Yet another excellent work of early American history from one of its best practitioners.
A masterly history of the lesser-known second half of the Revolutionary War.
Ferling reminds readers that American patriots, ecstatic after the 1777 victory at Saratoga, were not expecting the fighting to continue for nearly twice as long as before. In the scene-setting preface, the author gives low marks to both commanders, dubbing Washington a figure of great political acumen but risk-averse. Though Gen. William Howe mostly got the better of Washington, he was often lethargic and wrong-headed. More than most historians, Ferling gives credit to Howe’s second-in-command, Henry Clinton, who took over in 1778. With the declaration of war by France, Clinton sent nearly half his troops to the West Indies and several thousand more to Canada and Florida. Historians—if not most Americans—understand that Britain’s priority after that declaration was defeating its major rival, leaving Clinton shorthanded. By year’s end, Saratoga was old news, and massive aid from France was nowhere in sight. Ferling paints a vivid yet bleak picture: War weariness was widespread, Colonial currency nearly worthless, enlistments falling, and Washington increasingly desperate for men and supplies. Eventually, French loans helped to sustain the “enfeebled United States,” and Washington fought no major battles for the three years before Yorktown, a fact that disturbed his French allies no less than American critics. Frustrated by Washington, Clinton turned his attention to the south, capturing Charleston in May 1780. “Some believed that Clinton’s victory had saved Lord North’s ministry, enabling Britain to remain at war,” writes Ferling. Readers may recall that Gen. Charles Cornwallis continued north through Virginia to disaster at Yorktown. The author astutely points out that Clinton disapproved of Cornwallis’ actions, and Washington opposed French commander Rochambeau’s plan to march their armies down to Virginia but gave in. A traditionalist, Ferling concludes that, but for its blunders, Britain would have defeated the rebels, who made their own blunders—but not enough to lose. Impeccably researched, as usual, the book is a must-read for any student of Revolutionary history.
Yet another excellent work of early American history from one of its best practitioners.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63557-276-6
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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