No comments about Abraham Lincoln: A Biography.

5 comments about Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington.

1. A kind of a biography, but with a difference. There have been quite a number of excellent biographies published down through the years, but that has not reduced the level of interest in the country. This book starts with the assumption that you know quite a bit about Washington's life, it then has ten essays that open almost as many questions as it answers about Washington as a man.
   
   Perhaps the most interesting is the chapter on religion. It seems that every religion seems to want to gain some kind of historic acceptance by claiming Washington was of their faith. This includes Roman Catholics , Mormons (a religion which hadn't been invented then, but which allows posthumous conversion), Presbyterians, Baptists and more. Perhaps the strongest claiments are the evangelical Christians who assertain that the founders of the country were creating a Christian nation (in spite of the First Ammendment), especially Washington.
   
   The author discusses Washington's letters where he mentions religion, and comes to the conclusion that as Washington himself said, his 'tenets are few and simple.' -- Kind of strange, I had always thought Washington was a Deist (The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.) as apparently were Jefferson and John Hancock.
   
   Anyway, that's the tone of the book. Ten points worthy of discussion on ten subjects, well backed up by Washington's writing.



2. I won't duplicate what the other reviews state, but will say I recommend this one for sure. Its thematic not strictly chronological, much like Joe Ellis' book on Thomas Jefferson, "American Sphinx." Very nicely written, and even after I have read many, many GW books, I still learned some interesting new things about him from Henriques (such as the details about GW & Sally Fairfax, and GW's death.) The one thing the author botches is any discussion on Washington as a Freemason, which was one of the most important things in his life. This should have been expounded upon in the chapter on Washington & religion, but was not. Its certainly not a fatal flaw in this book, but is a glaring omission.



3. This book puts a realistic face on George. It exposes his weaknesses and emphasizes his strengths. It makes one proud to be an American and to have George Washington as the Father of our country. It details many little known experiences of our First President and makes us better appreciate our system of government that was only possible because of the integrity, the love of freedom and the love of country of this great American.



4. If you have already read a couple books about George Washington, you'll find this one a re-hash of many of the things you already know about him.
   
   If you think you know a lot about him, you'll still learn a few things. There is a chapter about his attitude toward slavery and how he handled his own slaves as well as a chapter about the details of the pain and suffering of his death.



5. Henriques book is a very good read, but does lack in historical language and does make a personal assertions throughout the book that at times lacks concrete evidence.
   
   The book does flow and does delve into the history of Washington in a manner that is more agreeable than a chronology of the mans life (as with many books on Washington. He does discuss issues in the first two chapters that are rehashes of any Washington biography, but devoted more time to many of these issues in later chapters.
   
   The only area of the book that leave the reader questioning Henriques research and conclusions and where the book turns into quasi Micky Spillane detective story are the chapters devoted to Sally Fairfax and Martha Washington. Though some will argue that Henriques comes to these conclusions based on the evidence he had, for me, it seemed that Henriques had a thesis and at times selectively chose his evidence to support his thesis. Henriques admits that he is piecing the evidence together, but by the simple fact of admiting this, one is left wondering what evidence he left out or did not have access to. The addition of some random website in his chapter to Martha Washington, along with the addition of a fictional story, is questionable inclusions to say the least, and would have been best left out. A futher issue with his book is what seems to be his over reliance on secondary sources and lack of primary sources throughout the book.
   
   Overall it is a good read and a good inclusion in the story of Washington, but does lack in many areas.

5 comments about Love, Greg & Lauren.

1. ...about this book. While I cannot begin to imagine the horrors Lauren has experienced and I wish her and her family the best,I was left a little cold by the contents of some of Greg's missives. There are frequent references throughout the book to Lauren's beauty, and the reader is left with the feeling that it's Greg who is more dissappointed with Lauren's swollen face and missing hair than she is. Also -- Greg spent quite a few nights playing bass with his band at local bars while his wife lay in her hospital bed. Who was home with baby Tyler each and every night? Lauren's parents, who receive little in the book in the way of thanks. They're the true heroes of this story.



2. wow! he loved his wife dearly and the vows/meaning of marriage too often put aside were adhered to without question and without regret.. but, more gripping was her strength, her perseverance and her will to overcome almost certain death .. couldn't put it down, she "chose" to live for her son rather than give in to the peace of death .. her husband was a liferaft, but, she was the true hero ... actually, read this about 2 years ago and thought i'd put in a review at this time .. a bit sad and depressing but a very worthwhile read that will stay with you for a long while and make you appreciate what you have



3. There is a review on this book that you can read by a reviewer named Alex that I think all would find very informative. He is clearly a lot smarter, and by all means a lot deeper, than the writer of this book, and he is not afraid to tell you that. His superior intellect has come to the brilliant conclusion that a wealthy, and therefore soulless, burn victim is much less sympathetic than a poor, prolietariet one. He was also upset that Mr. Manning, with all of his money, could not buy himself better opinions on life, love and 9/11 other than the "banal" ones he professed in this book.
   
   Apparently, Mr. Manning has not bought membership to the same blog site that feeds Alex his easy-bake revolutionary ideas like a sludgepump day in and day out. All Greg Manning has to go on in order to formulate his opinions and perspective on the 9/11 attacks is the FIRSTHAND, LIFE-SHATTERING VICTIMIZATION OF HIS FAMILY BY THE WORST ATTACK IN AMERICAN HISTORY. He's earned the right to his outlook on these events more than Alex ever will. Alex sounds like somebody who never experienced getting the #@&*-end-of-the-stick in life, and if he did, he's emerged from it in a cynical, twisted state. You can not like the book, without calling a burn victim's husband stupid. Stupid.
   
   Greg Manning seems like a decent man who has demonstrated through his actions and words the true love he has for his brave wife. This is a fantastic, heartwarming book about an inspirational fight for survival that will make its readers cry in both sadness and joy. Those who have had loved ones in critical care will relate and sympathize for these people, irregardless of their economic success.



4. I had really high hopes for this book and was really looking forward to reading it. I'm glad that I paid a dollar for it used because my money would have been wasted at much more than that.
   
   Let me start by saying that I admire Lauren. She had the courage and will to survive a situation that myself and most others would not have. That being said, the way this story was told was just not interesting enough to take up an entire book. I found the first half of the book to be very tedious reading; I really had to force myself to keep going. I think that was because the first half was mostly about what was going on in Greg's life. Since Lauren was in a coma, there wasn't much for him to say about her so his emails are filled with extremely long detailed narratives on his son, his band, the Yankees and his feelings on 9/11. I suppose this kind of information might be interesting to friends and family, but I found it mostly boring to hear about the kind of food served at his child's birthday party and to hear in detail about each person he talked to every single day.
   
   The second half of the book was better as Lauren woke up and the emails focus much more on her and her recovery. Since this was what I wanted and was expecting from this book, I found this part to be a much more enjoyable read.
   
   As other reviewers have noted, the Mannings live a much more wealthy lifestyle than most Americans. I don't have a problem with this, but I just couldn't relate to them or their lives very well. I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if the Mannings were more like the rest of us. The only real struggle in the book was Lauren's physical recovery; the Mannings didn't have trouble paying the bills, had nannies to take care of their child, and Greg was able to take several months off work with no difficulty at all. To me, these everyday struggles would have made this story far more interesting. It also would have been interesting to hear from Lauren and Lauren's family more; all we ever heard was Greg's point of view on everything.
   
   I would recommend this book only to the Manning's friends and family, to people who lost loved ones on 9/11, and those looking for information on the recovery process of burn survivors. For everyone else, you may or may not find this book interesting enough to finish. If you feel you want to go ahead and read it, consider picking it up at the library or buying it used.



5. This book is a truly inspirational read. I haven't quite finished yet, but with every page comes more heart. I, like most others that have or will read this book, feel such an emotional draw to both Greg and Lauren, and my heart breaks over everything they went through. Reading this book not only instills a new found hope, but also a new understanding of what exactly it was like to have been in the shoes of people who were through so much and lost so much that terrible day 9/11/2001.

   On a side note, the link that Greg mentions in one of his emails (politicsandprotest.com)is unfortunately no longer a valid link. FYI it will take you to a Penthouse site. Oops, I guess that's what happens after time. :(

No comments about Fdr's Body Politics: The Rhetoric of Disability (Presidential Rhetoric Series, No. 8).

5 comments about Travels of William Bartram.

1. visit the south back in time and really vizualize it. very indepth descriptions of the countryside and its inhabitants. be prepared to learn a good deal about this area that has been overlooked by many. a must read if you are enjoy the natural world.



2. William Bartram was a far better botanist than a writer. This book was a great achievement in that it was really the first work of American nature writing, and Bartram made a lot of great botanical discoveries during his journeys through the American Southeast. But his language is excruciatingly tedious. He uses ten pages to express what probably could be said in a single paragraph, and he often will offer two choices or options, when one would suffice: "We encamped on a high cliff or bluff..." And although he makes some interesting observations about the Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles, his views are often distressingly unenlightened or idealized. Although I love nature writing, and although I love the works of Thoreau, who came just a half-century later, I found Bartram's book painful to get through.



