Aside from the often corny narrative, the author provides an original contribution to the history of Civil War spying.
A well-documented biography of one of Allan Pinkerton’s detectives and a successful Union spy.
While researching his previous book, journalist Mortimer (Chasing Icarus: The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Forever Changed American Aviation, 2009, etc.) stumbled on an unpublished memoir that provided a new look at Civil War intelligence operations. A penniless Welsh immigrant in 1856, Pryce Lewis (1828–1911) was a grocery clerk before signing on with Pinkerton in 1860 and quickly demonstrating his talents. He was investigating a murder in Tennessee during the secession uproar and had no trouble impressing the locals, so he was a logical candidate for undercover assignments. In the summer of 1861, working for a little-known Ohio general, George McClellan, Pinkerton sent Lewis into western Virginia disguised as a British tourist. He performed brilliantly, ingratiating himself with local Confederate commanders and delivering accurate information on their strength (weaker than Union estimates). Union forces quickly conquered what is now West Virginia, a victory that catapulted McClellan to command of the Army of the Potomac. In early 1862, Pinkerton sent Lewis to Richmond, where he was quickly arrested and tried for treason. Reprieved a day before his scheduled execution, he spent more than a year and a half in Richmond prisons before being exchanged. Furious at Pinkerton, he resigned, spending much of the remaining war in other intelligence work. Like most wartime adventurers, life afterward became an anticlimax. His own detective agency foundered, and he descended into an impoverished old age, committing suicide in 1911. Despite access to fresh historical records, Mortimer does not wholly trust his material, larding his writing with invented dialogue and the characters’ thoughts and emotions.
Aside from the often corny narrative, the author provides an original contribution to the history of Civil War spying.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8027-1769-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2010
Only the most dedicated Ginsburg fans, and there are many, will devour everything here, but most readers will find items of...
From the second woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court, a collection of writings ranging from the slight to the serious.
Now 83, women’s rights icon Ginsburg nears the close of her distinguished career as a law professor, appellate advocate, judge, and justice, arguably having done more to move our law in the direction of gender equality than any living person. Now, as two Georgetown Law professors, Hartnett and Williams (emerita) prepare her official biography, they have collected Ginsburg’s speeches, lectures, articles, and opinions, some on offer here. They preface most of this material with explanatory, wholly complimentary notes and begin with a chapter of juvenilia, demonstrating Ginsburg’s early interest in human rights and in preserving individual liberties. Passages devoted to “the lighter side” of life at the Supreme Court include, for example, Ginsburg’s musings on lawyers depicted in opera, not least her own “starring” role in Scalia/Ginsburg. There follows a section on “waypavers” and “pathmarkers,” Ginsburg’s tributes to, among others, Belva Lockwood, the first woman admitted to the Supreme Court Bar, Gloria Steinem, “the face of feminism,” and Sandra Day O’Connor, the court’s first woman justice. Especially good are the author’s observations on the court’s “Jewish seat” and her charming lecture on four notable Supreme Court wives. These, and many other agreeable selections, are characterized as “remarks,” delivered and often recycled for various audiences. The collection also contains numerous bench announcements, summaries of some of Ginsburg’s most consequential opinions and dissents, and a few revealing essays that offer keys to her jurisprudence: for example, her perspective on the role of dissents, the value of consulting foreign law, and the wisdom of “measured motions” by the judiciary, wherein she mildly criticizes Roe v. Wade for provoking a backlash and halting “a political process that was moving in a reform direction.”
Only the most dedicated Ginsburg fans, and there are many, will devour everything here, but most readers will find items of interest from this icon of women’s rights.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-4524-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
It must be hard being right all the time, but controversial rapper and black activist Sister Souljah doesn't mind, judging from her remarkably smug, occasionally uplifting memoir. Let there be no doubt, this ``young sultry, big, brown-eyed, voluptuous, wholesome, intelligent, spiritual, ghetto girl'' has opinions. She is for belief in God, hard work, self-respect, community service, political activism, a strong family structure, and black women sharing their men in the face of a huge supply-side shortage. She is against abortion, narcotics, the welfare system, interracial dating, and homosexuality. Passionate in all things, Souljah's juxtaposition of her activism and her active hormones can produce odd results. When a man she wants turns up at a committee meeting, she recounts: ``I...set to work on how to organize Black students across the country into an African student network. With moist panties and a body that wanted to be touched...I argued that most African students were confronted by the same problems.'' Souljah's political beliefs frequently become little more than sidelines to her accounts of failed romances—indignant stories of a strong, single, sexy black heroine and the brothers who let her down. The men who fail come in all varieties (from her father to her mother's lovers and her own), but Souljah concludes that their shortcomings are the result of centuries of white racist oppression—psychological, political, cultural. Ultimately, the book reveals the psyche of a young black woman who feels she has been betrayed by too many and who trusts no one. Everyone disappoints her. After eight chapters (each named for the guilty individual in question: ``Mother,'' ``Nathan,'' ``Mona,'' etc.), a predictable pattern emerges in which Souljah's initial optimism wears off and gives way first to rationalization, then to harsh condemnation. Part fiery political diatribe, part searing sexual history, part unintentional psychological profile, Souljah throws more heat than light.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8129-2483-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
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