Customer Reviews:
Hymns and Thoughts for Church School Teachers.......2007-04-28
Marva Dawn has a believer's heart and a teachers mind and together they give us wonderful insights as to how to foster young people in the faith of Jesus Christ. This book would be a wonderful gift for a minister or Christian educator and would no doubt be referenced often.
Marva has included outstanding hymns that convey the message of each of the chapters, at the beginning of each chapter. "Bless the Ones Who Nurture Children" is just about the best hymn anywhere about teachers in the church. It would make an excellent rally day hymn or as a thank you hymn on teacher appreciation Sunday.
There are excellent discussion questions for each chapter which would make it a good adult study book, too.
If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.
Excellent.......2004-03-20
This book is excellent for Christian educators and youth ministers who are feeling burntout and discouraged over the state of children in the church. Dawn goes beyond the recommendations of pre-packaged youth minstry programs and addresses the need to CHALLENGE youth in order to make them disciples. Dawn offers several examples of her own experiences in which children and teens embraced difficult teachings and sophisticated music in favor of things that supposedly cater to kids. This books is also a wake-up call to Christian parents who are too quick to embrace popular culture in their own homes and who may mistakenly believe that youth ministry is doing its job correctly.
She's right on.......2004-01-09
This is a great book for parents, pastors, worship leaders, as well as lay persons. She explains worship, educates on why the church does what it does how it does, and challenges churches of all denominations and leanings (traditional to contemporary) to re-examine the way they approach youth involvement in church.
thought and spirit-provoking.......2003-08-02
I enjoyed the hymns at the beginning of each chapter and the discussion questions at the end of each chapter. This would be a great book for a group to read together in that sense. Marva Dawn comments on a whole range of subjects, from worship to the media and the meaning of work. It doesn't have much of the "fluffy" stuff that I find in a lot of so-called "popular Christian books," and I find it bracing and refreshing, good tonic for the spirit and mind. Wish I could get some people in my church to read and discuss and act together on the ideas brought out in the book.
Viable alternative to raising kids in an amoral society.......1999-02-19
Written from a Christian perspective, this book has something to say to both Christians and non-Christians who are seriously concerned at the way our children are being raised (or more aptly destroyed) by modern "post-Christian" culture. Marva Dawn correctly assesses the threats to the well being of our children and offers the best way to counteract such influences. Mrs. Dawn rightly focuses on the Biblically rooted, Christ centered Christian community of faith as the key to saving our children from the influences of a dying culture. This book is a must read for the pastor, parent and educator (Christian or not) seeking alternatives to the way modern society has tried and failed to "raise" our kids. This work is insightful and at times heart wrenching in the statistics offered as examples. Be prepared to "dog-ear" pages and highlight passages at will! The information and insight in this book is worth coming back to again and again. (Chapters I believe Christian leaders should take special note of are 3-6 and 10)
Book Description
The controversies in South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas over the display of Confederate symbols illustrate the power and saliency of the myth of the Lost Cause (the Confederacy was doomed from the start in its struggle against the superior might of the Union, but its forces fought heroically against all odds for the cause of states' rights). In reality, this was and is an elaborate and intentional effort on the part of Southerners to rationalize the secession and the war itself. In this volume, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying the ways in which it falsifies history. They have created a thoughtful and provocative volume that makes a major contribution to Civil War historiography.
Customer Reviews:
Not all I had hoped, but some bright spots.......2005-03-26
I was most interested in the generalship of Grant versus the actual (not glorified) generalship of Lee. I was hoping to find some confirmation of my suspicion that Lee really wasn't that great and Grant really wasn't all that bad. To some degree, the book tries to do this with a limited success. It takes Lee down a notch from his almost divine pedestal in the eyes of some. But I found it hard to find a convincing argument that Lee was anything but a great, more-then-competent general.
I see no problem with Southerners focusing on Lee's military greatness with some pride. Despite the causes some generals fight for, we can still admire their cunning as military commanders, Rommel is a great example much like Lee. Besides, the North got the ultimate hero in Lincoln who most Americans hold in the highest regard, he transcends the Presidency itself.
