Blanchard’s style, broad knowledge of France, and scholarly research in the legion’s archives make this a detailed and...
The history and philosophy of the French Foreign Legion.
The legion was formed in 1831 as an all-volunteer corps of the French Army with a special right to hire foreign-born recruits; French citizens were not accepted until 1881. Upon acceptance, the legion became their only country, and they were comprised of outcasts, younger scions of noble families, debt-ridden gamblers, and those escaping scandal, jail, or the noose. Upon entering training, one only need provide a name and proof of physical ability. The training was brutal, pushing men to the limits of human endurance. The legion soldiers were essential in the building of France’s colonial empire, with conquests across Algeria, Indochina, Madagascar, Morocco, and elsewhere. Blanchard (French Studies/Swarthmore Coll.; Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France, 2011) eases readers’ confusion about foreign cities and geographic regions by following the career of Gen. Louis Hubert Lyautey (1854-1934), who fought in all the major colonies. His use of and reliance on the Foreign Legion illustrate how perfectly they grew into such a significant force. They were the troop of the last stand, never questioning and never hesitating to answer the call; loyalty and solidarity were the most important assets. As the author follows Lyautey through Algerian pacification and some of the most tumultuous episodes in legion history in Indochina, we see France’s steady progression of colonialism. Like many colonial powers, the French civilized the natives while maintaining a policy of Code de l'indigénat, denying them equal rights with their conquerors. Men of the legion, Lyautey included, suffered from what was termed le cafard, a deep depression resulting from long terms of solitude in remote areas, often ending in suicide. The author deftly captures the romance as well as the horror of life in the French Foreign Legion.
Blanchard’s style, broad knowledge of France, and scholarly research in the legion’s archives make this a detailed and fascinating book of French history.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8027-4387-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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