Book Reviewed: The New York Times Disunion: A History of the Civil War by Edward L. Widmer

The Civil War

This is an edited book with essays contributed by some of the well-known scholars in the field, with a fresh look at the history of the American conflict. The political perspectives of the leaders differed during the events leading to the war. But the determination to preserve a southern tradition of slavery lead to the bloodiest battle with the loss of a million lives. The book reviews the politics, economics and sociology of secession and slavery and the differing views of many historians.

The causes of the Civil War were complex and have been controversial since the war began. Slavery was escalating political tension in the 1850s, and the Republican Party was determined to prevent any spread of slavery. But the Southern leaders had threatened secession if the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election. During the presidential campaign, Abraham Lincoln supported banning slavery in all the U.S. territories angering the Southern states that viewed slavery was their constitutional rights. But Lincoln won the election without carrying a single Southern state, and Southerners felt that disunion was their only option. Before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy, and in February 1861 they individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on cotton would intervene, but they did not and they never recognized the new Confederate States of America.

The causes of the war and the outcome are subjects of lingering contention today. The North and West grew rich while the once-rich South became poor for a century. The national political power of the slave owners and rich southerners were dwindling. Some scholars argue that the Union held an insurmountable long-term advantage over the Confederacy in industrial strength and population. To many Northerners the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, and progressively discouraging slavery.

I found the following essays interesting; “How the civil war created college football” by Amanda Bellows; “Remembering Gettysburg Address” by Joshua Zeitz; “Birth of Thanksgiving” by Paul Quigly; “The sound of Lincoln’s silence” by Harold Selzer; “Rewriting Gettysburg Address” by Martin Johnson; “The drought that changed the war” by Kenneth Noe; “The lone star state turns south” by Richard Parker; Humanity and hope in a southern prison” by Peter Cozzens; “The women at war” by Elizabeth Varon; “What Lincoln meant to the slaves” by Steven Hahn; and How Lincoln undid the slavery” by Richard Stringer.

This is an excellent review of civil war and I recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, slavery and civil war era. This book also makes a good teaching tool at both high school and college.

Book Reviewed: The Black Hand: The Epic War between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History by Stephan Talty

Detective Petrosino’s fight against criminal enterprise in New York at the turn of 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, Italian immigrants were arriving in large numbers to New York City dreaming big in the new world, but faced hostility from other citizens like German and Irish immigrants. They were also terrorized, extorted, and murdered by a criminal organization known as the “Black Hand”, which was eventually traced to mafia gang operating from Sicily. Their main target were the Italian community in NY that later spread to other major cities. Joseph Petrosino was one of the very few law enforcement officials who possessed the courage to confront this criminal enterprise. This is the true story of one man's determination against all odds in a city that treated Italian immigrants as second class citizens, and the crime perpetrated on them were ignored by the law-enforcement.

This book chronicles in detail of Petrosino’s crime fighting methods and his work with President Teddy Roosevelt. In fact Roosevelt first hired him in 1897 as the first Italian detective sergeant in New York. Roosevelt at that time was the head of the New York Board of Police Commissioners, and he was deeply saddened by the level poverty south of the 14th street where most immigrants were living. The elites of New York never stepped below 14th Street, and Roosevelt after reading in newspapers about the crime made major changes in the operation of NYPD. The department was suffering from serious corruption and attended to the interests of the wealthy residents. But the Sicilian Mafia using the name Black Hand was organizing and operating faster than NYPD. Killings, abductions, and violence left the entire Italian population in New York under constant fear. But Petrosino was a strong willed and hard-nosed detective who collided with gangsters head-on. Years later President Roosevelt said of Petrosino that “He didn’t know the name of fear.” Petrosino was killed by the gang members in 1908 during his visit to Sicily, but he certainly left a lasting impression and he changed the way Italians were seen in America.

The story is currently owned by the Paramount Studios to film the life and work of Joseph Petrosino with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the American history, the raise of mafia in New York and Italian American history.