3. This book was really really borring



4. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the nature, landscapes, Indians, and early settlements of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee around the year 1775. I haven't read this book in about 10 years, but I do remember checking it out of the library about 3 times, and I'm going to buy it for my birthday. The landscapes the Bartram describes will by and large never be seen again. Bartram described seeing a 45 square mile forest made up of nothing but magnolia, and dogwood trees. He saw forests that were covered by grapevines for miles. The trees were sometimes 20 feet thick, and the grapevines were so old that the vines were more than a foot thick. He saw canebrakes that covered miles, and some of the bamboo cane was 40 feet high. Canebrakes are practically extinct as an environment. He saw virgin forsts, abandoned Indian fields, overgrown Indian villages, open pine savannah forests, and uninhabited swamps. He saw wildlife which today would be scare, or extinct. He reported seeing a bobcat stalk a turkey. He pleaded with a market hunter not to kill a mother bear, and lamented the reaction of the bear cub to it's mother being killed. Bartram also reported seeing wolves, and bison skulls from recently killed buffulo. Bison were just rendered extinct in eastern Georgia at that time. Bartram took literary licence with some events. He exaggerated his encounters with alligators in Florida. After enjoying a meal of fish, rice, and oranges from the Spanish missionary orchards, he battled "fire breathing dragons." Bartram had many encounters with the Creeks, and Cherokees, and most were friendly. He feasted with Indian cattle raisers. Bartram also gives a good account of early settlements. If you decide to get this book, also get a copy of a tree guide with the scientific names, because Bartram tells exactly what kind of trees he came across in each forest. What I wouldn't give to see what Bartram saw?



5. "...So it is the varied and mutable scenes of human events on the stream of life.The high powers and affection of the soul are so blended and connected with the inferior passions, that the most painful feelings are excited in the mind when the latter are crossed,thus in the moral system,which we have planned for our conduct,as a ladder whereby to mount to the summit of terrestrial glory and happiness,and from whence we perhaps mediated our flight to heaven itself at the very moment when we vainly imagine ourselves to have obtained it's point,some unforseen accident intervenes,and suprises us;the chain is violently shaken,we quit our hold and fall:the well contrived system at once becomes a chaos;every
   idea of happiness recedes;the splendor of glory darkens,and at length totally disappears;every pleasing object is defaced,all is deranged,and the flattering scene moves quietly away;,a gloomy cloud pervades the understanding,and when we see our progress retarded,and our best intentions frustrated,we are apt to deviate from the abmonitions and convictions of virtue,to shut our eyes upon our guide and protector,dought of his power,and despair of his assistance.But,let us wait and rely on our GOD,who in due time will shine forth in brightnes,dissipate the envious cloud,and reveal to us how finite and circumscribe in human power,when assuming to itself human wisdom..."
   
   Excert from Dover Publications -copyright 1928 (Part 1,Ch.5 pgs.66-670
   
   (born-April,9,1739,Kingsessing,Pa.-died July 22 1823,Kingsessing)
   
   The son of John Bartram,considered the 'father of American botany',self-educated,and a friend of Benjamin Franklin and the botanist for the American colonies to GEORGE 111.William Bartram describes the abundant river swamps of the southeastern US in their primeval condition.An engaging read throughout.The writing is so graceful and genuine with that 'home spun'fragrance that usually are the attributes of a simple and gentle man doggedly pursuing the convictions of his heart.Judging from his writing it would of been a pleasure,permission granted, to have been his companion throughout his entire excursion through Florida,Georgia,and the Carolinas.This is an adventure full of suprises and gives one a sense of exploring the primordial landscapes of the souteastern United States 200 yrs ago.

5 comments about Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure.

1. I learned about Alone when I read The Promise, the sequel to Chaim Potok's The Chosen. I approached Alone with that psychological twist in mind. Rather than reading it as an adventure story, I read Alone as a companion to the DSM-IV. Byrd had help making this book a good read, true; but his story is absolutely riveting. I have read the criticisms of Byrd's ineptitude, his failure of boy scout basics. I can imagine how anyone's mind would go to pieces just knowing the impossibility of rescue, the remoteness of the situation. I would not criticize this man for making the weird mistakes he made. The book is a fantastic journey not to the ends of the earth, but the depths of the human psyche.



2. What some people will do for adventure. The author describes a place no one in his right mind would want to endure. The descriptions of survival alone in the cold for many months are interesting. It was good , not great.



3. This is the first-hand account by Rear Admr. Richard E. Byrd of his solitary months in the winter of 1934 at the U.S. Advance Base in Antartica, written in 1938. Keep that in mind when reading it. It seems pedantic at first, even ho-hum but soon escalates into a page turner. Much of the book is taken directly from his diary and details not only his objectives but his failings. No electro-techno-gadgets here in 1934! He reveals candidly the humility visited on him by nature at her most severe and his incredible and near fatal decline due largely to his need to preserve his reputation and ego. It is a fantastic account - even viewed from 2007. The small original artwork by Harrison in the earliest editions are charmingly 1930's. Arm yourself with a toasty blanket and a few pictures of the aurora austalis from the internet and go it Alone with Byrd! As for the big negative review below - well dear reviewer, just how long have you spent alone in the Antartic?



4. I read this book in High School and I loved it then! Just a really great book.



5. When I was thirteen, I read ALONE at the suggestion of my grandmother, Florence Wright Ferguson. Byrd's adventures in Antarctica set my imagination soaring way beyond the confines of my 7th grade classrooms.
   This is the story of Byrd's near-death adventure during the winter of 1934 when he lived in a 9 x 12 shack buried in the Ross Ice Shelf located 123 miles south of his "capital city" of Little America.
   ALONE describes Byrd's scientific curiosity about climate hoping to discover a relationship between Antarctic weather and that of the northern hemisphere.
   This book led to my reading all of Byrd's other books and those of Captain Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, and Mawson. ALONE led to my writing Byrd, visiting with him and then sailing on his flagship, USS Glacier (AGB-4) during Operation DeepFreeze.
   ALONE is a marvelous adventure story full of escapes from -70 winter temperatures and the daring rescue by three men from Little America, one of whom, Amory H. "Bud" Waite, I met while exploring on Glacier.
   This book changed my life as I grew up to see Antarctica as a model of inquiry, imagination-driven explorations and discoveries about who we are as well as about geography and geology.
   
   John Barell, Author of Quest for Antarctica--A Journey of Wonder and Discovery (2007), www.morecuriousminds.com

4 comments about Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War.

1. Mr. Oates has done it again. You will know Clara Barton ambitions, downfalls, her emotions as well as her eager drive and personal duty to serve those who suffered so much during the Civil War years. The contents of this book will jump out at you and you'll feel that you're right next to the personalities involved. Oh, what women had to go through to pursue a dream or an ambition to contribute to society. Clara has a heart of gold as her patients in and off the field well knew, yet she was being torn apart on the inside by the constant fear that she wasn't doing enough for "her boys". Her personal life was put on the back shelf as she persued her one desire, to help those who were less fortunate. You'll follow Clara as she goes through the blood, sweat, tears, agony and the horrors of the war. This is a true story of a dark chapter in our american history when brother fought against brother literally. It is also of a dream turned into reality that Clara Barton followed with a sincere robust ambition to pursue the betterment of her fellow man. By caring for the soldiers on the battlefield, she proved to the Union Army that those suffering needed love, compassion and of course medical care where it was most needed - on the front lines of battle. This is a must read book for those interested in hero's, Civil War history or nursing history. Stephen B. Oates is the author of other fine books in history and ranks right up there with the big boys in the writings of history



2. As a nurse I have heard and read about Clara Barton for years. This book finally reinvents the tired images - melodramatic icon of female self sacrifice and courage, angel on earth and of the battlefield - and offers the reader a compelling, warm and very real picture of the person and personality of this famous individual. We see all aspects of Clara's character and the impact of the many choices she makes. We even get to see a few of the skeletons in her closet. Without this book, I doubt we would know that there were any! The amount of detail - and it is considerable - is so beautifully woven into the historical narrative that the story, like the Civil War, sweeps the reader from one new experience to the next. Read this and you will feel the jolting of army wagons along rutted roads, struggle to rest as the canvas flaps of your tent crack and strain in storms, gallop with joyful abandon along the beaches at Hilton Head - and much more. I purchased my copy at Gettyburg and it is the best "souvenir" purchase I ever made. Bravo to Stephen Oates!



3. The book is wonderful. Every woman should read it. It shows that anyone can stand out in a crowd and lend a hand no matter what form it takes. An inspiration to women everywhere! A very real account of her life, feels as if you are there with her. Please read it!



4. Stephen Oates is an outstanding narrative historian and a first-rate biographer. In this volume, he explores the life of one of the most remarkable woman in American history. Clara Barton was absolutely unwilling to accept the limited, simplistic role 19th Century society designed for women. Well-educated and dedicated to public service to the detriment of any personal life, she accomplished more in a lifetime than most women would a century later when opportunities were much easier for them to find. One of the finer qualities of Oates' writing is a complete unwillingness to pass judgement. Viewed from the perspective of her time, Clara Barton was pushy, ambitious, and entirely too willing to do things that were inappropriate or "unfeminine" in the pursuit of her goals. Viewed from a more modern time, these qualities are less objectionable, but at times she still seems to be an overpowering force that many men today would find difficult to endure. Oates offers few if any opinions on Clara's personality but gives us a completely honest and utterly objective look at a woman who was absolutely unwilling to conform to society's expectations. One can only wonder to what heights of government service she would have aspired if she were born in the 20th century. I suspect from reading Oates' account of her personality and ingenuity that she would have won my vote.

No comments about Clara Barton: Courage Under Fire (Heroes of History) (Heroes of History).

3 comments about An Autobiography of George Washington.

1. I found this book to be really amazing and carefully researched. The authenticity is really incredible. It turned George Washington from a wooden stick figure, into the really amazing person he was. I know some people will question the authencity of the material. But, to me, the wealth of detail, emotions, make it an unquestionably good read.



2. This book was written several decades ago, but there was a small readership in those days for information channeled from the Other Side. Thanks to an ever-growing acceptance of this type of writing, we are able to gain access to valuable information.
   Here is the story of George Washington's life, told by the man himself from the Other Side. I was fascinated from start to finish. Perhaps there are those who would argue that this was not channeled, but that instead, Edith Ellis concocted the whole story. This seems implausible, given the wealth of detail and feeling that comes across. Of course, it is up to the reader to decide.
   I had Amazon send this book to my mother, and after she read it, she sent it to me. There was something strange in the ending of the book, and on closer inspection, I found that the last 2 chapters were missing, and the void was filled with a repeated section of pages from earlier in the book. I asked Amazon to replace it, and I also asked them to send me a copy as well.
   My copy had all the correct pages--but apparently Amazon sent my mother another defective copy; the important last 2 chapters are once again missing, thus cutting out Mr. Washington's presidency and his death.
   Of the three copies I requested, two were defective. I was surprised that Amazon did not take the trouble to see how many of these defective books they have in stock; they replaced a defective book with just another defective book. I wonder if they have notified the Hay House Publishing Company of this.
   Amazon's service is usually outstanding, but until they work this glitch out, save yourself a hassle and order it directly from Hay House Publishers.



3. Yes, this book is channeled literature. However, if you have an open mind and can get past the messenger, you'll find the message is both entertaining and enlightening. Personally, I find the realistic detail of this book to be very refreshing. It seems we all too often look upon George Washington as a hero and leader without par and forget to actually get to know the man. In this book you'll get to know the man and Mason that was the father of our country.

5 comments about Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (Modern Library Paperbacks).

1. Chambers' autobiography "Witness" had left me speechless. It was a magnificent book, but unknown in most circles. I was hungry to learn more about Chambers' own life and times. It didn't take me long to get to Tanenhaus's fine biography, which gave me an outside perspective and did not disappoint. Tanenhaus is at his most valuable recounting Chambers' post-Hiss-Case life, not covered in "Witness"; in fleshing out the HUAC cast like Nixon, Mundt and Hebert, putting their careers and ambitions into perspective; and in covering the seamier sides of Chambers' personal and family background in even greater detail than Chambers had.
   
   In "Witness", Chambers focuses on his spiritual journey, managing to keep a reader fascinated when that might easily have become eye-glazing. Tanenhaus pounds facts, availing himself of documents and accounts not available to Chambers in 1951. He remains objective about Chambers but ultimately finds little to criticize. Chambers was a man who put his career and life on the line to expose a conspiracy, as he saw it, threatening the world and eating away this nation from within. Despite circumstances strongly suggesting his veracity - would anyone throw away a lucrative career, as he did, to falsely accuse someone? - few believed him. History proved he was telling the truth - one worth hearing, since Chambers was the second-ranking U.S. man in the Communist underground espionage network.
   
   Certain striking aspects of Chambers' character emerge here, some suggested by his autobiography but better to have confirmed independently. He was one of the great intellectuals of his time, the equal of better known friends and contemporaries from his Columbia days - Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling and Clifton Fadiman among them. His command of languages was exceptional. (Fabulous piece of trivia: Chambers translated the novel "Bambi" from the German in the 1920s, later inspiring the Walt Disney film.) His command of the classics, ditto. This was a man who never finished college - when he died, he was enrolled in a local college attempting to finish - but who dropped Dante quotations into interviews with ham-and-egger newspaper reporters. He was one of the greatest writers Time magazine ever had, writing first-class cover stories on philosophy, religion and other intellectual pursuits beyond most journalists. I was inspired to search out an available collection of his magazine work.
   
   Chambers' continuing intellectual and political development did him credit. He became a father figure to the modern conservative movement, inspiring those like the young Bill Buckley who shaped it. But Chambers refused to follow them where his own conscience and intellect did not dictate. He wouldn't pursue a scorched earth policy against Republican moderates like Eisenhower in the mid-1950s, unlike Buckley and others, despite Chambers' personal closeness with them: Buckley had more or less rescued him from professional and financial oblivion in the 1950s. Chambers regarded the struggle against Communism as far more important than a Republican civil war over doctrinal purity. He backed Sen. Joseph McCarthy initially, but ultimately broke with him, fearing his recklessness "would lead him and us into trouble," jeopardizing the entire anti-Communist movement, Chambers wrote in declining to endorse Buckley's pro-McCarthy book.
   
