Nicholas Vulich is an armchair historian. He has been a voracious reader most of his life, devouring just about any work with a historical bent.
His favorite reads are turn of the century magazines – Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s New Monthly, Munsey’s, The World’s Work, and Technical World. The news reported in them may not always be accurate, but they add a great flavor to what you know about the period, and they have some of the best historical pictures and illustrations that you will ever find.
If he could only give one reason why he writes history, it would be that “life is stranger than fiction. You just can’t make this stuff up.”
Online Nicholas is best known as history-bytes where he’s been selling historical memorabilia on eBay and Amazon for the past fourteen years.
Bad Ass Presidents
by Nicholas L. Vulich
Available from Amazon and CreateSpace.
Bad Ass Presidents follows the life of America’s warrior Presidents. Forget Bush, forget Obama – They’re nothing compared to these guys.
> George Washington rode fearlessly at the head of his troops. During the French and Indian wars he had two horses shot from under him, and four bullet holes blasted through his coat.
> Andrew Jackson has the dubious honor of being the first President to have an assassination attempt made upon his life. What did the old warrior do? He charged his attacker with his cane.
> William Henry Harrison defeated the Indian chief Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. At the Battle of Tippecanoe he had two horses shot from under him and kept fighting.
> Zachary Taylor, hero of the War of 1812 and Mexican War, was propelled into office through his military fame.
> Abraham Lincoln fought in the Black Hawk War; physically tossed an agitator out of the audience at his first political rally; in the Civil War he often visited battlefields, walking here and there, with no regard for the dangers involved.
> General Ulysses S. Grant was a hard drinking, rough and tumble fighter who moved from one battle to the next not stopping to rest in between.
> Theodore Roosevelt was a gentleman, a scholar, and one of the hardest fighting Presidents we have ever had. He was a frontiersman with his own ranch in the Dakotas; fought in the Spanish American War; advocated a “Square Deal” for everyone.
Does “turn of the century” mean the late 1800s going into the 1900s (the 20th Century) or does it mean the late 1900s going into the 2000s (the 21st Century) ?
Newt –
Sorry that wasn’t clear. In my bio when I spoke about turn of the century magazines, i meant the period from the 1800’s to the 1900’s. Magazines were just coming into their own during that time period. Harper’s, Frank Leslie’s, and Ballou’s presented an abundance of woodcut illustrations. From 1890 to 1910 many magazines were pushing the window, including illustrations. Among the best of these were Munsey’s, Cosmopolitan, Ainslee’s, and the World’s Work.
Some of the writing is hard to read, out dated, and sometimes even less than accurate, but if you want a feel for what was going on, they’re great.
Hope that helps.
Nick