Cry Havoc: The Crooked Road to Civil War, 1861 Review

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(More customer reviews)Author Lankford has written an extremely interesting thesis covering the period from Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861 to May 27th. He treats the South as having two distinct groupings; the lower South of seven states that formed the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama prior to Lincoln's taking office (South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas) and the upper South of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri and Delaware. Even with the lower South already in secession and South Carolina besieging Fort Sumpter Lincoln was faced with many possible courses of action, particularly since there was substantial union sentiment in the upper South that was opposed to secession if some compromise could be reached on slavery and if Lincoln could be accommodating.
Historians today tend to dismiss the unionists in the upper South as naive since their cause proved to be futile in the face of Lincoln's intransigence, but it did not look hopeless at the time. After all, compromises had been made over slavery a number of times in the past, and as we know in modern times, presidential candidates often say things while campaigning that they repudiate when in office. Lincoln, however, was no modern politician.
In the upper South prior to Lincoln's inauguration, secession was soundly defeated in Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri, somewhat narrowly in North Carolina, and Tennessee voters overwhelming voted down even the formation of a convention to consider secession. The trick would be to hold those states in the Union, but as it turned out, any military action against the seven states in secession would turn all but Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the non-slave holding areas of West Virginia, East Tennessee, Northern Arkansas and Northern Alabama firmly against the Union.
Significant efforts were made to find a compromise, even by Seward who attempted to undermine Lincoln, but all were probably doomed when Lincoln decided to resupply Fort Sumpter. The hotheads in South Carolina took Lincoln's action as a provocation and reacted with a much more serious provocation -- firing on Fort Sumpter. Still the upper South hesitated to see what would happen. If Lincoln allowed this provocation to go unanswered and appeased the lower South, peace was still possible even at that late date. Certainly modern politicians would give such appeasement great consideration.
But Lincoln reacted to the Fort Sumpter attack in the only way he could to avoid massive problems in the North -- he issued a call for all loyal states, including those of the upper South, to activate their militias and supply 75,000 soldiers for three months service. He based his authority on the 1795 militia act, a law totally forgotten by anti-gun activitists in contemporary times. Of the 94 regiments requested, 21 were to come from the upper South. This proclamation put the fat into the fire and destroyed the unionist support in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. They quickly joined the Confederacy, thus making it a much more viable political entity. Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland fractured politicaly, but prompt efforts by unionists in those states held them "neutral" (although all sent soldiers to both sides.) Delaware was relatively easily held for the Union. and West Virigina was eventually split off into a separate state.
All this political interplay is fascinating, especially so because this period is generally skipped over in American history textbooks. Lincoln and the unionists in the upper South possessed other options, but Lincoln played his cards as all or nothing after Sumpter (all-in in poker terminology), and those options were swept from the table. The author does not blame Lincoln for the outbreak of the war -- that is firmly placed on the South Carolinians as it should. He was however, not willing to compromise on his principles, and the end of slavery in the US was the laudable result. And in the end, Lincoln along with hundreds of thousands of Americans paid the ultimate price for that result and the reconsolidation of the US into a single country for the next 150 years.
The writing is reasonably good, but a little disjointed. The average general reader will probably find all the political details and background somewhat boring, but the serious Civil Was historian will not. The author makes extensive use of quotations from newspapers and speeches at the time, and it must be remembered that newspapers in the 1860s more accurately reflected public opinion than do today's propaganda organs like the New York Times.
I recommend this book to everyone interested in the Civil War era. The book covers a very limited period, but it does it well. If some of the author's conclusions are controversial, then read the detail and make your own analysis. The book contains enough balanced information for the reader to reach informed conclusions. On that note, what more can be said?

