2 comments about History's Shocking Secrets: A Twist in Time Book (Twist in Time series).

1. A must read, must own anecdotal reflection on our history. An educator supreme with a unique ability to whet our appetites for more history. Mr. Coate's incredible ability as an author/educator shines in this representation of our country's history. Should be required reading for all of our students of all ages especially for those of us who originally found history to be dry and not relevant to our lives. In one fell swoop Mr. Coates creates in the reader a new found, insatiable appetite for more history. Buy it!!! you'll be richer because you did!!!!



2. As an author Bill Coate specializes in oddball history. HISTORY'S SHOCKING SECRETS is an upated version on his 2005 TWIST IN TIME book, this update containing 17 new stories. History buffs should find this new title of interest.
   
   Coate's latest volume contains 115 interesting stories about oddball U.S. history, famous and infamous Americans, strange coincidences, scandalous behavior and so on. Most of the vignettes run to two pages in length and inevitably have some sort of "And now you know the rest of the story..." twist ending. The book is divided into five sections: Twists from Early America, Twists from the Civil War, Twists from the White House, Twists from the West (the largest section) and Twists from the 20th Century.
   
   Among the entries found in Coate's book is the account of the unlikely Colonial defense counsel who successfully defended the Brits involved in the Boston Massacre, the reason Alexander Hamilton didn't fire upon Aaron Burr in their duel, the Civil War saga of the McClean family who always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, how Florida screwed up the Presidential Election of 1876, the birth of Levi pants, Emperor Norton the First's reign in San Francisco, Henry Ford's Nazi decoration and so on.
   
   As interesting as the book is, the 'Shocking Secrets' title is hyperbole. Only two vignettes might qualify: the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings story, which is widely known, and the macabre lady carpetbagger tale, which is a doozy.
   
   If you're an oddball history buff, some stories found in this book will be old hat. Yet there's enough new material here to warrant picking up a copy. HISTORY'S SHOCKING SECRETS is well worth the $16.95 price tag.

5 comments about Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men.

1. Winfred Blevins' `Give Your Heart to the Hawks' is exactly what its sub title claims - a tribute to the Mountain Men. It is neither a historical novel nor a pure history. Rather, it is accurate history, albeit with Blevins' interpretation of the thoughts and emotions that the mountain men were experiencing during some of their most dangerous and daring exploits added. This technique removes the book from the roles of strict history, but works well in creating the tribute that the author intended, for his goal was not simply to chronicle the bones of their history, but to bring to life their wild and free existence and allow the reader to enter into the spirit of the mountain man's life.
   Blevins does not attempt a comprehensive account of the mountain men. Some are covered extensively, like John Colter, the prototype mountain man, Jim Bridger, and Jed Smith, the most atypical and perhaps greatest of the mountain men. Others, like Old Bill Williams, Joe Walker, and Kit Carson are barely covered or mentioned only in passing. Blevins does not cover the mountain men of the southwest at all. Instead, he illuminates his chosen subjects in depth, choosing to fully explore the life that the mountain men lived rather than broadly covering the entire scope of their collective history.
   To recreate the wild drama of the mountain man's life, Blevins tells some of the most thrilling tales of the era, like John Colter's desperate naked run from Indian braves pursuing him for sport, Hugh Glass' amazing solo trek through 300 miles of wilderness without weapons or any tools for survival after being left for dead when mauled by a grizzly, or Jed Smith's daring crossings of the desert and mountains to find a land route to California. He writes of these men, "Any man who survived for several years as a trapper, taking responsibility for his own survival alone in the wilds, had been schooled thoroughly by the Rocky Mountains. ...He had graduated from Rocky Mountain College, a pragmatic university that gave no degrees, but flunked men into their graves." Between the various stories of specific mountain men, he includes interludes that detail important aspects of their life and trade - trapping, yarning, rendezvous, buffalo - cuisine premiere, mountain craft, mountain mating, and trappers and Indians are a few of the interesting subjects of mountain life dealt with in these interludes. He also includes a few colorful accounts written by the rare, literate mountain man detailing their unique life. He succeeds admirably in breathing life into this too often neglected period of amazing individuals who blazed the way for the westward expansion of the American nation.
   While Blevins' writing is not always stellar, he manages to create an effective and stirring tribute to the wild individuals who chose to live free in the Rocky Mountains. No one who is interested in the period should miss it. Both students of the period of the mountain men and fur trade and those looking for a good introduction to the subject will find `Give Your Heart to the Hawks' a fascinating and rewarding reading experience.
   
   Theo Logos



2. Never have so few lived such adventurous lives! During the era of the Mountain Men, lasting from 1806 to 1843, a few hundred Americans trapped or traded for beaver in the Rocky Mountains. Blevins tells the romantic story of some of these men, especially those who made their living around the northern Rockies in Wyoming, Utah, and Montana.
   
   The famous stories about the Mountain Men are told here: John Colter's run, Hugh Glass's encounter with a grizzly, Jedediah Smith's long overland journeys to California, the peregrinations of Jim Bridger. The lives, customs, and tortured language of the Mountain Men, including the debauchery of rendevous and the joys of Indian women and gorging on buffalo meat are well described. The author celebrates the Mountain Men and if you're not familar with the era and its heroes this is a good place to start -- although with the understanding that you're not getting the whole story. The fur trappers of the Southwest, including Ewing Young and Kit Carson, are scarcely mentioned. Nor do the British competitors of the Americans receive their due. But the untamed West in all its pristine glory is well-described in "Give your Heart to the Hawks."
   
