1 comments about Queen Victoria's Commanders (Elite).

1. This book details some of the conflicts of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1902. The book starts each period by providing brief campaign outlines, India 1837-56, The Mutiny 1857-1860, The Post Mutiny Period 1861-1898, and Africa 1837-1898. It then discusses the major commanders or military personal of note in each period.

   The biographies included are those of Charles Napier, Hugh Gough, Harry Smith, Lacy Yea, James Scarlett, George Cathcart, Fitzroy Somerset (Lord Raglan), John Pennefather, Frederick Haines, John Nicholson, Henry Havelock, Hope Grant, Colin Campbell, John Ewart, Roger Roberts, Walter Hamilton, Haldane Rattray, Frederick Roberts, Francis Brownlow, Robert Napier, Garnet Wolseley, Herbert Stewart, Evelyn Wood, Redvers Buller, Hector Macdonald, and Herbert Kitchener.

   I found the book interesting and one to wet the appetite but I also felt that it could have been made better by the inclusion of simple material to aid the novice. I felt the book would have benefited greatly by the inclusion of general maps, so as to give the novice an outline of the geography, cities, battles, lines of march and the areas over which the conflicts where fought.

   The book also assumes some knowledge of the conflicts and period. For example, in the Crimea section, the Battle of Balaclava with Lord's Lucan and Cardigan is glossed over with the words, "enough has been written elsewhere". I would have liked to have seen at least a couple of paragraphs on them and the battle itself.

   Further I was expecting to find something on the conflicts in China. There are the Opium wars of 1839-1843 & 1856-1860, the Taiping Rebellion 1851-1864, and the Boxer Rebellion 1896-1901. I was also expecting to find a history of General Charles Gordon (nicknamed "Chinese" Gordon) 1833-1885. I was disappointed, there is only passing mention made of Gordon and the China conflicts. Gordon is regarded by some historians as one of Britain's greatest military leaders, and by others as charismatic, yet quixotic and impulsive. This book does give the history of Garnet Wolseley and Herbert Stewart who were part of the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1884-1885.

   General Gordon had served with distinction in the Crimea 1853-1856. He saw action in the Second Opium War 1856-1860 which included the seizure of Beijing. Gordon commanded a force known as the Ever-Victorious Army during the Taiping Rebellion 1851-1864. With them, he recaptured the rebel capital, Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1864 and completely suppressed the rebellion. Gordon served in various diplomatic and military posts through 1864-1874, before serving as Governor of a Sudanese province from 1874. A revolt occurred in Sudan in 1883 and Gordon was tasked with evacuating Khartoum. The evacuation was partially successful, 2500 women and children escaped. A ten month siege of Khartoum followed with Khartoum falling on 26 January 1885. Gordon along with his entire garrison were massacred. Two days later the expeditionary force, dispatched by Gladstone, finally arrived.

   Overall I found the book interesting and wet the appetite, but it could have been made much better by the inclusion of maps and a number of other biographies.

No comments about Ireland's Generals in the Second World War.

No comments about After Anti-Catholicism: John Henry Newman And Protestant Britain, 1845-c. 1890.

5 comments about Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family's Past.

1. An excellent, in-depth exploration of his mother's Irish past and of her coming to America as a young girl. He takes family stories and investigates them through his historian's training. Of course, many times he finds the facts don't support the story, as family stories change over time and blend different events or are shaped by changing perspectives. So then he explores the power of the story, regardless of its veracity, and then explores the facts to more fully understand the world that shaped the people from whom he is descended.
   
   The book is a history lesson in how family's work and don't work. And it is a history lesson in the politics, morals, and folkore of rural Ireland and Chicago's South Side.
   
   A rich, well-written book. You do not need to be Irish to enjoy it.



2. I did not find White's actual content all that engrossing. His historian's determination to separate fact from his mother's "storytelling" embellishments or lacunae follow the usual patterns of such explorations into the clash of contrasts. The Irish mom-meets-Jewish American dad that gave birth to White appealed to me, but reading the pages of life in Chicago in the 30s vs. his father's military stint made this book little different than a self-penned history of one's family by the designated genealogist in the clan. White does write considerably better than such amateurs, but what he writes about does not rise above the mundane or the all-too-familiar tales of peasant agitation, the old IRA, and the leaving of the village for the big city.
   
   His eye occasionally gleans the telling detail, regardless. A petition for citizenship reveals that the husband does not know his wife's birthday, and his guess is off three years. His mother is asked as a 16-year-old at entrance to the country if she was a polygamist. The legend of St Rita, patron of the Chicago parish his family lived in tells in its own moral that God shapes you up only then to kill you off. Jack Benny and Father Coughlan were the radio shows one never missed on Sunday.
   
   One detail shows an error on White's part: on pg. 23 he claims that his relatives had their baptismal names "Gaelicized" by the priest as Helen-Hellena and William-Guilielmo, but surely this is the customary Latinization found on many Catholic documents rather than a return to the Irish which would make Eileen and Liam?
   
   This book reminds me of a few others that have recently delved into the Irish-meets-American immigrant encounter. Thomas Lynch's "Booking Passage," also looking at North Kerry, would complement White's book. His style in its spareness yet its eloquence reminds me of Henry Glassie, the folklorist who compiled "Irish Folktales" and chronicled a Fermanagh community in "Passing the Time at Ballymenone." Finally, books like David Monagan's "Jaywalking with the Irish" and Steve Fallon's "Home with Alice" similarly compare Irish American memories with extended Irish residences.



3. This is a fascinating memoir, alternating between memory and historical records. The remembrances of the author's mother of her early life in western Ireland and her later immigration to the United States are set against his searches for the actual historical documents and records of these events.
   This is not a sentimental or saccharine biography, but an unflinching look at the lives of the respected-historian author's relatives and neighbors, both in Ireland and in America.
   I read it over several days, and would have finished it sooner had I not found myself lost in thought so many times over what records might support-- or contradict--the stories of my own mother and grandmother. I am telling all my friends about this book.



4. Too often the well written and engaging memoir is disengaged from the careful checking of facts and ordering relationships that is the mark of the historian. Richard White tells the story of his Mother's family in Ireland and Chicago, draws on the family stories that he was told, and then relates them to the historical facts and records. The result is a book that is better than it would have been had he relied on a single methodology, and the story is more engrossing than it would be otherwise. While other reviewers would have critisized this methodology, I find that his ability to show where and why discrepancies arise between memory and fact is extraordinarily illuminating.



5. In tracing the "representative" story of his mother's life, the author provides an insight into the motivation and experience of the Irish immigrant. There is also an interesting lesson on the difference between memory and history. Both of these items are of particular interest to the genealogist.

5 comments about The Last of the Name.

1. The last of his name, says Charles McGlinchey, who, old and heirless, revisits his life with a local schoolmaster. So long as someone reads his memoirs though, McGlinchey ensures the family name will endure. His book reads with fireside lyricism and so effectively captures a man and his times. It is unique not in subject but in the breadth of history and in the narrator's ease of storytelling. In just over 100 pages, McGlinchey transports us to a misty, nearly forgotten Irish past that, though shadowed beneath modernity, lives in the recess of his mind. He reminisces on all matters, with one memory unfolding into several more and those into yet more. Among the varied subjects, he recollects his family and home life, his job as a weaver, American emigration, local legends, popular spells and cures, and favorite pastimes. It is the arresting quality of local life in a small Irish community that makes this book such an enjoyable one. McGlinchey's ability to reach back generations and decades and to extract from them histories and individual stories not only astounds but more importantly it reveals an intimate portrait that should not be so soon forgotten.



2. I am in the early stages of writing a book about life in County Donegal during the 19th century. This book is one of a few primary sources that describe what life was like for the people in this county.

   The book is superbly produced-- from the book design to its typefaces, it's beautifully executed. Considering how this material was obtained, the book is well edited. To me reading the book is like sitting around a turf fire in Ireland, listening to a very old man lovingly describe a time that was long since past. He mentions many people and places, mostly within the parish of Inishowen. One thing I would have liked to see is an index. Without an index it's difficult to determine if an ancestor is mentioned in the book.

   The book contains many Irish words and common phrases that were in use at the time. The book also contains songs and poems in Irish (with English translations) that perhaps are not recorded anywhere else. Much of what he recounts was part of the Oral Tradition of the countryside.

   In some ways reading this book brought sadness to my heart. My great-grandparents were born in Donegal around 1820. This book describes some of the hardships that they had to endure. It chronicles a way of life, and a people that are no more. McGlinchey speaks to this regarding the Irish language, "Down to my young days there was nothing spoken in this parish at fair or chapel or gathering of any kind but Irish.... The English language came in greatly in my own time and in the one generation Irish went away like the snow off the ditches."