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Daisy Miller & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) Review

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(More customer reviews)... have nothing over Henry James! Whatever his many biographers discover about his mundane corporeal existence, James's novels reveal him best, as an inveterate observer - his own words! - a chronic emotional voyeur, always in and never of society, a one-way looking glass. It made him the great writer he was, though one wouldn't want to BE him. "Well," as God said to Satan, "keeping watch on humans is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it."
The four long stories in this Oxford Clssic edition were not originally published together. "Daisy Miller" appeared in 1878, "Pandora" in 1884, "Patagonia" in 1888. The fourth piece, "Four Meetings", was one of James's first, written before 1877. They are a natural assembly, nevertheless, effectively versions of the same story.
DAISY MILLER
"They're very ignorant -- very innocent only, and utterly uncivilized. Depend on it they're not 'bad.'"
"They're hopelessly vulgar," said Mrs. Costello. "Whether being hopelessly vulgar is being 'bad' is a questions for the metaphysicians. They're bad enough to blush for, at any rate; and for this short life that's quite enough."
Winterbourne, the first speaker above, is an American of twenty-seven who has lived most of his life in Europe, specifically in Geneva, where he is either a career student or simply an ornamental male presence, depending on the reporter. If 'earning a living' is of any concern to him, it plays no part in his demeanor in this narrative. Mrs. Costello is his wealthy aunt (a dowager?), who 'commands' his proper familial attentions at various resorts and in Rome several weeks a year. She is the very voice of propriety and discretion -- a snooty old biddy, if you will -- while he is a dilettante, a poseur, a prig, a veritable Henry James in short. "They" are the Millers - mother, daughter, and son - sent to inspect Europe and report back on its cultural progress by their filthy rich pater familias Cyrus Miller, of Schenectady, New York. Winterbourne first meets Daisy Miller while visiting his Aunt at Vevey, in Switzerland. He is entranced both by her beauty and by her bizarre ignorance of and/or indifference to the social codes of the Old World. Winterbourne and his Aunt are ludicrous snobs and ditherers; it's important to grasp that they are objects of satire as thoroughly as the Millers, the prototypical "ugly Americans" of touristic prominence all over Europe then and now. In fact, everyone in this novella comes in for a share of deliciously condescending satire, most pointedly James himself in the guise of Winterbourne. That's one of the redeeming qualities of Henry James, his ability to perceive and portray his own uselessness as a mere onlooker at life.
"Daisy Miller" is a gem, an 80-page masterpiece of snarky ambivalence. When I read it first, long ago in college, I probably took Winterbourne seriously; after all, the tale is told from his point of view. But taking himself or his fictional avatars seriously was a fault Henry James never committed. A longer exposure to James's self-observation, such as his later novels require, can challenge a reader's patience; there's only so much most of us want to care for such meticulous ambiguity. But "Daisy Miller" and "Pandora" are eminently enjoyable.
For a man and writer whose sexuality was so peculiarly repressed, James has made his irrepressible American girl Daisy Miller quite a luscious minx. Poor Winterbourne, stiff and epicene, can't keep his eyes off her. In the end, however, his fascination amounts merely to a kind of obsessive observation, and that's the core of the story, the voyeurism which underlies Henry James's literary genius. Nevertheless, Daisy is a brilliant 'study' of the American personality that Europeans have, then and now, found utterly appalling, naive and gauche ... and insidiously alluring.
PANDORA
Written six years after Daisy Miller, "Pandora" is a tongue-in-ear sequel, or perhaps a da capo aria. The characters have different names and play their roles with different outcomes, but James plainly intended the second story to complement the first. In fact, the earlier story is explicitly referenced as `a fiction to read to prepare for America.' "Pandora" begins on a ship crossing from Europe to New York. A young German diplomat, en route to a posting in Washington DC, assumes Winterbourne'James's role as "observer". There's a good deal of fun to be had with putting a precise Teutonic prig in James's skin, and James exploits all of it. The "Daisy" slot in the cast goes to "Pandora", less visually delectable perhaps but a good deal more personally functional. Pandora is on her way to becoming "the new woman," that is, the woman who conquers society merely by force of personality and physical charm, without the advantages of breeding. Our German observer is even less able to communicate his `interest' to Pandora than Winterborne was to Daisy; the most he can do is cogitate about the risk he runs, through his observation, of actually becoming susceptible. The reader will have no reason to fear for him in that manner.
PATAGONIA...
... is also a shipboard tale, with many of the same elements of social misconstruction as the two oolder stories. In it, however, the "observer" is also the first-person narrator, an older and more desexualized James, not so much fascinated by the "new woman" character as by his own obsession with observation. He's a gossip and a meddler, and comes to rue both roles. can we assert that Henry James modeled the famous Uncertainty Principle of physics in social intercourse? The end-game of every character in this and other Jamesian plots is disrupted by the impact of being observed.
Henry James straddled the world of 19th C class consciousness and 20th C class unconsciousness marvelously. Simultaneously the most conservative and the most prophetic of novelists, his women characters are easily the most persuasive and the most intriguing in all American literature. I have the feeling that James would not be at all surprised by the manners of social behavior in the USA in 2010. Daisy and Pandora were halfway here. Neither would he be any more comfortable in our `rec rooms' than he was in the drawing rooms of his own era. Really, I'm afraid he'd find us rather disappointing to observe.

