Kentucky Books

Through Mobility We Conquer is, to date, the most significant scholarly work to focus exclusively on mechanization in the U.S. Cavalry from World War I through the abolition of the branch following World War II. While the topic has been covered peripherally in other works, George F. Hofmann deserves credit for presenting the importance of cavalry mechanization so prominently. Hofmann, an Adjunct Associate Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati, is certainly one of the most appropriate individuals to write such a book, having previously written about the interwar period and other closely related topics. His previous books include: Super Sixth: The History of the 6th Armored Division in World War II (originally published in 1975; reprinted by Battery Press in 2000); Cold War Casualty: The Court-Martial of Major General Robert W. Grow (Kent State University Press, 1993); and Camp Colt to Desert Storm: The History of U.S. Armored Forces (University Press of Kentucky, 1999), which he co-edited with General Donn A. Starry.

Through Mobility We Conquer focuses on two closely related historical events - the creation of the Office of the Chief of Cavalry (created by the National Defense Act of 1920 along with parallel branch chiefs for the other combat arms) and the appointment, in 1938, of John K. Herr as Chief of Cavalry. Hofmann rightly acknowledges the harm that branch parochialism did to the process of mechanization. In particular, the rivalry between the cavalry and infantry led to neither branch perfecting the use of tanks (which, though prohibited to the cavalry by the National Defense Act of 1920, were nevertheless purchased and simply re-designated `combat cars') nor controlling their future after 1940 and the creation of the `Armored Force'. As regards Major General John K. Herr, I agree with Hofmann's general assessment and have no doubts that, had Adna R. Chaffee, Jr., Daniel Van Voorhis, or another pro-mechanization cavalry officer been appointed Chief of Cavalry in 1938, cavalry would remain the principal maneuver branch of the U.S. Army. Hofmann is also to be commended for his sections on J. Walter Christie (about whom he previously published an article in Military Affairs, the precursor of the Journal of Military History) and U.S. Constabulary.

Most of my criticisms of Through Mobility We Conquer are those of one specialist nitpicking the work of another specialist in the same field and, therefore, inappropriate to a public book review. Nevertheless, if I might be permitted a moment of vanity, Hofmann is to be appropriately criticized for his glaring bibliographic omission of one article and one dissertation (Bielakowski, Alexander M. "The Last Chief of Cavalry - Major General John K. Herr," Journal of America's Military Past 28:2 (Fall 2001), 67-82; and Bielakowski, Alexander M. U.S. Army Cavalry Officers and the Issue of Mechanization, 1920 to 1942. Ph.D. diss., Kansas State University, 2002). Otherwise, Hofmann's book represents the best and most important work yet done on interwar cavalry mechanization and its effects on the U.S. Army in World War II. I highly recommend this book and find it hard to believe that it will be surpassed anytime soon.

I bought this for my dad, a veteran of the Second Armored Cavalry who fought through Europe with the unit where he received the first two of four combat wounds in his 25 year career. At age 90, he was thrilled to learn of the strategic background and military concepts which drove his world 60+ years ago. I read several portions of the book and found it well-written, with concise, clear prose. I was disappointed in the photo captions--they fell short of the much more professional tone of the text--and offered some commentary that seemed unwarranted--such as the combat effectiveness of the M-8 armored car which served well in its recon role (and soldiered on into the 60s and 70s in parts of the world). In all, a most excellent narrative of the little-known cavalry war.

In Tiny Cracker Zoo, Chris Master digs into his childhood and comes up with gold. Here is a collection of engaging stories full of misery and wit, over-the-top language and wry observations of human nature. These stories are funny! The backwoods folks, the do-gooders, and the fearsome rednecks remind you that America still has what it takes to make a simple life completely idiotic. Yet, there are touches of great warmth, truthful scenes of family life and honor and respect given to those folks who suffer the duties of parenthood. And yes, you have to wonder about a kid who hands his pop a handkerchief full of poop. I can't wait to read about Chris Master's teenage years.

I really loved this book. I picked it up with the intension of reading only one or two short stories before bed. However, I found myself unable to turn away from the world Pennsyltucky. The author gives us not only a wonderful collection of stories, but also a believable and genuinely vulnerable central character.

mr nall has written the most factual of many works on the subject to date . when doing research on the night rider activities in the black patch you will always see a thank you to dr. nall for his work it is the definative work on this very unique time in history. !!!!!!!!a must for every true scholar on the tobacco night riders of kentucky and tenn.

