Missouri Books

Kansas City Jazz is a chronicle of the golden age of jazz music, an era that put Kansas City on the map along with the more heavily documented jazz havens of New Orleans, Chicago, and New York. Jazz authority and former record executive Frank Driggs combines his talent Kansas City native and radio host Chuck Haddix to present an in-depth chronicle jazz styles that encompassed rough-and-tumble urban blues, and pounding piano music that would come to be known as "boogie-woogie". A tour of jazz cultural landmarks such as the Reno Club and colorful profiles of jazz figures from Mary Lou Williams and Big Joe Turner to Jimmy Rushing and Andy Kirk, along with an inset section of black-and-white photographs, distinguish this "must-read" for jazz music history enthusiasts.

Any serious student of Jazz needs to know about the Kansas City sound. The book reiterated what I already knew which is that KC was a major contribitor to bebop and to r&b due to the styles that came togteher from that part of the country. Generations of musicians were influenced by the Basie Band and Charlie Parker. You will also get an education of what life was like in the black community of a midwestern city. Kansas City, which happens to be one of my favorites among cities, had a parallel identity with the world of Negro Leagues baseball and both jazz and baseball are remembered through a museum which I plan to visit soon. I recommend the book to anyone unfamiliar with the subject and interested in jazz.

Great book, both of the other reviews so far are quite good. It's good to see a city with such a great history finally getting a thorough treatment.

As a Kansas City native, I would like to point out that co-author Chuck Haddix is quite possibly the best DJ in town, as well as a fine author. His Friday and Saturday night show The Fish Fry plays some of the best jazz and blues anywhere. You can learn more as well as listen to past shows at http://www.kcur.org/fishfry.html, there's a link to the archives on the righthand side.

With vivid descriptions of the "wide-open" town of Jazz era Kansas City and its dramatic denizens, you can envision the scenes of Basie's coming of age, Charlie Parker's KC childhood and musical evolution, big bands dueling each other, glamorous theaters and giant dance halls, bars open 24 hours, remarkable women, "sporting men," police looking the other way, and so much more. The extensive research really pays off with quotations from reviews and ads from "back in the day," interviews with legends, a generous array of photographs, and a cohesive and accessible presentation of information from many sources. The sights, sounds, scents, and sentiments conveyed by Chuck Haddix and Frank Driggs in Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop are the next best thing to a time-machine. Next, Oxford needs to put out a companion CD (or DVD with photos and copies of the original media) with the recordings of the music and performers to help us fully appreciate the musical innovations from the Paris of the Plains.

Well known , Nobel prize winning author , put his pen to the service of recording his 1975 visit to the Land of Israel and his thoughts on the dillemas faced by Israel at the time , and on world politics at large in the mid 1970's.
The author puts down his observations , from his thoughts about Hassidim on a plane from Heathrow to Ben Gurion airport to a secular kibbutz near Ceasarea, and his meetings with leaders and thinkers in Israel such as former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban , Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolleck , poet and journalist Chaim Gouri and professor Yehoshafat Harkabi as well as Arab figures like Mahmoud Abu Zuluf , editor of the al Kuds , at the time the largest Arab language newspaper in Jerusalem , who'se life , and the life of his children , the author reports where threatened for his relatively 'moderate and conciliatory' line.

Although Abu Zuluf later became a stooge of Arafat and the PLO.
Bellow observes the Israeli people as lacking in rancour or bitterness against the Arabs , despite being constantly under the threat of anihilation and targeted by terrorism.
The threat of anihilation , of a second holocaust , looms permanently in the Israeli mind , leading one of Bellow's aquaintances to observe that it would be a horrible irony if the Jews being gathered in one place enabled a second holocaust to become a reality.
since before the State of Israel was established the Jews of Israel have had to live with terror , an example in this book being a homicide attack ""on the Jaffa Road, because of another bomb, six adolescents-two on a break from school-stopping at a coffee shop to eat buns, have just died."

It is because of his relatively sympathetic portrait of the Israeli people in this volume , that Bellow came under attack from anti-Israel high priest of the ultra-left , Noam Chomsky.
Bellow muses on the attempts made by Jean Paul Sartre to balance his understanding of Israel, with his sympathy of the Arabs and his anti-American stance.

This book was written in the embryonic stages of anti-Israel hatemongering from leftwing academics in the West , alhtough it must be noted that all their propaganda was created in the old Soviet Union , where the 'Zionism is racism' canard was created .
In a heartfelt plea the author writes: 'I sometimes wonder why it is impossible for Western intellectuals...to say to the Arabs " We have to demmand also more from you. You too-the Marxists among you in particular- must try to do something for brotherhood and make peace with the Jews , for they have suffered monstrously in Christian Europe and under Islam. Israel occupies under one sixth of one percent of the lands you call Arab. Isn't it possible to adjust the traditions of Islam , to reinterpret , to change , to change emphasis , so as to accept the trifling occupancy? A great civilization should be capable of humane and generous flexibility. The destruction of Israel will do you no good, let the Jews live in their small state".
In reporting on a converstaion with Professor Jacob Leib Talmon , Bellow reports Talmon's warnings that 'the fate of Jewry in Israel and the Diaspora , is so closely linked he says , that the destruction of Israel would bring with it 'the destruction of corporate Jewish existance all over the world , and a catastrophy that might overtake US Jewry"
Alas , in the 30 years since this was written , leftwing academics (and the media) around the world have been the main force in hardening Arab attitudes , by taking up anti-Israel hatred to Nazi-like levels.

While the author has an overall understanding attitude of the Israeli people , he is rather less so of the Jewish residents of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria, not quite seeming to understand the depth of the Jewish right to and connection with this part of the Land of Israel.

This book is less about the Jerusalem that Bellow visited and more about himself. Indeed, his presence is so pronounced that he appears more fascinated with his own perceptions than he is with what he is witnessing, or so it seemed to me. While the writing is clear and vivid, I can now recall virtually nothing of what he describes, except for himself and his personal reactions - it is he who sees things more clearly than his hosts, etc etc. After 100 pages, this is boring. Alas, I got nothing out of this and it is also badly dated.

Not recommended.

Bellow came to Jerusalem as celebrated novelist . Every door was open to him , and he met with Israelis from all walks of life. He writes an essentially sympathetic and understanding account of Israel and its special situation. He knows the score in terms of the Jewish past, the great sufferings many of the survivors living in Israel have gone through. He understands the constant threat from their Arab neighbors under which Israel lives. But he tries to see the situation too with sympathy for the Arab side. His basic line politically is of the left, and he clearly favors political compromise.
The book does provide a pretty fair picture of Israeli society. But it is possible to quarrel with Bellow's basic orientation which is that of a Diaspora Jew who does not feel any call to Aliyah to Israel, and does not have much understanding or sympathy for a good share of its population, the religious.
All in all though this is an insightful look into Israeli society by a commentator of great intelligence and literary skill.

How can one describe this classic book on Israel? At one level it is a personal account of one American writer's journey to Israel and England and back but scratch beneath the surface and you see the incredible panoply of faces and voices that is Israel. Here is A.B. Yehoshoua who writes "that because our spiritual life ... cannot revolve around anything but [political questions], you cannot spare yourself, spiritually, for other things." Here is a bomb going off in London just as it recently did in Israel. And here is Saul Bellow mourning the "six young [British] people" who were murdered while simultaneously noting that "the difference is that when a bomb goes off in a West End restaurant the fundamental right of England to exist is not in dispute."

Here is Abu Zuluf, editor of El Kuds whose automobile terrorists have blown up because he is trying to follow what Saul Bellow feels is a "line of conciliation and peace."

Here is the Greek quarter in Jerusalem covered in grapevine; there is the Jewish quarter where the principal relic is the ben-Zakkai synagogue, blown up by the Jordanians when they took over in 1948 and as Saul Bellow walks toward it he hears, somewhere, as Arab boys are racing their donkeys down a hill.

Here is a Yemenite synagogue; there a Souk, the public market. And everywhere there is a profusion of communities: Arabs, Jews from Arab lands, Asian lands, Europe, Africa, Christians, Kurds, Hindus.... Everywhere a cacophony of voices; everywhere people mingling, arguing, making peace, making war, while philosophers philosophize and writers write.

And he sits down to dinner with families who have lost children and as he passes dishes (Sephardic dishes, Indian dishes, Arab dishes, European dishes all mixed together) "on the Jaffa Road, because of another bomb, six adolescents-two on a break from school-stopping at a coffee shop to eat buns, have just died."

"This is how we live, mister," a cabby tells Bellow (in what language: Ladino, Hebrew, Arabic?), "his voice cracking. "Okay? We live this way."

A Conservative Classic

Like many great books, this book has gone largely unnoticed by the current establishment. History, however, will correct this, I believe, as this is probably the best work in political philosophy in the last 45 years. People definitely will be reading and discussing this book 300 years from now.

This book can be appreciated by both layman and academic alike, and while naturally appealing to conservatives it will also will please learned liberals and thoughtful environmentalists.

Dr. Fleming's book, The Morality of Everyday Life, presents seven essays that examine, in depth and detail, the unraveling of our culture and government. What's that, you ask? What do I mean, "unraveling of our culture and government? Well, okay, take a look around. We do know, for example, that the combined various levels of government costs us half our income, that our hard-earned wages that we use to feed, house, and clothe our families is being transferred, by government fiat, to people we don't even know (not to mention the funding of certain, select corporations and fulminating academics), and countless other inane programs. Programs which are proven and utter failures, such as the $6 trillion war on poverty, environmental restrictions taken to an absurd level such as prohibiting oil exploration in a barren wasteland. Or how about the disintegration of the family and acceptance of degenerate sexual lifestyles? Or perhaps we could examine the countless times in our society when innocent people are convicted for simply protecting their homes and families.

These are just a sampling of the problems Dr. Fleming seeks to explore in his book. Dr. Fleming argues that since the birth of classical liberalism in the seventeenth century, a century that gave us "universality, rationality, individualism, objectivity, and abstract idealism," Western Civilization has developed a flaw in its ethics, moral behavior, and thus in the construction of its state apparatus. He points out that the two primary political philosophies, liberalism and conservatism, have both embraced a "farsighted" or "long view" of human life. The problem, then, is that both political "positions (liberalism and conservatism)" in order to engage this farsighted, idealistic, perspective of mankind (modernity) have in the very act of "freeing themselves from the shackles of particular circumstances and traditions" introduced an ethical virus that eats away at the traditional duties and obligations of the individual while disenfranchising the very foundation of human society, the family.

This sort of "one size fits all" thinking that government and society are pushing us towards is at once, both dangerous and absurd. For example: a man murders a storekeeper during a robbery. In a one size fits all society, the woman who kills her abusive husband in self defense would receive the same punishment

In his essay "Hell and Other People", Fleming describes the eighteenth century and the philosophies of "Voltaire, Kant, and (later) the New England transcendentalists" as the time when the concepts of "universal brotherhood, international law, and world government reemerged." The twentieth century saw the idea of a "just state," or government that is committed to "economic equality," the idea that one is to "sacrifice private life to public good," (can you say "eminant domain"?)not to mention the onslaught of self-righteous who are constantly interfering in the private lives of citizens. So the state has become the vehicle of moral certitude and each of us, through the wisdom of the state, is to take his place as "deputies" in providing for the necessary expansion in order that it might provide, among other things, largesse to the "underprivileged," justice for all, and, of course, the ever elusive, equality.

Dr. Fleming does not, however, stop at just revealing the problems, but details how America, as a people, can reverse the trends he has cited. I will stop short of discussing Fleming's outline and leave that to the reader to discover. This is an exceptional work from a brilliant author.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

I saw a review of this book in a conservative publication and was intrigued enough to buy it. The book is a series of seven essays, of which the first five were very thought-provoking and contained some excellent discussion. I would recommend the book on the strength of these alone. The basic idea is that we have stronger ethical obligations to those close to us. Fleming also emphasizes that in the messiness of human existence hard and fast rules that will allow a person to always make the correct decision are nearly impossible to come by. Fleming makes a good case for these points, and I think he is convincing. I loved Fleming's lines "moral certainty belongs only to saints and homicidal maniacs" and "men and women are not unidimensional figures cut out of cardboard by a philosopher's scissors."

I especially liked Fleming's comparison of wealthy nations providing food aid to the Third World to a lifeboat, in which we have an obligation not to take on more passengers either as immigrants or consumers. I agree that it is ethically permissible to refuse aid to societies that do nothing to reduce their population. In my opinion, any charity that provides food or medicine to poor people but does not provide birth control or other means of reducing population has a lot to answer for. I also liked Fleming's application of the same principle to taxes. When the money for yet another hare-brained income transfer scheme is coming out of what I earn for my family, don't expect me to like it.

Fleming wants the foundations of conservative ideas questioned also, which I think is excellent. For example, Fleming discusses the Christian commandment that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Since no ordinary person possibly can or does love his neighbor this way, it seems pointless to base an ethical system on this. Objective points of view, taken to their natural extremes, will inevitably turn us into monsters who will kill for some higher cause or other. I liked Fleming's line that "one sign we are dealing with a superstition is the unwillingness of the believer to question basic assumptions," which he applies to Christianity. I've seen far too many Christians in precisely that position.

In the last two essays Fleming seems to get bogged down, though there are still some good points made. In the essay "The Myth of Individualism" Fleming argues that we should put less emphasis on the individual and more on community. That's fine as far as it goes, but arguing that our society's problems really come from seeing ourselves as individuals struck me as taking this idea further than his evidence will support.

In the last essay "Goodbye, Old Rights of Man," Fleming occasionally seemed to me to be contradicting much of what I had agreed with in the earlier essays. For example, he talks about abortion as killing real unborn children to promote an abstract quality of life. This strikes me as exactly the sort of hard and fast rule that he said was inadequate to deal with the messiness of human existence. I agree that you shouldn't abort a child for trivial reasons, but then you shouldn't have a child for trivial reasons, either. Is it wrong to abort a child if there are already too many children to properly care for in the family? If the parents have serious genetic defects? What if the local community is starving? What if the local community would starve if the population doubled? I agree with Fleming that today's obsession with rights has gotten out of hand; but it's not only the liberals who sometimes take this too far.

Fleming has a tendency to make sweeping statements irrelevant to his argument, without providing any support for them. For example, he calls today's environmental havoc, such as pollution, the residue of Western liberalism. He dismisses all of American art, and the theory of evolution, with the same casualness. Well, I'm a scientist who believes in evolution. I'm a little surprised that Fleming doesn't, given that evolution is all about the sort of messiness and contingency Fleming is writing about. I would suggest pairing this book with something on evolution, such as Stephen Jay Gould's book "Wonderful Life".

Fleming's ideas can be taken too far, which Fleming seems unaware of. It is all very well to be concerned first for our own families, but taken to an extreme the result is nepotism and corruption. The Renaissance popes are the classic example of this, but it is a serious problem in many countries. In the Philippines even the proper handling of church funds is nearly impossible, because people feel that if their families ask them for money they must give it, even if the money is not theirs. Nepotism is a problem in the U.S., as shown by the political career of George W. Bush, a man whose sole qualifications for office appear to be his famous father and an uncanny ability to remember people's names. Too much ignoring of abstract principles like equality can lead to disaster too: look at what happened to the ancien regime of pre-revolutionary France, and to the Russian czars.

THE MORALITY OF EVERYDAY LIFE is one of the more interesting books on ethics that I've read in a while. Thomas Fleming, a top paleconservative writer, contrasts an "ancient alternative" to the liberal tradition. The liberal tradition (growing out of Descartes, Locke and others) is characterized by certain assumptions: Individuals and governments are the central players in ethical considerations; moral behavior is a question on rational decision-making; moral principles must be applied with equal consistency to all situations.

Yet the ancient (and in fact almost universal) way of looking at moral questions is different. I have different obligations to different people. My duties to family and the world are not equal. Charity, as they say, beings at home. To the liberal "citizen of the world" this is provincialism at its worst. "[T]here is a consistency of tone, a certain universal high-mindedness that is impatient with distinctions and disdainful of irrational attachments. Sentiments of loyalty, because they are not entirely rational, do not yield their secrets to analysis or measurement." [p. 103.] People who profess a love for mankind first and foremost have the tendency to be cruel to their family and friends. It's easy to justify almost anything in the name of one's love for mankind. (A point made in Paul Johnson's suggestive, if problematic book, INTELLECTUALS.)

Dr. Fleming's book, as one might suggest by my brief description, is hardly rationalistic and abstract. There are plenty of examples from "everyday life" illustrating the arguments of the book. My only complaint is that I had hoped Dr. Fleming would have situated his ethical approach within the tradition advanced by writers of the Old Right. Richard Weaver and Robert Nisbet are mentioned once, and Russell Kirk not at all.

In River City, Missouri, florist Bretta Solomon prepares the floral arrangements for the "wedding of the year", at least in the narrow mind of the mother of the bride. What should be an easy time for Bretta is a primrose path to the nether world as nothing satisfies customer Evelyn Montgomery who expects her daughter's nuptials to rank with that of Luke and Laura from over a decade ago.

Meanwhile Dan and Natalie Parker, owners of Parker Wholesale Greenhouse, host their annual Customer Appreciation Day, but instead of a gala event Dan finds the corpse of Marnie Frazier in the midst of his greenhouse. Though estranged from her dad Dan, Bretta joins Sheriff Sid Hancock's investigation. Since a resolution would immensely serve him well as he runs for reelection, Sid welcomes the amateur who has had success solving the case of A DEADLY BOUQUET. As others die, Bretta uncovers lab assistant Marnie's research that targets her dad's greenhouse where apparently a rose is not a rose while the culprit targets Bretta.

