Lincoln Books

(originally written when I was in the 8th grade: excuse the poor writing please!)

Those who believe all the trash taught in public schools about Lincoln being a great man must read this book. It uncovers all the trash swept under the rug and reveals his hideous legacy. Everyone needs to know their history, and this book must be read to understand Lincoln and how he was responsible for killing 25% of the South in a completely unnecessary and brutal war.

However, this book is not a biography. It presents one side to a very complex man. I hate Lincoln, but I have no problem quoting him sometimes. He is very insightful as far as human nature is concerned and was personally a man of some weird brand of integrity. At the very least, he could have been well-intentioned.

But that isn't Minor's point. He knows it isn't a biography. That isn't his agenda. His agenda is to expose all the lies we have always been told.

This book buys its own veracity by only using first-hand source--and weirdly enough, all Yankee sources. We can thus rest assured that the information is not exactly biased, thus warranting critical alarm!

If you buy this book to learn about Lincoln, buy another Lincoln book as well. This book only presents his bad side (and it is really bad), but doesn't present the whole man.

Highly recommended reading.

This is a very insightful book. I enjoyed it greatly. It gives a very different and truthful look at a very famous Lincoln. I would recommend this book to any history buff.

This Book is written by a soldier who fought in the Civil War, had a college education, and was a minister.

One will find out more than he may or may not wish to know, concerning Lincoln.

Charles Minor removes the "myth of Lincoln" a layer at a time.
If you're a Southerner, Lincoln biographer, or the average American just wanting to see who the REAL LINCOLN really was, this is an excellent book. ( If you're a defender of Southern Heritage, you NEED this book)

There are several publishing dates on this book. ( 1904,1927,1928, and more current)

NOTE---PRIMARY SOURCES

This book was written over a century ago. If you check the quotation such as ones from Shermans Memoirs, they are accurate, but he uses the OLD TWO VOLUME set, so the page numbers will not be the same as the new single volume.

Quotes from the O.R. ( Official Records)
Again, this was written over a century ago.
The FIRST set of the O.R. that came out, is NOT the ones we have today. The FIRST set of the O.R. were so confusing, few people had the time to research them. They also were very unorganized.
Charles Minor quotes from the first set. ( as a matter of fact, Minor says, "the O.R. is now over 100 volumes") What he quotes IS in the O.R. you may have to cross-reference it with the current O.R. though.

When reading Civil War books, I always check the authors primary sources, if I am in doubt.
Charles Minor used solid references. This is a nice addition to our Lincoln/Civil War/Presidents/ or American History Library

I've often amused (or irritated) people with little known trivia and one of my favorites was the fact of Lincoln and Darwin having been born on the same day. It may not be mere trivia from now on.

Darwin and Lincoln have long been favorites of mine so when I saw this book I was immediately drawn to it. I have been nicely rewarded as this book is terrific. It is packed with detailed knowledge of these two great men of the 19th century and told in a delightful and accessible manner. Mr. Contosta is obviously sympathetic to both men, and why wouldn't he be? Their stories are compelling. The intriguing similarities in their lives go beyond their shared birth date, and many are quite astounding.

The author's method of telling the story of Lincoln and Darwin by comparison of the details of their lives is a neat trick and I think it worked well.

Mr. Contosta is an historian who knows a bit of science history as well. His description of Darwin's theory of natural selection and of the state of natural science in the 19th century seem impeccable. Few people outside of the life sciences today are aware of the mountain of evidence that Darwin collected, analyzed and tested before publishing The Origin of Species, nor of the personal conflicts with which he struggled. Those who today disparage Darwinian evolution as "just a theory," as if it were no more than an educated guess, will be disabused of that notion and will come to a better understanding of the scientific method. If you delight in new knowledge and information you will revel in the pages of this book.

The Publishers Weekly description above calls Mr. Contosta's effort "thin" and "sophomoric." I think it is Publishers Weekly that is thin and sophomoric.

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln are fascinating historic figures by themselves, but this book takes a unique perspective in comparing the two men. While they came from very dissimilar backgrounds, their lives shared many commonalities and they both have left indelible marks on history. This was a fascinating book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in history or in these two great men.

edited for typo.

