No comments about Not Without Honor: The Nazi POW Journal of Steve Carano, With Accounts by John C. Bitzer and Bill Blackmon.

No comments about Shadow: A Cottontail Bomber Crew in World War II.

3 comments about Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography).

1. Harriet Tubman: The Life And The Life Stories by Jean M. Humez is an exhaustive biography of this celebrated and heroic woman. Grounded in exhaustive research as well as the complete texts of stories Harriet Tubman told about her life. Harriet Tubman: The Life And The Life Stories follows Tubman, who was born a slave in the American South, as she escaped to freedom in the North, and vowed to liberate her entire family. Her work to guide dozens of slaves to freedom, as well as her service as a spy and a scout for the Union Army, are also described in historical detail. After the Civil War Tubman settled in New York and founded a home for the indigent aged. an absolutely essential addition to academic library Black History and African-American Biography reading lists, Harriet Tubman's memory and legacy are cherished in this profound and all-encompassing chronicle.



2. Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories, by Jean M. Humez

   This book is a treasure. Eminently readable, impossible to put down, totally absorbing, this book will satisfy meticulous scholars and the general public. What a great way to learn U.S. history! Great quotes, critical appraisal of the work of earlier historians, new documentation, wonderfully illuminating photographs. A feast for the curious mind and eye.
   I have always wanted to know more about Harriet Tubman and as soon as I heard this book was out I dived into it. Harriet Tubman's life has been the subject of several biographers in the past, but in this work Humez convincingly argues that Harriet Tubman, who could not read or write, was able to produce a "self-authored life story" by carefully choosing the writers she collaborated with and exercising control about what stories to tell and how to tell them. This results in a fascinating and kaleidoscopic interpretation of Harriet Tubman's life, as seen through different authors and through Harriet Tubman herself.
   In the first section, "The Life," I learned about the salient facts of Harriet Tubman's life: her years as a slave in Maryland, seeing two of her sisters sold and carried away in a chain-gang, her successful escape from slavery in 1849, when she was probably 29 years old, her contacts with the anti-slavery movement in the North, the mutual admiration of Harriet Tubman and John Brown who referred to her using the masculine pronoum ("Harriet Tubman hooked on his whole team at once. He is the most of a man, naturally, that I ever met with"). It is also about the clandestine trips she made to Maryland to rescue her extended family and others, her military and nursing work during the civil war and her settling in Auburn, New York, in poverty, taking care of old and sick people of color and children-- the John Brown Hall project, as she called it.
   Interesting quotes from her dictated letters reveal details that throw light on her views on other issues, such as women's rights. For instance, in telling about the successful Combahee River raid in South Carolina, in which she worked with Col. James Montgomery and a band of 300 black soldiers, she states after her dress was shred that "...I made up my mind then I would never wear a long dress on another expedition of the kind, but would have a bloomer as soon as I could get it..."
   It is in the second part, "The Life Stories," that Humez makes the case that Harriet Tubman's gifts as a story-teller, singer, and performer and her reputation as an African-American celebrity ensured that her experiences as a slave and her deep spirituality would be preserved. Here, through a discussion on the politics of research, the dynamics between a researcher and her/his subject, and the cultural and social context that influences much of those dynamics, I felt Harriet Tubman's presence and resourcefulness vividly, towering above those who tried to capture her complex story and interpret her life according to their values and the racial views of their culture.
   The third part, "Stories and Sayings," offers a hypothetical version of Tubman's "autobiography" culled from every individual life history story Humez was able to locate from the earlier works. While all the stories and sayings are revealing and offer significant insights my favorite part was the "Stories of Clever Exploits and Tricks," probably because I always wondered how she actually carried out her rescue missions. In this section the intelligence, courage, and humor of Harriet Tubman shines through, like in the story "Avoiding Capture by Pretending to Read." It says: " At another time when she heard men talking about her, she pretended to read a book which she carried. One man remarked. `This can't be the woman. The one we want can't read or write.' Harriet devoutly hoped this book was right side up" (Tatlock, 1939a).
   The final section, "Documents" is a gift of primary source materials for future researchers and anybody interested in pursuing an in-depth study of Harriet Tubman's life.
   Read this book. See for yourself how illuminating the past and looking at history with a fresh eye can instill hope. This book is yes, about Harriet Tubman, but more fundamentally, it is a book about courage, dignity, persistence, and solidarity in incredibly harsh circumstances. What a gift for us all in these troubled times.




