Book Description
An authoritative new examination of John Brown and his deep impact on American history.
Bancroft Prize-winning cultural historian David S. Reynolds presents an informative and richly considered new exploration of the paradox of a man steeped in the Bible but more than willing to kill for his abolitionist cause. Reynolds locates Brown within the currents of nineteenth-century life and compares him to modern terrorists, civil-rights activists, and freedom fighters. Ultimately, he finds neither a wild-eyed fanatic nor a Christ-like martyr, but a passionate opponent of racism so dedicated to eradicating slavery that he realized only blood could scour it from the country he loved. By stiffening the backbone of Northerners and showing Southerners there were those who would fight for their cause, he hastened the coming of the Civil War. This is a vivid and startling story of a man and an age on the verge of calamity.
Customer Reviews:
When is a fanatic not a fanatic?.......2007-08-13
Highly enjoyable read. Not written at arm's length; It's clear that Reynolds "gets" John Brown and the age he lived in, so his heart and imagination are fully engaged as he writes. He doesn't hide Brown's humanity however. What bothered me the most was that Brown seemed to harden his heart toward his wounded son at Harpers Ferry. (How it appeared to observers apparently.)
All in all though Thoreau and Emerson got it right when they quickly came to his defense after Harpers Ferry. Thoreau compared Brown on the scaffold to Christ on the cross.
If Brown had died at Harpers Ferry before the country could hear his defense and see the greatness of his character--his every word and behavior a challenge to the country to throw off the evils of slavery--history would no doubt have been different. Reynolds is redeeming Brown from neglect and misunderstanding to his rightful place as a heroic patriarch and patriot of America.
In our age when "true believers" are highly suspect, Brown's character and long-contemplated actions shine as an example of exactly how and when a "fanatic" is not a fanatic. Brown founded a community where blacks and whites lived together as equals. He lived out his religious and political beliefs fully, whole-heartedly, yet included others of different beliefs in his inner circle (his first lieutenant was an atheist).
I read mostly library books; this one I bought and buy for others.
Informative, a bit long, not as objective as one would hope.......2007-02-24
David S. Reynolds background as a Professor of English Literature shows in this book: although focused on John Brown's life, you can see Professor Reynolds' interest in Mid 19th century literature on almost every page, with frequent and extensive discourses on John Browns' interactions-with and impact on many of the well known authors and orators of the day, such as Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Melville, and Emily Dickinson.
In general, Reynolds makes the argument that John Brown sparked the Civil War, and that he was a high minded, intensely religious man who was not as crazy, and not as violent, as history has led us to believe. He further argues that Brown was a man a century or more ahead of his time in terms of his attitudes towards racism, and foresaw where the war of words between the North and South over the future of slavery would inevitably lead.
Reynolds does a great job of helping us better understand Brown as a person; and brings to light many facets of his personality and life of which I'd been unaware, such as Brown's total acceptance of African Americans as equals in every respect - a stance that few, if any, whites had at the time (and is a viewpoint that is not as widely accepted as it should be, even today). The author demonstrates, quite rightly, that most other abolitionists of the time were not so much pro-African-American as they were against slavery and its impact upon America. Many were at best dismissive, and at worst rabidly against, accepting blacks as equals.
Reynolds comes across as an apologist for Brown, and seems to be attempting to justify some of Brown's bloodiest and most violent actions as merely being the unavoidable side effects of a man consumed with a passion against slavery. Those side effects included the deaths of several of his sons.
The book's pace is not the best, and hits some really slow spots here and there: especially when it reaches the aftermath of the Harper Ferry raid, where the author launches into a very extensive discourse on the impact of John Brown (and his execution) on American literature, thought, society and politics - again with a focus on the writers and orators of the day. These last chapters could have been reduced in length by half or more, with little loss in terms of content.
I question the author's repeated and strong emphasis on John Brown's strong Puritan faith as being a basis for his actions: this refrain starts to sound hollow after so many repetitions - as if he's hoping we'll get the message if he hits us with it enough times. As an inheritor of several centuries of that same Puritan tradition myself, many of his arguments concerning Brown's faith seem (at best) forced and overstated.
Reynolds' argument that John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was the spark that started the Civil War is also overstated: While I think the raid certainly contributed to the paranoia of the time, particularly in the South, Reynolds' arguments that John Brown's attack and behavior following the raid destroyed the South's reputation for chilvalric military prowess and invincibility is not believable. The war was inevitable: Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry may have raised emotions, but the South was already diligently preparing for war by the time the raid occurred. The attack, at best, hurried things along a bit, but in my view, the country was almost certain to fall apart soon after the election of 1860, regardless of who won the Presidency.
In the end, though with some significant flaws in terms of pacing, facts, and the arguments presented; this book is informative: it does bring out the nature of the man, and it helped me better appreciate his impact on the country and History. Dr. Reynolds' work especially helps us to understand Brown's impact upon many of the thought-leaders of the day, and how regional attitudes and cultural traditions played into the unfolding of events at the time and their impact on John Brown's own career and reputation during the trial, and in the years following his execution.
To better understand how racism changed and evolved after the Civil War, I'd strongly recommend the book "Race and Reunion" by David W. Blight. For a better understanding of the four regional cultures in America at the time (Appalachian, Southern, New England and Mid Atlantic), which play a major role in Reynold's text, I'd recommend "Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America" by David Hackett Fischer.
"John Brown, Abolitionist" is a book that is worth the read, though its flaws limit the impact that it could have made, given the strong personality that is its subject. I give it a positive, but limited, recommendation.
Relatively decent understanding of Brown, poor understanding of his times. .......2007-01-31
Overall this book does not contribute significantly to an understanding of John Brown and his times. The strength of the book is within Reynolds grasp of Browns personal character. Reynolds convincingly demonstrates that John Brown was not crazy, at least from a clinical perspective. Also important is the way the book shapes how Brown's Calvinist views affected his own worldview. However, Reynolds often times errors in his analysis through his overt affinity for Brown. For instance, Reynolds too often takes Brown at his word, such as on the limited nature of his Harper's Ferry raid despite the solid evidence suggesting otherwise. If one wanted to understand the life of John Brown a much better choice of book would be Stephen Oates' biography on Brown.
As far as understanding Brown within the context of his time, this book hugely disappoints. Reynolds is not a historian and it shows (he is a professor of English). Even if we ignore the absurd contention that Brown had anything to do with the Civil Rights movement, there is plenty of reason to believe Brown had nothing more than a negligible effect on the coming of the Civil War.
From an epistemological standpoint, Reynolds is contending a revisionist interpretation as the cause for the Civil War (a war that could have been avoided had it not been for extremists on both sides). The key difference is that while typically revisionists see the war as a tragic consequence of blundering politicians among the free soil and fire-eater persuasion, Reynolds puts all the blame (or praise in this case) on John Brown. This of course ignores the traditional interpretation that sees the conflict as irrepressible. However, both schools of thought agree that events leading to Civil War were well put in place prior to Brown's raid in 1859. The Missouri Compromise, acquisition of Western lands from the Mexican war, the Compromise (or `armistice') of 1850, Kansas Nebraska Act, bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and the Lecompton dispute, all significantly call into question Reynold's assertion that sectional hostilities were relatively tranquil prior to John Brown's raid. Perhaps one of Reynold's biggest blunders was emphasizing the significance of the abolitionist movement in the coming of the Civil War while completely ignoring the emergence of the much more significant free-soil Republican Party.
While the book does a relatively decent job of presenting Brown as a person, Stephen Oates remains the Brown standard bearer. As for the larger picture, Reynolds demonstrates a dismal understanding of antebellum politics.
A frustrating read.......2006-11-09
I expected Reynolds to write fluidly and clearly but he does not. The book turned out to be about two hundred pages too long. There aren't normal notes and many times I checked for them when I wanted to check a claim and found no note. His insensitivity to the role of Calvinism in Brown makes him overgeneralize claims and misidentify Brown as simply a Puritan. The book is marred by stylistic flaws that frustrate the reader and make the read an arduous one. In the end, it makes for an interesting even if one that makes the reader frustrated at the storyteller.
If only Doris Kearns Goodwin had written this book.......2006-04-05
In an epidsode of the PBS series History Detectives, host Tukufu Zuben expressed his idolatry of John Brown. Idolize someone who cut five men to pieces? After reading David Reynolds' bio of Brown, I know more about this intriguing figure of American history but haven't changed my negative stance on Zuben's high opinion of the maniacal but fascinating John Brown.
The book is readable but clearly not penned by a superb writer capable of bringing John Brown alive inside the reader's head. There is much - sometimes too much - detail (a weakness common to many historians), and he uses far too many passive sentences. Reynolds also has the annoyingly bad literary habit of pointlessly relating the outcome of key future events well before he details them. I found Reynolds' focus on the Trancendentalist connection tenuous since Emerson et al knew Brown only after he had committed to a life of violence and gained fame for it. It is also the most boring part of the book. The Cromwellian influence on Brown's life is a bit more believable since Brown had a copy of Cromwell's biography in his collection but still seems to be a stretch and isn't any more interesting. Reynolds is on firmer ground in describing Brown as one of the first Abolitionists who struck back.
