bookshelf

CUSTER

Name: CUSTER
Author: Edward G. Longacre
ISBN: 978-1-5107-3319-0

THE MAKING OF A YOUNG GENERAL

by Edward G. Longacre ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 3, 2018

A book that should appeal to military history enthusiasts, but those seeking a more standard biography should look elsewhere.

bookshelf

A look at the early career of one of the most controversial figures in American military history.

George Armstrong Custer’s place in American history was secured on June 25, 1876, when he and more than 260 of his men perished at the Battle of Little Bighorn. In his latest book, award-winning Civil War historian Longacre (The Early Morning of War: Bull Run, 1861, 2014, etc.) aims to highlight Custer’s Civil War career while “correct[ing] the myths, misconceptions, and misinterpretations that have distorted readers’ impressions of the soldier and the man.” The son of an Ohio blacksmith and farmer, Custer earned admission to West Point, where his indifference toward his studies and predilection for pranks led to graduation at the bottom of his class in 1861. Yet the Civil War provided opportunity for the young soldier. Commissioned as a second lieutenant of cavalry, he saw action in First Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, and Antietam. In 1863, under Alfred Pleasonton, commander of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps, the 23-year-old Custer won promotion to brigadier general of volunteers. Following his bold and brave fighting in the Gettysburg campaign, he returned home to propose to Elizabeth Clift Bacon, which is where this book ends. Longacre effectively deconstructs several of the myths surrounding Custer, particularly the mysterious circumstances of his admission to West Point. The author also relates a few savory tidbits, including the acrophobic Custer’s periodic balloon ascents during the Peninsula Campaign and the fact that George’s brother Thomas was a two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor. Yet there are several mistakes and errors, including misnaming P.G.T. Beauregard. Furthermore, Longacre’s thorough detailing of military maneuvers and battles slows the narrative.

A book that should appeal to military history enthusiasts, but those seeking a more standard biography should look elsewhere.

Pub Date: July 3, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5107-3319-0

Page Count: 324

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Review Posted Online: April 10, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018

Categories:

bookshelf

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

bookshelf

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Well-told and admonitory.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS

bookshelf

INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...

bookshelf

The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).

Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor will it to readers of Krakauer's narrative. (4 maps) (First printing of 35,000; author tour)