North Carolina Books

Most of us grew up believing that the Civil War ended the moment Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant at Appomatox Court House in Virginia. One can only assume that his came about as a part of the deification of Lee and the promotion of the 'Lost Cause' doctrine that was so popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Historically, most things regarding the Confederacy have always begun and ended with Lee. Thanks to the scholarship and hard work of Mark Bradley, we now have a much more accurate picture of how the war ended and the major roles played by Joseph Johnston and W. T. Sherman well after Lee's surrender.

As a companion to Bradley's earlier work on the Bentonville battle, 'Last Stand in the Carolinas', 'This Astounding Close' creates an extremely satisfying conclusion. But, as a stand alone work, 'This Astounding Close' is a tremendous asset in its own right.

If you want a comprehensive blow-by-blow description of the battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, read 'Last Stand in the Carolinas'. For a valuable capsule summary of the battles, combined with a complete historical account of the negotiations leading up to the surrender, 'This Astounding Close' fills the bill wonderfully!

Without doubt Bradley's book does justice to each side all the way from the Generals to local people in
Chapel Hill to Raleigh. It fails to note Bennett Place was in Orange County at the time. Durham county did not exsist
until 1868 when it was carved out of Orange Co. I had a 3 Great-grandfather, CSA Col, who was killed at Bentonville, NC
James Henry Neal.
His daughter lived until 1935 when she died in Atlanta Ga. She as a child of 6 living in Atlanta Ga.during the
"March To The Sea" Gen. Sherman set-up his HQ in her mother's kitchen, my gg-aunt Louise Neal, served Sherman biskets.
I have many hand-written letters by John White and his daughters Laura and Delia who discussed Chapel Hill
immediately after the war in 1865.John White eventually became U.S. Postmater in Chapel Hill for three years and later left that job to be Orange County Sheriff twice.
Bradley's book is a wealth of knowledge of events ocurring on the local scene.
Sherman conducted several military trials in Raleigh of civilians and soldiers alike. I have original documents and judgements of the
officer's tribunal. Each were charged with various offenses from plundering to murder.AT least 2 soldiers and 1 civilian were
sentenced to death,only to have Grant void the verdicts with Pres.Andrew Johnson's permission.

Mark Bradley has written a most excellent account of the last days of the Civil War in North Carolina between Joseph Johnston and William Sherman. Being a North Carolina native and having visited and traveled through many of the places in the book, I was particularly interested.

The book is not so much a detailed account of the last battles in North Carolina (Bentonville, Averasboro, Wyse Fork, Fort Fisher, etc.) as it is the military and political maneuvering between the two generals - Johnston in attempting to gain favorable surrender terms for his army and Sherman attempting to be lenient with the South at the end of the war. Indeed, aside from the aforementioned battles, most encounters between North and South during the last days in North Carolina were no more than brief skirmishes.

I particulary enjoyed reading the accounts of the Union occupation of Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and Goldsboro. Having lived in Goldsboro and Raleigh earlier in my life, I enjoyed reading the accounts. Also interesting were the accounts of the Rebel occupation of Greensboro and Charlotte.

Throughout the book, Bradley manages to incorporate several interesting anecdotes: the unfortunate luck of Rebel Lietenant Walsh from Texas, the marriage of Northern General Atkins' courtship and marriage to a Chapel Hill lady, etc.

Bradley's writing style is interesting and maintains a fine balance between being a free-flowing read, just like his excellent Battle of Bentonville title.

Read and enjoy! Highly recommended.

The Civil War didn't officially end with General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. General Joe Johnston's Army of the South and General Kirby Smith's forces in the Trans-Mississippi still remained in the field.
This is the story of the situation in North Carolina facing Johnston and Union General William Sherman after the Battle of Bentonville. The author presents both sides of the story along with the political pressures from Richmond and Washington.
There is not an abundance of information about Johnston's eventual surrender of the Army of the South and other forces under his command. The author is a leading authority about the 1865 North Carolina Campaign and presents an entertaining, interesting and scholarly review of the events after Bentonville.

Mark Bradley has written an excellent companion book to his "Last Stand in the Carolinas," which has currently gone out of print. In this volume, Mr. Bradley picks up where he left off, following Johnston and Sherman from Bentonville to the surrender of the Army of Tennessee at Durham, North Carolina. Bradley's writing is, as in his other book, great!

But missing from "This Astounding Close," are the excellent maps created the very skilled cartographer Mark Moore. The maps provided are not bad--they are actually quite good--but they could have been better. The small numbers of maps left me wanting more, especially ones detailing the smaller skirmishes taking place during the maneuvering in North Carolina. If the maps had been better and mpre plentiful, I would have given the book five starts instead of four.

Being from the South, I have always considered Sherman and his subordinates nothing short of the devil-incarnate. But from this book, I gained a new respect for these men and saw the softer side of them. Bradley depicts how John "Black Jack" Logan saved Raleigh from destruction at the hands of raged Federal troops intent on avenging Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Mr. Bradley also told of how lenient Sherman was toward the surrendering Confederate troops and toward the civilians of North Carolina, especially after the surrender. Sherman even offered Johnston and his troops much kinder terms than those given to Robert E. Lee at Appomattox! But Northern politicians saw these terms as too soft and evetually gave Johnston the same terms given to Lee.

This is a very good book; no doubt a great addition to my rapidly growing Civil War library. Before reading this volume, I knew next to nothing about Johnston's surrender at Durham, North Carolina, in the Bennet Farmhouse. If you are a Civil War buff get this book; if you are a military history buff, get this book! I got it, and am happy I did.

Certainly gives you what you need to know to visit these lovely places.
Highly recommended.

This book is absolutely fantastic. We've driven half or so of the tours so far, and would highly recommend it to anyone who lives or frequently visits western NC. The best part of the book is the historical information. You could drive past a historically important site and never notice it or understand the significance of it, but this book helps keep you aware of even the smallest details. Watch out for the mileage numbers- it may seem like a 90 mile tour will only take a little while, but count on no more than 2 tours per day. And don't expect Carolyn to tell you when the pavement ends- that's part of the adventure I suppose!

Since I recently moved to North Carolina, spending my free time towards the mountains became a must. Carolyn has saved me countless hours of researching where to go and what to do. I am glad to find such an informative book.

This will lead you to interesting places that are mostly not well known. The views are stunning. A hiker on the Appalachian Trail said the view from Wayah Bald is the best on the trail. The only problem we had is that road numbers have been changed to names, but most of the numbers were still in fine print on the signs.

I was introduced to this book by a friend and ended up buying the whole series! If you want to know more about western NC and spend your days enjoying a well written dialog that accurately directs you to place the other guides don't even mention, Buy this book. If you want a restaurant guide look elsewhere. I can wholeheartedly recommend the entire series from this publisher. Similar to the "off the beaten path" series only better, written by life long residents that obviously love their home state!

Lawrence Powell set out to write a book about the David Duke phenomenon, about how a KKK leader and Nazi could sit in the Louisiana legislature and run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. But work on the book took him in another direction after he interviewed Anne Levy, a Holocaust survivor who confronted Duke in the state capital. Captivated by Levy's story, Powell has produced a terrifying, poignant and finally a triumphant book about the Holoaust as witnessed through the life of one of its survisors, Anne Levy.

Troubled Memory is a beautifully written and tender account of a personal story that stands as an intimate history of Hitler's final solution. Powell's prose will carry you into the Warsaw and Lodz ghettos and into the vegetable bin where 6-year-old Anne and her sister hid from the SS. This is a book that makes the Holocaust relevant to every reader. It will fill you with horror and wonder, and it will move you to tears.

I am a student at Tulane University and have taken a seminar with Dr. Powell on the Holocaust. This book is the last book that he included on the syllabus for the course, and I understand fully how and why he wrote this book. At first I was a bit leery of his inclusion of his own work in the course, but the work is a great synthesis of traditional Holocaust study and how it pertains to American (particularly Southern) culture today.

The first half of the book largely provides a survey through a personal account of the sociopolitical landscape of World War II-era Eastern Europe: the reasons that the Holocaust occurred, bystanders, perpetrators and victims psychological profiles, as well as giving a very readable human interest story of the narrative of this one particular family. The second half picks up where most Holocaust narratives leave off: the post-war years, the family's emigration to America and the challenges that they faced in New Orleans as Holocaust Survivors, and finally, Anne Levy's battle against David Duke and the formation of the Louisiana Coalition against Nazism and Racism. The first half of the book is essential for understanding her drive in the second half of the book, and Dr. Powell does an excellent job in connecting traditional and new scholarship on just how frighteningly close Louisiana came to David Duke's authority and how important it is to be aware of the ideals that the Louisiana Coalition and Anne Levy espouse.

This book is written in a highly readable manner: the diction is not overly dense nor confusing and the personal story allows non-scholars to enjoy the material as much as a student of history or politics would. It is very obvious that Dr. Powell put an immense amount of personal effort and dedication into this account, and his contribution to the historical documentation of the Holocaust and its impact on contemporary society is a testimony to his skill as a historian.

Troubled Memory is the story of the Skorecki family, which survived the Hoocaust by escaping from the Warsaw Ghetto and going into hiding, intertwined with an accessible history of the Warsaw Ghetto. But is is also the story of Anne Skorecki Levy, 45 years later and transplanted to Louisiana, deciding that she doesn't want Klansman and Holocaust denier David Duke to become the governor of her state. On all three counts - as a tale of survival during the Holocaust, a history of that time and place and the story of little Anne Levy's dogged pursuit of the bigshot politician during his election campaign - the book reads like a taut thriller, a real page-turner from beginning to end.
In its linking of the Holocaust in Poland with the troubled racial history of the American South, Troubled Memory is reminiscent of Styron's Sophie's Choice - except that this is fact, not fiction. It's a compelling, genre-busting book that is not quite like anything you've read, and it leaves you both feeling good and with much to think about.

This story chronicles the survival of small Jewish girls who were hidden in an armoire by their desperate parents in the closing days of the Warsaw ghetto. It easily matches the personal resonance and innocent terror of the far more famous Anne Frank Story.

Even after their final liberation as perhaps the only intact nuclear family to survive that infamous ghetto, the Skorecki family was due one more date with history. Survival, it turns out, was the story within the story. Little Anne Skorecki Levi, the little girl who survived by staying silent inside that armoire struck a blow five decades later for Jewish survival by speaking out against Louisiana's Neo-Nazi gubernatorial candidate David Duke, and helping to engineer his electoral defeat.

This account of Anne's travel along the arc from victim to victor is an inspiration and a reminder that each of us can and must preserve our collective memory, however troubling.

I read books on the Holocaust to try to understand the times, the mileu, the horror, and the suffering. After more than 20 books, I realize that I can only scratch the surface. I will, however, never stop reading because of my fear that someday the deniers and the downgraders might get the upper hand.

Thank you to the the author and Anne Skorecki Levy for relating a story that is very, very moving as well as insightful and timely.

Great novel. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Civil war, American History.

Winner of 1997 Cader Cox Historical Fiction Award by the North Carolina Society of Historians

This book is a generous gift to anyone interested in not only the facts of the Civil War, but also how it was lived by those engaged in it. It depicts desperate battles that, though they may be listed as "skirmishes", were nothing less than horrific fights for survival for the participants. At the same time, it puts the reader in the trenches around Petersburg, fighting rain, sun, disease, mud, sharpshooters and monotony. This is not just good history, its a great read.

Picked this one up through a friend, much better than Frazier's "Cold Mountain". Must-have for any Civil War buff.

This book will live. it is a work that transcends history or fiction. a book to treasure forever, it takes the reader into the American Civil War as no other has. I recommend it highly

I am the Grand daughter of Bernard Martof!!!! I have liiked a the book. It has beautiful photographs. Great facts too!! If you need a reptile question answered you should look at this book!!! If I ever do a reptile study I think I will look in this book. I like the frog on the cover too!

Like another reviewer, I've had a copy of this book since the 80s. As a kid, I practically memorized this book, and I still think it's finest field guide I own. This book coverage of the most common species is quite thorough. The style and presentation are also excellent, so aspiring field guide writers should take notice.

