The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s by H.W. Brands. Brands looked at a decade that was between the Old West and the 20th Century. It’s amazing how America was struggling then with many of the same issues we are currently facing, showing us that some things don’t change that much no matter what era you live in. Only the faces of the players differ.
Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America by Edwin Danson. Before the Revolution, America was steadily exploring and pushing westward. To determine borders between states required a tough and talented group of surveyors who sometimes had only primitive instruments. This was a time when mariners and surveyors alike had difficulty determining longitude. British surveyors Mason and Dixon finally succeeded in placing the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Within a century this border becomes the dividing line between North and South in the Civil War.
1812: The War That Forged a Nation by Walter R. Borneman. Often forgotten between the Revolution and the Civil War, the War of 1812 truly cemented the country as a country. We found ourselves fighting the same foe that we thought we shook off by winning the Revolutionary War. But the British wouldn’t give up so easily, continuing to conscript our sailors into their navy, contending that they were still British citizens. Back when I was a kid I loved Johnny Horton’s song “Battle of New Orleans,” about how we routed the British at this battle. I guess that’s where my interest started.
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library by Edward Wilson-Lee. Hernando Columbus, Christopher’s illegitimate son, accompanied his father on his 4th voyage to the new world. Although Hernando did not become a great explorer like his father, he explored and travelled at least as much as his father in other ways. His quest to acquire the largest library in the world took him all over Europe, collecting thousands of books and other printed material. His intention was to build an edifice that would house this collection and be a treasure to the world forever. He died before he completed his mission but did begin his library building in Seville. His nephew and heir did not have the interest and the 15 – 20 thousand publications slowly disappeared. About 4,000 are left and are housed at the Cathedral of Seville.
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel. This was an entertaining book about a man who did not go to school, yet discovered how to read and write, who did not know anything about clock building, yet taught himself the trade and made the finest timepieces of his era, and who, through persistence and a thirst for perfection built the clock that made determining longitude at sea possible. The title is almost longer than the book – 184 pages – but it’s a well-written story, including all the important points without getting into too much mathematical detail.
The Renaissance: A Short History by Paul Johnson. Short indeed, at 186 pages. Johnson has a way of getting right to the heart of the matter and is able to cover how the Renaissance began and ended, the economic history, and the fruits of the period: literature and the beginning of printing, sculpture, architecture, and painting. All the major players in each category are there including da Vinci and Michelangelo. A gifted writer, Johnson is a historian that is at home in many eras, from ancient Rome to modern personalities.
These are just some of the books in our history section in our library. We have many other fun and informative volumes. If you don’t know about the past, how can you see how it has shaped our present? And how can you hope to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past? You can’t change history, but you can learn from it.
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