5 comments about Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley.

1. If you want to step inside the life of Elvis, these are the books. Peter makes it a very personal reading. So much so, that after 2 years I haven't finished reading the second book.
   Not because of disinterest, but just because it's so personal. I just wish that the ending could be different.



2. I just finished reading this book and am amazed at the insights into Elvis' life that the author showed. He covered a lot of things that have been covered ad nauseum by others yet made it read like a novel. And, he adds so much more detail to the day-to-day life of Elvis that provide a much fuller description of his life. Even reading the footnotes is fascinating.
   For a true Elvis fan, this is a must have for your collection. I could hardly put it down and this is not trivial reading, given that the book is more than 500 pages. Mr. Guralinick's 2nd book on Elvis ("Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley) is a must read also.



3. What can i say about this book well written another great by: Peter Guralnick again every Elvis fan needs this in there library. I don't buy just any book that is written about Elvis i only purchase books by authors that is not going to be misleading and tell untrue things just to make the book sell. Mr. Guralnick tells the truth because he researches his material before writing anything about Elvis if you don't have this book you need to purchase it.



4. THIS IS AN EXCELLANT BOOK ON ELVIS' LATER YEARS (AFTER GERMANY AND MILITARY SERVICE). WOULD RECOMMEND FOR ALL ELVIS FANS.



5. `Last Train to Memphis` is volume one of a two volume biography by Peter Guralnick, generally considered one of the best biographies about Elvis available. It describes the years from his birth in 1935 to his mothers death in 1958 and is about 500 pages long (over 1000 pages combined). The first few chapters of this volume are of his early life, but the majority covers the first five years of his professional career from July 1953 to September 1958. It's a very readable and often gripping account by Elvis fan, Peter Guralnick, who wanted to present Elvis as a normal person and not the mythological figure. Guralnick says up front he does not analyze or interpret Elvis but leaves it to the reader to find their own interpretation; right away we know this is not a scholarly book or serious attempt at understanding and interpreting Elvis, but a well-told narrative of the events of his life.
   
   Perhaps the most important question for me in reading this volume is how and why Elvis became successful? Elvis once explained his success in a response to a question asking if he was lucky, "I've been very lucky. I happened to come along at a time in the music business when there was no trend. The people were looking for something different, and I was lucky. I came along just in time." Of course Elvis also had a genius for giving people what they wanted, as the above answer reveals, Elvis was a mirror who could mold himself to be whatever people wanted.
   
   Some of the more interesting stories include his discovery by Sam Phillips. It didn't happen suddenly but only through Elvis' dogged determination hanging around the studio over the course of a year or so before Sam saw the potential in the awkward local kid when he first sang "That's All Right". During those early days it's easy to find oneself doing counter-factual guessing - what if that guy had not fired Elvis, what if Elvis gave up after that rejection, what if Sam was busy that day, etc.. it all seemed so conditional and fragile, history could have easily gone a different direction. It's a great lesson of the nature of luck and determination in the creation of success, one needs both. Elvis was a sort of strange character in high school, perhaps today's "Goths" would be a good comparison - few friends, weird cloths, strange mannerisms and tastes, strange parents. However one thing is clear and that is Elvis had a great deal of natural talent.
   
   I'll be honest, I'm not an Elvis fan. I don't dislike him, just neutral, although after reading this I'm more sympathetic, he just wasn't part of my generation or my parents. There is no doubt he was a major talent, not to mention key figure of 20th century world history, which is why I wanted to learn more about him. I had many questions about his early life and rise to fame which were mostly answered in the first 150 pages or so. After that it became a little tedious reading about all his concert dates, various handlers and the recording industry, and so I stopped reading around page 220, or in 1955. By then Elvis was on the express train there was no question he would be a success, there were too many people invested in him, the machine was gearing up and paving the way for the "rock star" phenomenon. What I missed was the interpretation and analysis by Guralnick to better reveal who Elvis was, he still seems remote to me, but now I have better sense of the events of his life.
   
   Note: there is a wealth of material on YouTube about Elvis including early recordings and rare video before he became famous making it a richer documentary experience when combined with reading the book. Search YouTube for "Elvis 1954".

4 comments about Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom.

1. It is nice to know that in one point in our society that there was somebody whocared about the little guy, the poor,the downridden, the underdog etc.,Clarence Darrow found a cause and stuckto it like a fly on poop. It takes guts to stand up against the establishmentand never apologize for it.We need more guys like him.



2. Book is stunning. Makes you realize that language used to be more valued. The guy was amazing simply amazing.



3. Contrary to the myth surrounding the "heroic" Clarence Darrow, as a fighter for the common man and downtrodden, the real Clarence Darrow was a socialist who despised the United States, its legal system, and Christianity. In actual fact, he lost his two most famous trials- Scopes, and Loeb and Leopold. He was also put on trial himself for jury tampering- bribing jurors to acquit his client. Only through the work of the greatest trial attorney of that age, Earl Rogers, was Darrow acquitted. Stories abound in Chicago legal circles about Darrow's bribery of Cook County jurors, the real secret to his "success". His personal life was a failure. If this man is your hero, you need to rethink your life.



4. The 'Forward' by Justice William O. Douglas says this book contains addresses delivered to juries in criminal cases, and speeches on controversial subjects. Darrow opposed bigotry, prejudice, ignorance, and hate. He was always fighting for equal protection, due process, and a fair trial. Darrow trusted juries more than judges to protect the life and liberty of the citizen. He was also a champion of labor when unions were often regarded as illegal, and suffered from government by injunction.
   
   The 'Introduction' by Arthur Weinberg says Darrow was an orator who played on the emotions of his listeners. But people acted mainly through emotions. Darrow's pleas always had a powerful rational basis. He also defended many causes that were unpopular at the time. Clarence Darrow was a corporate lawyer until he became an attorney for the American Railway Union and its president Eugene Victor Debs. Was it a matter of conscience (p.xxx)? This book contains an edited selection of Darrow's speeches, giving the background and the aftermath.
   
