2 comments about Rose Cottage Chronicles: Civil War Letters of the Bryant-Stephens Families of North Florida.

1. Very good book about life in Florida during the War Between the States. Not the stuff of generals or other "important people", these are the chronicles of normal people during that period and gives an excellent insight into what life was really like in rural north Florida during the war. It is refreshing to see this aspect of the war published and it is invaluable to the serious student of the war who wishes to explore the conflict on the frontiers, far from the more researched and reported theaters closer to Washington and Richmond. By reading the letters of the participants and their families, you are almost transformed and taken back to live among them. An excellent book.



2. Based on over 1000 letters still surviving from over 135 years ago. What we are given is a window through which we can look at life as it was for a young married couple almost 140 years ago. We share their joy and delight at their marriage; we rejoice at the birth of their first child. We share their pain and longing as the war separates them. We feel the terror and the horror of a young woman as the Yankees approach her home. We share her anguish as she learns of the death of her beloved husband. Seldom have I read a book that transported me so completely to another time and place as Rose Cottage Chronicles did- one feels like you are there peering over their shoulders as they struggle to survive the hardships caused by the Civil War. For its painstaking attention to detail,its historical accuracy, and its readability, this book is a TREASURE!! Anyone with an interest in the Civil War or what daily life was like back then would enjoy reading Rose Cottage Chronicles.

4 comments about Surviving the Confederacy: Rebellion, Ruin, and Recovery--Roger and Sara Pryor During the Civil War.

1. Being a 1933 vintage southern guy (with 1890 vintage parents), it never occurred to me to either trace my "roots" or read much about the Civil War a/k/a War between the States, War of Northern Aggression, Slavery Revolution, etc. Of course, us Southerners receive a lot of Civil War history, cultural idiosyncrasies, ghost stories, etc. by osmosis, and we even believe some of it.
   Guess the Waugh title attracted me since the Reconstruction period has some interest for me, and I really haven't seen a good book concentrating on that era -- neither does this one (maybe Amazon can be helpful in that regard?).
   Anyhow, SURVIVING THE CONFEDERACY is an outstanding book and compares favorably with one of my favorite authors -- that Ol' deceased liberal, James Michener, who seems to do a better job of history with his "novels" that most of the current crop of "historians" accomplish with what they call the real thing. Of course, Clarence B. Carson, Ph.D., a deceased southern historian, does a very credible job in his six volume, A BASIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES (but even it is a little light on the Reconstruction period). Waugh's book is for you if you believe history should be used to correct behavior looking forward and not settle old scores of the past, a la "civil rights war lords" and of course the real thing in Africa, the Middle East, etc.
   This book does exactly what the dust cover and introduction say and much more. It is a vicarious journey back to those days in time with characters even more interesting than the Michener composites used in his novels and is loaded with lessons for the future.
   Neither the reviews by the "professionals" nor the few "five star" readers do the book justice and one hopes it found an audience in other places. The book would be most helpful to the numerous transplants (many 20th century immigrants to this country, including some babbling baby Bolsheviks) currently invading the South to enjoy the heat, hurricanes and southern "culture" with us.



2. An excellent book in not only the telling of Civil War history, but of immersing oneself in the characters of Roger and Sara Pryor. Their hardships and sufferings were shared by a generation during those calamitous years and the way they bore them was truly inspiring. Their faith in God always guided them in their duties and responsibilities to each other and their fellow man. Their self-denial, especially Sara's, struck me deeply. This is a remarkable lesson in the contrasting of cultures of how people of high moral fiber lived then to how we live now.



3. I usually read fiction. I read this book on a recommendation and loved it. It reads like a novel, but is all the more touching because it is true. he Pryors must have been remarkable people.



4. I buy a lot of books. It's my addiction. Only difference between a book addiction and drinking is I still have the book with me the next morning and no headache despite lapping up the intoxicating verbiage all night.

   Most Civil War books I read are pedestrian, fulfilling a utilitarian need, but oh sometimes, I stumble on a page turner where the writing is so extraordinary it breathes life and color into even small and inconsequential events. Though I resisted it for several years, "Class of 1846" by John Waugh turned out to be a page turner and I adored his Re-electing Lincoln as well.

   This week I discovered "Surviving the Confederacy" Waugh's new book. Sara and Roger Pryor are the heart of the book, which celebrates the vigor and vinegar of southerners as war promised better things and then failed to bring them the promised tomorrow. The Pryors were the quintessential, noble, charming and eloquent southerners, perfect examples of Virginia's gracious and cultured society. Roger was an author, lawyer, general and ardent secessionist while Sara was his devoted helpmate. Just as it should be! But not quite. The beautiful Sara was different from the ordinary belle. She was a well educated and independent woman with a talent for writing and definitely a survivor. Sara managed to navigate the horror of war and come out a survivor.

