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

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



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



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



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



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

5 comments about Mrs. Robert E. Lee: The Lady of Arlington.

1. In this outstanding biography, Mr. Perry introduces the reader to Mary Custis Lee, the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington and the wife of Robert E. Lee. She was a well-educated, strong, loving, caring woman, who, during the Civil War, lost her home, kept her family together, and supported her husband. Through his extensive research, Mr. Perry has been able to disprove many of the rumors and myths about Mrs. Lee. Once you start this book,you won't be able to put it down. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in the personal stories of this critical time in American history. Bob and Cherie Allen-Authors A "Guest" of the Confederacy The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Alonzo M. Keeler, Captain, Company B, Twenty-second Michigan Infantry



2. THE BOOK WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN.MADE ME THINK I WAS LIVING IN THE TIME. I COULD NOT LAY THE BOOK DOWN,I EVEN GOT ON THE ARLINGTON SITE AND LOOKED AT SOME GREAT PICTURES OF ARLINGTON AS I WAS READING THE BOOK AND THIS MADE THE BOOK ALL THE MORE INTERESTING. GREAT AUTHOR.



3. I read this book in three days as it was very well written, but did not, in my opinion give a very favorable view of Mary Lee. It portrayed her as self-centered, and like her father, more obsessed with the Washington connection than with the Lee connection. It pictures him as madly in love with her, I just cannot figure out why? I think it is very telling that none of their daughters chose to marry. Already a huge fan of his, the book only reinforced my good opinion of him.



4. This books give the reader a facinating insight into a woman who is too often over looked in history. It is the story of a woman, who's family members were on the front lines of America's early history, and who was a loving and supportive wife to the famous Robert E. Lee. History is full of stories of his life, especially during the Civil War, but the reader of this book will find that his wife was courageous in her own right, and worthy of historical note.
   After reading this wonderful book, I found two other books which were just and wonderful and insightful about the Lee Family. They were "Growing up in the 1850's", the jouranl of Agnes Lee, and "The Lee Girls".



5. I always find it interesting to read about famous people's lives, but especially about the people who have been behind the scenes so to speak and little is told about them. That is why I found this book so interesting. Robert E. Lee is well known as the civil war general who surrendered and the war ended, of course, but to read more about his wife and get an insight to his family life made it hard to put the book down. There are some basic history rehashed somewhat in this book, but over all I found the book very personable and engaging in letting me know something about this woman whom I had never really heard of before. It also will show readers that no matter how famous a person may be, all people have their troubles and sorrows- and a lot of how life turns out to affect you depends on your reaction to what has happened in one's life. If you enjoy anything about the Civil War, this book would be a definite must !

4 comments about Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings (Modern Library Classics).

1. Davis's humanity comes across in poignant, almost heartbreakingly vivid style, in particular when he is forwarding his love to his children in one of the many letters to his wife, Varina. Also so much more vivid than in any other "Civil War book" are the hundreds of travails and picayune distractions he endured as chief executive of the Confederacy, and his desperate attempts to hold back the invasion of his country from all points. I never before realized how really hopeless the Southern war of independence was, facing what they ultimately had to face. Reading these accounts, unless they have been severely skewed to whitewash Davis, I cannot believe charges that he mismanaged the war or his country.
   
   Davis's authority and resolve grow throughout the course of the book. And his often lengthy letters recreate in vivid detail the context in which he writes. He has a wonderful (for us) habit of recounting all that has occurred that prompted each letter or report or speech, and thus little editorial explanation is really required. Sometimes, however, his accounts of events are almost diffident and self-effacing, and lack true context, as for example in his official report of his tactical decisions at the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War. The context, of course, is that it was a splendid victory, and he returned home to Mississippi as a war hero and important national figure. During writings like these, I longed for a more intrusive role from the editor, but Davis's words are left to speak for themselves.
   
   One of Davis's most remarkable attributes is how strikingly different his written communiques are from his speeches. The first are straightforward, almost as functionary as that Mexican War report. His speeches, however, are powerful and full of ringing phrases and colorful metaphors and similes. It is true that Davis studied rhetoric and highly prized the flourishes and style of the classical orator, but we have here before us vivid proof of his extempore style in glorious bloom, filled with clarity and humor. His written prose often sits a bit sullenly on the page.
   
