5 comments about Freedom from Fear and Other Writings: Revised Edition.

1. The best writing I've ever read ... about striving democracy in peace... I love That Woman!!!!



2. I re-read this book shortly after Aung San Suu Kyi was placed, once again, under house arrest in 2003. The daughter of the man who is referred as the founding father of Burma(today called Myanmar) - Aung San - is herself a major political figure in her country. The chapter about her father - who was assassinated when the author was two years old - is an impressive, informative, and dispassionate account of Aung San's days as a student leader and his leadership of the independence movement that established modern Burma as a nation. My own father was a foreign correspondent in Burma in the late 1940s and had covered the assassination of Aung San and his colleagues. This left me since my childhood with a deep curiosity about this period of Burmese history - and Aung San's daughter's account does not leave curious readers like myself disappointed. Most of the book is devoted to the life and times of Suu Kyi herself. It includes several articles by other writers who help readers understand how a Burmese woman rises to national prominence in a country which has known but unbroken military dictatorship for decades. This book is also about Burmese culture, religion, and language, and should be on the bookshelf on anyone who has a serious interest in this curious, wretched country of tremendous unfulfilled potential.

   If you have an interest in Burmese or Southeast Asian history, you might also consider reading Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, a historical novel which I have also reviewed on this website.




3. This book was for me an opener into the evolution of Burma's political scene, and it proved to be a good one.

   Whilst it takes some time to get accustomed to the many abbreviations of Burma's political parties and factions, once it is gotten used to, Freedom from Fear becomes an essential book for those interested in the becoming of Aung San Suu Kyi - daughter of Burma's national hero, the late Aung San - and her process of fighting and eventually winning the support of the country she always called home depite her international influences.

   Though Freedom from Fear would be a good book to start learning about Burma's modern political history, I would suggest first reading about pre-colonial Burma to get a better grasp and understanding of the country's stand and place in Southeast Asia.




4. This book really inspired me. And all the details information written in this book are 100% accurate and I was so suprised to read all those history things that I have learnt in my childhood in my country, Myanmar. I believe this is one of the books that every patriots of Burma should have.



5. this book is very good for me to build my strength
   and power for fight against military dictatorship
   in my country. Thank you for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

   KoKoOo

5 comments about Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History.

1. This book is described by author Fawn Brodie as being written after studying Jefferson's corresponce. So, of course it is not a typical biography as everyone reads different things into what they have read. It is as if we are learning about what makes him tick and why he did the things he did, from the letters. You end up thinking of him as a complex intelligent man and not only as a President and writer of the Declaration of Independence. Don't let the unfavorable reviews keep you from the enjoyment and one of the best books I have read (over and over).



2. The book's title: Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History has no relation to the book's text. The author weaves a lurid and unflattering view of our third president by simply exerting unrestrained imagination. The tale told simply cannot be called history just tabloid stuff. History is based on ascertainable facts. The book is lacking on this regard. Skip this book and you will miss very little, that is, if history is what you are after.



3. The subtitle of this book is "An Intimate History", which gives ample warning that it focuses on the personal Jefferson. This book is fine if you primarily want to know about Jefferson's relationships with women; his wife, daughters and probable paramours Maria Cosway and Sally Hemings. Much of the book is focused on whether or not Sally Hemings was his concubine and if she bore him several children. Professor Brodie contends this was the case. Unfortunately, the recent DNA tests (performed well after this book was written) of decedents of Sally Hemings' sons are not conclusive. They show that Eston Hemings was a progeny of Jefferson, or one of his relatives. The 19th century Jefferson family lore was that he was fathered by one of Jefferson's nephews, which is supported by the DNA finding, but it also supports the possibility that Jefferson himself was the father, so it does not solve the mystery. If you care about such things, or in Jefferson's possible illicit relationship with the married Maria Cosway, then this is the book for you. However, if you primarily want a book about Jefferson; the author of the Declaration of Independence, the Secretary of State, the Vice President and the President, then this is definitely not the book for you.
   
   In my opinion, professor Brodie goes overboard in analyzing the motivations for Jefferson's actions and her interpretation of these actions is sometimes maddening. When there is evidence supporting a contention, even when it is at best very ambiguous, she touts it as proof. This is all well and good, but when the evidence is missing she surmises that this also supports her contention because it was "obviously" destroyed by Jefferson, someone in his family or a previous biographer anxious to defend Jefferson's reputation. Furthermore, everything seems to be viewed through the prism of his relationship with Sally Hemings and his positions on slavery.
   
   Another distressing aspect of this book is the lack of any attempt to discuss contemporaneous historical events that Jefferson was not intimately involved with. For instance, there were three seminal events of George Washington's presidency and they mentioned only in passing, or not at all. Hamilton's economic policies are discussed in only one paragraph, the Whisky Rebellion is allotted only one sentence and the Citizen Genet affair is not even mentioned. The first two events are important for a Jefferson biography because they were important causes for his hatred of Hamilton and because they contrast his view of what the US should be with that of Hamilton. The citizen Genet affair was a forerunner of the conflict with France during his vice presidency. (His vice presidency under John Adams is only discussed in the briefest manner). The citizen Genet affair was also an important forerunner for the conflict with France that occurred during his presidency, which is fortunately covered in more detail.
   
   If you want the soap opera aspects of Jefferson's life then you may like this book, but if you want an in-depth discussion of his life and the important events historical events surrounding it, you should look elsewhere.



4. When this book came out in 1974, there was hell to pay...for the first time, a respected historian gave credence in print to the Tom and Sally stories. Mrs. Brodie tried to prevent Dumas Malone and Merrill Peterson from reviewing it, but both blasted away. Of course, this was really very old news; the rumors started as campaign dirt though a drunken fable spun by James Callender, who was no historian, and was far from respected. Mrs. Brodie gave us "An Intimate History", looking at Mr. Jefferson as a real person, rather than as simply a skilled writer of great ideas. Of course, she also more than covered the ideas and accomplishments, and did it very well. Still, the unique focus is on the five "loves" of Jefferson's life....
   
   [1] Rebecca Burwell---a youthful infatuation, of which nothing ever came. Actually, nothing ever started [except Jefferson's famous headaches]...she is important as the mother-in-law of John Marshall.
   
   [2] Betsey Walker---if true, this is FAR worse than Sally. If true. Betsey was the wife of a good friend of Jefferson, and, her husband was away on diplomatic duty...a double betrayal. Problem is, there is no real evidence. When the story came out 30 years after the "fact", it was more campaign dirt. Light Horse Harry Lee publicized it to get at his political enemy, Mr. Jefferson; of course, Callender was happy to vomit whatever garbage he could find. Mr. Walker never left his wife; negative evidence, I know, but still evidence. Light Horse Harry was a bum, and his son Black Horse Harry was worse; Robert E. Lee spent his life atoning for the bad character of his Dad and his older half-brother. The worthlessness of a man doesn't make everything he says a lie, but we do need to look carefully...
   
   [3] Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, known as Patty---the young widow who became Tom's wife, suffered ill health, and died far too young, leaving him two [originally, three] daughters to raise. Whatever Jefferson did, or did not, do before, or after, Patty, there has NEVER been the slightest hint of infidelity during the marriage.
   
   [4] Maria Cosway---artist, wife of an artist, whom Jefferson met while he was Minister to France. Sorry, Tom; guilty as charged on this one. The affair was far too open, the written evidence is far too authentic, to deny..."My head and my heart"....though the "affair" was probably merely an improper friendship, not involving sex.....
   
   [5] Sally Hemings---mulatto slave who met Jefferson in Paris when she travelled as maid to Jefferson's daughter. Described as "mighty near white", she was part of Jefferson's inheritance, AND, was Patty's half-sister. If Jefferson had an affair with Sally, he had to be Houdini to be undetected, and stupid to think he could be; Monticello is not that big, and Jefferson was NOT stupid. Yes, Sally had children by a white man; there were plenty around. IF the stories about present day blacks having the Jefferson DNA marker are true {IF}, there were other sources, like Tom's dimwitted brother, 5 nephews, and a cousin...Jefferson's two nephews, the sons of Dabney Carr, also lived at Monticello; they could not have provided the Y-chromosome, but there is evidence of one, or both, being involved with Sally.
   
   Thomas Jefferson was the greatest collection of talents one can imagine...attorney...architect...botanist...author...great horseman; in many ways, the "Father of our Country". He is also a mass of contradictions...a slave owner who hated slavery [so were Washington, Marshall, Patrick Henry, George Wythe]...apostle of fiscal responsibility who lived his last 50 years flat broke...athiest who "swore on the altar of God" [he was NOT really an athiest]...effective attorney who couldn't speak well in public...opponent of big government who bought Louisiana and greatly expanded the federal bureaucracy...the list goes on. And, what does "All men are created equal" REALLY mean?
   
