Review of For All The Tea in China A Civil War Novel by Sarah Rose

Sara Rose begins her story "For All the Tea in China", this way. "There was a time when maps of the world were redrawn in the name of plants, when two empires, Britain and China went to war over two flowers: the poppy and the camellia." Could this actually have been the case? Were tea and opium of such great importance? Let us examine her case.

Centuries past, England's Queen Elizabeth gave the East India Company a monopoly of all British trade in the Far East. That included the control of India and all things produced there, like opium. For two hundred years thereafter the Company exported this addictive product from India to China. The Chinese, who had an almost complete monopoly on the production and processing of tea, exchanged this mild stimulant for the addictive opium: so history records.

Read more at: civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

Larry Elliot Channel 12 Interview with Mike Deeb

Here's a video of the interview I had with Larry Elliot of Flint's channel 12 during my latest speaking tour through Michigan.

Review of Blue-Eyed Devil A Civil War Novel by Robert B. Parker

"Blue-Eyed Devil", is the fourth novel in Robert Parker's Cole/Hitch series.

Virgil Cole and his sidekick Everett Hitch have returned to the small dusty town of Appaloosa. An ambitious fellow named Amos Callico has taken their former position of police chief in this isolated town. But, the new police chief is selective in responding when local saloons needed protection from area cowboys who drink a bit too much and overzealous customers who abuse ladies of the evening.

So, these local businessmen greet Virgil and Everett with a proposal.

"All of us got the same problem," Speck said. "And we thought you boys might be able to help us."

It seemed that the chief of police charges a monthly 'safeguard - fee' of each Appaloosa businessman. But, they complained, payment does not guarantee protection.

Read more of this Civil War Novel book review at www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

Review of All Other Nights A Civil War Novel by Dana Horn

Dara Horn has written a novel set in the Civil War. We are given a view of the Jewish community of that time through well developed characters who are pulled and pushed by the conflict.

We meet Jacob Rappaport, our protagonist, at his father's New York city dinner table. Jacob has just reluctantly agreed to his father's demand that he marry the addled daughter of a rival businessman in order to cement a business deal. Jacob escapes by joining the Union army.

Jacob's superiors pull him out of the ranks and send him on an undercover assignment to New Orleans. Posing as a Confederate soldier, he is to find his way to the home of his uncle, Harry Hyams. It appears that there was sufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Hyams was planning an attempt on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Jacob's is welcomed there by his aunt and uncle.

Read more of this review at www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

Book Review of Lincoln and McClellan: The Troubled Partnership Between a President and His General by John C. Waugh

Waugh's "Lincoln and McClellan" promised to be a study of their relationship that broke new ground. By extensively using McClellan's letters to his wife Nelly, I believe it accomplished what it set out to do.

The reader is also treated to a glimpse of the two men working together before the war. In 1857, McClellan was Vice President of the Illinois Central RR and Abraham Lincoln was the line's attorney. It might be said that Lincoln the lawyer, in fact worked for McClellan.

Read more of this book review at www.civilwarnovels.com.

Read more Civil War Novel Book Reviews at http://www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.

Review of The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War by Donald Stoker

Of the thousands of books written about the conduct of the American Civil War, precious few have devoted any space explaining how each side sought to achieve its political objectives: the strategy employed to win the conflict. Donald Stoker devotes this study to fill that gap.

When a war breaks out, leaders of the belligerent powers must identify the political objective they desire: the why of the conflict. Once this is done, the stage is set to develop a grand strategy for success: a formula for achieving that political objective. This is followed by the identification of the specific military tactics needed to achieve that victory.
Read more... at www.civilwarnovels.com.

Book Review of Henry Clay: The Essential American a Civil War Novel by David S. Heidler & Jeanne T. Heidler

David and Jeanne Heidler have applied their excellent scholarship to a biography of a giant political figure of the pre-Civil War era, Henry Clay. They begin their descriptive journey by leading us carefully through the geography of early Virginia and its western county of Kentucky.

Born there to a prosperous family, Henry Clay became an orphan early in his live. His mother remarried to a kindly man who placed Henry in a retail apprenticeship in the city of Richmond. As soon as a position opened he became a law clerk. As a young lawyer, he moved to Lexington, KY to join his mother new family in 1797. There he successfully became a competent and prosperous attorney. He not only gained the reputation of being an excellent orator and a determined attorney but also that of a gambler and a drinker. Nevertheless, he was able to arrange an advantageous marriage in 1799. Initially it might have been considered a marriage of convenience, but Henry and his wife Lucretia produced ten children and brought position and prosperity to the Clay family. The young family settled in a Lexington home he built and called Ashland. And so it would remain the Clay home for the remainder of his life.

Read more of this book review at www.civilwarnovels.com/reviews/.