Sherman Books

As a school librarian, I think people should know that Robb White and D.R. Sherman both wrote a book called Lion's Paw. White's book is about South Florida and three children sailing. I haven't read either, but have seen White's book. Sherman's book is about "a young African boy who frees a lion from a trap and must face the difficulties of loving and losing a wild thing." (Something About the Author, vol. 29, p. 192). I gave it a neutral 3 stars. I didn't want people to be disappointed when they ordered Sherman's book and found out it had a different story line. White's book is also available here at Amazon.com.

This is the newest in a series by Osprey on modeling specific vehicles. The quality of the book and the modeling techniques are outstanding, with color photos of finished models throughout. Unfortunately, there are too many basic errors in labeling and questionable modelling subjects to classify this as a great Sherman reference. A good number of pages are dedicated to Marine Corp Shermans, with many ideas for extra applique armor. Unfortunately, the author uses the M4A3 for all of his examples instead of the diesel powered M4A2 used by the Marine Corp Tank Battalions in the Pacific. A small portion of the book talks about the background and development of the Sherman but most of it is a 'How I did it' style, similar to articles found in FSM. there is a very nice listing in the back of the book on references and after market vendors. There is also a review listing of currently existing kits with the author's opinion of each. In conclusion, this is a nice book of great looking sherman models but I wouldn't use it as my primary Sherman reference.

I have despaired of actually finding the edition of Sherman's memoirs which I own in the list of some 342 different versions of Sherman's memoirs which can be purchased through Amazon, perhaps because that edition seems to have been specially issued recently by Barnes & Noble. A few pages in is a copy of Sherman's memoirs which claims to tell the story of his life "down to its closing chapters," published in 1891, the year he actually died. I have a feeling that in that version, the last seven years were speedily covered by some hagiographer; in the book I own, Sherman ends with his resignation as General of the Army in 1884. Sherman held this post for 15 years, starting with the accession of his mentor and friend Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency in 1869. This is longer, I believe, than any other four-star has remained on active duty. (Winfield Scott was commanding general of the army for a longer period of time -- I think -- but he did so as a two-star.)

The late middle of the book is the portion most people who pick up "Memoirs" will want to read. It covers the Atlanta campaign and the subsequent march to the sea, the reason Sherman is still remembered by historians. I deduct one star from the five I would otherwise give this book because I don't think Sherman is completely honest after describing the fate of Atlanta. He admits he deliberately burned the heart of the city upon withdrawing from it. Subsequent cities which burn down, he claims burned by accident, in spite of the indignant tone and desire for vengeance which suffuses his letters from the same period, which pepper the book. Indeed, the reader sees that Grant, in overall command of the army at this time, was reluctant to approve Sherman's strategy of leaving Atlanta to wreak havoc upon the infrastructure of the eastern portions of the Confederacy, believing the enemy army to be a more appropriate target.

Another star must be deducted because Sherman attempts to compress the entire 15 years he served as General of the Army into one chapter. The second edition, which Barnes & Noble has reproduced, essentially is the first edition plus two chapters -- one which details the first 26 years of his life, and one providing a few anecdotes from his time as General of the Army. The first chapter of the second edition, describing his time at West Point and as a junior officer in Florida in the last stage of the Seminole War, actually provides much more useful information than the last chapter. Overall, while the second edition provides slightly more information, the first edition probably makes Sherman look better.

In Sherman's defense, there are perfectly understandable reasons for this decision. A new consensus about the meaning of the Civil War was coming into vogue in 1886, when he published the second edition of his memoirs. Sherman would have been under great pressure both official and unofficial not to discuss Reconstruction, the military aspect of which he commanded throughout Grant's presidency. Considering the way it ended, Reconstruction would not have been a flattering chapter to add to the memoirs, either. In essence, Grant and Sherman were defeated by the South, which succeeded in suppressing its African-American population through a combination of violence and political corruption. (The far less competent President Andrew Johnson is treated with kid gloves in the book, perhaps because he was a fellow opponent of Edwin Stanton -- whom Sherman loathed -- although it was his failure to take a hard line early on that made the success of Reconstruction impossible, in my view.) A person who didn't know this, however, would be left scratching his head and at a loss to understand why Sherman, who provides simply too much information (he seems to remember not only every trip he ever took for the first 45 years of his life, but the name of the ship or railway he was on and the precise start and end dates) for most of the book, suddenly seems forgetful.

