A collection of historical articles and theoretical essays by the author of SNCC: The New Abolitionists, (1964). Zinn holds that historians must write as participant-observers in contemporary social struggles, not "passive reporters" committed to a callous and impossible neutrality. A view familiar by now, but Zinn offers a fine example here in his firsthand report of police-FBI violence in Albany, Georgia. The theme of official violence is pursued in papers on the napalming of Royan, France in 1945 and the 1912 massacre of unarmed Ludlow strikers by the Colorado militia. In tackling FDR as experimenter and LaGuardia as crusader, Zinn uses homey praise; he does better in polemics, as when he mops up Lewis Feuer's parricide theory of student revolt. A final group of essays discusses vague abstractions-humanitarianism, economic security, freedom—without the practical content required by Zinn's own approach. The pointless name-dropping and recrudescence of trivia exhibited by some of the articles may represent tacit accommodation to academic pressures. . . but the book also embodies a reassertion of intellectual integrity and social purpose which motivate the forceful, compassionate sketches of Ludlow, Royan and Albany. If less psychologically and historiographically sensitive than Duberman's The Uncompleted Past, (1969) and less assured than Chomsky's The New Mandarins, (1969), it's a stimulating contribution by a young professor with considerable drawing power for the same audience.
Pub Date: May 1, 1970
ISBN: 0252061225
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1970
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The indefatigable Bennett (The Moral Compass, 1995, etc.) continues his campaign to inculcate the old values into Americans generally—and young Americans more particularly—this time out by gathering selections from the writings of the generation that secured America's independence. The brief excerpts, drawn from speeches, letters, poems, and memoirs by both little-known patriots and by such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, John and Abigail Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, are divided into such categories as ``Patriotism and Courage,'' ``Civility and Friendship,'' ``Justice,'' and ``Piety.'' Bennett says that the volume is intended to allow Americans to ``see both our patrimony and our basic civic obligations; to keep our country safe and to hold our purpose high.'' There's no doubt that many of these passages are stirring and persuasive. But despite Bennett's brief introductory essays, the excerpts seem too fragmentary, and too admonitory, to be entirely compelling, and the larger context of the 18th century—a period of intense and but complex thought—is absent. Still, given the current enthusiasm for Bennett's crusade, the book is likely to be widely circulated. (First printing of 250,000; Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club alternate selection; author tour; TV satellite tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 6, 1997
ISBN: 0-684-84138-X
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
A worthy sequel to Ambrose's 1994 D-Day. Bestselling historian Ambrose (Undaunted Courage, 1996) uses firsthand recollections of combat veterans on both sides to flesh out his well-researched narrative. He picks up the epic drama by following, almost step by step, various individuals and outfits among the tens of thousands of young Allied soldiers who broke away from the deadly beaches of Normandy and swept across France to the Ardennes, fought the Battle of the Bulge, captured the famed bridge at Remagen, and crossed the wide Rhine to final victory in Europe. Ambrose observes that the US broke the Nazi war machine with massive aerial bombing, artillery, and the great mobility of attacking tanks and infantry. But, he argues, it was not technology but the valor and character of the young GIs and their European counterparts that ultimately proved too much for the vaunted German forces. While generally approving of Allied military leadership, Ambrose faults Eisenhower and Bradley as too conservative and believes the great human and materiel cost of victory could have been reduced by adopting Patton's more innovative and bolder knockout movements. He deplores the sending of inadequately trained 18-year-olds as replacements on the front lines, where they suffered much higher casualty rates than the foxhole-wise GI veterans. The troops fought under the worst possible conditions in the Ardennes, during the worst winter in 40 years; Ambrose describes the long, freezing snowy nights; the wounds, frostbite, and trench foot; and the fatigue and the tensions of facing sudden death or maiming. The troops rallied to drive the enemy back to the Rhine and into Germany, but took some 80,000 casualties. With remarkable immediacy and clarity, as though he had trained a telescopic lens on the battlefields, Ambrose offers a stirring portrayal of the terror and courage experienced by men at war.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-684-81525-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
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