Historical - Mosman Readers2024-03-28T18:39:04Zhttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/forum/categories/historical-1/listForCategory?feed=yes&xn_auth=noWanted! The Outlaw Lives of Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly / by Robert M. Utleytag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2017-04-02:2517344:Topic:543822017-04-02T17:05:55.880ZKim Allen Scotthttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/KimAllenScott
<p>Historian Robert Utley has enjoyed a distinguished career as a historian with the United States National Park Service. He has written on more than a few icons of American frontier history, including Geronimo, George Armstrong Custer and William H. Bonney, popularly known as “Billy the Kid.” It was his success with the last character that really concerns us here, for it is hard to imagine anyone tackling a comparative study including The Kid without being thoroughly versed in his life and…</p>
<p>Historian Robert Utley has enjoyed a distinguished career as a historian with the United States National Park Service. He has written on more than a few icons of American frontier history, including Geronimo, George Armstrong Custer and William H. Bonney, popularly known as “Billy the Kid.” It was his success with the last character that really concerns us here, for it is hard to imagine anyone tackling a comparative study including The Kid without being thoroughly versed in his life and legend. Although Utley is now approaching ninety years on the planet, he still enjoys writing and research and looks for new perspectives on old stories. This is what led him to his comparison study of The Kid and Australia’s most famous lawbreaker, Ned Kelly.<br/><br/>Although the two outlaws died at the hands of the law within nine months of each other, there is really little to compare between Ned and Billy. The former was a family man with deep ties to his kinfolk and his country, while the latter was a loner with little attachment to anyone other than a changing cast of supporting characters who rode with him during his short and violent life. Utley, after a vacation tour of Victoria a few years back, gathered enough reading material to seep him in the Ned Kelly legend and naturally applied it to his vast storehouse of knowledge on Billy. The result is a three part book. The first tells in brief, yet comprehensive, prose the story of Billy the Kid from his murky origins to his death at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garret in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The second part of the book gives a competent overview of Ned’s life, based on several competent secondary sources and ending with a review of Ned’s impact on Australian popular culture. The third part of the book, the comparison between the two outlaws, is somewhat disappointing. After reviewing the salient points from both men’s lives, Utley concludes that there is really little to compare after all, other than the differences that outweigh the similarities. I have often thought that the best comparison between an American outlaw and Ned Kelly would be one that examines the life and legend of Jesse James, a criminal who also shot law enforcement personnel and ruled a gang with the help of his brother. Such a study would conclude, in my opinion, many parallels that would help people on both sides of the Pacific understand why we share such a fascination for these historical thugs. Although I enjoyed Utley’s forced comparison with The Kid, I really wish someone else would tackle a more apt dual biography. Maybe you could write it!</p> The Claimant / by Paul Terrytag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2016-11-28:2517344:Topic:532482016-11-28T01:55:16.246ZKim Allen Scotthttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/KimAllenScott
<p>Mark Twain, who knew a few things about telling a good story and presenting the implausible as believable, threw up his hands in despair when he had thoroughly researched the story of Tom Castro, a Wagga Wagga butcher who became the most famous imposter of all time. Twain gave up the idea, though, when he admitted “the public would say such people are impossible” and contented himself with compiling a scrapbook on the remarkable case of “Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne.” …<br></br> <br></br></p>
<p>Mark Twain, who knew a few things about telling a good story and presenting the implausible as believable, threw up his hands in despair when he had thoroughly researched the story of Tom Castro, a Wagga Wagga butcher who became the most famous imposter of all time. Twain gave up the idea, though, when he admitted “the public would say such people are impossible” and contented himself with compiling a scrapbook on the remarkable case of “Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne.” <br/> <br/> Fortunately for contemporary readers Paul Terry, an author whose wit at time rivals Mark Twain himself, has taken up the tale and produced a book that is both hilarious and intriguing. The story of the imposter Castro (or was his name Arthur Orton?) who managed to fool even the real baronet’s own mother and became an international sensation after enduring lengthy civil and criminal trials reads like an impossible novel. Even though the Claimant was a huge, fat, toothless and coarse man, he managed to pass himself off as an aristocrat who was lost at sea in the early 1850s by claiming he had been picked up as a shipwreck survivor and taken to Australia by a ship no one seems to have been able to document. By claiming to be Tichborne, Castro gained passage from Sydney to London where he demanded both the title (and more importantly) the fortune of a family that wanted nothing to do with him. Only the aged, widowed mother of the lost Tichborne heir accepted him, but she inconveniently died before either of the trials began.