Kansas Books

This was an approach studying indivdual justices rather than cases in describing the Supreme Court. Would highly recommend social science instructors use the material when discussing the workings of the Court. Would like to have seen more information on the problems and contributions of the many law clerks who are essential to the operation of the Court.

I am a Supreme Court junkie but I confess this is one of the most curious books about the court that I have ever read. If you thought that there was no aspect of the lives of US Supreme Court justices too obscure for CQ's The Supreme Court Compendium to answer, think again.

David Atkinson's book looks at only one thing - the circumstances in which US Supreme Court justices come to leave the bench and the details of their deaths. I suspect that some might consider this book the epitome of the scholarship of trivia but I would disagree. It has a very narrow focus but a larger and more important picture emerges from it - the reluctance of justices to leave the bench and the near impossibility of removing them against their will. By the time you have read it you may be surprised how many justices remained on the bench long past their "sell by" dates. It is also interesting to see the strange devices adopted by the court to work around the problems of coping with brain damaged, mentally unstable, or senile tenured colleagues.

Atkinson's scholarship is impeccable - no justice is too obscure or their tenure too distant or too short for him to have unearthed nothing about them. The book details what is known about the circumstances in which each justice left the bench whether through death, resignation or retirement. For completeness Atkinson always gives details of the circumstances (both physical and medical) in which each justice died. The level of detail is extraodinary - it even includes details of members of the court attending their funerals or of justices who refused to sign their testimonials.

My biggest headache was giving this book its star rating. I first considered a three star rating because in the ranks of Supreme Court studies this must bring up the rear. However, the book deserves to be judged in terms of what it set out to achieve: to catalog the circumsrtances in which justices leave the Supreme Court bench. Its achievement cannot be faulted in those terms and thus it earns its five stars.

However, in quite different terms it also merits five stars. I bought this book mainly as a reference source but found myself reading it straight through. Because coverage is comprehensive and the section on each justice is short, the whole book is curiously addictive. 'Leaving the Bench' had to compete with my pleasure reading of John Grisham's novel The Brethren - and Mr Atkinson won. I'm not suggesting that University Press of Kansas has a dark horse best seller on its hands but this book really can be read with interest.

This book gives the details on the death and/or retirement of every Supreme Court justice, and gathers information not easily found any place else. The book is meticulously researched, and presents, after the examination of the problems sometimes encountered with Supreme Court justices who would not resign, a simple and I think probably effective solution which would not require a Constituional amendment. The book also includes an appendix which lists the burial site of each Justice. Ten are buried in Arlington Cemetery and none are buried west of Boulder, Colorado. Anyone interested in Supreme Court history will find this book hard to lay down. I did.

The writing is well-done; the content is well-researched, inspirational, provoking AND entertaining!

I love this series so much that I have had to replace the entire set three times. I lend them out and they disappear!
These are by far the finest novels that Ms. Austin has written. I was drawn into the story, and I just couldn't put the books down. Ms. Austin provides Scriptural references so it is easy to see what she is basing her story on. After reading the Scriptures, elements in the story that are taken right out of the Bible are easily discerned from those that the writer may be taking an artist license with. It breathed life into these characters and made them very relevant to me.

I immediately began reading the remaining books in the series, and every one was a delight. I enthusiastically recommend the series.

In this book, Austin aligns the brief Biblical account of King Hezekiah to the words of the prophets of the times along an exciting line of fiction. Prophecies, often confusing or misunderstood suddenly come alive as they are placed into everyday situations and applied to specific situations. This book creates in your mind a thrilling scene of the reality of the despair of Israel and Judah and an understanding of the great compassion Yaweh has for his Chosen People. After reading this book, you will never read prophecy the same again.

This book takes a very un-studied and often forgotten affect of the U.S Civil war and turns it into a very original study. During the civil war there were many European military attaches and observers who came to learn the lessons of the most modern world at the time. Germans, English and Frenchmen drew different conclusions that would play themselves out for the next half century on the European continent. In 1914 the affects were still being felt and they were also felt in the Franco-Prussian war.
Some learned the wrong lessons. Others understood the nature of total war and that new technologies were making the old way of war obsolete and deadly. Great accuracy of arms meant that the massed attack or human wave attack was doomed both to failure and to massive casualty figures. The destruction of the British regular army in the First World is but one piece of evidence showing the Europeans did not learn their lessons.
A brilliant study.

