markcheathem's reviews
1308 reviews

My full review is forthcoming in the Journal of East Tennessee History. In short, an excellent bio of an oft-forgotten, but important, Tennessean. Some of the chapter organization was a bit awkward, but that was my only real complaint.

See my review: http://mcheathem.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/review-of-gene-dattels-cotton-and-race-in-the-making-of-america/

Had some time on Thanksgiving to read this. Decent time-passer.

The villains could have been fleshed out a bit more for me.

I like Mark Summers' work. He has a way with words that other historians need to emulate more. When was the last time you've read (about a suspected overthrow of the U.S. government during Reconstruction): "When putsch came to shove . . . " The only major criticism that I have is that Summers doesn't spend enough time in the 1870s. He gets stuck on the 1865-1868 period, when, from my reading, the 1870-1876 period was just as full of conspiratorial rhetoric.



All in all, it's a good book, mostly easy to read, with great explication of America's paranoid style in the Reconstruction era.

Black Friday read.

Enjoyable and informative. If you doesn't know a lot about Lincoln, start with Catherine Clinton's essay, then move to Chapter 1.

Great plot, although the characters needed some fleshing out.

Great plot.

I really liked this book. The theme isn't new, but Archer's execution is flawless.