Reviews for The Flowers Of Literature V4: Consisting Of Selections From History, Biography, Poetry, And ...

The average rating for The Flowers Of Literature V4: Consisting Of Selections From History, Biography, Poetry, And ... based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-09-19 00:00:00 Joseph Stalin A thorough and exciting account, in addition to being well balanced, engaging in neither Earp-bashing nor application for sainthood. A must read for anyone interested in western history. The real story of a real legend. UPDATE: On recent perusal of this book, I have changed my opinion. Although in the editor's foreword he claims the author is not an Earp-basher, he himself (meaning Neil Carmony) certainly is. On just a single page, he refers to Wyatt Earp as opportunistic, a fabulist (i.e. one who composes or relates fables), and a teller of "windy tales". Hmmm, sounds less than objective to me. In addition, by just flipping through a few pages, I found the following statements by Mr. Gatto the author: "Apparently pleased with his bullying, Wyatt walked away, leaving a dazed Tom McLaury lying in the street" (p. 101) and "But lawmen (and gamblers), especially bully-boys such as the Earps..." (p. 141). Since this is supposed to be a "documentary biography", one wonders what "document" these "bullying" comments were found in?? Hence book is downgraded from 5 to 3.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-03-09 00:00:00 Derek Devine Let me explain the 4-star review. This is one of those works that proves invaluable despite the author's intentions, not because of them. The author wrote an apologia for Alfred Sully, who had a long and in some ways distinguished military career in mid-19th Century, but is known on the northern plains mainly for his role as a field commander in the Dakota War during 1863-65. The author's effort fails, in the reckoning of any knowledgeable reader, on account of holes, lapses, and anomalies in the narrative, as well as outright misconstructions of the evidence. On the other hand, in the course of building a poor case, the author reveals all sorts of interesting things contained in family correspondence, things that contribute to a profile of Sully, and not a pretty picture. There are some things that are not so much negative or positive but rather useful--for instance, given Sully's experience in the eastern theater of the Civil war, both his dilatory behavior in 1863 and his resort to total war on the plains make perfect sense. Other things, well, you shake your head. The account of Sully's elopement and family tragedy in California is unintentionally revealing, I think. The work is a must-read for anyone wishing to penetrate Sully's role in the events of 1863-65. I'm still thinking about just what I'm going to think about it.