   To answer my own question in the header...Who Cares? There are far more important things about Thomas Jefferson than whether he produced mulatto kids with a servant; plenty of white southern politicians, from George Wythe to Strom Thurmond did, but, with Tom, the evidence is VERY thin. One can quote Jefferson to prove anything; those who would attack him have plenty without Sally; those who would praise have plenty even with Sally.
   
   Mr. Jefferson wrote the two most important documents in the English language, and founded a great university. He will be studied, and argued about, unto eternity. Everybody needs to read at least one biography of him, though you don't need to go to the extent I have. If you're looking for a one volume study, this would be a poor choice. I usually recommend Joseph Ellis' "American Sphinx", or Willard Sterne Randall's book, but you could do worse than this, though I would have trouble with specifics; it's readable, even if her conclusions are questionable. Merrill Peterson's "Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation" is fabulous, but is over 1000 pages. Dumas Malone's six volumes are definitive, but six volumes....



5. First of all I must concede that I was unable to finish this book - it just wasn't interesting enough and the prospect of a new Harry Potter novel was more than enough enticement to put it aside in favor of something that didn't pretend to be anything but fiction. The premise - a history about Jefferson's thoughts and what made him tick - certainly sounded like it would be interesting. Instead, I was amazed at how often she used phrases like "from this we can infer..." or "based on this we must conclude..." In fact, it would appear that the whole book is nothing more than speculations about what was going on in his mind based on what he did or didn't say or write or his choice of words. And only slightly less irritating is that Ms. Brodie (who apparently enjoyed creating controversy) seems obsessed with Jefferson's sexual life. Early on she dismisses it as only natural that he had human appetites and almost unworthy of comment, but then goes on to guess and speculate as to why he was attracted to Sally Hemmings and others and the nature of their relationships. Honestly, I thought the book looked like a serious history about Jefferson, and I was really just looking to learn more about him, but I'll have to look elsewhere.

5 comments about Not Even My Name: A True Story.

1. What an amazing story!! I would recommend it to all my friends.
   
   This is the first book I read on this subject matter.
   
   It was a very emotional read for me as my paternal ancestors are from this part of the world, and they themselves lived through the same hell.
   
   What a strong and amazing woman Sano Halo is!!
   
   Too bad the human race doesn't learn from these tragic events, or doesn't care to.



2. Extremely well written and oh so true! Many of us heard these stories from your yiayias (grandmothers) and/or mothers who experienced the exile of Greeks from Turkey. Women, desparate for a better life, would willingly marry whoever to get out of the turmoil and economic depression of their countries. Well worth the read.



3. This poignant memoir written in such astonishing detail is an unforgettable story that will capture the reader from the start. Sano is like a small but sturdy flower growing in the most unlikely and least advantageous of garden spots. In her we see goodness and love survive heart rending loss and the cruel displacement of senseless war. I could not put the book down once I began to read it.



4. This is not a book to read if you want to be cheered up, yet I will never forget the story. I wept off and on reading of the author's mother's experience on the death march. I have traveled to Greece and Turkey twice yet had no knowledge of the genocide of the Pontic Greeks. I thank the author for the courage to live through her mother's amazing journey as she told her unforgettable story.



5. I am also of Pontic Greek and Assyrian origin. Even though our lands were taken away, our people still exist, we still maintain our language, and the gospel is still spreading which is a blessing. I am glad to see someone wrote a book on the Greek/Assyrian/Armenian Genocide. The Turks tortured and massacred millions of Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians. I am happy to see you raise more public awareness about this. I pray for the Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians still living in Asia Minor that deal with constant persecution for their Christian faith. Great Book Thea!

5 comments about The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery.

1. The surgeons of the 18th century faced a dilemma that would tie any of today's bioethicists into a pretzel shape.
   
   They had inherited a crude, limited, unsystematic and usually ineffective technique from medieval or even classical times, but to get to today's comprehensive, delicate and scientific methods they had to experiment on the living and the dead.
   
   The question of experimenting on the living presents obvious difficulties, but in some ways experimenting on the dead was an even more problematic question 250 years ago. Many people held a religious belief that a corpse disassembled on Earth could never be reunited in heaven after the Second Coming. There was also a deep horror of autopsy itself.
   
   Few if any of the surgeons of the day or their admirers spent time worrying about this, and certainly not the greatest body investigator, John Hunter, subject of Wendy Moore's "The Knife Man."
   
