No comments about Robert E. Lee: Confederate General (Famous Figures of the Civil War Era).

5 comments about Out of the Desert.

1. Acompelling story of survival in a war torn combat zone in North Africa and Italy. It is filled with the emotions, humor and struggles of those brave men who fought and died for a cause in which they believed



2. The author gives a valuable insight into the heat,grit, and thirst of North Africa. Through the excellant word pictures, you also become part of the fear, hardships, jubilation,and the relationships in this drama. You will better understand an experience that we can never completeely appreciate, and a debt we can never fully repay.



3. "Out of the Desert" reads like an adventure story--you will laugh; you will wipe away a tear; you will be inspired. Recommed Reading.



4. I just finished reading "out of the Desert". I read it from cover to cover and word for word. I could hardly put it down, except to eat and sleep some. I really enjoyed it. It was also inspirational as well. It tells of a brave group of fine Americans, who gave all, at a time when it meant something to be a patriot. Even when a dog named Alex played an important role in war.



5. Out of the Desert by John Blundell is an exciting personal account of the experiences of an American hero during World War II. The book provides insider information about a strategic air battle that played a key role in turning the tide of the war in Europe. The accounts of Mr. Blundell's experiences are told in away that made me feel as if I were hearing them from an old and trusted friend. I was also fascinated by the author's encounters with world leaders, and celebrities. I found it very difficult to put the book down.

5 comments about James Longstreet: The Man, The Soldier, The Controversy.

1. DiNardo and Nofi have compiled a group of essays that fairly critique the different periods of the life of General James Longstreet. While the authors of these essays address the strengths of Lee's "Old War Horse", they also point out areas where the general could have made better decisions. The authors take a very scholarly approach to attacks made on General Longstreet and are able to refute many of the attacks made by the anti-Longstreet movement. If you are looking for a book that gives a balanced view of a great Civil War general and that succeeeds in trying to set the record straight, look no further. "James Longstreet-The Man, the Soldier, the Controversy" is an outstanding book.

   Steve Galligan




2. DiNardo and Nofi have compiled a group of essays that fairly critique the different periods of the life of General James Longstreet. While the authors of these essays address the strengths of Lee's "Old War Horse", they also point out areas where the general could have made better decisions. The authors take a very scholarly approach to attacks made on General Longstreet and are able to refute many of the attacks made by the anti-Longstreet movement. If you are looking for a book that gives a balanced view of a great Civil War general and that succeeeds in trying to set the record straight, look no further. "James Longstreet-The Man, the Soldier, the Controversy" is an outstanding book.

   Steve Galligan




3. This book is a collection of essays much like Gary Gallagher does for his Civil war battle series. The book starts with an explanation of how Longstreet became the scapegoat for the south engineered by the post war attacks of former VA. officers some of which were not held in high esteem during the war. Suffering from this malignment, Longstreet's place in history has not been very kind or in some cases accurate. The authors cover Longstreet's career describing him as a modern general in thinking strategicaly about inside lines of communication utilizing railroads and concentrating forces against a stronger foe. Essays include Longstreet at not only Gettysburg but Chickamauga, the latter being the last great southern victory. Wert covers the controversial aspects of Longstreet's role at Gettysburg and puts the bed any thoughts of the infamous but false allegation of a "sunrise attack order". A fascinating essay is DiNardos comparison of the staffs of Longstreet's and Jackson's where Longstreet's staff come off as more professional with many receiving independent commands. Piston covers Longstreet in the antebellum prewar army where favoritism and connections were ripe and in the final essay covers Longstreet place in Southern History where he was succesfully vilified by Jubal Early.



4. As an avid Longstreet admirer and biographer so to speak, books on Pete strike very rare and shows the creeping comeback of this man's stellar record.
   
   A very early book of Longstreet was written in the 1930's called "General James Longstreet: My Old Warhorse". This book showed the south's view of the man still as very bitter toward his after war activities--which in turn turned to badgering his war record.
   
