5 comments about Slaves in the Family (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. Quite often history textbooks can be dry and boring. Edward Ball's "Slaves in the Family" illuminates many larger historical events -- the slave trade, the institution of slavery, plantation economies, the Revolutionary War, The Civil War, and Emancipation -- and brings these events down to the human level, to the place where flesh and blood people lived through these events, how the events shaped them, and how they in turn contributed to history.
   
   Ball's careful, meticulous research wove oral accounts with written records kept so well by the Ball family, giving a credible, well-balanced view of plantation life, slavery, and how it impacted the lives of both black and white Ball plantation residents.
   
   Ball paid special note to the nuances of each speaker's story as told, not only through their words, but also their body language. He is an astute observer of people's reactions and unspoken thoughts.
   
   I highly recommend this fasinating book. I couldn't lay it down.



2. Edward Ball made a courageous journey into his family's past when he researched and wrote this book about their slave owning history, and took the step of searching out and meeting descendants of their slaves. This paperback edition includes an insightful follow-up exchange between the author and one of his black relatives about the writing of the book, their relationship, and how their views of race relations have and have not changed since its writing. The book inspired me both to think deeply about my attitude towards race and to read more about southern history, using the prism of slave ownership and my own family's southern geneaology as a focus. Related recommendations: The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders] and [ASIN:0465015557 My Confederate Kinfolk



3. Oh my gosh! I didn't realize that Dawn Langley Simmons had passed away. When I purchased her book about the life of Margaret Rutherford, "A Blithe Spirit", I wrote to Dawn, and was surprised to receive a reply from her or him. For several years she/he corresponded and now I realize that she/he may have mis-represented herself. She did send me several photos of Margaret Rutherford. Interesting story.



4. I thought this was a good read. I especially appreciated the details of the types of Africans that the planters preferred and detested. I recommend this book. Yes, I do agree that the author's writing style was dry. However, I find most books that have a historical base, unless it is fiction, to be dry as cracker.



5. Some reviewers below complain that this book is tedious. Well, sure. I bet the US Constitution and the Bible are tedious to someone who has no clue about, or doesn't care about, their context. To anyone with some understanding of US history, the project of writing this book marks a step forward in race relations, however big or small that step may turn out to be. If you care even a little about why this country is the way it is, this book crackles with a searing flame.
   
   Ball writes about visiting a wary African American man in Chapter 6, and what that man says at the end of his interview speaks for me and my opinion of the book. "Someone has to break the ice. I gotta give you credit, you were man enough to do it."
   
   People won't agree whether reconciliation or forgiveness apply in this situation, and I'm not sure either. But this is the author's best effort at telling the objective truth about black-white relations as it was lived by individuals over the centuries. "I decided I would make an effort, however inadequate and personal, to face the plantations, to reckon with them rather than ignore their realities or make excuses for them."
   
   Chapter 9 describes the shocking child mortality figures on the plantations. And on a slave voyage from Africa to Charleston, over a third of the captive passengers died en route - just the cost of doing business to the owners. No wonder some try to deny this history; it's too painful. Yet, the book also provides some episodes of humanity and hope. Readers will emerge with a greater understanding of our history and human nature. Maybe they'll become more vigilant against trespasses on human life and dignity in our own day as well.

5 comments about Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride.

1. If you want to read the politically correct version of the story of Billy the Kid, this is your book. Starting with his tortured, self-consciously folksy writing style, the author does everything but call his readers "podner" to show he is a real buckaroo, podner, who's "miiiighty familiar with the story told him by his grandpappy and reckons he kin share it wif you". It is ridiculous and not even done well enough to bring sufficient entertainment to the project to cover his almost complete lack of original research.
   
   Mr. Wallis appears to have read a number of books on the subject, communicated with the living authors and considered that sufficient research to enable him to write this less than engaging book. In the fashion of modern historians, the book is suffused with his liberal, "I hate America and its history" views clearly there so he can have some credibility with academics who will endorse anything that judges the past by present standards. The settlement of America was not carried out by pipe smoking professors, tut tuting about the morals of their betters. It was conducted by men and women of strength and toughness and the ability to fend for themselves in wild places without institutions to protect them.
   
   But Mr. Wallis will have none of that. To him, the frontier is a dark and threatening place only because those darned white people from the east came out for the sole purpose of killing Indians and oppressing all other non-white people so they could steal from them for their own part. The pioneers, to Mr. Wallis, were gratuitously violent; apparently stupid and just plain evil. And life in the west was poor, nasty, brutish and short. It had no further significance to the author, such as, oh, I don't know, the creation of a great nation.
   
   Mr. Wallis finally gets to the story of Billy sometime around page 150 of his 250 page book. The first 150 pages are contemplations on American history, speculations about what might have happened (as opposed to renditions of what did happen) in various parts of the West, listing of theories as to who Billy's mother was and where she came from, quotes from famous authors with whom he has corresponded all spiced up with his silly opinions on race relations, gun control and pretty much every other political issue never relevant or addressed in the context of the 19th Century western United States.
   
   The worst aspect of this silly book is that it adds absolutely nothing new. If you read Utley's book, you got all the information you would get in this one (without the political diatribes). If you read any good book on the Lincoln County War you get more information about Billy than you get in this one. Readers who read newer books on subjects about which they have previously read expect that the author would have taken the time to do more research than earlier authors and that there will be new information to be had. Not so this one. This one is basically a compilation of what has been written before jumbled into one badly written, worthless book. In reading this book, I lost hours I will never get back. Don't waste your $17.13 on it. Mr. Wallis should retire and do something for which he might have more talent. Say, writing letters to the editor of his local paper.