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, although both famous, would not be said by many to have a lot in common. David R. Contosta disagrees, and "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin" is his reasoning why. The two figures, hugely impactful in history, were born on the same day, disliked their fathers, lost their mothers at a young age, suffered from depression, and other eerie similarities. Hoping to give readers a more comprehensive understanding of both men by examining their similarities and differences, "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin" is an excellent pick for any community library collection dedicated to history.

Just in case you were wondering -- Dowager: a widow holding property received from her deceased husband.

The palace and surrounds of Chatsworth have been in the same family for more than 450 years. It consists of some 35,000 acres and 450 houses. Each year a half million visitors come to the house, and countless more come to take a walk in the vast park areas.

In this book the Duchess provides a guided tour of the estate as it exists today and complements it with pictures out of the past. It is most interesting to see a building as it exists today just above another picture made in 1900, or perhaps a painting from the 1700's when the building was new.

This book would be a good suggestion as a gift for anyone planning on a visit to England. It's just as nostalgic as you would expect and great reading.

The author, The Duchess of Devonshire, is a British national treasure. She has overseen the preservation of one of England's greatest houses, Chatsworth, and then chronicled it in several volumes with enriching personal insights. Round And About Chatsworth is a must for Anglophiles. It is a charming blend of her delightful personality with a tour of this great English home and it's gardens.

Just in case you were wondering -- Dowager: a widow holding property received from her deceased husband.

The palace and surrounds of Chatsworth have been in the same family for more than 450 years. It consists of some 35,000 acres and 450 houses. Each year a half million visitors come to the house, and countless more come to take a walk in the vast park areas.

In this book the Duchess provides a guided tour of the estate as it exists today and complements it with pictures out of the past. It is most interesting to see a building as it exists today just above another picture made in 1900, or perhaps a painting from the 1700's when the building was new.

This book would be a good suggestion as a gift for anyone planning on a visit to England. It's just as nostalgic as you would expect and great reading.

If you want to tell the very young how they (and all of us) came into this world, this nifty picture/body flap book can't be beat! The story of life is right here, and aging amd even death is touched on in a most natural way, too. Great educational book! One wonders why it's out of print.

This fabulous, lift-the-flap book shows stages of pregnancy in a wonderfully illustrated in an understandable way for all ages. A family is at the beach and they all have a secret that nobody else knows about - lift the flap on mommy's tummy and see the tiny baby growing in her uterus! Similar illustrations show progression of the pregnancy, with the new big sister watching and participating along the way. What a wonderful way for children to visualize exactly what is happening in there!

As a natural-minded mama, I especially love that the baby boy is uncircumcised, nursing from mama's breast while the family looks on, and that there are no pictures or mentionings of bottles or pacifiers.

The book continues on to focus on the big sister and how she goes on growing, what makes her grow, how genes contribute to appearance, growing old enough to see your own children and grandchildren grow.

It is absolutely wonderful and beautifully done. My 5 year old son wants to read it every night! It's a great book about self-realization or for addressing those "how did I get here" questions. It's also perfect for a child with a sibling on the way. I hope to someday be able to use the book as a fun way to tell my little one that he is going to be a big brother!

I have a three year old and she loved this flap book. She got to see the baby in my tummy from the wonderful illustrations. This book I recommend for parents that are having their second or third child to show their children. Children will better understand what is going on and hopefully help them to adjust when the baby is born.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a brilliant military genius and a true eccentric.
A fascinating and complex man, who found his destiny in war. Sherman revelled in war and owed much to it: he began it as an former officer of modest means and ended it hailed as the Union greatest general next to Grant. At the same time he loathed and despised war and was horrified by it. He was shocked by what the war did to his country, his people, his soldiers and to himself. At times he was appalled by his duties as an officer, but he was always highly resolved to perform these duties.

Everybody who has ever read his memoirs knows that Sherman was not only a great general but also a very talented writer. His memoirs are not a dry succession of events and his part in it, but they convey how he lived through the war and how and why he did what he did in it.
Now professor Brooks D. Simpson has edited a big volume of his Sherman's correspondence from the Civil War years. Again it is the quality of the Sherman's writing which catches the eye and pleases the mind. His letters, as are his memoirs, are a joy to read. This book offers an interesting perspective on Sherman and his part in the war. Reading the memoirs is like having Sherman telling his war experiences to you, long after the facts. This is interesting enough but reading his letters is even more so. It feels like being there with him in his tent, in some Union camp during the war, looking over his shoulder while events are shaping. A truly fascinating experience.
He pours his heart out to his brother John, to his wife Ellen, to his friend Grant and to many others.
So many aspects of his personality appear: his quicksilver intelligence, his warmth and humanity, his wicked and dry sense of humour, his fundamental decency and his military capability.
Read this book and look intro Sherman's mind: it is an interesting place.

