Posted by
Bert Chapman on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 7:23:43 PM
As a professional librarian, it's incumbent on me to recommend books I've enjoyed reading this past year. I've done that in a couple of previous postings in this blog, so before the New Year gets to far along I'll make some additional recommendations. Since I became a homeowner a few years ago, I've developed an interest in architecture and urban planning. A work I read this past year which was enjoyable was Capital Drawings: Architectural Designs for Washington, DC From the Library of Congress. Edited by C. Ford Peatross and published by Johns Hopkins University Press, this work features drawings in the Library of Congress' collections documenting the growth of Washington, DC and its Maryland and Virginia surroundings. Material included here encompasses drawings of commercial and residential structures and monuments such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and coverage of the architectural evolution of the White House, Capitol, and numerous other structures.
I try reading histories of many countries and one I particularly enjoyed this past year was Simon Schama's The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (University of California Press).
This is a cultural and social history of the Netherlands during the 17th century with appearances by artists such as Rembrandt along with coverage of literary, religious, intellectual, and economic events prompting this country's rise to global prominence despite its limited size and population.
My wife and I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland in late September and early October and I'm still trying to digest a number of books I purchased during our visit to the Emerald Isle. The heartbreaking story of the Irish Potato Famine during the mid-19th century is ably told by Christine Kinealy in This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52 (Gill & Macmillan) and how numerous factors such as an Irish agrarian culture that was to dependent on a single crop and a slow British Government response to this tragedy left scars on Ireland's economic and psychic development which lingered for several decades. I also recommend F.S.L. Lyon's biography of 19th century Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell (Gill & Macmillan). Parnell was a key leader of the Irish Land League during the later 19th century and lobbied the British Parliament to grant Ireland additional political freedoms. He worked with a number of British political leaders including Prime Minister William Gladstone and became a skilled parliamentary tactician and strategist in the British House of Commons.
Unfortunately, for Parnell and his cause he allowed his Clintonesque relationship with a married woman to bring his career to an end and his failure to physically take care of himself resulted in his death at 45 in 1891.
It'll be time soon to check New Hampshire primary results so I wish everyone good reading experiences in 2008.