Random books from walbat's library

Life After Death : A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion by Alan F. Segal

The Age of Homespun : Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Louis D. Brandeis : A Life by Melvin Urofsky

Racing the Enemy : Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Frontier Regulars : The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891 by Robert M. Utley

The Decline of Bismarck's European Order : Franco-Russian Relations, 1875-1890 by George F. Kennan

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LibraryThing authors: Robert Pierce Forbes (cwhig)

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Member: walbat

CollectionsYour library (826)

Reviews6 reviews

TagsUS (563), 20th Century (365), 19th Century (357), Europe (214), Economic (187), Biography (162), 18th Century (145), Diplomatic (133), East Asia (104), Military (80) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

GroupsAmateur Historians, American History, Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction, History at 30,000 feet: The Big Picture, History Readers: Clio's (Pleasure?) Palace, Seattleites

Favorite authorsFred Anderson, Taylor Branch, Warren I. Cohen, C. Vann Woodward, Shelby Foote, Richard Hofstadter, Jonathan D. Spence, Jill Lepore, James A. Morone, Steven Runciman, George Sansom, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Richard White (Shared favorites)

About meI'm a retired Foreign Service Officer, back in Seattle (since mid-2008) after roaming the world for 30 years. Retirement allows me to indulge my love of history, which constitutes nearly my entire library. My academic training, lo those many years ago, was in East Asian history, but these days I focus more on American history, especially the post-Civil War 19th century and all of the 20th century. Reflecting my professional experience, diplomatic and economic studies account for sizeable shares of my collection. After researching and writing for the government for so many years, I would like to write history for myself. Just need to find an interesting (and relatively unmined) topic!

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Real namePhilip Wall

LocationSeattle

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URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/walbat (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/walbat (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (76), Awards (118), Characters (357), Places (204)

Member sinceOct 19, 2008

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walbat added:
American Capitalism : Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century by Nelson Lichtenstein

walbat added:
Colony and Empire : The Capitalist Transformation of the American West by William G. Robbins

walbat added:
Woodrow Wilson : A Biography by John Milton Cooper

walbat added:
Deliver Us from Evil : The Slavery Question in the Old South by Lacy K. Ford

walbat added:
War under Heaven : Pontiac, the Indian Nations, and the British Empire by Gregory Evans Dowd

walbat added:
The Mind of the Master Class : History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Thank you for your kind reply. I had run across the titles you mention; however, I had received negative feedback from some LT members for trying to make sense of Japan through non-Japanese eyes. Their response struck me as somewhat contradictory. Translation, is itself, an act of seeing another culture through a lens other than its own. I have been reading Roland Barthes Empire of Signs. As he points out the process of emptying one's mind of the web of significations (which include language) is difficult. Currently have I have been reading material from two disparate periods: the Heian and the Meiji periods. Much of what I have read is beautiful; however, I cannot help but feel that much of its wit and grace is utterly lost on me. Moreover, my academic training is interdisciplinary, so I feel uncomfortable when I no cultural or intellectual context within which to situate my reading. If any more titles come to you, I would be grateful for your passing the information on to me. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.

Cheers,
Mary

posted by urania1 at 11:10 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Hello,

I have been trying without success to get some feedback to the following question on several of the LT forums in which I participate. Given that you use the tag "military" frequently, you may feel that my question is either impertinent or stupid. I apologize. Several of your reviews on matters Japanese impressed me, so here goes:

I would like recommendations for Japanese histories, written by both insiders and outsiders. I realize history is a broad term here, so feel free to limit your suggestions although at least one good survey would be nice. One more note, I prefer cultural and intellectual histories to histories whose plot runs as follows: First X came into power. His grandson was deposed by Family Y during a war. Then followed Kings A, B, and C, after which there was more war and so on and so on. I realize that one cannot completely excise war from history books. But textbook surveys of this sort reduce me to the serious contemplation of wrist slitting :-)

posted by urania1 at 5:51 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Interesting collection and history you have here.

posted by SankofaAckee at 4:05 am (EST) on Dec 28, 2008

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