   As the years have gone by, Longstreet's memory has grown to be more respected, either by research by an individual or by the 3 or 4 books that have been published since that 1930's time period which detract many of the ant-Longstreet cabul.
   
   Lt. General James Longstreet served in the Confederate Army in high command positions from 1861-1865, from Manassas to Appomattox. "Old Pete" (nickname) became known as Lee's "Old War Horse" and the best fighter and corps commander in the Army.
   
   Despite a distinguished military record and several brilliant victories where his prescience, strategic vision and well-executed tactics saved the Army of Northern Virginia from certain destruction, General Longstreet was unfairly scapegoated and blamed for the loss of Gettysburg (and the war itself) for many years after the conflict.
   
   Within the past decade historians and Civil War experts have refocused their attention on Longstreet with a view toward rehabilitating his reputation with a more balanced assessment. Various programs, roundtable groups and memorial funds emerged as a consequence of the Longstreet "revival," culminating with the unveiling of a Longstreet statue on Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg in July 1998.
   
   Despite these good efforts there remains a strong sentiment among Longstreet's modern-day admirers that more can and should be done to rectify the wrongs heaped upon "Old Pete" and his family for the sake of honesty and decency in the treatment of heroic (if controversial) figures and American History itself.
   
   Just as these negative, media-driven barrages took a toll on Longstreet and his family and countless other Americans, we are all reduced by these vicious, orchestrated falsehoods. Our history becomes distorted and truth becomes a casualty. Moreover, we as a nation are nullifying, even negating the enormous sacrifices made by our ancestors, particularly the noble soldiers like Longstreet, if we permit the erasure from history of their lives and achievements --the actions which have created our current bounty.
   
   James Longstreet's life encompassed much of the tumultuous nineteenth century. As a West Point-trained officer, Longstreet served with distinction in the Mexican War and matured with the young nation's Manifest Destiny, honing his military skills in the rough wilds of the West. Longstreet knew the frontier and its values, and he drew strength and vision from his experience which served him well in the Civil War and beyond.
   
   Longstreet's struggles with the exigencies of the South's military situation and his acute awareness of broad facets of the interlocking tragedy which unfolded after Appomattox did not inoculate him from one of American history's cruelest outbreaks of scapegoating and ostracism through which he endured an unrelenting barrage of personal attacks on his military record and beliefs. For nearly four decades Longstreet stood against the ill winds, did his duty, and helped the country grow into an industrial power.
   
   Serious students of American history need to understand Longstreet's life, especially after his last great battle at The Wilderness (where he was nearly killed by accidental wounding) -- what happened to him and why it happened to gain a fuller understanding of what has transpired in the past one hundred and thirty-five years. There are profound lessons for all of us in understanding Longstreet, his travails and times.
   
   This book--which is the most new addition to the Longstreet collection comes through as a "Gallagher essay" type format where various authors from Dinardo, to Nofi, to Piston, to Wert, all chip in with new and original essays on the man--Lee's Old War Horse.
   
   Regards,
   Cory



5. This is an interesting--albeit uneven--edited volume on General James Longstreet, one of the best corps commanders in the Civil War. In any edited volume, there is apt to be some unevenness in the contributions. Just so, this volume.
   
   However, there are some very interesting essays that warrant careful reading. The chapter on Longstreet as a modern soldier is quite interesting; the author of this chapter makes an assertion that Longstreet had a more modern perpsective on war and combat than many of his contemporaries. The chapter on Chickamauga gives considerable detail on his attack in depth. Even though Union errors created a gap into which Longstreet, by luck, had aimed his assault, his disposition of forces was extremely well done.
   
   Perhaps the best chapter explores Longstreet's selection of and use of staff in his corps. The points that he was better than most at deployinf staff resources is well made here.
   
   All in all, a nice addition to one's Civil War library.

3 comments about Portrait of War: The U.S. Army's First Combat Artists and the Doughboys' Experience in WWI.

1. Although the so-called "Great War" ended nearly ninety years ago, there are still new stories to be told, and Peter Krass, author of a fine biography of Andrew Carnegie, has written one of them. Plus he was lucky enough to secure the cooperation of one of his subject's sons, George Harding Junior, who opened his father's archive to apparently unrestricted use, a true coup for a biographer.
   
   Not that this is a biography in any real sense, for the action takes place during an intense period of two years, and an epilogue briefly charts the postwar lives of his eight subjects, a paragraph apiece. Amazingly none of them were killed in the War. What a difference from the British and French artists who these American men were imitating! As Krass tells it, all one hundred of the British "official artists" were mowed down in the slaughterhouse that was Europe.
   
   Perhaps inevitably. the lives of these men after the war don't seem very interesting after the thrills and the horrors they experienced, but one or two of them left hints of interesting careers that I hope get explored in later volumes. Harding himself, if you can imagine, volunteered again in the SECOND World War, becoming the only artist brave enough, or crazy enough, to sign on in both wars. J. Andre Smith became a "pioneer of surrealism," whatever that means, and suffered from phantom pain all his life after his right leg was amputated above the knee. (Harding and Smith managed to live all the way through to 1959, though none of the artists made it to the 1960s.) Ernest Peixotto became a famous muralist and art activist, particularly in New York during the Depression and the WPA years, serving under Fiorello LaGuardia. The rest of them had OK careers.
   
   The day to day adventures of these 8 captains are remarkably well documented in a steady stream of letters home, personal diaries, after-the-war memoirs, and beyond these, the art works themselves created by these men, a body of work comprising over 500 different pieces (now owned by the Smithsonian). From Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood, they went scouting for materials on which to build propaganda. That was their mission pure and simple. The AEF hired them for one reason alone, to bring the war home, or perhaps to dissolve the boundaries between war and home so that more recruits would come to replace the bodies of their fallen comrades. Harry Townsend despaired of war, as he viewed the bodies at Chateau Thierry--too many to bury, heaped up like sardines, thousands and thousands of men. Rumors spread that the powers that be intended to leave them there until all were nothing but bones, for cleanup would be easier that way. "What a thought," Townsend added with disgust. A Christian Scientist by nature, he believed that healing and prayer would shield him from the worst, but when the shells came rattling down on his tin roof, he couldn't even sleep.
   
   The book is packed with marvelous scenes: Peixotto and Morgan passing through ruined villages so bombarded that now they "resembled only the reefs of some coral islands." On the St. Mihiel front, a stunned Harding takes a moment to jot down, frantically, the sights and sounds "swirling" around him: "5 Amer dead, high explosive, one's brain entirely out, the dead horses . . . slept in car, no food 36 hours, started at 5:30 a.m. went on and on . . ." One would like to see an exhibition of the best of this work, which Krass responds to with a connoisseur's eye and a fine gift for vivid description. Then raise a glass to the men who never came back, whose bones still live while they're "over over there."



2. PORTRAIT OF WAR reads like a novel - it was a pleasure. There are great characters, drama, an honest portrayal of war. And while the art of the combat artists is discussed somewhat, the balance is perfect by not overindulging in art theory, etc. Too many history books are not accessible to the average reader - they're too long or too dense - but not this one. I even gave it to my young teenager to read and he's thoroughly enjoying it.



3. What a surprise. Peter Krass does a brilliant and engaging job capturing the details of the the Official War Artist's experiences as they chase the American Doughboys across France throughout their entire engagement in WWI. For anyone interested in either the war or the role of art in interpreting war. Importantly it captures the details of Harvey Dunn's role, one of America's leading and most influential illustrators. I highly recommend this book. It is a unique and fresh insight into these subjects. My highest recommendation.

1 comments about FLYING THE HUMP TO CHINA.

1. The author trained as a pilot in the US Airforce in WW2, qualified to fly transports and was assigned to fly "The Hump," the airlift route from India to China that kept Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang forces together with US aircraft based in China supplied and equipped. It's a fascinating and very personal account, written in 2004 when the author was in his eighties. The book includes over 150 b&w photo's, most of them taken by the author during the war. They make a fascinating inclusion in the book and again, give a very personal view of the war. They're generally not the sort of photo's that make it into your standard history books and for that alone, the price of the book is almost justified.
   
   The author gives a very personal account, the first half of the book focuses on the author's story and pays no real attention to the course of the war, the fronts, strategy etc, except in so far as it has an impact on the author. A good chunk of the second half provides an overview and a little bit of a history of the airlift, enough to give you a broad outline, but it's not a detailed study. The final couple of chapters is the authors autobiograhy up to the date of writing the book (2004 or thereabouts).
   
   Overall, I found it very interesting as a personal account. There were many such books written immediately after WW2, most of them long out of print now. It's good to see an account such as this published and available, it provides an interesting personal view of what it all looked like to the guys doing the grunt work during the war. Kudo's to the author for taking the time to write this account and have it published, giving all of us a little more insight into what the WW2 veterans went through.
   
   The book itself - well, the grammer is pretty person all (lol), seems there wasn;t a professional editor on this one - but it has a real authenticity and a raw edge to it that you don't get in the standard military histories. If you're a WW2 flying buff or interested in The Hump, this book is worth your while. If it's a chronicle of The Hump that you're looking for, don't bother. The author writes a bit about the history of the hump but it's not a historical study or anything close - there's other books that handle that aspect much better. A great read for all that and worth picking up if this is a subject that interests you - here's few enough of these personal accounts that this one is a valuable piece of history.

5 comments about Prisoner of War: Six Years in Hanoi.

1. Capt. McGrath just came to the Air Force Academy for a question and answer session for us cadets. If you have any interest in knowing what true endurance and pain are, or you want to know what war is really like, I advise you to read this book and see the movie Return With Honor.



2. I have read this book many times and each time I get chills at the thought that a human being suffered through this. Mike McGrath and the other POW's are our nations guardians of liberty and freedom. There time spent in the cells in Hanoi stand as a testament to the human will. They emerged bruised and battered but they returned with Honor.



3. If you are looking to read, forget this one. 100 pages( 50 of which illustrations) of under sized print, not to mention its inordane shape left this book without a chance from the moment I opened it...



4. Capt McGrath captures the essence of human depravity in a manner that makes humanity ashamed of its cruelty and proud of its resilience. A book such as this is a great thing to have on one's desk to look at when times get tough - a quick look at it will serve as a definitive reminder of how good one really has it! I have the utmost respect for Capt McGrath and his fellow POWs who served their country honorably and admirably. If you want further insight into Capt McGrath and his fellow POW's plight, I HIGHLY recommend the documentary "The American Experience - Return With Honor."



5. I purchased this book from the author when he was a Navy commander and the commander of VA-97. He was my squadron commander for a West Pac cruise on the USS Enterprise in 1978. Although I was only an ordnance petty officer, he treated all of his men with the greatest respect. I was touched by his story and eventually became an Air Force officer myself and then a writer. The author sketches are just as dramatic as the writing. One can imagine but never really understand the torture he and many others endured.

5 comments about Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel lives in Civil War Washington.

1. I thought that this book was very moving, and successfully portrays two men who completely embody the Civil War. The title of the book is very appropriate, because the number of instances in which Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln's lives crossed is quite interesting. Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents who was responsible for emancipating those under slavery. Whitman was one of the greatest poets of all time, and had a huge amount of respect towards Abraham Lincoln.
   
   I found it very interesting that Lincoln and Whitman had never officially met, yet they had both listened or read eachother's words at very crucial times in each of their own lives. Both had so much complete and utmost respect for the other person, and that is clearly seen from the moment that Lincoln reads Whitman's famous book of poems, "Leaves of Grass," until Whitman composed the famous elegy after Lincoln was assasinated.
   
   Both of these men had the same vision of democracy,and Epstein did a great job showing the effect that the war had on these two men. I didn't know that Whitman had volunteered at a hospital during the war, and learning what a huge impact the wounded soldiers had on Whitman and his writing was very interesting. The book also showed the huge toll that the Civil War had on Lincoln, especially when families and loved ones were torn apart because of the war.
   
