Missouri Books

I hope that many people will read this wonderful collection of short stories. This book deserves to be picked up by reviewers and widely diseminated. The stories are varied, from humorous to deep and heartfelt accounts of humans trying to make meaning of their lives, whether in the American West, Rwanda, or WW II Europe.
Naomi Benaron is a gifted writer. She is truly deserving of the G.S.Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and I am most appreciative that this award brought "Love Letters From a Fat Man" to my attention.

When I initally began to read the book, I thought it was just a history of the Community Mental Health Center movement in Missouri. In fact,it is a detailed and well-written history of the progress and growth of the CMHC movement in Missouri.

However, it is much more than just a history book. From a bigger picture perspective, it is a guide book for anyone who desires to enhance mental health services in their state. Beyond just the history of dates, locations, and events are the first hand stories of the people who were a part of the dynamic change in Missouri Mental Health Services. It is a book of inspirational stories of people who believed in "something bigger than themselves". They acted on their belief and dreams. The story of their vision, challenges, setbacks, and successes are a source of encouragement to anyone who pursues their dream of making the world a better place. These people were instrumental in "creating something" where something wasn't. That something being the creation of Community Based Mental Health Centers and the enhancement of mental health care in Missouri. Thousands of people's lives have been enhanced by their efforts. The book describes what can happen when people "stay the course" in pursuit of providing comprehensive community mental health services.

This book provides teachers with a variety of interesting lesson plans to help teach kids about their emotions, what makes them upset, how they deal with conflict, and how to be peacemakers. It encourages exploration within self, between people, in the community and in the world. Lesson plans are succinct and creative. In light of the recent school violence taking place all over this country, no teacher should leave these issues un-addressed in his/her classroom. This book offers many wonderful ways to approach these subjects.

What a pleasure to read Tom's book. Tom tells it like it is. The bad and the good of his profession as well about his interesting life as a Surgeon. Tom is a man a faith and this clearly comes across in his book,

My step daughter who is in her third year of Med school called after reading the book to say that she enjoyed the book and that it had moved her to work toward being a surgeon.

A must read for all Med students.

Thanks , Tom. Your book is making a difference.

The Man In The Buick is a wonderful collection of stories that are both touching and beautiful. Kathleen George has a knack for creating "real" characters that breathe, move, and stay with you even after you close the book. Would I recommend The Man In The Buick to a friend? Absolutely.

