Book Description
Lord Hugh Dowding, Air Chief Marshall of the Royal Air Force, Head of Fighter Command, First Baron of Bentley Priory, lived in the grip of unseen spirits. In thrall of the supernatural, he talked to the ghosts of his dead pilots, proclaimed that Hitler was defeated only by the personal intervention of God, and believed in the existence of faeries. How could it be that such a man should be put in charge of evaluating technical developments for the British air ministry? Yet it was he who brought the modern multi-gunned fighter into existence. And he insisted that his scientists investigate the mysterious invisible rays that would prove to be the salvation of Britain: radar.
Dowding, who provided the organization and training that led to victory, has been all but ignored by U. S. biographers of Churchill and historians of the Battle of Britain. Yet his story is vital to tell, for its importance to the defense of Britain and the free world, and for the intriguing character study that emerges from his ongoing conflict with Churchill and the British government during the crisis years of the empire. Part military history, part science narrative, part biography; this an incredible story.
Customer Reviews:
Marvellous.......2007-02-04
I discovered Lord Dowding as the author did through Dowdings book "Lynchgate". The Battle of Britain, whilst not the saviour as most believe put a serious dent in Hitlers War Machine. Britain was to remain free and a "stepping stone" back into Europe.
Without Lord Dowding none of this would have been achieved. Bombing had been shown to be the way of modern warfare and fighters stuck in a time warp could not catch them. Dowding's obstinacy and prescience established a data-linked system of radar, operation rooms and fighters. Without him the World may have been a much different place.
Since owning and reading the book, I have lent it out to various people, some who admit to only occassionally reading! Everyone has been awe stuck by the story. Our debt of gratitude to those who fought the Second World War is aptly enhanced.
Excellent Book About A Little Known Hero.......2007-01-10
Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding has long been known to me as one of the most important men in the defeat of Hitler and Nazi Germany, yet few Americans know who he is.
David E. Fisher writes is an engaging style. There are several fine books that detail Hugh Dowding's contributions to the RAF's defeat of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, and his immediate dismissal afterwards.
Fisher writes a lot about Dowding's belief in the supernatural, but it is done in a sensitive and fair manner.
Fisher has done his research. This book is a great way to learn about one of the most decisive battles of WWII, and about one of its greatest heroes.
Bright book, would be terrible to miss.......2006-07-25
How can a summer be bright and terrible? Fisher writes convincingly that the long, dry, summer of 1940 over England offered the world a turning point, the Battle of Britain. The star was Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding, the aging officer responsible for the fighter defense of England. Faced with the assumption that fighters were too slow, too under armed, and too late - "the bomber will always get through" - and faced with an overwhelming enemy, Dowding had to Marshall has scarce "chicks", lull Hermann Goring into believing that England had no resistance left, and postpone Operation Sea Lion. This bright, terrible summer provided the backdrop for this well-documented battle. Fisher offers four parts - winter, spring, summer and fall - to create a complete context for this fascinating historical story.
The strategy was to fight strategically, with a few well-positioned squadrons taking on waves of German bombers and fighters. The "secret" to the success was the intricate defense communications system, based on nascent radar, a system that provided enough time for fighters to rise up to meet the Huns. Even at the time, Dowding's plan was not universally accepted. Even his success in turning the tide and postponing the inevitable invasion did not save him his job. Other people clamored for more credit, including Winston Churchill, rankled peers, a disgruntled scientist, and the legless fighter pilot, Douglas Bader. "Bomber" Harris and the "big wing" theory may have earned more press, but Fisher makes his point clearly, if personally and even conversationally, that Dowding saved the day, on stubborn spunk and science. Dowding leveraged his experience in the first Great War to manage a career based on science more than diplomacy or tact. He was loved by the men he led, and reviled by many of the peers he challenged.
Fisher even forgives Neville Chamberlain's aligned "appeasement" as a method for England to buy time in the run up to full-scale war. Clearly England was not yet equipped to defend itself at the time of Munich, but it is hard to know if Hitler would have been ready to go. Fisher is a scientist, a professor of cosmochemistry, who teaches about war and science, and he has a skill at putting together the scientific and technological advances that saved England as well as those half-baked ideas that fortunately did not stop radar and Dowding's communication system from stopping the onslaught. Fisher has a light, pleasant, non-technical writing style. The reader feels as if Fisher is telling a story, perhaps to a classroom of students. He details Dowding's life, including Dowding's fascination with spirit life, séances, and mediums. Fisher takes on some of the conventional wisdom as to heroes and chumps and leaves the reader satisfied with a thorough, personal story, even with Fisher's self-admitted bias about some incidents and people.
