Book
Recommendations--Latest Update
Since
I started my Old Jarhead Blog in 2008, I have used it to recommend
books I have read that I thought were worth reading. I read a lot and
recommend a lot. I don't recommend everything I read, but I chose
carefully, and if a book isn't doing it for me, I have no trouble
giving up on it--life is too short. These books range from Good to
Must Read, IMHO. Some fit in both History and politics, so I made a
call.
You
are free to print or post any of these reviews, with credit to:
Robert A. Hall, The Old Jarhead Blog (www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com)
~Bob
History
Triumph
Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965
by Mark Moyar.
http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Forsaken-The-Vietnam-1954-1965/dp/0521757630/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400263927&sr=8-1&keywords=Triumph+Forsaken%3A+The+Vietnam+War%2C+1954-1965+by
Excellent
history from this Oxford-trained historian.
A
Question of Command. By Mark Moyar
A
book review I wrote has been published in Leatherneck
Magazine. I
have been disappointed that Dr. Moyar has not rapidly followed up his
excellent history of the early years of Vietnam, Triumph
Forsaken, with the promised second
volume. But after reading A Question
of Command, all is forgiven. It is a
valuable addition to military history in general, and to the history
of insurgent or irregular warfare in particular. That alone would
make this book a welcome addition to the library of any historian or
military leader. But A Question of
Command is far more than a history
book. Given the wars of the foreseeable future, it’s a service to
the Republic. Moyar uses meticulously researched case studies of nine
insurgencies to provide a must-read guide for military leaders
dealing with insurgencies on the ground, from squad leaders to
theater commanders, and for politicians and bureaucrats directing the
effort. I wish I could afford to buy a copy for every member of the
president’s cabinet and the congress.
This
terrific book was lent to me by a friend. I have read hundreds of
books about WWII or various aspects of it. This was by far the best.
There are a thousand books that will tell you what happened. “The
Second World Wars” tells also tells you why things happened as
they did. As he did for the Peloponnesian War in “A War Like No
Other,” Hanson does not write in chronological order, but
breaks the various wars (he says that many wars joined into one) down
into parts like Airpower, Sea Power, Land Power, Industrial and
Economic Power, Sieges, Invasions, the leaders, and at the end, who
gained what. Perhaps the most powerful section is entitled “The
Dead,” which gives casualty estimates by country. WWII killed over
60 million people, about as many as died during Mao’s various
purges, revolutions and famines in China after he came to power. You
will be both overwhelmed and surprised. He says that about 23,000
civilians died every day of World War II, about four times the dead
at Gettysburg. This is a must-read for military history and WWII
buffs. It should be read by every college student, but of course few
could read a book of this length (over 500 pages). Get it.
Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind by Sarah Wildman
Sarah
Wildman is an American Journalist who comes across a cache of letters
in the files of her grandfather, a doctor who fled Austria days after
the Anschluss
when Hitler and the Nazis took over the country in 1938. A great many
of the letters are from Valy, his “true love,” who was left
behind. They are love letters and letters pleading for help. Other
letters
are from relatives and friends seeking help, help that as a
nearly-destitute
immigrant he was unable to provide. Wildman sets out to trace Valy
through the horrors of the Nazi Reich. She
is an excellent writer and this is a difficult book to read as it
personalizes the immense suffering that took place for Jews and
others as the Nazi vice squeezed the life out of them. Wildman pieces
together day to day life as best she can, talks with survivors
including friends of Valy and the of
man
she married in 1943, hoping to escape deportation to “The East.”
Reading it is wrenching, but it should be read by everyone, lest this
terrible history fade away. Knowing it will help generations to come
to stand against any return of this immense
evil
and put to rest the insane dreams of some for a “Fourth Reich.”
God's
Battalions: The Case for the Crusades. By
Rodney Stark
An
excellent account of the crusades from the European perspective.
Small
Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the
Modern World, 1945-1965 by Michael
Burleigh
This terrific book
was given to me from my best friend from high school. By a British
author, it is well-written, well-researched and well-balanced. It
will be especially appreciated by military history buffs and
political junkies, as it deals with not only the many conflicts in
this period, but the international political decisions around them,
how the "cold war" developed, and exposes the seeds of our
present troubles. Those who tend to view history through a strict
right- or leftwing prism will find details here to confirm their
beliefs and details they will need to dismiss to prevent cognitive
dissonance. Burleigh is even-handed in parceling out praise or sharp
criticism to the historical figures involved, and does not go easy on
the British ones, including icons such as Churchill. He is
unsentimental about colonialism, detailing both the savagery of the
"civilized" colonial powers and the brutality of the
governments and leaders the colonials displaced. I rate this a
must-read. This is not to suggest I endorse every opinion he
expresses. In many areas, I do not have access to the facts he draws
on. In areas I have read a lot about, like Vietnam, there are other
interpretations that should be considered
2014
being the centennial of the start of "The Great War," I
wanted a good history. Naturally, I turned to the late Sir John
Keegan, perhaps, with Max Hastings, the pre-eminent modern British
military historian. He writes with great sympathy and affection for
the troops and common people who bore the suffering, never forgetting
when he describes an attack where 10,000 were killed that these were
real people. He reports, for example, that at the end of the war,
there were 630,000 war widows in France, most in the prime of life,
with no chance of remarrying--the men were dead. I have been into the
Scottish War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle several times, and seeing
the lists of thousands upon thousands of dead Jocks leaves me in
tears every time. Britain lost twice as many men in WWI as in WWII. I
knew a lot about the western front, some about the eastern and
Italian fronts, and of course, Gallipoli, much studied by Marines.
Keegan expanded my knowledge and understanding in all areas,
including little known theaters of war. He is a clear and readable
writer, which is important. \Of course, as a Marine, I loved this
quote when he is describing the allied counter attack to the last
German "war winning" offensive of 1918: "They included
the 3rd and 2nd American Divisions, the latter including a brigade of
the US Marine Corps, the most professional element of the doughboy
army, and at Belleau Wood on June 4 and the days following, the
Marines added to their reputation for tenacity by steadfastly denying
the Germans access to the road towards Rheims, the capture of which
would have more than doubled the railway capacity on which they
depended to feed their offensive." (P407). He also quotes Capt.
Lloyd Williams answer to a French officer who urged retreat,
"Retreat? Hell we just got here!" A great book to educate
you about this bitter conflict which led to WWII and still creates
much trouble in today's world.
The
Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm,
1940-1965 by William
Manchester and Paul
Reid
I
read the first two volumes of Manchester's wonderful Churchill
trilogy back when they came out. I was sadly disappointed when it was
announced he was too ill to finish the third and, in my view, most
interesting volume, covering WWII. When I found he had turned the
project over to Paul Reid, I approached it with some trepidation,
sure it would not be up to the master. I was wrong. This book,
written mostly by Reid from Manchester's voluminous research, is
every bit as good, perhaps better than the first two. It is both a
chronicle of Churchill's life from 1940 until his death in 1965
(which I remember), but a chronicle of the leadership decisions in
WWII by Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Truman, Ike, Monty and
other flag officers. History buffs will love it, but it is not a
project to be undertaken lightly--it runs over 1,000 pages. Still, it
is not to be missed.
Empires
of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the
Contest for the Center of the World.
By Roger
Crowley
I
asked LtCol Tom Kratman, USA (Ret.), the author of excellent military
science fiction, for a recommendation for a high school graduation
gift for a nephew of my wife who is joining the Army. (My fault, I
think; the last time I saw the lad he was about 10 and I showed him
the manual of arms with a training rifle.) The book looked so good, I
bought a copy for myself. It is excellent history. I knew, of course,
about the siege of Malta and Lepanto, but this filled in all the
details. The author writes, "The idea of conquest was central to
the Sultanate, intricately interwoven with it's holder's position as
leader of the Muslim world. ... Only spectacular conquests could
legitimize a sultan." The battle of Lepanto, the most decisive
sea battle between Salamis and Trafalgar, ended the efforts of the
Muslim Ottomans to conquer Europe and capture Rome, though they
rebuilt their lost fleet. I was interested to learn that the
commander of the Holy League, Catholic King Philip II of Spain's
illegitimate half brother Don Juan, was only 22. Philip had ordered
him not to fight to preserve the fleet, but he was eager for battle
and glory. Some interesting notes: One of the fleet's Spanish
arquebusiers was Maria la Bailadora, a flamenco dancer, disguised as
a man to stay with her lover. The writer Cervantes, then 24, was
there as a volunteer and was wounded in the battle. 25,000 Muslims
died as did 15,000 Christians, but 12,000 Christian galley slaves
were freed. (Both sides depended on slaves, often but not always of
the opposite religion, to power their fleets. Raids by Muslim
pirates/slave catchers were one of the causes of the conflict.) The
author writes that, "Not until Loos in 1915 would this rate of
slaughter be surpassed." I highly recommend this well researched
and balanced history.
The
Enemy at the Gate; Hapsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe
by Andrew Wheatcroft
This
is an excellent, well-written and balanced account of the Siege of
Vienna, the last Muslim crusade (until the present day) in 1683 to
bring Europe from the Dar al-Harb (House of War, countries not ruled
by Islam) into the Dar al-Islam (The House of Islam) by force of
arms. These efforts started in the 8th century when Muslim armies
conquered southern Italy, Sicily and Spain and were only turned back
by Charles Martel and his Frankish knight at the 732 Battle of Tours
in France. Previous Muslim efforts at had been beaten at an earlier
siege of Vienna in 1529 and at the decisive naval battle of Lepanto
in 1571, when the Holy League, led by 22-year-old Don John of Austria
destroyed the Ottoman fleet, ending the threat of Muslim control of
the western Mediterranean. I knew the board outlines of the battle,
but this volume contains rich details of both sides, including the
Christian reconquista of Hungary, which had been previously conquered
by the Muslims. Wheatcroft pictures it as a clash between empires,
not between civilizations, though he reports that both sides were
inspired by faith, the Austrians by a belief that they were defending
Christianity, the Ottomans that they were following the Qur'anic
injunction to exp[and the Dar al-Islam. It tells of the key roles
played by Charles of Lorraine in the defense and King John Sobieski
III of Poland, who lead the relief. Also the rise of a young Prince
Eugene of Savoy, who became, in Napoleon's, one of the greatest
commanders in history. Where are these men now that we need them?
Ride
the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph.
By Richard Botkin
This
is a terrific history of the latter part of the Vietnam War, focusing
mostly on the NVA's Easter Offensive of 1972, and the actions of the
elite Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps and their heroic US Marine
advisors. It includes a great account of "Ripley at the Bridge,"
when Capt. John Ripley planted explosives on the Dong Ha bridge under
fire (Navy Cross) and dropped it, preventing the NVA from getting
their tanks and troops across at that point, and contributing greatly
to the defeat of that invasion. The NVA were in violation of the
treaty they signed in Paris, but later we violated our pledge to the
Republic of Vietnam to aid them f the North violated the truce.
Thanks to our reneging on our commitment, today they live in a
one-party state, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech or
freedom of religion. This book will be of great interest to Marines,
Vietnam Vets and Military History buffs. I recommend it, and hope the
movie comes to our area. http://www.ridethethundermovie.com/
If not, I'll get the DVD.
The
Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little
Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick
As a
history buff with a master's in the subject, I have read a lot about
Custer and the Bighorn fight. But as a fan of Philbrick's other work,
I had to pick this up. It will be the standard work on the battle for
many years. It is well written, well researched and well balanced. It
goes into the personalities of Custer (he sounds like a modern
politician--and I don't mean that as a compliment) and of Sitting
Bull, detailing a lot of their careers before and, for Sitting Bull,
after the battle. It cites the positives as well as his negatives of
the participants on both sides. It also examines in detail the
actions of Reno, Benteen, Terry, Gibbon and others. As a vet, I would
not have wanted to serve under any of them. Philbrick has reviewed a
great many sources, including some unpublished, and weighs the
veracity of the accounts. There are a myriad of details I didn't
know, Like that Sitting Bull's great-grandson served in the 101st
Airborne in Vietnam and received a Bronze Star. This is a must for
history buffs, especially those with an interest in military or
western history.
This
is an excellent memoir of a Marine infantryman in Vietnam. It has the
ring of pure truth to me. Unlike most memoirs, Tornes doesn't leave
out things that don't make him look good. I'm a marine Vietnam vet,
but I was more fortunate than Tornes in that I spent part of my tour
on Okinawa, that I was a Radio relay Team chief, and that my time at
Khe Sanh in 1967, including a month in the Ville TAD to the CAC unit,
was fairly quiet. You will understand why the grunts are held in high
regard by all Marines. I saw on the flyleaf that Tornes lived in
Wisconsin, so I Googled him. Alas. I found his obit. He died in 2010
at 64. But he had 47 years after he cheated death in Vietnam. I'm
sorry I can't get to buy him a drink. The book, published in 2004,
appears to be out of print, but used/library copies are available.