The book itself is a big b*gger, but once you've started, you'll be grateful that is is so big: you'll hate to finish it. It looks great, which I like in books and it's very nicely turned out, with good quality binding , high grade paper, a pretty typesetting and a nice dust jacket design. Listings and indexes are clear and elaborate, which is useful in a book like this. So here's a big thumbs up to the publisher's (Chapel Hill North Carolina State University Press): very well done, a fine piece of work!!!

I can't recommend this too highly. A must for all those who are interested in history, in the American Civil War and/or in Sherman. Read and enjoy the letters uncle Billy wrote in those four years of war and enjoy the sight and the feel of this beautifully made book.

It's difficult to rate a collection of primary documents such as this one for several reasons. The quality of the documents themselves might be very good but the arrangement or editing of them might be very poor, in which case it becomes a question of whether you should rate the volume well for the documents themselves or poorly for the editing job. Fortunately this collection does not have that issue, as both the primary documents themselves and the editing of them are excellent.

This massive volume contains much of Sherman's correspondence during the war. Surprisingly, these letters are enjoyable to read, and the editors have done a great job of compiling and editing them. Reading these letters, orders, etc of General Sherman can give someone a very unique perspective of the Civil War as Sherman himself saw it, without the bias of authors who have written about it since and without the inevitable coloring of events that happens later when war heroes write about their experiences (and which certainly affected his memoirs, though I do believe they were very honest and straightforward). General Sherman is one of my heroes from the Civil War, and this collection of glimpses into his brilliant mind certainly fed my understanding and fascination of the man.

William T. Sherman was an irascible, unpredictably brilliant man and his letters bring out these myriad traits. He was a fascinating man and his own words illuminate his fiery personality. Sherman's own 1875 memoirs are a mixed bag, marred by an over-abundance of wartime correspondence and ancillary material. This collection of his letters actually makes for more engrossing, instructive reading. We hear his opinions on the major players of the Civil War: Grant, Halleck and Lincoln. We gain an understanding of his tortured relationship with his wife, Ellen, to whom many of the letters are addressed. His visceral hatred of the press and reporters is well represented.

The collection is expertly edited by Brooks Simpson, someone who thoroughly understands both Sherman and the civil war era. The notes are instructive and unobtrusive and the introduction lays the groundwork for appreciating Sherman and his correspondence. This is an outstanding book for anyone who wishes to get to know the erratic and intellectual General who was second only to Ulysses S. Grant in ability and results.

Nan Lincoln's real-life story of finding a young seal is both heart-warming and informative; interspersing a history and background of Mount Desert Island amongst the story of Cecily. A very intersting and all-around wonderful book.

Nan Lincoln's story of the summer she spent raising (with the permission of the authorities) an abandoned seal pup is the most endearing story I think I've ever read. Her tale of her struggles to get it to eat, swimming with it, riding around with a seal in the car, carting Cecily to the shore in a wheel barrow, then, finally, successfully integrating it back into nature is destined to be a classic. Ms. Lincoln has a wonderfully readable prose style and the story is absolutely unique. I can't imagine anyone not being delighted with it. A friend called it "a little jewel."

This is not a children's book, although it contains both photographs and sketches of her amazing experience and will be enjoyed by all ages. The youngest children won't be interested in her bits of history about Mount Desert Island, I suspect. Mom or Dad can skip those parts when reading out loud.

This should be a movie. Where's Michael Eisner when we need him

You're on a beach- the tide is coming in- you see an abandoned seal pup halfway under a rock. What would you do? When Nan Lincoln sees the pup on the beach in the early summer of 1976 she feels like she should adopt it, six hours later she decided to and she did. She named the pup Cecily. She keeps Cecily for the summer and finds ways to make her life as similar as it would be to the life of other pups. Cecily has an attitude that is expressed by Nan (in English not seal language) and is very funny to read about. In the first chapter however Nan mostly writes about the setting and her family which is also explained in chapter 2. Soon the book heats up and she finds Cecily and you are brought along on the ride of your life as you go through the summer with Cecily, Nan, and Nan's family. Each chapter brings a new laugh to the scene.
Nan has a unique writing style that is very descriptive and specific. She has written a very unique book that would be perfect for a 4th Grade read-aloud or an independent reading book for other grades as well as 4th Grade. Her writing style is also sometimes straying to short sub-topics of the story to help you understand other parts of the story. All in all I would give this book 5 star rating.

-- Caroline Miller

After having purchased almost all of Amazon's collection on sundials, I eagerly awaited this book's delivery. From the first page, I regretted not having bought it before as Sir Mark Lennox Boyd has produced a masterpiece. Anyone who has an appreciation for gnomonics should get this book. Although it contains technical information, it's the historical journey which is most engaging.

This is an excellent book for the layman as well as for an accomplished sundial expert. It shows the evolution of humankind's interest in the passage and the marking of time. And if you look on page 123 you will see photographs of Kate Pond's contemporary sun-aligned public sculptures.

You are used to seeing a sundial in the middle of a garden, and if you are like me, you look at the shadow, then compare the time to a wrist-borne chronometer, and note that the sundial is off by however many minutes. In _Sundials: History, Art, People, Science_ by Mark Lennox-Boyd I learned that this is at least doubly wrong. The author quotes Hilaire Belloc: "I am a sundial and I make a botch / Of what is done much better by a watch." He complements the wit of the couplet, and shows the errors. Firstly, he points out, sundials tell time perfectly well; they simply measure time differently than watches do, but neither of them is objectively "right". Secondly, sundials are not merely garden ornaments, and only one in this profusely illustrated and colorful book is from that category. The dials shown here are often scientific instruments and elaborate works of art that sometimes do not look like sundials at all. Not only are many styles of sundial illustrated here, but the science and history of making them is summarized; the reader will come away with a much better idea of how the solar system runs from the contemplation of these not-so-humble instruments.

Lennox-Boyd (or actually Sir Mark, since he has been, besides a Patron of the British Sundial Society, a Member of Parliament and a Foreign Office Minister), says that the association of the dial with the garden began in the Renaissance, not because the dials were ornaments, but because teachers of the time often used the garden as a place where lessons of science could be delivered. There are pictures here of artwork and architecture that one would not expect to be sundials at all. The Sundial Bridge across the Sacramento River in California is a suspension bridge, suspended on one side of the river from a huge, slanted support. The support just happens to be slanted at the correct angle to make it a gnomon, and its huge shadow sweeps along the ground beneath. The huge sundial at Jaipur in India has a gnomon that is big enough to walk up, fifty steep stairs. A Dutchman has designed beer glasses that you turn until the sunbeam through a circle on one side of the glass hits the date line on the other side; you can then tell if the time is after 5 p.m., the time when the inventor says the glass ought to be filled. There is a picture of a spherical sundial invented by Thomas Jefferson. The Disney World offices in Florida are "entertainment architecture", and part of the fun is that a central room is shaped like a truncated cone and has gigantic sundials visible on the outside and the inside, with quotations about time on marble plaques from such notables as Albert Einstein and Donald Duck. Sir Mark himself designs sundials, some of which are shown here. The most ambitious is one in Oliveto, Italy, within the stair tower of a house; a system of mirrors sends a sunbeam during different times of the day to different walls of the stairwell, each intricately crisscrossed with lines to read time, date, times of sunrise and sunset, and more.

Sir Mark points out that since we now have clocks accurate to more than one second in fifteen million years, sundials ought to be obsolete, but they are not. There has been a resurgence of interest in them, both in the historical forms and the modern ones which come in strange and undial-like shapes. "There is a particular symbolism in an object that does something helpful but requires no power and performs indefinitely," he writes. He is clearly fascinated with his subject, and this lovely and colorful book conveys the fascination perfectly.

This book journies through the lives of two great women. It begins with the assasination of President Abraham Lincoln and shortly after goes into the life story of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. Rinaldi very appropriately writes from Mary's point of view as she grows from a child to a young, elegant lady. She never forgot her one wish to one day live in the White House. One can rally feel Mary's emotions through Rinaldi's writing.
Lizzy Keckly comes in the second half of the book. Her life as a slave has many hardships, such as the time when her friend has to eat the heads off of worms. It is especially difficult for her because she is mulatto; torn between her white father and black family. All she wants is to buy her freedom one day. She does that as well as become Mary Lincoln's personal dress-maker.
Both of these ambitious women never swayed from their goals. Mary suffered the dislikes of her step-mother to the fullest;Lizzy was tortured in her enslavement, but both fullfilled their dreams. Mrs. Lincoln held dazzling parties. Lizzy became the finest dress-maker in Washington D.C. And when they met, it led to a strong, yet unlikely frienship.
I really enjoyed this book because I felt like I got to know the characters personally. They were brought to life and I related to their emotions. It also gave me a glimpse of the lifestyle back then. Even though it was historical it was very entertaining.

