No comments about Revolution in the Street: Women, Workers, and Urban Protest in Veracruz, 1870-1927 (Latin American Silhouettes).

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No comments about Palimpsest January 1972 - Vol. LIII No. 1--Special Grant Wood Issue.

1 comments about English-speaking justice (The Josiah Wood lectures).

1. Don't be fooled by the slimness of this volume. Within the space of less than a hundred pages, Grant dissected the Anglo-Saxon strain of "justice," which is based on liberalism.

   In this book, Grant begins by examining the intellectual roots of English-speaking justice, by looking at the ideas of Locke and Kant. After which, he looks into a contemporary version of it, by examining the works of Rawl's magnum opus (A Theory of Justice).

   After this brief but lucid discussion of the works above, Grant then show how the liberal conception of justice has fail in delivering its promises of a just society. The reason being technology. Grant, argues that technology has brought about a cybernetic society, i.e., a society which is guided by the calculation of means and ends which can erode the basic premise of liberalism, i.e., liberty of the individual. Thus, Grant argues that liberalism and technology makes strange bedfellows in modern society. On the one hand, we cherish the idea of the autonomy of the individual but on the other we want to reap the fruits of technology which is incompatible with freedom. Thus, we are locked in the horns of delimma between technology and liberty. Which would we choose?

   In conclusion, one cannot help but admire the penetrating analysis of Grant's essay on modern society and its discontents. But, at the same time, I wish he would give us an alternative to that of liberalism.

5 comments about Meet General Grant.

1. While looking through the stacks of a bookstore at a local flea market, I found a hardback copy of Woodward's "Meet General Grant". Figured any old book was worth $4, so I added it to my collection. I found this book extremely educating and quite interesting. Even though I am a "distant relative by marriage" of Grant, I didn't really know much about him. Visited his birthplace, childhood home, etc. which is right across the Ohio River from where I live in Northern Kentucky - but, well - he's just not a man that I had read a lot about.

   Woodward gave me not only an excellent sketch of Grant, but of the social events and mores of the time. In short, I learned a LOT about the man and his times. Some of the language (e.g. his somewhat antiquated viewpoint of African Americans) seems dated, but hey, the book was first published in 1946.

   I liked it. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn the true "genius" of the lesser revered general of the "War of Northern Aggression".




2. Many very interesting but what I believe to be little known facts about not only this famous man but facts about other men and incidents of the times. First published in 1928.



3. Run, do not walk, away from this book. A massive joke in the Grant community, no one with a shred of common sense or historical sensibility would endorse this dreadful biography. The author, William E. Woodward, was an avowed racist, who openly states in the book that "slavery was a good thing." He understood next to nothing about his subject and when in doubt, simply makes up entire incidents to suit his warped fantasies. Grant had a famously happy and passionate marriage. This doesn't fit into Woodward's scheme of things, so the hapless cretin claimed Grant was "incapable of love or devotion." Had Woodward bothered to read Grant's many love letters to his wife, he wouldn't have written such inanity.

   It would be impossible to count the errors in this masterpiece of banality, they appear on nearly every page, ultimately rendering the book a hideous malady. It was written 70 years ago, it is beyond out-dated, it is a pitiful, pathetic and truly wretched book. It's only usefulness might be to stoke the fire in your hearth. The apex of awful, that is "Meet General Grant."




4. The entire book is really a slam against General Grant. Writing in 1928, Woodward is one the many historians who favored succession and slavery. The whole point of "Meet General Grant" is to show how imcompetent and stupid he is.
   
   What else can you expect from the man who wrote in "A New American History" that "The slave system did incalculable harm to the white people of the South, and benefited nobody but the negro, in that it served as a vast training school for African savages. Though the regime of the slave plantations was strict, it was, on the whole, a kindly one by comparison with what the imported slave had experienced in his own land. It taught him discipline, cleanliness and a conception of moral standards."
   
   For a good and accurate account of General Grant, try Jean Edward Smith's "Grant."



5. In a lesser-known Upton Sinclair non-fiction book about alcoholism titled, "The Cup of Fury," the author describes an encounter with the writer William E. Woodward thus: "William E. Woodward is best remembered as the author of two splendid biographies, one of George Washington and the other of General Grant."
   
   On that recommendation, I found copies of both and read them. I was not disappointed. In fact, these two biographies, along with his subversive, Zinn-like "New American History" and biography of Lafayette (the best of the bunch) are treasures in my library.
   
   In "Meet General Grant," Woodward seems to paint a very fair picture. He praises the general for his force of will, and tells the story of his unlikely rise from soldier to general to president with great skill. Along the way, Woodward knocks over quite a few sacred cows. And his financial background (Woodward was a banker before turning to writing late in life) makes him an authoritative source describing President Grant's official scandals.
   
   Oh yes, the racism thing. Once one is called a racist, well, how does one defend oneself, particularly if one is dead? Certainly, a longing for the Old South is sprinkled here and there in his writing, but nothing unusual for a Southerner.
   
   I highly recommend "Meet General Grant." The author didn't seem to admire Grant as he admired Lafayette -- but the story and the style and subversive tone of "Meet General Grant" make it a classic on my shelf.

No comments about The Schneiderman Collection of Modern American and European Prints - Swann Auction Galleries - November 3, 1999 (Grant Wood, Rockwell Kent, F. S. Haden, Lalanne, Legros, and many others).

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1 comments about American Gothic Cookbook.

1. American Gothic Cookbook in the popular recipe file-card size format, this easy-flip cookbook includes the artist's mother's recipe for stew, his housekeeper's recipe for salad dressing, and his own Cabbage Rolls. It is chock full of Grant Wood lore and illustrations, both his whimsical Farm Hill illustrations and his evocative lithographs. One recipe for old-fashioned tomato soup runs on for six pages; excuse him, but the cook is a [Pulitzer Prize-winning] writer*, just making sure the saying gets said right.

   Conceived through the eye, mind and paintbrush of Iowa artist Grant Wood, the American Gothic couple uniquely reflect the cultural traditions of the Midwest. In the words of Grant Wood, "Any northern town old enough to have some buildings dating back to the Civil War is liable to have a house or church in the American Gothic style. I simply invented some American Gothic people to stand in front of a house of this type." In fact, he used his sister Nan Wood Graham and his dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby as models for the 1930 painting. Mrs. McKeeby's recipe for pie crust is included.

   These are recipes for honest, hard-working, Midwestern fare. There are also lots of picnic dishes. Grant Wood loved a picnic. Penfield Press publisher Joan Liffring-Zug-Bourret has customarily had dozens of friends, family, and neighbors over for 4th of July potlucks. Favorite dishes from these fests appear in this volume.

   .

   *Iowa's MacKinlay Kantor, author of the novel Andersonville.

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