5 comments about Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams.

1. The book provides a good description of Milton Hershey's life - his early struggles, his later success, the Cuban sugar business, his generosity and the building of the community in Pennsylvania and his relationship with it. Unfortunately, Hershey gave few interviews and wrote little so everything is one step removed and heavily filtered by the Hershey public relations machine. The author does a good job trying to dig for details and paint a balanced picture, but in the end the picture of Milton Hersey is blurry and the story is not engaging.



2. Michael D' Antonio has written a wonderful biography of Milton S. Hershey, the man who became a multi-millionaire by making milk chocolate a five-cent treat in the United States.
   
   Very much to his credit, D' Antonio delivers a biography of a complex man from another era without super-imposing contemporary politically correct value judgments. D' Antonio deserves a gold star or two for that.
   
   Milton Hershey's life is not an easy one to document; he was not an overtly public man. Rather, he led two lives. The first as reservd tycoon in his native Pennsylvania locale, the other as a a sometimes free-spending bon vivant traveling the United States, Europe and Cuba.
   
   D' Antonio chronicles Hershey's beginnings with his stern, no-nonsense mother with her Mennonite background and Milton's dreamy, never successful father. Backed with the unwavering faith of his mother and aunt and funds from his extended family, Milton pursued a career in confectionary. One business failure followed another, but Milton's faith in himself never faltered. Then he discovered caramels - and became the caramel king. Working with clearly limited resources, D' Antonio weaves an interesting story of an interesting man that becomes still more interesting when Hershey sees that the caramel market is limited.
   
   He sells out and could have easily retired to a life of luxurious ease.
   
   He had surprised everyone and married Catherine Sweeney, some fifteen years younger, whose actual background remains a mystery. She may, according to some, have been a "working girl".
   
   Though rich, Hershey pursued the dream of creating an inexpensive milk chocolate candy - and through native ingenuity and peristence succeeded. He built a multi-million dollar business that at one time controlled more than 90% of the U.S. market.
   
   The story of Hershey is fascinating. He built a town, Hershey PA, incorporating his utopian beliefs - and it worked. He created a sugar empire in Cuba that almost bankrupted him. He set up a unique orphanage and then endowed it with all his wealth. He was a mercurial man who could fire long-time employees in a moment of pique. He overlooked the failings of favorites.
   
   But no one (except perhaps some left-wing academics) could call Hershey a bad man. Almost alone among the mega-rich of the era, Hershey was animated by a true humanism and D' Antonio fully describes this without turning Hershey into a saint.
   
   Hershey is an exceptional biography. It describes an American original, Milton S. Hershey, a self-made man who shared himself with his workers, his community and his nation. Quite a guy and he has found himself in the hands of a very competent biographer.
   
   Jerry



3. "This book is almost as good as the chocolate bar. This biography of Milton S. Hershey and the chocolate company shows how hard work, ingenuity, and just plain luck produced the world's largest chocolate factory. The only thing that would have made this book better would have been a free sample of the product."



4. Michael D'Antonio has given us a serious biography of a complicated, but highly admirable, man. A "chocolate king" who founded a town and created and endowed schools and home for orphans is not a figure to be treated lightly, and D'Antonio does not fail. While there is no question that D'Antonio likes his subject, Hershey is not given a free pass. His enormous philanthropy is described right alongside irrational temper tantrums and firings. Spying on worker's drinking habits is described alongside his own gambling habits. The rise of the Hersey empire, and the town he founded, is described in great detail. The book opens with the drama of a challenge to the Trust of his school for orphans and the reality of business in this day and age. "What would Milton do?" is the question. What the book tells us is that it is by no means certain what Milton would do. He had contemplated selling his empire at more than one point, ensuring the resources for the continued care of the orphans in his charge. We see the rise and life of the Hershey empire, and Milton's relationships with others. The possibility of the true nature of his wife's illness is mentioned and described. Some have been offended by this, I'd suggest they get over it. It has no bearing on what type of person she was, or how much he loved her. We see the evolution of the business, the international interests, the town and school. It is a satisfying read. The only additional material I would have liked is some more description of Hershey's interactions with some of the other business and political leaders of the day. We are told of a feud with Wrigley, and the suspicion that Wrigley had cheated in gambling, but little else. We know of TR's trust busting, and that Hershey was considered to be quite apart from the Robber Barons of the day. Did TR and Hershey ever interact beyond the one or two mentioned invitations? If so, how? This historical information may not exist in the archives, but was the only gap I felt while reading.



5. The only thing I really knew before reading this book is that Hershey chocolate has been around a long time and there is a town themed after it somewhere in Pennsylvania near Amish country. Boy was I undereducated in this realm.
   
