9/21/04
-- Again, I've let things go a bit here. Bill Eddleman loaned me
Bruce Chadwick's George Washington's War. In response to my
earlier mention of Washington, i.e. What the heck did he DO in the
revolution, this book gives the details. Turns out he was, first and
foremost, a consummate politician. He managed to bully and persuade
the Congress and the local farmers to keep feeding the troops through the
long war, and he kept enough troops from deserting to maintain a credible
threat against the British. Eventually, with a couple of minor
victories, this was enough to bring the French in on our side, resulting
in victory in the end. The author is a bit too uncritical for my
taste -- it's really a hagiography of Washington. For instance, he
reports from one of Washington's letters that he was entirely surprised
and taken aback that the Continental Congress appointed him commander of
the revolutionary army. This after he wore his full uniform every
day during the Congress! Still, if you read between the lines,
there's a lot of good information in this book that I haven't seen
elsewhere. 
?
Forget when -- Eddleman also loaned me Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
by Lynne Truss, a humorous polemic against bad punctuation everywhere.
I'm still about ready to hold a funeral for the apostrophe, but at least
here's someone who is trying to keep it on life support. 
First
I think was
The Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. This is, I think, the
best single-volume Civil War history available. It's written in a
very approachable narrative style, and spends time on both the battles and
the social history of the time. While re-reading this (I actually
had to buy a new copy this year because my old one disintegrated) I got
particularly interested in Sherman's march through Georgia and the
Carolinas.
One of the sources that
McPherson used a lot was
The March to the Sea and Beyond, by Joseph T. Glatthaar, a man whose
name absolutely defies my powers of spelling every time. I ordered
it through BookFinder, then
borrowed it from Kent Library while waiting for it to come. This
book, which appears to have been a Ph.D. dissertation, examines Sherman's
march through the eyes of the Union soldiers participating in it.
The author makes use of original diaries and letters throughout, which
gives it a very personal appeal. It's pretty much adulatory in its
approach to Sherman himself. 
For
balance I also read
Sherman's March, by Burke Davis. This one relies much more on
the contemporary accounts by Southerners who were in Sherman's path, and
naturally paints a much grimmer picture of events. It's actually an
easier read than Glatthaar's book, though more painful in its depiction of
the human cost of the war. 
Somewhere in here I got sidetracked and read a
couple of books by Christopher Moore. One
was
Coyote Blue, which is the story of the reawakening of a thoroughly
assimilated American Indian, as well as a struggle among gods as diverse
as the Trickster Coyote and Anubis.
The
other was
Practical Demonkeeping, which was Moore's first novel. While
entertaining, it's pretty much a dry run for
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove,
which I'd recommend instead.
A book that Glatthaar referred to in his account of Sherman's march (I think) was The History of Black Americans, by Philip Foner. I got the first volume out of Kent library, and I'll be going back for the others. Foner is a controversial figure -- google him and you'll see what I mean -- but the book is an impressive three-volume compendium of a vast amount of original material about black people on this continent. Usually pretty even-handed, Foner debunks some of the radicals in the field while still painting a convincing picture of the racism and short-sightedness of the white "fathers of our country." The first volume is subtitled "From Africa to the Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom," so the Civil War era doesn't appear until the next.
6/25/04
-- I didn't want to take How the North Won to
Mountain View, Arkansas for the annual St.
Louis Irish Arts performances, so I took this smaller, more packable
book of essays about the Civil War: Drawn with the Sword, by James M.
McPherson. I've owned it for a long time, but had only read the
first essay. It's actually a very readable book, and some of the
essays could serve as models of scientific reasoning for my students.
Well, okay, historiographical reasoning, but it's not really much
different. The essay on Why the South Lost is a perfect example.
He examines various hypotheses that have been presented by other authors,
looks at the predictions they make about various types of evidence, and
shows how they have been falsified. Finally he develops his own
hypothesis and presents supporting evidence. Lots of food for
thought here. 
6/15/04
-- I slipped in another Discworld book sometime around here.
As always, entertaining. This one actually has a more coherent and
developed plot than many, as the three witches (see
Wyrd Sisters) have to
travel to Faraway to stop the evil exploits of Granny Weatherwax's sister.
The evil sister is using her powers to force the people of Faraway to
enact various stories, so there are lots of allusions to fairy tales, etc.
Throw in a Marie Laveau - like Voudou queen, and it's another good bit of
entertainment from Terry Pratchett. 
6/10/04
-- Robin brought Island of the Sequined Love Nun back from her trip to
Costa Rica, and I couldn't resist reading it over the weekend.
Christopher Moore is the wittiest writer alive. This one has a few
awkward moments -- a couple of jokes spelled out with too heavy a hand,
and so on -- which I attributed to it being one of his earlier books.
Lamb is still his best, but this one
was very enjoyable. A fast read -- I read it in a couple of evening
while playing hooky from the two books below. 
6/10/04
- While reading How the North Won at home, I'm reading Evolution and
Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered, edited by Bruce Weber and David
Depew in odd moments at work. I think I'll try to write a review for
Zygon or someone like that, as it's fairly pertinent to the
Science/Religion field. Unless someone beats me to the punch.
6/9/04
- Now I'm starting on How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil
War, by Herman Hattaway, Archer Jones, and Jerry A. Vanderlinde.
I've read it before, but it's worth a second time. The book goes
through the major campaigns of the Civil War and analyzes them in terms of
military theory, particularly logistics and tactics. It's an
introduction to military theory for beginners, and the maps and diagrams
are absolutely great. You get more real understanding of the way the
battles worked from this book than from the more narrative-oriented
histories by people like Foote and Catton.
6/9/04 -- Finished reading Plan of Attack, by Bob Woodward.
I read this intermittently between O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books.
It's well written, and I think quite balanced in its viewpoint. Certainly
major Bush administration figures had the chance to explain their views of
the events. No matter how you look at it, though, it's pretty clear
that we had great narrowly military planning and really poor political and
diplomatic planning. The whole plan for what we would do after
Saddam's government fell seems to have been based on the idea that the
population would all be throwing rose petals at our feet. It's no
wonder the situation has dragged on into the current mess.
 HMS
Surprise |
 The
Mauritius Command |
 Desolation
Island |
 The
Thirteen-Gun Salute |