5 comments about American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy.

1. Writer lacking in charm elegance and style has compiled a great deal of gossip serving it with no evaluation of sources used. Faults in several details adds to impression of a bored writer. Nothing new to what you knew already. Poor photos.
   Was there no editor available?



2. So much has been written about the Kennedys that it's getting a little ridiculous. I guess they make lots of money for the writers who keep rehashing the same old stories. Will this country EVER get over the Kennedys?! Geez, give it a rest.



3. I'm answering my own question by saying, "I don't know." I certainly enjoyed the time I spent on this book. I admired Jackie's dedication to her children, and to teaching them how to deal with their with their legacy. It was neat to see each sibling's unique personality unfold. But I'm not sure if I enjoyed it because John and Caroline are such compelling figures, or because Heyman did a good job. He waffles so much -- in the Schlossberg marriage, either Ed or Caroline is aloof, and either Ed or Caroline is friendly. Carolyn Bessette was either highly demonstrative, or she wasn't. And the passages about JFK Jr's sexual experimentation (which either did or didn't happen) seemed to come out of left field. So while I enjoyed this book, I can't honestly recommend it.



4. 
   the Billy Way interview about John & Carolyn's marriage let me
   
   question everything. Billy Way died eleven years ago.



5. C. David Heymann, John Hankey.
   Both have written about JFK Jr. Now why has Heymann's item come out now? So soon after Hankey's? After so many words written about the Kennedy's?
   
   Perhaps for the same reason Gerald Posner wrote "Case Closed", assuring us that JFK Sr. was killed by LHO, and nobody else? Heymann wants this case closed, too. Good and closed. He'll accuse the quite responsible JFK Jr. of abusing alcohol, as well as being a bad pilot, if that is what it takes.
   
   John Hankey's DVD, The Assassination of JFK Jr. was promoted on Amazon with the following words I couldn't express better, "Overwhelming, jaw-dropping evidence of foul play in the death of John Kennedy Jr., all based on official government documents:"
   
   Heymann barks on cue. Why the heavy handed affirmation of John Jr.'s culpability in the downing of his plane? Even bringing up "alcohol" something no one else has done? This author is some sort of friend? The testimony is very strong that irresponsible behavior was uncharacteristic of John (no--I'm no JFK Jr. fan; I just hate liars and smearers). Publishing companies are carefully chosen by the powers of today, and then they choose their authors carefully. Posner admitted he wrote "Case Closed" because that was the point of view desired by the publishing company who hired him.
   From all accounts, John Jr. was extremely careful, never flew without a flight instructor, and had let the FAA know his plane was approaching. When it did not land in a few minutes, the FAA was bound by law to IMMEDIATELY start a search. They did not do so for an incredible 15 HOURS. Even the Kennedy family could not get them to search until they finally placed a call to the Coast Guard who then called the FAA, who then directed a search many miles away from where the plane went down...
   and that, boys and girls, is only the beginning and it's all on record. As usual, they trust that the public will be a: indifferent, b: forgetful of original news reports, c: gullible, d: fearful of repercussions should they question the officially sanctioned story.
   Even a hard-boiled detective would jerk up and take notice; yet a supposed "sympathetic biographer", Heymann, ignores this glaring misdeed and even invents (?) a new fault for John Jr. of which, he speculates, the departed one may be guilty. How low can we go? The past few years have been instructive on that question, in many different areas of public discourse. But back to John Jr.
   Beware anything Heymann writes. As far as his hauling out the many stories we already know, the only reason this man wrote this book is to get the bloodhounds away from the culprits, who are very, very powerful.
   
   Oh that word, that word--conspiracy--that word which means to "breath together". Dear readers, do you really think there are no plotters of coups and murders who do not "breath together"? JFK Jr. was never the brainiest, but, hey, with what we've got in the Office now, brains are not what it takes. JFK Jr. could have beaten hands down, anyone they put against him. Can't have that, when you're getting ready to do the great take over. Smart or average, JFK Jr. wanted to get to the bottom of certain political crimes, and had published in his magazine, an interview with the mother of the man who killed Rabin in 1995. She said her son was a "manuchurian candidate" and the assassination had been allowed to happen--an inside job, so to speak. JFK Jr. also wanted to get to the bottom of who killed his father. And they couldn't have that, could they?
   btw, check out Hankey on the JFK Sr. murder.

5 comments about Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties.

1. An engaging, entertaining read by a skillful writer. . .but if you want a thorough, complex picture of these four women (Parker, Ferber, Z. Fitzgerald, Millay) and their circles, you'll be better off reading a full-scale biography of each, one that places them in historical and literary context. This book's final paragraph sums up both its strengths and its shortcomings -- the ending is crisp and breezy, but it offers no thoughtful conclusions. Instead, it basically says (and I'm paraphrasing), "and so the 1920s ended and passed into history and the people described here went on and lived the rest of their lives." What we have overall is a well-phrased and smoothly-organized collection of largely unanalyzed details.
   
   If you knew nothing about these writers beyond what you read here, you'd conclude that most of leading artistic lights of 1920s New York were shallow, self-centered, silly sots, and you'd wonder how on earth they managed to write anything at all, let alone stuff that is held up decades later as examples of significant art. (The only person who doesn't seem to have been an exasperating wastrel is Ferber, and you could easily come away from "Bobbed Hair" believing that her work is the least worth reading.) If it's really true that these largely despicable, aimless people are nonetheless artists worth our continued time and attention, then I wish "Bobbed Hair" had spent more time examining and explicating this paradox. As it is, we end up with details, details everywhere and not a point to make.
   
   But then again, perhaps I'm trying to turn this book into something it's not: it's not a scholarly biography, never claimed to be, and doesn't have to be. On its own terms, it's quite fun. So if you want a dishy tiptoe through the 1920s tulips, buy this book. If you want context and in-depth analysis, buy something else.



