University of Nebraska Books

In his excellent introduction to CHANGING MILITARY PATTERNS OF THE GREAT PLAINS INDIANS, John C. Ewers credits Dr. Secoy's book with the revelation that "the Indian Wars" had been going on for quite a while before the US Army got involved. This is a point most people tend to miss including me.

I was vaguely aware that "intertribal warfare" had gone on, but tended to consider it a side-show to what Robert M. Utley described as "Frontiersmen in Blue." Secoy's book set me straight and introduced me to a dramatic and under-appreciated chapter in the history of the American West.

CHANGING MILITARY PATTERNS OF THE GREAT PLAINS INDIANS was first published in 1953. It's been around a while, but hasn't been read as widely as it deserves to be. A more recent book by Anthony McGinnis entitled COUNTING COUP AND CUTTING HORSES came out in 1990 and makes a good companion to Secoy's earlier work.

Secoy writes like a professor. His style is a bit plodding compared to McGinnis', but I did not find it as dense as some scholarly works tend to be.

Secoy's book is well footnoted and includes a good bibliography and such interesting appendices as "The Use of the Flintlock Muzzle-Loader on Horseback," which add greatly to book's appeal for those interested in weapons and tactics. I was unable to verify many of Secoy's footnotes and would agree with a previous reviewer's comment that he uses a lot of obscure sources. That doesn't necessarily weaken his research. Ewers is one of the leading authorities on Plains Indians and he praises Secoy's research in the book's introduction.

I grew up on the Great Plains among many of the same tribes that Secoy discusses and his comments and research coincided with my own experiences and observations. I did review MEMOIRS OF A WHITE CROW INDIAN but did not see the same problems referred to in the previous review.

I would agree, however, that Secoy's word choices sometimes suggest comparisons with conventional cavalry battles during the Civil War instead of the "sparring" Thomas Leforge observed. Secoy's book isn't perfect and it won't be the last word on the subject, but it is a valuable addition to your library if your interested in intertribal warfare and the Plains Indians. I liked it and gave it five stars.

This book, first published in 1953, tries to impress with terminology such as the Post-gun -- pre-horse military technique pattern and the Post-horse -- pre-gun military technique pattern, and too frequently the author's writing style clouds what he is trying to say (at least this was the case for my simple mind). At 103 pages it is my opinion that he tackles a topic that needs more data to support the conclusions set forth. And there are times that the author selectively uses source material to make his point. One glaring example is on pp. 76-77. Here the author talks about a "large-scale, formal [intertribal] cavalry battle" that "might last for hours, or for most of the day." His example comes from the recollections of Thomas H. Leforge as told to Thomas B. Marquis (Memoirs of a White Crow Indian). Leforge related an 1873 battle between the Crows and the Lakota. In such an encounter there was lots of long-range firing, daring rides across the enemy lines, taunts back and forth, and perhaps several one-on-one combats that might result in nothing more than each warrior trying to count coup (not to belittle such an event which took quite a bit of bravery). But as for Secoy's large-scale cavalry battle (reminiscent of the Civil War), it just didn't occur (especially as it relates to the example he cited). There is some interesting information that can be gleaned from reading the monograph, such as on p. 83 where he convincingly shows how and why the Apaches went from allies of the Spanish to their long-time enemies. Overall, he quoted so many hard to find titles that it is difficult to know how accurately he used them in his writing (which must be questioned in light of the misuse of Leforge's recollections that I presented above); and his constant use of hard to grasp terminologies (instead of easy to understand straightforward explanations) really deters from the book's usefulness. The book is rather inexpensive, short, and he does present some interesting ideas, so I'd recommend it if intertribal warfare and the introduction and spread of guns and horses is of interest to you.