2. This is a very good book by Michael Wallis. Even though I love western history, I never thought I would read a book about the Kid, but an NPR interview with Mr. Wallis changed my mind. The book is well researched and entertaining. It is very enlightening and does not play on violence, but deals with the person and world of Billy the Kid in as much as it is possible to know him.
   
   Some reviewers have complained about the fact that book gets off subject and wanders at times. Mr. Wallis writes biographies from a social history point of view. He admittedly does get off the subject to give the reader a broader view of the environment an individual was living through. I feel this is a strength of the book.
   
   Highly recommended.



3. I found the book a good read of Billy the Kid. Mr. Wallis explores the different alleys of speculation about the Kid.
   
   Although it has its dry spots I still found that he put Billy the Kid in the context of his times and not ours.
   
   The reason for the four stars is some of the PC statements at the beginning of the book and the dry spots.



4. A great story with not a lot of facts to bore it down. A easy read.



5. This book was a well written examination of Billy the Kid. It clarified much of the myth that still surrounds the man. I appreciated the author addressing some areas of the Kid's life where there is just not enough information to come to a definite conclusion about.

5 comments about Andrew Jackson.

1. The 2008 Presidential race is in full swing, and interest in the contest runs high. In order to keep my own bearings, I wanted to try to take a short but broader view of our Presidents and our nation's history. One way to do this is by reading some of the volumes in the recent "American Presidents" series edited by the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Each volume in this series offers, in short compass, the life and accomplishments of an American president together with an evaluation of his achievement.
   
   I chose Sean Wilentz' biography of Andrew Jackson (1767 -- 1845) because of our seventh President's role in broadening the basis of American democracy and because of the controversy he inspired and continues to inspire. Jackson was a flamboyant, larger-than-life figure with great virtues and as many faults. He was orphaned at an early age and bore for life the physical and emotional scars inflicted upon him by a sword gash to the head by a British officer during the Revolutionary War. Jackson fought off poverty and his own impulsive nature to serve an early term in Congress and in the Senate before the 19th century. He became a lawyer, a judge and a large plantation owner of the Hermitage in Tennessee. He became famous as an Indian fighter in wars against the Southeast Tribes such as the Creeks and Cherokees and against the Florida Seminoles. Jackson won a great victory against the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, (the War of 1812 was officially over at the time) which secured his fame.
   
   Jackson ran for President in 1824 but, following a close election, he was denied the presidency in the House of Representatives as a result of what he claimed was a "corrupt bargain" between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. In 1828, Jackson defeated Adams, inauguarating what he and many American people believed was a new age for American democracy. Wilentz describes the themes of Jackson's presidency as including:
   
   "robust nationalism on constitutional issues tempered by a restraint on federal support for economic development and a strict construction; a distrust of what Jackson called the corrputed power of 'associated wealth'; and a celebration of what one pro-Jackson newspaper called 'the democratic theory that the people's voice is the supreme law." (p. 112)
   
   In his biography, Wllentz reminds the reader that Jackson's age was not our own. Thus, the issues Jackson faced cannot be transferred directly to our current situation with the label of "liberal" or "conservative". Jackson was an enemy of big government. But in Jackson's time, this position made him a foe to the power of wealthy and powerful people and businesses who had a close relationship to the government and who, Jackson, believed, were gaining too much privilege at the expense of the people. Thus, a major activity of Jackson's presidency was his destruction of the Second Bank of the United States, a private bank which had been chartered by Congress and which exercised strong power over the American economy.
   
   Jackson thought that American government up to his time had been the province of the leisured and elite. His avowed goal was to make the government responsive to the will of the majority and to expand the basis of democracy. He did so, in part, and at a terrible cost. Jackson's democracy was formed by a coalition between Southern planters and northerners. This coalition inevitably led to compromises with slavery and to sectional tension. Jackson censored the mails to prevent anti-slavery tracts from flooding the South and opposed attempts to curtail slavery.
   
   In his younger days, Jackson had been a cruel Indian fighter, and in his Presidency he set in motion the removal of the Southeastern Tribes across the Mississippi over what became known as the "Trail of Tears." Wilentz, together with many other scholars, has some sympathy for the goals of the removal policy, but he emphasizes the cruelty and carelessness with which it was carried out, resulting in the death of thousands of Indian people.
   
   Jackson was a strong, even autocratic, excecutive. Perhaps his finest hour was in defusing, with a mixture of strength, compromise, and cunning, the "nullification controversy" resulting from South Carolina's attempt to set aside a Federal tariff with which it disagreed. Jackson was also an expansionist president who foresaw the acquition of Texas and the West even though no new territory was added to the United States during his two terms.
   
   Wilentz praises Jackson for his democratic vision and for his early version of egalitarianism even while he recognizes that, in its treatment of Indians, African Americans, and women it was quite different from our own ideals. Wilentz is favorably disposed towards Jackson's economic policies, including his war on the Bank. Many historians have different, less favorable views of Jackson. Those readers wanting an in-depth view of the period might want to compare two lengthy studies: Wilentz' own "The Rise of American Democracy" (2005) with the more recent study by Daniel Walker Howe "What hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848", which takes a less favorable view of Jackson and a more positive view of his predecessor in the presidency, John Quincy Adams, and of Jackson's opponents, the Whigs.
   
