Reading Still Matters

There is a group of people out there who really do feel the history of a place while traveling. I am not sure how big that group of people is, but I do know that I consider myself among that tribe. You may be a member if you sit down on old stones to soak in the feel of an ancient place, hear the voices of old as you walk beneath decaying fortifications, or pause as you realize that you just walked down a path that Roman emperor may have strolled on his way to the Coliseum.        Hiking through History: Hannibal, Highlanders & Joan of Arc is a book written by Kirk Ward Robinson which will appeal to anyone in this tribe of history oriented travellers. Hiking through History was originally written in the early 2000s and released in 2011.  More recently, the Highland Home publishing house has released an updated anniversary edition, and this updated 2026 release is the edition that I was fortunate enough to read.  Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to...

T he Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie was unexpectedly fascinating!  Over the last few years, I have been working at building my knowledge of the history of the Americas, including the history of its first inhabitants as well as their struggle with European powers. And this book didn't disappoint.      The Incas were one of the great imperial powers on the South American continent. From a small territory surrounding Cusco, they exploded on a path of military conquest and imperial domination that was triggered by an attempted invasion of their heartlands.  Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4uJhAKd      In fact, MacQuarrie's book really does a good job of establishing the history of the Incas, their culture, and their approach to maintaining power.  The Incas were ruthless, but like the Romans, they were also builders.  They used labour requirements to ensure improvements were made across the empire, important resources war...

I have to say that I really enjoyed Alexander at the End of the World, the Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great . Kousser's fantastic work focuses on the period of time following the initial conquest of the Persian empire, although there is build up to that event, so you don't have a lot of prior knowledge to read this one.       Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4etkuh3    Indeed , the book really digs in as Alexander is attempting to get the Persian empire under control, eliminate rebellions, put any challenge to rest. This process takes his armies further from Macedonia and deeper into Asia, and all of the way to distant lands like Afghanistan. His armies and camp followers march through mountain passes, fight their way through heavily defended valleys, and onto plains dominated by ancient horse tribes.  It's all quite remarkable really.     P erhaps even more interesting are the internal conflicts that Alexander has to manag...

Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe is a recent work of history by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry.   The book primarily documents the Carolingian Civil War, which was a bloody conflict among Charlemagne's descendants that fractured the vast empire built by Charlemagne with much blood and treasure. Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4vDjvka The story starts earlier with Charlemagne’s immediate predecessors, his grandfather and father, who successfully took power from the Merovingians.   The authors then summarize and provide insights into familial conflicts and power plays that had already started in the time of Charlemagne. Essentially, the signs of civil war were already starting to show by the end of Charlemagne’s reign. We then visit the reign of Louis the Pious who was Charlemagne’s sole surviving son. Has their been a number of heirs, one suspects that outright war between the Franks may have started earlier. Ho...