Heartland Books

Stephen D. Engle's Struggle for the Heartland takes the latest scholarship on "the campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth" and ties the military, political, and social issues faced during the campaign into an efficient and readable discussion of these events. The book is an entry in the University of Nebraska Press' Great Campaigns of the Civil War series of books. The book covers the time frame of the military campaign from Fort Henry to Corinth, including the Battle of Shiloh. Rather than focusing solely on military events, however, Engle provides a large amount of coverage to social and political considerations as well. The result, then, is a balanced overview of a campaign in which there was a "struggle for the heartland" of the Confederacy.

Northern military planners saw the obvious routes of attack into the Confederate "heartland" region provided by the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. It was simply a matter of preparing the armies to move in this direction, at least according to timid, methodical minds such as Henry Halleck and Don Carlos Buell, the two department commanders in the west. Albert Sidney Johnston, the overall Confederate commander in the west, gave wide latitude to his subordinates. One of these, Bishop Polk, had become obsessed with defending Columbus, Kentucky along the Mississippi River and virtually ignored the forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland to the east, even though they were in his department. The Union preparation may have taken quite a long time if not for the aggressive nature of Halleck's then unknown subordinate Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was determined to take Forts Henry and Donelson, defenders of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively. His movement south caught both Halleck and Buell somewhat by surprise. The end result was that Grant managed to take both forts and capture over 10,000 Southern prisoners while Halleck and Buell haggled over cooperating in the expedition. As Grant's Army of the Tennessee rested and refitted along the Tennessee River south of the now captured forts Buell was to march his army southwest to meet them. Continued arguments between Halleck and Buell coupled with Grant's complacency at his Pittsburg Landing camp almost ended in disaster at the Battle of Shiloh. While Buell slowly marched toward the Tennessee River, Johnston and his subordinates had been busy at Corinth trying to recover the large amount of territory lost to Grant at the forts. The Battle of Shiloh prematurely ended these hopes as Grant's army was able to recover from their shock at being attacked and hold on as Buell's Army of the Ohio reached the field of battle. Johnston was killed and Beauregard, his second in command, was forced to retreat to Corinth. At this point in the campaign, Henry Halleck managed to obtain sole command of the armies in the West, and he gathered the armies of Grant, Buell, and Pope (fresh off a victory at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi) for a laborious advance on Corinth, the most vital railroad crossing in the Confederacy. The ending to this large campaign was anticlimactic, as Beauregard was forced to retreat due to poor water and increasing sickness in his army. Halleck had taken Corinth and cleared the Confederate Heartland of Southern armies. These military campaigns had seen great change in the way the North would prosecute the war, with important consequences.


Engle focuses quite a lot of time and energy to explaining how the large increase in the amount of Confederate territory controlled by the Union led to changes in the initial "soft war" policy espoused by the Lincoln Administration. Before Grant sailed south on the Tennessee to assault Fort Henry, Union armies were typically restrained and respectful when it came to the treatment of Southern civilians. No one better personified this idea than the commanders currently in charge of Union affairs: George B. McClellan as General In Chief with Henry Halleck and Don Carlos Buell as department heads in the West. These men were all democrats, and they believed in a war that would not upset the status quo. In other words, they wanted to leave the slavery issue alone, instead trying to treat Southerners well and return their slaves in the hope that they would come quickly and quietly back into the Union. The campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth showed that this soft war policy was not practical. Southerners continued to resist even when treated well, and guerilla forces sprung up where Confederate armies were unable to hold territory in a conventional manner. Soldiers from privates to generals also began to see the difference between poor white subsistence farmers and wealthy slave owners, eventually blaming the institution of slavery as the primary cause of the war. These troops began to resent orders such as Buell's General Orders 13a, which prevented foraging, returned runaway slaves, and otherwise treated Southerners with kid gloves. Men such as division commander Ormsby Mitchel began to take matters into their own hands, and eventually the government agreed with this "hard war" course of action. Ironically, writes Engle, the Union push into Confederate leaning western and central Tennessee only hastened the Union policy change. If Buell had instead invaded Unionist eastern Tennessee, per Lincoln's wishes, this soft war policy may have continued long past June 1862.


