2 comments about Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma: The American Portraits Series (American Portraits).

1. I have finally come to the end of this fine book and am delighted to share my views. Unlike the one other reviewer here at Amazon (Mohroy), I found the book to be richly rewarding on every possible level. Camilla Townsend's academic background is well known and she is highly respected in her field. Her ability to write a compelling narative is smartly coupled with a rich list of footnotes, so many of which come from original documents. In some cases highly academic books can be a bother when you are flipping back to the footnotes; not with this book. Each note was worth the attention and always added a deeper dimension. When you consider that Townsend was building a picture of these people that was not always the mainstream her reliance on her reseach more than convinced me of her perspective.
   
   What is the overall impression of the story she paints? I'll tell you, that when I first discovered this story, through the lens of the very emotionally moving movie, "The New World", I had very little knowledge of the real story. In following up on my initial reactions to the movie I endeavored to read what modern historians have to say. I read one book which I can also highly recommend and then I found Townsend. The first was "Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the birth of the American Dream" by Thomas and Dorothy Hoobler, November 2005, published by Wiley. This was a sensational revelation and spurred me on to know more. Townsend has filled in the missing pieces and is essential in my view for anyone who wants to know the story shed of all of it's mythology.
   
   "The New World" is a fine movie and entertainment and I will always treausre it. But, it is about 50% fiction, which is a shame, because Malick had all of this material available just about the time he wrote the script. Oh well. The real people, the real story is so very much more tragic, depressing, sad and dark. The first successful European settlers to the East Coast of the USA signalled the beginning of the destruction of much of Native America. Those that did not die of disease brought by Europeans that they had no immunity to, died as a result of wars with the Europeans. Townsend's insight into this is interesting to consider. The much longer development of farming among Indo/Europeans had better prepared them on a technological level to successfully take America away from Natives. She attributes this line of thought to the book "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It is worth consideration; the Powhatan natives took too long to realize that the founders of Jamestown had outgunned and out-equipped them by many factors. When Uttamatomakkin came back from his trip to London with Pocahontas and he reported that it was hopeless to fight the white man he was scorned and ignored by his fellows. This resistance to reality lasted far too long before they were finally demolished in several devastating wars.
   
   The real Pocahontas? Much younger at her introduction to Smith than all films or other books portray. Probably had not reached puberty yet. She was so young that when in the Jamestown fort would do hand cartwheels revealing her naked torso for all to see. When she had reached puberty that would have stopped completely. Did she have a romantic relationship with Smith? Not a chance, it would seem. Even more, she had already been married off to a native from another village; nothing much is known of his demise and it is assumed that he died after only a few years of marriage. It is also not known if she had born a child by him, though Townsend thinks it less likely. Pocahontas was no fool and knew that she was being used by her father in a delicate series of political chess, some of which were with the English, some with other native communities. She learned rudimentary English and carried herself with the dignity she felt the English were expecting of her; they viewed her as the daughter of a King and she accepted the role as princess. Townend scores an important point by showing us clearly how little we really know of this woman; someone who did not leave a word of her own in any manner. We imply and infer and guess based on so little. She cautions us throughout the book about this tendency.
   
   What of her father, Powhatan? Already experienced with other white men from Europe before John Smith lands, he already knows that they are dangerous but makes one tragic blunder: he underestimates their resolve to make a permanent place in America until it is too late. He sees the colonies start up and then watch as the ill equipped Europeans fall sick and die, time after time. He sees Smith and company as just another botched attempt at racial transplanting and is not too worried. He is wrong and his people eventually pay the price. What could he have done instead? The hot heads among his people urged him to kill all the white people in Smith's group before they turned against them. He refused. From the native perspective it was a mistake. From the European perspective it would only have bought time and would have enraged them more. In due course, white Europeans were going to come and that was that.
   
   John Smith is both given his proper respectful acknowledgment and is also taken to task as a teller of tall tales. Smith embelleshed for his English audience and without a live Pocahontas to ask whether this or that fact was true, Smith got away with the story he painted. Were the main facts of his being saved by a nubile Pocahontas beliveable? Probably not, given the place of young girls in the presence of adults in her society. It is not impossible but much more improbable than Smith tells us.
   
   This is a book that strips away layer after layer of myth, poor or incomplete research and hasty or prejudiced conclusions. Her work is constantly referred back to urtext sources and where she does not know something she says so right up front. If the real story of Pocahontas is so much fuller, complicated and sadder, it is a story that is entirely integral at the dawn of white society in America. It is also integral to the beginning of the end of native people across the same landscape. A tremendous scholarly achievement, not to be missed.



2. A brief history of Jamestown and a very sketchy and alomst contentless discussion of Powhatan and the Powhatan Confederacy from the "perspective" (scare quotes intentional) of Pocahontas.
   
   I learned a couple of new facts from this but on the whole I can't reccomed this book. The author tries to get in the head of the legendary Indian Princess but the authors very poitically correct assumptions of what Pocahontas would feel are far from convincing, interestingly enough I had never previously believed in the John Smith-Pocahontas love story at all until I read this, but her disavowal of it was so unconvincing I am now not nearly so sure... The same can be said of several of her other psychological insights which have a very shallow basis, that seem to reflect the author's own feelings without any appearance of critical reflection.
   