The latest Garden Mystery combines an amateur sleuth with a police procedural, but the opportunist paid professional sheriff is more the amateur while the fabulous amateur florist acts more the experienced professional. The story line is superb because Janis Harrison lays out her clues so that the audience receives a delightful straight forward murder mystery with evidence available for fans to find while avoiding the wild weird meandering to fool the reader with an unnecessary final twist. Those who enjoy cracking the case as a partner to the heroine will step into the garden.

Harriet Klausner

Nothing ruins a party like finding a dead body in the middle of it. That's the challenge facing widowed florist and amateur sleuth Bretta Solomon when she attends the "Customer Appreciation Day" festivities put on by her friends, Natalie and Dan Parker of Parker Greenhouse. The dead young woman, a recently hired employee at the greenhouse, has a sharp object in her throat and a cryptic note near her body indicating she had scheduled a meeting with someone.

Though the sheriff and Bretta have had their tiffs in the past over Bretta's snooping, this time Sid welcomes Bretta's help. He's facing a reelection campaign and wants this crime solved by whatever means possible. Also lending a hand is Bretta's father, who thinks it would be just dandy to open a father-daughter detective agency. But even without the encouragement, Bretta can't help herself, especially when a few clues just fall in her lap and the sheriff can't put two and two together. Soon it appears the victim had been doing some sleuthing of her own and died for her troubles.

This was a lovely who-dunnit peopled with interesting characters, richly drawn and each with problems and a history of his own. I didn't guess the solution, though the clues were there. The crime itself was a bit improbable--I believe the villain's goals could have been achieved with far less trouble and intrigue. But by the time it all came together at the end, I'd been so entertained I didn't care. A clever and emotional story.

Just finished reading "Reap a Wicked Harvest" and found it to be highly entertaining. Once again, the author kept me guessing who was the murderer. Not until the last of the book, did it all come together.The more Janis writes the better she gets. Janis keeps me coming back for more twisted murder tales. Bretta and her Dad, hopefully, will have more crimes to investigate together.Thanks for a grand time.

I love the character of Bretta Solomon but this was my least favorite book of the series. I missed her working in the flower shop and her antagonistic relationshiop with Sid. Perhaps I was just disenchanted with the storyline behind the murders and the heavy handed symbolism. I found it implausible how the killer wanted to reconcile the situation with Bretta when she first discovered who it was.

As a resident of the Greater St. Louis area, I was immediately drawn into the stories in this book. I was REALLY weirded out to know that the Book House, which is a store that I have visited in the past, is supposed to be haunted.

The fact that the book didn't contain any "pictures" of ghosts lost it a point.

For many years Saint Louis has been a major American crossroads. Not only was the "Mound City" considered the gateway to the west but it also was a major port on the Mighty Mississippi. It is no wonder then that a town that has seen so much history is a very haunted place.

Robbi Courtaway has gathered numerous tales of the supernatural in the St. Louis area by both digging through old newspapers and by interviewing numerous witnesses. Indeed, most of the stories in this book are first person accounts and most of the haunts described are documented by several first person accounts lending this book a great deal of credibility. It is also noteworthy that many of these accounts come from self-described skeptics who didn't believe in ghosts until one basically walked up and bit them on the behind. Some of the witnesses are still not sure that they believe in ghosts but they can find no other possible explanation for their experiences.

The last chapter in the book deals not with ghosts but with a story that thanks to Hollywood has become one of the most famous supernatural events in American history. The famous exorcism that the movie "The Exorcist" was loosely based on was actually conducted in St. Louis and at the time that this book was written the last of the Priests involved was still living. The author conducted an extensive interview with Father Halloran and in the process debunked several myths that have grown up around the event. This was a marvelous chapter to end this chilling book with I think!

Finally, this author created an appendix that lists several other spooky places in the St. Louis area. Not all of these locations appear to be haunted but most of them have a haunted reputation. This appendix allows the author to point out to her readers that not every place that is rumored to be haunted actually is. It takes research and legwork to find out if there is a ghost hanging around any specific location and that is something that many authors in this genre are not willing to do.

I would suggest that maybe the book would have been easier to follow if the author had provided a little more geographical information. Many of the stories that she has gathered and investigated come from areas close to but outside of St. Louis. Sometimes Courtaway assumes that her readers will know as much about the St. Louis area as she does but I can assure her that this is not the case. Her writing style was also just a bit confusing at times but not often and for the most part the text had a very nice flow.

From what I can tell this is this author's first ghost book and quite frankly for a first effort this book is amazingly good with a perfect blend of history and haunts. The spirits that roam St. Louis should be proud.

