Charles Ashbacher Reviews

  Review of Enslavement in Memphis , by G. Wayne Dowdy, ISBN 9781439673225 Five out of five stars Slavery, as specific to a city   If you have done any study of slavery in the United States, then there will be little in this book that will be new to you. There is mention of slaves, even very young children, being sold off to pay debts or to settle an estate. After all, they were property. Announcements of upcoming auctions of prime slaves are also displayed. While most slaves worked in the tobacco and cotton fields, some had skills needed to build things. Memphis is a city in Tennessee, and slave labor did a great deal to build the structures of the city.   This book is a description of the basic components of the social construct of slavery as it was practiced in Memphis and the enormous economic value of slavery. It is often forgotten that for many white southerners, their most valuable asset was the slaves they owned. This led to much of the resistance that ...

  Review of Rudy , DVD version Five out of five stars True story of perseverance Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger grew up dreaming of playing football at Notre Dame. Unfortunately, he lacked the physical skills to play football at that level and the grades and money to attend Notre Dame. His father and friends work in a steel mill, and they dismiss his ambition as an impossible goal. However, Rudy is not deterred, while working in the steel mill, he saves some money and continues to hold tight to his dream.   Rudy takes a bus to the campus of Notre Dame and tells a friendly priest that he wants to play football for Notre Dame. All he lacks are physical skills, tuition money and the proper high school grades. The priest gets him into nearby Holy Cross College so that he can bring up his grades. Rudy does everything he can to be around the football team, even volunteering to work on the field for free.   Perseverance and dedication pay off and Rudy is eventually admitte...

  Review of Ken Burns Statue of Liberty , PBS video Five out of five stars Excellent history of an American icon   There is no more powerful symbol of American openness to others than the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. For many people who immigrated to the United States, it was one of the first things that they saw. It was also one characteristic of America that they would recognize.   This Ken Burns documentary tells the story of how the statue was conceived as an idea to express solidarity between the United States and France through the final construction on Liberty Island in New York harbor. Like so many large new things, the idea faced a great deal of skepticism at first. It took some time to convince people that it was a worthy idea and to provide the funds for it.   One of the most interesting facts of the history of the statue is the creation of the models before the final statue was cast. Several models, including one that was life size, w...

  Review of Young Razzle , by John R. Tunis Five out of five stars Father and son compete and make up   Sequentially, this book is later in the series of novels written by Tunis that feature players of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The great and flamboyant Razzle Nugent has reached the age of forty and so his pitches don’t have the zip they once did. Joe Nugent is Razzle’s son and a good ballplayer in his own right. Joe’s mother has recently died after raising Joe all by herself, never receiving assistance from Razzle. Joe has been in contact with a scout and has been given an opportunity to attend a baseball minor league training camp. He dislikes his father, so reacts quite negatively to being tagged as “Young Razzle.”   Joe rises through the levels of the minor leagues quickly and reaches the major leagues as a New York Yankee while Razzle is still playing. Since Razzle is overweight and out of shape, Joe wins their first confrontation where Razzle is pitching. The h...

  Review of “I Was There,” by Ken Jones Four out of five stars Soft-core pro-war propaganda.   The war in Korea has often been called “America’s Forgotten War.” President Harry Truman referred to it as a “police action,” which was strange for an event that cost nearly 3 million civilian deaths and over 30,000 American killed. Almost 2 million Americans served in Korea. At the time, many people in the United States preferred to simply put the war out of their minds as they went about adjusting to the new world of television and the creation of the suburbs.   Ken Jones was a war correspondent that spent a significant amount of time on the front lines of Korea, often carrying a weapon. This book is a collection of his interviews with American fighting men operating on the front lines. Their descriptions of the action are truthful, although sometimes presented with a livelier tone than was actually used. Men talk about stepping on a land mine or watching their budd...

  Review of Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Laurence Chamberlin in the Civil War , by Brian F. Swarz, ISBN 9781611215618 Five out of five stars Wartime actions of a committed hero   Joshua Laurence Chamberlain led a very comfortable life when war broke out between the two American factions. He was a deeply religious professor at Bowdoin College, yet he resigned to join the Union army very early in the war.   He was a man that loved the undissolved union and volunteered to serve in the Union army. Although he at first declined the higher promotion to Colonel, he accepted a position as a Lieutenant Colonel. In his own words, he wanted to earn the rank of colonel. Chamberlain was involved in many battles, from the early days of 1862 until the day the war ended in 1945. His actions at Gettysburg led to his receiving the Medal of Honor. A good soldier, a patriot and a man that wanted to see the war through to its end, Swartz truly believed in divine power.   ...

