Current Reading: April 2023

Finished an excellent Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers: The Texas Victory That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade, a military history of the Texas Revolution. It is very much a history-lite kind of book, not a thorough academic history. Still, it was enjoyable and easy read and a good introductory book for those wanting to learn about events.

Wrapped up Builders of the Third Reich, a close analysis of the development, methods, and crimes of Organisation Todt. Short version: Many crimes generally attributed to the SS are more accurately ascribed to the OT.

Completed First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island by Jon Sterngass. It is a history of those three places as resorts during the nineteenth century, when the greatest changes occurred, bringing them from small locales to big time prominence. There is a lot of interesting history there, but this is a book published by Johns Hopkins and written in a more academic style, with words like "ennui" and "liminal" appearing in prodigious numbers. The author does a lot of trying to explain the meanings of events, but if you can overlook that, you might find it to be overall an enjoyable read as I did.

Finished The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry by Edward J. Roach. A look at the company the Wright brothers formed in 1909 to manufacture airplanes and defend their 1906 patent. Wilbur was the driving force behind the company and after his death in 1912 Orville took over but never displayed the commitment and focus shown by his brother. Three years later he sold the company to investors. The book is a more academic look at the company and also the life and times of the brothers, Dayton and the early aviation industry. It is reasonably well written but a bit repetitive at times and somewhat dry.

I am over 1/3 through Frontiers by Noel Mostert a voluminous (1300+ pages) narrative history of the colonisation of South Africa

Cheers

>5 Macbeth: I've had that on my shelf for many years. I take it down occasionally, weight it in my hands, and then put it back. Let me know what you think of it, maybe it's time to give it a go.

Finished Nixon's War at Home. The main thrust of which is to outline, on a step by step basis, how the argument between Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover on how ruthless a stance could be taken against the likes of the Weatherman and the Black Liberation Army, helped to generate the Watergate crisis. Not the most scintillating book, but it's always useful to be reminded of the overbearing use of power by certain clueless men.

>6 jztemple:
I'm finding it quite engaging, but solid going. I'll have to put it on pause at the end of next week as I'm flying to Brisbane and could do with a smaller book to carry on the plane.

Worth the effort

Cheers

Since I had to put up with a power failure for all of yesterday afternoon, I got a lot of reading done. Not that it was hard to knock off Ming China and Its Allies, which is a short monograph concentrating on the pursuit by Ming emperors of Mongol adherents.

Finished The Goddess and the Bull, which now seems like it's dated enough to make one wish for a new treatment of the topic.

Finished Cattle Kingdom, a really good examination of the Old West through the lens of how the open-range ranchers conducted their business.

Finished The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road on the 30th. Very good.

>12 AndreasJ: It's supposed to be something of a classic but I've never gotten around to reading it.

>13 Shrike58:

Do try and find the time!