Battle for Saigon: Tet 1968 by Keith Nolan

Battle for Saigon: Tet 1968 

Battle for Saigon: Tet 1968 by Keith Nolan gives an excellent tactical description of the fighting in and around Saigon during the Tet Offensive in 1968. While many, many other books give a larger strategic sense to the whole Offensive, this book is very specific and useful to understand what happened in South Vietnam's capital.

Accounts of Small-unit Leaders

This book has another strength, too, in that its accounts of small-unit leaders in combat provide great lessons for future junior military leaders--especially for company command level and below. The one big drawback is that it has no tactical maps, just one big map of Saigon at the beginning of the book. Detailed maps would have been a great help while trying to decipher the textual descriptions of the fight. The author should take note of this for future revisions of this book.

Promoting the study of military history through book reviews.

"Special Operations in The American Revolution" by Robert Tonsetic tells nine stories of battles or campaigns during the American Revolutionary War. In each case, the American colonist used unconventional warfare.

Experience the battles/campaigns of the American Revolutionary War. Learn the background of the principal leaders. See American know-how demonstrated by the army, navy and marines in their operations.
My favorite chapters were one and eight. "The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga" is the title and story of chapter one. It tells of Ethan Allen's leadership. "The Whaleboat Wars" is the title of chapter eight. It includes the story of Benjamin Tallmage.

The author is a very good story teller. He brings the events to life through the stories of the participants.

The book fills a void in the literature of the American Revolution.
Added bonuses are the book's bibliography. It is excellent. The operational maps and photos also compliment the narrative.

Casemate Publishing published "Special Operations in The American Revolution" by Robert Tonsetic. It is a must addition to the library of every military historian as well as students of the American revolutionary War.
Dr. Tonsectic has crafted an exciting book.

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Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, and award-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories and Beyond Imagination. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffee house, he supports his writing, reading, and book reviewing habit working as an IT application support analyst. He is a former Captain in the US Army. His blog Kepler's Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs in 2010. You can visit him at http://www.jimmiekepler.com.

Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose

This is as enjoyable a book as I have ever read. The narrative style of Ambrose takes what could be a dry lecture and makes it extremely interesting. The book reads like a best selling novel. The book gives a nice background on Captain Meriwether Lewis. It shows how this background prepared Lewis for the journey and how it provided the relationship he had with Jefferson to lead to his selection for the journey. Lewis was Jefferson’s personal secretary when selected to lead the voyage that would take him up the Missouri River, to wintering with the Indians, to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis experienced hardships and saw wonderful sights. The sites included herds of buffalo and Indian tribes with no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first maps of the trans-Mississippi West, provided data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and most importantly established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.  

The book shows how Lewis is financially underwritten by a variety of characters. This list includes Jefferson, Clark, numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century.

This is a book about a hero and national unity. This is a book also about a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. Lewis greatest failure was he did not get his journals and notes organized and published. The scholarly value of those would have been great. Publishing them in a timely manner would have made Lewis financially independent. Instead Lewis took to drink, drugs, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, experienced severe depression (probably from the drugs), and ultimately took his own life. Read by Jimmie A. Kepler in February - March 2005.

Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944 by Joseph Balkoski

Joseph Balkoski's book on Omaha Beach is a great historical resource like his book Utah Beach. Omaha Beach tells the story of when largely untested American troops assaulted the German army's Atlantic wall. This is a great read covering the events of the day almost minute by minute. It reads like a great documentary. This is not written in the format of a memoir. Balkoski relies mainly on primary sources such as after action reports, unit journals, and citations to create his blow by blow narrative. He includes the invasion's diplomatic and strategic context. Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand.

Sprinkled throughout the battle account are the accounts of those in the battle. It is a classic. It is a must for any D-day library. It also included comprehensive lists of all Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross winners at Omaha Beach. It has: the Order of Battle, unit casualty list for the first twenty-four hours, unit organization of a 30man assault boat unit weapons, and equipment carried in the assault by a typical soldier, and a series of detailed maps allowing the reader unparalleled insight into the minute-by-minute combat on Omaha Beach. This book included several appendixes with great information about the battle at Omaha Beach.

