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What did Teddy Read?

Aug5

“And it’s likely that no president will ever match the Rough Rider himself, who charged through multiple books in a single day and wrote more than a dozen well-regarded works, on topics ranging from the War of 1812 to the American West.” ~For Obama and past presidents, the books they read shape policies and perceptions by Trevi Troy, April 18 2010, The Washington Post

I’ve read about U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt in at least three separate books, and these are just a few of the works I’ve seen on his reading list:

Plays:
Aechylus’ Orestean trilogy.
Seven Against Thebes by Sophocles.
Hippolytus and Bacchae by Euripides.
Frogs by Aristophanes.
Shakespeare: Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, Henry V, Richard II,

Novels:
The Heir of Redclyffe by
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
The Boy Hunters by Captain Reid
The Hunters’ Feast by Captain Reid.
The Scalp Hunters by Captain Reid.
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
Sebastopol Sketches by Leo Tolstoy.
The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy.
With Fire and Sword (Polish: Ogniem i mieczem) by Henryk Sienkiewicz. (I want to read this classic historical novel of 17th century Poland.)
In the Sargasso Sea by Thomas Janvier.
Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott.
The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott.
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott.
Waverly by Sir Walter Scott.
Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott. (Does anyone read Scott, other than Ivanhoe, these days?)
Stories and poems by Bret Harte.
Tom Sawyerr by Mark Twain.
Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackeray.
The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray.
The Adventures of Philip by William Makepeace Thackeray.
The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Charles O’Malley by Charles Lever.
Tittlebat Titmouse by Samuel Warren.
Stories by Artemus Ward.
Stories and essays by Octave Thanet (Alice French).
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
The stories of Hans Christian Anderson. (TR read these aloud to his children.)
Grimm’s fairy tales. (And these.)
Howard Pyle’s King Arthur.
Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories.
Other authors: Tarkington (Penrod?), Churchill (Richard Carvel or The Crisis?), Remington, Wister (The Virginian?), Trevelyan, Conrad (Lord Jim?),

Poetry:
The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott.
Marmion by Sir Walter Scott.
Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott.
The Flight of the Duchess by Robert Browning
The first two cantos of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Poems by Michael Drayton. (“There are only two or three I care for,” wrote TR.)
Portions of the Nibelungenleid.
Church’s Beowulf.
Morris’ translation of the Heimskringla.
Miss Hill’s Cuchulain Saga, together with The Children of Lir, The Children of Turin, The Tale of Deirdre, etc.
Other poets: Keats, Browning, Poe,Tennyson, Longfellow, Kipling, Bliss Carman, Lowell, R.L. Stevenson, Allingham,

Nonfiction:
Parts of Herodotus.
The first and seventh books of Thucydides.
All of Polybius.
A little of Plutarch.
Parts of The Politics of Aristotle.
Froissart on French history.
The Memoirs of Baron de Marbot.
Charles XII and the collapse of the Swedish empire, 1682-1719 by R. Nisbet Bain.
Essays by Macaulay.
Types of Naval Officers by A.T. Mahan.
Over the Teacups (essays) by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (TR called Holmes, Jr., the son of the author, “one of the most interesting men I have ever met.”)
Abraham Lincoln: A History by John Hay and John G. Nicolay. (Hay was Roosevelt’s Secretary of State until Hay’s death in 1905. Hay was also, as a young man, Lincoln’s assistant and private secretary. Isn’t it odd to think that the same man knew both Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln?)
Two volumes of Speeches and Writings by Abraham Lincoln.
Shakespeare and Voltaire by Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury. (490 pages)
Six volumes of Mahaffey’s Studies of the Greek World.
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone.
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
Catalogue of North American Birds by Spencer Fullerton Baird.
Review of American BIrds
North American Reptiles
Catalogue of North American Mammals
My reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer war By Benjamin Johannis Viljoen.
Birds and bees and other studies in nature by John Burroughs.
John James Audubon by John Burroughs.
Malay Sketches by Frank Swettenham.

