5 comments about The Dark Side of Camelot.

1. Given the obvious falsehood of the Clinton era nonsense that personal morality is irrelevant to the public figure, we now need to start in on the fools who, with hubris and no qualms about bald-faced lying to the American public, we need to start revising our views of the men REALLY responsible for mutilating the constitution in favor of ego and a misguided sense that they knew better than the founding fathers, instead of just second tier types like JFK, academicians should start on the (attempted) court packing, congenital liar, and true war monger F.D.R (or the brain dead, subservient socialist mouthpiece Woodrow Wilson, and his Edgar Bergan, Col. House.) One chapter on what could have happened if F.D.R had died before replacing Socialist Henry Wallace during his last, fourth,ego-trip term-perhaps Henry Dexter White as Secretary of State and Alger Hiss as Secretary of Defense should make it obvious what a dangerous, naive fool F.D.R was. It COULD have been even worse than that, instead of "just" knowing every secret communication out of F.D.R's White House sieve, Stalin could have actually RUN the damn thing personally. Given what F.D.R gave Stalin at Yalta, what would Wallace have given him? All of Western Europe, too, or just Germany,France and England?



2. Seymour Hersh, the man according to whom we have to thank for the Church Commission (which led to idiotic government intelligence "reforms" that, in turn, contributed to the intelligence failures that permitted 9-11), presents his best shot in this book at smearing the Kennedy clan. John especially, but also Joe and even to a certain extent Bobby. In most of the book, he succeeds in this task only to the extent we can trust mobsters, convicted felons, former madams, self-professed ex-lovers, hustlers, disgruntled employees and bankrupt, disbarred attorneys to tell us the truth.
   
   However, Mr. Hersh does present some very compelling testimonies from JFK's secret service agents, who describe JFK's White House adolescent hijinks in rhyparographic detail. Believe me, that section alone (pp 226-246) is enough to take the shine off Camelot -- permanently.
   
   Hersh is perplexing. He has impeccable anti-American and Democratic Party credentials, yet he savages JFK, a fellow Democrat, in a way that no one had done before, or in the eleven years since the book was published. Why? I can only conclude that Hersh's anger stems from his view that JFK was responsible for Vietnam. Hersh addresses Vietnam in the last two chapters of the book, and although these chapters are better sourced than some of the more salacious sections, the chapters seem disjointed, meandering, and tied together only by rage towards JFK.



3. Normally I would not review an 11-year-old book, but as it presents a distorted view of JFK to say the least, and is still in print in 2008, here goes.
   
   Mr. Hersh has obliged his corporate and government sponsors with a double-barreled hit. First, he produced a best-seller, and second, he produced a JFK biography sure to please both the corporates and their government cronies.
   
   Mr. Hersh reveals JFK's sexual escapades in great length and detail. I estimate that at least 25% of the book is spent on this topic. This is fair enough, since JFK apparently spent the same percentage of his time pursuing sexual adventures. Mr. Hersh also presents much evidence backing claims of JFK's health problems, including frequent doses of various medications that kept him going. The early chapters tell some interesting stories about JFK's father, Joseph, and other family members including JFK's maternal grandfather, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald.
   
   Mr. Hersh presents some interesting insights into crucial moments in JFK's presidency. The Bay of Pigs, the Berlin crisis, the Cuba missile crisis, plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, and the escalation of US involvement in Vietnam are dealt with in detail. Mr. Hersh contradicts accounts of these events written by close Kennedy associates, Ted Sorensen in particular. Mr. Hersh reveals a secretive, inexperienced, power-hungry and vindictive President who trusted only one man other than himself, his brother Robert. There does seem to be some truth to Hersh's contradictory accounts, but there also seems to be an underlying motivation behind this book, and this is the promotion of an official version of JFK and his presidency that focuses on JFK's personal weaknesses, presents CIA in a favorable light, and either lies about important events, or omits them entirely.
   
   Did you know, for example, that the Bay of Pigs fiasco was entirely JFK's fault? Did you know that JFK and RFK micro-managed plots involving the Mafia to kill Castro, and that the Vietnam War is JFK's legacy, not something he would have ended? With that knowledge, surely you should also learn about JFK's firing of Allan Dulles (later appointed to the Warren Commission), General Cabell and Richard Bissell? Sorry, that's not in the official story. Furthermore, since JFK was obviously so much at odds with CIA, surely you should read about JFK's threats to disband CIA? Sorry again.
   
   I quote from the "Author's Note" at the beginning of the book:
   
   "It [this book] tells of otherwise strong and self-reliant men and women
   who were awed and seduced by Kennedy's magnetism, and who competed with
   one another to please the most charismatic leader in our nation's history.
   Many are still blinded today.
   
   In writing this book, my hope is that I have been able to help the nation
   reclaim some of its history."
   
   Some very select and well chosen bits of its history, perhaps, but nothing that really matters, like who was responsible for JFK's assassination. Mr. Hersh is not one to talk about being "blinded", as he still professes to believe the official Lee Harvey Oswald "lone nut assassin" myth. Among the few remaining adherents to the myth are mainstream corporate media types like Mr. Hersh, anyone in government, and current and former intelligence agency employees who don't want to lose their security clearances or be sentenced to "dine alone". John Loftus and Tennent H. "Pete" Bagley are two examples of the latter.
   
   Despite this best-selling book and others written with the same intent, most of the public continue to admire JFK despite knowing that he was a highly flawed human being. Most people also disbelieve the official lone-nut assassin myths about JFK and RFK. To remove the spell of Mr. Hersh's quote above, I'll close with a quote from St. John Hunt (source: a Rolling Stone article you can easily find), author of "The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt":
   
   "Actually, there were probably dozens of plots to kill Kennedy, because everybody hated Kennedy but the public."
   
