Chapter 12 - To the Last Man (review by Scott Wilson)

This excellent review was written by my good friend Scott Wilson.  We continue to share interesting books even though he now lives with his family in Okinawa, Japan.   Thanks, Scott, for the great review!

My Shaara exposure began in the same may as most readers, with The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.  A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Michael Shaara was working on his second book in the Civil War trilogy when he passed away.  His son, Jeff, neither a historian nor a writer at the time of his father’s passing, vowed to complete the trilogy that his father had started.  And this he did, penning Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure -- thus completing a work his father had begun years earlier. 

Eventually, Jeff Shaara began to separate himself from his father’s legacy, and has proven himself to be every bit the writer that his father was.  He was written books on the American Revolution, the Mexican War, WWII, and WWI.  His book on WWI, To the Last Man, is the fourth book I have read by a member of the Shaara family and probably one of the more exciting.  His signature format, combined with some of the private portraits presented in the book, helped make it a memorable read. 

The Shaara format is unique and, for me, it serves to make the story more intimate and compelling.  In To the Last Man, Shaara tells the story of WWI through the eyes of several of the war’s key protagonists.  One such character is John “Blackjack” Pershing, West Point graduate and commander of the American Expeditionary Force.  From

General Pershing, we get a strategic perspective on the war, and gain insight into the logistical, political, and diplomatic nightmare that was America’s initial entry to the war effort.  Pershing struggles throughout the book to deal with a never-ending stream of demands and suggestions from the French and English, who, having endured three years of pounding from the German military, were desperate for relief and reinforcements.

Then there is Raoul Lufbery, French/American fighter pilot and eventual commander of the Lafayette Escadrille, a group of American volunteer pilots.  These men formed the unit to aid the French in their war effort against the Germans because the United States (led by the isolationist, League of Nations supporting, and 14 Points suggesting Woodrow Wilson) remained neutral until 1917. 

Opposing Lufbery and his squadron is Baron Manfred Von Richthofen, the famed “Red Baron” and most distinguished flying ace of WWI. Richthofen is probably on of the most dynamic characters in the book, at least from a literary standpoint.  His unbridled devotion to duty and country is constantly at odds with his struggle to understand the conflict, his aerial prowess, and his country’s labeling him as a hero.  He seems indifferent, almost unfeeling, about his success and the dozens of men he has sent to their death.  Yet at the same time is full of passion as he preaches virtues like duty, honor, and courage to those who fly with him.

Finally, in stark contrast to the other more distinguished characters in the book, we meet Roscoe Temple, an ordinary 19-year-old Marine Private from Monticello, Florida.  Temple provides us with insight about life deep in the trenches of those fighting along the front lines of The Great War.  We follow him through some of his initial training where he develops unspeakable bonds with fellow Marines who will serve with him in some of the most storied battles of the war.

While the characters are the vehicles Shaara uses to make history a little more vibrant and colorful, the awfulness of war was most evident because of references and conversations involving people not participating directly in the actual fighting.  These interactions presented in the book provide vivid imagery that really brought home the realities of the conflict and the impact that it had on the populations of each country involved.  Allow me to share a couple examples:

(1) After months of brutal combat, Temple is lying one night on his back in a shell hole, enjoying the first clear night in some time.  He was going over in his head what he would say to the mother of a fallen comrade, when his thoughts wandered to his own mother.  Shaara writes:

“He imagined his mother, the strong woman who wasa so prone to emotion, sitting in her single chair on the wide porch of the farmhouse, in unstoppable tears.  It sickened him, knowing her pride in her son could be replaced by stunning grief.  She had written him of her hopes for his safe return, apologizing for mother’s concerns.  Now, he imagined her receiving the cold impersonal regrets of her government, a woman whose life would be changed in such a horrible way, losing her only son to a war she knew so little about.  How many mothers had been through this already, women who watched their sons board the trains or great ships, pride tempered by tears, scolded by the men in their lives not to embarrass their sons with a mother’s fawning."

(2) Richthofen, having just sustained an injury during a dogfight, was basically ordered to take leave by the German High Command.  When he arrives home, he engages in a telling conversation with his mother.  Mother is upset about some of the bad news coming out of the German war effort and about the death of another of Richthofen’s pilots.  Shaara sees the conversation as follows:

            “What of your Mr. Voss? You will have to prepare another obituary.”