3. This little book is a fascinating read and a must have for anyone with Irish ancestry. It was narrated by Charles MacGlinchey, whose family moved from the Finn Valley in Donegal to the Inishowen Peninsula and settled in Clonmany parish, where Charles McGlinchey was the last of his family, hence the title of the book. It's chock full of Donegal folklore, including tales of poteen stills, revenue men, men on their banishment, the famine, immigrants to America, landlords and tenants, kidnapped women, hedge schools and fighting sticks. Charles McGlinchey was born in 1861 and died in 1954. His life covered the period when most of our Irish ancestors were crossing the Atlantic in small ships with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a small cask of oaten bread for nourishment.
   Don't look for a lot of genealogical information in the book. There is a mention here and there of a handful of families a fortunate few may be able to connect with; but on the whole this book is a living, breathing picture of life in Donegal when almost every Donegal man still spoke and read Irish as his native tongue and the Irish language had yet to melt away under the onslaught of English like the snow on a river bank, to use McGlinchey's phrase.
   There are tales in the book of Donegal farmwives walking the thirty miles from Clonmany parish to the market in Derry and back again in time to do more chores before nightfall; of the oldtimers sitting with their backs to the fire at night sharing the ancient exploits of Finn and Cuchulain; of a rapacious Scottish landlord named McNeill from whom no comely lass in the parish was safe; of an Irish schoolmaster overly fond of the drink and of his eager young Latin hedgerow scholars; of a sodden Irish landowner who drank away his inheritance at the local pub; and of the great yearly fair at Pollan, a festive event attended by the entire community with occasional tragic consequences for the unlucky.
   Books were almost unknown to the common man in Donegal. The few books McGlinchey mentions were mainly religious tracts, in Irish and Latin. He mentions offhandedly that a man of his acquaintance owned a book by someone named Aristotle. Tragicallly he also relates that many of the old Irish manuscripts were burned to prevent the spreading of disease in the community. Even if they had had books its doubtful anyone could have spent much time reading them. The cabins were dark at night and if anyone entered the cabin after dark the fire had to be stirred to raise enough light to see who it was. Homemade candles flickered in the windows on religious holidays.
   Contrary to common misconception, the Irish did not just subsist on potatoes. The farmers made their own oaten and flour bread, which they ate with butter and washed down with fresh milk. They supplemented their diets with what they called "kitchen", which included everything from fresh fish to watercress from the ocean strands. Each family had a measure of corn for the winter, and most had at least a cow, perhaps a pig and a few chickens, although eggs were a cash crop reserved for the market at Derry. Red meat, as we know it today, was a rarity in their diet. Every farm had its rack of potatoes in the fields. The plows were wooden and drawn by horses. McGlinchey mentions a local farmer, one of whose horses took sick one day, and he took its place in the harness pulling the plow alongside the remaining horse for the rest of the day.
   The famine did not seem to affect Donegal nearly as badly as it did much of the rest of Ireland. According to McGlinchey, an earlier famine in 1817 was much more devastating. It's not clear whether this condition pertained to Clonmay parish alone, or whether most of Donegal escaped relatively unscathed. But fly off to America nonetheless did the sons and daughters of Donegal and Inishowen, leaving behind forever the two-roomed thatched roofed cabins and the village fairs of their youth. Some of the more primitive living conditions common elsewhere in Ireland did not seem to prevail in Donegal. Sod cabins were almost unknown, except for temporary accommodations in the summer mountain pastures. Nearly every family had a cabin of stone, McGlinchey says, with lime covered walls, although rarely whitewashed, and hard clay or stone flagged floors. Some cabins even had windows. The fireplaces in early years lacked flues and the pall of smoke was ever present.
   McGlinchey didn't write this book - he narrated it to a local schoolmaster when over ninety year's old. His often rambling text was edited by Brian Friel, and first published in manuscript form in 1986 in Belfast. The current edition is published by J.S. Sanders and Company, of Nashville, Tennessee.
   I was especially struck by the fact that McGlinchey mentioned that the Donegal folk gave their farm animals, mainly cattle, pet names such as Starry and Missy. In our family we have a copy of the will for our immigrant Donegal ancestor, in which all of the family's cattle were so named. The twig, they say, does not fall far from the tree, and if you'd like to really get a feel for the world in which your Irish ancestors lived, then buy a copy of this book.
   You won't regret it.



