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It's about time somebody wrote a biography of Winfield Scott, and reading this fascinating account by accomplished military historian John S. D. Eisenhower, you'll wonder why nobody did it sooner. Scott's career spanned an astonishing 54 years and he spent most of it as a general. He was one of the few American heroes to emerge from the War of 1812; he launched a daring and successful invasion of Mexico in 1847; and he defended a vulnerable Washington, D.C., during the first months of the Lincoln administration in 1861. Scott was a profoundly courageous man with a flair for the organizational side of military life. Yet an unseemly amount of ambition and vanity marred his character, even as these qualities help make him an interesting subject for Eisenhower (who is, you guessed it, the son of Ike). Agent of Destiny is a skilled portrait of a man who is often overshadowed by the generation of Civil War leaders following him. Eisenhower deserves our thanks for writing this magnificent book about a vital figure.
Customer Reviews:
EXCELLENT HISTORY AND USEFUL.......2007-04-24
Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott by John S. D. Eisenhower is, while a bit misnamed, an excellent introduction to both the history and culture of the 19th century army and General Winfield Scott.
Most Americans remember Winfield Scott as the General who made an amphibious landing on the east coast of Mexico and marched to Mexico City. Since that is about the sum of what is taught in 11th Grade American History class, that is where most reasonably well read American's knowledge of Winfield Scott stops. Reading this book is a good first step in rediscovering the man who defined the culture and professional competency of the 19th Century American Army.
While this book has some glaring weaknesses, it does introduce the casual reader to some interesting ideas and arguments.
First, the near complete destruction of the U S Army under Gen "Mad" Anthony Wayne by Shawnee Indians in the early 1790's. While I knew that the nomative War Chief of the Shawnees - believe his name was Simon Gurdy, but my memory may be off - was a white man who held a reserve commission in the British Army, I did not realize that this was one of the incidents that led to the War of 1812. The idea that as recent as the 1790's some of the Indian tribes had enough firepower and resources to crush the bulk of the U S Army in a single battle both shows the relative strength of those particular Indian tribes and the grotesque incompetence of most American military leadership of the time.
Second, America is a country that is at its best when it is a country of second chances that believes in forgiveness as much as accountability. Winfield Scott started off his military career by being courts martialed for calling a senior general a traitor. Even though this was probably a true statement, this was not an auspicious beginning. Likewise, from the book it appears as if Winfield Scott actually led his brigade into a slaughter at the battle of Lundy Lane. Yet, he retained his rank as a Brigadier General. That combined with his youth almost ensured that at some point in the future he would become the commanding general of the
U S Army. That somewhat fortuitous set of facts turned out to be pretty beneficial for the United States in not only Winfield Scott's peacetime efforts, but also in his skillful handling of the Mexican American War. Clearly, the Winfield Scott who led his brigade to slaughter in 1812 was not the one who skillfully defeated an Army in a foreign land when outnumbered three to one.
Third, there are a series of important ideas and debates that have shaped and, to a certain extant, continue to shape the U S Army. All of these debates are touched upon - although Eisenhower does not elaborate - in this book. What sort of military does America need when all of its peer competitors are so distant in terms of space and time? What is the role of conventional forces and special forces, this question first comes to light in the various Indian campaigns in Florida and Georgia. What is the proper role of "regular" forces versus "reserve" or "volunteer" forces? Perhaps the last is an important question today in Iraq. Indeed, Eisenhower's discussions of "red legged" infantry in Florida made me think about modern day Iraq where Armor and Artillery soldiers are serving in counter-insurgency missions.
Fourth, Winfield Scott was a much better peacemaker than war maker. I lost count of the number of times that Winfield Scott negotiated away potential conflict between the United Kingdom and the U S. The last was after he had retired when RADM Wilkes - famous from the U S Exploring Expedition - had initiated an international incident by seizing two British diplomats from a Confederate ship. Moreover, Winfield Scott's role in diffusing the "Nullification Crises", perhaps, shaped the nature of American history forever. If South Carolina had left the Union in the 1820s, it is possible that the Civil War might have happened three decades earlier. It is likely that without those thirty years of industrial development and the various crises in 1840s Europe to feed Northern population growth, the South just might have won that hypothetical Civil War.
None of these topics are really expanded upon. However, this is a good book for a basic introduction to Winfield Scott and 19th Century U S Army. I highly recommend it as a primer to begin to learn more.
Brilliant.......2005-09-15
I must say that Eisenhower's biography of "Old Fuss and Feathers" was truely incredible. I absolutely loved this biography so much that I read it in about 2 days. Eisenhower researched Scott very well and did a great job portraying this great American Hero. At the end of the book you really feel like you know Winfield Scott personally and you feel sorry for the fact that old age finally overtook him when his country needed him most.