2. With BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN writer Marion Meade takes the reader on a decade-long tour of the lives of four women who helped make the 1920s roar: Edna Ferber (1895-1968); Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald (1900-1948); Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950); and Dorothy Parker (1893-1967.) Although all four were distinctly different, all four shared certain traits. They were of a generation of women who considered themselves "emancipated." Generally based in New York City, all four proved globetrotters to at least some extent. And all four were writers, and their work was shaped by the decade just as it shaped the decade in turn.
   
   The 1920s saw Edna Ferber rise from the status of a commercial hack to the critically lauded author of such novels as SO BIG and SHOW BOAT and co-author of such plays as THE ROYAL FAMILY. Determinedly independent, Ferber's character would cast an even longer shadow than her works, setting a pattern for single, hard-working, career women that would last decades. Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, was Ferber's polar opposite: a woman whose career was marriage but who didn't feel it should crimp her style. Along with husband Scott, she would party her way into self-destruction--and provide significant inspiration to Fitzgerald's novels as well. As the 1920s passed, Zelda would discover a gift for prose and publish several short works, but mental illness began to claim her as the decade came to a close.
   
   Edna St. Vincent Millay was a critic's darling who--when she wasn't writing poetry--spent much of the decade sleeping with any one, male or female, who appealed to her. As well known for her personal charm and eccentricity as for her work, Millay endured numerous difficulties in the decade before emerging as America's most highly regarded poet and then, rather perversely, find critical reaction began to turn against her in the face of works by the likes of T.S. Eliot. And then, of course, there is the truly legendary Dorothy Parker, who began the decade as a drama critic and slowly rose to fame through her remarkably funny and acid poetry. A truly dark figure, like Zelda Fitzgerald and Millay she too would struggle with a host of inner demons ranging from alcohol to drugs to bad relationships.
   
   These four women, their lovers, husbands, publishers, and associates crisscross throughout the book in an interesting counterpoint. The result is always readable, always entertaining, but it does contain certain flaws. Although Meade does provide background and does give notes as to what became of them in later years, her story begins with 1920 and stops with 1930; there is little context. That said, the portraits involved are somewhat superficial; all four of these women are worthy of stand-alone biographies, and indeed all but Ferber have received major, widely available, and well-received biographies.
   
   That said, however, BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN is an enjoyable book that does indeed seem to capture a feel for the 1920s, a decade in which the sky seemed the limit for women, the arts, society, and indeed the entire nation. Although they were hardly the only noted women of the era, Edna Ferber, Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Dorothy Parker were in many ways indicative of the decade--and this is a wild and very entertaining romp through their early successes and failures. Recommended.
   
   GFT, Amazon Reviewer



3. A wonderful view into the lives of women writers in the 1920's focusing mainly on Edna Ferber, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and Edna St. Vincent Millay. The writing is wonderful, easy to follow, and it almost reads like a novel itself. A great introduction to the biographies of these ladies, Meade doesn't weight the account down with esoteric references to peripheral literary characters. Her focus is sharp and vivid, and I liked that she organized events chronologically, breaking up the chapters by year. She paints these women so multi-dimensionally that I found myself missing them, like characters in a great novel, once I had finished the book.



4. A breezy, fast read which skims the surface of Prohibition Days. If you enjoy learning about that crazy time before Wall Street "laid an egg" you will like this book.



5. Extremely well written, as is all Meade's stuff, and you'll walk away considerably wider of eye over these lives of recently enfranchised famous flappers learning how to deal with their new status as full members of society. Some of them did not deal well.
   
   Meade also wrote a great bio of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

5 comments about Three Years With Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout John McCorkle (Western Frontier Library, Vol 60).

1. This easy-to-read book provides a unique perspective on guerilla battle tactics and how the outlaw rebels of Missouri saw the Civil War conflict. As a former Kansan, it gave me an insight into the slaughter at Lawrence that I was unaware of. Other than John Brown, this subject was rarely discussed in the Kansas history classes I took! And, the viewpoint certainly would have been taboo. The story filled a void in my educational background. Should be required reading for high school students in the Plains States. No wonder the sports rivalry between KU and MU is so bitter! Ironically, published by the University of Oklahoma Press (1992), 232 pp.



2. Quantrill is often maligned as a psychopathic killer and a despotic guerilla. John McCorkle not only refutes this common claim by the writers of the winner's history, but shows that Quantrill was a compassionate and honorable man. He shows a side to the War of Northern Aggression that is rarely told.
   
   The introductions decry the author's side of the story, but they provide no evidence that is substantiated. The factual errors that McCorkle relates can easily be relegated to the fact that he was in his 80's when he told his story to O.S. Barton and the ravages of time on the memory are well noted throughout history.
   
   This book is a rare glimpse into what made the Missouri Bushwhacker, or Partisan Ranger as they were properly known, what they were. What they did, how they fought, for what and whom they fought: it's all in here and with a lively color that brings to life the way life was in those most trying of times.



3. I Highly recommend McCorkles first-hand account. It is not often that we can resolve much of the differing views of history with first-hand accounts by those that were there during most of the events. I would have given this book a five had it not been for the very "out-of-place" commentary at the front of the book by someone named Hattaway (of West Point New York). I taped the aprox 25 pages together with an adivosry to skip this section as it only appeared to be added to censor McCorkles account and done in very poor taste. Why would someone want to take the time to distort someone's personal account of history. The Introduction by Barton is done very well however. Why would the publisher think that a commentary should be added when the work already had an introduction? I think the Commentary might have been added after the book was submitted just to try to promulgate a pre-conceived notion of history. Skip the commentary and its a great short work.



4. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Any interested individual or serious student of this era must read this book. I am fortunate enough to live in the present day setting where the author's story took place. This is the real thing. I only wish there had been more works of this quality produced and saved. We would have a much better insight to those times.



5. Although I don't like giving a 5 star rating to any book this book deserves 6! This is the real stuff, pre WWII, pre WWI, PRE-TV! It was written at a time before historic brainwashing by movies and television existed. Before people were self conscious about telling the truth. We can see the actual format of the "Civil" War sentiments. He reveals the concepts of dying, of The North, Slavery, and other aspects of the era that we are usually forced to accept from modern day writings, reflecting only current, politically correct viewpoints. The down to earth flow of this book is very enjoyable and is great reading for anyone with interest in this subject matter.

