Product Description
Originally published in 1988, Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries is an engaging and artfully illustrated history of an enigmatic assemblage of canyons and mesas tucked into the southwestern corner of Colorado. Duane A. Smith recounts the dramatic 1888 "discovery" of the cliff dwellings and other Anasazi ruins and the ensuing twenty-year campaign to preserve them. Smith also details the resulting creation of a national park in 1906 and assesses the impact of more recent developments—railroads and highways, air pollution, and the growing significance of tourism—on the park’s financial and ecological vitality. This revised and completely redesigned edition includes more than 50 illustrations and will be enjoyed by readers interested in environmental, Western, and Colorado history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Well researched reference material
Great book with diverse research and comprehensive. Easy to read and understand. Recommended for those interested in our indian past in the US. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the best biography of one of the most exciting, colorful, and controversial figures of the Civil War. A renowned cavalryman, Nathan Bedford Forrest perfected a ruthless hit-and-run guerrilla warfare that terrified Union soldiers and garnered the respect of warriors like William Sherman, who described his adversary as "that Devil, Forrest . . . the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side."

Historian Bruce Catton rated Forrest "one of the authentic military geniuses of the whole war," but Brian Steel Wills covers much more than the cavalryman's incredible feats on the field of battle. He also provides the most thoughtful and complete analysis of Forrest's hardscrabble childhood in backwater Mississippi; his rise to wealth in the Memphis slave trade; his role in the infamous Fort Pillow massacre of black Union soldiers; his role as founder and Grand Wizard of the first Ku Klux Klan; and his declining health and premature death in a reconstructing America.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Hollingsworth's Vision of Forrest
Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men, Forrest, August 29, 2009


This review was changed by sources unknown. Here is his parody of my review: "Omitted by sources unknown"

Poor woman who daydreams impossible dreams. Maybe all Southern women are like that? Expecting a good report of the Confederacy, this first novel was a disappointment. The cover of a vision of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the great General, who periodically "visits" her as she sits at the kitchen table making out her grocery list. Even a man sees the general: "Forrest appears unmounted, natty in shirt garters and whipcord trousers, wearing silver spurs." Sally knew that the Confederate mint is in Columbia. The Confederacy is lost in its complexity in her day dreams. The ambience The author tells a strange story of Mrs. Hollingsworthof her kitchen does not put Forrest off; growing up in Chapel Hill. Tennessee, in a grand house with a separate kitchen where slaves prepare the family's meals.It means nothing to him in Sally's opinion.He carefully embellishes this most unusual story where nothing is as it seems. Mrs. Hollingsworth, age 50, had many illusions and delusions about men and other useless objects, but the general is the only one to be seen by others. The cover drawing is awfully good in its detail all in his regalia. Too bad you can't see it. The book is on the market and expensive on Amazon. Guess that's why they are denying they even have the title (at least six). Get the book for the cover, read the crazy things a lazy woman wants in her life and write your own review. That will be justice for all who write reviews for this Seattle company which has no mailing address or email to report their own harrassment. In a circutous route, the story written quite simply jumped from, the daydream to provocative nonsense. It could have been written by Zach, also a Floridian teacher who could write about gods and classical personages as a child. Alas, he did not have to manufacture a fantasy world; he created his at the age of four or five. History is made out of accidents and coincidences.

There is ambience but that's about all in this false history like the local historian bases his on 'Suttree', a fictional novel. Because of that, I quit reading Metro Pulse several months ago. In the movie, Eragon, this quote describes this book: "I'm not a legend. People believe just about anything" especially in print. Never give up on hope, faith and charity. Mrs. Hollingsworth needs all the help she can get, even from that vision of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a real Southern gentleman. Sally would simply adore something like that.On the whole, it is an interesting concept.

Best Biography of Forrest.
This is the definative biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Although it is clear that the author admires his subject, he provides a fair and balanced account of Forrest's life. The book is well written and thoroughly researched. If you are going to read one book on Forrest, this should be it.

