Book Description
Praise for Blood and Thunder
“Kit Carson’s role in the conquest of the Navajo during and after the Civil War remains one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in the history of the American West. Hampton Sides portrays Carson in the larger context of the conquest of the entire West, including his frequent and often lethal encounters with hostile Native Americans. Unusually, Sides gives full voice to Indian leaders themselves about their trials and tribulations in their dealings with the whites. Here is a national hero on the level of Daniel Boone, presented with all of his flaws and virtues, in the context of American people’s belief that it was their Manifest Destiny to occupy the entire West.”
—Howard Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University and editor of The New Encyclopedia of the American West
“The story of the American West has seldom been told with such intimacy and immediacy. Legendary figures like Kit Carson leap to life and history moves at a pulse-pounding pace—sweeping the reader along with it. Hampton Sides is a terrific storyteller.”
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
“Hampton Sides doesn't just write a book, he transports the reader to another time and place. With his keen sense of drama and his crackling writing style, this master storyteller has bequeathed us a majestic history of the Old West.”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys
“Blood and Thunder is a big-hearted book whose subject is as expansive as they come. Hampton Sides tackles it with naked pleasure and narrative cunning: In his telling, the vast saga of America’s westward push has a logical center. The dusty town of Santa Fe becomes the nexus around which swirl the fortunes and strategies of a mixed set of serious overachievers, from Kit Carson, the original mountain man, to James K. Polk, the enigmatic president whose achievements, in the dreaded name of Manifest Destiny, were almost biblical in scope. Sides is alive to the exuberance and alert to the tragedy of the taking of the West.”
—Russell Shorto, author of Island at the Center of the World
“For a huge percentage of us immigrant Americans (those whose ancestors arrived after 1492), Hampton Sides fills a gaping hole in our knowledge of American history—a vivid account of how ‘The New Men’ swept away the thriving civilizations of the Native Americans in their conquest of the West.”
—Tony Hillerman
"BLOOD AND THUNDER is a balanced, thoughtful summary of the American conquistadors in the 19th century Southwest. Hampton Sides has re-created violent events and such inflammatory figures as Kit Carson without bias. Carefully researched, thoroughly enjoyable."
-Evan S. Connell, author of SON OF THE MORNING STAR, CUSTER AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN
A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won—a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory
In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down upon the small town of Santa Fe, the stronghold of the Mexican settlers he had been fighting his whole long life. He had come to see if the rumors were true—if an army of blue-suited soldiers had swept in from the East and utterly defeated his ancestral enemies. As Narbona gazed down on the battlements and cannons of a mighty fort the invaders had built, he realized his foes had been vanquished—but what did the arrival of these “New Men” portend for the Navajo?
Narbona could not have known that “The Army of the West,” in the midst of the longest march in American military history, was merely the vanguard of an inexorable tide fueled by a self-righteous ideology now known as “Manifest Destiny.” For twenty years the Navajo, elusive lords of a huge swath of mountainous desert and pasturelands, would ferociously resist the flood of soldiers and settlers who wished to change their ancient way of life or destroy them.
Hampton Sides’s extraordinary book brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life. It is a tale with many heroes and villains, but as is found in the best history, the same person might be both. At the center of it all stands the remarkable figure of Kit Carson—the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier who embodies all the contradictions and ambiguities of the American experience in the West. Brave and clever, beloved by his contemporaries, Carson was an illiterate mountain man who twice married Indian women and understood and respected the tribes better than any other American alive. Yet he was also a cold-blooded killer who willingly followed orders tantamount to massacre. Carson’s almost unimaginable exploits made him a household name when they were written up in pulp novels known as “blood-and-thunders,” but now that name is a bitter curse for contemporary Navajo, who cannot forget his role in the travails of their ancestors.
Customer Reviews:
Fremont's Reputation.......2007-10-14
This is an excellent book except for the Fremont-bashing that seems to be fashionable. It is especially distressing that the material about Fremont came from a non-historical work with no scholarly background entitled "A Newer World". The author would have been better advised to supply his own supporting references. That is enough of a reason to knock off a star.
one of the best.......2007-10-13
If you have any interest in American History please read this book. We read the entire book outloud, quite an undertaking, so I'm glad to see that is available as an audiobook. The writing is riveting, the bibliography reassuring, the story enlightening. This book is a springboard into the conquest of the Western United States and will give you new eyes if and when traveling through these areas. Read the book.
Thoroughly engrossing biography of Kit Carson.......2007-10-12
This is an excellent biography of a famous American pioneer--Kit Carson. What sets it apart is its humane treatment of a complex figure. Carson appears to have been the "real deal," not a manufactured hero.
The book proceeds by interweaving several story lines, which can be somewhat confusing at times but, in the end, this serves the author well. Among the story lines--Kit Carson's exploits, the Navajo leader Narbona's story, General Stephen Kearney's episodes, and so on.
Kit Carson's role--from trapper to hunter to scout to military officer--is the glue that holds this book together. In the process, the reader learns a great deal about the events of the 1830s through 1860s that transformed the United States. The Mexican War dramatically expanded the size of the country; the American conflicts with the Indian nations opened new territories for settlement and economic development; the Civil War ended slavery (although, ironically, perhaps not in the southwest, as Native Americans sometimes served a similar role after the Civil War); the West was opened for development.
What humanizes this book is the treatment of Carson. He was sometimes mercurial (with an occasional burst of temper); he was a person of action, and he sometimes was cruel and brutal; he was also a person of honor; he had a perception of the larger picture in the West, and could see that white aggression was the real problem--not marauding Indians.
On a personal note, the book traces Carson's family lives (he had at least two real families, one with a native American wife), his struggle to be a good husband and father while he was off on one adventure or another most of his life.
This is a strong biography which is set in a larger context. It is well worth looking at.
Reads almost like a novel!.......2007-10-12
I first encountered this book when I heard the author speak at our local bookstore. I am a history lover and wanted to know if this man could pull of another interesting book on American History. I had a copy of the book ready and took copious notes on the blank pages in the back. The author was fascinating to listen to.
Since then, I have read the book thoroughly and found it read almost like a novel. Each chapter led you to want to read on.
I have purchased copies as gifts for friends and even gave a copy to my American Indian History professor and he was enthralled.
Good work. Loved it. You will, too.
Blood and Thunder.......2007-10-09
This is a highly readable and comprehensive account of the adult life and times of Kit Carson and the people/places he touched. It's not a biography, but a series of vignettes documenting his involvement in a variety of professions -- from mountain man to military man -- as the needs of the West evolved. There's a great deal of information about Carson's contemporaries as well. I read the book with a map of New Mexico at hand to more closely identify the places mentioned. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Western history, including the several battles of the Civil War fought in New Mexico.
Book Description
The Siegfried Line campaign was one of the most frustrating and bloody series of battles fought by the US Army in Northwest Europe.
In order to break through the German-Belgian border north of the Ardennes and eventually reach the Rhine, the First and Ninth divisions of the US Army dispersed themselves along the German Siegfried Line.
The campaign kicked off in earnest in late September with the encirclement and eventual capture of Aachen, the first major German city to fall to the Allies. The paths to the Roer included not only the heavily urbanized area northeast of this city, but also the Hurtgen Forest along its southeastern flank. While a costly battle to seize the city continued throughout October, fighting also began in the forested area with initial attacks towards Schmidt.
The German offensive to the south in the Ardennes derailed the Siegfried campaign for nearly two months and proved to be extremely costly. However, with Operation Grenade in February 1945, Ninth Army were finally propelled over the Roer River and were able to seize the vital Roer dams.
Providing extensive coverage of the battle for Aachen and the fighting that ensued in the Hurtgen Forest, this title brings to life the Siegfried Line campaign which witnessed the US Army's most bitter fighting and set the stage for the final assault on the Rhine, leading the way into the heart of Germany.
Customer Reviews:
Typical good quality from Osprey.......2007-07-24
This book is up to the typical high quality expected from Osprey books. It was concise and read well.
My only negative comment would be that the layout of the maps could have been better. I would rather have the maps corresponding to each section BEFORE the words or referenced in them.
Great Quick Notes for the U.S. Army Campaign.......2007-07-14
As the U.S. Army defines the Siegfried Line, Zaloga and Osprey have done an excellent job of boiling down the essence into less than 100 pages. I consider it a good addition to the Osprey Library and to my own.
Certainly the 600+ page official Army history of this campaign, "United States Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations - The Siegfried Line Campaign" by Charles B. MacDonald, is a more in-depth and definitive study (available used and new from the U.S. Government Printing Office). However, that said, Zaloga has produced an excellent Cliff Notes version of the official history. In typical Osprey Fashion, the book has excellent illustrations, maps, and photographs. There is even a photo of Kesternich that others and I have tried to pry from the hands of NARA and have failed ...so, once again, many kudos on the photos!
I take exception to the comment that the book is all about Aachen. It is not. I covers the "official" designation of the campaign quite well. Perhaps others will be disappointed that it does not spend more time of the German Westwall fortifications. (See Osprey's "Germany's West Wall - The Siegfried Line for details on the construction of the fortifications themselves.) Or, perhaps it is felt by some that all the combat along the Siegfried Line, which stretched from Nijmegen in the Netherlands to Basil in Switzerland, was not portrayed. However, Zaloga has stayed within the bounds of the "official" U.S. Army History and has written a very creditable account.
Perhaps Osprey's "The Rhineland" by Ken Ford would satisfy those with a desire for a greater scope of the fighting along the German Western Frontier. Or, Osprey's "Arnhem 1944" by Badsey in the north or "Lorrraine 1944" by Zaloga in the south would fulfill those wishing a broader scope. Maybe I'm sounding like an Osprey salesman, I'm not, but I do have to admit that what they have done with military history is one of the great publishing feats of our time.
My one wish is that this book would have one of those Great Osprey illustrated aerial perspective maps of the Huertgen like the one in "The Rhineland."
Where's the Siegfried Line in here?.......2007-06-18
I picked up this book because I have a great interest in the battles that took place in the Hurtgenwald and along the Siegfried Line. This time though I was a little disappointed in the work. Why you ask. Well, Mr. Zaloga did a little deception on us. Rather than telling us about the battles for the Siegfried Line (I was hoping for the battles all along the front honestly), Mr. Zaloga focused on the battles for Aachen and the towns surrounding Aachen. The chapters follow the traditional Osprey Campaign format. What I should have looked at though was the section titled The Campaign. In there, Mr. Zaloga tells us what his focus was; The First Battle of Aachen, North of Aachen, Encircling Aachen, the Second Battle of Aachen, Prelude to Operation Queen (really this was the 28th ID's battle for Schmidt, covered very nicely in Follow Me And Die), Operation Queen, Operation Clipper, and Operation Queen: the December Cleanup. Incase you couldn't tell, focus was on the taking of Aachen rather than on the Siegfried Line.
Ok, I've complained enough about how this book should have been labeled the Aachen Campaign. As always, Osprey has great photographs and drawings. I've questioned several of the labels on the pictures (I've seen then labeled differently in other books), specifically the tank destroyers on page 68, but who knows, I can't make out the markings and I wasn't there. For the different sections, Mr. Zagola's strongest were dealing with Operations Queen and Clipper. I was highly disappointed in his section on the 28th ID. He failed to mention Lt. Fleig, the conditions labored under, or how 5th Corp directed the attack to occur. I also found his description on the battles for Aachen to be weak. Sorry.
Rating wise, this book is a 3 star book. My reasons for this includes; limited mentioning of how units breached the Siegfried Line (I wanted to read about the change in tactics), not identifying that the book focused on operations around Aachen, and minor inaccuracies.
Siegrried Line.......2007-06-09
After being part of this campaign, I found this book, very interesting and accurate, a must for History Buffs or someone that was there, its like a Diary of those dark days.
Another Excellent Campaign Summary.......2007-05-05
Steven J Zaloga's The Siegfried Line Campaign 1944-45, number 181 in Osprey's Campaign series, provides another interesting chapter in his coverage of Western Front battles in the Second World War. This volume primarily covers the U.S. 1st Army's initial efforts to crack the German Westwall defenses in the fall of 1944, resulting in the Battles of Aachen and the Hurtgen Forrest, two actions that were painful attritional slugfests for both sides. Zaloga's narrative is crisp, clean and informative as usual, resulting in another solid campaign summary. This volume nicely complements earlier Osprey volumes on the Lorraine Campaign and the Rhineland, and should be very useful for readers seeking an explanation of events in this area prior to the Battle of the Bulge.
The introductory sections are a bit briefer than usual, probably because this is fairly well covered ground. The exception is the section on Opposing Armies - always a strong point in Zaloga's volumes - and he spells out why U.S. advantages in artillery and air support were reduced by logistic shortages, terrain and weather in the fall of 1944. Field Marshal Model's ability to cobble together a coherent defense of the German border from units shattered in the fighting in France is also nicely presented. For example, there is a photo of a former German S-Boat sailor pressed into infantry service and some discussion of the extreme methods used to cull replacements for the front-line from every nook and cranny of the Third Reich. Also pertinent is General Eisenhower's decision to keep the pressure on the weakened Wehrmacht by a series of limited offensives. The first major narrative piece deals with the U.S. 1st Army efforts to encircle and capture the city of Aachen. Although the U.S. Army succeeded in capturing this first major city in Germany, it should probably be viewed as a German tactical victory of sorts. Model conducted an economy of force defense with a handful of divisions and tied up the bulk of the U.S. 1st Army for nearly six weeks reducing a single fortified city, which gave the bulk of the German 7th Army a period to recuperate.
The next major narrative piece covers the U.S. efforts to clear the Hurtgen Forrest. Although the author does criticize the 1st Army's inability to fully understand the terrain difficulties of fighting in the forest and he regards the diversion of so much effort as wasteful, he avoids outright condemnation. However, the loss of over 20,000 U.S. casualties to clear a non-strategic chunk of forest such as the Hurtgenwald should be viewed as a significant operation-level blunder by the U.S. Army in the Second World War and a clear indication of the poor leadership by senior officers such as General Hodges (1st Army Commander). American senior commanders in the war were virtually all hand-picked by the Chief of Staff (Marshall) and he valued training ability over tactical judgment, which resulted in commanders such as Hodges who were content to fight meat-grinder battles instead of understanding that they needed to apply their army's strengths against the enemy's weaknesses. In retrospect, the U.S. 1st Army was able to penetrate the Siegfried Line and gain some terrain, but Hodges and Bradley lost sight of the fact that their mission was primarily counterforce - to keep the pressure on the German army so it couldn't regroup - not just to seize terrain. The fact that the 1st Army failed to seize the Roer River dams prior to the German Wacht Am Rhine counteroffensive only emphasizes the expenditure of 48,000 U.S. casualties had not captured key objectives or prevented the Germans from re-grouping.
This volume includes five 2-D maps (the strategic situation August 25 - September 11, 1944; the Westwall Defenses in the Aachen Sector; the First Battle of Aachen, September 12-29, 1944; Operation Queen, 16 November - 9 December 1944; the Final Push by VII Corps, 10-16 December 1944) and three 3-D BEV maps (the Second Battle of Aachen; the Hurtgenwald, 2-7 November 1944; Operation Queen). Although the 2-D maps are very good, there are significant chunks of the narrative that are difficult to follow on the maps providing. Furthermore, the 3-D maps are not as good as in other recent Osprey Campaign titles and they have the appearance of a swirled chocolate-colored mush. Compared to the beautiful 3-D maps in Zaloga's Remagen volume, these are not up to par. On the other hand, the three battle scenes by Steve Noon (Aachen street fighting; the Hurtgenwald Defenses; the tank battle at Puffendorf, 17 November 1944) are superb and outclass some of the artwork in other recent Osprey volumes. The author also includes an excellent bibliography.
Book Description
From Pulitzer Prize award-winning historian James M. McPherson comes a thrilling account of America's westward expansion. In this sweeping tale of one of the most exciting and colorful periods in our country's growth, Dr. McPherson interweaves the nation's attempts to bind its Civil War wounds through Reconstruction with the triumphant and tragic taming of the American frontier.
