ERA Reviews

This extraordinary book makes startling, illuminating, and elegant connections between what seem to be unrelated events and objects, and thereby shifts how we can understand changes in media from the mid nineteenth century into the present. It is beautifully written, and witty and erudite besides.

Gitelman has a great ability to synthesize without reducing complexity. Instead she encompasses disregarded aspects of a situation to open up unexpected connections. I loved the way connections she makes open up whole different ways of seeing things. So her examination of shorthand as a precursor to the phonograph allows us to understand the phonograph as Edison did, as a machine for writing and reading. Then she goes on to convincingly links this shorthand/phonograph discussion to larger and still current issues of standardization, both of technical devices and operating systems, and of spelling.

Other connections go further. The final section of the book, "Coda: The (Hyper)textualization of Everyday Life," for example, critiques the dominant accounts of hypertext and reading and writing associated with computing for ignoring a "prehistory of computing" beyond calculating devices. She suggests including the elaborate search and retrieval architecture of the New York Public Library or the "integrated structure and semiotics of Grand Central Station...with its routes and signals for trains, its routes and signals for passengers, and the tiny spiral staircase that connects an information booth on one level (suburban transit) with an information booth on the other (interurban)." Gitelman thinks both largely and in meticulously informed detail about important issues that are embedded in our everyday lives, the media we use, and in history. This book is an eyeopener and a lively read.

This book chronicles not only texts of key speeches showing the evolution of Lincoln's view of slavery, but also insightful letters revealing some private thoughts of this shrewd railroad lawyer whose ambition propelled him to heights that made him the best President our Republic has ever seen. The 1838 Lyceum speech of Lincoln's youth gives stunning insight into that ambition. This book supports the notion that Lincoln was also the greatest writer to ever occupy the White House, revealing an impressive variety of literary styles, from meticulous legal argumentation to a dry, concise wit. In light of Lincoln's literary legacy, it is no wonder that each President since Woodrow Wilson has deemed the aid of professional speechwriters vital to their strategies. And even with the professional help the modern chief executives have gotten, Lincoln's rhetoric remains the most sublime of all our Presidents.

This is book a must for anyone who wants to understand what happened in Vietnam. The author, a Pentagon staffer in the early 1980's, based his work on interviews of U.S. Army Vietnam vets at all ranks; because so many of them would only speak off record, he decided to make all of his sources anonymous.

Beginning with the assertion that every country which finds itself in the aftermath of defeat must absorb the lessons inherent in its failure, "Cincinnatus" looks at the military errors, both tactical and strategic. There is no discussion of errors by the politicians - save for the assertion that the top brass should have spoken up when ordered to do foolish things, and in failing to do so let down their country. Likewise, there is no discussion of the effect of the anti-war movement on the conflict's outcome. No, "Cincinnatus" asserts that Vietnam was lost ON THE BATTLEFIELD, and rejects the "stabbed in the back" argument with vehemence, arguing that it serves no good purpose, and indeed might well harm the nation in the years to come.

So this book speaks in considerable detail of how the military blundered. From "ticket-punching" careerism and the devaluation of medals into "gongs", to ignorance of the culture, language, and history of Vietnam, to an excessive reliance on firepower combined with an inability to fight at effectively at night or join battle with the enemy at times and places of OUR choosing, "Cincinnatus" is scathing in his criticism of our military performance.

It's a powerful indictment of the U.S. military; but what makes this book even more incredible is how "Cincinnatus" speaks of what must be done to correct the problems. It's clear that he wrote this book, not out of bitterness, but in hopes that it would be read and changes made. His book ends sounding a warning, calling upon the military to repair the damage, in hopes of avoiding another defeat.

SOMEONE heard him: the book was published shortly after the invasion of Granada, and within the next 6-7 years sweeping changes were made, with the result that, when war came again in 1990 (in the Gulf), almost NONE of the mistakes cited by "Cincinnatus" were committed, and a stunning victory was won as a consequence.

And that, to me, is the REAL value of this book. It not only explains the tragedy of Vietnam, but the heady victory that American arms won just 15 years later on the sands of Southern Iraq and Kuwait.

Any serious military historan will want to have this book in her/his collection.