3. Several years back I was watching a documentary on Harriet Tubman in which one of her relatives was interviewed. I suddenly realized I had never thought of Tubman as a real person, with actual living relatives! Her legend looms so much larger than life that she hovers somewhere in the realm of Paul Bunyan.

   This book begins with a traditional biography, presenting the bare bones of Tubman's life. The section called "Stories and Sayings" puts meat on those bones, breathing life into someone who has nearly been lost to us in legend. It's a fascinating concept, and I think it works.

   Equally amazing is the Documents section, reflecting 10 years of research and which will be required reading for any future Tubman scholars because, as Humez herself says, "...my retelling of her life story cannot be definitive." Highly recommended.

   Curator, AfroAmericanHeritage dot com

5 comments about All American: Football, Faith, and Fighting for Freedom.

1. An extraordinary account of one good man standing tall for the best of American values.



2. The life story of Captain Robert McGovern, is almost "Forrest Gump" like. Rob is one of nine Irish Catholic children, born to Howard and Terry McGovern in New Jersey. Though born in New Jersey, if I were to describe his morals, character, and upbringing, I would describe it in the highest of terms, that most Americans would consider as "mid-western". One of the many, emotionally uplifting themes in this book, is the absolute, enduring, love, and respect, that Rob, constantly proclaims for his parents. He was raised from the beginning, to have high goals, and his older brothers got football scholarships to Holy Cross, as Rob also did later on, but with less fanfare. Just as importantly, he and his siblings were raised to "service" the community. To give something back, and Rob continued this process in college at Holy Cross and while in the National Football League, with outreach programs. When Rob graduated college, no one gave him a chance of making it in the NFL. But he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, as an undersized, underdog, linebacker, and special team's player. He lasted a few years with numerous teams, making the most of his non-star ability. The way he accomplished this, is with dogged, determination and dedication. To quote Rob: "Being the best at what you do has to be more important to you than partying or chasing girls or hanging out with your buddies. It has to be worth sacrificing the comforts and pleasures of an undirected life and replacing them with long hours of sweat and tears. In football, it also helps to be one tough character." At the end of Rob's short NFL career, he attended law school, and upon graduation, became an assistant D.A. in Manhattan. In keeping with his personal goal, of giving service to his community/country, he also joined the Army Reserves.
   
   Then, on the forever-fateful day, of September 11, 2001, Rob was on the way to work in Manhattan, when he saw the smoke, and the planes, at the World Trade Center. He couldn't get to work, so he went home and put on the TV, and heard an announcement, that military men were needed at "ground-zero" to help look for bodies. Even though he was in the reserves, he donned his uniform, and went to "ground-zero", and helped recover the remains of victims for days. Rob, happened to be there, when President Bush arrived, and shook the Commander In Chief's hand, and was so moved, he decided he wanted to go on active duty and help America fight back. Because Rob was 38 years old, they wouldn't let him go on active duty. He persisted in every way possible, and was finally accepted as a Judge Advocate General. (JAG) He proceeded to go to Afghanistan and Iraq and assisted in "Rules Of Engagement" (ROE) enforcement. From there, he went in to criminal prosecution. He wound up on the successful prosecution team, that convicted Sergeant Hasan Akbar, probably the worst, United States Military criminal, in the last 30-40 years. To refresh your memory, Akbar, was the traitor, who the night before, we were going to launch Operation Iraqi Freedom, attacked his comrades, with grenades and small-arms fire. He wounded more than a dozen troops. Two were dead.
   