The Union war effort in the west was plagued with bickering among its top commanders, writes Engle. Partly to blame was the unwieldy command structure. Don Carlos Buell's Department of the Ohio and Henry Halleck's Department of Missouri joined together at the Tennessee River, precisely where the easiest avenue of attack into the Confederate Heartland was located. This naturally enough caused great friction between the two men, both of whom always proceeded cautiously and believed their own opinions were correct on military matters. McClellan and Lincoln did not help matters in Washington, instead simply ordering the two men to cooperate. While they bickered over who should move first and along what lines, Grant seized the initiative and moved, catching both men by surprise. Buell still refused to send much help and almost literally warned Halleck not to fail. Grant's attacks succeeded, and the next logical move was to concentrate on the Tennessee for a move against Corinth. This time Buell did finally move, but he managed to take his time. Luckily for Grant, Army of the Ohio division commander "Bull" Nelson marched forward rapidly and was available late on the first day at Shiloh. The command friction between these two men only ended when Halleck managed to persuade Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton that the West needed one commander.


Halleck also had his problems with Grant. Grant's victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson made Halleck jealous, and he childishly reacted by removing Grant from command on trumped up charges of drunkenness and Grant's failure to be present with his army when the Confederates launched an attack at Fort Donelson. Lincoln and Halleck, impressed with the aggressive Grant, and especially when they considered the conservative Halleck and Buell, lost no time in forcing Halleck to reinstate Grant. After Shiloh, Halleck again removed Grant from command of the Army of the Tennessee, bumping him up to the meaningless and superfluous "second in command" position during the advance on Corinth. Despite these and other quarrels, the Northern armies were able to force the Confederates from a large portion of the territory they held at the beginning of 1862.


Much of the Southern failure to hold this territory has to do with Jefferson Davis' utter lack of concern for the West. The roots of this attitude can be traced to the appointment of Albert Sidney Johnston to command in the West. Johnston was Davis' friend, and Davis believed him to be the finest general the Confederacy had. Davis left Johnston with very little men and materiel to work with, and as a result he had far too few men with which to defend a far too long defense line running from the Appalachians to the Indian Territory. To make matters worse, says Engle, Johnston frequently gave his subordinates far too much latitude in defending their various districts. This came back to haunt Johnston when General Polk became obsessed with defending Columbus, Kentucky, spending very little time preparing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Grant's quick strike caught the Confederate generals by surprise as well, and Johnston decided not to fight for Fort Donelson, in effect abandoning middle Tennessee and the capital at Nashville. This loss of large amounts of territory shocked and angered many Southerners, and Davis finally consented to send Johnston reinforcements. Johnston and Beauregard attempted to regain the lost territory with a surprise attack at Shiloh and failed, costing Johnston his life in the process. Beauregard was subsequently unable to hold Corinth in the face of a large Union force, poor water, and increasing sickness in his command.


Despite these Union successes, the Northern Generals did not typically take the political concerns of the Lincoln Administration into account in their military planning. The main case in point for the time frame of this book, according to Engle, concerns Lincoln's desire to liberate Unionist leaning, mountainous eastern Tennessee from Confederate rule. Lincoln knew that this area centered on Knoxville, Tennessee would more readily come back into the Union than the other flatter, slave holding sections of the state. Buell repeatedly refused to advance in this direction (at the same time refusing to cooperate with Halleck), claiming bad roads and numerous other reasons for delay. Buell also clashed with the Lincoln appointed military Governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson. Johnson was a Radical Republican, and he wanted southerners punished for their treason. He and Buell held violently opposite views on the prosecution of the war, and they would clash for as long as Buell held command of the Army of the Ohio.

Struggle for the Heartland is one volume of many in the Great Campaigns of the Civil War Series, published by the University of Nebraska Press. Series editors Anne J. Bailey and Brooks Simpson write that the series "offers readers concise syntheses of the major campaigns of the war, reflecting the findings of recent scholarship. The series points to new ways of viewing military campaigns by looking beyond the battlefield and the headquarters tent to the wider political and social context within which these campaigns unfolded..." In addition to exploring strictly military events from February to June 1862 along the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi Rivers, Struggle for the Heartland takes a deeper look at the political and social issues as well, weaving all of these together into a cogent whole.

