RCJ Books

This page contains other books by the author

Plagues and Pandemics

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All through history, humankind has been faced with various pandemics and plagues.  Many of them took hundreds of years to produce either vaccines or cures.  This book will look at a number of those plagues and pandemics, including the 1918 Flu Pandemic, AIDS, The Black Death, Cholera, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Ebola, Polio, Smallpox, Swine Flu (2009 H1N1 flu), Tuberculosis and Typhus.The Black Death killed off one-third to one-half of the population of Europe in a couple of years.  It is probably the plague which had the greatest adverse impact on a population.  But over the long term, tuberculosis and smallpox had a similar impact.   I should point out that the focus of this book is historical and social.  It is not a medical text.  The book contains 50+ illustrations.

The Leo Beuerman Story: As Told by his Family

Black and white interior print edition

Color interior print edition

Leo Beuerman was a little over 3 feet in height. From a young age, he couldn't walk. He was essentially deaf for most of his life. Yet he didn't let his disabilities keep him from being an entrepreneur and inventor. He used to drive his modified tractor from the family home in Lakeview, Kansas to Lawrence, Kansas to sell small items on the streets of Lawrence. He was mugged twice, and had accidents with a car and a train. Yet he never let life's misfortunes keep him down. In 1969, a film about his life was nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Documentary Short category.

The Leo Beuerman story has been told many times by many people – in movies, newspaper articles, at non-profits, and in colleges. But strangely enough, none of those versions of Leo's story have ever included input from the people that knew Leo the best – his family. This book will remedy that situation. It is a view of Leo that most people have never seen before. It is a view of Leo from his family.  

A Guide to Frontier Kansas

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Perhaps no state is as closely associated with the American frontier as Kansas. It was the heart of the Old West, with cow towns such as Wichita, Dodge City, Ellsworth and Abilene. Bringing cattle into those cow towns was the famous Chisholm Trail, which terminated in Kansas. The Santa Fe Trail crossed completely across Kansas, and the Oregon and Pony Express trails cut through the northeastern corner.  

Legendary cowboys floated into and out of Kansas cattle towns after the Civil War, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Luke Short, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson. Frank James, Jesse James (possibly) and Cole Younger participated in the Civil War attack on Lawrence, led by William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson.  

The Civil War started in Kansas in the latter half of the 1850s, when Free-State and Pro-slavery forces fought a bloody series of battles now called “Bleeding Kansas”. The most famous of all abolitionists, John Brown, fought in Kansas (and a lieutenant named J.E.B. Stuart interacted with him during “Bleeding Kansas”).

During the Civil War, in addition to the attack on Lawrence by Quantrill's Raiders, Quantrill also attacked Baxter Springs, Kansas. And battles were fought at Marais des Cygnes and Mine Creek when Confederate general Sterling Price invaded Kansas in late 1864. Senator James Lane and Charles Jennison conducted irregular warfare in Kansas and western Missouri for the Union during the Civil War.

During the Indian Wars, a series of forts protected settlers in Kansas from Indian attacks, including Fort Dodge, Fort Harker, Fort Hays, Fort Larned, Fort Leavenworth, Fort Riley and Fort Scott. Two of those forts – Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth – are still active military bases. Two of the most famous generals of the Civil War for the Union were stationed in Kansas during the post-Civil War period – Philip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer.

This book will examine the period in the history of Kansas when it could legitimately be referred to as the “frontier”, from about 1850-1900. We'll also look at what sites are still extant in Kansas from that period. I hope you enjoy this “Guide to Frontier Kansas”.

There is a long line of influential women in Georgia history, going back to Mary Musgrove in Colonial times, and moving ahead to today with politicians such as Karen Handel, Shirley Franklin and Cynthia McKinney. Along the way are women that established colleges and schools (Martha Berry, Susie King Taylor), women famous in the Civil Rights movement (Coretta Scott King and Charlayne Hunter-Gault), authors (Kate Cumming, Celestine Sibley, Corra Harris, Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O'Connor), Revolutionary War heroes (Mary Hart), the founder of the Girl Scouts (Juliette Gordon Low), and, of course, a First Lady (Rosalynn Carter). 
 
We look at 30 influential women in Georgia in this book. 
 

Colonial Witchcraft: The Road to the Salem Witch Trials 

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It wasn’t that long ago that most Americans believed in demons and witches, and demonic manifestations. If something was going wrong in your society – drought, plague, disease, crop failure, war – how much easier it was to blame it on the devil, rather than taking any responsibility as an individual or a society. And if one was going to track down witches, one didn’t really want them to be able to mount a defense. Thus, “spectral evidence” became useful, since there was no defense against it, and it was solely at the initiative of the accuser.