The stories of these two ladies, one a First Lady and the other a slave who eventually became free, is facinating. History books can be dull and boring, but not this one. Without graphic violence, their experiences in life are brought to the reader with appropriate emotion. Their friendship was unlikely, yet strong. I would recommend it to anyone who is eager to learn about this time period and the women who had the courage to changed their lot in life.

I really enjoyed this book. It had an engaging storyline and even though the facts about the story have been told before, the dialog and details are so nicely done that the story is beathed new life. I read an adult book on the same subject and I prefer this book. I would recommend this book for 9+.

I agree with the previous reviewer and I probably won't use it because it's just too nice. I also bought the pocket sized one. A must for any dedicated follower of fashion!

This lovely desk-size 2008 diary is actually a companion to the spectacular book "The Golden Age of Couture" (edited by Claire Wilcox), which is itself a companion to the Victoria and Albert Museum's 2007-08 exhibit on the fashions of the decade from 1947 to 1957. As such, the chief attraction here is nearly a hundred photos and illustrations, in mixed color and B&W, most of which don't appear in the book. You probably will want to buy two copies - one for your permanent library, one to scribble in. :) A pocket-size version, with many of the same pictures (but also with some different ones) is also available. If you can't afford the big book, by all means get this one!

The Victoria & Albert museum in London puts out two engagement diaries every year. There is a desk diary and a smaller purse sized diary. The desk diary is printed on beautiful quality stock. Each two page spread covers one week, with a good-sized blank space for each day. There are 2008 and 2009 calendars up front, an integrated bookmark and a couple of blank pages at the end of the diary for notes.

What really sets the V&A diaries apart is the quality of the photographs. Every year a different theme is chosen from the V&A's vast collection: recent themes have included Middle Eastern Art and details of vintage fabrics. The photographs are always beautifully composed and pleasingly varied.

The theme for this year's diary is "The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957" and it makes full use of the extensive couture clothing collection held by the museum. Illustrations include fashion photography from the 40s and 50s, catwalk sketches, advertisements and detailed photographs of dresses, hats, shoes and jewellery from the V&A collection. Designers who are featured include (but are not limited to) Balmain, Dior, Worth, Chaumont, Desses, Cavanagh and Fath.

This would be an excellent gift for anyone who has an interest in photography or fashion - or just culture in general. It does a beautiful job of capturing a golden decade of high glamor.

You can spend five minutes or five hours at a sitting with this gem. Even a casual browse through a few pages will teach you something you didn't know about Vikings. A must for anybody studying Norse culture, and a valuable addition to their collections.

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A cultural atlas presents its readers with a tremendous amount of information. Even a casual browsing through this work reveals enough information to provide the seeker of knowledge with a firm grasp on the history, geography, and culture of the efficient, effective "Warriors of the North" known as Vikings or Northmen.

This atlas explains and defines the Viking Age, beginning in the 8th century and ending in the 11th century with the creation of the Scandinavian nations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. These tall, blonde, blue-eyed Vikings also left their mark on lands from North America, across Europe into Russia -- which was named for the Rus, a Swedish tribe -- and into the Byzantine Empire of Asia Minor and beyond. The Vikings endowed the Europeans who followed them with the Viking genes for bravery, impudence, physical beauty, and intelligence, genes which Viking warriors spread widely in the Northern Hemisphere.

The compilers of this work, edited by James Graham-Campbell, present the reader with a plethora of charts, maps, and captioned photographs illustrating and enriching cogent expository text.

Everyone on the planet, ... will recognize this book as a valuable tool in the study of a great European people.

I love this book. It has lots of maps and illustrations. Best of all it covers the entire gamut of the Viking universe. It is a wonderful resource for getting your head around the big picture of the Viking age. I have researched Viking Age history for years now and this is one of the BEST books I have ever found