Book Description
In A. J. Langguth's classic Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution, he brought to life leaders from the generation of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in all of their complexity, with their great strengths and human frailties. In Union 1812, those men appear again, tempered now by age and new responsibilities.
James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, must decide whether to go to war again only thirty years after the American Revolution.
Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had all made major concessions to avoid entangling their young and divided nation in new battles with Europe. But the War Hawks, aggressive congressmen from the South and West, are demanding that Madison take action to uphold America's honor against Great Britain.
In this gripping narrative of the second and final war of independence, Madison leads an unprepared nation into a struggle that will establish the United States as a major world power and stake its claim to the entire continent.
As the war begins, the U.S. Navy consists of seventeen oceangoing ships; the British fleet numbers seven hundred. Nor is the country united in its will to win. Governors in New England are refusing to call out their militia, while mobs attack antiwar newspaper editors in Baltimore in a violent repetition of the Boston Massacre.
Dramatic scenes range across the world, from vicious fighting on the frontier -- one British officer compares the hand-to-hand combat with the savagery of bulldogs -- to Dolley Madison's elegant receptions at the executive mansion and the wrangling among America's peace delegates in Belgium at Ghent.
Before the outcome is decided, the war will have engulfed land and sea, with a disastrous U.S. defeat at Detroit and epic naval campaigns on the Great Lakes. After the Americans sack Toronto, the British retaliate by burning the White House and the Capitol and laying siege with their rockets to Fort McHenry.
Finally, two and a half years of bloodshed and botched strategies culminate in the spectacular battle of New Orleans.
The heroes of Patriots are joined here by dozens of the most colorful and enduring characters from America's past: not only the diminutive and brilliant Madison and the statuesque Dolley, but also Sam Houston and Davy Crockett, Oliver Perry and Stephen Decatur, the great Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh, and four legendary men who will follow Madison into the White House -- James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Quincy Adams, and the triumphant hero Andrew Jackson.
For too long, the War of 1812 has been ignored or misunderstood. Union 1812 thrillingly illustrates why it must take its place as one of the defining moments in American history.
Customer Reviews:
Good Anecdotes but Too Many Editing Errors, OK 3.5.......2007-10-09
One of the major problems with this book (give it a C+) is that it doesn't seem that the editor had a strong grasp of the subject. As an aside, the book is dedicated to the editor by the author (maybe they both need help). Other reviewers have mentioned mistakes, here is another: in the text a general in 1813 is referred to as "Military Governor of Ohio Territory" ; Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803.
This is not the only time that the states and territories are mixed up or that placement is wrong. During the description of the Battle of New Orleans, he mentions a ship sailing 'down' the Mississippi (south) and then firing at the British on the east bank with their starboard guns. Any sailor will tell you that you have to be facing north to fire your starboard guns in an easterly direction. Of course the boat could have been turned around, but why? Sure it's a little picky, but that's what history is about.
He does do a good job of entertaining us with anecdotes that add to our knowledge of many of the 'Founding Fathers', but it doesn't make up for the mistakes on so many of the other stories. That's another point that I would like to make. The book reads like a compendium of the works of many writers, and not the seamless work of one author. Could it be possible that some of his helpers and researchers did a 'little' of the writing? See for yourself.
A Different Point of View.......2007-07-21
"To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World" by Arthur Herman.
Read this for a more balanced view of this cowardly war Mr. Madison declared on Great Britain when she was fighting for survival against the French (and Spain at times) under Napoleon.
Madison's objective, aided and abetted by "it will be a walk over" Jefferson was an opportunistic war of aggression to occupy Canada (and Florida) -but his forces were decisively repulsed and routed by Loyalist forces.
Sound familiar?
Canada remained a free country as it wished to be and did not become a colony of the USA as Madison wished.
All the rest of his reasons (impressment etc.) were propaganda to get popular US support for this illegal act and actually disappeared as issues when Napoleon was first defeated.
Pointedly most New England States sensibly did not participate as they were anxious to preserve their lucrative trade with Great Britain in supplies needed (lumber etc.) to fight Napoleon.
This shameful episode in American history, siding with the megalomaniac Napoleon, was eventually settled by the Treaty of Ghent, not in battle, after Napoleon's exile to Elba and before his escape and subsequent defeat by Wellington at Waterloo.
The battle of New Orleans took place after the peace treaty had been signed and played absolutely no role in the outcome.
Also Perry wasn't fighting a British 'fleet' but a detached squadron of small vessels. His grandiose account of the action lends itself well for a Hollywood movie.
The US did not achieve any of its objectives - so who won? Certainly not the United States!
A second war of independence? - I don't think so!
But I guess the title will sell books - more bad history in print!
A Worthy Addition to Any War of 1812 Library.......2007-07-01
I just finished A. J. Langguth's Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence. This is the sequel to Langguth's excellent 1991 Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution, and is written in the same style. Instead of being a solid historical narrative, it instead focuses on individuals and their contributions to the subject. In this instance, it addresses the American politicians and soldiers who brought about and fought the War of 1812. While this is an interesting and novel approach, it means that there are large gaps in the coverage of the conflict. As just one example, there is no coverage of some of the important land battles such as Lundy's Lane. Langguth focuses on the great Indian leader Tecumseh, who played a critical role in the War of 1812, and was killed in battle while fighting alongside the British. Tecumseh was a born and charismatic leader who earned the respect of friend and foe, including his arch enemy, William Henry Harrison. While I've read a few books on the War of 1812 over the years, I've never seen one that addresses it from the perspective of the political and military leaders of the United States. The focus on Tecumseh, who was definitely an American legend, is particularly interesting because it focuses on the role that the Indians played, and the fact that they entered into a marriage of convenience with the British in the hope of regaining the lands that they lost to the white settlers.
Langguth is a journalist by training, and he's a terrific writer. The book is very well written, with an easy, flowing style. At the same time, I did find the fact that the book jumps aroudn quite a bit to be a bit frustrating and disconcerting, as it emphasizes the gaps in the coverage of the book. The book suffers from a paucity of maps, and, as pointed out above, there are some significant gaps in the coverage of the war itself. Having said that, it's a novel and unique approach to a forgotten conflict, and Langguth does a good job of building his case that the War of 1812 was really just an extension of the American Revolution. He also makes an interesting and persuasive argument that the Civil War was a direct result of the conflicts that emerged from the War of 1812, including the tension between north and south.
This was an enjoyable and worthwhile read, and one I recommend undertaking. It's a worthy addition to any War of 1812 library.
Great book.......2007-05-16
Although I am only about a third of the way this is a great book. I finished the book 1776 by David McCullough and then started Union 1812. I highly recommend this book because it is an excellent read.
War of 1812 - Victim of Poor Scholarship?.......2007-04-09
The history of 1812 research is filled with amateur and mundane attempts at scholarship. This important period in the young Republic's history has seemly become the hobby-horse of retired military persons, presidents and those looking to make a name with their pen. Because of the lack of serious scholarship, this period of American history has suffered and largely been overlooked. A.J. Langguth's, UNION-1812 asserts itself prominently in a long line of disappointments.
Much of the book is dedicated to the events leading up to the war. The political atmosphere in the nascent US is extensively covered. This highly readable account of the sometimes very confusing world of early American politics, is one of the books few redeeming qualities.
After the exhausting coverage of the political climate in pre war America,the book becomes somewhat convoluted, and at times grossly inaccurate. Mr. Langguth's scholarship is called into question on more than a one occasion. As other reviewers have pointed out, he mistakenly labels Clark, President Jefferson's personal secretary.In fact it was M. Lewis, a family friend. While this factual error could be taken as a proofing mistake, other such errors cannot be. In a chapter about Oliver H. Perry, the author describes Perry's return to shipbuilding at Erie with "the British Brig Caledonia, three schooners, and a sloop that had been seized the previous year but penned up in the harbor by the guns of Ft. George." (p245). Anyone familiar with the Niagara area will be amused at the authors' lack of attachment with the material he is presenting. Between Ft. George and Erie, PA (where Perry Built the Lake Erie Fleet) lies Niagara Falls. It must have been a truly Herculean task to get a Brig up the falls.
UNION-1812 leaves the reader wanting and wishing for a well researched, accurate portrayal of this important period in American History
Book Description
The automobiles of the classic era-1925 to 1948-were distinguished by their graceful designs, premium craftsmanship, and unusual materials. The French Bugatti, Talbot, and Delage, the American Duesenberg and Packard, the Italian Alfa Romeo-such legendary cars brought art and simple elegance to the road. These and many other spectacular models from the automobile's golden age are featured here in the extra-ordinary photographs of Michael Furman. Never before has a photographer compiled such a collection of cars, created with impeccable artistic appreciation and an exacting eye for detail.
In more than 150 full-color photographs, Motor Cars of the Classic Era captures the breathtaking beauty of these objects of desire, some of them extremely rare and published here for the first time. An informative text and an illustrated index of technical information describe the qualities that make each car unique. Sure to appeal to both the high-end automobile collector and the more casual car aficionado, this book is a visual tour de force, a deluxe, beautifully designed volume that matches in spirit the exquisite automobiles it celebrates.
Customer Reviews:
Classy look at a classy era.......2005-09-30
I do love the creme de la creme cars from the 30's for their unique style and presence, and I had not found a book that came close to doing them justice till this one. There is not much detailed information on the models, just a short narative in the back, but the aesthetics of the pictures is almost overwhelming and for me obviated the need for more statistics. The cars are segmented by country, and it is fun to look at the differences in the underlying styles (and true to stereotype the French are clearly the most outrageous). There are some great, great cars in here (from the impressive Mercedes 500K to the fabulous Bugatti Atlantic) and I must say I fell in love with the Scarab pictured on the cover (kind of an elite VW van that would clearly not make it out of a design shop today!). It would be hard to make the selected autos look anything but terrific, but Furman's sensual photo's magnify the impact and luster of each model. The close ups of selected fittings, while not quite as breathtaking, do provide the sense of the individual and artistic attention paid to each of these very special creations. What a great gift for anyone who loves great design and great cars. If I could hand out 6 stars I would.
Nice photos lost in the binding........2005-03-17
I saw a review for this book in one of the classic car magazines and ordered the book. I myself produce a cable tv program. One of the vehicles that we featured was the Stout Scarab, the cover vehicle for this book. When the book arrived I was very dissappointed that almost 10 percent of every automobile photo was lost in the binding of the book. If ever there was a need for fold out pages or a wider format this was it. Though the photos are beautiful, so much is lost that in the whole it is painful to look at. I returned the book.
