wrote the huge bestseller <u>Slaves in the Family</u> in which he explored his family's history as South Carolina planters and slaveowners, and he wrote about his efforts to learn what he could of the people his family enslaved and what happened to their descendants. In 2020, he published another volume of family history, <u>Life of a Klansman</u>, in which he recounts the life of an ancestor who was a member of the white racist organizations that "redeemed" Louisiana during Reconstruction, terrorizing the black population of the state and restoring white supremacy .</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have mixed feelings about this book. Granted, Ball has never presented himself as an historian; he's a writer. However, on every page, there are multiple sentences that begin with phrases like "I think, " "I wonder," "I believe," "probably," "maybe," "possibly," "could have," etc. Those phrases just don't sit well me in something purporting to be history. Ball is really just a writer, a very capable writer, who tells his family history in an attempt to exorcise his own personal guilt for the actions and beliefs of the ancestors that he never met. For the last 25 years, it seems, he has crafted a public persona and made money based on remorse for action over which he had absolutely no control and no responsibility. I am glad that I'm not responsible for his therapy bills.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As I said, he tells a good story. The book presents a very interesting look at the incredibly complicated racial entity that is New Orleans and Louisiana, a place totally unique in America, with a history unmatched by any state. Despite all the personal speculation, the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction in Louisiana is pretty sound. I also enjoyed his conversations with descendants with people tangentially related to his ancestor's story. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All in all, I'm glad to have read it.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGiLD8dErMOKWYBAZu0JKIh4Z3p4y9jOeJM6NizpY_GK5wR1509wBK29VLXFRB3p0EiFCHHF0nvAeYnT-nmHsLC6G9i1Dqebdsh8PmMMB8jHXi3G76zHzxosrd2VG4pzOoYUT5cJ-HsUXI0SyK0WYTopG6awVsDxm2bz_UHSGBf1nrPbvpApaUFvM7g/s1504/Image-1544.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGiLD8dErMOKWYBAZu0JKIh4Z3p4y9jOeJM6NizpY_GK5wR1509wBK29VLXFRB3p0EiFCHHF0nvAeYnT-nmHsLC6G9i1Dqebdsh8PmMMB8jHXi3G76zHzxosrd2VG4pzOoYUT5cJ-HsUXI0SyK0WYTopG6awVsDxm2bz_UHSGBf1nrPbvpApaUFvM7g/s320/Image-1544.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WxQcy-WkD4o" width="320" youtube-src-id="WxQcy-WkD4o"></iframe></div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> author talk</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Rogues: True Stories, of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks.</u> Patrick Radden Keefe. Doubleday, 2022. 368 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The term "rogues gallery" originated in the mid to late 19th century US when police and detective agencies, like the famous Pinkerton Agency, started assembling detailed descriptions and dossiers on criminals, including photographs, fingerprints, and measurements of facial features. Here, Patrick Radden Keefe has collected a dozen of his articles previously published in <u>The New Yorker</u> magazine. The 21st century rogues profiled here include a wine forger - who knew that wine collecting was so treacherous ? But, then, with collectors willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single bottle and many transactions occurring in shady, black market-like circumstances, it's easy to see why it's fertile ground for criminals. There are also the stories of the professor who shot and killed her colleagues because she was denied tenure, the sister of the biggest organized crime figure in the Netherlands who still lives in fear for her life because she testified against him, the international arms merchant, the whistleblower who exposed money laundering in a Swiss bank, the manipulation of pharmaceutical stock using experimental drugs for treating Alzheimer's, and, of course, a day spent with Anthony Bourdain. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The stories are all incredibly fascinating, and I have written before that I am a huge fan of Keefe's writing. This book does not disappoint.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO2sD0qQlpLsn9RCo1lnnVVM_t1JpHaJl0K-F8S0_H_gIJOsyNpQwjj0lX3ZwtCMkXinqQ_u_BY6pUnMgo36Fkv6W2ca8kK17_JyHvM9koL_NIl1A2RluWKV5M1Ha5lBhHb34pD4Fu0elS-LvIM32qlJ6di54CW6QZF8kkS4J_0dSNNG1-oKopDV5jAQ/s1504/Image-6045.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO2sD0qQlpLsn9RCo1lnnVVM_t1JpHaJl0K-F8S0_H_gIJOsyNpQwjj0lX3ZwtCMkXinqQ_u_BY6pUnMgo36Fkv6W2ca8kK17_JyHvM9koL_NIl1A2RluWKV5M1Ha5lBhHb34pD4Fu0elS-LvIM32qlJ6di54CW6QZF8kkS4J_0dSNNG1-oKopDV5jAQ/s320/Image-6045.png" width="230" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XCU1F8r1au8" width="320" youtube-src-id="XCU1F8r1au8"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">author talk, National Archives</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><u>The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo, and the War For America.</u> H.W. Brands. Doubleday, 2022, 416 pages.<div><br /></div><div>Historian H.W. Brands is another author who can do no wrong as far as I am concerned. <u>The Last Campaign</u> is definitely another winner. I do quibble slightly, however, with whomever is in charge of subtitling books at Doubleday. The title might mislead some people. This book is not really about a clash between military and organizational genius William Tecumseh Sherman and Geronimo. In fact, Geronimo is totally absent from the majority of the book. Instead, it is a complete and thorough history of the Indian Wars and of the US government's Indian policy in the 19th century. Every treaty, policy, major battle and campaign (and some minor), and personality of significance is dealt with here. Sherman and Geronimo kind of represent the bookends of the period, with Sherman becoming Commanding General of the Army in 1869, with the chief responsibility of pacifying the West, and Geronimo being the last major symbol of armed resistance as his small Apache band defied American and Mexican troops until he was forced to surrender in 1886.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>The Last Campaign</u> is great history, as I have come to expect from Brands. Whether the reader is looking for an introduction to the subject of the Indian Wars or the reader is already very knowledgeable about the subject, this book will inform, educate, and entertain. <br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzxlrhvvNIGaNl8tU6Jwvsv4f7rROSLmNpfc9SfcHmzaX_dFgDPtSxjIXFVXDXilUFEh1ub6PoEZ-FZL8ZiAfJdM21hcZYOLjqJ8B1OnEPZ-ENzKJj08WFQretNfczx5AiIpDRixdURVbNZUQetHPp0_LjuTMvkLef9koLfZf6GceORAINPtNrvXyWQ/s1504/Image-8336.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzxlrhvvNIGaNl8tU6Jwvsv4f7rROSLmNpfc9SfcHmzaX_dFgDPtSxjIXFVXDXilUFEh1ub6PoEZ-FZL8ZiAfJdM21hcZYOLjqJ8B1OnEPZ-ENzKJj08WFQretNfczx5AiIpDRixdURVbNZUQetHPp0_LjuTMvkLef9koLfZf6GceORAINPtNrvXyWQ/w288-h400/Image-8336.png" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eE2otKq-HBQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="eE2otKq-HBQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South</u>. Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington. Public Affairs, 2018. 416 pages. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I want to start by saying that I know some very, very fine people from Mississippi. I really don't want to offend my friends from Mississippi. They really are good people --- great people. However, I know enough about Mississippi that it is absolutely impossible to hear the word without thinking of Nina Simone's song, "Mississippi G***am." Seriously. The level of inhumanity, hatred, stupidity, and pure evil present in Mississippi rivals any other political entity in the history of the world. Sadly, not much has changed in the 21st century.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist</u> is a hard book to read. It's about the broken American legal system. And there is no disputing that it is broken, on all levels from law enforcement to attorneys, to judges, and to politicians. As author John Grisham points out in his introduction to the book, innocent people are jailed and executed in America. <span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">If there are 2.3 million people in prison and just .5% of them (half of one percent) are innocent, that’s 11,500 people serving time in jail for something they didn’t do. I think we can agree that 1 person is too many, but 11,500? The American legal system is broken, but is there a better one in the world?</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">This book is specifically about Mississippi, beginning in 1995, and specifically about two men, Steven Hayne and Michael West, a doctor and dentist respectively, who became high-paid medical examiners for hire. The book argues that they presented evidence and testimony that resulted in convictions of many people for horrific crimes that they had nothing to do with. Some of those people were sentenced to life in prison or death row. The authors focus on two men in particular who have been freed because new evidence and investigations have vindicated them, but there are other men still on death row. At the very least, the doctors are incompetent, but it's more likely that they routinely created false evidence that was used to convict innocent people. They were aided and abetted at every turn by Mississippi law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and politicians. To date, those involved in fraudulently convicting dozens and dozens of innocent people, including Hayne and West, have neither admitted wrongdoing or been punished.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">My blood boiled as I read this book. Also, the two crimes that are the focus of the book are terrible crimes against toddlers which makes it even harder to read. However, this dysfunction needs to be exposed to sunlight --- not that anything changes, it is Mississippi. The book is also worth reading because of the first few chapters in which the authors discuss the history of the office of coroner, coroners' roles in the Jim Crow South, and the development of pathology as a medical field in the US. For those of the "CSI" generation (and for older people like me, "Quincy"), readers are in for a shock. Autopsies and forensic investigation are incredibly new developments, really only beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, and moving slowly across the country.</span></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br /><p></p></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-54211658052822276512023-09-16T06:02:00.002-04:002023-09-16T06:02:00.138-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts September 1 - September 15, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielaSYVcfmeIjSdeH4Vda2W120UCU9esS0cJwPbOVTO2QNq7WQ0A17Ad60wv8HpOcGqZ0yHpPx3JWGRHPbAo7npXNqr2ZEOt7oxA0pcVbBUUbiEppbiWZ_QkqZk3eHbNlp_-RSfF-ZgF1VJRxqJtUjacmWLJFhjmWPDJ6BFGxZ5OkdMLqxS7b2HCSkQA/s1504/Image-940.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielaSYVcfmeIjSdeH4Vda2W120UCU9esS0cJwPbOVTO2QNq7WQ0A17Ad60wv8HpOcGqZ0yHpPx3JWGRHPbAo7npXNqr2ZEOt7oxA0pcVbBUUbiEppbiWZ_QkqZk3eHbNlp_-RSfF-ZgF1VJRxqJtUjacmWLJFhjmWPDJ6BFGxZ5OkdMLqxS7b2HCSkQA/s320/Image-940.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rRfE8UqaqNA" width="320" youtube-src-id="rRfE8UqaqNA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama.</u> Nigel Cliff. Harper Perennial, 2012. 560 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you ever need feel the need to pick up a readable historical text that covers the Age of Exploration, specifically Portugal's rise and fall as a world power, then Nigel Cliff's <u>The Last Crusade</u> is the book for you. It reads like a novel, but it is a thorough history European exploration and imperialism in the 15th and 16th centuries. The main focus is Vasco da Gama and his voyages to establish a Portuguese trade route to and relationship with India, voyages that led him to be the first European to successfully reach the subcontinent by sailing around Africa, but da Gama is not even mentioned until about page 150. First, Cliff relates the history of the rise of Islam, Islam's movement into Europe, the European resistance, and the series of Holy Wars launched by Popes and Kings to destroy Islamic control over the Holy Land. Eventually, Portugal and Spain emerged as the self-appointed chief defenders and promoters of the "True Faith." Cliff argues that Vasco da Gama's voyage to India wasn't just driven by the desire for spices and other riches for the Portuguese Crown. In fact, da Gama was tapped to lead a new Crusade against Islam, with orders to destroy Muslim military and commercial influence in East Africa and Asia. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What transpired was one misadventure and misunderstanding after another. Da Gama mistakenly believed that India was full of Christians. OK, they were strange Christians that treated cows with reverence and decorated their temples with strange "saints" and "angels" with multiple faces, heads, limbs, but they had to be Christians, right? I mean, there were only Christians and Muslims in the world, right? The luxury goods the Portuguese brought to trade for spices, gold, and precious jewels, were sneered at viewed as garbage by the Indians. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Last Crusade </u> is an epic history of the "Age of Discovery" and a new interpretation. It is as history should be, great storytelling.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDSlu84CV5goLLNqatjRQokgqaFyi8UhojdaaJ2hFkXuOJ1vJhXXiwka19hsTb7F6_5bb-q_ZogVJ2pQkckdc8FMCZxJdThvH4wSsjIvEPPAfXUaEqancdlEDr2JODJQyfj5LBzl81DPPzZ9L-Zy3FGlKpEeNvE9U_0swVck3Qjo_j0LBs145r5imayg/s1481/Image-8551.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1481" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDSlu84CV5goLLNqatjRQokgqaFyi8UhojdaaJ2hFkXuOJ1vJhXXiwka19hsTb7F6_5bb-q_ZogVJ2pQkckdc8FMCZxJdThvH4wSsjIvEPPAfXUaEqancdlEDr2JODJQyfj5LBzl81DPPzZ9L-Zy3FGlKpEeNvE9U_0swVck3Qjo_j0LBs145r5imayg/s320/Image-8551.png" width="233" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/adPuti-SL5o" width="320" youtube-src-id="adPuti-SL5o"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919</u>. Stephen Puleo. Beacon Press, 2003. 280 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On January 15, 1919, a huge tower in Boston's North End collapsed. It contained 2.3 million gallons of molasses - 26 million pounds. The result was a 50-foot tidal wave of molasses moving at 35 mph and crushing everything and everyone in its path. The death toll was 21 with 150 injured, many permanently disabled. As rescue and recovery efforts were made over the next hours, shouts of rescuers and screams of agony of survivors were punctuated by gunshots as Boston police shot dozens, if not hundreds, of struggling horses. Dogs, cats, and even rats in the neighborhood disappeared in the sticky goo.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The tank was built to hold molasses from the Caribbean until it was transported by rail to factories where it was processed into alcohol for use in making explosives and munitions, generating huge profits for the United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA) which supplied the belligerents of WWI. Molasses had been an essential part of Boston's development from colonial times, the days of the Triangular Trade. New England slave ships sailed for Africa with rum to trade for enslaved Africans, transported them to the Caribbean for sale, filled their holds with molasses, and sailed back to New England where the molasses became rum, ready for the next trip. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The North End of Boston was picked as the site of the tower largely because it was populated by Italian immigrants who had no political or economic standing to stop it. The North End was also home to a large and violent anarchist movement that regularly made threats and took action against war industries as well as government and police targets.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Author Stephen Puleo weaves together all these threads to tell the story of the disaster and the legal battles that stretched over the next ten years. It really is a moving and informative story about a disaster that is largely forgotten and ignored today. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQfG_q_64LWKOSQp9b97HFFw0Q2frDhZtZhH9PpbqKP0fPREkQpBXz_j-nBY5pgWuwt8O2adZ8SUOgfrVT6cHEO9p2mzSaBoSumKkRi4haM2Yw482OUgbZ-lCEOLFMvWRlIJPbYcS4RjI5ONYQizykrdaJN6UVci-kl31MYxOGyncih_9__97orFPcg/s1504/Image-2661%20(1).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQfG_q_64LWKOSQp9b97HFFw0Q2frDhZtZhH9PpbqKP0fPREkQpBXz_j-nBY5pgWuwt8O2adZ8SUOgfrVT6cHEO9p2mzSaBoSumKkRi4haM2Yw482OUgbZ-lCEOLFMvWRlIJPbYcS4RjI5ONYQizykrdaJN6UVci-kl31MYxOGyncih_9__97orFPcg/s320/Image-2661%20(1).png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ENFNLz0ZDQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="5ENFNLz0ZDQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s9APLXM9Ei8" width="320" youtube-src-id="s9APLXM9Ei8"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Chernobyl Trailer (HBO 2019)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Midnight in Chernobyl.</u> Adam Higginbotham. Simon & Schuster, 2019. 560 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A few years ago, I was totally enthralled by the HBO series Chernobyl, about the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986. It's an incredible production, one of the greatest series I've ever seen.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 2019, journalist Adam Higginbotham published <u>Midnight in Chernobyl,</u> the product of a years-long investigation into the incident itself and the intense behind-the-scenes propaganda effort and the resulting cover-up, and it's a fantastic look at the inner workings of the Soviet Union and its impending collapse. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is definitely one of those books that proves that history is always stranger and more horrible than fiction. Even Kafka and Orwell could never have imagined the story told here. The reader is taken through every detail of the incident and the aftermath. There is a lot of scientific background, but never did I feel overwhelmed by the science. Higginbotham also succeeds in telling the stories of the people whose lives were turned upside down. The workers and their families who were just living their lives like families around the world, the managers driven by constant demands from their superiors who routinely cut corners, falsified results, and flat out lied to protect their party status and careers, the military and political decision makers whose priority was promoting the USSR's image around the world, and the thousands of men and women drafted into clean-up service. Even in the midst of the crisis, there were people who refused to believe that their government would ask them to do anything dangerous, and there were people who saw their service, and their radiation dosage, as their opportunity to serve their beloved state as their parents and grandparents had done in the "Great Patriotic War" (WWII) and the Revolution.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are so many great stories in the book. I don't know why these stood out, but there are two indelible images for me. One involves the woman who was the official architect and city planner of Pripyat. After the plant accident, she worked around the clock organizing the evacuation which meant that she had to draw dozens and dozens of city maps freehand for the various groups patrolling the city. Why freehand? Because in the USSR, photocopiers and mimeograph machines were strictly controlled and rationed by the KGB because they could be used to disseminate anti-state propaganda. Then there's the unnamed woman trudging along the town streets dragging her suitcase after everybody else was evacuated. She had been out of town the weekend of the accident, and nobody bothered to stop train service to Pripyat. She had no idea anything had happened and got off the train to head home, bewildered that she was so alone. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Midnight in Chernobyl</u> is a great book. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwV-0AodEE0k1_Q7pwCc80i1Rc18VN5juBefUgVdPSvHrYYF0acu2N5t2V_ctPyFPLlL7XczckOJ--hnHrPgGGGQ9CWbe5ytbh498znRphDDMrTQdzczbfVLMIsBqdbYH9XIDwg97RgOVQLNMlqnvMwPjtiU2VcncDXgO6TQQtrrkDWAIUqz_UPDOKSw/s1504/Image-8689.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwV-0AodEE0k1_Q7pwCc80i1Rc18VN5juBefUgVdPSvHrYYF0acu2N5t2V_ctPyFPLlL7XczckOJ--hnHrPgGGGQ9CWbe5ytbh498znRphDDMrTQdzczbfVLMIsBqdbYH9XIDwg97RgOVQLNMlqnvMwPjtiU2VcncDXgO6TQQtrrkDWAIUqz_UPDOKSw/s320/Image-8689.png" width="230" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/em31kU2juec" width="320" youtube-src-id="em31kU2juec"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Slave Who Inherited a Fortune</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Woman of Color, Daughter of Privilege: Amanda America Dickson, 1849-1893.</u> Kent Anderson Leslie. University of Georgia Press, 1996. 248 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Antebellum Hancock County Georgia was one of the wealthiest counties in Georgia, one of the wealthiest states in the union. Part of the "black belt" of central Georgia, Hancock County's wealth was produced by enslaved plantation workers who greatly outnumbered the white population. Amanda America Dickson was owned by her father who had raped her 12-year-old mother, impregnating her with Amanda. David Dickson was one of the best known slaveowners of Georgia, nicknamed "the Prince of Georgia Farmers." As a child, Amanda was taken from her mother forced to be a domestic servant in her paternal grandmother's household. From the time she was weaned up to the time of her grandmother's death, she slept in her white grandmother's bedroom. Her father and grandmother showered her with affection, and she was taught to read, write, and play piano. She also learned the rules of etiquette and fashion. Still, Georgia law made it next to impossible to manumit, or free, and enslaved person, so Amanda remained technically enslaved until the 13th amendment was ratified. She "married" twice, first to a white first-cousin and then to a mixed-race man. She couldn't legally marry her first husband because of state law, but they lived as man and wife for a few years. When her father died in 1885, he left her his estate in his will. Of course, that led her white relatives to challenge the will in court, and shockingly, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld Amanda's inheritance. As a result, she became one of the wealthiest women of color in19th century America. To distance herself from the white Hancock County relatives, she moved to Augusta Georgia where she became a leader of an elite black society, and she even found limited acceptance in a white society that extended limited acceptance to mixed-race descendants of the planter class, provided they had enough money and social grace. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Amanda Dickson's story is one of those stories that one seldom hears, and there is not a great amount of information. She never wrote her memoir, and there are few first person accounts, but I'm glad Kent Anderson Leslie told as much of her story as he was able.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6Qa9IF7jO5ADYGjgzVrWcnxkt8HmwbqdtaTRJ4z998bdu5hJAmEYyRNDQqcV1NETaScJZxJP5kpuP-hr1itOUDbazQFGRPc0zz3zbLzNMT51v_7EP2jOGo1ayDQ0YHm-HdFJ6dwcLrIfKVzwzjq1ldgGq4tMKK6f_JtPhPuLPKJVM44lTx0VVgJomA/s1504/Image-4556.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6Qa9IF7jO5ADYGjgzVrWcnxkt8HmwbqdtaTRJ4z998bdu5hJAmEYyRNDQqcV1NETaScJZxJP5kpuP-hr1itOUDbazQFGRPc0zz3zbLzNMT51v_7EP2jOGo1ayDQ0YHm-HdFJ6dwcLrIfKVzwzjq1ldgGq4tMKK6f_JtPhPuLPKJVM44lTx0VVgJomA/s320/Image-4556.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zw7aGAXTrXE" width="320" youtube-src-id="zw7aGAXTrXE"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author at 2011 National Book Festival</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The School of Night</u>. Louis Bayard. Henry Holt and Co., 2011. 352 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My first Louis Bayard historical fiction, <u>The School of Night,</u> is an historical mystery told in two timelines: 1603 in the laboratory of Thomas Harriott, renowned English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and alchemist friend, of Sir Walter Raleigh and Christopher Marlowe among other characters viewed suspiciously as heretics by the Crown and 2009 as an Elizabethan scholar finds himself drawn into a deadly adventure with numerous twists and turns.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was a cheap find at a library book sale and a very quick poolside read. Verdict: ok. 3 out of 5 stars I guess. Pretty typical of the genre. I've read at least a dozen books that are very similar. You take your damaged, downtrodden hero with problems including one or more of the following: alcoholism, professional failure, poverty, romantic loss, dead lover, child, or friend, and/or depression and throw in a mysterious and sexy woman with whom he falls madly in love/lust. People around them start to be murdered and/or valuable and historic things are stolen or threatened, and they find themselves running for their lives from some malevolent villain who is certain that they have access to what he wants. Twists and turns. Surprises and betrayals. Yada yada. Finale. The world is saved. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This kind of novel is pretty popular, and Bayard is pretty popular. I think it's popular with some book clubs. I think I'll give him another shot, but <u>Night</u> doesn't quite convince me by itself. However, it served its purpose, quick and easy read, good for beach, pool, or plane.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAblrMNWQfZV3GxOqeun-YqzB70HD2f6QWg8vfvIYVaWmePpNz4n6Zpx3ezsmtAVd1bZ2XQWAyv7pRDIFk2wEy6KSNRF90Y9DQwqEUhfzQuJLGdjcNrSdsmP0bNMmPtsNrs0TVeP1hi7Uz5yujkS4b1hG5yaWcI9VyJLN9px1zBSfPJidTsikALqRBJA/s1504/Image-203.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAblrMNWQfZV3GxOqeun-YqzB70HD2f6QWg8vfvIYVaWmePpNz4n6Zpx3ezsmtAVd1bZ2XQWAyv7pRDIFk2wEy6KSNRF90Y9DQwqEUhfzQuJLGdjcNrSdsmP0bNMmPtsNrs0TVeP1hi7Uz5yujkS4b1hG5yaWcI9VyJLN9px1zBSfPJidTsikALqRBJA/w288-h400/Image-203.png" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ddbL9jvg77w" width="320" youtube-src-id="ddbL9jvg77w"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"Pale Blue Eye" Trailer, Netflix</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Pale Blue Eye.</u> Louis Bayard. Harper, 2006. 432 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was Louis Bayard's second and last chance to impress me. Meh. <u>The Pale Blue Eye</u>, published in 2006, is enjoying a revival lately because it was made into a Netflix movie starring Christian Bale in 2022. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 1830, respected and retired New York constable Augustus Landor is summoned to the United States Military Academy at West Point to investigate the death of a cadet, first thought to be a suicide. However, within hours, his body was mutilated, and Landor suspects that there is much more afoot. He soon finds an eager assistant among the cadet corps, a brooding misfit poet named Edgar Allan Poe. </div><div><br /></div>It's an OK mystery in my opinion, but it didn't blow me away. In fact, Poe's part in it is the most boring and tiresome part of the book for me. I can't give it more than a 3 out of 5 rating, and I think I'm done with Bayard.<div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-44253552439486097852023-08-21T07:29:00.449-04:002023-08-30T07:00:05.447-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts August 16 - August 31, 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0r64paOIlMw9uBJUOXJZSmxong7aCUthNEO-O_GNqNJPzakrxcr1o8nqjgZjiFjgzqw6DDSrYQwZkohAzE2TUnRKIRP3Eu1jhnKz5y53MRRyMMf41X5U77IHg5hXw3RQ_lbJEQxl0l0uXilhtYF7Cv9Ca9rB4CbndCNhZ21Phbjtzi5k5S-SqsZQSw/s1504/Image-9754.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0r64paOIlMw9uBJUOXJZSmxong7aCUthNEO-O_GNqNJPzakrxcr1o8nqjgZjiFjgzqw6DDSrYQwZkohAzE2TUnRKIRP3Eu1jhnKz5y53MRRyMMf41X5U77IHg5hXw3RQ_lbJEQxl0l0uXilhtYF7Cv9Ca9rB4CbndCNhZ21Phbjtzi5k5S-SqsZQSw/s320/Image-9754.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>A Is For American: Letters and Other Characters is the Newly United States. </u> Jill Lepore. Knopf, 2002. 256 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The concept of nationalism is rather recent in human history. The question of what makes a nation, what holds a group of people of together as a people, is still studied, discussed, and debated. All too often, the debate turns into violence and bloodshed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In <u>A Is For American</u>, historian Jill Lepore looks at one element of culture, language, and its role in nationbuilding, specifically how a select group of individuals in the Early Republic period of the United States sought to use language as a tool for shaping the nation, or the world, to meet their vision. Noah Webster and Samuel Morse both wanted to create a uniquely American language to set the United States apart. Both were anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant and saw outside forces poised to destroy their country. Webster believed that an American language and spelling system would force immigrants to assimilate quicker. Morse may have been driven to develop his Morse Code as a secret weapon to ward off the international invasion led by the Pope that he feared. Sequoyah developed a new alphabet to protect and preserve his nation, too, but his nation was the Cherokee,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">William Thornton dreamed bigger. He promoted the use of universal alphabet to bring the whole world together in harmony. Thomas Gallaudet and Alexander Graham Bell devoted their lives to improving the lives of the deaf, and they developed new languages to that end. In a more personal story on a smaller scale, Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima, an aging enslaved Muslim man in Mississippi successfully used his Arabic writing ability to free himself. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jill Lepore has become one of my favorite historians to read, and she's written so much, on so many different topics. This was a very interesting look at language and nationalism.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir8KZfYyMLDfzEn5UxXeucHdq2kXswxU7kBvbyFRoleEcm006AK19smO-znpZjVTKRAKbBmb6NyfFwEve-vfbZgMHqGb9QMsQ5hMnrCVzrOkJV2HNfjTZF6A-fG7y31n3shgDsyBm-oRl41fes-t9Zio_caLRzzmkicdg8nNJGyj6adGR6kFeTRr2OMg/s1504/Image-9547.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir8KZfYyMLDfzEn5UxXeucHdq2kXswxU7kBvbyFRoleEcm006AK19smO-znpZjVTKRAKbBmb6NyfFwEve-vfbZgMHqGb9QMsQ5hMnrCVzrOkJV2HNfjTZF6A-fG7y31n3shgDsyBm-oRl41fes-t9Zio_caLRzzmkicdg8nNJGyj6adGR6kFeTRr2OMg/s320/Image-9547.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J8-bqxUFEzA" width="320" youtube-src-id="J8-bqxUFEzA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">David Grann book talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.</u> David Grann. Doubleday, 2023. 352 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On January 28, 1742, a thing that could very loosely have been called a boat - more like boat-ish, washed up on the shore of Brazil. On it were about thirty barely living men who had once been part of the crew of the British ship called <u>The Wager</u> that had left England in 1740 as part of a small fleet off to harass the Spanish in the so-called "War of Jenkin's Ear" or the War of Austrian Succession. They seemed to be all that was left of a crew of a couple of hundred, and they told the story of their wreck off the southern tip of South America, their survival on the desolate landscape for months, and their incredible 3000-mile-long voyage to Brazil. But, wait, there's more! Six months later an even sadder boat washed up on the coast of Chile, with just three inhabitants, including the ship's captain, and they added a new layer to the tale: murder and mutiny. When the survivors finally arrived back home in England, having been away from their loved ones for 4 or 5 years, accusations flew back and forth, various accounts were published, and the public was enthralled by the mystery and drama of what exactly had happened to <u>The Wager</u> and its crew. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">David Grann is the author of <u>Killers of the Flower Moon</u>, and he has established himself as one of the top writers of narrative nonfiction working today. His follow-up to <u>Killers</u> doesn't disappoint. The reader will learn a lot about life on a 1740s British warship and about how the command structure within the navy operated, but Grann also succeeds in bringing the men to life and telling their stories and how they dealt with their tragedy and hardships. Some men behaved more nobly than others, of course, but all suffered. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Grann also relates the story of the shipwreck and subsequent court-martial to the bigger picture: empire. This incident occurred at the time that the British empire was really in ascendancy. The British performance in the War of Austrian Succession and the possibly embarrassing public spectacle of a high-profile mutiny trial might have had a major impact on Brittania's rule over the waves, and the world. Grann explores how all these big-picture ideas intersected with the very specific fears of some of the surviving crewmen that their careers and lives were at stake. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfIoCeauEEMxmp62n-cEl5RMchG-_4PKt6EGoGFF30upXauwvZdVlaHlixkckRASAFNxqOQIALx4CC7xqgEiLibB5IdZPL5NpTfDX3Eire4gtTpaHPXCxEhGh6KJoCgYqHFV4AMoiqhgKRnuhRadiFBg7f9OV8x52EPbcx5QIBY6EcXQg4DrHhww5cg/s1504/Image-512.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfIoCeauEEMxmp62n-cEl5RMchG-_4PKt6EGoGFF30upXauwvZdVlaHlixkckRASAFNxqOQIALx4CC7xqgEiLibB5IdZPL5NpTfDX3Eire4gtTpaHPXCxEhGh6KJoCgYqHFV4AMoiqhgKRnuhRadiFBg7f9OV8x52EPbcx5QIBY6EcXQg4DrHhww5cg/s320/Image-512.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9mzGSOmkvms" width="320" youtube-src-id="9mzGSOmkvms"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(2022 discussion of book. Note presenter wearing masks.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Illustrated Journal of the Plague Year:300th Anniversary Edition. </u> Daniel Defoe. SeaWolf Press, 2020. 222 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> The presenter of The Great Courses lecture on London history that we've been listening to recommended <u>A Journal of the Plague Year</u> for its historical value and as a truly "great psychological novel." It was written by Daniel Defoe, considered one of the first English novelists chiefly known for <u>Robinson Crusoe</u>. Defoe was only a small boy in 1665 when the Great Plague swept through London, England's last major outbreak of the bubonic plague. It's estimated that 200,000 died or perhaps 2.5% of the English population. Defoe published his work in 1722. It is written as a first-person account of the year 1665, recounting events and personal experiences of a narrator. For over a hundred years, there was a debate as to whether the book should be classified as fiction, or if Defoe actually just edited some personal journals and letters. Historians of the day noted that the historical details were accurate and could be corroborated in contemporary sources. Today, it is regarded as historical fiction.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span> Defoe's narrator is a single man who worked as a saddler (maker of saddles and riding apparatus) who maintained a small London home and shop with a couple of apprentices and servants. He describes the outbreak of the disease from its beginnings, when people paid little attention. As the published death tolls mounted however, he describes the actions and reactions of London's citizens and government officials as they fought to make sense of the terror. Some fled the city, others found themselves locked inside their homes, with the infected and dying, by government orders to prevent spreading. Disinformation spread as people tried all sorts of quackery to prevent illness, and some people purported to have secret cures and preventatives, for a fee. Some people risked their lives to treat and comfort the ill. Some people took nursing jobs or swept into abandoned homes as soon as they were able in order to steal all the belongings in the home, including bedding and clothing. Some people left the city and wandered the countryside, sometimes being driven away violently by frightened villagers, sometimes given food and assistance by townspeople. The economy was crippled. The narrator expresses skepticism about the "official" information released by the government, and he saw huge pits dug for mass burials, and bearers leading wagons through neighborhoods collecting the dead. The narrator also speculates about the cause of the disease, taking the position that it was naturally transmitted and not some punishment for wickedness, a radical way of thinking in 1722.</span><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Journal</u> is a great work of historical fiction full of insights into the past and, as it turns out, into our present as well.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGJkZc2Q4FwuOOB0kUuVR47HL_qjst2AvNP_ogMTWgdUFRQBjhNA6JQTn6wnIdA2WY3bOO7v8eUWTO56QCIVhYB-lG-h2ctW4aoU2-nGEBKci3IiU_7HmRW8YtPFP9O4p5h6fGaevCFmXAvddXCJ4xJPQJZlRSnj11KmQBCu5fnes0-QFcY0ZZsKCvg/s1504/Image-1514.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGJkZc2Q4FwuOOB0kUuVR47HL_qjst2AvNP_ogMTWgdUFRQBjhNA6JQTn6wnIdA2WY3bOO7v8eUWTO56QCIVhYB-lG-h2ctW4aoU2-nGEBKci3IiU_7HmRW8YtPFP9O4p5h6fGaevCFmXAvddXCJ4xJPQJZlRSnj11KmQBCu5fnes0-QFcY0ZZsKCvg/s320/Image-1514.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fHv2lQLAF6o" width="320" youtube-src-id="fHv2lQLAF6o"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Making of the Evening and the Morning with Ken Follett</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Evening and the Morning (Book 4 of the Kingsbridge series).</u> Ken Follett. Viking, 2020. 928 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am a huge Ken Follett fan. His Kingsbridge series and Fall of Giants trilogy are, in my opinion, some of the greatest historical fiction ever written, with fantastic historical detail and exciting stories packing every page. <u>The Evening and the Morning</u>, published in 2020, is a prequel to <u>The Pillars of the Earth</u>, and book 5 is set to be released this fall (already pre-ordered). I decided it was time to catch up and get around to reading <u>Evening,</u> set from the late 990s into the early 1000s. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, it's another tour de force in storytelling as one would expect from Follett. However, honestly, there are lots of familiar notes. There's the extremely bright and talented peasant boy who falls in love with a beautiful, assertive, young woman who challenges all of the traditional roles and expectations of the time and is far above his station. He's friends and allies with a low ranking cleric who lives an exemplary life. Practically every other nobleman and church official is evil and corrupt, terrorizing, brutalizing, raping, and murdering anybody and everybody beneath him. And, of course, there are a few painfully awkwardly written sex scenes - I think Follett is one of the worst writers of sex scenes ever. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nevertheless, this book is a must-read for Follett fans, Pillars fans, and lovers of medieval history. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7t2mIUIXkNxPyZDyZf3tuh3WXwNkQ3ZJzixQUA-Y_nQpkKOIs61GTjvk5CrY1VHZKMw2-fJar_pokSXhhxoOaPyI05pC3dyYikN0d7TMvUZeZ9vd2hUUUhrvHZyPkczh-Ma1NOnuvWXbfsIG0byqbB7RK-vRxDscgXguXs1pluz4jF-Bkr34GJOE_A/s1504/Image-2235.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7t2mIUIXkNxPyZDyZf3tuh3WXwNkQ3ZJzixQUA-Y_nQpkKOIs61GTjvk5CrY1VHZKMw2-fJar_pokSXhhxoOaPyI05pC3dyYikN0d7TMvUZeZ9vd2hUUUhrvHZyPkczh-Ma1NOnuvWXbfsIG0byqbB7RK-vRxDscgXguXs1pluz4jF-Bkr34GJOE_A/s320/Image-2235.png" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xqfYa0cgHVA" width="320" youtube-src-id="xqfYa0cgHVA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found. </u> Gilbert King. Riverhead Books, 2018. 432 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">No doubt about it, Florida has a horrible history of racial violence, and Lake County, in Central Florida near Orlando, has been the epicenter of much of it, thanks largely to Sheriff Willis V. McCall who ruled the county from 1944 to 1972 and has to be on any list of horrible and evil Americans of the 20th century. A few years ago, Gilbert King published <u>Devil in the Grove</u>, a great book about the Groveland Four, a rape case that made national headlines and brought McCall and Lake County into national prominence. King continues the story of McCall's reign of terror in <u>Beneath a Ruthless Sun. </u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u><br /></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 1957, the wife of a prominent citrus and watermelon grower, and future politician, was raped in her bedroom. Within hours, McCall and his men rounded up dozens of young black men and carted them off to jail with no evidence or cause. Lake County was undoubtedly surprised when the young black men were ultimately released, and McCall declared that the rapist was a mentally challenged white teenager. Without trial, McCall and the duplicitous prosecuting attorney got the young man incarcerated in Florida's horrible state mental institution, Chattahoochee. The boy's mother fought the best she could and eventually found a strong ally, the woman publisher of the local newspaper who had begun a crusade against McCall. It took 13 years, and lots of twists and turns, but he was eventually freed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Sun</u> also relates other horrors committed by McCall, who was probably directly responsible for a couple of dozen or more deaths and terrorized black and white citizens of Lake County so that almost none dared to oppose his will. He was targeted for investigation by multiple governors, the FBI, and the US Justice Department, but nothing ever stuck. Finally, in 1972, he was tried, and acquitted, of the murder of a black inmate and removed from office by the governor. That didn't prevent him from running for re-election, and he won the Democratic primaries but never regained the office. He never paid for any of the suffering he caused for decades. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Beneath a Ruthless Sun</u> is a well-written page-turner and proof that truth is stranger, more horrible, and more terrifying than any fiction.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-54722332281430698092023-08-05T11:20:00.012-04:002023-08-18T10:24:46.136-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts August 1 - August 15, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEiAi3vm42xyO2-dGbMeLBKeU8Aex7542DPJt0gw99Gl3nsNqptuN15NmMWXi1KSvyFGbX3VaKBfUyPjnahl__wEL1inxD4BO9XtL3lur0dbo80yK0MuSp90vzna-HFouaCkUGN3virCHGjGzhUznneHP5aus0uIAHdt9mQ_JHDch9LXodSKGR6B0Vjg/s1532/Image-1285.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1532" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEiAi3vm42xyO2-dGbMeLBKeU8Aex7542DPJt0gw99Gl3nsNqptuN15NmMWXi1KSvyFGbX3VaKBfUyPjnahl__wEL1inxD4BO9XtL3lur0dbo80yK0MuSp90vzna-HFouaCkUGN3virCHGjGzhUznneHP5aus0uIAHdt9mQ_JHDch9LXodSKGR6B0Vjg/s320/Image-1285.jpg" width="226" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>100 Diagrams That Changed the World: From the Earliest Cave Paintings to the Innovation of the iPod.</u> Scott Christianson. Plume, 2012. 224 pages.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This is one of those books that you keep on a coffee table or side table, or, dare I say it, in a bathroom. Author Scott Christianson has assembled in chronological order what he considers the 100 most important and influential "diagrams" in world history, fr<span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;">om primitive cave paintings to Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man to the complicated DNA helix drawn by Crick and Watson to the innovation of the iPod. Each diagram is reproduced in full color and accompanied by a one-page history and explanation of its legacy and impact. It's entertaining and informative, and the reader can either read it through or dip in and out. The average reader will be familiar with some of the objects, but even the most knowledgeable readers can find something that is new and enlightening to them. It's ideal for people who have interests in science, technology, history, culture, engineering, and innovation.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMC03_ZnOE9iby7-RWcvnKPitDDttBEuvnRMxiufYyDItWrOs_ZVBODwxLtAzV0rD_NekArb8E8kt0XO0olhRbRYiGjrcMCANuHXUuP2iGdzzF5yOw5ttbW9-SCxG_dHAHNE82dkoKa94M60lRSctSjwbIUKKNLA_GIMyg-V2ASWWYQMd_qWqUz5RfQ/s1512/Image-499.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMC03_ZnOE9iby7-RWcvnKPitDDttBEuvnRMxiufYyDItWrOs_ZVBODwxLtAzV0rD_NekArb8E8kt0XO0olhRbRYiGjrcMCANuHXUuP2iGdzzF5yOw5ttbW9-SCxG_dHAHNE82dkoKa94M60lRSctSjwbIUKKNLA_GIMyg-V2ASWWYQMd_qWqUz5RfQ/s320/Image-499.png" width="229" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q_YHajG8MR0" width="320" youtube-src-id="Q_YHajG8MR0"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thomas Mullen Discussing <u>Darktown</u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>Midnight Atlanta: Darktown Trilogy, Book 3 of 3.</u> Thomas Mullen. Little, Brown, 2021. 400 pages.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In 2016, crime and thriller fiction writer Thomas Mullen published <u>Darktown</u>, a fictionalized account of the lives and hardships of the first 8 black police officers in Atlanta, hired in 1948. Like the first 8 real men, Mullen's fictional characters were not allowed in the police station, relegated to the basement of a YMCA instead. They were not allowed to wear their uniforms off duty, drive police cars, or question or arrest white Atlantans, and they were only supposed to work in black neighborhoods. Most of their fellow police officers were KKK members or at least sympathizers. Their beat was solely "Darktown," and their creation was largely was largely a political ploy to win black votes after Georgia's racist primary election system was dismantled by the courts.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">He picked up their story again with 2017's <u>Lightning Men</u>, which focused on the conflicts caused as black families moved closer and closer to "white neighborhoods," conflicts enflamed by the KKK and by a Neo-Nazi paramilitary hate group called the Lightning Men, for their SS-style emblems. <u>Midnight Atlanta</u> takes place a few years later, in 1956, with the backdrop of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the ascendancy of Dr. MLK Jr to leadership in the growing civil rights movement, and the Red Scare. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Each story is extremely well told and stands as a good mystery thriller. Although Mullen is quick to point out that he is not an historian and doesn't try to be, his work is definitely influenced and inspired by real life and reflects how things were. The fact is, that although Atlanta's civic and business leaders worked hard to create the image of "The City Too Busy To Hate," there was still enough hate to go around.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">(The Darktown trilogy's TV and movie rights were purchased in 2016 by Jamie Foxx and has been "in production" ever since. Current status unclear.) </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZLibA6U-UqCX4KTzOAsI4JWq7DjDzKpsY6VtAa65PWvRJHkUcvbQiMbeTxloqKFXWncXaQcWAgT8AIsNkrHXnO3pABSVowH8GM5-HCWWiyCWQylX1tsdCAE65bqq_bjq0iA3sy2SvN_xXZnOZ0ypyogUfm-3oMeZgFFglfWdwlu6NzEIh5AJLomNKDg/s1532/Image-5326.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1532" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZLibA6U-UqCX4KTzOAsI4JWq7DjDzKpsY6VtAa65PWvRJHkUcvbQiMbeTxloqKFXWncXaQcWAgT8AIsNkrHXnO3pABSVowH8GM5-HCWWiyCWQylX1tsdCAE65bqq_bjq0iA3sy2SvN_xXZnOZ0ypyogUfm-3oMeZgFFglfWdwlu6NzEIh5AJLomNKDg/s320/Image-5326.jpg" width="226" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f-hOIyvgYg4" width="320" youtube-src-id="f-hOIyvgYg4"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">London: 2000 Years of History Part 1</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u>London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World.</u> Robert Bucholz. The Great Courses, Audible Audiobooks, 2013. 12 Hours and 18 Minutes.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As we prepare or an upcoming trip to London, my wife and I decided to bone up on London's history. We've both been to London, only more than 20 years ago, and there is so much of London to London. Planning can, and does, feel a little overwhelming at times. We selected this version.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">If you are an Audible member, you probably already know that Audible's catalog includes <u>The Great Courses</u>, recorded lecture series on practically any academic subject, delivered by outstanding lecturers and teachers. The courses deliver the goods, the equivalent of most college lectures, superior to some we've experienced. Courses often come with downloadable documents and notes as well. Over the years, I've heard quite a few Courses on various historical subjects, and I've not had a bad experience yet. This one is no exception. Dr. Bucholz has impeccable credentials as an historian specializing in British history, and he has many publications to his credit. His lectures begin with Roman occupation and go through the 20th century in just 12 hours. The pace is great, and it's a great survey course on London's history. He's an excellent lecturer, injecting humor and moving things along. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Do yourself a favor and check out The Great Courses. They really are great, entertaining and informational, and you can learn while commuting, working out, or doing housework.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJ8pNQZDft7sub_fjX2pMmiUxFlg1SvazZgRpGm7vhxrz5p6xNct4QlBt9lz03kdRgxvyd6n8Xn1wOaAVSeEGCXdUcDMkcq4qRONUNbxyoq42MY6SRRkjnk3_sr5giJjZrK1eVoVUbdPnaQYE0dDYQO2c0k-PXYn0o2PVrJ9SOHcZvzknK9cQorimZg/s1597/Image-806.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1597" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJ8pNQZDft7sub_fjX2pMmiUxFlg1SvazZgRpGm7vhxrz5p6xNct4QlBt9lz03kdRgxvyd6n8Xn1wOaAVSeEGCXdUcDMkcq4qRONUNbxyoq42MY6SRRkjnk3_sr5giJjZrK1eVoVUbdPnaQYE0dDYQO2c0k-PXYn0o2PVrJ9SOHcZvzknK9cQorimZg/w270-h400/Image-806.png" width="270" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8bupIwau3l4" width="320" youtube-src-id="8bupIwau3l4"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">David Fleming on The Chris Voss Show</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Who's Your Founding Father? One Man's Quest to Uncover the First True Declaration of Independence.