Reviewed by Miles Smith IV When Gustavo Pérez Firmat told a fellow Cubano he planned to write a work on The Andy Griffith Show, his friend lamented that this was an americanada project, meaning that it was typically Anglo-American and beneath a cultured Cubano scholar. Firmat’s project became more than a simple exploration of mid-twentieth […]
March Read of the Month: “A Cuban in Mayberry,” by Gustavo Pérez Firmat
“The Son,” by Philipp Meyer
Reviewed by Miles Smith IV Texans, and Americans at large, sense that there was, at some time, a dark, bloody land that destroyed and created cultures, people, places, and even ideas. Texans know this land as their Lone Star State. But to many Texans and many southerners this brutal place depicted so viscerally in Philip […]
February Read of the Month: “Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War,” by Elizabeth Varon
Reviewed by Miles Smith, IV Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War offers the first cultural, political, and social history of the Army of Northern Virginia’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. Elizabeth Varon’s elegant narrative, provocative argument, and skillful use of sources make this work an interesting addition to the […]