I
received "The Outpost" for Christmas and put it near
the top of my reading pile. While it was long, it was not
disappointing. Tapper gives an excellent, well-researched account of
brave and good men put in a difficult, if not impossible situation by
bad decisions--some going as high at theater command and the White
House. Given the details and the outcomes, it is hard to disagree
with his conclusions. Tapper is a journalist, with all the negative
connotations of "agenda driven-propagandist" that today
attach to that word, so I was pleased that he presented the story in
a very straight-forward manner and had an obvious respect, perhaps
affection, for the troops he was writing about. That sat well with
this old Jarhead. It's been 30 years since I last wore the uniform,
so I'm out of date, but as far as I could tell he got the military
details and nomenclature right. (Though he reported one man promoted
to "Private Second Class." I had never heard that term used
for an Army E-2.) That the combat outpost that is the subject of the
book was poorly sited should have been obvious to anyone, as it was
to an Army E-4 involved in planning at the start of the book. The old
infantry maxim is, "Take the high ground, or they will bury you
in the valley." And "valley" hardly describes their
situation. I spent August and a few days in September of 1967 with a
Marine Combined Action Company heading a Radio Relay Team at Khe
Sanh. But we were very close to and well supported by the main Khe
Sanh Combat Base. It was pretty quiet, and I had the good fortune to
rotate home about four months before Tet (They was scared to
attack while I was there!) CAC-O got hit hard at the start of the
siege, but because the location was far better, the troops first
class and well-trained and the defenses good, they inflicted a lot of
casualties on the NVA for almost none in return, and evacuated to the
main base by foot. Even so, it was a hairy situation that I'm both
sorry and glad to have missed. No Marine infantry fire team leader
would have located an outpost in the situation described by Tapper.
The terrain photos alone show it was a disaster scheduled to happen.
When the bad guys can shoot down at you, you know you are in a
bad place. That they steadily lost control of the surrounding area
should have alerted someone that trouble was guaranteed. And I would
trust the local Vietnam troops with us at Khe Sanh far more than the
ANA described in the book. After reading it, I doubt that any hearts
and minds can be won in that culture, only rented temporarily. I
highly recommend this fine account of combat action.
Apache:
Inside the Cockpit of the World's Most Deadly Fighting Machine.
By Ed
Macy
A terrific combat
memoir by a Brit chopper pilot in Afghanistan. The details on the
Apache and flying it are fascinating, but the combat scenes are
riveting. I literally couldn't put it down for the last few chapters,
read late into the night. Well written; military history buffs will
love it.
Inside
the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle
for Saudi Arabia by Robert
Lacey
My
wife and I read The Year 1,000 by this (British I think)
author, and loved it, so we looked for more of his works. Lacey
writes with a straightforward, clear and entertaining style. This is
a right-down-the-middle history of Saudi Arabia, with great details
about the rise of Sunni jihad terrorism, Wahhabism, Al Qaeda and Bin
Laden. It explores the struggle between Islamic fundamentalists and
modernists in Saudi Arabia. This is neither a conservative nor a
liberal book; Lacey says both positive and negative things about
George Bush when he feels it is called for. He has lived in the
Kingdom for many years, and obviously has an affection for the
Saudis--but not all of them, and his views are not blinded by that.
This is an essential book for understanding both the Middle East and
the terrorist threat we are dealing with. I highly recommend it.
Inshallah you will read it.
When
Chicago Tribune writer Bob Greene’s father was dying, he met
BGen Paul Tibbets, USAF (Ret.) Tibbets, I hope you know, led the AAF
group that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan and flew the Enola
Gay, named for his mother, to Hiroshima. This is his story of
both Tibbets and his dad, a WWII Infantry officer, and their
generation looking at a changed America in their twilight years.
Greene does a fine job of capturing their thoughts, emotions and the
world view of what has been called “The Greatest Generation,”
which saved the world. (Alas, it needs saving again.) I found
especially moving the many tributes to Tibbets from people thanking
him for saving their lives, because they, or the fathers and
grandfathers, were scheduled for the invasion of Japan, where we
expected a million American casualties. With even Japanese women
being trained to fight with sharpened sticks, the casualties among
the Japanese would have been far higher than those caused by the
bombs. When at U-Mass, I took a course in the history of Vietnam from
a very sharp but far left professor of Asian history. (I was the only
Vietnam vet in the course, so I had to defend myself every day.) He
insisted we should not have dropped the bomb, that Japan was about to
surrender. But a few years ago, classified documents were released in
Japan that say that even after the first bomb, they were determined
to fight to the last Japanese. I highly recommend this moving and
readable book.