</u> David Fleming. Hachette Books, 2023. 320 pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Wow! Never, ever have I thought that I would enjoy a book written by a sports guy, an ESPN guy no less. David Fleming has proven me wrong. This book is up there with <u>Shakespeare Was A Woman</u> as one of my favorite reads of 2023. Like that book, <u>Who's Your Founding Father?</u> takes an iconoclastic swing at a cherished and honored institution and totally backs it up. As a teacher, I loved challenging students' long held misconceptions and "elementary school teacher lies."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The challenged institution here is Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. No, not the truth that we should be celebrating July 2nd instead of July 4th (as John Adams felt). Whaaattttt?! Yes, the D of I was approved on July 2. The signers took the next two months to sign it, and some of the men who voted for it never signed it, and some of the signers never voted for it. July 4th is just considered the day that it was made public. The question here is, was there an earlier Declaration of Independence that Jefferson plagiarized? Fleming presents a solid case that there was.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is something that Americans don't know, and, in fact, various people have actively engaged in suppression and destruction of evidence over the last two hundred years in order to protect Jefferson's reputation. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Jefferson once existed at the summit of the American pantheon: thinker, architect, author, statesman. Today, his rampant hypocrisy and petty nature have chipped away at his reputation. He railed against the evils of slavery, but his whole life and fortune were made possible by slavery. He preached against race-mixing and how it would destroy society, but he had a decades-long relationship with the enslaved Sally Hemings, his dead wife's half-sister. Even during his lifetime, however, he was frequently attacked. Critics called his architecture style imitative and derivative. Fellow Congressmen remembered him as being dull, uninterested, and uninvolved, contributing nothing to Congressional debates and discussions. During the Revolution, he was accused of cowardice while other founders bravely served. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, what did he plagiarize? On May 20, 1775, a group of 27 Scots-Irish Presbyterian leaders met at the county courthouse in Charlotte North Carolina to draft a declaration of independence from Great Britain, severing all ties. The document was then sent to Philadelphia where the congressmen assembled replied that it was too early and ignored it. Or did they? Whole passages appear verbatim in Jefferson's D of I. Unfortunately, fire destroyed some of the evidence of the Mecklenburg D of I in 1800, and, despite overwhelming credible evidence of its existence, it has been intentionally erased from history, except in North Carolina. John Adams was even unaware until about 1819 when he questioned Jefferson in letters and wrote about it to others. Jefferson, of course, deflected or ignored the questions, but he did say that he was always tasked with "synthesizing" and "harmonizing" numerous inspirations and never tasked with writing an "original" document.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Who's</u> solid evidence should thoroughly convince the reader of the truth about the "Meck Deck," and it is an incredibly fun and entertaining book as well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6SkfCnkXzM7fJKAA4QkXXLw9-kVvfr18uAqWTJKBF2y7iwNhS0s98lyqExG1EHi5lVgZo0R-mhWTpM-BWr-vZPdpmPsqpHFofNzXAH4UadCTvg92FqYC6Gs-b5gbXYDi2JVuXXNiVgndja76L0p3sM0tfrfq2uRT1BhePhxNLVjXeXdUFLOHdy515Q/s1653/Image-4662.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1653" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6SkfCnkXzM7fJKAA4QkXXLw9-kVvfr18uAqWTJKBF2y7iwNhS0s98lyqExG1EHi5lVgZo0R-mhWTpM-BWr-vZPdpmPsqpHFofNzXAH4UadCTvg92FqYC6Gs-b5gbXYDi2JVuXXNiVgndja76L0p3sM0tfrfq2uRT1BhePhxNLVjXeXdUFLOHdy515Q/s320/Image-4662.png" width="209" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b3bOrk5HPyE" width="320" youtube-src-id="b3bOrk5HPyE"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Erik Calonius at the Ships of the Sea Museum, Savannah</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails. </u> Erik Calonius. St. Martin's Press, 2006. 320 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(Note: The story of the <u>Clotilda</u>, a slave ship which brought over 100 enslaved Africans to Mobile Bay in 1860, has become more well known and established since the publication of this book, making the <u>Wanderer</u> the next-to-last American slave ship, that we know of.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On January 1, 1808, federal law officially banned the importation of enslaved Africans into the US, but that didn't stop the Atlantic slave trade. Up until 1860, American-owned slave ships, mostly operating out of New York City, made the trip to the Slave Coast or up the Congo River. In Africa, they found hundreds of imprisoned Africans, captured in raids and held in pens, or barracoons, awaiting purchase. Some southerners believed importation of slaves was necessary to drive prices down, enable western expansion of slavery, and allow the South to catch up with the North economically.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Enter Charles Lamar, an arrogant Savannah aristocrat whose family fortune was built on shipping, railroads, and banking. He bought the Wanderer, a sleek and luxurious yacht, and outfitted for slavery. His captain successfully evaded the joint British-American effort to interdiction slave ships and deposited 400 people on Jekyll Island, South of Savannah. About 100 people had died on the voyage. Federal prosecutors went after Lamar and his subordinates in the biggest such case in US history. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It all makes for a very interesting read about a despicable act.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hHh-ojueH8A" width="320" youtube-src-id="hHh-ojueH8A"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Author talk</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><u>The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements</u>. Sam Kean. Little, Brown, and Company, 2010. 400 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sam Kean is a science journalist who skillfully integrates history into his work, and he manages it to make interesting and enlightening to both science and history lovers. He's published several books and created The Disappearing Spoon podcast to tell even more stories.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The book, The Disappearing Spoon, is centered around the development of the Periodic Table of Elements. Each chapter is devoted to the fascinating background stories of the discovery and study of an element or elements. The stories cover the gamut of the human existence. It doesn't matter if you're team science or team history, you will enjoy this book, and all of Kean's work.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZ6lggEDsCpuAEwi9WtkJCI66YcBxWA7qmMo84JeBYdwslV6I-tdqeyv1LMlxXBVgQFk9UlqzEkRc9l1Q7z56SB5GiVd4CvXpSF8peYKX0AnpnVrP5FQ_5CI9v7eiVBIJrQyNSv5zFiNRUeUimDGF2yvWeyLR56g7PPWfHVU-eu-LgEbk9-NU1Pgf8A/s1586/Image-4080.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1586" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZ6lggEDsCpuAEwi9WtkJCI66YcBxWA7qmMo84JeBYdwslV6I-tdqeyv1LMlxXBVgQFk9UlqzEkRc9l1Q7z56SB5GiVd4CvXpSF8peYKX0AnpnVrP5FQ_5CI9v7eiVBIJrQyNSv5zFiNRUeUimDGF2yvWeyLR56g7PPWfHVU-eu-LgEbk9-NU1Pgf8A/s320/Image-4080.png" width="218" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>Metropolis</u>. A Bernie Gunther Novel, 14 of 14. Philip Kerr. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2019. 384 pages.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">British novelist Philip Kerr published a total of 30 novels before his untimely death in 2018. Fourteen of those books told the story of ex-cop turned private detective Bernie Gunther, taking readers from 1920s Berlin through World War II and into the Cold War, wrapping up in the late 1950s. Kerr died just before the 13th book was published, but Metropolis, the fourteenth, was in the pipeline and published a year later.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Metropolis takes us back to 1928 when Gunther was first promoted to the Berlin Homicide Division. Amidst the political, economic, and social turmoil that reverberated in Germany at the time, Gunther is assigned to the case of a serial killer preying on sex workers, specifically women forced into sex work from time to time just to pay bills or rent. Then, another killer seems to target handicapped WWI veterans who become panhandlers. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As the investigation progresses, Gunther negotiates the Weimar insanity that was Germany: powerful criminal organizations, rampant drug use, the "anything goes" sexual revolution, the clash between modernity and traditionalism, the rise of antisemitism and the Nazi Party, just to name a few. Gunther is strongly anti-Nazi, just a man trying to be a good and decent cop. All of the Gunther books paint a very vivid picture of their setting, and you may want to be able to look up words and things that are sprinkled throughout. It's a great series for detective-fiction and noir lovers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><br /><p></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-36533166719436533672023-07-31T05:50:00.002-04:002023-07-31T05:50:00.149-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts July 17 - July 31, 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36hIzP69sNGGyJ1NhEenOY8ntLjqFsVJly3V8limSBFIFwxa355YkxYE5erq5jJQ5737BmN_MYyePzLOwH3ZsQ6thr6Ab8NAGH9GucML2cdx_K6snV1qFiDF5db7LIb8kHrjmawsiBgVnb4xReDXUt9f0aEGkxQn7U3KHGyuRuWknL3uRzFVXtYq0Aw/s1357/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20054921.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1357" data-original-width="1084" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36hIzP69sNGGyJ1NhEenOY8ntLjqFsVJly3V8limSBFIFwxa355YkxYE5erq5jJQ5737BmN_MYyePzLOwH3ZsQ6thr6Ab8NAGH9GucML2cdx_K6snV1qFiDF5db7LIb8kHrjmawsiBgVnb4xReDXUt9f0aEGkxQn7U3KHGyuRuWknL3uRzFVXtYq0Aw/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20054921.png" width="256" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g7EQRmlYhG0" width="320" youtube-src-id="g7EQRmlYhG0"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ocmulgee Mounds</div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.542857142857143; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>Seven Islands of the Ocmulgee: River Stories.</u> Gordon Johnston. Mercer University Press, 2023. 172 pages.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Ocmulgee River flows for about 255 miles through the heart of Georgia, becoming a major tributary of the Altamaha before flowing into the Atlantic. A thousand years ago, a Moundbuilder-culture city thrived on its banks at modern-day Macon. For a hundred years, white settlers and enslaved Africans labored on its banks building farms and plantations. The rivers became a major thoroughfare, moving people and goods from central Georgia to the Coast well into the 1930s. As a boy, I spent a bit of time fishing on the Ocmulgee and Altamaha, and I visited the Ocmulgee Mounds. The rivers are still cherished by fishermen, canoeists, and kayakers today. </span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">I was intrigued to see Seven Islands appear on a couple of lists of great southern reads published this year. However, I was leery because I’ve tried a couple of critically-acclaimed short story collections in the past couple of years and hated every second of them. Still, I decided to give it a chance, and I am glad I did. It was a page-turner, and I read the entire book in one poolside sitting. The seven stories deftly blend the past and present, and they are all definitely tied to the place, to the river. Johnston’s writing reminds me of that of novelists Taylor Brown and Flannery O’Connor. They are southern, southern gothic even. They could be studied in creative writing classes as examples of the importance of setting and atmosphere. Each story evokes the wildness, mystery, and antiquity of the Ocmulgee. If you’re southern and love being immersed in a story, I would suggest reading these stories.</span></span></h1><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.54286; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRdcFw44-jjHF-ucJMJKJ-jHNQnMQnwuegyHlGGnDCN9yZd5SAM6ADZP6yJogOse71_SRhTUhVtf2_SsyCBBaKnKKmjKOrx5eJKWM7KhJ9wcxXo9B2Bfl_gnot07wWRaLSfSXCh6KySeyU0yTlRCss5gD8NRZL8-CTmb9bcMOZAWLCyx0r0T2xbygMg/s1363/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20054055.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="1084" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRdcFw44-jjHF-ucJMJKJ-jHNQnMQnwuegyHlGGnDCN9yZd5SAM6ADZP6yJogOse71_SRhTUhVtf2_SsyCBBaKnKKmjKOrx5eJKWM7KhJ9wcxXo9B2Bfl_gnot07wWRaLSfSXCh6KySeyU0yTlRCss5gD8NRZL8-CTmb9bcMOZAWLCyx0r0T2xbygMg/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20054055.png" width="254" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dj-NIsd-X4U" width="320" youtube-src-id="Dj-NIsd-X4U"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Story of Paris' Occupation, Timeline</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></h1><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.542857142857143; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>Star Crossed: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitler’s Paris.</u> Heather June Macadam and Simon Worrell. Citadel, August 22, 2023 (Advance Reader’s Copy). 320 pages.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1940, as Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany, Annette Zelman was a Jewish teenaged art student who adored surrealism and dada and dreamed of making her own splash in the art world one day. Like her siblings, she worked alongside their parents at designing and tailoring clothes in the family apartment by day. At night, she loved to frequent the illegal clubs and “dancing schools” of the Latin Quarter that appeared and disappeared just as quickly because the Germans had outlawed jazz and swing music. Parisian students danced in rebellion against occupation and became “Zazous” (known as “Swing Kids” in Germany) wearing garish oversized clothing requiring yards of fabric (violating rationing laws) and swing dancing all night long. She designed her own Zazou fashions. Her favorite hangout was the Cafe de Flore, also frequented by Simone De Beauvoir, Pablo Picasso, and Django Reinhardt. There, she drew the attention of multiple young men, but her sight settled on Jean Jausion, a dashing, adventurous, but moody, young Catholic poet, the son of a prominent Paris physician. The pair fell in love despite warnings from her family and outright opposition from his. They made plans to marry, violating new Nazi decrees banning marriages between Christians and Jews. Annette was arrested and became one of the first French citizens deported to Auschwitz. Jean resolved to find her and got more deeply involved in French Underground resistance activities. Although Jean has been remembered and memorialized as a French literary figure and martyr of WWII, Annette’s story, and their joint story, hasn’t been told until now.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">Star Crossed is a great true-life love story featuring larger than life real-life characters who struggle to live normal lives in the most abnormal circumstances. It’s also a great view of life in occupied Paris, drawn from never before published family letters, archival records, and interviews with Annette’s last living sibling. This book is set for publication August 22, 2023.</span></span></h1><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.54286; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV0h5ETpJlqt5TVTpJpfOAF36oZvtOu5iSfqcvn8JYDiK7lzfLDsVpAlJhru0_-wkGR3ZGLjJ-arIc1xZ7Z6CLO5ezVy3OK5rUyF6BjFsThouCEyg6moZzh6U6Jlb69rBb3Yx_G8eby_LTc6i2xsnHAYSeIZXISYemiTRdO2OrMhI0430CiygVRfjGkw/s1362/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20054025.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1357" data-original-width="1362" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV0h5ETpJlqt5TVTpJpfOAF36oZvtOu5iSfqcvn8JYDiK7lzfLDsVpAlJhru0_-wkGR3ZGLjJ-arIc1xZ7Z6CLO5ezVy3OK5rUyF6BjFsThouCEyg6moZzh6U6Jlb69rBb3Yx_G8eby_LTc6i2xsnHAYSeIZXISYemiTRdO2OrMhI0430CiygVRfjGkw/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20054025.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FLIjqSHW2SI" width="320" youtube-src-id="FLIjqSHW2SI"></iframe></div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> Lost City of the Monkey God</span><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.542857142857143; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure. </u>Christopher S. Stewart. Harper, 2013. 288 pages.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2009, journalist Christopher S. Stewart left his Brooklyn apartment, wife, and child for a month to travel to Honduras, not to cover the military coup that was taking place as he arrived, but to begin his own personal search for the “Lost City of the Monkey God,” aka the “White City,” that was described by various explorers since the time of the Spanish conquistadors and most recently by American adventurer and World War II spy Theodore Monde. In 1941, Monde became an international celebrity after reporting that he had discovered the ruins of the once monumental stone city, inhabited by a perhaps unknown civilization, in the midst of the brutal Honduran rainforest. However, Monde never returned to the site, his life interrupted by WWII and other personal issues culminating in his death by suicide in 1954. Worse, he never divulged the exact location, and the city remained lost.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stewart had always been fascinated by the stories of the Lost City and had developed quite an interest in Monde and his expedition, accumulating notebooks full of research and even meeting with Monde’s nephew who had possession of Monde’s personal papers and journals. He met with other explorers and anthropologists who had worked in Honduras. Finally, he decided he had to go and see for himself. In Jungleland, he tells the stories of the two expeditions, Monde’s and his own, in alternating chapters. Though 70 years apart, Stewart and Monde faced many of the same obstacles, the dangerous jungle itself and man. The Honduras of 1941 and of 2009 hadn’t changed much: corruption, unstable government, pirates, bandits, wanted men hiding out in the jungle, etc. Jungleland is very similar to David Grann’s The Lost City of Z and Douglas Preston’s The Lost City of the Monkey God, both excellent books on the subject of lost cities. Interestingly, archaeologists and anthropologists have made stunning discoveries in the last decade or two that have turned traditional thoughts about “civilization” in the rainforests of central and South America on their head.</span></span></h1><div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">Orthodoxy had previously held that the rainforests could never have supported anything more than very small nomadic bands of hunters and gatherers. Now, evidence is mounting that there were, in fact, large stone cities with roads and irrigation systems supporting large, more sedentary, populations.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">If you’re interested in the subject, I recommend reading any, or even better, all three books.</span></span></div><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.54286; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ19894nAvggdwN8Z8sfZ_SYFEBqazoJi4CQAwoR2omJwoInFllKNTgwYdb62_7CzG_5adp4QsrLh2rHERXORmuTypdhSq2efOtBup-uzjno3MzFyvBlcshOePq6ASM-zabtH__GmBlugEqjbASYAAbQNqJfKafEo473EKnU9VjZjMTYLJpdZ-mJp9_w/s1359/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053958.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1341" data-original-width="1359" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ19894nAvggdwN8Z8sfZ_SYFEBqazoJi4CQAwoR2omJwoInFllKNTgwYdb62_7CzG_5adp4QsrLh2rHERXORmuTypdhSq2efOtBup-uzjno3MzFyvBlcshOePq6ASM-zabtH__GmBlugEqjbASYAAbQNqJfKafEo473EKnU9VjZjMTYLJpdZ-mJp9_w/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053958.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4kN09LfI2NQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="4kN09LfI2NQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Elizabeth Winkler interview</div><br /><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.54286; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></h1><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.542857142857143; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature.</u> Elizabeth Winkler. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 416 pages.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2019, journalist Elizabeth Winkler published what she thought was a rather innocuous article exploring a recent theory about a woman writing some of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Within hours of publication, she was shocked by the volume of vitriolic comments on social media that attacked her personally and demanded an immediate retraction. She was likened to Holocaust deniers and anti-vaxers. The attacks came from dedicated Stratfordians - those who hold without doubt the opinion that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was the sole author. Looking into it, she discovered that the entrenched Stratfordian establishment had always engaged in threats and ridicule to discredit anyone who dares to question their facts, that is, those who engaged. Most refused to even engage in discussion or debate on the topic. The most revered living Shakespearean scholar in the UK, Sir Stanley Wells, has gone on record saying that questioning history was “immoral” and anyone doubting Shakespeare’s authorship was mentally ill. Winkler decided that she had a book to write.</span><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">Starting with the fact that we know almost nothing about Shakespeare, Winkler discovers that most “biographies” are unverified legends and conundrums. His parents and daughters were illiterate, yet his female characters are considered the best written female characters ever created by a man. There is no evidence he ever attended any school or left England, yet his plays reveal detailed knowledge of history, geography, law, myth, and languages. No one ever really talked about him as a writer in his lifetime or noticed when he died, yet other authors who are totally unknown today were publicly lauded for weeks after their deaths. Unlike his peers, his will and personal inventory make no mention of books, unfinished works, or publishing rights. Authorship questions have been investigated for centuries, with good reason. There is much more reason to doubt William Shakespeare’s sole authorship than to accept it.</span></span></h1><div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-eccf57b9-7fff-bfde-28b7-9b3175003673"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: times;">This is one of my favorite reads so far this year and might be my favorite read of the year at year’s end. Winkler does a magnificent job of exploring the controversy and the most likely candidates and theories.</span></span></span></div><h1 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.54286; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSaEEBjaDPzfbO2qCgUAEPiUoPgMgS1MStjIXTtumZh_z0RF0JAj1fJWaJzqjmbjrxsZMrr2nQTj1PiXECopfVm-OQZWxOwOYbNJnPHYCJIId7OXwwalO5vtBC8JQcffer2qpdG2erT_G6a5au6HNUVucrbrHGWQ61Kdqc2RtjmBZs69Cfxjr5aANcw/s1371/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053928.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1339" data-original-width="1371" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSaEEBjaDPzfbO2qCgUAEPiUoPgMgS1MStjIXTtumZh_z0RF0JAj1fJWaJzqjmbjrxsZMrr2nQTj1PiXECopfVm-OQZWxOwOYbNJnPHYCJIId7OXwwalO5vtBC8JQcffer2qpdG2erT_G6a5au6HNUVucrbrHGWQ61Kdqc2RtjmBZs69Cfxjr5aANcw/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053928.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AED8f8ZAnME" width="320" youtube-src-id="AED8f8ZAnME"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Rinker Buck book talk</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><u>Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure. </u>Rinker Buck. Simon & Schuster, 2022. 416 pages.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A few years ago, Rinker Buck published </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Oregon Trail</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, the account of his re-creation of westward migration in a covered wagon, accompanied by his brother. It was one of my favorite reads of that year. In the process of researching that book, he stumbled onto the realization that Americans had never been taught - surprise, surprise - the full story. (Admittedly, I was part of that transmission of ignorance. I would have taught westward expansion differently if I had known myself.) In fact, wagon trains did not conquer the frontier, river flatboats did. Five or six times more American settlers moved west on flatboats than by wagons on overland trails. Families bought or built their boats, loaded their belongings and livestock and set sail down America’s rivers, for months-long voyages. When they arrived at their final destination, they either sold the boat for a profit or dismantled it and used the parts to construct a cabin or other farm buildings, American commerce exploded when farmers and producers realized in the early 1800s that it was easier and cheaper to ship goods on rivers to consumers in river settlements or ultimately to the port of New Orleans for shipment to the eastern seaboard and beyond. Today, a huge percentage of American commerce still travels on barges on American rivers, and rivers are just as vital to the American economy as before, if not more so</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">For this book, Buck decided to recreate a flatboat journey from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, and I am sad to say I was very disappointed. In fact, I stopped reading less than halfway through. First of all, Buck, as he admits himself, has no skill whatsoever in managing people. It was evident in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Oregon Trail</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, but overwhelmingly clear here. He selects collaborators and crew members who come across very poorly: incompetent, arrogant, useless, stupid. Then, instead of confronting their uselessness or even harmful behavior and attitudes, he allows things to ooze and fester until they explode, and the other person leaves. It creates much more stress on his adventures than is necessary. His non-confrontational nature seems to come from his mother who chose to “parent” her 11 children by literally writing down all of their infractions and misbehaviors each day and giving the notes to their father to deal with when he came home.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My second problem with the book is Buck’s overt insertion of politics every few pages. It is clear that Buck sees the word "conservative” as totally pejorative. In his mind, “conservative” is synonymous with bigoted, racist, closed-minded, ignorant, stupid, redneck, aggressive, hateful, and violent. Everyone he meets with whom he disagrees politically is portrayed that way, although he’s slightly more comfortable around one or two than the rest - but he still calls them names. And I stopped reading before he even left Ohio. I can only imagine how things progressed as he moved farther south and deeper into ‘Red” states territory. I don’t remember </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Oregon Trail</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> being so political, and it’s uncomfortable here.</span></p><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivLwWq1TTPgHK7Or1JgAl-wbnbL3hrriiawp8k5kbEgh-WSvwOMYBEDaojbtcGGNPPENzucyTg1odF7kxclspw11DiTVYOMgoXC2DmDpwxnGnLLfbrjxHSMoadf6sHQmCKcf9NOaK6zFsrKaXX1KbD1bkhzp8iNB36ZLE3KoAfdUInZEMQ-vnL1O3jCg/s1359/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053856.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1359" data-original-width="1354" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivLwWq1TTPgHK7Or1JgAl-wbnbL3hrriiawp8k5kbEgh-WSvwOMYBEDaojbtcGGNPPENzucyTg1odF7kxclspw11DiTVYOMgoXC2DmDpwxnGnLLfbrjxHSMoadf6sHQmCKcf9NOaK6zFsrKaXX1KbD1bkhzp8iNB36ZLE3KoAfdUInZEMQ-vnL1O3jCg/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053856.png" width="319" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hDblgjIAe3Q" width="320" youtube-src-id="hDblgjIAe3Q"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Susan Wels in conversation</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><u>An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder.</u> Susan Wels. Pegasus Crime, 2023. 272 pages.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">From 1848 to 1881, thousands of people traveled by trains and carriages on weekends to visit the Oneida colony in upstate New York, a utopian community with fields, orchards, livestock, mills, and small factories that produced animal traps, baskets, spoons (Oneida is still a prominent flatware brand.) for sale throughout the country. The men and women worked and lived side by side, rotating through all the jobs in the community, and the women wore short skirts and cut their hair short, but that wasn't the most shocking thing that titilated the crowds.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">Marriage was forbidden in Oneida and sex was encouraged. Oneidans advocated "free love" - to a point. The founder, John Humphrey Noyes, first cousin to President Rutherford B. Hayes, fashioned himself as a savior or messiah. He taught that sexual pleasure brought one closer to the divine, but sexual unions had to be carefully managed by himself and church leaders for the betterment of society. (An early proponent of eugenics) He himself engaged in incestuous relationships with his nieces and other girls as young as 12. An Oneidan practice was for older men to sexually initiate young girls while post-menopausal women initiated boys.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">For a while, Charles Guiteau was an unhappy member of the Oneida community. Guiteau hated labor of any sort and chafed at the work to which he was assigned. He was also constantly rebuffed and ignored by the female members of the "free love" community. This would not do, he decided. After all, he would one day be the leader of the community and, in fact, the President of the United States. He left, determined that the world would soon know his name. On July 2, 1881, he shot President James Garfield, who would die in September.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">Wels spent 12 years researching this book, and it is a pageturner, bringing together the stories of Noyes, Oneida, Guiteau, and Garfield, and it's rich in 19th century context.</span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQOSYFiWj6bvnlleuYWJPmkmGSB2xHXU3OFaPlDChkF3yF6FD-I0NHRvZU_xdJviHjj20KGJEzmglRqhvtlEq5Qvs8Hu8uo4N9hNhFF_nk6eASuVvEmEx8mssAwEU4lxOvu5Va9xAdMX39NiM-wx8QJojPgcGvNmQKTL6eI0Ad--vrJdUGlMIayAmWA/s1351/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053826.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1351" data-original-width="1096" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQOSYFiWj6bvnlleuYWJPmkmGSB2xHXU3OFaPlDChkF3yF6FD-I0NHRvZU_xdJviHjj20KGJEzmglRqhvtlEq5Qvs8Hu8uo4N9hNhFF_nk6eASuVvEmEx8mssAwEU4lxOvu5Va9xAdMX39NiM-wx8QJojPgcGvNmQKTL6eI0Ad--vrJdUGlMIayAmWA/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053826.png" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iVHPucjOT4I" width="320" youtube-src-id="iVHPucjOT4I"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gregory Forth in Conversation</span></div></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><u>Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid. </u>Gregory Forth. Pegasus Books, 2022. 336 pages.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">Flores is a small island in the Indonesian archipelago that was thought to have been rather unremarkable. The largest animals to have existed on the island were thought to be a now-extinct cow-sized elephant species, Komodo dragons, and giant tree rats. Then, in 2003, several skeletons of a previously unknown small early human species were discovered. Standing about 3 feet tall, the individuals were first thought to be immature or abnormal, but it was soon proven that they were adults. In 2004, Homo floresiensis was introduced to the world, and, of course, the press immediately dubbed them "Hobbits." Further research revealed that they had lived on the island 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">In 2003, anthropologist Gregory Forth started collecting stories from the island's indigenous Lio people about sightings of small living apemen on the island. The sightings go back for generations and as recently as 2018. Could there be Hobbit descendants out there? In this book, Forth collects accounts and tries to work out if it's possible.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">Normally, this book would be totally in my wheelhouse, but I was disappointed. Most of the "eyewitness" accounts are unreliable, even by the author's reckoning, not even second- or third-hand, more like tenth- or fifteenth-hand. I would have preferred a book about the actual discovery of the skeletons and what researchers have put together about their lives. I don't know who greenlit this as a book, but it should have been an article at most. I can't recommend it.</span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3uVJX3115iwquxtEu0oNY_FmxCzPQsvsBIp2xdfGNPi5aGtq3J0AAVkEZtu3VvlykbbTof1O7de83A9RmKkWGBB1WUE6oqdgtmesZrzvbDVBSZhva4A69jQIgSUzpHQz1uSSnHyjFrkFMxN5Ns7tgj6C8RjzCNjXZ_wUU1PU2Wb7BiLNfoDUc1vVog/s1356/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053744.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1356" data-original-width="1339" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3uVJX3115iwquxtEu0oNY_FmxCzPQsvsBIp2xdfGNPi5aGtq3J0AAVkEZtu3VvlykbbTof1O7de83A9RmKkWGBB1WUE6oqdgtmesZrzvbDVBSZhva4A69jQIgSUzpHQz1uSSnHyjFrkFMxN5Ns7tgj6C8RjzCNjXZ_wUU1PU2Wb7BiLNfoDUc1vVog/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-29%20053744.png" width="316" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E-T3CR_P6_E" width="320" youtube-src-id="E-T3CR_P6_E"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;"><u>Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier.</u> Susan Jonusas. Penguin Books, 2023. 368 pages.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">In the early 1870s, a new homesteader family arrived in Labette County Kansas, built a one-room cabin with a wagon-canvas partition, and opened business selling a few groceries and providing meals and floor space to sleep on to passing travelers. Pa and Ma Bender spoke German and very little English, and they soon had a reputation for being mean, unfriendly, and inhospitable. None of their neighbors ever even knew her first name. Their son (or son-in-law?) John had a nervous, unsettling laugh that erupted at odd times, but their daughter Kate was attractive, flirty, and outgoing. Single and married homesteaders and cowboys often stopped by just to see Kate. Her relationship with John raised eyebrows. Were they siblings, lovers, or both? She added fuel to the scandalous fire by advocating "Free Love" and claiming to be a medium who could interact with spirits.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span style="white-space-collapse: collapse;">In 1873, while investigating a string of disappearances involving lone strangers passing through, often carrying money, authorities went to investigate the Bender place, and they found that the family had vacated weeks before. They also found a gruesome murder scene inside the cabin and 11 bodies buried in the orchard. The Benders immediately became a part of the mythology and legend of the Old West. Tourists flocked to the homestead from all over Kansas, and newspapers carried reports of every detail, sighting, and theory.</span><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; white-space-collapse: collapse;">The book is a deep investigation into the family's story and the setting in which it took place. There was one overly long and detailed chapter about Kansas state politics that could have been reduced to a paragraph, but it's partially relevant.</span></div></span></span></div></h1>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-31370921507857449702023-07-16T13:15:00.002-04:002023-07-16T13:15:56.165-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts July 1 - July 16, 2023<p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVc2TECKOmXXKbefve_xatHJvCM6p3d41iEU1JOdAZkWAkeitXrf2jEQXWmfdPFF9ZgwjyGhKNioJqt9PllTw0kQlp5gz5u_hhvvMcntUaQLTeTsCXy_p_PqUglZdERdYckSJV2xdH6SRlXY_qf0vw-US_FT0asWTI_GtYzxS77vAbTSkghx-6bdOfQ/s1360/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063207.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="1353" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVc2TECKOmXXKbefve_xatHJvCM6p3d41iEU1JOdAZkWAkeitXrf2jEQXWmfdPFF9ZgwjyGhKNioJqt9PllTw0kQlp5gz5u_hhvvMcntUaQLTeTsCXy_p_PqUglZdERdYckSJV2xdH6SRlXY_qf0vw-US_FT0asWTI_GtYzxS77vAbTSkghx-6bdOfQ/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063207.png" width="318" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EpGEJUBukoE" width="320" youtube-src-id="EpGEJUBukoE"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Conversation with Pia Jordan, 2022</div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Memories of a Tuskegee Airmen Nurse and Her Military Sisters. Pia Marie Winters Jordan. NewSouth Books, 2023. 128 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When Pia Jordan was growing up in Maryland, she knew her mother had been a military nurse. She had briefly seen the contents of a trunk from those days, including a dry-rotted uniform and a scrapbook of photos. She knew that some of her mother's oldest friends were from those days, and she called them Aunts. However, her mother almost never talked about her service. It wasn't until her mother grew ill and Pia was cleaning out her apartment that things really clicked into place when she rediscovered the scrapbook.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Pia's mother had been one of 28 black women pioneers who joined the Army Nurse Corps in WWII and staffed the hospital at the Tuskegee Army Flying School, the training ground of the Tuskegee Airmen. Pia's career was in broadcast journalism, and she was even a professor of broadcast journalism, so her rediscovery launched her on a mission of a dozen years or so. She began researching the story of the Tuskegee nurses, visiting archives and museums and interviewing surviving nurses and airmen. She found that the nurses' story remained largely untold. Her goal was, and still is, to make a documentary. In the meantime, Memories was just published in mid-June. It's one of the great stories finally being told. It's also a great reminder to collect stories from the people in your life before they're gone.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg13icAYMBTf0mZN-PQ-XWkYZDjBVez-2ddn6ojp8SVboT3G1Iqn1oje929YkVp9dQQqD0WTbyQAcTy_g5xmJuaPKVeT4w7X90ZFdYLs9eSxu5SjilDN4TdojNwDpOB9PGMq_kYNh1RbzASC753nu9LAOJi15_zpPNHI0QZV-Pzb4khv9ksP7jMqj6m1Q/s1360/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063136.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1356" data-original-width="1360" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg13icAYMBTf0mZN-PQ-XWkYZDjBVez-2ddn6ojp8SVboT3G1Iqn1oje929YkVp9dQQqD0WTbyQAcTy_g5xmJuaPKVeT4w7X90ZFdYLs9eSxu5SjilDN4TdojNwDpOB9PGMq_kYNh1RbzASC753nu9LAOJi15_zpPNHI0QZV-Pzb4khv9ksP7jMqj6m1Q/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063136.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p1AL3WFzsv0" width="320" youtube-src-id="p1AL3WFzsv0"></iframe></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">1981 tv dramatization</p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Children's Story. James Clavell. Blackstone Publishing, 2022. Originally published in Ladies' Home Journal October 1963. Published in 1981 by Delacorte Press. Audible Audiobook version, 2022. 114 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">James Clavell wrote some of my favorite historical novels, Shogun, King Rat, Tai-Pan, so I listened to The Children's Story audio book when it was released last fall. The "novelette" was first published in 1963, a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and it is a reflection of the Cold War. It is a dystopian work in the same vein as Sinclair Lewis' famous 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here. However, Lewis' work at 450 pages has a much broader scope.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Children's Story takes place in just 25 minutes as a young revolutionary teacher, an agent of an unnamed conquering power,( understood to be Soviet ) takes over an elementary classroom and uses a deconstruction of the Pledge of Allegiance to make her new wards pliable totalitarian subjects.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Clavell was inspired when his six year old daughter came home from school eager to recite the Pledge, which she had memorized in school that day. He realized, upon questioning, that she had no idea what most of the words meant. This led him to consider the real meaning of patriotism and inspired him to create the teacher who used the same exact Pledge, along with candy, songs, and praise, to win all of her students over to her side, less than a half hour after they had seen their old teacher forcibly led away in tears.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIcPXCfAKJuLQebyi7aZ9q9M3DflSu59BBCM5twT7bp8SZkVExkDFUX3dazqWDeZ81lvgjyvhoXQzQBErJTcIVh1ejSeV37JE0B-K8YDB0j5ILdfIPl3AzW_ElLmU3fYF5xeleIJrTxVpO3XQSNVhLwXORauIq8QrJS6jXj_Y87I_zNvKE1pPk5HY3g/s1363/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063102.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1339" data-original-width="1363" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIcPXCfAKJuLQebyi7aZ9q9M3DflSu59BBCM5twT7bp8SZkVExkDFUX3dazqWDeZ81lvgjyvhoXQzQBErJTcIVh1ejSeV37JE0B-K8YDB0j5ILdfIPl3AzW_ElLmU3fYF5xeleIJrTxVpO3XQSNVhLwXORauIq8QrJS6jXj_Y87I_zNvKE1pPk5HY3g/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063102.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U1L9xnTdWj0" width="320" youtube-src-id="U1L9xnTdWj0"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: times;">Alan Prendergast book talk</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Gangbuster: One Man's Battle Against Crime, Corruption, and the Klan. Alan Prendergast. Citadel, 2023. 320 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">1920s Denver was still the Wild West in many ways. Maybe there weren't shootouts, gangs robbing banks and trains, cattle rustlers, and horse thieves, but it was wild nevertheless. Government officials and police officers were corrupt, and it seemed that most were on the take. The real power in the city was in the hands of a few men who controlled illegal gambling and gift operations and took huge sums of money from naive visitors to the city. There were grifters and con-men everywhere. One is quoted in the book saying that all the greatest swindlers in America summered in Denver and wintered in Florida (There goes history, echoing again.) Scams ranged from rigged shell and card games on the street to elaborate sting operations, like those in my favorite old western TV series, Maverick.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Then along came Phillip Van Cise. He shocked the Denver establishment by winning the office of District Attorney and making good on his promise to clean up the city. When the Klan moved in, he targeted it as well. (Many don't realize that three of the strongest states for the 1920s KKK were Indiana, Colorado, and Oregon.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Gangbuster is not an action-packed, shoot-em-up book about the Old West. A lot of the "action" is in the courtroom and D.A.'s office, but it was a good read, and it was refreshing to learn about an upstanding white man in the 1920s. Sometimes, it seems there were far too few.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnU0L0_zKbYPDPEhzbAEPNxXkqZNJMUwyiaQ1_LmzZziuobTvFjZExP81jXhGbXUr6KhX-04IFNbCgSWQtPbe5Nw5dSm5lOPatWiSnLSXWLDQLbfVYJn5dtJmxQKtrUbmoJfE4EaaLETbILvOPGboEUK34AyuUTVnW-MPrfO70NSVMgpw70vCq7emPKQ/s1357/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063007.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1357" data-original-width="1357" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnU0L0_zKbYPDPEhzbAEPNxXkqZNJMUwyiaQ1_LmzZziuobTvFjZExP81jXhGbXUr6KhX-04IFNbCgSWQtPbe5Nw5dSm5lOPatWiSnLSXWLDQLbfVYJn5dtJmxQKtrUbmoJfE4EaaLETbILvOPGboEUK34AyuUTVnW-MPrfO70NSVMgpw70vCq7emPKQ/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20063007.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qECCORnWHLk" width="320" youtube-src-id="qECCORnWHLk"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: times;">Clinton 12 Documentary</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation. Rachel Louise Martin. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 384 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Sad. Depressed. Angry. Incredulous. Reflective. A Whole Lot of Sad, Depressed, Angry. There's no way around those feelings when reading this book. Have you ever heard of Clinton Tennessee's racial violence in the mid 1950s? It's not in history book versions of the Civil rights movement. Clintonites have maintained an impenetrable wall of silence about it, but Rachel Martin finally tells the story almost 70 years later.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Clinton was actually the first school district in America under a federal court order to desegregate following Brown v. Board. In the fall of 1956, the nation's full attention was on the Clinton 12, a year before anyone had heard of the Little Rock 9. 12 incredibly brave black students enrolled in Clinton High School, 12 in a total student body of less than 900; there were only a few dozen black families in town. They were met with protestors and abuse, but also with a supportive principal and faculty, and even some students. One black girl was nominated for student council by her homeroom. The entire football team stepped up to serve as bodyguards and to stand guard at school entrances. A few other white kids showed small signs of support.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Eventually, though, hate won. The year was hell, and every participant was scarred for life. Segregationists went so far as to attempt to murder white law officers and national guardsmen, not to mention the black families. Bombers, attackers, protestors --- all were convinced they were doing God's will and enforcing God's plan. And even those white "allies"? They acted solely to follow the law because they believed in law and order. NOT ONE believed in equality.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">As a lover of Southern history and a member of the first ever desegregated first grade class ( in 1973!) in my small south Georgia town, this book hits hard.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDCMK_bAdACcYIizESzvI5oo7luLHHOBX1qS1i6gy9yLzPOxMNGFdXyQ_nHel-repbwRlfJnu7uqQ0ImqeQHdShJeq5I2vchkXD7JrN9PgCs_UuIT1x1D0b7k3aUndZ7CNRJLzeBtL5vg5o59sp5-c3MnPns1sHVX0rO65m4F2JrCqHT10E60czAUkig/s1363/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20062940.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="1083" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDCMK_bAdACcYIizESzvI5oo7luLHHOBX1qS1i6gy9yLzPOxMNGFdXyQ_nHel-repbwRlfJnu7uqQ0ImqeQHdShJeq5I2vchkXD7JrN9PgCs_UuIT1x1D0b7k3aUndZ7CNRJLzeBtL5vg5o59sp5-c3MnPns1sHVX0rO65m4F2JrCqHT10E60czAUkig/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20062940.png" width="254" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zN30H3o5zbQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="zN30H3o5zbQ"></iframe></div>Local segment about the Chadron race<p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">American Endurance: Buffalo Bill, the Great Cowboy Race of 1893, and the Vanishing Wild West. Richard A. Serrano. Smithsonian Books, 2016. 272 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 1893, American eyes were firmly fixed on Chicago and the great Columbian Exposition and Word's Fair held to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage to the Americas. It was also the year that historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared that the American frontier had, in effect, been thoroughly conquered, and, in the process, American institutions, society, and culture had been shaped into a new and totally unique identity, making America, and Americans, exceptional. The West had been tamed. Native American resistance had been crushed, and most white Americans believed that the indigenous nations would soon be extinct. Railroads and telegraphs connected the coasts. Barbed wire signaled the end of the long cattle drives, and that meant cowboys would soon be riding into the permanent sunset themselves.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In Chadron. Nebraska, a few men decided to make one last grand gesture by sponsoring "The Great 1,000-Mile Cowboy Race" from Chadron to the Fair in Chicago. It all started as a joke, a hoax newspaper story planted by a cowboy about 300 cowboys planning to race. Soon, the joke exploded into something bigger than anyone had dreamed. On June 13, 1893, the hoax became real when nine riders lined up before a crowd of 3,500. When the pistol fired, there was no mad dash; the horses and riders just ambled off, according to witnesses.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The race might not have gotten as big as it did if not for Buffalo Bill Cody and his promotional skill. He took his Show to Chicago for the Fair but refused to give the Fair organizers the cut of his revenue that they demanded. Instead, he set up the Wild West Show next door. The race was a huge opportunity for self-promotion, and he took full advantage.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The result was one of the most exciting but least known events of the Wild West.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTeLP5rf8k99lZwoZwaIioJqH9ZytOE0Re7XogaVuKPCPyvirziksobsKmHGTSiOsot1H7j-E_zg5E9DGM8ep84O9UqrTCYOZZSznfyCS_nbz341d4PgnuzKidgt1Ik2p1bmFpvAIamL3euKhxILfrcpgarn_jiUZexTjpF4kPsrPjk2_RaKfAjvDvgw/s1351/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20062915.