   On the positive side it is nice to see such a sympathetic view of John Rolfe, who the author seems quite taken with, but by this point I was rather weary of the whole thing. Luckily it was very short, and even though I actually spent a fair amount of time checking endnotes and even checking a couple of sources, reading the book took only a few hours. I bought it at lunch and went out to dinner that night having finished it.

5 comments about Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?.

1. This biography of Dorthy Parker was very good.Not only did I learn about Parker but, I learned about her friends and aquiantances ( F.Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Benchly, Lillian Hellman, Robert Sherwood,George Kaufman, Ernest Hemingway etc.).
   
   She was one the founders of the legendary "round table" ; however there's not much clever repartee reported in this book. Members of the round table including Parker were heavy duty drinkers which may have contributed to their relatively early deaths. Dorthy outlived most of them.
   
   Dorthy was a prograstinator who missed dealines for magazine articles and books. From the 1930s on, it appeared that the amount of published work was small.Many of the screenplays she worked on in Hollywood never made it to the big screen and the most of the small amount that did were not memoriable.
   
   She and her second husband Allan Campbell were paid large sums of money for their Hollywood work. The couple had frequent cocktale parties.
   
   Throughout her life, Dorthy had dogs that were never trained. It seemed in the book that she was always acquiring dogs.
   
   As she aged, people were always taking care of her ( No where in the book does it mentioned that she ever helped others.). Young writers were attracted to her.
   
   This biography of Dorthy Parker was well written. Although the subject was not that likeable, this book about her life was.



2. This is a big book, and I took it everywhere with me for about a week until I finished it. I couldn't believe the depth of detail the author manages to pull off; the research must have taken years. Although I knew going in that it didn't have a happy ending, I was still upset when I got to the last chapter. What a fascinating story!



3. I liked the book, well written and I think it covered her life very completely and thorough-----but Dorothy Parker herself, I found to be a disgusting, awful, horrible and miserable person. I can't understand why everyone catered to her throughout her life so much. She was nothing! She didn't even appreciate anyone. She wasn't worth the powder to blow her to hell.



4. I had heard Dorothy Parker was a creative wit, but I found this bio to be about 200 pages too long, with little evidence of her writing. As Dorothy would say, "What Fresh Hell is This?!" As for Dorothy - didn't see much in the way of her 'talent', but as a person, she was a very negative, mean-spirited, self-absorbed, promiscuous drunk who sponged off anyone she could her entire life. What a pathetic existance. And poor Alan Campbell who was her devoted husband. It's a wonder all her excesses didn't do her in before her 77 years. I have 150 MORE pages to slug through. I will finish it but prefer to read about people who make positive contributions to humanity, not suck dry what they can from others.



5. I am a big fan and was excited to read this book. It was a good read on some days and eye-burningly boring on others. I DO suggest the book but don't feel bad about skipping over parts - you won't miss anything. It could have been 50-80 pages shorter with the same info.

5 comments about A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee.

1. Professor Hutton gives us a scholarly edition of an essential American folk narrative. Partly an exercise in self-promotion (Crockett makes it clear he sees himself on the way to the Presidency) and partly an attempt to correct - or recast - the myth that already surrounded him, it remains a valuable insight into the social history of early nineteenth-century America.
   
   Davy was the great hero of the children of my generation, following the Disney movie, the Ballad and so on. It's nice to meet the real person at last. For, despite the fact that it was his friend Chilton who wrote down the words, and the fact that Crockett was very selective in what he reported and how he reported it, I think the man's real voice comes through.
   
   Like all memoirs, this one gives the reader a feel for what life was like for people - frontier folk, that is - at the time, in a way that no history book, no matter how well researched, can. The overriding impression is of a life of extraordinary hardship, in which terrible setbacks are shrugged aside and the struggle resumed. It was also a culture of racial hostility, which gives rise to some references to non-whites - black and Indian - that will fall uneasily on most modern ears. But so it was.
   
   The story gains added poignancy from the knowledge that it was published just two years before Crockett's death at the Alamo. It was there that his enduring fame was assured.
   [PeterReeve]



2. David Crockett was best known for his adventures in the wilderness and fighting at the Alamo. He also served as a Congressman where he was known as an honest and conscientious man.
   
   I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found it honest, refreshing, stimulating and interesting. It is David Crockett's own words echoing through time. The sentences are long and constructed different than today and take a little time to absorb. This adds to the richness of the writing.
   
   A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett provides a peek into the world of this fine human being who was incredibly brave, a fine story teller, a gentleman and true adventurer. David Crockett was a strong critical thinker who followed his own beliefs and values. He couldn't be bribed to support any measure he thought was wrong. His celebrated motto was:
   "Be sure that you are right, and then go ahead."
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking



3. Confusion about authorhip has followed "A Narrative" more than 170 years. It helps to understand that Thos. Chilton, Representative from Kentucky, shared living quarters with Crockett at Mary Ball's Rooming House. They were actual bedfellows, which was the custom of the times; Thos. Chilton was father, eventually, to 15 children. Thomas Chilton had a university education and wrote with recognized eloquence. He crafted "A Narrative" from Crockett's notes and dictation, using carefully the homespun dialogue of his friend.
   
