2 comments about The Blues in Gray: The Civil War Journal of William Daniel Dixon and the Republican Blues Daybook (Voices of the Civil War Series.).

1. The Blues in Gray is a very readable account of the Republican Blues service in coastal Georgia with exciting battles taking place on the Ogeechee River at Fort McAllister south of Savannah, Georgia. William Daniel Dixon was 23 when he began his private journal which he kept throughout his Confederate Service. He was a native of Savannah and lived his entire life there. The editor, Roger Durham, has done an excellent job making Dixon's voice heard. I am Dixon's great granddaugher and am delighted that this primary material is available to readers and scholars.



2. This is a wonderful Civil War book told through the eyes of William Daniel Dixon of Savannah, Georgia. It is a fascinating and detailed account of his journey from the coastal battles of the early war to the battle of Atlanta. If you are from the southeastern part of Georgia you will find it especially interesting to read about the battles and encampments around the Savannah area. Dixon recounts his personal exploits as well as his unit's: the Republican Blues. Compared to the fast travel and communications of today it is great to read about a time of letters, trains, telegraphs, long foot marches, and horse back jouneys.

No comments about William Tecumseh Sherman - Attila of the American Continent (Biography).

1 comments about Rogue Warrior Of The SAS.

1. This book was recommended by a friend, who lives in Australia. It was history to him, as it was to my husband. My husband enjoyed it, said it was hard to put down. He was in the British Forces.
   
   The book was in excellent condition, clean - looked new!
   
   Fast service.

No comments about Sarajevo Roses: War Memoir of a Peacekeeper.

No comments about Jungle Man: The Autobiography of Major P.J. Pretorius (Resnick's Library of African Adventure).

2 comments about Alexander the Great: A Reader.

1. This volume contains some interesting articles. Some submissions (Brunt pages 45-51; Narain pages 161-167) are truly rewarding and interesting. But others (Worthington pages 303-316) are just a waste of paper and ink. In general, the editor of this compilation of academic articles seems to lack empathy with the Ancient world to truly understand what he is dealing with. So the whole collection is unbalanced - in quality, perspective, scientific approach. Only readers who are already very familiar with academic studies about Alexander should be able to make a sharp distinction between the worthwile articles and the rubbish.

   What annoys me is that of all the published articles, no single one is has a proper date. There is a long article by J.F.C. Fuller, who died in 1966. Fuller was born in 1878 (!), took up interest in Alexander in 1917 (!) and wrote his major works about Alexander around 1957. But Fuller's article in Worthington's reader is published without any proper dating, confusing readers to expect that it might be especially written for Worthington's 2003 edition of "A Reader". That can't be true. Mister Fuller would have been 125 years old!

   So Worthington's edition - to me - seems like a hoax.

   That doesn't mean that 'some' of the articles aren't truly worthwile. That's why there are still 2 stars in my rating. But in general: I fear that books like this tend to downgrade the overall reputation of a scientist / editor in the long run.




2. Everything you could want to know about the problems and controversies affecting Alexander will be found in this book. A gem of a book, a must for anyone interested in Greek history.

5 comments about Fire in the Hole: A Mortarman in Vietnam.

1. My brother has finally made his peace, his absolution about a time in his life where his horrid memories remained locked tighter than a mummy's tomb. The tomb has been opened as Orange takes readers from Marine Boot Camp to the jungles of VietNam on a journey so explicitly unravelled you'd think you were with him every anxiouss step of the way.

   Orange's account is vidid, clear and noncondescending--a profile of a young man experiencing his rights of passage through a hellacioius war that nobody wanted to be in and everybody wanted to be out of.

   From passing the poop at Parris Island, South Carolina to passing the mortars at Que Son Mountain, Orange shares his tears and fears, love and losts and whole lot in between his journey that started as a middle class wanna-be priest from the suburbs to a mortar man in Nam.

   It's a cover-to-cover, one-sit read----and that's not because he's my borther. He did a damn good job!

   Dennis E. Orange, Brother, Denny at Kent State University, BA, Journalism, 1972




2. This is a compelling memoir. Orange shares deeply personal experiences at war in Vietnam, at Kent State, and at home as a veteran, friend, and father. In the process, we come to see the familiar in his often painful journey. Orange's shift from deeply Catholic and patriotic beliefs to disillusionment and ultimately joy and faith in life reflects the experiences many of us went through (or still struggle with), in one way or another. I think this book will appeal to vets, their friends, spouses and children, who will learn much about themselves and the dramatic changes in American culture wrought during the 60s and 70s--as they relive one man's experiences, they'll view their own in a new light. A good read for students of American culture. The chapters move quickly, each one as a standalone story, building to a satisfying conclusion that enriches our appreciation of the impact of Viet Nam on our lives.



3. Within the realm of Vietnam memoirs, Michael Orange's book really stands out. It's the tale of a young man who at one moment is entertaining the priesthood, and the next he's in Vietnam. The point of view is what makes this book so special. It's the perspective of the little man who finds himself the fodder in a battle of giants, in a war that has nothing to do with him. Orange brings to this a thoughtfulness and sensitivity. His is not so much the voice of rage, but the voice of the deeply screwed, trying to figure out why this all came about. Best of all, it's intensely personal. Few books on Vietnam -- or any other war, for that matter -- offer such a clear and vivid portrait of what it was like to be reluctantly pulled from America and forced to shed blood on a foreign shore. It's just plain powerful.



4. A lot continues to be written about the pros and cons of America;s most confusing overseas conflict. As Myra McPhearson pointed out in her seminal `Long Time Passing', none of us were untouched. Particularly for those of us who enetered our adulthood during those times this is painfully true. Mike Orange's book touched me to the core and helped me peel away another layer of pain from that time. Courage to `tell it like it was' with no varnish, an individual's soul searching viewpoint and the honesty of a personal spiritual quest is rare in literature about such experiences. Mike spares no one, especially himself, yet levies no charges. His conclusions are about his own life and as the reader, I'm allowed to bring the insights to my own moral cases. For those of us who are the `aging warriors' from that time, Mike has shared a gift from a soldier's heart. I'm grateful to him for his honesty, his courage and for the insight he lends to partiotism. I was fortunate to have him sign my copy of his book at a reading. He wrote simply, `Thank you for your service to our country'. That was the first time I have heard that since I came home from the Army in 1969.



5. J. Michael Orange takes us back in time. It is a trip meticulously detailed, yet filled with raw emotion and wonder.

   Orange brought me back to Madison, Wisconsin, 1969, my sophomore year in college. I had just gotten notice of my 1A Draft Status. And so for a time I faced what Michael Orange faced. The difference, thanks to the lottery and a high draft number, was that I did not have to choose as Orange did.

   But this 19-year old kid made a pre-emptive choice by volunteering for the Marines and a stint in the war. It was behavior that ran in the family. We witness the young mortarman's strange mixture of repulsion and exhilaration as he discovers the terrors of war. He is at once detached and trapped in wonder. At times, you feel like a John Malkovich junkie, taken into a mind fighting wars on many fronts at once. War with his girl's parents and with his own. War with his priest. And, most of all, war with himself. Joining the Vietnam War at its peak was Orange's greatest battlefield manuever, but he got more than he bargained for.

   Just staying alive is the real mission and Orange found this stark fact didn't change when he came home. What struck me most was an encounter in a junior high class Michael spoke to 15 years after returning home. What happens in that classroom tells a lasting story of a war those who lived it can never seem to forget. And, thanks to Michael Orange, we all can begin to understand why.

   J. Michael Orange has made a work of stunning honesty. This book is well worth the read.

No comments about Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.s. Navy (Library of Naval Biography) (Library of Naval Biography).

2 comments about It Took Heroes: Volume II, Continuing the Story and Tribute to Those Who Endured the Darkest Days of Vietnam.

1. It Took Heroes II is both a riveting day by day account of a Chaplains ministry in combat with Infantry Soldiers and a resource that will be sought after and read for decades. It is the author's second book on the Vietnam war, and recounts the experiences he and his men had on his second Vietnam tour. No book that I have seen captures the fear, violence, mayhem, and the special camaraderie of soldiers at war. Newby's book is a careful accounting of a battalion in combat, and he tells it from a chaplains viewpoint and with great oratorical skill. I bought both Heroes I and Heroes II, and read them both, barely putting them down. You will not be sorry that you bought this book, and Newby's first book too.



2. This the second book written by Chaplain Newby. Since one of my encounters is featured I can personally attest to the accuracy Claude stives to achieve. I have walked many miles through the jungle with this brave soldier/Chaplain and can assure you what he writes is the truth as he experienced it, coupled with others recollections. If you were having a bad day one thing you could be certain - Claude Newby would be there on the "first thing smokiin'" - often coming in on the Medivac chopper. He always went to the sound of the guns. A good man, a brave man, who writes books that are as real as he is. Read this one. (We appreciate his work helping telling our story of what really happened in Vietnam, helping us all remember those challenging days.)

5 comments about Soldier's Heart: An Inspirational Memoir and Inquiry of War.

1. This book details Lee Burkins' experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. Written in a non-linear fashion, the book is a collection of poignant vignettes and memories. This allows for a psychologically realisitc and "big-picture" way of understanding the story of Mr. Burkins' past. Jumping between the mountainous jungles of Vietnam, Hawaiian VA hospitals, and civilian life in the States, the reader gets a simultaneous sense of the past, present, and future. What is most truly impressive, however, is not the story of the war itself, but the story of Lee's path in reckoning with the trauma of war, coming to terms with it, and purifying his heart.



2. Amid the increasing number of books about Vietnam this book is quite special. It is the personal memoir of a man who spent his time in Vietnam in the Special Forces, and has spent much of his life since recovering from the experience. Thus the narrrative covers his youth and joining up, service in Vietnam including fighting with the Montagnards, returning home, pineapple farming in Hawaii, another stint of military service again in Hawaii, and a lot of hard work fighting for veterans' rights and counseling other vets. What is striking about this narrative, however, is that it does not follow a linear conventional structure. Rather it has a sort of spiraling structure, with each successive section looping back or forward in time and space. But this isn't confusing, it is in fact very effective in conveying that sense of acute dislocation that accompanies post-traumatic stress and is suffered by so many veterans.
   It is a tribute too to the author's writing style that the reader is bowled along; I read most of it at a single sitting. The stories too in themselves are gripping, by turns sad, humorous, disturbing (some very disturbing), and inspiring. But the main sense that comes across is immensely life-affirming, a real impression of the author as a man who has faced his demons and is coming out the other side.
   Overall, this book is a good read. More than that too, it is one man's intensely personal testament to the post-Vietnam trauma of American society, and thus deserves a significant place in the broader corpus of the literature of war.



3. Forget the typical cliches like "riveting", "incredible", and "fascinating" because Lee's work goes above and beyond all of that. This is not simply a book or a memoir - it truly is an "Inquiry of War" and war is something that Lee Burkins has a fair amount of knowledge in. From the jungles and bomb craters that surround the Ho Chi Minh Trail system inside Laos and Cambodia, Lee and RT Vermont fight for their lives against hoards of North Vietnamese Army troops and the suicidal odds of MACV-SOG's secret war. But perhaps the most difficult war Lee wages is the one that dominates his psyche and his mental well-being. This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read; it is raw and unbridled and remarkably unique. Thanks for everything, Lee.



4. I have just finished reading Lee Burkins' remarkable book, Soldier's Heart. It touched me deeply and opened my eyes and my heart to so much that I could never have otherwise known. Those of us that sat on the sidelines during the Vietnam war - regardless of our politics - were not only blinded to the plight of those who fought, but also, through our own lack of concern, inadvertently contributed to their pain. In writing, Lee has reached out to us, reconnected, and given us all the opportunity to heal. For this, I am profoundly grateful.
   
   I will be passing Soldier's Heart on to my adult children. It should be mandatory reading for their generation and those that follow. Without access to a warrior's experience and vision, how will they ever be able to understand the human costs of contemporary warfare, or have any hope of piercing the veils of untruths and diversionary distractions that constantly envelope them. Lee Burkins' painful but life affirming book is a gift to us all.



5. While deployed to Iraq as a Mental Health Officer, I fortuitously discovered Lee' Burkin's Soldier's Heart, while searching for inspiring books to enhance my work with combat soldiers. I was so intrigued by what I read, I reached out to the author, who allowed me to interview him from Iraq, regarding his journey beginning 37 years before in Vietnam. What I wanted, and what is in short supply today are warriors who have been transformed by their experiences, versus being labeled by themselves or others as broken or permanently damaged. From his authentic PTSD "earned" as a SOG operator and healer himself (The author was an S.F. medic) through Post Traumatic and Stress-Induced Growth, Burkins thrives psychically where many did not, largely because of his transformative journey, and personally resilient personality, combined with a relentless pursuit of justice for other veterans, what the Buddhist's term "For the sake of all living beings".
   
   Like many of the soldiers I served with in Special Forces, in the end it is Burkin's unconventional outlook and relentless pursuit of authentic experience which take him from Southeast Asia, through Asian Metaphysical Arts like Tai Chi and Chi Gung, only to emerge as an advocate for peace and compassion. The book is controversial, direct and written in a narrative format which easily slips between deep penetration missions, authentic psychotherapy sessions and historical VA struggles, culminating in a warrior attaining no less than a Phoenix-like transformation. As Erik Erikson might call it, the author attains integrity versus despair which gripped so many of his generation and is affecting my brothers and sisters in arms today.
   
   Applicable for today? Absolutely, as the author has sat with his journey long enough to convey it with wisdom and compassion and relevancy during our time. Easily could be catalogued under Special Operations, psychotherapy, martial arts or wisdom literature. Especially recommended for those who will not volunteer themselves as a passport into the soul of a warrior who transmutes his suffering and experiences and brings back the teachings for us all of us with ears and hearts to listen.