National Pastime, by Martin C Babicz & Thomas W Zeiler

The subtitle of this book is, “U.S. History Through Baseball”. And that is indeed what this book describes. Each chapter starts with a few paragraphs about a short period of U. S. history, and the rest of the chapter talks about baseball history during that same time span. I had not realized it before, but Read More

A Short History of the Railroad, by Christian Wolmar

I had thought that this book would cover the history of the American railroad system, and it does. However, it also covers the history of railroad systems around the world. So, the level of information is in some cases very broad, but not terribly deep. Having said that, I did learn a couple of things Read More

American Aristocrats, by Harry S Stout

The author tracks the Anderson family, starting with the patriarch, Richard Clough Anderson, through the next two generations. This was made easier by two things – there is a lot of correspondence between the family members, and a few other individuals, that is still extant, and this family was acquainted with, or was distantly related Read More