   From the vast literaturee about the Mountain Men. "Across the Wide Missouri" by Bernard DeVoto is probably the (difficult and irritating) classic of the genre.
   
   Smallchief



3. This book is much more than just a history of the fur trade and mountain men. In fact, if you read the Preface, Win states that he wishes to portray the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the mountain men from a subjective point of view. He accomplishes the task. It's a wonderful read about the mountain men (not ALL of the mountain men but a select, representative few) and their lives. You may ask, how accurate is his subjective view. The answer lies in the fact that Win is well researched in the lives of the mountain man, well learned in the mountain ways, and skilled enough to give these historical figures a heartbeat. As mentioned before, the number of mountain men chronicled in this book is limited. So, if you are looking for a good primer on individual mountain men, then maybe "The Mountain Men" by Laycock would be a better place to start. Otherwise, this is an excellent book and not as dry as some of the books on individual mountain men.



4. I highly recommend this book very authentic, but entertaining, enthralling and compelling. My advice is to get the paperback, and mark it up as you go thru, as you will want to return to it often for reference or refreshing.



5. It's often said that a good writer makes his characters seem real, but this is more of a book about 'real characters.' It's as if the author was an adoring tag-along, describing the misogynistic adventures of these mountain men with not much consideration for the humanity of the victims. These adventurers also set the stage for wholesale slaughter of Native peoples as a way to get the land they lived on. I don't think it serves the author or his readers to ignore humanity when you're saluting heroes.

5 comments about Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations.

1. Nelson does a thorough job in exploring Mr. Paine's life. Of interesting note is that the pace of the book seems to mimic the waxing and waning of Mr. Paine's alleged mental illness and bouts with alcohol....as do Mr. Paine's writings. No doubt Thomas Paine's inability to sustain consistent relationships had something to do with his personality and mental illness. One of the few criticisms of the book I have is Nelson's jumping back and forth in the time period without putting in the occasional date as a point of reference. I also wished he had explored the contentious relationsip between Gouverneur Morris and Paine a little more thoroughly. Overall the book is a good read. Not only does it give the reader a better view of this important figure in American History it also provides a glimpse into the difficult lives of people during that period in regards to living wages, debt, and travel.



2. "Thomas Paine" by Craig Nelson is a thoughtful yet entertaining biography of the Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine. Positioning Paine within the intellectual vanguard of the Age of Enlightenment, Mr. Nelson demonstrates the crucial role that Paine played in inspiring the colonists' radical struggle for independence. This carefully researched and accessible work succeeds in reintroducing readers to a remarkable man who dedicated his life to human progress through politics.
   
   Mr. Nelson bookends the narrative with the strange tale of Paine's bones which were first recovered by William Cobbett and then sold and resold many times over. This particular narrative serves as a metaphor underscoring the changing opinions that posterity has attributed to Paine; indeed, we learn that Cobbett was virulently opposed to Paine's democratic principles during Paine's lifetime only to later became an ardent admirer after Paine's death. No doubt Cobbett was not unusual for his varying reactions to a message that helped set in motion a series of profound socio-political changes throughout the transatlantic world.
   
   Mr. Nelson's solid scholarship and vivid prose helps us imagine Paine passionately debating the great issues of the day with his fellow revolutionaries. Paine appears as one of the boldest and most visionary of his peers, publicly calling for an end to slavery, supporting women's rights and envisioning a welfare state at a time when most others were silent on these issues. Of course, it was Paine's remarkable talent in transcribing Enlightenment ideals into fiery populist rhetoric that made him indispensible, helping to win broad support for a cause that faced significant challenges and memorably rallying the soldiers at a particularly dark moment in the war.
   
   But Mr. Nelson takes Paine's story well beyond this familiar terrain to England and France, where Paine continued to risk all for the principles he held dear. Mr. Nelson makes clear that Paine was immersed in the kind of political turmoil and intrigue that makes today's world seem rather tame by comparison, including a narrow escape from England after authoring the seditious 'Age of Reason' and a remarkable stint in the French legislature where his principled stand for human dignity and democracy ended with a brutal imprisonment. Through it all, Paine became the 18th Century's most widely read author, pointing the way forward for the great mass of people through the Age of Revolution into today's democratic world that, in many ways, has yet to fulfill Paine's utopian vision.
   
   Tragically, Paine's unyielding defense of reason earned the enmity of small-minded religious demagogues who propagandized against the defenseless Paine in posterity. Fortunately, Mr. Nelson's book joins several other more recent works that correct this unjust historic distortion, helping to restore Paine to his proper place among the Founding Fathers as one of their most uncompromising and important leaders.



3. This was a very enjoyable book on a fascinating and under explored subject. At least it was fascinating once it got past what I felt to be a fairly slow start. For a while I was wondering if I had made a poor selection as the book seemed to focus little on Paine and more generally on the times and the other characters of the day. I was suspecting the author might have been padding due to some lack of research material.
   
   In good time my fears were allayed and the book began to carry forth under its own steam and from then on out as the pace was set the story became captivating and enriching to read.
   
   Thomas Paine of course plays at minimum a cameo role in any history of the nation's founding or in any biography of its founders. I love to read of the lives of our founding fathers and have read multiple biographies on most of them. I am ashamed to say that I waited this long to read a book fully dedicated to this most indispensable of founders.
   
