5 comments about The Life Of Belisarius.

1. I became intrigued with this little known historical figure after reading the massive Gibbons book. Although Lord Mahon wrote long ago i found his style easy to follow and, as this work is a straight historical piece, I believe he was impartial in his reporting and research. The Life of Belisarius itself would make a great movie. It has all the elements needed; a heroic and loyal figure, a decadent royalty, palace intrigue, adultrous relationships and warfare. All of this under crumbling empire and religion distorted by evil men. For history buffs I highly recommend it.



2. This book is the only scholarly biography I'm aware of that deals with the life of the great Roman general Belisarius. As the author points out, Belisarius was one of the few great men in history who deserved to wear a crown but never did. He has been called the greatest Roman general of them all, having defeated the Persians, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths in turn with forces that would have been considered paltry by Caesar. He achieved what might have been his most glorious victory of all near the end of his life when he turned away an invading army of Huns from the very walls of Constantinople with a scant 300 veterans and some ill-equipped city-dwellers.
   
   The depth of scholarly research needed to produce this volume is impressive. Lord Mahon cast a wide net to include a wealth of citations from historians both ancient and more contemporary to himself. Let the reader beware, however--Lord Mahon includes a number of references written in the original Latin and Greek so a working knowledge of those two languages is helpful but not necessary. My only minor criticism of Lord Mahon's scholarship is that he falls prey to one of the bugbears of his times--antipathy toward Roman Catholicism in general and the Papacy in particular. While his animus toward Catholics was not nearly as pronounced as some of his contemporaries, I still found it irksome in the few instances where it reared its ugly head.
   
   I recommend the edition of The Life of Belisarius (Christian Roman Empire Series) by Evolution Publishing. It is a completely unabridged version of the 1848 edition of the work and is not a facsimile. The clumsy footnotes of the original have been helpfully reset as chapter endnotes. It includes a reference list of modern sources in English and additional notes and citations which help bring the text up-to-date. If, like me, you find Belisarius to be a fascinating historical figure, you might also like Belisarius: The First Shall Be Last by Paolo Belzoni which is a novel about the young general's early years.



3. The Life of Belisarius is an excellent period history. This book provides an interesting picture of the time between the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the emergence of both Islam in North Africa and the medieval principalities in Europe. The first modern reprint (2005) is the Westholme edition that includes an important introduction and further reading section by St Andrews historian Jon Coulston. I recommend that edition and not those that are simply a facsimile.



4. Mahon is a classical writer of his times: quite stilted. His prose takes getting used to for a modern reader, but after a chapter or so this difficulty fades. (Anyone studying the style for parody can profit...)
   
   Mahon is also decidedly judgemental. He occasionally takes Belisarius to task for some failing, almost like a snippy schoolmarm. Seeing that 1 1/2 millenia had elapsed between Belisarius and Mahon, you'd think that Mahon might realize that not all the story would be available to him, or that the prevailing ethos of the time might not fit Georgian England. I dismissed Mahon's crabby asides, and to tell the truth it wasn't present to a degree to ruin my reading experience.
   
   I was mostly interested in a condensed version of Belisarius'long and complex story, rather than reading through english translations of classical histories. Mahon waded through all the Latin stuff (the list of citations is impressive) and then condensed it. He tells it pretty well, including enough adventure, action and detail to give a tangy flavor.
   
   Russell Crowe could take part of the Bel story and easily have a movie to top "Gladiator. "
   
   I was particularly fascinated that Belisarus did not reject Emporer Justinian and make himself King, especially during the first Italian campaign. He easily could have done this, as he had the place under control and Justinian was tapped out in terms of troops and resources. Justinian had been a weak reed of support in the campaign, enough to cast a cloud on what might lay in store for the Romans of Italy. Mahon makes it clear that the Italian territories were not well served by those both before and after Bel.
   
   Belisarius' sense of fairness might well have captured the allegiance of the conquered territories just as it did to his troops.
   
   But Belisarius stayed true to his soldier's oath to Justinian. Stiff-necked or honorable?
   
   The Roman Empire is full of stories of fabulous accomplishment followed by astounding stupidity. Belisarius is a great example of this trope.



5. When the West was threatened only one man could save it. This is not today, but its symbolism is important, this is the story of the Byzantine Roman empire and the threat from easern hordes whose immigrant populations moving into anatolia and accompanied by a rampaging, terrible, hateful, intolerant Persian army were confronted with one man, a simple general whose aspirations were for nation and country, a man of honor named Belisarius. This is the story of courage, of victory over great odds, of barbarism versus fairness, of honesty in the face of terror, of resolution and perseverence, of genious against the masses.
   
   A very well written tale. A prescient tale that mirrors todays problems with societies in Europe being overun so that the native peoples and indigenous Europeans are becoming minorities in their own lands. Belisarius is a model, a worthwhile tale that many in the West have forgotten about a simple man setting out to defend a dying, sinful, gluttunous, licientous, selfish culture, against a much worse intolerant slave owning culture. Belisarius didnt go to war to defend the rich court of Byzantium, he went to war to protect the simple Roman farmers and Greek peasants who were not living the urban bon vivant culture.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman

5 comments about James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies , Vol 12).

1. Right up front Malone admits this is neither an authoritative nor exhaustive biography of Jim Hill and he keeps his promise. But as a pretty quick (280 page) read of Hill it is a solid book if slightly antiseptic and repetitive at times. It is particularly interesting if you want to know more about the history of the Great Northern Railway.



2. «The wealth of the country, its capital, its credit, must be saved from the predatory poor as well as the predatory rich, but above all from the predatory politician» - James J. Hill.

   In her 1962 lecture, «America's Persecuted Minority : Big Business», Ayn Rand distinguished two types of entrepreneurs, whom Burton Folsom Jr. was later to label «economic» and «political»: «self-made men who earned their fortunes by personal ability, by free trade on a free market» and «men with political pull, who made fortunes by means of special privileges granted to them by the government.» And according to her, James Jerome Hill was an arch-representative of the former group, because he built his transcontinental railroad, the Great Northern, «without any federal help whatever.»

   Michael P. Malone's admiration for Hill, on the other hand, is much more moderate (and for those who think such moderation unjust, he is kind enough to direct us to Albro Martin's «highly laudatory» two-volume biography of Hill, *James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest*)

   For instance, he puts the phrase «self-made man» in quotation marks when applying it to Hill, for, he says, Hill's fortune «sprout... from the rich seedbed of federal subsidy»: by completing his first large scale project in time (the Manitoba railroad), Hill managed to reap the «seventh largest of the original seventy-five railroad grants», located mostly in the fertile Red River valley. Therefore, Malone says, we should forget the «hoariest, and most mischievous, of all the many legends surrounding Hill»- the one perpetrated by Ayn Rand and, after her, Burton Folsom Jr.- which «rhapsodizes about how he built a great transcontinental line without the benefit of a federal land grant.»

   Was Hill therefore just another political entrepreneur? I don't think so.

   First, Malone here seems to be conflating federal subsidies and land grants. A federal subsidy, in my understanding, is a transfer of money or produced goods, which by its very essence involves a forced redistribution and is therefore immoral. A land grant, on the other hand, consists in the granting of a non-improved natural resource to its actual developer, in a good approximation of the Lockean ideal of acquisition through labour. What makes it a form of «federal aid» is only the government's assumption of the power to acquire land by some non-Lockean process (i.e. by fiat, or in this case, purchase from another government that had acquired the land by fiat.)

   Second, the lands granted to the railroads actually owed most of their value to the building of the roads. As Clarence Carson explains in *Throttling the Railroads* : «the lands granted [however fertile] were worth little to nothing on the market at the time they were granted.» This was so because cultivating those lands would have been economically hopeless without the cheap transportation to population centers provided by the railroads.

   And third, Malone's metaphor makes it sound as though Hill's fortune merely grew out of the «soil» of federal subsidy by some natural, automatic process or, to mix metaphors, a snowball effect. Actually, the building of the Manitoba railroad is only chapter 2 of the biography, and there are 6 more chapters to go in which Malone himself offers ample illustration that the building of Great Northern and the rest of Hill's achievements did not simply «sprout» from the government's bounty.

   Whatever the motivations for Malone's very mixed final estimate of Hill, he does grant his subject a certain number of admirable character traits, which confirm Edwin Locke's conclusions in *The Prime Movers*. For instance, Malone singles out the following as Hill's distinctive traits in chapter 4: «his remarkable mastery over every detail of what was now a far-flung operation, his vision of the inevitable triumph of transcontinental through-carriers [together forming Locke's virtue of «independent vision»], his insufferable [Malone again...] iron will and work ethic [Locke's «drive to action»], and his recruitment of an able coterie of men [Locke's «love of ability in others»].» And this is only Malone himself trying to summarize Hill's virtues : the book offers much more concrete material for you to make your own identifications and corroborate Locke's analysis.

   The flaw of *Empire Builder of the Northwest*, in my opinion, is that it is merely interesting and informative where, given its subject, it could have been epic. Malone himself is no great enthusiast of economic freedom: at one point, he refers to «the simplistic bromides of laissez-faire». Moreover, the book only offers two maps, which makes following some of the descriptions rather difficult. However, if you do not have the time for Albro Martin's longer work and are frustrated by the mere 22 pages in Folsom's *The Myth of the Robber Barons*, Malone's book remains a good introduction to the life of an immensely productive and hardworking man, who was also a voracious reader, a faithful husband and- as the opening quote reveals- a «true believer in the virtues of unfettered capitalism».




3. Perhaps the author should have written a history of the Northwest, and northern railroads. I found very little of the persona of James J. Hill in this. It is a very historical narritive, not very biographic.



4. A new favorite of our staff..and recomended to our members who would like to understand the Northwest in a brand new light. Malone is an excellent writer and this book a gem !



5. Malone's book is a good introduction for people interested in the early history of the Northwest, the Great Northern Railway, and the man who greatly influenced both. While not as detailed as Martin's 1976 bio, Martin's is at least twice as long and too tedious for many readers.

   Both Martin and Malone had access to the James J. Hill papers, a collection of almost every business paper Hill ever handled that is located in the Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, MN. Except for Pyle, previous Hill biographers and railroad historians did not see those papers, such much of what they say is more rumor than fact. Malone (and Martin) set the stories straight.

4 comments about Forgotten Americans: Footnote Figures Who Changed American History.

1. It galls me, frankly, that the only claim to fame which most "celebrities" have today is their ability to attract attention to themselves and thereby become famous. I was stewing about that as I read this book, learning a great deal about several authentically remarkable Americans. Its title is somewhat misleading. Most of those discussed by Randall and Nehra have not been "forgotten"; rather, most are unfamiliar to most readers. For example: Anne Marbury Hutchinson, Tom Quick, Margaret Shippen Arnold, Charles Grandison Finney, Charlotte Forten, and Louis Sockalexis. (Other than Jefferson, obviously, I recognized Myra Colby Bradwell because I attended an elementary school in Chicago named after her. I also had a dim idea of Tadeusz Kosciuszko's importance to the American Revolution.) Point is, each of those discussed deserves appreciation which, to date, has been denied them. Randall and Nahra have written a book which (hopefully) will address that neglect. More importantly, they have helped those who read this book to gain a much greater appreciation of the scope, depth, and diversity of the human context of this nation's creation and development over a period of more than two centuries. Also, readers are reminded of the obvious (but not always acknowledged) fact that most of the authentic heroes and heroines throughout any nation's history are, in effect, anonymous. Except for their family members and a few friends, no one will remember them because no one knew or knew of them.

   In any event, I enjoy books which provide important information of which I was not previously aware. For example, James W. Loewen' Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong and Richard Shenkman's Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History. Thank you. Randall and Nehra, for the privilege of being introduced to fellow Americans whom I now promise to remember with respect and appreciation.




2. "Forgotten Americans" is a worthy attempt to bring back to our collective memory some historical figures who have been tarnished by history or just only briefly mentioned, if at all, in contemporary school books. Randall and Nahra pick their subjects ranging from the settling of the American Colonies to the early twentieth century. Some of the chapters discuss the neglected aspects of famous Americans, Thomas Jefferson and his vacation or Benjamin Franklin's shattered relationship with his Loyalist son, William; other chapters explore early abolitionists, Indian fighters, suffragists, evangelists and other Americans who, although not be remembered, shaped our country. "Forgotten Americans" is a illuminating exploration of our historical backwaters. Recommended.



3. This book is a wonderful way of learning history. By focusing on very ordinary people (or on forgotten figures) who experienced extraordinary events, Randall has once more demonstrated how studying American history can be both informative and downright fun. I liked it very much. It might lack the depth of his earler works on Arnold, Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington, but it is still worth the read and, in the end, we learn some very interesting stories about our history!



4. I enjoyed the story of Tom Quick and don't miss the gestapo like orders of George Washington to erase the Deleware Indians from the face of the earth.

5 comments about The Other Side of Ethel Mertz: The Life Story of Vivian Vance.

1. A great little book on a woman we never heard much about. I've always wondered about her personal life - WOW - more painful than I imagined. Wish she got her Hollywood Star before she died. She worked really hard only to be a second banana, but we loved her, and boy - was she good!!!



2. I loved this book. I've read several books on Lucille Ball and this was a very cool opportunity to read about her famous sidekick. I have to say, I have a whole new view on Ethel now!



3. Book was in very good shape. I would buy another book from this vendor. The only thing I had trouble with was that it took a little longer then I expected to receive in mail.



4. Glad I got a chance to check this book out...it was very interesting as I'd heard about some of the tiffs between them but never really got into it. While I am sure a few different takes on her life/their lives could also fill in the missing pieces..its a good read and provides the rest of the story to the generally heroic and sweentened up picture often given about Ms. Ball and the whole show in general. They were all each and as a group irreplacable and perhaps may have never really understood their "fate" or "destiny" in the place of American life at the time. What a wonderfully talented, funny, and brillant pair and team of actress/actors they were. While all was not well on the show or in that era as with any...to this day they can make you laugh your head off without the crudeness so many comdieans and shows resort to today. The effort and work put into such show outdoes shows today by far. They were great at what they did for the time that they did it. It was also very sobering to read a human real or truer side to them as the pollyannaness of television lives can sometimes rub off on the viewers. Reading it though I could not help feel a sort of sadness ; Ms. Vance..never really being happy. Perhaps its just the way it was told or written. I would like to read other books about her/them to get a more indepth idea. In any case..I recommend taking a spin with this book.