   I was already familiar with Sara Pryor's writing and was thrilled to find a book in which she was the focal point. Sara's book "My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life" has always been one of my favorites. Her plaintive memory of the long siege at Petersburg was filled with the immediacy of the moment and yet carried a tiny seed of optimism void of recriminations, "With all our starvation we never ate rats, mice, or mule meat. We managed to exist on peas, bread, and sorghum. We could buy a little milk, and we mixed it with a drink made from roasted and ground corn. The latter, in the grain, was scarce. Mr. Campbell's children picked up the grains wherever the army horses were fed, washed, dried, and pounded them for food."

   Surviving the Confederacy is definitely a grabber. Waugh's writing style and perfect pacing, which captured my imagination in his two previous books is just as riveting and vivid in Surviving the Confederacy. "Sara's general impression of her growing-up years was of gardens . . . For Sara it was as if fairies, mounted on butterflies, visited each flower and painted it in the night. She was a dreamer. It was a time when living rooms were called parlors, and when the grown-ups gathered there and talked of politics or religion or slavery. At such times Sara retired into the inner chambers of her imagination." [pg 15]. How can you resist?

1 comments about The Journal of a Civil War Surgeon.

1. A great read for anyone interested in the innerworkings of the Army of the Potomac. Dyer served closely with Gens. Hancock, Gibbon, Hooker, and Howard, giving pesonal insight to these men. He also goes into the lives to the fighing soldier in great detail. Being a top-notch surgeon, the men are always on the forefront of his mind. Dyer works tirelessly for the care and well being of the men. He is especially interested in making sure the men get vegetables, as Dyer is recognized as the first to realize that scurvy is a major problem in the Army. Perfect for anyone interested in how the medical corp oppereated from battlefield care, to the ambulence corp, to division hospitals up to to the large hospitals of the north. Tactfully edited by Chesson.

1 comments about Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg (Modern War Studies).

1. Woodworth is a proven, able civil war historian, but this is one of his weakest books. Instead of concentrating on Grant's relationship with his subordinates, he focuses on mini biographhies of people in Grant's orbit, such as Wallace, Baldy Smith, Sherman and Sheridan. The biographies themselves are no better than what you would find in an encyclopedia and contain absolutely no new or novel information. There is very little material on the personal dynamics between the commander and his minions.

   Grant's famous feuds with Rosecrans, Pap Thomas and Smith are poorly presented and glossed over without inciteful comment. A golden opportunity is missed here, because these disagreements highlight the most interesting aspect of Grant's relationships throughout the war. In short, a slim and completely unpenetrating look at a subject that is well suited for a lengthy and interesting examination.

2 comments about Civil Wars.

1. In Civil Wars, poet and activist June Jordan explores political issues through a very personal lens. This collection of essays, speeches, and letters, previously published but presented in this text with contextualizing annotations, masterfully blends public and private spheres. Jordan looks at critical issues such as race, homosexuality, linguistic differences, and violence by drawing on events in her own life and telling her intersecting story through vibrant prose. For instance, Jordan examines the power differential between "White" and "Black" English by discussing her novel His Own Where in relation to Shakespeare and questioning the linguistic hierarchy that values particular codes over other alternatives. Civil Wars is an engaging, moving text that will make you think deeply about social justice through a personal perspective. A must read!



2. June Jordan's collection of essays spans almost twenty years of her life, from her days as a young mother "learning to see" the world around her and beginning to make her own actions seen and voice heard, through her growing involvement in Civil Rights demonstrations, the beginnings of her teaching career, and later on in her life as a Black woman still fighting for justice using her weapon of choice: words.

   This book explores Jordan's perspective on and experience with a variety of topics, including race riots, urban housing, educational language policy, children's rights, university Black Studies programs, African liberation, land reform, and the politics of publishing. Her combination of social political commentary and personal reflection is thought-provoking and accessible to a diverse audience of readers. Her writing is clear and passionate, and most pieces, previously published, are prefaced by background information that places them historically.

   This is a book to be savored both for what it says and how it says it.

1 comments about Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum (Lincoln Forum Books).

1. The Lincoln Forum provides a continuing service to those of us with a fascination for the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. This book is a product of the Forum's good work, with chapters on diverse topics, albeit all related in some way to Mr. Lincoln, by many esteemed scholars.
   
   Given -- as with all such collaborative books -- the literary level of the individual experts' written product will vary and a reader's interest in all the selected subjects will not be constant, I found the following chapters in this collection most interesting to me: William Lee Miller's on a slave trader; Jean Edward Smith's on U.S. Grant (and with a ringing reminder that this was a rebellion and the Southern Cause was not noble); and, Craig Symonds' on two of Lincoln's admirals.

No comments about USKids History: Book of the American Civil War (Brown Paper School).

5 comments about The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson.

1. McDonald analyzes Jefferson's presidency, discussing the early successes in stopping Federalism, as well as the limitations to the changes that Jefferson and the Republicans could achieve. He discusses the failures of his presidency, notably the embargo of all trade, in a fair manner. Finally, he provides an interesting analysis of the motivations and sources of Republican policy and places Jeffersonianism in its historical context in a much clearer way than I have ever read before.
   