Eisenhower particularly did a good job portraying Scott's relationship with his contemporaries and the politicians. He spends an entire chapter on the Scott-Andrew Jackson feud and describes it very well, quoting the exact letters sent back and forth between the two, including Jackson challenging Scott to a duel. Eisenhower deserves special congratualations for doing the Scott-Polk relationship so well. You really feel bad for Scott with how Polk and the administration treated him before, after, and especially during the Mexican War.
Scott really was an American Hero. He can easily be considered the Father of the American Army. He led the United States military for half a century(even if not officially). He achieved one of the greatest military triumphs in World History by taking Mexico City. He gave up a supply line and was outnumbered 3:1 by Santa Anna. You can't help but admire Scott and particularly dislike Polk after reading about Scott in the Mexican War.
When you think of Scott you think of primarily warrior but Eisenhower does a great job showing that Scott was also a peace maker. He travelled across the country to mediate potential crises all the time. He helped prevent war with Britain and Canada more than once and did his best to help the Indians even though the government could care less about them.
Scott is a true American Hero and Eisenhower makes this perfectly clear with his outstanding biography of this great American.
Excellent Introductory Bio about General Scott.......2005-06-16
This is an excellent introduction to one of the United State's greatest military leaders. It is not an exhaustive account but it never claims to be one. I think this book is perfect for the military history buff who wants to find out who Scott was and what his accomplishments were. The book is less than 500 pages long so Eisenhower's treatment of Scott's over 50 years of Military service is concise. However, it highlights many (if not all) of Scott's successes and failures during his tenure. The book has whetted my appetite to find out more about this illustrous man. Read Eisenhower's book on the Mexican War, "So far from God" for a more in-depth examination of General Scott's masterful campaign to capture Mexico City and force the Mexican government to capitulate to the U.S.
Not What We've Been Waiting For.......2004-04-04
"Old Fuss and Feathers", Winfield Scott, is one of the most important soldiers in American history. He was breveted a Brigadier General during the War of 1812, his shadow passes across all of the American Army's actions during the first half of the 19th Century, and before retiring he came up with "The Anaconda Plan" as a strategy to win the Civil War.
But there is no decent biography of this great historic figure. And AGENT OF DESTINY falls far short of the mark.
Sure, it is meticulously researched. In fact, it is more researched than written. Eisenhower wrote SO FAR FROM GOD about the Mexican War; AGENT OF DESTINY seems to be an expansion of that research project.
The presentation is very episodic. They read like they were all written separately, and no real cohesive thread runs through the book.
There is just no real sense of proportion. A Scott court martial is covered in little more than a page, with the juicy details buried in footnotes, and then it goes on forever with the intriguing and fueding for positions.
And a critism that applies to much modern military history -- there are way too few maps.
Fascinating Personality........2003-12-13
This man's life is very much worth knowing about. Serving 14 Presidents, 13 as a general officer, he is the person who executed the military policies and directions of his civilian superiors.
He became a military officer almost by accident. He did this at a time when the United States was a mere concept, a thought process whose liberties and freedoms were undeveloped, untested and subject to interpretation by men who were not completely sold on the United States as a unified country.
His time coincided with the concept more popularly known as Manifest Destiny and he lived to see the United States evolve from an aggregation of discordant, fractious, sovereign States to a Nation that filled a continent. He was a man that avoided more wars than he fought and when he fought them you had best get out of the way.
The military was his life, the tool through which he made his contribution to America. Because he made his contributions in our country's formative stages, he has largely been forgotten. But he once strode across the evolution of the American stage with very big boots, a set of shoes which very few military men have since been able to fill.
John Eisenhower's book is a long overdue thank you.
Book Description
A book with 30 years of planning for 33,000 patients and developing the scientific paradigm for the proper cure and treatment of cancer without surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. This book is not about remission. It is about a cure. This book will teach one how to beat cancer and other age related diseases so you can heal your body now and live a longer and healthier life.
Customer Reviews:
Review on one the most informative sensible books on Cancer.......2007-05-19
Highly recommended reading.
A way to simply and easily understand what cancer has become so widespread in the latter century.
After having lost some dear friends to this disease, this book answered all my questions.
A very good book, esp. for Pancreatic cancer.......2007-01-10
A lot of good solid information. I highly recomend it.
Much Better Presentation of a Valid Methodology.......2006-06-30
If you've found this book, it's likely you are already disenchanted with the medical-pharmaceutical industry's despicable conduct toward the public, particularly in cancer treatment.
Earlier books by Kelly contain more detailed background and context--necessary maybe for a skeptical public. This book presents the material and method much more simply and clearly, like a recipe. You should have all his books, but this one would be the most dog-eared.
Dr. Kelly's methodology for counter-acting cancer simply works. I know because I observed it. My step-mother had breast cancer that had spread through her shoulder and down to her elbow when the treatment began.