5. When I ran across a softback edition of this book, I was floored. I had no idea a book had been written about Vivian Vance. Where had I been? I bought it thinking ,well, it'll be superficial at best. Boy, was I wrong. This is an excellent, in depth and very revealing life story of one of television's best loved ladies. Alvin Walker and Frank Castelluccio have written one of the best biographies on a legend I've ever read. And Vivian Vance is a legend, if an often overlooked one. From her humble showbiz beginnings, to a Broadway career, to her fateful reading with Lucille Ball for the part of Ethel Mertz---I could not put this book down. Vivian Vance came to life on those pages and I learned that there's a lot more to a "second banana" than just the character they play. Vance never escaped her role as Ethel, but she lived a full and complete life worthy of this book and was a more accomplished actress than given credit for. Her years of baffling mental problems, the estrangement with her mother, her extensive stage work, her often rocky relationship with Lucille Ball (not to overlook William Frawley) are all here as well as the huge amount of humanitarian work she did for mental health later in life. This is a highly recommended read for anyone who loved watching Ethel as well as Lucy. It reveals the fascinating woman behind the "mask" of Ethel Mertz, a landmark television icon and an American showbiz legend known as Vivian Vance.

3 comments about The Stolen Prince: Gannibal, Adopted Son of Peter the Great, Great-Grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, and Europe's First Black Intellectual.

1. An African man in Russia? Sounds far fetched but it's true Abram Petrovich Gannibal was one such man who came from slavery to preeminence in 17th century Russia. This novel attempts to find exactly where this enigmatic man came from and how he became a favorite of Tsar Peter the Great. Using clues from Gannibals letters, which reveal him to have an elusive personality, and accounts from poet Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, which are a more fiction than fact, the author attempts to track Gannibals journey from his African homeland, through the Ottoman Empire and finally to Russia. Along the way a cast of other colorful charactes reveal themselves and some are most beneficial to Gannibal. After gainig Peter the Great's favor Gannibal is educated in Paris and becomes an accomplished mathmetician, draftsman, and even pyrotechnic engineer. Yet as time passes and new rulers come to the throne Gannibal soons finds himself out of favor. Nonetheless his heritage should not be forgotten and is dully laid out in this novel. And it is still not forgotten interestingly enough in the Mountbatten family of Great Britain who have a line of descent from Gannibal.



2. In this book we are treated to a fascinating story of the court of Peter the Great. The story of how diplomats were acting in the Russian court at the time, the internal politics, the manipulations of the whole system is quite fascinating.
   
   At the same time, what I found puzzling was how this one lad, captured as a slave from (presumably) Chad, he was made a page in the sultan's harem, and from there to the Russian court. Not stopping there, proceeded to become, as the subtitle says, 'Europe's First Black Intellectual.'
   
   Accomplished in mathematics and military theory, he was a designer of fortifications, friend (or at least acquaintenance) of the powerful of the time across all of Europe. These were astounding achievements for any man, but even more surprising for a black ex-slave.



3. THE STOLEN PRINCE: GANNIBAL, ADOPTED SON OF PETER THE GREAT, GREAT-GRANDFATHER OF ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, AND EUROPE'S FIRST BLACK INTELLECTUAL is perhaps most startling for the final five words in its subtitle: a black intellectual in early Europe? Lost documents have been revealed to provide depth and understanding to this reconstruction of the life of Gannibal, creating a blend of history, travelogue and memoir which surveys the life and times of a young African slave in Constantinople in 1703 who claimed to be a prince stolen from Africa. Russia's tzar adopted the child and gave him the best education available, and thus Gannibal became a early soldier, diplomat and spy whose reputation and achievements would earn him a name through history.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

2 comments about George Washington Carver: Inventor and Naturalist (Heroes of the Faith).

1. George Washington Carver (c. 1864 - January 5, 1943) was an American botanical researcher and agronomy educator who worked in agricultural extension at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, teaching former slaves farming techniques for self-sufficiency.
   
   This biography is an incredibly easy to read book and an excellent portrait of perhaps America's most significant botanist and agricultural scientist. His story of perseverence and faith, while confronting the racial bigotry of his time, is truly inspiring. If all you know about George Washington Carver is that he invented peanut butter then you need to read this book!



