I just finished Dungeon, Fire and Sword
I'm in the middle of April 1865
I've been on a non-fiction kick recently. Any recommendations?
Now Reading
Posted December 14th, 2007 at 12:10 PM by IlliniPundit
in
If you haven't already, take a look at "The Devil in the White City," by Erik Larson. Great book about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
I'll be the second to recommend "Devil in the White City".
Conquest and Culture by Thomas Sowell is pretty interesting
I just finished Write It When I'm Gone, Tom DeFrank's book about his relationship with Gerald Ford. Definitely worth a read.
"River of Doubt" by Candice Millard. Insights into Teddy Roosevelt life and family previously unavailable.
It's not non-fiction, but Doctorow's The March is a great novel about Sherman's March, which includes tons of great details. I read it at the beach last summer and had a hard time putting it down - very well done!
Fiasco is mandatory reading, imo.
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It would be good tie-in to April 1865. Great insight into just how hard Lincoln's job really was. Lots of good background on how the main players developed.
I am currently reading the Mitchell Report.
"It's not non-fiction, but Doctorow's The March is a great novel about Sherman's March, which includes tons of great details. I read it at the beach last summer and had a hard time putting it down - very well done!"
Thanks - this looks interesting.
"Fiasco is mandatory reading, imo."
Heh.
"Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It would be good tie-in to April 1865. Great insight into just how hard Lincoln's job really was. Lots of good background on how the main players developed."
Already read it twice, it's so good.
"I am currently reading the Mitchell Report."
Doesn't that have something to do with that strange sport they play between basketball and football?
Ken Folltt's new "World Without End" is a great read. It was every bit as good as "Pillers of the Earth"
"Live From Cape Canaveral" by Jay Barbree is an interesting look at the early days of the space program by the NBC reporter who covered NASA for 50 years.
C-U resident,1982-1988, married a townie, and still interested in local issues there...
Here is a plug for a fiction history book authored by a goos friend of mine. Take a look at: "Snug Harbor Tavern" by William Johnson. It is available at Barnes & Noble. It takes a look at the goings on just prior to the American revolution.
A Concise History of the Third Reich by Wolfgang Benz is a very light read of only 281 pages for those who want an excellent intro into this era. What this book does not do is get into great detail on the issues that the author touches on, and that is the point. This book will make you want to get into other volumes that deal with the Third Reich in much greater deatil, but are also at least three times the length. Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History by richard Holmes presents the reader with numerous battles throughout history, but it is far more than your typical encyclopedia of military history. Holmes adds more context for the reader to better grasp the factors surrounding each conflict. On a lighter note I found Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser a good read and very enlightening.
Books for Pundits
Thought I would repeat this in a more viable thread: I saw an ad for a new book from the NYU Press in Book Forum. The Art of Ill Will: A Story of American Political Cartoons, by Donald Dewey. A search for the book on Amazon lead me to Killed Cartoons: Casualties of the War on Free Expression, edited by Davis Wallis. Both are 2007 publications.
Indians in Unexpected Places, by Phil Deloria.
http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/delind.html
WINNER OF THE JOHN C. EWERS BOOK AWARD, GIVEN BY THE WESTERN HISTORY ASSOCIATION
I loved April 1865.....It was really a testimate to Lincoln,Grant,Sherman,Lee and others that this county came back together. After all if the south had started a gorilla war that Lincon was afraid of, it is doubt ful that the war would ever have ended. It was full of facts that I had forgotten.. and all of it happening in 4 weeks....... I doubt that in the history of the country were four weeks more important,.
Ooh, Philip Deloria. In a similar vein I'll recommend his earlier book "Playing Indian" (amazon link pops) as well - it goes over the history of Indian imagery and language from the founding of the country to the present day, with interesting commentary on the conflict of self-image in the beginning between being "native" (as opposed to the rulers back in Europe) and yet separate from the natives (as opposed to the local Indian population). Lots of stuff on Tammany Hall and the Boy Scouts, I found it quite an interesting read.
I'll definitely check out this new book, also.
Draper, Robert, 'Dead Certain', the Presidency of George W. Bush, 2007, Free Press, 461, p. The author of this book has been national correpondent for 'GQ Magazine'for the past decade and, before that, was Senior Editor at 'Texas Quarterly.' His book is based numerous interviews with George Bush, starting when he first ran for Governor of Texas, and culminating with a very recent series of interviews gathering materrial specifically for this book. He also has interviewed a host of Bush Administration officials, ranging from low level functionaries to cabinet members. These interviews are the basis for the book and there is no quoting of written reports, etc. Although it has to be consideredd an authoried biographical work, its effect is problematic. Bush enthusiasts will share the author's appreciation of the Bush personality and self developed purposes. Bush's critics will gloat over the straight forward accounts of what actually transpired and why. If you can stand 471 pages of unemotional and uninflectd prose you might be interested in this work.