Please visit the web site for my first novel "The Butcher's Cleaver." It is now for sale on-line at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and iUniverse.com
pl
For sale at these lnks:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=The+Butcher%27s+Cleaver&z=y
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-47476-4
In the UK the book can be bought on-line at "Foyles" and at "WHSmith." In Australia and New Zealand "Fishpond.com" carries the book.
A review of the book recently appeared in the Defense Intelligence Agency newspaper:
Can you post a few pages to tease us, on your pre-publication site, and how do we pre-order??
Congratulations, Col. Lang. I was very impressed by the excerpt you posted here some time ago. In particular, it had that crucial thing that is so hard to create in a work of historical fiction — one believed that these people were alive, thinking, and feeling in that segment of the past in which the novel takes place.
Congratulations. I read excerpts of your novel online awhile back and enjoyed it immensely. (I was about half way through the novel when it I lost the link; that may have been the time that your publisher picked it up, but I dunno’) Habakkuk wrote, in essence, that your novel has great forward movement. Forward movement translates into page turner, and I agree completely. The plot was unfolding in an exceptional manner, as I found myself delving deeper into the characters and underlying story. I look forward to purchasing the book and reading it in its entirety. Looks like it may go on the shelf next to Killer Angels.
Congratulations and thanks for all you do Colonal. I look forward to the reading and to sharing it with my friends and family.
Colonel Lang,
Very good to hear that the novel is coming out.
I would strongly recommend it to readers of SST. It does indeed have a strong ‘forward movement’, which becomes apparent when one has the full text in front of one, in a way it was not when reading the separate chapters you posted.
Equally important, it may seem natural to assume that your historical interests are somehow separate from your polemics about contemporary American foreign policy. But in fact the two are related, and central themes of the novel bear directly upon current issues. In one way, this may create difficulties, as ‘The Butcher’s Cleaver’ is very much a Confederate’s eye view of the Civil War. As a Brit, for whom this is someone else’s history, I have been fascinated to see how sparks have flown on SST when questions to do with the Civil War are discussed. It seems, like Vietnam, to be still very much a ‘third rail’ for many — not of course that this being so is really surprising.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel, to my mind, is the portrayal of the gap between the South as the Northern leaders see it, through the lens of their own ideological preconceptions, and the South as the novel itself portrays it. It is this gap which the novel’s protagonist, the Confederate spy Claude Devereux, exploits to insinuate himself into the top Unionist leadership. His ambiguous position as a figure involved in different worlds — a banker with international connections who is also something of a clan leader — makes him ideally placed to do this. It means he can cast himself for a starring role in their version of what the Civil War is about, and the historical narrative with which their reading of the war is involved. In this narrative, what the Unionists are fighting is essentially the planter aristocracy, and the secession of the Confederate States is a perverse repudiation of American destiny, caused essentially by the malign influence of that aristocracy.
This narrative requires the existence of properly enlightened Southerners, because they can provide reassurance of its truth — and because they are naturally to be seen as the proper leaders of the South the Northern leaders hope to create after the war. This is, of course, a South remodelled in the image of the kind of society which the North is becoming. The fact that Claude Devereux and his brother portray themselves as being a kind of Southerner whom the Union leadership needs to believe exists makes that leadership disinclined to ask awkward questions. And that — together with feuding and political opportunism among Union intelligence agencies — allows the group of Confederate spies both to penetrate their enemies’ inner councils and also (quite literally!) to get away with murder.
Of course, all this takes us into the heart of some of the most contentious issues to do with the Civil War — as the questions of precisely who in the South were passionately committed to the Confederacy, and precisely why, are very much the stuff of ongoing intellectual battles. But looking at matters with current issues in mind, I have an odd feeling that the whirligig of time has, in a way, brought in his revenges — as the Clown says in Twelfth Night. My own background certainly leads me more naturally to sympathise with the North than with the South. My father came from industrial South Wales, one of the birthplaces of that industrial and urban world which many in the South saw as a threat (also an area soaked in that ascetic Calvinist culture which Claude Devereux finds so repellent a feature of New England.) And, as a Brit, I am very conscious of the role that the universalist pretensions of American nationalism have played in mobilising American power in conflicts which could had it not been so mobilised have ended very badly for us — both that against National Socialist Germany, and also the Cold War.
That said, partly I think because of a mindless triumphalism engendered by success in the Cold War, one sees rhetorics with clear roots in those used by Lincoln turning into a kind of a set of rigid ideological schema uncomfortably reminiscent of Marxism-Leninism. And, quite palpably, this creates precisely the kind of incomprehension with which you charge the Northern leadership in relation to the South. Moreover, it creates a need for a certain kind of character to exist. And in turn, this creates an opportunity for characters whose background and education enables them to move easily between different worlds to practice strategies of deception. So, although Claude Devereux is not a convicted felon, like his fellow banker Ahmad Chalabi, the vulnerability exploited is the same.
What such a character has to do is both to provide reassuring confirmation, from within an alien society, for the belief that the realities of that society are as American nationalist ideology says they should be; and also to put himself (or herself) forward as the proper person to bring that society onto what is taken to be the highroad of history. If they do both these things, the temptation to believe and accept them becomes so intense that any attempt to exercise critical faculties in relation to what they say or do is liable to collapse.
Another classic example of this is provided by the so-called ‘young reformers’ and ‘oligarchs’ in Russia: a matter upon which incidentally credulity in Britain as quite as great as in the United States. Again, these provided a view of the realities of Russian society which corresponded to what American nationalist rhetoric suggested should be the case — that is, a view in which only the nefarious activities of ‘hardliners’ stood in the way of a rapid remodelling of the former Soviet Union on the model of the United States. Furthermore, they presented themselves as the people who were uniquely adapted to perform such remodelling. In fact, simply collapsing the existing structures of Soviet society did not lead to a functioning liberal order arising as by magic out of the rubble — it led to ruthless struggles over the divvying up of the assets of the old Soviet system, in which the most cynical and and unscrupulous manipulators tended to win out.
But crooks like Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky are still able to convince very many in alike in the U.S. and Britain that they are the latter-day equivalents of Andrew Carnegie, and that the Russia of the Yeltsin years was really on the right course, from which it has been derailed by the malign influence of the former KGB man Putin. Having recently been trying to make sense of the extraordinary facts surrounding the death of Alexander Litvinenko, what is quite remarkable is how claims made by Boris Berezovsky are accepted without question by most people here. It is not even necessary for the Berezovsky people to tell credible lies for these to believed — the narrative of Putin as a reincarnation of Lavrentii Beria which they have devoted to much attention to creating fits so easily with what people’s general ideological convictions incline them to believe.
And here, one comes up against another unfortunate effect of our willingness to accept the claims of those who will play to our ideological fantasies. At least Claude Devereux is someone who does have credibility in his own society. By contrast, Chalabi and the exiles had minimal support in Iraq, and Berezovsky is almost universally hated in Russia. The effect of accepting people who play to our fantasies as the natural leaders of foreign societies actually tends to be to create the impression that our talk of ‘democracy’ is bogus — that our idea of a ‘democrat’ is someone who does what people in Washington or London think he should do, rather than what his own people think he should do. And such impressions, I think, contribute greatly to the progressive loss of the very great moral authority the United States enjoyed at the end of the Cold War — a loss which I think has been one of the major tragedies of my lifetime.
Anyhow, this diatribe has gone on long enough. But I hope at least I have made the point that the issues dealt with in Butcher’s Cleaver are not merely issues of the past, but also ones of the present — and that a great deal of food for thought, as well as pleasure, can be gleaned from reading your novel of the Civil War.
What’s the release date?
(don’t make me read the fine print).
Looking forward to it (though the U.S. Civil War is a period I usually skip). All I read is historical fiction. You can get it reviewed by the Historical Novel Society here:
http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/hnr-online.htm
All
The book will be available in both hard and soft cover in November or early December depending on how speedy I am in proof reading. I wii put up a notice when it is released. pl
Congratulations!!!
I’m very pleased for you. Good luck selling lots and lots of them. I hope you bring copies to your speaking engagements… people will want to buy them. And you know how the book world is these days: unless you’re Steven King, you have to do some of the hawking yourself.