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1351" data-original-width="1348" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTeLP5rf8k99lZwoZwaIioJqH9ZytOE0Re7XogaVuKPCPyvirziksobsKmHGTSiOsot1H7j-E_zg5E9DGM8ep84O9UqrTCYOZZSznfyCS_nbz341d4PgnuzKidgt1Ik2p1bmFpvAIamL3euKhxILfrcpgarn_jiUZexTjpF4kPsrPjk2_RaKfAjvDvgw/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20062915.png" width="319" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FpD4n80nXt0" width="320" youtube-src-id="FpD4n80nXt0"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: times;">Creators book talk</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Jekyll Island Chronicles. Three Volumes. Jack Lowe, Steve Nedvidek, Ed Crowell, Moses Nester, and SJ Miller. Top Shelf Productions, 2016-2021. Graphic Novels.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Jekyll Island, located south of Savannah, is one of Georgia's Sea Islands or Barrier Islands. Occupied by the Guale and Mocama peoples until they were displaced by Europeans, and it became a contested area between French, Spanish, and British colonizers. Beginning in the late 19th century, America's wealthiest individuals, the likes of Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Morgan, built "cottages" on the island and began vacationing there. Today, the state of Georgia owns the island, and it is an extremely popular summer vacation spot.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Jekyll Island Chronicles is an award-winning graphic novel trilogy that combines history, "diesel punk," and superhero fantasy in the post-WWI years. The captains of industry meet on Jekyll to save the world from various anarchist villains and threats using the services of real-life and fictional characters that band together to maintain the political and social order. It's a fun ride!</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikoI5HXkvP7_GyFfNEl3ObsTVtkGHHG1JZBzMyK5vkjr_5DFQHhoYOY2-GogJZhOML_9l5m73OC45RBDShTN8rFodpVhBcgYO8izqlNE7kA9NTNrYBL8cc_GJIgTolODmTMDm7kvGJ6kZwMkZLRsi7HOErXVt8QRAly3nByB_M058dWw0h7xN7K-jtMw/s1354/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20062847.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1354" data-original-width="1077" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikoI5HXkvP7_GyFfNEl3ObsTVtkGHHG1JZBzMyK5vkjr_5DFQHhoYOY2-GogJZhOML_9l5m73OC45RBDShTN8rFodpVhBcgYO8izqlNE7kA9NTNrYBL8cc_GJIgTolODmTMDm7kvGJ6kZwMkZLRsi7HOErXVt8QRAly3nByB_M058dWw0h7xN7K-jtMw/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-15%20062847.png" width="255" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NxjhiVpULoY" width="320" youtube-src-id="NxjhiVpULoY"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">True Crime podcast interview with Joe Pompeo</div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime. Joe Pompeo. William Morrow, 2022. 352 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Hall and married choir member Eleanor Mills were found under a tree on an abandoned farm near New Brunswick, New Jersey. Hall's widow was a wealthy heiress with ties to the Johnson & Johnson dynasty. Locals were shocked, and rumors spread like wildfire. Local authorities were overwhelmed and made missteps in the investigation. Tabloid newspaper publishers saw their shot at increasing circulation and took over the investigation, hiring detectives, finding witnesses, and uncovering evidence. Soon, the story blew up into national news. It had all the hallmarks of a story with legs in the newspaper business: religion, love, sex, money, murder, prominent family, poor family, eccentric characters with mysterious backgrounds who often told conflicting stories, even an attractive and well-spoken teenaged daughter of Mrs. Mills who became the focus of a lot of stories.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A hundred years later, the case is still not definitely resolved, but Pompeo lays out the evidence. He doesn't really successfully make the case that this double murder marks the beginning of the American obsession with true crime. There were other cases before this one, including some that are actually still remembered. However, the book is an interesting account of the murders, the Jazz Age, and the tabloid wars of the decade.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZLEzoAJa_UsVXsY0jjp0wh0u0cditOkm3z_iB4nIJ_-GBptYGVzLA5zYK1HyLhxekCM2o5H18BbO-kSw-7fBapSMwxhZAmAy9_Fb-3DASHbaZ0XWNIyqrnbd0H7qlvk6Vx-5qa2CtoTzg1t7sHt8RR-lFvzCN_3KPEdhc-D84NrslfD6w7xsrg2HJw/s1357/Screenshot%202023-07-16%20125110.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1357" data-original-width="1083" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZLEzoAJa_UsVXsY0jjp0wh0u0cditOkm3z_iB4nIJ_-GBptYGVzLA5zYK1HyLhxekCM2o5H18BbO-kSw-7fBapSMwxhZAmAy9_Fb-3DASHbaZ0XWNIyqrnbd0H7qlvk6Vx-5qa2CtoTzg1t7sHt8RR-lFvzCN_3KPEdhc-D84NrslfD6w7xsrg2HJw/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-16%20125110.png" width="255" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Ovca7jjqow" width="320" youtube-src-id="-Ovca7jjqow"></iframe></div>H.W. Brands book talk<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution. H.W. Brands. Doubleday, 2021. 496 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The American Revolution was really a "civil war" in two main respects. First, the colonists were thoroughly British before Lexington and Concord, and very few thought otherwise. Independence was a daunting prospect. Second, the Revolution divided colonies, towns, and families. All revolutions are led by minorities. As John Adams famously estimated, one-third of Americans were for independence, one-third were against, and one-third didn't care one way or the other. Some men and women staked their lives and fortunes on deeply held beliefs and values, while some chose sides based on expediency and prospects of personal betterment. Some chose their side based on ego or peer pressure. Meanwhile, some colonists just wished to be left alone to live their lives.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">H.W. Brands is one of my favorite historians, but this book is a little misstep, in my opinion. It's not quite as readable and enjoyable as his other books. It's still packed with great history and primary source documents, but it focused too much on big names like George Washington, Ben Franklin and his son William, Thomas Hutchinson, and Benedict Arnold. I wanted more stories about more rank-and-file Americans on both sides who struggled to decide which side they were on. The book is still a good read, especially if you want to learn more about the Revolution and events leading up to it and don't know much about the men listed above.</span></span></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-60513232358223511742023-06-29T09:45:00.000-04:002023-06-29T09:45:15.588-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts June 15 - June 30, 2023<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJNmGcvZCbLVfAfc3xU8bfomYuuuT3MiualXvKayhug0sJTXFlOWnQ2bIf37W4riEiks_h1ZuubS9rhwLFsMw8PBuxmG9VTEVfIZ5MKCiMRdApPeGryhT489ZC2ku1tiVdEe2EP6VQZLLm9cedoFvVemV4JUBNfiI5TjO5st4FNXnOjPuN_4vJos5vA/s414/354463314_572980924993361_3612041379464236099_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJNmGcvZCbLVfAfc3xU8bfomYuuuT3MiualXvKayhug0sJTXFlOWnQ2bIf37W4riEiks_h1ZuubS9rhwLFsMw8PBuxmG9VTEVfIZ5MKCiMRdApPeGryhT489ZC2ku1tiVdEe2EP6VQZLLm9cedoFvVemV4JUBNfiI5TjO5st4FNXnOjPuN_4vJos5vA/s320/354463314_572980924993361_3612041379464236099_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e48kdnUIeKI" width="320" youtube-src-id="e48kdnUIeKI"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A Tour of Richmond with Author Rachel Beanland, video</div><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The House Is On Fire. Rachel Beanland. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 384 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On December 26, 1811, 600 people filled the Richmond Theater in Virginia to see a play followed by a children's pantomime. During the show, a lit chandelier and faulty stage equipment caused a fire which burned down the theater, killing 72, including the Governor, in the largest American disaster to that point.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Novelist Rachel Beanland used the fire as inspiration for her fictionalized account. She used three real-life characters and a fourth character inspired by a real person to tell the story from four unique but interconnected experiences. The three real people were Sally Campbell, the widowed daughter of Revolutionary Patrick Henry, Jack Gibson, the teenaged stage hand in the theatrical company, and Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith who is credited with rescuing a dozen or so white women as they leapt from windows to escape the fire. The fourth character, Cecily Patterson, a young enslaved woman, was based on a name from the published list of victims, Nancy. Beside Nancy's name on the list appeared the notation "supposed to have died." This notation inspired Beanland to think that the enslaved Nancy was suspected of using the chaos and cover of the fire in order to make her escape, and that's exactly what Cecily does.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Beanland takes the characters and creates much of their stories, but the final result is a well-researched and really satisfying novel that delves into the time, place, and gender and racial truths of the period. It's a good read.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWT66VVxpa7Uk_cy6F0n0FMNsYc9J0KE3YNNjxWhseOosowhNHsY6TXH0excfB6AO40x2aKJuEhMEHEuENMR0VVJHHTTwDW88foNzN06ueNHA0tBsujRYW-qB0F-c-aEa1oISoy0GQFXs3i90mYrraLuUTP0DXZLfXoEC5LA0w6aPOI9l9cm_-KxAkgw/s414/354227201_574087898215997_8238128779089462100_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWT66VVxpa7Uk_cy6F0n0FMNsYc9J0KE3YNNjxWhseOosowhNHsY6TXH0excfB6AO40x2aKJuEhMEHEuENMR0VVJHHTTwDW88foNzN06ueNHA0tBsujRYW-qB0F-c-aEa1oISoy0GQFXs3i90mYrraLuUTP0DXZLfXoEC5LA0w6aPOI9l9cm_-KxAkgw/s320/354227201_574087898215997_8238128779089462100_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6lBvmn-KyXg" width="320" youtube-src-id="6lBvmn-KyXg"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Adam Hochschild author talk</div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis. Adam Hochschild. Mariner Books, 2022. 432 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 1917, the US was dragged into The Great War ravaging Europe, despite the 1916 campaign pledges by President Woodrow Wilson that American boys would not get involved and his campaign's chief slogan, "He kept us out of war." A month after his second inauguration, he asked Congress for a declaration of war, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy." Ironic on two levels: only one of the major participants, France, was a constitutional republic, and the war led to an all-out assault and massacre of democracy's hallmarks, freedom of speech, press, and thought, in the US.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Espionage and Sedition Acts were used to jail and deport thousands of Americans and resident aliens for criticizing the government's war efforts, even in private conversations. Newspapers and magazines were shut down, and editors were prosecuted. Mobs of self-appointed vigilantes assaulted suspected "traitors," beating, tarring and feathering, and lynching hundreds. Conscientious Objectors and pacifists were imprisoned and tortured, using brutal techniques learned in the recent Filipino War.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Government agents and super-patriotic citizens targeted militant labor unionists, especially the IWW, socialists, pacifists, Blacks, and immigrants. At war's end, returning Black veterans were lynched for daring to assert that they had rights, race massacres swept the country, the KKK rose in prominence, and the Palmer Raids swept up thousands in the first "Red Scare." The Immigration Act of 1924 slammed America's open doors shut.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">It was a dark and disturbing period in US history, often ignored. Hochschild vividly, and painfully, brings it to light. History can't be one or the other; it must contain the light and the dark.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03u4zkedrwJaM_pgfQ9MYDBtaTH2IfP6nT7X_gQgcNph11THTh37TZmoHVIPkUUZPJRDcF2SDhpUJnknfmCCWsjOMJE2gofKPzQDztq5Z--asg-EIyNTNJuA6bf2sv_2LarShyztQl_c1yn-ogGuFVYPLBRZhrN_xcypScEpEMwaq9ORXzike7uyWqA/s414/355000673_574635138161273_7485042645238163571_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03u4zkedrwJaM_pgfQ9MYDBtaTH2IfP6nT7X_gQgcNph11THTh37TZmoHVIPkUUZPJRDcF2SDhpUJnknfmCCWsjOMJE2gofKPzQDztq5Z--asg-EIyNTNJuA6bf2sv_2LarShyztQl_c1yn-ogGuFVYPLBRZhrN_xcypScEpEMwaq9ORXzike7uyWqA/s320/355000673_574635138161273_7485042645238163571_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Founding Fathers: The Shaping of America. Gerry and Janet Souter. Seven Oaks, 2011. 64 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I've always loved a good "Museum-in-a-book," those books that contain facsimiles of historical documents folded within their pages. As a kid, it was always a great day at a discount book store or clearance section to find one, rip off the plastic wrap, and discover the treasured artifacts inside. As a teacher, I incorporated them into my classroom.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Founding Fathers is a great example, with 15 documents included.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbSFozVUpmdyFMScyZCwNTDV2H_-FSk_B-r0XWJ8cFczlwGn2fhr1Loym4rnXw1nKMJKtzkUGMt15wMz2ZW9EEBdehCbcJGL5skuz51c5eodBDkFuVdWhNhbF7irlRC0XiHVADWA1MvMqQo0nSe6EP6sLuHuPDemccooxXQFbI4vhWI28yb1kMB5ASxQ/s414/354613499_575106528114134_1610429419170440156_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbSFozVUpmdyFMScyZCwNTDV2H_-FSk_B-r0XWJ8cFczlwGn2fhr1Loym4rnXw1nKMJKtzkUGMt15wMz2ZW9EEBdehCbcJGL5skuz51c5eodBDkFuVdWhNhbF7irlRC0XiHVADWA1MvMqQo0nSe6EP6sLuHuPDemccooxXQFbI4vhWI28yb1kMB5ASxQ/s320/354613499_575106528114134_1610429419170440156_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cGjVZGXNZRc" width="320" youtube-src-id="cGjVZGXNZRc"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;">Eric Foner author talk</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. Eric Foner. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019. 256 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Juneteenth is now a federally recognized holiday commemorating an event of June 19 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were officially informed of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of slavery in the US, two months after the Confederate Army surrendered and its government was dismantled. Unfortunately, many Americans erroneously believe that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves; it did not. It was a largely a master stroke of political propaganda on Lincoln's part, with little real legal authority. Slavery didn't officially end until the ratification of the 13th amendment, which was followed by the 14th, defining citizenship and extending it to the formerly enslaved, and the 15th, granting black males the right to vote.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">These three amendments were the keystones of Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War, during which America was transformed, as author Eric Foner puts it, into the world's first biracial democracy. It was definitely not easy. And struggles continue. Foner is the foremost American scholar on Reconstruction. In The Second Founding, he recounts the history of the amendments as major steps forward, but those steps were erased after Reconstruction by politicians and the Supreme Court and halted until the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights movement put the march forward back on track, literally and figuratively. He traces all the steps and missteps on the way and draws comparisons to issues still facing us.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilWOgrtKMj52QlkfqCyMeBixFJKvIjL8TSr_lICFJ6KR9C1eBjm1oazJqOx6RbOoM923-9ZFYNoYJUAJhpZ5Wyt5jk9d-Q3U94FHUucDJOxpqQrl6hDBQ9Zkf454ntZWyEs3cYJlJAV1JWRiwU3DaL5BLKoz6iQdPu1okrdHenK4ljdGfSyUfMEZJLwg/s414/352996205_576119174679536_8274174765996149587_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilWOgrtKMj52QlkfqCyMeBixFJKvIjL8TSr_lICFJ6KR9C1eBjm1oazJqOx6RbOoM923-9ZFYNoYJUAJhpZ5Wyt5jk9d-Q3U94FHUucDJOxpqQrl6hDBQ9Zkf454ntZWyEs3cYJlJAV1JWRiwU3DaL5BLKoz6iQdPu1okrdHenK4ljdGfSyUfMEZJLwg/s320/352996205_576119174679536_8274174765996149587_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">If the Allies Had Fallen: Sixty Alternate Scenarios of World War II. Dennis E. Showalter & Harold C. Deutsch, editors. MJF Books, 2010, originally published 1997. 358 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"What if" is one of the greatest phrases ever used by historians and history buffs, and it's always been a major hook drawing people to love history. Speculation over how the course of history could have been altered if some seemingly minor event had or had not happened can take you down endless rabbit holes of debate and thought. Every movement and event involves countless possibilities for some alternate scenario to play out. There's a whole genre of alternate history fiction in which authors create new stories of what might have been. What if the USA and CSA had negotiated a peaceful split instead of fought the Civil War? What if Africans had colonized Europe? What if Columbus had been lost at sea on his first voyage? What if hippos had been brought to the American South as livestock (premise of an actual book series)? Even the questions are endless.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">WWII is one of the most fertile fields for alternate history scenarios, and If the Allies Had Fallen brings together answers to 60 different WWII questions. However, this book is not for average readers of fiction or even average WWII buffs. The editors and writers are military and political historians, and their tone is very scholarly, too scholarly and military for me. I got bogged down. The points made are valid for the most part, but reading it was a slog. It's also very German-centric with relatively little mention of the Pacific war.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Still, those more military history minded of you might appreciate it.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_XQr9HyktKO2iRVGQ6bDiJ4C4fN5Fvlz-WALQmamalNL87ppapwoCVAyKcDWRq5iKq6RQZJLKgHi_5Cp9m85exTEwjn2OuEsOT1L_ln6orJ9uLnpEchx44BVc-QMQ5IxkJIQC5Iy_fCkS80SYhnGKHZaIf1vP0vhhay17YFSbPbQwnWO6vn6HTHOtww/s1550/355678446_577071137917673_6609904821882627064_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1550" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_XQr9HyktKO2iRVGQ6bDiJ4C4fN5Fvlz-WALQmamalNL87ppapwoCVAyKcDWRq5iKq6RQZJLKgHi_5Cp9m85exTEwjn2OuEsOT1L_ln6orJ9uLnpEchx44BVc-QMQ5IxkJIQC5Iy_fCkS80SYhnGKHZaIf1vP0vhhay17YFSbPbQwnWO6vn6HTHOtww/s320/355678446_577071137917673_6609904821882627064_n.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Qgqcuj4xtE" width="320" youtube-src-id="7Qgqcuj4xtE"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Travels of William Bartram. Mark Van Doren, editor. Dover Publications, 1955. Reprint of 1928 edition.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">This is one of those books that I had on a shelf for decades but never got around to reading until now. William Bartram was one of the first and most respected trained naturalists in America. In the 1770s and 1780s, he trekked across much of what was then the United States, usually alone, on foot, horseback, or in a boat, often through territory that few whites had seen before.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Bartram's Travels, published in 1791, details his travels in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida between 1773 and 1776. Along the way, he took detailed notes, made scientific illustrations, and collected specimens of plants, describing, naming, and classifying plants, often for the first time. He observed and documented the animals, including the predators which were numerous at the time: wolves, panthers, and alligators. In one scene, he described stumbling into the middle of an alligator feeding frenzy when he suddenly became aware of dozens of large alligators around him, gathered to take advantage of a huge fish run. He visited isolated plantations on the frontier, and he visited Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole villages, documenting the inhabitants' lives.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Bartram's book has been considered a milestone in scientific literature ever since, but it's also been considered great literature in general, inspiring Coleridge, Wordsworth, Emerson, and Thoreau among others. Bartram continues to inspire today. It is a great work, but this edition would have been much better with notes to clarify and identify what he describes in layman's terms, not just scientific nomenclature.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFbx8WMGMefkyQehmNoZEaF-JSbcy6oOCgfLD8_lOqJyCJP1rBIEm42SdZM7BVOtvBoUQzXKlKhRDCF2pGg76qli1n4pfORUtBxsX30otyqrkUAm8Rk4aecx0rXwhD0Y42fz060Bhq3LnoGkTYhCfUDALEmkaTC0a2UehZx4zM_kfXJKPsNcM-wEZrDQ/s414/356150697_578115044479949_6303323044818613426_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFbx8WMGMefkyQehmNoZEaF-JSbcy6oOCgfLD8_lOqJyCJP1rBIEm42SdZM7BVOtvBoUQzXKlKhRDCF2pGg76qli1n4pfORUtBxsX30otyqrkUAm8Rk4aecx0rXwhD0Y42fz060Bhq3LnoGkTYhCfUDALEmkaTC0a2UehZx4zM_kfXJKPsNcM-wEZrDQ/s320/356150697_578115044479949_6303323044818613426_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/faYMuQchB8A" width="320" youtube-src-id="faYMuQchB8A"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;">Patrick Radden Keefe author talk</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream. Patrick Radden Keefe. Anchor, 2010. 414 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A couple of years ago, I had never heard of Patrick Radden Keefe, but he has quickly become one of my favorite journalists/nonfiction authors. The Snakehead is a riveting look at Chinese illegal immigration into the US and the thriving Chinese criminal underworld that runs Chinatowns across the country.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The focus is on Cheng Chui Ping, known as Sister Ping, who ran a large human smuggling operation from 1984 to 2000 from New York's Chinatown on the Lower Eastside. On the surface, she worked 14-16 hour days running a notions store and restaurant catering to her fellow immigrants from Fujian Province, China, but she quickly became the most respected and loved snakehead, or human smuggler, in the business, and a multimillionaire. It is said that she emptied whole villages in China, bringing them to the US in arduous journeys of months or years. The US government finally caught up with her around 1990, but it took a decade to end her empire.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American immigration policy has always been complicated, flawed, even broken and corrupt. This book captures all that but still leaves the reader questioning what can be done. Leave it to politicians? Honestly, can you name a problem politicians have ever solved?</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I highly recommend reading all of Keefe's books.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8wnBUjdn8o9kGk2-WH-GqTlA0Z4L2quIqk4uZNiwOyQTjwAii7-wNPIrIlRqpxuMHhmvrcuVmK9k1-es7ETGMb37buKd2E2DWVmXcGu12gjd1jXwFRk_BKrRMJrbYxf1GEJSiosfvCwzjeIloGwO88AECziwt8ERpB-fisirzivraXTOABLgPZ2x2Q/s414/356241610_579028134388640_4281181135320621138_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8wnBUjdn8o9kGk2-WH-GqTlA0Z4L2quIqk4uZNiwOyQTjwAii7-wNPIrIlRqpxuMHhmvrcuVmK9k1-es7ETGMb37buKd2E2DWVmXcGu12gjd1jXwFRk_BKrRMJrbYxf1GEJSiosfvCwzjeIloGwO88AECziwt8ERpB-fisirzivraXTOABLgPZ2x2Q/s320/356241610_579028134388640_4281181135320621138_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gC-XWKQdeyM" width="320" youtube-src-id="gC-XWKQdeyM"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;">Brad Meltzer, CBS Sunday Morning</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill. Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. Flatiron Books, 2023. 400 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In November, 1943, the Big Three Allied leaders, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin, met face to face for the first time in Tehran, Iran to discuss war strategies and goals moving forward. The conference was a long time coming, and planning it required much behind-the-scenes diplomacy, manipulation, and legwork. The sheer audacity of flying FDR, in seriously deteriorating health, around the world in the middle of a war, leaving the US for nearly a month, was daunting. Meanwhile, Stalin harbored tremendous mistrust of the other two, especially Churchill (mutual), and he grew angrier every day that a new Western front wasn't opened up to relieve the Soviet burden of the war. He felt ignored and lied to. FDR realized that the Allied war effort demanded a meeting to show the world that it truly was a united front, and he was determined to make it happen.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When the Germans learned of the planned meeting (within days of the arrangements being finalized), they allegedly hatched a plot to kill the Big Three, an act which would have quite possibly changed the war's outcome. Allegedly? Turns out, the plot's existence is still debated among historians today, and hard evidence doesn't seem to exist. After all, it was top secret, and assassination was still anathema to "civilized" states at war, so the men involved would have denied everything to avoid war crimes prosecution. Meltzer and Mensch examine the possible conspiracy, and they have created a very enjoyable book that lets the readers in on the war effort, the conference planning, and the leaders involved.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh77LbjDeOUXrAhICAX75NfEc66w-_HThX3CWA79pcjDacnLGSTWr6moSzmgPAb-tvBO1etU2IK8qxscu3dyQ8uuV7vmLoQ9wVeI5XBTqqJRchQlXbQpYdykTb1K-jwkZzdy8jX5UwtCLhjhTF7tIWfY8JSSV8l16nbYK4MmKx1f1zWBO_hRJrXm0igig/s414/356381719_580252110932909_3705015322217469493_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh77LbjDeOUXrAhICAX75NfEc66w-_HThX3CWA79pcjDacnLGSTWr6moSzmgPAb-tvBO1etU2IK8qxscu3dyQ8uuV7vmLoQ9wVeI5XBTqqJRchQlXbQpYdykTb1K-jwkZzdy8jX5UwtCLhjhTF7tIWfY8JSSV8l16nbYK4MmKx1f1zWBO_hRJrXm0igig/s320/356381719_580252110932909_3705015322217469493_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought On the Great Depression. Christopher Knowlton. Simon & Schuster, 2020. 432 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Few states roared in the Roaring 20s as loudly as Florida. Seven thousand people a day moved into the still largely undeveloped and untamed state, hoping to carve out their personal plot of paradise. Radio, newspapers, magazines, and billboards bombarded northerners with ads touting great tracts of beautiful tropical land ( much of which was really underwater at the time it was purchased). Some states went so far as to outlaw Florida ads, including states that are still hemorrhaging residents a century later.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Florida developers, i.e. an assortment of swindlers, con men, criminals, and ne'er-do-wells (again, what's changed?) made millions selling Florida to both the super wealthy and the middle class. The boom caused land prices to soar 400 to 500 % in a few days. Flashy gaudy cities and mansions sprung up overnight. Celebrities, Gangsters, and socialites flocked to the state to be seen.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Alas, with every bubble, a bust must follow, and the bust hit hard. The slowing national economy, coupled with devastating hurricanes in 1926 and 1928, ruined many, many fortunes. Millionaire developers, members of the middle class, and the poor laborers who built and maintained the luxury all saw their fortunes and dreams dashed, even before the Crash of 1929.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Did Florida's economic collapse cause the Great Depression? Knowlton confesses that it was not the cause but writes "the Sunshine State did provide both the dynamite and the detonator." Bubble is an entertaining look at the boom and bust and a real lesson on how history repeats, or echoes at least.</span></span></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-45818175135855672342023-06-14T11:11:00.001-04:002023-06-29T09:22:40.827-04:00Shelved: Roundup of Book Posts May 15 - June 15, 2023<p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-r1FKzr5-lHUAO0fqRUAO2hGFaDwWkhlSDanHCnJ_6LSS-6PzSKhMnbZPC7nmpA3sL3gDsWc4boJ8-CFo0sUHROpWZAL_j0JCGjoRUCLazImvtzLFnF3O5n-Fw9cjxnHac8O_p5BBzHsKXc6yYhIdLOqJHy3gsXwLgPGrPo8dtSZf9ZOHLLFhEc/s1357/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20063012.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1357" data-original-width="1078" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-r1FKzr5-lHUAO0fqRUAO2hGFaDwWkhlSDanHCnJ_6LSS-6PzSKhMnbZPC7nmpA3sL3gDsWc4boJ8-CFo0sUHROpWZAL_j0JCGjoRUCLazImvtzLFnF3O5n-Fw9cjxnHac8O_p5BBzHsKXc6yYhIdLOqJHy3gsXwLgPGrPo8dtSZf9ZOHLLFhEc/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20063012.png" width="254" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Justice at Dachau: The Trials of an American Prosecutor. Joshua Greene. Broadway Books, 2003. 400 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Everyone knows about the couple of dozen Nazi leaders tried for war crimes at Nuremberg following WWII, but fewer know about the hundreds of guards, officers, and doctors tried at Dachau for crimes committed at Dachau, Mauthausen, Flossenburg, and Buchenwald camps.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The man leading the prosecution in those cases was William Denson. Imagine a combination of fictional characters Atticus Finch, Sheriff Andy Taylor, Perry Mason, and Hawkeye Pierce, and you have Denson. Alabama boy turned law professor at West Point, he was tapped to do what had never been done before. For two years, the trials consumed his life, destroying his marriage and nearly his health and career.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The book is a great biography of one of the forgotten men in history. It also made me want to know more about the Allied military lawyers who were appointed to defend the accused. As far as I've read, they worked hard to present competent defenses because they believed that every defendant deserved it, but I haven't seen any of their stories told. How many of us could have done the same?</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRjI_brXNFNcr4sJVbtqXBOKgvweaMBrfQEUZg3YHEt903AniXCEY3f8Ixughgz9Pt9lprYjhO_tJo-rCFIdRQa2lcNC1E8GUOmokGgTP0yqPKKk-p1fMuWb71siM71vSwwUYLrAck1wT0AdDWW9DfWwFrqrCsF5HPWtUo67p9vGD6HCKsR6iuVA/s1360/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062949.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="1087" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRjI_brXNFNcr4sJVbtqXBOKgvweaMBrfQEUZg3YHEt903AniXCEY3f8Ixughgz9Pt9lprYjhO_tJo-rCFIdRQa2lcNC1E8GUOmokGgTP0yqPKKk-p1fMuWb71siM71vSwwUYLrAck1wT0AdDWW9DfWwFrqrCsF5HPWtUo67p9vGD6HCKsR6iuVA/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062949.png" width="256" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant's Search for Her Family's Lasting Legacy. Gayle Jessup White. Amistad, 2021. 288 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Gayle Jessup White grew up in a black middle class family in Washington DC. She became a journalist and news anchor. ( I remember her at Savannah's WTOC in the 90s.) As a young teen, she had overheard talk that her father was descended from Thomas Jefferson, but he knew next to nothing about his family.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">She was intrigued and became enamored with Jefferson and his home Monticello, visiting numerous times, but she went on with her life and career. It wasn't until decades later that a Monticello historian and genealogist helped her discover the true story.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">What she discovered was that she was not descended from one of the Jefferson and Hemings children, but that she was, in fact, related to both Jefferson and Hemings separately. She also achieved her dream of landing a job at Monticello as Director of Community Relations, becoming, as she puts it, the first descendant of Monticello's enslavers and the enslaved to get paid to work there.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The book is an interesting genealogical and historical mystery and, at the same time, a memoir of a black woman in America learning about herself, her family, and their place in America.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixr4fQhWxhQQFvYH_6w6PysNW7YG46uBOSdcM6BS36x5homwYRmfAi-7tn9MOk_t4HxpkoQa8oHidjTqULLOi75y5xMfbno6vfCeexe-6V5YC3D1fvuz9-apQCpUT5FEZSyrd7NojdsNC0xSL5Rrw7tHPwqaTHqRBI3B7MCTl5qk5udkXqk-5o_Zo/s1363/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062916.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="1344" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixr4fQhWxhQQFvYH_6w6PysNW7YG46uBOSdcM6BS36x5homwYRmfAi-7tn9MOk_t4HxpkoQa8oHidjTqULLOi75y5xMfbno6vfCeexe-6V5YC3D1fvuz9-apQCpUT5FEZSyrd7NojdsNC0xSL5Rrw7tHPwqaTHqRBI3B7MCTl5qk5udkXqk-5o_Zo/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062916.png" width="316" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Cigar: Carmine Galante, Mafia Terror. Frank Dimatteo and Michael Benson. Citadel Press, 2023.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Carmine Galante may have been born in New York's Little Italy, but the US government maintained, but couldn't prove, that he arrived in the US as a four-year old boy. Nicknamed "The Cigar" or "Lilo," he became one of the New York Mob's most feared enforcers, a hit man for the Luciano and Genovese crime families. Police psychologists diagnosed him as a psychopath with below average intelligence, and he was a full-blown sadist with a pronounced flair for cruelty. He became a major player in NYC crime, orchestrating one of the biggest heroin smuggling operations in history, and ruthlessly eliminating rivals until it all ended in a Brooklyn restaurant on July 12, 1979 with a shotgun blast to the face.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In March of 2023, Mafia historians Frank Dimatteo and Michael Benson published his story. It's a fast-paced story written as Mob historians write, quick choppy sentences filled with street vernacular. Dimatteo grew up in and around the Brooklyn underworld and has published several memoirs and histories. Benson's most recent book was the great Gangsters xs Nazis, published last year. If you're interested in the history of organized crime, you definitely need to pick this up.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeOGSUZhyAN39nZZUqBG-DKsif8knK4NIdYPDi9UA7C1Kd4Tr5_Xt8Vp-g-_eHx4wPPW8a2T3P5eln7x76b95ig4YKOki45zXqNWYnYX6FELaS7Sl9XwsCgHNysYyD7323iE_5FaY02qHqLe2PO7klFAgCVc-8Ji-iAmcauiF2Cic2OVo9Nh22_FI/s1371/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062456.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1371" data-original-width="1366" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeOGSUZhyAN39nZZUqBG-DKsif8knK4NIdYPDi9UA7C1Kd4Tr5_Xt8Vp-g-_eHx4wPPW8a2T3P5eln7x76b95ig4YKOki45zXqNWYnYX6FELaS7Sl9XwsCgHNysYyD7323iE_5FaY02qHqLe2PO7klFAgCVc-8Ji-iAmcauiF2Cic2OVo9Nh22_FI/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062456.png" width="319" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Oldest Tampa Bay. Joshua Ginsberg. Ready Press, 2022. 192 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of the first authors, and friends, I met after moving to Florida was fellow transplant and history lover Josh Ginsberg. A writer, blogger, and entrepreneur, he, his wife Jen, and their shih tzu Tinkerbell travel all over Florida looking for the weird, unique, and historical locations.. Then he writes their stories. He had already published Secret Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay Scavenger when Oldest was published in September of 2022. Soon to be published are Secret Orlando and Haunted Orlando, with more irons already in the fire.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Whether you're a native, transplant, snowbird, or visitor, Josh's books offer a ton of local history, and lots of ideas for your own scavenger hunt. If you're not one of those things, there might be similar books about your city. Check them out, or write your own.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCEz2YWajPzV2U_IaKF4PKXMnQ7b6xSYu8WI_n9vhECTZuI8gs7-zyGfmpxPyjTqpJ2iUnQ6oNN43SrnZdtot2p3XrGgVp5NSTGfIH3vzFaUW-I5rFNacDv5au30SeH6rWmKztfSxSeMuwyGIgywN9JAksqpiNQkPTocLlZG8ZHyzWhRdpmQtP_XU/s1362/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062426.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="1362" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCEz2YWajPzV2U_IaKF4PKXMnQ7b6xSYu8WI_n9vhECTZuI8gs7-zyGfmpxPyjTqpJ2iUnQ6oNN43SrnZdtot2p3XrGgVp5NSTGfIH3vzFaUW-I5rFNacDv5au30SeH6rWmKztfSxSeMuwyGIgywN9JAksqpiNQkPTocLlZG8ZHyzWhRdpmQtP_XU/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062426.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them. Timothy Egan. Viking, April 2023. 432 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">You likely know that the second iteration of the KKK was born on top of Stone Mountain Georgia in 1915, inspired by the first huge blockbuster full-length film in history, "The Birth of a Nation." From there, it grew into a powerful national anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, and pro-Prohibition movement with millions of members.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 1925, 25,000 hooded and robed Klan men, women, and children marched in parade in the streets of Washington DC, cheered on by hundreds of thousands of spectators, ten-deep on sidewalks. Black Washingtonians heeded warnings and stayed invisible that day. But did you know that only 10% of the marchers were southern? That states like Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had many more Klan members than Georgia? That Indianapolis had more members than Atlanta?</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Indiana was, in fact, the capital of Klan America with the vast majority of state and local elected officials and police swearing loyalty oaths both to the Klan and specifically to the man who ruled Indiana in the mid-1920s, DC Stephenson. Stephenson was a conman who beat, stomped, and abandoned his wife in Oklahoma before reinventing himself in Indiana, where he viciously raped multiple young women, often gnawing them and ripping their flesh with his teeth in the process. He owned Indiana and the Klan until he kidnapped and raped Madge Oberholtzer. He and the Klan were finally brought down by brave prosecutors, a few reporters, women's groups, Notre Dame students, and Madge's deathbed testimony.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">If you like Eric Larson and David Grann books, this one is for you. Egan is as great a researcher and storyteller, and it's a great and important story. I've also enjoyed a couple of his other books.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCJDQyCmvxAU8RjzGeo-Qur5ysu8wtiaH_hhELVckcQrJ9NZe8OFkpBp_qi_UgrrC3Zisy0WTTE235W8Ilgnn0T_47nM1vW5VEbvtnAJM4nUs9EbbbIz2PtmelKOAlAWlhWOTgPQeP3R1ZuS32i9Ssrk-i30GlFwGscGskMpu1QalHYtYBedOg2M/s4000/20230607_163323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCJDQyCmvxAU8RjzGeo-Qur5ysu8wtiaH_hhELVckcQrJ9NZe8OFkpBp_qi_UgrrC3Zisy0WTTE235W8Ilgnn0T_47nM1vW5VEbvtnAJM4nUs9EbbbIz2PtmelKOAlAWlhWOTgPQeP3R1ZuS32i9Ssrk-i30GlFwGscGskMpu1QalHYtYBedOg2M/s320/20230607_163323.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Atlanta Ripper: The Unsolved Case of the Gate City's Most Infamous Murders. Jeffery Wells. The History Press, 2011. 112 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Although I lived in metro Atlanta for over 20 years, I had never heard of "The Atlanta Ripper" until I saw this book. Between 1909 (or 1911) and 1915, at least 15 black women (maybe as many as 21) were murdered on the streets of Atlanta. Some think that it was the work of a serial killer, and some think they are not related. The women were killed with similar brutality, using a large knife or some other sharp object. The women were generally young, attractive, and employed. Police, city officials, and the white press did not give the cases the attention they deserved because of prejudice. The murders occurred just a few years after the Atlanta Race Riot and before the city became the "city too busy to hate." A few men were questioned and held in connection to a few of the murders, but, to date, they have gone unsolved.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">There were various theories whispered on the streets and in the neighborhoods affected, and Atlanta's black population lived in terror and uncertainty (even more than normal for Jim Crow Georgia). Was it the work of the Ku Klux Klan? Did London's Jack the Ripper lay low for a few years, immigrate to America, and launch a new killing spree in Atlanta? The daughter of one of the victims claimed to have seen the killer and described him as large, well-built black man. Although six different men were arrested and considered suspects during the investigation, no one was ever connected to them all. The murders just seemed to stop in 1915.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">It's an interesting story that should be told. Unfortunately, the book is somewhat disappointing in the end because there is no satisfying conclusion, and that's not the fault of the author. There's just not enough known to lead to a satisfactory conclusion, and there may never be.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3OGvjCkyHlBlL2m9k-NCcDrTlgGO32HV5oz-XDLYrfeHpYpk8-qPBEPQLxmlOOvRgHwihmx5be2sqsipgBvKNk8iMO7vyG9UE9XBOsnmvv9Y0iunCdPMNdXCtUCyXfWTAJLMUZdRvgyXE1fltos1E8e7ZYu04pCz8i6Rcd01sgFlwPkac_WTwHUg/s1362/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062400.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="1083" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3OGvjCkyHlBlL2m9k-NCcDrTlgGO32HV5oz-XDLYrfeHpYpk8-qPBEPQLxmlOOvRgHwihmx5be2sqsipgBvKNk8iMO7vyG9UE9XBOsnmvv9Y0iunCdPMNdXCtUCyXfWTAJLMUZdRvgyXE1fltos1E8e7ZYu04pCz8i6Rcd01sgFlwPkac_WTwHUg/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062400.png" width="254" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York. Elon Green. Celadon Books, 2021. 272 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The 1980s and 1990s were a momentous period in queer history. The Gay Pride and Gay Liberation movements had just begun, fueled by the Stonewall Riots of 1969. People and organizations had just begun talking about "coming out" in the 1970s, and then AIDS appeared, leading to a major tragedy and accompanying hysteria and backlash that threatened to derail all of the progress. In addition, New York City was in the midst of an economic crisis and enduring a high crime rate.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A serial killer began preying on gay males during all the tumult, picking them up in bars before murdering them and dismembering their bodies, leaving their remains in garbage bags in various places. The press barely mentioned the story, and there was no national attention. The epithet "Last Call Killer" didn't jump out in huge type on front pages as it would have if the victims had another common trait. In fact, that name came years after the murders. And the murderer kept killing in the 80s and 90s.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Even today, the story doesn't appear high on the lists of American serial killers. Journalist Elon Green stumbled on it and wanted to know why. That led to this, his first book. It's a well-done accounting of the murders, the decades-long investigation, and the personal and political tensions and conflicts behind the scenes of the investigation, a riveting true crime story. Just as importantly, or more importantly, Green succeeds in humanizing the victims and telling their story. He also deftly captures the setting and atmosphere.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikJflCFjVzUu38rq9oqsGvQabwq0qQn87Z1XuCDmlTaNeOe3XWJ7l5D9mAlgPLLe6iSM4zEs1siMAsfrv5UJptsi-jzi77R1M-poqJi7gRIib1cPLHNTPpJ3XuVL2O-gBVkoquBVqbvGgfVHrXU-kUjgB3eA_-1JiQ_c3G6chLYwCQTjCLLdv_wHc/s1345/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062334.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1345" data-original-width="1075" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikJflCFjVzUu38rq9oqsGvQabwq0qQn87Z1XuCDmlTaNeOe3XWJ7l5D9mAlgPLLe6iSM4zEs1siMAsfrv5UJptsi-jzi77R1M-poqJi7gRIib1cPLHNTPpJ3XuVL2O-gBVkoquBVqbvGgfVHrXU-kUjgB3eA_-1JiQ_c3G6chLYwCQTjCLLdv_wHc/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062334.png" width="256" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Siberian Dilemma. Martin Cruz Smith. Simon & Schuster, 2019. 288 pages. Book 9 of 10.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Maybe you're thinking about poolside or beach reading choices. Why not consider a crime novel series set in the 1980s and 1990s Soviet Union and Russia during the collapse of communism and the subsequent decade?</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American writer Martin Cruz Smith has written 10 books so far starring Arkady Renko, who starts the series in the book Gorky Park as a chief investigator in Moscow. Like most literary detectives, he has dark personal issues going back to disappointing his prominent Communist Party official father and being an unwitting accomplice in his mother's suicide. In his investigations, he has to not only thwart the bad guys but also overcome the rampant soul-crushing bureaucracy, corruption, and despair inherent in the Soviet system and in the "free" Russia dominated by oligarchs and hardliners.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I read the first three novels years ago and recently found </span><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz _aa9_ _a6hd" href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/9/" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0">#9</a><span style="background-color: white;">, Siberian Dilemma in a used book store. I found it to be good, not as good as some other series I love, like the Bernie Gunther series, but good. If you like crime fiction series with a historical bent set in Eastern Europe and Russia, you might want to look into the Renko series.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZvVrd0uLh92bkmHk6c_7-y5H7Whzqc5A7K28kG17OfA8gFF40GWUiES8vO6rNZX0cTZr4uOsrFntpSjG4me1R_XeHljEml0Ap8SS7uUwU55YuAa2SZj3g4a3JCVRtF_2OepS30Wbd4vaTsBmrzM-vnzUaNvR4qKew_sgX6QwBHyNTfE2t8mBoj0/s1372/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062307.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="1327" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZvVrd0uLh92bkmHk6c_7-y5H7Whzqc5A7K28kG17OfA8gFF40GWUiES8vO6rNZX0cTZr4uOsrFntpSjG4me1R_XeHljEml0Ap8SS7uUwU55YuAa2SZj3g4a3JCVRtF_2OepS30Wbd4vaTsBmrzM-vnzUaNvR4qKew_sgX6QwBHyNTfE2t8mBoj0/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062307.png" width="310" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Food Stories: Writing That Stirs the Pot. Various authors. The Bitter Southerner, 2023. 315 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of my favorite few online magazine reads is The Bitter Southerner, which publishes always interesting stories about the South - past, present, future, and how they all intersect to make the South and southerners what they are. Last month, The BS published a compilation of 21 of its best stories about Southern foodways. All are great reading and re-reading.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">There's a story about the origins of Nashville Hot Chicken and about the connection between country music stars and cookbooks. There are stories about traditional southern dishes which are well known, like beans and rice and lemon meringue pie, but there is also the story of rosin potatoes. Rosin potatoes, potatoes boiled in pine rosin, were a staple of the turpentine collectors of south Georgia during the height of the naval stores industry. There are also stories about how immigrants have changed and are changing the South, adding things like tamales and Ethiopian spaghetti.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">But wait, there's more!</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">It's hard to go wrong when you combine food, history, and culture, and The BS definitely gets it right.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUu9gGN2_Q2USNPoW9IW-HVdn3-uyTiZzMf-i2u2YdyUgKtiSpT22N29UsbNCPWHEox2Hu03UML2q5hIvDKuWZN9m4uz-ajHhBQ5-Wf8iPr_I7mMXhFl-9-ZSxqAwt4nVlD1hUgOzHXkgsUQor2SxWbKV51c4d2BIEAvY9BGJvNcXN3qxYDA7c-Q/s1372/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062215.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="1357" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUu9gGN2_Q2USNPoW9IW-HVdn3-uyTiZzMf-i2u2YdyUgKtiSpT22N29UsbNCPWHEox2Hu03UML2q5hIvDKuWZN9m4uz-ajHhBQ5-Wf8iPr_I7mMXhFl-9-ZSxqAwt4nVlD1hUgOzHXkgsUQor2SxWbKV51c4d2BIEAvY9BGJvNcXN3qxYDA7c-Q/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062215.png" width="317" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Book 1 of 4, The Wicked Years. Gregory Maguire. William Morrow, 1995. 448 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Later today, we are going to see a world premiere production of "Oz," an original musical based on the life of L. Frank Baum. I suppose his life might make for an interesting story. He failed at his lifelong ambition to be a serious writer for adults. Instead, much to his chagrin, his legacy was as a children's book author, publishing altogether the 14 Oz novels that he originated as bedtime stories for his children.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Then there's the Littlefield theory or thesis, that he was a devoted and politically active Populist who conceived The Wizard of Oz as a political allegory for the hot-button issues of the day. Look it up if you are unaware. I put little stock in the theory. Littlefield was just a literature professor ascribing meaning and significance where there is no evidence of meaning and significance. But that's what literature teachers do.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">And you can't discuss Baum without noting that, as a newspaper editor in South Dakota in the 1890s, he advocated and called for the complete and utter genocide of all American Indians.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Anyway, Gregory Maguire published a four volume reimagining of Oz starting with Wicked in 1995, the inspiration for the hit musical. I loved the series, and I even liked the musical. And I like few musicals. Maguire's niche is to retell childhood favorites as exciting new fantasies for adults and young adults.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQfHRsG7OeQZEbEZ_Mc0nr8u0fpYUrZ69y3XSfjR0L9LsRbJH1eZ8FILAmASU03bPmmw09Mr31W3eUbug_GTaJQgOkfoFzbkoYuK_9CSMV4fC_OgaH-47Amt1978818AIV0CsAAhLZPFFASwJZ1d7e-ymPQ_E71urjCTFM_C0fILTQI4S_Nig-uQg/s1347/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062106.