History At Its Finest: A Review of Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. Du Bois

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While the history of the American Civil War is quite well known by most Americans thanks to some amazing books and documentaries, the decade-long period immediately following it known as Reconstruction is little known and little understood by most. In fact, thanks to ahistorical mythologies like the “Lost Cause” narrative, Reconstruction has been painted as a dark period when corruption was rampant and Southern state governments, run by Freedmen and Northern carpetbaggers, ran roughshod over people’s rights. The historical record shows that this couldn’t be further from the truth, yet this insidious myth persists. Fortunately, there are also plenty of books that have been written to push back against this narrative and establish the true history of Reconstruction. While many such books have been written in recent years, nearly all of them owe an enormous debt of gratitude to this book, one of the very first systematic histories of the period to tell the story truly. What makes this a must-read for anyone interested in Reconstruction is how W.E.B. Du Bois centers Black Americans in this tale. In this book, Mr. Du Bois makes the strongest case for what has been said by others before: that Black Americans, the enslaved as well as the free, were their own greatest liberators and Reconstruction’s greatest reformers.

While W.E.B Du Bois is best known today as the author of such works as The Soul of Black Folk and one of the founders of the NAACP, he was also the first Black men in America to receive a doctorate from Harvard.  Published in 1935, this book is the culmination of some of Du Bois’s scholarly work, which he had been hitting upon at different times in his scholarly and popular articles decades before.  Starting with an examination of the condition of both enslaved Black people and their White enslavers in the Antebellum South, Du Bois takes his reader on a journey through the 20 year period that encompassed both the Civil War and Reconstruction.  At each step, he shows through critical analysis of the sources available to him at the time how Black Americans’ own actions were what drove many of the key changes of this period.  For example, with so many enslaved Black Americans escaping to Union lines and many of them as well as freedmen from the North eager to join the Union Army, their actions put pressure on Pres. Lincoln and the Union to transform their Civil War objectives from solely from preserving the Union to also pursing abolition.  Du Bois also shows how Black lawmakers during Reconstruction were the prime agents in the creation of the South’s public school system for both white and black kids after the war, a reform that would stay in place long after White Southerns had forcefully and violently suppressed political power.

Du Bois also addresses some of the criticism of this period, particularly the corruption that Black lawmakers were accused of partaking.  While not deny that there were cases of bribery and corruption, Du Bois helps to put it in the context of the time, which was an incredibly corrupt period in American history in general, and shows how oftentimes the corrupt actions of white lawmakers was far greater than anything Black lawmakers did.  Not only that, but Du Bois constantly reminds readers that Reconstruction was an extraordinarily violent time with many atrocities committed against Black Americans.  Racial terror and the undermining of America’s first attempt at multiracial democracy was the goal of groups like the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.  Du Bois makes the argument that the Civil War never really stopped after Appomattox Courthouse, but morphed into a racial war of white supremacists targeting Black Americans.  Indeed, thinking of the racial violence through that lens and using Du Bois’s analysis, Du Bois may not have had the words for it in 1935, but readers who are even casually versed in the history of modern warfare can recognize the resemblance of the Klan’s violent tactics as similar to the Vietcong during the Vietnam War or the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan.  Sadly, as Du Bois shows, the North quickly grew weary of sustaining a military presence in the South and abandoned the project after 1876, a pattern America would follow in Vietnam and Afghanistan using similar arguments (“They got to learn to stand on their own feet eventually”) and having similarly tragic results.  Du Bois analyzes the reasons for the North’s withdrawal in 1876 and shows how it opened the door not just to the end of Reconstruction and Black Americans’s political power for decades, but also how it opens the door to the segregated America that follows soon afterwards.

One weakness of this book though lies in Du Bois’s Marxist background.  By the 1930s, Du Bois was firmly moving in a Marxist direction and he uses Marxist language and thought in his analysis throughout this book.  While this class approach to analyzing the period provides intriguing insights, I do feel as though Du Bois could stretch his Marxist analysis at times.  For example, while an alliance between Black labor and poor White labor in the South could have transformed the history of the period, I have doubts that large numbers of Americans could even conceive of society in such class conscious ways at the time.  Yes, Karl Marx was alive and organizing in Europe at the time and had written The Communist Manifesto in 1848, but his magnum opus, Das Kapital, was published in 1867 and I doubt his ideas had spread quickly enough in America at the time to have any effect.  I could be wrong, but to me Du Bois too often applied a class analysis that Black and White Americans would not have recognized during this period.

