Reviews for Black History Month Resource Book

The average rating for Black History Month Resource Book based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-02-06 00:00:00 Jerry Dixon A good overview of the military history of the Foreign Legion. Although the author includes vignettes about various legionnaires throughout the book, he does not focus on how the Legion drew on its recruits through the ages. He makes some overarching statements about what it represents, but does not inquire deeply about what the unit's membership think (or thought) of it as an organization. That's okay, ultimately, because that's not what this book is trying to do. It's a combination of the many engagements in which the Legion has found itself over the years. In that respect, it's a brisk and memorable read. Any single philosophy on the part of the author is more implied than it is explicitly stated. He seems to clearly believe that the core characteristic of the legionnaire is honor, while the core characteristic of French politics is dishonor. The legionnaire's role is, in some part, to act honorably in dishonorable circumstances. He provides more than enough evidence of the Legion being on the wrong side of history, but goes perhaps a little too hard on painting legionnaires as amoral actors. It may work in broad brush strokes, but it does not jive with the individual characters he describes. Anyway, my qualms really are on the margins of the work. I wanted to understand more about how the Legion came to be, what it's done, and why it still exists. I feel like the book does a good job of making that much clear. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to find out the same.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-06-12 00:00:00 Brooke Akins The French Foreign Legion has often been portrayed with romance and a dash of fantasy. Tony Geraghty tells the story of the legion, tracing their formation and outlining the principles of a legionnaire. From the outset, the legion is shown to have been made up of mostly foreigners, including bands of native warriors from the French colonies. The Legion, as Mr. Geraghty shows, has often had a relationship with the French government that is similar to an evil stepmother with an unwanted stepchild. The book describes in good detail the events of the major battles which the Legionnaires have been involved in. Starting with Waterloo through to World War I and II, the French involvement in Indo-China and onto the struggle and mutiny of Algeria and the Legion in modern times, each battle saw the loss of scores of legionnaires, either through desertion or death. I was particularly astonished by the Legion’s feats in Camerone and most especially in Indo-China. As with Camerone, Dien Bien Phu was a ferocious battle, with so many lives lost and men made and broken. Mr Geraghty introduces us to the remarkable men (and one woman) of the Legion; men such as Colonel Pierre Jeanpierre, Captain Jean Danjou and many others whose names have gone down in Legion accounts as larger than life figures. All in all, this is a well-researched introduction to the Foreign Legion and how French politics have shaped and influenced their existence.