5 comments about The West of Billy the Kid.

1. Several years ago while at work, it became evident that at least for several weeks Billy Joels'well known song, "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid" was getting airplay at the same time each week. We could almost predict it and kind of expected it.I had heard it before but never really listened to it closely.Now, I was paying attention to every line as others may have,and took it for fact.This was right up until I heard a well known disc jockey discount the song and state that much of what was in the song was not fact at all but just made up ,fabricated and just literal allusion. At first I was taken aback, a little annoyed, but then I realized that Mr. Joel had to rhyme his words and possibly used what worked and to hell with the facts,which of course, was his prerogative.In doing so however, he did Billy The Kid a great injustice.Now I became curious for real facts about Billy and I did some searching and boy was I astounded at what I found.His life was nothing at all like the song or even what I had thought Billy the Kid was like based on my general knowledge of him picked up along the way.I envisioned a killer cowboy,a bank robbing,train robbing outlaw terrorizing the early west.Well,I have since developed an enduring respect for him after reading a very accurate and truthful history of him as written by Frederick Nolan.This book reads like a Russian novel.There are so many characters and people involved in the Kids world it boggles the mind.This book is completely filled with photos,maps,references and mini histories, one doesn't know where to begin. It does get jumpy at times where I felt lost in all the action but each chapter ends well seemingly tying up all the loose ends.How these guys did it and why anybody would go west is beyond me.But go they did and it was less than placid. The early west was a dry, dusty violent place and the Kid was right in the middle of it.His beginnings were confusing from a historical point of view due to lack of information and it seems he rarely experienced any lengthy periods of true peace.He always had to scrape for an existence,fight for scraps and he did defend himself as any respectable person would.He killed when absolutely necessary and was not the sociopathic killer history's tall tales have made him out to be.He had emotion,compassion and youthful exuberance and was well liked among his peers and was respected as well for his sense of fair play and justice.This it seems, was all for nought for his death was both tragic and violent at the hand of Pat Garrett who has his own version to tell and did for profit.He lived his life as best he could under the circumstances and remains a tragically misunderstood chapter of our midwest history. Just a blip on the radar, but a person who stood fast for his rights and was cheated out of a fair shake on more than one occasion. Nolan reflects that and is honest in his assessment of just what is truth and what is fiction.He attempts to dispell the myths and report the events down to their absolute truths without using dramatic,theatrical scenes.I did alot of research on Billy and boiled down the real books on his life.This book glared like a beacon for its honest assessment of just who and what Billy Antrum,and then Billy Bonney and then who became finally, Billy The Kid, was and what his life was from its mysterious beginings to its abrupt yet vague end.If Billy the Kid is a source of mystery that needs to be cleared then Nolans book is it.It is clearly evident that he did his research and would not fabricate facts to enhance the history.I recommend this book to Mr. Billy Joel.Perhaps he could compose a second edition more accurate to poor Billy Bonney to give him proper justice.As a book about the man and his times I highly recommend it.It is an arduous but fun read and when you hear the above noted song you will smile to yourself and know better and perhaps hold a place in your heart for the young man that history crucified perhaps a bit prematurely.The book is tops if you need or want to know Billy the Kid.



2. Nolan does a great job in describing the events of Billy the Kids life. One of the best historians out there. i would recommend this book for all who are interested in Billy The Kid. Unlike the book written by Jim Johnson this book is full of facts.



3. Fred Nolan is one of the most recognized and popular historians of the old west, but where he makes many of his mistakes is by repeating too many things written by previous authors without sufficient evidence. I find most of his statements impossible to prove incorrect, but there are a few problems in his writing. Also, the editing of his book has a few flaws in that there are many glowing contradictions within the book. But, if you can figure out where the errors were made, the rest of the book is interesting and appears to be factual. In comparison to the other books currently on the market on Billy, this is one of the better ones, especially if like good pictures..



4. Frederick Nolan has established a book on "Billy the Kid," which out does most before and after it's initial publication in 1999. An easy to follow book for all readers that tells the true story based on documentation and "real" proof to the life and death of "Billy the Kid." Bye far the best out there on this subject matter. Purchase it!!!
   
   Mike Koch, Author of "The Kimes Gang."



5. What lacks in this describtion in the life og Billy the Kid, is a bit more detail in the last chapters. Clearly Frederick Nolan is most interestet in the Lincoln County War - thats why I give the book 4 stars and not 5.
   
