Book Description
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.
“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”
“Because there is a war.”
“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”
“Yes, all the time.”
“Cool.”
I smile a little.
“You should tell us about it sometime.”
“Yes, sometime.”
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.
What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-10-18
What an interesting story. Having lived all over the world, it is very interesting how stories of civil strife always seem to include child soldiers whether Palestinian, Lebanese, Iranian, Liberian or Somalian.
I recommend this book for those interested in the world around them.
Heartbreaking!.......2007-10-18
This was one of my Book Club's selections for this fall. I thought it was easy to read and I am glad I saw the movie "Blood Diamond" before reading this. It's a difficult subject matter but worth reading.
Written too well........2007-10-15
I feel a little odd giving 5 stars to a book with such horrific subject matter. The fact is, the author has written such a clear account of all that happened in his life that I was physically affected by some of the chapters I read. No child should ever have to witness much less participate in the events that happened in Sierra Leone (or any war torn country). Beah is a true survivor. I think everyone NEEDS to read this book.
Enlightening........2007-10-03
I think this is a wonderful book, so moving and beautifully written that you wonder how a person can manage to lead a "normal" life after experiencing what he has been through. The author tells the story matter-of-factly without whining or complaining about the hand he's been dealt. Because of this, it makes the story even more impressive.
Not just a good read, a book that enlightens is a must-read.
Fantastic book. Recommend for all ages!.......2007-10-02
This book is truly amazing. It is almost unbelievable to read about the lives of people like Ishmael, but it's true, and it's happening today. Yes, in some parts it is certainly hard to read, but it's worth it. It is better to be shocked and scarred by this book than ignorant to it. Ishmael is a wonderfully optimistic person, and I think we can all learn a lot from his courage. In his own words, Ishmael is not an expert on the history of Sierra Lione, but by putting a face and name to this story, you will still learn a lot from him! I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!
Book Description
As the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats during the dark first year of the war, one man leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. Riveting and elegant as it is meticulously researched, March is an extraordinary novel woven out of the lore of American history.
From Louisa May AlcottÂ's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, March, who has gone off to war, leaving his wife and daughters to make do in mean times. To evoke him, Brooks turned to the journals and letters of Bronson Alcott, Louisa MayÂ's father—a friend and confidant of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. In her telling, March emerges as an idealistic chaplain in the little known backwaters of a war that will test his faith in himself and in the Union cause as he learns that his side, too, is capable of acts of barbarism and racism. As he recovers from a near mortal illness, he must reassemble his shattered mind and body and find a way to reconnect with a wife and daughters who have no idea of the ordeals he has been through.
Spanning the vibrant intellectual world of Concord and the sensuous antebellum South, March adds adult resonance to AlcottÂ's optimistic childrenÂ's tale to portray the moral complexity of war, and a marriage tested by the demands of extreme idealism—and by a dangerous and illicit attraction. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine BrooksÂ's place as an internationally renowned author of historical fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Pulitzer's Reliability.......2007-10-10
As usual, any book selected by the Pulitzer Committee is a reliable horrible read. Too boring to waste my time on. . . Alcott would be mortified!
An ingeniously crafted tale of terribly tragic times!.......2007-08-27
Geraldine Brooks has produced an ingeniously crafted tale of terribly tragic times and has successfully drawn some of her principal characters from Louisa May Alcott's classic, 'Little Women,' creating in the process an elaboration of the life of the Revd. Mr March, father of the little women, who, whilst being an aggravating and hypocritical Yankee clergyman, nevertheless leads an extraordinary life, both in Connecticut and in The South during the American 'Civil War' (or 'War for Southern Independence,' depending upon personal preference: I prefer the latter). The fact that the author cleverly introduces Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and even John Brown (he of the body and the soul that marches on), all most effectively but without particular surprise in the context, is a tribute to her story-telling skill. The fact that Mr March learns a lot of the complications of that frightful conflict of 1861-1865 is a reflection of the author's fine research and scholarship. The fact that the mid-19th-century language seems to be 'spot-on' to one who reads and enjoys such stuff also reflects well on Ms. Brooks: she has produced another riveting tale, which I could not put down, and I congratulate her!
Sometimes a Good Man Is a Weak Man.......2007-08-11
March is told largely in the words of Mr. March, father of all those "little women," and it encompasses the year that he spent as a Union chaplain during the early part of the Civil War. Ever the idealist, one who at times refused to recognize the demands of the real world or to compromise his principles in order to better get along with others, March quickly managed to get on the bad side of both the men to whom he hoped to minister and that of his superior officers. As so often happens during war, March lived a lifetime during his one year of service, a year in which he learned more about himself than he really wanted to know. He came to realize that his ideals and principles did not necessarily come with the courage to do the right thing when to do so put him in personal danger. He ended his year a broken man, one barely alive and, more importantly, one who considered his year of service to have been a disaster for himself and everyone he tried to help.
Along the way, March unexpectedly finds himself revisiting a plantation he remembered from his days as a young traveling salesman trying to build the nest egg he hoped to invest for the remainder of his life. Some twenty years after his first visit, the home is now an emergency hospital for Union troops and life there is nothing like the one he remembered from before. But one thing has not changed. Grace Clements, the mulatto slave woman he was so attracted to on his first visit, is still there and he is still powerfully attracted to her. Grace Clements comes to be one of the two most important women in March's life, in fact.
Having so consistently irritated the troops to whom he was assigned, March is assigned to spend the bulk of his war at a cotton plantation teaching liberated slaves to read and write. This is my one quibble with the book. While, in fact, some southern cotton plantations were leased to northern entrepreneurs during the war so that much needed cotton could be brought to market for benefit of the North, this did not occur nearly so early in the war as portrayed in March. Despite the fact that the heart of the story takes place on this plantation, I could never completely forget just how unlikely it would have been for March to find himself on such a plantation during his particular year of the war.
But that's a minor thing because March has so much to offer. It is filled with the kind of period detail that marks the best historical fiction and fans of Little Women will very likely find it to be the perfect companion piece to one of their favorite novels.
This isn't The Year of Wonders.......2007-08-08
I read The Year of Wonders and loved it. I bought this book specifically because it's the same author, and with high hopes. Unfortunately, this book is boring and slow moving. It could not hold my attention at all, and I didn't get engrossed with the characters like in her other book. I would not recommend this book.
An absorbing read.......2007-08-06
Mr. March is often exasperating but always believable in this vivid Civil War novel. Not so much about battles as about how the hardship of war shapes families. Chapter 2 involving Grace the beautiful slave reaches near perfection. Longer review available on my website Impatient Reader. Also available at Impatient Reader: a chapter-by-chapter summary of March. See My Amazon Profile for URL.
Amazon.com
This isn't the first biography to be written on Confederate General James Longstreet, but it's the best--and certainly the one that pays the most attention to Longstreet's performance as a military leader. Historian Jeffry D. Wert aims to rehabilitate Longstreet's reputation, which traditionally has suffered in comparison to those of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Some Southern partisans have blamed Longstreet unfairly for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg; Wert corrects the record here. He is not uncritical of Longstreet's record, but he rightly suggests that if Lee had followed Longstreet's advice, the battle's outcome might have been different.
The facts of history cannot be changed, however, and Wert musters them on these pages to advance a bold claim: "Longstreet, not Jackson, was the finest corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia; in fact, he was arguably the best corps commander in the conflict on either side." Wert describes his subject as strategically aggressive, but tactically reserved. The bulk of the book appropriately focuses on the Civil War, but Wert also briefly delves into Longstreet's life before and after it. Most interestingly, it was framed by a friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, formed at West Point and continuing into old age. Longstreet even served in the Grant administration--an act that called into question his loyalty to the Lost Cause, and explains in part why Wert's biography is a welcome antidote to much of what has been written about this controversial figure. --John J. Miller
Book Description
General James Longstreet fought in nearly every campaign of the Civil War, from Manassas (the first battle of Bull Run) to Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox. Yet, he was largely held to blame for the Confederacy's defeat at Gettysburg. General James Longstreet sheds new light on the controversial commander and the man Robert E. Lee called "my old war horse."
Customer Reviews:
I disagree with the title............2007-07-30
....but not much else. General Braxton Bragg was, and is, the South's most controversial solder. With that out of the way....
.....to the subject. This is an absolutely superb study of a man who was a genius far ahead of his time. Another author once wrote an article speculating as to which Civil War General, were he to rise from the dead and get a shave, would have the shortest "learning curve" to become a General in the modern Army; his answer was James Longstreet, and he may very well be right [my own answer was Bragg...there I go again]. Both men were 20th century Generals trying to fight the last 18th. century war; naturally, there were some problems.
James Longstreet was born in South Carolina of a Georgia family, but he was certainly not of the old Southern aristocracy in the way Lee, Johnston, Polk, and others were. The original family name was Langestraet, and they were Dutch from New Jersey who moved to Georgia. Longstreet went to West Point and then commenced a career of one boring assignment after another, in an Army where promotion only came when somebody died. The war in Mexico proved he was a real soldier, but afterwards he was a lowly paymaster in Texas.
When the war came, he went South just because his state did. Had his family stayed in New Jersey, Lee would have had a very tough opponent, instead of his "Old War Horse". Longstreet commanded the First Corps thru the whole war, except for his detached service in Suffolk that kept him out of Chancellorsville, and the months after Gettysburg when he was in Tennessee. Severely wounded in The Wilderness, he returned, and was with Lee at the end.
Longstreet was loved by his troops; he fought on the defensive, never wasting his men's lives. He could march, and charge, as well as Jackson when necessary, but preferred to let the enemy make the mistakes. Further, he was "human", sharing the vices of his troops, unlike Lee and Jackson. At Second Manassas and Antietam he proved his greatness, and at Fredericksburg came his finest hour as wave after wave of Blue troops bravely, but foolishly, charged up Mayre's Heights.
Gettysburg...THAT is where most discussions of James Longstreet begin and end. He and Lee had different ideas as to how [and whether] to fight the battle, and Lee was the boss. Longstreet [and Hood] wanted to move to the right, get between Meade and Washington, and hold on the defensive. Lee wanted to fight the enemy where he was. Who was right? God knows that what we did didn't work, but we forget that it dern near did. Lee took the blame; as commander, that was proper. Dick Ewell's lethargy and Jeb Stuart's independent brashness weren't noted at the time, though they contributed massively to the Confederate defeat. Generations of Southerners have blamed Longstreet for Gettysburg, but that didn't start till well after the war, and the causes were political, not military. I guess my own opinion of who was right is obvious, but I yet maintain that Robert E. Lee was the greatest soldier that ever lived.
After the war, Longstreet was a cotton merchant in New Orleans, and did well until he wrote a letter in 1867 essentially stating that the South needed to build a bridge and get over it; for this, he remained an outcast the rest of his life. Dr. Freeman stated that after the war, if a man "became a Republican or consorted with Negroes", those sins would never be forgiven. Longstreet was reduced to living on Republican political appointments. [Billy Mahone likewise became an apostate, but at least he became rich; Beauregard said nothing; he simply got over the bridge to wealth. But Beauregard was always different]. Longstreet wrote his memoirs, but did it badly, and made his cause worse.
This is a superb book that does a wonderful job defending a man who, in a just world, would need no defense...I've saved the best till last...the opening two pages of the book, describing General Longstreet's appearance at the dedication of the Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond in 1890, is the very finest piece of historical writing I have ever read, anytime, anywhere. Period. The other Generals saw James Longstreet as an apostate, but his old troops knew what made a leader, and loved him for it.
Longstreet the military might.......2007-07-16
I like how the book goes into detail on General Lee and the problems of being a Staff Officer under a "Demagod". General Longstreet's request for a flanking movement, if greated by General Lee, could have changed the course of the war.
Who is to blame for Gettysburg ?.......2007-01-31
Historians since 1865 have blamed General James Longstreet for the Confederacy losing the Battle at Gettysburg. This book places the blame on Robert E Lee, which after reading this book as well as other books recently, I would tend to agree with that assumption. The writer seems to be a Longstreet fan though, and seems to add to Longstreet's capability as a General, while placing the blame for several Confederate losses on General Stonewall Jackson which I do not agree with at all. In essence, the writer's purpose of the book is to clear Longstreet's name at the expense of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson, as well as other Generals that Longstreet came in contact with during the Civil War. Unfortunately the author feels that is the only way to clear Longstreet's name.
The Old War Horse Examined.......2006-12-29
General James Longstreet was one of the major corps commanders in the Confederate Army. At one point, General Robert E. Lee referred to Longstreet as his "Old War Horse." Nonetheless, considerable controversy swirls around Longstreet.
This book does a solid job on outlining the controversy and Longstreet's record. One theme in the South after the Civil War was the "Lost Cause" thesis. Here, Longstreet was a central element. The author, Jeffry Wert, says (page 14):
"A significant. . .victim of the 'Lost Cause' interpretation of the conflict was James Longstreet. A crucial element of the myth was that the Confederacy nearly attained victory except for the mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville and the defeat of Robert E. Lee's army at Gettysburg two months later. . . . The burden for Gettysburg fell on Longstreet. . . ."
This book lays out a nicely rendered biography of Longstreet. A series of helpful maps provides context throughout the work. The book takes a standard approach and provides detail on Longstreet's early life and career (his action in the Mexican War and his friendhip with Ulysses Grant). The work chronicles his rise in the Confederate Army after war broke out. He went from commander of a small unit at First Manassas to division commander to corps commander in a fairly short period of time, matching Stonewall Jackson's rise in responsibility. Both had poor moments in the Peninsula Campaign; by the end of the Seven Days, Longstreet had grown considerably. By Second Manassas, Jackson and Longstreet were the two corps commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia and both performed well.
By that time, certain aspects of Longstreet's style became clear. At Second Manassas, he delayed attack until the situation was to his liking. Just slow? Or calculated to gain maximum effect against the Union forces under General John Pope? Then Antietam, where Longstreet gained the nom de guerre of "My Old War Horse" from Lee.
Fredericksburg? The classic Longstreet-favored approach. Take a position and let the Yankees attack and lose large numbers of troops. Longstreet was convinced that the Confederacy could not fight long odds battles with fewer men than in the Union army. He missed Chancellorsville, while on a mission on the Peninsula. Then Gettysburg. Was he petulant and someone who undermined the Confederate effort and chances of victory? Or was he clear eyed, seeing the impending defeat? Wirt addresses this issue in a sensitive manner.
Later, we see Longstreet at his worst (feuding with Braxton Bragg and performing badly against the pathetic Ambrose Burnside at Knoxville) and at his best (his tour de force rolling up Winfield Scott Hancock's line at the Wilderness). With respect to the latter, as he was planning yet another movement against the Union army, he was shot by other Confederate troops.
After a lengthy convalescence, he rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia at Petersburg, fought with Lee until the end of the Civil War. Then, he became a Republican (alienating many southerners), criticized Lee while defending his own record (heresy to the south), and overall had a checkered career.
Nonetheless, this book provides useful context for evaluating Longstreet. One fair conclusion is that he was one of the best corps commanders on either side (there were a lot of bad ones and some very good ones)--but one who also was far from perfect (again, note his performance under Braxton Bragg). A nice book for those wanting to know more about "The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier" (the book's subtitle).
An Amazing Little Book.......2006-02-19
I was fourteen years old, and we were discussing the Civil War in history class. I had an especially enthusiastic teacher and several well-informed friends, and a desire to learn about the War Between the States was fast budding within me. By the strangest stroke of luck, I found this very same book on a bookshelf at home. Was it my fathers? Was it divine intervention? I don't know the answer, but I started to read it, and I didn't put it down. Several years and countless books later, I'm considering pursuing a PhD in history (specializing in the Civil War era.) Fate?
This books is wonderful both as an account of Longstreet's life and, surprisingly, as a general introduction to the war in the East (plus a bit about Longstreet's stint in the West.) Wert provides well-detailed descriptions of the tactical elements of each battle involving Longstreet without becoming boring, even to the inexperienced reader. His views on Longstreet are intriguing and thought provoking, and a more balanced and objective account is, as far as I've read, not to be found.
I apologize if my rather sentimental past with this particular tome has skewed my analysis of it, but this book will always hold a special place in my heart.
Amazon.com
Howard Bahr compresses this moving Civil War novel into 48 hours--two short days filled with grim deaths and the prelude, at least, to a love story. First issued by a small Baltimore press in 1997,The Black Flower was nominated for four major awards, including one from the Academy of Arts and Letters, but failed to garner the attention paid to Cold Mountain. Civil War buffs will rejoice in Bahr's vivid retelling of the November 1864 Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. More to the point, The Black Flower transcends its historical fiction niche and deserves a wider audience. Confederate rifleman Bushrod Carter, the novel's protagonist, is wounded during the battle and taken to a nearby house. In this makeshift hospital, he and two childhood friends huddle together, "shivering with cold and exhaustion, ignoring the ghostly shapes still shuffling through the coiling smoke around them, calling the names of men who would never answer." Bahr has poured 20 years of research into his novel, but this haunting portrayal of suffering and death is the product not merely of historical diligence but also an impressive literary imagination. --Eugenia Trinkle
Book Description
The Black Flower is the gripping story of a young Confederate rifleman from Mississippi named Bushrod Carter, who serves in General John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee during the Civil War battle that takes place in Franklin, Tennessee, in November 1864. Written with reverent attention to historical accuracy, the book vividly documents the fear, suffering, and intense friendships that are all present on the eve of the battle and during its aftermath. When Bushrod is wounded in the Confederate charge, he is taken to a makeshift hospital where he comes under the care of Anna, who has already lost two potential romances to battle. Bushrod and Anna's poignant attempt to forge a bond of common humanity in the midst of the pathos and horror of battle serves as a powerful reminder that the war that divided America will not vanish quietly into the page of history.
Customer Reviews:
Lyrical prose & gritty realism - a masterpiece.......2007-07-30
Though not without its flaws, "The Black Flower" is probably the best Civil War novel I have read to date. Set during the Battle of Franklin, it tells the story of Bushrod Carter, a Mississippi lad fighting with the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Wounded during the fighting, he is carried to a makeshift field hospital where he catches the eye of Anna, a young woman visiting her relatives who own the house. Be forewarned, this isn't a happy story, but the melancholy tone didn't seem depressing; perhaps the best way to describe the tone is "pensive" or "sweetly sad".
