No comments about Robert A. Taft: Ideas, Tradition, and Party in U.S. Foreign Policy (Biographies in American Foreign Policy).

5 comments about Before Scarlett: Girlhood Writings of Margaret Mitchell.

1. I have been a fan of Gone With the Wind and Margarett Mitchell since I was a junior in high school, the same year the book celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since then I have re-read GWTW (many times) and anything else I have been able to get my hands on pertaining to GWTW and Margaret Mitchell and I have to say this book was a great find!

   The actual writings are a bit hard to follow as there are bits and pieces - and in some cases whole chapters missing, but all and all it is a very nice glimpse of her talent and love of writing even at a very early age. What I was most impressed with were the pictures and background information provided about Ms. Mitchell's life and life in Atlanta at the time. The physical quality of the book is very nice as well - the pages are a slick heavy stock paper and the deckled eges were a very nice touch. I have no complaints and can only hope that somewhere in the recesses of another old building in Atlanta there are more such treasures to be found.




2. I have been a fan of Gone With the Wind and Margarett Mitchell since I was a junior in high school, the same year the book celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since then I have re-read GWTW (many times) and anything else I have been able to get my hands on pertaining to GWTW and Margaret Mitchell and I have to say this book was a great find!

   The actual writings are a bit hard to follow as there are bits and pieces - and in some cases whole chapters missing, but all and all it is a very nice glimpse of her talent and love of writing even at a very early age. What I was most impressed with were the pictures and background information provided about Ms. Mitchell's life and life in Atlanta at the time. The physical quality of the book is very nice as well - the pages are a slick heavy stock paper and the deckled eges were a very nice touch. I have no complaints and can only hope that somewhere in the recesses of another old building in Atlanta there are more such treasures to be found.




3. I have been a fan of Gone With the Wind and Margarett Mitchell since I was a junior in high school, the same year the book celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since then I have re-read GWTW (many times) and anything else I have been able to get my hands on pertaining to GWTW and Margaret Mitchell and I have to say this book was a great find!

   The actual writings are a bit hard to follow as there are bits and pieces - and in some cases whole chapters missing, but all and all it is a very nice glimpse of her talent and love of writing even at a very early age. What I was most impressed with were the pictures and background information provided about Ms. Mitchell's life and life in Atlanta at the time. The physical quality of the book is very nice as well - the pages are a slick heavy stock paper and the deckled eges were a very nice touch. I have no complaints and can only hope that somewhere in the recesses of another old building in Atlanta there are more such treasures to be found.




4. I have been a fan of Gone With the Wind and Margarett Mitchell since I was a junior in high school, the same year the book celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since then I have re-read GWTW (many times) and anything else I have been able to get my hands on pertaining to GWTW and Margaret Mitchell and I have to say this book was a great find!

   The actual writings are a bit hard to follow as there are bits and pieces - and in some cases whole chapters missing, but all and all it is a very nice glimpse of her talent and love of writing even at a very early age. What I was most impressed with were the pictures and background information provided about Ms. Mitchell's life and life in Atlanta at the time. The physical quality of the book is very nice as well - the pages are a slick heavy stock paper and the deckled eges were a very nice touch. I have no complaints and can only hope that somewhere in the recesses of another old building in Atlanta there are more such treasures to be found.




5. Being a collector of GWTW memorabilia, I'm always anxious to find anything about its author and to see how her incredibly creative mind worked. To find the material in the manner in which Jane Eskridge and her beau did only adds to the fascination of the book. The history and pictures included are informative, and although some of Margaret's stories are incomplete, the talent exhibited for such a very young age only makes the reader shake his/her head in amazement. She considered herself a "made writer" instead of a "born writer" but was badly mistaken. All of us who have struggled through the years with writing wish we had been so blessed. Jane Eskridge did a remarkable job in editing this latest work of Margaret Mitchell.

No comments about The Reagan Diaries, Leatherbound Edition.

1 comments about George Washington (American Statesman).

1. Anyone that needed reminding of the romanticism that this county was founded with should read Henry Cabot Lodge's biography of George Washington.

5 comments about Kill-Cavalry: The Life of Union General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick.

1. This author falls into the same trap that's been laid for researchers for the past 135 years. The most glaring example is the standard portrayal of Kilpatrick at Gettysburg, all of which is based on one source who admitted years later he was never a witness to what actually happened or was said on the field that day. Like researchers before him, the author missed this glaring truth.

   Here are two hints of Kilpatrick's character and performance: (1) His men held him in such high esteem that they petitioned Lincoln to have him promoted to general (a rare occurrence in the CW); and (2) after the battle of Gettysburg his men presented their commander with a Damascus sword in appreciation for his leadership on July 3.

   In short, an author who doesn't dig deeper than his predecessors is dancing to the worn-out tune of incredulity.




2. This book smacks of a work done by someone who had a thesis and then did everything he could to prove it, rather than letting the research bring him to a conclusion.

   Fortunately, I did get the feeling that the basic history of Killpatrick was decent and reasonably fair-minded. At the end of each chapter, however, Martin adds his commentaty about how the foregoing information shows that Kilpatrick was a horrible leader, womanizer, thief, etc. At one point, Martin suggests that the attempt on Jefferson Davis' life introduced the idea of assination, even to the point of possibly leading to Lincoln's murder. Right.

   Killpatrick's womanizing, thievery, etc comes out, for sure, but were his casualities really highter than comparable commanders? That's not clear. He won some battles and lost others--like most Civil War leaders.




3. 
   To say Hugh Kilpatrick was a controversial figure would be an understatement. Small in stature, it's my opinion he suffered from the "little man" complex: he attempted to over-compensate for his slight physical size by his recklessness and bravado. This would explain his rashness regarding his plan to attack Richmond and free the prisoners there, which was repulsed decidedly by the Confederates (though Sheridan attempted the same thing 10 weeks later with the same results). Disparaged by many of his fellow officers (Sherman called him a "damned fool"), it's also reported that his men respected him. Martin is highly critical.
   
   Kilpatrick was born in New Jersey in 1836 and graduated from West Point the year the Civil War broke out. He commanded a number of New York Cavalry brigades during the first two years of the war, receiving a serious wound at Big Bethel and then seeing much action in Virginia. After participating in the largest cavalry engagement of the war at Brandy Station in June 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general. He was conspicuous at Gettysburg, where his orders to E.J. Farnsworth to attack Hood, who was well-positioned behind stone walls, on the third day caused much slaughter to Farnsworth's men and Farnsworth's own death from five separate wounds. In the winter of 1864 he made his ill-fated attack on Richmond which resulted in failure. In the spring of that year he served in the Atlanta campaign and was wounded seriously for the second time at Resaca, GA. Recuperating by August, he performed well as commander of cavalry during the Carolina campaign and was a major factor in the capture of Fayetteville, NC, in March 1865. After the war he was appointed U.S. Minister to Chile, where he died in 1881.
   
   Martin's dislike for his subject is quite clear. In this he joins a long list of historians, most of whom regard Kilpatrick as showing poor judgment and costly wantonness. He finds his failure at Richmond to be his worst mistake. Despite this, however, I thought the book was interesting and well written, and made an honest attempt to capture the life of the man for the reader. The book also contained excellent maps and clear elucidation of military affairs. Not the definitive work on Kilpatrick, but not one for the waste heap, either.



4. There are some figures of the Civil War that it is very easy to hate. Even today, very few Civil War buffs have anything good to say about Braxton Bragg or Henry Halleck for example. While not as well known as Bragg or Halleck, there is much to distain in the life of Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, a Union cavalry commander from New Jersey. Samuel J. Martin provides more than enough dirt on Kilpatrick's rather sordid personal life and less than honorable character. Kilpatrick was a selfish and vain man whose ambition for power and glory led him to act rashly and often foolishly while covering his mistakes in the press and reports to his superiors. Furthermore, Kilpatrick was a womanizer who had no qualms about cheating on his wife and discarding mistresses, even those who he impregnated. Martin certainly proves that General Kilpatrick was a scoundrel.
   
   Martin leads the reader through Kilpatrick's rather checkered Civil War career. Graduating from West Point in 1861, Kilpatrick served with the New York volunteers and became known for his rash charges and his willingness to fight. Martin seems to accept this reputation but seems to argue that Kilpatrick was a physical coward, a rather odd statement considering the general's willingness to fight on the battlefield or off (even calling out Southern cadets at West Point to fist fights). Kilpatrick won some fame for driving his men to within 2 miles of Richmond as part of the Stoneman Raid during the Chancelorsville campaign and became a general in the summer of 1863. While part of his division won laurels at Gettysburg (Custer's brigade), the Kilpatrick ordered charge on July 3 proved to be an error, costing the lives of many men of Farnwsorth's brigade including Farnsworth himself. Kilpatrick would lead another raid on Richmond in early 1864, hoping to free a number of Union prisoners, pass out Lincoln's amnesty proclomation and capture and perhaps kill key Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Martin agrees with the Stephen Sears that Kilpatrick was in charge of the raid though a recent article by David Long (which he is turning into a book) argues that Dahlgren planned to kill Davis and that Kilpatrick, a notorious leaker to the press, was out of the loop. After the failure of the raid, Kilpatrick was sent west and led Union cavalry for Sherman's march to the sea and Carolina campaigns.
   
   After the war, Kilpatrick, who in the war expressed presidential ambitions, made two failed efforts to get the Republican gubenatorial nomination in New Jersey, ran unsuccessfully for the House of Represenatives in 1880 and twice served as ambasador to Chile. He passed way in 1881 in Chile at the age of 45. While a Republican, he was recalled from Chile by Grant which led to his supporting Horace Greely in 1872. Kilpatrick returned to the GOP and supported Hayes in 1876 and Garfield in 1880.
   
   Martin certainly reveals Kilpatrick's dismal character and offers a solid, if often overly critical, account of his military career. In all fairness Martin had little to work with as Kilpatrick's papers were destroyed. Still, Kilpatrick's political career could have been examined in greater detail. For all his faults, Kilpatrick had an energy and ambition to him which made him a fairly represenative figure for his times. One is left wondering, after reading Martin's book, why Kilpatrick simply was not shelved. Kilpatrick, again with all his baggage, was a fighter and those were few and far between in the Union ranks. His ambition forced him to the battlefield and took him into politics. While Martin reveals the dark side to this ambition, Kilpatrick rose out of youthful obscurity to win a solid reputation. He could not have been merely the talentless scoundrel that Martin depicts. While Martin seems to rely a great deal on secondary sources, he really had no other choice. Despite that, one suspects that Martin went into writing the book with his thesis already formulated and that is what proves frustrating about this book. Martin should have given the reader a portrait of Kilpatrick in full as opposed to bashing us over the head with how much of a jerk the man was.



5. The earlier critical comments about "Kill-Cavalry" are generally accurate. Here are some of the main points.
   
   1. Author Samual J. Martin is neither a trained writer nor a trained historian. He is a retired businessman in South Carolina whose post-retirement hobby is doing Civil War research. The lengthy bibliography attests to his detailed research, much of which is semi-original (manuscripts, official documents, correspondence, newspapers, etc.). His writing itself is dreadful, not in the sense of poor grammar or sentence structure but in its straightforward and completely uninvolving style.
   
   2. Although Kilpatrick led an extremely colorful (if brief) life, he is a difficult subject for historical research. His daughter burned his personal papers after his death, his contemporaries are long dead, and his tendency to exaggerate his successes and disguise his mistakes make most surviving accounts suspect. Factor in the difficulty of tracking the activities of any individual cavalry unit during the Civil War and you have a very difficult task making any definitive claims about Kilpatrick.
   
   3. Martin has an obvious ax to grind concerning his subject. While Kilpatrick was a self-promoting scoundrel, an objective examination of most of his contemporaries would reveal that these qualities were almost a prerequisite for ascendancy within either army. Martin's anti-Kilpatrick agenda sidetracks him from the two best biographical styles for a subject such as Kilpatrick. The most entertaining would be a light-hearted examination of his escapades (Kilpatrick was a Civil War version of actor Errol Flynn-both of Irish descent) and a fun look at his exploits would be quite entertaining. Another alternative would have been to draw parallels with contemporaries like Dan Sickles, Phil Sheridan, and George Custer. Unfortunately Martin's pious disapproval does not allow him to explore either avenue.
   
   4. Because of Martin's prejudices about his subject and his lack of good source material he seems compelled to editorialize throughout the book. Bad enough, but his narrative often contradicts his conclusions. For example, Martin is convinced that Kilpatrick was a cowardly soldier and points to many examples of Kilpatrick losing his nerve in combat situations. Yet at the same time he details Kilpatrick's drive for recognition and tendency to recklessly commit his command to action. Like all but the most senior cavalry officers, Kilpatrick was up in a saddle with his troopers on all their raids and maneuvers, and remained this style of cavalryman for almost the entire war. He was not an armchair general but a field officer in a serious pursuit of advancement and fame. There were far easier and safer commands for West Point trained officers. Had he been lazy or cowardly he would have sought a desk job but he believed the cavalry offered him the best prospects for advancement and recognition.
   
   5. Martin is highly critical of both Kilpatrick's command performance and his refusal to expose himself to danger at Brandy Station in 1863. He does not even mention Kilpatrick's saber fight with a hated West Point classmate during that engagement. But Eric Wittenberg goes into detail about this incident in "The Union Cavalry Comes of Age" (2003): Kilpatrick squared off with a Confederate officer he had known and disliked at West Point...the Southerner gave Kilpatrick a slight cut on the arm...receiving a vicious slash the Confederate officer reeled in his saddle. Seeing an opportunity Kilpatrick killed his injured foe with a slashing cut of his saber. The victorious colonel rejoined his brigade, proclaiming, "That rights a wrong. I have wanted to meet him ever since the war commenced".
   
   6. Rather than bring Kilpatrick to life, Martin fills many pages of the book with general Civil War history. For a book of only 268 pages, there is simply too much detail about the battles and movements of the two armies, without regard to whether Kilpatrick himself was involved.
   
   7. Martin sensationalizes the cavalry charge Kilpatrick and Merritt ordered during the 3rd day of Gettysburg. He goes into great detail about a somewhat dubious account of Kilpatrick's interaction with a subordinate commander, yet fails to examine the very real tactical opportunity that he and Merritt had recognized and were trying to exploit. One of Merritt regiments had tied up the two brigades of Confederate cavalry in Fairfield; leaving the right flank of Lee's army open to attack. Had Law's (formerly Hood's) division been positioned to support Longstreet's assault on the Union center, the cavalry charge would most likely have been a significant success.
   
   Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

3 comments about Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865.

1. I found this book to be interesting for its personal stories and perspective, but this is also what makes its downfall. Lamon was a personal acquaintance of Lincoln's and it is evident that he revered the man greatly. This gives way to much bias being placed on Lamon's accounts, failing to mention many negative things about the assassinated president. Lamon refrains from using opinionated words in much of the biography, but his personal opinions are sometimes evident. This book is kept interesting through his personal stories and the hand-written letters that are included. It is good as a resource about Abraham Lincoln, but take Lamon's opinions with a grain of salt.



2. Books about Abraham Lincoln written by those who knew him are fascinating. This one is especially so in that Lamon was not only a friend and legal colleague, but during Lincoln's presidency, his bodyguard.
   
   "Hill," the president-elect told him before leaving for Washington, "I need you." So he went.
   
   Of special interest are two chapters:
   
   One, that deals with Lamon's explanation of something Lincoln was criticized for. After a particularly bloody engagement of the Civil War, Lincoln visited the battlefield and during that visit, requested that Lamon sing a few ballads for him. (Lincoln was in the habit of asking Lamon to do this, as apparently, Lamon had a good singing voice.)
   
   And another in which Lamon tells of Abraham Lincoln's prophetic dreams, including a recurring one he'd had ever since he was a youth that presaged Lincoln's rise to the presidency and his bloody death.
   
   As I said, there is interesting material here, the stuff of legends. Well worth the attention of any Lincoln fan, or indeed, any student of U.S. history.
   
   Richard Salva--author of Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh [UNABRIDGED]



3. This primary source finally cleared up for me what really happened on that famous ride back from the Soldier's Home.
   
   Didn't one TV 'dramatization' depict Lincoln showing his hat around, with a bullet hole in it?
   
   A valuable primary source.

No comments about The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1790.

No comments about Symon's Daughter: A Memoir of Elizabeth Symon Smith.

3 comments about Through Blood & Fire: Selected Civil War Papers of Major General Joshua Chamberlain.

1. I am a great fan of Chamberlain, but found this book hard to digest. It is a compilation of his civil war letters strung together with a little back- ground information (that is mostly confusing, occasionally helpful). Most of the letters are quite boring and tactical in nature (If you find that interesting---sorry---you'll love it!) There are a few really good ones, however that can stand on their own and speak to the true character of the man. I cried twice while reading these, but at other times found myself dreading picking up the book. I'm glad I finished it---and it was worthwhile reading. Trulock is much better!



2. Mark Nesbitt does a wonderful job of organizing the personal letters of Joshua Chamberlain into an informative and enjoyable read. Through the letters, Chamberlain's motives to join the army, his accounts of battles and day-to-day affairs of a soldier's life, and his personal insights bring a new perspective on a man usually know only for his role at Gettysburg. This book allows the reader to get to know many of Chamberlain's other accomplishments in life: his family, his career, and his achievements throughout the war.



3. This book depicts a true American soldier. Joshua Chamberlain's letters and the narrative given by Mark Nesbitt give great insight into JLC's political, personal and military thought. It is a well organized work.

3 comments about Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline's Creator.

1. Bemelmans grandson has done an outstanding job of putting together a comprehensive collection of his grandfather's works. The book includes a review of his adult and children's books, his artwork, and magazine covers, as well as a collection of never before seen photographs. It is colorful, fun, and interesting. If you are a Bemelmans fan you will love this book; if you are not, this is a great way to get started!



2. As a great admirer of Bemelmans Madeline series,this book gave me insight to its creator. It is a beautiful book, well written and designed. A great tribute to a wonderful artist and writer. Truly a book that a Madeline fan would want!



3. It's our great fortune that two books are published during the same month celebrating two of the finest children's book illustrators ever...Ludwig Bemelmans and Tomie dePaola (TOMIE DE PAOLA: HIS ART & HIS STORIES)! Both books are delights and will be enjoyed for hours and hours and hours...