   The author succeeds in portraying Thomas Paine in all of his human character - enlightened, passionate, abrasive, loyal and vain. I didn't get the sense, as often happens, that the subject was placed upon a pedestal by his historian without blemish, rather by simply cataloguing the life of this amazing and faulty character the reader has but little choice to hoist him upon that pedestal under the test of virtue.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who, like me realizes there is a hole in the story where Thomas Paine is concerned, and seeks to fill said hole with knowledge of his life.



4. I loved it. It is a well written and very detailed book about one of our founding fathers. Very easy to read and I finished it pretty quickly despite its in depth and thorough account of his life. It was unbiased in reporting both the good and the bad. I highly recommend it.



5. I had the good fortune to catch an interview of Craig Nelson on CSpan on one of the booknotes shows. The story he told of Thomas Paine was fascinating so I decided to buy the book and I am glad I did. He is the unsung hero of the American Revolution, the French Revolution and of democracy and Republics today. Few men have done more and gotten so little credit for it. How many of us know he was the one that communicated to THE WORLD the ideals of freedom and democracy to the point that his books, at a time when far fewer people where literate, sold millions of copies. They were read by everyone and read to the masses. Written in a level of language that sparked ideas and ideals in most who read or heard them. He kept Washington supplied with money by not taking any compensation or royalties for the books. He was welcome in the homes and parlors of most of the major players in the American revolution (expect John Adams' home.)
   
   He was a hero in France and had the distinct honor to be asked to represent a district of France in the new revolutionary government. Imagine that, an Englishman turned American, representing a French state, even though he did not speak or write French??? The power of ideas and ideals. He was feted in many a French aristocrats house and was companion to many intellectuals of the time.
   
   Yet today, few of us know anything about him because he made powerful enemies who proceeded to try to strike his memory from existance. Few people who were heros got such bad press. He died in America, yet his bones ended up being spread around the world.
   
   What a story! Read this book to appreciate the power of Common Sense, The Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment. Appreciate a true American Hero, if not a world hero.

5 comments about Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time.

1. The unfortunate result of the growing power and focus on the executive branch is that historians tend to focus on presidents as prime movers for american political development. Remini's biography of Daniel Webster proves paradigm deeply flawed, particularly in the early years of our nations history.

   Webster, though never achieving the presidency, deserves great credit for setting the tone of american government and the supremacy of congress that survived through the 19th century. Remini does a tremendous job exploring the early 19th century and the issues this second generation of american leaders faced.

   Recent great interest in the revolutionary generation hopefully will not eclipse the study of those, like Webster, who came next and solidified the nacient insitutions that the founders created. If the founders were the fathers of our government, than men like Webster was that government's teacher in primary school.

   A wonderful read, if you are really interested in the topic.




2. Occasionally, nature produces an individual with towering intellect and mesmerizing oratorical abilities, but haunted by deep and seemingly irrepressible moral flaws. Their lives are filled with a mix of remarkable achievement and profound disappointment; monumental success and disgrace both seem inevitable. The late twentieth century had Bill Clinton, and the early nineteenth had Daniel Webster.

   Webster's story - like Clinton's - is at once inspiring and frustrating, laudable and detestable. There is certainly an element of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in Daniel Webster, and the noted Jacksonian historian Robert Remini uses that split personality as the foundation in building this important biography of one of America's greatest and most unique statesman.

   Webster's genius is undeniable. His many natural gifts, which even his bitterest enemies had to concede, earned him the highly flattering sobriquet "the Godlike Daniel." No private attorney has affected the course of American judicial history as much as Webster. With the ideologically sympathetic John Marshall presiding over the Supreme Court, he successfully argued nearly every landmark case of the early nineteenth century: Dartmouth College, Gibbons vs. Ogden , McCollough vs. Maryland. He also added his considerable talents to the defense of the Union, first during the South Carolina nullification crisis in the celebrated Hayne-Webster debates, and then in the twilight of his life as the debate over slavery mounted toward civil war he delivered an impassioned speech in defense of the Compromise of 1850. His many public addresses lauding the ideals and principles of the American republic - the Plymouth Oration, Bunker Hill Oration, commemoration of the lives of Jefferson and Adams - are legendary and were once memorized by schoolboys. When a Webster speech was anticipated in the Senate, the halls were jammed with attendees eager to hear history in the making. Indeed, as Stephen Benet notes in the classic The Devil and Daniel Webster: "You see, for a while, he [Webster] was the biggest man in the country. He never got to be President, but he was the biggest man."

   But there was also a less admirable, more human side to Daniel Webster; an alter ego to the Godlike Daniel known derisively as "Black Dan." Addictions to alcohol and gambling were the duel crosses Webster had to bear through out life. These afflictions ensured Webster was chronically in debt despite a flourishing law practice. These debts eventually presented conflicts of interests and put him in compromising positions, which undermined his moral authority and ultimately cost him the White House.

   It has been written that most great men are made by the events of their times, but a very select few would have been great regardless of time or place. Remini's splendid biography suggests that Daniel Webster is a strong candidate for the latter category.




3. Robert Remini brings us Daniel Webster as no one else can.... In order to paint such a perfect picture of a man that is as complex as Webster requires the knowledge of a true expert.
   
   Remini gives us a very fair and well balanced portait of a man who was a contemporary of Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and John Calhoun (all of whom Remini has written authorative biographies on).
   
   Make no mistake, Daniel Webster was a very complex man. One who was capable of pure genious but could also be unbelievably ignorant. His feud with Henry Clay probably cost both men the oppurtunity to be president. His ability to amass ungodly debts and then refuse to pay them is equally bizaar. However, this is the same man who argued many of the ground breaking case before the Supreme Court. He helped to stall the Civil War for 20 years by showing unflinching support to Andrew Jackson (Who was in the opposite political party) handling of the nullification crisis.
   
