Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

Ginseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia by Luke Manget

While this does cover some of the botany and ecology of the plant -- and other gathered plants -- it is chiefly focused on the development of the trade in crude botanicals.

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A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman

A history of the American Civil War in terms of British involvement. Extensive involvement.

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Ginseng and Borderland: Territorial Boundaries and Political Relations Between Qing China and Choson Korea, 1636-1912 by Seonmin Kim

A discussion of various issues about the borderlands of China and Korea. And it was a borderland, theoretically unsettled. (Dealings with the rest of the world helped push toward a border, which other nations had, but it doesn't get deep in those dealings.)

Ginseng, its licensed gathering and poaching, was an enormous issue in that. It was greatly valued, as long as it was wild. Cultivated ginseng was treated as if poached, which complicated issues.

Also such thing as the value for peasants of being on the road where Korean tribute traveled, how the Qing dynasty didn't regard ginseng as distinctively Korean, and more.

Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Barbara Welter

A collection of essays, ringing changes on the theme of the Cult of True Womanhood, the most influence being the essay on it. Covers such subjects as medical treatment and detective fiction. A bit cherry-picked in sources but the stuff covered did exist.

Hardtack and Coffee or, The Unwritten Story of Army Life by John Davis Billings

The go-to book if you want the details of army life in the American Civil War. Having discovered that boys were as fascinated by the details of army life as much as the battles, and realized that all the memoirs were about the battles, he wrote a book about the details. How they did get enough food, but quality was another matter. Regimental badges. Why it was the mark of a green soldier to be ashamed of lice. What they did in camp in down time. Why mules were only used behind the lines. And a lot more.

How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman

An overview of Victorian life. Fit into a daily schedule, which is not always neat.

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The Sky on Fire: The First Battle of Britain, 1917-1918 by Raymond H. Fredette

The air war of World War I.

The bombing of London, the difficulties of the Germans in fielding aircraft and training (night flying was regarded as just crazy), the bombings, the diverting of British forces and equipment for defense, the incendiary bomb that wasn't used, and the future history of what was a minor part of WWI.

The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America by Leo Marx

Discussion of views on machinery and rural life.

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A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America by Kirsten Fermaglich

A study of name-changing, its patterns, its blame. . .

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Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820-1939 by John R. Stilgoe

It opens with a very brief account of the use of "suburb" as a pure insult -- the poor region outside the city walls, vulnerable to attack.

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