The eight maps are functional, but the battle maps do not add considerably to the discussion. The notes are mostly secondary sources, but in this case it is acceptable since the book's primary purpose is to bring together a syntheses of the latest findings on this subject. I suspect that the other books in this series follow this mold as well. Rather than a bibliography, we instead get a "Bibliographical Essay" of several pages. While I typically favor a standard bibliography, the focus and goals of this series make this essay perfectly acceptable under the circumstances. The index is rather bare bones as well, but serves its purpose.

Struggle for the Heartland is a well written summary of the campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth, giving readers used to a military-only approach to the Civil War a look into the political and social aspects of of the war tie into and guide military thinking. Engle's book is a fine example of "New Military History", and one which should serve to enlighten quite a few students of the war used to standard military history approach to a campaign. I do not want to imply that this book supplants those focusing on specific battles, such Benjamin Franklin Cooling's work on Forts Henry and Donelson or Larry Daniel's and Wiley Sword's studies of Shiloh. Instead, Struggle for the Heartland supplements traditional campaign studies and ties together strategic, political, and social concerns across a large area and span of time. I would recommend this one to those readers less interested in the military tactics of the battles themselves who are instead looking to study other aspects of the war. The book also serves as a fine primer for those students of military history looking to decipher how political and social aspects of the conflict moved and shaped military campaigns.

Struggle For The Heartland: The Campaigns From Fort Henry To Corinth by Stephen D. Engle (Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University) relates the Civil War campaign that began in early 1862 with Union penetration under General Ulysses S. Grant into the Confederate held west that culminated with the Northern capture of the Southern defended town of Corinth, Mississippi. Historian Stephen Engle also examines how prewar economic relations formed in this region, how relationships between locality and loyalty were developed and expressed, the commanders on both sides of the conflict, as well as other civil and military authorities. Engle also describes the campaigns' significance within the larger theater of war and the post-war era of Reconstruction. The Struggle For The Heartland is an informed and informative contribution to Civil War Studies and an enthusiastically recommended contribution to academic reference collections, as well as Civil War buff reading lists.

Struggle For The Heartland: The Campaigns From Fort Henry To Corinth by Stephen Engle (professor of history, Florida Atlantic University) is the exhaustively researched, in-depth story about the military campaign that was the first significant Northern advance into the Confederate west. This campaign crushed all hopes the South had for avoiding a protracted battle, and set the stage for a grim and bloody war of attrition. Highly recommended for Civil War studies reading lists and reference collections, Struggle For The Heartland is an alternately fascinating and disturbing portrayal of a pivotal aspect of American military history.

Ive been watching Terry Swails since I was a child since I loved weather till I moved out of the area 6 years ago. I didnt know he wrote a book to recently and purchased it. I really enjoyed the book. Talking about weathers of all seasons for the Midwest and the Quad Cities area. This is a good book for the weather person for a relaxed reading.

Thanks Terry for making me so much of a weather fanatic!

Growing up in the midwest, storms are a part of life. To see what we've experienced in print is incredible. I was in awe of all the history Terry put into this book. Things I remember happening in our little town and the surrounding counties around the Quad City area, and some things I'm too young to have experienced. The stories and the photos are breathtaking. I've watched him as a newscaster for many years, but never would have known just how much he enjoys his profession. Obviously, weather is much more than just a job to him. I especially liked his reference to the "Wizard of Oz" as it is one of our favorite movies also. Well done Terry.

Am enjoyable read for the weather buff. Lots of great photos of midwestern weather phenomena. The book is basically a "biography" of significant historic weather events in the Quad Cities (Iowa) and an autobiography of the author, TV Weatherman Terry Swailes. The book starts out with a look at tornadoes and thunderstorm-related stuff. Great reading! However, it bogs down toward the end as the author presents some of the less exciting weather features, such as floods and snowstorms. Nevertheless, it was interesting reading and I recommend it. The pictures were great and the layout was very pleasing to the eye.