Book Reviewed: Radiate by C.A. Higgins

Love in the space

This is a science fiction, the third book in the series following her first two books, Lightless and Supernova. The story revolves around a space traveler named Ananke, a person with artificial intelligence, searches for her human roots. She is known to have humanly feelings such as love and companionship. She travels in the company of her friend and mother Althea. In parallel, there is another pair named Matthew who is on a quest of his own is traveling the galaxy alongside Ivan. They are on a collision course with Althea with serious catastrophic consequences.

Man-machine interfaces may allow humans to live much longer and beyond the solar system. What will happen when we transfer parts of our “selves” into clones, into stored cells and machines? As Stephen Hawking has predicted, artificially intelligent machines will inevitably take over the world. This is what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's concept is all about: an interface that will link the human brain with artificial intelligence. This is precisely dealt with by the science fiction writers like C. A. Higgins.

The story is compulsive of a romance writer; the writing is partly from the point of a human-machine perspective. The book descends to a love story, and the last section is influenced by the film “Casablanca.” The human feeling of the author is clearly reflected in the story her heroine. One thing that puzzled me is that the author uses quantum physics concepts as the title for various chapters that did not make too much sense to me.

Book Reviewed: The Extended Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

The origin of species and the selfish gene

Advances in genetics and developmental biology in the last five decades have challenged us to think about the role of genes preparing the species against the challenges of the environment. Biologist Richard Dawkins coins the metaphor “selfish gene” to suggest that genes are tempered by their need to keep their carrier species successful in nature, which is fundamental to its survival in the evolutionary process.

A brief summary of the book is as follows: Dawkins argues that the evolutionary concept of Natural Selection chooses specific sets of genes that confer the individual species to behave altruistically. For example, family and social behavior of feeding and protecting a social structure is common among species that share copies of the same genes. Within each individual species, some leave more “fit” offspring that contain some inheritable traits (genes). This non-random differential reproduction of genes is referred to as Natural Selection. A gene by cooperating with group if successful companion gene pools build a mortal machine that survives through a finite time. And all phenotypic effects, a set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from an interaction of its genotype with its environment is present in an individual body. Genes have different functions; some genes are workers, some builders, while others manage the operation as a whole. This helps us understand the complex genetic networks regulating metabolism, reproduction and development. The gene pools give an inside look at the intricate and often surprising adaptations among species. The genetics of immune systems, the evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction, and genetic differences among human populations are few examples of adaptation and natural selection. For example, humans and chimpanzee share about 99% of their evolutionary history. But how is that humans claim to be more “evolved” than chimpanzees? How did they acquire bigger brains?

A comparison of the DNA of chimpanzees and humans showed that a single letter change in the DNA of one gene triggered an increase in a population of stem cells called basal radial glia. These cells are thought to have powered the expansion of the human cerebral cortex. It also seems that chunks of DNA in the human had acquired “back-up copies” of particular genes, That made them ripe for some evolutionary tinkering; if the copy happens to acquire a few coding errors, there’s no problem, there’s still the functioning original. Once in a while however, a copying error might lead to a new function that is useful. A closer look at a duplicated human gene named SRGAP2C is a slightly altered in humans, but the unaltered original gene is found in chimps but the human SRGAP2C, delayed the maturation of neurons so spines kept sprouting, which enabled them to make more connections. Neurons develop and they acquire spines that act like antennae for receiving messages from other neurons. But the spines stop sprouting once the neurons mature, but altered SRGAP2C, by delaying the maturation process help it to get big and develop more connections and increases the complexity of the brain as it happened in humans.

Another backup copy of a gene that is present in humans but absent from chimps called ARHGAP11B caused a particular population of brain stem cells – basal radial glia – to increase their rounds of multiplication and grow bigger. The altered FOXP2 gene, unique to humans is responsible for turning thoughts into speech, but the unaltered genome is present in chimps where this evolutionary behavior is absent.

This book is 548 pages long and contains very little biological or genetic data. It is written for general readers that require no significant knowledge in evolutionary biology.