Review of my January readings

I did a lot of reading in January thanks to the bitter cold temperatures…

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Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War in American, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

 (New York: Henry Holt, 2019), 776 pages including notes, sources, and index. Also included are maps and plates of photos.

This is the first of a planned trilogy by Rick Atkinson on the Revolutionary War.  The opening books covers the beginning of the war. He starts at the battles at Lexington and Concord, and continues through Washington’s surprising victories in late 1776 and 77,. This was Washington crossing the Delaware with his ill-prepared army on Christmas Eve, routing the British Hessian soldiers in Trenton. That winter, he eventually pushed the British back toward New York. A lot happened in these first two years. 

Atkinson not only provides the American point-of-view for the war, but also the British. He takes his readers inside debates in Parliament. We learn of King George’s thoughts on the war and the British empire. Not all Britains were in favor of the war. But some like the king felt if they lost the war, it would be an end to the British Empire (which was just beginning to grow).  

It’s been a long time since I studied much of the history of the war. While I knew of the battles around Boston, I didn’t realize just how successful the campaign was against a larger and more powerful foe. The British retreated and regrouped in Nova Scotia before moving south to New York. I also knew of our attempts to capture Quebec, I didn’t realize just how much effort the colonists put into this endeavor. While it ended in failure, the Canadian invasion served as a major offensive for a rag-tag army.  

Much of the war covered in this book, especially after Washington assumed command of the army, became an attempt to avoid major battles and to live to fight another day. Washington sensed this would be the best way to slowly wear down the British (and their German merceries). America even attempted novel ways of attacking the British including the first attempted use of a submarine. In a way, I found myself making a parallel to how Ukraine has held out against Russia since 2022. They must keep holding on as they wear down a larger Russian army. And, Ukraine has also utilized new technology to make the most of their smaller army.   

Atkinson also covers the early war in the South. I grew up near Moore’s Creek. This brief but important battle often gets left out of American history books, I appreciated Atkinson’s treatment on the engagement. Click here to read a talk I gave to the St. Andrew’s Society of Scotland on Moore’s Creek.

By the end of 1776, the colonists had lost New York and New Jersey andretreated beyond the Delaware River. Things looked desperate. At this time, most armies didn’t fight during winter. Washington, however, took a risk. He crossed back across the Delaware to attack the British soldiers (mostly German Hessians) on the opposite bank. He continued to press forward, winning small engagements and driving the British back to the Hudson River.  

I look forward to reading his next volume which deals with the middle years of the war.  This is a great book to read in 2026, as we celebrate our nation’s 250-year history.  

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James Dodson, The Road that Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road 

(New York: Avid Reader Press, 2025), 396 pages.

The Great Wagon Road ran west from Philadelphia to central Pennsylvania where it turned south through Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and then crossing over the mountains and flanking the east side of the Blue Ridge south through North and South Carolina, ending in Augusta, Georgia. Daniel Boone’s father traveled this road to settle along the banks of the Yakin River in North Carolina. Daniel, a wanderlust like his father, would create a spur off the Great Wagon Road, the Wilderness Road, which ran through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. 

The Great Wagon Road brought many Scot-Irish and German immigrants into Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The Conestoga Wagon, the vehicle of choice in the 18^th Century, was designed and built along this road. Many important battles in the Revolutionary War occurred on the eastern and southern ends of the road. The Civil War would see major battles along the western side of the road.

Dodson, a descendant of those who travelled the Great Wagon Road, sets out in an old station wagon to follow the road (Today, US 30 across Pennsylvania and US 11 through Virginia roughly follow the path). As he travels along the road over several years (as opposed to traveling from Philadelphia to Augusta in one trip), we learn about his relationship to the road and interesting things which occurred along it.  One young woman joked that he, an older man driving a station wagon, reminded her of Clark Griswold, a character played by Chevy Chase in the National Lampoon Vacation movies. 

In addition to his descendants having traveled this road, another experience drew Dodson to it. In college he had attended with his girlfriend, Kristin Cress, a Moravian Sunrise Service at Old Salem. A professor at Salem college told him about a nearby ford on the road. The young couple caught some of the excitement of the road. They planned to marry. But before they could, Kristin, a student at Appalachian State who worked in a restaurant, was killed at work during an armed robbery. Slowly, throughout the story, we learn more about Kristin. 