In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War by Alice Rains Trulock

“In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War” is a masterful biography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Chamberlain was one of the great Americans of the nineteenth century. He was one of the most heroic and hardest fighting U.S. Army officers of all time.

The author, the late Alice Rains Trulock, presents a well researched, thoroughly documented, and in depth portrait of this intelligent and courageous man. She traces Chamberlain's early life and career. She begins looking at him as a student, and later as Professor of Rhetoric at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Chamberlain's military career is covered in detail. We see his rise from command of the 20th Maine to general officer rank in the Union army. We learn of his outstanding leadership and valor during some of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Petersburg. His experience at Five Forks, Virginia is chronicled with some of Trulock's liveliest and most exciting prose.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is best known for his actions as Colonel of the 20th Maine Volunteers at the Battle of Gettysburg. Here Trulock describes in detail the events of July 2, 1863. On that date he led his 380-man regiment in its successful defense of Little Round Top. This is arguably the most critical engagement in the most critical battle of the war. His leadership and actions saved the Union army from a crushing defeat, and ensuring his own place in the pantheon of American military heroes.

Trulock also details Chamberlain's post-Civil War career as Governor of Maine (1867-1871), President of Bowdoin College (1871-1883), and as a semi-successful businessman.

The book gives well researched and beautifully written descriptions of Chamberlain's military, political and business accomplishments. "In the Hands of Providence" also gives the reader a balanced and objective look at Chamberlain's personal life. Particularly enjoyable and enlightening are the descriptions of his relationships with his wife Fannie, his daughter Grace and son Harold Wyllys (yes, the spelling is correct – it is pronounced like Willis), and his brother Tom. The author does a brilliant job of allowing the reader to get to know Chamberlain the patriot, scholar, college professor and president, military hero, and Governor of Maine as well as the warm hearted and loving family man.

Published in 1992 by the University of North Carolina Press, “In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War” is the best modern biography of one of the most extraordinary and gifted Americans of the nineteenth century. I highly recommended these 592 pages of information and entertainment. Reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler

A Short History of the United States by Robert V. Remini

This wonderful little volume contains the rudimentary facts concerning the discovery, settlement, expansion, and development of the American nation and its organizations. Robert V. Remini surveys and paints a brilliant picture as he takes us back for a look at how the western hemisphere was populated.

We journey through the Native American and see how sophisticated their and truly advanced some of their cultures and governments were. We join in on the discovery of this new world by the Spanish, English, French and Dutch. The journey takes us through the causes of the American Revolution, the founding of the the country with the declaration of independence, articles of confederation and the constitution. We continue with the Louisiana Purchase, War of 1812 and the way it made people view themselves as Americans. The trip continues through the Jacksonian period, Mexican War and Manifest Destiny, the antebellum period, and the civil war and reconstruction.

I enjoyed the side bars along the way as the influence of the arts and literature were included each step of the way. It was nice to see which authors and their writings helped change history. We were there to experience the rise of big business and the emergence of the United States as a world power. We learned of the Spanish American and World War One. The descent into the Great Depression and World War Two, Korea, Viet-Nam, and The Persian Gulf Wars were viewed as well. We learned of the rise of conservatism. We confronted the eruption of terrorism here and abroad.

The book is well written in a narrative style. I was disappointed with the last chapter on the conservative revolution especially comments like “The Bush administration, just itching to start a war with Iraq, chose to believe ….” and “Frustrated and still determined to take action …” In my opinion the author moved from reporting and giving commentary on history, to injecting his personal beliefs and points of view on contemporary issues and events.

While I still think this is a wonderful little volume, the last chapter caused me to change my view on the book. I was viewing this as a book that would be great for a high school or college American history survey course. But, after reading the last chapter, I would not want it as a primary text because of the lack of accepted historical documentation on the coverage of the President George W. Bush and events in Iraq. The author stated opinion with personal bias (my opinion) rather than use methods and techniques of accepted historical research. He failed to identify and record his sources in this area. Other researchers or scholars are thus unable to verify or locate the information he used to base his conclusions. This chapter alone will exclude it from consideration in evangelical Christian schools and colleges.

I did a review of the galley proof for HarperCollinsPublishers. The book will be published in October 2008.