   Milton S. Hershey or M.S. as he was later known was the epitomy and poster-boy for American capitalism at it's grandest hour. Starting off as an apprentice to a Confectioner he was able to start learning the tricks of the trade. He found his life's calling and tried his hand at a few candy businesses primarily focusing on caramel chews. At this time in America, chocolate was not like the chocolate we have today (which is due almost entirely to M.S.) it was a rough texture that wasn't that tasty. The only people in the world that understood how and mastered the making of milk chocolate at the time was the Swiss and they guarded their secret with a passion. Eventually, after a few failed attempts at businesses in both Philadelphia and New York, he returned to his home to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was then that he started experimenting with trying to master milk chocolate. In fact after he had begun construction on his new factory in what would be known as the Town of Hershey, he still had not gotten it right, he was experimenting with a chemist up until the time the factory was completed when he got it right.
   
   The book is wonderfully written, It makes you really take a step back and think about not only the history of Hershey, but America itself. A time when companies and products were an explosion onto the American scene more than any other time in our Country's history. The book also takes a very intricate look at Hershey and his drive to support the Orphans that were taken in by Hershey's Industrial School, that, on paper own the Hershey company which has been a major issue over the years.
   
   I was so enthralled by this book that I am going to be picking up another book on the same industry called "The Emperor's of Chocolate" about the wars between Hershey and the Mars Candy Company. If you are looking for a great read and knowledge of corporate American history this is a wonderful book to read.

3 comments about Abraham Lincoln: Man Behind the Myths, The.

1. We invented Abraham Lincoln. Not the man, of course, but the myth, that solemn and statuesque giant memorialized eternally overlooking the Capitol mall. The power of that myth and the quiet dignity of its personage dwarfs us all. But the myth is not the man. Myths never are. Stephen Oates in his _Abraham Lincoln, The Man Behind the Myths_, does not seek to diminish the man but rather to clarify him, separating the mythos from the mortal. And it is not an undaunting task, it seems, for overly soon after Lincoln's tragic end the mills began to churn. The public's shredding of the White House interior for mementos while Mary Lincoln lay debilitated in the next room seems symbolic of the wolfpack mentality in Washington even today. And every new memoir published by another family acquaintance of the Lincoln's almost always got it wrong, and tore anew at the heart of the family. We may not have memorialized and glorified our modern-day tragic heroes to such an extent, for we have simultaneously tried to scandalize them. But the tabloid trade it seems has always been a yellow paper. Even Lincoln was vilified in his time and after. He was, Oates, reminds us, one of the most unpopular living presidents of our history. But though the legacy ballooned to heroic proportions after his passing, the man seems to have been lost in it all, remaining only in the hearts of the family leaving quietly and unattended down the steps of the White House never to return.



2. As an amateur genealogist I discovered that I was a sixth cousin, five times removed to President Abraham Lincoln through the Lincoln and Holmes families. On page 21 ( Abraham Lincoln, The man Behind The Myths ) Mr. Oates wrote that there was a mistaken belief that Thomas Lincoln was not Abraham's real father rather it was a Senator John C. Calhoun or a Henry Clay. If this was true it would mean that I was not related to President Abraham Lincoln. How would such a rumour start ? Is there any documented evidence that Nancy Lincoln had an affair with one of these men while being married to Thomas Lincoln. At the time I am trying to locate Stephen B. Oates so I can get this matter cleared up. Sincerely, Mr. Blair E. Bartlett, 87 Shillington Road, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, E2J 4K7 1-506-696-6175



3. In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the "spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably".
   
   That slavery was the cause of the Civil War is beyond all doubt. As Oates explains, however, the North did not go to war to free the slaves. In the standard phrasing, the North went to war to 'preserve the union'. Oates explores Lincoln's fears that the spread of slavery in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would lead to the destruction of democratic society. The debate then still raged on the world stage whether a republican form of government could last. Lincoln rejected the "ingenious sophism" that states could freely leave the Union. "With rebellion thus sugar coated [southern leaders] have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Secession posed nothing less than a final challenge to popular government. If a minority could destroy the government any time it felt aggrieved, then no government could endure. Thus the war had to be fought to preserve not just the American Republic, but the possibility of republican government.
   
   Lincoln did in fact oppose slavery from early on. His views on racial matters apart from slavery became more fully progressive over time. Lincoln, however, hoped that slavery would slowly melt away in a losing competition with free labor and that liberated slaves would resettle in Africa. It is part of Lincoln's greatness that he later gave up these views. Oates explores this evolution in his thinking. Oates debunks the notion that the Emancipation Proclamation was unimportant in liberating the slaves. Oates also refutes the notion that Lincoln would have favored an easy hand during Reconstruction. On the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests he would have led the so-called Radical Republicans.
   
   Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in Lincoln, the Civil War era, or really pretty much any American.

5 comments about Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War.

1. I picked this book up, like everyone else, as I was curious about the man behind the legend. Well, I never really learned all that much about Jesse James. I certainly learned about Missouri, Kansas, the civil war, bushwackers and the like, but not a whole lot about James.
   
   It seemed well researched and Stiles writes in a readable style but it was not the book I thought it would be.



2. 
   This is a fascinating work on Jesse James. It is not so much a standard biography as a "political history" of James. And that makes this an interesting read. The question animating this book is (page4): "Why should one set of criminals be so much more memorable than another?" The answer (page 6): " [Jesse James] was a major force in the attempt to create a Confederate identity for Missouri, a political and cultural offensive waged by the defeated rebels to undo the triumph of the Radical Republicans in the Civil War." Hence, his Confederate background resonated strongly with the politics of Missouri.
   
   The book itself follows a chronological organization, beginning with Jesse's father, a preacher. It also describes his mother, a most formidable person, who remained an important part of his life over the years--and a strong advocate for her sons. The Civil War was critical for the family. Frank James rode with some of the Confederate irregulars, such as William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. Jesse was too young at the outset of the Civil War to be involved, but he rode with his brother, later on, with the partisans. When the war ended, the rage continued for the James brothers (especially Jesse).
   
   The book contends (and it is a reasonable case as made by the author, although I'm not sure that all readers will be convinced) that James' outlaw exploits after the war were a continuation of that conflict by other means. He was, in the eyes of the author, something of a guerilla; he is also termed a "terrorist," in the sense of using violence to try to advance a political cause (this case may not be convincing to readers; I have my doubts that the case is very strong to adopt this language).
   
   There follows an outline of his many robberies, the violence associated with them, the various members of his gang over time (including the Younger brothers), the ups and downs of their brigandage, and the political context in which their actions occurred. The political discussion appears to be done pretty well, placing the James' gang's depredations in a larger perspective.
   
   Then, they detail nicely the disastrous Northfield, Minnesota raid (disastrous from the James' gang's perspective--not from those who wanted to hunt them down). Frank and Jesse escaped, Jesse (and later Frank) to rob another day. Then, Jesse's demise. The book ends with a quick summary of the fates of key players from this volume, and provides some satisfaction in bringing things to a close.
   
   The political aspect to James, as argued by T. J. Stiles, the author, is very interesting and makes this an intriguing work. I am not sure that all elements of this work successfully (e.g., the use of the term terrorist). But the book provides a nice spin on the life and times of Jesse James.



3. This book explains how the Civil War gave birth to outlaws like Jesse James. It is very well researched, detailed and interesting. A must for historians.



4. This is one of the most in depth and well researched biographies that I have ever read. Stiles did extensive investigation into primary sources when performing the research for the book.
   
   There is a great deal of perception of Jesse James as a larger than life myth. Much of what he did was very much grounded in the history of his time and focuses on the Civil War as a driving force behind his actions and behavior.
   
   James's father was a Baptist minister who left the family to go to California during the gold rush in 1849. While there, he contracted an illness and died when Jesse was still a young boy. This left his mother to raise Jesse and his siblings on her own until eventually remarrying.
   
   The James family owned a good sized farm with quite a few slaves and so had a vested interest in maintaining the slavery structure. They were very much a part of the Confederate mindset and supported that side during the Civil War.
   
   Jesse joined his brother as a teenager during the Civil War by banding together with a bunch of "bushwhackers" who were basically guerrillas (or terrorists depending on how you look at it) on the Confederate side. They would walk up to Union sympathizers who were often neighbors and point blank kill them in cold blood simply for being supporters. This instilled fear in the local populace and a general sense of uncertainty and terror.
   
   People from the Union side did similar types of things to Confederates namely Jayhawkers from Kansas. Missouri during the civil war and the days afterwards had a feel like that of Iraq today. People of differing ideological backgrounds resorted to violence and force to push their political agendas and philosophies.
   
   Following the war James stayed with the bushwhackers until they gradually dissipated. At first they targeted banks to rob with Union ties for political reasons. Eventually, however, the targets became less political and more for pure monetary gain.
   
   One of the primary reasons for Jesse James's notoriety and fame was his frequent correspondence with newspapers. He was a voracious reader and constantly maintained his innocence in letters to editors. Newspaper man John Edwards became a champion for James and glorified him and his gang in articles. He cast them as heros and icons for the Confederate political agenda and used them in print to help advance political purposes. In that day, newspapers were very openly partisan and did not try to maintain an appearance of neutrality as news agencies do today.
   
   As James et al gained more and more fame and notoriety, public outcry became much more pronounced against them while encouraging local and state officials to crack down and bring them to justice. After stealing from express companies similar to Wells Fargo who operated primarily via railroad, private business interest arose in tracking them down and preventing future robberies.
   
   His gang branched out into other states as well such as Iowa, Tennessee, Minnesota, Kentucky, and West Virginia obtaining national attention.
   
   The Pinkertons a private investigative agency were hired to find them but most of their efforts were fruitless considering the James/Younger gang's support from local friends and their knowledge of the backwoods.
   
   On several occasions, Jesse was injured in gun fights some requiring lengthy recovery times. All told though he personally probably killed at least 20 men so came out on plus side from his battles.
   
   The gang eventually met their match while trying to rob a bank in Minnesota where the people fought back and injured or killed many members of the gang. Jesse and his brother barely escaped back to Missouri once word got out and posses were gathered to track them down.
   
   Jesse never could settle down to a life of honest work which resulted in his downfall. He was constantly suspicious of those around him but gathered a new gang to continue his exploits. A couple of brothers in his new gang plotted to kill him and eventually succeeded, collecting a hefty reward in the process.
   
   Stiles book reads like a combination of a pure history and real life historical novel. The first 200 pages are primarily devoted to the historical background of the Civil War and environment James grew up in. The last 200 pages are focused more on Jesse's emergence as a bank/train/stagecoach robber, leader of a gang, and Confederate symbol. As mentioned on the book cover, Stiles debunks the myth that James was a form of Robin Hood and was instead mostly interested in his own fame and fortune.
   
   At times the book moves slowly and is exhaustive in its coverage of the material but if the reader stays with it, he or she will have a very complete picture of Jesse James and the history of Missouri during the Civil War and the decades afterwards.



5. This book was way too politically bias for me to enjoy, and the author went on at length more or less attacking James for being a southern democrat. He should get over it, most people who are familiar with James know that he was Rebel and fought for the south during the war. The author details the Pinkerton detectives and the politicans who were against James more then he does the central character which is James himself. If it was written by a less politically oppionated person it cooooooooould have been decent, but it still kept diverging from the central theme of James and the James gang often enough and at such length that at times I wanted to hurl it against the wall. I only keep the copy I own because of the sepia photo on the cover.
   Read the assisination of Jesse James by the coward Robert ford, it or most any other book on the famed outlaw is surely far better then this account.

5 comments about Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862.

1. I was excited to read this book, based in no small part on the many good reviews it has received. Unfortunately, it was very disappointing. I have no doubt that the scholarship is unmatched...the editors did a fine job in not being "intrusive" while correcting mistakes and updating the various footnotes with more recent scholarship...The first few chapters were actually quite enlightening and well-written: I learned a lot about the "big picture" of the war in the West and the gathering of the armies at Shiloh.
   
   However, the rest of the book is - in a word - *unreadable*. The title of this review gives the main problem: there is so much company-level and regimental detail on each page that it becomes a chore to slog through.
   
   In writing a battle narrative, there is a way to combine scholarship (in which Cunningham excelled) with readibility...Stephen Sears and Gordon Rhea are expert at it...unfortunately, the late Dr. Cunningham failed in this regard.
   
   If the publisher and editors intended only to make this research material - originally a PhD dissertation - more accessible, they succeeded admirably...if they intended it to be a readable and enjoyable account of the Battle of Shiloh, we are still waiting.



2. I would highly recommend this book. Being a novice at Civil War history this one opened my eyes on this little reported or storied second large battle of the War of the Rebellion. One can find many parallels on events of present day. Such as what happened to the major players (generals) after the battle. Had leaders listened to the likes of the newspaper reporters of the day (substitute NY Times for NY Herald) reporter who had an agenda (where have we seen that one?) or traitorous politicians with their own self serving agendas, the war would have turned out MUCH differently than it did! Grant and a few others would have been back benched for good along with much of the Confederate generals as well.
   
   The personal stories even though they are a sentence long on virtually each one make the battle more personalized than any before that I have read. I really felt like I was there smelling the gun-smoke and feeling the cold rain, muddy conditions, and gut wrenching hunger for proper food on both sides!
   
   
   If I had one negative comment it would be the use of Maps. The book needs better, more detailed maps in legend reference to feet-miles and naming of creeks and roads. This battlefield is MUCH smaller than I ever expected (using the internet and discussions with people who have actually been there)
   
   Yes I recommend the book and will keep my copy as a reference for the future discussions on Shiloh.



3. When this book was written, it was a new vision of the battle of Shiloh. The editors considered it important enough to resurrect from the Shiloh NMP archives and bring to a wider audience. The book was very easy to read and follow. The book moved quickly through the movements and battles of the first major Union campaign in the Western Theater. The centerpiece is a detailed account of the battle of Shiloh and finally, a brief account of Halleck's capture of Corinth. Footnotes on the page with the citation were appreciated and the editors did an excellent job pointing out where they had changed the original account and why.
   This book reevaluated the significance of many events at Shiloh. The author rejected the importance of traditional turning points; Hornet's Nest, Johnston's death, and correctly points out that battles are contingent and are the result of many events involving all the participants. No single event determines the outcome; it is the sum of all the actions like a series of dominos.
   The editors made excellent use of numerous good maps to allow the reader to follow the campaign and the action at Shiloh. There were 18 pages of photos of the leaders (4 per page) on both sides, some familiar and others that I had not seen before. After the Order of Battle for the armies (thank you), there is a photographic tour of the Shiloh battlefield park and a map showing the location and direction of the photo. This gave the reader an excellent sense of the terrain and action.
   I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Western Theater.