   And Chambers was willing, in his later years, to seek a politics that did not rationalize away the world's woes in favor of purist conservatism. It would have been easy for a man treated like Chambers was - who had seen the blindness of liberalism up close in the 1930s and 1940s, and had felt the savagery and hypocrisy of its backlash during the Hiss case - to become more extreme in his rejection of it. But he did not. Chambers expressed, in dealings with young writers, a fascination with the Beat poets then emerging. He saw in Columbia-tied bohemians like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg a reflection of his own distant youth. Very unBuckleyesque.
   
   Tanenhaus treats the Hiss case conservatively, letting the record speak rather than relying on Chambers' detailed account of it in "Witness". Chambers drew vividly his and his wife's close relationships with Alger and Priscilla Hiss, placing it chronologically in the 1930s when it happened. In contrast, Tanenhaus's treatment of Chambers' life in the 1930s mentions Hiss only in passing. He instead takes Hiss on in the context of the hearings and trials, as the two sides jousted over whether Hiss and Chambers, from very different walks of life, knew each other at all. The question was a proxy for the greater question of espionage, although Hiss was never tried specifically for that charge. He was, however, convicted of perjury in denying he had given Chambers government documents, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.
   
   It is sad we have had to wait so long to have this case studied in such fine perspective. The Hiss case put the New Deal itself on trial, asking whether its leadership was pervaded with Communists; whether those leaders had followed the Communist Party line in shaping U.S. policy; whether they had tainted American war and China policy during and after World War II. And whether liberals were either so blind to these problems or so secretly sympathetic to them as to forever render them incapable of loving and protecting their homeland as it was.



2. I grew up under the cultural shadow of Alger Hiss, stupidly thinking the term "commie" was a funny way to mock anyone concerned about the threat of Communism.
   
   But, being a victim of bad education, I knew nothing of the epic, mid-twentieth century showdown between Hiss (now known to have been a communist spy and traitor, though still, ludicrously revered as innocent by left intelligentsia) and Whittaker Chambers, the moral lodestone of the twentieth century ,who offered up his own life as a sacrifice of sorts to unmask and quell the poison tentacles of communist Russia that reached high into the U.S. Government of the New Deal era. And Chambers was not only a former communist spy himself, but a burgeoning literary icon. This is the history of a clash of ideas, submerged in the clash between two men caught up in the rush of modern history. The truth, as always, is right in front of us. Only ideological dogma can prevent one from pretending not to see it.



3. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for understanding the state of American politics, past, present and future. The inner turmoil of Whittaker Chambers is revealed to the world, leaving the reader without a shadow of a doubt as to his courage and greatness. His bitter childhood, his years as a Communist spy, his homosexual inclination, and ultimately his redemptive love for his wife and family, all lead to the climax of Chambers' courageous stance against Communism, which he wins despite all odds. This book fills in the gaps of Chambers' remarkable autobiography, "Witness," which I also recommend as essential political and moral reading.



4. Read this for graduate American history course. There are a few rare instances in American history when a court case grips the passions of its citizens and serves to define people's political or social beliefs based on which side they believed was in the right. The Sacco and Vanzetti case of the 1920's, the Rosenberg espionage trials of the 1950's, and the O. J. Simpson case of the 1990's were to some extent examples of this phenomena. However, the Hiss perjury trials of 1949-50 were the epitome of this phenomenon, and helped to create a divide between liberals and conservatives in American politics that is still evident to this day. During the Cold War era, one could easily identify the political persuasion of a person simply by asking them whether Hiss or Chambers had told the truth. Simply put, the innocence of Alger Hiss was embraced by liberals. If Hiss, a well respected New Deal advocate and important Roosevelt administration member, had actually been an American Communist spying for the Soviets since the 1930's, then a whole mass of conservative accusations would gain legitimacy, and all of FDR's New Deal programs and his foreign policy decisions at the Yalta Conference would become suspect. In addition, Hiss' guilt would call into question security breaches in the Truman administration, which was already being besieged by questions of "Who lost China." It is against this historical backdrop, that Sam Tanenhaus wrote Whittaker Chambers: A Biography; whose purpose was to make the first serious examination of the life and motivations of one of America's most contentious figures in the last half of the twentieth-century, Whittaker Chambers.
   
