5 comments about Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.

1. I am so glad that I read this book. I found it uplifting and inspirational. How amazing that women like this lived, and I am so grateful they shared their story. It is not something I normally would have read, but I am grateful that I gave it my time. It was a very quick read.



2. "I'm not black, I'm brown!" So says Bessie Delany, at age 100. Despite her years of involvement in the Civil Rights movement, accepting its nomenclature wholesale isn't part of Bessie's personality. She's the feisty sister. Sadie, age 103, is the one who conquers by saying nothing - while going right ahead and doing exactly what she wants. Or by playing dumb, as she and Bessie both put it; but either way, it's always worked for Sadie. These two, the second black woman licensed as a dentist in New York and the first black woman to be appointed a New York City high school teacher, have lived together more years than not in their long lives; and as of this book's publication, they're still in their New York home and taking care of themselves just fine, thank you very much.
   
   What do they have to say? Plenty, mostly in alternating chapters. Their father was born a slave, and their mother's parents - a mulatto woman and a white man - couldn't marry because state law forbade it. That freed slave eventually became an Episcopal bishop, and all ten of his children became college-educated professionals. Sarah and Elizabeth Delany were old enough to be shocked and hurt when Jim Crow became the law of the South, and each had to find her own ways to survive and thrive in spite of both cultural and institutionalized prejudice. Relocating to Harlem, New York City opened new opportunities, but didn't take them away from that familiar struggle. Through it all, Sadie and Bessie lived by the creed their parents had taught them: You're here to do good. To which Sadie added her own maxim: Maybe I can change the world a little bit, by changing me.
   
   The challenges these two women faced are not familiar to me personally, in one sense, because I've never had to face racial prejudice. Yet in the way they met those challenges, with determination, realism ("As long as they need you, you've got that job"), and plenty of humor, any fellow human can surely find inspiration. A wonderful read!



3. The Delany Sisters are simply a spectacular duo of fighters. Their story is one almost every person would find amazing. The way they see this world, and how their past experiences with Jim Crow and being colored in the South before the Civil Rights Movement shaped their perception of humans forever. The book is filled with very warm humor and it is essential to understand part of the complex psyche of 'colored' people in the United States today, which, by the way, is a term prefered by the Sisters over black or even African American to refer to themselves and their people.



4. This book was recommended to me by my 95-year-old mother, and I must say it was an excellent recommendation.
   
   
   
   Author Amy Hill Hearth must have had numerous conversations with Sadie (age 102) and her "little sister" Bessie (100). The book is written with the words and the spirit of these two special ladies shining through each page. The Delany sisters were born to a father who was a former slave and who got an education and later became the first black bishop in the Episcopal Church. Their mother had white blood, but she chose to marry and socialize among the black race. As the sister explain, if you had one drop of black blood at that time, you were considered a Negro.
   
   
   
   The sisters describe their growing-up years and their gratitude for their parents' love, guidance, and the high standards of conduct which they held up to their children. They tell what is was like to be chased by the Ku Klux Klan, discriminated against by teachers and employers, and be the victims of the Jim Crow laws. They mention the illustrious black people, such as Adam Clayton Powell, and Cab Calloway, who were part of their social circle. They tell about their patriotism during WWI and WWII and in one of the most poignant comments in the book Bessie says, "We were good citizens, good Americans! We loved our country, even though it didn't love us back."
   
   
   
   This is a look back at American history by two women whose family was prominent in the black community, but mostly unknown in the white world.
   
   It is an eye-opener and is a wonderful story.



5. Let's just say I fell in love with the sisters so much that I adopted their last name. I am in awe of these remarkable woman, still. After living for more than a century they did not believe they had a story to tell. I am grateful that Amy Hill Hearth was able to convince them otherwise.
   Their accomplishments were remarkable not only what the two oldest sisters did but the entire Delany family. Their father Henry was borned into slavery, however, he did not use that as an excuse. All of the Delany children were trailblazers because there were no civil rights for people of color in the early 1900's. They did what they had to do, Bessie was honest and brutal as she felt it was her duty to tell people the truth. Sadie was considered the sweet one, however, she too was a go-getter.
   I recommend this book and the two other books that were co-authored by Amy Hill Hearth. Without Ms. Hearth these women and their stories would have never been told, I am thankful to her for bringing them into my life. I expected the sisters to live forever but Bessie died in 1995 shortly after turning 104 and Bessie at 109 in 1999. They are still alive in the hearts of many of us and in the pages of their books.

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

1. Yes, there are a lot of books about Thomas Jefferson, and most of them deal with his political years. Twilight at Monticello concerns Jefferson's post-political years as he deals with his garden, his family, and his crushing debt. I found it fascinating and one of the better books on Jefferson published in the last decade. Highly recommended.



2. In Twilight at Monticello, I was looking for an accessible portrait of Thomas Jefferson the planter, neighbor, and family man. I got exactly that while simultaneously revisiting Jefferson the politician, history-maker, philosopher, and visionary. The great man was always there facing the mundane, the day-to-day difficulties of clashing personalities, mounting debt, and the inescapable effects of aging.
   Crawford's prose is relaxed, yet precise - a pleasant balance between hard facts and evocative descriptions. He's an incredibly efficient storyteller, deftly drawing dozens of characters, while steadily revealing Jefferson himself.
   Crawford's organization is fundamentally chronological, pausing from time-to-time for a story or discussion, such as Jefferson's philosophical struggle with the institution of slavery contrasted with his relationship with Sally Hemmings. Other "subplots" are skillfully and dramatically carried across the book - like the gruesome story of Jefferson's nephew Isham Lewis or Jefferson's relationship with the thoughtful and determined Edward Coles.
   Monticello, Poplar Forest and Albemarle County come to life as well -- from the fog rolling over the Blue Ridge mountains, to the terraced gardens, to the charged excitement of Court Day in Charlottesville.
   Jefferson the intellectual is never lost in this look at his later years. The reader finishes with a good grasp of Jefferson's world view and how it impacted his relationships with friends and family members. Irony fills Jefferson's old age, yet tragedy and pain can never really dampen his extraordinary vision.
   Crawford paints Jefferson and life at Monticello with a swift, broad stroke, still the book is rich with detail. It is an engaging springboard to a wealth of Jefferson scholarship. Crawford left me wanting more, which in this case, is a very good thing.



3. 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.



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

2 comments about Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency.

1. In this elegantly written biography, Maynard explores Woodrow Wilson's time at Princeton (as a student, faculty member, and university president), detailing the triumphs and defeats that did so much to shape the future president's personality and perspective. To anyone interested in Woodrow Wilson...or Princeton...or the history of higher education in America for that matter, Maynard's book is indispensable.



2. Dr. Maynard (on the faculty as Lecturer of Johns Hopkins as well as Princeton at the time his book was released) has written one of the more truthful, composite portraits of Woodrow Wilson. It is refreshing to see the depth of research, with references to older historians and Princeton alumni, who verify Wilson as the uncompromising and egotistical college president. The damage that Wilson did to Princeton continues to this day. And not only is it revealed that Wilson and his father were "a good hater" (to quote them both) but his first wife Ellen also had a terrible temper; and there is plenty of evidence.
   
   I was disappointed that the author did not go into Mary Peck's affair with Wilson more thoroughly; he also completely ignored the affair Wilson had with a Princeton professor's wife. Maynard's treatment of Wilson's doctor, Cary Grayson, was too kind; Grayson was a major player with Wilson's second wife, Edith, in the cover-up of Woodrow's almost total incapacity as president, due to his last stroke. Although, because of his art education at Princeton and the University of Delaware, he devoted many interesting pages to the proposed architectural design of the Quads.
   
   Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner. It almost reads like a novel...because in this case, the truth about Wilson seems almost stranger than fiction. This book brings more evidence to light about the truth of Wilson as a racist, a liar, a man who could not compromise, a man with tunnel vision, a man who didn't know how to raise money for the college, and a man who constantly bickered with the trustees over the Quads and almost everything else he wanted to introduce to the campus. He would not compromise on any issue, whether academic or political. And he couldn't keep friends; as his own father was quoted as saying, "I never had a friend who was faithful to me." Like father, like son.
   
   We see a picture of Wilson living with a tortured ego in a psychological "twilight zone" who could not be a friend with anyone who disagreed with him about anything. He had an exaggerated sense of self-importance and a craving for domination in everything.
   
   The author, as a former student of Princeton himself (B.A. in Art History), covers the preceptorial system Wilson brought to Princeton, which is still advertised on their website, as Wilson's "brainchild," although I do not believe it facilitates excellence in education; it pressures students to "BS" their way through the course material. And the Eating Clubs Wilson opposed, are still there, albeit, they are now co-ed and less in number. Wilson wouldn't agree, but fraternities would have had a better socializing effect on students than these Clubs.
   
   I wondered if the author would still have a job at Princeton after such a tour de force. So I was not surprised that he ended the book with what amounts to a three paragraph apology for Wilson, in which he attempts to vindicate Wilson's twisted educational vision for Princeton, by stating "Princeton University itself has finally come around to the blueprint that Wilson put forward one hundred years ago..." The author closed his book saying that "history would prove him (Wilson) right," confirms the author's vested interest as a former student and now on the Princeton faculty. A good read, but with that vested interest, one has to wonder if all the drama and fireworks presented for the previous 340 pages, is a chimera covering his own loyalty to Princeton...just putting a good face on Wilson's rocky road from Princeton to the presidency.

5 comments about The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.

1. The author attempts to run the three biographies in parallel but what really happens is that she jumps from one place to the other, so none of the biographies unfold properly. I found it utterly unreadable. On top of it to add to my frustration, there are generalities, like Elizabeth fought with her mother "like all adolescent girls do" or romantic creations "like on this day if you didn't watch out a dog might have showered you with water". I wanted to read a proper biography and not a society novel. I had read "Eden's Outcasts" by John Matteson before and came away with a more lively picture of Elizabeth Peabody and her involvment in the Temple School then from this book. If you are interested in the transcendentalist movement, the time, or women I highly recommend "Eden's Outcasts: The story of Louisa May Alcott and her father".



2. The Peabody Sisters is a wonderful book. It was so interesting and fast-paced, it reads like a novel. The women of the Transcendentalist Movement have been so poorly remembered it is possible to learn something new on every page. Megan Marshall's writing style is relaxed and conversational, a good balance to the 19th century melodrama, angst, sentimentality, and lofty philosophies of the sisters and their circle. Although Marshall quotes letters, sermons, poetry, reviews, journals, reports, and literature from many sources, it is done sparingly and logically integrated.
   
   The Peabody sisters were extraordinary women living in extraordinary times. A case can be made that Elizabeth Peabody, the oldest sister, is one of the most important figures in Transcendentalism. Barred from college and commerce by poverty and sex, she still managed to be more educated than many of the men she befriended and promoted. Many of the relationships we take for granted in Boston and Concord of the era can be directly linked to Elizabeth Peabody's tireless efforts to intellectually support interesting, creative individuals, make introductions, even find people jobs and students, housing, mentors - all while she is shut out and struggling to support her parents and five younger siblings while teaching herself Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish. Also: teaching children and adults, writing articles, editing and publishing, and keeping up a lively correspondence with teachers, philosophers, artists, poets of the era. Her sisters Sophia and Mary are hardly less accomplished.
   