   Many writers have commented on the brutality of 18th century London, but none that I know of presents it in such a chilling way. Not only the descriptions of surgeries done without anesthetic (other than alcohol or opium) and without concern for either asepsis or antisepsis, and not only the lack of social fastidiousness that allowed both surgeries and autopsies on stinking corpses to be done in private homes.
   
   There was also the social brutality of the grave robbing and corpse stealing. At public hangings, there were brawls that lasted for hours between families of the condemned and surgeons' "recruiters" for possession of the bodies of the hanged. Most different from our own conceptions was the indifference toward crime and brutality on the part of the leading lights of this age of the most particular personal fastidious (in behavior if not personal hygiene) among the upper crust. Both the logic-chopper David Hume and the moralizing historian Edward Gibbon, whose favorite word was "specious," attended a full course of anatomy lessons on stolen corpses, and Moore observes that Gibbon, the cultivated gentleman, courteously thanked the surgeon following every session.
   
   Into this brawling maelstrom of medieval savagery and only slightly less savage Enlightenment wandered a possibly dyslexic Scottish farm boy, John Hunter. Never have a man and a place been better suited to each other.
   
   Hunter had an astonishingly deft touch with a scalpel, which would not have meant much to us except that he also had a fearless, keen brain coupled with a fanatic desire to learn what life was. There were other, bigger cities (like Istanbul), but if Hunter had ended up there, we still would not have heard of him. London was in his time (1728-1793) the world's emporium, and he cut up not only stolen people but whales, dormice, lizards and lions. Anything could be had through money or influence.
   
   Moore's biography is an odd combination of popular biography and scientific monograph (with over 40 pages of endnotes). It can be read for information about the origins of surgery, evolution, physiology and medical care; or as a real-life novel with unbelievable plot turns that would shame the scriptwriter of an opera , soap or grand.
   
   Hunter was consulted about the infant Byron's twisted foot and Hume's cancer; his wife was rather too friendly with Joseph Haydn; he discovered the separate circulation of the blood in mother and fetus; he helped found the first medical and first veterinary schools in England, he . . . well, you will have to read Moore's book, the list is almost endless.
   
   Hunter introduced a rigorous, scientific method into biological investigation -- ironically, in opposition to his older brother, William, who was also a famous anatomist but stuck in medieval ways -- and he made numerous discoveries. Some were correct (bees make wax) and some were incorrect (syphilis and gonorrhea were the same disease).
   
   Famed among the medical community, Hunter is probably best known generally for his relentless pursuit of the pitiful Irish giant, Charles Byrne. Byrne had such a horror of being "anatomized" that he asked his friends to put his body in a lead coffin and sink it in the English Channel. Hunter got it anyway, and Byrne's bones can still be seen in Hunter's museum, even though half the collection was burned by Nazi bombs in 1941.
   
   Hunter's bones are in Westminster Abbey.
   
   This book badly needs illustrations of Hunter's "beautiful" natural history preparations, but it does not have them.



2. Not a quick, easy read, but an interesting and intriguing read to see how far all medicine, especially surgery, has come. The story begins and is largely finished even before handwashing was known to be a preventative of disease and infection. The reader is left to wonder how far medicine and surgery will progress in the next 300 years and how doctors,surgeons and readers of that day will look back on what we consider "state of the art" medicine today.
   
   (When discussing this book at recent book club meeting, one of our members, a physican, said he believed people will ultimately look at what we are doing with chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of cancer to be the equivalent of bleeding and humors in John Hunter's day...an interesting thought.)
   
   This is a book a that will stay with you and come to mind weeks and months after the reading is done. Fascinating read. Most fascinating. At times amazing and mesmerizing.



3. John Hunter was a blunt, irascible sort who was not disposed to accept established opinions on health and the functionings of the human body. Living in London during the 18th century, he quickly developed a reputation as an iconoclast who rejected tradition and sought to learn as much as he could about human anatomy. This necessitated a strong stomach and a willingness to flout the law. Since dissecting a human body was against the law, Hunter and others who wished to do so had to be willing to deal with unsavory body snatchers who haunted cemeteries and execution sites.
   
   This fascinating biography is divided into chapters with headings similar to those found in hard boiled detective stories. Each describes one of Hunter's famous human or animal dissections and traces the expansion of knowledge that resulted. The descriptions are colorful and vivid and do an excellent job of depicting the full sight, sound, and smell of London in the 1700s. The stories of Hunter's dissections and his surgeries, many surprisingly complex and invasive despite the lack of anesthesia and antiseptics, fill the reader with awe and admiration.