For comparison, my mother died of ovarian cancer years before, and it had cost my father his entire lifetime of earning. The medical industry took every last dime, drove him into bankruptcy, and provided no positive results whatsoever for my mother over nearly 2 years. In economics, you supposedly exchange your valuable (money) for another valuable (results). No results means you don't pay or you get your money back. Not in modern medicine.
So when my stepmother contracted cancer, the alternative route was the only way. My father spent a year delivering the Kelly protocol to her, and by that time the cancer was completely gone. Before, any movement of her arm was excruciating. After, she could throw her arm around like a 10 year old in any direction with no pain. The cancer had shrunk until all the cells had been expelled.
She did eventually succumb, after 3 more years of life. The lifelong dietary routine that must be followed to keep the cancer in remission is very strict, and in the end she fell off it. Soon after, the cancer came back more virulently.
The Kelly method works. It may not work for everyone, but I know of no other protocol with the same success percentage and number of documented cases. Certainly its success rate is far better than that of the standard medical-pharmaceutical industry, and the cost is far less.
Used and abused.......2006-03-09
Dr. Kelley has a wonderful cancer cure plan, but his first book, "One Answer To Cancer" is great...and free. This 'new' book is less than the previous and not as informative except where to buy these 'exclusive' formulas (which should be inexpensive for the masses) that are costly.
I felt ripped off on this new book, so I sent it back.
For those that need the Kelley protocol to save help their immune system their lives, do a search on the internet and there are many sites that have it.
The Best Unkept Secret for Cancer Enzyme Therapy.......2006-03-05
I have read Dr. Lorraine Day's Cancer enzyme therapy which heals cancer strictly through diet and Juicing. This book gives you enzyme therapy using supplements. A lot of supplements. Unlike Dr. Day, there are Dr.s that will speak to you over the phone about this treatment whose phone #s and addresses are in the book. Included are many testimonials in case you are doubting. I even spoke to someone on the phone who is cancer free because of Dr. Kelley's cancer protocol. If you have cancer, you need this book.
Customer Reviews:
Levy - time for book 2.......2007-05-23
Tons of research on C since this book that has validated many of the claims - especially with regards to serious things like Aids. No studies to date that contradict any of the claims in this book. Now the Codex is trying to require a perscription for large doses of Vit C, simply because it causes diahrea (so they say). We all know the real reason. Levy - put it into words.
I hope it's all true.......2007-03-11
Interesting book, majority of the text is composed of accounts of two MDs, Klenner and Cathcart, who spent their careers reversing and curing several infectious diseases considered 'incurable' such as polio and hepititis with high dose intravenous administration of vitmain c, coupled with bowel tolerance oral dosing.
The amounts of vitamin c these MDs used was astronomical. We are talking about 100-30g per day IV coupled with upto hundreds of grams per day orally.
The premise behind it is that humans are one of only a few species on earth that don't manufacture vitamin c endogenously (most animals radically increase the amount of vitamin c their bodies produce in response to a stressor (intrusion by a pathogen, injury etc), and that supplying huge amounts of vitamin c during infection can basically eliminate most infectous pathogens, most of the time.
While Levy asserts that the book has 1200 scientific references throughout the book, none of them support the practises in the book, rather, they indicate that vitamin c improves health parameters in conditions of disease at moderate doses (~500mg-3g/day) and that higher doses may have a larger effect. Of course, none of the studies actually use oral bowel tolerance dosing (what Levy terms 'optidosing') or the amounts of vitamin c intravenously that he says will cure incurable disease states, so we are left to base our beliefs on the accounts of Klenner and Cathcart's practice.
I should add, that if Klenner and Cathcart's beliefs about vitamin c can be validated by studies that duplicate their dosing parameters, the implications are outstanding. Vitamin c could potentially have the power to replace antibiotics and antivirals (insert consipracy theory of this being the reason the medical establishment hasn't looked at work by MD's such as Klenner and Cathcart).
An exceptional book on Vitamin C.......2006-06-19
Dr. Levy did his undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins, studied medicine at Tulane and wound up teaching cardiology at Tulane. Then, to paraphrase his words, he began to think about what he was doing, and has written some truly exceptional books about medicine, which I have seen leave a DDS in awe.
One of the controversies in medicine is what use(s) Vitamin C is good for. Hardly any general practicioners use it, and many people in the realm of "alternative medicine" who talk about unknown therapies are flakes. Dr. Levy has brought light into this matter by painstakingly compiling a summary of all the studies published on its use.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who feels he or she may become sick in the next 10 years.
This is not what I thought.......2006-02-28
This is basically Levy's "term paper" on Vitamin C.
Medical Professional Excited Over This Book........2004-03-26
Having seen vitamin c infusions first hand,having witnessed complete remissions of Brain tumor,malignant melanoma,and adenocarcinoma,having used sodium ascorbate on my asthmatic daughter to stop her coughing at night when she had a cold, having crusaded for Linus Pauling to the condemnation of my medical colleauges,this book is a wonderful compilation of data that strongly implicates the AMA as being negligent in their oath and responsiblities.
This book officially affirms what I've been living for years. I have treated successfully oral herpes, chicken pox, mononucleosis, and respiratory viral infections for years in myself, my wife, and my family.
Finally, a vindication for Linus Pauling and great news for the human race. This book is the truth!!! The whole truth!!!!
Book Description
Modern Western medicine offers cures for a host of baffling ailments and terminal diseases, from arthritis to cancer. Yet, while these cures alleviate the symptoms, they often become part of the problem. Recent studies have shown that in many cases, the mind is the ultimate tool in battling illness. Curing the Incurable presents an another approach to traditional medicine and tells the remarkable story of one woman's recovery from Multiple Sclerosis by adapting a natural, proactive approach. The author includes essential information on food and nutrition, healthful recipes, along with a comprehensive index for alternative medicine resources. "Jacque C. Rigg has a pioneering spirit. Her victory over M.S. clearly shows that there are viable alternatives in the treatment and cure of diseases."
—Jack Tips, N.D., Ph.D., C. Hom.
Author, The Pro-Vita! Plan and Your Liver…Your Lifeline.
Customer Reviews:
Not a bad book and the recipes are helpful........2007-04-06
It should be pointed out that this book was written before the DMD or CRAB drugs were used to help suppress MS. Chemotherapy is only used in aggressive relapsing-remitting MS and in conjunction with Copaxone now. Jacqueline Rigg wrote this book from her experiences with active MS, over 20 years ago.
I found this book's recipes to be quite useful. I don't believe that there is a 'cure' for MS, but that it is best to examine all options.
Personally, diet plus DMD has worked very nicely for me. However....this could have happened anyway.
Sticking rigidly to a diet just because it has worked for someone else is very common and can be encountered in all diet groups, Raw, Vegan, Best Bet, Swank, Atkins, you name it, there will be diet evangelists and their devout followers.
Diet is not a religion and it's time that people grew up about this. The same goes for medicine.
When you live with a disease that can affect your body differently each day, you learn the hard lesson of living without absolutes.
From One Who Has Lived It!.......2006-06-04
In '97 I was diagnosed with MS. Someone told me about this book and I ordered it. Its a best buy with the best advise!!! A must read for anyone who seeks to listen to the inner self. Don't do as I did. Read the book and follow it. I wasted a lot of time before I finally followed it and my own inner self to wellness.
a breath of fresh air.......2003-08-05
This was fantastic. my partner has been diagnosed with ms but chooses not to take medication. this book has helped both of us and has improved his symptoms no end. it is so good to read a book that isn't full of medical terminology but just states things how they are. easy to read, easy to understand and the recipes really do taste good
Practical and Hopeful Information.......2001-01-09
I thought this was a terrific book on using nutrition and related approaches to "heal" MS, primarily because Ms. Rigg does not advocate any one particular approach but rather emphasizes the need for each person with MS (or any other health challenge) to do lots of research and figure out what works best for him or her. Her emphasis on keeping a diary to record reactions to different foods and the inclusion of many recipes are both practical and useful ways to help the person with MS. After almost a decade with this disease, I am tired of medication and even more of insurance companies, and am committed to trying the nutritional approach to MS by starting a diary this week. Thanks Ms. Rigg!
A true contribution.......2000-08-22
Jacque Rigg dared to do what the medical establishment tells the patient is iether incorrect or ineffected... taking control of your own health and denying the establishment 16K a year to pay for harmful pharmacueticals. I agree whole heartedly with most of what I have read. I myself refuse to take the medications which cause tremendous side effects, often leading to a host of other illnesses and disorders. I have turned only to organic/living foods, magnetic matresses, yoga, prayer, nutritional supplements, acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In a matter of four months, almost all of my symptoms have disappeared. This I know, is not due a "natural" remission, but my body's capacity to heal itself through proper nutrition and lifestyle. This is a wonderful introductory guide for those seeking to avoid the horrendous side effects associated with traditional "western" medicine. There are however several other natural protocols not included in the book that readers may also want to explore. Ironically, I am an Epidemiologist who teaches at a medical school, but who under any and all circumstances would follow Rigg's advise before taking the toxic medications which are currently available to MS patients. Thank you Jacque for a "true" contribution to the field of health. There are many of us out here who truly love and respect you for your efforts. Dr. Liza Molina
Product Description
Information from the Sam Biser and the University of Natural Healing on how to cure the incurable diseases.
Average customer rating:
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Curing the incurable? (EPA's Clean Lakes Program): An article from: American Scientist
Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
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ASIN: B00093TTNM
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
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