Into the West contains personal narratives from settlers and soldiers as well as profiles and accounts of the actions of many historical luminaries involved in Reconstruction and the movement west, such as President Andrew Johnson, General George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Geronimo, and Wild Bill Hickock. Dr. McPherson also explores the role of women and the development of the arts on the frontier, the role and legend of the cowboy, and the destruction of the Native American way of life in this thought-provoking companion to the bestselling Fields of Fury.
Filled with maps, period photos, illustrations, and anecdotes, this vivid retelling of America's journey, Into the West, will fascinate readers, young and old.
Book Description
It has been termed an insurgency, a revolution, a guerrilla war, and a conventional war. As David J. Silbey demonstrates in this taut, compelling history, the 1899 Philippine-American War was in fact all of these. Played out over three distinct conflicts—one fought between the Spanish and the allied United States and Filipino forces; one fought between the United States and the Philippine Army of Liberation; and one fought between occupying American troops and an insurgent alliance of often divided Filipinos—the war marked America’s first steps as a global power and produced a wealth of lessons learned and forgotten.
In A War of Frontier and Empire, Silbey traces the rise and fall of President Emilio Aguinaldo, as Aguinaldo tries to liberate the Philippines from colonial rule only to fail, devastatingly, before a relentless American army. He tracks President McKinley’s decision to commit troops and fulfill a divinely inspired injunction to “uplift and civilize” despite the protests of many Americans. Most important, Silbey provides a clear lens to view the Philippines as, in the crucible of war, it transforms itself from a territory divided by race, ethnicity, and warring clans into a cohesive nation on the path to independence.
Customer Reviews:
Understanding American and Philippine History.......2007-09-10
Historian David Silbey examines the Philippine-American War in his book, A WAR OF FRONTIER AND EMPIRE: THE PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN WAR, 1899-1902. After reading the book, the bottom line is that the event was controversial and misinterpreted in terms of gender roles, racial stereotypes, politics, economics, and imperialistic endeavors. Although historians argue that the war may have been a blunder on America's part, Silbey broadly suggests that in the eyes of the Filipino people, it was a victory that took over 40 years to achieve. Despite Philippine freedom from Spanish colonial rule in 1899, it was the annexation of the territory by the United States in 1902, which deferred that freedom until after World War II.
As a military historian, Silbey engages the reader with core American military and political leaders who were involved in the conflict as well as the background information pertaining to how the conflict originated. There is no doubt that readers will have a better understanding of who the key individuals were, such as President William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Brig. General Arthur MacArthur, General Elwell Otis, Emilio Aguinaldo, and Gregorio del Pilar. An interesting aspect of the book is how Silbey maintains objectivity and parallels this event with previous historical events and leaders, shadows of the Civil War and President Lincoln and links and origins of the war, such as the sinking of the Maine and US intervention in Cuba, which triggered involvement in the Philippines with the Battle of Manila Bay. Furthermore, it was refreshing to see that Silbey makes an attempt to discuss and introduce the social, cultural, and geography of the Philippines and the Filipino people.
For readers who have studied this particular event, they will not find new findings or the use of undiscovered resource material in this book. Thus Silbey's narrative is derived from scholarly works that have been published during the past 100 years. And due to the size of the book, 218 pages of narrative, excluding the recommended reading list, notes, and index that are included within the concluding pages, the book serves as an introduction to the event rather than an extensive study of the war.
Overall, although WAR OF FRONTIER AND EMPIRE may not be a definitive study, it is recommended reading for anyone who wants to become familiar with this event in history. Unless one takes a history class or visits a museum that exposes or displays the complicated issues of war and history, and in particular, the Philippine-American War, this may be another part of history that may be forgotten. Undoubtedly, for the curious historian who may want to learn more about his topic, there may need to be further research and scholarly work done about this part of American and Philippine history.
A starting point for me.......2007-08-08
I know so little about this era in the Philippines that this book gave me some acquaintance with the issues and events.
Early on I noted two items that caused me to read with skepticism. On p. 27 it says that the Queen (Lili'oukalani) of Hawaii was deposed in 1883, but as of this time she had not yet ascended to the throne. On p.17 it says that the US Civil War "devastated large areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas" and I wonder about the inclusion of Pennsylvania on such a list. I checked other Amazon reviews and saw that one poster documented a number of other problems.
This is a very readable history. I did not come away any memory of facts of dates, places, battles, names, but did get from the interesting presentation a reasonably credible framework for acquiring more knowledge about the Philippines and its history.
For the size of the book, there are a good number of very interesting photographs.
How well does the author know his subject?.......2007-07-10
I saw the author, David Silbey, on C-SPAN and I was stunned by his mispronunciations of basic terms - "TAG-uh-log" and "KAY-vite." How can you spend time researching and writing a book yet still have such gaps of knowledge? These errors made me wonder if Mr. Silbey has ever visited the Philippines or if he's ever even spoken to a Filipino. This important subject, which parallels today's headlines, deserves a more thorough, balanced treatment. For me, "Little Brown Brother" by Leon Wolff remains the best account of the era.
