5 comments about The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Br others.

1. I initially heard of this book after reading a review in the Wall Street Journal. I was very impressed with the way Waugh weaved this story together. We bond with the characters as they struggle through their years at West Point. The friendships started in the Academy are then forged on various battlefields in Mexico (a war about which most Americans know next to nothing... including me!). Then, these life-long friends turn into enemies during the Civil War.
   
   I have to admit that when reading Waugh's description of the surrender at Appomattox, I was moved to tears... while deadheading in an airplane full of passengers! I was totally caught up in Waugh's storytelling. Masterful job and a great read.



2. Having read a number of Civil War books lately, I was surprised at how many officers were friends and colleagues from their days at West Point. The Class of 1846 From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan and Their Brothers by John C. Waugh is a good place to start to learn some of this background.
   
   The class of 1846 at West Point was an illustrious class in many ways. This was the biggest class in academy history up until that time, and included such luminaries as George McClellan, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, George Pickett and Ambrose "A.P." Hill. At the time, West Point was one of the best colleges in the nation and certainly the best engineering school. Waugh provides a glimpse of what it was like to be a cadet, and I can't even imagine spending ten hours a day in the classroom as a freshman with seven hours of math and three hours of French (most military manuals were written in French at the time). Of the 122 plebes who began in 1842, 59 graduated four years later.
   
   Timing is everything and soon after this class graduated, the Mexican War started heating up and the president doubled the size of the regular army. This put the class of '46 on the fast track for promotions. Fifty-three served in the Mexican War, and it was here that they met many other West Point graduates and future Civil War leaders including Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, Ulysses S. Grant, James Longstreet and Winfield Scott Hancock.
   
   The majority of this book deals with the Civil War. Twenty-two members of this class became Union or Confederate generals. Waugh focuses on how these men contributed to the battles and events of the war. The handsome, dashing and intelligent George McClellan graduated number two in his class and great things were expected of him. After a promising start in the Mexican War, the vain and pompous McClellan proved to be a big disappointment. The true star turned out to be quiet, unassuming Stonewall Jackson. Jackson barely met the entrance requirements and started off at the bottom of his class. Through hard work and perseverance, he graduated number seventeen. "Nobody saw in him any suggestion of genius or gift for command." When Jackson died after Chancellorsville, it truly was a blow to the Confederacy. Prior to reading Waugh, I thought Stonewall was just plain crazy. After, I've gained a new respect for this eccentric general.
   
   The Class of 1846 has a section of photos and drawings, as well as a list of the many classmates that are mentioned in the book. This helps to keep the lesser-known characters straight. However, Waugh should have included some maps to help the reader with battle locations. Otherwise, I found this book to be very interesting.



3. This is a standard rendition of two primary Civil War generals: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and George McClelland. In this portion of the book Waugh tells us what we already know about George, that while he was always at the head of the class moving up the ranks, he failed miserably once at the top. Similarly, Stonewall, no doubt as crazy as a loon, became the Civil War's finest and best tactician produced by either side.
   
   Focusing as he does on the West Point graduating class of 1846, the year the War with Mexico was initiated, we meet numerous men who studied together and fight together in the Mexican War, the Indian Wars, the Mormon War and, in the climax of their military lives, against each other, in the Civil War.
   
   Having gone through school together for 4 years, these men competed against each other for most of their adult lives. But as the competitions were intense, the personal relationships were even closer. Cadmus Wilcox was Sam Grant's best man; James Longstreet was also in the wedding party. George McClelland and Robert E. Lee served together on Winfield Scott's staff. Gideon Pillow and John B. Magruder brevet a youthful Tom Jackson at Chapultepec. Clarendon Williams, Jackson's graduation day dancing partner, dies in the Navaho war. Lee, George Thomas, George Stoneman, John Bell Hood and Albert Sidney Johnson serve for 6 years together in Texas in the US Second Cavalry. Lewis Armistead, William T. Sherman and Winfield Hancock serve together in California.
   
   John Waugh has produced a unique view of the Civil War, through the eyes of men who, while they fought against each other with all the skill they possessed, fought against comrades, close friends and former classmates who at times, just couldn't have seemed like the enemy.



4. This book is at its best in the first 200 pages, when all of the classmates get fairly equal coverage at West Point and the Mexican/frontier Wars.
   
   The book is extremely entertaining and well researched throughout, and the author is not attempting to challenge any aspect of Civil War history, so the narrative on the soldiers as we know them in that War does not change.
   
   As mentioned in other reviews, the Civil War portion of the book is discombobulated almost out of necessity, since the soldiers were no longer equally important. Doing so would make the book incredibly long, and the simple truth is that people will inherently be more interested in Jackson than Stoneman.
   
   Regardless, it's still a more than worthy book to pick up, if only to see how opinions and relationships were molded over a 15 year period of time among all these brothers turned enemies.



5. This book is a MUST READ for any serious student of the Civil War. It lets us see how the West Pointers were trained and how they bonded. It gives us the insight To the meaning "an Officer and Gentleman". You find many times over the gallantry and foolishness of men. You also find the depth of friendships that led to the healing of wounds so a young nation could move forward.
   It is hard to see these young men's dreams fall to battle. Without their leadership it would have been so much worse on the average citizen. Read it, then cry for all our nation lost.

5 comments about Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy.

1. "Southern Lady, Yankee Spy" is about a female Union spymaster in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, during and after the Civil War. It is a wonderful piece of research and writing about a remarkable woman. The retelling of the fall of Richmond is unforgettable. Elizabeth van Lew's management capabilities and dedication to the Union earned her the third ranking position in the federal office of Postmaster General in Washington, DC after the war. Those who want to read an equally fine book about a female spy for the Confederacy should turn to "Wild Rose : Rose O'Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy" by Ann Blackman, New York: Random House, 2005.



2. I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of positive reviews. I found the book to be an excellent addition to the Civil War library. It's consideration of the role and activities of women in this case Elizabeth Van Lew distinguishes this contribution. Often, CW buffs become immersed in battles, generals, and politics of the time. This book is a welcome respite from the male dominated battlefield and offers a perspective of the life and times of the Richmond community. It is an engaging read that will allow many to learn more about this forgotten patriot.

   I do agree that more maps would have been helpful (I've been to Chimborazo hospital and would have benefited from understanding the proximity of Van Lew to the hospital).

   An excellent read. Great present for those interested in the role women have played in shaping the country.




3. One keeps expecting the Civil War, that great motherload for historians, finally to have been mined out. Then a book like SOUTHERN LADY, YANKEE SPY comes along, proving that there are still riches to be discovered in that thar war. Elizabeth Van Lew's name will not ring a bell with most Civil War buffs, but Elizabeth Varon's biography ought to remedy that. This woman's courageous story deserves a place in our textbooks.

   Van Lew, though a member of one of Richmond's most prominent families, was a staunch unionist who led a spy network that fed valuable intelligence to Union Generals Butler and Grant. It is possible that Van Lew even placed a spy among the servants of Jefferson Davis' household. After the war, Van Lew was appointed Postmaster of Richmond by then-President Grant. During her eight-year tenure, she integrated her staff and improved service.

   Varon, who teaches history at Wellesley College, fits into the framework of Van Lew's life story a good overview of unionist sentiment in Virginia prior to the war and its ineffectual leadership during the succession crisis. She thoroughly rebuts the "Crazy Bet" myth, which was Van Lew's image for much of the 20th century -- even among historians. The book's greatest accomplishment,though, is showing Van Lew as a three-dimensional person, constantly changing and evolving in response to the world around her.




4. .
   I am the great-great grandson of Elizabeth's brother, discussed extensively in the book. Ms. Varon has admirably fleshed out with documented sources many of the accounts passed down through our family. She has (thankfully) quite thoroughly debunked the 'Crazy Bet' nonsense that always bothered those of us who knew something of the real story. In that respect it is a valuable and enjoyable work. Most satisfying was the evident skill with which the author develops the paradox of northerners, starting with Elizabeth's father who came to Richmond in 1807 from New Jersey at age 17, becoming so thoroughly southern that her brother could marry into some of the bluest blood Virginia ever produced.
   
   The book, however, would have been even better had Ms. Varon taken the time to develop a chapter on Elizabeth's sister-in-law, Mary Carter West. They did /not/ get along, and the Secession Crisis blew the Van Lew marriage apart along some already weak seams.
   
   Mary was directly descended from four of the most important families in Virginia -- the Carters, Harrisons, Randolphs, and Wests. Robert E Lee's mother was a Carter cousin. President Harrison was a great-uncle. Mary's brother Thomas enlisted with the 27th Virginia Infantry less than a month after Fort Sumter was shelled, and was one of a handful of original enlistees still alive to surrender at Appomatox. The battle of Malvern Hill (1862) was literally in the West family's front yard.
   
   In fairness to Ms. Varon I should note that she did mention Mary's departure from the family (family lore says that Elizabeth drove her out of the house) and subsequent (1864) testimony intended to finger the Van Lews as traitors. The topic area simply could have been substantially better developed and would have greatly deepened the reader's understanding of what a cauldron the Van Lew household was at the beginning of the war. The historical importance of this is that it is a particularly forceful and poignant example of what was a relatively common situation in Virginia. Most aren't as richly documented.
   
   One area in which I would actively fault the author is that she repeatedly superimposes a late 20th century political correctness framework on a very different era. Example: Elizabeth is described as being a victim of "ageism" late in life.
   
   Then there is the paucity of maps to set geographical context for readers unfamiliar with the area and its historic sites. The map of Richmond has no scale, which is sort of lame, but I'm being picky here. She also stumbles around in trying to understand the Mary Bowser connection, whereby the Van Lew ring supposedly had an operative in President Davis's very household.
   
   On the other hand, her explanation of the 19th century understanding of death and how it related to the famous Col Dahlgren re-burial was delightfully helpful in clarifying an event that otherwise doesn't make much sense, given the huge risks for the parties involved.
   
   All in all, this is vastly better than the other Van Lew books out there, some of which are pure bunk. It is enjoyable and generally well written. Ms. Varon is to be thanked for giving us a valuable window into the American story as experienced by one family -- at a crucial time, in a vital place.



5. Varon's "Southern Lady, Yankee Spy" is a wonderful blend of history and intrigue as she chronicles the life of Elizabeth Van Lew and Van Lew's heroic efforts before, during, and after the Civil War. Brave and eccentric, Van Lew helps the Union cause while surrounded by the blinding ignorance of secessionist loyalty and a dismay for the equal
   rights of women and African Americans.

   Highly recommended for those interested in the early woman's suffrage and civil rights movements. Civil War buffs and lovers of historical espionage will do well to add this work to their collections.

1 comments about The War the Women Lived: Female Voices from the Confederate South.

1. The Women of the Confederacy speak. Culled from journals, diaries and published memoirs of the most cruel war of all, a Civil War, these women tell of hardships endured and unbelievable savagery on both sides. If this book was fiction it would be a good read. As eyewitness accounts it is a great read. Experience the horrors, the insights, the frame-of-mind of a violent time from our past. This book will enrich you

3 comments about The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

1. I enjoyed reading this short book about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her times because it told me just enough about her and fitted her thoughts and ideas into what was going on intellectually in the United States at the time. I appreciated the connections made between her type of feminist thinking and that of others before and after. It made me think, too, about my own feminist philosophy. And, once again, I was surprised by the depths of male chauvinism through the ages.



2. 
   It seems that ECS was on to "self esteem" a century before it had a name. The author starts here and ties the book up contemplating the loneliness of radicals and those ahead of their times.
   
   In the middle the author strays from the idea of self, but the rambling is interesting. We learn more about how the 19th century feminism grew out of the abolitionist movement (just as 20th century feminism grew out of the civil rights movement) something of the 19th century lecture circuit, and divisions in the women's suffrage movement, etc.
   
   I'd have liked to have seen more on the idea of "self" and/or the "solitude of self" in this period, but found enough other material in the book to keep me reading.



3. This book is a study of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's final address in 1892 called "Solitude of Self" in which she feels the human condition we all suffer sometimes, loneliness. When she went to London in 1840, the way she was treated made her declare, "I am only a woman."
   
   In this different perspective on woman's suffrage and such, the Civil War is called a "Revolution" of sorts, but it was a fight to the bitter end, a war to remember and which may never be over in people's minds. She talks about the errors of the past, equality for all, and a century of wrong.
   
   Elizabeth, from upstate New York and later Boston, was concerned with aboliton, suffrage, and the power of religious doctrine. She spoke in the Grand Opera House in 1975 Chicago to a standing-room only audience. She was a political activist of her time. This book is based on letters, diaries, speeches, and Mrs. Stanton's THE WOMEN'S BIBLE.
   
   Vivian Gornick has written FIERCE ATTACHMENTS and APPROACHING EYE LEVEL previously.

No comments about Custer and the Little Bighorn.

5 comments about Archibald Cox: Conscience Of A Nation.

1. I read this book for my Legal Profession class as a first year law student. I enjoyed the book very much. The details of Cox's life were very interesting in addition to what he was most famous for (Watergate). Cox is an excellent embodiment of ethics and professionalism and is a great person which all lawyers should look to as an example.



2. In a time curiously bereft of public heroes, the life and achievements of Professor Archibald Cox of Harvard University stands in bold relief as a reminder of what a man of singular dedication, an ethic of public service, and a lifetime of professional integrity can do to change the course of history. This wonderful biography by law professor Ken Gormley recounts the life and accomplishments of this extraordinary person, a man who stood face to face in opposition to one of the most popular and powerful Presidents of the 20th century and, to his undying credit, never blinked. It is a riveting tale of man whose allegiance was to the simple notion that our nation is one ruled by law and not by individual personality. It also tells the captivating story of man who spent a lifetime serving the American people, living by his principles, and passing them on so memorably as a law professor at Harvard University.

   Cox appears everywhere in the pantheon of modern American accomplishment during his more than sixty year career. He first clerked for the legendary Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand in the midst of the Depression before embarking on a course as a pioneer in public labor law, soon to be asked to serve the federal executive, first as a Special Assistant to the National Defense Mediation Board, and then with the Solicitor General's office. Finally, shortly after the end of the war, he accepted a teaching position with Harvard Law School, where he was destined to become a leading legal expert in labor law. It was in this capacity that he eventually became an advisor to John F. Kennedy, a Harvard graduate and the junior Senator from Massachusetts.

   When Kennedy won the Presidency in 1960, he appointed Cox the position of Solicitor General, giving Cox the opportunity to argue brilliantly before the Supreme Court as the Government's advocate for civil rights reform. He also worked behind the scenes as a mediator during Harvard's internal student troubles in the late 1960s, trying to mend the huge political, philosophical, and educational issues leading to such dynamic student unrest. Yet all of these accomplishments and lifetime enterprises pale in the face of his later involvement as the Justice Department's Special Prosecutor in that newly created post to independently investigate the troubling issues surrounding the Nixon administrations participation in a wide range of suspect activities.

