H. W. Crocker IIIReseñas

An unusual combination of historical & business practice. Mr. Crocker does a commendable job of focusing on Lee's writings & thoughts from primary sources. It is a different take on a man who in spite of unbelievable stress & turn of events, kept himself focused on doing the right thing no matter the cost.

"1000 English men routed 55000 nawab's army"? Do you even read what you write? And who will mention that 1/3rd of Nawab's army was bought by Clive before the war began? Or the fact that Clive was fighting a losing battle till rain decide to intervene? "Routed" my ass.

When I saw the title i thought it would be funny. Turns out it was just RIDICULOUS!
And not in a good way.

A traditional (Read: Conservative) review of Church History

Entertaining story of the US military through the last 300 years. Crocker presents his views and opinions of the events, but well documented.

WONDERFUL

WONDERFUL

Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church by H.W. Crocker III is a history of the Roma Catholic Church from its beginnings in the Holy Land to Roman and all the 2000 years between. Years of revolt and rebellion and where the whole western world was Roman Catholic at one time to the early 2000's. A good survey and chronologic map of the Church's greatest triumphs and lowest ebb.½

Enjoyed this aspect of the United States in WWI. I highly recommend for anyone interested in military history and/or WWI.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss for a review. I was so taken by this history tome that I will be purchasing a copy for my library.

For readers who like their history romantically delusional and full of plucky, grown-up boys busy with the White Man's Burden:
"... the British Empire, for all its occasional missteps and outrages [sic], was a global, Shakespearean stage on which Britons could take part in a glorious adventure, playing Hotspur to headhunters and Henry V to Hottentots. If that sounds boyish, it is meant to, because the Empire was boyish; it trained boys to its tasks in schools of self-denial, cold dirty baths, bad food, long runs, stiff upper lips, the imperial languages of Greek and Latin, 'playing the game,' and embracing the ideal of service. It was an advanced form of commercial, military, and political outdoor recreation for Boy Scouts (themselves a creation of the British Empire). Young men, straight out of school, could find themselves in distant lands acting as lawgivers to primitive tribes and dangerous brigands; they were men of conservative sentiments, liberal ideals, and boyish pluck....

"Alas that day [when the British Empire is supplanted] is here, ushered in by United Nations bureaucrats, liberal internationalists, native kleptocrats, liberated Islamists, and Third World Communists and National Socialists, all of whom emerged as Europe's empires retreated. The retreat of the British Empire was not progress - either for Western Civilization or in many cases for the countries achieving independence. .... Many a Briton thought it his duty, in the words of the scholars Lewis H. Gann and Peter Duignan, 'to carry civilization, humanity, peace, good government, and Christianity to the ends of the earth.' That duty still exists for those who want it, and perhaps it would repay our study to see how Britain's imperialists actually did it." pp. 8-11

Here Crocker explains the natural revulsion of proper Englishmen to the "aboriginal Irish":
"As for the native Irish, they were regarded as the American settlers later regarded Indians - the farther away one was from them, the more sympathetic one might be to their plight; the closer one was, the more one took the view that pushing these poor, unproductive, and occasionally savage people out of the was was a simple act of advancing civilization." pg. 101

Alas, I read this for a book club. Or at least I read half of it. I never finished, because I spent too much time going to other sources for accurate accounts of events, thus learning more history but in a back-door way.

A must read for history fans

This book was worth the read for someone who is not well versed in the Civil War. It has a Southern bias, but is still fairly objective. It provides a brief overview of several different generals from both sides. There were several typos and mistakes. All-in-all, I am glad that I read it, and I think that it is worth reading.

Interesting tidbits in places, but ridiculous overall. Crocker is an unabashed southern apologist, but his arguments (which, to be honest, I've never encountered before) make little sense to me.

For one, he thinks secession perfectly legal in the respect that the Declaration of Independence was legal. However, the Declaration was about a people having no legal voice in the government. In the South's case they were partners in a contract (the Constitution) voted in the 1860 election, didn't like the outcome, so they decided to take their ball and go home. Absurd.

Crocker goes on to cover 16 of the most important battles and is sure to let you know that every time the South won it was due to the utter genius of Lee and his subordinates, and every time they lost it was because the North had overwhelming force. I guess the military maxim "Win with ability, not with numbers" doesn't hold much credence with him.

