Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th! We have a plethora of mysterious and not so mysterious Independence Day thoughts for you today. 

If you want to read a mystery set on the 4th of July, you can easily find one on Janet Rudolph's excellent list of 4th of July mysteries. She also has a great list of BBQ mysteries, perfect for summer. 

If you feel like crafting, go ahead and get started on these red, white and blue earrings. 

Or you could check out recipes from former first ladies from the 1901 version of the White House Cookbook. 

Or you could watch the original Independence Day movie with Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid. Still one of my favorites. 

Any way you celebrate, have a wonderful day! 

The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller

Since the 4th July is coming up, I thought it might be time to throw a little non-fiction of the presidential kind in the mix. Specifically, Scott Miller's fabulous book about the the story behind the assassination of President William McKinley. Granted this isn't our usual fare at Mystery Playground, but it's incredibly well written and interesting to read. The book is just out in paperback after a hugely successful run in hardback. 

Here's the description for the President and the Assassin:

In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin’s bullet shattered the nation’s confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century. The President and the Assassin is the story of the momentous years leading up to that event, and of the very different paths that brought together two of the most compelling figures of the era: President William McKinley and Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who murdered him. 

The two men seemed to live in eerily parallel Americas. McKinley was to his contemporaries an enigma, a president whose conflicted feelings about imperialism reflected the country’s own. Under its popular Republican commander-in-chief, the United States was undergoing an uneasy transition from a simple agrarian society to an industrial powerhouse spreading its influence overseas by force of arms. Czolgosz was on the losing end of the economic changes taking place—a first-generation Polish immigrant and factory worker sickened by a government that seemed focused solely on making the rich richer. With a deft narrative hand, journalist Scott Miller chronicles how these two men, each pursuing what he considered the right and honorable path, collided in violence at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. 

Along the way, readers meet a veritable who’s who of turn-of-the-century America: John Hay, McKinley’s visionary secretary of state, whose diplomatic efforts paved the way for a half century of Western exploitation of China; Emma Goldman, the radical anarchist whose incendiary rhetoric inspired Czolgosz to dare the unthinkable; and Theodore Roosevelt, the vainglorious vice president whose 1898 charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba is but one of many thrilling military adventures recounted here.  

Rich with relevance to our own era, The President and the Assassin holds a mirror up to a fascinating period of upheaval when the titans of industry grew fat, speculators sought fortune abroad, and desperate souls turned to terrorism in a vain attempt to thwart the juggernaut of change.

After the Mayflower: The Good Ship Fortune

Now that you've had your fill of turkey and possibly tales of the first Thanksgiving, it's interesting to note what came a few weeks after Thanksgiving. And that was a ship called, Fortune, but really we never hear about the second ship because the Mayflower gets all the press. But here's the thing, the investors who sent the Mayflower to America didn't finance the journey because they were nice guys. They did it because they wanted to make money. So much so, they named the ship for the Fortune they were sure they would make.  

But good ship Fortune didn't really live up to it's name. By the time it reached Massachusetts with thirty-five people aboard, it was out of much needed supplies - for both passengers on the Fortune and the colonists of Plymouth who were still short on food because while Thanksgiving was a great meal, the hard living continued after the feast.

Of course the investors also sent along a letter demanding that the Fortune be filled with treasure and sent back to England immediately. It seems the boss is the boss no matter what time and place. 

According to accounts, the settlers rallied and filled the ship with what treasure they could - mostly furs. Then they got together to figure a way to buy themselves out of debt, but it took seven long years to achieve.  

So even after the feast, the Pilgrims had to work hard to get themselves out of a massive debt. Hmmm. It doesn't sound so different than the United States today. 

To learn more about the Fortune, visit http://www.massmoments.org.