   Edit June 22, 2008: There is a new book that anyone with an interest in JFK should read: JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. In particular, it puts paid to Hersh's contention that Vietnam must be considered as part of the Kennedy legacy.



4. Mr. Hersh paints a convincing picture of JFK as an extremely hard working, ambitious man who was party to a myriad of addictions including painkillers and sex. I actually found the early sections of the book which deal primarily with his father Joe Kennedy to be insightful into the kind of environment he grew up in and undoubtably led to his immoral nature. Where Hersh is on weaker ground is when he tries to psychoanalyze JFK. He attempts to connect all of Kennedy's personal issues to decisions made about international politics, a hazardous course. I think Hersh was too close to Kennedy and his sense of profound disappointment as well as his breathy, rumormonger style of writing sometimes hurts his credibility which is unforunate because I think the author wrote a thought provoking, intelligent book



5. Legend and hero are the words most of us learn in school to apply to John F. Kennedy. We usually tend to see him only in his media and photographic image, but Seymour Hersh portrays him here as being a man with an abundant set of flaws and characteristics. Most likely, although I grant that not everything the author says can be definitively proven, Hersh's depiction of JFK is far closer to that of the real person than the one we see gazing down upon us in posters. Of course, The Dark Side of Camelot is about a whole lot more than the 35th President. We find out all manner of fact and rumor concerning his grandfather, Honey Fitz, his father, and the rest of his family; not to mention Richard Nixon and an array of women who are too numerous to name here. Kennedy was the quintessential high status male, and, intrinsic to his status, were a great many politically incorrect features that are fun to read about (while still being informative in regards to the leader and his times).

5 comments about Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys.

1. Collins writes a richly detailed and intelligent account, laced with smart-alecky humor, of what it was like to join the astronaut corps, the training and planning that go into a mission, and what it's like to go into space. His description of his anxiety during the period that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon really puts you in the moment and makes you realize that making it back was no foregone conclusion.
   
   It makes me sad to see how this book has become dated. We as a nation gave up on manned space exploration 35 years ago, and the shuttle has been a dead end. While I reading the book, I felt a sense of futility that Collins, who wrote the book in the '70s, could never have anticipated.
   
   Carrying the Fire is an excellent astronaut memoir; maybe one day there'll be a reason for somebody to write some new ones.
   
   Reviewer: Liz Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark"



2. My father gave me his copy of CARRYING THE FIRE in 1975 when I was eleven. His recommendations were rare, so I knew the book was special--I was not disappointed. Mike's narrative is beautifully delivered, poignant and funny as hell. This is a personal account that lets the reader enter the world of Apollo from Mike's point of view. The complexities of the Apollo 11 mission (and spaceflight in general) are presented in a flowing, readable style--you won't want to put this book down. Reading it again after all these years, I enjoyed the experience even more. He was a young man on that flight, but his insight, intelligence and humor reveal him to be a deep thinking, passionate, brave human being who helped change the history of mankind forever. As a high school English teacher, I can honestly say that this book is more than a good read, it is a must read for anyone interested in knowing what it was like to fly to the moon on the adventure of a lifetime! FIVE STARS--read it!
   



3. Of all the astronaut bios & autobios this one is the best. Michael Collins' style is natural and funny.



4. I was reading Deke! By Donald K. (Deke) Slayton and Michael Cusset. Deke Slayton was the highly respected chief astronaut and godfather to the astronauts of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions; In this book, I noted a positive reference to Michael Collins's book Carrying The Fire so I figured this as a must read.
   Michael Collins takes the reader through the stages of astronaut training and spaceship design and his own flights of Gemini 10 and the pioneering Apollo 11 with self- depreciating humour and irony. He manages to present a great amount of technical detail in an easily understood fashion in an articulate, intelligent, flowery, almost British manner.
   With a forward by Charles Lindbergh himself, this book is nearly 500 pages but seems only half that by the man who stood station 60 miles above Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on that historic first lunar landing.



5. The best (and one of the earliest) book by an Apollo astronaut. Very witty, with candid appraisals of other astronauts. Actually written by the astronaut himself. A must for anyone interested in the Apollo program.

5 comments about Life on the Mississippi (Signet Classics).

1. Every time I look at a river, I think of Mark Twain and his adventures on the Mississippi. His writing, always funny and warm, tells us first of the history and stories of his beloved river, and then of his experiences learning the steamboat trade. I found his description of being a steamboat student very similar to being a medical student: two-hundred years later and in completely different trades, route memorization and gradual responsibility for people's lives still have much in common. This book made me want to travel the Mississippi, not as it stands today but as it appeared to Twain in his youth. I feel the same way about Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his Magdalena river. I think it is amazing how these inspired authors can make me love a river I have never seen.