Charles Derer
Coffee Table Picture Book.......2004-07-29
This is not a book about cars; it is an excercise in photography. If you are looking to read about the cars, you will be extremely dissapointed. Other than a tag stating the car model and year, there is no text whatsoever on pages with photos. Tiny capsule captions for each photo are found at the end of the book. The photos are exquisite, but they are all studio shots; none show the cars in their natural surroundings. Most of the photos are only postcard size. Those that are larger run across the center gutter due to the portrait page orientation. A lot of the photo is lost in the gutter. For those that want beautiful photos along with some historical background of the car and manufacturer, I recommend books by Dennis Adler.
Unsurpasssed Photo Elegance & Substance; a new standard!!.......2004-06-16
To any vintage auto enthusiest (of the late 1920's through 1940's) this book's a sumptuous, informative feast for the eye and soul.
Most of the work (first 3/4's) showcases the author's deep photogenic appreciation of all those talented entra war era automotive craftsmen (just American & European, I believe). Those who balanced their well developed sense of (Moderne/Deco/Streamline) auto design, with practicality and graceful function. The last 1/4 of the book holds interesting/informative text for each auto presented prior.
Well, ok, so I stumbled onto a book display of this work leaving an Exhibition of Art Deco earlier today: spent a transfixed 20 minutes carefully thumbing through it. Hey, the book just topped off a thoroughly satisfying afternoon at the Musium of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, ok?!?
And... I suppose, the fact that not more than 20 ft behind me- standing, silently, yet gracefully parked & roped off from the rest of the exhibition's attendees was one of the true automotive icons of the age: a mint 1937 Cord 212 Speedster, didn't hurt matters much either (BTW: only 2300+ were ever produced of this well deserved Streamlined classic).
Turns out (as another vintage auto admirer of the book commented over my shoulder) this is the very white and red Cord included in the oversized coffee table tomb of which this review is jotted.
Whether novice or 'in the know' on the topic, this book's the "real deal!!"
KP
Whatta book, folks!.......2004-04-30
Seriously, if you're into cars from this era, you simply cannot do better. It's just not possible. Mike's photography is just short of stunning, and the accompanying text is intelligent and easy to understand. You won't regret buying it. At all.
Book Description
According to newspaper headlines and television pundits, the cold war ended many months ago; the age of Big Two confrontation is over. But forty years ago, Americans were experiencing the beginnings of another era--of the fevered anti-communism that came to be known as McCarthyism. During this period, the Cincinnati Reds felt compelled to rename themselves briefly the "Redlegs" to avoid confusion with the other reds, and one citizen in Indiana campaigned to have The Adventures of Robin Hood removed from library shelves because the story's subversive message encouraged robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. These developments grew out of a far-reaching anxiety over communism that characterized the McCarthy Era. Richard Fried's Nightmare in Red offers a riveting and comprehensive account of this crucial time. He traces the second Red Scare's antecedents back to the 1930s, and presents an engaging narrative about the many different people who became involved in the drama of the anti-communist fervor, from the New Deal era and World War II, through the early years of the cold war, to the peak of McCarthyism, and beyond McCarthy's censure to the decline of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1960s. Along the way, we meet the familiar figures of the period--Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower, the young Richard Nixon, and, of course, the Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. But more importantly, Fried reveals the wholesale effect of McCarthyism on the lives of thousands of ordinary people, from teachers and lawyers to college students, factory workers, and janitors. Together with coverage of such famous incidents as the ordeal of the Hollywood Ten (which led to the entertainment world's notorious blacklist) and the Alger Hiss case, Fried also portrays a wealth of little-known but telling episodes involving victims and victimizers of anti-communist politics at the state and local levels. Providing the most complete history of the rise and fall of the phenomenon known as McCarthyism, Nightmare in Red shows that it involved far more than just Joe McCarthy.
Customer Reviews:
Incoherent.......2006-09-02
If you like your history to read like a high school term paper, this might be for you. Incoherent and grammatically bizarre sentences within an unfocused and rambling framework made this impossible for me to get through.
Reviews by Nan Kilar and Bobby Miller.......2006-05-04
A well-written book about an American tragedy. Anyone with an ounce of compassion will suffer along with these Americans who were needlessly subjected to incomprehensible heartaches.
Joseph Raymond McCarthy is still alive and well. Never has there been one more like this Republican Senator from Wisconsin than this Republican President from Connecticut, George W. Bush. There was no limit to the amount of lies McCarthy was willing to tell or the heart-wrenching pain and shame he was willing to subject others to so he could lord over them and feel superior. Then two men with guts came along-a journalist named Edward R. Murrow, who was very different than the over-paid invertebrates whose voices and faces come into our homes today. The other was Joseph N. Welch, chief attorney for the Army who simply said to McCarthy, "You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?" Those words stripped McCarthy naked; and low and behold, there stood a frightened, pithy alcoholic who would die at the age of 49.
It is easy to understand power hungry egomaniacs like McCarthy and Bush, but how they can attract such a large base among the rank and file is not easy to comprehend. I think Dr. King explains it best: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
THE REVIEW.......2000-03-30
I felt that the book was not as objective as i would have liked it to be. I felt that opinions should have been kept out.
