One of the weirdest adjustments I had to make when I moved down south last year was getting used to seeing Confederate flags. As the Boston-bred child of a man who considers anything below Pennsylvania to be the Deep South, I was totally unprepared to see these flags flying over houses and car dealerships. Nor was I aware that people who call the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression are not necessarily ironic hipsters. Even though I rarely brought my feelings on this (there’s […]
“Oui oui, mon ami, je m’appelle Lafayette! The Lancelot of the revolutionary set!”
Guyyyyys this book. It took me almost three months to read it, when I expected to finish it in a couple of days! I just didn’t like it very much, and I’m not sure why. It might be that it was the first Sarah Vowell book I’ve listened to on audiobook, but I don’t think so. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and I love Sarah Vowell’s voice (not to mention the voices of her many stellar audiobook guests, including John Slattery as Lafayette, […]
When in doubt, assume it’s about politics
Have you ever wondered where some of our nursery rhymes came from, or what they really mean? Some of them seem to be about pure nonsense, but there is more to them than meets the eye. After all, “nursery rhymes are full of sex, death, and cruelty” (xv). The author makes a point that this is “not meant to be a scholarly exercise” (187), it’s more like a “Hey, did you know that…?” Like any good conspiracy artist, Roberts can find meaning anywhere, and sometimes […]
An Emphatic “Meh”
I picked up Robert Kurson’s latest book Pirate Hunters after really enjoying its predecessor. Shadow Divers was about the discovery of a German submarine that had sunk off the coast of New Jersey. I was hooked on that book, as Kurson talked about the divers’ near death experiences, the eerie feeling of exploring a ship full of the corpses of young enemy combatants, and the research necessary to positively identify the vessel. It was the story of adventure and discovery that kept me enthralled until […]
I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds
On the morning August 9, 1945, the American bomber Bockscar dropped a thousand pound bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man” over the city of Nagasaki. When the bomb was about 1,600 feet above ground it exploded and, “the entire city convulsed.” Windows shattered miles away from the epicenter. It’s estimated that some 74,000 died in the initial detonation. They may have been some of the lucky ones. Those who survived the initial blast faced horrific injuries. The city roared with the moans and cries of the injured. […]
Stick with Doris Kearns Goodwin
One of the issues with being a history nut (besides the fact that people tell you to get a better hobby, have you tried knitting?) is that you end up covering the same ground a lot. Normally that’s pretty interesting; I’ve read way too many books about the Roosevelts, but I’m able to glean something new from each new book. Unfortunately, sometimes you read a history book that’s decent, but it doesn’t really give you something new. Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and […]
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