5 comments about Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker.

1. Excellent, thoroughly researched biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. If you suspect that things in Washington must have been different and better a century ago, this book is the cure. Great picture of the early 20th century in Washington, and the big social & political players, including Alice, who wielded considerable social and political power but never held office. Different and interesting views of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as seen by a cousin. The description of Alice's famously cruel "Eleanor imitation" (performed for the humiliated Eleanor at least once)is worth the price of the book.



2. In this biography author Stacy Cordery succeeeds in making her subject come alive. Alice Roosevelt was the pop star of her day just 100 years ago and was the center of attention in Washington DC from the time her father was in the White House until her death almost 80 years later. Using primary sources, Alice's letters and diaries gave the writer the opportunity to paint a vivid portrait in words. This book is recommended for anyone interested in women's history or in political drama.



3. As Teddy Roosevelt's oldest child, Alice was introduced to the lifestyles of the rich and politically well-connected early on in her life. She never got over living in the White House. To read her correspondence on the subject, it was forever hers. Alice was a diva. She was the original "it's all about me" celebutant. Very few people ever denied her, and when they did, woe be unto them.
   
   She was married to the Speaker of the House, had a child by a distinguished senator from Idaho and held political sway over the inner circles of Washington, D.C. until her death in 1980.
   
   Stacy Cordery's new biography is voluminous, coming in at 608 pages, not including the references and bibliography. Cordery has done a thorough and sincere job, but even her meticulous efforts can't make "Princess Alice," as she was called, a likable creature. She may have been admirable from afar, but up close and personal, she was selfish, self-centered and hated sharing the spotlight with anyone.



4. I was very eager to read Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy A. Cordery. I enjoy reading about the Roosevelts and Alice was certainly one of the more colorful family members. But I found Alice uneven and a bit of a disappointment.
   
   The story of Alice Roosevelt Longworth is fairly well-known. Alice was the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt. When Alice was only two days old, both her mother and grandmother (TR's mother) died within hours of each other. Unable to deal with his grief, TR dumped baby Alice with his sister and escaped out west. Three years later, TR married Edith Kermit Carow and they brought Alice to live with them. Soon, Alice was competing with five half siblings. With her emotionally absent father and her stern step-mother, Alice learned to seek attention by rebelling. When her father succeeded to the White House in 1901, Alice became "the first female celebrity of the twentieth century." The press couldn't get enough of the first daughter and nicknamed her Princess Alice. Her father once said "I can either run the country or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both." Alice eventually married Ohio congressman Nicholas Longworth. With her keen intelligence, sharp wit, natural curiosity and political astuteness, Alice remained a mover and a shaker for her 96 years. Her DC house was a gathering place for powerful people.
   
   I thought that Cordery did a good job of covering the political aspects of Alice's life. Unfortunately, I felt that the details of her personal life were lacking. I reached page 200 and realized that there wasn't much that I hadn't read in other sources. There wasn't that much about her interaction with her siblings. Her daughter, Paulina, is largely glossed over. Alice had an affair with Senator William Borah and he was allegedly the father of Paulina. But after lots of pages, he seems to just drop away from the story. What really happened to their relationship? Also, I'm a stickler for details. Was there a funeral for Alice? If so, where was it held? Where is she buried? Her father's death receives only one paragraph. For a book that is advertised as "the first full biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth," there are major holes.
   
   I enjoyed reading Alice, but I was just expecting more.



5. I have read several biographies over the years of nearly President of 20th century, and so the name of Alice Roosevelt Longworth commonly came up in these books (of Presidents starting with her father Pres. T. Roosevelt). She was usually mentioned, in reference to post-WWII years, in terms such as "the grande dame of Washington, " however I had no idea what a fascinating life she led. This very readable book provides an intimate look into her life, despite the limitations of the ultra-discrete manners of the post-Edwardian era in which she came of age, which must make the research into her letters frustrating. Nevertheless, we are let into such secrets as her husbands adulterous groin and the true father of "their" child.
   Given my great admiration of her cousin Eleanor and my prior reading of nearly haigiographic books on her and FDR, before reading "Alice" I was all ready to see her as a vindictive, nasty bitch, whining from the sidelines of D.C. on just about everyone else due to her own bitterness over not getting back into White House after death of her father. This book convinced me otherwise. Yes, she did have a biting, "cutting" wit, but the writer did convince me she never aimed her well-known verbal arrows at anyone weaker than her, or vunerable. Usually her barbs were for those well-entrenched in power and covered in hubris that she's more than willing to help brush off. The fact that most of politicians whom she famously critiqued were Democrats is not covered up, but neither does the writer looks more in depth into what was often her blind partisanship (e.g. Sen. McCarthy...Pres. Nixon, not coincidentally both Republicans.)
   Lastly, the book is well-researched and footnoted, and the writer is a talented story teller...I imagine she had problem deciding what stories to leave out.

5 comments about My Life and Hard Times (Perennial Classics).

1. I am 52 yrs. old. I read this book in High School and couldn't put it down. When I read it again as adult, I laughed even harder because somehow it made having the weirdest family in the whole world a joke instead of a hardship. It made Thurber's family, the Coneheads, the Simpsons, and the Osbornes seem like life is good as long as you can laugh once in a while, and even better if you can laugh at yourself.



2. Take your mind back half a century and read these mildly amusing essays about life in the 1920s and 1930s. The style is so different from modern prose, but it is well worth the read.



3. Thurber is a great favorite of mine, and this was another fun book to read.



4. Should be required reading for all folks of any age looking for an introduction to life in these United States, for those learning to overcome despair and disaster with humor and grace, for any and all learning the English language.



5. James Thurber was one of the funiest authors of all time and this book cements his reputation. I enjoyed it many years ago and after re-reading it, I enjoyed it again.

5 comments about Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend.

1. Casey Tefertiller's Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend begins with Cowtown Justice and the young lawman's early efforts to apply the law in the Kansas communities of Wichita and Dodge City. Wyatt Earp gained wide community approval with his quite way of dealing with explosive situations.
   
   Tefertiller chronicles the Dodge City era of the 1870's and Wyatt Earp's role as lawman. Toward the end of the 1879 cattle season Wyatt joined his brothers and made the move the silver mining camp at Tombstone, Arizona.
   
   There is no doubt that silver was the big lure to the mining camp, but Wyatt also considered the idea of operating a stagecoach line and a possible freight line. He looked into both of those propositions and when they didn't work out he fell back on his earlier experience as a lawman and took an appointment as Deputy US Marshal.
   
   Wyatt Earp was on the Tombstone streets during 1880 and 1881 and had first hand knowledge of the good and the bad. He witnessed corrupt politicians and their muscle called the cowboys bully and intimidate the citizens of Tombstone. A confrontation was set in motion during the summer of 1881 when Wyatt Earp and Johnny Behan squared off as political opponents to run for Cochise County Sheriff. And adding to their adversarial positions was the fact that both men were seeking the hand of a pretty young lady named Josephine Marcus. Tombstone residents continued to be plagued with the bullying tactics of the cowboys and all that came to a head on the evening of October 25, 1881 when the cowboy's most vocal personality made the rounds of saloons drinking and railing against the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. There were minor skirmishes that evening and the next morning but the big show came the following afternoon when the cowboy's ignored a city ordinance and refused to surrender their firearms. Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Frank Mclaury, Tom Mclaury and Billy Claiborne defiantly waited at the vacant lot on Fremont Street near Third for the arrival of Chief of Police Virgil Earp and his deputies Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday. When the shooting was over it was obvious that the cowboys had lost the fight. Tom and Frank Mclaury were dead, and Billy Clanton was dying of multiple gunshot wounds. Virgil Earp had a bad leg wound; Morgan Earp was wounded in the back, Doc Holliday got a severe bruise when a bullet glanced off his gun belt and Wyatt Earp did not have a scratch. The shootout didn't end the conflict, because just day's later Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps and Holliday. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were hauled into Judge Wells Spicer's court for a hearing. Prosecution and the defense called a string of witnesses to the stand, but at the end of the 28-day hearing Judge Spicer ruled in favor of the defense. The hearing didn't end the feud. Virgil Earp received three shotgun blasts and was almost killed while making his night rounds and Morgan Earp was shot in the back and killed by night guns. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were marked for assassination, but left the Tombstone area for Colorado to avoid a complete bloodbath. Wyatt married Josephine Marcus and they followed the silver and gold mining strikes from Idaho to Alaska. Wyatt later dabbled in commercial real estate, horse racing and for a while was a Wells Fargo special detective. In his latter years he lived in Los Angeles and was a movie consultant on western films. Wyatt Earp died in his Los Angeles home in 1929. Casey Tefertiller tells the Wyatt Earp story in a straightforward style that leaves the reader with an indelible picture of that famous Frontier Lawman.
   
   Tom Barnes author of "Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone."
   Also "The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle."
   
   The Hurricane Hunters And Lost in the Bermuda Triangle
   
   Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone: The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday



2. Excellent book for its purpose - but the excitement of Earp's life doesn't come through, which is probably a fault in me, not the book.



3. This is a very detailed account of the life of Wyatt Earp and for that matter Tombstone. The biography starts off typically detailing Earp and his families up bringing and discusses in detail Wyatt's difficulties with the loss of his first wife, declining fortunes, possible an incident of horse stealing while down on his luck and his life as a jack of all trades starting as a freight hauler and of course as a buffalo hunter making friends with the Masterson brothers. The author cover's Wyatt's early stints as a Police Officer noting that he was never the Sheriff or Marshall but the deputy, indicating that Earp preferred or was more qualified as the action oriented arm of the law. The author has thorough accounts of his time in Dodge, Wichita and his meeting of several famous lawmen such as Charlie Bassett. And of course, the meeting and friendship of Wyatt and Doc Holiday is well told. The meat of the book is Tombstone where Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, James and eventually Warren along with Doc Holiday migrate to find their fortunes in the boom town. The author often quotes several sections of the two town newspapers to document his facts along with the diary of a well known resident. The Earps are described as pure businessmen initially taking interest in properties and in saloon gaming but as usual, they become involved in law enforcement as Virgil takes a both a U.S. Deputy Marshal position and as a town Deputy Sheriff. The overlapping civil authority is confusing between the Federal Marshal jurisdiction, the town Marshal jurisdiction and the County Sheriff's, the political hack Johnny Behan. What is apparent from this book is that the Earps were unyielding in their enforcement of the law as Morgan, Wyatt and sometimes Warren were deputized to enforce the law and did so stringently in contrast to Johnny Behan. Behan and some of the Tombstone society saw the cowboys virtually as tolerable pirates that rustled and occasionally robbed, with some citizens, particularly Behan gaining financial benefits. The author does a very good job of explaining the escalation of tension as the cowboys, particularly the Clantons, "Curly Bill" Brocius, the McLaurys and Johnny Ringo, become in conflict with the law and of course, the Earps. The odd relationships between the two groups, periodically intertwined between offenses and gambling with each other such as poker, are well described as Ike Clanton becomes the catalyst for the fight. The fight, deaths of the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton, and the assassination attempt of Virgil and murder of Morgan are described articulately along with the second climax of Tombstone, Wyatt's vendetta ride. Always along, Doc Holiday, who is described as having a strong allegiance to Wyatt and his descriptions are quite fascinating Holiday is a somewhat mysterious and self destructive character. The author completes Wyatt's time in Tombstone, describes his relationship with Josephine Marcus and flight to Colorado, joining Masterson in some of his old haunts such as Dodge City teaming up again with some of the most famous lawmen of the west. The author closes the last 1/4 of the book on Wyatt's travels around the west as a speculator ranging in areas as far away as Alaska. Well covered too is Wyatt's possibly naive agreement to referee a fight that may very likely have been fixed without his knowing resulting in a very embarrassing public moment. The author closes with Earp's final years, growth of legend, attraction by movie stars and authors who desire to capture the legend in print. The only lapse in the book is the failure to write in detail how Wyatt tried to reconcile with Ike Clanton and the Cowboys to end the feud after Virgil was severely wounded. This is important because it reinforces the fact that Wyatt was very rational and deliberate and his rare taking of life was essentially a last resort in an area of the west where the civil authority was weak.



4. This book takes the time to show Wyatt Earp- warts and all. No effort is made to create a legend out of this pimp and gambler, just facts are revealed. GREAT READ for fans of Wyatt Earp.



5. the book was of excellent quality being used as stated on amazon. The shipping time was quick and was within the time frame as noted if not before

5 comments about Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson.

1. I am a history buff and have read so much about Jefferson, I almost winced when my husband brought home Twilight at Monticello--what else can there possibly be said? Well, a great deal. We have a bad habit in America of taking someone who has done us a great service and putting them so high up on a pedestal they appear to be gods. (Anyone remember the Victorian print of Washington ascending to Heaven?) This leaves the "god" no where to go but down. Twilight has achieved the 'impossible' which is to render Jefferson as a brilliant but troubled man who helped to form a type of government which was completely at odds with government as then known and risked his life doing it.
   
   Jefferson and the others had no guidelines, no map, only a concept of what liberty should be. And, they did it. It wasn't perfect; we all know that. Nevertheless, they took the steps to achieve something that, even though flawed, gave us the liberty as time went by to amend their original ideas when they were incorrect. It works; it takes time but it works. After the Revolution, he inevitably became a god.
   
   Later he was pulled down from God status, and correctly so, by historians stating that he was a slave holder, a father who had trouble with the "empty nest", had relatives you could dress up but you couldn't take out, and, we can all be joyful that Hamilton did the banking part since Jefferson seemed to have absolutely no concept of accounting.
   
   Twilight is where Crawford has done Jefferson, and us, a service. He shows an old man who is out of the spotlight, mourning his chldren, madly in love with his grandchildren, making amends with old friends he has argued with, seeing comrades for the last time, worrying about slavery but unable to let go of his own slaves, desperate to pay his debts but still spending and borrowing (Mastercard anyone?), and suffering from poor health while moving on toward the end of his life. Crawford has done away with the god problem and has given us a real person, warts and all, and in so doing shows us a founding father who still shines brightly.
   
   That is the beauty of Twilight.



2. 
   This book discusses the extended family, the estate and the retirment activities of our third president. It's well written, but it's a once over lightly.
   
   While we meet the family members (a family chart is very much needed), we don't understand them. I thought I somewhat knew daughter Martha, but in the end she punishes a slave in a very unseemly manner which didn't fit any impression I had had. While there are character differences between the sons-in-law, their big fight and its aftermath seem to be wedged in, rather than a culmination of differences between the two men. Crawford does a very good job in presenting the story of the Hemings family, but again there is no way to understand them.
   
   The estate and its furnishings are well described. There is a floor plan for the main building and photos and drawings of the grounds and of the other residences. There is little on the slave quarters. A map locating all the family residences would have been helpful. Unlike many writers who cover the finacial past Crawford gives benchmarks to help in understanding the scale of costs and deficits.
   
   What is told of Jefferson's activities is good, but since the retirement spans 18 years there has to be more than what is given. Jefferson's work is always an extension of his philosophy, and Crawford's best work is here. He gives the clearest description of Jefferson on slavery that I have read (inclusive of his holding Britian responsible for rooting it in the new world) and his religious beliefs and views.
   
   While the above review has a lot on the negative side, I recommend the book. It reads very well-- in fact--- it reads so well that I would have liked to have read more of it!



3. An interesting perspective on Thomas Jefferson at the end of his life and his belief in his entitlement.



4. Bought the book thinking I would learn more about Monticello but discovered so much more about Jefferson. What an interesting man but also full of faults. I had only known about his presidency and his various inventions but this book had fascinating information about his personal life, his family and all the troubles they all encountered over the years.
   
   I enjoyed the book so much I emailed the author to tell him so and he responded. I waiting for the delivery of a second of his books. Can't wait because he writes the kind of book you can't put down. And you come away learning a great deal as well.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Being retired and elderly my self I am interested to see how others reach closure on their lives.
   
   What interested me is the consistency of Jefferson's response to the ebb and flow of his life. Denial was his main ego defense and he honed its use till there was barely a pause between the event and his response.
   
   You realize you are dealing with a good man beset by what he wanted and his ability to deliver for himself and his family. You are saddened by the life he dealt his grandson Jefferson Randolph, then self protectively blaming Jeff for not finishing his education.
   
   Reading about his son in law and his grand daughters husband, Charles Bankhead one wishes that AA had been created 200 years earlier. Jefferson was remarkably insightful in his realization that Alcoholism was a medical illness.
   
   Jefferson spoke to me when he wrote,
   
   "When you and I look back on the country over which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit! Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under all the inspiring energies of health and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of war, they are strewed by the way, some earlier, some later, and scarce a few stragglers remain to count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet, by their own fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable thing to bear up through the heat of action, to witness the death of all our companions, and merely be the last victim?
   
   I recommend this thoughtful book to you.

3 comments about Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA.

1. A critical question makes the Kennedy Assassination perhaps more relevant to today than ever:to what extent is the nominal leader, the President, really in control of the permanent military, political, and communications bureacracies that shape his options? In 1961, when Kennedy became president, key components of this permannent bureacracy were thirteen years old. As a parent with a teenager there were moments of tension when one can wonder who or what called the shots. This was uniquely the case in 1960, as for eight years-- the truly formative ones in the developement of the entire post-war US society-- the CIA had been given extreme lattitude. Kennedy's relations with the permanet political and military bureacracy can serve as basis of comparison for how matters of war and peace are decided today, when blame-game controversies sometimes seem mere PR strategies for plausible denial 10.0
   
   Jefferson Morleys book leaves little doubt that no matter what our betters tell us, the CIA was to a very significant degree doing its own things in 1963. The reason this emerges far more clearly than in other books, is that Morley's never allows the ocean of detail to alter his camera agle. It is not a totalizing focus like some other books that mistake thickness for ambition. Rather, it sticks to the Mexico City CIA station, its chief Winston Scott, and his close World War Two friend and possibly his own privatest Idohaon-- the only one weirder than fellow poet and contemporary Ezra Pound-- James Jesus Angleton.
   
   Morley is carefull. When your asking about unauthorized actions of the CIA people who normally talk freely in the New Yorker have a way of clamming up. It is hard to find sources in the middle ground, for example on the question of who knew what when about the Bay of Pigs. Far easier to treat this grey area as the blacktop of the Langley 500, the way Tim Weiner does in his childishly simplified and baldly propagandistic narration of Kennedy relations with the CIA.
   
   How does he get insiders to talk for a book that is lethal to the government sanctioned version of the assassination? By not oversating things. By mentioning enough right wing cubans without so many as to lose sense of thier handlers. By clearly delineating who was in charge of what CIA operation, and who didn't know about them as well. We can see the critical wires cross, and are not confused in a whirl of unessential relations. We can see the extra piece-- George Joannides-- being added like one too many bones in an ankle and the clarity with which one could mistake treason for the logical coorination of a counterintelligence
   operation. Individuals are not blamed here, but the flow chart that teaches how the Cubans were "turned" is clear for the first time. At least for me, but I'm gradual.
   
   Also Morley tells the story from the persepctive of Win Scotts family. This "works" in many ways. It might just be the footwear necessary for treading accross one the most contested and and important middle grounds -- between president and permanent bureacracy-- in twentieth and 21st Century history.
   
   This work stands in welcome contrast to recent books that mistake the shere number of mafia people who were involved with anti-castro opperations between 1959-63 with actual causal importance in the assassination of JFK. So often books like Ultimate Sacrifice emphasize the Mafia unconvincingly, because their CIA contacts merely seem outnumbered on the page. Morley goes to the quixotic center of the maypole: one has little doubt of this as he reads about Angletons very different, and very compartmetalized relations with Winston Scott and his secret sharer within the US embassy in Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips.



2. 
   
   ...peeling off layer after layer, we (well, those who still care, but I understand there are quite numerous around the world...) can now forty five years after the facts have a much better, much clearer understanding of what took place in Dallas.
   
   The review above says it all. The book is on one level, the personnal history of the search of a son (adopted, it turns out..) for his mysterious, elusive father.
   
   The fact that the father in question happenned to be Win Scot, head of the CIA Mexico station in the Sixties (the biggest CIA operation targeted at Soviet and Cuban interest outside the US) when Oswald, according to the official story, popped up there and started making himself noticed just a few weeks before Dallas, transforms what would be a mere personnal quest into something of historical importance.
   
   Author Morley is known, appropriately, for his groundbreaking work bringing to light most notably the very strange story of George Joannides' s dealing with the DRE. Morley's work definitely showed how the CIA, deceptively, put Joannides in charge of contacts with the HSCA regarding Cuban matters, without ever mentioning his previous responsabilities as Focal Officer for the DRE during the latter part of November 63...
   
   Students of JFK's assassination may remember that the DRE was very heavily involved in the early attempts to paint Oswald as a Communist Pro-Castro assassin, participating in a conspiracy.
   
   Joannides's field reports on the DRE activities for the relevant period are still missing, and are the subject of a FOIA lawsuit by Morley....
   
   A few pieces are still missing, and we still have a few open questions, but the picture is now getting clearer and clearer:
   
   *the official story of the assassination is a fairy tale
   
   *the events in Mexico City (most notably how the station and HQ handled the visits of a known "intelligence risk" to ennemy embassies..)are crucial in understanding what took place
   
   *the inner workings of the CIA (need-to-know, etc..), and most notably the total autonomy and secrecy of Angleton's group (CI)made feasible any type of obscure intelligence operation whithout the slightest possibility of outside control or supervision.
   
   
   Great, great book.
   
   I would recommand as a companion Peter Dale Scott "Oswald in Mexico", which is the ultimate post-mortem on Mexico.
   
   If you never thought reading administrative cables could make for a riveting read, or draw the outline of the most-wanted "smoking gun", brace yourself...



3. This very well-documented book tells you in precise and unnerving detail how C.I.A.operatives work and what they knew about Oswald in Mexico before the Kennedy assassination -- a lot more than you knew befoe. It is particularly convincing because it's personal, the real story of a man who lived his life inside that system of power, accountable to no one. It's a page-turner with unrecognized spies (everyone?), double agents, stolen loves, a son wants to know his father, a loyal secretary, a dangerous wedding, enough destroyed documents to make you weep and an ending that sets up for a sequel we hope can come from further investigation by this diligent author. Highly recommended for everyone, not just specialists, but there is plenty here for them as well.

5 comments about Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West.

1. I kept waiting for this book to get boring. It has all the potential to be boring. But it's not. It's an excellent introduction to the history of the West. I learned little tidbits about all sorts of varied subjects - Native American tribes, government, the history of the USGS. Stegner does get a little too wrapped up in the details at a couple points, especially when he gets into all the wrangling in Congress over Powell's various ventures, but in general it's an excellent book.



2. This is an excellent biography of John Wesley Powell--exlorer, geologist, scientist, writer, and politician.
   Anyone who reads this is sure to increase the amount they know about this historic figure, and about the West in general as the stories of each are inextricably tangled. The book excels at its account of John Wesley Powell's life AFTER his famous trips down the Colorado River, and does a great job of describing Powell's role in the battle against over-populating the West.
   If the book has faults though, they lie in that many of Stegner's sources have since been expounded upon or dismissed entirely, and so the facts in this book aren't entirely current. Also, Stegner dismisses too quickly the merits of the story of James White, a man who very possibly went down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon two years before Powell did.
   And, it's kind of ridiculous how Stegner criticizes Powell's second expedition's photos as if they were famous works and art: This photo "is marred by too much nondescipt low-water beach in the foreground," and that sort of thing.
   This is a great book for anyone interested in John Wesley Powell or the Colorado River. It's possibly Stegner's best nonfiction work, though "Mormon Country" is good as well.
   For another great account of John Wesley Powell, read "Down the Great Unknown" by Edward Dolnick.
   Or, for a half-decent book about Wallace Stegner's peculiarly white view of the American West, read, "'Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner' and Other Essays" by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. That one's kind of interesting.



3. Almost everything that could be done wrong in the development of the modern American West (and not just the Rockies westward, but the High Plains as well) was warned against by Maj. John Wesley Powell, but done anyway by the federal government and various states.
   
   The result? Water crises, fights over water rights, lying, chicanery and stealing in the name of water rights, corporate farms squeezing out small farmers, urban sprawl and smog in the middle of deserts, dust bowls and more, were either forseen or hinted at by Powell.
   
   The 100th meridian of latitude is the U.S.'s "dry line." Areas to the west, generally, before you get to the Pacific Coast, average less than 20 inches of rain a year. Hence the title, and the basis of Powell's warnings.
   
   And, AND, all of that came after this one-armed Civil War veteran led the first navigation of the entire whitewater section of the Colorado, actually starting on the Green River in Wyoming and running all the way down past the Grand Canyon. (Despite some claims otherwise, it seems pretty clear James White did NOT do this.)
   
   It was this trip, in the name of scientific research, that gave Powell his standing to eventually found the Bureau of Ethnography, do further Western research and make some top-notch recommendations for the development of the west.
   
   The reason I didn't five-star this is that I would like to have seen a little more depth to Powell's post-exploration career. Also, a little more personality profile of Powell's struggle with disappointment over the Newlands Act and other repudiation of his ideas would have been nice.
   
   True, Stegner may not be a professional historian, but it would have been nice to see him incorporate this.
   
   To get an idea of what I mean by the end of this critique, please read Donald Worster's "River Running West." Also, Worster provides a bit of corrective to Stegner's occasional near-hagiographical approach to Powell.



4. I re-read this book and Powell's own "Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons" over the Holidays and have decided that these 2 books are absolutely inseparable. You must read both and I'm glad to see that Amazon offers a special deal for the purchase of these 2 books together. In my opinion, you should read Powell's "Exploration..." first and then read Stegner's book. Stegner's book is very readable but I hesitate to call it an easy read. While you are reading this book, you have to stop now and then to absorb and reflect on the opinions, actions, and counteractions of that particular moment. Everything must be placed in some historical, political, and personal context (3 dimensions which necessitate contemplation by the reader). Stegner does a wonderful job in maintaining the general flow of the text and he supplies an extensive listing of notes for those who want more information and detail. In my opinion, this is a wonderful book about a brilliant man with incredible foresight. Now, it seems that we need a beacon like Powell warning the Easterners about their relentless development of land with no thought or planning on the impact to their water resources and water quality. Most folks in the Eastern U.S. take their water resources for granted. We need a modern day Powell to warn us about the consequences of increased impervious area before its too late.



5. Once upon a time in the West, a man named William Gilpin was blown westward along with an expedition of John Fremont that took him as far as Walla Walla, Wash. In 1846 he fought in the Mexican War. In 1861 he went to Washington, DC, after Abraham Lincoln was elected. Later he became the first territorial governor of Colorado. Once upon a time, Gilpin saw the land beyond the 100th meridian (which runs through the center of Nebraska and Kansas) through a mystical fervor. The semiarid lands were no desert, but a pastoral Canaan. Agriculture would be effortless. All that was needed was the plow break the soil so that rain would naturally follow.
   
   At the same time that Gilpin was convincing the country that the West was a Biblical Paradise, an exploration party headed by John Wesley Powell was camped a few miles from Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was 1868. At this time Powell was not the pioneer that Gilpin was, and he was 34 compared to Gilpin's 55. Powell's interests were always varied. In 1860 his *mollusk* collection won awards at the Illinois State Agricultural Society fair. In 1861, he volunteered to join the army in the Civil War. Within six months he rose through the ranks to become a captain, an expert on *fortifications*. In April of 1862, Powell lost an arm due to a Minie ball at Shiloh. Powell continued through the war. In 1865, Powell began a professorship in *geology* at Wesleyan.
   