2. George Washington Carver
   By Sam Wellman
   9/24/02

   This summer I read. The incredible inspiring novel called George Washington Carver, a biography written by Sam Wellman .The book was about George Washington Carver an inventor and educator. This book showed that George Washington Carver's life was very tough back in the 1870's.The book let's you see life back then, but not just anyone's life a person's life that anyone in some way can relate to.

   One non-stop turning point thought out this book was that George Washington Carver being on his own and growing up all by himself .One of most the interesting things in this book was the passage "Born the Son of Slaves, he would work with Gods Help to free the South". That was a remarkable description of what George Washington Carver meant to some people, because he believed so much in God and so did everybody else and also because he did every thing he could for the south. Thougthout the book it was very easy for me to keep track of the main character because the book was a biography. A book about someone's life. In the whole book I can really say, "It felt like George Washington Carver really played his role in history''. (1871 - 1943)

   I would recommend this book to any person looking for an exciting book,. The type of reader for this book would be a person who likes to read about other peoples history or life story, a person who can put their self in a place like George Washington Carver's and understand his point of view, or someone who is willing, and has faith in God should read this wonderful book. I liked this book a lot. And I also enjoyed it because of the fact that the author of the book wrote many other titles.

5 comments about Nina's Journey: A Memoir of Stalin's Russia & the Second World War.

1. Markovna's "Nina's Journey" is refreshingly rare in not having allowed the slightest pressure of prevailing political correctness to influence the author's transparent honesty while describing her life in the Soviet Union leading up to WWII, or her life in Germany as an "Ost arbeiter" (worker from the East), or becoming at the war's end a fugitive from the Western Allies forced repatriation of the newly freed "Ost" to Stalin's deadly gulags.
   Nina Markovna knew from years spent inside her native land that to Stalin and members of the Communist Party WWII was not as much a National War to save Russia from the Nazi invaders as most of us in the West understood it, but a Revolutionary War to try to preserve the Party's iron-fisted rule over their people. Ironically, during that crucial time when Hitler's Germany, by breaking the existing Soviet-German Friendship Pact, overnight became Stalin's external enemy, the Soviet population, with the exception of Party members, openly became Stalin's internal enemy, an even greater threat. Markovna makes us understand why.
   It is a narrative that could be told only by one who lived it. Those who write history as a profession make an interesting distinction on this point: Markovna is seen as a "primary" historian - she lived it. Those who write of events at a later time, on a broader canvas, are considered "secondary" historians, often subconsciously perhaps influenced to a degree by the prevailing political correctness of their time. Not so the author of "Nina's Journey".
   I have read this fiercely courageous account of Markovna"s journey through her youth - a Slavic Christian girl, on the run from both her native despotic rulers and later from Stalin's Western Allies - and I was prompted to read it again after seeing Mr. Visser's review on this web site in which he states that "...Markovna's account is honest from her personal point of view... but she totally neglects the terrible, murderous and downright criminal behavior of the German occupiers elswhere in the Soviet Union during 1941-45". I strongly object to Mr. Visser's use of the word "totally", reminding him of Nina Markovna's heartrending pages which recount the tragic fate of her young Jewish friend, Maya.
   As for the rest of his critique, it actually works in Markovna's favor, making her account historically valid precisely because she does not presume to describe the fortunes and misfortunes of those in other parts of the Soviet Union, letting the recording historians who came later to do it, instead. She also, Visser admits, subconsciously perhaps recognizing the innate bravery of the author, chose to take "the loser's side". Nina Markovna openly acknowledges that while in theory the Germans were her bitter enemies, be it the high-ranking officer who helped her family to escape the concentration in Ohrdruf, or the ballet master who provided her with the necessary papers that helped her to avoid forced repatriation, or the farmer's wife, stuffing a bag with food for her starving family, their humane spirit lifted them above the constraints such theories put upon them.
   To read such a remarkably balanced account of the recent past, that is often presented slanted and one-sided, is as if a puzzle in disarray was reassembled into one coherent whole. The reader understands clearly why Nina doesn't run away from the German invaders; why the Cold War followed WWII, when our children were instructed to hide under their school desks during "drills". It was all because the leaders of the Free World had accepted Josef Stalin as their ally - this tyrant without conscience, whose diabolical nature Nina Markovna had experienced from her early youth. A reader of "Nina's Journey" cannot help but experience it as well.



2. This book shows the inhumanity of the Soviet system under Stalin, and also the complicity of the Truman administration and the Brittish in turning over to Stalin those long-suffering refugees from Communism to be murdered or imprisoned in the gulags. It is to our everlasting shame that our troops rounded up those who had escaped to freedom from the U.S.S.R. and sent them back to their doom. The story rings true, and Nina Markovna was a woman who suffered greatly during the war, but who, by the grace of God, was lucky enough to run into some decent people who helped her escape the clutches of Stalin.



