Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent Read on Interesting Character
In my opinion, Lamers has written an excellent biography of a general, William Rosecrans, who indeed was on the edge of glory as the book's title suggests.

While the focus is on Rosecrans' Civil War service, there are also descriptions of his involvement with his family, businesses, early life, and political involvements.

Indeed, had Rosecrans won the Battle of Chickamauga, quite possibly he, not Grant or Sherman, would have come out of the Civil War as the preeminant Northern general and could very well have been President of the United States had he chosen to run for the office.With Rosecrans' previous victories at Corinth, Iuka, Stone's River, the Tullahoma Campaign, and his earlier victories over Robert E. Lee, he could very well have been the General-in-Chief of the Northern Armies and would have faced Lee again in Virginia.However, this is only speculation and we will probably never know what would have been.

Lamers does an excellent job of describing Rosecrans' personality and how he managed to make friends and enemies in high places.The insights into Rosecrans' personality can be valuable to anyone in the military, business world, ministry, or anywhere else.Specifically, I learned:

1.Get plenty of rest - Lamers and other authors mention that while Rosecrans had tremendous nervous energy, he would at times let the lack of sleep get the best of him.These same authors believe his poor decisions at Chickamauga were due to lack of rest that eventually caught up with him.
2.Know when to talk and when to shut up - while Rosecrans made many friends, he also had the knack for alienating people with his foul language and scathing criticism.Had Rosecrans followed Grant's example of not being particularly critical of others, particularly fellow officers, Rosecrans and not Grant would have been General-in-Chief of the Union armies.Because of this, it apparently took only one mistake on the battlefied to doom him.
3.Do not badger your superiors - Rosecrans continually bothered Halleck, Grant, Stanton, Lincoln, and other superiors with incessant demands and was not willing to maintain a low profile when necessary.According to Lamers, Stanton eventually had enough and was ultimately the one who took the command of the Army of the Cumberland from Rosecrans and demoted him to the obscure outpost of Missouri in 1864 after that state had ceased to be a major battlefield during the years 1861-1863.

In summary, an excellent book and read.My major complaint was the lack of maps.Since Rosecrans was involved in so many important Civil War battles, it would have been nice to have had more maps to follow troop movements.

Still, this is an excellent read.Highly recommended.

The Edge of Glory
I found this book to be one of my favorite Civil War biographies.Lamers provided insight into the mind of a great warrior; a gifted if not eccentric intellect; a commander loved by his subordinates if resented by his superiors; a general that is by far underated due to antagonistic relationships with those in significant positions.A must read for any Civil War enthusiasts.

Good but not perfect biography of an important man
Lamer's biography of William Rosecrans is by far the best ever written on him. It's also the only one, and it's over forty years old.That having been said, it's quite good, and stands the test of time rather well.

The biggest problem with reviewing this book is that there is no others to compare it too. Civil War military historians tend to run in packs, writing and rewriting the same themes such as Lee, Grant, Gettysburg, Lincoln, etc. but leaving other fields as bare as a Georgia field after Sherman marched through it.Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland are good examples of worthy but nearly ignored subjects.

The book views Rosecrans entire life, with the lion's share of it on his Civil War generalship.Lamer's view of Rosecrans is that he was a brilliant but flawed general who combined great successes with an amazing ability to irritate superiors (such as Stanton), fellow generals (like Grant) and subordinates (future President Garfield) alike.Rosecrans also has the distinction of winning all of his battles from West Virginia toMurfreesboro and brilliantly outmaneuvering Bragg at Tullahoma and Chattanooga, losing only once at Chickamauga, but it was an important loss and cost him his job and his reputation.Lamers takes the viewpoint that Ole' Rosey was partly but not wholly responsible for the fatal order to Wood telling him to move out of the line just as Longstreet was attacking with half of the Army of the Tennessee.As a comparison, Cozzens' This Terrible Sound, the most authorative account of the battle, placed much more of the fault at Rosecrans' feet.His later service in Missouri was anticlimactic but important.

The book has a few flaws, aside from not being long enough.The maps are inadequate.His conversion to Catholicism, one of the more interesting aspects of Rosecrans' personality, isn't covered in nearly enough detail.Neither was his post-war career, aside from a final chapter which basically said he was something of a failure as a businessman.Finally, his own writings are not nearly quoted enough.I didn't get the feeling I was meeting the man, only that I was hearing somebody else write about him.His personal life is all but ignored, despite the wealth of material available to Lamers, who was an excellent researcher.These quibbles aside, Lamer's book is a very good start, although a more detailed and up to date study is badly needed.

The Edge of Glory
The Edge of glory is an exceptional book about a Civil War general who is much maligned in history. Lamers portrays Rosecrans as an exceptional General who was successful (if not brilliant) at the strategic and tactical level. At the same time he demonstrates his weaknesses that led to his own downfall and the mistakes that drove his enemies to relieve him. It is a great book for historians and military officers with many lessons that can be learned from both his successes and his failings. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Combat Edge, published by U.S. Department of the Air Force on November 1, 2004. The length of the article is 380 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Pilot safety: award of distinction.(MONTHLY AWARD WINNERS)(William H. McKibban)
Author: William H. McKibban
Publication: Combat Edge (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2004
Publisher: U.S. Department of the Air Force
Volume: 13Issue: 6Page: 19(1)

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This digital document is an article from Association Management, published by American Society of Association Executives on August 1, 2000. The length of the article is 527 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: KEEPING YOUR EDGE.(interview with William E. Malkasian)(Brief Article)(Interview)
Publication: Association Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2000
Publisher: American Society of Association Executives
Volume: 52Issue: 8Page: 184

Article Type: Brief Article, Interview

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This digital document is an article from Fairfield County Business Journal, published by Westfair Communications, Inc. on July 21, 2003. The length of the article is 715 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mover finds profits in storage business.(Competitive Edge)(William B. Meyer Inc.)
Author: David J. Glenn
Publication: Fairfield County Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 21, 2003
Publisher: Westfair Communications, Inc.
Volume: 42Issue: 29Page: 1(2)

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This digital document is an article from T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), published by T.H.E. Journal, LLC on May 1, 1994. The length of the article is 603 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: The William Fleming High School of the Fleming/Ruffner magnet campus boasts of two foreign language centers equipped with state-of-the-art computer equipment. The centers are provided with IS-10 series equipment from Tandberg Educational Inc, which supports audiotapes and videodiscs as well as multi-standard videotapes from various sources. This system features a teacher station which consists of a Tandberg IS-10MM audio-video computer learning console, a Pioneer videodisc player and a Canon video visualizer. The station allows teachers to maintain a high level of oral and visual communication on an individual-student level. Using this system, instructors can privately monitor the students and pair them together for dialogue exercises. In addition, it allows students to work together with minimal classroom disruption.

Citation Details
Title: Magnet high school's lab gives foreign language students an edge. (William Fleming High School) (Applications)
Publication: T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 1994
Publisher: T.H.E. Journal, LLC
Volume: v21Issue: n10Page: p63(2)

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Book Description
New York is a city of few boundaries, a city of well-known streets and blocks that ramble on and on, into our literature, dreams, and nightmares. We know the city by the byways that split it, streets like Broadway and Madison and Flatbush and Delancey. From those streets, peering down the blocks and up at the top floors, the city seems immense and endless.

And though the land itself may end at the water, the city does not. Long before Broadway was a muddy cart track, the water was the city's most distinguishing feature, the rivers the only byways of importance. Some people, like William Kornblum, still see the city as an urban archipelago, shaped by the water and the people who have sailed it for goods, money, pirate's loot, and freedom. For them, the City will always be an island.

William Kornblum--New York City native, longtime sailor, urban sociologist, and first-time author--has spent decades plying the waterways of the city in his ancient catboat, Tradition. In At Sea in the City, he takes the reader along as he sails through his hometown, lovingly retelling the history of the city's waterfront and maritime culture and the stories of the men and women who made the water their own. In At Sea in the City and in Kornblum's own humility, humor, and sense of wonder, one detects echoes of E. B. White, John McPhee, and Joseph Mitchell. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An interesting description of the, um, New York City archipelego
I recommend this book, especially to those who know a little about New York City and about sailing.I like the writing style and the descriptions of New York as seen from the water.

Thoroughly enjoyable
This is a delightful view of some of the Big Apple's waterfront.William Kornblum writes well, and I am pleased to meet the family, friends, and acquaintances of his journey.Having explored much of our city, and having studied many of the coasts from opposite shorelines, I nevertheless learned much from Kornblum's views from his catboat.I also enjoyed his flash-backs, particularly his days as a youth working at the Transit Mix dock.As another reader noted, the book has a few errors that should have been caught. The A train travels neither through The Bronx nor over Williamsburg Bridge (p. 91).In Red Hook, the parish school is within the Brooklyn diocese, not archdiocese (p. 122).When I find errors on topics I know well, I begin to worry that the publishing industry has a problem with fact-checking in non-fiction.Yet, I must say that this book is a thoroughly enjoyable meeting of humans, views, and story.I recommend this book as a gift.

A good read, but....
This is the account of a sailboat cruise, but rather than crossing an ocean the author travels maybe 40 miles from home, into the maelstrom that is NY harbor. It's an interesting book, sort of, but I expected more history of the harbor, more about what the place is, and less of the author's personal experience.