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With an Introduction and Notes by Pat Righelato, University of Reading Daisy Miller is one of Henry James's most attractive heroines: she represents youth and frivolity. As a tourist in Italy, her American freedom and freshness of spirit come up against the corruption and hypocrisy of European manners. From its first publication, readers on both sides of the Atlantic have quarrelled about her, defending or attacking the liberties that Daisy takes and the conventions that she ignores. All three tales in this collection, Daisy Miller, An International Episode and Lady Barbarina, express James's most notable subject, 'the international theme', the encounters, romantic and cultural, between Americans and Europeans. His heroes and heroines approach each other on unfamiliar ground with new freedoms, yet find themselves unexpectedly hampered by old constraints. In An International Episode, an English lord visiting Newport, Rhode Island, falls in love with an American girl, but their relationship becomes more complicated when she travels to London. In the light-hearted comedy Lady Barbarina, a rich young American seeks an English aristocratic bride. The unusual outcomes of these three tales pose a number of social questions about marriage and the traditional roles of men and women. Is an international marriage symbolic of the highest cultural fusion of values or is it an old style raid and capture? Is marriage to remain the feminine destination?

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Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses Review

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(More customer reviews)Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses
Regine PERNOUD, _Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses_. Translated by Edward Hyams. Lanham, MD: Scarborough House 1994 (reissue of 1964 original). 287 pp., with index and plates. ISBN: 0-8128-1260-3 (pb).
This book is a biographical monograph by French Joan of Arc specialist Regine Pernoud. She first published it in 1964 and it has remained in print since then. The book opens with a background-setting introduction describing the geopolitical realities of royal succession in France in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, national division through civil war, and the contending forces and their allies. Nine substantial chapters comprise the main text. They cover JoanÕs early years (chapter 1); her vision and quest (chapter 2); her meeting with Dauphin Charles VII and the aftermath (chapter 3); her military campaigns (beginning with the crucial battle that lifted the English/Burgundian siege of Orleans, and concluding with CharlesÕ coronation at Rheims, chapters 4-6); her politico-religious trial of condemnation (ch. 7), her execution by fire (ch. 8); and her posthumous trial of rehabilitation (ch. 9).
The authorÕs narrative method is to present JoanÕs life and the events she inspired and lived through using extracts of testimony from her trials of condemnation and rehabilitation and from other primary sources (examples are: letters, journals and account books). Pernoud proposes on page 8 to Ò...let the historic documents themselves make answerÓ to questions about Joan, what she did and what was done to her. By this method, Joan is made to speak directly to readers. Pernoud, however, does not simply assemble a catalogue of quotations, but adroitly interleaves direct speech with narrative that pairs what is said with cultural interpretation. She thus avoids the problem of leaving untutored readers without indices to the religious, political and military context that imbue JoanÕs story with its fascination. However, Pernoud chose wisely to minimize analysis and to allow the story to unfold primarily from the documents. She invites readers to judge Joan themselves.
Pernoud appends a brief but valuable commentary to each chapter. These commentaries provide more background about events and discuss contentious arguments in the study of JoanÕs life. For example, Pernoud disposes handily of the idea that Joan was an illegitimate daughter of royalty who had been spirited away to safe haven as a child, triumphantly emerging to rescue the nation (pp. 66-9 and thereafter). Pernoud also provides incisive remarks on the provenance, dating and validity of the documentary evidence in these commentaries.
A sample extract from JoanÕs trial of condemnation offers insights into her beliefs and personality (pp. 174-75). Joan responds to interrogator Jean de La Fontaine (March 17, 1431):
