ERA Reviews

An interesting collection of essays by different historians,this book does an excellent job of introducing the beginning university student to a number of issues related to Stalinism and historical methodology(somehow unconsciously);however,the lack of footnotes/endnotes makes this undertaking less credible and useful for more advanced readers.

A wonderful book for children. This book helps children accept who they are while helping them to realize there are others out there in this big world who also have worries and concerns. This is a book that can help a child begin to think of others and their struggles and help them to be more open to the plight of those around them, helping them become less self-centered. The repitition of the text with each animal allows the child to interact with the "reader". "You think that's hard?" Kids can really get into this story and particiapte, what a great way to get them involved in reading at an early age!

The author of this book aims to give the reader a better understanding of Vietnam than if we were to read any of the other multitude of books written about Vietnam. Mr Wintle, the author does not jump straight in at the deep end of Vienamese history and start describing the prelude to the war between north and south Vietnam, he simply decribes this war as if it where just like any of the other wars in Vietnam's long, troubled history. This approach by Wintle gives the reader a very good perspective on the Vietnam war that the western world will be unfamiliar with as it is used to looking at this war in a very short sighted fashion. This different perspective helps the reader to understand the war from the Vietnamese perspective when for so long most of us have been looking at it through an American and European perspecive.
Although the author does give a good and concise history of the various Vietnam wars through the centuries, the account he has written of Vietnamese early history is rather tedious and uninteresting. Although this chapter on Vietnamese early history is necessary if we are to understand Vietnam properly, Wintle makes no attempt to link this early history to the modern era. This particular chapter seems to be written in a much more uninteresting way than the rest of the book, it seemed to me that the author wasn't interested in this chapter himself it is written with so little skill or enthusiasm. I found myself skipping through large tracts of the opening chapter which lasts for about fifty pages and it is this badly written chapter that lets the book down badly.
The rest of the book, however is as readible as a good novel, the story of the Vietnamese nationalists' fight first against the French, then against the Saigon government backed by the French, then backed by the Americans is a great one to read. The author details the various set-backs in the modern wars and also the great victories, like that over the French at Dien Bien Phu, this account is particularly brilliant and is about the best account I have ever read of any military encounter whether fact or fiction.
Although the author seems to take the side of the Vietnamese in all of their wars including that against the Americans, he does not hesitate to write about some of the terrible things that the Vietnamese done on their own people including the military tactic of sending charge after charge against fortified postions which resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths. The book, on the whole is a good one and is very readible, (apart from the first chapter)it gives a very good histroy of the Vietnam wars and their preludes. This book is ideal for anyone looking to read a book about Vietnam that is not filled with great deeds that American soldiers done and details of their great bravery, it simply tells the history of a people who have fought for their freedom in many centuries and eventually won it.

I purchased WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT and loved it for the myraid of tiny details,fascinating illustrations and concise chronological layout of the political, economical, and social scene. I am less impressed with WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE IN EUROPE'S ROMANTIC ERA. The opening chapters hop around between 1800 and 1840 with dizzying speed and the novice French historian would be hard pressed to follow.

The images are wonderful, but the scope of this book was too grand and the facts are condensed and thrown at the reader too fast, never really letting them learn and appreciate the rich society that was 19th century Europe.

This book is a follow up to the Soderbergh's earlier book about Women Marines in the WWII era. It has an interesting panorama of the Sociology of America in the WWII period and its aftermath, much akin to the description Melady has in his book "Canada's Forgotton War." A Marine himself, Soderbergh describes in dense prose how the Corps managed to survive the 1947 Security Act, which redefined the nature of the Armed Services. Even so, he points out that the Korean War, Vietnam and Desert Storm continued to present the USMC with the challenge to define precisely its role as a land based fighting force.
On the specific issue of Women Marines (or WM's as they are called, in contrast to the earlier role as WR's--women reservists) the author provides some personal accounts about what it was like for the women to leave for Korea. He points out the Marine magazine Leatherneck was 'supportive, if also condescending' of the Women marines in the text of its articles but the cartoons continued to cater to the 'sexist juvenile side' of the readership. Soderbergh also says that for many WMs the Marine Corps was their first exposure to racial segregation outside the South.
The author touches briefly on the issue of sexual discrimination, harassment and gays/lesbians in the military. The Marines were concerned about Lesbians in the WR as early as 1943. Soderbergh provides testimonials from a few Women Marines which include discussion of the all-too-familiar clandestine investigations, pressure to reveal names, etc. Soderbergh believes that the Marines today, if they had their way, would probably choose not to allow gays to 'wear the Marine Uniform under any circumstances.'
Especially memorable is the blow-by-blow account of a classroom session taught by Captain Smith at Parris Island..sort of the Socratic method, marine corps style.

The most moving part of the book comes at the end where the author delivers two tributes. One is to his ex-wife, also a former Marine, who remains in Soderbergh's mind as '...that talented sergeant who represented everything that was good about Women Marines.." The other is his personal interest in WM Germaine Catherine Laville. Laville, who died in a tragic fire while at Cherry Point, has a dormitory at LSU named after her. Soderbergh, who was a student at LSU when he noticed her picture, had his interest piqued by this woman Marine, and decided to write a biography of Laville.

Although this book has extremely good photos and charts, its actual content is limited. Coverage of specific events and battles is conscice. This shortcoming is slightly made up for in the book's appendicies which include a nice atlas, portfolio projects, histrical documents, and glossary. However, I recomend this book only for a general review of world history. It is useful as a suplement to other world history texts.

Bushrod Rust Johnson was like any other man born in the 19th Century. He strived to make a living,serve his country and be a family man. Like many men who fought in the Civil War, the side he fought for was determined by circunstances that arose in his life. The story covers his life from his birth in Eastern Ohio to his burial in Western Illinois.

As General Johnson makes his way through life, he seems destined to be viewed as a man of contrasts. He was born into a Quaker family, yet attended the U.S. Military Academy. While serving in the quartermaster corps during the Mexican War, General Johnson was dismissed from the Army for proposing a bribe to a superior officer. He operated military schools in Tennessee and Kentucky during the period before the Civil War. When war broke out, he petitioned for a command in the Tennessee contingent. At the battle of Chickamauga on the Tennessee-Georgia border, he made his great move leading his troops through the Union enemy. He was denied any lasting glory of the battle until Noble Wyatt researched the total tale. Noble Wyatt lead the initiative to construct a monument on the Chickamauga site in 1975.

The death and burial of Bushrod Rust Johnson in Illinois, far from his home and the grave of his wife in Tennessee, seems the ultimate blow to a man befallen by bad luck and timing.

With his invention of sci/religion, Powell appears to have abandoned historical reality for a mystical journey of misinterpretation of relativity and the reason Einstein originally thought it necessary to invent the cosmological constant. In my judgement, this book is neither good physics, accurate reporting nor good writing.

I hold a degree in physics and am currently in the process to become a priest so I read this book with great interest. I was not impressed with Powell's writing. I was put off by the numerous instances of exaggeration and projecting unknown personal motivations on historical characters. Powell's argument flowed like papers I wrote in high school and college with gross shading of facts and very little honest apprasial of opposing viewpoints. I also had a hard time accepting the cumbersome sci/religion as a real word. I hope it never catches on. There are much better texts on the thrilling topic of science and religion than God in the Equation.

It's hard to get much bigger than the themes in this
book: how did the universe begin, how will it end, and
is there any way to find spiritual satisfaction
through science? Amazingly, this writer pulls it off.
The first part of the book covers historical ideas
about the universe, bringing people like Galileo and
Newton to life as complex, passionate thinkers. The
later chapters get into modern cosmology, covering the
big bang and some of the current far-out ideas about
"dark energy" and other universes.

Sellers' text is without a doubt the most jaded and overtly biased piece of historical writing I've ever encountered. While making supreme jumps in logic, Sellers assumes that most virtuous Americans in the Jacksonian Era were opposed to the new market economy, yet fails to recognize how quickly those in the South and West embraced the blessings of a free market at the first opportunity. Without defining capitalism, or many of the other terms that he freely juggles around like a poor court jester, Sellers promotes the subsistance culture with such flowery prose that one would think it a utopian way of life. His father's legacy and his love of superfluous language are the only things that unite Seller's book, and his glaring omissions and supreme reliance upon secondary research render the text not only incoherent but incorrect.

This is one of the most important works on U.S. history before 1865 out there. BUT, it is very long and very tough reading. Put simply, if you are not extremely interested in economic history, you'll quit reading this book after 50 pages, so don't waste your money. The book contains important ideas, but they are not clearly conveyed. I recommend this book for grad. students in history (who probably will be forced to read it), but that's about it.

Solid all-around work on the social and economic forces that changed the United States from an Old World society, where privilege and rank were foremost, to a budding modern commercial civilization where individualism is prized and pluralistic republican principles predominate. A good read for anyone interested in the first half of the 19th century.

This is an excellent grand narrative for those who insist on holding on to the triumphalist Anglo-Celtic Texas myth. The author presents information that attempts to prove his point--in other words this is a conclusion-driven work. For those who still maintain an open mind and are interested in excellent scholarly inquiry I would refer them to the following three studies. James Crisp's "The Little Book That Wasn't There: The Myth and Mystery of the de la Peña Diary." In Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, (Oct 1994). More recent scholarly works ascertaining the authenticity of the de la Peña diary and disputing Groneman's methods and intent include David B. Gracy's "Just as I have Written It: A Study of the Authenticity of the Manuscript of José Enrique de la Peña's Account of the Texas Campaign." In SHQ, Vol. 55, No. 2(Oct. 2002) and Jack Jackson and James E. Ivey's "Mystery Artist of the Alamo: José Juan Sanchez." In SHQ, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Oct. 2002). Read these articles at your local library before spending money on Groneman's grand narrative.

The book (which I read in a library) is very weak in original ideas, research, and scholarship. The author presents nothing believable about his case (that the de la Pena Diary is a fake) that can be taken seriously by anyone. Just recently the de la Pena Diary was auctioned off for nearly quarter million dollars! Not bad for a work that Mr. Groneman wants to call a fake in his 'curio' of a work.

Bill Groneman has done yeoman's duty once again. He has risen to the challenge of the "revisionists" and emerged with a victory more complete than Houston's at San Jacinto. Remember the Alamo and take the sage advise " when the legend is larger than life, go with the legend".

The "fake" DeLa Pena Diary is exposed for just that. Interesting how it only came to light after Walter Lord's and Lon Tinkle's research in Northern Mexico back in the mid 1950's. Hopefully Texican's will never feel the need to rewrite their history to match that of a liberal revisionist who strives to tear down all that is good and great in heros.

Any student of Texana should read this authors works before falling sway to the sensationalism of the revisionsists who have not done their homework.

Another 5-star effort from Mr. Groneman.