Book Description
Heyday is a brilliantly imagined, wildly entertaining tale of America’s boisterous coming of age–a sweeping panorama of madcap rebellion and overnight fortunes, palaces and brothels, murder and revenge–as well as the story of a handful of unforgettable characters discovering the nature of freedom, loyalty, friendship, and true love.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, modern life is being born: the mind-boggling marvels of photography, the telegraph, and railroads; a flood of show business spectacles and newspapers; rampant sex and drugs and drink (and moral crusades against all three); Wall Street awash with money; and giddy utopian visions everywhere. Then, during a single amazing month at the beginning of 1848, history lurches: America wins its war of manifest destiny against Mexico, gold is discovered in northern California, and revolutions sweep across Europe–sending one eager English gentleman off on an epic transatlantic adventure. . . .
Amid the tumult, aristocratic Benjamin Knowles impulsively abandons the Old World to reinvent himself in New York, where he finds himself embraced by three restless young Americans: Timothy Skaggs, muckraking journalist, daguerreotypist, pleasure-seeker, stargazer; the fireman Duff Lucking, a sweet but dangerously damaged veteran of the Mexican War; and Duff’s dazzling sister Polly Lucking, a strong-minded, free thinking actress (and discreet part-time prostitute) with whom Ben falls hopelessly in love.
Beckoned by the frontier, new beginnings, and the prospects of the California Gold Rush, all four set out on a transcontinental race west–relentlessly tracked, unbeknownst to them,
by a cold-blooded killer bent on revenge.
A fresh, impeccable portrait of an era startlingly reminiscent of our own times, Heyday is by turns tragic and funny and sublime, filled with bona fide heroes and lost souls, visionaries (Walt Whitman, Charles Darwin, Alexis de Tocqueville) and monsters, expanding horizons and narrow escapes. It is also an affecting story of four people passionately chasing their American dreams at a time when America herself was still being dreamed up–an enthralling, old-fashioned yarn interwoven with a bracingly modern novel of ideas.
"In this utterly engaging novel, the author of Turn of the Century brings 19th-century America vividly to life . . . While this is a long book, it moves quickly, with historical detail that's involving but never a drag on the action; the characters are beautifully drawn. A terrific book; highly recommended."
–Library Journal
"Heyday is fuled by manic energy, fanatical research, and a wicked sense of humor.... It's a joyful, wild gallop through a joyful, wild time to be an American."
-Vanity Fair
Customer Reviews:
A Phenomenal Read!.......2007-09-20
This novel is educational, exciting and well-written. Kurt Andersen is a talented author who has certainly done his research, and beautifully combines history with fiction. Read this book!
Great adventure from east to west coast........2007-09-03
This is a long book but worth it. Be prepared to commit yourself to this. You won't want to miss the ending. Great characters, interesting history. Books written in this era are always so fun to read. You won't be disappointed if you enjoy epic, romantic adventure filled stories.
A fun ride, but lots of negatives.......2007-08-21
I was torn between giving this book 4 stars or only 3. There are lots of negatives that distracted me from really enjoying this book, but, when I got to the end, I realized that it was worth the read.
I won't describe the plot - plenty of others have done that, and the book's summary is sufficient. Suffice it to say that the plot itself is one of the book's weaknesses: other reviewers mentioned the coincidences that forced me to suspend disbelief over and over again, but I think, as the book progresses, you get so used to these coincidences that it doesn't matter. In the end, the book is a kind of fairy tale, and coincidence is essential for such stories.
What bothered me most, however, is the author's need to flex his historical muscles at every turn. He clearly did lots of research, and wants to make sure you know it. He almost uses Tom Swifties - bits of exposition that go overboard to explain what he's presented - when tossing around "authentic" elements from the time. Inventions, clothing, food, and anything else he can present, Andersen keeps reminding us that he did his homework. Yet this ends up more distracting than if he simply mentioned these things in passing, or, rather, _didn't_ mention them all.
I read a lot of 19th century fiction, and Heyday does fit well into that style (though clearly it is contemporary, ie 21st century, 19th century fiction.) It's a fun read, full of interesting characters, and only a few tics mar its overall effect.
A slow start grows into an engrossing, richly detailed book.......2007-08-02
This is a loooong novel (640 pages), and as the editorial review from Publishers Weekly notes, one with a "slowish" beginning. The book opens in April 1948 with young Englishman Ben Knowles' arrival in America. On his first day in the new world, he encounters two of the other main characters, the beautiful actress Polly Lucking and her firefighting brother, Duff (the fourth main character, Timothy Skaggs, is introduced a bit later). However, the timeline then reverts back to six months before, when Ben has traveled to Paris to visit a friend. Although the events that occur in Paris are integral to the story that follows (including the introduction of another major character, Sergeant Drumont), I think that the author's use of a flashback here is the reason the first 100 pages or so of this novel tend to drag somewhat.
Once the book returns to the present time, however, the story begins to pick up. Author Andersen provides a fascinating glimpse of life in the mid-1800s, from dietary staples to the newspaper boom to brothels and bathroom habits. He's clearly done his research--for example, he often makes a point of incorporating more colloquial terms in describing "modern" life at that time. Andersen also uses several major historical events as vehicles for his plot, such as France's "February Revolution" and the California gold rush. Major historical figures appear as well--Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman, and others are actual characters in the book, while Abraham Lincoln and similar famous personage receive prominent mentions.
Each of the four main characters--Ben, Polly, Duff, and Skaggs--is afforded with plenty of time and a point of view voice. Early on, the focus is more on Ben's experiences in France and Polly's checkered history, but as the novel progresses, we learn more of Duff's secret past and Skaggs' aspirations; Drumont's perspective is given as well. Heyday is a book is full of both tragedy and humor, although with more of an emphasis on the latter. At the novel's conclusion, I felt that my extended stay in the nineteenth century was time well-spent, and I believe that you will too.
Appealingly impossible novel.......2007-07-30
"Heyday" presents the reader with a totally impossible plot, in the sense of one filled with outrageous coincidences plus main characters that somehow manage to meet almost every prominent figure and participate in every major event or historical movement on two continents in the middle of the 19th century. The resulting incredulity almost turns the story, despite the intense violence and mayhem, into a comedy.
Then there are the characters themselves, as flat and static as can be. They move around a lot, but they do not evolve, regardless of the monumental challenges with which are are constantly faced.
The book's sole strength--and it's a good one--is in the details of everyday life of the time. The author has done his homework! What luxurious descriptions of life in Paris, London, New York City, the Midwest, and California during the Gold Rush, including numerous titillating details about sexual habits and instruments!
