A scholarly, limpid life of the southern statesman and nullifier. Bartlett (American Civilization/UMass at Boston; Daniel Webster, 1978) tries his engaging best at a tough task: to bring to life someone who was called ``the cast-iron man'' by his own contemporaries. Born to Irish immigrants who'd settled in South Carolina and become wealthy and prominent, Calhoun (1782-1850) studied at Yale and, though an adherent of Jeffersonian republicanism, at the heavily Federalist Litchfield Law School. Soon disenchanted with the law's pedantry, he entered public life, assuming office in the US House of Representatives soon after marrying his second cousin and becoming one of the largest plantation masters in South Carolina. Bartlett, while only glancing at his subject's personal life, covers in rapid succession the series of crises that shaped Calhoun's evolution from avid nationalist to champion of sectionalism and nullification, and that thrust him into prominence: his career as a war hawk in the House, which helped propel the country into the War of 1812; his turbulent term as secretary of war under Monroe, which led him into fateful confrontations with Andrew Jackson over Jackson's headstrong Florida policy; his stints as Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Jackson, during which he advocated the power of states to nullify federal laws; and his years as a senatorial defender of slavery and the southern way of life. Bartlett also points out that Calhoun, in his term as secretary of state under Tyler, became one of the architects of the policy that led to the annexation of Texas as a slave state. Finally, Calhoun returned to the Senate, continued to shape public opinion on the Mexican War, and in his Disquisition on Government (1848) achieved the ultimate expression of his views on nullification. Bartlett paints Calhoun as many of his peers no doubt viewed him: brilliant, utterly absorbed in politics and personal ambition, formidable—even admirable in many ways—but not very likable. A fine contribution to antebellum scholarship.
Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1993
ISBN: 0-393-03476-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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