Tag Archives: Colonial America

Log Cabin Pioneers

Posted on May 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

Log Cabin Pioneers: Stories, Songs, and Sayings© 2001 Wayne Erbson184 pages Few things are more evocative of the American frontier than a log cabin. This isn’t a new thing, either: log cabins entered American iconography as early as the 1840s, … Continue reading →

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Early Alabama

Posted on February 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

Early Alabama: An Illustrated Guide to the Formative Years © 2019 Mike Bunn184 pages Published in time for the celebration of Alabama’s bicentennial, Early Alabama invites readers back to when the Heart of Dixie was still a wilderness, save for … Continue reading →

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Revolutionary Characters

Posted on January 24, 2023 by smellincoffee

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different© 2006 Gordon S. Woods352 pages Revolutionary Characters reviews the lives of several of the United States’ founding fathers to examine how the personal strengths and ambitions of these men allowed them to play … Continue reading →

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America Walks into a Bar

Posted on October 25, 2022 by smellincoffee

America Walks into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops© 2014 Christine Sismondo336 pages Welcome, friend. Pull up a stool.    You’ve come in at the tail end of a story, but it’s one … Continue reading →

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Act of Oblivion

Posted on September 26, 2022 by smellincoffee

Act of Oblivion(c) 2022 Robert Harris477 pages The puritan despot Cromwell is dead and the English king restored, but the balance books of history are not yet straight. There remain in England still breathing the men who presumed to put … Continue reading →

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The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

Posted on September 7, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History© 2004 Thomas E. Woods290 pages I don’t remember when I first began to break from believing the Standard View of American history, the view promoted in the textbooks paid for by the State … Continue reading →

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Of cyclists, colonial Catholics, and crappy endings

Posted on February 21, 2022 by smellincoffee

Last weekend I stayed at the Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, there to be evaluated for admission to their kidney transplant list. Much of my downtime was spent (how else) reading. How Cycling Can Save the World is a straightforward argument … Continue reading →

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Spain in the Southwest

Posted on May 5, 2017 by smellincoffee

Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History© 2013 John Kessell480 In the early 1500s, the Spanish triumphed over the Aztecs and established a new Spain — an empire forged out of the new world.  The equatorial tropics were only the … Continue reading →

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La Florida

Posted on March 29, 2017 by smellincoffee

La Florida: Five Hundred Years of Hispanic Presence©  2016 Viviana Díaz Balsera & Rachel A. May312 pages Florida, like many places in the United States, bears the name given to it by another culture.  The Spanish, setting first foot on … Continue reading →

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The Other War of 1812

Posted on March 24, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Other War of 1812: The Patriot War © 2007 James Cusick 398 pages If the War of 1812 rings any bells for most Americans, they may associate it with the creation of the Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem whose … Continue reading →

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