THis list is just a sampling of TR’s reading. He is generally acknowledged, along with THomas Jefferson, to be best read of all the American presidents.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, Nashville, TN, 1828

Dec5

From the biography, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham:

Shortly after nine on the evening of Monday, December 22, three days before Christmas, Rachel [Jackson] suffered an apparent heart attack. It was over. Still, Jackson kept vigil, her flesh turning cold to his touch as he stroked her forehead. With his most awesome responsibilities and burdens at hand she left him. ‘My mind is so disturbed . . . that I can scarcely write, in short my dear friend my heart is nearly broke,’ Jackson told his confidant John Coffee after Rachel’s death.

At one o’clock on Christmas Eve afternoon, by order of the mayor, Nashville’s church bells began ringing in tribute to Rachel, who was to be buried in her garden in the shadow of the Hermitage. The weather had been wet, and the dirt in the garden was soft; the rain made the gravediggers’ task a touch easier as they worked. After a Presbyterian funeral service led by Rachel’s minister, Jackson walked the one hundred fifty paces back to the house. Devastated but determined, he then spoke to the mourners. ‘I am now the President elect of the United States, and in a short time must take my way to the metropolis of my country; and, if it had been God’s will, I would have been grateful for the privilege of taking her to my post of honor and seating her by my side; but Providence knew what was best for her.'”

Today’s Gifts
A song: In the Bleak Midwinter, lyrics by Christian Rossetti, music by Gustav Holst.

A booklist: Biographies of the U.S. Presidents (books I’m planning to read)

A birthday: Christina Rossetti, b.1830.
Walt Disney, b. 1901.

A poem: Love Came Down at Christmas by Christina Rossetti.

This Means War! by Ellen Wittlinger

Oct26

It’s 1962 again, just as in Deborah Wiles’ Countdown (Semicolon review here), and while JFK and Khrushchev play chicken in the Cuban Missle Crisis, Juliet Klostermeyer and her friends are competing with the boys in a series of “challenges” to see who’s best, the boys or the girls. Starting with a simple foot race, the challenges escalate until it’s obvious that somebody’s bound to get hurt. Juliet just wants the wars to be over, both of them, but her friend Patsy is determined that the girls will win, no matter what it takes.

As in Countdown, This Means War! was a book filled with duck and cover drills, bomb shelters, and people living in fear. And again, I thought the fear factor was overdone. Maybe we were just too dumb to be afraid in West Texas where I grew up. I remember worrying about tornados, about fires, about drug-crazed hippies like Charles Manson, but not about atomic bombs.

What I liked about This Means War! was the mirror effect of having the children involved in their own escalating war while the Communists and the U.S. were busy daring one another be the first to back down in a nuclear confrontation. The children’s war does get out of hand, and it’s obvious that the lesson that they learn about how easily a game can turn dangerous is the same lesson that countries need to learn about their own disputes. However, the lesson is never stated outright, and the author trusts her readers to get it by themselves. A wise decision.

I liked this book just as much as I did Countdown, and if I were to teach this era in history in a middle grade classroom, I’d be tempted to use both books. Let half the class read one and half the class read the other, and then have a discussion of the two books and what the students learned from each one. The Red Umbrella would be another good book to include in a unit on this time period. Even though it takes place a bit before 1962, and even though it’s more appropriate for a little bit older audience, The Red Umbrella does look at Castro’s Cuba from a Cuban (American) point of view.

So, what other books, fiction or nonfiction, would you include in a unit on the 1960’s for middle grade children?

Books About Teddy

Jul24

Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.

River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris.

Theodore Roosevelt is one of my fascinations. I read McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback back in March, but I never got around to reviewing it. It was a lovely narrative biography of the young Teddy Roosevelt and a good attempt to bring to light some of the influences and experiences in his childhood and youth that made Teddy Roosevelt the man he became. However, the book stops rather abruptly just as young Theodore is on the brink of his national political career. I was primed and eager for more “Teedy” after reading Mornings.

