History – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – and How it Shattered a Nation

By Scott J. Pearson | August 13, 2026August 13, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 is legendary, but I’ve read relatively few accounts of its detailed history. For many people, I suppose, it’s like doing a deep dive about your favorite sports team’s worst loss. That’s unfortunate, though, because history offers many lessons. Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book offers a personal view of the crash – not in the sense that the author saw it himself but in the sense that he unpacks the motives,…

American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent & the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union

By Scott J. Pearson | July 17, 2026July 17, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Jon Meacham, one of our nation’s leading historians, has chosen the texts of dozens of speeches about American progress across its history and even pre-history. Its story is not one of inevitable progress but progress amidst continual dissent. There have always been strong, powerful voices standing in the way of a more perfect union. Seeing them displayed in this way forcefully suggests that struggle is always needed to propel this nation’s aim of a “more…

Healthcare History Religion-Philosophy

Medicine & Health Care in Early Christianity

By Scott J. Pearson | June 29, 2026June 29, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Historian Gary Ferngren seeks to usurp overly simplistic historical interpretations of Christian attitudes towards healthcare. Many, like the famous church historian Adolf von Harnack, say that the first few centuries of the church were dominated by a healing faith that did not trust physicians. Others posit the early church as having a very antagonistic view to the medicine of the day because they viewed it as pagan. Through copious citations to the primary literature, he…

Biography-Memoir History

The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation

By Scott J. Pearson | June 24, 2026June 24, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Most histories by politicians are automatically suspect. They tend to portray a political agenda instead of a search for historical truth. Jim Clyburn’s history of the first eight black congressmen from South Carolina is different. Why? As the ninth black congressman (nearly a century later), he has unique access to a rich cultural history surrounding these men, much of which has been erased in wider white SC society. His political agenda is simple: To unearth…

History

An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence

By Scott J. Pearson | March 31, 2026March 31, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

In the West, so many histories of Africa only focus on a depressing narrative that conveniently neglects many inspiring parts. Omitted are the triumphs of empires and heights of humanity shown in the African people; instead, only colonialist attitudes are amplified to disparage the Africans as an inferior continent. Many of us intuit that these negative narratives are lacking somehow, but we don’t have any new information to replace it. The Oxford-educated, Sudanese-born Zeinab Badawi…

History Society

How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy’s Guide to Silencing Women

By Scott J. Pearson | January 3, 2026January 3, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Most of us think of witchcraft as a relic of a hyper-religious past. Most of us also don’t have detailed beliefs about the practice of killing witches in the name of beating the devil – other than it’s wrong. However, the authors make a compelling case that the persecution of “witches” in prior centuries was just patriarchy rearing its ugly head. Seventy percent of accused witches were women; the other thirty percent were often the…

Biography-Memoir History Society

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

By Scott J. Pearson | November 28, 2025November 28, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

The Spanish Civil War was a historical precursor to World War II. Franco’s fascism for a time united disparate opposing groups like anarchists and communists. The opposition attracted volunteers from across Europe. However, these groups began infighting among each other, and the opposition ultimately failed. As with most failures, the blame game ran deep among groups. The great English writer George Orwell’s first-hand account provides as much light as can be shown upon the whole…

Healthcare History Society

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History & Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By Scott J. Pearson | June 27, 2025June 27, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Historians sometimes contend that before the fall of the Roman Empire, Western society possessed enough knowledge that our civilization could have advanced directly to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Age. Instead, the advent of the so-called Dark Ages reminds us that history does not always progress. We must seize the opportunities; our collective will and choices matter in history’s long arc. Novelist John Green has a self-described “obsession” with the disease of tuberculosis, or what…

Healthcare History HIV/AIDS

How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists & Scientists Tamed AIDS

By Scott J. Pearson | May 25, 2025May 25, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Today, it’s easy to forget the days when an HIV diagnosis implied a death sentence within 24 months. Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On tells the story of how the AIDS pandemic played out in the epicenter of San Francisco, and David France, in this book, tells how it played out in the other American epicenter of New York City. He tells how activists and scientists sometimes fought and sometimes collaborated to find how…

History

The Glorious Revolution: The History of the Overthrow of King James II of England by William of Orange

By Scott J. Pearson | May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Given recent events in American politics, I wanted to read a short history of perhaps the most bloodless revolution in Western history: the so-called “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 in England. In the short time on his thrown, King James II, a Roman Catholic, had sought to exert supreme power over England, which had been Protestant for some time. Though no polls existed then, he grew unpopular with an estimated 19/20 people against him. The English…