Somewhat Disappointed.......2007-07-08
I recently saw a televised program of David Silbey's lecture at Temple University regarding his book, "A War of Frontier and Empire." As a grandson of a soldier who fought during the Philippine Insurrection (Philippine-American War), I was most anxious to read Mr. Sibley's book. I was also interested in his book since I was a student for two years at a Philippine university where I studied Philippine history and sociology. As I listened to his interpretation of the causes of the war, I was immediately struck with his terrible mispronunciation of common Philippine words such as Tagalog, the name of the main language of the large Philippine island of Luzon, and the name of the naval base, Cavite. If a serious scholar of the Philippines cannot pronounce common names important to the history of the country, then I somewhat doubt his research. This problem is also coupled with the spelling of place names which is not consistent with normal usage.
SERIOUSLY FLAWED.......2007-07-05
Yes, the subject of the Philippine-American War has not been sufficiently treated. Yes (p.xv), "Too much of Philippine history has been ... framed from an outsider's perspective." And yes (p.219), "the literature on the Philippine-American War is not of particularly high quality, with a number of important exceptions." Regrettably, I wouldn't make this book an exception.
An associate professor of history, the author was in position to contribute some insights into the connections between the Philippine-American War and both European history and domestic American politics. If he has actually accomplished that with any skill, it is negated by the numerous errors permeating the book which cast doubt on the credibility of almost every pronouncement. Distractions caused by those errors sometimes made it difficult for me to follow analysis in the text, and I found myself wincing.
Personal and geographic names are often wrong. Sorsogon is almost
unrecognizable as Sargosan, Dagupan is Pagupan, Banaue (or Banawe) is
Banane, Cagayan is Cagayen, Mariquina (or Marikina) is Mariquini, Santo
Tomas is San Tomas, Gen. Henry Lawton is misnamed William, Gen. Mariano
Trias is Antonio, Gen. Vicente Lukban is Vincente Lukhban, Apolinario
Mabini is Apollinaro, Reynaldo (Rey) Ileto is Raymond, etc.
Strangely wrong statements abound. Guam is in the Carolines and
Batangas is a plural which appears as The Batangas. The crucial category of mestizo is overlooked in the analysis of Philippine society. Aguinaldo was said to have been in Europe in the Spring of 1898, and his family owned a plantation. Andres Bonifacio was an ilustrado, which is defined as upper-class or educated in Europe. Rizal's family members were implied to be insulares, meaning Spaniards born in the Philippines. The title of Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere was said to be an appropriation of an American theme, an echo of the slogan "Don't mess with me" (p.12). The author may have intended a comparison with the early American snake flag Don't tread on me. However, Rizal explained that his title, from the biblical Latin meaning Touch Me Not, meant he was dealing with subjects previously taboo.
The author uncritically swallows the discredited thesis of Glenn May
that Andres Bonifacio was an invented hero, a thesis which he classifies
(p.223) as "On the Philippine side of things." The behavior of Gen. Daniel Tirona in Dec. 1899 is featured as the example of Filipino co-optation by the Americans, but the author fails to mention that Tirona was already notorious in Philippine history for his reported role in the rift of Filipino revolutionary forces, when he slanderously denounced Bonifacio at the Tejeros Conference of 1897. Then, soon after Tejeros, Tirona cravenly surrendered to the Spanish enemy. Might the author have missed that connection because of consistently misspelling Tirona as Tirono?
Two of the photos implied to show fighting in the Philippines were
probably taken in the U.S.: "Death in the ranks of the Kansans" and The
Twentieth Kansas Volunteers commanded by Frederick Funston. A photo
captioned A Spanish fort outside of Manila is actually a view of the walled city of Manila, Intramuros.
A longer review with further commentary on many dubious or debatable
declarations of the author is not merited, although I want to state my disagreement with his opinion (p. 31) that in 1898 there was a "long American tradition of noninterference in foreign affairs." The 1893 (not 1883) American overthrow of the Hawaiian government is indeed described in the book. And in just the Pacific, what about the forced trade treaties with Japan and in Indochina by battleship diplomacy, the demands for extraterritorial rights in China, the grabbing of a piece of Samoa?
4 July 2007.
Book Description
A gripping and provocative tale of violence, alcohol, and taxes, The Whiskey Rebellion pits President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton against angry, armed settlers across the Appalachians. Unearthing a pungent segment of early American history long ignored by historians, William Hogeland brings to startling life the rebellion that decisively contributed to the establishment of federal authority.
In 1791, at the frontier headwaters of the Ohio River, gangs with blackened faces began to attack federal officials, beating and torturing the collectors who plagued them with the first federal tax ever laid on an American product -- whiskey. In only a few years, those attacks snowballed into an organized regional movement dedicated to resisting the fledgling government's power and threatening secession, even civil war.
With an unsparing look at both Hamilton and Washington -- and at lesser-known, equally determined frontier leaders such as Herman Husband and Hugh Henry Brackenridge -- journalist and popular historian William Hogeland offers an insightful, fast-paced account of the remarkable characters who perpetrated this forgotten revolution, and those who suppressed it. To Hamilton, the whiskey tax was key to industrial growth and could not be permitted to fail. To hard-bitten people in what was then the wild West, the tax paralyzed their economies while swelling the coffers of greedy creditors and industrialists. To President Washington, the settlers' resistance catalyzed the first-ever deployment of a huge federal army, led by the president himself, a military strike to suppress citizens who threatened American sovereignty.
Daring, finely crafted, by turns funny and darkly poignant, The Whiskey Rebellion promises a surprising trip for readers unfamiliar with this primal national drama -- whose climax is not the issue of mere taxation but the very meaning and purpose of the American Revolution.
With three original maps by Jack Ryan.