Overall, though this book is nearly 90 years old now, Du Bois’s strong analysis and exceptional historical writing provides a gold standard by which all other histories of Reconstruction should be judged.  Library of America has once again done an enormous service to American literary history by publishing this seminal work once again.  I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American history in general and Reconstruction in particular.

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Choosing the Paths of War: A Review of The Bomber Mafia by Malcom Gladwell

 

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through the Goodreads Giveaway program. The views expressed are mine and not that of the author, publisher, or Goodreads.)

Though I have heard him on radio shows like The TED Radio Hour and have thoroughly enjoyed his insights, I have never actually read a Malcom Gladwell book. But when I read the description for this book, I knew that this would be right up my alley. Having recently finished this book, I can understand why people love his works so much. Combining history, technology, and a propulsive narrative, Mr. Gladwell explores the development of bomber technology leading up to and during World War II and meditates on the ethics and tactics at the very heart of modern war.

Starting in the period between World War I and World War II, Mr. Gladwell follows the rise and fall of “the bomber mafia”, a group of U.S. Army Air Force boosters who believed that advances in bomber tech made it possible to end wars quickly by targeting key infrastructure, or chokepoints, such as factories, bridges, etc., that would make it impossible for the enemy to effectively conduct war.  With the creation of bombers such as the B-29 Superfortress and the Norden bombsight, they believed they had a chance to prove their theories.  But when those theories turned out to be just out of their reach, less scrupulous generals such as Curtis LeMay and the invention of napalm would lead to such horrendous bombings as the fire bombing of Japan.

For World War II buffs, the general outline of the U.S. bombing campaign is already well known.  But what Mr. Gladwell does is that he also charts the intellectual progression of the Air Force’s biggest boosters as well as the technologies they relied on.  He also gives sympathetic portraits of all the key figures.  Even Gen. Curtis LeMay, who is so often portrayed as a warmonger in American history, is treated with sympathy.

Throughout it all, Mr. Gladwell also meditates on the ethics and tactics behind war.  Specifically, the ethics behind precision bombing favored by the bomber mafia and the carpet bombing favored by Gen. Curtis LeMay.  At the heart of it is this question: what is the most ethical (moral) way to wage war?  Should attempts be made to reduce casualties to an absolute minimum?  Or should you ratchet up the death and destruction in an attempt to shorten the war?  Mr. Gladwell seems to have a particular point of view on this question and he does stretch his point at times, but he doesn’t shortchange the other side’s arguments either.  So, not only is this a great short history of the advancements in bomber tech during World War II, it is also a meditation and case study on the ethics of war itself.

Overall, this was a great little history book.  It is short enough and written in such a way that a layman can enjoy, but with enough details to enlighten both laymen and history buffs.  While this won’t replace any of your histories on World War II, it is a great thought-provoking supplement that should not be missed.

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Tragedy Upon Tragedy: A Review of Assad or We Burn the Country

Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Of all the tragic events that became known collectively as the Arab Spring, the Syrian Civil War is perhaps the most tragic, the most well known, and the least understood. For one brief, shining moment, it appeared that a new Middle East was possible free of dictatorships and terror. Syria seemed on the brink of change only for its ruthless dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to deem survival worth any cost, event the lives of thousands of his own people, millions of refugees, and a resurgence of Islamic extremist terror groups across the region and the world. In this detailed account, Mr. Dagher takes his reader into the inner sanctum of the Assad regime, the protest movement, the international community, and the rebellion to give one of the most complete accounts of the Syrian regime, its origins, and the series of events that led to such a brutal civil war.

To fully understand the conflict, Mr. Dagher takes the reader all the way back to the origins of the modern Syrian state and the rise of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father and the dictator of Syrian from the 1970s until his death in 2000. Sadly, the roots of Syria's trouble lie in the lies and fears that make up the Assad regime from the very beginning, with a foundation soaked in blood as Haze also ruthlessly put down challenges to his rule too. All throughout, Mr. Dagher follows the Tlass clan starting with Mustafa Tlass and then his son Manaf as they assist the Assads' rise to power. Through the Tlass', and Manaf especially, we get a clearer picture of the inner workings of the regime and how duplicitous and ruthless Bashar and others were in deciding to violently suppress peaceful protestors as the Arab Spring reaches Syria. Because of Bashar's choice to stay in power at all costs, Syria soon devolves into a morass of blood and death with international powers either looking on rousing the Syrian people to further their own agendas. It's a tragedy that only gets more tragic as it goes along.