Howard Bahr spins his tale with poignancy and insight, and he wields the English language like a master swordsman. He conveys the ironies of war beautifully, and has an uncanny knack for getting inside the mind of the common Southern soldiers and civilians and revealing what makes them tick. Bahr gets the little details of soldier life right, and as a Civil War reenactor myself, I thought the book really rang true.
There are some problems. The language is foul at times, which is the only reason I decided not to keep the book in my library. There are a couple of sexual situations portrayed, too, and though I found them to be tastefully done, some may find them objectionable. Some may also dislike the supernatural element in the story (a mysterious horseman who is more or less the Angel of Death appears throughout), but I thought it was an interesting approach. Bahr also includes a few too many weird characters, a quirk that he shares with Charles Frazier (unfortunately, he takes it to an extreme in "The Year of Jubilo").
All things considered, "The Black Flower" is superb historical fiction, and (with the cautions mentioned above) I highly recommend it as a moving portrayal of the tragedy that was the Civil War.
Black Flower.......2007-07-12
I wish there were something higher to give this book than simply five stars. Bahr is, in my opinion, the best writer of Civil War fiction that I have ever read. He captures memory, the pain of memory, the destructiveness and the salvation of memory better than any author currently writing in English. Anyone with an interest in the Civil War or the South generally will probably do what I did with this book, meaning that I was so caught up in it that I read it in two sittings, and have reread portions of it a BUNCH of times (look at the first few pages of Chapter 7 if you want the best take on human memory currently out there). But it's not just the Civil War. It's about humans having faced hellish situations and somehow made it through, though even they don't know how. It's about surviving, and dealing with your own demons over years and years. Bahr is just terrific. I call any reader's attention to The Year of Jubilo and to the latest one, The Judas Field, as well. Terrific! Just terrific.
Beautifully written.......2007-05-18
A very poignant and compassionate look at the civil war. Extremely well written with detail to historical accuracy. Well worth your time to read if you are interested in the civil war period.
Another View.......2007-05-13
This is an excellent feature story on the ravages on the human soul during the civil war. Worthwhile reading to say the least.
doctorgraz.......2007-05-13
Not bad, but not the greatest novel I've read. Maybe I could exchange it for another book.............right.
Book Description
A vivid, unprecedented account of why Union and Confederate soldiers identified slavery as the root of the war, how the conflict changed troops’ ideas about slavery, and what those changing ideas meant for the war and the nation.
Using soldiers’ letters, diaries, and regimental newspapers, Chandra Manning allows us to accompany soldiers—black and white, northern and southern—into camps and hospitals and on marches and battlefields to better understand their thoughts about what they were doing and why. Manning’s work reveals that Union soldiers, though evincing little sympathy for abolitionism before the war, were calling for emancipation by the second half of 1861, ahead of civilians, political leaders, and officers, and a full year before the Emancipation Proclamation. She recognizes Confederate soldiers’ primary focus on their own families, and explores how their beliefs about abolition—that it would endanger their loved ones, erase the privileges of white manhood, and destroy the very fabric of southern society—motivated even non-slaveholding Confederates to fight and compelled them to persevere through military catastrophes like Gettysburg and Atlanta, long after they grew to despise the Confederate government and disdain the southern citizenry. She makes clear that while white Union troops viewed preservation of the Union as essential to the legacy of the Revolution, over the course of the war many also came to think that in order to gain God’s favor, they and other white northerners must confront the racial prejudices that made them complicit in the sin of slavery. We see how the eventual consideration of the enlistment of black soldiers by the Confederacy eliminated any reason for many Confederate soldiers to fight; how, by 1865, black Union soldiers believed the forward racial strides made during the war would continue; and how white Union troops’ commitment to racial change, fluctuating with the progress of the war, created undreamt-of potential for change but failed to fulfill it.
An important and eye-opening addition to our understanding of the Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
Citizen Soldiers.......2007-09-22
I was very impressed with the way Union soldiers debated the issue of slavery in their letters (Slavery was not a controversy in the slave states, so no comparable debate took place among Confederate soldiers). Few Americans are also aware that Union soldiers' experience with confronting slavery in the South provided essential support for emancipation.The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue
A Compelling Examination of the Civil War.......2007-09-20
WHAT THIS CRUEL WAR WAS OVER: SOLDIERS, SLAVERY, AND THE CIVIL WAR examines why slavery is an essential part of Civil War history. Chandra Manning asks interesting questions pertaining to the how and why Confederate and Union soldiers fought one of the most intense wars in American history, which was fought in order to preserve the principles of the US Constitution, which involved patriotism, life, liberty, freedom, and slavery as well as revisit the legacy of the Revolutionary War. In addition, Manning provides an introspective study where she delves deeper into how soldiers lived, fought, and perceived their fellow comrades and foes. With the discussion of race, gender, social, and political issues that cover the home front as well as the battlefields that crossed the Southern lines from Mississippi to the Northern lines of ravaged Gettysburg, readers may have a better understanding of the war.
The book has three main themes as they pertain to the war experience. First, white Southern patriarchy, slaves were a part of the Southern family in order to maintain their livelihood. Second, African Americans became empowered and liberated as a result of their involvement in the democratic process, interpreting the law and their rights, and their participation in the war. Third, Union soldiers' motivation through African Americans' contribution to the war effort that helped to bring equality for men a reality.
The interesting and insightful aspect about Manning's narrative is that she attempts to provide a balanced perspective from each side by emphasizing the family, God, and the patriotic fervor that occurred within the Confederate and Union sides without making the claim that slavery caused the Civil War. For example, she does not present a divided narrative where one chapter is dedicated to the discussion about the Confederate cause or the Union cause, or where race is clumped in one section; Manning integrates the discussion so that all groups are discussed within each chapter as it relates and interconnects to the issue of slavery and the war, white Confederate and Union soldiers, and African American soldiers who fought on both sides.
