Category Archives: history

Never Done

Posted on June 1, 2013 by smellincoffee

Never Done: A History of American Housework © 1982 Susan Strasser 365 pages Every time I turn around there’s something else to do Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two… (“Gonna Be an Engineer”, … Continue reading →

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Garbage Land

Posted on May 16, 2013 by smellincoffee

Garbage Land: on the Secret Trail of Trash© 2006 Elizabeth Royte335 pages Where does the garbage go? In an impressive attempt to answer that most pressing question of modern life, Elizabeth Royte spends a year following her trash to landfills, … Continue reading →

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The New World

Posted on April 26, 2013 by smellincoffee

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume II: The New World© 1956 Winston Churchill400 pages Shortly before the eruption of the Second World War, Winston Churchill was busy at work authoring a history of the English and American people, of … Continue reading →

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Straphanger

Posted on April 6, 2013 by smellincoffee

Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile336 pages© 2012 Taras Grescoe The cheap energy era is over, unless someone invents a Star Trek replicator that can magick barrels of oil into existence. Cities across the world are working … Continue reading →

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Railroad Stations

Posted on February 26, 2013 by smellincoffee

Railroad Stations: the Buildings that Linked the Nation© 2012 ed. David Naylor336 pages For the past couple of weeks I’ve been slowly enjoying Railroad Stations: the Buildings that Linked the Nation, a collection of photographs of the United States’ wide … Continue reading →

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Waiting on a Train

Posted on February 9, 2013 by smellincoffee

Waiting on a Train: the Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service© 2009 James McCommons304 pages You leave the Pennsylvania Station ’bout a quarter to four, Read a magazine and then you’re in Baltimore! Dinner in the diner, nothing could be … Continue reading →

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This week at the library: Little Ice Age, and Bernard Cornwell

Posted on January 23, 2013 by smellincoffee

Last night I finished Battleflag, third in the Nathaniel Starbuck series. Seeing as I just finished and commented on Copperhead, posting extensive thoughts on Battleflag seemed redundant. Nate is still the son of a Boston abolitionist preacher fighting for the south … Continue reading →

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The Great Railroad Revolution

Posted on December 31, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Great Railroad Revolution: A History of Trains in America© 2012 Christian Wolmar448 pages The United States’ history is one written with novelty: born in the dawn of the industrial age,  America was a blank slate for technologies with the … Continue reading →

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Flushed

Posted on October 27, 2012 by smellincoffee

Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization© 2006 W. Hodding Carter241 pages So, plumbing.  You use it.  Chances are you wouldn’t be alive without it, because civilizations without plumbing tend to be miserable places rife with disease. Despite its importance, not much fuss … Continue reading →

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Bitterly Divided

Posted on October 26, 2012 by smellincoffee

Bitterly Divided: the South’s Inner Civil War© 2008 David Williams310 pages Why did the South lose the Civil War? Was it the strengths of the Union — a better rail network, a superior manufacturing base, more soldiers? David Williams doesn’t … Continue reading →

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