But in the end, the book is just too long to sustain interest in detail alone
Book Description
Popular historian Joseph Wheelan recounts James Polk’s strategy of last resort for prying California away from Mexico. He had tried to buy it; he had instructed his agents to encourage a settlers’ revolt. When these measures failed, the impatient president, while cynically condemning Mexico’s anger over America’s annexation of Texas, sent General Zachary Taylor’s army to the Rio Grande River, into territory that Mexico claimed as hers. By provocatively sending Taylor there, the president got his war — and, as bitter corollaries, the scathing criticism of congressional leaders on moral grounds, and Mexico’s lasting distrust of its powerful northern neighbor.
The Mexican War was America’s first truly modern war. Steamships ferried troops, daguerreotypes captured the spectacle of infantry and cavalry marching off to battle, newspapermen reported from the front lines for the first time, and telegraphs helped speed news of victories to eager readers back home. For the first time, large numbers of the regular Army’s field-grade officers were West Point-trained. Weapons technology advances such as the mobile field artillery, the Colt six-shooter and the Sharp’s Rifle gave the U.S. Army daunting firepower. These advantages ensured victory even when Mexican troops outnumbered Americans by as much as 4-to-1.
Customer Reviews:
A book that was a pleasure to read.......2007-09-11
While there are countless books on the civil war, not many that I have found cover the mexican war quite like this one. It's a page turner, you finish the book knowing more then you did before. Since the victors offten write the history this shows a little of the mexican point of view, not a lot but a bit. I am sure the Mexican point of view would be interesting to read. And what really happed somewhere in the middle. But this book does give insight that was lost in my history classes
Obviously lacking maps.......2007-08-26
The author reports that the Duke of Wellington avidly followed the progress of the Mexican War on a map on his library wall. It would have been useful if the author included this map. For a war that stretched from Kansas to California, from to New Orleans to Mexico City, from Santa Fe to San Diego, only a few inadequate and pitiful maps are included. Although I am reasonably familiar with the Southwest, I was constantly referring to an atlas trying to follow the narrative and almost gave up in frustration half-way through the book. I suggest you acquire a good atlas of the Southwest and Mexico if you buy this book.
Excellent Overview of a Forgotten Part of American History.......2007-07-28
For most history fans, the Mexican War is a dort of Terra Incognito between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. If people remember anything it was the impetus for Thoreau to write "Civil Disobedience", a land grab, or the training ground for future Civil War Generals. All of this is covered in Mr. Wheelan's excellent book.
He starts with what led to the war, Manifest Destiny and Polk taking up the mantle of Andrew Jackson. The sordid role of petty polictics could read like today's headlines. The author clearly outlines how the U.S. and Mexico never seriously tried negotiation prior to the war's outbreak. Mexico was still angry about loosing Texas and wanting to avenge his pride.
Wheelan discribes life in the 1840's and innovations like the penny press and its effect on society. He clearly tells how both the regular and volunteer armies were put together and led. The like of the common soldier is also well told. The campaigns are clearly laid out, but my only complaint is that there were too few maps.
As in some periods of warfare, the 2 major leaders, Winfield Scott and Zackery Taylor dispised each other and in almost every way were opposites. But there dislike for each other paled in comparison to their mutual dislike of Polk. There feeling with Polk were mutual. The Mexican part of the war is not neglected.
Overall, I feel that this book and Richard Winder's "Mr. Polk's Army" are 2 essential and complimentary books on understanding the significant but neglected part of American History.
Excellent book on the Mexican War.......2007-04-29
There aren't too many books dealing with the Mexican War of 1846-48, so when I saw this come out in hardcover I had to get it. It was worth the money. Covering the entire conflict, from the Texas Annexation and Slidell's mission to Mexico City to the aftermath of the peace treaty, from James Knox Polk's early career to Abraham Lincoln's rise to fame, from dynamic young republic on the rise to sectional conflict leading to the Civil War, this book covers it all.
The book reads like a novel in many ways. When a battle is covered, the action flows from one part of the field to another, and does so without confusing readers. There are also maps included -- not as many as one would like, but they are there, and the battle maps show positions and movements for people who like such things.
Reading Joe Wheelan's "Invading Mexico," I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the Mexican War of the 1840s and the Iraq War of the 2000s (or Vietnam in the 1960s-70s). Similarities such as the war being launched on questionable pretexts, debates in Congress about the unconstitutionality of the conflict, the antiwar movement in the public, issues of executive privilge, among others. Though not everything is a perfect or even a mediocre parallel, this is a good book to read as a mirror held up to reflect the age we live in right now.
Customer Reviews:
Good Attempt at a Dry Subject.......2007-09-26
This book is a tough one to get through, not through any fault of the Author but due to the dryness of the material. I am currently in the process of reading a book on every US President and this book seemed to be the best one out there on Zachary Taylor.
I would recommend if you are trying to find out more about the subject, but if you are looking for a great historical page turner, you need to look elsewhere.
Comprehensive but often dull biography of our twelfth President.......2007-09-18
I am currently reading a biography of every President in order and Bauer's book seemed like the obvious choice for Zachary Taylor.
This book is a bit difficult to rate fairly as I doubt any full biography of Zachary Taylor could be made into a great read. Indeed, Bauer's biography is excellently researched and organized. The writing, although a bit uninspired, is easy to read and well presented. At times, however, this book is very dull and in my opinion Bauer tends to error on the side of going into too much detail. Taylor's military career had few standout moments and most of the first part of the book focuses more on Taylor's transfer from fort to fort along the western frontier.
If there is a President for which a short biography would suffice Taylor is it, and while at slightly over 300 pages of text Bauer's tome is by no means exceedingly long, at the end of the book I felt that it could certainly have been cut down by about 100 pages while still providing a comprehensive biography. Undoubtedly, however, this is the best one volume biography of Taylor available (why anyone would need to read Holman Hamilton's two volume work is beyond me) and certainly more than adequate for its task.
Bad attempt with limited research.......2007-03-03
This was a terrible attempt at scholarship. The book is poorly written and gives an overview with no specifics except for military encounters. This author should have focused his efforts on a military account of Taylor's life because after reading I feel I know nothing about the man. Admittedly there are severe source deficiencies when dealing with this subject but a much wider study could have been undertaken. Sadly there is not much written on Taylor and this does a poor job of adding to the scholarship.
Old Rough and Ready's Story.......2006-03-09
This was a good read in that it described Zack Taylor's military carreer and political excursion thoroughly. The book does a good job of keeping interest in a less than interesting character. Taylor seems to be somewhat of a whiner throughout his military career, but he was a good soldier. The author's description of his campaigns in Mexico cause the reader to wonder why Taylor was hailed as a hero of the war, but since he was in charge, he got the credit. His political success wasn't any more impressive and we were fortunate to have such an able bodied politician/statesman in Fillmore to take over upon Taylor's death. I recommend this book to anyone interested in 19th century politics.
Highly Recomended.......2005-07-30
I have read a number of presidential biographies and this was one of the best organized and best written. The author breaks down Taylor's life into substantive themes. Now, I am NOT saying the Taylor is the most interesting president to study. I am saying, however, that this is one of the best books that you will find regarding biographies of presidents.
Book Description
Food, televisions, computer equipment, plumbing supplies, clothing. Much of the material foundation of our everyday lives is produced along the U.S./Mexico border in a world largely hidden from our view. Based on gripping firsthand accounts, this book investigates the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on those who labor in the agricultural fields and maquiladora factories on the border. Journalist David Bacon paints a powerful portrait of poverty, repression, and struggle, offering a devastating critique of NAFTA in the most pointed and in-depth examination of border workers published to date.
Unlike journalists who have made brief excursions into strawberry fields and maquiladoras, Bacon has more than a decade's experience reporting on the ground at the border, and he has developed sustained relationships with scores of workers and organizers who have entrusted him with their stories. He describes harsh conditions of child labor in the Mexicali Valley, the deplorable housing outside factories in cities such as Tijuana, and corporate retaliation faced by union organizers. He finds that, despite the promises of its backers, NAFTA has locked in a harsh neoliberal economic policy that has swept away laws and protections that Mexican workers had established over decades. More than a showcase for NAFTA's victims, this book traces the emergence of a new social consciousness, telling how workers in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now beginning to join together in a powerful new strategy of cross-border organizing as they search for economic and social justice.
Download Description
Food, televisions, computer equipment, plumbing supplies, clothing. Much of the material foundation of our everyday lives is produced along the U.S./Mexico border in a world largely hidden from our view. Based on gripping firsthand accounts, this book investigates the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on those who labor in the agricultural fields and maquiladora factories on the border. Journalist David Bacon paints a powerful portrait of poverty, repression, and struggle, offering a devastating critique of NAFTA in the most pointed and in-depth examination of border workers published to date. Unlike journalists who have made brief excursions into strawberry fields and maquiladoras, Bacon has more than a decade's experience reporting on the ground at the border, and he has developed sustained relationships with scores of workers and organizers who have entrusted him with their stories. He describes harsh conditions of child labor in the Mexicali Valley, the deplorable housing outside factories in cities such as Tijuana, and corporate retaliation faced by union organizers. He finds that, despite the promises of its backers, NAFTA has locked in a harsh neoliberal economic policy that has swept away laws and protections that Mexican workers had established over decades. More than a showcase for NAFTA's victims, this book traces the emergence of a new social consciousness, telling how workers in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now beginning to join together in a powerful new strategy of cross-border organizing as they search for economic and social justice.
Customer Reviews:
Great, real deep.......2007-04-15
Struggle and hope. That's what I thought of this May the 1st of 2006, when seemingly millions of people across the US, mainly Latinos, rallied to support so-called illegal immigrants. These immigrants have literally spent a long time struggling both in the nations they came from and here in the US as business people get rich from their labor. But that day there was hope. In this day of globalization where corporations have the ultimate freedom to cross borders at will in the search for higher and higher profits, while workers cannot without becoming "illegals", it was a day that seemed to signify that "Si, se peude!" They stood up to a government punishing its own people trying to escape a poverty created by the economic policies created by that very government.
What exactly is going on at the US-Mexican border? It seems so far away to me, but in a town I grew up near, you can see the backlash and blame on immigrants for US citizens losing jobs to what is really that fault of neo-liberal attacks like NAFTA. In Hazleton, PA (about 45 minutes from my native Carbondale), some of the most draconian laws against immigrants ever passed sailed through recently. But it all comes back to the border. It turns out that Mexican immigrants are not so docile after all,and that they, just like any people who have been wronged over and over, will stand up for themselves. David Bacon, a labor journalist who works for the Nation, illustrates this well in "The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U. S./Mexico Border".
Bacon looks at what exactly is happening on the border. He starts by exploring the grape pickers of Southern California. Most had come to the US to seek higher wages than they could have possibly gotten in Mexico. But after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association), the companies at which they had won better wages after decades of fights with the Caesar Chavez's United Farm Workers (UFW), many suddenly found that they lost these jobs as they moved to Mexico's Mexicali Valley where they could pay those workers as much as a third less than the mainly Mexican immigrants in the US. In the Mexicali Valley, farmworkers (who often bring their children to the fields since there is no affordable school or daycare) could barely afford to pay their bills or get groceries, leading to many families sharing homes in order to pool their resources.
Along this same border has risen the infamous Maquiladora (duty-free and union-free factories) industry, which is now a global term but originated as a term for clothing manufacturers along the US-Mexico border. These have swelled since NAFTA, and one of the allures is that it is very hard to form an independent union in Mexico. However, Bacon illustrates that over the past decade of NAFTA Mexico, several independent unions have arisen in the face of a hostile ruling PRI, and then PAN, governments. At the same time, US unions have begun to pull away from their former cold-war, anti-communist sentiment and have slowly recognized that American workers and Mexican workers both lose because of NAFTA and that they must work together in order to survive, The UE, (United Electrical), an independent union, sent the first support to the new independent unions and conducted co-campaigns on the border to organize Maquiladoras into unions to demand better conditions and wages. Interestingly enough, it also began the question of shifting their tactics, since while US unions usually pressure companies until they can win or get some of their goals, Mexican unions usually see the government as their main enemy since the Mexican government maintains industry control over wages and will often not let companies raise wages if it will effect an entire industry (another reason US companies like moving to Mexico).
Some of the stuff in this book honestly was shocking how far 1st world companies would go to crush 3rd world workers. There are countless stories in "Children of NAFTA" of brutal beatings of union organizers. They (factory managers) shipped in temps in many stories to vote for the company government-sanctioned union in factory-wide elections, which too seemed many times to galvanize Maquiladora workers against the management. Black-lists, revenge wage-reductions, and brutal attacks on factory workers' pro-union demonstrations almost made reading it unbearable. However, as the labor organizers learned to deal with NAFTA, the one thing I came away from is that the only hope that we human beings fighting for a better future for our children have is that we can never turn our backs on anyone in a struggle. If global corporations can be everywhere, labor unions must be too. While we engage in these struggles locally, our minds must think globally, as the phrase goes.
I guess it depends on what you are looking for.......2005-10-20
If you are looking for a biased account of the human tragedy that is Mexican labor, this might be the book for you.
If you are looking for a analysis of what is happening and WHY. You may be disappointed.
David Bacon clearly wishes that he was the Saul Alinsky of Mexico. If you don't know who Saul Alinsky is, you may have just found your next reading subject.
It's not that its poorly written. It is just not impressive in any way. If you can't get enough of Mexico or if you need something to read between globalization protests, you will love it. But its hard to just jump in with an open mind and not be disappointed.
Book Description
On March 9, 1916, a band of Mexican marauders led by Pancho Villa crossed the border and raided the tiny town of Columbus, New Mexico. A military expedition was hastily organized to go into Mexico and capture Villa, suspects were rounded up, trials were held, and a virulent backlash against persons of Mexican origin erupted on the local and national scenes. General John Black Jack Pershing, once a genuine fan of Villas, accompanied by a young George Patton, was told to assemble a group of soldiers, head into Mexico, and get Villadead or alive. The last hurrah for the U.S. Cavalry, the expedition would be the first time armored tanks, airplanes, and trucks were employed against an enemy. But as they descended into the nightmare of Mexico, the American troops were followed by spies and picked off by snipers, fought violent battles, and suffered in the scorching deserts and snowy mountains. Some would never return home alive. A brutal tale of revenge and violence, Eileen Welsomes richly detailed account is equal parts Sam Peckinpah, Cormac McCarthy, and Stephen Ambrose.
Customer Reviews:
Pancho Villa and Black Jack Pershing.......2007-07-14
As one who fell in love with Mexico in 1964, I continue to read most of what comes out in print with relation to that country. This book has information about Pershing that I knew nothing about, and reveals much of a personal nature about him and about Francisco Villa.
The struggles of the U. S. soldiers as they search for the elusive Villa
make an interesting story-- one that got lost because the incursion into Mexico was followed so quickly by World War I. I wonder, for example, how many of the soldiers who were in Mexico went on to the European war.
I had the great good fortune to hear a lecture by one of Villa's secretaries.
I am still in love with Mexico after all these years!
Norma Williamson
Excellent account of the events in Mexico before WWI.......2007-06-12
The author has done her homework with this fine piece of history. I have read much on this subject and was hoping to find out more details about the Punitive Expedition mounted by America to track down Pancho Villa and his bandit army. She paints Villa and the other leaders of the 'Revolution' as most of them were: brutal killers seeking wealth and power and a few betterment of the people of Mexico. Lots of details about the Villiast raid on Columbus, NM, the numerous skirmishes between US troops and various factions of Mexican forces of all sorts.
Plenty of drama and some good information about Villa's background, experiences during the revolution as well as those of Obregon, Madero, Zapata and many others.
Worth reading as her style is easy to follow and sometimes humerous and insightful.
I give it thumbs up. Enjoy as it might lead the reader to seek more information about this fascinating period of US/Mexican history.
The Columbus Raid and its aftermath........2007-06-04
A former guerrilla ally of the United States turns his vengence on the U.S. A President who wanted to tend to the domestic ills of the United States is drawn into a foreign conflict. An intervention is attempted which results in native aggravation at the United States. History repeats itself. The time is 1916 and the terrorist act is at Columbus, New Mexico-a sleepy border town. Pancho Villa kills a lot of innocent men. Americans are now his enemy. The Americans intervene in Mexico and try to track him down. They nearly suceed. Time give Villa the punishment he deserves.
This is an interesting book about earlier terrorism. Not much is written about the Columbus raid. Welsome does a good job of describing the killings of Pancho Villa and his Division of the North in the 1916-17 period. This should be read in light of the current war on terror.
a little too much fluff.......2007-06-03
I enjoyed the book, but I thought it could have been shortened considerably if Welsome would have left out the numerous paragraphs about what someone was thinking or might have thought as they rode a horse through the mountains. It had a little too much fluff for me and for a book that has a title that indicates it is about 2 military leaders I was left with the feeling it was a so-so attempt to create a romanticized old west tale. I would have liked to seen more actual military history instead of the speculation fluff that fills so many pages. The book is nice but if you want a military history book, this isn't it.
Good book about Villas' Columbus Raid.......2007-03-19
The book is excellent from a historical perspective. Ms. Welsome thoroughly researched the topic and presented her findings in a very readable manner. The only negative is that it wasn't told as exciting as some other period non-fiction I've read. But this is really nitpicking though, as I thought it was a fine book all things considered.
Average customer rating:
- Mistitled
- Typically effective Shaara novel of war
- Awesome
- on the folly of preemptive attacks
- Great Book
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Gone For Soldiers
Jeff Shaara
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The Glorious Cause
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Gods and Generals
ASIN: 0345427521
Release Date: 2003-11-04 |
Book Description
With his acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara expanded upon his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War classic, The Killer Angels--ushering the reader through the poignant drama of this most bloody chapter in our history. Now, in Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara carries us back fifteen years before that momentous conflict, when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.
In March 1847, the U.S. Navy delivers eight thousand soldiers on the beaches of Vera Cruz. They are led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott, a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short tempered, vain, and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.
Scott leads his troops against the imperious Mexican dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. Obsessed with glory and his place in history, Santa Ana arrogantly underestimates the will and the heart of Scott and his army. As the Americans fight their way inland, both sides understand that the inevitable final conflict will come at the gates and fortified walls of the ancient capital, Mexico City.
Cut off from communication and their only supply line, the Americans learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. While Scott must weigh his own place in history, fighting what many consider a bully's war, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.
In vivid, brilliant prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers and their commanders trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the haunted personalities and magnificent backdrop, the familiar characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war. Gone for Soldiers is an extraordinary achievement that will remain with you long after the final page is turned.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Mistitled.......2007-01-05
I can't say that this book was aptly named, as it was principly about two or three military officers; Winfield Scott, Robert E Lee, and Santa Anna. "Scott and Lee in the Mexican War" would have been a more descriptive title. "Gone for Soldiers" seems to have no connection to the contents. While it seems to contain mostly conjectural thoughts of the principals, the narrative about the progress of the war is a good, if sketchy description of that conflict, tho it takes 424 pages to do so. Two things it points out are that great leaders also can make great mistakes, and war is great excitement until you are killed or horribly maimed. But probably the best themes are how government partisan politics can readily screw things up, from the sensible to the absurd, even back before 1850, and the similarities between the politics of that day and the present, which are clearly evident.
Typically effective Shaara novel of war.......2006-12-27
In this work, Jeff Shaara explores the development of America's officer cadre in the Mexican War. Many Civil War generals got their first major wartime experience in this event. Indeed, Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederate States of America, gained some renown for his use of a particular formation in battle.
The two major protagonists in this story are "Old Fuss and Feathers," General Winfield Scott, and a trusted engineering officer, the redoubtable Captain Robert E. Lee. Over and over, Lee's excellent scouting allowed Scott to befuddle the Mexican leader, General Santa Anna.
Other figures whom we meet who will play a role in the Civil War: Ulysses Grant, James Longstreet. Thomas (later "Stonewall") Jackson, George Pickett, and so on). We also learn of superannuated warriors such as General Wool.