4. This is a very good book to read about one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.The author does a very good job in his research about everything that happened those 2 days on April 1862.I especially liked to read about details regarding the soldiers, the way the fought, their strategies, the way they reacted to the chaos around them.This book should be in the shelves of all us who like to read about the Civil War.Also the book analyzes the big questions of that war. Why Beauregard didnt press his attack on the Landing? Why Halleck didnt attack Corinth when he had the chance? These questions will remain without answer but due to those situations the War was prolonged.The only thing i didnt like about the book was that the author gives you too many details that sometimes made the reading a little dry.But, otherwise, a very good book



5. According to the introduction to this wonderful book, the editors, Gary Joiner and Timothy Smith, more or less saved O. Edward Cunningham's book from forever being a dog-eared samizdat available only to the tour guides at the Shiloh battlefield. I for one am grateful that they did. This is a terrefic book that really educates the reader about what went on during the battle of Shiloh. Cunningham has covered the battlefield, before and after the battle, in such detail that it's hard to imagine finding a better, or at least more informed, work. The research that went into the book is evident on every page. Also, thanks to the editors, a second set of research is available in the form of copius footnotes. All of this combines to make one of the most informative books on a battle in the Civil War that I've read. Unfortunately, sometimes the detail can be a bit overwhelming, more in the way that it's presented than in the sheer volume. The volume of detail is what makes the book such a wonderful read. The writing is just a tad too structural in parts and doesn't flow well. Maybe if the author had lived to publish the work himself these rough spots would have been smoothed down. Either way, this is a fantastic read and will help expert or beginner alike achieve a much higher level of understanding about this pivotal Civil War battle.
   
   The maps were well done and helped illustrate the narrative very well. The photos in the appendix of the battle field today helped set to the scene a bit too.
   
   Finally, and most importantly for me, I didn't detect any bias in the writing. Sometimes, especially in Civil War history, the authors bias, pro or anti whatever side he's pro or anti about, comes out in the writing. I find that can seriously detract from otherwise very good books. None of this was evident here, again, making this a book worth reading.

5 comments about The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space.

1. What a great read. Parts of this book was a bit hokey, but I really enjoyed the book. Based on what I've read in other material about NASA, Gene was one of the most liked astronauts. What a great guy. A must read. I've read a lot of material and books on the Mecury thru Apollo missions, and I think the best I've read was Micheal Collins "Carrying the Fire" this lends itself to great detail and leaves you with a good education.
   
   KLD



2. Some people may be disappointed by this book. There's very little about Commander Cernan's time on the surface of the moon. If that's all you want to know about, I'd still recommend the book but you'll only want to read a couple of chapters. But to buy the book for that reason would be to miss the point. This is the story of the man that was last to stand on the moon. The moon was his home for 3 days. For a guy over 70 years old, that's not a large period of his life, even if it is what history will remember him for. This is what it was like to be an astronaut for NASA at that time and that's all you need to know, and it's personal, heart warming, fun, exciting, distressing, stressful and sad, just like real life.
   In 2007 I got the opportunity to meet Gene Cernan and had the pleasure of sharing dinner with him. He told me this book was the best way to know what it was like to be on the moon.
   And he's right, in every way. It describes many years of hard work, dedication, hardship and sacrifice, for a short period of time in which he was kept so busy he had to treasure the moments where he could take it all in.
   It is a testament to the quality of writing that my opinions of Commander Cernan are the same now, after reading the book as they were when I bade him farewell. He's a genuine, pull no punches guy. I don't think his heart is on his sleeve but he'll say what he thinks.
   I was honoured to spend a time in company with Commander Gene Cernan and get to know him. Reading this book, you will get to know him too.
   Read this book. It describes the pinnacle of human achievement and how it was done. The men, the women, the engineers, the scientists, the emotion, the humanity. It's all here and it makes you proud to be part of humanity because we may not be perfect, but neither were they.
   
   It's magnificent!



3. I liked this book for its coverage of all the space flights from the beginning with Gemini to the end with Apollo. Gene was in fact the "last man on the moon" as we stopped going to the moon after his flight! He did more in his lifetime than most anyone. He started as a Navy pilot, about to go into Vietnam, when he got pulled for astronaut duty. I liked reading his descriptions of the celebrity lifestyle the original astronauts lived, with lots of parties at the Cape in Florida (while the wives were banished to their homes outside Houston!). I thought he touched on what it was like for the wives to live with a larger-than-life "space hero" in their midst, but he pulled back in some places. He does give his opinion on all the famous astronauts like Al Shephard and Neil Armstrong, and what he thought of their personalities and also their ranking as far as the best of the astronauts. The only downside to the book was, because Gene was involved in so many space flights, both as a backup crew and regular crew, that by the time you get to his last moon flight it's a bit routine hearing once again about getting the rocket ready for launch, stuffing themselves into their bulky spacesuits, etc. Overall, the book is very thorough and good but maybe could have used more humorous stories. I also liked the very beginning of the book where he talks about his grandparents old-time farm in Antigo, WI, without any running water or electricity.



4. It's no surprise that it's well-written considering how many journalists Gene Cernan knows, and he couldn't have picked a better co-author than Don Davis. It is accessible to all because they kept it non-technical.
   
