5 comments about Before Their Time: A Memoir.

1. This is a strange book. The author later went on to write novels so it isn't too surprising that this book is not really a memoir but a psychoanalytic, stream of conciousness paean to the life shattering memory of the author's one and only day in combat. The last 50 pages or so describe his slow re-discovery of himself after the trauma. Do not expect a literal description of Army life or battle. While there are some stunningly concrete details in this book they are almost always used to anchor a mental state or emotion the author says he was feeling. I am somewhat skeptical of the ability to remember how one would have felt a half a century ago but then again I didn't live through World War Two. This book falls in the camp of "Crossing the Sauer" and "Roll Me Over'. A work for meditation and introspection on memory. loss and World War II.



2. I never quite undestood what the author was trying to say. The more than half the book is about stateside training and meeting the other G.I.'s in his platoon but there is so little about combat. I was surprised that the time in combat was only about two or three days on the front line. I never did understand what happened to the author that took him out of combat. I understand there was some trauma from an intense day under fire. I never did figure out though why he was never sent back to the front. Many other G.I.'s went through days and weeks under fire and stayed up or returned to the front. I am compassionate to any front line soldier who fought in WWII but this book didn't seem to bring across to me what Mr. Kotlowitz went through.



3. For those of you considering this book, look past several of the one star ratings that others gave. I have been studying World War Two, with an emphasis on the European Theatre for well over 25 years. I have read tons of books written on the strategic and tactical level. I have read biographies and memoirs as well. Studs Turkell called this war "The Good War" and a book that he penned several years ago bears this same title, excellent book but not a good war by any stretch of the imagination.
   
   As one of the victors of this global conflict we as Americans are so used to reading stories about a country gearing up for war, overcoming the odds and defeating the Axis powers and beating them back to within the borders of their own dark fascist countries. In the process of doing this, against popular belief, things did not always go well. Of the thousands of books available describing the chess game of men and machines that this war became, not many get deep into the platoon and squad levels or reveal the personalities and idiosyncrasies that existed. These subjects are often glossed over in favor of the "big picture". In the describing of strategic and tactical maneuverings of armies and equipment to achieve a planned objective the human element is usually absent.
   
   What many readers don't understand is that the story that Robert Kotlowtiz describes to us is the experience that many a soldier had, especially replacement troops that were new to a theatre of operations. They went through training, landed on the continent and depending on which Division, Corps or Army they were to be attached to may have been slowly incorporated into the war. Many did not last long in combat when they did arrive. They were either killed, wounded or captured on their first day or week in action.
   
   
   Unlike Dick Winters of the famed E Co., 506th P.I.R., 101st Airborne, Kotlowitz did not fight in Normandy or drop into Holland or endure the Ardennes or the Eagles Nest. He was in a green replacement division with no experience, and on his very first combat mission the world as he knew it came to an end. This story may seem tragic and unheard of and maybe a bit disappointing from a reader's point of view. But unless veterans like Robert Kotlowtiz tell their stories, we will never know what it was actually like. The official army "Green Back" histories although packed with detail and combat history writing do not describe the human emotion or personal mind-set of the individual combat soldier and the life that he had to endure.
   
   I personally found the book riveting and could not put it down. Sure, since Kotlowitz eventually became a writer it reads well and in some areas may be a bit over some reader's heads. But these stories need to be told even if it's not to the sound of trumpets or victory parades. It's still a tale of personal victory.



4. "Before Their Time" by Robert Kotlowitz. Subtitled: "A Memoir".
   Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York, 1997.
   
   In 1943, Robert Kotlowitz was in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at the University of Maine when mounting casualties in the European Theater of Operation (ETO) required fresh men for the war. General George Marshall ordered the termination of ASTP program so as to release some 175,000 young soldiers to the battlefields of Europe. So, this young man from Baltimore found himself on the liner, "Argentina", at the city of Cherbourg, "...the old Norman city" in France. The soldiers of the 26th division, the old Yankee Division, had to climb down rope ladders, hanging on the hull of the ship, into Higgins boats below. The details of this relatively unimportant event... i.e. disembarkation, fill many pages in this small book of memories written many years after the war. In this small section, the recounts how his contemporaries reacted to the requirement of climbing down rope cargo nets into the boats below, and by so writing, analyzes those young men of the Yankee Division.
   
