Nebraska Books

Richard "Dutch" Hardorff is one of the most thorough and objective students of General Custer's "last stand". His love of the truth and respect for the Indian tribes and their homeland is inspiring. His writing is captivating and fresh, especially considering the extensive treatment of the subject. Mr. Hardorff provides a lively and thought-provoking perspective that one would never get from the 'history' books. Truly an exceptional book and consistent with his fine other writings.

Written by a long-time student of the Little Big Horn, a gifted writer who is sympathetic to the Indians, this is another of this author's great contributions to the understanding of that event. Sprightly writing is so necessary and you will find it here, just as in CUSTER, TERRY AND ME, a creative (semi) nonfiction coverage of the tragedy of June 25, 1876. The latter was hailed by premier Custer Publisher and historian Richard Upton as worthy of the notice of scholars, and I'm sure he'd say the same of this book, since the author is a scholar of note in his field.

Highly recommended.

I am pleased to have this book to add to my Native American History collection.

This is the finest book I have read on the lifestyle of the Lakota (Sioux),people not only before European contact, but also how they dealt with their transformation into "civilized" members of the dominate society. It was originally written in 1933. Luther Standing Bear took his name after entering Carlisle Indian School. How sad that the newcomers to North America didn't take the time to learn the culture of the original inhabitants of this land. We would all be better off today if they had. This book gives much insight into why. Even at this late date, there is a lot that can be learned from "Native Wisdom." I highly suggest that anyone interested, read this book. It will touch your heart!

I read Joe's book in a day, cried during the reading, and found even more respect (although I didn't think it possible to respect him more than I already did) as a human being, writer, and professor. The story is intriguing and honest, rich and lyrical. Joe really knows how to use language to his advantage. I've passed it on to others already. It's a great book from a great man.

Mackall writes a gutsy book here, looking honestly at drinking, depression, despair, and the similar pitfalls that too often trip-up young men from blue-collar Cleveland (or any other rust belt city), yet he writes with beauty and lyricism, giving us, in the end, a beautiful memoir of faith and redemption.

It took my a long time to make it through this book, but it is well worth the time and effort. Gary Gallagher has consolidated several essays (to include his own) that describe Lee's abililty as a military commander. This approach really provides the reader with a comprehensive view of Lee on the battlefield.

Two interesting things about the book. First, the authors vary greatly and include subordinates of Lee, noted Civil War historians, and modern Civil War scholars. Secondly, and not surprisingly, the opinions of these distinguished authors about Lee also vary greatly. Some view him as the true hero of the South, while others argue that he is the main reason the Confederacy lost. The result is that the reader can analyze the positions and decide for himself whether or not Lee was a good, bad, or mediocre General.

If you are interested in gaining insight into Lee's role in the Civil War, then I highly recommend this book. It is worth noting that it helps if you have a fundamental understanding of the War and the sequence of battles in the East before tackling this book. Otherwise, some of the articles may be hard to follow.

You can't hope to understand the U.S. Civil War without coming to some kind of an understanding of Robert E. Lee. The South's preeminent commander was a larger-than-life figure in his own time, and continues to occupy a very prominent place in the American imagination. He is seen as the personification of the Southern aristocrat, the Christian gentleman, and the brilliant military commander. To some extent, all those characterizations are true; but they hardly tell the full story. The essays in this volume serve as a fine introduction to the ongoing debate about the true meaning of Robert E. Lee to us as Americans. Contributors like Douglas S. Freeman portray him as a godlike, awesome figure; revisionists like Alan T. Nolan brilliantly reexamine the traditional view, suggesting that Lee had flaws, both as a man and a commander. The most recent essays, such as Gary Gallagher's contribution, suggest that although the revisionists are to some extent correct, Lee was nevertheless a source of strength, not weakness, to the Confederacy. The debate will doubtless continue to rage, and if you want to get brought up to speed, this is the place to start.

A better bargain than this smashing little paperback will be hard to find. The blended letters of Susan and Charles Blackford, two erudite, observant members of the Virginian gentry, tell the story of one family's Civil War struggle in the frontlines and on the homefront beautifully. Susan describes the loss of children, the battle to feed family, and the "impression" she made in front of her husband's unit plunging headfirst into a mudpile. Charles observes the war from the vantages of both the line and the staff, and supplies some incredible character studies ranging from Jeff Davis to Lee and Jackson, down to the private soldier (with the impudence of a town cow). A collection of letters from someone who wrote on a warmed frying pan to keep his hand from freezing probably deserves reading regardless! My third reading...

My Uncle Minor was the author of this book. It was first published 40 years ago.We would sit on his front porch and he would talk about his work. He told me how proud he was that when it went out of print and became a library issue that he would get a phone call about once a year from a college student challenging him on one General he misquoted the name. My Uncle is deceased now but going through the house after his death I accidently found a stack of unpublished manuscripts that would headed for the dumpster as no one knew about them. I salveged them and working on getting them in print as they are wonderful cival war historical novels. The first one is named Cry Liberty as is centered around Lychburg and Col Lynch and the war. I am sure he would be proud that I saved his work so many can enjoy it in print.

This is a favorite from childhood. It's a good novel to get a picture of what a cowboy's daily life and background were truly like in the period of U.S.history when ranches were a big part of the western scene. The sketches by James add much charm.

Independance is riding a Wyoming ridgeline on Christmas eve in a blizzard,catching the lights of a remote cabin in the valley below,and deciding whether or not to ride down to the cabin,based soley on how badly you think that you really need a cup of coffee.Will James is the "Lone Cowboy"in this turn of the century autobiography of the life of a drifter who roams from Mexico to Canada in search of ranch work.Abandoned as an infant,James was raised by a French Canadian trapper who provide equal doses of love and sink or swim trials.James fills the many lonely and isolated hours of his youth with drawing.The book contains many of James's illustrations of cowboy life and particularly beautiful renditions of his favorite subject,horses.A simple cowboy tale to most,this story will, to some readers ,provide a moving testimony to the spirit of courage,stubborness,independance that characterized the itinerent cowpokes of the old west.A wonderful book for young readers who will love the early stories about trapping,camping and getting that first horse.All will enjoy the beautiful artwork that so effectively illustrates the storyline.This sensitive story,told by the roughest of men, will provide a moving experience for all readers.

I was given this book as a gift about ten years ago. I have camped and backpacked in the Colorado Rockies many times and loved reading about its early pioneer days. Each story is carefully researched and presented. Many of the women encountered harsh resistance as they tried to homestead or pursue their varied outdoor interests, but, the overall theme for the stories is how courageous and strong the women were. I loved this book and although, I give away most of the books I buy, this one I keep close at hand.

Read it before you go the the Rocky Mountains. Then have fun exploring the places that are described. These women are awesome and I would love to meet the author, Janet Robertson.

Bryan Jones' book is about growing up in small town Nebraska in the 1950s, the son of an easy-going Methodist minister and brother of two older sisters. Throughout, it is humorous; at times it is laugh-out-loud funny.

The title comes from a Huck Finn-inspired attempt to float down the Platte River on an inner tube raft with another boy, an adventure somewhat diminished by the shallow river's lack of water and a tumultuous thunderstorm that drives them to a motel. The book begins and ends with accounts of the extended families from which both of his parents spring -- the Tuppers of Red Cloud (Willa Cather country) and the Joneses of little Magnet in northeast Nebraska.

The rest is a vivid evocation of a small-town boyhood set mostly in the western Panhandle town of Chappell, Nebraska. For a boy who owns BB guns, loves elaborate pranks, and plays baseball, it's a town of lazy summers, cranky neighbors, vicious school teachers, incompetent town cops, and various oddball residents. Although he does not make much of this, he is the proverbial preacher's son, always riding the ragged edge of disaster.

