Current Reading - February 2024

First up with War, Revolution, and Nation-Making in Lithuania, 1914-1923. While there is a lot of military detail in this work, the author is as concerned with politics and social formation as he is with the nuts and bolts of military mobilization.

I finished The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto.

This is a fascinating and very well-written and deeply researched history of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, the town on Manhattan Island that was eventually taken over by the English and became New York City. Dutch holdings at the time ranged as far north as the settlement that eventually became Syracuse, NY, and as far south as the Delaware River. In grammar school in New Jersey in the 1960s, we were barely taught about the importance of New Amsterdam. Peter Minuit and Peter Stuyvesant became vaguely familiar names, but essentially no details about them were taught. We knew about the Dutch presence mostly through place names and through old storybooks like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But Shorto's narrative shines a bright light on the history of the Dutch in 17th century North America, and on the the degree to which Dutch influence molded the spirit of the multi-cultural, exuberant, dynamic city that New York City grew into.

I finished The Trackless Trail. Didn't even knew I had it as a small 36 page book(let?) can easily disappear in the unread pile! It talks about the Underground Railroad from the Civil War with a focus on Chester County, PA. This was one of the busier areas with many 'conductors'. I did enjoy it.

Completed a very unusual The Romance of Engines by Takashi Suzuki. It is partly a history book, partly an engineering book and partly a philosophy book. Being a retired engineer I rather enjoyed it, but it would probably be of less interest to the more general reader.

Completed Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard. The author is a rare creature, a very well accredited academic who can actually communicate with us common folk. This is not her best book but it does, by dealing with different themes of imperial life in a non sequential fashion over the two centuries beginning with Augustus, paint a revealing picture of what it was to rule as, and be ruled by, an autocratic emperor.

Finished Assyria, which impressed me, but not quite as much as I expected to be impressed. For a book that deals tacitly with a lot of military history, Frahm does remarkably little to integrate that aspect into his analysis. Even if Frahm's opinion of the Assyrian military was simply that for the longest time they had the biggest battalions, I would have liked to have known that.

Wrapped up A Great and Terrible King, which seems like a strong biography of Edward I, and suggests, that, at his best, the man did rise above being no more than an "efficient thug." To put it another way, you could also say that in the pursuit of state-building, expediency was no crime to Edward; until it provoked disaster.

>7 Shrike58: Thanks for posting about this book, I've got another book by the author and enjoyed it.

Finished On Savage Shores, where the author has the ambitious aim to use the experiences of indigenous folk of the Western Hemisphere who were dragged off to Europe as a mirror to the violence of those Europeans. The basic problem is that Pennock simply doesn't have enough material to support any argument besides that many were the crimes committed against these people. Maybe it seemed like enough to a European author to preach against these crimes, but as an archivist who dealt with researchers trying to examine the side affects of wars of the U.S. federal government on the First Nations, I was underwhelmed. I wanted analysis, not polemic.

Finished from the library: Teddy and Booker T. by Brian Kilmeade

Finished a monumental James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest by Albro Martin. Hill was one of those larger than life individuals from the last third of the 19th century who accomplished so much in their field, in this case railroading, but also was involved in so much more. He was known as the Empire Builder which was certainly true. This book was originally released in 1976 and as the introduction notes, the author was the first biographer in over a half century who had access to the Hill papers, which comprise over 450 linear feet of letters, journals and other papers. The author's other books are focused on railroads and he is not unsympathetic towards Hill but I think he represents him fairly. It is a very readable book and quite enjoyable. Highly recommended.

>11 jztemple: As someone who easily thinks in linear feet, that's a lot of boxes!

Wrapped up The Rise of Rome, a crisp analytic narrative of how Rome became Rome. I thought it was well done.

Finished Finale at Flensburg: The Story Of Field Marshal Montgomery's Battle For The Baltic by Charles Whiting. The title belies the scope of the book, it not only narrates Monty's very late war thrust to seal off Denmark from the approaching Russians, it also discusses all the end of war activities, including the long and complex surrenders of the various German forces, including those on the Channel Islands, Texel off the Dutch coast and the "fortresses" such as Dunkirk that were held by the Germans till the end of the war as Eisenhower didn't think they were worth the time and effort to subdue. Highly recommended.

I completed going through Montana A State Guide a part of the American Guide Series The chapters about agriculture, labor, industry and commerce and transportation are interesting. There are a few references to Charlie Russell but at least one I checked doesn't appear on the page number in the index. Onward to the next state.