He did not want to talk about Voss, (the pilot recently killed) but her words took away the energy for his smile. “Yes, I will go later.  There is little I can do about it now.”

“You are wrong Manfred.” (says mother).  He saw anger in her eyes, the tears again, and she said, “You can stop flying, you have done your part.  No one would ever find fault.”

“Father would not agree with you.”

“I do not speak for your father. If it is selfishness to want my sone slive, then I am selfish.  I want you to have a wife.  I want you to know what it is to see the face of you own babies, to watch your own children grow up.  You have done enough for your country!”

He had not seen her angry in a very long time, felt suddenly helpless.  “Mother, you cannot possibly understand.  If everyone felt this way, no one would fight!”  His words lay hanging in the air, and she stared at him for a long moment. 

“Then, my son, no one would die.”

There are so many more examples of this.  Another one involves Raymond Poincare (then Prime Minister of France) and his wife, who meet with General Pershing on the banks of the Meuse River after the Allies successfully secured territory previously held by the Germans.  As Madame Poincare reminisces over the land and its beauty, Pershing is impressed at her ability to “look beyond what a soldier sees,” as he is only able to see the blasted fields, clusters of blackened trees, and the wreckage of trucks and wagons. 

I think these examples highlight what Shaara does really well.  He is widely recognized for his research and ability to present a compelling view of history as seen through some of its key figures.  However, I find his writing intriguing for its ability to make history personal and intimate.  He is able to snatch history from the moors of a literal, intangible, non-fictional realm and instead provide us with an experience that one can internalize and feel.   This helped make To the Last Man both a historical journey and a wonderful story. Don’t believe me…Buy the Bookand see for yourself. 

Chapter 10 - Endurance

Wow!! How time flies! I apologize that it’s been a full two months since my last review. I do want to thank everyone for the great comments on The Screwtape Letters That was my biggest response yet, and it’s no surprise why; it’s really a great book. Hopefully today’s review will also find a responsive audience!

The subject of today’s review is Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. When I first started reading non-fiction books a few years ago, I read this little gem and have been hooked on non-fiction ever since. This is an amazing story of adventure, of overcoming hardships and beating incredible odds in order to survive. This story is all the more amazing because it actually happened.

In 1914, a British expedition led by a man named Ernest Shackleton set sail with the goal of being the first people to journey across Antarctica on foot. Shackleton had been on a few previous exploratory trips to the “White Continent” and had even gotten within about 100 miles of the South Pole. This trip, however, was not to be nearly as successful as previous trips. Before they could reach the point where they would dock their ship and begin their trans-continental trek, the ship became trapped in the drifting pack ice. And there it stayed, stuck, for 9 months until finally the surging ice crushed the ship. Suddenly, the crew was stuck thousands of miles from civilization in a frozen wilderness, without a way to get home. Taking three small boats and whatever supplies they could carry with them, the crew abandoned the wrecked ship and headed out on a trek of a different sort…a trek of survival. What follows is an incredible story of endurance and superb leadership from Shackleton. But if you want to know the rest of this fantastic story, you’ll have to read the book. I will tell you that almost a year after losing their ship, the crew was saved without losing a single life. Truly amazing.

Unlike some other books I’ve reviewed, this one is a quick read (288 pages) and I assure you that it will be well worth your time. So, if you’re looking for adventure, have always wondered how you’d survive the Antarctic wilderness, or want to read a story of incredible determination, effort and leadership, I recommend you Buy the Book!

Chapter 8 - Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Remember that Shel Silverstein poem about the little girl who ate the whale? Everyone told Melinda Mae she was too small to eat a whale, but “she took little bites and she chewed very slow, just like a little girl should.” The poem ends by saying, “...and in eighty-nine years she ate that whale, because she said she would!!!”

Well, the book I want to review today is a whale of a book. But, if you take it in small bites and chew slowly, you’ll find that not only will you be able to finish this book, but you’ll be licking your chops for more when you finish. The book is “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William Shirer and was recommended to me by one of you (thanks, Tom!). My paperback copy came in at 1486 pages, not including the notes, bibliography, acknowledgments and index. So, it’s fair to say that it’s a very long book. But, boy, what a fantastic read! William Shirer was an American journalist living in Germany during the early years of the Third Reich. He was an eyewitness to Hitler’s rise to power and the complete spell he and his fellow Nazis cast over the German people. He gives some unique insights into the ideas and emotions that were swirling around Germany during the 1920’s and 1930’s which I think help us to understand how a country could be taken by Hitler and his ideas. The book starts with Hitler’s youth and follows him up through his remarkable rise to power. As the “Fuehrer”, he eventually takes control of virtually every aspect of the government, one piece at a time. For as egotistical and wacky as he was, Hitler was also an incredible orator and would captivate crowds and persuade nearly everyone who heard him speak to believe in him and his dreams for Germany. He had a remarkable vision of what he wanted to accomplish, and for many years, he was successful in all he set out to do. In 1938, the Germans took over Austria and Czechoslovakia without firing a shot. Later, the war began as they attacked Poland, then Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, France, etc. One by one the countries fell in combat. Before reading this book, all the books I had read about WWII related stories of battles in the Pacific arena of the war and discussed battles that happened post-Pearl Harbor, once the U.S. was officially engaged in the war. I didn’t fully appreciate or realize how much the war had completely engulfed Europe before December 1941 and how close Germany came to controlling all of Europe. It really is remarkable how much, how far, and how fast Germany was able to conquer Europe. They employed a brand new form of warfare with their tank divisions and their blitzkrieg bombing raids. They were certainly a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully, England chose to hang in and fight, even against great odds. They were eventually greatly helped in the east by the Russians, after the Germans turned on their one-time-allies. Of course, we know about D-Day and the U.S. troops that came later to drive the Germans back and defeat them with a whole coalition of troops.

Okay, okay, but enough about the war. There are plenty of WWII books out there that tell the story of the war. The fascinating aspect of this book is that it is told from the German perspective. Shirer grants us a front row seat to see the workings of the Nazi government before and during the war. We become very familiar with Hitler’s right hand men including Goering (Reichstag president and head of air force), Himmler (chief of S.S. and chief of police), Goebbels (propaganda minister) and Ribbentrop (foreign minister), just to name a few of the closest co-conspirators. While Himmler may have been the cruelest and most cold-blooded of the bunch, Goebbels seemed the most deceitful and outright creepy to me (see picture at right). We meet hundreds of other participants in the marvel and terror that was the Third Reich. Overall the story is fascinating and gripping. I had worried at the outset that I was likely to become bored or lost somewhere among the almost 1500 pages. But, the way that Shirer brings the reader into the story kept me interested and curious throughout the entire book. There’s a lot more to this book including: descriptions of the political and military agreements between Germany and Italy, Russia and Japan, the extermination camps and mass murder crews (Einsatzgruppe) that were part of the “final solution” for the Jews, concentration camps and labor prisoner programs that led millions of Russians and Slavs to their graves, the heroic efforts of the Norwegians, English, Americans and underground resistance groups to slow and stop the Third Reich, and several interesting stories about Hitler including incredible fits of rage, several attempts at assassination and the women in his life. This book is a riveting tale of one driven, determined, fanatical man, his near success in conquering an entire continent, and his collapse and destruction, along with which his political party also ceased to exist. So, for anyone interested in Hitler, the Nazi party, WWII, European history, or any other aspect I have mentioned, I highly recommend that you Buy The Book !!! And remember, the only way to eat a whale is a bite at a time…just go from one bite to the next and before you know it this fantastic book will be over. Oh, and I promise this book won’t take 89 years to read.

Chapter 6 – The Mayflower

First off, I want to thank those of you who posted comments on my blog! It warms my little heart every time I check for comments and find a new one. Keep it up! And, thanks for those who always email me back with comments and feedback. That’s what makes this fun. I also want to let you know that I will be inviting special “guest reviewers” to post a review of one of their favorite books or latest reads here on the blog. Look for the first guest review to appear shortly. And don’t be surprised if I ask you to write a review as well. Also, if I haven’t yet asked you to be a guest reviewer, but you have a book you are really wanting to share with others, let me know and we’ll get it posted on the blog!

