It's Monday, What are You Reading? After Yorktown

It's Monday, What are You Reading? After Yorktown:
The Final Struggle for American Independence 
by Don Glickstein

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0161EP3AU/

This post is the one-hundred and seventeenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


I'm enjoying reading this book on my Kindle app on my iPad mini... it is a great reminder of all the "wartime" activities that were taking place across the country in those earliest years between the Battle of Yorktown and the Constitutional Convention period of the late 1780s. It was not a quiet time, by any means. Would the new 'nation' even survive? Fascinating stuff...lots of little details... Love it! ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

After the Humiliating Defeat at Yorktown in 1781, George III Vowed to Keep Fighting the Rebels and Their Allies Around the World, Holding a New Nation in the Balance

Although most people think the American Revolution ended with the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, it did not. The war spread around the world, and exhausted men kept fighting—from the Arctic to Arkansas, from India and Ceylon to Schenectady and South America—while others labored to achieve a final diplomatic resolution.

After Cornwallis’s unexpected loss, George III vowed revenge, while Washington planned his next campaign. Spain, which France had lured into the war, insisted there would be no peace without seizing British-held Gibraltar. Yet the war had spun out of control long before Yorktown. Native Americans and Loyalists continued joint operations against land-hungry rebel settlers from New York to the Mississippi Valley. African American slaves sought freedom with the British. Soon, Britain seized the initiative again with a decisive naval victory in the Caribbean against the Comte de Grasse, the French hero of Yorktown.

In After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence, Don Glickstein tells the engrossing story of this uncertain and violent time, from the remarkable American and French success in Virginia to the conclusion of the fighting—in India—and then to the last British soldiers leaving America more than two years after Yorktown. Readers will learn about the people—their humor, frustration, fatigue, incredulity, worries; their shock at the savage terrorism each side inflicted; and their surprise at unexpected grace and generosity. Based on an extraordinary range of primary sources, the story encompasses a fascinating cast of characters: a French captain who destroyed a British trading post, but left supplies for Indians to help them through a harsh winter, an American Loyalist releasing a captured Spanish woman in hopes that his act of kindness will result in a prisoner exchange, a Native American leader caught “between two hells” of a fickle ally and a greedy enemy, and the only general to surrender to both George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte. Finally, the author asks the question we face today: How do you end a war that doesn’t want to end?


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Downfall

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

 Downfall 

by J.A. Jance

https://www.amazon.com/Downfall-Brady-Suspense-J-Jance-ebook/dp/B017R4JVOC/


This post is the one-hundred and sixteenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


This is the last of the mystery series that I am still regularly reading - Sheriff Joanna Brady of Bisbee, Arizona, and the Cochise County Sheriff. Jance still knows how to spin a great story. We always get these in hardback format!!  ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady returns in this outstanding new mystery set in the beautiful desert country of the Southwest.
With a baby on the way, sudden deaths in the family from which to recover, a re-election campaign looming, and a daughter heading off for college, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady has her hands full when a puzzling new case hits her department, demanding every resource she has at her disposal.
Two women have fallen to their deaths from a small nearby peak, referred to by Bisbee locals as Geronimo. What’s the connection between these two women? Is this a case of murder/suicide or is it a double homicide? And if someone else is responsible, is it possible that the perpetrator may, even now, be on the hunt for another victim?



Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Valiant Ambition

 It's Monday, What are You Reading?
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the fate of the American Revolution
by Nathaniel Philbrick

https://www.amazon.com/Valiant-Ambition-Washington-Benedict-Revolution-ebook/dp/B0141ZP36A/


This post is the one-hundred and fifteenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


I’ve had this one on my iPad Mini Kindle App for some time and have read on it from time to time. Lately, I’ve been spending more time on it. It is an interesting contrast to the 'First Entrepreneur' I’m still working on for bedtime reading. Washington story is just a couple of years apart, but seen from very different perspectives. Of course, in this one, George and Benedict are treating their ‘ambition’ in quite different ways…  ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

"Valiant Ambition may be one of the greatest what-if books of the age—a volume that turns one of America’s best-known narratives on its head.”
—Boston Globe [My observation - incorrect to refer to this as a 'what-if' book - not at all!]