<br/> <br/> This book is, in places, a mystery, a tragedy, and a laugh out loud comedy. Terry has a remarkably dry wit that shines through on every page. I was totally captivated by this book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I think even Mark Twain would have enjoyed it.</p> The Chosen Queen by Joanna Courtneytag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2015-09-09:2517344:Topic:468892015-09-09T06:23:46.201ZRead, Review & Winhttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/moslib
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499439?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499439?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="170"></img></a> History fans will enjoy this. Edyth, the only Queen of Wales & England, Harold the last Anglo Saxon King, loses the Battle of Hastings, making way for the Normans, and William then rules over England. Fiction & history & romance - together make a great…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499439?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="170" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499439?profile=RESIZE_180x180"/></a>History fans will enjoy this. Edyth, the only Queen of Wales & England, Harold the last Anglo Saxon King, loses the Battle of Hastings, making way for the Normans, and William then rules over England. Fiction & history & romance - together make a great read.</p> The Better Angels of Our Nature / by Michael A. Hallerantag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2015-04-02:2517344:Topic:467512015-04-02T22:03:54.311ZKim Allen Scotthttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/KimAllenScott
<p>One of my regrets concerning the three visits I have made to Australia is my failure to present myself at a local lodge of Freemasons. Having joined the fraternity myself about twenty years ago, it would be a real treat to enter a lodge in a different country and hear the variations on the ritual that I have heard so many times. Of course I would recognize it, and my Australian brothers would recognize me, by the various grips, passwords, and signs that we all share in common. This aspect…</p>
<p>One of my regrets concerning the three visits I have made to Australia is my failure to present myself at a local lodge of Freemasons. Having joined the fraternity myself about twenty years ago, it would be a real treat to enter a lodge in a different country and hear the variations on the ritual that I have heard so many times. Of course I would recognize it, and my Australian brothers would recognize me, by the various grips, passwords, and signs that we all share in common. This aspect of Freemasonry is explored in depth in this delightful book, The Better Angels of our Nature: Freemasonry in the Civil War. This easily digested, and intensely researched narrative is an excellent read for Civil War buffs because it explores the role Freemasonry played during the conflict. Instead of encouraging its members to commit acts of disloyalty to their respective sides, the fraternity left the interpretation of mercy, charity, and brotherhood up to individuals, often with surprising results. I know lots of my Australian friends are interested in the American Civil War, and the brothers who live in your country who I have yet to meet will also enjoy this book.</p> The Heart of Everything That Is / by Bob Drury and Tom Clavintag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2015-01-13:2517344:Topic:453512015-01-13T18:02:48.691ZKim Allen Scotthttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/KimAllenScott
<p>The full title of this work is a clue to it’s faults: <strong><em>The Heart of Everything That Is: the Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend.</em></strong> The story of Red Cloud has hardly been “untold,” and the authors, who are not professional historians, make a great deal of presumption in claiming indirectly that this book is somehow groundbreaking in its presentation. It is true that Hollywood has yet to tackle the story of Fort Phil Kearny and the epic siege of the place led…</p>
