Tag: American history

  • It’s All About the Players by Peter Gammons

    I have two very simple questions for you in this review. Do you love baseball? Do you know Peter Gammons as one of the best baseball writers of all time? If the answer is yes to both, then clearly It’s All About the Players is for you (as it was for me). Gammons does essentially…

  • Shadow Before the Flame by Catherine Grace Katz

    There are two types of disaster books in my mind. The first, and much less interesting, is laser-focused on the event. The narrative revolves around the event itself and the carnage and drama around the tragedy. It is about setting things up only as far as necessary to get to the calamity. The second, and…

  • Live Laugh Love by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

    Alright, let’s be honest. You read the entire title for Live Laugh Love by Kristin Kobes Du Mez and probably had feelings. Let me go ahead and cut to the chase and answer what I believe each audience might ask. I am a devout Evangelical. Is this book just some trashy and targeted takedown of…

  • Are They Dead Yet? by Sam Roberts

    Being a huge history nerd, my definition of “fun” is very skewed. Case in point, when I saw Sam Roberts had written Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit, my only question was how fast I could get my hands on it. What could be more fun than writing obituaries? Clearly, this book…

  • War Without Mercy by Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin

    I am not fully objective on this one. The co-author of War Without Mercy is the late James Kirby Martin, who passed in 2024. He was a repeat guest on History Nerds United and a true scholar of the American Revolution. More importantly, he was truly wonderful man who was extremely generous with his time…

  • Tower Hill by Alan Taylor

    There is one thing about slavery in America that I will never quite understand. Why torture and enslave your fellow man when nobody benefits? If you don’t understand my question, then you absolutely must read Tower Hill by Alan Taylor. Basically, while it is obvious slavery was bad for the enslaved, it didn’t help the…

  • American Alt by Chris Lockhart

    Schizophrenia seems like a massive challenge by itself, but if you add dissociative identity disorder to it then you get, well, Michael Dodd! Dodd is one of two main characters in the excellent American Alt by Chris Lockhart. Lockhart, the author, is the other main character who doesn’t have either of those mental disorders, but…

  • The Forsaken Founder by Scott Greenberger

    Gouverneur Morris presents as the least likely Founding Father to be forgotten so easily. He was rakish, rather hilarious and arrogant at times, while also extremely intelligent. He is the author of the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble, after all. So why do so many people not know who is, let alone how to pronounce his name?…

  • Vengeance by Tom Clavin

    If you’re new here, I love Tom Clavin’s books. My ratings of his books go from, “Dang that was good,” to “He’s done it again!” Will Vengeance break his streak? Nope. Vengeance looks at the physical and figurative last stands of George Armstrong Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. Clavin himself admits that these men…