I would ask Mr. Reynolds' why he did not delve into Brown's history as an economic loser. While Reynolds describes Brown's failure at every job he ever undertook, he refuses to recognize it as motivation for violence. Throughout history many extremists were personal failures who struck out at society, a description that aptly fits Brown. Also, Reynolds almost glosses over the slaughter at Pottawatomie and gives sparse emphasis to the post-traumatic stress suffered by several of Brown's murdering band. Justifying a slaughter, particularly one so calculated, just doesn't fly.
In spite of this rather negative review, I recommend the book both for its in-depth portrait of John Brown's life and its readibility. If Ms. Goodwin had written it, however, it would have been a giant of a work.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1499 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America.(John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery' Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights)(Book review)
Author: Michael Fellman
Publication:
Journal of Southern History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 72
Issue: 4
Page: 942(3)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Civil War History, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2006. The length of the article is 4113 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: "His truth is marching on": John Brown and the fight for racial justice.(John Brown: Abolitionist, the Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights)(Book review)
Author: Manisha Sinha
Publication:
Civil War History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 52
Issue: 2
Page: 161(9)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Kliatt, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 432 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Reynolds, David S. John Brown, abolitionist; the man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded Civil Rights.(Young adult review)(Book review)
Author: Raymond Puffer
Publication:
Kliatt (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41
Issue: 2
Page: 35(1)
Article Type: Book review, Young adult review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1921 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Who would true valour see?(John Brown - Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights)(Book Review)
Author: Wesley J. Smith
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 158
Page: 56(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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- Essential for Naval Warfare Readers
- An anthology is a scrapbook
|
Destroyer: An Anthology of First-Hand Accounts by Those Who Served on the B- and C-Class Destroyers in the Second World War
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
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ASIN: 0851779476 |
Book Description
Foreword by Len Deighton. This spirited oral history covers some of the most significant sea battles and naval operations of World War II through the eyes of British and American B- and C-Class destroyer veterans. Their recollections of the evacuations of Dunkirk and Boulogne; clashes with the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prince Eugen; and the D-Day counter-attack are coupled with thoughts on the strain of convoy escort duty and dreary monotony of life aboard a bouncing "tin can." Arranged in chronological order, the author seamlessly weaves the firsthand accounts together with book excerpts, news articles, and speeches to create a solid record of the destroyer force in action. As Len Deighton writes in the foreword, "No one will read this book without being deeply moved and inspired."
Customer Reviews:
Essential for Naval Warfare Readers.......2005-03-19
What historian Ian Hawkins has done previously for the air war, he has now done for the war on the Atlantic--put together a first-rate collection of eye-witness accounts by the men who fought and risked their lives on the Atlantic in the Second World War. Mr. Hawkins is known for his riveting use of eyewitnesses to put together books that bring the Second World War to life. His greatest book, in my opinion, "Munster: Before and After", follows the Eighth Air Force on one raid to Munster, Germany. In that book, he tells the story not just from the point of view of the men in the heavy bombers, but also went to great lengths to interview Germans who lived through the attack on the ground. Mr. Hawkins brings the same kind of meticulous research and interviewing skill to his newest book. I found the new book fascinating in the insights it gives into the destroyer war. It is obvious this was a labor of love for Hawkins, whose father was lost on a destroyer during the war. First-person history has become a common and highly effective way to tell history. Ambrose did it, so did Cornelius Ryan and Gerald Astor. It gives the reader a personalized view of the great events. I believe the previous reviewer failed to grasp the concept of the importance of first-person narrative, and that is unfortunate. Mr. Hawkins does an excellent job of tying the stories together with text on the historical background. He covers the war chronologically, from its first desperate hours, to the horrifying early years when German U-Boats ruled the high seas, right through to the end. Anyone who reads this book for what it is, a painstakingly gleaned collection of eyewitness narratives on every aspect of the destroyer war, will not be disappointed. I recommend it highly.
An anthology is a scrapbook.......2004-05-02
by another name. Redundancy makes for tedium in this book. Far from being "a book which matches and complements that bestseller of the postwar years, The Cruel Sea," as the usually meticulous Len Deighton claims, the book rises to that level only when selections from that book are presented. The stories are interesting, mostly. They demonstrate, again, that England, not the United States, won the battle of the Atlantic, and they show how brave men suffered. But the book's strategy, following the career of one class of destroyers, limits its scope and pool of potential readers. Also ideosyncratic are its appendices--nautical terms, histories for ships mentioned, and obituaries of key figures. But these are welcome; I could do without verses, though, as none can be confused with poetry. It's well that the profits from the book sale will be used to restore "the sole remaining Second World War British destroyer."