This book first appeared in the early 1970s which, in hindsight, was at the dawn of an era that witnessed the publication of a flood of new books on Custer that has continued over the years, most noteworthy being those from Utley, Louise Barnette, Michno on the battle, etc. For anyone wanting the full details of the Black Hills Expedition, CUSTER'S GOLD was easily trounced in 2002 with the publication of EXPLORING WITH CUSTER with its wealth of then-and-now photographs, abundant quotes from primary sources, and a fine narrative to pull it all together. That book suffers though from a lack of an index!

That said, for someone looking for a shorter and less costly recounting of the historic 1874 expedition, this well-written book answers the call. Especially noteworthy is the chapter entitled "The Misery of Private Ewert" that draws from his diary to illustrate the hellish conditions endured by enlisted men as they marched across the prairie towards the beckoning Black Hills. The author lets his anti-Custer bias show on occasion but that is in small measure compared to some writers. Unlike the recent EXPLORING, there is an index. Recommended.

A provision in the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty assigned all the lands west of the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota, including the Black Hills, to the Sioux. But rumors began to emerge that the Black Hills were rich in gold, and in 1874 the government authorized a "reconnaissance" to check out the rumors. George Armstrong Custer, headquartered at Ft. Abraham Lincoln near Bismark, ND, was put in charge, and from July 2 through August 30 he led an expedition to the Black Hills that indeed proved the rumors to be true. In this short book Donald Jackson tells the story of the expedition.

Perhaps once THE book on the expedition, now it's best utilized as a supplementary text next to Grafe & Horsted's amazingly superb EXPLORING WITH CUSTER: THE 1874 BLACK HILLS EXPEDITION, which is a detailed, eye-popping, near mile-by-mile account of the expedition. Jackson expands somewhat on the scientific corps that accompanied the expedition as well as the prelude and postscript to the trip, but generally relates in words what Grafe & Halsted reveal in maps and photographs. One interesting sidenote is the baseball game played by the troops on July 31 in what is today downtown Custer, the first baseball game played in South Dakota. The results of the expedition ushered in a gold rush and another disaster for the Indians whose lands were once again invaded. Jackson is a well-known and excellent western historian and this book tells the story of Custer and the 1874 expedition succinctly and well. Recommended.

Despite its age, "Desertion During the Civil War" remains the standard introduction to the topic. The book's major shortcoming is touched on in William Blair's introduction to this reprint: "Lonn relied primarily on the 'Official Records.' Although adequate for the time, this would be considered merely a good beginning today."

The "Official Records" are the most complete and impartial documentation of the Civil War, and the necessary foundation for any serious research. But they were never edited for accuracy, and many reports were condensed for space, and the information about the South was especially spotty in the 1920s. Modern historians are severely cautioned against relying on them without corroborating evidence.

Historians from Prof. McPherson on down have been saying for years that there needs to be a fresh study of desertion, especially in the Confederacy. But that would require a couple of people to spend the rest of their natural lives sifting through tens of thousands of provost marshals' reports and muster rolls of thousands of regiments.

So we're left with Ella Lonn. Her analysis of the "disease" takes into account both North and South, as well as mentioning the Napoleonic armies, Wellington's experience in Spain, the U.S. military before 1861, and the Franco-Prussian War.

Part of her thesis, now much-shaken by better information than was available in the 1920s, was that the South had a serious desertion problem for much of the war, and that it spiraled out of control in the last months. She wrote that the North seemed to get its own desertion problem under relative control about the same time -- largely by draconian measures.

Her conclusion is that one out of every seven men deserted from the Union Army, and one out of every nine men deserted from the Confederate army. Though the Union lost proportionately more to desertion, she feels the South suffered more because of the initial difference in manpower, and that desertion ultimately was instrumental in the South's failure to achieve independence.

Lonn concludes that Union desertions helped prolong a war that the South was losing, because the news of them gave the South hope and allowed it to cling to a dream of eventual victory long after that was practically out of reach.

Lonn seems to be writing with an eye on her own time, in the wake of World War I, which brought up a great many of the ugly things in American democracy that we think only emerged during the Cold War. She alludes to it often, and seems intent on pointing out that the horrors of war -- any war -- are more worthy of note than the characters of men who desert from armies.

