2 comments about Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy.

1. The three best things about this book are the extensive primary research, the author's clarity, and his unrelenting fairness to all his subjects. Every time Owens describes any peculiar behavior--whether by William Henry Harrison, other American politicians or by Native Americans leaders--he explains it in its context and then goes on to point out if it fits with the circumstances or if the actors are being inconsistent or hypocritical. While most historians work to understand the nuances and characters of their subjects, Owens is unique in explicitly laying these out along with the logic of his assertions. This helps the reader to really understand the motivations of these frontier people instead of just having to accept an author's implicit assumptions. To paraphrase a line from The Razor's Edge, Owens gives the reason and the intent--most historians just give the reason.
   
   Besides the historical quality and the impressive research, Mr. Jefferson's Hammer is just a highly enjoyable read. Owens writes very vividly and uses lots of colorful language. The last two chapters, which describe Harrison wheeling and dealing for land and build up to the death of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, have the pacing of a novel or at least a popular history. The author also has a snappy way of characterizing people and actions that make the book a lot of fun to read.
   
   One somewhat noteworthy omission is that the section entitled "Everyday Life in Early Indiana" hardly mentions farming (except a couple of lines in passing), which one would suspect would be the most sizeable component of everyday life. He discusses ideological and cultural issues that are more related to the narrative, but it just seems that he could have included more about farming in that part or renamed the section.
   
   That, however, is a small complaint about an issue that does nothing to detract from the author's intent to explore the rationale behind and the unfolding of U.S. and Indian relations on the frontier. I really love this book and think anyone interested in U.S. history would do much to clarify and add depth to their understanding of this period by reading it.



2. Robert Owens gives a fair and comprehensive biography of Harrison's career and value system. Harrison experiments in anti-slavery idealism during his college years. like many scions of Virginia, he finds himself not inheriting as much wealth and property as his parents. he squanders what land he did inherit selling it to his brother and some others for Bonds that don't get paid. Fortunately there is a frontier of Northwest Territory larger than the 13 colonies. It is full of indians and British rabblerousers. Harrison uses the influence of his family to petition for a commission in the U.S. army. He does his job well, his early failures are only the failures of the entire army.
   
   The Northwest Territory is slow to develop. Part of the reason it is slow to develop is that settlers can claim so much land at once. There isn't a population density high enough to require greater efficiency in agriculture, or enough industry to float a population with greater demand agricultural products. The answer seems to have been acquiring land from the Indians in bigger swoops, which were generally unscrupulous. the semi-aristocracy of the territories favored importing slaves to develop the land. the smaller landholders and workers didn't want slavery to diminish the value of their own production, or big manor slave owners lording it over them.
   
   Once in the private sector, big land holders tried to make money producing vast amounts of alcohol. This abundance of alcohol ultimately produced the slow talking yokel dialect later encountered in the rural midwest and south.
   
   In the end Harrison is a relatively decent person, occasionally taking opportunities that obscured this decency.

5 comments about The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston.

1. Marquis James shows why he won more than one Nobel prize for historical writing. In this book he takes you through the entire life of Sam Houston, giving the reader an insight on the events of Houston's earlier life that shaped his actions in the founding of the Texas Republic. Until reading this book, I had no idea just how important Sam Houston was to the history of not just Texas, but the entire United States.



2. A interesting Texas history lesson, this book was recommended by a local Texas historian from the Haley Library and Museum. Very enjoyable if you want more than just a history about Sam Houston, this is a Texas/Mexico history mini-lesson as well. The book tells the story of Sam Houston's life including his: Tennessee Governorship, ties to President Andrew Jackson, role as General of Armies and Malitias, tenure as President of the Republic of Texas, role as United States Senator and Governorship of the State of Texas.



3. In 1929 Marquis James published his autobiography of Sam Houston which he titled "The Raven". It reflects, favorably for me, the style of scholarly writing of the times. Mr. James, who has written of other men and events of Houston's era, writes in a manor that suggests an almost intimate knowledge of his subject. He often shares Houston's feelings and reactions which he probably picked up on through his research into his subject's personal papers. As a result, the reader is more apt to become more emotionally involved with General Houston as he or she reads "The Raven". This became somewhat of a problem for me because Sam Houston is a somewhat exasperating individual.
   
   The Sam Houston that emerged, for me, in "The Raven" was a man of strong leadership abilities, solid loyalties, and minimal political thought. I say this last part reluctantly because Marquis James provides information that suggests that he was a very capable governor. However, there seem to be few issues that come up during Houston's various tenures in the US House and Senate. There were the issues of Texas, the Union, and his close friends; the Chreokees. There is little, if anything, on Houston's opinions concerning the National Bank, trade issues, interstate commerce or other important subjects of the day. Indeed, we get images of a bored Senator Houston whittling away (literally) his time in the US Senate. There is, however, plenty about Houston the leader whether it be on the field of battle or the state house. He was and remains a most impressive figure in the history of the United States of America. Much of what I had heard about the man was fleshed out in "The Raven" in a satisfactory manner.
   
   The major events are dealt with appropriately. For example, we don't get half of the book devoted to the Battle of San Jacinto. In fact, we get only a brief message of the Alamo but enough of San Jacinto to know what happened and how it affected both Houstan and Texas. Indeed, the greatest attention seems to have been given to Houston's failed first marriage. It ended with neither party talking about the cause of the split. The author seemed intent on uncovering the real cause and had us revisiting his first wife periodically through her life after Houston.
   
   Marquis James did have an interesting mystery that he introduced to us early in the book. It had to do with a gift from Houston's mother to him when he was young. I had forgotten all about it until it showed up again at the end of the book; an appropriate message at an appropriate place.
   
   I learned a lot about Sam Houston from reading this book and I am glad I did. There is plenty of Texas in here as there should be. There is also plenty of Tennessee, Washington DC, Andrew Jackson, Santa Ana, Cherokee Indians, and, as I alluded to early, the first Mrs. Houston (the second Mrs. Houston seemed to exist solely for producing offspring and writing letters). If Sam Houston is your hero, this is your book. If not then this is still an excellent biography.



4. Today's historical books use poetic licence, meaning it is not the facts, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I've been meaning to get around to this book for a long time, but it took the movie, 'The Great Raid' to cause me to put this as priority.
   
   I previously reviewed GHOST SOLDIERS on which the movie was made, and done well. It was so realistic that I had to cry (and I don't cry easily) because of the ferocity and lact of humanity the enemy showed. It was the same in WWI only our soldiers were not equipped to fight anyone that animalistic. I see now why Tennessean Alvin York went berserk and killed so many of the approaching enemy in this war, as he was cornered and was fighting for his life.
   
   It's not always war where you have to defend you right to live in freedom. I had to use my elbows to get out of a difficult situation which I found myself in this past month. As in WWII, the enemy set out to engage and reduce the other side. This war engulfed Europe in 1914 and we came to their aid; now, in 2005, more than ninety years later, Europe has surpassed U.S.A. as the superpower of the world calling themselves the United State of Europe. Copycats! We should not jump the gun so quickly when the ally you fight for strives to surpass you in everyway. We thought we were helping England against Germany. Well, at least the Confederates who 'lost' the American Civil War took the cause of Britain and France, while the American Yankees took the side of Germany. It was another Civil War only on foreign ground this time. My favorite historian wrote that Lincoln didn't ask for or accept a surrender from the Rebels as that would be acknowledging that the Confederacy had been a sovereing nation and not "just a feverish mob," as Sam Houston is credited as saying. I have trouble believing a Tennessee governor would stoop to such stupidity.
   
   The machine gun, poison gas, trench warfare and the airplane were used first in this war to beat all wars. "As President Teddy Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the nothern state (where he originated from) -- Italians, Mormons, Jews, and Irish -- Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a nation still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions." The United States still has all of the listed attributes, especially two professors from other states who tore down one of the Southern Civil War heros with a book full of lies and no truth. That shows ignorance and prejudice is alive and well as the Northerners are still considering Tennessee a hillbilly state and everyone in it "white trash."
   
   As in WWII, the aim was "don't surrender," and "never give up whatever the situation." The Americans were bound to give no information to the enemy when captured except name, rank, and serial number. when captured except name, rank, and serial number. There is a government employee here named Whitt who is proud he went through "Ranger" school and, now sixty, is still using the war tactics he learned there to bully anyone who has a difference of opinion. Sometimes, in severe times of conflict, the soldiers and their leaders had to crawl like a snake to survive. Planes had a pivotal role in rescuing the POWs in the Phillippines and their flying low over the camp was the signal for the troops to move into position for the night maneuvers. It's true that war is hell; and nothing is really accomplished. When you defeat one dictator or generalisimo, there is another to take his place to start another war.
   
   Houston went on to the Alamo after fighting at San Joquinto to meet his fate. He was shot in the ankle by his men there and had a festering groin wound from his early days in Tennessee which caused the dissolution of his marriage. He went to live with the Cherokee Indians leaving the Governor's chair empty. If he called the Confederacy a feverish mob, he is not one to talk as his life was just one fever after another.



