Caesar's Legacy: Civil War and the Emergence of the Roman Empire
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Challenging but Illuminating
  • History Buff
Caesar's Legacy: Civil War and the Emergence of the Roman Empire
Josiah Osgood
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521671779

Book Description

Caesar's Legacy recounts the rise to power of Rome's first emperor, Augustus, by focusing on how the bloody civil wars which he and his soldiers fought transformed the lives of men and women throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. The volume demonstrates how, during this violent period, Romans came to accept a new form of government and found ways to celebrate it in their towns and cities. It also reveals how they mourned, in literary masterpieces and stories passed onto their children, the terrible losses that accompanied the long years of fighting.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Challenging but Illuminating.......2006-06-29

Every scholar of Caesar's life knows that his legacy is by far the most controversial part of his career: did he destroy the Roman Republic? Or did he set in place changes that would (through his adopted son, Augustus) help to save it?

I had looked forward to this book, but at first was taken aback to find out that it was much more about the heir, Augustus (called at this point in time Octavian to distinguish him from his adopted father). So you might say I started the book out unsure why it was called "Caesar's Legacy" rather than "What Augustus and Antony did after Caesar died." Up to perhaps the mid-point in the book, I also had problems with the fact that Osgood chooses to try to express the feelings and perceptions of normal Romans (and provincials)in this period through the literature that survived. In the awful power vacuum after Caesar's death, the Triumvirs deliberately choose to kill political enemies and seize their estates to find property for their supporters and soldiers. To dig out how this affected real people, means for Osgood that we plow through a great deal of poetry by Virgil or Horace that deals with the people's sufferings, and that has never been my strong suit.

Yet, somewhat grudgingly, I came to believe I understood what Osgood was trying to do, and his use of literary works does work well. It is so commonplace to say "the horrors of proscriptions during the Triumvirate," but that doesn't grab your emotional attention. Talking about the small men and women who suffered through this horrible period, does. And no source could be better than the great writers of the time who could speak with immediacy about the small farmers dispossessed by the "clearings" (in which Octavian and Antony gave land to their own supporters and/or their armies); the small merchants who watched their trade wither; the exactions for endless wars, first Octavian against Antony, then the two against Brutus and the assassins, then Antony against Octavian. It was 14 brutal years of war, terror, chaos - the world turned upside-down. Perhaps most movingly, you come to see (as Osgood carefully builds his book) how the very foundation of a strong society was shaken - people had believed that you could depend on some kind of continuity in life, that justice existed, that you could depend from day to day on retaining your home, savings, family. This certainty began to be destroyed. More and more, "Fortune" (chance, luck, Murphy's Law, whatever - a goddess to the Romans) embodied Roman perceptions of their lives - one day you could be living in the small farm inherited from your great-grandfather, the next day, homeless. One day your small town in Ionian Greece could be doing well, the next day one of the armies would sack it and you lost everything - including your life, or the lives of your wife, children, parents. I found this terribly poignant and a perception that no other writer had really brought home to me. Surely, in wars anywhere and everywhere, the sense that indifferent chance rules your future is destructive to everything stable civilizations say they provide.

So, also, do you see Octavian change; from the utter ruthlessness of his proscriptions, through the constant challenges of the Triumviral period, wars, disasters, rebuilding, fighting on land and sea - to someone who apparently had some sense of just how much destruction Romans had suffered, and began to come up with ideas of how to try to make reparation for that suffering with systems that would reform what was bad, and try to save what was good, about the Roman Republic.

All in all, this is not an easy book, but it significantly enhanced my understanding of this critical period; it will be one I will read again, since Osgood's ideas are not simple or commonplace. But I highly recommend it for the serious student of Roman history, who wants to go beyond the standard comments and form a sense of what it meant to live through that awful period. In the truest sense, Caesar's legacy was the war and suffering that had to be lived through to find a new perception of the Roman Empire.