   This selection of writings also makes plain Davis's unapologetic views on slavery and blacks, along with his clear-eyed opinions of states' rights versus federalism, the U.S. Constitution, and the right of secession. Time and again he details ideas that seem shocking to us today: he justifies slavery because blacks can't take care of themselves, or because it exposes them to Christianity. He believed slavery also to be good for whites, because it "elevates" poor Southern whites to work above the menial, and to enjoy an equality with the wealthy. Some of these views seem laughable and antique (if not deplorable) to our 21st Century ears. Some of them even appear apologetic and self-serving. But Davis was no hypocrite; further, his writings (and the writings elsewhere of many others) point up how contemporary Northerners (excluding, officially, abolitionists) felt complete distain for blacks. He also notes the shocking scenes of extreme white poverty he saw in Northern cities, and the sweat-shop conditions of working whites in Northern factories, virtually slavery. Davis's point to Northern moralizing was simple: Put your own house in order before condemning and trammeling on the institutions of others.
   
   Most dramatically, Davis comes across not as a secessionist. His closest equivalent today would be the "strict constructionist" judges and politicians who believe the U.S. Constitution meant exactly what it said. And what it said was, slavery is legal, the states are voluntary members of a voluntary union, and people have a right to their property (even if that property is another human). Davis condemned Northern-sponsored restrictions on the rights of slave-owners to migrate with their slaves to the western territories. Others could bring their property with them to these new lands, presumably held in common by every American; why not slave holders? Davis saw Northern agitators, attacking legal institutions which Southerners had inherited, as the true instigators of disunion. Throughout the war, he insists again and again, the Yankees had usurped the true American nation, forcing out Southerners now intent on recreating the original vision of the Founding Fathers.
   
   Depending on your point of view, Davis either was out of step with the times, or a man refusing to yield on a point of principle. In reality, he straddled a critical transition between the old ways and the new. Like standing over an earthquake fissure, he had to jump one way or the other. He and his countrymen jumped firmly on the side of the old, and the South went down in flames. But Davis never went down. He was unreconstructed to the end, the original father and symbol of the Southern cause. Who knows ... he may have hated the role. But he played it out perfectly to the end.



2. Jefferson Davis remains a dark, remote Civil War figure, hardly as romantic as Lincoln or as inspiring as Lee.

   What William C. Davis has done is to make both the man and the forces that gave him fire and light more immediate and tangible.

   Weaving through the myriad controversies and struggles of the pre-Civil War, Civil War and post war years, the author somehow manages to explain endless geographical, political and societal issues without ever losing sight of Davis' central role in them.

   A dense but vastly entertaining book that even readers who are not interested in the Civil War would find fascinating.




3. Really enjoyed listening to this book, especially the themes in which Jeff Davis' strengths and flaws were carry on throughout his entire adult life. The last few tapes are outstanding on how the confederacy got reduced to a well guarded 3 mile wagon train.



4. William C. Davis has written THE biography of Jefferson Davis. The book not only reads as easily as a novel, it also has been meticulously researched. Keep your eye on this Davis. He is fast becoming one of America's best popular historian.

5 comments about Nothing to Do But Stay.

1. It often happens that our own stories are intimately entwined with someone else's story, and that to understand who we are, we have to tell another person's story first. This is true for Carrie Young, who has written a marvelous memoir of her mother.
   
   This warm, hopeful testament to a woman's courage tells the story of Carrine Gafkjen, who--all alone, and with the single-minded, strong-hearted independence that is often obscured in men's stories about women--homesteaded 160 acres of North Dakota prairie. That was in 1904, and Carrine Gafjken spent the next eight years working for money in the winter and returning to her homestead in the summer. By the time she was thirty, she owned 320 acres of productive land. In 1912 she married Sever Berg. They sold his homestead and took up residence on hers, and over the next decade she bore six healthy children, the last of whom has told us her story in a style that is as strong, clear, and direct as Carrine herself. This is story with no frills or fancy lace, a story of hard work and tough times, but through it all runs hope and love for the land and a firm belief that perseverance will win out in the end.
   
   To my mind, the best books are like this one, valuable in ways too many to count. I not only learned important things about life on the Dakota prairie, but I learned some very good ways to tell a story, to give voice to someone who can no longer speak for herself and who must live--if she continues to live--chiefly in the words of a writer and the heart of a reader. Carrie Young is a fine teacher for any aspiring writer, and her stories about her mother's life are instructive examples of story-telling at its best.
   
   by Susan Wittig Albert
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   www.storycirclebookreviews.org
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



2. There's no plot here and certainly no white knuckle drama. The book is a series of essays, each chapter relating an event or way of life experienced by the author as a child growing up on the North Dakota plains during tbe early 1900s. From education to farm life to holidays, each was covered with love and humor. I felt like I was getting to know my own grandmother as a child. My only wish was that there were more photographs, but considering the time period it was wonderful to have a few.



3. I stumbled on this book in a used book store. It is the amazing story of the author's parents and their life in rural North Dakota. The book has adventures, anecdotes, and gives the reader a real sense of how families existed in the early 20th century. This was a very entertaining story, although perhaps you can't tell from this review. None of us who have read it could put it down, from my 78 year old mom to my sister who is reading it to her 7 year old daughter.



4. I loved this book. Its a compendium of short pieces about the author's mother, who was a frontier woman with a wonderful outlook on life. I also loved the descriptions of her husband, who had to drive the children through snow, to get to their respective schools, and the descriptions about how the kids were settled in the schoolhouse overnight, while wild mustangs banged against the door. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I would send my children to a schoolhouse way far away, with food for a week. Can you imagine what they did after school let out... all by themselves? I wanted to hear more about this. The descriptions of quilting are wonderful.It is a great book if you are in the mood to feel cold, hungry, and in North Dakota with the snow beating down upon you. Also if you enjoy descriptions of sumptuous meals at holidays, replete with Norwegian recipes!



5. The author is the youngest of six children of hard-working Norwegian-speaking parents, and the account of the struggles her parents went thru is awesome. Sometimes I thought the author indulged in hyperbole, and I would have appreciated a little more exactitude, but it no doubt is true that life during the twenties and thirties in northwestern North Dakota was a hard and demanding one. The first part of this book is the best, as the author relates the fantastic efforts necessary for the kids to be educated. There is a lot of discussion of Norwegian food, and those of you who are of Norwegian descent will gobble that talk up, but for me I could not get too interested in how her mother went to extraordinary lengths to prepare, under primitive conditions, the food she was so good at concocting. There is less talk of the interesting political events during the time than I would have liked. Appam, North Dakota, which was apparently a home town to the family during these years, has, according to my 1958 atlas, a population of 18. I would like to have learned whether it was a bigger place when the author was a child. But the upbeat attitude to her childhood was a real plus for this book--not the dreary catalog of hardship one sometimes gets from depression sagas. I liked this book.

1 comments about With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

1. This is an excellent book on the history of women during the gold rush period in Northern California. The book is a series of short biographies about several women who were key to the formation of the west as we know it today. Their successes and failures, hope and despair are all well chronicled - but kept brief and easy to read. Woven into the stories are issues that women faced, like the right to vote and working to support their families. You get a good feel for day to day life during this period. This book is inspirational for anyone today who thinks that like is hard, and would provide excellent supplemental reading for high school and college history courses. It has been painstaking researched, with information on how to learn even more.

5 comments about An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America.

1. Excellent book for anyone that wants to know what really happened between George and his slaves.



2. I bought this book at a used book store for a great price of $4.98 (hardbound) otherwise I think I would have skipped it. When I checked out the clerk commented that he'd heard it was a great book, which certainly piqued my interest and raised it in my queue of books to read.
   
   
   The story is very well told, and I really tore through this book pretty quickly considering the type of book. I enjoy historical non-fiction quite a bit, but in general, I can't sit for hours reading them like I can other types of books. I tend to read these kinds of books 30-40 pages at a time and slowly digest them over a few weeks.
   
   I found the book and topic very interesting, it showed you another side of Washington that you wouldn't normally see. It's so easy to forget that like us, he was only human, and was far from perfect, even sometimes cruel to his slaves (he sent one away to the sugar plantations in the carribean knowing full well he was sending the man to his death).
   
   What I found most interesting was that Washington clearly analyzed his own life over time and recognized both his strengths and weaknesses and took action near the end of his life to do what he felt was the right path, even when that path was one no one else would take with him, even his wife. In many ways, reading this book, gave me more respect for him getting a glimpse into the man from a subjective viewpoint, not an idolized one.



3. A well written book, done in a casual style that really brings the issue and the man to life. Not a ringing endorsement of Martha!



4. This book details the change in G. Washington's attitude toward the institution of black slavery and his efforts to free the slaves under his control and the many reasons why he could not just free them all in his life time. (Many were not 100% his. But the property of his wife and her children (his adopted children and grandchildren). The author gives insight how slaves could earn money by which they could purchase their freedom. That slave owners used various tools to motivate their slaves , from the whip to rewards as incentives. This book also reveals the hard hearted attitude many slave holders developed even toward slaves who would today be recognized as half sisters having the same father but different mothers . An excellent book on the nature and early history of black slavery in the Colonies . Slavery as we understand it today as a birth to death existence only developed about the late 1730s - 1865 in the 13 colonies and later the U.S. Prior to this people of every race could be sold into indenturement which was a limited servitude of a set term usually 7-9 years after which they were free to pursue their own interests . The poor in England often would sell themselves into indenturement as a way to get to America . Another source of indentured servants was the English prisons. As these sources dried up land owners looked to African slavers to provide them with laborers. These too were originally treated in a similar way as the British laborers gaining their freedom after 7-9 years of labor.(This is the origin of many the early free American Negros by the time of the American Revolution.) As greed took over, owners of the indentured began took look for ways and reasons to keep their servants longer thus between 1720-1740 a view that blacks were not really fully human but more like animals was developed by those in power. This allowed a false morality to developed that said Negros and their offspring could be kept, bought and sold into slavery not indenturement Thus if only Negros could be kept in a lifetime of slavery Greed (follow the money) led to owners to define that to be negro only required that they be as little as 1/8 some as little as 1/16 negro to be bought and sold in slavery. .It is a great book in explaining slavery historically and how Washington opinions about slavery evolved over his life. Another good book on this early period that is out of print is "America at 1750: A Social Portrait" by Richard Hofstadter. But Can now be found Amazon new/used books.



5. This book is definitely "different". In it, the author examines how President George Washington went from a man steeped in the belief that slavery was acceptable to one who seemed to be deeply troubled by it. Unlike most history texts of the period, this one spends a lot of time constructing arguments and making educated guesses. Although at times the arguments seemed to be a little bit of a stretch, the author presents a lot of apparently fresh research and his ideas were definitely new and insightful. Bravo!
   
   It is fairly interesting how the author pours through seemingly uninteresting records of slave sales and otherwise uninteresting personal correspondences of Washington and his family in order to discover what Washington's true thoughts were and what he actually did when it concerned his slaves. Slavery was not a topic that Washington liked to talk about publicly, and he seemed to have thoughts both pro and con, so we're frequently left with no definite answer.
   
   Furthermore, he seemed to part company with his wife on this subject! Martha, it appears, had no problem with the continuation of slavery, while Washington clearly did. In his will, Washington freed most of his slaves. We also discover that Washington had thoughts about doing so during his presidency. That would have set quite a precedent. It never happened, but things would have been different if it did.
   
   In the first half, the author spends time explaining how slavery evolved in the United States. Slavery just didn't happen overnight. It evolved and changed over the years, finally becoming that brutal institution we all now recognize. These sections were quite interesting and well done, too.

5 comments about My Father, My President: A Personal Account of the Life of George H. W. Bush.