Where I get upset is with marginalizing slavery as anything but THE central issue of the War. Whether the participants at the time knew it or not, Slavery was what the War was all about. I think the people in the North, particularly the Republic soldiers, knew what it was about. They voted overwhelmingly for Lincoln in a clear show of support for the cause. The South was, and still is to a large degree, in denial and this is where the book does a much better job. Chopping away at what should be called the State's Rights Myth of the Confederacy. It traces the evolution of the Southern response to defeat from the immediate catastrophe of the War to the ultimate historical revision that is the Lost Cause. Other places where the book lays out a strong case against the Lost Cause includes: the myth that the South was solidly unified, that its defeat was inevitable and that its soldiers were braver and more committed then their Northern counterparts.
It's a very necessary book. It is important for people to remember always who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. Few other conflicts in history have had so clear a line drawn between Evil. The cause the Republic fought for was the most noble of all, human freedom. It's a national tragedy if we ever allow that to be forgotten or replaced by the bad guy's interpretation of that conflict.
A Terrible Propaganda Piece.......2004-07-28
The shamelessly teleological approach to research displayed in this book is its most memorable feature. The ability of the authors to disregard 25 years worth of scholarship on Southern nationalism is only the most blatant methodological crime committed in what is without a doubt one of the worst examples of research I have ever encountered.
The War Continues.......2002-11-27
Somewhat convoluted approach to the Southern cause, but now that I have finished the book, it is not worth reading. Perhaps it is worth checking out of the public library to grasp the "Northern" view point, but overall, the book is too partisan.
an important propaganda piece.......2002-10-13
Expect to see this volume show up on required reading lists for students in Politically Correct history classes across the nation. For students who find themselves in such classes, I recommend
(1) the excellent review of this predictable propaganda piece found at...
and
(2) any good reference on the central fallacy of it's editors: anachronistically reading current prejudices and partisan controversies into past events and calling it "history". This type of tendentious writing of polemical tracts is well treated in the excellent, albeit somewhat dated: Whig Interpretation of History by Herbert Butterfield.
This is not to say that the mythological elements of "The Lost Cause" are beyond criticism. Another book, which might also be on at least a few "Politically Correct" reading lists, but much better than this collection, is "Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America" by William C. Davis.
You can find more about Butterfield's and Davis' books by searching for them on this site.
Interesting Essays about Southern Civil War History.......2002-05-06
Having just finished this book, I see why some of the essays have caused some controversy. It takes a hard look at the facts of the war, versus what has been presented as accurate history by many Southern leaders and writers. Simply put, some of the authors openly question many commonly held views, particularly those proposed by people interested in justifying the South's loss, or reasons for leaving the Union.
Overall, the essays are solid: some great, some good, and a few are only okay. I found Alan Nolan's, Gary Gallagher's, and Jeffrey Wert's essays to be most compelling. They are all well written, researched, and argued. Also, the topics they cover are interesting. Although I do not agree with Alan Nolan's low opinion of General Lee as a soldier, the rest of his essay takes many of the myths of the "Lost Cause" head-on, and dispells them convincinly.
Two of the essays I did not find very exciting: Keith Bohannon's, or Charles Holden's. The topic were too narrow for my taste. The other essays are all good, and helped add to my understanding of the war.
I recommend this book to anyone who is a Civil War "buff", or student of the war. If you think that the war was not fought over slavery, but only states rights, you should explore the discussion of this topic in numerous essays.
Book Description
After Lee and Grant met at Appomatox Court House in 1865 to sign the document ending the long and bloody Civil War, the South at last had to face defeat as the dream of a Confederate nation melted into the Lost Cause. Through an examination of memoirs, personal papers, and postwar Confederate rituals such as memorial day observances, monument unveilings, and veterans' reunions, Ghosts of the Confederacy probes into how white southerners adjusted to and interpreted their defeat and explores the cultural implications of a central event in American history. Foster argues that, contrary to southern folklore, southerners actually accepted their loss, rapidly embraced both reunion and a New South, and helped to foster sectional reconciliation and an emerging social order. He traces southerners' fascination with the Lost Cause--showing that it was rooted as much in social tensions resulting from rapid change as it was in the legacy of defeat--and demonstrates that the public celebration of the war helped to make the South a deferential and conservative society. Although the ghosts of the Confederacy still haunted the New South, Foster concludes that they did little to shape behavior in it--white southerners, in celebrating the war, ultimately trivialized its memory, reduced its cultural power, and failed to derive any special wisdom from defeat.
Customer Reviews:
How the South used the "Lost Cause".......2000-12-04
Dr. Foster provides an intriguing account of how the "Lost Cause" mutated to fit people's perceptions and needs. Confederate sentiments started and were celebrated as a form of nationalism, and idea that pulled the South together after the War. As time wore on, the "Cause" became more commercial as people come from all over to attend veterans celebrations and to see the monuments that seemed to spring up in every Southern town and city. Veteran and other organizations used reunions as a means to raise money. After the turn of the century Southerners used the "Lost Cause" to set themselves apart from the rest of the country. The emergence of the New South grew out of this newfound sense of being special and different. Although Foster's writing can be dry, he provides a cogent argument that would benefit anyone interested in the South after the Civil War.
Average customer rating:
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Monuments to the Lost Cause: Women, Art, and the Landscapes of Southern Memory
Manufacturer: University of Tennessee Press
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Book Description
In the decades following the Civil War, southerners erected hundreds of public sculptures, constructed architectural memorials, and created outdoor ritual spaces as means to express their deeply felt perspectives about the conflict. Built first in mourning and later in a wave of celebratory commemoration that peaked at the turn of the century, the sculptural monuments found across the region record the nostalgic views of Confederate veterans, their descendents, and especially their women. White women often led fund-raising campaigns to build the monuments, which carry inscriptions speaking of courage, duty, states' rights, and "northern aggression." The statues honor the common soldier as well as Confederate leaders such as Lee, Jackson, and Davis.
Monuments to the Lost Cause: Women, Art, and the Landscapes of Southern Memory is a richly illustrated collection of fourteen essays examining the ways in which these memorials—from Monument Avenue to Stone Mountain—and the public rituals surrounding them testify to the tenets of the Lost Cause, a romanticized narrative of the war. Several essays highlight the creative leading role played by women's groups in memorialization, while others explore the alternative ways in which people outside white southern culture—African Americans and Union supporters—wrote their very different histories on the southern landscape.
The authors trace the origins, objectives, and changing consequences of Confederate monuments over time and the dynamics of individuals and organizations that sponsored them. Thus these essays extend the growing literature on the rhetoric of the Lost Cause by shifting the focus to the realm of the visual. They are especially relevant in the present day when Confederate symbols and monuments continue to play a central role in a public—and often emotionally charged—debate about how the South's past should be remembered.
Customer Reviews:
An Extraordinary Eye-Opener!.......2002-04-06
Wilson's Baptized in Blood is a brilliant book, one of which I was required to read for a graduate history course on religion in the American south. Although I was born and grew up in the south, I nevertheless was a foreigner there. There was much in the psychology of southerners which made no sense to me. Reading Baptized in Blood was an extraordinary eye-opener! Though I am yet and always will be a stranger in the land of my birth, through the cogent narrative Wilson provides, I understand more deeply now the mythic, psychological origins of the many peculiar and bizarre thoughts, feelings and behaviours of southerners. Southerners REALLY and TRULY BELIEVED that GOD was on their side, in the prosecution of the civil war, and have had to reconcile their defeat as best they could. The inability to let go of that loss goes far in making southerners what they are.
Baptized in Blood is well worth the reading of anyone who seeks to understand the post-civil war period, and/or the social and political psychology of the American south.
Brilliant Look at Civil Religion in the South.......2000-05-18
Charles Reagan Wilson's work brilliantly describes the civil religion (as described by Geertz) of the "Lost Cause" that was pervasive in the Reconstruction and Early Modern South.
Wilson argues that this civil religion was a combination of Christian and Confederate symbols. According to Wilson this civil religion was formed out of Confederate ministers attempts to reconcile defeat in the war with the Will of God and (as the ministers believed) Confederate righteousness.
Significant in this study is Wilson's look at the role that White Supremacy played in this civil religion. He looks extensively at the role of racism as embodied in groups such as the KKK.
All in all, the work is a brilliant look at ideas pervasive in the reconstruction and early modern south, ideas which have been influential in formation of the modern New South.
Explains the history and hypocrisy of the religious right.......1999-10-31
This book discusses the theological basis of southern slave society. Anyone who questions the religious self-righteousness of the southerners should read this book because it highlights the contradictions inherent in the hateful southern society and the teachings of Jesus Christ. I have acquired a much greater understanding of the history of the religious right, and, being a southern black trying to understand the hatred around which I live, this book enlightens my perspective.
