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Title: Long Time Gone

Subtitle: Neighbors Divided by Civil War

Author: Les Rolston

Narrator: Kevin F. Spalding

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-01-16

Publisher: Revival Waves of Glory Books & Publishing

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Experience the entire Civil War through the eyes of the soldiers - North and South. Fast paced, this very human story sounds like you're watching a movie.

Members Reviews:

Long Time to Listen

This book sounded like a great idea. I am a history fan and have a particular interest in Lincoln and the Civil War. I should have loved this book. But I didnt. It was long and had stories that were unconnected except that they occurred before or around the time of the Civil War. I didnt enjoy the delivery and, unfortunately, the listen did not keep my attention. I am an avid listener and will stubbornly cling to a book even when I dont care for it so the fact that I didnt enjoy some aspect of this listen is saying something.

I received this audiobook for free through Audiobook Boom! in exchange for an honest review.

A bit slow

The whole idea of this book sounded great to me. But the delivery was dry and slow. The book got bogged down with excessive detail. I guess I was more looking for war stories from the men that lived it.

The narration was well done and enjoyable.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Sad history

Have you listened to any of Kevin F. Spaldings other performances before? How does this one compare?

Kevin Spalding was an easy to listen to narrator. I would definitely listen to him again.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A different viewpoint on a very sad time in the history of America.

Any additional comments?

I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

Interesting way of looking at the Civil War

This is not my typical genre for books, but I thought that it would be interesting. I did get an inside look at the war and how it affected everyday families and communities; not just on the battlefield, but everyday life.

While the narrator is very clear and easy to understand, I found his reading rate slow for my listening rate. While I typically stream the books I listen to, I found this audiobook more enjoyable downloading it to my phone using the Audible app which allowed me to increase the reading rate.

I received this audiobook free in exchange for an unbiased review.

What a disappointment

What disappointed you about Long Time Gone?

This book was just a list of names. I was expecting a story about two young men going forth into the civil war. What I got was a list of names with a back story for each. Most of which had nothing to do with the Civil War.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I am going back to zombies.

Which scene was your favorite?

None

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no

Any additional comments?

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

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Title: Lincoln and McClellan at War

Author: Chester G. Hearn

Narrator: Neal Vickers

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-16

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

At the beginning of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and his highest-ranking general, George B. McClellan, agreed that the United States must preserve the Union. Their differing strategies for accomplishing that goal, however, created constant conflict. Lincoln, a man without military training, promoted McClellan on the advice of cabinet members and counted on "Little Mac" to whip the army into shape and end the war quickly. McClellan comported himself with great confidence and won Lincoln's faith by brilliantly organizing the Army of the Potomac. Later, however, he lost Lincoln's trust by refusing to send what he called "the best army on the planet" into battle. The more frustrated Lincoln grew with McClellan's inaction, the more Lincoln studied authoritative works on military strategy and offered strategic combat advice to the general. McClellan resented the president's suggestions and habitually deflected them. Ultimately, Lincoln removed McClellan for what the president termed "the slows". According to Hearn, McClellan's intransigence stemmed largely from his reluctance to fight offensively. Thoroughly schooled in European defensive tactics, McClellan preferred that approach to fighting the war. His commander-in-chief, on the other hand, had a preference for using offensive tactics.

The book is published by Louisiana State University Press.

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

Excellent book on the conflict between the commander in chief and his general.

An Excellant Primer On The Lincoln-McClellan Relationship

The relationship between Abraham Lincoln and George B. McClellan was difficult at its best, and complicated by political and military needs and wants. It was a relationship strained by differing strategies, mistrust, and egotism. It is a relationship that has been examined and studied many times over, but a subject that never gets old. And thus Chester G. Hearn has added his tome, âLincoln and McClellan at Warâ to the ever growing library.

An 1846 graduate of Military Academy at West Point, and having won a couple of minor battles early in the war, McClellan was elevated to the command of The Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Federal defeat at Bull Run, and later to the post of General-in-Chief of the entire Federal Army, replacing the aging and infirm Winfield Scott. McClellan created an army from nearly nothing, oversaw its training, supplied and fed it. Mr. Hearnâs thesis: having built the greatest army in the world McClellan did not want to use it to fight offensively, but rather preferred defensive fighting. This can be summed up in a quote from Michael Shaaraâs Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Killer Angels, âTo be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love.â In short McClellan was not willing to risk an offensive strategy and order the death of the army that he was largely responsible for creating. On the other hand Lincoln, who schooled himself in the art of military science, preferred an offensive instead of a defensive strategy. Hearn points out that ultimately their differences in how best to prosecute the war is what eventually led to McClellanâs dismissal.

I am not a McClellan apologist, but I do feel that Mr.

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Title: John Quincy Adams

Author: Jonathan L. Entin

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-19-16

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

John Quincy Adams, the son of the second president, is generally viewed as a failed chief executive. A respected diplomat who became secretary of state under President James Monroe, JQ Adams won the contested 1824 election with the support of Speaker Henry Clay, whose endorsement led to Adamss selection by the House of Representatives under the Twelfth Amendment. The so-called corrupt bargain haunted him throughout his presidency. Although his time in the White House was largely uninspired, JQ Adams went on to gain election to the House of Representatives, where he ultimately faced censure for his strong antislavery views. The only president to serve in the House of Representatives after leaving the White House, Adams collapsed during a roll call on the House floor, after calling out an objection to the Mexican War, and died two days later.

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Title: Martin Van Buren

Author: Michael J. Gerhardt

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-19-16

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

President Martin Van Buren, a Jacksonian Democrat, did his best to project a strong executive image, like that of his predecessor. However, the Panic of 1837 crippled Van Burens economic plan. His effort to influence the courts in the Amistad caseinvolving a group of Africans who had staged a revolt from their Spanish captors on the high seasonly fueled his abolitionist opponents. And Van Burens effort to prevent Congress from having any supervisory role with respect to the postmaster general chipped away at the power of the executive branch and cemented his reputation as an ineffective president.

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Title: Sky as Frontier

Subtitle: Adventure, Aviation, and Empire

Author: David T. Courtwright

Narrator: Patrick Ross

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-27-16

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The airplane changed the course of history. Above all, it changed the history of the United States. When the Wright brothers invented their flying machine, Americans lived in a nation of two dimensions, circumscribed by lines drawn on a conventional map. A century later, their nation existed - in fact, reigned - in three dimensions. Two million Americans slipped the surly bonds of earth daily, carried aloft by aircraft operating in every part of the world.

The airplane turned the sky into a new domain of human activity, a fast-developing frontier. The first to brave that frontier were adventurous young men. Then came the rich and the hurried. David Courtwright has written an ambitious history of American aviation ranging from the patent fight between the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss through the tragedy of 9/11 and the Iraq War. Along the way, Courtwright stops to consider dogfighting, barnstorming, the first air mail pilots, the development of airlines, air power during World War II, flight's impact on the environment, the troubled space frontier, and how the male-dominated aviation enterprise was domesticated and democratized.

Aviation's frontier stage lasted a scant three decades, then vanished as flying became a settled experience. Sky as Frontier recreates that pioneer world and shows how commercial and military imperatives destroyed it by routinizing flight.

Members Reviews:

Cool Front photo

LOL - thought this book was going to be a little more like a history of aviation from the Golden Era, but it's OK. GREAT to lay the book around on a coffee table, if only for the cool photo on the cover LOL!

A Superb Work on America's Enchantment with Aviation

What makes flying so exciting? David Courtwright, a friend and colleague at the University of North Florida, has some fascinating ideas on the subject. "Sky as Frontier" is an impressive reinterpretation of the social history of flight in America. He casts the story as a frontier epic, but not exactly as has been done previously. While words like "pioneer," "conquest," and "frontier" have been used many times to describe the development of flight, in Courtwright's hands they take on a more nuanced, imaginative, and provocative cast. At several levels, he sees the frontier as a useful metaphor for describing the aeronautical experience in America.