The author and a number of others around town claim my father, Dave Hitzert, is one of the ghosts in this book. I'll say this, the claims that he has been mischief making, he took his job very seriously- he never missed a day- ever, are almost as hard to believe as the existence of his ghost. Another concern I have is that neither my mother or I was consulted for the book. I have a few interesting details that would have illuminated Ms. Courtaway's account. If Ghosts exist, I might have an idea of my fathers motives for sticking around. You can look into both the play he was working on and the day of the year, not the date but it's significance, or you can e-mail me at...
sonny_clips@yahoo.com, and I'll fill you in. My father was a great man and his story, ghost or otherwise, deserves a little better research.

Best,

Jason Garrett Hitzert

Excellent book!! Anyone who grew up in Saint Louis or has lived here for more than a few years will really enjoy this book! The author Courtaway knew what she was doing by making the chapter about the infamous "Exorcism" the last chapter in the book. This is one of those books that is hard to put down. The authors writing style is at times given to confusing participles but for the most part is pretty fluid.
She definitely has done her homework on this one! It is a fantastic book and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the supernatural or just in local history.

Those familiar with this author's work will be pleased to find this addition adds to his balanced presentation of the facts as in previous volumes. In the final analysis, as he points out, the invasion of Italy was inevitable since leaving the troops scattered around the Mediterranean idle until Overlord was unthinkable in view of the deadly struggle in Russia as well as some sixteen German divisions in Italy would have been available in both France and Russia.
To understand Anzio, he begins with the invasion of Italy at the experience at Salerno. Under prodding from Churchill, the Anzio attack began with on shoestring with a too tight time schedule and lack of enthusiasm from the professional military leaders. Lucas, the commanding general, was pessimistic about the operation's chances. Mark Clark's direction was ambiguous. Adding to the pressure was frustration over the inability to crack the Gustav Line south of Anzio. The expectation was the Germans would bleed off some divisions from there to cope with this new development.
However, the Germans, with particular attention from Hitler, did the unexpected. They poured fresh divisions from northern Italy and other areas into the battle with the objective of driving the allies into the sea. Allied artillery and navel gunfire overwhelmed the German advantage in manpower. The infantry, despite heavy losses, endured.
The author concludes that the decision for the Anzio attack will probably remain controversial. What is clear to him is that the courage of the young people on both sides of the battle was outstanding. This book is a useful study of both the battle and the command issues, and represents a good addition to any military history library both for individuals and institutions. I recommend it.

John S.D. Eisenhower established himself as a historian of note decades ago when he penned "The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge" (1969). With "They Fought at Anzio" has added another solid effort to his cannon. As anyone who is familiar with Eisenhower's previous works would expect his research is thorough and fair (not nationalistically slanted). Eisenhower's writing style has changed little over the past four decades, and there's not really any reason for him to do so as his is a style of reader engagement that is not over cluttered with jargon or confusing language. The pacing of "They Fought at Anzio" extremely even, start to finish, and as such makes this a very enjoyable read.

Eisenhower focuses his prose less on details of combat action than on personalities of and relationships between commanders, and background events leading up to engagements. This approach lends much more humanity to the text than is often possible with detailed orders of battle and after-action reports. Eisenhower is also quite generous in his use of a multi-nationalistic approach to his subject, presented by Allied and German/Italian views of events. This latter component of "They Fought at Anzio" probably provides the most concrete connection, other than name, between John and his famous father, US President and Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Most would agree that Gen. Eisenhower's greatest strength as a leader of men was as a great moderator and captain of allies who were comprised of many nations and military cultures.

The human side of the war in Italy is also brought to vivid life by Eisenhower's repeated use of memoirs of Lt. Avis Dagit (nurse w/ 56th Evacuation Hospital) [from Half An Acre of Hell] and Lt. Lloyd Wells (Co B, 2nd Bat, 6th Armd Inf, 1st Armd Div) [from Anzio to the Alps]. Such is Eisenhower's clear preference for these sources that readers will likely want to pick up copies of both of these books as well; strong tribute to an author's ability to capture his/her audience indeed.

All in all "They Fought at Anzio" is a solid book, expertly researched and presented, and fun to read. Should be of interest to serious and casual readers alike. 4 stars.

Although Anzio (Shingle) is the centerpiece of this book, the author develops the story from Clark's landing at Salerno to show how the various operations in Italy were interrelated. This is another fine book by John Eisenhower, author of the very fine work, "The Bitter Woods", his story of the Battle of the Bulge. Less than 300 pages long, another two hundred could have been easily added, but then the writing might have become bogged down in relatively uninteresting details. There is none of that here, and the author's fine writing style holds the reader's interest throughout.

