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A lesson learned from MARK TWAIN, by Ron Chernow

Mark Twain was us Americans—for better and worse.   Today’s historical lesson is standard inspirational quote stuff, but it also gives me a chance to rave about Ron Chernow’s new Mark Twain biography , perhaps the single biggest book I’ve ever finished (1032 pages)! Prior to Chernow’s book I hadn’t revisited Twain’s writing in decades, and whi le I was aware of him as one of America’s most legendary authors, I actually knew every little about the details of his life and beliefs. Twain was a massive personality who was a perfect symbol of a nation that was achieving greatness as a world power while also suffering from crippling flaws, and some of America’s best and worst impulses could be seen in Twain. He also was a man who often deeply disappoi nted those who were personally closest to him, even as he became a beloved national icon.   Twain (whose birth name was, of course, Samuel Clemens) was born into relative poverty in the slave state of Missouri, and spent his...
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A lesson learned from LINCOLN'S PEACE: THE STRUGGLE TO END THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, by Michael Vorenberg

Wars often leave scars far beyond "peace" declarations.     It's no surprise to anyone that to this day I still snatch up every book on the American Civil War that I can find; those who've known me forever know that I have a fascination with the topic that dates back to high school, and that ultimately was the focus of my MA thesis (I'm proud of it--especially as professional historians really began tackling my chosen topic just a few years later--but I'm also glad I stopped there, as I really wasn't meant for a life of research, AND it's way too dull for me to ever recommend it to normies! Back to our main topic...). However, whereas most old white guys just want to talk battles and military strategy (a fascinating topic, don't get me wrong), I was always drawn to all of the war's social and political implications--in particular, how America has never really healed from some of its scars, and how the war's aftermath continues to this day t...
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A lesson learned from WOODROW WILSON: THE LIGHT WITHDRAWN, by Christopher Cox

Sometimes your heroes are not who you thought they were--and you have to make peace with that.        In this blogging adventure I've embarked on reviewing all the History books I read, we've encountered various historical figures, some of whom were more heroic and some of whom were more villainous. Woodrow Wilson occupies a unique place which actually teaches us a lot in the various battles we fight today over how to teach American History to students. When I was a kid, Wilson was largely taught to high schoolers as a heroic president. The culmination of the Progressive Movement, Wilson signed into place laws that people had been fighting for decades (child labor laws, banking and corporate regulations, workers' comp laws, etc ). He also happened to be President when the nation finally achieved women's suffrage, which he eventually endorsed. He led the nation to victory in World War I. Above all, he alone amongst the World War I victors realized what disasters...
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A lesson learned from YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE: TEN WEEKS IN BIRINGHAM THAT CHANGED AMERICA, by Paul Kix

There's never an "ideal" time to confront injustice--you just need to do it.      Lately I've been on a roll reading great books, but Paul Kix's new book recounting Martin Luther King's most famous protest campaign is a real page-turner, and one that feels deeply relevant in an era where people feel injustice happening on a global scale. As a man who has an interracial family, Kix tells a deeply personal story of how MLK, whose Civil Rights Movement had faltered and struggled for years to make major progress, finally awoke the conscious of America (and its ruling brothers JFK and RFK) with his Birmingham Campaign of 1963. Many of the Civil Rights Movement's most iconic moments came in the wake of Birmingham, and what was ironic about its success was that everyone told MLK it was an "ill-timed" protest--that he was better off waiting and hoping for more gradual progress.     MLK took on great personal risk when he and his fellow civil rights leade...
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A lesson learned from Y2K: HOW THE 2000s BECAME EVERTHING, by Colette Shade

  Success means nothing if it’s not built to last.             It was a bit of a surreal and fascinating experience reading Colette Shade’s wonderful new book Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything , as it was the first book that attempts to tell a history of the decade when I became an adult (time never stops marching on and will eventually consume us all). Shade tells the story of the famous “Aughts” through a deeply personal lens, combining her own experiences living through that decade with a deeper analysis of the trends of American culture, many of which were shaped by larger global changes that ordinary Americans were completely unaware of.             Shade’s book seems partly inspired by the wave of 2000’s nostalgia that has arrived on cue in this decade, which she compellingly argues is not so much nostalgia for “things were so much better back then!” (I was the...
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A lesson learned from THE LOST WORLD OF THE DINOSAURS, by Armin Schmitt

  Science is always changing—roll with it and be open-minded!             This will be a shorter blog, as dinosaurs are of course not “history”—they didn’t write down much for us to study, haha! I almost exclusively read history books, but every now and then I buy science books, to keep up with some of the discoveries I’ve missed out on since college. Also, this is a lesson from reading a dinosaur book that I think everyone can get behind—dinosaurs are, have been, and will ALWAYS be cool!!             One of the intriguing aspects of reading new dinosaur books is how much we are constantly learning and changing our views of these extinct giants. When my parents were growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s, scientists generally saw dinosaurs as extinct reptiles, with giant bodies and necks that towered dozens of feet straight up into the sky. They were seen as typical slow-m...
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A lesson learned from THE LAST TSAR: THE ABDICATION OF NICHOLAS II AND THE FALL OF THE ROMANOVS, by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

  Dictatorial governments are inherently destructive, and ultimately ineffective.             “As awful as that dictator was, he did get stuff done!” That is a myth that has been used throughout modern times to try to justify the very existence of global autocracies, and one has that sadly grown in stature in recent decades as nations around the world have embraced more authoritarian political movements. After all, democracies and societies devoted to individual freedoms are inherently messy and complicated, and people often grow frustrated with just how slow and unwieldy they can be in responding to crisis. However, the myth that dictatorships are more efficient is largely a product of propaganda, and instead history has shown that these societies contain within them the seeds of their own destruction. Whether it takes months, years, or decades, a government that is run by goons and sycophants who are mostly devoted to tryin...
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