<p>The full title of this work is a clue to it’s faults: <strong><em>The Heart of Everything That Is: the Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend.</em></strong> The story of Red Cloud has hardly been “untold,” and the authors, who are not professional historians, make a great deal of presumption in claiming indirectly that this book is somehow groundbreaking in its presentation. It is true that Hollywood has yet to tackle the story of Fort Phil Kearny and the epic siege of the place led by Red Cloud and his warriors, but plenty of historical narratives have looked at the story and, in some cases, surpassed this one in accuracy. Red Cloud is certainly worthy of a retelling of his victory over the United States, however, and this one reads as smooth as butter. Readers will gain the important background information on how the Lakota people were consistently pushed and prodded by the Euro-American advancement across the great plains, and will understandably sympathize with their doomed resistance. White actors in this drama are not painted in two-dimensional caricature, however, and the authors spend a good deal of time explaining the cultural differences between the opposing forces to explain the inevitable conflict. What irritated me most in reading the book was the author’s insistence in using tired, and questionable, secondary sources on such episodes as the Nelson Story cattle drive to Montana without subjecting them to proper historical criticism. But general readers will find much to admire in this book, and it is a good introduction to the tragedy of what has been rightfully called America’s longest war; the subjugation of its native people from the seventeenth century through 1890.</p> Empire of the Summer Moon / by S. C. Gwynnetag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2014-11-12:2517344:Topic:450172014-11-12T18:30:02.060ZKim Allen Scotthttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/KimAllenScott
<p>Quannah Paker was one of the most interesting of the fighting plains Indians. Born from a white mother who was captured by the Commanches at the age of eight, Quannah rose to power in the tribe by his wits, charisma, and pure physical prowess. That is saying a lot, considering that the Commanches were arguably the most powerful tribe ever encountered by Euro-Americans as they pushed west onto the great plains. The Commanches were the first tribe to adapt to life on horseback after they…</p>
<p>Quannah Paker was one of the most interesting of the fighting plains Indians. Born from a white mother who was captured by the Commanches at the age of eight, Quannah rose to power in the tribe by his wits, charisma, and pure physical prowess. That is saying a lot, considering that the Commanches were arguably the most powerful tribe ever encountered by Euro-Americans as they pushed west onto the great plains. The Commanches were the first tribe to adapt to life on horseback after they had captured many Spanish ponies in the sixteenth century and eventually learned to breed them. As a result, the warrior class of the tribe had an uncanny riding ability that allowed them mastery of any disputed field with other natives as well as their white adversaries prior to the invention of repeating firearms. Quannah led many raids into the frontier to kill settlers and steal more livestock, but his greatest battle was also his greatest defeat when he laid siege to some buffalo hunters fortified at a place called Adobe Walls in the Texas panhandle. Not long after this rout, Parker’s band had to surrender, and Quannah began a second career as a diplomat and spokesman for his people in their dealings with the government. This book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and is a terrific read. </p> Natural Curiosity : Unseen Art of the First Fleet by Louise Anemaattag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2014-07-30:2517344:Topic:449532014-07-30T06:22:39.656ZRead, Review & Winhttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/moslib
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<p>A unique, beautifully presented book. The Derby Collection of watercolour drawings created in the 1790's is now held in the State Library of N.S.W. Europeans were fascinated by Australia's natural history : exotic birds, plants, fish and animals. The drawings are wonderfully detailed and coloured, recorded for the first time in the new…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499939?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499939?profile=original" width="175"/></a></p>
<p>A unique, beautifully presented book. The Derby Collection of watercolour drawings created in the 1790's is now held in the State Library of N.S.W. Europeans were fascinated by Australia's natural history : exotic birds, plants, fish and animals. The drawings are wonderfully detailed and coloured, recorded for the first time in the new Colony.</p> In the garden of beasts / by Erik Larsontag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2014-05-06:2517344:Topic:437432014-05-06T20:03:29.230ZKim Allen Scotthttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/KimAllenScott
<p><em>Note: This book should not be confused with the novel by Jeffery Deaver that has a very similar name and was reviewed by the Tuesday evening book club on October 18, 2012.</em></p>
<p>I recently had this book pressed upon me by a casual acquaintance after we had a dinner together. He insisted it was a good read, and although the subject matter is something I never really held much interest in I decided to give it a go. I am glad I did, because this study is history writing at its very…</p>
<p><em>Note: This book should not be confused with the novel by Jeffery Deaver that has a very similar name and was reviewed by the Tuesday evening book club on October 18, 2012.</em></p>
