Moving Wrap-Up

You thought I was promising that this post would be moving? That I was going to jerk tears from your eyes by announcing the wrap-up of the blog? Or the wrap-up of my life?

Nope. It’s a moving post in that we’ve been packing and moving from one end of the country to the other. I’ve barely kept up with my book plan.  Note-taking has mostly fallen by the wayside, and I certainly haven’t had time to arrange my thoughts into a form suitable for public consumption. But I didn’t want to let October go by without a post. So here’s a quick summary of the last six weeks or so.

Because Bruce Schulman keeps putting off the completion of his volume of the Oxford History of the United States, I had to go out of chronological order this year. I jumped from 1896 to 1939 and read David Kennedy’s Freedom from Fear. This history of the Great Depression and World War II was excellent: one of the best offerings of the series. If I want to nitpick, I’d say that writing about a period with two “all-time biggest” events left Kennedy little time to talk about movies, literature, radio, schools, sports, etc. I do remember one interesting but brief note about clothing: that is, that skirts themselves became more interesting and brief during the war because of cloth shortages.

On one level, you could say that Trollope’s The American Senator is really about the English characters in the book. The Senator is only there to learn English customs, gather evidence to prove that American customs are superior in every way, and to give a speech in England trying to show its residents how misguided they are in all things. As an observer, he acts outside the main plot(s) and provides a bit of comic relief. But then Trollope did name the book for the Senator. Maybe the author was in a critical mood and thought his compatriots needed a fresh perspective. I also recently read three short stories by Trollope, all involving less-than-proficient writers submitting their creations to magazine editors. Funny and touching.

I loved reading C. S. Lewis’s letters, but I can’t recall many details right now. I know he told several people writing for advice on living as a Christian that they shouldn’t worry at all if their feelings aren’t in line. I’ll try to ignore my feelings about forgetting so much.

I wouldn’t call Zane Grey’s Lone Star Ranger great literature. I think I could call it an exciting adventure if it were cut down by about 20%. But I like Grey’s books because he’s taught me interesting things about the views of Americans at that time concerning the way men and women should act out their gender roles in order to keep America strong. Having just read a detailed account of the Depression, I can’t agree with Grey that city life is an easy life that makes people weak. But I’m in sympathy with him when he says that living in the rugged conditions of the West develops strength. I’m moving to a city in the West. I wonder if Grey would approve.