Kansas Books

I read this book for Dr. Bryan Mark Rigg's class at SMU and I was very impressed. It is very rare that you hear about the "half-Jews" during the Third Reich. It was very detailed and opened the study of the Holocaust wide open. No longer will teachers focus simply on the concentration camps, but now will also look at those forced into seclusion for being, as Hitler called them, "half-breeds." Well researched on an obscure topic. I enjoyed the book very much, must read to fully understand the Holocaust

James Tent has done a masterful work of discussing the history of "Mischlinge" (partial-Jews) during the Third Reich. His well written account tells the tragic stories of countless "Mischlinge" and the struggles they faced under Hitler. In a largely unknown field of research, Tent sheds light on a chapter of Nazism that is deserving of more study. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Holocaust and the Third Reich.

When I picked up this book, I was uncertain I would find the topic all that interesting -- once started, I found I couldn't put the book down. An unheard of experience with an academic history. Professor Tent is a distinguished historian whose earlier work has been characterized by meticulous research and flawless analysis. This book is no exception, and yet it is so well-written and engrossing that it reads both quickly and well. As with his earlier works, Prof. Tent has chosen a subject about which little has been written and has again produced a masterpiece of the historian's art. Obviously a man of considerable decency, Tent treats his subjects with deep respect and sympathy when he uses interviews with the aging survivors to bring about an understanding for their plight and the keen sense of an inexorably tightening official noose as the war progressed. "In the Shadow of the Holocaust" effects the reader on several levels for it is not only an excellent scholarly study of the these now all but forgotten victims of National Socialism, but of the very human impact that experience had on them and would continue to have for the remainder of their lives. I am very grateful for the impulse that led me to read this book -- it is a treasure not only as a superb history, but also as a recounting of a unique human experience.

This book provides an extensive key to amphibians and reptiles in North America. If you are studying herpetology, this book has many diagrams in it that really help with keying out dinstinguishing characteristics. Plus, the book is set up simply in plain English. Other keys that I have used were not as extensive as this one, and they were usually confusing. This key takes away all the ambiguity.

This breaks down characters for families very easily. The only draw back to this book is that it doesn't contain common names, but that can always be looked up. I recommend this book to any biologist or herpetologist. It also shows what the basic characters are with pictures.

This key is a must for anyone that is seriously interested in reptiles or amphibians. For instructors of Herpetology lab this book will prove to be invaluable, the illustrations and current phylogenetic classifications will aid in teaching.

This was an approach studying indivdual justices rather than cases in describing the Supreme Court. Would highly recommend social science instructors use the material when discussing the workings of the Court. Would like to have seen more information on the problems and contributions of the many law clerks who are essential to the operation of the Court.

I am a Supreme Court junkie but I confess this is one of the most curious books about the court that I have ever read. If you thought that there was no aspect of the lives of US Supreme Court justices too obscure for CQ's The Supreme Court Compendium to answer, think again.

David Atkinson's book looks at only one thing - the circumstances in which US Supreme Court justices come to leave the bench and the details of their deaths. I suspect that some might consider this book the epitome of the scholarship of trivia but I would disagree. It has a very narrow focus but a larger and more important picture emerges from it - the reluctance of justices to leave the bench and the near impossibility of removing them against their will. By the time you have read it you may be surprised how many justices remained on the bench long past their "sell by" dates. It is also interesting to see the strange devices adopted by the court to work around the problems of coping with brain damaged, mentally unstable, or senile tenured colleagues.

Atkinson's scholarship is impeccable - no justice is too obscure or their tenure too distant or too short for him to have unearthed nothing about them. The book details what is known about the circumstances in which each justice left the bench whether through death, resignation or retirement. For completeness Atkinson always gives details of the circumstances (both physical and medical) in which each justice died. The level of detail is extraodinary - it even includes details of members of the court attending their funerals or of justices who refused to sign their testimonials.

My biggest headache was giving this book its star rating. I first considered a three star rating because in the ranks of Supreme Court studies this must bring up the rear. However, the book deserves to be judged in terms of what it set out to achieve: to catalog the circumsrtances in which justices leave the Supreme Court bench. Its achievement cannot be faulted in those terms and thus it earns its five stars.

However, in quite different terms it also merits five stars. I bought this book mainly as a reference source but found myself reading it straight through. Because coverage is comprehensive and the section on each justice is short, the whole book is curiously addictive. 'Leaving the Bench' had to compete with my pleasure reading of John Grisham's novel The Brethren - and Mr Atkinson won. I'm not suggesting that University Press of Kansas has a dark horse best seller on its hands but this book really can be read with interest.

This book gives the details on the death and/or retirement of every Supreme Court justice, and gathers information not easily found any place else. The book is meticulously researched, and presents, after the examination of the problems sometimes encountered with Supreme Court justices who would not resign, a simple and I think probably effective solution which would not require a Constituional amendment. The book also includes an appendix which lists the burial site of each Justice. Ten are buried in Arlington Cemetery and none are buried west of Boulder, Colorado. Anyone interested in Supreme Court history will find this book hard to lay down. I did.

The writing is well-done; the content is well-researched, inspirational, provoking AND entertaining!

I love this series so much that I have had to replace the entire set three times. I lend them out and they disappear!
These are by far the finest novels that Ms. Austin has written. I was drawn into the story, and I just couldn't put the books down. Ms. Austin provides Scriptural references so it is easy to see what she is basing her story on. After reading the Scriptures, elements in the story that are taken right out of the Bible are easily discerned from those that the writer may be taking an artist license with. It breathed life into these characters and made them very relevant to me.

I immediately began reading the remaining books in the series, and every one was a delight. I enthusiastically recommend the series.

In this book, Austin aligns the brief Biblical account of King Hezekiah to the words of the prophets of the times along an exciting line of fiction. Prophecies, often confusing or misunderstood suddenly come alive as they are placed into everyday situations and applied to specific situations. This book creates in your mind a thrilling scene of the reality of the despair of Israel and Judah and an understanding of the great compassion Yaweh has for his Chosen People. After reading this book, you will never read prophecy the same again.

This book takes a very un-studied and often forgotten affect of the U.S Civil war and turns it into a very original study. During the civil war there were many European military attaches and observers who came to learn the lessons of the most modern world at the time. Germans, English and Frenchmen drew different conclusions that would play themselves out for the next half century on the European continent. In 1914 the affects were still being felt and they were also felt in the Franco-Prussian war.
Some learned the wrong lessons. Others understood the nature of total war and that new technologies were making the old way of war obsolete and deadly. Great accuracy of arms meant that the massed attack or human wave attack was doomed both to failure and to massive casualty figures. The destruction of the British regular army in the First World is but one piece of evidence showing the Europeans did not learn their lessons.
A brilliant study.

Seth J. Frantzman

In this fascinating book, Jay Luvaas examines the military observers from England, Germany, and France who came over to America during the Civil War to obtain first-hand knowledge of the fighting tactics and strategies of the Union and Confederate armies, and what they made of that knowledge once they returned home. He concludes that while these men saw and were impressed by much (perhaps most by the important use made of the railroad for transporting troops and supplies), they took very few lessons of the war home with them and felt, in many instances, that nothing of importance could be gleamed from the fighting in America for their own European armies. Luvaas writes, "The fact of the matter is that nine out of every ten who wrote about the Civil War simply carried into their books or articles doctrines carefully instilled by years of training." In other words, they saw things the way they wanted and expected to see them and interpreted what they saw in ways that only reinforced what they already believed. This didn't change until WWI when European officers began re-evaluating in detail battles and campaigns of the Civil War. The chief exception to this was G.F.R. Henderson, the British military historian whose 1898 biography of Stonewall Jackson Luvaas says "deserves a place among the military classics." (A whole chapter is devoted to Henderson.) This well-written and well-informed book clearly points out the risks involved when military leaders rely on preconceived notions even as new ideas make themselves available right before their eyes. Recommended.

Jay Luvaas, a military historian who taught at the US Army War College created a sensational and original work with THE MILITARY LEGACY OF THE CIVIL WAR: THE EUROPEAN INHERITANCE. The book analyzes the tactical, technological, and strategical changes that occurred because of and during the American Civil War. The book further explores how Germany, England, and France either took the appropriate infomration from the Civil War or how they ignored and struggled in subsequent wars. The introduction of the text in itself is a short course of the military history of the American Civil War and the rest of the 19th century military experience as Luvaas recounts what he had learned along with the main European powers. The book is an excellent read that flows quite well and would be worthwhile to those interested in the ACW and military history in general.

