Tag: #History

Posted in Book Tours

John Quincy Adams

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

New York Times–Bestselling Author: An “extraordinary portrait of an extraordinary man” who accomplished much yet never sought attention or acclaim (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
One of January Magazine‘s Best Books of the Year

He fought for General Washington, served with Abraham Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of the Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president.


John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. This “captivating” biography (Sacramento Bee) reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation’s formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history—the first entry in John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage.


A magisterial biography and a sweeping panorama of American history from the Washington to Lincoln eras, John Quincy Adams follows one of the nation’s most important yet least-known figures.


“First-class history from cover-to-cover . . . Nobody is better-equipped to write this biography, and we’re lucky that Unger has told the story of this underrated American icon, legendary diplomat, and tireless advocate of everything that is just and righteous in our country.” —Louisville Courier-Journal

“In the best tradition of David McCullough’s biographies, the pace and plotting pull readers forward even though they may know the ending . . . Masterful.” —Library Journal

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The Cherokee Diaspora: An Indigenous History of Migration, Resettlement, and Identity

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

This is in honor of my husband, Craig, who passed away in May of this year. He was a grandson of the Cherokee Chief in Arkansas.

The Cherokee are one of the largest Native American tribes in the United States, with more than three hundred thousand people across the country claiming tribal membership and nearly one million people internationally professing to have at least one Cherokee Indian ancestor. In this revealing history of Cherokee migration and resettlement, Gregory Smithers uncovers the origins of the Cherokee diaspora and explores how communities and individuals have negotiated their Cherokee identities, even when geographically removed from the Cherokee Nation headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the author transports the reader back in time to tell the poignant story of the Cherokee people migrating throughout North America, including their forced exile along the infamous Trail of Tears (1838–39). Smithers tells a remarkable story of courage, cultural innovation, and resilience, exploring the importance of migration and removal, land and tradition, culture and language in defining what it has meant to be Cherokee for a widely scattered people.

Continue reading “The Cherokee Diaspora: An Indigenous History of Migration, Resettlement, and Identity” →
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The American Revolution on Long Island (Military)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A history of the Revolutionary War and British occupation in this part of New York, from the Culper spy ring to the prison ships where thousands died.

 The American Revolution sharply divided families and towns on New York’s Long Island. Washington’s defeat at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776 started seven years of British occupation—and Patriot sympathizers were subject to loyalty oaths, theft of property, and the quartering of soldiers in their homes. 

 Those who crossed the British were jailed on prison ships in Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn, where an estimated eleven thousand people died of disease and starvation. Some fought back with acts of sabotage and espionage—and Washington’s famed Culper spy ring in Oyster Bay, Setauket, and other areas successfully tracked British movements. In this book, historian Joanne S. Grasso explores the story of an island at war.

Posted in Book Tours

The Blue & Gray Almanac: The Civil War in Facts & Figures, Recipes & Slang

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree
  • “Help[s] readers to examine this period in history with a more cultural perspective than other books have . . . clear, concise, and crisp . . . fascinating” (San Francisco Book Review).
  • • During the final days of the war, some Richmond citizens would throw “Starvation Parties,” soirees at which elegantly attired guests gathered amid the finest silver and crystal tableware, though there were usually no refreshments except water.
  • • Union Rear-Admiral Goldsborough was nicknamed “Old Guts,” not so much for his combativeness as for his heft—weighing about three hundred pounds, he was described as “a huge mass of inert matter.”
  • • 30.6 percent of the 425 Confederate generals, but only 21.6 percent of the 583 Union generals, had been lawyers before the war.
  • • In 1861, J.P. Morgan made a huge profit by buying five thousand condemned US Army carbines and selling them back to another arsenal—taking the army to court when they tried to refuse to pay for the faulty weapons.
  • • Major General Loring was reputed to have so rich a vocabulary that one of the men remarked he could “curse a cannon up hill without horses.”
  • • Many militia units had a favorite drink—the Charleston Light Dragoons’ punch took around a week to make, while the Chatham Artillery required a pound of green tea leaves be steeped overnight.
  • • There were five living former presidents when the Civil War began, and seven veterans of the war, plus one draft dodger, went on to serve as president.
  • These stories and many more can be found in this treasury of anecdotes, essays, trivia, and much more—including numerous illustrations—that bring this historical period to vivid life.
Posted in Book Tours

Long Island’s Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping (True Crime)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A new look at the 1937 abduction of a wealthy wife and mother, based on previously classified FBI documents—includes photos.

When she was kidnapped from Long Meadow Farm in Stony Brook, New York, in 1937, Alice McDonell Parsons was the heir to a vast fortune among Long Island’s wealthy elite. The crime shocked the nation and was front-page news for several months.

J. Edgar Hoover personally assigned his best FBI agents to the case, and within a short time, Parsons’s husband and their live-in housekeeper, Anna Kupryanova, had become prime suspects. Botched ransom attempts, clashes between authorities, and romantic intrigue kept the investigation mired in drama. The crime remained unsolved. Now, in this book, former Suffolk County detective Steven C. Drielak reveals previously classified FBI documents—and pieces together the mystery of the Alice Parsons kidnapping.

Continue reading “Long Island’s Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping (True Crime)” →