Book Review: The War for the Union, Volume III: The Organized War, 1863-1864 by Allan Nevins

The War for the Union, Vol. 3: The Organized War, 1863-1864) by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As the war turned from simply restoring the Union to a revolution to restore the Union as it should always have been, the military stalemate finally broke on the same day in July on opposite ends of the war with the fallout being a breaking of the Confederate’s back while the other resulted in the most famous speech in American history. The War for the Union. Volume III: The Organized War, 1863-1864 is the seventh volume of Allen Nevins’ Ordeal of the Union series as the nadir of Northern hopes disappear in the taking of Vicksburg and the victories of Gettysburg and Chattanooga while the Confederacy finds itself increasingly shunned internationally.

Throughout 513 pages of well-written and thoughtful writing Nevins related the turning point year of 1863 in which the results on the battlefield, actions at sea, and domestic economical and industrial weight of the North turned the war in its favor. Barely over two-fifths of the book covers the military developments of the conflict before turning the rest of the volume over to the various domestic and international issues both sides confronted. It was this latter part of the book which I personally found more interesting, especially when it came to the economic boom that North experienced as it built up the industrial capacity in response to the war effort, not only employing more men even as others went to fight, but the increase of wages and profits for all concerned. A fascinating feature of the war I didn’t realize until now was how much illicit trade between North and South there was, especially when it came to cotton especially in the Union army but given the corruption going on in American public life at this time I shouldn’t have been surprised. Once again, I can’t emphasize how even though this book is over 65 years old it is very detailed and gives a total picture of the events of that time that anyone interested in the history of the American Civil War.

The War for the Union, Volume III: The Organized War, 1863-1864 reveals how the North finally organized to conduct war at “home” while turning the tide on the battlefield through the excellent writing of Allan Nevins.

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Book Review: The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, Compared with The Origin and Principles of the French Revolution by Friedrich von Gentz

The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution by Friedrich von Gentz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For over a decade the French Revolution had raged within the country, and they had spread it throughout Europe with their massive armies, all the while claiming inspiration from their American predecessor, but one conservative disagreed. The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, Compared with The Origin and Principles of the French Revolution is Friedrich von Gentz’s essay on the two great revolutions of the 18th Century and why one was legitimate and the other wasn’t.

To conservative Europe the havoc of the French Revolution had one direct cause, the American and its war against their lawful king. However German diplomat Friedrich von Gentz not only defended the American Revolution in his essay, showing that it was a legitimate war against a monarch that had sided with a usurping power to oppress his own subjects. Gentz took it for granted that the reader of his day knew the events of the French Revolution but given that it had been almost a quarter century since the beginning of the fighting of the American Revolution, and nearly four decades of the political resistance that preceded it, he focused on recounting the events in America then doing short comparisons to those in France. The four points of view that Gentz contrasted the American and French on—the lawfulness of origin, character of the conduct, quality of object, and compass of resistance—were like all were presented from the lengthiest to the shortest, yet all of them were strongly argued. The one critique was Gentz handwaving away of the American use of natural and unalienable rights along with popular sovereignty as superfluous rhetoric that the Americans used not their actual beliefs, which for a few was true while others it was not.

The Origins and Principles is a well-written defense by a 18th Century European conservative of the legitimacy of the American Revolution especially when contrasted with that of the French which claimed to be inspired by it.

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Book Review: The War for the Union, Volume II: War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863 by Allan Nevins

The War For The Union: War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After a year of improvised army building, supply gathering, and campaigns tried to do too much with too little, the Union and the Confederates planned to deal that one decisive blow that would end the war but instead what came about was military stalemate and a political revolution. The War for the Union, Volume II: War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863 is the sixth volume of Allan Nevins Ordeal of the Union series as the Union’s high hopes in the spring of 1862 crater with McClellan’s inability to use his army while Robert E. Lee brings hope to the Confederates and in the West the rise and maturation of Ulysses S. Grant begins.

Over the course of around 530 pages, Nevins covers the events military, political, diplomatic, domestic, foreign, and business over the course of 17 months from January 1862 to the end of May 1863 that made the supposedly “quick” civil war turn into a revolution not just for the change in Union war strategy but in the running of the government and the rise of business. Throughout the book, Nevins examines the events and developments of all these subjects not only in the context of the day but with hindsight as well, which is especially revealing when describing the mistakes of generals. While the military and political developments as well as interactions between the two were the dominant themes throughout the book, Nevins devoted four chapters of the volume to other themes: diplomacy, business related to war, the revolution in industry spurred by war, and the revolution of freedom. Though this volume is over 65 years old, it’s very detailed and gives a total picture of the events of that time making it a most read for anyone interested in the history of the American Civil War.

The War for the Union, Volume II: War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863 sees the nature and view of the war change as both sides realize this won’t be a “short” war, but as Allan Nevins shows throughout the effects which would influence the future were making the war something more.

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Book Review: The War for the Union, Volume I: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 by Allan Nevins

The War for the Union: The Improvised War, 1861-62 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was a conflict that seemed to be destined to occur for years, but neither side was particularly ready for when it happened even though one side had been preaching for while to be independent and didn’t prepare. The War for the Union, Volume I: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 is the fifth book of Allan Nevin’s Ordeal of the Union series as the war that appeared inevitable after secession start but in a haphazard fashion that leaves both sides scrambling to raise, arm, and supply men while fighting one another.

Through 416 pages of text, Nevins details the lead up to and the fallout of the firing of Ft. Sumter that resulted in Lincoln’s call for volunteers which sent almost half of the border states into the Confederacy and how both sides figured out how to fight a war. As Nevins expertly relates while contemporary feeling—from both sides—demanded fighting, logistically it wasn’t so simple as arming men and getting them arms to fight with and supplies to live on were a challenge early on. The challenges, especially with political considerations for Lincoln, to getting raised troops to where they were needed and how state governments more than the underdeveloped U.S. government were essential early on. Nevins focuses on fighting when it needs to, but this volume is dedicated to revealing about how unorganized either side was to even fight and thus why 1861 is comparatively bloodless. The struggle to get arms and supplies leading to both sides contracting foreign contractors is enlightening and Nevins analysis on how both sides did was very informative. Besides the arming and logistics information, Nevins goes into the political maneuvering that was new to me especially in Missouri and how the Blair family cost the Federal war effort three-years of guerilla warfare due to their machinations when the state could have been firmly pacified by the end of the year. Nevins also goes into how each side, though mainly the Federals, squandered opportunities to get easy victories that would quiet public demand for action and improved strategic lines for defense of important areas even if the lines moved a few miles. Overall, this volume while “light” on fighting shows the forgotten importance of supplies and logistics when it comes to warfare in this period.

The War for the Union, Volume I: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 reveals how two political factions switched from talking to fighting and Allan Nevins reveals the complicated transition that took place to bring it about.

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Book Review: Trial by Fire by Page Smith

Trial by Fire: A People's History of the Civil War & Reconstruction by Page Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are three eras during which the future of the nation was at stake, in the 18th century it was the Revolution and in the 19th century it was Civil War. Trial by Fire: A People’s History of the Civil War and Reconstruction is the fifth volume of Page Smith’s A People’s History series from Fort Sumter to the election of 1876 as the nation is racked by four years of war to successfully save the Union and 11 years of Reconstruction that failed to bring the freedman truly within body politic short-term but creating a promissory note for the future.

This volume is by the nature of its emphasis in a particularly 15-year period of the nation’s history different from Smith’s previous volumes in terms of scope in military, political, and cultural elements. Over the nearly 1000 pages of text, Smith not only detailed the events of the war along the twists and turns of Reconstruction to correct the record of the period that the “Lost Cause” myth perpetuated about the period over the course of over half a century. Among the most important parts of the book was Smith’s concluding analysis of both the war and Reconstruction: when writing about the former Smith concluded that the South probably should have won given various factors at the beginning of the war but poor strategic decisions by the South allowed the North’s numbers and industrial capacity overwhelm it while the later was always doomed to fail due to Southern intransigence and the fact Northern opinion of blacks was negative Reconstruction needed to be attempted because the alternative would have been emphatically worse. While the overall product was very well written and very informative, Smith made a lot of head scratching mistakes that stood out because they were contradicted by the actual facts just paragraphs later which appears to be sloppy editing by someone because it was blatant that something happened between first draft manuscript and ready for publication proof that allowed these errors to creep in. The fact that I downgraded the rating an entire star compared to the previous volumes is an indication of how much it got my attention.

Trial by Fire is a culmination of events that Page Smith chronicled in his history of the United States as the two conflicting views of what the country clashed and its aftermath that created a more “national” though still incomplete vision of the country that would lead into it’s next chapter.

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Book Review: The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume One: Douglas, Buchanan & Party Chaos, 1857-59 by Allan Nevins

The Emergence of Lincoln: Douglas, Buchanan & Party Chaos, 1857-59 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The 1856 election was supposed to unite the country and save it from the festering issue of Kansas territory, unfortunately the politically spineless James Buchanan turned out to be worse than Franklin Pierce. The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume I: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-59 is the third book of Allan Nevins’ Ordeal of the Union series, an eight-volume history of the lead up to and of the American Civil War, featuring how the last remaining link between North and South in the form of the Democratic party was broken in twain by the decisions of two men.

From the outset Nevins reveals that the country needed a national figure with a vision of national scope to unite the three major regions of the country—North, South, and growing West—but sadly for the United States the man coming into office in March 1857 was James Buchanan who in making up his cabinet became a passive functionary in his own administration. When Buchanan gave prominence to Southern politicians and anti-Douglas Democrats, the stage was set for the dividing of the party and the rise of the Republicans in the North as Douglas Democrats and Lecompton Democrats—named for their support of the pro-slavery constitution for Kansas that was drafted by convention assembled by a rigged election—set the stage for chaotic Presidential contest in 1860. Besides the congressional battle between opponents and supporters for the pro-slavery Kansas constitution, Nevins’ other major focus was the Lincoln-Douglas debates which saw Abraham Lincoln’s emergence on the national scene for the first time as well as detailing what the two politicians spoke about in each debate. Just to through in an additional element to all of this was the Panic of 1857 with its effects in economic terms and political perceptions—whether right or wrong—on all sections of the country. Yet Nevins also wrote about the Dred Scott decision and the Mormon War with their effects on the various elements in the country, the fact that I’m just barely mentioning them shows how much Nevin’s writing made me highlight other things. Honestly, there is so much I learned that I had previously just had a superficial knowledge of.

The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume I reveals how incompetent national leadership exasperated the rising sectional differences while both sides of the divide took different lessons from a economic panic as well as how the growing West were affecting things.

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Book Review: Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two: A House Dividing, 1852-1857 by Allan Nevins

Ordeal of the Union, Vol 2: A House Dividing, 1852-57 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Compromise in politics is not clean, nobody gets a 100% of what they want but to get some what they do and to keep peace they’re willing to endure something they dislike, but when one side decides to betray the other…hell hath no fury. Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two: A House Dividing, 1852-1857 is the second of Allan Nevins’ eight volume series on the lead to and history of the American Civil War with the focus on how a compromise to keep the peace was undermined by one of its architects and how all concerned reacted.

Nevins begins the volume by introducing the factor that he believed upset the hard fought and crafted Compromise of 1850 between North and South, Franklin Pierce. A dark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1852 that benefited from being seen as the candidate that supported “the Compromise” only to show his fickleness and weakness by appointing those on either side of the anti-Compromise North and South into his administration thus sowing the seeds of discord. With a weak President potentially causing a rift in the party along with various economic factors at stake, Stephen Douglas brought further the Kansas-Nebraska Bill which shattered the Compromise he helped pass, destroy the Whig Party while dividing the Democratic and bringing furth the Republicans, and causing bloodshed on the plains of Kansas. Nevins shows how a weak man, another in a line of such men to occupy the White House, allowed the nation to literally begin killing over the future of slavery in the nation just a few years after it appeared everyone had peacefully agreed on a ‘final’ settlement. But while the domestic situation was tearing a part, internationally the United States looked incompetent as its ambassadors in Europe made fools of themselves while private citizens waged wars of conquest in various Latin American nations. Over the course of one Presidential term, the nation went from peaceful to threatening to tear itself apart when the election of 1856 saw the nation decide upon the one candidate that looked like he would bring peace and unity back to the nation, James Buchanan, surely things would be looking up.

Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two reveals how the United States unraveled so quickly towards civil war thanks to the poor judgment of one individual compounded by another. Allan Nevins explores not only the political, but the economic and cultural situations in both North and South which revealed shows the two halves of the nation apparently becoming two, as if a clash was becoming unavoidable.

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Book Review: Ordeal of the Union, Volume: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852 by Allan Nevins

Ordeal of the Union, Vol 1: Fruits of Manifest Destiny 1847-52 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The aftermath of a unpopular though very successful war suddenly put two sections of the victors against one another in arguments so serious that it could cause civil war, this is the United States after the Mexican-American War. Ordeal of the Union, Volume One: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852 is the first of Allan Nevins’ eight volume series on the lead up to and of the American Civil War with the focus being on the search for a compromise.

This book featured Nevins revealing to the reader various themes that interact with one another politically, economically, socially, and culturally. Nevins political analysis focused on how weak executives (Polk successful in war but unable to control the fallout of victory, Taylor unable to work with others, and Fillmore an accidental President) and a House of Representatives in chaos demanded the Senate to come up with a compromise to prevent the unraveling the country. Nevins looked how each section of the country—North and South—viewed slavery and treated African Americans along with how the two were economically situated in the early 1850s. Throughout the book, it became clear that many Southerners who preached secession were lying to themselves about the prospects of an independent South and given the 1947 publication date, this was definitely not a “Lost Cause” book. Now that I have brought up when this book came out, there is some word usage that today wouldn’t be used obviously and while it doesn’t need a “trigger warning” one needs to be mindful that different eras had different conventions. Overall, Fruits of Manifest Destiny was a fitting title as Nevins revealed the sweet richness of the new territory acquired from Mexico but the bitterness of the sectional divide that it caused while comparing and contrasting the two sections verbally battling on how to politically and economically organize it.

Ordeal of the Union, Volume One vividly portrays the political tumult of the aftermath of the war with Mexico and Allan Nevins describes it wonderfully while also giving the reader an in-depth overviews of each section of the nation at the beginning of the 1850s.

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Book Review: The Nation Comes of Age by Page Smith

The Nation Comes of Age: A People's History of the Ante-Bellum Years by Page Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the Founders fading into history, a new generation of leadership took the helm of the United States, but they faced a problem they didn’t want to deal with and in the end, it would create the nation’s greatest crisis. The Nation Comes of Age: A People’s History of the Ante-Bellum Years is the fourth volume of Page Smith’s A People’s History series follows the deaths of Jefferson and Admas focusing on the expansion of the nation and how it resulted in the idea of the Union to grow in appreciation even as the morality of slavery increasing turned the North and South against one another until open war begins.

In the previous volume Smith introduced his view of the United States as schizophrenic in viewing itself against reality then extended it from how one section of the nation looked at the country against the vision of the other. This social-political schizophrenia during the 35 years covered in the book was centered on one issue, slavery which as I stated above quickly became a moral issue thanks to those reformers who abhorred it much to the surprise of Southerners who in their heart of hearts agreed. This wasn’t a completely political and military (Mexican-American War) only history, Smith takes over half the book to look at various social history elements from the status of women to culture (art, literature, etc.) to the reform movements and finally abolitionism; he also covered the exploration by Americans of the interior West and finding routes to the Pacific West following the adventures of such men like Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and John Fremont while following on their heels were settlers whose on experiences were covered as well. While Smith follows a lot of political figures, he ends the volume describing the rise of Abraham Lincoln and setting up the coming bloody crisis that would scare the nation. Overall this 1200+ page book covers a lot of things that happened in the United States over the course of 35 years even as Smith spread his narrative to give a very comprehensive he was focused on what everything was leading to and how everything shaped the coming conflagration.

The Nation Comes of Age is the critical volume in Page Smith’s history of the United States, the use of primary sources of ordinary people to help tell the story of the nation during these critical 35 years brings it alive and informs the reader with new facets of American history they might have not known fully before.

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Book Review: The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

The Federalist Or, the New Constitution by Alexander Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The United States was in dire need of a form of government that worked better than the Articles of Confederation, in the summer of 1787 a convention in Philadelphia produced what would become the Constitution of the United States but its ratification wasn’t guaranteed especially by the most important states in the Union. The Federalist is a collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to convince the citizens of New York to support the ratification of the Constitution that also explained for the historical record what two of its framers believed how the government it created would work and why.

The essays making of The Federalist are a look into both political theory, as three men expound how the proposed government would work in practice and refute allegations against it, and also political history as with two of the Constitution’s Framers and another prominent Founding Father defending it we see how important in the time and day they believed this document was. This is the culmination of almost a quarter century of political writing since the start of the tax dispute with Britain in which the arguments of political thinkers Locke and Montesquieu were prominent as they were within the writings of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. There are several famous essays known by their numbers (#10, 14, 39, 51, 70, and 78) that become the standards of American political thought to this day. While students of political history and readers of political theory read The Federalist to understand the arguments for the Constitution and to glimpse the thinking that lay behind the document, was it’s intended purpose successful? While New York ratified the Constitution, it was the last of the big four and the overall eleventh state to do so, the Constitution was operational, and the state convention was packed with opponents but being left out of the new government was too much to handle. It could be argued that the essays didn’t sway New York, political reality did, but why is this collection famous? Hamilton and Madison, two young men instrumental in getting the Constitutional Convention called, attended and debated, and then influenced the new government they created over the course of the next quarter century.

The Federalist is a collection of 85 essays planned out to show the need for and defend the Constitution sent to the 13 states to be ratified and create a new government. Written by three prominent Founding Fathers, these essays are in the words of history Richard B. Morris, “a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer.”

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Book Review: The Shaping of America by Page Smith

The Shaping of America: A People's History of the Young Republic by Page Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The struggle against the political encroachment of Britain and the ensuing military struggle led to independence, but now the real problems began how to follow up. The Shaping of America: A People’s History of the Young Republic is the third volume of Page Smith’s A People’s History series going over the history of the United States with this volume covering the aftermath of the 1783 Treaty of Paris to the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1826.

Smith viewed the young nation caught between two intellectual consciousnesses—the Classical-Christian of the Revolutionary generation, whose last gasp brought about the Constitution, and the Secular-Democratic inspired by the Enlightenment in the generation that followed the Founders, though ironically led by a few of the Founders. Though Secular-Democratic thought came out on top, it was deeply influenced by the intellectual viewpoint it had replaced especially as the international scene saw the resurgence of absolute monarchism in the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Though politically the Secular-Democratic intellectual view was victorious, socially the Protestant Christian emphasis on redeeming the world was a major thread in the American tapestry and eventually come up against the issue that the Founders and the next generation didn’t want to confront, black slavery. As Smith ended this volume, he highlighted the growing cloud that slavery was becoming for those in the North and South while the “original” West was beginning to pick sides. But once again I found Smith’s facts about Native American tribes inaccurate in some instances that I was shaking my head, and I don’t know much about that subject which speaks volumes. Overall, this was a well-written and fascinating look at the history of the young republic, while Smith’s analysis or chosen themes might not be for everyone but that is the point as it reveals the uncomfortable facts that need to be addressed.

The Shaping of America follows up the two-volume history of the American Revolution with a fascinating and engaging look at the young republic as Page Smith reveals all facets of the United States over four critical decades.

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Book Review: A New Age Now Begins (Volume Two) by Page Smith

A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution, Vol 2 by Page Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The six years between the Battles of Trenton and Princeton to the concluding Treaty of Peace to end the War of American Independence were trying times not only for Americans but the British and many other as egos needed to be checked. A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution Volume Two is the second half of Page Smith’s historical look at the American Revolution and the second installment of his A People’s History series.

