I've been known to buy history books. :-) (The three shelves of them in the living room are only the smallest part...there are paperback ones as well, biography and space program tomes, and the nonfiction articles--heck, the stories themselves!--in St. Nicholas must comprise some type of living history.)

On my last trip to Kudzu, the remaindered bookstore, I picked up two of Edward Robb Ellis' volumes, Echoes of Distant Thunder: Life in the United States, 1914-1918 and A Nation in Torment: The Great American Depression, 1929-1939. The latter was of sufficient interest simply because of the era: my parents were both young adults during the Depression and I'd heard many tales of the hardships and the happiness of the times. The former was more intriguing because you very rarely see a homefront view of World War I; the history books seem to live on the battlefield. The gung-ho representation of WWI support is amply supported in the pages of St. Nicholas with its "For Country and For Liberty" columns and other articles. Ellis fills in a better knowledge of the times, including the bitter labor disputes, a "backstage" look at Woodrow Wilson and his family, and the influenza pandemic. Interestingly written and recommended.

I may have to go back to see if Kudzu still has copies of his other two books, A Diary of the Century: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist and The Epic of New York City.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:35:00 PM

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