There were witch trials in Connecticut, Virginia, and Massachusetts – and in Spanish New Mexico, for good measure. Most of the trials ended up in some executions.
This book takes a brief look at “Witchcraft in Colonial America”, the persecution of which didn’t end until the 18th century. The primary focus is on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692/93, which was the greatest – and essentially last – example of witch trials.

The book contains 37 illustrations.

Images of America: Kennesaw

Black and white interior print edition

Kennesaw, called "Big Shanty" during the Civil War, started out in the 1830s as a railroad shanty town during the construction of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. In many ways, Kennesaw is a typical small town in Northern Georgia--it was built along the railroad tracks, cotton was the first engine of economic growth, stagnation occurred from the 1920s to the 1950s, and then it blossomed in the latter part of the 20th century as a suburb of Atlanta--but in other ways, Kennesaw is unique. The Andrews Raid, immortalized by Walt Disney as The Great Locomotive Chase, occurred here in 1862. In 1981, Kennesaw rocked the world when it passed its gun law requiring all households to own an operating firearm and ammunition. While still small, Kennesaw has had its time in the limelight.

The Top 10 Innovations of World War I

 Black and white print edtion

Kindle edition

World War I was the first “world war”, in the sense that the conflagration wasn't just between two countries, but between large blocks of countries, intertwined in complex alliances.  The model of the entire world being caught up in conflicts would continue in World War II and in the Cold War.

World War I was a testing ground for weapons and ideas that would impact the rest of the 20th century.   Sometimes the innovations of World War I were technological in nature – U-boats, poison gas, machine guns, heavy artillery, tanks and battleships were all used either for the first time in World War I, or first used on a wide-scale in World War I.  Sometimes, the impacts were from strategy and tactics - trench warfare, convoys and etc.   And sometimes the innovation was a political idea.  Communism as an actual political and economic system, rather than just a philosophy, debuted in World War I, and would have a worldwide influence until its fall in 1991.

The book contains over 50 illustrations and maps.

Frontier Missouri

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Missouri has had three different nations governing it in its history, including France, Spain and the United States (after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803). While Spain had little lasting cultural impact on the state, French trappers and explorers founded many of the early cities and towns (St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Westport). 

 
This book will examine “Frontier Missouri” from several aspects, starting off with “Key Players”, including Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark and Jesse James. Several early towns and cities are highlighted that had significant impact on the development of the state, including Hannibal, Independence, Jefferson City, Joplin, Kansas City, Springfield, St. Joseph and St. Louis. 
 
Missouri was also the starting point for several of the well known 19th century trails, such as the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, as well as the beginning and ending point of the 1804/06 Lewis and Clark Expedition. 
 

Finally, we'll examine 6 railroads which had a significant impact in 19th century Missouri, including the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, or the “Katy”.

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Americans Walk on the Moon - the Road to Apollo 11

July 20, 1969 was the greatest moment in American history – perhaps in the history of the world (leaving religious considerations out of the discussion).  America landed two men on the Moon, and safely returned them to earth.  It was a marathon 8-year effort involving hundreds of engineers, physicists, technicians, astronauts, and various support personnel.  And, irony of ironies, the project was headed by an ex-Nazi SS major, Werner von Braun.

In this book, we’ll trace the long road to Armstrong and Aldrin stepping on the moon, starting with early dreamers such as Tsiolkovsky, Goddard and Oberth, and leading to the three 1960s NASA astronauts who made the mission possible – Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.  Along the way, we’ll take a brief look at early rocket development, the V-2, the Soviet-American space race, and the three American programs that put men in space – Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

Click here to purchase on Amazon.com

It wasn’t that long ago that most Americans believed in demons and witches, and demonic manifestations. If something was going wrong in your society – drought, plague, disease, crop failure, war – how much easier it was to blame it on the devil, rather than taking any responsibility as an individual or a society. And if one was going to track down witches, one didn’t really want them to be able to mount a defense. Thus, “spectral evidence” became useful, since there was no defense against it, and it was solely at the initiative of the accuser.

There were witch trials in Connecticut, Virginia, and Massachusetts – and in Spanish New Mexico, for good measure. Most of the trials ended up in some executions.

This book takes a brief look at “Witchcraft in Colonial America”, the persecution of which didn’t end until the 18th century. The primary focus is on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692/93, which was the greatest – and essentially last – example of witch trials.