Current Reading - May 2024

First up with Makhno and Memory, a braided examination of the Ukrainian warlord and his gentry and kulak victims in the Russian Civil War; particularly the Mennonite colonists. This turned out to be very good; I was half-way expecting the academic version of a throwaway pot-boiler.

I've just finished a fun baseball history, Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait Murphy. Murphy makes a pretty good case for the "greatest year in baseball history" hyperbole in the title for the action of the 1908 season, with 3-team races that came down to the final days in both leagues and featured many of the great names in early-20th century baseball. My somewhat longer review is up on my Club Read thread.

I'm reading up on "Prester John". It's more legend than history really, but medieval people seem to have believed in this Priest-King who sought some sort of an alliance with the crusading west. They sought him in Central Asia and then in Africa. And when Europeans got in contact with Ethiopia, some of them seem to have thought they found his realm. In a way it's just hilarious, but it's also a fascinating bit of cultural history. And in looking into it, I'm also learning more about actual Central Asia and European international relations during the middle ages and the early modern period.

The Prester John Legend Between East and West During the Crusades
The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555
Prester John : The legend and its sources
Prester John and Europe's discovery of East Asia
Prester John, the Mongols and the Ten Lost Tribes
Prisoners of Prester John : The Portuguese Mission to Ethiopia in Search of the Mythical King, 1520 –1526
Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom : The Legend of the Kingdom of Prester John

This project is going to take some time, but I'm retired now ;)

Knocked off The Science of Roman History, a so-so collection of essays dealing with new approaches to generating corroborating data to go with the documentary and archaeological records. I'm not sure that it's worth the investment of time for the general reader.

>2 rocketjk: I enjoyed that Cait Murphy book as well as another one by her, Scoundrels in Law: The Trials of Howe and Hummel, Lawyers to the Gangsters, Cops, Starlets, and Rakes Who Made the Gilded Age.

Just finished reading The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter R. Borneman. A very good overview of the war not only in North America but around the world. Lots of maps as well.

>3 Nicole_VanK: I have a Prester John book you didn't list, The Realm of Prester John by Robert Silverberg.

>5 jztemple: Thanks for the Murphy recommendation. I will keep an eye out for Scoundrels in Law. It look like fun.

Finished Conquering The Pacific, an examination of Spanish exploration and empire building in the Pacific, and how the first mariner to navigate a complete maritime sortie of the Pacific got written out of history.

Finished from the library: The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology edited by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Great starting point for the literature (including Beowulf) and non-fiction writings of the time. I recognized some of the selections from books that I own and read about early medieval Britain.

I finished The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff by Thomas Kiernan. This fine baseball history tells the story of the National League pennant race of 1951, when the New York Giants came from 13 1/2 games back with just 6 weeks to go to overtake the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the pennant. My longer review on my Club Read thread.

harvest gypsies on the road to the grapes of wrath Steinbeck has been a long time fav of mine, didn't know about this one but am reading it for the RTT May theme Internatinal Labor Day

>4 Shrike58: found this site yesterday for another thread, thought you might enjoy the article a plauge comes before the fall lessons from roman history

Reading tales of the alhambra for the RTT June theme "wonders of the world"

>12 cindydavid4: A nice summary of the intellectual state of play; thanks for passing that along.

Wrapped up War Veterans and Fascism in Interwar Europe. While not the first book you should read on the subject (more like the tenth or fifteenth), the closer Alcalde hews to the Italian experience the more convincing he is.

Finished Repast, a social history of American public eating disguised as a coffee table book about early-20th century American restaurant menus; about half-way through it finally feels like it's bigger than the sum of its parts, and something I could recommend.

Started reading The Persian Expedition by Xenophon.