Reviews for Maverick among the Moguls

The average rating for Maverick among the Moguls based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-02-09 00:00:00 John Sawyer Emma Edmonds has been my go-to girl for school projects since elementary school, and I admire her greatly. I don't remember as much about her as I should, and I just recently found out that she had written a memoir. Now, it appears there was a reason that this memoir (granted, only a 2-year wartime memoir) never came up in my previous researchings, and it's because she seems to have taken a somewhat fictionalized approach to it. I assume most of stories she tells or passes on are correct, and I really appreciated all the firsthand sources she quoted within the memoir (telegrams and memos, her own battlefield journal, writing by her contemporaries), but unfortunately I think much of it must be taken with a grain of salt. One problem was that she said left a loving family to immigrate to America, but the biggest problem was that she implied that she was officially a woman most of the time. There are several instances when people refer to her as "her", even though it leaves a lot of 'plot holes'. Now, she was dressing as a man from the day she ran away from her abusive father in Canada (and even before, really), and continued to do so until nearly the end of the war (after this memoir ended, certainly). Too, her proselytizing throughout the book was excessive, almost to the point of exaggeration (and frustration on my part). It probably takes up 1/3 of the pages... or more. I am in the middle of reading a book on manners in 19th century America, and while it gives great insight into how she (and others) could have gone easily undiscovered in her masquerades, it makes me question even more how entire armies of 19th century soldiers could cry and pray as much as the ones in her memoir. I may be underestimating the strength of 19th century religious fervor, and overestimating the manliness of 19th century infantrymen, but it was just too weird. Nearly every hospitalized soldier she mentioned died, and not a single on of them died without first begging for his mother, weeping profusely, and then praising the Lord with his last breath and joyfully going to God Above with the holy light of heaven in his eyes. Which is fine, but I can't imagine all soldiers did this, and I also can't imagine that this many soldiers could all expire of broken limbs. Not even amputations, just broken legs or hands. Again, though, maybe I'm underestimating the uselessness of 19th-century surgeons. Now, in Emma Edmonds' defense, I can understand why she wrote the memoir like this. From a sales perspective, money was tight all across the country, and while people did love buying war memoirs, if you had to choose between the memoir of an noble good-looking American cavalry Lieutenant and the memoir of an immigrant serial man-masquerader who cavorted in Army camps and shot women, the 19th century choice is clear. The way Edmonds wrote her memoir Joan-of-Arc'd her -- more called by God to defend her adopted country by praying with wounded soldiers, and less dressing up as a male slave to infiltrate rebel camps. And it worked -- this memoir was hugely successful in her time (which was good, because the Army sure didn't pay her any retirement until she was nearly dead). Despite the irritations, her wit and adventuresome spirit shined throughout. I seriously laughed out loud at least once a chapter (or teared up, as in some other cases). I loved her story about her being recognized as a fellow female by a female soldier she was caring for in a field hospital(who also, of course, died). When she gets off her buy-my-book horse, Edmonds is a mischievous, clever, resourceful, indomitable woman, and having admired her as long as I have, I truly appreciated this glimpse of her in her own words, flawed though it might be. She actually lived up to my picture of her in my head, and, as we so often find, that is a very hard thing to do.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-02-03 00:00:00 dane robart Wow! As a student of history specializing in Civil War medicine, nothing is more exciting than reading a first hand account of women like Emma Edmond's work during the Civil War. Emma Edmond's memoir puts women at the forefront and examines their many roles in the conflict. Not only does Edmond's tell her story, but that of so many other notable men and women of the war. After studying the movement of troops and happenings of Civil War battles, it was refreshing to see this on a more realistic, personal scale as she takes you right down into the action and makes those battles and people who fought them, real. The vivid description of tragedy and carnage brings a new level of realization and humanity to the Civil War that many books do not address with such tenderness. In addition, Edmond's account of families in Vicksburg during the siege may be the most complete first hand account of the matter I have seen to date. A must read for students of history especially, but also anyone who is interested in gender relations. You won't be disappointed.