Coolidge ★★★½ by Amity Shlaes

This was a detailed biography of our 30th president and though at the beginning it was a bit over detailed, causing it to seem sluggish, once the political issues of the day surfaced it truly took my interest.

A well-researched book, Calvin Coolidge was apparently very reserved which earned him his name of Silent Cal but he was determined to maintain his New England roots and brought fiscal responsibility wherever he served.

As the Governor of Massachusetts, he was in office when the police force in Boston decided to strike for better wages and his resolve to not cave in earned him national recognition and the Vice Presidential bid in 1920 with Warren Harding.

After Harding's unexpected death, and exposure of the Teapot Dome affair, Coolidge worked diligently to restore the trust in government.  He also attempted to balance the budget, reduce unnecessary spending, and cut the size of the Federal Government.

"Coolidge believed that immigrants should come only if the United States could absorb them and only if they were prepared to make an effort to assimilate."  He also believed "that citizens must know their country and learn its language to become good citizens."

The Wall Street Journal's obituary of Calvin Coolidge in 1933 read :

“….In due time, the good fortune of the United States to have had such a man as Calvin Coolidge in just the years he filled the office will be more clearly realized than it has yet been."

After reading this book I regret that so many of our current citizens are unaware of this man and his endeavors to make our government what it should be.

Too bad that the current candidates can't learn from his example.

DATE READ: April 29 - Sept 22
NO. OF PAGES: 1007
Type of Book e-book
SOURCE: Public Library

Chesapeake rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties ★★½ by Eric Miles

Prohibition was not popular in many areas of the nation when it took affect in the 1920s.  Some government officials refused to even enforce the law and others openly disobeyed.   Moonshine became a growing business all along the Eastern seacoast and the Delmarva peninsula with all its inlets and coves, kept the revenue hunters and Coast Guard on their toes trying to stop the illegal importation of alcohol.

I found this book entertaining for several reasons - the bootleggers seem to be a whole bunch smarter than the government agents (has that changed at all?), many of the areas that were mentioned near and around Baltimore I have actually seen having grown up in the area, and my mother actually grew up in this era and talked of her relatives that were involved in the Prohibition era activities so I really hit home.  The stories aren't those that we normally hear, so it gave some good background information though at times it was a bit too detailed.


DATE READ: April 26 - May 6
NO. OF PAGES: 170
Type of Book ARD
SOURCE: Public Library

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl ★★ by Timothy Egan

This book told the tale of several families that headed west for the "free" land and encountered problems caused my weather (a severe drought) and constantly fluctuating prices for the crops they were able to grow.

Sometimes they had mountains of money and other times their crops were worthless.
The book was rather dry, no pun intended, and left lots to be desired, IMHO.

DATE READ: March 25 - April 11
NO. OF PAGES: 340
Type of Book audio book
SOURCE: Public library Overdrive

The Wright Brothers★★★ by David McCullough

I always knew that the Wright Brothers were the first in powered flight, however, I didn't know that they had to create their own engines and propellers, nor did I know that the US Government of the time was so stupid that they didn't see any benefit in manned flight.  It is satisfying to know that the Wright Brothers were very family oriented as well as extremely patriotic and that they worked tirelessly to get the US to be the buyer of their invention rather than a European power.

DATE READ: January 4 - January 5
NO. OF PAGES: 585
Type of Book: audiobook
SOURCE: Audio stockpile

Warren G. Harding: America's 29th President by Deborah Kent

110 pages from public library

It was extremely difficult to locate a biography of our 29th president and I finally had to settle for this edition from the Children's section of the public library.

I can understand why there are few bios of this president for the simple reason he doesn't much and he was far from a stellar personailty.

Warren Harding had little education and was unsuccessful in many of his life attempts in business, however, he was a smooth talker and a ladies man and in the first election where women were allowed to vote, he seems to have won them over.  Maybe it was fortunate that he died in office.

Accomplishments during his administration included the improvement and expansion the nation's highway system, licensing of radio frequencies through the Commerce Department under Herbert Hoover, the eight-hour work day became common in American industry, and appointed former President William Howard Taft as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Wilson by A. Scott Berg

In this current day and age when presidents are either career politicians or from the military, how wonderful would it be if we had candidates that were thinking of the good of the nation and not their own pockets and careers?

Thomas Woodrow Wilson appears to have been such a man, thinking first of the citizens and their needs before his own.  He was an academician who was elected Governor of NJ and from here to the White House.  If Teddy Roosevelt hadn't decided that he wanted to get back in the Presidency, and hadn't split the voters, I'm not sure that Wilson would have been elected, but Wilson's presidency was at time when the nation needed his constancy and clear head.

He was responsible for the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Farm Loan Act.  He also was a major player in the plans of the League of Nations at the end of World War I.  I'm not sure that the man gets his just recognition.

A very informative book and the even with the volume of pages, still a good source for Wilson's bio.

★★★½

GENRE: History
CHARACTERS: Woodrow Wilson
Series/ Progress:
DATE READ: August 24 - November 14
NO. OF PAGES: 1,134
Challenges: 75, Category, ALPHAKIT, TIOLI, 
SOURCE: MCL audio

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter

In the mid to late 19th century, it was thought that if a royal marriage was made between countries, that alliances would be forged and the European continent would be at peace.  So Queen Victoria with the numerous children that she had began marrying them off into other countries, however, things didn't work out as she planned.  Her daughter Victoria was married to the Prince of Prussia (one of the German states) but because of her strong English tendencies, she was never really accepted and her son, Wilhelm, the future Kaiser of  Germany was adamantly opposed to whatever his mother wanted.

Queen Victoria tried unsuccessful to influence German politics but because of long life of Wilhelm's grandfather and short life of his father, Wilhelm came to power early in life.  Some speculate that due to an accident at the time of his birth (he was trapped in the birth canal with one arm completely damaged and possible brain damage) Wilhelm had personality disorders which caused tantrums that last throughout his life  or it could be that he was simply spoiled as the heir and never learned  control.  English influence due to young Victoria's marriage never evolved.

Bertie, while Prince of Wales, was never allowed involvement in the government by Queen Victoria while she was alive.  He was a playboy and traveled extensively and used his charm in efforts to keep the peace in Europe.  When he finally came to throne, his relationship with his cousin Wilhelm was troubled.

Nicolas, the Tsarevich of Russia, wanted nothing to do with governing.  He never understood the plight of the serfs and felt it his due to rule even though he had very little education.

When these 3 lives collided in history with all pomp and protocol required of society of the time, they were unable to handle the changes happening in the world around them - mechanization, communication, war advancements, suffrage.  Though hey professed a desire for peace, they ultimately  part of the cause for escalation.

★★★

GENRE: History
CHARACTERS: George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II
DATE READ: July 3 - July 20
NO. OF PAGES: 560
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Library Overdrive

World War One: History in an Hour by Rupert Colley

This was a nice little book that gave an non-detailed look at the war, who battled who and how it affected the face of Europe - WWI caused the end of 4 dynasties - Germans(Prussian), Hapsburgs (Austria/Hungary), Ottomans (Turkey), and the Romanovs(Russians).  It was also the first war that was fought without "chivalry"  where  innocent women and children were killed with thought and non-military naval vessels were targeted.

★★★

GENRE: History
DATE READ: July 3 - July 3
NO. OF PAGES: 80
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Nook stockpile

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

This was an interesting book that at times got weighed down by the descriptions in vast detail of the processes that were used for different types of painting including but not restricted to the frescos that were painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  This was really more a combined biography of Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, and Raphael.

The pictures of the Sistine Chapel frescos were beautiful but it would have been much nicer if they had not been all lumped together in one pictures but the panels shown individually.  I often had to search the Internet for an individual image so that I could understand what the writer was talking about.

★★★

GENRE: Children's
CHARACTERS: Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, Donato Bramante, Piero Rosselli, Raphael
Series/ Progress:
DATE READ: June 14 - June 29
NO. OF PAGES: 373
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, HistoryCat
SOURCE: library

The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War by Richard Rubin

This book was definitely not what I expected.  However, it was thoroughly engaging and filled some of the gaps from other books on why the American involvement in WWI was as it was.

This narrative was a combination of the real life stories of about a dozen 100+ yr. old WWI veterans - their successes and failures and what made then so unique.  For example, one man walked to school everyday (2 miles) , then participated in the war, and on his return, married, got a job that he bicycled to 5 miles each way every day (rain, snow, didn't matter).  Eventually he got a car, but at age 80 he could no longer drive so when his wife was placed in a nursing home a mile away from his home, he walked every day to have meals with her (3x a day no matter the weather).  This stunned me.  I remember hearing how my grandfather walked everywhere, but because we live in an age where we drive everywhere,  it seems unfathomable.

Yes, this book showcased individuals, but it also showed me a great about the time and the differences  that these brave men endured.

 ★★★

GENRE: History
CHARACTERS: Fred Hale, Anthony Piero, William Campbell
Series/ Progress: WWI
DATE READ: June 1 - June 15
NO. OF PAGES: 544
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Audio stockpile

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild

I thought that as an avid reader and a lover of history that I knew the basics about World War I.  I'd heard about trench warfare, chlorine gas, mustard gas, and shell shock but I didn't really understand them and I wasn't prepared for what I learned while reading this book.

They called it the Great War.  However, this war was apparently completely unnecessary.  That's right - 8.5 million casualties, 12-13 million civilian deaths  totally unnecessary brought on by a war-hungry monarch and military men who wouldn't accept the changes that the 20th century had brought to the battlefield.