   Remini shows us all of these sides with the rare ability to help us get into the mind of Webster. Remini understands the age and the politics of this era like no other... therefore, if you are interested in learning about the great Daniel Webster.... look no further!
   
   However, as much as I enjoyed learning about Webster I admit you have to be motivated to read the entire book. While the politics of Webster's time were undoubtley the biggest of the time - it is hard for to finish all 800 pages when living in 2004. Make no mistake this is a great book... but even great books can be a bit dull.



4. Daniel Webster was a great man in every meaning of the word. He had great talents and love for his country and its constitution; and he had great flaws that were magnified by his greatness. One thing he didn't have was a great modern and objective biography. He now has one, thanks to Mr. Remini.
   
   Along with Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and other notables, Daniel Webster represented the generation of Americans to whom the Founder Fathers entrusted the nation they had fought for and created.
   
   Webster took that responsibility very seriously and used his intellectual and oratorical powers to help shape the interpretation of our laws and constitution to the needs of our growing and expanding country. He was involved in many important Supreme Court cases, many in front of John Marshall, who is still considered by many to have been our best Chief Justice.
   
   Webster's greatest fame is probably as an orator, mostly in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Remini shows us that he wasn't necessarily a great legislator or floor leader in terms of moving important legislation. Henry Clay was the man to do that. However, Webster's rank as one of the country's top senators of all time is merited by the incredible ability he had to express what this nation stood for, what the constitution stood for and that the Union, above all, was what was most important. Several of his speeches, which he would edit carefully for publication, are still moving and were generally printed fully in the press and memorized by children. His "union" stance many times cost him in popularity as he had to take some stances on specific legislation that may not have been "morally" acceptable to many (like his defense of the Slave Fugitive Law), but that was necessary to uphold the law.
   
   It is little known by many that Webster was a very able Secretary of State for three different presidents (Harrison, Tyler and Fillmore) and that he used his knowledge of the law (maritime law in particular), the constitution and America in general to develop foreign policy designed to continue gaining international rights, commerce and respect for our nation. In particular, he did much to open trade relations in Asia and Latin America.
   
   Unfortunately, Webster's flaws (drinking heavily, money mismanagement, duplicity and abuse of friends) were also great enough to prevent his being elected president. People just did not trust him enough. He was acknowledged as perhaps the best orator of the day and "Defender of the Constitution", but he had trouble relating to the common man. He was essentially an East Coast snob and the people of the south and the expanding west could not really relate well to him, or he to them. His stubborness also caused him to commit some real blunders on the foreign policy side, but I think that on balance he had a very creditable record as Secretary of State. That stubborness probably cost him the presidency at least once (he could have acceded to have been Harrison's VP but refused to; John Tyler accepted and became president when Harrison died just a few weeks into office) and cost the Whig party the presidency in at least another ocassion when he refused to concede during the nominating conventions.
   
   Men like Webster get lost in the popular mind between the greatness of the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. Yet, at a very crucial time in America, when the country was expanding at incredible rates, when interpretation of the constitution would define our legal framework to the present day and when the union was threatened to be torn asunder by nullifiers and abolitionists, men like Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were there to make sure the Union's survival was the primary object. In the intermediate term, they failed because the nation fell into Civil War (after they were all dead), but while they were alive, they compromised, orated and legislated to avoid that awful event. After the War, and even today, many of the things that America stands for and are taken for granted. But they were formulated and imprinted on our national character by men like the "Godlike Daniel".
   
   Remini has written extensively on the Jacksonian period and has detailed and excellent biographies of Jackson and Clay as well. These men did not all necessarily care of each other and Remini doesn't play favorites in his biographies. He deals with Webster very fairly, granting him his well-deserved greatness, but also being very frank and objective about his shortfalls and political failings and blunders.



5. Unlike Remini's three volume biography of Andrew Jackson this work shows a real person not a god idolized by the biographer. Webster was a talented, ambitious and complex man. He played a heroic role as Secretary of state, he defended the Union against the South Carolinian secesssionists, he solicited money from many people including N. Biddle in support of the Bank of the United States. He illustrates the difference in what we consider unethical acts among politicians. He was cursed by the radical abolitionists because he refused to put the Union in jeopardy to stop the spread of slavery.
   
   It could be said that Remini redeemed his reputation as an impartial historian with this work.

4 comments about Black Kettle : The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace but Found War.

1. It has been 140 years since that dark dawn rose over the eastern plains of Colorado bathing the land in blood and gore at Sand Creek. Countless books have been written about the subject, and its story has been recounted in film. Today, there are those who believe it was a massacre, others it was a battle that turned into a massacre, but to all academic historians Chivington's attack upon a sleeping village of Cheyenne and Arapaho was nothing but a massacre turned into a blood bath of unspeakable horror.
   
   A new book by Thom Hatch is now available entitled, "Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War" The book is the first ever written biography about the Cheyenne leader. And, Sand Creek is at the center of Black Kettle's life.
   
   Black Kettle is more than a story of one man's life. The story Hatch shares is rich in Plains Indian culture focusing on the Cheyenne people along with their form of government, laws, religion, courtship, and military society. The narrative follows the Cheyenne relationships with other tribes that were both productive and destructive. Hatch also describes life for the Cheyenne after the white man enters the scene. Hatch's passages about the warrior societies are filled with pageantry, color, and ritual.
   