   The author not only analyzes the men but also the 26th Division.
   On page 8, he writes ...
   "By 1944 there were no longer many true Yankees in the Yankee division. (O)ther ethnic and national groups had begun to infiltrate the roster:,, Italians, ... Armenians, Greeks" ... and so on. Then, Kotlowitz notes that there was "... a substantial cluster of despised WASPs, who didn't yet know that they were a symptom of the future, as well as a handful of isolated Jews, who were also despised; but the unlike the WASPs, the Jews were quite used to it".
   
   The writing continues in this analytical tone until the day when his regiment, the 104th, was ordered to advance against the German lines. Almost everyone was killed or wounded. Kotlowitz was one of the few physically unharmed survivors; he spent the entire day under the sights of the Germans. He did not move and played dead. This affected his outlook on the war and on the army and on his future life. After this single day of terrible combat, where so many casualties were caused by incompetence, Private Kotlowitz was assigned to rear-echelon job. Safe for the duration. So, unlike many World War II memoirs, this book is not a bang-bang, shoot `em story. Rather, it is a sensitive and subtle analysis of the experiences of one American soldier.



5. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT***
   
   I thought this book was going to be similar to Paul Fussell's books on World War II ... witty and cynical ... I was wrong.
   
   Fortunately, for us, the generation that fought World War II was full of so many people who chose to write about their experiences ... and write well. Kotlowitz' recollection of his World War II experience represents the nameless/faceless hundreds of thousands who probably shared the same or a similar experience. In his book, Kotlowitz' recounts his war experience from boot camp to old age ... it is a story of young, mostly innocent men/boys, hastily trained before being thrown into combat, only to have the journey violently end as soon as it begins.
   
   In vivid detail, he introduces us to the men (boys) who he will be forced to depend on in combat ... then, as you begin to get comfortable in knowing who these boys are, something terrible happens and they are all dead. It is such a depressing memoir, I actually envisioned his experiences in black and white.
   
   I finished the book realizing how quickly death came to so many in World War II and the survivor's guilt that probably plagued so many young men who returned home. I feel as though the book was a cathartic experience for Kotlowitz and it saddened me that it took over 50 years before he could finally achieve closure ... when he finally got together with the other survivor.

3 comments about I Fought With Custer: The Story of Sergeant Windolph, Last Survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

1. This book is compiled from the found writings of a sergeant of the Seventh Cavalry who survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The first hand accounts of men like Sergeant Windolph and Theodore Goldin are very valuable and interesting reading. They were not men defending their performance as were the officers like Benteen, Reno, and Godfrey. They had their biases but didn't have to grind axes. This account is worthwhile reading for students of the Seventh Cavalry and the Little Big Horn campaign.



2. As a Custer buff, this book has been on my shelf for a long time. A great book to read, one that fleshes out a lot of the daily life in the Seventh as well as the battle along Greasy Grass. Right up there with "Son of Morning Star" and Walter Camp's book on the subject. Check 'em out, you won't be disappointed.



3. It is difficult to really rate a work like this. This is the story of Charles Windolph, the last survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in his own, simple words. Windolph told his story to a father and son historian team in the 1930s and 40s. Windolph's distinction as last survivor is a bit misleading--he was the last man who was present at the battle to die, but his title as last survivor does not mean he was with Custer's column of troops. He wasn't. In fact, he was under Benteen, and was one of many who survived the battle because they weren't as heavily engaged in it as Custer.
   Windolph presents an interesting perspective on the battle, and seems relatively objective. He does tend to romanticize a little, but for the most part he refrains from throwing blame on Custer, Reno, Benteen, or anyone else (though he does state up front that he is partial to Benteen). His story is not all that unique when compared to other primary accounts of the battle, but it is nevertheless valuable as the testimony of a survivor of that horrible tragedy.
   Included with Windolph's narrative are a number of primary documents, cobbled together in chapters and laced throughout with author's commentary. This is all right, but it would have been better to present these documents in their entirety, with only enough commentary (perhaps in the form of footnotes) to give the reader an idea of the background surrounding the documents. Still, the Hunts have done a relatively good job of remaining objective as well, something that is rare in a Custer historian. This is perhaps not the best account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but it is nevertheless an important one.

