Category Archives: history

A New History of India

Posted on July 13, 2017 by smellincoffee

A New History of India© 2000, sixth edition Stanley Wolpert471 pages India isn’t an easy place to keep running. Stanley Wolpert’s A New History of India gives a chiefly-political, mostly-modern history of one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, a land … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Hackers

Posted on July 1, 2017 by smellincoffee

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution© 1984 Steven Levy458 pages How did computers cease to be the playthings of secretive governments, universities, and multinational corporations and become instead fixtures in 80-90% of all American homes?   Hackers: Heroes of the … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Masters of Doom

Posted on June 18, 2017 by smellincoffee

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture © 2004 David Kushner, Audible presentation read by Wil Wheaton, runtime 12 hours & 43 minutes 334 pages I wasn’t playing PC games  in the early nineties … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Revolutionary Summer – Independence Kickoff

Posted on June 16, 2017 by smellincoffee

288 pages © 2014 Joseph J. Ellis Earlier in the week I read Joseph Ellis’ Revolutionary Summer to kick off my yearly tribute to American Independence.   Ellis should be familiar to readers here, as I enjoy his narrative histories … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

CYBERPUNK

Posted on June 9, 2017 by smellincoffee

CYBERPUNK: Hackers and Outlaws on the Computer Frontier© 1991 Katie Hafner400 pages Cyberpunk takes readers back to the early days of hacking, when it was so old-school that computers weren’t involved. Using three case  in the United States and western … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Adventure of English

Posted on May 17, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language© 2011 Melvyn Bragg336 pages In The Adventure of English, Melvin Bragg delivers a mythic history of the language that treats our lingua franca as a living personality — battered and now … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

1066: A New History

Posted on April 28, 2017 by smellincoffee

1066: A New History© 2009 Peter Rex The list of English kings begins with William the Conqueror, but such a list is really a thing of propaganda; although England’s patchwork of ancient kingdoms were slow to be united against threats … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

The Armada

Posted on April 21, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Armada© 1959 Garrett Mattingly443 pages In the late summer of 1588, all of Europe held its breath as an enormous Spanish fleet, consisting of a hundred and fifty vessels of varying sizes, set sail for the English channel. Their … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Sister Queens

Posted on April 16, 2017 by smellincoffee

Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of  Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castille480 pages© 2011 Julia Fox Virtually any reader of Tudor fiction is familiar with the sad story of Queen Catherine,  the lawful wife of Henry VIII … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

London at War

Posted on April 8, 2017 by smellincoffee

London at War© 1995 Phillip Ziegler372 pages “London doesn’t look down at the ruins of its houses, at the remains of its churches and houses; London looks upwards, towards the Dawn,  and faces the new day with calmness and confidence.”  … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments