<p>Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York. By Elizabeth L. Bradley. Rutgers University Press, 2009, 151+ pp.   &nbsp; In his 1963 breakthrough novel Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. coined the term granfalloon to describe hollow collectives to which one accidentally belongs. For instance, if you live in California you are a “Californian” until the day &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2018/04/09/the-knickerbocker-myth-review/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span clas

<p>Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World. ByChristopher De Hamel. New York: Penguin Press, 2017. Christopher de Hamel’s love letter to medieval manuscripts celebrates every component of the medieval book: the beauty and craftsmanship of each hand-written page, the passion and tireless dedication of the scribes, the romantic interiors of modern archives &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2018/02/15/meetings-with-remarkable-manuscripts-

<p>The War of the Wheels: H. G. Wells and the Bicycle, by Jeremy Withers, Syracuse: New York: Syracuse University Press, 2017. Jeremy Withers in The War of the Wheels: H. G. Wells and the Bicycle provides the “first in-depth analysis of bikes in Wells’ long and prolific writing career” (p. 3). This book joins other &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2018/02/12/h-g-wells-and-bicycles-a-book-review/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">H.G. Wel

<p>Blood and Faith: Christianity in White American Nationalism. By Damon T. Berry. Syracuse University Press, 2017. In the epilogue to Blood and Faith, St. Lawrence University religion professor Damon Berry evokes the 2016 presidential election: “If the economic policies of the new administration do indeed end up hurting the white working class that voted Trump &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/12/20/2731/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader

<p>THE SEEKING. By Will Thomas. Edited by Mark Madigan. University of New England Press, 344 pages, 2013 edited reprint of 1953 original.   The Seeking slipped under the radar, but deserves new attention. My copy literally got buried under an avalanche of titles that came my way and I failed to notice that my longtime &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/11/13/book-review-an-african-american-in-vermont-post-wwii/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-re

<p>The Banjo: America’s African Instrument. By Laurent Dubois, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016.  Laurent Dubois, professor of Romance Studies and History and director of the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University, asks a seemingly simple question early on in his book: “What sound will accompany the end of days?” &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/11/13/book-review-the-banjo/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="scre

<p>Dava Sobel. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. New York: Viking, 2017. 324 Pg. $30. Dava Sobel has written another wonderful book about women and science. The Glass Universe tells the story of the dozens of women who worked in the Harvard College Observatory in &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/11/06/book-review-the-glass-universe/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Book Rev

<p>Hollywood Riots: Violent Crowds and Progressive Politics in American Film (2016). By Doug Dibbern. I.B. Tauris, 205 pp. A few years before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) conducted its witch-hunt to ferret out alleged communists in the Hollywood film industry—it held hearings in 1947 and 1951—there had been violent, racially-motivated disturbances in Los &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/11/01/review-2016-rollins-book-prize-winner/" class="more

<p>Redman, Samuel. Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism in Human Prehistory to Museums. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. Pp. 373. $29.95   Samuel Redman’s new monograph explores an interesting topic: the history and cultural significance of the vast collections of human skeletons that flooded museums and public fairs in the later nineteenth and early twentieth &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/10/30/book-review-bone-rooms/" class="more-link">Continue readi

<p>Legends Never Die: Athletes and Their Afterlives in Modern America. By Richard Ian Kimball. Syracuse University Press, 2017.   On July 4, 1939, New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig bade farewell in a speech that has found its way into the pantheon of American history&#8217;s most famous orations. When Gehrig told a Yankee Stadium &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/10/30/book-review-sports-legend-and-immortality/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="

<p>YOUNG RADICALS: IN THE WAR FOR AMERICAN IDEALS (2017) Jeremy McCarter Random House, 340 pages.   I didn’t like this book; I adored it! It is so well written that it reads like novel. Among the unorthodox things Jeremy McCarter has done is pen it in the present tense. Another is to make its major &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/06/19/book-review-young-radicals/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Book Review: Young&nbsp;Radicals</s

