2 comments about Clara Barton: Professional Angel.

1. Elizabeth Brown Pryor eloquently told the story of Clara Barton digging deep into who exactly Clara Barton was and the many areas in which Clara was an agent for change in society.



2. I enjoyed this biography of Barton as it covered more than just her years as a Civil War nurse & battlefield angel. Pryor gives life to Barton, exposing her touching little secrets (she liked to take a nip now and then, had a romance with a married man & dyed her hair) as well as her less-than-saintly personality (she was fiercly competive with other reformers like Dorthea Dix and really like being in the spotlight). Her two major accomplishment -- her battlefield nursing and the founding of the American Red Cross -- came about through stubborn sacrifice and a real dedication. She got done what she did because she was relentless in achieving her purposes. Her pushiness knew no bounds: she called on neighbors and politicians, asked for favors, used emotional blackmail and wasn't always sweet as pie about it all. Pryor's admiration for her subject is evident and she reveals Clara as a modern woman who used any and every resource available at a time when no one was inclined to support such activity. I came away from this book liking Clara Barton, even with her halo slightly tarnished.

5 comments about Generals in Bronze: Interviewing the Commanders of the Civil War.

1. Outstanding book, get a better feel of what the Generals were thinking during the Civil War.



2. It is hard to add anything new to what has already been written in the reviews, although I would say that not only does the book have excellent insight into many of the key Federal officers that fought in the war, but it is a window into 19th Century post war culture. James Kelly, the sculptor and artist who is at the center of the book, vividly recounts how he meets these gentlemen. Most of the time he must use calling cards to announce his arrival before he is called in- something wholly archaic in our modern casual society. There are other tidbits that are fascinating. One general whom he calls on uses a fan and a block of ice to keep cool as he answers Kelly's questions.
   Speaking of these questions, we the readers are very fortunate in that Kelly had studied the war and often asked the same questions we would. He was a small boy during the war, and these men were his heroes. We meet these men as real people, not just as names in a book. I do agree with one reviewer who writes that there is too much detail, but there again, it is the details that make the book come alive.
   My only regret (but it is a very small one) is that Kelly was so prejudiced against Southerners that he only recounts his meeting with one of them, and absolutely refused to sculpt any ex-Confederate officers. However, given his time and how he felt about the war, such feelings are understandable. It is instructive that most of the men he talked with did not share his extreme negative views about Confederate veterans.
   I would recommend this book for any seasoned Civil War enthusiast, as they would be familiar with the controversies and issues Kelly recounts. But Styple does a great job as editor and so perhaps even a novice might be able to wade through some of this and get something from it.
   Speaking of Styple, he deserves much credit for bringing this book into print, as he had to wade through all of Kelly's material to publish it. Not only that, but Styple researched Kelly's life and found that Kelly died a pauper with an unmarked grave! Styple was able to remedy that and recently had a grave marker erected for one of the finest sculptors our country ever produced.



3. As a young boy in New York City during the Civil War James Kelly fantasized about being a soldier and fighting for the Union. His passion for the heroes of that war continued into his adult life. A noted artist and sculptor, Kelly went on to immortalize a great many of them in ink and bronze.
   
   Kelly was also a unique historian. He could obtain from these men details and circumstances of events that an ordinary reporter could not. As he had them pose for his sketches, he told them that in order to get the picture right he had to know every detail. Then, as he was drawing he would write down their comments in his journal.
   
   In this way he gleaned fascinating insights from them that will change your view of the war. Here are some examples.
   
   We know that several generals turned down command of the Army of the Potomac during the period 1862-1863. Kelly found out in his interviews that one of the conditions of command was the stipulation that the general had to pledge that the war would not end until after the [presidential] election of 1864.
   
   I have always wondered why there were so few casualties during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Why didn't the big guns of the fort not inflict any damage on the Southern batteries? The answer is that the Secretary of War under outgoing President Buchanan [1856-1860] was a Southern sympathizer. In his last days in office he had ordered that the powerful casement guns in the fort be removed and replaced with old ships' guns.
   
   Kelly obtained intimate details of the battles and why things happened the way they did as well as vivid images of life in combat. One general described having a horse shot out from under him. "He was hit as he reared. He went down over his front legs and blood shot from both nostrils like water from a pump".
   
   This is a "must read" for all afficionados of Civil War history.



4. I saw a rerun of the interview on CSpan with the author and ordered this book immediately. What a pleasure to read the off-hand remarks by the various Generals about the Civil War. MORE PICTURES please but otherwise a detailed, challenging and rewarding read if you can plow through the details.



5. This is the best first-hand account of Civil War action and detail that I have read since "Campaigning with Grant," and likely the greatest collection of its kind in American historic literature. Every page is a gold mine of detail straight from the lips of the Generals themselves, often expressing their true feelings about other officers that they never allowed into their memoirs. It also provides a rare glimpse into their true personalities as aging war heroes, reported objectively by artist and author James Kelly of NYC, while they sat for their sketches. Kelly transcribes their words, appearance, mannerisms, and peccadillos.
   Myths are broken, and the detail provided by the generals is almost unimaginable -- from what style hat they war in a particular battle to where they took a nap will Lee surrendered to Grant at the McLean house.
   Imagine Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock describing how the doctor removed the bullet and saddle-debris from his 8-inch deep wound at Gettysburg...simply an unbelievable treasure of information. The book also contains many of the actual pencil & charcoal portraits of the Generals, which are especially compelling, as you just read the actual conversation they had with the artist while he sketched away at the portrait you now hold in your hand, and the general autographed the sketch attesting that it was drawn from life and approved. If you have questions you always wanted to ask a Civil War general like Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, Hancock, or Doubleday, they answer your questions in this book; like a ghost returning from the grave to sit in your favorite chair. I am grateful that I caught editor William Styple on C-Span. In fact, all history buffs should fall on their knees and thank editor William Styple for finding Kelly's masterstroke memoir and resurrecting it so beautifully, in our lifetime.

1 comments about Kennedys: Stories of Life and Death from an American Family.

1. Clint Willis has launched the Adrenaline Lives series with a strong first volume. The 21 selections are drawn from a wide variety of sources often not focusing on the Kennedys themsleves as much as other people's opinions of and reactions to the Kennedys. The book covers the whole family, with the bulk split between John, Bobby and Teddy. Mr. Willis has again avoided the trap of taking easy pickings - there are no PT 109 excerpts here, nor any rehash of the Bay of Pigs or Cuban Missile Crisis. The selections here are throughtful perspectives on on the people, their lives, and the culture that surrounded them. What I liked best about the book is that it is not biography, per se - you can't use this book for a research paper, but rather it is a collection of snapshots by people who know, knew and are associated with the Kennedys, and the insights you'll take from this book are likely not to be ones you're used to seeing unless you are a Kennedy scholar. I would have liked to have seen selections on Joe and young John, but there are none, and I see that as the only shortcoming.

5 comments about The Button Box: A Daughter's Loving Memoir Of Mrs. George S. Patton.

1. General George S. Patton's younger daughter, Ruth Ellen, has written an interesting and readable memoir about growing up in this military family. The hero is her mother, Mrs. Beatrice Patton.
   
   Beginning before World War I, the author takes us on several tours; life on military posts, growing up before radio and television, the folkways and mores of a society where children were raised by nannies.
   
   Although replete with anecdotes and family myths that reveal Mrs. Patton's role in the success of her husband, the events and relationships which give her substance in her own right are a major and significant part of the story. Not a hagiography, the author easily and with good taste recounts family matters that would not have been shared with outsiders.
   
   For some, the connection to 'Patton' will be the reason to read this book. I think, however, the publisher, The University of Missouri Press, saw this memoir in a much broader context.



2. If you think you've read everything there is on George Patton as I had, then you owe it to yourself to read this book or you will never really understand his life's story. His daughter did a masterful job of putting the family story in a readable fashion and I could only dream of having such an adventurous life as their's was.