   There is much more, to the life story, of a man who loves his country, loves his family, loves God, and has dedicated his life to enforcing freedom throughout the world, but let me conclude my review, by having Rob tell you why he named his book "All American". "You might wonder about the use of "All-American" in the title. First of all, let me say off the bat that I'm not talking about myself here. What is an "All-American" anyway? I've met some real "All-Americans- quiet, unassuming, heroic people who inspire students, protect us from crime, and defend our values. They are "All-American" in every sense of the phrase. I chose this title in part to pay tribute to these "All-American", I've been lucky enough to meet and work with through the years. I also chose it to pay special tribute to the men and women of our armed forces, especially those in the 82nd Airborne Division. That famous unit happens to be called the All-American Division."



3. Several reviews I have read have come down hard on the author for his stand on the war in Iraq. But this is his autobiography, the story of his life, and his opinion of the war is just one part of it. It is a well-written account of his childhood, his family, his education and his aspirations, and continues into his adulthood to the present time. He lets us know how he was trained by his parents to be unselfish and give back to the community some form of service, and this was undoubtedly the motivation for joining the Army Reserve, and eventually finding himself on active duty in Iraq.
   
   A good part of his story comes before that. He was competing with his older brothers in athletics, trying to be as good as they had been in high school football, and then in college football. He received an athletic scholarship from Holy Cross, an enormous accomplishment in his eyes, and he was grateful for the opportunity. And then came pro football, four years of it on three different teams. He was pretty good at it, but not outstanding. He simply was not big enough (hefty, bulky) to be a great linebacker. He was thankful for this chance to make the big league, but took the advice of one of his coaches to give it up. From there he decided to study law and with his law degree took a job as an Assistant DA in New York City. Then came 9/11, to which he was an eyewitness. In his role as a US Army Reserve officer he volunteered to help. Immediately following, he applied for active duty, leaving his job as assistant DA, and became a prosecutor for the Judge Advocate General Corps, and then deployed to Afghanistan and later to Iraq. His experiences there were extraordinary because he was involved in the trial of Hasan Akbar, the US Army Sergeant who killed two Army officers and wounded a number of others when he threw hand grenades into the tents of the soldiers.
   
   This is a well-written account of the life of a man who became a soldier in the US Army. Why would anyone find it strange that he has strong opinions in favor of the war in Iraq ? It is his contention that we are there as part of the war on terrorism. The patriotic feeling that he had on 9/11 was something that almost all of us shared at that time. For him it continued; for many of us it disappeared.
   
   Should we still be in Iraq? That is a matter for debate, which has been ongoing for some time now. Captain McGovern feels that we are making a difference, and that is why we are still there.
   
   This book is certainly worth reading, if only to gain some insight from a different perspective.



4. This simpleton of a jerk-off & his ilk are EXACTLY what is wrong with my country. I cannot f+cking wait to leave this country & never return. Enjoy your fascism.



5. Captain Robert P. McGovern had to work extraordinarily hard to survive roughly four seasons in the NFL. He was no more than a marginal player and had to constantly worry about being cut. It is safe to say, that McGovern was the last one picked and the first one released. He truly became the best that he could possibly be. His strong work ethic served him well as a both a prosecutor and U.S. Army officer.
   
   The leftist establishment slanders our soldiers as usually some sort of social reject or even psychotic. Capt. McGovern is living proof that this is utterly false. His story is well worth reading. You may wish to provide a copy to the younger people in your family. It should motivate them to also aspire to greatness. Those like myself who never served in the military have a particular obligation to thank McGovern for his self-sacrifice and dedication on behalf of our country. May God bless him.

No comments about Garibaldi: Hero of Italian Unification.

1 comments about Timeout For Combat.