Customer Reviews:
Adds to Our Cumulative Knowledge. .......2006-06-03
I agree with the other reviewers here as this book is not perfect. It was written before the Venona Transcripts or the Mitrokhin Files became known, and, for this reason, is not as complete a work as something like the Sword and the Shield would be. Regardless, it is an extraordinary primary source testament concerning one of the most secretive, nefarious, and befuddling organizations in history. I got the impression that Mr. Andrew wrote this account based on notes he obtained from Mr. Gordievsky. The result is a somewhat lumbering, and often repetitive, narration. A few of the same sentences are repeated at different points in the book which could potentially irritate many a reader. I did like the chapter outline, however, as it was sequenced chronologically which is helpful considering the varying scenarios within the foreign directorate discussed. We're very lucky in the west that men like Gordievsky had the courage to defect because, if they didn't, there would have been little chance of obtaining information about the Soviet Union at all.
Flawed and incomplete yet still a good read.......2002-10-31
When this book came out, it was considered to be groundbreaking and astonishing as far as new information about Soviet operations goes. However, it is almost completely irrelevant. If one takes a close look at the book and compares it with "The Mitrokhin Files" (Mitrokhin being another KGB officer who defected several years later), it will be noted that much of the information Gordievsky SHOULD HAVE KNOWN if he really had access to all top Soviet files is missing. This, along with several other contradictory statements, leads us to conclude that the Soviets knew of Gordievsky's activities and so were using him to feed false and/or irrelevant information to the West.
Monumental but hardly captivating.......2001-07-13
This book tries to be both academic and a good read. Many writers stronger than Gordievsky failed when trying to achieve this.
The authors obviously have a wealth of material at their disposal, but somehow structured approach is lacking. Still, if you have time and/or deep interest in the subject, it is a recommended read.
the most repeatedly astonishing book i have read.......2000-10-27
yep - i give it 5 stars too
the most repeatedly astonishing book i have read methinks - the commies managed to penetrate western security totally only for stalin to totally ignore or misinterpret its meaning due to paranoia about the west
the methods, results & ruthlessnes are grim but rivetting reading
This is an excellent comprehensive work on the KGB.......1999-09-08
Oleg Gordievsky is the most remarkable and productive Soviet defector of recent times. When Gordievsky made his escape from Moscow in 1985, he departed with a gold mine of information on the KGB's operations, personnel, and organizational structure. Because Gordievsky was involved in researching histories of several different divisions at KGB headquarters, he possessed a unique knowledge of te organization's operations.
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From Reclamation to Sustainability: Water, Agriculture, and the Environment in the American West
Lawrence J. MacDonnell
Manufacturer: University Press of Colorado
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Binding: Hardcover
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From Reclamation to Sustainability tells the story of four places in the West--the Arkansas Valley and the Grand Valley of Colorado, the Truckee-Carson basins of California and Nevada, and the Yakima Basin in Washington--where development and use of water, primarily for irrigated agriculture, have been central to economic and social development. In these places (and many others), the reclamation vision that helped settle the West now competes with a vision of a sustainable West.
All four regions tell of the essential role water has played in western agriculture and the importance of this agriculture for settlement of much of the West. They also exemplify the many difficulties of turning prairie and desert into productive croplands, and MacDonnell describes the sometimes extraordinary human committment and effort that made this possible.
Now, however, western water resources have been developed beyond their sustainable capacity in an attempt to irrigate as much land as possible, and MacDonnell illustrates the consequences of this overdevelopment, including declining rural communities, dewatered streams incapable of supporting native species, and degraded water quality. He also provides examples of efforts to repair some of the damages and of the challenges involved in such restoration.
MacDonnell argues that sustainable use of the West's water resources depends on reducing the gap between diverted water and used water, restoring the functional ecological integrity of water sources, allowing uses of developed water to change, and effective collaborative public/private processes that help reconcile competing interests in water. He concludes that the manner in which the West moves toward sustainable use of its limited water resources--particularly as it affects irrigated agriculture--matters at least as much as achieving sustainable use. It matters because the choices we make will have important consequences for the future West.
Books:
- Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom (Merton, Thomas//Journal of Thomas Merton)
- Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe
- Letters of a Woman Homesteader
- Living In Hell: A True Odyssey of a Woman's Struggle in Islamic Iran Against Personal and Political Forces
- Lost In Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia
- Love Is Stronger Than Death: The Mystical Union of Two Souls
- MADAME SADAYAKKO. The Geisha Who Bewitched the West.
- Mango Elephants in the Sun: How Life in an African Village Let Me Be in My Skin
- Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills
- Mathmaticians are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians
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John Brown (Modern Library Classics)
Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement
To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown
John Brown: The Legend Revisited
Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown
