Warriors Don't Cry: Searing Memoir of Battle to Integrate Little Rock

Book Description

You've gotta learn to defend yourself. Never let your enemy know what you are feeling.
-- The soldier assigned to protect Melba

Please, God, let me learn how to stop being a warrior. Sometimes I just need to be a girl.
-- Melba's diary, on her sixteenth birthday

In 1957 Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board Education, she was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. This is her remarkable story.

You will listen to the cruel taunts of her schoolmates and their parents. You will run with her from the threat of a lynch mob's rope. You will share her terror as she dodges lighted sticks of dynamite, and her pain as she washes away the acid sprayed into her eyes. But most of all you will share Melba's dignity and courage as she refuses to back down.

Customer Reviews:

I T CAME TO PASS.......2007-08-13

sO MUCH OUR RACE OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN THROUGH , AND THE BOOK TELLS A LOT OF THE TRIUMPHS WE WENT THROUGH, AND STILL SOME OF THOSE THINGS STILL ARE GOING ON TODAy. So the title it came to pass is the right title because god said in his word nothing but the rightous.

Repetition Galore.......2007-07-05

Melba Pattillo Beals' "Warriors Don't Cry" was amateur at best. While the purpose of the memoir is inspiring, Beals just appeared to be a broken record.

Upon reading other reviews, I thought this memoir was going to be heartbreaking and inspiring. Yet as I began to read, a pattern developed. The book dragged on and on yet there seemed to be no progression. I found myself void of emotion throughout the whole recount. Needless to say, this was a disappointment, and extremely poorly written.

Warriors Don't Cry.......2007-06-27

We are coming up on the 50th anniversary of the integration of Central High in Little Rock. This book is written by one of the courageous students who braved a racist mob to claim the equality and justice we are all promised in a democracy. The photographs of one student, Elizabeth Eckford, facing the abusive and threatening crowds became iconic, part of history and public memory. What is not as well known is what life was like for the nine students inside the school everyday. Everyday they were threatened, physically attacked, suffered abusive language and attitudes from the white, segregationist students. The author, Melba Patillo Beals, is an extraordinary writer, storyteller and she is blazingly honest. As a way of celebrating July 4th, read this book and give it to every young person over the age of 10 that you know.

"With All Deliberate Speed . . .".......2007-05-15

Melba Joy Pattillo Beals was at the heart of a vortex of history as one of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated Arkansas' preeminent public school in 1957. In the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, "Brown v. Board of Education," schools throughout the United States were ordered to integrate "with all deliberate speed."

Violent opposition to the integration of Central High led to the garrisoning of Little Rock by the 101st Airborne Division, the first (and thus far only) active-engagement use of Federal troops in the South since Reconstruction.

Ms. Beals (now a journalist) has a journalist's eye as she recalls her experiences at Central High that year. Drawing on her memories and on the copious and detailed diaries she kept, Ms. Beals puts us right into her well-shined saddle shoes, and right into the halls of Central.

At first glance, Melba Pattillo would have seemed to be the wrong sort of person to be on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. At fifteen, she was a girl given to romantic daydreams, a girl seemingly perfectly content to listen to Buddy Holly on the radio while cuddling with her stuffed animal collection amidst her flouncy white comforter and matching pillows.

But deep inside, Melba Pattillo had a core of steel. Her mother held an advanced degree in Education, and her gentle, stern, and unyielding Grandmother India had an unshakeable faith both in God, and in Melba, a faith which she transmitted almost by osmosis to her granddaughter---"God's warriors don't cry, child."

If other members of Melba's family and community did not share these ideas, ideals, and values, at least they all understood that this remarkable young lady (and her eight fellow classmates) was doing something that needed to be done, something that portended a sea change in the world.

But for all the fine rhetoric, life at Central was a hell of crowded corridors, shadowy stairwells, and constant terror. From day one, avowed segregationists in the school, in the community, and in the government (including Governor Orval Faubus) tried to break the back of the integration by means foul and fouler. Adult members of Little Rock's White Citizens Council educated their charges at Central in the ways and means of torture.

Anyone stunned by the constant reports of current-day "violence in our schools" will be shattered by Ms. Beals' seemingly endless recitation of the horrors inflicted upon the Little Rock Nine in the halls of Central High. Being cursed at, spat upon, and called a "N****r" was nothing much; open threats with weapons, violent beatings and stompings, stabbings, scaldings with near-boiling hot water, dousings with unspeakable liquids, strangulations, attempts at immolation, and acid sprays in the eyes were commonplace. These were not just hurtful acts. They were often life-threatening, and the passivity (or even gleeful acquiescence) of most of the CHS school officials in the face of such ongoing abuse of these children put in their care is enough to enrage the reader.

The lack of direct adult interest in what the Little Rock Nine were going through is paralyzing to consider. Little was done to protect them, even by their supporters. The 101st was pulled out of Little Rock in a deal brokered by Beltway Bandits, and what was actually happening to the Little Rock Nine was abstract to the politicians. The price these nine black teens paid for our freedom is beyond valuation.

And if the constancy of the violence portrayed in the telling of the tale somewhat blunts the reader's emotions after a time, it is harder to feel blunted when Melba Beals talks about the wrenching changes that went on within herself. Her fame (or notoriety among segregationists) meant that her home became a fortress-prison from which she could rarely escape. Drive-by shootings and bomb threats kept most of the lifelong friends she had made among "our people" (as she calls the blacks in her community) far away, and she was not invited to parties and outings. Holidays passed without the usual gaggle of friends and relations. The sad retelling of her unattended Sweet Sixteen Party is a heartbreaking moment in time, and her sorrow still reaches across the years to touch the reader.

But there are the finer moments as well: Every day spent at Central is at the end a day of victory; her meetings with remarkable men such as Thurgood Marshall are treasured moments in her life; her gratitude to the brave men of the 101st Airborne and the task they undertook to uphold the law of the land just so a girl could go to school where she chose, is inspiring; her first few tentative friendships with some white Central High students gives us cause for hope. Melba Pattillo traded her childhood for adulthood too soon, and her innocence for a hard-honed survival instinct by force.

We live in a far different society today, and in part that is due to Melba Beals. We can thank whatever Spirit moves us that she was given the talent to write this incredible memoir. This is an essential read.

Very good book.......2007-03-30

I loved this book. It was very sad to hear about all the hardships that the 9 students had to endure to integrate Central High. I think it made them better people and I feel sorry that they had to go through those things. The description used by Melba Pattillo Beals was excellent and very useful when you were trying to get a feel for how they felt. You almost felt as if you were there with them and were going through the same things. I would definetly recommend this book to other readers. I would avise that the reader be a little bit older so that they can understand the things that the blacks were going through. Other than being a harsh book because of the things that needed to be describe it was an amazing book.

Ike's Final Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality

Average customer rating:

Pipes extracts the true Eisenower regarding civil rights
An extensive bibliography, notes, and an index round out this welcome addition to American history shelves.
Ike's Struggle
Outstanding
A Good Man's Inner Stuggle

Ike's Final Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality
Kasey S. Pipes
Manufacturer: World Ahead Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0977898458

Book Description

He called it one of the hardest things he ever did - as difficult as leading the D-Day invasion. When Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to integrate Central High School in September 1957, he couldn't know that he was fighting the last great battle of his career...one that would change forever both him and his country. This is the story of how one of America's greatest leaders confronted America's greatest sin. This is the unlikely tale of how Ike became a civil rights president.

Ike's Final Battle represents a revolution in scholarship on Eisenhower and civil rights. Though not uncritical, the book credits his steady personal advance on the issue as well as his accomplishments in the military and as president.

Drawing on thousands of primary documents (including newly released material), Ike's Final Battle builds to its climax at Little Rock - one of the most pivotal events of the civil rights movement. Little Rock is at the epicenter, but the book will also look at the cause, and the aftermath.

* With the 50th Anniversary of Little Rock approaching in 2007, the timing is perfect. This is the last priceless nugget of civil rights history.

* The book draws on thousands of newly released documents, many never before made public.

* This is the first book on the subject in 25 years. It disproves the claim that that Ike didn't care about civil rights.

From The Wall Street Journal

D-Day in Little Rock, A Civil-Rights Showdown

By FRED BARNES, March 8, 2007

In spring 1954, as the Supreme Court was deliberating on Brown v. Board of Education, President Dwight D. Eisenhower invited Chief Justice Earl Warren to a stag dinner at the White House. He seated Warren at the same table as John W. Davis, the lawyer who had argued against school desegregation before the court. Eisenhower proceeded to tell the chief justice what a "great man" Davis was.

As it happened, Eisenhower had authorized his Justice Department to file an amicus brief in the case opposing Davis and public-school segregation. And he specifically allowed his solicitor general, Lee Rankin, to tell the justices during oral argument that "separate but equal" schools were unconstitutional. Yet he sympathized with the segregated South. "These are not bad people," he told Warren at the dinner. "All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big, overgrown Negroes." Warren was appalled.

To put it kindly, Eisenhower was ambivalent on civil rights. "Conservative by nature, he hoped that the advance of the civil rights movement would be gradual, allowing time for the South to change," writes Kasey S. Pipes in "Ike's Final Battle." Most of all, Eisenhower didn't want to lead a civil-rights crusade from the White House. "The only crusade he had ever wanted to lead was liberating Europe in World War II," Mr. Pipes says.

But when necessary -- or when steps toward desegregation were relatively painless -- Eisenhower acted. He broke the color barrier in the military by deploying black soldiers alongside whites to win the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945. As president, he integrated the schools and movie theaters in Washington, D.C., and federal installations around the country. Most important, he sent U.S. Army troops to Little Rock, Ark., in September 1957 to escort nine black students into Central High School after days of violent protest. It was a defeat from which segregationist forces never recovered.

"Little Rock represented something else as well: the culmination of Eisenhower's own attitude toward racial justice," Mr. Pipes writes. "Ike had enjoyed the luxury of endorsing civil rights in broad terms, knowing full well that much of segregation law was a state and local matter. Little Rock ended that."

Two days after the Army troops arrived in Little Rock, Eisenhower decided to address the nation on prime-time television. This surprised his attorney general, Herbert Brownell, who had been prodding Eisenhower for years to act more boldly on civil rights. The president wrote most of the speech himself, including a passage, suggested by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, arguing that violent opposition to racial integration was weakening America's influence and prestige in the world.

In the speech, Eisenhower lauded the desegregation efforts of other Southern communities and their willingness to comply with federal law. This was a new tack for the president, who had refused to endorse Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court's decision declaring segregated public schools unconstitutional. Nor had he denounced the murder of Emmett Till by racist thugs in Mississippi in 1955, despite pleas by the teenage boy's mother.

"He feared that moralizing from the bully pulpit would raise not only awareness, but also the collective blood pressure of the South," Mr. Pipes writes. "He saw no point in riling an already angry population. . . . To put it bluntly, Eisenhower had little interest in trying to change the minds of millions of Southerners."

But he had learned a lesson from Little Rock. His view had been, as Mr. Pipes puts it, that "segregationists and civil rights advocates were cut from the same cloth." In his dealings with Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, he learned otherwise.

Faubus betrayed Eisenhower. In the midst of the Little Rock crisis -- as Arkansas's National Guard was blocking the nine black students from Central High -- Faubus had agreed to meet the president in Newport, R.I. At the end of their 20-minute talk, Faubus gave the president the clear impression that he would change the National Guard's orders, requiring it to protect the black students as they entered Central High. But Faubus didn't follow through. Eisenhower felt double-crossed and told Brownell: "You were right. Faubus broke his word." The president then took the next step, dispatching the 101st Airborne.

Mr. Pipes is not a professional historian. He is a public-relations consultant and speechwriter who worked in the Bush White House from 2002 to 2005. But he has written a highly readable and credible account of Eisenhower's struggle with race and civil rights. While sympathetic, he doesn't sugarcoat Eisenhower's qualms about desegregation or excuse his unwillingness to move decisively before Little Rock.

Eisenhower famously regretted his appointment of Earl Warren as chief justice. (Warren served in that role from 1953 to 1969.) Warren confronted Eisenhower about the president's feelings toward him when they flew together to Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965. Eisenhower explained that it was Warren's liberal rulings on national security that had upset him. He didn't mention Brown v. Board of Education, and understandably so: Years earlier Eisenhower had told an aide, privately, that he thought the Brown decision was wrong; by 1965, he had concluded that it was right.

Customer Reviews:

Pipes extracts the true Eisenower regarding civil rights.......2007-07-05

This book is a fast 300 pg. narrative on Eisenhower's nuanced positions regarding civil rights. The nuance is not whether equal rights for African Americans were right vs. wrong, but instead Eisenhower's struggle on how best to protect the rights of these Americans against the prejudice of southern conservatives who controlled the southern states and the relevant committees of the Senate.

Pipes begins with Eisenhower's experiences and contributions to the cause of equal rights in the military and ends in his retirement, with the climax happening 2/3 of the way through the book when Ike sends federal troops to Little Rock, AK to defend the right of African American students to attend a whites-only public school in spite of a bigoted governor who sends the national guard to keep them out. The book finishes with reflections on his contributions looking back from the time of Kennedy and LBJ moving the ball forward even further.

Pipes provides an incredibly fair report on President Eisenhower's policy positions and actions given the frequent opaqueness of his position depending on the situation and the company he was keeping. Many have attempted to paint Ike as a racist political opportunist or a courageous leader of the civil rights movement, with both positions given to hyperbole. Instead, Pipes portrays a man who respects majoritarian positions while realizing in his heart the wrongness of institutionalized bigotry even though Eisenhower, a man of his time, shares some prejudicial beliefs. The struggle for Eisenhower is often how to move the majority to his position without his having to depend on fiery rhetoric to change hearts and minds.

While Eisenhower was never a die-hard politico, he left the GOP with a wonderful legacy inherent in republicanism as a form of government instituted in 1787. Reading this book in 2007 shows how far the current majority of Republicans have mutated away from the principles of republicanism and Eisenhower, mostly due to the Southern Conservative Democrats who emigrated to the party after LBJ signed the Democratic party up to support civil rights as a party platform plank and due to his passing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts being the current majority within the party and their shunting aside traditional Republicans from the North.

Pipes only flaw in the book, so minor it's not worth knocking down a star, is a weak-hearted to attempt to define Eisenhower as a conservative even though all empirical evidence in the book and other studies on Eisenhower provide ample evidence that he was a moderate who "got it" regarding our founding ideal of republicanism that limits government power and that our liberty comes through each of us individually reserving our rights along with Eisenhower's actions following the examples of previous Republican presidents using federal power to protect individual and minority rights (e.g., Madison, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt).

An extensive bibliography, notes, and an index round out this welcome addition to American history shelves........2007-06-10

Written by former Bush White House worker Kasey S. Pipes, Ike's Final Battle: the Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality is the amazing and unlikely true story of how Dwight D. Eisenhower became a civil rights president. Chronicling the landmark desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which forced a historical confrontation between state and federal authorities and set an engraved precedent that the federal government would intervene for the sake of racial justice if necessary, Ike's Final Battle meticulously recounts events in unfolding detail, with an inset section of black-and-white photographic plates. An extensive bibliography, notes, and an index round out this welcome addition to American history shelves.

Ike's Struggle.......2007-05-29

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! It tells President Eisenhower's story very well, and it kept my interest throughout the narrative.

Pipes' thesis, that Eisenhower went through a significant "struggle within himself" about his belief in civil rights (requiring significant social change) and majority rule (which did not support significant social change at that time), is also well argued. I especially appreciate the honesty in which the author tells Ike's story, including his strengths and weaknesses.

Also, Pipes does an excellent job of noting the number of significant Republican policy makers who were strong advocates of civil rights legislation during the 1950s and 1960s.

While I think everyone will benefit from reading this book, it especially should be read by all Republican office holders and candidates, today.

Outstanding.......2007-04-24

This is a very readable book from an outstanding young author. He gives an insight to Ike that most people don't remember. I can't wait for his next book!

A Good Man's Inner Stuggle .......2007-04-23

This is a very well written, highly engaging book about Eisenhower's inner struggle with racial equality. Generally, historians give President Eisenhower low grades for his handling of civil rights: too slow, too reticent, no vision or leadership. But this was not Ike's way, Kasey Pipes argues. He was a conservative, 19th century man who believed in low-key, incremental progress, in changing people's minds before changing laws. As a military man, he was taught to manage problems, not lead a revolution. The only crusade he was prepared to lead, Pipes says, was the one that liberated Europe.

Ike did boldly effect change where he could: giving African-Americans a combat role during the Battle of the Bulge, desegrating Washington DC as well as military bases in the South. These progressive moves were often made with little fanfare, as Ike believed (probably correctly) publicity would simply stir up a backlash of opposition. However, when the Big Test came at Little Rock, in 1957, he passed with flying colors, sending in the 101st Airborne. Indeed, Pipes observes, Ike's performance at Little Rock compares favorably with President Kennedy's five years later at Ole Miss. (There were no major casualties at Little Rock versus hundreds at Ole Miss).

Pipes, a Republican speechwriter, is a gifted wordsmith, and his first book has a brisk narrative pace. A terrific read.

Average customer rating:

A Superior Sequel
The Slaver War
This sequel isn't as good, but isn't bad. (3.5 stars)
Great Followup
Great Story

1824: The Arkansas War
Eric Flint
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0345465695
Release Date: 2006-11-28

Book Description

In the newest volume of this exhilarating series, Eric Flint continues to reshape American history, imagining how a continent and its people might have taken a different path to its future. With 1824: The Arkansas War, he spins an astounding and provocative saga of heroism, battlefield action, racial conflict, and rebellion as a nation recovering from war is plunged into a dangerous era of secession.

Buffered by Spanish possessions to the south and by free states and two rivers to the north, Arkansas has become a country of its own: a hybrid confederation of former slaves, Native American Cherokee and Creek clans, and white abolitionists–including one charismatic warrior who has gone from American hero to bête noire. Irish-born Patrick Driscol is building a fortune and a powerful army in the Arkansas Confederacy, inflaming pro-slavers in Washington and terrifying moderates as well. Caught in the middle is President James Monroe, the gentlemanly Virginian entering his final year in office with a demagogic House Speaker, Henry Clay, nipping at his heels and fanning the fires of war. But Driscol, whose black artillerymen smashed both the Louisiana militia in 1820 and the British in New Orleans, remains a magnet for revolution. And fault lines are erupting throughout the young republic–so that every state, every elected official, and every citizen will soon be forced to choose a side.

For a country whose lifeblood is infected with the slave trade, the war of 1824 will be a bloody crisis of conscience, politics, economics, and military maneuvering that will draw in players from as far away as England. For such men as Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Sam Houston, charismatic war hero Andrew Jackson, and the violent abolitionist John Brown, it is a time to change history itself.

Filled with fascinating insights into some of America’s most intriguing historical figures, 1824: The Arkansas War confirms Eric Flint as a true master of alternate history, a novelist who brings to bear exhaustive research, remarkable intuition, and a great storyteller’s natural gifts to chronicle the making of our nation as it might have been.

Customer Reviews:

A Superior Sequel.......2007-08-21

I did not care all that much for RIVERS OF WAR, the previous book in this story line, but I really enjoyed this one. Even so, it does help to have read the first volume because this one is based upon story lines developed there.

A new nation exists in North America. It is a confederacy of Indian tribes set up in the region of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It was set up by tribes from the southern US who were fleeing land hungry Americans and was the brainchild of Sam Houston with help from Andrew Jackson and other notables of the time. This confederacy has one extra element, though, which is the main focus of the story. One of the "tribes" consists primarily of escaped slaves and freedmen. This naturally leads to tension with the US.

Agitators in the US such as John Calhoun and Henry Clay have a vested political interest in quashing the fledgling confederacy. Others, such as John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and James Monroe do not. Most notable among those who are against destroying the confederacy are the confederacy themselves. They do not want to be quashed.

The confederacy has several things going for it. It has a very capable army of eager volunteers. It has the help and advice of a British general. It has a very determined Irishman for a commander and, just as important, it has an enemy that does not take them seriously.

This looks to be the first of several books dealing with this war that never was. I hope so.

The Slaver War.......2007-06-15

1824: The Arkansas War (2006) is the second in the American Frontier series, following 1812: The Rivers of War. In the previous volume, the British crossed the river and attacked Morgan's Line on the west bank. After initial success, they are defeated by Houston's infantry, the Cherokees and Driscol's battery. The untried freeman of the Iron Battalion stood against everything the British threw at them. Pakenham realized that Jackson would have slaughtered his men on Chalmette field and soon returned the troops to their ships. Shortly thereafter, news of the peace treaty ended the current hostilities.

In this novel, some time later, a Creole grandee had one of Driscol's freemen castrated for drawing the attention of a quadroon demoiselle. So Driscol mustered the Iron Battalion and led them into the French quarter, where they hung every slavecatcher in the vicinity. Then Driscol ordered the death of the high-handed grandee.

When the Louisiana militia came to put down the "servile insurrection", Driscol had them raked with grapeshot; this massacre was later called the Battle of Algiers. Then Driscol led the withdrawal of free blacks to the Arkansas territory. There he joined with the Indians in that region and formed a mixed confederation.

Now Patrick Driscol is the "Laird" of the Arkansas Chiefdom, which is the strongest province in the new republic. The capital of this confederation is New Antrim, also called Little Rock by the Indians and Driscoltown by the blacks. This confederation welcomes settlers of any race, including runaway slaves. The politicians in the Southern states are strident in their demands that this practice be stopped, but the slaves, freemen, Indians and even whites keep migrating to Arkansas.

Sam Houston was appointed as the special commissioner for Indian affairs shortly after the war ended and has been the son-in-law of President Monroe since 1819. As the Hero of the Capitol, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in Washington, but he married Maria Hester Monroe after a nationally famous whirlwind courtship. She had been only seventeen at the time, yet he had been only twenty-six years old himself.

Houston had been somewhat of a womanizer prior to the marriage but settled down afterwards. He even cut down on his drinking at home, especially after the birth of their son. Of course, he still drank in the taverns and on his many trips to Arkansas and other Indian areas.

Richard Mentor Johnson is a Kentucky Senator and a good friend of Andrew Jackson. Johnson is also notorious for living with a black woman and having two acknowledged daughters with her. Houston drops by to visit their farm on his way to the Hermitage.

After telling Johnson some disappointing news, Houston offers an Army escort for Miss Julia and his daughters in their travel to a school in New Antrim. Houston later asks Lieutenant-Colonel Zachary Taylor to provide this escort. As an old friend of the family, Taylor takes the duty himself rather than delegating it.

Upon reaching Memphis, Taylor finds the situation on the Mississippi River to be bad enough that he is reluctant to continue. He tries to talk Miss Julia into staying in Memphis, but she refuses. Her offer to inscribe his dispatches to Washington finally settles the matter and they continue on to New Antrim.

In this story, General Winfield Scott provides a briefing on Arkansas River fortifications to President Monroe and Secretary of State Adams. Then they discuss the probable results of the forthcoming election in the United States. The consensus of the meeting is that no candidate will obtain a majority in the Electoral College. Since Henry Clay is Speaker of the House of Representatives, he will surely win any vote in that chamber. This evaluation gives them a lot to think about.

Meanwhile, Robert Crittenden comes into some extra funds and buys guns for his "army" of freebooters in New Orleans. They travel north up the Mississippi, torturing and killing any Indians that they find. Then Crittenden reaches the fort at Arkansas Post.

This story also tells of the return of former British Major General Robert Ross to North America for a visit with his old enemy Patrick Driscol. This time Ross brings his wife and eldest son with him. They are warmly welcomed in New Antrim.

This story also tells of the flight of a group of freemen expelled from Baltimore under the exclusion act. This group runs into a band of slavecatchers, who welcome the opportunity to burn their papers and sell them as slaves. But then John Brown and his brothers happen on the scene and make a strong impression on the slavecatchers. The surviving slavers run for their lives.

John Brown also makes a strong impression on the young black Sheffield Parker. The Parker family continues on to New Antrim, where Sheff and his Uncle Jem become soldiers in the Arkansas army. John Brown refuses to join any army -- too much cursing -- but he is willing to settle by the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers and to shoot any slavecatchers that come along.

After Henry Clay is sworn in as President, his administration's agenda is dictated mostly by the Southern states. John C. Calhoun becomes the Secretary of War and promptly orders the US Army to invade the Arkansas Confederacy. Since Driscol has been expecting this war for several years, the invasion is not quite as easy as the Clay administration expects. Young Sheff Parker emerges as a hero in this conflict.

This novel starts out with violence and works its way up to war. Yet this invasion up the Arkansas River is much smaller and shorter than the Civil War in our timeline. Still, the next volume may well relate a continuing and more widespread war.

Highly recommended for Flint fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of the American frontier during the early nineteenth century, with many of the heroes and villains of that era, yet without the Trail of Tears.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This sequel isn't as good, but isn't bad. (3.5 stars).......2007-05-04

Set about 10 years after the events portrayed in Flint's book, 1812, this alternative history picks up with Nation of Arkansas, a nation that has been carved out of the Arkansas and Oklahoma territories and offers a new life for freed slaves and many Native American tribes being pushed out of the Eastern United States. It has a large, well-trained army, which, when Arkansas Post is attacked, defends it well. This event kicks off turmoil in the US as the newspapers and politicians rant about the `aggressive blacks' across the river and how they must be taught a lesson. Will there be a war? Will the US eradicate the young nation?

Notes:
This book does not stand alone. You need to read 1812 first.

Sam Houston, the focus of the first book doesn't play as large of a role in this one. There was not as much character development in this story.

There is more exposition in this book and less action.

In the first book, 1812, Flint spends some time presenting the plight of the Native Americans in the face of a relentless push by the United States to claim the entire continent. The social emphasis of this sequel, however, is the plight of the African slaves, their lack of human rights, property and respect as fellow humans. I found it to be a good reminder of the horrors of slavery and the status of Africans (I'm not sure one can call them African-AMERICANS at that time, since they weren't granted citizenship or any other rights. They were slaves without a country ... but I digress.) The author isn't preachy, he weaves the information into the story quite well.

All in all, I did not feel that this sequel matched the first volume in pace, plot or character development, but it was worth the time to read it.

Great Followup.......2007-03-14

I loved the first book, and this was a great sequel, did not care for the ending, but it looks like there will be another one, so hopefully soon.

Great Story.......2007-03-09

For anyone who is a history buff, the question that jumps around in all our minds is "What if". This is a great story that uses American historical figures and heroes as the source of most of the characters, which gives it familiarity but also thoroughly develops their character from what we know from history and attempts to predict what they would have done in this situation. I was wishing the story would continue at the end.

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Disappointed
A First Attempt
Sugar and spice and everything nice
Beautifully Written
Excellent Reading

Sugar: A Novel
Bernice L. McFadden
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0525945318
Release Date: 2000-01-10

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Bernice L. McFadden's first novel begins with the brief, poetic description of a crime so startling that the reader is helplessly drawn in, as if a bright red door stood ajar on a bleak and forbidding house. Pearl Taylor's daughter, Jude, has been found murdered and mutilated near a field at the edge of town. "The murder had white man written all over it," writes McFadden. "But no one would say it above a whisper. It was 1940. It was Bigelow, Arkansas. It was a black child. Need any more be said?" In the years that follow, Pearl catches sight of Jude in so many strangers that when Sugar Lacey comes to town and sets up her unwholesome "business" in the house next door, she doesn't know whether to believe what she sees in Sugar's face: a striking similarity to Jude, dead 15 years. In her sedate but supple prose--rising at times to a light, unforced lyricism in the description of landscape or character--the author perfectly renders the closed and protective society of a small Southern town, the superstitions, gossip, and prying. Although the men of Bigelow are happy enough to have Sugar around, the women do their best to drive her off. Only Pearl is drawn to Sugar, managing to look beyond the rumors surrounding her new neighbor, whose dismal life, she tells Pearl, "had no crossroads." Eventually Pearl shows Sugar the ballerina-topped jewelry box in which she keeps snapshots of her dead daughter.

Sugar lifted the lid and saw herself staring back at her. She jerked as if struck. Her hands were shaking as she lifted the first of many pictures from the box. Jude rolling in the grass, Jude swimming in the lake, Jude sleeping, Jude laughing. Sugar's head was swimming. If someone had brought these pictures to her and said, 'Here you are in the life you can't recall,' she would have believed every word of it and ignored the slight differences that remained between Jude and herself. Jude's smaller nose and thinner lips, her rounder eyes and fuller brow. But the smile was the same; sure and solid. Sugar knew that smile, it was her own.

Slowly, the secret connections between Jude and Sugar unfold against a backdrop of suspense and the return of violence. This is an ambitious and feeling debut from a promising writer. --Regina Marler

Book Description

An exceptional debut novel that explores a most unlikely friendship between a churchgoing Southern woman and the bewitching young prostitute who moves in next door.

Set in the fictionalized town of Bigelow, Arkansas, circa 1950, Sugar is a rich and moving story that traces the lives of two unforgettable women and the small community they change. After the horrible death of her young daughter, Jude, Pearl Taylor turns to the church for support, suppressing her own desires. But when Sugar, a beautiful, uninhibited spirit (who resembles Jude with eerie similarity) moves into the neighboring home at 10 Grove Street, Pearl's life is irrevocably and dramatically changed. Over sweet potato pie the two woman learn to trust and confide in each other, but when the local gossips discover that Sugar is a prostitute, Pearl shocks the once quiet town-and herself-by remaining loyal to her new friend.

Filled with lyrical prose, McFadden reveals her talent for using language with an almost spiritual grace to describe the vivid and mysterious details found in everyday life. Sugar is a timeless story of what it means to accept and to forgive.

"Bernice McFadden grabs the reader's attention immediately and doesn't let go until the last sentence of the final chapter . . . Sugar is moving, tragic, and hopeful in equal measure."-Sharon Mitchell, author of Nothing but the Rent

"Driven mightily by engaging characters, Sugar is written with a wonderful combination of wit and heart."--Yolanda Joe, author of He Say, She Say and Bebe's By Golly Wow!

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed.......2007-08-03

I finished this book feeling realy disturbed. This is definitely not the kind of book you read if you're looking for a pleasant book with positive energy and happy ending. I do not reccommend this book for anyone.

A First Attempt.......2007-06-20

From reading over the reviews, I see that I'll be in the minority but I am currently reading this book and it is a bit frustrating. There are great endorsements by writers of prominence in the African American community and I'm wondering if they read the book or the excerpt. The latter is excellent and I thought the storyline was great but the writing is disappointing. The transitions and dialogue between the characters don't jibe and I'm finding them to be unbelievable. I'm not connecting with them. While I understand this is a first novel, I have read much better.

Sugar and spice and everything nice.......2007-02-01

Wow, First of all this story was very good hate it taking me so long to read this novel.Ms Mcfadden did a very good job on this story about sugar.This tale take us back 15 years ago when they find a little girl in the wildflowers died.a Murder that left the mother without life until she meets sugar and her live change forever, a friendship that means alot to both of these ladies.A love that every friendship should have true friends.

Beautifully Written .......2007-02-01

I have owned this book for almost two years and finally decided to pick it up yesterday. This story is so powerful and moving. Bernice McFadden has a way of making the 1940's and the 1950's come to life right in your own home. There is never a dull moment in this tale of how a "whore" and a older housewife become friends. Bernice has a way of taking you on an emotional roller coaster with Sugar as you bounce back and forth bewteen her past and present. You slowly begin to understand exactly how she becomes the woman you are introduced to in the beginning of the novel. I will not ruin the story for you and the information from the cover is listed above, I will tell you this will more than likely be one of the best books you will read in a long time. This is a story that sticks with you for years to come. I cannot wait to get my hands on part two!

Excellent Reading.......2006-07-14

This book kept you in suspense as to what will happen next. Sugar's character made you think of an amazon. However her spirit made her seem so vunerable. I especially enjoyed Pearl. The ending was very sad to me. I wish the Sugar would not have left. Overall the book was a good reading.

The Battle for the Buffalo River: A Twentieth-Century Conservation Crisis in the Ozarks

Average customer rating:

Methodical and penetrating writing.

The Battle for the Buffalo River: A Twentieth-Century Conservation Crisis in the Ozarks
Neil Compton
Manufacturer: University of Arkansas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557282366

Customer Reviews:

Methodical and penetrating writing........1998-07-23

Well researched I guess. There is no bibliography or works cited. Actually written as if the writer doesn't want to make enemies. The Buffalo National River made enough of those during its emergence I suppose. Still the book is written with the deep-seated feelings that only those who truly aprreciate the steadily changing equilibrium of natural spaces can envoke.

Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation

Average customer rating:

After nearly five decades, enlightenment at last
Anatomy of a Train Wreck
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
The American Dream or the American Nightmare...
Information Overload

Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation
Elizabeth Jacoway
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0743297199

Book Description

In September 1957, the nation was transfixed by nine black students attempting to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. Governor Orval Faubus had defied the city's integration plan by calling out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school. Newspapers across the nation ran front-page photographs of whites, both students and parents, screaming epithets at the quiet, well-dressed black children. President Eisenhower reluctantly deployed troops from the 101st Air-borne, both outside and inside the school.

Integration proceeded, but the turmoil of Little Rock had only just begun. Public schools were soon shut down for a full year. Black students endured outrageous provocation by white classmates. Governor Faubus's popularity skyrocketed, while the landmark case Cooper v. Aaron worked its way to the Supreme Court and eventually paved the way for the integration of the south.

Betsy Jacoway was a Little Rock student just two years younger than the youngest of the Little Rock Nine. Her "Uncle Virgil" was Superintendent of Schools Virgil Blossom. Congressman Brooks Hays was an old family friend, and her "Uncle Dick" was Richard Butler, the lawyer who argued Cooper v. Aaron before the Supreme Court. Yet, at the time, she was cocooned away from the controversy in a protective shell that was typical for white southern "good girls." Only in graduate school did she begin to question the foundations of her native world, and her own distance from the controversy.

Turn Away Thy Son is the product of thirty years of digging behind the conventional account of the crisis, interviewing whites and blacks, officials and students, activists and ordinary citizens. A tour de force of history and memory, it is also a brilliant, multifaceted mirror to hold up to America today. She knows what happened to the brave black students once they got inside the doors of the school. She knows how the whites' fear of "race mixing" drove many locals to extremes of anger, paranoia, and even violence. She knows that Orval Faubus was only a reluctant segregationist, and that her own cousin's timid tokenism precipitated the crisis.

Above all, Turn Away Thy Son shows in vivid detail why school desegregation was the hottest of hot-button issues in the Jim Crow south. In the deepest recesses of the southern psyche, Jacoway encounters the fear of giving black men sexual access to white women. The truth about Little Rock differs in many ways from the caricature that emerged in the press and in many histories -- but those differences pale in comparison to the fundamental driving force behind the story. Turn Away Thy Son is a riveting, heartbreaking, eye-opening book.

Customer Reviews:

After nearly five decades, enlightenment at last.......2007-07-31

I attended Little Rock Central High School as a sophomore in the 1957-58 school year, and during the intervening five decades I have often attempted to make sense of the bewildering events that occurred at my school then and that gained such massive international attention. After all of these years, a talented and meticulous historian has finally created the definitive history of this crucial episode in recent American life. Drawing upon her exhaustive research of the primary documents and by conducting a huge number of interviews with most of the principal participants in the Central High crisis, Elizabeth Jacoway has written the book that should achieve recognition as the single work requiring citation whenever a future historian undertakes a serious examination of the integration of Central High. In this volume readers will encounter the naivete, bumbling ineptitude, treachery, malevolence, sporadic acts of grace and heroism, or misguided policies and decisions of so many of the major community, state, and national leaders and officials of the 1950's. Congratulations to Professor Jacoway for possessing the dedication, courage, and persistence necessary to produce this seminal work of history.

Charles Chappell
Professor of English
Hendrix College
Conway, Arkansas

Anatomy of a Train Wreck.......2007-07-19

This wonderful piece of scholarship is not in keeping with our time. Today, we are asked to look to crack-pot talking heads on television who are experts-on-nothing with opinions on everything, and who think every issue can be reduced to an eight-second sound bite, plus three more seconds for the personal insult. This incredible work is nothing like that. Dr. Jacoway approaches the subject matter like the trained historian that she is: fairly, dispassionately, and factually. Her uncle is a key player, and even he gets no pass. This is the story of a train wreck - the Little Rock desegregation crisis. The characters are huge. There is Harry Ashmore, editor of the editorial page of the Arkansas Gazette, who was always the darling of Little Rock's goat cheese liberals, but who in fact was self-important, self-congratulatory, and self-absorbed. When he wasn't editorializing, he was giving speeches to Democratic Party groups, conduct which would be considered appalling by what little passes as journalistic standards today. There is Virgil Blossom, school superintendent (and the author's uncle) who comes across as a nervous and manic Mr. Whipple of please-don't-squeeze-the-Charmin fame. There is Congressman Brooks Hays, trying very hard to be the peace maker between Faubus and Eisenhower, but who in fact was unsuccessful in doing so, and accordingly, had to resort to making it up as he went along. There is the Establishment, school board members and attorneys, all claiming to be doing the right thing, but some of whom had noses so high in the air they would drown in a drizzle. There is Jim Johnson, a lieutenant of Gerald L.K. Smith, and an unreconstructed racist who, along with his wife, had more in common with Juan and Eva Peron than main-stream white middle class Americana. There is U.S. District Judge John Miller whose ex parte communications with the school district attorneys would get him in serious ethical trouble by today's standards. And then, there is Orval Eugene Faubus. I have often characterized Faubus as the Darth Vadar of Southern politics. This book brings that image home in a more authentic way than I had ever imagined. It reinforces the point made by Roy Reed in his magnificent biography, that Faubus's journey to the dark side was uncomplicated and breathtakingly political. Without pointing fingers, the author reports that Faubus accused Blossom and others of "double-crossing" him in publicly down-playing the facts and circumstances of the "crisis" and the extent of potential violence, thereby failing to give Faubus cover. Whether as a consequence of their public views or whether it was strictly retaliatory to gain political advantage (my personal view), or whether for some other reason, the author does not say. To do so would be an attempt to read the mind of a mastermind of politics. But,the author reports that the next thing that happened, quite literally, was Faubus's calling out the National Guard. The rest, as they say, is history. But not quite. Eisenhower sent in the 101 Airborne Division, the Little Rock Nine were escorted into the front door of Central High, and the rest is history. Well, not quite. A year later, the schools didn't open at all. Faubus was elected to a third term in a campaign uncharacteristically filled with race hatred. I say uncharacteristic because in '54 and '56, he had run as the liberal populist reformer, accused by his opponent of being a communist, with Ashmore as his chief water carrier and speech writer. Ashmore took a leave of absence from the Gazette to serve as Adlai Stevenson's spinmeister in '56. Faubus headed the Arkansas delegation to the convention, and would not deliver Arkansas's support to Stevenson on the first ballot. Ashmore remained bitter toward Faubus for years after that, and the author invites speculation, but does not opine herself, that the resentment may have been the reason for the "Ashmore-Gazette" version of events at Central High.
This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the history of the American civil rights movement. As a liberal Democrat, I had difficulty with some of the material - not because I didn't think the material was true, but because I knew in my heart and mind that it was true. But there is nothing here for the conservative, either. Those who want to go back to a time when "everybody was good" and American values were "held high" should read this book. Segregation, racial discrimination, bigotry, and hatred are not American values. There are no conservative heroes, and very few liberal heroes (Daisy Bates, Elizabeth Eckford, Wiley Branton). In the aftermath of this train wreck, bodies are strewn up and down the track. It's very bloody. History is that way sometimes.

A MISSED OPPORTUNITY.......2007-03-30

I am impressed with the depth of research, and I think Ms. Jacoway writes rather well. Given the extensive research, this book COULD HAVE have stood as the definitive study of the Little Rock Central High School episode. (Several other books on the crisis were written by the key figures themselves, and thus are not detached overviews of the episode. Also, Roy Reed's superb book on Faubus, since it is a biography, does not deal with Central High in as much detail as this book does.) I say "could have" because Ms. Jacoway allows her personal feelings about her uncle, Virgil Blossom, and about Governor Faubus to lead her to paint a distorted picture. Superintendent Blossom certainly had his faults, which the book identifies and then greatly overemphasizes. As for Faubus, it is absurd to argue, as the author does, that betrayal by Blossom and others left him with no choice but to defy the federal courts. This is revisionist history and a fatal flaw in the book. There are other omissions and misunderstandings, but those could be forgiven were it not for the fatal flaw. An example: The author misunderstands the role of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker. Since he was the ranking Army officer in Arkansas (he was in charge of Army Reserve units in the state), protocol dictated that he be the nominal commander of the 101st Airborne units sent to Little Rock. But he was purely a front man, not a decision-maker as the book suggests. Although the end of the book follows other key figures through the years after the Central High crisis, it amazingly fails to note the irony that ex-Gen. Walker helped lead the charge against federal marshals during the desegregation of Ole Miss in 1962.