This
long, but well-written book has a wealth of historical detail from
the first thirty years of the last century, for the US in general and
Massachusetts in particular. When I was in the Massachusetts Senate,
the painting of Coolidge, a former Senate President, hung in the
chamber. Until the leadership remodeled the place and, probably
uncomfortable under his stern gaze, moved him to the Senate reading
room. Imagine a President who cut the budget, reduced the size of the
Federal Government, cut the national debt from a major war by
one-third, reduced the size of the military, cleaned up scandals from
his predecessor, was of unquestioned integrity, who stood on
principle even when it hurt him politically, who decided not to seek
reelection when he was a sure winner because he believed in limited
service, who foresaw the crash of 1929 and thought that Hoover’s
policies (expanded and made worse by Roosevelt) would make it far
more severe and long lasting, and who met with his budget director
frequently to see if they could cut a few thousand dollars more in
waste. Then imagine a president now both smart enough and open minded
enough to read this book and benefit from it. It will be argued those
were simpler times, but the challenges were as daunting, as this book
makes clear. The men and women were different, with a different view
of the role of government versus individual freedom and
responsibility. It can be argued that Coolidge, not Reagan, was the
last conservative Republican president. (Grover Cleveland was the
last conservative Democrat president.) I highly recommend this fine
historical biography.
America
in 1857: A Nation on the Brink Revised Edition
by Kenneth
M. Stampp
This terrific book is well-researched, well-written and
well-balanced. It will be of interest to history buffs, political
buffs and anyone interested in the Civil War, for Buchanan’s
efforts to appease southern Democrats and bring Kansas into the Union
as a slave state, against the wishes of the vast majority of her
people, assured a Republican victory in 1860. Anyone who thinks that
slavery wasn’t the primary cause of the war should read this book.
Democrat politicians and Democrat editors north and south almost
universally referred to the opposition as the “Black Republicans,”
trying to tie them to abolition and wanting equality of the races.
Few did, though all Republicans thought slavery was an abomination
and hoped for its eventual extinction, thus opposing the spread of
slavery to Kansas and other territories. The struggle over Kansas
forms a large part of the book, but the Dred Scott decision and
William Walker’s filibustering efforts to take over Nicaragua,
supported by southern Democrats who saw it as another slave state, as
well as the financial panic that fall are all covered in detail.
The book will also give you hope for our time, as politics then as
now was filled with slander, name-calling, vituperation, corruption,
chicanery and vote fraud.
Some quotes from the book: “unban immigrants were the source of
much of the illegal voting, for party leaders found compliant judges
who would naturalize compliant followers in large numbers on the eve
of an election, often in violation of naturalization laws. In
Philadelphia, for example, several thousand illegal votes helped the
Democrats carry Pennsylvania for Buchanan (in 1956).
“In his journal, Ralph waldo Emmerson, “…wrote indignantly
about the, ‘class of privileged thieves who infest our politics…’”
The 1856 Republican platform said it was “both the right and the
imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin
relics of barbarism—Polygamy and Slavery.” While the Democrat
platform, “exploiting northern race prejudice, attacked the ‘Black’
Republicans as ‘amalgamationists’ and reckless abolitionists
whose triumph would destroy the Union.” (An amalgamationist was
someone who favored mixing the races.)
“When a Wisconsin Republican moved to amend a proposed referendum
on black suffrage to include suffrage for women, the Democratic
minority supported him ‘to get a political advantage by making the
bill odious.’”
“Racial equality was only one of heresies of which Democrats
accused Republicans. According to the Washington Union (the organ of
the Democrat administration, ‘The black-republican party comprises
within it’s ranks all the isms of the North…Mormonism,
abolitionism, free-soilism, spiritual rappings, women’s rights,
socialism, free-loveism, and know-nothingism have sprung up from this
corrupt state of political profligacy and religious infidelity…’”
“When the Milwaukee Sentinel…asked whether ‘some small
degree of consideration’ was not due to a ‘proscribed and
unjustly treated class of citizens. Democrats lost no time is seizing
the issue, insisting that black suffrage was tantamount of ‘giving
negro husbands and negro progeny to our fair daughters and sisters.’
Their state convention promised to resist ‘the odious doctrine of
Negro equality.”