I was prompted to read this book after having read "Cold Mountain" and having someone complain to me about the hero of that book being a deserter. How could someone write a book glorifying desertion! That got me to wondering and led me to Lonn's book. I found it very informative about many aspects of desertion, including: the reasons men deserted, what happened to them if they were caught, the means the governments (both Union and Confederate) used to persuade deserters to return to their units, the bounties paid to capture deserters, and many more aspects that I had never considered, most importantly, the effect it had on the outcome of the war. She also examines the effects of desertion on the civilian population, and how the stigma of desertion became what it is today. Some chapters were a bit redundant (she covers both North and South), and the sections on the numbers who deserted and from which states, etc. bored me, but overall I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Civil War.

A slender tome with a title that veritably calls out from amongst the stacks, M. Benabou's Dump This Book While You Still Can! is a satisfyingly unusual work of prose. There is no traditional plot line to speak of. In fact, the entire book revolves around a singular setting - a bachelor's Parisian apartment - and features a cast of vibrant characters, of whom only one (the narrator) plays a prominent role.

The story itself (if we may refer to the narrative as such) revolves around the simple act of reading, only made not-so-simple by the rather obsessive narrator. An obscure, unfamiliar book surfaces in the narrator's home, which opens with a hostile diatribe against reading any further: "Come on, dump this book. Or better yet, throw it as far as away as you can. Right now. Before it's too late." Being the literary (and charmingly pretentious) sort, the narrator initially takes umbrage with this form of address and dutifully scoffs the author's feeble attempt (he says) at gaining one's attention. Before too long, though, the narrator decides that his visceral reaction is somewhat extreme, and begins to dissect the text for depths previously unseen.

And it is this struggle of which the book's primary conflict is comprised. It is, in fact, quite challenging to discuss more without spoiling the story for those who have not read it (as made evident, unfortunately, by the otherwise wonderful and enlightening introduction by Warren Motte).

M. Benabou plumbs the human condition in this brief tale through the somewhat detached viewpoint of a lonely man who does not see his own predicament. Written in an academic (yet ironic) vein, Dump This Book presents a character study of a special kind of bibliophile, by way of a memorably wry voice.

The comedy of Bénabou's book about reading, Dump This Book While You Still Can!_, is more arcane and the regret more conventionally the loss of a nubile by very elusive female (Sophie) than his (briefer) black comedy about not writing, _Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books_ (also published by Nebraska) The quotations from a wide array of western literature are less amusingly apt and less numerous than those in _Why_.

The attempts to find hidden meaning in the manuscript goes on too long. Still there is some entertainment of Nabokovian/Borgian kind. (Canetti's _Auto da Fé_ popped into my mind often in reading both books, though _Auto da Fé_ has a sustained narrative rather than the many startings over of the Bénabou metafictions on writing and reading have.)

The typeface is unusually and uncomfortably small in both of these books, which are not very long and have fairly large margins. Both have useful introductions explaining who Bénabou is--a task he has taken up more directly in a sort of autobiography also available in English from the University of Nebraska Press.

This is a wide-ranging albeit somewhat meandering conversation between two eminent scholars that I found to be worthwhile for the questions that emerge from its pages. Central to the discussion is the question: how much did the "Bolshevik threat" contribute to the rise of Nazism? Both historians agree that the fascist movement, and Nazism in particular, was fueled in some degree by the fervor of anticommunism - and vice versa, for as Furet points out, no less was communism positioned as antifascism...perhaps to hide its philosophical and socio-economic bankruptcy from the world. Benefits from the rivalry accrued on both sides in typical cola war fashion - each brand attacking and asserting its superiority over the other thereby distracting devotees from the realization that both taste like malted battery acid.

