It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Ascent of George Washington

It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Ascent of George Washington

This is the fourteenth entry for this meme, suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books.


My latest read is The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon, by John Ferling, professor emeritus of history at the University of West Georgia, a leading authority on American Revolutionary history.

Ferling's earlier works include biographies of Washington and Adams, the election of 1800 between Adams and Jefferson, and a book on Washington, Adams and Jefferson, among others. So, I was especially interested in the new book (in 2009 - got as last Christmas gift) which focuses solely on the issue of Washington as a politician. Most historians skip over this role as, basically, non-existent. I have been anxious to examine this set of insights (after having read several Washington biographies, myself).

From the front cover flap:
Our first president has long been painted as a stoic figure who rose above the rough-and-tumble politics of his era. The Ascent of George Washington peers behind that image - one carefully burnished by Washington himself - to reveal a leader who was not only not above politics, but a master manipulator adept in the arts of persuasion, leverage, and deniability.

During the Revolution, Washington used his skills to steer the Continental Army through crises that would have broken less determined men; at the same time, he ruthlessly froze out rival generals and shrewdly defused dissent from those below him. Ending the war as a national hero, Washington "allowed" himself to be pressed into service as chief executive, and guided the nation with the same brilliantly maintained pose of selfless public interest.

In short, Washington deftly screened burning ambition behind an image of republican virtue - but that image made him just the leader that an over-matched army, and a shaky young nation, desperately needed. As Ferling reveals, the proof of Washington's political genius lies in the fact that he is no longer thought of as a politician at all. The Ascent of George Washington gives us Washington as we have never seen him before.

Happy Reading!

Bill  ;-)

Sunday Fun Blogging

Having fun over at my Genealogy Blog!

Happy Reading!  ;-)

Back in the Saddle Again...

Today, I accepted an invitation to be part of a book review tour in the latter part of October. I have been "taking it easy" on posting to this blog over the summer, with few reviews, and have not participated in book giveaways on book blogs, at all.

For those of my followers still checking in on me, from time to time, I'd like to ask your help and participation.  I'm am going to schedule a book blog tour for my own novel, Back to the Homeplace, later this fall. If your blog, or the blog of someone you know, has a good number of readers interested in the "family saga" genre of books, I'd like to hear from you, in the comments. Last spring, I had a number of nice reviews, but some of them were on sites that specialized in other types of reading - I'd like to focus this time on "my readers!"

The Kindle version of the book is now $5.95 and Amazon has the hard copy at $13.45, if you want to check it out.

Thanks for your help! Each good recommendation will be appreciated. The second book in the series will be available next spring. See: http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/ - The Homeplace Revisited.

Each and every comment is appreciated, and I will attempt to respond to each. Happy to answer any questions.

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Seeds of Summer

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Seeds of Summer

This is the thirteenth entry for this meme, suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books.


My latest read is Seeds of Summer by Deborah Vogts, her second novel in the Seasons of the Tallgrass series

Amazon.com:
Product Description

When opposites attract, sparks fly--like an electrical malfunction. That's what happens when former rodeo queen, Natalie Adams meets the new pastor in Diamond Falls. Upon the death of her father, Natalie returns to the Flint Hills to raise her two half-siblings and run the family ranch, giving up her dreams for the future. She soon realizes her time in college and as Miss Rodeo Kansas is not enough to break the bonds that held her as a girl. Jared Logan, a new pastor in Diamond Falls, is set on making a good impression to his first congregation, but finds that change doesn't come easy for some people. In fact, most in his congregation are set against it. Natalie and her troubled family provide an outlet for his energy and soon become his personal mission project.

Having raised her stepbrother and sister from an early youth, Natalie's self-sufficient nature isn't inclined to accept help, especially from a city-boy do-gooder like Jared Logen. Though attracted to him, there's no way she'd ever consider being a pastor's wife. Bible studies and bake sales just aren't her thing. Jared repeatedly comes to Natalie's rescue, forcing her to see him with new eyes. At the same time, Jared's plan to plant Christ's word in Natalie's heart backfires when he loses his own heart to this wayward family. When problems arise in his congregation, he must face his greatest fears---of letting down God, his congregation, or those he loves.

His time with Natalie has shown him the importance of standing by those you love, a lesson he chose to ignore in order to please his father years ago. This is put to the test when Natalie faces a battle of custody of her half-siblings against the mother who abandoned them twelve years ago. Natalie's fight for the children turns into a fight for custody of her heart as she learns the true meaning of unconditional love. In turn, Jared must decide which dreams are his own---and whether Natalie is part of those dreams.

