Another Year, Another Book Giveaway!

History in the Margins

Unlikely though it seems, this image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Gee, where did the last year go?*

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been hanging out here at the Margins for five years. Some of you have been with me from the beginning. Some of you found the blog last week.(And glad we are to have you here.)

Five years ago I was so uncertain about the whole endeavor that my first blog post was an attempt to answer the question “Why Another History Blog?” I don’t think my answer has changed much since then. I still have things I want to share with my fellow history nerds: a story that didn’t quite fit in a larger piece, an odd connection that’s tickled my brain, a book I’m excited about, a piece of news. I’m still delighted when you expand the conversation, whether by e-mail, comments on the blog itself, tweets, or Facebook posts. This year I’m particularly grateful for your support** as I’ve enjoyed the adventure surrounding my book. (There’s one more piece of big news yet to come. Stay posted.)

It wouldn’t be a birthday party without presents and I have a stack of books to give away. If you want to put your name in the medium-sized mixing bowl to win, leave a comment or send me an email before midnight Central Time on June 15. Tell me what historical period/event/figure you’re reading about today, how you became a history buff, or which of these books catches your imagination:

Niccolò Capponi. The Day the Renaissance was Saved.

Robin Lane Fox. Augustine: Conversions to Confessions.

Keith Jeffrey. 1916: A Global History (THREE COPIES, not including the one I’m keeping!)

David Lough. No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money.

Geoffrey Wawro. A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire

Heroines of Mercy Street: Real Nurses of the Civil War. (I don’t have to tell you who wrote that one, right?)

Here’s to another year of history!

*Okay, we all know where the last year went. I wrote a book and then went down the promotion rat hole.
**And patience.

11 Comments

  1. Laurie Blum on May 3, 2016 at 10:28 pm

    Thx for the chance to win great books

  2. Connie Ruzich on May 4, 2016 at 12:34 pm

    Love the cat birthday party photo! I’m researching the First World War, specifically the lost literary voices of that war (behindtheirlines.blogspot.com). I’d love a copy of Jeffrey’s “1916,” but I’m happy to have blogs like yours to read if I don’t win!

    • pamela on May 4, 2016 at 1:36 pm

      You are too kind.It looks like you’re doing some interesting work on World War I poetry. I’m sending the link to a friend who is writing a novel set in WWI.

  3. Jeanette P on May 4, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    I’m currently reading The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued his Empire. It is an easy read and really helps to show the role women played in the Mongol society.

    • pamela on May 4, 2016 at 1:34 pm

      Jeannette: That book is slowly tracking me down. I keep hearing good things about it.

  4. Bart Ingraldi on May 6, 2016 at 12:46 pm

    Ooo, I love parties!

    I’m in the middle of “Beethoven’s Hair” by Russell Martin. The book gives insight into the his life and death and how a lock of his hair was protected by generations of one family and survived two world wars and the Holocaust, to find it’s way into the twenty-first century where DNA is being used to solve the mystery of Beethoven’s poor health and deafness.

    • pamela on May 9, 2016 at 4:03 pm

      Okay, that sounds fascinating.

  5. Emily Stahl on May 11, 2016 at 8:15 pm

    Lets try this again! Congratulations on a great five years of writing (and reading!) While I’d be happy with any of the above, I must confess that in a previous life, I dreamed of being a nurse. Picture a white uniform dress and cap, and a blue cape emblazoned with a red cross (or is that Red Cross?). A collection of nurse dolls (one of which came with her own first aid kit for bandaging injured dolls with) decorated the bookshelves and dresser of my childhood bedroom.

    • pamela on May 12, 2016 at 1:14 am

      Somehow I’m not surprised you has nurse aspirations!

  6. Julia Traver on May 12, 2016 at 8:44 pm

    My current non-fiction/history reading list includes: The Cities that Built the Bible (R. Cargill), Pagan Virtue in a Christian World (A. D’Elia), SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (M. Beard), The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 (J. Shapiro),and Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World (T. Whitmarsh).
    I would like to put in an or for Niccolò Capponi. The Day the Renaissance was Saved.
    I mostly read about the ancient world, especially Greece and Rome. In addition, I am extremely interested in Intellectual History. I was trained as an historian while an undergraduate at Muhlenberg College from where I graduated in 1972 with a degree with High Honors in History and membership in Phi Alpha Theta.

    • pamela on May 13, 2016 at 6:49 pm

      Impressive reading list! I have my eye on the Mary Beard.

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