5 comments about Maude (1883-1993): She Grew Up With the Country.

1. Mardo Williams, a long lived man in his own right & an Ohio newspaper reporter, has written a good biography-cum-memoir of his mother's 110 years of life before electricity to seven decades later, flying in a plane.

   From his career as an observer of daily life, Mardo Williams gives us a particularly detailed & fascinating glimpse into the life & times of early America. Liberally sprinkled with philosophy, humor & tragedy, MAUDE 1883-1993 is indeed a fine tribute to one ordinary woman's extra-ordinary spirit.




2. This is an important book.It reminds us of what we've lost. Read it and pass it down a generation. Joanna Wolper, New York City



3. MAUDE is a vivid chronicle of life in the first half of this century. Mardo Williams' writing is exquisite, his reportorial style is pithy and wastes not a single word. On both counts this book should become an important reference manual.



4. Maude is not only a beautifully written tribute to a remarkable woman, but a wonderful chonicle of our country's growth towards maturity. Author Mardo Williams' newspaper background is apparent: He has a unique ability to mix important and meaningul historical details with the entertaining vignettes of rural life. That Mr. Williams knew his subject well is undisputed: He was the second child and only son born to Maude and her husband Lee. Much of what he writes was experienced or witnessed firsthand. It is particularly remarkable that he didn't begin writing this loving tribute to his mother and the early days of this century until he himself was 88 years of age. Maude-1883-1993: She Grew Up with the Country is a delight.



5. This book is a simply written account of a mother & son's recollections of their life. I found it very boring.

5 comments about Mr Lincoln's Army.

1. One reason I am a life-long Civil War buff is because of the pleasant memories I have as a teenager reading several of Mr. Catton's books. Just recently I bought some used ones at a flea market and have decided to read them again. This book is the first one I have reread.
   
   Rereading this book reminded me why Catton is one of the best writers on comprehensive or themed Civil War histories. He was not known for many titles on individual battles but instead focused on particular themes (US Grant taking command of the Army of the Potomac in 1864, a comprehensive history of the Army of the Potomac, etc.).
   
   Mr. Lincoln's Army covers the time from Bull Run to the Battle of Antietam, mainly from the Union perspective. Yes, the folks who like a histories on the Confederacy may like not the perspective, but the book is fair in evaluating the leaders of the Army of the Potomac. The book also has Catton's unique writing style - excellent descriptions of troop movements, battles, and personalities.
   
   The only reason I did not give the book 5 stars was not the content or style of the text but the maps. The maps were few and were of okay quality. To be fair, the book was written in the 1950s, so one should not expect the quality of maps one sees in newer titles.
   
   Complaint aside, read the book and enjoy what is in my humble opinion one of the best histories of the Army of the Potomac.
   
   Recommended.



2. This is the second of Bruce Catton's "army of the Potomac" books that I have read. I have the whole series but let them sit on my shelf for years until I discovered Catton's genius for communicating history while reading "Glory Road". Some historical books are written by persons adept at research but short on writing skills. Others are adept at writing but short on research skills. A good book is when you find someone good at both. Catton EXCELS at both. His ability to show us the Civil War through the eyes of the participants is quite impressive. It's even more impressive when realizing that he takes us across a lot of ground in a mere 339 pages yet never lets us feel that we missed anything nor that we were bogged down in anything. He gives us his philosophy yet seems to try and give us enough leeway to decide for ourselves on a number of issues such as the merits of McClellan as commanding general.
   
   "Mr. Lincoln's Army" covers the war from post First Bull Run with emphasis on the Penninsula Campaign and Antietam. Along the way we get a lot of insight into the politics that had many a politican exasperated with McClellan while the majority of soldiers worshipped him. As we explore the book, we frequently come across many a sideline subject. For example, he covers in this vollume the food that the common soldier had to eat. It was surprizing how thorough he covered the subject in far fewer pages that I encountered in other books.
   
   I've read plenty of fiction that wasn't written as well as Catton writes. Given the fascinating subject matter, this book was a pleasure to read. I can't wait to read "A Stillness at Appomattox".



3. When it comes to writing, Catton's style is nearly impeccable. When reading Catton's book, you get the feeling that this is a great writer writing about the Civil War, not a great Civil War historian who is writing.
   
   Catton paints with broad strokes regarding the campaigns of the Army of the Potomoc up to November 1862. People who are interested in the Civil War will definitely want to read more detailed histories of the individual campaigns, but for those who have already done so, reading Catton is great because he ties them all together and really gets into the psyche of the soldiers and the army as a whole.
   
   Much of the book focuses of course on McClellan, who is persona non grata in most histories being written these days. But Catton is able to evoke some sympathy for McClellan's odd position in the power struggle between the military commanders and the Administration's politics, let alone the power struggle within the Administration itself.
   
   All in all, this is a great book for people who have read about the Civil War in depth and are looking for enjoyable reading.



4. What a wonderful book. I was so lucky to be able to pick up a great condition trilogy of the AOP (Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and Stillness at Appomatox).

   Catton's style is so amazing. You get the broad strokes of tactical movement, political wranglings, down in the ditch tales, camp life, and of course the human equation.

   Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.

   I must say, I'm glad I had a little working knowledge of the ACW before reading. He does have a tendency to just start up. For instance, Lincoln's Army starts in the middle of 2nd Manassas, then kind of works back into a flash back and fills in some of the bios. This may be a little confusing for an un-informed reader. You may want to read a very general, one volume sort of history before moving on to Catton.

   The good thing though is the book is suitable for a beginner and yet I think the more you know about the ACW, the more you will enjoy it. There are so many great little stories about politicians, soldiers, officers, etc.

   Highly recommended.




5. Around the time of the Civil War's Centennial celebration, Bruce Catton dominated Civil War writing in this country. His books still speak to the reader in a literary style that brings the feeling of the war and its participants very much alive.

   "Mr. Lincoln's Army" is the first of his three-part trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. Catton traces the tragic evolution of this army -- always a superb fighting force in the ranks -- from a misused and abused weapon to the anvil that finally broke the rebellion.

   In this book, Catton focuses on one of America's few men of Destiny -- at least until he had the opportunity to confront destiny in the face -- General George B. McClellan. McClellan picked up the pieces of the Army of the Potomac twice. First, after its inauspicious start at the First Battle of Bull Run and again after the army's route following the second tussle with the Confederacy near that same small battlefield.

   McClellan was good at everything in which a general had to excel except fighting. An outstanding organizer and moral builder, "Little Mac" trained the army to a professional level and instilled in it an esprit de corps that helped sustain it through disappointment and disaster.

   The one thing McClellan could not do, as Catton illustrates through his focus on the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam, was use this superbly honed weapon decisively in battle. Always thinking he was outnumbered when in fact he held the advantage in forces, and lacking the inner confidence to take even good battle risks, he wasted multiple opportunities to end the war (or at least the existence of the Army of Northern Virginia) and save years of conflict and hundreds of thousands of lives. McClellan ends up as the ultimate in tragic figures, outwardly seeming so perfect for the job and bearing the loftiest of expectations as a savior, but inwardly cowed by fears and suspicions that he wasn't up to it.

   This book is a wonderful and evocative portrait of the spirit of the Army of the Potomac in the McClellan era. Catton's great strength is the use of anecdotes to draw the big picture and sniff out "what was in the air" at different points in time. Thus his books are not exhaustive campaign and battle portraits and are short on troop movements and deployments of particular units. He seeks to demonstrate what was actually happening when all the personalities and actors of a moment are factored together. It is a big picture look at his subject buttressed by observations, iconic stories and the unusual that allows the reader to understand the feeling that surrounded events.

   Thus, Catton focuses mightily on the relationship between McClellan and Lincoln's administration, his relationship and the performance of senior officers and in deciphering the motives, mindsets and chess game that seemed to envelope significant figures in the Army of the Potomac to a much greater degree than any other Union or Confederate army engaged in the conflict.

   As all of Catton's writings on the Civil War are, this one is a classic.

1 comments about From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher.

1. The potential reader should beware that much of this journal has appeared elsewhere. It has the advantage of a chronological life progression. Though I've read a great deal of MFK, I can't say I especially like her; the person that is. I always think of her as a female Ernest Hemingway in her writing style. She is overfond of such words as "sturdy," and "true." As in, "we shared our honest stew, simply and truly." She makes me feel apologetic for ever longing for damask over burlap. MFK was a beautiful woman, a skilled writer, and a brilliant gourmand. She took the foregoing as a given and for granted. I was struck by one statement she made about an occasion where she took particular care with her dress, so that her entrance would "stop the room cold." Her attitude was that anyone could do this if they merely took the time and effort, as she had done. She frequently had an impatient attitude toward the rest of the world. I have this feeling she has everybody fooled. We have taken her at her own self-evaluation. And yet--and yet---she didn't whine, she soldiered on, and wrestled her life into her own design. I do not know if her essays will be remembered, or if she will be a footnote to cookbookery. It is certain we will not get another like her soon!

5 comments about Vernon Can Read! A Memoir.

1. A fantastic book detailing the magnificent journey of a tremendous American! This book is packed with historical facts about the lives of Black people in America. Vernon Jordan was born in 1935 and although he did not live through slavery, he certainly lived through the Jim Crow days. However with a good father and a strong mother, he didn't just survive - he flourished. Yes, Vernon could and did indeed 'read'. The names of people mentioned in this book are dizzying. This man dealt with a wide range of people in his career.
   I loved the potent messages that came through with great clarity. Such as "never expect defeat before making an honest effort" pg.2 or pg. 277 his beliefs in concerted efforts..."each person or group using their abilities, contributing what they can to move things forward." I must also mention how happy I was to note Jordan's love for the women in his life; his mother, his invalid wife Shirley - who died at age 48, and his daughter Vickie - the apple of his eye.