2. In Life on the Mississippi the steamboat is depicted as the workhorse of Midwest expansion. Prior to the advent of the railroad efficient inland transportation was confined to waterways and the Mississippi river basin , with "about 1,250,000 square miles," was the "Body of the Nation." (Twain, preface) Mark Twain fulfills his boyhood dream of becoming a river boat pilot and, returning some twenty-one years later, writes of his youthful experiences and later observations
   
   The steamboat was a technological phenomena. The vehicle that evolved to meet the unique demands of this particular environment was a special design of river boat. In his own inimical style Mark Twain captures both the excitement of the riverboat's arrival and describes its essential components:
   
   "She is long and sharp and trim and pretty; she has two tall, fancy-topped chimneys, with a gilded device of some kind swung between them; a fanciful pilothouse, all glass and "gingerbread," perched on top of the "texas" deck behind them; the paddle-boxes are gorgeous with a picture or with gilded rays above the boat's name; the boiler deck; the hurricane deck, and the texas deck are fenced and ornamented with clean white railings; there is a flag gallantly flying from the jack-staff; the furnace doors are open and the fires glaring bravely; the upper decks are black with passengers; the captain stands by the big bell calm, imposing, the envy of all; great volumes of the blackest smoke are rolling and tumbling out of the chimneys...the crew are grouped on the forecastle; the broad stage is run far out over the port bow, and an envied deck hand stands picturesquely on the end of it with a coil of rope in his hand; the pent steam is screaming through the gauge cocks; the captain lifts his hand, a bell rings, the wheels stop; then turn, back, churning the water to foam, and the steamer is at rest." (27)
   
   Within a period of ten minutes the boat has been offloaded, loaded and departed. It is an efficiency of system and design ideally suited to its unique purposes, but as the Civil War looms its days are numbered. By then the steamboat had already evolved to it most advanced state and the steam locomotive has become the dominant form of transportation
   
   As a literary piece by a "brilliant travel writer and incomparable humorist" (Kaplan, in Twain, xvii) Life on the Mississippi earned its accolades, but, as a window into a period of time, one can extract an eyewitnesses truth. In Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain describes the latter period of the steamboat's heyday dramatically cut short. Wartime technology did not improve the riverboat other than to convert it into an instrument of war. What doomed the steamboat to oblivion was the advent of the steam locomotive and the railroads. The steamboat well served the purposes of river life in its time but was eclipsed by the railroad.
   
   That the steamboat was functional is indisputable, but if form determines function, it was a perfect adaptation of a water craft in conformity with purpose and contemporary technology. Combined with light weight and flexible wood construction the steamboat evolved into a shallow draft, wide beamed, low freeboard hull propelled by stern or side paddle wheels. The overall size of a steamboat was a compromise between maneuverability and economy. Power plant, fuel, cargo and passengers were accommodated within a superstructure rising above the hull. Bulk items, machinery, deck hands and low fare passengers were located on the main deck; superior public and private accommodations at higher fares were on the upper decks. Here travelers could enjoy incomparable luxury.
   
   High on top of all was the pilothouse. River pilots, by necessity of their position earned through their experience and knowledge of the river, had the best view. By status, they were the pinnacle of river hierarchy. Mark Twain, on his 1882 return to the river, quaintly asks of a fellow passenger he suspects of being a river pilot: "Have you ever traveled with a panorama." The passenger responds, "I have formerly served in that capacity. [Twain's] suspicion was confirmed." (315) Only higher than the pilothouse were the tall stacks made so for the purpose of disgorging noxious black smoke and dangerous smoldering ash to the wind.
   
   All components contributed to functionality, but perhaps the "stage" or ramp which bridged the gap between the boat and shore, contributed most to its versatility. It enabled the boat to be hailed from landings along the shore without the aid of a dock. As an apprentice, Mark Twain is left alone on the bridge for the first time by his mentor. His initial proud serenity is broken by a sudden awareness that the boat is heading for imminent impact with a "bluff reef." His panicked reaction throws the ship into reverse, but he is saved by the return of the pilot who calmly restores order and chastises him. "When you have a hail, my boy, you ought to tap the big bell three times before you land, so the engineers can get ready." (53) The "bluff reef" was actually a wind reef (from the effect of wind on the surface) and they sailed uneventfully through it.
   
   The romance of the steamboat era is tarnished by frequent tragedy. Mark Twain loses his brother Henry, a cabin boy on the Pennsylvania, who died when the ship's boilers explode in June 1858. The hazards of operating year round and during night and day, plus the varying river conditions contributed to mistakes of judgment and probably just bad luck too! The pilot may have been king, but he was still human and suffered from the human faults of vain glory, unrealistic confidence, ego, and infallibility.
   
   When he returns to the river in 1882 after an absence of twenty-one years, Mark Twain notes the changes that have occurred on the river. There are very few ships left in operation. Passenger travel is limited in frequency and destinations. The romance he once knew is gone, but a new one is beginning, the romance of the rails.
   
   Today we know that the railroad too would have its heyday and, in time, its romance would also wane. But has the romance of the steamboat and rail eras disappeared? Today you can take cruises on Mississippi riverboats and luxury train trips across the continent. The difference now is that trips are for novelty and not necessity. The romance only comes from the remembrance of a time past and not the needs of the present.



3. This is the book that Mark Twain himself thought to be his greatest. It is basically a memoir in two parts of his life spent on the river with historical sketches, statistics, and other matters thrown in.
   
   The first part of the book tells of Twain's early years as a riverboat pilot. He talks about being a cub pilot, about learning about the intricacies of the river and the difficulties of navigating it, and about his mentor Horace Bixby. Twain's love of the river and his pride in "mastering" it are made obvious in these chapters.
   
   The second part recounts Twain's return to the river in 1882, mainly to "see it again" in preparation of writing this book. Starting in St. Louis, he first goes south through Baton Rouge to New Orleans. He spends a bit of time there and describes life as he sees it in the city (there's a funny chapter regarding the above-ground cemeteries and an argument about cremation). Then he heads north on the steamboat City of Baton Rouge, piloted by his old mentor Horace Bixby. He stops off in Hannibal for three days, just enough time to see how much the town and some old acquaintances have changed, and then continues all the way to St. Paul, Minnesota.
   
   Twain's humor, as he recounts conversations with people, sights seen, reminiscences dredged up, and a myriad of other matters that fill the book, is always evident. It's one of the great books on the mighty river, and whether you are a lover of the works of Mark Twain or interested in the Mississippi River during the time period just before and after the Civil War, you will enjoy this book.



4. I read this recently after having kept a copy around for years; I now wish I had read it years ago. It is witty, observant, and a wonderful slice of American history; the
   now-vanished steamboat culture comes alive like nowhere
   else. However, the best part is the contrast between the author's confident early youthful years and the much later, postwar years of bittersweet reminiscence and regret for what has passed, never to return. A wonderful book - I simply cannot praise it highly enough.



5. Let me guess: your total exposure to Mark Twain came in high school, when you were forced to read about the antics of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer, right? Well, now that you've reached adulthood, you should make time to read _Life on the Mississippi_. It's mandatory reading if you live in a state that borders the great river, anywhere from Minnesota down to Louisiana. It's mandatory reading if you have come to that point in life when you can suddenly appreciate American history and post-Civil War stories written by someone who lived through that time.

   Writing in the first half of the 1870s, Twain retraces the steps of his youth: the watery highway he knew when he trained to be a riverboat pilot nearly 20 years earlier. He speaks of how life _was_ along the river, and what life _became_. It's almost a "you can't go home again" experience for him, while the reader gets the benefit of discovering both time periods.

   I have two favorite parts that I share with others. Chapter IX includes a wonderful dissertation about how learning the navigational intricacies of the river caused Twain to lose the ability to see its natural beauty. And Chapter XLV includes an assessment of how the people of the North and the South reacted differently to the war experience. If I were a social studies teacher, I'd use that last passage in a unit on the reconstruction period. So put this title on your vacation reading list, and don't fret: the chapters are short and are many -- 60! -- but you can stop at any time, and the words go by fast. _Life on the Mississippi_ should make you forget all about any Twain trauma and report-writing you may have suffered as a teenager. [This reviewer was an Illinois resident when these comments were written.]

5 comments about A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation.

1. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are among a handful of former slaves in the Old South who wrote famous narratives of their lives in slavery and their ultimate escape to freedom. It is a rare and important event to find additional first-person narratives that document the efforts of slaves to become free. The noted historian David Blight had the good fortune to become aware of two such narratives which had previously been held close by the families of their authors. Blight has published these accounts in his recent book "A Slave no More" (2007), together with background information on the manuscripts, a discussion of the lives of the authors following their escapes from slavery, and a brief history of Emancipation during and following the Civil War.
   
   The attraction of this book lies more in the narratives than in Blight's commentary. The narratives were composed by John Washington (1838 -- 1918) and Wallace Turnage (1846-1916). Washington and Turnage both discuss their lives in slavery and the factors impelling them to make their escape. The narratives do not extend to the subsequent lives of the narrators in freedom. The narratives are written in a non-literary style which nevertheless have great power from their very simplicity. Neither man was writing for the public. Their accounts of slavery offer the opportunity to get to know two people who did not make it into the history books but whose storyies have much to teach.
   
   The narrative of John Washington, which he titled "Memorys of the Past" is the more literary of the two. Washington vowed to escape from slavery when his mother was sold away when he was a child. Washington spent most of his early life as an urban slave in Virginia working as a house servant,in a tobacco factory, and in an inn, among other places. With the advance of the Union army through Fredericksburg in 1862, Washington saw his opportunity to cross the river to the Union lines. He became an aide to several Union officers and ultimately established himself with his wife, who had been born free, in Washington D.C. Washington's narrative has some excellent portrayals of the movements of the soldiers on both sides and of his experiences with the Union army.
   
   Turnage's account is untitled and substantially less polished that Washington's. Turnage spent most of his time in slavery in the deep south near Pickensville, Alabama. He was a field hand and subjected to more cruelty and violence than was Washington. His account is replete with descriptions of whippings given to himself and, especially, to women. Witnessing and receiving these whippings made Turnage determined to escape. Turnage made at least four unsuccessful attempts at escape before he succeeded, after each of which he was punished with increasing severity. In the first several attempts, Turnage went west to try to reach the Union lines in Corinth, Mississippi. He nearly succeeded but was returned to his master on each occasion. Turnage finally succeeded in a daring attempt to reach Mobile Bay, the site of a great Union naval victory. Turnage had to cross snake-infested swamps and achieved freedom only when Union soldiers rescued him from the sinking makeshift boat in which he had been riding to freedom. Turnage offers a graphic, gritty account of his escape and of the harshness of slavery in the deep south. Importantly, Turnage does not show bitterness towards his oppressors. He writes at the outset of his narrative: "I do not mean to speak disparagingly of those who sold me, nor of those who bought me. Though I seen a hard time, it had an attendency to make a man out of me." (Blight, page 213)
   
   In his introductory material, Blight retells and expands upon the narratives of Washington and Turnage. Through laborious historical research, Blight also describes the lives of the two men and their families after their escape. Washington spent most of his life as a painter in Washington D.C. and was active in the church and the developing African-American community. His five children went on to careers, with his youngest son enjoying success as a science teacher and athletic coach. Turnage had a much more difficult time of it living in the overcrowded, disease-infested sections of New York City and witnessing the deaths of his mother, wife, and several children. One of his daughters was able to "pass" for white, and she was the source for recovering her father's manuscript.
   
   Blight also offers an interesting discussion of the Emancipation Proclamation which focuses on the immediate reaction to it in African American communities in both North and South. I found Blight's discussion somewhat broader and more polemical than it needed to be to elucidate the narratives of Washington and Turnage. But most of his discussion makes for interesting reading.
   
   Washington and Turnage wrote inspiring narratives of their journey from slavery to freedom. Blight has done a service in making these narratives available to the public. This book will be of interest to readers concerned with American slavery, the Civil War, and African American history. Readers unfamiliar with other slave narratives may wish to explore Frederick Douglass's autobiographies and the volume titled "Slave Narratives," both of which are available from the Library of America.
   
   Robin Friedman



2. Recently two new important African-American slave narratives have come to light, published here along with scholarly commentary for the first time. They are considered significant by historians because they support a theory that slaves played a role in bringing about their own freedom. Traditionally slavery is thought to have ended with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation - Lincoln freed the slaves, we are taught in school. However, is it possible that the slaves themselves played a role in their own freedom, that their own actions, conscious or not, helped bring about Emancipation? This is what today many historians contend, and these two narratives support that view. "For most slaves", Blight says, "freedom did not come on a particular day; it evolved by process." It was the process of waves of slaves escaping into Union lines as the war moved south, often forming shanty towns of "contrabands" (as the Union called escaped slaves, they were initially classified by the north as property). Eventually something had to be done about the"contraband" and Lincoln signed some limited laws that gave them freedom, which eventually morphed into the Emancipation Proclamation. But it was the slaves desire for freedom, willing to risk life by escaping, that forced the issue of Emancipation. Further, many of these freed slaves then took up arms and joined the Union army. It is estimated over 700,000 of the nearly 4 million slaves found freedom through this "process", the remaining 3.3 million achieving freedom with the 13th Amendment.
   
   Whatever the historical debates, these narratives are interesting and even thrilling. Although not as well written as Frederick Douglass, in many ways the adventures of these young men are more real and tangible - as private documents they were not written to be published, not filtered through an editor. They were meant for friends and family and thus have a rough, raw real edge to them.
   
   David Blight has done a great service to historians and the public by both publishing the original sources and summarizing and expanding on them. Each of the two narratives has a corresponding chapter that re-creates the narrative in more detail and clarity for the modern reader. In addition there are two chapters that examine what happened to the men after the war including some fascinating pictures. No two slave narratives are alike and these will surely not disappoint as important historical case examples and thrilling stories. America has two new unsung heroes representative of 100s of thousands who sought and found their own freedom.



3. This book makes the Civil War period and slavery come alive, partly through the real voices of 2 emancipated slaves, and partly through the consumate writing skill of the author. The level is just right: carefully documented sources (endnotes) that authenticate the story, plus a wonderfully accessible writing style that is clear, never boring, and quietly compassionate. This is an engaging book I recommend even to those having only a casual interest in history.



4. The book provides an in depth look at the lives of two black men who were determined to escape slavery. The book also reveals the hopelessness experienced by slaves in their daily lives. It also exposed the cruelty of slave owners, who were considered in all other respects to be genteel and upstanding citizens in their community.



5. History buffs in general will find "A Slave No More" a highly valuable read. For students of American history, and particularly for those who are interested in the Civil War and Reconstruction period, this book is must reading. There are not many first-person accounts by former slaves available to us. This volume contains two such narratives, hitherto unpublished: one is by Wallace Turnage and the other is by John Washington, both former slaves who found their way to freedom during the Civil War. David Blight presents them here in their original form "with virtually no changes to the grammar and spelling," although he has done some minor editing in their structure (primarily providing paragraph breaks) to assist in reading.
   
   The reader is not, however, immediately thrust into the narratives themselves. Blight spends the first 162 pages introducing us to the two writers, using genealogical data, and to the context in which the narratives were written. Turnage's and Washington's escape to freedom occurred during the chaos of this nation's most bloody war (over 600,000 casualties) and amidst a political and cultural conflict (state's rights and slavery) which had been ripping the country apart for many decades. It is, I think, essential to understand the plight of the Black slave on a personal level, to understand what it means to be someone else's "property," completely and totally subject to someone else's will, to recognize and accept that slaves were not thought to be fully "human." Blight does an outstanding job of providing the necessary background for the narratives.
   
   I recommend this book to all readers who love the study of history. It is a valuable contribution to the genre.

No comments about Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.

5 comments about Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography.

1. This is a great book. You learn a different side of Castro that is depicted in the media. He is a very intelligent and interesting person. Whether you ageee with his polices or not, this is a good read.



2. Though it feels like something of an awkward format for what is intended as the REAL word on Fidel Castro, and even though it will more than likely still be a very long time before we can really sum up the era of this man's Cuba, one alas must try to. This was after all one of history's most truly dynamic eras, one that changed not only the life of Cuba but of the world.
   
   He may come off tacit and allusive at times, but he observes the major events of his life and history with remarkable aplomb, and very rarely contradicts himself.
   
   When speaking about the development of his interest in politics during his University student days he explains how his original utopian ideas led to the firmer ground of Marxism as the scientific formula for the emancipation and liberation of all people... "Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventualy come to truly understand the history of the class struggle, or at least have a clear idea that society is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest not knowing anything."
   
   Even more politically moderate readers will be surprised at his encyclopedic knowledge of history, in particuular that of his native island, and all of Latin America, and his attempts to explain the TRUE ethics behind the egalitarian society he inspired so many people to aspire for. He observes that "As in all Western thought, Marti's philosophy contains a certain amount of Christian ethics" and the idea that even with the teachings of Christ you can "formulate a radical Socialist programme, whether you're a believer or not."
   