4. Funny how I'd always confused John Hunter with his brother William whose reputation as a prig more concerned with titles and position than with surgery filtered down to me through histories of science and the times that I'd read. And of course I'd come across the Hunter name in connection with lurid tales of body snatching and the gut-dabbling "Jack Tearguts" of Blake's "An Island In The Moon," which gives us the verbal equivalent of a Gillray print. Now Wendy Moore has brought clarity to this subject, and I now see that John Hunter was indeed on the cutting edge (forgive the pun!) of his profession! Moore takes us through the streets of Johnsonian London, complete with pavements slick with chamber pot slops, poor children willing to sell healthy teeth and mangle their smiles forever so that the smiles of the elite could be temporarily refurbished for tremendous sums, and every kind of illness ready to hurry man, woman and child to an early end and task their brief existences with gleets, tumors, stones, tremors, rots and imposthumes before they expired. Through it all stalked keen-witted John ("Jack") Hunter, skilled in teasing apart the threads and fibers of nerves and separating the anatomical processes for preparations that are still pointed to for the genius they display, and unafraid to spend long hours in the presence of the dead when the Ghost of Cock Lane made headlines in the daily papers. Like William Blake, Hunter was a plain speaker, totally sure of his abilities, and this of course brought him enemies by the dozens from among the tribe of doctors and surgeons who relied on reading "the Ancient Classics" on medicine and an old boy system to put them in positions of power. Hunter, on the other hand, was almost alone in his insistence on learning from close observation and trial and error. In an age when surgery was done with dirty fingernails and aprons stiff with dried blood, this system perhaps did not bring much visible change to the sad lives of those stricken by ill health, but it was the key to the invention of new techniques and the arrival of our modern understanding of the human body. But this is not all; Moore also shows us that this wide-ranging intellect was intent on understanding the well-springs of life and the "living principle" itself and fashioned an early form of evolutionary theory which he taught to his students. However, there is indeed an unsavory, and even a sinister side to this story. Hunter grows obsessed with obtaining the bones of a young Irish Giant, and he does so against the poor man's death bed wishes. The literary salon that Hunter's beautiful wife sponsors once a week takes place while Hunter and his crew of helpers and students unload bodies delivered by the resurrectionists to the basement door. We can only imagine the occasional smell of decay wafting up the stairs while Horace Walpole holds forth in powdered wig on the superiority of English literature. The surgeon grows more and more eccentric, because perhaps his mid-life experiment involving syphilitic self-innoculation was having unexpected ramifications. Moore also tells us about Hunter's menagerie and his practice of wide-awake, bug-eyed, howling vivisection-unto-death, which would horrify animal rights activists today. Still and all, the Jack Hunter of Wendy Moore's book is a real hero.
   
   Though the writing in The Knife Man can sometimes be redundant, the style is good and the content compelling, if at times, a little grim. I recommend this book highly.



5. I found the book immediately tedious and repetitive, a seemingly endless series of similar case histories of operations by the great John Hunter, in squalid conditions as he was reviled and admired. The book needed much stronger editing. The prose reminds me a little of articles in Readers Digest. There doesn't seem to be much drama or unpredictability here, the whole book's course is immediately plain. I guess if you like to know how modern operations originated this is the book for you, but it lacked something like vitality and sophistication to keep my interest. A real disappointment.

5 comments about Washington's General: Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution.

1. I couldn't put it down. That's pretty rare for a history book for me, even though I enjoy the genre I am usually under whelmed by the writing skill of the average historian. This is the first Golway that I have read and I compare him (for readability at least) with McCullough. I'm not enough of a historian to evaluate the accuracy of the history, except in an overall sense, so this review will be more about the book as a pleasure read.
   
   The story unfolds late in the war, then the author takes us back to see how Greene got to this unlikely spot. Raised a Rhode Island Quaker with little education, severe asthma, and even a slight limp he seemed about as unlikely a figure to rise to major general as one could imagine. The author paints the classic "warts and all" picture of the man, and since much of this comes from his own letters it is probably a fair evaluation. Intensely loyal, highly attentive to detail, patriotic, yet at the same time extremely sensitive to criticism sometimes to the point of petulance, he was a complex man with several cross-currents of personality.
   
