John,

I was really looking forward to this book, having heard about it months ago. But in addition to the McPherson review, I've seen a lot more pretty scathing criticism of it to the point that I finally decided to hold off purchasing it myself. I can overlook a certain number of errors, odd comments, or typos, but this book sounds like it was hastily assembled, with fatal flaws intact.

I'm really disappointed, as I was hoping for a fresh perspective.

David

Thanks for posting this, David. We were just looking at this book last night after our book club ended. I've sent the link on to Steve.

Steve, our moderator, mentioned Joan Waugh's new biog of Grant, so I googled that as well. I saw the discussion you had about the Palo Alto historical marker on Kevin's website. I located the book's Table of Contents and the Index, and browsed the latter, looking for the name, Wallis. It isn't there. Have you looked at the book locally? Steve mentioned that Ms. Waugh had been or is going to be at the Abraham Lincoln Book Store for a book signing.

Terry