Given this book began continuing the page count from the first installment, thus representing that Smith’s original manuscript was very long, the historical narrative continues in the aftermath of Continental Army’s 1776-77 Winter Campaign. Smith continued his critical look at British political leadership whose fumbling since the Stamp Act and now during the war brought the most powerful country on the edge for revolt, with the only thing saving them the patriotic feeling against France and Spain. Also highlighted were the failures of the Continental and later Confederation Congress when it came to financing anything and everything then later the ineptitude of instructing its diplomats who decided to what was best for the nation not the French alliance. To Smith, the French military alliance came to nothing save for the French navy in the Chesapeake during the Yorktown campaign. In fact, to Smith Washington only became the “Deliverer” of his country because of the campaign—he believes history would have given that title to Nathaniel Greene (who was a better tactical general than Washington to be sure) due to his campaign in the South after the failures of three different generals before him—after almost three years of inactivity in which his keeping the Continental Army together and creating a sense of national union which he came to embody as seen in the march to the Virginia but only was enhanced by the victory. Of everything in this book the biggest criticism, which honestly makes me looking questioningly back at Volume One, was Smith’s look at the war on the western frontier against and with the various Native American nations or to be exact his total butchering of who did and didn’t belong to the Iroquois Confederacy because the War of American Independence resulted in a Iroquois civil war that damaged it for generations and even in 1976 there is no excuse for Smith to bungle to badly. Even with that major issue, Smith’s perspective on what he believed the actual American Revolution was—not the unwinnable war the British fought to keep American dependent—and seeing the War of American Independence as revealing to the population the need to unite for a greater whole was very informative and thought-provoking.

A New Age Now Begins (Volume Two) is the second of a double volume history of the American Revolution that details the final six years of the War for Independence that revealed the need for the new American states to unite to form a new nation and complete the formation of a new type of people.

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Book Review: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is a fifteen-month period in the history of North American that changed it forever, during that time British colonists went from being dominated by moderates to dividing to the extremes with bloody consequences. 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton covers the period from December 1773 to April 1775 in which colonists separated into Whigs and Tories, aka Loyalists.

Over the course of 344 of text, Norton shows the reactions to a tax on tea and Parliament giving the East India Company direct access to colonial market which led to the final crisis between the colonies and Britain as well a break amongst the patriot colonists themselves when congresses and committees begin to be formed. As a longtime researcher of American Loyalists and Women, respectfully, during the Revolutionary era, Norton brings those elements as well as those well known to general history readers to give great context to this time in Colonial American history that doesn’t get a real in-depth look in histories that cover the period between 1763-1789 given everything that happened. Norton not only deals with what is happening in America, but real times events in Britain—as well as Europe as the year progresses—to show how events happening simultaneously or in reaction to previous events come at the point when debate or discussions have moved on thus showing how this crisis spiraled until bloodshed was inevitable. Overall, this book shows how the events of April 1775 became inevitable when just a year before they were unimaginable.

1774 is an insightful, in-depth history for general history readers as well as those interested in specialized. Mary Beth Norton is an accomplished historian that is well-written and very thorough in her research giving the reader confidence in what they read.

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Book Review: A New Age Now Begins (Volume One) by Page Smith

A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution, Vol. 1 by Page Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The American Revolution began long before 1775, in fact the British colonists were technically rebelling in 1765 however during that decade the ‘American’ consciousness began. A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution (Volume One) is the first of two books by Page Smith covering American Revolution as well as his American history series, A People’s History, in which he reveals how British colonists transformed into Americans.

Smith just doesn’t deal with the American Revolution with the immediate lead up but goes into the origins of each of the 13 colonies and their development in broad terms both internally but in relation to each other before 1763. The period between 1763 to the outbreak of armed conflict in 1775 covers a little over a third of the book as the British Parliament and colonists butted heads over taxes that brought the once selfish colonies closer together and the populace went from thinking of themselves as British to something new, Americans. The military phase of the Revolution takes up just under half of the rest of the volume and through just after the Trenton-Princeton campaign, but with several political developments like how the new states developed constitutions that would have implications later. This volume ends at page 872—with Volume Two continuing the page count—throughout which is a lot of information, but one of critiques I had was that there were no footnotes or bibliography until I glanced at Volume Two in which Page addressed the lack of footnotes—extending the length of an already large history, finding them personally pretentious, and including the sources within the text when quoting or revealing what an individual thought—and while an answer to my main critique, there is still a little doubt that affects my overall view of this very interesting history.

