History – Page 11 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

By Scott J. Pearson | October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This book, over a decade old, tells the history of one of London’s worst cholera epidemics. It also tells of how John Snow and Henry Whitehead found the cause for the epidemic and transformed how cities managed cholera epidemics and epidemics in general. Knowledge, reason, and data triumphed over ignorance. In his telling, Johnson describes a variety of topics in depth – a telling that informs and inspires modern readers. During the early Victorian era,…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The recently deceased congressman John Lewis has been a public light to the United States for over fifty years. Nicknamed “the conscience of Congress,” he courageously campaigned for civil rights since a college student in Nashville. The author Jon Meacham, surely one of America’s greatest biographers, writes this history of Lewis’ doings in the 1960s. With extreme acuity, gravity, and imagery, he captures what the civil rights movement resembled on the inside. In so doing,…

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Sinner Saint: A Novel of Francis of Assisi

By Scott J. Pearson | September 5, 2020September 5, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The twelfth-century monk Francis of Assisi lived one of the most interesting and impactful lives in the history of Christianity. In this novel, Price tells the story of his life using the techniques of historical fiction to bring out Francis’ illustrious personality. Francis attempted to bring out Gospel living in an age of church hypocrisy. In so doing, he shares a tale with us all that lifts our spirit and inspires readers to excel in…

Biography-Memoir History Science

The Monk in the Garden

By Scott J. Pearson | August 30, 2020August 30, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

An outsider’s view of scientific history deems that stories of scientific discovery are boring. After all, how could readers be interested in narratives about how people work in laboratories? To that, Henig pens her eloquent reply in an interesting tale of how an obscure monk in Eastern Europe transformed modern biology… after he died. Thus goes the all-too-human tale of humble Gregor Mendel. After joining a monastic order in the 1800s, Mendel studied science and…

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas K. Gandhi

By Scott J. Pearson | August 26, 2020August 26, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Gandhi’s name sticks out in bold in twentieth-century history. Words associated with this great include India, non-violence, independence, integrity, and freedom. Yet those (like me) who have been schooled in a different religious tradition (for me, Protestant Christianity) might not be aware of the depth of Gandhi’s greatness because of differing idioms. That’s why I originally picked up this book, and that’s why I suggest that your reading of this book is important, too. Gandhi…

Fiction-Stories History

The Woman in the Moonlight

By Scott J. Pearson | August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

In one of the all-time most famous works of classical music (The “Moonlight” Sonata), Beethoven cryptically dedicates the tune to a Countess Guilietta Guicciardi, whom he taught piano to. Julie, as Morrisroe re-nicknames her, did not leave behind much in history, but as detailed in the Author’s Note, she likely had some form of romantic relationship with the Ludwig van Beethoven. Morrisroe imagines this relationship and Julie’s life as a whole in this work of…

History Software-Technology

From Gutenberg to OpenType: An Illustrated History of Type from the Earliest Letterforms to the Latest Digital Fonts

By Scott J. Pearson | August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Although I am not a graphic designer, I have followed graphic design and computerized fonts since the 1990s. Thus, many of the font-forms referenced in this book are familiar to me. This book narrates how letters have historically been formed by technology. As the title implies, it starts with ancient scripts, continues with Gutenberg’s printing press in the 1400s, and closes with modern fonts digitized in OpenType on computers. Dodd focuses her energies on how…

Fiction-Stories History

Across the Winding River

By Scott J. Pearson | August 1, 2020August 1, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This story is founded historically off of events around the Western European front of World War II. It enticingly employs a technique called “triple narrative” in which the plot is told from three perspectives across varying timelines. Altogether, it mixes together several thematic tales – of love, of the horrors of war, of family, of Jewish and Christian identity, of women overcoming obstacles, and of the power of the individual in authoritarian regimes. Runyan generally…

History Software-Technology

Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States

By Scott J. Pearson | June 28, 2020June 28, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Confession: I work in the field of biomedical computing as a software developer. After journeying through a BS in computer science and medical school, I desire to devote much of my life towards advancing this field along with other bookish pursuits. So this book, by its title, caught my interest. November does an excellent job of chronicling the advance of applying computing towards biomedical pursuits. Much of the early advances in computing came at the…

History Personal Essays

South Carolina State History: An Essay

By Scott J. Pearson | June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

In Charleston, South Carolina, history is everything. The city welcomes travelers from all over the world and sells its sometimes beautiful, sometimes tragic history to everyone. This is one of the oldest cities in the “New World.” It was the site of Revolutionary and Civil War battles. Indeed, Fort Sumter, guarding its harbor, was the starting point of the Civil War. My wife’s family arrived in Charleston in the 1600s. One of her ancestors signed…