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The Middle Generation: A Novel of John Quincy Adams and the Monroe Doctrine. M.B. Zucker. Historium Press, 2023. 507 pages.
When I first heard of The Middle Generation, my interest was immediately piqued. Historical fiction about John Quincy Adams, probably the most intellectual president ever and one of the most accomplished American figures in history who is unfortunately often placed on lists of worst presidents ever, set during one of the most critical time periods in American history? And it was implied that the book was something of a political thriller, well researched by the author who based it on Adams' personal journals and letters. What a unique idea!
John Quincy Adams himself represents a major transition between the classical revolutionary America and the America that became a world player. He was groomed for greatness from childhood b his father and revolutionary leader John Adams, acting as his personal secretary by his early teens, bridging generations of American political leaders. He was the first President to wear long trousers instead of knee britches. He was a staunch opponent of slavery and an advocate of industrializing and diversifying the national economy. He envisioned the United States as an equal to the European powers, ready for a seat at the table.
Like his father, though, he was never a politician, and he never had the personality for it. He was blunt, direct, and found social situations and everyday small talk tedious and pointless. In short (pun, get it?), like his father, he was "obnoxious and disliked." Quincy comes off poorly in this book, cold and distant, a terrible father and husband. His constant struggle is to live up to his parents' expectations for greatness and legacy. His wife is portrayed as perpetually miserable, grieving the loss of a child, dealing with Adams' distance, and always overshadowed by her mother-in-law who was a very strong woman and equal partner to husband, yet Quincy never seemed to see Louisa as a real partner. Their children come across as spoiled, entitled, whiny brattish losers who constantly disappointed their parents and grandparents.
Alas, the book is not a political thriller. Instead, it focuses on Adams' service as Monroe's Secretary of State and his role in securing US borders with Canada, acquiring Florida, and negotiating the Missouri Compromise and the Monroe Doctrine. It's kind of like a "West Wing" 1820, mostly debates and discussions with and amongst the President's cabinet, Speaker of the House (and presidential rival) Henry Clay, and various foreign ambassadors. It's interesting if you're a political wonk, but political thriller it definitely is not.
A review
Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants: When Men's Adventure Magazines Got Weird (Men's Adventure Library). Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle, editors. New Texture, 2023. 328 pages
Men's Adventure Magazines were a popular genre of magazines from the late 1940s into the 1970s. Each issue was an anthology of adventure stories, crime tales, and science fiction deliberately targeted at young men seeking an escape from their daily lives. While there were a few true stories, most of the stories were fiction, often very sensationalistic, sexy, thrilling, and violent, often set on battlefields, in jungles, or faraway planets. By today's standards, the tales are in no way politically correct or "woke." They very much reflect the time period in which they were published, and many wouldn't be published today. Although some of the authors never really achieved much fame aside from the magazines, many famous authors contributed stories as well, and the illustrations on the covers and in the stories, created by the leading graphic artists of the day, are every bit as amazing as the stories.
Co-editors Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle began collecting these stories and publishing special editions under the name "Men's Adventure Library." This collection has everything for lovers of fantasy adventure: werewolves, dinosaurs, mad scientists, supernatural, vampires, killer robots, cryptids, and more. I enjoy the collections for the stories and the illustrations themselves but also for both the historical subtext and context, providing windows into another time.
A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham. Steve Kemper. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. 448 pages.
Frederick Russell Burnham was one of the best known American men of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a celebrity whose exploits were breathlessly reported by the press throughout North America, Africa, and Europe. He was friends with, and admired by, Buffalo Bill Cody, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Cecil Rhodes, adventure author H. Rider Haggard, Robert Baden-Powell, and some of the wealthiest men in the world with names like Hammond, Whitney, and Guggenheim, just to name a few. He was known as the greatest military scout in the world, typically known by the phrase "The American Scout," having served in the Apache Wars, the Ndebele and Shona Wars in South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the Boer War, and the Yaqui War in northern Mexico in the early 1900s. He amassed huge fortunes for himself, and others, in gold, land, and stocks and then lost them, always in search of the next big bonanza and always having to start over. Lord Baden-Powell was inspired to create the Boy Scouts by Burnham, even adopting Burnham's preferred hat and kerchief uniform as the official Boy Scout uniform; without Burnham, there may never have been a Boy Scouts organization. In his amazing life, Burnham acquired stories that enthralled the world. It was said of Burnham that he was the only man alive who could tell true adventure stories that made Theodore Roosevelt shut up and listen.
