John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman Simon and Schuster Paperbacks New York, NY, 10020 2014 I had a lot of fun with this book. It's not the kind of thing that I normally buy, but it was a Christmas present from my granddaughters and I'm really glad to have it. Nearly every page contained information that I didn't know like: There is no "John Wayne." That's the character that actor Duke Morrison created to play all his other characters. He didn't even come up with the name John Wayne. He was a straight 'A' student at Glendale HS and went to USC on a football scholarship, but contrary to legend, his career didn't end with an injury. He quit football to go into acting and stunt work full time. Head Coach Howard Jones tried to put all of his players into Hollywood and he succeeded. Many became famous producers, writers, directors, stunt men and actors. Wayne was never an All-American, but his good friend Ward Bond was and started on the Trojans NC team of 1929. All three of his wives were Catholics and his many children went to Catholic schools, including his boys who played football at Loyola HS in Los Angeles. He converted to the church on his deathbed to please his first wife whom he never stopped loving... There's hundreds of pages of fun stuff here and I recommend it for light reading of local Southern California history if you're in the mood.
More book reports... One book was on Franklin Roosevelt, but I can't recommend it. It was such a rehash of well-known stories that I only learned one new thing: FDR crossed the Atlantic on a battleship surrounded by heavy cruisers and destroyers to meet with Churchill and Stalin at Yalta. During a drill on the voyage, some idiot on one of the destroyers fired a live torpedo at the president's ship! Also aboard that ship was one of the meanest Navy SOB's of all-time: Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. It was King who refused to allow "his" ships to protect British and Canadian convoys in the Atlantic. His own children described their father as "in a constant rage every time we saw him" and so on. King's response was to ARREST THE ENTIRE CREW of the destroyer and to demand the court martial of the captain and his officers. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed when the president intervened and more appropriate punishments were handed out... I also read a couple of books on Soviet leader Lavrentii Beria. I don't know how much any of you are interested in Soviet history. At Yalta, Stalin introduced Beria to FDR as "my Himmler" which the president didn't find amusing. Many have called Beria everything from a sexual sadist to a monster, but it's difficult to determine the truth. Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union by ambushing and murdering Beria just weeks after Stalin's death. It was Khrushchev who charged Beria with crimes as diverse as serial rape to mass murder after he had him assassinated. We may never know all of the truth, but a great place to learn the other side of the story is a book called, Beria: My Father, by Sergo Beria. Now we come to a classic. All you history geeks must get this one. The hard part of being an old history geek is finding history that you don't already know. Well guess what? I just found 319 pages of stuff I didn't know and it was the goriest, bloodiest, presentation that I've ever read. It's called Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne. It's about the Comanches. They controlled their own world, from Kansas to northern Mexico. They defeated the Spanish, Mexicans, Texans and Americans for nearly 300 years. They gang raped tens of thousands of white and Indian women and children over that period and scalped every enemy. Their tribes were much larger than the Sioux or Cheyennes up north and they were so ferocious, that fewer than 10,000 people lived in Texas as late as the 1830's. Their entire culture revolved around stealing horses and taking hostages for ransom. It's also about the last great Comanche chief, Qua-nah Parker and his white mother Cynthia, who had been stolen when she was 9. It's also about the "anti-Custer" Ranald Mackenzie, who finally defeated the Comanches and became the greatest Indian fighter of all-time. I will never think about the west the same way again. How in the world did Custer become so famous for losing when another Civil War hero accomplished all of the things that Custer had failed at? How are the Sioux and Cheyennes more famous than the Comanches? This book changed my entire perception of the Old West and I recommend it to everyone.
That's very interesting about the Comanche's and Ranald Mackenzie..Custer was always presented in 1950's and early 60's history books as a galant figure, the Indians of course were bad. Now to hear that this guy Mackenzie is the guy Custer was supposed to be just makes me wonder if any history taught to us in School was correct. The Spanish Conqestadors were warriors for Christ, converting savages to the one true faith. Now I find out that those conversions, even the ones by Fr. Sera weren't exactly voluntary.
The way history is taught and learned changes with each generation. When my father took U.S. History class, he had to know the name of General Phil Sheridan's horse (Rienzi). In modern California, we're not even supposed to teach about Washington crossing the Delaware. In Japan, they teach that the Japanese kicked the Americans out of Asia, in spit of the fact that there are still American military bases all over that continent. In North Korea, they teach that the North Koreans defeated BOTH Japan and the United States! All we history teachers can do is tell the truth. I tell my students over and over that, "if it's not true, it's not history." I give extra credit points to anyone who can catch me in a mistake. (Yes, they've caught me a few times.) We also spend a lot of time learning the difference between facts and opinions. Parents tend to call the school and demand that history teachers be fired for anything they say, and of course, old, white, male teachers are automatically guilty until proven innocent. I have fun every day. When it's not fun any more, I'll retire.
Jim, I enjoy your commentaries on teaching. If all teachers could have half of the enthusiasm and creativity that you bring to your classroom, this generation would soar intellectually. Imagine, this is your second career. It's unbelievable to me that for most of your adult life, you were not a teacher. I guess the appropriate question would be, what took you so long?