There are mini-biographies of many of the important generals of both sides, and there are some great anecdotes which were new to me. Also, his treatment of Grant, in particular, is much more balanced here than where Grant appears in his review of the aforementioned 16 battles. Crocker has nothing good to say about Sherman and is very selective in his treatment of him.

The most absurd aspects of the mini-bios is that Crocker goes out of his way to mention that many of those covered (Lee, Jackson, AP Hill) hated slavery and were more anti-slavery than their opponents. He also makes mention that many of the northern generals were fiercely anti-abolitionist (Sherman, Thomas). So, you see, the Southerners really did have the moral high ground. The fact that they began a war that would kill 600,000 Americans so that they could protect their "peculiar institution" is just a detail. Crocker never once takes up the slavery issue directly, nor will he admit that had slavery not existed there would not have been a "states rights" argument for the South to secede.

Crocker likes to whitewash history. He did so in his book about the Catholic Church (Triumph) as well. I’m a committed, apologetic Catholic, so I’m sympathetic. But his glossing over unpleasentries in that book were nothing compared to this one.

Some random thoughts…
The Politically Incorrect guides always have inset with “Books (insert Politically Correct Type Here) You Are Not Supposed to Read.” Crocker mentions Shelby Foote’s massive narrative as a set of books Northerners don’t want you to read. Why I don’t know. I’ve read it and Foote, while a Southerner, is generally fair.

Also, Crocker seems to believe that England really did want to aid the South out of principle, but then Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and England didn’t want to be involved in a war defending slavery. The idea that England wanted to aid the South to weaken the increasingly powerful United States doesn’t seem to have crossed his mind.

All of that said, the book was enjoyable, even if you’re already familiar with the Civil War. There are interesting facts given, and it was a view I’ve never really studied. If you’re a buff, check it out.

A swift read that is hard to follow at time - a common pitfall of any book that deals with the entire history of Europe (among other things) in 400+ pages. As a conservative Catholic who is not as well versed on Church history as I'd like to be, I found some of this book unsettling. Not that it challenged my core beliefs at all, but Crocker is quick to whitewash over many of the unsavory characters in Church history. While I get that the Renaissance popes were not the monsters that some make them out to be, simply writing off Popes leading armies in wars of conquest as a necessary evil in an ugly world seems a weak argument to me. Perhaps I'm too entrenched in the peaceful, stateless images of John Paul the Great and Benedict XIV.

But the book is entertaining, and does cover some of the more controversial stands of the Church and proves that opposition to things such as abortion is not something that came up in the 1960s. Also, the case that the Church is truly the apostolic Church Christ willed to carry out his mission on Earth is well made.½

History the easy way. Fast-paced, witty, filled with detail

Complete crap. I got about 1/4 of the way through and then gave up. It's a poorly written rant about how the Catholic Church has never been anything less than absolutely perfect in all things -- it goes to absurd lengths to praise reformers like St. Benedict for fixing something that apparently can't be broken. I don't even know why I still have this on my shelf.

3849. Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church--A 2,000-Year History, by H. W. Crocker III (21 Jan 2004) This book is only 471 pages so I knew it could not be very thorough, and it isn't. It is popular history and though there are lots of footnotes, there is no original research. The author is an unapologetic conservative, finding defensible some things I could not, but it was a good and enjoyable book to read.½

An excellent book on the American military and small unit actions. A nice historical overview. It makes you realize how much the attitude of the public and it's support has for the military has changed since World War 2 and the effect that has had our ability to manage the outcome of world events. The indications are we have become a society that no longer has the will to see see things through - that we will cut and run if the going gets to hard, or victory is not achieved in a very short period of time.

Very enjoyable, and yes, he deals with the unsaintly popes head on and truthfully. Might be a bit too triumphant to pass on to a non-Catholic. But we enjoyed the romp through history with Crocker's biting wit!

the spectacular story of the Church from Biblical times and the early days of St. Peter—the first pope—to the twilight years of John Paul II. It is a sweeping drama of Roman legions, great crusades, epic battles, toppled empires, heroic saints, and enduring faith. And, there are stormy controversies: Dark Age skullduggery, the Inquistition, the Renaissance popes, the Reformation, the Church's refusal to accept sexual liberation and contemporary allegations like those made in Hitler's Pope and Papal Sin.
A brawling, colorful history full of inspiring pageantry and spirited polemic, Triumph will exhilarate, amuse, and infuriate as it extols the glories of Catholic history and the gripping stories of its greatest men and women.