It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowery

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lower Interesting history of early ACT UP development in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically a group of people called Gran Fury who were the graphic designers behind such initiatives as "Silence=Death" and other slogans. I found it an original approach to look at activists group through their design initiatives. Who knew that fonts could be so contentious. The first half of the book illustrates the early years and formative years of the group, which ultimately was not a large group. Mostly this is the story of a group of people and their stories and relationships, and many stories of people dying in the early days of no testing and very little treatment.

The second half bogs down as the story just starts to document who was fighting with whom and who was dating who and the story, as with the people, lose their edge. But all in all an original way to look at activists. There is some information about earlier activists movement like the civil rights movement and Vietnam war protesting, and movements that came later like Occupy Wall Street and Me Too.

Riverman by Ben McGrath

Riverman by Ben McGrath is the story of Dick Conant, an outsider character who disappeared attempting to canoe from Northern NY state to Florida along the east coast. He was an experienced river canoer who had completed several long distance canoe trips, and was very skilled at navigating water ways in the US. While it is an interesting story, the author had met Conant when he stopped by a neighbor’s house living on the Hudson. He apparently was a very sociable and charming man with great stories. When he disappeared, the author began a search for Conant, linking many stories from people he encountered. Unfortunately, the story bogs down in details, parts felt like the author was padding the story to add pages to the book. Another story of an adventurer who succumbed to the elements.

Ways and Means

Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War by Roger Lowenstein Interesting story of the financing of the civil war. Basically Lincoln and his treasury secretary Chase invented the modern US monetary system to finance the war. Before that all banking was decentralized in private banks in the states who issued their own money, they created the national banking system and a national currency.

Not having any knowledge of this subject, I found the first part of the book fascinating as it is described how Chase and Lincoln tried to figure out how to finance the growing civil war. The author does a great job of comparing the financing of the Union, with that of the Confederacy. This goes to the funamental differences of the Union being a centralized government of the states, and the confederacy being a collection of states with a weak central government. According to the author it was really the Civil War that created the country that is now the US, and solidified the national government as an entity that would influence all aspects of life.

One of the many aspects that is described is the liberation of the slaves and what their fate would be. The author anchors all aspects of this book with the impacts of the economics involved.

The book does get bogged down in some of the details of various aspects, as he tracks the entire path of the civil war. Railroads play prominently in this narrative and the expansion of the US. Lincoln's interest in the railroads goes back to his days as a lawyer, and he was instrumental in making sure the Union Pacific railroad was established to make the US a two ocean country. One sad aspect is the idea that Lincoln wanted to move to California after leaving the presidency.