5 comments about Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship.

1. There are so many books on this subject that it's easy to start a fight from any point of view. Fuller is writing from across the Atlantic, and I believe that has given him a perspective that makes for a clear study of the two men. Fuller makes good use of Freemantle's observations from the latter's time in the Confederacy, extending observations into well reasoned analysis. This one is worth reading.



2. Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, published in 1932, compares quite favorably in its detailed research and readability with works by modern writers and historians like Shelby Foote, James M. McPherson, Gary W. Gallagher, and Stephen W. Sears. This work by Major General J. F. C. Fuller is notable for directly challenging the conventional wisdom that Grant was little more than a "butcher" and that his eventual success was almost entirely due to the North's larger population and more abundant resources. In Fuller's view Grant was not only the greatest general of the Civil War, but ranks among the greatest strategists of any age. Fuller generated even more controversy with his contention that Robert E. Lee in several respects had major failings as a military leader.
   
   Controversial or not, Major General J. F. C. Fuller was no ordinary soldier writing about the Civil War. Fuller was a highly respected British military strategist and noted author. In the 1920s he collaborated with B. H. Liddell Hart in developing new ideas for the mechanization of armies. Ironically, their recommendations were more readily adopted in Germany than in Britain, France, or the U.S.
   
   Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, is a relatively short book, around 300 pages. Fuller writes with clarity and precision. He makes careful use of firsthand accounts; he paid particular attention to opinions of staff officers, as men in these roles were likely to have gained greater insight into the personalities of Grant and Lee. He also utilized the opinions of foreign witnesses of the war, like Colonel Fremantle, as a check on insiders' observations. His sources were identified through extensive end notes as he realized that his findings would be controversial. He includes statistics on battle losses to illustrate that the persistent belief that Grant's losses were abnormally high is simply a myth, and that Lee's percentage losses were actually higher.
   
   There are many exceptionally good books on the Civil War, but there are few that are as readable as Fuller's Grant and Lee, and offer such a fresh viewpoint (albeit, now nearly 75 years old, but one that remains stimulating and thought provoking). Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, is available in a reprint edition (1982) by Indiana University Press. Five stars.



3. Whatever your view of Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant, Fuller's book will challenge you to think long and hard about your beliefs concerning both generals.
   
   As a Southerner, I have to admit that Fuller makes a compelling case for Grant being the better general between the two. One instance is where he confronts the idea that Grant was a butcher because of the heavy casualties during the Wilderness-Spotsylvania Campaign. While Grant indeed suffered the heavier losses, the percentage of losses was acutally lower than Lee. In fact, this was a common occurence in many battles in which Grant commanded.
   
   The book's contents are as follows:
   
   1. The Two Causes - the two nations, presidents, armies and other North/South factors both generals had to operate within.
   2. The Personality of Grant - modesty, common sense, courage.
   3. The Personality of Lee - humility, tact, audacity.
   4. The Generalship of Grant and Lee, 1861-1862 - description of the battles fought by both generals during both years (Shiloh, Fort Donelson, Antietam, Fredericksburg, etc).
   5. The Generalship of Grant and Lee, 1863 - Vicksburg, Gettsyburg, Chattanooga, Chancellorsville.
   6. The Generalship of Grant and Lee, 1864-1864 - Spotsylvania, Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appamattox.
   7. The Two Generals - comparison and contrast between their two styles and personalities.
   
   One other interesting point mentioned by Fuller was perhaps making the Confederate capital in Atlanta instead of Richmond. I have often thought how such a move would have affected the fighting in Virginia, Georgia, and my home state of North Carolina. Something interesting to ponder!
   
   I highly recommend the book. Read and enjoy.



4. If you read the introduction to this book, you will understand that Fuller has set out to write a brief but direct book on the Generalship capabilities of Grant and Lee. In the introduction, Fuller notes that Henderson's classic book on Jackson is more a romantic study than one that is an objective view. He goes further to say that a full study of Jackson gives a different appreciation. A respect for his maneuvering and desire to fight but also his idiosyncrasies and secrecy that Fuller indicates would cause one to question Jackson's sanity. With that introduction, you are prepared for the author's blunt assessment of both Generals. The book is brief concentrating more on strategy than just battlefield tactics. He concentrates on the critical battles of the war and the general effect the war has as a whole not just the eastern theater. In Lee, he notes that he was not a grand strategist but one that fought with intuition. As a General, he excelled on fighting on the defensive as showed in the final campaign. However, Lee preferred fighting aggressively and his errors show at Gettysburg and Malvern Hill. In the case of Chancellorsville, Fuller notes that Lee should have used the wilderness more often as a greater asset for defensive maneuvers instead of coming out in the open into battle. That like a spider, he should have waited for opportunities to attack and withdrawal with the protection of cover. He further indicates that Lee had a poor operating staff and his administration impaired supply and clarity of orders as all were given verbally and minimally. Grant on the other hand was a former quartermaster, was well organized and had a global plan of the war hence his simultaneous operations with the western theater and his multiple prong attacks in the east. Fuller notes that at first his objective was to follow Lee and not concentrate on the Richmond. But later he changed to maneuver so that Lee had to react to him as opposed to the reverse. Grant was often accused of having little imagination but as Fuller notes, he did not have the imagination to inflate numbers that were against him (McClellan) but he was rational in knowing that the Confederates had limited manpower. Through his intuition, Lee had success against the earlier Union generals but as Fuller points out, he could not fathom Grant.
   
   The book is critical of both; however, as an overall commander, Grant comes across as much more able and Lee a totally different commander highly capable on the defensive but not as much a hands on commander as most would previously think. Both men are stripped bare; the author offers a unique unbiased view of the war without the human frailty of sentiment.



5. This is a small book, but don't judge it by its size. It is a great little book. Grant & Lee, with such different backgrounds, lead two great armies in the strangest of times. In the end, with no grudge, the two men get to know and respect each other. But the story of how these men fought & how they thought so similarly in the battlefield and how they were both so noble and courageous help show that two men that could not have been more dissimilar, ended up being so alike serving their causes. I highly recommend this book. Very entertaining, and very educational.

3 comments about Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West.

1. Noted author Robert DeArment serves up a second helping of Wild West gunmen in this 2007 book from the University of Oklahoma Press. As well researched as its predecessor, this volume brings to life long-forgotten gunslingers.
   
   In describing the twelve men chronicled in this book, the term 'gunfighters' in the sub-title is a bit misleading. Gunfighter brings to mind Billy the Kid/John Wesley Hardin/Wild Bill Hickok stereotypes.
   
   Zack Light and Joel Fowler, for example, were undoubtedly hard cases with short fuses. Others in the book don't really fit the 'gunfighter' stereotype; being simply typical westerners who had a skill with and no compunction in utilizing their guns or knives or fists when the need arose. Legendary pistoleer John Owens, for example, was a businessman/rancher turned lawman. Billionaire rancher Burk Burnett was a leading Fort Worth citizen forced to use his six-shooter on several occasions. Several gunfighters like Jesse Rascoe flitted back and forth between being wanted gunmen and peace officers! In many cases, alcohol placed a major role in turning decent men into heartless murderers.
   
   DeArment did a marvelous job researching these men. His bibliography is over 20 pages long with 40+ pages of notes! Generally the narrative moves along in a fairly lively fashion.
   
   Wild West enthusiasts should enjoy this book. It introduces them to individuals that perhaps typify the West better than Hickok, Masterson and the more celebrated gunmen. Recommended.



2. This is a well researched book written by, who I consider, the best historian of the old West gunfighters, lawmen and bad men, having written books about Bat Masterson and Frank Canton, to name a couple. This is the author's second book on this topic of finding and researching lesser known gunfighters and I must say that, in my opinion, the first book is better. This may be because of the characters - these are not as interesting. I guess I would like to have some characters similar to the Hollywood version, but these don't fit that bill. Mostly, they come across as drunks who become dangeous when they have too much to drink. There are some notable exceptions, e.g. John Owens and Burk Burnett, but in the most place, these are not individuals who a person would be proud to be involved with. But, the book is well researched, as his others are, covering all the sources on a story. At more than one point, it comes across as being laborious, however. For example, he describes the vigilante hanging of one Joel Fowler over ten pages covering it through at least 8 different sources. Consequently, if you are not a person interested in Old West history, you may be bored with this book. Even if you are, you will find it to be tough reading at times. In spite of this, I give it a good rating because there are good stories in this book, including the gunfight between Les Dow and Zack Light. These little gems sprinkled throughout the book make it worth the read for the reader interested in the Old West.



3. This is really an interesting book...first, the "gunfighters" depicted really broaden the use of that term. When we think of "gunfighers" we think of those men about whom book after book has been written. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, etc. However, if you define "gunfighter" as anybody who picks up a gun and uses it for right or wrong, well...you get a wider cross-section of humanity. This is shown in this book. Educated people, half-wits, serial killers, wannabes, etc. They are all here, and they are all "gunfighters". Just that point alone can really shake up one's definition of "gunfighter". The second thing is that the level of violence implied by the presence of these half-documented gunmen is rather high. We have been told again and again in recent years that the old west wasn't all THAT violent...but now, we get a glimpse into a world that might have been a lot more violent than we have been led to believe. For those two facts alone, this book is a real contribution. Also, it answers my questions about some of the more marginally-documented people that flit around the stories of their more famous colleagues. It is a good read, too!

2 comments about Sex Lives of the Presidents: An Irreverent Expose of the Chief Executive from George Washington to the Present Day.

1. In case anyone would say "Why are you reviewing this trash?" the answer is that this reviewer is a fan of all United States Presidents. Plenty of eliminations take place before someone becomes President of the United States. Even the worst had some good qualities. Now for the book. It's been out for a few years and it was read entirely back then. The newspapers and history books had already told us plenty about Bill Clinton, John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson and Grover Cleveland. In this book nobody escapes scrutiny. Since all Presidents were married men with the exception of James Buchanan, how well they kept marriage vows is the subject of this book. James Buchanan was appartenly heartbroken over a relationship with a woman early in life and never managed to marry. Truman and some other Presidents come across well in the marriage virtue department. Is the book recommended for the average person to read? No. But it is difficult for fans of Presidents not to read it if they know about it. Presidents, regardless of difficult private lives, showed great leadership and courage when called for.



2. I thought this might be a tabliod type expose, but to my delight, it really is a thorough, factual work. Each and every president is covered and the historic research is evident. Many sections are dry and boring only because those presidents weren't particularly sex driven men. But the notable exceptions like Lyndon "Bull Nuts" Johnson, Jack Kennedy and others make this an eye opening and shocking account of what our presidents really are doing behind closed doors. After reading this book, you want to give this country back to King George! 5 stars to Nigel for his tireless research and fact finding.

2 comments about Growing Up With My Grandfather: Memories of Harry S. Truman.

1. I thought how interesting it would be to have a grandparent who became the President of this country. Mr. Daniel did not have much to say about that aspect of his life. President Truman died when Daniel was 15.
   
   What Mr. Daniel wrote about was a son who had famous parents and turned to alcohol and drugs to deal with his inferiority complex.



2. Very interesting book about what it was like to grow up with a historical figure in the family. The author talks about how having a famous grandfather influenced his life. The author also talks about his experiences in and around Washington and his perspective on them from "the inside".

5 comments about Sharing Good Times.

1. Having the highest regard and respect for former President Jimmy Carter (in fact, world leaders should emulate his wisdom, style and ideals), I say the following very delicately.
   
   Admirable in that former President Carter communicates to the world his inner and private feelings from childhood thru adulthood. The meaning of sharing with family, friends, total strangers, foreign dignitaries, etc. is the purpose of a contented existence. At first this did not come easy to President Carter, but as the years came and went it surfaced, and he was at peace with himself.
   
   So-so in that the benefits of an ex-president result in many advantages to visit places where the common person could not afford to go or even have permission to enter. While reading about the Carters gallivanting all over the world, I understand how some folks (myself included) may develop a streak of resentment by not being able to vacation on all the continents, time and time again. One must take into account though that President Carter would combine work with pleasure (the presidency, Carter Center). So, why not take side trips while in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.?
   
   Overall, a warm and compassionate read on morals, values and hope.



2. From our greatest living statesman come more pearls of wisdom.
   A kind and thoughtful man, husband and father, Jimmy Carter shares insightful stories of his life with friends and family. Learn how love and trust can carry us through the tuff times and reward us in the golden years.



3. This book is not a biography per se rather a collection of the most pivotal moments in Jimmy Carter's life containing little "work" and much "play". In this collection of short stories we see Jimmy Carter the son, father, grandfather, climber, painter, and outdoorsman. The conspicuous lack of politics, apart from a brief couple of pages, establishes just how human Jimmy Carter really is. His greatest joys are his children and charitable works not the galas he has attended or the dignitaries he has met, making this a refreshing memoir.



4. This man is a dying breed. You really just wont find too many more Americans with value as true and with priorities leaning toward all of the right places. I just took away so much from this humble little book. I did not expect it. It did not floor me by any means but just spoke gentlty of one mans life as he shares it with the people around him.
   
   At one point as he is campaining or going on a business trip or whatever he says to Rosalynn "Rosalynn I am going out of town, please pack my suitcase and I need pressed shirts blah blah blah. And she says right out of nowhere "pack it yourself". So he says that he was fuming really bad while he was packing his bag but from that day forward it was no longer his show only. They became partners in all of the decision making and even let the children in on it. You really dont see many people possessing such good manners/leadership/practicality/humilty and just real common sense intellegence in life today. And you certainly wont find anyone like that running for president. Please I hope I am proved wrong someday soon.



5. Where do I begin? This is such a dreadful book, full of Jimmy's flawed recollections, rewriting of history, and outright lies. He brags about his close relationship with dictators, like the murderous Kim Il Sung, with whom he conducated negotiations on his own, while President Clinton was trying to run a foreign policy.
   
   Not being content with destroying the reputation of the US during his brief term, Jimmy then dogged Bill Clinton for eight years, travelling around the world courting the Nobel Prize comittee while certifying corrupt elections and similarly making Clinton's job in the international sphere that much more difficult. You won't find any admission of that here. (Nor will you find mention of the cryptically racist campaign he used to win one-term govenorship)
   
   More recently, he's been on the move certifying electrons in dictatorships, in one case- Ethiopea- certifying the election as fair, and leaving the country before the votes were even counted!
   
   Great men rarely write autobiographies; they leave that to historians. Books like these are written by petty men who have little to say aside from their own self-aggrandizement, and are looking to pre-empt historians looking for truth.
   
   For a better, more accurate picture of Jimmy Carter, I'd suggest "The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators, and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry", by Steven F. Hayward.

5 comments about Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations.

1. This was a very enjoyable book on a fascinating and under explored subject. At least it was fascinating once it got past what I felt to be a fairly slow start. For a while I was wondering if I had made a poor selection as the book seemed to focus little on Paine and more generally on the times and the other characters of the day. I was suspecting the author might have been padding due to some lack of research material.
   
   In good time my fears were allayed and the book began to carry forth under its own steam and from then on out as the pace was set the story became captivating and enriching to read.
   
   Thomas Paine of course plays at minimum a cameo role in any history of the nation's founding or in any biography of its founders. I love to read of the lives of our founding fathers and have read multiple biographies on most of them. I am ashamed to say that I waited this long to read a book fully dedicated to this most indispensable of founders.
   
   The author succeeds in portraying Thomas Paine in all of his human character - enlightened, passionate, abrasive, loyal and vain. I didn't get the sense, as often happens, that the subject was placed upon a pedestal by his historian without blemish, rather by simply cataloguing the life of this amazing and faulty character the reader has but little choice to hoist him upon that pedestal under the test of virtue.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who, like me realizes there is a hole in the story where Thomas Paine is concerned, and seeks to fill said hole with knowledge of his life.



2. "Thomas Paine" by Craig Nelson is a thoughtful yet entertaining biography of the Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine. Positioning Paine within the intellectual vanguard of the Age of Enlightenment, Mr. Nelson demonstrates the crucial role that Paine played in inspiring the colonists' radical struggle for independence. This carefully researched and accessible work succeeds in reintroducing readers to a remarkable man who dedicated his life to human progress through politics.
   
   Mr. Nelson bookends the narrative with the strange tale of Paine's bones which were first recovered by William Cobbett and then sold and resold many times over. This particular narrative serves as a metaphor underscoring the changing opinions that posterity has attributed to Paine; indeed, we learn that Cobbett was virulently opposed to Paine's democratic principles during Paine's lifetime only to later became an ardent admirer after Paine's death. No doubt Cobbett was not unusual for his varying reactions to a message that helped set in motion a series of profound socio-political changes throughout the transatlantic world.
   
   Mr. Nelson's solid scholarship and vivid prose helps us imagine Paine passionately debating the great issues of the day with his fellow revolutionaries. Paine appears as one of the boldest and most visionary of his peers, publicly calling for an end to slavery, supporting women's rights and envisioning a welfare state at a time when most others were silent on these issues. Of course, it was Paine's remarkable talent in transcribing Enlightenment ideals into fiery populist rhetoric that made him indispensible, helping to win broad support for a cause that faced significant challenges and memorably rallying the soldiers at a particularly dark moment in the war.
   
   But Mr. Nelson takes Paine's story well beyond this familiar terrain to England and France, where Paine continued to risk all for the principles he held dear. Mr. Nelson makes clear that Paine was immersed in the kind of political turmoil and intrigue that makes today's world seem rather tame by comparison, including a narrow escape from England after authoring the seditious 'Age of Reason' and a remarkable stint in the French legislature where his principled stand for human dignity and democracy ended with a brutal imprisonment. Through it all, Paine became the 18th Century's most widely read author, pointing the way forward for the great mass of people through the Age of Revolution into today's democratic world that, in many ways, has yet to fulfill Paine's utopian vision.
   
   Tragically, Paine's unyielding defense of reason earned the enmity of small-minded religious demagogues who propagandized against the defenseless Paine in posterity. Fortunately, Mr. Nelson's book joins several other more recent works that correct this unjust historic distortion, helping to restore Paine to his proper place among the Founding Fathers as one of their most uncompromising and important leaders.



3. Nelson does a thorough job in exploring Mr. Paine's life. Of interesting note is that the pace of the book seems to mimic the waxing and waning of Mr. Paine's alleged mental illness and bouts with alcohol....as do Mr. Paine's writings. No doubt Thomas Paine's inability to sustain consistent relationships had something to do with his personality and mental illness. One of the few criticisms of the book I have is Nelson's jumping back and forth in the time period without putting in the occasional date as a point of reference. I also wished he had explored the contentious relationsip between Gouverneur Morris and Paine a little more thoroughly. Overall the book is a good read. Not only does it give the reader a better view of this important figure in American History it also provides a glimpse into the difficult lives of people during that period in regards to living wages, debt, and travel.



4. Why is it that biographers cannot simply stick to the facts and dispense with attempting to tie all historical "heros" to their own modern political beliefs. This is a classic example of that exercise.
   
   Most of this book is a fairly interesting and well written biography of Tom Paine. However, you will need to ignore the occasional short comments foreshadowing the completely nonsensical concluding chapter making Paine out the first coming of the modern day liberal. I strongly recommend skipping the last chapter where the author concludes that Paine shared the author's dizzy loony left-wing opinions.
   
   Anyone with even a slight grasp of historical reality would recognize the idiocy of the contention that good ole Tom Paine was a politically correct left wing simpleton leading the way to the current day empty-headed liberalism of Rosie O'Donnell, author Craig Nelson and other left wing pinheads.
   
   The Keane biography is more comprehensive, not as well written, but you don't have to suffer through a series of conclusions about how "modern day" liberal - as opposed to "classical" liberal (boy is there a difference) Paine actually was. Paine would be disgusted at what passes for liberalism in this day and age. And quite frankly equally disgusted with modern conservatism for that matter.
   
   Nelson's is only the latest in the twisted search to prove that Paine was a basically a modern day liberal. Not surprisingly Eric Foner's abominable biography of Paine is even worse.
   
   Skip this idiotic exercise in historical fantasy. I was fooled into buying this nonsense from a positive review in a libertarian publication. I suspect or at least hope that the reviewer did not read the last chapter in this travesty when he (or she, I forget which) recommended it.



5. This brillant biography of one of our country's mostly forgotten Founding Fathers is an absolute must for anyone who wants to understand where America came from (and how it has gone astray).
   
   Better than than McCollough's bio of John Adam's, this book really gives the reader the experience of the dichotomy that existed at this country's founding (and where the Federalists drove us off the path of real individual freedom.)

5 comments about Washington.

1. Every year there are biographies published on the life and career of George Washington. Years pass but still no one has matched Douglas Southall Freeman for a biography on the Father of our nation. Freeman was the dean of Southern historians winning many awards (including the Pulitzer Prize) for his unsurpassed life of RE Lee in 4 volumes; Lee's Lieutenants in 3 volumes and 7 volumes on the life of Washington (he died before he completed this overwhelming project!)
   Richard Harwell abridges the work as he has also done on Freeman's volumes on Lee. Overall he has done an excellent job.
   I do wish the book had included more maps to follow the battle action.
   Many of the sections of the book will seem dry. Freeman's work
   is basically a military history as he rarely comments on the social scene in colonial and early America.
   While not williing to spend time with Freeman through his seven volumes on Washington I found this one volume work to be
   essential in my understanding of Washington.
   Washington was a man who loved duty, honor and country. He was
   honest and ambitious. Frugal Washington never gave up on American independence. He was kind and though somewhat aloof could also be there for his friends and nation when in need.
   No wonder he and Lincoln are always at the top of presidential polls.
   In this sober work of scholarship you will meet a great man and enjoy the words of a great scholar. Recommended.



2. His decades of efforts for the multi-volume biography is a gift to all fans of American History. Even though it drags in a few spots, this edited version is one of the best one volume biographies of the "Father of Our Country"



3. His decades of efforts for the multivolume biography on Washington is a gift to all fans of American history. While this summary drags in a few places, it is the best one volume biography of the "Father or Our Country" available. Particularly pleasing is the concise chronological arrangement of the materials.



4. Harwell does a good job of pulling together and redacting DS Freeman's epic VII Volume (actually VI - he died before publishing the 7th) account of George Washington's life. I often find myself wishing he would annotate, at least on a chapter basis, which volumes of the larger work he is pulling his info from.

   A basic understanding of the extreme hardships early Americans (Colonists) went through can be gathered through this book, and this understanding should be required basic knowledge in all schools. The birth of this nation, was founded on some of the most remarkable physically, financially, emotionally and seemingly impossible acheivements by a few who had the courage to see the delivery through. Freeman captured these trials and victories in marvelous detail.




5. Multiple reviewers of other Washington biographies recommended this abridgement over the book they were reviewing. I am a reader, as claimed above, but I have NOT read ANY Washington biography. I still thought the above information might be helpful to other seekers.