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1347" data-original-width="1084" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQfHRsG7OeQZEbEZ_Mc0nr8u0fpYUrZ69y3XSfjR0L9LsRbJH1eZ8FILAmASU03bPmmw09Mr31W3eUbug_GTaJQgOkfoFzbkoYuK_9CSMV4fC_OgaH-47Amt1978818AIV0CsAAhLZPFFASwJZ1d7e-ymPQ_E71urjCTFM_C0fILTQI4S_Nig-uQg/s320/Screenshot%202023-06-14%20062106.png" width="258" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: white;">Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape From Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison. Ben Macintyre. Crown, 2022. 368 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Colditz Castle, near Leipzig and Dresden in Saxony, Germany, was largely built in the late 16th century and served as the home of the Electors of Saxony, but some sort of fortified structure stood on the spot since about 1050. During WWII, the Germans decided to make it a POW camp for Allied officers who were troublemakers at other camps, those who tried to escape or were otherwise difficult, so all the worst behaved prisoners were confined together. (A horrible idea, all teachers would agree.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Few Americans were held there, so most Americans know little about Colditz, but Colditz became a phenomenon in the UK in the decades following the war, inspiring numerous books, tv shows, board games, and even conventions telling the stories of the brave prisoners, what they endured, and the incredible ingenuity they exhibited.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A mythology arose about Colditz, that all of the prisoners put aside class, background, and national differences and worked together seamlessly to survive and to escape. In his book, historian Ben Macintyre exposes the myth. In reality, the prison was a microsociety reflecting the outside world the men had known. The British prisoners segregated themselves based on social class, family background, and school ties. They also horribly mistreated the only Indian prisoner, a doctor and the only Indian officer in the regular British Army. (Over 2 million Indians served in the war, but in the colonial British Indian Army, not the British Army.) French officers divided into pro-DeGaulle and pro-Vichy camps, and French Jewish officers were segregated and ostracized, as demanded by the non-Jewish officers. While there was international cooperation among the POWs, there were also tensions. There were also spies, informants, and traitors.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Prisoners of the Castle is one of the best WWII histories that I've read. Every chapter tells an incredible story of courage, determination, and inventiveness that the most imaginative filmmakers and novelists could never have created.</span></span><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="_aasi" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(var(--post-separator)); border-left: 1px solid rgb(var(--post-separator)); border-radius: 4px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="x9f619 xjbqb8w x78zum5 x168nmei x13lgxp2 x5pf9jr xo71vjh x1n2onr6 x1plvlek xryxfnj x1c4vz4f x2lah0s x1q0g3np xqjyukv x6s0dn4 x1oa3qoh x1qughib" style="align-items: center; align-self: auto; background-color: transparent; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; overflow: visible; place-content: stretch space-between; position: relative;"><header class="_aaqw" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; 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height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 32px;" /></a></div></div></div><div class="_a9zr" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="_a9zc" style="align-items: center; color: rgb(var(--ig-primary-text)); display: inline-flex; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="x9f619 xjbqb8w x78zum5 x168nmei x13lgxp2 x5pf9jr xo71vjh xw3qccf x1n2onr6 x1plvlek xryxfnj x1c4vz4f x2lah0s xdt5ytf xqjyukv x1qjc9v5 x1oa3qoh x1nhvcw1" style="align-items: stretch; align-self: auto; border-radius: 0px; 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border-radius: 2px; border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: none; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: 0.875rem; font-weight: var(--font-weight-system-semibold); height: auto; justify-content: center; line-height: var(--system-14-line-height); list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; text-overflow: ellipsis; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; width: auto; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0">histocrats</a></div></div></div></h2><div class="_a9zs" style="display: inline;"><h1 class="_aacl _aaco _aacu _aacx _aad7 _aade" dir="auto" style="color: rgb(var(--ig-primary-text)); display: inline !important; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: var(--system-14-font-size); font-weight: var(--font-weight-system-regular); line-height: var(--system-14-line-height); margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px;">The Atlanta Ripper: The Unsolved Case of the Gate City's Most Infamous Murders. Jeffery Wells. The History Press, 2011. 112 pages.<br /><br />Although I lived in metro Atlanta for over 20 years, I had never heard of "The Atlanta Ripper" until I saw this book. Between 1909 (or 1911) and 1915, at least 15 black women (maybe as many as 21) were murdered on the streets of Atlanta. Some think that it was the work of a serial killer, and some think they are not related. The women were killed with similar brutality, using a large knife or some other sharp object. The women were generally young, attractive, and employed. Police, city officials, and the white press did not give the cases the attention they deserved because of prejudice. The murders occurred just a few years after the Atlanta Race Riot and before the city became the "city too busy to hate." A few men were questioned and held in connection to a few of the murders, but, to date, they have gone unsolved.<br /><br />There were various theories whispered on the streets and in the neighborhoods affected, and Atlanta's black population lived in terror and uncertainty (even more than normal for Jim Crow Georgia). Was it the work of the Ku Klux Klan? Did London's Jack the Ripper lay low for a few years, immigrate to America, and launch a new killing spree in Atlanta? The daughter of one of the victims claimed to have seen the killer and described him as large, well-built black man. Although six different men were arrested and considered suspects during the investigation, no one was ever connected to them all. The murders just seemed to stop in 1915.<br /><br />It's an interesting story that should be told. Unfortunately, the book is somewhat disappointing in the end because there is no satisfying conclusion, and that's not the fault of the author. There's just not enough known to lead to a satisfactory conclusion, and there may never be.</h1></div></div></div></div></li><li class="_a9zj _a9zl _a9z5" style="margin-right: -2px; margin-top: -5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: visible; padding: 5px 16px 16px 0px; position: relative; width: auto;"><div class="_a9zr" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="_a9zs" style="display: inline;"><h1 class="_aacl _aaco _aacu _aacx _aad7 _aade" dir="auto" style="color: rgb(var(--ig-primary-text)); display: inline !important; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: var(--system-14-font-size); font-weight: var(--font-weight-system-regular); line-height: var(--system-14-line-height); margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1></div></div></li><li class="_a9zj _a9zl _a9z5" style="margin-right: -2px; margin-top: -5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: visible; padding: 5px 16px 16px 0px; position: relative; width: auto;"><div class="_a9zr" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="_a9zs" style="display: inline;"><h1 class="_aacl _aaco _aacu _aacx _aad7 _aade" dir="auto" style="color: rgb(var(--ig-primary-text)); display: inline !important; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: var(--system-14-font-size); font-weight: var(--font-weight-system-regular); line-height: var(--system-14-line-height); margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1></div></div></li></div></ul></div></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-63136303076996480292023-05-31T06:12:00.001-04:002023-05-31T06:12:00.147-04:00Person, Place, and Thing: April 23 - May 3<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdR_r645B0qO0ad2IOlVnQIsbcFYMRKfK0kC6YU6Flyr78vU146UdJm8Hwqrc165u7U13WR2dzqa6fbyuKZC2NbG1eDKTxUCRnDPSITG53YcvIgfVvw_baCI3s8Tsq2diBpCB2Dr63VpSVJZQ3EGjI6nFkpPhRIRwVDJkNd4HEhGC2pSG89dfv7A/s277/download%20(8).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdR_r645B0qO0ad2IOlVnQIsbcFYMRKfK0kC6YU6Flyr78vU146UdJm8Hwqrc165u7U13WR2dzqa6fbyuKZC2NbG1eDKTxUCRnDPSITG53YcvIgfVvw_baCI3s8Tsq2diBpCB2Dr63VpSVJZQ3EGjI6nFkpPhRIRwVDJkNd4HEhGC2pSG89dfv7A/s1600/download%20(8).jpg" width="182" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">William Shakespeare was born on or around April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and died on April 23, 1616.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, Shakespeare's life is still one of the greatest mysteries in literary history. There are few written records about him, and little is known about his personal life other than he married, had three children, and became an actor, poet, and playwright. As a result of the mystery, much speculation has arisen, and many theories have been put forth, beginning hundreds of years ago, about his physical appearance, his background, his sexuality, his religious and political views, and, in fact, whether or not he actually wrote the works attributed to him.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In May 2023, journalist and literary critic Elizabeth Winkler is publishing Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies:How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature, a deep dive into these theories, their origins, and the debates throughout history that they created. Sounds really interesting. I just pre-ordered it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">William Shakespeare was born on or around April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and died on April 23, 1616.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The house in which it is thought Shakespeare was born and spent his childhood is now a museum.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The house itself is relatively simple, but for the late 16th century it would have been considered quite a substantial dwelling. John Shakespeare, William's father, was a glove maker and wool dealer, and the house was originally divided in two parts to allow him to carry out his business from the same premises.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The building is not outstanding architecturally, and typical of the times was constructed in wattle and daub around a wooden frame. Local oak from the Forest of Arden and blue-grey stone from Wilmcote were used in its construction, while the large fireplaces were made from an unusual combination of early brick and stone, and the ground-floor level has stone-flagged floors.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The plan of the building was originally a simple rectangle. From north-west to south-east, the ground-floor consisted of a parlour with fireplace, an adjoining hall with a large open hearth, a cross passage, and finally a room which probably served as John Shakespeare's workshop. This arrangement was mirrored on the first-floor by three chambers accessed by a staircase from the hall, probably where the present stairs are sited. Traditionally, the chamber over the parlour is the birthroom. A separate single-bay house, now known as Joan Hart's Cottage, was later built onto the north-west end of the house, and the present kitchen was added at the rear with a chamber above it." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In May 2023, journalist and literary critic Elizabeth Winkler is publishing Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies:How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature, a deep dive into the many theories surrounding Shakespeare's little-known life story, their origins, and the debates throughout history that they created. Sounds really interesting. I just pre-ordered it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">William Shakespeare was born on or around April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and died on April 23, 1616.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">If you know anything about Shakespeare, you know that most of his plays were performed in the Globe Theatre, built in 1599 and destroyed by fire in 1613. In 1997, a new Globe Theatre opened. There, 1.25 million visitors a year take tours and watch plays performed, much the same way as they were performed over 400 years ago. I was fortunate to see a production of Julius Caesar there in 1999, I think, and I got the full "groundling" experience - standing in a light drizzly rain with no roof. Still, it was great, and I hope to get to do a tour and performance in the fall.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Back in my day, building a model of the Globe - or having your parents do it- was a sure way to get a guaranteed A on an English major project assignment and have your English teacher keep your -or your parents'- work around for years. Or you could keep it and turn it in a couple more times or pass it on. English teachers are suckers for Globe Theatre models, or at least they were.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In May 2023, journalist and literary critic Elizabeth Winkler is publishing Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature, a deep dive into the many theories surrounding Shakespeare's little-known life story, their origins, and the debates throughout history that they created. Sounds really interesting. I just pre-ordered it.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLOAs967BzKhnyvKg-0a8d-mlRz0eKZFJW0q6diLIInr2N-ZGO7Ie8Um66XAKk59Fi-ABSee87DlnyYL2UE0dOoFkQbriYyVvWK2r-MBxxSZVc_dpfNpwundlDwG12U7G4DywZA7MxMSQ2IV9cXg2SYarPxuuqzhrv4iJOIxWCY3WAdtV4YHN5Hg/s258/download%20(9).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="195" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLOAs967BzKhnyvKg-0a8d-mlRz0eKZFJW0q6diLIInr2N-ZGO7Ie8Um66XAKk59Fi-ABSee87DlnyYL2UE0dOoFkQbriYyVvWK2r-MBxxSZVc_dpfNpwundlDwG12U7G4DywZA7MxMSQ2IV9cXg2SYarPxuuqzhrv4iJOIxWCY3WAdtV4YHN5Hg/s1600/download%20(9).jpg" width="195" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Just finished Dr. Ilyon Woo's great book, Master Slave Husband Wife, the story of William and Ellen Craft, the enslaved couple who accomplished one of the most daring escapes from slavery ever made.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Just before Christmas 1848, the pair donned their disguises, Ellen as a sickly young southern gentleman on his way to see doctors in Philadelphia and William as his dutiful slave and caregiver. They boarded a train in Macon, Georgia, in the heart of the Deep South and made the week-long trip, by train and by boat, to Philadelphia, traveling incognito for a week.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">From Philadelphia, they made their way to Boston, where they soon became superstars on the abolitionist lecture circuit, but they were far from safe. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 drew slavecatchers to Boston, and their fame made them a huge target. Aided by a coalition of black and white abolitionists, they evaded capture and moved to England.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Woo tells their amazing story and also offers a deep look into the abolitionist movements in the US and the UK, their leaders, their divisions, their successes, and their failures.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Just finished Dr. Ilyon Woo's great book, Master Slave Husband Wife, the story of William and Ellen Craft, the enslaved couple who accomplished one of the most daring escapes from slavery ever made.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Their escape took them from Macon Georgia to Philadelphia to Boston and then to England, where they lived for nearly 20 years. They returned to Georgia after the Civil War.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">" They settled outside of Savannah in Bryan County, where they raised money from northern publishers and antislavery friends to purchase 1,800 acres of land. They then launched the Woodville Co-operative Farm School in 1873 for the education and employment of newly freed men and women. Scandal erupted in 1876 when some of William’s backers accused him of personally using funds intended for charitable purposes. He sued for libel to clear his name in Boston’s courts but in 1878 lost the case along with many longtime allies.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Soon after, the school at Woodville closed from lack of funding. William struggled to maintain the farm in the face of increased debt, plummeting cotton prices, and increasing anti-Black violence and legal oppression. In 1890 the Crafts moved to Charleston to live with their daughter’s family. Ellen died in 1891; William died in 1900." (New Georgia Encyclopedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">During their marriage, there were long stretches of time during which they were physically separated while William traveled throughout Africa fighting against slavery, and Ellen raised their children. They are still separated in death. William was buried in Charleston. Ellen's wish was to be buried under a favorite tree at Woodville. The location of her grave is unknown today.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Woo tells their amazing story and also offers a deep look into the abolitionist movements in the US and the UK, their leaders, their divisions, their successes, and their failures.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Just finished Dr. Ilyon Woo's great book, Master Slave Husband Wife, the story of William and Ellen Craft, the enslaved couple who accomplished one of the most daring escapes from slavery ever made.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Their escape took them from Macon Georgia to Philadelphia to Boston and then to England, where they lived for nearly 20 years. They returned to Georgia after the Civil War.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Their plans were ingenious and totally depended on Ellen's disguise. Ellen was the daughter of her mother's owner and the half-sister of his legitimate daughter, the owner from whom Ellen fled. Ellen had such light features that she could "pass" as white, indistinguishable in a group of random white women. However, that wasn't enough: a white woman could not travel alone with a male slave. So, using second-hand clothes purchased by William with his cabinet making pay and her skills as a seamstress, she created the outfit of a young well-off male planter. She wrapped her breasts down, cut her hair, and practiced male mannerisms. She also bandaged her face and applied poultices to give the impression of illness and to cover the lack of any facial hair. Finally, because she knew some ticketsellers and hotel clerks may require signatures, she wrapped her right hand and put it in a sling.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">It all worked. She even fooled a couple of men who knew her owners and had seen her before. Along the way, men took pity on the young gentleman invalid, and a couple of teenaged girls even flirted with the eligible bachelor and invited him to pay a call when he passed back their way.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Woo tells their amazing story and also offers a deep look into the abolitionist movements in the US and the UK, their leaders, their divisions, their successes, and their failures.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfwqWl4K-_qmI2XoFJyYdyiAwWqBviCTAc4ZfJfo8hY5wUrKnbag7wfSsZH9I8cW85pPVMc23X3TBmsyyoUmqi89Em2ykYIJ5w4RIUT3EFYhed_7xDD7c46H9xOFtnW7x-i7tT0StsEHPAkRWVT8KPnZCwkXzLL9XPoGry8hA0ELyyk-qTj3rl_A/s280/download%20(10).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="180" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfwqWl4K-_qmI2XoFJyYdyiAwWqBviCTAc4ZfJfo8hY5wUrKnbag7wfSsZH9I8cW85pPVMc23X3TBmsyyoUmqi89Em2ykYIJ5w4RIUT3EFYhed_7xDD7c46H9xOFtnW7x-i7tT0StsEHPAkRWVT8KPnZCwkXzLL9XPoGry8hA0ELyyk-qTj3rl_A/s1600/download%20(10).jpg" width="180" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Marcus Aurelius was born on April 26, 121 in Rome. He ruled as Emperor from 161 to 180. He was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors and the last to rule during the Pax Romana, the 200 year period of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Besides serving as Emperor and leading military campaigns, he is considered a philosopher, and his book, Meditations, laid the cornerstone of the philosophy known as Stoicism. Although he never intended to publish his writings, the autobiographical sketches and philosophical musings have been published and read ever since.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Marcus Aurelius was born on April 26, 121 in Rome. He ruled as Emperor from 161 to 180. He was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors and the last to rule during the Pax Romana, the 200 year period of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Besides serving as Emperor and leading military campaigns, he is considered a philosopher, and his book, Meditations, laid the cornerstone of the philosophy known as Stoicism. Although he never intended to publish his writings, the autobiographical sketches and philosophical musings have been published and read ever since.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Roman Empire at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180, represented in purple on this map. His annexation of lands of the Marcomanni and the Jazyges – perhaps to be provincially called Marcomannia and Sarmatia – was cut short in 175 by the revolt of Avidius Cassius and by his death. The light pink territory represents Roman dependencies: Armenia, Colchis, Iberia, and Albania.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Marcus Aurelius was born on April 26, 121 in Rome. He ruled as Emperor from 161 to 180. He was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors and the last to rule during the Pax Romana, the 200 year period of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Besides serving as Emperor and leading military campaigns, he is considered a philosopher, and his book, Meditations, laid the cornerstone of the philosophy known as Stoicism. Although he never intended to publish his writings, the autobiographical sketches and philosophical musings have been published and read ever since.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to achieve eudaimonia (happiness, lit. 'good spiritedness'): one flourishes by living an ethical life. The Stoics identified the path to eudaimonia with a life spent practicing virtue and living in accordance with nature.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century AD, and among its adherents was Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD. Since then, it has seen revivals, notably in the Renaissance (Neostoicism) and in the contemporary era (modern Stoicism)." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcll_YgtJA412b_jRAWl4uXWs5oEXSw5mzMUVUhOdtXgs5uAvM3EEllo8uwf6ZpbG0y04khDx6SdtLaJR70BX81__CZXCyQ-XJBKOm2v5MDGAAzYXsKT1x9Rvjm3_TlEcEaWgeB-S-3qyylv5yr1fJPeh6vMy3wfBvfaeMlj08e0iDcm-W_FUXRSU/s225/download%20(11).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcll_YgtJA412b_jRAWl4uXWs5oEXSw5mzMUVUhOdtXgs5uAvM3EEllo8uwf6ZpbG0y04khDx6SdtLaJR70BX81__CZXCyQ-XJBKOm2v5MDGAAzYXsKT1x9Rvjm3_TlEcEaWgeB-S-3qyylv5yr1fJPeh6vMy3wfBvfaeMlj08e0iDcm-W_FUXRSU/s1600/download%20(11).jpg" width="225" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The people of Pripyat, Ukraine, formerly USSR</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, underwent a catastrophic core reactor meltdown, making it one of the two worst nuclear accidents ( with Fukushima Japan 2011) in history.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">It happened near 1:30 a.m., but the 50,000 residents of Pripyat were not informed and went about their day oblivious to the disaster. Within hours, however, dozens of people fell ill. Still, the local and Ukranian government was told nothing for about 8 hours as the plant was under direct control of Moscow authorities. Finally, on April 27, a full evacuation was ordered to begin at 2 p.m. The evacuation was completed within 3 hours. Since 1986, the size and shape of the evacuation zone has expanded. It is now estimated that 350,000 people have been permanently resettled from their homes.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Soviet government made no official acknowledgment of the accident until 9:02 p.m. on April 28, calling it minor. They only announced it then because Swedish authorities had detected the radiation and threatened to file an official alert with the International Atomic Energy Agency.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The human toll will likely never be known with certainty. A UN committee attributed less than 100 deaths to fallout. The World Health Organization and other groups put the eventual death toll from cancer at 9,000.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">2019's Midnight in Chernobyl tells the definitive story of the accident, cover-up, and effects.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, underwent a catastrophic core reactor meltdown, making it one of the two worst nuclear accidents ( with Fukushima Japan 2011) in history. Pripyat's population of 50,000 was evacuated in 3 hours on April 27.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Pripyat was founded in 1970 as the ninth Soviet atomgrad, a type of closed Soviet city built to service a nuclear facility, but it didn't officially become a city until 1979. Technically, it was not as "closed" as other Soviet closed cities; access was not restricted because the USSR deemed nuclear power plants safe.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">You may have seen the eerie abandoned amusement park photos post-meltdown. The park was actually set to open for the first time five days after the accident, just in time for May Day Celebrations.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Things.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, underwent a catastrophic core reactor meltdown, making it one of the two worst nuclear accidents ( with Fukushima Japan 2011) in history. Pripyat's population of 50,000 was evacuated on April 27.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 2019, the HBO series Chernobyl was a huge hit (extremely powerful show even if not totally accurate), and, as a result, there was a flood of Chernobyl-related artifacts that found their way onto Ebay and other online auction and sales sites.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaunp4YbAU5N5qHhz4zC2EQERO4LI2w5wepGYF-VS4oXYRZpltcRf9ypkPY6yukbz3AV4lYV7198f7Pyd9g5_W1J2M5lVqfKjCWkgMhwxGxzmsIxiybMhvxoXFAm5pflk-vwL1SAs-o7DgrbVuyZNyIJwtWUzL0fl572iepTDcE3tkHGyneIu3MgQ/s276/images%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaunp4YbAU5N5qHhz4zC2EQERO4LI2w5wepGYF-VS4oXYRZpltcRf9ypkPY6yukbz3AV4lYV7198f7Pyd9g5_W1J2M5lVqfKjCWkgMhwxGxzmsIxiybMhvxoXFAm5pflk-vwL1SAs-o7DgrbVuyZNyIJwtWUzL0fl572iepTDcE3tkHGyneIu3MgQ/s1600/images%20(1).jpg" width="183" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKnVZyfp88WL8pVh3U9WZPio2Chq45M1961nFy08xLpqXQmlnZLIQCW6TxbX0HDokDLKx1lzmVjuPNKS94oHSj0neCAFfseAmYjc3fqduJVb_FIDvcTlEq6uQj7e2FvpDdPRzmeeUwzlnTq0G1uiJXZv4ztIMP-0y1SYynRy02Y874329-baPLG6Y/s225/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKnVZyfp88WL8pVh3U9WZPio2Chq45M1961nFy08xLpqXQmlnZLIQCW6TxbX0HDokDLKx1lzmVjuPNKS94oHSj0neCAFfseAmYjc3fqduJVb_FIDvcTlEq6uQj7e2FvpDdPRzmeeUwzlnTq0G1uiJXZv4ztIMP-0y1SYynRy02Y874329-baPLG6Y/s1600/images.jpg" width="225" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When I was a kid in the 1970s, Thor Heyerdahl was somewhat of a celebrity adventurer, author, documentary subject and maker, and frequent talk show host. He first came to fame when he set out from Peru on a raft called the Kon-Tiki on a voyage to Polynesia on April 28, 1947. His goal was to prove that long sea voyages were possible in ancient times and that ancient societies made contact with each other, diffusing culture.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Heyerdahl (1914-2002) was born in Larvik Norway and started exploring his varied interests as a boy, eventually becoming, to varying degrees, an adventurer, ethnographer, geographer, archaeologist, zoologist, and botanist.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">At the University of Oslo in the 1930s, he studied zoology and geography, and he began his own private study of Polynesia. His first "expedition," a project designed by a couple of his zoology professors, was to travel to some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had made their way there. On that expedition, he and his wife at the time lived very primitively, studied flora and fauna along with ocean currents, uncovered human artifacts, and collected oral histories. Their work inspired his theories about early contact between Polynesians and Americans and Africans and Americans.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When WWII broke out, and Germany invaded Norway, Heyerdahl joined the Norwegian Resistance movement, interrupting his studies. In 1947, he assembled a crew and built an Incan-inspired raft called the Kon-Tiki. After a 101 day voyage, the crew completed its 4,300 mile voyage across the Pacific, proving it was possible.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">While his theories about cultural origins remain controversial among anthropologists, there is growing acceptance, bolstered by DNA evidence, that ancient peoples and cultures were much more mobile and fluid than had previously been thought.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When I was a kid in the 1970s, Thor Heyerdahl was somewhat of a celebrity adventurer, author, documentary subject and maker, and frequent talk show host. He first came to fame when he set out from Peru on a raft called the Kon-Tiki on a voyage to Polynesia on April 28, 1947. His goal was to prove that long sea voyages were possible in ancient times and that ancient societies made contact with each other, diffusing culture.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Heyerdahl (1914-2002) was born in Larvik Norway and started exploring his varied interests as a boy, eventually becoming, to varying degrees, an adventurer, ethnographer, geographer, archaeologist, zoologist, and botanist.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The 1947 Kon-Tiki was based on Incan raft designs. In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats, Ra and Ra II, based on ancient Egyptian papyrus Reed boats, and sailed from Africa toward the Americas.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Heyerdahl's theory and controversy.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When I was a kid in the 1970s, Thor Heyerdahl was somewhat of a celebrity adventurer, author, documentary subject and maker, and frequent talk show host. He first came to fame when he set out from Peru on a raft called the Kon-Tiki on a voyage to Polynesia on April 28, 1947. His goal was to prove that long sea voyages were possible in ancient times and that ancient societies made contact with each other, diffusing culture.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Heyerdahl (1914-2002) was born in Larvik Norway and started exploring his varied interests as a boy, eventually becoming, to varying degrees, an adventurer, ethnographer, geographer, archaeologist, zoologist, and botanist.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">While Heyerdahl's voyages represent the height of adventure, his theories are mostly strongly disputed among anthropologists, ethnographers, archaeologists, and geographers. Most theories hold that Polynesians sailed from west to east, arriving at least as far as Easter Island (where native DNA matches Polynesian DNA) after spreading through the Pacific. Heyerdahl argued that Americans traveled in the opposite direction, settling the Pacific, aided by currents. In fact, the Kon-Tiki was intentionally built to be unsteerable.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">DNA analysis and more recent research dispute Heyerdahl's theories. Nevertheless, they are interesting, and it was that what-if aspect of history that fueled my love of history from childhood.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaNF0_VFIOhVuGoprNizh7o_8rUjmL_dIiWT45c58puUfM-iB_tLPCjcMJRvn_vHPG7unkQV6ruBY8O87RUHLspdb5yTyv2AWBZjvt0TuzKpia5T6Yw6WPg3JF8x8PWRzQZIv8z5fSUGSey59bjqXShWwU9ZTDh1SOJcL9QDEUu2n8Zq42fNvkEQ/s225/download%20(12).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaNF0_VFIOhVuGoprNizh7o_8rUjmL_dIiWT45c58puUfM-iB_tLPCjcMJRvn_vHPG7unkQV6ruBY8O87RUHLspdb5yTyv2AWBZjvt0TuzKpia5T6Yw6WPg3JF8x8PWRzQZIv8z5fSUGSey59bjqXShWwU9ZTDh1SOJcL9QDEUu2n8Zq42fNvkEQ/s1600/download%20(12).jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSj0nfM7kY3F1MuTOpEABDPzUijbSjJgqshY7NSqCASDaSqRMR34_1hdswHq2C1nk_JhrocilDj7XiZ2Cs4XtRtmQekqVBRMI34I5Hl7bfFqxstxhZDii2JRMUX541KNhy2Mo52gk_9xhgdIM7JyJ12pLOwPxe4URPDJ9MW4u9cexruFfbT1qKbuM/s225/download%20(13).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSj0nfM7kY3F1MuTOpEABDPzUijbSjJgqshY7NSqCASDaSqRMR34_1hdswHq2C1nk_JhrocilDj7XiZ2Cs4XtRtmQekqVBRMI34I5Hl7bfFqxstxhZDii2JRMUX541KNhy2Mo52gk_9xhgdIM7JyJ12pLOwPxe4URPDJ9MW4u9cexruFfbT1qKbuM/s1600/download%20(13).jpg" width="225" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJweOjh6OtD_NzeRPE136CjyILH-k099Rt2i4AtR4YoCttntLO3eA_-iOKMpGE8NC4wpZCHsLSUQpxP6_awR40XrzN_K7pMvcZ1ENi-2a2IkU-ZiPczF7ILTcOlpDgfbaC57I5appI60ZXJNgZBrJmr3oil6n-9E3hkqSoX-sehFpARIY58HHmzNc/s225/download%20(14).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJweOjh6OtD_NzeRPE136CjyILH-k099Rt2i4AtR4YoCttntLO3eA_-iOKMpGE8NC4wpZCHsLSUQpxP6_awR40XrzN_K7pMvcZ1ENi-2a2IkU-ZiPczF7ILTcOlpDgfbaC57I5appI60ZXJNgZBrJmr3oil6n-9E3hkqSoX-sehFpARIY58HHmzNc/s1600/download%20(14).jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Last night we saw a new-ish (created 2016) one -woman musical play about the life of the great Josephine Baker. If you get a chance it's a must-see.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, and gotten by the entertainment book as a young girl. As a teen, she moved to New York and found work backstage and as a fill-in performer before moving into larger roles. Approached by a French promoter, she moved to Paris and became an instant sensation, one of the most acclaimed celebrities of the time. She was the star of the Folies Bergere, singing, dancing, and acting, becoming the first black woman to star in a major motion picture in 1927.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">She was known as much for her flamboyant offstage lifestyle as for her on-stage work. She had multiple husbands and many, many lovers, male and female, famous and infamous, royal and common.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">During WWII, she served the French Resistance by smuggling documents, successfully using her celebrity to avoid searches. She used her connections to Morocco royalty to get European Jews Moroccan passports and travel documents. She gleaned secret info from Italian, Japanese, and German Embassy parties she attended. Historian Damien Lewis claims she did even more as a British spy.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Unable to have children of her own, she adopted 12 of different ethnicities after the war, calling them her "Rainbow Tribe." During her return tours to the US, she was met with segregation, death threats, the KKK, and charges of communism. She became a dedicated civil rights activist, speaking at the 1963 March on Washington. Unfortunately, her career wavered, even in France, and she was forced to accept charity from celebrities and others. Monaco's Princess Grace housed her and her children for the last decade of her life.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 8, 1975, she performed a 50th anniversary celebration of her career in Paris to wild acclaim and a 15 minute standing ovation. Four days later, she was found dead of a cerebral hemorrhage in her hotel room.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Last night we saw a new-ish (created 2016) one -woman musical play about the life of the great Josephine Baker. If you get a chance it's a must-see.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, and gotten by the entertainment book as a young girl. As a teen, she moved to New York and found work backstage and as a fill-in performer before moving into larger roles. Approached by a French promoter, she moved to Paris and became an instant sensation, one of the most acclaimed celebrities of the time. She was the star of the Folies Bergere, singing, dancing, and acting, becoming the first black woman to star in a major motion picture in 1927.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Folies Bergère (French pronunciation: [fɔ.li bɛʁ.ʒɛʁ]) is a cabaret music hall, located in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including operettas, comic opera, popular songs, and gymnastics. It became the Folies Bergère on 13 September 1872, named after nearby Rue Bergère. The house was at the height of its fame and popularity from the 1890s' Belle Époque through the 1920s.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and often nude women. In 1926, Josephine Baker, an African-American expatriate singer, dancer and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergère by dancing in a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas and little else.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The institution is still in business, and is still a strong symbol of French and Parisian life." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Last night, we saw a new-ish (created 2016) one -woman musical play about the life of the great Josephine Baker. If you get a chance it's a must-see.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, and gotten by the entertainment book as a young girl. As a teen, she moved to New York and found work backstage and as a fill-in performer before moving into larger roles. Approached by a French promoter, she moved to Paris and became an instant sensation, one of the most acclaimed celebrities of the time. She was the star of the Folies Bergere, singing, dancing, and acting, becoming the first black woman to star in a major motion picture in 1927.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In Paris, her fame exploded after she performed her "Danse Sauvage," wearing nothing but beads and a skirt made of artificial bananas.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Beyoncé performed Baker's banana dance at the Fashion Rocks concert at Radio City Music Hall in September 2006.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Writing on the 110th anniversary of her birth, Vogue described how her 1926 "danse sauvage" in her famous banana skirt "brilliantly manipulated the white male imagination" and "radically redefined notions of race and gender through style and performance in a way that continues to echo throughout fashion and music today, from Prada to Beyoncé." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvoWdjvwIh8wip5J3MwaeBFm2olh-td1xM-GSGjYlhPWFH-lz703HN0cwGPr4uXLzUjbHlXxhEtqDBVcKBjJPB751iMWp9VG9G3P5qEcoNm5-O_nnJH8oAlOA9hyMdmxxEFWi5atuojQw0W7dOZfokg0CzYxZDkv9j7goscaDiivM64B6NR-WhUI/s279/download%20(15).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvoWdjvwIh8wip5J3MwaeBFm2olh-td1xM-GSGjYlhPWFH-lz703HN0cwGPr4uXLzUjbHlXxhEtqDBVcKBjJPB751iMWp9VG9G3P5qEcoNm5-O_nnJH8oAlOA9hyMdmxxEFWi5atuojQw0W7dOZfokg0CzYxZDkv9j7goscaDiivM64B6NR-WhUI/s1600/download%20(15).jpg" width="181" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitCTHVCUgFO95sTt1YapPMHSfM1hqJ0EfDr8q4KQaibLwVN-TYxQPMON5BOghVWbJEHbnaRu3zXf7vKwXfCKxE0Pq-Fh0okfkfRCbCvIQAC_gt5F3HvmEOcCjBvmq2PGC1nYPBs3kgUELlG34p3xNaAGU7suKhtgJFVxlRI_UKPAVnCrA-wpxP3ds/s277/download%20(16).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitCTHVCUgFO95sTt1YapPMHSfM1hqJ0EfDr8q4KQaibLwVN-TYxQPMON5BOghVWbJEHbnaRu3zXf7vKwXfCKxE0Pq-Fh0okfkfRCbCvIQAC_gt5F3HvmEOcCjBvmq2PGC1nYPBs3kgUELlG34p3xNaAGU7suKhtgJFVxlRI_UKPAVnCrA-wpxP3ds/s1600/download%20(16).jpg" width="182" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRosOhOYF1KwSiVZZ_DLtYVqewV0iowVBwWC6uKyMfGwlqhcXYXJ-81xyONCHj3i2N1YFQsJutQvC3RG1JwyVTbc382l2uljVU157p_848OJnHPcinjoZFzwygXYXN14wJ88DwABIyF-_pYg3oJnBnY851bBjWdaI3m2kMFz3qg_PCUR0M6CJ6rGw/s279/download%20(17).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="180" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRosOhOYF1KwSiVZZ_DLtYVqewV0iowVBwWC6uKyMfGwlqhcXYXJ-81xyONCHj3i2N1YFQsJutQvC3RG1JwyVTbc382l2uljVU157p_848OJnHPcinjoZFzwygXYXN14wJ88DwABIyF-_pYg3oJnBnY851bBjWdaI3m2kMFz3qg_PCUR0M6CJ6rGw/s1600/download%20(17).jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">April 26, 2023, was the 90th birthday of the greatest performer in the history of television, Carol Burnett. (Let's face it, even the work of her great friend and mentor Lucille Ball, who died on April 26, 1989, just doesn't hold up in comparison the way Carol's does.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On her birthday, NBC aired one of the greatest specials ever made to honor her, and they are re-airing it tonight at 7 pm. Set your DVR. A longer version is also available on the Peacock platform. It should be required viewing wherever there is a screen.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I'm going to assume that Histocrats followers have the intelligence, taste, and good sense to know all about her bio. She's published multiple memoirs, and the same stories have been told hundreds of times. She's worked in all media for decades, excelling in all, and she continues to work at 90, having just wrapped a new series, Palm Royale, which will stream on Apple+ soon.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">April 26, 2023, was the 90th birthday of the greatest performer in the history of television, Carol Burnett. (Let's face it, even the work of her great friend and mentor Lucille Ball, who died on April 26, 1989, just doesn't hold up in comparison the way Carol's does.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On her birthday, NBC aired one of the greatest specials ever made to honor her, and they are re-airing it tonight at 7 pm. Set your DVR. A longer version is also available on the Peacock platform. It should be required viewing wherever there is a screen.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Everyone knows that Carol's escape from a less-than-ideal childhood was spending an afternoon in a movie theater, usually with her grandmother. The movies inspired many of the great parodies that were a big part of her TV show each week.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">As a teen, she got a job at a Hollywood movie theater as an usherette. In 1975, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She made a special request that it be located at 6439 Hollywood Blvd, in front of the Hollywood Pacific Theatre, formerly the Warner Hollywood Theatre, where she was fired from a job as an usherette in 1951. Why was she fired? She had the audacity to tell two patrons that they should wait 10 minutes until the movie "Strangers On A Train" was over before entering so that they ending wouldn't be spoiled.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">April 26, 2023, was the 90th birthday of the greatest performer in the history of television, Carol Burnett. (Let's face it, even the work of her great friend and mentor Lucille Ball, who died on April 26, 1989, just doesn't hold up in comparison the way Carol's does.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On her birthday, NBC aired one of the greatest specials ever made to honor her, and they are re-airing it tonight at 7 pm. Set your DVR. A longer version is also available on the Peacock platform. It should be required viewing wherever there is a screen.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Everyone knows that Carol's escape from a less-than-ideal childhood was spending an afternoon in a movie theater, usually with her grandmother. The movies inspired many of the great parodies that were a big part of her TV show each week.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">That part of her life also played a role in her featured part of The Twilight Zone episode "Cavender is Coming" in 1962, season 3, episode 36. She plays a theater usherette named Agnes Grep. Cavender is somewhat of a bumbling angel who tries to improve her life and earn his wings. The episode was supposed to be a pilot for a new series following the hapless angel's adventures, but it didn't go anywhere. I'm not sure if Carol's character would have been in the series or not. Guessing not.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsM-zdWBWaBoHbzJm5VokI3V921g-nV7Zr5eQJAkVK7v8cK2f2Zgyluww6aw6qjOKaj2LH_GktAdCdHggbbkivZlMVmcyIU1-OI1bLQQtcsk8c0bBhSt2UCU5MsIIzQPIOjxHGSbCoNVQqBb-RPtPYfqEoa8fmYzKGxTECxyUVyZmjQljx4xXKAiM/s286/download%20(18).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="176" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsM-zdWBWaBoHbzJm5VokI3V921g-nV7Zr5eQJAkVK7v8cK2f2Zgyluww6aw6qjOKaj2LH_GktAdCdHggbbkivZlMVmcyIU1-OI1bLQQtcsk8c0bBhSt2UCU5MsIIzQPIOjxHGSbCoNVQqBb-RPtPYfqEoa8fmYzKGxTECxyUVyZmjQljx4xXKAiM/s1600/download%20(18).jpg" width="176" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On May 1. 1961, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Harper Lee for To Kill A Mockingbird, definitely among my top 5 favorite novels of all time, probably top 2.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Harper Lee (1926-2016) may well be remembered as American literatures greatest one-hit-wonder. (I refuse to consider the so-called "sequel," published without her permission by greedy caretakers out for a buck.) She was born and died in Monroeville Alabama and based the story of Mockingbird an event in Monroeville in 1936, when she was 10, and the characters on her family and neighbors.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">She had two older sisters but grew up with a brother closer to her age and future writer Truman Capote, who spent several summers in Monroeville as a child. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father was a former newspaper editor, a lawyer, and a state legislator. Her father desperately wanted her to study law, but she discovered a love of literature in high school instead. Being a dutiful daughter, she studied law at the University of Alabama, but she left, one semester short of a degree.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">She moved to New York in 1949, took odd jobs, and wrote in her spare time. In 1957, she submitted Go Set A Watchman, that book which should never have been published, to the J.B. Lippincott Company, which bought it but decided it was unpublishable and needed a lot of work. She reworked it into Mockingbird, and it was published in 1960. Contrary to its marketing, then, Watchman was the unpublishable first draft of Mockingbird, not a sequel.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Mockingbird instantly became a bestseller and made Lee a very reluctant and surprised celebrity. To date, over 40 million copies are in print.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On May 1. 1961, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Harper Lee for To Kill A Mockingbird, definitely among my top 5 favorite novels of all time, probably top 2.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Harper Lee (1926-2016) may well be remembered as American literatures greatest one-hit-wonder. (I refuse to consider the so-called "sequel," published without her permission by greedy caretakers out for a buck.) She was born and died in Monroeville Alabama and based the story of Mockingbird an event in Monroeville in 1936, when she was 10, and the characters on her family and neighbors.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Monroeville is known as the hometown of two prominent writers of the post-World War II period, Truman Capote and Harper Lee, who were childhood friends in the 1930s. Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird earned her the Pulitzer Prize. The lasting fame of To Kill a Mockingbird became a tourist draw for the town. In 1997, the Alabama Legislature designated Monroeville and Monroe County as the "Literary Capital of Alabama". Monroeville is also the home of Walter McMillian, who was defended by Bryan Stevenson in overturning a wrongful conviction and featured in his memoir Just Mercy (2014), as well as the 2019 eponymous movie adaptation. Monroeville is also the birthplace of Cynthia Tucker, born March 13, 1955, an American journalist whose weekly column is syndicated by Universal Uclick. She received a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2007 for her work at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she served as editorial page editor. She was also a Pulitzer finalist in 2004 and 2006." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On May 1. 1961, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Harper Lee for To Kill A Mockingbird, definitely among my top 5 favorite novels of all time, probably top 2.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Harper Lee (1926-2016) may well be remembered as American literatures greatest one-hit-wonder. (I refuse to consider the so-called "sequel," published without her permission by greedy caretakers out for a buck.) She was born and died in Monroeville Alabama and based the story of Mockingbird an event in Monroeville in 1936, when she was 10, and the characters on her family and neighbors.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Pulitzer Prize is an award administered by Columbia University for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher. Prizes are awarded annually in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$15,000 cash award (raised from $10,000 in 2017). The winner in the public service category is awarded a gold medal." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQ5ZoBZbNn_tbhDkuNTumJyDzIOII6a5ve-rBaXpV_QaHYU7bUQJR288ty-09SdE55ayavxi6Nw153MU9otWCBWEy8IjH3q1tdGC14utsPREb0JSswQ0LiNUIys-Pgz6GSEWcBu2Y1EaxP1z-hS0eEvWqM9Wknj2nkqWCJy7bxUPRtKza8K0HBzI/s289/download%20(19).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="174" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQ5ZoBZbNn_tbhDkuNTumJyDzIOII6a5ve-rBaXpV_QaHYU7bUQJR288ty-09SdE55ayavxi6Nw153MU9otWCBWEy8IjH3q1tdGC14utsPREb0JSswQ0LiNUIys-Pgz6GSEWcBu2Y1EaxP1z-hS0eEvWqM9Wknj2nkqWCJy7bxUPRtKza8K0HBzI/s1600/download%20(19).jpg" width="174" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWq8A3YUa9lQr4fKnNbjmpD7xE26QhleqhQBevnuD0BPbXLU3_VMsOeCJIYq223jin7cKVbD6TAbPipKCRk-OkADT4smIabW6y7oKlKSHMgGI1quuTOaFfX_V81G442Xc_cn_-WKhcXcwgCAuJDIdIR-9gh1SiM9H26SYFkMv-HL346xh4F0GZHsM/s280/download%20(20).