Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (audiobook) by Tony Horwitz

A compelling look into one of America's (misunderstood?) icons

Published in October 2011 by Macmillan Audio
Read by Daniel Oreskes
Duration: 11 hours, 9 minutes

John Brown is one of those well-known yet elusive figures in history. He is literally in all of the American history books, but most people know almost nothing about him except for a few headline snippets like "Bleeding Kansas" and "Harper's Ferry" and "Slave Revolt." More knowledgeable readers may remember he used a sword to kill pro-slavery settlers in Kansas and worked with several prominent anti-slavery figures before his raid into Harpers Ferry, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and that his raid on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry was an utter failure and undoubtedly proved that he was insane.

Or, was he? And, was the raid really a failure?

Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising is an excellent biography of John Brown as well a well-rounded look at the politics of slavery in the United States in the 1840s and 1850s. I have studied the Civil War for years (and I must recommend Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic as well) and Brown always gets a cursory look (if any look at all) in most Civil War histories. If nothing else, Horwitz has shone a light on a most interesting life - the life of a man unwilling to bend on the issue of the inherent evil of slavery.

John Brown (1800-1859)

But, Horwitz has done more than that - he has also shone a light on the fragile nature of the political compromises that were brokered to paper over the cracks in America's political foundation - a foundation that John Brown completely shattered when his men stormed into Harpers Ferry on October 16, 1859.

Clearly Brown's attempt to spark a slave revolt totally failed. Most of his raiders were shot or executed. Brown's hurried trial was a farce (he had 6 different defense attorneys in 5 days of trial!), but Horwitz demonstrates that that time in prison awaiting trial, sentencing and execution allowed John Brown the legendary opponent of slavery to become John Brown the monster throughout the south or John Brown the martyr in some parts of the north. He became the focal point of public opinion. For example, here is a prophetic poem written in 1859 by Herman Melville called The Portent:

Hanging from the beam,
Slowly swaying (such the law),
Gaunt the shadow on your green,
Shenandoah!
The cut is on the crown
(Lo John Brown)
And the stabs shall heal no more.

Hidden in the cap
Is the anguish none can draw;
So your future veils its face,
Shenandoah!
But the streaming beard is shown
(Weird John Brown),
The meteor of the war.

Whether John Brown really intended to become "The meteor of the war" by allowing himself to be caught and put to death or if it just turned out that way...we will never know. Horwitz is not sure, either - he flirts with both possibilities. But, we can be certain that this event does not deserve the short shrift it often gets.

I was fascinated by the number of well-known personalities that ended up being involved with John Brown in one way or another. Brown knew Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. He tried to get Douglass and Tubman to participate in his raid. A number of famous personalities participated in the trial or the capture of John Brown, including Robert E. Lee, Thomas (soon to be) "Stonewall" Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, John Wilkes Booth, and Edmund Ruffin (widely credited with having fired the first shot at Fort Sumter). Any man that is the nexus of so many interesting people is bound to have an interesting story and Horwitz tells Brown's story very well.

The audiobook is very well read by Daniel Oreskes whose deep, resonant voice adds a feeling of somberness and importance to this history. Oreskes actually developed different voices to read the various direct quotes in this history. Horwitz often lets the historical figures speak for themselves and this is enhanced by Oreskes.

On a lighter note, the audiobook begins and ends with a bit of music from the Battle Hymn of the Republic - here are some lyrics as a reminder: 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on. 

This song was more famous during the Civil War for these lyrics:

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; (3X)

His soul is marching on!

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah! his soul's marching on!

He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord! (3X)

His soul is marching on!

Somebody has a sense of humor at Macmillan Audio.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on January 21, 2012.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Midnight Rising.

The Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amour

This sci-fi book by Louis L'Amour could have been so much more.

Originally published in 1987 by Bantam Books.

Yes, that's right. Louis L'Amour, author of more than 100 westerns wrote a sci-fi book. The Haunted Mesa is set in familiar territory for him, the American Southwest and it concerns the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians more than 600 years ago. If you are unfamiliar with the Anasazi, they are the builders of the adobe brick cliff dwellings that are scattered across the Southwestern desert. Their most famous site is at Mesa Verde National Monument.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988)

The premise of the book is that the Anasazi were able to travel back and forth to another dimension, the third world mentioned in Hopi and Mayan legends. They traveled through their ceremonial kivas and one of their kivas is re-opened by a reclusive billionaire who is building a home in the desert.