   Thos. Chilton, a skilled lawyer, was not fool enough to do all this this work for free. Davy Crockett arranged for his publisher to pay fifty percent of the book's royalties to Thomas Chilton, who agreed to have no mention of his name in the book. What remains rather obscure is the disposition of royalites after Crockett's death. Thomas Chilton died in 1854.
   
   The role played by Thomas Chilton in "A Narrative" was lost to history for nearly a hundred years, except inside the Chilton Family.
   -- Edward M. Chilton



4. 
   Davy Crockett's Narrative first appeared early in 1834 at the height of his political career. During the 1820s he had won a couple of terms in the Tennessee state legislature, and in 1827 he won a seat in Congress representing the western half of the state. He was a foe of Andrew Jackson and a political maverick; when he advocated for Indian rights he won the enmity of many in Congress and his constituents, and was voted from office in 1831. He licked his wounds and patched up differences, and was re-elected in 1833. To bolster his image, which was already taking on legendary aspects, this Narrative was written with his friend Thomas Chilton. Told in bold, humorous, boastful strokes, it is nonetheless a campaign biography and ends with sharp attacks on Jackson.
   
   The way the Narrative is set up here is very useful for the reader. It appears in facsimile form, with wide margins set around it, in which Shackford explains, corrects, and separates fact from fiction in Crockett's assertions. It's almost like watching a movie on DVD along with critical commentary. Interestingly, many errors that appear in the Narrative were intentional and are often self-deprecating, making Crockett more unsophisticated and lowbrow than he really was in order to win votes with the farmers and backwoodsmen of western Tennessee. Most of the historical references he makes are quite accurate. As a campaign biography to help him win re-election in 1835, however, it was a failure, as he lost to a Jacksonian. After that, he set his eyes on Texas.
   
   The format chosen here is what makes this book a success. The many annotations make this edition of the Narrative the most informative and "honest" in print. Highly recommended.



5. David Crockett found himself to have become mythologized in his own lifetime. Every indication is that he arrived at this place accidentally, but that once he recognized his own pop-culture status he took advantage of it and nurtured it at every turn. His Narrative, therefore, must be read with a certain amount of skepticism nevertheless it is still valuable as an historical record.
   
   The narrative is a journey from start to finish; true Homeric stuff. He describes his journey into adulthood in pre-Mark Twain style, then his journey as an adventurer in the military, his journey across the state of Tennessee with his family, and finally his journey into politics. There may be many embellishments within his narrative, but considering the period in which it was written (while he contemplated a much larger political career) the topics he chose to describe actually seem prosaic and understated, as if he were deliberately trying to avoid bragging about himself. In this light, perhaps the Narrative is more accurate than is generally assumed. The Narrative may have been ghost-written by someone else, but there is enough Crockett in it to give it legitimacy. His jabs at Andrew Jackson are quaintly hilarious, but they are also true. In this pre-Alamo period of his life, his willingness to take a stand against Jackson might be the bravest thing he ever did.
   
   Lastly, the language itself is fascinating. The Narrative may be laced with over-the-top phrases such as, "knocked his trotters out from under him", but at the same time he writes, "if a fellow is born to be hung, he will never be drowned..." This is classic southern wisdom, words I have heard with my own ears in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, so Crockett's Narrative is either very authentic or was itself the basis for an evolving southern culture. In this way, the Narrative should be considered classic American literature.

2 comments about Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families.

1. Robert Smalls (1839 - 1915) is a little known figure outside of South Carolina but he deserves to be known by everyone, especially by those who love great stories.
   
   I stumbled upon the story of Smalls's infamous escape as a slave during the American Civil War (May 1862) by accident. Several years later after thorough ongoing research has rewarded my diligence with finding this book by Billingsley.
   
   The author takes a sociological approach throughout making it for an interesting angle to consider the life and accomplishments of Smalls.
   
   There are several other fine books available about Robert Smalls - mostly out of print - so this edition is updated, accurate, fairly comprehensive and a rich source for understanding Smalls.
   
   Well-documented and carefully researched.



2. The book Yearning to Breathe Free is biographical novel which pertains to the life of Robert Smalls of South Carolina and his family. I enjoyed reading this book because it includes lots of factual information regarding to the over all purpose of Robert Smalls as being an influential person in history. I have read several other biographical novels about the lives of slaves, congressman and even statesmen. Those books failed to acknowledge evidence about the individuals life because they were mostly opinionated books about slavery and its importance. In Billingsley, Yearning to Breathe Free he includes numerators amounts of accounts of Smalls life which proves ideas stated about Smalls as being true and factual information. Additional to the factual information he includes a bibliography and index that reference all the sources required for him to right the biography on Robert Smalls of South Carolina. This will help readers like myself further my knowledge and understanding about Robert Smalls go don't be afraid to purchase it today on Amazon.

2 comments about The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Foundingof a Nation.