Seth J. Frantzman

In this fascinating book, Jay Luvaas examines the military observers from England, Germany, and France who came over to America during the Civil War to obtain first-hand knowledge of the fighting tactics and strategies of the Union and Confederate armies, and what they made of that knowledge once they returned home. He concludes that while these men saw and were impressed by much (perhaps most by the important use made of the railroad for transporting troops and supplies), they took very few lessons of the war home with them and felt, in many instances, that nothing of importance could be gleamed from the fighting in America for their own European armies. Luvaas writes, "The fact of the matter is that nine out of every ten who wrote about the Civil War simply carried into their books or articles doctrines carefully instilled by years of training." In other words, they saw things the way they wanted and expected to see them and interpreted what they saw in ways that only reinforced what they already believed. This didn't change until WWI when European officers began re-evaluating in detail battles and campaigns of the Civil War. The chief exception to this was G.F.R. Henderson, the British military historian whose 1898 biography of Stonewall Jackson Luvaas says "deserves a place among the military classics." (A whole chapter is devoted to Henderson.) This well-written and well-informed book clearly points out the risks involved when military leaders rely on preconceived notions even as new ideas make themselves available right before their eyes. Recommended.

Jay Luvaas, a military historian who taught at the US Army War College created a sensational and original work with THE MILITARY LEGACY OF THE CIVIL WAR: THE EUROPEAN INHERITANCE. The book analyzes the tactical, technological, and strategical changes that occurred because of and during the American Civil War. The book further explores how Germany, England, and France either took the appropriate infomration from the Civil War or how they ignored and struggled in subsequent wars. The introduction of the text in itself is a short course of the military history of the American Civil War and the rest of the 19th century military experience as Luvaas recounts what he had learned along with the main European powers. The book is an excellent read that flows quite well and would be worthwhile to those interested in the ACW and military history in general.

A critical question makes the Kennedy Assassination perhaps more relevant to today than ever:to what extent is the nominal leader, the President, really in control of the permanent military, political, and communications bureacracies that shape his options? In 1961, when Kennedy became president, key components of this permannent bureacracy were thirteen years old. As a parent with a teenager there were moments of tension when one can wonder who or what called the shots. This was uniquely the case in 1960, as for eight years-- the truly formative ones in the developement of the entire post-war US society-- the CIA had been given extreme lattitude. Kennedy's relations with the permanet political and military bureacracy can serve as basis of comparison for how matters of war and peace are decided today, when blame-game controversies sometimes seem mere PR strategies for plausible denial 10.0

Jefferson Morleys book leaves little doubt that no matter what our betters tell us, the CIA was to a very significant degree doing its own things in 1963. The reason this emerges far more clearly than in other books, is that Morley's never allows the ocean of detail to alter his camera agle. It is not a totalizing focus like some other books that mistake thickness for ambition. Rather, it sticks to the Mexico City CIA station, its chief Winston Scott, and his close World War Two friend and possibly his own privatest Idohaon-- the only one weirder than fellow poet and contemporary Ezra Pound-- James Jesus Angleton.

Morley is carefull. When your asking about unauthorized actions of the CIA people who normally talk freely in the New Yorker have a way of clamming up. It is hard to find sources in the middle ground, for example on the question of who knew what when about the Bay of Pigs. Far easier to treat this grey area as the blacktop of the Langley 500, the way Tim Weiner does in his childishly simplified and baldly propagandistic narration of Kennedy relations with the CIA.

How does he get insiders to talk for a book that is lethal to the government sanctioned version of the assassination? By not oversating things. By mentioning enough right wing cubans without so many as to lose sense of thier handlers. By clearly delineating who was in charge of what CIA operation, and who didn't know about them as well. We can see the critical wires cross, and are not confused in a whirl of unessential relations. We can see the extra piece-- George Joannides-- being added like one too many bones in an ankle and the clarity with which one could mistake treason for the logical coorination of a counterintelligence
operation. Individuals are not blamed here, but the flow chart that teaches how the Cubans were "turned" is clear for the first time. At least for me, but I'm gradual.

Also Morley tells the story from the persepctive of Win Scotts family. This "works" in many ways. It might just be the footwear necessary for treading accross one the most contested and and important middle grounds -- between president and permanent bureacracy-- in twentieth and 21st Century history.