A few Teddy-isms:

“For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.”

“There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.”

“Don’t hit at all if you can help it; don’t hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.”

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”

“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

“I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.” Teddy’s response to a request to better control the behavior of his eldest daughter, Alice Roosevelt.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

“I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don’t think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more.”

“If I’m to go, it’s all right. You see that the others don’t stop for me . . . I’ve the shortest span of life ahead of any in the party. If anyone is to die here, I must be the one.”

That last statement was made to a member of Roosevelt’s expedition through the Amazon when Roosevelt was so seriously ill with fever and infection that he was not expected to survive to complete the journey of exploration. On this expedition Theodore Roosevelt was 55 years old, and until his leg became infected he could keep up with or outlast any man in the group.

Theodore Roosevelt became president at forty-two, when William McKinley was assassinated. Although he wasn’t the youngest man ever elected president (that was Kennedy, age 43), Teddy was the youngest to become president. When TR’s second term was over, he was still only fifty years old, making him the youngest ex-president, too.

T.R., b. 1858, is my favorite of all the presidents. I don’t say he was the best or the wisest or the one I would most agree with politically, but he would definitely be the most interesting dinner guest of all the presidents. He was a talented politician and statesman, but he was also real and straightforward and ingenuous. That’s an amazing combination.

What people said about Teddy Roosevelt:

“Look out for Theodore. He’s not strong, but he’s all grit. He’ll kill himself before he’ll even say he’s tired.” ~A doctor who knew young Teddy Roosevelt.

“Now look–that d— cowboy is President of the United States!” ~Senator Mark Hanna after hearing of McKinley’s assassination.”

“You must always remember that the President (TR) is about six.” ~Cecil Spring RIce

“One subject I do know, and ought to know, is the birds. It has been one of the main studies of a long life He (TR) knew the subject as well as I did, while he knew with the same thoroughness scores of other subjects of which I am entirely ignorant.” ~Naturalist John Burroughs.

“Mr. Roosevelt is the Tom Sawyer of the political world of the twentieth century; always showing off; always hunting for a chance to show off; in his frenzied imagination the Great Republic is a vast Barnum circus with him for a clown and the whole world for audience; he would go to Halifax for half a chance to show off and he would go to hell for a whole one.” ~Mark Twain

“And talk! I never saw a man who talked so much. He would talk all the time he was in swimming, all of the time during meals, traveling in the canoe and at night around the camp fire. He talked endlessly and on all conceivable subjects.” ~Brazilian Colonel Candido Rondon who led with TR an expedition down the previously unexplored River of Doubt in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

“The truth is, he believes in war and wishes to be a Napoleon and to die on the battle field. He has the spirit of the old berserkers.” ~William Howard Taft.

Teddy Roosevelt “read so rapidly that he had to plan very carefully in order to have enough books to last him through a trip.” ~Roosevelt’s son, Kermit.

“Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there’d have been a fight.” ~Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-president of the U.S.

“Never before has it been so hard for me to accept the death of any man as it has been for me to accept the death of Theodore Roosevelt. A pall seems to settle upon the very sky. The world is bleaker and colder for his absence from it. We shall not look upon his like again.” ~John Burroughs

I saw River of Doubt at a bookstore in South Dakota, and I had to buy it. After viewing Teddy’s unmistakeable visage on Mount Rushmore and then seeing the Badlands Teddy’s old stomping grounds, I had to read about this Amazonian journey of exploration undertaken after Roosevelt’s disappointing loss in a bid for a third term as president. Teddy Roosevelt was intrepid and courageous to a fault, and he lived for adventure. At the age of 55 a trip down an unexplored South American river in canoes passing through the territory of savage and violent native tribal peoples who had never seen a white man before should have been out of the question. And the fact that the trip almost ended Roosevelt’s life makes it all the more fascinating.

I’m still reading the my third book about Theodore Roosevelt, a biography that begins with TR’s sudden elevation to the presidency. I’m finding it just as interesting and inspiring as the other two were. I’m not tempted to undertake any physical feats of daring and bravery, but I do want to live as passionately as Teddy Roosevelt. Don’t you know that heaven itself is a more lively and passion-filled place because God created Theodore Roosevelt and took him to explore the universe of God’s creation?

Semicolon Book Club for March

Mar1

The theme for the Semicolon Book Club for March is biography/autobiography, and the particular selelction for this month is David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. The subtitle is “the story of an extraordinary family, a vanished way of life, and the unique child who became Theodore Roosevelt.”

I very much enjoyed reading McCullough’s biography of John Adams last March, and I expect to enjoy this book just as much. TR is one of my favorite historical characters.

Come back to Semicolon after Easter (April 5th) for discussion of this most excellent biography.

President’s Day for Kids

Feb12

Monday, February 15th is Presidents’ Day, so I thought I’d re-run this list with a few additions. Have a happy holiday!

Leetla Giorgio Washeenton by Thomas Augustine Daly.

More Washington Poetry.

O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman.

White House site with mini-biographies of all 44 U.S. Presidents.

More information on the Presidents for President’s Day.

Recommended Children’s Books about the Presidents:

The Buck Stops Here by Alice Provensen.

So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George and David Small.

Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull.

A Book of Americans by Rosemary Carr and Stephen Vincent Benet.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Foolhardiness, Folly, and Fraud in the Presidential Elections, from Andrew Jackson to George W. Bush by David E. Johnson.

George Washington and the Founding of a Nation by Albert Marrin.

George Washington’s World by Genevieve Foster.

George Washington’s Breakfast by Jean Fritz.

Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John and John Quincy Adams by Stephen Krensky.

John Adams: Young Revolutionary by Jan Adkins. (Childhood of Famous Americans series)

Abigail Adams: Girl of Colonial Days by Jean Brown Wagoner. (Childhood of Famous Americans series)

A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson by David A. Adler.

The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz.

Young John Quincy by Cheryl Harness.

Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the American People by Albert Marrin.

William Henry Harrison, Young Tippecanoe by Howard Peckham. (Young Patriots series)


Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered
 by Barry Denenberg.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson.

Abraham Lincoln for Kids: His Life and Times with 21 Activities by Janis Herbert.

If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln by Ann McGovern.

Unconditional Surrender: U. S. Grant and the Civil War by Albert Marrin.

Bully For You, Teddy Roosevelt by Jean Fritz

The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America by Albert Marrin.

Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Russell Freedman.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Young Military Leader by George E. Stanley.(Childhood of Famous Americans series)

Kennedy Assassinated! The World Mourns: A Reporter’s Story by Wilborn Hampton.

Ronald Reagan: Young Leader by Montrew Dunham. (Childhood of Famous Americans series)

Biographies of the U.S. Presidents

Feb16

I’m participating in only a couple of reading challenges this year, and the one I’m most enjoying so far is the U.S. Presidents Reading Project. I have a goal of reading one biography of a president per month, and I’m on target, having finished a biography of Washington and having read about halfway through John Adams by David McCullough. Here’s a list of some of the biographies I plan to read for this project. If you have any suggestions for the presidents whose names have no biography listed, or if you think I should choose another book other than the one I have listed, please leave any and all suggestions in the comments.

1. George Washington, 1789-97 Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. Semicolon review here.

2. John Adams, 1797-1801 (Federalist) John Adams by David McCullough. I also plan to watch the mini-series based on this book.

3. Thomas Jefferson, 1801-9 (Democratic-Republican) I’ve taken a dislike to Jefferson after the Washington biography (not too much Jefferson in the John Adams book yet, but Jefferson probably won’t be a hero in that one either). So I’m not sure which Jefferson bio to choose, one that’s flattering to restore my faith in this rather contradictory and enigmatic president, or one that’s iconoclastic to reinforce my antipathy.
Beth Fish reviews Twilight at Monticello by Alan Pell Crawford.

