"Battle of St Louis book" Topic

So I had a $50 USD gift card for Amazon and used it on this:

The Battle of St. Louis, the Attack on Cahokia, and the American Revolution in the West Hardcover – January 1, 2017
by Stephen L. Kling Jr. (Author), Kristine Sjostrom (Author), & 1 more
5.0 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

Haven't more than opened and flipped through it but WOW: full of maps and illustrations, most in color, with lots of scenarios for gaming. Looks like a labor of love by local historians.

More later as I get into it.

I have it also and agree with you. A fabulous book. Thoroughly recommended.

Yeah, I think I did; sorry!

Well, you got my attention. Being born and bred in St.Louis, I had not read much about what happened in this area. I looked on Amazon and I noticed Mr. Kling has another book on the cavalry used here during the American Revolution. On my Shopping List now. 12 in stock.

One of my friends just loaned me Kling's book on cavalry -- Cavalry in the Wilderness: Cavalry in the Western Theater of the American Revolution and the French and Indian War. It has wonderful illustrations and maps.

Jim

'The Long Knife' by James Thom is an enjoyable fictional treatment of events in the Illinois country during the AWI

I'll pile on here as well. Excellent book. Well written. Amazing color illlustrations and artwork. Lots of information that relating to things not generally known. Besides, who amongst us knows a great deal about the AWI in that area?

New book. thgcpublishing.com/arww
Mark

Wow! Looks excellent. Happily I have a birthday coming up in October.

Haven't more than opened and flipped through it…

You criticized the book Flight from Monticello because the author is a journalist. The author of this book is a lawyer.

Interesting, isn't it?😒

Doc, unfamiliar with this battle. Since you've read it, what colonial troops were involved? Any Colonial regulars? British regulars? Spanish regulars? If so, what regiment if the book mentions it. What militia if not regulars. I assume British included a lot of Indians as well.

Thanks

Kevin, what was Bruce Catton? YOU are the one hung up on credentials.

The Spanish governor at St Louis had a single company -- fewer than 30 men -- of Spanish regulars, and about 150 militia. There was a simultaneous attack on a nearby outpost at Cahokia, defended by a company of Clark's Western Battalion (Virginia State Regulars). The Indians were led by a British fur trader.

YOU are the one hung up on credentials.

Did you not bring up the idea/fact that the subject author of the book on Jefferson was not an historian but a journalist? Seems to me that you were the one who brought up the subject of credentials, not I.

Bruce Catton is one of the best historians of the Civil War and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Yes, we know. Not all journalists become Bruce Cattons, of course. Or Doug Freemans.

I suspect the Jefferson book is well written, something academic history has largely abandoned in recent decades. I won't read it because I already know better, based on my own research.

If a book isn't read, it seems to me it is difficult to comment on it, pro or con.

That is why there are book reviews. Assuming my graduate experience was typical, I was responsible for many hundreds of books most of which i had not read.

My experience: for PhD you have a major field and a minor. Mine was US, with a concentration on colonial and revultionary, and minor was Tudor and Stuart England. My Tudor-Stuart prof gave me a reading list of 300+ books. I read maybe 30 of them cover to cover, and read the others skimming, lookign at prefaces and introductions and conclusions, table of contents, plus book reviews. I could discuss them, and the ideas in them.

Best thing was to find a bibliogrphic essay in which an author takes 3 or 5 or so books on a similar topic, and bounces them off each other. We learned to WRITE such essays in seminars.

After four years of graduate level courses in history (two at Rice for an MA and then two more at UVa, with the Army in between) I spent a YEAR reading for comps. At least eight hours a day, six days a week. I didn't even come CLOSE to reading everything I had to be prepared to talk about.

When I passed comps, my prof said "you now know the msot history you will ever know. Every year more important books will be published than you can keep up with. Every year you will fall further behind. And he was right.

I won't read it because I already know better…

Anyone interested in the history of any historical period can never have enough information on any topic. And newer publications might actually have previously unknown information.

And to find that out, you have to read and reread if necessary.