A New Age Now Begins (Volume One) is the first of a double volume history of the American Revolution with this dealing with the founding of colonies through the darkest hour of a young nation.

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Book Review: A Struggle for Power by Theodore Draper

A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So how did the relationship between Great Britain and the British American colonies deteriorate into war in a little over a decade after securing a huge victory over France that secured them everything east of the Mississippi and all of Canada? The Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper details how ideological factors were the main cause of the American Revolution.

While Draper begins the book the debate occurring in Britain about whether to keep Canada or Guadeloupe after the end of the Seven Years’ War—aka French and Indian War—using the arguments that had begun during the Stuart restoration nearly a century before about how to keep the American colonies dependent on Britain. However, Draper showed that those old arguments had since been surpassed by the economic prowess of the American colonies and did not consider the political attitudes and realities of those colonies until it was too late. Throughout the book Draper illustrates that the American Revolution came down not to paying taxes, but who had the power to pass tax legislation and collect the money. Over the course of a little over 500 pages, Draper developed his case by not only American sources but those of the British as well, showing the ideological arguments over 12 years that eventually could only be settled in blood.

The Struggle for Power as a great look into the cause of the American Revolution by Theodore Draper, not only seeing it from the western side of the Atlantic but in the mother country too.

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Book Review: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

A Promised Land by Barack Obama
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A devastating economic environment, a politically divided nation that less than a decade before was united, and then there was everything else going on in the world; what a way to start off a very different presidential administration. A Promised Land is the first volume of Barack Obama’s memoir that covers his life leading up to the presidency to the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

An important thing to begin this review is that throughout the book this felt like it was from Obama’s voice and not a ghostwriter. This is important because since Obama details his life up to the presidency followed by his first two and a half years in office, the authenticity is needed especially as he explains his decision making once in office and his impressions of the individuals he interacted with. Frankly while I knew a lot of what happened during Obama’s administration because I paid attention to the news, I read this more for the “inside” details that he could provide and wasn’t disappointed. How Obama approached each major legislation or event of the first half of his first term was something I appreciated as he tackled it whole before moving out but was able to reference those events later to give context as the book progressed, the separate but interconnectedness was better than trying to blend everything together and hope the reader kept everything straight.

A Promised Land is a well-written look into a recent American presidential administration by the man who led it. Barack Obama’s voice comes across clearly throughout thus giving the reader great insight into events and background on how things went.

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Book Review: Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are few people alive today that experienced the onset of the Great Depression nor seeing reactions in real time or the in-depth analysis of financiers, pundits, government officials, and politicians however that isn’t the case for the beginning of the Great Recession. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin that provides an overview of the 2007-8 financial crisis from the aftermath of the sale of Bear Stearns to the creation of TARP.

The main figures throughout the book are Treasury Secretary Henry ‘Hank’ Paulson and his staff, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Tim Geithner though throughout the first half of the book the major secondary figure was Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld. While Sorkin covers all the threads of the slowly deteriorating of the economic environment, it’s Fuld and Lehman Brothers that is focus due to their bankruptcy leading to one of---if the most---tumultuous weeks on Wall Street, in Washington, and around the world in financial history. Let’s be clear, there are no heroes presented just people finding their worldviews getting a serious reality check as they stare into the abyss. Through Fuld is in no way a sympathetic individual, Sorkin’s writing does make him a tragic figure whose efforts to save his company were at times undermined by his own brash bravado to the point that in the end his subordinates cut him out of the increasingly futile efforts to save the company. Though originally written and published a little over a year after the dark days of September and October 2008, there is some fuzziness on the state of the world then when viewed 15 years later and the afterworld written for this 10th anniversary edition only shows a little of the long-term effects and aftershocks that are affecting the world today.

Too Big to Fail chronicles the inside story of how the financial system imploded even as Wall Street and Washington struggled to save it. Andrew Ross Sorkin portrays the situation in understandable terms and presents the participants as people struggling against a situation that undermines their preconceived notions without prejudice or favor.

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Book Review: Decision in Philadelphia by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787 by Christopher Collier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A young nation shook off the colonial chains of its European mother country, but in doing so it created financial and political upheaval internally as well as looking weak on the world stage so 55 men from across the nation gathered in a last-ditch attempt to save their nation. Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787 by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier is a history of the meeting in a hot Philadelphia summer of the men who completed the American Revolution.

The Colliers telling of the Constitutional Convention began with how the meeting came about and the major figures that has helped bring it out and would attend. The Colliers followed the proceedings of the Convention through topic and not day-to-day retelling, thus allowing them to show how the Constitution was created through the various conflicts between the delegates first between “big” and “small” states (based on population) and then the section conflict between North and South especially in connecting slavery and economic issues. Throughout the book the authors reminded their readers to remember the men at the Convention were not looking at things from a 20th Century perspective—the book was published in advance of the 200th Anniversary of the Convention—but from the events of their lives in the latter half of the 18th Century as well as their prejudices, but also how in the Convention the participants changed their way of thinking of political philosophy. Yet the authors while praising the work the men of the Convention did were not above criticism of the final document that they elaborated on in the final chapter.

Decision in Philadelphia is a good look into how the Constitution of the United States was created, the brothers Collier together produced a well-written history of the document that founded the American government.

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Book Review: The War of Wars by Robert Harvey

The War Of Wars: The Great European Conflict, 1793–1815 by Robert Harvey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was the Great War before 1914, a two-decade long conflict with only a brief period of peace reminiscent of the Peloponnesian War of Ancient Greece. The War of Wars: The Epic Struggle Between Britain and France 1793-1815 by Robert Harvey relates the military and political history and the men who shaped the period on land, sea, and in the halls of power.

Harvey doesn’t stray from historical conscious by having Napoleon as the most prominent historical actor that he follows throughout his historical survey, but this is not the mythologized Napoleon but the one that was the politically and diplomatically inept military dictator of France. Yet until Napoleon made his debut in 1793, the French Revolution had been going on for years and Harvey documented how that political upheaval influenced the beginning of the Revolutionary phase of the Wars. Though this was a pan-European War, Harvey focuses on Britain as the primary nemesis of France in every sphere of the conflict on land and sea, as well as economics and politics. While Napoleon has become the dominate figure of the period on the French side—through Harvey brings to the fore those that preceded him and might have been better overall militarily—he brings forward numerous British military and naval commander as well as the leading politicians of the day through stark language that doesn’t hero worship nor for the most part verbally bury either.

The War of Wars covers a two-decade long period of European history in a little over 900 pages of text with battle maps situated in the front of the book. Robert Harvey not only narrates the course of events in a very readable way, he writes very informative biographical sketches for the main individuals that decided the course of events.

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Book Review: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul by John M. Barry

Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The founding of the smallest state and its secular character are directly attributed to him and inspired the Founding Fathers, but Roger Williams is a man from a complex time in both England and colonial America. John M. Barry’s Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty is not only a biography of Williams but a cultural, political, and religious history of his time.

While it takes a while for Barry to focus on Williams and his soon-to-be very revolutionary thinking, he sets the groundwork not only for Williams intellectual and religious development but also the political and cultural context of his life. First and foremost is the political view of the early Stuart monarchs of divine right of kings going up against Magna Carta and Parliament that will eventually set off the English Civil War, and alongside it was the struggle over the Church of England and those Puritans who would not conform to practices that looked decidedly “popish”. It is easy to forget sometimes that England and its American colonies interacted before 1763 and the lead up to the American Revolution, but Barry plainly illustrates that events in each did have an impact on one another whether religiously or politically. Roger Williams’ vision of separation of church and state has come up against John Winthrop’s “city on a hill”, ironically a Puritan version of conform or else mirroring what was happening in England, throughout American history and this was central to Barry’s book even as he followed the live and struggles of Williams. One of the biggest takeaways from the book is that history does not happen in a vacuum as the development of Roger Williams’ revolutionary idea came from a messy political and religious background.

Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul is not only a book about the life of Williams, but Barry shows how Williams was influenced by not only important personages he came in contact with but also how he influenced them.

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