Johnson's <em>A Gallant Little Army </em>selected for book club
Chris Pepple |
The History Book Club has chosen Tim Johnson’s A Gallant Little Army as a Main Selection for the upcoming month. “The club will announce the book to their members in December,” said Susan Schott, assistant director and marketing manager at the University Press of Kansas. “We consider book club adoption to be a valuable stamp of approval--an important signal to the marketplace that the book is accessible and appropriate for a general audience. A History Book Club adoption is especially wonderful; it carries with it quite a bit of prestige, assuring that reviewers and key industry buyers will take notice.”
Johnson, professor of history, proves through his research that history is both fascinating reading material and a valuable teaching tool. The University of Kansas Press, known for its outstanding scholarly publications, released Johnson’s newest book this September titled A Gallant Little Army: The Mexico City Campaign. Johnson details the often overlooked Mexico City Campaign led by General Winfield Scott. In this 1847 campaign, 11,000 soldiers under Scott’s leadership landed on the east coast of Mexico and marched over 250 miles in order to make peace negotiations possible. Johnson, who traveled to Mexico in 1999 and retraced the army’s steps, vividly recounts the stories of the soldiers who marched to Mexico City and helped secure an agreement which transferred a sizeable amount of the continent from Mexico to the United States.
“This was a fun book to write and research. I went through hundreds of letters soldiers had written. When you are sitting in archives doing extensive research, you lose yourself in the soldier’s words,” said Johnson.