5 comments about Autobiography of Malcolm X (4 Cassettes).

1. Even though i didnt enjoy being referred to as a white blue eyed devil every other paragraph. This book made me think and challenged me to treat my fellow man better. After reading about malcolms childhood and how he grew up i can now understand his bitterness and why he fought so hard for equality. I now see why time magazine voted it one of the best books of the century.



2. The incredible journey of Malcom X is documented artfully in this classic genre-bending autobiography by Malcom X and Alex Haley. Anyone reading it, must marvel at the transformation of this human being, at the will, vision, discipline and bravery that is as rare and fleeting as Haley's Comet. Like King, Malcom X became way too powerful a figure for this country and its times and so he was murdered, assasinated.
   
   The United States recruited among the black community for years, hiring snitchers, killers, theives among the desperate underclass. MX was not murdered by the Nation of Islam...alone.
   
   The story of the liberation of black people in this country is an incredible one, multifaceted, multi-driven, complex. No foreign country came to rescue us--we were either going to press our case or continue to live as wretched animals.



3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is, amongst many considered to be one of the defining autobiographical masterpieces in recent literary history. The story of Malcolm X is a very dramatic and awe inspiring one, from being a drug pushing pimp to being one of the biggest and most well known religious civil rights leaders of the 20th Century.
   
   Alex Haley a well known writer with his best known work being the novel Roots which became a very popular TV mini-series. Haley became the writer of the Autobiography of Malcolm X simply as a job and he started off with Malcolm as just a guy who was writing his life story, but through the time he spent with Malcolm he became on of Malcolms closest and most trusted friends.
   
   Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha Nebraska to Earl and Louise Helen. His father Earl was a preacher who was killed by Klansmen while Malcolm was very young, which destroyed his mothers mental stability leaving him and his brothers and sisters to fend for themselves. Malcolm grew up to become a very successful pimp and drug pusher which he was forced into to survive. Malcolm was eventually arrested along with his friend shorty and charged for multiple burglaries and sent to prison.
   During his time in prison he discovers the gift of knowledge and through letters from his brother he learns about the Nation of Islam which was created by the Prophet Elijah Muhammad as a way to seperate the black man from the shackles of the white man and have them rise above the discrimination.
   
   That's all of the story I think I really have to give you to give you an idea of how special this book really is. The story of Malcolm X gave me my interest in the religion of Islam and how it can change a person's life for the better. This story made my life a better one simply through the idea that no matter how bad your situation, you can pull yourself up to be the best that you can be.
   
   Buy this book, I promise you wont be the least bit disappointed.



4. Without question The Autobiography of Malcom X as told to Alex Haley is an amazing educational experience and one of the best books I have ever read. I quickly became engrossed in this life story of such a strong, intelligent, and influential man--truly a person to be admired and celebrated for his ability to rise above his "past life", as well as his commitment to a better future for the people of our country. How lucky we are to have the opportunity to meet Malcom on a very personal level through his own words and to reassess our perceptions of him and his work.



5. Not only one of the best autobiographies I have ever read, but one of the best books also. Malcolm X had a phenomenal life story to tell and we are lucky that he got it down before he died.

5 comments about The Art of Scandal: The Life and Times of Isabella Stewart Gardner.

1. Unlike most of the reviewers here, I did enjoy Shand Tucci's biography. He has a genuine interest in getting to the "touchy" parts of biography which I find rewarding to have read. The older biographies are very dated hagiographies and really don't prompt an interest in anything but the conventional. This book has interesting things to say about James, Sargent, Bourget, Wharton, Berenson, and others. The style is a little like the gossipy, chatty, whispering voice of a turn of the century Bostonian so it fits well with the idea in the title. This book is certain to lead the future books that come out about Gardner and hopefully people won't continue regarding her as the Byzantine goddess of the Sargent portrait, but a woman of flesh and blood with strengths and weaknesses.



2. When one has chance to visit Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a unique cultural institution that should not be missed. One of the nation's most eclectic and idiosyncratic private museums, it represents the personal vision of its namesake, Isabella Steward Gardner, a woman with the means and confidence to assemble an art collection of enormous breadth and exquisite quality. At the same time, her wealth and influence gave her the ability to live life on her terms, despite the steady drumbeat of ugly gossip.
   Although I have a beautifully detailed volume on Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) and her museum Fenway Court, in my library, it was an "authorized" book, and as such that was left out of the story. However, it is a "warts and all" book that Douglas Shand-Tucci has written despite being in sympathy with his fascinating subject. Gardner married into wealth and she used her husband's cash to collect art - and people. Despite her marriage into the Gardner family, who were influential Boston Brahmins, she carried on scandalous affairs and surrounded herself with gay artists and aesthetes. Many of these relationships were ambiguous at the time for homosexuality had to remain far beneath the surface in the 19th century. John Singer Sargent painted Mrs. Gardner and their relationship was used as the model for Eleanor Palfrey's novel "The Lady and the Painter."
   The expatraite art historian Bernard Berenson advised her on her purchases, which included Vermeer's gem-like "The Concert" and Titan's great "Rape of Europa." She collected some of Sergeant's major works including the massive "El Jaleo" and he painted a famous portrait of her, as did Whistler and the Swedish artist Anders Zorn. She seemed to collect almost everything including Asian art, which she successfully mixed with the European paintings when she built Fenway Court, her Venician palace close by Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which was constructed at the turn-of-the-century.
   Shand-Tucci's book is carefully researched and despite the fact that Gardner burned her letters, he seems to have sorted out the tangled web of relationships between the patroness and her friends, lovers and in turn, their relations with each other. This is no small accomplishment, as Garnder knew almost everyone who was anyone in America and Europe. In addition to close relationships with Sargent and Berenson, she knew George Santayana, Richard Wagner, Edith Wharton, Charles Elliot Norton, Henri Matisse, Henry Adams, Henry James and William James.
   "The Art of Scandal" recreates as era of elegance, taste and affluence, of the long, languid decades before the hell of "The Great War" when the leading families of Europe and America began to intermix, and the treasures of Europe made their ways to our homes and museums.



3. when i set out to write a research paper about Isabella Stewart Gardner, i decided to read her biographies. i opted to read them in chronological order, starting with Morris Carter's published in 1925. i was having a ball learning about such an interesting woman, until i got to the Shand-Tucci biography. this book confused me so much, not only because of it's writing style, but also because of it's content. Mr. Shand-Tucci presents information completely opposite to the info in Morris Carter and Louise Hall Tharp's biographies. these differences were so extreme that i ended up writing my research paper about them. no joke. three thousand words later, and i still feel i could write more on the faults of this book.

   Just a side note, i talked to a friend who works at the Gardner Museum, and they stopped selling this biography in the museum shop because its allegations against Mrs. Gardner are so farfetched. if you want to read a good biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, i highly recommend "Mrs. Jack" by Louise Hall Tharp.




4. I am an avid reader and I find the subject of Bella Gardner fascinating, and I was incredibly excited to find yet another book about her amazing life! Yet, little did I know that it would take me almost three weeks to slog through this terribly written piece! With little organization and darting from one thought to another, it is barely held together. But, dear reader, the worst is yet to come. Let me give you an example of just one of the "typical" sentences that make up the writing found within, and remember this is just one sentence: "Perhaps her most vivid counsel ever as muse and mentor, into which central venue of Isabella Gardner's life first James and then Crawford and now Sargent have conducted us, that advice reflects the fact that just as it has been argued of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's friendship with Arthur Hallam that although their relationship lasted a mere four years, those "four years probably [were] the equal in psychic importance to the other seventy-nine of Tennyson's life," so with act one of Gardner's and Crawford's affair, which lasted barely two years."
   Now I realize how incredibly terrifying this is, and believe me, I have left punctuation, wording and phrasing exactly as they are found in the book. This is but one of three hundred pages of such dismal phrasing. Get the point...



5. Just returned from a trip to Boston...during a dinner party in Cambridge, the following was overheard:

   Harvard professor: "...my wife was reading a book about I.S. Gardner, but said it was so bad, she couldn't go on..."

   It sounded familiar, and then I recalled this awful book. Sure enough, it was the same.

5 comments about Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and the Wild West Show.

1. This book is a bore with minimal facts and an author with a wild imagination. Tries to tie many outside events whether real or imaginary to the theme and because of this he has been able to add 200 maybe 300 plus pages of fantasy.
   
   Don't waste your time like I did and try to find something a lot better.
   
   Sorry, I don't like to belittle authors but this was one of the worse books I have read in many years.



2. Great book from a great professor. Reading this was like sitting in Dr. Warren's class again. He can totally make history come alive and this book is no exception.



3. I was quite pleased witht the speed of delivery on this book and it's excellent condtion. It was all I could have hoped for. 5 Stars!
   
   Don Gilmore



4. William Cody was the most famous American of his times, renowned as a Pony Express rider, soldier, buffalo hunter and overall hero - but his creation of the Wild West show, a traveling company of cowboys and Indians which toured North American and Europe for over thirty years, solidified his importance and his name. BUFFALO BILL'S AMERICA: WILLIAM CODY AND THE WILD WEST SHOW provides the most detailed critical biography of Cody to appear in over forty years, considering his showmanship, his achievements, and the controversies which swirled around his life, both during time and into modern times. Chapters use source material references and quotes but maintain a lively style which lends to appeal by leisure audiences as well as students of American history.