   He calmly and even logically explains his justification for mounting a guerrilla uprising to take state power rather than the long-broken electoral process in Cuba, and the summary trials and executions of traitors in their midst during those adrenaline-pumping days in the Sierra Maestra. He points out that "At that time, with a war being fought, it was unavoidable and it was effective, because from then on... a tradition has been created. And an ethics was born out of it: total respect for the populace."
   
   Answering the criticisms about his alliance with the former Soviet Union during this time of Cold War politics, he refers to the innumerable attempts by the "neighbor to the North" to sabotage this little island's right to self-determination. Objective and subjective factors accelerated the revolutionary process.
   
   Where his critics want so very badly for the ailing Castro to come off like a dogmatic dinosaur, a relic from history no longer of any significance, what you instead find is an idealistic, truly passionate and cultured human being, one who vigorously denounces the accuastions that a "cult of personality" exists in Cuba, and instead points to the patriotic fervor that runs through the island standing up to the great Goliath for all these years. And convincingly at that. He admits even that "the most difficult, most important fight that anyone with power faces is the fight against himself." Astounding coming from the man so oft-portrayed in the role of tyrannical dictator.
   
   "I work from the position of a tremendous confidence that this human being, with all his defects and limitations, has enough smarts, if you will, to preserve himself," Castro states, "and has enough intelligence to improve himself. If I didn't believe that, there'd be no reason to fight to the death."
   
   He interprets capitalism as "the creator of all sorts of germs," and Socialism as a society in which not necessarily are you devoid of those germs of corruption, but you rail against them harder and on a broader level, through a propaganda of education i.e. planting values and rigorously promoting them.
   
   What Western so-called "democracy" advocates call political repression, the Cuban government sees as stopping acts of treason from forces attempting to break the people's will. And its fairly common knowledge the long list of overt and covert attempts by imperialism to do just that for all these decades. Fidel announces "All we need as justification is that exactly that sort of felony has been perpetuated against us in the past."
   
   He answers 'freedom of press' critics with "our dream is of another freedom of the press, of a country that is educated and informed, of a country that has a holistic general culture and communicate with the world". One need only watch a couple hours of American television, whether news or entertainment, to realize how much culture digresses and decays in a capitalist society. Maybe there are no erroneous truths, but Fidel is right on much more than a few points in this book.
   
   "Socialism is constructed by free men who want to make a new society," he says. Thereby it is an instrument of liberation when weilded by a like-minded people. And force imposed is justifiable when used to keep a long-exploited people's will from being divided.
   
   As I said from the start, I don't think there can yet be a final word on the Castro era in Cuba today. Fidel is someone who will have to be judged by long history, the character of his and Cuba's work will grow clearer as it recedes from view. Build, resist, or be destroyed by the invading tentacles of imperialism.
   
   As Che Guevara famously said "The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall." That is the current of thought that runs through the revolutionaries of the Cuban Revolution and its era on the world stage. And in here lies the foundations of a world that the militant working class dream of. A world where every human being, through the unity of diversity, can stretch out their hands to one another and heal, and work together for a better world.



3. Fidel is a fascinating man and very controversial figure, to say the least. When you look at how long he has been in power, it is absolutely amazing. So it is nice to finally be able to read about events and ideas from his perspective in his own words. And don't skip the Notes in the back of the book that further explain his comments. These fill in a lot of blanks.
   
   In this interview/autobiography, Castro makes a lot of valid points. Their literacy and health care on the island, and their medical assistance to other countries is commendable. Plus, it is a colossal feat to withstand an embargo for almost 50 years by the "evil empire", the most powerful country in the world.
   
   The US was so paranoid about the spread of communism, that it was intent on destroying the revolution that freed Cuba of Batista, just as the US intervened in Chile and Guatemala by assassinating Allende and Arbenz. Documents even support Castro in the numerous attempts on his life and the US's involvement in undermining the Cuban government, and even harboring terrorists acting against Cuba.
   
   The explanations of the Bay of Pigs and the "Cuban Missile Crisis" alone make the book worth reading.



4. Fidel Castro will always divide opinions and some people will think this autobiography "self-serving." But which autobiography isn't self-serving in taht it puts the writer's views across from his own perspective? And which anti-Castro exile in Miami doesn't express self-serving opinions? And is our own Government's constant anti-Castro propaganda not also self-serving?
   For me then this book isn't propaganda by Castro but at worst counter-propaganda. And for that I recommend it as a definite buy.
   As other reviewers have commented it's the insights from Castro's perspective rather than the American one that make this book so interesting.
   Castro is a great man whether you like him or not. A visionary who didn't allow his country to be intimidated by the States like so many other Latin American countries. Bottom line: with Castro Cuba is still an interesting nation with a soul. Without him it would be just another Reno or Las Vegas.



5. This is the same man who after gaining power outlawed the possession of HIS OWN BOOK "La Historia Me Absolvera". Why? Well, because everything was basically a lie, an opportunistic farce. This was the same man who orchestrated a rebellion against a corrupt president and promised the reestablishment of clean elections after four years of gaining power. Yes, the same man. The same man that took the most affluent, fastest growing, and developed nation in the Caribbean also containing the highest middle class per-capita in Latin America, and totally ruined and destroyed it in the most capricious and pathetic way ever seen and then calls it paradise. The same man, who forces poverty on people and by the way is a billionare.
   