   "Crime and Criminals" has his speech to the prisoners in the Cook County jail. Darrow contrasts the acts of the convicts to the actions of the monopolists (gas, trolley, oil). Advertisements in the newspapers are all lies. More people go to jail in hard times than in good times. Most people who go to jail are poor; they can't afford a good lawyer. There is a correlation between increased poverty and increased crime. Darrow suggests crime is a natural phenomenon, like cattle seeking a better pasture. Having a good lawyer is more important than guilt or innocence! Laws exist to protect the ruling class, not to do justice. Darrow suggests that living where there is plenty of land and a chance to make a living would result in no crime (p.14).
   
   Although Darrow was involved in many famous trials, he may be best remembered for the Scopes Evolution Case. Thomas Scopes discussed evolution in his high-school class to challenge a new Tennessee law. The publicity made Dayton famous. The famous William Jennings Bryan, a fundamentalist, advocated these laws and volunteered to help the prosecution. [If this is all you know of Bryan, please learn more.] Darrow examined Bryan on a question of law, the jury was not present. The next day this testimony was stricken from the record. The jury found Scopes guilty. On appeal the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed this, and dismissed the case. The Tennessee constitution banned state support of a religion. Most teachers today are still controlled by state laws as to what they can teach.
   
   In the aftermath of the trial of the McNamara brothers for bombing the Los Angeles Times Building in 1911, Darrow was accused of attempting to bribe a juror. Darrow's investigators were double agents who offered a bribe, and claimed Darrow did it. Such agent provocateurs are found in movements like labor unions. Darrow said the State had put spies and informers into his defense team. and the LA police admitted so (p.504). The man who offered bribes admitted Darrow knew nothing (p.505)! Darrow pointed out that no one's life or liberty would be safe if they could be framed-up for a crime (p.507). Darrow would get a deal if he framed-up Samuel Gompers (p.510)! The plots against Darrow show evidence of the frame-up (p.516). Darrow decided to take a plea bargain for the McNamaras before any bribes were offered (p.522)! The jury quickly found Darrow 'not guilty' (p.531). Adele Rogers St. John's "Final Verdict" provides another view of this trial. Nearby, a young Erle Stanley Gardner was beginning his legal career. Was the angel in the film "Its a Wonderful Life" named to commemorate the recently deceased Clarence Darrow?

3 comments about Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Modern Library MM).

1. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" (first published in 1845) and Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (1861) are probably the two most powerful examples of the slave narrative. This literary form represents the first-person accounts of individuals who have lived as slaves. The Modern Library has paired these two essential American texts in a single edition, with an introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah and commentaries by Jean Fagan Yellin and Margaret Fuller.

   Together, "Narrative" and "Incidents" offer a male and female perspective on the institution that has left lasting scars on America. These texts are well written, and rich in social and political insights. Both authors graphically illustrate, for example, how the Judeo-Christan Bible and the Christian church were used as tools to support the racist system of slavery. Douglass provides a powerful window into the importance of literacy as a tool by which he escaped a slave mentality. And Jacobs incisively deconstructs the twisted strands of race, gender, power, and sexuality that tied together slaveowning culture.

   "Narrative" and "Incidents" are compelling pieces of literature. Moreover, the authors' themes can be seen as foundational for many later works of United States literature: Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Toni Morrison's "Beloved," Octavia Butler's "Kindred," and many other texts. Even a popular film like "The Matrix" echoes the slave narratives in some aspects.

   Douglass and Jacobs are prime examples of writers who superbly combined literary craftsmanship with an intense political commitment. Their achievements make them crucial figures in the field of African-American studies. This combined edition of their outstanding books should be celebrated by teachers, students, reading groups, church study groups, and individual readers.




2. simply astounding! totally shatters those awful and ever-infectious civil war era romantic notions. be gone, "gone with the wind!" many thanks be to the spirits of mr. douglass and ms. jacobs for surviving their tremendous struggles to give us truth! recommend these books to others (especially the crowd that chooses to separate the "human stock" question from intellectual discussions of the civil war era).



3. These two books are sometimes very hard going, but essential reading for Americans. We probably tend to think about slavery very much in the abstract, when we even think about it, but these narratives make it painfully palpable and very human. In a way complementary to Akhil Reed Amar's brilliant description of the way slavery thoroughly corrupted the American political system (in his America's Constitution), these books reveal in detail the thoroughgoing and extraordinary moral perversion slaveholding caused in individual lives - to some extent those of slaves, but much more those of slave owners, poor southern whites, and complicit northerners. Of course we also see the brutality, horrors and deprivations of slave life.
   
   Douglass' narrative is better known than Jacobs.' Among many other things, how he taught himself to write is a remarkable story of shrewdness and determination against all odds. Jacobs' was an appalling life of virtually constant sexual harassment from an early age, which was undoubtedly a normal situation for many female slaves. What she went through to escape it is hard to imagine, and her single-minded determination to see her children free is incredible. The picture she gives of the distortions slavery caused in slaveholding families - lecherous men unconstrained by law or convention, angry and vengeful wives, gossip and whispering among white and black children and adults, children sold by their fathers to get the family features and relations out of sight and mind, and the increasing corruption of individuals' characters this caused over time - again, hard going but essential reading. A peculiar institution, ordained by God, good for the slave and slaveholder alike. Indeed.

5 comments about The History of Browning Firearms: Fortifications Around the World.

1. The Browning gun design firm was influential in the field of American firearms ever since it was founded in Utah in 1855. For the most part, the history of Browning Firearms is about the founder's son, John Browning (1855-1926), who came into the business in the latter 1800s and headed it for decades until his death. John sold designs for hundreds of firearms to companies which then manufactured them in quantity. Because of the popularity of the Browning firearms both in their design and performance, copies of them were produced by other manufacturers; but these were inferior to authentic Brownings. Beyond the pistols, rifles, and shotguns familiar to many, Browning designed machine guns and automatic rifles for the military since the 1890s, and also knives for outdoorsmen. A complete, mostly photographic, introduction to the history of the famed Browning Firearms and the variety of its products.