1. A fascinating & entertaining account about one of America's forgotten outstanding women. I learned far more about the American Revolution and how it affected ordinary poeple by reading The Muse of the Revolution than I ever learned in my American history class.
   
   L.S.
   Manhattan



2. We make much of the Founding Fathers of our nation, with barely a nod to any founding mothers. There is the legendary composition of the American flag by Betsy Ross, but even if Ms Ross did so, no one pays attention to her ideas or opinions. We have Abigail Adams, whose recommendation to history was not just that she was married to John Adams, but also that she was a clear thinker and did not confine her frequent letters to domestic or matrimonial issues. And then we have Mercy Otis Warren. Who? Mrs. Warren is little known to our time, although she was well known in her own (and was known as "Mrs. Warren") for publishing plays and poetry with political and revolutionary themes, even though she had to do so anonymously, and for having close acquaintances among other writers and among the leaders of the age. She also wrote one of the first histories of the American Revolution, which, if it is not regarded as a classic, is still consulted by historians specializing in the era. That a woman of her time could have the confidence, perhaps the presumption, of writing history was a surprise to her contemporaries, and argues that she had some sort of greatness and is worth knowing about. _The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation_ (Beacon Press) by Nancy Rubin Stuart is a fine introduction to Mrs. Warren's life, and to the domestic and civil concerns of Revolutionary patriots.
   
   Warren was born in 1728, and besides getting the domestic education all girls got, she was exposed to the books of her brothers, and succeeded when she begged to accompany them to school. Her love of reading, and her introduction to Pope, Dryden, Shakespeare, and others would affect her eventual writing style, but of course she didn't get to go on to Harvard as her brothers did. She married James Warren in 1754. He was a gentleman farmer and politician who was well known by all the more famous leaders of the Revolution. Mrs. Warren became known in her own way, and chief among her friends was John Adams, who would be a mentor and correspondent to her for decades. Adams introduced his young wife Abigail to Mrs. Warren, and the correspondence between the three forms much of the quoted material within this book. Warren's works included plays, satires of the times lacerating the Britons in authority who were oppressing the citizens. It's not fair to say she was a feminist, or even a proto-feminist. Though she thought a great deal about the news of the day, she was deferential. In a letter to her great friend John Adams, having mentioned the subject of patriots opposing Britain, she wrote, "I ask pardon for touching on war, politicks, or anything relative thereto, as I think you gave me a hint in yours not to approach... anything so far beyond the line of my sex." In writing about Mrs. Warren's reactions through the years, Stuart provides delightful insight to the sorts of day-to-day matters that were on her mind. We get to follow, for instance, her involvement in the daunting inoculation process against smallpox, a cure that had many of the aspects of the fearsome disease itself. Mrs. Warren reminds us that no matter how much we cherish our Revolutionary heroes, she spied during the war "a total change of manners" among the rising materialistic class of her countrymen with a new vogue in "profusion, pride and servility and almost every vice," and she was shocked at the "privateering" by those who made their profits in the war.
   
   It is also refreshing to understand that many of the heroes in our bronze statues were but humans, as Mrs. Warren saw them. She was disgusted, for instance, by the ostentation of John Hancock in 1777, as he made his official travels in his gold coach accompanied by fifty horsemen from his private corps of cadets. This sort of throwback to the trappings of royalty was also to offend her when John Adams took power, and Adams was especially upset with Mrs. Warren's depiction of him in her _History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations_ (1805). The rift was severe, and Stuart summarizes their sixteen letters back and forth on the issue. Only the year before her death in 1814 did Adams deign to correspond again and the friendship was renewed. Mrs. Warren's story is also a reminder that the Constitution that we take for granted was a controversial document even among American patriots. She did not like it, and although her authorship was not known for 140 years, she wrote a treatise critiquing the document. The treatise played a role in the eventual drafting of the Bill of Rights. Stuart's book shows a woman of her times, but one with self-made erudition and with ambitions and influence outside the domestic sphere. It is an excellent summary of the life of an important patriot who made a difference during the times of the Founding Fathers.

5 comments about The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.

1. Applegate's biography on Henry Ward Beecher is very readable, but too short. Some things are covered very well, and others almost ignored by comparison.
   
   You learn alot about his relationship with his father and siblings, but very little about his wife and children. His thoughts and actions regarding slavery are well fleshed out, but I wish word one had been said about his opinions regarding other controversies of the time. What did Beecher make of Mormonism, for example? Applegate doesn't have much to say about Beecher's theology either, after he breaks with his father - at least not enough to satisfy me. She prefers to pay attention to the intrigues and finances of his congregation (which, by all means, is worth while).
   
   In other words: I was left wanting more.



2. A remarkable read for its insight into the America of the 1850s and 1860s and into the America of the 2000s. The only real difference is that the Evangelists of 1850-60 are now tele-evangelists, still raising money, still getting involved in politics, and still dabbling in sins of the flesh to one degree or another. The more things change, the more they remaint the same.
   
   A thoroughly fascinating read for the information it imparts about that time and the similarities to the times in which we live.
   