   I loved how Epstein showed the increasing amount of honor that Whitman had for Lincoln after he was assasinated. His poem, "O Captain, My Captain," is a prime example of just how much admiration that Whitman had for the beloved president. In fact, my favorite part of this book came in the last chapter of the book over twenty years after Lincoln had died. Whitman gave a final speech on Lincoln at Madison Square Theater in front of such people as Mark Twain.
   
   Epstein does a great job of showing the incredible amount of passion that both Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln had for life. Both men lived by eachother's words and had an amazing amount of respect for one another, it definitely makes me wish that they would have gotten the chance to know each other personally.



2. The PW reviewer might have been a little careless in political characterization, but I think that this book does soften Whitman's views, and muddle Lincoln's, to try to put them both in the same place. The analysis of the poetry might be fine, but the political analysis isn't. The portrait of Chase, and the descriptions of the "radical Republicans", is one-sided. Mary Todd Lincoln is bad and horrible, and somehow that is conflated with her sympathy for the slaves & for a war against slavery. (Whitman only had lovely relationships, apparently). Also, it is true that there are little irritating errors, the "relationship" between Howells & Whitman in 1860 being a clear one.



3. Epstein hits the ground running in this extraordinary blend of dramatic storytelling and lit crit, and he never lets up until the final page. Everyone has always known that Whitman was influenced by Lincoln, but it has been a matter of heated controversy for many years as to whether Lincoln was or was not influenced by "Leaves of Grass." Epstein proves this beyond any reasonable doubt in the first thirty pages, as he introduces us into the gritty atmosphere of Lincoln's law office in the 1850s. He follows the two men to Washington, D.C. during the Civil War, and his capturing of their two characters and their struggles, as their paths cross and shadow one another during that intense period, is a literary and historical tour de force. One of my favorite books about the Civil War.
   
   Bernard Northrop
   Providence, R.I.



4. Daniel Mark Epstein succeeds at what seems simple, but in truth is a daunting task: combining the literary and the historical in a moving, evocative narrative. The book gracefully moves between and across the lives of Lincoln and Whitman, with a cathartic spirit uniting the stories of both men. Epstein makes no claims that the spiritual union was, in reality, anything more than a parallel, largely reliant on the troubled times (and Whitman's obsession...or coincidence). There is a somewhat amplified mysticism surrounding Lincoln and Whitman as "characters" in this historical narrative, but such characterization errs more often on the positive than it does otherwise. The parallels between the lives of both men are compelling, revealing, and informative, and the ending is truly poignant. Civil War Washington also comes alive with a mapmaker's eye and a storyteller's gift for detail. Wonderful!



5. The only problem I had with the book was the author's obsession with Whitman's so-called "personal" life. I can't say the H word since xena keeps deleting my comments, but take it from me, Walt was NOT what Epstein seems to think he was. When Carpenter and Wilde tried to corner him about it, he was absolutely AGHAST that anyone would do that, let alone think HE would ever be so depraved. Whitman was America's only conscious poet. Lincoln was America's only conscious president. You can't get there having a corrupt soul.

5 comments about Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich.

1. While not as thorough as Anton Joachimstahler's or James P. O'Donnell's works on Hitler's last days, Fest provides a good introduction to the last month of Hitler and Nazi Germany's lives. The book somewhat bounces around between Hitler, the Soviet onslaught, and conditions in Berlin, but Fest does a pretty good job of balancing these and writing a readable book. Again, not the most detailed of accounts, but a good intro.



2. I wish that I had read the negative reviews of this book and avoided it. This is a very poorly done account of Hitler's final days in the bunker. The book is poorly written, lacks linear progression, and provides an erratic treatment of the subject. The text itself is cobbled together in piecemeal fashion from other books on the subject - there seems little original here. Quotes about Hitler are often made without attribution leaving the reader to wonder whose opinion was being posited. Fest writes pages and pages of filler material consisting of his own amateur psychoanalysis of Hitler which adds nothing to the record and further sidetracks this work.
   
