OK where were we? Oh yes. General Philip Schuyler is falling back southward through the Hudson Valley before the army of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, which includes 6,000 British regulars and more than 1,000 auxiliaries. General Barry St. Leger, with 800 tories and British regulars and more than 1,000 Iroquois warriors […]

As I have said several times before in this blog, you really can’t get more bang for the buck than old American Heritage magazines. They’re cheap and they have loads of great stories and illustrations. One of the neatest stories I’ve seen in AH is one called “How a Madman […]

It’s always a thrill for me to read firsthand descriptions of different places and times in history. When you find a primary historical document that is also a great read, well that’s a real thrill. I just started rereading “The Shirley Letters” by Louisa Amelia Knapp Smith Clapp, a.k.a. Dame […]

As the public attacks by Senator Joseph McCarthy on supposed communists and “fellow travelers” became more and more outrageous, many of Eisenhowers friends and advisors urged him to censure McCarthy “in the hope of destroying his political position and his capacity to distort the American ideal before the world.” “I […]

On December 12, 1941, five days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, then on maneuvers at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, got a call on the base’s direct line to the War Department. It was Colonel Walter Bedell Smith, later to become Ike’s chief […]

If you’re familiar with Lousia May Alcott’s book “Little Women,” you know “Marmee,” the mother, whose energy and good cheer kept their little family housed and fed and clothed while the dad was off somewhere. For part of the book the dad is off serving in the Civil War, which […]

You parents out there, don’t you hate it when your kid comes down with rickets? They get all crippled and can’t run errands for you. Since rickets is caused by a deficiency of B-vitamins, you could just give your kid some broccoli, but here’s an old New England remedy from […]

Georges Simenon wrote more than a hundred books without a dud. Alexander Dumas wrote hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. They’re not as easy to read, but they’re all equally rewarding, if not more so because they’re all a lot longer. Everybody thinks they know “The Three Musketeers” from the ten […]

Another author who never disappoints is Georges Simenon, who writes the Inspector Maigret mysteries. When I see one of those I snatch it up and put aside whatever else I’m reading. I just can’t wait to join Inspector Maigret as he puffs on his pipe, stokes up the stove in […]

Another sure-fire good read is any book by May Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Thank you Lisa Becker for turning me on to them. They wrote books about the Swedish police in the ’60s and ’70s. They have great characters, starting with inspector Martin Beck and his associates, and great situations […]