   Much of what Hatch discusses in this portion of the book has been written before, but Black Kettle finally becomes a human being instead of just a symbol of the wrongs committed against the Indians. After Black Kettle witnessed the peace gathering between his people and the Kiowas, Hatch explains its effect upon the Cheyenne leader.
   
   "Perhaps this event made enough of an impression upon Black Kettle that it served as a lesson in shaping his future role as a man who believed that peace with any enemy - even the white man - was attainable if both parties were honorable and sincere with their promise to become friends."
   
   The centerpiece of any story around Black Kettle has to be the Sand Creek Massacre and Hatch does not disappoint the reader. There can be no honest telling of Sand Creek that doesn't move the reader, and the story of Black Kettle at Sand Creek is powerful. Black Kettle leads as many of his people as he can to safety to the Sand Pits except for his wife, Medicine Woman Later, who is shot down near the creek in a hail of bullets.
   
   At twilight, Black Kettle returns to find his wife as the soldiers commit the atrocities around him. Finding Medicine Woman Later still alive, Black Kettle carries her on his back for miles until he catches-up with the survivors, who by now are moving northeast away from the killing field. Putting his wife on a horse, Black Kettle leads his people to the Dog Soldier camps.
   
   So ends the Sand Creek Massacre, but far more of the life of Black Kettle follows. A true leader is one that stands up for what he believes, never wavers, and makes decisions based solely on the betterment of his people, not for how it might make his life better. Black Kettle was such a leader. Black Kettle continued to sue for peace from the white man, even after Sand Creek, even though many of his people chastised him for it, even though the intimidation of the Dog Soldiers tried to stop him. Black Kettle knew his people would be doomed if they continued to fight the people moving into their lands. He believed peace was the only choice the Cheyenne had to save what they could of their way of life.
   
   Tom Hatch brings us the complete life of Black Kettle -- his analysis of the man's life and the events surrounding it is fresh, bold, and provides new challenges for future researches.



2. The title should read, "Black Kettle, the Cheyenne Chief who Sought Life and Found Only Death". This is a difficult book to read because the story is not only true but shameful. As someone from Colorado, I was horrified to learn many of our streets and city areas are named after men who were often theives, liars, opportunists and some even condoned the murder of the Native Americans. One tries to frame the story in the context of the time and the ignorance and the misunderstandings of the of white America, yet in 2005 the site of the Sand Creek massacre is a minor footnote that most Coloradians are unaware and The Black Hills still have not been returned to the Souix, so has our sense of justice towards Native Americans really changed? The book does a excellent, informative telling of the story of a very shameful part of Colorado and American history.This is the story of an exceptional man who rightly always believed in peace but wrongly believed in the U.S. government. We should be reminded of this past and never forget the genocide that was carried out in the country in the name of westward expansion. Black Kettle should be remembered as man who was as great in statue as any American hero.



3. This work explores the efforts of a great Cheyenne chief who, despite his betrayal by the white man, continued his search for peace, only to lose his life in the process. It reveals how Black Kettle stood in stark contrast to Chivington, Sherman, Sheridan, Custer and others, who enthusiastically effected our government's policy of destroying the culture of the Plains Indians and killing, with little or no excuse, innocent tribal menbers. Make no mistake, there were elements within the tribes who were no better. However, one cannot read this well-written account without coming away with a sense of revulsion toward those members of the white power structure and our military who made so little effort to understand a people who were different and to treat them with the respect they deserved. Read this book if you want to know more than one will find within the usual histories written by the victors.



4. Thom Hatch hits the mark on Cheyenne Indian Chief Black Kettle's efforts to uphold peaceful relations throughout manifest destiny. Despite broken treaty after broken treaty by the government and gluttonous bone-headed army generals with personal vendettas and lack of respect for the Indians, it is a wonder that Black Kettle maintained his philosophy on peace for so many years.
   It is disheartening that the vision of peace is what eventually killed him along with many of his people.
   If surviving the brutal and senseless butchery of Sand Creek Massacre by egotistical Colonel Chivington wasn't enough punishment, Black Kettle was to soon afterwards undergo additional tests of endurance from the thoughtless and misguided behavior of the U. S. military and government.
   A very persuasive, gripping and touching account of one man's dream of peace.

4 comments about The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (New York Review Books Classics).

1. This is a must book for all those who've seen Rural Bengal/Bangladesh in its true form with its summers, rainy season and winters with the human face. Description is vivid and also the dreams about Foreign Land (Bilet). NCC with one of his best novels however, with his usual opinionated and often judgemental perception which is so typically Nirad-babu. The maestro puts his experience of yesteryears with the accuracy of present day. Insights and the minute details is what makes him one of the greatest prolific writers of all time. One needs to look at the world of Nirad-babu to fully appreciate his work without marring your thoughts without your prejudices. If anyone, wants to get lost in the laid-back life of Bengal, this is where your quest should end. I wish he could have more writings in English so that more people could appreciate the master.



2. This book will give you a perspective that was quite common amongst the "educated Indians" during the waning days of the Raj. The writing is somewhat turgid though quite colorful in parts. I read this book in small doses just to savor and reflect upon an era long gone. The descriptions of family life and personalities are delightful and vivid.

   This however, is not a easy read. If you expect a fast-paced juicy narrative then you will be disappointed. If you enjoy a meaty jaunt through late 19th and early 20th century India then by all means get it. A word of caution. When reading the author's opinions please realize the times from whence they spring.




