Thomas R. Flannagan, Kenneth C. Bausch
QUOTE (viii): This is the book to prepare for the messy multi-layered, multi-faceted, personal, political real world of applied activism.
Thomas R. Flannagan, Kenneth C. Bausch
QUOTE (viii): This is the book to prepare for the messy multi-layered, multi-faceted, personal, political real world of applied activism.
Gene Dattel
5.0 out of 5 stars Now I Better Understand What It Was All About,June 10, 2010
By Richard P. Canon (Spartanburg, SC United States) – See all my reviews
Being a proud fifth-generation Southerner, I thought that I fully understood why the Civil War was fought. Most of my understanding was based upon the influence of society and culture within which I grew up. Although none of my family were flag flying Confederates, there was very much pride in being a Southerner and having ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.
After reading this book, I honestly believe that I better understand why the Southerners did what they did. Within my lifetime I have been told over and over that the war was fought over the issue of slavery. As this book shows, slavery was at the root of the war. The primary issue of the war, however, was pure economics.
Continue reading “Review (Guest): Cotton and Race in the Making of America”
Ian Bickerton
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant overview of the results of modern conflicts,May 26, 2011
By Tim Johnson (Fremantle, Australia) – See all my reviews
Although I loved Bickerton's excellent book, I did find it a demanding read; chapters one, two and three is not material that a general reader like myself often encounters in the contemporary media: the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 is not a conflict that is considered in accounts of the reasons for contemporary conflicts but the more so that it need be. Far too often the entrails of conflict are not considered and much modern commentary about conflict virtually implies that the event had few if any antecedents implying that it just happened spontaneously. I believe that Illusion of Victory puts that idea away and that seems not to be the author's thesis.
Continue reading “Review (Guest): The Illusion of Victory – The True Costs of War”