Eisenhower deftly points out that the Italy campaign was always the red-headed stepchild for American planning, but pushed by the British and especially Churchill. The author develops all the characters and their opinions, Churchill, Alexander, Montgomery, Clark, Lucas and Truscott. Even the German side received light but sufficient treatment, and both the landings at Salerno and Anzio are clearly shown to be near-run things due to Allied miscalculations and rapid German responses. What was expected to be relatively easy, in part due to overwhelming air support, never was, and the PBI (poor bloody infantry) paid the price. Amazingly, casualties on both sides turned out to be about the same.

Although the author is generally kind to all Allied commanders, their flaws and misconceptions are clearly pointed out but not belabored. Americans and British alike can point to mistakes made by the other's commanders, and Clark's glory hunting and Montgomery's backstabbing are there for all to read. Even Lucas is treated mildly for his failures at Anzio, and Eisenhower's analysis tends to show that Lucas was removed for his defeatism rather than mistakes in generalship. There is really much to learn here. This is not an attack on anyone in particular as is so often found today in books about World War II, but rather an informative narrative from which the reader can learn what really happened. For example, British "know it all" arrogance towards American generals and troops is mentioned where it affects events, but otherwise is not dwelled upon. That alone is refreshing.

The author balances his account between high-level commanders and their decisions and the experiences of the troops on the ground. Cause and effect, decisions, battle and casualties are elucidated here in absolutely clarity, making this work riveting and informative at the same time.

Even the maps are done well, and both maps and photos are helpful. The battles and generalship are brought home with remarkable clarity, and that is why I gave this work five stars. More could have been added, but then the then the book might have become boring. As it is, boring is not an adjective that is applicable here.

For a newcomer to the Italian campaign (or the part of it from Salerno to Rome), I heartily recommend this book. The serious historian may find this book a little light, and wish to consult other works on some details, but all in all, this is an excellent read for everyone.

John S. D. Eisenhower is a historian with a number of books to his credit, and I was expecting something worthy of his past oeuvre.

This isn't it.

It's not a bad book, and if you haven't read anything on the Italian campaign it's a worthwhile introduction to Anzio, Cassino, and the surrounding war; if you have read anything, there's nothing new here. One glance at the footnotes tells the whole story: he quotes from a few memoirs (Allied Fifth Army commander Mark Clark's Calculated Risk, Truscott's Command Decisions, Audie Murphy's To Hell And Back, a few others), a couple of lower-level people he interviewed later on (good for the human interest story, I suppose).

There's almost no use of the detailed official histories, and very little of any scholarship on the Italian campaign later than the 1950's. (The single best book on the whole affair, Graham and Bidwell's Tug of War, doesn't even show up as far as I remember.)

That said, the book is well-written and the story is worth reading, but I don't think that this book adds anything to the literature on the Italian campaign.

This book is a very interesting and detailed history of the 1944 St. Louis Browns. It takes you game by game through the ups and downs of the team led by Manager Luke Sewell. There are numerous photographs of all of the players from that season. While it is very interesting to see how these guys made it though the season with injuries and wartime callups, it reads a little like an Encyclopedia. I found it hard to read for an extended period. I'd pick it up and read 8 or 10 pages, and then I was done for a while. Even so, I highly recommend this unique history of the Browns one and only AL championship season.

This book has everything you wanted to know about the 1944 Browns and then some. Mr. Heller shows that the Browns were indeed a good team on their own and not just lucky because it was a war season. Even though I knew how the season turned out, the book still kept me in suspense! This is not just for St. Louis Brown fans, this is for *ALL* baseball fans.

Quite simply this book is an outstanding recollection of one of the most memorable teams in baseball history, the St Louis Browns. Heller takes the reader back to baseball during world war II introducing them to some of the classic players that made this lovable loser team American League Champions. It was a pleasure to read.

David Hinze and Karen Farnham have written a very readable work on the battle of Carthage and the events that precipitated it. The authors made an excellent choice in covering the entire early campaign in Missouri. While the light casualties and non-decisive nature of the battle might appear an unlikely study subject, this battle speaks volumes of future Gen. Franz Sigel's shortcomings (and strengths) and sets the stage for the pivotal battle of Wilson's Creek. Along the way it reveals the nature of tensions between Missouri Southerners, German immigrants and other Missouri unionists. The campaign nature of the book includes the Camp Jackson seizure/St. Louis riot and a reasonably detailed evaluation of the important Boonville skirmish (with map.) Boonville, despite its minor tactical nature, proved strategically critical in denying CSA access to much of Missouri's potential manpower.