Kaiser Wilhelm wanted to play at war, he always wore a uniform and he wanted to prove his country's superiority.  The excuse used to start the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Joseph and his wife (he abhorred war - how ironic).  The Austro-Hungary empire would have probably controlled the effects with a small military action in Serbia where the assassination had taken place, but as an ally of Austro-Hungary, Kaiser Wilhelm and Germany took it upon themselves to stress escalation.

So we have a war and the British, who had end the Boer wars several years before thought that they were ready to take on the Germans with the same tactics as used then.  However, since the Boer wars the 20th century saw motor vehicles, machine guns, and airplanes come into existence. Gen. Douglas Haig would not accept that cavalry was no longer useful with the new methods available.  Time and time again he would send men to certain death by commanding offensives directly into the German machine gun nests.  Hundreds of thousands of men were killed in weeks and Haig just kept sending them.

On the home front, massive labor strikes and Conscientious Objectors filled the headlines.   The Conscientious Objectors were sent to prison with sentence ordering hard labor (16 hours a day) half rations and no heat.  Women were imprisoned if they argued against the war.

But really bothered me the most about what I learned was the actual cause of shell shock.  Imagine sitting in a deep ditch for weeks on end and then suddenly being bombarded by artillery NON-STOP for days at a time so loud that you couldn't hear the person next to you talking.  I personally can't handle a loud thunderstorm that's off again on again for 20 minutes - how can you handle this acoustic attack?

The Allied Forces were actually losing the battle until the Americans joined the fight.  The Treaty that ended the war was so vindictive that many historians see it as a contributor to World War II.

The book was slow to start, had some areas where it was extremely repetitive concerning the women that were against the war, but highly informative.

★★★½

GENRE: History
CHARACTERS: John French, Charlotte Despard, Douglas Haig, Alfred Milner 
DATE READ: April 10 - April 26
NO. OF PAGES: 511
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Library, Nook Stockpile

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings

ABANDONED

This author must have either been writing his thesis or being paid by the syllable/name/stats that were used, because after 100 pages I'd had too many stats, too many minuscule details, and too many names which meant absolute nothing.  Not only this, but he kept inserting his own comments and opinions.


 ½★

GENRE: Non Fiction
CHARACTERS:
Series/ Progress:
DATE READ: March 21 - March 26
NO. OF PAGES: 102 of 704
Challenges:
SOURCE: library

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Goodwin is superb as an historian and in this book we see Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft as individuals but also we see how working shoulder to shoulder, they created a greater good often at the cost of their own ambitions.

TR's personality comes through as adventurer and master politician. Taft comes through as a loving, generous, gentle giant who twice refused appointment to the Supreme Court (his greatest desire) because he believed his efforts elsewhere were needed.  In this book we also see the development of the power of the press and how a good politician could utilize that power. 

This book was extremely informative, however it could have been just as informative without being so wordy.  Several passages were repetitive and could easily been omitted.

 ★★★½

GENRE: History
CHARACTERS: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Edith Carow Roosevelt, Nellie Taft, SS McClure, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens
Series/ Progress: Presidents #26,#27
DATE READ: February 1 - February 28
NO. OF PAGES: 912    36 hours audio
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Audio Stockpile

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan

This book was the story of the US Forest Service and how the debate regarding the fight over land for development and protection of huge forests was answered by Mother Nature with a huge fire that wiped out vast tracks of trees.  The "Big Burn" brought conversation back to the public eye and helped to preserve many of our natural resources.

★★★¼

GENRE: History
SUBJECT: US Forest Service
Setting: US midwest forests
CHARACTERS: Teddy Roosevelt, William H Taft, John Muir, Gifford Pinchot
DATE READ: November 11 - November 15
NO. OF PAGES: 324
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI,
SOURCE: Audio Stockpile

The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas

This book delves into the interactions of Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge vs. William Randolph Hearst and their viewpoints about the Americans' need to go to war against Spain in the late 19th century.

Factual but hard to get into.

 ★★★

GENRE: History
SUBJECT: Spanish American war, politics
Setting: USA
CHARACTERS: Teddy Roosevelt, William Randolph Hearst, Henry Cabot Lodge
DATE READ: October 21 - October 30
NO. OF PAGES: 413
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI,
SOURCE: public library

Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough

This book was the start of my study of Teddy Roosevelt.  It was the tale of his  father and siblings and how they all interacted in his early life.  With David McCullough as the storyteller, I couldn't go wrong.