4. This book was very interesting. It is a closely edited description of an old man's life in a remote rural area of Ireland in the first half of the century. He tells a few stories from his father's and grandfather's days but mostly describes what life was like during his life. The book was first published in the 50's, I think. Without referring directly at all to the major events of the day, we get a look at the changes that were underlying society in his time. From the story about his grandfather being "pressed" to serve in the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars on, I was hooked. The Kirkus reviews are misleading, though. They make it sound like the man was telling fairy tales instead of fairly straightforwardly recounting his life, which involved a fair amount of superstition.



5. Charles McGlinchey's book is wonderful. It manages to convey a sense of the cultural wealth which rural Ireland possessed until so recently. He himself fitted very much into the 'Seanachai' tradition, and we should be thankful that some of his knowledge has been preserved. The delightful thing about the book is the simplicity of the material.

No comments about The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby Volume I: Ascent, 1799-1851.

3 comments about Churchill and War.

1. Geoffrey Best masterfully highlights the role that war played in Winston Churchill's long life while putting to rest some myths and misconceptions on this subject. As Best puts it diplomatically at the beginning, Churchill was not a saint. Churchill was at times rough and at others smooth. Churchill's roughness was embodied in his egotism, ruthlessness, and lack of consideration. Churchill's smoothness was found in his decency, patriotism, humanity, and courage. The secret behind Churchill's greatness lied in breaking rules.
   
   Churchill was a man in a hurry, on the lookout for both fame and notice. Churchill was always wondering how he looked like if he did this or that. Churchill was looking for his "finest hours" for decades. Churchill repeatedly showed recklessness on the battlefield while believing that nothing serious could ever happen to him during his military adventures.
   
   Churchill's books, articles, and speeches were at the service of his military and political ambitions while making a living out of them. Churchill valued most his writings about war. War was the most exciting activity to man in Churchill's view. History taught him that war was ruling the destinies of nations.
   
   Churchill was never one to be idle. Churchill's great transformation began when he took to serious company and books. Churchill did not find any relish in club-lounging, party-going, dancing, and womanizing. Although Churchill was not indifferent to female charm, he was not at ease with women. Churchill was lucky to find in Clementine Hozier a gifted woman who could accommodate his sometimes difficult character.
   
   Churchill was a very hard working man and showed an unusual talent for mastering detail. Churchill had an elephantine memory on which he could rely to use facts and data for further purposes. Although Churchill had an unusual gift with words, he was not by nature an effective public speaker.
   
   Churchill had a deep interest in military strategy within which the large allied armies operated during the two world wars. Strategizing was to him the closest thing to commanding great armies in the field. Churchill's interest in generalship was at the very heart of his fascination with war, including the technologies used for waging war. Like other war leaders, Churchill found the neutrality of non-belligerents irksome.
   
   Churchill remained a democrat at times of war by not suppressing critics who annoyed him. Despite his excitement about war, Churchill considered magnanimous peacemaking important once war was over. However, Churchill had no intention to condone the atrocities committed by the Nazis against non-combatants during WWII.
   
   The older Churchill was, the more he became aware of the heavy price tag attached to war for those who did not have his luck. For all his humanity, Churchill knew very well that war was a dreadfully demanding endeavor that overturned peacetime norms and hardened man's heart. Churchill had no illusion about the increasingly lethal evolution of war during his lifetime. Unsurprisingly, Churchill promoted a peace agenda after WWII with the advent of the balance of nuclear terror.
   
   To summarize, Best helps his audience better comprehend what role war played in the existence of a man who left an indelible footprint behind him.



2. This is a brillant book; well researched, extremely well written and a great read!
   
   Author Geoffrey Best shows the important role war played in the life of Winston Churchill, beginning with his birth at Blenheim (built for John Churchill, first Duke of Malborough and commemorating the 1704 battle, which secured England's rising position in the world) and focusing mainly on the British leader's seminal role in the Second World War. "War was central to Churchill's life," writes Best, "He was a soldier before he was a politician."
   
   Best addresses various aspects of Churchill as a war leader, including his influence on the Grand Alliance and the strategic insight and war direction he provided to Great Britian and the Allies. While he helped to determine the outcome of the war by ensuring America's participation, Churchill's strategic vision was, at times, faulty. Certainly his resistence to Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy and the European Continent, in favor of a greater Allied commitment in Italy and the Balkans, shows him at his strategic worse.
   