1 comments about Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings.

1. This book, which is an abridgmment of Basler's larger 8-volume "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln," is ideal for all students of Lincoln as a quick source for finding Lincoln's most well-known speeches, letters, and other documents. While other collections of Lincoln's writings do exist, Basler's is considered the most definitive. This one-volume edition of that collection makes the most popular and important Lincoln documents accessible to a larger group of people.

5 comments about Dinner with Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter who Became a Tyrant.

1. With apologies to the above reviewer for twisting her review title, I agree with portions of the review. I found the book seemed to be an attempted psychoanalysis of Mugabe. Perhaps this would be a good idea by a professional psychiatrist or social worker but not from a journalist. For example at one point the author condemns Mugabe's immaturity for ordering his cabinet members to wear suits and ties to their meetings rather than t-shirts and other casual wear. The author states that due to Mugabe's immaturity and insecurity that he cannot be innovative and allow "traditional African wear" (combat fatigues and t-shirts!) I would assume that Mugabe only wanted to emphasize the serious nature of a cabinet meeting. When the author interviews Mugabe she does ask good questions relevant to the changes that have taken place over Mugabe's reign in Zimbabawe but again, in addition to quoting his remarks she then psychoanalyzes nearly every utterance. There are many other examples like this in the book.
   
   Other than that repeating annoyance the book was quite good. Heidi Holland has constructed a biography of Mugabe that provides insight into his seemingly nonsensical change from a visionary, pro-democratic leader into his current destructive tyranny. The book was filled with information on what caused Mugabe's change over the years and contains many interviews with relatives, co-workers, mentors, political friends and enemies and I felt it was a very worthwhile read for that reason despite the psychoanalytical shortcomings.



2. A great account of Rhodesian politics and Robert Mugabe's era. Fascinating to read the events of the past and know that he's still in power - the story is still being told.
   
   The author's approach of analyzing Mugabe's behavior, uncovering & discussing the 'motivators' that are the root cause of his acts, is very well done.



3. The writer starts with a mysterious dinner that she was not invited to in her own home. The mystery guest is Mugabe prior to his leap to power. Holland also states how she nearly lost her job by putting Mugabe's photo on the front page of a magazine that she was writing for. She ends with a recount of her last interview with Mugabe with only several questions that she asked him (including "Did you ever love someone?" His response was, "I must have. I have married twice.")
   
   Facts are missing in "Dinner with Mugabe." "Mugabe" by Martin Meredith outlines the facts behind the corruption of Mugabe's administration, including within his family. Holland talks (repeatedly and over many, many pages) about her accusation that Mugabe began to lose his moral compass when his first wife died-even though he had already had two children by his current wife when his first wife died.
   
   It's a poorly written book with very hard hitting few facts that you couldn't get from various websites.
   
   Save your money and buy "Mugabe" by Martin Meredith



4. This is a very interesting book and a poignant reminder of how Zimbabwe could have been a success story. The author is familiar with the history through her life as a radical and supporter of black rule in Rhodesia when she, and her husband a surgeon, lived in Ian Smith's outlaw colony. She interviews people who knew Mugabe well and then corrects their misrepresentations from her own knowledge. This is a very valuable technique and, with a man as private as Mugabe has always been, is as close as we will get to the inside story.
   
   Robert Mugabe was a studious child, educated by Jesuits and abandoned by his father at an early age. His mother, something of a mystic, was always convinced that he had a special destiny. The author describes Mugabe's mother, Bona, as "a cold, stern nun of a mother."(page 7) He has been emotionally crippled all his life although, with his first wife Sally, a flamboyant and colorful Ghanaian teacher, he had a loving and loyal marriage. She is described by some of the interviewees as warm but by others as imperious and corrupt.
   
   There is a very interesting interview with Mary Churchill Soames, Winston Churchill's younger daughter and wife of the last colonial governor of Rhodesia. Lord Soames became very close to Mugabe who, in a moment of truth just before the election of 1980, which put him in power, asked Soames to stay on for a lengthy transition period to help rule the country. "And Mugabe then said, 'I want you to stay because I need to be able to talk to somebody. I don't know anything about governing a country and none of my people do either.'" Soames told him that it would be impossible and Mugabe was on his own. When Lord Soames died, Mugabe and his wife arrived at Lady Soames' home uninvited to attend his funeral. This was an example of the rare personal empathy that Mugabe could establish with certain people.
   
   There is also a chapter on Denis Norman, a wealthy white farmer who had no interest in politics but who was prevailed upon by Mugabe to take several ministries to solve problems created by incompetent members of his cabinet. Here was another white man trusted by Mugabe, who insisted on European dress by all his ministers and who emulated English manners and education. In fact, the author comments that his education policies (similar to those in India, in my opinion) left the country with too many white collar workers clamoring for government jobs and not enough auto mechanics and other technical trades.
   
   Unfortunately, in another of the disastrous mistakes made by almost everyone in Zimbabwe, the white voters supported former dictator Ian Smith's party in the legislature, enraging Mugabe who had actually treated them quite fairly, even allowing Smith, who had imprisoned him, to live freely in the country and to seek office and serve in parliament. This was a serious mistake, compounded by Mugabe who then dismissed Denis Norman from his post as Agriculture Minister. He told Norman that the whites had chosen to treat him as a black and he would reciprocate, although he later called on Norman again and again to solve problems.
   
   The story continues to 2000, when Mugabe was losing his power to a new generation and was besieged by "war veterans" while he watched white farmers donate checks to his political opponent on television. The result was the disastrous occupation of the commercial farms and the descent of Zimbabwe to ruin. It seems to me, after reading this book, that Mugabe is no more in control of his country than is Assad of Syria. Both are basically run by warlords and secret police.
   