   As such, he was a key figure in the unraveling of the Watergate scandal as well as the subsequent Congressional investigations and impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon. Instructed to conform, heal to Nixon's dictates or else, to cease and desist from his pursuit of the White House tapes, Cox quite simply refused to be cowed. Of course, he was then fired in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre, in which both Attorney General and his assistant publically refused to fire Cox and themselves resigned from the Administration. Republican toady, Solicitor General Robert Bork had no such scruples or compunctions, and promptly fired Cox. It was this single event of firing Cox that awoke the Congress and the nation regarding Nixon's viability, and this subsequently changed the political equation that eventually led to Nixon's own resignation in August of 1974.

   This is an entertaining, absorbing, and quite literate book, one that takes a fond and pensive look at that most rare of human individuals, a man guided by his dedication to principles and the rule of law. It is also a wonderful up-close and personal look at life inside the confines of the well-furnished parlors of privilege Cox has habituated all his life, based on birth, wealth, and, of course, his extraordinary ability. It is a rare open and honest look at the realities of how America works, often on the quite undemocratic basis of where one happens to go to college and professional study, upon who one knows, and by how well one can rise to the expectations and rules of conduct prevailing in the power elite. This is a splendid book about a rare and admirable man, and one most people can learn from reading. I highly recommend it.




3. An outstanding insight into the life of Cox, which goes far beyond his Watergate notoriety, yet still provides a wealth of info about Watergate, as well.



4. The legal profession has been sinking ever lower in public opinion polls. Archibald Cox's life and character should serve as an aspirational role model for all lawyers. Cox was a participant in may of the major events of the middle third of the twentieth century, and through quiet integrity and commitment he helped shape the consequences of many of those events. Too often the biographies of quiet men have all the appeal of reading the phone directory, but Professor Gormley brings not only the events, but Cox and his character to life. I read this book as an attorney at mid-career, and it inspired me. We do have heros in the profession. There are those in the profession who find success in achievement rather than acquiring money or exploiting self-promotion. After reading this book, I think that this is a man I admire. To most of the public and to many lawyers, the television sterotype is the legal profession. It is not, but the profession would be improved by each of us learning from great lives. Perhaps as an adjunct to ethics courses and CLE lectures, law schools could include in the first year curriculum a legal biography class and state bar associations could require annually that each attorney read a selected legal biography. This book should be among the first to be read by attorneys, professors and students alike. [Unfortunately, there may be those who would promote the books by or about the hucksters and charlatans as "heros" of the profession].



5. This book is not just Watergate revisited. It spans the amazing career of a model lawyer. The book provides insight into important moments in labor, political and legal history, from Mr. Cox's clerkship with Learned Hand, through his service on Truman's Wage Stabilization Committee, to his role with Comman Cause -- and including, of course, Watergate. The book is extensively researched, and includes numerous interviews with key players in Mr. Cox's career. Mr. Cox is Atticus Finch in government. His work, brought out in this book, is a reminder to lawyers that carrying that JD implies a duty to serve.

5 comments about The Greatest Communicator: What Ronald Reagan Taught Me About Politics, Leadership, and Life.

1. This author does a great job of putting us beside him as he interacts with President Reagan. What surprised me most was how different Reagan really was compared to the image the "drive-by media" gave us.
   
   Wirthlin is someone who's name we've heard but this reallly solidifies him as an important insider and confidant to the greatest president in the 20th century.
   
   Well done Mr. Wirthlin!



2. Dick Wirthlin's myriad experience with the Reagan presidency, including a three-decade relationship with the "Greatest Communicator," is eloquently recounted by Wynton Hall, Wirthlin's co-author and an expert in presidential rhetoric. To say that this book is a must read for anyone wanting to know the man behind the politician is an understatement. Read Chapter 7, "Three Goodbyes," for a poignant and uplifting account of Reagan's bravery in his battle with Alzheimer's.



3. Most reviews submitted are friends of the author or work for him. This makes their reviews a bit unfair to the rest of the reading world. However, the book was well written and interesting. I love Reagan and always enjoy reading about him. It's interesting to see from an insider's point of view.



4. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it really held my attention throughout. It is a personal portrayal of a man that provides unique insight into how his values truly drove his behavior and how his personality and vision built the foundation for successful communications. Dick Wirthlin does a wonderful job of communicating friendship and of creating a very human connection in the reader's mind with President Reagan.



5. This was a fascinating account about the rise to the US presidency, and what drove his policies of one of the greatest world leaders of his century. This book lays out clearly the vision Reagan had when he came to office, and how his policies and actions, fit into that aspirational goal/vision. Younger people may lack the vantage point that those of us who grew from childhood with the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union as a daily and real threat to our existence and life itself. Reagan's leadership and legacy is that he may have perhaps eliminated that threat. Wirthlin's insight and record from his proximity to the decisions and what drove them provides yet another glimpse of the character and leadership principles that guided Ronald Reagon's policies and actions. While we stuggle again today with threats and challenges to our democracy and freedom around the globe, the lesson here is that we should not underestimate the good that can come from a bold vision and dedication to a noble cause even if it may take sacrifice and overcoming significant adversity, and time to achieve it!

5 comments about Mrs. Paine's Garage: And the Murder of John F. Kennedy.

1. Very good book taking information from the account of the landlord for Marina Oswald at the time of the shooting....I read the whole thing....Interesting addtl info re: Dallas happening.



2. This book is an example of creative nonfiction as it is written like a novel. The operative word here is "creative". This book is written as the title suggests from Ruth Paine's point of view. Both the author and interview subject have placed much more importance on her relationship with the Oswalds than was really there. Ruth seems to think that she was an integral part of what happened as if she could have stopped Lee. The truth is she had only met them at a party in early 1963 and even though Marina was living with her; Ruth barely knew the couple.

   Mallon makes a lot of assumptions in this book like stating that Oswald went back to the boarding house to pick up the pistol "he used minutes later to kill the patrolman, J. D. Tippet who stopped him near the corner of Tenth and Patton." The gun Oswald had on him at the time of his arrest at the Texas Theater had a defective firing pin so he couldn't have shot anyone with it. Witnesses were goaded into identifying Oswald during the police line-up. I might remind readers that it has never been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Lee killed Kennedy or Officer Tippet.

   I must admit that Ruth's obsession with Marina before and after the assassination was VERY INTERESTING and the only part of the book that seemed based on reality.

   If you like historical comedy, this is the book for you!




3. Thomas Mallon has written about Ruth Paine, the woman who found she had harboured one of the most infamous criminals of all time- Lee Harvey Oswald. Whatever you believe about the Kennedy assassination, you'll appreciate Mallon's glimpse at what it was like to be standing right next to one of the most important, disruptive, and tragic events of the twentieth century. Ruth Paine is revealed to be a woman with a very sure sense of who she is and what she stands for, a woman who- almost alone among survivors truly close to the assassination- refuses to be defined by her proximity to what happened that day in Dealey Plaza.

   Mallon's skill at conveying a sense of what the world was like in 1963 is remarkable, and very welcome. In several paragraphs, he details just how un-sophisticated a planet we lived on then; it was a day of hand-typed copies instead of Xeroxes and the 8-cent stamp instead of e-mail. As someone who was around at that time, I've often wished that more authors dealing with this topic would take more care to remind readers that the world was a very different place then. Forgetting that has led many assassination researchers and theorists down many a specious and unproductive pathway. One example (which is not to be found in Mallon's work) is Michael Paine's ownership of a Minox camera. Today's researchers have made the most prodigious hay out of that, never suspecting the truth- the Minox was heavily promoted and sold in the early Sixties as a toy for the well-off (which Mr. Paine was, despite his unassuming lifestyle), advertised in 'National Geographic'. The camera- in the context of its time- was no more meaningful than possession of a laptop is today. Yes, both COULD be used for nefarious purposes, but most owners use their laptops for peaceful, private purposes, and so did most Minox buffs. Mallon's work is always scrupulous in remembering the difference between Now and Then, and it is most refreshing.

   Ruth Paine seems to have given much of herself to Mallon, and therefore to us. She is revealed to have been very pained at several questions and revelations that came up both before and during the interviews for the book, but she seems never to have cut off the author's lines of inquiry, nor even to have directed them, answering frankly. Touchingly, Mallon's research revealed things to Ruth Paine even she had not known about the central event of her life, and her reactions to them are interesting indeed.

   Mallon has not produced a perfect book- there does not seem to have been much direct questioning of Mrs. Paine on some of the topics that assassination researchers raise the most questions about (that Minox, for one), and so the book will give a great deal of unnecessary ammunition to those who feel that Mrs. Paine has something to hide, rather than clearing matters once and for all. And there are a few places where Mallon does not make clear that he's quoting from previously published material, giving rise to the impression that he interviewed people he did not. While a reader familiar with the subject will be able to discern immediately that, say, Robert Oswald did not grant Mallon an interview, the author waits a bit to let the average reader in on that.

   Still, it's a remarkable look at a remarkable witness to history, a woman who has had staggering events roll over her, and like the slender reed she resembles, has sprung back, ready for new life, ready to bend in new directions, respecting the force of the storm, but quietly, serenely confident in her ability to survive it.




4. Thomas Mallon's most recent foray into "non-fiction," is not only a disappointment. It's a disgrace. The book's a bust not so much for what it is but for what it fails to be.
   Mallon's subjects, Ruth and her ex-husband, Michael Paine, were the young couple who befriended Lee and Marina Oswald
   in early 1963. When President John F. Kennedy's long-awaited visit to Dallas rolled around on Nov. 22, 1963, Marina was
   living at Ruth's house in Irving, Texas. Lee Oswald, who would eventually be charged with the president's gunshot slaying,
   spent the night before the assassination there at Ruth's home. When Dallas police appeared at the Irving address on that
   fateful Friday afternoon, Marina told them Lee's rifle was in the garage. When they searched, the gun was missing.

