The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr

 

The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr by Noel B. Gerson

My guess is that because of the overwhelming popularity of the musical “Hamilton”, most people probably recognize the name of Aaron Burr as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton during a duel. I haven’t seen the musical, so I don’t know how prominent a figure Burr is featured, but after reading this book I came away with the overwhelming feeling that whereas Alexander Hamilton might have warranted a musical about his life, Aaron Burr deserves a movie. A mini-series preferably.  There’s an awful lot of life this man lived that was quite interesting; albeit not always easy. Aaron Burr was not a good man.

Like all tragic figures though, if we look hard enough, we can find enough about the individual to pity them.  I found myself pitying this man in a great way. Although if I were completely honest, I would have preferred a much colder ending to his crooked life.

Aaron Burr was possibly the first “truly evil” politician who ever held a high office in the United States of America.  We would be naïve to believe that most people who hold such a high office are deeply altruistic in their desires. It’s all about power. Aaron Burr was no different. We read about his young life and discover he was highly intelligent and manages to not only be a very successful lawyer, but a fairly respected hero during the Revolutionary War. He had quite the brain and seems to find success with whatever he touches. If only he would have used his gifts for good.

After narrowly missing out as becoming the third U.S. President, we sense a bitterness in the man who isn’t used to failure.  He has a lot of enemies and manages to kill Alexander Hamilton after being “insulted” by him.  This is only the beginning of Burr’s problems and his story becomes much more interesting after this event, if not altogether tragic.

We find him essentially trying to overthrow the young U.S. government and appoint himself dictator of a new regime.  The details aren’t worth going into here, but what’s sad is that Burr always manages to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and eventually fleeing to England, Scotland, France, and few other countries.  It seems no one likes him there either. His reputation seems to follow him.

The times when we feel the most sympathy for him is when we see that he loves and dotes on his wife very lovingly, and when she dies young, his affection shifts to his only child, a daughter who reminds him an awful lot of his deceased bride. We read about a lot of his correspondence to her when he’s overseas and one gets the impression that she’s the only thing he truly cares about rather than the ruthless pursuit of money and power.  Speaking of money, he has a lot of it throughout his life, yet manages to squander much of his wealth as soon as he accumulates (and re-accumulates) it.  We read an awful lot about him living in squalor while starving at times.

This book was a “Kindle Unlimited” deal yet don’t think that such a product is somehow inferior than a hardcover on any NYT best seller list.  I found this volume to be incredibly interesting and never overburdened with worthless detail. Each chapter is about 10 pages which is really a quite nice feature.  It’s very easy to sit down and digest a chapter or two in a brief sitting.  It’s a rather quick read in terms of biographies of famous individuals go, but there’s an awful lot of events in Aaron Burr’s life that make the experience very rich. 

It’s also a tad refreshing to see that the country of the United States has had to endure tyrants in power before and managed to endure.  Had things gone slightly awry, it’s easy to see how our young country could have very easily had a much shorter life.  You have to conclude, though, that calmer heads do in fact prevail; at least most of the time.

This was a very enjoyable informative read, and if one has Kindle Unlimited access, this is a great way to learn and be entertained free of charge.

China

 

China – Edward Rutherford

Rutherford’s latest (as of now) and, in my opinion, his best.  I’ve written extensive reviews of all of Rutherford’s novels online and I like to think sometimes that he just might be reading them. Not realistic, of course, but I find it refreshing that the advice I’ve “offered” him, he’s actually listened and implemented; in this novel at least.

Rutherford writes about places, and the people who live in those places. Some of his books have been titled Russia, London, Paris, and New York. His objective is to tell a story, or stories that also educate his readers on the history of the particular location.  This can be rewarding but it can also be a hindrance if not done carefully. It’s hard to tell a compelling tale that takes place over 700 years or so.  Often, we read of events that have historical significance of the particular place, with the characters rooted in the middle of said events. In order to tell such lengthy history, a lot of time periods are skipped, and so we never get to really know our characters that well.  We’ll read about a young couple, for instance, and just as we’re getting to know them, we have to be jarred into the next section of the book that takes place 50 years later, and the young couple (if even still alive) are now in their waning years.  We then have to assimilate their offspring, and just as we get to know them, the cycle begins anew. 

Rutherford is also guilty of pushing too much history and not enough story.  Often, he’ll have two of his characters, say, at the dinner table, and one of the characters is telling the other one about the last half-century or so of history of the locale over brandy and biscuits. This really serves no purpose other than to ensure the reader has a better understanding of the place and time.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but not something that many readers want to dig through when reading a “novel”.

