ME

Book Review: Beneath the Killing Fields: Exploring the Subterranean Landscapes of the Western Front by Matthew Leonard

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Beneath the Killing Fields is a study and description of the subterranean remnants from WWI (tunnels, mines, etc.) that for the most part were covered up and forgotten in the post-war period. This is actually a pretty interesting book if you can get past the author’s obvious contempt for every other branch of historical study beyond modern conflict archaeology. The author waxes eloquent at several different places about how his particular field of study is the only one that illuminates the lived experience of conflict on the western front. I am not going to argue here, I will simply point out that without the work of those other branches of … More after the Jump…

The Harvard Classics Volume 1

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The first volume in the Harvard Classics is actually pretty good.  It consists of three works: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin , by Benjamin Franklin Journal, by John Woolman Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn All were actually fairly readable from my perspective although I enjoyed the writing of Franklin the most and Woolman the least with Penn being somewhere in the middle. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography covers essentially the first half of his life as he passed away before he could finish writing it.  He is very modest and actually matter of fact in relating the events of his life.  He also has a very witty writing style that is … More after the Jump…

The Harvard Classics

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I decided a few days ago that I am going to start a project that I have always wanted to do, read the entire 51 Volume set of the Harvard Classics aka “The Five Foot Shelf of Books”.  I work in a Library and we have the complete set on our shelves but they are also available as eBooks in a couple of places online such as at the Project Gutenberg website.  I first remember hearing about them in High School when our English teacher mentioned them.  They are essentially a method to obtain a classical liberal arts education without going to school. The short description of the collection from … More after the Jump…