Book Description
William C. Oates is best remembered as the Confederate officer defeated at Gettysburg's Little Round Top, losing a golden opportunity to turn the Union's flank and win the battle--and perhaps the war. Now, Glenn W. LaFantasie--bestselling author of Twilight at Little Round Top--has written a gripping biography of Oates, a narrative that reads like a novel and that reveals, for the first time, the compelling and sometimes astonishing dimensions of this remarkable individual. Oates was no moonlight-and-magnolias Southerner, as LaFantasie shows. Raised in the hard-scrabble Wiregrass Country of Alabama, he ran away from home as a teenager, roamed through Louisiana and Texas--where he took up card sharking--and finally returned to Alabama, to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become a respected attorney. During the war, he rose to the rank of colonel, served under Stonewall Jackson and Lee, was wounded six times and lost an arm. Returning home, he became wealthy investing in land and cotton, married a woman half his age, and launched a successful political career, becoming a seven-term congressman and ultimately governor. LaFantasie shows how, for Oates and many others of his generation, the war never really ended--he remained devoted to the Lost Cause, and spent the rest of his life waging the political battles of Reconstruction. Yet in one of the final acts of his political career, Oates championed the cause of suffrage for black Americans, delivering an impassioned speech at his state's constitutional convention. Here then is a richly evocative story of Southern life before, Fduring, and after the Civil War, based on first-time and exclusive access to family papers and never-before-seen archives.
Customer Reviews:
A Soldier in his Heart.......2007-05-23
On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel William C. Oates let his troops, the 15th Alabama, in the fateful and unsuccessful charge against Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on the far left of the Union line at Little Round Top. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine have become American heroes, but far less attention is given to Oates. In "Gettysburg Requiem" (2006) Glenn Lafantasie offers the first full-scale biography of Oates (1833 -- 1910). It is an intruiguing picture of a man and his times and of the changing South after the Civil War. LaFantasie is a professor of Civil War history and Director fo the Center for the Civil War in the West at Western Kentucky University. He is the author of "Twilight at Little Round Top", a book which focuses on the stuggle for this famous hill on the second day of Gettysburg.
Oates lived a long and eventful life. He was raised in poverty. In his mid-teens, he fled Alabama to avoid prosecution for incidents resulting from what would become his lifelong propensity to violence. For several years, he lived the life of a wanderer in Texas and Louisiana. Oates returned to Alabama, disciplined himself, and became a successful attorney. An ardent Confederate, he raised a company, served with Stonewall Jackson, and with Lee, and participated in many important battles of the Civil War. He was wounded six times and ultimately lost his right arm. After the Civil War, Oates returned to Abbeyville, Alabama where he became wealthy through his law practice and land speculations. He served seven terms in the United States House of Representatives and one term as the Governor of Alabama. Oates was named a Brigadier General in the Spanish-American War, but he never saw combat in that conflict. In 1905, Oates published a book on which he had worked for years, "The War between the Union and the Confederacy and its Lost Opportunities."
Lafantasie gives a full picture of Oates's career, and he describes Oates's character as well. Throughout his life, Oates was courageous, but he remained prone to violence. After losing his right arm late in the war, Oates fathered a child with a young African American woman who was his servant and was nursing him back to health. Later, Oates fathered another illigitimate child with an adolescent 14 years of age. At the age of 48, Oates married a young woman, "T" who was 19. The marriage was lasting (over 28 years) and Oates loved his family and supported the education of his children, including the two illigitimate sons, through college, graduate school, and successful careers. According to LaFantasie, Oates' life was driven by a desire to have power over others. He describes Oates as racist, sexist, and xenophobic. Yet he recognizes many fine qualities in his subject. In 1901, Oates acted courageously at the Alabama Constitutional Convention where he was in a distinct minority in opposing changes which led to the disenfranchismement of Alabama's black citizens.
