History Man

Morning @ianleslie.bsky.social
Just a message to say that i really enjoyed John&Paul.
If I'm frank, I wasn't sure that there was much more I could learn about them but I was wrong.
Your writing has made me hear a lot of those songs in a new way
It was a very moving book and I will miss reading it

I have no problem with the length, I just thought a small tidy up would have been in order. I'm only being hyper critical because he is so great

(Please, please, please let him live long enough to finish LBJ)

My most controversial opinion - as someone who adores Robert Caro - is that The Power Broker needs an edit.

Yes, I know this is almost heretical.

Will,
May I suggest some other non-fiction titles?

David McCullough on Truman.

Ron Chernow on Grant.

Alice Keay on The Restless Republic.

Robert Caro on LBJ (Vols 1 - 4).

Yes, that's right, I'm sending unsolicited book recommendations to a man I don't know.

If you are unfamiliar with Killer Mike...

I have not yet finished The Human Factor by Archie Brown but so far it is fascinating and very engaging account of the end of the Cold War by a man who met many of the key participants

It was an enjoyable counterpoint to Rick Perlstein's tremendous trilogy of writing on Reagan and also Killer Mike's "Reagan" track (!)

2/3

On a bit of an 80s vibe at the moment. This history of Reagan does not have enough detail of his economic policies; only gives a chapter to AIDS and doesn't mention his criminal justice policies at all but is very good on his life story and foreign policy

1/3

The voice. The odd eyes. The wooden performance. The mistiming of every line.

Is it deliberate? She was great in Wicked

Fun, isn't it?

This reads as though the Jacobites were around AGES ago

Tomorrow marks 32 years since one of my favourite letters was published:

Richard II; Othello; Great Expectations; Bleak House; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; The Wasteland; The Dubliners.
Loved both Shakespeare's; loved The Dubliners; Loved OFOTCN.
Couldn't stand the rest. Makes me a philistine, don't care.

I am a complete beginner at gardening but with a large garden. Mainly lawn and borders. Any tips for a good book to start me off?

@jonathanhealey.bsky.social

Could a Scotsman have fought both against the Crown at Newburn and against the new regime at Dunbar ten years later?

If news of Jimmy Carter's death has sparked an interest in him or the period then I really recommend anything by @rickperlstein.bsky.social but especially Reaganland which is tremendous

One of the great annual pleasures of social media has arrived on Bluesky.

Looking forward to this:

Really enjoyed Republic by Alice Hunt.
There seems to have been a lot of interest in this period recently - The Blazing World; Devil Land; The Restless Republic; the new Ronald Hutton.
This is right up there with the best of them: accessible but informative; really engaging. Recommended.

Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...

This is one of the most fascinating; moving and interesting articles I have read in years

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Mr Potter; Mr Gower and George Bailey say - you are wrong

Hello. I really enjoyed that strip. My son is 12 and my daughter is 10. They are both confident readers. Would your adaptation of No Surrender be appropriate for them? Or is it too adult?

Thanks

"I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes"

Everett was a class act though. When the next speaker at the event - Abraham Lincoln - finished delivering his few sentences of a speech (now known to history as The Gettysburg Address) Everett told Lincoln:

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Edward Everett working for months; going to an event where he had top billing; speaking for 2 hours...

...and being completely overshadowed by what came after him.

What are the right Bluesky accounts to follow for breaking news - especially politics.

Twitter is great at it; Bluesky is not

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks. I'll check it out.

...I think Ruby's story is one of the most powerful and moving of the many stories from the struggle for US Civil Rights.
The photo encapsulating what she did is at the top of this thread and it was taken 64 years ago today.

Here's to you Ruby Bridges.

Thread ends.

...her story inspired this painting by Norman Rockwell.
In 2011, Ruby was invited to the White House to look at the painting with President Obama. He told her: "I think it's fair to say that if it hadn't been for you guys, I might not be here and we wouldn't be looking at this together"...

...somehow, this amazing little girl got through it all. She completed her education. She found work. She set up a foundation. She campaigned to keep the school open when the school (and her house) were badly damaged by the New Orleans floods.
She also became an icon...

...also helped. They walked behind the marshals' car as they took Ruby to school; they provided her with clothing; they kept lookout over the family's house to protect it from attack; they found new work for Ruby's father when he was sacked for having the temerity to be a father to this child...