2. David Miller, the author of this excellent book, is a former British military officer and writer for Janes and other military publishers. His expertise, graceful style, and thorough research are attractively packaged in this beautifully illustrated book on John M. Browning and the firearms he designed.
   
   The book itself has the slick eye-appeal of something designed for a coffee table and its photography is first-rate and full color. In fact, it's almost too pretty to take very seriously.
   
   The narrative, however, is worth the price of the book. Miller has covered all his bases in his research, from the LDS archives in Salt Lake City, Utah, to the factory archives of FN in Herstal, Belgium.
   
   Miller does an impressive job of combining a biography of John M. Browning with a description of the family of firearms he designed, including a couple (like the M-2 .50 caliber machine gun) which are still in use today by American soldiers their allies around the world today. Browning was a patriot and would doubtless be pleased to know the high regard in which some of his firearms are held by American soldiers, police officers and sportsmen.
   
   I enjoyed this book and gave it five stars. If you're interested in firearms and their development, or in Browning's designs, you will like this book. The only thing it lacks is a good bibliography.



3. Very interesting book about the greatest gun designer ever lived.
   As engineer and owner of a 1911 I found this book very interesting. This is a kind of history lesson I like!



4. This book has some okay pictures and covers the major milestones of Browning, but there were inaccuracies which seem to make the remaining information suspect. For example, one old photograph in the "Shotguns" chapter directed the reader to notice a particular type of shotgun in the hands one of the hunters in the picture. Unfortunately, the individual in the picture is clearly in possesion of a Remington Model 81 rifle. I sent this one back and am still looking for a more reliable and authoritative guide to Mr. Brownings legacy.



5. The story of John Moses Browning and his inventions.
   It gives a clear look on his live, and on his arms.
   Most of his inventions are still in use today.
   A must have for the one who is interested in the development of the fire arms from the single shot breech loader up till the modern fire arms of the 2000 century

5 comments about Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now.

1. Jan Wong,a Canadian journalist of Chinese ancestry, in this illuminating volume writes of her experiences as an ardent young Maoist in the early 1970's who actually went to China to work and study.
   She hauled pig manure in a Chinese re-education farm, and at Beijing University she turned in a fellow student who had begged her help to escape to the West.
   Slowly she realized the evil of the Communist system in China and was repatriated to the West in 1978.
   Wong returned years later as an undercover journalist to China where she covered the Tianmen Square Massacre, in which three thousand pro-democracy students were mowed down in cold blood by Red China's army, on the orders of dictator, Jian Zemin.
   She also covered China's contradictory development into a capitalist state under a Communist dictatorship, or a Communist dictatorship with a capitalist economy...akin to Fascism!
   She covers the Tianmen Square Massacre of 1989, letting the the reader know of some of the lesser known details, and how the Communist army opened fire on the students after they began leaving the square:
   "A [...]girl was killed and they just brought her body back...After the third barrage I counted more than twenty bodies. One cyclist was shot in the back right below our balcony. There were two big puddles of blood on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. People carried the body of a little girl towards the back of the hotel. After twenty three more minutes, a few people gathred up enough courage to aproach the wounded. The soldiers let loose another blast, sending the would be rescuers scurrying for cover. The crowd was enraged. I grimly kept track of the time. An hour later, the wounded were still on the ground, bleeding to death.
   She speaks of the great poverty of the new Red China, with inequalities far greater than anything in the liberal democracies of the world, and crushing poverty in the rural provinces. Despite economic changes, China remains a brutal dictatorship, with no political liberalization or democratization having been allowed by the iron grip of the Communist Party.
   Peeople are still opresed in day-to-day life. People are not allowed to own dogs, and to deal with a fad of people acquiring dogs as pets in the early 1990s, special police squads swept through the neigbourhoods, strangling dogs with steel wire looped at the end of metal poles.
   The author recounts some regret at buying into the Communist lie, with the realization that "The Western world, especially Canada, is far more socialistic than China has ever been, with it's free public education, universal medicare, unemployment insurance, and government funding for television ads against domestic violence. China has made me appreciate my own country, with it's tiny ethnically diverse population of unassuming donut-eaters. I had gone all the way to China to find an idealistic revolutionary society, when I already had it right to home."
   She ends of on a positive note, predicting, in 1997, a great change in China , and the death of the Communist Party, and real democracy.
   Ten years later, this is not close to being realized, with a tightening of political control by the Communist dictatorship having taken place.
   Despite being one of the most brutal dictatorships on this planet, China has gained international acceptibility, without improving democracy or human rights!
   Nobody bats an eyelid at the Olympic Games for 2008 being set in Beijing.
   The worst abuses of the Communist regime has it's apologists in the WEst.
   The Stalinist Workers World Party in North America, (which has praised Stalinism in the Soviet Union, and applauded suicide bombings against Jewish women and chidren in Israel) congratulated the Chinese regime after the Tianmen Square Massacre, for having 'won a battle against imperialist and counter-revolutionary forces."
   The fact that such sentiments can be uttered makes one wonder how far the world has actually come.



2. Red China Blues is the story of a woman who, in her youth, idealizes communism. This idealization is partly a lack of understanding about how communism in China really worked, and partly rebellion against her own Canadian culture.
   
   As she goes to China and slowly comes to understand the horror of China under Mao, we too see and understand both the regime itself and the ways in which the people dealt with their lot. She wants so much to believe in the dream-China she's created in her head that it's painful and difficult for her to see reality. This is a sin most humans commit at some point in their lives, and many readers will wince as they're reminded of their own delusional moments.
   
   Ms. Wong does not attempt to censor any of her own sins. From simple arrogance to participation in active thought control, she tells us everything she did and leaves it to us to decide what to think of her. The same is true of the people around her: she honestly talks about the good and bad in all the people she describes to us. This lends a wonderful humanizing touch to the book and turns it from the story of a regime into a story about people *in* the regime, living as best they can. You will not be able to forgive some of them, while others will move you. Mostly, Ms. Wong leaves you to decide for yourself which people fall into which category.
   
   In other words, this is a book that lays out facts and lets you decide your opinion for yourself. She gives you the facts, tells you her opinion, and leaves the rest to you. For a clear, honest look at China's people under Mao and after his death, read this one.



3. If you want to understand China, you will need to read a considerable range of titles in order to see the country, its history, people, culture and so on from numerous and unique angles. Jan Wong's RED CHINA BLUES offers a very unique angle. Jan was born in Montreal. Her father owned a popular restaurant in that city and by the time he was thirty, he had made his first million. Jan herself, apparently suffering from an identity crisis, became disenchanted with Canada/Western culture and decided to head to China to find herself and her roots - during the height of Maoism.
   
   Young and impossibly niave, Wong hurtled herself into the Chinese world. She learned the language, demanded not to be given preferential treatment, shoveled manure on a pig farm/re-education camp, and worked in a machine factory. Ever so slowly, her idealism faded, but, as other critics have noted, this took a very long time. At one point, for example, she mentioned how at the machine factory the workers spent half their time going to political meetings as opposed to producing. One of the primary tenets or aims of Marxism (to which Wong subscribed) is to creat a "superabundance" so as to achieve economic surplus over material necessity. Only then will art, politics, philosophy, etc. be able to reach fruition. When factory workers ask Wong about conditions and money re a similar job in the West, she is reluctant to tell them. But such isolated inconsistencies didn't dampen her idealistic fervor; not for something like six years anyway. Wong returned to China in 1988, and from here the book really gears down. Because she looks and can speak Chinese, she is able to to go places and do things that real outsiders never could. Her visit to a labor camp is interesting and her first hand account of "the Tianmen Incident," (people being shot right outside her window) is, as you might imagine, chilling. This was either the first or second China book I read, and it made a lasting impression. I highly recommend it.
   
   Troy Parfitt, author



4. This is a beautiful book to read. It's well written and you can hardly put it down. Jan Wong let's us be witnesses of her life choices and their consecuences. It's interesting how and why she decides to go and live in communist China, how she strugles to get adjusted to that kind of political system and way of life. She then turns into a great journalist and let's us see some unknown aspects of modern China. It's a good book to learn more about China's history. I enjoyed it a lot!



5. An enthusiastic young activist, Jan Wong left Canada for Beijing in 1972, in hopes of simultaneously aiding Mao's cause and pursuing her ancestral roots. This well-written, enlightening account of her "journey from Mao to now" takes readers through her six years as a student and subsequent six years as a reporter in Red China's capital city.
   
   Wong was uniquely qualified to write this book, which privileges readers with deep insights into why things were the way they were then, and are now, in China. Having Chinese parents, but being raised in the West, rendered Jan part of both worlds. She experienced the Cultural Revolution and post-Mao China as both an insider and a "foreigner," resulting in a perspective on those periods that only a few can claim, and fewer still have written about.
   
   The first part of the book tells the story of the author's Beijing University days. In 1972, armed with only the vocabulary she had acquired in Mandarin 101, Wong left the comfort and security of her Montreal life to spend a summer in China. Inspired by what she observed in Red China, she found it a natural progression to move from worrying about feminist issues to supporting Maoism. So she petitioned and won permission to stay in the country to study at Beijing University for the next two years. Anti-establishmentarianism was "in," and "China was radical-chic" at the time, she explains. Western youth looked to the East for answers and antidotes to racism, "exploitation" of the masses, and materialism. Becoming a journalist seemed like the perfect job for a young woman seeking to change the world, so she decided to remain in China to learn Mandarin, Chinese history, and Maoism. Her goal was to bring knowledge of all that she thought China was doing well to the West.
   
   As a starry-eyed young Maoist, Wong did not realize how miserable people really were. Instead, when she discovered that she and the other foreign students were being given better rooms and special food privileges, they protested until they were allowed to eat the miserable starvation-level rations given to the rest of the students in their dingy canteen. Then she and her foreign friend petitioned to join their Chinese classmates in undertaking the required physical labor projects they had been exempted from. She was finally allowed to dug ditches, haul bricks, and harvest crops with everyone else.
   
   The author's first clue that Communist China might not be the paradise she had dreamed of came when the school asked her to end her friendship with a young Swedish man or be expelled. The school actually played a distressing mind game with her over this issue. From this experience she learned that in China people were not only unable to do what they wanted, but they were also not free to think what they wanted.
   
   Yet, Wong remains zealous in her attempts to prove that she is a good Maoist. In fact, Part One of the book culminates in her informing on two students who asked for her help to leave China for the US. At the time Wong thought she was doing the right thing by turning them in, but now she regrets her decision and feels great remorse for the terrible fate that probably befell these people after that.
   
   In Part Two, Wong returns to Montreal to complete her McGill University degree. Still supportive of Red China, she lectures locally in an effort to muster public support for the country and its political agenda. After graduating in 1974, Wong won a Canadian government scholarship to study at Beijing University, and off she went for more of the same. In addition to learning more about her school experiences and deepening understanding of what was happening on a personal and political level, the author meets and marries Norman Shulman---an American. After her studies end, she takes a job as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. She finds that her Chinese appearance and fluency with the language give her a unique ability to get the local people to open up to her, when other reporters are unable to get interviews or comments.
   
   Wong reaches a turning point when Madame Mao and the rest of the Gang of Four are arrested. As she watches people rejoice in the streets, it dawns on her that the people hadn't believed in the Cultural Revolution for a long time. She feels betrayed and foolish because of her blind faith.
   
   Wong left China in 1980 to pursue a journalism degree at Columbia University, and then worked at various prestigious publications in the US and Canada for seven years. But in 1988, she was too curious to know what was really happening in China, so she asked her employer, the Toronto Globe, to transfer her. The third section of the book thus covers the late 1980s and early 1990s. The highlight of her career was covering the Tiananmen Square protests, the resulting massacre, and resulting fall out. This event served as the catalyst for shattering the last of Wong's illusions about communism in China. She declares herself no longer naïve and believes that she finally has a clear view of the "real" China.
   
   The last portion of the book presents some of Wong's most interesting interviews and perspectives on life in China, centering on human rights issues and social problems like how to uncover how many people really died in the Tiananmen Square massacre, poverty, the effects of the economic boom, retardation, drugs, prisoners, kidnapping women as brides, and the new robber barons of China.
   
   Wong left China in 1993 with no regrets. She concluded that without having spent 12 years living in and observing Red China, she would not have realized that what she was striving for all along was the socialist life style she enjoyed in Canada.
   
   Filled with interesting stories and well told, this book is a must read addition to your "good books about China" collection. As more and more people with Chinese roots return to this country, hopefully more voices like Wang's will emerge to give us perspective on what's happened between 1993 and the present, picking up where she has left off.

3 comments about Shakespeare's Wife.

1. This book, ostensibly about Ann Hathaway Shakespeare (1556-1623), is packed with fascinating research, but a lot of it is not about Ann directly, and some of the connections are a bit tenuous. Because of this, I found it a difficult book to get into; but having finished it, I think it was worth the effort--it is important, provocative, and very informative, especially about the lives of Stratford women who were peers and contemporaries of Ann. It also sheds a little light on the mysterious woman who was Shakespeare's wife.
   
   Greer aims to rescue Ann Hathaway from the traditional view that she coerced William Shakespeare into marrying her, that he consequently left her and the children to seek his fortune in London, and that he ultimately slighted her in his will. Greer examines the evidence (or lack thereof) for each of these points, and advances (sometimes many) alternative interpretations, often based on meticulous details about similar women.
   
   Against the first point, Greer persuasively argues that Ann didn't entrap Shakespeare by pregnancy, but rather he wooed her, although Ann had "good reason to resist Will's advances: he was too young; he had been trained to no trade that we know of, and his family, having nursed pretensions beyond their means, had run into serious financial trouble." He probably stood to gain more from the match that she did: "Will was certainly young and witty, possibly handsome, but he had nothing else to offer the kind of girl, who, as a sober, industrious, patient, frugal wife, would help him repair his family's ruined fortunes." The young lovers probably weren't forced into marriage, but instead followed the tradition of handfasting (a family wedding ceremony), then consummating the union, and upon pregnancy going to church to solemnize the marriage. By the end of Elizabeth I's reign, the Anglican church would have (mostly) ended this practice, but handfasting was still common in 1582, as borne out by the examples and statistics that Greer musters.
   
   After William went away to London, but before he became successful, Ann must have supported herself and her children, probably by brewing ale, curing bacon, and baking bread, with perhaps some haberdashery on the side. She may also have been instrumental in the brilliant match of their eldest, Susanna, to the physician John Hall. Greer suggests that a condition of the match may well have been making Susanna the sole heiress of William Shakespeare's estate. If so, then Will leaving Ann only the "second best bed" in his will would not be a slight, as it is usually interpreted. Aside from the bed (which was probably their marriage bed and quite valuable) and a possible dower right of one-third of the estate, Ann would have been able to choose things from their personal effects before his death. Some of Will's papers, revisions of the plays and so forth, were conceivably among those things; and Ann (probably literate, as Greer argues early in the book) could have been an important part of the First Folio project.
   
   In the process of rehabilitating Ann, Greer sometimes goes too far, I think, in the other direction, disparaging Ann's husband (and some of his biographers, like Stephen Greenblatt). In addition to the often sarcastic references to "the Bard" and "the bardolators," she reverses the usual interpretation of his leaving Stratford as escaping his wife:
   "Ann Shakespeare could have been confident of her ability to support herself and her children, but not if she had also to deal with a layabout husband good for nothing but spinning verses . . . When the chance arose to send him off to London in the train of some dignitary or filling in for someone in a group of players, she could well have jumped at it and sent him south with her blessing."
   
   In spite of the shortcomings of her book, Germaine Greer should be applauded for this fascinating and important study about the woman who was Shakespeare's wife.



2. Greer is well known as a significant feminist writer (The Female Eunuch) and general social critic. She also holds a doctorate in English literature and enjoys a less generally known reputation as a competent literary scholar. She has a long-standing interest in Shakespeare and his works. Here she takes on a difficult task: Telling the story of Ann Hathaway's life and her marriage to Shakespeare.
   
   Hard facts about Shakespeare himself are notoriously few, but there are far fewer about Hathaway. During their lifetimes few if any people kept personal journals or diaries, letters were few and seldom contained personal revelations (for one thing, paper was quite expensive and there was no public mail). So collections of private and personal papers of any kind are simply not available, making it practically impossible to gain insight into the inner world of even public figures of the time, let alone ordinary people such as Hathaway or that "common player" Shakespeare himself. This is a monumental problem facing all who seek to portray the life of anyone who lived before relatively recent times.
   
   Authors are driven to public records of various kinds such as court and tax records, deeds, church records, wills, charters and the like which they then supplement with more or less informed inference and, very often, speculation. Biographers of Shakespeare have done this for years (indeed for centuries) and in the process have created a very unfavorable portrait of Hathaway. She is the older and unscrupulous man-hunter who traps young Will into marriage. She contributes nothing to his life, much less to his work, and he must abandon her to realize his creative destiny. There is no hard evidence for any of this and Greer sets out to challenge it.
   
   Greer, of course, is also constrained by a lack of hard facts, even more so because Hathaway's life left fewer traces in the records. To build her picture of Hathaway, Greer examines the records of Stratford and other relevant environs to build a picture of the sorts of lives led by women like Hathaway (and by their men) in their contemporary social context. The effort is multi-layered, deeply informed and occasionally compelling as Greer creates a rich picture of the common life of the time.
   
   Greer argues strongly that, except for Shakespeare's unusually young age, Hathaway's marriage was not unusual in its time, that Hathaway and her clan were probably a step up for the Shakespeares, that Hathaway was neither ugly nor a shrew, that she did not drive Shakespeare away and that there was probably love between Ann and Will, at least initially. In addition, Hathaway made a living for herself and children in Stratford while Shakespeare was in London or on the road and repaired and kept up the ramshackle house (New Place) that Shakespeare bought. She was also almost certainly literate. In fact, Greer argues, Shakespeare probably wrote one of the sonnets (No. 145) for her and possibly others as well. Hathaway may also have played the pivotal roll in the publication of the First Folio.
   
   Greer's point, as I take it, is that a "good" Ann Hathaway is at least as readily inferred from the limited evidence as is the "bad" Ann Hathaway of tradition. This point she amply demonstrates, with some strictures on the biases and carelessness of traditional biographers along the way. Greer's arguments are strong and based on great knowledge of the time and its culture and (to me at least) are persuasive. In the end, however, Greer's position too is circumstantial. Given the state of the evidence, I doubt that more is possible.
   
   A final word: This is a good and deeply learned book, unusually so for a book intended for the general reader. It is well and clearly written, with great attention to, and respect for, evidence. It is careful in its inferences. It is neither wild nor flashy and it does not "read like a novel." It requires time and attention but will repay them.



3. Once again, I've read a biography about a historical figure that the author seems to know very little or nothing about. My impression while reading this "biography" was that the author's real intent was to write her own opinions about Shakespeare's plays under the disguise of calling her work a biography about his wife. There are many comparisons to Mrs. Shakespeare's wife from his plays, but nothing is fact. There are too many "maybes" to call this a biography about Shakespeare's wife. The author's true strength comes in recounting the lives of women during Shakespeare's time, but there again, nothing is certain about what Ann did or did not do. Was he present at the birth and deaths of his children? The assumption that it was possible is not enough for me. What his feelings may have been about the death of his son is not enough for me. I find the sections on literary comparisons tedious; the sections on the lives of women at the time are fascinating. That the author is very knowledgeable about English history and Shakespeare is unquestionable, but that the author has hard historical facts about his wife is questionable.

5 comments about The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin.

1. I was VERY disappointed in this book. One has to read half of the book before finding any information on his experience as a forger of documents. There is too much information on his female conquests, one of whom was a German officer's wife. Those exploits added nothing to the story, were unnecessary and detracted from the main theme. It's a shame he had to use half of the book for this sort of thing before getting to the main gist.



2. The Forger is a story that has been written many times over. The "Last Jews In Berlin," by Leonard Gross, comes to mind, although being presented in the first person increases its poignancy. Schonhaus' characterization of himself is quite credible, and it must be assumed that the original German version must read well. Unfortunately, the English translation is not as good as it could be. Finally, Cioma's crossing the Suisse border was rendered as being much too easy. The reader gets the impression that the author was in a hurry to complete the story.



3. The writing style is very choppy, doesn't flow. The story is very good, though!



4. Holocaust memoirs are big business and range from the highly erudite, acute and sentient observations of a "favored Jew" (Victor Klemperer), the exquisitely dangerous role of an active resister (Jan Valtin) to the inane (this book) with everything in between. As the book's subtitle suggests, this is an "extraordinary story of survival in wartime Berlin".
   
   Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this memoir is the author's total lack of perspective and oblivious unconcern about his life. He has the slightly sociopathic character of a petty criminal operating in a democracy, wherein the worst possible outcome would be a few years in jail (where he could further perfect his methods). In this case, however, the undoubted outcome of his apprehension would be a grizzly death in the hands of the Gestapo: document forgery would certainly command the specific attention of the SD and it's most expert "interrogators". In comparison, not even a "train to the East" would be frightening. A few sessions in the Gestapo dungeon broke just about every man and that, most assuredly, is what the author would have faced. This fate would have been explicitly known by him (as proof see, for example, Eric Johnson's seminal work on the role of the Gestapo in maintaining domestic security before and during the War), yet the author suggests that he is (or was) blithely (and foolishly) unconcerned. Frankly, only a complete fool would caper about as he did, even allowing for the theory that the best place to hide is "out in the open". I suspect the author's recollections have been massaged for the sake of improved sales.
   
   The book is a "quick read" and the reader's interest is maintained, despite the pre-ordained good outcome (to wit, he escapes and lives happily ever after and writes this book!). I was reminded of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories (flirting with danger and invested with much drama and decadence), but those adventures took place in the (relative) safety of the Weimar Republic.
   
   Perhaps the author's duplicity, which allowed him to prosper and even enjoy capering about amidst the dire perils for Jews in wartime Germany persists in this book: he hints that, maybe, with a little "luck and pluck" (a la Horatio Alger) everyone could have avoided The East.



5. I thought this was a very good book to show how clever some people can be in the face of adversity. This young man outsmarted the Nazis at every turn and lived to tell t he tale.
   I lived in Berlin from 1965-1968 and I'm sure that is one of the reasons I can appreciate this young man's exploits so much. I have been to a number of the places he mentions and it brought back old memories. Good reading.

5 comments about Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History.

1. Dr. Brodie's biography on Thomas Jefferson is a wondrous piece of work, balancing both the personal and public lives of this remarkable man:
   Writer of the Declaration of Independence, author of "Notes on the State of Virginia" and the "Constitution for Virginia", minister to France, war Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State under Washignton, Vice-President under John Adams, two term President of the United States, aquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, founder of the University of Virginia, horticulturist, architect and so much more. He spoke his mind and he spoke it for the people: "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
   Without a doubt, Jefferson's private life was controversial and Brodie brings this to light. Although his personal life story reads like a soap opera, we see how both the personal and public worlds, at times, influence each other. Brodie unfolds his relationships with such women as Betsey Walker, Maria Cosway and the slave Sally Hemings, along with delving into his enemies and friends in public circles.
   A lengthy but fascinating read and thanks to Dr. Brodie's tenacious research efforts, the reader gains a deep understanding into the life of this extaordinary man.



2. Over the years, I have read much on the Sphinx. But this book was the first that actually believed he was human and not a god and took great pains to put a human face to the man. Given that he guarded his legacy and shaped it during his lifetime, we will never know the real man. But at least someone is trying to show us that he was human and had all the strengths and weakness of a man. For that, and only that, this book is invaluable. For those who only take interest in him because of the Hemmings controversy, you are missing out on so much. The political intrigue alone is worth reading this book.



3. First of all I must concede that I was unable to finish this book - it just wasn't interesting enough and the prospect of a new Harry Potter novel was more than enough enticement to put it aside in favor of something that didn't pretend to be anything but fiction. The premise - a history about Jefferson's thoughts and what made him tick - certainly sounded like it would be interesting. Instead, I was amazed at how often she used phrases like "from this we can infer..." or "based on this we must conclude..." In fact, it would appear that the whole book is nothing more than speculations about what was going on in his mind based on what he did or didn't say or write or his choice of words. And only slightly less irritating is that Ms. Brodie (who apparently enjoyed creating controversy) seems obsessed with Jefferson's sexual life. Early on she dismisses it as only natural that he had human appetites and almost unworthy of comment, but then goes on to guess and speculate as to why he was attracted to Sally Hemmings and others and the nature of their relationships. Honestly, I thought the book looked like a serious history about Jefferson, and I was really just looking to learn more about him, but I'll have to look elsewhere.



4. When this book came out in 1974, there was hell to pay...for the first time, a respected historian gave credence in print to the Tom and Sally stories. Mrs. Brodie tried to prevent Dumas Malone and Merrill Peterson from reviewing it, but both blasted away. Of course, this was really very old news; the rumors started as campaign dirt though a drunken fable spun by James Callender, who was no historian, and was far from respected. Mrs. Brodie gave us "An Intimate History", looking at Mr. Jefferson as a real person, rather than as simply a skilled writer of great ideas. Of course, she also more than covered the ideas and accomplishments, and did it very well. Still, the unique focus is on the five "loves" of Jefferson's life....
   
   [1] Rebecca Burwell---a youthful infatuation, of which nothing ever came. Actually, nothing ever started...she is important as the mother-in-law of John Marshall.
   
   [2] Betsey Walker---if true, this is FAR worse than Sally. If true. Betsey was the wife of a good friend of Jefferson, and, her husband was away in the Army...a double betrayal. Problem is, there is no real evidence. When the story came out 30 years after the "fact", it was more campaign dirt. Light Horse Harry Lee publicized it to get at his political enemy, Mr. Jefferson; of course, Callender was happy to vomit whatever garbage he could find. Mr. Walker never left his wife; negative evidence, I know, but still evidence. Light Horse Harry was a bum, and his son Black Horse Harry was worse; Robert E. Lee spent his life atoning for the bad character of his Dad and his older half-brother. The worthlessness of a man doesn't make everything he says a lie, but we do need to look carefully...
   
   [3] Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, known as Patty---the young widow who became Tom's wife, suffered ill health, and died far too young, leaving him two [originally, three] daughters to raise. Whatever Jefferson did, or did not, do before, or after, Patty, there has NEVER been the slightest hint of infidelity during the marriage.
   
   [4] Maria Cosway---artist, wife of an artist, whom Jefferson met while he was Minister to France. Sorry, Tom; guilty as charged on this one. The affair was far too open, the written evidence is far too authentic, to deny..."My head and my heart"....
   
   [5] Sally Hemings---mulatto slave who met Jefferson in Paris when she traveled as maid to Jefferson's daughter. Described as "mighty near white", she was part of Jefferson's inheritance, AND, was Patty's half-sister. If Jefferson had an affair with Sally, he had to be Houdini to be undetected, and stupid to think he could be; Monticello is not that big, and Jefferson was NOT stupid. Yes, Sally had children by a white man; there were plenty around. IF the stories about present day blacks having the Jefferson DNA marker are true {IF}, there were other sources, like Tom's dimwitted brother, 5 nephews, and a cousin...Jefferson's two nephews, the sons of Dabney Carr, also lived at Monticello; they could not have provided the Y-chromosome, but there is evidence of one, or both, being involved with Sally.
   
   Thomas Jefferson was the greatest collection of talents one can imagine...attorney...architect...botanist...author...great horseman; in many ways, the "Father of our Country". He is also a mass of contradictions...a slave owner who hated slavery [so were Washington, Marshall, Patrick Henry, George Wythe]...apostle of fiscal responsibility who lived his last 50 years flat broke...athiest who "swore on the altar of God" [he was NOT really an athiest]...effective attorney who couldn't speak well in public...opponent of big government who bought Louisiana and greatly expanded the federal bureaucracy...the list goes on. And, what does "All men are created equal" REALLY mean?
   
   To answer my own question in the header...Who Cares? There are far more important things about Thomas Jefferson than whether he produced mulatto kids with a servant; plenty of white southern politicians, from George Wythe to Strom Thurmond did, but, with Tom, the evidence is VERY thin. One can quote Jefferson to prove anything; those who would attack him have plenty without Sally; those who would praise have plenty even with Sally.
   
   Mr. Jefferson wrote the two most important documents in the English language, and founded a great university. He will be studied, and argued about, unto eternity. Everybody needs to read at least one biography of him, though you don't need to go to the extent I have. If you're looking for a one volume study, this would be a fair choice. I usually recommend Joseph Ellis' "American Sphinx", or Willard Sterne Randall's book, but you could do worse than this; it's readable, even if her conclusions are questionable. Merrill Peterson's "Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation" is fabulous, but is over 1000 pages. Dumas Malone's six volumes are definitive, but six volumes....



5. The book's title: Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History has no relation to the book's text. The author weaves a lurid and unflattering view of our third president by simply exerting unrestrained imagination. The tale told simply cannot be called history just tabloid stuff. History is based on ascertainable facts. The book is lacking on this regard. Skip this book and you will miss very little, that is, if history is what you are after.

5 comments about Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.

1. It says on the jacket of this book that Black Elk Speaks belongs in the company of 'religious classics'. Maybe so, but even if you regard his visions as indicative of a religious experience, the parts of the book dedicated to the description of these visions make for rather tedious reading. The real meat of the book is his decriptions of the last of the major indian battles at Rosebud, Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand), and Wounded Knee. Black Elk and his friends were there, and lived through those harrowing days. A must-read book for anyone who wants to know how it really was.



2. This is an exceptionally moving book for anyone yearning to know more about Native American spirituality. Black Elk was truly a man filled with the holy spirit. It reminds me of the book, Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. Both are highly recommended.



3. _Over the years I have read this book in the wilderness and in the wasteland. Every time that I have reread it I have come away renewed.
   
   _There are just so many levels on which this account can be appreciated. It is one of the best first-hand accounts of plains life- from camp life, to the march, the hunt, courting, healing, etc. It is also one of the best first-hand accounts of historical events- the Fetterman Fight, the Wagon box Fight, Red Cloud's Treaty, the Custer Fight, Wounded Knee... It is also a first-rate autobiography of the deepest thoughts of a man who fears that he may not have lived up to his God-given destiny. But, above all, it is a legitimate Revelation from the world beyond.
   
   _At times Black Elk seems to despair that he didn't live up to his great vision. Personally, I do not see this. He did what he was supposed to do. First, he brought his vision to his people in the form of the magnificent Horse Dance. Then, in his twilight years, he wisely brought the same vision to the outside world in the form of this book. This was too powerful and universal a vision to be confined to one people alone. Every part of it resonates with the Perennial Philosophy, the eternal religion that underlies all true Tradition- from the World Tree at the center of the people's hoop, to the certain knowledge that the things of this world are but a shadow of the true Reality of the next.
   
   _As far as the sacred herb of four blossoms is concerned that he saw at the end of the forth ascent- that was the rebirth of the sacred tree from sacred seed. This book is that seed.



4. Both Thomas E.Mails and John Niehardt have brought to life the true nature of the Native American in their masterly renditions of their interviews with these Medicine (Holy) men, both Fools Crow and Black Elk. The result is an understanding of the simple honesty, good nature and trust that initially left them so open to exploitation. More importantly, they demonstrated a sincere belief in God that the 'White Man' was singularly lacking in the early pioneers. Their beliefs ran parallel with the Primitive Church as established by Jesus during his ministry in the Middle Ages.Fools Crow



5. I personally didn't mind the interpretation of a white man (Neidhart) translating Black Elk's legendary stories into a published work of art. The book was a very easy read and insinuated deep emotion and spiritual awareness. I higly recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in Indian culture and tense relations between Indians and Cowboys (Federal Government)

2 comments about Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer (Civil War America).

1. Wade Hampton III who was born in 1818 and whose life spanned the century (he died in 1902) was an important figure in South Carolina and in the American South. He was born to near-aristocracy, his father having fought in the War of 1812 and his grandfather in the Revolution. He was a wealthy plantation owner, one of the wealthiest in his state. He was also a conservative who opposed the break with the union, but when called upon to do his duty went to war and raised his own regiment known as 'Hampton's legion'. He served in the Stonewall Brigade and then took over JEB Stuart's cavalry units after the battle of Yellow Tavern. He served to the end with Lee. His son died in the war and his house and properties were destroyed by Sherman's union army in its march to the sea. After the war he was drafted to run for Govenor by the Democrats but relented waiting until 1877 to take the helm of his state as a passionate opponent of reconstruction and northern meddling in southern affairs. Later he served as a Senator.
   
   This book is not an fawning biography but rather a more critical one that examines the importance of this influential leader whose life mirrored that of his southern compatriots and that of his class. He was the embodiment of the south and as the title suggests, both a warrior and a redeemer whose efforts and politics hang over the South today.
   
   A very interesting, well written account that will appeal to devotees of Southern history and the Civil War.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



2. After a dearth of many years, four biographies of southern soldier and politician Wade Hampton have recently appeared. I have read three; Rod Andrew's work is easily the best. Many of Hampton's personal papers were lost to fire; there are virtually no letters from him in existence before the war and most of his war papers were also lost, but Andrew has done an excellent job finding sources and scattered letters. Andrew used several letters from Hampton or close acquaintances that Brian Cisco did not include in his recent popular biography of Hampton. Andrew also gives a much fuller portrait of Hampton as a slave-holder than does Cisco, contrasting Wade III's paternal management with the brutality of his grandfather Wade I.
   I was impressed that Andrew detailed Hampton's amazing record as a cavalry commander with such detail, surpassing the treatment of Edward Longacre, who wrote about Hampton's Civil War service. But it is Andrew's analysis of Hampton's character and his commitment to southern ideals that stands out the most. Andrew has done an excellent job of defining Hampton in the era and landscape of his own existence, not forcing him to abide by modern standards of racial justice. Hampton was a racist, and a paternalist, but his legacy to the world was vastly different from men like Ben Tillman, Martin Gary, and James Henry Hammond. Hampton was a man of honor, who came to bitterly hate Yankees, especially William Sherman, and who never regretted or apologized for his role in the war. Although he did earnestly seek black votes and appointed many to office after his disputed gubernatorial election in 1876-77, he was never committed to enforcing civil rights and was an impotent defender of the limited success of his racial policy by the 1890s. Nonetheless, Hampton's record is largely remarkable. He was deeply mourned in passing as one of the finest of his era and section.
   Rod Andrew's biography is a first rate example of research and analysis. William Davis's work on John C. Breckinridge and Andrew's work on Hampton are my favorite biographies of Civil War-era southerners.