1jztemple
First off for the month. Finished The Mosquito Log: The Most Versatile Aeroplane of World War II by Alexander McKee. This book is a narrative history of the aircraft told by anecdotal stories from those who flew the plane or maintained it or designed it. Also stories from their opponent in the air and on the ground. Really not much about the aircraft itself but OK if you like reading old war stories.
2Rome753
Started reading The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan (same Mike Duncan who produced the "History of Rome" and "Revolutions" podcasts, if you're familiar with either). It centers around the events that lead up to the Civil War period of Rome and the collapse of the republic. So far, it's a great read, and Duncan has a great ability for communicating the topic.
3Shrike58
Finished up High Sierra, Kim Stanley Robinson's personal life and times, hung on the hook of a life-time spent bush-whacking around in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Includes a lot of history of people's experience with the mountains; particularly if they wrote it down!
4princessgarnet
From the library: An Albanian Journal by Edmund Keeley
The author traveled with other writers through Albania and Greece in 1995.
The author traveled with other writers through Albania and Greece in 1995.
6jztemple
Next up, Posters of the Great War by Frédérick Hadley and Martin Pegler. This high quality book was published in association with the Historical Museum of the Great War in France. It contains reproductions of posters held by the museum. The book starts with a section about the importance and impact of posters in history. Then there are a number of chapters such as Recruiting, Loans and Money, The Soldier etc that each start with a short introduction and then show a number of posters, each with description captions. The book finishes with a chapter on posters published later but still referring back to the Great War. Overall the book is very interesting and informative.
7Shrike58
Wrapped up Adventurous Empires, a history of the Shorts C-Class passenger flying boats, wrapped in a general overview of British international policy; surprisingly dense, which I consider a good thing. Pen & Sword is as likely to produce a pot-boiler as something worthwhile.
8Shrike58
Finished Hero of the Air, a life and times of the American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss; once the great competitor of the Wright Brothers, now basically a footnote in popular history.
9rocketjk
I finished Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era by Elizabeth Pepin Silva and Lewis Watts
From the 1930s through the late-1960s, the Fillmore district of San Francisco was an ethnically-mixed working class neighborhood, alive with minority-owned businesses, a with a bustling neighborhood feel where different groups got along as a matter of course. Starting in the early '40s, the Fillmore became a hotbed of blues, R&B and jazz clubs where local musicians flocked and famous musicians came to jam after their paid downtown gigs, blowing until dawn in bars and cellar sessions alike. This book contains dozens of short oral histories by the musicians who played in the clubs, as well as pocket histories of many of those landmark night spots, as well as many, many beautiful photographs of the people and places that made the neighborhood jump and the community so vibrant. A reading of this book is a visit back in time to a wonderful era of jazz and inclusiveness in San Francisco history.
Of course, Golden Eras come to an end, and the Fillmore was done in by the usual culprits, prejudice and greed. Even while Fillmore residents were enjoying what many described in retrospect as great times in their lives, the City of San Francisco's Redevelopment Commission was taking pictures of the buildings and labeling them decrepit and liable for demolition. The buildings were, indeed, old and in need of repair, but the people who lived in the neighborhood loved them. From the mid-60s through the late-70s, whole blocks of the neighborhood were summarily knocked down. Geary Street which runs through the neighborhood was widened into a 6-lane highway as it goes through the Fillmore in order to allow drivers to essentially bypass the neighborhood on their way from the western urban suburbs to their jobs downtown. More houses and businesses were destroyed so that an ugly mall, intended to be a Japanese community center and known citywide as Japantown, could be built. When I lived in San Francisco from 1986 through 2008, Japantown was a dingy affair full of cheesy gift shops and mediocre restaurants. Certainly not worth eviscerating a vibrant neighborhood for. Well, developers gonna develop, I guess.
From the 1930s through the late-1960s, the Fillmore district of San Francisco was an ethnically-mixed working class neighborhood, alive with minority-owned businesses, a with a bustling neighborhood feel where different groups got along as a matter of course. Starting in the early '40s, the Fillmore became a hotbed of blues, R&B and jazz clubs where local musicians flocked and famous musicians came to jam after their paid downtown gigs, blowing until dawn in bars and cellar sessions alike. This book contains dozens of short oral histories by the musicians who played in the clubs, as well as pocket histories of many of those landmark night spots, as well as many, many beautiful photographs of the people and places that made the neighborhood jump and the community so vibrant. A reading of this book is a visit back in time to a wonderful era of jazz and inclusiveness in San Francisco history.
Of course, Golden Eras come to an end, and the Fillmore was done in by the usual culprits, prejudice and greed. Even while Fillmore residents were enjoying what many described in retrospect as great times in their lives, the City of San Francisco's Redevelopment Commission was taking pictures of the buildings and labeling them decrepit and liable for demolition. The buildings were, indeed, old and in need of repair, but the people who lived in the neighborhood loved them. From the mid-60s through the late-70s, whole blocks of the neighborhood were summarily knocked down. Geary Street which runs through the neighborhood was widened into a 6-lane highway as it goes through the Fillmore in order to allow drivers to essentially bypass the neighborhood on their way from the western urban suburbs to their jobs downtown. More houses and businesses were destroyed so that an ugly mall, intended to be a Japanese community center and known citywide as Japantown, could be built. When I lived in San Francisco from 1986 through 2008, Japantown was a dingy affair full of cheesy gift shops and mediocre restaurants. Certainly not worth eviscerating a vibrant neighborhood for. Well, developers gonna develop, I guess.
10Shrike58
Wrapped up On a Knife Edge, a magisterial accounting of the lethal misadventure that was statecraft and war-making in Second Reich in 1914-18. About half and half higher military strategy on one hand, and internal German politics on the other. At times reading like it might have sounded better in the original German, it's still recommended reading if one is still wondering how premeditated the more aggressive German war aims were.
11Macbeth
This month I've read
The Life and Death of Ancient Cities by Greg Woolf;
The Norman Achievement by David Charles Douglas;
The First and Second Italian Wars by Julian Romane; and am rounding it off with another of Romane's books
The Rise of the Tang Dynasty
Cheers
The Life and Death of Ancient Cities by Greg Woolf;
The Norman Achievement by David Charles Douglas;
The First and Second Italian Wars by Julian Romane; and am rounding it off with another of Romane's books
The Rise of the Tang Dynasty
Cheers
13Macbeth
>12 AndreasJ:
Not too bad Andreas, it has a relatively smooth narrative and raises some interesting points.
Cheers
Not too bad Andreas, it has a relatively smooth narrative and raises some interesting points.
Cheers
14jztemple
I'm part way through The Currency of Empire: Money and Power in Seventeenth-Century English America by Jonathan Barth. I'm finding it a very interesting read, although due to other considerations I've not gotten in as much reading time on it as I would like. It's rather a niche book that deals with economic history more than people history, but lately I've been finding myself preferring that.
For those who have Kindle access, this book is available for free from Amazon in that format.
For those who have Kindle access, this book is available for free from Amazon in that format.
16AndreasJ
>14 jztemple:
For those that don't have Kindle access, the book is also free as a epub or pdf from Cornell Press:
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501755798/the-currency-of-empire/
For those that don't have Kindle access, the book is also free as a epub or pdf from Cornell Press:
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501755798/the-currency-of-empire/
17jztemple
>16 AndreasJ: Thanks for that info, I've added it to my review!
18rocketjk
>11 Macbeth: I read The Norman Achievement a few years back and thought it was pretty good: enlightening and informative, if a bit dry in the writing style. But then, I have nothing to compare it to in terms of historical accuracy. What did you think?
