Sunday Books & Culture for September 22, 2024
This week: behind-the-scenes stories in Clint Hill’s “Five Presidents”; Doris Kearns Goodwin's “An Unfinished Love Story”; and Erik Nelson's "Forgotten Battles of the Chancellorsville Campaign.
Sunday Books and Culture is edited by Vanessa Sekinger
The Forgotten Battles of the Chancellorsville Campaign: Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and Banks’ Ford in Spring 1863
by Erik F. Nelson
Published by The Kent State University Press
Paperback (Pre-sale) $39
Publication Date is November 5, 2024
Reviewed by Martin Davis
If one wants to start a civil war, just start a conversation about the Civil War. Next year marks 160 years since the war ended, and the country remains deeply divided on how we feel about it.
What we do tend to agree on, however, is that we don’t do a good enough job teaching it.
How can we improve that situation? Reading Erik Nelson’s new book on the forgotten battles of the Chancellorsville campaigns would be a good start.
Combining the critical eye of a military historian, with the discerning eye of a detective and the storyteller’s ability to place his subject in the broader sweep of history, Nelson recovers what few know about the battles fought in our backyards while explaining their consequence for the battle that ultimately led to the South’s defeat at Gettysburg.
There are many better equipped than this reviewer — who trained in intellectual, documentary, and social history — to reflect on the bulk of Nelson’s book, the day-by-day fighting at Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and Banks’ Ford in April and May of 1863.
However, Nelson’s work makes several notable achievements outside an intricate detailing of the Order of Battle.
His prologue puts to rest the old Confederate tale of a flag of truce that cost them the Battle of Fredericksburg.
The Confederate loss at Fredericksburg in May 1863 stood in painful contrast to the astonishing victory at Chancellorsville, and many Southerners tried to explain it away by claiming Yankee treachery. They argued the attackers used a flag of truce to ascertain the strength of the Confederate defenses at Marye’s Heights.
It wasn’t true, but that simple fact developed a life of its own in the historical record, and too often has shaped the way these battles have been discussed.
What seems like a minor factual error contributes, Nelson wrote, to “a continuing misunderstanding of the terrain and therefore the battle.”
Nelson’s careful reconstruction of the terrain and the battles of the Chancellorsville campaign allows readers in our area to see anew what we too often ignore.
By the end, Nelson is positioned to explain how the Confederates — high from the victory at Chancellorsville — would see the beginning of the end of their rebellion at Gettysburg just two months later.
With this book, Nelson establishes himself as a historian of the first order. And he shines a much-needed light on the importance of approaching and teaching history with a careful, discerning eye.
Martin Davis is editor-in-chief of the Advance and holds advanced degrees in both American and European history.
Erik Nelson lives in Fredericksburg.
FIVE PRESIDENTS; My Extraordinary Journey, with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford
By Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin
Published by Gallery Books (May 2, 2017)
Paperback $11.79
Audiobook $19.68
Reviewed by Tammy Byram
I was scrolling through Facebook when I came across a post written by a podcaster I enjoy and his tale of enjoying a conversation in a bar with a random man named Clint Hill, who had retired from a fascinating career as a Secret Service Agent (1958-1975). For me, that’s a pretty cool job just in general, but it turned out that he served during five presidencies right smack dab in the middle of the 20th century. Early to mid-20th century is this history major’s love language!
Five Presidents is Hill’s look back on his long career serving in the orbit of this powerful quintet and getting a front row seat for some of the most tense events in American history. As he writes, “It was a turbulent time, and there I was, in the middle of it all.”
Hill spends a significant amount of time on the first three sections of the book on his time during the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, and the fourth is dedicated to Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. (It should be noted that he was on presidential detail for Eisenhower and Johnson; he was assign
ed to protect Jackie Kennedy during her husband’s presidency, Spiro Agnew during the Nixon years, and he was assistant director of the Secret Service during Ford’s tenure.)
In the world of Secret Service, Hill is well known for climbing into the Kennedy limousine in Dallas on that fateful day in November 1963. He makes it clear in the book’s introduction that his purpose is to relay his recollections of the events and his interactions with these five men.
He writes:
From my unique vantage point, I had the rare opportunity to observe the human side of these men - the most powerful men in the world - as each dealt with the enormous responsibilities and unforeseen challenges thrust upon them, and how their individual characters and personalities affected grave decisions.
And that really is the book in a nutshell. It’s another perspective on some of the main characters of America’s twentieth century, where the focus is less on politics and more on impressions of powerful people and their eccentricities. I love that human side of a story, and it’s also interesting to learn of the logistics and difficulties of keeping these huge personalities safe.
While the excitement (and exhaustion) of the job is certainly the focus here, Hill does lament that it did come at a cost; in the background of this career, his marriage and family life were eroding. This is one of many decisions Hill admits has haunted him. I was so engrossed in his recollections that I also picked up his other books: Five Days in November, which details the tragic days surrounding the Kennedy assassination and Mrs. Kennedy and Me, a personal look back at his years protecting Jackie Kennedy and her children, Caroline and John.
Tammy Byram is a high school librarian who spends too much time on her back porch reading, looking for inspirational quotes, and scheming ways to get to the beach!
AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY: A Personal History of the 1960s
By Doris Kearns Godwin
Published by Simon and Schuster (April 24, 2024)
Hardcover $20.99
Audiobook $19.68
Reviewed by Chuck Sekinger
In her new book, An Unfinished Love Story, Doris Kearns Goodwin adds another essential person to her list of key people in American leadership, who she calls “My Guys” (included are Abraham Lincoln; the Roosevelts, both Teddy and FDR; the Kennedys, both JFK and RFK; and Lyndon Johnson). The latest addition to the list was her late husband, Richard “Dick” Goodwin.
I have always wondered about the “Goodwins” and Doris Kerns Goodwin, and this book has put that issue to rest. The title Unfinished Love Story represents not only their marriage of 43 years, and the project of writing this book together using over 80 boxes of Dick’s original drafts of political speeches over the Kennedy and Johnson era (including a shattered billy-club from the 1968 Democratic Convention) but also their great love for the USA and the critical role of the 1960’s in our American story.
Dick Goodwin was from a middle-class family in Brookline, Massachusetts, raised Jewish, went to Tufts University, served in the U.S. Army in post-WWII France, was the president of the Harvard Law Review, and clerked for Justice Felix Frankfurter. After college, Dick worked as staff a member on the House Congressional Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, where he was principally responsible for exposing rigged nationally televised game shows in the 1950s such as “The $64,000 Question” (Robert Redford made a movie about that called Quiz Show based on Dick’s work).
All of the above got Richard Goodwin noticed in the political circles of the 1960s in Washington, D.C. He soon became part of JFK’s campaign staff speech writing team mentored by Ted Sorenson and laid claim to being the youngest member of the “New Frontiersmen.” As Assistant to Special Counsel to the President, Dick was assigned to the Task Force on Latin Affairs called the “Alliance for Progress” after the Bay of Pigs invasion, where he had a secret meeting with Cuban revolutionist Che Guevara (they shared a love for cigars).
After finding life in the Kennedy Administration State Department rather boring, Dick made room for himself in the formation of the Peace Corp where he worked for Sarge Shriver. JFK was quoted as saying, about Dick’s abandonment of the State Department for the Peace Corps, “Whatever you feel like doing is okay with me.” That is if Dick continued with his speech writing duties.
Another assignment he had in the Kennedy Administration was to work with Jackie Kennedy on a project to save ancient Egyptian art that was in jeopardy with the building of the Aswan Dam on the Nile. Many of these saved artifacts are on display in US museums today. He became very close to Jackie Kennedy and after the JFK assassination, Dick helped plan the funeral and was instrumental in making the “eternal flame” operate at the Arlington National Cemetery gravesite on the first day of the funeral.
Dick went on to work in the Johnson Administration as speech writer and is often cited as the author of the phrase “The Great Society” which was formed because of a skinny-dipping White House swimming pool meeting between LBJ, Bill Moyers, and Richard Goodwin (yes, you can’t make this stuff up). Dick also became a campaign speech writer in the 1968 Presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and RFK. His last presidential campaign speech was drafting Al Gore’s acceptance and concession speeches which the later was famously used and is a model that another failed presidential hopeful should have used (look it up, Donald you may need this again).
Doris Kerns Goodwin is master storyteller and had the benefit of having her husband alive (for most of time) to narrate the contents of his life’s work all contained in these 80 some boxes that were left untouched for decades in their attic. This is a great read for anyone interested in knowing how we got to where we are in American politics today and where we should be going.
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