The final flare of the Battle of Britain, the second week in September 1940, when Hitler finally had to acknowledge that the invasion was off, provides a fitting climax to a climactic story. This is interesting history, enjoyable, educational and informative, vivid yet not graphic, personal, candid, and willing to look at both sides of the numerous accounts of this period. Having read many of them myself, I recommend this one as a satisfying experience.
Bright, Terrible and Brilliant.......2006-03-20
This is a brilliant account of the Battle of Britain. As Hitler unleashed the Luftwaffe against Britain, the Summer of 1940, writes David Fisher, was too long and too short; too bright and too terrible: "Too long," because it seemed like an eternity before the onset of the high Fall winds that would roil the North Atlantic and make a cross-channel invasion impossible. "Too short," because there was insufficient time to mass-produce Spitfires and Hurricanes, train pilots, and build and staff radar stations. "Too bright," because an unusually dry and clear Summer ("where the bleep are the clouds, the fog, the rain") created perfect conditions for the Luftwaffe assault, and "too terrible," because of the all the planes that were falling from the sky.
"Brilliant" is a good word to describe the man who was most responsible for England's defense: Hugh Dowding. And he was prescient, too. Dowding saw early that fighter squadrons, not bombers, were the key to the island nation's defense, bucking conventional wisdom in the Air Ministry. He out-argued Winston Churchill (Churchill!) to prevent the senseless transfer of precious British fighter planes during the Battle of France: "if the present rate of wastage continues for another fortnight, we shall not have a single Hurricane left in France or in this country." He envisioned the essential role of radar - at a time when others, including Churchill, were promoting fanciful schemes like the death ray - and overcame inane resistance (`make sure they don't interfere with the grouse hunting") to construct a chain of radar towers on the eve of war. His strategy of sending small numbers of Spits and Hurris ("penny packets") to contest the Luftwaffe proved to be masterful. Hermann Goring became deluded into believing England's fighter squadrons had been decimated. When Goring went for the kill, Dowding summoned the reserves he had been holding back, and -- aided by the early warning of radar - trounced the Luftwaffe and ended the Battle of Britain.
Surprisingly, Dowding was cashiered (or more politely, "retired on schedule") shortly thereafter. Hitler's failure in the Battle of Britain engendered The Blitz. Churchill demanded an immediate defense. Dowding said there was no effective defense against the nighttime bombing until better fighter planes were produced, equipped with individual radar sets and better armaments. Events would prove Dowding right. But he had made many enemies in the top echelons of the Air Ministry, and had little support in resisting Churchill. Indeed, his antagonists in the Air Ministry even conspired to revise the history of the Battle of Britain to make his successful strategy seem a failure.
Dowding was an eccentric guy. He claimed to communicate regularly with his dead wife as well as the pilots (his "chicks") who perished over England. Shortly after retirement, he married a young widow at the recommendation of her recently killed fighter-pilot husband. At the end, many of his contemporaries thought he'd gone off the deep end. But at the time of its greatest peril, he was the guy who, in Fisher's words, "made the life-and-death decisions that saved England." And altered the course of the Second World War.
Nice addition to every WWII library.......2005-12-27
This is an excellent book for anyone interested in WWII, especially the ETO. There are a couple of nice pluses in this book.
First, the story is broader than usual. There are certainly other good histories of the Battle of Britain, but this is the best treatment I have seen of the lead-up to the battle on the British side. Specifically, the development of RADAR and the Spitfire.
The other nice facet of this book is that the author definitely makes his opinion known, keeping the book from being too dry, but at the same time, he is clear in distinguishng between his opinions and the facts.
Once I started this book, I just ripped right through it.
Customer Reviews:
Great Insight on the fireline.......2001-03-15
Probably one of the best wildland fire books I have ever read. In my 25+ years of firefighting this one captures the scenes of a wildland fire the best. The pictures are great and the narration and stories truly catch you up in the whole fire scene. Buy it for the pictures or the stories--but get a copy, You will enjoy it for years to come.
A Firefighter's View..........2000-12-27
When I first picked up a copy of Michael Thoele's Fire Line, I was quite skeptical, having served 5 years in the late 1990's as a Region One Firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana while working my way through college to earn an engineering degree at Montana State University. All too often, Books, Documentaries, and movies leave much to be desired when it comes to correctly describing the world of Wildland Firefighting and the characters that inhabit that world. After having read the work completely, I must say that I am very impressed. I have read it now more than a few times, and still return to it when I feel the need to keep alive all the wonderful memories of the unique people that I met and the experiences that we shared.
Having started out as an "Engine Slug" on the Gallatin National Forest, and having worked my way up and around the fire eschelons-- serving as a helitack crew member, eventually earning my quals as an Incident Commander, and serving my time as a Rookie Smokejumper in Missoula, I have seen and done much that Mr. Thoele accurately describes. I think what makes the book work so well is that the author lets the book be itself. By this, I mean that many of the stories and photos are those related to and given to the author. The research for this book is absolutly top-notch, [as it MUST be], and takes nothing away from the fast-paced, hard-hitting, gritty and spine-tingling stories related by the author.
In my opinion, this is the finest book currently on the market that documents Wildland Firefighting in the western United States, both in scope and depth. It is a fitting tribute to all Wildland Firefighters, Past, Present and Future.
Now More than Ever.......2000-08-10
It's been several years since Mike Thoele wrote his fine book, but it's still a valuable primer on the people who fight wildland fire. With catastrophic fires burning across the West this summer of 2000, the worst fire season in half a century, it's worth taking another look at Fire Line. When we venture into the woods, especially to build a home or cabin, we should remember who we put at risk. Thoele's book puts faces on firefighters: they could be neighbors or friends; they could be ourselves. Making a dwelling fire-safe is not the most expensive or difficult job in the world, but it gives firefighters like the ones in Thoele's book a better chance of making it home at the end of a 14 day shift, some of those days 24 hour days. Thoele's book is a colorful, readable and pleasant telling of the story of the wildland firefighter.
The very best book available on Western wildfires.......1998-09-21
Mike Thoele is one of the few humans truly qualified to write a book that accurately portrays the culture and the people of wildland fire. And he has done a spectacular job of it with this fine book.
Since the major rager fires of 1910, Americans have fought wildfires in the forests and grasslands and deserts of the West. The summer warriors who take on these battles are a breed apart, and Thoele explains why. He shows us, with an impressive collection of photos, and tells us, with well-crafted stories, who they are and what they do. From tanker pilot Laddie Lash's breath-taking canyon dives, to exhausted firefighters sleeping in a pile in the dirt, to the "generals" plotting strategy in the command center of the war on wildfire, Thoele takes us there.
If you've made a 20-year career of it, or if you know nothing of wildfire and have not even seen a wilderness fire camp, you will learn from this book what it's all about. Thoele portrays the people who are bitten by the fire bug, the men and women who go back, year after year, to do battle with the dragon of fire, both accurately and dramatically. Every bit of this impressive book is right-on and readable, even for those who have but a passing interest in wildfire.
Perhaps the best reviews, though -- or the most credible reviews -- are those of the firefighters themselves, and I have heard from dozens of them what they think of this book. They call it a masterpiece.
Book Description
It is the richest, most influential, most powerful university in the world, but at the beginning of 2001, Harvard was in crisis. Students complained that a Harvard education had grown mediocre. Professors charged that the university cared more about money than about learning. Harvard may have possessed a $19 billion endowment, but had it lost its soul?
The members of Harvard's governing board knew that they had to act. And so they made a bold pick for Harvard's twenty-seventh president: former Treasury Secretary and intellectual prodigy economist Lawrence Summers.
Although famously brilliant, Summers was a high-stakes gamble. In the 1990s he had crafted American policies to stabilize the global economy, quietly becoming one of the world's most powerful men. But while many admired Summers, his critics called him elitist, imperialist, and arrogant beyond measure.
