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50bookchallenge:
on the military schools front, i'm still looking forward to reading about the "goats of West Point" (which i got from innerliberry loan last week), but meanwhile, there's this one:
"The Plain at West Point"
from an engraving by george catlin, 1828
i think i need to lighten the reading with some fiction for a while. my head is definitely spinning. this morning i was reading Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam by stephen w. sears and had one of those very surreal moments in which i couldn't remember which battle was what and couldn't tell what i had made up and what was "factual". definitely need to focus my attention down on one thing here. i think this recent shotgun approach to the research has got me going in too many directions at once.
50bookchallenge:no. 19 ~ Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy by michael a. flannery. there's minutiae and then there's minutiae. this is the sort of minutiae that's somehow completely riveting. did you know that Pfizer has been around since 1849? i bought this book because i wanted to know more about drug smuggling during the war. i can't say it answered all of my questions (basically the book says there's no records of smuggling for obvious reasons, but here's what we can reasonably deduce, which is just fine by me). it's also a wonderful full account of common ailments, prescriptions, methods of making medicines, costs of medicines, etc. just an all-around well-cobbled comprehensive text on the subject that's also easy and super-fun to read, with extensive appendices and bibliography for the truly geeky.
on the military schools front, i'm still looking forward to reading about the "goats of West Point" (which i got from innerliberry loan last week), but meanwhile, there's this one:
no. 20 ~ "The Best School": West Point, 1833-1866 by james l. morrison. another book that manages to cover exactly what i need, focusing on antebellum West Point and the sort of details you would want to know about coursework, hazing (termed "devilment" in those days), and other fun things. pretty much answered every question i had about the Point (and i had many). found a cheapo copy of this at amazon and went ahead and ordered it. it's that good.
"The Plain at West Point"
from an engraving by george catlin, 1828
i think i need to lighten the reading with some fiction for a while. my head is definitely spinning. this morning i was reading Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam by stephen w. sears and had one of those very surreal moments in which i couldn't remember which battle was what and couldn't tell what i had made up and what was "factual". definitely need to focus my attention down on one thing here. i think this recent shotgun approach to the research has got me going in too many directions at once.