Kindsvatter, Peter S. American Soldiers: Ground Combat in The

1360 Adult Nonfiction Booklist / April 1, 2003 Disgusted with czarism, like Degaev, Stern, Sol. Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Social Sciences though for careerist rather than idealistic Imperative of School Choice. Apr. 2003. 239p. Encounter, $24.95 reasons, Sudeikin apparently turned (1-893554-07-4). 379.1. Degaev. Guilt-wracked, he confessed to the When his son Jonathan was accepted at New York’s pre- People’s Will, who turned their traitor back mier elementary school, P.S. 87, city-schools-educated against Sudeikin, whom Degaev eventually Stern presumed the boy was off to a good start. He was, murdered. As well as a true-crime account, though not as good a start as Stern’s own in 1941. In the Pipes offers shrewd insights about the rev- intervening decades, the teachers’ union (a 1950s inno- olutionary mind. —Gilbert Taylor vation) and a mushrooming, politicized education bureaucracy had rendered most city schools ungovern- Raggio, Louise Ballerstedt and able and scholastically ineffective. Even P.S. 87 and the Castleberry, Vivian Anderson. Texas secondary schools both Stern boys attended—all Tornado: The Autobiography of a Crusader among the system’s finest—were forced by union work for Women’s Rights and Family Justice. Apr. rules to tolerate incompetent senior teachers and teach- 2003. 304p. illus. index. Citadel, $24.95 ers who wouldn’t put in a minute more than the contrac- (0-8065-2448-0). 305.4. tual 6-hour-and-20-minute day. Ultimately, Stern and his As a jurist, she ranks alongside such out- wife had to resort to supplementary homeschooling to standing women lawyers as former Attorney help their sons attain the highest scholastic levels. They General Janet Reno and Supreme Court jus- succeeded at that, but what, Stern tellingly asks, are less tice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As a feminist, she well educated and more time-constrained parents to do? has been as tireless a crusader for women’s Ultimately, Stern advances education vouchers as a rights as Gloria Steinem or Barbara Jordan. means for fostering better schools and argues for them At age 83, Raggio (with the assistance of more persuasively, because less ideologically, than do most other voucher-boosters. coauthor Castleberry) reflects on a lifetime Meanwhile, he has told his case history in the union-and-bureaucracy-hamstrung New of unrivaled professional and personal York system and presented a brief against the teachers’ unions that vitally supplements accomplishments in an exceptional memoir such looser, more general arguments as Peter Brimelow’s Worm in the Apple [BKL F 1 03]. of her extraordinary journey from an impov- —Ray Olson erished rural Texas childhood to an impres- sive career as one of the most influential Kindsvatter, Peter S. American Soldiers: research, historical accounts, speeches, legal advocates of her generation. At a time Ground Combat in the World Wars, Korea, interviews, and biographical sketches, Lowry when women were prevented from even and Vietnam. Apr. 2003. 480p. illus. index. conveys Walker’s ambition and determina- serving on juries, Raggio was practicing law Univ. Press of Kansas, $34.95 (0-7006- tion. The order is generally chronological, but and pioneering legal, financial, and human- 1229-7). 355. topical as well, as she diverts from the chro- itarian measures that would impact count- Thoroughly mining twentieth-century foot nology to detail Walker’s later life and the less families, her own included. Through a soldiers’ memoirs and novels, Kindsvatter social, political, and economic context of the tumultuous 47-year marriage that produced integrates this literature of personal experi- times. Here are the basic facts of Walker’s life three children and seven grandchildren, ence into a generalized assessment of what from laundress to entrepreneur, her failed Raggio battled life-threatening illnesses, combat was like and how men reacted to it. marriages and mostly single motherhood, crippling depression, financial upheaval, The author was a U.S. Army officer for two her marketing strategies, and famous contre- and political subversion yet never lost sight decades but does not discuss his own war temps with Booker T. Washington, as well as of the abiding principles by which she was experiences, if any; however, he plainly brings the racial politics of accommodation versus destined to live her life. An inspiring and illu- to his task an understanding of military life assertiveness and Walker’s involvement in minating look at the unequaled contribu- and death. It all starts, in all wars, with turn- antilynching campaigns. But Lowry’s meticu- tions in one woman’s quest for equality. ing a civilian into a trained killer, the jolt of lous research invites readers to consider dif- —Carol Haggas boot camp being just the initial step in accli- fering accounts of Walker’s early life, how she mating soldiers to the radical differences started her company, and the more profligate Stanush, Claude and Stanush, Michele. between peacetime and wartime. Most of the life of her daughter A’Lelia. —Vanessa Bush All Honest Men. Apr. 2003. 320p. illus. soldiers Kindsvatter quotes admit some awe YA/L: Very long, but it reads fast and the success Permanent Press, $28 (1-57962-084-1). 364.3. about the literally incandescent, surreal story is riveting. HR. Although most readers have probably spectacle of the combat zone, followed by never heard of them, the Newton gang— profound intimidation born of realizing the Pipes, Richard. The Degaev Affair: Terror J. Willis Newton and his brothers Joe, Jess, pitiless randomness of death. Kindsvatter’s and Treason in Tsarist Russia. Apr. 2003. and Dock—were bank and train robbers illuminating work is about coping with that 153p. illus. index. Yale, $22.95 (0-300- who, during their relatively short career in fear at the foxhole level, and it (via soldier- 09848-0). 322.4. the 1920s, grabbed more cash than did the writers such as William Manchester or Tim The organization People’s Will, which was Dalton gang, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy O’Brien) powerfully conveys the psychology responsible for the assassination of Czar put together. The gang was the subject of the and military sociology of combat in the draft- Alexander II in 1881, is pertinent not only 1999 movie The Newton Boys, for which Claude era armies. —Gilbert Taylor to the genealogy of Russian radicalism but Stanush cowrote the screenplay (his cow- also, as one of its earliest modern expo- riter here is his daughter, a journalist). This Lowry, Beverly. Her Dream of Dreams: The nents, to the practice of a terrorist. In one account, written as the autobiography of Rise and Triumph of Madam C. J. Walker. member of the People’s Will, eminent his- Willis Newton, is wonderfully entertaining Apr. 2003. 480p. illus. index. Knopf, $27.50 torian Pipes has found a roiling theater of whether or not you’ve seen the movie. The (0-679-44642-7). 338.7. the inner psychology of terrorism. From a authors are intimately familiar with their Lowry inserts herself and her research pro- comfortable Muscovite family, Sergei material—Claude met and became quite cess into this absorbing biography of Degaev was, like many students of the time, close to Willis and Joe in the early 1970s, by Madame Walker, America’s first black woman sympathetic to the People’s Will. Although which time the notorious outlaws had long millionaire. This technique only adds to the they inducted him into the organization, its been retired—and the book thrusts us into incredible journey of Sarah Breedlove leaders regarded Degaev as intelligent but the roaring twenties and keeps us spell- (Walker’s original name) from abject poverty dreamy and weak willed. These traits cross- bound. The Stanushes have created a voice through virulent racism and Jim Crow laws to fertilized bizarrely with those of Pipes’ sec- for Willis that’s lively, impertinent, jocular, the height of business success with her hair- ond protagonist, the gendarme who sup- and honest. A rollickin’ good time for true- care products for black women. Using pressed the People’s Will: Georgii Sudeikin. crime fans. —David Pitt Copyright of Booklist is the property of American Library Association / Booklist Publications and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use..

Load more