Book Description
The Nazi era in Germany and all of its accompanying atrocities is one of the most documented periods in history. However, this documentation is incomplete in one important area: the history and experiences of people of African descent in Nazi Germany. Did Afro-Germans and other blacks suffer under Nazism? The answer to this question, to the degree it has been asked at all, remains vague even for those scholars and researchers familiar with the Nazi era and the Holocaust in particular.
Drawing on interviews with the Black survivors of Nazi concentration camps and archival research in North America, Europe, and Africa, this book documents and analyzes the meaning of Nazism's racial policies towards people of African descent, specifically those born in Germany, France, England, the United States or Africa, and the impact of that legacy on contemporary race relations in Germany, and more generally, in Europe. The book also specifically addresses the concerns of those surviving Afro-Germans who were victims of Nazism, but have not generally been included in or benefited from the compensation agreements that have been developed in recent years.
Customer Reviews:
A new view.......2005-11-03
Well worth the read,A must for anyone interested in finding out about how Nazi Germany affected more than the Jewish population.
Hitler's Black Victims.......2005-07-11
Excellant book. Most people don't know that there were blacks in the holocaust, this book tells a lot.
great source.......2005-01-28
As there is a lack of information regarding blacks duing the Holocaust, this book is a great resource. It is frustrating to find few eye-witness accounts, but Lusane does provide names of those in camps from which one can perform their own research. A must for anyone interested in finding out about how Nazi Germany affected more than the Jewish population.
Book Description
Here is the book jazz lovers have eagerly awaited, the second volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental The History of Jazz. When the first volume, Early Jazz, appeared two decades ago, it immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on American music. Nat Hentoff called it "a
remarkable breakthrough in musical analysis of jazz," and Frank Conroy, in The New York Times Book Review, praised it as "definitive.... A remarkable book by any standard...unparalleled in the literature of jazz." It has been universally recognized as the basic musical analysis of jazz from its
beginnings until 1933.
The Swing Era focuses on that extraordinary period in American musical history--1933 to 1945--when jazz was synonymous with America's popular music, its social dances and musical entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this
well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing perspective. It examines how the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Sauter--whom Schuller equates with Richard Strauss as "a master of harmonic modulation"--contributed to Benny Goodman's finest work...how Duke Ellington used
the highly individualistic trombone trio of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, and Lawrence Brown to enrich his elegant compositions...how Billie Holiday developed her horn-like instrumental approach to singing...and how the seminal compositions and arrangements of the long-forgotten John Nesbitt
helped shape Swing Era styles through their influence on Gene Gifford and the famous Casa Loma Orchestra. Schuller also provides serious reappraisals of such often neglected jazz figures as Cab Calloway, Henry "Red" Allen, Horace Henderson, Pee Wee Russell, and Joe Mooney.
Much of the book's focus is on the famous swing bands of the time, which were the essence of the Swing Era. There are the great black bands--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, and the often superb but little known "territory bands"--and popular white bands like
Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsie, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, plus the first serious critical assessment of that most famous of Swing Era bandleaders, Glenn Miller. There are incisive portraits of the great musical soloists--such as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan,
and Jack Teagarden--and such singers as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Helen Forest.
Customer Reviews:
An incredibly informative mess.......2007-03-15
Where to begin? Schuller wants to talk about everything - he doesn't want to miss a single band. It's not like Vol. 1 - Early Jazz where he aims and fires. Here everything is scattershot, all over the place. And two ideas come back over and over in a kind of subconscious fashion: one, the idea that riffing is a sign of knee-jerk, insufficently compositional thinking; two, that innovation in Jazz is connected to being "ahead of one's time". If I had lots of time on my hands, I'd catalog these recurrences - Oxford University Press, you're supposed to catch these things! For all of his knowledge, Schuller is insufficiently scholarly - the chapter on Basie is absurd in its criticisms of Basie for not being a compositional thinker like Ellington. I hate to get all racial, but it seems like Schuller doesn't appreciate many of the blacker aspects of Black music. And it's fine that Schuller didn't do all of his own transcriptions - but he should've at least approved them all. Bobby Stark's solo showing up next to a passionate discussion of Red Allen's solo on Henderson's King Porter Stomp gave that one away...
What did I learn from this book? Well...it made me go out and check out Bob Crosby's band more. The section on Horace Henderson was really informative. The book is filled with great things, but even on the level of basic syntax and sentence structure there are so many problems. Just to pick out one of many tortured phrases - Page 253:"I am referring to the curious fact that Basie's music is rarely memorable thematically ( nor is it in terms of timbre or color ). Nor is it WHAT? In speech, we'd understand: "memorable" . But this is supposed to be a History...how hard would it have been to bring this all in line?
If it weren't the only book of its kind...but it is. Someday there'll be more, and we'll be able to appreciate the good things about this one, and forget about the anomalies and longeurs. I hope I'll be around to see that day.
Monumental accomplishment.......2004-11-28
To get some idea of the achievement between these pages, just stop to think that Gunther Schuller listened to some 30,000 recordings, famous and obscure, from the period between 1930 and 1945, in chronological order for each band or performer. It took him fourteen years.
Now you might think after all that that he would emerge with brain so fuzzy, ears so buzzed, that he could not write intelligently about the music, so submerged had he been for so long. But au contraire--this is the most lucid, the best anthology of any jazz era I've ever seen. No one could argue it isn't the most comprehensive. Schuller analyzes bands big and small, famous and unknown, national and "territory."