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="180" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWq8A3YUa9lQr4fKnNbjmpD7xE26QhleqhQBevnuD0BPbXLU3_VMsOeCJIYq223jin7cKVbD6TAbPipKCRk-OkADT4smIabW6y7oKlKSHMgGI1quuTOaFfX_V81G442Xc_cn_-WKhcXcwgCAuJDIdIR-9gh1SiM9H26SYFkMv-HL346xh4F0GZHsM/s1600/download%20(20).jpg" width="180" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock was born on May 2, 1903 and died in 1998. In 1946, he published Baby and Child Care, which went on to sell 50 million copies by his death and became one of the top most influential and famous books of the 20th century.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand children's needs and family dynamics. His ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children and to treat them as individuals. However, his theories were also widely criticized by colleagues for relying too heavily on anecdotal evidence rather than serious academic research. After undergoing a self-described "conversion to socialism", Spock became an activist in the New Left and anti-Vietnam War movements during the 1960s and early 1970s, culminating in his run for President of the United States as the People's Party nominee in 1972. He campaigned on a maximum wage, legalized abortion, and withdrawing troops from all foreign countries. At the time, his books were criticized by conservatives for propagating permissiveness and an expectation of instant gratification, a charge that Spock denied." " (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock was born on May 2, 1903 and died in 1998. In 1946, he published Baby and Child Care, which went on to sell 50 million copies by his death and became one of the top most influential and famous books of the 20th century.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He took up competitive rowing while attending Yale. In 1924, Spock was part of the all-Yale Men's eight rowing team at the Paris Olympics, captained by James Rockefeller, later president of what would become Citigroup. Competing on the Seine, they won the gold medal.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock was born on May 2, 1903 and died in 1998. In 1946, he published Baby and Child Care, which went on to sell 50 million copies by his death and became one of the top most influential and famous books of the 20th century.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Spock became a political activist running as the People Party's presidential candidate in 1972 and vice-presidential candidate in 1976.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The People's Party was a political party in the United States, founded in 1971 by various individuals and state and local political parties, including the Peace and Freedom Party, Commongood People's Party, Country People's Caucus, Human Rights Party, Liberty Union, New American Party, New Party (Arizona), and No Party. The party's goal was to present a united anti-war platform for the coming election.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The People's Party fielded candidates for the presidency two times. First in U.S. presidential election, 1972 with Dr. Benjamin Spock (an American pediatrician and author of parenting books) as their candidate. The party also contested the U.S. presidential election, 1976. The presidential candidate this time was Margaret Wright. Dr. Spock was the Party's candidate for vice president.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After the election, the party moved to become a loose coalition, but was soon defunct, with most of its founding parties also dissolved." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOAZN-zRSwI_y14PRgfBbdNYgV2zj7bjaEQh0WZbYXg-SxQvoe7WgdY3w75shqa6EeV4E9R0O0KQmF8KPRhPYcZYPKJz3kRSpMZ065p-J8UtqZ3phzQHoTDzzmTFut11Eedv1mtlfr6zLQBhO66kQZ339S-JaDheIEAERB6y7AxWpk3py6ckW_VE/s277/download%20(21).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOAZN-zRSwI_y14PRgfBbdNYgV2zj7bjaEQh0WZbYXg-SxQvoe7WgdY3w75shqa6EeV4E9R0O0KQmF8KPRhPYcZYPKJz3kRSpMZ065p-J8UtqZ3phzQHoTDzzmTFut11Eedv1mtlfr6zLQBhO66kQZ339S-JaDheIEAERB6y7AxWpk3py6ckW_VE/s1600/download%20(21).jpg" width="182" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvWwZBamG16xk1ZZWoDMFFy1CZ0009OnsTqSgcRpHjdAeTpcSZPCjMDEb32FOH4MOYYYfqD1rUyccrU86RImyrEU0FgStLr1TLtnHMF7RmEiWAZpYpBKqMseqwQWvA-2bN8C14yiNeQEdFMOGqmjpFJtC7LI9erPycq4UuLU8b5Kzgd3Q8CamXM6k/s1258/Screenshot%202023-05-18%20143831.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1186" data-original-width="1258" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvWwZBamG16xk1ZZWoDMFFy1CZ0009OnsTqSgcRpHjdAeTpcSZPCjMDEb32FOH4MOYYYfqD1rUyccrU86RImyrEU0FgStLr1TLtnHMF7RmEiWAZpYpBKqMseqwQWvA-2bN8C14yiNeQEdFMOGqmjpFJtC7LI9erPycq4UuLU8b5Kzgd3Q8CamXM6k/s320/Screenshot%202023-05-18%20143831.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On May 3, 1937, Margaret Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind. She and Harper Lee have a lot in common: Pulitzers, one-hit wonders, writing hugely popular bestsellers considered to be quintessential stories of the Deep South, born to prominent families, daughters of attorneys..</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta in 1900. Her father was an attorney, and her mother was a suffragist. Her Scottish paternal ancestors settled in the area decades before the American Revolution, among the very first white settlers. Her grandfather made a large fortune in lumber following the Civil War.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Margaret learned about the Civil War from overhearing visiting former Confederate soldiers. She was stunned and flabbergasted at age 10 when she first learned that the South had lost the war. She became an avid reader and storyteller as a child, preferring adventure stories favored by boys. She read Civil War romances and books by Thomas Dixon, the author of The Clansman, the inspiration for The Birth of a Nation movie and for the reborn Ku Klux Klan, books that glorified "Lost Cause" ideology and heroic white saviors rescuing and rebuilding the white victimized South.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 1922, she got a job writing features for The Atlanta Journal newspaper. She tried her hand at writing three novels, only one of which was submitted to a publisher - and rejected. In May of 1926, she began writing Gone With the Wind. An editor for MacMillan read it in 1935 and agreed to publish it. Publication came in June of 1936. The rest, as they say, is history.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Mitchell was struck by a speeding, drunk, and reckless motorist as she and her husband crossed the street in Atlanta on August 11. 1949, and she died five days later.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On May 3, 1937, Margaret Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind. She and Harper Lee have a lot in common: Pulitzers, one-hit wonders, writing hugely popular bestsellers considered to be quintessential stories of the Deep South, born to prominent families, daughters of attorneys.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta in 1900. Tara, the fictional O'Hara plantation home in the book and movie, was inspired by several antebellum homes in the Atlanta area in her childhood, including Rural Home, the plantation on which her maternal grandmother was raised. Rural Home and Stately Oaks, another inspiration, were located in Clayton County, just south of Atlanta. Rural Home no longer stands, but Stately Oaks, built in 1839, is still operated as an historic home and site.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The fictional Wilkes family home of Twelve Oaks was located in Clayton County in the book, but its movie inspiration Twelve Oaks is an actual house east of Atlanta in Covington, Georgia. Today, it is a bed and breakfast.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The movie Gone With the Wind was filmed entirely on soundstsges in California, but the Covington Twelve Oaks has been used as a location for numerous movies and tv shows.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On May 3, 1937, Margaret Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind. She and Harper Lee have a lot in common: Pulitzers, one-hit wonders, writing hugely popular bestsellers considered to be quintessential stories of the Deep South, born to prominent families, daughters of attorneys.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">This rare first edition of Margaret Mitchell’s "Gone with the Wind" was used to conceal a .32-caliber pistol.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to a report dated September 24, 1941, the Phoenix Division sent the gun to the Laboratory Division for examination after receiving it from the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office. Firearms examiners compared test bullets and cartridge cases from the gun to similar samples but could not identify the weapon or match it to other evidence.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Published in 1936, this copy of the book resides in the Laboratory Division’s Reference Firearms Collection in Quantico, Virginia—the gun housed in its 1,037 pages.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Created in 1933, the Reference Firearms Collection contains more than 7,000 firearms as well as accessories like magazines and suppressors and even grenade and rocket launchers. It is a reference catalog of guns our examiners can study, disassemble, reassemble, and test fire to support investigations.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-73319309152175133352023-05-18T14:09:00.001-04:002023-05-18T14:09:46.681-04:00Person, Place, and Thing: April 15-22<p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4O7VEeQFbynqn4B3KrwVI5DZD3MGfT0LLRsIP67vXapGe15gO0V3sGZJAOjccEuUR0XExg_eLjhsETNCPpyD7_7M067786o9C3x5rcJGputDAe7Ge8O_3CSIOb0fiS_4RjRBvNr0F2nXBGqPrOdEf8zTM4sWHIeYCKeNWwGuk2mPPUEjk_E4tzE8/s456/md31296871021_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4O7VEeQFbynqn4B3KrwVI5DZD3MGfT0LLRsIP67vXapGe15gO0V3sGZJAOjccEuUR0XExg_eLjhsETNCPpyD7_7M067786o9C3x5rcJGputDAe7Ge8O_3CSIOb0fiS_4RjRBvNr0F2nXBGqPrOdEf8zTM4sWHIeYCKeNWwGuk2mPPUEjk_E4tzE8/s320/md31296871021_3.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was first published in London on April 15, 1755.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Johnson (1709-1784) was a poet, playwright, essayist, critic, editor, and biographer who was approached in 1746 by a group of London booksellers to create a better dictionary. He agreed to 3 years work for £1500 (£260,000 today), but it took 7 years. Working singlehandedly, he produced what was considered the preeminent English dictionary for nearly 200 years. It has been called "one of the greatest singlehandedly achievements of scholarship."</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He displayed great intelligence as a child, and he also began to develop uncontrollable tics and gesticulations and startling grunts, groans, and whistles that have led to a posthumous diagnosis of Tourette's Syndrome. Many people wrote about his tics after meeting him: some wrote that their mistaken first impression was that he was an "idiot" (used as a medical term at tge tome).His schooling almost ended at about 16 because his bookseller father was deep in debt, but an inheritance from his mother's cousin allowed him to go to university. In the interim, he worked and read in his father's shop.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After completing his Dictionary, he achieved quite a lot of acclaim and produced a great body of work. However, his slow work pace and failure to make deadlines caused him constant troubles and debts. Besides his probable depression and Tourette's, he had many bouts of ill health in his life, including childhood tuberculosis which left him partially deaf and blind, gout, testicular cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, hypertension, and a stroke in his final year that left him unable to speak.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was first published in London on April 15, 1755.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Johnson (1709-1784) was a poet, playwright, essayist, critic, editor, and biographer who was approached in 1746 by a group of London booksellers to create a better dictionary. He agreed to 3 years work for £1500 (£260,000 today), but it took 7 years. Working singlehandedly, he produced what was considered the preeminent English dictionary for nearly 200 years. It has been called "one of the greatest singlehandedly achievements of scholarship."</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Johnson was buried in Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey is the final resting place of 30 kings and queens and about 3000 other important figures in British history, science, litera, and the arts.. The first king to be buried at Westminster Abbey was Edward the Confessor in the year 1066. It's a must-visit for any London visitor.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In the south transept of Westminster Abbey is the grave of Dr Johnson. He lies just in front of Shakespeare's memorial. The inscription in brass letters reads:</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D Obiit XIII die Decembris Anno Domini MDCCLXXXIV Aetatis suae LXXV</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">which can be translated:</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Samuel Johnson, Doctor of Laws, died 13 December in the year 1784, aged 75.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Above the grave is an 18th century bust by sculptor Joseph Nollekens, which was presented to the Abbey in 1939 by G.H. Tite. It just has the name JOHNSON at the base. In 1790 the Dean and Chapter had given permission for the erection of a monument to Johnson but this was never actually put up (a statue was erected at St Paul's cathedral in 1796 and this might have been the monument which had been intended for the Abbey).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was first published in London on April 15, 1755.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Johnson (1709-1784) was a poet, playwright, essayist, critic, editor, and biographer who was approached in 1746 by a group of London booksellers to create a better dictionary. He agreed to 3 years work for £1500 (£260,000 today), but it took 7 years. Working singlehandedly, he produced what was considered the preeminent English dictionary for nearly 200 years. It has been called "one of the greatest singlehandedly achievements of scholarship."</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">" A Dictionary of the English Language was somewhat large and very expensive. Its pages were 18 inches (46 cm) tall and nearly 20 inches (51 cm) wide. The paper was of the finest quality available, the cost of which ran to nearly £1,600; more than Johnson had been paid to write the book. Johnson himself pronounced the book "Vasta mole superbus" ("Proud in its great bulk"). No bookseller could possibly hope to print this book without help; outside a few special editions of the Bible, no book of this heft and size had ever been set to type.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">This first edition of the dictionary contained a 42,773-word list, to which only a few more were added in subsequent editions. One of Johnson's important innovations was to illustrate the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there are around 114,000. The authors most frequently cited by Johnson include Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Unlike most modern lexicographers, Johnson introduced humor or prejudice into quite a number of his definitions. Among the best-known are:</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Excise: a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid"</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words"</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people" " (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1iq44LrDIvBQUtvadAe81ZiJdx0RCe1PPFBGZmfWNyAf7tLKX0C2bxmGhMcZmjVfpU2l6KHZpqyD8BDHe7N6OovqMZO7BXNccSq3lpKiEGMTBZdcl98UQRfnRd5T7xHDI1E92ZTq-e58mo72vuz4Lwo13j9nGFW2atlbENrRQ1TmrDEGI5Owbnx0/s278/download%20(7).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1iq44LrDIvBQUtvadAe81ZiJdx0RCe1PPFBGZmfWNyAf7tLKX0C2bxmGhMcZmjVfpU2l6KHZpqyD8BDHe7N6OovqMZO7BXNccSq3lpKiEGMTBZdcl98UQRfnRd5T7xHDI1E92ZTq-e58mo72vuz4Lwo13j9nGFW2atlbENrRQ1TmrDEGI5Owbnx0/s1600/download%20(7).jpg" width="181" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 16, 1945, US troops liberated Colditz Castle, which had been converted by the Germans into a high security POW camp for high-ranking and "difficult" Allied POWs who had demonstrated strong resistance and who were deemed major escape risks. Despite being high-security, and perhaps due to the type of prisoners it held, Colditz had one of the highest escape attempt records of any POW camp. Ben MacIntyre's 2022 book tells the story of the Colditz prisoners.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Among the many notable officers interned at Colditz were</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">1. Desmond Llewellyn, who went on to become an actor and was famous for playing spymaster Q in 17 James Bond films</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">2. Pat Reid, one of the first 6 British officers in the castle, transferred there after a failed attempt at another camp, wrote several books and served as technical advisor on films about Colditz,</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">3. Josef Bryks, a Czech pilot who had made three escapes and taken in part in the legendary "Great Escape" before being sent to Colditz,</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">4. Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, the head of the Polish Underground Army</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 16, 1945, US troops liberated Colditz Castle, which had been converted by the Germans into a high security POW camp for high-ranking and "difficult" Allied POWs who had demonstrated strong resistance and who were deemed major escape risks. Despite being high-security, and perhaps due to the type of prisoners it held, Colditz had one of the highest escape attempt records of any POW camp. Ben MacIntyre's 2022 book tells the story of the Colditz prisoners.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The first documented settlement at the Colditz Castle site was around 1046. A formal castle, or schloss, was constructed in the 1400s. During the 15th and 16th centuries, it was reconstructed and remodeled numerous times, often after fires. It became the royal residence of the electors of Saxony.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"After the outbreak of World War II, the castle was converted into a high security prisoner-of-war camp for officers who had become security or escape risks or who were regarded as particularly dangerous. Since the castle is situated on a rocky outcrop above the River Mulde, the Germans believed it to be an ideal site for a high security prison.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The larger outer court in front of the Kommandantur (commander's offices) had only two exits and housed a large German garrison. The prisoners lived in an adjacent courtyard in a 90 ft (27 m) tall building. Outside, the flat terraces which surrounded the prisoners' accommodation were watched constantly by armed sentries and surrounded by barbed wire. The prison was named Oflag IV-C (officer prison camp 4C) and was operated by the Wehrmacht." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 16, 1945, US troops liberated Colditz Castle, which had been converted by the Germans into a high security POW camp for high-ranking and "difficult" Allied POWs who had demonstrated strong resistance and who were deemed major escape risks. Despite being high-security, and perhaps due to the type of prisoners it held, Colditz had one of the highest escape attempt records of any POW camp. Ben MacIntyre's 2022 book tells the story of the Colditz prisoners.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"One escape scheme even included a glider, the Colditz Cock, that was built and kept in a remote portion of the castle's attic during the winter of 1944–45. The glider was never used, as the camp was liberated not long after its completion. However, after liberation, the glider was brought down from the hidden workshop to the attic below and assembled for the prisoners to see. It was at this time that the only known photograph of the glider was taken. For some time after the war the glider was regarded as either a myth or tall story, as there was no solid proof that the glider had existed and Colditz was then in the Soviet Occupation Zone. Bill Goldfinch, however, took home the drawings he had made when designing the glider, and when the single photograph finally surfaced, the story was taken seriously.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">During 1999, a full-sized replica of the glider was commissioned by Channel 4 Television in the UK and was built by Southdown Aviation Ltd. at Lasham Airfield, closely following Goldfinch's drawings. Watched by several of the former prisoners of war who worked on the original, it was test flown at RAF Odiham during 2000. The escape plan could have worked.[4] In 2012, Channel 4 commissioned a team of engineers and carpenters to build another full-sized replica of the glider at Colditz Castle, and launch it (unmanned) from the same roof as had been planned for the original. The radio-controlled replica made it safely across the river and landed in a meadow 180 metres below." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPAXDpxpt8tMcZwrkP1IRkKdulLR8JCiTjbLM0yua4ZFM7wgX-onXCjbp3d1X1RWjkVFgFMhsSQzh40TzZbQGZRfHpmb-fSS_SRG0QhhWLdifpUe8OaQkWWzWpZdY_99YyQB53YW8JdcqU15pD2QAaLCQYH5DHGth7vBm7LCudjjhVsvlL4nm0os/s257/download%20(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="196" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPAXDpxpt8tMcZwrkP1IRkKdulLR8JCiTjbLM0yua4ZFM7wgX-onXCjbp3d1X1RWjkVFgFMhsSQzh40TzZbQGZRfHpmb-fSS_SRG0QhhWLdifpUe8OaQkWWzWpZdY_99YyQB53YW8JdcqU15pD2QAaLCQYH5DHGth7vBm7LCudjjhVsvlL4nm0os/s1600/download%20(6).jpg" width="196" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to scholars, the characters of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales began their pilgrimage to Canterbury on April 17, 1387. Chaucer first told his Tales at the court of King Richard II on April 17, 1397.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Chaucer (1340s-1400) was an English, poet, author, astronomer, philosopher, courtier, diplomat, civil servant, and member of Parliament called the "Father of English literature." He was the first writer to be buried in Poets' Corner of London's Westminster Abbey.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">His father was a wine merchant, descended from a line of vintners, and his mother inherited money and 24 London properties from her uncle, making for a relatively comfortable upbringing. He became a nobleman page as a teen, an apprenticeship to knighthood or courtly appointments. As a young adult, he traveled extensively across Europe as a soldier, a messenger, and a royal valet. In Italy, he was introduced to Italian poetry and the work of Petrarch and Boccaccio in particular, which had a great impact on his own work. It is thought that his real writing talent was first rewarded by Edward III, who granted him "a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life," perhaps a precursor to the position of Poet Laureate.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is considered to be a transformative work in English literature and in the English language itself, often considered to be the first great work in the English vernacular, that is everyday language, tradition.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I fondly remember reading several of the Tales in Mr. Turner's senior British Lit class and writing my term paper on "The Miller's Tale."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to scholars, the characters of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales began their pilgrimage to Canterbury on April 17, 1387. Chaucer first told his Tales at the court of King Richard II on April 17, 1397.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Canterbury Cathedral became a pilgrimage site following the 1170 murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket by four knights who thought their action would please King Henry II, with whom Becket had numerous clashes.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The income from pilgrims (such as those portrayed in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) who visited Becket's shrine, which was regarded as a place of healing, largely paid for the subsequent rebuilding of the cathedral and its associated buildings. This revenue included the profits from the sale of pilgrim badges depicting Becket, his martyrdom, or his shrine.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The shrine was removed in 1538. King Henry VIII summoned the dead saint to court to face charges of treason. Having failed to appear, he was found guilty in his absence and the treasures of his shrine were confiscated, carried away in two coffers and 26 carts." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Today, it is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to scholars, the characters of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales began their pilgrimage to Canterbury on April 17, 1387. Chaucer first told his Tales at the court of King Richard II on April 17, 1397. The Canterbury Tales is considered an iconic piece of literature, and Chaucer is called "the Father of English literature" and the first major writer in vernacular English.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">For those of you who were not blessed to have fantastic literature teachers like I was, The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Canterbury Tales is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucer's life. In the General Prologue, some 30 pilgrims are introduced. According to the Prologue, Chaucer's intention was to write four stories from the perspective of each pilgrim, two each on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Becket's shrine (making for a total of about 120 stories). Although perhaps incomplete, The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works in English literature." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Tales showcase a variety of styles from bawdy comedy to more serious stories and characters from a variety of backgrounds, high and low, religious and secular.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5yKOpjtLbst5fG2AESUBkUCYzR7AgNyqm8eUUuBoTeMtE_LUeAfoCDpwJiUsJkmxJS_IauQXiUOTharRHgK6T62oDra3AQ2q4VYuqwztykyB_DgV2geOppWPzkxCM16NY9cV8xt9C7q7v2ozWoGBCIsD8ZO6t2DSobhvy5U4BXf7NrffhXxH0V0/s225/download%20(5).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5yKOpjtLbst5fG2AESUBkUCYzR7AgNyqm8eUUuBoTeMtE_LUeAfoCDpwJiUsJkmxJS_IauQXiUOTharRHgK6T62oDra3AQ2q4VYuqwztykyB_DgV2geOppWPzkxCM16NY9cV8xt9C7q7v2ozWoGBCIsD8ZO6t2DSobhvy5U4BXf7NrffhXxH0V0/s1600/download%20(5).jpg" width="225" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 18, 1943, a Japanese bomber carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was shot down by an American squadron over Bougainville in the Pacific as he was flying on an inspection tour. Yamamoto, the man who was responsible for planning and executing the attack on Pearl Harbor, was killed, striking a huge blow to the Japanese war effort.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Yamamoto had attended Harvard as a young man and served as military attaché at the Japanese embassy in Washington. He spoke fluent English and had gotten to know America well. As an early expert and proponent of naval aviation who had proven himself to be an outstanding officer, he was approached to plan a surprise attack that would cripple the US and prevent her from interfering with Japan's Pacific conquest. He was reluctant, warning that such a blow might temporarily weaken the "sleeping giant," but Japan would regret it in the end. Nevertheless, he planned the attack, which devastated the US fleet, but 6 months later, the battle of Midway foreshadowed a turnaround.Yamamoto still rose to become Japan's top admiral</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In March 1943, Americans intercepted and decoded a secret Japanese message that he was making an unusual flight. FDR ordered that his plane be targeted - a very tough decision to make: 1) It would reveal to the Japanese that the US had broken their "unbreakable" code. 2) Targeted assassination went against all American and world conventions and "rules" of war. 3) What would the Japanese do? Following APRIL 18, 1942's Doolittle Raids on Tokyo, there had been little military advantage gained for the US, but the Japanese retaliated by massacring hundreds of thousands of Chinese men, women, and children in the region of China from which the bombers had taken off and where Chinese civilians had aided the crew members who had made emergency landings on their return because they ran out of fuel.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Dan Hampton published Operation Vengeance (the real mission codename) in 2020.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 18, 1943, a Japanese bomber carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was shot down by an American squadron over Bougainville in the Pacific as he was flying on an inspection tour. Yamamoto, the man who was responsible for planning and executing the attack on Pearl Harbor, was killed, striking a huge blow to the Japanese war effort.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Between 9 March and 5 April 1942 during World War II, forces of the Empire of Japan occupied the islands of Buka (right in photo) and Bougainville (left in photo) in the South Pacific. At that time these islands were part of the Australian-administered Territory of New Guinea. A platoon of Australian commandos from the 1st Independent Company was located at Buka Airfield when the Japanese landed but did not contest the invasion.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Japanese invaded in order to construct naval and air bases to provide security for their major base at Rabaul, New Britain and to support strategic operations in the Solomon Islands. After the occupation of Buka and Bougainville, the Japanese began constructing a number of airfields across the island.The main airfields were on Buka Island, on the nearby Bonis Peninsula and at Kahili and Kieta, while naval bases were also constructed at Buin in the south and on the nearby Shortland Islands.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">These bases allowed the Japanese to conduct operations in the southern Solomon Islands and to attack the Allied lines of communication between the US and the Southwest Pacific Area." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Admiral Yamamoto's plane went down in the jungles of Bougainville. A Japanese recovery team found his body the next day.The Japanese government waited a month to announce that he had died in a glorious air battle and to hold his state funeral.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Allied forces landed on Buka and Bougainville in November of 1943, and fighting continued until August of 1945.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Dan Hampton published Operation Vengeance (the real mission codename) in 2020.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 18, 1943, a Japanese bomber carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was shot down by an American squadron over Bougainville in the Pacific as he was flying on an inspection tour. Yamamoto, the man who was responsible for planning and executing the attack on Pearl Harbor, was killed, striking a huge blow to the Japanese war effort.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American intelligence agencies had successfully intercepted and decoded Japanese secret messages through a program codenamed "Magic." Magic was set up to combine the US government's cryptologic capabilities in one organization dubbed the Research Bureau. Intelligence officers from the Army and Navy (and later civilian experts and technicians) were all under one roof. Although they worked on a series of codes and cyphers, their most important successes involved RED, BLUE, and PURPLE. The RED stage of decryption used a stolen WWI-era Japanese navy code book to decipher Japanese messages. BLUE refers to the updated code put into place by the Japanese in 1930 and decoded by 1932. Following the formation of the German - Japanese alliance, the Germans supplied Enigma machines to the Japanese to facilitate communication between the two allies. The Japanese began using them in 1940, and, in 1942, the US was successfully decrypting them.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Dan Hampton published Operation Vengeance (the real mission codename) in 2020.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoodb0QGyJFEyP1nd-Zy4FMXwLyd5-N8fWNE_KJhQSMbmYKq2b5BuvQkWJMNF-EexzOJv8_flcB5kXCiMaCjyab8iSazMBiqCdW3wHHb6MKXELdgYYe6e4ID2ZTEaYenl1Ib-tWnEqL6mpZ19TaoP2JznoN0R5laHR9lWc9E2SoexAyVIQwz0Oc6g/s278/download%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoodb0QGyJFEyP1nd-Zy4FMXwLyd5-N8fWNE_KJhQSMbmYKq2b5BuvQkWJMNF-EexzOJv8_flcB5kXCiMaCjyab8iSazMBiqCdW3wHHb6MKXELdgYYe6e4ID2ZTEaYenl1Ib-tWnEqL6mpZ19TaoP2JznoN0R5laHR9lWc9E2SoexAyVIQwz0Oc6g/s1600/download%20(3).jpg" width="181" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAkuK2Tc9UN2bC7cavW2vJR0lB0wkBq5LQKUca1-TIipO6DVM2MS86mrsVrPG-WLxT4CCSM_woySO7brZPxPnXe3VJquqbBzEVdjmnI17hcvdqliTUZmxtWc301p0X8SJL4LMViCl73TVDGoLb1UMLsdu4y-bS6wFls3kQ77lNwuIRavROv1_9XU/s269/download%20(4).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="187" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAkuK2Tc9UN2bC7cavW2vJR0lB0wkBq5LQKUca1-TIipO6DVM2MS86mrsVrPG-WLxT4CCSM_woySO7brZPxPnXe3VJquqbBzEVdjmnI17hcvdqliTUZmxtWc301p0X8SJL4LMViCl73TVDGoLb1UMLsdu4y-bS6wFls3kQ77lNwuIRavROv1_9XU/s1600/download%20(4).jpg" width="187" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 19, 1785, the American Revolution commenced as Massachusetts militiamen clashed with British regulars at Lexington and Concord. Silversmith, revolutionary, and founding father ( almost literally: the father of 16 children himself) Paul Revere was arrested while attempting to alert the countryside that British troops were on the march.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Revere was immortalized by Longfellow's poem, written nearly a hundred years later in 1861. The poem was intentionally inaccurate and lionized Revere for all the wrong reasons, resulting in his many real accomplishments being overlooked.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">First of all, he was only one of 40 or more riders who raised the alarm that night. He NEVER yelled "The British are Coming!" He announced, not necessarily loudly, "The Regulars are coming out." He was captured rather quickly and immediately told the British that they would be met by armed men at Lexington before being released. After his release, he walked to the house where John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two of the British targets, were and helped them escape along with their papers.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Before Lexington, Revere was known as the one of the most skilled silversmiths in the colonies. When his business began to suffer due to the British economic policies toward the colonies of the 1760s, he became an ardent revolutionary, joining the Sons of Liberty. He knew the ringleaders of the insurrection well, and he created the Boston Massacre engraving that became a major piece of patriot propaganda. He was one of the leaders of the Boston Tea Party, and, by 1774, he was one of 30 "mechanics," a group of Bostonians who made it their job to disseminate information about British actions and movements. During the war, he served in the militia.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Revere continued political involvement throughout his life following the Revolution. He also became an extremely successful entrepreneur, greatly expanding his work and wealth, while making innovations that led to more standardized and efficient.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 19, 1785, the American Revolution commenced as Massachusetts militiamen clashed with British regulars at Lexington and Concord. Silversmith, revolutionary, and founding father ( almost literally: the father of 16 children himself) Paul Revere was arrested while attempting to alert the countryside that British troops were on the march.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Among the many interesting sites to visit in Boston is Paul Revere's house.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The three-story house was built around 1680 and is the oldest house in Boston. Paul Revere and his family lived there from 1770 to 1800.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After Revere sold the house, it became a tenement with its ground floor remodeled for use as shops, including at various times a candy store, cigar factory, bank, and a vegetable and fruit business. In 1902, Revere's great-grandson, John P. Reynolds Jr. purchased the building to prevent demolition, and restoration took place. In April 1908, the Paul Revere House opened its doors to the public as one of the earliest historic house museums in the United States.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A National Historic Landmark since 1961, it is located at 19 North Square, Boston, Massachusetts, in the city's North End, and is now operated as a nonprofit museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Revolutionary Paul Revere and Why Longfellow Lied (children's book) are recently published books which may be of interest.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 19, 1785, the American Revolution commenced as Massachusetts militiamen clashed with British regulars at Lexington and Concord. Silversmith, revolutionary, and founding father ( almost literally: the father of 16 children himself) Paul Revere was arrested while attempting to alert the countryside that British troops were on the march.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 1860, the US seemed destined for self-destruction, and the prospect of war loomed. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow hoped to do what he could to help matters. He wrote a series of poems celebrating great men and great events of American history in an attempt to inspire fellow Americans to remember their heroic forebears and their heroic deeds so that they might work to keep the country united. He did a great deal of research on Paul Revere, but he then made up a new set of "facts" to meet his goal of creating an uplifting and entertaining patriotic poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. "</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Revolutionary Paul Revere and Why Longfellow Lied (children's book) are recently published books which may be of interest.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAnojzquy4aNbAQ0j9xWZLjdHsasI0bH0BwPzc28Fmq0c9tJuzyQyHrRSsHP1kaWx_k9ThYriJVo0M6Y7BPC2W-CT4pN2TuXkYPNHIz8O3Ogx2XdZGmJRCsPaqqBzBIDQXXEyONduL0XuE4XntARVCKqVeot87Vm5irm5i7NPulY-oHEGVH9c7Ipw/s248/download%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="203" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAnojzquy4aNbAQ0j9xWZLjdHsasI0bH0BwPzc28Fmq0c9tJuzyQyHrRSsHP1kaWx_k9ThYriJVo0M6Y7BPC2W-CT4pN2TuXkYPNHIz8O3Ogx2XdZGmJRCsPaqqBzBIDQXXEyONduL0XuE4XntARVCKqVeot87Vm5irm5i7NPulY-oHEGVH9c7Ipw/s1600/download%20(2).jpg" width="203" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American sculptor Daniel Chester French, most known for the Lincoln Memorial statue and Minute Man at Concord, was born on April 20, 1850, in Exeter New Hampshire. (Died 1931)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">As a child, French was a neighbor of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the literary Alcott family. It was Louisa May Alcott's sister May who encouraged him to sculpt. (Obviously, the family's creativity at naming their children conforms with my personal opinion of their creativity as writers.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">French studied anatomy and art under noted masters in Massachusetts and Florence Italy. The Minute Man was his first major commission, erected on the centennial of the Battle of Concord in 1875. His fame and commissions grew. In 1914, he was selected to sculpt Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial interior; it was completed in 1920.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A new book, set for publication in June, called Monuments and Myths, compares his work to another favorite New England Gilded Age sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American sculptor Daniel Chester French, most known for the Lincoln Memorial statue and Minute Man at Concord, was born on April 20, 1850, in Exeter New Hampshire. (Died 1931)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the form of a neoclassical temple. The memorial's architect was Henry Bacon. The designer of the memorial interior's large central statue, Abraham Lincoln (1920), was Daniel Chester French; the Lincoln statue was carved by the Piccirilli brothers.[3] The painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin, and the epitaph above the statue was written by Royal Cortissoz. Dedicated in May 1922, it is one of several memorials built to honor an American president. It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has sometimes been a symbolic center focused on race relations.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A new book, set for publication in June, called Monuments and Myths, compares his work to another favorite New England Gilded Age sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">American sculptor Daniel Chester French, most known for the Lincoln Memorial statue and Minute Man at Concord, was born on April 20, 1850, in Exeter New Hampshire. (Died 1931)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just after the end of the Civil War on April 14, 1865. By March of 1867, Congress incorporated the Lincoln Monument Association to build a memorial to the slain 16th President. In 1914, as part of a large rehabilitation of the Mall in Washington, D.C., they selected Daniel Chester French to create a statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Memorial that Henry Bacon had been commissioned to design.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">French became acquainted with architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924) where Bacon was working for the architectural firm McKim, Mead and White at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The monument would become their greatest joint effort—a project of eight years resulting in a significant national shrine.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">To convey the intellectual and psychological strength of the great president, French made an intensive study of the Lincoln’s character as a result of an earlier commission from the state capitol of Lincoln, Nebraska. He used Lincoln biographies, photographs, and contemporary portraits, as well as a life mask and casts of the President’s hands, to make his work effective and accurate. The work was dedicated on May 30, 1922.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A new book, set for publication in June, called Monuments and Myths, compares his work to another favorite New England Gilded Age sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01mM1IfdoQ8BOvxEwEJneoOjgYPq7LnJoYtl9MchtFYxrleyF-CuMOR-Vpo9RRrky9jOYF4eC1ykorD7Rr5Y2ZIITxR3m_JN2XvpaWoeuCUdcpBgVOv9J2t610X_1-g4w-tSdlyekwdNNCiXYVYs0f-9YLxBfUl136Dcvn8rg2UKwpKrKg4jw3UE/s278/download%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01mM1IfdoQ8BOvxEwEJneoOjgYPq7LnJoYtl9MchtFYxrleyF-CuMOR-Vpo9RRrky9jOYF4eC1ykorD7Rr5Y2ZIITxR3m_JN2XvpaWoeuCUdcpBgVOv9J2t610X_1-g4w-tSdlyekwdNNCiXYVYs0f-9YLxBfUl136Dcvn8rg2UKwpKrKg4jw3UE/s1600/download%20(1).jpg" width="181" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">April 21, 753 BC is the traditional founding date of Rome. According to Roman mythology, the city's founders were twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars, God of War, and Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin and daughter of the deposed king.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Her uncle, the usurper, ordered the babies killed, and they were abandoned on the bank of the Tiber River. Sustained by suckling a wolf, the boys were saved by the god Tiberinus, the Father of the River Tiber, and given to shepherds to raise. They grew up to become respected shepherds and community leaders with no knowledge of their origins.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When a civil war erupted between their grandfather and his brother, they learned of their origin and helped their grandfather regain his throne before setting off to found a city of their own. Unable to agree on a location, they agreed to leave it up to signs from the gods. Alas, they fought over who saw the greater sign, and Romulus killed Remus and went on to establish the city of Rome.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 2015, acclaimed British classicist Mary Beard published a new history of Rome called SPQR, from Romulus and Remus to the year 212.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">April 21, 753 BC is the traditional founding date of Rome. According to Roman mythology, the city's founders were twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars, God of War, and Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin and daughter of the deposed king.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After being abandoned, the boys were suckled by a "she-wolf" according to the story, before being rescued by the god of the Tiber River and adopted by shepherds. The wolf cared for them in her den in a cave called the Lupercal. The Lupercal was a cave at the southwest foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome, located somewhere between the temple of Magna Mater and the Sant'Anastasia al Palatino. Luperci, the priests of Faunus, celebrated certain ceremonies of the Lupercalia at the cave, from the earliest days of the City until at least 494 AD.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"In January 2007, Italian archaeologist Irene Iacopi announced that she had probably found the legendary cave beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus's house, the Domus Livia, on the Palatine. Archaeologists came across the 15-meter-deep cavity while working to restore the decaying palace.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On 20 November 2007, the first set of photos were released showing the vault of the grotto which is encrusted with colourful mosaics, pumice stones and seashells. The center of the ceiling features a depiction of a white eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire. Archaeologists had not yet found the grotto's entrance, so they continued looking.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Its location below Augustus' residence was thought to be significant; Octavian, before he became Augustus, had considered taking the name Romulus to indicate that he intended to found Rome anew." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The consensus among most other archaeologists, however, is that Iacopi's conclusions are not correct.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">April 21, 753 BC is the traditional founding date of Rome. According to Roman mythology, the city's founders were twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars, God of War, and Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin and daughter of the deposed king.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After being abandoned, the boys were suckled by a "she-wolf" according to the story, before being rescued by the god of the Tiber River and adopted by shepherds.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Images of the twins and the wolf have become the symbol of the city of Rome, found in art, design, and coinage for centuries.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Perhaps the most famous sculpture (picture number 1) is referred to as La Lupa Capitolina, "the Capitoline Wolf". Traditional scholarship says the wolf-figure is Etruscan, 5th century BC. The figures of Romulus and Remus were added in the 15th century AD by Antonio del Pollaiuolo. Some modern research, however, suggests that the she-wolf may be a Romanesque sculpture dating from the 13th century AD, maybe a copy of an Etruscan work.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1ERN6TSnIvVCfTeYotzG-DDECgXME1I2d8ArkUM4BRkLhC8CWUy2fI9YPgfYTe3won4WoWr3iKym5lL1Dld_DoRnr6nWt5LXHyxSFqIRf0pTTO3LwrpkoOq7vULgE0Yoigz8ESWdMrxpSKVssnPuBOk1HhghkyG8LFHto8zIynhJ3CdeGRA6Vps/s240/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="240" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1ERN6TSnIvVCfTeYotzG-DDECgXME1I2d8ArkUM4BRkLhC8CWUy2fI9YPgfYTe3won4WoWr3iKym5lL1Dld_DoRnr6nWt5LXHyxSFqIRf0pTTO3LwrpkoOq7vULgE0Yoigz8ESWdMrxpSKVssnPuBOk1HhghkyG8LFHto8zIynhJ3CdeGRA6Vps/s1600/download.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">English novelist and dramatist Henry Fielding, known for his earthy satire and wit, was born in Somerset England on April 22, 1707. He is regarded, along with Samuel Richardson, as a creator of the first traditional English novels. His most famous, Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews, are still read today and have been made into several movies and tv series. A new tv adaptation of Tom Jones will premiere on PBS in the US on April 30.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Fielding's mother died when he was 11, leading to a custody battle between his grandmother and his father, an Army General known as dashing and charming but personally irresponsible. His grandmother won, but he maintained a relationship with his father, who likely inspired the characters of Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After first failing at a law practice, he began writing for the theatre and satire for The Spectator, one of Britain's first daily newspapers. His work was published under pseudonyms, and it often targeted Prime Minster Robert Walpole and his government. The PM responded by passing The Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737, which made it satire difficult to stage, and Fielding returned to law. A wealthy benefactor supplemented his meager income so that he could support his family.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He turned to novel writing in 1741 because he was jealous of Samuel Richardson's success with Pamela, considered the first English novel. Fielding's first novel was a parody called Shamela, which he followed with Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, among others. He died in Lisbon in 1754 while seeking a cure for gout, asthma, and cirrhosis of the liver.