September 2017 - Historically Significant Event

September 17 is Constitution Day in the United States, our constitution having been ratified on that date in 1787 by the Continental Congress.

For September's challenge, read a book that discusses or is set during a historically significant event in the formation of the history of your country (or if it so please you, any other country). Please tell us about the event you'll be reading about.

My plans:
Miracle at Philadelphia, (nonfiction), "the story of the stormy, brilliant session of 1787 in Philadelphia which saw the birth of the Constitution of the United States".
Amelia's War, (YA historical fiction), set during the American Civil War in the 1860s.
An Army of Judiths, (historical fiction), about a pivotal time in the history of the Netherlands - the Siege of Haarlem in 1572.

I think that I will be reading about a time of shame for my country of Canada. The residential schools that were forced upon the indigenous peoples were for the most part a horrible, degrading system. This system was shut down by the early 1980's but it's legacy is still being felt today and is often in the headlines. I have chosen two books that deal with this subject, Wenjack by Joseph Boyden and Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese.

Wenjack's been on my horizon. I may want to join you for that read.

I don't have an awful lot in my TBRs on this subject, but one that comes to mind (and that I started reading a while back) is The Annotated Luther: The Roots of Reform, Volume 1. The founding of German nationhood can to a large degree be attributed to Luther's call to the Protestant princes to resist pope and emperor, and Luther is also the Father of the German language through his translations, sermons, and hymns. This October 31, incidentally, is the 500th anniversary of Luther's posting of the Ninety-five Theses on the church door in Wittenberg.

I also just bought Novels, Tales, Journeys: The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin (a Pevear Volokhonsky translation), which is such a new acquisition that it won't qualify by my standards for a ROOT, but still, it's a chance to get to it (if I can find it). Pushkin is the Father of the Russian language (and of Russian literature). At the time Pushkin wrote, the first language of the Russian aristocracy was French. There was a nationalist movement of sorts to develop a Russian language, but it was conservatively based on Old Church Slavonic. Pushkin's success in the vernacular set the standard for every Russian writer to come after him.

I'm going to go through my entire catalog owned-but-unread and see if I can find something about the U.S., but I'm not optimistic. I've got some Library of America of Washington, Jefferson, and others, but I'm not terribly anxious to take that kind of a slog through a whole LoA volume of that subject.

I could give a stab at the LoA Jonathan Edwards: Writings from the Great Awakening. His sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was one of the first things we read – in the Bradley-Beatty-Long anthology – some half-century or more ago in our high-school AmLit course.

And I guess I could read Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (Norton Critical Edition) – a reread of the novel (from well over a half-century ago) and a first-read of the supplementary materials. Many historians after all regard the Civil War as the "second American revolution."

ETA: At this point, I'm leaning strongly toward Luther, considering that the quincentennial of the Ninety-Five Theses fast approaches.

For September, I'll be reading Middletown, America: One Town's Passage From Trauma to Hope by Gail Sheehy. This nonfiction book discusses the effects of September, 11, 2001 on the town of Middletown, New Jersey. I lived in New Jersey at that time in a town about 20 minutes away from Middletown and this gives me a good excuse to pick this book up.

I think I will read a non-fiction George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution which I've had for sometime. I've been hesitant to read it because reviews say it is so detailed that it beats a dead horse. But since I've had it for awhile, now is the time to jump in!

>2 DeltaQueen50: "Indian Horse" was very good.

Can't find the book I mentioned in #6 so I think I will read Hammerhead Six about the Green Berets and Taliban in Afghanistan.

I have a number of books about the expulsion of the Acadians in my collection so will chose one of those to read for this theme.

