The stirring history of a president and a capital city on the front lines of war and freedom. In the late 1840s; Representative Abraham Lincoln resided at Mrs. Sprigg’s boardinghouse on Capitol Hill. Known as Abolition House; Mrs. Sprigg’s hosted lively dinner-table debates of antislavery politics by the congressional boarders. The unusually rapid turnover in the enslaved staff suggested that there were frequent escapes north to freedom from Abolition House; likely a cog in the underground railroad. These early years in Washington proved formative for Lincoln. In 1861; now in the White House; Lincoln could gaze out his office window and see the Confederate flag flying across the Potomac. Washington; DC; sat on the front lines of the Civil War. Vulnerable and insecure; the capital was rife with Confederate sympathizers. On the crossroads of slavery and freedom; the city was a refuge for thousands of contraband and fugitive slaves. The Lincoln administration took strict measures to tighten security and established camps to provide food; shelter; and medical care for contrabands. In 1863; a Freedman’s Village rose on the grounds of the Lee estate; where the Confederate flag once flew.The president and Mrs. Lincoln personally comforted the wounded troops who flooded wartime Washington. In 1862; Lincoln spent July 4 riding in a train of ambulances carrying casualties from the Peninsula Campaign to Washington hospitals. He saluted the “One-Legged Brigade†assembled outside the White House as “orators;†their wounds eloquent expressions of sacrifice and dedication. The administration built more than one hundred military hospitals to care for Union casualties.These are among the unforgettable scenes in Lincoln’s Citadel; a fresh; absorbing narrative history of Lincoln’s leadership in Civil War Washington. Here is the vivid story of how the Lincoln administration met the immense challenges the war posed to the city; transforming a vulnerable capital into a bastion for the Union. 8 pages of illustrations
#316097 in Books Joseph Roth 2001-11-17Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.50 x .50 x 5.10l; .39 #File Name: 039332270X168 pagesThe Wandering Jews
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Jews as more than international - A Supranational Gift to the WorldBy Clay GarnerRoth writes with a incisive pen. Without many words; he leaves a deep impression. Easy to read and hard to forget.Roth writes against modern nationalism on many pages and for many reasons. This is so deeply contrary to modern thought it seems almost mystical. However; is the mysticism in the worshiper of the mythological nation or the spirituality of the worshiper of the Jewish God? Roth is writing in the 1920s and observing the new nationalism from the war growing into worse; which it did.He seems to be using the Jewish experience of faith that surpasses time; place; language and suffering; to contrast the modern "faith" that only knows our place; my time; my language and my comfort. This are two very different "faiths". Roth leaves no doubt which he thinks is superior.Talking as a man of the West; he proclaims: "We do not realize that our whole life has become a quarantine; and that all our countries have become barracks and concentration camps; admittedly with all the modern conveniences. The immigrants - alas! -do not assimilate to slowly; as they are accused of doing; but if anything much too quickly to our sorry way of living." (11) This book reads like an essay; not history. And it is much the better for it!Roth notes that nationalism is the invention of European scholars. "The great question of whether the Jews are not actually a far bigger thing altogether than a European style national minority; whether they are not indeed more than a "nation" in the European sense; and whether; in pressing their entitlement to "national rights" they are not renouncing far more important claims." (17)Provoking question."Given all the millennial grief of the Jews; they still had one consolation: the fact that they didn't have such a fatherland. If there can ever be such a thing as a just history; surely the Jews will be given great credit for holding on to their common sense in not having a fatherland at a time when the whole world launched itself into patriotic madness." (20)Julian Benda's "The Treason of the Intellectuals" was written about the same time; with similar thoughts. One a French Jew; the other a German Jew."Their grandfathers were engaged in a desperate struggle with Jehovah; bruised their foreheads on the drab walls of the small prayer house; called out for their sins to be punished and begged for forgiveness. The grandsons have become Westerners." (22)Roth does not believe this change is for the better. WW2; genocide; starvation as government policy supports Roth's view.These paragraphs show Roth's critic of modern nationalism. Very different from the usual praise of the nation-state. He goes on the write in detail about the material poverty and spritual riches of the Eastern Jews. This is so counter to most western thought today. This analysis gives another opinion that provides valuable insight.(I received a good question in the comments. Why only four stars? Reread.)The Bibical faith of the jews colors Roth's writing. "What does the nobleman know of the inner meaning of life? . . . What are all these things compared to a tiny character in the Holy Scripture; compared to the most ignorant question from the youngest Talmud student?" (30)Spiritual vision; the need of Godly trust; call to the reader in this short work."The Jew who thinks like this will not be greatly interested in any law that promises him personal and national Liberty. Nothing truly good can come from people." I think Roth deeply believed the essense of the Jew is faith; real; deep; actual faith in God's promise to send the Messiah. Our modern world has made a Jew as a race; culture; or society. He writes:"This Jew is not a 'nationalist' in the western sense. He is God's Jew. He does not fight for any Palestine. He detests the Zionist; who uses ridiculous European methods to try to set up a Judaism that doesn't deserve the name; because it won't abide the coming of the Messiah and God's change of heart; which are sure to come." (31)What a contrast to 'faith' in national sovereignty! This is suffering with purpose and with hope. The Jews may create a copy of a European state; but he says "it wouldn't have any Jews in it."Roth feels in his bones the Jewish suffering; he also sees the gift this has delivered:"But I have seen it. I have seen that four thousand years of being a Jew; nothing but a Jew; has not been without effect. It's an old destiny; an old; richly experienced blood. Jews are of an intellectual cast. They are a people that has no illiterates for nearly two thousand years now; people with more periodicals than newspapers; people whose periodicals; probably uniquely in the world; have a far higher readership than its newspapers. While the other peasants are finally struggling to read and write; the Jew behind his plow has his mind on the problems of relativity theory." (111)Writing in the 1930's about Germany: "Only a very small minority of devout Christians have understood that - for the first time in the long and shameful history of Jewish persecution - the plight of he Jews is identical to the Christians. They beat up Moritz Finkelstein from Worclaw; but the intended victim is Jesus of Nazareth. . . . Admittedly many of the Christian faith - among them many high church dignitaries - are impervious to this insight. The goings on in the third Riech will teach them." (134)Stunning insight. Nazis worked to destroy Christianity and revive ancient paganism. Think Wagner. (See Meinecke - "The German Catastrophe"; Peter Gay - "The Enlightenment - The Rise of Modern Paganism".)"Centuries of civilization are no guarantee that European people ; by some ghastly curse of fate; will not revert to barbarism." Roth concludes by saying that Jews will only have external freedom when the host nations have inner freedom."Pious Jews may be left with the consolation of the hereafter." Bibical faith is precious.This book ends with something I have never seen. Roth signed his name in large cursive letters. Not this copy; but all copies had this included. He meant every word. Facinating.The stunning contrast to self-centered nationalism is vivid. Opens the mind and heart to another world. Great!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful description of Europe between the warsBy asianaWhat a wonderful writer! I finished this book in just one sitting and later in the day ordered another of his books. Vivid representation of what was occurring in Europe between the end of World War I and the start of World War II. What others took pages to describe; the author could do in a paragraph. I'm sorry that I never heard of him before but now that I know of him; I'll be purchasing both his novels and his non-fiction.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Roth is always perceptiveBy Nessim LevyAnother wonderful book from Joseph Roth who was one of the most perceptive writers dealing with the storm clouds gathering over Europe and the Jews in particular in the 1930's. His is a sympathetic and realistic portrayal of the Jews of Eastern Europe before the Shoah.