"Clear and insightful, it consolidates his reputation as one of America's foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction."
—Wall Street Journal

From the New York Times bestselling author of In The Heart of the Sea and Mayflower comes a surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold.

In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from without but from within.
            Valiant Ambition is a complex, controversial, and dramatic portrait of a people in crisis and the war that gave birth to a nation. The focus is on loyalty and personal integrity, evoking a Shakespearean tragedy that unfolds in the key relationship of Washington and Arnold, who is an impulsive but sympathetic hero whose misfortunes at the hands of self-serving politicians fatally destroy his faith in the legitimacy of the rebellion. As a country wary of tyrants suddenly must figure out how it should be led, Washington’s unmatched ability to rise above the petty politics of his time enables him to win the war that really matters.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? First Entrepreneur

 It's Monday, What are You Reading?
First Entrepreneur: 

How George Washington Built His - and the Nation’s - Prosperity
by Edward G. Lengel

https://www.amazon.com/First-Entrepreneur-Washington-His---Nations--Prosperity-ebook/dp/B016TX4DWW/

This post is the one-hundred and fourteenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


This is the second of the two books on my Wish List that Nancy got me for my birthday, from Amazon…this one in Print Edition. Should be a fun read! ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

George Washington was not only “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen”—he was also America’s most important entrepreneur.

Editorial Reviews from Amazon:

Praise for First Entrepreneur

"First Entrepreneur is an almost magical book. It deftly tells the little known story of George Washington’s life as a man of business and simultaneously convinces us that his vision of a commercial nation creating a community of interests between all parts of America was (and still is) the key to our survival as a nation. Edward Lengel has added a new dimension to Washington’s greatness."—Thomas Fleming, author of The Great Divide

"Edward Lengel, who knows George Washington inside and out, has authored a thoughtful, carefully researched, and gracefully written account of the founder as a businessman. Mention Washington and the picture that comes to mind is that of a soldier and statesman. But, as Lengel demonstrates, Washington was a bold, risk-taking, innovative, calculating, and, above all, successful investor and entrepreneur. Lengel shows how Washington brought his business and managerial skills to his roles as commander of the Continental Army and the presidency and how they helped him succeed in those capacities. This is an excellent and illuminating book that deserves to be read."—John Ferling, author of Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It

"In this original, lucid, and accessible study, Edward Lengel deploys his mastery of George Washington's vast correspondence to reveal a surprising yet highly significant side to his character. He shows how the energy, realism, and willingness to innovate that typified Washington's approach to his own business ventures was transferred, with momentous consequences, when he led America in war and peace. First Entrepreneur provides a fascinating portrait of an inveterate micro-manager whose hands-on experience taught him that commerce was the strongest cement for bonding the newly United States."—Stephen Brumwell, author of George Washington: Gentleman Warrior

Kirkus Reviews, 12/15/15
"[Lengel] organically traces the evolution of Washington's free market thinking through his first and second presidential terms: building a national economy, encouraging domestic manufacturing, establishing a central bank, and developing a sense of unity of purpose. A deeply researched and nicely handled biography."


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? The First Congress

It's Monday, What are You Reading?
The First Congress: 

How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government 

by Fergus M. Bordewich

 https://www.amazon.com/First-Congress-Washington-Extraordinary-Government-ebook/dp/B00P434ET6/

This post is the one-hundred and thirteenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

This is one of two books on my Wish List that Nancy got me for my birthday, from Amazon…this one in Kindle Edition, which I read on my iPad Mini. Therefore, I read this book in bits and pieces between other reading of news articles from many sources, Facebook, and my two games. I’m only a couple of chapters in but am already seeing that the arguments on the floor of Congress in those first few days of trying to create a government out of the approved Constitution are over many of the same issues and the same approaches now, as then. Oh, my! ;-) I am really not surprised, of course. Different folks see the same issues differently, depending on their individual viewpoints and agendas. That has not changed, and will not change, in a democratic republic - long may it live!!! ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

The little known story of perhaps the most productive Congress in US history, the First Federal Congress of 1789–1791.

The First Congress was the most important in US history, says prizewinning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failed—as many at the time feared it would—it’s possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today.

The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states’ rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative and executive power; the respective roles of the federal and state judiciaries; and funding the central government. Other issues, such as slavery, would fester for decades before being resolved.

The First Congress tells the dramatic story of the two remarkable years when Washington, Madison, and their dedicated colleagues struggled to successfully create our government, an achievement that has lasted to the present day.
Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Five Presidents

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Five Presidents: 

My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford

by Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin

https://www.amazon.com/Five-Presidents-Extraordinary-Journey-Eisenhower-ebook/dp/B015WNZ5HW/

This post is the one-hundred and twelveth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

This fine book was a recent gift from my daughter, Allison. I’m really looking forward to a view of these five presidencies from this perspective.


Book Description from Amazon:

A rare and fascinating portrait of the American presidency from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Kennedy and Me and Five Days in November.

Secret Service agent Clint Hill brings history intimately and vividly to life as he reflects on his seventeen years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era—the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon.

Some of his stunning, never-before-revealed anecdotes include:
-Eisenhower’s reaction at Russian Prime Minister Khrushchev’s refusal to talk following the U-2 incident
-The torture of watching himself in the Zapruder film in a Secret Service training
-Johnson’s virtual imprisonment in the White House during violent anti-Vietnam protests
-His decision to place White House files under protection after a midnight phone call about Watergate
-The challenges of protecting Ford after he pardoned Nixon

With a unique insider’s perspective, Hill sheds new light on the character and personality of these five presidents, revealing their humanity in the face of grave decisions.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Revolution: Mapping the Road to American Independence

It's Monday, What are You Reading? 

Revolution: 

Mapping the Road to American Independence 1755-1783
by Richard H. Brown and Paul E. Cohen

https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Mapping-American-Independence-1755-1783/dp/0393060322/

This post is the one-hundred and eleventh entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

This fine book was a recent gift from my daughter, Annette. It is a excellent reference but also an interesting read. Many of the maps were made by British engineers during their ‘occupation’ of America during this period - a different point of view; always of value.



Book Description from Amazon:

The spectacular legacy and importance of early American cartographers.
Historians of the Revolutionary War in America have been fortunate in their resources: few wars in history have such a rich literary and cartographic heritage. The high skills of the surveyors, artists, and engravers who delineated the topography and fields of battle allow us to observe the unfolding of events that ultimately defined the United States.
When warfare erupted between Britain and her colonists in 1775, maps provided graphic news about military matters. A number of the best examples are reproduced here, including some from the personal collections of King George III, the Duke of Northumberland, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Other maps from institutional and private collections are being published for the first time. In all, sixty significant and beautiful cartographic works from 1755 to 1783 illustrate this intriguing era.
Most books about the Revolution begin with Lexington and Concord and progress to the British surrender at Yorktown, but in this rich collection the authors lay the groundwork for the war by also taking into account key events of the antecedent conflict. The seeds of revolution were planted during the French and Indian War (1755–1763), and it was then that a good number of the participants, both British and rebel, cut their teeth. George Washington took his first command during this war, alongside the future British commanding General Thomas Gage.
At the Treaty of Paris, the French and Indian War ended, and King George III gained clear title to more territory than had ever been exchanged in any other war before or since. The British military employed its best-trained artists and engineers to map the richest prize in its Empire. They would need those maps for the fratricidal war that would begin twelve years later. Their maps and many others make up the contents of this fascinating and beautiful book.
60 maps



Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Montana Women Homesteaders

Montana Women Homesteaders: 

