1 comments about Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum (Lincoln Forum Books).

1. The Lincoln Forum provides a continuing service to those of us with a fascination for the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. This book is a product of the Forum's good work, with chapters on diverse topics, albeit all related in some way to Mr. Lincoln, by many esteemed scholars.
   
   Given -- as with all such collaborative books -- the literary level of the individual experts' written product will vary and a reader's interest in all the selected subjects will not be constant, I found the following chapters in this collection most interesting to me: William Lee Miller's on a slave trader; Jean Edward Smith's on U.S. Grant (and with a ringing reminder that this was a rebellion and the Southern Cause was not noble); and, Craig Symonds' on two of Lincoln's admirals.

2 comments about Meade of Gettysburg.

1. Meade of Gettysburg is one of the few books written about the life of General George G. Meade. From reading other books about the Civil War, I became interested in General Meade. I was surprised to find that there are only a few books written about this soldier. When I purchased the book, I thought it would be about Meade's actions in the Battle of Gettysburg. While most of the book did revolve around his part in the Civil War, I was pleased to find that it was also a complete history of the man's life. The Battle of Gettysburg was just one part of the book. For example, I was surprised to learn that Meade was actively involved in the Topographical Corps and played a large role in the construction of the Brandywine light in the Delaware Bay. Meade of Gettysburg begins with the birth of George G. Meade and takes the reader through his entire life, ending with his funeral procession where his war horse, "Old Baldy" was brought out of retirement to march riderless behind the caisson bearing his master. For anyone interested in the life of General George G. Meade, this is your book.



2. As much interest as there is in the Civil War today it is amazing that there hasn't been a full scale biography done on George Meade since Freeman Cleaves wrote this book some 45 years ago.
   
   While this is an easy book to read, it definately lacks the level of scholarship we would expect from a biography today. Cleaves has a smooth writing style, however after about 100 pages you really start to get the feeling that you are getting much more style than substance.
   
   I don't know if the problem is lack of source information or simply that to Cleaves it was more important to entertain than to inform but it really got frustrating to me when Cleaves would skim over what were important sections of Meade's life.
   
   Case in point is George Meade's wounding on the Peninsula. Cleaves was blending Meade's entire service on the Peninsula so much that I had to backtrack to figure out what battle Meade was even wounded at. His entire section on the Peninsula amounts to only a handful of pages and in the end Cleaves spends only half a page describing how Meade was actually wounded. His description of Meade's arm wound is simply Cleaves telling us that he had a wound in the forearm and nothing more. Next thing we know Meade is back up and around and heading back to his unit after going home to recuperate. His actual time recovering is completely ignored. We see this over and over again in the book.
   
   Another thing missing out is Meade's opinions. Cleaves had full access to Meade's letters written during the war but makes no use of them. What did Meade think of his fellow generals? We don't know because Cleaves doesn't tell us. You would expect Cleaves to quote liberally from Meade's letters but he doesn't.
   
   Unfortunately this book just doesn't live up to today's standards of what a reader expects from a biographical study like this. In this day and age where we have such great Civil War writers like Sears, Beatie, Detzer and Cozzens one expects a high level of scholarship. This book simply doesn't have that.

No comments about From Torpedoes to Aviation: Washington Irving Chambers & Technological Innovation in the New Navy 1876 to 1913.

3 comments about Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi.

1. Highly entertaining stories about gambling
   in the mid 1800's on the Mississippi River.
   The life of George Devol as gambler,fighter
   & con artist & his insights into the men &
   their character is also an insight into the
   man himself. He was a master at
   manipulating mens greed & vanity.The
   accounts of his bare knuckle fights were
   truly amazing



2. Loved the book, understand why the author has such a big ego- He lived in an awsome time and was at the top. Historic details filled in alot of gaps to my understanding of the mid 1800's. learned many things about the lives of people living in the Steamboat Era and was grandly entertained. laughed outloud.



3. I'll keep it short.
   
   Buy this book and read it, starting at the Preface and continuing, therefrom, to the end; it's a page turner.
   
   Great stories based on the life of George Devol, written by Devol, a Mississippi riverboat gambler. If you are a poker player, you'll like this book. This book is not about how to play poker; it's about an even more interesting subject: the exploits of Grorge Devol (1829-1903).

1 comments about Grant's Cavalryman: The Life and Wars of General James H. Wilson.

1. EDWARD G. LONGACRE IN HIS "THE CALVALRY AT GETTYSBURG" PRAISED JAMES HARRISON WILSON, AS A "...DYNAMIC NEW CALVALRY LEADER... ." LONGACRE TOOK WILSON AND BREATHED LIFE INTO THE LESSER KNOWN BUT BRILLANT UNION HORSEMAN, WHO GAVE CONFEDERATE NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST HIS ONLY 'LICKIN' IN THE CIVIL WAR. AFTER A SHAKY LEARNING EXPERIENCE AS DIVISION COMMANDER IN THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN IN 1864, WILSON CHARGED HIS WESTERN CALVALRY CORPS CONTINUALLY AFTER JOHN BELL HOOD'S BELEAGURED ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE UNTIL IT BECAME LITTLE MORE THEN A SHADOW OF ITS FORMER STRENGTH. NEVERTHELESS, LONGACRE DELIVERED HIS PROMISE OF A BALANCED BIOGRAPHY IN HIS BOOK GRANT'S CALVALRYMAN: THE LIFE AND WARS OF GENERAL JAMES H. WILSON. WILSON WAS BORN IN 1837 AND GRADUATED SIXTH IN HIS CLASS AT WEST POINT JUST IN TIME FOR THE START OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. LONGACRE MOVED THROUGH THIS PERIOD OF MATURATION AND QUICKLY PLUNGED INTO HIS CIVIL WAR YEARS. THE GENERAL'S ACHIEVEMENTS AS WELL AS HIS EGOTISTICAL AND AMBITIOUS PERSONALITY ARE MINGLED IN AN INFORMATIVE TALE. WILSON WAS SO BOLD OR WAS IT ARROGANCE THAT ALLOWED HIM TO CRITICIZE THE GREAT U. S. GRANT, ONCE HIS IDOL. ALL OF WILSON'S MILITARY AND CIVIL LIFE IS PRESENTED FROM THE CIVIL WAR THROUGH THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR. WILSON WAS ALSO INVOLVED IN THE INTERNATIONAL EVENT CALLED THE BOXER REBELLION IN CHINA, WHILE AT THE AGE OF EIGHTY, HE PUSHED FOR COMMAND OF AMERICAN TROOPS IN WORLD WAR I. SCORES OF BOOKS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT FLAMBOYANT CALVALRY LEADERS LIKE CUSTER, STUART, AND SHERIDAN, WHO POSSESS A MOSIAC OF ABILITIES AND SHORTFALLS. BUT WILSON ACHIEVED MILITARY SUCCESS IN BOTH THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY FAR SURPASSING ANY OTHER FORMER CIVIL WAR CALVALRY LEADER. MR LONGACRE HAS GIVEN THE GENERAL HIS JUST DUE.

5 comments about Sergeant York: An American Hero.

1. If you like to grab a book and take a nap shortly after opening it, this is the book for you. It starts out keeping your interest, but will quickly loose it. If you are looking for a book that really lets you meet York (which was what I was looking for), this is not the right book. This book is a wealth of information, but you will get easily dis-interested, lost, and confused as the author goes into great depths to introduce the men that were involved in York's struggles after the war. I was hoping for a book about York and his family, but was disappointed in this one. He gives very little information about York's family life.



2. A valuable look at York the man, the times he lived in, and the process of creating a national legend. Distinguishes the myths of York's life from the simple facts of his famous exploits. I especially enjoyed the look back at York's rural background and how those values shaped him as a man as well as an American heroic ideal. WEll-researched and documented, but also simply a good read!



3. Lee views the life of World War I hero Alvin York through the lens of a changing society. York represented, according to Lee, the values of 19th century rural American-simplicity, honesty, hard work, Protestantism, and Anglo-American heritage-in an industrializing society. His defeat of German machine gunners came to symbolize "man over machine" as well. York moved from a pacifist, noninterventionist position to accept America's role as a major world power. This acceptance was based on a religious vision of the US as a defender against evil in the world. Lee's book is well written, moves fast, and well argued. He succeeds in demonstrating that an indivdual life can be used to understand American history in the early 20th century.



4. After reading the biography on Eddie Rickenbacker, I figured this book would be a good follow-up on the other "hero" of WW-I. However, the book spends little time on Mr. York's military achievements and contains minimal information on battle tactics and strategy of that time. While the book is interesting and quick to read, it does not rate as a 5-star biography. For those armchair generals who is interested in learning about US history, there are no doubt better sources than this book. But for the cost, its well worth the addition to your library.



5. This is a fine book about the legendary Sergeant Alvin York, recounting his whole life from the early childhood in rural Tenessee to the extraordinary exploits in the Argonne Forest and the turbulent years that followed the moment of glory. The author presents a fine portrait of York, with all its virtues and weaknesses and he does not forget to include also the German account of what happened on that fateful day of October 1918 at the Argonne Forest. I think that the most fanciful part of the book was the explanation of the reasons which catapulted York to fame, the life that York led after his return home and his opinions on current political affairs during the next decades. There are some good black and white photographs in the book and also a few maps.

1 comments about Lee in the Shadow of Washington.

1. This is an unusual book. The title is somewhat misleading, or it was to me anyway. This isn't, in any real sense, a book about Washington. Instead, it's a short biography of Robert E. Lee, which highlights his focus on emulating his idol, George Washington. This is especially interesting in that Lee wound up being, in some ways, the Southern embodiment of Washington's legacy, though of course he didn't win his country's freedom, as Washington did. That contrast in success, and other differences between the two men, is the focus of this brief biography, really almost more of a monograph that studies its subject almost exclusively through this one lens.
   
   Lee apparently revered Washington, almost to the point of worshiping him, from an early age. Lee's father was one of Washington's more prominent subordinate generals, in fame if not rank and prominence in the war. Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee was a cavalry general (really the only cavalry leader of any prominence) who led Patriot forces in the South in the latter part of the war. He was a failure in civilian life, being removed as governor of Virginia, spending time in a debtor's prison, and having the distinction of being so much a spendthrift that his wife's family put their property in trust to keep Light-Horse Harry from getting his hands on it. When he died his son Robert was very young, and had only met his father a few times.
   
   Robert E. Lee's family rarely spoke much about Light-Horse Harry's disgrace. Instead, they focused on Washington's glory and the reverence that everyone felt must be directed towards his memory. The younger Lee was raised to emulate Washington as closely as he could, and spent most of his life aspiring to a position in society equal to Washington's. This book outlines, in some detail, all of the references the author can find to Washington in things Lee wrote, and discusses in considerable detail his efforts to preserve the physical aspects of Washington's life that fell into Lee's hands through his wife, who was Martha Custis Washington's great-granddaughter by her previous marriage.
   
   This is an interesting book that outlines, as I said in considerable detail, an aspect of Robert E. Lee's life and character that has been touched on briefly by other biographers, but not studied with perhaps the attention to detail that it deserves. I think this book is a considerable addition to the scholarship on Robert E. Lee, and think it should be in the library of anyone considering themselves a serious Lee scholar.

1 comments about The Boys of '76: A History of the Battles of the Revolution.