5. Superb biography of the Raven. Well worth your reading time. This was an unusual man! As old General Nicks said, "God made him two drinks scant."
   Unfortunately, my first copy arrived missing 30 pages. Amazon graciously sent a replacement copy and allowed me to keep the defective copy with all my notes, underlinings, etc.

5 comments about To Hell and Back.

1. In my opinion this is one of the best war movies of all time.You really feel like you are there in the heart of the battle.and the burning tank scene is the best of all.A must see.
   
   jim smith



2. I found "To Hell and Back" to be well worth the time and investment. While it could have contained more detailed information about the battles it did a great job of tell the human side of Murphy's campaigns.



3. This is on of the best books ever written about war. I'm a NCO in the Army and I believe that this book should be a preferred read on any soldiers list. I've served in Iraq on the front lines and the emotions that Audie Murphy writes about in this book are still identical in today's war.



4. "To Hell and Back" is an amazing account of Audie Murphy's real-life military service during WWII. As far as the writing style it definitely lacks flare and, at some points, you feel as though you need to put it down for a while just to take a break the from the abuse of English grammar. However, this man's heroics and peril he endured during the course of his service is so compelling that it far overshadows any literative misgivings. To think that the man (almost boy actually) came back and was able to be even somewhat normal is nothing short of a miracle. It's not only worth the money but should also be required reading by every high school history student in this country. This is what it means to be free and what price we sometimes may have to pay in oreder to stay that way.



5. Audie Murphy's story is one of incredible courage and tragedy. The most decorated American soldier who ever lived -- the 2nd most visited grave at Arlington National Cemetary after JFK -- his war experiences would leave with him with nightmares for the rest of his life. One of his wives once said that Murphy always slept with a .45 automatic under his pillow and would have nightmares where he called out the names of dead buddies. SGT York is revered for basically one battle. Audie Murphy was involved in every campaign from North Africa to Germany. While the movie depicts real events, some are somewhat toned down. While he did shoot down the German who killed his buddy in real life Murphy fired so many rounds into the guy that he literally blew him to pieces. His final action, jumping on a burning tank and holding off a German advance does not quite show the incredible courage of this soldier. He held off that attack for nearly an hour. This is why he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Still, a very good movie with Murphy natural playing himself and solid performances from Marshall Thompson and Jack Kelly.

5 comments about LBJ: Architect of American Ambition.

1. Almost all reviewers acknowledge that this book is well written but filled with factual errors. The real debate is over how important the errors are. I think they are very important for two reasons. First, the number of errors and kinds of errors suggest the author does not have a grasp of his subject. If this historian knew his period, he would not have made most of these mistakes in the first place, and if he did, he would have caught them himself in a less fatigued moment. Didn't he even read his own manuscript? Accuracy is the responsibility of the author, not the editor. These errors just would not have slipped by a competent historian, not in these numbers. Second, if the reader finds that what he or she knows about is wrong, how can the reader have confidence in what he or she doesn't know about? The short answer is one can't. There is no way of knowing if what this author says is right or wrong. For these reasons, the whole book is unreliable. Interesting as it is, and it is very interesting, one just can't have confidence in it. This is not trivial. This is not an editorial problem. This is fundamental. Too bad. The author is trying to make an important argument that needs making. In more reliable hands, this book would have been an enormous contribution to the literature, perhaps a masterpiece.



2. This is a substantial book--both in its length of 884 pages and the character of the man that it records. LBJ was an enormously controversial President--albeit not as much as this fellow that is presently "Occupying" the White House. He was hated on the left for his hawkishness on the Vietnam War. He was hated on the right because he was an FDR Democrat and was big on civil rights. Something that conservatives fought tooth and nail during that period of time--I know, I lived thru that period of time, and I remember it quite well.
   
   Johnson was a tragic figure. A President who tried to do very much good for poor people and civil rights, but was brought low by the Vietnam War and his fear of being labeled a "Communist appeaser" by the rabid right of that time. Time does not see to have improved the right's disposition--or judgment for that matter.
   
   Woods records Johnson's lamentable personal infidelities towards his wife, his overbearing and immature egotism, and his larger than life presence in his social and political environments. Despite all of his many faults, he always maintained a sincere and deep concern for the least amongst us. Along with his egotism, he was also a profound idealist. He truly believed that by promoting the right government policies that he could help change and transform America for the better. And he was capable of delivering. Whether it was civil rights, the war on poverty, job corps, the beginnings of environmental oversight by the federal government. He was a true successor of FDR.
   
   A fair and sympathetic book about a most interesting man and extremely able President. If you believe that the civil rights legislation was a worthy endeavor, then you might want to read this book to get some idea of one of the two--along with Martin Luther King--main architects of the civil rights revolution of the 60's. Additionally, Woods gives a very good overview about how Johnson was pulled deeper and deeper into Vietnam--against his better judgment.



3. Informative and absorbing, "LBJ: Architect of American Ambition" is certainly one of the best bios I've read in a while. Woods' narration, though somewhat uneven at times, never loses focus on the long reach of Johnson's ambition, which is apparent from his boyhood to the halls of Congress, and throughout his controversial presidency. Not content with only explaining his forceful and often manipulative methods, Woods allows the reader to dive into LBJ's mind to explore the (largely) altruistic motivations behind his eccentric, almost schizophrenic behaviors.
   
   Heralding over an era that he envisioned as a continuation of FDR's New Deal, LBJ's dreams came crashing under the events of the tumultuous 60s; that of Vietnam and urban riots. To paraphrase a comment once made by the father of a friend of mine, no political figure fit the mold of a Shakespearean Tragedy as LBJ did.
   
   While I agree that the editing was most certainly shoddy and that Woods' standing as a historian gives him little room to allow such careless mistakes, I must respectfully contend that the book should not suffer anything more than a 2-star deduction as other reviewers have done. Save for situations in which an author is purposefully misleading or misconstruing the facts to push foward an agenda, such errors seem more benign in nature, and as such, context should be the focus. Should I use this book as a source for a future paper and/or project, I'll be sure to take note to double-check for accuracy; but as a more casual reader looking for a book to bring this character to life, I found that Woods' overall style accomplished that objective.
   
   This book tells his story in a way that is sympathetic to his cause, but unflinching in revealing Johnson's flaws in more ways than one. With such a larger-than-life character as its subject, I can only hope a revised edition is not too far ahead in the future.



4. Randall B. Wood's brilliant biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson was ten years in the making, but came out at exactly the right time. As is the case with George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson's administration was undermined by a war that became deeply unpopular: "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" became a popular chant, and though the sloganeers of the sixties were better than those of today, the sentiment is exactly the same. As Wood shows, the Vietnam war had profound consequences for LBJ's administration, in the same way Iraq is having disastrous consequences for George W. Bush.
   
   There the similarity ends for the two presidents from Texas. LBJ's days were marked by what may be called a "revolution from below." Profound attention was paid to the needs of the poor and blacks in Johnson's Great Society programs. nd in a glaring difference with what is occurring today, the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 really changed the lives of the less well to do, so that far fewer of them went into bankruptcy, as they had in Johnson's growing up years in east Texas. The ush years have been, by contrast, marked by the increasing inaccessibility of the best medicare care to the poor, along with profound pressures on middle-class and poor Americans who just can't afford to pay for private health insurance.The Bush administration has been inclined to ascribe rising medical costs to innovation that allows doctors to do more. But this is only part of the story. The other part is a tendency for Washington to allow the healthcare industry to charge more and more.
   
   What is most fascinating about the Woods biography is the demonstration that Lyndon Johnson was profoundly influenced by his family's embrace of early 20th century progressivism.And it wasn't always easy. his father, deeply in debt, and an alcoholic to boot, stood up against the Ku Klux Klan. He very easily could have been murdered. As a state legislator, Sam Ealy, Jr. always voted against moneyed interests in the state. LBJ's mother, Rebekah, had been a reporter for an Austin newspaper, a prolific reader her entire life, and probably would have felt comfortable with today's social justice Christians. In his early twenties, Johnson spent more than a year teaching and becoming the principal of a small school made up of poor Mexican children. He never forgot them.
   
   The book is not all about doing good. Johnson's womanizing, abusiveness and egoism all come out very clearly, but Woods's complex, 900 page biography carefully and intelligently demonstrates the full measure of Johnson's prolific talent. "He (LBJ) is far ahead of most of the intellectuals--especially those Northern liberals who have beco0me, in the name of the highest motives, the new apologists for segregation," writer Ralph Ellison wrote in a magazine interview i early 1967. "President Johnson's speech at Howard University spelled out the meaning of full integration for Negroes in a way that no one, no President, not Lincoln nor oosevelt, no matter how much we love and respected them, has ever done before."



5. Many,many, many layers. Author Woods sets out to create the ultimate LBJ biography, and partly succeeds. On the plus side, it is obvious that he put a considerable amount of work into looking into both older and fresh research, coming up with new facts or forgotten ones about one of the most complex American presidents. As some of the professional reviews indicated, Woods created a comprehensive set of information. In addition, Woods does not leave LBJ off the hook historically, but is far more balanced in his overall assessment of LBJ as compared to other bios, probably partially as a result of the passage of time as well as author effort.
   On the negative side, this weighty book (around 900 pages text) could have used some serious editing. Besides the numerous small factual errors (which state a Senator is from), several paragraphs are simply a mess and should have been cut. Probably could have removed some passages about the Kennedys - this is, after all, a biography of LBJ, and should be focused on his relationship with them.
   I found this book informative, but I think I am still waiting for a more definitive LBJ bio to emerge.

3 comments about The Morning the Sun Went Down.

1. from "Kirkus Reviews" (starred review): A slim, modest, and altogether extraordinary memoir of rural Native American life. Wilson, a poet and scholar from the Achumawe and Atsugewi tribes of northeastern California, came into adolescence in the mid-1950s, when his people had all but disappeared through assimilation or extermination. Blame for part of that disappearance he lays squarely at the door of whites; but, he adds, "the neglect of our Elders to teach us our traditions was equally damaging." His own parents did their best to teach Wilson and his siblings something of the old ways: how to hunt deer, how to tame rattlesnakes, how to listen for mountain lions, lessons that he imparts to his readers with precision and grace- and not a little humor. But when his mother and younger brother were killed in a collision with a logging truck, Wilson was sent off to live with white foster parents among unfriendly neighbors (he remembers, touchingly, one young girl "who did not accuse me with her eyes or attitude," principally "because we were not enemies"). Whe it appeared that his foster parents wanted to strip away his Indian identity, Wilson rebelled, for which he was sent off to a boarding school where the young California Indian charges were locked in their rooms at nights and punished by day for minor infractions. Wilson recounts these horros matter-of-factly but doesn't dwell on them; instead, he celebrates a teacher who sagely corrected his compositions, encouraged him to improve himself, and urged him to become a writer. Readers have reason to be grateful to that teacher as well. Wilson is a careful and compassionate obeserver of his life and those of other young Indians, and his book is a fine addition to the growing library of Native American autobiography.



2. Every once in a while a book is written that changes everything. THE MORNING THE SUN WENT DOWN is one of those books. This autobiography written by Darryl Babe Wilson about his Achomawi/Atsugewi (Pit River) childhood in northeastern California is filled with wonder and lyrical beauty, and at the same time with painful tragedy and brutality. This is the masterful recounting of a personal journey that enfolds us warmly in a child eye's view of Wilson's family and tribal relations, as well as the intrinsic and permanent relationship with the land in its ancient and essential dimensions. This book is simultaneously literature, an autobiography and the history of a People. It is highly recommended.//This is a portion of the review by Susan Lobo that will appear in the journal NATIVE AMERICAS (Cornell)



3. Every once in a while a book is written that changes everything. This is one of those books. This autobiography written by Darryl Babe Wilson about his Achomawi/Atsugewi (Pit River) Indian childhood in northern California is filled with wonder and lyrical beauty, and at the same time with painful tragedy and brutality. This is the masterful recounting of a personal journey that enfolds us warmly in a child eye's view ofWilson'sfamily and tribal relations, as well as the intrinsic and permanent relationship with theland in its ancient and essential dimensions. This book is simultaneously literature, an autobiography and the history of a People. Thebook begins with a dream in which Wilson is tested and reminded by the Elders of his responsibility to his People. It combines observations both minute and practical with those that sweepinglyencompass infinate place and time, understood both by the heart and mind. We are deftly drawn into a world that is simultaneously rugged and sweet. The family tragedy, the death of his mother and baby brother, and the subsequent family separation are described in wrenching detail, mirroring and paralleling the descriptions of historic events resulting from the lethal coming of whites into his homeland following the discovery of gold in California. Wilson places us, as readers, in a spot that is at the same time ancient, historical and contemporary. This is a story of growingself-assurance and human understanding as Wilson matures and comes to see the world from a broader vision, as well as his place and potential role within that world. He says, "...we must seek a power or a series of powers outside of ourselves which we identify as 'helpers.' Helpers can be a tree or animals, rocks or mountains, stars or flowers, frogs or rainbows. Helpers come to us in our time of need, and they guide our dreams." This book is utlimately the story of strength and power. Near the end of the book, he says, "For it was a song, according to our narratives, that caused all of the universe to have a beginning. We must seek within ourselves the spiritual terrain from our watu/ah'lo (spiritual umbilical cord) to the Great Power, cultivating our personal power and creating wholesomeness with our thoughts and intentions...It is taught in our lessons and legends, and by our Elders, that The People are responsible for life upon earth. Honoring the lessons then becomes a mandate from Great Power/GReat Wonder/Great Spirit that we are bound to obey. All people must obey the Great Law, so the sweetness of life can continue."

5 comments about The Life of an Ordinary Woman.

1. In an age when autobiographies are considered fascinating only if the writer survived abuse, rape, incest or murder, Ms. Ellis' account is refreshing because she survives life.



2. No matter what your own life experience has been you will find things in this great book that you identify with. This true life experience is from a woman who lived a heroic experience from penniless poverty to being elected to public office, rising above all her own expectations, A wonderful book full of comedy, tragedy, drama, supence, you won't be able to put this book down.



3. With ingenuous humility, Anne Ellis recounts the first phase of her difficult life as if it were a cakewalk. Several passages convey such emotional impact that I remember them months later. A great read for anyone wishing to understand how women really lived in mining towns of the American West around the turn of the century.



4. Ann Ellis is the real deal! She's raw American...living, working, loving, and raising children in the gruelingly hard world of the mining towns of the Rocky Mountains, years before the amenities that we American women take for granted today...things like running water, ample heating, and doctors always available for very sick children.But Ann is tough and savvy, witty, and has a great sense of fun, even in the toughest of times. Her life is richly-laden with deep emotion.Her descriptive style is pure and simple, but takes us right to her heart. She never complains...only explains.You read the book with a great sense of admiration for these strong women who raised strong families,loved their men, had dreams and joyful aspirations, even in times when they were struggling to find their way in this sometimes brutal world of their husbands' lust for gold and silver.This lady was a true pioneer in every sense of the word. Her story should be shared with anyone who finds strength in true accounts of brave American men and women.



5. There are some books about the women of the old west that are far more interesting. The one overwhelming impression I had from this book is how uncaring her family was and how she herself really was a very selfish woman, even wanting to go to a dance the night her child was deathly ill. I would recommend other books such as Doc Susie: The True Story of a Country Physician in the Colorado Rockies and also Tomboy Bride. Both of these books are about intellegent, caring individuals in the same parts of the country and in the same time.

4 comments about His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad.

1. John Parker's autobiography is an engrossing and often surprising account of the activities of the Underground Railroad. Parker was born and lived as a slave until buying his freedom and moving to Ripley, Ohio. There he joined forces with Rev. John Rankin in helping slaves cross the Ohio River and escape to Canada. His account is lucid, swift-moving, rambunctious, and highly literate. He describes the Ohio River Valley as "the Borderland," comparing it to the lawless, violent Scots/English border. The border, constantly raided by Abolitionists helping steal men, women, and children out of slavery and patrolled by slave-owning vigilantes intent on catching them, simmers in as treacherous a state of unrest and violence as any "Wild West" town at its worst. Parker never walks the streets of Ripley without a pistol, knife, and black jack in his belt. He never admits to working for the Underground Railroad, especially after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, but pretty much everyone in the region knows that he does, putting his life in constant danger.

   Parker's account abounds in hair-breadth escapes, heart-rending failures, and startling heroics. He also reveals aspects of the Underground Railroad that one never suspects but which seem inevitable after he describes them, such as the competition that developed between John Rankin's Ripley, Ohio branch of the Railroad and Levi Coffin's Cincinnati group. Parker insists that Coffin was merely the better publicist, not the better rescuer of the two. It's also clear that for Parker rescuing slaves was not merely a fierce moral imperative but also an activity touched with excitement, zest--even, strange as this sounds, fun. There is an element of sport to his activities, despite their grim, life and death seriousness. Parker is obviously bold, intelligent, crafty--good at what he does--and he relishes the hard-won triumphs of courage and guile that allow him to free his fellow slaves.

   It's hard to say what place &qu! ot;His Promised Land" will take in American literature. It will not, I don't think, replace Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of an American Slave" as the country's premier account of the experience of slavery. It's not as powerful, relentless, or literarily self-conscious an account as Douglass's great work. But it may prove to be, for the Underground Railroad, what Sam Watkins's "Co. Aytch" is for the Civil War: perhaps the most engaging, colorful, and moving account by an 'ordinary extraordinary' man in one of this country's most agonizing and dramatic conflicts.




2. I brought this book some time ago and just got around to reading it. Well, let me tell you that I can kick myself for not reading it sooner. You will get through this book so fast your head would spin because it is so interesting you will not want to put it down. John P. Parker, my hero.



3. I ordered this book after seeing an interesting reference to it in an article in Smithsonian Magazine. I am so very glad I did.It is an amazing book, a very rare combination of thought provoking historical narrative, and Indiana Jones-ish excitement. I only wish it had been ten times as long-I would have devoured it. If I hadn't read the preface, which gives the background, I would have thought it was fiction, and pretty darn nail biting fiction at that.
   I have given quite a bit of thought to this book, wondering what I would have done, given the same situation, and concluded that you can only hope you would be strong enough to rise to the circumstances, but fear is a powerful deterrent.I am giving my copy to the history department chair at my daughters' high school, and will ask them to consider making it a part of the curriculum.



4. My daughter needed this book for research of slavery. It was great for her and she learned alot!

5 comments about Hemingway: The 1930s.

1. This thorough and "personable" slice of Hemingway's life in the 30's is quite readable and almost literary itself. Reynolds' periodic but careful use of correspondence and journalistic fragments, interspersed with the narrative is thought-provoking and draws the reader into the time. The only problem with this book is the necessity that the reader bring a somewhat extensive background to the reading in order to thoroughly enjoy the material. If you do not know the Hemingway cast of characters, Reynolds does not go to great lengths to introduce you. Since the book, by its nature, dumps you into the "story" midstream, its failure to catch you up is somewhat frustrating at times. However, the expertise with which it is written only leaves you wanting more and seeking additional sources to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. I highly recommend it to all who are somewhat familiar with Hemingway. If you are among the uninitiated, you may wish ! to start elsewhere and keep this in mind for later.



2. Hemingway: The 1930s is the fourth installment in Mr. Reynold's series; he does not "dump you into the story midstream." Anyone with even a little knowledge of Hemingway is familiar with this series and knows that Mr. Reynolds is THE Hemingway biographer. My advice - do at least a little research before expressing an opinion.



3. Though this is the fourth of a five book series, and the first I chose to read, I had no trouble keeping up. You could argue that Hemingway the man was more interesting than his fiction and Reynolds goes a pretty good distance to show why. Hemingway takes his first safari, catches Marlin in Key West and fights in the Spanish Civil War, and switches women before the end of the decade.

   Reynolds paints a fairly descriptive portrait of Hemingway, but also reminds us of other current events as the decade unfolds. Hemingway begins the decade mostly apolitical, but he is very critical of the New Deal Programs he sees running in his hometown of Key West Florida. In 1936 he likens President Roosevelt's plan to socialism, but his support two years later of antifascist guerrillas in the Spanish Civil War allies him with downright communists.

   It was also interesting to watch Hemingway's friendships crumble. Reynolds describes how Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sherwood Anderson went their separate ways from Papa for various reasons, but mostly because Hemingway was an explosive character. His larger than life dominating personality coupled with his fatigue for certain personality types doomed a great deal of one-time friendships.

   What I like mostly of Reynolds work is that he likes Hemingway a great deal, and this comes through, despite Papa's many flaws.




4. This is the fourth installment in Reynolds's five part Hemingway biography. During this period Hemingway lived mostly in Key West. He wrote his first non-fiction bullfight book, Death in the Afternoon, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls. He also spent a lot of time in latter part of this decade as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. He meets the journalist Martha Gellhorn in Key West and begins the relationship that will break up his second marriage.

   Reynolds does a good job here but it is not as good as the two previous installments. There is much less detail given here compared to those books especially with regards to Hemingway's thoughts and state of mind while writing the books of this period. The other books had a nearly page by page account of what the great man was doing and thinking while he wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. This is noticeably lacking here. The account of the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls is especially curt. That book, which is regarded as Hemingway's masterpiece, doesn't get the attention Reynolds gave to earlier works. I read somewhere that Hemingway contacted his publisher Charles Scribner during the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls, telling him that one of the Spanish Civil War short stories he was writing had taken off in his mind and that he already had written 40,000 words. This information is nowhere to be found here. Instead there are gossipy details of the relationship with Gellhorn and the unkind treatment Hemingway's second wife, Pauline, received at the end of their marriage.

   There is a long account of Hemingway's first African safari which I found uninteresting. Reynolds stresses his subject's need to recreate the "summer people" of his youth, the group of friends that would gather at Walloon Lake in Michigan every summer of Hemingway's boyhood. Reynolds's tries to force every single relationship to fit this "summer people" thesis even when it is less than apt. There is overlong attention given to hunting trips and less attention to the actual writing than I would have liked. Reynolds has a disturbing tendency here to introduce a new person into Hemingway's life story without much explanation of how they came to meet and what caused them to be friendly. On several occasions a new friend will enter Hemingway's life and without any explanation immediately become the center around which the narrative revolves. This is unsettling and made me page back on several occasions looking for the first appearance of this person. Overall, a poor follow up to the previous books in this series.