   The author keeps his family in the forefront and puts his wife and daughter on a pedestal. He lets us in on how an Apollo astronaut's career could be a real marriage-tester due to his time away from home, and the wife being on stage. I liked the way they chronicled the story not only with dates, but with what songs were playing on the radio and what the non-NASA headlines were.
   
   Personal judgments abound. He pulls no punches on Buzz Aldrin and a few other astronauts, resurrects the Apollo 15 "scandal," and then runs a one-man campaign to redeem and lionize Alan Shepard, burying the screw-ups of Apollo 14. (For those who consider Shepard a hero, as I once did, may I suggest Andrew Chaikin's authoritative and well-researched tome "A Man on the Moon.") Another thing I found really different about Cernan's memoir: Wally Schirra is finally vindicated as an unsung hero of the space race. The author recaps Schirra's brash manner during the Apollo 7 flight as others have, but also points out that Wally had been that way during the previous 21 months (since The Fire), getting in everyone's face with his demands at North American and other contractors. It made me realize how much Wally Schirra had to do with us (people) getting to the moon by the time we did.
   
   Any Apollo aficionado would be remiss without reading this. (Ditto for Chaikin, and Jim Lovell's "Apollo 13.") This is an inspiring American success story.



5. When I started to read The Last Man on the Moon I wondered: What did it feel like to walk in space and on the moon? I got more than I bargained for. I enjoyed one of the greatest true adventures of all times when Cernan removed the shackles of the earth and took me to places where few have gone.
   
   Cernan's book is exceptional at describing what it felt like to be an astronaut in the 1960s and what it was like to walk in space and on the moon.
   
   One of the parts I could relate to best was his descriptions of a space walk during a Gemini mission and his moon walks. His descriptions of a pressurized suit that was tough to move and navigate in were amazing. As a diver who has been to places such as the Galapagos islands (with cold waters) I know what its like to have a life support system and bulky suit. Cernan's descriptions helped me understand (just a little) what it is like to walk in space and on the moon.
   
   There were many close calls in the space programs that were truly nail biters. For example, during the Apollo 10 mission Gene Cernan discusses Tom Stafford and himself spinning out of control while just above the moon. The countless hours of training and razor sharp skills of the astronauts saved them. Stafford pulled them out at the last couple of seconds just before they would have crashed into the moon.
   
   There were also stories of tragedies such as the loss of the three men in the fire of Apollo 1. Everyone on the space program was deeply saddened. Afterwards everyone's resolve to go to the moon safely reached a new level of commitment.
   
   The book is definitely a page turner with many amusing antidotes. One story that sticks out in my mind is when Cernan explains that the early astronauts were like rock stars (they could do almost anything they wanted to). For example, they would let there wives know they were coming home in the evening by flying right over their homes with their jets before landing at a local base (a true flyby). Then they would jump into their Corvettes and drive like a bats out of h**l to their homes screeching into the driveways. This is stuff that legends are made of.
   
   Cernan writing style is engaging and fascinating. He is both a strong Critical Thinker and philosopher rolled into one.
   
   For example, in one telling excerpt he discusses the importance of going to the moon as a commander, not just walking on it. His thoughts are summed up when he says: "I have always believed that destiny is a matter of personal choice, where you carefully think out your decision, consider the downside, accept the risk of being wrong, and press on."
   
   Cernan eloquently writes about his passion for space travel when he says: "Our legacy is that humans are no longer shackled to the Earth. We opened the door to tomorrow, and our trips to another celestial body will rank as the ultimate triumph in the Age of Achievement. And for the price, it was the biggest bargain in history."
   
   He goes on to say: "Sometimes it seems that Apollo came before its time. President Kennedy reached far into the twenty-first century, grabbed a decade of time and slipped it neatly into the 1960's and 1970s."
   
   I have been fortunate to meet Gene Cernan on a few occasions at Astronaut gatherings in the past couple of years. He is one of the greatest advocates for the space program and is a gentleman and a scholar. He still has a bounce in his step and a twinkle in his eye...and I wouldn't be surprised if he has a little mischief in him as well.
   
   Once at a dinner I was sitting at Cernan's table and someone asked him whether seeing the moon was different from earth orbit or from the moon.
   
   Gene Cernan got very quiet and thoughtful and said that it was entirely different. He went on to say that from orbit the earth is beautiful with its blue oceans, majestic large land masses and more. Then he paused and got very serious. He said from the moon the view of the earth was unbelievable. He went on to say that seeing this little blue ball that hung in black space by an invisible string (axis) that it turned on was unbelievable. You could see in his eyes that he had a life changing experience when he saw it from the front porch of the moon many years ago.
   
   There are several excellent books on the early space program. The Last Man on the Moon is one of the best of the best.
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

3 comments about American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964.

1. This book is a classic. Even the title page is brilliant. MacArthur is The American Caesar, imperious and outstanding, always posturing and yet commanding a fanatical following. A complex man, his brilliance is constantly dogged by his insecurities, his successes balanced by his failures and so on. truly the modern Prometheus!
   He completely misread the Japanese intentions to bomb the Philippines and the Chinese determination to hang on to North Korea. His bizarre and brazen behaviour towards the last days of his command points to a man losing his grip with reality. Perhaps, the strain of playing centrestage for so long had taken its toll.
   Definitely not pro-MacArthur, Manchester does paint a sympathetic portrait of this great man.