5 out of 5 stars History Buff.......2006-06-27

I found this book to be very interesting and it gave me a different cast on the end of the Republic. This history has been written many times and this book puts a new slant on it. I enjoyed it
Joshua Chamberlain: A Hero's Life and Legacy
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Something Abides
  • Pullen has done it again!
  • Solid biography about Chamberlain's later life but...
  • A genuine American hero who transcends both myth and hype.
Joshua Chamberlain: A Hero's Life and Legacy
John J. Pullen
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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  5. In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War

ASIN: 0811708861

Book Description

* 8-page b/w photo section * 5 x 8 *
Praise for John Pullen's classic, The Twentieth Maine:

". . . this comes as near reliving the Civil War as anyone in the twentieth century is likely to get." --Boston Sunday Herald

"Mr. Pullen . . . has gone to the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the participants with the thoroughness and care of a good historian, and he has had the literary skill to let the personality of the regiment come through. . . ." --Bruce Catton

During the past two decades Joshua Chamberlain has emerged as a modern icon, featured in the novel The Killer Angels, the film Gettysburg, and Ken Burns's series The Civil War. Numerous biographers dissect his Civil War career, living history interpreters speak on his behalf, and even a beer bears his likeness and name. Renowned historian John J. Pullen, who first introduced Joshua Chamberlain to modern readers, is again approaching the subject of this complex man. This new biographical essay explores Chamberlain's later life through the lens of his experiences during the Civil War and examines his place in history--both man and myth.

John J. Pullen is the author of The Twentieth Maine, a modern literary classic that is still in print after 40 years. Also by Pullen: A Shower of Stars: The Medal of Honor and the 27th Maine. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.

"On the Confederate surrender at Appomattox . . . Whether or not it was a full-fledged salute, its ordering was an audacious act on Joshua Chamberlain's part, considering the actions and attitude of Congress over the next several years and the widespread grief of thousands of Northern families who had lost fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons as a result of the rebellion. But somehow, in spite of his own suffering in the war, Chamberlain had reached a higher plane, from which he saw the surrendering Southerners as part of the nation he had fought to preserve, and he was welcoming them back into a Union that in his opinion they had never left."--from Joshua Chamberlain

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Something Abides.......2001-05-10

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain did not appear "ex nihilo" on 2 July 1863 at the craggy slope of Little Round Top. Neither did he disappear on 12 April 1865 following his magnanimous violation of military protocol at Appomattox Court House. In this volume, Mr. Pullen documents Chamberlain's life after the Civil War, demonstrating that the hero's character continued to illuminate all his life until his death in 1914.

Unlike Sis Deans', "His Proper Post;" Michael Golay's, "To Gettysburg and Beyond;" or Willard M. Wallace's, "Soul of the Lion," Pullen's text does not presume to be a complete biography. It does not address the question of what forces in Chamberlain's up-bringing formed such an extraordinary man.

Unlike Chamberlain's own books "Through Blood & Fire at Gettysburg," and "The Passing of the Armies;" or Michael Shaara's, "The Killer Angels," and Alice Rains Trulock's, "In The Hands of Providence," this is not primarily a book about soldiers at war.

The question that Pullen addresses is, "What becomes of the hero after the battles cease: how is courage displayed after the war ends?" In the case of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and other great Americans, the answer is that true heroes continue to demonstrate the same commitment to service in peace as in war. True heroes demonstrate the same integrity and courage in their chosen civilian occupations that they once showed while facing iminent death.

Forget the trendy books on leadership and values. Instead, read Mr. Pullen's book. Be inspired by the story of an exceptional leader, who demonstrated his commitment to American values until the day he died.

5 out of 5 stars Pullen has done it again!.......2000-08-21

I don't think I could say it better than the reader from Huntington, Pennsylvania - what a great review! But I agree wholeheartedly, this book allows the reader to see Chamberlain *the human* and despite his faults and frailties, he remains someone well worth admiring. John Pullen, as always, has written a very well researched and very readable book that gives one a look at the whole person. For those who are just starting to become interested in Chamberlain, this book will give you an excellent view of his later life and accomplishments (all of which were achieved despite a debilitating wound!). For those who have been Chamberlain fans for years, this book will help you get to know him even more and give you further reason to admire him.