3. Nirad Chaudhuri was often unfairly dismissed in his lifetime as a 20th-century equivalent to the notorious mimic men evoked in Macaulay's infamous "Minute on Indian Education": he adopts the attitudes of the British ruling class during the Raj so thoroughly he might at a casual glance be dismissed as such. But Chaudhuri's fierce and iconoclastic intelligence makes him far much more: a singular and independent thinker, and in truth a true original. This book, his masterpiece, is a brilliant semi-autobiographical study of the political situation of the first half of the Indian twentieth century. It works best in the lovely and lyrical opening hundred pages, which give a very evocative sense of his Bengali childhood. Unfortunately later, when Chaudhuri surrenders reminiscence for political analysis, he becomes more tedious than illuminating (you get the suspicion that, were you to visit him as Ian Jack , who provided the book's fine introduction, you would have been compelled despite yourself to check your watch discreetly during one of Chaudhuri's lengthy and self-satisfied tirades).



4. I took Chaudhuri's autobiography along on both legs of a cross-country plane trip. Good choice: this tale of old Bengal is sufficiently remote from the cares and demands of my ordinary life, I would have been a long time getting to it at home. But the constraints of coach class are just the place to come to terms with its prickly, difficult and high-principled author. At 535 pages, the book is not short, but I don't think I would want it shorter. Chaudhuri has a big subject -- not just himself, but the whole of a culture -- and you need this breadth to capture it. Besides, it is not really one book; it is at least three. It is a bildungsroman: the story of a boy's maturation in a dark time. It's a magic-lantern guided tour through the Bengal of his youth, now irretrievably lost in the mists of history. Finally it is a shrewd and challenging--and highly personal--account of life under British rule. As they say on SNL, it's a candy mint /and/ a breath mint, a floor wax and a dessert topping.

   More specifically--Chaudhuri is full of (pardonable?) rage against the gobsmacking cheek of the old-fashioned British occupiers, their pretense and their presumption. But he is the product of a British education, the child of Mill and Burke, and at the end of the day, he wouldn't have it any other way. Such a dual perspective makes him at best a a reluctant and critical onlooker in the great subcontinental uprising. It positions him as a critic of even that most untouchable of 20th Century icons, Mahatma Gandhi. Indeed, far from wishing for less of a book from Chaudhuri, still when it comes to politics, I can only wish there were more (I haven't read "They Hand, Great Anarch!", his other big book, which I gather is a kind of a pendant to this one). Still, it's a gift as it is. "India has merged," he says near the end of this great work "in the stream of European expansion, and forms part of those portions of the world which constitute a greater Europe, which, as I see it, will ultimately come to mean the whole world." Maybe. At least from the standpoint of 1951 when he first published, it seems prescient. And it is wonderful to have him along as a guide.

3 comments about Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty.

1. More than four centuries after his death, Henry VIII remains one of the most fascinating monarchs in English history. As a result, numerous biographies have been written about him - and his equally famous six wives. But only Lacey Baldwin Smith's biography does justice to both subject and reader. He avoids the easy trap of portraying Henry as a misogynistic tyrant who twisted religion and politics in the pursuit of personal gratification. Such a treatment, sadly popular in current biographies, is an insult to any student of history. Instead, Smith brings Henry alive in the context of the turbulent sixteenth-century; he is seen as both man and king, troubled soul and tyrannical monarch. When you have finished this brilliant and learned work, you will have a new and profound understanding of Reformation England - and its contradictory leader.



2. sucke



3. If you love the Tudors, and you already have your basic facts down, you'll really enjoy this orignial look at Henry VIII. Profesor Smith allows a look at Henry VIII as a person, revealing a personality that may have belonged to this great King. Definately worth the read.

5 comments about A Romanov Fantasy: Life at the Court of Anna Anderson.

1. A Romanov Fantasy is the story of the most famous royal pretender of the twentieth century: Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish peasant woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, for some 64 years. It is also the story of the many devoted and eternally patient friends who sheltered and supported Franziska, better known as Anna Anderson, throughout that time.
   
   Franziska was a highly intelligent woman with a gift for drama. Unfortunately she also seems to have been mentally and emotionally troubled from an early age, so that she was unable to use her abilities positively. Her charm and her ability to pick up information enabled her to pose so successfully that even some of Anastasia's close relatives and former servants and associates were unable to either denounce or accept her. She used her magnetic personality to gather a crowd of supporters who, despite being exasperated by her time and again, seem never to have stopped believing in and trusting her.
   
   Frances Welch's biography concentrates primarily on Franziska's life and on the problems her supporters had dealing with her. The crucial last bit of the story, the DNA testing that ultimately proved Franziska was not Anastasia, is barely discussed. While it would be nice to read a fuller biography of Franziska, she was so unaccountable and so bizarre that it would probably not be possible to write one.



2. The book is not bad, but what put a damper on it for me is that the author had her photos mixed up, she identified the wrong sister as Anastasia a couple of times... You would expect she would at least get that one right. Maybe it was the publisher's fault. Some other minor mistakes and a few somewhat shifty sources, but on the whole a good read. For a change a non-fiction book about Anna Anderson as who she actually was: a mentally ill woman posing as a Russian grand duchess, as well as about the phenomenon of her dogmatic followers.



3. As a former Anna Anderson supporter, I dreaded reading this book. For over a decade I have studied the claim's Anna Anderson's to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, and while I no longer believe that she was actually the Grand Duchess I still respect and am fascinated by those individuals who spent years of their lives trying to support and aid this very fragile (mentally and physically) woman. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised by the author's ease of maintaining the dignity of the participants while showing quite accurately the circumstances of Anna Anderson's life.
   
