Background
Chaffin, Tom was born on November 21, 1952 in Atlanta. Son of James T., Senior and Martha B. Chaffin.
( “The most eloquent, understanding, and yet very candid ...)
“The most eloquent, understanding, and yet very candid biography of Frémont that has appeared to date”—Howard R. Lamar, Yale University The career of John Charles Frémont (1813–90) ties together the full breadth of American expansionism from its eighteenth-century origins through its culmination in the Gilded Age. Tom Chaffin's biography demonstrates Frémont's vital importance to the history of American empire, and illuminates his role in shattering long-held myths about the ecology and habitability of the American West. As the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time, Frémont stood at the center of the vast federal project of western exploration and conquest. His expeditions between 1838 and 1854 captured the public's imagination, inspired Americans to accept their nation's destiny as a vast continental empire, and earned him his enduring sobriquet, the Pathfinder. But Frémont was more than an explorer. Chaffin's dramatic narrative includes Frémont's varied experiences as an entrepreneur, abolitionist, Civil War general, husband to the remarkable Jessie Benton Frémont, two-time Republican presidential candidate, and Gilded Age aristocrat. This new paperback edition of Pathfinder features a new, additional, updated introduction by the author.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806144742/?tag=2022091-20
( The sleek, 222-foot, black auxiliary steamer Sea King l...)
The sleek, 222-foot, black auxiliary steamer Sea King left London on October 8, 1864, ostensibly bound for Bombay. The subterfuge was ended off the shores of Madeira, where the ship was outfitted for war. The newly christened CSS Shenandoah then commenced the last, most quixotic sea story of the Civil War: the 58,000-mile, around-the-world cruise of the Confederacy's second most successful commerce raider. Before its voyage was over, thirty-two Union merchant and whaling ships and their cargoes would be destroyed. But it was only after ship and crew embarked on the last leg of their journey that the excursion took its most fearful turn. Four months after the Civil War was over, the Shenandoah's Captain Waddell finally learned he was, and had been, fighting without cause or state. In the eyes of the world, he had gone from being an enemy combatant to being a pirate--a hangable offense. Now fearing capture and mutiny, with supplies quickly dwindling, Waddell elected to camouflage the ship, circumnavigate the globe, and attempt to surrender on English soil.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809085046/?tag=2022091-20
( The amazing life of the explorer who first mapped the W...)
The amazing life of the explorer who first mapped the West and forever changed nineteenth-century America The career of John Charles Frémont (1813-90) celebrates and ties together the full breadth of American expansionism from its eighteenth-century origins through its culmination in the Gilded Age. Tom Chaffin's important new biography demonstrates Frémont's vital importance to the history of American empire, and his role in shattering long-held myths about the ecology and habitability of the American West. As the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time, Frémont stood at the center of the vast federal project of Western exploration and conquest. His expeditions between 1838 and 1854 captured the public's imagination, inspired Americans to accept their nation's destiny as a vast continental empire, and earned him his enduring sobriquet, the Pathfinder. But Frémont was more than an explorer. Chaffin's dramatic narrative includes Frémont's varied experiences as an entrepreneur, abolitionist, Civil War general, husband to the remarkable Jessie Benton Frémont, two-time Republican presidential candidate, and Gilded Age aristocrat. Chaffin brings to life the personal and political experiences of a remarkable American whose saga offers compelling insight into the conflicts, tensions, and contradictions at the core of America's lust for empire and its conquest of the trans-Missouri West.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809075571/?tag=2022091-20
Chaffin, Tom was born on November 21, 1952 in Atlanta. Son of James T., Senior and Martha B. Chaffin.
Bachelor in English, Georgia State University, 1977. Master of Arts in American Civilization, New York University, 1982. Doctor of Philosophy in the United States History, Emory University, 1995.
Researcher Esquire Magazine, New York City, 1980-1981. Freelance magazine San Francisco, Paris, 1981-1985. Director Emory Oral History Project Emory University, Atlanta, 1996—1999, lecturer, 2001—2005.
Corresponding Pacific News Service, San Francisco, 1983—1986. Visiting lecturer University Georgia, 2000—2001.
( The amazing life of the explorer who first mapped the W...)
( The sleek, 222-foot, black auxiliary steamer Sea King l...)
( “The most eloquent, understanding, and yet very candid ...)
(1st)
Fellow: Huntington Library., Emory University.
Married Lena Margareta Larsson, August 13, 1988.