   After half a century of being a farce holding himself in power by extreme stalinist oppression and intervention into the minimums aspects of peoples lives, state slavery, and forcefully pimping Cuba as a Soviet satellite nation; should this book written by the man himself carry much weight now after 50 years OF THE SAME? Do we not know who he is, even better than how he (an egomaniac) could know himself and definitely want to perseave himself? Is half a century of careless destruction, cemented corruption, and slavery not enough?
   
   Is more, why should we in the capitalistic world be buying the book of a man who in his own slaved system prohibits free publishings and freedom of press. Even more, this book brings him monetary profit from the capitalist market. Why should we buy from a man who in his own slaved state prohibits private property, private business, and monetary freedoms.
   
   Today he's trash of accomplices are still in power thanks to the miserables of Canada and western Europe who dedicated themselves to maintain his cancerous presence over Cuba after the fall of the USSR, and later came the other wacko commi of H.Chavez to finance him even better at the expense of the Venezuelan economy. Rather read the books by Humberto Fontova on the matter, tremendous books, you will really know who Castro is after that.

5 comments about Born on the Fourth of July.

1. The story is poignant of this good American youth who went enlisted in the marines to fight in Vietnam in order to coma back as an Hero. Who did not have such glorious dreams ?
   
   Alas, he was seriously injured, and returned in a wheelchair deeply traumatized. Injury was double, physical and psychological, as a former Vietnam vet and thus rejected by society.
   
   Every holiday, patriotic, July 4, this dual wound bleeds more because this man is born on the Fourth of July (hence the title). How such a man can escape his tornament is well described in this very good book.



2. Ron Kovic gives an interesting perspective into the ideas and sentiments of the 1960s. Kovic's traumatic experiences and harsh lessons help to illustrate both sides of the decade: that of the "patriot," and that of the protestor. The 1960s were a changing time in American history, and fueling these fires were the fears of Communism, war, and ultimately the shifting identity of the "enemy" as the power of the change. These factors are present in Kovic's account of civilian life both before and after his time in Vietnam.
   
   The Cold War had significant effects on Americans throughout the 1960s, and it permeated through most aspects of society. This paranoia is a byproduct of the 1950s, and Kovic's childhood illustrates how deeply the roots of this fear reached. The arms race and the space race both filled the head of young Kovic as he and his friend "made contingency plans for the cold war and built fallout shelters out of milk cartons" (Kovic 56). The atmosphere even struck emotional chords when he discusses the Soviet's launch of the Sputnik satellite and Kovic weeps in his room because, "we were losing the space race, and America wasn't first anymore" (Kovic 59). The Communist shadow enveloped the nation, and as a child Kovic felt that "the communists were all over the place back then" and he even became convinced that one of his teachers was a Communist agent (Kovic 60). This is further reflected in his finding a hero in the lead role of "I Led Three Lives," a television show about an American double agent infiltrating the Communist lines (Kovic 59). These influences ultimately lead to Kovic's decision to enter military service, believing that he may become like John Wayne to fight for the American way.
   
   This changed for many who returned from the war, however. Kovic and thousands like him who returned home severely wounded and disfigured found themselves tucked away from the public eye, and feeling ignored when in plain sight. Kovic spent months in a low-quality veteran's hospital laying in his own urine and excrement as a result of malicious neglect. When the public saw him he felt as though he represented an indecent reminder of the brutality of their cause (perhaps because John Wayne never came home in a wheel chair), but all the while he saw himself as its defining product. He was even told by one television show producer that the presence of his condition on their show would not be "tasteful," adding "people have seen it on the six o'clock news and their tired of it" (Kovic 148). Kovic felt used as though "he had never been anything but a thing to them, a thing to put a uniform on and train to kill, a young thing to run through the meat-grinder" (Kovic 166). America ignored his sacrifices, and he soon became determined to enter the protesting circuit, forcing people look at him so that they can "be reminded of what they'd done when they'd sent [his] generation off to war" (Kovic 150).
   
   Slowly the face of the enemy began to change. The brotherhood he once found in the Marines he now found with hippies, the same people he had vowed would "pay" for protesting the war back in Vietnam (Kovic 134). For Kovic and protestors like him, President Nixon and the government had become prime targets of their dissatisfaction. He told Roger Mudd in one spontaneous interview that, "I gave America my all and the leaders of this government threw me and others away to rot in their V.A. hospitals" (Kovic 180). He felt that the war was "the biggest lie and hypocrisy of all" and that all the money spent on the war "should be spent on healing and helping the wounded" (Kovic 178).
   
   In the crippled embodiment of Kovic and other protesters many Americans found another enemy. Kovic met with great opposition and was even violently beaten for speaking out against the war. On many occasions he was even called a "commie" and a "traitor" (Kovic 150, 155, 184), signifying that in their eyes he had become as demonic as those they had praised him for fighting. America was dividing against itself, as it would become time for the veterans, hippies, politicians, and war supporters to take turns wearing the horns. The cannons of American hatred turned from the "evil" Communists around to the domestic enemy within. The 1960s were a decade of replaced anger and hostility, and in many ways a breakdown of American confidence and a redefining of what it meant to be a patriot, and what it meant to be a traitor. Kovic's experiences allowed him to fill both shoes simultaneously. His lesson is one all Americans should be required to read and learn.