   For those unfamiliar with this case the story proves as fantastic as any fictional novel and just as entertaining. For those who are already familiar with Anna Anderson I believe there are enough new tidbits of information that will help to clarify some of the remaining mysteries of this case.
   
   Both readable and informative, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the mysteries surrounding this most famous of Anastasia claimants.



4. Welch's well received biography of Anna Anderson (or, to put it more succinctly, the woman who pretended to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia for some sixty years) manages to both inform and entertain without losing focus or academic content. Certainly the author had quite a task ahead of her: rumors and stories abound about the woman that was Anna Anderson, and it must have been quite a feat for Welch to sift through fact and fiction in a world damaged by tabloid headlines. Parts of note were those that literally delved into Anderson's lifestyle - a surprising and often perplexing world filled with grandiose thoughts and incoherent madness. Welch sporadically confuses the reader with endless names of royals and people mixed up in the claim, but those rough patches soon give way to clear narrative. I went into this book thinking I would get the author's opinion or analysis, but alas, she stays staunchly in the middle and there is little to no bias (which to some would be a good thing). Overall, a pleasing piece of work that brings together numerous lives to uncover one life that has, until now, seemed so elusive.



5. Although it is well-known at this point that Anna Anderson is NOT a Romanov, this book offers some new details to this very weird story. How DID she get away with it for so long?

3 comments about A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi.

1. A Daughter of Isis is an autobiography that reveals much more than the tumulteous life of its author in a very thrilling and gripping style. The book is a document about the status of women in Egypt as well as all of the Middle East. From an Arab or Islamic point of view, the book is simply shocking and subvertive. But despite its scathing virulence, the book is authentic and is based on a sad reality in its depictions. Virulence, however, skews its objectivity, clearly antagonizing some of its readers, and alienating others. The book is a must read for people with a good background about Egypt and the Arab World. However, the book is not a good introduction because of its heavy polarization toward a frustrated feministic diatribe against a culture. It is important to note that the majority of Egyptians would not agree with the author's hostile feministic wholesale denunciation of Egyptian sosiety. Personally, I take issue with the author's approach to culture. Other cultures could be objectionable to us in some of their practices, but they are never totally 'evil'. Good and evil are irrelevant in a genuine critique of a culture, especially of a culture with an identity crisis.



2. Dr. Nawal ElSaadawi is an outstanding author. The autobiography of her childhood and adolescence is both moving and horrifying. I compared it with the autobiography of Fay Afaf Kanafani [Nadia, Captive of Hope]. Both women grew up in the Middle East and it was very enlightening to see the societal differences of Egypt and Lebanon/Palestine. [If you look further at the autobiography of Edward Said you will see pictured yet another class - Christian Palestinians living in Egypt].The brutality with which Egyptian women were treated by villagers, as opposed to what is seen in Egyptian old films and what we read in Mrs. Kanafani's book. Part seems to be class differences, part society differences, part rural vs urban. The physical brutality described in her book, which we know to be true even today to a lesser degree, is heart-rending. Her fight to give her intelligence a chance to help society in several ways is very important. First as an example to other girls and women, then to her extended family, and lastly as a doctor in villages where doctors are non-existence or scarce. Dr. ElSaadawi must be respected for her resistance as a child to backward standards and to what she accomplished in getting women an equal role in Egyptian society.

   I think the book is a must for studies of women's rights.It is very important as it brings to light fearlessly the harsch treatment of women. We should all thank Dr. ElSaadawi for her fearless book.




3. This is a strange book. It was obviously written in Arabic originally but aiming almost exclusively at a western readership. The translator, El Sadawi's husband had the role of translating the book and increasing its appeal for a western audience.

   I found the first third of the book dreadfully boring and repetitive. The first page was gripping then it went downhill fast. El Sadawi, an ultra leftist spends most of the first third of the book trying to establish working class connections. That despite of her family's land owning origins and indeed her grandfather's aristocratic heritage and even a title too!

   El Sadawi along with Doris Lansing (on the back cover) try to have us believe that she came from such a background that would have married her off at the age of 10 and discriminated so much against her. While I don't for a minute suggest that gender discrimination is not a serious issue in Egypt, then and now. The story as told by El Sadawi appears so contrived, exaggerated and mostly made up. It is hard to believe a father so liberal as to send his daughter to middle and high school away in Cairo in the big city, a father who was the inspector of education, who washed dishes (in 1930's Egypt) from a quasi-aristocratic family considering marrying off his daughter to the "wrong" class let alone at that age. Even if that was the case, what happened to him to turn him into the modern father who then goes on to send his daughter to Cairo alone!

   The book gets less painful to read as things move on a bit and Nawal goes to Cairo. Here we have an ungrateful bitter human being who has nothing good to say about anyone. The self-righteousness is nauseating. Her rich aunt's house was no good, her poor uncle's house was also no good, and the schools were no good. You get the impression of the whole world actually trying to help Nawal, yet she has not a good word to say about any of it.

   There are occasional parts of the book that are really interesting, very human and / or down right funny. The life of the various aunts in Cairo and their fates was well written and moving.

   The treatment of religion was very superficial. El sadawi lashed out on Christianity and Judaism, but saved most of her venom for Islam. El Sadawi presents mostly interpretations of her poorly educated paternal grand mother as the definition of Islam then proceeds to attack them. In doing so, one never really understand her views as a mature person, but only senses her anger at the religion. Parts of the Quran quoted in the book were so badly translated and the interpretation was so poor and narrow to almost feel like a propaganda rag.

   The pretensions continue all the way through the book. We are expected to sympathize with the El Sadawi's family following their move to Cairo. Here we have a family of nine kids with her attending the expensive medical school in the middle of World War II and complaining about her diet of daily meat sandwiches!!! And throwing them away! Yet poor family is being discriminated against because of the father being very clean and above politics. And in 1943, right in the middle of Hitler's atrocities, her only thought towards the Jews is hate! What a shame!

   This book is doubly irritating because of the huge amount of mistakes, editorial inconsistencies and very intrusive translation. The book was obviously written in Classical Arabic, but Egyptian Arabic was used in quoted dialogue. The translator, revealing more lofty origins, felt the need to apologize for the use Egyptian Arabic, the sopken language of Egyptians, and to explain the origin of the various Egyptian words. Also the translator felt the need to translate place names right in the middle of the text such as Koberi Al Lemon, being Lemon Bridge, he could have used either. Whenever it got to the Quran, the author was really ignorant and offensive, so a chapter in the Quran (Yassin's) he dismissively says it is a part that is meant to chase the evil away, rather than what it is.

   The translator also confuses us greatly with inconsistencies, we have Hegaz, the area where Mecca is and we also have setti el hajja! We have "el" for "the" in the author's name and sometimes in other parts of the book, but he often opts for the more Classical Arabic sounding "al". We have the feast after Ramadan defined as the Sacrifice feast.

   There is no doubt that the author and the translator anger at the circumstances that led them into exile away from Egypt largely colored the book. It is a shame that she was unable to stay safely in Egypt holding and defending her views, albeit misguided. It is ironic though that her host, Duke University, didn't escape attack even though it was a minor attack against its namesake.

   I was so pleased to get to the end of the book so I can start reading something else. Finally! Thankfully the next book was Alan Lightman's Diagnosis so I now enjoy reading again!

5 comments about Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover.

1. I knew nothing about Hoover before reading this book, but Hack does a comprehensive job in this bio. Hoover is portrayed as a higly intelligent, organized man, who had too much power for his (or the country's) good.
   
   Hoover's need for fame was a double edged sword: It helped promote the FBI and it's intentions, but it also put public image over real substance. The most interesting parts of the book were Hoover tracking down old-time mobsters, and his obsession with Martin Luther King Jr. and his ties to the communist party.
   
   The biggest problems with the book were lack of technical details (Hack throughout mentions illegal wire taps and "black bag jobs", but never goes into details of how they were implemented), and apparent embellishment of the truth. For example, Hack goes into detail in converstaions between 2 people which there are no sources for. This is confusing and detracts from the overall authenticity of the book.
   
   Overall, this was a great book to learn about this unusual leader. I think it paints a farily balanced picture of him, not as an evil man, but of a smart control freak and media hound that was given too much power for too long.



2. This book was exactly what I wanted...to learn about J. Edgar Hoover's life. It was interesting!



3. None of these reviewers seem to have been in the circus. No mention of Judge Williaml Webster in 1950 in Hack's book. Surprise that JE was friendly to Robert Kennedy and the others in that clan, other accounts had it that they did not work together well. Hack's book id a sort of aerial view of Mr.Hoover's career.



4. Before I read this I had a reasonably good general knowledge of Hoover from reading books about 20th Century US History in general. However, I had not read a dedicated biography of Hoover himself. Some reviewers have remarked that Hack's book does not add anything really new. This may or may not be true. However, I found it to be a good read and a well paced, well written, well laid out biography of a very strange and important man.
   
   One thing that was jarring about Hack's book is that occassionally he will delve into internal dialogue that is clearly speculation on his part. For example, he will describe what Hoover was thinking as he lay in bed at night, or what he was thinking in the shower. Without sources, such as a diary entry, this is clearly just speculative embellishment. Hack also describes some personal lunch conversations that appear to be speculative as well. The speculation seems reasonable, however, and is not salacious or scandalous.
   
   In fact, one thing that probably sets this biography apart from others (not that I have read others, but I am familiar with accusations in other biographies of Hoover), is that Hack concludes that Hoover was probably not an actively homosexual man and that his strange relationship with Clyde Tolson was platonic. More accurately, he claims that there is no real evidence that the relationship with Tolson was non-platonic.
   
   Hack provides a very balanced portrait of Hoover, giving credit to his incredible drive, patriotism, and loyalty to his ideal of the American Way. Hack also presents a Hoover who was constantly self-promoting, paranoid, and who used his office for personal gain in the form of book royalties, government paid vacations, graft from "friends" and government paid improvements to his house. While Hoover's disregard of civil liberties is clear to all, Hoover's lack of financial integrity somehow left a deeper impression with this reader.
   
   I recommend this book. In understanding Hoover's long life as a civil servant, the reader gains a deeper understanding of America from before the First World War to just before Watergate.



5. This great bio by Richard Hack follows the life of the long time director of the F.B.I
   J. Edgar Hoover starting with his boyhood in the Washington area and following him through his school days and onward to the seat of power. We get an interesting look at Hoover from the days of the mid-west gangsters to hilarious rants on Martin Luther King that border on paranoia.
   
   Before when I thought of J. Edgar Hoover I always had a vague picture an evil man who indulged in activates in secret that he ruined other people for. It is interesting to see the interpretation in this book; it was not the man that was evil it was just that as time went on he used evil methods to hold on to his power.
   
   While it is tempting for some to want a watershed moment where Hoover would either "get with it" or retire it never arrives. Instead Hoover goes on becoming less and less relevant and that if nothing else can be considered a form of poetic justice.