Expansion Books

In THE ANARCHY OF EMPIRE IN THE MAKING OF US CULTURE Ms. Kaplan has put together a number of illuminating readings of selected American texts as a way to explore the beginnings of empire, its expression in the U.S. in the mid to late 19th century. Her sources range from women's magazine's such as Harper's, works by Twain and W.E.B. du Bois, through "Birth of a Nation" to Welle's "Citizen Kane." She shows how the boundaries of empire were drawn, and how no one was were untouched by its discourse whether they recognized its contours or not.

She begins with a discussion of Mark Twain's first real assignment as a newspaperman: writing "letters" from Hawaii that were published in a San Francisco newspaper intended to promote the island to mainland businessmen and settlers. These letters and his observations later formed the basis of his first lectures and thus served as the springboard to his later career as a novelist. Twain, she notes, in his personal letters to friends and family is drawn to and repelled by the exotic, anxious to witness the rites of the dying Hawaiian people before they pass from history, and at the same time scandalized by their cultural practices, such as their lascivious dancing. Known generally now as an anti-colonialist because of an article he wrote during the Spanish American War(s), she demonstrates how he, knowingly, and with no little anxiety, early on recognized he was implicated in the colonial project. On the sea voyage to Hawaii, for instance, he comes down with a bad cold, and mordantly writes to a friend that the illness he bears may kill off a few more thousand more Hawaiians. Kaplan maintains that Twain's exposure to empire in the color line in Hawaii and the exploitation of that people, (a quite different experience from how he experienced the color line in Missouri), laid the foundation for his later perspective and production of "Huckleberry Finn" some twenty years later.

Other key readings include the first full-length films produced during the "Spanish-American War Mania" when documentary footage of U.S. soldiers was mixed with some staged battles and scripted domestic scenes drew huge audiences to the movies. She suggests that the public happily participated in the jingoistic pursuit of empire through these films, and that these productions laid the groundwork for not just the war movie genre, but the full-length film. Prior to these movies, shorts were the order of the day. She notes these films influenced the structure and visual imagery of "The Birth of a Nation" in 1915, which, if you haven't seen it recently, presents African Americans as the lords of misrule in the American South. Encapsulated in all these cultural productions are the portrayals of non-white men as stupid, power-crazed savages who in their grab at power, attempt to deflower the flower of the white womanhood, while non-white women are seen as exotic and erotically destabilizing. The Birth of a Nation casts the Klan as heroic figures who must preserve civilization through lynching, terror and mayhem. The Rough Riders were seen as masculine white heroes who swept away the decadent vestiges of a cruel empire, freeing Filipinos and Cubans who as non-whites and subjugated peoples could not understand or appreciate the boon of freedom that had been conferred upon them.

Orson Welle's "Citizen Kane," the fictionalized life of Henry Luce, is also examined as critique of the circuits of imperial power. She notes that it is one of the few films that even touches on the Spanish American War as a subject, but that this war was central to Luce's creation of his own media empire. Making the point that the yellow press grew to prominence during this era, repeating the story that Hearst started the war in Cuba to sell newspapers, she shows how the media supported the drive toward empire, and in their cultural productions assigned roles to citizens.

Her larger point is that empire is not a one way street, but rather is complex circuit through which the dreams of the imperial power are modified and altered through contact with the Other. Through her examination of W.E. DuBois, she summarizes his view that WWI was not centered in a dispute between European powers but that it grew out of Africa. By decentering the standard narrative, he rewrites the conflict as the history as growing out of the contact of Europe with Africa. This chapter nicely resonates with her introduction She relates through a Supreme Court decision how Puerto Rico was both a possession, and not a possession, holding it through law at arm's length -- a place in which it still resides, in a limbo as both dependent and quasi-independent. A similar judgment was made during the 1830s by the Supreme Court when they ruled that the Cherokee was not a nation in the strict sense, but a dependent population so that they could be uprooted and sent forth on the Trail of Tears. (See the book "1831" Year of Eclipse" by Louis Masur for the history behind that similarly ambiguous decision.

This is a thoughtful book to which full justice cannot be given in a short review. Her location of the Spanish American War as a key node in America's consolidation of its colonial aspirations is important and convincingly done. As a chapter in history, the Spanish American War(s) has always been dismissed as a minor episode, portrayed as the U.S. trying on the role of the colonizer during the colonial era's last gasp, an activity for which as a democracy it was ill suited. What Kaplan shows is that it was a rehearsal for a different kind of imperialism, the stimulation of the American middle-class through narratives of power as presented through the media, and the later colonization of the world through the globalization construct put forth under the rubric of democracy and free trade.

This book contains letters from Mary Jane Megquier during her Gold Rush years in California. They were written to various members of her family (mostly her children) during the three separate journeys that she made west via Central America. She and her husband Dr. Thomas L. Megquire had made their way to California so that they could take advantage of the Gold Rush money and return to their children with her "apron full of gold." What they found there was predictably not so easy, but they did make a life for themselves and were eventually able to return and purchase a large farm in Winthrop, Maine.

The letters themselves range from exotic details about what she and her husband encountered in Panama to mundane struggles with tenants, money and shopping. My frustration with the book is that we catch such a narrow glimpse of Megquire through these letters. She seemed like a formidable woman-- resourceful, independent and devoted to her family. Once I knew her a little through these letters, I could not but help wish that I knew her more.

If you can find it, be careful to buy the second edition edited by Polly Welts Kaufman rather than the edition by Robert Glass Cleland. Kaufman provides more personal background in the introduction and has restored the personal passages to the letters that Cleland had omitted. She has also included some letters from Thomas Megquire which had not previously been published. There are a number of useful illustrations in this edition, although they were occasionally irritatingly placed quite a ways away from the letter that they were intended to illuminate.

This collection should appeal to readers interested in the Gold Rush years, the journey west in the US, or in women's experience of history. I am not sure how much these letters would appeal to the general reader-- although fascinating, the body of work is too slim to really provide a narrative experience.

This is enjoyable and easy reading about how army wives and their children spent their time at various military posts. This book delves into how they lived and what they did for entertainment.

This biography of Montana's founding father, Granville Stuart, is comprehensive and well researched, and throws light on dark corners of Mr. Stuart's life. The authors are unusually judgmental, and frequently halt the narrative to discuss Mr. Stuart's failings, especially toward his Shoshone wife and mixed-blood children. The work is also riddled with "gotcha" moments almost from the opening paragraphs. While the authors do not neglect the 19th century values and frontier social milieu that shaped Stuart, their judgments are based on modern progressive social standards, many of which were unknown to Mr. Stuart. One wishes that the authors would simply let Granville Stuart's behavior speak for itself. Mr. Stuart's dismaying conduct in, say, Indian affairs or as a vigilante, is obvious to readers. The net effect of the biography is to diminish Stuart's reputation and demythologize the founding father of Montana. The book will have great value to any reader who can get past the authors' moralizing.

The book covers an impressive number of problems, from the most simple to the more complex. There are very few errors in the book, just a few small typos. Most of these topics were previously available only in the specialized literature. This is one of the few attempts at presenting them in a monograph. The authors have done a good job.

My main complaint is the cost ($119 on Amazon) of this book, which in my opinion, is completely obscene. I bought a copy of the hardcover edition 2 years ago for $49 brand new at a university bookstore. How could the price possibly have gone from $49 to $119 in 2 years?

Hassig has provided us with an excellent account of how the Aztecs conducted warfare before the Spanish arrived and including the fight with them. The tactics are indicative of a modern army and this is a must read if you are studying the Aztec Empire. The book is very well done and offers a unique perspective on warfare. It is hard to find good information about ancient societies warfare but the Aztecs left good records. Their political systems are also scrutinized here. Highly recommend.

If you want to read about some of the colorful women who helped settle our amazing country, you will enjoy this book. It has been written with humor and details I have not found in other books.