This book really helped clarify what was always a complicated topic for me. Mr. Dagher never wavers from pointing nearly all of the blame at Bashar al-Assad, but he also makes sure to point figures at all the international figures who looked on or actively assisted the Assad regime slaughter its own people. The only thing I have against this book is that the narrative begins to lose steam once (view spoiler)[Manaf defects to the West and it becomes clear that the West is not interested in using him to replace Bashar, as was his hope (hide spoiler)]. From that point on, the end seems inevitable, but the tragedies continue to pile on top of each other.

The Syrian Civil War is one of the greatest tragedies of the Arab Spring and the 21st century so far. With moral clarity and inside information, Mr. Dagher has written an account that should not be missed.

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Review: Joan of Arc: A History

Joan of Arc: A History by Helen Castor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Throughout history there have been figures that have risen meteorically only to come crashing to earth very quickly. In all of medieval European history, no figure rose so dramatically or fell so quickly as Joan of Arc, the teenage peasant girl who claimed to hear voices from angels and saints and rallied the battered French forces against the invading English. And despite her precipitous fall, few other figures from this time have endured in popular imagination. So, who was she, what exactly did she do, and was she the real deal or a delusional peasant? In this book, Helen Castor seeks to inject some flesh and blood into this enduring myth.

If this is your first time reading about Joan of Arc, it is important to note that this book is not a straight, cradle-to-grave biography. This book rather puts Joan in her historical context by going all the way back to the invasion of France by that equally famous figure from this period, King Henry V of England, and proceeding from there. In the first act, Ms. Castor shows how, through the English invasion and internal divisions of the French court, much of northern France fell into English hands. This is incredibly valuable context, but it can be rather complicated too. There is a great deal of medieval politics and backstabbing going on that Ms. Castor does not always do a great job of explaining. The point Ms. Castor makes by the end though is that things look incredibly bleak for the French by the time Joan arrives at court.

When Joan does arrive and the French decide to give her an army, things dramatically change. Joan lifts the siege of the critical city of Orleans and begins to push the English back with a handful of victories that look something akin to miracles. Ms. Castor does a great job of explaining how Joan, a teenage peasant girl with no military experience claiming to hear messages from God, got an audience with the Dauphin and began to push the English back, but she doesn't do a great job of explaining why the French would entrust her with an army in the first place. At the same time, to preserve the linear story she is telling about this period in history, Ms. Castor doesn't tell us anything about Joan's background until her capture and trial at the hands of the English. On top of that, one of the more frustrating parts about his book is the fact that there are no campaign or battle maps included. There is only one map that shows the status quo in France just prior to Joan's arrival at court. While it is a detailed map, I found myself having to refer to that one map over and over again and not always finding where everyone was. Even some simple black and white maps inserted into the text would've helped a great deal.

The last major aspect of Joan's story Ms. Castor deals with is her trial, execution, and then retrial decades later. The popular myth of Joan's trial is that it was a hit job designed to pass a guilty verdict upon a girl who had become such a nuisance to the English so quickly. The story Ms. Castor relates though is one where the jurists were deadly serious about Joan's potential heresy and genuinely were trying to correct her error and save her soul and her life. Though things do not end well for Joan, her retrial decades later casts aspersions on that first trial. Thus, by the end of the book, I was left with two contradictory thoughts about Joan's trial, that it was both a preordained hit job and a sincere search for the truth of her claims. Ms. Castor does not really giver her own analysis and opinions about the whole matter, leaving it up to the reader to decide for themselves.

Ultimately, this book is a great introduction to the period. By the end of it, I had a better understanding of the times Joan lived in and just how vital a role she played in turning back the English invasion, even though she only campaigned for a little over a year and would not live to see France recovered by the French. And yet, I still feel as though there were big gaps left unexplained. Ms. Castor doesn't do enough to dispel the confusion that reigned prior to Joan's arrival. And while a great deal of Joan's history is answered in this book, I am still left with a great number of questions, the biggest one being whether or not Joan was the real deal, a person who was chosen by God to deliver France from the English, or just a delusional peasant girl. Ms. Castor never even attempts to answer that question and, perhaps, there is no definitive answer to that question. Still, an attempt at answering that question would've been nice. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading an introduction to Joan of Arc and her times. Just don't expect all of your questions to be answered by the end of it.