   Those readers wanting to reflect upon the history of our country and on where it may be going during this election year will enjoy reading this short study of Andrew Jackson and its companions in the American Presidents series.
   
   Robin Friedman



2. Nice book and an easy read. Not very much depth, but well written and informative. I would recommend to the casual reader, but not any historian.



3. Today's historians are still in a quandary on why Andrew Jackson, the Seventh President of the United States and one of this nation's greatest leaders, was a man of complete contradictions in his public life.
   
   Was he the populist politician who championed the rights of all citizens in the growing republic, yet owned slaves to do the hard work on his own property?
   
   Was he the grandiose dictator who tried to crush his political enemies whom he viewed as elitist or just a man from the working class battling those seeking to dominate the masses?
   
   Was he the brilliant military genius who defeated the British in the War of 1812 for America's only major victory in that ill-conceived conflict against England? Or was he the racist extremist who conquered the Indian Tribes and removed them from their homelands in the south because it was good for his own political career?
   
   Was he all of that and more?
   
   Sean Wilentz is a Professor of History at Princeton University and has written a new examination of Jackson in `The American Presidents' series that are published by Times Books which are edited by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Schlesinger had previously written about the famed chief executive sixty years ago in the Pulitzer Prize winning biography `The Age of Jackson.'
   
   Wilentz tries to explain in the brief 195 page tome those many contradictions of the Tennessee military commander nicknamed `Old Hickory' for his toughness who is generally accepted as one of our nation's top half-dozen greatest presidents.
   
   Jackson served as chief executive from 1829 to 1837, when America was transitioning from having leaders who had participated in the Revolutionary War and the immediate years after to those politicians who would serve in the two decades leading up to our nation's civil war. Jackson was a soldier in America's struggle for independence against the British in his early teens, earning a scar on his head when he was struck by a sword belonging to a British officer and is the only American president to ever have been a prisoner of war.
   
   His greatest military triumph came in January, 1815; albeit two months after the War of 1812 had officially ended with a peace treaty signing, when troops under his command defeated an invading force of British soldiers twice their size landing near the southern port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. He then spent a few years in battle with several of the Indian tribes in the southern states which culminated in those tribes' relocation to the Midwest part of the country that came to be known as `The Trail of Tears.'
   
   Jackson first ran for president in 1824 and got the highest tally of popular votes in the election. But none of the multiple candidates running that year were able to get a majority of the Electoral College votes to claim victory. The contest was then decided in the House of Representatives where runner-up John Quincy Adams was selected as the new chief executive after he made a deal with third-place candidate Henry Clay to gain his votes in exchange for Clay being promised the job of Secretary of State.
   
   Jackson was livid on what happened to him that year and vowed revenge against what he considered to be the thievery by those politicians belonging to the New England aristocracy he so hated.
   
   He ran again in 1828 and soundly defeated Adams in a re-match. But that victory turned bitter sweet when his wife Rachel died a few weeks before the March, 1837 inauguration which the president-elect believed was caused by stress when his political enemies spoke ill of her and her marriage to Jackson before her divorce to another man became final.
   
   Wilentz writes that once in office, Jackson was a champion of the concept of the republic, meaning the will of the majority ruled while he attempted to re-structure the functions of national government into how he believed it should operate.
   
   Modern pundits complain that today's politicians can be nasty and uncivil towards each other in their rancorous discussions on the issues of the day. But today's media sound bite zingers are tepid and restrained compared to how those of the different political parties and viewpoints treated each other two centuries ago when many disagreements ended with the two participants settling their feud with a duel.
   
   The political opponents of the president referred to Jackson as ruling like a king or dictator, since the new chief executive did his best to re-tool the government into a bureaucracy of his liking such as making multiple changes in his cabinet to get those advisors he desired and would do what he wanted. The colloquial phrase `to the victor goes the spoils,' refers to Jackson's selection of those political supporters of his choosing into specific national government posts to do his bidding.
   
   Jackson considered himself to be a man of honor and believed his words and those spoken by others to be a reflection of their firm beliefs. That's why he terminated the relationship with John Calhoun, his own vice-president, in 1832 when he determined the South Carolina politician had crossed him when Calhoun supported that state's desire to secede from the union in seeking nullification of certain laws over keeping the union together.
   
   Calhoun resigned as vice-president, the first national officer to do so, got himself appointed as a senator from South Carolina while that state made plans to secede from the union if the federal government continued to demand its share of taxes through tariffs. Jackson mobilized federal troops to send into that state and let it be known that he would publicly hang his former vice-president if cessation plans went forth.
   
   They didn't.
   
   Compare that to today's politicians who say or do anything to keep their particular electorate happy, even it will hurt the nation in the long-term as long as it keeps them being re-elected.
   
   Jackson also hated bankers and the concept of paper money that's not based on gold or silver. He closed down the Second Bank of the United States, (today's version of the Federal Reserve) and paid off the national debt in 1835 which endeared him to the masses. So it is with much irony that his image ended up on our twenty dollar bill, the most popular American paper currency that is issued by today's Federal Reserve Bank which is privately owned and makes a profit from the public debt that increases every year and has no chance of ever being paid off.
   
   Wilentz states that Jackson put the nation on the road to true democracy for all the people, although the democracy he believed in is not what we have today because that process evolved over time with the work of the many presidents who would follow.
   