   His wife is also described in detail, and one feels the author left no stone unturned in finding what he could about her. Apparently most of her letters are lost to posterity, but Golway was still able to paint a fairly complete picture without the sense that it became fable.
   
   I also enjoyed some of the other figures who were unearthed a bit by their proximity to Greene, especially some of the southern militia commanders like Daniel Morgan, a man who won one of the most pivotal battles of the Southern Campaign, if not the war, at Cowpens. This battle description alone is worth reading the book for.
   
   In summation, I clearly liked this book, and unreservedly recommend it. Fascinating read.



2. He has been called, "the most underappreciated great man in the War for Independence." George Washington's hand-picked successor, Nathanael Greene was born into a prominent Rhode Island Quaker family. Plagued by insecurities due to his lack of education and military experience, he nonetheless provided an invaluable contribution to the cause of Liberty.
   
   Shortly after enlisting in his state's militia, some of his unit suggested that he resign. They felt that his marked "limp" detracted from their "manly, martial appearance." Against their wishes he remained and within six months was commissioned as a general. By the end of the Revolution, he would be second only to Washington himself.
   
   Greene's meteoric rise to glory is highlighted by his passionate patriotism and intense sense of loyalty. As Washington's reluctant yet efficient Quartermaster, he sustained the Continental Army through some of the leanest years of the war, battling Congress for much-needed funds. As commander of the Southern front, he would outfox Cornwallis in the swamps of the Low-Country and hills of the Carolinas.
   
   This book turns a long-overdue spotlight on one of our forgotten heroes. Based on scholarly research from both primary and secondary sources, it retains a readability that historical laymen such as myself find appealing. For anyone interested in our nation's history or in a genuine American hero, I recommend Washington's General.



3. easily one of the most underrated generals in american history...terry golway gives greene the recognition and appreciation greene was looking for...if you love reading about the revolution, this is the book for you...easy and vivid read that traces greenes accomplishments and even his weaknesses throughout life...you will not be disappointed.



4. This is a much needed book that rightfully gives some credit to one of George Washington's most important and able lieutenants. Nathanael Green did not receive much formal education, yet he sought knowledge and surrounded himself with others who were better educated; he was not a professional soldier by trade, yet learned the lessons of battle; he lost all the major battles he fought in, yet his strategy achieved victory in the South in the final analysis. This is the story of an often overlooked figure in the period of the American Revolution.
   
   Golway is to be credited for bringing due attention to Greene, but the author doesn't fall into hero worship; he is often critical of Greene. He made bad calls in his quarrels with others and in some of his decisions on the battlefield. Greene was obsessed with his reputation, wanted the approval of others, fell into bouts of self-pity, took criticism fairly hard, and so forth. His relationship with his wife seemed one of devotion and affection, but that didn't prevent him from writing to his wife about the other women he encountered and how tempted he was. This is a very human Nathanael Greene that emerges in this book, which makes him easier to relate too as well. After all, don't we all share certain traits in common, both the positive and the less flattering?
   
   The man with the limp was ridiculed by others when he first joined the military, but he grew into his role and held the confidence of his commander, George Washington. Greene made some bad calls on the field, but he learned from them. He also served as Quartermaster General, a critically important role, but one that denied him (as Greene thought) his often sought after military glory on the battlefield. He gained his chance for glory in his assignment to the Southern theater of operations in the Carolinas against Lord Charles Cornwallis, who had badly defeated two American armies.
   
   Without going into each battle or engagement that took place in South and North Carolina and Georgia, suffice it to say that Greene did what he had to do, namely, to keep the Continental army alive and wear down the British army. In these objectives he succeeded. He lost all the major battles he fought in, but they were battles that incurred heavy costs on the British and forced them to give up on their hopes of subduing the South. Even members of the British high command were quoted acknowledging Greene's skills in this campaign. Of course Greene wasn't the only man responsible for this result, but he provided the leadership, the ability, and the perseverance that were needed.
   
   The final pages seemed rushed in my opinion and there were some points that could have been developed further, but overall this was a good book. Greene served his country well and it was unfortunate that he died so soon after the war ended.



