Book Description
Popular historian Joseph Wheelan recounts James Polk’s strategy of last resort for prying California away from Mexico. He had tried to buy it; he had instructed his agents to encourage a settlers’ revolt. When these measures failed, the impatient president, while cynically condemning Mexico’s anger over America’s annexation of Texas, sent General Zachary Taylor’s army to the Rio Grande River, into territory that Mexico claimed as hers. By provocatively sending Taylor there, the president got his war — and, as bitter corollaries, the scathing criticism of congressional leaders on moral grounds, and Mexico’s lasting distrust of its powerful northern neighbor.
The Mexican War was America’s first truly modern war. Steamships ferried troops, daguerreotypes captured the spectacle of infantry and cavalry marching off to battle, newspapermen reported from the front lines for the first time, and telegraphs helped speed news of victories to eager readers back home. For the first time, large numbers of the regular Army’s field-grade officers were West Point-trained. Weapons technology advances such as the mobile field artillery, the Colt six-shooter and the Sharp’s Rifle gave the U.S. Army daunting firepower. These advantages ensured victory even when Mexican troops outnumbered Americans by as much as 4-to-1.
Customer Reviews:
A book that was a pleasure to read.......2007-09-11
While there are countless books on the civil war, not many that I have found cover the mexican war quite like this one. It's a page turner, you finish the book knowing more then you did before. Since the victors offten write the history this shows a little of the mexican point of view, not a lot but a bit. I am sure the Mexican point of view would be interesting to read. And what really happed somewhere in the middle. But this book does give insight that was lost in my history classes
Obviously lacking maps.......2007-08-26
The author reports that the Duke of Wellington avidly followed the progress of the Mexican War on a map on his library wall. It would have been useful if the author included this map. For a war that stretched from Kansas to California, from to New Orleans to Mexico City, from Santa Fe to San Diego, only a few inadequate and pitiful maps are included. Although I am reasonably familiar with the Southwest, I was constantly referring to an atlas trying to follow the narrative and almost gave up in frustration half-way through the book. I suggest you acquire a good atlas of the Southwest and Mexico if you buy this book.
Excellent Overview of a Forgotten Part of American History.......2007-07-28
For most history fans, the Mexican War is a dort of Terra Incognito between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. If people remember anything it was the impetus for Thoreau to write "Civil Disobedience", a land grab, or the training ground for future Civil War Generals. All of this is covered in Mr. Wheelan's excellent book.
He starts with what led to the war, Manifest Destiny and Polk taking up the mantle of Andrew Jackson. The sordid role of petty polictics could read like today's headlines. The author clearly outlines how the U.S. and Mexico never seriously tried negotiation prior to the war's outbreak. Mexico was still angry about loosing Texas and wanting to avenge his pride.
Wheelan discribes life in the 1840's and innovations like the penny press and its effect on society. He clearly tells how both the regular and volunteer armies were put together and led. The like of the common soldier is also well told. The campaigns are clearly laid out, but my only complaint is that there were too few maps.
As in some periods of warfare, the 2 major leaders, Winfield Scott and Zackery Taylor dispised each other and in almost every way were opposites. But there dislike for each other paled in comparison to their mutual dislike of Polk. There feeling with Polk were mutual. The Mexican part of the war is not neglected.
Overall, I feel that this book and Richard Winder's "Mr. Polk's Army" are 2 essential and complimentary books on understanding the significant but neglected part of American History.
Excellent book on the Mexican War.......2007-04-29
There aren't too many books dealing with the Mexican War of 1846-48, so when I saw this come out in hardcover I had to get it. It was worth the money. Covering the entire conflict, from the Texas Annexation and Slidell's mission to Mexico City to the aftermath of the peace treaty, from James Knox Polk's early career to Abraham Lincoln's rise to fame, from dynamic young republic on the rise to sectional conflict leading to the Civil War, this book covers it all.
The book reads like a novel in many ways. When a battle is covered, the action flows from one part of the field to another, and does so without confusing readers. There are also maps included -- not as many as one would like, but they are there, and the battle maps show positions and movements for people who like such things.
Reading Joe Wheelan's "Invading Mexico," I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the Mexican War of the 1840s and the Iraq War of the 2000s (or Vietnam in the 1960s-70s). Similarities such as the war being launched on questionable pretexts, debates in Congress about the unconstitutionality of the conflict, the antiwar movement in the public, issues of executive privilge, among others. Though not everything is a perfect or even a mediocre parallel, this is a good book to read as a mirror held up to reflect the age we live in right now.
Customer Reviews:
Good Attempt at a Dry Subject.......2007-09-26
This book is a tough one to get through, not through any fault of the Author but due to the dryness of the material. I am currently in the process of reading a book on every US President and this book seemed to be the best one out there on Zachary Taylor.
I would recommend if you are trying to find out more about the subject, but if you are looking for a great historical page turner, you need to look elsewhere.
Comprehensive but often dull biography of our twelfth President.......2007-09-18
I am currently reading a biography of every President in order and Bauer's book seemed like the obvious choice for Zachary Taylor.