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">English novelist and dramatist Henry Fielding, known for his earthy satire and wit, was born in Somerset England on April 22, 1707. He is regarded, along with Samuel Richardson, as a creator of the first traditional English novels. His most famous, Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews, are still read today and have been made into several movies and tv series. A new tv adaptation of Tom Jones will premiere on PBS in the US on April 30.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When his career as a playwright was cut short by laws prohibiting satirical attacks on Prime Minister Robert Walpole and his government, Fielding returned to the law and was admitted to the Middle Temple.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. It is located in the wider Temple area of London, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. As a liberty, it functions largely as an independent local government authority.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">During the 12th and early 13th centuries the law was taught, in the City of London, primarily by the clergy. But a papal bull in 1218 prohibited the clergy from practicing in the secular courts (where the English common law system operated, as opposed to the Roman civil law favored by the Church). As a result, law began to be practiced and taught by laymen instead of by clerics. To protect their schools from competition, first Henry II and later Henry III issued proclamations prohibiting the teaching of the civil law within the City of London.The common law lawyers migrated to the hamlet of Holborn, as it was easy to get to the law courts at Westminster Hall and was just outside the City. They were based in guilds, which in time became the Inns of Court." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">English novelist and dramatist Henry Fielding, known for his earthy satire and wit, was born in Somerset England on April 22, 1707. He is regarded, along with Samuel Richardson, as a creator of the first traditional English novels. His most famous, Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews, are still read today and have been made into several movies and tv series. A new tv adaptation of Tom Jones will premiere on PBS in the US on April 30.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling was published in 1749 and is considered one of the first traditional English novels.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Tom Jones, like its predecessor, Joseph Andrews, is constructed around a romance plot. Squire Allworthy suspects that the infant whom he adopts and names Tom Jones is the illegitimate child of his servant Jenny Jones. When Tom is a young man, he falls in love with Sophia Western, his beautiful and virtuous neighbour. In the end his true identity is revealed and he wins Sophia’s hand, but numerous obstacles have to be overcome before he achieves this, and in the course of the action the various sets of characters pursue each other from one part of the country to another, giving Fielding an opportunity to paint an incomparably vivid picture of England in the mid-18th century." (Encyclopedia Brittanica)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The "numerous obstacles" are a series of hilariously bawdy, earthy adventures and scandals that have continued to entertain audiences ever since.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-88389124040122071162023-05-03T10:21:00.004-04:002023-05-03T10:21:43.962-04:00Person, Place, and Thing: April 8 - 14<p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELpjLlsXMiXPDqgoiMJe2D3AiBSO8gVuunnasmO5MMKpf-TnZ7HfyX_cNotHzGbzSKdBvIX0RpFPkKS2SMgtmooC7Y1SyI9I0jU9l1Ddq0r1TjUTnkai1GX2yl8GwdK1CmDlxEQEjDl3JnzAgVh4lOap19fFxAKZyy0Rnv5OMj2-pdz3VZJ3CcFM/s350/51Y22YVSQJL._SL350_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="230" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELpjLlsXMiXPDqgoiMJe2D3AiBSO8gVuunnasmO5MMKpf-TnZ7HfyX_cNotHzGbzSKdBvIX0RpFPkKS2SMgtmooC7Y1SyI9I0jU9l1Ddq0r1TjUTnkai1GX2yl8GwdK1CmDlxEQEjDl3JnzAgVh4lOap19fFxAKZyy0Rnv5OMj2-pdz3VZJ3CcFM/s320/51Y22YVSQJL._SL350_.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Some recognize April 8, 563 BC or BCE as the birth date of Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to Buddhist tradition, he was born to royal parents in what is now Nepal. As a child, he had known nothing but wealth and luxury. As a teen, he was first exposed to poverty and suffering, and he was left confused. He abandoned his privilege, wealth, and position and set off to live as a wandering ascetic in search of clarity for himself. He found the answers, or was enlightened, and he continued wandering the Asian subcontinent, teaching and establishing a monastic order of followers to spread his ideas of the Middle Way and the Noble Eightfold Path, guiding his followers to Nirvana.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A couple of decades ago, I found a great graphic novel series called "Introducing _______ A Graphic Guide" which presented a lot of topics of history, philosophy, and world religions in easily digestible graphic form. They were and are produced by Totem and then Icon Books, although they have changed in appearance.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Some recognize April 8, 563 BC or BCE as the birth date of Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to Buddhist tradition, he was born to royal parents in what is now Nepal. As a child, he had known nothing but wealth and luxury. As a teen, he was first exposed to poverty and suffering, and he was left confused. He abandoned his privilege, wealth, and position and set off to live as a wandering ascetic in search of clarity for himself. He found the answers, or was enlightened, and he continued wandering the Asian subcontinent, teaching and establishing a monastic order of followers to spread his ideas of the Middle Way and the Noble Eightfold Path, guiding his followers to Nirvana.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Bodhi Tree ("tree of awakening"), also called the Mahabodhi Tree, Bo Tree, is a large sacred fig tree (Ficus religiosa) located in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who became known as the Buddha, is said to have attained enlightenment or buddhahood circa 500 BCE under this tree. In religious iconography, the Bodhi Tree is recognizable by its heart-shaped leaves, which are usually prominently displayed.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The original tree under which Siddhartha Gautama sat is no longer living, but the term "bodhi tree" is also applied to existing sacred fig trees. The foremost example of an existing tree is the Mahabodhi Tree growing at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, which is often cited as a direct descendant of the original tree. This tree, planted around 250 BCE, is a frequent destination for pilgrims, being the most important of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A couple of decades ago, I found a great graphic novel series called "Introducing _______ A Graphic Guide" which presented a lot of topics of history, art, philosophy, and world religions in easily digestible graphic form. They were and are produced by Totem and then Icon Books, although they have changed in appearance.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Some recognize April 8, 563 BC or BCE as the birth date of Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">According to Buddhist tradition, he was born to royal parents in what is now Nepal. As a child, he had known nothing but wealth and luxury. As a teen, he was first exposed to poverty and suffering, and he was left confused. He abandoned his privilege, wealth, and position and set off to live as a wandering ascetic in search of clarity for himself. He found the answers, or was enlightened, and he continued wandering the Asian subcontinent, teaching and establishing a monastic order of followers to spread his ideas of the Middle Way and the Noble Eightfold Path, guiding his followers to Nirvana.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Nirvana, the state to which all Buddhists aspire, is the cessation of desire and hence the end of suffering. Nirvana in Sanskrit means "the blowing out." It is understood as the extinguishment of the flame of personal desire, the quenching of the fire of life. Among Westerners, Nirvana is often thought of as a negative state, a kind of "nothingness." But in the Buddhist scriptures, it is always described in positive terms; the highest refuge, safety, emancipation, peace, and the like. Nirvana is freedom, but not freedom from circumstance; it is freedom from the bonds with which we have bound ourselves to circumstance. That man is free who is strong enough to say, "Whatever comes, I accept as best." " (from "The Meaning of Buddhism," The Atlantic, February 1958)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A couple of decades ago, I found a great graphic novel series called "Introducing _______ A Graphic Guide" which presented a lot of topics of history, art, philosophy, and world religions in easily digestible graphic form. They were and are produced by Totem and then Icon Books, although they have changed in appearance.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbawVHEGNC0KJ7kybwczmC-tVCQNHO_XeozjuR2bzvDWfxVDGYnYPJ0f9ogADcF7VPzADU_2v5EJyDDqf3Cfhv9kIXQw4-0vGzUDtLApozFXrSuNnWB4dqQo2dRSiOAfMz2yavB0nJoQx6PS9jQ5PaiP41RhHHn82-vIh6r7kNt1IFkIp4LS1seY/s275/download%20(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbawVHEGNC0KJ7kybwczmC-tVCQNHO_XeozjuR2bzvDWfxVDGYnYPJ0f9ogADcF7VPzADU_2v5EJyDDqf3Cfhv9kIXQw4-0vGzUDtLApozFXrSuNnWB4dqQo2dRSiOAfMz2yavB0nJoQx6PS9jQ5PaiP41RhHHn82-vIh6r7kNt1IFkIp4LS1seY/s1600/download%20(6).jpg" width="183" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvCkNEdBdUJ7EwBBqaKP0bmZrjxAahKjaLBx9LmdnkXIua9pHkyjeo48-oenVI9Yna_BEV9lV9ICula1AZug8mplczxaDXANy_zGjxTBhr9zl2drZd1SjuFXMVUwHohQNmklQxh8KKhjJrtPzeXWqmrs4CVb1ZGrKhjzMPVFX79Un96AihCL_iZMA/s277/download%20(5).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvCkNEdBdUJ7EwBBqaKP0bmZrjxAahKjaLBx9LmdnkXIua9pHkyjeo48-oenVI9Yna_BEV9lV9ICula1AZug8mplczxaDXANy_zGjxTBhr9zl2drZd1SjuFXMVUwHohQNmklQxh8KKhjJrtPzeXWqmrs4CVb1ZGrKhjzMPVFX79Un96AihCL_iZMA/s1600/download%20(5).jpg" width="182" /></a></div></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMQ2JkMdFOjWhYu9dkdape-dce5rRdUxXuEL8ZUehJpFWJ4EdYtDQRdrir_UbENHgPLJBuCWGt8b54bq6JjxHvK5TLxIldssUKAsA1_titlBGZSVEpx7O4ijUlCoslXZOfQwR5Rt41gd4bo4rCAOKOQgjR_m_FJORUcYqbOqIJ6bIMlJwxvn3d0U/s279/download%20(7).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMQ2JkMdFOjWhYu9dkdape-dce5rRdUxXuEL8ZUehJpFWJ4EdYtDQRdrir_UbENHgPLJBuCWGt8b54bq6JjxHvK5TLxIldssUKAsA1_titlBGZSVEpx7O4ijUlCoslXZOfQwR5Rt41gd4bo4rCAOKOQgjR_m_FJORUcYqbOqIJ6bIMlJwxvn3d0U/s1600/download%20(7).jpg" width="181" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee officially surrendered his army to Union General U.S. Grant at the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This effectively ended the U.S. Civil War, although it would take about 6 more months for hostilities to end and for the last Confederates to surrender.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of the most interesting figures in the story of April 9, 1865, was Wilmer McLean, a civilian (1814-1882). McLean was a former major in the Virginia militia, too old for active duty when the war began. Instead, he and his family lived in Manassas, Virginia, and he earned a living as a sugar broker. On July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the war, the first Battle of Bull Run, commenced on his farm when a Union cannonball dropped through his kitchen fireplace. McLean's home was being used as headquarters by Confederste General Beauregard.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Alarmed at the proximity of conflict in Northern Virginia, which also made his work more difficult, he moved his family 120 miles south to Appomattox Court House. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant in McLean's front parlor. Once the ceremony was over, Union officers and soldiers basically took every item in the house as a souvenir; a few gave McLean money on the way out.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In 1867, McLean could no longer afford the mortgage payments, sold the house, and returned to Manassas. He died in Alexandria, Virginia.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee officially surrendered his army to Union General U.S. Grant at the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This effectively ended the U.S. Civil War, although it would take about 6 more months for hostilities to end and for the last Confederates to surrender.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of the most interesting figures in the story of April 9, 1865, was Wilmer McLean, a civilian (1814-1882). On July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the war, the first Battle of Bull Run, commenced on his farm when a Union cannonball dropped through his kitchen fireplace. McLean's home (first illustration) was being used as headquarters by Confederste General Beauregard.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Alarmed at the proximity of conflict in Northern Virginia, which also made his work more difficult, he moved his family 120 miles south to Appomattox Court House. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant in McLean's front parlor. Once the ceremony was over, Union officers and soldiers basically took every item in the house as a souvenir; a few gave McLean money on the way out.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Appomattox house is now part of the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee officially surrendered his army to Union General U.S. Grant at the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This effectively ended the U.S. Civil War, although it would take about 6 more months for hostilities to end and for the last Confederates to surrender.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of the most interesting figures in the story of April 9, 1865, was Wilmer McLean, a civilian (1814-1882). On July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the war, the first Battle of Bull Run, commenced on his farm when a Union cannonball dropped through his kitchen fireplace. McLean's home (first illustration) was being used as headquarters by Confederste General Beauregard.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Alarmed at the proximity of conflict in Northern Virginia, which also made his work more difficult, he moved his family 120 miles south to Appomattox Court House. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant in McLean's front parlor. Once the ceremony was over, Union officers and soldiers basically took every item in the house as a souvenir; a few gave McLean money on the way out.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Major General Edward Ord paid $40 (equivalent to $708 in today's dollars) for the table Lee had used to sign the surrender document, while Major General Philip Sheridan took the table on which Grant had drafted the document for $20 (equivalent to $354 in today's dollars) in gold. Sheridan then asked George Armstrong Custer to carry it away on his horse. The table was presented to Custer's wife and is now on exhibit at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ccq8aNfQbbCzOnwA3h688BWkSPbx77IpvZywRU6N0z9dI_GZG99k_CqykJknpiGEQQBCs4OUOkTGz_PlBdvtrIesDpMUs_5Hdlg4AzdQupc8-c-6ipGgNBrLhXfTr-CJkcqvg_Ux1ToLKiiTO6nYmqIu_QoApGc69-iOTEmRk30Hdeaxa0GVgMA/s282/download%20(8).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="179" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ccq8aNfQbbCzOnwA3h688BWkSPbx77IpvZywRU6N0z9dI_GZG99k_CqykJknpiGEQQBCs4OUOkTGz_PlBdvtrIesDpMUs_5Hdlg4AzdQupc8-c-6ipGgNBrLhXfTr-CJkcqvg_Ux1ToLKiiTO6nYmqIu_QoApGc69-iOTEmRk30Hdeaxa0GVgMA/s1600/download%20(8).jpg" width="179" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEFZd0PjpOn5d97LXsYp7vmMeiQVqlQ2Tjy9huob3kTEFl62AzSP9CIaiVW6-HU448NIAZlqxpYSk-KExl3zr231zH4pfVGa02UiV5xnj7U4Y-tGIjkg9IzawZr89U-Qw-nXVBsaOtaRICt0tLOheBmpc7bi4gRjtpLy48IZJCoKfW5UIbq0Y-EE/s276/download%20(9).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEFZd0PjpOn5d97LXsYp7vmMeiQVqlQ2Tjy9huob3kTEFl62AzSP9CIaiVW6-HU448NIAZlqxpYSk-KExl3zr231zH4pfVGa02UiV5xnj7U4Y-tGIjkg9IzawZr89U-Qw-nXVBsaOtaRICt0tLOheBmpc7bi4gRjtpLy48IZJCoKfW5UIbq0Y-EE/s1600/download%20(9).jpg" width="183" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora or Tomboro erupted in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, on the island of Sumbawa. It was the largest recorded eruption in human history, expressing 4 to 10 times the energy of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. Estimates of deaths from the eruption and the subsequent climatic upheaval range from 71,000 to 117,000. The explosion was heard 1,200 miles away, and the volcano lost a full third of its height.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The global effects of the ash and sulfur eruption were felt throughout the northern hemisphere for years. 1816 became known as the "year without a summer." The 1810s became the coldest decade on record. Snow fell across Canada and the northern US well into June. Throughout the northern hemisphere, crops failed, and livestock died, resulting in the greatest famine of the century. The weird weather and skies over Geneva, Switzerland, in the summer of 1816 inspired Mary Shelley and her friends to write horror stories, resulting in Frankenstein.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">There were some 10,000 people living on Sumbawa in 1815, a well-off trading community with connections to Vietnam and Cambodia. Their language was an isolate, not in the Austronesian family, but perhaps the Papuan family. The entire community and their language were lost in the eruption. The first significant archeological discovery of the remains of the culture came in 2004, when archeologists dug through ten feet of ash and pumice.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Tambora is still considered active; its last eruption was in 1967.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora erupted in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, on the island of Sumbawa. It was the largest recorded eruption in human history, expressing 4 to 10 times the energy of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. Estimates of deaths from the eruption and the subsequent climatic upheaval range from 71,000 to 117,000. The explosion was heard 1,200 miles away, and the volcano lost a full third of its height.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Mount Tambora, or Tomboro, is an active stratovolcano in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Located on Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands, it was formed by the active subduction zones beneath it. Before 1815, its elevation reached more than 4,300 metres (14,100 feet) high, making it one of the tallest peaks in the Indonesian archipelago.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Around 1880 ± 30 years, eruptions at Mount Tambora have been registered only inside the caldera.[23] It created small lava flows and lava dome extrusions; this was recorded at two on the VEI scale. This eruption created the Doro Api Toi parasitic cone inside the caldera.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Mount Tambora is still active and minor lava domes and flows have been extruded on the caldera floor during the 19th and 20th centuries. The last eruption was recorded in 1967. However, it was a gentle eruption with a VEI of 0, which means it was non-explosive.Another very small eruption was reported in 2011. In August 2011, the alert level for the volcano was raised from level I to level II after increased activity was reported in the caldera, including earthquakes and steam emissions." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora erupted in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, on the island of Sumbawa. It was the largest recorded eruption in human history, expressing 4 to 10 times the energy of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. Estimates of deaths from the eruption and the subsequent climatic upheaval range from 71,000 to 117,000. The explosion was heard 1,200 miles away, and the volcano lost a full third of its height.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">1816 is called "the year without a summer" because the entire northern hemisphere saw record-breaking low temperatures, with snowfall extending into June across Canada, the northern US, and western Europe.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"This climate anomaly has been blamed for the severity of typhus epidemics in southeast Europe and along the eastern Mediterranean Sea between 1816 and 1819. The climate changes disrupted the Indian monsoons, caused three failed harvests and famine, and contributed to the spread of a new strain of cholera that originated in Bengal in 1816. Many livestock died in New England during the winter of 1816–1817. Cool temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in the British Isles. Families in Wales traveled long distances as refugees, begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, oat, and potato harvests. The crisis was severe in Germany, where food prices rose sharply, and demonstrations in front of grain markets and bakeries, followed by riots, arson, and looting, took place in many European cities. It was the worst famine of the 19th century." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4wFu42vSx_AHFpmYDbTQKlPr8CBsn8XvEhn273KyMXS5srXiqHkkEfg_8OZ6pINbHvGzOg0fZRmQgJquDYIz0cryFGefr_hYdRCqgtN7uyj8dmLQsDbLM6tb0DlLWixszSOom8UKuuTbHSV0relj2k44jvNxyPd_XSxUS_vHK56TopaSVJu9tCNg/s272/download%20(10).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="185" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4wFu42vSx_AHFpmYDbTQKlPr8CBsn8XvEhn273KyMXS5srXiqHkkEfg_8OZ6pINbHvGzOg0fZRmQgJquDYIz0cryFGefr_hYdRCqgtN7uyj8dmLQsDbLM6tb0DlLWixszSOom8UKuuTbHSV0relj2k44jvNxyPd_XSxUS_vHK56TopaSVJu9tCNg/s1600/download%20(10).jpg" width="185" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg92kNbg39-YhmM0jFeHaun6jZ4QLFHkowoeiGuC4BNjDe5zfSCYC8tfAjOMEWLo50VaJuSoAxDjtZB8q-9RKaNi-rQjlSE3XFVKdWjUA8kFXqB0yiqwnktMnpFGjTK-ZVAKESVx_SuZ-K6ixAEhnqYFsSCnZgOUYrTE51XY4XgwYnwmGb7X-Bn1SY/s281/download%20(11).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="179" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg92kNbg39-YhmM0jFeHaun6jZ4QLFHkowoeiGuC4BNjDe5zfSCYC8tfAjOMEWLo50VaJuSoAxDjtZB8q-9RKaNi-rQjlSE3XFVKdWjUA8kFXqB0yiqwnktMnpFGjTK-ZVAKESVx_SuZ-K6ixAEhnqYFsSCnZgOUYrTE51XY4XgwYnwmGb7X-Bn1SY/s1600/download%20(11).jpg" width="179" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Erskine Caldwell died on Aprill 11, 1987, at age 83.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Born in Coweta County, Georgia, he won critical and popular acclaim in the 1930s with novels about poverty and racism in the South, and his subjects were usually poor, white sharecroppers. Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre are two of the best-selling American novels ever, and Trouble in July is a searing portrait of a lynching.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">As the son of a minister and a former teacher, he had an itinerant upbringing around the South until his family settled in Wrens, Georgia, when he was 15. He never attended school until age 14, having previously been taught at home by his mother. After several attempts at college which didn't take, He briefly worked for the Atlanta Journal newspaper before turning to fiction, publishing his first novel, The Bastard, in 1929. Tobacco Road was first big success, in 1932.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">His earthy and bawdy style of writing and his depictions of lower class characters earned him and his books obscenity charges and book banning, beginning with The Bastard. He was arrested at a new York book signing for his first book but was exonerated in court.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Erskine Caldwell died on Aprill 11, 1987, at age 83.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Born in Coweta County, Georgia, he won critical and popular acclaim in the 1930s with novels about poverty and racism in the South, and his subjects were usually poor, white sharecroppers. Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre are two of the best-selling American novels ever, and Trouble in July is a searing portrait of a lynching.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Tobacco Road is set in rural Georgia, several miles outside Augusta during the worst years of the Great Depression. It depicts a family of poor white tenant farmers, the Lesters, as some of the many small Southern cotton farmers made redundant by the industrialization of production and the migration into cities. The main character of the novel is Jeeter Lester, an ignorant and sinful man who is redeemed by his love of the land and his faith in the fertility and promise of the soil." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Tobacco Road, set in a fictionalized version of Caldwell’s home town, lays bare the story of the Lesters, the poorest, whitest, trashiest, horniest family in rural Georgia. Jeeter, the Lester family patriarch in Tobacco Road, is a beaten-down sharecropper who can no longer get credit to buy the supplies he needs to farm. His family survives, in their crumbling shack, on fat-back rinds and corn meal. Ada, his wife, is wasting away from pellagra; Dude, their 16-year-old son, is a half-wit; Ellie May, their voluptuous 18-year-old daughter, has a gruesome hairlip that makes her “look as if her mouth were bleeding profusely.” Jeeter and Ada’s other surviving children got out as quickly as they could." (Slate magazine, May, 2006)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The frank language and sexuality of the novel shocked many Americans in 1932, and the book was challenged and deemed obscene in some cities. Some southerners objected because of the way southerners were depicted. Nevertheless, it became a huge bestseller, was adapted into a hit long-running Broadway play, and was made into an exaggeratedly comic film in 1941.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Erskine Caldwell died on Aprill 11, 1987, at age 83.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Born in Coweta County, Georgia, he won critical and popular acclaim in the 1930s with novels about poverty and racism in the South, and his subjects were usually poor, white sharecroppers. Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre are two of the best-selling American novels ever, and Trouble in July is a searing portrait of a lynching.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The frank language and sexuality of Tobacco Road shocked many Americans in 1932, and the book was challenged and deemed obscene in some cities. Some southerners objected because of the way southerners were depicted. Nevertheless, it became a huge bestseller, was adapted into a hit long-running Broadway play, and was made into an exaggeratedly comic film in 1941.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Studios had considered making the movie version for years, but the book was on the Hollywood executives' "banned list." The movie version of The Grapes of Wrath finally opened the door for Tobacco Road. When 20th Century Fox finally acquired the rights, noted director John Ford was attached to the project, and fellow Georgian Nunnally Johnson was hired to write a script that would follow the strict production rules in place. The result was a much lighter, comically broader, sanitized version that changed many elements of the book. Further, to avoid controversy, it was filmed in studio soundstages instead of on location in Georgia as originally planned, and it was released with no advance publicity, so that cities could not preemptively ban it.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhoUsAcLiSfunxTD2qpoWqyo8iHw5I3DnxSxNuYTqqKxMV-j1fpa4FKw9R1rMIU8q8wf7ExbKXAD9gcWZ4M-WCxTck7c488kqUeklAP3TEvw-jPC4cWQvvDbSgTlgNzn9-P83RdPKqy_VcQpftZwYoT6yQVNbP2ZT70ISHN9V7F1rDGe9RjmlsO6M/s284/download%20(12).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="177" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhoUsAcLiSfunxTD2qpoWqyo8iHw5I3DnxSxNuYTqqKxMV-j1fpa4FKw9R1rMIU8q8wf7ExbKXAD9gcWZ4M-WCxTck7c488kqUeklAP3TEvw-jPC4cWQvvDbSgTlgNzn9-P83RdPKqy_VcQpftZwYoT6yQVNbP2ZT70ISHN9V7F1rDGe9RjmlsO6M/s1600/download%20(12).jpg" width="177" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Gustave Flaubert's first published novel, Madame Bovary, was published on April 12, 1857.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Flaubert (1821-1880) was born in Rouen, France, the son of a doctor. He went to Paris to study law but developed a distaste for the city. He returned to Croisset, near Rouen, where he lived the rest of his life.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He never married, and he apparently only had one serious romantic relationship and a few casual sexual relationships, but he was quite open about his patronage of prostitutes, male and female, He lived with various sexually transmitted diseases throughout his adult life.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He wrote a couple of novels in the 1840s, which went nowhere, before writing Bovary. Madame Bovary was hailed by both the critics and the public, making Flaubert the leader of the French realism movement in literature. The government charged him and his publisher with immorality, but they were both acquitted. None of his later work matched his first success.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1880, at age 56.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Gustave Flaubert's first published novel, Madame Bovary, was published on April 12, 1857.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Flaubert (1821-1880) was born in Rouen, France, the son of a doctor. He went to Paris to study law but developed a distaste for the city. He returned to Croisset, near Rouen, where he lived the rest of his life, although he traveled extensively.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Located in Northern France, Rouen has a long history.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy during the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries. From the 13th century onwards, the city experienced a remarkable economic boom, thanks in particular to the development of textile factories and river trade. Claimed by both the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War, it was on its soil that Joan of Arc was tried and burned alive on 30 May 1431. Severely damaged by the wave of bombing in 1944, it nevertheless regained its economic dynamism in the post-war period thanks to its industrial sites and its large seaport, which today is the fifth largest in France." (Wikipedia)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Gustave Flaubert's first published novel, Madame Bovary, was published as a book on April 12, 1857.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Madame Bovary tells the bleak story of a marriage that ends in tragedy. Charles Bovary, a good-hearted but dull and unambitious doctor with a meager practice, marries Emma, a beautiful farm girl raised in a convent. Although she anticipates marriage as a life of adventure, she soon finds that her only excitement derives from the flights of fancy she takes while reading sentimental romantic novels. She grows increasingly bored and unhappy with her middle-class existence, and even the birth of their daughter, Berthe, brings Emma little joy. Disappointed with her life, she embarks on a series of disastrous love affairs.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"When it was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, the novel was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors. The resulting trial, held in January 1857, made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller when it was published as a single volume in April 1857. The novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, as well as a seminal work of realism and one of the most influential novels ever written. In fact, the notable British-American critic James Wood writes in How Fiction Works: "Flaubert established for good or ill, what most readers think of as modern realist narration, and his influence is almost too familiar to be visible". " (Amazon)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNY5nV7SGLIkNpaUJyYpfSBludGNsIk17-hKkiThrQt7cenpMT3cy-VTDszyx8ppz7EbBQlX-I6T-4htLYlKlFRqyV-DyQ9gigxYhnCInXFC4N5f5-fGhaarJ5potcoRTYOh1hBKUDLGBC9BNYPzNPBuJv70e3cc0I5mrJ9HnkQu4tEXJofQkMz8/s276/download%20(13).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNY5nV7SGLIkNpaUJyYpfSBludGNsIk17-hKkiThrQt7cenpMT3cy-VTDszyx8ppz7EbBQlX-I6T-4htLYlKlFRqyV-DyQ9gigxYhnCInXFC4N5f5-fGhaarJ5potcoRTYOh1hBKUDLGBC9BNYPzNPBuJv70e3cc0I5mrJ9HnkQu4tEXJofQkMz8/s1600/download%20(13).jpg" width="183" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 13, 1860, the first Pony Express mail arrived in Sacramento California, ten days after departing St. Joseph, Missouri.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Pony Express is one of those bigger-than-life legends of the American West, but it only existed for 18 months, ultimately losing the race to the telegraph and the railroad. The idea to hire young, wiry, preferably orphaned riders to carry mail by horseback 1,900 miles from Missouri to California was shared by three men: William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell. They were businessmen, already successful in the freight business as well as sawmilling, meatpacking, banking, and insurance. Their vision was to build stations at short intervals to provide fresh horses.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Riders couldn't weigh more than 125 pounds. They rode day and night, sometimes 20 hours straight in emergencies. Riders changed every 75-100 miles. They were paid $125 a month. In comparison, unskilled laborers were paid $15-30 a month, and bricklayer and carpenters received $40-60 a month. In the 18 months of existence, 6 riders and 16 station employees died, most the result of a Paiute uprising, and 35,000 letters were delivered.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">West Like Lightning tells the Pony Express story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 13, 1860, the first Pony Express mail arrived in Sacramento California, ten days after departing St. Joseph, Missouri.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Pony Express is one of those bigger-than-life legends of the American West, but it only existed for 18 months, ultimately losing the race to the telegraph and the railroad.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The route started at St. Joseph, Missouri, on the Missouri River, and then followed what is modern-day U.S. Highway 36 (the Pony Express Highway) to Marysville, Kansas, where it turned northwest following Little Blue River to Fort Kearny in Nebraska. Through Nebraska, it followed the Great Platte River Road, cutting through Gothenburg, Nebraska, clipping the edge of Colorado at Julesburg; and passing Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff, before arriving first at Fort Laramie and then Fort Caspar (Platte Bridge Station) in Wyoming. From there, it followed the Sweetwater River, passing Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, and Split Rock, through South Pass to Fort Bridger and then south to Salt Lake City, Utah. From Salt Lake City, it generally followed the Central Nevada Route blazed in 1859 by Captain James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. This route roughly follows today's US 50 across Nevada and Utah. It crossed the Great Basin, the Utah-Nevada Desert, and the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe before arriving in Sacramento. Mail was transferred and sent by steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. On a few instances when the steamer was missed, riders took the mail by horseback to Oakland, California." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">West Like Lightning tells the Pony Express story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 13, 1860, the first Pony Express mail arrived in Sacramento California, ten days after departing St. Joseph, Missouri.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Pony Express is one of those bigger-than-life legends of the American West, but it only existed for 18 months, ultimately losing the race to the telegraph and the railroad.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Recruited riders had to weigh under 125 pounds and be able and willing to ride as many as 20 hours through hostile terrain, risking hostile Indian attacks.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Alexander Majors, one of the Pony Express founders, was a religious man and resolved "by the help of God" to overcome all difficulties. He presented each rider with a special-edition Bible and required riders to recite and sign this oath:</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"I, ... , do hereby swear, before the Great and Living God, that during my engagement, and while I am an employee of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, I will, under no circumstances, use profane language, that I will drink no intoxicating liquors, that I will not quarrel or fight with any other employee of the firm, and that in every respect I will conduct myself honestly, be faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts as to win the confidence of my employers, so help me God."</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvKB2FCh5zE-k4kM95zq6Qf7m-2dpc41ieAvr3i0EopZwPv33sDFTuSfAfXOfVg-PCtVlSeYcrOszTwb7KrSqKZK4xqATVPiZwe1SfyrsY2lwkkd-Djqs4REEvDd3keRsiiNmAxP3pZmX03gUQ4vdXYyrb5FaIdeG7dSYremywxrjsjZEupE4fBk/s276/download%20(14).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvKB2FCh5zE-k4kM95zq6Qf7m-2dpc41ieAvr3i0EopZwPv33sDFTuSfAfXOfVg-PCtVlSeYcrOszTwb7KrSqKZK4xqATVPiZwe1SfyrsY2lwkkd-Djqs4REEvDd3keRsiiNmAxP3pZmX03gUQ4vdXYyrb5FaIdeG7dSYremywxrjsjZEupE4fBk/s1600/download%20(14).jpg" width="183" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">French philosopher and pioneering feminist, although she didn't think of herself as either. Simone de Beauvoir died of pneumonia on April 14, 1986, in Paris.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Born in 1908, de Beauvoir was a precocious student. Her father's greatest praise was "She thinks like a man." She finished at the top of her class and of exams, and she became a high school, or lychee, teacher until she could support herself by writing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">She met Jean Paul Sartre, existentialist philosopher, in college, and they entered into a relationship until he died. They never married and never lived together. They met daily in cafes to read and share each other's work. They had an open relationship, and they shared details of their other relationships during their cafe meetings.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">De Beauvoir was bisexual, and a number of female students came forward to accuse her of manipulation, seduction, and sexual abuse. These accusations led to her losing her teaching license, but it was later reinstated. She was also a proponent of decriminalizing pedophilia.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Second Sex, published in 1949 (There was not an accurate English translation published in the US until 2009, apparently.) is cited as an iconic feminist work, arguing that women's oppression and perceived inferiority is an historical and social construct.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">French philosopher and pioneering feminist, although she didn't think of herself as either. Simone de Beauvoir died of pneumonia on April 14, 1986, in Paris.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Born in 1908, de Beauvoir was a precocious student. Her father's greatest praise was "She thinks like a man." She finished at the top of her class and of exams, and she became a high school, or lychee, teacher until she could support herself by writing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Lycées (French pronunciation: [lise]) provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between the ages of 15 and 18. Pupils are prepared for the baccalauréat (French pronunciation: [bakaloʁea]; baccalaureate, colloquially known as bac, previously bachot), which can lead to higher education studies or directly to professional life. There are three main types of baccalauréat: the baccalauréat général, baccalauréat technologique and baccalauréat professionnel.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Lycées are divided into (i) the lycée général, leading to two or more years of post–baccalauréat studies, (ii) the lycée technologique, leading to short-term studies, and (iii) the lycée professionnel, a vocational qualification leading directly to a particular career. General and technological education courses are provided in "standard" lycées, while vocational courses are provided in separate professional lycées.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In practice, competent pupils at a vocational lycée professionnel can also apply to take short-term, post–baccalauréat studies leading to the Brevet de technicien supérieur (BTS), a vocational qualification. That option is available also to pupils at a lycée général." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Second Sex, published in 1949 (There was not an accurate English translation published in the US until 2009, apparently.) is cited as an iconic feminist work, arguing that women's oppression and perceived inferiority is an historical and social construct.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">French philosopher and pioneering feminist, although she didn't think of herself as either. Simone de Beauvoir died of pneumonia on April 14, 1986, in Paris.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">De Beauvoir and her partner Jean Paul Sartre are considered two of the leading existentialist philosophers of the 20th century. Existentialist philosophy encompasses a range of perspectives, but it shares certain underlying concepts. Among these, a central tenet of existentialism is that personal freedom, individual responsibility, and deliberate choice are essential to the pursuit of self-discovery and the determination of life's meaning.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Second Sex, published in 1949 (There was not an accurate English translation published in the US until 2009, apparently.) is cited as an iconic feminist work, arguing that women's oppression and perceived inferiority is an historical and social construct.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-56879658730367631022023-04-19T06:33:00.001-04:002023-04-19T06:33:00.171-04:00Person, Place, and Thing: April 1 - 7<p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtpPV8HR7OHDAEb6qaRXcp_kgPKl1RqO3EhXWl6Kdnd3bPtjndX_CW3iq9XVlbmQj_fotLsXpNi5sPyxn8UJ_LmWMlb9GGQNkIlQprD78ohZOGdktnx3wts2wFzNXg0BcMFk5yuMIqKqFnzrAsNaikZDBLT8SrRtqGDWn_24VKkDHF-Ps524xQW0/s291/download%20(15).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="173" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtpPV8HR7OHDAEb6qaRXcp_kgPKl1RqO3EhXWl6Kdnd3bPtjndX_CW3iq9XVlbmQj_fotLsXpNi5sPyxn8UJ_LmWMlb9GGQNkIlQprD78ohZOGdktnx3wts2wFzNXg0BcMFk5yuMIqKqFnzrAsNaikZDBLT8SrRtqGDWn_24VKkDHF-Ps524xQW0/s1600/download%20(15).jpg" width="173" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"> <span style="background-color: white;">Persons.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 1. 1854, the first serialized installment of Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, was published in his magazine "Household Words."</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In October of 2022, British novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby published Dickens and Prince, actually comparing the seemingly disparate lives of Dickens, considered one of the greatest writers of the English language ( Although I've only ever been able to finish A Tale of Two Cities) and Prince, the greatest musician who ever lived (at least in my opinion). It's a great read. If I were still grading essays, it would definitely be an A+. It's also an interesting dissertation on popular culture in general.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Similarities briefly:</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">1. Poor tumultuous childhoods</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">2. Incredible genius</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">3. Inhuman amount of output</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">4. Not perfectionists (sounds wrong at first, but he makes the point), able to create and move on</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">5. Critical and popular reception</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">6. Taken advantage of by others in business and fighting back</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">7. Fantastic stage performers</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">8. Icons and legends in their lifetimes</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">9. Legacies that few ever leave</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Just to name a few.</span></span><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 1. 1854, the first serialized installment of Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, was published in his magazine "Household Words."</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In October of 2022, British novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby published Dickens and Prince, actually comparing the seemingly disparate lives of Dickens, considered one of the greatest writers of the English language ( Although I've only ever been able to finish A Tale of Two Cities) and Prince, the greatest musician who ever lived (at least in my opinion). It's a great read. If I were still grading essays, it would definitely be an A+. It's also an interesting dissertation on popular culture in general.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Both Dickens and Prince discovered that they belonged on stage, and that's where the money was. Dickens started touring in Europe and America to sold-out audiences for years. He had once considered becoming an actor himself. He didn't just read his work; he selected passages to perform. His Christmas-themed passages were especially popular, even year-round.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">If you know Prince, you know he was extremely introverted. Just watch his interviews, especially the earliest ones, and you can see how excruciatingly awkward they were for him, even painful for viewers. (On YouTube, look for Prince on American Bandstand and on Midnight Special.) However, he became a different person on stage, usually performing at full speed for 2-3 hours and then going to a smaller club and performing a whole other after-show for 2-3 hours more. Unfortunately, his stage performances led to intense hip and knee pain, which led to his painkiller addiction, which led to his death.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Legacy.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 1. 1854, the first serialized installment of Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, was published in his magazine "Household Words."</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In October of 2022, British novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby published Dickens and Prince, actually comparing the seemingly disparate lives of Dickens, considered one of the greatest writers of the English language ( Although I've only ever been able to finish A Tale of Two Cities) and Prince, the greatest musician who ever lived (at least in my opinion). It's a great read. If I were still grading essays, it would definitely be an A+. It's also an interesting dissertation on popular culture in general.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of the greatest similarities between Dickens and Prince is the huge legacy left by each. Dickens is one of the most widely read novelists of all time. His works continue to be adapted into movies, plays, and tv shows. He's credited with creating much of the traditional Christmas popularized in Victorian Britain and still celebrated today. He's coined words used in the English language today. He's often mentioned in the same breath as Shakespeare.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">When Prince died, he left behind as many as 8,000 recorded original songs. While some are fragments, there are enough fully produced songs to release an album of unheard material each year for 100 years, at least. If only 50-100 of those songs are good to great, isn't that more than 90%, or more, of all professional musicians produce in their careers?</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-skv_FYYtV9TRIgym75CWI-YX-qwoy4WwO8zQIX5LkiGzk1flrc4ptiWN1FLSATrhtHkjWJpHyjLfgaD1jw9CVjvVWGgQUvM3lIAMqvKakrZdUu1TwSSVFVg2zf_eLtD54FJ4u5-jxeYgBCxF1AzLE3suyUP2C5tokhIkYI5dPUQyQv6rzpOwmY/s257/download%20(16).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="196" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-skv_FYYtV9TRIgym75CWI-YX-qwoy4WwO8zQIX5LkiGzk1flrc4ptiWN1FLSATrhtHkjWJpHyjLfgaD1jw9CVjvVWGgQUvM3lIAMqvKakrZdUu1TwSSVFVg2zf_eLtD54FJ4u5-jxeYgBCxF1AzLE3suyUP2C5tokhIkYI5dPUQyQv6rzpOwmY/s1600/download%20(16).jpg" width="196" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 2, 1792, President Washington signed into law the Coinage Act of 1792, also known as the Mint Act, establishing the US Mint in Philadelphia and authorizing American coinage. Before that, Americans had used a mix of foreign coins and a few coins produced by the individual colonies. The first circulating coin produced was the copper cent showing "Liberty" on the front, or obverse, and a 15 link chain for the states on the reverse. It was not the most popular, larger than a modern quarter, Liberty looking "in a fright," and the chain reminding some of slavery ( soon replaced with a wreath).</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The first Chief Coiner and Engraver of the US and presumably the designer of the first coins was Henry Voight (1738-1814), a maker of clocks, mathematical instruments, and steam engines, and other machines. He was a longtime business partner and friend of John Fitch, and they invented the first practical steamboat, but Robert Fulton later made improvements and took all the credit. The Fitch-Voight friendship came to an end after Fitch married a widow with whom Voight was having an extramarital affair and fathered two children; Fitch originally married the widow to provide cover for his friend, while the affair continued.