Illinois Books

Ably edited by Mary A. Giunta (an historian with the National Historical Publications and Records Commission), A Civil War Soldier Of Christ And Country: The Selected Correspondence Of John Rodgers Meigs, 1859-64 is a collection of personal and official letters and original documents that provide the reader with a "window" into the doomed life of a young Union officer. Laid out in complete candor is the story of John Rodgers Meigs and his relationship to family and friends, as well as his experiences as a cadet at West Point (including a meeting with Abraham Lincoln), and his life as a combatant in the Civil War. The son of a Union Quartermaster General, John Meigs official correspondence reveals what his duties were like as a military engineer and aide-de-camp to Union generals. The young soldier was to ultimately meet his death in the war (a vivid account was provided in a post-war exchange of eye-witness statements) but his memory is preserved with an impeccable scholarship within the pages of A Civil War Soldier Of Christ And Country. A model work of historical import, enhanced with the inclusion of a glossary of names, places, and phrases, as well as a selected bibliography and an index, A Civil War Soldier Of Christ And Country is a welcome and invaluable contribution to the growing library of Civil War memoirs, biographies, and histories.

An execellent concise overview of the history of rhetoric. The bibliography alone is worth the price of admission. Vickers covers the theory and practice of rhetoric in English poetry, especially in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. He provides you with enough information about sources and materials to develop a first-hand understanding of related texts and commentary.

I had the honor to serve as Mayor Harold Washington's press secretary and speechwriter for 1000 days, from February 1985 through his death in November, 1987. While working on a memoir of those days (HAROLD WASHINGTON, THE MAYOR, THE MAN, published in 1989) I negotiated with my publisher to produce another book in time for the first anniversary of the mayor's death, which I titled CLIMBING A GREAT MOUNTAIN, quoting from his first inaugural address.

These speeches (and photographs) capture some of the spirit of that period -- what he called the "New Spirit of Chicago." I may have been his speechwriter, but his speeches were completely his own -- initially shaped by his philosophy, then massaged by his phrasings through our endless conversation, and then finally recast in his own words as he spoke, often without notes.

Paging back through those speeches ten years later, I find there a sometimes lost language of progressive politics -- an unabased defense of affirmative action, for example, and of activist governmental solutions to social problems.

Coretta Scott King was kind enough to provide a foreword, and I have briefly sketched a context for each speech. But the ideas -- and the passion for fairness and the strength to persevere against the politics of hate, and the articulate optimism about democracy -- are pure Harold.

If you are looking for the FBI to investigate misconduct-Don't!!!

Since my legal difficulties began over four years ago (now going on five), I have seen and read many articles about the atrocities occurring within the prison systems and the hope by some that the FBI, like the Lone Ranger, would come riding to the rescue. Only recently I have happened upon a book that upon reviewing should send those looking for a fab FBI hostage team to come to your aid - well - "forgitaboutit."

Thanks to the Internet, more information is available to all of us - not just the privileged elite. A book, well worth reading, which was found surfing the Internet, is entitled Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers and the Supreme Court by Alexander Charns. The author, an attorney located in Durham, N.C., filed a freedom of information act lawsuit in order to obtain some documents. Revelations from the material obtained from the lawsuit point to a scheme by the FBI, which amounts to a nothing more than judicial shakedowns in efforts to obtain favorable rulings for law enforcement in the courts. From the papers received by Charns, the time frame for this extortion stretches from 1935 to 1989 and leads one to believe that the process is ongoing.

These actions ranged from seemingly innocuous "throwing out the red carpet treatment" for newly appointed judges and their law clerks, taking and providing 8 x 10 glossies at taxpayer expense of their visit to FBI offices to a rather Stalinsque effort to leak "confidential information" that the agency collected while doing background checks. This information, if released, could cause judges and other court personnel embarrassment.

"Play ball with us or else."

Additional strategies, considered and implemented, called for identifying "court informants" to provide a heads up on any lawsuits, which would challenge law enforcement efforts or be adversarial to the FBI. These court informants would provide "confidential information" of the discussions behind the "closed" chambers doors and furnish the opportunity for the FBI to gain leverage and prevent any ambushes that would dilute their and other law enforcement powers. The knowledge was then passed along to the appropriate persons within the Attorney General's office. An informal arrangement was established in which FBI agents and U.S. attorneys were and are now more welcome in the chambers of justices and judges than "defense lawyers or citizens." Can you spell ex parte?

