Via Sarah Payne Stuart’s Perfectly Miserable If much of the joy of traveling is the anticipation simply about going somewhere, so, too, is reading up on the place to which you are about to go, not just to figure out which sites to visit but to understand what it would actually be like to live…
Category: Books
Free Radical: The Lesson of Louise Bryant
A Russian Revolution Chronicler’s Extraordinary Life I am late to the life of Louise Bryant. I become interested in her long after watching Reds, and reading her husband’s book, Ten Days That Shook the World, and going to Russia, where she reported on its revolution, and going to Paris, where she died at the relatively…
Remembering the Romanovs in Russia
A Reading of Helen Rappaport’s Romanov Sisters The story of some sisters burdened with a bit of a wackadoodle mother and an autocratic father appeals to many of us, even if we do know the ending, as in the case of the daughters of the last Russian czar (Nicholas): Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia. Intrigued,…
Contemplating Austria
Understanding the Viennese Paradox Anticipating a visit to Vienna, I am trying to understand the place, its past, its present. Mention Vienna and pastries come to mind along with classical music. Austria as a nation is a bit more confusing, unenlightened as I am about how the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed in the last century. I’m…
Austrian Anomalies
Looking for Understanding in France and New York I don’t know much about Austria beyond the Sound of Music. Little makes sense to me about Austria despite my efforts to understand. How could the homeland of Marie-Antoinette, who herself struggled under the rigidity of French culture, devolve to such a hierarchical and peevish monarchy less…
American Red
A Romance with Revolution Rewatching the 1981 Warren Beatty film Reds, about journalist and eventual collaborator John Reed’s coverage of and interest in the Russian revolution, I remember that Reed is buried at the Kremlin, a point that I neglect to pursue when I am actually at the Kremlin. Lenin’s Tomb is closed when I…
Wherever I Go, There’s Rochambeau
Recurring Characters in Historical Travels Revered as a hero in the American Revolution, the Comte de Rochambeau’s efforts helping the new country ward off the British are commemorated along the Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail—almost 700 miles extending from Massachusetts and Rhode Island south to Virginia. Plaques mark his presence at various points along his historic…
Not Exactly Old-World Charm
A Visit to the Deep South’s Past An exhibit at the Cabildo in New Orleans Photo credit: M. Ciavardini History is told from the perspective of the victor goes the refrain, so I am pleased to see that unpleasant bits of history—and every place has them—are addressed in the Cabildo, the museum next to St….
Midwives of the Revolution: A Review of A Midwife’s Tale
To the ever-growing list of things I don’t remember about American history is that Maine was once part of Massachusetts. One thing I do know about American history is that I am surely not hardy enough to have endured during Revolutionary times. I am reminded of this as I read A Midwife’s Tale, which opens…
From the Top of Notre Dame: Could This Be a Flying Monkey?
Remembering a trip to Paris, the Bashful Adventurer recalls her time on the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral.