5 comments about The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest (Modern War Studies).

1. This is the definative biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Although it is clear that the author admires his subject, he provides a fair and balanced account of Forrest's life. The book is well written and thoroughly researched. If you are going to read one book on Forrest, this should be it.



2. What I like about Wills book, besides the bio, is that it addresses why Forrest was often not in the main theater of operations during the crucial times of 1864. Forrest is well defined as a frontier planter whose strong belief in honor combined with an explosive action oriented temperament made him a ferocious opponent yet he was difficult as a subordinate except under the right conditions. In the case of the latter, Forrest literally offers to slap Braxton Bragg for his lack of action after Chickamauga and only fails to do so because in his estimation, Bragg was not a man thus not worthy of the challenge. Wills does an excellent compact bio of Forrest capturing the early life and his rise to success as a slave trader and planter to a private in the Confederate service to the immediate promotion of Colonel and on. All the daring raids are captured, aided by maps but aside from Shiloh and Chickamauga, the only truly large operation Forrest was involved with was Hood's march to Nashville where the inexplicable Spring Hill disaster is laid at Forrest's feet unfairly when Hood had responsibility of creating a sufficient force to stop Schofield's escape. The tremendous work ethic combined with his fearlessness and temper is described throughout the book including Forrest's post war life and business. Forrest does amazingly well defending his Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama sector with a relative small force culminating in his great victory at Brices Crossroads. Wills includes Forrest's post war career with an example of Forrest's feared temper by describing a railroad meeting where one of Forrest's engineers starts the discussion with a loaded pistol on the table in case the company President, Forrest, intended a violent interruption. Although not captured in gross detail, Forrest's role at the infamous Fort Pillow is described in sufficient detail along with Forrest's post war role in the Ku Klux Klan. The role of the Klan is described as an attempt to maintain a retaliatory police force against over stepping radicals and to force former slaves into roles as cheap labor and as a channeled political force obviously through violence if deemed necessary. The association with Forrest seems quite clear but murky before congress. One thing is very clear in this bio, if Forrest was involved, he had to lead the action, or he otherwise was not interested. A most feared adversary, inventive, unpredictable and incredibly daring leading his men wherever he wanted them to go. As Wills points out, how unfortunate he rarely had a suitable commander to follow in larger campaigns and he was not used effectively during Sherman's initial march to Atlanta. If he was, Sherman would not have got there until at last 1865. The book is approximately 381 pages, maps and pictures and another 100 pages of notes and index. The book is endorsed by the late Emory M. Thomas (The Last cavalier), Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. (Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend) and William C. Davis (The Lost Cause).



3. Any time a writer fails to use all available sources the end result is always worthless.
   
   The 1871 Congressional hearings of Forrest chaired by William Tecumseh Sherman regarding both Ft. Pillow and the KKK failed to support the author's tired repetition of the 1864 "investigation." Why stick with the wartime 1864 propaganda hearing when the later hearing disputed virtually everything previously assumed?
   
   At Ft. Pillow Forrest took 39 USCT prisoner and turned them over to his commanders. He turned over 14 of the most grievously wounded surviving USCT to the Acting Master of the U.S. Steamer Silver Cloud (Federal Official Records).
   
   Hardly the acts of a "massacre."
   
   Same old tiring retelling of second-hand propaganda when first-hand contemporaneous sources are actually available.
   
   Your Obedient Servant,
   
   Colonel Michael Kelley, (...)
   "I came here as a friend...let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." - LT Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis, Tennessee - July, 1875



4. The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman : Nathan Bedford Forrest (Modern War Studies) by Brian Steel Wills is a fine biography of perhaps the most complicated and interesting leader of the Civil War. In describing Forrest it is difficult, if not impossible, to remain neutral. For those that love or hate him there is plenty of ammunition. However, Wills does a better than anticipated job taking the neutral course.

   For those that view Forrest as the reincarnation of the Devil, there is plenty of evidence, and Wills covers most of it. Forrest was a crude, ruffian slave trader who would not think twice of killing a man who he believed showed him disrespect. As Willis writes, he was responsible for the massacre of Union troops at Fort Pillow. As a General he was brilliant when in independent command, but did not do well when working under someone elses command or part of a larger team. This failure limited his ability to have a greater impact on the course of the War. His failure to work with other Generals who he believed were inferior was part of the reason that the Union Army was able to escape destruction at Spring Hill.

   On the other hand, Forrest was a brilliant tactician and a real leader of men. From leading his troops out of the encirclement at Fort Donaldson to his brilliant victory at Bryce Creek, Forrest was a fighter and a leader. Furthermore, if Hood had listened to Forrest after Spring Hill, and allowed Forrest to out flank the Union troops at Franklin, the battle of Franklin may have been a Confederate victory rather than a disaster.

   Willis deftly moves between the several General Forrests. He seems not to have an agenda, giving the good with the bad. At least until the Civil War ends. While Wills does describe Forrest's contribution to the founding and growth of the Ku Klux Klan, he seems to hold his punches. However, that is a slight criticism. Al in all, this is a good book about one of the most interesting personalities in the Civil War.




5. I have read several biographies on Lee, Jackson, and Grant, but this is the first that I have read on N.B. Forrest. I thought the battle details were about right so as to instruct on what went on and to give insight to Forrest's great ability, but not so much as to bog down a reader who has not read much about warfare. I thought Wills was fair concerning the incident at Ft Pillow--he did not place the blame at Forrest's feet, but was sure that Forrest was not in total control of his men. I, personally, would liked to have had more detail about Forrest's deeds after the War Between the States. Some of Wills' comments seem to be a little vague, and at times he seemed to be jumping sides as to Forrest's involvement with the KKK. Overall, I did learn about this interesting man and am glad that I read this book. It was a good starting place for continued reading on General N.B. Forrest.

5 comments about The Young Ones: American Airmen of WW II.

1. You really get a sense of what our pilots and crews went through during WWII. I really appreciate the sacrifices they made. The 3 star rating is due to my feeling that the editing could have been better. Perhaps it wasn't because Erik is Danish.



2. "The Young Ones"by Erik Dyreborg

   The Young Ones is filled with some of the most exciting and memorable notes of escapes during WW II. The stamina and courage of these young men is almost unbelieveable. The exploitskeep you virtually on the edge of your seat throughout the entire read.

   I makes you proud to know that this caliber of young men represented our nation ... So very young and heroic.

   It is a well coordinated documentation of the exploits of young AMericans who risked so much and have been unable to share their experiences to any great extent.

   Thanks to Erik Dyreborg for keeping their experiences alive and thus enabling others to share in an relatively unexplored area of WW II.

   Sincerely,

   Lois Eveland




3. Erik, the author, presented an opportunity to those who survived the ravages of war with a way to be a part of his compendium of experiences of the Air War of WWII. I feel that by drawing on these individual segments of history that for the most part, were not widely disseminated or documented, he has provided the public a glimpse of what is a patch quilt of the happenings of that era. Those contributing their experiences dug deep in their memories of events that most had been stifling for years to avoid reliving the pain they and their fellow crew members experienced in combat. This book reflects only the stories of the few who wished to honor comrades who couldn't or wouldn't share their role in the fatal game called war. Many have died or will soon die without describing what they found out in their first hand experiences during a terrible time in history when millions of people died, some good, some bad, in the name of patriotism or loyalty to their country's cause. A common thread throughout this book is seen in what some call Luck, and how seconds separated the losers and survivors in the Air War. I believe the primary goal of the author is to show the need for an alternative to war as a means of solving the world's problems. Another important goal is to stimulate those readers who have important contributions yet to be documented, to understand that unless they share their experiences, thery will be lost forever at their death. (See page 319 for my story).
   Frank J Finklang, Lt.Col., USAF Retired



4. The Young Ones is a very interesting but a sobering read. These individual experiences truly make you realize the sacrifices our airmen made during WWII. Surely, in most cases, to remember and relay those harrowing days was difficult for the veteran. I feel much gratitude toward these men for their service to our country and also for having their stories recorded for history.

   The impact the years in the service had on these men is evident by the details they were able to recall and describe. The recording of these experiences was made many years after WWII.

   This truly is a classic collection of some very brave and courageous young Americans.




5. The Young Ones is not really a book. As you start to read the stories you feel almost immediately that you are having a conversation with the individuals while learning about their experiences and quickly seeing that the price of freedom comes high. This book crosses generation lines and offers inspriation to the young and old alike.

   The spoken language has been put on the pages and makes reading fun, interesting and relaxing. You do not want to put the book down. The size and scope of the book really is the story of WW11 Avaition.

   This book belongs in schools and libraries. Teenagers, especially should be exposed to the book and learn the lessons passed on by many brave young fliers.

1 comments about Bradley (Great Generals).

1. Page 2 One of the slapped soldiers was suffering from Malaria
   
   Page 3 Patton died on 1945 not 1946
   
   Page 94 The 34th was commanded by Maj. Gen. Charles W. Ryder (May 1942 - July 1944) not Lt. Colonel

5 comments about No One Left Behind: The LT. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story: The LT. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story.

1. Where, indeed, is Michael Scott Speicher, an American pilot shot down on the first night of Gulf War I and written off as dead even before an investigation had taken place and the wreckage gone over? Read this book and learn about how fast our government is to write our boys off. Learn how honorable people fought for the truth about Speicher's shootdown and subsequent ejection and capture leading the government to change his status from KIA BNR to Missing Captured, or whatever they call it now. Words don't change the fact that Speicher is one of the more recent POWs to be taken by our enemies never to be returned. Where is Matt Maupin? Where is William P. Milliner? Where is Hrdlicka? Where is LTC Shelton? Where are the over 20,000 taken by the Russians in WWII? Where are the missing men from the Korean War like Roger Dumas, turned away at the prisoner exchange at the end of the Korean War never to be seen again? Where is the outrage from so-called Americans? This book is a must read!



2. Every soldier has heard "No one left behind", but Lt. Commander Michael Scott Speicher was left behind and the story needs to get out. Our government should be held accountable and no effort should be spared to find out the truth once and for all. Sightings of this soldier by reputable witnesses, murders of those who helped him, this sounds like an incredible movie plot. But, it's all true and the family and fellow soldiers need to get the truth and recover him or his remains.



3. There have been several articles and reports in recent years about Michael Scott Speicher; the Navy F-18 pilot who was shot down over Iraq during the first night of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Over the last fourteen years, there have been many mistakes and missed opportunities in relation to Scott Speicher's case. Many people believe that Speicher may have been alive up to a decade after the 1991 Gulf War and there is still hope that he is alive today. There have been multiple pieces of credible evidence and even sightings of Speicher since he was lost and there is simply no evidence that suggests that he was killed in action. There is also strong evidence that we had a chance to rescue Speicher in 1994 but the Clinton Administration for fear of the political fallout abandoned him at that time. My question is where is the accountability? Why hasn't anyone taken a beating over this miserable failure and possible abandonment of one of our nation's finest?
   
   Amy Waters Yarsinske has written a thorough account of the Speicher case: No One Left Behind: The Lt. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story. In her book, Yarsinske describes how Scott Speicher took off from the aircraft carrier Saratoga in the early morning hours of January 17, 1991 and did not return. For some reason the officials aboard the Saratoga neglected to get the news out about Speicher to Naval Forces Central Command for several hours after Speicher did not return. This mistake was critical because the first four to five hours after a shootdown are when combat search and rescue (CSAR) is most successful. Another mistake, which occurred in the early stages of the war, was when Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, stated to reporters that an F-18 pilot was lost on the first night of operations and was killed in the incident. He made the statement based on some bad information that was given to him from Vice Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, then chief of naval personnel. Boorda had gotten the information from his chain of command that "Scotts Hornet had been blown out of the sky--with no chance of survival, no ejection". The truth to a high degree of certainty is that Scott Speicher was not killed in the incident. When Speicher's crash site was discovered, the plane was in relatively good shape. It certainly was not completely destroyed. The engines were intact, the canopy was missing, and the ejection seat was missing. This of course suggests that Speicher ejected. Scott's flight recorder was found later, which confirmed that Speicher's plane went down due to fuel being cut off from the engines. An air-to-air missile detonating beneath the aircraft probably caused the failure of fuel to the engines. It is known that a pilot ejecting from an F-18 Hornet, has more than an eighty percent chance of survival.
   
   Another disturbing bit of information about the 1991 Gulf War is the lack of combat search and rescue (CSAR) missions for downed pilots during the war. According to Yarsinske, there were thirty-seven fixed wing aircraft that went down during the conflict and search teams were launched for just seven of them. According to Timothy G. Connolly, a former Army Ranger and principle undersecretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict said "We did virtually no SAR for anyone. Jesse Johnson, head of special operations for Central Command, was responsible for combat SAR forces. His rule was, we're not launching unless there's somebody on the ground waving their arms for us. He didn't want to risk casualties." No search and rescue team was launched for Michael Scott Speicher.
   
   Perhaps the most shocking information about the Speicher case is that the U.S. could have rescued Scott in 1994 but decided to abandon him. The CIA discovered that pieces of an American jet were being sold on the black market by a source named the Falcon Hunter. The Falcon Hunter was a Member of the Qatari royal family with strong ties to the Iraqis. In December 1993, the Falcon Hunter was in the western Iraqi desert hunting with his falcons as he commonly did and came upon some locals trading parts. He discovered that a local tribe of Bedouins found the wreckage of a U.S. warplane. The Falcon Hunter told them that he wished to see the crash site for himself. They took him to the crash site and he immediately recognized that it was a Navy jet from the USS Saratoga, downed in the Persian Gulf War. According to Yarsinske, after some time, the Bedouins were communicating with the U.S. through the Falcon Hunter and indicated that they wanted to turn Scott over to the U.S. authorities. They made the attempts for two or three years with no affirmative response from the Clinton Administration or U.S. Intelligence in the region. This information is corroborated by two Joint Chiefs of Staff sources in Navy Intelligence and the CIA. The Falcon Hunter's statements were further corroborated by a Saudi prince who new the Bedouin tribes in Western Iraq. The prince made frequent trips across the border and even offered to get Scott Speicher out if the U.S. wanted him to do so. He was waiting for instructions when the Joint Chiefs of Staff was told by their Chairman, General John M. Shalikashvili to stand down. Why would he do that? According to Yarsinske "The Clinton administration had apparently made the decision that bringing Scott Speicher home at that time would reveal that they had known he was in trouble since taking office" and since there would be witnesses including Scott himself who knew the timing of the events, "The embarrassment was a political bombshell, a hit the administration was unwilling to take."
   
   With all of the evidence of missed opportunities and even blatant abandonment of Speicher after he was reported alive, why hasn't there been a congressional investigation? I think the officials in the government who chose to abandon Michael Scott Speicher ought to be held accountable. They need to answer under oath in congressional hearings. They should know that their actions in this matter would cost them more than just political capital or shame. They need to be punished.



4. This is good solid reporting about a very interesting subject. I read the book before the second war in Iraq and would love to read an updated version with later discoveries.



5. Would the United States knowingly leave one of their own behind during the First Gulf Conflict? Amy Waters Yarsinke, the author, seems to think yes, they would.

   We start with the facts; Michael Scott Speicher was flying a plave that was shot down over Iraq during the early stages of the Gulf War Conflict. After that, we are presented with evidence (from Iraqis )backing up the theory that he was killed and a whole slew of evidence he survived and, indeed, was still alive in the late 1990's.

   Perhaps now that Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen and Abu Graib prison in in the hands of the Allies, Warsinke's claims may not be so readily believable however there is strong circumstancial evidence that Speicher survived the crash and fell into the hands of the Iraqis.

   An interesting book firmly pushing the 'He's alive' theory. Maybe he is.

1 comments about The Sky Suspended: A Fighter Pilot's Story.

1. The Sky Suspended: A Fighter Pilot's Story is the remarkable and memorable autobiography of Jim Bailey, who in the summer of 1939 while a 19-year old student at Oxford University felt strongly that war between England and Germany was inevitable. That was when he signed up to become a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force. Baily flew British fighter planes in aerial combat missions that ranged from the Battle of Britain, through the action at Gibraltar, and the Anzio beach-heads, to the landing in the South of France. One of the true heroes for which Winston Churchill was to acknowledge with his famous declaration that never had "so many owed so much to so few", The Sky Suspended is the true life story of heroism, survival against the odds, and a remembering of so many that did not make it through -- but to whom so much is owed to that generation of young men by all of the generations that follow. This special large printed edition of The Sky Suspended is a great read, and a welcome addition to the growing library of World War II memoirs and biographies.

5 comments about Medic!: The Story of a Conscientious Objector in the Vietnam War.

1. I have only read two books, in my twenty five years, from cover to cover. Both took nearly two months to complete, I'd read ten minutes at a time, or more.
   
   I had been browsing through Borders, on Saturday evening, looking for Candy Bombers. They didn't have it. While I was faux browsing, waiting for someone to move, something popped out on the shelf. Medic! I work as an EMT in a small town, very rural, area. That had nothing to do with my interest, I just threw it in there. Members of my family had been in every way, for the past 150 years. Literally. They were killed at Five Points, Virginia, in the Civil War; Sainteny, France; and Cambodia. The last, was a feature of a thirty-years later, letter, that made national news. I'm fond of Military history, battlefield medicine, that laid the path for my career today, in Emergency Medical Services.
   
   I'm a picky reader, and I'm critical of authors, their style either grabs me, or pushes me away. I have hundreds of books that I bought, only to use a paragraph, dozens that pushed me away, two that I enjoyed. Thousands in all, enough to have a library, in my home. I'm an author myself, co-author, I've written hundreds of articles and essays, and publish two books. I'm not great, I just have a really good hobby, and I can type.
   
   Nearly ten hours ago, I sat down to finally read my September copy of JEMS. The Journal of Emergency Medical Services. I wasn't comfortable, I looked around, and laid down JEMS. I picked up Medic!, and now it's quarter to three on a Tuesday morning.
   
   I read Medic!, in just under ten hours. Good book, skilled author. I'm posting it to a friend that is stationed over seas in the morning. Good literature must not sit on a shelf, it should be passed on.



2. When I first started reading this book I couldn't put it down and was disappointed that it wasn't very long. Since I finished it, I have reread parts of it because I like them so much. "Medic" is written like a novel (as was mentioned in previous reviews), which makes the book extremely easy to read, since it's more than a list of what the author did. The fact that the book seems like a novel is not a fault. It allows you to get into the book and I don't think that the historical value of the narrative was diminished by it. I got into all of the characters in the book, all of whom were portrayed in good detail. The characters and their plights gave good insight into how war affects those involved emotionally. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good book or who is interested in Vietnam War literature.



3. Ben Sherman was a conscientious objector who nonetheless served in Vietnam as a medic. As a combat medic myself, much of what he retells here is spot on. However, parts of the book seemed a bit contrived, hence the 3 stars.
   
   Sherman's courage is beyond reproach - to go into a combat zone unarmed (even as a medic) takes real stones. The fear, apprehension and constant wondering if he was "good enough" to do right by his soldiers was eerily familiar. His anguish and self-blame at those he could not save speaks volumes about his character. The descriptions of Vietnam and of his experiences in (and out) of combat are vivid. However more than once I couldn't help but think that he was retelling sea-stories or dramatizing - particularly in the epilogue where he retells meeting the family of a fallen comrade. While this may have happened, it seems inplausable and feels as if it were written for emotional impact.
   
   Volumes have been written about Vietnam, many of them memoirs from those who served on the ground. While _Medic!_ offers a new perspective (from that of a CO - conscientious objector), it is not among the better of the lot.



4. Reviewer Mazza (11.15.04) mentions that the book "reads more like a novel than a memoir." Exactly, and that's the problem---which is it? As reviewer Bunch (1.24.06) notes, there are several events that don't ring true. For example, in 1985 the author and a friend visited a deserted Wall at 10 o'clock at night. As he knelt and wept in front of the name of a soldier whose life he had been unable to save in `69, who should appear but that same man's mother and brother (to whom he apparently said nothing). There are many books written by Vietnam vets. Read this one if you aren't troubled by repeated dramatic coincidences.



5. I found the book to be a pretty sharp criticism of the U.S. Army and how it treated its own soldiers. The fact that Sherman was in more danger from his fellow G.I.s than the Viet Cong is very troubling but we hear these stories all the time.

2 comments about Collateral Damage: The John List Story.

1. A. Scroggins is certainly right that the book is sloppily written and contains numerous typos. However, the story is very interesting. For the first time, the reader learns, from John List's perspective, who he was and what made him tick. What caused a man like John List, who probably had never even had a traffic violation, to perform such a heinous act? Unlike other writers, who can only speculate as to the workings of List's mind, he tells it straight and makes no effort to whitewash or to create sympathy for himself. The fact that he was ultimately diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his World War II experiences goes a long way toward explaining what caused List to have so many failures in the business world and what led to his final infamy.



2. This book is horrible. The murders are hardly mentioned. Did anybody edit this? It's full of typos, so much so that it was hard to read. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

3 comments about Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates.

1. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel William C. Oates let his troops, the 15th Alabama, in the fateful and unsuccessful charge against Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on the far left of the Union line at Little Round Top. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine have become American heroes, but far less attention is given to Oates. In "Gettysburg Requiem" (2006) Glenn Lafantasie offers the first full-scale biography of Oates (1833 -- 1910). It is an intruiguing picture of a man and his times and of the changing South after the Civil War. LaFantasie is a professor of Civil War history and Director fo the Center for the Civil War in the West at Western Kentucky University. He is the author of "Twilight at Little Round Top", a book which focuses on the stuggle for this famous hill on the second day of Gettysburg.
   
   Oates lived a long and eventful life. He was raised in poverty. In his mid-teens, he fled Alabama to avoid prosecution for incidents resulting from what would become his lifelong propensity to violence. For several years, he lived the life of a wanderer in Texas and Louisiana. Oates returned to Alabama, disciplined himself, and became a successful attorney. An ardent Confederate, he raised a company, served with Stonewall Jackson, and with Lee, and participated in many important battles of the Civil War. He was wounded six times and ultimately lost his right arm. After the Civil War, Oates returned to Abbeyville, Alabama where he became wealthy through his law practice and land speculations. He served seven terms in the United States House of Representatives and one term as the Governor of Alabama. Oates was named a Brigadier General in the Spanish-American War, but he never saw combat in that conflict. In 1905, Oates published a book on which he had worked for years, "The War between the Union and the Confederacy and its Lost Opportunities."
   
   Lafantasie gives a full picture of Oates's career, and he describes Oates's character as well. Throughout his life, Oates was courageous, but he remained prone to violence. After losing his right arm late in the war, Oates fathered a child with a young African American woman who was his servant and was nursing him back to health. Later, Oates fathered another illigitimate child with an adolescent 14 years of age. At the age of 48, Oates married a young woman, "T" who was 19. The marriage was lasting (over 28 years) and Oates loved his family and supported the education of his children, including the two illigitimate sons, through college, graduate school, and successful careers. According to LaFantasie, Oates' life was driven by a desire to have power over others. He describes Oates as racist, sexist, and xenophobic. Yet he recognizes many fine qualities in his subject. In 1901, Oates acted courageously at the Alabama Constitutional Convention where he was in a distinct minority in opposing changes which led to the disenfranchismement of Alabama's black citizens.
   
   The best parts of this book are those which describe Oates's early rootless days of wandering in Texas and those which describe Oates's career in the Confederate Army. Lafantasie has a close, detailed knowledge of the fighting for Little Round Top. By focusing on Oates' role in the struggle, Lafantasie made the battle, and the combat between the 15th Alabama and the 20th Maine clearer to me than many accounts which try to discuss the totality of the action. Lafantasie convincingly shows that the Battle for Little Round Top was the pivotal event of Oates's life. Oates's younger brother, John, was fatally wounded in the fight for Little Round Top. John had been ill, and Oates tried to keep him out of the combat, but John insisted on moving forward. Oates never forgave himself. Many soldiers close to Oates died on the hill. Oates relived his brother's death, the terrible combat, and the failure to take Little Round Top many times during the ensuing 46 years of his life. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get a monument to the 15th Alabama at the point of their closest penetration of the Union position and he corresponded with his one-time foe, Joshua Chamberlain.
   
   Lafantasie also gives a good picture of the changes in the South following the Civil War as mirrored in Oates's long life and in his career as Congressman and governor. Oates became a proponent of the "Lost Cause" school of the Civil War, which romanticized the Old South and blamed the defeat of the Confederacy solely on the Union's superiority in numbers and material. Much in Oates life suggests he remained an unreconstructed Confederate to the end. But he did have moments, especially at the 1901 convention, that show he was finding his way to a different, broader view.
   
   It is good to have a biography of Oates. Lafantasie's study is thorough and well-documented. In places it is also polemical, insufficiently historical, and psychologistic, as Lafantasie criticizes sexist attitudes in the South, in particular, and is overly harsh in his speculations on the reasons underlying Oates' attraction to young women. Lafantasie also at times adopts the tone of a historical novel more than that of a history as he tries to read Oates's thoughts and mind in the absence of hard evidence. With these qualifications, I enjoyed and learned something about Oates, the Civil War and the post-Civil War South from reading this book. Readers with a deep interest in the Battle of Gettysburg or in the South after the Civil War will benefit from Lafantasie's study.
   
   Robin Friedman



2. Two men who have had a very significant impact on the Civil War as we know it today lived a century after it ended. Neither was a soldier; neither was a professional historian. Michael Shaara was a novelist. Ken Burns is a documentary filmmaker. As evidence of their influence, just take a look at that standard reference, Mark M. Boatner's Civil War Dictionary, first published in 1959. Look there to see what you can find out about William C. Oates, the colonel of the 15th Alabama who led the attack against the 20th Maine on Little Round Top. What will you find? Nothing. Oates isn't in the book. Now, however, nearly fifty years after Boatner compiled his dictionary, Oates is a very well known character to anyone who has read Shaara's book or seen Burns's Civil War series.
   This past summer the first full-length biography of Oates appeared, more than 400 pages about a man who never actually attained the rank of colonel, a man who was replaced as commander of the 15th Alabama after leading it for nearly two years, a man who fifty years ago did not warrant a footnote in one of the Civil War's standard reference works. So, does he warrant being the subject of a full-blown biography?
   You bet. Glenn W. Fantasie has done a terrific job of telling Oates's tale, and of using him as a tool to delve into the greater issues that filled Oates's own life and times. Oates's path through life was one that easily lends itself to the telling of a great story. He began as a hot-tempered brawler who frequented the small towns of pre-war Texas. He ended as a Southern politician who could actually entertain, and fight for, the idea of giving black men the vote. In between he raised a company to fight for the Confederacy, was brave to a fault (or so his men thought), lost an arm at Petersburg, served seven terms in Congress fighting against railroad land grants and for free silver, and one term as the governor of Alabama.
   As the title suggests, the cause of the Confederacy was not his only "lost cause," and it is by laying those others before us that Professor LaFantasie makes this biography so much more than just another biography about a Civil War soldier whose main attraction to an author is that he has not been written about before. Oates was a fascinating character. His constant desire to lead from the front made him a prominent figure throughout the times in which he lived. This fine biography does him the justice denied him in times past.