4. James Madison, 1809-17 (Democratic-Republican) The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz. Yes, this one is a children’s book. I plan to read children’s books for some of these presidents because sometimes they’re better than the adult tomes. And I may use the children’s biographies in future school years. And reading a children’s biography may tell me whether or not I want to read more about a particular president.

5. James Monroe, 1817-25 (Democratic-Republican) James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity by Harry Ammon.

6. John Quincy Adams, 1825-29 (Democratic-Republican) The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams by Leonard L. Richards.

7. Andrew Jackson, 1829-37 (Democrat) American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham. This one is displayed prominently in the bookstores, and it looks interesting.
Also, there’s Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the American People by Albert Marrin.

8. Martin Van Buren, 1837-41 (Democrat)

9. William Henry Harrison, 1841 (Whig) Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy by Robert M. Owens

10. John Tyler, 1841-45 (Whig) John Tyler, the Accidental President by Edward P. Crapol

11. James Knox Polk, 1845-49 (Democrat) Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter R. Borneman.

12. Zachary Taylor, 1849-50 (Whig)

13. Millard Fillmore, 1850-53 (Whig)

14. Franklin Pierce, 1853-57 (Democrat)

15. James Buchanan, 1857-61 (Democrat)

16. Abraham Lincoln, 1861-65 (Republican) Whereas with several of preceding presidents there is a dearth of good biographies to choose from, for Abraham Lincoln, it’s more like an embarrassment of riches. Which biography of LIncoln should I read? Maybe, Commander and Chief: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War by Albert Marrin. I like Mr. Marrin’s books.

17. Andrew Johnson, 1865-69 (Democrat/National Union) The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days That Changed the Nation by Howard Means.

18. Ulysses Simpson Grant, 1869-77 (Republican) Grant: A Biography by William McFeely.
Or, Unconditional Surrender: U. S. Grant and the Civil War by Albert Marrin.

19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-81 (Republican) Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris Jr. Read, 2014.

20. James Abram Garfield, 1881 (Republican) Dark Horse : The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield by Kenneth D. Ackerman

21. Chester Alan Arthur, 1881-85 (Republican) Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas C. Reeves.

22. Grover Cleveland, 1885-89 (Democrat) To the Loss of the Presidency (Grover Cleveland a Study in Courage, Vol. 1) by Allan Nevins.

23. Benjamin Harrison, 1889-93 (Republican)

24. Grover Cleveland, 1893-97 (Democrat) Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage by Allan Nevin. (2 volumes)

25. William McKinley, 1897-1901 (Republican) In the Days of McKinley by Margaret Leech.

26. Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-9 (Republican) Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough
Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America by Albert Marrin.

27. William Howard Taft, 1909-13 (Republican)

28. Woodrow Wilson, 1913-21 (Democrat) Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency by W. Barksdale Maynard.

29. Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-23 (Republican) Florence Harding: The First Lady, The Jazz Age, And The Death Of America’s Most Scandalous President by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (Read, January, 2105). Wow, Harding was a cad and a person of low character. I didn’t finish or review this bio because it was so depressing.
The Strange Death of President Harding by Gaston B. Means and May Dixon Thacker.

30. Calvin Coolidge, 1923-29 (Republican) A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge by William Allen White OR The Autobiography Of Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge.

31. Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-33 (Republican)

32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-45 (Democrat) Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham. I rather like Churchill, FDR not so much, so this one sounds like something I could enjoy and learn from. *I actually read and enjoyed FDR and the American Crisis by Albert Marrin in October, 2015.

33. Harry S. Truman, 1945-53 (Democrat) Truman by David McCullough. 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner.

34. Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953-61 (Republican) Ike: An American Hero by Michael Korda.
My Three Years with Eisenhower by Captain Harry Butcher.
Crusade in Europe by Dwight Eisenhower.