   And yet Megan Marshall always keeps things grounded. The sisters are always real people who display very normal sibling rivalries manifested in jealousy, competition, ambition, despair, frustration and anger. There was also commitment, love, affection, support, delight and generosity.
   
   What is most amazing is the strength of the women in this group. They are creative, adaptable, intelligent, extraordinary in many ways. They are continually held back by the convention of the time that women were somehow frail and that ambition and accomplishment were unseemly in the "fairer sex." Considering what hothouse flowers many of the men in this group proved to be, it's all the more unreasonable that the inequality of the sexes persisted.
   
   Megan Marshall never harangues - the rant is purely my own. Marshall simply gives us the benefit of her prodigious research in the most straightforward and appealing manner. Don't be scared off by the length of the book: the last 100 pages or so are notes and index. The book itself speeds by and the reader is left at the point when the sisters are taking up their own separate lives.



3. Somehow I overlooked this book when it was released, but thank goodness I discovered it later. The author takes readers back in time to share the amazing lives of these sisters. In the process, acquaintances of the Peabody family, that readers already know as historical figures, are brought to life as real, flawed but remarkable people. Readers will identify with these women as they strive to achieve and practice their own talents in a society that shares possibilities and limitations not so different from our own.



4. I only get to read on the train to and from work. This book makes my daily trip a real treat. I'm only half through, but hooked from page one. Not only does Marshall make a fascinating biographical and historical account of the Peabody sisters, but she provides answers as to why strong, ambitious, smart women have been so frustrated for so long. Society supressed gifted women in the 1800's so much so that women either became outcasts because they had to find expression, which in itself was restricted to motherhood, housewife or teacher, or they retreated into themselves in the form of illness or depression. Indeed, the contributions to romanticism by the Peabody sisters came at a very high cost to them. And now I can read about them and think "How strange that society was so close-minded back then!"



5. Megan Marshall has done superb work in this carefully researched account of the amazing Peabody sisters.

5 comments about Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress.

1. This book has given me a new (to me) hero. Adams was a great man. The book is well written. I had trouble putting it down, couldn't wait to get to the next page. On a scale of 1-10, I give it a 15. If you like history, don't miss this one!



2. John Quincy Adams is one of only 2 former Presidents of the United States to have held public elective office subsequent to being President (Andrew Johnson served in the Senate after his term as President). In fact, Adams served for 17 years in the US House of Representatives, from 1831 to 1848, representing his home district in Massachusetts. Instead of quietly fading from public life after being ousted after only one term as President by Andrew Jackson, Adams became increasingly popular and polarizing as a champion of the people's right to petition congress and a number of other causes; most related, however tangentially, to the issue of slavery. Wheelan concentrates mainly on Adams's support of the abolitionist cause, although he shows how Adams came slowly to this position and it was not until very late in his life that he considered himself "officially" one of their number.
   
   Wheelan's book gives an overview of Adams's life before Congress in the initial few chapters. These serve mainly to set the stage for the descriptions of Adams's post-Presidential career. Overall the tone is very respectful and supportive of Adams, whom Wheelan obviously regards very highly for his principles. More than once Adams is referred to as a "man of the whole country," a title he personally used to describe himself and a succinct summarization of his political philosophy. Adams's career spanned the decades where the old, 18th century gentlemanly politics gave way to the new, rough-and-tumble "politics of party" that Adams despised. While he was always a member of one political party or another, he frequently took positions that violated his party's official "platform" and often earned the enmity of erstwhile allies.
   
   Wheelan makes extensive use of Adams's personal diary, a journal he kept almost his entire life from the time he was twelve. There were few periods in his life where diary entries were absent or spotty. The picture drawn is of a man who struggled to always do what he felt was right, who honored God and his country, and was all too well aware of his weaknesses and failings. Adams comes across in a very sympathetic light throughout the work.
   
   Wheelan clearly admires Adams for opposing party politics, although he makes no bones about Adams's failure to change with the times that led to Jackson's landslide victory and Adams's ouster as President after only one term. The book gives a very interesting window into a time when "negative campaigning" was vicious and prevalent, something we tend to forget about in our day, thinking negative campaigning is a recent invention. This book shows it's certainly not.
   
   Wheelan also casts the slaveholding states in a very unflattering light. He interprets their politics as nothing but a cynical defense of their "peculiar institution" and shows how they attempted, in his opinion, to trample on the people's constitutional right to petition congress by suppressing open debate in the House on the issue, and suppressing even the acknowledgment of petitions received.
   
   Overall I think this is a book that is respectful to the founders and tries to understand their successes and failures in their proper historical light. Some parts of the book are truly moving, especially the chapter on the death of Adams. At his passing, the last of the first generation of revolutionary heroes was gone, and the link to the founding of the Republic was severed. Nothing more could be said for him than that some of his most inimical enemies in Congress gave moving eulogies at his passing. He is represented as a man who did what he thought was right without personal regard for his own welfare or prestige. Recommended.



3. Wheelan has written an excellent book on the post-presidential career of John Quincy Adams. Some attention is given to Adams as our nation's sixth president, if merely to conform to other historians' assessments of the Adams presidency, who have mainly considered it a failure. The one problem with books like these is the obvious effort to throw the most favorable light on the author's subject. That being said, I found much to admire in John Quincy Adams and the author makes a good effort in bringing those qualities to light.
   
   As would be shown later in this book, John Quincy Adams would come to represent one of the last vestiges of the founding generation. His father's career needs no mention from me. Any student of the American Revolutionary War period and the early republic will (hopefully) know about John Adams for his influential role. His son became a well-traveled and educated young man who would serve later administrations, perhaps most notably as James Monroe's Secretary of State.
   
