Category Archives: history

The Fiery Cross

Posted on May 26, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America© 1998 Wyn Craig Wade528 pages Living in the country as I did,  the bus ride to school always lasted over an hour, and in elementary school I remember being utterly petrified … Continue reading →

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The Wars of the Roses

Posted on May 25, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Wars of the Roses© 1996 Alison Weir496 pages The wars of the roses sounds like a gardening contest run amok, but no genteel horticulturists were involved.  The strange appellation refers to a series of dynastic crises in 15th century … Continue reading →

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The South since the War

Posted on May 16, 2015 by smellincoffee

The South Since the War: As Shown by Fourteen Weeks of Travel and Observation in Georgia and the Carolinas© 1866 Sidney Andrews400 pages In the autumn of 1865, as the dust and ashes were still settling over the graves of … Continue reading →

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The Fall of Saxon England

Posted on May 7, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Fall of Saxon England© 1975 Richard Humble242 pages History never rests. In the middle of the first millennium, the great tide of the Roman Empire began at last to recede. Its legions stationed in distant reaches of the realm, … Continue reading →

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Faith and Treason

Posted on May 2, 2015 by smellincoffee

Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot© 1997 Antonia Frasier384 pages        Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot….or, as contemporaries called it, the Powder Plot.   Its scale, for the 16th … Continue reading →

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Boudica

Posted on April 22, 2015 by smellincoffee

Boudica: The Life and Legend of Britain’s Warrior Queen© 2006 Vanessa Collingridge390 pages To the Roman mind, the isles of Britain lay in the shadows between the light of civilized Empire and the dark depths of the unknown Oceanus which … Continue reading →

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Born Fighting

Posted on March 25, 2015 by smellincoffee

Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America© 2004 Jim Webb384 pages Born Fighting is a family story of the Scots-Irish, a clan of forgotten men. Beginning with the Celts, author Jim Webb moves swiftly through British history to the establishment … Continue reading →

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Selma 1965

Posted on March 18, 2015 by smellincoffee

Selma 1965: the March that Changed the South© 1974, 1985, 2015 Chuck Fager257 pages (2nd edition), Last weekend, my hometown suddenly became host to two presidents, a hundred members of Congress, and enough people to see it swell over ten times … Continue reading →

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Runaway Slaves

Posted on March 13, 2015 by smellincoffee

Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation© 2000 John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger480 pages Easily the most horrible aspect of American history, is the institution of slavery.  Indentured servitude had been a historical norm for centuries before, of course,  usually the … Continue reading →

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A Renegade History of the United States

Posted on January 28, 2015 by smellincoffee

A Renegade History of the United States © 2010 Thaddaeus Russell402 pages “All of you, you think there’s someone just gonna drop money on you? Money they could use? …well, there ain’t people like that! There’s just people like me!”  (Jayne … Continue reading →

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