The divergence of opinion on this point of Bolshevism's influence becomes a matter of accentuation. Nolte's position emphasizes the apparent reactive character of Nazism and stresses Bolshevism as the actualizing catalyst, while Furet points to doctrinal roots which precede the October Revolution. The conversation goes on to raise other important questions which touch on issues including origins and traits common to the two ideologies, as well as their mutual interdependence.

On some points I found Nolte more convincing, on others Furet. Ultimately I think what makes this collection of correspondence work well, apart from the refreshing iconoclasm of the two men, is the complementary way in which their opposing approaches and interpretations seem to fit together, creating a fuller picture. If I were a publisher of scholarly books I think I'd try to cultivate more yin/yang dialogues like this. Among its many virtues this book provides an education on how to have a passionate and respectful salon-style conversation and is a delight for that reason alone. It also advances a laudable approach to historical analysis - the "geneological" method, as the authors call it. The book's weakness is its lack of depth; it isn't nearly as penetrating of its subject as I'd like it to be. Still worth the read.

This book is made up of correspondence between the French historian Francois Furet (best known for "The Passing of an Illusion") and German historian Ernst Nolte (best known for "Three Faces of Fascism" and more controversial later writings such as "The European Civil War"). The correspondence takes the form of a stimulating, respectful debate, sparked by Furet's footnote on Nolte's interpretation of fascism in "The Passing of an Illusion."
Furet takes the position that fascism and communism are parallel movements with common roots. Nolte takes the view that fascism was a reaction to communism. The two positions are not necessarily mutually exclusive, however, and there is much agreement between the two. Tzvetan Todorov, in the preface, finds Furet's arguments more convincing. This reviewer, however, was more impressed by Nolte.
The books main shortcoming (and the reason I'm giving it four stars instead of five) is it's length. At only Ninety-one pages, excluding the preface and forward, it might leave the reader unsatiated, wanting more.
But if you prefer quality over quantity, and don't mind a high price/page ratio, you will not be disappointed. Ninety-one pages of Furet and Nolte is worth a lot more than a thousand pages of David Halberstam drivel.

This book is the first of three stories Moorcock wrote about the "John Daker" character, who is doomed to travel through time and space, inhabiting the bodies of different heroes for just long enough to resolve whatever current crisis looms. If you like reading books like this "in order," as I do, you'll want to continue on with the other two John Daker books: The Silver Warriors, and then the Dragon in the Sword.

The Eternal Champion is not only the starting point of Moorcock's entire eternal champion series, it is also the first book he ever conceived. The story is more straightforward than many of his later novels, but contains the seeds of all the fantastic notions Moorcock introduced to the sci fi/fantasy genre. Here are the first explanations of the concept of "multiple universes" and folding space, all wrapped up in a great narrative story with well developed characters.

These books are all quick reads, yet very enjoyable. I found myself very much caught up in the plot and I find the John Daker/Erekose character much more sympathetic than Elric, Moorcock's most popular hero. There's even a great love story that carries through to many of his other novels. I highly recommend that any fan of fantasy read this one.

Nebraska-native Wright Morris (1910-1998) won a National Book Award for A FIELD OF VISION and an American Book Award for PLAINSONG. Honored and esteemed by other writers for a large and diverse body of work, none of his writing ever caught on with many general readers. The 1977 FORK RIVER SPACE PROJECT was the 19th of his 20 published novels. It gets off to a promising start as a May-September couple on the Nebraska/Kansas border seek a handyman to deal with a clogged sink.

"Plumbers do not come cheap," but the plumber lives (in what turns out to be nearly a ghost town) with a house-painter (who used to write) who works for three dollars an hour. Dahlberg, the painter, establishes himself with the young(er) wife, as the husband bemusedly watches their relationship develop and investigates the strange depopulation of Fork River (the not-quite abandoned town in which 700 people formerly lived, until a tornado or something swept a dozen and a large amount of dirt away, leaving a crater that is guarded by the plumber, the painter, and one other resident).

The middle of the not-very-long novel drags, and the ending is disappointingly inconclusive. The wry, tolerant voice of the narrator glides through being usurped and the oddities of the isolated, haunted not-quite ghost town, making readers smile, but leaving them ultimately high and dry and, perhaps, wistful.

(The previous posted review is clearly not about this book.)

Most people only know about the Indian Wars in the Northern Great Plains from 1866 to 1890. This book has a short history of the years 1848 to 1865 to fill the gaps in your knowledge. These years marked the continental dimensions of the United States, and the evolving policies towards the Native Americans. The military met hostile conditions of climate and geography unlike east of the Mississippi.

Chapter One begins at the end of the Mexican War; an army of 100,000 officers and men invaded a foreign country and defeated forces five times their number. The Army's priority was still on westward expansion: travel routes and settlements. Mineral wealth (gold, silver) was the most important; agriculture followed later. A standing army distasteful to the Founding Fathers became a necessity in expanding the American Republic into a Continental power. While the Militia was useful, only the Regular Army could be supported by national tax dollars.

The many Indian tribes were never united, and often fought among themselves as with the white settlers. The Army had to protect settlers and peaceful Indians from hostile Indians, and peaceful Indians from white settlers. The Indians knew how to live in these lands, and to take advantage of the environment. Most were partially or wholly nomadic. Their culture centered on war and its rewards. Their loose social organization exalted the individual at the expense of the group; no chief's word could bind his people. This caused conflict with the whites who could not understand this way of life. They would never attack unless they could win, and otherwise quickly disappeared from the enemy. The Army could win by operating as a disciplined team against fragmented warriors (seeking individual combat as in Medieval times). The Army also had howitzers ("guns that shot twice"), and rifles that could reach their enemy before threatened by smooth bore muskets. The Indian tribes could not unite for a vigorous and sustained offense or defense.

Chapter Ten tells how the Army was organized in the Civil War. The Volunteers were the great citizen armies that bore the brunt of the fighting. They were organized by state governors and mustered into US service for 6 to 24 months. Their officers were appointed by governors, general officers by the President. The Militia were also organized by the Governors, but could not serve outside of their state or territory. The Regular Army was enlarged for the war. Most recruits chose the Volunteers for their enlistment bounties and shorter terms of service. Many of the Volunteers were used for the Indian wars, including "Galvanized Yankees" (Confederate prisoners released for this duty). Their job was to protect the wagon trains on the trails, the stations, and the telegraph lines. They provided business for contractors and neighboring towns.

Chapter Sixteen provides a summary of the preceding chapters. One development was the winter campaign. A stationary tribe would be attacked, their food and lodgings destroyed, their only survival lay in reaching an Indian Agency. Another was total war, the deliberate killing of women and children, even if against law and tradition (pp 345-6). Such actions outraged the humanitarian sensibilities of easterners. There was conflict between the military and civil branches of the government.

In this book Robert Utley describes in significant detail the operations of the United States and Volunteer Armies in the American West. Until this book I never quite grasped the magnitude of the problem involved, the competing vested interests, the vast distances covered and the logistical nightmares the Army faced.

Detailing the regional conflicts sequentially, Utley delivers a complete analysis of the battles, campaigns and treaties involved in conquering of the American West. I never realized how many battles, skirmishes and firefights were fought. I never realized how complex the politics surrounding the Army's operations were. And most of all I never realized how limited the Army's resources of men and material were.

It is truly stupefying what was accomplished in the seventeen years, 1848 - 1865, between the end of the War with Mexico and the close of the U.S. Civil War. With few exceptions all the tribes of the Pacific and those of the Great Basin were subjugated. At the same time, the foundations for the subsequent conquering of the tribes of the Great Plains, Texas and American Southwest were formulated.

The final act of Manifest Destiny was the subjugation of the Native Americans. This is the story of how that process was begun.

it explains the fur trade of the american west

Mr. Wishart provides an excellent introduction the Fur Trade. This book provides an overview of the Fur Trade and a thorough explanation of the different types of fur trading systems that existed during the early part of the nineteenth century.

