ERA Reviews

This book consists of short, personal recollections describing the daily life and tribulations of real, mainly rural people who lived through the depression years of the 1930s.

It's an unpolished, un-literary collection of voices, with some voices being more credible than others. Some of the stories aren't meant to be taken seriously.

If you're interested in the history of the rural midwest, you will find this book extremely interesting. It offers a lot of insight into what people really owned, and what they did from day to day.

In Disowning Slavery, Joanne Pope Melish strongly refutes the myth of a free New England, untainted by slavery and racial disharmony. While slavery did not exist in either quantity or duration on a scale comparable to the South, Melish conclusively shows that it existed in the northern states well into the 19th century, and argues that it was an important component of New England's economic success. Like feminist historians who have argued that women's domestic labor was crucial if men were to be able to engage in economic activity outside the home, Melish shows that as domestic servants and agricultural laborers, slaves performed the drudgework that Yankee entrepreneurs would otherwise have been employed in. Because such urban entrepreneur slaveowners were a small (though influential) percentage of the population, slavery was allowed to gradually die out in New England, most often through judicial interpretation. Gradual emancipation meant that there were few great political battles over ending slavery in the North, allowing New Englanders to erase their memories of its very existence.

However, because slavery was allowed to die without the benefit of public debate and legislative control, freedmen's legal and social status was never clearly defined, nor was the means by which former slaves were to be integrated into free society. Whites were able to congratulate themselves on their moral superiority as free societies without having to concern themselves with the welfare of now-emancipated slaves. In turning their backs on the problems of freedmen trying to adjust to their new status, they prevented blacks from becoming full members of their communities. They saw proof of blacks' inability to provide for themselves as an insurmountable racial characteristic even as whites refused to provide economic or legal opportunities that would have allowed former slaves to improve their condition. Over time such self-reinforcing racial attitudes grew into a fully developed philosophy of racism, embellished by exaggerated depictions of black caricatures in the popular culture of the North.

Indeed, Melish cites a vast array of cultural documents (popular literature, newspaper editorials, plays, and pop art) to demonstrate New Englanders' racist attitudes. Her narrative also amply demonstrates how the process of gradual emancipation allowed the North to forget that slavery had ever been part of their society, leading to their smug moral superiority. However, neither her evidence nor her reasoning adequately explains why it was necessary for Northerners to adopt racist attitudes. It does not seem that the limited number of freed blacks in the North were a significant economic or social threat to whites; there seem to be no concrete reasons for the development of racist attitudes, especially considering how committed many northern whites were to ending slavery in the South for moral reasons. Melish seems satisfied to accept that people have a natural need to define themselves by creating an "other" as a point of (negative) comparison; her work would be greatly enhanced by exploring the reasons that this might be so.

This is a very comprehensive study of Anglo-Cherokee relations from the late 17th cent'y to the end of the American Revolution. The most valuable aspect is how Hatley draws or teases the Cherokee perspective out of the available source material. In this, Dividing Paths is a model for seeing BOTH sides of conflict in colonial America, not just the English settlers' side. Although the initial chapter or two seem to be a little too heavily laden with academic jargon, the author hits his stride soon thereafter in what is a very readable book. My biggest criticism is that he fails to take in to account North Carolina's role in Cherokee relations, in which NC & SC were competitors. This is a significant oversight, but the book is "strong" nonetheless.

This book is an account of Woodrow Wilson, concentating on his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. I found it enjoyable to read and rather moving. Wilson was an interesting and odd person, and this book accurately shows that after his stroke in 1919 he was no longer the brilliant person he was before that calamity. Edith lived on till Dec. 28, 1961, which date was the 105th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson's birth. I found this book a satisfying and attention-holding book, tho it is does not pretend to be scholarly.

This is a republication of an old translation.

If you haven't read Kepler's own words, then this book will be both more and less than you expected. It is both a mathematical and phylsophically speculative text, which in some sections can get quite technical.(Warning: the title is a bit deceiving. Only part of the Epitome is included.)

I would only give 3 stars to this book, except that english translations of Kepler's works are very few, and this book is the most financially accessible of those currently on the market. I therefore recommend it as a good first exposure.

There's no substitute to reading the original words of great thinkers, especially in gaining insight into their way of approaching the world.

According to its title, the book compiles documents from 1933-1945, the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the contents are strongly tilted toward the 1933-1941 period. Maybe that's justified, given Polenberg's clear focus on domestic social and political issues and given, of course, that the New Deal period consituted more years than World War II. But I felt more than a little disappointed by the brief treatment the war effort received. And the documents pertaining to the war focused largely on Japanese internment and the issue of bombing the concentration camps. These are both important topics and worthy of attention, particularly the latter which I fear is sometimes overlooked (and which is in many ways a telling issue). FDR's Four Freedoms speech is not included, nor the Atlantic Charter, nor the Pearl Harbor speech. The book would definitely have profited from inclusion of these documents and perhaps also of documents pertaining to strategy or military policy.

Nevertheless, the book has three strong points that make it worthwhile. One, Polenberg includes a wide variety of primary sources: speeches, photographs, Supreme Court decisions, letters, posters, poems, songs, press conferences, etc. The sources also come from a range of people, left and right, "large and small." This makes the book particularly useful as a teaching tool for showing students how to tackle primary documents of all types.

Two, in the book's imbalance lies its strongest element--it covers the Depression and the New Deal thoroughly, offering new perspectives and carving new dimensions. We hear from the Roosevelts, both Franklin and Eleanor. We read the views of writers John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair, and of Roosevelt opponents Charles Coughlin and Huey Long. Administration officials provide their opinions on New Deal legislation (including the frequently ignored Federal Theatre Project). Dorothea Lange's photographs depict the misery and poverty of the Depression. Mexican-American, African-American, and Native American viewpoints also receive attention. Polenberg successfully draws documents to paint a multi-dimensional, in-depth portrait of the 1930s.

And three, Polenberg concludes with a fine bibliography for further reading on the various topics of spanned by the documents.

All in all, despite the weak coverage of World War II, the book is eminently useful for readers interested in the period and especially for teachers and students. Had Polenberg covered the war years in the same detail as the Depression/New Deal, this would be a thoroughly excellent sourcebook. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile book and could function quite well in an AP history course, or as a complement to reading, say, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear.

It was a very good book but I have read better.....

A very good collection about how international finance has become a global power. Through its critical view, it helps us to understand the deep structures involved in the movement of international capital. Very useful for the ones focusing on international political economy.

An excellent presentation of the highly collectible works of Florence Ward, founder of Florence of California Ceramics. Personal and company history add to the interest. Outstanding photos of known figures. "A definite must have" for the collector.

This is the diary of James Bennett, a young man who enlisted in the U.S. Dragoons in 1849 and served 7 years on the frontier at various posts in New Mexico. He encountered many figures known to history and traveled widely over the frontier from Texas to Wyoming to California.

Bennett's service saw him involved in battles with Indians, surveying the Gadsden Purchase and involved in the life of communities where American and Mexican cultures intermingled.

This book is a must for anyone interested in military history or life on the frontier prior to the Civil War