8 August 2015 at the Bookstore at the Visitors Center of Colonial Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, Virginia, from 3PM to 5PM.
James Thompson will sign his new book "Thomas Jefferson's Enlightenment - Background Notes" (published by Commonwealth Books of Virginia; distributed by Casemate Distribution Services).
Ms. Yingling Reads website recently provided a review of Small Footsteps in the Land of the Dragon by Barbara Brooks Wallace. See below to read the wonderful review.
When I look for diversity in middle grade literature, it often turns out to be books set in the US with characters from other cultures. The following memoir, by award winning middle grade writer Barbara Brooks Wallace, puts a spin on that. Ms. Wallace was born in China to US parents, and spent most of her first 15 years there! For our diversity today, we'll find out what it's like to be the "foreign" one!
Wallace, Barbara Brooks. Small Footsteps in the Land of the Dragon
Commonwealth Books, LLC (July 31, 2009)
Copy purchased from Amazon.com
Growing up in the 1920s and 30s was very different from children's experiences today, and growing up in China has a whole different set of issues. This engaging memoir tells of the Brooks family's experiences living in China because of the father's work with Standard Oil. They lived in several different locations, at one point two blocks from the fabled Yangtze River. There was no air conditioning in those days, so the best place to be in the summers was the mountains (where the children would be carried up in sedan chairs by coolies!) or the beach. There are countless other examples of the ways in which ordinary life was different in China at that time, from ordinary events such as sleeping under mosquito netting and speculating about the mysterious, wealthy neighbors, to historical ones such as General Chiang K'ai-shek's communist "witch hunt" that students today will find different and fascinating.
We do get a good look at what the expatriate life was like, and learn about places in China that probably no longer exist. I would love to see the Ching Ming apartments in Hankow, decorated with the Chinese manufactured furniture purchased by Bobbie's mother (who left Russia to live with relatives in Shanghai) or be able to stroll through the streets of Shanghai before the Japanese invaded. The country clubs and British schools are part of a pre-war China that quickly faded in the same way that servants and English Manor houses (ala Downton Abbey) went by the wayside in the UK. While well-to-do families in some countries today still have maids and other servants, it is a very odd concept to most middle class students in the US, so reading about amahs, house boys and other servants will be a revelation to today's your readers.
The best part, for me, was reading about the facets of childhood that were typical of the time period. Tiger Time annuals, dolls and teddy bears, and even the way that Bobbie's poor health was treated all seem so unheard of to us today, and are a good reminder that the world changes.
Readers of Ms. Wallace's Victorian mysteries will be pleased to know more about the author's life, and this would be a good resource for author reports as well. More than that, it is a delightfully distracting look at a world that no longer exists, told by a master storyteller looking back fondly on her life.
Watch a delightful video of Ms. Wallace reading from a previous book, Diary of a Little Devil. Pangea also has a wonderful album of photos I wish had been in the book available on their website.
To read the full review please visit http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2015/04/small-footsteps-in-land-of-dragon.html
From the author of “Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Paris 1785” (Commonwealth Books of Virginia, 2014) comes this wonderful companion volume of eighteen closely related assays: “Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Background Notes” by James C. Thompson (Commonwealth Books of Virginia, 2015).
As the author explains in his Opening Comment, in “Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment – Paris 1785” he sought to show “how the self- described savage from the mountains of America became immersed in the world’s most cultivated and elegant society.” On that journey, Jefferson is in Paris bearing close witness as the Assembly of Notables completes the process leading to the end of France’s bankrupt monarchy and the onset of a French constitutional government.
In this book, modestly entitled as “Background Notes,” Thompson beautifully enriches the first book with extensive commentaries, details and supplemental information.
The first seventeen assays expose the reader to various aspects of the Paris that Jefferson experienced from August 1784 to October 1789. Not a man to remain a passive observer, Jefferson immersed himself in the debates over social and economics ideas, the rights of man, and the needed political change. He experienced first hand the historic events as French society collapsed and the people stormed the Bastille. In the process, Jefferson himself was changed forever.
Most fascinating, in the eighteenth and final assay, the author traces the evolution of Jeffersonian historiography through the succeeding two centuries. This last assay contains a meticulous survey and a comprehensive analysis of much of the literature dealing with Jefferson’s philosophy. The author clearly traces the evolution of scholarship in that realm and demonstrates the emergence of a “new Jefferson” – most intriguing!
Many volumes have been written and published about the man who, more than anyone else, fueled the new American republic with his extraordinary intellectual creativity. James C. Thompson, in the two volumes culminating with this “Background Notes,” adds a fascinating, fresh perspective on the development and transformation of Jefferson’s political philosophy and ideological maturity.
Indeed, as the excellent last assay demonstrates, only through studying his Paris experience can we truly understand the man who returned to become the second president of the United States and, in many ways, transformed the nation in fundamental, lasting ways. This is an invaluable book to any student of President Thomas Jefferson, adding a wealth of new details and a deeper understanding of this most brilliant subject. Furthermore, the author’s expansive scholarly scope, coupled with careful substantiation, makes this book richly authentic and highly credible. Excellent!
Reviewed By: Avraham Azrieli
Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. His website is: www.AzrieliBooks.com
To read more please visit http://www.thecolumbiareview.com/thomas-jeffersons-enlightenment-background-notes-james-c-thompson/