   If you wish to read an engaging and informative account of Hitler's final days, skip Fest's book and read instead the book written by Hitler's secretary Traudle Junge's or Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting's book The Women Who Knew Hitler which chronicles Hitler's last days extremely well.



3. Fest's haunting description of the last days of the Third Reich is a magnificent accomplishment. Despite its brevity, Fest manages to weave larger historical issues into a narrative full of surreal, compelling details about the Nazis' end. There are the evocative stories of Berlin in turmoil: SS patrols summarily hanging whoever they felt was a shirker, citizens struggling to survive in the shelled-out ruin of a city, the Soviet encirclement growing ever closer. Meanwhile, inside the Hitler's bunker, the story of delusion and denial grew ever more fantastical -- Hitler commanding generals to counterattack the Russians with army units existing in his imagination, and growing more and more furious with their "betrayals" as the Russian advance still came on.
   
   The story arrives ultimately at the Russian approach to the bunker and the suicides of Hitler, Eva Braun, and the inner circle. Their grimly nihilistic end, burned in a trashheap, paralleled their desire for the same fate for Germany. Hitler wanted Germany to go down with him. That so many in Berlin actually did follow him in suicide, or fighting the Russians to the end against suicidal odds, seems now almost too bewildering to believe. Fest's book is bleak, but in a straightforward journalistic style argues why the end in the bunker was the culmination of Hitler's theatrical, nihilistic vision.



4. James O'Donnell's "Bunker" is the authoritative history of the Fuhrerbunker. Even Mr. Fest acknowledges that in his Bibliography notes. "Inside Hitler's Bunker" is cursory, superficial and unoriginal and it escapes me that there can be any reason this book was written except to make a quick buck off of unwary readers. It's a joke. Avoid it at all costs.



5. Inside Hitler's Bunker is a good introduction to the final days of the Second World War from the Nazi perspective - a horrific denoument to a great crisis in world history as Hitler and his cohorts, realising defeat was inveitable, still pursued a grand Wagnerian ending until the last. Berlin was in ruins, thousands were dying by the day, the Red Army were marauding in from the East. And Hitler, a 'cake gobbling wreck', shattered by events, bloodily ended it all along with his wife.
   
   This is a short, journalistic history, mainly from secondary sources, with a good deal of speculative rumination. It is not a deep scholarly book. It will appeal as an introduction to the topic, interspersed with some interesting pictures of the war ravaged Berlin, and inside the Bunker itself.

No comments about BLOWING OUR BRIDGES: A Memoir From Dunkirk to Korea via Normandy.

1 comments about An Eighth Air Force Combat Diary: Combat Missions Flown with the 100th Bomb Group, England 1944-1945.

1. This book is written by a Co-pilot of the 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group based at Thorpe Abbotts, England.

   It is his diary of 32 combat missions during the European Theatre of Operations September 1944 to March 1945.

   I found this excellently detailed as it was written at the time.
   It describes his training as a pilot in the US, the Trans-Atlantic flight in a B-17 from Lincoln, Nebraska to Valley, Wales and flying combat missions over Germany.
   
   Each mission description starts with a copy of his briefing notes which detail engine start, taxi and take off times, target name, altitude formation and callsigns for fighter escorts! Also a newspaper clipping from that day the mission was flown.

   Copies of John Clark's combat flight log are included towards the end of the book.

   This book is full of photographs never before published; taken of the formations of B-17s streching endlessly across the sky with streaming contrails, the flak clouds over the target, on base scenes of nissen huts in the fog, frost on the trees, aircraft sitting on their hardstands in the early morning mist, and photographs of the crews.

   When reading this book, you can visualize everything that is happening, emotions are described and felt when and engine is out, when enemy fighters pass through the formation, when flak burst nearby, or finding that there may not be enough fuel to make it home!

   After the war in 1962, 1966, and 1987 he returns to the base he once flew from to find it deteriating even more with each visit.

   The only remnants in his last visit is the control tower that has now been restored as a museum and a memorial to those who served with the 100th Bomb Group.

   I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading personal accounts of World War II.