5. The fourth volume in Reynolds's multi-volume biography of Hemingway. Unlike other Hemingway biographers (James Mellow, for instance) who are mostly interested in how the author incorporated his own life into his fiction, Reynolds approaches his subject in a strict chronological fashion and hardly touches upon the works at all. This volume begins in 1929 with Ernest and Pauline returning to Paris while he put the final touches on "A Farewell to Arms," and ends with Ernest beginning to write "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and taking up residence with Martha Gellhorn in Havana. Very detailed in terms of H.'s life and doings, much less so with regard to his works and art. Definitive in that respect, but not where to go to get an appreciation of Hemingway the writer and the forces behind his artistic creations.

2 comments about American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane Addams.

1. Jane Addams was a remarkable woman. This book is the best biography written of her life. She was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in her later life. Her liberal views of American society are covered thoroughly by this author in his chapters of her early work at Hull House, and her later work for world peace. A must read book for every woman, because Jane Addams was truly an American woman.



2. This truly outstanding and detailed biography of Jane Addams surveys the founder of Hull House, a social reformer who was one of the most admired women in American history. American Heroine recounts her life, work and ideas, providing chapters which go into far more depth and detail than most reviews of her life, probing the philosophy behind her works and the atmosphere of her times.

3 comments about Mary Dyer: Biography of a Rebel Quaker.

1. The execution of Mary Dyer is an unfortunate but important part of the early history of the American colonies. She is still a relatively unknown historical figure. I was eager to read this book, and my Quaker meeting's first day school group for adolescents read it together as well. I wanted very much to think highly of it, but it frustrated me, for some of the reasons given in the editorial review. I feel that it isn't sufficiently scholarly or serious--it often reads like a middle school social studies text, and I think Mary Dyer, in all of her own frustrating complexity, deserves better.



2. This is an excellent book about somebody to whom all Americans are indebted. We could benefit from her being less overlooked in our history. The title might require an explanation: Mary Dyer could perhaps be called a rebel in relation to the ruling party in early colonial Boston, but not in relation to other Quakers after she became a Quaker.
   
   I would not call the book "plodding" at all. Mary Dyer's life is a story almost too moving for words. The story is not fiction. In fiction, the telling is the thing, and by the rules we cannot understand anything at odds with the telling itself. But the events of this story actually happened, to be understood from the unembellished facts.
   
   I recently began rereading this book. It is simply not as bad as the criticsm may indicate, especially in view of how little there is in print about Mary Dyer, who may well be the most important martyr for religious freedom in American history.
   
   The word "antinomian" deserves more elucidation than the author provides. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives two definitions: 1. one who holds that under the gospel dispensation of grace the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation, and 2. one who rejects a socially established morality. This word has its uses; the underlying issues are at least as old as the Epistles. Wanting to do away with the adjective itself as completely useless could be an indication of exactly what the adjective is about. As with any other adjective, the issue is whether the adjective rightly applies. Mary Dyer was among those accused of antinomianism in Boston, but they were far from being guilty of true antinomiansim, which might be called, after the Epistle of Jude, licentiousness in the name of grace.



3. I grew up in one of the towns through which Mary Dyer repeatedly passed both while being ejected from Massachusetts and while sneaking back into the intolerant theocracy that was Massachusetts Bay Colony. Later I crossed daily, on the way to work, the very land that she and her husband farmed in Newport, the city of their exile. Despite my Massachusetts public education about the pilgrims of Plymouth and the witch burnings of Salem, the state failed to teach me and my fellow students about the woman who should be remembered as the catalyst for the self implosion of that puritan theocracy and the birth of religious liberty, not only in the United States, but in the Western world. Mary Dyer was a true martyr every bit as courageous as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior. We all owe her a debt of gratitude. Had I not read this book, I would have remained ignorant of this heroic woman.
   
   As for the book itself, the author shows her inexperience with writing in her less than smooth prose and apparent unawareness of the ignorance of her audience. Some names of key players come up without needed introduction. She seems to believe that her readers can read the occasional French quotes without translation. This and many other flaws may discourage some readers, but the story itself is a beautiful and moving story well worth the effort of wading though the various defects of its telling. In a sense, I would expect this story to be told by a novice, for the professional writer most often writes for the masses and the masses are sadly unaware of the story of this beautiful woman.
   
   For the sake of having read this book, I've found a true hero. I recommend that you read it and then think about how this strong, intelligent, and independent woman changed your life more than 350 years ago.