   The book is excellent and the lesson to me is that there were many opportunities for a happy, or at least happier, ending. Mugabe is an educated man, if emotionally stunted, and he did reach out to some of his white opponents for help early on. Some helped him and became friends. Many of the white residents foolishly voted for his enemies and fed his paranoia. I don't know what the chances for success in Zimbabwe were originally, but it seems that everything that could go wrong, did so. This is a very well written account of what happened. He is a monster now, but he wasn't always.



5. Although Heidi Holland met Mugabe only a couple of times, she still provides some good interviews and insights into Mugabe. He has unfortunately proved to be one of the worst leaders of the past couple of decades. Look at the results of his presidency--100,000% inflation, massive food shortages and an 80% unemployment rate. Zimbabwe is an embarrassment to Africa and it didn't have to be that way. Here's a detailed critique of what went wrong, where it went wrong and who is responsible. Mugabe is an intriguing figure because he began his career largely heralded by everyone as a freedom fighter like Nelson Mandela. To see how tragically it turned out, leaves many questions; it's a void Holland is clearly trying to fill.
   
   Holland writes well--the words are fluid and vivid and so it's easy to see how her years of reporting for the BBC, the Guardian and many other reputable news organizations has helped. The book is broken into 15 chapters with an index and bibliography for further reading. I do have one complaint, that I wish this were written by someone who had spent more time with Mugabe instead of relying mostly on interviews and a couple of brief encounters with him.
   
   However, I am glad this book was written and even more glad that it was published in America! I heard Heidi interviewed on the BBC and was dismayed that the book was available for sale only in South Africa. (Note: The book was rushed into production here so the British grammar remains. IE: magnetised instead of magnetized.) Yes, we are interested in the subject here too and are horrified by the still unfolding tragedy of Zimbabwe. If only there was something more we could do to help, but what?

5 comments about A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 (P.S.).

1. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro takes a novel approach in its presentation of Shakespeare. It resists both the urge to give a birth to death account of Shakespeare's life and the urge to form extensive conjectures based on what little is actually known about Shakespeare. Instead, it focuses on not only a pivotal year in Shakespeare's writing career but also a pivotal year in the history of England, 1599. This is the year the Globe was erected and Shakespeare wrote Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. A Year in the Life discusses, in depth, the highly volatile and dangerous political context in which Shakespeare was writing and performing. Queen Elizabeth was aging without a clear successor in line for the throne; England was at war with Ireland and feared an invasion from the Spanish Armada. Free speech was not something that existed in 16th century England, and playwrights as well as common housewives were put in prison and punished for subversive speech. In this context, Shakespeare managed to escape prison, unlike several fellow playwrights, while he both wrote and performed in politically relevant plays that spoke to his contemporary audience. In his fascinating book, Shapiro sets the historical and political stage of 1599 and places Shakespeare and his plays firmly on it. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in biographical and historical information about Shakespeare.



2. The year is 1599. "A year in the life..." takes a new look at the Bard ( if this is possible after the rivers of ink that have been written ) by concentrating on a thoroughly researched year in the history of Enland and Queen Elizabeth I, and melding it in with a prolific year in the works of Shakespeare (Henry V, Julius Ceaser, As you Like it , Hamlet). The result is fascinating, and sheds another ray of light, this time from a different angle , on the man of the millenium.



3. While we have his magnificent plays and poetry, we know little about Shakespeare the man. We have the dry details of his birth, marriage, and death, the birth and death of his children, his education at Stratford Grammar School, his will, and some business and legal records. We can infer a little from what others wrote about him, especially in the 1623 First Folio; and we can extrapolate a bit more from what we know of the London theater scene and its denizens during the Elizabethan period. But the stuff of a real biography -- what Shakespeare was thinking, feeling, and experiencing during his life -- perforce are matters only for speculation.
   
   It is truly remarkable, therefore, that Professor Shapiro uses this small heap of facts to bring Shakespeare brilliantly to life. Shapiro focuses on Shakespeare's life during 1599, which Shapiro forcefully argues was the year Shakespeare began his transformation into one of the greatest dramatists of all time. It was a year in which Shakespeare and his partners built the Globe Theatre where the Chamberlains Men / Kings Men would perform for the rest of his career. It was also the year in which Shakespeare ground out masterpieces in all three of his genres of history, comedy, and tragedy: Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. Linking his sensitive and erudite explications of these plays to contemporary political developments (such as the bogged-down English invasion of Ireland and the threat of Spanish invasion), occurrences in the rapidly changing Elizabethan theater world (e.g., the diminishing roles of clowns like Shakespeare's partners Will Kemp and Robert Armin), literary trends (such as the development of self-expository monologue in Montaigne's essays and Shakespeare's soliloquies) and events in Shakespeare's own life (e.g., his quest for middle-class status as evidenced by his application for a coat of arms), Professor Shapiro paints a colorfully vibrant portrait of Shakespeare and the competitive theater business in which Shakespeare became so prominent as both a creator and an entrepreneur.
   
   I don't know enough about Shakespeare to have an independent opinion about whether Shapiro overstates the case for the crucial nature of the year 1599. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although a product of deep learning, it is beautifully written and compellingly readable, and makes Shakespearean scholarship accessible even to a general reader like me. It also made me want to read many of the plays again, which I haven't since school days. Whether you love the Bard, or haven't thought much about him since you were forced to read the plays in school, this book is a wonderful and essential companion to Shakespeare's works.



4. A joy to read.
   
   This is a magnificent book; clear, detailed and lucid.
   
   Much has been said already about this book. It gives a very clear insight into Elizabethan London towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. As a student of the Bard, Shapiro performs well in widening the discussion to mention the theatre-going habits of plebs and aristocracy alike; how Shakespeare and his players would have attended palaces which informed his works. Shapiro notes the echoes of Catholicism, the threat of another Spanish invasion, the deeply unsettling rebellion in Ireland, even the confusion over the calendar and holy/national days. Given the difficulties and expense of publishing in the 1600's, I suppose it is possible to read every individual item published in 1599, and the comprehensiveness of the author's grasp of Elizabethan London, makes me believe he may have done so.
   
