Groundhogs Day actually started with hedgehogs. Punxsutawney Phil is a poor man’s Lizzy.
Tag: history
The Girls of Atomic City | WWII
This book captures a slice of history that embodies the evolution of America from a simple life with stay-at-home women to a technology-driven society with strong females.
Leningrad | WWII
During the three-year siege, about 800,000 people died. That’s nearly the entire population of the Salt Lake Valley or San Francisco.
Natural Born Heroes | WWII
This book isn’t really about World War II or Greeks or fitness or even heroism. It’s about compassion, about love.
Gates of Fire | Greece
There’s something beautiful in the self-sacrifice of those Spartans laboring at the Hot Gates, knowing that they would die in the blood and horror of war. Doing it anyway for their families and their freedom.
Greece: A History | Greece
There’s something beautifully tragic about Greece—foreshadowed in the work of Euripides or Sophocles—that’s both enchanting and sad.
Bahamas | Day 5: Once Upon a Fort
If you look hard enough, you’ll find a castle in any country. This one wasn’t protected by knights, though; it was protected by a Howitzer.
Read the World Wrap-Up | France
In short, the French are dynamic and complicated and amazing. Pretty much a recurring theme as I’ve been exploring the world through literature (and food).
Read the World Wrap-Up | Italy
I wish to walk the streets that the ancient Romans once hewed out of rock and stone. I wish to see the same buildings that inspired a generation of artists and, eventually, the world. I wish to float through the city that enjoyed a millennium of democratic rule. I even wish to trod the treacherous, bloody path that the Allies took to liberate Italy.
Italy: A History | Italy
The modern world owes a great debt to Italy: It gave us Latin (a common language) and Roman law; it gave us a Renaissance of classical thought; it gave us some of the most beloved works of art. It gives us pasta and mozzarella (which alone should earn our eternal gratitude).
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 | WWII
The Allied commanders were ordinary men thrust into a difficult situation and expected to be extraordinary. They made mistakes, but they also did the best they could. They were heroic enough.
India: A History | India
From about 1000 B.C. t0 1700 A.D., India history is a disjointed creature containing unpronounceable names and a multitude of different kingdoms and dynasties.
Tyger Tyger 