Review | The Selected Letters of Cassiodorus: A Sixth-Century Sourcebook
A millennium and a half ago, or so, if you wanted to break away from the western Roman Empire, you simply called in the barbarians.
Review | Dreamers and Schemers
Barry Siegel’s “Dreamers and Schemers” features William May Garland who propelled LA’s early development into a major metropolis through his ‘irresistible life force’ of salesmanship.
Review | The 99% Invisible City
The 99% Invisible City explains the small mysteries in our everyday urban geography.
Review: Maps for Time Travelers
A survey of the geospatial technological advances which have enabled today’s archaeologists to map the ancient world.
Review | A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety
This is a self-help book about how each of us, both personally and together, can deal with the angst of confronting this seemingly intractable problem of climate change.
Review | Rivers of Power
Rivers shape the surface of our planet and play a role in human history. Review of Rivers of Power by G.T. Dempsey.
Review | Dangerous Earth
G.T. Dempsey reviews Ellen Prager’s Dangerous Earth: What We Wish We Knew about Volcanoes, Hurricanes, Climate Change, Earthquakes, and More.
Review | Phantom Islands: In Search of Mythical Lands
In this book, Dirk Liesener provides the life-stories of islands, some thirty of them, which though thought to exist in some cases for many centuries turned out to either not be an island or to have never existed to start with.
Review | The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success
This is a most useful primer on climate change and its consequences.
Review | The Best American Travel Writing 2019
The ‘Best American Travel Writing 2019’ features pieces on either dangerous places or the pursuit of the exotic as well-informed as they are well-written.
Review | Peary’s Arctic Quest
Peary’s Arctic Quest: Untold Stories from Robert E. Peary’s North Pole Expeditions is both a rigorous scholarly work and a popular exposition of Robert Peary’s Arctic achievements and his legacy.
Review | On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey
In On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey, Theroux is determined to experience the real Mexico, as a traveler, not a tourist.