In the middle of the Pandemic and during the U.S. presidential election of 2020, I was suddenly struck by the desire to read a biography about each of the U.S. presidents. Actually, I was interested in reading a biography from two different political alignments plus an autobiography when possible to explore how bias shapes the individual’s perspective of a leader and how they performed. (But, that would be close to 200 books, and I’m lucky to read 10 non-picture books a year, right now.) This morphed into wanting to dive deep into U.S. history in general, with a degree of chronology. And then, after rooting around on the Barnes and Noble website, I snagged a book about the Victorians and their interest in true crime, and suddenly I just wanted to read all the books about all of history across the globe. This is way more than 200 books, but the possibilities of what I could learn (and unlearn) are endless!

So, I started a side project on By Golly, Ollie! called Reading Through History to chronicle this adventure through time. Below is a timeline of all the periods in history I’ve visited so far.

Currently, I am exploring U.S. history with American Jezebel: the Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchison, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante.

The Timeline So Far…

• 1492 CE

  • European colonists land in the Americas and initiate centuries of conflict with Native Americans
    • An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• 1620 CE

  • The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock
    • Mayflower: Voyage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (review)
• 1829

  • A centrally organized police force is established in London
    • The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime