The Election of 1852

 Gara's opening sentence in chapter 2 had me comparing our distance from the events of WWII to the distance of Franklin Pierce's election from the American Revolution.

Free Soilers & More

Free Soilers, Barnburners, Hunkers, Whigs, Democrats...oh my! How does anyone even begin to grasp the complexities of mid-19th century American politics! Evidently Larry Gara does in his "The Presidency of Franklin Pierce."

Private Ron Beal

I really appreciate how David O'Keefe concluded his book, One Day in August, with Private Ron Beal of the Royal Regiment of Canada "In 2012, after the real reasons for the Dieppe Raid were revealed to him, he said: 'Now I can die in peace. Now I know what my friends died for.'"

Franklin Pierce

Name just one thing you can remember learning about Franklin Pierce's presidency? Right. Well, you probably have a better memory than I have, 'cause I couldn't think of a single thing when I spotted this 1991 publication on my local library's shelf. So here goes one man's attempt to rescue Pierce from almost total obscurity.

Declassified Records

Still eagerly waiting to see the full extent of what declassified records say about what actually happened at Dieppe in O'Keefe's account.

Braude & Gara

Another trek to the library, this time to pick up Mark Braude's just recently released book and, while I was there, Larry Gara's biography of Franklin Pierce, first published way back in 1991.

Order of Battle

 So what went wrong? I guess I'll only find out by reading further in O'Keefe's "One Day in August".