3 comments about Images from the Storm.

1. Private Sneden, a survivor of the Civil War was long forgotten when this was published recently. What is so vital about this book is that it is untouched by politicians, generals,and other propogandists of that era. Furthermore it is done through the viewpoint of the artists eyes, and done by his hand - without the editorial expections of the time.

   It is so refreshing to see this long studied subject being given a fresh viewpoint from someone who was actually there.

   Recommeded for any serious student of the Civil War.




2. If you love to see pictures from a fascinating time in American history, this is your book. The details and the description really put you there to experience what was happening. No flowery, romatic view of war from this guy!! This book provides
   extra pictures that were not included in "Eye of the Storm".
   Don't miss this piece of history.



3. Images From The Storm will appeal to two audiences: those who appreciate treatises on early military art and those with an interest in the Civil War. The Virginia Historical Society unearthed a treasure trove of photos by Union photographer Robert Knox Sneden: this shares his handwritten memoir and a sampling of his storehouse of nearly 1,000 watercolors, sketches and engravings about the war. An outstanding example of military art.

No comments about Robert E. Lee in Texas.

4 comments about Testament: A Soldier's Story of the Civil War.

1. Testament: A Soldier's Story of the Civil War by Benson Bobrick is one of the most insightful contributions to the ever growing body of work devoted to this war. There are other first hand accounts of combat and general living conditions faced by soldiers of both sides....far too many to elaborate here. However, there is something touching almost beyond words about the letters young Benjamin "Webb" Baker wrote his mother.

   Benson Bobrick does a good job in weaving Webb's (Bobrick's great-grandfather) letters into a coherent narrative about the war. The narrative covers Webb's entire enlistment period from 1861 to his discharge in 1864. Civil War buffs will recognize the battles included: Pea Ridge, Perryville, Stone's River, Chickamauga, and finally the Atlanta victory. Perhaps of equal value are the letters themselves, neatly placed into an appendix at the end of the book...each included in their entirety for the casual reader to pour over and ponder.

   Its all here, the descriptions of battle, of camp life, of marching,...insights into the officers that lead these men, and a general view of the times. The letters read true as anyone who has served in the military will recognize. Red tape is red tape no matter the century.

   I encourage Civil War buffs to read Testament. If you haven't read much on the Civil War then this is a good book to start with.




2. I enjoyed the letters in this book thoroughly. It is a marvelous collection that explore everything from the mundane to the horror of battle to the deep feelings for family and country. Bobrick set the stage for the letters well and gave a wonderful account of this man's life. I did think that his history lesson was a little overdone and assumed that readers would know absolutely nothing about the Civil War or the conflicts that led up to it. This took away slightly as I was anxious to get back to the "story" during these lessons. But this does nothing to dim the eloquence of the letters themselves. They are particularly poignant as we have young men and women in harm's way again today. You can't help but draw parallels as you read. This book is truly a Testament.



3. Of the many books published on the Civil War, "Testament" rises above the others. From the first chapter on, the reader is transported back in time and place. The uniqueness of presenting this story using the the diary of a soldier is simply spellbinding. The words from this soldier's diary are intricately woven with narrative so descript and vivid one can truly understand all that a war encompasses. The emotion that pours from the pages is overpowering. The soldier's sense of duty and honor countered by his fear of war's consequences is conveyed so realistically, the reader can not help but feel the internal conflict of morality just as he did. Beautifully written and timeless in nature, this book is a must read for civil war buffs - and - for anyone wanting an understanding of the horrors of war.



