Eiffel’s Tower: And the World’s Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count
King of Heists: The Sensationa
Oil on the Brain
In the 150 years since "Colonel" Edwin Drake's well struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the preeminent driving force in our world has been petroleum. Oil has been behind the expansion and collapse of global empires and personal fortunes. Oil was both a key factor in the collapse of Germany and Japan during World War II, and propelled the explosive growth in postwar America. Wars have been fought for it, and nations have revolted over foreign control of it.
Nowhere is this tumult better chronicled than in The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, Daniel Yergin's epic Pulitzer-winning history of oil and its affect on industry, geopolics, and world society. Spanning the globe, and featuring a colorful list of players ranging from titans of industry and wealthy desert sheikhs to Texas "wildcatters," The Prize is gripping history that flows off the page.
I first read this book in 1993, after my seventh grade social studies teacher showed the class excerpts from the eight-hour PBS documentary based on the book. It was incredibly informative then, and is even more relevant today as we face important decisions related to energy supply and consumption, and their effect on both the American and global economy. The Prize isn't just another business history title; it speaks directly to the political and sociological issues brought up by how we as a people consume oil in what Yergin dubs the "Age of Hydrocarbon Man." With the 2009 updated edition, which includes a new epilogue covering events and trends since its first publication, The Prize has maintained its place as the essential book on its subject.
I'm a firm believer in the old adage "those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it." The Prize should be mandatory reading if for no other reason than we can't afford to make the same mistakes again as we try and find our path forward.
The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta
"Behind us lay Atlanta smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in the air and hanging like a ball over the ruined city." -General William T. Sherman
For most Americans, Atlanta blazed most memorably in Gone With The Wind, but the real-life Civil War siege and destruction of the Georgia city possessed far more drama and lasting significance than can be witnessed in any single movie or bestselling novel. Carefully written and adeptly written, Marc Wortman's narrative history of the "hundred days' battle" and the double burning of Atlanta presents its still controversial events from the points of view of their participants, albeit victors or victims; generals or slaves. Like the conflagration itself, The Bonfire cuts through to the marrow of experience. As Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson writes, "Marc Wortman's vivid narrative proves that war is indeed hell."
The Illustriou
Seceding From Secession
This is a fascinating new book from Sally Jenkins (co-author of It's Not About the Bike with Lance Armstrong) and John Stauffer. As a long-time Civil War guy, I was aware of the amazing story of Jones County, Mississippi, but knew I was one of few who did. With this new work, this almost-lost history is memorialized for all.
It's generally well-remembered that there was opposition to the war in the loyal states, most general Civil War books will touch on Copperheads, and the 1863 draft riots. But almost never is it mentioned that the war was also widely unpopular in the South. Nowhere was this opposition stronger than in Jones County, Mississippi. The State of Jones is the story of Newton Knight, poor farmer and Confederate draftee, who deserts the rebel army and leads a violent opposition to Confederate rule from the swamps and thickets of backwoods Mississippi. His story makes for a compelling narrative, from it's realistic, Gone With The Wind-busting coverage of antebellum class tensions, to its frank portrayal of the horrors of war (The phrase "rich man's war, poor man's fight" actually originated in the wartime Confederacy, after the draft was imposed and it exempted wealthy slaveowners.)
But The State of Jones is also a personal story, haunted by a forbidden love whose details are shrouded by the mists of time. What brought Newton Knight and Rachel (a former possession of Knight's extended family) together is unknown; but both this relationship and Newton's stand against secession have echoed through family and Mississippi history, from Reconstruction to the present day.
A few of the niggling details about the war itself and army life are incorrect in this book, but unless you're a dedicated Civil War buff, you'll never notice- and they're so minor, I can't even begin to call them "inaccuracies." Jenkins and Stauffer do a great job of making Newton Knight's story accessible to non-experts, so don't be scared of this book if you're not a Civil War expert.
Graphic Journalism
Art Spiegalman's Maus is renowned for having dramatically pushed foward the artform of comics with his very personal tale of his family's experiences in the Holocaust.
Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde now pushes the form even further, taking us into the fractured Bosnia of the early 1990's with the eye of a journalist. The narrative concerns the city of Gorazde, a predominantly Bosniak (Muslim) area that is surrounded by Serb territory and which is only connected to the rest of the soon-to-be Muslim-Croat federation only by one narrow road on which UN convoys run. At first the story appears light-hearted as Sacco makes friends with the inhabitants of the town and gets his bearings - but as these inhabitants tell us their stories the truly gruesome nature of this conflict is unveiled and grotesquely illustrated through Sacco's detailed artwork. The narrative is supported not only by Sacco's illustrations (which provide a very realistic sense of the atmosphere of the place - something lacking in many other non-fiction books covering this conflict) but also by substantial research - at several points Sacco takes some time to explain the often confusing historical background to the conflict.
My only complaint is that the scope of the story is somewhat narrow and comes off as a bit biased - we never see anything from the Serb or Croat perspectives in this book, and that's a signifigant lack. But given the focus on a particular geogpraphic location it does to some extent make sense.
Anyone interested in the history of the Balkans or the recent conflict should certainly read this, as should anyone who is a fan of comics that truly push the artform in a new direction and show what it is capable of.