3 out of 5 stars Solid biography about Chamberlain's later life but..........1999-09-03

Joshua Chamberlain's post-Civil-War life never reached the heights of his military exploits. John Pullen has done an excellent job researching and writing about Chamberlain after the Civil War, but, like Chamberlain's civilian life, it's not as gripping as his Civil War experiences. For die-hard Chamberlain fans and those interested in Maine's and Bowdoin's history, it's worth reading, but if it's excitement you want, read Killer Angels.

5 out of 5 stars A genuine American hero who transcends both myth and hype........1999-07-06

Joshua Chamberlain reaches through time and space and grips the imagination of all that encounter him. John Pullen, who drew back the shroud of a forgotten hero in his excellent book "The Twentieth Maine," has come full circle in this engaging and enlightening biography. Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top, burst upon the American culture in the film "Gettysburg." As if in answer to the question "What makes this guy a REAL hero?," Pullen has gathered the facts and presented us with both the man and the myth. Few heroes, stripped of legend, endure the light of truth. Chamberlain not only lives up to his legend: he invites further acclaim by the manner in which he lived, and the integrity of his character. John Pullen fills in the blanks of Chamberlain's postwar life, and shows us a man worth admiring. A true American hero, Joshua Chamberlain emerges unsullied, untarnished and quite human. Thank you, Mr. Pullen!
The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal and Slavery (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
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    The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal and Slavery (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
    Robert V. Remini
    Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0807116424
    The Bishop of the Old South: The Ministry And Civil War Legacy of Leonidas Polk
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • The Rich Young Ruler....a different choice.
    The Bishop of the Old South: The Ministry And Civil War Legacy of Leonidas Polk
    Glenn Robins
    Manufacturer: Mercer University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 0881460389

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars The Rich Young Ruler....a different choice. .......2007-06-02

    In Luke chapter 18, we learn of a rich young man who turned away from following Christ. What would have happened had he followed Jesus? This book gives one possible answer. This is one of the two or three finest books I've ever read, not just Civil War Books. It is the story of Leonidas Polk, the son of a very wealthy North Carolina plantation owner, who was converted to Christianity while at West Point, and entered the Episcopal ministry. While continuing to run a successful plantation, he was a priest, then a missionary Bishop, then presiding Bishop of Louisiana. This book gives a wealth of Church history during the years 1830-1860, including much detail of Polk's founding of the University of the South. Accepting the offer of a commission tendered by his old friend Jefferson Davis, Polk became a Lieutenant General in the Army of Tennessee.

    While the book gives more space to the "Bishop" than to the "General", there is plenty of information about Polk's military campaigns. His problems as a General are not glossed over, including less than perfect coordination during the Kentucky campaign of 1862, and his difficulties with General Bragg are well reported. [Bragg could be difficult, and the Bishop was not the only General who held a dim view of him] General Polk was killed at Pine Mountain, GA on June 14, 1864; not long before his death, he baptised Generals Hood and Joe Johnston. This would be a fitting end to a book that is a superb combination of Church and Military history. But, of course, the story of a successful Minister never really ends; numerous Churches consecrated by Bishop Polk are still in service, and the world class University he founded continues to train young people for Christian service. The life and career of Leonidas Polk remains a problem for some. How could a Christian man and Priest own around 500 slaves? He was a man of his time and place, and saw no conflict. On the record, his slaves were as well treated as any in the South. Whether we are discussing Bishop Polk, Thomas Jefferson, or even FDR, it is dangerous to project our values onto a man from a different age. Perhaps not a book for the general reader, but get this one, and read it. You won't be sorry.
    Legacy Of Injustice: EXPLORING THE CROSS-GENERATIONAL IMPACT OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMINT (CRITICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Legacy Of Injustice: EXPLORING THE CROSS-GENERATIONAL IMPACT OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMINT (CRITICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE)
      DONNNA NAGATA
      Manufacturer: Plenum Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

