Battle Cry of Freedom: Attempting to Understand America's Civil War

Here we are, at book three of the summer reading challenge!

Battle Cry of Freedom is part of the Oxford History of the United States series. The book was originally published in 1988, and earned McPherson a Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times reviewer called it "...the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across." It continues to be used in classrooms today to teach the history of the Civil War across high school and college curriculums.

The book covers the background and history of the American Civil War, starting in the 1830s and tracing the evolution of the slavery issue and ending in the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination and disarray before the Reconstruction era began. McPherson does an excellent job of portraying both sides equally, without any particular bias - a difficult feat, especially in one of the most divisive subjects in American history. Much of his efforts go towards understanding what each side was fighting for. Both sides fought for freedom - but McPherson explains that they understood the idea of freedom very differently. This differentiation of each side, while showing their similarities, is what makes McPherson's book so succinct and understandable. He helps to make the war more understandable to the modern reader, separated as we are by a little over 150 years from the actual events.

I've been wanting to read this book since I finished my Civil War class in undergrad. Somehow, I've become even more interested in the war, especially in light of current events. I started this year out reading Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horowitz's study of Southern memory and the Civil War and the books I've chosen to read this summer include three more on the subject (Battle Cry included). Something about this war continues to draw me in and pique my curiosity. What I most enjoyed about McPherson's book was his readability. I've read other pieces of his writing before (his essay collection This Mighty Scourge; For Cause and Comrades, a book on the soldiers fighting in the war; and Tried by War, his biography of Abraham Lincoln as commander-in-chief) and greatly enjoyed their flow. What I appreciated most from this particular work was the snarky sense of humor that popped in occasionally. Peppered throughout the text, it made reading the book even more enjoyable. My only disappointment was that McPherson completely skipped Lincoln's assassination, instead mentioning Booth's comment about killing the President and then jumping directly into the aftermath.

I really enjoyed reading this. I think it's definitely the best summary of the war I've read - but it is rather long, and if I ever wind up using it as a reading for students, I might assign specific portions of the book rather than the entire thing. I do think it's an important piece of Civil War historiography, and I'm glad I took the time to pick it up and read it.

Overall rating: 9.5/10 stars

And Suddenly There's Lycanthropy: John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi

I've made it through the first book on my summer reading challenge! So we're starting posts with John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi.

Webster's play was written and performed in the early 1610s. Believed to be based on true events, the story's manipulation of the tragic form has ensured it a place among the most important of early modern English plays.

Title page for John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi

The story follows the newly widowed Duchess of Malfi and her two brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal. After her brothers tell her not to remarry, the Duchess defies them, confessing her love for her steward, Antonio. The two marry in secret, an act known only to the Duchess' maid, Cariola. The brothers don't trust her, though, and so they hire a servant, Bosola, to spy on her for them. Time passes, and Bosola suspects the Duchess is pregnant. He comes up with a plan to feed her apricots, which make her ill, but doesn't prove his suspicion. It is only after Antonio drops the horoscope for the Duchess' new baby boy that he is proven right. He immediately tells the brothers, who are (not surprisingly) displeased - especially because they think the child is illegitimate. More time passes, and the Duchess and Antonio have two more children. At this point, her brothers are furious. Ferdinand makes a surprise visit, hides himself in his sister's room to find out the identity of her lover, and then jumps out and hands the Duchess a knife, advising her to kill herself. Bosola tricks the Duchess into revealing who her husband is and where he has gone, and immediately tells Ferdinand. The brothers banish the couple, removing their wedding rings. The Duchess and her two youngest return to Malfi, and Antonio and their eldest son flee to Milan. Ferdinand then convinces the Duchess that her husband and son are dead (they're not, though), and tries to drive her insane. When that fails, he orders her executed. Bosola, finally catching on to the fact that these brothers are not exactly the best of guys, tries to plead for the Duchess' life, but she, her maid, and her two children are all strangled. Determined that Antonio and his son should survive, Bosola promises to prevent their deaths. Meanwhile, Ferdinand has fallen victim to lycanthropy, and the Cardinal (who's been having some rather sleazy dealings on the side with a married woman) fears that he will reveal their joint decision to murder their sister. Learning that the Cardinal intends to murder Antonio, Bosola accepts the contract while planning to murder the brothers instead. While hiding in wait for the Cardinal, Bosola accidentally stabs Antonio, who had decided to come wreck his own form of vengeance on the Cardinal. Discovering his mistake, Bosola then manages to stab the Cardinal; this act wakes Ferdinand from his madness, and he and Bosola stab each other. Everyone dies (but not before Bosola tells the story of what happened), and Antonio's friend, Delio, promises to raise the couple's remaining child.

I was drawn to this play, not only because I hadn't read it, but because I've read very few early modern playwrights outside of Shakespeare. I did read John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore in undergrad, and actually really liked it. When I was preparing for the English GRE Subject Test this spring, The Duchess of Malfi appeared on several reading lists as a popular choice for questions. Clearly, I didn't manage to read this before the exam, but I'm glad that I did.