Sherman's March to the Sea is well-known, however his subsequent campaign up through the Carolinas is not. Sherman is widely considered to be the inventor of manuever warfare, and as such this is required reading. It is little known that this campaign continued for 9 days after Appomattox!

READ THIS BOOK YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

Michael T. Isenber, an Annapolis history professor, has written a thoroughly enjoyable history of the United States Navy from the close of World War II through the end of the Cuban Missle Crisis in Shield of the Republic. This is not a PR volume for the Navy but rather a history that views the nation's sea service from all angles, exposing the problems of maintaining a Navy in light of the massive post-war draw down, the internal and inter-service rivalries that threatened to destroy the early Department of Defense in the late 1940's, the internal competition between the air, surface, and submarine services, and the scramble to meet the mobalization crisis that came with the invasion of South Korea. It continues with the struggle (and mastery) of the new technologies that challenged the Navy: nuclear power and the role of nuclear delivery by ballistic submarine, the explosive growth of electronics, and the growth of the super carrier. It details the Navy as a "people organization" employing large numbers of young men, the requirement for men to handle the increasing sophisticated weapon systems and electronics, the growth in the number of "flags" (admirals) and the integration of all races in the 1950's. It closes with a view of the Cold War Navy that sustained the blockade of Cuba during the crisis of 1962, a Navy that spanned the globe from the Western Pacific to the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. Shield's 900 pages (including bibliography and notes) is easy to read and almost novel-like in its treatment of the many people and the experiences that were the US Navy in the post-World War II period. It offers many lessons that are applicable to the services of today: Meeting expanding requirements during a (short) period of peace and the attending draw-down, the requirement to fight come-as-you-are wars (police actions), the need to incorporate explosively growing technology into an every aging fleet, and the need to recruit, train, and retain skilled personnel in competition with an attractive commercial job market. Shield is the Samuel E. Morison of the post war period in scope and thoroughness, but is easier to read than an operational history. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in American history, Military history, or the military in general.

On retirement from a former career, Terence Grocott decided to do something about a lifelong ambition and began researching those ships lost during those Napoleonic and Revolutionary times. What followed was 7 years of painstaking work during which he read every single copy of The Times, the Sherbourne and Yeovil Mercury and the Plymouth and Dock Telegraph published between 1793-1815. He also read all the Annual Registers for those same years. This, in itself, was no mean feat and the result is well worth the enormous effort. I congratulate him for a job well done.

"Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras" is a hardback book measuring 9½in x 6½in and contains 441 pages of vital information (including a ten-page index with which I had no problems!) - all from a new perspective. The appetite is immediately whetted on page 1 where the author reveals the huge scale of British ship losses at this time in our history. Beginning with a chilling quote from a contemporary British historian of 1812 - who stated; "perhaps not less than five thousand natives of these islands yearly perish at sea", Grocott goes on to show the true scale of ships lost during the years under examination. Whilst, then concentrating on just 1,500 of these (both naval and mercantile), the author demonstrates how they were but a small proportion of overall losses.

The figures speak for themselves; During the years 1793-1799 alone, 2,385 British ships were lost at sea with a further 652 driven ashore and only 70 re-floated. At this same time an incredible 4,344 were captured by the enemy with only 705 being recaptured. Thus 3,639 ships were lost to the enemy and 2,967 met a watery grave of some form or other.

Having set the overall scene - right at the beginning!, the book then concentrates on 1,500 incidents - involving both naval and merchant vessels. These are listed in chronological form with each account based on contemporary reports. The book gives details of the shipwreck, location and the number of people lost or saved. In addition to major disasters, day-to-day accidents to small harbour boats are also included. This is a book which also provides a very realistic insight into the life of the ordinary seaman of the day and of the perils he faced.

Altogether, this is a work that belongs on any serious researcher's bookshelf. Who knows what snippet of information will get you reaching for this excellent product.

NM

This book was published in 1971 as a fond look back on 20 years of articles in Metronome magazine. The author, George Simon, was a reviewer of bands and his articles are full of humour and a feeling for the sights and sounds of that time. There are band reviews, singer reviews, articles about the (then) future, some great pictures or the bands and a diary (written in a pseudonym in the magazine).