All in all, the format developed by his father, in "The Killer Angels," taking a handful of key characters and using them to serve as "informants" in the development of the plotline and events, works well.
All in all, another good read and worthy of its place in the Shaara stable of war novels.
Awesome.......2006-11-10
The legacy of the Shaara name never ceases to amaze me. This book was great. The first Shaara books I read were Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause since the American Revolution is my favorite part of United States historyand after those i had to read more. I am always floored by these books. Its the best of both worlds...History and reading all rolled into one. Now onto The Rising Tide
on the folly of preemptive attacks.......2006-04-16
Prequel to the civil war trilogy, this book follows the Mexican War thru two major characters, Robert E Lee, a young captain of engineers, and the aging veteran of the War of 1812, Winfield Scott. While well worth reading on its own, it was enhanced by reading it in the week following Bush's attack on Iraq -- Shaara presciently describes an amazingly close historical precedent [the book was published in 2000] -- an American president seeks to avoid difficulties with domestic politics by making a preemptive attack on a vastly inferior nation. Whether 'Manifest Destiny' or a new world order and a war on terror, the result is an invasion of a sovereign country. The initial invasion goes well, but is soon bogged down when the mismatched enemy forces refuse to come out in open field battle. Political decisions have as much to do with strategy as military ones. While the president talks of supporting the troops, there is inadequate supports in both guns and manpower, and no preparation for the aftermath. Initial forecasts of enthusiastic welcome as liberators turns to guerilla war as the army moves inland and Scott is forced to deplete his already small forces with numerous garrisons to contain and control his supply lines. Scott must keep casualties to a minimum knowing that public support for this war is thin, and relies on a risky campaign of maneuver against a numerically superior but technologically inferior enemy.
Great Book.......2005-03-07
This one was fantastic to read. All of his books are, and the same with his father. Highly recommended.
Book Description
During the Great Depression, a sense of total despair plagued the United States. Americans sought a convenient scapegoat and found it in the Mexican community. Laws forbidding employment of Mexicans were accompanied by the hue and cry to "get rid of the Mexicans!" The hysteria led pandemic repatriation drives and one million Mexicans and their children were illegally shipped to Mexico.
Despite their horrific treatment and traumatic experiences, the American born children never gave up hope of returning to the United States. Upon attaining legal age, they badgered their parents to let them return home. Repatriation survivors who came back worked diligently to get their lives back together. Due to their sense of shame, few of them ever told their children about their tragic ordeal.
Decade of Betrayal recounts the injustice and suffering endured by the Mexican community during the 1930s. It focuses on the experiences of individuals forced to undergo the tragic ordeal of betrayal, deprivation, and adjustment. This revised edition also addresses the inclusion of the event in the educational curriculum, the issuance of a formal apology, and the question of fiscal remuneration.
"Francisco Balderrama and Raymond RodrÃguez, the authors of Decade of Betrayal, the first expansive study of Mexican repatriation with perspectives from both sides of the border, claim that 1 million people of Mexican descent were driven from the United States during the 1930s due to raids, scare tactics, deportation, repatriation and public pressure. Of that conservative estimate, approximately 60 percent of those leaving were legal American citizens. Mexicans comprised nearly half of all those deported during the decade, although they made up less than 1 percent of the country's population. 'Americans, reeling from the economic disorientation of the depression, sought a convenient scapegoat,' Balderrama and RodrÃguez wrote. 'They found it in the Mexican community.'--American History
Decade of Betrayal focuses on the experiences of individuals illegally shipped from the U.S. to Mexico in the 1930s and the recent questions of a formal apology and fiscal remuneration.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Start.......2005-10-03
Balderrama explores an over looked chapter in American history--the deportation of hundreds of thousands of American citizens of Mexican descent during the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, he tries to argue that repatriation was not economically feasible for employers. I say what difference does it make? It's the same old argument we hear now: They do jobs nobody else will do. But what if they didn't? The fact is, the government has no right to deport its citizens, regardless of what they do for a living, regardless of their race/ethnicity/skin color.
Thios book is a great start, but more scholarship needs to be done in this area.
One of my great uncles, an American citizen of Mexican descent, was deported by the US government during the Depression because they wanted to free up jobs for the dustbowl refugees. To the reviewer who calls this sad chapter in our nation's history a "minor incident," I wonder how he would feel if he were uprooted and taken by the US government to a foreign country.
The reason this reviewer thinks something this huge is a "minor incident" is that he doesn't view people of Mexican descent as truly American. He sees anybody of Mexican descent as foreign even if they are American citizens just like him and therefore thinks it's no big deal for them to have been deported. Many of the American citizens who were deported had never been to Mexico and could not Speak Spanish. But even if they could, they were still AMERICANS and had every right to live and work in the United States, the nation of their birth, as much as any other American citizen.
Read before you review, please.......2005-06-18
I am wondering whether a few of the other reviewers have actually read Balderrama's book. I haven't finished it yet, but even I have figured out that Balderrama and Rodriguez are writing about how not only Mexican nationals were 'repatriated,' but also US-born, US citizens who happened to be of Mexican ancestry (and most likely not pale-skinned enough).
One of the principal questions the authors pose is: what is the relationship between legal citizenship and cultural citizenship? In other words, if even citizens get deported, many to a country they have never even seen, because of their imputed race, what does citizenship even mean? This question is very relevant today given the current scrutiny by ICE of immigrants, legal or not, and by all of DHS of citizens, especially those who fit certain suspect profiles.
The most interesting part of the book for me so far is the authors' in-depth look at Mexican families in the US in this period. In particular, their portrait of how families of Mexican descent were stereotyped and misunderstood by both the US and Mexican governments, and how as a result immigration and welfare policies were poorly formulated. It's worth thinking about how government policy can work (directly or indirectly) to either strengthen or break up families--and how many Mexican/American families (by this I mean families comprising people with Mexican and US citizenship) managed to stay together despite the economic and political struggles they faced.
Tenditious and Without Perspective.......2004-02-02
The deportations of the 1930s need to be put into historical perspective and not just labeled as another incident of how bad America is to Mexicans. In 1924, the Immigration Act shut down immigration from Europe; Mexicans were EXEMPTED from such quotas between 1924 and 1965 (unacknowledged by most Chicano polemicists who can't deal with the fact that a policy was biased against white Europeans benefitted non whites). According to historian John Womack, some 900,000 Mexicans entered the US between 1924 and 1930, some 630,000 illegally. So this wave continued unabated into the Depression, and with 25% unemployment, the Federal government decided to crack down on this migration. Europeans were not targeted because the waves of immigartion had already been shut down, and those who did enter did so legally throught the nation's ports; most Mexicans entered through a land border. Abraham Hoffman puts the number involved and deportedat 400,000, not 1 million, with about half leaving voluntarily and half forced. Fifty percent were US citizens, largely the children of illegal immigrants who left with their parents. Of course, there were many cases of discrimination, as Manuel Gonzeles points out, where the methods used, especially in Los Angeles, were heavy handed and even in some cases illegal. These individulas should receive compensation. But it is ridiculous to compare this to the forced migration of Indians or to say that this was a program of complete discrimination ala those which targeted African Americans, even though there were individual cases of such.