1. With the 2008 presidential elections coming up, I took it upon myself to learn about our future president ("Living History") and VP ("Dreams of my Father") and past ones. I just finished reading "My Father, My President". It's a candid "inside" look into the life of a former president. Talk about an absolutely wonderful book abt George HW Bush! "41" strikes me as a fun, loving, intelligent, family oriented stateman with emphasis on duty, honor, family and faith. In plain words, a good citizen worthy of admiration! (Need I mention I am a Democrat!)
   From his days as a WWII veteran to his brief work career at the UN, to his successful career as a director at the USLO, CIA, then later as a Chairman for the NRC then later as the head of state, it is extremely difficult not to fall in love with GHWB! His wit, charm and affection is just simply contagious... "41" is brilliant! I hope people will get a chance to read it and enjoy it as much as I did. God only knows how much we need more genuine heroes like him.



2. Learned many things about George H W Bush that I never knew. Very enjoyable book and easy to read.



3. This book provides more insight into the essential goodness of George H.W. Bush. Aside from the facts and figures of his early career, vice-presidency and Presidency, the book gives us a fascinating look at how someone so prominent can still adhere to the Golden Rule. I found the stories told by Secret Service agents and staff about his common courtesy, concern and humor to be the most interesting. He never felt he was better or more important than anyone else, although I think history will ultimately say otherwise.



4. What a wonderful tribute to her father! This is a great read and gives us an insight into what makes this man tick.



5. This was a very informative book. It is refreshing to hear good things about such public figures. Mr. Bush is thought of in endearing ways by many people and loved dearly by his family.

5 comments about Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life.

1. In 1988, 'Young Guns' was released in theatres and followed by it's sequel 'Young Guns 2: Blaze of Glory" in 1990. The popularity of these films gave birth to a re-newed interest in the story of Billy the Kid. Despite all the factual errors throughout the movies, they remained popular. Meanwhile, 1989 saw the made-for-tv movie "Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid" starring Val Kilmer as the Kid. This version was a bit more historical in its telling of the legend. Unfortunately, many people seem to think that the 'Young Guns' versions are the truth and will pass off their "expertise" to other people based on these, admittedly entertaining movies.
   
   In 1991, however, Robert Utley put forth the book "Billy the Kid: A short and violent life", in my opinion, to help disclaim all the accepted myths about the young Henry McCarty aka Henry/William Antrim aka William Bonney aka Billy the Kid. Utley is a well-researched southwest historian, focusing on the Lincoln County War and inevitably, Billy the Kid. This book is pretty simple in its layout, giving a nicely done and researched biography on the outlaw Kid. Utley gives straight facts, pieced together from old newspapers, books, and three other Billy-specialists that are generally regard as THE authorities on Billy the Kid. When finishing the book, you can't help but realize just how wrong many of the movies are, especially the two Young Guns movies. The story is a bit dry in places, but then, if not for the growing myths and greatly exaggerated stories of the Kid, he never would have been of any consequence in the history books. The Lincoln County War would have ended the same and about the only real influence the Kid had was to make Pat Garrett slightly better known.
   
   The most telling bit of this biography is dispelling the myth of the Kid's death toll. Popular myth says 21 people were killed by the Kid when in reality, he can only solely by attributed with four kills. He had a hand in 5 others but nowhere can it be proved that the Kid made the killing shot. And lastly was James Carlyle who was shot by his own posse after a random gunshot sounded out which may or maynot have come from Billy. Being generous, thats only 10 deaths that he MIGHT have had a hand in.
   
   Overall, this is a well done research biography by a respected western historian who bypasses the enflamed stories of the Kid and presents the truth as best he can. Excellent footnotes and references are included. Whether professional or just have a mild interest, this text should be in any western historian's library.



2. Mr. Utley is one of the leading Billy the Kid and Lincoln County War historians and authors. In this book, he tends to lean toward accepting ideas from some of the earlier authors without further research. This book has a lot of information on Billy, some factual and some very doubtful. It does give some idea of how Billy became a fearless outlaw and is well worth reading. The reader will come away with a little better understanding of Billy's predicament and the reasons why he probably turned outlaw..



3. An understanding of Billy the Kid's life is greatly enhanced with a study of the Lincoln County War, and Robert Utley's knowledge of the Lincoln Couty War is unsurpassed, (see his other book, "High Noon in Lincoln.") Utley's genius is his ability to bring these complicated historical moments to life, and weave the thread of a person's life through the moment. With this information you can better understand Billy the Kid's thought process, and the details of the jail breaks and shootings become more meaningful. Robert Utley is the most scholarly of all outlaw historians, and this book reveals his ability to bring his knowledge home to the rest of us.



4. You have to wonder sometimes why some people become legends. What was it about the Kid that attracted so much attention, especially at the time of his death? A very short time after he was shot to death by Pat Garrett, newspaper accounts flashed around the country about the demise of the great "desperado" and five dime-novel "biographies" appeared, getting most of the facts wrong but creating a "hero." Life is strange.
   
   The Kid was born Henry McCarty in NYC (!) in 1859. He began being called Billy after his mother married William Antrim in 1873 in Santa Fe. (At times he also assumed the name Bonney, but no one knows why.) He gained a reputation early for escaping arrest; one time he escaped custody within hours after being arrested for horse stealing, and another time he escaped out of jail by crawling up the chimney. He escaped again in 1877 (aged 18) after being jailed for killing an army blacksmith at Fort Grant. He was in Lincoln County, NM, at the outbreak of the so-called Lincoln County War. He was involved or at least present during many of the violent incidents that plagued Lincoln County in 1878, and was wounded twice.
   
   Deep in trouble by now and getting deeper, he was wanted for a number of crimes, some of which he did not commit. Governor Lew Wallace offered him immunity for testimony in one killing, but the Kid saw a double-cross and escaped. He added cattle rustling to his criminal activities, which brought the enmity of local ranchers down upon him. Pat Garrett was elected sheriff in Lincoln County with the special task of bringing the Kid in. He was captured in December 1880 and brought to trial in Mesilla in March 1881; he was charged with murder, found guilty, and sentenced to hang in May. While in jail in Lincoln he killed the two guards and escaped; for three months Garrett tracked him down, finding and shooting him in a ranch house at Fort Sumner, NM. The Kid was 21 years old. Then the legend exploded onto the scene.
   
   They say he shot a man at age 12 (false); that he killed lawyer Billy Chapman (innocent); that he led the Regulators during the Lincoln County War (false); that he was a deadly shot (probably good, but not extraordinary). It's true that he killed at least four men. He loved to laugh and was a big hit with the senoritas (despite his buck teeth). He spoke Spanish fluently. He was an excellent monte dealer. He was "slim, muscular, wiry, and erect, weighing 135 pounds and standing 5'7" tall; he had deep blue eyes and wavy brown hair. He fancied wearing a Mexican sombrero." Chances are good (I think) if it weren't for the dime-novelists he would forgotten today.
   
   But he's not forgotten and Utley's account of his life (and legend) is magnificent. Definitive is the word for it, replacing Maurice Fulton's HISTORY OF THE LINCOLN COUNTY WAR as the best work on the Kid. (It wasn't until the last few months of his life that he was known as Billy the Kid.) Utley's scholarship is renown in the Western field; his series of books on the military history of the West is likewise definitive. If you're interested in the Kid and want to learn all there is to know about him (fact and fiction), this is the book to get. Highly recommended.



5. I became curious about William Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid, when I first saw the movie Young Guns starring Emilio Estevez. I loved the movie but wanted to know how much of the story was Hollywood hype and how much of it was history.

   Accordingly I found Utley's book on Billy the Kid and found, to my satisfaction, that not only was much of the Young Guns story was accurate but that the life of Billy the Kid was as interesting and complex as any to be found in the annals of the Old West.

   The debate rages on as to whether young Billy was a poor, misunderstood folk hero or whether he was an ignorant, bloodthirsty miscreant who needs to be vilified and forgotten. Utley's well-researched and well-written book takes a multi-faceted approach to considering the complex history of young man who, despite is very short life and his even briefer career, continue to spark the imagination over a century after his death.

5 comments about The Man Who Warned America: The Life and Death of John O'Neill, the FBI's Embattled Counterterror Warrior.

1. The book is not news to anyone who reads any New York newspapers. It is a cut and paste job from ON's drinking buddy. Better reporting done by author Peter Lance. Of course, nothing written by me detracts from the dedication and true grit of John O'Neil.