I wanted to point out to those of you who caught the PBS special "The Mormons" last week, that you saw our friend Richard Bushman, the author of the Joseph Smith biography Rough Stone Rolling, which was featured in my last book review. Also interviewed (among many other people) was Terry Givens who wrote an interesting book about the Book of Mormon that I enjoyed and hope to review for the blog in the future. Alright, enough intro stuff...on to the review...

Since my last posting, the 2007 Pulitzer Prizes were announced. I’m happy to report that the subject of my Chapter 2 review, The Looming Tower, was awarded the prize for General Nonfiction. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed that fantastic book! Be sure to check out it out if you haven’t yet. In addition, one of the finalists in the History category was “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War" by Nathaniel Philbrick. This was another new book that I read last year when it came out, and it was a wonderful book. I decided to review it today.

(As a quick side note, Nathaniel Philbrick, who lives near Plymouth in Nantucket, has two other well known books: In the Heart of the Sea which tells the tragic story of the whaleship Essex and which won the National Book Award, and Sea of Glory about the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842. I really loved the first of these and will hopefully review it in the future. The second of these books is currently sitting on my bookshelf begging to be read. If any of you have read it, I would love to hear from you about what you thought.)

If you are anything like me, you grew up with romantic visions of the pilgrims and Native Americans sitting together at the first thanksgiving. You may have imagined a group of people seated at a large rectangular table out in the warm afternoon autumn sun, with buckle-shoed Pilgrim John asking his Indian neighbor to “Pass the yams, please.” Maybe you pictured the Pilgrims dressing up a large turkey or the Indians bringing in a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. Perhaps you can imagine the children running off to play in the woods after dinner while the adults gather around to watch the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions play. Okay, maybe you pictured everything except the football game. Football started shortly after the pilgrims…right? Anyway, it turns out, not too surprisingly, that our image of life in Plymouth Colony is a little bit off. In fact, for many of us it is way off. In this great book Nathanial Philbrick describes how the members of Plymouth colony came to the New World, what life was like there, and what happened in the subsequent half century or so. It is a fascinating look at the early life of Europeans on North American soil.

The pilgrims were a group of devout English Christians who were seeking religious freedom. They fled from England to Holland, but then decided to get even further away from persecution and oppression. In 1620, they took a ten week journey across the Atlantic, arriving on the coast of present day Massachusetts. En route, they drafted the Mayflower Compact, a remarkable document which set up a system of government for their new settlement. Times were tough in Plymouth Colony…very tough. They arrived in November with little food and were quite unprepared for the winter ahead. Over half of the settlers died in the first six months and the others likely would have too, if not for some help from local Indian tribes. While some sort of thanksgiving celebration did occur the following year, it was much different from what we have all imagined throughout our childhood. Philbrick gives a more accurate description of this celebration and other events that transpired early on in Plymouth Colony. What followed was a relatively peaceful, although often difficult and many times stressful, coexistence for the next half century.

In 1675, war erupted. The war was called King Philips War (King Philip was an Indian chief at the center of the conflict) and was the culmination of building tension between the colonists and some of the Indian tribes, as well as the eruption of centuries-old disputes and disagreements between some of the many different Indian tribes. The war was gruesome, lasted over one year, and took several thousand lives, including a large percentage of Plymouth Colony. Philbrick recounts how this war started, brings to life the principal participants and depicts its ultimate conclusion.

This book provides an excellent description of the rough, trying circumstances that the pilgrims endured upon settling in the New World, the courage they demonstrated as well as some the short-sighted decisions they made in their interactions with the local Indian tribes and leaders. While the title of this book is deceiving since it covers much more than the voyage of the Mayflower, the story of life in Plymouth Colony is as interesting, and probably more so, than the story of how the pilgrims got there in the first place. This book has been described as “a fifty-five-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound.”

So, if you’re interested in early American history, want to find out who King Philip really was (I always assumed he was an English king who mistreated American colonists!), or want to hear an amazing story of enduring in the face of difficult circumstances, I recommend that you Buy the Book!!! However, if you’d like to hold onto your childhood images of the Indians and pilgrims feasting on turkey together and living in continual peace and harmony, you may want to skip this one.