Pat,
Is this the MS with the French officer seconded to the CSA? Congratulations!
I told you long ago that it was a good story that deserved to be published. Lucky for me I stiil have it on 3.5″ disks
Bill
Just don’t let the lucre and fame of being a novelist distract you too much from your important blooging and thinking about NOW!
Many congratulations, Pat! I know how easy it is to criticize a novel, and how difficult it is to write one. I am looking forward to reading it. Best of luck!
Kudos Col. Lang.
I anxiously look forward to purchasing my copy, sounds like a great Christmas gift. I would be less than honest if I didn’t say I’m hoping I can get my copy signed.
i had converted it to mp3 and listened it to on the road. But alas my puny hard drive ran out of room and deleted it- so don’t worry about copyright violations.
bydeway when will be this novel publish in Poland?
Colonel what is you opinion about this Annapolis conference. In my opinion Palestyńczycy will be this side which will be damaged. There will be of cource medial hum but final of this conference is foregone. Bush and Olmert will be told many beautiful words about Palestinian and peace but nothing will change the wall will be grown and there never will be Palestinian State because no Israel will allow on it nor israeli lobby in USA in which pocket are all american politics
Piotr
See my posts on the Annapoiis meetings. pl
Congratulations, Col. Lang.
Sorry to ask such an ignorant and semi-unrelated question here (but I don’t see an email link for you), but I have read that Wild Bill Hickok was supposedly a spy/assassin for the Union. Do you think that this was this just more tall tales from him or “Calamity Jane” Cannary-Burke, or have you run across anything that would substantiate this?
Again, wonderful that your book is published!
Congratulations Pat. Thank you for your generous contributions to culture and discourse. It shall be a treat to experience your mind in a new context about an old drama.
David Habakkuk has an intriguing observation in his Amazon site book review. He posits the American Civil War as a continuation of the English Civil War- landed Cavaliers vs. Roundhead Puritans.
Historian John Lukacs 2005 book “Remembered Past” about how history is studied and historigraphy points out the now two hundred year old links between the development of the science of history and historical novels. Commend it to readers and participants of this blog and PL!
Great posts and the Season’s Best to all. Got my copy delivered today and I’m anxiously looking forward to reading it.
Again, kudos Col. Lang.
All
I was pleased to learn today that TBC is for sale in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. pl
Sir. If you post/mail the adress where it can be purchased, I will hear with my local specialist shop Tronsmo about ordering a few. Would you be interested in PR/doing interviews for norwegian media?
Martin K
The book can be had at “WHSmith” and “Foyle’s Bookstore” on-lne in the UK and from a company called “Fishpond” in NZ and Australia.
I would be happy to be interviewed about the book in any language that I speak. pl
Martin K et al
There is a button on both blogs for writing to me off the blog about things like interviews. I do a lot of print media and radio interviews. I have pretty much stopped doing TV because it is just too much trouble, travel to studios. etc.
I am willing to answer questions about foreign policy, the wars, the book.
I am not interested in endorsing someone for president of the US for any interviewer. pl
Colonel, I look forward to reading your book.
Thought your readers in the DC area might be interested in this at the National Archives:
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
Wednesday, January 9, at 7 p.m.
William G. McGowan Theater
Join Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust as she speaks on her newest book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Faust’s book is an illuminating study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War. It explores the impact of this enormous toll from every angle-material, political, intellectual and spiritual-and shows how the war victimized civilians through violence that extended beyond battlefields. A book signing will follow the program.
For all Public Programs, please use the Special Events Entrance on the corner of 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW.
All events listed in the calendar are free unless otherwise noted. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
http://www.archives.gov/calendar.
Congrats Col Lang. Any promo plans such as book signings?
On page 20 you speak poorly of whores and contractors who are supposedly swarming the streets of Richmond.
As a defense contractor, I’m offended and want my money back – after I finish the book, of course!
Seriously, so far so good. I’m enjoying it.
When is it moving to the big screen?
CWZ
It is Joseph Mayo, the mayor of Richmond who makes this outrageous statement, not I.
If you visit the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, you will see that the dining room is called “Le Maire.” This is in honor of Joe Mayo, Claude’s “uncle.”
pl
After mulling it over decided to see if the past even in novel form might be prologue. So buying the book to put in my every fifth book should be fiction rotation.
Copy arrived today. Now to insert in stack of reading priority. Thanks Pat.
I will pick up a copy, it looks interesting.
PL! Just finished reading the book over the weekend. Bottom line is learned a few new things and was reminded of a few old things. Guess some things were the product of your editor but all in all a wonderful story. Elegant and sophisticated insight into that era. Foreign relations of both sides are not as well documented as they should be even with the French and British.
Assume that page 45 reveals you real belief as to why men often do what they do. Seems accurate from my experience. Good job, not great, but fun. Now back to your real business of making sure that your audience understands that history does not stand still even for Americans. Congrats again.
WR Cummings
I would not let anyone seriously edit the book after having worked on it for 15 years. Why did you not like the book? pl
WR Cummings
I am bored with the contemporary American republic.
My only real interest is in finishing the trilogy. p
“David Habakkuk has an intriguing observation in his Amazon site book review. He posits the American Civil War as a continuation of the English Civil War- landed Cavaliers vs. Roundhead Puritans.” Will
An interesting tidbit regarding this suggestion.
“English cavaliers responsible for Southern predisposition to violence”
By Deborah Gilbert
News and Information Services
The University Record, October 26, 1992
http://www.ur.umich.edu/9293/Oct26_92/27.htm
Thanks for sharing!
Col. Lang, I avidly read your blog and am consistently amazed at how your insights into the Middle East explain the reality behind what I observed living there and studying Arabic.
For this reason I bought your book and was again amazed and enlightened by your insights into a subject that though less familiar to me is no less intriguing.
Your novel is both profound and entertaining and you have a fan in St. Louis.
-Brad Urani
I was wondering what character you related with the most in your book.
Then your email address answered that. Needless to say, I had to look up turcopolier.
CWZ
I don’t know which one I identify with most. Smoot was a suggestion of an admin assistant of mine. I do like him a lot. pl
Book is on its way from Amazon. Sorry it took me so long. Will report.
I just purchased novel as a gift for my father. I was surprised and impressed to learn that it is available at Barnes and Noble in the “print on demand” format. In other words, the book I ordered didn’t exist in print until I ordered it.
I had read of “print on demand” back in the ’80s when the idea was that the book would be printed and bound at the book store at the time of purchase. We’re not there yet, however we’re getting close.
Thanks to you Colonel for breaking new ground.
Col. Lang:
I just wanted to drop a note to say that I enjoyed The Butcher’s Cleaver. (Since I read your blog every day and value highly your insights on the Middle East, I feel a sense of familiarity that warrants passing along my opinion of your tale.)
I particularly appreciated the chapters on Gettysburg. Although I spent the first 42 of my 65 years in Carroll County, MD, married a girl from Emmitsburg, have in-laws with a farm directly adjoining the Park along the Emmitsburg Road, and picnicked numerous times on the battlefield, I was never able to keep the actual flow of the battles straight in my mind; Claude’s description of the events brought it all into perspective.
It was clear that you enjoyed spinning the tale as well; perhaps you will share further adventures of Claude and Bill White…
This question is perhaps more appropriately handled “off line”, but I could not find a link on the blog that facilitated direct contact. I noticed when I first got the book that it was published by IUniverse. Since the imprint was unfamiliar, I looked them up and was intrigued by what I found. It looks like they have a rather innovative approach to publishing, and I would be interested in hearing more about your experience with this company and their process.
Lastly (and unrelated to the forgoing) I recently stumbled (quite literally) on a reference to Maj. General Smedley Butler, USMC (1881-1940), and his rather startling pamphlet War is a Racket. While I can’t say I agree with all of his points, I do accept much of what he has to say. I was startled by the boldness of his observations given his background, and by how they presage Eisenhower’s thoughts on the Military Industrial Complex in his farewell address and subsequent events even down to Halliburton/KBR. I’m curious if you are familiar with Gen. Butler, and if so what your opinion might be.
Thanks again for a good read
Jay
In re Smedley Butler, he is a soldier of the type that so many of my family resembled.
