Anonymous left this comment on my Lewis and Clark piece last week:
I was interested in the books you were reading. How about creating an on-going list of "What the WF Historians are Reading"? Could be useful for those with long commutes to/from work. Thanks.
First off, I invite everyone to tell us what's on your reading list. Let us know why they're good or bad.
That said, here you go, Anonymous:
- Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California by Frances Dinkelspiel. Interesting, if sometimes too tightly focused.
- The Confusion: The Baroque Cycle Volume Two
by Neal Stephenson. An "historical-sci-fi-epic-pirate-comedy-punk-love-story." Stephenson is one of my fave authors. - Hard Road West, History and Geography along the Gold Rush Trail by Keith Heyer Meldahl. Just finished this. Fabulously readable historical science — loved it!
- The War of the World, Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West by Niall Ferguson. Stalled in the middle of this stunningly good scholarship, but Holy I-Need-Anti-Depressants-Now, Batman!
- The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung, A Chinese Miner in California, 1852 by Laurence Yep. Looking forward to this young adult book. I heard from a visitor that it references Wells Fargo, so I've got to check it out.
Steve in Portland
(Currently reading on the MAX to and from work.)
- "Ho for California! Women's Overland Diaries" from the Huntington Library , edited by Sandra L. Myres. From "Museums and Schools" Journal of Museum Education, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring 2009)
- The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage. A fascinating comparison between the invention of the telegraph and the internet. A good, light read.
- Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison. Recently finished this historical fiction of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, told from four perspectives in a mixed race family, whose patriarch is dying. One of Harrison's best.
- Strangers in a Stolen Land by Richard Carrico. Just started this story about the Indians of San Diego County.
- Historic Resource Study: Pony Express National Historic Trail by Anthony Godfrey, Ph.D., for the National Park Service. A little dry, but a good overview of the founding and running of the Pony Express. Includes biographies of William Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell, founders of the California Overland Mail Company & Pikes Peak Express (a.k.a. the Pony Express).
- A New Look at Wells Fargo, Stagecoaches and the Pony Express by W. Turrentine Jackson. More pamphlet than book, it is a well-written defense of Wells Fargo's role in western stagecoaching and the Pony Express.
- Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express by Christopher Corbett. Love it! This book is a great history of the Pony Express. The author uses many different sources and presents many different sides to the stories and legends that have been built around the Pony Express. The book is written with a sense of humor and without stuffy "historian speak."
- A Thrilling and Truthful History of the Pony Express: With Other Sketches and Incidents of Those Stirring Times by William Lightfoot Visscher.
- Pony Express Versus Wells Fargo Express, or Hoof Prints That Can Not Be Eroded By Time by Waddell F. Smith. A counter-argument to Jackson.
- The City of the Saints; And, Across the Rocky Mountains to California by Sir Richard Burton, a stage rider along the Pony Express route and documenter of Salt Lake City and the Mormons.
- Seventy Years on the Frontier by Alexander Majors, co-founder of the Pony Express.
- Fifty Miles from Tomorrow by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley. Willie Hensley grew up on the shores of the Bering Sea, at a crossroads between ancient and modern ways of life. His descriptions of hardships — living under 9 months of winter, the severity of accultration, and the transformation of a territory into a state — are enlightening at the very least.
- Physics for the Rest of Us by Roger S. Jones. Exploring ways to describe time and relationships in nature, to young people, led me to this wonderful book. It is filled with great explainations most anyone can understand.
- Pony Express: The Great Gamble by Roy S. Bloss. Getting caught up on the PX before next tear's sesquicentennial.
- The Great Influenza by John Barry. Thought I would get ready for fall flu season by re-reading this one. The book is great: Who knew the history of a flu epidemic could be so thoughtful and intriguing?
Bill in San Francisco
- American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the W.P.A. , by Nick Taylor. Although definitely favorable to FDR and the New Deal, there are some interesting parallels to current events here.
- 1491: New Revolutions of the Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann. Currently reading. It is a few years old and has been on my reading list since it first came out. Very interesting insight into the lives and cultures of native peoples.
- Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz. I recently finished this one, which I thought was a truly unique look into Southern Civil War culture.
There you have it, Anonymous. You asked, you got!
I want to thank Anonymous for asking this question, and you all for answering it. This is a very interesting list, and will inform my next visit to Amazon, for sure. I hope you will continue to keep us posted as you finish this texts and move on to others.
I love history and enjoy your blog. I'm always looking for a good book for my commute. I've been reading "John Adams" by David McCullough on-and-off and some John Grisham legal thrillers.
Interestingly, my transit station has the first library book kiosk in the nation (according to the local library). Works just like an ATM! Two good books that I borrowed through the "Library-a-Go-go" are: "Three Cups of Tea" (Greg Mortensen) and "The Speed of Trust" (Steven Covey, Jr.). The former gives good perspective on Pakistan/Afghanistan. The latter explains how important trust is in a person's business and personal life.
Thanks, Ian! Keep us posted every now and then on your readings.
Thanks to you too, Mary. But hey, why not check stock at your local independent book shop BEFORE you go online?
This is Amanda at the Wells Fargo History Museum in Old Sacramento. I am also reading "Ho for California!" Women's Overland Diaries from the Huntington Library. And I recently finished reading "Wells, Fargo Detective, A Biography of James B. Hume" by Richard Dillon. My co-worker Martha is reading "Towers of Gold" by Frances Dinkelspiel. Another Co-worker, Zara, is reading "A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West" from the Huntington Library...
The book about Detective Hume was very interesting although it did have some slow parts. It talked alot about Black Bart...I'm not done with Ho For California but it is pretty easy reading and gives good insight as to what people really went through on their travels to California. Martha wasn't crazy about Towers of Gold and has now moved on to something new.
Ian - where are you located and can you post pictures? I'm a big fan a libraries and always interested in how different cities do things.
Jenny, I, too, love libraries. I’ve experienced everything from a small brick, colonial building in rural Connecticut to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Sitting under the giant rotunda of the Library of Congress and having books delivered to my desk was a personal highlight.
I live in an area just outside San Francisco that has seen tremendous growth in the past 30 years. It also has the longest commute time west of the Mississippi. The county library decided that it needed to serve this growth, along with its commuter population, without incurring substantial “bricks-and-mortar” costs. Hence the “Library-a-Go-Go” was conceived.
This kiosk looks/works like an ATM and is located by the entrance of a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Pittsburg, CA. It was developed in Sweden and we were the first customers in North America to use it (there are now two other locations). It holds 400 books (150 titles), organized in several convenient categories (e.g., fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi).
Does it work? It does for me and many others. I’ve read two great books so far. The collection is rotated to keep readers’ interest, but, truthfully, I wish there were more titles. Maybe that’s the point, to encourage me to explore the traditional library.
I think Ben Franklin would approve.