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ve2uwy@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 month, 1 week ago

Read a bunch of stuff pre-2020 and almost nothing since. Sad, that.

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W. Robert Nitske: Rudolph Diesel Pioneer of the Age of Power (Paperback, Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd))

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Good story of Herr Diesel's life albeit with a sad ending. Enjoyed the story of the meeting of Diesel and Edison - they were very different men and at least one of them realized it. :-) I was a little surprised to not see any real mention of using peanut oil for fuel. I had read elsewhere, some time ago, that that was a big thing with Diesel, allowing farmers to grow their own tractor fuel ... but it is unmentioned in the book. Perhaps urban legend.

The last two chapters were kind of a "fan boy" cataloging where Diesel engines were in service (and what type they were and how many cylinders and ...) ... but at the time of publication ... c.1965. So not of any real use.

I did enjoy the first-person account of Herr Diesel's side trip to Fayetteville, Ark, not to visit my alma mater …

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Good story. Kindle version has terrible typography and poor image reproduction. From the writing, the pagination is wrong - the appendices should be after the end notes.

BUT ... the story is great and filled huge gulfs in my English-language, Quebec education. If you're looking for Champlain-bashing, which it appears that the late René Lévesque may well have been -- see quote from his memoir in the book -- this is not the correct book for you.

Sven Beckert: Empire of Cotton (Paperback, 2015, Vintage)

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Pretty interesting. Never understood the saying "capitalism is violence" but am beginning to now. Also enlightening to see that there has been global trade in at least some commodities for 200+ years. I didn't understand that. I have to say the book kind of gets repetitive towards the end and I was having trouble staying focussed.