Collected Miscellany

I think I am pretty clearly on the record in favor of short biographies but even I might blanche at a book that covers a subject as immense as Abraham Lincoln in a mere 70 or so pages.  Such is the boldness of James McPherson’s Abraham Lincoln.  But this essay/book turned out to be an enjoyable and interesting approach to the enigma that is Lincoln.

I was trolling the library when I saw it and decided it was short enough to read over the President’s Day weekend. Alas, I was not organized enough to post a review on either President’s Day or Lincoln’s birthday. But I wanted to report back anyway.

Here is whay PW had to say:

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom) contributes to the slew of Lincoln biennial books with this succinct biography, weighing in at a lean 70 pages (plus notes), that delivers gracefully on McPherson’s promise to capture “the essential events and meaning of Lincoln’s life without oversimplification or overgeneralization.” McPherson is a precise writer with a masterful command of the subject, guiding readers through the evolution of Lincoln’s thinking on race, his lifelong struggle with depression, his improbable rise to political power, his anguish over the breakup of the union and his determination to see it made whole again. For anyone wanting to fill the gaps in their understanding of the Great Emancipator by the end of President’s Day, this efficient account from a noted Civil War scholar is a near-perfect solution.

McPherson touches on Lincoln’s political career leading up to the presidency, the issue of slavery as a constitutional and political issue and the conduct of the war in particular. Drawing out in each one the critical role Lincoln played and how his character and decision making impacted the outcome. He notes criticisms and controversies and offers succinct responses of his own.

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It’s a Don’s Life by Mary Beard

In her now-famous blog, Mary Beard has made her name as a wickedly subversive commentator on the world in which we live. Her central themes are classics, universities, and teaching, but she covers many other topics:

• What are academics for?
• Who was the first African Roman emperor?
• Looting, ancient and modern.
• Are modern exams easier?
• Keep Lesbos for the Lesbians.
• Did St. Valenting exist?
• What made the Romans laugh?

That is just a small tast of this selection (including some of the choicer responses posted) which will inform, occasionally provoke and cannot fail to entertain.

Jure Fiorillo’s Great Bastards of History: True and Riveting Accounts of the Most Famous Illegitimate Children Who Went on to Achieve Greatness is about the most famous illegitimate children who went on to achieve greatness.  Fiorillo primarily covers famous illegitimate children from England, France, and the United States, with a few from other countries.   These figures are discussed in chronological order, beginning with William the Conqueror and ending with Fidel Castro with many interesting persons in between.

Fiorillo’s basic argument is that these figures who were born out-of-wedlock tried to overcome the societal boundaries put up against illegitimate children.  This was true for many of the people, but not all (their success in overcoming the social stigma is dependent on when and where they were born).  I do not get the idea that many of them suffered too much for being illegitimate – sure some were denied higher social positions, but they made up for this in their success in other areas.  For example, although Leonardo Da Vinci was denied a vocation in his father’s field of work, he succeeded beyond all measure in his other pursuits.

I have read some reviews that have questioned Fiorillo’s choices – why she choose one person from a time period rather than another – but I do not think this is an issue.  I take this book as a general overview of pivotal illegitimates from history (although a very select group from limited points on the globe).  One reviewer questions why she choose Alexander Hamilton over Thomas Paine – the argument being that Paine had more of an impact on the American Revolution than Hamilton did.  However, I would argue Hamilton had a more profound effect on early American government than Paine did, thus a more lasting impact.

Finally, Fiorillo’s style of writing is easy to follow and understand.  She writes clearly and concisely.  The amount of information that is given is great considering the limited space for each person.

I finished James Bradley’s The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War a few days ago and I have been thinking about the book ever since.  He writes about an ugly period of our country’s foreign policy – when the United States joined the ranks of the colonial powers by its acquisition of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Cuba (Cuba for a brief period).  Our leaders at the time cloaked our colonization in terms of helping the natives to become civilized and then giving them back their sovereignty once they were civilized.

The book centers around the 1905 cruise led by Secretary of War William Howard Taft that visited the Phillipines, Japan, China, and Korea and that had a secret agenda – Taft was ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt to make an unofficial treaty with Japan that encouraged the Japanese to adopt their own “Monroe Doctrine” for Asia.  Bradley claims that this secret treaty caused the Japanese to be more aggressive in their foreign affairs and eventually led to war with the United States (Bradley never explains how this treaty led to the events of World War II in the Pacific – there were too many other events that occurred between the signing and the beginning of World War II).

I do think that Bradley is dead-on with his criticism of Taft – he knew practically nothing of the countries he was visiting, but he was our lead diplomat in the tour.  In trying to project a strong American image, Taft came across at times as clueless.  Bradley states that Taft was sent because he was a front man and “yes” man for Roosevelt (apparently Roosevelt was the de facto Secretary of State and Secretary of War).

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The Great Medieval Heretics: Five Centuries of Religious Dissent by Michael Frassetto

From the Publisher

Replete with terror, passion, and hope, this gripping narrative history explores the intricate mysteries of medieval Europe through the lives of the great heretics whose beliefs and practices challenged the teachings of an all-powerful church. Five centuries of social and spiritual turmoil are covered through a vivid and telling mix of events, personalities, and ideas. A host of figures are discussed in detail, including Bogomil, an obscure priest from the Balkans who introduced Manichean ideas to parishioners; Henry the Monk, who eluded capture and prepared southern France for the Cathars; Marguerite Porete, the great mystic who was burned at the stake; Fra Dolcino, whose brigand followers terrorized northern Italy; and John Wyclif and Jan Hus, the heralds of the Reformation. By the end of the Middle Ages, the courageous lives and beliefs of these and the other heretics discussed had transformed the religious, cultural, and political map of Europe.

The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss

Publishers Weekly

No one presents the military history of the ancient world with greater insight and panache than Strauss (The Trojan War). His latest work tells the story of a slave from the Balkans, a gladiator who in 73 B.C. led an uprising of 700 gladiators that eventually attracted over 60,000 followers. Strauss depicts Spartacus as a charismatic politician, able to hold together a widely disparate coalition of Celts, Thracians, Germans and Italians. As a general, he was a master of maneuver and mobility, keeping the ponderous Romans consistently off balance. Strauss reconstructs the rebels’ movements across southern Italy and their development into an army good enough to overcome Rome’s legions in battle after battle. Not until Marcus Licinius Crassus was given command of Roman forces did Spartacus face an opponent who could match him. Spartacus forced a battle that resulted in complete defeat and his anonymous death. But the uprising he sparked left a permanent mark on the Roman psyche and made Spartacus himself a figure of myth as well as history, as Strauss shows at the end of this brisk, engrossing account.

Armies of the Napoleonic Wars: An Illustrated History, edited by Chris McNab, is a wonderful resource for any Napoleonic Wars buff.  The book is a compilation of several booklets on this subject published by Osprey Publishing.

Here is a brief description of the book from the publisher:

The Napoleonic Wars saw almost two decades of brutal fighting, from the frozen wastelands of Russia to the wildness of the Peninsula; from Egypt’s Lower Nile to the bloody battlefield of Waterloo. Fighting took place on an unprecedented scale across Europe, and over the entire period of the wars Napoleon led his Grand Armee and his allies against almost every European nation, and against varying coalitions. This book provides a comprehensive guide to all the major armies of the Napoleonic Wars, of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain and Portugal. Covering the changes experienced by the armies over the period, the author details the organization, infantry, cavalry, and artillery of each. With stunning original artwork of the often glorious uniforms worn into battle, period illustrations or the equipment used, and photographs, this is a beautiful and in-depth study of the armies that fought in the Napoleonic campaigns.

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