Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics

Book Description

Selected as one of the best 100 books ever written on the Civil War by Civil War Times Illustrated in 1981 and by Civil War: The Magazine of the Civil War Society in 1995.

A new, revised edition of the only full-scale biography of the Confederacy's top-ranking field general during the opening campaigns of the Civil War. Albert Sidney Johnston was selected as one of the best one hundred books ever written on the Civil War by Civil War Times Illustrated in 1981 and by Civil War: The Magazine of the Civil War Society in 1995.

“Roland offers a useful corrective to some of the harsher critiques [of Johnston] . . . portraying him as an officer who, just one year into the war, was still growing as a leader.”—from the foreword by Gary Gallagher

Customer Reviews:

Still the Standard Account of Johnston's Life After 40 Years.......2007-01-03

The University Press of Kentucky reissued Charles P. Roland's impressive biography of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston in 2001, and readers will be glad they did. It is telling, writes historian Gary Gallagher in a new Foreword, that no new biography of Johnston has come out in almost 40 years. Roland's balanced, entertaining, and informative work still stands as the standard account of this martial man's life. In telling Johnston's story, Roland emphasizes his devotion to duty no matter how distasteful the assignment. Time and time again, whether in Texas, Utah, or Tennessee, Johnston was faithful in discharging his duty despite any personal misgivings with those in authority. Many thought Johnston would run for President of the eponymous three republics, Texas, the United States, and the Confederate States. In all cases, Johnston declined, preferring military duty as the best way to help whatever cause he was then involved with. As of early 2007, Roland's study is and will remain for the foreseeable future the standard work on Albert Sidney Johnston's life.

Albert Sidney Johnston was born in Kentucky in 1803, the son of a practicing doctor who originally hailed from New England. Despite these Yankee roots, Johnston would become a thoroughly southern man. Johnston initially enrolled at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and he later attended West Point. Johnston counted future Confederate President Jefferson Davis as one of his close friends while at the military academy. Johnston was a good student and finished eighth overall, requesting a commission in the infantry. Johnston seemed to be attracted to the most active areas all his life, first participating in the Black Hawk War in 1832, then moving on to the newly created Republic of Texas in the 1830's. Johnston became a General an d commanded Texas' main army after she had won her independence from Mexico. While in Texas, Johnston eventually found himself in a feud with prominent Texan Sam Houston, a situation which would endure even after Texas joined the United States. From Texas, Johnston also participated in the 1846-48 War with Mexico, first as a Colonel of volunteers and then as an honorary aide. After the Mexican War, Johnston became chief paymaster of the Department of Texas, and also unsuccessfully ran a plantation in that state. His job entailed long, lonely journeys away from his family, a situation that finally ended when Johnston was placed in command of the famed 2nd United States Cavalry. While in this position, Johnston commanded an expedition to Utah to possibly fight a war with the Mormons in 1857. Johnston's treatment of the Mormons was impeccable, though he disagreed with their way of life. Later, Johnston became commander of the Department of California, and was at this post when the Civil War broke out. Johnston, who identified strongly with Texas, decided to join the Confederacy as soon as the Lone Star state seceded.

Johnston was soon appointed as one of the five senior generals of the Confederacy, and his experience was so extensive that his personal friendship with Jefferson Davis never even factored into the equation. Davis considered Johnston to be the finest general he had available, and assigned him to command the entire western theater from eastern Kentucky to western Arkansas. What Davis didn't give Johnston enough of was men and materiel. He was expected to cover this massive amount of territory with less than 60,000 men initially, facing over twice that number in Union troops. Johnston's attempts to defend the easter expanse of this department failed when one of his strong points at Forts Henry and Donelson was taken. Not only did Johnston fail to hold the forts, but he also lost 15,000 badly needed men in the process. Roland rightly criticizes Johnston's actions during this time frame. To Johnston's credit, he managed to hold together his army through a long and demoralizing retreat which saw the loss of all of Kentucky and most of Tennessee including Nashville. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard now called in reinforcements from across the Confederacy in an attempt to overwhelm Grant's Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing. At the height of the attack, Johnston was hit and his boot heel torn partially from the boot. Johnston seemed fine, but in reality an artery had been nicked and the general bled to death in a short while. Johnston was never given the chance to achieve greatness, argues Roland, so we cannot honestly say what might have been regarding his development. Men such as Grant learned from their early mistakes; whether or not Johnston would have done the same is open for speculation.

Johnston spent most of his adult life in and around the military in one form or another, so this biography is naturally enough concerned with a lot of military matters. Roland moves equally well in military and non-military discussions of Johnston's life. His portrayal of Johnston's family and the general's inability to house all of his children in one home due to his financial situation was especially touching. That Roland's book still stands as the standard account of Johnston's life testifies to his mastery of the subject. From Johnston's days as a cadet at West Point to the various campaigns for different countries Johnston found himself in, Roland covers all aspects of Johnston's life in a consistently fair manner, giving the man's failures (mainly financial) and successes (mainly military) equal attention. Roland ultimately concludes that Johnston handled his military commands with aplomb throughout the antebellum years, and he was possibly on his way to this same success in the Civil War before his life was cut short at Shiloh.