5. The Historians of today, especially those who have a different perspective of America instead of the "Good versus Evil" themes that folks like I grew up with like to shatter legends and myths.
   
   Not that a bit of reality is wrong. For example it is good to know what a virulent racist Nathan Bedford Forrest was, or how wrong it was to label the entire Abraham Lincoln Battalion as a bunch of "Commie Rats" (although with the release of much of the Moscow archives, it can be verified that up to almost 90% of them were either Communist Party or Young Communist League members - not the 40-60% as stated in past histories).
   
   It is however suspect when a Davey Crockett, long believed to have died swinging "Old Betsy" at the advancing Mexican soldiers at the Alamo, died, shot down as a captured prisoner, by Santa Anna's orders; or that the gallant Custer was a reckless fool.
   
   Which leads me to Dr. Warren's interesting biography of Buffalo Bill. Having got it as a holiday present I was at first enthralled by the depth and detail of this work which covered practically every aspect of this simple yet complex American hero.
   
   Then Dr. Warren had to spoil it all.
   
   First, he cast doubts on whether or not William Cody ever rode with the Pony Express. He cites available records, but admits Cody did ride for the Express parent company - Russell, Majors and Waddell.
   
   Secondly, he then claims Cody rode with Jennison's Jayhawkers instead of working as a Scout for the Union Army. In other words, Cody was involved in some of the ugliest savagery on the frontier as Unionists retaliated for the depravations of Quantrill, the James-Younger boys, Bloody Bill Anderson, and other Confederates. Yet, if that was the case, and with rosters of the 7th Kansas being available, why haven't Civil War historians made light of this in the past? Warren seems to imply that Cody was one of the 7th Kansas boys who faced down Bedford Forrest at Tupelo and Brice's Crossroads, but where is the evidence? (note: I do stand corrected as I have found another source on Cody's experiences in the 7th, and indeed they did fight Forrest in Tennessee and Mississippi, but were recalled to Missouri in time to help stop Sterling Price in the fall of 1864, a campaign where Cody and Bill Hickok fought practically side by side)
   
   Third, Warren also seems to claim that there was an almost unfriendly rivalry between George Custer and William Cody, and that outside of the celebrated Buffalo hunt with the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, the two men rarely met or studiously avoided each other. Why? Because Libbie Custer only named Wild Bill Hickok as a Custer intimate, not Buffalo Bill. Furthermore, Warren also describes the Custer marriage as being as troubled as that of the Codys. He has even suggested that Libbie Custer had an affair with another (unnamed) cavalry officer - that's news to me as I'm sure it is to others who have read extensively of the Custers and their marriage. Custer jealous of Bill Cody? Hmmm. And why would Bill Cody present Custer as an all-hero in his future shows if he didn't feel a regard for the late soldier's heroism on the American Frontier?
   
   He then describes Cody as being benevolent and more open-minded towards Native Americans, yet almost a cruel overseer to those Indians who rode and worked with the Wild West Shows - try suggesting that to Sitting Bull. Oops, you can't because he's long dead. But then again, so is Buffalo Bill Cody.
   
   What is even more troublesome is Warren's wanting to put a societal spin to the life and times of Buffalo Bill. He pictures America of the late 19th Century as being a nation split between the "haves and have-nots" with another Civil War looming in the distance. He brings up the Haymarket Square Riots, and calls Albert Parsons, the former Confederate Soldier turned Radical leader the William Cody of the Confederacy, yet offers no evidence to prove this. For me, that was a major disappointment, because I would have liked to have seen where a young Confederate hero, having risked his life for the reactionary South, could change so drastically to push for the violent overthrow of bourgeois America. He also brings in the Johnson County War as if to suggest that Cody could easily play both sides down the middle - lionized by the proletariat Cowboy and loved by the intolerant landowners.
   
   In the end, with little or no commentary about those final, almost destitute years of Cody's life - including that poignant final year when after riding in a Wild West Show he had virtually no say in, with his kidneys shutting down, and being in constant pain, helped by his "son" Johnny Baker, Cody went home to die. Warren surprisingly makes little comment about this sad history, which is even more surprising when one sees how much he placed detail on irrelevances or suggested things that never have been proven before.
   
   Maybe it is because I like my biographies to be straightforward -and my Western History to be not simplistic but not mired down in complex issues either that this once promising work turned me off towards the end. That, and another unfortunate debunking of another real American hero. After all, Mr. Cody isn't around to say whether or not he exaggerated his life and\or career, or to refute or not some of Dr. Warren's more damaging charges.