Monthly Archives: April 2021

Beauty Is In The Gaze

Posted on April 16, 2021 by nathanalbright

It is a common truism that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is similarly easily recognized that what we create tells on us. One of the issues with solipsism is that we create our understanding of reality … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Red Nile: A Biography Of The World’s Greatest River

Posted on April 16, 2021 by nathanalbright

Red Nile: A Biography Of The World’s Greatest River, by Robert Twigger This book is one that has a difficult aim, and that is writing a biography of a river. What this means in practice is that the author tells … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt’s Past And Present

Posted on April 16, 2021 by nathanalbright

Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt’s Past And Present, by Toby Wilkinson One of the hazards of writing books with an agenda in mind is sometimes things change to make that agenda ring more than a little bit hollow. Like … Continue reading →

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Roads To Glory For The Political General

Posted on April 15, 2021 by nathanalbright

In reading a couple of books about Nathaniel Banks, and having previously read books about other Civil War political generals like Benjamin Butler, I was struck by the thought of how it was that political generals ended up receiving a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Fighting Politician: Major General N.P. Banks

Posted on April 15, 2021 by nathanalbright

Fighting Politician: Major General N.P. Banks, by Fred Harvey Harrington This book is an interesting and not particularly sympathetic biography of Nathaniel Prentice Banks, who is largely remembered only by students of Civil War history, although Banks had a lengthy … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Campaigning With Banks In Louisiana, ’63 And ’64, And With Sheridan In The Shenandoah Valley In ’64 And ’65

Posted on April 15, 2021 by nathanalbright

Campaigning With Banks In Louisiana, ’63 And ’64, And With Sheridan In The Shenandoah Valley In ’64 And ’65, by Frank M. Flinn One of the more interesting aspects of this book to me as a reader is that the … Continue reading →

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It’s Headcanon For A Reason

Posted on April 14, 2021 by nathanalbright

One of the phenomena that I find particularly interesting is the way that people create canons in their head that are based on existing intellectual properties but are not official and confirmed by those who create those properties. It is … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Food Of A Younger Land

Posted on April 14, 2021 by nathanalbright

The Food Of A Younger Land, by Mark Kurlansky This book is immensely disappointing on a variety of levels. Most of the book’s problems result from the agenda of the writer, who seeks to find in the abortive federal project … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Chicken Soup For The Soul Cookbook

Posted on April 14, 2021 by nathanalbright

Chicken Soup For The Soul Cookbook, edited by jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Diana von Welanetz Wentworth It is difficult to take a book like this entirely seriously. One of the editors of this book claims, risibly, that this … Continue reading →

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You Don’t Have A View Of The Truth Through Your Overton Window

Posted on April 13, 2021 by nathanalbright

Our pastor gave a fiery sermon this past Sabbath about the importance of truth and its elusiveness in contemporary society. The truth is often elusive, not least because there are a great many people who have an active interest in … Continue reading →

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