It's Monday, What are You Reading? Woodrow Wilson

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper Jr.

This post is the seventy-fourth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories] 

Click to see at Amazon

Book Description from Amazon.com:

The first major biography of America’s twenty-eighth president in nearly two decades, from one of America’s foremost Woodrow Wilson scholars.

A Democrat who reclaimed the White House after sixteen years of Republican administrations, Wilson was a transformative president—he helped create the regulatory bodies and legislation that prefigured FDR’s New Deal and would prove central to governance through the early twenty-first century, including the Federal Reserve system and the Clayton Antitrust Act; he guided the nation through World War I; and, although his advocacy in favor of joining the League of Nations proved unsuccessful, he nonetheless established a new way of thinking about international relations that would carry America into the United Nations era. Yet Wilson also steadfastly resisted progress for civil rights, while his attorney general launched an aggressive attack on civil liberties.

Even as he reminds us of the foundational scope of Wilson’s domestic policy achievements, John Milton Cooper, Jr., reshapes our understanding of the man himself: his Wilson is warm and gracious—not at all the dour puritan of popular imagination. As the president of Princeton, his encounters with the often rancorous battles of academe prepared him for state and national politics. Just two years after he was elected governor of New Jersey, Wilson, now a leader in the progressive movement, won the Democratic presidential nomination and went on to defeat Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in one of the twentieth century’s most memorable presidential elections. Ever the professor, Wilson relied on the strength of his intellectual convictions and the power of reason to win over the American people.

John Milton Cooper, Jr., gives us a vigorous, lasting record of Wilson’s life and achievements. This is a long overdue, revelatory portrait of one of our most important presidents—particularly resonant now, as another president seeks to change the way government relates to the people and regulates the economy.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Cost of Liberty

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

The Cost of Liberty: The Life of John Dickinson 

by William Murchison

A Book in the "Lives of the Founders" Series

 

This post is the seventy-third entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

 

Book Description from Amazon.com:

The Cost of Liberty offers a sorely needed reassessment of a great patriot and misunderstood Founding Father, John Dickinson.

Author William Murchison brings to life one of the most influential figures of the entire Founding period, a principled man whose gifts as writer, speaker, and philosopher only Jefferson came near to matching. In the ­process, Murchison destroys the caricature of ­Dickinson that has emerged from such popular treatments as HBO’s John Adams ­miniseries.

Today Dickinson is remembered mostly for his reluctance to sign the Declaration of Independence. But that reluctance, Murchison shows, had nothing to do with a lack of patriotism. In fact, Dickinson immediately took up arms to serve the colonial cause—something only one signer of the Declaration did. But he stood on principle to oppose the Declaration even when he knew it would deal the “finishing blow” to his once-great reputation.

Dubbed the “penman of the Revolution,” Dickinson was not just a scribe but also a shaper of mighty events. Author of the landmark essays Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, delegate to the Continental Congress, key ­figure behind the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, president of both Pennsylvania and Delaware: Dickinson was, as one esteemed ­historian aptly put it, “the most underrated of all the Founders.”

This lively biography gives a great Founder his long-overdue measure of honor. It also broadens our understanding of the Founding period, challenging many modern assumptions about the events of 1776 and 1787.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage - Comments and Review

Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage

Comments and Review

I rarely review the books I read, for my own use and pleasure. I do write reviews for LibraryThing books, but also rarely publish them here. I do write reviews for Book Tours, of course.

This situation is different. This book, and the process it 'introduces,' needs to be discussed by people like you and me. We each have material in our possession - a rapidly growing amount of material… that needs to be considered for preserving, for archiving, perhaps. Have you given this any thought at all? What have you done about it, to date?

Are you preserving photographs you take in a way that you can retrieve them - especially the important ones - in the future when you want to? How about content you create for your blog? Will your children we able to capture and preserve it when you are gone? Is it worth preserving? What are you doing to determine the value of your creations and how they will be preserved?

Do you agree this is important?


My Review:

Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage Edited by Donald T. Hawkins is essentially the first text book in the new field of Personal Digital Archiving (PDA).  It was largely informed by the presentations at three conference on the subject of PDA and subsequent conversations among interested professionals in a number of related fields closely related to this specific topic. I can certainly see this book used as a text as the basis for discussions in seminars and workshops, especially at the graduate level of study related to family history, library, archival activities, information technology and several other fields.

The first few contributed chapters would be useful to individuals actually wanting to pursue PDA on their own as well as for professionals. The middle chapters share several research projects that help define various aspects of the emerging PDA field of research and study. The final couple of chapters attempt to look forward and suggest the first specific types of research to be undertaken. The final chapter, in particular, encourage us each to broaden our view as to the many aspects of the PDA process that must be considered - some not even mentioned in previous chapters. As a retired academic involved during my career in attempting to develop a new field of study, I fully appreciated this presentation. It helped me read every word even though some of the middle chapters were more technical than I would have preferred.

As noted by earlier reviewers, most of us have much of our intellectual property in digital form, now, and are seriously wondering what to do with it. Does it have value? We certainly believe some of it does, but how do we handle it. What about the material created and held by political figures, corporation executives, writers and artists, other digital content creators. This book does a fine job of asking the right questions and beginning the long, tedious discussion, research and practice cycle that will provide the answers.