Iconoclastic, adventurous, a warrior by trade but thoughtful with regard to the moral implications of that trade.
Butler is what I think a soldier should be.
pl
If you read Bremer’s autobiographical account of his year in Iraq, you see that the Gordon account leaves out some crucial details. Bremer was hired on for the Iraq CPA mission by two leading Administration neocons: Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby. The takedown order for the Iraqi military had “Cheney” and “Chalabi” written all over it, as Pat Lang has himself documented in “Drinking the Kool-Aid.” Bremer was the willing executioner, but I do not believe for a moment that he was the sole author, or even the initiator of the disasterous scheme. If I recall from Gordon and Trainor’s book, Gen. McKiernan, Gen. Garner and Col. Hughes had all the data in hand to quickly stand up three divisions of the Iraqi Army, and were also ready to stand up an interime government–the way such things have traditionally been done.
Part II out when?
CWZ
Monkey business?
I am trying for the end of the year if I can get ahead of some other business, mainly teaching. pl
“Monkey business?”
Tax dollars plus Hawaii…what else could it be?
Actually, our boondoggle was a complete failure; we worked all day every day in windowless offices. My lingering winter pallor is proof!
Looking forward to the next installment.
Col,
Any thoughts on the following article about contemporary military HUMINT training at Fort Huachuca. Does this sound similar to the HUMINT capabilities you mentioned a while ago that the Army did away with after Vietnam?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/NATION/294016841/1001
Twit
A half hearted attempt to regain lost capability. Norton and Antonitis once worked for me. Good people. I wish them luck in this. pl
Hello from Bosnia, very nice blog
Wondered if you’ve seen these maps:
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar/
The collection includes many detailed battle maps with troop locations, etc.
In the name of God, That is it.God bless you all, and God bless America !
Uh oh
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/9/book-lincoln-sought-to-deport-freed-slaves/
Uh oh again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/24/1865-guardian-stance-us-civil-war
(h/t rockwell)
Equally important, it may seem natural to assume that your historical interests are somehow separate from your polemics about contemporary American foreign policy. But in fact the two are related, and central themes of the novel bear directly upon current issues. In one way, this may create difficulties, as ‘The Butcher’s Cleaver’ is very much a Confederate’s eye view of the Civil War. As a Brit, for whom this is someone else’s history, I have been fascinated to see how sparks have flown on SST when questions to do with the Civil War are discussed. It seems, like Vietnam, to be still very much a ‘third rail’ for many — not of course that this being so is really surprising.
finejerseys
Odd name. That is perceptive. The novel exists on a number of “levels” one of which is the one you mention. The issues underlying the CW/WBS were not resolved by the outcome no matter how much Northern nationalist enthusiasts might hope and insist. Usually, such Northern sentiments are expressed with considerable vitriol. I am not speaking of slavery. This was an incubus that our Northern friends were kind enough to rid us of at least forty or fifty years before it would have disappeared anyway. No, I am speaking of the whole complex of political issues that our English ancestors brought with them in the 17th Century and which they successfully spread to later arrivals. These isuues have to do with the nature of political power in a heterogeneous country. Should power be concentrated or exercised locally? Should the power of central government be carefully limited? These question are age old among the English speaking peoples as Churchill might have said. Reconstruction and forced re-admission of the seceded statees ensured that thi sdebate would continue, perhaps forever. In the end one might ask, “What did the North win?” Ah, I forgot. They were motivated by a love so strong it could not let them go. pl
The book will be available in both hard and soft cover in November or early December depending on how speedy I am in proof reading. I wii put up a notice when it is released. pl .
Congratulations and thanks for all you do Colonal. I look forward to the reading and to sharing it with my friends and family.
HL
The book is copyrighted. pl
Congratulations and thanks for all you do Colonal. I look forward to the reading and to sharing it with my friends and family..,
The book will be available in both hard and soft cover in November or early December depending on how speedy I am in proof reading. I wii put up a notice when it is released. pl ….
David Habakkuk has an intriguing observation in his Amazon site book review. He posits the American Civil War as a continuation of the English Civil War- landed Cavaliers vs. Roundhead Puritans.
In the name of God, That is it.God bless you all, and God bless America !..