3. William C. Oates, the subject of Glenn LaFantassie's "Gettysburg Requiem" is a bundle of contradictions: born poor, died wealthy; apparently racist, secretly intimate with his black servant; a respected attorney and newspaper publisher but shot and killed a man; wounded six times in battle but rose no higher in rank than lieutenant colonel; saw Lincoln's election as a danger to the South, lamented Lincoln's assassination.
   
   LaFantasie's research reveals a Confederate hero whose life was characterized by anger, violence, guilt,inconsistencies, weaknesses, and relentless struggle for success. Oates may well be described as one of those souls who can resist anything but temptation.
   
   The book's bibliography is a compendium of excellent Civil War
   sources, the research seems to be as complete as anyone could compile, and the presentation is as clear and easy to follow as the subject matter will allow.
   
   Those who have climbed Little Round Top at Gettysburg, who are fascinated with the battle between the 20th Maine and the 15th Alabama, who want to know more about the post-war conflicts between General Joshua Chamberlain and "Colonel" Oates over the placement of monuments on the battlefield will find "Gettysburg Requiem" required reading.

5 comments about Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945.

1. Talk about one's world being turned upside down. One moment four young military doctors are enjoying good marriages and pleasant military postings in exotic locations, and in the next they are thrust in the midst of horrific battle and subsequently imprisoned under grotesquely inhumane conditions. That these men were able to endure such horrid conditions and go on to live important, useful, satisfying lives is awe inspiring.
   
   In light of Japanese Premier Abe's recent denials of Japanese Imperial Army atrocities concerning so-called "Comfort Women," this reading takes on special significance. This story is further evidence of the shameful brutality foisted by Japan during its brutal and unprovoked aggressions during the 1932-1945 wars it foisted upon its much weaker Asian neighbors and, ultimately and self-defeatingly, with the U.S. and its allies.
   
   If you can find the CD version of this book on tape, it is well worth purchasing. The narration is superb.
   
   --Bill Todd-Mancillas
   Communication Studies
   Ca. St. Univ. at Chico



2. I had seen this story on cable and bought the book afterwards. It is a very moving story and written so well. I have to say I am ashamed of the way the US treated these people during their horrible ordeal.



3. The title and synopsis of "Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945" led me to beleive that I would read about the in-depth personal experience of four US doctors as P.O.W.s. However, the book does not read like a memior or biography, but rather like any third-person account written by a historian from a distant vantage point.
   
   That is not to say that "Conduct Under Fire" is a bad book, but the fact that the title men are hardly mentioned throughout the greater part of the book is a serious flaw. John Glusman does provide the reader with background information of the four doctors, one of which is father, Murray Glusman. Unfortunately, the details of the doctor's personal experiences were infrequent once the book covered the time frame of World War II. In fact, I could not help but wonder if the author's research into his father's time as P.O.W. was limited to rummaging through sparse stash of old letters and a fireside chat with his old man. Glusman (the author) does record the harsh condition of Japanese P.O.W. camps for American troops based on the writings of others, but the reader is left to assume that the doctors' tenure as P.O.W.s was identical to that experienced by thousands of other American P.O.W.s. While it the suffering they endured at the hands of Japanese was certainly horrific and they deserve our respect, "Conduct Under Fire" lacks a unique element that could have distinguished it from numerous of other P.O.W. books.
   
   If you are simply looking for an account of Japanese prisoner camps or even of the struggle against Imperial Japan, then "Conduct Under Fire" is worth the time. Glusman does give remarkable detail to the pre-war climate in the Phillipines and Shanghai, the seige of Bataan and Corrigedor, the American submarine campaign that strangled Japanese shipping, and the B-29 raids that led to massive firebombings and yes, the atomic bombs.
   