The American Dream or the American Nightmare..........2007-03-11

Even in politically-charged 2007, what Elizabeth Jacoway has written is an honest, behind-the-scenes look at one of the darkest periods of American history. This is a must read book, especially for African Americans, because it shows us why we should be steadfastly embracing educational and economic opportunities before us and not browbeating each other. Racism, segregation, etc., has left segments of our society forever scarred. "Turn Away Thy Son" is the American history that you won't get from a public school history book.

Information Overload.......2007-02-23

I was born shortly after the attempt to intergrate Central High School by using the Little Rock nine. The nine black students faced a firestorm that was years in the making. Elizabeth Jacoway has impressive family connections to many of the movers and shakers in the integration struggle. Many of us recognize the iconic photo of a dignified young black woman walking seemilnly alone, surrounded by white faces, the face of a young white woman behind her contorted with scorn. Jacoway peels away layer after layer of the actions and attitudes on all sides of the integration battle and lays it out for the reader to absorb, and encourages them to draw their own conclusion. There is also the little remembered episode of the closing of all the city's schools the following year when authorities said they couldn't (or wouldn't) keep the peace. The school administration has very few shining moments in this book.The heros were the black students, some teachers, Daisy Bates, parents and countless citizens who stepped out from the crowd to lend support, comfort and safety. In many cases,local women were not only trying to keep their children in school,keep their children safe, they are also the forces that nudged the general populace into doing the right thing. There are also examples of others who sought the spotlight to continue to threaten and bully their peers into keeping the status quo. I often wondered while reading this, what became of Sammie Dean Parker, is she still a bully? I went to school a decade later in a school system in the south that was still struggling with integration. I was more than familiar with the dynamics. I found Jacoway was more than familiar with the dynamics and uses all the information available, as well as the information gleened from family and political connections. That is where the book struggles. There is too much detail. Some parts of the saga simply fall away in the effort to stick to a liniar storyline. I closed the book feeling as if I had focused so much on the details that I had somehow lost sight of the overall picture.

Average customer rating:

The C Word
Amazing Book
Mr. Reed nails it between the uprights!
A great book inspite of:
Terry Reed vs. Criminals In Action

Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA
Terry Reed , and John Cummings
Manufacturer: S.P.I. Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1561712493

Book Description

Compromised is the true story of Bill Clinton's political sell-out to the CIA.

Clinton's unbridled political ambitions and his campaign pledge to create "jobs for Arkansans" led him to compromise his ideals in exchange for CIA support in his bid for the Presidency.

He permitted the "Agency" to use Arkansas factories to make untraceable weapons and he allowed CIA contract agents to train Contra pilots on rural airstrips in support of the war in Nicaragua - effectively evading the Congressional ban on military aid to the Contras.

This expose unfolds through the eyewitness account of Terry Reed, a former CIA asset whose patriotism transformed him into a liability when he refused to turn a blind eye to the Agency's drug trafficking. While helping the CIA set up its secret "black" operations, he unwittingly compromised his family's safety, ultimately forcing them to become fugitives. Realizing that Reed witnessed the making of a counterfeit President and knew too much about its drug operations, the Agency set out to destroy him and his family.

This Arkansas-CIA connection became Clinton's darkest secret - a secret he shared by then Vice-President Bush, who himself was compromised by his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. Their shared guilt kept them silent and tied their hands as they faced off in the 1992 Presidential election with neither mentioning Iran-Contra.

The Justice Departments of Reagan, Bush - and now Clinton - have orchestrated an ongoing cover-up of the Arkansas-CIA connection, which has gone undetected for eight years with Bill Clinton its major beneficiary. Clinton's reward for this Faustian pact? The White House.

Reed puts Clinton directly in the "Iran-Contra loop". Both attended a secret meeting where CIA arms arrangements, illegal Contra training and money laundering were discussed. Involved with Clinton in this cabal were Colonel Oliver North, William Barr (George Bush's attorney general), Felix Rodriguez (Bay of Pigs veteran and George Bush's CIA contact) and CIA contract agent Barry Seal, who used the cover of a high-profile drug trafficker to carry out his missions.

"Compromised" reveals the details and names of all who were involved, including these faceless power brokers now in positions of public prominence in Washington, D.C.

When the CIA learned Reed had more patriotism than they bargained for, forces within President Bush's Justice Department, the CIA and the State of Arkansas decided he had to be neutralized. People close to Clinton conspired to set Reed up on false federal criminal charges, forcing him and his family into hiding. But Reed was acquitted, and now wages a one-man legal war to bring those who framed him to justice.

Found innocent by a court of law, Reed was then convicted by TIME Magazine, which aligned itself with a Clinton campaign consumed with protecting its candidate from scandals.

Why did Terry Reed, who performed intelligence services for the US Air Force, FBI, and CIA, come forward with these revelations now? - to set the record straight and to clear his name.

"Compromised" reveals one of the most clandestine operations in recent U.S. history. It also offers behind-the-scenes insights into the sordid world of intelligence, where things are seldom what they seem and powerful people disguise greed and ambition behind the convenient mask of national security.

Customer Reviews:

The C Word.......2007-07-27

This is a great book detailing one man's experience in the Contra operation. It has high officials and low, but it is written a bit rough. Particularly the absurd repetition of "Compromised" to the point I was hoping someone would lay a beatdown on the writer. Still, if you care for the genre it is an element of something.

Amazing Book.......2007-01-10

This book is simply amazing. It details the life of a CIA asset, pilot and businessman as he falls further and further into the rabbit hole and learns the truth about the CIA and its control of the government. In the book we find that Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and many other politicians are "compromised" and beholden to the secret government known as the CIA. If you think that there is a difference between political parties, prepare to experience a paradigm shift.

Mr. Reed nails it between the uprights!.......2006-10-03

I still have a cassette tape of Mr.
Reed on Dr. Stan's fine Radio Liberty
show discussing how the alphabet soup
lettered agencies came at him with
both barrels blazing under the overused
guies of (get this!) 'National Security.'
Get this book Mr. & Mrs. America!!!!!!

A great book inspite of:.......2006-01-14

A great book but about 200 too many pages and horrible typography. I have first hand knowledge of many events described and they are acurate. A must read even though a hard read.
This book should be read by every US citizen. However, it will be read by too few, because of the way the book was produced. I suspect that the book was sabotaged by agent/s provocateur at the production level.
This only proves just how bad our "elite" don't want us to know the truth. Learn the truth in spite of them!

Terry Reed vs. Criminals In Action.......2005-11-11

"This book could topple the President," is the quote from the London Sunday Telegraph on the back cover. Well, ten years on and Bill Clinton seems to be a respected elder statesman and I don't think he comes out of this book with his reputation too badly damaged as at least he invested some of the drug money into regenerating Arkansas. It seems that back in 1992 when Mr Reed went public about his experiences that he wasn't taken seriously because it would have meant that Clinton, who had been a vocal critic of aid to the Contras, would have been performing "risky favors" (as Time magazine put it) for the Reagan administration. And why would he do that? Money! The CIA supposedly judged Arkansas to be a kind of banana republic with very poor accounting standards and used it as a base to manufacture weapons to be used in Nicaragua and the CIA paid Clinton for the privilege. However, it seems that Clinton got greedy and creamed off too much of the CIA's hard-earned drug money and the operation was moved to Mexico.

Terry Reed was involved in the business of training Contra pilots and in the manufacture of the weapons. I liked the way he was open about his motives. An Vietnam veteran, he wanted to defeat the "Commies" properly, not like in Vietnam, where, as he puts it, soldiers were left at times unable to do their job properly because of people like Kissinger, who was judged to be more interested in eating gourmet food in Paris and talking about "detente" with China. He also says he wanted to be a millionaire by the time he was 40 and to have more adrenalin flowing in his life.

Well, the CIA certainly seems to have delivered in getting the adrenalin flowing in Mr Reed and his family. The way he tells it, it sounds like he was set up, along with his friend Barry Seal. Seal sounds a bit of a charismatic fellow, a bit like the James Woods character in the movie "Salvador" and he's almost the star of the show in the first couple of hundred pages of the book. (He comes to a sticky fate shortly after bragging about possessing footage of a certain vice-president's sons engaged in a cocaine deal.)

This book is one that should probably be read twice, as some of the protagonists are not all that they seem and there is some double-crossing and maybe triple-crossing going on. It sort of made me think of the movie The Usual Suspects.

Only the Contra aspect of Iran-Contra is covered. For the Iran aspect, I would recommend reading Trail of the Octopus (Amazon UK has lots of used copies). That book is mostly about the Lockerbie cover-up, but contains lots about Oliver North and Iran-Contra from a Defense Intelligence Agency perspective. In that book, former DIA operative Lester Coleman states that it was the Pentagon and the DIA who blew the whistle on Oliver North! Coleman also refers to "Oliver North's ragtag army of conmen, yahoos and armchair mercenaries", which presumably included Mr Reed!?

Overall, I think this is a great book, recommended especially for students of geopolitics and international relations.

Average customer rating:

Still love it at 26 years old...
Great teaching tool
great book
The Summer Patty Bergen Would Remember that One Special German Soldier
A Boring Depressing Book

Summer of My German Soldier
Bette Greene
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 014130636X

Book Description

When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, 12-year-old Patty Bergen learns what it means to open her heart. Although she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi--but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own, who understands and appreciates her in a way her parents never will. And Patty is willing to risk losing family, friends--even her freedom--for what has quickly become the most important part of her life. Thoughtful, moving, and hard-hitting, Summer of My German Soldier has become a modern classic.

"Courageous and compelling!" --Publishers Weekly

"An exceptionally fine novel." --The New York Times

* A Puffin Novel
* 208 pages
* Ages 10-14

* A 1973 National Book Award Finalist
* An ALA Notable Book
* A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year

Customer Reviews:

Still love it at 26 years old..........2007-08-16

This is a great book. Any young girl with a romance streak will be drawn in by the forbidden love element. But this isn't just a dumb romance novel. Patty has to choose between her family and community and Anton. Great coming of age story. Still one of my favorites!

Great teaching tool.......2007-06-11

I first read this book in high school and wanted to reread it through the eyes of a grown up who studied World War II. It correctly describes the American south during the war and America's overall sentiment against the Nazi war machine. Although some of the material is somewhat boring and may be considered unnecessary, the overall theme is well addressed. Due to its age, the story may be antiquated for today's youth, but it is still a useful tool for English and History teachers to use for illustration.

great book.......2007-06-08

It ws sweet, touching and a true love story with out being filled with pointless lust

The Summer Patty Bergen Would Remember that One Special German Soldier.......2007-03-16

The most exiting event in the history of Jenkinsville occurred that summer day when a Prisoner of War camp was set up just outside the city. The Nazi's that had been depicted as evil people that would kill someone as soon as they looked at them turned out to be young, kind-faced men with blond hair. Patty Bergen was Jewish and her father owned a department sore on the main street of the town. One day she was in the store when the prisoners with money in hand came to buy hats for work in the field. Patty went to help one of the prisoners whose name was Frederick Anton Reiker and discovered that instead of wanting to buy a hat with his money he wanted to buy a pen with fake diamonds on it. Not long after their first meeting, Anton escaped from the prison camp and fled but before he caught the back of a departing train, Patty saw him and invited him to stay in the room over the garage until the war was over. But, one day Anton saw Patty being beaten and he ran out to stop the attack, but Ruth, the housekeeper saw him rush out from the garage. Even though Ruth would not tell a soul about it Anton decided it was too much of a risk on Patty's part and he left that same night. After Anton had been gone for months a man named Mr. Pierce asked Patty a fair amount of questions and after hearing that Anton had died she let everything out. After that she had to go and live with her grandmother for a while until the time of the trial. The judge sentenced her to no less than four months in a reformatory for girls and there she stayed for the time. I enjoyed this book because of how the story of how it was depicted.

I thought this novel was quite engaging because of how Patty changed over time. At the beginning of the story Patty is reckless and had low self-esteem. Her sister was always getting compliments on how pretty she looked, and Patty was always being told that she should try to look and act more like her sister. After Patty started hiding Anton she took baths and started to care more about how she looked. Also Patty started getting beaten by her father often and she sometimes thought that she was always wrong. Then after Anton died and she was sent off to the reformatory school she developed a new perspective on life and people. After Ruth went to see her she discovered that she was not wrong, but did things for the right reason in a way that other people could not see.

The way that Anton acted throughout the entire story was completely unexpected for what most people associated with Nazis. Anton, unlike most of his colleagues spoke virtually flawless English and was a very polite young man. Even after he found out that Patty was a Jew he continued to treat her with respect and he cared for her deeply. Also, Anton did not join the Nazis because he wanted to he joined it to escape punishment and imprisonment by his own country.

I also enjoyed this book because it showed the level of tolerance between the Caucasian Americans and the people that surrounded them. Ruth was the African American housekeeper for the Bergens and if any food was missing Patty's mother always assumed that it was Ruth without using any logical reasoning to see if one of her own children had eaten the food. Even though the German prisoners were not mean or unruly they were usually treated fairly but once they were out of earshot news about them spread quickly. One of the things that the townspeople said about the prisoners was that they were being treated too kindly and that they should have cruel punishments.

Through reading this book I gained an appreciation for Patty because of how she gained confidence though the story. The imagery of this wonderful novel created an amazing story with brilliant characters. This book was also wonderful because of how Anton was shown in the story. The novel was especially good because of how racial and cultural differences play into each other.

R. Roston

A Boring Depressing Book.......2007-02-23

Summer of My German Soldier, Betty Greene, 0-439-18932-2

A Boring Depressing Book

Do you ever think that a Jewish girl would help a Nazis during World War Two? I wouldn't even consider it until I read this realistic fiction book. Patty, a Jewish girl, lived in Arkansas. The government decided to out a prison camp there for the Nazis. Patty was working at her dad's store when she met one of the prisoners. One day she was outside and there he was, it was Anton! She hid him in her attic. Then he left. Patty's dad came running inside, two detectives were with him, was Anton o.k.?
I thought that this book was a little blah. Although this book sounds exciting it was very slow. I would not recommend this book to anyone who likes exciting books because, most of the book was about Patty's depressing life and how her parents hated her. However I think that an older audience might like this book because, they may be able to relate to the hard times Patty had. Also they may remember how people judged other people by the color of their skin. This book had some very diverse issues. The title of this book makes it sound like a real page turner but, it wasn't. The book took a very long time to set the mood at the beginning of the book. Although some parts were exciting, others weren't . For each exciting page there were twenty dull ones. The story was very hard to concentrate on. During most of the book nothing happened so that gave my mind a lot of time to wander so, once something exciting happened I was lost. One of the surprises in the story were that the reporter that Patty met was still friends with her after she found out what Patty had done. The reporter sent Patty her own subscription to the news paper when she was at the reformatory.

Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America

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Republican Party Propaganda
The Backwoods Borgias
Seignorial Privilege
The reality of the Bill Clinton
The reality of the Bill Clinton

Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America
Roger Morris
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0805028048

Amazon.com

Absent a royal family, the American people have developed a thirst for subjects for gossip from on high. In Bill and Hillary Clinton, they have them. Roger Morris charges the first family with misdeeds committed while upon the throne in Arkansas: Bill taking money from Whitewater partner James McDougal; Hilary using well-connected brokers to win fabulous returns on her investments; the governor's affairs; and their friendship with a drug-dealing bond daddy, to name a few. Those after the dirt on the Clintons will love this wheelbarrow full of it.

Book Description

In the finest tradition of investigative journalism, Roger Morris goes far behind the public facade to expose the inner politics, personal passions, and gathering moral compromise that marked the rise of Bill and Hillary Clinton. After three years of painstaking research and hundreds of interviews, the author, a prizewinning historian, reveals in riveting detail the untold secrets of one of the most ambitious partnerships in modern politics.

Starting with the roadhouses and mob-ruled politics of the old South, Partners in Power draws the reader into the dramatic, seamy, largely hidden world that gave rise to - and explains - the Clinton presidency. Morris weaves together three essential themes: the parallel lives and tortured relationship of the Clintons personally; the essence of the bipartisan misrule that is Washington, D.C. (how the collusive culture of our national government defeats change); and, most telling, the behind-the-scenes story of the making of a president in a world where corrupting money and favors flow freely and the tyranny of wealthy interests and their captive politicians mock democracy.