Good Understanding Why Forrest Operated Independently
What I like about Wills book, besides the bio, is that it addresses why Forrest was often not in the main theater of operations during the crucial times of 1864. Forrest is well defined as a frontier planter whose strong belief in honor combined with an explosive action oriented temperament made him a ferocious opponent yet he was difficult as a subordinate except under the right conditions. In the case of the latter, Forrest literally offers to slap Braxton Bragg for his lack of action after Chickamauga and only fails to do so because in his estimation, Bragg was not a man thus not worthy of the challenge. Wills does an excellent compact bio of Forrest capturing the early life and his rise to success as a slave trader and planter to a private in the Confederate service to the immediate promotion of Colonel and on. All the daring raids are captured, aided by maps but aside from Shiloh and Chickamauga, the only truly large operation Forrest was involved with was Hood's march to Nashville where the inexplicable Spring Hill disaster is laid at Forrest's feet unfairly when Hood had responsibility of creating a sufficient force to stop Schofield's escape. The tremendous work ethic combined with his fearlessness and temper is described throughout the book including Forrest's post war life and business. Forrest does amazingly well defending his Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama sector with a relative small force culminating in his great victory at Brices Crossroads.Wills includes Forrest's post war career with an example of Forrest's feared temper by describing a railroad meeting where one of Forrest's engineers starts the discussion with a loaded pistol on the table in case the company President, Forrest, intended a violent interruption. Although not captured in gross detail, Forrest's role at the infamous Fort Pillow is described in sufficient detail along with Forrest's post war role in the Ku Klux Klan. The role of the Klan is described as an attempt to maintain a retaliatory police force against over stepping radicals and to force former slaves into roles as cheap labor and as a channeled political force obviously through violence if deemed necessary. The association with Forrest seems quite clear but murky before congress. One thing is very clear in this bio, if Forrest was involved, he had to lead the action, or he otherwise was not interested. A most feared adversary, inventive, unpredictable and incredibly daring leading his men wherever he wanted them to go. As Wills points out, how unfortunate he rarely had a suitable commander to follow in larger campaigns and he was not used effectively during Sherman's initial march to Atlanta. If he was, Sherman would not have got there until at last 1865.The book is approximately 381 pages, maps and pictures and another 100 pages of notes and index. The book is endorsed by the late Emory M. Thomas (The Last cavalier), Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. (Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend) and William C. Davis (The Lost Cause).

More of the same old second-hand garbage...
Any time a writer fails to use all available sources the end result is always worthless.

The 1871 Congressional hearings of Forrest chaired by William Tecumseh Sherman regarding both Ft. Pillow and the KKK failed to support the author's tired repetition of the 1864 "investigation."Why stick with the wartime 1864 propaganda hearing when the later hearing disputed virtually everything previously assumed?

At Ft. Pillow Forrest took 39 USCT prisoner and turned them over to his commanders.He turned over 14 of the most grievously wounded surviving USCT to the Acting Master of the U.S. Steamer Silver Cloud (Federal Official Records).

Hardly the acts of a "massacre."

Same old tiring retelling of second-hand propaganda when first-hand contemporaneous sources are actually available.

Your Obedient Servant,

Colonel Michael Kelley, (...)
"I came here as a friend...let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." - LT Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis, Tennessee - July, 1875

Even Handed Biography
The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman : Nathan Bedford Forrest (Modern War Studies) by Brian Steel Wills is a fine biography of perhaps the most complicated and interesting leader of the Civil War.In describing Forrest it is difficult, if not impossible, to remain neutral.For those that love or hate him there is plenty of ammunition.However, Wills does a better than anticipated job taking the neutral course.

For those that view Forrest as the reincarnation of the Devil, there is plenty of evidence, and Wills covers most of it.Forrest was a crude, ruffian slave trader who would not think twice of killing a man who he believed showed him disrespect.As Willis writes, he was responsible for the massacre of Union troops at Fort Pillow.As a General he was brilliant when in independent command, but did not do well when working under someone elses command or part of a larger team.This failure limited his ability to have a greater impact on the course of the War.His failure to work with other Generals who he believed were inferior was part of the reason that the Union Army was able to escape destruction at Spring Hill.

On the other hand, Forrest was a brilliant tactician and a real leader of men.From leading his troops out of the encirclement at Fort Donaldson to his brilliant victory at Bryce Creek, Forrest was a fighter and a leader. Furthermore, if Hood had listened to Forrest after Spring Hill, and allowed Forrest to out flank the Union troops at Franklin, the battle of Franklin may have been a Confederate victory rather than a disaster.

Willis deftly moves between the several General Forrests.He seems not to have an agenda, giving the good with the bad.At least until the Civil War ends.While Wills does describe Forrest's contribution to the founding and growth of the Ku Klux Klan, he seems to hold his punches.However, that is a slight criticism.Al in all, this is a good book about one of the most interesting personalities in the Civil War. ... Read more

Product Description
This book analyzes the politics behind improving race relations in local communities through the use of mayoral task forces. By investigating three communities with unique cultural, social, economic, and racial characteristics, Middleton provides insight into why some communities are more likely to realize success in influencing policy makers to adopt policy innovations aimed at improving race relations than others. ... Read more

Product Description
The 1909 murder case surrounding the wealthy Swope family of Independence, Missouri, gripped newspaper readers throughout the nation. This book gathers the facts behind the suspicious fates of three Swope family members: the eccentric Colonel, millionaire donor of Kansas City, Missouri s Swope Park, his affable cousin, and a young nephew and heir. The mystery pits the Swope matriarch against her disfavored son-in-law, Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde. Charged with poisoning the Colonel and suspected of multiple other attempted murders, Dr. Hyde endures national media attention for this crime of the century. The series of trials and appeals that followed explores the question: Was he a diabolical villain bent on inheriting Swope s millions or the unfortunate victim of a family grudge? This account of gothic-era America follows streetcar tracks from the courtrooms of Kansas City to the typhoid-plagued Swope mansion in nearby Independence. The author delivers an engaging and accurate retelling of these 100-year-old events in the literary journalism tradition by analyzing court transcripts, newspaper coverage, and personal memoirs. Readers also get a new scenario based on modern science for what may have happened in the dark hallways of the mansion on Pleasant Street.It has been 100 years since multiple tragedies befell members of the prominent Swope family in Independence, Missouri. But Deaths on Pleasant Street gives those shadowy events and the ensuing scandal the immediacy of today's headlines. I began the book in early afternoon, and was unable to sleep until I'd turned the last page. Rarely does historical nonfiction deliver so effective a combination of exhaustive research and inspired storytelling. -Charles GusewelleThe trail of western Missouri's crime of the twentieth century may be stone cold, but Giles Fowler's master sleuthing and briskly paced narrative restore this still-unsolved country-house mystery to vivid life. Deaths on Pleasant Street will captivate history buffs and whodunnit fans alike. -Harry HaskellWith a creeping sense of dread reminiscent of Gaslight and the immersive reporting that recalls In Cold Blood, Deaths on Pleasant Street elevates a sensational case of Victorian intrigue, skullduggery, ruinous accusations and black horror to the exalted realm of literature. Poring through a trove of historic manuscripts, legal records and the delicious yellow journalism of the era, Fowler has done graceful service to the dead by telling the tale with a consistent and unfailing writerly flair more fully and fairly than it was ever told, or could possibly have been told, at the time. -Patrick Beach ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A eally murder mystery. You be the judge.
In the late 1800's, Colonlel Thomas Swope made his money in mining and moved to the Kansas City area in Missouri. His brother and sister-in-law, Maggie Swope, lived in Independence, MO., which at that time, was the large city and County seat. He bought a large parcel of farm land, sold it off into smaller parcels and made his fortune. This area became downtown Kansas City. He donated a large parcel to the city to become a park, Swope Park.

After the death of Maggie's husband, Col. Swope lived in the Swope mansion along with his cousin Hunton Moss, 62, and Maggie's children. Her oldest daughter, Francis, married Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde, against the family's wishes. Hyde had had questionable relationships previously with two divorced women whom he had borrowed money and not paid back. Maggie eventually welcomed him into the family after Hyde cared for her son, Thomas, after an accident.

On September 18, Hyde purchases cyanide capsules from the drug store. On October 1, 1909, Colonel Hunton Moss, age 62, dies of a brain hemorrhage. He was one of the executor's of Col. Swope's estate, and Hyde wants to be the new executor. He hears of Swope wanting to change his will so that more of his money would go to the poor of Kansas City and not his nieces and nephews. Swope planned on changing his will the following week. October 3, Col. Swope feels ill and Hyde gives him a capsule, saying it will help his stomach, having had gastric problems in the past. Within minutes, Swope has convulsions and is dead by the end of the day. By end November, another Swope family member is dead and many ill. Is this all circumstance or did Dr. Hyde murder and attempt murder on other family members for a larger piece of the inheritance?

The author, a previous KC Star reporter, does an amazing job recounting the saga of the Swope family. His extensive research and accurate depiction of facts puts you in the jury box.

Arrived as promised and ahead of schedule!
Arrived as promised and ahead of schedule! As a Kansas City resident this book was fasinating reading!