3. While Ronnie Kovic was fighting in Vietnam I was in college playing football and baseball on scholarship. All expenses paid. People told me that I was extraordinary while Ronnie was suffering in a squalid Veterans hospital. And while he was being spit on at the Republican National convention I was learning to believe that I deserved an exceptional life and that I was better than guys like him who had somehow believed the lies our government told about how the communists were going to take over the world unless young men stopped them the way our fathers and uncles had stopped the Nazis and the lunatic Japanese.
   I was too cool to believe any of that, and guys like Ronnie were unenlightened. I felt sorry for them.
   I have become an old man now and these days I am trying for all I am worth to be a good father to my son who is Ronnie's age. When he began telling me that he was thinking about joining the Marines, I began reading to him from Ron's book. Reading to him at night while he lay in his bed as I had when he was a small boy. I wanted him to know that if he went to war in Iraq and was wounded horribly there, his government and his country would not care about him. I wanted him to know that the same people who were in power in America and who sent Ron off to war, were in power once again. The same pathetic collection of clowns and liars eager to have wars so long as they and their children don't have to fight them. Cowards, really. I told my son that he would be fighting for a commander in cheif and a vice president and a secretary of state who are cowards. I told my son that the same conservative republicans who spit on Ron Kovic after he gave his body for America were in power once again and that he could expect them to spit upon him when he came home from war if he opposed them. Ron Kovic's magnificent book persuaded my son not to fight for his country in Iraq. I am forever in the author's debt.



4. Ron Kovic is one of society's worst nightmares: the unquestioning youth who believed every war movie, signed up for the Marines on his 18th birthday, fully committed to combat and sacrifice...only to turn his shattered back on those same indoctrinated values, speaking out against them with rage and bitterness as he saw himself, post-injury, shoved into a corner like an embarassing mutant.
   
   Kovic's memoir is inelegant, repetitive, self-centered; it is, simply put, not well-written. (The stream-of-consciousness recreation of Marine boot camp on Parris Island is especially clumsy.) Still I would recommend it to any young person, as I would recommend a trip to an open blast furnace, so that the same young person could see life as it sometimes horribly is, to know what war actually does to those who fight on the front. Kovic does not pretend to be writing great literature, but he is presenting the raw case of his life.
   
   The original memoir is also a good antidote (I believe) to its lurid movie adaptation by Oliver Stone. For reasons I do not understand, the movie completely omits the pivotal moment, at a rally just after the Kent State shootings, when Kovic decided to stop simply feeling sorry for himself, and to use his status as a badly crippled Vietnam vet to protest the War. This is the core of the man's story, and still deserves to be read.



5. Ron Kovic is a Marine whose life was blasted and changed forever by the paralyzing wound he received in Vietnam. Confined permanently to a wheelchair, without mobility or feeling below his chest, Kovic successfully turned his enormous inner rage to a public purpose in opposing the continuation of the Vietnam War and telling his story to a new generation of impressionable kids likely to think that war is cool.
   
   Kids, whatever else it is, war ain't cool. Believe Ron Kovic.
   
   But this a book review, not a personal tribute to a man who channeled his victimhood into political activism. In book form, Kovic's rage makes for a tedious, repetitive read. All Kovic wanted to do was to serve his country, fight communism, and be "like John Wayne" (who, unknown to young Kovic, never served in the military in any capacity). And look what happened. Yet despite the terrible personal cost the war laid on him and so many others, the Washington politicians waging the war paid no attention. They believed the national interest as they undrestood it took precedence over personal disasters like Ron Kovic's. One of the problems with Born on the Fourth of July is that the author can hardly believe that, or that Marines are expendable. But what else should a young Marine expect?
   
   Older readers may prefer the late Lewis B. Puller, Jr's autobiography, Fortunate Son. Puller's father was "Chesty" Puller, a legendary Commandant of the Corps, and young Puller wound up a quadriplegic after just a few days in country. Like Ron Kovic he came to oppose the war. I found his book to be a more satisfying reading experience than Born on the Fourth of July.

5 comments about Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley.

1. THIS IS AN EXCELLANT BOOK ON ELVIS' LATER YEARS (AFTER GERMANY AND MILITARY SERVICE). WOULD RECOMMEND FOR ALL ELVIS FANS.



2. What can i say about this book well written another great by: Peter Guralnick again every Elvis fan needs this in there library. I don't buy just any book that is written about Elvis i only purchase books by authors that is not going to be misleading and tell untrue things just to make the book sell. Mr. Guralnick tells the truth because he researches his material before writing anything about Elvis if you don't have this book you need to purchase it.



3. I have finished reading Last Train To Memphis. I really enjoyed learning more about Elvis' early years. Just makes me realize what I already knew. Elvis Presley is a wonderful man, very professional. I would have loved to been there with him. The Author Peter Guralnick is very detailed in his writings. I highly rate this book. Now I'm reading Careless Love by Peter Guralnick.



4. I just finished reading this book and am amazed at the insights into Elvis' life that the author showed. He covered a lot of things that have been covered ad nauseum by others yet made it read like a novel. And, he adds so much more detail to the day-to-day life of Elvis that provide a much fuller description of his life. Even reading the footnotes is fascinating.
   For a true Elvis fan, this is a must have for your collection. I could hardly put it down and this is not trivial reading, given that the book is more than 500 pages. Mr. Guralinick's 2nd book on Elvis ("Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley) is a must read also.



5. If you want to step inside the life of Elvis, these are the books. Peter makes it a very personal reading. So much so, that after 2 years I haven't finished reading the second book.
   Not because of disinterest, but just because it's so personal. I just wish that the ending could be different.

No comments about Eminent Persians.

1 comments about The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America (Human Tradition Around the World, No. 5.).

1. the product came late, I'm not sure if its the sellers fault, but she doesn't respond well to emails