Beyond myriad scandals - whether shady bond, banking, and commodity "deals"; the Whitewater imbroglio; abuses of power in covering up sexual infidelities; document "shredding parties"; the Vince Foster tragedy; or a multibillion- dollar Arkansas gunrunning and drug-smuggling ring implicating the Colombian cartel, the CIA, organized crime, and two Republican presidents as well as a Democratic governor and future president - Morris's evocation of a climb to power, is the most candid, revealing, and courageous portrait ever drawn of a sitting president. In its magisterial analysis of a political system gone lethally wrong, Partners in Power offers a brilliant perspective on a government and ultimately a people. As a dual biography of a first couple, it is without precedent in political literature.

Customer Reviews:

Republican Party Propaganda.......2007-05-04

His title sounds convincing for the evidence he sugests has already been proven to be fabricated lies, this is pure dirty political propaganda from the republican party propaganda machine.

The Backwoods Borgias.......2006-05-31

The 'Prologue' of this 1996 book describes Clinton's Inauguration. The face in the White House changed, but the same people were pulling the strings (p.4). Clinton's highest margin was with voters under 30. Morris notes the decay of cities and the loss of jobs (p.6). People hoped for a change with Clinton. Clinton's past in Arkansas would soon catch up. The opening chapters tell of Clinton's middle-class life in Arkansas. Uncle Raymond was the power in the family (p.4). He went to Georgetown (p.64), then to Oxford (p.84), and avoided the draft (pp.81-82). Morris suggests Clinton was tied to the "intelligence community" (pp.102-103). Hillary was raised in Park Ridge, a bastion of right-wing extremism (p.111). She was a gifted mimic and chronic teacher's pet. In 1964 she was a "Goldwater Girl" (p.122). Hillary was elected president of the student government when she was a junior (p.128). She then went to Yale Law School. She became involved in the legal rights of children (pp.160-161). [Do children know what they really need?]

Arkansas was "the most oppressed state in the union" (p.194). Their farmers were like medieval serfs. The newspapers and broadcast stations were controlled by the ruling class (p.196). [Is it different in your state?] Half the state Senators were paid off by the gas utility (p.197). Clinton had the support of the Stephens financial empire (p.199); he opposed local labor unions (p.200). Jimmy Carter's victory was a triumph of big money (p.201). Examples of Clinton's honesty are on page 211; he lied about the draft. Clinton talked liberal but acted reactionary (p.219). Hillary's financial prowess is on pages 229-230; BCCI is on page 234.

The Reagan reign was a return to the past (p.253); government openly backed Big Corporations. Wealth was taken from most Americans and given to the rich (p.254). People were worse off than before. Carter's election brought more millionaires to his Cabinet than Ford, Nixon, of Eisenhower (p.264). Carter's cuts in capital gains and corporate taxes, Reagan's reduced taxes for the rich and increased them on wage-earners, both led to today's impoverished America (pp.266-267). The high cost of media advertising makes candidates depend on funds from the rich. [That is the plan!] Page 294 describes the "corporate seizure of power in Washington" and the effects on pages 295-296. Huge debt increases by Reagan and Bush are measured by devalued dollars (p.299), lost jobs, lower wages, and fewer middle-class businesses (pp.302-303). Increasing wealth at the top led to poverty everywhere else (pp.303-305). Median family income was less valuable than for earlier generations. Now America is less egalitarian than Europe. [Morris does not mention Nixon's 1971 devaluation of the dollar as leading to this.]

Chapter 16 tells about the wide open town of Little Rock where money could be made fast (p.300). Was prosperity based on drug trafficking and money laundering (p.311)? Clinton's trick of "educational reform" is on page 320. Clinton's supporters for his 1984 campaign are on pages 331-332. Without Congressional oversight the special interests that donate to the President go unchallenged. The media monopolies won't tell (pp.349-350). Reporters who uncovered scandals saw their careers ruined (p.353). They avoid non-acute scandals to cover sensations. Chapter 18 covers the deregulation of S&Ls which allowed new scams with other people's money. Hillary was involved with McDougal's banking excesses (pp.324-325). The Clintons did not lose money on Whitewater (p.386). There was a multi-billion dollar drug smuggling operation in Mena that was linked to national politics (p.390); see Chapter 19. Clinton knew (p.405), and so did Bush (p.410).

Clinton did in Washington what he did in Little Rock (p.432). It tells how Gary Hart's campaign was sabotaged (p.433-434). Did Clinton have a psychotic lack of control (p.441)? Clinton, like others, grew rich from their political success (pp.446-447). Clinton always served the special interests (p.453); he did less for the state than Orval Faubus. Arkansas was worst in the nation for health care (p.456). Clinton's first term was not a new beginning but the same old show (p.467). Morris asked if he was linked to drug money and organized crime.

Seignorial Privilege.......2003-11-07

I looked forward to reading about the early life of Bill Clinton and his early marriage and the Arkansas days, etc, and this book has a lot on that--quite substantial. So I was a little shocked to arrive at page 440, where Morris refers to "Clinton's extra-marital relations with literally hundreds of women" Hundreds? That would be a minimum of 200. That's really quite a lot. I had always assumed a dozen or two.

I began to wonder how that would work. Is a governorship such an easy job (just a lot of paper signing and speechifying) that an accomplished shmoozer can fit it in between hundreds of trysts? Whatever you think of his politics, it must be admitted that it's quite an accomplishment, especially considering he wasn't really all that interested in the governorship or the trysts, but rather the presidency.

And what of the "Partner in Power"? Could she see early on that her husband was a politician of such consumate skill that he was a shoe-in for the presidency, and so chose to overlook his turning Arkansas into his personal harem? And what of Hilary's other partner in power, Vince Foster, now dead? If Morris touches on their "semi-private kisses and furtive squeezes", an "intimate professional bond between two attorneys", then surely he ought to dig a bit deeper on the cause of Foster's death. No sign of depression prior to the suicide. No death threats. What on earth happened to Vince Foster.

All these deeply intriguing topics--Bill's monumental multi-tasking, Hillary's apparent acquiescence, Foster's mysterious death--are touched on but lightly. What really interests Morris is financial scandal, into which category he places, seemingly, any transaction over $10,000. The book is larded with endless, and I mean Endless, details of money for campaigns, money made in teal estate, many made in banking, in retail, in government, in law, in public and in private--all with the implication or explicit assertion that a crime was committed. And Morris doesn't stop with the Clintons. The Republicans and Reagan in particular come under his moral lash for using too much money to get elected or to celebrate having been elected. Literally hundreds of pages are devoted to venting his indignation at the expenditure of money in politics, almost as though he believes that the only ones fit to govern are indigent altar boys or investigative reporters.

This reader would have liked less of the sort or quasi-incrimminatory fodder that fills the pages of the Village Voice and more probing into the feudatory state of Arkansas, perhaps interviewing some of the hundreds of women. There's a gripping story there, a noir classic, but I doubt it will be revealed by poring over old account ledgers.

The reality of the Bill Clinton.......2001-06-18

This is an excellent read! If you are unconvinced of the corruption we have had for the last eight years, then this book will cause you to reconsider. It also goes into detail as to how Bill Clinton got into this terrible condition.

Anyone who dismisses this book as unsubstantiated is obviously partisan and hasn't been paying attention to the news for the last eight years nor of late. An objective and reasonable person will see the truth and the truth is what is written in this book. It is well written and well documented. Mind you this is a close friend of Bill Clinton who wrote the book! No agenda - just truth for those who can accept it.

This book highlights the ongoing pattern of deceit, illegal substance use, womanizing by force and corruption. Frankly, I'd rather not be in denial but admit the obvious about this man. Hopefully the American people will never allow someone of this low caliber ever become President again.

The reality of the Bill Clinton.......2001-06-18

Anyone who dismisses this book as unsubstanstiated is obviously partisana and also hasn't been paying attention to the news for the last eight years. An objective and reasonable person will see the truth and the truth is what is written is true and well documented. Mind you this is a close friend of Bill Clinton who wrote the book! No agenda - just truth for those who can accept it.