   The book is well-written, although perhaps on the short side. It also contains almost nothing about Jefferson's life before or after the presidency--it really is a history of his presidency.



2. McDonald is not only a great scholar, he is a storyteller without peer. He presents the Jeffersonian presidency in an objective and even-handed manner, highlighting both the successes and the tragic shortcomings of the Jefferson administration. Despite Jefferson's reputation today as a civil libertarian and a champion of liberty, McDonald shows how his heavy-handed tactics and his disregard for the Constitution led to disaster both at home and abroad. Despite ushering in the Republican Revolution of 1800, by 1808 Jefferson had lost control of the party he helped create and found himself at the mercy of John Randolph and his ilk in the House. McDonald never attacks Jefferson, however; he simply tells the rather sad story of a man consistently unable to meet the challenges with which he was faced. Another masterpiece from America's foremost historian.



3. Due to his primary authorship of the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson is widely viewed as a strong civil libertarian. The words of the Declaration and the American constitution speak so strongly about the limitations that government has when dealing with the citizens that they are just as valid over 200 years after they were written. He was also the primary individual around which the fledgling Republican party coalesced. In fact, McDonald commonly refers to the party as the Jeffersonian Republicans.
   Less well known is the manner whereby the Jefferson administration callously ignored those rights so clearly stated in those magnificent documents. People were arrested for their political persuasion and he attempted to have Federal judges removed simply because he was unhappy with their Federalist philosophy. This really was a sad time in history, as it was the first case where a president openly interpreted the law as it suited him. In my opinion, the clear statement of these actions of Jefferson while president is what makes this book. Since the Louisiana Purchase was the greatest event in the United States between independence and the war between the states, it tends to overshadow many of the other things that Jefferson did during his presidency.
   Jefferson's wholesale destruction of the American military left the country defenseless when it was being drawn into the wars between Napoleonic France and Great Britain. The consequences of these errors were monumental to the new country and his diplomatic mistakes contributed to a senseless conflict between the United States and Great Britain that served no useful purpose and could easily have destroyed the United States. Once again, McDonald is right on the mark in explaining what Jefferson did.
   Thomas Jefferson is often held up to mythic proportions as a champion of liberty and as an early statesman. In this volume, he is described as he truly was, a man who professed liberty for all, but practiced it only when it suited him. This is a superb account of what he did while president.



4. Forrest McDonald has produced a succinct, penetrating and fascinating history of Thomas Jefferson's Administration.

   This book is part of the Univ. of Kansas' history of the presidency series and the second effort from McDonald (he wrote a wonderful history of Washington's Administration). This book is about the policies, international relations, politics and style of America's third chief executive. Running at less than 200 pages, McDonald manages to be both thorough and interesting in his telling of this period.

   Jefferson and his Administration produced wonderful contradictions. His party espoused a "Republican" philosophy that basically wanted to liberate Americans from Hamilton's financial system and Adam's heavy handedness as witnessed by the Alien and Sedition Acts.

   Jefferson's early term saw him implement much of his program. As McDonald points out, few if any other Presidents have had their way so successfully with Congress. Jefferson also added greatly to the US through the Louisianna Purchase, despite his concerns with the Constitutionality of the aquisition.

   Jefferson and his Administration reached rough shoals in foreign affairs. Blinded by anti-British sentiment, the Administration prooved less than adroit at negotiating the position between Napolean and England. America was buffetted by this struggle and it reverberated back on our domestic situation. Suddenly, Jefferson's first term accomplishments became liabilities and were revealed as short sighted. The scheduled reduction of America's debt through the slashing of the Navy budget left us without the ability to challenge foreign powers. The abolition of Hamilton's system of internal revenues that left us entirely dependent upon tarriffs and thereby upon the grace of the British (who had the ability to determine how much trade our country could enjoy)for government revenue.

   In the most surprising irony, Jefferson -- who had decried Adams and his anti-liberal legislation (Alien and Sedition Acts) would go much farther than Adams in restricting liberties and in executive arrogance through his Embargo Acts and various executive orders designed to limit trade with the European powers.

   This is a fascinating story well told. Besides the policies, McDonald gives insight as to how Jefferson governed, his relations with Congress and the Judiciary as well as the toll of the office on the man himself. A good book.




5. McDonald wrenches Jefferson out of the prism of 20th century admirers and detractors to see him in his own time. He interprets the first term as a stunning success: to wit, Jefferson set about the dismantling of government over the lives of the Republic's citizens. For one brief shining moment the ideals of the Revolution reached their pinnacle. It was not, alas and inevitably, destined to last. McDonald charts the decline and fall that was Jefferson's second term. Both brilliant and unorthodox, this book is exciting to read and confirms my belief that books that can interpret the past only through current day perspectives are more about the present than the past. This book is about the past and makes no apologies for it, and takes its place among Jeffersonian books by Henry Adams, Dumas Malone, and Joseph Ellis as a classic treatment of our classic President.

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

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



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



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

No comments about Andrew Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869 (The American Presidents).