Today Larry Summers sits atop a university in a state of upheaval, unsure of what it stands for and where it is going. At stake is not just the future of Harvard University but also the way in which Harvard students see the world -- and the manner in which they lead it. Written despite the university's official opposition,
Harvard Rules uncovers what really goes on behind Harvard's storied walls -- the politics, sex, ambition, infighting, and intrigue that run rampant within the world's most important university.
Download Description
"
It is the richest, most influential, most powerful university in the world, but at the beginning of 2001, Harvard was in crisis. Students complained that a Harvard education had grown mediocre. Professors charged that the university cared more about money than about learning. And everyone worried that Harvard's outgoing president, Neil Rudenstine, epitomized an unhappy trend: the university president as full-time fund-raiser. Harvard may have possessed a $19 billion endowment, but had the university lost its soul?
The members of the Harvard Corporation, the ultra-secretive governing board established more than three centuries ago, knew that they had to act. And so they made a bold pick for Harvard's twenty-seventh president: former Treasury Secretary and intellectual prodigy economist Lawrence Summers.
Although famously brilliant, Summers was a high-stakes gamble. In the 1990s he had crafted American policies to stabilize the global economy, quietly becoming one of the world's most powerful men. But while many admired Summers, his critics called him elitist, imperialist, and arrogant beyond measure.
Today Larry Summers sits atop a university in a state of upheaval, unsure of what it stands for and where it is going. His allies believe that Harvard needs shaking up and appreciate Summer's blunt language and unabashed displays of power. His foes accuse the new president of tearing apart a venerable institution simply to remake it in his own image. At stake is not just the future of Harvard University, but the way in which Harvard students see the world -- and the manner in which they will lead it.
Written despite the university's official opposition,
Harvard Rules uncovers what really goes on behind Harvard's storied walls -- the politics, sex, ambition, infighting, and intrigue that run rampant within the world's most important university.
"
Customer Reviews:
An interesting account.......2007-09-29
This is one of the first examinations of the Summers presidency at Harvard. The book examines the results of Laurence Summers, former treasury secretary and brilliant economist, when he served as president of Harvard. Summers was known for daring to oppose that anti-Israel lobby at Harvard and divestment. He was known for his many verbal battles with such icons as Cornell West. He was also known for critiquing many of the political courses at Harvard that did not seek to educate but to indoctrinate. He was also criticized for accepting money for a sheikh connected to Islamism and allowing Harvard's name to be purchased by the United Arab Emirates, an apartheid state.
But for all his controversy he may have been the greatest president of Harvard in the last thirty years. This book is partially a critique and partially a discussion of the ins and outs of the controversies surrounding him. He was critiqued so much because he tried to rock the boat at Harvard and he dared to question whether it was still providing the best education. Although this book might be a little heavy handed in claiming that Harvard students are groomed to run the world, it is an interesting examination of the role of Summers at the prestigious University.
Seth J. Frantzman
Prescient reporting, compelling story.......2005-12-20
I bought Harvard Rules because my daughter is in high school and thinking of applying there, and after President Summers' comments about women and science, I wasn't so sure that was a good idea. Now, I'm even less sure. Harvard Rules is a fascinating investigation of what the author refers to as the world's most powerful university, and I think he makes a pretty good case for that. Bradley traces the story of how Larry Summers got chosen as president and what his mandate was to change the university. But he shows how Summers was a more difficult character than anyone had expected, and the resulting controversy repeatedly impeded his attempt to bend Harvard to his will. I never realized all the behind-the-scenes politicking that goes on at Harvard-fighting over money, promotions, prestige. This is a great story of the way that one of the most influential institutions in the entire world *really* works-and sometimes doesn't. Anyone whose kid is thinking about Harvard-or anyone thinking of applying there-should read this book.
Read the Crimson and Find Out the Same Things.......2005-07-13
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Larry Summers. I didn't care for him when I was an intern at Treasury, and as an alum I really don't care for him as president of Harvard. But even I think this book is unfair to Summers and goes too far in trying to villify the man.