Excellent book! It's a little more detailed that a typical field guide but what I like most about it is that its specific to our area. So, while I have a larger field guide (for the region) I also really love having this one because it's more focused. In the beginning of the book there's an introduction to habitat with great pictures showing what the habitats look like. The book then goes into the specific species - I was particularly interested in the salamanders and amphibians but the sections on snakes, turtles and lizards are super too. The pictures are great, descriptions cover approx. size, colors/patterns, species that they could be confused with, habitats, and egg laying (timing, incubation etc). Great book to have on hand.

I've had and used this book since it came out in 1980. I always recommend it to all of the classes and seminars I give on reptiles and amphibians and to all of the people who ask for a good field guide because, for the size and cost, there are none better for this part of the country. Well worth the money if a handy, accurate, well-done field guide with great photos and range maps is what you want.

I love this book. We see a snake in the woods, and take note of as many characteristics as we can, then look it up later to learn more about it. Same with frogs, toads, lizards, skinks! The actual information provided for each reptile is slim but very interesting. This is a great book to have if you spend any time in the wild in Virginia.

item was delivered promptly and in good condition..I was very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend this user to anyone!

HI MY NAME IS MICHAEL i WANT TO BY THIS BOOK BUT PLEASE GIVE ME A REPORT ABOUT THIS BOOK michaelwsaad@yahoo.com

Annemarie Schimmel's work is well known to the world of religion,and this book is no exception. This book gets into the details of the Life of the Prophet Muhammed and the love and respect the followers of ISLAM have for their Prophet. Obvisouly this book was not a biography of the Prophet Muhammad but it gives enough information, so one can understand the Importance of Prophet Muhammad in th eislamic world

Professor Schimmel, a German scholar of Islam here presents what could be called a 'traditional view of Muhammad' by that I mean how Muhammad is understood by the vast majority of his followers (i.e. Muslims) how they base their lives on him and how they take inspiration from him.

The professor goes through various traditional religious prayer manuals popular amongst Muslims such as the Mevlid of Sulayman Celebi, the Burda, the Dala'il al-Khayrat and others explaining how they are read by Muslims, the times of year that they are read (such as special occasions like the Prophets birthday etc) and the reasons why they inspire such devotion amongst Muslims to their prophet.

One negative point is that this book (as most of the professors) is largely based upon writings from the Indian subcontinent and Turkey. Practically nothing is included about for example, West Africa or the Sub Sahara which ignores the strong Sufi traditions of the Tijani, Qadiri and Darqarwi orders and their vast body of devotional literature.

The most important aspect of this book I feel is that it gives us in the west a greater understanding of the reasons behind the great attachment that Muslims have to the founder of their religion and also how they actually interpret and practice their religion something I feel that we would not be able to take from for example the various Saudi/Gulf publications that have flooded the market in recent years which tell us an awful lot about what Muslims believe but not how that belief is actually put into practice in the context of the world around them.

Highly recommended book. I would also strongly recommend Mystical dimensions in Islam from the same author.

Annemarie Schimmel has studied Islam for years, writing many important books particularly on the subject of Islamic spirituality. The aim of this book is to explore the love for the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Islamic society. With samples of poetry and prose in praise of the Prophet, it captures some of the affection Muslims have for the man they revere as the "Mercy to Mankind." Although some biographical details appear, the book is not a biography per se. Instead the book represents a historical analysis of Prophet Muhammad's unique place in the life of his followers.

I read "An April Love Story" when I was about sixteen (1986), and I loved it. It is a teenage romance novel, but it's clean and a sweet story. Marine is a high school girl who lives with her parents in (if I remember correctly) New York City. She loves her life and her friends. Her parents' best friends have a son, Lucas, who goes to school with Marine, but she keeps her distance. He's kind of quiet and serious and pimply. Anyway, one day she comes home to discover that her parents and her parents' friends (Lucas's parents) have decided that all of them are going to move to a farm in North Carolina and "live off the land" together. They use no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no store bought convenience foods. They wear no make-up and sew all their own clothes. The parents love their new life while the two kids silently hate it but endure it since their parents are so giddy. Eventually, Marine starts to see Lucas through different eyes. He becomes tan and muscular from all the outdoor labor, and his skin clears up. Marine has a girlfriend who thinks he's good-looking. Marine starts acting differently around him, and soon they fall in love. Anyway, it's a wholesome, sweet story clean enough for your teenage daughter to read.

