"Harriet Beecher Stowe" Book Review

Harriet Beecher Stowe by Suzanne M. Coil
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The engrossing story of the imaginative and extraordinarily intelligent author of the American classic Uncle Tom's Cabin and more than 30 other books.

No one's body of work represents the phrase, "The pen is mightier than the sword" more than Harriet Beecher Stowe. When she met President Lincoln in 1862, he allegedly said to her, "So you're the little lady who wrote the book that made this great war."

Ms. Stowe is a fascinating person and has an even more interesting family that I did not know had been famous in her time. It's odd to read about her almost puritanical life and realize that she existed at the same time as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron. In fact, she loved Lord Byron, but she hadn't yet started writing before he died.

I had read Uncle Tom's Cabin a few years ago while in college. It was a great book and I'm glad to have finally read about the author. I hadn't realized she was so prolific and that she had written other books and many articles.

She was a pretty strong person in her family as well. She wasn't always the bread winner, or at least not until her book sold. But she held the family together and was the smarter than her husband at times.

It sort of annoyed me that people slandered her after she described Lord Byron as the loathsome creature he was. She had become friends with his widow, and when her friend died some people said foul things about her, so in retaliation and also to spread the truth around, she wrote articles describing the kinds of things he had done or that it wasn't her friends he acted that way. Last year, I had read a short biography about Byron and he is a terrible person and I would go so far as to say that he was probably a sociopath. But enough about that....

While this is a short biography, about 200 pages long or so, I would say that it was just long enough to maintain my interest, but any longer and it would have been fairly boring. It was written with a young audience in mind. It has a pretty decent selection of pictures of the author and her family. While I wouldn't read more about her, I would certainly read more of her work. I would also read about her siblings, especially Henry Ward Beecher, a preacher who stood for equal rights for woman and the abolishment of slavery.

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4 out of 5 Beecher preachers.

"The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History" Book Review

The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History by Linwood Custalow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History incorporates the sacred oral history of the Mattaponi that has been passed down to Lin "Little Bear" since his childhood, by his father, the late Mattaponi Chief Webster "Little Eagle" Custalow; his uncle, the late Mattaponi Chief O. T. Custalow; and grandfather, the late Mattaponi Chief George F. Custalow; and those that came before. The Mattaponi Indian Tribe, along with the Pamunkey Tribe, was one of the original core tribes of the Powhatan Chiefdom, which the English colonists encountered in the 17th century while establishing Jamestown. For nearly 400 years people have heard the Euro-American rendition and interpretation of events that transpired between the English colonists and the Powhatan Indians. The True Story of Pocahontas is the first public publication of the Powhatan perspective that has been maintained and passed down from generation to generation within the Mattaponi Tribe, and the first written history of Pocahontas by her own people.

This is a written account of the true story of Pocahontas, as told by her people in the oral history of the Mattaponi tribe. The Powhatan, of whom Pocahontas was a celebrated member and whose father was the main chief, are no longer the tribe they once were, but her descendants live on with the Mattaponi tribe.

There is a saying, that history is written by the winners, and for the most part that has been true. I don't think I have heard of another account like this from anywhere else. It is usually only through the persistence of historians that we look back at cultures and people who were destroyed, either by time and/or invaders, and realize they weren't barbarians who were doomed to die off.

I'm a bit shocked by how different the actual happenings of history and what has been passed down in popular culture. In a way I didn't want to think that she had been abused and forced to do things that 'history' credits her with doing out of love, like marrying that English commoner when she was already married and had a child. I also can't believe she died so young. Portraits painted of her make it look as though she had been in England for a lot longer than she actually was.

I really enjoyed learning about the history and customs of the Powhatan and how their hierarchy worked. The repetitive nature of the story didn't bother me too much. In my mind it was like those old Greek tales sans poetry, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" where they had to repeat everything for the benefit of the listener.

I'm glad I read it. Though general consensus is that John Smith was a lying jerk that not too many people liked, his version is the one most likely to be remembered, so I'm glad they decided to print out what they knew about the events.

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4 out of 5 werowances.

"The Life and Times of Queen Victoria" Book Review

The Life and Times of Victoria by Dorothy Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A biography of Queen Victoria, including pictures of the royal family.

I was using this book as an introduction to the icon that is Queen Victoria and it did that perfectly. There was a lot of information to cover what with her reign being so long and her being related to nearly everyone remotely royal. I still think she is an interesting character, but I feel like Prince Albert was the much more intriguing person.

He's in a foreign country with people who don't seem to respect him all that much throughout his whole career and life there. And still, he goes at the governing of this place with such gusto it makes me wonder if Queen Victoria did anything.

It seemed like she was just the signature on the paper. I mean, her childhood didn't allow her to learn how to do her job and know people, but still, she could have been active and learned about her countrymen. I liked how fond she was of the soldiers and awarded them all equally and in person. She seemed like a decent woman and wasn't a bad ruler. It's hard to really get her character with only a glimpse at her, so I will definitively read more about her.

The book itself was full of pictures of the monarch and her family. But they are of the usual variety, you have probably already seen them.

The only thing I had a problem with was how British it was. Every once in a while the author would mention something only a British, and at this point, an older British person, would know and that was sort of annoying. Usually, I really don't like it when the author inserts herself into the biography of someone I highly doubt she met at all in real life. But since this book was so short it didn't bother me too much.

Overall, a nice introduction to a monarch whose main contributions was having graced the world stage for so long, producing so many royal heirs, and a really big museum. But who knows, maybe with more reading I will change my opinion of her.


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I knight thee four out of five stars.

"Lion in the White House" Book Review

Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Aida D. Donald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"New York State Assemblyman, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, New York City Police Commissioner, Governor of New York, Vice President and, at forty-two, the youngest President ever-in his own words, Theodore Roosevelt "rose like a rocket." He was also a cowboy, a soldier, a historian, an intrepid explorer, and an unsurpassed environmentalist-all in all, perhaps the most accomplished Chief Executive in our nation’s history. In Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt, historian Aida Donald masterfully chronicles the life of this first modern president. TR’s accomplishments in office were immense. As President, Roosevelt redesigned the office of Chief Executive and the workings of the Republican Party to meet the challenges of the new industrial economy. Believing that the emerging aristocracy of wealth represented a genuine threat to democracy, TR broke trusts to curb the rapacity of big business. He improved economic and social conditions for the average American. Roosevelt built the Panama Canal and engaged the country in world affairs, putting a temporary end to American isolationism. And he won the Nobel Peace Prize-the only sitting president ever so honored. Throughout his public career, TR fought valiantly to steer the GOP back to its noblest ideals as embodied by Abraham Lincoln. Alas, his hopes for his party were quashed by the GOP’s strong rightward turn in the years after he left office. But his vision for America lives on. In lapidary prose, this concise biography recounts the courageous life of one of the greatest leaders our nation has ever known."

At long last, I have finished this biography. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't call it the definitive work on his life. Anyone can tell that by the short length of it alone.

I feel as if "The River of Doubt" was a better book if only about a very short period of his life. It captured the intensity of that journey and was very well-researched.

This book was also well-researched as the author herself stated in the Acknowledgements section. I got this at a bargain price and was looking forward to reading it. I like Theodore Roosevelt but I wanted to become more educated about him and his legendary status. This book should be used as an introduction to his character. I'm working myself up to his autobiographies. He is a whirlwind of a personality and I want to prepare more before facing it completely.

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I hereby declare thee book worthy of 4 out of 5 stars.