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Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing
This National Book Award finalist traces the life of the general whose career began on the western frontier and culminated with victory in a world war.
Using both domestic and foreign sources, many heretofore untapped, Frank Vandiver focuses on the qualities of and challenges to Pershing the soldier without losing sight of the man who wore the uniform. Vandiver gives special attention to Pershing's stint as head of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, his fourteen years' service in the Far East, and his unusual role as manager-organizer of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Here is a full-bodied portrait of a remarkable American, plus new insights into American and international military history, and a fresh view of the United States' rise to power.
Using both domestic and foreign sources, many heretofore untapped, Frank Vandiver focuses on the qualities of and challenges to Pershing the soldier without losing sight of the man who wore the uniform. Vandiver gives special attention to Pershing's stint as head of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, his fourteen years' service in the Far East, and his unusual role as manager-organizer of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Here is a full-bodied portrait of a remarkable American, plus new insights into American and international military history, and a fresh view of the United States' rise to power.
1246 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1977
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About the author
Frank E. Vandiver
51 books5 followersFrank Everson Vandiver was an American Civil War historian and former president of Texas A&M University and the University of North Texas, as well as acting president of Rice University. Vandiver wrote, co-wrote, or edited 24 books, and wrote an additional 100 scholarly articles or reviews.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 13, 2019
Knowing very little about this General and reading just a bit about him in Forty-Seven Days recounting the efforts of the First Army to win WWI, I wanted to learn more about this leader. This book did not disappoint. I learned about his life and the great tragedy of losing his family in a San Francisco house fire. Up until the end, this was a complex man but truly a leader of men.
June 7, 2021
The fact that it took me months to get through this should not be considered a reflection on the quality of the book, but how much is packed into it, and the fact that I only read it a few pages at a time.
Although the book is massive, Vandiver writes with a lyrical quality that makes it read almost like a novel. Although he covers Pershing’s life from before the Pancho Villa raid, through World War I, and then to his death at the beginning of World War II, I never felt like the book dragged. The only thing that made me stumble is that this is Part II, and it feels like the work was originally one long piece and the editor made him break it in half. The pagination continues (page 1 is page 595), and we pick up immediately after a tragedy in Pershing’s life, with no explanation of what happened or who the people were. A house fire killed Pershing’s wife and all but one of his children, but I was distracted from the description of his grief by trying to piece together who was involved and what happened. Does this name belong to his wife? His daughter? Maybe a sister? How many children were there? I’m not a huge fan of books in a series that start by recapping everything that happened in the last book, but I could have used a primer here.
Vandiver continues on without a beat or a break, and assumes that everyone is following along with him. Once he has named and established who a person is, he refers back to them dozens or hundreds of pages later without a re-introduction. And at least some background in WWI is handy here, because he name drops foreign leaders and events in the war with no explanation, just an assumption that the reader is with him. It is worth a reminder, however, that this is how history books used to be written—the authors assumed a basic level of knowledge and understanding and didn’t waste time with backstory they assumed the reader already knew. It’s more a commentary on the modern education than on the quality of their work when I need to stop what I’m doing and google something for context.
Many times a historical work, whether fiction or nonfiction, is so engrossing to me that I “forget” that I know what’s coming, or I hope that somehow the ending is different. Earlier this year I read The Lady in the Tower, and although I knew Anne Bolyen’s eventual fate, I still hoped that she’d escape it. In this case, knowing that Pershing would survive allowed me not to worry about him during his battlefront tours in France, and instead focus on his character and his leadership. My theory is and remains that if you want to learn something, don’t read self-help books; read about people who did it. He had a leadership style I want to emulate, and it is easier for me to study it in practice rather than read a list of “ways to be a leader” in theory.
Vandiver is a writer from a different time, who writes about people from a different era, in a world that no longer exists—in both good ways and bad. But as biographies go, especially military biographies, this was a brilliant and engrossing work, and I highly recommend it.
Although the book is massive, Vandiver writes with a lyrical quality that makes it read almost like a novel. Although he covers Pershing’s life from before the Pancho Villa raid, through World War I, and then to his death at the beginning of World War II, I never felt like the book dragged. The only thing that made me stumble is that this is Part II, and it feels like the work was originally one long piece and the editor made him break it in half. The pagination continues (page 1 is page 595), and we pick up immediately after a tragedy in Pershing’s life, with no explanation of what happened or who the people were. A house fire killed Pershing’s wife and all but one of his children, but I was distracted from the description of his grief by trying to piece together who was involved and what happened. Does this name belong to his wife? His daughter? Maybe a sister? How many children were there? I’m not a huge fan of books in a series that start by recapping everything that happened in the last book, but I could have used a primer here.
Vandiver continues on without a beat or a break, and assumes that everyone is following along with him. Once he has named and established who a person is, he refers back to them dozens or hundreds of pages later without a re-introduction. And at least some background in WWI is handy here, because he name drops foreign leaders and events in the war with no explanation, just an assumption that the reader is with him. It is worth a reminder, however, that this is how history books used to be written—the authors assumed a basic level of knowledge and understanding and didn’t waste time with backstory they assumed the reader already knew. It’s more a commentary on the modern education than on the quality of their work when I need to stop what I’m doing and google something for context.
Many times a historical work, whether fiction or nonfiction, is so engrossing to me that I “forget” that I know what’s coming, or I hope that somehow the ending is different. Earlier this year I read The Lady in the Tower, and although I knew Anne Bolyen’s eventual fate, I still hoped that she’d escape it. In this case, knowing that Pershing would survive allowed me not to worry about him during his battlefront tours in France, and instead focus on his character and his leadership. My theory is and remains that if you want to learn something, don’t read self-help books; read about people who did it. He had a leadership style I want to emulate, and it is easier for me to study it in practice rather than read a list of “ways to be a leader” in theory.
Vandiver is a writer from a different time, who writes about people from a different era, in a world that no longer exists—in both good ways and bad. But as biographies go, especially military biographies, this was a brilliant and engrossing work, and I highly recommend it.
August 7, 2017
A true American soldier, a true American hero. JJ Pershing may be the greatest American military figure since the Civil War but also one of the least known. Pay honor to his service and memory by taking the time to read about his life and times.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews