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Class of 1957 Book Review Site. ©2007. To add a Book Review, or to comment on a book already in this listing, send your material or review to Sam Coulbourn at Persnav@shore.net. Photo at top of each page shows ENS Arleigh Burke beneath 14-inch gun aboard Battleship USS Arizona, 1923. Revised 27 March 2008. |
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AMERICAN HISTORY Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
By Hampton Sides, 2006, 460 pp. Doubleday.
Truly an epic, this narrative history covers the American West from the 1840’s to the 1860’s. Kit Carson’s remarkable career weaves through this period, beginning with his running away as a young apprentice to a Missouri harness maker to join a merchant caravan headed for Santa Fe. He learned to find his way and those of the expeditions entrusted to his guiding and to communicate both in Spanish and dozens of Indian dialects, yet never learned to read or write. Not much to look at with a bantam physique and stringy hair, he was a man of action and much loved by the educated Army officers who were fortunate enough to have his services. One was John C. Frémont, whose various expeditions were largely motivated by political ambitions back East, including his powerful father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton. His third venture left St. Louis in 1845 ostensibly to survey the Southern Rockies but took him to California, probably under secret instructions to explore opportunities to annex that land, then weakly tied to Mexico City. Pushed out of California by the Mexican authorities, he headed north for the Klamath area of Oregon to renew his role as explorer. That changed in the spring of 1846 with a “Message to Frémont,” which should rank with the “Message to Garcia.” Back in Washington in October of the previous year, President Polk and Navy Secretary Bancroft [as in USNA’s Bancroft Hall] gave secret orders for delivery to Frémont to Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie of the United States Marine Corps. Gillespie took passage on a steamship from New York to Vera Cruz, then traveled in disguise to Mexico City and on to Mazatlán by December. There he boarded an American whaler bound for the Sandwich (later named Hawaiian) Islands. An American warship then took him to Monterey, where he slipped ashore, disguised as a merchant. Making his way north, he found Frémont and Carson in April, beginning a campaign there. Meanwhile, war had commenced and General Kearney was leading an “Army of the West” from Missouri along the Santa Fe Trail, heading for California. He had the good luck to run into the ubiquitous Kit Carson eleven days out of Santa Fe. This was hard luck for Carson, who had ridden more than 800 miles from Los Angeles, wearing out 34 mules, and who had hoped to go on to Washington to deliver Frémont’s dispatches. Kearney pulled rank and Carson, who was one of the most patriotic men ever to serve this country, headed west again, leaving his Taos wife to wait even longer for his return. The Californians had kicked the Americans out of coastal California and now controlled every port except San Diego, news that must have distressed Kearney and Carson, now down to a hundred men, after they struggled across the desert and forded the Colorado River. An English rancher took a message from Kearney through Mexican lines to the American Naval commander in San Diego and three days later, 25 miles east of San Diego, a dust cloud revealed the approach of 39 Marines under the command of the intrepid Archibald Gillespie. This force proved to be barely enough to survive the subsequent battle of San Pasquale, during which charging Californian cavalry wielding lances wounded some Americans including both Kearney and Gillespie. Reinforcements were badly needed and a barefoot Carson made it though enemy lines for help. Ultimately, as readers well know, economic and population forces from the East won the West, with tragic consequences for the Indians. The misery of the relocation of the Navajos is described, although not at length, and an epilogue shows them heading back to a new reservation within their traditional homeland. This began shortly after Carson died. General Sherman, fresh from victories in the East, arrived to effect the Navajo resettlement. He noted that Carson’s passing marked the end of an era, “now as antiquated as Jason of the Golden Fleece, Ulysses of Troy, Daniel Boone of Kentucky, all belonging to a dead past.”
Reviewed by Tony Crowell, February, 2007.
AMERICAN HISTORY The Federalist Papers
By Alexander Hamilton, John Jay; and James Madison, 1788.
A “must read” for everyone concerned with the foundation of our constitutional Republic. The Federalist Papers, written to assuage citizen concerns about the power of a federal government, contains a wealth of insight. Consider this sample of excerpts: “... and of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.” Hamilton, Federalist 1 “... That body (the Congress of 1774) recommended certain measures ... yet it is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures.” Jay, Federalist 2 “To presume a want of motives for such contests (between individual States) as an argument against their existence would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive and rapacious.” Hamilton, Federalist 6 “I have unfolded to you a complication of dangers ... should you permit that sacred knot which binds the people of America together to be severed or dissolved by ambition or by avarice, by jealousy or by misrepresentation.” Hamilton, Federalist 15 “The supposition of universal venality in human nature is little less an error in political reasoning than the supposition of universal rectitude.” Hamilton, Federalist 76 and “... the errors and usurpations of the Supreme Court of the United States will be uncontrollable and remediless.” Hamilton, Federalist 78.
Review by Paul Roush.
AMERICAN HISTORY A Time for Freedom: What Happened When in America
By Lynne Cheney, 2005.
This is a book for your grandchildren. It’s a good summary history of events in the history of the United States. Easy reading and well organized. Mrs. Cheney takes young readers through a fascinating, illustrated timeline of key events in our history -- along with historic quotations by great Americans and little-known facts about our country. A series of vignettes about what happened year by year during the evolution of our great country.
AMERICAN HISTORY The Cold War- A New History
By John Lewis Gaddis, 2005.
A terrific read about what happened during our adult years at the highest levels of government in the US, USSR and other countries. Gaddis, a Professor of History at Yale has inside information from politburo records and former top level officials never written about in the past. As a historian Gaddis' perspective is very impressive.
AMERICAN HISTORY Freedom from Fear
By David Kennedy, 1999.
This is an excellent book on the American people in depression and war. It covers the depression, the key people and the Second World War. The coverage of the Second World War provides an excellent review of our famous naval officers and the key battles especially in the Pacific.
AMERICAN HISTORY Legacy of Ashes- The History of the CIA
AMERICAN HISTORY Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush
By Fred Barnes, 2006.
A good overview of G.W. Bush's political philosophy and accomplishments. Barnes has an insider’s perspective on the President's modus operandi and takes a long term view of how Bush will be judged by historians. Also includes eye opening data of the advances made by the Republican Party under Bush.
AMERICAN HISTORY Team of Rivals; The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
By Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2005. New York: Simon & Schuster. 916 pp.
Ms. Goodwin rolls out a grand picture of Lincoln, teaming him from the start of the book with his rivals for the presidency: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. You see all the sniping, backbiting, behind-the-scenes gossip and malicious rumor, the newspapers trying to rip Lincoln’s skin off, as Lincoln works his way through some of the most trying days of our Republic. Lincoln finds himself forced to be the chief strategist in the war to suppress the southern rebellion because he has a general, McClellan, who dawdles and delays and dreams up thousands of excuses not to take the war to the enemy. At the same time, McClellan and his powerful friends in business and government make it hot for Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation may seem like such a logical instrument to us in 2007, but this book describes the tortured path Lincoln had to take to produce this document, without losing border states, or stirring up adverse reaction from many in the Union. You get to see the skill and decisiveness of Lincoln as he balances between the radicals of his Republican party and the conservatives of the Democrat party. I am continually impressed with the comparison with the problems President Bush has today in his war on Islamic fascism, as he weaves his way between the ultra-conservatives and religious right on one side, and the ultra-liberals and moderates of both parties. Goodwin paints in the background against which Lincoln operated with consummate style. Her picture of Mary Todd Lincoln is generous and warm, as she shows her quietly tending to the wounded soldiers in the hospitals in Washington, avoiding the limelight. She describes Washington society of the time, including the parties and levees that ran nearly the whole time during the war, the enemies of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and the stories they told, the artful chicanery of Kate Chase, the queenly daughter and hostess for Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury. Goodwin’s book is a masterpiece in teaching leadership: Lincoln’s skill is a lesson for the ages.