2. If you want to learn about MacArthur's life, this book works well. However, it goes far beyond that in the detail it provides and the analysis. Manchester provides good commentary on MacArthur, his strategies, and politics. One of the most interesting things was the notion of how much MacArthur had captured the Joint Chiefs of Staff with his Inchon operation, which led to disaster when China got involved.



3. In one volume of slightly over 700 pages, historian William Manchester brought together tireless research, epic lyricism and a timeless artistic flare in this classic biography of General Douglas MacArthur.
   
   MacArthur was a special leader on the battlefield, but Manchester drives past the headlines and does an incredible job in juxtaposing the myth with fact, the positive and negative and the politics of war waged against foreign armies and elected officials in Washington, D.C.
   
   Manchester masterfully guides the reader into an appreciation of this controversial and iconic figure who embodied the American spirit in a lifetime spent striding confidently on the world stage.

5 comments about A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century.

1. This book strikes a lovely balance between describing Olmsted's life and personal history and his creations, parks that span the United States.

   You may be surprised to learn, as I was, the vast number of projects he undertook. How Central Park was really his first significant project. How he had to fight political and economic battles to keep it from being ruined. How he was able to truly "get it right" with Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

   Through the fascinating descriptions of the landscapes, the author also provides great insight into Olmsted's life. What struck me the most was how Olmsted, as with many of his contemporaries (U.S. Grant, Mark Twain) worried for most of his life about his finances and his career.

   This is a first rate work, told in a clear and compelling fashion.




2. Olmsted and Rybcznski seem somehow destined together, and this book is a thoroughly readable and engaging introduction to both of them. If they had been contemporaries, they probably would have somehow connected as friends or collaborators or both. Through his work, Olmsted came to define the American public space as distinct from the English or French styles. Early on he was influenced by farming, the English countryside, naturalism, notables such as Carlyle and Ruskin, and by the American pursuit of happiness: our need for recreation and spectacle. In his works, he combined "economics, nature, aesthetics, moral and intellectual improvement, and salvation." He spoke of throwing "a garment of beauty around our homes."

   Author Rybczynski doesn't limit his chronicle to Olmsted the Designer, though. Rather, he devotes ample space to covering Olmsted as a man of letters, Olmsted's brushes with politics and social reform, his travels to the West, his marvelous mind for engineering (everything from pumps to drainage systems and pipes), and his varied and important organizational and administrative accomplishments. Of particular interest are the chapters in the book devoted to the slavery issue and Olmsted's voice in the anti-slavery movement; Olmsted was an idealist who felt that slavery corrupted society. He once leaned once toward joining a group of German settlers in Texas who did not recognize nor condone slavery.

   Olmsted is best remembered though as a designer who brought us the seeds of a national park system through a lifetime of projects, public and private: Stanford and Berkeley, Belle Isle (Mi), Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Central Park, park systems in Boston and Chicago, huge projects in Washington, DC, and many more. Olmsted also deserves credit as the creator of the parkway. The reader will find many familiar names mentioned here, evidence that Olmsted was an extraordinary man who lived in extraordinary times. James Hamilton (the son of Alexander), Charles Dana, William Cullen Bryant, Frederic Church, the Vanderbilts, and others all played a role in his life and work.

   Turf, trees, and lakes -- or grass, woods, and water -- to put it a different way, are the hallmarks of an Olmsted space. He abhorred clear distinctions and separations, flowerbeds and botanic beauty or decorative gardening. Instead, Olmsted embraced illusion and worked to "accommodate chaos and order." He incorporated science, theory, and art; accident and achievement. Architectural dwellings were minimized or hidden. There was careful composition of groups of trees against expanses of lawn. For us, we should be careful when visiting Olmsted's projects, for in the case of several, he lost interest due to squabbles and bickering with clients. Stanford University certainly stands out in this regard--to what degree is it considered a work of Olmsted's? Worn down by periodic bouts of depression and debt, Olmsted did not live an easy live and died from what is almost stated by the author as Alzheimer's disease. But for those that bear his mark, we can delight in the fact that they continue to survive.




3. Olmsted's life is fascinating and Rybczynski does an adequate job of presenting the highlights, but the writing style is something less than engaging. In addition, the author spends too much time on trivial matters while neglecting more important things. For example, he writes page after page about Olmsted's failures to connect with a romantic mate. Goodness, he wasn't much of looker or a lady schmoozer and this plagued him for years. There, I said it in one sentence. Had the author done likewise we might have learned more about the details of some of Olmsted's projects. If the author wanted to play up relationships to give the reader a fuller appreciation of Olmsted's psychological make-up, he would have done better to delve deeper into the parent-child relationship.