   All told extremely well, he plots Shakespeare's emergence as a serious playwright, who eschews the popular trivialities and takes on large questions of politics and personality.
   I was less impressed with the later discussions of Shakespere's rewrites of the great plays of 1599, however it is a work of great learning, synopsized very well and told in an engaging style.



5. In this insightful and innovative book, Shapiro adopts the reverse approach to the usual. Instead of analysing the plays to find the man, he explores the life to illuminate the plays. The result is a revelation of both.
   
   A Prologue describes the building of the Globe from timbers secretly transported across the Thames by Shakespeare and Co. from The Theatre (on which the lease had expired). Then Shapiro trains his lens on 1599, dividing it into its four "seasons". Maintaining dynamic readability throughout, each season deals with a set of preoccupations at national, professional, and personal levels:
   
   1. Winter - Shakespeare's artistic differences with his comic star, Will Kemp; the run-up to Essex's Ireland campaign, with mobilisation and departure - as well as pacifism.
   
   2. Spring - logistics of building the Globe; censorship, book-burning and history; the appropriation of religious holidays for politcal purposes.
   
   3. Summer - paranoia in London with rumours of a second Armada invasion); Shakespeare's anguish at an unauthorised, cobbled-together edition of his poems; sincerity, fakery, and learning the true nature of love.
   
   4. Autumn - the decline of chivalric values and rise of empire via merchant-adventurers and the East India Company; the impact of Montaigne's essays on soliloquies; and finally, an elucidation of how the various versions of "Hamlet" reveal Shakespeare's changing view of this most problematic play.
   
   Shapiro correlates these topics with the themes and language of Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet (the four dramas Shakespeare wrote in 1599). He also provides us with details so unexpected as to be poignant - for example, Shakespeare changing horses while riding home to Stratford. These touches reveal what critics formerly called "Shakespeare the Man" - but there's minimal speculation here, with skilful deployment of primary sources. Also the texture of Elizabethan court and civic life is stunningly evoked.
   
   So we have the feeling of moving through the year "in real time" with Shakespeare. Daringly illuminating, this will make you critically re-evaluate not only Shakespeare, but other biographies and criticism. Well done indeed.

5 comments about Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom.

1. Pearson's book is "accessible." It does cover all of Voltaire's life. There are some nice photographs. It is also, however, chatty and superficial. I had expected at least some exploration of the ideas and the art that gave rise to Voltaire's vast reputation. I am no pedant - a mere college undergraduate type of treatment probably would have been adequate. Alas, in Pearson's book Voltaire seems almost a dilettante, pampered and frivolous. I hope such fluff is not what one has to put up with in order to obtain an "accessible" biography of a great man. I actually got a much better notion of who Voltaire was from reading the introduction to The Portable Voltaire. This was simply unsatisfying. I am now looking to read something more substantial.



2. I was once asked the question, "If you could have lunch with one famous person, living or dead, who would it be?"
   
   My answer: Voltaire.
   
   Francois Marie Arouet, (1694-1778) who took the pen name "Voltaire" for reasons still unclear, (the author lists some guesses but doesn't choose one) was the 18th century itself, distilled into a frame so thin that it appeared as though a good stiff breeze could blow him away. But not only did he live to the age of 84, he also wrestled one of the most powerful institutions in history, the Catholic Church in France, virtually to a standstill. One of the most prolific writers of all time, he is said to have churned out a million words during his life: plays, essays, letters, poetry, satire. He never wrote a novel; novels were considered trashy entertainment in his day and he never cared to write one. He isn't read much anymore, not even in France, and he is remembered today not so much as a philosopher in his own right, but as a brilliant, witty popularizer of other people's ideas. But his razor-sharp French prose style was the envy of the young Rousseau, who ultimately went on to have an even greater and more profound impact on the world.
   
   What inflamed Voltaire's passion inflamed his need to write, and nothing did the trick more quickly than intolerance and injustice. Imprisoned more than once himself, Voltaire repeatedly put himself in jeopardy defending in print the victims of injustice and religious bigotry, a particular plague of his age, and launching one spirited attack after another on their tormentors, those in political and ecclesiastical power, which in 18th century France were pretty much two sides of the same coin.
   
   Small wonder I wanted to have lunch with him. And small wonder that Roger Pearson has given this delightful biography the subtitle "A Life In Pursuit Of Freedom." Each chapter has a title and a descriptive summary, in the style of an 18th century novel. In lively and witty prose, Pearson takes the reader from Voltaire's inauspicious beginnings (he was an illegimate child who was expected to die) to his first clashes with the authorities, (he spent close to a year in the Bastille when still only 23) his liaisons with one woman after another, the business dealings that made him wealthy, his sojourn in England, (where he found the relatively tolerant atmosphere refreshing enough to publish a series of "English Letters") his rocky relationship with Frederick the Great, and the whole cavalcade of one of history's most colorful and brilliant lives, leading right up to his retaking by storm, in the last days of his life, the very Paris from which he had been so often banned.
   
   As the decades running up to the French Revolution, which Voltaire helped start but didn't live to see, roll by, Pearson traces every parry-and-thrust of the life of a writer in an age and a society in which writers were closely watched and frequently harassed by the government, their works censored and sometimes burned, their personal freedom never completely secure. Observing his dartings around Europe, hopping over a border here, leaping into a midnight carriage there, in order to stay ahead of those who would imprison him again, one wonders how Voltaire ever got anything written. But write he did, compulsively, exhaustively, and on an array of subjects that would fill a dictionary. (One of his best-known works is, in fact, a "Philosophical Dictionary.") By the time of his death, while the war against intolerance and bigotry was far from won -- most likely it never will be, entirely -- nevertheless the ideals of the French Enlightenment had already borne fruit on this side of the pond, the American Revolution being in full swing in 1778, and it was possible for writers in France and elsewhere in Europe to express their ideas with much less fear of the authorities than ever would have been possible in Voltaire's youth.
   
