Gore Vidal: Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson

Guest Review by Kit Bradley
November 23, 2008

Over the years I’ve been attracted to books on the formation of our nation and biographies of the leaders who did it. I’ve been intriqued by that period in our history when a few dedicated people were able to do such apparently great things. Given what I’ve seen of national-level leaders and politicians over the last few decades, it seems almost miraculous that a group of intelligent and well-intentioned men were available at the time our budding nation most needed them. So when I saw Inventing a Nation on the table at Costco a few years ago, I had to take it home. It looked like a book I’d want to read.

The book sat on my to-be-read shelf for a while, and eventually I started it. I got through 75 pages and found myself confused and bored. Perhaps it’s because I often read myself to sleep at night, and this book is too highbrow to be read that way. So I lost interest and set the book aside…until I picked it up again a couple weeks ago, this time committed to finishing it. I started over on page one.

Well, this is not a history book, at least not what I expected. It’s a 189 page rambling essay on our founding fathers, focused on the presidencies of Washington and Adams. It describes the aspirations and relationships of a dozen or so prominent men of that period, including Hamilton, Madison, and Marshall. Through the narrative we learn of their conflicting convictions, which led to the formation of political parties—concurrent with the birth of our constitutional government. The Federalists (led by Hamilton) wanted an expansive central government and were pretty much ready for war with whoever seemed aggressive at the moment—France, England, Spain. (You can always make more heroes and money during a time of war.) The Republicans (led by Jefferson) focused more on holding the central government to the constraints of the Constitution and protecting citizens’ rights. A key conflict arose after the passing of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 by the Federalists. The Republicans saw that as violating the first amendment right of free speech, and they fought to overturn it.

This was indeed a period of exploring and inventing. How does the chief executive relate to the houses of Congress? How does the Supreme Court relate to the other two branches? The Constitution says who declares wars, but how does it really work? Vidal gives us a view into the personalities and relationships of the men feeling their way into a new realm. For the most part I found his descriptions to be not very complimentary, although he was more forgiving of Washington’s faults.

Throughout the book Vidal injects comparisons to government and politics in the twenty-first century. Today’s Republicans are sort of like the Federalists, and today’s Democrats like the early Republicans. Our founding fathers seemed to be working to their own agendas, gathering support behind the scenes, and sometimes acting duplicitously. Hamilton, for example, tried to lead President Adams’ cabinet to war with France, while Adams found other means to thwart Hamilton. Vidal implies things haven’t changed much today.

Inventing a Nation was a little hard for me to read, even when I was wide-awake. Vidal rambles a lot, although he sticks more or less to the timeline of the first twelve years of our Constitution-based government. There are a lot of backwards references to what I had read already, but maybe forgot. And I needed to have (but didn’t) a dictionary by my side as I read the book.

Did I get what I expected out of Inventing a Nation? Vidal portrays our earliest politicians as not a lot different than today’s leaders. Perhaps human nature hasn’t changed much in the last 200 years. Perhaps the true success was the work of a few truly altruistic leaders—Jefferson, Franklin, others—who set the stage for the Constitution and our new government. But that’s not what this book was about. It was the story of a bunch of very human men figuring out how to get our nation rolling. I guess they succeeded.

W. S. Nye: Carbine & Lance

I bought Carbine & Lance The Story of Old Fort Sill by Colonel W. S. Nye a long time ago when I was stationed at Fort Sill. I started it back then, but did not get more than a few pages into it. I was not really very good with non-fiction in those days. I finally read it a few months ago at a time that I was applying for a job with the Oklahoma Historical Society. The first edition was written in 1937. I have the third edition, published in 1969.

The establishment and development of Fort Sill certainly figures in this history. But the book is much more a description of the conflict between Native Americans and the US Cavalry in Southwestern Oklahoma during the 19th century.

In the early 1800s the area around the Wichita Mountains, north of the Red River, and into the Texas Panhandle was primarily inhabited, or controlled, by the Kiowas and their close allies the Comanches. They feared the Osages to their northeast. They liked to raid to the northwest against the Utes and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. They also liked to raid the White settlements south of the Red River in Texas. This last tendency is what really brought the attention of the U.S. government.

Indian raids picked up considerably during the Civil War years because the White Men were busy fighting each other. In 1864 Kit Carson led a force of cavalrymen, Utes, and Apaches against the Kiowas in the Texas Panhandle. The Kiowas repulsed him with heavy losses. Carson was saved in his retreat only by his light artillery. White response tended to be to attack and kill any Indians they could reach, especially women and children of tribes uninvolved in hostilities. That tended to make the survivors more hostile.