If you love upland game and man's best friend you must buy this book. Mr. Davis shares with his readers a personal side of his life while clearly describing some of the ephemeral reasons why modern man MUST hunt. In this collection of his short stories, you learn about a man passionate about bird hunting and intimately connected to the dogs he takes to the field. The book is well written and unlike some sports writers who feel they must apologize for their sport, this gent understands hunting is as important to his life as the blood that courses through his veins.

I purchased this book as a gift for my father, a lifelong bird hunter,though not with pointers. My wife and I read chapters at random, we were so touched by the first one chosen we couldn't stop reading. The descriptions of days afield were poignant and touching. This compelling book made us both laugh and cry. We enjoyed every page and felt we had lived these experiences in the author's own boots. I would compare this author to Spiller, Mcquarrie and Hill. I felt as though I had found a new hunting companion in Davis.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for the meaning of shooting sport in a world increasingly hostile to it and other elements of tradition and style. Upon reflection, this is a deeply enjoyable book. It conveys a hidden wealth of knowledge and experience about upland wing shooting.

As part of a broader quest for enduring personal style, I am embarked on a systematic program to flesh out a philosophy of contemporary wingshooting. In context, this book is both inspirational and educational. My 4 star rating is provisional and based, knowing myself as I do, on a prediction that I will find more value in a few unread books above this one on my list. Candidly, I still have lots of reading and hunting to do. So, I don't want to finalize any assessment until I complete my reading list entitled "The Upland Road: Wingshooting with Style and Class" and transition it to more a carefully reasoned guide by the same name.

The Tattered Autumn Sky is a collection of personal essays working together to convey a growing sense of sportsmanship and style through the medium of upland wing shooting. Mr. Davis could have called the book, "How To Be a Better Sport". But, I'm sure he would consider that presumptuous. An essential value of the book is that Tom Davis never preaches about sportsmanship. He illustrates it in a background of personal growth, providing a rich context for readers to choose for themselves what, if any, philosophy they would like to bring to/from the field.

In addition to subtle penetrating philosophy, there are also several practical levels on which this book succeeds. First, it excels as a simple survey of game birds and hunting situations in the United States. Second, it provides valuable insights into gun dog training, development and performance. Third, it reveals the sophisticated world of gourmet cooking embedded in the sport. Finally, it offers insight into the social clashes caused by re-gentrification of the, heretofore, widely egalitarian nature of American upland shooting descending from its historical connections to the self-sufficient family farm.

My only complaint about the book (and really it is a small one) is that it is few degrees too personal and too sentimental. I admit this criticism may be unwarranted and only a by-product of my own stoicism. It is understandable, after all, that anyone who enjoys a "social" sport like shooting, fishing or golf would want to relate emotionally to the personalities they have enjoyed in a lifetime of sporting activity. But, it is very easy (as I believe happens in this book) to slip into personal sentiment so far that the readers end feeling deprived of helpful insights that they cannot so easily reproduce for themselves by substitute means.

Back on the positive side, I learned a great deal from this book about the relative merits of the variety of American upland game birds. I share Mr. Davis's enthusiasm for the woodcock, and so, I appreciate his many insights about this elusive game bird. I also enjoyed his insights about the demands of hunting the prairie chicken and sharp-tail grouse. I have, indeed, been looking for an excuse to visit Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa. His stories about both the prairie grouses and pheasants give me direction and inspiration for the fall seasons ahead.

The coverage of the hunting for quail, grouse and waterfowl in this book is less than that of pheasant, woodcock and prairie grouse. The coverage, nevertheless, is insightful and helpful as it reinforces the value of a good pointing and retrieving dog. The overall cross-comparisons also bring into perspective the interesting contrast in hunting conditions, shooting technique and cooking tastes.

