Current Reading January 2025

Starting off the new year by completing Stoddert's War: Naval Operations During the Quasi War With France 1798-1801 by Michael A. Palmer. Benjamin Stoddert was the first Secretary of the United States Navy, that department being newly created to enable the Adams administration to more fully respond to French attacks on American shipping. Stoddert, with the concurrence of President Adams, sought to limit the conflict to the protection of American ships and interests in the Antilles and the Caribbean as well as defeating French privateers and warships in the region. The book is well researched and documented, focusing on the conduct of the conflict as well as the difficulties of a new Navy. As the author notes, the war was "unrattling history" with few warship versus warship actions but much in the way of other activities.

I am currently knee deep in William Shirer's "The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940."

>2 Blythewood: I read that years ago, I found it fascinating.

>1 jztemple: Sounds like an interesting read. The Quasi War seems to be one of the lesser-known conflicts in American history. Not sure if it's due to it being stuck between the Revolution and the War of 1812, or due to it being undeclared, or some combination of the two.

I started reading "The Fall of the Roman Republic" by Plutarch. I find it interesting so far. Beside Plutarch's work, the translation also includes a good introduction that helps provide context for the work, as well as a brief introduction to each biography.

Finished Propeller Twilight: The Last Generation of British Piston Engine Fighters by Tony Buttler. This is a technical look at the last generation of British piston engine fighters, those engines including the Bristol Centaurus, Napier Sabre, Rolls-Royce Eagle, Griffon and the Merlin 130 series. The engines are covered (all too) briefly, there is actually more coverage of propeller development. Then there are chapters on the individual aircraft, but the text is devoted to developmental history, flight reports and technical descriptions; there is little actual discussion of service history. The book also covers the Westland Wyvern, originally intended to use the RR Eagle but then in service fitted with a turboprop.

There are lots of excellent photographs, which would probably be considered the major draw of the book. There is a decent amount of text, as mentioned above, but overall the book is rather dry and would be of interest to only the most devoted enthusiast.

Relating to The Battle of Britain in the Modern Age, 1965-2020, one of the more general points about Campion's study is that he does tie popular mythology of the Britain "standing alone" in 1940 into attitude complex that helped lead to Brexit.

Wrapped up The Second Coming of the KKK, that second coming being the 1920s. The author shows a great deal of emotional discipline in trying to tease out what the average Klansman thought about themselves, and what they were trying to get out of the experience. The question begged for me, besides examining the resentment and aggression against the "other" that so motivated the KKK, is how much this exercise represents a hangover from the Great War, as those who served tried to get the social advancement they thought they had earned.

Finished reading Soldier Sahibs: The Men Who Made the North-west Frontier by Charles Allen. This is the story of the political officers, the young men who distinguished themselves in the wars of the Northwest Frontier of India from the First Afghan War to the Great Mutiny. It is really a very interesting tale, a handful of soldiers, many still in their twenties, who through their personalities and persuasions brought the British Empire control of a vast swath of Northwest India. They recruited and led troops, but also were the administrators to vast regions with very little staff or support.

The book is very readable narrative history, although it does get a bit of a struggle latter on as the authors switches back and forth between a dozen or so primary persons and their activities. Also there is quite a number of names of persons and places to keep track of, something I found myself unable to do successfully. Still, there are many who will definitely enjoy this book.

Finished Imprudent King, Geoffrey Parker's most recent effort to present the life of Philip II of Spain, while taking advantage of previously unused archival materials. This work presents a somewhat more negative take on the king than I'm used to, but it's hard to argue with the impression that Parker leaves, that Philip was often his own worst enemy.

Finished reading The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger. I found the book rather disappointing. The author was quite wordy at time, trying to set the scene but it felt like just padding. Also the narration seems more like a series of vignettes tied together rather than a comprehensive history. There was also an excess of extraneous details thrown in, like the type of coat Arthur was wearing or the color of someone's dress; these are occasionally nice to add to the story but in this book it again felt like padding.

Started The Private Life of James II by Justine Brown (2024)
Biography of James II who was briefly King of England before he was overthrown by the Glorious Revolution.

Finished Chasing Chariots today. I'd call it required reading for anyone interested in Egyptian chariots.

>13 AndreasJ: Thanks for the heads up and your review and the included link, I've downloaded the PDF. I do love that these are the proceeding of the First International Chariot Conference, which sounds very much like something out of a novel.

>14 jztemple:

You're welcome :)

Completed Slaughter Over Sicily: The Airborne Massacre by Charles Whiting. A good narrative history, not really a serious study. An easy read and a bargain on Kindle books.

Finished Into the Cosmos, a collection of essays examining the social history of the initial Soviet space spectaculars.

>13 AndreasJ: Thank you for posting this... I love finding obscure, academic texts!

Finished Merlin: The Power Behind the Spitfire, Mosquito and Lancaster by Graham Hoyland. This is very much a social history of the inception and development of the Merlin. While there are some technical details, it is mostly about people. The author also wanders off repeatedly on tangents with tales that have some, but not often much relevance to the main narrative. The book is an easy read but not much in the way of a definite history of the Merlin.