3. Having never truly suffered, most Americans born in the post war years as I was can not really grasp the supreme tenacity of the human spirit. Nina's Journey opened my eyes to just how much suffering brings out the absolute best in some people, the demonic worst in others. Nina Markovna lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, when "comrade-citizens" living in constant fear of nighttime purges commonly kept bundles of winter clothes ready year round in the event of imprisonment at short notice. Rampaging gangs of gulag orphans terrorize the towns, their status as children of enemies of the state condemning them to short brutal lives of homelessness and starvation. Nina records the arrival of the German Wehrmacht to Crimea in the early 1940's--instead of fighting them, the beleaguered citizens welcome them as liberators from their own cruel regime. When the Red Army gains the upper hand, Nina's family escapes to Germany as "guest workers" where at war's end, they must avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union at all costs. This book is filled with heart rending scenes of life lived at the ugly edges of endurance, where often the only thing between life and death is the intervention of a single good soul, whose refusal to give in to the hate of war is testimony to the power of love. This book gives witness to the fact that though one person might not be able to do everything, he can do something. And those small somethings saved not only lives, but souls.



4. This book is without a doubt the most breathtaking, exciting, epic, harrowing, (fill in the blank!) autobiography (or biography) I have ever read. I have loaned this out to at least five other people who have had the same reaction. Nina and her family had perhaps 30 adventures (within one great adventure) any of which would top the most memorable event in the average life today. Nina evades starvation, instant death, rape, murder, treachery, and more in the course of her late teenage years just before and during World War II. Her style of writing and convictions make you know that whatever she is writing about, no matter how unbelievable today, is completely true. Gone With The Wind is a trifle compared to her adventures.

   Epic Scenes: Wandering through the river of Russian prisoners captured by the Germans and actually finding her father. Her successful plan to avoid rape by the Russian Army. Her mother's desperate trek to get to work on time in the ice storm or risk imprisonment. Her family's voulunteering for slave labor in Germany to raise their standard of living. The happy ending at the American air base. Scores more.

   If this story were made into a movie, it would be the epic to end all epics. Since it tells what actually happened to her, it relates the good relations between the Russian people and the German Army relatively free of the SS influence in southern Russia. Compared to their life under Stalin, the German occupation of Odessa was a golden moment for the average Russian living there at that time--something that the populace paid for with their lives when the Red Army swept in again. By the time Nina loses her Jewish friends to the second, SS-led German invasion, genocide merges with the on-going sorrow of daily life of the Russian people as just something else to endure and survive.

   Nina's Journey is filled with details little understood by Americans today, but what remains is an epic struggle by on Russian girl to survive the upheaval and strife of the late 30's and early 40's. I couldn't put it down.




5. I have never felt such emotion and drama while reading an autobiography . Nina's Journey should be read by every Amercan high school student as part of History class. I know that I am not the same person I was before I read this book. Never before has a story touched me so deeply and stayed with me like this one has.

No comments about Western Lives: A Biographical History of the American West.

5 comments about Dancing Along the Deadline: The Andersonville Memoir of a Prisoner of the Confederacy.

1. This book was good as far as memoirs go. It was a good read, and I learned a lot about the prison life during the Civil War. This book was about how horrible prison life was during the Civil War. This book takes place mainly in two prisons, and possibly two of the worst prisons, Andersonville and Florence.
   The whole book was about the Civil War; mainly it talks about Ezra Hoyt Ripple's exploits in a Civil War prison, and how horrible the conditions were in the
   prisons in the South. Ezra, and a few other soldiers from his regiment were captured during the siege of James Island, and sent to the prison in Andersonville. Ezra goes through his horrible ordeal with his three closest comrades in prison, John Rapp,
   Michael Beavers, and John Brennan. Ezra is an amateur violin player, and in prison that can get you some respect, food, and even more freedom. In Andersonville, as with many Civil War prisons, disease was rampant, and many hundreds of people died every day, from diseases such as the fever, scurvy, dysentery, cholera, and the flu. The prison guards at Andersonville are particularly mean to the prisoners, because the prisoners are Union men, and the Confederate soldiers hated them for being so. The book describes in excruciating detail how prison life was harder for the Union soldiers in captivity, then it was for the Confederate prisoners. The people in these prisons had to deal with an insufficient amount of clothes, poor shelter, horrible weather conditions, and barely enough food rations to live. It's a wonder that anyone made it out of these prisons alive for being in the prison after an extended period of time.
   This book's strengths are its main theme, which is how horrible prison life in the South was during the Civil War, and the storyline is interesting. The theme has a lot of textual backup, because the whole book relates to the main theme, I thought it worked well how Ezra tied events that happened in the book to the theme of the book. The pictures he drew were helpful to try to visualize what was going on. It is written well, and is as interesting as a memoir can be. It is a good war book, because the things written about are real events experienced by the author of the book. What I liked about this book was that it was very realistic, and that it actually happened, which makes it more tragic.
   This book's weaknesses are that it is kind of wordy, and at times difficult to read, because of the many lapses in the action. This book could be better if it talked more about the more interesting parts, because most of the good action parts are only briefly mentioned, whereas the most boring, lame events are talked about extensively. What I didn't like about this book was that it was sort of boring, and very descriptive of the diseases, which is, in my opinion, disgusting.
   Overall this book is a very good read as far as memoirs go, and I recommend it to anyone that needs to read a memoir, or that just likes to read war books. It is entertaining, and is very real. It takes you to the Civil War days, so you can understand what it was like for these freedom fighters.