   Although "Conduct Under Fire" promised to deliver an account of the war through the eyes of the author's father and three other doctors, the reader is left with text that could have been placed by a historian far removed from the horror.



4. This book is terrific. It is a well researched piece of scholarship and heartfelt. The author is not judgmental towards the Japanese despite their treatment of his father. As a result, the author's descriptions of the Americans "conduct under fire" shows how brave they really were.
   I could not help but get angry when I read that these men have had no proper compensation for their loss or even an apology from the Japanese government.



5. A half-century after the end of World War II we now see an extraordinary tide of books revealing the under-side of the conflict. The passing of time, the opening of previously restricted documentation, and a less romantic view of events have conspired to produce this literature. Among them are Ghost Wars, Fatal Voyage, Burma Road. These well researched volumes open to the reader the true character of war unembellished by governments eager to maintain the spin of patriotism for the sake of public morale. The latest and most formidable book in this genre is Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese (N.Y.: Penguin Group, 2005). John A. Glusman, editor in chief of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is the author and son of one of the four doctors. He sets the story in the larger context of the war in the Pacific so it is not simply the chronicle of medical doctors working in prisoner of war camps in the Philippines and Japan. A narrow focus would have been sufficient to describe the bravery and skill of the doctors in their years of suffering as and with POWs. But Glusman opens for the reader the larger picture of the military and political events that inevitably had a profound impact on the POWs. It was a fate of the POWs not only to deal with often sadistic Japanese captors, but they also were faced early on with the results of the U.S. failure energetically to prosecute the Pacific war in favor of the European theater, the frightful toll of more than 10,000 prisoners who died when US submarines sank Japanese ships ferrying prisoners to Japan, and the terrifying effects of fire-bombing of Japanese cities where additional POWs lost their lives. In the midst of this harrowing period, the US doctors heroically saved lives, improvised medical procedures without even minimal supplies, and managed to maintain the highest vision of their vocation. Glusman has honored his father and the thousands of POWs by telling this honest story. He also boldly reminds us all of the frightful cost of war on the human spirit in a time when inevitably warfare's result is annihilation of everything human.

5 comments about The Last Lieutenant: A Foxhole View of the Epic Battle for Iwo Jima.

1. The Last Lieutenant is an epic tribute to a brave man thrust into the hell of Iwo Jima. This book becomes a riveting read as you move from training to battle, to the savagery that is war at its most merciless.
   
   True to its press, this is indeed a "foxhole view" of one of the greatest battles in American history--with a personal twist that will leave you moved to tears.
   
   The research was there, and the writing kept me glued to this book until the end. At times, I felt the need to bury myself in that volcanic ash. This is the sort of book that should be standard reading for junior officers, at the service academies--and by our politicians, who place our best in harm's way.
   
   let me tell you that I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Shively on a trip to Bataan and Corregidor and I must say that his passionate interest in the Pacific War is evident--and led to a terrific depiction of hell on earth: Iwo Jima.



2. Actually I enjoyed this book. It's a pretty short read, but not short on content. It doesn't contain as much vivid and gory details as most books on Iwo Jima, but what it does do is to introduce you to a warrior, man, and Uncle. The fact that this is not a first hand account of the battle actually enhances it. The collaboration between the author and his uncle makes a very nice read. I would reccommend this one.



3. I have to agree with all the foregoing reviews -- this book accurately portrays the Marine's bitter battle against determined defenders for that island. I've read nearly a dozen documentary sources of this battle, and learned some personal accounts from my dad, a platoon sargent in the 3rd Marine division. Ironically, he fought next to the airfields and areas where this 2Lt also fought. I'd say the author, though not a veteran of this campaign, got it right. And it's a fast and compelling read. If you know of Iwo, this is another and more personal accounting. Well Done, Mr. Shively, Five stars.



4. As with FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, I found THE LAST LIEUTENANT to be completely riveting. I'm a big fan of military books, and this is as good as it gets.
   
   I'm so glad we have people writing books like THE LAST LIEUTENANT while the heroes who fought historic battles like those on Iwo Jima are still with us.



5. This is an amazing story of one man's experience during the battle for Iwo Jima. Jim Craig was a young lieutenant in charge of a platoon of Marines, commanding and protecting his men throughout one of the bloodiest battles in history. Unlike in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, this book doesn't waste time on the story of the famous flag-raising episode. That happened a few days into the battle. Jim Craig continued his fight until the end of the month-long campaign, and never had time to notice a small event like a flag-raising. This is the true story of Iwo Jima in all its ugly brutality--this book spares no punches. You'll never look at war the same way again.