2. I also never heard of Vernon Jordan before the Lewinsky scandal. I am very glad I read this book. It is a shame that many Americans never heard of his interesting and enlightening story about coming of age in the civil rights era. That seems to me to be the theme of this book, that the civil rights era opened the doors to places of power not dreamed of before, if only one had the ambition and the character to find them.
   
   Like a few other reviewers, I also wish that the author revealed more about the period between when he was in charge of the Urban League. This period is when he made his contacts with very many powerful people in charge of corporations and institutions, received a fellowship at Harvard Business School, and started on his way to become a 'power broker'. I guess if you read between the lines the corporate/foundation contacts made him beholden to the business community, and then retiring from the Urban League to work for a powerful Washington law firm gave him a 'power broker' title. But its not really enough to make the connection, is it? And what about those Bilderberg meetings, Vernon? We would like to know more.



3. Read this book. Mr. Jordan not only provides insight and anecdotes about many events and individuals in American civil rights history, his words also give us a glimpse of the workings of an incredible mind. His memoirs are filled with stories and recollections proving that desire, determination and accountability to self and others are crucial for success in any of life's endeavors. Simply stated, I'm inspired.



4. This book is an unfortunate piece of near puffery: much form, much superficiality, little substance. But what does one expect from a Power Broker? Truth or Dare?

   In keeping with the unwritten Power Broker Creed, Mr.Jordan reveals very little about the inside mechanations that made him who he is (as opposed to who he was). That is to say, the book speaks volumes about those life experiences that made Vernon Jordan the moderate civil rights leader he was years ago, but says exactly nothing about the transition from that leadership role, to the man who had the president's ear (not to mention the man who kept his secrets)and the ear of the REAL powerful people in this global econonmy: the corporate mavens for whom Vernon was (is?) paid handsomely to dish out advice and counsel to.

   We never hear in any detail about how Jordan quietly but persistently accumulated the power he achieved and, indeed, what motivated him in this pursuit. And no, I was not interested in any Monica dirt: Monica and the whole presidential thing, was (and is) beside the point when it comes to a rigorous Jordan analysis. That whole episode merely served as a template (and not a particularly good one) for the kind of back scratchery at high level that Jordan has been doing for years.

   But then again, what does one expect? People like Jordan (and mind you, I am a big fan of his)live by the aforementioned unspoken creed: power is best accumulated and exercised quietly. Thus, one does not reveal the secrets of the kingdom to just any average reader (by the way Vernon, what really does go on at those Bildeberg confrences?).

   We will not get the whole unexpurgated version of Jordan's life until some biographer decides to swim against currents and put one together.

   Those of us interested in reading something much more telling than Jordan's superficial telling of the story of his life will have to wait. Just as we similarly anxiously awaited biographical treatments of other quiet power brokers in the Clark Clifford, Tommy "the cork" mode (the wait is soon over for those of us interested in Tommy the cork and, thanks to the same author, was over several years ago for a good analysis of Clifford's life. CLifford's own biography, Counsel to the President, left much to be desired, too).

   As a high school to college level autobiographical treatment of the life of an important figure in post-world war II america, Vernon Can Read suffices. As anything deeper, it does not.

   Vernon can certainly Read, but what Vernon wrote certainly leaves alot to be desired.




5. I listened to the unabridged audio cassette version of Vernon Can Read! This is a wonderful book. It has many dates and events in African American history of which Mr. Jordan contributed to, experienced and/or witnessed. These events are not only significant in the life of Mr. Jordan but also in the history of African Americans. The book is well written and easy to read and/or listen to. I told my five year old son about the experience of young Vernon Jordan and Mr. Maddock. It was inspiring to my son and we often listen to that portion of the tape while driving home from school. Mr. Jordan wanted the book to inspire his children and grandchildren and I suspect that it has. The book has also inspired my son. I highly recommend this book.

No comments about Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968: An EBONY Picture Biography.

5 comments about The Louisiana Purchase.

1. This book is an excellent source of info about the Purchase despite being very short. Gave me more info than any other source. Unfortunately, I thought I was ordering one book and received 2. I am giving the other to my friend for his birthday in July.
   
   David Vargo



2. This book is a short but very informative and fast moving book covering much of the reasons for the purchase and the motives of the sellers. It does not cover the 20/20 hindsight that historians often develop 200 years after the fact. It is like Dragnet TV series fast entertaining while giving the facts just the facts something modern historians often ignore. Hooray for The Louisiana Purchase. Timely as we are approaching the 200th anniversary of the leap forward in manifest destiny.



3. I enjoyed reading this little book. Fleming is a well known historian who spins out an improbable tale of how our country more than doubled in size overnight and how it almost didn't happen. If it were fiction I'm not certain I would consider it plausible. But it happened. My main gripe is this: Where the blazes are the index and bibliography? This smells of a publishing decision, not Fleming's. Whoever made it, it was wrong-headed.



4. "Substandard"?!--Hardly. "what territories it encompassed"?!--"who explored it"?!--These things are left out because these questions are answered by any American history textbook, ad nauseum.
   
   What Fleming's (short) book concentrates on is exactly what is neglected in textbooks: "the diplomatic tug of war". As usual, he does it with a writing style that is captivating.



5. This short book is a perfect example of substandard history writing. I call substandard historiography a way of writing history with a narrow focus on isolated events. Typically this is how school history textbooks are written (or used to be written).

   "The Louisiana Purchase" by Thomas Fleming offers no explanation whatsoever about the broader social, political and economic context in which this momentous event took place. There are no maps and worse still, the reader will look in vain for a description of Louisiana: what territories it encompassed, who lived there, who explored it are subjects the author entirely leaves out. "The Louisiana Purchase" is just a chronicle of the diplomatic tug of war surrounding the deal in Paris and Washington and nothing more.

   To this narrow focus I add a grotesque misrepresentation of the French side. The depiction of Napoleon is little more than a caricature: he is again and again portrayed as the Corsican ogre so dear to English propaganda, and the other French characters in the book get the same treatment.

   Finally, what is also totally lacking in this book is reflection. Never does the author stop his narrative to share his thoughts with the reader although many of the events that he relates invite questions or comments. Like in a Hollywood film, events succeed each other without any respite.

   This is simply not the kind of history one should read at the beginning of the 21st century.

4 comments about Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves (Race and Ethnicity in the American West).

1. A reviewer, curator of AfroAmericanHeritage.com, 03/13/2007
   Highly recommended!
   Brief though the period of the Wild West was, the exploits of its villains and lawmen have fascinated people around the world, and been disproportionately represented in pop culture. But the multicultural nature of the Wild West has rarely been evidenced in the plethora of films, books and television shows. Which probably explains why the arrival of Sheriff Black Bart in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" (1974) elicited such a stunned response from the townspeople, and a riot of laughter from the audience. Imagine: a black lawman in the Old West! Imagine no more. Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, a former slave, served for nearly 30 years in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories, the most deadly location for U.S. marshals. And according to glowing accounts of his bravery, skill and steadfast devotion to duty (found in white newspapers of the time, mind you) nobody was laughing when he rode into to town, especially not the bad guys. As this book amply illustrates, Reeves is remarkable not merely for being a black marshal (there were others) but for being one of the greatest U.S. Marshals, period. But Reeves' story - with the exception of references published here and there - has been largely ignored by western historians. Though widely known and respected during his lifetime, he was illiterate and left behind no diaries or letters, so what little has come down has been in the form of oral history and legends. Art T. Burton has spent the better part of 20 years reclaiming the heritage of African Americans in the American West, and has scoured through a wide range of primary sources - including Reeves' federal criminal court cases available in the National Archives, and account books at Fort Smith Historic Site - to separate legend from fact and painstakingly piece together the story of this American hero. The book is not a biography in the traditional sense, but as the subtitle states, a reader. It reproduces many of the court documents and contemporary newspaper articles with just enough narrative to put them into context. Not being a Wild West buff myself, I felt the author did an excellent job providing background to help me make sense of it all. As the author recounts, one of the first responses he received from a local town historical society in Oklahoma when inquiring about Reeves was "I am sorry, we didn't keep black people's history." This book is the perfect example of the wealth of information which can be gleaned by a creative, dedicated historian who looks beyond the usual sources in order to root out the hidden history of multicultural America. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Western history and culture, law enforcement, American or African American Studies. And I hope this book inspires someone to finally bring the life and times of Bass Reeves to the big screen.



2. This is a very intereting book about a black marshal that rode for Judge Parker. I was amazed at the amount of money he made as a "non-paid" marshal. His influence on the court and the city of Fort Smith at the time was also interesting. An interesting twist to see a marshal on trial, and obviously, motivated by hatred.



3. 
   
   Brief though the period of the Wild West was, the exploits of its villains and lawmen have fascinated people around the world, and been disproportionately represented in pop culture. But the multicultural nature of the Wild West has rarely been evidenced in the plethora of films, books and television shows. Which probably explains why the arrival of Sheriff Black Bart in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" (1974) elicited such a stunned response from the townspeople, and a riot of laughter from the audience. Imagine: a black lawman in the Old West!
   
   Imagine no more. Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, a former slave, served for nearly 30 years in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories, the most deadly location for U.S. marshals. And according to glowing accounts of his bravery, skill and steadfast devotion to duty (found in white newspapers of the time, mind you) nobody was laughing when he rode into to town, especially not the bad guys. As this book amply illustrates, Reeves is remarkable not merely for being a black marshal (there were others) but for being one of the greatest U.S. Marshals, period.
   
   But Reeves' story - with the exception of references published here and there - has been largely ignored by western historians. Though widely known and respected during his lifetime, he was illiterate and left behind no diaries or letters, so what little has come down has been in the form of oral history and legends. Art T. Burton has spent the better part of 20 years reclaiming the heritage of African Americans in the American West, and has scoured through a wide range of primary sources - including Reeves' federal criminal court cases available in the National Archives, and account books at Fort Smith Historic Site - to separate legend from fact and painstakingly piece together the story of this American hero.
   
   The book is not a biography in the traditional sense, but as the subtitle states, a reader. It reproduces many of the court documents and contemporary newspaper articles with just enough narrative to put them into context. Not being a Wild West buff myself, I felt the author did an excellent job providing background to help me make sense of it all.
   
   As the author recounts, one of the first responses he received from a local town historical society in Oklahoma when inquiring about Reeves was "I am sorry, we didn't keep black people's history." This book is the perfect example of the wealth of information which can be gleaned by a creative, dedicated historian who looks beyond the usual sources in order to root out the hidden history of multicultural America. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Western history and culture, law enforcement, American or African American Studies.
   
   And I hope this book inspires someone to finally bring the life and times of Bass Reeves to the big screen.



4. Professor Burton's book about Bass Reeves combines thorough, meticulous scholarship on the details of Reeves' long career as a lawman with a most impressive general knowledge of the times in which he lived. The result is a biography unlikely to be surpassed.
   
   A question that has long interested me, and is asked by this book, concerns the criteria of historical remembrance. Why, for example, is Wyatt Earp (to pick just one example) remembered and even celebrated to this day, when--at the very least--equally deserving historical figures, such as Reeves, languish in relative obscurity? Were history fair (and of course it is not) the reverse should be the case, as by any objective measure Reeves was the superior lawman. One is cynically tempted to conclude that too often subsequent historical recognition is far more a result of puffery than of merit.
   
   Burton does an admirable job of reconstructing what can now be known about Reeves' remarkable life, and adeptly separates myth from fact along the way. This was a difficult task, as Reeves was illiterate, meaning that the record of his life is only indirectly available primarily through court transcripts, oral histories by others, and sketchy accounts in contemporary newspapers not often disposed to celebrate the accomplishment of a black man.
   
   In addition, Burton is able to present new and significant information. I, for one, had not known that, toward the end of his career, Reeves was prominently involved in a spectacular shootout (every bit as dramatic as the OK Corral) in Muskogee with a deadly gang of religious fanatics. Until now, lawman Bud Ledbetter (the "Fourth Guardsman") got most of the credit for confronting these dangerous criminals.
   
   Professor Burton notes that he's been working on this project, intermittently, for some twenty years--the result is worth the wait.

No comments about First Ladies Vol II (First Ladies).

5 comments about Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Empire, 1767-1821. Vol. 1.

1. I almost picked a shorter book about Jackson rather than try to tackle this three volume set, but judging by the first volume there is no question I made the right choice!
   
   This is one of the best biographies I've ever read; not only is the subject compelling, but it is superbly written and the balance of information (like the selection of anecdotes and quotes) is perfect. It even includes a timeline and family trees (why don't more authors do this?). Also, Remini isn't afraid to offer analysis as he goes; it makes the book more interesting and I think it ultimately makes it more objective because you understand his biases.
   
   My only quibble, and this is very minor, is the author (or publisher's) decision to blank out the swear words. Jackson swore to great effect, and this quasi-censorship diminishes that effect a little.



2. In the first of three volumes, Remini carries Jackson from birth to the tragic loss of much of his family in the Revolution, through his early years in politics, his duels, and the Battle of New Orleans, up to his term as first American Governor of the territory of Florida, acquired by his own military victories.
   
   Remini admires Jackson, and argues persuasively for his huge historic importance - not just President Jackson, but the younger Jackson of this book, responsible for acquiring a large chunk of what ultimately became the Southeast USA in several Indian wars and treaty negotiations, the campaigns of the War of 1812, and his subsequent attacks on the Spanish colony of Florida. Many historians have condemned Jackson for siezing Florida without the explicit approval of the Monroe administration; Remini is convincing in his argument that Monroe must have known and encouraged Jackson's actions, although he was careful not to say so directly, since Spain and the US were not at war.
   
   Remini doesn't by any means try to whitewash Jackson. The man shown in these pages is impressive but often distinctly unpleasant. Remini quite directly calls him a 'bully', and the story of his feuds and duels shows a man who is ruthless and foolishly ill-tempered. The ugliest part of the Jackson story is his treatment of the native tribes; Remini offers some half-hearted apologias for Jackson's ruthless treatment even of those natives who fought with him in his campaigns, but tells the facts frankly enough that most readers will come to a harsher conclusion.
   
   Remini shows that Jackson's famous victory in the Battle of New Orleans was a closer thing than is generally supposed. Jackson carelessly left a crucial avenue open to the British, and a more determined general would have marched on the city and probably taken it before Jackson had his defenses properly prepared. As it was, the British foolishly gave Jackson sufficient time to settle in and fortify his line, only then attacking it with disastrous results. Although this battle is often viewed as an afterthought (the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war, was actually signed a few days before the battle was fought), Remini also shows that a British victory would have had real, and catastrophic, consequences for the US.
   
   Along with the colorful and often complex story of Jackson's life and activities, Remini fills in the story with good explanations of the conditions of the period. In particular, he gives a good explanation of the values and traits of westerners, and East-West conflicts, at an early time in the country's history when the Pacific was barely dreamed of and the 'Far West' meant the Mississippi.
   
   Remini's writing is excellent, and the biography is detailed and exhaustively researched without being pedantic or boring.



3. Andrew Jackson is one of the more complicated figures in American history. On the one hand, his significance to the development of the United States as a nation is large. On the other hand, he was often a very unpleasant person.

   This first volume in Robert Remini's biography follows Jackson's life from his childhood through his governorship of Florida. Along the way, we learn of Jackson's brief roles in both houses of Congress and his period as a judge; it is later, however, when he joined the military (becoming a general through politics rather than merit), that Jackson rose to nationwide prominence, especially his overwhelming humiliation of the British in the Battle of New Orleans and his later dealings with Indians and the Spanish which led eventually to the U.S. acquiring Florida.

   His military victories made him one of the most popular people in American history, but Remini pulls no punches with Jackson's flaws, including his often brutal and bullying nature and his tendency to violence. The ambiguous circumstances involving how he married his wife Rachel would lead to nasty talk during his presidential campaigns and his killing of a man in a duel (was it murder?) wouldn't help either.

   Having been previously exposed to Remini's writing through his brilliant biographies of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, I knew this book would be a pleasure to read, and it was. Remini has written the definitive biography of Jackson, very detailed but always objective and always entertaining. If you want to learn of this era and of one its pivotal figures, this is the book to read (plus the other two in the series).




4. One might argue that the hallmark of great men is that they fundamentally and permanently alter the world they inherited - its beliefs, its practices, its conception of itself. Andrew Jackson is one of those extremely rare individuals.

   In this first of three volumes, which he subtitles "The Course of American Empire," Remini highlights the central role that Jackson played in opening up the early American frontier in the first decades of the 19th century. Long before the expression "Manifest Destiny" ignited the expansionist and nationalist passions of Americans in the 1840s, Andrew Jackson fought single-handedly - and occasionally circumvented direct military orders, the Constitution, local judges, and officially recognized international treaties - to advance American territorial expansion along the southern border and promote the removal of the Spanish, British and myriad tribes of native Americans.

   Other salient events that Remini chronicles in this volume include Jackson's humble roots and tragic childhood during the American Revolution in the Carolinas; his move westward to the Tennessee territory to start life anew as a lawyer; the "facts" behind Jackson's much-disputed relationship with his wife, Rachel; his entry into local politics and emergence as a militia leader; his military exploits against the Creeks, the British at the Battle of New Orleans and the Seminoles; and, of course, the many duels, fist-fights and other outlandish events of his early life that he somehow managed to survive.

   Much of Volume I reads like a "wild west" novel, but Remini is careful to accentuate how Jackson's natural rough hewn character, along with his experience on the frontier, melded to shape a political philosophy that ultimately altered the course of American government. There is little direct reference to the principles that would become known as Jacksonian Democracy in this volume - an undying faith in the virtue and wisdom of the people, the inviolability of the Union, the pernicious effects of deficit spending and "soft" currency, etc. - but it is easy to understand how and why Jackson cherished those ideals after reading the story of his early life.

   Finally, it must be noted that Remini assiduously avoids holding Jackson's conduct in relation to slavery and the Indians to modern standards. In all fairness, that is understandable and not especially offensive. However, Remini does neither himself nor Jackson any service by going out of his way to stress how relatively humane (in Remini's mind) the president was to his human chattel and explaining that he really had the Indians best interests at heart when he forced them from their land to the barren plains of modern day Oklahoma. In this volume and the others, Remini offers some strongly worded criticism of Jackson's political, military and social performance, but his many heinous crimes against humanity are treated with kid gloves throughout.




5. This meticulously researched and wonderfully written book is the first volume in a three-part biography of Jackson that will undoubtedly set the standard for years to come.
   Part of what makes Remini's work so useful is that he does not rely solely on American sources but has also dug deep into the Archivo General de Indies in Seville, Spain in order to try to see Jackson from the viewpoint of the Spanish colonial government. It was this research that led Remini to his main thesis in this book which is that Jackson, thru his military exploits against the Indians of the southern United States (notably the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Chickasaw tribes) and against the Spanish in Florida did as much or more than any other individual to extend U.S. territory into much of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and all of Florida. One of the more interesting revelations of the book for me was the mutual admiration and the shared goals at this point in their lives between Jackson and Monroe's Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.
   In fact, Remini makes a good argument that Jackson's military exploits in that region were is what enabled Adams to deal so successfully with the Spanish in negotiating the Trans-Continental Treaty of 1819. This treaty formalized the recognition of the European powers of the territory added to the U.S. by Jefferson in the Louisiana Purchase. Up until then the purchase was widely recognized as illegal.
   So why don't I give this book a higher rating? I think that Remini falls prey to a common tendency of American historians who take on the task of writing the lives of our great men. As a reading public, we do not seem to want to acknowledge the dark side of our leaders or our history. As a result, it is difficult to write biographies that do not border on hagiography. Remini for the most part avoids this failing. He is clear about Jackson's violent (murderous, really) temper, his tendency to bully others until they gave in and his paternalism. This is not a man I would have wanted to know.
   Where Remini does not quite live up to his own standards is in regards to Jackson's (to my mind) overt racism. Jackson regarded the presence of the Indians anywhere in territory that was being settled by Americans as unacceptable unless the Indians were willing to give up their tribal territories, accept a farming plot and become good little American citizens. Remini tries to convince his readers that Jackson the paternalist hated only the tribes not the individual Indians and that therefore Jackson and his policies were not racist (see the discussion on p. 337). I leave it up to the reader of this review whether this defense is adequate. I think that the last fifty years has amply proved that a racist can befriend individual members of the hated group as long as that individual keeps their place. I think that this is actually a rather common type of racism and Jackson exemplifies to a plentitude. To be fair to both Remini and Jackson he had a life long history of defending the underdog if they applied to him for protection.
   Of course, this makes Jackson a paragon of the southern culture of the time but we also need to be honest about our own history. Jackson was a racist, he initiated Indian policies that were, at the least, marginally genocidal (the Indians called Jackson, Sharp Knife) and he was still one of our greatest men, one who had an enormous influence on our historical destiny. Remini, the good honest scholar that he is, gives us enough material and detail so that we get enough of the story so that we can sort out our own vision of the truth.

5 comments about E.E. Cummings: A Biography.

1. Cummings is a wonderful poet and three cheers for C. Sawyer-Laucanno for attempting to give us a full-scale new reading of the complete works, while trying to clear a space so we can understand his complicated life a bit better.
   
   I wound up seeing the life clearly, and noticing for the first time the extreme high reaches of class privilege that made Cummings' poetry possible. I suppose I had been reading this through the screen of Cummings' novel, THE ENORMOUS ROOM, with its bleak descriptions of prison poverty and deprivation, so without really thinking about it I just assumed that EE Cummings was sort of our American Genet, born of poverty, a hero of the underclass, an outsider artist who just scraped by, like Darger. Far from it, Sawyer-Laucanno reveals. Everything he did seems to have been paid for by generous friends or family, and even in the French jail he was able to buy cartons of cigarettes, razors, books, and fruit from the concierge, because he had a huge trust fund.
   
   Later, during the 1920s when he was writing all his masterpieces, the discerning Scofield Thayer became his patron. Thayer was a complicated case; as editor of THE DIAL his taste helped usher in a new American modernism. He married a beautiful and refined heiress, Elaine, and when Cummings fathered her daughter through an adulterous union, he assumed paternity of little "Mopsy" in a an act of upper-class generosity. A few years later, he granted Elaine a divorce and she married Cummings, although only for two months. Thayer began a descent into madness that lasted until his death in 1982. He had apparently been gay the entire time and nurtured a secret passion for underage boys which got him in hot water from time to time, and perhaps he was in love with Cummings himself. Why not, everyone else was. Cummings must have had something, erotically speaking, for many women were drawn to him and not a few men. In any case we can see, bleakly, how spoiled and privileged Cummings was. No matter what harm he did to others, or to himself, someone would come along with a large checkbook and clean up after him. It's appalling the selfishness, and yet if great poems come in the wake of such self-love, what real harm and what real benefit? It's a stumper.
   
   Sawyer-Laucanno argues that Cummings' play, HIM, is a major ignored work of the American theater. Such is his conviction that it fairly sweeps the reader into feeling the same way, or at any rate wanting to see a first rate production. My idea is that HIM might make a really good movie--by Lars Von Trier perhaps. I can see it on the screen of my imagination, thanks to Sawyer-Laucanno's persuasive, always elegant argumentation.
   
   As for the reviewer in the Washington Post Book World, I honestly don't know what to make of someone whose idea of the three great American poets is Whitman, Frost and Cummings. What kind of mind comes up with that combo? It's like the boys who formed the "Troika" in the later episodes of BUFFY.



2. Before reading this great slab of a book, I had little idea of who E.E. Cummings was, besides knowing he had an unconventional attitude towards punctuation. Thankfully, Sawyer-Laucanno manages to shed much light on the poet and his work in a way which is both accessible to newcomers and meaningful to more seasoned Cummings enthusiasts.
   
   In particular, I liked the way in which the author juggles so many competing demands. He had access to a wealth of archive material and Cummings had a long and eventful life. Yet S-L manages to give play to all aspects of Cummings' activities whilst maintaining the pace and flow of his narrative.
   
   I especially appreciated the almost equal weight given to critiquing Cummings' work as opposed to describing his life. An analysis of how "Buffalo Bill's defunct" came into being, based on early drafts of the poem, gives a particularly rare and precious glimpse of how a fully-formed poem is grown from a few choice phrases.
   
   Another dilemma which L-S addresses, is the fact that Cummings was an enthusiastic and successful painter. It would have been easy to overlook or underplay this aspect but here the paintings are seen as an integral part of Cummings' artistic achievement.
   
   I spotted one or two faults. I don't think Dylan Thomas would relish being called an English poet - he was a Welsh one - and there is a misplaced bracket (horror!) on p.533.
   