4. A Clearing in the Distance is a great biography about a man who had great strength and deep sorrows. The first half of the book covers Olmsted's life before becoming a Landscape Architect. He was basically a very talented man who could not find his calling. Once he found it, he pursued his passion with commitment and daring that changed the way that subsequent generations have thought about their environment and surroundings.
   
   The book provides valuable insights into both Olmsted the man and the world in which he lives. There are musings that are the author's thoughts and are obviously not historical, but they are interesting too in that they give us insight into the author's biases and interests.
   
   Overall, A Clearing in the Distance is well worth reading.



5. The life of Olmstead was a mystery to me. I read about him in the "Devil in the White City" I had to learn more.
   
   This is a capable biography, covering his life seemingly thoroughly. I didn't buy into the convention the author used when he would describe moments in Olmstead's life in a semi-fictional way. Otherwise, good really good stuff.

1 comments about James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery (Southern Biography Series).

1. Hammond is not a nice guy. He married for money, was not a great father, and campagined for elected office at time when no one else did and against the 'party' candidate to boot. Most interesting of all was his commitment to the Confederate cause but resistance to the call for material and manpower to help the cause. In the end, he could not believe it when his slaves were jubilant about the prospect of freedom. Through Hammond's eyes we see the south changed forever by the Civil War, not only due to the lost of their slaves but also by the unsouthern actions the Confederate government had to take and how they affected the southern way of life. Hammond is not a nice guy but this very readable book provides an excellent insight to the antebellum southern mind.

5 comments about Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol.

1. When I read a book, I want to get a lot out of it, as I enjoy the reading of it. On the second point: this book is engagingly written. The author questions her own motives and information as she constructs a biography of a difficult life to document. We see Painter confront the challenges of performing biography. I found it a compelling literary device. On the first point, the book mixes biography with history and feminist criticism. This interdisciplinary focus produces a highly inviting book. Among other topics, we find out about the details of slavery in the North, 19th century religious cults, and the ways in which feminists and abolitionists of the time exploited Truth for their own gain, as well as how this appropriation of "Truth" continues to the present. On this point, we learn much about contemporary feminism and culture and its need for heroes-especially African American female heroes.



2. I THINK THIS BOOK IS VERY EDUCATIONAL. I REALLY ENJOYED READING IT. I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT TRUTH. PAINTER WAS A WONDERFUL WRITER. SHE DESCRIBED EVERYTHING TO THE MAX.



3. Painter's biography is excellent. She puts Truth in perspective with the challenges of her time. She sheds light on complicated relationships with noteable Abolishionists and with her own children. This book clearly presents the difficult life of one incredible woman who struggles to do her part to free all slaves, gain respect as a woman and be accepted as a human being.



4. For some reason, most Americans know, or think they know, quite a bit about the Civil War. But somehow the decades before the great drama of the 1860's are little known to most of us. It's almost as if everything between the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War happened under a cloud or in some shadowed universe that sends out very few signals to modern Americans. In reality, the country went through a time of near-chaos as competing political and religious movements battled for the minds and hearts of the American public.
   
   Sojourner Truth, the subject of this biography, experienced a good bit of this social ferment, and the story of her life gives readers a good opportunity to get a grip on this very strange and fascinating period. The author starts with the odd fact that the name and face of Sojourner Truth became very well-known, yet the real story of her life was obscured by her status as a symbol of the Abolitionist movement. The real woman led a surpringly adventurous life, and she did it in the context of a society that supposedly kept slaves, women and rural poor people firmly in their pre-ordained place. The story of how a courageous girl named Katherine, born in slavery and poverty on a Dutch farm in rural New York state, became the free woman and independent thinker called Sojourner Truth, is worth reading for its own sake. But the book also sheds light on the wild side of American religious and intellectual life during her lifetime. While reading this book, I felt like I was really getting two books in one-I highly recommend this book!!



5. This book is an excellent review and account of this great woman's life. Although it is rather disjointed in areas--there is a basic sense of the many challenges that Ms. Truth encountered. I found that it gave me a basic sense of her sojourn and it helped fill in the gaps left with other books. It was the basic information for an academic presentation I needed to prepare for one of my doctoral courses.

3 comments about My Life and Work - An Autobiography of Henry Ford.

1. I'll just say this about Ford. He was absolutely the greatest industrial mind off ALL TIMES.



2. Anyone who has read "My Life and Work" will understand exactly what is wrong with our country today. There are three ways to create wealth--grow it, mine it, or make it--and activities like flipping houses or trading carbon credits do not qualify.
   
   Ford developed what is now known as the Toyota production system, and readers will see a very explicit description of just in time manufacturing (and its benefits) in "My Life and Work."
   
   Ford also summarized effective labor relations in one sentence: "It ought to be the employer's ambition, as leader, to pay better wages than any similar line of business, and it ought to be the workman's ambition to make this possible."



3. A great insight into Henry Fords' way of doing business. Of course hindsight is 20-20 and Ford tells of his secrets to success with the Model T. A good reference for the automotive historian or budding entrepeneur.