Chapter 3 - Mark Bowden and Killing Pablo

Chapter 3 is motivated by something I was able to attend this week. Monday afternoon I had the opportunity to go to a lunch and lecture by Mark Bowden here on Penn’s campus. A group of about 30 of us packed into the lounge area of the Kelly Writer’s House, one of the English department buildings, ate some sandwiches, and listened to Mark Bowden talk for about an hour about his career, his books, etc. He shared some entertaining experiences he has had as a reporter/author and talked a lot about his most recent book, Guests of the Ayatollah. But before I get carried away about my lunch on Monday, let me take a step back. Mark Bowden was born in St. Louis and attended college in Baltimore. He later became a writer for the daily paper here in Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer. He was a writer for the Inquirer for around 25 years. He started off as a daily reporter for the paper, and eventually moved into writing longer Sunday articles. From there, he started doing magazine articles and later on article series for various magazines. As he continued to write longer and longer pieces, he eventually wrote a full length book called Doctor Dealer. This book tells the story of Larry Lavin, a Penn undergrad and later Penn dental student who ran a cocaine ring in Philadelphia during and after school. His empire eventually made around $60 million annually in cocaine sales. When the drug enforcement figured he and his fellow dealers out, Larry was somehow able to escape while all the others involved were thrown in jail. Larry eventually was caught and spent 22 years in prison, just getting released last year. Needless to say, I don’t think he’s still cleaning teeth. Bowden has since written six other books, most notably Blackhawk Down, Killing Pablo and Guests of the Ayatollah. Each book, it seems, has gotten more complex. Many of you are probably familiar with, or have read, Blackhawk Down. I’ll save a review of this fantastic book for another day. His most recent book, Guests of the Ayatollah, came out last year and covers the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Iran. I am planning on reading this book soon, so I won’t say any more about that one. I think it will be an incredible book.

Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw was the first book I read by Mark Bowden. During the summer of 2002 I was on a month long trip to Ghana, West Africa. We had a lot of down time and we were all able to read several books during the trip. One book that my brother Jared had there was Killing Pablo. The cover of the book shows some American military members celebrating around a half-naked dead body. My first thought was, “Why would I want to read a book about the military hunting down and killing this guy?” (You may be asking yourself the same question right now). However, once Jared had read it and told me what a great book it was, I went ahead a read it. I wasn’t disappointed. Killing Pablo tells the story of Pablo Escobar, one of the most successful, most powerful, richest, and nastiest of the Colombian cocaine kingpins. While building his incredibly successful drug empire (Forbes once listed him as the 7^th richest person in the world), he used an incredible amount of violence to influence police, politicians, judges and others who would not accept his bribes. His violence peaked when his men planted a bomb on a plane that killed 110 people, including two Americans. As Escobar continually evaded Colombian officials and their attempts to capture him, the U.S. government put its resources into stopping “public enemy number one in the world” and dismantling his drug cartel. Much of the book follows the U.S. involvement in this chase. One very interesting aspect of this story is that many Colombians, especially those from Escobar’s home neighborhood of Medellin, really loved Pablo Escobar. He spent some of his drug money investing back in the community and as a result became very respected and admired by some Colombian citizens, even while committed such violence and terror to others. This is a thrilling story and very interesting look at the Colombian drug business and the main man running the show. The account of the manhunt and eventual murder of Pablo Escobar gives a fascinating insight into U.S. special operations and reads like a novel. If you liked Clear and Present Danger, you’ll love this true story.

Back to Mark Bowden for a minute. He was a very interesting guy and shared some great stories. His motivation for writing Killing Pablo came when he was working on writing Blackhawk Down. In the course of writing that book, he did many interviews with the members of Delta Force who were involved in the siege in Mogadishu. One man he interviewed had the picture I described above, of military personnel celebrating around a half-naked dead body, hanging in his house and was incredibly proud of it. When Bowden asked him about it, he gloated about being part of the hunt to find and kill Pablo Escobar. Bowden said he scribbled down and underlined in his notebook the name Pablo Escobar since he wasn’t familiar with him or his story. It was also members of Delta Force that inspired Bowden to write Guests of the Ayatollah. They wanted him to recount the story of the first operation undertaken by this highly-trained branch of secret operatives, the attempted rescue mission of the Iranian hostages. Bowden didn’t think that that story alone was too interesting since the mission failed miserably, but he did think the larger story of what went on in the U.S. politically and in Iran with the hostages was a fascinating story. And really, he points out, it is very relevant today because it is the first U.S. encounter with militant Islam in modern times. Anyway, like I said, I very much look forward to reading this book.