   By the end of Jackson's second term, his popularity and large group of supporters across the country helped to start the creation of the modern Democratic Party and he was able through his influence to get his second vice-president, Martin Van Buren, elected to the presidency in 1836. Jackson's own political beliefs also led to the formation of the political parties movement when the Whig Party, mainly composed of those politicians who opposed Jackson on just about everything during his time in office, was created in 1834. They lasted for twenty years until it was replaced by the Republican Party in 1856 for the continuation of the two major political party system this nation still has today.
   
   Can it be considered unfair for those of us now alive two centuries later to judge Jackson and the other early 19th Century presidents on their stands regarding personal liberty when slavery was still prevalent to today's standards of freedom for all citizens? Yes. But that's not Jackson's fault. He made the decisions he believed on what was best for the country's long-term survival without compromise to any special interest group seeking favors for their particular cause to the detriment of the nation as a whole.
   
   What politician of today can make that same claim?



4. Clear and consise prose; well documented; theories of future effects well substantiated.



5. 
   He's on most lists of our best presidents as well as our $20 bill. Democrats hail him as a founder. After reading this book, and attempting a few others, it's still hard to understand why Jackson has been accorded such respect.
   
   I started both the Brand and Remini bios. Through them I came to understand his childhood and how the American Revolution shaped his character and views. The psychological toll of losing his nuclear family at a young age had to be enormous. His mother's heroic search and rescue of him in a very abusive British POW camp illustrates the love and family loyalty he lost.
   
   Wilentz quickly outlines the child/youth/military and plunges into the presidency, which was what I was seeking when I started reading the others.
   
   Wilentz cleary states the complicated facts of Jackson's war on the bank. To Jackson it was a war on the aristrocracy. It is not within the scope of Wilentz's book to editorialize, but were Biddle and his cronies really controling the US economy? Could the land issues have been settled with (Lincolnesque) homestead acts, which undoubtedly would have been very popular? Could he have fought for legislative mini-changes (Clintonesque) to curb certain powers, such as bidding out government banking needs. Jackson and Biddle were clearly obstinate equals, but as Pres, it would seem that there were other paths to take leadership on this since he deemed it important. How necessary and/or effective was this bank war? Did it really save the "little guy" in the short or long run?
   
   In his tooth and nail fight on nullification, Jackson may have been as instrumental as Lincoln in holding the union together. Jackson's stand against nullification not only solidified the sentiment for his day, but also built precedent for future times. This and stopping the British in New Orleans, may be worthy of his stature among historians, Democrats and currency commemoration but, they don't explain the genesis of the phrase "Jacksonian Democracy".
   
   From admitedly limited knowledge, I still don't see enough to assign this man's name as an adjective to democracy. The author alludes to the changing of executive staff and to a future unfolding of more direct elections of public officials. I assume, in the nature of things, appointment prerogative would have evolved, but where is the chapter on how AJ worked on behalf of more direct election? Are not the Trail of Tears and his actions on behalf of those supporting slavery anti-democratic endeavors? I still don't see how the war on the bank, which admittedly has "little guy" overtones, balances all this out.

3 comments about The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Modern Library Classics).

1. I once met Luthor Evans, the foremost expert on the complete works of Jefferson, and had dinner with him once with a friend who worked at the United Nations. I didn't know much about Jefferson except what I learned in school, but it was interesting to listen to Evans talk about Jefferson and his achievements, and what a true Renaissance man he was. Evans was also the first director general of UNESCO, and a former Librarian of Congress, a position often used to honor the most outstanding American historians, I hear. But getting back to the present volume, I found it a useful selection of his works, even if I can't seem to find the collected works of Jefferson on Amazon, and I owe much of my appreciation of Jefferson to that evening I once spent with Evans. I'm not sure I'm up to reading the complete works, as Evans did in his prime, but I'm at least up to reading a good compilation, and this one served a useful purpose for that.



2. This study is a wonderful compilation of the life and writings of Thomas Jefferson. The introduction by Koch and Peden of Jefferson's long and fruitful life is rich and complete. Jefferson's greatness shines forth in the pages of this volume. His Anas, Autobiography, Essay of the Anglo Saxon language, Notes on Virginia, And his numerous public papers and letters show the reader the depth of this great man. Koch and Peden clearly admire Jefferon which is a welcome respite from the sad and anti-intellectual deconstructionist philosophy of modern historians. No PC here. For a student of Jefferson, or someone attempting to familiarize themselves with his ideals, this is a great buy!



3. We added this book to our library when I was doing research for a doctoral project on Racism. In one volume, is Jefferson's autobiography, travel journals, essays, biographies of other historical figures, notes and correspondence. It is a wealth of material into a foundation stone personality of our American identity.

   Lately Jefferson has drawn fire because of his position on slavery and his philandering activities as a plantation owner. Still, within this volume you can observe the full story historical context provides.

   In my favorite passage in connection with the slavery issue he writes,

   "And can the liberties of a nation be though secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of thepeople that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever; that considering numbers,nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that it may become probably by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest." (Notes on Virginia, Query XVIII; p. 278 Modern Library Edition)

   I think every family should have a copy of this volume in their library. It is enlightening, powerful and life changing material.

5 comments about A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century.

1. A Clearing in the Distance is a great biography about a man who had great strength and deep sorrows. The first half of the book covers Olmsted's life before becoming a Landscape Architect. He was basically a very talented man who could not find his calling. Once he found it, he pursued his passion with commitment and daring that changed the way that subsequent generations have thought about their environment and surroundings.
   
   The book provides valuable insights into both Olmsted the man and the world in which he lives. There are musings that are the author's thoughts and are obviously not historical, but they are interesting too in that they give us insight into the author's biases and interests.
   
   Overall, A Clearing in the Distance is well worth reading.



2. Olmsted's life is fascinating and Rybczynski does an adequate job of presenting the highlights, but the writing style is something less than engaging. In addition, the author spends too much time on trivial matters while neglecting more important things. For example, he writes page after page about Olmsted's failures to connect with a romantic mate. Goodness, he wasn't much of looker or a lady schmoozer and this plagued him for years. There, I said it in one sentence. Had the author done likewise we might have learned more about the details of some of Olmsted's projects. If the author wanted to play up relationships to give the reader a fuller appreciation of Olmsted's psychological make-up, he would have done better to delve deeper into the parent-child relationship.



3. Olmsted and Rybcznski seem somehow destined together, and this book is a thoroughly readable and engaging introduction to both of them. If they had been contemporaries, they probably would have somehow connected as friends or collaborators or both. Through his work, Olmsted came to define the American public space as distinct from the English or French styles. Early on he was influenced by farming, the English countryside, naturalism, notables such as Carlyle and Ruskin, and by the American pursuit of happiness: our need for recreation and spectacle. In his works, he combined "economics, nature, aesthetics, moral and intellectual improvement, and salvation." He spoke of throwing "a garment of beauty around our homes."

   Author Rybczynski doesn't limit his chronicle to Olmsted the Designer, though. Rather, he devotes ample space to covering Olmsted as a man of letters, Olmsted's brushes with politics and social reform, his travels to the West, his marvelous mind for engineering (everything from pumps to drainage systems and pipes), and his varied and important organizational and administrative accomplishments. Of particular interest are the chapters in the book devoted to the slavery issue and Olmsted's voice in the anti-slavery movement; Olmsted was an idealist who felt that slavery corrupted society. He once leaned once toward joining a group of German settlers in Texas who did not recognize nor condone slavery.

   Olmsted is best remembered though as a designer who brought us the seeds of a national park system through a lifetime of projects, public and private: Stanford and Berkeley, Belle Isle (Mi), Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Central Park, park systems in Boston and Chicago, huge projects in Washington, DC, and many more. Olmsted also deserves credit as the creator of the parkway. The reader will find many familiar names mentioned here, evidence that Olmsted was an extraordinary man who lived in extraordinary times. James Hamilton (the son of Alexander), Charles Dana, William Cullen Bryant, Frederic Church, the Vanderbilts, and others all played a role in his life and work.

   Turf, trees, and lakes -- or grass, woods, and water -- to put it a different way, are the hallmarks of an Olmsted space. He abhorred clear distinctions and separations, flowerbeds and botanic beauty or decorative gardening. Instead, Olmsted embraced illusion and worked to "accommodate chaos and order." He incorporated science, theory, and art; accident and achievement. Architectural dwellings were minimized or hidden. There was careful composition of groups of trees against expanses of lawn. For us, we should be careful when visiting Olmsted's projects, for in the case of several, he lost interest due to squabbles and bickering with clients. Stanford University certainly stands out in this regard--to what degree is it considered a work of Olmsted's? Worn down by periodic bouts of depression and debt, Olmsted did not live an easy live and died from what is almost stated by the author as Alzheimer's disease. But for those that bear his mark, we can delight in the fact that they continue to survive.




4. This book strikes a lovely balance between describing Olmsted's life and personal history and his creations, parks that span the United States.

   You may be surprised to learn, as I was, the vast number of projects he undertook. How Central Park was really his first significant project. How he had to fight political and economic battles to keep it from being ruined. How he was able to truly "get it right" with Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

   Through the fascinating descriptions of the landscapes, the author also provides great insight into Olmsted's life. What struck me the most was how Olmsted, as with many of his contemporaries (U.S. Grant, Mark Twain) worried for most of his life about his finances and his career.

   This is a first rate work, told in a clear and compelling fashion.




5. One has the impression when reading Rybczynski's biographic sketch of the life of Law Olmstead there exist three problems for landscape architecture (or garden design in Europe) in America: 1) It is underappreciated; 2) It is underappreciated; and, 3) Something like the first two. Olmstead, who is best known for his developments upon Central Park, part of the Stanford campus and part of the immediate area near or around the Capitol grounds, is here shown in detail in a study which marks a departure from his earlier works: whereas the author's studies in the past centered around elements and observations of the minutae that went in making up the entirety (the part to the whole), here he focuses more broadly upon the designer himself and the varied phases of his life. Olmstead as a monumental (pun nonintended) historic American figure whose works were to influence lanscape in such a way as to mesmerize, even propheticly figure prominently in urban design and display (cf., Panama-Calif exhibitions 1900-1913 or the several Worlds Fairs); Here, it were as if a fortune teller took an enormous tea cup, spilled its contents onto the landscape and let all see the wonderous result and dream of still greater possibilities.

   One had hoped there would have been far more illustrations, composites, sketches (even if by the author), documentary photos (Perhaps he could even have shown a series of transparent overlays detailing the before/after result of the development of Central Park in the way one recalls from childhood those spooky human diagrams in ancient Encyclopeda Britanicas). There are few illustrations, yet the whole holds up well. Recommend as a getaway book subsectional to American history.

No comments about Harry S. Truman: The American Presidents Series: The 33rd President, 1945-1953 (The American Presidents Series:).

5 comments about American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush.

1. From the Preface of his book Kevin Philips says-"My original ambition was to identify and explain the Bush-related transformation of the U.S.presidency into an increasingly dynastic office,a change with profound consequences for the American Republic,given the factors of family bias,domestic special interests,and foreign grudges that the Bushes,father and son,brought into the White House."
   Mr.Philips fulfills that ambition in this book.
   
   He delves into the family history and alliances,from Yale to Skull and Bones and in some cases to the O.S.S. and eventually the C.I.A.
   
   He explains "Texanomics" quite well. A kind of low-tax,low-service,high economic stratification brand of Southern economic conservatism.
   
   G.W.Bush's allegiance to big business and the astronomical tax rebates to companies like G.E. and the ever famous Enron are detailed in the book. Also discussed in the book are G.W.Bush's ties to Ken Lay and his lobbying for energy deregulation. I didn't know that Enron had been a large supporter of the Republican team in the Florida recounts of the 2000 presidential election.
   
   "George W. Bush is in a class by himself when it comes to prevarication. It is no exaggeration to say that lying has become Bush's signature as president."- The American Prospect quoted in the book.
   
   Mr.Philips tells how the Bush-Cheney pairing in the White House is historical in that it brought two former energy company executives together.
   
   The author gives a clear description of what the military-industrial complex is and it's history.
   He details the major part petroleum has played in past as well as present wars. It's historical significance in the outcome of World War II can't be argued.
   
   This book explores the religious aspect of the junor president Bush and his relationship with evangelical voters in contrast with his father's relationship to the same group of voters.
   
   This is a very detailed book about the Bush and Walker families and the businesses they were involved in as well as the transformation of both president Bushes from business to their eventual presidencies.



2. I was a little disappointed after reading the title that it wasn't easy potshots at the world's most worthy target, but rather a fact-based, rather dry account of the last century's rise of dynasty, military-industrial complex, and of course 4 generations of Bushes' feeding frenzy on said trends. But call me lazy.



3. A historically accurate review of the Bush multi generational quest for both national and international financial and political power with evidence that politics were a means and wealth the ends; as we continue to see in current events concerning that family today. A must read for anyone who wants at least a basic understanding of how insatiable thirst for absolute power and base, crass greed are at the heart of what and how the United States of America came to be and is currently run. When President Bush said to a group of the richest Americans during his re-election that:"...some refer to you as the 'have mores'; I refer to you as My Base." He wasn't joking; that is his brotherhood, his extended family, the real and only Americans in his world view.



4. Good stuff here on the Bush Family and their many shady dealings going back to the 1800's. I mean it really is amazing how interwoven this bunch is with so many of the worst elements of the worlds power brokers for over a 150 years. If this book has a weakness its, although it brings up many of the the nefarious deeds and dealings of the Bush crime family, that it barely touches on or completely ignores the worst of the worst that the Bushs have been linked to over the years. It also tries a bit too hard to try to draw a parrellell between the Bush gangsters and European royalty by making them into Americans version of a royal family. Still recomended reading though.



5. This was an in-depth review of the rise of the Bush family in American politics and business, from a conservative writer no less. I was impressed by the amount of research and will certainly read my books written by this author.

5 comments about Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.

1. "I'm not black, I'm brown!" So says Bessie Delany, at age 100. Despite her years of involvement in the Civil Rights movement, accepting its nomenclature wholesale isn't part of Bessie's personality. She's the feisty sister. Sadie, age 103, is the one who conquers by saying nothing - while going right ahead and doing exactly what she wants. Or by playing dumb, as she and Bessie both put it; but either way, it's always worked for Sadie. These two, the second black woman licensed as a dentist in New York and the first black woman to be appointed a New York City high school teacher, have lived together more years than not in their long lives; and as of this book's publication, they're still in their New York home and taking care of themselves just fine, thank you very much.
   
   What do they have to say? Plenty, mostly in alternating chapters. Their father was born a slave, and their mother's parents - a mulatto woman and a white man - couldn't marry because state law forbade it. That freed slave eventually became an Episcopal bishop, and all ten of his children became college-educated professionals. Sarah and Elizabeth Delany were old enough to be shocked and hurt when Jim Crow became the law of the South, and each had to find her own ways to survive and thrive in spite of both cultural and institutionalized prejudice. Relocating to Harlem, New York City opened new opportunities, but didn't take them away from that familiar struggle. Through it all, Sadie and Bessie lived by the creed their parents had taught them: You're here to do good. To which Sadie added her own maxim: Maybe I can change the world a little bit, by changing me.
   
   The challenges these two women faced are not familiar to me personally, in one sense, because I've never had to face racial prejudice. Yet in the way they met those challenges, with determination, realism ("As long as they need you, you've got that job"), and plenty of humor, any fellow human can surely find inspiration. A wonderful read!



2. The Delany Sisters are simply a spectacular duo of fighters. Their story is one almost every person would find amazing. The way they see this world, and how their past experiences with Jim Crow and being colored in the South before the Civil Rights Movement shaped their perception of humans forever. The book is filled with very warm humor and it is essential to understand part of the complex psyche of 'colored' people in the United States today, which, by the way, is a term prefered by the Sisters over black or even African American to refer to themselves and their people.