 ★★★¼

GENRE: History
SUBJECT: Early family life of T Roosevelt
Setting: Washington DC, Oyster Bay, NY;
CHARACTERS: Theodore Roosevelt, Edith Carow Roosevelt, Roscoe Conkling, Cornelius Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt, Emein Roosevelt, FDR, Sara Delano Roosevelt
DATE READ: September 24 - September 30
NO. OF PAGES: 445
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, USPC
SOURCE: Public Library

The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller

Good book to cover both McKinley's life, administration, Spanish/American war and the assassination and aftermath.
I found it  remarkable that McKinley was originally  uninterested in anything related in any additional land acquisitions until he was forced into war with the Spanish and then he became very greedy trying to annex the Phillipines, Cuba, and other Pacific islands.  This book also brought to my attention anarchists that were working during McKinley's administration - I never knew.

 ★★★

GENRE: History
SUBJECT: Assassination, anarchists, war
Setting: Washington,DC; Buffalo, NY
CHARACTERS: William McKinley, Leon Czolgosz, Emma Goldman, Theodore Roosevelt
DATE READ: September 1 - September 28
NO. OF PAGES: 422
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, USPC
SOURCE: Public Library

By Fire By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan

This book is a story of the Spanish Inquisition showing the intolerance of the Catholics toward the Jewish population and how the Jews banded together to help each other.  It amazed me when I think of what Christ, who was so kind and forgiving, would have thought, felt  and done to aid the Jews.


★★★

GENRE: Historical Fiction
SUBJECT: Spanish Inquisition
Setting: Spain
CHARACTERS: Luis de Santángel, Christopher Columbus, Judith Midgal, King Ferdinand, Tomas de Torquemada
DATE READ: August 15 - August 17
NO. OF PAGES: 277
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, GEOCAT
SOURCE: library

Freak of Freedom by J. Theodore Bent

 ★★★½

This 1870 history of the small Republic of San Marino was extremely dry and mainly centered around the relationship of this small area surrounded my Italy and its relationships with other areas and the Catholic Church.

GENRE: History
SUBJECT: Republic of San Marino
Setting: San Marino
CHARACTERS:
DATE READ: August 1 - August 9
NO. OF PAGES: 125
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, Euro
SOURCE: Nook Stockpile

PLOT:....................................................................2.00
CHARACTERIZATION:.......................................2.50
TOPICS: ...............................................................2.00
STYLE:..................................................................2.00
ORIGINALITY:.......................................................1.50
ADDICTIVENESS:..............................................2.00
OWNERSHIP:......................................................2.00
Threshold Quality.................................................2.00
Average..............................................................................................2.00

American Passage: The History of Ellis Island by Vincent J. Cannato

 ★★★

GENRE: History
SUBJECT: immigration
Setting: Ellis Island, NY USA
CHARACTERS: Col. John Weber, William Williams, Henry Goddard, Dr. Howard Knox
DATE READ: January 13 - January 15
NO. OF PAGES: 419
Challenges: TIOLI, CATEGORY, GEOCAT
SOURCE: ARC from author for review

PLOT:....................................................................3.00
CHARACTERIZATION:.......................................3.50
TOPICS: ...............................................................3.50
STYLE:..................................................................3.50
ORIGINALITY:.......................................................3.00
ADDICTIVENESS:..............................................3.00
OWNERSHIP:......................................................3.00
Threshold Quality.................................................3.00
Average..............................................................................................3.19

For anyone who has ancestors who came through Ellis Island, this is book that will shed light on the difficulties that were presented to them. 

Until 1920, just about all white immigrants were allowed to enter the USA without visas, without medical checks, and without criminal checks. There were no quotas either.  Col. John Weber, a Civil War veteran, was he first director at Ellis Island.  He was sympatric to the refugees and stated that he believed that "the evils of immigration are purely imaginary" and "greatly exaggerated".  Reports in 1903 showed that of the 857,000  immigrants - 60% of the Italians, Jews, and Slavs were illiterate and came to the USA with $9 ($150 today) and no job arrangements.

About that time the Immigration Restriction League (IRL) worried that the Eastern and Southern Europeans would supplant the white race in America.  A new director in 1911, William Williams, worked with the IRL, complaining of their different customs and inability to assimilate.  Wm Wms was accused of anti-Semitism and argued that it was only "sociological fact" that Jews were genetically inferior. 

A  testing was started by Henry Goddard on the new arrivals and his findings were that 83% of Jews and 79% of the Italians were feebleminded.  Why? Being asked to define a table - a Jew replied a place to sit and eat - obviously not Goddard's definition.

A new tester was brought in, Dr. Henry Knox who found that in one example a man that was rated of low intelligence actually spoke 3 languages and was very clever.

After  World War I immigrant numbers were  reduced - ex. Italians in 1914 296K, 1920 40K, 1924 -4K.  Greeks went from 3K - 100.

Lady Liberty's light was slowly extinguished by legislation and quotas. 

A fascinating look at early 20th Century America.
Reading this book makes me wonder how my grandfather managed to pass through Ellis Island and get into the USA.