The maps in this book were standard for their time (1964), and I was actually pleasantly surprised by most of them. They serve their intended role of familiarizing the reader with the situation without being too vague or too few in number to make a difference. Roland uses the footnote method at the bottom of each page, a process which works better for me in terms of actually looking through the notes at the pertinent point in the text rather than at the end of a chapter or at the end of the book. Roland's bibliography is extensive and uses quite a few manuscript collections as the foundation of his research. Johnston's letters to and from family, friends, and acquaintances are used to especially good effect. The index is functional and serves its intended purpose quite well.

Charles P. Roland's biography of Albert Sidney Johnston continues to stand as the only modern work of the general. The quality of the book will insure that it stays this way for the foreseeable future. Those readers interested in biographical works on the Civil War's leaders would do well to have a copy of Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics on their shelves. No portion of Johnston's life, from his military and personal affairs, his financial failures and military successes, is left uncovered. This biography of Johnston can also be seen as a microcosm of the difficult choices facing men who had previously or were then serving in the United States Army in 1860. For many of these men, their state was more important to them than their country. This biography was also mentioned in several Civil War periodicals as one of the 100 best books written on the Civil War, a sentiment which is pretty close to the mark. Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics will appeal to students of antebellum America almost as much as students of the Civil war, for most of Johnston's life was spent in those pre-war years. Considering the relatively low price and solid account of Johnston's life, this biography belongs in every Civil War buff's collection.

(Note: Special thanks goes to The University Press of Kentucky.)

An Important Biography of a Major Military Officer of the Civil War Era.......2006-01-28

I first read an earlier edition of this book in graduate school in the latter 1970s and found it an interesting and useful work. On re-reading "Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics," it remains a very fine biography that may be appreciated by anyone interested in antebellum military history and the Civil War. Johnston, one of the senior commanders of Confederate troops in the first part of the Civil War was killed at Shiloh in 1862. Beforehand, he had enjoyed a significant career as both a U.S. Army officer and commander of the Army of the Republic of Texas. The U.S., Texas, and Confederate State of America are the "three republics" of the title.

Born in Washington, Kentucky, in 1803, Johnston was a West Pointer who gained broad experience in military command. In 1832 he participated in the Black Hawk War as adjutant to the commander. In 1834 he resigned his commission and two years later moved to the new Republic of Texas, where he soon became the ranking military official. He served in the Texan army for several years and later as the Texas Secretary of War. When the Mexican War arose in 1846, Johnston raised a regiment of Texas volunteers and commanded it until his men's enlistments expired.

After the Mexican-American War, Johnston remained in the U.S. Army and by 1855 had attained the rank of colonel. In 1857 when President James Buchanan named new officials to Utah Territory, reports from U.S. officials there declared the Mormons in rebellion against the government. To counter the situation, Buchanan sent a military expedition to Utah to quell the Mormons and install the appointed territorial governor, Alfred Cumming. Departing in July 1857, 2,500 troops marched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Utah, at first under the command of General William S. Harney but within a month Johnston was named as his replacement. During the two year period that Johnston headed this expedition, negotiations were conducted that eventually led to a peaceful settlement of the controversy and the installation of federal officers in Utah. His success in handling this crisis led to Johnston's promotion to brevet brigadier general and his appointment in 1860 to command the Department of the Pacific.

Johnston commanded the Pacific Department at the time of the secession of the lower south in the winter of 1860-1861 and it led to a difficult career choice. Since his strongest loyalties rested with Texas, Johnston resigned his commission when Texas seceded although he was never an advocate of secession. In June 1861 he and a company of other southerners marched cross-country to offer military service to the Confederacy. As one of the most experiences military officers available, Johnston was immediately appointed by a personal friend, Jefferson Davis, a general in the Confederate army with command of the western theater.

Johnston immediately set about to prepare for war. Outnumbered and outgunned, his army's first real test came in the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, in Kentucky, which fell to Union forces in February 1862. This defeat prompted a southern outcry against Johnston, but Jefferson Davis defended his friend as the best commander the South could muster. The next test came in April 1862 when Johnston gathered many of his troops around Corinth, Mississippi, from which he attacked Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant near the Shiloh church. Nearly successful in crushing the Federals the first day of the battle of Shiloh, April 6, Johnston was fatally wounded late in the day and his second in command, P.G.T. Beauregard, halted the attack until the next morning. This gave Grant time to reorganize his forces and bring in reinforcements. The next day Union troops drove the Confederates back to Corinth.

Since Johnston was killed so early in the Civil War it is difficult to assess his abilities as a commander of large numbers of troops, but Roland takes on this task. He notes that Johnston demonstrated caution early in the war, but showed tactical brilliance while commanding at Shiloh. The effect of his death has been a point of endless controversy ever since Shiloh. J.F.C. Fuller, the well-known British military analyst, called Johnston "brave but stupid," but others such as Charles Roland have assigned Johnston a place somewhere in the middle, neither brilliant nor stupid in his command decisions. One conclusion is appropriate, and Charles Roland makes this case well in his biography of this soldier, Johnston was a capable military officer. He was successful in every position of command he ever held, and at least in his handling of the Shiloh battle, he showed real ability to lead a large army to victory.

