An engrossing, comprehensive examination of key Civil War river battles.
A military history book focuses on the Civil War campaigns on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.
In his characteristically detailed style, Zimmerman (Guide to Civil War Nashville, 2nd Ed., 2019, etc.) provides a thorough battle history of Union Navy gunboats and Confederate gunners and cavalry in eastern Missouri, middle-to-western Tennessee, and western Kentucky. The unique geography of this region made the military campaigns there different from anywhere else during the Civil War. In one of the only places where the Union extensively deployed its “brown-water navy,” military tacticians on both sides had “no gameplan to consult” as the “rules were created as the battles were fought.” Virtually no other site in the war pitted Union gunboats against Confederate cavalry and field artillery. Adding to the lore of the Tennessee and Cumberland campaigns was that they featured some of the most famous figures of the Confederacy, including Kentucky’s John Hunt Morgan and Tennessee’s Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. In addition to their distinctiveness, the author argues that the conflicts along the Tennessee and Cumberland were critical to the ultimate success of the Union forces in the war. While most of the information in these pages has been covered by historians for a century, Zimmerman’s contribution is his ability to synthesize vast quantities of arcane military data into an accessible package. The book abounds with maps, fort schematics, charts, and photographs. It also features many well-placed insets with vignettes on particular weapons, people, and places. Civil War scholars may be perturbed by the lack of footnotes and references, though the volume does contain a bibliography that cites a number of academic books. General audiences and Civil War enthusiasts alike will be drawn to the work’s aesthetic appeal and ample use of visual aids. The volume concludes with a travel guide to the region’s battle sites that is particularly insightful, given the author’s active participation in numerous state and local Civil War preservation societies.
An engrossing, comprehensive examination of key Civil War river battles.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9858692-5-0-9
Page Count: 184
Publisher: ZIMCO Publications
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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