   I found it interesting how John Quincy Adams played with political parties; he didn't really follow any party line completely. He was a principled man who seemed to be moved more by his conscience than partisan politics. His ambivalence towards political parties, as the author mentioned, was one of the factors that inhibited his presidency. Adams, as the author mentioned, just could not adapt to the changing political realities. His ascendency to the presidency was certainly controversial enough, being he did not win a plurality of the popular vote and his electoral victory was decided by the Congress.
   
   His post-presidential career was marked by 16 (roughly) years in the House of Representatives. In this capacity he fought for the right to petition, attacked slavery, gave vocal support to women and Native Americans, and opposed the annexation of Texas as a slave state and the resulting events leading to the Mexican-American War. Adams displayed a fearlessness in confronting his opponents in the House with often very little support. He fought a censure motion and won, and he eventually helped overturn the Gag rule, which had limited the right to bring petitions to the House. He became hated by many, seen as a champion by others, but usually won the respect of his colleagues through his forceful intellect and character.
   
   It was during this period that Adams assisted the defense team for the black crewmen of the Amistad, who were trying to regain their freedom after being taken from their homeland illegally to be sold into slavery by Spanish authorities. Eventually, the U.S. courts decided for releasing these Africans and allowing them to return to their homeland.
   
   It wasn't hard after reading this book to come to have a sympathetic view of this man. It is indeed a remarkable story of a remarkable life. Even if this book is overly praiseworthy of its subject, I think John Quincy Adams probably deserves some favorable press. A really good read.



4. John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, the second President of the United States, and a critical Founding Father. The younger John went to Europe with his father as a youth, hobnobbing in the courts of King George III, Empress Catherine II (the Great), and King Louis XVI. As an adult, he served as American ambassador to the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom, negotiating the end of the War of 1812, was sent to the US Senate from Massachusetts for one term, and spent eight years as Secretary of State to President James Monroe. Then, in the controversial election of 1824, he was elected the sixth President by the House of Representatives. His tenure was highly flawed, and, after one term, he lost reelection. Thereafter, he spent his remaining years in the House, never having lived up to his potential.
   
   This is Adams' traditional biographical narrative, as Joseph Wheelan sees it, with the emphasis placed on his failed presidency, and his 17 years in the House of Representatives largely an afterthought (albeit one wherein he acquitted himself adequately). Wheelan devotes about sixty pages to his career up until his election to the House of Representatives in 1830, and then spends the remainder of the book on his 17 years ther, ending with his death in 1847 (in the Speaker's office, no less). Wheelan here proposes a different narrative: in Hollywood terms, the failed presidency is the big setback the catalyzes the hero's final triumph. And "hero" is the key word, because Wheelan explicitly states in the introduction that he believes we can take from Adams' example in the 21st century when looking for leaders. Herbert Butterfield would undoubtedly have clucked his tongue at this, but as I've always thought Butterfield was being far too severe in discouraging people from trying to find lessons and heroes in history. I find Wheelan's thesis very attractive. The result is a profile of Adams that focusses on his many positive qualities; it is not a hagiography, as it makes allowance for personality flaws, but these will not have much impact on how the reader sees Adams. Most relate to his presidency, and a lot of that, through this presentation at least, results from Andrew Jackson's bitterness and Adams' own overly-developed sense of fair play in the face of political reality (which most people would think as much a virtue as a flaw).
   
   Wheelan's John Quincy Adams is a tremendously appealing figure: dedicated to being a man "of the whole country" (though he, by the point Wheelan focusses on, has really become a man of "the abolitionist North", because he revels in antagonizing the slaveholding Southern states, not that they didn't deserve it), with a very old-fashioned (in the early 19th century!) view of public service, and a strong devotion to the ideals of the Constitution's framers (he knew most of them, after all). Wheelan singles out his various causes championed during his time in Congress:
   
   1) The First Amendment - through his nearly decade-long campaign to repeal the Southern-backed gag rule in the House that quashed the right to petition the House against slavery.
   2) Womens' rights - through his defence of women involving themselves in politics (though he was not so far ahead of his time as to argue for giving them the vote).
   3) Science - Adams was a lifelong proponent of the sciences, and of government sponsorship of them, and Wheelan spends some time detailing his role in the creation of the Smithsonian Institute, whcih I was not aware of.
   4) The big one, his campaign against slavery. Indeed, he was perhaps the first great political opponent of the Slave Power, a friend and inspiration to future player William Seward (Lincoln's Secretary of State), and astonishingly foresighted in predicting the Civil War decades in advance (and, ultimately, welcoming it as a necessary bloodletting to purge ill from the land).
   
   Adams is remembered today mainly as the son of another president who squeaked into office via a "corrupt bargain" (a fiction of his opponents that Wheelan spends some time arguing against) - Wheelan makes a very persuasive case for his worth as a principled politician. Certainly it makes one wish for eight years of John Quincy Adams over another son of a one-term president we are all too familiar with.



5. This is avery enjoyable read. I took the challenge after seeing the mini-series John Adams. The son is as key to a great American as his father. This book should raise Mr. JQ Adams on the list of great Americans.

4 comments about Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture).

1. In the classic slave narrative genre, Frederick Douglass' narrative of his life brings to life, in all its horrors, American slave society, and one slave's life-long protest against it.
   
   When we read Frederick Douglass in his own words, he is less the radical and more the reformer than we've been led to believe. He is also more the Christian statesmen and less the Christianity critic than we might imagine. Douglass' oft quoted comments about Christianity had much more to do with a righteous critique of distorted Christian living practiced by white masters than with any critique of Christianity or of Christ. In reality, Douglass, like so many enslaved African Americans before and after him, saw in Jesus a Savior they could identify with--a suffering Savior.
   
   Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.



2. Frederick Douglass is the complete ressurection of the saying, "Knowledge is Power." With the more information he aquired as a slave the more he lusted for freedom. He also provides an excellent example of what black people in this country could do for themselves, interms of their economical status. Looking further, Douglass loved to think and imagine the endless possiblities, while he was still in bondage physically. When he began to read and understand the "Hypocrasy" that this country was based on, using christianity as it main tool, and what every human should be allowed by right, this released his psychological enslavement. If blacks throughout this country could read and understand there were blacks that went through worse situatians and overcame them, and the current situation that destroy the black communities were created for them to fail, just like slavery, many would wake up and take on the mask of Douglass. The mask that says, "regardless of class, race, or creed, this world was created for everyone to enjoy including me."



3. I read this book as part of a summer assignment entering into the 11th grade in addition to "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs. Both are great pieces of African-American historical literature and well worth the read. I couldn't read this book all in one sitting, due to the need to fight the urge to throw up. He detailed descriptions of physical, psycological, and emotional abuse are enough to sicken any one and make you disgusted with the human race.



4. The honesty with which this is written is amazing. I was glued to it from page one. I felt disgusted by the human race, saddened by his traumas and guilty just for being white. I think this needs to be read more. Especially in schools. Why isn't it???

5 comments about Young Men and Fire.

1. This is Mr. Maclean's last book and it is a brilliantly written and thoroughly researched, illuminating and fascinating work of literary art. He gently and lovingly caresses lanquage, turning the story of an otherwise horrifying, murderous forest fire into epic poetry in a study of human failure, frailty and triumph.
   
   It is a book that will be thoroughly enjoyable to anyone interested in the state of Montana and the power that nature holds over humanity. The Mann Gulch fire, which killed 13 young "Smokejumpers" in 1949, was one of the most famous- and ferocious- forest fires in history and was perhaps the most significant learning experience for the Forest Service in how to fight forest fires.



2. I loved this book. The detail and analysis resulted from decades of research and Maclean is a terrific writer. I love the piece-by-piece, methodical dissection of the story. I find this method of story telling and anaylsis similar to John Krakauer's "Into the Wild". I would like to see more maps and photos, but those that are included in the book are sufficient by most measures.



3. This is the quintessential non-fiction account of Mann Gulch. It creates the foundation of our study of wild fire behavior. I could not turn the pages fast enough. Many quotable descriptions and observations about the firefighting industry is timelessly captured in this book.



4. This is a book written about a fire that took place in Montana back in the 1940's during which a group of smoke jumpers lost their lives. It is so well written that I found it difficult to put down. This was the beginning of the study of "fire", and all it's elements, as a science. Fascinating. This particular book is being used as required reading in our local "California Department of Fire" CDF. I read it as an adjunct to the Search and Rescue Team to which I belong. I recommend this to anyone, especially those living in a possible fire danger area.



5. Any book that I spend a great deal of time checking maps and names, to see who survived, has hooked me. This did. The horror has caused much thought. Check out the song "Cold Missouri Water"

5 comments about Morgan: American Financier.

1. Jean Strouse tries to get beyond the myths, both positive and negative, and show us the living breathing man that was J.P. Morgan and she does a remarkable job. Strouse is the kind of biographer who immerses herself fully in her subject when she writes a book and her commitment to the project is legendary at The Morgan Library where Strouse toiled in the archives for years. Her research shows; "Morgan: American Financier" is authoritative and deep. Strouse shows takes inside Morgan's family and personal life as well as deep into his business dealings. We get the full sweep of his professional and personal power; his personal challenges, demons, principles, and pleasures.
   
   Morgan was a man who was larger than life in his own time. He was the consummate guardian of the "Gentleman Banker's Code" - a Victorian notion of serving the greater good through serving the client that formed the heart of the finance culture - with some Protestant spiritual overtones thrown in. Morgan's bank, with its twin loci on either side of the Atlantic, sat astride the flow of capital between England and the US. In the 19th Century English capital investment was vital for American industrial development and Morgan helped tame the destructive competitive business practices displayed in the railroad wars where rival rail lines would squander millions building parasitic parallel lines in an effort to drive the competition out of business. Morgan learned the lesson that cutthroat competition was wasteful of investor's capital and he ever after strove to build peaceful vast monopolies. This kind of business value system seems at odds with our current notion of free market capitalism it certainly wasn't very popular with labor or with those who feared the power of vast trusts. Vast trusts were Morgan's specialty. He personally assembled the first billion dollar stock offering in knitting together the vast majority of US steel production into US Steel. He set up a host of other vast monopolistic conglomerates including General Electric, International Telephone & Telegraph, International Harvester, International Mercantile Marine, and a host of railroad accumulations (just to mention the highlights). In defending foreign investment interests he defended the dollar's value on the International market by defending the gold standard - putting him at odds with bimetallism and William Jennings Bryan. In the East Room of his fabulous 36th St. Library there is a huge 16th century tapestry representing the sin of greed. Morgan clearly thought of himself as a force for moral order among robber baron thieves. When JP Morgan died he left less than $120 million - a figure that shocked many people who had figured he was worth far more. Morgan assembled vast economic power through board voting proxies with the goal of orchestrating a smoother running economy for the profit of his clients. While Morgan did good business on legitimate business, he didn't skim or abuse his position (granted "insider trading" wasn't considered a sin in those days - if it was done discretely). JP Morgan died in 1913 a year after the Titanic (which was built by IMM - his new shipping trust; thus stressing Morgan doubly because he had friends who died on board and the disaster stood to devastate the bottom line of a huge project/client of his) and the Pujo hearings where Morgan was grilled for his role in resolving the Panic of '07 which involved a massive hat trick of capital and political manipulation that featured putting Teddy Roosevelt over a barrel and forcing him to approve a critical bit of monopolistic corporate takeover business for the US Steel concern, staunching a run on the banks, and bailing out a bankrupt New York City government - all in the same month! That kind of power scared the heck out of many and spurred the establishment of the Federal Reserve.
   