   Mallon could've delved deeply into the Paines' background, revealing their family's relationship, for instance, to former CIA Director Allen Dulles, who became one of the primary investigators into the Kennedy assassination.
   When the Paines each testified before the Warren Commission in 1964, Dulles oversaw their questioning. For many years, Michael's New England-based mother and stepfather, Ruth and Arthur Young, had been close friends of Mary Bancroft,Dulles' mistress dating back to his days as an undercover operative in Switzerland during World War II.
   If the public had known in 1964 about the Paine family's ties to Dulles, the Warren Commission may have been exposed for the sham that it was, a tool of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Hoover and Johnson both desperately wanted the JFK hit to dissolve swiftly into history, attributed to a "lone nut," Oswald, who in turn was assassinated by another "lone nut," Big D nightclub operator Jack Ruby.
   Mallon is apparently among the shrinking number of Americans who swallow that unlikely scenario, the double-lone nut theory.
   Instead of exploring the Paines' unholy alliance with Dulles in this book, Mallon wallows in Ruth's Quakerism and her worries over her lost friendship with Marina. Instead of examining Michael's classified work at Bell Helicopter or his father's interest in the assassination of Leon Trotsky, he describes the husband's fascination with cabinetry and contradancing. In doing so, Mallon effectively trivializes the JFK murder and expressly taunts conspiracy theorists who insist that the Paines deserve more serious probing. Mallon actually mocks longtime assassination researchers by comparing them to "Trekkies," the cult-like followers of a long-ago canceled TV science fiction show.
   Having endeared himself to Ruth, courting her carefully over years via mail and telephone in order secure her
   permission to interview her at length about the murder of the president, Mallon literally sold out.
   The Westport, Conn. writer boasts a lengthy and impressive resume, having cranked out well-received novels such as "Dewey Defeats Truman." His years of experience fail him here, however, as he relies on his literary talents to dance around issues he should have more fully embraced.
   Specifically, he simply labels such facts as the Dulles connection as mere "coincidence." In making this point, Mallon quotes two people: Ruth's mother, who blames "fate" for her daughter's unusual notoriety, and Norman Mailer, author of "Oswald's Ghost," a mid-90s biography of the alleged assassin.
   In "Oswald's Ghost," Mallon neglects to inform readers of "Mrs. Paine's Garage," Mailer actually asserted that -- given the unlikelihood of the Warren Report's single-bullet theory -- a second gunman may well have stood, completely by chance, firing at JFK from behind the stockade fence on the grassy knoll in front of the presidential limousine while Oswald fired from behind, totally oblivious to the other shooter!
   After reading illogical deductions such as that, you can see why writers such as Mailer and Mallon remain more highly
   admired for their fiction than for their non-fiction.
   To illustrate his insistence that coincidence ruled the Paines' fate, Mallon concludes his book by relating a story
   about Mr. and Mrs., Raymond Entenmann, former Paine pals who happened to help stock JFK's Fort Worth Hotel room with
   artwork on the night of Nov. 21-22, 1963.
   The Entenmanns have nothing to do with the killing of the president, of course, but Mallon seems to be saying that
   since the Paines knew the Entenmanns, it's also logical that they may have known Dulles as well or Dallas FBI agent James Hosty, or that we shouldn't be surprised that Ruth's father worked for a CIA-related development agency in South America or that Michael's father-in-law was an inventor for Bell Helicopter and his father, Lyman Paine, had been a prominent follower of Soviet expatriate Leon Trotsky.
   Although they both gave lengthy testimony before the Warren Commission in 1964, neither of the Paines were called
   before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979 nor before the Assassination Records Review Board in the
   mid-1990s. Now there's a coincidence that bears explaining, because both Ruth and Michael, now in their early 70s, still have
   plenty to answer for. Tyhey sure didn;t tell Mallon anything expept what they WANT people to hear, and he was oh-so-agreeable to participate in that subtle subterfuge.




5. Thomas Mallon's most recent foray into "non-fiction," is not only a disappointment. It's a disgrace. The book's a bust not so much for what it is but for what it fails to be.
   Mallon's subjects, Ruth and her ex-husband, Michael Paine, were the young couple who befriended Lee and Marina Oswald
   in early 1963. When President John F. Kennedy's long-awaited visit to Dallas rolled around on Nov. 22, 1963, Marina was living at Ruth's house in Irving, Texas. Lee Oswald, who would eventually be charged with the president's gunshot slaying, spent the night before the assassination there at Ruth's home. When Dallas police appeared at the Irving address on that fateful Friday afternoon, Marina told them Lee's rifle was in the garage. When they searched, the gun was missing.