Balanced........2003-09-21

This is the story of a very interesting life. A good soldier and a fine man, Albert Sidney Johnston served in the background for so long that history questions his ability to rise to the top.

Adept at politics and administration, his leadership remains questioned despite involvement in the Black Hawk Indian War in Illinois, the protection of the early Texas Republic and frontier, the War with Mexico, the Mormon Campaign, and the stability of pre Civil War California.

Killed at Shiloh, the first top Confederate commander to die during the war, his death leaves the question of an unfulfilled life and thoughts of what might have been. His involvement in so many of the key areas associated with the early stages of this nation's Manifest Destiny, his life is an important one, one that impacts the long procession of events that lead up to the Civil War.

He is a person worth knowing about.

Daft Reviewer.......2003-04-12

One has to question the opinion of a reviewer who cannot even state the proper name of the focus of the biography and seems more interested in detailing his genealogy instead. The proper name of the General is Albert Sidney Johnston, NOT Sidney Albert Johnston, for those passersby who may be interested in the book. Also, I doubt the reviewer's assumption that possessing the name "Sidney" can be directly correlated to ignorant racist Southerners, or any Southerner, as he seems to assume.

Book Description

*8-page b/w photo section
* 6 x 9
* Gives a new perspective of the battle of Chickamauga
* Includes account of the little-known Nickojack Massacre

In 1862 John M. King joined the 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry. During his service for the Union he traveled 15,000 miles and participated in 33 engagements. A newspaper owner and editor, he naturally recorded his experiences using an inquisitive, often wry style. Throughout he registered the comic along with the tragic: his drunken commanders, the infighting among his comrades, and the often unjust disparities between officers and soldiers. This uncommonly literate diary, meticulously edited, is a hidden gem that will appeal to anyone who has ever taken an interest in the Civil War.

Claire Swedberg, a newspaper journalist, is also the author of Work Commando 311/I: American Paratroopers Become Forced Laborers for the Nazis and In Enemy Hands: Personal Accounts of Those Taken Prisoner in World War II.

Customer Reviews:

Clear Look Back.......1999-10-18

John King's diary provides window into the world of a very provincial country at the time of the Civil War. He does an excellent job of highlighting the attitudes of fellow soldiers, poor Southerners, plantation owners, and new recruits. Claire Swedberg, the editor, has footnoted the book very well, giving context to many of the events mentioned in the book. For every person mentioned, Swedberg has provided some background on their service -- or whether they even survived the war.

Passages such as King debating with a plantation owner over whether the Bible condones or condemns slavery -- where each side quotes verse -- make this a fascinating window into the past. King's attitude in the diaries is one that reflects the questioning of authority common to American soldiers. He himself is a private during most of the war, though he's promoted to corporal at one point. King evens disdains that rank!

It's not as conversational as Wilbur Fisk's diaries ("Hard Marching Every Day") but very readable. The diary ends abruptly in September, 1864, 10 months before the end of the war and King's return to his family.

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WWI: New York to Paris

Best War Novel

Novels, 1920-1925: One Man's Initiation: 1917, Three Soldiers, Manhattan Transfer (The Library of America)
John Dos Passos
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1931082391
Release Date: 2003-09-11

Book Description

Before he began the U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos prefigured his groundbreaking epic through three novels that provide a fascinating glimpse into his stunning achievement as an avant-garde prose stylist while they incisively chronicle early twentieth century Europe and America. Manhattan Transfer (1925), a kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City, is universally acknowledged as a modernist masterpiece. This lyrical, exuberantly experimental novel orchestrates the rising and falling fortunes of more than a dozen characters: Wall Street speculators, theatrical celebrities, impoverished immigrants, bootleggers, and anarchist rebels move through a maze of tenements and skyscrapers. The impressionistic One Man's Initiation: 1917 (1920) draws upon Dos Passos' experiences driving ambulances in France to portray the fear, uncertainty, and camaraderie of war. This Library of America edition includes passages censored by the book's original publisher. Three Soldiers (1921), here with the author's own introduction, delves deeply into the spiritual toll of war, dramatizing American servicemen fighting in battle, struggling against dehumanizing military regimentation, and experiencing the chaotic pleasures of Paris.

Along with its companion volumes Travel Books and Other Writings (see opposite page) and U.S.A. (Library of America, 1996), Novels 1920-1925 enriches our understanding of Dos Passos as a writer, thinker, and witness to history.

Customer Reviews:

WWI: New York to Paris.......2007-01-27

In this Library of America edition, there are three Dos Passos novels of varying length and subject matter. The first, One Man's Initiation: 1917, is a brief, semi-autobiographical account of the author's tour of duty in the ambulance corps of WWI. One thing holds true for all Dos Passos novels and this is his devotion to linear narrative at the expense of plot development. Dos Passos writes phenomenally well, his imagery exquisite, but one may often wonder to what point it is directed. In longer novels, character formation may be such that the lack of plot is less evident, but One Man's Intiation isn't long enough to create a diversion. Instead, it appears an arbitrary stream of events with little or no objective.