I first read this book over 20 years ago, and loved it. I read it again about 15 years ago and still loved it. Now at age 57 I am reading it again, and still love it, so if you have ever thought about living the Mother Earth News way read this

I, too, read this in the 1980s and still love it...I re-read it periodically and it still makes me laugh and grin. I marvel at how a simple Wildfire romance paperback has stuck with me all these years, timeless and well-written and so funny! Marnie's teen sensibility is intelligent and rings true as it evolves from self-absorption to responsible, even inspirational, maturity. One scene of enviable closeness between mother and daughter is particularly sweet, and all that she learns about self-sustaining farming is told with witty candor. A treasure!

I was feeling nostalgic, thinking of my favorite teenage paperback, which i lost and had wished i had been able to find, and read again (even tho i have read it probably 30 times), when i got the bright idead to search here! I will be buying it, and just to let anyone who stumbles across the page know, its a GREAT book for a young teenage girl!

Marine MacDonald is in love with Joel, the all-American jock at her school and everything seems perfect in life when-BHAM! Her parents break the news to her that they're moving. And it isn't just Marine's family that is moving with her-her parents' friends and their annoying son Lucas, whom Marine despises, are moving with the MacDonalds. Could life get any worse? Apprently so, because the farm in North Carolina is to be shared by both familes, and in an attempt to simplify life and get back to nature, (in a sort of Amish-Commune way) there will be no telephones, electricty or grocery shopping. No more make up, fast food, or after school activities either. In fact school takes a back seat to helping her parents on the farm since milking goats, picking apples and making sweaters is the only way the families want to earn money.

Suddenly, things start to change for Marine; Lucas doesn't look so annoying anymore and life isn't as dismal as it once seemed. Marine starts to fall in love with him. The only problem? Lucas doesn't realize she even likes him!

A romance through and through, this is one of Cooney's first books for teenagers and a wonderful read on a rainy day.

This thoroughly researched and well-written book held special meaning for me, one of the last generation from the segregated South who entered a movie theater through the "colored" entrance and sat in the balcony, and who spent four years at Duke U. during the early '70's. The presence of the Klan in my small North Carolina town was always known but hidden, and this book provided insight into why poor whites find membership in the Klan and its philosophies so attractive and how the white elite was secretly complicit in its support of the Klan. This book introduced me to Hayti, the section of Durham where low-income African-Americans live. Despite my four years at Duke, I'd never heard of this neighborhood, and the story of Hayti resident Ann Atwater's activism to improve conditions for poor blacks and whites in Durham is amazing. Duke U. is a very insular campus, and town-gown relations between the school and Durham have historically been tense. I'm very glad that this book exists for incoming freshmen to read; to spend four years on a campus and have no knowledge of the town surrounding the campus (as I did not have) is shameful.
A very valuable insight in this book is the author's understanding of the strange dynamics of class, which exists throughout the South but is seldom mentioned. Blaming African-Americans for their economic woes, and receiving secret support from the white elite, has historically distracted poor whites from the reality that it is this white elite, with its power and money, that keeps poor whites economically down-trodden.
Although I was in Durham slightly later than the years during which the events of the book take place, I had some familiarity with many of the key players (Howard Fuller, Floyd McKissick, Asa Spaulding), and the book exhaustively discusses the roles of everyone involved in this tumultuous time in Durham. It reads like riveting fiction, and the evolution of the relationship between C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater is a wonderful story.

Thank you for providing such great service. You followed through on your end of the deal perfectly.

As someone who works for parity in this society, I look for materials that show clearly that poor white people have more in common with blacks and other ethnic/racial peoples than they do with the power structure that oppresses us all. This book clearly and beautifully illustrates that point.

It has always mystified me that more poor "white" men, in particularly, fail to see this. Every young white man who blames blacks for his inability to get a decent job, the meagerness of his life, or whatever, should read this book. Every petty racist should read the story of C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater and learn something about the real problems, not the cheap shot racist answers that many of us come to too readily in this society.