After the Civil War, General Sheridan and Colonel Custer led veteran cavalry into the region. They were somewhat successful in controlling the area for a few years.

After U.S. Grant was inaugurated as President he began the “peace policy”. A delegation of Quakers had convinced him to let them take over the Indian Agencies. They wanted to substitute brotherly love for the sword. During this period Fort Sill and its associated Indian Agency were established. The Kiowas and Comanches learned that they were free to raid south of the Red River at will. If they simply agreed to return to the agency lands all was forgiven.

Obviously the history moves on through many other policies as the book progresses. Nye’s book clearly predates “political correctness” as he freely uses terms like savages and barbarians to describe Native Americans. In his preface he writes, “Living today within a few miles of Fort Sill are human beings who, in a single life-span, have passed from the stone age to the era of the eight-cylinder motor car and the low wing monoplane. Here are men who in fierce exultation have torn reeking scalps from their enemies. Here are women who, while their village moved to evade soldiers, have know the anguish of childbirth on horseback.”

The establishment of the Artillery School, and the Fort Sill I remember shows up only in the Appendix.

I appreciate reading Carbine & Lance, despite its outdated attitudes, for giving me a sense of what was happening in Southwestern Oklahoma in the 19th Century. The history of Oklahoma certainly is rife with the clash of different cultures. It is unfortunate that the clash was so violent, and ultimately so unfair.

Joe R Blakely: Lifting Oregon Out of the Mud: Building the Oregon Coast Highway and Kidnapped…On Oregon’s Coast Highway

Guest Review by Kit Bradley
July 28, 2008

If you read my earlier reviews, you can guess where I met Joe Blakely… Yes, at the Authors and Artists fair last December, benefiting the Eugene Public Library. I am an easy mark for authors that I meet in person, and I bought quite a few books that day, including these two from Joe Blakely.

I was intrigued with Blakely’s two-book effort. First he researched the construction of the Oregon Coast Highway in the 1920’s and 1930’s and wrote Lifting Oregon Out of the Mud. And then he wrote Kidnapped…On Oregon’s Coast Highway, a novel that is set in the same timeframe, in which three people chase each other along the incomplete coast highway.

Lifting Oregon Out of the Mud starts with a description of the sorry state of coast roads in the 1910’s. There are few roads interconnecting coastal cities, and the roads that do exist are often deep mud in the rainy season. Coastal communities are just starting to band together to sell the idea of a north/south coast highway to the politicians in the state capital, Salem.

This one photograph moved me to buy the book. I couldn’t resist the expression on the man’s face as he dealt with the realities of coastal travel.

At the beginning of the narrative we were at war with Germany, and the Pacific Coast Defense League argued for a military highway stretching from Washington to California, which they named the Roosevelt Coast Military Highway. The idea was well received, but… How to pay for it? Oregon passed its first gas tax, a penny a gallon, making some funds available. But political interests in Portland and eastern Oregon pressured to spend the money on inland north/south roads. During the 1920’s some money made it to the coast, and short segments of the Roosevelt Highway were built each year.

By the early 1930’s, most of the roadway was complete, but there were still several big bridges to build, replacing the original, somewhat unreliable ferries in use across the coast rivers. The resulting bridges are the most stunning man-made structures on the coast, still fascinating to us travelers today.

Finally in 1936, seventeen years after the first funding, the highway was completed, 420 miles from Astoria to Crescent City, California. This short, 65-page book was easy to read, and provided interesting history. It did, however, get a little tiring reading the construction details for every segment of road and for every bridge. None-the-less, I am now well primed for…

Kidnapped… On Oregon’s Coast Highway, is a fun adventure that takes place in 1926, when the coast highway was only partly complete. Ben Cooper, a young reporter for The Oregonian, has been told to drive the entire Oregon Coast Highway from Crescent City to Astoria, and to report on what he sees. He’s looking forward to it—until his editor tells him to pick up Eva Barton, a young conservationist, who is to tag along and write about the destruction of old growth forests. That will probably lead to ideological conflicts, but nothing like the conflict with Tom Bigalow, Eva’s ex-fiancé. Tom can’t get over losing Eva, and he will do anything to get her back.

That’s the setting for a sometimes scenic, sometimes muddy, sometimes exciting drive up the coast, with Ben and Eva in the lead and Tom not far behind. Ben is modest but gallant and braver than he knew. Eva is sweet but relentless in her quest to save the old trees. And Tom is evil, shockingly so as the story unfolds.

The story is predictable, the relationships develop as you might guess, and the dialog is a little stiff. But the people they meet, the places they go, and the drama of the chase are all very captivating. I thoroughly enjoyed Blakely’s Kidnapped, especially after reading Lifting Oregon Out of the Mud.