Review of Two History Books: December 2022

I’m reviewing two history books…because Pastors also need a break!

 

George T. Peers. Recollections and Reminiscences of Old Appomattox County and its People.  Lynchburg, Virginia: Schroeder Publications, March 24th, 2015. 40 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Most people have heard of Appomattox in the context of the American Civil War since this is where the surrender of General Robert E. Lee was signed.  But what other information do we have about this town before and during the Civil War?  This is a first person account by George T. Peers, one of the town’s oldest citizen who have served the community as a sheriff duty and as a long time County clerk for over forty years.  He lived from 1830 to 1908, covering a relevant time period and while he wrote this when he was older I was surprised at how sharp his memory was with reference to names and dates given in this work.

Read Full Post »

Review: Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller

A special Memorial Day weekend reading review.

Mark Galeotti. Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller.  New York, NY: Open Road Intergrated Media, March 29, 2016. 371 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

One of the most celebrated legendary Marine is Chesty Puller; the most decorated US Marine in history, even today every Marine would know of his name after being drilled information about him starting in the days of boot camp; do you know who he was and what he has done?  Though I’m a Marine veteran who love Marine Corps history I am ashamed to realize that I have never read any books about Chesty Puller until recently and I don’t know much about him as much I should compared to other military leaders in the other services!  For those that don’t know anything about him Chesty Puller is literally the guy that you want to be around taking charge when the enemies have surrounded you and outnumbered against you; and he’s literally saved men’s lives during such a scenario too.  So I am glad I saw they have an electronic format of this book available.  Originally published in 1962 this book was written when Puller was still alive.  This book actually made me want to read more works on Chesty Puller especially more recent works evaluating his life, legacy and contribution.

Read Full Post »

Review: On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle

I’m reviewing two history books…because Pastors also need a break!

Hampton Sides. On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle.  New York, NY: Doubleday, October 2, 2018.  368 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

If you ever heard the hymn for the US Marines there’s a line that says “we will fight in every climb and place” but where’s a place that’s cold that the Marines have fought in? This book covers the legendary First Marine Division and their campaign in the Korean War.  Readers will learn about the epic and horrible battle of Chosin Reservoir that took place in frostbiting cold of North Korea.  There’s other battles covered but this was the climatic part of the book.

Read Full Post »

Review of Two History Books: Fall 2021

I’m reviewing two history books…because Pastors also need a break!

 

Thomas E. Ricks.  Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom. New York, NY: Penguin Books, May 1, 2018. 352 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

A book on Churchill and Orwell?  Both men at first glance seems so different; so what does these two men have in common?  Both men love freedom and opposes totalitarianism.  With so much talk about fascism and also with the increase statism we are seeing worldwide today this book might be quite relevant to read.  The subject matter and the two individuals that are the focus of the book are interesting enough to read as a dual biography in its one right but what further propelled me to read this is because this is authored by Thomas E. Ricks.  It seems as I grow in my intellectual and thought life one can mark it with different milestone based upon books published by Thomas Ricks, from my high school years with Rick’s early book Making the Corps that was about Marine Corps boot camp when I was a high school kid dreaming about joining the Marines and then when I was a Marine and Marine veteran of Iraq with Ricks’ book The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas E. Ricks and The Generals by Thomas E. Ricks.

Read Full Post »

Review: Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution

I am reviewing this book for this weekend’s leisure reading review because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  I hope to share more reviews from the reading I finished while I was on Vacation.

Nathaniel Philbrick.  Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution. New York, NY: Penguin Books, May 9, 2017. 448 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Want to read a book on the American War of Independence and the infamous general Benedict Arnold and his relationship with George Washington?  This book might be for you!  Benedict Arnold was the general who betrayed the American cause and helped the British.  About eight years ago I read The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin and reading this book jogged my memory of what I previously learned about Benedict Arnold whether from the previous book or other readings and lectures.  Yet I still learned some new things about Arnold from the book.

Read Full Post »

Asians coming to America to benefit from Slavery?

This is to unite, not to divide and I want to do that by challenging an incomplete narrative and also something that goes against objective historical facts. I think everyone will benefit from seeing how interconnected we are as Americans. I saw several Pastors shared a link on FB written by a Chinese American pastor who wrote this about Asian Americans relations with African Americans. I found it problematic on so many levels:

“What many Asian Americans fail to realize is that our success is largely built on the backs of African Americans themselves. After all, if African American slavery did not exist, the United States may not have been such a desirable country to immigrate to. It was through the enslavement of African Americans that American prosperity was built in the first place.”

Notice the quote made specific claims:
(a) Asian Americans as a group succeeded at the expense of African Americans.
(b) Asian Americans might not have desired to come to the United States if it wasn’t for America having African American slavery.
(c) The prosperity in America from slavery is what attracted Asian Americans to take advantage of it in America.

But is this factually true?

Read Full Post »

Audiobook Review: Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

A weekend nonfiction audio book review…because Pastors also need a break from reading and also for you staying at home in light of the Corona Virus…

 

William H. McRaven. Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations.  New York, NY: Hachette Book Group, June 21st 2019. 10 hours 18 minutes 39 seconds.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

What is it like being the longest serving Navy SEAL commando and an Admiral of the Navy Seals and other Special Operations Forces?  This book is a memoir of Admiral McRaven whom most people probably know for his leadership of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that pulled off the mission that target Bin Laden.  There’s not a lot of SEALs that picked up the rank of admiral and I believe he’s the second SEAL that achieved that rank.  This audio book is read by the author himself and looks back not only with his Navy career but also his childhood and a look at the men and women who have served and risked their life and at times died in serving in the military.

Read Full Post »

Review: Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York’s Chinatown

A weekend reading review…because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  And also for your stay at home, “shelter in place,” etc, with the virus.

 

Scott D. Seligman.  Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York’s Chinatown. New York, NY: Viking, July 12th 2016.  368 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

What comes up in your mind when you hear “Chinatown?”  For those in New York City from the 1890s through the 1930s many people associated Chinatown with organized crime.  It was seen as a hotbed for betting parlors, opium dens, prostitution and violence. Sadly most people during that time associated Chinese people with vice and were seen by the elites in New York and the Newspaper as a bigger problem than other immigrant groups such as the Irish, Italians, etc.  As the book agues this picture wasn’t accurate and Chinese and Chinatown was not statistically more criminal than the rest of the population in New York though their different lifestyles and ways did invite racism and prejudicial serotyping.  In fact during this was Tammany-era New York City and corruption and depravity was all over the city and among politicians and the police.  Situating things in this context the book focuses largely on Chinese organize crime.  The author look at secret societies called “Tongs,” which are the Chinese equivalent to the Italian Mafia.  It is well researched, heavily source documented and narrated well; I can’t put it down!

Read Full Post »

Review: Rising in Flames: Sherman’s March and the Fight for a New Nation

A weekend reading review…because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  And also for your stay at home, “shelter in place,” etc, with the virus.

 

Jeff D. Dickey. Rising in Flames.  New York, NY: Pegasus Books, June 5th 2018. 400 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

When I say “Sherman’s March to Sea,” what do you think of?  I know many images and connotation is stirred up when General Sherman is brought up.  This is a rather infamous military campaign led by General William Sherman going into the Confederate South for the purpose of sabotaging the economic capabilities of the South to feed and equip their Confederate Army.  This was quite a controversy then and also controversial even for our day and age for non-Southerners given the kind of tactics Sherman pursued in the war.  Most of what I have heard has largely been from the perspective of the South and also popular imagination from the movie Gone with the Wind.  The author argues that there’s a need to understand what happened from the perspective of also those in the North and Sherman’s army.

Read Full Post »

Review: Above and Beyond: John F. Kennedy and America’s Most Dangerous Cold War Spy Mission

A weekend reading review, because Pastor’s also need a break from heavy theological reading!

Casey Sherman and Michael Tougias.  Above and Beyond: John F. Kennedy and America’s Most Dangerous Cold War Spy Mission. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, April 17th 2018. 306 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Anyone lived during the Cuban Missile Crisis?  While I knew some things about the incident I didn’t know the extent of how close the United States and Russia came to a nuclear war during that time until I read this book!  While the book starts kind of slow in the beginning it does pick up and is riveting and will have readers’ full attention.

Read Full Post »

Review of Two History Books Read End of 2019

Robert Greenberger.  When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History.  New York, NY: Ecco, January 15th 2019. 560 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

What if everything you heard about the Conquistor Hernando Cortés and the Aztec emperor Montezuma was incorrect?  This book is a work of superb historical scholarship that goes against the grain of mainstream narrative that often glorify Cortés.  In peeling back the myth we get closer to the truth of what actually happened in history between Cortés and the Aztecs. This book makes a strong case of how people even today have not look at him and his claims critically enough even by those who teach history.

Read Full Post »

Review: Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

A weekend reading review…because sometimes Pastors need a break from heavy reading also.

Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway.  Washington D.C.: Potomac Books, November 1st 2005. 612 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Want to read one of the best book on the Battle of Midway?  I remember as a young kid reading about this battle and how it turned the tide of the war in Pacific in favor of the United States in which Japan suffered serious loss in this battle.  This work simply exceeded my expectation and I was thoroughly hooked from page to page, which might sound almost unbelievable concerning a military operational book but the two authors did a good job telling us the story of the Battle of Midway and throughout the book they also critically interact with previous presentation of the battle by historians and popular misconception and argue for their account of what happened in a way that is informative while displaying an attitude of being concern for truth of what really happened.

Read Full Post »

Review: Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero

I am reviewing this book for this weekend’s leisure reading review (because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!) which I also recommend if you are looking for a gift to purchase for someone who loves history.

 

Christian Di Spigna. Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero.  New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group, August 14th 2018. 336 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This book exceeded my expectation.  At first I wasn’t sure who Joseph Warren was and why should I even read this book.  As the book stated many times it’s unfortunate that people haven’t understood the contribution of Joseph Warren with the independence of America.  His legacy has been overshadowed by other founding fathers such as George Washington, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin largely because of Joseph Warren’s early and untimely death at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Yet Warren was an important figure with the American independence more than most people today realized, even among those who are interested in things with the War of Independence since those that know something about Warren often know him only as a soldier who died in Bunker Hill (others who are even more knowledgeable will know he was the one who worked with Paul Revere during that famous “The Redcoats are coming!” event).  This book is rather overdue in narrating the contribution of Joseph Warren to America’s independence.  The author should be commended for doing a good job of maximizing the limited primary resources and also for using new primary sources to give us a better picture of the man Joseph Warren.  The challenges of finding primary sources is very real since Warren as a spy master destroyed many of his writings and also because when he passed away many of his belongings were broken or stolen.  So kudos to the author Christian Di Spigna for his research!

Read Full Post »

Review: 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder

As I mentioned earlier I’m on vacation.  Here’s a work I finished!

Arthur Herman. 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder.  New York, NY: Harper, November 28th 2017. 448 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This book is on both Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin.  At first one might think these men are diametrically different from one another but the author Arthur Herman successfully show reader how much the two of them are alike and how both men shaped what the twentieth century would be like.  A fascinating historical book even for those who know about both men since this work is still profitable for readers to see the comparison and contrast of the two men and also the timeline of both their lives.  I agree with the author’s thesis that these two men shaped much of the Twentieth Century.  I learned a lot from this book.

Read Full Post »

Review: Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans

A weekend nonfiction history book review…because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  I read this book as a result of a conversation on WordPress!

Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America’s Destiny.  New York, NY: Sentinel, October 24th 2017. 256 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

I have previously read a book by the two authors titled Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates which I enjoyed immensely.  While I was looking for something on Thomas Jefferson and the battle of New Orleans I was extremely delighted to find that the authors also wrote this book.

Read Full Post »