Reading 2013

Finished Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. It was ok, but the narrative jumped around in time so as to present each major topic (North vs South, small states versus large state) in a chapter by itself. This was effective in some ways, but rather distracting at times. I'm looking for a better book on the Constitutional Convention if anyone has a suggestion.

Try Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen.

>2 Betelgeuse: Thanks, I'll give it a look!

>1 jztemple: I'd suggest two titles: 1787: The Grand Convention by Clinton Rossiter and Plain, Honest Men by Richard Beeman.

I am currently still working on Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood.

Finished The Sun and the Moon, a very good book by Matthew Goodman

Loving The Murder of the Century, how a murder of passion gets sensationalized in the yellow press in 1897. Good insight for technology of the times and a very strong account of how newspapers worked back then.

Finished reading The Definitive Shelby Mustang Guide: 1965-1970 by Greg Kolasa, which was very good. It's a bit of a stretch to fit under the category of history, but not too much.

I just finished "Clara and Mr. Tiffany." It had lots of history and the story of Clara Driscoll - who really designed the Tiffany lamps - is well told. I highly recommend this book.

Finished John L. Sullivan and His America (Sport and Society) by Michael T. Isenberg. Not too bad, but the author has a tendency to use a lot of dollar words when nickel ones would be just as good. Also he seems rather opinionated and it come through in his writing, getting annoying at times.

Finished Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham. Excellent book, but a bit of a different biography.

I'm now reading Sloan Rules by David Farber.

Finished Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America by Michael Dobbs. Very good and highly recommended.

Now I'm reading Geraldine Brooks' "March". It's wonderful!

I have started Truman. U am looking forward to reading this biography. If it is like McCullough other books than I am not concerned about the number of pages

Just finished The Slaves' Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 by Gene Allen Smith. A most excellent book! I have put a review on the works page.

I am rereading The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. The story of men fighting and dying for something as intangible as "no taxation without representation" never ceases to amaze me.

I am reading One Vast Winter Count by Colin Calloway.

Finished a couple of books recently:

Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War by James Mauro - Pretty good book, although a bit uneven at times when the author tries to pump up a couple of sub-plots involving Einstein and a bomb squad.

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow - Superb biography, excellent in all respects.

Currently I'm reading The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America which looks at the impact the arrival of the electric light had on American society in the 1880s and into the 20th century.

I just finished 1781. It is a military history about the year that brought victory to the Americans in the revolution.

Finished Billy Rose: Manhattan Primitive by Earl Conrad. Pretty interesting biography, although the author does get a bit wordy at times. Rose is a fascinating character, larger than life, and the book does great justice relating not only Billy's story but also the world around him. Champion shorthand taker, song writer and plugger, Broadway promoter, ruthless businessman, Billy was these and more. Highly recommended.

I recently finished The Dawn of Innovation by Charles Morris, which was very good. I'm now reading Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer.

Finished A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn by James Donovan. This is an excellent book in all respects, brilliantly structured and written. Extensively noted, almost exhaustively so, but the notes are definitely worth the reading, some are as fascinating as the main text. The author's decision to include a detailed look at the campaign as well as the battle is a great help to better understanding why things happened as they did. To anyone looking to read up on this battle, whether for casual reading or academic study, this book is the best place to start.

#23, looks like a good book. Thanks for letting us know. I just put it on my TBR pile!

Finished Donnybrook: The Battle of Bull Run, 1861 by David Detzer. Excellent book, well written, marred only by the appalling lack of maps.

Finished The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance by Robert E. Wright. Not for the casual reader, but if you have an interest in early American finance, it's pretty good.

Finished Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr.. Well written look at Twain's early life. Highly recommended.

My current reading is The Canal Builders by Julie Greene.

In recognition of the bicentennial of the War of 1812 I've started Lords of the Lake by Robert Malcomson.

Just finished Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille by Scott Eyman. Brilliant book, simply the best biography in regards to writing style I've ever read.

#29=let me know how that is. Just finished my thesis on Tecumseh and am interested in all things War of 1812 now.

Finishing up Bloody Crimes The Chase for Jefferson Davis. I have enjoyed it; although, I would like to have seen mor emphasis put on the chase for Davis and less on the Lincoln funeral train.

I just started The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood. I read his book Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. and enjoyed it very much. One of the themes of Empire of Liberty was the rise of the "middling men'" replacing the gentry. Radicalism was published in 1991 and one of the themes is the replacement of the gentry as the ruling class.

#33 I read his American Revolution: A History and it was very good. It was for a class, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I've just started A Shovel of Stars by Ted Morgan, the follow-up to his excellent Wilderness at Dawn, which I read last fall.

Finished The History of US Electronic Warfare. Volume 1- The Years of Innovation-Beginnings to 1946 by Alfred Price. Another excellent history by Dr Price, well written and very interesting. It's surprising how extensive the ECM (and ECCM) effort was in WW2.

Finished All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt by John Taliaferro. Excellent book, very highly recommended.

Finished Stagecoach West by Ralph Moody. Unfortunately, too focused on the politics and the financials of the various stagecoach companies and not enough on the actual stagecoach experience.

Finished Lords of the Lake and Signal Victory. Up next will be A very brilliant affair.

I am now reading Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time by Ira Katznelson and The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson.

Finished The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 (History of the American Cinema, Vol 1) by Charles Musser. Pretty good book although a bit of a tough read as it is more academically focused.

Finished up reading Crazy Horse and Custer. Custer just walked right I to a trap and apparently it did not take all that long.

Finished Pioneers, Engineers, And Scoundrels: The Dawn Of The Automobile In America by Beverly R. Kimes. Pretty good book, although it covered so many people and automobile manufacturers it made my head swim at times.

Finished Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait Murphy. Marvelous book, well written and very interesting.

I'm about to finish, Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream, great book, I had read some books on the 1898 war with Spain but never on What happen after the "Benevolent Assimilation", the majority of the Filipinos would welcome the American Troops as Liberators but the "great act of Humanity" would become "a Nasty little war". Its difficult not to think or see the similarities with Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, USA came as liberator but end up becoming a Conqueror. I thought I was going to see more on Teddy Roosevelt but there are many equally interested Characters. After this I hope I can read The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898, looking for more information on this War, I found the movie Directed by John Sayles, "Amigo" is Set during the Philippine-American War, 1900, is worth watching because of the historical authenticity and the drama of the people of the Phillipines. Saludos

Finished Stork Club: America's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society by Ralph Blumenthal. Pretty good book.

>45 EduardoT:--I read Honor in the Dust last fall--it was excellent.

My current reading is The Age of Gold by H. W. Brands. Looks good thus far.

Having already finished The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, I am now reading Theodore Rex

I'm still working on the Brands book and am also reading This Great Struggle: America's Civil War, by Steven Woodworth, which is a very good one-volume survey of the conflict.

Finished Sentinel of the Seas: Life and Death at the Most Dangerous Lighthouse Ever Built by Dennis M. Powers. Good idea, but really could have benefited from better editing; it rambled and repeated a lot.

Finished Spanish Texas, 1519-1821 by Donald E. Chipman.

Finished The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America by Maury Klein. Excellent book, well worth the time commitment.

I recently finished Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War by Nathaniel Philbrick, and have just started Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

Finished Upton and the Army by Stephen E. Ambrose. Short, rather interesting book.

Finished The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America by David M. Henkin. A bit too academic at times, but not a bad book; at times very interesting in fact.

Finished The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army by Paul Douglas Lockhart. Very well written and most enjoyable. A very interesting look at one of the more important yet less appreciated architects of the American victory in the War of Independence.

I don't read lots of history, but I recently finished Snow-Storm in August by Jefferson Morley . . . an excellent account of race relations and politics in Washington DC in the 1830s. It also reveals much I didn't know about Francis Scott Key (not the noble character we've been taught about) . . . September 14th is the "anniversary" of "The Star-Spangled Banner" . . . which among other things is difficult to sing (Key didn't write the music, he put his lyrics to a drinking song) and has several verses beyond the one we hear at ballgames.

My favorite character was actually Beverly Snow . . . a freed former slave who opened a rather unique restaurant in DC. His story adds a great personality to the history of the riot in August 1835.

Definitely worth a read!!

Finished American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America by David O. Stewart. Very well written narrative history, focusing on Burr's attempt to invade Mexico, or seize New Orleans, or raise the West in rebellion, depending on which story the prosecutors were trying to pin on him ;-). The book is mainly concerned with Burr's enterprise after the Hamilton duel, but also covers the various legal battles afterwords, and does spend a couple of chapters covering Burr's later life. By limiting the scope of the work, the book goes in great detail concerning the conspiracy and preparations for the aborted adventure. Well worth the read.

I am now reading Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor by Richard Beeman. It seems excellent so far, about 100 pages in.

I'm reading City of Scoundrels by Gary Krist, which is about 12 days in the summer of 1919 when it seemed like every sort of catastrophe befell Chicago, almost all at once.

The dirigible, Wingfoot, crashed into a bank building in the middle of the downtown financial district, a little girl was missing with a citywide hunt for her and her kidnapper/killer, a horrible race riot, and, to top it off, a city transit strike.

Reading Stonewall Jackson

Finished "21": Every Day Was New Year's Eve by H. Peter Kriendler. Interesting and well written story of the famed New York City restaurant, written by one of the original founders.

Now reading America's Cold War: The Politics of Insecurity by Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall and The Minute Men: The First Fight by John R. Galvin.

I recently finished Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig L. Symonds, and have started Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States by James Oakes.

Finished Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet by James R. Reckner.

Read about of third of, then gave up on They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok by Joseph G. Rosa. I really wanted to like this book, but the writing style, the extensive use of quotes (with the original torturous spelling) and frankly the dullness of the prose made me give up about half way through. Others might be able to enjoy it, however.

Finished Winfield Scott: The Quest for Military Glory by Timothy D. Johnson and Fares, Please! A Popular History of Trolleys, Horsecars, Streetcars, Buses, Elevateds, and Subways by John Anderson Miller. Both very good.

I just finished No Right Turn: Conservative Politics in a Liberal America and am about to start Eagles and Empire by David Clary.

Finished Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape by Mark Lee Gardner. Pretty good read, fast moving and entertaining.

Finished a few more:

Cannonball!: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race by Brock Yates
Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire That Transformed the Nation by David Stern
Apollo 13 Owners' Workshop Manual: An engineering insight into how NASA saved the crew of the failed Moon mission by David Baker