The plan also called for the FBI to "educate" naïve federal judges about law enforcement. It was the agency's hope that "they could be a tremendous force for keeping some of these stupid appellate opinions from coming out." Would this effect a decision to "publish" or "unpublish" an opinion?

Of course all of this smacks of currying favor by the FBI and "most other federal agencies, and some state agencies [which] are doing the same thing."

So if you are looking for the FBI to investigate misconduct within the prisons, by prison personnel, or any other government misconduct for that matter, I guess that old Southern colloquialism applies here. "You can't have the fox guarding the chicken coop."

Between 1910 and 1930, one million people moved into the coal fields of central Appalachia. The biggest concentration of the half of them who were African Americans moved into West Virginia's southwestern counties, especially McDowell county where my mother was born a Black miner's daughter. Yet, when folk think of West Virginia and the Appalachians, these Black folk are ignored or forgotten. When people think of the battles of the coal miner's union, they neglect the question of Black folk. Likewise, to understand African American history properly, it is important to understand the struggles and life experience of such significant sections of the black proletariat like these Black miners, the Black autoworkers of Detroit, or the Black steel workers of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Chicago.

Trotter provides an exhaustive study of the whole process of Black proletarians moving to West Virginia's coal fields, the construction of Black communities, and the lives of African Americans in the mining camps and mining towns. He presents a very good picture of the conflicting forces involved including the mine owners and the state and local governments they controlled, white American and immigrant miners, the bureaucrats who ran the UMWA, as well as the black middle class that grew up in West Virginia.

What interests me is the way he shows that the mine companies increased segregation and racism in West Virginia in an attempt to stem the unity of Black miners with white miners in the many battles that took place over unionization. He is also quite good at showing that the rising African American middle class came to serve the interests of the mine owners and the white ruling class in attempting to dampen the militancy of Black miners on both the working class and black rights fronts.

What is interesting is the glimpses Trotter gives of the potential power of Black miners in West Virgnia. He gives one instance where an African American was lynched were hundreds of Black miners marched on the coal camp where the lynching took place.

It is unfortunate that his study ends in 1930 so he does not cover the successful battles in the 1930s by the UMWA that organized many of these miners and provided one of the basis for the mass organizing campaigns of the CIO.

Author Kurt Hohenstein (Assistant Professor of History, Winona State University) has served as a Research Assisstant on the National Commission on Election Reform. In Coining Corruption: The Making of the American Campaign Finance System, Hohenstein reveals the untold story about the triumphs and pitfalls of political reform. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Buckley v. Valeo (1976) defined "corruption" as quid pro quo ("get for giving"), meaning that Congress only had authority over corruption that involved a campaign contributor receiving political favors from the candidate. This limited definition has since curtailed efforts at campaign finance reform, with harsh and unintended consequences - the Buckley decision turned a blind eye to massive differences in funding between individual candidates, and the ability that some candidates have to control communication channels. Coining Corruption follows the evolution of the campaign finance system through the end of the 20th and into the 21st century, with an especial eye toward the ramifications of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001 and the Supreme Court's decisions in McConnel v. FEC (2001) and Landell v. Sorrell (2006). An eye-opening examination of the history, flaws, and bright points of America's modern political system.

don gordon was a southern california original. this book offers a rare chance to own his collected work.

This book is almost as Wonderful as the Beautiful Pickard China! If you've never touched a piece of Pickard China or read this wonderful book, then you're missing so much! It's a Must Have Book that's packed full of Lovely Photos, as well as some of the history behind this Beautiful China! Go get yourself this book, Ya Hear!

This is the first study of Norwegian immigrants in Brooklyn and the New York City area. It focuses on the maritime migration fron Norway, and explores the ethinic community that emerged around 1900. It is a well-reserached, well-written and richly illustrated book, and should be of interest to anyone interested in the history of Norwegian migration to America.

Let me preface this review by saying that it will center entirely on the using the book in a college-level course. I used this as an assigned text in U.S. history survey in 2007. Frankly, I did not know how students would react to or engage with Barnum. They enjoyed the book and the sparks flew in our classroom discussion. I think this text works much better than Barnum's autobiography as an introduction to Barnum's historical significance. The only small criticism I will make of the book is that it would be even better (for classroom use) with a longer introduction that expands on Barnum's life, career, and historical context. James Cook has written brilliantly on these points, so perhaps a second edition will include a longer introduction. I prepared one lecture to fill in some of these gaps. Also, the first selection, "Adventures of an Adventurer" is very difficult for undergraduates to grasp, so I just omitted it from the assigned reading.