   Helps the reader understand in new and different ways some of the causes of the Civil War and puts those reasons in in very human terms. Politics and Religion were entangled then, as now....
   
   Henry Ward Beecher would be as much at home now, just as rich, just as popular and probably just as promiscious as he was in his day. By understanding his day, we have a better, cleaner understanding of this day.
   
   In other words, Men of God can accomplish good, sometimes great things without being perfect people.



3. This book was really great. You feel like you are alive at the time of Beecher. You watch as he emerges from his father's formidable shadow to become the most popular American preacher of his day.
   
   But in the process, you will also see Beecher jettison virtually every doctrine of Christinaity save the doctrine of love for God and for others. Unfortunately, it appears that Henry took the "love for others" part a bit too literally, as he was a very flirtatious and apparently adulterous man.
   
   It is amazing to see how he skirts out of trouble time and again. He somehow has his wife convinced that he is a man of high virtue, and he is also able to convince a number of his mistresses that their affairs with him are higher forms of love, even religious love.
   
   And yet in spite of his peccadilloes, Henry Ward Beecher was an indispuably great orator, a man who had his congregation eating out of his hand. Henry loved to preach about the pressing issues of his day, although one could accuse him of waffling on issues when the boat was rocked. He was at first neutral on the slavery issue, then he was a cautious abolitionist, then he even came to the point of advocating violence if necessary.
   
   Perhaps his most shining moment was in 1863 while preaching in England. His stirring speeches about America convinced the British not to lend their support to the South, and this may have helped Lincoln to preserve the Union.
   
   You will learn not only about Beecher's relationships with women (his wife Eunice, Elizabeth Thornton, Edna Proctor, Chloe Beach), but you will also get to know the New York newspaperman Henry Bowen, who convinced Henry to come to New York. You will also meet the complex Theodore Tilton, who goes from being a star struck Beecher fan to being a jealous husband who wants to see Beecher fall from grace.
   
   Debby Applegate writes in a stirring style, and you will want to drop everything else and keep reading. You learn a lot about history along the way.
   
   The only complaint I have is that Applegate slams Calvinism way too much. She treats it as if it is a terrible system of belief and that it makes happy people dour. She seems to think that Lyman Beecher (Henry's father) was a much better man than his theological system would allow.
   
   I am not a Calvinist, but I respect Calvinism as a viable and reasonable expression of Christian faith. The book would have been just as great without the anti-Calvinist bias.



4. I am an author, a Christian, and a Calvinist. I love good history. However, after the deep prejudice against, and misunderstanding of Calvinism portrayed in the first two chapters, I almost put the book down.
   
   Despite these reservations, I am glad I persevered. Applegate writes in an engaging, entertaining style. I finished with fresh incite into the political machinations of early 19th century America, especialy New York, New England, and the history of the early abolitionist movement.
   
   I also concluded down deeply disturbed and distressed by the subject of the book, Henry Ward Beecher. Applegate repeatedly stresses two attributes of Beecher's moral character. The first was his lust for fame and popularity. The second is his continual compromise of conscience to obtain that popularity. These compromises ruined his life and the lives of many associated with him. She closes by comparing him to Dr. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton, all good comparisons, and in my opinion, all deeply distressing hypocrites like Beecher.
   
   I finished the book with mixed feelings of revulsion and empathy for Beecher. He was a first class hypocrite. He continually preached love, but abused and used his wife, his congregation, his business associates and the women with whom he comitted adultery. He pretended to be one thing, but in reality was the exact opposite. Was he weak? Yes, like all of us he was weak. But was he sincere? It doesn't appear that he was. A sincere man seeks help. He wants to change. He humbles himself and exposes his weakness. Beecher did none of these Instead, continually and habitually covered up the damning evidence that pointed to his sins. That is not the definition of a good person.
   
   Did he do some good? Yes. He was a key figure in the abolitionist movement. But, in other respects he was much like the men exposed in Paul Johnson's insightful book, "Intellectuals." He was a man who loved the world in general, but was incapable of loving those closest to himself.
   
   Despite these facts, the author was unwilling to call Beecher what he really was, "a wolf in sheeps clothing." She concludes, "His painful awareness of his own weakness and his ongoing battle to overcome them were the wellspring of his great and lasting contribution to American life: the all forgiving Gospel of Love. As Beecher would have said, without sin there can be no saving grace."
   
   It appears that Applegate, like Beecher, is in love with love, but not real virtue. True loves serves, expends itself, humbles itself, and dies that other might live. But Applegate's conclusion spins evil, refusing to come to grips with it or condemn it. Yes God is love, but He is also justice. The two cannot be separated.
   
   This is not the definition of a good man. I expected Applegate to draw this clear conclusion. I was disappointed.
   
   In short, Applegate writes well. I am thankful for her research, and the volumes of excellent information on Beecher and his times. I am deeply disturbed by her conclusions. They express the same loss of moral compass as the man she writes about, Henry Ward Beecher



5. This book is the excellent product of twenty years of research and documentation by many people. The data upon which the book is based comes from the letters and diaries of the individuals portrayed and from the newspaper accounts about them at the time. The author skillfully weaves the data into a picture spanning from the 1820s to the 1880s.
   
