Review of "Abner Doubleday: Young Baseball Pioneer," by Montrew Dunham

Review of

Abner Doubleday: Young Baseball Pioneer, by Montrew Dunham

 

Four out of five stars

 The legend that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 has been conclusively proven to be a myth. Fortunately, this book does nothing significant to back up that myth. All that Doubleday is described as doing is playing games that let to the development of baseball and perhaps being one of the people that codified it into one with four sequential bases, a pitcher’s mound and the two sides taking turns after a set number of outs. This really does not differentiate Doubleday from many other boys growing up in the first half of the nineteenth century, similar games were played all over the United States with the rules being fluid, both locally and from place to place.

 Although Doubleday had a distinguished military career, rising to the level of General and fighting at Gettysburg, only eleven pages are devoted to that part of his life. The rest is about his childhood, which could have been the life of millions of energetic boys growing up in the United States at that time. It was a time of exploration, getting dirty, wearing your best clothes on special occasions and playing the most popular games as often as possible with your friends. In that sense, this book is very generic.

Review of "Tom Swift and His Air Scout," by Victor Appleton

Review of

Tom Swift and His Air Scout, by Victor Appleton ISBN 1576462226

Four out of five stars

 This book in the original “Tom Swift” series is the successor of several previous books about the young inventor. Like the others, the reader must put aside some of the modern notions of character representations regarding the two black men in Tom’s employ. Furthermore, one needs to adopt the mindset of people living in the first two decades of the twentieth century. One hundred years after the fictitious events of this book, the marvels depicted here don’t seem quite as amazing.

 All that aside, this is a book that clearly provided a great deal of motivation for young people to pursue careers in science and technology. In this series, Tom is more of an engineer/machinist than a scientist, yet that is essential, for back then machining operations were largely done on-site. The concept of the mechanized assembly line was just being developed, so when people needed some machining done, they generally did it themselves.

 The main invention in this book is that of a complex muffler that will allow planes to run much quieter. The Great War is still raging in Europe with no real glimmer of a victory by the Allies. There are spies and rivals in opposition, mechanical failures and other difficulties in getting things right. There is a hint of romance, but only a hint.

 The best part of this book is that it is a look back at the structure of adventure/inventor stories for young people at the start of the twentieth century.

Review of "That Special Grace," by Benjamin Bradlee

Review of

That Special Grace, by Benjamin Bradlee

Two out of five stars

 This simple book of photos of President John Kennedy with supplemental text is the most laudatory book of a president that I have ever seen. All is explained in the blurb about the author on the DJ, “When Senator John F. Kennedy bought a house in the same Georgetown block as the Bradlees’ in 1958, the two families became close personal friends.” Yet, Bradlee was also an esteemed journalist, which tends to put him in a clear and obvious conflict of interest.  

 This book was written shortly after Kennedy was assassinated, so the reader should cut Bradlee some slack. Yet, the text seems designed to treat him as a beloved, saintly figure, even his abilities to eat and play golf are praised. Although it is short, this book is boring.