There is very little to add to M. Pitcavage's review above other than to recommend that this should be among the very first books read by anyone interested in Vietnam. While Professor Bartholomew-Feis' initial chapters appear to treat Ho Chi Minh as a "nationalist", she presents enough evidence from those who met him that they may judge for themselves. Particularly valuable are the evaluations from Chinese, American, and French sources noting Ho's exceptional charisma, and his unfailing ability to detect what his listeners wanted to hear, and tell them exactly that. And while she does appear to buy into the "French colonialism as unspeakable suffering" school of thought, I would have liked to see at least some statistics to paint a more accurate picture of what it was the French did or failed to do in developing Indochina up until 1940. Likewise, she repeatedly refers to "100 years of colonialism", when in fact it dated from 1864 in Cochinchina, 1884 in Annam (as a protectorate) and from 1884 (protectorate) 1886 (protectorate in highlands, colony in Red River Delta)in Tonkin.

A well-written account of the early years of US involvement with Ho Chi Minh in the second world war. It is a sad commentary on what might have been. Had the US not abandoned their ally to cruel colonialism, the US and Vietnam may never have suffered the long costly and unnecessary war they did. It seems an all too common tale of strange cold war bed-fellows and betrayel.

This book goes far to provide the background to the recent history of Vietnam and the United States. Ho Chi Minh is not portrayed as a saint but neither is French colonialism. In the portrayal, the nationalist rather than communist undercurrents of the Vietnam war are expounded and explained. A worthy addition to the history of twentieth century Vietnam-US relations.

The OSS and Ho Chi Minh, by Dixee Bartholomew-Feis, was an unexpected pleasure. Books written on the OSS or the British equivalent in World War II, SOE, so frequently fall headfirst into a muddy miasma of internal politics, blame and counter-blame, and a fixation on minutiae that they often obscure more than they illuminate. Thankfully, Bartholomew-Feis gives a well-written and lucid account of the OSS in Viet Nam on the cusp between war and peace in 1945. She steps neither into the "Ho was a nationalist and if only they had listened to the OSS then the Vietnam war never would have happened" camp nor into the "Those naive fools helped Ho get to power and brought communism to Southeast Asia" camp, for which every reader should be grateful.

At first, her book gives one pause. She starts off with dual mini-biographies of Ho Chi Minh and F.D.R. and one wonders where on earth she will go with those. However, once she actually gets from contextual background to Vietnam itself, and begins to display the depth of her research and understanding, the book is on much firmer footing. The OSS encountered the Viet Minh in an intelligence-gathering context, so she focuses first on the intelligence networks in Vietnam and how the Allies used them (introducing the reader to a fascinating "free-lance" intelligence network that gave intel to the British, US and Chinese), then shows how the OSS gradually was introduced into this intelligence context. In the process, she illuminates the tensions between the French in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Communists, between north and south Vietnam, and between the Japanese occupiers and both the French and Vietnamese.

Bartholomew-Feis does a good job describing the various OSS missions into Vietnam at the end of the war and the personalities behind them. What is perhaps most striking is how few, how young, and how junior most of these American personnel were, yet the great responsibilities they had in representing their country in matters relating from intelligence to strategy to policy and diplomacy. Almost as fascinating is how, virtually without exception, all of the Americans (conservative and liberal alike) were impressed with Ho Chi Minh, who must positively have oozed charisma. It is quite interesting to compare the personal relationships between the American OSS representatives and Ho and his close collaborators on one hand with the much more bitter, taxing, and dysfunction relations between the British and Tito (see Dedjier's diaries on his views of the British, for example) or the British and the Albanian communists or the British and the Greek communists. Perhaps the only real comparison is with Mao Zedong who managed to win over a bevy of Westerners from left-wing reporters like Edgar Snow and Agnes Smedley to Marine officers like Evans Carlson. In any case, it is quite interesting to see how genuinely friendly the Vietnamese were towards the Americans, more so than almost all of the other communist movements with which the OSS worked.

