Are you more interested in gavels or hockey sticks? Jazz or science fiction? Cameras or Confederates? No matter your preference, today’s installment of TWIH has you covered. So let’s see what happened…

This Week in History

February 17, 1865: Columbia, South Carolina burned as Union forces moved in, causing a Confederate evacuation.
Calling all Civil War buffs! Mark your calendars for the July 2008 publication of Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby by Kevin H. Siepel, the first complete biography of the Confederacy’s best-known partisan commander, John Singleton Mosby, the “Gray Ghost.”

February 18, 1885: Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published.
Bet you didn’t know that Mark Twain was a fan and writer of science fiction. Well, now you do. Check out Tales of Wonder, featuring  some of the most notable but little-known science fiction available, penned by the famed American humorist and writer.

February 19, 1912: Stan Kenton American bandleader Stan Kenton—an innovator in the progressive jazz of the 1950s—was born.
Jazz lovers interested in the evolution of this musical genre will want to check out The Guitar in Jazz: An Anthology edited by James Sallis.

February 20, 1809: The Supreme Court passed a ruling that the power of the federal government surpassed the power of any individual state.
If you’re a law aficionado interested in state court systems, you’ll want to snag a copy of Slipping Backward: A History of the Nebraska Supreme Court. Written by one of our state’s leading legal minds, this is the first history of the Nebraska Supreme Court and the first book-length study of a Great Plains supreme court.

February 21, 1947: Edwin H. Land demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera. It was considered remarkable by the public for its ability to produce a black-and-white photograph in just sixty seconds.
Photography sure has come a long way since the heyday of the Polaroid camera. Witness the stirring shots in Along the Edge of Daylight: Photographic Travels from Nebraska and the Great Plains by Georg Joutras.

February 22, 1980: The United States Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 4-3. They would go on to win the gold medal.
Ready to take your reading list to the ice? Join Bill Boyd as he details his lengthy odyssey across the North American continent in search of hockey’s roots in All Roads Lead to Hockey: Reports from Northern Canada to the Mexican Border.

Wishing all of our bloggers an enjoyable, relaxing weekend. See you on Monday!