1. Here is a paratrooper's personal account of making four jumps while with the 82nd Airborne during WWII.
   I had a chance meeting with the author and took the liberty of introducing myself, when I saw his 82nd ball cap, and when I learned his story and that he had written a book (Timeout for Combat) I checked it out from the Palm Springs WWII Air Museum Library.
   I am pleased to find his book available through Amazon .com and am ordering a copy at this writing for my personal collection.

2 comments about Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865.

1. As an English civil war re-enactor, and a nurse by profession, Cornelia Hancock brings alive the horror, and difficulties faced by the wounded and the woman who choose to nurse them. The book is useful in its detail, and describes medical care at the battlefield, in hospitals, and the improvements made as the war developed. A book worth owning.



2. I wish the press had released the other version of this book. The introduction isn't very helpful.

5 comments about The Psychopathic God: Adolph Hitler.

1. 
   Psychoanalysis of dead historical figures can get old, fast. This book, which I first saw mentioned in print (probably pre-publication) about 15 years ago, is an exception, though I doubt that anyone would read it straight through.
   
   Hitler's favorite painter was Von Stuck. The author of this book mentions a vignette in which Hitler, upon seeing one of Von Stuck's paintings (of Medusa), gasped "those are the eyes of my mother!" For good measure, both Clara Hitler's photo and a photo of the painting are juxtaposed...



2. Waite's book is (amazingly) still in print after a quarter century. It's sobering to think so many people put credence in his ridiculous Freudian notions. There is nothing revelatory in this book and the errors are predictable and redundant. Putting Hitler on the couch is nothing new, Walter Langer and the OSS produced the first psychological profile of Hitler in 1943. It is still in print and available on Amazon and is much superior to this effort.

   The main problem is that Hitler is dead and putting him through psychoanalysis is problematic, to say the least. I have an innate distrust of non-Germans (or non-German speakers) writing biographies of Hitler, so Waite has a leg up in this department since he does speak and read german. The vast majority of Hitlerian documents have never been translated and a non-German speaker tackles the project with a severe disadvantage. But does Waite use his innate advantage? No, he relies on discredited information, outdated sources and throws in some psychological treatises of his own, which lack credibility.

   Hitler was an extraordinarily complex, complicated personality and the vast majority of historians have missed the mark in interpreting him or understanding him. Waite utterly misses the mark in explaining Hitler's relationships with women. He was hardly a sexual pervert and maintained a monogamous, though neurotic, relationship with Eva Braun for the last thirteen years of his life. The stories in this book of his "perversions" are stale and the product of propaganda from WWII.

   If you want a steady, readable and reliable biography of Hitler, I urge you to consult John Toland's masterful 1976 book. Nothing has surpassed it in the 25 years since its publication.




3. I've read this book twice to make sure I had a reasonable impression of it. I am a historian of Hitler since my Junior High days. This review may not help you because I will not belabor the absurdities and distortions contained therein; I only give it two stars because there are some interesting facts
   about Hitler buried within the falsehoods that predominate.
   A good historian will be able to pick these out and laugh at the rest...



4. This book was very interesting to read. It provides a view of Hitler very seldom discussed in other books. It is important to remember though that most of the author's information was second and third hand information. It provides very little in the way of historical documents and first hand information.



5. Everything Candace scott said in her review reflects my sentiments precisely. Hence, I will not add anything save that, in addition to reading John Toland, one might also explore Alan Bullock, both of whom will give you a much more intelligible and studied read of Hitler, the man who would be god.

1 comments about To Benning & Back: Volume I: The Making Of A Citizen Soldier - My Journals of Daily Life in US Army Basic Training and Officer Candidate School (2nd Edition).

