OK, maybe the title is a bit off the mark but it had a ring to it.

This post is about a few recent books about history that I have acquired. As my readers know, I really like to dig into history.

I will start with the book that covers the earliest time period and work forward.

Columbus and the World Around Him by Milton Meltzer looks at the impact that the Columbus voyages had on the world. It also looks at how they still influence our life today.

I have quite a few books about Columbus, including some that give different theories of who he really was. Was he Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Jewish, Nobleman, Templar, Secret Agent, …? There are many theories about who he might have been.

Next up is a book about the Revolutionary War. I have been reading more books from this time period recently. Especially as I now know more about who and where my ancestors were during that time period.

Just last night I finished reading Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick.

I look forward to diving into Origins of the American Revolution by John C. Miller.

John Chester Miller was a History professor at Stanford University and wrote several books about the early history of our country.

Now for a historical novel. I picked this book up today at the library book sale.

I knew the name Shaara, as I had read his father’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Killer Angels which was about the Battle of Gettysburg.

I did not know that Jeff Shaara had written a historical novel about the Revolutionary War. In fact, Rise to Rebellion is the first of two that he wrote. I will have to look for The Glorious Cause.

Rise to Rebellion covers the same time period as the books by Philbrick and Miller, so it will be interesting to read a novel that depicts the same events.

At the library today I also picked up a set of Bruce Catton’s The Army of the Potomac trilogy.

Bruce Catton was a narrative historian. Basically his writing was on the edge between fiction and non-fiction.

The three titles in the trilogy are: Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Glory Road and A Stillness at Appomattox

Cotton won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox. One of my long term goals is to read all the books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for History, but I have not been very active on pursuing this goal. Maybe it is time to start again 🙂

These are now in one of my piles of books to read. When will I read them? It depends on where my mind wanders and what other books I happen to acquire.

What historic time period do you like to read about?

Steven