"Duel Between the First Ironclads" is probably the best book I have read about the historic clash between the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) and the USS Monitor. It relates the fascinating tale of the development and fight between the two great ironclads and their meeting on March 9, 1862.

William C. Davis is both a historian and a storyteller. He expertly weaves memoir and journal accounts from actual participants to reveal a human side to what many would consider 'dry' history. That Monitor and Virginia were the first Ironclads to meet in battle is notable. But it is the men who commanded those ships, fired their guns and worked their engines who were behind it all. Davis expertly captures that and brings it to life. It is this mesh of human drama and military might that makes this book so valuable.

Then there's the fact that it is simply well written, well paced and just entertaining. While this subject has been covered before in countless books on Civil War Naval history and military, none I have seen has gone into this much depth, both for the human side and the historical background.

I really enjoyed this one. I think it's written well enough that I could suggest this book to just about anyone who has an interest in military history, or just likes a good story.

Wiliam C. Davis chronicles the race to build the ironclads as well as the dramatic battle that ended unresolved. All of the colorful charactors on both sides of the war are portrayed as both human and visionary, in their desperate gamble to win.. More importantly, however, Mr. Davis places this battle into its proper context as a crucial turning point in military and naval history. The chapter on the development of ironclad technology after the battle and war is the proper ending. For the first time, the true importance of this battle and the race to build the ironclads was brought home to me. Highly recommended.

The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimack) were not the "first" ironclads... rather, it was the First Duel of Ironclads. It can only be supposed that the title was forced on Mr. Davis by the publisher. Still... this is perhaps the best of all books on the historic fight between the Monitor and the Virginia, stirringly re-created and well annotated, and is a vital work for anyone wanting to know what really happened on the water in the Civil War. Highly recommended.

Well, do you think that you don't keep up with others when you can not do something which everyone can do?

I would let you know that leave your life. Absolutely, it is not necessary to change your season for keeping up with others. There is certain rhythm to fit you. Sometimes we make ourselves the one with a sense of relief supposing we do the same thing that others do. There is not a way when you go behind someone. Also, when you go with others' shadow.

Of the books that I own, this one is the best prepared and printed. It is also very complete rather than a scattering of selections. I recommend it highly to the curious Thoreau reader.

Four of Thoreau's best works come to life in their full and unabridged versions. Thoreau portrays a land of immense natural beauty, and his keen observations focus on subjects as diverse as native plants and animals to his musings on the peculiar people he meets. Thoreau's revelations on conservation show us he was a century ahead of his time, aware of a landscape and nation which was already irreversibly changing. Yet his simple life at Walden pond shows us that we are perhaps most content with ouselves when we are the most alone and unencumbered. Contains a brief chronology of Thoreau's life which presents us with many previously unknown facts. Each work in this collection has been available before, but the Library of the America's has researched and investigated the most accurate materials and corrected errors contained in previous publishings.

The Powder Monkey is a fascinating book for young readers. The author has combined history with fiction in such a way as to create a magical window for today's youngsters into that era and place that still leaves its mark upon our nation today. A significant portion of The Powder Monkey is the true account of the two-day battle between the Confederate ironclad Virginia and several Union warships, including the famed USS Monitor. Ms. Campbell has skillfully woven into this history the tale of a young boy, Tad Lynch, who, having been inaddvertly left on board, becomes a powder boy and a helper with many of the chores on the Southern ship. Scorned at first by some of the crew, Tad wins their affection and admiration by the way he performs his duties and attends to them when they are injured. Every young boy should read this book. Not only is it interesting and fun, but the underlying example of courage and devotion to what is right is something badly needed among many of our young people of today. I highly recommend The Powder Monkey.

Lately, I've come to really like the writings of Thoreau. It has taken me several years to return to this author...after being forced to read excerpts from Thoreau at a ridiculously fast pace during high school. Little time to read and less time for reflection left a bad impression of Thoreau in my mind that has, as I said, only recently been overcome.

But now, upon my return, I have found "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by Henry David Thoreau to be a very invigorating book...one to be savored and not read too quickly. Taken at a good pace, it has been a joy.

While transcendentalism still strikes me as a rather facile and egotistical philosophy, I have really come to see and appreciate the mystical quality in Thoreau's works. Like most mystical authors, Thoreau is not always engrossing--he is actually rather tedious in points, but his work is punctuated by passages of sheer brilliance.

Seeing nature through Henry's eyes has been a wake up call to me personally. This book breathes excitement and lust for life upon the reader. Even his long winded discussions of different kinds of fish serve to alert me to my own lack of wonder. This world, even in its current subjection to futility , is still a wonderful creation. Nature (and Thoreau's picture of these rivers especially) echo the declaration of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1).

I highly recommend this wonderful book.

Thoreau sought the seclusion of the pond to write *this* book, not _Walden_. In 19th-century terms, this treatise is a modified travelogue based on a 13-day boat trip that Henry and his brother John took in 1839. By today's standards, contemporary editors and many an English teacher would decorate this manuscript with red ink and admonish the author that he strays too often and too far from the main subject. Bill Bryson's essays wander too, but he doesn't usually reach back and quote the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer, Chaucer, or Shakespeare. But whenever Henry takes in his surroundings, he is reminded of something else, and before you know it a serious discourse is off and running, and it has nothing to do with floating upstream or down. He expresses his opinions or offers his knowledge about fish, mythology, religion, poetry, reading, writing, history, government, traveling, waterfalls, friendship, love, life, nature, art, dreams, and science. He reminisces about a previous trip to the Berkshires and a sail down the Connecticut River. He breaks into poetry at whim -- sometimes his own words, more often someone else's. Along the way, the brothers paddle from Concord, Massachusetts, to the area around Concord, New Hampshire, and then turn around and go home. We meet some of the people they encounter along the way and get a glimpse of New England life during that time period. In some respects, the people and the land haven't changed much at all. We can see Thoreau's environmentalism when he talks about dams and their effects on the habits and habitats of fish -- concerns that are still with us today. We can laugh at his puns and enjoy his wordplay (i.e., "The shallowest still water is unfathomable" and Man needs "not only to be spiritualized, but *naturalized*, on the soil of earth.") Above all, we can explore these rivers and shorelines during a time period that we will never see personally, with the aid of a native naturalist who's in the habit of sharing his observations and thoughts.

Read _Walden_ first. And if you find you enjoy Henry's take on nature and civilization and life and living, pick up _A Week_. There are a few gems lurking in here that you might connect with.

[From Boating on the Catawba...in the
"Musketaquid"]

I will take the definite role of the
Nay-Sayer in the long line of aficianados
and idolators who insist that *Walden* is
Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece...
I will simply state that this work and
"Life Without Principle" are his great
contributions to literature, thought, and
value...

Take this quote from "Life Without Principle"
(before I get to 'A Week...'):
"To speak impartially, the best men that
I know are not serene, a world in themselves.
For the most part, they dwell in forms, and
flatter and study effect only more finely
than the rest. We select granite for the
underpinning of our houses and barns; we
build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves
rest on an underpinning of granite.
we do not teach one another the lessons of
honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or
of steadiness and solidity that the rocks
do. The fault is commonly mutual, however;
for we do not habitually demand any more of
each other."

If that is not "preaching," but in the
sense of a prophet, not a mere sermonizer,
then there hasn't been any in a long time.
But Father Mapple's sermon in 'Moby-Dick' is
right up there with it.

If I had only known of Thoreau [and I had
not read much of him (and little then)except
at the University] and had to believe that
Thoreau was just what he seems to be in
'Walden,' then I would have given the man
short shrift...because there is not enough
of any sort of heart or soul in that work
to believe that he is even human. But
fortunately, a Thoreau worshipper (or rather,
*Walden* worshipper) forced me, by his own
imperious egotism, to try to understand this
man Thoreau and his views. It is fortunate
that I did, for I discovered 'A Week....'

This Penguin Classics edition is excellent
in a number of ways -- the two most important
being the notes in the back which explain the
allusions, and ancient Latin and Greek sources
and excerpts(for those who might not know them)
which Thoreau quotes and sometimes translates;
and the incredible "Introduction" by the editor,
H. Daniel Peck.
He can say his wondrous words himself:

"There is good reason for 'A Week's open
acknowledgment of the attritions of time
and loss. Conceived initially as a travel
book, 'A Week' was immeasurably deepened into
an elegiac account of experience by a tragic
event that occurrred in Thoreau's life in
the period following the 1839 voyage. In
1842, Thoreau's companion on that voyage,
his brother John, died suddenly, and in
agonizing pain, from lockjaw.
Without question this was the greatest loss
that Thoreau ever was to suffer. (He seems
to have undergone, in the aftermath of his
brother's death, a sympathetic case of the
illness that caused John's death, and the few
entries that appear in his journal in this
period are desperately mournful.) Interestingly,
though the pronoun 'we' characterizes the
narrator often in the book, the brother's
name is never mentioned -- an indication perhaps
of Thoreau's enduring need to distance himself
from this loss. there is nothing in 'A Week'
that directly refers to the death of John Thoreau.
Instead, his memory is evoked through various
symbolic strategies. For example, the long
digression on friendship in the chaper
'Wednesday' surely is intended to reflect the
intimacy Thoreau shared with his brother. Even
the ubiquitious 'we' of the narrator's voice
speaks to this intimacy. So intertwined are
the two brothers' identities in this pronoun
that it is often difficult to tell whether a
given action has been taken by Henry or John,
or both at once."

"To emphasize the elegiac aspects of 'A Week'
is to remind ourselves that throughout Western
history, rivers -- and voyages upon them --
have served as metaphors of transience and
mortality. Yet, as I indicated earlier,
'A Week' is not solely a mournful book. Its
rivers also support a spiritual buoyancy, and
provide the setting for exploration and adventure.
Most important, however, the book's larger
structure enables it to 'transcend and redeem'
the individual losses that it recounts."

[wonderful writing here!]
"In general, the outward-bound voyage of 'A Week'
dramatizes the writer's encounter with time and
its losses; on that voyage, he pays close
attention to the shore -- which, in its discreet
scenes of spoliation and historical change,
symbolizes the passage of time. The homeward
voyage, on the other hand, suggests assimilation,
resolution, and renewal. If the primary mode of
perception on the outward voyage had been
observation (of the shore), then the primary
mode of the return voyage is contemplation.
Now we are involved in an inward exploration,
and, symbolically, our vision leaves the shore
and returns to the river and the flow of
consciousness that it represents."
-- H. Daniel Peck; "Introduction."

The battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack in March 1862 is one of the most significant naval battles in history. This was not because of the outcome, which was tactically a draw, but because it heralded the end of wooden warships and the ascendancy of steam, armor, exploding shells, and the revolving gun turret. The contrast of the floating iron fortress with the "cheesebox on a raft" has inspired many artists and the chief attraction of this Spotlight on History volume is the detailed artwork and diagrams by Fred Freeman. The text by Carole Kismaric starts with President Abraham Lincoln worried about reports the South was building an ironclad and details the construction of the Merrimac and then the Monitor, which led to their famous battle. Note: the book follows the notion of alliteration rather than history since the Union frigate Merrimack was cut down to make the Confederate ironclad christened the C.S.S. Virginia; I should also point out the North won the war and wrote most of the histories about the battle.

For me the most impressive parts of this little volume are the excellent two page spreads that provide diagrams and cross-sections of each ironclad. With the Merrimack there is a drawing of the original sailing ship with the portion of the hull used shown in blue, a cross-section view, two overhead views on the inside and top of the ship, and a frontal cross-section. A similar approach is used for the Monitor with additional cross section views. The only complaint would be that the Monitor is done to scale vis-à-vis the Merrimac, which makes it on the small side; a chart lays out a direct comparison of the ironclads in terms of construction, size, and armament and there is also a map of the James River where the battle took place off Hampton Roads. The illustrations are equally good, especially the ones detailing the battle between the two ironclads. Those pictures are in color, while most of the early ones in the book are in black & white with gray tints. The cover painting, of the Monitor's captain talking to that of the grounded U.S.S. Minnesota while the Merrimac approaches in the distance, is the best of the bunch. Both the text and the illustrations are informative, although the publisher does have to play with the text font from page to page to get everything to fit alongside the appropriate illustrations. This is a nice little history of the "Duel of the Ironclads" that should not be forgotten. At the very least the artwork by Freeman could be salvaged for future use; after all, that is what they did with the Merrimac.

A summation of every aspect of who this man was and how inspiring he remains. He simply bares his soul to the reader in his unique and scholarly style.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately," Thoreau writes in his most familiar work, WALDEN, "to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get to the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion" (p. 86). These were the words that forever changed my life when I first read WALDEN more than twenty years ago. I have since returned to WALDEN more than any other book.