As the subtitle of the book indicates, Mr. Wishart spends a fair amount of time providing the geographical background of the Rockies and the river systems that flow out of mountains. The book is generously provided with maps. These maps help to provide clarity to the subject at hand and also greatly increase the reader's understanding of how and why the fur trade developed.

I really don't have any quibbles with this book---except that I wished it was longer! The chapters are extensively footnoted and there is a very good bibliography. If you are looking for an introduction to the fur trade, I would greatly recommend this book!

Well, I wouldn't call it literature....although it is a good read. I had to cringe at all the parts where the author and his hunting crew actively hunted bears and routinely blew them to bits, and it hurt to hear the description of one male bear, who had been resting in the sun, suddenly getting his teeth shot out and spine broken by a bunch of gung-ho bear killers. I found myself getting angry a lot while reading this book. Still, I recognize that there is valuable information in this book and the sheer fact that it has remained in print since the 1800's says it all. It is well written and easy to read. I found the story of the real-life Grizzly Adams particularly intriguing. I still find it sad that so many people felt the need to kill so many bears; just another testament to the destruction wrought upon nature and wildlife by - you guessed it - the white man. Thank god Mr. Wright got a conscience later on in life; better late than never, I suppose.

An early masterpiece of bear literature. It is easy to see why so many subsequent authors refer to, and liberally 'paraphrase' Wright's work. Almost a hundred years after it was written, it is amazing to realize how much later writers based their work on this book. Wright chronicles his rise from enthusiastic bear hunter to preservationist who regrets his earlier bloodthirst. He debunks some of the bear myths of his day, and while some of his conclusions have proven incorrect with time, he is frequently on target. Any one who has admiration for the grizzly should have this in their library.

This book is, among other things, a "lost writing" of Woody Guthrie's. Woody wrote not one but two "Forewords" and multi-paragraph introductions for nearly all the songs included, and for each of the several subject headings. Alan Lomax gathered together the songs, with help and guidance from his collaborators; Pete Seeger transcribed their melodies & simple guitar tablature ("G," "C7," etc.), and anyone with an elementary musical education can learn to sing and strum these songs from the text. Oh, and Woody wrote a lot of the songs, too - "Union Maid," "66 Highway Blues," and many others.

These are all topical songs - "protest" songs, labor-organizing songs, contemporary ballads - and many are guaranteed to rile Establishment partisans even today - for instance, "I Hate The Capitalist System" by Sara Ogan Gunning. There are songs by Kokomo Arnold, Big Bill Broonzy, Joe Hill, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Washboard Sam, Sonny Boy Williamson the First... and there are new Afterwords by Lomax and Seeger, plus great Depression-era photographs on every other page. This is an entertaining and valuable text, whether you plan to sing out or just read it in solitude.

I first starting using this book when I thought I was going to be a folklorist, about 30 years ago. I've been through 2 hardback copies and will probably have to buy the new paperback version. The most striking thing about Hard Hitting Songs..., is that it strips away all the glamor of the Folk Scare days to reveal the essence of these songs and the people who wrote and sang them. The stark black and white photography accompanying the songs is as evocative as the music. The simple presentation of the melody lines with chord symbols boils each song down to its essentials. A few lines of background on each song place it in historical, political and cultural context. And, many of them are pure politics.

These are the real songs of the people. True, some of them were written by professionals. Some are mere parodies of popular songs of the day. But all of them rise out of the lives of those who often had to make their own music if they were to have any at all.

The only dispiriting thing about this collection is that too many of the songs remain meaningful to too many modern Americans. On the other hand, it reminds us that even in this New Guilded Age, we have an economic history of which we should be mindful.

Pete Seeger used this book as his lecture notes when he appeared in 1971 at Cornell University's Willard Straight Hall for a lecture on "The Role of Music in the Labor Movement." It was more of a concert, really, but as always, he delivered the goods by bringing the text and music of the book to life.

Buy the book