Dodson seems a bit odd to be writing a book about history and his experiences along the road. After all, much of his career involved reporting on golf. But he nicely blends his experiences and the history of the road. 

Not only does he explore the good parts of history, he also presents the shameful past such as the murder of the Conestoga Indians around Lancaster at the end of the French and Indian War. The Conestogas had signed a treaty with William Penn and had lived peacefully in a village. I found this hopeful at a time when our nation’s current administration orders the National Park Service to remove interpretation signs which they feel exposes shameful events in our past.  As he points out, “The past cannot be unremembered,”

Dodson spent time in his childhood in Roanoke, Virginia with his aunt Lily. As he stops in Big Lick, Roanoke’s original name, he recalls those times including attending with his aunt to an African American Church. On this trip, he visits 5^thAvenue Presbyterian Church. There, Vernie Bolden, one of my fellow clergy members within the Presbytery of the Peaks, showed him around. One of the windows in 5^th Avenue’s sanctuary, a historically black church, depicts Presbyterian and Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. As odd as this may seem, when the church was built in 1906, Jackson’s body servant during the Civil War, ‘Uncle’ Jeff Shields, spoke. Jackson also taught the parents of the pastor at that time, Reverend L.L. Downing, to read.  Dodson, however, acknowledges the racial problems in Roanoke, as it was one of the first cities in the south to establish Jim Crow laws. 

A year ago I read Neil King, Jr., An American Ramble. King’s walk from Washington DC to New York City, covers much of the early ground of Dodson’s travels, especially around Lancaster and York. Both write about the history of this area and of the two contemporary 19^th Century bachelors: the abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens and President James Buchannan and their role leading up to the Civil War. Also, the Amish and Quaker’s fascinated both King and Dodson.  And both authors are willing to look at the noble and ignoble aspects of history. One difference is that King walked, which limited how far he could get from his path. Dodson, who drove, was able to enjoy things off the main road. 

I enjoyed this book. On a personal note, it’s possible the Garrisons came down the Great Wagon Road, as they settled south of Winston Salem. However, most of my ancestors came from the Scottish Highlands and settled in the Sandhills along the upper reaches of the Cape Fear River. And a few migrated into Virginia shortly after Jamestown and made their way south into North Carolina before the Revolutionary War.  

A couple of quotes:

“Better mind your P’s and Q’s, came from early taverns which sold beer as pints and quarts.” (324)

“Do you know how America was created. The English built the houses, the Germans built the barns, and the Scot Irish built the stills.” (379)

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Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural

 (New York: Scribner, 2024), 113 pages.

In this short collection of essays, Kimmerer envisions a new way to approach community building. She bases her ideas on her study of nature, especially the serviceberry tree. As she did in her other two books, Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass, she draws on her background as a native American as well as her knowledge as a scientist. But essentially, in this work, Kimmerer writes as an economist, even though she denies knowing much about the science. Or maybe she mostly writes about community building, for that’s what she envisions.

Observing nature, especially serviceberries, she suggests we look for ways to change our local economics from one based on scarcity. In such an economy, money is made by exchange of items in demand, to a society based on reciprocity.  The Serviceberry freely gives of its fruit. The animals who live around it enjoy not just the abundance of berries but share the abundance with others. In addition, they also performing necessary deeds which strengthen the life of the host plant. 

While Kimmerer doesn’t suggest we can quickly do away with the supply and demand economics, she does create a vision for small scale changes of sharing which could help enrich the lives of the participants.  She makes her case while sharing personal stories along with her knowledge of the plant world. 

This is a delightful book and I recommend it. 

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Sam Ragan, The Collected Poems of Sam Ragan 

(Laurinburg, NC: St. Andrews Press, 1990), 275 pages.

I have known of Sam Ragan, a former Poet Laureate of North Carolina, most of my life. He edited “The Pilot,” a newspaper in Moore County from 1969 to his death in 1996. While staying with my grandparents, I would read his newspaper and hear my grandmother talk about him. Then, later, for many years, thanks to my grandmother, I received his newspaper while living in New York and Utah. I supposed this was her way of keeping me grounded to the North Carolina Sandhills.

