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Loading... American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan… (original 2002; edition 2003)by Thomas Keneally (Author), Kerry Klayman (Photographer), Dana Leigh Treglia (Designer)
Work detailsAmerican Scandal by Thomas Keneally (2002)
None. A fascinating, well-written story of a person who should be better known. He may have been a bastard; but he was our bastard. (  ) JBGUSA | Mar 31, 2013 |  The first half of this book thoroughly explores Dan Sickles' life and that of his first wife, Teresa. Great care is taken to provide a detailed account of Teresa's affair with Phillip Barton Key, Sickles' killing of Key, and the sensational trial that followed. After that point, the rest of the book seems rushed and Sickles' life summarized -- including Sickles' Civil War experience, which seems like a denouement to his life. More care is taken to imagine how Teresa might have felt at not accompanying Dan on his various adventures than on the defining episode of his life as a Civil War general: his controversial repositioning of his corps during the Battle of Gettysburg. (  ) SquireMike | Jun 10, 2012 | Though the book is called American Scoundrel, Thomas Keneally can't quite bring himself to condemn murdering politician and soldier Dan Sickles. As an Australian, I wondered if this was due to our national tendency to revere a 'rogue' (like the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly). The book does lay bare the stark double standard applied to men and women with regard to sexual mores, especially at a time when women were regarded as mentally enfeebled children who belonged to their husbands as property. Also, for those not overly familiar with the American Civil War, Keneally also covers the Battle of Gettysburg in some detail. And, typical of Keneally, it's well-written and accessible. (  ) whirled | Oct 3, 2010 | Mr. Keneally bends over backward to show understanding of Mr. Sickles, who cheated on his wife, and murdered his wife's lover, disobeyed a direct order of his commander, broke into a government building and destroyed public property and embezeled money. Mr. Keneally fails to show what Mr. Sickles was: a morally deficient person. denniswilliams | Jan 17, 2010 | Insanity plea first used. ( ) brone | Aug 28, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:36:52 -0500)
"On the last Sunday of February 1859, Dan Sickles, a charming young congressman from New York, murdered his good friend Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key) - who was also his wife's lover - in Washington's Lafayette Square. The shooting took place directly across the street from the White House, the home of Sickles's friend and protector, President James Buchanan. Sickles turned himself in; political friends in New York's Tammany Hall machinery, including the dynamic criminal lawyer James Brady, quickly gathered around. While his beautiful young wife was banned from public life and shunned by society, Dan Sickles was acquitted." "American Scoundrel is the story of this powerful mid-nineteenth-century politician and inveterate womanizer, whose irresistible charms and rock-solid connections not only allowed him to get away with murder - literally - but also paved the way to a stunning career."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)
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