Time to Become Barbarian; The Extraordinary Life of General Horace Capron
Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc., 2007. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xi, [1], 263, [1] pages. Illustrations. Includes Prologue, Epilogue, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Chapters include The Course is Set; The Caprons and the Snowdens; A Rapid Rise and Disastrous Fall; Special Agent in Texas then Farmer in Illinois; Civil War--Capton takes the 14th Illinois Cavalry into Combat; Civil War--Trapped at Atlanta; the War ends for Capron; Commissioner of Agriculture; Crossing the Pacific; Arrival in Japan and a Meeting with Meiji; The Serious Work Begins; The Plan is Assembled; A Flood of Problems; Progress in Hokkaido; Exploring Hokkaido; Trouble with Lyman; The Final Report; and Back in Washington. Horace Capron (August 31, 1804 – February 22, 1885) was an American businessman and agriculturalist, a founder of Laurel, Maryland, a Union officer in the American Civil War, the United States Commissioner of Agriculture under U.S. Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, and an advisor to Japan's Hokkaid Development Commission. His collection of Japanese art and artifacts was sold to the Smithsonian Institution after his death. Recruited by the Japanese government for his expertise in agriculture and military affairs, in 1871, he traveled to Japan, where he was received with full honors by Emeror Meiji. During his years in Japan, Capron endured criticism by the British and American press. Infighting among the members of his mission, and with the Japanese who supervised them, made the effort difficult and controversial. Capron returned to the United States in 1875 after receiving the highest award ever given to a foreigner by the Emperor. More