Recently reading another Modern Library Paperback Classic, THE ESSENTIAL WRITINGS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON, prompted me to revisit Thoreau in this new paperback edition of his collected writings. It opens with a revealing biographical Introduction to Thoreau (1817-1862) by his friend, Emerson. Thoreau "was bred to no profession, he never married" Emerson writes; "he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, wisely no doubt for himself, to be the bachelor of thought and Nature. He had no talent for wealth, and knew how to be poor without the least hint of squalor or inelegance" (p. xiii). This 802-page edition includes WALDEN in its entirety, together with other writings one would expect to find here, A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, "Walking," and "Civil Disobedience," among others.

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desparation" (p. 8), Thoreau wrote in 1854. Few would disagree that WALDEN remains relevant today. "Most men, even in this comparatively free country" Thoreau observed more than 150 years ago, "through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that" (p. 6). "Our life is frittered away by detail" (p. 86); Thoreau encourages us to "Simplify, simplify" (p. 87). "To be awake is to be alive," he tells us (p. 85). "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak" (p. 305). Truth be told, WALDEN is as much a about a state of mind as the place where Thoreau spent his "Life in the Woods," 1845-47.

WALDEN is among the ten best books I've ever read. Thoreau was a true American original thinker, and the writings collected here could change your life forever.

G. Merritt

"A good book is the plectrum with which our else silent lyres are struck." ~Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard from 1833 to 1837. He had a complete fascination with the natural world and great literature in general. Life seemed to him to be a playground of thoughts. He draws from a great volume of understanding and his thirst for information seems unquenchable.

If you have read or listened to The Iliad and The Odyssey, you will especially enjoy some of his references. He also weaves verses from the Bible into his writing in an interesting way and you will appreciate his writing more if you have a basic understanding of Homer, Shakespeare, Plato, Chaucer, John Milton, Alexander Pope and Emerson.

Within this book you will meet a man of independent thought who is completely consumed with the sheer delight of discovery. To wander in the woods in solitary thought was a spiritual experience. He was also involved in a philosophical and literary movement which flourished in New England from 1835 to 1860. Both he and Ralph Waldo Emerson were at the center of transcendentalism and influential in American thought and literature.

Thoreau's thoughts flow from one subject to the other throughout this book. The contents include Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Cape Cod, The Allegash and East Branch, Walking, Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown and Life Without Principle.

Walden - Walden represents our ability to follow our individual dreams all while being willing to be satisfied with less in order to gain greater intellectual freedom.

Thoreau built himself a cabin on the edge of Walden Pond and lived there from 1845 to 1847. During this time he supported himself by surveying and growing vegetables.

He rambled about in the woods and collected his thoughts in detailed journals. His friendships seemed few and far between, however the friends did make seemed to turn into deeply satisfying relationships.

Walden Pond becomes Thoreau's lover. He drinks from her cool refreshment, swims in her enveloping waters, knows her every mood in summer or winter and observes her with the utmost attention as she freezes, melts and dances playfully in the sun. The descriptions of this pond are well-worth reading as he has a talent for capturing her very essence with his extensive vocabulary.

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - Thoreau and his brother made a river voyage in a boat they built. This experience was the basis for his first self-published book in 1849. One minute you are reading about the river and the next you enter an entirely different world of thought about friendship.

"You are the fact in a fiction, - you are the truth more strange and admirable than fiction. Consent only to be what you are. I alone will never stand in your way. This is what I would like, -to be as intimate with you as our spirits are intimate, -respecting you as I respect my ideal. Never to profane one another by word or action, even by a thought."

Cape Cod - Thoreau made the first of four trips to Cape Cod in 1849, and he later delivered lectures about his experiences.

Allegash and East Branch - A journey made in 1857 with Edward Hoar and an Indian guide who brings some humor to the tale. Edward gets lost and we see a side of Thoreau that shows his concern for his fellow human beings. He is normally just so independent.

Walking - Quite humorous at times and explains his love for walking and for letting the wildness in man come out to play.

Civil Disobedience -This essay seems to have been born during the time Thoreau had to stay in a prison because he refused to pay a poll tax. This essay is said to have influenced Gandhi in India and the civil-rights movement led by Martin Luther King.