A Field of One’s Own 

Edited by Sarah Carter

 

https://www.amazon.com/Montana-Women-Homesteaders-Field-Ones/dp/1560374497/

This post is the one-hundred and tenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

This has been sitting on my wife’s book shelf for several years. She handed it to me when she heard me say I was enjoying the Colorado Women Climbers book. Guess it is time to check it out! ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

In Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One's Own, author and historian Sarah Carter introduces the voices and images of women who filed on 160- or 320-acre homestead plots in Montana.
Single, widowed, divorced, or deserted, women varied in ages, educational levels, and ethnic backgrounds, but all proved up on their homesteads.
In published accounts, scrapbooks, personal reminiscences, and photographs, the women recorded their remarkable journeys.
Carter reveals inspiring stories filled with joy, tragedy, and redemption. 
Silver medal, WILLA Literary Awards, scholarly nonfiction, 2010
For more information, visit FarcountryPress.com.



Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Magnificent Mountain Women

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

The Magnificent Mountain Women:

Adventures in the Colorado Rockies

by Janet Robertson

 

This post is the one-hundred and ninth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

 

http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Mountain-Women-Janet-Robertson/dp/B000GQWHKY/ (1990 edition)(I read)

http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Mountain-Women-Second-Adventures/dp/0803289952/ (2003 2nd Edition)


This has been sitting on my shelf for years, picked up in Colorado at the bookstore one year.
Good read… shouldn’t have waited so long!! ;-)



Book Description from Amazon:

1st Edition:
Adventures in the Colorado Rockies. Lively well illustrated book on women climbers, skiers, hikers, guides, doctors, etc. in the 54 Colorado peaks.

2nd Edition:
Since the Pikes Peak gold rush in the mid–nineteenth century, women have gone into the mountains of Colorado to hike, climb, ski, homestead, botanize, act as guides, practice medicine, and meet a variety of other challenges, whether for sport or for livelihood. Janet Robertson recounts their exploits in a lively, well-illustrated book that measures up to its title, The Magnificent Mountain Women. Arlene Blum provides a new introduction to this edition.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Obama's Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House by Connie Corcoran Wilson - Review

Obama's Odyssey:The 2008 Race for the White House by Connie Corcoran Wilson - Review

Publisher:† Quad City Press (September 3, 2015)
Category:†U.S. Federal Government, 21st Century, Politics
ISBN-13: 978-0692527382
ASIN:† B015AOH9DQ
Tour Date: April/May
Available in: Print and ebook, 282 Pages

Obama's Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House is a reporter's-eye view of events unfolding in 2007 and 2008 as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Bill Richardson (et al.) jockeyed for position for the Democratic nomination for president, while John McCain, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and others attempted to wrest control of the Republican nomination for their party. All ran for President in a wide-open free-for-all following the end of George W. Bush's 8 years in office. Author Connie (Corcoran) Wilson, a veteran reporter for five newspapers and numerous blogs, followed the candidates from the Iowa caucuses all the way through to the convention (Volume I) and, after that, from the convention through the tumultuous presidential campaign itself (Volume II), until President Barack Obama's Inauguration as the 44th President of the United States in January of 2009 (covered in Volume II). Writing as a member of the Yahoo Content Contributors' Network, retired sixty-something schoolteacher Wilson set off on an adventurous odyssey of her own that earned her the title 2008 Content Producer of the Year for Politics with 1,000 articles that garnered over three million hits. Filing three articles daily from the field, her adventures inside the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, the Ron Paul Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis, the Belmont Town Hall Meeting in Nashville or elsewhere (Florida, Nevada, etc.) are detailed, insightful and, at times, humorous. The parallels and insights gleaned from following the presidential campaign in 2008 provide useful background material for the presidential race of 2016 now underway--with some of the same candidates that ran 8 years ago in the field again today. Never one to ignore an amusing anecdote or photo, the quotes, facts and polling data are only one small component of an engrossing read with multiple pictures that sum up the end of an era in presidential campaigns as the use of the Internet and the increasing importance of money in campaigning are clearly cataloged. If you are a Progressive, Independent or simply a Democrat with a sense of humor, this book is for you! An entertaining, informative and relevant slice of recent history.

Praise for Obama's Odyssey by Connie Corcoran Wilson

"Not many people get to have a behind the scenes glimpse of what goes on in a campaign. And, sometimes when we do read accounts, they are partisan. This book is different. The author travels as a reporter, covering different candidates, in different locales, letting us into those grueling, exciting days in 2008. This is a collection of live articles written by a reporter covering the possibility of the first woman President and the first Black President."-Sharon A. Mitchell, Amazon Reviewer
"I loved this and can't wait for Wilson's next great project." - †Rose Richmond, Yahoo Contributor "The election of Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 was politically startling. It captured the imagination of a nation in a way that no other political event ever did or ever will.... As his double term as President of the United States comes to an end, there is no better time to reacquaint oneself with Obama's campaign trail, one of the most unbelievable sojourns in American history."- Bonnie McGrath, Chicago lawyer, Blogger, †and award-winning journalist

About Connie Corcoran Wilson

Connie Corcoran Wilson is the award winning author of 'The Color Of Evil' series and the 'Hellfire and Damnation' Series. Book 3,†'Khaki=Killer' was named one of the Top Indie Thrillers of 2015 in the Dec./Jan. issue of Shelf Unbound magazine from among 12,000+ entries and one of her children's books was named one of the Best† Books of 2014 by the Chicago Writers' Association, while the Chicago chapter of the Illinois Press Women named Wilson their Silver Feather winner in 2012 and 2014. Wilson†is a University of Iowa grad in Journalism and English†(additional study at Western Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Chicago and Berkeley)†and a college professor with 6 decades†of writing experience. She has written for 5 newspapers and many†blogs, founded†3 businesses, plays 4 musical instruments, and has 2 children (born 19 years apart). She followed the '04, '08 and '12 presidential campaigns "live" for Yahoo, which named her its Content Producer of the†Year for Politics in 2009.†She is sometimes referred to as T.Q. (Trivia Queen) from her misspent hours in the British Pub Quiz room on AOL. She blogs at www.WeeklyWilson.com and maintains 4 ongoing fiction series while also†writing about†nonfiction subjects.(politics and movies). Connie†also has 7-year-old twin granddaughters who are great fun and for whom and with whom she writes the Christmas Cats series (www.TheXmasCats.com).

Connie on Twitter:†https://twitter.com/ConnieCWilson
Connie on Facebook:†https://www.facebook.com/pages/Connie-Corcoran-Wilson/275020829241869 Connie on Pinterest:†http://pinterest.com/conniecwilson/ 
Connie on Google+:†https://plus.google.com/u/0/101447920077310676402

Buy Obama's Odyssey by Connie Corcoran Wilson

Amazon  
Barnes and Noble

Follow Obama's Odyssey by Connie Corcoran Wilson Tour

Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus April 15 Interview, & Giveaway
Marianne Archuleta Apr 18 Review BJ Apr 19 Review
Teepee12 (Serendipity) Apr 20 Review, Interview & Giveaway
BookSpin Apr 21 Review
Mandre Apr 22 Review
Mandy Apr 26 Review
Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Apr 27 Review
Dr. Bill's Book Bazaar May 2 Review
I feel so unnecessary May 5 Review







My Review:

If you are looking for a raw daily look at a political campaign from a reporter often right on the ground at caucuses and primary voting, this book is for you. As a Yahoo Content Contributor, Wilson blogged regularly at the Iowa Caucuses and at the Florida Primary. Other of her information often was reported, vote and delegate count data, for example, directly from contemporaneous CNN reports. Wilson also adds commentary, from time to time, from an unabashedly Obama supporter point of view. This is refreshing reporting, on the one hand. It can be viewed as biased reporting, by some. It didn’t really bother me, because I understood her intent and interests. Personal background information is also added, generously, in her daily reports. We learned, for example, how and for whom her father voted in earlier Iowa caucuses in years long past.

If you are looking for a clean, well edited narrative with all the details of the 2008 Primary Election circuit, you will be disappointed. That is not what this volume is about. This is virtually a download of her daily upload to the Yahoo blog, with virtually no editing of content. It is rare to get this kind of inside look, both at the primary process and at the Yahoo blogging process, as well.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this volume, once I was clear what I was reading. Often there were big breaks in the reporting, especially on election nights. We would learn all about the buildup to the night, and then often jump to the next week’s activities, without a report of the outcome of the first election. That is understandable, of course, if you were an election junkie, reading this blog. You would be following the election results, yourself on CNN or MSNBC, and didn’t need those re-reported in the blog the next day. With that understanding, I was able to continue on, enjoying the next set of ‘on-scene’ reports.

With these caveats, I recommend the book highly.


Happy Reading,

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Jefferson’s America

It's Monday, What are You Reading? 

Jefferson’s America:

The President, the Purchase, and the Explorers 

Who Transformed a Nation

by Julie M. Fenster

 

This post is the one-hundred and eighth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

http://www.amazon.com/Jeffersons-America-President-Explorers-Transformed/dp/0307956482/

I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer’s program. I will write a review when I finish it, of course; to be published at LibraryThing.com and Amazon.com.

 
Book Description from Amazon:

The surprising story of how Thomas Jefferson commanded an unrivaled age of American exploration—and in presiding over that era of discovery, forged a great nation.
 
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, as Britain, France, Spain, and the United States all jockeyed for control of the vast expanses west of the Mississippi River, the stakes for American expansion were incalculably high. Even after the American purchase of the Louisiana Territory, Spain still coveted that land and was prepared to employ any means to retain it. With war expected at any moment, Jefferson played a game of strategy, putting on the ground the only Americans he could: a cadre of explorers who finally annexed it through courageous investigation.

Responsible for orchestrating the American push into the continent was President Thomas Jefferson. He most famously recruited Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who led the Corps of Discovery to the Pacific, but at the same time there were other teams who did the same work, in places where it was even more crucial. William Dunbar, George Hunter, Thomas Freeman, Peter Custis, and the dauntless Zebulon Pike—all were dispatched on urgent missions to map the frontier and keep up a steady correspondence with Washington about their findings.

But they weren’t always well-matched—with each other and certainly not with a Spanish army of a thousand soldiers or more. These tensions threatened to undermine Jefferson’s goals for the nascent country, leaving the United States in danger of losing its foothold in the West. Deeply researched and inspiringly told, Jefferson’s America rediscovers the robust and often harrowing action from these seminal expeditions and illuminates the president’s vision for a continental America.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Listen, Liberal

It's Monday, What are You Reading? 

Listen, Liberal: 

Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? 

by Thomas Frank

 

This post is the one-hundred and seventh entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People-ebook/dp/B012N992EK/


I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer’s program. I will write a review when I finish it, of course; to be published at LibraryThing and Amazon.com.


Book Description from Amazon:

From the bestselling author of What's the Matter With Kansas, a scathing look at the standard-bearers of liberal politics -- a book that asks: what's the matter with Democrats?
It is a widespread belief among liberals that if only Democrats can continue to dominate national elections, if only those awful Republicans are beaten into submission, the country will be on the right course.
But this is to fundamentally misunderstand the modern Democratic Party. Drawing on years of research and first-hand reporting, Frank points out that the Democrats have done little to advance traditional liberal goals: expanding opportunity, fighting for social justice, and ensuring that workers get a fair deal. Indeed, they have scarcely dented the free-market consensus at all. This is not for lack of opportunity: Democrats have occupied the White House for sixteen of the last twenty-four years, and yet the decline of the middle class has only accelerated. Wall Street gets its bailouts, wages keep falling, and the free-trade deals keep coming.
With his trademark sardonic wit and lacerating logic, Frank's Listen, Liberal lays bare the essence of the Democratic Party's philosophy and how it has changed over the years. A form of corporate and cultural elitism has largely eclipsed the party's old working-class commitment, he finds. For certain favored groups, this has meant prosperity. But for the nation as a whole, it is a one-way ticket into the abyss of inequality. In this critical election year, Frank recalls the Democrats to their historic goals-the only way to reverse the ever-deepening rift between the rich and the poor in America.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Obama’s Odyssey

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Obama’s Odyssey: 

The 2008 Race for the White House 

(Vol. I, Caucus to Convention)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Obamas-Odyssey-White-Caucus-Convention-ebook/dp/B015AOH9DQ

This post is the one-hundred and sixth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


I am reading this book as part of a Teddy Rose ‘Virtual Author Book Tour’ and will post my review here on May 2, as well as on Amazon.

 
Book Description from Amazon:

Obama's Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House is a reporter's-eye view of events unfolding in 2007 and 2008 as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Bill Richardson (et al.) jockeyed for position for the Democratic nomination for president, while John McCain, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and others attempted to wrest control of the Republican nomination for their party. All ran for President in a wide-open free-for-all following the end of George W. Bush's 8 years in office.
Author Connie (Corcoran) Wilson, a veteran reporter for five newspapers and numerous blogs, followed the candidates from the Iowa caucuses all the way through to the convention (Volume I) and, after that, from the convention through the tumultuous presidential campaign itself (Volume II), until President Barack Obama's Inauguration as the 44th President of the United States in January of 2009 (covered in Volume II).
Writing as a member of the Yahoo Content Contributors' Network, retired sixty-something schoolteacher Wilson set off on an adventurous odyssey of her own that earned her the title 2008 Content Producer of the Year for Politics with 1,000 articles that garnered over three million hits. Filing three articles daily from the field, her adventures inside the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, the Ron Paul Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis, the Belmont Town Hall Meeting in Nashville or elsewhere (Florida, Nevada, etc.) are detailed, insightful and, at times, humorous. The parallels and insights gleaned from following the presidential campaign in 2008 provide useful background material for the presidential race of 2016 now underway--with some of the same candidates that ran 8 years ago in the field again today. Never one to ignore an amusing anecdote or photo, the quotes, facts and polling data are only one small component of an engrossing read with multiple pictures that sum up the end of an era in presidential campaigns as the use of the Internet and the increasing importance of money in campaigning are clearly cataloged. An entertaining, informative and relevant slice of recent history.

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Dark Money

It's Monday, What are You Reading? 

Dark Money:

The Hidden History of the Billionaires

Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

by Jane Mayer

This post is the one-hundred and fifth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

www.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-Radical-ebook/dp/B0180SU4OA

This book was recommended on the Bill Moyers blog. I’m very happy that I chose to read it. It is an eye-opening experience, for sure. I am reading the Kindle Edition.



Book Description from Amazon:

Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?
     The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against “big government” led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. 
     The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs—that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom—are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.
     The chief figures in the network are Charles and David Koch, whose father made his fortune in part by building oil refineries in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The patriarch later was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose politics were so radical it believed Dwight Eisenhower was a communist. The brothers were schooled in a political philosophy that asserted the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights. 
     When libertarian ideas proved decidedly unpopular with voters, the Koch brothers and their allies chose another path. If they pooled their vast resources, they could fund an interlocking array of organizations that could work in tandem to influence and ultimately control academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and, they hoped, the presidency. Richard Mellon Scaife, the mercurial heir to banking and oil fortunes, had the brilliant insight that most of their political activities could be written off as tax-deductible “philanthropy.”
     These organizations were given innocuous names such as Americans for Prosperity. Funding sources were hidden whenever possible. This process reached its apotheosis with the allegedly populist Tea Party movement, abetted mightily by the Citizens United decision—a case conceived of by legal advocates funded by the network.
     The political operatives the network employs are disciplined, smart, and at times ruthless. Mayer documents instances in which people affiliated with these groups hired private detectives to impugn whistle-blowers, journalists, and even government investigators. And their efforts have been remarkably successful. Libertarian views on taxes and regulation, once far outside the mainstream and still rejected by most Americans, are ascendant in the majority of state governments, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Meaningful environmental, labor, finance, and tax reforms have been stymied. 
     Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews-including with several sources within the network-and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colorful figures behind the new American oligarchy.
     Dark Money is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Henry Clay

