A few more quotes from Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder. Chapter 2 follows the consolidation of power by Hitler and Stalin in the 1930s and the trail of bodies in their wake. For Hitler this meant jail time to threaten potential competitors. For Stalin it meant eliminating hundreds of thousands of […]
Tag: Nonfiction
I’m listening to Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder during my commute as well as re-reading portions of it when I get home in the evening. While many of the parts are familiar to anyone with a passing interest in history, Snyder pulls the disparate and related strands together on the 14 […]
Pauline Maier, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 Simon & Schuster, Hardcover, 608 pages ISBN-10: 0684868547 / ISBN-13: 9780684868547 From Simon and Schuster’s page on the book: When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was no more than a proposal. Elected conventions in […]
Coin portraying MithradatesThe Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor For audiobooks I’ve rarely gone beyond a couple of sentences on my reviews. I’m still feeling my way out on expanding any comments for a book I’ve listened to instead of read, but I’ll give it a try […]
At the risk of mentioning the book too often, Katie Low has a review of Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles in The Oxonian Review (link is dead). Her review and summary are pretty spot on. Here’s part of the review: Miles weaves into his account […]
The post title is not a sequel to a John Candy movie (fortunately) but a recent release by the Yale University Press: The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb by Allen M. Hornblum. Even with the overstated title, this book caught my eye because of recent discussion about Solzhenitsyn’s In […]
Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles 560 pages, Allen Lane, £30 ISBN: 978-0-713-99793-4 Attempts to conjure up contemporary relevance with regard to the ancient world can often appear trite and laboured at best, and fatuous and false at worst. However, the history of Carthage does force […]
Ryszard Kapuściński’s Travels with Herodotus is a marvelous half-memoir of his career and half-reflection on Herodotus’ The Histories. Other than a few articles I’ve read over the years, this is my first extended exposure to Kapuściński. I have definitely shortchanged myself in not reading more of his work before now. Kapuściński was a Polish journalist/correspondent […]
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro Simon & Schuster, 352 pages, $26.00 ISBN: 1416541624I enjoyed James Shapiro’s A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599 and wanted to read his latest book on Shakespeare as soon as I could. I didn’t realize Wikipedia had a long article on the Shakespeare authorship question as […]
The Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi Translated by Kyle M. Phillips III Random House In 1982 I bought a copy of Pellegrino Artusi’s La Sceinza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene, “The Science of Cookery and the Art of Eating Well,” from a used-book seller who also carried a few new books […]
While I haven’t spent much time at C-SPAN’s video library, they (thankfully) have more than political events available for viewing. Here is the link to a talk by historian William Goetzmann: Mr. Goetzmann talked about the book My Confession: Reflections of a Rogue, written by Samuel Chamberlain. He focused on the life of Chamberlain, an […]
Good Newes from New England (1624) by Edward Winslow This particular copy was owned by Thomas Prince and later John Adams Picture source I confess we have come so far short of the means to raise such returns, as with great difficulty we have preserved our lives; insomuch as when I look back upon our […]
Mourt’s Relation is the earliest known eyewitness account of the Pilgrims’ first seven months in New England plus a few additional events up through November 1621. It was published in 1622 in London. Its writing precedes William Bradford’s account, Of Plimoth Plantation, by a decade and the subsequent publication of Bradford’s by 234 years. Mourt’s […]
William BradfordPicture source May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: Our faithers were Englishmen which come over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie, etc. Let them ther fore praise […]
Picture source Before I knew what affliction meant, I was ready sometimes to wish for it. When I lived in prosperity, having the comforts of the World about me, my relations by me, my Heart chearfull: and taking little care for any thing; and yet seeing many, whom I preferred before my self, under many […]
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick Penguin, paperback, 480 pages, $16.00 ISBN: 0143111973 In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, […]
Albert Coady Wedemeyer Picture source “The first thing for a commander in chief to determine is what he is going to do, to see if he has the means to overcome the obstacles which the enemy can oppose to him, and, when he has decided, to do all he can to surmount them.” Napoleon I, […]
A Hidden Life: A Memoir of August 1969 by Johanna Reiss Melville House, 250 pages, $24.95 ISBN: 1933633557 For years, Johanna Reiss’ American husband, Jim, encouraged her to return to Holland to chronicle the two years, seven months, and one day she had spent hiding from the Nazis in rural Usselo, Holland. In 1969, she […]
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor follows a brain scientist’s stoke and recovery plus the insights she received from the experience. Taylor explains her life before the stroke, covers some basic anatomy and physiology of the brain, details what happened during her stroke, and follows the arduous process […]
The Painting of You Author’s Press Series, Vol. 1 ISBN: 978-0-557-12874-7 80 pages. Paper. $10.00From the book’s order page comes this description: Designed and published by William Michaelian, the Author’s Press Series was conceived as a set of relatively inexpensive, uniformly designed titles meant to explore different themes and facets of his writing. The eighty […]