Washington Disasters (Rob & Natalie McNair-Huff)

Most folks living in the Northwest today remember the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001. I was in my office, for instance, mildly eavesdropping on a class in the next room. I stood up when the shaking began and rode it out in the doorway while the people in class chattered in their seats, neither panicking nor [...]

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Lincoln and Darwin Dual Bicentennial

A remarkable coincidence will be observed next week.  Two men who made enormous impacts on the world were born on the same day two hundred years ago: February 12, 1809.  Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest American president, was born in Kentucky the same day that Charles Darwin, one of the giants in the history science, [...]

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Circumference (Nicholas Nicastro)

When I first learned about Eratosthenes from some long-forgotten astronomy book in my youth, roughly age 10, I fell in love with the name: Air-uh-TOSS-the-knees. I’ve always enjoyed pronouncing long words and names like that. Once I had the name down pat, it wasn’t too difficult to attach meaning to it. And once I knew [...]

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How the States Got Their Shapes (Mark Stein)

I devoured maps as a kid. The endless intersecting lines within an atlas could entertain me for an hour at a time, and I’d recreate the the curves and jagged edges with paper and pencil. The United States map is a natural puzzle, with pieces rubbing against each other along straight edges, curves, river-led curls, [...]

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Thunderstruck (Erik Larson)

In this age of cell phones and constant communication, it’s easy to think our generation is the first that can’t get away from everything. We’ve become connected 24/7. I’ve made calls from mountain ridges and remote bike trails. I still enjoy shutting off the phone from time to time, but it’s a temporary isolation. Real [...]

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Franklin: A Biography Favorite

Do you have a favorite person that you enjoy reading about over and over? If you do, please leave a comment and share your thoughts. In the meantime, let me tell you about my favorite. In my mind, Benjamin Franklin wasn’t a tubby guy flying a kite in a thunderstorm. In fact, there’s good reason [...]

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Lewis and Clark (Rex Ziak)

There’s a place in southeastern Washington State that’s probably insignificant to nearly everyone who drives by at 60 mph on Highway 730. It’s just north of the Oregon state line at Wallula Gap near the co-mingling of two rivers, the Columbia and the Snake. There’s no marker but the amateur historian in me has stopped [...]

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Walking to Canterbury (Jerry Ellis)

I love walking. A good walk has the power to revive your body and spirit whether it’s in the woods, a park, along a waterfront, or just in the neighborhood. I try to slip one in whenever possible — if I’m not out biking, of course. That’s my favorite exercise. Often, if my wife wants [...]

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America 1908 (Jim Rasenberger)

America was quite a different place one hundred years ago. There are 300 million Americans today. We drive and fly everywhere. We talk on cell phones and chat over the Internet. For the 90 million people living in the United States of 1908, life was slower but the modern age was coming on quickly. Jim [...]

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Team of Rivals (Doris Kearns Goodwin)

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals [LibraryThing / WorldCat] is a good history. It might be considered a biography, too. Or a management book. It’s a little of everything. There was plenty of history involved, to be sure. During sections when the author recounted the armies’ progress, I was thinking the title could just as [...]

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