The best parts of this book are those which describe Oates's early rootless days of wandering in Texas and those which describe Oates's career in the Confederate Army. Lafantasie has a close, detailed knowledge of the fighting for Little Round Top. By focusing on Oates' role in the struggle, Lafantasie made the battle, and the combat between the 15th Alabama and the 20th Maine clearer to me than many accounts which try to discuss the totality of the action. Lafantasie convincingly shows that the Battle for Little Round Top was the pivotal event of Oates's life. Oates's younger brother, John, was fatally wounded in the fight for Little Round Top. John had been ill, and Oates tried to keep him out of the combat, but John insisted on moving forward. Oates never forgave himself. Many soldiers close to Oates died on the hill. Oates relived his brother's death, the terrible combat, and the failure to take Little Round Top many times during the ensuing 46 years of his life. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get a monument to the 15th Alabama at the point of their closest penetration of the Union position and he corresponded with his one-time foe, Joshua Chamberlain.
Lafantasie also gives a good picture of the changes in the South following the Civil War as mirrored in Oates's long life and in his career as Congressman and governor. Oates became a proponent of the "Lost Cause" school of the Civil War, which romanticized the Old South and blamed the defeat of the Confederacy solely on the Union's superiority in numbers and material. Much in Oates life suggests he remained an unreconstructed Confederate to the end. But he did have moments, especially at the 1901 convention, that show he was finding his way to a different, broader view.
It is good to have a biography of Oates. Lafantasie's study is thorough and well-documented. In places it is also polemical, insufficiently historical, and psychologistic, as Lafantasie criticizes sexist attitudes in the South, in particular, and is overly harsh in his speculations on the reasons underlying Oates' attraction to young women. Lafantasie also at times adopts the tone of a historical novel more than that of a history as he tries to read Oates's thoughts and mind in the absence of hard evidence. With these qualifications, I enjoyed and learned something about Oates, the Civil War and the post-Civil War South from reading this book. Readers with a deep interest in the Battle of Gettysburg or in the South after the Civil War will benefit from Lafantasie's study.
Robin Friedman
He fought for more than the South.......2006-11-28
Two men who have had a very significant impact on the Civil War as we know it today lived a century after it ended. Neither was a soldier; neither was a professional historian. Michael Shaara was a novelist. Ken Burns is a documentary filmmaker. As evidence of their influence, just take a look at that standard reference, Mark M. Boatner's Civil War Dictionary, first published in 1959. Look there to see what you can find out about William C. Oates, the colonel of the 15th Alabama who led the attack against the 20th Maine on Little Round Top. What will you find? Nothing. Oates isn't in the book. Now, however, nearly fifty years after Boatner compiled his dictionary, Oates is a very well known character to anyone who has read Shaara's book or seen Burns's Civil War series.
This past summer the first full-length biography of Oates appeared, more than 400 pages about a man who never actually attained the rank of colonel, a man who was replaced as commander of the 15th Alabama after leading it for nearly two years, a man who fifty years ago did not warrant a footnote in one of the Civil War's standard reference works. So, does he warrant being the subject of a full-blown biography?
You bet. Glenn W. Fantasie has done a terrific job of telling Oates's tale, and of using him as a tool to delve into the greater issues that filled Oates's own life and times. Oates's path through life was one that easily lends itself to the telling of a great story. He began as a hot-tempered brawler who frequented the small towns of pre-war Texas. He ended as a Southern politician who could actually entertain, and fight for, the idea of giving black men the vote. In between he raised a company to fight for the Confederacy, was brave to a fault (or so his men thought), lost an arm at Petersburg, served seven terms in Congress fighting against railroad land grants and for free silver, and one term as the governor of Alabama.
As the title suggests, the cause of the Confederacy was not his only "lost cause," and it is by laying those others before us that Professor LaFantasie makes this biography so much more than just another biography about a Civil War soldier whose main attraction to an author is that he has not been written about before. Oates was a fascinating character. His constant desire to lead from the front made him a prominent figure throughout the times in which he lived. This fine biography does him the justice denied him in times past.
"A Truant Disposition".......2006-11-04
William C. Oates, the subject of Glenn LaFantassie's "Gettysburg Requiem" is a bundle of contradictions: born poor, died wealthy; apparently racist, secretly intimate with his black servant; a respected attorney and newspaper publisher but shot and killed a man; wounded six times in battle but rose no higher in rank than lieutenant colonel; saw Lincoln's election as a danger to the South, lamented Lincoln's assassination.
LaFantasie's research reveals a Confederate hero whose life was characterized by anger, violence, guilt,inconsistencies, weaknesses, and relentless struggle for success. Oates may well be described as one of those souls who can resist anything but temptation.
