Current Reading: December 2022

Knocked off Winged Bull, a popular account of Henry Layard. Deals much more with the man's career as a diplomat than as an archaeologist.

Not sure if I mentioned in November that I'm reading The Emperor Maurice and His Historian, by Whitby. It's more about Maurice's wars that the titular historian, Theophylact Simocatta wrote about than about the men themselves.

Kentucky A Guide To the Bluegrass State was an OK read. It is part of the American Guid Series. This series was created by the Federal Writers Project.

A number of interesting cities in this state. In the general background the History is the usual largest section. The second one is typically is manufacturing. Not in Kentucky! It's the chapter on "Kentucky Thoroubreds"!

Finished French Secret Projects 3, which deals with a positive extravaganza of spaceplane concepts; real "Thunderbirds Are Go!" stuff. If only money grew on trees!

I finished Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs. This is an extremely well written and harrowing autobiography of a woman who, born in 1813, grew up a slave in North Carolina. Jacobs' book, published after her eventual escape to the North, became an important document in the abolitionist fight against slavery. Although not the first slave testimony, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was the first widely distributed slave account written by a woman. Jacobs provides a detailed, horrific picture of chattel slavery.

Reading some local history titles published by History Press from the library.
Finished: Virginia's Legendary Santa Trains by Donna Strother Deekens and Doug Riddell

Next up: A Culinary History of Delmarva: From the Bay to the Sea by Curtis J. Badger

Finished a very interesting Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune: How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen's England by Rory Muir. Muir is more know for his military histories but this is also an excellent history as well. The reference to Jane Austen is used in two ways. One refers to the boys of the Austen family who went into various careers which fits nicely into the scope of the book. The other refers to some of the characters in her novels. Muir does go far beyond just Jane Austen's world, using many studies and personal histories to explore the opportunities for those younger sons who were not to inherit the family money and/or title. It is an interesting look at society and professions in the late 1700s and early 1800s in England and beyond. Very much recommended.

Knocked off The Cherokee Diaspora, a rather dry work, but useful if you're trying to get an overview of the conflicts involved in maintaining Cherokee ethnic identity in the face of sustained oppression by the U.S. federal government.

Completed a quick John Tyler: The American Presidents Series: The 10th President, 1841-1845 by Gary May. Though not a deep study it was a good overview look at Tyler and worth the time to read. I picked it up as a Kindle sale item and while I wouldn't pay full price for another, I might pick one up on another sale.

Neglected to add these posts I made in the military history topic over here as well, for those who don't follow both topics

Finished The History of Landmines by Mike Croll. Very good overview of the use of landmines in warfare, as well as landmine clearing. It was published in 1998 so it is rather dated regarding the newer aspects of mine warfare.

Completed Brave Men's Blood: The Epic of the Zulu War, 1879 by Ian Knight. Very good history, although more of an overview due to the large number of illustrations in the book, which are very good and as the author points out, he tried to use drawings, paintings and photographs not previously used in other histories. Includes maps of all the major battles.

Having finished The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony, it should be noted that this is as much a political and social history of Quebec in 1774-1775, as it is the analysis of why a military campaign failed.

From the library: Sister Novelists by Devoney Looser
Biography of Jane and Anna Maria Porter, two sisters who were best selling UK novelists of the day in early 19th century. They were a major influence on the historical fiction genre.

Got through A History of Steamboating on the Upper Missouri River by William E. Lass. The book starts off with recounting the efforts to run steamboats up the Missouri past Indians, sandbars, snags and low water which was interesting, but about midway through it devolves into which steamboat company ran so many tons to this or that place for so much per pound. Not a bad book and certainly it has its place in recording the economic history of the river, but the general reader would likely find it rather dull and repetitive.

Read/skimmed through a couple of non-traditional history books, Grand Prix Reflections: From the 2 1/2-Litre Formula 1 Era, 1954-1960 by Anthony Pritchard and American Watchmaking: A Technical History of the American Watch Industry 1850-1930 by Michael Harrold.

Finished an old Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II book, Barrage: The Guns in Action by Ian V. Hogg. This is one of the better books in the series as instead of talking about the hardware, which Hogg did in two others of these books, the author instead discussed how artillery was used (and misused). There is a chapter on WW1 on the Western Front. The are also chapters on WW2 in North Africa, the Eastern Front, Italy, the Far East and the assault into Germany. There is also an excellent chapter where Hogg describes how a field artillery regiment worked, chains of command, locations, communications and the preparation, distribution and implementation of firing orders.

Finished Space Odyssey, a blow-by-blow account of the making of "2001;" with many of the people involved in the film, including Kubrick's widow Christiane, Arthur C. Clarke and special-affects maven Doug Trumbull, providing insight.

Just before the year's end I finished The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, C.L.R. James' classic history of the Haitian Revolution and biography of its brilliant and charismatic leader, Tousaint L'Overture. This is a fascinating, multi-dimensional history and biography of a chapter of history I knew very little about. The book was originally published in 1938. My copy was a second printing of the book's 1971 republishing with a new introduction and an appendix by the author.

Completed my last book of the year, Tracks in the Sea: Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Mapping of the Oceans by Chester G. Hearn. Reasonably good biography with an author who knows his nautical terms. Maury is well know as the "Pathfinder of the Seas", compiling vast amounts of information in order to produce charts and books that help guide sailing ships through the second half of the nineteenth century, but his career as a naval officer afloat is also quite interesting.

My last is Slugfest, which concentrates on Marvel and DC as denizens of the New York publishing industry; somewhat future-proofing the book. The author further future-proofed his book by observing that once you've achieved cultural preeminence there's no way to go but down!