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Coin collecting, or numismatics, was one of the activities that fueled my childhood love history, and I spent a great deal of time with Yeoman's Red Book, THE reference book for US coins and their values. Unable to afford American collecting, I turned to foreign collecting, which literally opened up a whole new world. I still have a jar near my desk here into which I deposit leftover coins from foreign travels.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 2, 1792, President Washington signed into law the Coinage Act of 1792, also known as the Mint Act, establishing the US Mint in Philadelphia and authorizing American coinage. Before that, Americans had used a mix of foreign coins and a few coins produced by the individual colonies.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The first Mint was built at the corner of Arch and 7th streets in Philadelphia, the first three story building in the city and the first federal building erected under the US Constitution. Today, the Mint maintains production facilities in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, and West Point, and a bullion depository in Fort Knox.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Coin collecting, or numismatics, was one of the activities that fueled my childhood love history, and I spent a great deal of time with Yeoman's Red Book, THE reference book for US coins and their values. Unable to afford American collecting, I turned to foreign collecting, which literally opened up a whole new world. I still have a jar near my desk here into which I deposit leftover coins from foreign travels.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 2, 1792, President Washington signed into law the Coinage Act of 1792, also known as the Mint Act, establishing the US Mint in Philadelphia and authorizing American coinage. Before that, Americans had used a mix of foreign coins and a few coins produced by the individual colonies.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Coin collecting may have possibly existed in ancient times. Caesar Augustus gave "coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia gifts.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vinediggers with old coins asking him to buy or to identify the ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance collector. Petrarch presented a collection of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in 1355.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus (1514) by Guillaume Budé. During the early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility. Collectors of coins were Pope Boniface VIII, Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France, Ferdinand I, Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg who started the Berlin coin cabinet and Henry IV of France to name a few. Numismatics is called the "Hobby of Kings", due to its most esteemed founders." (Wikipedia)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Coin collecting was one of the activities that fueled my childhood love history, and I spent a great deal of time with Yeoman's Red Book, THE reference book for US coins and their values. Unable to afford American collecting, I turned to foreign collecting, which literally opened up a whole new world. I still have a jar near my desk here into which I deposit leftover coins from foreign travels.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNaEchaZakYSk7iNMKiqVDV5U2k2olUimjA-6QOMMyon7E_Qjq3Qr33TLwhP4p-G785yvhqD8pazRFAsIKDGPv1a6SAjRiMfYswRSrCNKz9crJ4HKwT6f_8gvL5aFc3bDm-GfEY3tOaFHaKuW6VmBtghPLJdy7Frr81pHI5vcz8EmhYk8kfyr6a0/s274/download%20(17).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="184" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNaEchaZakYSk7iNMKiqVDV5U2k2olUimjA-6QOMMyon7E_Qjq3Qr33TLwhP4p-G785yvhqD8pazRFAsIKDGPv1a6SAjRiMfYswRSrCNKz9crJ4HKwT6f_8gvL5aFc3bDm-GfEY3tOaFHaKuW6VmBtghPLJdy7Frr81pHI5vcz8EmhYk8kfyr6a0/s1600/download%20(17).jpg" width="184" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"> <span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 3, 1948, President Harry Truman signed the European Recovery Program Act, better known as the Marshall Plan, into law, transferring 13.3 billion dollars (173 billion today) to rebuild Western Europe over the course of the next four years. The goal was to help stabilize the governments and economies in order to prevent the spread of communism.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The plan was named the Marshall Plan after Secretary of State George Marshall (1880-1959), but he was always ready to give credit to his deputies, especially Under-Secretary Robert Lovett, who actually designed it. Truman insisted on calling it the Marshall Plan. According to biographers, Marshall was never a workaholic, and he never kept up on details of plans, negotiations, or foreign affairs in general. He was the epitome of the "big picture guy," leaving the work to underlings he found competent.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Born in Pennsylvania to parents with Virginia roots ( He was first cousin, three times removed, to Chief Justice John Marshall.), he decided early on a military career. Failing to attain a West Point appointment, he attended the Virginia Military Institute. He served in the Philippines and in WWI, becoming a staff officer to General Pershing, the commander of American forces in the war, remaining his aide-de-camp between the World Wars. Moving up to Brigadier General and Deputy Chief of Staff under FDR, he openly disagreed with the President on the future of the US Army in meetings in 1938. Others thought he had killed his career. Instead, FDR made him Army Chief of Staff. He was ultimately responsible for the biggest mobilization and expansion of the US Military in history and the direction of the war effort. Following WWII, he served as Secretary of State and then as Secretary of Defense during the Korean War.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 3, 1948, President Harry Truman signed the European Recovery Program Act, better known as the Marshall Plan, into law, transferring 13.3 billion dollars (173 billion today) to rebuild Western Europe over the course of the next four years. The goal was to help stabilize the governments and economies in order to prevent the spread of communism.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">As a result of WWII, Europe was devastated, having suffered millions of casualties and millions of displaced persons. It seemed fertile grounds for communist parties to grow, with Soviet aid, threatening the weakened governments of Western Europe. Marshall Plan money helped shore up the shaky economies. The money was offered to Eastern European countries as well, and was also accepted by some neutral countries in the war, but Stalin forbade Soviet satellites from accepting. Because the Soviet Union couldn't match the funding, many Soviet satellite countries had WWII damages that were not rebuilt until the 1980s and 1990s.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 3, 1948, President Harry Truman signed the European Recovery Program Act, better known as the Marshall Plan, into law, transferring 13.3 billion dollars (173 billion today) to rebuild Western Europe over the course of the next four years. The goal was to help stabilize the governments and economies in order to prevent the spread of communism.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The effects:</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The years 1948 to 1952 saw the fastest period of growth in European history. Industrial production increased by 35%. Agricultural production substantially surpassed pre-war levels. The poverty and starvation of the immediate postwar years disappeared, and Western Europe embarked upon an unprecedented two decades of growth that saw standards of living increase dramatically. Additionally, the long-term effect of economic integration raised European income levels substantially, by nearly 20 percent by the mid-1970s. There is some debate among historians over how much this should be credited to the Marshall Plan. Most reject the idea that it alone miraculously revived Europe, as evidence shows that a general recovery was already underway. Most believe that the Marshall Plan sped this recovery, but did not initiate it. Many argue that the structural adjustments that it forced were of great importance. Economic historians J. Bradford Delong and Barry Eichengreen call it "history's most successful structural adjustment program." One effect of the plan was that it subtly "Americanized" European countries, especially Austria, through new exposure to American popular culture, including the growth in influence of Hollywood movies and rock n' roll." (Wikipedia)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwfusdf3It2kLJjLpdLghc1-6ZUUSM1_dgvTN55CVDieT-NKL0bAaHSaWlUMFfg-nXuuqSJwYAFFgWvf-ItTJMfYLqRKx1ILyJF7Z6pPBgvGYEcbd_yDyLzra7D4M9fS7ubVaFAafh19aQftsF2aMPPxjLl2o6L3r2bu-nz_gAkZ2IxxT5X-hHZFo/s293/download%20(18).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="172" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwfusdf3It2kLJjLpdLghc1-6ZUUSM1_dgvTN55CVDieT-NKL0bAaHSaWlUMFfg-nXuuqSJwYAFFgWvf-ItTJMfYLqRKx1ILyJF7Z6pPBgvGYEcbd_yDyLzra7D4M9fS7ubVaFAafh19aQftsF2aMPPxjLl2o6L3r2bu-nz_gAkZ2IxxT5X-hHZFo/s1600/download%20(18).jpg" width="172" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4. 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She became better known as writer, poet, actress, dancer, singer. civil rights activist, and memoirist Maya Angelou. Her career spanned over fifty years, including 7 autobiographies, but her first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international recognition.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Her childhood was tumultuous, raised off and on by her paternal grandmother in Arkansas and her mother when her parents' marriage dissolved, and she was raped at the age of 8 by her mother's boyfriend. As a result of that trauma, she entered a nearly five year period of muteness, during which she fell in love with the written word and became a keen observer of the world around her.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">During her teen years, she and her brother moved to Oakland California to once again live with their mother. At 16, she became the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. She married in 1951 and began a professional dance career, appearing in traveling and off-Broadway productions, while dabbling in recording music. In the late 1950s, she became a civil rights activist, and she became friends and collaborators with both MLK and Malcolm X.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Until her death in 2014, she continued to write, compose, record, act, lecture, produce, and direct movies and plays.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4. 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She became better known as writer, poet, actress, dancer, singer. civil rights activist, and memoirist Maya Angelou. Her career spanned over fifty years, including 7 autobiographies, but her first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international recognition.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. She went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturn und Drang." She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences such as her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She said, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it—ha! It's so delicious!" She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth"." (Wikipedia)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4. 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She became better known as writer, poet, actress, dancer, singer. civil rights activist, and memoirist Maya Angelou. Her career spanned over fifty years, including 7 autobiographies, but her first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international recognition.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries". The recording of the poem won a Grammy Award. In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations." (Wikipedia)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEMJCcooHwOA-eZH_sNsQXKw5rab6ya4VwQo5wzP14JoHFgREGv_5yQlls0xNOr6b6fdqSjH9kOFQ84_ZyCY-1IllqYjcP8P_WQBDsaaOUmisJNbu0tWEMTGv2vTa0R5i9O-oz6QbZRVS0qwNsQ4Uk4wv5M10IwUEn58-J689uO3N15fnAQLRaP0/s283/download%20(19).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="178" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEMJCcooHwOA-eZH_sNsQXKw5rab6ya4VwQo5wzP14JoHFgREGv_5yQlls0xNOr6b6fdqSjH9kOFQ84_ZyCY-1IllqYjcP8P_WQBDsaaOUmisJNbu0tWEMTGv2vTa0R5i9O-oz6QbZRVS0qwNsQ4Uk4wv5M10IwUEn58-J689uO3N15fnAQLRaP0/s1600/download%20(19).jpg" width="178" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">People.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 5, 1939, in Nazi Germany, membership in the Hitler Youth and the League of German Maidens became mandatory for "Aryan" schoolchildren. The organizations were formed to indoctrinate German children and to prepare the next generation's leaders. However, few Americans know that the German-American Bund, comprised of German-Americans who supported Nazism, operated summer camps throughout the 1930s in the Northern US.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Hundreds of German-American children and grandchildren (and other American children) of immigrants wore Hitler Youth and Maiden uniforms and swastikas, marched, drilled, read books, and sang songs in praise of Hitler in camps over which the flags of the US and of Nazi Germany both flew.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">They canoed, swam, and did all the other things summer campers did, but there was also an emphasis on fitness and propaganda, preparing the minds and bodies of good Nazis. They often marched proudly through the streets of nearby towns, and nights often ended around bonfires, singing Nazi songs.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The movement started to decline in 1939 when Bund leader Fritz Kuhn was imprisoned for forgery and embezzlement, but a few camps limped on into the 1940s.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 5, 1939, in Nazi Germany, membership in the Hitler Youth and the League of German Maidens became mandatory for "Aryan" schoolchildren. The organizations were formed to indoctrinate German children and to prepare the next generation's leaders. However, few Americans know that the German-American Bund, comprised of German-Americans who supported Nazism, operated summer camps throughout the 1930s in the Northern US.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Hundreds of German-American children and grandchildren (and other American children) of immigrants wore Hitler Youth and Maiden uniforms and swastikas, marched, drilled, read books, and sang songs in praise of Hitler in camps over which the flags of the US and of Nazi Germany both flew.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"The Bund established a number of training camps, including Camp Nordland in Sussex County, New Jersey, Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, New York, Camp Hindenburg in Grafton, Wisconsin, and the Deutschhorst Country Club in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, Camp Bergwald in Bloomingdale, New Jersey, and Camp Highland in Windham, New York. The Bund held rallies with Nazi insignia and procedures such as the Hitler salute and attacked the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish-American groups, Communism, "Moscow-directed" trade unions, and American boycotts of German goods. The organization claimed to show its loyalty to America by displaying the flag of the United States alongside the flag of Nazi Germany at Bund meetings, and declared that George Washington was "the first Fascist" who did not believe democracy would work." ( Wikipedia)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 5, 1939, in Nazi Germany, membership in the Hitler Youth and the League of German Maidens became mandatory for "Aryan" schoolchildren. The organizations were formed to indoctrinate German children and to prepare the next generation's leaders. However, few Americans know that the German-American Bund, comprised of German-Americans who supported Nazism, operated summer camps throughout the 1930s in the Northern US.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On February 20, 1939, the German-American Bund hosted a rally of more than 20,000 people inside New York City's Madison Square Garden to celebrate the birthday of George Washington. According to Bund propaganda, Washington would have been a Fascist. Outside, up to 100,000 counter-protestors, by some estimates, surrounded the building. Some infiltrated inside, hurling jeers and taunts at speakers. A record force of 1,700 NYC policemen struggled to maintain a line between the two groups.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYF3JIuWpFlfM4wq55dGoVzS7dX0kiglsV-fmb5VGytRux6WdfsmWhzJg-yorUDRF7Zaqzd_r2FOmT_muzMzWJIQodDfCqccmnrWt0biC-TMyFk0vLRbcCZbhbgb5jLd0KQJDTWgniMdg0LoorJx9Y_FaSPZejdXVyPdwLBVH46neL-tjdnFMXE0Y/s259/download%20(20).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYF3JIuWpFlfM4wq55dGoVzS7dX0kiglsV-fmb5VGytRux6WdfsmWhzJg-yorUDRF7Zaqzd_r2FOmT_muzMzWJIQodDfCqccmnrWt0biC-TMyFk0vLRbcCZbhbgb5jLd0KQJDTWgniMdg0LoorJx9Y_FaSPZejdXVyPdwLBVH46neL-tjdnFMXE0Y/s1600/download%20(20).jpg" width="194" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Lincoln Steffens was born on April 6, 1866 in San Francisco. He became an investigative journalist, a muckraker, during the Progressive Era of the late 1800s and early 1900s. (For the younger people, once there were journalists who investigated stories and exposed corruption and societal ills instead of just printing what famous people tweeted or the talking points handed to them by the biased party that they happen to align with. Quaint, old-fashioned idea.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After studying in Europe, Steffens began his writing career in New York in the 1890s. From 1902 to 1906, he was editor of McClure's Magazine, a popular current events magazine that published other noted muckrakers like Ida Tarbell and Roy Stannard Baker. He left McClure's and founded a new magazine with Ida Tarbell as a partner in 1906.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In his articles, collectively published as The Shame of the Cities, Steffens sought to expose municipal corruption in cities across America, especially those cities controlled by big political machines and bosses. His goal was to anger Americans into taking action and effecting reform.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After covering the Mexican and Russian Revolutions, he moved further left, advocating full revolution instead of reform. He became a staunch supporter and promoter of the Soviet government and of communism. Of Soviet Russia, he often said, "I have seen the future, and it works." Like many Americans though, his love of Soviet communism began to sour by the early 1930s as Stalin's ruthlessness came to light. He died of a heart condition in 1936.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Lincoln Steffens was born on April 6, 1866 in San Francisco. He became an investigative journalist, a muckraker, during the Progressive Era of the late 1800s and early 1900s. (For the younger people, once there were journalists who investigated stories and exposed corruption and societal ills instead of just printing what famous people tweeted or the talking points handed to them by the biased party that they happen to align with. Quaint, old-fashioned idea.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After investigating municipal corruption and political machines that thrived on the corruption to the detriment of the average citizen, he published a series of articles in McClure's Magazine, and the articles were published as a book, The Shame of the Cities, in 1904. The cities he targeted, often at the behest of prominent locals, were St. Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Lincoln Steffens was born on April 6, 1866 in San Francisco. He became an investigative journalist, a muckraker, during the Progressive Era of the late 1800s and early 1900s. (For the younger people, once there were journalists who investigated stories and exposed corruption and societal ills instead of just printing what famous people tweeted or the talking points handed to them by the biased party that they happen to align with. Quaint, old-fashioned idea.)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After investigating municipal corruption and political machines that thrived on the corruption to the detriment of the average citizen, he published a series of articles in McClure's Magazine, and the articles were published as a book, The Shame of the Cities, in 1904.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">From the 1800s well into the 1900s, many American cities were run by political machines, political party organizations that maintain political power by dispensing favors and bribes and generating loyalty from politicians and voters. The "Bosses" that really ran the cities never ran for office themselves. Instead, they delivered votes to politicians to get them elected through corruption and persuasion. The politicians then were obligated to do the Boss' bidding or risk losing the next election. The Boss and his associates would receive lucrative government contracts and favorable legislation.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Bosses often relied on the votes of immigrants. They would bestow favors and assistance on new Americans to help them find jobs and homes and adjust to their new lives. The new immigrants would vote the way the Bosses wanted out of loyalty and gratitude.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnR3LIv8sq0kUoHjWO0tsy5MygNAamF3sQY-ZhHbLYlGhct8_QOqkoSMNOWvdQpBGo8WeXr4O6kTqDq2QTKRCpzwGJWW3fBIxhkJVw4DstT5FxsYRBmvqXmxSV4w9uvj6OJRS0gfeA8SDnh26nGU-FWiq3wbLHwBYeBROIy2URW1HKq2je67FJuLo/s275/download%20(21).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnR3LIv8sq0kUoHjWO0tsy5MygNAamF3sQY-ZhHbLYlGhct8_QOqkoSMNOWvdQpBGo8WeXr4O6kTqDq2QTKRCpzwGJWW3fBIxhkJVw4DstT5FxsYRBmvqXmxSV4w9uvj6OJRS0gfeA8SDnh26nGU-FWiq3wbLHwBYeBROIy2URW1HKq2je67FJuLo/s1600/download%20(21).jpg" width="183" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Person.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 7, 451, Attila the Hun, labeled the "Scourge of God" or "Flagellum Dei" by the Christian Romans, seized and sacked the city of Metz in northeastern France.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Attila ( c. 406 - 453) ruled the Huns, Eurasian nomads who originated somewhere east of the Volga River, from 434 until his death. During his rule, he united a number of tribes, called "Barbarians" by the Romans, in Central and Eastern Europe, and he established a huge empire, stretching from the Ural to the Rhine Rivers and South to the Danube.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He was the most feared enemy of both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He threatened Constantinople several times but failed to capture the Eastern capital. In 451, he invaded Roman Gaul (France) and subsequently northern Italy but was unable to take Rome. However, his campaigns severely weakened Rome, hastening its collapse in 476.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Although he accumulated a massive amount of plunder, he was said to live simply, eating from a wooden trenches (bowl/plate) and drinking from a wooden cup while his guests and and drank from gold and silver. He dressed very simply, and his horse went unadorned.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Stories were told of Attila's cruelties throughout Europe and Asia, but stories of cruelty were, and are, made up and exaggerated about one's enemies. The subject himself may well have erpetuated such stories for psychological effect. Attila died following a great wedding feast, but there is still debate over the exact circumstances and cause.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Kelly's 2020 book looks like a good addition to my reading list.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Place</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 7, 451, Attila the Hun, labeled the "Scourge of God" or "Flagellum Dei" by the Christian Romans, seized and sacked the city of Metz in northeastern France.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Attila ( c. 406 - 453) ruled the Huns, Eurasian nomads who originated somewhere east of the Volga River, from 434 until his death. During his rule, he united a number of tribes, called "Barbarians" by the Romans, in Central and Eastern Europe, and he established a huge empire, stretching from the Ural to the Rhine Rivers and South to the Danube.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He was the most feared enemy of both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He threatened Constantinople several times but failed to capture the Eastern capital. In 451, he invaded Roman Gaul (France) and subsequently northern Italy but was unable to take Rome. However, his campaigns severely weakened Rome, hastening its collapse in 476.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thing.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On April 7, 451, Attila the Hun, labeled the "Scourge of God" or "Flagellum Dei" by the Christian Romans, seized and sacked the city of Metz in northeastern France.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Attila ( c. 406 - 453) ruled the Huns, Eurasian nomads who originated somewhere east of the Volga River, from 434 until his death. During his rule, he united a number of tribes, called "Barbarians" by the Romans, in Central and Eastern Europe, and he established a huge empire, stretching from the Ural to the Rhine Rivers and South to the Danube.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The medal pictured here illustrates how Attila was thought of in Italy even 1,000 years after his death. It was minted in the 16th or early 17th century in late Renaissance Italy. Designed by an unknown artist, the obverse (front/heads) features the inscription "King Attila" in Latin (Other versions say "Scourge of God.") and depicts him as a faun or satyr, the lustful, mischievous, sometimes evil half-man, half-goat creatures of Greek and Roman mythology. I can't find much more information about the medal and its purpose.</span></span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><div><div class="_ae5q _akdn _ae5r _ae5s" style="background-color: white; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px auto; min-height: 0px; order: 1; overflow: hidden auto; padding: 0px 16px; position: relative;"><ul class="_a9z6 _a9za" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; flex-grow: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: calc(100% - 32px); left: 0px; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: none; 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align-items: stretch; background-color: rgb(var(--ig-secondary-background)); border-bottom-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-left-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-radius: 50%; border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: solid; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; height: 32px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; width: 32px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><img alt="histocrats's profile picture" class="x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou xk390pu x5yr21d xpdipgo xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x11njtxf xh8yej3" crossorigin="anonymous" draggable="false" src="https://instagram.ftpa1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/141831405_252423669685700_4947874707804707061_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s150x150&_nc_ht=instagram.ftpa1-1.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_cat=108&_nc_ohc=ijpaAHVvsPEAX884ckM&edm=AEF8tYYBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfBnrwSUDobttICt2DRhhErr7RfC-cflAEqvgipexOYwJw&oe=643A09E7&_nc_sid=a9513d" style="border: 0px; height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 32px;" /></a></div></div></div><div class="_a9zr" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="_a9zc" style="align-items: center; color: rgb(var(--ig-primary-text)); display: inline-flex; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="x9f619 xjbqb8w x78zum5 x168nmei x13lgxp2 x5pf9jr xo71vjh xw3qccf x1n2onr6 x1plvlek xryxfnj x1c4vz4f x2lah0s xdt5ytf xqjyukv x1qjc9v5 x1oa3qoh x1nhvcw1" style="align-items: stretch; align-self: auto; background-color: transparent; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; margin-right: 4px; overflow: visible; place-content: stretch flex-start; position: relative;"><div class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;"><div class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjqpnuy xa49m3k xqeqjp1 x2hbi6w xdl72j9 x2lah0s xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x2lwn1j xeuugli x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1ja2u2z x1t137rt x1q0g3np x1lku1pv x1a2a7pz x6s0dn4 xjyslct x1ejq31n xd10rxx x1sy0etr x17r0tee x9f619 x1ypdohk x1i0vuye xwhw2v2 xl56j7k x17ydfre x1f6kntn x2b8uid xlyipyv x87ps6o x14atkfc x1d5wrs8 x972fbf xcfux6l x1qhh985 xm0m39n xm3z3ea x1x8b98j x131883w x16mih1h xt0psk2 xt7dq6l xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x1n2onr6 xjbqb8w x1n5bzlp xqnirrm xj34u2y x568u83" href="https://www.instagram.com/histocrats/" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; align-items: center; appearance: none; background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-left-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-radius: 2px; border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: none; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: var(--font-family-system); font-size: 0.875rem; font-weight: var(--font-weight-system-semibold); height: auto; justify-content: center; line-height: var(--system-14-line-height); list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; text-overflow: ellipsis; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; width: auto; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0">histocrats</a></div></div></div></h2><div class="_a9zs" style="display: inline;">Person.<br /><br />On April 3, 1948, President Harry Truman signed the European Recovery Program Act, better known as the Marshall Plan, into law, transferring 13.3 billion dollars (173 billion today) to rebuild Western Europe over the course of the next four years. The goal was to help stabilize the governments and economies in order to prevent the spread of communism.<br /><br />The plan was named the Marshall Plan after Secretary of State George Marshall (1880-1959), but he was always ready to give credit to his deputies, especially Under-Secretary Robert Lovett, who actually designed it. Truman insisted on calling it the Marshall Plan. According to biographers, Marshall was never a workaholic, and he never kept up on details of plans, negotiations, or foreign affairs in general. He was the epitome of the "big picture guy," leaving the work to underlings he found competent.<br /><br />Born in Pennsylvania to parents with Virginia roots ( He was first cousin, three times removed, to Chief Justice John Marshall.), he decided early on a military career. Failing to attain a West Point appointment, he attended the Virginia Military Institute. He served in the Philippines and in WWI, becoming a staff officer to General Pershing, the commander of American forces in the war, remaining his aide-de-camp between the World Wars. Moving up to Brigadier General and Deputy Chief of Staff under FDR, he openly disagreed with the President on the future of the US Army in meetings in 1938. Others thought he had killed his career. Instead, FDR made him Army Chief of Staff. He was ultimately responsible for the biggest mobilization and expansion of the US Military in history and the direction of the war effort. Following WWII, he served as Secretary of State and then as Secretary of Defense during the Korean War.<br /><br />Steil's 2018 book marks the Marshall Plan's importance in the Cold War.</div></div></div></div></li><li class="_a9zj _a9zl _a9z5" style="margin-right: -2px; margin-top: -5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: visible; padding: 5px 16px 16px 0px; position: relative; width: auto;"><div class="_a9zr" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="_a9zs" style="display: inline;"><br /></div></div></li><li class="_a9zj _a9zl _a9z5" style="margin-right: -2px; margin-top: -5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: visible; padding: 5px 16px 16px 0px; position: relative; width: auto;"><div class="_a9zr" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="_a9zs" style="display: inline;"><br /></div></div></li></div></ul></div></div></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-69479231742462697052023-04-17T06:59:00.001-04:002023-04-17T06:59:00.169-04:00...And There You Have the Facts of Life....<p> </p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span> </span>Remember this? Lyrics from the theme song of sitcom "The Facts of Life":</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d9_rv9mZ4hQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="d9_rv9mZ4hQ"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> </span><span style="background-color: white;">You take the good, you take the bad,</span></span></p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">you take them both and there you have</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">The facts of life, the facts of life.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">There's a time you got to go and show</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">You're growin' now you know about</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">The facts of life, the facts of life.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">When the world never seems</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">to be livin up to your dreams</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">And suddenly you're finding out</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">the facts of life are all about you, you.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">It takes a lot to get 'em right</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">When you're learning the facts of life. (learning the facts of life)</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">Learning the facts of life (learning the facts of life)</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">Learning the facts of life.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">Closing Theme:</span></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">You'll avoid a lot of damage</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">and enjoy the fun of managing</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">the facts of life.</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">They shed a lot of light.</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">If you hear them from your brother,</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">better clear them with your mother</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">better get them right,</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">Call her late at night.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">You got the future in the palm of your hand.</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">All you gotta do to get you through is understand.</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">You think you rather do without,</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">you will never make through without the truth.</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">The facts of life are all about you.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">source: <a href="https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/thefactsoflifelyrics.html" style="color: #002656;">https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/thefactsoflifelyrics.html</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> Like you, I've been drowning in arguments lately, arguments about how history should be taught. I am definitely not a disinterested party. For 30 years, I made teaching history my career. Before and after being a professional teacher, history has been and continues to be a very big and important part of my life, but I typically refrain from wading into the debate. Why? First, I don't thrive on conflict. Second, knowing that both sides are enflaming debate purely for the purpose of generating political capital and manipulating their ignorant bases for one purpose, power, I know the pendulum will swing back and forth. As much as I was limited in my classroom by state standards, standardized tests, and time, my goal in the classroom was never to teach a single perspective; my goal was to teach truth and to encourage my students to objectively search for truth. I tried to answer questions honestly as they were asked, or to set them on the path to finding the answers. I never believed my goal as a history teacher was to propagandize or to indoctrinate. The fact is, there are many great things and people in American history, and there are many terrible things and people in American history. Those are the facts of life, and you have to take the good with the bad to arrive at the truth.</span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: times;"><span> I've recently read three books that really focus on the bad. They are incredibly dark and are focused on the darkest aspects of human nature, out and out evil, the kind of evil that only humans are capable of inflicting on other humans. Some people, like my wife, would never read them because they are so dark. However, they tell stories that need to be told. </span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoYyajpyhpfGeWakMqoCCrOGrlMSdnFLEZD87D60_ZxhvEsCADZc-RGpj5yVueiS366vRNNn22aXhQrV7WYBrX4PvUdnXpgBoGvvlXpgd3cZhMqF9jAPFBdIFgo2nF3QHtDk3ZC_faOTIKboZrOp27cZB5c5cU11i2ew3mWuCLXjMgEt6ZAxS8Jw0/s310/download%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoYyajpyhpfGeWakMqoCCrOGrlMSdnFLEZD87D60_ZxhvEsCADZc-RGpj5yVueiS366vRNNn22aXhQrV7WYBrX4PvUdnXpgBoGvvlXpgd3cZhMqF9jAPFBdIFgo2nF3QHtDk3ZC_faOTIKboZrOp27cZB5c5cU11i2ew3mWuCLXjMgEt6ZAxS8Jw0/w400-h210/download%20(3).jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> <u>American Midnight</u> was published in October 2022 by Adam Hochschild. I admire Hoschschild's writing, but he tends to write about dark topics. <u>King Leopold's Ghost</u> is about the atrocities committed by the Belgians in the Congo, and <u>Spain In Our Hearts</u> is about the Spanish Civil War. <u>American Midnight</u> is about America during World War I into the early 1920s, specifically about the anti-war, pro-civil rights, and pro-labor union movements active during the time, and the all-out war waged against them by local, state, and federal governments and by citizen-vigilantes.<br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> </span>From Amazon: "<span class="a-text-bold" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 700 !important;">From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a "masterly" (</span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-style: italic !important; font-weight: 700 !important;">New York Times</span><span class="a-text-bold" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 700 !important;">) reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threatened by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="a-text-bold" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 700 !important;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; margin: -4px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> </span>The nation was on the brink. Mobs burned Black churches to the ground. Courts threw thousands of people into prison for opinions they voiced—in one notable case, only in private. Self-appointed vigilantes executed tens of thousands of citizens’ arrests. Some seventy-five newspapers and magazines were banned from the mail and forced to close. When the government stepped in, it was often to fan the flames. </span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; margin: -4px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> </span>This was America during and after the Great War: a brief but appalling era blighted by lynchings, censorship, and the sadistic, sometimes fatal abuse of conscientious objectors in military prisons—a time whose toxic currents of racism, nativism, red-baiting, and contempt for the rule of law then flowed directly through the intervening decades to poison our own. It was a tumultuous period defined by a diverse and colorful cast of characters, some of whom fueled the injustice while others fought against it: from the sphinxlike Woodrow Wilson, to the fiery antiwar advocates Kate Richards O’Hare and Emma Goldman, to labor champion Eugene Debs, to a little-known but ambitious bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover, and to an outspoken leftwing agitator—who was in fact Hoover’s star undercover agent. It is a time that we have mostly forgotten about, until now."</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; margin: -4px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> Hoschschild tells stories that I had never heard, stories that are never told. I learned a lot from this book, and it will probably end up being one of my best reads of 2023. I was a little disappointed when Hoschschild's political bias was made abundantly clear in the epilogue. To be fair, there were hints of his leaning throughout the book, but it was blatant in the epilogue, and he even makes a couple of intentionally misleading statements. I would still recommend the book to those looking for truth.</span><br /></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: -4px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0f1111; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNOaTOtw4yafw01HMNB_e6TuMy41fRpNosbGwaFaP4WX38D9eJshK4hkOSgu2uoWtUAapxMCiyRuz-dc3bLxn-kiBAdc0sxpHqOMGsSp76ICr4gxWVRwUgyaDxBp-xtnC7f6iL4knIr8-8SQ-n9CpouI31nOca-fyPBEpRyUoTfaKJ5x-SPOohFcM/s278/download%20(4).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNOaTOtw4yafw01HMNB_e6TuMy41fRpNosbGwaFaP4WX38D9eJshK4hkOSgu2uoWtUAapxMCiyRuz-dc3bLxn-kiBAdc0sxpHqOMGsSp76ICr4gxWVRwUgyaDxBp-xtnC7f6iL4knIr8-8SQ-n9CpouI31nOca-fyPBEpRyUoTfaKJ5x-SPOohFcM/s1600/download%20(4).jpg" width="181" /></span></a></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; margin: -4px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span><span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"> <u>Fordlandia,</u> published in 2009 by Greg Grandin, tells the story of Henry Ford's failed attempt to build a rubber-producing colony in the Amazon forest. I have to admit that I have a definite bias against Henry Ford, one of the most racist and anti-Semitic Americans in history, and that's quite a feat, but this book really illuminated even more reasons to dislike the man. Ford had a definite vision for America, a small-town, white supremacist, Jew-free America, in which men would work in modern factories most days, and women would be the typical housewives, cooking, cleaning, volunteering, gardening, and raising children. Factory workers would spend only part of the year in factories, however. The rest of the year would be spent farming, being one with the agrarian lifestyle.<br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> Like every other American history teacher, I always taught the surface facts about Ford: that he masterminded the combination of assembly lines, automation, standardization of parts, and specialization of labor that transformed industry and made autos available to average Americans and that he paid his workers the unheard wages of $5 a day. Grandin digs deeper, revealing that, while that was true, there was a price to be paid for being a Ford man. Ford employed an army of inspectors who could show up at the houses of his employees at any time for surprise inspections, taking note of cleanliness, reading material, foods, alcohol, and anything else that Ford might deem objectionable. He employed another army of "security forces" whose job was to bust heads and break bones of troublesome labor agitators. Not only was Ford notorious for his suspicions about education, but he disliked "experts" in general, often refusing to hire experts (like a botanist or rubber expert for Fordlandia) and even firing employees who became too much of an expert. When he became America's most famous collector of historical objects and built the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan, he refused to hire museum curators or historians because they were experts, choosing to organize it himself. And then there's the way, Ford treated his son and successor Edsel Ford.... Throughout his adult life, Ford belittled and undermined Edsel, even after Edsel became President of the company. When Ford tried to export his vision to Brazil, it failed miserably. Altogether, the story is incredibly interesting.</span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0f1111; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47Za31mdzkT45likZSfAusRPyCvN55LqttQv1xwkkWHLcq-10Lj8pFKaSQmvJ6cz750vl9G1FQEasJj1GQ-VPMhxWgqnsA9FKs7LW6916Ay_wlPbgwZ8FuIQYGVeE813s9DM4o7F17VXJqfFsHyq02n6oZs3lR0DqYkDJQXhYn0m-cI0QzO1rOtM/s275/download%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47Za31mdzkT45likZSfAusRPyCvN55LqttQv1xwkkWHLcq-10Lj8pFKaSQmvJ6cz750vl9G1FQEasJj1GQ-VPMhxWgqnsA9FKs7LW6916Ay_wlPbgwZ8FuIQYGVeE813s9DM4o7F17VXJqfFsHyq02n6oZs3lR0DqYkDJQXhYn0m-cI0QzO1rOtM/w400-h266/download%20(2).jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="color: #0f1111; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span><span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"> The third book is a step away from American history and into more recent history, <u>Say Nothing</u> by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. I really just discovered Keefe recently and had the opportunity to hear him speak at the Savannah Book Festival in February, but I'm a big fan of his writing. <u>Say Nothing</u>, published in 2019 is about the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was a child then, but I heard news stories of murders and violence in Northern Ireland and snatches here and there about the conflict, but I never understood it then, of course. I always wondered 1) How can somebody hate somebody else enough to kill them just because they are of a different religion? and 2) How does one distinguish between a Catholic and a Protestant on sight anyway? Keefe tells the story of the Troubles through the stories of participants from both sides. The main focus is on the kidnapping and murder of a Protestant widow and mother of 10, Jean McConville, who was taken from her flat and her children by a masked, armed mob, interrogated, and disappeared. Her children only learned for sure that she was murdered a couple of decades later. That was just one of many unfathomable crimes committed by average citizens against fellow average citizens because they had different political and religious beliefs. American does not have a monopoly on horrible events and people, and, just like in the US, the repercussions of the Irish-Northern Irish-British conflict are still being felt today. This was a disturbing and challenging book to read, but well worth it.<br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: times;"> So just remember, the truth is out there but you have to be willing to take the good and to take the bad in order to get to it, and that should always be our ultimate goal.</span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><span><span><span> </span><br /></span></span></div></span>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6424591761316262552.post-71144211533604945782023-04-12T06:10:00.001-04:002023-04-12T06:10:00.182-04:00Person, Place, and Thing: March 23 - 31<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmdY4DT7GYTnwuF1lsoj9-gq57BiLZAYfJgLSMUNNWH1KX2uvpQWx9t1AXYG7nbJEW0dG31Y6seAiZr-0AbZv5gYWIJDu1fOyNyuPYNdNyY-mppFwZZcSmo5GWX2ikgXYwmFRIgKKd_q31sy-RqfDsYlnm2gLGJ31ELf_2MlPenPQRL24FZbPPnY/s259/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmdY4DT7GYTnwuF1lsoj9-gq57BiLZAYfJgLSMUNNWH1KX2uvpQWx9t1AXYG7nbJEW0dG31Y6seAiZr-0AbZv5gYWIJDu1fOyNyuPYNdNyY-mppFwZZcSmo5GWX2ikgXYwmFRIgKKd_q31sy-RqfDsYlnm2gLGJ31ELf_2MlPenPQRL24FZbPPnY/s1600/download.jpg" width="194" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 23, 1867, Congress passed the Second Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto. It was one of several overrides that marked the contentious relationship between the 17th president and the Republicans in Congress.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Andrew Johnson's (1808-1875) life could have been a great story of social mobility in America; instead, he became one of the worst regarded politicians and presidents in history. Born into poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina, he never <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>attended school a day in his life. By many accounts, he was taught to read and write by his wife. However, he began learning while his brother was apprenticed to a tailor. Other employees in the shop taught him basics, and citizens would come to the shop and read to the tailors as they worked. Andrew always listened, picking up literacy and tailoring skills. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Unhappy, the brothers ran away from their apprenticeship after about 5 years, and Andrew supported himself as a tailor in Alabama and Tennessee. He entered politics, winning elections first as city alderman and then to the Tennessee state legislature and the US House of Representatives. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857, when he became a US Senator. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">As talk of secession rose, Johnson declared that his choice was to stay with the Union, and he did, becoming the only Senator of a seceded state to stay in office. President Lincoln rewarded him by making him Military Governor of Tennessee and then making him his running mate in 1864 in a very symbolic move; they ran as the candidates of the National Union Party.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">As President, Johnson steadfastly opposed all of the Radical Republicans' attempts to punish the South and protect black rights, arguing that they were overly harsh and unnecessary and that Reconstruction shouldn't be a long, drawn-out affair. His clashes with Congress led to the first impeachment of an American president. Saved from removal by one vote, there was no way to salvage his presidency or legacy.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Historian Eric Foner is the leading authority on Reconstruction.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 23, 1867, Congress passed the Second Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto. It was one of several overrides that marked the contententious relationship between the 17th president and the Republicans in Congress.