As for those who took Balderrama as a professor, of course Chicano activists want to portary all of their problems and poverty as simply the result of racist Anglos versus innocent Mexicans. While legal discrimination did exist in many individual areas in the Southwest, particularly South Texas, thsi ignores the fact that more than two-thirds of all Mexican immigrants have no high school diploma (versus only 8% of native whites and 13% of Asian immigrants), that more than 4 out of 5 are not proficient in English, or that Asian immigrants and their children, despite being subject to historically more vicious legal racism, actually do better than whites !!!The vast majority of Mexicans are immigrants or their immediate children who arrived after 1965, whose presence makes the tracking and progress of wages for Mexican Americans very difficult to measure.
Between 1920 and 1970, Mexicans were considered legally white by the govt.; they were allowed to intermarry with whites (unlike blacks and Asians); were allowed to get citizenship upon arrival (unlike Asian immigrants); served in all-white units during the SEcond World War (unlike blacks and Japanese); could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas, especially San Antonio (unlike blacks); ran the state politics and elite of New Mexico since colonial times; went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Anegeles (unlike Blacks in the south and Asians in Southern California); were not subjected to immigration quotas like Europeans and Asians between 1924 and 1965.
According to the PPIC, Hispanics with similar education and occupation as whites make just as much in income; Asians in the similar situation make 10 to 15% MORE!!!! So while racism has been a factor, it is not the determining factor as to why Mexicans do or do not succeed. This is too much for Chicano professors and activists to acknowledge since their world is framed around victimology.
Chris
A Great Addition to Mexican-American History.......2003-11-15
Dr. Balderrama is a great historian. His research into the Mexican repatriation is told magnificently. I also happen to be one of his former students at CSULA. I do remember his class and enjoyed his lectures. Unlike other history professors at CSULA, his style of teaching and lecturing was memorable. His contribution to Mexican American history is invaluable. Great book! *****.
ERacism.......2003-09-17
I read the review by Michael Sturdevant and think he is probably a racists. I have took classes with Dr. Balderrama and can tell you he is a excellent teacher. He teaches his Chicano students about victimology and how they are victims of white America. This is very true. Some teachers think that Chicanos are struggling to get ahead because they are not as educated as white people. But Balderrama teached us that it is because we are victims that we can't make enough as the white people.
That is why Balderrama is suing the US government. Then the Chicano people will have billions of dollars to share with him. And we don't need to get more education. Just more money. I believe in Balderrama, I believe in victimology, and I only wish all Chicanos believed in victimology, then we would all be as rich as the white people.
Book Description
The Mexican War has long been overshadowed in the public imagination by that most popular of all American wars, the Civil War. And it has been swept under the carpet of national conscience as, at worst, a calculated land grab from a neighbor too weak to defend itself.
Otis Singletary's concise, dramatic account of the war that won the Southwest and California for the United States is designed to evoke in modern readers a fresh appreciation of one of the most colorful but neglected episodes in American military affairs—and certainly one of the most significant. Victory in this "military exercise" turned our attention to the Far West, made possible the Gold Rush of '49, and brought vast new territories and new peoples into the Union—altering the face of the nation and greatly influencing its future course.
Mr. Singletary treats the military, political, economic, and diplomatic aspects of the war. He focuses on the ways in which the Mexican War exemplified the dynamic spirit of Manifest Destiny and was a microcosm of peculiarly American—and peculiarly democratic—problems of waging war.
"All in all, this is the best short account of the Mexican War yet written."—T. Harry Williams, The Journal of Modern History
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2000-10-17
I had to review this book for a historical book review and it read like a breeze through the part describing the battles of the war. The political part after the war part was intresting but not as exciting as the former. This is a great read for fans of the Mexican War and even though of the Civil War.
Excellent overview of the Mexican War.......1999-06-22
Otis Singletary's The Mexican War is a concise and excellent overview of the war. Its greatest strength is the way it brings the personalities and personal conflicts to life. It provides great insight into the way politics intruded upon the prosecution of the war.
Amazon.com
Having chronicled the Civil War in Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara casts his eye on the earlier proving ground of the Mexican War in his third novel, Gone for Soldiers. Although it secured the Southwest for a nation emboldened by Manifest Destiny, this two-year conflict has nearly faded into oblivion, eclipsed by the subsequent domestic dispute a dozen years later. Shaara's hallmarks--the deliberations of leaders and the brutal facts of battle--illuminate his engaging diversion into an oft-overlooked struggle in which men who would come to oppose one another fought under a single flag.
The veteran major-general Winfield Scott and an upstart Robert E. Lee anchor Gone for Soldiers. Headstrong, brilliant, and generally distrustful of his less able subordinates, Scott leads the U.S. troops slowly and inevitably toward Mexico City, imparting martial lessons along the way. "The worst consequence of fighting a war is not if you lose, Mr. Lee," he sighs. "The worst thing you can do is win badly." Lee distinguishes himself throughout the campaign, his meticulous scouting and shrewd inferences winning both Scott's admiration and the jealousy of officers whose ambition surpasses their experience. Lee, too, frequently assesses his place in the hierarchy, but he--like Scott--remains more bemused than seduced by the glitter of fame.
This sympathy between the two men grows as Lee observes Scott embroiled in the distracting politics of war: officers salivating for promotion, enemies more preoccupied with saving face than lives, distant legislators issuing directives. If Gone for Soldiers occasionally bogs down during its many lengthy battle scenes, unexpected and delightful small touches arise nearly as often--the "capture" of Mexican leader Santa Anna's wooden leg or the chance encounter between Lee and a young Ulysses S. Grant. Duty-bound and humble, Lee cultivates a perpetual stoicism. "Now we're out here in some place God may not want us to be. It's hard to believe He is happy watching us fight a war," he muses, a sobering coda to the grim calculations of victory. --Ben Guterson
Book Description
In this stunning, unforgettable novel, Jeff Shaara carries us back thirteen years before the Civil War, when that momentous conflict's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.
"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT."
--Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SHAARA RELIES "ON THE HISTORY BEHIND THE MEN AND THEIR CAMPAIGNS TO TELL THE TALE. . . . Most poignant of all is the appearance of so many characters who will fight under opposing flags 13 years later. Stonewall Jackson shows up as a humorless young lieutenant with a spiritual reverence for his artillery, and Ulysses S. Grant awkwardly meets [Robert E.] Lee. . . . The salvaging of such episodes from history is ultimately a patriotic task, deserving of gratitude."