   Reading this book is like sitting before a window and peering into the life of an amazingly charismatic individual and those upon whom he had a great impact. You see his gradual escape from the extremities of religious fundamentalism to an extremity on the other end of the religious spectrum. Along the way he succumbed to his human weaknesses. His temptations were made more potent due to absolute adoration by his followers and his spontaneous and haphazard personality. Perhaps, in this country, he was the most skillful speaker of his century in spite of his inconsistent message. Without him England might have intervened in our civil war on the side of the South profoundly changing our history.
   
   You get, not only, a view of their lives, but also of their hearts, minds and emotions because you read their diaries and most personal letters which were concealed from others at the time. Many are famous people such as Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Mark Twain and his sibling Harriet Beecher Stowe among many others.
   
   As you read this book you begin to understand nuances of the late colonial and early Victorian era that history books miss. You see the holes in the stereotypes of the time. You see similarities to current times and you will see profound differences. You see how lack of modern medical technology and birth control put intense pressure on women. The divisive issues of the day like abortion, promiscuity, drugs (including alcohol) and religious extremes are all still issues today. They addressed them in a different manner and with a different perspective.
   
   I don't read much fiction because it is just fiction and based upon the author's perception of reality at best. This book interests me because it portrays many people's perception of the reality of their time based upon their own written records.
   
   Jim Fuqua

No comments about Abraham Lincoln: The American Presidents Series: The 16th President, 1861-1865 (The American Presidents).

5 comments about Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (An Owl Book).

1. 
   Daniel Boone lived from 1734 to 1820.
   
   I knew almost nothing about Boone before reading this biography, and so cannot critique the book on its historical or biographical accuracy. My only complaint is that it is not longer. This seems an excellent book to begin a study of Daniel Boone. It has gotten me curious to read more.
   
   And yes, I am one of those who grew up watching Fess Parker's TV show Daniel Boone.



2. The style of this work reminded somewhat of McCullough's (writer of a biography of John Adams)in that the writer seeks to understand Boone's motivations within the context of the times he lived in. Unlike Adams however much less in definitely known about Boone and the writer is forced to include many stories and legends that are needed to embelish the biography but also pose the risk of pulling Boone's image and reputation in undesirable or unfair directions. The problem of course is that there are hundreds of legends and hundreds of variations on those legends and the writer must pick and chose how much weight to give the views of his different sources. Overall he has done a good job and the reader is treated to a realistic view of life in Kentucky when buffaloes roamed, the plight of the Indians etc... Recommended



3. Daniel Boone was a long hunter and it brought him to the hunting ground of Kentucky. He hunted the land several times before he brought his family to Boonesborough a fort on the Kentucky River. Faragher shows that Boone was a man of character. He loved the frontier and wanted to be a part of it. Boone wanted to live in peace with the Indians but at times he found them to be his enemy. The people he encouraged to come west began to crowd him and he began to look for a new frontier farther west. The Author was very factual about the man, Daniel Boone. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"



4. This book provided very detailed information regarding Daniel Boone and his relatives. He's a legend worth learning about. You'll be able to separate the myths about him from the truth, according to the best available data.
   Be ready for a long read.



5. Well written and detailed book on America's back woodsman who seemed a precursor to the Mountain Man. Hailing from Pennsylvania, the author tracks Boone's introduction and love of hunting from his early years through his family's move to North carolina to Kentucky finishing his mature years in Missouri due to his constant thirst for better hunting and less people. Fascinating account of Boone's unique relationship with the Indians and cool head. His ability to sustain himself like a native and stay in the wilds alone or with small bands. The author not only does well detailing how Boone led parties into Kentucky and creating settlements but also verifies several exploits such as his saving the lives of his daughter and her friend who were kidnapped by Indians by using his knowledge of the geography of the land and the trails that the Indians used.
   
   The author also details well Boone's controversial surrendering of his men to the Indians in exchange for sparing families at Boonesboro that is still somewhat puzzling as many thought him a traitor. Also a bit of a paradox is Boone's love of the hunt, staying away from home sometimes for a year or more while fathering 8 to 10 kids with Rebecca. Also interesting is his relationship with Rebecca who endured his long hunts and disappearances and may have had a child not Boone's that he accepted as the the consequences of his absence. Well worth reading, even covers Boone's warts particularly as a land surveyor, that obviously was not his skill. And unlike Fess Parker and the legend, he never wore a cookskin cap. But the author makes the facts as fascinating as the legend as Boone was in fact a fearless and independent man of the wilderness.

5 comments about Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update.

1. I was a bit disappointed in this book, I have to admit. I was hoping to learn more about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who they were, what circumstances led them to life of crime, and so forth... I was expecting maybe some new never-before-seen photographs in this book, but I guess that's a lot to ask for people who lived 80 years ago. I am very interested in the Bonnie and Clyde story, and I have to rate this book good, but not great.



2. This is a nice condenced overview of Bonnie and Clyde. If you want a crash course or are just interested in the true story- start here.



3. This book has a lot of interesting information and tons of pictures. If you want to know anything about Bonnie and Clyde, it's all in this book.