   Mallon could've delved deeply into the Paines' background, revealing their family's relationship, for instance, to former CIA Director Allen Dulles, who became one of the primary investigators into the Kennedy assassination. When the Paines each testified before the Warren Commission in 1964, Dulles oversaw their questioning. For many years, Michael's New England-based mother and stepfather, Ruth and Arthur Young, had been close friends of Mary Bancroft, Dulles' mistress dating back to his days as an undercover operative in Switzerland during World War II. If the public had known in 1964 about the Paine family's ties to Dulles, the Warren Commission may have been exposed for the sham that it was, a tool of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Hoover and Johnson both desperately wanted the JFK hit to dissolve swiftly into history, attributed to a "lone nut," Oswald, who in turn was assassinated by another "lone nut," Big D nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Mallon is apparently among the shrinking number of Americans who swallow that unlikely scenario, the double-lone nut theory.
   Instead of exploring the Paines' unholy alliance with Dulles in this book, Mallon wallows in Ruth's Quakerism and her worries over her lost friendship with Marina. Instead of examining Michael's classified work at Bell Helicopter or his father's interest in the assassination of Leon Trotsky, he describes the husband's fascination with cabinetry and contradancing. In doing so, Mallon effectively trivializes the JFK murder and expressly taunts conspiracy theorists who insist that the Paines deserve more serious probing. Mallon actually mocks longtime assassination researchers by comparing them to "Trekkies," the cult-like followers of a long-ago canceled TV science fiction show. Having endeared himself to Ruth, courting her carefully over years via mail and telephone in order secure her permission to interview her at length about the murder of the president, Mallon literally sold out. The Westport, Conn. writer boasts a lengthy and impressive resume, having cranked out well-received novels such as "Dewey Defeats Truman." His years of experience fail him here, however, as he relies on his literary talents to dance around issues he should have more fully embraced.
   Specifically, he simply labels such facts as the Dulles connection as mere "coincidence." In making this point, Mallon quotes two people: Ruth's mother, who blames "fate" for her daughter's unusual notoriety, and Norman Mailer, author of "Oswald's Ghost," a mid-90s biography of the alleged assassin. In "Oswald's Ghost," Mallon neglects to inform readers of "Mrs. Paine's Garage," Mailer actually asserted that -- given the unlikelihood of the Warren Report's single-bullet theory -- a second gunman may well have stood, completely by chance, firing at JFK from behind the stockade fence on the grassy knoll in front of the presidential limousine while Oswald fired from behind, totally oblivious to the other shooter! After reading illogical deductions such as that, you can see why writers such as Mailer and Mallon remain more highly admired for their fiction than for their non-fiction.
   To illustrate his insistence that coincidence ruled the Paines' fate, Mallon concludes his book by relating a story about Mr. and Mrs., Raymond Entenmann, former Paine pals who happened to help stock JFK's Fort Worth Hotel room with artwork on the night of Nov. 21-22, 1963. The Entenmanns have nothing to do with the killing of the president, of course, but Mallon seems to be saying that since the Paines knew the Entenmanns, it's also logical that they may have known Dulles as well or Dallas FBI agent James Hosty, or that we shouldn't be surprised that Ruth's father worked for a CIA-related development agency in South America or that Michael's father-in-law was an inventor for Bell Helicopter and his father, Lyman Paine, had been a prominent follower of Soviet expatriate Leon Trotsky.
   Although they both gave lengthy testimony before the Warren Commission in 1964, neither of the Paines were called before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979 nor before the Assassination Records Review Board in the mid-1990s.
   Now THERE's a coincidence that bears explaining, because both Ruth and Michael, now in their early-70s, still have plenty to answer for. They sure didn't tell Mallon anything other than what they WANT people to hear, and he was oh-so-agreeable to participate in that subtle subterfuge.

5 comments about Howard Hughes: Aviator.

1. Written from a test pilot's perspective, this is the real story of an unusual man who was a magician with lots of money. Hughes was a true pioneeer in aviation, constantly on the newsreels. He had a fascination with planes, even those which could float on water. There is a picture of the Hercules after it was brought of storage in 1980.
   
   The pictures of so many airplanes brought the story so much better than words could do and Hughes contribution to the war effort. He was truly the Aviator of all time, better then the celebrated Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. I'm glad he had Bruce Burk at his side to aid in this quest.
   
   After he changed TWA to TransWorld Airlines, he ran into conflict with PanAm president who told him in the Coconut Grove, where a lot of the personal interaction took place, that no airline should have a monopoly on international travel.
   
   There were scandals with the women, though he appeared to enjoy touching planes more than women. He "interviewed" many young starlets under contract to him. He was clear at the end that aviation was the great love of his life. He was dubbed as capricious and eccentric, but mainly he was afraid of people -- paranoid, thinking there were spies in his midst to learn his secrets.
   
   If he loved any woman, it was Kate Hepburn who left him for Spencer Tracy, He visited her family in Conn. but felt alienated, and she tried to dominate him. He wanted to control Ava Gardner and asked her to marry him. Both women appeared in his delusion to prepare for the Senate hearing. He was alo involved with Rita Hayworth and Terry Moore, who claimed to be his wife when he died. The senator accused him of producing a dirty movie and making airplanes which don't fly.
   
   At the hearing, it was promoted that the whole world will see what he has become. The Hercules (later dubbed the Spruce Goose) became Howard's folly, the sixty-ton white elephant with a wing span the length of a football field. It was meant to fly 200 tons of army equipment. When he successfully got that plane out of the water, it proved his ability to overcome his tarnished reputation. The senator charged Hughes with defrauding the government for accepting millions of dollars for spy planes he never delivered.
   
   George Marrett wrote CHEATING DEATH: COMBAT AIR RESCUE IN VIETNAM AND LAOS in 2003. This is the real story of Howard Hughes contribution to aviation, his first and last love.



2. Well written and well documented book tells about Hughes life from the aviation perspective. Although it probably wasn't the author's primary intent, I was shocked to read how bad a pilot Hughes was with questionable flying ability and certainly flawed judgement. By 1948, Hughes had had 9 major head injuries with at least 5 of them in an aircraft (which may explain his erratic behavior in his later years). A must read for flying buffs.