Nall's is the story one of the greatest movements in the history of the American spirit. It well covers the facts in the agricultural price war that changed the farm economy of the region forever. Faced with economic starvation tobacco farmers united, then had to defend with force their right to live and farm and make a descent return on their labor. In doing so they changed the future for tobacco farmers and instituted price and acreage/poundage allotments to control tobacco production that have remained until this present day. My family was involved in the tobacco wars, my grandfather lived in the town of Cobb, Kentucky next door to the firey Dr. Dave Amoss who led the farmer's army, the "silent brigade....yet the full story has not been told. Expect it to be futher told when "The Last Nightrider" a novel based on the exploits of my family during this time is subsequently published. Nall's book is required reading for the history buff and for the economist, the romantic and those with courage enough to secure their own fate....

In this much-needed reprinting of Benn Pitman's transcript of the trial of the "conspirators" to assassinate President Lincoln, a new element has been added in the articles in the front. Although the trial itself remains, unfortunately, unannotated, a variety of top scholars in the field contributed articles on the conspirators and the trial itself which are both helpful & interesting. This is certainly one of the best purchases I have ever made. The list of witnesses that make Pitman the preferred version of the trial, and the charming print style left as-is, make for an enjoyable read or for helpful reference material. However, it should be kept in mind that Pitman's version is an edited copy of the original trial, with the dialogue surrounding each witness reduced to monolouge testimony, and some confusing areas eliminated or altered. Nonetheless, this is a valuable resource.

I would recommend accompanying this book with Carmen Cumming's Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunham, which helps the reader understand the confusing testimony of Sanford Conover, the alias of Charles Dunham.

In 1865 President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, this is commonly known by most people. But what is not known is that there were eight others who had a part in the conspiracy to kill the president.

Unlike the other books I have read on the subject; this one has very little plot, in fact the book spends more time talking about the trial rather than the events leading to the assassination. Rather the author has put together the actual court transcripts of the testimony against each of the conspirators.

After reading the text, which took about 5 hours, I learned more about those involved and even found out a few new things along the way. I found the discussion about Dr. Mudd so intriguing I spent several hours on the internet reading about him.

I found the book well documented and researched. The author has certainly seemed to leave no stone unturned. Overall this book is the best overall presentation into the murder and conspiracy I have read so far.

If you are looking for serious information about the Lincoln Assassination or just wondering what happened than this book is the place to start looking.

As with Eve Golden's previous biographies, "The Castles" (to save space) combines extensive research with a very readable and entertaining style. What I like about her writing is that Ms.Golden evokes not just the lives of Vernon and Irene Castle, but the era from which they emerged and which they influenced. As with her previous books, especially those on Anna Held and Kay Kendall, she takes figures who have sadly slipped from the public consciousness and places them back into their social context and thus reinstates their importance. Anyone interested in Twentieth Century dance (and, in fact, the history of popular entertainment in the last century) will enjoy this book. One should not, however, expect a dry academic tome: she is much too smart a writer for that. Her sly (and dry) sense of humour makes for an easy and entertaining read. Highly recommended!

I was so thrilled to find this book. As a longtime fan of classic movies I was familiar with the movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and I always wondered how much of the story was true since Hollywood biographical films are notorious for playing fast and loose with the facts. This is a well written and researched biography of the famous husband and wife dance team. I'm so glad that after the passage of so many years there was enough information still available for Ms. Golden to write this book, some have never been published before, like the fact that they planned to divorce after Vernon returned from the war. She was even able to interview Irene Castle's son by a later marriage and the daughter of the woman who might have become Vernon's second wife if he had not died so tragically during World War I. I highly recommend this book, along with Ms. Golden's previous biographies of Jean Harlow, Theda Bara, and Anna Held, to anyone interested in theatrical and movie history and to fans of the Astaire and Rogers movie who would like to know the true story.

Here it is in all it shamefull glory. This is a study about the enormous profits made by the military Industrial complex at war time. In a democracy, wars have nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with economics. The corporations who produce war goods make billions of dollars in the war and those corporations that don't make war goods make billions of dollars after the war when their markets are expanded into foreign lands. This, I'm sorry to say, is the backbone of capitalism. How are corporations to increase profits continuously, even after the home turf is saturated, if not by war? This is a common thread that runs throughout the book, Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept), as well.

"Warhogs" defines the "Merchants of Death" theory as "that defense contractors aided and abetted the outbreak of war in search of profit".

"Support for increased naval spending came from 'a combination of very wicked persons who stand to profit from a big navy'".

"...millionaire munitions executives were 'agitating' for a larger defense in search of profit".

And finally, "war...was the worst enemy of progress".

This book also contains the cold hard facts of just how much money the defense contractors profited.

So when you are contemplating the wisdom of the Iraq War, forget about "Democracy" and "Liberating the people", and "Removing the Evil Dictator". Instead consider the no-bid contracts given to Halliburton and other Cheney and Bush administration cronies. Because, unfortunately, war is all about profits and economics, and has nothing to do with...politics...