2. John O'Neill was a problem. A bull in the china shop. He was a womanizer and he was an exceptionally poor fit at the FBI, but if we had listened to him 3000 people, including him, would not have died at the World Trade Center, the pentagon and on three airline carriers. There seems to be less and less room in America for the mavericks. This book is no white wash. It paints the man in full warts and all. But at the end of it we realize that it was this wildman who was right and all the politicians, hypocrites, sanctamonious twits and stuffed shirt beaureaucrats who drove him from the FBI,or didn't pay attention to him were wrong. The execrable Barbara Bodine who single handedly ruined his mission to Yemen comes in for special criticism. She probably still doesn't think she did anything wrong. We are becoming a silly nation. We've become obsessed with beauratic rules, political correctness on the left, phony piety on the right, and we can't get anything done anymore. Don't read this book merely as a tragedy but look it as a wake up call



3. John O'Neill grew up in Atlantic City, NJ watching the FBI on TV on Sunday nights. All he ever wanted to do was be an FBI agent and serve his country. The son of working class folks who ran a taxi cab business he dedicated himself to be the finest and fulfilled his childhood dreams. Jonh went to my high-school and lived 5 minutes from where I grew up, I never knew him but after reading this fine Murray Weiss biography I feel I know him as a brother. This book will infuriate you as John O'Neill tries to warn everyone in the government of an impending doom with Bin Laden, who he studied and profiled, much to his chagrin no one listened. How ironic that after so much frustration with the FBI bureacracy and a Clinton Administration consumed by the presidents personal travails that John O'Neill resigns to take over security operations at the World Trade Center one week before 9/11. He perished in the collapse of the towers after he was safely out. He ran back in to try to save people. This book will move you, John O'Neill's story will stay with you. Did he have his own style and personal troubles, sure, but his life is what you will remember, his dedication to his job and the fact that maybe if a few more higher ups had listened to him this tragedy could have been averted. With men like this, you'll believe our country is in good hands as far as the war with terrorism is concerned. It's upper management we should be worried about.



4. John O'Neill was the most dedicated member of the FBI who committed his life to fighting crime and, ultimately, terrorism. His efforts were discouraged by bureaucracy, ignorance, and the Clinton administration. Read firsthand in this book how he was so close to saving much anguish, sorrow and death in the United States but was stopped in his tracks by others too inept to acknowledge the vision he had for stopping the unfortunate acts of terrorism in New York and Yemen. The cruelest irony is that he died in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in charge of security after he retired from the FBI due to frustration.



5. This is an interesting book on an unusual subject. People like John O'Neill are not usually the subjects of biographies. He wasn't anywhere near prominent enough, and that usually means that someone like O'Neill winds up being a footnote in a book about someone else. Instead, O'Neill was the FBI agent in charge of International security in New York City, and spent much of the 90s as the guy in the FBI who was the most interested in and focused on capturing Osama bin Laden. Ironically, he retired in mid-2001, and took a job as head of security at the World Trade Center. He went back into the South Tower on 9/11 and was killed when it collapsed.
   
   O'Neill, according to the author, was a complex, driven man, a visionary who was one of the first US officials to decide that Osama bin Ladin was worth watching and perhaps capturing. While his FBI career was, in terms of his job performance, impeccable, he had two major weaknesses. First, he was occasionally forgetful, and violated various FBI rules and protocols. In the mid-90s, when Louis Freeh was running the FBI, any violations were punishable, and almost certainly would have a detrimental affect on a person's career. O'Neill was once caught letting a girlfriend onto an FBI secure facility, and giving her a ride in his car. On another occasion, he lost a briefcase full of classified material that shouldn't have been out of the office. Both of these incidents impacted his career and chances for promotion. Second, he had a penchant for chasing multiple women at the same time, concealing each liason from all of his other girlfriends. When he died, each of the women was surprised to find out that there were other women in his life.
   