  Review of Robert B. Parker’s   Ironhorse , by Robert Knott ISBN 9780399158117 Five out of five stars Cole and Hitch fight really bad guys   Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are now territorial marshals and are aboard a train. They are engaged in their first action as marshals, and it appears to be very tame compared to what they have done in the past. Their job is to escort some prisoners to the Mexican border.   However, the scene is set for a dramatic change when the Governor of Texas and his family board the train along with their bodyguards and a significant cache of money. As marshals, the authority of Cole and Hitch extends throughout the United States, so they immediately have to accept some responsibility for the governor’s entourage and assets.   The train is attacked by a group of bandits led by an unknown mastermind and a ruthless killer called Bloody Bob Brandice. Cole and Brandice have a violent history, Cole once put two bullets in Brand...

  Review of In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of An American Hero , edited by Otto Penzler, ISBN 9781935618577 Five out of five stars A literary analysis of a great character   I am generally very reluctant to read literary commentary/criticism, for I tend to dislike having people tell me what books and characters are about. As a very experienced reviewer, I prefer making my own decisions regarding the underlying fundamentals of stories and characters.   However, in this case I am very happy that I went against that general principle. The Roberrt B. Parker character is the second best character in detective fiction, trailing only Sherlock Holmes. The mystery writers that dissect and interpret the Spenser character do so in a manner that contains the right number of plaudits along with some dissection/criticism.   With few exceptions, the commentators do not plunge deep into the more formal literary criticism, they...

  Review of Threat Vector , by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney ISBN 9780399160455 Five out of five stars Modern threats from China   I have always found the Tom Clancy novels to be highly entertaining, but this one was a little better. As a long-time college professor of mathematics and computer science, the cyberwarfare elements of the plot were especially significant.   The premise is that there is a political upheaval in the leadership of the People’s Republic of China. One side is the political leadership under president and economist Wei Zhen Lin. The Chinese economy is undergoing difficulties and although Lin knows the problems, the balance of the Politburo refuses to accept it. At the point where he will be gone in minutes, Lin is rescued by the forces under the command of Su Ke Qiang, the chair of the Central Military Commission. The two form a pact where Lin will stay in power as long as Qiang can engage in military adventurism in the offshore areas of Chi...

  Review of Forgotten Hoosiers: Profiles From Indiana’s Hidden History , by Fred D. Cavinder ISBN 9781596297463 Five out of five stars “Forgotten” and “hidden” are exaggerations   While it may not be common knowledge that some of the people profiled in this book spent some of their childhood in Indiana, most are well known. In some cases, the declaration of the person as a Hoosier is a bit of a stretch. They were born in Indiana and spent some of their childhood there, but during most of their life lived elsewhere.   For example, consider the case of Harlan Sanders, the founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. His biography, like his image, is hardly hidden. Another case is that of General Walter (Beetle) Bedell Smith, General Eisenhower’s chief of staff in World War II. It is impossible to read any history of the general operations of the Allied forces in Europe in World War II without seeing his name.   The most interesting fact in the book appe...

  Review of Tales From the Dugout: The Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told , by Mike Shannon, ISBN 0809229501 Three out of five stars Good, but not really the greatest   While the baseball stories in this collection are good, they are not the greatest. I have been reading fiction and fact baseball books all my life and as a consequence have read stories about characters such as Dizzy Dean, Babe Herman, the entire Gas House Gang, Bill Veeck, and Satchel Paige. There have also been many dramatic moments in playoffs and the World Series.   With so many amusing and entertaining stories in the annals of baseball, this book just does not live up to the wording of the subtitle. For example, there is no mention of Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson.  