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Social Media is a Battlefield: Review of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When it first launched, Facebook and other social media was seen as a cool, if benign, piece of technology that the internet had made possible. After the the 2016 election, the public was made aware of how social media could be used as a tool to manipulate an election, a very unsettling development. However, as the authors of this jaw-dropping book make clear, social media is not just some tool to keep in touch with friends any more. Social media is a new battlefront in both cyber warfare and traditional warfare. What happens online cannot only sway elections, it can also get people killed.

Starting with an introduction noting the different and unique ways social media has been used in recent years, such as ISIS's use of it as they were invading Mosul and Donald Trump's use of Twitter before and during his presidency, the authors show how social media has become a new battlefield. And what happens online can have deadly consequences in real life. One of the more shocking stories they relate is how gangs in America have been "cyber tagging" people's online profiles and then killing those people in real life. Online beefs are leading to bodies in the street in America and elsewhere. There are many more stories they relate about the dangers of this new battlefield, but I do not want to spoil this book any more than I have.

The book is not all bleak though. The authors note how cyber activists and the military have been using social media to combat terrorism and gather intelligence. One uplifting story is about how cyber activists combed social media to determine that it was Russian forces that shot down MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. So, for the old internet enthusiasts, there is hope that the internet can still be used for more than nefarious purposes.

But the authors never want the readers to forget that the internet and social media have left their adolescence and it is up to us and our elected leaders to determine what the internet will be moving forward. Will it continue to be the free-wheeling wild west sphere it has been, or will regulation become necessary? That's what the debate is at this point. For anyone who is concerned about the power of social media and its misuse by bad actors and authoritarian regimes, this is the first book you should read.

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National Shame: A Review of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thomas Jefferson once called the young United States of America an "Empire of liberty," first putting into words the idea that America had a destiny to spread freedom and democracy around the world. While the hypocrisy of that idea when juxtaposed against slavery and racial segregation, what is less known and even less understood is just how fraudulent such a phrase sounds to the Native Americans who inhabited the continent before the United States was even an idea. In this critical counterpoint to the historical narrative that most Americans know from school, Dr. Dunbar-Ortiz argues that the American project was always an imperialist policy of genocide against indigenous people in North America.

Dr. Dunbar-Ortiz starts this book with an introduction that is incredibly jarring as she uses the standard definition for genocide and applies that the colonial experience Native Americans have the U.S.'s expansion westward and beyond. It is an incredibly jarring start, one that, as a proud American, I was very taken aback by. However, with each chapter, Dr. Dunbar-Ortiz tells the history of America from Native Americans' perspective and it is hard to not see where she and others are coming from. By the end of this book, I came to a more full recognition of just how shameful America's past relations with Native Americans was and, in some ways, still is. Native Americans were pushed off their ancestral lands in a number of different ways, most often by squatting settlers, genocidal militias and Army troops. Once the Indians Wars were largely won, Native Americans were forced into boarding schools where their cultural identity was nearly erased (and too many children were sexually assaulted by missionaries and others) and their reservation lands were continually shrunk. Though some recent Supreme Court cases have begun to recognize Native Americans' claims, that has not always been the case and too many tribes are not allowed to return to their sacred lands, such as the Black Hills of the Dakotas. As much as slavery and racial segregation, America's treatment of Native Americans is another original sin of ours that has yet to be fully discussed and reconciled.

This book is not an easy book to get through. Like me, many Americans may find it difficult to square Dr. Dunbar-Ortiz's use of such terms as genocide, squatting, and others with the history of what we were taught in schools about America's unique past and destined place in the world. But, for those with an open mind and heart and a deep love of country and all those who live here, this is an incredibly necessary read. We must reconcile our nations past in order to have a brighter future. I highly recommend this book to all Americans who wish to see America begin that reconciliation process.

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"Don't You Forget About Me": A Review of The Korean War: A History

The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Korean War is often, and rightfully, called "the forgotten war." Bracketed by World War II and the Vietnam War in American history, few Americans know anything about this war in which 3 million Koreans several thousand Americans died. Often what they do know is pretty basic: the North invaded the South, America and its UN allies intervened and pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel all the way to the Yalu River, until communist China intervened and pushed the war back into a stalemate along the 38th parallel. However, in this revisionist work, Bruce Cumings puts more flesh and bones on this otherwise bare bones tale and emphasizes both its importance in American history why it has never really ended, and how it was just as dirty as the war dirty war in Indochina that would succeed it.