Title: Book Review By Cecil Craig

Black, Buckskin, And Blue: African American Scouts & Soldiers on the Western Frontier

By Art T. Burton

Art T. Burton's first book (still available) was Red Black and Deadly: Black and Indian Gunfighters of the Indian Territory. That popular western law enforcement history book came out in 1991. The author's new book, Black Buckskin, and Blue, continues to concentrate on men of color who helped settle America's western frontier. The book's central theme addresses African-American scouts and soldiers on the frontier during the nineteenth century much like he did with outlaws and lawmen of color in his first book.

Although Oklahoma is not the exclusive setting for the book, a great deal of the historical incidents contained in it did occur in Oklahoma. For instance, Black, Buckskin, and Blue: African American Scouts and Soldiers on the Western Frontier is thought to be the first book to discuss the role of black soldiers stationed in Indian Territory and their involvement in the Creek Nation tribal rebellion known as the Green Peach War of 1882.

Divided into three sections, Burton's book begins with a number of profiles of little known African-American frontier scouts. Among these is Frank Grouard, a black man who the author credits as being the person most responsible for the death of Indian Chief Crazy Horse.

After profiling these men along with a number of fur trappers and guides, the second section of the book is devoted to the Civil War in the west. Black, Buckskin, and Blue is thought to be the first book to examine the role of black soldiers operating west of the Mississippi River during the Civil War. These colored troops, as they were referred to at the time, played an important role in federal victories within the Trans-Mississippi military theater during the War Between the States.

The book's third section deals with the Buffalo Soldiers of our nation's military. Often times being the only representatives of the federal government during the days of America's westward expansion following the Civil War, which was especially true in Indian Territory, many of their actions related to law enforcement. According to the author, "The term 'Buffalo Soldiers' has become a catch phrase; anyone that knows anything about western history should know something about (them)."

Surprisingly,some degree of Old West law enforcement had a direct relationship with the history of the United States black 9th and 10th Calvary regiments along with the African-American 24th and 25th Infantry. Art T. Burton has done a good job relating a number of law enforcement actions under taken by these military units. In it, he relates when and how the Buffalo Soldiers pursued outlaws as well as hostile Indians on the western frontier.

Henry B. Crawford, curator of history at the Museum of Texas Tech University described the book, Black, Buckskin, & Blue by saying; "In the tradition of great storytelling historians of the frontier genre, Art Burton applies his skills once again to destroy the artificial ethnic boundaries which still pollute today's popular image of the historic western frontier..."

For more on an overlooked chapter in western law enforcement and the contributions of African-Americans in settling America's frontier, Art Burton's new book is recommended reading.

Rudmin deals with respect and indeed even love for both the Canadian and American people. He courageously documents that American foreign policy is capable of being a loose cannon on the world stage and might even role over Canada's toes if let loose. As one solution to the threat he proposes keeping the Can-AM public informed of the risks as well as the benifits of close friendship. Honest and sensible people will not find his book threatening or foolish although, remarkably, he has in some quarters been smeared in just such terms for his effort.

Very late in his life Laban Records decided to sit down and put to paper his recollections of his days as a Kansas cowboy some fifty years earlier. When he was done he had compiled about a thousand handwritten notebook pages of material that was then passed down through his family. Laban's son saw that parts of it were published in the "Chronicles of Oklahoma," but it wasn't until his granddaughter, Ellen Wheeler, presented the entire original manuscript to the Oklahoma Historical Society that the book (this book) was published; Ms. Wheeler also did the editing.

The memoir begins with the 14-year-old Records moving to Kansas with his family from Indiana; his father was a Methodist minister. He got a job bullwhacking and driving freight in SE Kansas, and from there went on to work as a cowboy on a number of ranches. The book recounts his experiences on cattle drives, in the bunkhouses, with other cowboys, and of course with the Indians (he survived a raid by Dull Knife). There is nothing exceptional about most of this, but it gives a good feel for the routine life of a cowboy. And Wheeler's annotations are very thorough and helpful. One complaint: Records refers to the ranches in the book by their brands, so a table of brands would have been useful. In 1892 he staked a claim in the Indian territory of Oklahoma and settled there with his wife, where they lived and ranched for the next 48 years. As cowboy reminiscences go, this book is quite good of its kind.