Archive for Items Categorized 'History', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Chrome Colossus, General Motors and Its Times

by Ed Cray

The author was a journalism professor not an auto industry expert so he examines GM through the lens of “accountability” vis-à-vis, for instance, planned obsolescence, resisting regulation, and opposing imports. The book is over 40 years old—and still not obsolete.

The Kalamazoo Automobilist: 1891–1991

by David O. Lyon

You may have heard of a Wolverine, but probably not in an automotive context. Checker is a big name, of course. How about Barley, Blood, Cannon, Cornelian, Dort to name just a few of the makers you’ll encounter in this book. Street names are in many cases all that remains.

Robert and John Pitcairn: Titans of Rail, Oil and Glass  

by William R. Huber

The story of industrialization and transportation in America would be incomplete without the brothers Pitcairn, and their circle of peers and friends. Things they did and ideas they had affect lives still today.

1947: Making the World Over

by Richard A. Leiby

The world is still dusting itself off from WWII and it is clear that the “human factor” that governs the affairs of man is just not working. In fact, the next big calamity is already brewing: the Cold War. From popular to political culture, this book singles out noteworthy matters.

Jock Lewes, Co-Founder of the SAS

by John Lewes

This early admirer of Hitler became so disillusioned with the Nazi regime’s methods that he volunteered for an elite British outfit specializing in counter-espionage, the Special Air Service and became its principal training officer.

The Bomber Mafia

by Malcom Gladwell

Planning to watch the movie Oppenheimer? A nuclear bomb!? Why had other military strategies not broken Japan’s ability to fight? Because no matter what the strategists of the Bomber Mafia thought, pinpoint hits from high altitude were not achievable in those days.

The Vault of Horror

by Craig, Davis, Feldstein et al.

There are fans, historians, and academics who take comic books quite seriously. EC titles, especially from the early 1950s, have a long-standing, proliferating reputation for excellence among all of these. We take a look at a representative sample of available EC reprints as we toss our hats of commendation and recommendation into the ring.

Tattered Cover Book Store, A Storied History

by Mark A. Barnhouse

If you think of the book as a dying breed (not!) what about brick-and-mortar book stores, especially independents? Tattered Cover in Denver is also a cultural institution and garnered nationwide attention in a First Amendment Supreme Court case. A former employee has recorded the first fifty years.

Masters of Mayhem

by James Stejskal

Context-rich, this book is not just another flogger of the T.E. Lawrence myth. Its overarching theme is that of small, agile teams acting as a force multiplier, a concept of timeless relevance and urgency to warfighting practice.

Lessons in Imperial Rule

by Andrew Skeen

Sounds like “ancient history” but while it doesn’t have application today, it has implications that are still relevant in a world of terror and guerilla fighting.

Napalm: An American Biography

by Robert M. Neer

Horrible stuff. And horribly effective. This is a disturbing examination of the disconnect between technocratic progress and morals and the laws of war. What ends justify such nightmarish means?

The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford

by Beth Tompkins Bates

Built it and they will come. Henry Ford did a lot more than rethink the assembly line or the $5 workday. He hired African Americans and they left the South and came by the tens of thousands. What did each expect of the other?

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