The book itself is typical Louis L'Amour style - sparse writing, tough guys, pretty women and little exploration into the motivation of the bad guys. The scope of this book could have been unlimited. It would be easy to imagine Piers Anthony writing 25 books about the exploration of the "third world". Instead, we get a cursory glossing over of their world. But, in defense of L'Amour, he was writing outside of his genre. How should he know that sci-fi written like a western is pretty unsatisfying?

Final grade: 3 stars out of 5. (He got bonus points for having a very interesting original premise)

Reviewed on June 16, 2007.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Haunted Mesa.

The Genesis Code: A Thriller by John Case

A Thrill Ride

Published in 1997.

This thriller begins in a sleepy Italian village, with the village priest. He is musing over the fact that he constantly hears the same types of sins being confessed in the confessional when a local scientist/doctor comes in for confession. The reader does not know the confession, but we see the reaction: the priest flees the church and goes immediately to one of his connections in the Vatican. Whatever the sin confessed was, it has world-shaking consequences.

This book brings in an ultra-conservative Catholic lay order (their motto could have been "Hey! the Inquisition wasn't all bad!"), a conspiracy to murder whole families and a professional American investigator named Joe Lassiter.

The action is fast-paced and the story is well-written. The author, to his great credit, does not let you know what all the hubbub is about until the characters themselves discover it. In fact, about halfway through the book, you start to wonder if the good guys really are the good guys.

The ending wraps things up a little too well, but it is a very good book. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Genesis Code: A Thriller by John Case.

Reviewed on June 16, 2007.

Loser's Town (David Spandau #1) by Daniel Depp

A look at Hollywood from an insider's point of view

Published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster.
290 pages.

Daniel Depp knows his way around Hollywood - he is a screenwriter and his brother is famed actor Johnny Depp (a fact I did not know until after I read the book). Loser's Town features David Spandau, a former stuntman turned private detective. Spandau is jaded and definitely not impressed with the Hollywood movie scene.

Spandau is called back from vacation to take a case involving Bobby Dye, an up and coming new star on the verge of making it to the pinnacle of the Hollywood scene. But, he's receiving death threats and, more importantly, is being blackmailed. Spandau has to deal with greedy agents, flighty actors and an on again / off again relationship with his client throughout as he tracks clues through the ugly underbelly of the Hollywood scene.

The book's title comes from a Robert Mitchum quote: "I came out to Los Angeles in the 30s, during the Depression, because there was work here. LA is a loser's town. It always has been. You can make it here when you can't make it anywhere else." This quote sets the tone for the entire book. It is dark, cynical and nihilistic. For me, it was too much. This was not a particularly enjoyable book, although the behind-the-scenes of the movie business aspect was interesting - in the beginning. But, the relentless nature of the book comes off more as petty complaining and trying to air out showbiz's dirty laundry and less about trying to move the plot along.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Loser's Town: A David Spandau Novel.

Reviewed on January 17, 2012.

LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay by Warren Kozak

Very readable history

Paperback edition published in October 2011 by Regnery History
392 pages of text. 434 pages total.

Kozak was inspired to write LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay by a quote from a college lecturer: "You might not agree with his politics, but if you have a son serving in combat, you want him serving under someone like LeMay." (p. 389) Personally, LeMay has always been a caricature of a general in the periphery of the story the World War II histories and pieces of historical fiction I have read. Kozak does a masterful job of dragging LeMay into the spotlight and showing us the man, not just a caricature or a non-entity on the sidelines.

General Curtis LeMay (1906-1990)

Kozak tells of LeMay's hardscrabble childhood, his determination and his ability to maneuver in an impersonal bureaucracy, be it Ohio State University or the United States Army - he could always find the way up. In a way, the story of LeMay in the Air Force is the story of the Air Force itself. He joined long before it split from the Army, he learned to fly in a bi-plane and ended up promoting the construction of supersonic jet bombers while advising the President. Along the way, he pioneered the bombing methods used by America against Germany and Japan. He also participated in the Berlin Air Lift, strengthened the Strategic Air Command and in a limited way he participated in the Korean War, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War.

As a devotee of the Bomber, LeMay advocated mass bombings under the theory that says: "If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting." Hard to argue with that blunt logic. And, blunt is exactly the word to describe LeMay - almost completely lacking in social graces, but willing to be the lead pilot in a bombing raid in order to convince his men that his plan would work - after he had done the math to make sure it would work.

Kozak is clearly a fan of LeMay but that does not stop him from being critical, especially of his decision to run for president with George Wallace in 1968 as a Dixiecrat. He explores it all and leaves the reader impressed. LeMay, coming from nothing to command a vast armada of bombers - a man without nuance or subtlety who mastered America's most complex weapons systems and helped to create the Air Force and the Strategic Air Command.

I give this enjoyable, very readable biography 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: LeMay.

Reviewed on January 16, 2012.

Superman: True Brit by Kim "Howard" Johnson and John Cleese

I found this and hoped for something that it was not

Now, I'm not going to hold the fact that I did not read the cover very carefully against the book - that's my fault, not the book's.

I was hoping for something a bit more serious, like Millar's Red Son in which Superman is raised in the USSR rather than in the USA.


But, this book is a tongue-in-cheek take on Superman, based on the premise that he landed in Kent in England, rather than Kansas, USA. Co-written by Monty Python contributers (it doesn't seem quite right to call John Cleese a mere contributor), this is an irreverant look at English culture, government and media - Superman is merely the medium used to deliver these scathing attacks.

A lot of the book deals with how normal people react to someone with super powers. Unfortunately, much of this ground was covered by Pixar's The Incredibles (both The Incredibles and True Brit were released in 2004) and even, to a lesser (and darker) extent by Frank Miller's first Dark Knight series.

The real lesson in this book is that good parents are very important. Superman's English parents can't hold a candle to Superman's traditional American parents.

The art of this one is a real strength - it reminded me very much of the vivid, clean lines of the Superman comics that I read when I was a kid.

So, mixed scores: Strong art, the Superman story is sacrificed for the jokes, but they are good jokes, no new ground covered when it comes to regular people's reactions to Super Heroes...

This one gets 3 out of 5 stars from me.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman: True Brit.

Reviewed on June 15, 2007.

The Eagle and the Raven by James Michener

Published in 1991 by Tor.

The Eagle and the Raven is an odd effort in many ways. Coming in at just 211 pages of text (plus about 20 pages of appendices), this is a tiny Michener book. It is even more tiny when you consider that 28 pages of this book is a forward by Michener and about 20 pages of the book are taken up with blank pages between chapters and illustrations.

This Michener paperback was published in 1991 by Tor, a publishing house best known for its sci-fi and fantasy offerings. I would imagine that they just wanted to cash in on the Michener name since he was in the midst of a real hit streak with such books as Alaska, Caribbean and Poland becoming best-sellers.

Tor calls this book a novel, although only a few pages really qualify as a novel, with inserted character dialogue that was most likely created by Michener. The rest of it is really best described as a comparative biography. While not the best of historical works, "The Eagle and the Raven" provides a comparison between Sam Houston of Tennessee and Texas and Santa Anna of Mexico. This is not a detailed biography by any means. I found myself wishing that he had went into a lot more detail, especially with the Mexican political situation.

James Michener (1907-1997)

Michener's forward to the book describes how and why he seemed to re-double his efforts as an author as he reached his eighties. In many ways, this is the most interesting portion of the book, especially if you are a Michener fan. In this forward the reader discovers that this book was actually a discarded chapter from his earlier book, Texas. He did something similar with a discarded chapter from Alaska.

It would be fair to say that Michener did not give this chapter the same editorial treatment that he gave Texas. Two factual errors jumped out at me as I read it - usually Michener and his editors catch them. Michener incorrectly attributes the eagle motiff on the Mexican flag to a Mayan legend (actually it was Aztec) and he claims Mexico was the first country in the New World to abolish slavery (it was Haiti). A little more editing would have eliminated the tiny amount of fiction that Michener inserted into the text (about 5 pages of conversation in a section at the end of the book) and Michener could have published this one as a dual biography rather than as a novel.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Eagle and the Raven by James Michener.
  
Reviewed on June 11, 2007.