For those of you looking for a straight historical narrative of the Korean War, this book probably won't tickle that itch. The first chapter gives the standard story of the war, with a few relatively unknown details thrown in to flesh things out a little, but then hops around different topics for the rest of this book. This allows Mr. Cumings to talk about the darker side of this war that rarely makes it into America's headlines: how the roots of the war go back to, and are much more deeply intertwined with, the Japanese occupation of Korea, not the immediate Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States; how the South Korean regime of dictator Syngman Rhee was just as brutal, and possibly more so, than communist North Korea; how American forces too often stood by as South Korean forces massacred real and suspected communists; and just how the American air war was to the North Korean people and economy. It is a sobering look at a part of our history that is too easily swept under the rug simply because South Korea eventually developed into a vibrant democracy, because we didn't lose the Korean War (though we didn't necessarily win it either), and because the Vietnam War looms so much larger in the American psyche than the Korean War does. Mr. Cumings makes a passionate and nuanced plea for remembering and understanding this war.

And yet, I can't help but feel that, like the war it brings to light, will do nothing more than to create a stalemate in the American reader's mind. While many of the facts and figures Mr. Cumings brings to light may be revelatory, even damning, to many Americans, because this book forgoes a chronological structure, it fails to successfully mesh the unknown dark side of the war with what Americans already do know about the war. A more straightforward analysis of the war, similar to other standard military histories out there, with all of the revelations Mr. Cumings brings to light, would've had a much greater impact. Instead, like many other revisionist histories, this book lists off a litany of wrongs that Americans should feel bad about, forcing the reader to either assume a knee-jerk defensive position or not. For a book that begs for understanding and nuance regarding the war, the baseball bat approach this book takes does not lend itself to such an understanding of the ar.

Despite that, this book is an important work about a forgotten war. While it may be nothing more than a supplemental read to other histories of the war, such as The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam, it is a necessary supplemental read that all American history buffs should read.

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Review: The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The United States of America was first forged in the fires of the American Revolution. The War for Independence is where the American experiment in self-government truly begins. But, aside from the key moments in the first years of the Revolution, few Americans know how the war was fought and won. There have been some books that have focused on a particular battle or person during the Revolution, but too few authors have attempted to take a more comprehensive look at the entire war. This book from the author of the Liberation Trilogy, which charted America fighting in the European Theater during World War II, rectifies that with an incredibly thorough look at the first two years of the American Revolution.

The first thing that should strike readers about this book is just how balanced it is. Rather than just focus the Americans, which is easy to do, Mr. Atkinson has done an incredible amount of research on the British side of the war, even accessing papers from King George III that had not been previously made public or even catalogued by the British government. This incredible amount of research gives a sympathetic light to both the Americans and the British and shows that, while British had far greater resources at hand than the Americans, the war effort on the British end wasn't smooth sailing either. It also gives a certain amount of balance and credence to the book, especially when Mr. Atkinson talks about how it was mostly rabid American patriots, not the British, who destroyed Norfolk, VA, in 1776 (though the British did do some damage too).

The other great thing about this book is just how crystal clear Mr. Atkinson's descriptions of the battles are. Through the use of maps and amazing descriptive details, Mr. Atkinson shows just how bloody and brutal the fighting could get. His descriptions of the Battles of Bunker Hill and Princeton were particular high points. Admittedly, some of the descriptions could get a little muddled, but I think that was more my fault than Mr. Atkinson's.

What is missing from this book are some of the political details. There are very few discussions about the debates in Congress or Parliament, with only some focus given to key political leaders, like Ben Franklin, John Adams, Lord North, Lord Germain, and, of course, King George III. Indeed, there is zero talk about the debates over the Declaration of Independence. It just shows up in Washington's camp in New York one day and is read to the troops soon afterwards. This is, actually, all for the best as Mr. Atkinson's focus on the military aspects of the war, not the minutiae of revolutionary politics. Besides, there plenty of other books that talk about the politics, so Mr. Atkinson is wise to focus on the fighting instead. He does give attention to the diplomatic side though as an entire chapter is devoted to Ben Franklin's arrival in France in late 1776. It only makes up one small chapter in an otherwise large book, but I would not be surprised in Mr. Atkinson is previewing some themes in his future volumes.

