A change in Focus--Grant takes the Reins

Until 1864, the Army of the Potomac had never won a campaign. Each Union attempt to capture Richmond drove south, was repulsed, withdrew to Washington, found a new general, and tried again. After his successes at Vicksburg and Chattanooga, Grant came east to a promotion, to general in charge of all Union Armies.

Grant brought a different focus, and Catton defines this superbly in this book, drawing on many of Grant's memoranda to other officers, as well as President Lincoln. Catton captures the essence of a Grant campaign: hold on to the enemy, grasp and retain the initiative, and always move your logistics aggresively forward.

Catton also tries, albeit weakley, to show that Grant was not a "pure" attritionist. He offers examples of Grant's desires to push west and sever Richmond from the Shenandoah. Catton explores the political reality of uncovering Washington to a Confederate thrust, while attacking the logistics that sustained Confederate armies, while Sherman simultaneously attacked Atlanta and its strategic railhead. Catton states that after the battle of Cold Harbor Ggrant's numerical superiority was at its lowest level, but he does not provide the hard math to support this stance. On the other hand, Catton shows well the manuever warfare used by Grant to slip away after Cold Harbor, steal a march, and get across the James River before Lee, stripped of his cavalry, could discover the move and react.

This book does a very solid job of capturing Grant's determination, his unyielding efforts to impose his will on the leaders and staff of the Army of the Potomac, and to integrate the political realities of volunteers, political appointee generals and a presidential election with the cold hard reality of constant campaigning.

A good read not just for students of the martial art, but for any leader who must address the Sisyphean task of invigorating old "we've always done it that way" people with a new ethos and drive.

This is a well-researched account of the last two years of the Civil War (1863-1865). The harsh realities of the battles and living conditions are especially given great detail here. The final days of the war and the surrender of General Lee are extremely poignant as the author examines the tattered remains of the once invincible Army of Northern Virginia. The exchange between the victors and the vanquished at Appomattox is the highlight of the book. The author also takes pains not to overlook any of Grant's military blunders such as Cold Harbor and gives an even-handed viewpoint throughout. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the darkest days of our nation's history.

Excellent aid for beginning bikers and walkers as well. The maps are very helpful and it is a delight to know how much is actually right here in Cook County. Don't tear out pages though - then you can't find them when you want them the next time, and you will want to revisit some of these great locations once the book helps you discover them. My only concern is that it needs to be updated and I hope there will be a new edition coming out soon.

This book provides a thorough guide to the hiking and biking trails available in Cook County. Some of this information is available nowhere else! I didn't realize how extensive the Forest Preserve trail system is until I checked this book. This one is going to stay in my car!

I read Sister Carrie when I was a teenager in China. The other day I listened to a Hoosier's holiday on Talking Books. He went back to his hometown after some thirty years. I went back to my hometown, Hangzhou, China and saw my old house now completely destroyed and replaced by a huge scaffolding. Somehow I felt my experience wasn't so different from Dreisers. I liked the book so much I'm going to order a copy to read certain parts again, although I have been in Indianapolis exactly once in my lifetime. Indianapolis and Hangzhou are world's apart. Dreiser and me are only 50 years apart but I feel I knew how he felt. Kai Lai Chung

Theodore Dreiser is one of America's great authors, but he is also an enigma wrapped inside a contradiction. Forever in awe of the "great social forces" lurching mankind forward, and inspired by the great financial titans and clever capitalist geniuses who attempted to reap the whirlwind, Dreiser nevertheless embraced communism late in his life as the antidote for the injustices plaguing mankind. He was a spirited social rebel, railing against orthodoxy and Puritan "Babbitts" who would foist their Midwestern morality down upon him, but at the same time, as he demonstrates in this book, his idealization of the small-town Hoosier philistines in Warsaw, Sullivan, and other whistle stop towns far removed from the Broadway footlights he had known intimately by the time this epic journey to the Heartland commences. Dreiser devoted hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages of prose to attacking the small-town "Babbitts" sharing the views of another world-weary cynic, Henry Louis Mencken. And yet, for all his caustic attitudes toward rigid conventions, Dreiser swoons in near reverie after catching first glimpse of the mundane streets, the old grammar school, feed store, and the simple folk he remembered from his youth. In other passages,examples of plain country living he encounters along the bumpy, dusty backroads of America circa 1914, are ridiculed and scorned as one would commonly expect of Theodore Dreiser and his war against society's religious and social conventions. Nevertheless, Dreiser's personal observations on life are often more engaging and inciteful than in some of his later novels. He is an American master; a pioneer of literary realism, and despite the contradictions, this is a fine and engaging volume exploring a vanished American landscape. Mr. Brinkley is to be commended for presenting it to the reading public again after all these years.

I purchased this book just prior to moving to Cincinnati. I found it to be a great help. This book tells almost everything a newcomer needs to know from information about local communities to where to go bargain shopping. When I moved from Cincinnati, I gave this book to the people that bought my home.

The Insiders Guide to Cincinnati is a great city guide. I bought the book shortly after I moved here to get an idea of the sights, museums and restaurants in the area. I got a lot more than I bargained for. Great for anyone moving here or planning to visit.

Insight Guide Chicago is a mine of useful information in an accessible format. This, however, is not what distinguishes the Insight Guide from books with a similar mission, such as Frommers or Fodors. What marks Insight Guide apart is its wonderful photographs, which provide the would-be tourist with a rich taste of what it must be like to spend time in this vibrant, world class, but still comfortably Midwestern city.

The other thing that sets this Insight Guide apart - even from others in the series - is the darkness of its text. If you read this book like a book, rather than a reference work (its stylish writing invites such use) you are regaled at every turn with tales of poverty, crime, corruption and racial division. That Chicago suffers from these problems is no doubt true but reading about them in a guidebook doesn't make me want to go there.

i found this chicago travel quide to be an exceptional difference in the usual "go here, do this" mentality of most tour books. the writing was insightful and thought-provoking, the information was straight forward and the photographs were exceptional. evidently a well thought out and researched book. even though this edition is somewhat dated (1999) i highly recommend this purchase.

This is a wonderful book for traveling in Iowa. I am an Iowa resident, and found some very interesting information within the covers of this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who desires to learn more about the hidden treasures in the heart of the midwest.

I just returned from an 8 day driving tour of the great state of Iowa. I purchased two books for the trip but relied on this one. It was a great resource and a good read besides. Starting from the west heading south then east and finally north, this guide was invaluable book of knowledge that made my road trip an experience to remember. I plan on purchasing the "Off the Beaten Path" version for my own home state and take weekend trips to see if Missouri can rival Iowa in charm and hospitality!

I was born and grew up in Kansas, yet there is much of the state I've never seen. I recently began driving the back roads of Kansas to get from my house to my daughter's on the western side of the state. I am learning to appreciate the undervalued beauty of Kansas. This atlas, showing all the roads in Kansas, including county roads and minimum maitenance roads is an excellent resource for finding my way around the state. It's fun to look in the atlas and find the little dirt road that runs by the cemetery or to see the gravel road that edges the pasture owned by a friend. I didn't realize map reading could be this fun!

Once again, Delorme atlases won't lead you astray. Living in Kansas City, I often take excursions into Kansas when I want to get out of the city. With this atlas I can head onto almost any back road and not get lost. These maps are great for finding places that the basic road maps can't show. Whether you're birding, hunting, or camping, you'll find this atlas useful. You can get to Lyon County Fishing Lake, Quivera NWR, Morton County or any place in Kansas easily. Highly recommended!

Being interested in the legality of Lincoln calling on troops to supress a domestic and not a foreign threat is appealing to me, since it was, what I thought, a violation of the powers of the presidency. Grabbing this, I thought it might bring aboveboard his actions. The title is somewhat deceieving in that the first 4 1/2 chapters discuss the founding fathers and their ideaology on various presidential powers and states' rights: intriguing to read, but way too much history of the constitutional debates. Finishing the book, I came to realize this was the author's way of defending his conclusions: that Lincoln did not abuse his powers and acted within the bounderies of constitutional law (though the last chapter discussing Lincoln's enfringement on Free Speech is hard to swallow as legal.) Still a fascinating read on the topic of constitutional power,that is just as important today as it was then.

"Lincoln's Constitution" first examines the Constitution as Lincoln found it at the beginning of his administration, with emphasis on state - federal relations, including the right of secession. Like most modern legal scholars, Prof. Faber clearly sides with Lincoln on this (and most other constitutional issues), but he is also careful to show that believers in states' rights and secession had good historical reasons for their views. With this background, the author then examines the Constitutional issues Lincoln faced in dealing with the unprecedented challenge of waging the Civil War. Here the focus shifts to presidential war powers and civil liberties in time of war. The author points out where Lincoln was right (in light of later precedents) and where he was wrong. Again, the views of both his supporters and his critics are fully examined. Finally, Faber clearly explains the relevance of all these issues for citizens of our own time.
Authoritative, up-to-date and balanced, "Lincoln's Constitution" is an essential supplement to J.G. Randall's classic (but now dated) "Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln."