My Favorite Reads of 2021

     I fell behind my reading mark a little this year, on track to reading 35-40 books by the end of the year. Now, it's time to look back on my favorite reads of the year. As it turns out, my favorites all reflect a unique way of looking at things. Here they are, in no particular order.

    

    Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History In Thirteen Bestselling Books by Jess McHugh examines 13 bestselling American nonfiction books and their history and legacy. The books include the Old Farmer's Almanac, Noah Webster's Dictionary and Spellers, Emily Post's Etiquette, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The McGuffey Readers, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, and Everything You Always Wanted Know About Sex. They each had a major impact on American culture when they were first published, and many are still printed, updated, and selling copies today. Each one has sold more copies over the years than the best selling novels in American history. (And many of them pass through multiple hands, especially Webster's and McGuffey's schoolbooks, exponentially increasing their reach and readership.) McHugh calls them "how-to" books because they were all designed to solve a problem or problems that the authors saw in their America, and each one had a very definite agenda, to improve American society.  She has created a list of books that are truly part of the American canon, books that reflected and molded an American identity, still impacting us today.

    In Travels With George, author Nathaniel Philbrick and his wife follow in the footsteps of George Washington's travels through the original 13 states during his presidency. Washington wanted to visit each state in order to thank the people for their support and to personally see and hear the sights and sounds of the brand new country over which he presided. Philbrick includes a lot of history, and it's fun to read the stories of Washington's visits and to see how they are remembered and commemorated today. Along the way, Philbrick meets interesting historic interpreters, archivists, and local historians and reflects on the evolution of the legacy of Washington.

    Since moving to Florida in 2020, I've made it a point to read books about Florida history and to experience the history of my new home. Journalist Craig Pittman, a rarity - a native Floridian, has made a career writing about Florida people and Florida issues. This year, he published a collection of his past stories and essays about "Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife" in his book The State You're In.  There are 51 stories of people (and animals) who have made Florida what it is. There are criminals, victims, writers, environmentalists, developers - people of all walks of life.  Pittman's style is unique, insightful, and witty, always a pleasure to read, but always informative and educational.

    Speaking of unique, The Course of History: Ten Meals That Changed the World is a totally new and unique way of looking at history, especially for someone like me who loves history and food.  The authors look at 10  major events in history, including the Camp David Accords, Nixon's trip to China, the Tehran Conference of the Big Three, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and the Congress of Vienna, but they look at each event through the prism of a meal connected with each event. Each event is discussed in detail and put into the context of world history, but they also go into great detail about the big meal served during the event, describing its significance, even including the menu and the recipes. It's great fun, and I learned a lot of history too. And it reminds me of a culminating assignment I often assigned in American and European history; students were required to create a dinner party of historical figures, designing the venue, décor, and menu and explaining what happened and why they invited each guest. (Look for a future  Histocrats classroom blog on that assignment.)

    We Had a Little Real Estate Problem by Kliph Nesteroff may be my favorite read of the year. The cover calls it the "story of Native Americans & comedy," but it is so much more. It's a book about Native American History in general and about the common misconception that Native Americans are always  humorless and solemn. That misconception comes from more than a century of  perpetuated stereotypes and racism in pop culture. Nesteroff tells the story of contemporary Native American actors, stand up comedians, and sketch comedians as well as legendary past performers like Will Rogers who worked, and are working, to not only build a career in entertainment, but also to shatter those misconceptions and stereotypes. Nesteroff is a great historian of comedy, having previously written The Comedians, a thorough history of 20th century comedy.  This is a must read book if you enjoy Native American history and/or the history of comedy/entertainment.

O, PIoneers!

     Real history often is, by definition, pioneer history. I mean, we don't usually remember runners-up or second place finishers. For whatever reason, the American spirit seems to be linked to the pioneer spirit. These books tell the stories of pioneers.

    Everybody of a certain age knows the name Daniel Boone from their childhood; he's one of the American pioneers who has been mythologized. Even before his death, his name was known far and wide, and stories were told of him as a trailblazer, literally leading the first white settlers into what is now Kentucky, and Indian fighter. He's been the subject of plays, books, and tv shows. Authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's recently published Blood and Treasure endeavors to tell the full story of the man behind the legend.  It's a page-turner for sure; Boone's life may have been even more thrilling than portrayed in popular culture. I learned a lot about Boone, and I learned even more about the Native Americans of that region and the politics within their tribes and amongst the tribes, very complicated from the beginning but when you throw in the French, British, and Americans, everything becomes even more complicated. And Daniel Boone was in the middle of all of this. I recommend this book. 

    Unlike Daniel Boone, most Americans have probably never heard of Eliza Lucas, the woman credited with making indigo a viable cash crop on South Carolina plantations in the 18th century. The Indigo Girl  is a work of historical fiction that is based on a lot of historical research, including Lucas' own letters. In 1739, Lucas' father leaves his family in search of military glory for himself, leaving 16-year old Eliza in charge of running three South Carolina plantations. While her mother works hard to get her married to a man who will save the family fortune, Lucas has no desire to marry. She throws herself headfirst into the problems of the plantation, and she decides to grow indigo (used for making indigo dye), a valuable cash crop that had not been successfully grown in the colonies. After many setbacks and several years, she succeeds, and indigo becomes a valuable cash crop on the South Carolina and Georgia coast. ( A lot of people don't realize that cotton didn't become a hugely successful cash crop until after 1800 and the invention of the cotton gin. Rice, indigo, and tobacco were the most important southern crops.)

    Eugene Bullard was the son of a formerly enslaved man and an indigenous Creek woman born into a life of sharecropping in southwest Georgia in 1895. Very few avenues were open to him, and most of his contemporaries found themselves trapped in the endless cycle of sharecropping life in Jim Crow Georgia. Bullard would ever be satisfied in that life, however. He left home at age 11, eventually making his way to Europe where he became a boxer and a stage performer. Settling in Paris, he continued as a boxer and worked in various nightclubs. Then World War I broke out, and Bullard enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. One thing led to another, and he soon found himself in pilot training, and he became the first black American military pilot in history, but he flew for the French army, not the American. After the war, he resumed the Parisian nightclub life, managing clubs at the height of the jazz age.  It's a great story.

    Most recently, I've finished Murder at the Mission. It's the story of the first white American missionaries in the Oregon territory, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. The Whitmans built a mission and lived among the Cayuse Indians for a few years before they were killed. Their killing became a martyrdom in American history, particularly in the history of the Pacific Northwest. Murder  is an excellent account of the Whitmans' lives and deaths, but that's not really the author's main purpose. The book's subject is really the power of myth-making in American history, the story of how the Whitmans' lives and deaths were manipulated by others in order to further their own personal and professional lives and fortunes. It's an excellent study of how history can be be manufactured and manipulated, with the effects lasting for generations.