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. In this engaging biography, Robert H. Ferrell, who has authored and edited eight previous books on Truman, does an admirable job of presenting the life and presidency of Harry S. Truman. Although one can detect Ferrell's admiration for Truman, one senses from the extensive notes, bibliography, and research conducted at the Truman Library as well as his willingness to criticize Truman for his mistakes, that Ferrell has written a very balanced biography of Truman. Ferrell's book is a good introductory biography of Truman's whole life; the first eight chapters are devoted to his life prior to his ascendancy to the presidency in 1945 after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. One gets the sense that Truman was the last president of an earlier and simpler time in America. He was the last president who was not a college graduate nor was he well--off financially. Ferrell's biography captures the essence of what type of a man Truman was and what history and his fellow citizens perceived him as.
"A plain-speaking, straight-talking, ordinary fellow (people thought) who did what he saw as his duty without turning his obligation into opportunity for personal gain" (179). Ferrell also exposed Truman's flaws such as being overprotective and too loyal to friends that had done wrong. Often he took it as a personal affront when anyone differed with him.
Ferrell presents a few experiences from Truman's early years that formed his character. From farming, Truman gained a work ethic that served him well throughout his life. His experience as an artillery captain and battery commander during WWI was instrumental in proving to himself and others that he was a very capable and caring leader of men. This experience was instrumental in putting him on the path of a political life. His experience as a failed haberdasher and bank speculator in the 1920's caused Truman to be a fiscal conservative the rest of his life and a good steward of the government's money. In addition, he learned about and came to understand and respect ethnic minorities, such as Catholics and Jews, from his Army and haberdashery experiences. Thus, Ferrell astutely proved that understanding Truman's early life experiences are instrumental if one wants to properly analyze Truman's decision-making process in the domestic and foreign policy arena.
"The Buck Stops Here" placard on Truman's desk has become legendary in presidential history. One of his secretaries of state, Dean Acheson, admired Truman for capably understanding the complexities of a situation and his willingness to make a hard decision without vacillating. Truman was adept at gathering all of the facts in a timely manner, listening to people's opinions and turning the options over in his mind, and then when he arrived at what he thought was the correct decision, he made it and stuck to his guns. Truman wound up making many important decisions that have affected America to this day such as, using nuclear weapons against Japan to end WWII, integrating the military in 1948, recognizing the state of Israel, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and involving American military forces in the Korean war.
One of the first, most momentous, and most often debated decisions that Truman had to make as President was whether to use two atomic bombs against Japan to hasten the end of WWII. Ferrell and other historians have made a very convincing argument to support Truman's decision-making process to use nuclear weapons to end the war. The Japanese military, who effectively controlled their government, were fanatics in their prosecution of the war. The Japanese people had suffered through numerous fire bombings of their cities in the months leading up to the end of the war, in which hundreds of thousands of their citizens were killed. In addition, the military had lost many battles and virtually all of its island holdings in the Pacific, and yet the government was strengthening its homeland forces and preparing for invasion instead of seriously considering surrender. Ferrell, relying on information gathered by Edward J. Drea, who wrote about the American military intelligence estimate gathered in July of 1945 mainly through the deciphering of Japanese radio traffic, showed that up to 600,000 Japanese were being prepared to fight in the event of an American invasion. Even this estimate turned out to be too low, since after the war American intelligence learned that the Japanese actually had some 900,000 prepared to fight against the invasion. American military estimates of the cost of life in the event of an invasion of the Japanese home islands were at best sketchy, and many historians who have written against the use of atomic weapons have used the unreliability of the estimates as one of their examples why Truman was wrong to use the nuclear option. However, Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar in their book, Codename Downfall, which detailed the plan to invade Japan, wrote that Truman was presented with an estimate that showed that there could be 238,000 American casualties and possibly the same number of Japanese casualties. This information coupled with the very real evidence of how tenaciously the Japanese people had fought was no myth, and convinced Truman that dropping the bombs on Japan to end the war was the right decision. One only had to look at the horrific casualty figures for American battles on Iwo Jima and Okinawa to name a few in order to understand just how fiercely the Japanese were capable of fighting. Ferrell aptly showed that Truman's decision has come under criticism throughout the years partly because of how he had stridently defended it and was so dismissive of the critics of his decision. "The president's critics, one suspects, were ready to accuse him because they did not admire other things he did or approved. They were critical because of his well-known decisiveness, which sometimes seemed offhanded" (214).
Truman, almost by necessity and circumstance, was forced to alter America's foreign policy of isolationism to one of internationalism. Truman realized the Korean War left him in a predicament. If he did not defend South Korea in the wake of North Korea's attack, he then would acquiescence to the Communist North Koreans, and ultimately the Russians. By not defending South Korea, American prestige in Asia and the world would undoubtedly would be tarnished. Yet, if he did attack, he risked a world war with the Chinese and the Russians, and ultimately a nuclear war. In light of the Truman doctrine, and America's stance on communism, Truman decided to defend South Korea. It was a widely unpopular war, which ended in a stalemate. Yet, Ferrell entertains a notion that America did not become the world superpower after WW II, but rather during the Korean War because America intervened to defend a non-communist nation, in essence, America became the police and protection force for weaker non-communist countries in the face of communist aggression. Many historians would agree that the year 1945 and the history after irreversibly changed the world. The cold war, America's role in world affairs, and the question of nuclear weapons all contributed.
Truman initially set about reorganizing the bureaucracy, conducting a complete overhaul of cabinet and staff. In addition to creating the Budget Bureau and the National Security Council, he created the Council of Economic Advisers, which he staffed it with both conservatives and liberals and regarded it as an advisory committee. Ferrell positively describes Truman's intellect, honesty, and integrity throughout the book but one of the places where it shines most brightly is in his civil rights efforts, which is rarely given the credit it deserves in historical accounts. Ferrell examines possible reasons behind Truman's change of heart on civil rights and concludes that much of his perspective came from his principled sense of fairness and his belief that the duty of the office of the President was to represent all Americans. The Truman-appointed Civil Rights Commission presented a frank report, entitled To Secure These Rights, with a ten-point agenda of civil rights reforms. Lacking congressional support, he turned to the power of executive orders to start the desegregation of the armed forces.
His second administration was marred by scandals, including the Hoey Investigation, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue illegal activity, for which the president was criticized for failing to take appropriate action. Another one of Truman's domestic challenges, which cost him politically, was labor strikes. To avoid a steelworker strike, Truman invoked what he believed to be the inherent powers of the president to seize control of the mills and was rebuffed by the Supreme Court. As the 1952 election loomed, Truman bristled that the emerging Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, was distancing himself from Truman's administration. Although they reconciled and Truman even assisted with campaign speeches, it was to little avail. Eisenhower won 55 percent of the popular vote and Truman finished out his lame duck presidency.
In his post-presidency years, Truman returned to Independence and his quiet life. He solicited donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government, a convention which later presidents have followed. Likewise, he refused endorsements and placement in corporate payrolls because he believed that accepting financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the office of President. As a result, Harry and Bess Truman lived out the remainder of their lives without the safety of financial savings. He established a precise daily routine at his library, which included writing copious amount of letters and receiving many visitors. Ever the politician, he remained connected with Washington life and accepted invitations to the White House in both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. In his final years, bothered with health problems, he took refuge in music and books. He died the day after Christmas, 1972 and was buried at his presidential library in Independence, with all the pomp and circumstance fitting a former President.

Thus, Ferrell does a very convincing job of making one believe just how important and interesting it is to study Truman, especially since he was so very different from the presidents who had come before and after him.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

Allen M. Ward's book is on the life and political impact of Marcus Licinius Crassus during the Late Republic. Crassus was a venerated member of the Roman nobilitas who was always a behind-the-scenes power broker in Rome and never really in agreement with his fellow patricians. He had a distinguished place in having served the consulship twice and as Censor once over the course of his life: the highest offices of state a Roman could attain. Modest and friendly yet wealthy and ambitious, he chose to remain mostly in the civil sphere as a court advocate instead of pursuing commands abroad: his service under Sulla, his command against Spartacus' slave revolt, and his Parthian expedition were the limits of his military posts. His father and older brother had perished under Marius' sanguinous siege and massacre of Rome itself and he became a strong ally of Sulla from whom he profited immensely. Sulla's proscriptions gave him much real estate and he had ties with the equestrian class in state contracts for tax farming: his father had also left him interests in Spain where he had much clientelae and several mines.

Distancing himself from the conservative retrenchment of Sulla's regime early on, Crassus came to follow more moderate positions by promoting poor patricians and wealthy plebeians to political offices by lending them money and, at the opportune time, asking them for political favors instead of interest as payment. Crassus following this traditional Roman custom of not levying interest with an ability to call the debt in full whenever he pleased was an extremely effective bargaining chip in getting the political results he wanted. Censors could strike someone out of political office if they were judged to be insolvent by a court enforcing a debt and a dependant political upstart would be willing to do anything to avoid the overwhelming pecuniary demands of such an influential a patron to the likes of Crassus. The debt-burdened Caesar realized that with his own creditors when Crassus bailed him out of a huge debt of 800 talents/19,200,000 sesterces just prior to the commencement of his Spanish governorship: a post of which Crassus probably needed help as his interests in Spain were most likely in jeopardy to Pompey's recent political encroachments there to primarily settle veterans and expand his clientelae. Senatorial power plays such as the latter often made Crassus a bitter enemy of Pompey The Great and Cicero. Crassus therefore saw much potential in Caesar to keep them in check.

Through incessant political machinations, Crassus and Caesar were the main force behind the formation of the First Triumvirate with a deflated Pompey at Luca in 56 B.C. Crassus' political zenith came soon after in 53 B.C. when he was campaigning in Parthia serving the proconsulship in the East he had won after very dirty consular elections involving bribery, political trials, hired mobs, and violence. Despite his strong political position in Rome, his poor knowledge of the immense Parthian empire and his overconfidence in his ten legions would cost him dearly. Cavalry was what he needed most to protect the flanks of such a large infantry and yet he was accompanied only by a slim auxilliary cavalry contingent of 4000 Gauls on loan from Caesar along with a small contingent of treacherous Nabatean horse/camel men on loan from Pompey. He and his eldest son perished in the parched valleys and hills near Cahrrae in modern western Iraq/eastern Syria after he and his army were enveloped by Parthian heavy cavalry and horse archers. The archers had a limitless supply of arrows from nearby camel caravans and simply turned in circles around the legions while decimating their ranks. More than half of his army would be dead or captured while the rest would withdraw in tatters to the sole remaining leadership of Cassius Longinus, the future tyranicide, who had stayed behind in Syria.

The death of Crassus death created a major political vacuum in Rome with the untying of his clientelae and political dependants such as senators, equestrians, tribunes, etc. Unable to wield the influential legacy of his father, the young Marcus Crassus followed Caesar instead as with many others who would mostly go either to Caesar or Pompey: polarizing the Pompeiian and Caesarian factions against each other leading to the Civil War and the end of the Republic. A great stigma was therefore attached to Crassus' memory and even Roman policy in the East. Fearing a devastating loss to the likes of Crassus, all emperors until Trajan mostly limited their diplomacy in the East in small commitments to none at all. Augustus himself was happy just to bring the old captured standards received from Parthia as a diplomatic gesture back to Rome.

By meticulously retracing classical references with a strong emphasis on Plutarch as well as Cicero's letters and trials, Ward reveals the biases and how they have been propagated by even modern scholars. He also adds new facts and paradigms as to Crassus in the political sphere. Ward demonstrates Crassus was no different in his methods than most of his noble and patrician contemporaries seeking public office and overseas appointments. Overall, Ward reviews the character and motives of one of Rome's wealthiest and most influential politicians by following the ups and downs of his political career. The book offers keen insight as to how Crassus used his wealth and political influence to establish alliances and so leverage his interests against those of his political opponents. Finally, Ward also criticizes the conclusions of previous writers such as Munzer and Syme identifying Publius as the younger son and Marcus as the older: he is of the contrary opinion and his supporting arguments are far more cogent than those of Syme or Munzer.

An erroneous presumption in this work and many others referring to Crassus is that he was a plebeian when historical evidence is more conclusive in showing that he was a patrician instead. Some scholars have argued that Crassus was of a plebeian branch of the Licinii clan because that was the case with his cousin Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Patrician clans often splintered into plebeian ones after the laws barring intermarriage between the two classes were lifted earlier in the Republican period. The fact then that both were of the same original clan and somewhat close relatives means nothing at all: Lucullus' clan having gone into the plebeian caste doesn't mean that Crassus' did so as well. The most conclusive evidence that Crassus was a patrician can be derived by his service as consul with Pompey The Great in 70 and 55 B.C. The laws of the consulship required that one candidate be a patrician and another a plebeian and nothing indicates that any exceptions were ever made to that rule. First of all, patrician lineage had to originate from the earliest days of Rome such as with Caesar claiming that the Iuli clan originated from Aeneas' son Iulius. Pompey was from Picenum which was a comparatively new region to have received the Latin rights granted by Rome. In comparison, the Licinii clan was an Etruscan one which originated as a patrician clan during the earliest days of Rome when it was a monarchy. The most obvious indication of Crassus being a patrician is through Pompey's father who served as a tribune prior to his consulship. Since only plebeians could serve as tribunes, Pompey was certainly one as well. In comparison, there is no evidence that any members of Crassus' immediate family ever served in the tribunate. Some have also argued that Crassus was a plebeian because of his equestrian status but that is by far the weakest argument. The fact is that equestrian status was not barred to patricians even though the class was usually dominated by plebeians. Both Crassus and Pompey were equestrians and could obviously not have been both plebeian if the class required it since the consulship mandated that one be plebeian and the other a patrician. Overall then, all of the facts more strongly indicate that Crassus was a patrician and not a plebeian contrary to Ward's conclusion and popular opinion.

In conclusion, there being perhaps only three concise studies of this most intriguing of Roman statesmen two of which are biased, this is one of those three books and is a must have for anyone who is interested in Crassus specifically or the Late Republic in general. I wouldn't recommend this work as an introductory text on Roman history as its depth and scope would already require some basic knowledge of the subject. It is indispensable to any one who wants to advance their knowledge on the politics of the Late Roman Republic.

Tom Quirk (Professor of English, University of Missouri-Columbia) presents Mark Twain and Human Nature, a study of the famous American author that intertwines his life story with his writings to reveal how his understanding of human nature grew and evolved. Twain's great classics and minor works are all taken into consideration; the discourse is organized chronologically, from 1852 to 1910. "The point of view Twain chose for his novel in progress was not simply a matter of stylistic innovation but also a position from which to regard and to unself-consciously assess existing institutions and cultural influences. Huck's ignorance is often the reader's insight. If Huck has not been inoculated against each and every one of the contaminating influences of civilized life, he has kept clear of the more virulent forms of the viruses that perpetuate themselves from one generation to the next." Highly recommended for serious enthusiasts and scholars of Mark Twain's literary classics.

Jason Horn offers the first thorough investigation of the relationship between Mark Twain and William James, emphasizing Twain's friendship with James beyond their shared intellectual interests. He uses James to understand Twain as thinker and to illuminate Twain's often vaguely defined religious and philosophical observations. The book provides a fresh estimate of Mark Twain's later years and challenges readers to discover a new way of seeing one of America's important and endearing writers.

This book was produced by Milton Meltzer. It is a very moving record of Twain's life in which the many pictures are made more meaningful by Twain's accompanying words. It is the story of one who is printer, pilot, soldier, miner, reporter, lecturer, editor, humorist, businessman , publisher, and above all America's greatest comic writer.