This got stuck in my outbox for some reason so it's a day late,
but...
I don't know how many might or might not be aware of a very fine
effort in writing by Clay Shannon called, "Still Casting shadows: A Truer
History of the United States Viewed Through the Lenses of Two Families
Experiences". I only came across it the other day myself on the Borland
downloads pages, but I found it such a compelling read that I thought it
might be of interest to others here.
Basically it's social history of the US from around the early 1600's
to present day as re-lived through the lives of the author's ancestors, but
unlike many others of this type, it's not a novelized, fictional, or
caricatured accounting. I won't go into any great detail here and now but
my family and I spent four hours one evening just playing double-jeopardy
with the contents pages via the dates each chapter relates to and the often
cryptic reference titles next to them! <g> That alone makes the download
worth the effort but once you DO begin reading the introduction I can
promise it'll be difficult for you to put away for the night! The author
has done a splendid job of research and serializing. And most importantly
has managed to bring an honest and honorable sense of what these various
times may have been like to the "real" men and women who lived them! I'm a
great fan of history and of 18th and 19th century writing styles, and one
thing I can definitely promise those who have had little more opportunity to
enjoy the evolving history of America than what is provided in our
horrifying school system, is that these accounts do not attempt to cover the
rich and famous or the politically spotlighted figures whose names we all
know, as the textbooks do. Nor will they provide any compilation of facts
that would be useful on a TV game show like the real Jeopardy. What they DO
provide though is an enjoyable and very interesting excursion through
America's past as lived by those who, in simply living, helped mold who and
what we are today and where we might be going tomorrow. As Ralph Waldo
Emerson said in a quote the author uses, "There is no history; there is only
biography."
from Robert Meek dba Tangentals Design CCopyright 2006
"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion
that the gift of Fantasy has meant more to me then my talent for absorbing
positive knowledge!"
Albert Einstein
__________________________________________________
Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected]
http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