This book is a bit difficult to rate fairly as I doubt any full biography of Zachary Taylor could be made into a great read. Indeed, Bauer's biography is excellently researched and organized. The writing, although a bit uninspired, is easy to read and well presented. At times, however, this book is very dull and in my opinion Bauer tends to error on the side of going into too much detail. Taylor's military career had few standout moments and most of the first part of the book focuses more on Taylor's transfer from fort to fort along the western frontier.
If there is a President for which a short biography would suffice Taylor is it, and while at slightly over 300 pages of text Bauer's tome is by no means exceedingly long, at the end of the book I felt that it could certainly have been cut down by about 100 pages while still providing a comprehensive biography. Undoubtedly, however, this is the best one volume biography of Taylor available (why anyone would need to read Holman Hamilton's two volume work is beyond me) and certainly more than adequate for its task.
Bad attempt with limited research.......2007-03-03
This was a terrible attempt at scholarship. The book is poorly written and gives an overview with no specifics except for military encounters. This author should have focused his efforts on a military account of Taylor's life because after reading I feel I know nothing about the man. Admittedly there are severe source deficiencies when dealing with this subject but a much wider study could have been undertaken. Sadly there is not much written on Taylor and this does a poor job of adding to the scholarship.
Old Rough and Ready's Story.......2006-03-09
This was a good read in that it described Zack Taylor's military carreer and political excursion thoroughly. The book does a good job of keeping interest in a less than interesting character. Taylor seems to be somewhat of a whiner throughout his military career, but he was a good soldier. The author's description of his campaigns in Mexico cause the reader to wonder why Taylor was hailed as a hero of the war, but since he was in charge, he got the credit. His political success wasn't any more impressive and we were fortunate to have such an able bodied politician/statesman in Fillmore to take over upon Taylor's death. I recommend this book to anyone interested in 19th century politics.
Highly Recomended.......2005-07-30
I have read a number of presidential biographies and this was one of the best organized and best written. The author breaks down Taylor's life into substantive themes. Now, I am NOT saying the Taylor is the most interesting president to study. I am saying, however, that this is one of the best books that you will find regarding biographies of presidents.
Average customer rating:
- Mistitled
- Typically effective Shaara novel of war
- Awesome
- on the folly of preemptive attacks
- Great Book
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Gone For Soldiers
Jeff Shaara
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The Last Full Measure
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Gods and Generals
ASIN: 0345427521
Release Date: 2003-11-04 |
Book Description
With his acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara expanded upon his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War classic, The Killer Angels--ushering the reader through the poignant drama of this most bloody chapter in our history. Now, in Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara carries us back fifteen years before that momentous conflict, when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.
In March 1847, the U.S. Navy delivers eight thousand soldiers on the beaches of Vera Cruz. They are led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott, a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short tempered, vain, and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.
Scott leads his troops against the imperious Mexican dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. Obsessed with glory and his place in history, Santa Ana arrogantly underestimates the will and the heart of Scott and his army. As the Americans fight their way inland, both sides understand that the inevitable final conflict will come at the gates and fortified walls of the ancient capital, Mexico City.
Cut off from communication and their only supply line, the Americans learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. While Scott must weigh his own place in history, fighting what many consider a bully's war, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.
In vivid, brilliant prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers and their commanders trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the haunted personalities and magnificent backdrop, the familiar characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war. Gone for Soldiers is an extraordinary achievement that will remain with you long after the final page is turned.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Mistitled.......2007-01-05
I can't say that this book was aptly named, as it was principly about two or three military officers; Winfield Scott, Robert E Lee, and Santa Anna. "Scott and Lee in the Mexican War" would have been a more descriptive title. "Gone for Soldiers" seems to have no connection to the contents. While it seems to contain mostly conjectural thoughts of the principals, the narrative about the progress of the war is a good, if sketchy description of that conflict, tho it takes 424 pages to do so. Two things it points out are that great leaders also can make great mistakes, and war is great excitement until you are killed or horribly maimed. But probably the best themes are how government partisan politics can readily screw things up, from the sensible to the absurd, even back before 1850, and the similarities between the politics of that day and the present, which are clearly evident.
Typically effective Shaara novel of war.......2006-12-27
In this work, Jeff Shaara explores the development of America's officer cadre in the Mexican War. Many Civil War generals got their first major wartime experience in this event. Indeed, Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederate States of America, gained some renown for his use of a particular formation in battle.
The two major protagonists in this story are "Old Fuss and Feathers," General Winfield Scott, and a trusted engineering officer, the redoubtable Captain Robert E. Lee. Over and over, Lee's excellent scouting allowed Scott to befuddle the Mexican leader, General Santa Anna.
Other figures whom we meet who will play a role in the Civil War: Ulysses Grant, James Longstreet. Thomas (later "Stonewall") Jackson, George Pickett, and so on). We also learn of superannuated warriors such as General Wool.
All in all, the format developed by his father, in "The Killer Angels," taking a handful of key characters and using them to serve as "informants" in the development of the plotline and events, works well.
All in all, another good read and worthy of its place in the Shaara stable of war novels.
