University of Nebraska Books

War is hell, but getting to the battlefield was no easy matter. Not only did the United States refuse to aid the Spanish government, it actively sought to block American citizens from opposing the fascists and Hitler's nascent military machine. (this at a time when Henry Ford and Prescott Bush (our "president's" grandpa) were raking money in supplying the Nazis). Fisher finally made it to Spain.

The book relates comradeship, sudden death, misery, deprivation, and the courage that can only come from putting your life on the line for a cause you desperately believe in. Fisher relates anecdotes in a soft, gentle, personable manner.

This book can be compared with Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Orwell spends more time with political analysis and historical background. His style is less personal, and somewhat harsher. Fisher brings in his family, his hopes, his fears, but leaves the greater political context largely unexplored. Both books are five-star-must-reads.

After reading Comrades, I again had to wonder, "What might have happened if America had acted as a Democracy instead of a Capitalist Oligarchy and officially backed the legitimate Spanish government? Even weapons sales might have enabled the forces of Democracy to prevail ... and taught Hitler and Mussolini that the Democracies would not stand idly by while they attempted to subdue the world.

(If you'd like to discuss this book or review in more detail, click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

I have been reading about the Civil War and Indian Fighting Generals for over half a century. There is absolutely nothing new here. Any bright High School kid could have written this book in a good library.

In addituion to this criticism, I find a combined error and omission that is typical of academic authors who try to write about everything and everybody. This author states that General Sheridan never got to the scene of the 1876 Indian War. On the contrary read Willert as to exactly where and when he did. Furthermore, related to this is the fact that Sheridan arrived belately because of the riots in New Orleans that took him there. Hutton missed this and its significance, which could have lent the added ingredient to his work that would have made it significant. Sheridan in the earlier Indian War on the Southern Plains cooped up the reservation Indians so they couldn't join the hostiles in the field. He would undoubtedly have done the same (in time - he did it belatedly at War Bonnet Creek) and prevented one of the key elements of Custer's disaster (i.e. too damned many Indians).

Big reputations are made on this sort of actually superficial copying, partly because of an old boy netword, one suspects. The victims are fundamentally ignorant readers. There is little that can be done about this before the fact, which is what reviews are for.

This then is the story of the early west, when the first white emigration was necessarily in balance not only with the aboriginal inhabitants but also with the valid claims of Spain, Mexico, Great Britain and Russia. It is a story of intense competition, the story of a hugely successful commercial empire that really opened this vast section of the American West. It is the story of the Santa Fe Trail, the main route of commerce between St. Louis and Santa Fe, and the people who sought to control it. It is the story of men and women, of the lives and fortunes of those who developed and experienced this commercial thoroughfare.

As a history it is mesmerizing. As a yarn it is eye popping. As a series of events it is unbelievable. A critical part of the Nation's Manifest Destiny, it is the story of human endurance, of culture clash, war, survival, success and failure. But mostly it is the story of a very logical, continual development, a transition, one that will make you proud to be an American.

Although Ms. Cather publicly disclaimed credit for the resulting series of articles which form the basis of this book, the editors provide convincing proof that she wrote it.

In addition to being a highly entertaining account of the rise of one of the more fascinating characters in American religious history and the church she founded, the book provides extensive factual detail to anyone seriously interested in the history of either. While it is critical of Mrs. Eddy, it is also complimentary. Factually accurate and extensively documented., it is perhaps the most objective account available of a truly remarkable woman and her church.