   Following the Second World War, however, the British leader became less conservative and more flexible and worked fervently to avert another world war. The use of atomic weapons in another war became anathema to him. "The fact was that Churchill had lost his taste for war," records Best. "He had studied was for sixty years and lived it for fifteen of then and it had been getting worse all the time. He had never cherised illusions about it."
   
   This book dispels a great many myths about Winston Churchill and his attitudes toward war. Informative and insightful, it will alter our perceptions of a great statesman, whose life, from beginning to end, was filled with war.



3. A book for all those interested in the martial side of the great British statesman. Especially interesting to me were thoughts on WW II air raids on Dresden and the overalll tactics and morality of Bomber Command. Also, many will find Professor Best's discussion of Winston Churchill's involvement with the development of the atomic bomb and his early 1950s statements on maintaining international peace, given this new war device, especially informative.
   
   British historian Geoffrey Best writes from deep knowledge, and in a pleasing style. Readers interested in a broader treatment of Sir Winston's life would profit from reading his 2001 biography, "Churchill: a Study in Greatness."

No comments about Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties.

1 comments about King Stephen.

1. I was hoping for a text that would be easier to read. Matthew is at best ponderous. There is good, solid information here, but the author's stilted style virtually overcomes the usefulness of the information.

5 comments about George Iii: A Personal History.

1. Who was the English King at the time of The American Revolution? I dunno!!! Well, now I do know and, furthermore, I now know something about his private and public life before and after The American Revolution. He reigned for over 50 years and the last years of his reign were about 200 "short" years ago. One thing that impressed me was the sorry state of "the medical art" even in those days. Taking blood from sick people was supposed to cure them. Giving arsenic was supposed to cure certain ailments. Today, we are way ahead of these primitive practices....all we do is give medicines that are "poison" such as depression medication and cold medicine and "antibiotics" for viruses which have no effect.....and doctors do unnecessary surgeries frequently so they can get money from the naive and trusting patients. But, that's another story and another book! Read about King George 3rd; you'll find it interesting. Boland7214@aol



2. I used this book extensively for a research paper I wrote on George III. This book does a great job at dispelling the myths about George III and his character.



3. Christopher Hibbert is one of those historians that seems to write about everything. Peter Gay is another that comes to mind. Hibbert provides us a very readale account of George's life. The early years are a bit confusing keeping track of the lineage and order of succession in the Royal family. Many biographies of monarchs suffer from this problem because there are so many family connections to keep track of. Once we get past this point and the young george becomes king, the book starts to pick up.
   
   What becomes apparent is that George III was extremely fare and decent man for his time. We should have such politicians today with this kind of integrity! The emphsasis in this bio is on George's private life. His dealings with his German Queen Charlotte, his son and sucessor the future George IV, who was a continual source of stress for him. The chapters on his dealings with the colonies provided a much less bias account than one normally hears from most US historians. The King was willing to come to any reasonable settlement short of independence. This book shows how he tried to grapple with the American problem, but that it just got out of control.
   
   His dealings with the various parliamentry governments provides a classic example of how personalities shape governments. Petty likes and dislikes lead to complete policies that are often inane. Still, the British people stuck by their old George, espesically when the excesses of the French Revolution became known.
   
   The book gives a good account of some of the other Royals, including George IV, the Duke of York, etc. Most come across as aristocratic fopps and losers, but some manage to have some merit. Over all a great book which chronicles both the life and times of Georgian England. The life of George III was indeed that of England in its heyday. A great read for the time and persoanlities concerned.



4. This very well-written and researched book provides a wealth of detail on the life of Britain's King George III and his family.
   
   The last British king of the American colonies, George III directed the ill-advised war against his independence-minded colonies. Long and terribly destructive, the war saw the defeat of George's armies and navies in North America. Still, having spent eight years fighting the Americans, the King quickly decided to lay the foundations of a lasting peace and friendship between the two countries.
   
   Hibbert depicts King George as a constitutionally-minded monarch and a competent ruler. Initially detested by his people, he ended his life and reign greatly loved. Certainly his greatest challenges revolved around his large and dysfunctional family and his fight with porphyria and insanity.
   
   "George III" is a scholarly work. Though not an easy read, it is an interesting one!



5. Nice overview of the times. The fact that George III was just as determined to maintain the credibility of the British empire as that other George was at finding a way to separate from it. A renewal of the more believable story of 'mad king george'.