3. This was the first Hughes book I've read, although I've chased down several more since. It's probably impossible to write a full bio of Howard Huges, given the extra large size of his life and all of his accomplishments... and the extra deep depths of his fall.
   
   George Marrett has probably realized that, and limits the bio to some of the larger events of Hughes life, centered around aviation. He does a great job there, with inside stories (from extensive interviews of Hughes contemporaries) that are fascionating, and inspiring (for Hughes accomplishments - which were many and unique).
   
   Don't buy this book expected to see the full story of Hughes life... or a more detailed view of The Aviator movie (which apparently took more than a few liberties). Buy it to more fully understand Hughes great aviation contributions... and the times in which he lived.
   
   Fortunately, the book stays classy to the end, and avoids the tabloid view of Hughes life (and his end). We can get that type of view elsewhere.. if we want to waste our time. For now lets focus on the great persona of Hughes, and the the fascinating times in which he made his greatest contributions.



4. This is a good book and it reads pretty well. The story often deviates from Hughes (especially in the second half) to go into stories about many of the pilots and engineers that worked with Hughes. This isn't unreasonable because these are the people that the author had access too and they also have interesting lives. However, I feel that this distracts from the Hughes story and I suspect is done to fill in the many gaps when no one knew what Hughes was actually doing. If you are interested in the aviator side of Hughes I feel its worth the purchase.



5. Oh gosh, this is a good read. Buy it! Take it with you when you go to see Leonardo playing Howard on the big screen, so you can keep the airplanes straight and also remind yourself that, for all his genius, Howard Hughes was a rather shabby pilot. (A ***** stick, as they say in the Air Force.)
   
   To save money on aeronautical charts, he flew with the road maps handed out free by oil companies. He ignored air-traffic controllers, filed misleading flight plans, identified himself with the name of his co-pilot, flew under visual rules in bad weather, and cut off the pilot ahead of him in the pattern. Even as a passenger, George Marrett writes, Hughes could turn a routine flight into a debacle. His big ambition was to outshine Lindberg.
   
   Of course Howard Hughes was more than an aviator: he made movies, ran an airline, designed the half-cup bra, founded aerospace companies, made billions, and was the country's most famous hypochondriac. But those are incidentals as for a fellow pilot like George Marrett, who flew a rescue Skyraider in Vietnam and wrote about it in Cheating Death, and who afterward became a test pilot for Hughes Aircraft. By concentrating on the aviation side of his former boss, Marrett has written a short, readable, and fascinating biography. In his hands, Howard Hughes turns out to have been a lot more interesting than Charles Lindbergh, though he never came close to him as an aviator.
   
   -- Dan Ford

5 comments about Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders.

1. Its a good bok to look what a general and a brigadier officers life and military duty.So I recommended this book to all fans of the Civil War.



2. I agree with the other reviewers who say that Ezra Warner's Generals in Blue is an essential resource for Civil War buffs. Whether you're in need of the basic biography of familiar generals, or want some quick and convenient background on an unfamiliar name, Generals in Blue is the place to go. I use it so often that I don't even bother reshelving it anymore.
   
   But the volume is more than just a reference book. It's also an existential document that evokes a lot of pathos from the reader. By far the greater number of generals discussed weren't regular army officers. Like their troops, they were volunteers--civilians suddenly wrested from the normal course of life and thrown into battle with, frequently, very little training and no experience. Many of them were wounded; some were killed; some were so incompetent that they got lots of foot soldiers killed; some were heroes; some rogues; a very few were pretty old, but many were little more than boys (Custer, for example, was generaled at the age of 25); some were shattered by their experiences in the war; some coarsened. Reading their biographies and contemplating their photographs go a long way towards putting faces to anonymous battle descriptions.
   
   Too bad there aren't similar compilations of ordinary soldiers.



3. and yet also surprisingly entertaining. I find it rather compelling actually. A few years ago this was my preferred reading on nights when I couldn't sleep...the individual bios were gripping and informative, but not too much to bite off. Warner's perspective is kinda old-school; I am a bit leery of his dismissal of the contributions of some of these officers to Reconstruction in the South. But mostly he is fair if a bit acerbic in his assessments. The pictures are entertaining in themselves, as well. The facial hair in that era! Comparing and contrasting the mustaches and beards of Ambrose Burnside, George McClellan, Ulysses Grant, and Egbert G. Brown might require a book in itself, but Warner does an invaluable job bringing so much material together.



4. Like Generals in Gray, I have often referred to Generals in Blue as an excellent reference over the years.

   Warner presents a brief biography of each general usually including the following information:

   1. Birthplace and birthdate.
   2. Prewar career.
   3. Battles served in, promotions, wounding and death (if applicable).
   4. Postwar career.
   5. Relationships with other generals and officers.
   6. Death and place of burial.
   7. Mention of the officer's competency (or lack thereof).

   Whether you are a serious student of the Civil War or a novice, I highly recommend the book as an excellent reference!




5. Like it's companion, Generals in Gray, Ezra has done an excellent job in giving short biographies on all the Union generals, with a picture of each general included. An excellent reference guide for your Civil War library.