Stuart D. Brandes has written an engaging book, "Warhogs, A History of War Profits in America." In this work, the retired history professor discusses inter alia profiteering, privateering, ransom, defense contracting, executive compensation, tax policy, and the role of government in providing for the needs of the nation's military especially in time of war. The book covers the period of US history from the colonial era to the conclusion of World War II.

Among the key figures discussed at length are: George Washington, who questioned both the virtue and patriotism of profiteers during the Revolution; Abraham Lincoln, whose administration wrestled with the rates that northern railroads were billing the government in transporting troops and materiel during the Civil War; Woodrow "He kept us out of war" Wilson who, three months after his reelection, went before Congress asking for a declaration of war; FDR and his long-serving Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., together they struggled to pull the nation out of the Depression and later set in place policies and a bureaucratic apparatus to award military contracts to manufacturers while overseeing those same contractors in terms of: output capacity, plant building and expansion, quality of goods, the amount of profit deemed sufficient, tax rates, salaries, etc.

Evenhandedness is a hallmark of this book; those who might read this work expecting an anti-corporate jeremiad will be disappointed, as will those who believe that the federal government is mostly inept or worse. Rather, companies, businessmen, and government officials are either criticized or praised based on the evidence that Prof. Brandes cites; the documentation is ample and derived from government tax records, congressional committee testimony, memoirs, diaries, contemporaneous newspapers and periodicals, biographies, and the works of other historians. Some businessmen who were producing goods for the country's wartime while drawing exorbitant salaries are named, while others are noted for being dollar-a-year-men during armed conflict. Some companies boosted profits by reducing the quality of, for example, weaponry or uniforms. Army quartermasters did a commendable job in obtaining the necessary military supplies at a fair cost to taxpayers, although some personally profited financially--either legally or not. Some companies did not profit excessively during the war, yet benefited greatly during peacetime when the federal government looked to shed its unneeded assets. A short but poignant section of the book (p. 349) discusses FDR's misapprehension of tax policy and economics, despite the Harvard-educated president having majored in economics. And according to Secretary Morgenthau's presidential diary (p. 253), "The [p]resident doesn't devote more than two days a week to the war....I have been up to Shangri-La three times and he sits there playing with his stamps....[War Production Board Chairman Donald] Nelson never gets to see him." (Such a characterization of FDR by one of his ablest cabinet members would irk New Deal historian/hagiographer Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.)

The author states (p. 355): "No previous book that has come to my attention deals expressly with the topic presently considered." This reviewer concurs. It is a well-written book in part because such topics as amortization and facility depreciation are discussed without getting into the tall grass of accounting/tax law or causing the average reader's eyes to glaze over. Moral and ethical issues over war profits are raised without pedantry. Some will have some quibbles with portions of the book--quibbles too few and too minor to detract from it at all; isn't debate part of the fun of reading history? This reviewer looks forward to Dr. Brandes' future historical efforts.

Occasionally, long held beliefs are shaken by a bold new look at old theories.

While many feel that all possible causes for the Civil War have already been proffered and dissected, a new voice is refuting principles that some Civil War scholars assumed were absolute.
Daly argues that there were no sharp moral differences between North and South. He finds the causes of the war were identical, differing only in the perspectives of a widely separated people hampered by insufficient communication.

With myth-shredding clarity, When Slavery Was Called Freedom suggests that the virtue claimed by North and South stemmed from the same evangelical thought. Both sides appealed to the power of God to prove them victorious, and above all, morally superior.

A Northerner by birth and a Southerner by assimilation, Daly takes an objective look at the economy, religious thought and passions of the times that drove a great nation asunder and launched the bloodiest of all wars.

Rather than a backward South peopled by cruel slave owners, Daly presents sound evidence that the South was much the same as the North when it came to commerce and morality. Common to both was the idea that riches were God's way of rewarding good people. Many believed the end result of accumulated wealth was a higher moral plane.

Virtue equaled wealth and wealth equaled power. Although the power of the South was bolstered by slavery, Southerners theorized that slavery was an integral part of the American System and the genius of American commerce.

Concerning religion, Dally offers an example of thwarted Northern idealism involving God's own representatives. Evangelical ministers from the North clad in the armour of righteousness arrived at Southern plantations as if at the gates of Hell only to find the same sort of people they knew back home.

Bound to do battle with the evils of slavery, it was a short skirmish. Although the ministers recognized some evils, many found that slaves were regarded as "laborers" under the protection of Christian gentlemen. They met forward-thinking Southerners who were certain that slavery would gradually dissipate into a laboring class of free men. Slaveholders were quick to point out that under the Southern system , even in its present form, slaves were better treated than workers in Northern sweatshops.

These same ministers who came to reform, found plantation life pleasant and Southern women charming. Some married the heiresses to plantations and changed their views, allowing that it was just for good people to own slaves.

While Daly's research is not likely to completely displace the idea that a division in ideology and morality brought about the War, an excursion into his Virtue as Power theory is worth taking.