The book I read loosely fit this category. It really wasn't one event, but a two year stint of a military group in Afghanistan. Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley by Ron Fry. It was an okay book but way too technical for a layman what with all the military acronyms (sometimes 3 in a sentence) and technical info.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions), not so much "about" an historically significant event but rather an historically (and influential) significant event in and of itself. I haven't read UTC in over half-a -century, and it's really a terribly sentimental novel (even worse than Little Women, and I'm not an Alcott fan). Still, I've rated this edition 4**** on the basis of Norton's supplementary materials

I have read about the Canadian Indian Residential School System with both Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese and Wenjack by Joseph Boyden. Both these books were excellent reads, but I have to say that Indian Horse totally blew me away with it's gut-wrenching emotion. The residential schools are a blot on my country's record and reading of the horror and abuse that happened to thousands of kids made for a difficult read. I don't know why, what with all the books I have read, it still amazes me how much harm we humans we can do to each other.

I have just finished Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession by Alison Weir. The historically significant event in this novel is the breaking away of England from the Roman church. It was quite a good read, and certainly an interesting portrayal of Anne Boleyn.

>12 DeltaQueen50: Agreed. Indian Horse was very good.

The significant event that I chose to read about was the expulsion of the Acadians. I have a small collection of works about the Acadians due to family history research. The Contexts of Acadian History 1686 – 1784 is a particularly good overview of what led up to the expulsion and the aftermath as well as of the expulsion itself.

>12 DeltaQueen50: Not as big a blot on Canada's record as residential schools but pretty bad nonetheless as it uprooted a population and, in some cases, tore families apart.

>15 Familyhistorian: Overall Canada has a pretty good record in our treatment of ethnic and underprivileged groups but we are far from perfect. I noticed that Justin Trudeau chose to speak about our treatment of the aboriginals when he recently spoke at the United Nations which impressed me. At least we are acknowledging our imperfect past and making efforts to improve our record in the future.

Meg, I lived in Nova Scotia when I was very young and one of the places that I remember visiting was the Grand Pre National Historic Site which commemorates the deportation of the Acadians. I particularly remember the statue of Evangeline, from the Longfellow poem. The statue is said to represent the many separated families and loved ones.

>16 DeltaQueen50: I have never visited the Grande Pre National Historic Site. That sounds interesting, Judy. I have heard of the poem and statute of Evangeline. I am interested in the Acadians because my mother-in-law was French from Riviere Bougeois, which is very French and has families with a lot of interconnections (that's what happens when there are 12 and 13 kids).

>16 DeltaQueen50: and >17 Familyhistorian: : I'm finding your comments about Acadians very interesting. I did not know about this history. There was an Acadian character in a book I read some time back (The Birth House, if I remember correctly). At the time, I recall wondering about that - "Acadians in Canada? I thought they were in Louisiana." I'm ashamed that I did not look it up then.

The books I read in September which covered a historically significant event were;
Amelia's War, Ann Rinaldi (The Ransom of Hagerstown, MD - civil war)
The Way to London, Alix Rickloff (WWII)
Wenjack, Joseph Boyden (Canadian residential schools for native children)
The Women in the Castle, Jessica Shattuck (WWII)

I'm particularly fond of historical fiction!

In Sept I read -
Distant waves by Suzanne Weyn, about the sinking of the Titanic.
Journey into war by Margaret Donaldson, the Resistance in WWII France.
Witness by Karen Hesse, the Klan infiltrating a small town in 1924.
Midnight train home by Erika Ramar, about the Orphan Trains that carried children from NYC to the west and midwest for adoption from the mid-1800s till about 1930.

>18 countrylife: The Acadians were deported to many places. Those places were mostly in the American colonies or in Europe. One of the places they were also sent was Louisiana even though it was not owned by Britain. Many of the Acadians sent there stayed and became the basis for the Cajun population.

My ex was part Acadian. His mother was from Riviere Bourgeois in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He used to work installing trade shows in Vancouver and I can remember him talking about one food show where he met a guy with one of the food stands who was from Louisiana. They compared notes about being from the same culture. He was quite tickled by that experience.

>18 countrylife:
>20 Familyhistorian:

Evangeline is the story of the Acadian expulsion. It is well worth the read. I find it so beautiful that I re-read it each year.

>21 Tess_W: I'll have to give it a read sometime, Tess.