Reviews for I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memoirs of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television

The average rating for I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memoirs of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-20 00:00:00 Michael fleming While this book is easy to read, it feels like it was written to perpetuate romantic notions of the West rather than to convey accurate historical information. Adding to this is a disturbing amount of racist ideology sprinkled throughout the book. The wars between the Dakota and the European Americans is described as an "inevitable conflict between the progressive and the primitive", and members of the Dakota nation are characterized using phases such as as "howling Sioux warriors", "willing squaws" and "blood crazed bands". There is some interesting and solid historical information in "The Dakota War: The United States Army Verses the Sioux 1862-1865", but it's validity is thrown into constant question by the outdated and offensive assumptions made by the author.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-08 00:00:00 Jesse Sexx This history by Clodfelter is a good example of what drives Dakota people crazy when white historians write about the Dakota War. There are many instances of thoughtless usage, but the more basic issue is the failure to read sources critically. Sometimes Clodfelter seems judicious, weighing the credibility and weight of alternative narratives, but then other times he seems thoughtless. Here is an offline example, that is, one not directly pertaining to the main action. Clodfelter recounts how following the Mexican War, Alfred Sully eloped with the fifteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy Hispanic family in California. Then, Sully's teenage wife suffered the fate of so many women in the past; she died at the age of seventeen soon after the birth of their son. The son did not long survive the mother. He died in the embrace of love when we was accidentally smothered to death by his grandmother, who was sleeping beside him.And Clodfelter just lets this pass. So, the work stands as a useful introduction to the campaigns of 1862-65, but it is not as critical or enlightening as it might be, and especially lacks considered treatment of Indian actions.