   Will Durant wrote in 1965, "When we cease to honor Voltaire we shall be unworthy of Freedom." Read this book. Meet the man.



3. One of the more interesting and amusing characters in history, Voltaire is surprisingly little known in today's world. During his time he seems to have had the ability to annoy everyone. Jailed, exiled, he kept turning up and continued to satarize the upper classes from whom he seemed to crave acceptance.
   
   This new biography is written with somewhat the same attitude of irreverance. It's light and amusing while at the same time conveying both the story and the tone of Voltaire's writing, philosophy and life.
   
   Particularly interesting is the political interplay of the times when the leaders of various countries and empires are dealing with each other to see who is going to rule. This was a time just before the American Revolution (Voltaire associated with Benjamin Franklin during his stay in France). It was a time when the seeds were being sown for the French Revolution when the world of Voltaire was turned upside down.



4. Voltaire has been part of my life for nearly a quarter of a century, ever since I picked up a copy of The Portable Voltaire at a used bookshop near my high school for one dollar. I made the purchase at the suggestion of a pretty girl who I never did convince to go out with me. I guess that's not really relevant to anyone but me, except that Voltaire does write about how heartbreak (which is what that frustration seemed to be at the time) can be a stone on the path to enlightenment.
   
   Whether that disappointment and the many that followed inched me closer to real enlightenment over the years, I can't say. But one of the first times I ever remember feeling more enlightened than many of my peers was as it dawned on me that my familiarity with the 18th-century philosopher and writer was all but unheard of among South Floridians in their late teens (and even among most of their teachers).
   
   I must admit I've always been puzzled by Voltaire. Despite my long exposure to his work, I cannot identify a single component of his beliefs that I have adopted as part of my core philosophies. Only a couple of his lines have stuck in my memory over the years, and even upon re-reading it as an adult I found Voltaire's seminal work Candide a bit of a slog. Yet I continue to think of him as one of the most important factors in my intellectual formation, for reasons I assumed too vague or subtle to pinpoint.
   
   With an eye toward discovering why that is, I picked up a copy of Roger Pearson's new biography, Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom. Previous biographies I've seen were too academic or too technical to hold my attention for long. But after leafing through it, I had high hopes for Mr. Pearson's effort.
   
   I was not left unrewarded, even though I consider the biography only a mixed success. Mr. Pearson, I think, tries too hard to overcome the weakness of most academic biographers who produce informative but utterly boring works. He does this through the use of humor that is at first refreshing but quickly becomes irritating. I don't think this biography covers any significant new ground in Voltaire's life, but many of the stories I had read or heard in the past are retold here in a mostly readable way (at least when Mr. Pearson does not try to be witty).
   
   What is new is the way Mr. Pearson relates some of these anecdotes to what we know of Voltaire's iconoclastic beliefs. Take the fact that he refused to cover up that his birth in 1694 was the result of an illicit affair between his mother and an intellectual and songwriter called Rochebrune. While most people of his generation would seek to obscure such ignoble circumstances, Voltaire instead venerated his mother for preferring Rochebrune's "wit and intelligence" to the company of her attorney husband, who, Voltaire said, was "a very mediocre man."
   
   Similarly, his selection of the pen name Voltaire -- he was born François-Marie Arouet -- was his unusual way of escaping the wrath of French censors. He denied authorship of works that were clearly his, and he lived most of his life in exile outside his native France.
   
   Mr. Pearson calls attention to the fact that while Voltaire was best known as a playwright during his lifetime, and he first came into the public eye as a writer of satiric verse that his lasting value comes from his historic work. A historian, not in the sense of a chronicler of battles and kingdoms, but in his discussions about the zeitgeist of his age: art, literature, philosophy, and economics. The presentation of these aspects and his biographical details may be flawed, but they can hardly fail to entertain and inspire.
   
   Which leads me to the conclusion Mr. Pearson's work helped me to come to regarding the personal importance of Voltaire in my own life. More than any agent of information about the Enlightenment, Voltaire's value I think comes from his ability to inspire, to stimulate readers to think for themselves -- something I think he did (and still does) for me. Not a bad endorsement, I'd say.



5. While the "Almighty" in the title goes against my grain given the book's freedom-loving, deist, and most human of subjects, this biography is well worth reading. Professor Davidson writes in a light style, which pays fond homage to that of this great figure of the Enlightenment.
   
   Another good book on Voltaire came out in 2004, "Voltaire in Exile" by Ian Davidson. If you want a full life biography, go with "Voltaire Almighty". If you are mainly just interested in Voltaire's later life and work in advancing human rights, go with Mr. Davidson's worthy effort. Or, read both and compare.

4 comments about Calculated Risk: The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle-Aviation Pioneer and World War II Hero.

1. This is just another excellent example of why this country has stayed a free democracy for 232 years.



2. I can sum this up in a very short space. This is a well written book that not only gives an insight into General Jimmy Doolittle's contributions to our nation and the world, but also into his family and his wife's contributions on the home front during WWII. As far as I am concerned, no history class should be taught without this book as required reading.



3. This book was purchased for my son who is interested in WWII planes and fliers, and since I was a civilian during WWII and lived through that era, this book was definitely to be read (especially after watching Life and Times on our local KCET station and the granddaughter was interviewed regarding this book). Both of us enjoyed reading the life of this remarkable man and it was a must for his growing library.



4. This book is about the family life of Jimmy Doolittle written by his granddaughter. It's touching in every aspect of what a family goes through over the years. After reading this book you will understand why his biography is titled " I Could Never Be So Lucky Again" by CV Glines, and why he is known as "The Master of Calculated Risk."

4 comments about Lincoln and the Court.

