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What I Read in May 30 Years Ago (1982)

1710. Action Francaise: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth-Century France, by Eugen Weber (read 1 May 1982) For a time this book was heavy going, but the last half of the book was really good. Charles Maurras was born Apr 20, 1868, and died Nov 16, 1952. While an agnostic, he was reconciled to the Church on his deathbed. The movement (Action Francaise) began in 1899 as a result of the Dreyfus Affair and ended with France's liberation in 1944. This book, by a California professor born in 1925 in Romania, does not give a very clear reason for the papal condemnation--he did not have access to the Vatican archives. The book's account of politics in France after 1919 is fascinating, including of course its account of Feb 16, 1934, and of Vichy. This was an excellent book on an intriguing subject.

1711. C B: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, by John Wilson (read 6 May 1982) He was born in 1836 near Glasgow, entered Parliament in 1868, became Prime Minister in 1905, led the Liberal Party to its stunning victory in 1906, and died April 22, 1908, having resigned as Prime Minister on April 3, 1908. While this book is not as good as Roy Jenkins' biography of C. B.'s successor, Asquith, it is very good and I enjoyed it thoroughly. One cannot help but admire Campbell-Bannerman, even though he was not a very hard worker. He customarily spent six weeks each fall at Marienbad. He was rather against the Boer War, and when he got in he made peace with Botha and Smuts, to Lord Milner's disgust.

1712. From the Crash to the Blitz 1929-1939, by Cabell Phillips (read 7 May 1982) This is a 1969 book. On May 21, 1946, I read Only Yesterday and really thought it was a great book. This book is that kind of book on the 1930's. But I learned very little from this book--too journalistic, with little in the way of unusual interpretation. I found the book told me very little.

1713. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume I: The British Isles and the American Colonies Great Britain and Ireland 1748-1754, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 9 May 1982) The author is a historian and this work has been called "the most distinguished multivolume work by any living American historian" so it has seemed to me I should read it. This first volume tries to tell what England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were like in 1750, and this is done by telling about what the author has found in old records and old books--the modern historian's way. One wonders if he has looked at enough old records and books, or if there are enough to tell what things were really like. The volume is uneven--some things interest, others are dull. Economic history is not my greatest interest, and there is a lot of this in this volume. But it seems worthwhile to read the set.

1714. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume II: The British Isles and the American Colonies The Southern Plantations 1748-1754, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 13 May 1982) This volume deals with Virginia, Maryland, tobacco, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Jamaica, the West Indies, sugar, and the slave trade around 1750. Full of stuff dug out of records and old books, it is not digested for one. Fairly interesting at times, but sure gives a lot of stuff one would not ordinarily read about.

1715. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume III: The British Isles and the American Colonies The Northern Plantations 1748-1754, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 15 May 1982) This volume has chapters on Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, the iron industry, the Hudson Bay Company, Newfoundland, and a summary chapter entitled "The British Colonial System in 1750." There does begin to appear a design to the work, and this has certainly been the most interesting volume so far. One is struck by the differences between the colonies--and one can appreciate how lucky we are that they were able to form a Union. America in 1750 was thriving, and I am sure not very many persons then alive anticipated that in 25 years the Revolution would be raging. A fascinating period, and I look forward to the coming volumes with zest.

1716. One L, by Scott Turow (read 20 May 1982) This is a 1977 book about the author's first year at Harvard Law. It is very readable, but it does not accurately reflect my first year at Georgetown . I checked my diary for 1950, and found the law did not overpower me--Washington did. Politics seemed to have far more attention than law those first months. But this book does capture some of the overpowering tension of law school, though my stolid peasant attitude never drove me to pills or a psychiatrist--as the author here almost was driven. A very intense book--I only wish the professors were not disguised, though I am sure everybody at Harvard knows who each was.

1717. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume IV: Zones of International Friction North America, South of the Great Lakes Region 1748-1754, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 23 May 1982) This volume considers Indian relations in Florida and with the Cherokees, and the French situation in Louisiana and Illinois and the Ohio valley in 1748-1754, the English efforts in the Ohio valley, and ends with the fall of the 33-man fort at what is now Pittsburgh to the French on April 17, 1754. It is so detailed, and scarcely bothers to mention the well-known facts, that one tends to get lost or think of something else as one reads.

1718. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume V: Zones of International Friction The Great Lakes Frontier, Canada, The West Indies, India 1748-1754, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 28 May 1982) This volume deals with British-French frictions on the Great Lakes, Canada, the West Indies, and India. Really quite interesting, but far more detail than necessary.

1719. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume VI: The Great War for the Empire The Years of Defeat, 1754-1757, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 31 May 1982) This is the best volume so far. I must confess I am annoyed by Gipson's opinionated comments on the Acadians, since I have long been pro-Acadian and pro-French. But if the French had won, would I now speak French? Who can say? Everything would have been so different. So Gipson is right to say the years he is writing of (1754-1757 in this volume) were of such tremendous importance to the world and to us. The volume tells of the events around Pittsburgh, including Braddock's defeat (he belittles the traditional view that Braddock should have fought like a backwoodsman), and tells of the attack on the French fleet (while the countries were still at peace in Europe), the failures in Niagara and Crown Point and Oswego, the Treason of Thomas Pichon (he was the Judas of Acadia), the expulsions of the Acadians and their trials as exiles, and there are four great chapters on the prelude to the Seven Years War in Europe, including Admiral Byng's tragic time before Minorca. Really great history, and now no longer seems so detailed.

Schmerguls wrote: "What I Read in May 30 Years Ago (1982)
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WOW, that was a LOT of reading in one month! You were very "into" the British Empire.

I saw the ONE L movie and thought it was well-done. Like you said, lots of tension. My husband, who had been at Cornell Law School in the late 60s, said there was definitely some artistic license.

What I Read in June 30 Years Ago (1982)

1720. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume VII: The Great War for the Empire The Victorious Years, 1758-1760, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 5 June 1982) (Bancroft Prize in 1950) This volume deals with the years 1758 to 1760 in America, culminating in the capture of Quebec on 17 Sept 1759. and the surrender of Canada on Sept 7, 1760. Some chapters were interesting, but there is so much detail that one tends to just read along but thinking about other things!

1721. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume VIII: The Great War for the Empire The Culmination, 1760-1763, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 6 June 1982) This is an excellent book. It covers the years 1760 to the conclusion of peace in 1763. I had not realized, or had forgotten, that the British took Havana and Manila in 1762, after Spain foolishly got into the war in 1762. So much was decided by the Seven Years War or, as Gipson insists, by the War for the Empire, which lasted from 1754 to 1763. In fact Prussia and France were not at war. Austria fought Prussia, and France and Austria were allies, but France was not at war with Prussia. So the Seven Years War was concluded by the Peace of Hubertusberg on Feb 15, 1763, whereas the French and Indian War was concluded by the Peace of Paris on Feb 10, 1763. This book was really well put together, and its contents are reflected in its chapter titles. Reading these volumes, and no doubt influenced by Gipson's intense Anglophility, I find my boyhood pro-French bias not present. It was better the War went as it did, even if France was Catholic. After all, Louis XV certainly was not worth any emulation. This volume has been one of the best of the series.

1722. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume IX: The Triumphant Empire New Responsibilities Within the Enlarged Empire, 1763-1766, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 12 June 1982)
This volume is so detailed, and really gets quite boring. But I am going to read the entire set, since I've gotten this far.

1723. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume X: Thunder-Clouds Gather in the West, 1763-1766, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 16 June 1982) (Pulitzer History prize in 1962) This volume is very good--it covers up to the repeal of the Stamp Act. It seems to me that I have never really read in the field since I was in school. Gipson shows pretty clearly that the Colonies were not too reasonable.

1724. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume XI: The Triumphant Empire: The Rumbling of the Coming Storm, 1766-1770, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 20 June 1982) I found this volume very uneven. Some chapters were extremely interesting. Others were very dull. Chapter I tells efforts to heal the breach after the repeal of the Stamp Act. Chapter II deals with the Quartering Act and New York's reaction to it. Chapter III is entitled "Charles Townshend Moves to the Front" and is a very interesting account of parliamentary events, as was Chapter IV: "The Implementation of the Townshend Acts." Chapter V: "Massachusetts Bay and Resistance to the Townshend Program." Chapter VI: "Other Colonies Follow the Lead of Massachusetts Bay." Chapter VII was a very interesting account: "The Discontented--Wilkes and Liberty." Did you know Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is half-named after John Wilkes? Chapter VIII: "The British Ministry at Sea." Chapter IX tells of the Boston Massacre--what an overblown thing! The troops were acquitted by American juries of any charge. The rest of the book dealt with intercolonial rivalries and problems re the western frontier and class conflicts in the Carolinas, and were very dull.

1725. The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume XII: The Triumphant Empire Britain Sails Into the Storm 1770-1776, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 26 June 1982) This volume is sheerly interesting, covering the years 1770-1776 in a detail I have never known before. I really enjoyed it, and want to read more in the period. An excellent volume.

1726. The British Empire Before the American Revolution The Triumphant Empire: Part I The Empire Beyond the Storm, 1770-1777 Part II: A Summary of the Series Part III: Historiography, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 29 June 1982) At 5:30 AM today I finished this concluding volume of Gipson's work, which consists of a consideration of parts of the British Empire outside the thirteen colonies in the years 1770 to 1776, a Summary of the Series, and a series of considerations of the historians who have worked in the era covered by the series. I am glad I read these volumes, but I am also glad I am done. Thirteen volumes in one period of history is a lot, and I am glad to be able to read something else next. The reading of the set took about fifty days, and the latter part of that time was a distracting time, what with the consideration of the possibility of a tremendous change in my life looming before me.

Schmerguls wrote: "The reading of the set took about fifty days, and the latter part of that time was a distracting time, what with the consideration of the possibility of a tremendous change in my life looming before me. ..."

And what was this "change", if you do not mind me asking? I am nosy!

I had been selected as a nominee for district court judge. The Governor did not appoint me on that occasion, but a few months later I was again nominated and this tiem a new governor did select me.

That was a tremendous change in my life--and basically a happy one.JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Schmerguls wrote: "The reading of the set took about fifty days, and the latter part of that time was a distracting time, what with the consideration of the possibility of a tremendous change in my..."

Schmerguls, you're clearly a fast reader! But that whole series sounds so incredibly interesting. 50 days? It would probably take me 50 weeks -- or 50 months! -- to get through it all. Either way, it sounds like it would be quite informative and interesting. Thanks for posting about it.