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”

Comments 0 Comments

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. Please con­sid­er sub­scrib­ing (if you don’t already), to this ad-free web­site. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new arti­cles as pub­lished. Just fill in your email in the right-hand pan­el under “sub­scribe & fol­low.” Your email address is giv­en to no one and remains a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

“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.”…

Read More Read More

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

Comments 2 Comments
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.…

Read More Read More

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

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

Comments 0 Comments

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.…

Read More Read More

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

Triumph in Texas, 7 October 2016

Comments 0 Comments
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…

Read More Read More

Hillsdale’s Alaska on “Crystal Serenity”

Hillsdale’s Alaska on “Crystal Serenity”

Comments 0 Comments
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.…

Read More Read More

Churchill: Not Much to Say Today?

Churchill: Not Much to Say Today?

Comments 2 Comments

If a man is com­ing across the sea to kill you, you do every­thing in your pow­er to make sure he dies before fin­ish­ing his jour­ney. That may be dif­fi­cult, it may be painful, but at least it is sim­ple. We are now enter­ing a world of impon­der­ables, and at every stage occa­sions for self-ques­tion­ing arise. Only one link in the chain of des­tiny can be han­dled at a time. 

—Win­ston S. Churchill, 18 Feb­ru­ary 1945

It was recent­ly assert­ed that Churchill doesn’t have much to say to us today, and that the only peo­ple who use Churchill as a guide nowa­days are “over-testos­teroned Amer­i­can neocons.”…

Read More Read More

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

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

Comments 0 Comments

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.…

Read More Read More

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
Links on this page may earn commissions.