William Cooper and James Fenimore Cooper; a father and son who embodied the contradictions that divided America in the early years of the Republic; are brought to life in this Pulitzer Prize-winning book. William Cooper rose from humble origins to become a wealthy land speculator and U.S. congressman in what had until lately been the wilderness of upstate New York; but his high-handed style of governing resulted in his fall from power and political disgrace. His son James Fenimore Cooper became one of this country’s first popular novelists with a book; The Pioneers; that tried to come to terms with his father’s failure and imaginatively reclaim the estate he had lost. In William Cooper’s Town; Alan Taylor dramatizes the class between gentility and democracy that was one of the principal consequences of the American Revolution; a struggle that was waged both at the polls and on the pages of our national literature. Taylor shows how Americans resolved their revolution through the creation of new social reforms and new stories that evolved with the expansion of our frontier.
#1024045 in Books Vintage 2010-10-05 2010-10-05Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.97 x 1.15 x 5.19l; 1.16 #File Name: 0679745491576 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Numerous technical errors bring into question whether this is a serious workBy Dave MasonYou don’t throw stones at the work of someone like Neal Sheehan without some trepidation; none the less the egregious flaws in this book cry out for comment. While Mr. Sheehan has covered the “people side†of this work with extensive interviews he evidently didn’t use the same care in researching the technical side. The incorrect information he puts out leads me to believe that he and his editor didn’t employ a fact checker. Even doing a Wikipedia search might have avoided some of these jewels such as the Soviet “MK6†SAM system. The Soviets designated their SAMs in a variety of ways; but never that way. The first SAM system the Soviets deployed was the S-25 which was emplaced in rings around Moscow. Then came the more widely deployed S-75; in different places the “MK6†was confused for both of these systems. Another head shaker was the repeated assertion that the Mercury capsule was a variant of the Mk 2 or Mk 3 reentry vehicle used in the Atlas missile. I’m sure this will be a surprise to those engineers at both McDonnell Aircraft (who designed the Mercury capsule) and AVCO (who designed the reentry vehicles). The only similarity in their designs was the fact that all were lofted on the Atlas rocket. One further example of many: Specific Impulse – this is a measure of rocket engine efficiency not thrust. This book is a nice look at Schriever; it’s a shame it is marred by so many easily corrected technical errors.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A Fiery Peace in a Cold WarBy John R. SellarsTo me this was an extremely interesting story. I worked on the Ballistic Missile Program and was in a number of meetings where General Schriever was present. However; I did not know much about his personal life or his career; nor of the background of getting the Program off the ground; so this was very enlightning.My only reservation about the book was that he gave Col. Ed Hall far too much credit for creating the rocket motors used in the missiles. Hall started some programs at Wright Field; handing out contracts and being the central point of contact with the government. When the Ramo-Wooldridge team was given the job of technical direction of the program; Hall no longer had such a central position. As a consequence he was extremely bitter and called Ramo and Wooldridge a couple of crooks. It was the team that Ramo and Wooldridge put together; together with the prime contractors; who solved the problems and perfected the system. In the case of Minuteman; this team did the preliminary design of the missile making use of the state-of-the-art esisting in a number of companies around the country. Hall had very little to do at that point.I as mostly involved with the reentry part of all the missiles but I knew the people working on the propulsion part and later worked for Bob Anderson who was immersed in the propulsion program.Dr. John R. Sellars0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Biography of a StrategyBy W Alexander VaccaThis is a somewhat bizzare approach to a biography. The ostensible subject; Bernard Schreiver; disappears for pages and even chapters. What this really is; is an engaging piece of history that shows how the US was groping towards a strategy for confronting the USSR; and how ambitious and talented individuals were able to come together to provide pieces of this strategy. The ICBM is the centerpiece; but this really is about how the US adopted nuclear weapons into instruments of diplomatic and military power.Whether Schreiver was truly the man who tied it all together is still a matter of debate. But the personalities who come through this book (each of whom is given a short biography by Sheehan) are fascinating; and the interplay of the possible and the conceptual is handled deftly. Von Neumann; Ramo; the brothers Hall; LeMay; Power; and many others all have their part to play in building the ICBM.Sheehan discusses technical and classified matters without getting bogged down in technology or gummed up in redacted documents. He introduces the business side and helps demonstrate why Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex. He even occasionally goes behind the Iron Curtain to talk about Soviet rocketry. While these passages have nothing to do with Schreiver; they do help understand why the ICBM program developed as it did in the USA. He deals with politics without letting political opinion intrude (too often. Occasionally it does.)Like any good book this leaves you wanting more. In particular; after telling the amazing story of the ICBM; Sheehan very quickly tacks on an abbreviated discussion of Corona and spaced based surveillance. This could have been so much richer; but then the book would have been so much longer.This is the way history should be taught. Not a collection of names and dates; but the complex interplay between men (and they are almost all men in this story); ambition; events; perceptions; and process. People may criticize the rise of nuclear weapons and the associated esoteric nuclear doctrine- but after reading this they will understand how it came to be.
