Kevin C. O'Connor

This will likely become the standard work on the history of Riga in English-language scholarship—but that's by default. The most creative part of The House of Hemp and Butter is its title. Kevin O'Connor has written a history of the city that's almost impressive in how old-fashioned it is. ("The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all"—like Catherine Morland, I find this kind of approach vexing and wearying.) Stolid but probably fine to refer to for broad-strokes history.… (meer)