For readers interested in seeing a different perspective of the Civil War, WHAT THIS CRUEL WAR WAS OVER will provide that view. It is a good reading supplement for those that would like to read about the social history side of the Civil War, and how the issue of slavery created animosity and divided the United States. But at the same time, soldiers attempted to unite and understand why they fought. Indeed, the book is an informative and detailed narrative about one of the most debated wars in American history, which continues to be discussed and examined.
Reverent and Insightful.......2007-07-27
Chandra Manning's first book, "What This Cruel War Was Over," squarely rebuts the popular belief that Civil War soldiers did not care about slavery. Manning places in the lap of the reader countless letters penned by soldiers to families and loved ones attesting to slavery's role in starting the war, stirring up morale, and being the ultimate reason to fight on. Instead of leaving the telling of history to speeches by great generals and politicians, Manning firmly directs our eyes to the very words of the rank and file who gave the war meaning.
Personally, I found the incredible degree of dissent within both the Union and Confederate camps to be most interesting. Some idealistic Union soldiers protested slavery to assure liberty and freedom for all, while other soldiers kept rigidly racist views of slaves but still demanded an end to slavery because they felt slavery would inevitably lead to more clashes between the North and South. Southern soldiers, frustrated by the growing power of the Confederate government to seize their family's assets for the war effort, often questioned their own motivation for defending a government as invasive as the North. Still, fearful of a world in which former slaves might come to own their land and intermarry with white women, Southern soldiers persisted on in battle for the Confederacy. Even yet, some Confederate soldiers thought serving in the war might be a foot in the door to someday owning slaves.
Of particular interest to the reader will be letters from African-American Union soldiers who labored in battle not only to end slavery but to earn equal pay and respect from the army. Despite their additional hardships, these soldiers came to be known as some of the bravest and most dedicated soldiers on the battlefield. Letters reveal that white soldiers often came away so impressed that many began to reconsider their previously held racist ideologies.
An enjoyable read! Guaranteed to change the national conversation about the Civil War and the end of slavery.
Historical Misunderstanding for Many Readers.......2007-06-25
As an avid war historian with notable interest in the Civil War, I believe this book may leave people with a somewhat jaded view of the War itself. Especially those that have not studied the actual history before, during, and after the War. I understand and appreciate the depth of research that went into this book. I also understand that the author tried to present actual testamonies rather than personal opinion. However, the format of the book will leave many thinking that the War was only about slavery and periferal support of that cause.
"A Rising Star Among American Historians".......2007-05-17
This book has been quickly reviewed by major hitters among American historians. Chandra Manning has been described as the "rising star of new American historians." Such high praise might make one assume this is a book geared to knowledgable scholars and enjoyable only by them. The truth is Dr. Mannings writing style and skill make this work both enlightening and enjoyable to the scholar and the history enthusiast. Any one interested in this "cruel war" will find enlightenment not shown by the earlier greats in historic writing and teaching. We can only hope that Professor Manning does not make us wait long for her next work. What William Freehling offers us in antebellum literature Chandra Manning provides in the psychology of the war itself.
Book Description
As a war correspondent, Wilbur Fisk was an amateur, yet his letters to the Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman comprise one of the finest collections of Civil War letters in existence. "Literary gems," historian Herman Hattaway calls them. "In fact, they are so good that it would be believable that some expert novelist had created them."
But Fisk was no novelist. He was a rural school teacher from Vermont, primarily self-educated, who enlisted in the Union Army simply because he believed he would regret it later if he didn't.
Unlike professional war correspondents, Private Fisk had no access to rank or headquarters. Instead, he wrote of life as a private--as one of the foot soldiers who slept in the mud and obeyed orders no matter how incomprehensible.
Between December 11, 1861, and July 26, 1865, Fisk wrote nearly 100 letters from the battlefield. At the beginning of the war he was exuberant and eager for contact with the enemy. Two years later, Fisk was disillusioned and war weary. "The rebel dead and ours lay thickly together, their thirst for blood forever quenched. Their bodies were swollen, black, and hideously unnatural. They eyes glared from their sockets, their tongues protruded from their mouths, and in almost every case, clots of blood and mangled flesh showed how they had died, and rendered a sight ghastly beyond description. I thought I had become hardened to almost anything, but I cannot say I ever wish to see another sight like that I saw on the battle-field of Gettysburg."
Fisk wrote as eloquently on the moral and political issues behind the war as he did on the everyday hardships of life in the Army of the Potomac. He saw the war as a question of right and wrong and he continued to believe that it had to be fought, even after he was well acquainted with its horror and pointlessness.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
Book Description
An excellent firsthand account of the Civil War from a soldier's point of view. It is a masterful description of war's grim reality.--VFW Magazine
Customer Reviews:
Soldiering.......2007-03-04
This books provides us with the knowledge of day to day survival in the union army. He, Rice C. Bull, was severely wounded and captured by the Confederate Army. He describes the conditions surrounding him while he lay unable to move. It's not a pretty picture and many died that could have been saved. He seems to have been a gentleman of high moral standing. There didn't seem to be any bitterness or hate in him. He was simply doing what he felt to be his duty to the best of his ability.
It's in reading these diaries that contain little parts of the war that we can piece together a more accurate complete picture. Read it and find out what was thought of the food and how marching became a way of like.
The privates tale gives a valuable insight to life during the Civil War.
A great adventure written by a first rate story teller........2001-05-22
For those readers who are interested in a good first account of life as a Yankee soldier during the American Civil War, this is the book. I found the account written by Elijah Hunt Rhodes to be quite bland. Full of patriotic sentiment that sheds little light on his vulnerability. Rhodes' may have been a great soldier but he is an amateur storyteller. Rice Bull on the other hand, is a natural born writer. I found this book hard to put down. The pictures Bull paints are startling, amazing, hilarious and terrifying. This book's depiction of war lives in an entirely different universe than, John Wayne, Turner Classics, or any of the tedious accounts written by the Civil War Generals attempting to clear their name. Full of fantastic insight and ironies this book is right up there with "Catch 22" and "Journey to the End of the Night".
Soldiering : The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull.......2001-02-03
This is an excellent book to get an understanding in the daily life of a Northern soldier. The R.C. Bull's journal is an "easy" read and allows the reader to grasp what it was like to be in the infantry during the Civil War. R.C. Bull writes about the types of rations they were issued, their living conditions, and the marches they had to endure. He writes about trading goods with the Confederate "rebs" and his treatment as wounded prisoner. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the life of an enlist man during the Civil War.
