2 comments about Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

1. "I love everybody," Harriet Beecher Stowe once told an acquaintance. Of course, this wasn't entirely true, for there were certainly those she didn't like at all. But love was surely a motivating force in her life. "She was impelled by love," wrote her son Charles, "and did what she did, and wrote what she did, under the impulse of love."
   And thus we have Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the title of Phillip McFarland's excellent new biography. McFarland's book focuses on those Mrs. Stowe loved most: her husband, Calvin Stowe; her father, Lyman Beecher; and her famous brother, Henry Ward Beecher. There were many others she loved, of course, including her children, her other siblings, and her many friends. But by focusing on these three men, McFarland enables us, in a highly original way, to understand Mrs. Stowe and what drove her.
   She wrote the most important, influential book of the 19th century -- Uncle Tom's Cabin. She also penned several other novels and countless articles in magazines and newspapers. That she managed to write much of this while keeping house and raising little ones is nothing short of remarkable. But then, as one learns from reading this book, Harriet Beecher Stowe was a remarkable woman.
   Phillip McFarland is one of the premier biographers in the U.S. today. His previous biographies on Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were critically acclaimed, though they did not make any best-seller lists. Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe adds to his reputation. McFarland writes beautiful prose, and he has an exceptional ability to get inside his subject. Read this book, and you will come to know Harriet Beecher Stowe intimately.



2. Every American should read this book. It came to me as a gift, and, to be frank, I took it up reluctantly. I mean, who wants to read about a sanctimonious busybody, once influential, now largely forgotten but for her famous book fluttered before your face in junior high? Within pages, that question became its opposite: who doesn't? Having picked the book up, I couldn't put it down. The story is utterly absorbing, filled with passion, filled with pathos - religious fervor, Civil War, its prelude, its aftermath, the Gilded Age. It is the story of public triumph - that famous book again, plus many others - and private grief - the drowning of a beloved son, the disappearance of another in San Francisco, pursued by demons, the trials of a famous brother. The writing is brilliant, even breathtaking, like some wild Disney ride, but that is not what distinguishes the book. What does is the organization of voices, events, incidents, themes. All are woven into a seamless tapestry made up of many, many intensely colored threads. The rush of narative delights, but ultimately it is the intricate pattern that holds your attention. A perfect giift for anyone interested in 19 c. America.
   
   PS Ignore that foolish review in PW.

No comments about Confederate Pathway to the Pacific: Major Sherod Hunter and Arizona Territory, C.S.A.

5 comments about The Custer Myth: A Source Book of Custeriana (The Custer Library).

1. By far the best of the vast Custer literature. Graham gathers together in one place primary data and lets you draw your own conclusions. On Custer, Graham is the only author I have read who writes without massaging his data to support some preconcieved theory. This book, incidently, was published in 1953, not in 1993.(It would be helpful if Amazon would note first copyright dates in book listings.) This book was not bashed out to meet a schedule or catch a market window; Graham gathered data literally for decades. Being an army officer-- Judge Advocate Corp--gave him access to files and access to survivors who were eyewitnesses to the fight at Reno's end of the field.



2. This is Graham's great collction of testimonies about Custer and the Little Big Horn from the Sioux, Cheyene, Rees, Crows, scouts, officers, soildiers and others. An incredible collection of material laid out in categorical chapters. Graham lays this often quoted collection out without prejudice and although he questions the Indian participant's accounts due to their lack of perception of exact time and spatial realities, he presents it all the same. What is quite fascinating are the virtual raw letters of Benteen to William Goldin. The letters show Benteen's bitter side particularly toward Custer and demonstrates that Reno was also not held highly on his list, if anyone was. Also, has Godfrey's great history of the battle and the book even includes challenging letters from Grahams critics to his personal responses. A great book for those that want to know all from multiple perspectives of the participants.



3. This book gives no definitive answers on the biggest puzzles of Little Big Horn ... which is its greatest strength. By pulling together all the available testimony, from both sides and all angles, it's proof of how 'the fog of war' -- as well as participants' own agendas -- makes any battle more confusing to its participants than to those who come after. For the reader, piecing together the conflicting accounts, and assessing the characters/viewpoints/axes-to-grind of those giving them, it's a total immersion not just in the facts but in the feelings, prejudices and atmosphere of the time. A wonderful book. And one that should be basic training for every student of history, whatever their period. This is how history is.



4. It is my opinion that the three most famous battlefields on US soil are (in no particular order) the Little Big Horn, Gettysburg, and the Alamo. Each has a legion of students and enthusiasts accompanied by a number of printed resources. Stackpole Books has added to the printed resources on the Little Big Horn with its' collection of books known as The Custer Library. The most important of these books, in my opinion, is "The Custer Myth" It contains just about all of the available first person accounts of the battle known to exist. Many of the accounts are rather short but all are interesting. For the "Last Stand" buffs, it is like waking up on Christmas morning to find that you got everything you wanted except actual newsreel footage. For the casual observer of the subject, this may be the downfall of the book. After all, the stories greatly overlap and repeat each other. In doing so, they add another dimension of personalizing the battle even more. No Custer enthusiast should be without this book and no private library of American History is complete without it either. Do yourself a favor and add it to your library as well.



5. It was great to find a book published well over 50 years ago, so I could see what "spin" the author had on the battle. Surprisingly, the author did not laud Custer--the title comes from the author's belief that Custer was more made up than real. The author, though retired military, made what appeared to be a fair attempt to reconstruct the attacks from the Indian's point of view. The book does not compare to "Lakota Noon" in analysis, but the author states at the beginning he is just presenting the facts as reported by others. The book also contained other interesting information from Sitting Bull that even my boss, a Lakota, had not seen. Be warned, though: It's a long book with a lot of self-serving statements by Army officers.

No comments about The Trials of Mrs. Lincoln.

2 comments about First Thoughts: Life and Letters of Abigail Adams.

1. This was a great book to really get to see what went on in the life of a great American heroine, Abigail Adams. After reading this book to help with a school project on women in history, I thought, "Who was really wearing the pants in the Adams family?"



2. Abigail Adams: A Writing Life by Edith B. Gelles (Senior Scholar, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University) is a careful, articulate, scholarly analysis of the literary and historical work of Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams. Half biography, half literary criticism, Abigail Adams: A Writing Life studies Mrs. Adams' letters as literature and looks at her correspondence in-depth. A marvelous portrayal of a unique woman in America's history, Abigail Adams: A Writing Life is highly recommended for Women's Studies and American Literary Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

2 comments about Tom Custer: Ride to Glory (Frontier Military Series).

1. Let me begin by saying I wrote the book-so I am a little biased. This started as my Master's thesis in history and I found it impossible to stop writing. It was very difficult and took a great deal of time-some ten years. I met a great many wonderful people and had a great time. I tried to tell a story of a man with many faults, but whose love of family overcame his weaknesses. It is a tale of courage, love, and sadness. Sadness for a great many people whose lives were destroyed by war. Is it the greatest book of all time, no, of course not. But I am proud of it and hope that it brings enjoyment to all who read it.



2. More than 200 men died in the coulees along the Little Big Horn River on June 25, 1876. One was George Armstrong Custer. Another was the only man at that time who had won two Congressional Medals of Honor, both for service in the American Civil War. That soldier was Thomas Ward Custer, the general's younger brother.
   Much has been written about the general, about his youth and flamboyance during the Civil War, as well as about his controversial career in the West as an Indian fighter. In most of those stories, we learn that George wasn't the only Custer riding with the Seventh Cavalry. He had two brothers with him, both Tom and Boston, as well as some cousins and in-laws, some along more or less as tourists. Tom himself has never been written about in a book length treatment until now. The reason for that is simple enough. Although he was the first man to win two Medals of Honor, as far as history itself is concerned he was not a history maker. He was, as it were, along for the ride.
   It was quite a ride, starting with his enlistment in the Army at the age of sixteen in 1861. He served for a while in the west, but was soon transferred to the east at his older brother's request. From then on, their careers were closely linked. Again at the general's request, after the Civil War ended Tom went over to the Seventh Cavalry, and ten years later he rode with it to the great Indian encampment where his life ended.
   Tom was brave enough to win medals, but he was no saint. Alcohol got the best of him more than once, and he reputedly sired a boy out of wedlock. The author does a good job with the slim resources available to describe this soldier's life, but, perhaps because he was such a minor player in events and because those resources are so scarce, he has a harder time putting the flesh back on his bones (although the removal of that flesh by the victorious Sioux is spelled out in graphic detail). For those of you interested in all aspects of the Custer myth, this book offers you one more coulee to explore.

1 comments about The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States.

1. A very detailed history of the telegraph in the US. I covers the first "data" network in the US. You can understand how telegrams were sent, and passed around, and how much it costs to send the earlest "electronic" messages.

1 comments about Killing the Messenger: Journalists at Risk in Modern Warfare.

1. When a Japanese sniper killed legendary journalist Ernie Pyle during World War Two, it was largely incidental and accidental when reporters died while covering warfare. In today's world, however, reporters are often the selected targets of political and religious terrorists seeking to maximize the reach of their message and the impact of their actions. In Killing the Messenger: Journalists at Risk in Modern Warfare, Herbert Foerstel examines why the practice of covering war has changed over time, becoming arguably more dangerous for reporters. War itself has, since World War Two, changed from conflicts between established nations to violent squabbles--often ethnic or religious in nature--between disorganized armed factions in remote regions of third-world countries or revolutionary uprisings against the governments of those nations.
   Foerstel interviews reporters who have been kidnapped, tortured or seen their fellow journalists--both American and foreign-- killed while doing their jobs. Those he interviews tell of how the strategic political entanglements of their native nations can make it difficult for reporters to be trusted by their suspicious sources, especially in Middle Eastern conflicts, where, in many minds, "America" equals "Israel," which, to many Muslims, is the political and religious equivalent of Satan. Kidnapped Chicago Tribune correspondent Phillip Caputo, for instance, tells of how it was almost a fatal mistake to carry two old Israeli business cards into Lebanon while covering the fedayeen in 1973. On the other side, sources tell of Israeli and American soldiers "accidentally" destroying equipment or killing correspondents seen as purveyors of propaganda.
   Foerstel discusses reasons why journalists have gone from enjoying "hands off" status--as they had during the Viet Nam war--to being prized targets. Not listed among the reasons are that they are symbols of "freedom," as some would have us believe. The reasons in reality are, sadly, much more cynical. First, reporters have monetary value. Kidnappers believe they can bargain for ransom with the media outlets for whom the journalists work and, indeed, have been paid handsomely in the past for the safe return of reporters. Next is publicity. Kidnappers know that reporters suddenly disappearing make world headlines and that any political message attached thereto gets broadcast and rebroadcast. Another reason news gathering has become more dangerous is the loss of objectivity. Reporters in the west have, especially since 9/11, felt compelled to take sides in global conflicts, echoing the "civilization versus terror" party lines of the Bush and Blair regimes. This has not gone unnoticed in the Middle East where the pro-West advocacy is seen by many as an anti-Islamic hostility. Finally, there is the dangerous and arguably stupid practice of intelligence agencies around the world using press credentials as cover for its operatives. The execution of journalists can be the only expected result as paranoid revolutionaries and terrorists find it hard to believe that a reporter in a sensitive area is who he says he is.
   
   In the final section of the book, Foerster examines some suggestions from the journalistic community regarding ways to keep reporters safer while they cover events in combat zones. The challenge, reporters say, is to stay safe without compromising news-gathering. Some suggestions are realistic "hostile environment" training, the use of "fixers," who are essentially local residents of dangerous areas who know the ins and outs of setting up meetings with newsworthy persons or getting into (and out of) hostile areas, better security training for American journalists (who have long lagged behind European journalists in this regard), and embedding reporters with military units charged with their safety. Some have even suggested--to the chagrin of many journalists--that journalists be armed and charged with their own protection.
   Killing the Messenger is thoroughly researched, very well written and the interviews, especially those with reporters who have been the victims of kidnapping and torture, are compelling. A recommended read.

No comments about Women of the Civil War South: Personal Accounts from Diaries, Letters and Postwar Reminiscences.

1 comments about Ulysses S. Grant and the Strategy of Victory (History of the Civil War Series).

1. This is one of the better books written about Ulysses S. Grant that are intended for children. Actually, in this case the term "young adults" is more appropriate because the text would be a bit complicated for children.

   Rickarby writes quite well and like many women authors, seems to understand Grant, who had a plethora of female characteristics, such as kindness, gentleness and compassion. The military chapters are not especially good and there are a number of basic mistakes in describing various battles. Rickarby is stronger in the domestic realm, and she describes Grant's happy marriage and his life as a father very well.

   The most outstanding part of the book are the paintings. In particular, there is a fabulous color depiction of Grant standing on the corner in St. Louis, selling firewood in the late 1850's. If you're a fan of General Grant, this painting alone makes the book a necessary purchase. Rarely has his mood, stance and demenenor been so well captured.