Bradely has written a book that is very easy to read and draws almost all of the issues enveloping Harvard in easy to digest, black-and-white dramas between Summers (always in the black hat) and various members of the faculty and student body (always portrayed sympatetically). This book makes no pretence of being objective or looking any further than skin-deep at the controversies that surrounded Summers before the most recent blow-up over his comments on women in science. Several chapters end with essentially the same line: by doing X, Summers had further consolidated his rule over the university. If all of this is true (it's not), Summers would be the absolute dictator of Harvard Yard by now.
In fact, what has been written here is basically an expanded, book-edition copy of the Harvard Crimson from 2000 to the present. There is little new in the book that readers of Harvard's student newspaper don't already know other than a few re-interviews that Richard Bradley has done with various personalities involved in the recent events at Harvard.
What's lost here is that what is going on at Harvard is a microcosm of what's going on at many other American universities, and that much of it isn't new. As far back as I can remember (and I come from a family of academics), students and faculty alike have hated their university presidents, viewing them as uninterested in academics or out of touch with their student bodies. As at Harvard, with the decibel level of campus politics higher today than at any time since the 1960s, there is a lot of talking (or complaining, depending on one's perspective) going on and less respect for opposing viewpoints. Harvard is hardly unique in this respect.
Bradely castigates Summers for his handling of several episodes with faculty (most noteably the Cornel West debacle) but misses the broader trend that acadmics as a whole have been getting into narrower and narrower specalties that prevent their work from being of much use to anyone. This doesn't mean that Summers was justified in how he treated West, who was (and is) a true educator, but it does deny this book some much-needed context.
Similarly, Bradley's comments on Summers' stress on achievement by students misses that the same line was toed by the genteel Neil Rudenstine, who once told the Crimson that 'students don't come to Harvard to have fun' when asked why the university maintains an academic schedule that places fall term finals immediately after winter break. This was a particularly poor-timed comment after a rash of student suicides on campus and reports that Harvard's student suicide rate was twice the national average.
Overall, only the most die-hard Summers haters will find anything valuable in Harvard Rules. Everyone else interested in the state of campus would be better of reading the Crimson from time to time.
Who's Afraid of Cornel West?.......2005-07-03
Answer: the author Richard Bradley, not Harvard president Lawrence Summers.
Reason. The cause of the fear is that West might accuse Bradley of being a "racist" and ruin his career. If you are one of the Harvard faculty who hate Summers, you are probably afraid of West too. Some of you may have witnessed Bradley's fear and trembling on C-SPAN 2 when he discussed this book in the presence of West. He acted like a hostage in Iraq.
Truth. The truth is that Summers had the guts to stand up to West and Henry Gates. He rejected their racial fantacies because they could not cite any credible supporting evidence. He rejected the politicizing of a great university. He reaffirmed academic freedom. Of course, Bradley did not intend to make Summers look good. But the facts speak for themselves. Read the book in a bookstore, but don't buy it and enrich an author who is afraid of Cornel West.
Smart, Thorough, Timely.......2005-06-05
This is an outstanding book. It covers the first three years of Larry Summers' Harvard presidency and really takes you inside the university. Harvard Rules treats the issues of higher education seriously, but it also conveys all the drama that goes on behind-the-scenes at Harvard. I particularly liked the way Bradley treated the people involved as characters, so that the book reads almost like a novel, which is not what you'd typically expect of a book about higher education. Like him or hate him, Larry Summers is a fascinating man, and this book provides grist for both sides of the mill. If you're interested in Harvard or higher education, this is a must read. But if you're interested in just a good read about ambition and power, I'd recommend Harvard Rules for that, too.
Book Description
The termination of the war and the fate of the Union hung in the balance in May of 1864 as Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac clashed in the Virginia countryside—first in the battle of the Wilderness, where the Federal army sustained greater losses than at Chancellorsville, and then further south in the vicinity of Spotsylvania Courthouse, where Grant sought to cut Lee's troops off from the Confederate capital of Richmond.
This is the first book-length examination of the pivotal Spotsylvania campaign of 7-21 May. Drawing on extensive research in manuscript collections across the country and an exhaustive reading of the available literature, William Matter sets the strategic stage for the campaign before turning to a detailed description of tactical movements. He offers abundant fresh material on race from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania, the role of Federal and Confederate calvary, Emory Upton's brilliantly conceived Union assault on 10 May, and the bitter clash on 19 May at the Harris farm. Throughout the book, Matter assesses each side's successes, failures, and lost opportunities and sketches portraits of the principal commanders.