4. This book is about a Union soldier from Missouri who enlisted in August 1861 at the age of nineteen. His Illinois company fought the Rebels at Stones River, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In fact, he spent two years of the war traversing this great state of Tennessee, though most was in the Middle section, where people are friendlier. I know, because I lived there for most of my adult life.
   
   In May, 1862, his group was traveling down the Tennessee River over a very rough countryside to Pittsburg Landing, and on to Corinth, Mississippi. On September 1, they came back up through Florence, Alabama, Lawrenceburg, Spring Hill and Franklin to Murfreesboro on the way to Cumberland Gap. On Sept. 7, in Nashville, he wrote "all the country from here to Lawrenceburg is as pretty as it can be." Walking at the rate of fifty miles a day, they found 60,000 troops there.
   
   His brother, John, was killed early in October on the battlefield at Perryville; "would I had died in his stead --- my only, my true and noble hearted brother," he wrote to his mother. He sent her a lock of John's hair, everything taken from his pockets but his "Testament."
   
   November 4 they were on their way back to Nashville from Kentucky. Thirty miles to the SE there were 100,000 Confederates at Murfreesboro waiting for them on December 2. From January 10-25, 1863, it was rainy but "warm as May" at their camp east of Murfreesboro. "The enemy reinforced is reported at Shelbyville 22 miles away."
   
   In Franklin, just outside Nashville, "This is the prettiest country I ever saw...the few people who are left are very friendly and of refined manners." On June 30, they were in Manchester, 13 miles from Tullahoma and July 12 found them in Winchester, "no pen, let alone mine, can describe the horrors of civil war."
   
   He had no high regard for the Southern men and called them names, but "the people are sociable and intelligent and very obliging to the soldiers...the town is healthy and beautifully situated." On August 8, he wrote, "The Dixie gals are awful nice, and it is very pleasant to be here."
   
   He was wounded in the Battle at Murfreesboro on Sept. 27, 1863. His arm healed properly and by March 3, 1864, they were in East Tennessee. March 3, 1864, they were in Newmarket, 40 miles north of Knoxville and on the 25th in Strawberry Plains only 20 miles from town. However, they bypassed us and, from April 16 to May 31, his company was in Cleveland, TN south of Knoxville, 30 miles east of Chattanooga. His last letter was written on June 8 and he was discharged Sept. 5, 1864, with the rank of Corporal.
   
   This was the story of Benjamin "Webb" Baker, based on ninety letters to his mother, grandfather, Uncle Adams, Cousin Louisa, Cousin Amos, and his brother, John. It is written by his great grandson, Benson Bobrick who also used family papers of his late grandfather, James Chamberlain Baker -- which means that Webb got home safely and married, thus a son to look after the legacy of war as he experienced it.

5 comments about Be Not Afraid, for You Have Sons in America: How a Brooklyn Roofer Helped Lure the U.S. into the Kosovo War.

1. This book was so one sided and the author didn't even try to hide that fact. There was nothing about the the countrys history to say why the Serbs would think/know that that country was theres. Its would not be a good book for someone to read if they didn't know anything about Serbs.



2. Having just finished Stacy Sullivan's "Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons In America," I can only say that it an extraordinarily undervalued gem. Not unlike Chuck Sudetic's "Blood and Vengeance," Sullivan takes a complex international disaster and makes it intelligible by weaving "big picture" historical, stategic and political facts into the lives of the ordinary people who always make history.
   
   Anyone can find the history of the Balkans in general and Kosovo in particular by perusing the recent texts that focus on the governmental players, but this book sees the tragedy in the lives of those who experienced it and make it ever so real.
   
   The book is also highly relevant to our post-Sept. 11 world. It depicts how Albanian-Americans were able to use the openness of our society and gulibility of our leaders to subvert American foreign policy in ways that were totally legal. Her chilling message for today is clear. If blue collar expats in Brooklyn can fund and arm an insurgency across the world, how much easier it would be for weapons of destruction to be acquired and utilized right here at home? Sullivan's book makes the Oklahoma City bombing - much less the continuing threat of Al Qaeda - very close indeed.
   
   Did Sullivan get every just right? As someone who has travelled to Albania and the rest of the Balkans and read more than a little, there are some facts she missed (such as the role of the Berisha family), but not much. I learned a great deal from this book.
   
   Finally, even if the reader has no interest in the intricacies of the Balkans, this book should be purchased and read. It is one great tale.



3. This is a well-written, readable account of the guerrilla war in Kosovo. The author spent years in and around Kosovo, and is clearly in command of her topic.
   
   If you're not familiar with the Kosovo conflict, this is a very solid introduction to it. If you are, it's still very much worth reading. This is the first book examining in detail how Albanian-Americans supported the KLA guerrilla movement, and it adds a lot to any discussion of the Kosovo issue.
   
   Stacy Sullivan's writing is light and very readable, but she has done her homework, and the tone never lapses into sentimentality or self-indulgence. There is a clear pro-Albanian bias, but this is hardly surprising... she spent most of her time on the Albanian side of things.
   
   (This has definitely affected the book's reviews. You may notice that several reviewers have said "it's great" and then given it low reviews, because it didn't agree with their own opinions about the war. This is unfortunate, because it's a book well worth reading whether think the Kosovo intervention was a good idea or not.)
   
   I have some quibbles with the book. She really doesn't give enough time to KLA atrocities, including the ones that have caused KLA members to be indicted to the Hague. She largely ignores the strange cross-currents in the province, like the killings of "collaborators" (who may or may not have been such). And some of the numbers in the final chapter are a bit iffy.
   
   But these are quibbles. There are a lot of wonderful pieces in here: her Albanian-American protagonist shopping for Stinger missiles in a Pakistani arms bazaar, young Americans in a disorganized KLA "boot camp", Geraldo Rivera setting off an artillery strike. And the general quality of the writing is high, and the book takes a complicated subject and boils it down into a clear narrative.
   
   Highly recommended to anyone who's interested in this still-controversial topic.
   
   
   Doug Muir



4. Sullivan's book recounts the Kosovo conflict as seen by participants and supporters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). Despite this focus on one side of the conflict, it is remarkably even-handed, and does not gloss over misconduct by the UCK and Kosovo Albanians during and after the war. It is not (and does not claim to be) a complete history of the conflict, but it's an important contribution to that history.



5. Having lived many years in Kosovo after the war, I found many people who have not lived here think the KLA and the revolutionary movement did not exist, or that they are terrorists of the worst kind. This book shreds those misconceptions and illustrates how love of one's country will lead any person on a similar path to ensure his country and countrymen's freedoms. Any westerner will question his or her own patriotism - how far would you go to save your country from oppression? I bet many would hide and run away, not find ways to make a different path for so many!

No comments about Napoleon's Enfante Terrible: General Dominique Vandamme (Campaigns and Commanders).

1 comments about Lancaster Target.

1. What can I say, awesome, captivating, fantastic. We owe a debt to Jack Currie for recording this terrifying part of history. We also owe a debt to Goodall publishing and Airdata for still printing it !....

No comments about The Rash Adventurer: A Life of John Pendlebury.

5 comments about Grant: A Biography.

1. This is one seriously irritating book. There may be relatively few factual errors (at least, compared to Geoffrey Perret's work on Grant, a masterpiece of unintentional humor,) but McFeely's work is riddled with what I can only believe are deliberately insulting mischaracterizations and misrepresentations, tiresomely pretentious writing, and amateur psychoanalyzing of the most obnoxious sort. McFeely is particularly fond of quoting the words of Grant or his wife on some matter or another, and then proclaiming that--no matter how clear their meaning may have been to us poor dumb non-historians--what they were REALLY saying and thinking was something else altogether. If there is anything I can't abide, it's a biographer who persists in reading a subject's mind and putting words into his or her mouth and thoughts into his or her head that were never said and never thought. McFeely not only obviously believes he is much smarter than Grant (hah!) but more percipient than his readership, as well.

   If this book is worthy of a Pulitzer, then I trust my next grocery shopping list will earn me a Nobel Prize for Literature.




2. McFeely won the Pulitzer Prize for this book in 1982, but the conclusions he reaches about his subject have drawn fire ever since. Those sympathetic to Grant correctly point to errant assumptions and mistakes in character analysis. Most glaring is McFeely's insistence that Grant gloried in carnage, was insensitive to death and suffering, and was an incompetent chief executive.

   Actually Grant was one of the most exquisitiely sensitive men ever born and was nothing like the 'butcher' that McFeely describes. However, the research in the book is quite good and there are very few factual errors to be found, though his chapters on the civil war are relatuvely weak. This contrasts markedly to Geoffrey Perret's 1997 Grant biography, which contained inaccuracies on nearly every page. McFeely is most solid in the period of Reconstruction, though he is usually overly prone to criticize the hapless Grant. Throughout many chapters, it seems the General can't buy a break.

   McFeely's greatest admiration for Grant is contained in two areas of his life: his family relationships, specifically his loving marriage to wife Julia, and his abilities as a writer. McFeely leaves no doubt that he regards Grant's 1885 Memoirs as one of the great books ever written and the best part of this biography is in explaining the processes Grant used to produce such a masterpiece, while dying of throat cancer.

   With its flaws and uneven treatment of Grant, McFeely's book cannot be considered definitive, but it is still the only complete biography of Grant written in the past 30 years. Perret's limping entry isn't even in the same league as this book, in accuracy, writing or research. To sum up: overly critical, but a must read for Civil War buffs.




3. The book covers the important parts of Grant's life. The book has good research on Grant's youth.



4. Any good biographer has to have, if not sympathy, at least some understanding of his or her subject. Unfortunately, although this book is well researched, you get the uneasy feeling that Mr. McFeely is examining Ulysses Grant like a bug under a microscope. This is the classic example of an academic who lacks understanding of real life and as a result cannot grasp the dynamics of a man of action, as Ulysses Grant certainly was.
   
   Mr. McFeely also unquestioningly adopts the prejudices of prior historians without thinking for himself. As a result, an historian who DID think for himself, Frank Scaturro in President Grant Reconsidered, has rendered Mr. McFeely's book obsolete. Every biography since Mr. Scaturro has reviewed the Grant Administration with a fresh and generally favorable eye. As the last civil rights President before Harry Truman, Grant certainly deserves that revised opinion.
   
   Mr. McFeely's book is no longer worth reading, if it ever was.



5. I am currently reading a biography of every President in order. I must say that none of the preceding Presidents (even Lincoln) seem to be as difficult to pin down as Grant as to their "definitive" biography. In addition to McFeely's Pulitzer prize winning effort is Geoffrey Perret's offering, which seems to be universally derided as a scholarly farce, Jean Edward Smith's biography of Grant is clearly meant for a more popular readership (indeed Smith's commitment to scholarly research is somewhat dubious himself given he was able to produce a 1,000 page biography of FDR in less than 5 years after writing his Grant bio), and finally Brooks Simpson's projected two volume biography which when complete will certainly be the most comprehensive modern effort. McFeely's biography was the Pulitzer prize winner and that ultimately swayed me in favor of it, although I was a bit concerned about some of the poor reviews it received.
   
   I will state from the outset that I think most of the criticism of McFeely's biography I have read in other reviews is either unwarranted or overstressed. This is a straightforward "old school" biography that is directed by the research and not by some new spin that the author believes will help sell the book. McFeely won the Pulitzer Prize for this work and rightfully so. This is a comprehensive and balanced biography of Grant that is a highly enjoyable read on top of that.
   
   I'm not sure what the negative reviewers expectations were before reading this book. Obviously most feel that Grant is somehow misrepresented by McFeely, however I definitely did not reach that conclusion. I believe this is the best comprehensive one volume biography of Grant available based on extensive research and solid writing.