<p>I recently had this book pressed upon me by a casual acquaintance after we had a dinner together. He insisted it was a good read, and although the subject matter is something I never really held much interest in I decided to give it a go. I am glad I did, because this study is history writing at its very best. In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt was casting about for an ambassador to Nazi Germany and settled on William E. Dodd, a Chicago history professor who was the only candidate apparently willing to take on the job. He took along his wife, son, and daughter Martha to live in Berlin for the next five years, and this study chronicles their stay. Martha emerges as the main character of the tale, a promiscuous young woman who seemed determined to bed top German Nazi officials and Russian Communist diplomats indiscriminately. Meanwhile her beleaguered father tries to walk a delicate line between protesting the Hitler regime’s increasingly hostile treatment of the Jews and placating his anti-Semitic colleagues in the State Department back home. The book is written almost like a novel, with unnumbered endnotes pertaining to individual pages gathered at the back for reference. This allows the text to be consumed uninterrupted by citation notifications yet still remain true to the tenants of historical inquiry. If I had one criticism of this excellent book it would be that there is no character development of Dodd’s wife and son, but it is probably as a result of neither one keeping as many diaries or letters as did the ambassador and his daughter Martha. That’s a small complaint and should not prevent you from reading this fascinating study of how a country descended into darkness while witnessed by an articulate and honorable man. </p> The Paris Wife by Paula McLaintag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2014-02-06:2517344:Topic:427172014-02-06T05:26:44.928ZTuesday evening book clubhttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/Tuesdayeveningbookclub
<p>This review was written by Cynthia Haskell, a member of the Tuesday Evening Book Club.</p>
<p class="FreeFormA">Published in 2012, <i>The Paris Wife</i> is a fictionalised account of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage to Hadley Richardson by American author Paula McLain, with whom many readers may be unfamiliar, as I was. This book’s major selling point is that it has been a long-standing New York best seller. However, it seems to be the author’s second attempt to break into ‘fiction’. Her…</p>
<p>This review was written by Cynthia Haskell, a member of the Tuesday Evening Book Club.</p>
<p class="FreeFormA">Published in 2012, <i>The Paris Wife</i> is a fictionalised account of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage to Hadley Richardson by American author Paula McLain, with whom many readers may be unfamiliar, as I was. This book’s major selling point is that it has been a long-standing New York best seller. However, it seems to be the author’s second attempt to break into ‘fiction’. Her other publications include non-fiction about growing up in foster care, based on her own experiences, some poetry, and as I understand it a coming-of-age novel <i>Ticket to Ride</i>, perhaps also based on her own experiences.</p>
<p class="FreeForm">McLain writes the book mostly in the first person from the point of view of Hadley but with some chapters written in the 3rd person from Hemingway’s point of view mostly about his past and war experiences, which rather jarred with the rest of the book. It cannot be denied that McLain’s research is meticulous and her prose and descriptions are elegantly crafted with poignant insights into Hadley’s feelings, yet, as with all ‘historical fiction’ it seems like cheating creativity, the characters and the storyline are already there, and the reader often knows the outcome. Is there also a whiff of cynical marketing in that this book was published on the heels of the actual biography of Hemingway’s first wife by Gioia Diliberto, entitled Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife, and on the heels of Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris? Further, at the end of the day, this is a book written by a woman for women, a type of high class chick lit and it might not appeal to male readers. However, it has inspired me to read Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, inspired by his first marriage.</p>
<p class="FreeFormA"> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499475?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499475?profile=original" width="231"/></a></p> The Empress by Meg Clothiertag:mosmanreaders.ning.com,2013-07-24:2517344:Topic:382222013-07-24T02:49:41.943ZRead, Review & Winhttp://mosmanreaders.ning.com/profile/moslib
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<p>In 1179 Agnes, a 13 year old French princess, marries the heir to the Byzantium Empire. We watch her for the next 25 years, trying to keep her head, while six emperors rise and fall. Set against dazzling luxury which masks unspeakable cruelty, Meg Clothier writes a fast-moving, gripping novel,</p>
<p>based upon true events.</p>
<p>Well worth a…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499643?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="100" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866499643?profile=RESIZE_180x180"/></a></p>
<p>In 1179 Agnes, a 13 year old French princess, marries the heir to the Byzantium Empire. We watch her for the next 25 years, trying to keep her head, while six emperors rise and fall. Set against dazzling luxury which masks unspeakable cruelty, Meg Clothier writes a fast-moving, gripping novel,</p>
<p>based upon true events.</p>
<p>Well worth a read.</p>
<p> </p>