I read this fall H.W. Brands latest book, The Last Campaign--Sherman, Geronimo and the American War. It is a narrative history of the Indian wars. Brands tells the story by quoting extensively from contemporary documents. The prologue to the book alone is worth the price of the book. It sets the stage. Humans joined together in tribes. Since they were largely nomadic the regularly fought over territory. The losers mover on, eventually from Europe across the Baring Straits to America. There were numerous tribes in North America, and they continually fought over feeding territory. The European colonists changed their world. The colonists tended to think of themselves as superior--the Indians were savages--but they were agrarian farmers, while the Indians were nomadic, moving, for example, seasonally with the buffalo. Recent thinking has tended to think of the Indians a innocent victims of European supremacy. Brands tells a more complicated story.
Some years ago, I had read Brands excellent history of the Gold Rush, The Age of Gold. Mark Twain covers much of the territory in Roughing It, in which he states, This is the truth, mostly. Brands, again, tells the story of the Gold Rush by quoting liberally from several extensive diaries that have survived. After reading The Age of Gold, I concluded that Twain was mostly right.
While I have, but have not read, the Johnstown Flood, I have read The Path Between the Seas, David’s masterful history of the building of the Panama Canal. He tells the story with compassion and understanding: of how the French were fixed on building a sea-level canal, like the Suez, and totally ignored a French engineer who understood what was needed, and was done, when the US somewhat belligerently took over the building. The detail is an amazing story of the failings of human decision making. Many, blacks, white, French died before responsible people realized that mosquitos were the carrier of yellow fever and malaria. The hospital beds stood in cans of water to keep fire ants off patients: meanwhile, mosquito larvae grew in the water. Walter Reed Hospital in Washington is named after one of the doctors who discovered the role of mosquitos. I read the book before joining a cruise through the Canal with David as our guide. When we arrived at Calon a guide joined us; he and David immediately recognized each other, from when David was researching the book. As we progressed through Canal, the guide welcomed us and announced that we had the real expert with us and he was going to turn the mike over to Mr. David McCullough. We went through the entire Canal surrounded by David’s wonderful voice. I said to him later, This was a once in a lifetime experience!
Dec 24, 2022·edited Dec 24, 2022Liked by The Rational Walk
I really appreciated Christopher Leonard's "The Lords of Easy Money," an approachable introduction to the Federal Reserve's approach ever since 2007. It was useful context for the inflation discussions that dominated this year.
I read this fall H.W. Brands latest book, The Last Campaign--Sherman, Geronimo and the American War. It is a narrative history of the Indian wars. Brands tells the story by quoting extensively from contemporary documents. The prologue to the book alone is worth the price of the book. It sets the stage. Humans joined together in tribes. Since they were largely nomadic the regularly fought over territory. The losers mover on, eventually from Europe across the Baring Straits to America. There were numerous tribes in North America, and they continually fought over feeding territory. The European colonists changed their world. The colonists tended to think of themselves as superior--the Indians were savages--but they were agrarian farmers, while the Indians were nomadic, moving, for example, seasonally with the buffalo. Recent thinking has tended to think of the Indians a innocent victims of European supremacy. Brands tells a more complicated story.
Some years ago, I had read Brands excellent history of the Gold Rush, The Age of Gold. Mark Twain covers much of the territory in Roughing It, in which he states, This is the truth, mostly. Brands, again, tells the story of the Gold Rush by quoting liberally from several extensive diaries that have survived. After reading The Age of Gold, I concluded that Twain was mostly right.
While I have, but have not read, the Johnstown Flood, I have read The Path Between the Seas, David’s masterful history of the building of the Panama Canal. He tells the story with compassion and understanding: of how the French were fixed on building a sea-level canal, like the Suez, and totally ignored a French engineer who understood what was needed, and was done, when the US somewhat belligerently took over the building. The detail is an amazing story of the failings of human decision making. Many, blacks, white, French died before responsible people realized that mosquitos were the carrier of yellow fever and malaria. The hospital beds stood in cans of water to keep fire ants off patients: meanwhile, mosquito larvae grew in the water. Walter Reed Hospital in Washington is named after one of the doctors who discovered the role of mosquitos. I read the book before joining a cruise through the Canal with David as our guide. When we arrived at Calon a guide joined us; he and David immediately recognized each other, from when David was researching the book. As we progressed through Canal, the guide welcomed us and announced that we had the real expert with us and he was going to turn the mike over to Mr. David McCullough. We went through the entire Canal surrounded by David’s wonderful voice. I said to him later, This was a once in a lifetime experience!
Agreed. The story of the Johnstown Flood is devastating. It’s mind blowing that so few people know it occurred. Thanks for sharing!
I really appreciated Christopher Leonard's "The Lords of Easy Money," an approachable introduction to the Federal Reserve's approach ever since 2007. It was useful context for the inflation discussions that dominated this year.