  Review of The WWII Memoir of Ralph B. Schnaps: 500 Days of Front Line Combat, edited by Theresa M. Deane and Joseph E. Schnaps, ISBN 0595274005 Four out of five stars A unique, yet common story   Ralph Schnaps was born in 1920, so he spent his teen and early adult years experiencing the consequence of the Depression. With money tight, he joined the Minnesota National Guard in 1938, which would have been the first opportunity he had. In February 1941 his unit was inducted into federal service as the 135 th . In April 1942 the 135 th was the first U.S. division to be deployed to the European theater.   After some time in England, the 135 th boarded ships and participated in the North African landings. They fought their way all the way to Tunisia and participated in the victory celebration in Tunis on May 20, 1943. On September 21, 1943, the 135 th landed at Salerno, Italy and this began a long and brutal fight against German forces as they slowly moved north...

  Review of Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas Into Action , by John Spence, ISBN 9780470494516 Four out of five stars Easily said, difficult to execute   While most achievement targets are simple to state, they are hard to achieve. For example, there is the oft-repeated adage, “buy low, sell high.” Easy to state, but very hard to precisely know when the price has hit a valley before rising or hit a peak before falling.   Spence states six principles of business success. They are: *) Vivid vision *) Best people *) Robust communication *) Sense of urgency *) Disciplined execution *) Extreme customer focus. All simple to state and easy to understand in the abstract. Hard to execute in practice.   For example, it is easy to understand that there must be a vision for what the organization should be doing. However, the business world is littered with the residue of companies that had a vivid vision that was either f...

  Review of Haunted Providence: Strange Tales From the Smallest State , by Rory Raven, ISBN 9781596293878 Four out of five stars Fairly ordinary except for two features   This stories in this book of ghost stories is fairly routine with two exceptions Most of the stories have the backdrop of a tragic human death followed by appearances of the deceased, sometimes many years later. The two exceptions are the stories that feature two masters of the macabre. Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. Even a relatively routine story featuring these two men generates significant interest.   Providence, Rhode Island is like all other cities that have existed for centuries, there are stories of unusual events in the lives of unusual people. If you are looking for stories of ghosts and hauntings, then there are really only two of significant interest. All others have essentially appeared in many other publications with different names and locations.

  Review of Heat , by Mike Lupica, ISBN 9780142407578 Five out of five stars More about life than sports   Satchel Paige is arguably the all-time best baseball pitcher. One of his teammates once said, “The good lord didn’t give Satchel an arm, he gave him a whip.” Michael Arroyo was also born with what his father said was, “the arm.” Even though he is still young enough to play Little League baseball, Michael can throw an 80-mph fastball and he has excellent control. His goal is to help his team move on to the Little League World Series.   While baseball is his joy, his life is complicated. His father brought Michael and his seventeen-year-old bother Carlos with him in an escape from Cuba and they now live in New York City. Their father died suddenly of a heart attack and the boys are terrified that social services will learn of their plight and either separate them into foster care or send them back to Cuba.   With the help of some kindly neighbors, the ...

  Review of Corn Poll: A Novel of the Iowa Caucuses , by Zachary Michael Jack, ISBN 9781888160895 Five out of five stars Humorous, engaging story about grass roots politics   Iowa has been the first state in the nation where citizens vote their presidential preferences for decades. The caucuses first rose to national prominence when Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter was the leader in the 1976 caucuses. In 2008, Democratic candidate Barack Obama won, demonstrating that he could get substantial support in an overwhelmingly white state.   The record for the Republican party is more mixed. George H. W. Bush won in 1980, and evangelist Pat Robertson finished second in 1988. Some very forgettable people have made a respectable showing on the Republican side, but only once has the caucus winner on the Republican side won the presidency. It is a time of grass roots politics at the basic level, a current candidate recently bragged about visiting all 99 Iowa counties. ...

  Review of Life on the Gold Coast , by Charles Alexander Gordon Five out of five stars When the British Empire was being created   The geographical phrase Gold Coast refers to the western coast of Africa in what is now Ghana and Togo. It was given the name because that area was a source of gold for centuries. It was also a major collection point for African slaves that were transported to the Americas. The British government formally took control and made it a crown colony in 1821.   Charles Alexander Gordon was a prominent British physician, he was even an honorary physician to Queen Victoria. He was also a well-traveled military man of 39 years that somehow managed to survive many combat situations where he treated the wounded. He was literally present at many of the battles that created the worldwide British Empire. He also somehow managed to live to the age of 78.   He is known for writing many books, in this case he is writing about his experiences ...