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      ASIN: 0306444259

      Book Description

      While an historical account of the causes of the Japanese-American internment during World War II has slowly been recorded, the psychological effects on the internees and their progeny had received little attention until the 1987 Sansei research project. This book is an exhaustive account of the project, which employed a cross-generational approach to evaluate patterns of communication, identity, and other topics within changing historical contexts. The work is of interest to psychologists, historians, and lay people concerned with the internment itself, as well as with the more general effects of trauma on victims and future generations.
      A Woman's War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy (The Museum of the Confederacy)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        A Woman's War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy (The Museum of the Confederacy)
        Joan E. Cashin , John M. Coski , Drew Gilpin Faust , Amy R. Feely , Thavolia Glymph , George C. Rable , and Marjorie Spruill Wheeler
        Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
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        Binding: Paperback

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        ASIN: 0813917395
        Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance (American Crisis Series)
        Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
        • Vicksburg in American Time
        Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance (American Crisis Series)
        Christopher Waldrep
        Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        ASIN: 0742548686

        Book Description

        During the hottest days of the summer of 1863, while the nation's attention was focused ont he small town of Gettysburg, another momentuous battle was being fought along the banks of the Mississippi. In the Longest single campaign of the war, the siege of Vicksburg left 19,000 dead and wounded on both sides, gave the Union Army control of the Mississippi, and left the Confederacy cut in half. Christopher Waldrep takes a fresh look at how the Vicksburg campaign was fought and remembered.

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Vicksburg in American Time.......2006-07-22

        On July 4, 1863, Confederate General John Pemberton surrendered the City of Vicksburg and its defending Army to General Ulysees Grant ending a long campaign and siege and giving the Union uncontested control of the Mississippi River. It was a great victory, probably the decisive event of the Civil War; but it has been overshadowed in the memory of most people by the Union Army's simultaneous victory at Gettysburg from July 1 -- July 3, 1863.

        The military history of the Vicksburg Campaign has been told many times. In his recent book, "Vicksburg's Long Shadow" (2005), Christopher Waldrep discusses the ways in which Vicksburg has been perceived by successive generations of Americans. The book is part of an ongoing effort by many historians to study history and memory -- to study the way in which the history of an event has been perceived to better understand the event and the culture. There have been a number of studies of history and memory as applied to the Civil War and Reconstruction, but this is the first such book to focus on the siege of Vicksburg in American memory.

        Waldrep is Professor of American History at San Francisco State University and he has written extensively on the American South, including a separate study of Vicksburg and Warren County,Mississippi, "Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South. 1817 -- 1880" (1998).

        Although Waldrep considers how and why the Battle of Gettysburg was commemorated differently, and on a far larger scale, that Vicksburg, most of his book is given over to different themes. The first of these is the conflict between reunion and racial justice in considering the legacy of the Civil War. A second theme is how the commemoration of Vickburg was used in the context of changing American values over time -- thus, in the late 19th Century, the creation of the Park was tied to the growth of capitalism as well as to a spirit of nationalism; during WW I, the reunions at Vicksburg were in part a means to secure support for the war effort. In the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps did extensive work at Vicksburg, and with the New Deal the Park again became an important symbol of American patriotism and unity.

        The book opens with a brief overview of the Vicksburg campaign, focusing substantial attention on the battle of Milliken's Bend in which African American troops performed heroically under fire. Waldrep gives substantial attention to the Reconstruction Era in Vicksburg, in which the goal of racial equality was frustrated for many years in the name of national unity.

