jbg
Active Member
An excerpt:
I just finished reading Judah P. Benjamin by Pierce Butler. I picked this up at random in my synagogue library. I had always been curious about the subject individual. The inside cover gives copyright dates of 1883 and 1910. I doubt the former since the book describes his death. The book was, no doubt, a hagiography. That being said, I'll still give it "five stars." It is definitely written in an older style, and unashamedly gives sanction to the anti-black bigotry of the age. That being said, it is a thrilling tale of the Civil War from a Southern point of view. It is a splendid biography of a man, who but for his taking the "wrong side" of the Civil War, would have been recognized as one of America's greats, perhaps in the same sentence as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Benjamin Rush. He was by all accounts a brilliant orator and advocate. Perhaps, ameliorating his negative side, a lawyer advocates for who hires them; full stop!
This was Judah P. Benjamin's reaction to the disparagement of his birth religion. Judah P. Benjamin was a remarkable historical figure, having been a successful Louisiana lawyer, a U.S. Senator, a Confederate Attorney General, Secretary of War and eventually Secretary of State. He thereafter fled to Great Britain and France, in part to reunite with his wife and daughter and in larger part to avoid he imprisonment and ignominy of being imprisoned or executed by the victorious Union.
I just finished reading Judah P. Benjamin by Pierce Butler. I picked this up at random in my synagogue library. I had always been curious about the subject individual. The inside cover gives copyright dates of 1883 and 1910. I doubt the former since the book describes his death. The book was, no doubt, a hagiography. That being said, I'll still give it "five stars." It is definitely written in an older style, and unashamedly gives sanction to the anti-black bigotry of the age. That being said, it is a thrilling tale of the Civil War from a Southern point of view. It is a splendid biography of a man, who but for his taking the "wrong side" of the Civil War, would have been recognized as one of America's greats, perhaps in the same sentence as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Benjamin Rush. He was by all accounts a brilliant orator and advocate. Perhaps, ameliorating his negative side, a lawyer advocates for who hires them; full stop!