35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-63 (Democrat) I might just re-read Profiles in Courage in lieu of a biography of this overrated (IMHO) president.

36. Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-69 (Democrat) The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, Volume 3 (2003 Pulitzer Prize for biography) by Robert Caro.

37. Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-74 (Republican)

38. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr , 1974-77 (Republican)

39. James Earl Carter, 1977-81 (Democrat) An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood by Jimmy Carter

40. Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-89 (Republican) Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader by Dinesh D’Souza

41. George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993 (Republican)

42. William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001 (Democrat)

43. George W. Bush, 2001-2009 (Republican)

44. Barack Hussein Obama, 2009- (Democrat)

I guess for most of the presidents I haven’t decided on a biography or related book. I’m taking suggestions, folks.

Reading Through Texas

Feb1

I’m working on an assigned booklist, readers if you will, for a class that will be taught to sixth graders next year in our homeschool co-op. The class is supposed to incorporate literature and Texas history. So, I’ve been reading books about Texas: historical fiction, biographies, memoirs, short stories, nonfiction, poetry if I can find any. So far I have the following books that I’ve already read and evaluated to some extent:

We Asked for Nothing: The Remarkable Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Great Explorers) by Stuart Waldman. Mikaya Press, 2003. I haven’t actually looked at this book yet. I’d like to have something on the list about early explorers and something about the Native Americans who lived in Texas, but I’m having trouble finding good, recommended titles to evaluate on either of those subjects. Any suggestions?

The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins. Fiction set in the Alamo, 1836. Corona Publishing, 1983. Ms. Cousins very much presents the Texans’ side and the traditional account of the Alamo story through the eyes of her fictional hero, twelve year old Billy Campbell. Billy runs away from home and follows his older brother Buck who has joined Davy Crockett’s Tennessee Volunteers. Sherry Garland’s account (see below) is more nuanced and therefore more thought-provoking, but Ms. Cousins’ story gives the basic traditional outlines of the story of the Alamo as the Texians experienced it and may be more appropriate as an introduction for sixth graders.

In the Shadow of the Alamo by Sherry Garland. Gulliver Books, 2001. This book is different because it’s told from the perspective of a Mexican boy, Lorenzo, who’s conscripted into Santa Anna’s army and forced to fight the Tejanos at the Alamo and at San Jacinto. It may be a little too graphic and mature for some sixth graders.

Inside the Alamo by Jim Murphy. If the fictional accounts are too hard to find in sufficient quantities (The Boy in the Alamo) or too advanced for our sixth graders (In the Shadow of the Alamo), I may go with this nonfiction book by award-winning author JIm Murphy.

Make Way for Sam Houston by Jean Fritz. Putnam, 1998. Biography of famous Texan general, president, and governor Sam Houston.

Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi. Slavery in Texas during and after the Civil War. Harcourt 2007. I read this book a long time ago. Is it too mature for sixth graders?

Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee by Patricia Beatty. Fiction set in West Texas, 1860’s. William Morrow and Company, 1978. I also read this one a long time ago, but I remember it as exciting with some good things to discuss about family loyalty and cultural engagement.

Cowboys of the Wild West by Russell Freedman. Nonfiction, late 1800’s. Clarion Books 1995. I have this one on my shelf, lots of pictures, a good break from fiction for those who prefer their information in a nonfiction format.

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. Texas frontier, 1860’s. Harper Classics, 2001. Old Yeller. Classic. Natch.

Search for the Shadowman by Joan Lowery Nixon. Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1996. Set in contemporary times, this story would be a good introduction to a family history/genealogy unit since it tells about a boy who researches his own family history and discovers facts that may be better kept secret. There are a few holes in the plot, and some of the information on how to use computers to research genealogy are a little dated, but most kids probably won’t notice. The historical part is set in c.1876-1888, so I put it here is the list to keep to chronological order.

The Texas Rangers by Will Henry. Landmark book/out of print. I haven’t seen this one either, and it may be too difficult to get copies for all our students. But I would like to have something about the Texas Rangers.

Galveston’s Summer of the Storm by Julie Lake. Fiction set during Galveston Hurricane of 1900. TCU Press, 2003. I reviewed this book a couple of years ago, and I liked it very much. I said then: “Lots of historical detail, information about sailing ships and steam trains, and book characters that make the history come to life all make this book an excellent choice for middle grade (3-6) readers and classrooms.” Unless someone else knows of a better book on the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, this one will be on the list.

Mooonshiner’s Gold by John R. Erickson. Fiction set in Texas Panhandle, 1926. Viking 2001. Great action-packed adventure with engaging characters and a lot of history sneaking in through the back door. John Erickson is known for his Hank the Cowdog series, but this stand-alone adventure is just a good as the Hank books and should be just the right reading level for most sixth graders.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. I’m hesitant to include this one even though I loved it. It does have some seriously evil villains, and the Native American mythical elements may bother some people in our (very conservative) co-op. I think it would have to be introduced to the class with care and enthusiasm. But it’s such a good book! Semicolon review here.

Holes by Louis Sachar. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1998. I think this one might be a good book to end the year. It’s set in a sort of mythical, contemporary Texas, and it ought to be fun for the kids to talk about the plot and the characters in relation to their own lives and experiences.

Any help, comments, suggestions, you can give, I will appreciate. I know there’s lots more fiction set in and around the Alamo. Which one is the best? I don’t have anything set during the Civil War except for Come Juneteenth, which may be too mature for sixth graders. Nor is there anything set during the Dust Bowl era, the Great Depression, or World War II and the latter half of the twentieth century.

Also, most of the books feature a male protagonist. Any girl-y books about Texas that you all can recommend? Poetry? Short story collections?

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner

Jan17

The book I read is a condensation and rewrite of Flexner’s four volume biographical study of the life of Washington. As he says in the preface, Flexner at first wanted to write a one volume biography, then felt he could not do justice to the man and his indispensable role in the founding of the country in less than four volumes, and then finally felt pressured to “distill what I had discovered into a single volume” that would “present in essence Washington’s character and career.”

In meeting his stated goal, Flexner was quite successful. In fifty-two chapters Flexner carries our hero, and Washington is indeed a hero in this book although not without flaws, from his youth as an obscure younger son from the backwoods of Virginia through his days as a soldier, a general, a planter, and a statesman, to his death in December of 1799. As for character, the Washington of this biography is a self-controlled man, fond of company and friends, but also temperate, quiet, a peacemaker, nevertheless at infrequent times giving way to an enormous temper.

George Washington, in this biography, truly is the indispensable man. It isn’t too much to say that without him the revolution would not have been successful, and that if it had been successful, the nation formed as a result of that revolution would have soon come apart and resolved itself into thirteen (or more) individual competing countries. Washington first holds the Continental Army together against all odds and at the expense of his own health and financial interests. Then after spending eight happy years in retirement at Mount Vernon, The Indispensable Man is called back into public life and given the responsibility of first moderating the Constitutional Convention, and then of presiding over a new, fledgling nation with deep sectional and philosophical rifts in opinion, culture and practice. If he couldn’t bring Jefferson and Hamilton and their followers together in the end, he at least managed to keep them from tearing the nation apart while they attacked each other and each other’s ideas and policies.

Although the book is certainly not hagiographic, Washington does fare well under scrutiny in this biographical treatment. Others of our founding fathers who figure in the story of Washington’s life do not make such a favorable impression. John Adams is a jealous and bitter wanna-be vice-president who can’t wait to take center stage as soon as Washington declines a third term as president. Jefferson is a trouble maker, untrustworthy, willing to advocate things in public and in the press to advance his own long term goals and policies, words and ideas that he repudiates in private because he knows they are impracticable or impolitic. Hamilton is a better friend to Washington, but still jealous of his own reputation and zealous for more power. Madison and Monroe are portrayed as Jefferson’s sycophants, willing to do almost anything to thwart the Federalist opposition even at the expense of the U.S. national interest.

