Category: Book Notes

Guelzo
Lee on Traveller. They are buried near each other in Lexington. (Lee Memorial Fund, public domain)
Guelzo on Robert E. Lee: “To Err on the Side of Absorbing Society’s Defaulters”

Guelzo on Robert E. Lee: “To Err on the Side of Absorbing Society’s Defaulters”

Allen C. Guel­zo, Robert E. Lee: A Life (New York: Knopf, 2021), 608 pages, illus., $35, Kin­dle $15.99. First pub­lished in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 9 Novem­ber 2021.

“Who’s that man on the horse?”…

…I asked my father at a young age. “That’s Lee—he led a South­ern army in the Civ­il War.” He gave me a book I still have, Illus­trat­ed Minute Biogra­phies, by William DeWitt. Pub­lished 1953, it is utter­ly non-judg­men­tal. Oppo­site the page on Lee (“Leader of a Lost Cause”) is a page on Lenin (“Father of the Russ­ian Revolution.”)

Among DeWitt’s 150 per­son­al­i­ties, Lee fas­ci­nat­ed. I’ve always had a soft spot for under­dogs.…

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Goldwater
Goldwater and Kennedy in the Blue Room of the White House, 1961, when the Senator probably snapped the photograph below.
Memories: Goldwater and Kennedy: 20 and 55 Years On

Memories: Goldwater and Kennedy: 20 and 55 Years On

A Goldwater Inscription

22 Novem­ber 2018— A pho­tog­ra­ph­er friend sends along praise of Bar­ry Gold­wa­ter (1909-1998). The Sen­a­tor was not­ed por­tray­er of his beloved South­west: “I am read­ing an issue of Ari­zona High­ways devot­ed to his work. The only thing he was more pas­sion­ate about than pol­i­tics was his pho­tog­ra­phy. And he was a great cam­era­man.” Praise of one pho­tog­ra­ph­er for anoth­er is high recommendation.

His note remind­ed me of Peo­ple and Places, Goldwater’s fine book of pho­tographs, from canyons to Hopi. The depth of feel­ing for Arizona’s native peo­ples and nat­ur­al vis­tas in those pho­tos belies the pic­ture his ene­mies tried to paint of Gold­wa­ter when he ran for Pres­i­dent in 1964.…

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Dolomite
1935 Triumph 8C Dolomite: The Big One….Is Back

1935 Triumph 8C Dolomite: The Big One….Is Back

Jonathan Wood, Don­ald Healey’s 8C Tri­umph Dolomite. Wether­by, York­shire: Jonathan Turn­er & Tim Whit­worth, 2017, 300 pages, pro­fuse­ly illus­trat­ed in col­or and b&w, $275. Avail­able from the pub­lish­ers. Writ­ten for The Vin­tage Tri­umph Register.

Donald Healey’s Dolomite

In 1977 I wrote the pre-World War II chap­ters of Tri­umph Cars, now reap­pear­ing in an expand­ed new edi­tion, thanks large­ly to my co-author Gra­ham Rob­son (bla­tant plug, please order).

At the time, though, there was lit­tle to describe about Triumph’s most impres­sive fail­ure, the leg­endary straight-eight Dolomite. The only one built by the fac­to­ry had come to grief (along, almost, with Don­ald Healey) at a rail­way cross­ing on the 1935 Monte Car­lo Ral­lye.…

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Triumph
Cartoon by the immortal Russ Brockbank, 1955.
Triumph in Texas, 7 October 2016

Triumph in Texas, 7 October 2016

Tanglewood Resort, Texas

Vin­tage Tri­umph Reg­is­ter 2016 Con­ven­tion, Fri­day 7 Octo­ber 2016.

Guest speak­er: Richard Langworth 

Loca­tion: Tan­gle­wood Resort,Pottsboro, Texas.

Triumph Memories

Syn­op­sis: Reflec­tions on fifty years of mess­ing about with Tri­umphs: “I’d nev­er say this if I were not among friends, but Fer­raris bore me. Just unaf­ford­able excel­lence. My fun derives from funky vin­tage British cars.”

Speak­er: Richard Lang­worth has been an auto­mo­tive writer since 1969. After a free­lance arti­cle in Auto­mo­bile Quar­ter­ly, he joined AQ as asso­ciate and lat­er senior edi­tor. In 1975 he left to free­lance. He has since writ­ten or co-authored more than fifty books and 2000 arti­cles on auto­mo­tive his­to­ry. Richard…

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Hillsdale’s Alaska on “Crystal Serenity”

Hillsdale’s Alaska on “Crystal Serenity”

North to Alaska

The 2016 Hills­dale Col­lege cruise of south­west Alas­ka aboard Crys­tal Seren­i­ty (27 July-3 August) pro­vid­ed an impres­sive vis­it to a spec­tac­u­lar state. Accom­pa­ny­ing the fine din­ing and enter­tain­ment was a crew which could not have done more. Crys­tal Cruis­es seems to own all the high­est rat­ings in the busi­ness, and it’s easy to see why. There’s no sep­a­rate bar bill, and they’ll deliv­er up to two bot­tles a day to your state­room. No one could drink this much! Tips are includ­ed, nobody duns you for hand­outs, and you’re not pre­sent­ed with a list of “esti­mat­ed gra­tu­ities” on your last day aboard.…

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Today
Churchill at Harvard, 6 September 1943, with President James Conant. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Winston Churchill: Not Much to Say Today?

Winston Churchill: Not Much to Say Today?

Every turn of events has its unique features. Understanding them, and applying principles to them today, is still the challenge. The challenge for leaders today is to judge whether discretion should take priority over boldness, whether diplomacy is a feasible option, and when and where to deploy a bluff. In these areas, Churchill’s experience is an invaluable guide, because human nature is unchanging.

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Errata & Addenda to “Churchill by Himself,” First American and English Editions

Errata & Addenda to “Churchill by Himself,” First American and English Editions

Churchill by Him­self is dif­fer­ent from all oth­er Churchill quote books through “cor­rectibil­i­ty.” It offers a ref­er­ence to each quo­ta­tion, and a method by which cor­rec­tions may be sent in, ver­i­fied, and made avail­able dig­i­tal­ly to readers.

Pro­duc­ing any work as com­pli­cat­ed as this is a con­stant run­ning bat­tle between con­flict­ing sources, experts who dis­agree with each oth­er, and inex­orable dead­lines. For instance, one expert offered cor­rec­tions based on the 1974 Com­plete Speech­es (not com­plete and scarce­ly free of errors) that con­tra­dict the texts of ear­li­er vol­umes by Churchill himself—which to me take pri­or­i­ty.…

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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