2 comments about George Washington: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader.

1. Fleshed out with an additional twenty years of meticulous, exhaustive research and newly revised by Robert E. Jones (Professor of History, Fordham University), George Washington: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader is an informative biography of America's first President. Focusing especially on Washington's trials during the Revolution and his service as President, George Washington: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader is a compelling look at both the legend and the man, his foibles as well as his virtues, and his legacy and contribution to both American and world history. George Washington: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader is very highly recommended for academic and community library American History and Biographical Studies collections.



2. I found this bio to be quite disappointing. It is relatively brief, and many important events in Washington's life and career are only given a few sentences or paragraphs. Most of the author's observations regarding Washington's character are not presented until the end, and then they are disjointed and seem to be mere afterthoughts. The author also tends to group many subjects into a single paragraph, perhaps to hide the lack of detail. Compared to other historical bios (like McCullough's John Adams or Blumenson's Patton) this book is poorly written, difficult to read, and lacking in detail and information. I do not recommend this book at all.

No comments about Love and Courage: A Story of Insubordination.

No comments about Government for the People: Reflections of a White House Counsel to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

5 comments about The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.

1. ...because that's all this erroneous piece of trash is. I'm not homophobic. I am against people trying to cash in on the name of a legendary historic figure simply to cause controversy, and thereby gain some extra dollars.
   
   Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise and others can sue the tabloids when they twist stories. Lincoln's dead. He can't.
   
   Just remember that.



2. What is it that propels peopel to reinterpret history? This book is so chock full of speculative flim flam. It is written by a person who is applying 21st century culture to 19th century culture. It was not uncommon for men to share quarters 200 years ago and ...GUESS WHAT? Not be gay.
   
   The irrational claim this author makes is based on this one single premise:
   
   "OOOH two men shared a room...they MUST have had gay sex!"
   In the military I slept in very close quarters to other men, and NOT ONCE did I have any inclination of homosexual conduct. What is wrong with leftists? Why must everything be centered around sex? Is there anything else to life for them, than fleshly gratification? Good grief.
   Lincoln had a close friend and shared a bedroom with him. AND? Does that AUTOMATICALLY mean he was gay? Cmon people!
   Can you not see the obvious fallacy? It is a false conclusion. It is a desperate attempt by the left to twist history into something that suits them. Its taking a *REPUBLICAN* president and trying to make him into a liberal!
   
   Hows this for the left? Lincoln advocated PRAYER in school. Next thing you know, the left will be trying to twist that around.



3. Most art, literature and history is studied from the straight, white, male perspective. If a famous man professed his undying devotion to a woman and slept with her for years, SWM academic theory would presume the couple was sexually involved and use that as proof of heterosexuality. C.A. Tripp simply looks at the facts of Lincoln's intimate life from the position of a queer theory scholar. Interpreting findings from a queer point of view takes this book beyond the genre of biography and helps us understand how all historical theory about any minority has been skewed to fit a mainstream mold, disregarding history as it most probably was.



4. The world of Lincoln scholarship can be highly contentious, but controversy about this book relates to Tripp's use of evidence, not the topic he examines. My own specialty is Lincoln's pre-presidential life. Determining what happened in those years can involve surmise and supposition. I don't fault Tripp for lacking unobtainable proof. Even outright speculation can freshen thought.
   
   I am concerned, however, by Tripp seizing a kernel of evidence, extrapolating from it, and pronouncing the resultant structure to be proof of his contention. For example, he finds a unique statement from Bill Greene noting that Lincoln had well-developed thighs. Tripp then turns to the Duncan and Nichols biography of Mentor Graham, a source I consider so unreliable that I have never dared cite it as authority for anything. Relying on an undependable source and a single comment from Greene, Tripp claims to prove a homosexual relationship between Greene and Lincoln.
   
   Tripp extrapolates further and argues that because Greene became embarrassed when Lincoln introduced him to Secretary of State Seward as Lincoln's grammar teacher, that meant Greene was uneasy about his old homosexual relationship with Lincoln. Tripp considers and rejects the possibility that Greene said little during the meeting because he didn't want to reveal his poor grasp of grammar to Seward, thereby belying Lincoln's praise and humiliating himself. I find the possibility that Tripp rejects to be more plausible than the one he embraces.
   
   Another type of reasoning is illustrated by Tripp arguing for a homosexual relationship between Lincoln and Joshua Speed because (in part) when Lincoln moved into their sleeping quarters, Speed failed to say anything about his admiration of a Lincoln speech. Tripp here assumes that because Speed failed to mention this in his account of his conversation with Lincoln, that absence means no conversation about the speech occurred. Lincoln and Speed may have talked about many things that Speed didn't mention (weather, crops, politics). Tripp seems to think that if an account doesn't say something happened, then it didn't happen. That's invalid reasoning.
   
   Regarding Lincoln and Speed being bed mates, neither man was secretive about the arrangement, and some men Lincoln slept with had definite heterosexual orientation. Public comment about a politician's sex life was rare in that era, but I have seen examples in Illinois newspapers. If anyone had thought the Lincoln-Speed sleeping arrangement could be portrayed as homosexual, I think political opponents would have raised the issue regardless of whether they believed it.
   
   We can speculate all day about Lincoln's place on the sexual continuum between heterosexual and homosexual, and speculate reasonably, but speculation isn't proof. Still, the topic is worthy. For me, the big disappointment in Tripp's book was in finding him wrong again and again about things I know about. If it had been the other way around I would probably have found the book exciting rather than frustrating.



5. Let me state the obvious. Each of us is a product of our time - of all the people and events we encounter, and the values of the societies we live in. So was Lincoln. So was Tripp. Current Gay and Queer identities are 20th cent constructs and could not have been embraced by Lincoln, nor does Tripp claim this to have been the case. Nor does Tripp present a view that all Gay people will see as politically acceptable - his work helped build the current identity but he was, himself, a product of another era. However, as Robert Aldrich and others have demonstrated, homosexuality is as ancient as humanity and exists in many forms across societies. Tripp gives a good portrait of a remarkable man coping with homosexual urges in an emerging nation. Tenuous though some of his arguments may be, his critics are, in many cases subject to the academic biases of reliance on surviving documentation (often ignoring context and the nature of covert behaviour), lack understanding of the experience of being in a hidden minority and even, in a few cases, rely on arguments that make Tripp's weakest sound strong. The truth is that here is meticulously well researched book that presents a convincing arguement but shows evidence of the author not having survived to do the last few re-writes that would have bought it up to his usual high standard.

No comments about Truck of Fools: A Testimonio of Torture and Recovery.

1 comments about Farewell to Spandau.

1. An honest, factual account of Tony Le Tissier's time as British Governor of Spandau Prison during the final years. The author writes with precision and humour. Very interesting and should be read by anyone who was connected in any way. A wonderful memoire.

1 comments about Better in Darkness: A Biography of Henry Adams : His Second Life, 1862-1891 (Biography of Henry Adams).

1. This is, quite simply, one of those amazing biographies (George Painter's Marcel Proust in the '50s comes to mind) where the intrinsic interest of the subject and the searching intelligence of the author combine to make a great achievement. One could simply say, If you feel an affinity for Henry Adams, read this book, and one would be right. But it goes beyond Adams as an object of study and engages in -- highly interesting and never tendentious -- speculation; but the speculation is always interesting and to a sophisticated reader, identifiable as such. I hope this book, along with the companion volumes, reaches more readers -- any one interested in American history or letters, or for that matter the human soul, should read it.

5 comments about Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment.

1. I have just completed reading Hazel Wolf's biography by Susan Starbuck, which was published by the University of Washington Press. Ms. Starbuck has skillfully knit together the words of Ms. Wolf, based on years of interviews with her, with her own author's narrative. Because Ms. Wolf's life was so dramatic and has been so vividly presented by the author, the book is interesting and preserves an important part of Northwest political history.



2. Hazel Wolf could have been your grandmother. A real tomboy, she grew up with her toes in the sand of Pacific Northwest beaches and her fingers around a basketball. The working class kids of Victoria B.C. were her "gang," and the comradeship and fun they cooked up animated her whole life.

   Later, working as a secretary in Depression-era Seattle, Wolf organized fledgling unions wherever the bosses assigned her. They'd fire her for organizing, re-assign her to a new job, and she would begin organizing again. Like she always did, Hazel was just making friends and having fun.

   In one of the "Hazel Stories" that fill the book, sheriff's deputies tried to evict a down-and-out family from their home by carrying the furniture out onto the sidewalk. Hazel and her friends, who sometimes cared to call themselves socialists or communists, simply carried the chairs and tables back into the house through the back door. The sheriff eventually gave up.

   The U.S. government tried to deport Hazel Wolf during the McCarthy period because she was a) a communist, and b)Canadian. Just like the sheriff, the feds failed, too. Hazel had thousands of friends, and she wasn't afraid of political pressure. As she said, "I was just there, powerless and strong, someone who wouldn't chicken out. Somebody always stops the nonsense all through history."

   Author Susan Starbuck says Hazel Wolf knew her life would make an important story; that it might evoke the next generation of social and environmental activists. At bookstore readings, Starbuck tells prospective readers, "Hey folks, here's an owner's manual about what to do when your government runs amok." The message of "Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment" is theat we, too could have fun being activists...and also change the world.




3. A powerful woman! If you think you have energy, read what this woman did right up to the end of her 101 years.



4. Hazel Wolf was a friend of mine and fellow board member on the Seattle Audubon Society for nearly 25 years. Susan Starbuck's book about Hazel is both highly entertaining and a very personal view of this unique woman. Susan has done a masterful job of weaving together a myriad of stories from and about Hazel into a coherent guide to Hazel's life as a dedicated organizer of social movements from her early life through her death at 101. Hazel never saw a wrong that she felt could not be righted. She dedicated her life to achieving justice, whether it was for working men and women, for jail inmates, for racial justice, for the environment or against war, often at the expense of her own personal and family life. Hazel led the way for women's independence and liberation through hard work and example without ever thinking about the meaning of those terms. At a recent celebration of Hazel's 105th birthday, Congressman Jim McDermitt and Governor Mike Lowry both said that in these times of Bush's war, we need Hazel's example of leadership more than ever.



5. Hazel Wolf really understood how to organize and shares her knowledge with the reader. But don't be fooled by the practical nature of that remark: Hazel Wolf was also a great character and funny. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read about a woman with an amazing (and very long)life who knew how to get things done, how to grow and move with the times, and never lacked the self confidence to go for what she wanted.

No comments about Everything John F. Kennedy Book: Relive the history, romance, and tragedy of Americas Camelot (Everything Series).

1 comments about A Good German: A Biography of Adam von Trott Zu Solz.

1. Adam von Trot zu Solz's brave stand against Nazi tyranny is methodically detailed with great minutae in this thoroughly researched compilation of his life story. Unfortunately, in the process of creating a detailed account, the author has removed almost all the readability from his work and the result is a slow read far less interesting than the captivating biography his subject deserves.
   
   Will be added to my shelf of historical works as a reference volume.