3. Great Read for any Patton fan. Reads quick and is insightful.



4. Ruth Ellen Patton Totten has left us with an extraordinary insight into the lives of the Patton family & most especially a wonderful tribute to her mother, Beatrice Ayer Patton. This book does more than present facts as a biographer would. Ruth Ellen tells the story from an insider's perspective. She not only tells the story but more importantly gives her mother's reaction to some of the most trying events in her lifetime & how she handled those events. The underlying theme of the book is the way Beatrice faced life; positively. She summoned courage, dignity & perseverance in the face of trials.
   
   Ruth Ellen makes a great point by saying that soldiers are not the only casualties of war & it is evidenced by the sufferings which Beatrice, Ruth Ellen & Little Bea (Beatrice's daughter) endured, each of them being married to husbands in the Army.
   
   This is an inspiring book that makes you wish you had met Beatrice Patton. Ruth Ellen herself is an incredible story teller & must have been one amazing woman in her own right. The Patton family has much of which to be proud because of the courage & strong character of Beatrice Patton. You don't have to be a fan of General George S. Patton Jr. to read the book. If you simply want to read a great book about a great woman, read this book.



5. What an amazing window into the true lives of the "Cold Roast Boston" aristocracy, and what a tribute to a strong, multi-talented and insatiably curious woman. Hilarious, insightful, poignant, historical, and best of all...completely uncensored.

3 comments about I Fought With Custer: The Story of Sergeant Windolph, Last Survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

1. It is difficult to really rate a work like this. This is the story of Charles Windolph, the last survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in his own, simple words. Windolph told his story to a father and son historian team in the 1930s and 40s. Windolph's distinction as last survivor is a bit misleading--he was the last man who was present at the battle to die, but his title as last survivor does not mean he was with Custer's column of troops. He wasn't. In fact, he was under Benteen, and was one of many who survived the battle because they weren't as heavily engaged in it as Custer.
   Windolph presents an interesting perspective on the battle, and seems relatively objective. He does tend to romanticize a little, but for the most part he refrains from throwing blame on Custer, Reno, Benteen, or anyone else (though he does state up front that he is partial to Benteen). His story is not all that unique when compared to other primary accounts of the battle, but it is nevertheless valuable as the testimony of a survivor of that horrible tragedy.
   Included with Windolph's narrative are a number of primary documents, cobbled together in chapters and laced throughout with author's commentary. This is all right, but it would have been better to present these documents in their entirety, with only enough commentary (perhaps in the form of footnotes) to give the reader an idea of the background surrounding the documents. Still, the Hunts have done a relatively good job of remaining objective as well, something that is rare in a Custer historian. This is perhaps not the best account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but it is nevertheless an important one.



2. As a Custer buff, this book has been on my shelf for a long time. A great book to read, one that fleshes out a lot of the daily life in the Seventh as well as the battle along Greasy Grass. Right up there with "Son of Morning Star" and Walter Camp's book on the subject. Check 'em out, you won't be disappointed.



3. This book is compiled from the found writings of a sergeant of the Seventh Cavalry who survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The first hand accounts of men like Sergeant Windolph and Theodore Goldin are very valuable and interesting reading. They were not men defending their performance as were the officers like Benteen, Reno, and Godfrey. They had their biases but didn't have to grind axes. This account is worthwhile reading for students of the Seventh Cavalry and the Little Big Horn campaign.

1 comments about Best Little Ironies, Oddities, and Mysteries of the Civil War.

1. Having a passing familiarity with the standard stories of the Civil War, odd and ironic enough by themselves, I was expecting this book to deliver extreme ironies and true oddities. No such luck. This book is a tiresome litany of banalities and pointless connections that I had to force myself to read. Did you know that brother fought brother in the Civil War? Wow! Or how about that the guy who introduced Lincoln at his first inauguration? He was from Oregon - the very state whose governorship Lincoln turned down! Whoa! And on and on its goes.
   
   Sadly or my family (the book was a birthday gift) this book failed to live up to expectations. It should have been titled, "Boring, Pointless and Uninteresting Minutia about the Civil War." Should be put out of its misery with a minié ball to the spine.

2 comments about Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy: A Woman's Adventures in the Union Army.

1. I found the first two thirds of this book exciting and very interesting, the author certainly was a brave lady who played a significant part in the Civil War (masquerading as a man). Just how significant is open to debate as some historians say her claims are embroidered.
   Anyway, I started to lose interest towards the end of the book as it got a bit weighed down with factual information such as letters from Generals etc about the Civil War, which I am inclined to think the author added to add weight to her elaborated claims about her involvement as a spy! Regardless it is an exciting read, and a good historical account of battles during the Civil War.



2. I have in my possesion a leather bound with goldleaf letters on the cover(somewhat faded). A first edition which I purchased in Michigan in 1969. Emmas's story is profound. It provided quite an insight into the civil war and I have no doubt as to the veracity of the story. It interests me as she is a Canadian from New Brunswick, and I believe it would make an interesting series and could well become a Candian "content" movies for Global/ CTV/ CBC.

   [...]

5 comments about RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy.

1. I picked this up for $2 used. I paid too much. This book is an offensive hatchet job, full of ridiculous claims that the author makes no attempt to substantiate. People simply make claims about RFK, and Heymann prints them. I know Bobby was no saint, and I don't expect hagiography. But this biography goes way too far in the other direction. One source compares Bobby to Caligula. At that point, I stopped reading the book. Save your money -- even if it is just $2.



2. Mr Heymann has an interesting interpretation of the word 'integrity'. I was simply aghast at some of the bizarre assertions that the author seems to accept as fact. Check the sources (and I did!) and you'll not find much to back up his rather bold claims. Many of those interviewed or quoted have rather questionable motives and a lot is second hand information or hearsay.
   
   Also many of RFK's own comments were taken completely out of context. When asking "Where are all the women?" on the '68 campaign trail this was not in a sexual context. As far back as the early '50s while running JFK's senatorial campaign Bobby would often say that he preferred women in a campaign because he thought they tend to work harder.
   
   This is NOT an unbiased biography. For a completely unbiased account of Robert Kennedy's life I refer you to Evan Thomas' 'Robert Kennedy: His Life'. It takes a look at both 'Good' and 'Bad' Bobby but sticks strictly to the facts.
   
   The most exhaustive and indepth RFK biography is of course Arhtur Schlesinger's 'Robert Kennedy and His Times'. Not from a completely objective standpoint as it's written by a Kennedy friend but ultimately reliable and informative.



3. RFK fans may not like this biography because it ain't a biased one. And this may be the first attempt to write a cruel and honest account of RFK's life. I've read some reviews here, and people who did not like this book are commeting that it is just gossip plain and simple. It must be remember that Heymann spent 7 years researching for this book. RFK was not the liberal icon that many thought he was. Many of the things he did wasn't only because he cared (I do believe he did care) but also for political ambition. He had a dark side (which he did use a lot with LBJ) and also a good side. The dark side is shown exhaustively in this book, and in the end, as amanzingly as it seems, Heymann writes a sympathetic image of RFK. Another thing, just because it is shown that RFK was not very different from his brothers when it came to sex doesn't mean that it is not truth (and who says otherwise must known that Heymann did much more researched in this subject than the others biographers did), this is a "candid" biography after all. People who bought this must not be naive and have an idea of what they'll find when they read it.



4. My title tells it all and to spent too much time on a review is to assign this an importance it does not merit. If you are interested in any thoughtful analysis of RFK you will not find it here. The focus is on lurid one source and second hand tall tales and obviously the author has an axe to grind. If you love the National Enquirer and Fox News you will probably like this and there's no saving you. If you want to learn more about this complicated man and his era, this will fill you with disgust.



5. one star is too much, the book doesn't do anything tern RFK?s legacy. the arguments are false, and the book is boring.
   DONT SPEND EVEN ONE CENT ON THIS BOOK.

3 comments about Black Bart, Boulevardier Bandit: The Saga of California's Most Mysterious Stagecoach Robber and the Men Who Sought to Capture Him.

1. Written by former reporter George Hoeper, Black Bart: Boulevardier Bandit is an amazing biography of one of California's most colorful historical figures. For over eight years, the indubitably polite and genteel criminal Charles Boles (alias Black Bart) preyed upon Wells Fargo & Co., enacting at least 28 stagecoach robberies - always on foot with an unloaded shotgun, and never demanding money from stagecoach passengers or drivers. Folk legends sprung up about Black Bart, who lived the life of a boulevardier in San Francisco, hobnobbing with the city's upper crust and writing poetry. In 1888, Black Bart disappeared from the Palace Hotel in Visalia, never to be seen again; Black Bart: Boulevardier Bandit offers information to suggest that Black Bart's final fate was not to settle in some distant land, but rather to lose his life in the dry Nevada wasteland and rest in an unmarked grave. "Black Bart may have been remorseful about not returning to his family, but if he was remorseful about turning to a life of crime, he never expressed it... It seemed, when questioned by reporters on the possibility of returning to his old ways, that his decision to abandon crime was based more on the fear of being caught again than on his rehabilitation and sorrow for his sins of the past." An extensively researched biography, enthusiastically recommended for anyone curious about one of California's most famous career criminals.



2. The book was well researched and well written. It provided good information that was used in "Black Bart Days" that was held on June 23 & 24th in Sutter Creek, California. I knew George Hoeper. He was an excellent historian and writer.



3. A fascinating book, which neither idolized Black Bart, or demonizes him either. Hoeper has really done his research. I never knew the full story about Black Bart before. This story fills in lots of the gaps that people don't know.

   The only complaint I had was that at the end, Hoeper's "new evidence" that Black Bart died in Nevada is nothing more than a mild... "It might have been him." I expected some evidence. To this day, nobody REALLY knows what happened to Bart after he got out of prison.

   Other than a mild letdown at the end, I still HIGHLY reccommend this book. A fascinating story of one of the Old West's most "larger than life" characters.

5 comments about Billy Heath: The Man Who Survived Custer's Last Stand.

1. Custer's Last stand is one of the most famous events in American History. Supposedly all 210+ men in the five companies that accompanied him to attack the village on the Little Bighorn river died along with him, but legends have persisted ever since that there were survivors. The current book is an attempt to prove that one man did survive: William Heath, a farrier (horse handler) in Company L of the 7th Cavalry.
   
   The difficulty is that the author has little proof for his story beyond the bare bones of tax records and army enlistment papers. Records don't always tell the whole story, and in some cases the facts they present are completely inaccurate. Here those records seem to show that Heath entered the USA in 1872 from England, enlisted in the army in 1875, fought at the Little Bighorn and was killed, and then reappearred the next year in Pennsylvania at his home and lived for another dozen or so years, fathering half a dozen children in the meanwhile.
   
   The difficulty with the above is that there are major discrepancies which the author either ignores or unconvincingly explains away. For one thing, Heath was a coal miner for much of the period 1872-5, then became a policeman working for the coal company. In 1872 he was illiterate, and made his mark on his citizenship papers. In 1875 he signs his name (with a beautiful flowing script) on his enlistment papers. When did he find time to learn to read and write? Another circumstance which the author ignores is that Heath's reason for leaving his home and enlisting in the army was that the Molly Maguires (violent proto-Union coalminers) threatened him. A few pages later, the author tells you that the Mollies cut off the ears of those they wanted to threaten, but not kill. Later still, he tells you that Heath had part of one ear cut off during his service with the 7th Cavalry. However, he never makes the obvious conclusion that perhaps he lost the ear in a confrontation with the Mollies as opposed to a fight with the Sioux.
   
   I think, from the available evidence presented by the author, that it's equally likely that Heath fled home after one of the Mollies cut his ear off, and that somehow someone else from the area took his name for some reason and used it when they entered the army. This would account for him learning to read, and explain how he could reappear after being killed at the Little Bighorn. He simply wasn't there. One thing the author doesn't explain at all: after the battle, Heath supposedly was found and nursed back to health by a family of settlers, and made his way home. The Mollies, in the meanwhile, had been broken up and sent to jail or the gallows. How did Heath, out on the frontier, receive word that it was safe to go home? My suspicion is he was holed up in Philadelphia or New York City, and read about it in the paper.
   
   Another difficulty of the book is that since there's so little evidence, the author feels the need to pad things with extraneous information, to flesh out his story. As a result we get a painfully amateurish history lesson, replete with politically correct silliness and psychohistory. Everything from a half-baked psychoanalysis of Custer to Andrew Carnegie's nickname for John D. Rockefeller is included. Not exactly what I was expecting or looking for.
   
   All in all, this is an interesting theory, but it's far from fully supported by the meager documentation the author has. He only has one photograph of the man (only reproduced on the front cover of the book) and hardly anything else about him is available. This leaves the premise way more thin than it should be for the author to make such a claim with the certainty that he exhibits.



2. This is a gem of a book that not only relives, but provides new information about the fascinating and horrifying battle of Little Big Horn -- Custer's Last Stand. Contrary to common belief among scholars that no white man survived the battle, this book provides solid evidence that one white man actually did survive -- Billy Heath, the Seventh Calvary's farrier (person responsible for the well being of the company's horses). The author, Vincent J. Genovese, supports this startling claim by providing us with photocopies of birth, army, tax, and funeral records. Genovese also enlivens the text with photographs of the key participants (both White and Native American), and important locations. The background information makes interesting and exciting reading -- the harsh life of making a living in the coal mines of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; the Molly Maguire episode; the biography of George Custer; the balanced presentation of the plight of the Indians; the shocking battle of Little Big Horn itself; and the daring, but necessarily hypothetical, means of escape by Billy Heath. I think this book provides lively and fast-paced reading for the general public and provides ample groundwork for scholars.



3. I don't know if Billy Heath survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but as a student of the battle and of Custer, I enjoy considering the "what ifs" of history. For a long time History (with a capital H) was only about the great, a contradiction to the principles of our democratic society. Now we have in addition the recuperation of the lives of others, such as the enlisted man Billy Heath. I find his life as a nineteenth-century working man fascinating, above and beyond whatever role he may have played on June 25, 1876. As for the negative portrait of Custer, this is more in keeping with the view of a 7th cavalry enlisted man than a privileged officer (or reader!). See for comparison Private Theodore Ewert's sour view of the Black Hills expedition. Many historians have put stock in the oral tradition of Native American accounts of the battle--why not in the oral tradition of a soldier's family? The detail that William Heath was unmarried can be just as inaccurate as his name being erroneously placed on the battlefield monument. Information about enlisted men is notoriously slippery. As for Frank Finkel and other fraudulent "sole survivors," they have already been written about by others. This is Billy Heath's story, as reconstructed by a determined and intrepid researcher. Was Heath in reality a deserter? History never gives us all the information we want, and that's its challenge.



4. Ever since Custer's debacle at Little Big Horn numerous stories about survivors have popped up. This is another one of those stories. While on the surface this book may seem compelling, the author's argument is not. The author's lack of notation and sources creates numerous problems for serious historians. A glimpse through the slightly less than two page bibliography reveals that the author, who identifies himself as "an amateur historian," has not done exhaustive primary research. The sources that he lists are generally secondary and there is a sprinkling of published primary sources.

   The authors lack of documentation also does not bode well for this book in academic circles. Suggesting that Heath was the sole survivor and not providing one footnote is a poor methodological practice.

   In all this book offers nothing more than another "survivor story." This book is of no great historical significance because nothing is substantiated.




5. Although not an historian of the Battle of Little Bighorn, the author does offer compelling evidence that there was a survivor. In addition, the book provides interesting information on the Pa. coal region, Custer, Little Bighorn, etc. The information appears to have been thoroughly researched and well written. It's very evident that the writer believes that Billy Heath is, in fact, the sole suvivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.