   Tanenhaus' description of Chambers' early life is an excellent insight into his psychological profile. Born Vivian Jay Chambers on April 1, 1901, (April Fools Day), he came from a middle-class family of meager means. Add to the mix a father who was bisexual and spent much time away from home, a mother who was paranoid, a grandmother who was insane, and his brother Richard who committed suicide, it is no wonder that you have the formula for a man who developed into a tormented soul and was generally estranged from the world and the people around him. In fact, throughout the book, Tanenhaus illuminates his theme, which is to examine Chamber's tormented life at key junctures; such as, when he joined and left the Communist party, when he became a reluctant informer against Alger Hiss and when he distanced himself from the political right near the end of his life. Chambers, who attended Long Island's South Side High School, showed himself to be academically brilliant and an exceptional writer. His parents had big dreams for their son's future. Chambers had dreams too but they did not involve college. Being too young to fight in World War Two, he decided to run away with a friend to see the world. They bummed around and worked their way to New Orleans--a city he fell in love with. "Chambers had discovered life as Hugo described it, a kind of prison, harsh and cruel, but lit from within by tender sentiment and from without by sudden shafts of illumination" (18). After a few months of life on the seedy side and running out of money, he returned home and changed his name to Charles Whittaker but went by Whittaker, and within six months entered Columbia University.
   
   A new world was opened to Chambers at Columbia with which he became enamored. He took English composition with Mark Van Doren, who later in life became a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Van Doren quickly saw in Chambers a very talented writer and later remarked that he was the best writer among his undergraduate students in the 1920's. Chambers especially enjoyed the friendship of fellow students, mostly Jewish, whom he found brilliant such as Lionel Trilling, Meyer Schapiro, and Mortimer J. Adler to name a few. "It was the ernste Menschen" (serious men) "who shaped Chamber's idea, never altered, of the intellectual life" (22). However, academic bliss was not to be for Chambers. He ran afoul of the school administration for a play that he wrote which was deemed profane, and thus became despondent and quit going to class--eventually dropping out and never finishing his university education. He tried to travel to the Soviet Union to help build a new nation on the advice of Van Doren, but he only made it to Germany before returning home. He took a job at the New York Public Library which fed his autodidactic nature, and he started to consort with many women. It is at this stage in Chambers' life in 1925, that he joined the 16,000 member Communist Party of the United States, (CPUSA). "So much the better. He was used to being outnumbered. He had at last found his church" (46).
   
   Tanenhaus paints a portrait of a man who dove into his new life as a Communist with a religious fervor. Chambers became a much-respected writer for several party newspapers, which brought him to the attention of party apparatchiks in 1932. Chambers also met Esther Shemitz a Socialist, and they married in 1931. It was after his marriage that he accepted an assignment to go underground and actively spy for the Party. He was made the courier of the "Ware cell" in Washington D.C., whose mission was to pass sensitive information from Communist party members who had infiltrated various departments of the U. S. government to Boris Bykov, a Soviet intelligence agent. One of the best-placed spies in the "Ware cell" who provided information to Chambers, then using the alias George Crosley, was Alger Hiss. However, Chambers became so disillusioned by Stalin's purges and his nonaggression pact with Hitler, that in 1938, he quit the party. Fearing for his life and his family's safety, Chambers turned informer and confessed all of his activities to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle, Jr., who forwarded his notes of the meeting to the FBI, which did not follow up on the case until several years later. In addition, an old friend recommended Chambers for a job at Time magazine, which he was elated to have since he was broke. Tanenhaus once again shows that Chambers' literary acumen and zeal for any new project he took on, propelled him to become one of Time's top editors in the 1940's. The magazine's owner Henry Luce said, "Chambers was the best writer Time ever employed" (165). While a writer and editor at Time, Chambers became a most vociferous anti-Communist.
   
   Soon after Stalin reneged on his Yalta Conference promises, a conference that Alger Hiss played a key role in for the State Department, the U. S. government finally moved to ferret out Communist infiltrators in the government. The FBI finally conducted extensive interviews with Chambers. This led to Chambers becoming a government informant in one of America's most dramatic congressional hearings and court cases of the twentieth-century. Tanenhaus' research shows Chambers' denouncement of Alger Hiss was a stinging indictment of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, since it cast doubt on American liberals' willingness to conduct espionage investigations during the war years. The contrast between Hiss and Chambers could not be starker. Hiss was a Harvard graduate with impeccable looks and a sterling reputation as a government servant. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. His character references included Justice Felix Frankfurter, and John Foster Dulles, who was to become Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration. Chambers was an overweight plain looking man who did not dress well, a self-confessed Communist and government informant. Tanenhaus did not write about the relationship between Hiss and Chambers until he wrote about the Hiss perjury case, near the end of the book, which made the book a bit awkward to read. However, Tanenhaus does a good job of retelling the facts of the perjury case and Chambers' testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), as well as his extensive cooperation and long and friendly relationship with Richard Nixon. One finds that Chambers was much more revealing of his own motivations in his critically acclaimed autobiography Witness, which was written in 1952 after the Hiss perjury trial. It was also disappointing that Tanenhaus did not cover more of Chambers' writings and views about Stalinism and his very prescient views of the Soviet-American confrontation that led to the Cold War. Tanenhaus' research does agree with other historians work. John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, in their book Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials That Shaped American Politics, written some ten years after this book, proved that their was a preponderance of evidence showing that Hiss was a Communist and did commit espionage against the U. S. government. Hiss was not charged with espionage because the statute of limitations protected him. The first Hiss perjury case ended in a hung jury. The second ended on January 20, 1950 with his conviction on two counts of perjury and a sentence to serve five years in jail--he only served forty-four months. Hiss went to his grave denying the charges against him. Haynes and Klehr wrote that he gained much sympathy with the political left again in the wake of the Watergate scandal claiming, "that a government conspiracy had forged evidence and coerced false testimony against him."
   