Slavery in Massachusetts - A lecture given in 1854 at an Independence Day meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Plea for Captain John Brown - In October 1859 the abolitionist Capt. John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and Thoreau spoke in defense of his character.

Life Without Principle - Here he gives his views on rushing off to California in search of gold.

This man's mind was a deep forest and his descriptions of nature are quite inspiring. Where else would I have read about a whale's vertebra being used as a mortar or been so highly entertained by his conversations with an eccentric elderly gentleman?

There are also descriptions of shipwrecks and discussions about survival in the woods. Thoreau's humor will often catch you unaware and if you collect quotes, you will find quite a few.

Since most of us will never build our own homes, cook over a wood fire on a regular basis or take our baths in a pond, this book presents a lifestyle we may never experience. You will rarely find an individual in your own circle of friends who would encourage you to downsize your life in a super-size world.

The uncommon perspective presented in 732 pages will appeal to writers, poets, philosophers and anyone who values their thoughts more than material possessions.

During the week of reading this book, I was inspired to take a trip out to the mountains, walked along a river, and worked in my garden with a new sense of purpose. The world became a vibrant, new environment filled with possibilities.

Intense reading? Yes. A week's worth of reading will inspire you for a lifetime.

If at all possible, read while this book while floating in a boat on a pond or while on a camping trip in the woods.

~TheRebeccaReview.com

Thoreau is sometimes classified as a "nature writer", but his reflections extend into economics, politics, health, recreation, aesthetics, moral issues of personal character, fidelity to principle and self discipline, and to the very nature of reality and perception. He was a dominant figure in the Idealist school of philosophy labeled Transcendentalism. Emerson called Thoreau the truest American. This because of his passionate respect for the dignity of the individual. Years before the Emancipation Proclamation or the Civil War, more than a century before the American civil rights movement or the global push for 'human rights', there was Thoreau's Resistance to Civil Government, which is commonly titled Civil Disobedience. (Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged Thoreau's influence on his life as did Martin Luther King, Jr.). Several decades before the environmental movement was born and ecological awareness began to seep into public consciousness, while John Muir was but an infant, there was Walden. On issues of human dignity, moral consistency, environmental responsibility, even diet and health, he was as an unappreciated light in a gray world of small thinking. In his short life, he had rather few readers and was generally thought of as being a nutty malcontent, as has been the case for so many thinkers of antiquity and of today.
"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad," states Thoreau, who like other great Idealist thinkers insists that Truth and the crowd generally stand in opposition to one another. Solitude being the state in which one can "discern his proper objects," Thoreau's record at Walden Pond is a wonderful account of such discernment. In his opening treatise on economy, Thoreau says that philanthropy is esteemed so highly only because we are so selfish. It is in his less provocative yet careful analysis of objects of nature that Thoreau delights his reader. His account of a battle between an army of red ants and an army of black ants is meticulous and absolutely wonderful. This great work of American writing and philosophy is an invitation to hear the music of "a different drummer."
"Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails."

I would not buy this book because the Monitor fought a Confederate Ironclad called the C.S.S. Virginia. The Virginia was built upon the salvaged hull of a union ship called the Merrimack (with a "k"). There was another ship built by the union, called the Merrimac (without a "k") but it was a paddle wheel boat and it never fought the Monitor.

This is a very well-put-togther, informative book about the ironside USS Monitor and its Confederate counterpart, the CSS Virginia. The title of the book was obviously off-putting to one reader, since it referred to the Merrimac (the name of the Virginia before it was re-fitted and re-christened by the Confederacy), but don't let that stop you!. This book delves into a fascinating part of American military history. The battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac changed the course of naval history, and had repercussions all over the world. This book is a great introduction into that period in history.
For those who are still concerned about the use of Merrimac as opposed to Virginia: 1) the US gov't never formally recognized the Confederacy as a sovereign state, therefore the Confederacy would have had no authority to re-christen the ship (ergo, the original designation of Merrimac is, in fact, correct); 2) even during the Civil War, in both the North and the South, the name Merrimac was still widely used to describe the ship -- and remains the more widely recognized and acceptable of the two.

The story of these two ironclads is one of the most famous incidents in naval history. As stated in the Ken Burns Civil War Series, "for a moment, every other navy in the world stood obsolete." This book is very effective in chronicling the story of these ironclads, and should be viewed as such, instead of focusing on petty details.