I've purchased five copies for myself and friends. A great book to give that relative, co-worker or acquaintance who persists in making racist comments and blaming blacks for the problems in this society.

This book has been out of print for some time, but thankfully the University of North Carolina Press has resurrected it. Duke University's incoming Freshman class has been assigned to read this book as their compulsory summer reading assignment. The Class of 2011 will then discuss this book during Freshman Orientation Week. The selection of this book as the summer reading assignment is timely with the upheavals in Durham and at Duke during the so called "Duke Lacrosse Scandal."

It is interesting to note that Durham held on to Jim Crow laws and was very slow to integrate public schools compared with some high profile Southern cities. When forced to comply with court-ordered integration, the school district took the unusual step of pairing a long-time black activist and a ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan to lead a committee whose purpose it was to deal with the issues surrounding integration. It seems like this would be a disaster, but surprisingly it was far from it.

I should note that this is not some dry recitation of the past. The story reads much more like a novel. I couldn't put in down and found myself quite moved by the story.

This is a truly poignant book that demonstrates how much we have in common with people of other races, creeds or colors and how, by finding common ground, we can move ahead in our society. There are lessons here for us in the new millennium.

For those interested in an excellent book dealing with similar issues, I recommend Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

An extraordinary book, not for its writing or ideas, but for the *very idea of it!* How could this have happened, and how could the book tell the story like this??? As a feminist I'm challenging the assumptions of white males who think they are in touch with African Americans, or with feminism. As a white Woman, I feel for the experiences of Black Women, and am sickened by the way white males mostly just don't get it. This is such a strange book you will be blinking hard for sometime afterward.

As a genealogist, I have a particular interest in these types of publications. Guillermo Baralt has collected priceless information on Puerto Rican history.

I have a lot invested in this book as my mom's family comes from hacienda life and are from this area of the island. It helped me flesh out a better picture of my ancestral movements. For my mom and aunts, reading this book was like reading a diary. This was their life experience. Thanks so much for translating this. It can be enjoyed by any serious historian of the Caribbean.

Historically, factual, fascinating, a wealth of information culturally, and a must read (required) for all Puerto Ricans, Newyoricans, and ANYONE interested in the history of the founding fathers of the New World!...I found this book, while researching the archives online at the New York Historical Society's Library. But, it only showed the original, which was written in Spanish. The history and clarity of the subject matter contained in this book is long overdue, and covered the subject spectrum 100%!


After speaking with my brother, whose first visit to Puerto Rico (at a ripe old age of 49), included a visit to 'Plantation Buena Vista,' he told me about the rich history that he saw there, and that he was totally fascinated by it! I again, researched this book online at [...], and saw, that it was redone in English, so that, I could read it!

If I were asked to contribute anything to this book, I would just say, that I would have liked it to be broader to include more chapters! Perhaps, a sequel to this book can be written! Or, maybe even, it should be made into a TV Series...muchas, Alex Haley's TV miniseries, "ROOTS!"

The ongoing saga of the Buena Vista Plantation, rich cultural history of the Vives Family and Puerto Rico after the turn of the century, is equally, and, even more, compelling a story!

Thank you Amazon for providing this book, as it filled in the facts that not being able to read comprehensively in Spanish has cost!

I received this book on Saturday and finished it Sunday . An excellent, detailed account on life in a Puerto Rican Hacienda. Wonderful illustrations of people of the time and details of sophisticated equipment used in those time. A true picture of how life was then. My grandfather was a farmer and worked on a plantation so this gives light to some of the stories he told me about. An excellent books for anyone that wants to know about their roots and is especially interested in the Ponce area although this was probably typical of all plantations. A must read!!!

If your really into history Colonial days you should really put your hands on this one. It takes you on a drive full of feeling to that era. Im Italian and it made me recall my grandparents village in Palermo... I give Gullermo A. Baralt an A+

(From Planeta journal): This new English-language translation of an established Caribbean classic traces the history of the Buena Vista estate in the foothills of Puerto Rico's central mountain range. Now a living history museum, Buena Vista gained its initial success producing food for the town of Ponce, proving that raising crops for local consumption could be as profitable as sugar or coffee for export. The text spans almost a century -- a time in which slavery ended and technology expanded at a phenomenal rate. This is an exceptional book, one that any visitor to Puerto Rico should read before making an obligatory visit to the island's Living Museum of Art and Science.