This work stands in welcome contrast to recent books that mistake the shere number of mafia people who were involved with anti-castro opperations between 1959-63 with actual causal importance in the assassination of JFK. So often books like Ultimate Sacrifice emphasize the Mafia unconvincingly, because their CIA contacts merely seem outnumbered on the page. Morley goes to the quixotic center of the maypole: one has little doubt of this as he reads about Angletons very different, and very compartmetalized relations with Winston Scott and his secret sharer within the US embassy in Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips.

...peeling off layer after layer, we (well, those who still care, but I understand there are quite numerous around the world...) can now forty five years after the facts have a much better, much clearer understanding of what took place in Dallas.

The review above says it all. The book is on one level, the personnal history of the search of a son (adopted, it turns out..) for his mysterious, elusive father.

The fact that the father in question happenned to be Win Scot, head of the CIA Mexico station in the Sixties (the biggest CIA operation targeted at Soviet and Cuban interest outside the US) when Oswald, according to the official story, popped up there and started making himself noticed just a few weeks before Dallas, transforms what would be a mere personnal quest into something of historical importance.

Author Morley is known, appropriately, for his groundbreaking work bringing to light most notably the very strange story of George Joannides' s dealing with the DRE. Morley's work definitely showed how the CIA, deceptively, put Joannides in charge of contacts with the HSCA regarding Cuban matters, without ever mentioning his previous responsabilities as Focal Officer for the DRE during the latter part of November 63...

Students of JFK's assassination may remember that the DRE was very heavily involved in the early attempts to paint Oswald as a Communist Pro-Castro assassin, participating in a conspiracy.

Joannides's field reports on the DRE activities for the relevant period are still missing, and are the subject of a FOIA lawsuit by Morley....

A few pieces are still missing, and we still have a few open questions, but the picture is now getting clearer and clearer:

*the official story of the assassination is a fairy tale

*the events in Mexico City (most notably how the station and HQ handled the visits of a known "intelligence risk" to ennemy embassies..)are crucial in understanding what took place

*the inner workings of the CIA (need-to-know, etc..), and most notably the total autonomy and secrecy of Angleton's group (CI)made feasible any type of obscure intelligence operation whithout the slightest possibility of outside control or supervision.


Great, great book.

I would recommand as a companion Peter Dale Scott "Oswald in Mexico", which is the ultimate post-mortem on Mexico.

If you never thought reading administrative cables could make for a riveting read, or draw the outline of the most-wanted "smoking gun", brace yourself...

This very well-documented book tells you in precise and unnerving detail how C.I.A.operatives work and what they knew about Oswald in Mexico before the Kennedy assassination -- a lot more than you knew befoe. It is particularly convincing because it's personal, the real story of a man who lived his life inside that system of power, accountable to no one. It's a page-turner with unrecognized spies (everyone?), double agents, stolen loves, a son wants to know his father, a loyal secretary, a dangerous wedding, enough destroyed documents to make you weep and an ending that sets up for a sequel we hope can come from further investigation by this diligent author. Highly recommended for everyone, not just specialists, but there is plenty here for them as well.

Since Wesley wrote in a different era, his style requires some adjustment but once one gets past that there is a lot of edifying content in this book. The key point of this book is the issue of "perfection." He sees it as living what Jesus said was the greatest commandment and its accompanying commandment, i.e., to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Wesley's life demonstrates that he reached the goal. He traveled extensively, read widely, wrote inspiringly, and influenced many people to believe in Jesus as their Savior. Thank God for his legacy in words and deeds. He truly practiced and preached.

Wesley's brief treatise on the important yet overlooked Christian doctrine of perfection is a "must read" for all Christians interested in growing in Christ. The fact that this book is not mandatory reading in every seminary and Bible school is a travesty, making a mockery contemporary Christian education. This book is excellent for anyone serious about their spiritual journey.

John Wesley (1703-1791) firmly believed that God continued to work in the life of the believer subsequent to justification. In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, Wesley provides an account of the development of his understanding of the doctrine of Christian Perfection. This short work contains a lucid explanation of the doctrine with special attention not only to the Biblical promises and commands that are the basis of the doctrine but also the practical way that "perfect love" works in the life of the believer. While this work was certainly intended to instruct those who were seeking "perfect love," it also attempts to answer those who would deny the doctrine.