Note: This review originally prepared for LibraryThing as an Early Reviewer.

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Personal Archiving

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage
Edited by Donald T. Hawkins


This post is the seventy-second entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

This is a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book


Book Description from Amazon.com:

This multi-authored work offers one of the first and most robust explorations of the emerging field of personal digital archiving. Editor Donald T. Hawkins and his expert contributors cover a range of innovative projects and practical topics: archiving individual and family histories; new and nascent services and software products; social media and email applications,; legal issues including digital inheritance and privacy; evolving formats and media considerations; academic research projects; Library of Congress initiatives; the pioneering role of the Internet Archive; research at Microsoft; and case studies of digital archiving in practice.
The book's contributors are passionate about personal archiving, their enthusiasm matched only by their expertise in this must-read text for genealogists, historians, archivists, librarians, collectors, creators, and anyone with a mass of digital information they want to organize and preserve.

http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Archiving-Preserving-Digital-Heritage/dp/1573874809/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387502227&sr=1-1&keywords=personal+archiving+preserving+our+digital+heritage

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

"Christmas at the Homeplace" Book Blog Tour WrapUp

"Christmas at the Homeplace"
Book Blog Tour WrapUp

[Click image to go directly to Amazon.com]

THANKS to everyone who participated in the Book Blog Tour during the past week.

You can still see what people are saying about this new Christmas book, based on our family history research and life experiences. It is historical fiction in "The Homeplace Saga" series, but you very well may recognized some folks from your own family and the world around you as you get involved with these family activities.

Here is schedule for the recent tour, running from November 15-25:

Thursday, Nov 14 - Tour Schedule at The Homeplace Saga blog

Friday, Nov 15 - Tour Schedule at Dr. Bill's Book Bazaar blog

Monday, Nov 18 - Interview with Jessica at Literaryetc.com 

Tuesday, Nov 19  - Guest Post with Lisa DuVal at I Feel So Unnecessary

Wednesday, Nov 20 - Review with Lisa DuVal at I Feel So Unnecessary

Thursday, Nov 21 - Guest Post with Kayla Emerson at Green Mountain Couple

Friday, Nov 22 - Review with Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest

Saturday, Nov 23 - Review with Mindy Wall at Books, Books, and More Books

Sunday, Nov 24 - Guest Post with Brandee Price at Bookworm Brandee

Monday, Nov 25 - Tour Wrap-Up at Dr. Bill's Book Bazaar blog

Feel free to visit each of the blogs that interest you for that day, to see the related post! ;-)

For a preview, view the Book Trailer, here, on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/pnilAflMESg

"Christmas at the Homeplace" - Book Blog Tour Starts Here, Right Now

"Christmas at the Homeplace"
Book Blog Tour Starts Here, Right Now

[Click image to go directly to Amazon.com]

See what people are saying about this new Christmas book, based on our family history research and life experiences. It is historical fiction in "The Homeplace Saga" series, but you very well may recognized some folks from your own family and the world around you as you get involved with these family activities.

Here is the tentative schedule for the upcoming tour, running from November 15-25:

Thursday, Nov 14 - Tour Schedule at The Homeplace Saga blog

Friday, Nov 15 - Tour Schedule at Dr. Bill's Book Bazaar blog

Monday, Nov 18 - Interview with Jessica at Literaryetc.com 

Tuesday, Nov 19  - Guest Post with Lisa DuVal at I Feel So Unnecessary

Wednesday, Nov 20 - Review with Lisa DuVal at I Feel So Unnecessary

Thursday, Nov 21 - Guest Post with Kayla Emerson at Green Mountain Couple

Friday, Nov 22 - Review with Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest

Saturday, Nov 23 - Review with Mindy Wall at Books, Books, and More Books

Sunday, Nov 24 - Guest Post with Brandee Price at Bookworm Brandee

Monday, Nov 25 - Tour Wrap-Up at Dr. Bill's Book Bazaar blog

Hope you join us on the tour, each day!

For a preview, view the Book Trailer, here, on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/pnilAflMESg

It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Bully Pulpit

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This post is the seventy-first entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


I've started Teddy Roosevelt bios before, and never finished. This looks like one I might enjoy… like Team of Rivals… 928 pages in daunting, but, on Kindle, you really don't notice as much… and it isn't as heavy, for sure. I've really enjoyed the first 7-8%!!

Early description also makes it look worth the effort.


From Amazon.com:

The gap between rich and poor has never been wider . . . legislative stalemate paralyzes the country . . . corporations resist federal regulations . . . spectacular mergers produce giant companies . . . the influence of money in politics deepens . . . bombs explode in crowded streets . . . small wars proliferate far from our shores . . . a dizzying array of inventions speeds the pace of daily life.

These unnervingly familiar headlines serve as the backdrop for Doris Kearns Goodwin’s highly anticipated The Bully Pulpit—a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history.

The Bully Pulpit is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S. S. McClure.

Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men.

The Bully Pulpit, like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)