My personal interests run towards the fusion of American enthusiasm and practicality in sport with received European style and sensibility. I prefer, for example, to hunt in a Barbour coat, a tattersall shirt, a tie, a pair of knee pants and a pair of Le Chameau St, Hubert boots. But, I wear bright orange baseball cap and I enjoy fighting in the thickets to flush the woodcock and climbing the Sand Hills of Nebraska walking the miles needed to track down the elusive sharp-tail.

Intentional or otherwise, Tom Davis succeeds to a high level in conveying useful concepts for anyone searching the woods of life for personal style and philosophy. He achieves this while also conveying an abiding sportsmanship institutionalizing respect for the land, the game, the dogs and the people who converge on this tributary to the search for the good life.

Precious! Poignant! Absolutely wonderful book. I was struck by the great writing style. I could hear Portwood telling the stories, with such thoughtfulness, sensitivity and humor. There are lovely portraits of family members, told with a gentle, wry smile. It is definitely a special treasure.

I could see similarities to my childhood in southern Wisconsin: the sense of community and extended family, the frugality of Depression generation parents, a mother who was more critical than nurturing, the need to grow up fast and take on adult responsibilities with younger siblings, the joy of spending time with story-telling elders. And the strong emphasis on education--I must have been at least 10 before I realized that not everyone went to the University of Wisconsin and that some didn't go to college at all!

I didn't deal with the pervasive racism which Portwood faced and our community was a particularly prosperous farming community, with little poverty. Still, much of her story resonates with me. This is a wonderful story of a resiliant and strong family. I loved it.

Precious! Poignant! Absolutely wonderful book. I was struck by the great writing style. I could hear Portwood telling the stories, with such thoughtfulness, sensitivity and humor. There are lovely portraits of family members, told with a gentle, wry smile. It is definitely a special treasure.

I could see similarities to my childhood in southern Wisconsin: the sense of community and extended family, the frugality of Depression generation parents, a mother who was more critical than nurturing, the need to grow up fast and take on adult responsibilities with younger siblings, the joy of spending time with story-telling elders. And the strong emphasis on education--I must have been at least 10 before I realized that not everyone went to the University of Wisconsin and that some didn't go to college at all!

I didn't deal with the pervasive racism which Portwood faced and our community was a particularly prosperous farming community, with little poverty. Still, much of her story resonates with me. This is a wonderful story of a resiliant and strong family. I loved it.

I read this book in a day and found myself drawn in by the absorbing stories of family life and story telling. Not an autobiography in the traditional sense, Portwood instead uses the mechanism of story telling -- practiced over her family for generations -- to tell about her own life and her family in rural Illinois. Her account is touching, often humorous, sometimes sorrowful, and overall inspirational. Although Portwood explicitly addresses the issue of segregation and racial discrimination (as well as black resistance to oppression), her stories will also resonate with anyone interested in everyday life in rural communities in the 20th century. This book would also be appropriate for readers in junior high and high school.

This book is a real sleeper.I bought it a few years ago,and it kind of got lost;which isn't hard amongst 6 or 7 thousand in my library.Checking the Reviews,though there were only 2,they were good;but not one since 23 Jan 03. Well here's number 3!
When I started the book,I was not familiar with the author,although I had read his 'Route 66' a while ago and liked it.However; his name just didn't ring a bell with me.
Within a half hour I was really impressed with his observation storytelling and writing skills.In many ways he reminds me of one of my favorites,Larry McMurtry.
One of the themes of his book is that most people don't know much about Oklahoma and believe not much ever happened there. One is soon dispelled of that idea as you get into the book .Oklahoma is just about in the center of America and just about everything that happened as the country developed was impacted by or on Oklahoma.Wallis reminds us that it was not even a State until it became the 46th in 1907.
Oklahoma was the country of Indians,Woody Guthrie,Dust Bowl,Depression,Oil Barons,Bill Mauldin and the Fighting 45th Thunderbirds,Frontier Religion,Frontier Justice,Gangsters and Outlaws,Route 66,The Real Wild West and 101 Ranch,Illegal Booze,John Steinbeck,Football Legends, and probably the greatest Salt of the Earth people you could find anywhere.
Wallis is a Journalist and writes with a flair that holds your interest so well you don't want to put the book down and are even wanting more when you reach the end.
The book is full of facts,observations,quotes,real characters,and information you just didn't know or even thought of.
For instance,We all know about Woody Guthrie,but how many know how little he was liked in Oklahoma,where he was born and raised?And did you know he was the waterboy for the footbaall team?
There are many,many great lines throughout the book.Here's a few to demonstrate :
"A million dollar deal cemented with a handshake."
"Types who enjoy nothing more than a barbacue over a heap
of banned books set ablaze."
"Bakersfield became the third-largest city in Oklahoma after
Oklahoma City and Tulsa."
"Oklahoma is one-eight the size of Alaska and more than twice
as big as all of New England."
"More languages are spoken in Oklahoma than on the entire
European continent."
Woody Guthrie was "Just a boy from Okaloma on a an endless
one- night stand".
"We don't like cities anymore.We don't like what the've
become."
"Indian Territory (Oklahoma) became known as 'robber's
roost',and its sinister reputation spread faster than fresh
gossip at a church supper."
"I've never hanged a man who came back to have the job done
over."
Judge Parker (the Hanging Judge) :I sentence you to hang
by the neck until you are dead,dead,dead." "Farewell
forever, until the court and you and all here today shall
meet together in the general resurrection."
"Whiskey helps to kill the poison in the night air."
"As unpredictable as a cyclone,fierce as a blue norther,
and wily as a prarie wolf,Jim Jordan has been a cowboy and
trader for most of his years.He's a combination of Judge
Roy Bean and Buffalo Bill,with a generous dose of saddle
tramp mixed in for good measure."
"And the morning after a jug of that stepped-up moonshine
was drained,the poetry of 'Amazing Grace' would still make
a band of angels weep."
See what I mean,Wallis is is a super author and if you like this sort of observation,storytelling and writing; this book is a real treasure .

This series of stunning essays by one of the nation's foremost authors kept me spellbound from start to finish. I find myself constantly re-reading passages or whole essays. I never tire of this book.

When a person first moves to Oklahoma, one of the things that stands out is that, like the rest of the nation, Oklahomans don't really know where they fit into the overall picture of our country. This fact is clearly described by Michael Wallis in the beginning of this series of essays. He also describes many of the events, people, and customs that make Oklahoma what it is.

From Indian Territory to statehood, barbecue to the "cow thieves and outlaws reunion," from Route 66 to oil, the state has a breadth of history that is both large and small. But always fascinating. As a transplant himself, Wallis has tried to find what Oklahoma is, and has done a good job. This is a wonderfully informative read for both Okies and others who have no idea where Oklahoma is.

Readers who enjoy this taste of history might also enjoy some of Wallis' other books, such as Route 66: The Mother Road and Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd.

Anyone who enjoys or follows minor league baseball will find this a fascinating read. Heck, anyone who likes baseball ...and reads...will probably enjoy it immensely. Well-written, chock full of lots of interesting information, the perfect summer read for the baseball, especially minor league, fans.

This is the story of the 1994 season in the minor league independent Northern League. 94 of course was the infamous year of the strike and World Series cancellation. Thus it is hardly surprising that Fatsis' most prominent theme, shared by those involved at all levels -- but particularly ownership/management -- of the Northern League, is that MLB and its minors have become hidebound, soulless businesses. This is absolutely true naturally, but all that is required to confirm it is a couple of examples to hammer that point home, not the drumbeat reiteration that Fatsis provided throughout the book. When he concentrates on the personalities, fans, cities, and -- most particularly -- ballpark atmospherics of the Northern League, Wild and Outside gets much more entertaining. My personal favorite was Ted Cushmore, the put-upon owner of the hapless Duluth franchise. Fatsis had lots of access to many participants in the league and, not surprisingly, those who talked most freely to him tend to get the most sympathetic treatment, a bias which colors the history to an extent the reader can only guess at. As baseball reads go, however, this one ranks in the upper middle of the crowded pack.

Well written and packed with information. Excellent read.

"Dancing Backwards", cowritten by Sharon Carstairs and Tim Higgins, both
of Winnipeg, is an excellent book covering a very interesting and
important period of change in Canadian politics, a period that is still
evolving and becoming even more important as time goes on, and more
women become active in the governing of our country, (as they should be, I
suggest). It deserves wide attention.

This is the story of the determined and difficult assault by women on the male-dominated citadel of Canadian politics.  Combining profiles of twenty-eight remarkable women who have achieved political firsts with a richly detailed, immensely readable history of Canadian life over the last century, Dancing Backwards, will change the way you look at Canadian history.

Published by Afton Historical Society Press, Afton, Minnesota, Death of the Dream is beautifully illustrated with photos of old Heartland balloon frame farmhouses, mostly from Cottonwood County, Minnesota. Bill Gabler, the author and photographer, tells in great detail the history of these simple, frame structures that were the predominant style of homes in early farming communities in the Heartland. Gabler is an excellent story-teller and photographer. Through his photos and narrative, he also chronicles the lives of the farm families who built and lived in these simple, unpretentious farm homes. By telling of the disappearance of these farmhouses in the Heartland, Gabler also tells the story of the disappearing family farms. This is an excellent historical accounting of an aspect of Americana that is fast disappearing. The book has also been made into a public television (KTCA-TV St. Paul, Minnesota) documentary by the same title.

The only fault I found with the book is that individual people and their personal stories are absent from both the photos and the history. The documentary, however, includes both of these.

How alive they were in their picture. Death of the Dream frontispieces its title page with a photo taken when the houses it chronicles were as alive as the faces in the picture. It is well-preserved, showing a family of eight seated at a linen-covered table (lace or embroidery beyond either their means or self-identity), half-curtains on the window above, one man the only person to gaze into the camera (the patriarch, surely, though he looks middle-aged); the others in reflective downward gaze as though having just returned from a burial. Women, their hair up in buns or braids, wearing dresses collared to the neckline, skirts to the floor. Above them a framed family photo and clock on the wall (catalog-bought, no doubt, whose ornate carving seems incongruous given the tablecloth). Only cups and saucers are on the table; it must have been tea time. The tiny symbols of the good life in those days are not many, but abundant-the pitcher of milk and honey in a jar, lamp in the center, side dishes, salt, the pooch snoozing contentedly under the table.

It is the beauteous young woman on the left who most grabs the eye-not for her looks but because the picture was taken c. 1890 and her grandchildren's grandchildren's children are among us, perhaps looking at this book. What would she tell them? That a pretty summer sky of peach-hued clouds is also a sky of no law and no mercy? She knew this, said it in the avoidance of her gaze. Prosperity teetered alone on the last edges of the day, and one day during her lifetime the remnants of economy shifted irrevocably out from under the livelihood of the faces in that photo, as it did thousands of others too. The family farm is a factory farm now.

Leaving behind . . . what? The fears of the landholding life, the women alone pushing the pram, the humdrums of the hearth, the half a loaf uneaten, the missing shingles on the roof, the walls that need paint, the averted eyes of the friends at church, the grief recurring in husband-is-gone dreams. Then or now?

All in a picture.

Good, solid, uneventful countryside faces, as plain and hardworking as their shoes. Not the setpiece farms of TV and movies, but of gardens and furrows and drudgework and rain, lived in a prosperity affording perhaps but one portrait in a lifetime. Lives not of comforts or goods or openings at theater, but of the sun and the wind and the dusk and the summer, the indomitable spirit of the Plains, and the immense span of years that was their being then, and will be until the last house in this book is no long evident a house.

Somewhere along the way from that picture to this book, the Plow That Broke The Plains was broken by those plains.

William Gabler is as good a tale-teller as he is a photographer, and his text is so informative one can read it several times and still notice things anew. His pictures have an overlit quality that does not come across as overexposure (he's too accomplished a photographer for that) but as his wish to wring the last of the light out of a darkened dream. His pictures are so much more than "pictures." Only in ink upon paper do we see these old buildings defecting remnant by remnant into the wither of time. On the paper of our minds, thanks to Mr. Gabler, we see so much more. He has captured the dismemberment of a culture, the culture of the standalone farming family who fed a country from an annual turn of sod under the annual turn of sky.