   Much of this ground had been covered back in 1990 with Ron Chernow's superb "The House of Morgan". What sets Strouse's book apart is the story of Morgan's personal and emotional life and how she weaves the business story into context with Morgan's private life. JP Morgan was a dynamo riven by contradictions. Notoriously intense - Edward Steichen, the photographer - after taking Morgan's portrait, said that "meeting Morgan's gaze was like confronting the headlights of an express train". He was also a portly man whose nose was horribly deformed due to a disease called rhinophyma. That didn't stop Morgan from having numerous flirtations and affairs and a vibrant public social life. JP Morgan was a man dominated by a stern and judging father, Junius, who dictated JP Morgan's life until Morgan was fully an adult and in charge of the banking empire. For example, Morgan fell in love with Amelia Sturges ("Mimi") and married her despite the fact that she was dying of tuberculosis and wasn't a strategic match. She died on their honeymoon, emotionally devastating JP. Junius stepped in and selected JP's next wife, Frances Louisa Tracy, "Fanny" - based on sound socio-economic factors. Fanny was shy, staid, and retiring; a poor match to JP's fiery extroverted nature. Over time they ended up living entirely apart - each one spending half the year on the opposite side of the Atlantic from the other. Morgan frequently traveled with other women - chaperoned by his daughter Louisa. But Morgan was also devoutly religious and was very active in his church's management and fiscal affairs. He was involved with selection of the pastor - a man who became one of Morgan's closest lifelong friends. Morgan's ferocious business pace drove many of his partners to work to death. Morgan found solace and refuge in yachting and his yachts are legendary (one was fitted with cannon and depth charge launchers and used for U-boat hunting in WWI by the US Navy).
   
   But Morgan's greatest love was art. At the time of his death, fully half of his vast fortune was reckoned to be in his art collection. Many consider it to have been the finest art collection ever assembled. During Morgan's lifetime, much of that art remained in his London mansion. After his death, sadly, his son Jack couldn't keep it together for perpetuity because of economic and political reasons. Morgan's first artistic passion was books. The books he brought to New York and later in his life he commissioned probably the world's most impressive private library - now known as The Morgan Library & Museum. He hired the voluble, coquettish, and brilliant Belle DaCosta Greene in 1905 to be the Library's first director and curator. Belle Greene is a fascinating character in her own right - receiving a good introduction here (and warranting her own extensive biography "An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege" by Heidi Ardizzone). The Library became Morgan's business office in his later years and the banking community nicknamed it "the uptown branch". Much of Morgan's later history - including his artful handling of the Panic of '07 - happened there. Morgan's art collecting transcended personal pleasure. Like his professional life he was clearly trying to lead and shape the United States. In amassing such important cultural holdings he was attempting to raise America closer to his beloved England's cultural stature.
   
   Comprehensive, personal, meticulously researched and annotated; Jean Strouse has written the definitive biography of an epic life.



2. A good history of not only the man, also of american politics and finance.
   The real workings between BIG Business and the men who created them



3. BECAUSE OF THE SUPERB CHAPTER ON ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES - THE PANIC OF 1907 - THIS MAKES THIS BOOK THE PREMIER BOOK ON THIS PERIOD IN MY OPINION. M GORDON



4. Jean Strouse, the author of several acclaimed biographies, decided to write a biography of John Pierpont Morgan, who was, in his day, America's preeminent financier. At the beginning of her project, she was intent on writing a book along the lines of "Morgan: American Ogre," but in doing research for the book, and reading Morgan's correspondence, she came to radically rethink her views. The subtitle for this book could be "Morgan: American Genius."
   
   When J. Pierpont Morgan entered banking, Europe had substantial savings which stood to get much higher rates of return in the developing markets of their day, the New World, but only if they were invested with reputable and well-managed concerns. Morgan's bank guaranteed that the companies he dealt with were reputable, honest and well-managed; by serving as a bridge between the New and Old Worlds, Morgan became America's preeminent financier.
   
   In her biography, she reports that many of the criticisms leveled at Morgan were bereft of any basis in reality, or misrepresentations of the facts at hand. Among other points she raises, she shows instances of companies where Morgan had a substantial amount of influence giving business to the lowest bidder rather than to each other, which rebuts the charges of favoritism. She explains than in 1907, when Morgan put his entire prestige on the line to stop what threatened to be a stock market crash similar to that of 1929, he was acting to save the system, and not to enrich himself as some critics have claimed; on the contrary. Her revelation that the Morgans père et fils declined to make "contributions" that would have averted the Congressional hearings that portrayed Morgan as America's "malefactor of great wealth" is revealing.
   
   Strouse has painstakingly researched many aspects of Morgan's life, from his time at Goettingen, Germany's most acclaimed university, where Morgan was urged to become a professor of math because of his phenomenal mathematical talent, to the economics and business rationales behind Morgan's dealings, to his understanding of art history and the legacy of his gifts to American museums, and into the relationships among and history between the New England families from which Morgan hailed. This is not simply a biography but the veritable work of an artisan-biographer.
   
