Happy 200th Birthday – Ulysses S. Grant

On this day 200 years ago, one of America’s greatest heroes was born in a cabin in Ohio: Ulysses S. Grant. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that Grant is one of my favorite Americans in its history. He’s on my personal Mount Rushmore, along with George Washington, Lewis …

“The Last Kingdom”: Review

After a hiatus from this show, due mostly to uncertainty about whether I even wanted to finish it, I finally watched the final season of The Last Kingdom on Netflix. Based on the books by Bernard Cornwell, the show is a historical fiction that follows Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg through the reigns of King Alfred …

Book Review: The Memoirs of US Grant

I’d been meaning to read Ulysses Grant’s memoirs for quite some time. After reading two large biographies and a few analyses of his generalship in the Civil War, I had a pretty good portrait of Grant painted for me. However, I wanted to get inside the mind of the man himself. I wanted to see …

Book Review: “Attack and Die” by Dr. Grady McWhiney

This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while. Written 40 years ago by a man considered to be the leading authority of the history of Antebellum South and the Civil War, Attack and Die gives an in-depth look at what made America’s war against itself so particularly brutal. (Also one of …

Book Review: “True Crime in the Civil War” by Tobin T. Buhk

Every now and then a little book faire thing shows up at work. There’s a guy with a table and a few movable shelves full of books. I usually don’t buy anything because they’re fairly pricey, but this one was only $15 (and I’d seen it a few times before). I’m something of a Civil …

Review: The Borgias

I recently finished watching HBO’s The Borgias on Netflix, a historical drama centered around the controversial Pope Alexander VI, aka Rodrigo Borgia, as he ascends to the Papal throne and then does everything in his power for the next 10 years to defend it. The Borgia family has long been known as a family of …

Shorelines and Confederate Forts

I’m back from vacation! Last week I was in Georgia and had a great time with my family. We spent a lot of time at the beach but also did some sightseeing! We took a trolley tour of of Savannah and also visited Fort Pulaski! It was a lot of fun getting some sun and …

Book Review: “American Ulysses” by Ronald White

If you still didn’t know yet, Ulysses Grant is my favorite American in history. Why exactly? Probably because of the raw deal that this great man has received in our history books. In a rare case of history being written by the vanquished, former Confederates or their descendants swarmed academia in the late 19th and …

Book Review: “Founding Brothers” by Joseph J. Ellis

Examining some famous events surrounding America’s birth and maturation, Founding Brothers puts a new spin on familiar topics! Typically, we call the men who founded America the Founding Fathers. This gives us a particular image, one of old, wisened, dignified men who speak softly and lovingly. In turn, this has led us to believe that …

“Do you want to fight?”

I’m currently reading American Ulysses, a phenomenal biography of Ulysses S. Grant written by Ronald C. White. This is the third or fourth such book I’ve read about Grant, but every time I seem to learn more and more about one of my favorite Americans! For instance when he lived in Galena, IL, White tells …