100 Diagrams That Changed the World: From the Earliest Cave Paintings to the Innovation of the iPod. Scott Christianson. Plume, 2012. 224 pages.
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, from 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.
Thomas Mullen Discussing Darktown
Midnight Atlanta: Darktown Trilogy, Book 3 of 3. Thomas Mullen. Little, Brown, 2021. 400 pages.
In 2016, crime and thriller fiction writer Thomas Mullen published Darktown, 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.
He picked up their story again with 2017's Lightning Men, 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. Midnight Atlanta 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.
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.
(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.)
London: 2000 Years of History Part 1
London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World. Robert Bucholz. The Great Courses, Audible Audiobooks, 2013. 12 Hours and 18 Minutes.
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.
If you are an Audible member, you probably already know that Audible's catalog includes The Great Courses, 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.
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.
David Fleming on The Chris Voss Show
Who's Your Founding Father? One Man's Quest to Uncover the First True Declaration of Independence. David Fleming. Hachette Books, 2023. 320 pages.
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 Shakespeare Was A Woman as one of my favorite reads of 2023. Like that book, Who's Your Founding Father? 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."
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.
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.
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.
Who's 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.
Erik Calonius at the Ships of the Sea Museum, Savannah
The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails. Erik Calonius. St. Martin's Press, 2006. 320 pages.
(Note: The story of the Clotilda, 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 Wanderer the next-to-last American slave ship, that we know of.)
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.
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.
It all makes for a very interesting read about a despicable act.
Author talk
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. Sam Kean. Little, Brown, and Company, 2010. 400 pages.
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.
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.
Metropolis. A Bernie Gunther Novel, 14 of 14. Philip Kerr. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2019. 384 pages.
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.
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.
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.
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