A crisp assessment of a warrior who perfected the doctrine of striking at the enemy’s economic resources and will to resist,...
A fast-paced look at the military career of Grant’s most trusted, effective subordinate, the latest from the publisher’s handy Great Generals Series.
Woodworth (History/Texas Christian Univ.; Nothing But Victory, 1861-1865, The Army of the Tennessee, 2005, etc.) quickly dispenses with William Tecumseh Sherman’s Ohio boyhood and his time at West Point, where he proved a popular, intellectually superior cadet, while accumulating a raft of demerits. After a series of pedestrian postings—he discontentedly sat out the Mexican War in California, from where he officially reported to the government the discovery of gold in 1849—he left the army at his wife’s insistence. Only modestly successful as a businessman, he happily presided over the Louisiana Military Seminary at the outbreak of the Civil War. After distinguishing himself at the Union disaster of Bull Run and disgracing himself in command of the Department of the Cumberland, Sherman teamed with Grant to form a brilliant partnership, from Shiloh to Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta and, of course, the famed March to the Sea that made “Georgia howl.” Although Grant favored direct attack on the enemy’s army, and Sherman the destruction of communications, transportation and means of equipping and supporting that army, Grant relied on his lieutenant’s coolness in combat, his special talent as a defensive commander and his skillful handling of personnel to execute the grand plan of defeating the Confederacy. Although he addresses “Uncle Billy’s” shortcomings as a commander, Woodworth focuses on Sherman’s refinement of maneuver warfare—the practice of avoiding the enemy’s strength, concentrating on his weakness, turning the opponent and forcing him to choose between retreat or fighting at a disadvantage. The author briefly summarizes Sherman’s postwar career, but the spotlight remains on the big battles and Sherman’s superb generalship.
A crisp assessment of a warrior who perfected the doctrine of striking at the enemy’s economic resources and will to resist, making the South so sick of war “that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.”Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-230-61024-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Johnstown Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time (actually manmade, since it was precipitated by a wealthy country club dam which had long been the source of justified misgivings). This then is a routine rundown of the catastrophe of May 31st, 1889, the biggest news story since Lincoln's murder in which thousands died. The most interesting incidental: a baby floated unharmed in its cradle for eighty miles.... Perhaps of local interest-but it lacks the Lord-ly touch.
Pub Date: March 18, 1968
ISBN: 0671207148
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968
IN THE NEWS
A sleek, vital history that effectively shows how, “from the outset, inequality was enforced with the whip, the gun, and the...
A concise, alternate history of the United States “about how people across the hemisphere wove together antislavery, anticolonial, pro-freedom, and pro-working-class movements against tremendous obstacles.”
In the latest in the publisher’s ReVisioning American History series, Ortiz (History/Univ. of Florida; Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920, 2005, etc.) examines U.S. history through the lens of African-American and Latinx activists. Much of the American history taught in schools is limited to white America, leaving out the impact of non-European immigrants and indigenous peoples. The author corrects that error in a thorough look at the debt of gratitude we owe to the Haitian Revolution, the Mexican War of Independence, and the Cuban War of Independence, all struggles that helped lead to social democracy. Ortiz shows the history of the workers for what it really was: a fatal intertwining of slavery, racial capitalism, and imperialism. He states that the American Revolution began as a war of independence and became a war to preserve slavery. Thus, slavery is the foundation of American prosperity. With the end of slavery, imperialist America exported segregation laws and labor discrimination abroad. As we moved into Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, we stole their land for American corporations and used the Army to enforce draconian labor laws. This continued in the South and in California. The rise of agriculture could not have succeeded without cheap labor. Mexican workers were often preferred because, if they demanded rights, they could just be deported. Convict labor worked even better. The author points out the only way success has been gained is by organizing; a great example was the “Day without Immigrants” in 2006. Of course, as Ortiz rightly notes, much more work is necessary, especially since Jim Crow and Juan Crow are resurging as each political gain is met with “legal” countermeasures.
A sleek, vital history that effectively shows how, “from the outset, inequality was enforced with the whip, the gun, and the United States Constitution.”Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8070-1310-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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