This review of Wuthering Heights is about a classic work of literature from Great Britain in the 1800s. It is the sole novel of author Emily Brontë before her early death. Wuthering Heights is the story of two families, the Lintons and the Earnshaws, plus an orphan named Heathcliff. I first read the book in […]
Month: March 2022
Canopic Jars – Interesting Historical Artifacts
Today my blog takes a break from book reviews and serious issues to introduce you to canopic jars. A canopic jar is one of the most interesting artifacts from Ancient Egypt. What did they do? The primary purpose of a canopic jar was to hold the embalmed organs of a deceased person undergoing mummification. Typically, […]
Killing For Coal – Rob’s Review
The book Killing for Coal is a nonfiction work by Colorado historian Thomas Andrews. It bills itself as the story of America’s deadliest labor war. Killing for Coal qualifies as environmental history and seeks to explain the causes of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre. The Ludlow Massacre will feature in an upcoming novel of mine, so […]
What Happened in 1872
Some years become etched into our collective memory. People worldwide will remember the years 2020 and 2021 for the impact of Covid-19. As I type this, 2022 witnesses Russia’s baseless invasion of Ukraine. For many older Americans, 1963 will forever be the year President Kennedy was assassinated. But what about years that don’t seem so […]
After the Fog – Rob’s Review
The novel After the Fog caught my interest because it’s a rarity—a novel featuring environmental history. Stories of this type are badly underrepresented in literature. As I read, things got even better, subject-wise. The novel turned out to be about a working-class, ethnic family in 1948 Donora, Pennsylvania. This is another type of story badly […]
Octavius Catto, Civil Rights Legend
The career of Octavius Catto ranks among the great stories of the United States in the 1800s. This versatile figure came to prominence during and after the Civil War. This was a time of dramatic change in America. Octavius Catto is a second-generation figure in the struggle of African Americans for equality in the United […]