Category: History

Katrina: A History, 1915–2015 by Andy Horowitz

Katrina: A History 1915–2015 by Andy Horowitz

If you worked for a while in an oil refinery in Louisiana in, say, the mid-1980s (as I did), part of your orientation was hurricane training. The briefing I attended noted that there are two places on earth where the combination of low elevation, coastline shape, concentrated population, limited escape routes, location relative to wind …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/08/27/katrina-a-history-1915-2015-by-andy-horowitz/

Father Under Fire by Neil Boyd

Father Under Fire by Neil Boyd

The fourth in Neil Boyd‘s Bless Me, Father series finds the irascible Father Duddleswell laid up with lumbago just as the priest with whom Duddleswell began his career settles in for an extended visit. Father Abe — most definitely not Father Abraham, with seven sons — is getting on in years, but still sly and not …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/06/26/father-under-fire-by-neil-boyd/

The Good Asian — Deluxe Edition Vol. 1: 1936 by Pornsak Pichetshote & Alexandre Tefengki

with colors by Lee Loughridge and letters by Jeff Powell. Most forewords don’t do a whole lot to adequately contextualize the books they’re introducing, but David Choe absolutely hits it out of the park with his no-holds-barred examination of what it meant to be a Good Asian in the West in the 20th century. In …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/06/06/the-good-asian-deluxe-edition-vol-1-1936-by-pornsak-pichetshote-alexandre-tefengki/

The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes

The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes

It’s not difficult to guess Orlando Figes’ brief for The Story of Russia: write a history of Russia, accessible to the interested and educated public, acceptable to specialists; keep it under 300 pages; emphasize links between Russia’s deeper past and the government of Vladimir Putin. There is value in the book’s relative brevity, though I …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/06/04/the-story-of-russia-by-orlando-figes/

Magical History Tour Vol. 12: The Samurai by Fabrice Erre & Sylvain Savoia

As someone who has spent a patently absurd amount of time playing Legend Of The Five Rings, a role-playing game heavily inspired by Far Eastern cultures, it’s always fascinating to me to see how lacking my knowledge of Japan actually is. Books like this one gently correct my misperceptions, in the most interesting way possible. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/19/magical-history-tour-vol-12-the-samurai-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/

Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy

Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy

Thirty-six seconds. That’s how long the test that sealed Chernobyl’s fate lasted. The test itself was not unreasonable, and could only be performed as a reactor — one of four in operation at the power station in 1986 — was being shut down. It was designed to provide data to understand how the reactor and the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/08/chernobyl-by-serhii-plokhy/

The Story Of The Saxophone by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E Ransome

If you think of the saxophone nowadays, you think of jazz musicians, perhaps John Coltrane and Stan Getz if you’re of a certain musical inclination, perhaps Lisa Simpson and Kenny G if your knowledge of the instrument tends more towards mainstream pop culture like my own does. But the saxophone has a long and storied …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/29/the-story-of-the-saxophone-by-lesa-cline-ransome-and-james-e-ransome/

What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer

What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer

I first read What It Takes in the early 1990s when its subject — the 1988 US presidential election — was, if not exactly fresh in mind, then at least not consigned to the oblivion of an election held decades ago and deemed mostly inconsequential. Cramer’s book made the election not just interesting, but riveting. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/18/what-it-takes-by-richard-ben-cramer/

The Red Prince by Timothy Snyder

The Red Prince by Timothy Snyder

How’s this for introducing the subject of your biography? Wilhelm von Habsburg, the Red Prince, wore the uniform of an Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and, every so often, a dress. He could handle a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/05/the-red-prince-by-timothy-snyder/

A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind by Michael Axworthy

A History of Iran by Michael Axworthy

I imagine that Michael Axworthy’s brief for this book ran something like this: Write a one-volume history of Iran, from as early as possible up through as close to the present as is practical. (The hardback edition was published in 2008; the edition that I have was published in 2010 and has an epilogue that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/02/19/a-history-of-iran-empire-of-the-mind-by-michael-axworthy/