A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

An animated version of Zinn’s essay, Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me about the American Empire.

FYI

The hot history book of the year is The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson. This bad boy weighs in at a hefty 588 pages with an additional 150 or so pages of end notes. For you history buffs, run don't walk to your local library to check out a copy. For the rest of you non-history buffs this may be a little overwhelming.

Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution by Simon Schama

Very readable nonfiction account of a little known migration that resulted in runaway slaves siding with England during the American Revolution and their struggle to become free. The promised land is Sierra Leone and the unlikely moses was Thomas Clarkson, an undistinguished second son. After getting to know some of the slaves who had risked their lives to fight with the British army, Thomas became a relentless advocate for and leader of over 1,000 ex-slaves.

Sadly, the dream of abolitionists and Thomas Clarkson of a free black self-governing colony in Sierra Leone did not come to pass but the tale is still riveting and the historical figures are well drawn.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

Nathanial Philbrick is one of the new breed of non-fiction writer, whose scholarly, meticulous work is balance with a warm readable style. In the book business, they call this "non-fiction that reads like fiction". (Clever, right?) This is a smooth narrative of the settling of Plymouth colony all the way through King Philip's War.

The author attempts to demystify the first Thanksgiving, Plymouth Rock and more importantly, the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Indians, which was far friendlier and more symbiotic than conventional wisdom leads us to believe.

In fact, it wasn't until the children of the Pilgrims grew up and started to need additional land that race relations became stressed. Eventually these tensions escalated into a needless and costly war. The male population on both sides was decimated, which left the door open to less friendly invasions by hostile Indians. Ironically, hostile Indian attacks were the very thing that the Pilgrims were trying to avoid. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in this period of American history.

The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow

As I rewrite this lost post I am taking a different tone to the description since I don't think my last review gave the few of you who got to read the whole thing a real sense of the playfulness of this piece of literature.

Telling the story of Jennet Stearne is a scientific treatise written in Latin, Sir Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica." As the story opens Jennet is studying science and philosophy with her beloved aunt. Her father is a noted witchfinder. Tragedy strikes when her aunt is accused of witchcraft and her father's zeal for his profession leads him to have her burned at the stake. Jennet spends the rest of her life trying to scientifically prove that demons do not exist in the rational world. Her destiny, it seems, is to end the witch trials forever. During her life she immigrates to America and interacts with a wide variety of famous personages including having a romance with no less than Ben Franklin although she always lets go of the people in her life in order to continue her quest.

The best thing about this book is that all of the events are conveyed with a slightly fantastical air to them that gives this book a slightly surreal edge.

This is one of those books that would (in the normal course of things) cause me to go out and find biographies on Newton and Franklin as well as some of the works cited during the course of the book to see where fact leaves off and supposition begins. With my current reading constraints I can't do that so I will have to rely on my memory and say that, without doing some fact checking this book seems to be quite historically accurate and even the fantastical elements have elements of truth. The author also is quite clever and plays with words in humorous and inventive ways. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it for the more adventurous among you. (Being well-read doesn't hurt either.)

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald

I now know a whole lot about the history of Florida and the utter mess we have made of the Everglades. This book chronicles the push for land reclamation at the turn of the century that started the decline of the Everglades. It also highlights the various colorful personalities on both sides of this environmental war. Of equal interest is the political war that has been waged that has made forward movement almost impossible and resulted in wasting billions of dollars. Although most of the book cannot report much good news, in the past few years there has been a bipartisan effort made that has caused some progress to have been made in saving a small part of this unique swamp.

This is a hefty book that dragged a bit at times but overall was an interesting and entertaining read.

Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen

This was a fun book to read. Set in the Depression, Jacob, who has just lost his parents, hops a train and finds that it is owned by the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Although he has not finished veterinary school the circus hires him as their vet and he soon finds himself in the company of quirky characters, evil circus owners, beautiful performers, brutish husbands and the clever and lovable elephant. Anytime you add an animal to the mix she soon overshadows the other characters and that was certainly true in this case. By the end of the book, the elephant becomes the most engaging character in the book and keeps you turning pages to see how it all turns out.

I really liked this book but found it somewhat predictable and didn't think that it was complex enough to merit a Notable rating.

A Death In Belmont by Sebastian Junger

All you true crime fans will like this book about the Boston Strangler. Junger, who wrote The Perfect Storm, grew up hearing about (DeSalvo) The Strangler because he had done work on their house and had been in their home alone with Junger's mother. During this period was when Bessie Goldberg was killed. The murder was blamed on Roy Smith, an African American day worker who had been assigned to help Bessie with some heavy cleaning projects. Since the killing had been done in typical Strangler fashion police initially thought that they had caught the Strangler.

DeSalvo never confessed to the Goldberg murder but Smith died insisting that he was innocent. Junger investigates all of the possible options but in the end no physical evidence exists that can prove or disprove either theory. Junger is an accomplished writer who has a gift for writing readable nonfiction. If you are at all interested in true crime this is a clear step above the usual offerings.