Stuff I am Reading

Aboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy BSG-71
Location: Russell Anchorage, Maternal Support Command
Mission: Reading, Rest, Refit

The Reading Front

As promised elsewhere I am using this time to catch up on my reading. I’m down with the cold/flu/whatever again anyway so it isn’t like I’m out partying hard.

First on the stack is The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution by David O. Stewart. Constitutional History for me is usually a big ho hum snooze fest but Stewart does a good job of keeping it lively. Obviously this is professional reading in prep for the next semester. One thing I have learned is that after I have read a book on a particular period, I tend to overdo the lecture on that topic. This was a problem I noticed when I read up on the French and Indian War last semester.

Stewart’s book reads in someways like historical fiction, which will irritate some professional historians. He spends time on the personalities of the Constitutional Convention as well as some of their habits and quirks. For instance, there is Madison with his obsessive research and note taking. Mason with his cranky demeanor, Washington’s reserved above it all stance and James Wilson’s willingness to compromise democracy and slavery, which results in the 3/5ths Clause for representation.

I’m about halfway through it now.

Other books on the stack include a book on the Bonus Army of the 1930s, the Election of 1800 and a biography on Andrew Jackson.

Illness Front

Like I said, I’m down with a cold/flu something or other again. I spent yesterday with a flat tire on the Ponderer (my truck) which needed to be changed after spending a night with a friend in the Emergency Room. It has been a long, tiring and vaguely unpleasant break so far. Journalspace being down doesn’t help but I suppose this is an opportunity to reinvent myself on the web.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
On the Outer Marches