One of the most interesting chapters in the book is the last chapter of the first edition, "Conclusion -- Military Lessons of the War." Sherman lays out all the information he can think of about how a late nineteenth-century army ought to be run, which is a lot. I have no doubt that for its time, this advice was spot on, and in Sherman's position, he got to put most of it into practice (although he can't have been happy about the size of the army, which by the end of his time commanding it was only a few thousand men larger than it had been in 1861). Another highlight is where Sherman is asked in 1863 for his advice on reconstructing those portions of the South that have passed back into Union hands; his lengthy letter sets out his view of Southern whites as a species of political adolescents who launched the Civil War because they have some sort of problem with authority (almost the opposite of the Slave Power Conspiracy view which animated the most die-hard Republicans). At any rate, although this book is far from perfect, I give it an overall positive recommendation; it provides much useful information about the Civil War and Sherman, one of its most colorful characters.

As a Trail guide I think it definately needs more description of the trail and put trail names on the maps. It's nice to go by a map once you are on a trail, but these maps leave out a lot of important trail markers and was very hard to follow. Usually on any given trail there are a lot of loops you can take, nothing was specified on these maps. The description on what is on the trail is pretty nice, but using the maps turned out effortless. You need to concentrate more on the trail so people don't get lost.

This book was chosen this month by my Book Club. The book started a bit slow, kept you reading in the middle but left you standing at the end. I must admit I was left with alot of questions at the end.

The Pictorial History of Football by Roland Lazenby is a large oversized look at the past of the game of American Football. Not surprisingly, given the title, it is full of photographs of pretty decent quality. This would not be bad for someone that just had a casual interest to have a bit of a look.

Though published as "Lovecraft's Library", "Dagon" is not HPL at all, even with the inbred villagers, somewhat shunned outsider and Massachusetts setting. The plot itself is good once it gets going, it just seems to be resolved too easily in the end. Due to the uneven writing of rambling thoughts and theories, the lead character does not come across as all that sympathetic, and there's not enough of the much more interesting villain. It's not that the book is bad, one just expected a Lovecraft type tale and got one closer to "Harvest Home" in plot.

It's all here: the disciplinary debate over cultural versus physical geography, professional relevancy, marxism, etc., (topics that seem to get the juices of geographers flowing). But it's getting old.
Economists at Tufts just released a report CLIMATE CHANGE: THE COSTS OF INACTION which states that without immediate government action on climate change, the env. and scoial costs will be incalculable. Geographers take notice: this should be the obvious issue the profession could rally around. In this book, you never would have guessed it. Take warning geographers: debate all you want, but the costs of inaction on a grand and unified scale to address global warming will be the cross geographers--with all of their expertise on global environmental change-- bear.

I like the way it has the techniques in Calf Roping?

I like the roping event in the Calf Roping?

"Their Up Rebond?" Jim the cowboy in the book yell

Although I have invested quite a pot of money into Osprey publications, some of the series are better than others... one problem is if the subject matter is so long that it cannot be handled by the short page format.

This is definitely the case in this book: since the Sherman tank became the unfortunate defacto standard for the western allies in WWII, it can potentially encorporate a lot of space and detail. Zaloga covers the advent of the tank and how it was put through it production paces. I also learned why the production run of the Lee-Grant tanks was so short --- it was an interim version between the Stuart and the Sherman -- the turret for a gun larger than the 37 mm had not been made, so the hybrid was the only way to get large amount of up-gunned tanks into the field quickly(even if they did look wierd).

There is a lot of detail on the many versions but I did find a few things that annoyed me:

1) There is no detail on the "why" of the choice of the Sherman. Surely a tank as critically flawed and used as long as it is either being defended by misdirected intentions, or it really has some solid points.

2) Although British and Cmmonwealth forces were using this tank in some of the largest engagements on the western front, there is little on the variations used by these forces. There is in addition no mention of any variations that may have been shipped to Burma.

3) As carrolary of the above there is nothing on the Firefly version with the 17 Lbr version of its gun. Certainly arguably the most worthwhile upgrade done on this tank.

4) No mention of the impact of model development and the impact on the field. The 17 pounder on the Firefly meant that the British and Canadians could match the Panzer IV and also score hits on the Panther and Tiger (though still outgunned).

A good reference but I think that there was just too much info and the Osprey format was just too short.