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Johnson was born in a two-room shack in 1808 near what is now 123 Fayetteville Street in Raleigh North Carolina. The original house stood there until the early 20th century when it was moved to a park about a mile away.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>Historian Eric Foner is the leading authority on Reconstruction, and his book is considered a classic work of history.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 23, 1867, Congress passed the Second Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto. It was one of several overrides that marked the contententious relationship between the 17th president and the Republicans in Congress.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"The Reconstruction Act of 1867 outlined the terms for readmission to representation of rebel states. The bill divided the former Confederate states, except for Tennessee, into five military districts. Each state was required to write <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>a new constitution, which needed to be approved by a majority of voters—including African Americans—in that state. In addition, each state was required to ratify the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. After meeting these criteria related to protecting the rights of African Americans and their property, the former Confederate states could gain full recognition and federal representation in Congress." (<a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1fey0fg" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FSenate.gov%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2gkdoM2PumTVLj0g4QcrfrGACYW3RWVHhrBQPhWhEQQpPE5aFWOM0tpPg&h=AT0CeysoX5Y83puZpleGc6fd16GnLDG1xnJmBvgORQ9b_OhokWqQFeJPnRJIpui7MGQUZ-0pAPpulsavbYqfzoPapQp88Ag4tAjaIVH2L8Lra9qcwtAXIXdJ3O_-u4tO7tE2ZtnrwqbCKucdvg&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT2kjs5qKE-f8P6wX_o-mn4rOcB07X4R9E2eE5rwhjdto8I5KJP1LraYkvWVesKhnxUc2ykQiIrwXD4ONLlMZvmL9ZcxroQoGltODSoVI6aCLuzr4ORsYSlUesSEROVYFpYW0Vrgt6rZYLFz7wfLNLI7tOxMsF5pGahaGiQzP6hJfo93zKWudt0S3tklMa5M--ANPUkzxBoK" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">Senate.gov</a> )</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Historian Eric Foner is the leading authority on Reconstruction, and his book is considered a classic work of history.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibMv2H-GXs14tmXEBdJbK9cJxPtKb5E0Jd8safUyFKl_mVUcsiu1M--axci1UvdIYKIDGkDidAvH9prH8YdVUpxYhO7qQ23AjSa7XiK4iy4oI15moIHYfF3KQeF_QV6haGLHv-bfCB4FoKe7nuocH-xYY_Qn4qiG1UVfET-yQ3nWp_6LTZqqFOzVs/s277/download%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibMv2H-GXs14tmXEBdJbK9cJxPtKb5E0Jd8safUyFKl_mVUcsiu1M--axci1UvdIYKIDGkDidAvH9prH8YdVUpxYhO7qQ23AjSa7XiK4iy4oI15moIHYfF3KQeF_QV6haGLHv-bfCB4FoKe7nuocH-xYY_Qn4qiG1UVfET-yQ3nWp_6LTZqqFOzVs/s1600/download%20(1).jpg" width="182" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknKPHQvGhO8vcHSeIRBADEpth83Kk8m-2kizLFYZ2o3cyGk_nKQFz6HRtiRp7B6rDgLSjNMXJUelVzf-0JAa1xqIFR6GMyGBWkEB1ID7wVUvg26pMc36aWirD3KWCSWSPpjYiBVUBCWWZ84_ICo2NaALlr3zKh3gKcx3RK5JQNL1PrOenP2GHZAY/s256/download%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="197" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknKPHQvGhO8vcHSeIRBADEpth83Kk8m-2kizLFYZ2o3cyGk_nKQFz6HRtiRp7B6rDgLSjNMXJUelVzf-0JAa1xqIFR6GMyGBWkEB1ID7wVUvg26pMc36aWirD3KWCSWSPpjYiBVUBCWWZ84_ICo2NaALlr3zKh3gKcx3RK5JQNL1PrOenP2GHZAY/s1600/download%20(2).jpg" width="197" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 24, 1603, King James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, ascended to the English throne following the death of his cousin Elizabeth I (who had beheaded his mother). He became James I, united the thrones of England and Scotkand, and began the Stuart line. He reigned until 1625</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">James took the Scottish throne at age 13 months when his mother was forced to abdicate by Protestant rebels. He was raised, and Scotland ruled, by a series of regents until he came of age. <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>After assuming the throne on his own, he exerted increasing control over the kingdom, while outwardly showing due respect to the stronger Elizabeth.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In the 1590s, he became interested in the witchcraft hysteria that swept over Scotland, leading to more than 1,500 executions. He wrote and published Demonology, or Daemonologie, in 1597 (republished in 1603). It was a three-part study of witchcraft, divination, necromancy, and black magic. His purpose was to convince other Christians that witchcraft was real, using scriptures and other "evidence." He saw demonology as an important aspect of theology. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Later, of course, he would become famous for convening the assembly of biblical scholars that would produce what came to be known as the King James version of the Bible.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Places.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 24, 1603, King James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, ascended to the English throne following the death of his cousin Elizabeth I (who had beheaded his mother). He became James I, united the thrones of England and Scotkand, and began the Stuart line. He reigned until 1625.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Several historic buildings figure prominently in his rule. First, he lived for a time in the Tower of London when he was crowned King of England - the last monarch to do so. There, his <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>favorite activities included watching the frequent bear-baiting and lion-baiting events in which mastiffs were forced to battle lions or bears to the death.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Hampton Court was a favorite palace of James and his wife, Anne of Denmark. It was there that James convened the assembly of biblical scholars that edited the Bible. It was also there that Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men, first performed for the King.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">One of the few things that James and Anne enjoyed together was the masque. He was much more interested in spending time with his male courtiers than with the Queen. Masques were elaborate costumed balls combining dance, music, fanciful constructions, and theater. James hired renowned architect Inigo Jones to build a new Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace in which to host masques.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In the 1590s, he became interested in the witchcraft hysteria that swept over Scotland, leading to more than 1,500 executions. He wrote and published Demonology, or Daemonologie, in 1597 (republished in 1603). It was a three-part study of witchcraft, divination, necromancy, and black magic. His purpose was to convince other Christians that witchcraft was real, using scriptures and other "evidence." He saw demonology as an important aspect of theology. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 24, 1603, King James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, ascended to the English throne following the death of his cousin Elizabeth I (who had beheaded his mother). He became James I, united the thrones of England and Scotkand, and began the Stuart line. He reigned until 1625.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In the 1590s, he became interested in the witchcraft hysteria that swept over Scotland, leading to more than 1,500 executions. He wrote and published Demonology, or Daemonologie, in 1597 <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>(republished in 1603). It was a three-part study of witchcraft, divination, necromancy, and black magic. His purpose was to convince other Christians that witchcraft was real, using scriptures and other "evidence." He saw demonology as an important aspect of theology. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">It wasn't just witchcraft that King James detested. He also detested the odious habit of smoking tobacco that was introduced into England from North America. He railed against the habit and wrote several anti-smoking tracts, some of the first anti-smoking literature ever produced.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">James blamed Native Americans for bringing tobacco to Europe, complained about passive smoking, warned of dangers to the lungs, and decries tobacco's odor as "hatefull to the nose." James' dislike of tobacco led him in 1604 to authorize Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, to levy an excise tax and tariff of six shillings and eight pence per pound of tobacco imported, or £1 per three pounds, a large sum of money for the time.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYjm50UbXcVeMJnE9AcFwhKCfYvEFvj0Ys22SqXje4d79ptaRuQ0gPu2RIAO6YlqPHvv29gncujFSsVLtharv-FGRM0NMDOxPruDGfhjqAncyHQmyoowjtTCnGWFw6ePtiqSCuERNDZA6akBMfBujIVTGNgaJYUHH8dcaeSLKycCbyZEoaZG2Apk/s278/download%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYjm50UbXcVeMJnE9AcFwhKCfYvEFvj0Ys22SqXje4d79ptaRuQ0gPu2RIAO6YlqPHvv29gncujFSsVLtharv-FGRM0NMDOxPruDGfhjqAncyHQmyoowjtTCnGWFw6ePtiqSCuERNDZA6akBMfBujIVTGNgaJYUHH8dcaeSLKycCbyZEoaZG2Apk/s1600/download%20(3).jpg" width="181" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">People.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 25, 1969, Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting were jailed in Northern Ireland for leading an illegal loyalist Protestant counter demonstration in Armagh on November 30, 1968, at the beginning of "The Troubles," the 30 years of irregular war in Northern Ireland between Catholics, Protestants, and the British military. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Yesterday, I just started reading Patrick Radden Keefe's book, Say Nothing, about The Troubles, particularly the murder of Jean McConville who was <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>killed by her neighbors because she heard a wounded British soldier crying in the street outside her housing project flat, and she dared to go outside with a pillow and give him a few minutes comfort. The first chapter had me totally enthralled, and, might I add, hating humanity. Keefe is one of the best journalists/writers I've ever read.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The Irish conflict is something I never really knew much about. I remember watching news stories as a kid and never understanding (A) how can anyone care enough about another person's religion to kill? and (B) exactly how does one distinguish between a Catholic and a Protestant on sight?</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">There were demagogues and leaders on both sides who incited murder, including murders of women and children. Paisley, a Protestant minister, was one of the most influential, urging his followers to burn down the houses of and kill Catholics living in Protestant neighborhoods, calling out addresses in his speeches.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Ronald Bunting was a former British Army officer and university math lecturer who became a close associate of Paisley and created his own paramilitary Protestant loyalist force. In 1969, he organized and led a violent attack on a Belfast to Derry civil rights peace march. Inspired by MLK, the Catholic and Protestant marchers had sworn to uphold nonviolence and sang "We Shall Overcome" as they marched. Bunting organized and directed a violent ambush attack, one of many on the route, by 200 loyalists with iron bars, rocks, and bottles, with full knowledge that his own son was one of the 40 marchers.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 25, 1969, Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting were jailed in Northern Ireland for leading an illegal loyalist Protestant counter demonstration in Armagh on November 30, 1968, at the beginning of "The Troubles," the 30 years of irregular war in Northern Ireland between Catholics, Protestants, and the Britush military. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Yesterday, I just started reading Patrick Radden Keefe's book, Say Nothing, about The Troubles, particularly the murder of Jean McConville who was <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>killed by her neighbors because she heard a wounded British soldier crying in the street outside her housing project flat, and she dared to go outside with a pillow and give him a few minutes comfort. The first chapter had me totally enthralled, and, might I add, hating humanity. Keefe is one of the best journalists/writers I've ever read.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The Irish conflict is something I never really knew much about. I remember watching news stories as a kid and never understanding (A) how can anyone care enough about another person's religion to kill? and (B) exactly how does one distinguish between a Catholic and a Protestant on sight?</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">While Ireland was under English rule from 1189 to 1922, the 6 counties of Ulster, or Northern Ireland, remain a constituency of the United Kingdom. The Protestant majority of Northern Ireland were descendants of English colonists. Conflict with the Catholic minority, in favor of union with Ireland, flared from time to time, fueled by blatant anti-Catholic discrimination.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 25, 1969, Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting were jailed in Northern Ireland for leading an illegal loyalist Protestant counter demonstration in Armagh on November 30, 1968, at the beginning of "The Troubles," the 30 years of irregular war in Northern Ireland between Catholics, Protestants, and the British military. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In 1972, the world was shocked on "Bloody Sunday" (January 30) when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in Derry <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>Northern Ireland. Fourteen people died: thirteen were killed outright, while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets, and batons; two were run down by British Army vehicles, and some were beaten. All of those shot were Catholics. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) to protest against internment without trial.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Yesterday, I just started reading Patrick Radden Keefe's book, Say Nothing, about The Troubles, particularly the murder of Jean McConville who was killed by her neighbors because she heard a wounded British soldier crying in the street outside her housing project flat, and she dared to go outside with a pillow and give him a few minutes comfort. The first chapter had me totally enthralled, and, might I add, hating humanity. Keefe is one of the best journalists/writers I've ever read.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The Irish conflict is something I never really knew much about. I remember watching news stories as a kid and never understanding (A) how can anyone care enough about another person's religion to kill? and (B) exactly how does one distinguish between a Catholic and a Protestant on sight?</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxzTGF0hXNUT-M1UqbqQme6xAAkelLQKMrY1vt6ARDpGeWDosju3qoLn-X18sSAfJlqbD7SWLGGWsG6Ju4X9Q7Uzi1mRf4lx1YKTH0OyWRy1LTyey-gNC9l-F65pvv8llEjUz6m1Ul4INSLuNKIjfiLG8mzQADp6x6ZqZ9l3ymXWtdqwGNTo1qvM/s275/download%20(4).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxzTGF0hXNUT-M1UqbqQme6xAAkelLQKMrY1vt6ARDpGeWDosju3qoLn-X18sSAfJlqbD7SWLGGWsG6Ju4X9Q7Uzi1mRf4lx1YKTH0OyWRy1LTyey-gNC9l-F65pvv8llEjUz6m1Ul4INSLuNKIjfiLG8mzQADp6x6ZqZ9l3ymXWtdqwGNTo1qvM/s1600/download%20(4).jpg" width="183" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">American author, journalist, socialist, and activist Edward Bellamy was born on March 26, 1850, in Chicopee, Massachusetts. He's most famous for Looking Backward, his novel about a future, set in the year 2000, socialist utopian paradise. His vision led to the founding of "Nationalist Clubs" around the US.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">He studied law but never practiced as a lawyer, turning to writing novels after a brief stint as a newspaper journalist, cut short when he contracted tuberculosis, <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>which killed him at 48. His first three novels made little impact, but, in 1888, he published Looking Backward 2000 to 1887, making him a literary star. It sold more copies than any other American novels of the 19th century except Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The protagonist awakes in Boston in the year 2000 to discover a world without all the ills caused by capitalism: no poverty, war, crime, corruption, greed, money, untruthfulness, politicians, lawyers, or taxes. Citizens voluntarily and happily worked from ages 21 to 45 and then happily retired. No fewer than 162 "Nationalist Clubs" - he used Nationalist instead of socialist in the book - arose as readers sought to counter the Gilded Age rise of corporations and Robber Barons. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Bellamy capitalized on his success by launching his own magazine and working to create an alliance between the Nationalist Clubs and the People's (Populist) Party.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Trivia: his cousin was Francis Bellamy, the creator of the Pledge of Allegiance. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">American author, journalist, socialist, and activist Edward Bellamy was born on March 26, 1850, in Chicopee, Massachusetts. He's most famous for Looking Backward, his novel about a future, set in the year 2000, socialist utopian paradise. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The protagonist goes to sleep and awakes in Boston in 2000, 113 years in the future. He marvels at "all the advances of this new age, including drastically reduced working hours for people performing menial jobs and almost <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>instantaneous, internet-like delivery of goods. Everyone retires with full benefits at age 45, and may eat in any of the public kitchens (realized as factory-kitchens in the 1920s–30s in the USSR). The productive capacity of the United States is nationally owned, and the goods of society are equally distributed to its citizens." (Wikipedia)</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In his novel, Bellamy sort of predicts the development of credit cards, wholesale clubs, and handheld viewing devices used for entertainment and news.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">American author, journalist, socialist, and activist Edward Bellamy was born on March 26, 1850, in Chicopee, Massachusetts. He's most famous for Looking Backward, his novel about a future, set in the year 2000, socialist utopian paradise. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">So what is a utopia? A utopia is an imaginary perfect place. The word was first used in that way by Sir Thomas More in 1516 in his book Utopia. He took it from the Greek for "nowhere."</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzDNirv1ZfSpCODb_vnutaxDILMJN0zQGHRkRJif9z2becdRtAjJtNEzb9_UVJUKq2mwtxMVSg9ZsflC5s5im-4qzVb15GKmysi9394-Ye-K4v9boNY7qP36TIgcBFg1KFLNqQ05KLexTAQp-XE9NvG3yYdVWj2UlLXV52NnnkDrCRyuxnINFhcLs/s244/download%20(5).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="207" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzDNirv1ZfSpCODb_vnutaxDILMJN0zQGHRkRJif9z2becdRtAjJtNEzb9_UVJUKq2mwtxMVSg9ZsflC5s5im-4qzVb15GKmysi9394-Ye-K4v9boNY7qP36TIgcBFg1KFLNqQ05KLexTAQp-XE9NvG3yYdVWj2UlLXV52NnnkDrCRyuxnINFhcLs/s1600/download%20(5).jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">March 27, 1790 is an auspicious day in the development of civilization: a shoemaker named Harvey Kennedy is said to have patented the aglet in Britain. The aglet is the small sheath at the end of shoelaces and other ribbons and fabric cords that keeps the end from fraying. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm not finding much information on Harvey Kennedy. Sources are repeating his patent and that he became quite wealthy as a result, but without much in the way of cited evidence. Actually, shoelaces <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>are thousands of years old, and the idea of aglets is as well, (Saving a bit of info for the thing post later today), but Kennedy gets the modern credit.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Many people find this sort of thing interesting. Charles Panati ( born 1943), a physicist and former science editor of Newsweek (Newswek was once a highly respected and read news magazine. A magazine was a bound paper book often published monthly or weekly that contained interesting stories, pictures, and current events. People subscribed to them and had them delivered to their homes or offices or bought them at newsstands. A newsstand was a .... forget it, not enough characters to go down that rabbit hole.) started publishing series of origins books in the 1980s, books that contained short stories about how everyday items came to be invented. They became very popular, and some critics called them the perfect bathroom reading material, which they are - short entertaining and enlightening stories about things we take for granted and often things we may embarrassed to ask about. I always found that students and people in general were usually interested in bathroom and hygiene history. After all, to quote the title of another classic book "Everyone Poops" but few talk about it ( besides your friends who are raising babies or toddlers, who talk about it constantly).</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In the meantime, look up and check out the Phineas and Ferb song "A-G-L-E-T."</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">March 27, 1790 is an auspicious day in the development of civilization: a shoemaker named Harvey Kennedy is said to have patented the aglet in Britain. The aglet is the small sheath at the end of shoelaces and other ribbons and fabric cords that keeps the end from fraying. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm not finding much information on Harvey Kennedy. Sources are repeating his patent and that he became quite wealthy as a result, but without much in the way of cited evidence. Actually, shoelaces <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>are thousands of years old, and the idea of aglets is as well, (Saving a bit of info for the thing post later today), but Kennedy gets the modern credit.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Many people find this sort of thing interesting. Charles Panati ( born 1943), a physicist and former science editor of Newsweek started publishing series of origins books in the 1980s, books that contained short stories about how everyday items came to be invented. They became very popular, and some critics called them the perfect bathroom reading material, which they are - short entertaining and enlightening stories about things we take for granted.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"Bathroom reading has been commonplace throughout history. Before the invention of modern toilet paper, Americans in the colonial period often used newspaper or similar printed material to wipe themselves, because newsprint paper is fairly soft and absorbent. Writing in the 18th century, the English statesman Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield reported that he knew "a gentleman who was so good a manager of his time that he would not even lose that small portion of it which the call of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house; but gradually went through all the Latin poets, in those moments.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The advent of the mobile phone is believed to have significantly increased bathroom reading. A 2009 study conducted in Israel found that a majority of adults read from their cell phones on the toilet, and a 2015 study conducted by Verizon found that 90% of cell phone users admitted to reading from their phones while on the toilet." (Wikipedia)</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">March 27, 1790 is an auspicious day in the development of civilization: a shoemaker named Harvey Kennedy is said to have patented the aglet in Britain. The aglet is the small sheath at the end of shoelaces and other ribbons and fabric cords that keeps the end from fraying. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm not finding much information on Harvey Kennedy. Sources are repeating his patent and that he became quite wealthy as a result, but without much in the way of cited evidence. Actually, shoelaces <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>are thousands of years old, and the idea of aglets is as well, but Kennedy gets the modern credit.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"Aglets were originally made of metal, glass, or stone, and many were very ornamental. Wealthy people in the Roman era would have their aglets made out of precious metals such as brass or silver.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Before the invention of buttons, they were used on the ends of the ribbons used to fasten clothing together. Sometimes they were formed into small figures. Shakespeare calls this type of figure an "aglet baby" in The Taming of the Shrew.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">According to Huffington Post editor James Cave, "The history of the aglet’s evolution is a little knotty—many sources credit it as being popularized by an English inventor named Harvey Kennedy who is said to have earned $2.5 million off the modern shoelace in the 1790s."</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Today, the clear plastic aglets on the end of shoelaces are put there by special machines. The machines wrap plastic tape around the end of new shoelaces and use heat or chemicals to melt the plastic onto the shoelace and bond the plastic to itself." (Wikipedia)</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Many people find this sort of thing interesting. Charles Panati ( born 1943), a physicist and former science editor of Newsweek started publishing series of origins books in the 1980s, books that contained short stories about how everyday items came to be invented. They became very popular, and some critics called them the perfect bathroom reading material, which they are - short entertaining and enlightening stories about things we take for granted.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuCaUCN2j16Ba-7RiAjsl_FiDWyMjZfu9nH0k-aUHk3ShGTAo1G4G6WmVcWUToRjtVON6hyEUq5rwQoC2KFHTJjNAnZcYlBufgCm3v1Xssn4Uer6tdVm-Az84u-TkpSC9_8ZUXTs_CibK9OkCxXqGjsxwGewK-VTSyTAZ35DxUi5lgLuV3eAAVglA/s277/download%20(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuCaUCN2j16Ba-7RiAjsl_FiDWyMjZfu9nH0k-aUHk3ShGTAo1G4G6WmVcWUToRjtVON6hyEUq5rwQoC2KFHTJjNAnZcYlBufgCm3v1Xssn4Uer6tdVm-Az84u-TkpSC9_8ZUXTs_CibK9OkCxXqGjsxwGewK-VTSyTAZ35DxUi5lgLuV3eAAVglA/s1600/download%20(6).jpg" width="182" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Jim Thorpe, who appears on every list of greatest 20th century athletes, died at age 65 on March 28, 1953. Last year, David Maraniss published a highly regarded, and awarded, biography of Thorpe called Path Lit By Lightning.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the US, winning the pentahlon and decathlon. He also played collegiate and professional football, professional baseball, and basketball. <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>His Olympic medals were stripped because he had played semi-pro baseball for two summers, violating amateur status rules, but they were restored in 1983.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">He attended the infamous Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, earning All-American status playing football there for Coach Glenn "Pop" Warner. He played professional sports in various leagues until age 41. He struggled to make a living during his remaining years, working odd jobs. He suffered from alcoholism and lived in poverty.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Jim Thorpe, who appears on every list of greatest 20th century athletes, died at age 65 on March 28, 1953. Last year, David Maraniss published a highly regarded, and awarded, biography of Thorpe called Path Lit By Lightning.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, attended the infamous Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, the flagship school of the Indian boarding school assimilationist movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. "Founded in 1879 under U.S. <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>governmental authority by Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt. In his own words, Pratt's motto was, "Kill the Indian, save the man;" a mentality which was then applied to the cultural assimilation efforts of the larger American Indian boarding school system Pratt wrote that he believed that Native Americans were 'equal' to European-Americans, and that the School worked to immerse students into mainstream Euro-American culture, believing they might thus be able to advance and thrive in the dominant society, and be leaders to their people." (Wikipedia)</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thousands of Indian children were taken from their parents, sometimes literally and sometimes after parents and tribal leaders were convinced that it was their only chance for survival, and enrolled in schools like Carlisle, where all tribal connections and traditions were forbidden, and they were trained to get farmers, craftsmen, and servants. Many never saw their parents again, and many were abused or died. The movement caused great harm to individuals and nations that may never be repaired. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Things.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Jim Thorpe, who appears on every list of greatest 20th century athletes, died at age 65 on March 28, 1953. Last year, David Maraniss published a highly regarded, and awarded, biography of Thorpe called Path Lit By Lightning.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold Olympic medal, winning two in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, in the pentathlon and the decathlon. You may not know the backstory though - the story of his shoes. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">He <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>had already competed in and won the pentathalon, five track and field events held in a single day. Next up was the decathlon, 10 events held over three days. When the day came, his shoes were missing, possibly stolen. A teammate lent him a single shoe (?), and he found another shoe in the garbage. However, they were different sizes, so he had to wear extra socks with the bigger shoe to keep it on his foot. He still went on to win the gold medal. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZP7MwrMg_kj-gEyL-SB7cK_8Ue7kIwfPghHENilkMxF3ujjfDZQKNKRIdxr4X37SoZkh2fRZnaWYClIbdnrf91jOI-XYbAEm5xbMJcX80OU3ElHp2NnPK5YQ85c0C-UrPAkbiKLT94_Q7Qzx0MftIccwPlnfWWEGJ9t-lRuZHlJ_qcxEd1s-dPIw/s277/download%20(7).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZP7MwrMg_kj-gEyL-SB7cK_8Ue7kIwfPghHENilkMxF3ujjfDZQKNKRIdxr4X37SoZkh2fRZnaWYClIbdnrf91jOI-XYbAEm5xbMJcX80OU3ElHp2NnPK5YQ85c0C-UrPAkbiKLT94_Q7Qzx0MftIccwPlnfWWEGJ9t-lRuZHlJ_qcxEd1s-dPIw/s1600/download%20(7).jpg" width="182" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQNP5U3hm-mcK4FO_FpBz7NCBwvxjnZsUgXn73EhGUDVpkMxqjzaj4f3tttB0vEp774Pfox6tqAc_u8vuB4NQNxr9qmNXEtMh47Tu3-vigsLdFAbZda-lLPXOfjwM1pCf01VWs0vGjArBLuaxyA-v6tBSVfpr9O6c0JKl3LIrTAlqBVBLGUlEttg/s269/download%20(8).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="187" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQNP5U3hm-mcK4FO_FpBz7NCBwvxjnZsUgXn73EhGUDVpkMxqjzaj4f3tttB0vEp774Pfox6tqAc_u8vuB4NQNxr9qmNXEtMh47Tu3-vigsLdFAbZda-lLPXOfjwM1pCf01VWs0vGjArBLuaxyA-v6tBSVfpr9O6c0JKl3LIrTAlqBVBLGUlEttg/s1600/download%20(8).jpg" width="187" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGfm8Y-fXEZhXAYFBETjPeGMqzVRuDu62lV9km8hHYSwpkVJy-zWbM8KZ09N7WeMD_3jzjatljI3Q0yWCQ-_lCiIsVWUK-4OEK6QNnIFk7UcQYsKz-2ajNzPtqdRMEKwh5a1BV-3Ihf7CeMFpZR7Sdz_hucGl3f6ir6r_gTP7pK5YCFemzsCulsw/s225/download%20(9).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGfm8Y-fXEZhXAYFBETjPeGMqzVRuDu62lV9km8hHYSwpkVJy-zWbM8KZ09N7WeMD_3jzjatljI3Q0yWCQ-_lCiIsVWUK-4OEK6QNnIFk7UcQYsKz-2ajNzPtqdRMEKwh5a1BV-3Ihf7CeMFpZR7Sdz_hucGl3f6ir6r_gTP7pK5YCFemzsCulsw/s1600/download%20(9).jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDmWJ10rnAXJ8w3uRAosYQhquxs6bo5dCHypWAfXFw2foDd6OuQ8iY7FO5Xa-gx_m25DaTW0szy3MrOH8wMgKata6jEM4HsaXgy4QFlrMG18pp8vYfMt4WFf_2JZq2ro2eIoKJYpBiEu3PkZy3vlZlyvrvo4i4IBOoVlfRoXy205sKKd58b8M9eNE/s274/download%20(10).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="184" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDmWJ10rnAXJ8w3uRAosYQhquxs6bo5dCHypWAfXFw2foDd6OuQ8iY7FO5Xa-gx_m25DaTW0szy3MrOH8wMgKata6jEM4HsaXgy4QFlrMG18pp8vYfMt4WFf_2JZq2ro2eIoKJYpBiEu3PkZy3vlZlyvrvo4i4IBOoVlfRoXy205sKKd58b8M9eNE/s1600/download%20(10).jpg" width="184" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WkkPnKBpz7zKcqn4YFX2S956dMv1Larb8w1aLeStkK7tWVFwjwUf-ot90yY7AGxrqeAsue1F1UAAeHEGg5i6r20px6nKFVoZJCFwpZFDSF86VEBRp7eqJ49dXnZdvPhamXFBTrFQSHovSLNuFchXszCyQcNZnjL6WVnSOtX-316ZX7hsu7Q8kLs/s277/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WkkPnKBpz7zKcqn4YFX2S956dMv1Larb8w1aLeStkK7tWVFwjwUf-ot90yY7AGxrqeAsue1F1UAAeHEGg5i6r20px6nKFVoZJCFwpZFDSF86VEBRp7eqJ49dXnZdvPhamXFBTrFQSHovSLNuFchXszCyQcNZnjL6WVnSOtX-316ZX7hsu7Q8kLs/s1600/images.jpg" width="182" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">If all goes as planned, we will be seeing a living legend speak tonight, someone I've admired since childhood. Dr. Jane Goodall is doing an "Inspiring Hope" speaking tour on stage tonight in Tampa, less than a week before her 89th birthday on April 3. The tickets sold out in minutes after going on sale.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Goodall, born in Hampstead, England, has had a lifelong love of animals and made her first trip to Kenya in 1957, where she met renowned paleontologist Louis Leakey. <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>She went to work for him as a secretary. Leakey believed that study of today's great apes would reveal much about early man, and he picked Goodall as one of three primary researchers, along with Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas to study chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans respectively. They Leakey Foundation educated and trained them and established their observation centers. The press immediately dubbed them "Leakey's Angels" or "The Trimates."</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Goodall went to work at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, and she's been there ever since. Her observations over 60 years have profoundly changed, largely created actually, what we know about would chimpanzees.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">If all goes as planned, we will be seeing a living legend speak tonight, someone I've admired since childhood. Dr. Jane Goodall is doing an "Inspiring Hope" speaking tour on stage tonight in Tampa, less than a week before her 89th birthday on April 3. The tickets sold out in minutes after going on sale.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Goodall went to work at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, and she's been there ever since. Her observations over 60 years have profoundly changed, largely <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>created actually, what we know about would chimpanzees. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"Gombe Stream National Park is a national park ... in Tanzania, 16 km (10 mi) north of Kigoma, the capital of Kigoma Region Established in 1968, it is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, with only 35 km2 (13.5 sq mi) of protected land along the hills of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys, and the vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest Accessible only by boat, the park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioral research on the common chimpanzee populations. The Kasakela chimpanzee group, featured in several books and documentaries, lives in Gombe National Park." (Wikipedia)</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">If all goes as planned, we will be seeing a living legend speak tonight, someone I've admired since childhood. Dr. Jane Goodall is doing an "Inspiring Hope" speaking tour on stage tonight in Tampa, less than a week before her 89th birthday on April 3. The tickets sold out in minutes after going on sale.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"Roots & Shoots was founded by Jane Goodall, DBE ( Dame of the British Empire) in 1991 with the goal of bringing together youth from preschool to university age to work <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>on environmental, conservation and humanitarian issues. The organization has local chapters in over 140 countries with over 8000 local groups worldwide that involve nearly 150,000. Many of the chapters operate through schools and other organizations. Participants are encouraged to identify and work on problems in their own communities affecting people, animals, or the environment. Charity Navigator has awarded Roots & Shoots and its parent non-profit organization, the Jane Goodall Institute, its highest four-star rating for accountability and transparency, with 78.1% of its expenses going directly to the programs." (Wikipedia)</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9aYxPowxmy_PSdsS2VPgfb9BrXiUQ8Af2ozQ0FnycH0lPwuyhregCK2K-C_CSP5wxQakVTG7g3DUv-YMyijAiVD29v8KKdDe9orLzn-r9efGxx3BWAWktjF3Do3yYkRk-lzvtLPwcl3ULRa_ov7VGnJzgLHbngnNzmGOrcijJAZtmq7s4RzBFX8Q/s272/download%20(11).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="185" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9aYxPowxmy_PSdsS2VPgfb9BrXiUQ8Af2ozQ0FnycH0lPwuyhregCK2K-C_CSP5wxQakVTG7g3DUv-YMyijAiVD29v8KKdDe9orLzn-r9efGxx3BWAWktjF3Do3yYkRk-lzvtLPwcl3ULRa_ov7VGnJzgLHbngnNzmGOrcijJAZtmq7s4RzBFX8Q/s1600/download%20(11).jpg" width="185" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 30, 1867, the US purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million ( $109 billion today), roughly 2 cents an acre.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">The man behind the purchase was Secretary of State (from 1861 to 1869) William H. Seward. Seward was born in Florida, New York in 1801 where his father was a farmer and slaveowner. He became a lawyer and was elected to the New York State Senate in 1830. He was elected to two terms as governor in 1838 and 1840, becoming an abolitionist along the way. <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>He signed several bills advancing rights of black New Yorkers and guaranteeing jury trials for fugitive slaves. He protected abolitionists and intervened in several cases of free blacks who had been kidnapped and enslaved in the South.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">In 1849, he began serving in the US Senate, and he became a leading national political figure and one of the founding members of the Republican Party, formed in 1854. In 1860, he was seen as the leafing candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, but he was outmaneuvered at the convention by the man that he and most others in the party regarded as a slack-jawed yokel and backwoods bumpkin, Abraham Lincoln. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Seward came to realize that he was wrong about Lincoln and accepted the Secretary of State post. He became one of Lincoln's closest political allies and supporters. He survived an assassination attempt by one of the Lincoln conspirators that night and continued to serve, negotiating the Alaskan purchase in 1867. He died in 1872.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">James Michener's nearly 1000 page epic novel takes the reader from the formation of the landmass to Alaskan statehood in 1959.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 30, 1867, the US purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million ( $109 billion today), roughly 2 cents an acre.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"Alaska is the largest state in the United States in terms of land area at 570,380 square miles (1,477,300 km2), over twice (roughly 2.47 times) as large as Texas, the next largest state, and is the seventh largest country subdivision in the world and the third largest in North America, about 20.4% smaller than Denmark's autonomous country of <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>Greenland and 17.6% smaller than Canada's largest territory of Nunavut. If the state's westernmost point were superimposed on San Francisco California, its easternmost point would be in Jacksonville Florida. Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign nations (it is slightly larger than Iran but slightly smaller than Libya). Alaska is home to 3.5 million lakes of 20 acres (8.1 ha) or larger. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,700 km2) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Frozen water, in the form of glacier ice, covers some 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2) of land and 1,200 square miles (3,100 km2) of tidal zone. The Bering glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon, Canada, covers 2,250 square miles (5,800 km2) alone." (Wikipedia)</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">James Michener's nearly 1000 page epic novel takes the reader from the formation of the landmass to Alaskan statehood in 1959.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">On March 30, 1867, the US purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million ( $109 billion today), roughly 2 cents an acre.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Following the Crimean War, the Russian government came to the conclusion that it may not be capable of defending Alaska and that it may be wiser to dump it. Secretary of State Seward began negotiations to purchase it following the end of the Civil War. Supporters saw Alaska as a possible staging area for trade access to Asia. Opponents saw it as a <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>frozen wasteland, and they ridiculed the idea as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox," calling it a huge waste of money. Seward persisted, and the purchase was made. Unfortunately, Seward would not live to see the discoveries of gold, oil, and other resources in Alaska, leading one to wonder if he had private second thoughts.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">James Michener's nearly 1000 page epic novel takes the reader from the formation of the landmass to Alaskan statehood in 1959.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOAEw-DmgUe5GihuHFpg8q0PD8q58VOuMoHpHs2b40e44lRk1oZMJz0vF4bTkkbrMrOzrF_256ZnWHHVhNLUSWE9rmFG8zlLH32mRIEDR-8_y2eZfPyTqEEgwH4WZkC-iaGEWGJSCmFNdtTX6StzrPlg4Y5FTae6N-CV1KJ026mFj_I0M9xSwuZ2k/s279/download%20(12).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOAEw-DmgUe5GihuHFpg8q0PD8q58VOuMoHpHs2b40e44lRk1oZMJz0vF4bTkkbrMrOzrF_256ZnWHHVhNLUSWE9rmFG8zlLH32mRIEDR-8_y2eZfPyTqEEgwH4WZkC-iaGEWGJSCmFNdtTX6StzrPlg4Y5FTae6N-CV1KJ026mFj_I0M9xSwuZ2k/s1600/download%20(12).jpg" width="181" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJop7wgrYUrebpcQHp3x2WwgvP-TpwpBVTovmGte_WUVQYmx2RHOPLws2Ia4xGk3VnYsIr3L4iTRNWfS5UY2nyxLhauDQZIWAzyNelvijUh30Dsqwz4iPZz9eZBAkotgpgA1aL9cAIRmNULIqrD90Yp_is0A7GvPGLDm6gdJOJhgSX7ODjKrf013k/s247/download%20(13).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="247" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJop7wgrYUrebpcQHp3x2WwgvP-TpwpBVTovmGte_WUVQYmx2RHOPLws2Ia4xGk3VnYsIr3L4iTRNWfS5UY2nyxLhauDQZIWAzyNelvijUh30Dsqwz4iPZz9eZBAkotgpgA1aL9cAIRmNULIqrD90Yp_is0A7GvPGLDm6gdJOJhgSX7ODjKrf013k/w320-h264/download%20(13).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCWo0KkAU-eh8jL1w-fumkxPomb3O8Ik64Psr48DEnFj4GUwDl0eX_-a1El1nNUCSldNETo99_xFprMPwpphCvStD0LtFY5B-Qehy8-SmYNE6WcZz5Ss5sETeajl7h7bQtV0gm2XPdUqqx4lqm9CRzjJ5ELGPGo-ZWyydqRZzTkKQK2fx7dBXVSA/s248/download%20(14).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="248" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCWo0KkAU-eh8jL1w-fumkxPomb3O8Ik64Psr48DEnFj4GUwDl0eX_-a1El1nNUCSldNETo99_xFprMPwpphCvStD0LtFY5B-Qehy8-SmYNE6WcZz5Ss5sETeajl7h7bQtV0gm2XPdUqqx4lqm9CRzjJ5ELGPGo-ZWyydqRZzTkKQK2fx7dBXVSA/s1600/download%20(14).jpg" width="248" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Person.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Lo and behold, Soperton Georgia, a little town near my hometown and the town where my father and some of his siblings were born, made the "Today in History" website that I use for my daily posts. On March 31, 1933, The Soperton News became the first newspaper published on paper made from pine pulp. Georgia's pine forests were notable features for much of Georgia's history and an important part of its economy. Soperton still celebrates itself as the "Million Pines <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>City" and hosts "The Million Pines Festival," one of Georgia's oldest annual events, every November. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">One of the first to make a study of Georgia's Pines was William Bartram, one of America's first great naturalists. Born in Philadelphia in 1739, he traveled through the southern colonies from 1773 to 1777. He spent a great deal of time exploring Georgia, which few Europeans and colonials had explored, and Florida. He made drawings and observations of plants and animal life that had not been observed before by non-indigenous people, cataloged them, and collected specimens. He also met and observed Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Upon his return to Philadelphia, he published his book, now called Bartram's Travels, which has never gone out of print and continues to inspire naturalists, writers, and artists today. On another day last March, I featured current Georgia naturalist Janisse Ray and her book, Ecology of a Cracker Childood, about the longleaf pine, who is continuing Bartram's work in her own way. In 2011, artist Philip Juras published a collection of his landscapes inspired by his research of Bartram's work and following Bartram's Travels. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Place.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Lo and behold, Soperton Georgia, a little town near my hometown and the town where my father and some of his siblings were born, made the "Today in History" website that I use for my daily posts. On March 31, 1933, The Soperton News became the first newspaper published on paper made from pine pulp. Georgia's pine forests were notable features for much of Georgia's history and an important part of its economy. Soperton still celebrates itself as the "Million Pines City" <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>and hosts "The Million Pines Festival," one of Georgia's oldest annual events, every November. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">One of the first to make a study of Georgia's Pines was William Bartram, one of America's first great naturalists. Born in Philadelphia in 1739, he traveled through the southern colonies from 1773 to 1777. He spent a great deal of time exploring Georgia, which few Europeans and colonials had explored, and Florida. He made drawings and observations of plants and animal life that had not been observed before by non-indigenous people, cataloged them, and collected specimens. He also met and observed Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">During his three-and-a-half year trip, Bartram traveled over 2,400 miles, on foot, on horseback, or by canoe, sometimes alone, sometimes in small groups.. He traveled through eight modern-day southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee), but most of his time was spent in the backcountry, mountains, and coastal areas of Georgia. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Upon his return to Philadelphia, he published his book, now called Bartram's Travels, which has never gone out of print and continues to inspire naturalists, writers, and artists today. On another day last March, I featured current Georgia naturalist Janisse Ray and her book, Ecology of a Cracker Childood, about the longleaf pine, who is continuing Bartram's work in her own way. In 2011, artist Philip Juras published a collection of his landscapes inspired by his research of Bartram's work and following Bartram's Travels. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Lo and behold, Soperton Georgia, a little town near my hometown and the town where my father and some of his siblings were born, made the "Today in History" website that I use for my daily posts. On March 31, 1933, The Soperton News became the first newspaper published on paper made from pine pulp. Georgia's pine forests were notable features for much of Georgia's history and an important part of its economy. Soperton still celebrates itself as the "Million Pines City" <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>and hosts "The Million Pines Festival," one of Georgia's oldest annual events, every November. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">One of the first to make a study of Georgia's Pines was William Bartram, one of America's first great naturalists. Born in Philadelphia in 1739, he traveled through the southern colonies from 1773 to 1777. He spent a great deal of time exploring Georgia, which few Europeans and colonials had explored, and Florida. He made drawings and observations of plants and animal life that had not been observed before by non-indigenous people, cataloged them, and collected specimens. He also met and observed Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">"In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Georgia was the world’s leading producer of naval stores, which are materials extracted from southern pine forests and then used in the construction and repair of sailing vessels. Typical naval stores include lumber, railroad ties, rosin, and turpentine." (New Georgia Encyclopedia)</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times;">Upon his return to Philadelphia, he published his book, now called Bartram's Travels, which has never gone out of print and continues to inspire naturalists, writers, and artists today. On another day last March, I featured current Georgia naturalist Janisse Ray and her book, Ecology of a Cracker Childood, about the longleaf pine, who is continuing Bartram's work in her own way. In 2011, artist Philip Juras published a collection of his landscapes inspired by his research of Bartram's work and following Bartram's Travels. </span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Histocratshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819058981582358175noreply@blogger.com0