I finished Caesar: A Biography by Christian Meier. It was well written. Meier did a good job with conveying what the political and social life was like during Caesar's time, and provides a good overview of Caesar's life. There's some areas of Caesar's life that aren't specifically attested to in sources, such as his childhood, where Meier extrapolates what it may have been like based on what life was like at the time. However, Meier also tries to surmise certain things, such as motives, without provided specific sources or a pathway of how he arrived at the conclusion. Minor complaint is that Meier references certain authors, but doesn't mention the book or part of the book he derived his information from.

The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes
Figes has written some very good books on Russian history, and in some ways I think this is best. As a narrative of 'Russia' from 500 to 2023 it is brief, not a source of detailed information.
The value of this book is the way it follows the myths that have supported the self perception of Russians as a unique people, namely Holy Russia, the Holy Tsar, the Russian Soul and Moscow as the Third Rome. These myths, much modified, are still in force in the time of Putin.
This is what I like about studying history, in which I got a Master's Degree so long ago as to be an historical times. I call it 'connecting the dots.' To understand an historicall event you have to understand what preceded it, and what followed it, and so on.

wifedom about the wife of HG Orwell, excellent read showing how she was missing from much of the biographies Orwell and why. This was no wallflower; she played a big part in his writing, she followed him to spain during the civil war; a place where her intelligence and bravery showed over his. Very interesting showing how women can be made invisible.

>17 scunliffe: This is what I like about studying history, in which I got a Master's Degree so long ago as to be an historical times. I call it 'connecting the dots.' To understand an historicall event you have to understand what preceded it, and what followed it, and so on.

Yes! I remember watching "Connections" back in the day and was hooked. Love that way of looking as our world

>19 cindydavid4: " I call it 'connecting the dots.' To understand an historicall event you have to understand what preceded it, and what followed it, and so on."

My junior high school history teacher, Mr. Penberthy, used to refer to "the funnel of causality." Rather than thinking of one event being caused wholly by a single preceding event or action, he told us to imagine a funnel. A whole bunch of "causes" went into the top of the funnel from many different directions, and what came out the bottom, an amalgam of everything that had gone into the top fused together, was the "result."

I love discovering interesting LibraryThing Groups! I'm currently reading The Warburgs by Ron Chernow. It's a biography of a Jewish banking family who began their bank in Hamburg, Germany in the the late 1700s, and eventually branched out into an American banking family. I'm up to the beginning of Hitler's rule in Germany and it's beginning to get very dark and gloomy. They were a family I had never heard of -- advisors to kaisers and presidents, very influential in their day, but unfortunately, the wrong religion in the wrong country at the wrong time.

review of wifedom is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/356174#n8440699

Finished Evelyn Wood VC - Pillar of Empire by Stephen Manning. Wood can be considered one of the big three of Victorian generals, along with Wolseley and Roberts, although some might disagree. Starting off as a naval midshipman and then joining the army, he fought in the Crimean War, Indian Mutiny, Third Anglo-Ashanti War, Anglo-Zulu War, First Boer War and Mahdist War. Due to a falling out with Wolseley he never saw frontline action again, but instead became an important member of the reform movement for the army as well as instrumental in updating the training methods and treatment of recruits and soldiers. Manning's biography is very well written, considering the scope of Wood's life and activities, and is a fairly evenhanded treatment. I read a Kindle version with no maps which might put off some people but since Victorian era warfare is pretty familiar to me I didn't find it an handicap. Highly recommended.

From the library:
Fortune's Bazaar: the Making of Hong Kong by Vaudine England (2023)
Social history of Hong Kong from an obscure fishing spot to thriving city on the Chinese coast. The epilogue covers post-British handover until now.

The Genius of Israel: the Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World by Dan Senor and Saul Singer (2023)
This book was published before October 2023.

A few hours before the end of February, I finished Lieu's Manichaeism in the later Roman Empire and medieval China. Unlike previous things I've read about Manichaeism, which have been more focused on doctrinal matters, this one is mostly about the history of the community of believers, and especially their fates in Rome and China. The focus on the westernmost and easternmost regions of the sect's expansion is mostly due to those being the areas of Lieu's expertise.

I recently read about this in gardens of light a historical fiction story about Mani and the beginings of the religion. Really fascinating. I wanted more information but couldnt find it so perhops Ill try that one