--The Washington Post Book World
"COMPELLING . . . THRILLING . . . Shaara briskly drives the U.S. forces to Mexico City, building suspense at each battle, all towards the climactic storming of the gates of the capital. . . . [He] has humanized the mythos of Lee as no one ever has and, in doing, makes an enduring contribution to literature."
--Civil War Book Review
"SHAARA, AS USUAL, IS AT HIS BEST IN ACTION AND CONFRONTATION AND IN EVOKING HOW IT FELT TO BE THERE."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
Download Description
In "Gone for Soldiers", Jeff shaara carries us back thirteen years before the momentous conflict he has so brilliantly chronicled, to a time when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.
In March 1847, eight thousand soldiers land on the beaches of Vera Cruz, led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott -- a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short-tempered, vain and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.
Scott leads his troops agaainst the imperious Mexican dictator General Atonio Lopez de Santa Ana, who arroganatly underestimates Scott and his army. The Americans soon learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. And while Scott weighs his own place in history, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.
In vivid prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the legendary characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war.
Customer Reviews:
Before they were enemies.......2007-09-09
Gone for Soldiers is a historical novel of a war most Americans know little or nothing about. Thirteen years before America's tragic Civil War, men who would soon be enemies fought side by side as brothers in arms. Gone for Soldiers follows the exploits of General Winfield Scott and his right hand man and engineer, Robert E. Lee. As in all of his historical novels, weaves historically accurate information along with deeply personal characterizations to create a page turning novel. It never ceases to amaze me how Jeff Shaara picked up the mantle of his father.
Once upon a time.................2007-08-04
.....we were all on the same side. This fine book looks at the Mexican War thru the eyes of, primarily, Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee. Of course, we meet the same characters, again, 15 years later. [By then, Scott was too old for much of an active part, though the strategy he developed was quite valuable to the Union]. In some chapters, we get glimpses of others who would be heard from later, and, of course, the character was already evident; the intellegence, decency, and fundamental goodness of Joe Johnston; the brilliance [and lack of reticence] of PGT Beauregard; the tenacity and courage of Grant and Longstreet; the single-minded devotion of Jackson. One does get the hint that Stonewall, for all his greatness as a fighting officer, may not have been playing with a full deck....Gideon Pillow was a political General, though he did better here than he was to in Kentucky...Pickett was Pickett, a better soldier than the public gives him credit for.
Parallels have been drawn to our current situation, and there are some. BUT, we have to be careful. The current war in Iraq is about our own national survival; giving aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists is equivalent to state sponsored terrorism, and state sponsored terrorism is an act of war. The Mexican War was fought for lebensraum, but that doesn't make it wrong. If you would understand why we won, and why Mexico is still a third world country, look at the choice of leaders....Winfield Scott had his faults; he was gruff, vain, difficult...he was also brilliant, brave, fundamentally decent, and absolutely devoted to his country. Santa Anna was intelligent and brave; he was also an egocentric madman, totally devoted to himself. Winfield Scott saw himself as a servant of his nation; Santa Anna saw himself AS his nation...one can not read of him without thinking of the late, unlamented, leader of Iraq.
Particularly disturbing is the episode of the San Patricios...these were Irish Catholic American soldiers who deserted, and fought for the other side. Eventually, they were caught; Scott had the ringleaders shot, without hestiation. The rest were mostly hung, though Scott did spare some who repented. Those allowed to live were branded on the face with a large "D", and sent home, to what fate we can imagine. The motive of the San Patricios remains unknown...Irish Catholics have been some of America's greatest soldiers. There were brave Irish regiments on both sides of the Civil War, fighting under nearly identical flags. Confederate Chaplain Emmeran Bliemel was the first Priest ever killed in an American war. Conversly, Muslims fought with great honor in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. But...The presence of Muslim Chaplains in our Armed Forces, especially at Gitmo, in an invitation to problems. Indeed, there have been some. [Madison and, to a lesser extent, Jefferson, felt that the presence of any commissioned Chaplain violated the Constitution...but, no, that's off the track...].
Robert E. Lee should need no introduction to anyone reading this...General Scott proclaimed him the greatest soldier he ever saw. The next generation was to find out how right Scott was. Of course, others have written massively of General Lee [especially Dr. Freeman], but the essential greatness of the man is evident right here. [Indeed, the later war was to provide material for at least one full biography of many of these characters].
One could wish we had gotten to meet other characters from the Mexican War who were were heard from again...Jefferson Davis, Edmund Kirby Smith, Braxton Bragg...but this is a novel, and you can't include everything. All in all, a superb book about a little known war.
The Mexican-American War.......2007-08-02
Jeff Sharra's "Gone for Soldiers" concerns the Mexican-American War, and could be seen as a prequel for the Civil War trilogy that he and his father wrote, as it deals with some of the Civil War generals earlier in their career (Generals Longstreet, Grant, Jackson, ect.). But this story belongs to Major-General Winfield Scott and his favorite subordinate, engineering captain Robert E. Lee. Scott takes Lee under his wing and teaches Lee all the positive points of inspiring and leading an army, all the lessons that Lee will take with him into the next conflict thirteen years in the future. But for now the Army is in Mexico, and it is expressing America's Manifest Destiny, a series of laws and policies that allowed the U.S. to expand west, often just outright conquering Mexican territories. Scott is dubious at the policy, but carries it out as best as he can, he is after all a great soldier. He is constantly fighting not only the charismatic tyrant Santa Ana (here portrayed as paranoid) but also with his power mad and politically ambitious senior officers. This is a good fictional account (thought I think as close as real as possible) of the little known incident in American history. "Gone For Soldiers" has many rousing action scenes like the Siege of Veracruz, the battle at Cerro Gordo, and the Battle of Chapultepec, and the conquiring of Mexico City. (Some of Zachary Taylor's skermishes are discussed, but this was Scott's show). A thrilling adventure story that should entertain anyone and provide insight to the future Civil War leaders not often seen.
excellent tale of the Mexican War .......2007-04-14
Jeff Shaara combines history and story telling to bring a remarkable tale of the 1847 Mexican War. Gen Winfield Scott leads an assault at Vera Cruz to crush Santa Anna's uprising and finally put an end to his power in Mexico. The battle scenes are vidily written and explode across the page. What is so fascinating are the combining of Civil War generals Lee, Johnston, Grant and Jackson into this pre-civil war epic. Gen WInfield Scott, of course, was the leader of the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. A mere shell of the great general in this book.