The good news is that “China” has very little of this. In fact, the entire story takes place over about a 70-year period.  So, no, we’re not really reading that much about the entire history of the country, but my guess is Edward Rutherford realized he could effectively write a novel that “takes place” during an important part of China’s history and still succeed.  He does so mightily.  In fact, I would argue that he could feasibly write a “part 2” to this tale (he did so only once, when writing about Ireland).  There’s an awful lot more story to tell about China.

This book covers roughly the years of about 1830 – 1905.  This was during the last dynasty (The Qing Dynasty) of China before the country became modern or westernized (or whatever).  We read about several different characters and several different plotlines, yet they’re all tied together in some form or fashion. The overall theme of the book seems to be around the time England began selling Opium to China, which many would argue caused the downfall of the mighty empire.  In fact, our main character is one of the English captains, and we follow his story throughout the entirety of the novel.

We read about many indigenous people as well, Even though many would argue that the opium trade wrecked the country, when one looks at this place with Western eyes, we learn that this country was far from kind and or philanthropic towards its subjects.  There were few that lived in power and luxury and the masses were subjugated to be peasants for life.   When a servant to one of the emperor’s concubines is working on her mistress’ nails and accidentally cracks one of her fingernails, the poor soul is flogged to death.

We also read about the cruelness of feet binding of women (ouch) and castration of men (triple ouch) in rather explicit detail.  In case you’re wondering, the former is to make women more attractive to rich and powerful men. The latter is done since only eunuchs may serve in the emperor’s palace, since it would be a tragedy if any of the emperor’s harem of concubines were to become….well…disturbed.

We read about a lot of other cultural practices and behaviors as well, and the reader finishes the novel wanting to learn more about the history and geography of the place. Rutherford succeeds very well if that was, in fact, his goal.  There are a few real people woven into this tale as is common for this sort of work.  The most notable is the Empress Dowager Cixi, a concubine of one of the less effective latter emperors who many say actually ran the empire until her death immediately preceding the end of the Qing dynasty.

So if someone is wanting to learn anything about mid to late 20^th century China, they should be warned that there is absolutely nothing here. Again, I wouldn’t be disappointed in a part 2 if Rutherford chose to continue his story. Although to be honest, there were many very dark moments for China from the rape of Nanking to the reign of Mao Tse Tung, that I imagine writing any kind of appealing story during this time in history might be too dark a task.

If so, no great loss. This novel was a wonderful experience despite the fact that there is actually very little of the history of China told here.

The Seeds of Disaster – The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939

 

The Seeds of Disaster – The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 by Robert A Doughty

When one considers the two world wars during the 20^th century, they may be inclined to ask: “Why was the country of France so prevalent during the first world war, yet basically nonexistent during the second?”  Yes, we know there was a lot fighting IN France during World War II – Dunkirk and the Normandy invasion come to mind, but we don’t hear much of anything about French soldiers nor leaders.  Other than Charles De Gaulle, we really only hear about the Vichy (puppet) government and the fact that Nazi Germany basically controlled the entire country during the bulk of the conflict.

This book is an attempt to tell us why.  This book lays out all of the details in what essentially happened in France between the two world wars that essentially led to the emasculation of the country military-wise.  I really wish that I could say that this was interesting reading. It wasn’t. It was a slog. Perhaps the subtitle with the word “doctrine” should have warned me.  Doctrines, although extremely important when studying history, don’t necessarily make interesting reading.

This book reads like a government field manual. A long government field manual.  It details everything. Now, I do attest that the subject matter in this book is extremely important for major countries that might potentially find themselves involved in a war in the foreseeable future.  This book is a good reminder that countries need a lot more than guns and bravado to succeed. Perhaps this is why we constantly hear that military budgets are so high.  For the leaders of the armed forces to be successful, no stone can be left unturned.

So we read about morale, population segments, geography, economy, relations with other countries, leadership, government, and on and on and on.  This book has a lot of detailed meticulous facts presented to the reader, but there simply isn’t much to keep one interested.  This entire book could get its point across in about 1/10 the page space.   Imagine, say, you watch a 30-minute television show.  You then watch the exact same story but it’s then presented in a format that lasts over 10 hours.  How soon would you fall asleep, or at least mentally check out?

As important as this history lesson is, I can’t honestly recommend this book. I’m willing to bet that there’s a documentary out there, or at least a YouTube video, that can make the same points outlined in this book, only with a lot more brevity that what we’re presented with here.  I’ll say it again, note the word “doctrine” in the title.  A good book for a thesis or term paper, but for enjoyment? Not so much.