   I think E.E. Cummings would have appreciated the way this biography manages to find space for a number of small anecdotes aside from the great sweep of the life story. I loved the description of the humming birds bobbing goodbye before migrating south from Joy Farm. This was both heart-warming and highlighted Cummings' love of natural history.
   
   Overall, I found "E.E. Cummings: A biography" to be absolutely compelling. At first daunted by its length I soon found myself regretting it was so soon coming to an end. Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno more than meets the challenge of enlightening us about Cummings' life. He is no mean story-teller and this work is a masterful achievement.



3. Accusing someone of plagiarism in public is always a difficult issues. In other words, you'd better be pretty damn sure before you say anything. That's why I was so surprised to see the recent review in Harpers claiming that this book was, for all practical purposes, ripped off from a previous Cummings biography (by Kennedy) which is still in print. I won't recap the entire thing here, just issues this review as a warning and suggest you read the May 2005 issue of Harpers. Sawyer-Laucanno, while he wouldn't exactly admit that he stole material from the oprevious book, he did admit that he couldn't explain how the similarities occured... and Sourcebooks also refused to take any responsibility. It's an interesting read, but my advice would be to just go with the original biography by Kennedy since he's the one who seesm to have done all the original research for both volumes.



4. This new biography is the first based on complete access to Cummings's papers and also quotes extensively from his poetry in exploring links between his life and work. It is quite readable and makes a good case for the significance of Cummings's poetry without claiming too much.



5. I read poems by E. E. Cummings before I went to Harvard, and might consider him my favorite American poet if Richard Brautigan had not written so many great little novels that seen far more comic to me than any mere poem. Cummings has the breadth, though, to require some small print for the index of poems by first line on pages 602-606 of this book, which must be a couple hundred poems at 53 lines per page. The items in the usual index on pages 591-601 have 54 lines per page, but with many more capital letters and the two columns of text covering an extra quarter inch of the page, items in the index do not seem so tiny. 31 of the 32 photographs are printed by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University, and the photo on the cover, taken by Manuel Komroff, was by permission of Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The pictures in black and white include a major abstract oil painting by Cummings in 1925 and numerous sketches.
   
   The index does not attempt to capture every mention of each name in the book. The entries for Ernest Hemingway do not include page 389, on which two poems in NO THANKS are called "really nothing more than a swipe at Hemingway" playfully "provoked in part by Cumming's reading of Hemingway's celebration of bullfighting, DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON:
   
   what does little Ernest croon
   in his death at afternoon?
   (kow dow r 2 bul retoinis
   wus de woids uf lil Oinis ".
   
   Author Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno also calls this "a parody of Longfellow's line in A Psalm of Life, `Dust thout art, to dust returnest.' " Modern versions of Genesis 3:19 have "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" for the familiar curse on Adam, but the King James version might have used a poetical thou, not thout. No doubt there are a few mistakes somewhere. I tried to find the verse with that line on the internet, and what Longfellow wrote was:
   
   Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
   "Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"
   Was not spoken of the soul.
   
   There are 12 lines for Harvard entities in the index, between Harry Wadsworth Clubs and Anthony Haswell, of HASWELL'S MASSACHUSETTS SPY OR AMERICAN ORACLE OF LIBERTY fame. The Preface reveals that the author shares the anti-war feeling found in many of Cummings's most famous poems, and reports that "At one of the early [fall of 1969] California Moratoriums against the war I whipped up a crowd with `my old sweet etcetera,' `plato told / him,' and `the bigness of cannon / is skillful.' When I got to `i sing of Olaf glad and big' a number of young men at the gathering set their draft cards on fire." (p. xiv). People who have some copies of poems already will want to have them nearby while reading this book to remind themselves of all that the original said, especially about his aunt and Olaf. Cummings was forty-seven when World War Two took the United States by surprise and Cummings wrote in his notes, among his definitions of War, "when the angry Jehovah gets back His Own." (p. 441). This book offers translations into English of the phonetic poems written in "a parody of bigoted (probably drunken) speech" on pages 442-443 before putting the entire `plato told' poem on pages 443-444.
   
   E. E. Cummings developed some unique spacing and punctuation techniques that are constantly quoted throughout the book. It is inspiring to read about so many people who admired what he did and supported his work, but he could also be highly critical of such friends. The English philosopher A. J. Ayer is only listed in the index under Morehouse, Marion, affair with A. J. (Freddie) Ayer, 414, 423-424. Back in June, 1937, things like that were starting to happen a lot in Europe, and modern readers shouldn't be as surprised as someone like E. E. Cummings's father, who had been an Instructor in Political Economy offering Harvard's first course in sociology, (p. 3), but then became an assistant minister at South Congregational Church when Cummings was about six, but lost his position in a church merger in 1925, and then became a director of the World Peace Foundation. (p. 284). People who are suspicious of pointy headed intellectuals who try to believe more than they read in the newspapers might not like this book, and people who watch TV all the time will find nothing in this book that is familiar, not to mention fair and balanced, but anyone who believes that an intellectual life can be the bedrock supporting future generations might find this book educational as well as enjoyable.