Shaara and the Mexican - American War.......2007-02-13
In this novel, Jeff Shaara takes us back a dozen or more years to the period when US forces invaded Mexico. Many of the main military leaders in the Civil War underwent their individual and collective baptism of fire in the Mexican-American war. Lee and Grant first show the promise that they would later legitimately claim, on a much more bloody battlefield, in this largely forgotten war. Shaara continues to tell a good story well and doesn't seem to have become "bored" (as happens with many writers) with the niche that he seems to have developed so nicely.
Book Description
Eminent military historian John S.D. Eisenhower has written a highly readable and expert account of a war which--though frequently overlooked--tumed out to be the training ground for the American Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
A light in a dark point of United States history.......2006-07-11
I think that this is a good book about the yankee-mexican war. It shows the political and military problems in both sides, USA and Mexican, and also writes about personal histories, always interesting. It shows clearly also evident, that it's bad business to be neighbour of United States if your are not strong. The different ways of conduct of United States with England ( in Canada and Oregon problem) and with Mexico shows it clearly. Some things are difficult to believe , by example , that in a fight hand to hand only a yankee died and almost three hundred mexican did. but in general, I think that it's a good book for a first sight of that conquest war.
I remember a film of John Wayne which when he travels to mexican lands and a mexican in a horse come to give him wellcome, John Wayne shoot him and kill. That's the way the yankees ( not americans, because all habitants of America are americans, mexicans too ) did with every country that they can do it, Mexico, Spain ( Puerto Rico, Cuba , Filipinas, etc ), Colombia with Panama Channel, etc.
And it's very curious how this war is hide of United States films . If one see westerns films and about California, it seems a empty land and nobody knows that it was stealed to mexicans. Fortunately the time is changing and every year more and more mexican people live in that States and, who knows ? When United Stated would be not so strong, another countries made him like he did with others.
Anyway a good book that respect both fighters, only I miss a complete map with all the land stealed to Mexico ( almost a third of the country ) that reach Canada.
Understanding US and Mexican Relations Today.......2006-06-07
This book is a must for anyone trying to understand US and Mexican relations today. It is very well reserched yet readable. This period in US history was not one of our finer moments. We are doomed to regret and pay for the actions of our imperialism, in the name of Manifest Destiny, for generations to come.This book helps us understand why we still have a price to pay in 2006.
a book about the wonderful US Army.......2006-02-09
I had read other reviews about how this book is such a concise and accurate portrait of the US-Mexican American War but I thought it lopsided. He does describe in great detail the movements, strategies and people surrounding the U.S. Army but beyond this there is not much information. There is not much account of the Mexican side and for the most part the Mexican Army comes across as incompetent. Mexican victories in the war are barely examined. US Army conduct seems to be very civil when in fact there was much contempt for the Mexicans by some and many atrocities and civilian casualties. The US soldiers seem to develop a respect for the Mexicans and their cutlture if one judges from this book, enjoying the many "fandangos" along the way to the next battle. Motivations for the war are only shallowly examined. There is no mention of the valuable ports to be won in California, which Polk had set his eyes on. There is one sentence that refers casually to the San Patricio battalion of deserters who fought for the Mexican Army but there is no discussion as to why they deserted or a look at Army moral. He discusses occasionally lack of discipline in the troops but never the causes, except perhaps weariness. Apaches are described as "killing" and "raiding" but Eisenhower seems to show a great deal of compassion on the next page when a US officer must "subdue" the Apaches and manages to have them "brought to the point where they are willing to sign a peace treaty" as if the Apaches only reservation to peace were their beligerence (Andrew Jackson broke between 80-90 treaties with the Native Americans during his presidency.) In this same passage Eisenhower describes how the US soldiers could only "shudder to think" what the fate of captured women might have been, but upon bringing the Apaches out of the mountains he never tells what their actual fate was. We are left shuddering in our imaginations. And the list goes on. The problem is not so much what Eisenhower tells but what he doesn't tell. He gives a famous quote of Ulysses Grant describing the war as " the most unjust war ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker" but we never see the war Grant saw. The worst fatalities encountered in this book are the ones suffered by soldiers during battle. There is no record of the inhumanity that this war brought out in both countries. In the end it is simply a matter of a strong country pitted against an unfortunate weaker country, and the U.S. of course is fortunate enough to be the stronger. Injustice is not in this picture and if it is it is glossed over. If half the detail exercised in describing the geography of battle was given to the examination of politics, or to Mexico's understanding of the war and its battles then this would be a wonderful book. If you are interested in precisely where certain battalions and infantries of the US Army where and when then this is a super book. The physical description is detailed (although not particularly interesting) but the deeper issues that describe the real nature and character of war are virtually untouched and only lightly treated.
Al fin algo de verdad...........2005-10-28
Tenia que ser alquien como este reconocido historiador, una persona bien nacida, descendiente nada menos que del legendario Ike, quien les empieza a revelar a los norteamericanos la penosa historia de como se robaron, no encuentro otra palabra peor, la mitad del territorio que en ese entonces era propiedad de la republica mexicana, la cual siendo presa de desordenes internos, atizados por su perfido vecino del norte a traves del alevoso Joel. R. Poinsett, el que hasta el nombre de la flor de nochebuena se robo, fue facil presa del ave de presa que como vecino tenia al norte, yo quiero a los actuales ciudadanos de los estados unidos de norteamerica, me duele en el alma cuando los hieren a los matan,ya sea en Irak o en otro lado, me encantan los Bush, padre e hijo, Reagan, Kennedy y por supuesto, I like Ike, pero aquello que nos hicieron de 1821 a 1847 y en Veracruz con el lunatico de Woodrow Wilson, no tiene perdon de Dios.
Good Overview.......2005-02-24
This title compares well to the handful of other War History Books I've read.
Eisenhower does a good job of reviewing each significant battle in the right amount of detail, and the book provides decent maps and terrain descriptions (obvious musts). He also does a good job of describing the involvement of the various Generals (from both sides), and lower-ranked officers who would later play signicant roles in the American Civil War that would follow a bit more than a decade from the end of this confict.
Well done is the description of the psyche of the Mexican soldiers and populace, and the role it played in the course of the war.
While there are some descriptions of the lives of the American enlisted men (who obviously far outnumber the officers), Eisenhower doesn't really make as much as an effort as could have been made in this area... I also felt he was a bit pompous when he would question why men would follow certain leaders (like John Fremont, for example).
One area of the Mexican War, that any War History buff should not miss is the sub-story of the San Patricio (or St. Patrick's) Regiment of Irish "deserters" from the American side - which I first learned by reading this book... Knowing this story (and being half-Irish myself), I sometimes will get too many beers under my belt in a TJ bar, and say in spanish that the Irish fought harder for Mexico than the Mexicans did (they were actually forced to), and it always draws crys of "No es Cierto!" (It isn't True!)... and I say SI, ES CIERTO!
Books:
- His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
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