Although the book was the subject of favorable reviews when it was published in 1910, the response of the church was, predictably, less enthusiastic. According to the afterword, even before it was published, "three spokesmen for the Christian Science church visited the McClure's office and tried to suppress the series of articles. Christian Scientists were said to have later bought and destroyed most copies of the book, and library copies were said to be kept out of general circulation through constant borrowings by church members... The copyright for the Milmine book was purchased by a friend of Christian Science, the plates from which the book was printed were destroyed, and the manuscript also acquired. That this happened is supported by the fact that the manuscripts for the 'Milmine' book are held in the Archives and Library of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston." (pp. 497-498)

Perhaps the most important contribution that this book makes is to present Mrs. Eddy and her church in the context of their time. There is a tendency today to present her as an early oppressed feminist. That interpretation should be compared with Ms. Cather's hard-nosed assessment:: "The result of Mrs. Eddy's planning and training and pruning is that she has built up the largest and most powerful organization ever founded by any woman in America. Probably no other woman so handicapped-so limited in intellect, so uncertain in conduct, so tortured by hatred and hampered by petty animosities-has ever risen from a state of helplessness and dependence to a position of such power and authority... The growth of her power has been extensive as well as intensive." (p. 480)

In fact, the only complaint in an otherwise favorable review by a student of nervous disorders in the American Historical Review (Vol 15, July 1910), was that the author did "not do enough to explain the abnormal psychology of the founder of Christian Science-the record of hysteria, hypochondria, and the delusion of persecution." (p.498)

Well worth reading

Ms. Perdue makes what could be a boring subject into a great read. The book held my attention and piqued my interest in the lives of Native Amercian women from the past and today.

Pete Rose is a real jerk. The guy could play baseball, but that's it.

As a person, he is a jerk.

As least he will never get into the baseball hall of fame. If Pete Rose got into that sacred place, it would be a shame.

If you aren't a diehard, you may want to give this one a miss.

I want my daughter to read it because it's also an excellent profile of eastern private schools and the politics of getting admitted, being a student and professor. Reston believes that both men at their peak represented the best of their profession. (I can't tell my daughter that's the other side that she'd find interesting because it would be as well-received as a lecture.)

The book goes through the childhood of both men and their professional development. The details on Rose's gambling are convincing: you literally see how Pete self-destructed. I think that it was a cab driver who sums up how Pete could have saved himself right up to the end (the paraphrasing is mine: "apologize, indicate that he'd never bet for or against Cincinnati, and gotten away from gamblers") but was so ego-centric that he was self-destructive. As for betting on the Reds, it's clear that he did.

A well-told story, but Reston is not as crisp a writer as his father. His transitions are often awkward, leaving you wondering what topic he's on. And there's a factual error so glaring that I wondered how a sportswriter or editor could let it get by -- he refers to the Chicago Cubs as the "Southsiders."

If Wycherley was no Shakespeare, he did this sort of play better than the Bard. Nothing is quotable, the characters are one dimensional and only the "China" scene got real laughs. But Wycherley did a neat and nasty take on Restoration mores and made it enjoyable, too.

Wicherley presents us with unhappy wives and brutal or indifferent husbands who are utlimately fooled by Horner, the man who knows how to exploit the misery produced by mercenary unions. Poor Margery Pinchwife, the heroine of the piece, eventually brings tears in our eyes when we realize that she shall never be free from a violent man that considers marriage a cheaper substitute for keeping a mistress. Margery is the victim of both her husband and her careless lover. She is looking for love, but she keeps on coming across men who are interested in sex only. They can see her body; they can't see her delicate, naif soul.

However, Whycherley (who, we must remember, was the spiritual son of the great moralists Graciàn, Larochefoucault and so on, whose maxims are easily detected in the whole bulk of Wycherley's works) is able to see a way out in the honest, disintrested love between Alithea, Margery's brilliant sister-in-law, and Harcourt, Horner's dashing best friend. (these characters' names symbolize the perfection of their union: her name means "truth", while his name is significantly "Frank".)

This comedy is at its best when performed; however, it is well worth reading, especially if you have a lively imagination. don't miss the notorious "china scene": fifteen minutes of laughter that will make your sides ache.

Be careful: The Country Wife merely "looks" like a stupid, shallow comedy, but it is in fact a deep reflection on society, marriage and, why not?, even the situation of Seventeenth-Century English women.