An unusual exploration by Marling (George Washington Slept Here, 1988; Art History/Univ. of Minn.) and Wetenhall (Curator/Birmingham Museum) of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and the use to which that incident was put both during and after the war. As the potential solution to the problem of the long distances involved in bombing Japan, the American attack on Iwo Jima came as no surprise. But the taking of the island proved a formidable objective, with 21,000 Japanese troops entrenched in an underground network of defensive installations. Casualties were heavy, but by the end of the fourth day a 40-man patrol from Easy Company managed to fight its way to the top of Mt. Suribachi, dominating the island, and raise the flag. At that point, Japanese defenders, maddened by the sight, tried to challenge them, but were driven back to their bunkers. The flag was an inspiration to the American troops, but it was small and not easily visible, so the company colonel ordered a larger one run up so ``every son of a bitch on this whole cruddy island can see it.'' It was this second flag- raising that was captured in the celebrated photograph by Joe Rosenthal of AP, but, as the authors explain, the truth of its being only a replacement effort was lost in what followed. Under the news management of the Marines—who knew a good thing when they saw it—the politicians (who needed protection against the heavy losses that had been incurred), the war-bonds salesmen (who raised money), the arts establishment (which wanted commissions) and the public (which craved heroes) all ironically found the genuine heroism of the assault and the subsequent fighting embodied in a moment that had, in truth, not been memorable. Overextended at 312 pages, even with the wealth of accompanying photographs—but fascinating nonetheless.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-674-46980-1
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1991
Categories: GENERAL HISTORY | ART & PHOTOGRAPHY | UNITED STATES | HISTORY
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Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY
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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. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORICAL & MILITARY | UNITED STATES | HISTORY
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