I listened to The Great Course’s 12-hour production: America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This audio book title rates a full five stars and I recommend it to all fans of late nineteenth century American life–including those who enjoy it as a backdrop to their favorite fictional tales.
Etiquette and all that is deemed “good manners” morphs over time. Behavior that our nineteenth-century ancestors would find appropriate has largely disappeared, and today’s idea of a man’s best actions with his hat would appall our great-granddaddies. Specifically speaking, “Common Details of Western Historical Romance that are Historically Incorrect, Part 2” entails nineteenth century hat etiquette–specifically men in the company of women–and contains more vintage citations than my earlier post titled Hat Etiquette of the Victorian Era.
Gunsmiths were essential to the nineteenth century American West. While writing The Gunsmith’s Bride, I came across interesting information about the most well-known American gunsmiths (and perhaps, armorers).
Key elements that made their way into my novella are the multi-generational family knowledge of the craft and training of their sons, the prevalence and “household word” of the Colt Peacemaker, and the Hawken rifle. Take a quick look at history’s memory of these three popular gun-makers.
Amazon selected ISLAND OF VICEĀ as one of the Top 100 books of 2012; it also selected it as one of the Top Ten history books of the year. I purchased three editions: hardback, audible, and kindle; listened to the audio edition (15 hours, 28 minutes), reread much of the kindle edition and hardback.
From an amateur historian viewpoint–and my fascination with all things late 19th century–this nonfiction title deserves five stars. I learned so very much from every chapter, found myself so ever much better informed about the 1890’s in politics, the Reform Movement (Progressive Era). Review contains two pages of images from the hardback and kindle editions.
The first Arbor Day was held in the early 1870’s in Nebraska. The event slowly became an annual occasion in all of the fifty States. This tradition of planting trees to beautify and forest the plains has benefited all states in the union. Quotes, a period newspaper article, and historic images enrich the historic understanding of this holiday’s origins.