La Fontaine: Do you know whether Saints Catherine and Margaret hate the English?
Joan: They love that which God loves and hate that which God hates.
La Fontaine: Does God hate the English?
Joan: Of the love or hate which God has for the English and of what He does to their souls, I know nothing; but well I know that they will be driven out of France, excepting those who will die there, and that God will send victory to the French over the English.
La Fontaine: Was God for the English when their cause was prospering in France?
Joan: I know not if God hated the French, but I believe that it was His will to let them be stricken for their sins if there were sins among them.
La Fontaine: What guarantee and what succour do you expect from God for your wearing of manÕs clothes?
Joan: For the clothes as for the other things I have done, I expect no other recompense than the salvation of my soul.
I do not read French and so cannot comment on the accuracy of Edward HyamsÕ translation. But, he did receive the 1965 Scott-Moncrieff Translation Prize for this work. Hyams rendered the transcripts in a style that unmistakably is not modern English. Antique grammatical constructions abound. These aspects of the translation provide much of the savor in the text.
This book is well worth reading and thinking about. Its special value is that Pernoud presents a view of Joan that personalizes her without analyzing her. Although an authorÕs point of view and the material selected necessarily influence how readers perceive the subject, PernoudÕs method here is more transparent than others she could have chosen. A _Saturday Review_ article stated ÒOne feels closer to Joan in these pages than in any other of the modern biographies...Ó when the book was first published; this quote is from a cover blurb and does not overstate the case. One caveat about reading this volume is necessary. It is that readers untutored in the history of the period will need to consult other sources to understand the times and the importance of what Joan accomplished in life and death.
Last is an idea for two interesting projects. Reading this work together with Carlo GinzburgÕs _The Cheese and the Worms; The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller_ (1992) and Jonathan SpenceÕs _GodÕs Chinese Son; The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan_ (1996) would provide superb material for cross-cultural comparisons of three religious visionaries. Second, these same books would provide material for comparing three anthropological approaches to history by scholars who have mastered their craft.

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First published in the United States in 1966 by Stein and Day.

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Odes and Epodes (Loeb Classical Library) Review

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(More customer reviews)Very readable translation of Horace, good reading for a winter evening. The famous phrase carpe diem (seize the day or pluck the day) is from one of Horace's odes, in this book.

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The poetry of Horace (born 65 BCE) is richly varied, its focus moving between public and private concerns, urban and rural settings, Stoic and Epicurean thought. Here is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of the great Roman poet's Odes and Epodes, a fluid translation facing the Latin text.

Horace took pride in being the first Roman to write a body of lyric poetry. For models he turned to Greek lyric, especially to the poetry of Alcaeus, Sappho, and Pindar; but his poems are set in a Roman context. His four books of odes cover a wide range of moods and topics. Some are public poems, upholding the traditional values of courage, loyalty, and piety; and there are hymns to the gods. But most of the odes are on private themes: chiding or advising friends; speaking about love and amorous situations, often amusingly. Horace's seventeen epodes, which he called iambi, were also an innovation for Roman literature. Like the odes they were inspired by a Greek model: the seventh-century iambic poetry of Archilochus. Love and political concerns are frequent themes; here the tone is generally that of satirical lampoons. "In his language he is triumphantly adventurous," Quintilian said of Horace; this new translation reflects his different voices.

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