   Much of the book is devoted to O'Neill's pursuit of bin Ladin, especially the investigation of the bombings at the African Embassies in 1998 and the Cole bombing in 2000. While O'Neill wasn't involved directly in the Embassy bombing investigations, he was in charge of the Cole bombing investigation. However, for whatever reason he ran afoul of the local US ambassador, a woman named Barbara Bodine, who started out asserting her control of the investigation and insisting that the Yemenis were offended by O'Neill, and that only she could smoothe things over. This was before O'Neill had met any of the Yemenis yet, but she insisted it was the case. By the time the investigation concluded, Bodine was so sure that withdrawing the FBI investigators was provocative that she ordered Marine guards to keep the FBI agents in the embassy, and had to be told by her superiors at the State Department to let the agents go. After she'd been transferred back to the States and 9/11 happened, the Yemenis became more helpful, and eventually began cooperating extensively with the US. Ambassador Bodine stuck to her guns, however, and even badmouthed O'Neill in an interview after his death.
   
   You have to wonder about this part of the book. Author Weiss was a friend of O'Neill's, and he clearly sides with him against Bodine. It's difficult to see how she could justify what she did (even if O'Neill was despicable, letting her opinion of him subvert this sort of FBI investigation is inexcusable). I expect that somehow she saw through his private life in some fashion. Weiss says that she had been introduced to O'Neill in New York before she became ambassador to Yemen. Perhaps she saw him at a restaurant with a woman other than the one who was escorting him the night they were introduced to each other.
   
   Regardless, this is an interesting book, even if the author, a journalist, occasionally makes a mistake around the periphery of his story. The one I noticed was the author saying that USS The Sullivans was named for some brothers killed on a "carrier" during World War II. The Sullivan brothers were killed on USS Juneau, an Atlanta-class Light Cruiser. Other reviewers have noted mistakes on the edges of the story, but they don't (in my mind, anyway) detract from the main message of his story.

5 comments about Sam Houston.

1. Sam Houston was larger than life! Prof. H.W. Brands has stated that you could never write a novel based on Sam Houston's life because nobody would believe it: He was right! What a great figure! Admirable with all his flaws, a true hero. Mr. Haley's book is written well, though not perfect, I recommend it to anyone looking for a great story and a great and well lived life.



2. James Haley's "Sam Houston" is a study into a man's soul. Using new resources he has humanized the man and the legend. Mr. Haley has done the best possible job of getting into the head of Sam Houston and explaining his life long habits without falling into the easy trap of revisionism. As a matter of fact in my mind he is a champion of the facts, using common sense logic when faced with the incompleteness of facts that is often found in history. He often has to navigate through the propaganda of the day and connect the dots with the straight edge of reality. This is well demonstrated by the facts presented about the biggest Sam Houston mystery of all, why his marriage with Miss Eliza Allen failed. You will have to read the book to find the answers.
   Easy to read for the casual reader, well noted for the serous researcher. James Haley's "Sam Houston" is a great read.



3. Sam Houston is a figure who aroused great passions beginning in his own day and continuing to the present. Jim Haley's well written biography, supported by fifteen years of research in original archives not available (or used) by past researchers, joins the ranks of major works on this interesting figure. The book should join the library of anyone interested in the Texas Revolution and its heroes. With impressive scholarship, the book is well written and enjoyable to read. A major achievement, worth the wait.



4. This is one of the most awesome books I have ever read! I didn't want to put it down! This is a wonderful biography for a history buff or just a person curious in learning about the life of one of this nation's greatest leaders! Great buy!



5. The question begs asking -- "Who is James L. Haley?" -- because this author has come forward without a lofty academic post and shown the cheek to produce what is probably the finest modern biography of Houston yet written.

   With several dozen good biographies of Houston already in print, James L. Haley went the extra mile and built a terrific book based mostly on primary sources, many if not most of them apparently first mined by him. He appears to do research the old-fashioned way -- in archives, accosting private collectors, and pursuing the odd distant family source as well. At a time when the lions of academia are being dragged through the mud of plagiarism and scandal, blithely recasting and repackaging the hard work of others, Haley's work-ethic -- which is purely Puritan -- is pure refreshment to find.

   His book has more heart and soul than either Marshall De Bruhl's or J. H. Williams's works. And just as importantly, Haley -- lack of academic-world gravitas notwithstanding -- writes with the strongest sense of voice. He gets carried away a bit when he's feeling his oats, but the result on balance is sterling biography. As the eminent Texas historian Elliott West says on the back cover, all future scholarship on Houston and Texas will have to reckon with this striking, substantial book.