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Bezig met laden... General Jo Shelby's March (2010)door Anthony Arthur
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I purchased this book because I grew up near Shelby's home and because of Random House's reputation for quality books. In the first pages I was disappointed. Anyone writing about Shelby must deal with the fact that so much of what is known about him is mixed in with all the hyperbole, purple prose, and outright lies of his wartime adjutant John Newman Edwards, as well as the nonsense of the "Lost Cause." Shelby's mid-twentieth century biographer, Daniel O'Flaherty, made a considerably step up from Edwards, but still relied too much on the Shelby legend and too little on well-documented research. I was hoping Arthur had written a "life and times," relying a great deal on careful research of other authors about the times. Arthur stays more with Shelby than with his times, and has done little research in primary sources himself. Yet the more I read, the more the book grew on me. The final pages in their analysis of Shelby's character and how he met his moments in history are the book's strongest points. Overall, this is a good read thoughtfully written if not exhaustively researched ( ) geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Acclaimed historian Anthony Arthur tells one of the most remarkable but surprisingly unknown stories of the post-Civil War era in full for the first time. Here is the unforgettable account of how a famous Confederate general forged a defiant new life out of crushing defeat, and how he finally achieved forgiveness and respect in his own reunited land. General Jo Shelby had been a daring and ruthless cavalry commander, renowned and notorious for his slashing forays behind Union lines. After Appomattox, Shelby, declaring that he would never surrender, headed for Mexico. With three hundred men, some from his fighting "Iron Brigade" regiment, others adventurers, fortune hunters, and deserters, the man Arthur refers to as "the last holdout of the Confederacy" made the treacherous twelve-hundred-mile trip. In thrilling and vivid detail, General Jo Shelby's March describes the dusty and dangerous trek through a lawless Texas swarming with desperadoes, into a Mexico teeming with Juárez's rebels and marauding Apaches. After near fratricide among his fraying band of brothers, Shelby arrived to present a quixotic proposal to Emperor Maximilian: He and his fellow Americans would take over the Mexican army and, after being reinforced by forty thousand more Confederate soldiers, the government itself. Though a dramatic, doomed, and brave endeavor, Shelby's actions changed both himself and American history forever. Anthony Arthur then reveals the astonishing end of Shelby's career: his return to America and his renouncing of slavery, his nomination by President Grover Cleveland to become U.S. marshal for western Missouri, his eventual fame as a model of nineteenth-century progressivism. General Jo Shelby's March is a riveting book about a uniquely American man, both brave and brutal, a hero and a hothead, whose life's startling last chapter is a microcosm of the aftermath of our most divisive war. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)972.07History and Geography North America Mexico, Central America, West Indies, Bermuda Mexico, Central America, West Indies, Bermuda French intervention (1861-1867)LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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