The crusty mid-nineteenth century Congressman, a leader in Congressional reconstruction, receives solid treatment in this biography. His private life is quickly summarized: the background data — bleak boyhood in Vermont, spartan school years at Dartmouth, residency in Gettysburg and Lancaster; his personal qualities — generosity to the "old, the poor, the handicapped", refusal to flatter the powerful, talent for making enemies, caustic wit; his peculiarities — club-foot, red-haired wig, and his Negro housekeeper who may or may not have been his mistress. The book focuses on the public and political man, the issues rather than the individual. From his entrance into politics in 1822 to his death in 1868, he participated in the major elections and political movements of the era: the Anti-Masonic League, the Whigs, the Know Nothings, the Free Soilers, and the Republicans. As a lawyer, he defended runaway slaves and the defendants in the Christiana battle. The Dred Scott decision, he said, "'damned Chief Justice Taney to everlasting fame, and, I think, to everlasting fire.'" As a legislator, he was instrumental in the passage of universal free schooling and college appropriations through the Pennsylvania legislature, and the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments and the reconstruction acts through Congress. He emerges as a man of principles, neither a saint nor a fanatic, capable participant in the dirty and violent politics of the time. He himself said of the Thirteenth Amendment "'the greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America (Lincoln).'" The analysis of people and events is illuminating, but occasionally dull and drawn-out. A useful supplement to Civil War study.
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1966
ISBN: 0690809735
Page Count: -
Publisher: T.Y. Crowell
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1966
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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