The book's bibliography is a compendium of excellent Civil War
sources, the research seems to be as complete as anyone could compile, and the presentation is as clear and easy to follow as the subject matter will allow.
Those who have climbed Little Round Top at Gettysburg, who are fascinated with the battle between the 20th Maine and the 15th Alabama, who want to know more about the post-war conflicts between General Joshua Chamberlain and "Colonel" Oates over the placement of monuments on the battlefield will find "Gettysburg Requiem" required reading.
Book Description
A witty, adrenalin-fuelled manifesto for universal values by the maverick philosopher.
Is global emancipation a lost cause? Are universal values outdated relics of an earlier age? In the postmodern world, ideologies of all kinds have been cast in doubt. In this combative new work, renowned theorist Slavoj Zizek takes on the reigning postmodern agenda with a manifesto for several "lost causes." From a provocative redemption of Heidegger's engagement with the Third Reich as "a right step in the wrong direction," to reasserting class struggle as the underlying reality of global capitalism, to a defense of the emancipatory legacy of Christianity against New Age spiritualism, Zizek confronts the failures of contemporary theory and proposes unexpected resolutions.
Book Description
The Spotsylvania Campaign marked a crucial period in the confrontation between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Waged over a two-week period in mid-May 1864, it included some of the most savage fighting of the Civil War and left indelible marks on all involved.
Approaching topics related to Spotsylvania from a variety of perspectives, the contributors to this volume explore questions regarding high command, tactics and strategy, the impact of fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in which some participants chose to remember and interpret the campaign. They offer insight into the decisions and behavior of Lee and of Federal army leaders, the fullest descriptions to date of the horrific fighting at the "Bloody Angle" on May 12, and a revealing look at how Grant used his memoirs to offset Lost Cause interpretations of his actions at Spotsylvania and elsewhere in the Overland Campaign.
The contributors:
—William A. Blair, Grant's Second Civil War: The Battle for Historical Memory
—Peter S. Carmichael, We Respect a Good Soldier, No Matter What Flag He Fought Under: The 15th New Jersey Remembers Spotsylvania
—Gary W. Gallagher, I Have to Make the Best of What I Have: Robert E. Lee at Spotsylvania
—Robert E. L. Krick, Stuart's Last Ride: A Confederate View of Sheridan's Raid
—Robert K. Krick, An Insurmountable Barrier between the Army and Ruin: The Confederate Experience at Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle
—William D. Matter, The Federal High Command at Spotsylvania
—Carol Reardon, A Hard Road to Travel: The Impact of Continuous Operations on the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1864
—Gordon C. Rhea, The Testing of a Corp Commander: Gouverneur Kemble Warren at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania
Customer Reviews:
The Best CW Historians Essays on this Brutal Battle.......2001-01-14
Gallagher hits homeruns with this wonderful series of books on the critical campaigns of the CW. Not a continuous retelling but Gallagher and company get into specifics of the campaign through separate essays that allow greater detail on controversies, personnel, mistakes, and many subjects that prior to this were limited in detail. An example is Krick the Younger's detailed essay on the little known battle of Yellow Tavern that cost Jeb Steuart his life. The other essays all offer new detail and great insight. I was particularly fascinated by Gallagher's own essay on Lee's grappling with command erosion through the loss of Longstreet, Ewell's collapse and Hill's physical erosion. Show's Lee as a great commander much like a coach that loses star players but still manages a great game. All the essays are excellent by Matter, Reardon, Blair, Rhea and Carmichael but Krick senior's feature on the Mule Shoe exhibits great detail on one of the most horrid portions of any battle of the CW involving endless hours of close up fighting in the salient. The fighting involves trench warfare, attacking and shooting from just a few feet apart, hand to hand combat, continuous rain and a continuing of a struggle with death that seemed to have no end. After you read Krick's Mule Shoe, you recognize how the war changed dramatically from Bull Run to an incredible desperate struggle of all out war. Read closely Krick senior's dig at Longstreet who was not present after being shot down in the wilderness. Krick, a legendary critic of Longstreet, cannot leave him alone even in his absence.