        Waldrep discusses the commemoration of the strategic and military aspects of the Civil War in the memoirs written by Grant, Sherman, Joseph Johnston, and many other military leaders. He considers the political efforts that led ultimately to the creation of the Vicksburg National Military Park and to its monumentation. Waldrep describes well the different roles of Northerners and local Vicksburgians and Southerners in the creation and use of the Park, finding that Vicksburg, unlike Gettysburg, was a Park basically built by the North in a key battleground of the former Confederacy. Unlike the situation at Gettysburg, African Americans in Vicksburg were heavily involved in the use of the Park, making it a focal point for many years for the celbration of Memorial Day. There were two chapters of the Veterans group, the Grand Army of the Republic, in Vicksburg, one for African American soldiers and one for white soldiers.

        Throughout his study, Waldrep contrasts two competing views of the Civil War and its aftermath: the first view sees the Civil War as leading to a united America and to the reconciliation of North and South while the second sees it as part of an ongoing effort to achieve racial justice for all Americans. His book shows admirably how these visions competed and interacted in the commemoration of the siege of Vicksburg, and how these themes continue to deserve the attention of Americans today.

        Robin Friedman
        Civil War Journal: The Legacies (Civil War Journal)
        Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
        • Crazy Ray's Review
        • Text excellent but illustrations not as good as others
        • A great reference to the behind the scenes Civil War
        Civil War Journal: The Legacies (Civil War Journal)

        Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        ASIN: 1558534393

        Amazon.com

        Rather than look at the leaders or battles, as previous volumes of Civil War Journal have done, this third and final volume considers the impact of the war on American culture and society. It is a wide-ranging survey, encompassing considerations of everything from the end of slavery to the creation of Arlington National Cemetery, from Matthew Brady's photojournalism to innovations in combat medicine. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and drawings, and quotations from various commentators in the History Channel's Civil War Journal series are incorporated seamlessly into the text.

        Book Description

        "In many arenas, the Civil War changed things both in military and civilian life," William C. Davis observes. "The roles in society of women and minorities were altered drastically. Advancements in medicine and technology exerted a profound impact on the future. Industry burgeoned. The reporting of news entered the modern era with the photograph. Culture changed as the complexion of Americans evolved and as war's wounds imposed lasting divisions upon our society. It ensured at once that future wars would be more terrible, and yet we would be equipped to cope with that terror to come. These are the legacies of the war covered in this volume."

        Civil War Journal: The Legacies is the third volume of a three-volume treatment of the Civil War developed from the popular History Channel series Civil War Journal. Drawing on personal letters, diaries, and newspaper reports, these volumes focus on seldom-told stories of people, places, and events that bring to life the heroic intensity of the Civil War. They portray the human side of the conflict that is frequently overlooked in recounting troop movements and engagements.

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Crazy Ray's Review.......2002-11-05

        This is an excellent read. This book takes you to places and things that you may not have read much about. Any serious Civil War reader needs this in his library.

        3 out of 5 stars Text excellent but illustrations not as good as others.......1999-04-21

        I found the text well written and learned a lot that I had only guessed about previously--and was way off base. Several chapters deviate from the broadcast episodes, but they seem to benefit in doing so. (A few of these topics were never even broadcast by A&E and I haven't seen them on the History Channel either.) Some of the photos I had not seen before, and the Confederate flags on pages 340 and 341 (but did we need the lyrics to the "Bonnie Blue Flag"?) and the African-American regimentals on pages 346 and 347 are very special. My pet peeve about this book and its companion volumes is that some of the interesting photos are reproduced too small to appreciate. Others are too big. In this book, much more than the other two, the pages look like they've been thrown together carelessly. Ovals are thoughtlessly reproduced in rectangular boxes when they should have been reproduced as ovals. Some things are silhouetted beautifully, but a few that should have been handled that way are just pitched onto the page. Somebody needs a lesson in perspective. In general, this book looks "sloppy" compared to the first two in this series. In too many chapters these illustrations jump around as if no one knew what to do with them. For instance, in the Alexander Gardner chapter, the text just stops for a bunch of photos and then resumes with nothing to indicate what's going on. And the artillery and prison camp chapters look like alphabet soup. Apart from the illustrations themselves, in way too many instances the captions just repeat the text whereas most of the descriptions in the other two volumes had some neat information not in the text. I recommend the book for the text anyway--don't judge it by the weird arrangement of the photos and the mundane captions.

        5 out of 5 stars A great reference to the behind the scenes Civil War.......1999-03-04

        A very interesting reference book, however I would not recomend it to the reader who is more interested in the battles or leaders in the war. The book touched on a lower level not often heard about the Civil War, such as women in the war, slaves, trains in the war, and photogriphers in the war. I for one am not to interested in these topics but still found the book very readable. It is a fine conclusion to the other two books in the History Channels three volume set.
        The legacy of the Civil War;: Meditations on the centennial
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          The legacy of the Civil War;: Meditations on the centennial
          Robert Penn Warren
          Manufacturer: Random House
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Unknown Binding
          ASIN: B0006D8HTM
          Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown
          Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
          • Whose Legacy? A John Brown Biographer's Review
          Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown

          Manufacturer: Ohio University Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          GeneralGeneral | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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          ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
          United States Civil WarUnited States Civil War | Military | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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          Similar Items:
          1. John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights
          2. To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown
          3. His Soul Goes Marching on: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid His Soul Goes Marching on: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid
          4. John Brown: The Making of a Martyr (Southern Classics) John Brown: The Making of a Martyr (Southern Classics)
          5. John Brown (Modern Library Classics) John Brown (Modern Library Classics)

          ASIN: 0821416316

          Book Description

          More than two centuries after his birth and almost a century and a half after his death, the legendary life and legacy of John Brown go marching on. Variously deemed martyr, madman, monster, terrorist, and saint, he remains one of the most controversial figures in America's history. Brown's actions in Kansas and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, provided major catalysts for the American Civil War, actions that continue today to evoke commendation or provoke condemnation. Through the prisms of history, literature, psychology, criminal justice, oral history, African American studies, political science, film studies, and anthropology, Terrible Swift Sword offers insights not only into John Brown's controversial character and motives, but also into the nature of a troubled society before, during, and after the Civil War. The discussions include reasons why Brown's contemporaries supported him, attempts to define Brown using different criteria, analyses of Brown's behavior, his depiction in literature, and examinations of the iconography surrounding him.The interdisciplinary focus marshalled by editor Peggy A. Russo makes Terrible Swift Sword unique, and this, together with the popular mythology surrounding the legend of John Brown, will appeal to a broad audience of readers interested in this turbulent moment in American history.Paul Finkelman is Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. He is the author of many articles and books, including His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid and the Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference Peggy Russo is an assistant professor of English at the Mont Alto Campus of Pennsylvania State University. She has published in Shakespeare Bulletin, The Southern Literary Journal, Journal of American Culture, Shakespeare and the Classroom, and Civil War Book Review.

          Customer Reviews:

          3 out of 5 stars Whose Legacy? A John Brown Biographer's Review.......2006-08-25

          John Brown the abolitionist (1800-59) defied the ruling assumptions of the anti-slavery movement by taking up arms against proslavery forces, blending his own brand of militancy with a devout Calvinist piety that many historians still find difficult to comprehend. In the nearly 150 years since his failed raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, [West] Virginia, and his subsequent execution in December 1859, the nation has been divided over the real meaning of John Brown to the United States, and often the line that has been drawn between his critics and supporters has been nearly identical to the color line.

          Sensitive to the renaissance of interest in Brown that became apparent in the 1990s, Peggy Russo, assistant professor of English at Pennsylvania State University at Mont Alto, developed and hosted a wonderful multidisciplinary symposium entitled "John Brown: The Man, the Legend, the Legacy," held on her campus in July 1996. A guiding presence at the conference was Paul Finkelman, now the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany Law School. Among other works, Finkelman had already edited a collection of scholarly writings on Brown entitled HIS SOUL GOES MARCHING ON, published in 1995 (University Press of Virginia). A decade later these two scholars have published TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD: THE LEGACY OF JOHN BROWN (Ohio University Press, 2005), a collection of twelve essays gathered from the contributions of conference participants.

          The book is prepared in an attractive paperback format and includes some classic illustrations and a basic chronology of Brown's life--the latter being somewhat helpful although marked by a number of errors in dating. The editors have divided the essays into five sections: contemporaries and supporters of Brown, Brown defined, behavioral analyses of Brown, literary representations of Brown, and Brown and cultural iconography.

          By far the best section is the first, which features excellent historical research by Dean Grodzins, who provides insight into the social and political background of one of Brown's most notable supporters, the Rev. Theodore Parker. Likewise, Hannah Geffert, an expert on the theme of black participation in the Harper's Ferry raid, shatters conventional assumptions about the interest and support shown by local enslaved people in Brown's efforts. Jean Libby, perhaps the foremost documentary scholar on Brown since the late Boyd Stutler and Clarence Gee, provides insight into the life of Thomas Henry, a leading black clergyman that Brown tried--and failed--to contact and enlist in his efforts.

          Other notable contributions are made by Israeli scholar, Eyal Naveh, who explains how and why Brown's image as a martyr was undermined in the post-Reconstruction era, and by Charles J. Holden, who shows how Southern writers in the post-Civil War used their hostile portrayal of Brown to justify the defeated South and its lost cause. On the other hand, William Keeney provides an equally fascinating discussion about the use of poetry by Brown's admirers just prior to the Civil War, and how their literary efforts were designed to circumvent what they found to be difficult questions concerning Brown and his methods.

          Editor Russo likewise makes a most enlightening and entertaining contribution in discussing Raymond Massey's cinematic portrayal of Brown in two Hollywood classics, "Santa Fe Trail" (1940) and "Seven Angry Men" (1955). As Russo shows, the former portrayed Brown quite negatively, raising some scholarly criticism. However Russo does not mention that one of Brown's direct descendants actually tried to bring a lawsuit against Warner Brothers for maligning her forebear, and it was undoubtedly "Santa Fe Trail" that Malcolm X later criticized for having made Brown look like a "nut." Russo shows how the social and political context had changed between 1940 and 1955 when "Seven Angry Men" was released, and although Massey reprised his role as Brown in the latter, it was a very different film for reasons both positive and negative.


          Notwithstanding these notable essays, TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD is a multidisciplinary collection and therefore bears the burden of contemporary perception and interpretation, some of it trendy more than grounded in thoroughgoing research. Most notable in this regard is the unfortunate section featuring behavioral analyses, the contributions of which are so decidedly biased, unfair, and to a degree meretricious that they have no value to those genuinely interested in studying the life of John Brown the man who lived.

          Of course by including such contributions, editors Russo and Finkelman have remained faithful to their intention of presenting the range of views and interests coming out of the Mont Alto conference that, in my opinion as an attendee, included a degree of creative writing and visceral John Brown bashing. Still, the book's subtitle (The Legacy of John Brown) may be misleading since TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD is really more about the legacy of a fascinating and well-produced conference than about the abolitionist himself.

          Multidisciplinary collections like this have their place, but their value for serious students of Brown's life and times is quite limited. For too long John Brown has suffered--perhaps far more than most controversial figures in American history--precisely because the image of him created by novelists, journalists, and others has been too readily embraced as factual. After a century-and-a-half of politically charged diatribes and sloppy characterizations, this biographer hopes that the 21st century will finally mark an era when John Brown receives the kind of fair-minded attention by historical researchers that he deserves. Despite the valuable insights of its editors and several of its contributors, TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD unfortunately extends the legacy of "knowlege production professionals" whose biases and unstudied presumptions have made a mess of John Brown historiography.

          Louis A. DeCaro Jr.

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