Overlooked Gilded Age crooked financier Jim Fisk receives a compelling historical exhumation.
Intending to highlight “forgotten chapters of American history,” the inaugural volume in the American Portraits Series reanimates the heady histrionics of eccentric stock broker and corporate executive Jim Fisk during his zenith in the mid 19th century. The narrative begins with Fisk’s funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, lined with mourners both personal and professional. As his girlfriend many years prior, buxom showgirl Josie Mansfield grew weary of the “spectacle” and business cunning that garnered Fisk many lucrative associations, including partnering in 1868 with slick entrepreneur Dan Drew and tycoon Jay Gould, who, altogether, managed to seize control of the Erie Railroad from formidable Wall Street kingpin Cornelius Vanderbilt. Together with duplicitous politician William Tweed, Fisk was already embroiled in lawsuits and Mansfield had fallen for handsome associate Edward Stokes. Wanting his money but not him, she and Stokes attempted blackmail with personal letters incriminating him in illegal mischief. Brands (History/Univ. of Texas; American Dreams: The United States Since 1945, 2010, etc.) takes particular joy in unfolding the high-profile courtroom melodrama in the second half of the book with seemingly verbatim exchange of emotional testimony cresting with the imbroglio of Fisk’s violent murder at Stokes’ hand. The author makes liberal use of photographs, journalistic accounts, summaries of court proceedings and trial transcripts, all offering “blow-by-blow and word-for-word coverage” of the key players. With swift prose and exacting detail, Brands transports readers back in time to an ostentatious era rooted in swift industrialization, avarice and corruption, in which men like Fisk thrived—and ultimately perished. A wonderfully creative beginning to what promises to be a revitalizing history series.
Pub Date: May 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-74325-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
A finely detailed story of American presidents and their relationship to the world of espionage and intelligence. In this sweeping history of the American intelligence community, Andrew demonstrates how the idiosyncracies and experiences of individual leaders—from the exploits of George Washington as spy and spymaster during the Seven Years and Revolutionary wars to George Bush's serving as CIA director—shaped the nature and use of the intelligence services. For instance, the great respect Eisenhower gained for aerial intelligence before and during the D-Day invasions translated during his presidency into the creation of the world's best overhead reconnaissance service. On a stranger note, FDR was so taken with the idea that the Japanese were frightened by bats that he ordered his intelligence services to research the possibility of a surprise bat attack on Japan. Andrew (History/Cambridge Univ.; Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1986, etc.) shows that Americans were latecomers to the intelligence game; only in the first decade of the Cold War did the US become an intelligence superpower. Andrew clearly knows his way around the dark corridors of the history of espionage. He details the actions of the intelligence agencies in the most significant events of the 20th century, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the planning for the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, and American preparations for the Gulf War. Andrew chides American presidents— by the late 20th century, the most informed leaders in the history of the world, he says—for taking their intelligence services for granted or expecting too much from them. He also warns those Americans who, given the fall of the Soviet Union, would cut the funding of the CIA, that in the postCold War period intelligence will be more important than ever. Andrew has a sharp sense of the importance and impact of intelligence and a flair for creating a colorful historical tapestry. (37 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-017037-9
Page Count: 672
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Drawing on the celebrated correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison about the newly adopted Constitution, Banning listens in on ``three of many conversations that occurred between two founders on matters of continuing concern.'' (See p. TKTK, The Republic of Letters, for the collected correspondence.) As US minister to France, Jefferson was absent from the US during the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and during the prolonged struggle in 1788 to ratify and establish the Constitution. However, Madison, Jefferson's friend and fellow Virginian, played a significant role during the convention. Banning (History/Univ. of Kentucky; The Jeffersonian Persuasion, not reviewed) shows that Jefferson objected to the lack of a declaration of essential rights in the Constitution, fearing that the newly powerful central government could develop into a despotic monster. Madison initially opposed adoption of such a declaration, arguing that, since the new federal government was one of limited powers, it was unnecessary to limit it with a declaration of rights—and that a bill of rights could prove dangerous in that it could be used to justify attempts to suppress rights not listed in the document. Of course, as Banning points out, Jefferson won that argument: On May 4, 1789, Madison announced in the House of Representatives that he would soon introduce a series of amendments to the infant Constitution. These amendments, which would become the Bill of Rights, were drafted and largely shepherded through the ratification process by Madison. Banning also presents the thoughts of the founders. Jefferson asserted that the public should not be burdened with debts of the previous generations, and even that legislatures should lack the power to bind future generations with indebtedness. Banning writes that what united the seemingly radical Jefferson and the more conservative Madison was a similar notion of ``public spirit,'' characterized by equal commitments to republican ideals and to democratic, majority decision making. A well-crafted work of history that not only gives insight into the lives and thought of the two men but also stimulates thought about the public institutions they helped to create.
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-945612-42-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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