Fantastic
The author was able to take a real crime drama and make it a page turning jewel.The story itself was truly fasinating. The icing on the cake for me was the fact that this story happened right here in my home town. The family names are well known.Hyde Park.Swope Park. Swope Avenue.It was hard to put this book down.

Brings the past to life
"Deaths on Pleasant Street" is a really interesting read. The author really brings the characters, who were real people, to life. He includes wonderful old photographs as well as artists' renderings of the trial as they appeared in the newspaper back in the early part of the 20th Century. The book was given to me as a gift, and I in turn purchased another copy for my uncle for Christmas. It has been a big hit in our family.

A real page turner.
I read a lot of non-fiction books.This one kept me up all night which rarely happens
unless it is a very good, very well written and researched story that is also
entertaining too.Highly recommend.Hope the author writes another true story. ... Read more

Product Description
A former midwestern journalist before turning college professor, Robert Unger delves into the FBI's own files regarding the 1933 massacre of four lawmen in Kansas City's Union Station parking lot. Unger reveals that the case that catapulted J. Edgar Hoover's FBI into national prominence was far less the Bureau's proud birth than its original sin. Tearing away 64 years of secrets and legends, Unger gives us the real story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

A limited view of a historic event
By limiting himself to the FBI files as his primary (only?) data source, the author may have done himself a disservice by not expanding the scope of his work. Two things stand out to me. During his post-mortem analysis, he discounts the possibility that the FBI agent was telling the truth and it was Chief Reed, who allegedly "hated" Frank Nash, who fired the fatal shots that killed Nash and mortally wounded Agent Caffrey. This would have required exploring non-FBI data centered on Chief Reed's life and personality. The second is his omission of two promising alternate suspects, Solly Wiessman and Maurice Denning. Wiessman is mentioned in the book only once and Denning is apparently ignored by both the FBI and the author. I have always heard these two mentioned as more likely accomplices. By analyzing only the FBI data, the book offers tantalizing clues but we still do not have a definitive account as to what might have happened on that bloody day that led to the creation of the modern FBI.

Eye opener.
Mr. Unger has given us all something to think about in this book about the events of and surrounding the Massacre. I live 15 min. from Union Station and have been there many times and have read every thing I could get my hands on about the Massacre and this book is the best by far. Who was with Verne Miller at the Station? I am still not sure but Mr. Unger clears up some of my Questions.

Courage and Truth
Professor Unger is a man of great courage and integrity.His research has been thorough and meticulous.Most of the American public will not believe what they read in this book because they do not want to know the truth.I have been reading true crime books for almost 50 years and this is the best of the best.There is not one scintilla of credible evidence that Charley Floyd or Dave Rigetti were anywhere near the Union Station on the day of the Kansas City "Massacre".Two families were left with the stigma of having a mass murderer in their lineage, while federal agents knew it was untrue and caused the deaths of these two men.The truth is out and this abuse of federal authority will remain an open sore in American criminology until the FBI comes clean.Both Charley and Dave had committed other crimes that warranted the death penalty, but that in no way justifies governmental misconduct at the highest levels.

A Very Enjoyable Book
The book is well written, holding my attention throughout. It was read within a week.

You won't get the truth from the "Hooverized" FBI
Excellent research into the big story of the mid-thirties that was used by the FBI to gain more power, all in the hands of one man, J. Edgar Hoover.Americans tired of sanitized & slanted history will appreciate the "What really happened" angle of this non-fiction read.Unger has done a great job filling in the blanks regarding the beginnings of the most abusive reach of power by a single American, J. Edgar Hoover, in our modern history.Without romantizing or glorifying the violence of the era, Ungers excellent research opens pages that might have been lost forever.A very good read. ... Read more

Product Description
When American and South Vietnamese forces, led by General Creighton Abrams, launched an attack into neutral Cambodia in 1970, the invasion ignited a firestorm of violent antiwar protests throughout the United States, dealing yet another blow to Nixon's troubled presidency. But, as John Shaw shows, the campaign also proved to be a major military success.

Most histories of the Vietnam War either give the Cambodian invasion short shrift or merely criticize it for its political fallout, thus neglecting one of the campaign's key dimensions. Approaching the subject from a distinctly military perspective, Shaw shows how this carefully planned and executed offensive provided essential support for Nixon's "decent interval" and "peace with honor" strategies-by eliminating North Vietnamese sanctuaries and supply bases located less than a hundred miles from Saigon and by pushing Communist troops off the Vietnamese border.