1. I found Brian McGinty's book on Lincoln and the Supreme Court a well written, comprehensive review of events and legal thinking on several levels. I learned a lot about the history of race relations in the U.S. from the earliest days of the Revolution through the 1870s, and why the Dred Scott decision was such an important event. I learned a lot about how the Supreme Court developed as an institution, the many personalities that made up the Court over this period, and how the growth of what was a young nation was reflected in the kinds of issues the Court considered. There is a lot of interesting insight about American politics through the middle of the 19th Century, and the personal relationships that influenced the advent of the Civil War, its execution, and its aftermath.
   
   There is a good review of various areas of the law that were important at the time, some of which, such as Admiralty, of less general interest today, but others, such as Civil Liberties and habeas corpus, very much current.
   
   McGinty provides good support for his professed esteem for Lincoln. There is much in this book about the personal and political relationships Lincoln had, and how Lincoln showed wisdom in managing the many forces seeking to influence the course of his presidency and the war.
   
   There is a lot of information packed into the 315 pages of text. McGinty expresses himself well and clearly. Sometimes he uses 10 words when 7 or 8 would suffice, and sometimes he summarizes things he had just explained a few pages earlier, but the reader won't lose track of who the characters are.
   
   As a general reader, I found this an interesting history of the Supreme Court and the Civil War, and I thought it a useful addition to my knowledge of Lincoln's life and philosophy.



2. I found this to be an outstanding work in legal and constitutional history, bringing a fresh perspective to this topic that already has been well covered by others. See, e.g., James F. Simon, "Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney." I think there are several reasons for the outstanding success of the book. First, the author takes his time and thoroughly discusses his topics--no quick summary of a case and then moving on here. Second, the author is extremely through in covering his topic--not just Lincoln and Taney, although that is an important theme obviously, but also he discusses topics such as Lincoln's appointments to the Court and how the Court continued on dealing with these issues after Lincoln's death. Finally, the author writes so effectively that even familiar material becomes interesting and stimulating.
   
   All of the major cases are examined (habeas corpus, trial by military tribunals, Legal Tender, McCardle limitations on jurisdiction, and Texas v. White holding that the Union was never dissolved). Several chapters stand out, including that on Dred Scott (one of the best treatments I have seen) and the Prize Cases, which I used to think were quite boring. In addition, each Justice is profiled in depth, and a Gallery section contains excellent full-page photographs of each. Lincoln's challenge in making Court appointments is well covered, presenting the President with the opportunity to secure solid votes to uphold his conduct of the war, but also the need not to antagonize the border states he sought to keep in the Union. The author's attention to the post-Lincoln Court allows him to offer a fine assessment of Taney's successor, Salmon P. Chase, who managed in the Legal Tender Cases to vote exactly opposite the position he had taken as Secretary of the Treasury.
   
   The book is supported by 29 pages of notes, an excellent bibliography and index, as well as being a beautifully-printed volume to boot. Sometimes taking a new look at an old topic can result in important insights--such is the case with this book.



3. A nice overview of the Supreme Court, encompassing the years just prior to Lincoln's election, his term in office, and through the cases decided after his assassination but on matters that arose out of the conduct of the Civil War. The era's critical legal disputes, from the infamous Dred Scott decision to the Test Oath cases, are reviewed. Of special interest to today's reader is the discussion of the validity of sentences imposed on civilians by military tribunals.
   
   This book is a good reminder of the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the rule of law, during our country's Civil War. It also provides useful short character sketches of the various justices who served at that time and the role politics played in the selection of these same men, including Roger Taney and Salmon P. Chase. (More attention, rightfully so, is paid these two flawed but historically important chief justices.)
   
   Brian McGinty provides a good legal analysis in prose that while not soaring is more than adequate to the task. One significant overstatement, I think, is made on page 245, when the author writes, "Although his own views on racial equality had evolved over the years, he [Lincoln] never denigrated blacks." While Abraham Lincoln was ultimately a great man on racial issues, he did say certain negative things about blacks during his life, such as in his famed debates with Stephen Douglas.
   
   (As an aside, the use of the word "denigrated" is interesting in that it is derived from the word "nigare" or "black". It means to "blacken" or disparage.)



4. I am not much for political history or biographies. Given a choice between reading Sears' Gettysburg and Goodwin's Team of Rivals, my choice is reading Gettysburg. That fact needs to be explained as I found this a difficult book to read but a very rewarding learning experience. My difficulty has nothing to do with the author's skill as a writer but my preference as a reader. This is a book about judges, most of them old, and their ideas on how the law should be applied. President's have problems with the court when the court's idea conflicts with the Presidents. Lincoln was no exception but he faced a greater danger to the nation and the court's actions could have had a much greater impact than they normally do.
   
   McGinty starts with a series of portraits of the judges and how they had achieved their position. He manages to make them both human and inform the reader of their outlook in an interesting an informative manner. He covers personal quirks, deeply held beliefs, family and background showing us these men as both human and political beings. This provides a very firm foundation for a somewhat technical discussion of the cases and issues that follow.
   
   The chapter on the Dred Scott case is one of the best in the book. Having covered Lincoln's opposition to the Court's decision in a prior chapter, the author walks us through the issues and the Court's decision. He insures that we have the opportunity to gain a solid understanding of their reasoning based on their personalities and the law.
   
   The next major case is Merryman and once more, the author takes the time to cover the issues, the history and the decision. Again, this is a very good chapter and fully explains the issues and what happened after the decision was made.
   
   I was very impressed with the introduction and the author's ideas of the Court's view on secession. While never tested, it has given me a new series of ideas to think and talk about.
   
   This is not an exciting book to read, unless you enjoy reading about legal precedent. However, it is well written and thought provoking. As my title says; this is not an easy read but it is a rewarding one that will give you an additional perspective on the Civil War.

5 comments about 747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation.

1. Joe Sutter rose to lead the 747 program through hard work, preparation, and a little bit of luck. As an aspiring Boeing worker, I hope to do the same one day. All of the lessons learned from decades ago are still relevant today. Joe tells his story from all angles: professionally and personally. This is a highly engaging book, and if you are interested in the aerospace industry it is highly recommended.