That alone is worth the price, but you also get an added bonus. George wrote to many of the musicians for responses to the articles (in 1970, so in some cases it's over 30 years since the article was written). There are many fascinating responses and extra notes from George himself as to what the article meant, what happened to the musician, who married whom, or when George got it wrong.

Nearly 500 pages oozing with the Swing Era. Find it and enjoy.

A few years ago, a brilliant and talented student found a gap in the recent art history of New Mexico. She went out and conducted the research, raised the money, wrote the PhD thesis, and then was curator for an exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe that identified and saluted the artists whose names had been lost in the dusty archives of our Great Depression and the resulting New Deal. The exhibit changed the lives of the artists still living and assured artistic credit for those who are no longer with us. How many of the thousands of PhD theses produced since Dr. Nunn wrote hers have had any impact, let alone a major impact on the lives of people? This beautiful book is climax to Dr. Nunn's efforts.

Most people will never have the opportunity to be charmed and enlightened by a Dr. Nunn lecture. This book is a wonderful introduction to what a committed individual can do to make modern art history come alive. It is also a very useful introduction to the art of New Mexico created by the true artists of New Mexico, not the visitors (temporary or permanent) from other parts of the country. The Hispana and Hispano artists of the New Deal look straight at us from the pages of this book not for our approval but with pride in the art that they have created. Fortunately for us, Dr. Nunn, the Museum, and the University of Mexico Press have taken the time to reproduce this art to let us share in their joy of creation.

This book taught me so much about the dreaded and lionized radicals of the '60's. It is interesting to note how many of them were economically priviledged. The celebrated protests at Columbia University are an interesting example; Bernadine Dohrn was one such person, who married Billy Ayers, from an enormously wealthy family. Having pursued elite educations in which they would be cordoned off from other people in poorer communities, the students seem to have become self-conscious, and threw their support to the impoverished adjacent areas, especially Harlem. Obviously, many of these priviledged white people are considered silly by Black radicals now, and one suspects this was often the case back then, too. However, they have always been able to talk otherwise, and it is only now that gen-xers and such are able to question the legacy of priviledge and violence of the sixties. White people are much less likely to try to borrow the sufferings of Blacks, and no longer jabber about integration. The sixties radicals were pretty silly in a lot of ways, but they were a start, and this book by Chepesiuk is entertaining if sentimental. And how could someone be sentimental about such political issues of continuing importance? Who knows; but I'm proud to be a seventies-born radical feminist, who respects African-Americans but does not appropriate their struggle. We will never pretend to take the sixties headliners as seriously again.

I grew up white in the Jim Crow South. I did not understand the violence against blacks and whites alike. My kin and their friends spent more energy and money trying to keep the blacks under, quite often depriving themselves and familes of education, recreation, jobs, etc. I also did not appreciate the manner in which the law intimidated (although I saw it regularly) primarily blacks and sometimes whites. My education was the usual truncated, incomplete set of lies about how my world had come to pass (and the Civil War was still very relevant as was white power indoctrination). Race was a primary consideration in everything, always first having fear of blacks.

Ms. Hadden has laid out how 250-300 years of fear of their own slaves conditioned many generations of whites of all classess to use violence routinely and casually, against blacks and then one another. The beneficent slave owner was a total lie. The story of arms in America and our high murder rates cannot be fully told without reference to the slave patrols and their successors, and into this century where we have a mindless lack of control over a population which has more than one gun for each person. The colossal, monumental political and social, not to mention moral, cowardice and religious collaboration of the South, and the North with an evil system is largely beyond comprehension without works like this one. What do whites today owe blacks? A total respite from their now inbread fears stemming from 300 years of violent, socially approved and state-enforced discriminatory practices, some still blatantly even today. And what are we to make of rates of incarcertationl, particularly black, today, if not an extension of bias and violence from another age.

Until America comes to terms with the lies called history which have concealed just how vicious their ancestors were and the horrors they perpetrated, we do not deserve racial peace. Again, I remember the stark, raging hatred of blacks on the part of people I was supposed to hold in high regard -- family and friends. And, always, the fear, always self-manufactured. And then, after centuries of these expectations, whites just cannot understand why some blacks would respond in self destructive manners, thereby fulfilling the false prophecies. And why blacks do not trust whites or police - 300 years of terror.

Ms. Hadden, thank you for helping to drive back darkness and let the light into a festering and immoral situation.