And yet, you, like me, have probably never heard of him. I was definitely intrigued when I saw this as an earlier book written by Steve Kemper, the author of Our Man in Tokyo which I enjoyed reading, so I had to read it as well. It is definitely an incredible story about an incredible life, but why is he forgotten now? Well, he is, as they say, problematic. He espoused socialist ideas, but he lived his entire life constantly searching for his next big fortune. He was definitely a white supremacist, and he flirted with the ideas of eugenics. He was a major big game sport hunter, but he became a leading conservationist, very influential in the creation of many national and California state parks and forests. He was never able to sit still for long, always leaving his wife and family for long stretches to go to war or on expeditions. If given the option, he was always pro-war and pro-conquest, constantly decrying the softness and decline of America and Americans. He was definitely an imperialist. He believed that "real men" should always take risks and be willing to die for it. In other words, he was a multifaceted, complicated man that defies simplistic categorization --- you know, human.
The Story of the Sarasota Assassination Society. Tony Dunbar. Blind Pass Publications LLC, 2022. 248 pages. Book 1 of 3 in Florida Fables series.
During Reconstruction and throughout the late 1800s, the South was roiled by economic and political division and turmoil, and violence and lawlessness often occurred. Hollywood and the American imagination have always romanticized and focused on the Old West during this time, but there's no need to travel that far to taste the wild frontier. Florida was every bit as wild, rugged, violent, and dangerous as Tombstone and Deadwood, with alligators, hurricanes, and swamps thrown in. There were new lands to be claimed, fortunes to be made, and lots of opportunities for people to invent new lives or simply to hide from their old ones.
Author Tony Dunbar has written a three volume series of historical fiction novels focused on the McFarland family of southwest Florida, in and around Sarasota and based on real people and events. Today, people think of Sarasota as a sleepy beach town, populated by old people with rich and famous people living in extremely expensive beach communities, but, in the 1880s, it was a very small fishing community surrounded by dirt poor farmers and ranchers trying to scratch out a living. Still, politics and division invaded, along with greedy developers from the north, and turned residents against each other. The Sarasota Assassination Society was formed, with members calling it a "political association." Members swore oaths of secrecy, loyalty, and obedience, complete with secret handshakes and identifying signs, in order to protect their vision of Florida. The result was murder. Young deputy Gawain McFarland is thrown into the middle of the ensuing manhunt for the killers. It's quite an interesting read and look into historical Florida.
Author Talk
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching For James Brown and the American Soul. James McBride. Spiegel & Grau, 2016. 256 pages.
In the past few years, author James McBride has published two extremely well-received novels, Deacon King Kong and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, but, in 2016, he published Kill 'Em and Leave, a biography, of sorts, of James Brown. It's biography-ish, but it's also a book about McBride's process and efforts to discover the truth about The Godfather of Soul, and along the way McBride also reveals a bit, and learns a bit, about himself. It's a difficult process because throughout his life Brown constantly told different stories to different audiences and made a concerted effort to keep almost everyone he ever knew from getting too close to the real James Brown.
In the opening pages, McBride posits that Brown was and is perhaps the most recognized, most famous, and most influential black man to ever live, and he sets out to make his case. It's a remarkable story. Abandoned by his mother (It's still disputed whether she left or was driven away by his father.), at a very young age, Brown was mostly raised by his father's extended family, several female cousins and aunts. He dropped out of school and did a three year stretch in a Georgia youth prison, becoming a school janitor after his release and singing in churches and juke joints in Georgia and South Carolina before becoming one of the biggest names in music. What a life. The spending, the women, the bands, the career. Quirks on top of quirks. Brown never went anywhere without thousands in cash and cashiers checks on him. He, like many old-school black performers, having been cheated before, demanded cash payments before taking the stage. In his Augusta Georgia home, he had a "money room" filled with shoeboxes of $100 bills and wheelbarrows of silver dollars. He frequently gave cash, jewelry, and cars to friends and associates. The IRS came after him, wiping him out twice. Each time, he back. When he died in 2006, his tax troubles were resolved, and his estate was estimated at $100 to 150 million.
In spite of all the tragedies and hardships Brown experienced (in some cases, caused) in his life, the biggest tragedy may have been what happened after his death. Brown's will left everything but personal belongings, about $100 million, earmarked to create an educational foundation for poor Georgia and South Carolina children. To date, none of that money has been used for that purpose. Instead, it has gone to lawyers hired by Brown's various children and wives to fight the will, and the fortune fell to $2-4 million. In 2021, a resolution of sorts was finally reached, maybe, but legal battles continue, and Brown's wishes haven't been met.
This was a great read. I really enjoyed it.
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