With the centennial of Custer's Last Stand at the Little Big Horn less than a year away, it's likely that we'll have to cope with more than one book on the protagonists. This one is by a professor of history at the University of New Orleans who has also written on Eisenhower, West Point and the Civil War. Arab.rose's idea of a parallel biography works fairly well: it's a bit like trying to watch two movies at once. Information on the two men abounds and Ambrose covers the military careers of his subjects—Custer's rise to brevet Major General during the Civil War, Crazy Horse's tenure as "shirt-wearer" among the Sioux—in considerable detail and with competence. Custer emerges as he always, does: a convenient hero for the Democrats, foolishly brave, flamboyant but superficial and boyish to the point of pain. Crazy Horse The Noble Savage, is deep, proud, as enigmatic to his own people as he is to his white biographers. The warriors' women also figure. Little is known of Black Buffalo Woman, Crazy Horse, lover, or of Black Shawl, his wife; enough is known of Libbie Custer to make Ambrose's inordinate praise of her seem rather puzzling. Ambrose is the sort of hearty writer who expresses approval with the phrase "damned good" and apparently still believes in a manifest destiny which exonerates.
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1975
ISBN: 0385479662
Page Count: 564
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1975
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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