This play clearly follows in the vein of other Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies. Everyone dies (like Hamlet or Titus Andronicus), there's a healthy implication of incestuous feelings (a la 'Tis Pity She's a Whore), and plenty of violence and bloodshed. But what makes it stand out for me is the sudden appearance of lycanthropy. In Act V, one of the characters asks the doctor attending Ferdinand what ails him, and his response is, "A very pestilent disease, my lord, / They call it lycanthropia" (5.2.5-6). But this doesn't necessarily mean what we associate with the term today; instead, Ferdinand merely believes himself to be a wolf, and was found one night holding part of a corpse. Of all the twists that I was expecting, a werewolf was not one of them.

Ultimately, I enjoyed reading this play. It has some really great quotes, interesting characters, and intense moments. There was just enough confusion for me, though, to make it difficult to follow.

Overall rating: 8.5/10 stars
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Summer Reading Challenge 2018

I realize I've basically not posted anything since December two years ago.

Oops.

But as I roll around towards my MA thesis, I realize that I need a place to record some of the reading that I do outside of the required stuff. The stuff I read (or reread) for fun. The random books in my book haul when I go out to local bookstores. Books that I recommend, books that I don't, and books that have been recommended to me.

So my goal this summer is to keep track of what I'm reading, both here and on Goodreads. I'm also creating a small tracker in my bullet journal to make sure I follow my reading goals.

I'm going to plan out 20 books that I know I want to read this summer: five fiction, five non-fiction, five plays/poems, five rereads. I'm also going to list (separately) books that I want to reread in order to teach them in the spring.

With each book, I will post a blog review when I finish it. The rating system will be 1-10 (and some books can go to 11). I'll include a brief blurb about the book, what made me want to read it, and what my thoughts are. And then on to the next book.

So here's my 20 Summer Reads for 2018:

1. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
3. We, the Drowned - Carston Jensen
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
5. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
6. Battle Cry of Freedom - James McPherson
7. American Brutus - Michael W. Kauffman
8. The Romanovs - Simon Sebag Montefiore
9. Grant - Ron Chernow
10. The Invention of Murder - Judith Flanders
11. The Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare
12. Five Revenge Tragedies: Kyd, Shakespeare, Marston, Chettle, Middleton
13. The Duchess of Malfi - John Webster
14. Pericles - William Shakespeare
15. Five Plays - Christopher Marlowe
16. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
17. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
18. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
19. Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
20. The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald

And other assorted books that I'll be rereading this summer may include:

• Henry V - William Shakespeare
• Confederates in the Attic - Tony Horowitz
• The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
• The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
• Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
• The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

Feel free to join along! There's not any set timetable for this, other than to be done by the end of the summer. Fingers crossed that I make it there!

Expecting Too Much: Or, Why I Have an Issue with College Board's 101 Books to Read Before College

Earlier this morning, I discovered a list made by the College Board of 101 books that college-bound freshmen should have read before attending their first day of school. I went through the list, thinking that it wouldn't be too bad - especially since, as an English major, I would most likely have read a majority, if not all of, the list.

I was wrong.

Of the 101 books, I have only read 52. And of those 52, 11 were books that I did not read until college - and I attended an incredibly progressive high school and read outside of class. So that was an issue for me. 

Other issues were their selections. No high school student is going to willingly pick up War and Peace or Moby-Dick, even for class. I read both of them - the former in high school and the latter over the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college - because I enjoy pushing myself. Even then, War and Peace still took me a year and a half to complete with my other reading, because I read it outside of class. And I only finished Moby-Dick because I was halfway through and didn't want to give up on it.

I also have yet to see a high school student who has picked up Faulkner for fun, much less two of his novels (and there are very few English student who would do so, as well).

Many of the books on this list are supposed to promote diversity and open up readers' eyes to the world around them. I don't have an issue with that - I think that's a wonderful idea. What I do take issue with is that not a single book on this list has been published recently. There are certain books that have been published in the last 15-20 years that are considered modern classics - and yet the most recent work on the list is probably from the 1970s or 1980s. It would be amazing to see the addition of a novel such as The Secret History or American Gods to this list. It certainly isn't one that shies from difficult topics - it includes books on slavery, femininity, and war, among other topics. These books all raise questions that make readers think - so why not include thinking questions from modern authors, too?

I have no issue with the concept of recommended reading lists for incoming college students - in fact,there is one on this blog that I have composed. But I think, for the sake of those students, they should be composed with the student in mind - with keeping them engaged in their reading and focusing on the world around the student, and making the pedigree of the reading list to a minimum. 

You can find the College Board's list here: http://www.uhlibrary.net/pdf/college_board_recommended_books.pdf

You can find my post about recommended summer reading here: http://wateryink.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-summer-reading-list-for-rising.html