Customer Reviews:
A biased, simplistic hack job.......2007-10-09
I have read dozens of books on early American history. This is by far the worst. I expect histories to at least attempt some balance. This book has none. It is simply big, evil, bad guys (Hamilton and owners of government debt) vs poor, oppressed, good guys (small whiskey producers in the West).
Errors & Such.......2007-02-24
I could list several errors in the text but the most notable is that of geography. Hogeland erroneously lists Newburyport as being in New Hampshire. It is in Massachusetts and as any well trained historian can atest it is one of the more significant municipalities of early America. Every liberal minded American should know all about Newburyport, MA before embarking on anything else relevant to the time and place from where our nation was born. To make such a clear error into print lets us know to always beware of what we read. It also arises questions of source types and research efficiency.
Overall I found the text acceptable and easy to read. The Adobe font used is easy on the eyes even in dim light. The use of uncommon words I find uneccessary. One should leave the literary genius to works of greatness. I understand that his publisher pushed him but Mr. Hogeland was not being crafty just careless. Another word should be said on that of casting unwarranted character judgement throughout the book. I know some characters are colorful individuals to say the least but cut someone down based upon your own social moray is simply juvenile. It just leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. Overall I do enjoy reading books like this as it fun to expose myself to shoddy writing. I myself am a terrible writer and it makes me glad to know that I am not the only one.
I will keep this book on my shelf and reread it but I doubt if I'll ever purchase another one of William Hogelands works on any of those edited by Lisa Drew. Nor, do I expect to cite this text.
was Hamilton good for America?.......2007-02-09
Hamilton doesn't fare well in this text. Once again, I'm left wondering why He is on our Money. 'Wondering why Gallatin wasn't even given a guest appearence on one of the Lewis & Clark Nickles.
My Thanks, again to the S.F. writer L. Neil Smith for starting my questioning of Hamilton, That was over 20 years ago. The Novel was "The Probability Broach".
The Whiskey Rebellion.......2007-01-03
Purchased as a gift for my son-in-law who is a history buff. Received in time for Christmas and packaged well (as usual for Amazon.com)
Excellent story telling, excellent history.......2006-12-28
I had never fully understood the reasons for and the behind-the-scenes conniving leading up to and causing the Whiskey Rebellion. Now I do. This is the best book on the Whiskey Rebellion I have ever read. Not only does it explain all the whys, whos, and whats; it is entertaining besides.
On the one hand there was Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and his wealthy cronies, friends and supporters. On the other hand, there was the lower class (many who were soldiers in the American Revolution). By holding down the poor, Alexander found a way to further enrich the already wealthy. I never did like that Hamilton character; now I really, really don't.
Angry, armed, poor people being screwed over by the rich and powerful. Hmmm, just after they--many of where soldiers--won our independence. It isn't any wonder they were a wee bit irritated.
Hamilton creates a problem that leads to armed conflict; George Washington then has to step in to end it.
After you read this book, you will understand all the why, whats, whos, hows, and wheres. This is a wonderful book--excellent history and entertaining besides.
Average customer rating:
- The Texas Rangers Military tranditions
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Ben Mcculloch and the Frontier Military Tradition (Civil War America)
Thomas W. Cutrer
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
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Customer Reviews:
The Texas Rangers Military tranditions.......2000-03-30
This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the early years of the Texas Rangers when they were a para military force and the beginning of their transition to the modern law enforcement agency. McCulloch played a critical role in these events>
Amazon.com
In 1786 William Cooper, determined to become a self-made gentleman of substance in post-revolutionary America, founded Cooperstown, N.Y., through a dodgy land deal. His town rose to become county seat, and Cooper became a judge and then a congressman. He lost most of the prestige he earned later, when he overstretched himself, and his local patronage weakened when he backed the Federalists against the victorious Republicans. Nonetheless, his son, James Fenimore Cooper, the early 19th century's best-selling novelist, wrote essentially a justification of his father in his third novel, The Pioneers (1823). Taylor's book--a combination of biography, personal history, social history, literary exegesis and analysis of father-son dynamics--charts the interplay between the fact and the fiction of the days when upstate New York was the frontier.
William Cooper's Town won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for history.
Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize-winning story of a frontier village in the early American Republic. With 16 pages of photographs, 7 maps, and 17 tables.
Customer Reviews:
Politics & Prestige in America's Infancy.......2005-06-08
"William Cooper's Town" certainly deserved recognition with the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. It is an intriguing look at the development of a frontier community in the earliest days of the republic. The story of parvenu William Cooper's rise and eventual decline from political and social prominence in Upstate New York is well-told with keen insight into the fractiousness of early U.S. politics.
James Fenimore Cooper's first great success in the literary world was a fictionalized account of his father's life. While there are many valuable histories of early American life, Taylor's book is particularly fascinating due to the parallel between William Cooper's life story and his son's novel, "The Pioneers." "William Cooper's Town" is a unique combination of political history, social analysis and biography linked to a study on James Fenimore Cooper's literary effort to vindicate his father's struggle for wealth, social prominence and prestige.
Taylor's book is an interesting new twist on the old story of a rising man on America's frontier. I recommend it highly. It is well worth your reading time.
Excellent Read, A Bit Over-Focused on "Gentility".......2005-06-01
This book has been well-reviewed and well-praised by several other people. It is a great book, well-deserving of its Pulitzer. The author is able to write prose well, and so distinguishes himself from many other historians. Conceptually, he has pulled together a wide range of strands that make up the history of the era, including the literary, economic, political, and social, and woven these strands into fascinating and engaging patterns. His research is solid, and his footnotes useful. Given the other reviews, here I will only try to add a perspective I found lacking in reading those other reviews.