Very Good Account of the Civil War.......1998-11-13
After reading three diaries (Diary of Daniel Chisholm, Three Years in Co. K, and this book) I place this one at the top (for now.) The description of Bull's experience following Chancellorsville, wounded in the hip and face, lying in the mud, while men are dying all around him, is particularly moving. I'm a novice Civil War buff, and would recommend this title to someone who has more than a passing interest in the daily life of a Northern soldier.
Average customer rating:
- The Best Yet!
- Fantastic Historical Fiction Based During the Civil War
- Great Book Must Read
- What a wonderful story!
- Hunt highlights women in history
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The Velvet Shadow (The Heirs of Cahira O'Connor Series , No 3)
Angela Elwell Hunt
Manufacturer: WaterBrook Press
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The Justice
ASIN: 1578561310
Release Date: 1999-02-16 |
Book Description
THE HEIRS OF CAHIRA O’CONNOR SERIES - BOOK THREE It is said that as Cahira, daughter of the great Irish king Rory O’Connor, lay dying of a wound from a Norman blade, she lifted her hand toward heaven and beseeched God that others would follow…breaking forth from the courses to which they are bound to restore right in this murderous world…
To Kathleen O’Connor, Cahira’s story was nothing more than a legend–until research divulged that the tale was true. Stunned, Kathleen realizes she herself bears Cahira’s mark. Is she destined to continue the legacy? To find the truth, Kathleen must delve into the past to find the truth about The Heirs of Cahira O'Connor…
When Flanna O’Connor, a young medical student in Boston, is cut off from her family in Charleston at the start of the Civil War, she decides to disguise herself and move south with the Union Army. While in disguise, she must prove herself as a soldier and a doctor, both to her messmates and to Major Alden Haynes, brother to the man she has tentatively agreed to marry. But when Flanna and Alden are trapped between two armies, can Flanna trust God with her future…and with the love she has sought all her life?
Customer Reviews:
The Best Yet!.......2007-01-10
Book Three of the Heirs of Cahira O'Connor was my favorite of the series. I enjoyed the setting - the Civil War - and the development of Flanna's understanding of the real issues of the war. The aspect of a woman doctor in a time when they were not accepted was very well done. Love, loyalty, faith - it has it all...
Fantastic Historical Fiction Based During the Civil War .......2006-05-16
This book is the 3rd in "The Heirs of Cahira O'Conner" series. Although I haven't read the 4th, so far this one is my favorite. Not that the first 2 are not good, they are terrific, it's just that this one gripped me from the beginning. I read this 400 page novel in just 24 hours!
Flanna O'Conner is finishing up medical school in Boston when the Civil War begins. She longs for her family in Charleston SC and disguises herself as a soldier in her effort to return to the south. Although Flanna's character has depth from the beginning, her travels deepen her character and trust in God. This is a profound story of sacrifice, loyalty, and how the effects of this war dramatically changed so many lives. These people gave up virtually everything (their lives, family, homes, & work) for a cause they believed in.
Flanna's experience and what is shared in this book really brings significance to the heroism of those who served in the Civil War. The author does an excellent job of researching our country's culture and circumstances during the mid-1800s. At the end she writes two pages on her references. I had no idea that there were 400 women who actually did pose as men in order to serve in the Civil War.
What I love about historical fiction is that it gives me a heart for the people who lived during the time, and a desire to learn more. What a great way to learn about history!!
Great Book Must Read.......2004-08-29
I love this book. Even though I'm just 15. I thought is had an amazing plot and a wonderful ending. The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars is because of the beginning. It was incredibly slow and boring. But I'm so glad I decided to keep reading!
What a wonderful story!.......2002-05-23
This book is moving...I thought that it brought a new eye to the Civil War. Flanna is in Boston, studying to get her medical degree so that she can return to Charleston and help her father in his practice. However, the Civil War breaks out and Flanna is forced to figure out how she will get home. As in the other Cahira O'Connor books, she dresses as a boy and becomes a soldier.
I thought this book was very well written from beginning to end. The death of the professor is Kathleen's impetus to get back to work on the story of the heirs of Cahira O'Connor. What she finds leads her to wonder what HER role in this will be.
I highly recommend this book to anyone, but please read the other 2 books in the series first. This book will make you want to rush out and pick up the 4th.
Hunt highlights women in history.......2000-05-24
Novelist Angela Elwell Hunt has done it again! Her exciting historical women's fiction series shines with complex stories of gifted women seeking to make a place for themselves in a world, dominated by narrow ideas of women as little more than man pleasers.
Velvet Shadow is the third in a Cahira O Connor series. Flanna O'Connor a Southern bell who defied convention to study medicine in Boston Mass on the eve of the Civil War. Her hopes to take her degree back to the south are shattered by the outbreak of war, cut off from her family she tries to enlist in the Army as a Doctor and prejudice turns her back.
This theme runs throughtout the story as the wealthy Bostonian abolitionists bemoan the fate of slaves, while mistreating their Irish servants. Her keen eye for hypocrisy in society is entertaining. I had not known that some freed blacks also had slaves. Her devotion to research illuminates the Zeitgeist (ruling ideas) of the times. When an aspiring politican pursues her to marry him and forsake medicine, Flanna, like her ancestor and many actual women in the Civil War impersonates a man to join the Union Army. She hopes to make her way home to the south and desert but her destiny as a Doctor calls her to steal supplies to treat the wounded, in spite of threat of exposure, court martial or worse. As a surgeon she becomes the Velvet Shadow who saves men who would have perished without her. Hunt has captured the misery and mismanagement of troops, supplies etc in this heartbreaking war that redefined the history of our country. Again, we are led through a series of heart breaks and changes the character must conquer to survive and thrive.
This book will spark your appetite to read the earlier books in the series that began with The Silver Sword, set in 1400's Anika of Prague must pretend to be a knight in order to escape unwanted attention of a nobleman's son. She plays in integral part in story of Jan Hus, burned at the stake for his religious beliefs.