The centerpiece of the narrative is a meticulous and dramatic treatment of the horrific encounter in the salient that formed the Confederate center on 12 May. There the campaign reached its crisis, as soldiers waged perhaps the longest and most desperate fight of the entire war for possession of the Bloody Angle—a fight so savage that trees were literally shot to pieces by musket fire. Matter's sure command of a mass of often-conflicting testimony enables him to present by far the clearest account to date of this immensely complex phase of the battle.
Rigorously researched, effectively presented, and well supported by maps, this book is a model tactical study that accords long overdue attention to the Spotsylvania campaign. It will quickly take its place in the front rank of military studies of the Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
Reader from Maine.......2000-01-20
If you really want a serious consideration of what happened at Spotsylvania, I highly recommend William Matter's book. While other works may offer an entertaining read, Matter avoids clogging his work with anecdotal material, useless hearsay and speculation, and offers as near an accurate view of what really happened as we are likely to get.
it took more than a summer.......1999-02-18
Although this book is extremely informative, it's also extremely ponderous. It's a slow read. Turning all the pages may take more than just a summer. It's just not as enjoyable as other accounts. Try Gordon Rhea's book.
Book Description
The great fighting retreat of the Nez Perces, struggling for their lives, lands, and freedom, outwitting and battling off one purusing force after another, is one of the giant epics of the American West. The literature about it is immense, but there is no volume like this monumental account of the war by Jerome A. Greene. Written by one of the foremost experts in frontier military history and reviewed by members of the Nez Perce tribe, Nez Perce Summer, 1877 details the dozen armed encounters between U.S. Army troops and a desperate body of Nez Perces that spanned the long summer of 1877 in the wilds of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana territories. A meticulously researched and well-written narrative, it chronicles a people's epic struggle to survive spiritually, culturally, and physically in the face of unrelenting military force. Sixteen maps detail troop and Indian movements and skirmishes, while 49 photographs further illuminate this sad and dramatic conflict.
Customer Reviews:
Nez Perce Summer, 1877... The U.S. Army and Ni.mípu Crisis.......2007-01-07
Jerome Greene has written the standard for those studying the War of 1877. I am currently using this book as the master reference for my writings. I am very pleased with the List of References, and the Summary Appendix Listing the known Army and Tribesmen casualties; what's missing is the Civilians and Noncoms casualties. Through out, Mr. Greene maintained a neutral viewpoint, something that is absolutely necessary for a serious and worthwhile reference work.
Mr. Greene is now to the Nez Perce War what Bruce Cotton was to the Civil War. It is the "master", to which all other work must be reviewed against. Incidentally, the famous author, Terry C. Johnston used a prerelease draft supplied by Jerome Greene as the basis for his novels on the first half of this conflict.
I am very pleased with this book and I wish all the historical events making up the history of the American West had such a through, scholarly work summarizing the events and identifying those involved. It is something other scholars should think about; it sure makes research easy for a novel writer like me.
Of course, no work can cover all the facts and neither does Mr. Greene's. Further research into the works of those actually involved would be the next level of detail, the serious students will go to.
Mr. Greene's approach to a very complicated series of events, making up this Indian outbreak, was to discuss one subject at a time, while ignoring the others until that subject was complete, then take-up another and do the same. The result became a saw tooth of events that jumps the reader back and forth through history, none seemly related to the others. That is why I rated the work as I did. That aside, it's nothing a good set of notes can't correct.
Nevertheless, this is an important work and a must copy for every library covering the history of the American West.
Thank you Mr. Greene.
A Masterpiece of History.......2001-03-02
One word adequately describes this book-Superb! I have read other accounts of the Nez Perce conflict but none with this degree of detail. For example, other authors have skimmed over some of the smaller engagements of the campaign (such as Canyon Creek) but Greene gives this as well as other episodes the full treatment they deserve. In his introduction, Greene clearly states that he mainly relied on primary source material, using secondary sources for background only. This decision clearly paid off.
Footnotes are used extensively to bring to the fore conflicting testimony as well as useful background information. All of this is augmented by excellent maps that illustrate the action. Greene avoids wasting the reader's time with moralizing sermons. He correctly portrays the military as simply trying to do the job thrust upon them by their civilian masters.