Some of his opinions go against the critically-accepted grain, which seems to have ruffled a few other reviewers here, but his point of the survey, I think, was to go beyong "lazy, complacent listening" and evaluate each work afresh. So we have a Count Basie orchestra that, while indisputably fine, isn't quite the jazz sin qua non that it's often held out to be. As Schuller points out--accurately, I think--Basie's band was a triumph because of the magnificent soloists, but frankly the arrangements were often uninspired and formulaic, the tunes undistinguished, the colors and contrasts minimized. This made me realize why I never liked other midwestern territory bands as much as the Count's: they generally didn't have the soloists, and without stellar soloists (and not just "good" soloists) it's hard to sustain interest in riffs and themes which quickly become routine. This may upset the apple cart with some people, but I think Schuller is on the money.
Similar, his assessment of Benny Goodman is generally spot-on, though I think I like some of the band's soloists more than he does and give them more credit than he does. However, he is mostly evaluating BG's studio recordings, and that band was far better live. (All bands are better in front of a live audience, of course, but the difference with BG's 30s group is truly stunning.) But Babe Russin was quite the fine understated tenor soloist, Chris Griffin was very underappreciated on trumpet (as was earlier Goodman trumpeter Nate Kazebier--hope I'm spelling that right). Jess Stacy is one of the unsung heroes of swing piano, especially as an accompanist (some of his best comping is on the 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert). Schuller basically ignores these sidemen. Even Ziggy Elman gets the short shrift, with a focus on his schlocky popular stuff instead of some of his logically-constructed solos. But I guess, even with 30,000 recordings under your belt, some performances are bound to escape your notice.
Schuller's chapter on Ellington could itself be a course at a university. You could indeed buy the book just for this section and play through all the recordings mentioned and come away far more knowledgeable about Duke, about jazz, and about music and composition in general. Discussing Schuller's take on Ellington is beyond the scope of this review, save to say it makes for pages and pages of fascinating reading.
Schuller also manages to cut through the Artie Shaw mystique (more BS than mystique, he feels; Shaw, with his verbal fecundity and limited knowledge of European art, was able to snow some jazz and pop writers, but he's just no match for Schuller). And he makes the interesting observation that Glenn Miller played far more true swing than he is credited for (though it was hardly innovative or even often very exciting swing) and Tommy Dorsey played far less, sticking with the Chicago/Dixieland two-beat style long after it had gone out of favor, until about 1940 (!). A lot of Dorsey's music is actually very hokey--"Mickey Mouse"--yet he is usually taken more seriously as a swing musician than Miller.
On the subject of smaller bands and lesser-known leaders from this period, Schuller points out how underappreciated Cab Calloway, Erskine Hawkins and Jimmy Lunceford were, and how relatively overrated Lionel Hampton, Bunny Berrigan and Louis Armstrong (of this period; the innovative Armstrong of the 20s was covered in his Early Jazz book) were. Again, these views--backed up by extremely thorough analysis and stoic discussion, will ruffle a lot of feathers among emotional keepers of the flame, but I find his analysis to be rather spot-on. Also invaluable is his clear-headed discussion of Art Tatum's strengths and weaknesses.
The book is chock full of examples in music notation, and in some instances whole solos and passages are written out. That may scare off some who cannot read music, but it shouldn't. It will largely help to have the recordings in the CD player, ready to go, so the reader can follow along with the notation. And everyone will not follow every discussion of harmonies, scales and chord progressions--no matter. You don't have to understand everything to get a lot from this work, and repeated readings will benefit you as well. Just don't show it to anyone to whom jazz is a religion, and its players are holy priests; they won't appreciate some of Schuller's deconstructions.
Incidentally, Schuller is supposedly working on a volume III that deals with the bebop era and the development of "modern" jazz. (The first volume of this series dealt with pre-1930s jazz and is also a classic.) Considering how much time the present book required, I hope he lives long enough to finish this magnificent project.
Spot-on survey of Swing Era.......2004-08-10
Unlike a previous reviewer, I find Schuller's "biases" quite refreshing. He is unafraid to distinguish the outstanding from the merely imitative or blantantly commercial, whether in comparing bands or musicians or in pointing out the strong points and weak points of individual artists.
While not providing individual biographies, he does manage to put the music into a social/economic context and does better than any other writer in speaking frankly about the interplay between black and white artists during this era without prejudice on either side.
Excellent reference book.......2002-10-08
As far as I know it, this is the most comprehensive book on swing music available. Gunther Schuller is interested in music, not life histories, so biographical information on musicians is scarce. The music, on the other hand, is described and analyzed thoroughly, with great originality and enthousiasm, including information on cross-links, influences, analyses of arrangements, song structures and solos.
I don't believe anyone will read this book from the beginning to the end: each chapter is about a separate artist, and an overall history is lacking. Moreover, one really needs to be able to listen to the described music to enjoy the book, but this is also its strong point: one becomes really eager to listen to the jazz described, often with 'new ears' provided by the author. As a reference book and as a tool to explore jazz between 1930 and 1945 with, "the swing era" is unsurpassed.