I expected the former thanks to a review in the NY Times, I think -- some newspaper, anyway -- that suggested it was less an ecological than an historical journey. Without this preconception, I probably would have liked the book more. If you're from NYC, it's worth a read, but there are many better sailing accounts if you want hairy-chested adventure, or to learn something about sailing in general. There are also better books about ecology of the shoreline.

But the style is pleasant and the author seems like a man who would be an enjoyable sailing companion. That's worth three stars.

Charming and pleasant, but a bit slight
The author, a sociology professor at City University of New York, was raised in the Big Apple and has lived most of his life in the area. In 1979 he bought a 24-foot New England catboat, built on Cape Cod in 1910, and proceeded to fix it and sail it around the New York area.

With this book he presents a portrait -- and sketchy history -- of the city from an angle few people know it. Structuring the story as a fairly continuous though interrupted sail from his home in Long Beach, around the southern tip of Rockaway and into Jamaica Bay, then into Upper New York Bay and the East River, and ultimately to Long Island Sound, Kornblum offers both close-up looks at the water and shoreline, and their past history.

The approach is light and pleasant: Few stories -- whether of the freezing disaster of the privateer "Castel Del Rey" in New York harbor in 1704, knowledgeable black sailors impressed by the British Navy in the War of 1812 and jailed in England for refusing to serve against the US, various ferry disasters, or the vagaries of Robert Moses -- last more than a page or three. The only sections where Kornblum lingers are in Jamaica Bay (its environmental degradation and return), and the dockside concrete industry that built New York's towers and for which the author worked as a kid. Manhattan itself is quickly bypassed though given a loving nod, and there is no venturing into the Hudson side.

In the typo sweepstakes, the book does all right, although it says "mechanical break" on p. 156 when "brake" was meant, and I believe I saw an unintended sentence fragment on p. 143. Most egregious, the great A.J. Liebling is identified on p. 103 as "Libeling" (though the name is correct in the bibliography)! A pity there apparently are youthful editors (I don't suppose there is such a thing as a proofreader in publishing anymore) who do not know this great journalist's work backward and forward.

Another ominous development -- to this reader, anyway -- is that the lovely cover photograph is an unreal composite. Different photographers are credited for different portions of it. I find this vaguely disturbing.

The writing is definitely four-star quality or better. Here's my favorite passage: "Up another shadowy bend stood two snowy egrets, with their outrageous yellow boots and platinum punk haircuts. How chic, these mudbank sushi bars. The egrets were spearing for sand bugs, moving along the edge of the marsh with the herky giant steps of students at a party stepping over empty beer cans."

I give the book only three stars because it is slight. Probably an excellent gift for the average non-reader who happens to love sailing or New York City, or the casual reader who knows little about either, but I would have liked to know more.

Great tour of the New York archipelago
City University of New York Professor Kornblum pays homage to what he describes as the New York archipelago.The full city consists mostly of three large islands, a bunch of small islands, and a peninsular.Professor Kornblum takes readers on a tour of the various waterways that tie the city together.Readers visit City Island off the Bronx Peninsular, Ellis and Liberty islands off lower Manhattan Island, and the Rikers Island Prison as well as several much smaller and less known rocks within the waterways.The author provides historical references and a crystal ball look into the future where nature in the present is fighting to regain a foothold from the vast urbanization.AT SEA IN THE CITY is an engaging look at the Big Apple from a different lens as the highways cross waters connecting the city such as the "byway" from Fulton St. in lower Manhattan to Fulton St. Brooklyn.Not just for natives, this is a wonderfully different perspective on New York that makes for a leisurely yet educational and enjoyable reading.

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Polity, published by Northeastern Political Science Association on December 22, 2000. The length of the article is 5668 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Democracy's Edges.(Review) (book review)
Author: William E. Scheuerman
Publication: Polity (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2000
Publisher: Northeastern Political Science Association
Volume: 33Issue: 2Page: 331

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on March 22, 1996. The length of the article is 422 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Edges of Poetry: Selected Poems.(Brief Article)
Author: William L. Hanaway
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1996
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: v70Issue: n2Page: p462(1)

Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

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This digital document is an article from Journal of the American Planning Association, published by American Planning Association on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 826 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Lancaster, Ohio, 1800-2000: Frontier Town to Edge City.(Review) (book review)
Author: William D. Jenkins
Publication: Journal of the American Planning Association (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: American Planning Association
Volume: 66Issue: 4Page: 441

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from Bank Marketing, published by Bank Marketing Assn. on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1034 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Meet Scott V. Williams, new Network Council chair.(Marketing Edge)
Publication: Bank Marketing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: Bank Marketing Assn.
Volume: 35Issue: 8Page: 49(2)

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