Comprehensive and densely detailed—too much so for general readers, but sure to please Civil War buffs.
Hyperfocused account of General Sherman’s swath of destruction through the hotbed of the Confederacy.
While Sherman’s advance on Atlanta and subsequent March to the Sea is well-known, less well-advertised is his slog to Columbia, S.C., where his troops perhaps inadvertently but unapologetically burned down the town in what proved to be a spectacularly successful effort to demoralize the enemy. South Carolina native and historian Elmore (Columbia Civil War Landmarks, 2011) has thoroughly scoured the archives regarding these decisive few months of the Civil War, beginning in the fall of 1864, when Sherman continued his infiltration of enemy territory after the fall of Atlanta, marching to the sea in a display to “make Georgia howl,” all the while foraging liberally from the land, avoiding Confederate lures into battle and keeping the Rebel army guessing where he would strike next, Charleston or Columbia. Elmore evenhandedly reports on both sides of the conflict—e.g., he ably shows how Sherman continually instructed his confident troops in the art of foraging, which may strike modern ears as remarkably respectful in a time of war, yet he was also not averse to turning a blind eye to the federals’ urge for taking revenge on the “traitor state.” Sherman moved with astonishingly little resistance through the swampy land, turning railroad ties into “Sherman hairpins” and ravaging the countryside, keeping an eye on the prize: Columbia, the manufacturing and rail hub of the Confederacy. Abandoned by the Rebels, the defenseless city was taken and set ablaze on February 17, 1865; cheering blacks lined the streets to welcome the conquerors with plenty of liquor and food. Elmore also provides extensive appendices, including a chronology of events, organization of opposing forces and a short essay, “Did Sherman wish to spare Charleston?”
Comprehensive and densely detailed—too much so for general readers, but sure to please Civil War buffs.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9841073-7-7
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Joggling Board Press
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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