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

 

 Henry Clay: America’s Greatest Statesman

by Harlow Giles Unger

 

 This post is the one-hundred and fourth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

 

This is the last of the three books from my Christmas Wish List - Thanks, family! ;-)
This one was useful, as I expected. I’d read a much larger bio of Henry Clay. This one was easy to read and great reminders of events of the first half of the 19th Century.

 
Book Description from Amazon:

n a critical and little-known chapter of early American history, author Harlow Giles Unger tells how a fearless young Kentucky lawyer threw open the doors of Congress during the nation's formative years and prevented dissolution of the infant American republic.

The only freshman congressman ever elected Speaker of the House, Henry Clay brought an arsenal of rhetorical weapons to subdue feuding members of the House of Representatives and established the Speaker as the most powerful elected official after the President. During fifty years in public service—as congressman, senator, secretary of state, and four-time presidential candidate—Clay constantly battled to save the Union, summoning uncanny negotiating skills to force bitter foes from North and South to compromise on slavery and forego secession. His famous "Missouri Compromise" and four other compromises thwarted civil war "by a power and influence," Lincoln said, "which belonged to no other statesman of his age and times."

Explosive, revealing, and richly illustrated, Henry Clay is the story of one of the most courageous—and powerful—political leaders in American History.

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates

It's Monday, What are You Reading? 

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates:

 The Forgotten War that changed American History

by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger

 

This post is the one-hundred and third entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

This is the second of the three books from my Christmas Wish List - Thanks, family! ;-)
This one was more substantive than I expected… frequently overlooked events because at the same time as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, among other events in the U.S.A.


Book Description from Amazon:

This is the little-known story of how a newly indepen­dent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America’s third president decided to stand up to intimidation.

When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new coun­try could afford.

Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion jus­tified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy—at least not while easy money could be made by extorting the Western powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and a detachment of Marines to blockade Tripoli—launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America’s journey toward future superpower status.

As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington’s Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many sus­penseful episodes:

·Lieutenant Andrew Sterett’s ferocious cannon battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli.

·Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s daring night raid of an enemy harbor, with the aim of destroying an American ship that had fallen into the pirates’ hands.

·General William Eaton’s unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derne, where the Marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time.

Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.” Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgot­ten war that changed American history with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.


Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? John Marshall

It's Monday, What are You Reading? 

John Marshall: The Chief Justice who saved the nation

by Harlow Giles Unger

This post is the one-hundred and second entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

[http://www.amazon.com/John-Marshall-Chief-Justice-Nation-ebook/dp/B00JNYDHY0]


This is the first of the three books from my Christmas Wish List - Thanks, family! ;-)
I’ve always admired what Marshall did - now I know why, in much more depth. ;-)


Book Description from Amazon:

A soul-stirring biography of John Marshall, the young republic's great chief justice, who led the Supreme Court to power and brought law and order to the nation

A useful review posted on Amazon.com:

Kirkus Reviews, 8/1/14
“A cradle-to-grave biography of the U.S. Supreme Court’s longest-serving chief justice…Unger chooses to present all aspects of Marshall's life, including his military heroism and his extraordinary devotion to a chronically ill wife and their children…It is well-researched, and the author is skilled at portraying the characters and viewpoints of Marshall’s political friends and foes. Thomas Jefferson comes across as a stubborn, politically motivated and sometimes hypocritical man, and Unger employs the Marshall-Jefferson enmity effectively, adding tension to the narrative. A vigorous account of an influential American life.”

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)