Not bad.......2002-04-25
This book was used for a history of music class that I took at an Ivy League school. The reason it was chosen is that it is the most comprehensive work on the swing era in jazz. However, the book has a huge flaw: although there are tons of scores and technical details as well as personal accounts and anecdotes (to suit all types of readers), the author leaves his pronounced bias on everything. He is very passionate about swing music, it is obvious, but many of his descriptions and comparisons are practically worthless to the student of music. It sounds as if he was getting intoxicated by his own play with words.
I can't figure out who would be the ideal reader -- besides Schuller himself. Musicians would probably be annoyed by the author's strong and poorly supported opinions that fill the pages. People with no musical backgrounds would dislike it because it is too technical in many places (you lose a lot if you can't read notes and don't understand the lingo). The only redeeming quality is the sheer scope of the book, so it may be useful to a student taking a survey course on jazz/swing. Even in the last case, you will be frustrated by the lack of organization. You won't be able to figure out where a certain band played/originated (or it will take you an hour to find out) but he'll tell you how the glissando at the end of the third chorus of their most obscure song was more loaded with energy than Paganini's works combined.
In a nutshell: very comprehensive and yet very biased presentation of swing.
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Artists of World War II (Artists of an Era)
Barbara McCloskey
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0313321531 |
Book Description
The first global survey of art in World War II, this volume features selected biographies of artists and detailed discussions of war-era art worlds in China, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Spain, and the United States. Readers can compare and contrast artists' experiences of war in these different countries. They will observe the artists' wide range of responses to war, from producing art works that actively supported the war effort, to criticism of death and destruction. Chapters begin with short synopses of the art worlds in each of these countries leading up to World War II. Following this are approximately five detailed biographies of selected artists whose works exhibited a wide range of responses to the war efforts of their nation. Their works cover a range of artistic styles, from traditional to modern, and demonstrate the blurred boundaries of "art" and "propaganda" during this period. The influence of their works on World War II and how their communities, and the world, responded to those works, gives readers a unique view on the powerful influence of art in war.
Customer Reviews:
A weak overview.......2007-09-26
This is a weak overview for people who know nothing about art. One could write 3-4 books on the info left out of this book. A big letdown. Didn't cover U.S. art during the war in any meaningful way.
Average customer rating:
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The Longman Companion to Britain in the Era of the Two World Wars, 1914-45 (Longman Companions to History)
Andrew Thorpe
Manufacturer: Longman Group United Kingdom
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Europe
| History
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General
| England
| Europe
| History
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20th Century
| England
| Europe
| History
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General
| Ireland
| Europe
| History
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| Books
World War I
| Military
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Europe
| World War II
| Military
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General
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ASIN: 0582077729 |
Book Description
This book examines the life and times of Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian dictator and president for most of the period from 1930 to 1954. It asks how Vargas' legacy influenced Brazil, and to what extent his social legislation affected people's lives. Vargas ignored individual rights and devoted as much effort to manipulating workers as to benefiting them. He did not perceive the unequal distribution of power as a problem that needed to be solved. Although Vargas promised much and delivered little, Brazilians idolized him. Ordinary people would shrug and say, "The President always thought about us."
Customer Reviews:
The author fails many times, but this book is good.......2006-08-14
I read this book, in a translation to the portuguese, here in Brazil.I'm an agronomist.I like to read books.
This book is about Getulio Vargas, the most important of brazilians presidents, in all times.
And this book is concise and easy to read.
The author fails many times.To example,in a sentence, on last page of chapter 4, the author seems to believe, that terrorism in Military times(1964-1985) as an effect of repressive actions by government.In fact in 1960, Che Guevara himself made a terrorist attack, here in Brazil.The target was a registry office in Parana, a Brazil's state.Since 1959, brazilian marxists were training guerrilla warfare, in Cuba.
Terrorism in Latin America, between 1964 and 1985, was focused in democracies as his main victims.Brazil having more than 47% of the territory of South America, but had less than 0,5% of all terrorism in South America.And Brazil's GDP grew in average 7% between 1967 and 1985, against an average of 2% in a year between 1987 and 2006.
Returning to Vargas and this book, the author isn't a tourist about Getulio Vargas.Like the author hismselfs recognizes, in fact there's almost so many Vargas, as there is Jesus or Gods.Vargas has being used to help leftist from right wing, since while, he was living.
Vargas himself told many times, that he ever will be a mistery.And he got this wish.
If the author of this book were a brazilian, I'll be giving 3 stars for this book.The author will have 4 stars for this book. Because the author know so much about Brazil and Vargas, to write this book, is a good made effort.
Average customer rating:
- History of Boston through the eyes of those who performed
- Settle In, and I'll Tell You a Story
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See You at the Hall: Boston's Golden Era of Irish Music and Dance
Susan Gedutis
Manufacturer: Northeastern
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
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General
| Music
| Entertainment
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General
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Massachusetts
| State & Local
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| Americas
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Social History
| Historical Study
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ASIN: 1555536409 |
Book Description
From the 1940s to the mid-1960s, on several evenings a week, thousands of Irish and Irish Americans flocked from miles around to the huge, bustling dance halls -- the Intercolonial, the Hibernian, Winslow Hall, the Dudley Street Opera House, the Rose Croix -- that dotted Boston's Dudley Square. For the city's Irish population, the Roxbury neighborhood, with its ballrooms and thriving shopping district, was a vital center of social and cultural life, as well as a bridge from the old world to the new.