The most striking thing about the battle of Carthage is how unique and downright odd it was: 1,100 disciplined mostly German immigrants and German officers in Federal service versus a still organizing Missouri State Guard force with about 4,000 armed men and cavalry. This was not a Confederate army, but a state militia called out by a pro-Confederate governor. There is a sense of absurdity in the Lilliputian infantry force seeking battle with a much larger force on an open plain--especially when one realizes the Federals had no cavalry while the rebels had a large force, and that the Federals were 100 miles from support. Sigel's poor judgement in his ill-advised attack serves as forewarning of his performances throughout the war. Fortunately, Sigel was reasonably gifted at commanding retreats and his disciplined Germans infantry and artillerists rose to the occasion. The Missouri State Guard cavarly was too raw and undisciplined to exploit what should have been an overwhelming advantage.

There are many minor but annoying typographical errors and some editing lapses. Some are confusing to those unfamiliar with the region or history. A simple example is referring to the city of Nevada as being near the "Arkansas" border (Kansas is correct.) While the authors describe the artillery action well, the term "howitzer" is apparently misapplied and used interchangeably and incorrectly with the correct term "gun" when referring to the MSG's 6-pounders. (There were no 6 pdr howitzers in the ACW.)

The Boonville skirmish description has some errors and apparent missed connections. The gun/howitzer confusion arises first when the author fails to note that the section of Totten's battery in action had both a 6 pdr gun and a 12 pdr howitzer on the field. The MSG role here could have been better researched and extended to Carthage. This looks like a missed opportunity. I am no expert on the MSG, but in a day of study was able to hunt down half a dozen MSG company captains present at Boonville who were later commanding units at Carthage. These semi-organized companies at Boonville formed an important nucleus for the force at Carthage. It might also have been fruitful to more deeply explore the Parsons/Marmaduke/Gov. Jackson arrangement that resulted in senior officer Brig. Gen. Parsons being absent at Tipton while his nominal subordinate was placed in command.

Despite the above-mentioned issues, I strongly recommend this book to any who wish to truly understand early Civil War history in Missouri. In addition to a number of passable maps of the action, the book includes a battlefield tour, some relevant photographs and other illustrations.

An in depth look at the early Civil War conflict in Missouri. Very strong on the background events which lead to the Battle of Carthage. Best reporting of the events of the battle that have been printed. Civil War buffs should have this book in their library.

There were sections of Missouri that yearned for the South, but the state remained a border state and never joined the Confederacy. The Battle of Carthage was a series of small engagements between Governor Claiborne Jackson's Missouri State Guard and Franz Sigel's Union army. Sigel fought the battle in classic Napoleonic style, complete with artillery bombardments. The State Guard had superior numbers that included cavalry. The Guard also endured poor leadership. Franz Sigel had the training and experience, but lacked cavalry for reconnaissance and to guard the flanks of his small force. For ten hours on July 5, 1861 the two armies slugged it out down the Lamar-Carthage road. Sigel's German immigrants did well but could not prevail against the country boys of the State Guard. The best Sigel could hope is, that he could avoid utter defeat. After a disciplined retreat, the Union forces survived to fight another day.

No doubt, this is an obscure topic to the casual reader. Hinze does a superior job of fleshing out the pertinent details. He presents the facts in a cohesive and interesting manner. The text includes fine detailed maps. Portraits of the main players are also provided. There are sufficient indexes and notes to satisfy Civil War purists. A battlefield tour and author interview is also included. This is a good book for anyone interested in reading Missouri Civil War history. ;-)

This is a must read if you do a lot of camping. Steve Henry really puts the fun back into camping. This book makes you remember that camping isn't about the rv's and portable electronics, but the greatness of being outside.

Steve Henry gets it. If you camp because you love the beauty, solitude and adventure of the outdoors, then you'll love this book. Mr. Henry's advice has led us to some amazing sites in the Ozarks. I almost hesitate to recommend the book because I'd rather keep these places secret.

It's not exactly easy to find Ozark specific camping guides but this one seems to contain all of the most important information. It is especially nice since it avoids all the road-side "campgrounds" and lists instead REAL camping areas, most of which are free to the general public. The book rates sites according to scenic appeal, safety and price and gives good tips for when and where to find the best (most secluded or picturesque sites). If you want an Ozarks Tenting Guide & like the idea of camping for absolutely FREE in the most beautiful areas that The Ozarks have to offer...this book is for you! Maybe we will see each other somewhere along The Buffalo River. I will be the sweaty guy, wandering aimlessly through the forest trying to find his Jeep.