Bowden also did say that he has sold the film rights to Killing Pablo and Guests of the Ayatollah, so hopefully those will come out before too long. Finally, Bowden told us that his next book will be about the 1958 NFL championship game. Yes, he’s a big sports fan and even has a previous book about the Philadelphia Eagles.

So, I highly recommend checking out Mark Bowden’s books and when it comes to Killing Pablo, I recommend you…Buy the Book!!!

Chapter 1 - David McCullough and The Great Bridge

I thought it would be appropriate to start off with a short author biography of one of my favorite authors, David McCullough. He may be my favorite author right now, but the jury is still out on that. Either way, he is a fantastic historian and biographer. Most people have heard of "1776" or "John Adams" which were McCullough's two most recent books. You may not have heard about many of his others, which are all very interesting and none of which have anything to do with the American Revolution like the most recent two. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, the author...

David McCullough is a fellow Pennsylvanian, having grown up in Pittsburgh. He graduated from Yale with an English degree and later went to work in Washington, D.C. as an editor. While in D.C., he came upon some old pictures of the aftermath of the Johnstown Flood that occurred in the late nineteenth century in a small city called Johnstown that is near Pittsburgh. He became interesting in learning more about this tragedy that he had only learned little about as a child. He began researching and writing a book about this event at night and on the weekends. When the book, "The Johnstown Flood", became an unexpected best-seller in 1968, he quit his job and starting writing full time. The rest, as they say, is history. He has now written 8 books, two of which won the Pulitzer Prize, with two others winning the National Book Award. I love the fact that David McCullough still writes all of his books on an old typewriter (yes, even the 1000+ page "Truman"). Every morning, he leaves his back door and walks down a stone path to his "office" - a white wood garden-shed-type of shack - where he sits at his typewriter and works on his next book. McCullough has a masterful way of telling a story and bringing characters to life. He'll bring you right into the story. His books, in chronological order, are:

The Johnstown Flood
The Great Bridge
The Path Between the Seas
Brave Companions
Mornings on Horseback
Truman
John Adams
1776

(I will definitely review several of these books in future chapters). My favorite of McCullough's books is definitely "The Great Bridge", which was his second book and oddly enough didn't win any awards. (To be fair, I have not yet read "The Path Between the Seas" nor conquered the mammoth "Truman"). This book tells the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is part history (of New York in the late 1800s), part biography (of the builders John and Washington Roebling), and part description of an engineering marvel (yes, I am an engineer at heart). It was a fantastic book and I loved it on all three accounts. During this time period, New York was lively, growing city. Brooklyn was growing a lot and there was a desire from both cities to have a bridge to cross the East River. John Roebling was a cable maker in New Jersey who had built several suspension bridges. He designed the Brooklyn Bridge, but his son Washington had to take over early on in the construction when John died in an accident. Washington himself suffered a lot physically during construction, partly due to Caisson's disease (commonly called "the bends") which he and many of the workers suffered from during the construction and placement of the underwater footings near each bank of the river. The description of how the footings were sunk, and of how the suspension wires were strewn across the river are fascinating. My favorite part of the book is the description of the day that the first person crossed the river via the suspension cable of the bridge. The bridge was still a long ways from being finished, but the first set of cables had been strung across the two stone towers from one shore to the other. Thousands and thousands of people gathered on both sides of the river to watch a lone man propel himself along on a wood swing dangling from the newly hung wire several hundred feet above the river below. When he finally reached the opposite bank, the gathered crowd cheered in excitement and awe. The bridge was the talk of the town during it's construction. It was an amazing accomplishment and has been an inspiration for thousands since its completion. This is but a small sampling, as there is much, much more in this wonderful book.

So, I would encourage you to check out David McCullough and his great histories and biographies if you haven't already. As for "The Great Bridge", I would highly recommend that you...
Buy the Book!!!