See You at the Hall brings to life the rich history of the "American capitol of Galway" through the eyes of those who gathered and performed there. In this engaging look back at Boston's golden era of Irish traditional music, Susan J. Gedutis deftly weaves together engaging narrative with spirited personal reminiscences to trace the colorful dance hall period from its beginnings in 1940s Roxbury, when masses of young Irish flooded Boston following World War II, through its peak years in the 1950s, to its decline in the 1960s, when reduced immigration, urban social upheaval, and a shift in neighborhood demographics brought an end to the heyday of Irish dance hall music in Boston. After the last dance hall closed, Dudley Square musicians moved from the big ballrooms to pubs, social clubs, and private parties, preserving the music and passing it on to younger generations of Irish performers.
Today, Irish traditional music is experiencing a major revival, and Boston still boasts a lively Irish music scene. This vivid portrait of the enduring and vibrant heritage of the dance hall era will rekindle memories of the good times in Dudley Square, and it will fascinate the legion of fans around the globe interested in the roots of the Irish music they hear today in concert halls, pubs, and clubs. The book also recounts an important period, as yet unchronicled, in the history of Irish music in America, and of the Irish in the diaspora.
Customer Reviews:
History of Boston through the eyes of those who performed.......2004-08-07
From the1940s to the mid-1960s, several evenings a week, thousands of Irish and Irish Americans flocked to Boston's dance halls on Dudley Square to enjoy an unparalleled social scene of music, dance, and shopping. Musician and music book editor Susan Gedutis is also a performer of traditional Irish music in the New England area, and she's the logical author to add rich detail and social history to See You At The Hall, a probe of the history of Boston through the eyes of those who performed there. Narratives weave with social history to make for a compelling study in See You At The Hall.
Settle In, and I'll Tell You a Story.......2004-06-23
Would you like a cup of tea? How about a slice of soda bread? This book is as warm, lively, and fun as an Irish family gathering. Though the author is a music scholar, this book is refreshingly free of the weighty tone of most academic works--the writing is smooth, informed, and accessible, the tone affectionate. Ms. Gedutis has interviewed many performers and fans about this era, and their recollections are amusing, poignant, and nothing if not sincere. Not only do they recall strong images of a lost city, but they place the music in historical context: as the author points out, when the Irish first came to America, music halls--like social clubs, pubs, and church groups--were just one of the "meeting places" where new immigrants could relax among their own as they tackled the routine problems of life. The Irish well know the power of story and song-- in relating our history, in affirming our personal and collective identity, and in establishing a foundation of shared experience and hope in building a community.
Ms. Gedutis refuses to paint the tale with a broad brush, however. She addresses the social and cultural forces that less informed authors might miss. One example is the tension between some Irish and Irish-American musicians. The former apparently felt that the latter, not born of the Sod, weren't "real" Irish musicians. This view was heartily countered by Irish Americans, who pointed out that many of the "real" musicians couldn't read music. On the argument went, while people danced in the background.
In recalling this era, this book can't help but make one wonder if, in a world where Play Station and cable tv isolate us from one another, perhaps more of us (of all ethnic backgrounds), need to "go to the hall," to reconnect with our neighbors and friends for a dance, a drink, and a bit of chat. (Of course, the photo of Cardinal Cushing doing the Highland Fling is itself worth the price of the book.)
Book Description
Launched by the Third Reich in late 1944, the first ballistic missile, the V-2, fell on London, Paris, and Antwerp after covering nearly two hundred miles in five minutes. The design and construction of this daring and deadly advance in weaponry took place at the German rocket development center at Peenemünde, a remote island off the Baltic Coast. Now, Michael J. Neufeld gives the first comprehensive and accurate account of the story behind one of the greatest engineering feats of World War II. At a time when rockets were minor battlefield weapons, Germany ushered in a new form of warfare that would bequeath a long legacy of terror to the Cold War era and a tactical legacy that remains essential today. Both democracy's and communism's ballistic missile and space programs, as well as the SCUD and Patriot missiles of the Gulf War, began in the service of the Nazi State.
Customer Reviews:
Authoritive, but also too broad.......2005-06-20
This is an excellent book that goes into exceptional detail about the engineering process and technical feats of the V-2 development. It is one of the best books on the V-2's techincal development aspects, where others are quicker and focus more on the effects of the V-2 attacks.
For example, Neufeld discusses at length problems of weight distribution, fin control, fuel, guidance, and even telemetry. The V-2 was an incredibly complicated weapon to develop; a casual person might think that putting a warhead on something long with fins with a rocket engine was easy - it was not.
Several years after reading this book, I worked on US missile engineering programs; the V-2 lessons were applicable 50 years later.
I have two minor issues with this book; first, the discussions of slave labor, personal responsibility, etc. could arguably be saved for another book. Understanding that to ignore them would be revisionist, this should be first and foremost a book about the rocket's technical history. Even the political history gets to be a distraction. Second, as a technical book, it does not and should not have widespread appeal. While I personally found the technical history fascinating, it is clear that not everyone will.
If Neufeld were ever to rewrite these books, perhaps a two or three part series covering the technical, political, and sociological histories separately would help readers focus on the aspects of the Rocket and the Riech that interest them most.
The Dark Beginning of the Space Age.......2004-07-16
The two most important techonological developments of the Second World War were the Atomic Bomb and the V-2 ballistic missile.
