Books in Brief / A Cornucopia of Titles (Continued)

In an effort to aid our readers in book buying during the runup to Christmas, here are a few more titles we'd suggest you consider, along with capsule reviews:

Why Marines Fight by James Brady -- Upon graduation from college in 1963, I felt the Vietnam War heating up and sensed I might be called. My first instinct was that I had better learn how to fight and there was no doubt in my mind that the place to learn that skill was the U.S. Marine Corps. Author James Brady, a Korean War platoon commander, tells why in this book that is sure to be welcomed by any Marine veteran. He interviews Marines who served in wars from World War II to Afghanistan and examines the motivations and emotions of both well-known people like Sen. James Webb and New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly to anonymous but proud teachers, firemen, authors and policemen.

Clothing Gandhi's Nation -- Homespun and Modern India by Lisa Trivedi -- The primitive cloth known as homespun, or home-woven cloth, has long been associated with the people of India. But, as this Hamilton College historian explains, it is not simply a convenient fabric affordable by the masses but a political and economic statement of the swadeshi movement, which in the pre-independence days "advocated exclusive consumption of indigenous goods to establish India's autonomy from Great Britain." It was Mohandas K. Gandhi who argued that self-rule depended on economic self-sufficiency. The author describes the organizations that oversaw development, production and sale of the cloth known popularly in India as khadi.

Lafayette in American in 1824 and 1825 -- Journal of a Voyage to the United States, by Auguste Levasseur, unabridged English translation by Alan R. Hoffman -- It is accurate to say that French Gen. Gilbert du Motier Lafayette took America by storm when he unleashed a whirlwind tour of all 24 states. The 67-year-old hero of the American Revolution traveled many of the same places covered a decade later by his countryman, Alexis de Tocqueville. Along the way he visited with such old friends as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James  Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Levasseur, the author of this journal, served as Lafayette's private secretary.