   Having said that I must hurry to make clear that this book probaly is the best biografy to read about Billy the Kid if you are just af normal human being knowning nothing first hand of the old west.
   I am such a person, and when I started reading the book, Frederick Nolan unfolded the true old west before my eyes in a manner I have never imagined anyone would be able to. He writes in a nice easy-to-read way even for a guy like me who hasn't got english as my first language. He mannages to tell all the details of the story in such a way, that it is easy to understand what was going on, and why people were acting as the were - and that is a very big accevement as some subjekts in the book - for exampel the Lincoln County War - is af very complicated affair involving many different persons.
   
   Frederik Nolans mission with this book is to show us the kid as he were in the old west as it was in the late 1870ties. And he succedes. He shows us a young man with a difficult childhood who has driftet from one bad area to another only to end up in the lions cave - Lincoln County - where a great cattle-war is about to break. And from their on his fate is seeled. Being the one he is with the past he has - he has no chance of avoiding bekomming a part of the war, and in the end one of the most feared - and wanted - outlaws in the territorry.

2 comments about Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists.

1. This book was very thought and emotion provoking. A must read for all women. Women must never forget the gargantuan struggle our foremothers endured to gain something so powerful---the right to vote. You'll be appalled at the night of terror these women, up to 70 years of age, endured by hostile cruel men.
   
   The vote is only the beginning of equality, however. Without actually voting, the right to vote serves no purpose.
   
   Last note is that this extremely well-documented book is very open about the uncomfortable topic of the sexual proclivities of some of these suffragists. It was disturbing to me that some of these very Christian women could have lesbian tendencies, but apparently these accounts come directly from letters they wrote to others. Thankfully, it is not a book that argues for or against lesbianism; it just documents the part it played, if any, in these women's lives. God does say in the Bible that women may be the physically weaker sex, but they ARE EQUAL to men in God's sight.



2. Before reading this book, I had basically no idea about anything dealing with the Suffrage movement, except that it was Susan B. Anthony who was on a coin (and this was even after taking a college-level US History course). This book is a MUST for any person who wants to get a general overview not only about five of the most influential women in the Suffrage Movement, but also of the movement overall. It doesn't have any "boring" parts, and is all information that everyone should know. I can't recommend it enough!

2 comments about Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma: The American Portraits Series (American Portraits).

1. I have finally come to the end of this fine book and am delighted to share my views. Unlike the one other reviewer here at Amazon (Mohroy), I found the book to be richly rewarding on every possible level. Camilla Townsend's academic background is well known and she is highly respected in her field. Her ability to write a compelling narative is smartly coupled with a rich list of footnotes, so many of which come from original documents. In some cases highly academic books can be a bother when you are flipping back to the footnotes; not with this book. Each note was worth the attention and always added a deeper dimension. When you consider that Townsend was building a picture of these people that was not always the mainstream her reliance on her reseach more than convinced me of her perspective.
   
   What is the overall impression of the story she paints? I'll tell you, that when I first discovered this story, through the lens of the very emotionally moving movie, "The New World", I had very little knowledge of the real story. In following up on my initial reactions to the movie I endeavored to read what modern historians have to say. I read one book which I can also highly recommend and then I found Townsend. The first was "Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the birth of the American Dream" by Thomas and Dorothy Hoobler, November 2005, published by Wiley. This was a sensational revelation and spurred me on to know more. Townsend has filled in the missing pieces and is essential in my view for anyone who wants to know the story shed of all of it's mythology.
   
   "The New World" is a fine movie and entertainment and I will always treausre it. But, it is about 50% fiction, which is a shame, because Malick had all of this material available just about the time he wrote the script. Oh well. The real people, the real story is so very much more tragic, depressing, sad and dark. The first successful European settlers to the East Coast of the USA signalled the beginning of the destruction of much of Native America. Those that did not die of disease brought by Europeans that they had no immunity to, died as a result of wars with the Europeans. Townsend's insight into this is interesting to consider. The much longer development of farming among Indo/Europeans had better prepared them on a technological level to successfully take America away from Natives. She attributes this line of thought to the book "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It is worth consideration; the Powhatan natives took too long to realize that the founders of Jamestown had outgunned and out-equipped them by many factors. When Uttamatomakkin came back from his trip to London with Pocahontas and he reported that it was hopeless to fight the white man he was scorned and ignored by his fellows. This resistance to reality lasted far too long before they were finally demolished in several devastating wars.
   
   The real Pocahontas? Much younger at her introduction to Smith than all films or other books portray. Probably had not reached puberty yet. She was so young that when in the Jamestown fort would do hand cartwheels revealing her naked torso for all to see. When she had reached puberty that would have stopped completely. Did she have a romantic relationship with Smith? Not a chance, it would seem. Even more, she had already been married off to a native from another village; nothing much is known of his demise and it is assumed that he died after only a few years of marriage. It is also not known if she had born a child by him, though Townsend thinks it less likely. Pocahontas was no fool and knew that she was being used by her father in a delicate series of political chess, some of which were with the English, some with other native communities. She learned rudimentary English and carried herself with the dignity she felt the English were expecting of her; they viewed her as the daughter of a King and she accepted the role as princess. Townend scores an important point by showing us clearly how little we really know of this woman; someone who did not leave a word of her own in any manner. We imply and infer and guess based on so little. She cautions us throughout the book about this tendency.
   
   What of her father, Powhatan? Already experienced with other white men from Europe before John Smith lands, he already knows that they are dangerous but makes one tragic blunder: he underestimates their resolve to make a permanent place in America until it is too late. He sees the colonies start up and then watch as the ill equipped Europeans fall sick and die, time after time. He sees Smith and company as just another botched attempt at racial transplanting and is not too worried. He is wrong and his people eventually pay the price. What could he have done instead? The hot heads among his people urged him to kill all the white people in Smith's group before they turned against them. He refused. From the native perspective it was a mistake. From the European perspective it would only have bought time and would have enraged them more. In due course, white Europeans were going to come and that was that.
   
   John Smith is both given his proper respectful acknowledgment and is also taken to task as a teller of tall tales. Smith embelleshed for his English audience and without a live Pocahontas to ask whether this or that fact was true, Smith got away with the story he painted. Were the main facts of his being saved by a nubile Pocahontas beliveable? Probably not, given the place of young girls in the presence of adults in her society. It is not impossible but much more improbable than Smith tells us.
   
   This is a book that strips away layer after layer of myth, poor or incomplete research and hasty or prejudiced conclusions. Her work is constantly referred back to urtext sources and where she does not know something she says so right up front. If the real story of Pocahontas is so much fuller, complicated and sadder, it is a story that is entirely integral at the dawn of white society in America. It is also integral to the beginning of the end of native people across the same landscape. A tremendous scholarly achievement, not to be missed.



2. A brief history of Jamestown and a very sketchy and alomst contentless discussion of Powhatan and the Powhatan Confederacy from the "perspective" (scare quotes intentional) of Pocahontas.
   
   I learned a couple of new facts from this but on the whole I can't reccomed this book. The author tries to get in the head of the legendary Indian Princess but the authors very poitically correct assumptions of what Pocahontas would feel are far from convincing, interestingly enough I had never previously believed in the John Smith-Pocahontas love story at all until I read this, but her disavowal of it was so unconvincing I am now not nearly so sure... The same can be said of several of her other psychological insights which have a very shallow basis, that seem to reflect the author's own feelings without any appearance of critical reflection.
   
   On the positive side it is nice to see such a sympathetic view of John Rolfe, who the author seems quite taken with, but by this point I was rather weary of the whole thing. Luckily it was very short, and even though I actually spent a fair amount of time checking endnotes and even checking a couple of sources, reading the book took only a few hours. I bought it at lunch and went out to dinner that night having finished it.

5 comments about Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

1. After viewing the movie Glory for many years I came across this book and purchased it immediately. Robert Gould Shaw grew up in an influencial home which had amazing political and social connections with the abolitionist movement. His words preserved from the past through today and gives us insight on what he was thinking about after fighting at Antietam as well as his feelings about his role and service for this nation.
   
   A must for any civil war reenactor or student of the American Civil War.



2. If, like me, you have seen the film "Glory", where Matthew Broderick plays Col. Robert Gould Shaw, white commander of the black 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War, you will see only a brief a glimpse of who Shaw was in his short life. Broderick does a masterful job of capturing some of Shaw's personality, but if you want to get inside this young man's head and find out who he really was, I highly recommend reading the book, "Blue Eyed Child of Fortune", ed. by Russell Duncan.
   
   This collection of Shaw's letters shows a far more complex and conflicted young man than Broderick was given a chance to play. While his parents burned with the abolitionist spirit of Boston's intellectual elite, Shaw struggled with his own prejudices and his own self doubts throughout his short life. Never an exemplary student, he dropped out of Harvard to work in his uncle's New York firm, but rapidly found the work boring and unsuited to him. Struggling to find his place in the world, the Civil War came along and gave him a sense of purpose and direction.
   
   Enlisting first in the 7th New York Guards, he served until his enlistment was up, and then joined the 2nd Massachusetts, gaining position as an officer. He "saw the elephant" at Winchester, Antietam and Cedar Mountain, was slightly wounded in two of those engagements, and found out first hand about the horrors of war. During winter camp in 1862-63, his father visited with word that Shaw had been tapped by Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew to command a new black regiment. At first, Shaw refused this offer on the basis that he felt a strong bond with the men he had fought and bled with, but then changed his mind and accepted the position of Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts.
   
   Returning home to Boston to take command of his new regiment, he was deeply conflicted over whether these men would pan out to be good soldiers, but as time wore on and they proved their worth, Shaw's respect for his men grew, as did their respect for their commanding officer. After three months training, they left for duty in South Carolina after a grand parade down Boston streets. Shaw chafed for some action for his men, and the first that they saw was the tragic raid and burning of Darien, Georgia under the command of Kansas jayhawker Col. James Montgomery. Shaw was outraged at this action and very nearly refused his orders from his commanding officer, but reluctantly had to obey and ask his men to do what he felt was utterly immoral and against the codes of war. He would write letters of protest to his father and to others.
   
   Eventually, in his quest for real action for his men, they were assigned a diversionary action on James Island to allow Union troops to land on nearby Morris Island for a planned assault on Fort Wagner a few days later. Sustaining light casualties in a skirmish, Shaw was impressed that his men were indeed up to snuff as soldiers, and so, a few days later, after a long exhausting march in a storm to Morris Island during which they got no rest, they were assigned to the lead attack column on Fort Wagner on the evening of July 18, 1863.
   
   Sadly, Union intelligence on Ft. Wagner was badly flawed. It was originally thought that the fort held a complement of only 300 men and that after days of relentless shelling by the Union navies, that the fort would be softened up enough to withstand a frontal Union assault. However, most of Wagner's nearly 1500 men were in a massive bombproof riding out the shelling, and so, when the Union assault began with the 54th leading the attack column, they took the heaviest casualties, including the young Col. Shaw, who foresaw his own demise while speaking to Lt. Col. Edward "Ned" Hallowell, his second-in-command, while on a steamer on the way to their assignment: "If I could only live a few weeks longer with my wife, and be at home a little while, I might die happy, but it cannot be. I do not believe I will live through our next fight."
   
   Rather unfortunately, Shaw was right. He was killed upon reaching the parapets of Wagner, a bullet through his heart killing him instantly. His body was stripped and thrown into a common grave with his men, and his father asked, when the Union finally took the fort a few months later when it was abandoned by the Confederates, that his body be left there with his men. Shaw's burial spot now lies somewhere under the Atlantic Ocean, the island having eroded significantly in the past 140 years since Shaw's demise and burial there.
   
   This book will give you a great insight into a very conflicted, complicated and yet reluctantly heroic young man who was just coming into his own at the time of his tragic death. I am sure that he would have shunned the limelight had he survived the war to live to old age and would have been content to live life with his beloved Annie, to whom he was married a mere two months before his death. Annie would never remarry and lived the rest of her life as his widow, dying in 1907. The war would doubtless have made Shaw and given him the potential to focus his life and go on to great things had he lived to do so. Having lived so much of his young life with such rebellion against his mother's domineering apron strings and not quite sure what he wanted out of life, the war gave Shaw a brief opportunity to find out what it was he was made of. In so doing, he achieved the one thing he never dreamed of, immortality.
   
   Read this book if you are eager to know the "real" Shaw. Letting him speak for himself is the best way to know this fascinating man who died so tragically young at the peak of his life. Follow it up with "Where Death and Glory Meet", Russell Duncan's excellent biography of Shaw. By the time you finish these two books, you will feel as if you know Shaw quite well. If you want to know a few of his men, read "A Brave Black Regiment" by Capt. Luis Emilio, a regimental history of the 54th, "On the Altar of Freedom" by Cpl. James Henry Gooding, a black soldier in the 54th, and "A Voice of Thunder", the letters of Sgt. George E. Stephens, another black soldier in the 54th. I just hope that more letters and diaries from this regiment surface and are published someday. Doubtless there are more hiding in attics and other unknown places.
   
   This book comes highly recommended for good Civil War reading of a primary source, along with the other books mentioned that are by Shaw's soldiers. Together, they beat any historian's account of this historic regiment. Read them all if you are interested in Civil War or black history.