2. 747 is simply a must for anyone in the aerospace design industry, or for people who are just interested in how the 747 was built. Joe Sutter, the airplane's director of engineering and the one most responsible for its actual design, has written a trim, quick, and enjoyable to read history of the 747 program encased in a semi-autobiography.
   
   After a few chapters exploring the author's early life, including his college time and Navy life, the book spends its bulk on a 50,000 foot overview of what was going on with the 747 development program from its inception until its most recent incarnation to fly in the form of the 747-400 family of derivatives. The final chapters sweep the remainder of the author's professional career including his service on the Challenger Disaster commission. Joe (and after reading the book you definitely get the feeling he would prefer to be called that then Mr. Sutter) has certainly led a very interesting life, and has had the privilege of experiencing a truly gilded age of aviation from the peaks of its ambitions and the lows of its difficulties and uncertainty. But the star of the book is truly the magnificent 747 aircraft and even his more autobiographical chapters tie into the aircraft and its design.
   
   Much of the author's life exerted an inexorable influence on the design philosophy he brought to the plane. As an early child he grew up in Seattle and watched, literally from his neighborhood, as Boeing would roll out new aircraft through the twenties and thirties and try to push aviaiton forward and make the world a smaller place. Caught up in the majesty of flight Joe wanted very badly to design airplanes, but as WWII dawned when he was in college that would have to wait for more important world events to be sorted out. Joining the Navy he became a deck officer on a destroyer escort in the Atlantic, where he had a formative experience. Returning to Boston Harbor his ship started to become glazed with rapidly growing layers of thick ice in the midst of a storm, making the ship dangerously top heavy. With no anti-icing system and no ability to get people out on deck to hack off the ice the crew had to just ride out the storm praying they wouldn't die. From this moment on the author decided safety would be a primary criteria of anything he designed.
   
   The legacy of the 747 is one of carrying on Boeing's legacy of leading the pack in aviation with an unparalleled record of safety, thanks to smart design and brute force quadruple redundancy. (Brute force is by no means meant perjoratively here!) The 747 came about during an amazing time in aviation history. It was the first wide body airliner (against the initial full double decker narrow body wishes of its launch customer), the first turbofan (or fanjet as they are sometimes called) powered airliner, and it was designed by a slimmed down workforce in the shadow of the ill fated 2707 SST, while the 727 and 737 were also absorbing significant company resources, and while Lockheed's L-1011 and Douglas' DC-10 provided competition. The story of how this giant came about and triumphed in spite of the decidely low expectations Boeing clearly had for it at the begining is a truly fascinating one, filled with such aviation luminaries as Juan Trippe, Bill Allen and Charles Lindbergh. Joe's life on the program is also filled with equally amazing events including state department sponsored dinners with the Soviets in Paris at the height of the Cold War (in the spirit of "Detente"), and trips all over the world ranging from the expected places like Japan and New York, to Baghdad.
   
   In addition to being a great story well told, there are real gems here for aviation program managers and aircraft designers about how to make a successful airplane. Absolutely worth reading, and would be something I would like to see as a textbook for aeronautical engineers, perhaps in an aerospace history course, to give them some real world perspective that is so often lacking in modern engineering degrees.
   
   An outstanding book, highly recommended!



3. Joe Sutter helped accomplish what was probably the most challenging engineering feat in history prior to 1970 by designing the largest jet aircraft in the world. His book touches briefly on the life journey leading up to his employment at Boeing and taking on some major assignments there, including running the 747 program. Joe's book shows he was an engineer first, and a manager second. While downplaying his own ability to understand company politics and business dealings, you see that Joe really felt a strong sense of importance about each and every engineering assignment he had at Boeing. From the 707 to the 727 to the 747, Joe talks about each Jet as if they were his.
   
   He shows how Boeing bet the whole farm on 747, and how that is typical of Boeing and a key factor to understanding the character of the Boeing Company. He discusses how he played a pivotal role both in the design and risk management process of 747. He shares some of the backroom strategy meetings where he convinced Boeing's top leadership to build a single deck airplane versus the customer proposed double-decker, and offers insights as to why a double-decker is so much more expensive to build than a single deck aircraft. Insisting on a single deck configuration for 747, according to Joe was probably the most valuable contribution he made at Boeing, though he risked loosing his job and Boeing almost lost the support of their biggest Customer, Pan-Am by going with his approach.
   
   Joe shared some other specific job experiences that helped groom him to run the 747 program, the lessons he learned, and the lessons he wish he had learned.
   
   Joe wanted this book to inspire the younger generation of engineers, and he definitely does. Joe is a story teller at heart and his book is easy reading like some of the emails you might get from an 85 year old war veteran with inspiring and straight talk. I couldn't put it down till it was done and recommend all my engineer buddy's to pick up a copy.



4. History was made in Everett, WA 40 years ago when the "Queen of the Skies" was developed and built. It was Boeing's Jumbo Jet, a double-deck airplane. Everyone has interviewed Joe Sutter, the "father of the 747",Chief Engineer on the project, and now he's written his own account.
   It's his personal story as well as the making of history in aviation. Juan Trippe of Pan Am was a driver behind the development of this airplane.
   The book gives one insight to the struggles of developing a new airplane.
   You can take guided tours of the assembly plant in Everett, where they assemble the twin-aisle airplanes, including 747 and 787.



5. As a project manager/engineer and aviation enthusiast, I knew I had to read this book. It did not disappoint. Joe Sutter seemed at first like a typical engineer thrust (no pun intended) into a dream job--designing and building a new aircraft that most couldn't even imagine. By the end of this book, however, he'd discussed not only the technical challenges he faced, but the political roadblocks he encountered along the way. The story is compelling and interesting and taught me a few lessons on dealing with angry higher-ups and demanding customers.
   
   I especially liked how Joe weaved in a few details about his personal life and his background, without detracting from the story of designing the 747.
   
   This was a fascinating read and one that I may have to revisit. Thank you, Mr. Sutter, for sharing this story with the newest generation of engineers.