As far as I know, I only meet him once, at a poetry reading in Lincolnton, NC, on April Fool’s Day, 1984.  I purchased two of his books and had him sign both. One I gave to Flora Abernethy, my date for the event. I kept the other book (Journey into Morning), which he signed and dated for me. This is how I knew our meeting was on April 1^st. This collection of poems contains all his published work. This is my second reading of these poems. 

Ragan’s poems often draw from a glimpse of life which he captures in a few words. His words are positive and uplifting, as he celebrates life. While he writes about other months, October and April seem to be his favorite. The breaking of morning is his favorite time of day. Most of these verses take place in North Carolina, especially the Sandhills which were settled by Highlanders from Scotland, about whom he has a bit to say.

In addition to the Sandhills, he makes an occasional foray down to the Coast or to Raleigh. We meet interesting characters. A teetotaler who only drinks every fourth year on election day. It’s his way of expressing his opinion.  Or the preacher whose church steps were taken over by bees, keeping people away. Taking a torch, he burned the bees then preached a hell-fire sermon.  And we learn wisdom of one of his fellow editors who insisted the “function of a newspaper is ‘to print the news and raise hell.’” 

Ragan’s voice sounds best outdoors. The reader senses his love of flowers (azaleas and camellias for their beaty and lilacs for their fragrance).  He describes a storm moving through a grove of longleaf pines, and the birds seen in his garden during the seasons. The water’s edge often draws Ragan’s attention. He even named one of his books The Water’s Edge. 

This is an enjoyable collection, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys poetry. 

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Frances Liardet, We Must Be Brave 

(New York: G.P. Putman & Sons, 2019), 453 pages. Audible, 16 hours and 7 minutes. 

I’m not sure what drew me to this book when I saw it on an Audible two-for-one sale, but it sounded intriguing. I then picked up a copy at the library which allowed me to read some sections slower. I enjoyed the story which begins in 1940 Britain. Germany bombs the port city of Southampton. As the city burns, people flee to surrounding villages. Ellen and Selwyn Parr volunteer to help. On one bus, Ellen discovers Pamela, a young girl, asleep in a dirty blanket in the back. No one seems to know where her mother is at, but a few women seem to think she was on the bus before this one. Only later, they discovered she died in the bombings when a bomb struck the Crown Hotel. 

Ellen, who did not want children, takes Pamela and insists on keeping her. Unable to find any relationships who want the girl, she stays with the Parrs for the next four years. The book flashes back to Ellen’s troubled childhood and her meeting of Selwyn. She was 18 and he 39. Selwyn has his own story as he had been in the First World War. He’s now a miller in the village of Upton. Then, in the spring of 1944, as the Allies prepare to invade Europe, her father, who had been a navy surgeon, returns. Wounded, he lost the use of one hand, which ends his surgery career. Claiming Pamela, he sends his daughter to his sister in Ireland to raise. 

Pamela and Ellen correspond for a while, till her aunt in Ireland calls a halt to the exchanges. Pamela longs to return to England, even trying to run away. Ellen continues to write letters, but saves them. Then, in the 1970s, there is a flood. Ellen rescues a girl named Penny, from the flood and from her alcoholic mother (her father is with the military in Northern Ireland). In a way, the story repeats, but once Penny is older, she comes across Pamela who is a glass blower living in the American Southwest. She arranges a visit between Pamela and Ellen, who is 90 years old in 2010. 

This wonderful story centers on the love Ellen gives to both girls. It’s also a story about the heartbreak caused by the loss of children, which led me to post a story a few weeks ago about Becky, a foster daughter I’d hope would become an adopted daughter. Ellen was in her early 20s when she met Pamela and Pamela was over 70 when they were reunited. 

Not only is the story wonderful and I found myself caring about all the characters (and I left many characters out in my short synopsis),but Liardet’s writes beautifully. I love how she brings the senses into the story. You felt like you were in damp Southern England or the desert of the American Southwest.  She also includes some surprise twists, such as what happened to her real father. 

As one who doesn’t read a lot of fiction, I enjoyed this book and recommend it. 

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