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Title: Watch the movie instead!!
Review: Steven Spielberg's movie Amistad won high critical acclaim, my wife and I included, for its insightful and inspiring portrayal of a relatively minor yet bellwether event in our history. Because I wanted to learn more, I picked up Howard Jones' Mutiny on the Amistad from the remainder table of my local bookstore. I must say I was disappointed. Jones succeeded in saying in 215 academically-bloated pages what perhaps could be told in half the length. As a lawyer, I am interested in and readily follow legal arguments, which is most of what Jones endeavors to recount. Each time an argument is referred to, however, Jones restates it in full rather than assuming his reader had read the preceding chapter or has some attention span. This fills a book already made ponderous by academic style and language. This book reads like a PhD dissertation; if, in fact, it was, I'm sure Jones deserves his degree, but I'm not confident he should win readers outside the ivory tower.
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