Focusing on the similarities of thought held by both sides preceding the War, Daly leaves the reader wondering if more Northerners and Southerners had discovered their commonality before 1860, perhaps secession and the Civil War would never have occurred.

Still, one question looms large: without the Civil War, would slavery have dissolved of its own accord?

By Anne Battle

This interesting snapshot of pre-bellum Southern evangelicalism struck me as less controversial than advertised and, in any case, a telling portrait of the 'actuals' of religion in American history. The parallel appearance of abolitionism and pro-slavery evangelical apologia is a difficult dialectic to reconcile, and the historical image refresh rate is essential for an archaeologist of ideology. One need not undergo a paradigm shift to find this a useful angle on a multidimensional subject, and a shadowy one at that.

In her most recent book of poems, Where There Is No Shore, Vivian Shipley displays a polymath's familiarity with the natural world while at the same time telling marvelous stories that render the subtleties of human emotion in splendidly revealing ways. The poems explore a diverse range of subjects and employ a rich variety of voices: from Jim Quillen at a reunion of Alcatraz inmates, to Martha Stewart offering advice for the proper responses to snow; from Bronislawa Wajs, the great gypsy poet, to a colonial judge as he counsels a woman before sentencing her to hang for adultery, after she has refused to kill the child she and the judge produced. Many of the books poems reflect the book title's metaphor and provide a sense of how we try to find our way in a world that defies comprehension: one poem reflects on TWA Flight 800, and concludes that for the relatives of those who perished, there has been "No reason from TWA, no word from God." Other poems celebrate life's simpler pleasures--particularly food. Even the humble artichoke inspires the speaker "to write poems that explore...woman's fall from grace." Like her previous volumes, this book contains beautifully made poems that are accessible, yet which reward each successive reading with fresh insights and new delisghts in the poet's mastery of language. I enjoyed this book immensely. To read it is to put yourself in the hands of a gifted storyteller, a mature poet whose work continues to enrich and reward.

Vivian Shipley's latest book "When There Is No Shore" is a revelation. Her poetry is a statement of soul. Time binds each poem to the next creating a gorgeous rhythm that wraps you around and won't let go. This is not a book that you can flip through. Every poem is linked to the preceding one and there is no escape from the logic of where she is going and why. Whether she is describing the family farm, Harlan County or the blues running on Long Island Sound, she makes no settlement. "If you're dead you were dead" This toughness often brutal and relentless in its honesty still maintains humor, love and a memorable beauty. Both death and love hold the reader by the hand and won't let go. An entire life undulates through the pages of this book unselfconsciously and you feel yourself swept along with Shipley as she attaches herself to you. Even though our backgrounds are totally different, she is a southern product, a refugee from farm life, hard work and poverty, and I come from a family of Russian Jewish immigrants who ran from the tsar and his pograms, our connection is poweful and inescapable. I suspect it happens to everyone who reads this book. Using rich, auditory images, she lashes us together and creates a relationship, a deep understanding and tolerance for each other. We are both colored in earth tones. Tradition plays an important role in our lives even in the preparation of food, in our simple language and the myths we create.

I have to agree with the first reviewer. My 11 year old is a reluctant reader, and he was totally engaged by this book. (My 8 year old advanced, voracious reader loved it,too!) It was just very accessible in the way it was written, and the friendly black and white illustrations on many of the pages create an inviting appearance. There are timelines of Boone's life and concurrent world history in the back, which I appreciate as a home educator. I will definitely be checking out some of the other biographies in this series.

My daughter (age 10) is a reluctant reader. I have a hard time getting her to read anything. She LOVED this book! She wouldn't put it down until she was finished! I think the illustrations really held her attention. I will definately be getting other books in this series!

There are, inevitably, some sources of popular culture not included- the drinking den, from gin palace to wine bar, for instance.
But the tensions between what the upper classes think is proper culture ("you have to be THIS smart to go on this ride" still applies to the visual arts - the less there truly is to it, as most ideas expressed in art could be found in a paperback novel, the most snooty the claims made about it. It's all about shifting luxury goods ands flattering the monied that they have "taste")) and what The People really like (Fox, Murdoch help us) are exposed as constant over three centuries.
I am a rock music obsessessive, and learned stuff about Elvis I never knew - what a social-sexual rebel he really was, with his Tony Curtis style eye makeup. I took this fattie on vocation, as opposed to my usual Stephen King, and read every page, and the indexes!!!)

A central image to Ashby's description of the nature of popular culture is the circus, with its large acts meant for mass consumption and its sideshows that satisfy some darker human curiosities. Through the course of the book, he shows how popular sideshow acts eventually achieve acceptance in the "big tent." The book covers many types of popular culture, from minstrel shows to boxing to hip hop. Many interesting details, written in an academic but entertaining style.