Why are you not supposed to teach about Washington crossing the Delaware? Oh wait, that would be an accomplishment by white men wouldn't it?
re: Washington He was a white slave owner, as was Madison and Jefferson. This frees modern lefties to disregard the Constitution. I've actually heard other teachers who told their students that the Constitution is irrelevant and should be ignored... re: second career The answer is money. I was a teenage father, so I needed money right away. I graduated from college in January of 1974 and pay for teachers was around $400 per MONTH.....with no pay in the summer. My first year working for Avery Corp was 1976 and I made $18,000 that first year...
Have you noticed the trend to remove statues, names on buildings, etc of anybody who was a slave owner. I think Harvard or Yale or some Ivy league school actually had the nerve to refuse to remove somebody and the student's weren't happy. Dick Dowling the hero of some obscure Civil War battle in Texas had his statue removed because he was fighting for the Confederacy. I think they are renaming a street here as well that was named after him. All the schools in Houston who had been named after historical characters who had any ties to the confederacy or owned slaves have been erased. Who is going to write history books in the future, these kids want to erase from history anybody who did something they didn't like.
One of the most important goals of our educational system should be to produce informed citizens of our country. They should by the time that they finish high school should know our history (the actual not filtered history), our government, and the importance of informed voting. Instead we end up with young adults that have no clue as to why and how this country came into being and how it grew. They spent more time learning about global warming and alternative lifestyles than they did about how our government was formed and works. They know more Kardashians than Supreme Court Justices and probably couldn't identify a photo of their own Senators.
:idea: Yale's problem is that one of it's buildings is John C. Calhoun Hall. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was a graduate of Yale. He was also the all-time fire-eater of the South. Secession was his idea. In fact, thanks to him South Carolina seceded from the Union TWICE. The first time, he resigned as vice-president and went home to lead the revolt. President Andrew Jackson (a slave holder himself) threatened to personally hang Calhoun on the White House lawn. One wag said that, "South Carolina was too small for a country and too big for an insane asylum. Calhoun also came up with the idea of "nullification." This means that states can "nullify" any federal law they don't approve of and write their own. This idea still exists right here in California, where we have our own marijuana laws, immigration policy and even our own EPA. (The California Coastal Commission.)
Had some plane time this past week and got to read Empire of the Summer Moon. Very interesting but the time line is somewhat disjointed jumping from decade to decade in the 19th century. For history buffs its a great story for Texans it's a must.
Here's another history book I just finished reading, but it's not for everyone. I've never had many nightmares, but this one really disturbed my sleep the last few days. It's called, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the fair. by Erik Larson. The setting is the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. It changed our country forever. Imagine everyone from Thomas Edison to President Cleveland attending the exhibits. Imagine Buffalo Bill Cody and Susan B. Anthony saluting each other as crowds cheered. Imagine eating new products like shredded wheat and riding George Ferris' new invention called a "Ferris Wheel." One of the carpenters who built this fabulous show was Elias Disney. You can imagine the stories that he told his boys. Roy and Walt, as they grew up... While all of this was going on, right across the street, America's first serial killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes, may have killed hundreds of young women and children. He eventually confessed to 27 murders before he was hanged, but the real number is certainly much higher. Hundreds of young women attended the fair and simply disappeared...
I'm inclined to recommend a book about baseball. It's "Game Six" by Mark Frost. It's about the sixth game of the 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox. Some, myself included, think it's one of the greatest WS of our generation. It's loaded with historical insights into the game of professional baseball as well as a gripping play by play description of ame 6. I'm only halfway through, and I'm mesmerized by the author's knowledge and how he meshes the history of baseball and information about the participants with the WS game itself. If you like baseball stories, I predict that you'll like this one. Jim, something I didn't know before reading the early chapters: The origin of the Dodgers' name comes from the contraction of the preceding nickname, the Trolley Dodgers, which was a common activity on the streets of Brooklyn.
Jim I've read the Devil in the White City. I liked the way Larson was able to entwine two separate stories into one book. He tried to do the same thing with Thunderstruck which wasn't nearly as interesting. Sid We all remember Fisk trying to move his shot down the line fair. But the winner of the game didn't win the series.
re: Game Six Thanks Sid! I'll pick that one up immediately. My entire pile of summer books is done and I'm in the mood for something entirely different after all the bloodshed of the Comanches, Stalinists, and serial killers... re: Devil in the White City I just found out that they're making a movie of this, but I'm cautious about how good it will be. Dr. H.H. Holmes will be played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Prendergast will be played by Bill Murray. Both of them are much older than the real people and all of the screen shots of DiCaprio show him acting like a maniac, wild with rage. The real H.H. Holmes never rattled. Even when they hanged him, he turned to the nervous hangman and made a joke, saying, "Take your time." re: Erik Larson This is the second book by Larson that I've read. I'll avoid "Thunderstruck" on Gip's recommendation, but I highly urge everyone to pick up, In the Garden of Beasts which was wonderful. It's the story of an American businessman whom FDR appoints ambassador to Germany in the 1930's. He observes with horror the rise of the Nazis and the collapse of law and culture in Europe. His naive daughter falls in love with a spy from the Soviet embassy who eventually is recalled and shot just for knowing Americans and Germans...