   All the same, I suspect that Jean Strouse was so enthralled by Morgan's exceptional erudition, achievements, charm and taste - to this day his library is one of the smaller wonders of our world - that she neglected to delve into a question that may be a less fortunate aspect of Morgan's legacy. Not long after Morgan's death, a slaughter erupted in Europe whose after-effects still carom in our day. During the World War One, the British liberally tapped the American credit markets, through the House of Morgan. Morgan had enjoyed the confidence of the highest levels of the English government, as well as that of the Kaiser; for that matter, the Pope was greatly impressed by Morgan and wished him much health and wealth. As Strouse writes, Morgan had offered to lend Balkan countries money if they agreed to end their belligerent ways. Did Morgan not foresee the horrible possibility that Europe would use his bank to raise the funds to extinguish its bestest and brightest in a truly senseless orgy of violence? If he did foresee this, could he not have sought to avert this disaster? Had Strouse tried to answer these questions, I would bestow more than 5 stars on her book.



5. Jean Strouse's powerful gift to tell a story combined with her intellectual muscle lead to a riveting biography of J.P. Morgan's life. I read this book when it first came out. I remember at some point there after visiting The Morgan Library and some "Morgan -- Bella da Costa Greene" missive was on display which I found enchanting after reading about the unusual and dynamic woman that came to work on his collection. "Morgan American Financier" is a great read and I imagine J.P. Morgan would approve.

5 comments about His Excellency: George Washington.

1. The modern "pyschological" biography attempts what is probably an impossibility: to penetrate and elucidate the core "personality" or "character" of an historic figure. The danger that the resulting portrait may be a novel masquerading as a biography, a creation of the author rather than a rendition of the subject, is great. Still more so when the author has clear psychological quirks of his own, and a contemporary political axe to grind. When he also has formidable literary skills, the danger of creating a cogent, compelling lie is acute. This is certainly so in the works of Joseph J. Ellis. He has admitted telling lies about his alleged role in the Vietnam War, demonstrating that his own character and personality are not wedded to the truth. Stranger still, in light of the content of his self-aggrandizing fabrications, he is an avowed political liberal. Something very odd was going on in his own psyche. More recently, he has written that the political vision of Barack Obama accords with that of the Founding Fathers (or, as Ellis calls them, the "so-called founding fathers"). There are thus multiple reasons to be skeptical of Ellis' several attempts to psychoanalyze the Founders. In this volume the patient on the couch is Washington. It is altogether too convenient that Ellis' Washington is a man whose primary impulse is to seek control in all things, but above all in the attempt to control his own reputation (or, as we might say, his "image"), both for contemporaries and for posterity. That's the psychology; as to the politics, Ellis' Washington is the Founding Liberal, prescient in his perception of the need for a strong national government that would curb the rights that Jeffersonians, and today's conservatives, regard as reserved to the states and the people. According to Ellis, the psychology and the politics are linked: Washington's belief in a strong national government was an external projection of his inner control. As is typical with this sort of work, any behavior or pronouncement that departs from the general "insight" is just the exception that proves the rule. Ellis even manages to turn Washington's Farewell Address, with its admonition against foreign involvement, into a harbinger of Kissingerian internationalism. Although this book is well written, indeed a joy to read, and is superficially convincing, I am deeply suspicious.



2. While it's totally hip to de-mythify things our parents (silly things) thought were good, Ellis's de-mythification of Washington is not satisfying. His basic thesis is that Washington was a nincompoop who happened to be in the right place at the right time his whole life. That's unlikely, and it doesn't explain why Washington was a legend in his own time as well as our own, unlike most "mythical" legends, whose myths grow in time.
   
   Five stars for doing what everyone else does.
   Two stars for insight.



3. Some have wanted to reserve 5 stars to a "War and Peace" type book. To me 5 stars means the book did what it set out to do and did it well. "His Excellency" indeed did. It is an excellent short biography of the father of our country. When I picked this book up, I realized all I knew about Washington was what I had been taught in grade school.
   
   Ellis is an excellent biographer who delves into many aspects of Washington's life. The narrative moved well and was entertaining. Some may be put off by Ellis' style of going into analysis of issues. I found that this added to my understanding.
   
   Washington indeed was a great man who's influence reaches us to this day. Now I know why!



4. It is sad. The author has made big bucks on a book that essentially is aimed at bringing George Washington down to the level of today's politicians. There certainly is an audience for this kind of interpretation of our Founding Father and it can only be accomplished by someone who has a perspective and wants to use his skills to slant the reader's view toward his own negativity. I much preferred to read David McCullough's history, "1776," which dwells primarily on Washington as a person and a leader, but without the hidden agenda (whatever it is) of the author of "His Excellency," which is really an attempt to rewrite history and bring Washington down to the level of a Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon in a colonial setting. Shame on you, Mr. Ellis, although you are entitled to your opinion -- which is what this book is all about.



5. I was extremely disappointed in this book. This book was purchased as a gift for me, and I looked forward to reading it. From the beginning, I was disappointed by the tone of the book, which casts a negative tone on the father of our country.
   
   As I researched some of Ellis' sources, I found that in several parts of his book, he stated items as facts that were completely false.
   
   Ellis, following a popular trend of today, insinuates that George Washington was in love with his friend's wife, Sally Fairfax, and that he felt passionately in love with her throughout his life.
   
   Ellis admits that all we do know is based primarily on three letters Washington wrote to Sally (Fairfax). The last letter he cites was one Washington wrote near the end of his life. Mr. Ellis states that "in this letter, he confessed to an elderly Sally that she had been the passion of his youth, that he had never been able to forget her, 'nor been able to eradicate from my mind those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which have enjoyed in your company."
   
   I decided to research his references, and look up the text of Washington's letter on the Library of Congress website. They have actual images of all of the original letters of George Washington. What I found relieved me greatly and set my mind at ease. It also made me feel disgusted than an author who claims to accurately represent the life of such a noble man could be so purposely deceptive.
   
   The actual letter was written by Washington in his later years, with his wife. He talked about how he was remembering the times of harmony and friendship that he and his wife spent with Sally and her husband at their home. He describes these times as some of the happiest of his life. At the end of his part of the letter he says "Mrs. Washington is about to give you an account of the changes which have happened in the neighbourhood and in our own family."
   
   Mr. Ellis said that in this letter he confessed that she had been the passion of his youth. That is simply a blatant falsehood.
   
   Ellis also states that there is no evidence to show whether the relationship between Washington and Fairfax ever crossed the sexual threshold or not. Why does he even feel the need to include such a ridiculous statement? It is akin to saying that although someone spends some time at the local bank, we don't have evidence to show whether they were a bank robber or not.
   
   Attempting to insinuate that the framers of our Constitution such as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were immoral men, is happening more and more often in our country.
   
   In an excellent book "The Rewriting of America's History", there is an example of how deceitful this influence can be. The book explained how in an earlier edition of a school history textbook it stated that George Washington had a hot temper that he kept masterfully controlled. In a later edition of the same textbook, it simply said: "George Washington had a hot temper." I think that is a powerful example of how a subtle adjustment can completely change our thinking of his character.
   
   I have found that this is happening more and more frequently in our world today as I have studied the founding father's lives including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and others.
   
   I could continue on with how careful research contradicts the opinions of Mr. Ellis, but I will simply recommend a much better book. "The Real George Washington", published by The National Center for Constitutional Studies.

5 comments about Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend.

1. I think back to some of the Westerns I watched on TV many decades ago. "Wyatt Earp," with the theme song's words, "Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, Brave courageous and bold." Or Bat Masterson, "He wore a cane and derby vest. . . . They called him Bat, Bat Masterson." One thing in common with both? John Henry "Doc" Holliday.
   
   This is a detailed biography of Doc Holliday, the notorious gambler and gunman of the West (called Doc because he was a dentist who, from time to time, actually earned his keep by plying that trade, although gambling seemed more compelling to him!).
   
   He died young, at age 36, of tuberculosis (how many readers recall some actor playing Doc Holliday with an ever present cough, signifying his ailment)? Gary Roberts, the author, notes that Holliday has an elusive element to him. He notes (Page 3): "Yet the measure of the man remains incomplete." Roberts does yeoman work pulling together what is known about Holliday--but there are gaps in our understanding of the man. He notes that (Page 5) "This work, then, is not the final word on the life of Doc Holliday. . . ."
   
   The book begins, in standard fashion, of examining the character's youth. He was a southerner, and his family moved when he was young to get out of the way of Sherman's march to the sea. As a young man, he studied dentistry at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. Then, after a time working as a dentist, he moved westward, for reasons not completely ascertained. Surely, he had come to know that he suffered from "consumption," but that probably was not the sole reason for his peregrinations.
   
   The book goes on to detail his life in the West, wandering from one place to another (one almost gets weary at the travels of Holliday and his companions, including the Earp brothers). There is the tale of his saving Wyatt Earp's life in Dodge City, of his move to Tombstone (where he took part in the famous battle at the O. K. Corral), of his gambling, of his turbulent relationship with Kate Elder (possessor of several names), of his work as a "shootist." His many entanglements with the law (while sometimes serving with the law, to make things more confusing!).
   
   Then, his last few years, with some peaceful and some not so peaceful moments.
   
   All in all, a good biography, although sometimes one can get lost in the details and even though sometimes one wonders if a single individual, suffering from tuberculosis, could have wandered so widely across the land. Nonetheless, a good starting point of the reader wants to understand a bit more about this rather mysterious historical figure.



2. Given that Doc Holliday left virtually no record of his own behind, Roberts has done an amazing job of researching and piecing together this detailed portrait of Holliday's life, those whom he encountered and the worlds he inhabited. Copiously footnoted but eminently readable, Roberts' book uncovers some of the man inside the legend. Highly recommended.



3. Doc Holliday books always suffer from the well-known fact that Doc left absolutely no written record of his own. He is, as has been noted, known only through the eyes of others. Some of his contemporaries, like Bat Masterson, are probably accurate in their appraisals. However we can never know much more about Doc himself unless something that he wrote shows up. And, it probably never will. The letters from him to his cousin are probably all gone. So we are left with a bunch of facts that we can rearrange and interpret all we want, without any guarantee that we are any closer to the truth. The author of this latest book does a good job of arranging and stacking what is known about Doc, and does a nice job of interpretation. I liked his ideas about Doc's gravesite, but wonder about the pictures...a couple of them don't seem to be of Doc (are they generally accepted to be, or not?). The author also does a nice job of questioning, appropriately, some truths that have been more or less accepted with little proof over the years (like Doc riding alone across the High Plains). A final comment: this book is dry, but is written in such a way that readers can make their own interpretations about Doc and his motivations, character, etc. Overall, a good, worthy addition to the Doc library; unless something new is discovered, this book will give you everything there is to know about Doc Holliday.



4. This is a truly masterful work. I bought it as I was interested in Holliday and the development of the West. What I found was an historical book with much about the society, economics and culture of the mid-19th Century South, as well as the rapid migration to the central and Southwest. Facinating and exceedingly entertaining and informative.



5. I was given this book as a gift. I enjoyed the movie Tombstone back when I was in college, and Doc Holliday certainly is a colorful Western outlaw. So I was really looking forward to reading this book to get the facts behind the legend. While I think the author did an admirable job researching the book, I felt his text was too dry much of the time. I couldn't understand how an author could take an exciting outlaw who interacted with so many famous characters and write out the story in a way that made me picture a monotone college professor speaking. Back in the 1990s I read John Myers Myers biography of Doc Holliday and I remember enjoying it much more. Maybe it wasn't as well researched or documented, but it was definitely more lively.