Another tour de force from Gallagher et al........1999-02-18
A great addition to the Campaigns of the Civil War series, and proof that there is always something fresh to say about any historical subject. I especially liked the essay concerning Lee's personnel moves in the wake of The Wilderness; it's becoming increasingly politically incorrect to praise Marse Robert. Also, the essay on the fighting at the Bloody Angle is a wonderful piece of microhistory. The maps are excellent. As with the rest of the series, a must- read for the hardened Civil War student.
Customer Reviews:
Worth Reading for Open Minded.......2007-10-04
As an experienced conscious channel, I have no trouble believing that this is an authentic channeling from our Creator. This book is for the very open minded only and should not be read until the first two books, "Right Use of Will" and "Original Cause - The Unseen Role of Denial." The information is so profound it defies description. If you want the true story of creation, and can withstand some startling revelations, this book is a must. When reading channeled information it is important to ask "Is it meant to control or inform?" This book is definitely meant to inform. It is not an easy book to read and requires a reader that is sincerely dedicated to searching for the answers.
Book Description
Thomas Jefferson advocated a republic of small farmers--free and independent yeomen. And yet as president he presided over a massive expansion of the slaveholding plantation system--particularly with the Louisiana Purchase--squeezing the yeomanry to the fringes and to less desirable farmland. Now Roger Kennedy conducts an eye-opening examination of that gap between Jefferson's stated aspirations and what actually happened. Kennedy reveals how the Louisiana Purchase had a major impact on land use and the growth of slavery. He examines the great financial interests (such as the powerful land companies that speculated in new territories and the British textile interests) that beat down slavery's many opponents in the South itself (Native Americans, African Americans, Appalachian farmers, and conscientious opponents of slavery). He describes how slaveholders' cash crops (first tobacco, then cotton) sickened the soil and how the planters moved from one desolated tract to the next. Soon the dominant culture of the entire region--from Maryland to Florida, from Carolina to Texas--was that of owners and slaves producing staple crops for international markets. The earth itself was impoverished, in many places beyond redemption. None of this, Kennedy argues, was inevitable. He focuses on the character, ideas, and ambitions of Thomas Jefferson to show how he and other Southerners struggled with the moral dilemmas presented by the presence of Indian farmers on land they coveted, by the enslavement of their workforce, by the betrayal of their stated hopes, and by the manifest damage being done to the earth itself. Jefferson emerges as a tragic figure in a tragic period.
Customer Reviews:
History Covered from a Different Angle.......2007-03-02
Roger G. Kennedy examines the steps that were taken by Thomas Jefferson to secure the Louisiana Territory from Spanish acquisition. MR. JEFFERSON'S LOST CAUSE: LAND, FARMERS, SLAVERY, AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE covers the pivotal years of 1802 and 1820 and other years connected to Kennedy's study. His main premise is to prove that if constrictions did not exist for Yeomen and slaves, if Jefferson's personal character, arrogance and pessimism, did not interfere with the decisions he made, concessions could have been made before and after the execution of the Louisiana Purchase that may have prevented the US Civil War and the issue of slavery.
MR. JEFFERSON'S LOST CAUSE is a unique examination that Kennedy narrates with extreme detail. But one of the unfortunate aspects of his narration is that some of the passages are so intense with historical data that one loses his point, or forget what the book is about. As Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History and the National Park Service, Kennedy attempts to creatively intertwine his knowledge and fondness for biological, geological, ecological history, Early American and Roman history as it relates to the activities that occurred with the land. However, they appear out of place and somewhat disconnected to the main subject at hand - Jefferson, the land, slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase. For example, readers may become lost if they do not know about geology, and the different periods that existed, the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which he uses as analogies to explain John Marshall's Dartmouth College decision of 1819 and how it ties in with the phases of capitalism and corporate growth as well as the introduction to chapter 13 where he begins his discussion with a short biology lesson about organisms. In addition, this is yet another book where the main character disappears amongst the immense amount of information. Kennedy dedicates a chapter or two on several key contributors to the Louisiana Purchase, Alexander McGillvray and Fulwar Skipwith.
So in essence, what can be learned from reading MR. JEFFERSON'S LOST CAUSE? Kennedy emphasizes that Jefferson was the "father of the land," but did use his experience of Plantation management to the best of his ability to provide balanced relations with the Yeomen. The story and analysis of this historical event was told from a different angle, but may have been enriching if the narrative moved laterally. While reading the book, memories of the past come to mind when I used to have to write and revise papers for my history classes, and had to constantly remind myself what my thesis was. Otherwise, the bibliography is a helpful source to understand the foundation of Kennedy's research.
