Category Archives: history

Memories of Old Cahaba

Posted on June 12, 2010 by smellincoffee

Memories of Old Cahaba © 1905 Anna M. Gayle Fry 122 pages I live perhaps fifteen miles from the conjunction of the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers, where once sat a booming and stately city — home to the Alabama legislature … Continue reading →

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Africa

Posted on June 2, 2010 by smellincoffee

Africa: a Biography of the Continent© 1997  John Reader816 pages And we are scatterlings of Africa, both you and I  We’re on the road to Phelemanga, beneath a copper sky; And we are scatterlings of Africa, on a journey to … Continue reading →

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Homage to Catalonia

Posted on May 26, 2010 by smellincoffee

Homage to Catalonia© 1952 George Orwell232 pages On 17 July 1936, conservative and reactionary forces inside Spain opted to seize power by force, rather than allow the Popular Front government — an increasingly liberal, democratic, and progressive entity that undermined … Continue reading →

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North Korea: Another Country

Posted on May 22, 2010 by smellincoffee

North Korea: Another Country© 2004 Bruce Cumings241 pages “It helps in understanding North Korea if you have lived in a fundamentalist Christian community…just like the North Koreans, we believed in the absolute purity of our doctrines. We focused inward and … Continue reading →

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This Week at the Library (6/5)

Posted on May 5, 2010 by smellincoffee

Once more, I have kept my head above the water and am finished with term papers and finals for this semester. I had the good luck to do research on topics I enjoyed (history of science, the Great War, and … Continue reading →

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1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus

Posted on April 11, 2010 by smellincoffee

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus© 2005 Charles C. Mann465 pages 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus is an ambitious book that attempts to rout a host of assumptions about the land and people of the … Continue reading →

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Joan of Arc: the Legend and the Reality

Posted on March 16, 2010 by smellincoffee

Joan of Arc: the Legend and the Reality© 1959 Frances Gies306 pages Few historical characters, and no women, are more famous than Joan of Arc. Her name and story are known throughout the world. In the Middle Ages there were … Continue reading →

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The Geography of Nowhere

Posted on February 24, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Geography of Nowhere: the Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape© 1993 James Howard Kunstler303 pages Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes all the same There’s a green one, … Continue reading →

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Stories Behind Words

Posted on February 23, 2010 by smellincoffee

Stories Behind Words: The Origins and Histories of 285 English Words© 1986 Peter Limburg288 pages I have long held an interest in etymology and the history of language, thus this book’s interest to me.  Author Peter Limburg expounds upon the … Continue reading →

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A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

Posted on February 11, 2010 by smellincoffee

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress © 2007 Howard Zinn 293 pages This year I have become convincted that democracy is not something that happens at the ballot-box but on the streets. It consists in mass movements forcing the institutions that … Continue reading →

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