Happy Reading!  ;-)

Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Revolutionaries

 

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

This is the twelfth entry for this meme, suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books.


My latest read is Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America by Jack Rakove.

Amazon.com Review:
Product Description
In the early 1770s, the men who invented America were living quiet, provincial lives in the rustic backwaters of the New World, devoted primarily to family, craft, and the private pursuit of wealth and happiness. None set out to become "revolutionary" by ambition, but when events in Boston escalated, they found themselves thrust into a crisis that moved, in a matter of months, from protest to war.

In this remarkable book, the historian Jack Rakove shows how the private lives of these men were suddenly transformed into public careers--how Washington became a strategist, Franklin a pioneering cultural diplomat, Madison a sophisticated constitutional thinker, and Hamilton a brilliant policymaker. Rakove shakes off accepted notions of these men as godlike visionaries, focusing instead on the evolution of their ideas and the crystallizing of their purpose. In Revolutionaries, we see the founders before they were fully formed leaders, as individuals whose lives were radically altered by the explosive events of the mid-1770s. They were ordinary men who became extraordinary--a transformation that finally has the literary treatment it deserves.

Spanning the two crucial decades of the country's birth, from 1773 to 1792, Revolutionaries uses little-known stories of these famous (and not so famous) men to capture--in a way no single biography ever could--the intensely creative period of the republic's founding. From the Boston Tea Party to the First Continental Congress, from Trenton to Valley Forge, from the ratification of the Constitution to the disputes that led to our two-party system, Rakove explores the competing views of politics, war, diplomacy, and society that shaped our nation.

Thoughtful, clear-minded, and persuasive, Revolutionaries is a majestic blend of narrative and intellectual history, one of those rare books that makes us think afresh about how the country came to be, and why the idea of America endures.

Happy Reading!  ;-)

Bill  ;-)

Calculated Risk: Adventures in Book Publishing

Calculated Risk: Adventures in Book Publishing

For those of you seriously interested in the future of book publishing (either as author or publisher), I recommend the following video (a speech - at the link on article, below) - it is not a "quick watch" - one that takes some concentration and reflection, but may change the way you see the world. This is not unlike the first time you were exposed to "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson (and I certainly hope that you were!) regarding the impact of the Internet. I want to thank Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian for suggesting this source on his July 12 Monday's Link Roundup!

Article: The speech Chris Anderson of Wired says is the best he's ever seen on book publishing...Richard Eoin Nash - The Blog

The video runs a little over 35 minutes, and may be hard to get through; however, the last five minutes are especially useful IF YOU STUCK THROUGH THE FIRST 30 minutes.

What you want to get to is what he is suggesting about the content a writer writes versus the connection the writer really seeks - to achieve happiness.

Nash's current venture is: Cursor - assume this is to follow up on this speech.
http://thinkcursor.com/

In joining the mailing list, they ask What brought you here? Here was my reply:
"Saw the video by Nash, encouraged by Anderson; recommended by Dan Curtis' blog - Monday's Link Roundup"

Interesting path - building connections - leads to true happiness... ! ? !

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Book Review: An Artist in Treason

Book Review: An Artist in Treason

This is my review of "An Artist in Treason" by Andro Linklater with a subtitle that may set a modern day record: 'The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army and Agent 13 in the Spanish Secret Service.'

The subtitle really tells it all. Though he betrayed (some of) America's strategic secrets, sought to keep the new country from expanding beyond the Mississippi, and almost delivered Lewis and Clark's expedition into Spanish hands, four presidents {some might say the most important four, since they were the first four} - Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison - all turned a blind eye to his treachery. In the end, in the crucial test in 1806, Wilkinson did, at the last minute, turn the army against Aaron Burr and foiled his conspiracy to break up the Union.

Linklater adds documentation from Spanish archives unseen by prior historians further illuminate this distinctive character in American history.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. Wilkinson was born in Maryland, the state of one of my ancestors lines that I have studied the most. He has been a side character in many, many of the books I have read in recent years - portrayed in many different lights. Each of these angles was explored well by Linklater in this book. I felt that his treatment was very evenhanded. Although I certainly cannot condone many of his actions, this book provided me with a much better understanding of the circumstances he faced as he made the decisions he made - usually under very difficult and trying decisions. As a military man, he was often put in lose-lose situations, sometimes on purpose, by either his military or civilian superiors, even both, on occasion. As with a number of his contemporaries among the founding and next generation, personal vanity often did play an over-sized role in his decision making - leading to many, if not most, of his many problems - personal and professional. This story also sheds illuminating light on many of the other 'historical' characters with whom he interacted through his career.

Happy Reading!  ;-)

Bill  ;-)