The development of the V-2 by a group of German scientists, led by Wernher von Braun led directly to the space age and America's
successful effort to beat the USSR to a landing on the Moon. This book describes the efforts of von Braun and his team to build and operate the V-2. 3200 of these rockets were fired in anger, mostly at London and Antwerp. Von Braun and many from his team in Germany became prominent personalities in the Unites States space program, some of the well-known to the public at large. What is less well known is that the people who actually produced the rockets for operational use were part of an army of slaves who were terrorized, brutalized and murdered under the watchful eye of the dreaded SS.
It took nine years of development to get the V-2 to an operational status and the author describes the technological, administrative and political difficulties von Braun and his people faced. At one point, SS chief Heinrich Himmler tried to get control of the program as part of his "empire building". In order to accomplish this, he had Von Braun arrested for a short time. Von Braun's apologists in the US in later years pointed to this in order to whitewash his checkered background, claiming that he was really anti-Nazi. However, the author shows that his arrest had nothing to do with any "anti-Nazi" beliefs he may have had, but was simply part of Himmler's power play, made in order to pressure the heads of the program to agree to the SS's take-over attempt.
The author describes the horrors in which the slave-labor team worked in building and operating the Mittelwerk plant where the operational rockets were produced and the connections between this and von Braun's team. Von Braun is shown to have not had any direct connection with these atrocities, although he did hold the rank of Captain in the SS, but others, who later played a prominent role in the US space program, such as Arthur Rudolph had direct responsibility, which towards the end of his life, led to his depotation from the United States.
One of the most interesting points brought out in the book was the fact that the V-2 program ended up being a disaster for Nazi Germany. It was comparable in size and cost, relative to Germany's war economy, to the American Manhattan Project which successfully developed the A-bomb, yet the total weight of explosives sent by the V-2's was less than that delivered by a single large RAF bombing raid. The rocket program ate up scare resources that could have been better invested in other types of armaments. The major irony is that the ultimate benefit from this massive investment by the German taxpayer was not reaped by them, but by Germany's enemy, the United States and its successful space program.
The book is written in a dry style, so for that reason I give it only 4 stars, but it is still a very important and interesting book.
Extensive and well balanced........2002-12-25
The book covers both the political and technical matters of the V-2 (A-4) missile development. As the book is intended for a general audience the coverage of the technology is sufficient for the purpose of the book but not extremely detailed. This is also clear from the title of the book. The description of the political background and military situation is done in a very clear way. The list of references are extremely detailed and it is obviuos the the author has outstanding knowledge of the subject. The important persons are described in what I consider a very balanced way. I recommned this book to anyone wanting to learn about the inner workings of parts of the German WW2 military and political system as well as a the technology of these rockets. An excellent companion is the V-2 by Walter Dornberger which of course must be read with some caution due to the position of its author and time of publication.
Incredible book but tough reading.......2002-01-27
If you want to know a lot of technical information about the German rocket program in World War II this is the place to start. Neufeld has a grasp of the technical side of the program like no other historian, however his writing style leaves much to be desired. A good plus of the book is that he includes diagrams of the missles as well as a couple sections of pictures that give the reader an idea what the things and places he writes about look like. I found being able to visualize certain things makes understanding it much easier. He also includes an appendix with a chronology of the German rocket program that readers will find helpful for quick short references to each successive rocket in the program. Overall this is an excellent book, I give it 4 stars instead of 5 only due to Neufeld's writing style which makes this book tough going in some sections that include lots of boring, and in my opinion, overkill, technical detail.
Enigma.......2001-06-20
I am familiar with Michael Neufeld's earlier work with the Paper-Clip interviews on audio tape on file at NARA. What is enigmatically missing from these interviews (and the book) is what these pro-Nazi scientists knew about BERGKRISTALL/ESCHE 2 Guzen II
at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Yes the ME-262 jet engine was engineered and stored there but some
very interesting mind boggling technologies were developed there with the help of Jewish slave labor. These slaves were murdered to eliminate any oral historical record of this new strange technology and the Nazi otracirites. Eventually in May of 1945 the invading US 41st Recon Squad 11th Ard Div 3rd US Army liberated the camps. But Russians got to this technology in the tunnels before the US forces could as our boys did not know what they had found until the O.S.S. went over photo recon much later.
By November 1947 the Russians had scooped up and exploited as much as they could and eventually dynamited the tunnels leaving us with nothing but scrapes. To this day they still have unfettered access to this technology but we caught up to them (so to speak) by bringing these Paper-Clip boys to Wright Field (Wright-Paterson AFB today)in Dayton Ohio. This was the real beginning of the Cold War Space Race.
In the Neufeld interviews you will learn of some NEW things you never knew before about the Pennemunde Boys like Project Wasserfall (i.e, submarine fired missle system), the Washington and Brooklynn Rocket Program (V-9 or the V4a bastard rocket - first attempt at ICBM). Maybe some day soon someone will discover the connection between Kplt. Hellmut Neuerburg's U-869 REAL mission from Kriegsmarine and this Wasserfall project! (i.e., a Type IXC/40 submarine that accidently sunk itself with an acoustic T5 torpedo off the coast of New Jersey halfway between Brooklyn and Washington DC in early 1945 near the end of the WWII.)
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