American Writers (one Hundred Pages At A Time)

In this episode I look at the first four chapters of the amazing book BLACK RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a brilliant celebration of the potential of interracial democracy, written at a time when those potentials were forgotten by historians.

A bit of an aside in this series, "Cliff and the Calories" by Heinlein is a short story about a young woman struggling with a perhaps unnecessary diet. It slightly aligns with some of what he was doing with his juveniles, but I think we need to wait until we read Podkayne to know for sure.

The finale of my review of OLDTOWN FOLKS by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the conclusion to this series on Stowe's novels. Next up, we will return to W. E. B. Du Bois with a deep dive into Reconstruction-era America.

Part 4 of my review of OLDTOWN FOLKS by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is an amazing novel that deserves more attention.

A story of capitalism run amok and maybe doing some good, THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON, by Robert A. Heinlein is a great novella exploring how  money can do almost anything.

The middle sections of Harriet Beecher Stowe's OLDTOWN FOLKS (1869) explored education with intense focus and through multiple conversations. While repetitive, this section of the novel allowed Stowe to engage with the debates of her own time about education, making a case as persuasive as the one she made in UNCLE TOM'S CABIN about slavery.

In this episode, I finish up my review of the excellent novel FARMER IN THE SKY by Robert A. Heinlein. This novel has some excellent reflections on population, empires, war, ecology, and the frontier. Are the juveniles (and the Future History series at large) metaphors for the Atlantic world? Sometimes I think so.

Heinlein's fourth juvenile novel, FARMER IN THE SKY (1950) is one of the best books he wrote to that point and the most "mature" of his "boy's novels". We seen Heinlein's approach and concerns grow up with his characters. The first part of this book is an excellent window into the ecological, scientific, and political vision Heinlein develops.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's OLDTOWN FOLKS (1869) is doing a lot, and that is made clear in the second section of this book, which explores the fate of two orphans in this small New England Town, and their ultimate liberation.

"Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon" is another delightful Future History story by Robert A. Heinlein, but this one includes Boy Scouts. Can an Earth Scout ever find a place with the Moon Scouts with the Moon's inhospitable environment? Maybe if he saves the day? This story has some very harrowing life and death moments as two boys get lost a "morning glory" (a sinkhole).

In this episode I begin to explore OLDTOWN FOLKS by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is a fascinating, almost modernist, novel about one man's memory of the days of his youth in early 19th century New England. Through deep dives into characters and the community, Stowe digs into surface level and hidden aspects of New England society.

What is this early 1940s Heinlein story doing in the 1950? In this episode I explore Heinlein's brief return to ASTOUNDING with "Gulf". Thanks, I hate it.

In this episode I finish up up look at Harriet Beecher Stowe's THE MINISTER'S WOOING. It finishes up much the way we expect. Overall, this novel is a nice surprise and worth checking out if you have the time. Next up, OLDTOWN FOLKS.

This is the last of the GREEN HILLS OF EARTH stories (from the anthology, but not thematically), we explore the question of who is suited for space exploration by looking at the place of women in the frontier.

In part two of my review of THE MINISTER'S WOOING by Harriet Beecher Stowe we build out the world of post-Revolutionary New England with a closer look at the new theology of the Great Awakening and get to experience the suspicious arrival of Aaron Burr as a suitor. Then tragedy hits.

The finale of my review of Robert A. Heinlein's RED PLANET. I focus on the political aspects of the novel and the awesome portrayal of the indigenous Martians.

In this episode I begin looking at Harriet Beecher Stowe's THE MINISTER'S WOOING, a novel about New England religion tied to a sentimental novel of love and loss.

This episode is the first half of my review of RED PLANET by Robert A. Heinlein. While I loved the "Green Hills of Earth" cycle, I cannot help but feeling that this novel brings us back to the Heinlein I love to wrestle with.

The end of my five-part review of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Overall, I am very glad I finally read this excellent book. There are great moments throughout the novel and it deserves its place as a classic, not just a historically important text.

This section is the turning point in the story, where we see our hopes in the white characters end through their untimely deaths. It then take Tom (and the readers) to hell and the heart of the story, which will play out in the cotton fields of the deep South.