For the Truth Seekers
Half history book, half travel journal; Tony Horwitz rediscovers early American history by retracing the steps of the early settlers. Starting with the Norse in 1000AD up to the Pilgrims, Tony investigates the unadulterated history of our past. Always interesting and sometimes disturbing, ranging from topics such as the Spanish Conquistadors to the first Thanksgiving, this book will shake the foundation of what you thought you knew. Beware though- there are some hard truths in this book that most people may not be able to handle. But if you are the kind of person who doesn't believe that ignorance is bliss, then this book is for you.
The History of Ideas
If you ever wanted to read about, well, everything Peter Watson's book would do "everything" justice. He covers the development of human thought, what factors made human ingenuity possible, and how humans branched out in thought to create religion, philosophy, astronomy, and just about anything else you can think of. "Fire to Freud" is not just for the seconary title. This is a well-researched history book and Watson has a whole raft of notes and endnotes so if you were curious about a source you could go look that book up to read on your own. I received this as a Christmas gift several years ago and happily spent many evenings curled up in bed, reading away about the development of writing, literacy, agriculture, and scientific theory. I enjoyed Ideas more than I did A Short History of Nearly Everything (also a good book for reading on lazy evenings and rainy afternoons) primarily because while Bryson really did go for a "short history," Watson went further and tried to show how idea and thought built off of established methodologies.
Shakespear
“The premise of this book is simple and direct: Shakespeare makes modern culture and that modern culture makes Shakespeare.” Award-winning Shakespeare scholar Marjorie Garber demonstrates her thesis with an often astonishing array of contemporary appropriations, including Stratford Bard influenced rock lyrics, advertisement campaigns, and management primers as well as more respectable plays, novels, and ballets. Her trenchant examination of ten major Shakespearean dramas shows how each has been mined not only for its archetypal messages, but also reshaped to reflect more modern preoccupations.
Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the War Between Faith and Reason
On a frigid February day in 1650, René Descartes was buried in the frozen ground of Stockholm, far from his French homeland. Sixteen years later, a French government official surreptitiously unearthed the philosopher’s remains and returned them to the country of his birth. That, however, was only the beginning of the posthumous journeys of “the Father of Philosophy. In this refreshingly heterodox history, Russell Shorto follows Descarte’s bones over three centuries and six countries, showing how the battle over his body and most especially his skull exemplifies a far more significant war between faith and reason. Descartes’ Bones deserves to be read by anyone who ever puzzled over mind/body problems.
12 defining days in American history
Author, James L. Swanson, wholeheartedly admits his obsession with the topic and his lifelong pursuit of all things related to this important event. This passion, combined with historical records, newspaper articles from 1865 and thousand of recorded first-hand accounts of each facet of this 12-day portion of American history, makes Manhunt the most comprehensive and intimate work to date on the Lincoln assassination and its surrounding events.
Swanson paints an emotional and very tangible description of all the players in this drama and gives you a real sense of being there, whether it is along side the doctor resuscitating an already- dead Lincoln, knowing that he was only delaying the inevitable, or tensely hiding in a dense woods with a wounded, but jubilant assassin.
A great book for fans of Erik Larson (Isaac's Storm, Devil in the White City), Lincoln and Civil War aficionados or anyone who loves history.
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
I must admit that I approached this book with some hesitation. For one thing, I worried that it would be just a footnote to World War II military history or yet another account of Nazi misdeeds. Instead, I found a fascinating story about a war within a war; the not far behind the battle lines struggle to save European cultural treasures from plunder and destruction. Robert Edsel and co-author Bret Witter describe how a relatively small team of "Monuments Men," male and female curators, artists, and art historians raced to locate and preserve unique artifacts while bombs were still falling on European cities, even as Hitler's henchmen were working overtime to thwart them. To me, The Monuments Men possesses a cinematic vividness, capturing as it does real people becoming heroes.
Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression
Depressions are, by very definition, depressing; but as Morris Dickstein's dexterous history shows, that is not always completely so. Dancing in the Dark reminded me that the Great Depression produced an overflowing trove of buoyant popular culture: from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers elegance to screwball comedy zaniness. Nor was this all escapism. Dickstein shows us that this "New Deal in Entertainment" encompassed a varied stimulus package of social consciousness, individualism, and sheer speed and energy; a mixed bag of Steinbeck, Agee, Ellington, and, yes, Busby Berkeley. Reading this ultimately exhilarating history gave me a renewed appreciation of how rich the arts can be in impoverished times. It also convinced me that Norman Mailer was right when he called its author "one of our best and most distinguished critics."
The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution
Internationally famous in his own time, British polymath Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) is best remembered today, if at all, as the discoverer of oxygen, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and other “different kinds of airs.” Few of us know that this eminent scientist was also a prominent participant in the early shaping of our republic. Steven Johnson’s riveting The Invention of Air renders that story with all its implicit drama, tracking this protean thinker through an active life punctuated by controversy. In England, Priestley’s radical religious views and support of the French Revolution made him the target of violent riots; when he and his family emigrated to the United States in 1794, his ideas and writings became political lightning rods, influencing many thinkers, most significantly Thomas Jefferson. This carefully researched narrative by the author of The Ghost Map provides a revealing view of a history we thought we knew.