The essence of Christian Perfection, for Wesley, was clearly defined by Christ when an expert in the law asked him, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 23.36-40 NRSV)

Here one sees that, for Wesley, the main point of Christian Perfection is "perfect love." "Perfect love" thus defines our relationship to God and others.

This book is essential for those in the Wesleyan tradition and a worthwhile read for those from other Christian perspectives that wish to understand what Wesley thinks Christian Perfection is and is not.

I did not grow up in the 1950's (1970's/80's) nor did I grow up in Kansas City, although I lived there for two years. I randomly picked up this book and thought it was excellent. I don't think you need to have any connection to Kansas City or grow up in the time period covered to enjoy this book. I still read it every now and then; it is very good.

Once I began the book I never put it down. Bruce lived five blocks away from me in the same era. I especially remember Shortcake and Roy Beatty. They were friends of mine too. Bruce's recollection of Frank's restaurant was poignant although I didn't remember the dirt, just the heavenly(?) taste of a tenderloin sandwich. As to Old man Pierce, I too was chased from the premises, albeit not for the same reasons. My home was across from Scarrit grade school. Bruce no doubt played baseball there too. I do remember Lykins Square where we played the kids from "south of Independence Avenue" on many occasion, probably losing more than we won. This was a great step back to my own childhood. NE grad 1954.

This memoir of growing up in Kansas City in the 1950s is much more than nostalgia. It is an evocation of the importance of baseball in a young person's life, the ambitions of youth, and the impact of family, friends and neighbors. The characters are wonderful, and the whole book is beautifully written. It's a good read, humorous and poignant.

Rebecca grew up long ago, in an America that has now almost vanished - where daughters learn how to run family homes from their mothers; sons learn how to run family farms from their fathers, & electricity hasn't yet reached their roads. In a time when each season brings its own labors, worries & beauties.

Some will think Rebecca's story a sad one, only thinking about the hard life she had of all work & little play. That her childhood was cut short by tragedy. Don't be sad for this enduring, hardworking girl, for she has long since gotten over it, & has thrived & lived a very good life.

While REBECCA, A MARYLAND FARM GIRL may have only 67 pages, it is filled with struggles & victories of a child from another time that will immeasurably enrich your own life.

Rebecca, A Maryland Farm Girl is the true story of a young girl in Maryland in the late 1920's and early 1930's, who, after the death of her mother in a tragic accident, had to labor at grueling farm chores and hike several miles to the school bus. The strain of her daily responsibilities brought about seemingly insurmountable barriers to her education. Very highly recommended for young readers, Rebecca, A Maryland Farm Girl is a poignant and compelling story of struggle and hardship, especially acute for demonstrating the harsh conditions of the past to young people who have grown up in relative comfort and have no idea how hard their grandparents had to fight for the privilege of an education.

Rebecca, A Maryland Farm Girl is a treasure that should become part of the school cirriculum's required readings. It teaches the children of today about the children of the 1920s-30s, a time they are unfoutunately often oblivious to. This lost knowledge, which is essential for children to understand our country and more importantly their relatives before them, is found in the wonderful tale of the experiences of a school aged girl, Rebecca, and how the world around her shapes the that girl she becomes. This is a book not to be missed! I loved it!

This book is a good starting point for understanding German military developments in mechanized warfare during the interwar years. Alternately, if you only wanted to read one book on the subject, this would be a good choice. Easy to read, makes clear points, and covers a fair amount of territory.

Corum, a historian, German linguist, and former military intelligence officer has written a fine study of how Germany was able to absorb the lessons of its defeat in WWI, overcome the restrictions placed on the size and composition of its armed forces, and develop the revolutionary military doctrine that swept it to astonishing victories against every European country it engaged. Corum focuses on General Hans von Seeckt, enigmatic Chief of the German General Staff -- twice awarded the Pour le Merit, Germany's highest decoration for valor -- as the architecht of this remarkable feat. Seeckt set the stage for reform of the Army by fostering a climate of open discussion on all matters regarding doctrine development in which the ideas of the best thinkers -- regardless of rank -- were given a full hearing. A tremendous number of experimental programs were conducted to try out various tactical doctrine. Many of these, secretly carried out in the USSR. Corum cites numerous training manuals, military correspondence and other primary resource documents to illustrate the revolutionary nature of Seeckt's impact on the German military. The book appeared about the same time as a book on American preparation for WWII -- There's a War to be Won -- that is very instructive when read together with Roots of Blitzkrieg. Current military leaders and their civilian overseers should read both books and bear in mind that the constrained resourses available to our armed forces today make the German model the more relevant of the two. Americans, fifty years ago could count on the full mobilization of our industrial and population base to prepare for war. Today's headlines continually reflect lack of preparedness in training exercises, inability to recruit and retain quality personnel (especially pilots), and inadequate funding for research and development programs -- a formula for disaster. Our political focus on humanitarian missions conducted by our armed forces has diverted training and R & D funds and that other scarce resource -- time -- from their intended purposes and prevented implementation of new information age technology. Corum's book demonstrates that, with even minimal support from the political establishment, the U.S. could revive its rapidly deteriorating military capability.

Professor Corum has produced a very concise (c. 200 pages) history of how the German Army spent its inter-war years. Including chapters on doctrinal development (air and ground), training, and weapons design and implementation, Dr. Corum has done his best to avoid political/strategic questions that are inherent in a text covering the rebirth of the German military.

Dr. Corum also makes a statement in focusing on General Hans Von Seeckt as the driving force behind many of the reforms the Reichswehr undertook during his years as chief of the general staff. By taking the spotlight away from Heinz Guderian, Corum has placed the emphasis on the man who fostered the kind of general staff where sweeping tactical and organizational changes were possible. Professor Corum also makes it very clear that those changes were in large part due to a serious assessment of the lessons of the First World War.

A reader from an allied country may have difficulties in trying to separate the great advances in warfare made during the period of the Reichswehr, and how these principles were misused only a few years later. However, one can not avoid marveling at the professionalism and flexibility of the tradition of the Prussian General Staff, and it is those qualities that Professor Corum has focused on in his text.

Lamb's story of Sanderson's Lunch is a fascinating journey though emotion, passion, hard work, and fruitless endeavors. To hear Lamb's story is to laugh, cry, and seriously consider getting a job at a 24/hour diner just to have a glimpse of the crazy antics like those at Sanderson's. The reader will cheer with the successes, be crushed at the defeats, and empathize with every emotional state Lamb was in at the time. If you are a KC native, you are doing yourself an injustice to overlook this outstanding work. It is a little piece of history and a small masterpiece of nonfiction

I enjoyed the book but would like to see more articles telling more of the wacky tales of the old 24 hour restaurant, perhaps in a newspaper or KC mag. Maybe there are enough for another book with a bit more emphasis of the unusual parade of customers. (I couldn't resist!)

Art Lamb is my step-grandfather, and I picked up the book out of curiosity and started reading one afternoon. The next thing I knew, night had fallen, dinner was cold, and the kids were conked out in front of the TV. I shrugged and kept on reading. Witty, engaging and fast moving, this slice of life will capture your interest and engage you until the last page.

I'm not going to say too much about Whispering Springs, because in truth, this book speaks for itself. Filled with adventure, mystery, and ghostly appearances, it is sure to keep the young and old alike glued to the pages until the very end.

I especially liked the Kansas prairie setting and the way modern and old were gracefully woven together to give you both a sense of history while keeping you firmly in the here and now.

The title, The Secret of Whispering Springs, hints that there is more than meets the eye within its covers, and as you race through the pages, you'll discover the story keeps it promise. A great read.

Jerri Garretson creates a wonderful story of suspense and intrigue sure to fascinate any young reader. Her characters are well developed and her writing is strong and vibrant.

Having a daughter of my own in middle grades, I've been reading a lot of the books she's brought home from school and The Secret of Whispering Springs has been one of my favorites reads. It has surpassed many of the books published by major NY presses and is well worth ordering. I heartily recommend it for anyone looking for a gift for that special reader in their life. (I recently passed it along to my 11 yr. old niece who absolutely loves it.)

Highly recommended for young readers attending school grades 5-8, The Secret Of The Whispering Springs by Jerri Garretson is a ghostly novel about a fourteen-year-old girl whose family moves into a grand mansion. The presence of a spirit whispering warnings place the heroine in the center of a dangerous mystery that she must solve before time runs out. A spooky and involving read for young adults, The Secret Of The Whispering Springs is quite appropriate for both school and community library YA fiction collections.