To Battle for God and the
Right:
The Civil War Letterbooks of Emerson Opdycke
Edited by Glenn V. Longacre
and John E. Haas
University of Illinois Press, 2003
Emerson
Opdycke, a lieutenant with the 41st Ohio Infantry and later a
commander of the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, played pivotal
roles in some of the major battles of the western theater, including
Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Missionary Ridge. He won fame at
the Battle of Franklin when his brigade saved the Union Army
from defeat. Amidst the rigors of training and battle he wrote
his wife, Lucy, regularly, sending her over three hundred letters
during the course of the war. Those letters offered the immediacy
of the action as it unfolded and provided a glimpse into the
day-to-day life of a soldier.
Lucy transcribed his letters to her into letterbooks. Glenn Longacre and John Hass, for this book, employed standard editorial methods to make these letterbooks accessible to scholars and general readers.
Opdycke's letters reveal his view of the conflict with the South as a battle between the rights of states and loyalty to the Union. An opponent of slavery, he considered it an inherent evil and believed slaveowners had been corrupted by the very institution they sought to protect. He gave his opinions of combat strategies and high-ranking officers, and relayed his devotion to the Union and his disdain for military ineptitude. Behind the fiery temper and arrogance was a shining concern for his family's welfare and a loving and intellectual relationship with Lucy.
Opdycke was also quite ambitious and vain. Following the Battle of Nashville, he wrote Lucy on December 17, 1864: "Two more days of battle have gone and two brilliant victories have crowned our arms. I earnestly prayed that I might be spared in life and limb, for the sake of those who need me so much."
The letters span from August 31, 1861, when he was in Cleveland, Ohio, for training, to one on August 29, 1865, when he was on a steamer near Cairo, Illinois, heading home. In that last letter, he wrote "I am 'Homeward Bound.' Heaven grant that when I am with you again it may be to remain with you always."
Ask What You Can Do for Your
Country:
The Memory and Legacy of John F. Kennedy
by Dan B. Fleming Jr.
Vandamere Press, 2002
Where
were you at 1:30 p.m., EST, on Friday, November 22, 1963? If
old enough, most people remember where they were and what they
were doing on the day John F. Kennedy died. Author Dan Fleming
felt that many of those stories should be shared with others.
He also wanted readers to remember that day to realize why JFK
was then, and still is today, so revered around the globe. So
Fleming interviewed people from across the nation and around
the world to create this very personal and emotional collection
of vignettes dealing with people's immediate reaction to JFK's
assassination, their memories of JFK, and his significance to
their lives.
The assembled memories are from the famous and not-so-famous, including politicians, civil rights leaders, actors, artists, journalists, Peace Corps volunteers, members of the president's Secret Service detachment, the soldier who played taps at Arlington for the Kennedy funeral, Americans at home and abroad, and citizens of countries from around the world. The stories are constructed from interviews, letters, diaries, documents, and speeches.
Many of the vignettes include personal recollections and stories about the president, while other contributors focus on their role in the final days of the president and his funeral. The pilot of Air Force One recalls how he and the crew reacted to the news, then prepared the plane for a return trip to Washington, removing seats so JFK's casket wouldn't have to be placed in the cargo hold.
Other contributors to the book include Gerald Ford, William Fulbright, Myrlie Evers, John Glenn, Sam Huff, and Homer Hickam.
Richard Rorty
by Alan Malachowski
Princeton University Press, 2002
Richard
Rorty is notorious for contending that the traditional, foundation-building
and truth-seeking ambitions of systematic philosopy should be
set aside in favor of a more pragmatic, coversational, hermeneutically
guided project. This challenge has not only struck at the heart
of philosophy but has richocheted across other disciplines, both
contesting their received self-images and opening up new avenues
of inquiry in the process.
Alan Malachowski provides an authoritative overview of Rorty's considerable body of work and a general assessment of his impact both within philosophy and in the humanities more broadly. He begins by explaining the genesis of Rorty's central ideas, tracking their development from suggestions in his early papers through their crystallization in his groundbreaking book, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. The author evaluates in detail some of the common criticisms of Rorty's position and his ensuing pragmatism, and examines the subsequent evolution of Rorty's ideas, focusing particularly on the main themes of his second major work, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. The political and cultural impact of Rorty's writings on such diverse fields as feminism, cultural and literary theory, and international relations are also considered, and the author explores why Rorty's work has generally found its warmest reception in these areas rather than among mainstream philosophers.