Awesome.......2006-11-10
The legacy of the Shaara name never ceases to amaze me. This book was great. The first Shaara books I read were Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause since the American Revolution is my favorite part of United States historyand after those i had to read more. I am always floored by these books. Its the best of both worlds...History and reading all rolled into one. Now onto The Rising Tide
on the folly of preemptive attacks.......2006-04-16
Prequel to the civil war trilogy, this book follows the Mexican War thru two major characters, Robert E Lee, a young captain of engineers, and the aging veteran of the War of 1812, Winfield Scott. While well worth reading on its own, it was enhanced by reading it in the week following Bush's attack on Iraq -- Shaara presciently describes an amazingly close historical precedent [the book was published in 2000] -- an American president seeks to avoid difficulties with domestic politics by making a preemptive attack on a vastly inferior nation. Whether 'Manifest Destiny' or a new world order and a war on terror, the result is an invasion of a sovereign country. The initial invasion goes well, but is soon bogged down when the mismatched enemy forces refuse to come out in open field battle. Political decisions have as much to do with strategy as military ones. While the president talks of supporting the troops, there is inadequate supports in both guns and manpower, and no preparation for the aftermath. Initial forecasts of enthusiastic welcome as liberators turns to guerilla war as the army moves inland and Scott is forced to deplete his already small forces with numerous garrisons to contain and control his supply lines. Scott must keep casualties to a minimum knowing that public support for this war is thin, and relies on a risky campaign of maneuver against a numerically superior but technologically inferior enemy.
Great Book.......2005-03-07
This one was fantastic to read. All of his books are, and the same with his father. Highly recommended.
Amazon.com
Having chronicled the Civil War in Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara casts his eye on the earlier proving ground of the Mexican War in his third novel, Gone for Soldiers. Although it secured the Southwest for a nation emboldened by Manifest Destiny, this two-year conflict has nearly faded into oblivion, eclipsed by the subsequent domestic dispute a dozen years later. Shaara's hallmarks--the deliberations of leaders and the brutal facts of battle--illuminate his engaging diversion into an oft-overlooked struggle in which men who would come to oppose one another fought under a single flag.
The veteran major-general Winfield Scott and an upstart Robert E. Lee anchor Gone for Soldiers. Headstrong, brilliant, and generally distrustful of his less able subordinates, Scott leads the U.S. troops slowly and inevitably toward Mexico City, imparting martial lessons along the way. "The worst consequence of fighting a war is not if you lose, Mr. Lee," he sighs. "The worst thing you can do is win badly." Lee distinguishes himself throughout the campaign, his meticulous scouting and shrewd inferences winning both Scott's admiration and the jealousy of officers whose ambition surpasses their experience. Lee, too, frequently assesses his place in the hierarchy, but he--like Scott--remains more bemused than seduced by the glitter of fame.
This sympathy between the two men grows as Lee observes Scott embroiled in the distracting politics of war: officers salivating for promotion, enemies more preoccupied with saving face than lives, distant legislators issuing directives. If Gone for Soldiers occasionally bogs down during its many lengthy battle scenes, unexpected and delightful small touches arise nearly as often--the "capture" of Mexican leader Santa Anna's wooden leg or the chance encounter between Lee and a young Ulysses S. Grant. Duty-bound and humble, Lee cultivates a perpetual stoicism. "Now we're out here in some place God may not want us to be. It's hard to believe He is happy watching us fight a war," he muses, a sobering coda to the grim calculations of victory. --Ben Guterson
Book Description
In this stunning, unforgettable novel, Jeff Shaara carries us back thirteen years before the Civil War, when that momentous conflict's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.
"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT."
--Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SHAARA RELIES "ON THE HISTORY BEHIND THE MEN AND THEIR CAMPAIGNS TO TELL THE TALE. . . . Most poignant of all is the appearance of so many characters who will fight under opposing flags 13 years later. Stonewall Jackson shows up as a humorless young lieutenant with a spiritual reverence for his artillery, and Ulysses S. Grant awkwardly meets [Robert E.] Lee. . . . The salvaging of such episodes from history is ultimately a patriotic task, deserving of gratitude."
--The Washington Post Book World
"COMPELLING . . . THRILLING . . . Shaara briskly drives the U.S. forces to Mexico City, building suspense at each battle, all towards the climactic storming of the gates of the capital. . . . [He] has humanized the mythos of Lee as no one ever has and, in doing, makes an enduring contribution to literature."
--Civil War Book Review
"SHAARA, AS USUAL, IS AT HIS BEST IN ACTION AND CONFRONTATION AND IN EVOKING HOW IT FELT TO BE THERE."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
Download Description
In "Gone for Soldiers", Jeff shaara carries us back thirteen years before the momentous conflict he has so brilliantly chronicled, to a time when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.
In March 1847, eight thousand soldiers land on the beaches of Vera Cruz, led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott -- a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short-tempered, vain and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.
Scott leads his troops agaainst the imperious Mexican dictator General Atonio Lopez de Santa Ana, who arroganatly underestimates Scott and his army. The Americans soon learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. And while Scott weighs his own place in history, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.
In vivid prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the legendary characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war.
Customer Reviews:
Before they were enemies.......2007-09-09
Gone for Soldiers is a historical novel of a war most Americans know little or nothing about. Thirteen years before America's tragic Civil War, men who would soon be enemies fought side by side as brothers in arms. Gone for Soldiers follows the exploits of General Winfield Scott and his right hand man and engineer, Robert E. Lee. As in all of his historical novels, weaves historically accurate information along with deeply personal characterizations to create a page turning novel. It never ceases to amaze me how Jeff Shaara picked up the mantle of his father.
Once upon a time.................2007-08-04
.....we were all on the same side. This fine book looks at the Mexican War thru the eyes of, primarily, Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee. Of course, we meet the same characters, again, 15 years later. [By then, Scott was too old for much of an active part, though the strategy he developed was quite valuable to the Union]. In some chapters, we get glimpses of others who would be heard from later, and, of course, the character was already evident; the intellegence, decency, and fundamental goodness of Joe Johnston; the brilliance [and lack of reticence] of PGT Beauregard; the tenacity and courage of Grant and Longstreet; the single-minded devotion of Jackson. One does get the hint that Stonewall, for all his greatness as a fighting officer, may not have been playing with a full deck....Gideon Pillow was a political General, though he did better here than he was to in Kentucky...Pickett was Pickett, a better soldier than the public gives him credit for.
Parallels have been drawn to our current situation, and there are some. BUT, we have to be careful. The current war in Iraq is about our own national survival; giving aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists is equivalent to state sponsored terrorism, and state sponsored terrorism is an act of war. The Mexican War was fought for lebensraum, but that doesn't make it wrong. If you would understand why we won, and why Mexico is still a third world country, look at the choice of leaders....Winfield Scott had his faults; he was gruff, vain, difficult...he was also brilliant, brave, fundamentally decent, and absolutely devoted to his country. Santa Anna was intelligent and brave; he was also an egocentric madman, totally devoted to himself. Winfield Scott saw himself as a servant of his nation; Santa Anna saw himself AS his nation...one can not read of him without thinking of the late, unlamented, leader of Iraq.
Particularly disturbing is the episode of the San Patricios...these were Irish Catholic American soldiers who deserted, and fought for the other side. Eventually, they were caught; Scott had the ringleaders shot, without hestiation. The rest were mostly hung, though Scott did spare some who repented. Those allowed to live were branded on the face with a large "D", and sent home, to what fate we can imagine. The motive of the San Patricios remains unknown...Irish Catholics have been some of America's greatest soldiers. There were brave Irish regiments on both sides of the Civil War, fighting under nearly identical flags. Confederate Chaplain Emmeran Bliemel was the first Priest ever killed in an American war. Conversly, Muslims fought with great honor in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. But...The presence of Muslim Chaplains in our Armed Forces, especially at Gitmo, in an invitation to problems. Indeed, there have been some. [Madison and, to a lesser extent, Jefferson, felt that the presence of any commissioned Chaplain violated the Constitution...but, no, that's off the track...].
Robert E. Lee should need no introduction to anyone reading this...General Scott proclaimed him the greatest soldier he ever saw. The next generation was to find out how right Scott was. Of course, others have written massively of General Lee [especially Dr. Freeman], but the essential greatness of the man is evident right here. [Indeed, the later war was to provide material for at least one full biography of many of these characters].
One could wish we had gotten to meet other characters from the Mexican War who were were heard from again...Jefferson Davis, Edmund Kirby Smith, Braxton Bragg...but this is a novel, and you can't include everything. All in all, a superb book about a little known war.
The Mexican-American War.......2007-08-02
Jeff Sharra's "Gone for Soldiers" concerns the Mexican-American War, and could be seen as a prequel for the Civil War trilogy that he and his father wrote, as it deals with some of the Civil War generals earlier in their career (Generals Longstreet, Grant, Jackson, ect.). But this story belongs to Major-General Winfield Scott and his favorite subordinate, engineering captain Robert E. Lee. Scott takes Lee under his wing and teaches Lee all the positive points of inspiring and leading an army, all the lessons that Lee will take with him into the next conflict thirteen years in the future. But for now the Army is in Mexico, and it is expressing America's Manifest Destiny, a series of laws and policies that allowed the U.S. to expand west, often just outright conquering Mexican territories. Scott is dubious at the policy, but carries it out as best as he can, he is after all a great soldier. He is constantly fighting not only the charismatic tyrant Santa Ana (here portrayed as paranoid) but also with his power mad and politically ambitious senior officers. This is a good fictional account (thought I think as close as real as possible) of the little known incident in American history. "Gone For Soldiers" has many rousing action scenes like the Siege of Veracruz, the battle at Cerro Gordo, and the Battle of Chapultepec, and the conquiring of Mexico City. (Some of Zachary Taylor's skermishes are discussed, but this was Scott's show). A thrilling adventure story that should entertain anyone and provide insight to the future Civil War leaders not often seen.
excellent tale of the Mexican War .......2007-04-14
Jeff Shaara combines history and story telling to bring a remarkable tale of the 1847 Mexican War. Gen Winfield Scott leads an assault at Vera Cruz to crush Santa Anna's uprising and finally put an end to his power in Mexico. The battle scenes are vidily written and explode across the page. What is so fascinating are the combining of Civil War generals Lee, Johnston, Grant and Jackson into this pre-civil war epic. Gen WInfield Scott, of course, was the leader of the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. A mere shell of the great general in this book.
Shaara and the Mexican - American War.......2007-02-13
In this novel, Jeff Shaara takes us back a dozen or more years to the period when US forces invaded Mexico. Many of the main military leaders in the Civil War underwent their individual and collective baptism of fire in the Mexican-American war. Lee and Grant first show the promise that they would later legitimately claim, on a much more bloody battlefield, in this largely forgotten war. Shaara continues to tell a good story well and doesn't seem to have become "bored" (as happens with many writers) with the niche that he seems to have developed so nicely.
Book Description
Eminent military historian John S.D. Eisenhower has written a highly readable and expert account of a war which--though frequently overlooked--tumed out to be the training ground for the American Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
A light in a dark point of United States history.......2006-07-11
I think that this is a good book about the yankee-mexican war. It shows the political and military problems in both sides, USA and Mexican, and also writes about personal histories, always interesting. It shows clearly also evident, that it's bad business to be neighbour of United States if your are not strong. The different ways of conduct of United States with England ( in Canada and Oregon problem) and with Mexico shows it clearly. Some things are difficult to believe , by example , that in a fight hand to hand only a yankee died and almost three hundred mexican did. but in general, I think that it's a good book for a first sight of that conquest war.
I remember a film of John Wayne which when he travels to mexican lands and a mexican in a horse come to give him wellcome, John Wayne shoot him and kill. That's the way the yankees ( not americans, because all habitants of America are americans, mexicans too ) did with every country that they can do it, Mexico, Spain ( Puerto Rico, Cuba , Filipinas, etc ), Colombia with Panama Channel, etc.
And it's very curious how this war is hide of United States films . If one see westerns films and about California, it seems a empty land and nobody knows that it was stealed to mexicans. Fortunately the time is changing and every year more and more mexican people live in that States and, who knows ? When United Stated would be not so strong, another countries made him like he did with others.
Anyway a good book that respect both fighters, only I miss a complete map with all the land stealed to Mexico ( almost a third of the country ) that reach Canada.
Understanding US and Mexican Relations Today.......2006-06-07
This book is a must for anyone trying to understand US and Mexican relations today. It is very well reserched yet readable. This period in US history was not one of our finer moments. We are doomed to regret and pay for the actions of our imperialism, in the name of Manifest Destiny, for generations to come.This book helps us understand why we still have a price to pay in 2006.
a book about the wonderful US Army.......2006-02-09
I had read other reviews about how this book is such a concise and accurate portrait of the US-Mexican American War but I thought it lopsided. He does describe in great detail the movements, strategies and people surrounding the U.S. Army but beyond this there is not much information. There is not much account of the Mexican side and for the most part the Mexican Army comes across as incompetent. Mexican victories in the war are barely examined. US Army conduct seems to be very civil when in fact there was much contempt for the Mexicans by some and many atrocities and civilian casualties. The US soldiers seem to develop a respect for the Mexicans and their cutlture if one judges from this book, enjoying the many "fandangos" along the way to the next battle. Motivations for the war are only shallowly examined. There is no mention of the valuable ports to be won in California, which Polk had set his eyes on. There is one sentence that refers casually to the San Patricio battalion of deserters who fought for the Mexican Army but there is no discussion as to why they deserted or a look at Army moral. He discusses occasionally lack of discipline in the troops but never the causes, except perhaps weariness. Apaches are described as "killing" and "raiding" but Eisenhower seems to show a great deal of compassion on the next page when a US officer must "subdue" the Apaches and manages to have them "brought to the point where they are willing to sign a peace treaty" as if the Apaches only reservation to peace were their beligerence (Andrew Jackson broke between 80-90 treaties with the Native Americans during his presidency.) In this same passage Eisenhower describes how the US soldiers could only "shudder to think" what the fate of captured women might have been, but upon bringing the Apaches out of the mountains he never tells what their actual fate was. We are left shuddering in our imaginations. And the list goes on. The problem is not so much what Eisenhower tells but what he doesn't tell. He gives a famous quote of Ulysses Grant describing the war as " the most unjust war ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker" but we never see the war Grant saw. The worst fatalities encountered in this book are the ones suffered by soldiers during battle. There is no record of the inhumanity that this war brought out in both countries. In the end it is simply a matter of a strong country pitted against an unfortunate weaker country, and the U.S. of course is fortunate enough to be the stronger. Injustice is not in this picture and if it is it is glossed over. If half the detail exercised in describing the geography of battle was given to the examination of politics, or to Mexico's understanding of the war and its battles then this would be a wonderful book. If you are interested in precisely where certain battalions and infantries of the US Army where and when then this is a super book. The physical description is detailed (although not particularly interesting) but the deeper issues that describe the real nature and character of war are virtually untouched and only lightly treated.
Al fin algo de verdad...........2005-10-28
Tenia que ser alquien como este reconocido historiador, una persona bien nacida, descendiente nada menos que del legendario Ike, quien les empieza a revelar a los norteamericanos la penosa historia de como se robaron, no encuentro otra palabra peor, la mitad del territorio que en ese entonces era propiedad de la republica mexicana, la cual siendo presa de desordenes internos, atizados por su perfido vecino del norte a traves del alevoso Joel. R. Poinsett, el que hasta el nombre de la flor de nochebuena se robo, fue facil presa del ave de presa que como vecino tenia al norte, yo quiero a los actuales ciudadanos de los estados unidos de norteamerica, me duele en el alma cuando los hieren a los matan,ya sea en Irak o en otro lado, me encantan los Bush, padre e hijo, Reagan, Kennedy y por supuesto, I like Ike, pero aquello que nos hicieron de 1821 a 1847 y en Veracruz con el lunatico de Woodrow Wilson, no tiene perdon de Dios.
