History – Page 6 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

A Train to Moscow: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | February 17, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

The protagonist Sasha is born into a Russian family in a provincial town around the time of the Second World War. During her youth, Stalinist communism tries to white-wash Russian history by avoiding difficult parts, like barbarous murders, the horrors of anti-German military campaigns, and betrayals of one’s neighbors to prisons. For the Party, World War II tells the story of glorious and miraculous Russian triumph over the world, without any complications. However, Sasha soon…

History

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, & the Longest Night of the Second World War

By Scott J. Pearson | January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

World War I unleashed many technological advances into warfare. These mainly brought about more advanced ways to kill more and more humans. After the war, a group of American military thinkers nicknamed the “Bomber Mafia” developed a theory about airplanes and the ability to undertake precision bombing. They thought that wars could be won in a more humane manner by targeting critical industries through carefully crafted bombing routines. These could cut down on land casualties…

Biography-Memoir History

The First Emancipator: Slavery, Religion, & the Quiet Revolution of Robert Carter

By Scott J. Pearson | January 15, 2022January 15, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

For most of us, American history consists of well-attested narratives. Northerners were against slavery while Southerners were for it. General emancipation of slaves after the Revolution was impractical. The founding fathers were deist in their religious orientation. To these three national myths, the case of Virginian aristocrat Robert Carter stands in stark opposition. In the late eighteenth century, he freed around 500 of his own slaves, to the ire of his neighbors and without compensation,…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership Politics

My Life by Bill Clinton

By Scott J. Pearson | January 9, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The name Bill Clinton evokes several reactions among people, each with its own emotional subtext: economic prosperity, partisan conflict, sexual misconduct, and international peacemaking. In a long history of American presidential memoirs, Clinton adds his to the list in this book. It is lengthy, thoughtful, and carefully crafted. He attempts to provide insight into himself and his leadership while advocating for the policies his administration enacted during his presidency. I was a Republican teenager from…

Biography-Memoir Economics History

Nailing It: How History’s Awesome Twentysomethings Got It Together

By Scott J. Pearson | January 8, 2022January 8, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Early adulthood – life after schooling ended – is often portrayed as somewhat meaningless. In this book, Dilenschneider says that not only is that impression wrong but that the twenties define many people’s lives. He offers this book as a sort-of devotional book of success stories based on individual talents. Twenty-three chapters about twenty-five people provide biographical vignettes about people who were disproportionately influential. He offers these to provide hope for those who might despair…

Fiction-Stories History Psychology

The Lobotomist’s Wife: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | January 3, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

For a period of time, lobotomy was the go-to treatment for psychiatry. It involved disabling the frontal lobes of the brain with the hopes of averting psychiatric symptoms. If “disabling the frontal lobes of the brain” sounds scary to you, it is to me, too. Over time, bad outcomes were chronicled, and lobotomy was eventually relegated to the historical record (much like other equally scary psychological treatments). However, in this book, Greene Woodruff brings frighteningly…

Healthcare History

The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries & Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine

By Scott J. Pearson | December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Most Americans, heeding the news in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic, have some bits and pieces about how the “war” against the coronavirus was waged. Very few (yet) have a comprehensive view. Enter Borrell’s The First Shots. In it, he aims to provide a first-draft of a history describing the vaccine’s development. Resulting is an engaging and educational narrative that will inform generations to come. With many actors, Borrell tellingly provides “A Cast of Characters”…

Fiction-Stories History

A Ballad of Love & Glory: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | December 3, 2021December 3, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Many historians consider America’s Mexican War of the 1840s to be an unjust war, one primarily waged to grab land for the extension of slavery and thus of human greed. Because of this motive and rampant nativism in the US Army, many immigrant soldiers deserted the American army to join the Mexican forces. This story tells of these soldiers’ formation of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion (many immigrants were Irish) and of their historical leader John…

History Software-Technology

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

By Scott J. Pearson | November 27, 2021November 27, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Hiding secrets (i.e., cryptography or the science of encryption) has become an increasingly important topic in the modern Information Age. It’s not just the stuff of the military and diplomacy. We cannot communicate secrets like credit card numbers over the Internet without it. In this book, dated around the turn of the millennium, Singh shares the history of encrypting messages. He begins to forecast its impact in the twenty-first century while noting exciting trends in…

Healthcare History HIV/AIDS Politics

To End a Plague: America’s Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa

By Scott J. Pearson | November 19, 2021November 19, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

In the 1990s, scientists made significant advances to limit the impact of HIV upon human lives… in the West. However, HIV continued to flourish in sub-Saharan Africa, and it remained for the new millennium to limit its reach there. Bass’s book tells the story of the American effort in this quest that spanned multiple presidencies across both political parties. She concludes with its impact on the COVID pandemic. The effort to defeat HIV/AIDS is so…