Finished Reading:
- Thomas L Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum – That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back
Currently Reading:
- William S McFeely – Grant: A Biography
- John J Reardon – Edmund Randolph: A Biography
- William A Link – North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State
- Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Hugh Talmage Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome – North Carolina: The History of a Southern State
So after saying last week that I felt like I was stretching out the Friedman and Mandelbaum book, I decided to go ahead and finish it up. I’m glad that I did because the last part brought up some interesting concepts about the dysfunction of politics that will be good to keep in mind as the election season continues. As I said last week, I highly recommend That Used to Be Us to anyone who admits that America is facing some serious issues in the near future and who is looking for constructive non-partisan (i.e. non blame game and ideas that go beyond sound bites) possibilities of how we can move forward together as a nation.
I had my first North Carolina history class this week, which went very well. I’m holding off on progressing any further in the Link book as the next class meeting will cover material from the same chapter that I’ve already read, but I decided that I wanted to go a little above and beyond (because, yes, I’m that big of a geek) and read Lefler and Newsome’s book on North Carolina that I’ve had for a while but haven’t taken the time to read. I figure that I’ll read this one in conjunction with the Link since it goes a little more in-depth into North Carolina history than the Link book.
I’m still working on Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I’m finding myself near the point of tears at certain parts of it because of the cruelty of the slavery system and how it destroyed individuals and families. I can only imagine how someone living at the time, especially along the border states who might have actually seen slavery in practice, would have felt. No wonder Lincoln allegedly called her, upon their meeting, “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”
Speaking of the war, I’m in the midst of it in McFeely’s Grant biography. Vicksburg just surrendered, and Grant’s off to Chattanooga. I’m really enjoying McFeely’s style. While he gives you a good sense of what’s going on in the battles, the focus always remains on Grant rather than getting lost in the technical details of troop movements and positions as some writers have a tendency to do. He’s also provided some fascinating insights into Grant’s life that have really helped to flesh out in my mind this iconic figure of the war.
I didn’t get far, but I did pick up Reardon’s Edmund Randolph again. I’m intending to work a bit more on it over the three-day weekend. I realized when I started reading how much I had missed one of my reads being from the early republic.
Next on tap for my reading list is a quick read from the Times Books American Presidents series on Andrew Jackson as well as Coetzee’s Disgrace, both of which I’m picking up from the library shortly.
