A stimulating look at the American Revolution by a diligent historian and talented writer.
A fresh view of Britain’s attempt to quash an independence movement that didn’t have to occur.
The British defeat in America was as unnecessary as the war. The colonists never wanted to separate from England; they were willing to pay taxes and support the king. Leading from abroad demanded unrealistic goals and provided insufficient resources. Different strategy, improved leadership at home, and better field commanders would have made a world of difference. The king’s fixation on gaining control of the corridor along the Hudson to Canada was an impossible task, illustrated by Gen. John Burgoyne’s loss at Saratoga. Throughout the war, the English reliance on loyalist support was delusional; any who might have joined them were put off by English and Hessian atrocities. Daughan’s (The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the U.S.S. Essex During the War of 1812, 2013, etc.) broad background in the naval history of the period and his inclusion of the English view comprises a portrait of a different revolution than the one taught in textbooks. The English leaders spent more time squabbling with each other than fighting battles. Too often, advantages were not pressed and defeats were snatched from the jaws of victory. Particularly absurd was the failure, without explanation, of Henry Clinton to press the attack on West Point after Benedict Arnold was exposed. It was scheduled within days, but he held back. George Washington had a similar amount of trouble, with subordinates undermining his authority and even, in the case of Gen. Charles Lee, ignoring orders. Throughout the war, Washington’s troops were undersupplied, hungry, and unpaid, and he didn’t even have a standing army until after the evacuation of New York. What Washington had was the ability to reinforce his army, something the British could not do. These stories are fascinating—egos run rampant, and myriad opportunities go by the wayside—and Daughan brings all his subjects to vivid life.
A stimulating look at the American Revolution by a diligent historian and talented writer.Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-393-24572-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
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