Overall, this is the book on the War for Independence that I and, I assume, a lot of other military history buffs have been waiting for. It's going to be a long, hard wait for volume two of this new series and I, for one, will be waiting in eager anticipation for it.

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Architect of Victory: A Review of War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943–1945

War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943–1945 by Nigel Hamilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

FDR's true role as Commander in Chief and leader of the Allies during World War II has been shrouded for many Americans. The personal memoirs of Winston Churchill and questions of FDR's health and performance at Yalta have obscured just how vital he was to the overall outcome of the war and the shape of the postwar. Mr. Hamilton has done a great job of fleshing out FDR's World War II leadership and he concludes his three-volume biography/history superbly in this final volume.

In the previous two volumes, Hamilton's FDR comes off as a brilliant strategist and wrangler of disparate personalities. FDR asserted his authority over strategy with his military chiefs in the first volume and held Churchill's feet to the flame when it came to committing to the cross-channel invasion of France in the second volume, despite Churchill's penchant for diversionary, and disastrous, operations in the Mediterranean. This third volume shows FDR at his best once again at the Tehran conference, holding Churchill accountable and even dealing well with Marshall Stalin in their first face-to-face meetings. The cross-channel invasion gets set in stone and Churchill's desires for further Mediterranean operations are halted. This leads to the D-Day invasions and the ultimate demise of the Third Reich.

However, Hamilton is not completely blinded by FDR's brilliance. As FDR's physical health and mental acuity begin to decline in the weeks and months following the Tehran conference, Hamilton gives the most detailed descriptions of what was going on that you are likely to find. FDR was very sick and could have easily died in early 1944 were it not for the brave intervention of a junior naval officer at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and the renewed relationship between FDR and his former flame, Lucy Rutherford. Had FDR died in 1944, history and the outcome of World War II could have been very different.

In spite of the President's declining health, Hamilton makes clear that, on the most important issues, FDR was as engaged as ever. This comes through at the Yalta conference, a rather divisive moment in U.S. foreign relations history. Hamilton shows that on the key issues, such as the creation of the United Nations and securing Russian entry in the war against Japan after the fall of Germany, FDR was completely focused and in charge. However, FDR focusing his energies on these important strategic goals meant he was not as attentive to the details, which is where Yalta gets controversial. By the end of the book, Hamilton's FDR is the most exhausted person you have ever met, but he has achieved his most important goals as Commander in Chief and they cannot be undone by his death.

I love how the book was organized. Though the font is rather small, Mr. Hamilton's chapters are very short, no more than 10-pages, but usually around 5 pages. And there are a lot of chapters, 91 to be precise, so organizing one's reading of this rather dense book should be not be a problem. Furthermore, Mr. Hamilton's writing style is just as enjoyable as ever. He deftly uses repeated phrases and rhetorical questions throughout to ram home important points in the story. Thus, even if you are skimming parts of this book, you should be able to pick up on the key thoughts by taking note of those repeated phrases and rhetorical questions. I will say that, unlike the previous two volumes, Mr. Hamilton does seem to skim over far more than he did before. For example, when writing about post-Tehran FDR in early 1944, Mr. Hamilton focuses exclusively on the President's health, which is important to his overall story. However, there is a chunk of about a month and a half, roughly January and February 1944, where Hamilton says nothing about any of FDR's major decisions during that time. Mr. Hamilton also does this when he skims over the details of the 1944 presidential election as well. Admittedly, these details may not have been important to the overall story Mr. Hamilton was trying to tell, but it is noticeable nonetheless.

In short though, Mr. Hamilton makes an excellent case for considering FDR to be one of America's most successful wartime and diplomatic leaders on a par with Lincoln's leadership during the Civil War. Like Lincoln, FDR was able to focus the nation's wartime and diplomatic leaders on the most essential goals of the war, while rallying the nation to a vision for the nation that stretched beyond the war itself. In Lincoln's case, it was emancipation; in FDR's case, it was the creation of a proactive America in world affairs and the creation of a stable and successful international organization to maintain the peace, the United Nations. Hamilton does a tremendous job of putting FDR in his rightful place as one of our greatest presidents and I would highly recommend this volume, and this entire series, to anyone who is interested in learning more about FDR and his leadership in World War II.

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