Taking his cue from the sociological analysis first offered by Murray Melbin, who codified the social ingredients of a frontier as one in which itinerant young men predominated, danger lurked, and vices abounded, Courtwright systematically applies this model to the aeronautical enterprise. "The first to venture onto that frontier had been mostly adventurous young men," Courtwright notes. "Then came the rich and hurried. Then just about everybody" (p. ix). Using this framework the author then traces flight from its early daredevil days, very much a frontier environment, to one that was both domesticated and routine in which anyone may participate. His cover illustration captures that early "wild" era well, with airmail pilot "Wild Bill" Hopson decked out in his flying gear, smoking a cigarette, and paused in mid-swagger. From Hopson to Charles Lindbergh to Chuck Yeager to the button-down pilots of the modern airlines Courtwright shows this process of subjugation of a frontier.

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Title: Blow Ye the Trumpet in Zion

Subtitle: Religion in the Civil War Era (Traditional American History Series, Book 12)

Author: James M. Volo

Narrator: Gloria Mason Martin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-15-16

Publisher: James M. Volo

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Sincere religious reflection was a hallmark of soldiers in both armies in the Civil War, and it was generally an authentic religiosity rather than a battlefield conversion to spirituality. This is not surprising, as these characteristics had been common in the general population since the founding of the United States. Americans, despite their politics and prejudices, had always been and continued to be a strongly religious and highly moral people throughout the Antebellum Period (c. 1820-1860). Although there may have been a large number of battlefield conversions, in the average community, a person's attitude toward devotion was strongly shaped by the dominant religious beliefs of his neighbors or the local population as a whole.

This book has been written for those persons interested in not only the Civil War but also in the religious culture of the Antebellum Era that affected it. For a variety of reasons, historians seem to have studied the morale of Southerners more closely than that of their Northern foe in the Civil War Era. Because Confederate troops had more success in keeping Federal (Union) troops at bay, morale stayed reasonably high into mid-1864. The role of religion has not been so thoroughly debated among historians. It has rather been ignored. Of the thousands of titles dealing with the Civil War, surprisingly few address the significant role that religion played in framing the issues of the conflict or in driving the sacrifices of those who fought and died in it. It is the purpose of this selection to investigate and document this facet of the 19th century.

There is a great need today for Americans to further their understanding of the role religion has played in the rebirth of the government of a reunited United States. It is a national embarrassment that adults, in particular, are virtually uneducated in the foundations of American history. An attempt has been made herein to compartmentalize this history so that the interconnection that affected religious thought in America can be better understood.

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Title: The Battle of Lake Champlain

Subtitle: A Brilliant and Extraordinary Victory

Author: John H. Schroeder

Narrator: Steve White

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-14-16

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

On September 11, 1814, an American naval squadron under Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough defeated a formidable British force on Lake Champlain under the command of Captain George Downie, effectively ending the British invasion of the Champlain Valley during the War of 1812. This decisive battle had far-reaching repercussions in Canada, the United States, England, and Ghent, Belgium, where peace talks were underway. Examining the naval and land campaign in strategic, political, and military terms, from planning to execution to outcome, The Battle of Lake Champlain offers the most thorough account written of this pivotal moment in American history.

Previous histories have claimed that the War of 1812 ended with Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans. Schroeder demonstrates that the United States really won the war four months before - at Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. Through a comprehensive analysis of politics and diplomacy, Schroeder shows that the victory at Lake Champlain prompted the British to moderate their demands at Ghent, bringing the war directly and swiftly to an end before Jackson's spectacular victory in January 1815.

The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press.

Members Reviews:

Interesting piece of history, well-told

My father grew up on Lake Champlain, and when I saw this it peaked my interest. I like stumbling on parts of history I overlooked and the geographic connection was interesting.

This is a detailed study of a singular event, with the context extensively explained. I'm not a regular reader of military history, so I can't compare, but I found the detail interesting but not cumbersome.

I found the reader very engaging, with a tone that flowed easily and helped me stay connected to some of the longer sections of detail. He was very good.

I feel like I now have a clear picture of a new window on the years after the revolution and the way that the British tried to hold on to influence in North America. Answered some good questions and helped me think of others. A good history, well-performed.

Not a story about the Battle Of Lake Champlain

Only 1 chapter about the Battle of Lake Champlain. The rest of this book is about the War of 1812.

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Title: Our Sister Republics

Subtitle: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions

Author: Caitlin Fitz

Narrator: Emily Durante

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-05-16

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In the early 19th century, the United States turned its idealistic gaze southward, imagining a legacy of revolution and republicanism it hoped would dominate the American hemisphere. From pulsing port cities to Midwestern farms and Southern plantations, an adolescent nation hailed Latin America's independence movements as glorious tropical reprises of 1776. Even as Latin Americans were gradually ending slavery, US observers remained energized by the belief that their founding ideals were triumphing over European tyranny among their "sister republics". But as slavery became a violently divisive issue at home, goodwill toward antislavery revolutionaries waned.

By the nation's 50th anniversary, republican efforts abroad had become a scaffold upon which many in the United States erected an ideology of white US exceptionalism that would haunt the geopolitical landscape for generations. Marshaling groundbreaking research in four languages, Caitlin Fitz defines this hugely significant, previously unacknowledged turning point in US history.

Critic Reviews:

"Our Sister Republics provides an alternative picture of who we might have been, and just maybe, whom we might become." (Amy Greenberg, author of A Wicked War)

Members Reviews:

the changing tide Antebellum ideals

An interesting look into how the early U.S. once cheered South American revolutions before the planter class reminded everyone that equality was really only for whites. Countries define themselves by comparison to other countries. International histories of this time often focus on how the U.S. defined itself against the old world. This book on the other hand, sheds light on how the U.S. saw it's influence on its southern neighbors. It's fascinating to see how revolutionary fervor devolved into a sectional disagreement about the fundamental ideal of "all men are created equal."

My only quibbles with this book is the brevity and the repetitive sentence structures. I wish the book had looked at how the sectional debate over equality informed the Mexican-American War of 1846. also, please stop using "indeed" to start a sentence. Especially in the audiobook format, it's use is distracting to the point of annoyance.

I found the narrator's pace to be too slow, but thankfully Audible's app allowed me to speed it up and make it listenable. I also found her mispronunciations to be similarly distracting.

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Title: Gateway to the Confederacy

Subtitle: New Perspectives on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, 1862-1863

Author: Evan C. Jones, Wiley Sword

Narrator: Clyde Walker

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-30-16

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A collection of 10 new essays from some of our finest Civil War historians working today, Gateway to the Confederacy offers a reexamination of the campaigns fought to gain possession of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Each essay addresses how Americans have misconstrued the legacy of these struggles and why scholars feel it necessary to reconsider one of the most critical turning points of the American Civil War.

The first academic analysis that delineates all three Civil War campaigns fought from 1862 to 1863 for control of Chattanooga - the transportation hub of the Confederacy and gateway to the Deep South - this book deals not only with military operations but also with the campaigns' origins and consequences. The essays also explore the far-reaching social and political implications of the battles and bring into sharp focus their impact on postwar literature and commemoration.

Gateway to the Confederacy reassesses these pivotal battles, long in need of reappraisal, and breaks new ground as each scholar reshapes a particular aspect of this momentous part of the Civil War.

Members Reviews:

Important insights on the precursor to the fall of Atlanta.

Every Civil War aficionado should have Gateway to the Confederacy in his or her library for one compelling reason, viz. the essay by the editor, Evan C. Jones, about the rivalry between Generals Grant and Rosecrans. Although a truncated version of this essay appears in the October 2014 issue of Civil War Times, Mr. Jones, who studied under Gary Gallagher at the Univ of Virginia, details the deterioration of what had been a pre-war friendship into what he calls a âmalignant vindictiveness.â His analysis is compelling, and I could not do justice to its positive attributes in this review.

The remaining nine essays are a âmixed bag.â That by Russell Bonds about Chattanooga presents a great deal that is new about the city as a transportation hub and industrial center, but would have benefited from information found in the Chattanooga Rebel, the Daily Gazette, and other original sources, rather than bringing together snippets from diverse secondary sources. Bonds does error in stating that the Augusta Powder Works at Augusta Georgia was the âConfederacy's one and only gunpowder works.â He is apparently unaware of the Sycamore Works at Ashland, Tennessee, which was dismantled and moved to Selma, Alabama, before Buell's Army of the Ohio reached Bowling Green in March of 1862. Prokopowicz's essay on Buell is insightful, and âspot onâ in suggesting that Halleck and the War Department slowed Buell's advance on Chattanooga by insisting that Memphis and Charleston RR from Memphis be fully operational before moving on the city. But ultimately, Buell was "his own worst enemy" in applying what was in 1862 the Lincoln Administration's policy of treating civilians with âkid gloves.â Unfortunately, in my opinion, Buell became the scapegoat for a failed administration policy of reconciliation with Southrons that existed until 1863 when the hard hand of war became a sin qua non for victory.

The essay by David Powell about Forrest at Chickamauga is a summary of his monograph Failure in the Saddle which provides more detail and a more coherent analysis. I understand Mr.

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Title: Summary of Valiant Ambition: By Nathaniel Philbrick | Includes Analysis

Author: Instaread

Narrator: Dwight Equitz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-29-16

Publisher: Instaread

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Summary of Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick | Includes Analysis

Preview:

Nathaniel Philbrick's Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution focuses on the treachery of Benedict Arnold as it plays out against the wider panorama of the American Revolution.

Benedict Arnold was a courageous officer who was responsible for a number of crucial American victories during the Revolution. His brilliant conduct of the Battle of Valcour Island at Lake Champlain in 1776 delayed British forces and prevented them from reaching the Hudson River valley. Had the British succeeded, they might have separated New England from the rest of the colonies and quickly ended the war. Arnold also managed the American victory at the Battle of Freeman's Farm, which helped ensure the defeat of British General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga in upstate New York. That battle, in turn, encouraged the French to enter the war, which made the ultimate American victory possible.

Please note: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and not the original book.

Inside this Instaread summary of Valiant Ambition:

Members Reviews:

The truth behind the history

In our American history classes weâre often taught a somewhat romanticized version of the American Revolution. Whatâs missing from most of these classes is the fact that nearly half the residents of the colonies either sat it out or supported the English, and many of the valiant Founding Fathers supported independence for selfish, commercial reasons.

In Summary of Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick by Instaread, the author focuses on Benedict Arnold, George Washington, and how Arnoldâs ambitions and greed led to his treachery. Those who view exposing the negative side of national icons as revisionist history will probably be mortally offended by this book, but what it does is show that the Founding Fathers and others who helped bring our country into being were mere mortals who often did the right thing for reasons that we, today, would rather not be reminded of.

The Instaread summary is an easy-to-read, in depth analysis of Philbrickâs book that youâll find immensely helpful in deciding whether or not to buy the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

Excellent reading companion to the full book.

This is a summary of Nathaniel Philbrick's book Valiant Ambition about the relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold during the Revolutionary War for Independence. I recently bought the full book and was happy to review this Instaread in exchange for an honest review. This is a fascinating story about the circumstances of the war and how the actions of the Continental Congress and Arnold's wife, Peggy Shippen, influenced Arnold to betray the Americans. Arnold was a brilliant military strategist who lead his forces to decisive victories that later assured that the Americans would ultimately be victorious over the British. But for him, the British would have been the victors early on in the war, and that would have finished off the American forces.

Arnold wasn't just a brilliant military man. He was also interested in making money and achieving independent wealth. He had, as Philbrick notes in his title, valiant ambition. He was due for a promotion which was delayed by the fractious Continental Congress.