Truly, the best parts of this work are the final chapters detailing the culminating conflict at Bear Paw Mountain. At last, I feel like I am on the way towards understanding this battle. I walked away from this book with new respect and understanding for Greene, the Nez Perce and the much-maligned frontier army.
Greene has done his homework.......2001-02-26
Over the years I've read a lot on the subject of the Indian Wars. However, it seems that many recent publications are just a re-hash of materials, from secondary sources, presented as a new thesis or from a new perspective. Nez Perce Summer is a notable exception. Greene has used a wealth of primary sources, many never used before, in order to turn up new information and call old notions into question.
This is not a history of the Nez Perce, it is a military history of the campaign against them. While many these days prefer their Indian wars history from an Indian perspective, they should not be deterred from reading this work. This is a history of the military campaign, not a support of it. Indeed, one cannot come away from this without being amazed at how the Nez Perce continually stumped the most experienced Indian fighters of the time.
The narrative is well-written, and Greene holds our attention as well as any fiction writer could. I highly recommend !this book to anyone--scholar or casual reader--interested in the study of the Indian Wars.
Vividly drawn and engaging presented storytelling.......2001-01-11
In Nez Perce Summer 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis, research historian Jerome Green provides an informative, superbly researched, and wonderfully written account of the Nez Perce conflict with the larger white culture as represented by the U.S. Army. Green is one of those rare historians able to combine meticulous scholarship with a genuine flair for vividly drawn and engaging presented storytelling. Nez Perce Summer 1877 is ardently recommended reading for students of American frontier history in general, and Native American studies in particular.
Book Description
Whether you have cancer or someone you love and care about does, here are 48 powerful stories from cancer survivors who prove that it is what you do with the cancer that matters so much more than what the cancer does to you. Grab it with determination and know that a diagnosis of cancer does not define who you are and that you are not alone.
Customer Reviews:
"Triumphs..." is a Real Winner.......2004-05-24
This little book is a gem - page after page of inspirational stories from people who have battled cancer and won - or at least on the path toward winning.
Yes, the Lance Armstrong story is one of the 48, and he has certainly "celebratized" the disease by defeating cancer against all odds. But the fact is cancer is an everday disease, striking everyday people. Those are the stories that beg to be heard.
"Triumphs..." captures these everyday people and shows their courage, their humor, and their determination. As a cancer patient currently in therapy, this book has given me equal determination to join the ranks of becoming a survivor.
What Color Is your Cancer.......2003-11-10
November 9, 2003
To see the words of what you have gone through in print, you have to wonder why some are speared from this disease. I would ask God why me meaning why I was saved from breast and lung cancer 3 times and hear the soft sounds of you have more work to do. Since 2001 I have lost 10 friends to this disease but I no longer ask why me I realized that it was time for them to go home. Barry thank you for writing this book.
A Real Inspiration!.......2002-09-26
This book was inspiring to me as each chapter is a real-life tale of personal achievement over a deadly disease. For cancer patients, it should provide insights, and for loved ones, ways of coping and guiding the patient. For me with a family history of cancer, I see it as preparation! A nice little book to have.
Books:
- A Tangled Web (Star Wars: Last of the Jedi, Book 5)
- A Trick Of The Eye: Trompe L'oeil Masterpieces
- A Volcano In My Tummy: Helping Children to Handle Anger
- Abuela (English Edition with Spanish Phrases) (Picture Puffins)
- All That Remains: A Scarpetta Novel (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries)
- And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
- At Home in Mitford
- Baby Bargains, 7th Edition: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on baby furinture, gear, clothes, toys, maternity wear and much more! (Baby Bargains)
- Bat Loves the Night
- Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera
- Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City
- Coherent Synchronized Oxidation Reactions by Hydrogen Peroxide
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920-1922: This Side of Paradise / Flappers and Philosophers
- Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach
- National Geographic Encyclopedia of Space
- Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique C
- Community In The Making: Lincoln Center Institute, The Arts And Teacher Education
- Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture
- The Forgotten Service
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain
Invasion, 1940: Did the Battle of Britain Alone Stop Hitler?
Finest Hour : The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality
The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II