Simple, seemingly, his photos, seeing that which is invisible but there. That one over there, atop the low roll of hill, there lived Widow X or Widower Y, seeing their lives through to the end on the soil where their lives were made, wresting from the earth each year's glean not of wheat by the bushel but carrots and radishes and plums by the basket. We see them mirrored in Mr. Gabler's houses, their forlornity, stature much shorter than it once was, back unbent but a hand that trembles. Not a bitter harvest by any reckoning, but an ever-harsher one, yes, that.

Once they were content. Once they were spiritually strong, for the vastness of nature under the unceasing sky informed the upright steeple on the horizon where God really lived. But now not. It's self-evident from the fact that these pictures, these houses, exist. Not dying, but dwindling. Losing their rooflines and paint as a dowager loses her strands of hair. Metaphors not of decay but of deconstruction, yielding back to nature the cellulose and pigment and glass and iron which nature once bestowed. We see in them not old wood and window, but ourselves. The economy these plains and these people made possible ran away from them, off to the cities, just as it is running away from us, content under our G

Our selves are in Mr. Gabler's pictures, for these empty husks of house are where the culture of consumption is taking us. Not unto death as these provisioners of the past were taken, but into discard, our lives a blister-pak on the trash of the used; all to a failure to partner with the God our souls and religions say we have but our horizons do not confirm. How we wish, like the farmers who built these houses, to elope off with Destiny the Giver, not the Taker, of life's things.

Their goods may not have been great. They were.

Dr. Steven E. Woodworth is one of the best Civil War historians and author today. His writing is clean, concise, spot on, well-researched, easy to read, and he's not afraid to make his case regardless how controversial the topic is. It's hard to believe Dr. Woodworth - Professor of History at Texas Christian University - is just in his mid-40s.

This is a great intro-book for people not very familiar with the Western Theater during the Civil War. You can not go wrong with this book.

The field of Civil War history has few authors with the skill and knowledge of Steven E. Woodworth. His books are always well written, very readable, conveying an enormous amount of information in clear concise sentences. Having written extensively on the western theater, he is in an excellent choice to write an overview history. I am very happy to so that Professor Woodworth's book exceeds all of my expectations. This small book works on several levels. For a person new to the theater this is an introduction that builds a very firm foundation on which they can continue their studies. For the more experienced reader, this book will "pull it all together" placing each campaign in a complex ongoing war. For the experienced reader, this book is a very enjoyable review.

In a small book, Woodworth packs a lot of information. All the major campaigns are covered with their contribution to the Union's victory. However, the sideshow campaigns get included showing their contribution or distractions to/from the main efforts. This means that Sturgis defeat at Brice's Crossroads is an embarrassment but keeps Forrest away from Sherman's supply lines. Politics are not ignored, from Halleck intriguing against Grant, Polk and Hardee against Bragg, Johnston against Davis and Hood against Johnston, the problems are well covered with the impact on the armies.

This is one of the best small books I have found on the western theater, an enjoyable read and a valuable learning experience. The organization is logical and the grouping of events moves the story along. The treatment of both sides is uniformly fair with a concentration of military events. Very little is said about the deadlock in Virginia, except as to how it influences decisions in the area.

This book is the best resource that I've found to finish and improve my garden here in Kansas. This book has some nice pictures, but they are not particularly useful. I don't even care though b/c this book is LOADED with great gardening advice. I've read dozens of gardening books, but I learned a lot of new things from this resource. It is especially helpful in terms of plant selection-choosing plants that grow great in our region. I like that it gives more choices than the Sunset "top ten" book. I think this guide may be a little outdated in terms of listing new cultivars, but I didn't consider that a problem, either.

Rachel Snyder takes a practical approach to the unique problems of the plains. Instead of telling me what I can't plant, she gives me myriad options for creating a long-lasting, beautiful garden. What this book lacks in beauty, it makes up for with loads of great advice and information about plants that will survive scorching heat, high winds and cold winters. I highly recommend the book for beginning gardeners.