From theatre to agriculture, landmarks to the military, the breadth of subjects that the book touches on makes it an incredibly interesting read. My favourite of which is the section dedicated to dialect. I love hearing about the ways that people express themselves. And while the myriad subjects can appear disparate, the chapters are put together both well and interestingly. The scope also helps to create a fuller sense of Delaware society in each of time periods covered.

I’m glad to see that so many organisations were thanked for supporting the book. Nonetheless I do wish that it were more explicit in how they gave that support and what that support entailed. Though many of its images are well credited, its facts are not. There are no sources beyond quotes from newspapers and even these are unevenly applied. The World War I munitions section, for instance, has three quotes and these are credited as ‘the News Journal reported on August 13’, ‘said the Morning News’ and ‘noted February 19, 1919’.

Unfortunately this scattershot sourcing also feeds into the worst of all – its AI images. Immediately I went to ask people if they understood what ‘generated by Dall-E’ meant. Those not inordinately online didn’t know that this was AI. Unsurprising given the current state of Facebook and its users reputation for being unable to distinguish the real from the not no matter how surreal the image. The unreality of the images needs to be explicit in a work of nonfiction if it has to be included.

Tabler’s books on the history of Delaware are nicely presented. The pages filled with intriguing illustrations, historical documents and artefacts have long been one of my favourite elements. Both for its ability to realise the past and for its presentation. Style can itself be substance. And there’s joy in that. Though noticeably less so given the far fewer images in this book. It forces you to see the people and the places as real and not just some alien concept. And in doing so it brings you closer to both. AI is the antithesis of this. Moreover the use of it in nonfiction legitimises it to a lay public. Especially given that these are mixed amongst the book’s other images which are from many reputable and legitimate sources – including several of the forty eight organisations credited with supporting the book.

There are some improvements upon the last book. With most of the information siloed to the back of the book, I appreciate that there are working links on both mobile and desktop so I didn’t have to manually flip through with this book.

With thanks to iRead Book Tours and Dave Tabler. I leave this review voluntarily.

 An incredibly propulsive read. Its prologue is a cascade of horror that bleeds through the rest of the book in the best way, helping to sow distrust in every direction. The tension is fantastically wrought and the book is incredibly readable, its momentum sweeping you along. Austin’s increasingly desperate confusion palpable. At its best is the helplessness he and Virgil share, this moment of unity and grief and the question of what to do. 

I wish more consideration given to the language. This is Austin’s lifeline, and what he knows best. A shame then that the first time he uses it is to greet his students with salve discipuli. Salvete is the plural. Another way to transcribe that is salvēte. I mention this as there’s a Pilgrim sign which reads ‘Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum’ though otherwise the Pilgrims’ Latin isn’t transcribed that way. The lack of consistency is disappointing. As is presenting what Austin speaks as Latin. His translations require him to communicate in quite a bit of Neo-Latin. 

However, its lack of nuance is where things start to fall apart. Why are muslims cast as a uniquely dangerous? Yes. People would be unhappy having the Lord’s Prayer blared over their holy sites. They’re not the only religious group who would be. The IDF show up and are never once questioned or doubted. The only explicit mention of Jews are of Jesus, ‘King of the Jews’. Speaking as a Scot, if catholicism were empirically proven to be the true religion, the group whose reactions I’d worry about isn’t muslims, it’s christians. There is the briefest of acknowledgements of different denominations but they’re not presented as or assumed to be dangerous. And this ultimately makes the ending uncomfortable for me when Michael makes his grand gesture at the end. 

Thanks to iRead Book Tours and M.R. Leonard for the review copy. I leave this review voluntarily.