Good Overview.......2005-02-24
This title compares well to the handful of other War History Books I've read.
Eisenhower does a good job of reviewing each significant battle in the right amount of detail, and the book provides decent maps and terrain descriptions (obvious musts). He also does a good job of describing the involvement of the various Generals (from both sides), and lower-ranked officers who would later play signicant roles in the American Civil War that would follow a bit more than a decade from the end of this confict.
Well done is the description of the psyche of the Mexican soldiers and populace, and the role it played in the course of the war.
While there are some descriptions of the lives of the American enlisted men (who obviously far outnumber the officers), Eisenhower doesn't really make as much as an effort as could have been made in this area... I also felt he was a bit pompous when he would question why men would follow certain leaders (like John Fremont, for example).
One area of the Mexican War, that any War History buff should not miss is the sub-story of the San Patricio (or St. Patrick's) Regiment of Irish "deserters" from the American side - which I first learned by reading this book... Knowing this story (and being half-Irish myself), I sometimes will get too many beers under my belt in a TJ bar, and say in spanish that the Irish fought harder for Mexico than the Mexicans did (they were actually forced to), and it always draws crys of "No es Cierto!" (It isn't True!)... and I say SI, ES CIERTO!
Book Description
In June 1846 Susan Shelby Magoffin, eighteen years old and a bride of less than eight months, set out with her husband, a veteran Santa Fe trader, on a trek from Independence, Missouri, through New Mexico and south to Chihuahua. Her travel journal was written at a crucial time, when the Mexican War was beginning and New Mexico was occupied by Stephen Watts Kearny and the Army of the West.
Her journal describes the excitement, routine, and dangers of a successful merchant's wife. On the trail for fifteen months, moving from house to house and town to town, she became adept in Spanish and the lingo of traders, and wrote down in detail the customs and appearances of places she went. She gave birth to her first child during the journey and admitted, "This thing of marrying is not what it is cracked up to be."
Valuable as a social and historical record of her encounters—she met Zachary Taylor and was agreeably disappointed to find him disheveled but kindly—her journal is equally important as a chronicle of her growing intelligence, experience, and strength, her lost illusions and her coming to terms with herself.
Customer Reviews:
Good reading!.......2007-09-19
I am an author. I am writing a novel based on my grandmother's life. I'm using this book as a guide to writing her story. She was born in 1863 in Clinton, Iowa and traveled west. The route she took is not know but this book gives a vivid account of the trail and its tribulations and high points.
"The curtain raises now with a new scene.".......2006-02-27
Many journals of travelers along the Santa Fe (and Oregon and California) Trail have been published, but Susan Magoffin's ranks among the best of them. Susan Magoffin was born of a wealthy family in Kentucky and had recently married the successful Santa Fe trader Samuel Magoffin. They had spent six months on a honeymoon trip to New York and Philadelphia (about which Susan also kept a journal, though to my knowledge it has not been published), and now, two months after their return to Independence, Missouri, she was to accompany her husband on a caravan transporting goods along the Santa Fe Trail to northern Mexico. She was 18 years old.
Magoffin is as charming as any 18 year old could be, and it's a joy for the reader to share her sense of adventure. She is obviously having the time of her life, despite the inconveniences of broken wagon bows and stormy weather. We also get a view of what life was like for typical travelers on the trail. There is also intrigue to a degree: Samuel's older brother James was on a mission for President Polk preceding Stephen Kearny's troops during the initial stages of the Mexican War, and news about James enters the journal at certain points, including once where he was robbed by the Apaches but somehow escaped with his life. After the trading caravan reached Santa Fe, the Magoffins contined on into Mexico, spending time at Chihuahua. The journal ends on September 8, 1847, and does not include her contracting yellow fever at Matamoras where she also gave birth to a son (he died a few days later). The couple then sailed across the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River and to Susan's family in Kentucky. (Susan would live only another eight years, dying of childbirth at age 27.)
It's a wonderful first-hand account. My only complaint is that I wish editor Stella Drumm had identified locations (camping sites, geographic sites, etc.) mentioned by Magoffin in the journal. Other than that, it's a chronicle that can be read often and always seem fresh and exciting. A must-read record of an important and lively adventure.
Primary Source tale of a honeymoon on the Santa Fe Trail.......1998-11-01
Magoffin was a name familiar to the Mexicans who had trading relations with Susan's husband for years before he married her and took her with him from the states on an expedition to Chihuahua, Mexico. She kept a diary from which she drew her information for the only book I know written by a woman, young and pregnant, whose fate it was to die in her 26th year, at home. Accounts from her perspective at such a crucial time in relations between the United States and Mexico, in a venacular peculiarly her own, make her work one of considerable importance to the serious student of the time. Revealing also are individual encounters with men, some from her own country, and her opinion of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, commander of the U.S. Army of the West stationed in Sante Fe. Susan was a young lady of class the exercise of which makes the reader proud, and whose elegance charmed all who came to know her.
Book Description
Hispanics, Native Americans, and Anglo Americans made agonizing and crucial identity decisions in this southwestern region during the first half of the nineteenth century. Whereas the Mexican government sought to bring its frontier inhabitants into the national fold by relying on administrative and patronage linkages, Mexico's northern frontier gravitated toward the expanding American economy. Andrés Reséndez explores how the diverse and fiercely independent peoples of Texas and New Mexico came to think of themselves as members of one particular national community or another, in the years leading up to the Mexican-American War.
Customer Reviews:
HOW THE LITTLE DOG ATE HALF OF THE BIG DOG: and egame a very big dog........2006-05-05
The author has an impressive academic record both before and after he earned his doctorate. He has produced a most thorough ans useful interpretation of cultural relationd on the South western frontier.*
There are many more than the shown categories and subjects listed below in rhis entry yet they only refer to the United States, They could be doubled again with Mexico as the central noun. And we can add furner headings: Spanish Borderlands, Frontiers in generall. And you can probably think of several more. This omission of Mexico simply indicates ethno-centric nautr of the cataloging, ignoring the mult-national sweep of the subject and the wie-ranging rlevence to many disciplines.
Berein the author starts out with the vominous works of the famous Alexander von Humboldt, who led an expediton to gather all the information and data he could on what id now known as the American Sourwesr. The only ptoject of equal scope and importance covering this area is the multivolume series sponsored by the US government in the 1850s is known to we geographer, geologists, and studints of flora and fauna known as the "Pacific Railroad Reports" and that required the efforts of several huge mult-personnel expeditions over a much longer period.
The author states that he omits the lower Rio Grnde del Norte Valley and the upper Valley in the present El Paso-Juarez urnban comples. Bit puzzling to me for control of those two areas was the core of political and economic concern. El Paso controlled the major route to the vast territory of Nuevo Mexico, all of which was ceded as a result of the Mexican War.
Howevwer, this book is nor a history of the borderlands, which has been asubject of scholarly concern since toe 1920s, but rather concerns the larger questions of national indentity.
Two great civilizations clashed and the apparent little dog won. In 1800 the erstwhile mighty Spanish empire stretched from Calironia to Patagoina, and around the world, though less dominant than it was before the rise of the British Royal Navy and the depletion consequent to the constant wars in the Netherlans of the seventeenth century. But the Spanish Empire in the New World was about to topple due to internal political forces, and Spain would retain for almost a century control over Cuba, along the way selling Florida to the US.
In economic and population terms both the US and Spain, which soon broke off to become the subsequent Mexican nation were evely matched. The Alglos appraching from the east who were familiat with living in closely wooded lands, opposed to the Mexicans, whose ancestral home was semi-ard, yet that made little difference for the Spanish had been in the borderlnads for two centuries and knew how to live in an arid climate. On the other hand, the Anglos' migration into the mid West had stalled at the prairies of Illinous, whose lack of forests indicted to them that the area was infertile
The Mexican (Tejano) vwesus Anglo expansionists first met in the Arkansas, Lousiana area where there was no apparent difference in the vegatation and climate, yet the Tejanos formed a cluster in the San Antionio area and were not numererous enoght to opposed the Anglos physically so a plitical solution was initiated with the land grants given to Stephen F. Austin, who, carefully screening his colonists, was also thought capable of social contro of them.
In the upper Rio Grande basin eas loacted a corridor of Mexican settlement including the settled Pueblo Indians, while to the west and east roamed the powerful Navajo, Apache and Comanche nations, always nibbling on the fringes of Nuevo Mexico. Since Santa FE and Taos were the most northern urnan areas of Nuevo Mexico, they were thousand miles from Mexioc City, if not physically certainly in conssciousness. Thus the Snata Fe Trail stretching from Missouri across the plains was a much more efficient source of manufactured goods. When the US Army marched into New Mexico they were welcomed. While, Texas, ocourse, had been a sovereigh nation for ten years.
This work ends soon after the treaty og Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded upperCanifornia, Arizona, and New Mexico, moving the actual and defacto boundaries from the Rockies of Southern Colorado and the eastern edge of the Staked Plains, to the north bank of the Tio Grande, and westwaes along the Gila to the Colorado.
This book will bevery useful in following the development of the cultural history of the borderlands.
His thesis is that the Anglos won the contest with the Mexicans becaus of their vibrant and innovative culture contasted with a poverty-stricken heritage of domination by an elite born in Spain and the resulting economic stagnation. Even those of pure Spanish blood born in Mexico had no political power, and the mestizos and Indians were even worse off.
* Note my use of the term "American Southwest". This is just as much of an indication of the dominance of the US in the area as is the world-wide use of Eurocntric terms such ad Middle and Far Easr, and the placing of the Prime Meridan for world mapping and navigation. Even the French, who for many years used the Paris meridian as the point of origin, by the end of the nineteenth century were publishing maps base on Grrenwich, with that of Paris relegated to tivk marks on the border of the map proper.
Customer Reviews:
A useful and readable insight into U.S.-Mexican relations.......2001-12-07
This useful book offers more than its title implies. Instead of being a dry legal analysis of a treaty, it offers a different way of looking at the history of Mexican-American relations. The author provides a compact review of events before, during, and after the Mexican-American war. In addition, the book provides a capsule review of attempts by Chicanos to seek the reversal of past injustices through the courts and by means of political action. The clearly written text is supplemented with five maps and four figures. Michael Michaud, Vienna, Austria
Biased Analysis, Good Content.......2001-02-06
Richard Griswold Del Castillo's work is beneficial for a probing and well rounded study into the Mexican War and the Treaty that followed. This book has great content. Castillo knows the Treaty and the debates surrounding the Treaty inside and out. Also, he is able to inform the reader of unresolved issues still relevant today for a treaty that was signed over 150 years ago. Nevertheless, he is looking for a specific outcome for his analysis. Castillo condemns the United States for it's unfair treatment of Mexico and former Mexicans. However, much of his argument is based on Article X of the Treaty and the Protocol of Queretaro. Neither document was endorsed, nor supported, by the United States. He aknowledges that, yet still attacks the United States for not abiding by both of them. It's an angry look at the United States which portrays Mexico as an innocent victim in the conflict in 1846, and the United States as a selfish, evil empire forever after.
Book Description
For mid-19th-century Americans, the Mexican War was not only a grand exercise in self-identity, legitimizing the young republic's convictions of mission and destiny to a doubting world; it was also the first American conflict to be widely reported in the press and to be waged against an alien foe in a distant and exotic land. It provided a window onto the outside world and promoted an awareness of a people and a land unlike any Americans had known before. This rich cultural history examines the place of the Mexican War in the popular imagination of the era. Drawing on military and travel accounts, newspaper dispatches, and a host of other sources, Johannsen vividly recreates the mood and feeling of the period--its unbounded optimism and patriotic pride--and adds a new dimension to our understanding of both the Mexican War and America itself.
Customer Reviews:
Imagination sparked by elation.......2007-07-29
After reading this excellent book, I couldn't help but conclude that the single most defining emotion that swept the US during the war with Mexico (1846-48) was absolute euphoria: every segment of society, just about, was excited about the war and what it meant militarily, economically, and morally for the country. From the enthusiasm of the soldiers who volunteered to fight, to that of the reporters and travelers who gave rousing and heroic accounts of the battles and generals who led them, to the novelists and poets and historians who all put their (generally) elated spin on things - all are called forth by Robert Johannsen and given their due in these pages. The country whipped itself into a frenzy of hero worship and moral righteousness as it demonstrated to a surprised world that a republic could fight a foreign war successfully, even against great odds, and could be a moral model to a civilization it believed to be corrupt and degraded. Finally in the last chapter Johannsen allows the critics, those who thought the war was a land grab for expanded slavery, a destroyer of the republican values upon which the country was anchored, and a harbinger of bigger and more destructive wars to come, their say. But the critics were in the minority and were easily out argued. Johannsen's analysis, especially regarding the literature generated by the war, is deep and interesting. The book, though it doesn't describe battles and steers clear of politics, is an excellent account of how the war was viewed and interpreted by the American public at large while it was going on. The euphoria didn't last long, however, as the Civil War loomed just over the horizon.
prelude to a greater war.......2007-07-14
For the American Civil War buff, this book can be read as a prelude to that war. It describes the jingoism in the new American republic, and the prediliction of many to readily go to war. Johannsen's retelling of the ambient mood within the United States brings the Mexican War vividly to life. We also see mention of several officers who would later rise to prominence on both sides during the Civil War.
Perhaps the relatively easy victory against Mexico helped inspire the South to later secede. Not as a major factor, of course. But when the book shows the glorification and the stunning successes, in terms of land acquired, surely some of this must have persisted till 1860. Helping give rise to expectations of another easy war.
It really was a different America back then. With the presence of slavery being the most egregrious feature. But also the sheer adoration of war, and how this was seen as necessary for the US to fulfill its destiny. No mainstream American politician or public figure openly talks like this nowadays.
Not a history........2006-10-25
This is not a history of the Mexican-American war. It is a lengthy, in-depth description of how the contemporary newspapers (and other contemporary writers, including American soldiers) DESCRIBED the Mexican-American war. I read the first 75 pages, and I learned the names of some of the American generals, and I learned the names of a few of the big battles of the war, but I learned nothing about why the war was started, nothing about what was going on in Mexico before the war started. This book does not claim to be a history of the war, and if you're looking for a history of the war, look elsewhere.
An excellent book in the Mexican War historiography.......2001-04-15
"Two thumbs up" is the simplest review for this historical analysis of the Mexican War of 1846-48. I read Johannsen's book for a class on U.S. Diplomatic History between 1776 and 1913 and loved it!! Johannsen discusses the image of the Mexican War in Americans' minds, not so much the military history of the battles. We get a better perception of America as a whole in 1846. Americans were living in an age of social and economic changes and believed that commercial pursuits were destroying the republican foundations of the new nation. To many Americans, the war with Mexico rejuvenated republican spirits and showed the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon United States against a "backward," supposedly racially inferior Mexican enemy. This book goes beyond the accounts of critics of the war, who argued that President James K. Polk and others were trying to extend slavery across the continent. We get a better sense of American reaction to the Mexican War and the changes the United States underwent during this era of "Manifest Destiny."
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