5. Nathanael Greene was often said to be George Washington's choice to take command of the continental army, should he himself be captured or killed. This is particularly striking when one considers that Greene was a private in the Rhode Island militia one year, and a general in the continental army the next. In Golway's excellent biography, we learn a great deal about Greene, possibly all we can know. This contrast can be frustrating, but it is not Golway's fault. How did a man who was a private, and asked to leave the guard due to his limp, come to be named a general? Golway can't tell us, as the historical record apparently just doesn't exist. Such frustrations aside, we get a great picture of Greene from what does exist. He was obviously a man of great understanding, realizing how the war would truly be won or lost (not necessarily on the battlefied, but "in the hearts and minds" of the populace). He was a businessman who became the quartermaster general against his own dreams of glory, and in so doing may well have saved the army. He was mindful of his own profits, while sacrificing much to the cause. He was the husband of a legendarily vivacious and impressive woman that we sadly do not know enough about. He lusted after glory, and was hypersenstive to criticism. His leadership in the Southern campaign set up the victory at Yorktown. Beyond all the facts we could list, Nathanael Greene epitomized what America would be at its best: a place where someone could reinvent themselves and be judged by ability and accomplishement rather than accidents of birth.

2 comments about AP U.S. History For Dummies (For Dummies (History, Biography & Politics)).

1. Rather than trying to be a synopsis of a text, Velm captures the spirit and essence of each period covered as well as consistently helpful hints on test prep. It's kind of like having Alt. U.S. History version 2, the view from the left side of the fence.Entertaining as a stand alone 'read' even if you're not prepping for the test.



2. I really enjoyed reading this book. It's not easy to make history come alive, especially with the looming threat of a major exam. This book doesn't just summarize facts that you might need for the exam. It takes the drudgery out of the exam review. I found myself forgetting that preparation for the exam was the focus and just enjoying the history that became truly compelling in this book. I really think that it would be helpful if this book were used in classrooms along with other methods of test prepration. It is comprehensive without ever being dull, and it's written with wit and compassion. If it's possible to take the stress out of preparation for an AP exam, this book accomplishes that task.

1 comments about Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources (Penguin Classics).

1. The author of this book (Asser) was a contemporary of King Alfred's and was brought to Wessex (Alfred's kingdom) in the ninth century as part of Alfred's plan to improve education and culture in Anglo-Saxon England. The text is highly readable and gives students an eyewitness account of Alfred's kingship: military successes and failures (esp. fighting the Vikings), advancement of English culture and education, consolidation of the seven kingdoms, and cultivation of Christian kingship in the Early Middle Ages. This kind of book is especially fun for students to read as it shows us "real history," including things such as Alfred's 20-year fight with some sort of intestinal disorder. We see Alfred as a man, not just an aloof, wooden figure that died long ago. This edition also includes maps, geneological charts of the Carolingian (i.e., "French") kings and the English kings up to Alfred, and a 29-page introduction by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, which provides excellent background on the period in which Alfred and Asser lived. Also included are excerpts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was begun in Alfred's reign, extracts of Alfred's own writings and translations, and miscellaneous primary sources such as letters, books, and documents of the era. These items make good backgrounding for teachers. When this biography is read together with the Arthurian legend, it helps students to compare the real and the ideal kings of the Middle Ages.

No comments about Clay Pigeons The Life, Times, and Survival of a B-17 Belly Turret Gunner 1924-1945.

5 comments about We Pointed Them North.

1. Teddy Blue Abbott rode the old western cattle trails from his early teens and shares his memories in 'We Pointed Them North'. A willful young man, Abbott left his Nebraska home early and followed his dream of being a cowboy all the way north to his eventual home in Montana. Along the way he rode many a horse, chased a lot more cow critters, shared an occassional drink and dallied a bit with 'sporting' women and met numerous other young men with similar dreams. The times could be tough but looking back on his life, Teddy Blue wouldn't change a thing.



2. I purchased this book for research purposes. I was surprised to find it so engrossing - a real page turner!



3. Of all the books I've read and owned on the historic west - and they're many - among the finest is Teddy Blue's personal account of the early cattle drives from Texas to Montana. He lived it, he remembered it in all its finest detail, and he told it well. This book both informs and entertains, and with Teddy's tongue firmly planted in his cheek at the right times - such as his account of how he came by his nickname - it flat out amuses. Teddy walked it like he talked it, and there is no better, straighter picture of his wild times than We Pointed Them North.



4. This is another of the several books now available that describes the Texas trail herds and Eastern Montana cattle industry from a cowboy's perspective. Many people consider this the seminal book of the genre. My copy was published in 1939, the year I was born; however, it has been republished several times and is currently available.
   
