Category Archives: history

Chorus of the Union

Posted on January 8, 2026 by smellincoffee

Before the last month or so, my awareness of Stephen Douglas was that he had sparred against Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. I did not realize until reading 1858 that these debates were not part of the 1860 presidential … Continue reading →

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End Year Short Rounds: Frankenstein, Merlin, and Stephen Douglas

Posted on December 29, 2025 by smellincoffee

Although I ostensibly took a break from the blog on Christmas eve to focus on real life and all that, part of my brain is resolutely blog-oriented and insisted I keep reading so that I did not fail the Science … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday

Posted on December 24, 2025 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? Bosom Friends, a book examining the alliance between James Buchanan and William Rufus King, and Zachary Taylor, a biography of President Zachary Taylor. Also, Millard Fillmore by the aptly named Finkleman. I will not … Continue reading →

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Old Rough and Ready Taylor

Posted on December 23, 2025 by smellincoffee

When I think of Zachary Taylor, I can see a craggy face right out of a western– and for some reason, I think of cherries. (My adult brain has somehow managed to remember some 25+ years after reading a book … Continue reading →

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James “I Didn’t Start the Fire” Buchanan

Posted on December 18, 2025 by smellincoffee

What do I know about Mr. James Buchanan? Well, he’s our only bachelor president, leaning on his niece to be his hostess at White House functions; he was very chummy with the founder of my hometown, William Rufus King, and … Continue reading →

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1858

Posted on December 17, 2025 by smellincoffee

1858 is a history of the second year of James Buchanan’s administration, a year notable less for what Buchanan did than for what he refused to do while the slavery debate burned white-hot. He maintained that slavery was no longer … Continue reading →

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The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce

Posted on December 16, 2025 by smellincoffee

Continuing in the tragedy of Franklin Pierce, I chose to follow a short biography of him with this, a more focused look Pierce’s exit from the presidency, when he found himself wholly isolated. Four years ago, he had earned a … Continue reading →

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From Hero to Zero: Franklin Pierce

Posted on December 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

Franklin Pierce wasn’t high on my interest list of presidents to read about for this America @ 250 project until I learned that he was intimate friends with Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina. Pierce and Davis served together in … Continue reading →

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Martin Van Buren

Posted on December 12, 2025 by smellincoffee

Who is Martin Van Buren? When I cast the name into the pool of my imagination, I can see his face reflected there, framed by wild sideburns and seeded by a guide to the US Presidents I read cover to … Continue reading →

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Confederate Women

Posted on December 11, 2025 by smellincoffee

Continuing in my march through Bell Irwin Wiley’s social histories of the Civil War,   I bought Confederate Women immediately after reading Billy Yank.    Confederate Women looks at the diaries and letters of three socially prominent southern belles and … Continue reading →

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