4. I first became aware of Bonnie and Clyde after a frigid night's motorcycle ride to see Arthur Penn's 1967 movie. Except for buying a DVD thirty years later, I seldom thought of them. Then, last November, my wife and I visited Dexter and Stuart, Iowa. In April of 1934, a month before their deaths, Bonnie and Clyde, along with Henry Methvin, robbed the bank in Stuart. Ten months before, the Barrows had shot it out with a posse at Dexfield Park, north of Dexter. The site of an abandoned amusement park, Dexfield offered Bonnie and Clyde, along with the severely wounded Buck Barrow and his wife Blanche, temporary sanctuary following a shootout in Platte City, Missouri. Penn's movie placed the shootout in Platte City, Iowa, which doesn't exist, ignoring the long ride from the Kansas City area to western Iowa. It also ignored the fact that Buck lived several days after his head wound and actually died of pneumonia. Penn's characterization of Blanche as a screaming ninny isn't accurate, either, and it got him sued.
   
   Penn wasn't after history, but sensationalism. James R. Knight is after history. He is one of those wonderful people who recognize that everything is coming together and seizes the moment. Penn's movie was only the latest in a thirty-year sequence of stylized and mostly inaccurate portrayals of the lovers and their companions. It perhaps began with Jan Fortune's Fugitives, published a scant few months after the fatal ambush in Louisiana. It continued through books by several members of the posse who killed Bonnie and Clyde, and by former criminal companions. As many of the principals, including members of the Barrow and Parker families, aged, other writers began to interview them before it was too late. Given the opportunity to pull together their work with original research, James Knight acted.
   
   This book is the result.
   
   Perhaps only a person who doesn't depend on writing for his income could have done it. Knight, after all, is a pilot for Federal Express who just happens to be an excellent historian. His book shows meticulous patience, coupled with a desire to be what Fox news isn't, fair and balanced. For instance, he gives Fortune's oft-maligned piece credit for what it got right. Though he depends heavily (for the first few chapters) on the recollections of Marie Barrow Scoma, a teenager at the time of her brother's death, Knight sometimes argues, appropriately, with her recollections. After all, she could not have known all that her adult brother was up to. Knight understands that the Barrow and Parker families were far more complex, and far more involved in supporting their wayward kin, than has heretofore been obvious. The evidence has always been there, but Knight uses it broadly and well.
   
   The author is so careful to remain balanced, and to avoid the hysterical tone of previous books, that his prose sometimes seems bloodless. Nowhere is this more evident than in chapters 36 and 37. There, he recounts events around the May, 1934, ambush that killed Bonnie and Clyde. He is meticulous in describing the location and sequence of the wounds each received, the damage to their stolen Ford, and the behavior of members of the posse. It's important, though, because the ambush has so often been misinterpreted. I hope that in a future work Knight will greatly expand these chapters, taking a closer look at everything and everyone who contributed to the ambush and at the questions that still remain. Still, Knight corrects several misconceptions and downright errors fostered by the movie and by previous books. You won't know it, though, unless you read the extensive footnotes.
   
   Which brings me to the subject of how most to benefit from reading this 2003 work. I read it twice. The first time, I had a bookmark in the footnotes and flipped back and forth frequently. The second time, the bookmark was located in the first appendix. This allowed me to review a full history of each character as s/he surfaced in the text. As a result, I have a far better idea of "the story of Bonnie and Clyde" (to borrow the popular title of Bonnie's second poem) than I received on that winter night in 1967.
   
   For all of that, Knight neither whitewashes nor condemns Bonnie and Clyde. Rather, he recognizes the essential tragedy of their story. They lived on their own terms, but everyone paid a price. That they paid with their lives does not obscure the suffering inflicted on their families and on families left fatherless. At the same time, Clyde might have remained a relatively small-time crook (or made changes in his life similar to those accomplished by Ralph Fults) were it not for the brutality he experienced in the Texas prison system. The story of Bonnie and Clyde, then, is in some sense the story of human beings interacting with our surroundings--for good and for ill. I am writing this review two days after a confused and angry teenager murdered people in an Omaha mall. He did it with an assault rifle, at a time when gross inequalities again exist between Americans. Clyde used a 1930's version of that rifle, at a similar time. When will the American people demand gun control? And when will we insist on an end to national policies that lead to the creation of millions of poor people?



5. "Here they come down that dusty road, and muddy bend; Man and woman welded in crime, together they lived and together...they died. Who else could it be?; But good ol' Bonnie and Clyde!"
   
   The book entitled, "Bonnie and Clyde A Twenty-First-Century Update" by James R.Knight (with Jonahtan Davis )is... "A killer of a book!"
   
   This is a superbly written and researched book. James R. Knight is too young to have ridden along with them, at least in this life. However, his knowledge and interest in this gun toting couple makes me wonder, where he may have been in his last life time?
   
   His writing is informative, easy to read and follow, and...extremely descriptive. In addition, the book is a photographic library in itself!
   
   Sometimes, I could almost hear the heavy "barking" of Clyde's "BAR" and watch the black exhaust clouds rise from the tail pipe of his get-away, 1934 Ford sedan.
   