Socialistic drivel.......2005-06-07
If you want a good book regarding the Founders and slavery, look to Paul Finkelman's Slavery and the Founders, not this disappointing mess. The organization is poor, there's not a logical flow to the information provided, and the author has a tendency to ramble. We know the Founders failed to implement the Declaration and Jefferson was a hypocrite on many subjects. Don't waste your time hearing it over and over again in this book.
Jeckyl/Hyde Jeffersonians.......2004-09-26
The truth comes out sooner or later, we hope. Here the record speaks for itself, deflating the strains of Yankee Doodle with some 'historical materialist' analysis of the facts of the case re the schizophrenia of our revered founder, Tom Jefferson, a man of fine words and a spastic record on the issue of slavery. 'What might have been' competes with the indictment of the lost opportunity to prevent the spread of the plantation system into the new territories of the emerging American system, especially in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase.
Between the Declaration and the Gettysberg Address we find too much American history sawdust.
Excellent piece of research behind the myth machines operating on a July Fourth schedule, 'whole cloth', like the commodity of empire in the British cotton kingdom that rapidly survived the blunder of losing its fiefdom in the soon reconquered South.
Yeoman farmers? Come on. My leg is pulled out of joint.
fascinating.......2004-07-19
I found this book fascinating on many counts.
First, the description of how the plantations east of the Allegheny Mountains were viewed as disposable by the men who ran them, since it was cheaper to buy new land on the frontier than properly maintain the land they currently possessed. Also, how these same men for various reasons and led by Jefferson resisted the industrialization that would diversified the economy of the south.
Second, how Jefferson and his allies catered to the land gluttony displayed by those early planters as new land was acquired for the United States. This was largely accomplished by dispossessing the people inconveniently already settling the land, and handing large swathes of land over to slave-holding planters emigrating from the lands they had exhausted.
Kennedy in fact dwells for much of the book on the territory of Florida (expanding beyond the current borders of that state across much of the South) possessed by Spain and settled prior to US acquisition by a mixture of Indians, whites and blacks who out of neccessity practiced sustainable agriculture on a small scale. I found the picture of Florida in that period to be one of the particularly interesting parts of the book. The relationship between the US and the people already settled on lands it wished to acquire (especially Indians), using Florida as a case study, was enlightening.
Kennedy provides some critical information for evaluating Jefferson's political leadership on the most compelling moral issue facing the young republic-the endurance and expansion of slavery within its boundaries. First, although the debate in Congress during his presidency over the expansion of slavery into new territories was very close, Jefferson refrained from using his influence to lead in this controversy. Thus, his anti-slavery rhetoric was saved for moments in his life (early and late in his career) when it was unlikely to influence policy, and perhaps as no coincidence his self-interest and the interest of his landed friends. Indeed, once Jefferson's agriculturally impoverished land would no longer yield a profit, rather than join other planters heading west, he decided he could support himself most easily by breeding slaves to be sold to those emigrants. In this way, the man who despised the merchant and industrial classes for their supposed lack of moral character, supported his own extravagent lifestyle. In this, as on many other issues, Jefferson was an impressively self-indulgent hypocrite. Sadly, this supposedly great president was striking for his lack of will and vision on how best to establish a republic in which the AVERAGE citizen would have a reasonable opportunity to pursue happiness.
I would have liked to have given this book 4 1/2 stars, because there was a certain lack of organization, and some parts were confusing, so I can't say it was perfectly written. But I found the subject matter truly eye-opening and heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter.
If I could give it a zero, I would........2004-06-11
Roger G.Kennedy is a man on a mission: to embellish, lie and slander Thomas Jefferson. Kennedy is the typical modern biographer,always ready to destroy another one of America's heroes. In the sad and cynical fashion of today, Kennedy does his best to paint Thomas Jefferson as a lousy President, slaveholder and racist. The book is deplorable, just as most modern American history has become. I am sure the modern left, postmodernist, deconstructionist crowd loves this piece. It has all of the nihlism, lies, and propaganda one would expect from a "profession" laden with Marxists and Leninsts who would like nothing better than to see another American icon destroyed. A real piece of garbage.
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