In the second book, the Golden Cross opens in 1642 when Aidan O'Connor penniless after the death of her father at sea ekes out a living in the slums of Colonial Batavia while her spirit longs for artistic expression. A master cartographer recognizes her talent and senses God leading him to train her. Aidan enters the aristocratic world as apprenticing artist and is coached in fine manners of high born women. She longs to learn and become a wealthy artist to lift her friends from the web of wharf poverty and degradation. Aidan casts aside the brocade to masquerade as a cabin boy aboard the exploration vessel of Captain Tasman to pursue her dream. The voyage is fraught with danger, slaughter and brings Aidan to cling to God. Aidan's voyage leads to unexpected danger, treasure and you'll need to read the book to find out if she settles or succeeds.
As readers we learn in pursuing the talents God has placed within us, we can experience Kairos time creative expansion of time, versus everyday chronos time. This writer broadens my view of the past and gives inspiration to my future.
Product Description
Generals in Bronze: Revealing interviews with the commanders of the Civil War. In the decades that followed the American Civil War, Artist James E. Kelly (1855-1933) conducted in-depth interviews with over forty Union Generals in an effort to accurately portray them in their greatest moment of glory. Kelly explained: "I had always felt a great lact of certain personal details. I made up my mind to ask from living officers every question I would have asked Washington or his generals had they posed for me, such as: What they considered the principal incidents in their career and particulars about costumes and surroundings." During one interview session with Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Kelly asked about the charge at Fort Damnation. Gen. Chamberlain acquiesced, but then added, "I don't see how you can show this in a picture." "Just tell me the facts," Kelly responded, "and I'll attend to the picture." And by recording those stirring facts, Kelly left us not only his wonderful art, but a truly unique picture of the lives of the great figures of the American Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
A window into the past.......2007-07-03
It is hard to add anything new to what has already been written in the reviews, although I would say that not only does the book have excellent insight into many of the key Federal officers that fought in the war, but it is a window into 19th Century post war culture. James Kelly, the sculptor and artist who is at the center of the book, vividly recounts how he meets these gentlemen. Most of the time he must use calling cards to announce his arrival before he is called in- something wholly archaic in our modern casual society. There are other tidbits that are fascinating. One general whom he calls on uses a fan and a block of ice to keep cool as he answers Kelly's questions.
Speaking of these questions, we the readers are very fortunate in that Kelly had studied the war and often asked the same questions we would. He was a small boy during the war, and these men were his heroes. We meet these men as real people, not just as names in a book. I do agree with one reviewer who writes that there is too much detail, but there again, it is the details that make the book come alive.
My only regret (but it is a very small one) is that Kelly was so prejudiced against Southerners that he only recounts his meeting with one of them, and absolutely refused to sculpt any ex-Confederate officers. However, given his time and how he felt about the war, such feelings are understandable. It is instructive that most of the men he talked with did not share his extreme negative views about Confederate veterans.
I would recommend this book for any seasoned Civil War enthusiast, as they would be familiar with the controversies and issues Kelly recounts. But Styple does a great job as editor and so perhaps even a novice might be able to wade through some of this and get something from it.
Speaking of Styple, he deserves much credit for bringing this book into print, as he had to wade through all of Kelly's material to publish it. Not only that, but Styple researched Kelly's life and found that Kelly died a pauper with an unmarked grave! Styple was able to remedy that and recently had a grave marker erected for one of the finest sculptors our country ever produced.
A "Must Read" for Civil War Enthusiasts.......2007-07-01
As a young boy in New York City during the Civil War James Kelly fantasized about being a soldier and fighting for the Union. His passion for the heroes of that war continued into his adult life. A noted artist and sculptor, Kelly went on to immortalize a great many of them in ink and bronze.
Kelly was also a unique historian. He could obtain from these men details and circumstances of events that an ordinary reporter could not. As he had them pose for his sketches, he told them that in order to get the picture right he had to know every detail. Then, as he was drawing he would write down their comments in his journal.
In this way he gleaned fascinating insights from them that will change your view of the war. Here are some examples.
We know that several generals turned down command of the Army of the Potomac during the period 1862-1863. Kelly found out in his interviews that one of the conditions of command was the stipulation that the general had to pledge that the war would not end until after the [presidential] election of 1864.
I have always wondered why there were so few casualties during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Why didn't the big guns of the fort not inflict any damage on the Southern batteries? The answer is that the Secretary of War under outgoing President Buchanan [1856-1860] was a Southern sympathizer. In his last days in office he had ordered that the powerful casement guns in the fort be removed and replaced with old ships' guns.
Kelly obtained intimate details of the battles and why things happened the way they did as well as vivid images of life in combat. One general described having a horse shot out from under him. "He was hit as he reared. He went down over his front legs and blood shot from both nostrils like water from a pump".
This is a "must read" for all afficionados of Civil War history.
I love this book.......2007-06-04
I saw a rerun of the interview on CSpan with the author and ordered this book immediately. What a pleasure to read the off-hand remarks by the various Generals about the Civil War. MORE PICTURES please but otherwise a detailed, challenging and rewarding read if you can plow through the details.
Rare Inside Look at Civil War Generals' first hand accounts.......2007-03-09
This is the best first-hand account of Civil War action and detail that I have read since "Campaigning with Grant," and likely the greatest collection of its kind in American historic literature. Every page is a gold mine of detail straight from the lips of the Generals themselves, often expressing their true feelings about other officers that they never allowed into their memoirs. It also provides a rare glimpse into their true personalities as aging war heroes, reported objectively by artist and author James Kelly of NYC, while they sat for their sketches. Kelly transcribes their words, appearance, mannerisms, and peccadillos.
Myths are broken, and the detail provided by the generals is almost unimaginable -- from what style hat they war in a particular battle to where they took a nap will Lee surrendered to Grant at the McLean house.
Imagine Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock describing how the doctor removed the bullet and saddle-debris from his 8-inch deep wound at Gettysburg...simply an unbelievable treasure of information. The book also contains many of the actual pencil & charcoal portraits of the Generals, which are especially compelling, as you just read the actual conversation they had with the artist while he sketched away at the portrait you now hold in your hand, and the general autographed the sketch attesting that it was drawn from life and approved. If you have questions you always wanted to ask a Civil War general like Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, Hancock, or Doubleday, they answer your questions in this book; like a ghost returning from the grave to sit in your favorite chair. I am grateful that I caught editor William Styple on C-Span. In fact, all history buffs should fall on their knees and thank editor William Styple for finding Kelly's masterstroke memoir and resurrecting it so beautifully, in our lifetime.
Flavorful, But Too Detailed for Me.......2007-02-20
I'm not sure what I expected to get from `Generals in Bronze', but I know what I got: lots of flavor but a bit too much detail. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I were more of a Civil War buff, but I still had to give it 4 stars.
`Generals in Bronze' gives us history as seen through the eyes of some of the people who made it happen, particularly as related to the Civil War and its aftermath. Sculptor James E. Kelly had many of the generals pose for him, and get measured by him, at the end of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century. His sculptures included the generals, war councils, and the surrender at Appomattox. Many of his sculptures are on display at the battlefields that made them famous; I particularly like the John Buford statue at Gettysburg, that is on display on the book's back cover.
The interviews of the Civil War (mostly union) generals by Kelly were informal and personal, but there were too many battles that I was not very familiar with. I was prepared for Gettysburg, having read the Michael and Jeff Shaara trilogy and having visited nearby Gettysburg and its cyclorama a half dozen times or more; but I didn't know enough about the Western Campaign on the Mississippi, for example, to enjoy those discussions. But whatever the battle, I learned something of the atmosphere, the politics, the personality of the principals, and a sense of what it was like at ground-level and in real time (usually confusing). It was intriguing to hear historical figures like Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan speaking informally about what had happened decades before at key points in our history. Getting to know Grant, by the way, was considered by Kelly to be the highlight of his career, and he surprisingly described Grant as gentle and kind. In addition to the battles, there was a fairly long but intriguing series of interviews with eye-witnesses to the Lincoln assassination and its aftermath, probably the best part of the book. (Generals were not the only ones interviewed by Kelly, though the title implies that.)
Kelly was interesting, every bit as direct and commanding as a general. He spoke with the generals and even with President Theodore Roosevelt at a peer-to-peer level and they accepted it! He even became very good friends with some of them. He was a straight-shooter and I came to admire him, though a little put-off at times by his gruff manner. It was interesting that he was a total abstainer from alchohol, though he never said why; he frequently turned down offers to share a drink with the generals.
The informality of the interviews, the Monday morning quarterbacking over the battles (decades later), and the bristling and affecting personalities drove the book and gave it flavor, but I felt it could have been edited down to about half the size of the book. On the other hand, if you are more than the casual Civil War buff that I am, this book might just be your cup of tea.
Book Description
Imagine you're a young boy—maybe as young as three or four—separated from your family by civil war, traversing deserts and mountains with little food or water, no medical care, and no protection from wild animals. Imagine watching hundreds of boys perish around you from hunger, disease, or attacks by enemy soldiers and wild animals. To most of us, it is unimaginable, but this was reality for "The Lost Boys of Sudan," thousands of young boys who were separated from their families and forced to walk approximately 1,000 miles to reach safe refuge from war and certain death.
For the first time, this award winning book offers readers a chronological timeline of the epic journey taken by these children, beginning in their rural villages of Southern Sudan and ending with their arrival as young men to the United States. Narrated through the voice of Joan Hecht, one of their American mentors, whom they lovingly call "mom" or "Mama Joan;" "The Journey of the Lost Boys" is a compelling story of courage, faith and the sheer determination to survive by a group of young orphaned boys. Because of Joan Hecht's personal relationship with them, she is able to portray their story in a way that most famous reporters and authors cannot. In addition to her extensive research of the political and historical events surrounding the long lasting civil war in Sudan, are the heart-rending personal stories and original drawings of the boys themselves. A must read for anyone interested in the the true story of the Lost Boys of Sudan!
Customer Reviews:
The tragedy of the children of Sudan.......2007-03-31
I can only summarize my comment about this book in a few words. The author Joan Hecht did a wonderful task in narrating the frightening and heartbreaking experience of the thousands of lost boys of the Sudan,Africa's largest country. Their dangerous journey involving thousands of miles in a very hostile landscape is incredible. The author's very kind heart,sincere consideration and admiration for these children is worth more than all the gold of the world. Very highly recommended for young and old.
Learning about Sudan? START HERE.......2006-10-15
This is the book you need to read if you are unfamiliar with the background of the issues in Sudan, the Lost Boys, and the issues faced by refugees who come to America. Ms. Hecht might not be an " academic", but she is the person with an enormous amount of first hand information on these subjects, and she breaks it down into managable pieces. Even if you are knowledgable on these subjects, this book is still useful as a clarifying tool. Ms. Hecht is also very committed, and that comes through on every page.
OUTSTANDING BOOK .......2006-08-11
Readers of this book will be touched by the stories of these incredible young men, who, at an early age, were separated from their parents and families. The atrocities witnessed by the boys are unspeakable. The author has provided the readers with stories that make those who have lived a life without fear take a new appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy in the United States.
A good term paper.......2006-07-26
The endless conflict in Sudan is another calamity that the press should have been bombarding us with daily for years. A tragedy of such dimensions should torment our collective conscience. This is exactly why it deserves a better telling than Ms. Hecht is able to offer us. The writing is amateurish and the text cries out for the editing it appears not to have been subjected to. Easy streamlining and the correction of some grammatical errors would make the book more readable and more powerful. Ms. Hecht's devotion to the cause of the Lost Boys is clearly sincere and praiseworthy, however, and she does deserve thanks for contributing to making us aware of the atrocities that go on in the world while we turn the other way.
An accurate, heartfelt and well-written account.......2006-06-28
Joan Hecht's "Journey" is in this reviewer's opinion the most interesting and accurate book available on the topic of the Lost Boys. As a former foster father to one of the lost boys and a fellow author and researcher, I recommend the book without hesitation. It presents an extraordinarily complicated situation in a manner that is comprehensible, fascinating and accurate. It gives the reader a true sense of the horror, courage and hope that has gripped a generation of young Sudanese men.
For its rare photos, clear and organized presentation and sincere prose, I highly recommend this informative and inspiring book and thank the author for her outstanding efforts.
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