Bartholomew-Feis does write, rather often, of how the Vietnamese "manipulated" the Americans, yet some of the incidents of which she writes sound not so much as a deliberate underhanded manipulation so much as they seem a genuine (if perhaps temporary) convergence of interests. She is on firmer footing when she describes how the Vietminh used their rather tenuous official contacts with the United States as a way to gain status and legitimacy. The Vietminh were quite clever in that regard.

Overall, Bartholomew-Feis does an excellent job in covering a difficult and--given the fact that any book on this is heavily burdened with foreshadowing to begin with--sensitive subject. It would have been nice to have seen more use of Vietnamese sources but overall the book is well-researched and Bartholomew-Feis demonstrates a considerable grasp of her subject.

I have read scores of books on the OSS and SOE dealing with various resistance movements in World War II and I think this is definitely one of the better ones. Scholars and general readers interested in intelligence gathering during World War II, the origins of the Indochina War, Vietnamese nationalism, and the end of the Second World War will all be interested in this well-written study. I recommend it.

Since Wesley wrote in a different era, his style requires some adjustment but once one gets past that there is a lot of edifying content in this book. The key point of this book is the issue of "perfection." He sees it as living what Jesus said was the greatest commandment and its accompanying commandment, i.e., to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Wesley's life demonstrates that he reached the goal. He traveled extensively, read widely, wrote inspiringly, and influenced many people to believe in Jesus as their Savior. Thank God for his legacy in words and deeds. He truly practiced and preached.

Wesley's brief treatise on the important yet overlooked Christian doctrine of perfection is a "must read" for all Christians interested in growing in Christ. The fact that this book is not mandatory reading in every seminary and Bible school is a travesty, making a mockery contemporary Christian education. This book is excellent for anyone serious about their spiritual journey.

John Wesley (1703-1791) firmly believed that God continued to work in the life of the believer subsequent to justification. In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, Wesley provides an account of the development of his understanding of the doctrine of Christian Perfection. This short work contains a lucid explanation of the doctrine with special attention not only to the Biblical promises and commands that are the basis of the doctrine but also the practical way that "perfect love" works in the life of the believer. While this work was certainly intended to instruct those who were seeking "perfect love," it also attempts to answer those who would deny the doctrine.

The essence of Christian Perfection, for Wesley, was clearly defined by Christ when an expert in the law asked him, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 23.36-40 NRSV)

Here one sees that, for Wesley, the main point of Christian Perfection is "perfect love." "Perfect love" thus defines our relationship to God and others.

This book is essential for those in the Wesleyan tradition and a worthwhile read for those from other Christian perspectives that wish to understand what Wesley thinks Christian Perfection is and is not.

I did not grow up in the 1950's (1970's/80's) nor did I grow up in Kansas City, although I lived there for two years. I randomly picked up this book and thought it was excellent. I don't think you need to have any connection to Kansas City or grow up in the time period covered to enjoy this book. I still read it every now and then; it is very good.

Once I began the book I never put it down. Bruce lived five blocks away from me in the same era. I especially remember Shortcake and Roy Beatty. They were friends of mine too. Bruce's recollection of Frank's restaurant was poignant although I didn't remember the dirt, just the heavenly(?) taste of a tenderloin sandwich. As to Old man Pierce, I too was chased from the premises, albeit not for the same reasons. My home was across from Scarrit grade school. Bruce no doubt played baseball there too. I do remember Lykins Square where we played the kids from "south of Independence Avenue" on many occasion, probably losing more than we won. This was a great step back to my own childhood. NE grad 1954.

This memoir of growing up in Kansas City in the 1950s is much more than nostalgia. It is an evocation of the importance of baseball in a young person's life, the ambitions of youth, and the impact of family, friends and neighbors. The characters are wonderful, and the whole book is beautifully written. It's a good read, humorous and poignant.

Rebecca grew up long ago, in an America that has now almost vanished - where daughters learn how to run family homes from their mothers; sons learn how to run family farms from their fathers, & electricity hasn't yet reached their roads. In a time when each season brings its own labors, worries & beauties.