2. This book was good as far as memoirs go. It was a good read, and I learned a lot about the prison life during the Civil War. This book was about how horrible prison life was during the Civil War. This book takes place mainly in two prisons, and possibly two of the worst prisons, Andersonville and Florence.
   The whole book was about the Civil War; mainly it talks about Ezra Hoyt Ripple's exploits in a Civil War prison, and how horrible the conditions were in the
   prisons in the South. Ezra, and a few other soldiers from his regiment were captured during the siege of James Island, and sent to the prison in Andersonville. Ezra goes through his horrible ordeal with his three closest comrades in prison, John Rapp,
   Michael Beavers, and John Brennan. Ezra is an amateur violin player, and in prison that can get you some respect, food, and even more freedom. In Andersonville, as with many Civil War prisons, disease was rampant, and many hundreds of people died every day, from diseases such as the fever, scurvy, dysentery, cholera, and the flu. The prison guards at Andersonville are particularly mean to the prisoners, because the prisoners are Union men, and the Confederate soldiers hated them for being so. The book describes in excruciating detail how prison life was harder for the Union soldiers in captivity, then it was for the Confederate prisoners. The people in these prisons had to deal with an insufficient amount of clothes, poor shelter, horrible weather conditions, and barely enough food rations to live. It's a wonder that anyone made it out of these prisons alive for being in the prison after an extended period of time.
   This book's strengths are its main theme, which is how horrible prison life in the South was during the Civil War, and the storyline is interesting. The theme has a lot of textual backup, because the whole book relates to the main theme, I thought it worked well how Ezra tied events that happened in the book to the theme of the book. The pictures he drew were helpful to try to visualize what was going on. It is written well, and is as interesting as a memoir can be. It is a good war book, because the things written about are real events experienced by the author of the book. What I liked about this book was that it was very realistic, and that it actually happened, which makes it more tragic.
   This book's weaknesses are that it is kind of wordy, and at times difficult to read, because of the many lapses in the action. This book could be better if it talked more about the more interesting parts, because most of the good action parts are only briefly mentioned, whereas the most boring, lame events are talked about extensively. What I didn't like about this book was that it was sort of boring, and very descriptive of the diseases, which is, in my opinion, disgusting.
   Overall this book is a very good read as far as memoirs go, and I recommend it to anyone that needs to read a memoir, or that just likes to read war books. It is entertaining, and is very real. It takes you to the Civil War days, so you can understand what it was like for these freedom fighters.



3. The story starts out with a flash a telling of dates and numbers relevant to the story. Then he continues on to tell of his experiences in the army and the description of his capture. He is on a mission to attack a confederate fort when he and others of his regiment are captured. They are soon taken to a confederate prison to which most will not return. As he becomes accustom to the surroundings he realizes the true horror and struggle he will face to survive. With each passing day he learns new tricks to survive as other prisoners pass away. These tricks and his luck help him succeeded in surviving. His luck is great at times, first he is asked to play the violin for the confederate officers and declines, a poor choice, then a fellow prisoner asks him to play a song for him and he is paid in food and drink. As he plays more and more for the prisoners he earns their respect. This respect will grant him many gifts as he spends more and more time in the prison. He soon describes other events and rules in the prison such as a punishment for thieves was to have half the head shaved so that all who saw him would know he was a thief and punish him in such a way to make him regret such a poor choice. One trick used to smuggle food in was when the wood crew went out to cut wood they'd be allowed to bring in one log of their own as payment. They often times would bring in hollow logs and the confederates wondered why. They never found out the true reason until one day when a member of the wood crew stumbled and dropped him log, all the beans hidden in the hollow log were spilt across the ground. The wood crew while out cutting wood would buy beans off local slaves or anyone willing to sell for a much cheaper price than the prison and smuggle them in to eat or sell. Ezra's story continues when he tries his hand at escaping which unfortunately fails horribly. In the end he's is released and sent back to his home in the North.
   Ripple does a great job of describing his story while in prison. It has its up and downs though. The detailed description and the pictures he drew help you to get a full understanding of what he went through. The bouncing between past and present makes the story confusing and tricky to understand. He goes from being in jail to after the war, to the reunions of the prisoners he went to. All these descriptions make the story hard to follow, but add to the feeling. Other than those few shortfalls it's an incredible book.
   I would definitely recommend this book to others. This is great story of overcoming death and hopelessness to survive and come home again. This is an incredible tale of a man's overcoming of the worst odds through faith and hope. If you're interested in the civil war or just interested in stories of conquering the worst odds, then this is a book for you.



4. The story starts out with a flash a telling of dates and numbers relevant to the story. Then he continues on to tell of his experiences in the army and the description of his capture. He is on a mission to attack a confederate fort when he and others of his regiment are captured. They are soon taken to a confederate prison to which most will not return. As he becomes accustom to the surroundings he realizes the true horror and struggle he will face to survive. With each passing day he learns new tricks to survive as other prisoners pass away. These tricks and his luck help him succeeded in surviving. His luck is great at times, first he is asked to play the violin for the confederate officers and declines, a poor choice, then a fellow prisoner asks him to play a song for him and he is paid in food and drink. As he plays more and more for the prisoners he earns their respect. This respect will grant him many gifts as he spends more and more time in the prison. He soon describes other events and rules in the prison such as a punishment for thieves was to have half the head shaved so that all who saw him would know he was a thief and punish him in such a way to make him regret such a poor choice. One trick used to smuggle food in was when the wood crew went out to cut wood they'd be allowed to bring in one log of their own as payment. They often times would bring in hollow logs and the confederates wondered why. They never found out the true reason until one day when a member of the wood crew stumbled and dropped him log, all the beans hidden in the hollow log were spilt across the ground. The wood crew while out cutting wood would buy beans off local slaves or anyone willing to sell for a much cheaper price than the prison and smuggle them in to eat or sell. Ezra's story continues when he tries his hand at escaping which unfortunately fails horribly. In the end he's is released and sent back to his home in the North.
   Ripple does a great job of describing his story while in prison. It has its up and downs though. The detailed description and the pictures he drew help you to get a full understanding of what he went through. The bouncing between past and present makes the story confusing and tricky to understand. He goes from being in jail to after the war, to the reunions of the prisoners he went to. All these descriptions make the story hard to follow, but add to the feeling. Other than those few shortfalls it's an incredible book.
   I would definitely recommend this book to others. This is great story of overcoming death and hopelessness to survive and come home again. This is an incredible tale of a man's overcoming of the worst odds through faith and hope. If you're interested in the civil war or just interested in stories of conquering the worst odds, then this is a book for you.



5. Ezra Hoyt Ripple served the Union as a private in the 52nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He spent 9 months in Andersonville and Florence prisons as a prisoner of war. "Dancing Along the Deadline" is his detailed account of his experience in these infamous prisons, written originally for his family, then published during his lifetime. Mr. Ripple commissioned Civil War veteran and war correspondent James E. Taylor to illustrate his memoirs with drawings that depict scenes that he describes. This edition of "Dancing Along the Deadline" contains 55 of Mr. Taylor's black and white drawings, captioned by the author. Ezra Ripple worked closely with James Taylor on these excellent drawings to ensure their accuracy, and they help the reader immensely in forming a mental picture of what the prisons and their residents actually looked like.

   In "Dancing Along the Deadline", Ezra Ripple paints a detailed picture of the conditions which captured Union soldiers endured inside Confederate prisons. As starvation was the greatest hardship, Ripple writes a lot about how the prisoners acquired food and how they made the most of it. He describes the physical layout of the prisons, the prisoners' routines, the prison guards and administrators, and his interaction with them. Although Andersonville was the Confederacy's largest and most infamous prison -and Ripple attests to its ruthless commandant- Florence prison actually had a higher death rate, in spite of its more sympathetic administration. And Ripple might have died there if not for his skills as a fiddler. He and several other prisoners formed a string band which performed for the officers and at local social gatherings. Ripple's memoirs are characterized by his general lack of malice toward his jailers. He was a religious man and a staunch patriot, so those are the eyes through which we see his world. He doesn't lump the Confederates who imprisoned him and his comrades into one "enemy" group. He criticizes the behavior of some, praises the character of others, and places the ultimate blame for the dreadful conditions in Confederate prisons on Brigadier General John H. Winder, who was in command of the prisons and whose goal seemed to be to bring all of the prisoners to their deaths. Although Ripple describes a lot of horror within the walls of Andersonville and Florence prisons, he claims to have omitted some "horrible details" of which "common decency" forbids mention. Reading his memoirs, I think we can guess what some of those "details" might have been.

   "Dancing Along the Deadline" is required reading for anyone interested in the Civil War. And it's an interesting account of how people endure the unendurable and then how one man looked back on it. The "deadline" of the title is the line running around the outskirts of the prisons which any prisoner would be shot for crossing.

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