3. This book was recommended to me by my 95-year-old mother, and I must say it was an excellent recommendation.
   
   
   
   Author Amy Hill Hearth must have had numerous conversations with Sadie (age 102) and her "little sister" Bessie (100). The book is written with the words and the spirit of these two special ladies shining through each page. The Delany sisters were born to a father who was a former slave and who got an education and later became the first black bishop in the Episcopal Church. Their mother had white blood, but she chose to marry and socialize among the black race. As the sister explain, if you had one drop of black blood at that time, you were considered a Negro.
   
   
   
   The sisters describe their growing-up years and their gratitude for their parents' love, guidance, and the high standards of conduct which they held up to their children. They tell what is was like to be chased by the Ku Klux Klan, discriminated against by teachers and employers, and be the victims of the Jim Crow laws. They mention the illustrious black people, such as Adam Clayton Powell, and Cab Calloway, who were part of their social circle. They tell about their patriotism during WWI and WWII and in one of the most poignant comments in the book Bessie says, "We were good citizens, good Americans! We loved our country, even though it didn't love us back."
   
   
   
   This is a look back at American history by two women whose family was prominent in the black community, but mostly unknown in the white world.
   
   It is an eye-opener and is a wonderful story.



4. Let's just say I fell in love with the sisters so much that I adopted their last name. I am in awe of these remarkable woman, still. After living for more than a century they did not believe they had a story to tell. I am grateful that Amy Hill Hearth was able to convince them otherwise.
   Their accomplishments were remarkable not only what the two oldest sisters did but the entire Delany family. Their father Henry was borned into slavery, however, he did not use that as an excuse. All of the Delany children were trailblazers because there were no civil rights for people of color in the early 1900's. They did what they had to do, Bessie was honest and brutal as she felt it was her duty to tell people the truth. Sadie was considered the sweet one, however, she too was a go-getter.
   I recommend this book and the two other books that were co-authored by Amy Hill Hearth. Without Ms. Hearth these women and their stories would have never been told, I am thankful to her for bringing them into my life. I expected the sisters to live forever but Bessie died in 1995 shortly after turning 104 and Bessie at 109 in 1999. They are still alive in the hearts of many of us and in the pages of their books.



5. HAVING OUR SAY: THE DELANY'S FIRST 100 YEARS is simply one of the most engaging, educational and insightful memoirs I have read about two extraordinary women (Bessie and Sadie Delaney) who saw tremendous change and evolution in the world, over the course of (more than) a century. These two fiesty women penned this wonderful book, with an introduction by Amy Hill Hearth, and I remember well how phenomenal it was to see them interviewed together, on PBS, when the book went to press, prior to the release of a made-for-TV-movie version of their memoirs.
   
   This book is great for anyone looking to connect the present with the past; particularly through the eyes of two exceptional women who were born in South Carolina during the mid 1890s, experiencing racism firsthand (as two educated African-American women) and met many individuals who were instrumental in adding art, culture and brilliance to the Harlem Renaissance (a great cultural movement that took place between the 1920s and 1940s, in Harlem, New York, celebrating the cultural achievements of many African-American artists, musicians, dancers, photographers, writers, sculptors and radicals alike). What's more, these two women received college educations at time when it was unusual for Caucasian men to obtain them! Read this and tell two more people to check out the book, when you're through. Great reading!

5 comments about Thomas Paine and the Promise of America.

1. This book takes a surprising amount of time to read due to the 'hidden' density of the writing. It is a superlative history of one of our most important founding fathers. The impact of 'Common Sense' by Paine simply can hardly over stated. This book is not a dry or boring read, it simply takes more time than I had expected.
   
   The gnawing knowledge that America largely ditched Paine after he dutifully served his purpose is disturbing. He contributed the proceeds from Common Sense to buy mittens for our troops. When imprisoned in France and marked for execution, precisely noyone rode to the rescue. The reason that Paine was largely forgotten is that he had acquired a reputation for not being a man of solid faith. In spite of a remarkable literary career, Paine was destined to die a poor man with a poorly attended funeral. It does seem that he liked to imbibe in the spirits more than he ought to have.
   
   Teddy Roosevelt went on to describe Paine as a "filthy little athiest". He was actually none of the above.
   
   Paine and Samuel Adams suffered the same fate. Both were men of tremendous talent with the pen. Both worked tirelessly. Both played inestimable roles in our freedom. Both tend to be forgotten by mainstream historians. Neither one was an aristocrat. Are historians largely elitist snobs?



2. I'm no Paine scholar - so I do not understand the quibbles. I love this book. Where today is the person who touches the human heart to stoke that which is already in us, as Paine did? I find the progressive candidates both ring the same (negative) bell about not liking George, Jr. That, however, is a just a pull away from the negative. Where is the today's beckoning cry for that which is in the human heart? Thank you, dear author, for this offering.



3. When I ordered this book I was thinking of updating my knowledge of one of that group of men we usually think of as our "forefathers"--the ones who were there at the birth of our nation. I got that AND SO MUCH MORE. In addition to learning more of Thomas Paine himself, I learned why he has never had the place of distinction and honor accorded others of his time despite his seemingly crucial activities in securing our independence. THEN, this fine historian takes the "essence" of this dynamic American, traces its ( and his) waxing and waning influence through the decades, and presents us with the need to re-capture, if we can, that zeal for maintaining our freedom and our "national theme" of a nation for the common good--for the common man. For me, anyway: A Masterpiece. The only drawback (if one can call it that): Now I MUST read ( and own) the basic works--in Thomas Paine's own words



4. This is a brilliant work that breathes new life into the legacy of Tom Paine and links his writings to our lives as Americans today. We in the Borough of Fort Lee, New Jersey are proud that Paine began to write "The American Crisis" while in Fort Lee as an aide to General Nathaniel Greene. The retreat to victory through New Jersey in November 1776 was one of the darkest periods of the American Revolution. Paine's words in The Crisis inspired this young nation so much so that General Washington had "The Crisis" read by his offcers to his men prior to the crossing of the Delaware.
   
   We in Fort Lee are presently forming "The Common Sense Society" to promote the ideals of Tom Paine and to work with the Borough of Fort Lee to erect a statue to Paine in our Monument Park where Paine encamped with the American Army in 1776. This would be only the sixth statue of Paine in the world and the fourth in the United States.



5. Kaye's prose is solid and I certainly enjoyed the first few chapters on Paine's controversial life. The book, however, takes a turn for the worse when it launches (for half the book!) into a very oversimplified argument that "liberals" (of all times, shapes, and persuasions) are the true decendents of Paine's ideology and that conservatives (over and over derided as "the powers that be" "capitalist elites" etc.) can never truly draw from Paine's legacy. Quite the contrary, Kaye admits that Paine's libertarian tendencies and his disdain for government, contradicting his own argument. An interesting read, but disgustingly biased and as a previous post commented, should be on the shelf with other political polemics. Wouldn't recommend it to an objective student of history looking for a good intro to Paine.

4 comments about The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story.

1. This is a great biography of a really remarkable man. With benefit of hindsight, it's so easy for us to be so critical of those who made bad choices during a time of war, and alternately slightly degrade those who made the right choices because they seem so obvious now. This book makes it clear just how high the price was for standing on principle in that era.
   
   This is a great first book. I hope he writes more and I hope this one gets turned into a movie!



2. The Principled Politician is exactly the kind of book I find nearly impossible to put down: an extraordinarily well researched biography packed with fascinating anecdotes about a remarkable person during a horrific time, who stayed to true to himself and to the people he served. Schrager's portrait of the former Governor of Colorado, Ralph Carr, who has been tragically forgotten by our country, is truly poignant in this an election year, as we listen to today's politicians change their positions with disappointing regularity.
   
   Here was a man who stood up for what was right in the treatment of Japanese Americans, and was vilified for it. Here was a man who did not want the position in the first place, but acquiesced once he was convinced he was the most viable candidate from his party to win the election. His caveat: "... if I'm Governor, I'll call the shots as I see `em. I won't be beholden to anybody." And he did. In an age when a politician's word means so little, it was refreshing to read about one of America's great leaders, who in the face of fear, anger and unabashed bigotry prevalent throughout the American west in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor stayed true to his principals.
   
   This book dramatically illustrates the life of an important man who needs to be remembered. The exhaustive research effort that was needed to construct this fascinating account is clear. Schrager managed to dig up a wealth of stories, some of which should be extraordinarily embarrassing to the people and institutions involved.
   
   I highly recommend it.



3. Ralph Carr was the governor of Colorado when the United States entered World War II. A rising star in national Republican circles, he was also a man with strong personal principles. And he was steadfast in adherence to the rule of law - including the United States Constitution.
   
   Carr's stubborn adherence to his principles brought him into conflict with the tide of anti-Japanese hysteria that swept across the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and was at its worst in the Western US. Carr welcomed Japanese-Americans to his state - the only governor in the US to do so.
   
   When Carr was deluged with letters, telegrams and phone calls from citizens urging him to lock up all "Japanese" people including American citizens, to call up the National Guard and turn them away from the borders, and to do even worse things, he didn't call out his pollsters or convene a focus group. He searched his mind and heart and followed his understanding of the legal, and the right, thing to do. And did it. He said, "If you harm them, you must harm me first."
   
   Adam Schrager has done a service to American history with this book. He explains Carr as a man, a lawyer, and a politician, and chronicles his refusal to be stampeded - by misinformed and scared citizens, by angry bigots, or by the federal government. Carr's principled stand on this issue earned him a barrage of threats and insults and ended his political career. It also earned him the respect and gratitude of many for his calm voice among the hysteria. This was a shameful chapter in US history: thousands of loyal citizens of Japanese descent were rounded up into internment camps, even as their relatives were fighting and dying for the United States.
   
   Emotions cooled after the war ended, and Carr was beginning to regain respect and standing with the public when he died from complications of diabetes.
   
   I highly recommend this book.



4. I couldn't put this book down. First ,it's a story that had to be told. Carr is an amazing person and has an incredible, until-now untold story. I feel like I unearthed a historical gem by reading about him. Second, Carr's story is incredibly timely in this era of partisanship and the breakdown of politics. It's inspiring that a significant elected official like him could take a principled stand on such an important issue, and he has lessons for politicians today on all issues. Third, Schrager is a terrific writer. It was like reading fiction in a good way, in that I felt like I was reading a novel even though I wasn't. The combination of dialogue and quotes and events, in an accessible but not at all condescending style, was great. Fourth, Schrager obviously poured his heart and soul and time into this -- the amount of work reflected by it ,both in the sources and the care with which he writes, is evident.