   Powell began his exploration of the Green and Colorado rivers on July 6,1869. On August 30, 1869, only six of nine men and two of four boats managed to go all the way through the Grand Canyon to come out near Yuma, Az. The rest of the Colorado had already been explored. In a few short months, John Wesley Powell had gathered enough data to challenge Gilpin's portrayal of the West. For the rest of his life, he would try to convince Congress of what he had learned about the proper way to treat the land beyond the 100th meridian.
   
   Powell's geological and *ethnological* work and his study of Native American *languages* continue today to form the basis for our understanding of these subjects for southern Utah and northern Arizona.

5 comments about The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics).

1. One of my favorite five books in the last five years, and I read a lot of books! I'm going to try to be brief, which will be a challenge, because I loved it.
   
   First, the concept behind this book is pure genius, especially for an autobiography. Because he didn't release his life story until he died, Twain was able to be completely honest. It's true- everyone on earth must restrain their tongue somewhat. But when we read about a great person from the past, we want to know the real deal.
   
   I won't go too much into how great Mark Twain was. I'm sure that subject has been covered quite well. But as a public speaker, writer, and fledgling humorist myself, I found many of the vignettes priceless. He tells us what the 'Lycium',the 19th American speaking circuit, was like, how one good writer failed miserably in front of an audience, how he (Twain) turned an old tired joke into a new exciting one... and on the subject of fame, he talks about how inconsequential was a particular woman who had become famous simply for having opinions (and because she happened to be the wife of a newspaper man). Indeed, except for Twain's ridicule, this woman has been utterly and appropriately neglected by history. We are thereby warned of the worthlessness of fame without substance or purpose.
   
   At times Twain sounds pompuous or narcissistic, but it fits his humorous style. We forgive him because we know he was great and because condescension is a great position from which to heap ridicule and satire. And you have to wonder- don't some great men know they're great even while they live?
   
   Twain had the fortune to be celebrated within his lifetime, and remains one of the most important Americans. He is the deep root from which modern humorists such as Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry spring forth. He is an example of the gruff and almost crotchety American intellect.
   
   His story also demonstrates how not to run your writing business (by letting suspicious character run it for you and steal your money).
   
   And he provides touching accounts of both his awkward courtship, and the exceptional character and intelligence of one of his daughters.
   
   What else? They say in public speaking: Begin with a laugh, end with a tear. Twain's autobiography does the latter - it's sad to see how quickly he went from the apex of life to lonely grief as most of his family died within little more than a year.
   
   Before we know it, before we want it, the book is over, and the great life is done. We are reminded of the temporary nature of life, and as this famous and delightful personality recedes again from our consciousness, perhaos at least for a little while, because of his example, we seize life with more vigor.



2. Buy this book, kick back in your easy chair and be prepared to take a journey with the Master of American Literature himself as he lies near death. From the Mighty Mississippi to the latter days of the Gold Rush; to the lecture (lyceum) circuit of his thirties-forties; and on to a family life of tragedy after tragedy and finally triumph, Mr. Twain will take you, the reader, into his mind where you'll share his wit, wisdom, and secrets. A must buy for any Twain lover or anyone interested in the 19th Century from a man who lived it. Lived it indeed!



3. It is one of the more interesting autobiographys that I have read. The author Charles Neider has taken a confusing pile of writings and has assembled them into a more streamline reading and a timeline of Samuel Clemen's (Mark Twain's) life.
   
   This book has given me a yearning to read more books by Neider on Mark Twain and reread some of Twain's classic's like Huckberry Finn.



4. American.
   Coinsidentially I finished the audio version of this autobiography the day he stopped writing: Christmas day. His daughter died Christmas Eve 1909. His wife had died a few years earlier. Another daughter died several years before that in chilhood. He had never recovered from those tragedies. His surviving daughter lived in Europe. He wrote of this in his diary & wrote no more. He was alone in a big house & died shorty after that. He knew that his autobiography would not be published until he died, long dead he hoped, so he didn't pull any punches. This editor Charles Neider was not as brave. He missed much of the insouciance that was Twain. He came out with a long linear, biography. Twain dictated a lot of it in his later years but just talked about whatever came into his head. Editing this disorganization admittedly was no mean feat. Mark Twain was not a disiplined writer. He could set down a novel he was writing & not return to it for several years. So it was with Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. They were, by the way, populated with real people he knew in his youth. A gonzo writer of sorts, he wrote what he knew & had lived. He was one of the most travelled Americans of his time, spending long periods in Europe. He was a printer, a journalist, a riverboat pilot, lecturer & of course, novelist. He was a celebrity in his own time but a very poor investor & money manager. He had to go back to lecturing to recoup his loses. He hated that. It was too much like work & he admitted to being very lazy. He was very quotable & whole books have been devoted to his musings. Many of these concerned his atheism, his distaste for organized religion & he ridiculed the bibical god. These particular items were not to be seen in Neider's version which was the biggest disappointment.



5. I read a lot of autobiographies and biographies and they are often praised extensively and turn out to be very, very boring. This autobiography is great. Mark Twain writes it from the point of view that he is already dead and therefore can say whatever he likes. Of course it is funny but it is also very sensitive. His explanation of his feelings after the death of his daughter is gut wrenching.
   I am not being negitive here but I was delighted to find in this book that even the great Mark Twain can be boring at times. This fact truly impressed me and brought me to realize that even old Mark Twain was human. This was a wonderderful book and just the other day I took it out of mothballs to read for a second time. It is really too good for just a once over. It is too good man! Too too good!

5 comments about Write it When I'm Gone.

1. This audio book far exceeded my expectations. The reader is very talented and the story is so honest. You come to realize that Gerald Ford was quite the public servant, leader and consumate gentleman. I highly recommend as it brought so much history to my own experiences.



2. A wonderful read about a good and great man. If only this country had more such men, then maybe there would not be the huge political schism in Washington today. Ford was a healer, who could be bipartisan and establish a rapport with his political enemies. Maybe, that was because he had no real enemies, and many on both side respected him for what he was: a smart, honest politician who did not have a huge ego.
   
   In this short book, DeFrank shows that Ford was really who he said he was. He loved the Republican Party and would not tear it apart for his personal ambition. He loved his country and tried to find common cause with some polical opponents like Carter and Clinton. He loved his home city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was like most people: an average man thrust into the leadership of the free world.
   
   This is a nice read about a true American Gerald R. Ford. His presidential service was short and his life long, but he made a difference in American political life. DeFrank captures the true spirit of Jerry Ford.



3. Who ever knew that Gerald Ford could be so interesting? I read over 70 pages in just the first day I got it and did not want to put it down. This is not a straightforward biography for a change-there are plenty of those out there. This is personal insight into a man that rarely let us see that side of him. He was a man of good morals, was extremely intelligent, and if you can get past the whole Nixon pardon, he really did deserve a second term in office. Even though his presidency was short, those were some very interesting times and Gerald Ford was a big part of bringing the country back together after Watergate and Vietnam. It is great to have the authors perspective of traveling with him for so many years and interviewing him, and even building a friendship with President Ford. You feel like you are along for the ride. I am glad I purchased this as it is a totally different kind of political book than anything else I have ever read. It is an easy and quick read, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested in US history and/or the Office of The President. My only wish was that it was longer- did not want to get through it so quick !!!!



4. I dove in to this book expecting new and exciting revelations only to find.. not so much. Yes, it was interesting to learn what Jerry Ford really thought about his fellow Presidents (especially Reagan), but where are the bombshells?
   
   It was obvious that Mr. DeFrank admired Mr. Ford greatly. I too remember the healing effect Ford had on the country after Watergate and admire him. However, this author did not have enough material for an entire book. Redundancies abound. The same sentence often appears in different chapters. His description of the pivotal meeting with (then) Vice President Ford appears verbatim several times throughout the book.
   
   If this had been an article in a magazine, I could have rated it higher. Even without any real revelations.



5. Like many baby boomers,I was grateful Gerald R. Ford was there when the nation needed him. After the god-awful Watergate mess revealed a President at his worst, it was comforting to have Ford, a man widely liked and respected, assume the Presidency. Ford's reputation as an earnest, unpretentious and decent individual able to laugh at himself survived and even thrived in subsequent years when compared to those who followed him into the White House. That image is borne out in WRITE IT WHEN I'M GONE, Thomas DeFrank's touching memoir based on years of private interviews with Ford. DeFrank's book gives us a much deeper and illuminating portrait of both the man and the politician.
   
   While Ford's take on the American political scene from the 1970s on made for interesting reading and confirms him as an astute analyst, I was much more taken with the insights on the man. Though he loved politics and was an ardent spokesman for the Republican Party, Ford's values and innate courtesy caused him to be circumspect in his public comments. Unlike today's slash-and-burn politicians, Ford viewed his Democratic colleagues as friendly adversaries worthy of respect. If he had critical or harsh views of others, he kept them largely to himself...that is until he talked with DeFrank.
   
   Over the course of the book's 250 pages, I grew to like and admire Ford far more than I had in the past; the Nixon Pardon still rankles! DeFrank shows us a normal guy who loved to laugh and toss down a few with the boys; a genuine and genuinely kind man who never lost the common touch; a straightforward, old-fashioned ex-football jock appalled by the underhanded machinations of various politicos; a devoted family man who never cheated on his wife. Yet Ford has his moments of anger and pique as documented in the book. Likewise DeFrank doesn't shy away from some questionable aspects of Ford's life such as his merchandising of himself after he left the Presidency. After all is said and done though, you like Jerry Ford; reading of the decline of such a gregarious, active individual in the closing chapters is hard. He was a good man.
   
   Though I enjoyed DeFrank's book, I thought it could have been more tightly edited. Various redundancies occurred throughout the book.
   
   Whether you're a Jerry Ford fan or not, you'll want to read WRITE IT WHEN I'M GONE. It offers an unvarnished look at the unique life of a kind and decent man who gave America hope and stability during the worst of times. Historians will have the final say on Gerald R. Ford but, for me, I can only echo DeFrank's closing line: 'Thank You, Mr. President.'

5 comments about Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage).

1. I used to worry Robert Caro wouldn't live long enough to complete his epic biographical history on Lyndon Johnson. Now, 25 years after the first volume, I worry I won't live long enough to read it all.
   
   Published in 2002 and still as of now Caro's latest installment, "Master Of The Senate" weighs in at close to 1,100 pages. It details Johnson's time in the Senate, where he rose to become the Majority Leader. Caro spends 100 pages explaining how the Senate was designed and operated as something of a brake on populist excitability, a vessel for cooling passions. A sort of sluggishness evolved, Caro explains, until the guy with ambition from Texas arrived and changed everything by smashing tradition to bits.
   
   Caro's overriding distaste for Johnson, clear especially in "Means Of Ascent", remains in force here, but another strain emerges, too, of Johnson the difference maker, the guy who got things done. You almost might see him, flaws and all, as a kind of archetypal American in his cussed indomitability, brutish, charming, needfully effective.
   
   When LBJ's mother asks about Adlai Stevenson, the Democrat who twice ran for President in the 1950s, you can't help but chuckle at his reply: "He's a nice fellow, Mother, but he won't make it 'cause he's got too much lace on his drawers."
   
   Better than "Means To Ascent" but not the classic that "Path To Power" was, "Master Of The Senate" suffers from things that make Caro such a great writer, like his ability to draw up seemingly endless detail and find a coherent whole. He can't stop writing about a handful of topics. Each time he goes back to the well he draws up something different, but it's too often the same well.
   
   Caro believes Johnson was the difference maker in making civil rights happen, even though he championed a watered-down version, because he was the only man who could push civil rights through the Senate and its stubborn Southern wing. It's a debatable point, especially since the force of change was already there, Johnson or no.
   
   More problematic for me was the book's unrelenting focus in its second half on the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which ultimately accomplished little, and on Johnson's bid for the 1956 Democratic presidential nomination, which he didn't get and wouldn't have mattered if he had. So much time is spent here that Caro is left to sum up the three remaining years of Johnson's Senate career after the Civil Rights Act's passage in less than 30 pages.
   
   One great thing about "Master Of The Senate" is Caro's articulation of Johnson's ambition as both poison and antidote for the Senate, in how he worked his fellow senators, racist zealots like Richard Russell and liberal lions like Hubert Humphrey, to get what he wanted.
   
   Johnson may have been one of the toughest figures ever to take control of our tough nation. Tough enough, in fact, that I think he'd even like Caro's books about him, warts and all. If one man's life was ever a testament to the power of one's own will, it was Johnson's, and in Caro that will to power has an able chronicler.



2. Caro is a master writer. I found his book 'The Power Broker' about Robert Moses easily one of my top ten reads of all time, five star all the way. Johnson to me was not quite as interesting, but nevertheless this is a top notch book showing how Johnson came into the Senate and transformed it. No matter what one thinks of Johnson, if one is a student of American politics, this is a worthwhile book as it shows the influence of one man and what can be done. He was no saint, but he did manage to get things done. I am slowly working my way through it, it's been about 2 years, I keep picking it up and putting it down, but learn something every time.



3. Despite what you think of LBJ, and I don't think much of him, Robert Caro's series on Johnson far surpasses any other books that have come before or after on Lyndon Johnson. In all three of Caro's volumes, he includes mini biographies of important people in Lyndon's life. In this volume, Senator Richard Russell, jr. of Georgia is given his due, and his importance as friend and adviser to LBJ. Also, the first 100 pages include a history of the US senate that could stand alone as a book unto itself. I can't wait for Caro's fourth volume, alas it probably won't be out for another five years.



4. Anyone know? This is a masterful book series. The one on LBJ's presidency should be the best.



5. I had read Robert Caro's book on Robert Moses, and I found Master of the Senate to be an equally well-written and insightful read about an even more complicated figure. Readers get a real sense of the dark character of Lyndon Johnson. The book also offers a revealing view of the inner workings of the U.S. Senate. His portraits of Richard Russell and Sam Rayburn are particularly poignant. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in 20th-century U.S. history, and for anyone who enjoys monumental biographies.

5 comments about My Dog Skip.

1. Willie Morris has recounted the life of not just a boyhood pet, but a dear and close friend.
   The Story of Skip's life as told by his owner is full of mythic adventures of childhood. Where every new day was full of joy and wonder. Morris' storytelling brings the dog, his family and the lush southern landscape into full and brilliant view.
   When you read My Dog Skip you can just feel how much this young man loved and revered his dog.
   Any of us who have had a much loved pet know that the bond between animal and human can reach so much further than just "pet and owner". Willie Morris makes the statement that Skip wasn't just his dog, but his brother... that is a beautiful thing. Morris grew up an only child but did not feel alone by any stretch of the imagination. He was loved deeply by and deeply loved his dog Skip.
   Another great point made in this book is how Willie Morris learned so much from his dog Skip. He clearly states that the most lasting lessons he has learned about love and loyalty came from knowing his dog.
   This book captures so well the love a boy or any human being can have for a pet... I loved the story and highly recommend it!



2. Willie Morris was a truly great author! This story of his childhood with his dog was really heartwarming. It is so simple and warm and humorous, you will just love it. Warning: you will cry your eyes out at the end, but it's worth the pain. One of the best animal stories ever, I hope many kids read this in school. If you loved the movie "A Christmas Story" you will love this book. The movie version of "My Dog Skip" is also quite good, though it is kind of upsetting that in order to create drama the wonderful father of the book is kind of nasty in the movie. Willie Morris was a great author who also wrote a cat book entitled "My Cat Spit McGee" and several books about his life that remind me a little of Russel Baker's memoirs. One is entitled "North Toward Home", another "Good Old Boy" and one is about life in New York City.



3. This was a great book! It was so touching and heartfelt. I love dogs and this book is an example of someone who loves dogs like me so I can connect! Greatly recomended!



4. This is a wonderful and touching story. It is a good read, and I recommend it to anyone who has ever had a pet. I especially like that it has a jack russell in the story.



5. This book is the story of Willie Morris' childhood companion, a dog named Skip. Willie recounts his adolescent years and all the fond memories of his dog and friends as they grew up together in small town Mississippi. The story is heartwarming and the author paints a very clear picture of all the shenanigans, good times and bad that he and his dog had together over the years. I liked this book; but I think a male reader would appreciate the bond between a boy and his dog more than I can.