   Although Chambers was vindicated by Hiss's conviction, Tanenhaus showed that Chambers entered into a self-imposed exile on his farm in Maryland. However, for the rest of his life Chambers was visited by a small coterie of friends with whom he enjoyed lengthy discussions about world affairs. "Still convinced he had left the winning side for the losing one, Chambers foretold a global Communist victory. Gloomy as his predictions sounded, he was not devoid of hope" (450). He believed that the primary way the West could defeat Communism was with morality and religion and not militarily. Needing to earn money, Chambers went back to what he did best. He wrote his autobiography Witness, which occupied the top of the New York Times best seller list for several months in 1952, and gave him the financial security he desired. More importantly, Witness was an anti-Communist manifesto that for Chambers described, "a struggle between the force of two irreconcilable faiths--Communism and Christianity." Witness was a powerful exposé of Communist activity in America and changed the life of one future president, Ronald Reagan. Reagan remarked that Witness was his favorite book and pointed to, "Witness as the book that would shape his political outlook." In 1984, President Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The other person of note that Witness made a huge impression on was William F. Buckley, Jr., who befriended Chambers and offered him the position of senior editor of his fledgling conservative magazine National Review. Both men maintained a very friendly relationship up to Chamber's death in 1961. Though Chambers would write articles for the National Review, he turned Buckley's offer down due to his poor health and his growing reluctance of the tactics that the political right was using--especially those of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Near the end of his life, Chambers became friendly with another former Communist and imminent writer, Arthur Koestler. Koestler wrote of Chambers upon receiving news of his death: "I always felt that Whittaker was the most misunderstood person of our time. When he testified he knowingly committed moral suicide to atone for the guilt of our generation. The witness is gone, the testimony will stand."
   
   In all, Sam Tanenhaus did an excellent job using primary and secondary sources, trial transcripts, and personal interviews to write an engaging biography of Whittaker Chambers. In his book, he provides informative notes and a thorough index; all of which helped to provide readers with a better understanding of the political mood in the country at the time of the Hiss-- Chambers case. The book would have been better organized had Tanenhaus placed the Chambers Hiss relationship information in its proper chronology and not moved it from the 1930's into the Hiss trial period of the 1950's. That small criticism aside, Tanenhaus' biography of Chambers is an important scholarly work for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of CPUSA activities in U. S., the work of HUAC, and especially its star member, Richard Nixon, and the political left/right divide that was at the center of the Cold War era.
   
   As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.



5. Chambers's life is characterized by a constant effort to combine some kind of religious faith with social messianism. His trouble came from not being able to achieve what is not possible. He took in as much from Spengler's The Decline of the West as from Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You, and he made a mess of them. He did not heed Jesus' words in Matthew 16:24 recommending to deny oneself first, then to pick up each one's cross and follow Him. Chambers ignored the first part. Neither did he understand what it meant by giving God what is God's and Caesar's what is Caesar's. He mingled all, he messed it all. The man had a terrible and frustrated life: full of unbridled passions, carnal as much as intellectual while a communist; and after his defection he led a resigned (to what, the author doesn't say) life, a sort of Christian mediocritas, in peace with himself, seemingly, and looking for understanding amid the new conserative movement he had inspired.
   
   I found much more interesting the first 100 pages or so that deal with his personal and family life. A more sad and frustrated life is hard to find. He found in communism that valve to let out his anger and resentment against social and personal misery. His view on life is similar to his suicidal brother, only he took it on promiscuous sex and politics. His brother took it on alcohol and finally suicide. Instead of looking at the evil around, in their family and society, a look at themselves might have induced them to start working from within.
   
   The rest of the 400+ pages is a total brick. I had to scan through the pages and so practise my fast-read technique. It is so full of irrelevant minute detail, information that the general reader cannot care for. The author does not offer a summary of a life here; he pours all his data collected as a lawyer would. Browsable but not enjoyable.