A readable, comprehensive, but unsurprising history of the American Revolution. Bobrick (Knotted Tongues: Stuttering in History and the Quest for a Cure, 1995, etc.) admits in the preface that he walks familiar ground but, having ancestors who fought on both sides of the conflict, he says he wanted to retell the story his own way. That seems to mean approaching the Revolution as a good yarn, one in which the heroes are saved from one mortal peril after another, seemingly by an ``Angel in the Whirlwind,'' a phrase coined by Virginian John Page in a 1776 letter to Thomas Jefferson. Bobrick highlights the numerous points at which the revolution could have collapsed: if British commander-in-chief William Howe had struck the demoralized, poorly clothed, poorly fed and unpaid American troops in the winter of 1777; if, on numerous occasions, British ships had arrived sooner, or British commanders had acted more wisely; and most of all, if Congress had picked anyone else but George Washington to lead the army. Washington is the hero of heroes in this saga. He wins wars not just against the British but also against a feeble Congress, fractious colonies, and numerous fierce competitors for his job. Bobrick's narrative includes both revolutionaries and loyalists, and he does an excellent job of explaining why so many colonialists stayed true to the Crown—an aspect of the revolution given short shrift by many historians. Bobrick gives shorter shrift, however, to Native Americans, describing in detail atrocities attributed to them—they mostly fought on the British side—while offering virtually no context to their role. The sufferings of black slaves, used cruelly by both sides, are noted in passing. Readable, enlivened by many excerpts from the writings of participants famous and humble, this is a good primer on the revolution—but not a revolutionary one.
Pub Date: July 4, 1997
ISBN: 0-684-81060-3
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A richly descriptive and insightful survey of post-Holocaust European Jewry. Kurlansky (A Continent of Islands, 1992) interviews scores of Holocaust survivors and their children in Germany, Holland, Poland, Slovakia, and other countries to examine how and why Jews still live in Europe. He moves from the end of WW II to the present, showing people just after the war, often in displaced-persons camps, and then later, having survived—opening a bakery in Paris, enrolling in a Jewish school in Budapest, or running a museum in Prague. Kurlansky states that ``Jewry today has a future in Europe, and Hitler at last has been defeated,'' and he gives statistical evidence that European Jewry is rebounding. But the qualitative state of European Jewry remains less clear. Many of the interview subjects have had Jewish identity thrust on them, whether they want it or not, by political opponents or by the biases and prejudices of the majority cultures in which they reside. And the few traditional Jews (in the growing communities of France and the Lowlands) are immigrants from North Africa or Hasidim who have come to ply the diamond trade. Many of the younger people we meet have only been told of their Jewish background when a parent is dying or when a child is found to be on the receiving or giving end of anti- Semitism. Anti-Semitism, in fact, has been a constant over the years, whether it's the rantings of Nazis or the subtle, anti- Zionist sneers of present-day foreign secretaries. This is not a catalogue of fear and shame, however, as Kurlansky, with a novelist's eye for irony and description, offers many moments of transcendence and humor: entertaining culture clashes between communists and capitalists, religious and secular, Zionists and diasporists. The humor darkens when American tourists are greeted at the Warsaw train station with cries of ``Taxi? Hotel? Auschwitz?'' in Poland's new ``world fair of genocide.'' A lively, penetrating follow-up to Holocaust readings that speaks volumes about the resiliency of the Jewish people.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-201-60898-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
This glimpse inside the reality of life for current Native Americans will intrigue but also appall in its depiction of their plight. Monroe, a Lakota and Cheyenne, offers his autobiography with the help of Reyer (English and Women's Studies/West Virginia Univ.; Cante Ohitka, not reviewed). He shares childhood memories of his grandfather, who toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and of his many other relations. Monroe was born on the reservation in South Dakota but raised off it, and educated in Catholic mission schools, as his father moved frequently to find work. In the early 1940s, Monroe enlisted in the Army to get away from the racism he experienced in Alliance, Nebr. In the service, he felt an acceptance he had never known before, and Monroe says that had he not been wounded in Korea, he probably would have made a career in the military. Instead, he wound up back in Alliance, where he couldn't even get a drink in the American Legion hall. Drinking, in fact, a problem that afflicted other members of his family as well, began to occupy much of his life. Later, a recovering alcoholic, Monroe worked with other Native alcoholics; he also fought back against racism, first by running for public office and later by founding the American Indian Council, an organization that provides a variety of social and professional services to the Native community. At a time when most Americans don't realize that over 66% of Indians live off the reservation, this book is a powerful witness. Written in simple, direct language and told at a sometimes slow, methodical, pace, it will reward patient readers with an illuminating look into what it means to be a member of America's Native minority.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-56639-234-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Temple Univ. Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
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