I’ve long been interested in the American presidency. I’ve read, perhaps, more about the various men to have served that role than any other particular historical subject. Over the last 2+ years participating in the Cannonball, I’ve read about 20 biographies of various presidents. I have books on the office itself, not just the men who’ve sat in it. I’ve read countless articles and think pieces. And in all of this, Jefferson Davis, one and only president of the Confederate States of America, is never […]
A 200 year old forgotten war that inspired more thought than I’d expected.
This is a fairly difficult book for me to review, because I quite enjoyed it but have some serious complaints about not only its content, but the views of its author. The book itself is well researched, and the subject was interesting, being an area and an era with which I’m fairly unfamiliar. The time between the American Revolution and the Civil War, the antebellum years, has always been a bit out of reach for me. I can never really remember which president served at […]
What even happened here?
Here are three things I know: 1. The Puritans were weirdos. Everything with them was witches. Everything. My notes are missing. IT WAS A WITCH. My daughter is moody. SHE’S A WITCH. My dog barfed on my rug. WIIIITCH!!!!! 2. The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow (European) is roughly 24 miles per hour. 3. I did not like this book. I really don’t want to spend much time talking about this book because, a) I started (and finally finished) it so long ago that […]
From Appalachia to Yankeedom, This Land Was Made From Eleven Nations
I first learned about this book in an article, probably this one, which shows how long it sometimes takes me to actually get around to reading my nonfiction books, since that article is dated November 2013. The concept interested me as someone who has lived in various states and lived outside the U.S., which gave an interesting perspective looking back at my own homeland. Now that I’ve read this book I can see that I’ve lived in probably five of the North American nations posited by Colin […]
Capital Dames
This review is for the audiobook version of Civil War Dames. I enjoyed listening to this book, but I did have a hard time following the timeline. It was difficult to know when she was quoting the women and when she was summarizing. I also had a hard time keeping track of whose story she was telling. I understand the need to go back and forth between the women as time progressed, rather than telling each story fully and repeating the benchmark events, but […]
Let’s Give It Up For America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchman!
*This review is for the audiobook version of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States* This book was really fun to listen to. The actors were well chosen, (someone should put Nick Offerman in a Washington biopic immediately) but it doesn’t hold up well on reflection. She begins by talking about Lafayette’s return to the United States in 1824 and I got excited. I’d never heard about this! After a few anecdotes from his trip the book takes a turn into Revolutionary War history, which is […]