3. it's must have book I love this book



4. Russell Duncan's compendium of letters both exalts and puzzles.The job of editing the letters and setting them in the context of war, family ties, friendships, etc. is thorough and, for the most part, makes them accessible. Let's not forget, though, that the editor omitted some letters that don't support his main thesis: that Col. Shaw was a rich young pleasure-lover who fought to get back to his privileged existence, never changing this outlook throughout the war; he "never fully understood nor dedicated himself" to the cause of Black freedom (pp.1-2). So here we are presented with a young man raised by abolitionists who went to all the hazards of preparing and leading something new, a black regiment, before dying in the middle of it, without understanding what he was about, or dedicating himself to it. It's fashionable to "debunk" the heros of yore, but even those letters we have tell us otherwise, and Duncan reverses his appraisal, back and forth, several times. We should also beware of measuring citizens of other times against a modern baseline on classism, racism, etc. Apart from these problems, found in the introduction and some footnotes, the book lets Shaw speak for himself (he does it eloquently and enjoyably) and the reader can draw his/her own conclusion on ideas, events, and character development.



5. Robert Gould Shaw's letters home are a very realistic look of the Civil War battles by a unique individual with many perspectives. The brutality of battle along with the emotional turmoil from such a young officer bring the war to life. The authors have given us a true picture of a brave officer and the war. As you read the letters of Shaw you want to pull the blankets closer on the cold winter nights he spent in the field. You can share the suffering along with Shaw at the loss of friends. The courage and love of family and devotion of country are evident throughout his premature adult life. God bless the 54th and may Robert Gould Shaw and all that served with him and under him never be forgotten.

3 comments about Days and Nights of Love and War.

1. is as Galeano define "Days and Nights of Love and War". The author open the memory box and let escape the pain and the love, the sadness and the joy. That is not only his box, it's my box too, all latinoamericans' box. So, when we open it we live.



2. The personal testimony of one of Latin America's foremost contemporary political writers, Eduardo Galeano's Days And Nights Of Love And War blends memoir journaling with an eloquent history to record the lives and struggles of the Latin American people under two decades of unimaginable violence and extreme repression. Galeano combines straight-forward reportage with personal vignettes, interviews, travelogues, and folklore with an impressive and engaging emotional enrichment that includes anger, irony, sadness, and humor. Days And Nights Of Love And War is very highly recommended for students of late 20th century Latin American political history and culture.



3. This book is for anyone immersed in the human condition, waging a war internally and silently stuggling externally. Galeano's collection of thoughts and essays and stories stirs the emotions of the reader and forces them to consider the entirety of the Latin American canon of literature as a formidable one. It encompasses genres such as autobiography, biography, testimony, prose, and short story. This is poetry of the soul for the soul, and shouldn't be limited to those obscure literature classes dealing with oppression

5 comments about In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family.

1. John Sedgwick is a scion of one of those old, distinguished New England families whose name reverberates through the centuries. The Sedgwicks rose to prominence in colonial days and helped establish the infant Republic. They are quintessential WASPS, with a long lineage, proud traditions, and an ancestral home in the Berkshires. Unfortunately for them, the Sedgwicks also carry DNA which inclines some members of each generation to manic-depression and other mental/emotional problems.
   
   I was engrossed in this book from page one. As a genealogist who hails from a WASP family even older than the Sedgwicks (though Southern and far less prosperous), I enjoyed reading about the successive generations of the family and their dramas and scandals. I was also interested in the descriptions of the Sedgwicks' struggles with depression, which has darkened the lives of some members of my own family. I appreciated the cost to John Sedgwick himself of telling this story, as he had to work through a depression of his own while dealing with issues which must have been very painful for him and for his siblings and other family members. I finished the book hoping and believing that John and his family have at last achieved some sense of peace and accomodation with their pasts.



2. This book began with an interesting premise- the incidence of depression and other mental illness over six generations of a family. Because the family had a somewhat famous ancestor, it was possible to assemble information going back that far. Unfortunately, the author seemed to finish by writing a different book, basically an autobiography that, while filled with much detail, wasn't very interesting. The early parts were well-written, the later ones less so.



3. I once asked E. Digby Baltzell, who popularised the term WASP, why he wrote so little of the poor, and he said, "Because they are only statistics". The same frustration went with his native Philadelphia; the
   Episcopalian-cum-Quaker gentry left behind few words about themselves. We
   have the opposite ethos here.
   
   As an exact contemporary of John Segwick, I have been reading him since
   the Gil Lewis book, even saving articles from the late NEW ENGLAND magazine. Because of Baltzell and Sedgwick, I also visited Groton School
   a few times (and wrote a precipitous and disastrous letter to a
   distinguished alum, a total stranger, which I bitterly regret to this
   day - oh, well). The last section of IN MY BLOOD hurt to read.
   
   This is a superior book, which I believe took no little guts to write.
   And writing is what the Sedgwicks have done for centuries now. But
   we see the truth that behind the ornate doors of those estates in Social
   Register country, human frailty lives as it does in the trailer park,
   only magnified cruelly sometimes by the glass of great expectations.
   
   I could not put it down.



4. The author here starts 7 or 8 generations back, and traces the tale from about 1700 of his relatives coming to America, picking up some land from the disenfranchised indians, and building a small empire. The general family profession is writing and the law, and there seems a requirement to attend prep school at Groton, then college at Harvard.
   
   This book struck a chord with me, having attended an Ivy League school, and was on a trip to visit Harvard while I read it. One could view this book as an intimate portrait of a certain kind of preppie, as he/she evolved over time.
   
   The ostensible theme, madness and accomplishment in the author's family, mainly just provides the opportunity to document the establishment and maintenance, and the latest minor decline of an especially noteworthy family from before the Revolutionary War up to the present. I suspect many such prominent families, perhaps families in general, have their share of insanity and black sheep, they just don't parade it out in view. It is fascinating, however, to see the contrast of some relatives limited by their bipolar tendencies to other relatives who could harness their manic energy to great ends.
   
   Maybe I was overinterpreting, but despite the claims of openness, it seemed some scandalous behavior was only hinted at and other such probable behavior explicitly denied, as one might expect from someone still close to some of his subjects and the descendants. Also, despite the presence of some random numbers, the total wealth of the family that allowed many members to have multiple homes in various garden spots went unstated.
   
   If the author sees this, please show more of the portraits, photographs, and pictures of the ancestral homes in the next edition. By the 6th generation, it was sometimes elusive to separate the various Sedgwicks in my memory. Maybe a more clear genealogical table would help as well.
   
   Any book that kept me rapt on a pair of cross-country plane trips, when I had other good books and the laptop charged up, gets five stars from me.



5. "In My Blood" reminded me of how few generations it takes to get from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War to present times. John Sedgwick is a very engaging narrator of his family history. After experiencing an emotional breakdown and going into therapy, Mr. Sedgwick decides to delve into a treasure trove of family documents going back to Revolutionary times to examine the interplay of mental illness and success and creativity in his family. The house built by Theodore Sedgwick is still in the family, held in trust, full of old pictures, letters, and diaries. More documents from important members of the family are in library collections. This book could be stuffy and self-important, but John Sedgwick somehow manages to bring out the admirable, the deplorable, and the tragic in these generations in a loving, easygoing way that made me feel like I had sat down for a very interesting talk with a very nice person.

5 comments about Hardtack & Coffee or The Unwritten Story of Army Life.

1. Hardtack and Coffee provides an excellent picture of Army life in the mid-nineteenth century. The sketches illustrate the text superbly. This is a useful handbook for students and teachers as well as an intriguing introduction to the Civil War.



2. I am a Civil War reenactor, and this book has been an excellent source of ideas for first person scenarios and ideas for living history. It is an insightful, unique record of the soldier's life for living historians or students of history. I would highly recommend this engaging book.



3. This engaging book fills the void that other Civil War histories leave, and that is an understanding of the everyday experiences of the foot soldier. "Hardtack and Coffee or the Unwritten Story of Army Life" by John D. Billings is an exhaustive and fascinating look back at the flesh, bones, and blood of those lines and arrows on the maps of Civil War battle strategies.

   The book is filled with anecdotes, observations, and songs arising from the era. (I very much appreciated the introduction which details the election of 1860 and started the whole terrible tragedy that ensued over the next half decade.) The generous amount of illustration truly helps evoke the period. "Hardtack and Coffee" is a perfect companion to Bell Irvin Wiley's "Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union" and "The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy". And it is a perfect part of anyone's Civil War/American History library.

   Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS




4. I'm one of those men with the "Civil War Itch" who can't get enough reading, can't get enough time on the battlefields. This book is hands-down one of my favorites in my extensive collection, re-read several times and dog-eared. It's something I always put in my bag for air-travel reading, because you can pick it up and put it down when you need to...the author and the illustrator both were participants in the Conflict, so you know it's accurate. The content is educational but not stuffy, since it was written to explain to soldiers' families what exactly Union Army life was like...and the humor still carries through to this day. After you've read the historical studies or walked a battlefield, THIS is the book you want to read to put yourself in the shoes of the everyday soldier--and it's easy to do with the author's skills. For me, the best chuckles are the chapters "Jonahs and Beats", and "The Army Mule". A must-read for those wanting more than just a general's biography or an order of battle.



5. This is the best book on the life of the Civil War soldier. The other reviews attest to this, so here is something different.
   Charles W. Reed, the illustrator, was ALSO a Civil War veteran.
   He served in the Ninth Massachusetts Battery and won the Medal of Honor at Gettysburg for saving his commanding officer, Captain
   John Bigelow, who had been seriously wounded in the fight at the
   Trostle Farm on 2 July 1863.
   My favorite chapter was the one on the army mule.
   Buy, read & enjoy this book!

5 comments about The Unexpected George Washington: His Private Life.

1. I loved this book. I have always liked Washington, but after reading this biography, I can honestly say he is one of my favorite people. I can hardly wait to visit Mt. Vernon.



2. I purchased this book as a birthday gift for a friend who is a major George Washington fan, since I had previously read it and found it to be absolutely fascinating. Most books about him ignore the personal aspects of his life which are featured here and help understand him as a man rather than as a painting or a statue.



3. This is truly a geat book. The title tells so little about what is in store for the reader. These are the kind of stories that should be told to children so that they would REALLY get to know who this great man was. I am glad that I saw this author on C-Span 2.



4. I was anticipating this book as a great summary of the little-known George Washington. As an arm-chair Washington historian I try to read everything I can find to hopefully discover new information, but I've heard many of the things in this book. This book said it was going to discuss the personal and private Washington, yet it was disappointing in that it did not address both slavery and religion in depth; these were only mentioned. What I did discover is some information about the many neices and nephews Washington took care of, and I liked the way the author included many excerpts from letters. I felt like I got to know a little more about the Lafayette/Washington friendship too. Overall, this is a good review and would be a good introduction to the private man for new Washington admirers. ***/*****



5. Disappointing summary of already-known Washingtoniana. Nothing "unexpected" here at all. Not a full-fledged biography, so of little use to someone looking for an introduction or overview, and nothing to contribute for someone who is already fairly well-versed in GW's life and times.

5 comments about Edison Inventing the Century.

1. I cannot recommend this book. The writing style was so boring and dry that I could not finish the book. You would think that the life of someone like Thomas Edison would be a naturally exciting read but Neil Baldwin somehow found a way of making the story boring. In contrast, I found the biography about Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow to be first-rate writing - Chernow's writing style immerses the reader into Hamilton's life - anything written by Ron Chernow is highly recommended. Unfortunately, when it comes to writing style, Neil Baldwin is no Ron Chernow



2. Marge Simpson (tired of Homer's endless prattling about Edison): I bet Thomas Edison didn't talk about Thomas Edison all day.
   Homer: Oh, that's not true Marge. He was a shameless self-promoter!
   
   This is a mammoth book that seeks to provide the entire story of the world's most famous inventor. Baldwin takes us from Edison's birth to his deathbed, with equal parts of attention being paid to his personal life and his professional life.
   
   Some people might be disappointed by the fact that Baldwin doesn't fawn over Edison the man, but I appreciated the objectivity. While Edison's famous work ethic and engineering genius earned him the mythic status that he holds in the public imagination, his home life was troubled, unsurprising for anyone who is at the top of their field. Bringing some of the less savory aspects of Edison into the light de-mythologizes him somewhat, but this is done in the service of truth, and I generally find that this makes for a better biography.
   
   I notice that other reviewers have criticized Baldwin's lack of science credentials, but I didn't find that to be a problem, either. Edison wasn't a scientist himself, in the sense that a nuclear physicist or a chemist is a scientist. Edison was an inventor. He made things, and the basis of his creations was generally not an abstract scientific concept that would be difficult for laymen to grasp. That being said, I do wish that there were some diagrams and sketches, which would have given us a more clear picture of the nuts and bolts of Edison's work.
   
   I was actually surprised to see the simplicity of most of Edison's inventions. It seemed that his real genius lay more in tinkering with an existing idea until the dream of a working practical application became reality.
   
   Another big surprise to me was how much of Edison's role depended on his ability to market himself. He and the media collaborated to give him an extremely high profile. While I don't want to belittle his amazing acheivements, his profile is much higher than others who, it can be argued, made equal or even greater contributions to society.
   