1. Monroe Mann's "To Benning and Back: The Making of a Citizen Soldier" is an honest portrait of the United States Army's Basic Training at Fort Benning and the New York Army National Guard's Officer Candidate School at Camp Smith. Military literary sketches are often crowded with heroic jargon and feats of super hero performances, whereas, LT Mann's story tells of the heartache and uncertainty a soldier feels while undergoing some of the toughest training in the military. He holds nothing back. Not even the heroic jargon and super hero feats. This is Monroe's honest story of his ups and downs, his highs and lows, his good decisions and his bad. "To Benning and Back..." should be required reading for anyone considering the Army National Guard's Officer Candidate School.
   
   Hooah,
   
   Rudy

5 comments about A Hundred Miles of Bad Road.

1. I've been a big fan of Keith William Nolan for quite some time. I read The Battle For Saigon with interest because I was a member of the 377th Security Police Squadron USAF that was given the task of defending Tan Son Nhut Airbase. I took part in the defense of the airbase during Tet 68. I read One Hundred Miles of Bad Road, after reading The Battle For Saigon, and finally realized just what Troop B, 3/4 CAV endured out on Highway One outside the west perimeter. The tenacity of the 25th INF and the leadership Lt. Col. Otis and Captain Virant was instrumental in thwarting the sustained ground attack by seven NVA/VC Regiments. This is an accurate account of the battle in and around Tan Son Nhut Airbase. I highly recommend this book.



2. I had no contact with Dwight Birdwell or the 3/4 Cav for 33 years, but the book took me back to Highway 1 last week. Accurate and truthful are the events and people (not the case in too many war memoirs). The photos are real troopers who got bloody. Even the dates were interesting for sorting memories.

   One of my most vivid memories of the war had been Birdwell on a burning tank firing a .50 caliber machine gun until it glowed in the night, and his silhouette carrying out the badly wounded. That memory is in the book (Chapter 19) and accurate to the number of RPG's fired.

   The lifers, loafers, heros, and base camp warriors are there also, warts and all. Read Tennyson for the glory of the cavalry, read Birdwell for the real thing.




3. This Is a story of truth from the men who were In vietnam.Nolan served in the vietnam war.And from reading this book he takes you there.And tells us the american people what we never knew that happened during this war.An amazing truthful book to read.I would give it ten stars."Truth In justice for all of our vets" They are the back bone of this country.The goverment should know. When our vets came home sick and dying from agent orange.Our goverment denied everything.Even the one who gave the orders to drop It. Killed his own son.When his son died he knew it was from agent orange. He later killed himself because of his guilt.Since he was a high ranking officer he was sworn to silence.Like all the other military officers. Our goverment does not care about the men who not only died for this country.Also the ones they killed and never admitted to.The cost to the goverment would be to great.So deny ,deny, at all cost. As the govement has always lied about our vets.When they came home sick from Vietnam also Saudi Arabia.The goverment denied all of this again.Deformed babies,cancer,of all kinds.The goverment again denied our men came in contact with any chemicals to make them sick.When it has been proven that the air they breathed and the contact with tanks were contaminated from Iraq weapons used on our military soldiers.WHY''



4. Dwight and his comrades fought the NVA on the west side of Tan Son Nhut Air Base and stopped them in their tracks. If they had not stopped them, the NVA would have overrun the base. I was just outside the west side of the base next to the Vietnamese Joint General Staff compound. We had VC taking down the wall around the compound with RPGs. We had no weapons and the Vietnamese guards had only personal arms. If the NVA had gotten past Dwight, we would have been goners. Luckily, a company of Vietnamese Marines arrived and quickly put the VC unit out of action. Afterwards, we found the remains of many brave 716th MPs and other individual American military attacking the VC from the other side. I wrote a letter to Dwight and thanked him for his bravery and determination not to give up to overwhelming odds. I hope he got my letter. Howard A. Daniel III, Master Sergeant, US Army Retired



5. I looked forward to a description of this little talked about segment of the Vietnam war. I was disappointed that there was little of the daily life of a tanker and the flow of the book made it a hard read. I would not recommend it although there is little else out there on the subject.