   My father knew Teddy Blue and I grew up around a mix of cowboys raised in Texas and the northern states. This book is an authentic view of the cowboy's life. Like Teddy Blue, many started out at a young age as an adventure-seeking, rather wild kid. Hard work that wasn't always fun molded them into skilled hands in handling cattle. Teddy Blue finally married, took a homestead, and became one of the settlers whom he used to detest for running livestock and farming on fenced land. That was typical of those Texas cowboys that came to Montana or Wyoming and didn't run back south with the first snowflakes.
   
   This is the true story of trailing livestock from Texas to Montana and raising cattle on the open range. It has stampedes, blizzards, settlers, Indians, prostitutes, outlaws, and vigilantes. It is a story of love, courtship, and marriage. It relates the maturing of Montana from no government or law to established statehood and communities.
   
   E.C. Abbott earned the nickname "Teddy Blue" during one of his more boisterous minutes in Miles City, Montana. Admittedly, it is a misnomer to call Mr. Abbott a Texan since his family moved to Nebraska from England when Teddy Blue was eleven and he fully adopted Montana as the state where he lived out his life. However, he, like the other cowboys who "came up the trail," refers to himself as a Texas cowboy.
   
   This book is very readable. We are indebted to Helena Huntington Smith for recording Teddy Blue's memories, as well as her other writings such as "A Bride Goes West." Those two books are an anchor for the history of the "old west."



5. A good look at the life of a cowboy in Montana and Wyoming in the late 1800's. Not politically correct by any stretch. Not very well put together but a very interesting read.

4 comments about Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home.

1. In each of the years he served as President of the United
   States (minus the 11 southern states which seceded launching the Civil War!) President Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary and family would journey to the Soldiers Retirement Home about 4 miles from the White House. Son Robert would visit on his trips home from Harvard. Youngest Lincoln son Tad enjoyed the Soldiers' Home where he had a menagerie of pets; got to know the guard troops from Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio stationed there. Wife Mary was often vacationing in New England or shopping in New York.
   In this atmosphere Lincoln enjoyed the camaraderie of soldiers; received visitors and enjoyed the company of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton living in a nearby cottage.
   It was in this location that the President agonized over his decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation; decided to fire
   George B. McClellan and help plan the 1864 presidential campaign.
   Every day Lincoln would ride a horse to the White House surrounded by mounted cavalryman. His wife Mary fell from her carriage in July, 1863 while traveling to the home. She was seriously injured .
   Pinsker tells us of plots against Lincoln's life. He may have even been fired upon by an unknown assassin according to a soldier who reported this incident in his postwar memoirs.
   Matthew Pinsker has written an outstanding book adding to our knowledge of the heretofore little known Lincoln residence at the Soldiers Home. The Home is now a National Landmark and is being renovated and opened for the public. One can imagine how awed poet Walt Whitman was as he saw Lincoln on his daily ride from the White House to the Soldiers Home.
   Pinsker draws on a vast array of first person accounts, letters,memoirs and can be complimented on adding to our knowledge of the Lincoln presidency.
   The book is well illustated with maps and is an outstanding addition to anyone interested in the Civil War and the Lincoln presidency. Well recommended!



2. This book was a wonderful find. I read it in two days on a business trip and found the writing style enjoyable, the research accurate and detailed while not at all overbearing, and the information very interesting. There are still very little details of the Lincoln's day to day activities at the Soldier's Home. None of the Lincoln's kept diaries and official documentation of purchases, visitors, and happenings were very casual compared to the entourage and details which follow a modern day president on vacation. But the author uncovered letters and diaries of the soldiers and visitors who were around the Lincoln's at this time and from these sources has discovered a wealth of information. The book parallels each of the decisive war time decisions made by Lincoln, and shows how his daily commute to the Soldiers Home from the White House and back, and the relaxing time spent with his family during summer nights and weekends, helped to shape some of his actions and achievements.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Lincoln the person, with an interest in his politics and Civil War presidency. This book is a wonderful addition to the new writings on the Sixteenth President.



3. This book provides new information about Lincoln and his family, which is highly unusual for someone as researched as Lincoln. Based on letters and recollections of the people who saw him there, this book gives a picture of Lincoln in robe and slippers away from the chaos of the war time White House. A definate addition to what is known about Lincoln.



4. This is a well written book and very timely as action is being taken to renovate the Lincoln Cottage. I reside on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home where the cottage is located and know the value of the cottage in our history. The facility is now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington. The cottage has always been known as the Anderson Cottage.