   My biggest problem with this work was that it was kind of boring. Baldwin has found some fascinating anecdotes and facts about Edison, but they are mixed in with too many dull details. The writing itself is generally quite dry, with more of a textbook atmosphere than some other successful modern nonfiction works.
   
   Despite this, there are some fascinating and bizarre aspects of Edison that Baldwin gives their due. For example, in Edison's old age, when his hearing went, his wife used to keep him up to date on the dinner conversation by tapping morse code onto his thigh. He also lived on almost nothing but milk and the occasional bit of bread for the last two years of his life.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this book to the person who is serious about getting the real story of Thomas Edison. If you're looking for a more entertaining read, or one which treads lightly around his mythic status, go elsewhere.



3. In this biography of the great inventor, Neil Baldwin chooses to emphasize Edison the person rather than focusing on the inventions, as some earlier biographers had done. Perhaps for this reason, though the book is thorough, it reads somewhat shallow. Of all the inventions of Edison, Baldwin writes in detail only about 2 of them: the phonograph and motion pictures. He also spends a great deal of space covering Edison's work in the iron ore mine he owned in Ogdensburg, NJ, and his experiments with rubber, both of which produced negligible results. I found Matthew Josephson's 1959 biography on Edison to be much better.



4. If this is your first look into Thomas Edison, find a different book. It was a constant struggle to finish this one, I had to force myself to go on. A cure for insomnia



5. I stopped reading this book after about 150 pages, and resolved to find a better Edison biography. I had two problems with the book:

   1. The writing is a bit muddled. For example, we find Edison at age 23 running an "invention factory" with 50 or so employees housed in a four story building in Newark. There is almost no explaination of how he got the backing to set up such an enterprise.

   2. The author does not seem to have much understanding of the science behind Edison's work. He makes no attempt to explain how any of Edison's inventions operated - no diagrams or drawings, and he seems confused about the difference between electricty and magnetism.

   The author's background is in poetry. At the risk of sounding mean-spirited, I think that an Edison biography is not a good fit for him.

5 comments about Faith of Our Sons: A Father's Wartime Diary.

1. We have just had the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Yet except for a handful of protesters the war is off the radar screen for most Americans and that is a shame. To the thousands of loved ones and family members of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan what goes on there is on their minds 24/7.
   
   Frank Schaeffer tells it like it is, the gut wrenching anguish that families go through day in and day out praying that they will not receive that fearful knock on the door. He also shares the joy that comes when that family member is out of harm's way. Schaeffer shoots straight to the heart when he writes about those who so casually take for granted our way of life, libery and personal freedom, not willing to invest a damn thing to ensure that these precious gifts will be passed on to future generations.
   
   Wake up America!!!! Get off your backside and thank God for those like Frank Schaeffer's son who give up so much and who are truly giving their all so that you can sleep in on Sunday morning, secure and safe.
   
   I am taking my copy of this book to church to share with a family whose son is in Iraq and who has volunteered for a second tour. It is the least I can do. So America you don't have to agree that what our government has committed us to in Iraq is right. You should however pray everyday for those serving there and in other troubled places in the world for their safe return. You should not pass up any oppportunity to do something positive for those on the front line. The first being to read this book and open your eyes, your hearts and your minds.



2. Reading this book pulls you into the Schaeffer home, and makes you feel like part of the family. The emotional rollercoaster experienced by Frank and Genie Schaeffer is probably typical of what all military families go through as their loved ones take on the enemy for their country. It was fortunate for the Schaeffers that their son John came home unscathed. However, Frank Schaeffer does not limit this book to the narrow scope of his own family: The book has stories about other military personnel where the ending was the most feared scenario, and Frank Schaeffer is at his most sympathetic in his writing about this. He gives voice to the families of lost loved ones. The usual wisdom of Frank Schaeffer is to be found in this book.



3. An amazing book. A book every liberal should read. It will clearly test every liberals theology and create ground for their head to be turned back toward what is real and those principals that really make a country & individual. Lets save our country--start the draft!



4. My uncles have told me this is a good book, but i have not read it. I am reviewing it because my uncle told me it was good and true, since i have cousins who were marines, from 1985 to 1998. My uncle also served but not in the marines, and was surprised at this story of faith.



5. Frank Schaeffer is a fantastic author and an excellant speaker. I met Mr.Schaeffer at a convention in Indy and he's very passionate about our military! This books lets the reader feel what it's like to send a son off to war. It's a must-read for everyone today whether you have a family member serving our country or not. We all know someone serving.