Some Books

The Internet and the library reserve system only increases my ability to find out about and get books while having less time to read them (imagine the 1990s without hours online daily). I received A History of the World in 21 Women, however, just stopping by the library (to get a DVD, but now NYPL only provide them in "hub" libraries). Pretty interesting, if incomplete (most after 1800). This is also how I got The Dutch Wife, a good fictional account of a political prisoner during WWII who became a camp prostitute (she's Dutch and "Dutch wife" is slang for prostitute) as well as a 1970s man suffering that fate (without the prostitution) in Argentina. More to come -- have a pile and more in reserve.

And Also: The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War is a somewhat rambling affair that was really about slavery as a whole (which is fine) while being a good brisk read that gives an overall feel of the times. A basic thing to remember is that even if you thought the Fugitive Slave Clause was necessary, with "I really hate slavery, really" comments, it left open some protections, especially of FREE black PERSONS. The response was often a telling treatment of blacks as non-persons.