Category: History

June 21, 2010

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson **** (of 4)

Shockingly, the book lives up to its pretentious title. Bryson, an accomplished travel writer and memoirist explains, with complete lucidity, the history of science. He...

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June 21, 2010

1776 by David McCullough ** (of 4)

A recounting of one year of the Revolutionary War, without explaining why the Americans are fighting the British, why fighting for independence was not the...

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June 21, 2010

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand *** (of 4)

The primary reason this story of a race horse, his owner, jockey, and especially, his trainer, became a best seller is Hillenbrand’s ability to create...

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June 20, 2010

The Lost City of Z by David Grann ** (of 4)

Percy Fawcett, one of the last of the iconic British explorers, ca. 1920, khaki get-up, pith helmet, and scraggly beard spends most of a lifetime...

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June 18, 2010

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present by Howard Zinn **** (of 4)

Zinn flaunts his bias in an attempt to countermand the prevailing mythology of the U.S. and makes a convincing case that the country is not...

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June 18, 2010

A Peace to end all Peace by David Fromkin *** (of 4)

An unbelievably informative book about the transformation of the Ottoman Empire through World War I into the colonial prizes carved up by Western Europe into...

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June 18, 2010

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick *** (of 4)

I listened to half the book on CD, read another quarter, and didn’t have time to finish Philbrick’s account of the interaction between the Pilgrims...

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June 18, 2010

Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction by Martin Gilbert *** (of 4)

A fluky book by on the of the world’s greatest Holocaust historians. Gilbert gathers dozens of newly uncovered personal histories of November 10, 1938 when...

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June 18, 2010

A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson *** (of 4)

Johnson is an anti-Semitic summofabitch. He blames the victim at times. He seems incredulous that the Jews didn’t recognize Christ as part of the Holy...

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June 17, 2010

Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester *** (of 4)

One of Manchester’s best. A memoir about his role in WWII marines in Pacific theater.

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