There are a few sobering moments in the mix, as when he pauses in a recollection of the early 1950s polio outbreaks to tell of two young survivors. But for the most part, Jones is eagerly looking for the comic turns in his stories, the ironies and absurdities. He manages this by lapsing into the frame of mind he seems to have had as a boy, irrepressible, heedless, and almost totally self-centered.

I recommend this book to anyone who has ever loved Huck Finn. It takes its rightful place on a bookshelf of American small-town childhoods. As companion volumes, I'd recommend Roger Welsch's humorous "It's Not the End of the Earth But You Can See It From Here," about the goings on in another Nebraska small town, Dannebrog, as well as Willie Morris' memoir of growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi, "My Dog Skip."

Bryan is my high school history teacher of long ago and I would say you can beleive most of the hysterically funny stories found in this book! Why, it's better than a comic book! Read it and I'll bet you can relate to many of the situations.

Aside from interweaving human and proto-Marxist themes that add interest, the novel provides an intriguing look into the seamy and risky world of the "naked short sale." Short sellers are often reviled by business executives as shadowy figures who victimize perfectly good companies with their machinations. The SEC has many regulations to try and curb their use. However, The Market Place tells how a business executive in an era without government regulations is able, with cunning and a top notch investment banker, to turn the tables on the short-seller. The hunters become the hunted in the City of London at the turn of the last century.

Harold Frederic's last novel, published posthumously in 1899, it's about Joel Thorpe, an unscrupulous English businessman, who wishes to acquire all the wealth and position he can, only to end up being bored with it all after getting it. He makes his "killing" with bogus rubber stock and a great deal of chutzpah. But he is also interested in power: "There's nothing else in the world so big as power - strength. If you have that, you can get everything else. But if you have it and don't use it, then it rusts and decays on your hands." He is ruthless and a bully, and remains so right to the end.

When near the end of the book Thorpe exhibits restlessness and displeasure with the way his life is turning out, his business partner levels with him: "You've set out to live the life of a rich country squire - and it hasn't come off. It couldn't come off! You haven't the taste for it inbred in your bones. You haven't the thousand little habits and interests that they take in with their mother's milk, and that make such a life possible." One of the best characters in the book is Thorpe's sister Louisa, who has him pegged right from the start. When she accuses him of being uncaring and negligent with his money and then declares, "You sit upon your money-bags and smile. If you want the truth, I'm ashamed to have you for a brother!" - we want to cheer. The novel is brisk and sharp in its satire, and sticks with you long after finishing it. Worth tracking down and reading.

For some reason, the impression this book description gives is that it only covers the Indian raids on the road ranches along the Little Blue River in August 1864. It certainly does that in exhaustive detail. But it covers SO much more. It basically covers ALL the Indian raid activity in Nebraska in the 1860-67 time frame including all along the Platte Valley as far as Julesburg. Biographies of all the major players are here too, no easy task considering most were simple pioneers that left a tough trail to follow.

The comprehensivness of this tome is incredible. The book is richly sourced and the footnotes highly informative. Maps are excellent, although throwing in one additional map showing all the rivers of Nebraska would have been nice.

This is a book so packed full of information that it needs to be read twice, because there's too much to digest the first time around.

Mr. Becher, my sincere congratulations. You've done a marvelous job. This was obviously a labor of love. Hard to believe this is your first book.

