Kansas Books

All U.S. presidents must confront and solve problems, some more unique than others. There are a few whose difficulties are unprecedented and will never recur again. John Adams was such a president and his effectiveness as a chief executive is often underestimated. When he took the oath of office, the nation was still young and in many ways not yet a nation. Regional differences, which sixty years later would explode into civil war, were powerful and could have led to a similar event during his administration. The governmental structure was idealistic, novel and untested. There were many who felt that it was unworkable, and with minimal communication infrastructure, it was difficult for the central government to project its' power quickly and effectively.
The framers of this government were highly talented, ambitious men, who were now faced with the task of governing. As history has shown us so many times, the talented revolutionary is often mediocre at governing. Political parties began to form and like all births, involved a great deal of fits and starts. George Washington commanded such respect that no one could reasonably hope to challenge his authority, and yet he was wore down by the political battles. Succeeding such a towering figure would have been difficult for anyone. Europe was also currently engaged in a general war as a consequence of the revolution in France, and there were strong forces driving the United States towards involvement.
Into this horrendous mix of conflicting forces, John Adams became president. There is no question that the crises he faced rank in the top five of all presidents. Forced to face and solve these problems, he performed admirably. There is no more telling measures of his success in that he angered many in both parties and one of his strongest enemies, Thomas Jefferson, continued his policies when he succeeded Adams.
Brown does an outstanding job of describing these circumstances, for without this knowledge it is impossible to understand how successful Adams was. He also describes many of the details of John Adams' relationship with his wife Abigail. Although the times dictated that women play secondary roles in society, it is clear that many women wielded substantial power behind the scenes, if only to provide the strength for her husband to do what was right. After reading this book, you cannot help but be impressed with the power and intelligence of Abigail Adams, one of the most talented first spouses that this country has ever had.
This book serves a necessary and overdue purpose. It shows John Adams as more than just an adequate successor to Washington, but as a president who stood firm and always placed the interests of the nation first. He was a great man, showing that many of the men who made the American revolution were also, and perhaps even more skilled, at making and executing a government. I will forever be in awe of their political genius.

Remember those true presidential giants? FDR, Harry Truman, and LBJ--and larger-than-life Bill Clinton. Did you know that FDR was his own architect for his presidential library at Hyde Park? Jefferson wasn't the only architect-president. But most fun of all is to get another look in the imperial-yet-downhome machinations of Lyndon Johnson as he strove create a library that rivaled the Egyptian tombs. OK, so it looks like a scholarly book--and it is, but there is a lot of good reading here. Hufbauer is too polite to employ his scholarship to point out what intellectual pygmies some of our leaders are, and now more than ever, it is important to understand the significance of memory in national life.

I found this book very informative and very intelligently written. The problem of gossip in today's world is a constant and pressing need, making this book more and more relevant.

Overall, I think it was a great read. Short and to the point which how I like it.

I thought I knew all about man's inhumanity, but master writer Cleveland Amory's description of the lifelong crusade that was spurred by his own first experience with the shocking realities changed the way I viewed the theme forever. Thank you, Mr. Amory. We miss your incisive and untiring contributions to this almost hopeless cause.

The Pullman Case is a very well written account of the American Railway Union strike. Despite the seemingly dry material, the author manages to be concise and makes otherwise bland events quite entertaining. I highly recommend this book for gaining an appreciation of the historical underpinnings of the battle between labor and capital in America.

This book is a warm and loving coming of age romance novel about a little girl born to the harsh, puritanical plains of Kansas in the mid-twentieth century. It chronicles the changes she goes through adapting from oppression and extreme poverty while concentrating on the well-being of her own family as it develops. Along the way she meets several fascinating men, but the story does not dwell on all the sordid details of this, rather the focus is more on the conflicts these relationships cause and her own moral dilemma in dealing with them. It is charming and engaging; very hard to put down once you start, but lengthy enough for the vivid descriptions of a Very Big World as seen from the eyes of a smart and determined girl. I loved it.

Terry Thompson made an excellent connection between vintage photographs and quilts that you can create. Her examples are contemporary yet have that old timey feeling.

Griffin et. al. present a probing and deep map of the inadequacies and inequities of America's Legal Structures.

There are several books about art environments, self made worlds, etc. This book is the best if you are looking for contact information regarding the artists and creators and visionaries. The book was created by the team that makes the PBS production by the same name "Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations" And the book is really hard to find at normal book stores. I know people that use this book on a daily basis - tracking down the artists. I like the way the book is written because it does not make fun of its subjects like some other books. It is part travel guide / part art book / part just fun to flip through the pages. ALSO - this is important - this book had places and artists that none of the other books mention. I guess that this is because the authors are on the road traveling the back streets and hunting down their subjects. The photos in the book are also good - not as nice as some big photo book coffed table book - but definetly informative and easy to see.

There are too many choices to choose from if one wants to learn about the Constitutional Convention itself. The interested reader can go to easily obtained copies of Madison's Notes or Farrand's Records if they want to read the original sources.
But if you want to study the state by state process of ratification the sources are few and far between. Even Elliott's Debates which was the classical source for original documents is now very much a collector's item. There is the ongoing publication of the DHRC but it is overwhelming for the casual student.
Robert Rutland wrote an excellent study in 1983, The Ordeal of the Constitution. The bicentennial years of the 1980s saw several collections published including this one.
Scholarly collections are sometimes a mixed bag; I often feel as if I have paid for a whole book for the right to read one to three good essays. But the quality here is universally first rate (with one possible exception).
Since Amazon does not provide us with a table of contents I thought I would provide you with a list of who writes on what state:
Delaware- Gasparo J. Saladino
Pennsylvania- George J. Graham, Jr.
New Jersey- Sara M. Shumer
Georgia- Edward J. Cashin
Connecticut- Donald S. Lutz
Massachusetts- Michael Allen Gillespie
Maryland- Peter S. Onuf
South Carolina- Robert M. Weir
New Hampshire- Jean Yarbrough
Virginia- Lance Banning
New York- Cecil L. Eubanks
North Carolina- Michael Lienesch
Rhode Island- Jack P. Kaminski
The names of Lutz, Onuf, Banning, Lienesch and Kaminski should be known to most any student of the period but the others prove equally adept at placing the ratification debate within the local politics of each state.
In many ways, the debates that occurred during the state conventions set the agenda for the political struggles of the 1790s. And it has to be baldly stated that some of the best political writing and oratory that was done during this period was done during the ratification debates. We owe the fact that we have lived under the constitution for the last two hundred plus years to the actions of James Wilson in Pennsylvania, Samual Adams in Massachusetts, Edmund Randolph in Virginia and Melancton Smith in New York among others. Adam, Randolph and Smith all had doubts about the Constitution and all were able to able express those doubts in ways that caused the Federalists problems. Yet all came to accept the Constitution (for very different reasons) and all eventually took a part in convincing others in their states to do so.
Besides the personalities that loom large during these debates there were individual state issues that enormously effected the way that the Constitution was received in a particular state.
The issue of western land claims (on Indian territory, of course) in Georgia, the issue of slavery in South Carolina and of paper money and debt relief in Rhode Island set the framework for debate. All of this is ably explored by the respective authors on those states.
But I really have to call out for special mention Kaminski's article's on Rhode Island. Even the most casual student of the Confederation period knows that Rhode Island was the national poster child for state misbehavior. And yet Kaminski presents the politics of the states in a way that not only makes sense but also makes clearer to me why debtor relief and paper money advocates were so despised by the Federalists. Basically, Rhode Island just printed up a bunch of paper money and forced creditors to accept it. Over a period of a few years, Rhode Island thus effected an enormous redistribution of wealth in the state. Once its war debts were cleared, Rhode Island then ratified the constitution. The Federal government then assumed the state debts that had supposedly been paid off and made good on them.
This whole course of action was done in the most democratic manner possible and had the broadest possible support of the populace of Rhode Island except, of course, for the "better sort". They had bought out the war debts at very low prices and objected to the people cutting into their profits.
Kaminski's article made me just want to read more about Rhode Island and how their Country party leaders justified all this.
In any case, this book is an excellent adjunct to the one by Rutland. Between the two of them, they allow the lifetime student of American history to really appreciate the importance and the quality of the ratification debates. We have been blessed since the sixties (not to imply anything about the scholarship that came before then) by the quality of the writing and thinking about early American history. This collection is a worthy addition to your Constitutional library.