In meticulously chronicling US/German relations before the Great War, Mitchell has managed to reveal that there never was any German designs on the Americas, and that she was used as a bogeyman and cover for US imperialism under the guise of the Monroe Doctrine. She also exposes the innate anti German bias of the Fifth Estate, as well as the perfidy and treachery of the British in sowing/fanning the flames of US hatred for Germany, while appeasing the US by bending over backwards, in Venezuela, Mexico and Panama

Actually what was most interesting was the last pages when Mitchell cursorilly mentioned the blatant land grabs, occupations and annexations in Carribean and South America in 1915 and thereafter by that hypocritical, amoral imperialist, Wilson once the Euroepean Powers were heavily engaged in mortal combat, all under the name of protecting freedom, democracy and human rights (sound familiar?).

Prof. Mitchell has written a very good, well-paced and well-argued treatise on a particular situation (German-American relations vis-a-vis Latin America at the turn of the last century), that is relevant to broader, more current issues. American exceptionalism has always required demonization of a perceived villain or adversary, the Devil if you will, in order to mask our neo-imperialist ambitions. As Mitchell argues in her concluding chapter, Imperial Germany and its bombastic monarch made convenient demons to suit the ambitions or moods of particular institutions, such as the Navy or the yellow press, and even Woodrow Wilson conjured up the Teutonic bogeyman when it suited him.
In reality, the central theme of her book is of inconsequential historical significance, since the German dog had no bite to support its shrill bark (as one German wag deftly remarked.)There simply never was any credible German threat to American security or even the ambiguous Monroe Doctrine to worry about. But what is more relevant today is how perception can be manipulated to justify imperialism in the guise of some nobler ideal. If you need any modern evidence of this proclivity of ambitious politicians, look at the Iraqi Tar Baby and the President that's struggling to break free of it today.
This book is a must-read for any serious student of international relations, especially of the tense situation prior to WW One.

This is a splendid book. It is extremely well researched, yet it reads like a novel, because the author writes so well. It illuminates US-German relations in the 1890-1914 period, as well as US and German policies toward Latin America in those years, providing a subtle and nuanced interpretation that is based on an impressive amount of evidence culled from the US, British and German archives. And, again, it combines the rigor of a superb historian with the grace of a first-class novelist.

A superb read. If I were a dog, I would be salivating.

I re-read this book recently, which allowed me to place it on my list of books worthy of review. To begin, Dr. Nancy Mitchell is an outstanding professor. Having sat in her classroom several years ago as a graduate student, I can now look back and add that she is one of the best teachers I've ever had.

The Danger of Dreams is exceptional because it is timeless. In the early twentieth-century, there was a political game being played between the US and Germany; but, as Dr. Mitchell clearly demonstrates through careful research, "the uncertainty of it all, of perception and reality," allowed policy makers to distort and twist perception until it could become reality. In this case, it was the dreams of a kaiser versus the ambition and intent of a rising power.

As a history book, Mitchell stepped to the plate and knocked the ball out of the park. She writes like she teaches (grabbing your attention and pulling you in), using such a wide range of sources that any student of history will be both envious and enlightened. As a careful analysis of diplomacy and policy making, she has added a great volume to the shelves of political scientists as well. For those who read purely for pleasure, here too she rounds the bases because this book is a great story and it is exceptionally told.

In the games that nations play, "perhaps there is a constant ratio of power to sense of threat," and perhaps there are some powerful and very modern lessons here. Perception is reality, isn't it?

Major Allen C. Boothby, Jr.
Infantry Officer
US Marine Corps

This is a splendid book. It is extremely well researched, yet it reads like a novel, because the author writes so well. It illuminates US-German relations in the 1890-1914 period, as well as US and German policies toward Latin America in those years, providing a subtle and nuanced interpretation that is based on an impressive amount of evidence culled from the US, British and German archives. And, again, it combines the rigor of a superb historian with the grace of a first-class novelist.