Despite the political cloud under which the operation was conducted, Shaw argues that it was not only the best of available choices but one of the most successful operations of the entire war, sustaining light casualties while protecting American troop withdrawal and buying time for Nixon's pacification and "Vietnamization" strategies. He also shows how the United States took full advantage of fortuitous events, such as the overthrow of Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk, the redeployment of North Vietnamese forces, and the late arrival of spring monsoons.

Although critics of the operation have protested that the North Vietnamese never did attack out of Cambodia, Shaw makes a persuasive case that the near-border threat was very real and imminent. In the end, he contends, the campaign effectively precluded any major North Vietnamese military operations for over a year.

Based on exhaustive research and a deep analysis of the invasion's objectives, planning, organization, and operations, Shaw's shrewd study encourages a newfound respect for one of America's genuine military successes during the war.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Some good material, some seriously dodgy errors
This book covers an important aspect of Cambodian history but does so rather ineffectively.It is even less effective in elucidating the events of the Vietnam war.This Shaw is enough to make Shawcross very cross! Excellent piece of revisionist history and this does a disservice to the Vietnamese people on both sides of the conflict. The understanding of the role the Vietnamese played in this period is limited, but more seriously there is a complete lack of understanding of Cambodian history - it is almost as if the Cambodians were irrelevant to the situation, no more than inconvenient collateral damage. The book should have had rather more editorial work to weed out some astoundingly obvious errors (to take just one example - the repeated claim that Sihanoukville was renamed Kamong Speu - a very quick glance at a map would be enough to show that this was Kampong Soum - not actually an easy mistake to make for someone purporting to know the area. Deeply unsatisfying book which had the opportunity at this distance from events to open up some real actual analysis but failed.

The most successful military operation of the Vietnam War?
This is an excerpt of a book review published in Proceedings Magazine, March 2006

In 1985, former President Richard Nixon called the Cambodia incursion "the most successful military operation of the Vietnam War." Tell that to the veterans of the Ia Drang Valley, Khe Sanh, and Hue City. So why haven't we heard more about this offensive? According to historian John M. Shaw who taught in the history departments at West Point and the U.S. Air Force Academy, the decision to invade Cambodia decidedly stirred the antiwar movement and galvanized Congress. Its military lessons were lost.

Shaw looks at the soldiers by comparing the backgrounds of young ARVN leaders to their American counterparts, the former much weaker administratively because they were "shortchanged in their former professional military education and staff time at higher levels." Corruption, inept leadership, and poor pay plagued the ARVN.

As do a number of American historians, Shaw harshly criticizes the South Vietnamese leadership and society in general. "They were neither as unified nor as zealous as their counterparts to the north." He believes that the successful Cambodian invasion saved American and South Vietnamese lives. More importantly, it bought time for the pacification program championed by General Creighton Abrams Jr., the U.S. commander in Vietnam. He concludes that President Nixon chose the best course of action at the time.

Yet Army General Bruce Palmer countered after the war that "Cambodia eventually resulted in a drastic diminution in the U.S. military advisory effort and military aid for South Vietnam. . . the most damaging blow of all for Saigon."

same old same old
I did not complete this book so I cannot say how bad it is but just glancing at the first few chapters and the aftermath analysis, I noticed several glaring errors and faulty analysis that turn me off from completing the whole book. For instance, the author claimed that the NVA did not used Cambodia to attacked South Vietnam from 1969-1970, yet if the author have read MACV documents for that period he should have known that the South Vietnamese were forced to moved several outposts and camps away from the Cambodia-Vietnam border such as Bu Prang and Duc Lap in 1969 due to constant NVA artillery attacks from Cambodia.During the battles at Tay Ninh and Trang Bang in 1969 and the Toan Thang offensive in 1970 (before the Cambodian campaign), the NVA troops and materiel did came from Cambodia, so how any "historian" can claimed that the NVA/VC did not use Cambodia to attack South Vietnam from 1969 to 1970 is puzzling.

The author also claimed that general ARVN Do Cao Tri used three several regiments because he did not trust his own division, I have no idea where this author arrived at his analysis. General Tri emphasis was on mobility not holding ground, that is why he use a combination of armor and attached infantry. Also, most ARVN divisions consists of three regiments spread out over several provinces that is why general Tri uses several regiments from different divisions when these regiments have intersect area of operation.
... Read more