I have been a "student" of the Indian raids along the Little Blue in Nebraska in 1864 and have written and lectured on the subject for the past 9 years. Even my own publication falls way short of this new book. The history of the raids has needed someone to present it using no frills, no embellishments - just hard, cold facts supported by good documentation. The author has done just that and with the flair of a storyteller, the fascinating account of the events leading to and after the conflict is flawlessly unveiled in the book. The real heart of this book though is in Part II, presented in a nearly blow by blow "you are there" view of each of the attacks on stage stations and road ranches by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors. No other accounts have told this story with the thorough and painstaking examination given it by the writer. Drawing upon a vast body of military records, manuscripts, government publications, newspapers, periodicals, books, and other documentation, he has sifted meticulously through half-truths, outright untruths, shaded truths, and filled in with factual material where none was available or had been omitted in previous accounts. The remarkable research has resulted in a work that sheds a new and delightfully comprehensive light upon this period of American history.

For those who know (or wish to learn about) the whys and wherefores of the white-Indian relations from the time of the colonists and through the final conflict at Wounded Knee in 1890, it is put into perspective with this work. The book is divided into four parts, followed with an epilogue and appendices. Part I gives an overview of the development of white-Indian relations and interactions, presided over by government intervention from the 1600s up to the 1860s and the eve of the raid or massacre along the Little Blue. Unfolded in Part II is an amazingly accurate and detailed description of each day of the raid and immediate aftermath taking place from August 7th through August 19th. Beginning on the 7th, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attacked numerous road ranches along the Little Blue and vast amounts of property and goods were destroyed. Commerce and travel along the route west from Missouri and Kansas through Nebraska and Colorado came to a halt. Hundreds of people were affected, many lost their lives, several women and children were captured and held hostage - some for as long at nine months.

Part III describes the panic and some levelheaded preparation and fortification of their homes by people living in the outlying areas of the actual raids. Accounting of press coverage given to the events, military campaigns to seek out and punish the Indians is given by the author before chapters on the captives and their unplanned for journey against their will.

For those interested in the ordeal and aftermath of the captivity of those mentioned, the book is a goldmine of information. Of the known captives (Lucinda, Isabelle and Willie Eubank, Ambrose Asher, Laura Roper, Nancy Morton, Daniel Marble) all survived and were released to military authorities. All returned home to relatives except Daniel Marble and Isabelle Eubank, who lived for only a short time after reaching Denver where they were brought by Major Edward W. Wynkoop, the commander at Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory. Nancy Morton was held 6 months and finally reached Fort Laramie in Wyoming, as did Lucinda and Willie Eubank who were brought there by their captors in May of 1865. For those interested in the history of the Sand Creek Massacre and Black Kettle's role in the events of 1864, it may be a surprise to learn that he was one of those greatly responsible for negotiating the release of the captives to Major Wynkoop near Hackberry Creek in western Kansas in September of 1864. Colonel Chivington and the First Colorado Volunteers ultimately attacked him and his fellow tribesmen in late November 1864.

Part IV of the book describes the aftereffects of the raids with concluding stories about many of the individuals who had lived in the valley of the Little Blue as well as others who impacted the story. Summation is given the Lemmon, Roper, Martin, Eubank, Morton, Emery, Mudge, Comstock, Baker, Artist, Gilbert, Hunt, Palmer, Bainter, Uhlig, Metcalf, Morrow, McDonald, Gilman and Marble families. What became of those military and governmental officials like Colonel Summers, Generals Samuel Curtis and Robert Mitchell, John Evans, and John Milton Chivington is discussed. A concluding chapter describes one former captive's return to the site of her capture that had occurred 64 years before.

Appendix A lists the known casualties of the raid, including those killed, mortally wounded, wounded and captured. This list is incredibly valuable for those trying to make sense of all the names and dates. Appendix B is a list of the military troop dispositions of company units and commanding officers. The photographs and illustrations are fine and their clarity is very good. Although a few typos crop up here and there in the text and one map on page 174 erroneously lists Nuckotte County instead of Nuckolls County, there is nothing about the book that needs much improvement. I loved the book and learned a lot from it that even I, after nearly 10 years of studying this topic, did not know.

No bookshelf of individuals interested in American west history should be without this awesome piece of research and easy to read style of writing. I highly recommend the book and give it my highest endorsement.