In the portrayal in this book at least, Washington stands head-and-shoulders above all the other men of his time. Even late in his second term, when the author says several times that Washington is “losing his mental powers” and becoming weak and vacillating, he remains an admirable figure, one who is trying to do his best to serve the nation that has called upon him to give his best years to its service.

From this book I formed a better appreciation for Washington and his labors in the founding of our nation. I also began to suspect the actions and motives of others of our founding fathers. We’ll see how they fare in their own biographies as I read about the other presidents. Next up: John Adams by David McCullough.

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

Dec29

Financiers and businessmen blackmail the U.S. government into covering their poor business decisions and bad debts as government officials, especially the Secretary of the Treasury, fear the collapse of the entire U.S. economy if banks and financial speculators are allowed to reap the consequences of their bad gambles. The government spends money that it doesn’t have, and taxes the poor who can least afford to pay, for the benefit of greedy rich men who are said to be the only bulwark that is propping up the U.S. economy.

It sounds like the lead into an analysis of the U.S. economy at the end of the year 2008, doesn’t it? And yet it’s a summary of the plot of the novel The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss, published in 2008, but set in the late 1700’s. The Treasury Secretary is not Henry Paulson, but rather Alexander Hamilton, the first to hold that office. The greedy speculators are not Wall Street gamblers and bankers and auto industry tycoons, but rather investors in the new Bank of the United States and land speculators who sell worthless Western lands in exchange for government securities and promissory notes that the fledgling government gave to soldiers of the Continental Army in place of the money that it didn’t have at the end of the Revolutionary War.

Based on true historical events and peopled actual historical characters, Liss’s novel was both an education in the history in the time period and an occasion for me to think about the parallels that exist between that time of economic turmoil and our own financial difficulties today. Just as there is now, there was a contingent who said that the government should let the financial markets do as they would, let the banks and financiers fail or bankrupt themselves, and deal with the consequences afterwards. “Better anarchy than an unjust nation that masquerades as a beacon of righteousness. That would be worse than outright tyranny.” Others said the result would be “the collapse of our economic system.” “Banks will fail, so merchants will fail, and then farms. And then starvation. That is the best we can hope for.”

It’s the same argument we’re having over two hundred years later, and the corrupt forces of financial chicanery have us in their grip just as surely as the wheelers and dealers of the American republic had the nation in a financial panic in 1792. Only the names and some of the details have changed. I’m amazed to think that this book was written before our current financial and political difficulties came to a head, and the parallels to today’s news in the book are unplanned and all the more striking for being so.

As for the novel itself, Mr. Liss is a decent writer, has a good handle on the setting and circumstances of the early years of our American experiment. The book is quite violent, presumably because as the author says, “Conditions on the western frontier were every bit as brutal as I describe, and probably more so.” The main characters in the novel are Ethan Saunders, a drunken and disgraced ex-Continental Army spy, and Joan Maycott, a settler with her husband in the wilds of western Pennsylvania. These two tell the story, each from his or her own point of view, in alternating chapters, and the first intriguing problem that the reader is set is to figure out how their stories are intertwined, if they are. As the two protagonists’ paths do cross in Philadelphia, the next puzzle is to find out which has the upper hand and which will win the battle of wits that becomes a fight for the survival of the newborn United States of America.

Anyone who is interested in the history of the Republic or in financial crises or in the arguments for and against government intervention in the financial world will find this book enlightening and absorbing. If you don’t mind some violence and a little bit of bad language, not too much, and if the subject interests you, take a look. I like my economic and political lessons in a fictional package, so this book was just the ticket, even though I’m still not sure what to think of the government’s robbing the poor to bail out the rich supposedly in order to save both from irreparable financial ruin. It’s a conundrum that I can’t quite resolve.