1. Although I love reading histories, I confess that the American Revolution never fully captured my interest and I am not very familiar with the fine modern literature on this subject. However, as a teen I came across a tattered but still readable copy of this in its 1876 first edition from Harper & Bros., a centennial tribute to its subject matter. I devoured it, spending much time staring at the fine pen and ink illustrations. As the title suggests, it is a descriptive chronology of the battles of the Revolution, and its slightly outmoded style somehow seems entirely fitting. It is full of evocative detail that brought the various campaigns to life for me. This, from the chapter on Saratoga: "And a grand supper General Burgoyne gave to his officers. The wife of one of the officers of the commisary department, who was no better than she should be, sat by his side at the table, and drank Champagne with him, and the officers clinked their glasses, and laughed and sung songs, while the poor wounded soldiers were lying half starved under the trees and fences, and the good Madame Reidesel was making them broth."
   
   No doubt there are fuller, more modern treatments of the subject. But for sheer pleasure I can still recommend Coffin's history without reservation.

1 comments about Miracle Man of the Western Front Dr. Varaztad H. Kazanjian: Pioneer Plastic Surgeon.

1. The Miracle Man is an inspiring piece of work about a truly unique individual, who lived the American dream against all odds and managed to revolutionize the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery. Amid the turmoil of World War I and a campaign of genocide by the Turkish government against the Armenian people, Kazanjian, a dentist with broken English, managed to bring some peace to the ravaged allied soldiers. Revered on the battlefield, Kazanjian found himself relegated once again upon his return home to the US. However, this is the story of a resilient man and impressively, one who maintained his humble and humane attitude in life. This is an important piece of history for all to read.

5 comments about Our Liberators: The Combat History of the 746th Tank Battalion during World War II - 2nd Edition.

1. There are not many histories of separate tank battalions available, and "Our Liberators" is one of the few that takes the reader from activation to war's end. Mr. Blanchard hews closely to the official records of the 746th Tank Battalion, and you can find out what the battalion was doing on any given day. The volume provides previously unpublished photos of the battalion's personnel and equipment. Anyone interested in the blue-collar story of the infantry-support tankers will want this in his library.



2. Good book, but lacking in maps and sketches (maybe a revision in the future). The authour covers the independent tank BN's in the ETO, ones normally ignored when compared to those in armored divisions. Interesting stuff. Lots of fascinating anecdotes.

   This should not be your first book on tank warfare in the ETO. If you have a good idea of how the fighting went, you will really love this. If you want a full history of tank combat in Europe then there are other books to get.

   Overall a valuable addition to any tanker's or armor enthusiast's library.

   Hopefully the author will consider a similar work on the Tank Destroyer battalions,the army tank battalions that served in the pacific, and the tank battalions that fought in Korea.




3. Our Liberators is an excellent road map to understanding what the 746th Tank Battalion role was in D-DAY History. In the Battalion's trek from Utah Beach on its way into Germany, the author provides a very clear understanding of the battles the 746th fought for the simpliest of WWII novices. The history is very detailed with pictures of the soldiers, maps, and chronology of events drawn from personal interviews and battalion records. A superb read!



4. Our Liberators is an excellent road map to understanding what the 746th Tank Battalion role was in D-DAY History. In the Battalion's trek from Utah Beach on its way into Germany, the author provides a very clear understanding of the battles the 746th fought for the simpliest of WWII novices. The history is very detailed with pictures of the soldiers, maps, and chronology of events drawn from personal interviews and battalion records. A superb read!



5. I am the son of Captain William P Kennedy and want to express my appreciation of Mr. Blanchard in his detail and research level that he has done with this account of the actions of the men of the 746th Tank Battalion during World War II. My father passed away a few years before the first edition was published, but he had several discussion with Mr. Blanchard prior to his passing. I know that dad would have enjoyed this account of their efforts and it has certainly been very enlightening to me. Though my father rarely spoke of the war to us as children, I was privileged to have attended several 746th Reunions including the first one in 1974 at Wolf City High School in Texas. May all who cherish and strive to preserve and protect life with liberty and freedom never forget the price the men of the 746th gave unto this world. David L Kennedy