Review by Sam Coulbourn, February, 2007.
WAR HISTORY
WAR HISTORY Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945
By Max Hastings, 2004, Knopf, 640 pp.
Max Hastings examines the issue of the final year of World War II in Europe with a level of detail and precision that ensures that Armageddon will remain an essential reading for the study of WWII and of war itself. Though at times the immense amount of information becomes all but overwhelming, Hastings allows the reader to begin to understand the inner workings of the chaotic battlefield. Many historians choose to rely only on the fighting man to paint their picture of war, where others will examine only the strategic decisions made in the upper echelons of political and military command. Yet, by limiting the scope of the text to the events of 1944 and 1945, Hastings is able to present both sides of command. Hastings seamlessly melds his narrative of the commander with that of the commanded, and in doing so, reveals a comprehensive picture of the battlefield that has rarely been seen since Thucydides. Hidden within Hastings’ exposé on the military operations are many subtler, yet no less important truths concerning the cultures of the armies and nations that took part in the war for Germany. He methodically shows how each army possessed a certain strain of tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses that were traceable to the culture of the society from which they came. Such distinctions included the American phobia of the apparent “pointless” loss of life, which was clearly not shared by either the German or the Russian armies. The Americans were unwilling to “waste” men on such tactics as diversion maneuvers or difficult frontal infantry assaults but relied heavily on artillery and air support. This preference had drastic implications, both in decreased military efficiency and in requiring the army to furnish 650 tons of supplies per day for each division, which was more than three times the German allotment. However, Hastings’ genius is in that he shows how this tendency in military tactics stemmed from a cultural truth; that the American was a civilian soldier while the German was a professional. This truth also connects to another cultural distinction concerning how the armies viewed their enemy. A characteristically Russian soldier is quoted as saying, “A soldier who hates his enemy is a good soldier.” While his American counterpart, speaking of his German nemesis, decries “Hate them? No, no, we respected them.” The Russian, and in many respects the German, was bred from a young age to love the battlefield and to dismiss any emotions of mercy or pity for their enemy. In stark contrast, the democracies of the West taught that violence was a social vice and a sign of moral weakness. Beginning from such a framework, it is not surprising that the armies conducted themselves differently on the battlefield. Another remarkable aspect of Hastings’ text is his examination of the sharp end of combat. With a surprisingly personal approach, he examined the difficulties of small unit command on the battlefield. “Suddenly, all hell is let loose. You look up, and your platoon sergeant’s guts are hanging on a tree beside you. The platoon is starting to run—it is then, gentlemen, that you must grip those men.” This motivational instruction from a British general belied the reality that officers were required to force their men forward to their deaths, while avoiding it themselves; “Why didn’t I go first?. . . I just felt it was better to lose a man than a leader.” The vast majority of the men on the front knew that they were mere mass to allow the few skilled and courageous men of the unit to carry the fight to the enemy. “In other words, while the contribution of forty men [of 200] might be decisive in winning a battle, the other 160 served an essential, if unwelcome, purpose. They were, quite literally, ‘cannon fodder.’” Such realities were difficult for the civilian armies of the west to accept, yet they succeeded with remarkable efficiency. In presenting these realities, Hastings’ text raises the scholarship of the war to a level rarely achieved before him.
Reviewed February, 2007 by Midshipman Charles Meyer, Student in the Class of Professor Wick Murray, Chair in Naval Heritage sponsored by the Class of 1957.
WAR HISTORY Bob Dole- One Soldier's Story: A Memoir
By Bob Dole, 2005.
An interesting tale about the heroism of Dole in WWII. He is in the same recovery hospital with Sen. Daniel Inouye who asked Dole what he plans to do with his life after the war disability. Dole tells him that he plans to study Law and get into politics. Inouye attributes Dole with his own career plans. I never knew what a great athlete Dole was in high school— Phog Allen recruited him for basketball.
Review by George Bouvet
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