<p>THE UNITED STATES OF ABSURDITY: UNTOLD STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds Ten Speed Press, 2017, 144 pages  The United States of Absurdity is a mix of the rapid-fire wit and non-sequiturs of Car Talk, the bad boy flippancy of Howard Stern, and offbeat history. Its authors, Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds, &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/06/03/united-states-of-absurdity-mine-it-but-dont-assign-it/" class="more-link">Continue reading <s

<p>WAS AMERICA FOUNDED AS A CHRISTIAN NATION? (Revised Edition, 2016) By John Fea Westminster John Knox Press, 324 pages   &nbsp; For tens of millions of Americans, there’s no need to pose the question raised in the title of John Fea&#8217;s monograph. Most self-identified evangelicals adamantly insist that it was, and humanists and political progressives &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/05/05/was-america-founded-as-a-christian-nation-book-review/" class="more-link">

<p>Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI. By David Grann, Doubleday, 2017, 352 pp.   History books tell us that the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and the slaughter of at least 150 Indians* was the final episode in the wars between Native Americans and whites. Perhaps we should &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/04/11/killers-of-the-flower-moon-the-last-indian-war/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Killer

<p>The Wilderness of Ruin: A Tale of Madness, Fire, and the Hunt for America’s Youngest Serial Killer. By Roseanne Montillo. New York: William Morrow, 2015. Gilded Age Boston and Chicago shared a lot in common. Both had World&#8217;s Fairs: Boston in 1883, and Chicago ten years later. Each suffered devastating fires, with Chicago being nearly &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/03/28/wilderness-of-ruin-both-fascinating-and-frustrating/" class="more-link">Continue readin

<p>Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties. By Thomas M. Grace. University of Massachusetts Press, 2016. 273 pages + appendices, notes, index.  Tin soldiers and Nixon coming/We’re finally on our own/This summer I hear the drumming/Four dead in Ohio. Those lines from Neil Young’s “Ohio” were inescapable by the summer of 1970, with &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/01/23/kent-state-reconsidered/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-te

<p>This review appeared in the Cultured Classrooms section of NEPCA&#8217;s fall newsletter. It seems appropriate to repost it as a review on Inauguration Day. &nbsp; Putting Class Back Into the Classroom I&#8217;m guilty of being one of those scholars who too glibly use the words “important book” in reviews and academic discussions. We often mean, simply, &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2017/01/20/history-of-white-trash/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="

<p>The Salome Ensemble: Rose Pastor Stokes, Anzia Yezierska, Sonya Levien, and Jetta Goudal. By Alan Robert Ginsberg. Syracuse University Press, 2016. &nbsp; If you don’t know who Rose Pastor Stokes (1879-1933), Anzia Yezierska (1880-1970), Sonya Levien (1888-1960), and Jetta Goudal (1881-1985) are, you should. Their lives are a study in connections, as friends, role-models, and &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2016/12/07/salome-ensemble-a-slice-of-20th-century-history/"

<p>STRANGE HISTORY (2016). By Jay Newman, editor. Portable Press, 2016.   Have you ever seen Chuck Shepherd&#8217;s quirky &#8220;New of the Weird&#8221; columns? If so, you can imagine the content of Strange History. In editor Jay Newman&#8217;s words, it&#8217;s a &#8220;smorgasbord of oddities: kings, queens, commoners, criminals, gladiators, aliens, ghosts, monsters….&#8221; You can add to &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2016/12/05/nothing-high-falutin-but-maybe-stuf

<p>Can I Go Now? The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood’s First Superagent. Brian Kellow. New York: Viking, 2015. Brain Kellow has written the definitive biography of Sue Mengers, and it’s a fun book. Mengers was an influential Hollywood talent agent who represented some of the industry&#8217;s most glamorous stars at the height of their careers, &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2016/12/05/book-review-new-look-at-sue-mengers/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="s