Some will think Rebecca's story a sad one, only thinking about the hard life she had of all work & little play. That her childhood was cut short by tragedy. Don't be sad for this enduring, hardworking girl, for she has long since gotten over it, & has thrived & lived a very good life.

While REBECCA, A MARYLAND FARM GIRL may have only 67 pages, it is filled with struggles & victories of a child from another time that will immeasurably enrich your own life.

Rebecca, A Maryland Farm Girl is the true story of a young girl in Maryland in the late 1920's and early 1930's, who, after the death of her mother in a tragic accident, had to labor at grueling farm chores and hike several miles to the school bus. The strain of her daily responsibilities brought about seemingly insurmountable barriers to her education. Very highly recommended for young readers, Rebecca, A Maryland Farm Girl is a poignant and compelling story of struggle and hardship, especially acute for demonstrating the harsh conditions of the past to young people who have grown up in relative comfort and have no idea how hard their grandparents had to fight for the privilege of an education.

Rebecca, A Maryland Farm Girl is a treasure that should become part of the school cirriculum's required readings. It teaches the children of today about the children of the 1920s-30s, a time they are unfoutunately often oblivious to. This lost knowledge, which is essential for children to understand our country and more importantly their relatives before them, is found in the wonderful tale of the experiences of a school aged girl, Rebecca, and how the world around her shapes the that girl she becomes. This is a book not to be missed! I loved it!

This book is a good starting point for understanding German military developments in mechanized warfare during the interwar years. Alternately, if you only wanted to read one book on the subject, this would be a good choice. Easy to read, makes clear points, and covers a fair amount of territory.

Corum, a historian, German linguist, and former military intelligence officer has written a fine study of how Germany was able to absorb the lessons of its defeat in WWI, overcome the restrictions placed on the size and composition of its armed forces, and develop the revolutionary military doctrine that swept it to astonishing victories against every European country it engaged. Corum focuses on General Hans von Seeckt, enigmatic Chief of the German General Staff -- twice awarded the Pour le Merit, Germany's highest decoration for valor -- as the architecht of this remarkable feat. Seeckt set the stage for reform of the Army by fostering a climate of open discussion on all matters regarding doctrine development in which the ideas of the best thinkers -- regardless of rank -- were given a full hearing. A tremendous number of experimental programs were conducted to try out various tactical doctrine. Many of these, secretly carried out in the USSR. Corum cites numerous training manuals, military correspondence and other primary resource documents to illustrate the revolutionary nature of Seeckt's impact on the German military. The book appeared about the same time as a book on American preparation for WWII -- There's a War to be Won -- that is very instructive when read together with Roots of Blitzkrieg. Current military leaders and their civilian overseers should read both books and bear in mind that the constrained resourses available to our armed forces today make the German model the more relevant of the two. Americans, fifty years ago could count on the full mobilization of our industrial and population base to prepare for war. Today's headlines continually reflect lack of preparedness in training exercises, inability to recruit and retain quality personnel (especially pilots), and inadequate funding for research and development programs -- a formula for disaster. Our political focus on humanitarian missions conducted by our armed forces has diverted training and R & D funds and that other scarce resource -- time -- from their intended purposes and prevented implementation of new information age technology. Corum's book demonstrates that, with even minimal support from the political establishment, the U.S. could revive its rapidly deteriorating military capability.

Professor Corum has produced a very concise (c. 200 pages) history of how the German Army spent its inter-war years. Including chapters on doctrinal development (air and ground), training, and weapons design and implementation, Dr. Corum has done his best to avoid political/strategic questions that are inherent in a text covering the rebirth of the German military.

Dr. Corum also makes a statement in focusing on General Hans Von Seeckt as the driving force behind many of the reforms the Reichswehr undertook during his years as chief of the general staff. By taking the spotlight away from Heinz Guderian, Corum has placed the emphasis on the man who fostered the kind of general staff where sweeping tactical and organizational changes were possible. Professor Corum also makes it very clear that those changes were in large part due to a serious assessment of the lessons of the First World War.

A reader from an allied country may have difficulties in trying to separate the great advances in warfare made during the period of the Reichswehr, and how these principles were misused only a few years later. However, one can not avoid marveling at the professionalism and flexibility of the tradition of the Prussian General Staff, and it is those qualities that Professor Corum has focused on in his text.