I walk away from this book thinking it fell just a jot short of what it could have accomplished, mainly because the author seeks a unifying theme in William Cooper's search for "gentility". If the book were to be about gentility, I'd like a bit more perspective on the age and more comparisions to others. It is difficult to write a book on such a theme while focusing on a single family. I do not think this is a work on gentility, nor is it grounded by others' work on the subject. There is still a book to be written here, and "William Cooper's Town" is going to be useful groundwork for that history.
If the book is about Cooper, as it seems to want to be, I believe tying virtually every chapter to a single theme oversimplifies an obviously complex man, and results in many of the other insightful thoughts about the man and his age being underemphasized. The continual focus on gentility, by the end, seems too forced. Perhaps some of Jane Austen's characters can be overwhelming motivated by their need to demonstrate gentility, but Austen still enriches the world of such people with foils, and reminds us periodically that they are as much charicatures as characters. While William Cooper's son may have turned him into a bit of a charicature, the historian need not (and clearly this historian did not want to).
None of these comments should dissaude anyone from picking up this book - it is a wonderful work that will be influential for years to come, and it is written with a great sense of the subjects' humanity.
Fascinating.......2005-02-06
What a pleasure, what a joy to read this book. It's rare that history rises to such a wonderful pitch -- anecdote, analysis, historial context all wrapped up in one fine package.
I stumbled onto this book while perusing library shelves while my daughter picked out some kid books for herself. Since it won a Pulitzer, I thought I'd take a look. And I was treated to an amazing amalgam of history, economics, politics, and literary analysis. I love books that explore myths and then separate the fact from fiction, and I can't think of any that have done it in a more entertaining way.
If you like history, you'll love the sweep of about 50 years on America's early frontier. If you like politics, you'll love to learn about early New York political machines. If you like economics, you'll learn all about how trading economies were built almost from scratch in the States. And if you like name-dropping, there's everyone from Alexander Hamilton to Aaron Burr to Thomas Jefferson to James Fenimore Cooper.
Magisterial?.......2004-06-30
That's a pretty pretentious word to use and Taylor's book does begin to plod at some points but I think this is a fascinating account of early American pioneers. Taylor looks at William Cooper, the father of the author James Fennimore Cooper and his founding of a town in the wilderness of western NEw York just after the Revolution. In tracing the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Cooper family and Cooperstown, he gives us a great account of early American politics and life. Taylor reminds us that the edge of the Northeast was once a wild and unsettled frontier. he also shows us that the frontier, far from being some sort of idyllic outpost, was intimately connected, economically and politically, with the rest of the nation. At the same time he gives us an important social and political look at the post Revolutionary US where a man like William Cooper, a humble workman from NEw Jersey was able to work his way into becoming one of the most well respected land speculators in the country. Taylor wraps up the book with a look at the legacy of the Cooper family and how James Fennimore Cooper became a major influence on how Americans viewed the frontier. Overall a great book and worth the time and effort to read it
The Struggle for Gentility on the Frontier.......2003-11-21
William Cooper lived through the most prolific time of change in American history. And in telling the story of his time and life Alan Taylor has delivered to his audience a compelling documentation and narrative of how this period of remarkable transformation affected one individual and his family, the settlement of the New York frontier, and the political landscape of the frontier. William Cooper's Town is, first and foremost, a biography, yet it also functions as a regional history, and a literary analysis of James Fennimore Cooper's the Pioneers. With respect to these three features, Taylor divided his book into three sections: ascent, power, and legacies. Each tells a different story of William Cooper and exposes disparate characteristics of his personality and his success as a land owner and speculator, politician, and father (both of the people and of his children). Most important, each section of Taylor's unique book relates to Cooper's ambition for gentility, something which he vehemently strived for both in himself and his children. The reader gains a keen sense of the difficulty and unpredictability of frontier settlement from William Cooper's Town. Cooper acquired and lost his entire fortune in twenty-five demanding and challenging years. In addition, Cooper exemplifies the restraints left on social mobility even after the American Revolution. Cooper never obtained the greatly sought after gentry status.
Taylor's story of William Cooper widens our perspective of the early Republic. The era dominated by elite political figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, also included important characters on the periphery. While much of the United States early success is owed to the "founding fathers" its expansion must also be credited to men like William Cooper even if he was not a political genius and erudite.
Taylor's book is not a survey; rather it is mostly William Cooper's story. It is not the complete social, political, and economic history of the New York frontier. The closest Taylor comes to this is his discussion of political debates within Otsego County which effected the entire state's political status. Still, Taylor's book will certainly support anyone who researches a broader study in the future.
Average customer rating:
- A good story despite disturbing reviews.
- exciting book
- Confused reviews.
- The Matchlock Gun
- War's impact upon a family in colonial America
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The Matchlock Gun
Walter D. Edmonds
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
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ASIN: 0698116801 |
Book Description
In 1756, New York State was still a British colony, and the French and the Indians were constant threats to Edward and his family. When his father was called away to watch for a raid from the north, only Edward was left to protect Mama and little Trudy. His father had shown him how to use the huge matchlock gun, an old Spanish gun that was twice as long as he was, but would Edward be able to handle it if trouble actually came? This classic, first published in 1941, has an updated, kid-friendly format that includes the original black-and-white illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
A good story despite disturbing reviews........2007-04-24
As a Native American man enrolled in the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, I feel obliged to respond to various reviews regarding this book. First of all, for the most part, I enjoyed this book. It is a fine story intended primarily for American children. However, it is simply that: a child's story. It is indeed unfortunate that there is such a short description of "the Indians;" I suspect that this is only because of the author's purpose of writing an exciting story set in the early years of the American experiment. While the story is lacking in its description of the Native American characters, this story does present the opportunity to begin a conversation about Native Americans and their role within American history, stereotypes of Native Americans and the ongoing need to address ongoing racism that continues from the legacy of the fearful perspective of such characters as the young and noble Edward.
