Kansas Books

A great addition to the vast array of Civil War books/stories. Most books on black soldiers during/post Civil War tend to be dedicated to either particular units or brief disccusions, especially during the Reconstruction, mixed in a deep layer of the Civil War. Shaffer however has brought a much needed story to the history of African-Americans who have served in the United State military, dedicated solely to thier post Civil War struggles. For those who have ever asked themselves what happened to the soldiers after the end credits of "Glory" ran, Shaffer answers that question with much needed and appreciated depth and detail. It is a book that complements Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 and deserves its place in the annals of African-American contributions to the foundation of this nation. If you enjoy this book I highly recommend Slotkin's Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality

Though the recent attention of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry- largely due to the success of the movie "Glory"- has garnered some awareness of blacks in the American Civil War, little is still known about these magnificent men who donned the blue uniforms. Blacks played an integral role in the preservation of the Union and deserve the same attention in regards to the respect shown to Civil War veterans.

Information on Civil War veterans remains rather sketchy in places with one of those pertaining to African American veterans. Until Donald Shaffer's study, very little was known on the pension availability to black soldiers. Although not surprising, Shaffer's accounts of racism and prejudice further emphasize the general reaction to African Americans. Thousands of blacks died in the war, but they still were not given the full support of white veteran groups or even the general public. After assisting the unification of this country, blacks continued to climb uphill in regards to social rights.

Lastly, it was eye-opening to see how difficult our government made it for black veterans to get a pension. The pension process was long, tiresome, and difficult for white Union veterans, nevertheless blacks had it worse. Shaffer's book will be a key addition to any Civil War library and may be a standard for a portrait on black veterans in the postwar period.

This book is truly beautiful! The author goes seamlessly over the topic of liberalism VS. republicism. It is also very instructive upon the polictical views of Thomas Jefferson.

Jean Yarborough's book is an excellent compilation of Jefferson's beliefs on what constitutes good character to maintain republican government. She correctly surmises Jefferson would be appalled at modern America's obsession with making money and consumption. She also relates how he would bemoan the loss of leisure and family time. He would be disturbed by American's long commutes to work and large crowded cities. Yarborough relates how Jefferson would recommend reading, frugality, study, and emphasis on morality in schools. She further points out he would expect the cultivation of good character is essential to a well-ordered republic. Overall a great book.

like the first reviewer I also had this assigned for a class and it was the book I enjoyed the most. I've done a lot of political organizing and am interested in what makes a social movement tick and why it succeeds or fails, and this book does a great job of getting into the heads of political activists. The story is also very interesting, there's a real drama to the way the author tells the story. It reminds me of another book on the Populists, The Populist Moment, by Lawrence Goodwyn, only this book is more concerned with how women and men related (or not) to each other, and how this affected the movement. The book also does a good job of covering women's politics, especially the woman suffrage movement. The author's argument is that women tried to be both committed to their gender and their political party, and couldn't balance the two, which I think in part is a problem feminists have today. I enjoyed it very much, and learned a lot.

This book was assigned in a course on American political history, and I have to admit I didn't expect it to be so interesting--I mean, Kansas??!! Turns out Kansas was a pretty amazing place in the 1890s, and there were a lot of very strong, interesting women involved in politics for the first time. The book is often pretty funny, especially when it looks at how freaked out men were about women getting the vote. I've recommended it to a couple of friends as a book to read outside of class (although it helps to like history, like I do), and though they thought I was crazy at first, they really like it to. I'm now looking for more books like it. Maybe I should start a list!

During 1856 in St. Louis her mother and sister fall ill with the cholera epidemic, which has spread widely in Missouri , nine-year-old Meg and her brother Preston are sent to live with relatives in the praire lands of Kansas, until the epidemic passes. In her diary Meg describes the dangerous journey they have to take to get to Kansas and when they finally get their she and her brother Preston must adjust to the rugged lifestyle which is much different from St. Louis with their everyday chores. This was a great story about how a young girl braved her new lifestyle and someday wishes to be reunited with her family. I highly recommend Dear America fans to read this great new book in the My America series. I can't wait for the conclusion of Meg's story in her next diary!

When she is given a diary for her ninth birthday, Margaret Cora Wells, called Meg by her family and friends, expects to record her daily life in St. Louis, Missouri. But then a cholera epidemic strikes, and Meg's mother and little sister, Grace, fall ill. Having already lost two children to cholera seven years before, Meg's mother is determined not to lose another. So Meg and her seven-year-old brother, Preston, are sent to live with their aunt, uncle, and cousins in the Kansas Territory. Accustomed to a comfortable city life, Meg finds frontier living to be tough, but at the same time full of adventure. But in 1856, Kansas is a very dangerous place, where pro-slavery Border Ruffians attack northerners like Meg's family, who have come to Kansas in the hopes of making it a free state. Can Meg come up with a plan to help her family? I highly recommend this new title from the My America series.

In The Cattle Towns, Robert Dykstra demonstrates how five Kansas towns--Dodge City, Ellsworth, Caldwell, Abilene, and Wichita--developed through a complex set of conflicts that bred progress. Instead of adding to the frontier myth of wild and violent cattle towns, Dykstra builds upon studies of urban history and applies them to the developing frontier to create a local, social history that has national relevance.

Success or failure of a town depended on a number of variables including location, promotion, and people. Location as related to the county center, railroad lines, and especially for this study, cattle trails, played major roles in determining town futures. Advertisements in newspapers located between the Kansas cattle towns and the source of the cattle herds in Texas lured the trail drivers north. The most important element in the future of the cattle towns, however, was the local population.

Although the town newspapers often gave the impression that residents of the town and surrounding areas spoke in a unified voice, that was usually not the case. Disagreements between businessmen and rural folk, ranchers and farmers, natives and foreign-born, and reformers and vice practitioners were frequent. Dykstra contradicts earlier studies that claimed successful town development on mutual cooperation and shows how progress was made through such differences.

The differences over town policy provided a forum for area residents to discuss the future vision of their town. Whether the discussion was over alcohol, gambling, prostitution, or the movement of the splenic flu deadline, the result was an exchange of ideas focused on improving the town. Town businessmen, for example, sympathized with the reformers who sought to improve the moral values of the town by eliminating vices, but not at the financial cost of losing the trail drivers who were attracted by such vices and spent their funds liberally throughout town.

Due to the advancement of technology and the progression of settlers into the once open Kansas frontier, the cattle towns shifted their focus from cattle to the more consistent industry of agriculture. The westward movement of settlers altered the routes of cattle drives away from towns like Abilene and Dodge City and railroads continued to expand their coverage, removing these towns from the cattle industry. Despite the moral vices that accompanied it, the cattle industry between 1867 and 1885 helped provide an immediate economic base that developed towns and laid the groundwork for future success.

Utilizing information from period newspapers, letters, maps, government documents, and previous studies, Dykstra creates a well-written study that explores urban aspirations and rivalry in a frontier setting. By examining the motivations of individuals and groups in the cattle towns, Dykstra has made a valuable contribution to town building on the changing frontier.

"One of the most intelligent, interesting, and worthwhile contributions to the field of Western history in some time. [The author] has managed to say something rather basic about American culture in general." -- William H. Goetzmann. "Excellent . . . readable and persuasive. . . . One of the most refreshing and rewarding approaches to be applied to western history topics in many years, for [the author] is asking basic questions about social process and the nature of urban society." -- Howard Roberts Lamar.

As a beginning quilter, this book has been more help to me than I can express. It takes you through each step of the quilting process and gives helplful hints to make it easier and ensure your quilt looks the best! I've loaned this book to several of my friends and they love it too! Highly recommend!

Well written, informative, beautiful pictures. Kathy Delaney explains "the basics" extremely well, at least for a beginner, which I am in quilt making. I appreciate her explanations and her instructions. She does a lot of hand quilting, which I prefer to do machine quilting--but if someone needs to learn to hand quilt, Kathy is the one to teach them. Her instructions are clear and concise and always has a photograph of what she is teaching you to do. Fine needlework is excellent by this quilt artist. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to begin quilting and piecing quilts.

BETWEEN THE BLOODS is the story of a boy facing poverty and racism as he grows up in the years following WWI. Wayne struggles to understand a world that punishes him for his mixed heritage. Illegitimate and poor, Wayne suffers the abuse of Bill, his one-legged, drunken step-father, who says Wayne is cursed by the Dog Star. And wherever Wayne goes, he finds people determined to prove Bill right. But with the love of his mother, his dog and an assortment of colorful friends, Wayne has good adventures to go with the bad. Follow Wayne through the years as he searches for his identity and finds humor, friendship, tragedy and hate along the way.

ROBERT GREY CLOUD has been many things during his lifetime -- farm hand, door-to-door salesman, store clerk, businessman -- and he can add author to that list. Born in 1912, Robert lived through the times described in this book and his own childhood experiences were the inspiration for Between the Bloods, his first novel. Still seeking new adventures, Robert celebrated his 90th birthday with his first tandem parachute jump. Robert lives in Idaho with his wife of 63 years, Jean.

[Yes, I am related to the author - he is my grandfather]

BETWEEN THE BLOODS is the story of a boy facing poverty and racism as he grows up in the years following WWI. Wayne struggles to understand a world that punishes him for his mixed heritage. Illegitimate and poor, Wayne suffers the abuse of Bill, his one-legged, drunken step-father, who says Wayne is cursed by the Dog Star. And wherever Wayne goes, he finds people determined to prove Bill right. But with the love of his mother, his dog and an assortment of colorful friends, Wayne has good adventures to go with the bad. Follow Wayne through the years as he searches for his identity and finds humor, friendship, tragedy and hate along the way.

ROBERT GREY CLOUD has been many things during his lifetime -- farm hand, door-to-door salesman, store clerk, businessman -- and he can add author to that list. Born in 1912, Robert lived through the times described in this book and his own childhood experiences were the inspiration for Between the Bloods, his first novel. Still seeking new adventures, Robert celebrated his 90th birthday with his first tandem parachute jump. Robert lives in Idaho with his wife of 63 years, Jean.

[Yes, I am related to the author - he is my grandfather.]

My son regularly checks this book out from the school library. He says it's his favorite book. I decided to read it as well and found it one of the better children's books I have seen lately. While my son enjoys the idea of actually building a snow-capped mountain that would eventually have tall trees, streams with trout and other wild animals, I found the book to be very inspiring for an adult as well. It has very powerful messages about reaching for the impossible and the write up in the back of the book about the founding father's vision was very educational. It has incredible depth for a children's book and combines things kids enjoy such as construction, mountains, animals, fishing with a powerful message about having the vision to achieve things that most people think are impossible. The illustrations are stunning and make you want to head to the mountains!

Inspired by the quest for the impossible dream as written in the literary classic Don Quixote, Billy's Mountain is a picturebook about a young boy whose passion is the idea of creating a vast, snow-capped mountain amid Kansas' seemingly endless flat plains. At first he tries to build a mountain with dirt and rocks; he persists long after his friends tell him to give up, and a reporter puts his story in the paper. Amazingly, a wealthy and determined old African-American man named Jim learns of Billy's dream and decides to help make it come true. It takes bulldozers, railroad cars, and an immense amount of labor to create the mountain - but once risen the mountain blends with the landscape as the seasons pass and even attracts wildlife to its slopes. Utterly captivating, full-color illustrations done in a somewhat impressionistic style bring this beautiful and heartfelt picturebook to life. The final page of "Billy's Mountain" offers a simple lesson plan for teachers to use, offering questions to ask students such as, "Building a mountain is an almost impossible task. What are some things from the past that people thought were impossible but turned out not to be impossible?"

I acquired this book many years ago and have re-read it several times since. It is one of the most respected history books concerning the Old West because it relies on contemporary newspaper and similar accounts. It turns up in the bibliography of just about every worthwhile Western history book, and deservedly so.

Some years ago, as a professor of Criminal Justice, I was asked to teach a course about the History of the Policing Profession and while scrambling for research, this was in the days before Internet etc., I discovered Great Gunfighters of the Kansas Cowtowns. I was very pleased with the content and the measureable factual accounts or as factual as they can be within this era. Actual newspaper articles and descriptions written at the time of the event are included in the book along with the exploits of lesser known lawmen/gunfighters of that era. Ben Thompson, Long Hair Jim Courtright, Dave Mather, Billy Brooks, Chris Madden, Squirrel Annie, Bear River Tom Smith are amoung lesser lights highlighted along with Wild Bill, Wyatt Earp and others. The newspaper accounts are quite factual, plus they revealed an evolution of the culture of the era. Great Gunfighters is not a novel, but is a display of the activities of several individuals who by one means or another contributed to both the allure and order of the cowtowns and other western sites.

Blue Horizons, by Irene Bennett Brown, portrays the status of women during the frontier period with wrenching accuracy. It's hard for contemporary readers to envision a time when "the gentler sex" had few legal protections and were basically the property of their husbands. Her story continues with the characters from the first book in the series, Long Road Turning, and focuses on the courageous Meg Brennon. Hunted by a sadistic husband who has already crippled her for life and will do anything to get her back, Meg attempts to get a legal divorce at a time when the courts were cruelly disposed to dismiss claims of mental and physical abuse as "provoked" by the victims. By exposing her location and new identify to her husband, which she must, if she appeals to the courts, she risks incurring more abuse or even death. In St. Louis, she befriends Hamilton Gibbs an excellent lawyer and truly compassionate human being who is awed by the strength of the disparate group of women who are creating the town of Paragon Springs in Western Kansas. Not only is Blue Horizons a moving, face-paced story, Brown's details on women's rights in the 1880's could serve as a text for sociology students. Adding to the tension are attempts to destroy the fiber of the precious fragile community by a rancher, Jack Ambler, who sees town-building as providing legitimacy for the homesteaders. Blue Horizons is a masterful blend of fiction and history. Definitely recommended for the discerning reader.

Blue Horizons, by Irene Bennett Brown, portrays the status of women during the frontier period with wrenching accuracy. It's hard for contemporary readers to envision a time when "the gentler sex" had few legal protections and were basically the property of their husbands. Her story continues with the characters from the first book in the series, Long Road Turning, and focuses on the courageous Meg Brennon. Hunted by a sadistic husband who has already crippled her for life and will do anything to get her back, Meg attempts to get a legal divorce at a time when the courts were cruelly disposed to dismiss claims of mental and physical abuse as "provoked" by the victims. By exposing her location and new identify to her husband, which she must, if she appeals to the courts, she risks incurring more abuse or even death. In St. Louis, she befriends Hamilton Gibbs an excellent lawyer and truly compassionate human being who is awed by the strength of the disparate group of women who are creating the town of Paragon Springs in Western Kansas. Not only is Blue Horizons a moving, face-paced story, Brown's details on women's rights in the 1880's could serve as a text for sociology students. Adding to the tension are attempts to destroy the fiber of the precious fragile community by a rancher, Jack Ambler, who sees town-building as providing legitimacy for the homesteaders. Blue Horizons is a masterful blend of fiction and history. Definitely recommended for the discerning reader.