   Frank Hamer does not appear to be as powerful a figure as he was portrayed in the 1967 movie with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Although, a central figure in orchestrating the couple's final demise, the initial credit seems to flow toward a little known figure of the ambush group listed as, Officer Prentis Oakley.
   
   Author, James Knight also gives the reader what Paul Harvey used to say on his radio program: "and now you know ... the rest of the story."
   Knight follows through with information on the fate of each actor who ever played any part on the stage of "Bonnie and Clyde."
   
   A great job Mr. Knight(and Mr. Davis)! When can we expect another publication???

5 comments about Letters from the Dust Bowl.

1. This book is best read quickly, if not at a sitting, then over a weekend. In that way Henderson's prose gets its power, and it will take you from youthful optimism to euphoria, then to despair, and then to a sort of middle ground in which she makes peace with herself and the land. She's at her best when she describes her mental and verbal battles with intolerant churchmen: she just couldn't buy into the vengeful God of the itinerant evangelists of the time, and she was not shy about expressing her opinions. This book will make the Great Plains and Dust Bowl come alive, not as a scholarly, "objective" tome, but as a woman's journey of the heart. A very nice read.



2. This is trying. The personal letters presented in the book convey a manner with which Caroline uses to overcome life stresses that come with homesteading a difficult land in a fickle environment. The Hendersons live quite alone in No Mans Land. The welfare of the Henderson family depends strictly on their ability to manifest a steady resource of food substances for nutrition and for trade. The letters from Caroline Henderson are written in a very flowery style that worked well in the early half of the 20th century. Digesting the text isn't easy if you've become adapted to the pace of life today.
   
   However, the reader is treated to an infinite barrel of wisdom. Certainly, Caroline had to deal with much more in her life than overcoming writing styles, so it helps knowing this just to get through the book. It is easy to miss what is really going on here. Homesteading requires a harvest of food for nutrition and another harvest of food for the soul. The book talks very little about dust storms. More is spoken of the planted gladiolas, the harvest, the songs of birds, and of Christmas. Letters are torn up in frustration, and rewritten to be positive. Each response to a letter opens with words of thanks for encouragement offered.
   
   This little book is terrific - the kind of book that changes lives. If you enjoyed Victor E. Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" you might also love this. Though not analytical and direct as Frankl, it quietly relates shared personal values. In contrast to Frankl, Henderson lives very much in freedom, but within the shackles of her environoment.



3. Caroline Henderson's letters are historic and illustrative and heart-wrenching. You get to know this truly remarkable person and how life was in this era through her writings and see the progress from youth and hope and optimism to age and despair. Losing her at the end of the book was like losing a dear grandmother. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in studying The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl. I read it as a companion to "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan.



4. Deftly edited for contemporary readers by Alvin O. Turner, Letters From The Dust Bowl is a collection of letters and published materials written by Caroline Henderson (1877-1965), a woman who lived through the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Her articles on the Dust Bowl first began appearing in "Atlantic Monthly" in 1931, drawing the woes of American farmers into the public eye. Her correspondence and articles, which date from 1908 to 1966, offers insight into the daily struggle to put food on the table, and her descriptions of the dust storms that covered the Plains are unforgettable. Enhanced with a biographical essay and precise annotations supplementing this extraordinary compilation, Letters From The Dust Bowl is highly recommended for students of 20th Century American History.



5. Alvin Turner likes to quip that "Letters from the Dustbowl" is the "best written book" that the University of Oklahoma Press will publish this year. Indeed, Caroline Henderson, the author of the columns and letters it contains, may be the most quoted authority on the social aspects of the dustbowl. Her views on Oklahoma farm life were disseminated across the country both in her columns for "Ladies' World," and her "Letters from the Dustbowl," were published in "Atlantic Monthly." In selecting material for this book, Turner told me that he had twice as many columns and letters than would fit. Alvin Turner is the Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

   Caroline Henderson moved to a farm near Eva, Oklahoma, in 1907. During the next six decades, she and her husband, Will, endured the hardship of depressions and the dustbowl on their farm, with really only one bumper crop to show for their labors. Turner's overall introduction, as well as his introduction to each section, does well to place Henderson's life in context. She had great dreams for her life, both as a literate woman and as a farmer but by the end of her life, she is disillusioned and considers herself a failure.

   Most of Henderson's farming experience demonstrates that dreams can save a person from an otherwise mean life. In 1917 she wrote, "The fact that we cannot see the end does not relieve us of our obligation to push forward, to gain every inch we can in humanity's forward march." As a young farm wife, she met challenges with inventiveness, and hardship with strong will. Even as crops withered and neighbors moved away, she finds beauty in flowers and friendship in animals. However, too many failed crops and dried-up dreams took their toll on Henderson's optimism. In 1952, she wrote in a letter to her daughter, "Every day seems to bring some new sorrow in these last years of fruitless effort and disappointment." With dreams dashed, Henderson loses all sense of proportion and she reads each setback as catastrophe.

   "Letters from the Dust Bowl" is as heartbreaking as it is inspirational. Al Turner is right; it's a very well written book.