I have found the reviews of some readers disheartening. To deny the atrocities against Native Americans by the US government and other institutions (e.g., the Church, school system, etc.) only continues to hurt Native Americans who must live with the ongoing results of those atrocities in the shadow of a society which has unfairly benefitted from the oppression of a group of peoples. Furthermore, such denial of privilege is detrimental to American society and the freedom of all Americans.
exciting book.......2007-04-10
The Matchlock Gun, by Walter D. Edmonds,was an exciting book. There was a gun in their family, from Spain, that was longer than a man, heavy, and fired like a canon. Edward, the main character, was fascinated with the gun and felt lucky to have it in their family.
When his father is gone with the militia, Edward is responsible for the family as the head of the house, but he is only 10! Edward and his mother were scared because they thought Indians might attack, sneaking through the militia.
I was scared reading the ending, but when it was over I wished there was more.
This was a good book for 8 year olds or older, because of some violent things. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Confused reviews........2006-06-08
Can someone explain to me how a book can be full of stereotypes and at the same time have interesting characters (review by E R Bird)? I am of native American descent (Cherokee), and my paternal ancestors survived the Trail of Tears, and yet I am in no way offended by authors describing the real horrors of warfare during the French and Indian Wars - or of other such wars, like King Philip's War (1675-76). Innocents were killed by both sides in the numerous wars between Europeans and American Indians. In the case of the French and Indian Wars, the French sent their Indian allies south from Canada to raid the British frontier. Ironically, during the War of Independence, many attacks by Indians were instigated by the British in Canada against the American insurgents (see Edmonds' "Drums Along the Mohawk").
Andrew Jackson is regarded as a great president, yet he ignored the decision of the Supreme Court and sent American troops to eject the peaceful Cherokees and Creeks from South Carolina and Georgia and drive them to Oklahoma during the winter. This was a truly disgraceful incident in American history. I think this episode shouldn't be glossed over any more than the killing of noncombatants by American Indians in various wars.
The truth should be told, however uncomfortable it might be.
David Lee-Smith
The Matchlock Gun.......2006-05-04
Edward had dreams of shooting the matchlock gun, which hung up on mantle in his home, until one day the Indians came and were going to invade his home. The book The Matchlock Gun is an entertaining, adventurous book for older children. This chapter book contains some historical events that happened in the 1700's. During this time the French and the Indians were constant threats to the British. Edward and his family were British. Edward's father was called off the battle and left Edward in charge of the house and the family. Edward's father showed his how to use the matchlock gun in case of an emergency. One evening the Indians and were about to attack his home when he fired the gun killing two of the Indians.
This book takes place in the 1750's in the state of New York. During this time there was a lot of conflict between the French, Indian, and British. The main characters in the story are Edward, Trudy, who is Edward's little sister, and Gertrude, the mother. Edward is the hero of the story because he ends up saving his family from the Indians. All of the illustrations in the book are in black and white. They give the reader a general idea of the style, clothing, and transportation during this time.
The book The Matchlock Gun is full of suspense and adventures to keep the reader enticed. Once Edward learns how to use if matchlock gun, is he going to need to use it in the future to protect his family while his father is away?
War's impact upon a family in colonial America.......2006-03-20
"The Matchlock Gun," by Walter D. Edmonds, features illustrations by Paul Lantz. The copyright page notes that this book was originally published in 1941. The entire book is about 80 pages long; the main text is 62 pages long and is divided into ten chapters. In his foreword Edmonds establishes the setting of the book: the French and Indian War in colonial America. The tale looks at the war's impact on the Van Alstyne family: husband Teunis, wife Gertrude, 10-year old son Edward, and 6-year old daughter Trudy. Teunis, "a true Dutchman," is a militia captain. The tale's first chapter establishes Edward's fascination with the gun of the title, a massive Spanish weapon that hangs over the mantel.
Edmonds has crafted a simple but suspenseful tale of life in what one character calls "the wild America" during wartime. He appeals to the senses with vivid details such as the smell from butter churning. The book also gives a glimpse into his characters' domestic and social lives. Despite its short length, this is a rich text that touches on such themes as advancing weapons technology, the Dutch cultural presence in colonial America, and--most importantly--the impact of war upon families. Edward is an appealing young hero. A short author bio at the end of the book notes that Edmonds was born in upper New York State and that in 1942 this book received the Newbery Medal.
Book Description
The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22
After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.
I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."
The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.
"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.
As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."
I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.
This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.
True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09
Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.
All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.
And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.
A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15
This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.
Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10
This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.
While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.
If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.
A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13
I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.
I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:
From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"
Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.
If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."
And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.
One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.
Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.
From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."
And later in the same chapter:
"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."
For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."
Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.
The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.
Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.
This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:
· World oil supplies are running out.
· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.
· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.
· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.
· Time is running out..."
Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.
Now that's a meme worth feeding.
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The Last of the Mohicans (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
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