Three Soldiers, the next offering, is an extended example of the first. Again, it takes place during WWI and recounts the US Army experiences of, to no surprise, three soldiers. Here, once more, is a linear narrative devoid of plot, but Dos Passos' character formation and imagery are powerful enough to divert attention. Dos Passos can certainly evoke a time and place and expertly contrasts the desperate, chaotic trenches with the metropolitan flair and relative ease of Paris.

The best of the lot is saved for last in Manhattan Transfer, a novel of early 20th-century New York. The city and it's inhabitants are fertile ground for Dos Passos' talents and he presents here what I consider his finest effort. Still largely plotless, the author nevertheless admirably narrates the pre-war lives of twelve people interconnected in various ways. One readily experiences the sights and sounds of New York and retains a notion of city life as it must have been 90 years ago. Manhattan Transfer alone merits 5 stars, but the inclusion of the first two books lower the rating of this collection to 4. Regardless, I strongly recommend this reading experience to anyone interested in WWI-era American literature. Dos Passos may be different, may be a taste acquired, but he is undoubtedly worthy of our attention.

Best War Novel.......2003-10-10

Final Draft

Three Soldiers: Best War Novel

"How soons it take a feller to git out o'this camp", This quote in John Dos Passos Three Soldiers is typical for the soldiers for the soldiers of that time because, most of the men couldn't wait to charge into battle on the other side of the Atlantic. The authors main goal in the Three Soldiers is to show you what a soldier really goes through. John Dos Passos captures you in this novel how he shows you a soldier's life on the base and off. Also the different characteristics of the three soldiers, each one with a different back ground and each one going through the same struggles the brings to them. Even down to the languages the character uses told us the lifestyles for every day soldier.

Three Soldiers is about 3 men trapped in the world of war, Fuselli, Andrews, and Chrisfield. Each soldier took their own direction into the war. Each Soldier has their own purposes in the war whether it was to become a colonel or to be a war hero. John Dos Passos grabs the readers heart in this epic adventure each character faces.

Three Soldiers gets four stars due to the fact that the story is a bit confusing, as he jumps from the slang talk of the soldiers to the formal language of the colonels. The story takes place at a camp and moves on to the battlegrounds over sea. Each character had their own plot, Which is a great way to keep your attention, because three stories in one is always more interesting.

The setting jumps from the boring base to the treacherous battlefield. The setting is great because it emphasis's on the life of soldiers in that period. The blood and gore that is spread in the battlefield is such good imagery you thing your actually there. The sickness and the smell aboard the boat makes you gag by the use of diction John Dos Passos uses. John Dos Passos is no doubt one of the best with his words.

Also, the way the men speak to each other you could tell they weren't very educated, "you mean do I speak eyetalian, naw sir". The lieutenants speak the opposite with a more formal language, "Italian parentage, I presume? ". The language in this novel is somewhat confusing, because it's hard to read and try to understand what the soldiers are saying and get the story all in one.

The goal in this story for the characters is to get out of the war alive and to get the information back to the people in America about the brutality that goes on overseas. The goal they have to accomplish seems so impossible it grabs the reader's interest so strongly they won't be able to let go. The goals the characters face and defeat, make the novel unforgettable.

Book Description

A captivating story about a controversial WWII hero who fought for Finland, Germany, and the U.S.

Customer Reviews:

Poor home work for Gill.......2000-10-02

Gill is really superficial in this book. The overall story is quite fascinating, to say the least, but there are so many inaccuracies in the book that it should not have been published at all. I personally found the book unpleasant to read, because Gill had used the Finnish words for the most important terms. And mostly wrong. As a Finn, I find it troubling and makes reading uneasy. It also makes me wonder about other facts which have been presented in this book. I also did not understand why there was a photo of the former president Mauno Koivisto presented but no story attached. Maybe there was a reason?

Excellent topic for a Biography-Superficial Treatment.......1999-10-06

Soldier Under Three Flags relates the story of Larry Thorne (Lauri Torni) a Finnish soldier who emigrated to the US and had a distinguished career in Special Forces. One might imagine this would be a great subject for a biography but unfortunately, this book does not do justice to its subject. Thorne's Finnish military service is rife with inaccuracies, reflecting some poor research. For instance we read that during the Winter War, "the Scandinavian midnight sun lowered Russian (sic) soldiers morale", and "they disliked the forests...which they called the 'White Death' [Byelo Smert]." Well, "midnight sun" refers to the almost continual sunlight during the SUMMER. No one who's been to Finland in the winter could possibly mistake the almost permanent darkness for the midnight sun. Also, "Byelo Smert" refers to the white uniforms of the SOLDIERS not the forest. Finally, the author is less than fully forthcoming in Torni's association with the Waffen SS. He did attend training as the text describes, but he also fought in the Finnish SS battalion, which was part of the "Nordland" SS Division. In describing Torni's subsequent SF career the author appears more comfortable with the subject matter. However, battles are discussed very generally, with no details on his combat leadership, and there are no stories by those who knew him best-his troops. At best we get variations on, "he was a great soldier, and a great guy" nothing more. Finally, the author needlessly complicates his narrative by referring to Thorne/Torni's by the pseudonyms he used as he changed his name throughout his life; confusing to say the least. As a cursory account of this fascinating character's life this book may be acceptable, but it's basic errors regarding the Winter and Continuation Wars make it suspect for any more than the most basic background.

Fascinating Subject-Superficial Treatment.......1999-09-30

"Soldier Under Three Flags" attempts to portray the life of US Army Captain Larry Thorne (Lauri Torni). This man is a legend in both the Finnish and American armies; his exploits definitely deserve documentation. Unfortunately, this isn't it. The book is written in a, well, superficial style. Battle scenes on the Eastern Front that would be excellent vehicles to show Torni's maturing leadership and command style are only sketchily covered, and numerous inaccuracies detract from the subject at hand. For example, we read that due to the "Scandinavian (Finland is not technically Scandinavia) midnight sun, dense forest" etc the Russians suffered low morale during the Winter War. Well, I've been in Finland during the winter and there ain't NO sun at all. "Midnight Sun" actually refers to almost continous daylight during the summer. Also, the author can't get simple German phrases accurate: "zu Befehl" does not mean "at once"-that word is "sofort", it literally means, "at (your) orders, and "werewolf" in German is simply "werwolf" not "werwulf". When Captain Thorne emigrates to America, and joins Special Forces, the author seems to be on more comfortable ground, with better flow up to the end of the book. All in all, for a very generalized, and inaccurate in spots, accounting of a Finnish and American patriot, and combat leader this may suffice. The historian however, needs to look elsewhere.

Excellent and fascinating.......1999-03-14

I really liked this book. It held my interest and was extremely easy to read. It is easy to understand the authors fascination with Larry Thorne. I appreciate the 23 years of effort the author made to bring this story to us.

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what I wrote in The Guardian when an edition was published
Good story, inexplicable behavior
Highly symbolic treatise on individualism
Not as much about war as the title would have you believe...
GREAT WAR NOVEL

Three Soldiers
John Dos Passos
Manufacturer: Hard Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1406934852
Release Date: 2006-11-03

Book Description

Part of the generation that produced Ernest Hemingway and Ford Madox Ford, John Dos Passos wrote one of the most grimly honest portraits of World War I. Three Soldiers portrays the lives of a trio of army privates: Fuselli, an Italian American store clerk from San Francisco; Chrisfield, a farm boy from Indiana; and Andrews, a musically gifted Harvard graduate from New York. Hailed as a masterpiece on its original publication in 1921, Three Soldiers is a gripping exploration of fear and ambition, conformity and rebellion, desertion and violence, and the brutal and dehumanizing effects of a regimented war machine on ordinary soldiers.

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Anybody know where the electricity turns on? asked the sergeant in a good-humored voice. "Here it is." The light over the door of the barracks snapped on, revealing a rotund cheerful man with a little yellow mustache and an unlit cigarette dangling out of the corner of his mouth. Grouped about him, in overcoats and caps, the men of the company rested their packs against their knees.

Customer Reviews:

what I wrote in The Guardian when an edition was published.......2006-03-10

John Dos Passos was one of the few to tackle all these themes in one work, the gigantic USA. In Three Soldiers, an early novel set during the war before Weimar, he draws on personal experience to capture the clackety-clack of the war-machine. As in his masterwork, he uses popular song and bittersweet evocations of innocent youth in the face of ruthless power to trace the breaking of young men's dreams. With his elaborate narrative structures and seemingly effortless prose he shows that it is not just war that requires the suppression of liberty but modern industrial society too. But unlike the greatest first world war novel Journey To The End Of The Night there are signposts here of socialist paths that led far away from dystopia.

Good story, inexplicable behavior.......2004-09-07

The three soldiers to whom the title refers are Dan Fuselli, a working class Italian-American from San Francisco, "Chris" Chrisfield, an Indiana farm-boy, and John Andrews, from New York, the novel's main protagonist. All three went into the U.S. Army during the first world war and met during basic training. While Fuselli's big dream is to become a corporal and Chris just wants to get to the front to kill German soldiers, Andrews wants to become an accomplished musician and composer. Andrews is by no means a coward and does not shirk combat, but after the armistice is declared he has great difficulty taking orders from his superiors. As Andrews tells his French girlfriend, "every order shouted at me, every new humiliation before the authorities, was as great an agony to me." Andrews had managed to get permission from an officer for a School Detachment, which meant that he would be allowed to study music. He, instead, proceeds in a series of inexplicable misbehaviors to throw it all away.

_Three Soldiers_ is a colorfully written and probably fairly accurate study of various men's reactions to military life and the kind of discipline and regimentation inherent in that type of life. While many found it difficult to adjust to what they saw as a form of slavery, some of these soldiers chose to desert, believing they could eventually blend in with the civilian population on the European continent. Finding a French woman to marry seemed an easy solution. John Andrews was an intelligent, sensitive, well-educated and sophisticated young man. He even spoke French fluently. That he so capriciously chose the path that he did made absolutely no sense to me at all in this otherwise gripping and likable novel.

Highly symbolic treatise on individualism.......2004-08-05

To read this novel as a war novel is a mistake. World War I is mearly the canvas upon which Dos Passos paints his story. If individuals have a responsibility to their government, what responsibility does that same individual have to his/her own conscience? "Three Soldiers" attempts to answer this question. As with most great works of literature, the story can be read on two levels.

At the surface you have the stories of three men with different desires of who and what they want to be. There is a theme of Socialism and anti-war here as well. It's a good story at the surface level. What makes this novel great, however, is that there is an underlying message here, wrought with symbolism. It's the study of the awakening of the individual and the choices he (John Andrews) makes. It's a study of moral courage in the face of insurmountable odds.

John Andrews (the central character) initially joins the army out of a sense of duty, then begins to recognize how he has been stripped of all who he was and has begun to conform to the "machine" of society. Disgusted, he takes his first tentative steps back toward who he really is at heart. The moment of epiphany comes when, after having been wounded and waking up in a make-shift hospital surrounded by busts of great men of the past, he decides that he must make his stand to change the world in what ever way he can just like the men represented in the busts above him did. His choices eventually drive him to desert the army while in Paris. The real choice comes near the end of the novel when he is presented the opportunity to return to the army with no consequence to his prior desertion. (I won't ruin the ending for you!)

There is a strong element of socialist propoganda in the novel. I am no more a socialist than I am a horse, but the reader should remember that this novel was written before the failings of socialism were widely known. It was a much more idealisic time and the evils and harshness of socialism had yet to be realized. The socialist element of the novel need not deter the reader from the true message: the courage and triumph of individual freedom.

Not as much about war as the title would have you believe..........2004-02-17

This book is not so much about the First World War(most of the book takes place after the armistice) as about the boredom that is inflicted on soldiers to make them a unit. Even that isn't given in explicit detail, and without this level of detail the rest of the book just falls flat.

Also this book has many footnotes which unfortunately are included at the back of the book instead of at the bottom of each page. It makes for continual flipping back and forth and a most irritating reading experience.

GREAT WAR NOVEL.......2003-10-03

Dos Passos delivers Big Time, clear, concise writing with realistic dialougue that reveals the characters through their own words.
A CLASSIC!!

Testament to Union: Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C.

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A must-have for D.C. students of the Civil War!
Looking beyond just the major DC monuments
Glad to have found this book.

Testament to Union: Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C.
Kathryn Allamong Jacob
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0801858615

Book Description

Although the monuments of Washington, D.C., honor more than two centuries of history and heroes, five years of that history produced more of the city's public commemorative sculpture than all the others combined. The heroes of the Civil War command Washington's choicest vantage points and most visible parks, lending their names to the city's most familiar circles and squares -- Scott, Farragut, Logan, Sheridan, Dupont, and others.

In Testament to Union, Kathryn Allamong Jacob tells the stories behind the many District of Columbia statues that honor participants in the Civil War, predominantly Union, and testify to their sacrifice and valor. In her introduction, Jacob puts these monuments in historical context, describing the often bitter battles over control of historical memory, the postwar monument business (a lone soldier-in-granite model could cost a community as little as $1,000), and the rise of the "city beautiful" movement that transformed Washington. She then offers individual descriptions of forty-one sculptures, providing a lively and informative guide to some of Washington's most beautiful and moving works of art.

Organized geographically for easy use on walking or driving tours, the entries begin by listing the subject or title of the memorial along with its sculptor, medium, date, and location. Jacob describes its various elements and symbols, and she notes who commissioned the sculpture, who paid for it (or failed to pay in several cases), and who approved its design and placement. She also includes anecdotes and controversies that bring the monuments and their colorful history more fully to life. Admiral David Farragut's statue, for example, is cast from the propeller of his ship the U.S.S. Hartford, from whose rigging he shouted, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" during the battle of Mobile Bay. At the dedication of Lincoln Park's Emancipation Monument in 1876, the largest assembly of African-American to date, speaker Frederick Douglass shocked white listeners with thinly veiled criticism of the martyred Lincoln.

Edwin Remsberg's photographs of the monuments capture striking images of war and sacrifice -- the straining horses and terrified men of the cavalry grouping at the Grant Monument; the vivid tomb effigy of young John Meigs, depicting him as he was found dead in a field; the Pension Building frieze with its hundreds of finely detailed terra cotta soldiers and sailors marching and rowing across the face of the building. Along with swashbuckling generals atop pedestals bristling with cannon, unexpected subjects appear. A statue of John Ericsson, the Swedish-American who designed the Monitor and perfected the screw propeller for the Union Navy, is hidden in a circle of shrubbery beside the Potomac. A bas-relief of twelve nuns dedicated to the memory of various religious orders who nursed the wounded during the Civil War sits beside noisy Rhode Island Avenue. In addition to the enormous white temple to Lincoln on the Mall, four smaller statues of that president can be found in the city where he was assassinated.

Washington's Civil War sculptures bear silent witness to the struggle to preserve the Union. They are the fruit of conscious efforts to shape the nation's memory of that struggle. For tourists and long-time residents, and for anyone interested in the Civil War or public art, Testament to Union is a wonderful guide to these tangible connections to the nation's past and an era when public monuments packed powerful messages.

Customer Reviews:

A must-have for D.C. students of the Civil War!.......2004-01-08

What a terrific book! The pictures and informations are great,
well-organized, and make the monuments easily accessible. Every
student of the Civil War living in the DC/Northern Virginia/Maryland area should have a copy of this book. The photos alone are really worth the cost of the book. Wonderful!

Looking beyond just the major DC monuments.......2003-04-21

As a resident of Capitol Hill, I found this book useful and informative. I, for one, had no idea that the Congressional Cemetery just a few blocks from my home contained the first Civil War era monument erected. Nor did I know that the first major Lincoln Memorial was right here on the hill.

The book is fascinating and can provide either a brief, or detailed, look at the monuments.

The only thing the book is lacking is a MAP to help the unitiated into the world of DC's complicated streets.

Glad to have found this book........1999-03-20

As a citizen working in the District of Columbia, and an avid walker, I have been fascinated with the vast array of statues present virtually everywhere in the city. I have been searching for a source of information that could help me with learning about the history of the pieces. While I was looking for something a little less specific - or I should say, more far reaching (there's a lot, a whole lot of statues in D.C.) than the subject of this book - what is here is fascinating and very informative. I have spoken with some tour guides that visit the statues with tourists, and some of the information that they share about the statues and sites differs slightly than what is written here - but I am so confident in the thoroughness of Ms. Jacobs' research - I am sure these guides are speaking the embellishment of popular myth. I would love to share some of this elaboration with the author to confirm this notion.

Three Years in the Sixth Corps: A Concise Narrative of Events in the Army of the Potomac, from 1861 to the Close of the Rebellion, April, 1865 (Collector's Library of the Civil War)

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Three Years in the Sixth Corps: A Concise Narrative of Events in the Army of the Potomac, from 1861 to the Close of the Rebellion, April, 1865 (Collector's Library of the Civil War)
George T. Stevens
Manufacturer: Time-Life Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0809442663

John Le Carré : Three Complete Novels ( Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / The Honourable Schoolboy / Smiley's People )

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Perhaps Best for LeCarre Bores
More than espionage
I'll take great trilogies for $1000, Alex...
Le Carre is simply the best !
Outstanding modern fiction

John Le Carré : Three Complete Novels ( Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / The Honourable Schoolboy / Smiley's People )
John Le Carre
Manufacturer: Wings
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0517146975
Release Date: 1995-09-30

Amazon.com

This three-in-one set of le Carré thrillers about late cold war spycraft has wit, atmosphere, and intelligence to die for. In le Carré's most autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy, Rick Pym, a con artist Dickens might have invented (except that he's based on le Carré's dad) raises his son, Magnus, to be the perfect gentleman for the spook trade. Magnus writes to explain himself to his son, Tom; le Carré wrote the book to explain his own scalawag dad to himself, and burst into tears when he finished the novel.

In The Russia House, set in 1987, a Soviet dissident physicist drops a secret manuscript to Barley Blair, a boozy loser of a British book publisher, to alert the West that the evil empire is about to collapse of its own absurd weight. Can Western spies trust the dissident? Just how safe is the "safe house" where Barley parleys with his sexy Russian contact, Katya? Where should Barley's loyalty lie, with love or country?

The Secret Pilgrim is almost a short-story collection. (That's why it was broken into three separate audio versions: The Fledgling Spy, The Spy Who Came of Age, and The Spy in His Prime.) Ned, a British spook who Barley troubled in The Russia House, invites le Carré's legendary spy George Smiley to lecture his new class of recruits. Smiley's remarks alternate with Ned's reminiscences of his own covert adventures, from the sublimely ridiculous to the scathingly scary. The new kids have no idea what tortuous moral torments await them, but le Carré gives us an idea.

Customer Reviews:

Perhaps Best for LeCarre Bores.......2007-08-02

"A New Collection," brings together three novels of Brit John LeCarre's prolific middle period, "A Perfect Spy," "The Russia House," and "The Secret Pilgrim." LeCarre, whose masterworks include "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold," "Smileys People," and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," was, of course, an actual British spy, for five years, under his birth name, David Cornwell. According to internet biographers, he was, in fact, embedded in Soviet territory when he was blown by Kim Philby, most famous post-war British secret service traitor.

When LeCarre published "A Secret Spy" in 1986, much-honored American novelist Philip Roth declared it "the best English novel since the war." It is LeCarre's most personal, autobiographical novel, detailing, as it does, how a con man father much like LeCarre's own, (Richard Thomas Archibald Cornwell), creates a perfect spy and counterspy in his son. Interestingly enough, the book also mentions Philby, and his partners in traitor-hood, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, by name. But I didn't find the novel interesting as a whole. It's more than 500 pages long, and, from the beginning, the story runs along two tracks: one, the childhood-youth of Magnus Pym, that made him what he was, and two, the defensive activities of the secret service once he's blown. Not until page 300, much longer than many non-devoted readers will persist, does it get to the interesting section, his actual life as a spy/counterspy.

"The Russia House," in contrast, stands on its own as a thriller. It's set in 1987, the third year of Russia's attempt to open up --"Glasnost"--and details the efforts of a brilliant Soviet scientist to get information about the weakness of Russia's offensive armaments to the West. To do this, he uses Katya, beautiful Russian editor, and Barley Scott Blair, classy drunken British publisher, providing us with a moving, mature love story as well. The spy story's well-backgrounded, and engrossing: it opens with one of the author's writing trademarks, a good set piece, a Russian trade fair, gives us generous helpings of another of the writer's trademarks, the midnight meetings of the spy managers, the "Whitehall Mandarins;" has a resonant, complex plot, and his usual good dialogue/descriptive writing. It even gives us a happy Hollywood ending: not quite as happy as the actual Hollywood movie based upon it, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, but Barley does get the girl, her children and uncle, sooner or later.

The third book, "The Secret Pilgrim" is really a loosely jointed compilation of short stories, the memoirs of Ned, who was Barley Blair's controller, as he faces retirement. We learn a bit more about the Russia House story, and about the intense days in "the circus," as LeCarre calls his fictional spy service, as it cleans house of its traitorous counterspies. Some of the short stories are more interesting than others. But, as all are narrated in flashback, and none achieve lift-off due to the book's episodic nature, the book may be a bit bloodless for some. Once again, it's probably best for devoted readers.

More than espionage.......2006-11-13

The three central questions of this trilogy:

1. How do you retain your humanity as your innocence and illusions die?
2. At the end of the day, are you any different or any more right than your enemy?
3. Do the ends justify the means?

See how George Smiley, a titan in the guise of a downtrodden, inconsequential man, learns the answers.

I'll take great trilogies for $1000, Alex..........2006-03-22

Seldom do trilogies work out... for the reader, that is. Most of the time they seem to be some a kind of perverse sandwich, with a bland slice of white bread stuck between the real meat of character and plot (See the Dune Trilogy, for instance).

This is not the case with Le Carre, who deftly uses the Honourable Schoolboy to set us up for the conclusion of Smiley's People. There is no neat linear progression of plot from Tinker Tailor to the denouement, the apprehension of Karla and the triumph, however muted or understated, of George Smiley, but a finely-varied panorama of character, setting, and action, well-paced and well-presented.

Le Carre seems capable of creating fully-realized characters at will, without ever falling into the trap of predictability or homogeneity. His people reveal different facets of their personality from novel to novel. For instance, the Toby Esterhazy of Smiley's People, selling fake Degas bronzes, is a more rounded, more human, but identifiable and convincing extrapolation from the haughtily dismissive Toby of Tinker Tailor.

And such character development takes place within the framework of themes set forth in the first novel, e.g., the stretch between the spy as public servant and as a civilian with very human wants and needs, the gulf between the liberal Smiley who attempts to see the world through the eyes of others - such as when he meets Karla in India - and the fanatical Karla who pays the price for his "lack of moderation", the tension between ideology and personal loyalty - symbolized by the mole's betrayal of his best friend, on the orders of Moscow Centre.

No one is better at creating the milieu of the cold war as a backdrop for the exploration and interplay of personalities.

In short, three great reads.

Le Carre is simply the best !.......1998-12-16

When I make my fantasy list of the best books I've ever read, Le Carre's trilogy about George Smiley is near the top. The author is difficult reading. You have to pour over most paragraphs, so as not to miss each nouance. Smiley is the ultimate father figure in espionage literature. You are comfortable when he is there and figuring things out, but you marvel at the complexity and difficulty of what he has to do, and how he does it. I commend this to anyone who loves rich characterization, and wants a book he or she will come back to again and again.

Outstanding modern fiction.......1998-11-08

I was interested in the espionage story but what I found most compelling were the characters and how much i grew to care about them over time (especially Smiley). The conclusion, that if you choose the methods of your enemy you are no better than your enemy is quite true. I do not like much modern fiction but found these three novels completely compelling, and have read them twice.

Plautus: Three Comedies (The Braggart Soldier/ the Brothers Menaechmus/ the Haunted House

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Plautus: Three Comedies (The Braggart Soldier/ the Brothers Menaechmus/ the Haunted House

Manufacturer: Harper Torchbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EH8QKA

Soldiers of the Fire: Book Three of the Crucible of Honor Trilogy

Average customer rating:

Excellent!

Soldiers of the Fire: Book Three of the Crucible of Honor Trilogy
J. Gordon Colford
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1419612956
Release Date: 2005-08-18

Book Description

While Kaled marches home to face Chad's insurrection, Bret and Lieutenant Soren seek the aid of both Will Gates and the common citizens of Khardan in smuggling Shalia and Samuel from the palace and protecting them from capture by Edderling's rebel soldiers. Will sacrifices himself to Chad's custody to buy time for the queen and prince to escape. Upon his arrival in the Northwest Territory, Kaled finds the insurrection has reached as far as North Ridge when a battle erupts among the loyalist and rebel provincial troops, not more than a few miles from the Baraal home. After sending Robert and a company of Mederan troops to secure the governor's palace, he and his allies set out for Khardan in the hopes of joining with the mustered loyalist soldiers en route to meet him, and to end Chad's bid for the throne with as little harm to the civilian population as possible.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2006-04-22

A great ending to a wonderful trilogy. Exactly what I could have hoped for, even after a brief scare in the middle of the book. I know that this is an author that we will be seeing more of, and he work will only get better.

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