“Oxford (Kansas) a village of six houses located on the Missouri
line…reported 1628 pro-slavery votes, which greatly exceeded the
number of eligible voters in the whole of Johnson county. … They
soon discovered that 1500 of the names had been copied from in
alphabetical order out of William’s Cincinnati Director for 1855.”
So, pretty much business as usual. I highly recommend this book.
Wellington:
The Years of the Sword by Elizabeth Harman
Pakenham, Countess of Longford
Since
this excellent book runs to almost 500 pages, it is for those with a
serious interest in military history or historical biography. It is
both well-written and well-researched, with great photos. (Of
paintings of course.) I knew only that Wellington’s peninsular
campaign was a success, but not about individual battles. This book
remedied that. And thought I knew a great deal about Waterloo, I
discovered many new facets. It covers not only Wellington’s
character, and his battles, but the complex political situation he
had to deal with, the problems created by his brothers, and the need
for reforms in the British army, starting with the way officers were
selected. He was the indispensable man; Neither Waterloo nor many of
the battles in Spain and Portugal could have been won by anyone else.
His tactical brilliance was only matched by his ability to inspire
troops to exceed all expectations. My only quibble is that the
Countess often uses French phrases without translation, never
supposing I guess that it would be read by members of the “lower
orders” like myself who were deficient in the language. But this is
only a slight distraction. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks
to audio books, this was another chance to expand my historical
knowledge while on the road. Most Americans know little more about
this war than they do about the War of the Spanish Succession. (Okay,
a large number of Americans don’t know what decade the Civil War
was in, or who we fought in WWII.) But understanding the French and
Indian war (Or The Seven Years War as it was called in Europe) is a
key to understanding the causes and outcome of the American
Revolution. This book is well-written and has a lot of fine detail,
especially about the education of George Washington as a military
leader. Despite my familiarity with the conflict, I learned a lot.
The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Make
no mistakes, at 657 pages, reading this excellent history is a
project. It’s also a catalog of horrors and evil. If you want to
know what autocracy looked like in practice, it’s here. Flashes of
the admirable in the Tsars, such as Alexander I’s firm resistance
to Napoleon, are completely subsumed ion their terror, antisemitism,
use of torture and murder. They were usually ill-prepared for the
throne, arrogant and self-centered beyond belief. For much of
history, the serfs were the most numerous slaves in the world, able
to be bought, sold and often given as gifts. A victorious
general might be made a count and given 50,000 rubles and “400
souls.” I found especially interesting the author’s comparison of
the Romanovs and the modern Tsars like Stalin and Putin. The book is
well-researched and very readable. It should be of especial interest
both
to history buffs and those interested in non-democratic politics.
An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
This
terrific book is well-researched and well-written. It starts with the
change from hunter-gather’s to farmers and brings us up to date,
detailing how food has been the prime mover in history, especially in
wars. The author points out that everything we eat has been, at some
point, “genetically-modified’ through encouraging mutants,
developments of particular strains, or cross-breading, far before the
current panic of GM food in labs. Nothing we eat in mass can exist in
the wild, plants or animals. I found especially interesting his
discussion of how food has been used as a weapon, including in
man-made famines that killed far more people through starvation than
the holocaust. I highly recommend it.
Dark
Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First
Terrorist Cell in America by Howard
Blum
this
interesting history was a birthday gift from my brother, Tom. Except
for the Zimmerman Telegram, I knew almost nothing about Germany's
sabotage campaign against a "neutral" United States in WWI.
It included many ship and ammo plant bombings and a couple of
attempts at germ warfare--which killed some people. Well written and
well researched, this one is for the history buff.
I’ve
loved everything I’ve read by the late Barbara Tuchman, so when I
saw this audio book at my library, I grabbed it, though it was
written 24 years ago. Tuchman is not only a fine historian, but the
kind of writer who makes history read like a political thriller. And
the period before the US entry into WWI was certainly a thriller.
With Europe hanging in the balance, the Germans offered Mexico an
alliance. If they’d attack the US in the event of war, Germany
would help her with the reconquista of Texas, New Mexico and
Arizona—the dream that has never died. The Germans in their
arrogance never suspected that the British had broken their codes—and
amazingly didn’t suspect it in WWII either! The political, military
and diplomatic maneuvering between Germany, Britain, the US, Mexico
and, yes, Japan made for a fascinating.
This
book, given to me by a friend while I was recovering from my lung
transplant, is an excellent, rather oblique look at how rulers and
societies have organized military power, both to protect what they
had and, as often to take what others had. It traces the intersection
of military power with economics and resources, and how both
technological development and social change have changed the
projection of power, until war became completely industrialized in
the 20th century. History buffs, especially military history buffs,
will greatly appreciate it.
In
the Company of Marines: A Surgeon Remembers Vietnam. By
James M. Finnegan, MD
When
I read that Dr. Finnegan had died last year, I asked my wife for his
book for Christmas. I'm glad I did. My Christmas was delayed by my
lung transplant, but I received it on Saturday, 1/11 and finished it
Sunday evening. Jim Finnegan left in his third year of residency to
volunteer for the Navy if he could serve with Marines. This took him
to Vietnam to the Third Marine Division, and eventually to Khe Sanh
with the 26th Marines (my outfit) to command Charlie Med through the
1968 siege, where he earned the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with
"V". He arrived after I was fortunate enough to rotate home
in September of 1967, but I went through Charlie Med myself (for
appendicitis!). His account of how he and three other doctors treated
over 2,500 casualties during the siege, saving hundreds of Marine
lives (probably including friends of mine), doing triage and
operating under almost constant rocket, artillery and mortar fire is
inspiring. The book has a few typos (the bane of writers) and could
have been edited tighter, but that does not detract from the power of
his story. His admiration and affection for Marines shines from every
page. He says he can never be a Marine, but I would have assured him
that Marines consider the Navy Doctors and Navy Corpsman (That's
"Core-Man," Mr. President, not "Corpse-Man") who
care for us in combat to be a part of us. Following the war, he
became a noted Thoracic Surgeon, making me feel even closer to him,
as one just saved my life. I'm sorry this good man is gone.
The
Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the
Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex
Kershaw
A
fine account of WWII combat and one of the Army’s best company and
battalion commanders. This book will be of great interest to those
interested in WWII, military history or leadership.
Wright
is a reporter (For Rolling Stone!) who was embedded with the
1st Marine Recon Battalion on the drive from Kuwait to
Baghdad. While some of his statements and views make me cringe as a
Marine, his courage in going with the Marines who were, in the words
of one officer, at the pointy point of the spear cannot be doubted. I
think he does a fine job of capturing the dialog of Marines at war,
and describing the confusion, mistakes, and small daily horrors that
take place in the midst of the large horror and fog of war. He
describes heroism and boredom, competent and incompetent leadership.
As a Marine Vietnam vet, I’m not surprised to learn that not every
Marine officer or senior NCO meets our ideal of leadership, though I
am surprised to find them in an elite outfit like recon. They were
usually transferred to units like support or the communications
outfits I served in. As a recovering politician, I’m also well
aware that reporters can color the impression they create in readers’
minds by both the incidents they chose to report and the words they
select to do so, often without realizing their biases are involved.
(“The Senator reported” and “The Senator claimed” mean pretty
much the same thing, but the latter creates the thought that you
can’t really trust him.) Therefore, I’d give more weight to the
reader reviews on Amazon by Marines who served in First Recon in the
war than to mine. Wright also thinks that today’s troops are
entirely different from Marines of the past, but I don’t agree.
There are perhaps more profane than we were in Vietnam, certainly
more than the WWII Marines, and their cultural references to movies,
music, TV and the Internet are different, but you could pretty much
drop any of them in a Marine unit at Khe Sanh or on Okinawa, and he
would function fine, fitting in except for BS sessions on the
culture. Still, I enjoyed the book, and, stupid as it is, as an old
Jarhead, it made me wish I’d been with them.
Preparing
for Victory: Thomas Holcomb and the Making of the Modern Marine
Corps, 1936-1943. By David
J. Ulbrich
I
had the privilege of meeting Dr. Ulbrich at the Marine Corps Heritage
Foundation dinner in April of 2012, where he received a writing award
for this fine history. I was thus looking forward to it, and it did
not disappoint. While General Holcomb had a fine combat record in
WWI, which gave him credibility for the great service he rendered the
Republic in WWII, this is not a combat history. But it is a great
story of leadership, political acumen and administrative ability, as
the Commandant developed the doctrine and the structure that allowed
the Corps to expand so greatly and meet the challenges of a global
war. If I have one quibble, it is that Dr. Ulbrich, being I suppose
an academic, feels it is necessary to frequently point out that
Holcomb’s attitudes towards race were those of his time, when
nearly everyone was a racist by today’s standards. Today we are
shocked and appalled by racist attitudes except in left wing black
leaders, where anti-white racism is considered a virtue.
Nevertheless, this fine history fills an important gap in the
military history of WWII, and deserves wide reading by Marines,
historians and military history buffs.
A
War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the
Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson
I’m
a long time fan of Hanson’s political columns, which I often link
to from my Old Jarhead blog, so I’ve naturally started reading his
books. This history makes sense of this war in a way no other has to
me, by organizing it not chronologically, but by topic, such as
sieges and navel warfare. Given that the war raged for 27 years, was
wide spread, killed a horrific proportion of the Greek population and
broke all the rules—hence the title—Hanson’s excellent writing
brings clarity to a murky subject. Those interested in military or
ancient history will love it. But this excellent volume also has
lessons for our own age about war and the hubris of leadership.
Marlantes
is the author of the acclaimed Vietnam War novel, Matterhorn,
which I have not read, but will add to my list. He is a Marine combat
infantry officer who holds the Navy Cross, among other decorations.
His outfit was, if you’ll pardon language from the time, often “in
the shit.” Thus he has earned the right to his opinions, regardless
of how you feel about them. He draws on his extensive combat
experience to develop this painfully honest—perhaps brutally
honest—and insightful exploration of the morality and psychology of
war, violence and killing, and the effects on the warriors and on
society. Marlantes is unsparing of himself, of actions he regrets or
is ashamed of. He also makes specific recommendations for dealing
with these issues, with veterans and with future warriors.
A
highly-recommended book for military history and Civil War buffs.
This is a well-written, balanced account of this pivotal campaign,
drawing on hundreds of primary sources, including numerous quotes
from letters, journals and memoirs of soldiers on both sides, as well
as southern civilians caught up in the whirlwind of war. With a
masters in history and a long, though not exclusive interest in “the
late unpleasantness,” I knew the broad outlines of Sherman’s
march. But this book had extensive details I did not know, so I
learned a great deal. I will look for more works by Trudeau as time
permits.
A
well written, fascinating and at times sickening account of the
1980s-1990s portion of the genocide in Darfur and long civil war in
the Sudan, not only between the largely-Arab Muslim north and the
black Christian and Animist south, but among the various factions,
including a violent tribal-based struggle within the southern rebels.
Though South Sudan became independent, the multi-sided fighting rages
today. Americans only take note when the starvation gets bad enough
to warrant TV coverage--if American Idol isn't on--but there is no
reason to suspect the suffering and death has lessened. Scroggins, a
journalist who reported on Africa first hand, builds her story around
Emma McCune, a wild-child British aid worker who married the Sudanese
warlord of one of the southern factions and became such a partisan in
the internecine tribal feud that it was called "Emma's War"
by the locals. Who should read this book? Anyone who thinks that
slavery was an American phenomena that ended in 1965. (The Muslims
contemptuously referred to all the southern blacks by the local word
for "slave.") Anyone who thinks there is real hunger and
poverty in America. Anyone who thinks that in the Sudan--or any
conflict like this in the Third World, there are any good guys with
clean hands--including the US, the UN and the NGO aid organizations.
Anyone who thinks that Shari'a law is a benign cultural and religious
expression. Anyone in a position to try to make policy for Africa, by
the government or by a charitable organization. Anyone who wants a
broader understanding of this and similar conflicts.
At
All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Mariners
Turned the Tide of World War II. By Sam Moses.
I
enjoyed this wonderfully-told story on audio book during my commutes.
It's a must for the WWII or Navel History Buff. Operation
Pedestal, the convoy that saved Malta for the allies despite
losing nine of 14 merchant ships, was arguably a turning point in the
war. Yet it is a little known tale of great heroism. One hopes that
we can find such men for the challenges of the future.
War
Shots. Norm Hatch and the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Cameramen of World
War II. By Charles Jones
http://www.warshotsbook.com/
(For autographed copy)
Okay,
I had a bias. I couldn’t wait to get my copy, and then to read it.
I came to this book expecting to love it and I did. In April, my wife
Bonnie and I were invited to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s
2012 Awards Dinner, where I received an award for my book, Old
Jarhead Poems. Sitting next to me was Chip Jones, the author, who
also received a writing award War Shots. And sitting next to
Bonnie was Norm Hatch! Maj. Hatch is in his 90s now, has some
mobility challenges, but I wish my mental acuity was equal to his.
Talking with him was a treat. This is a guy who rubbed shoulders with
the pantheon of WWII Marine greats, and, from the stream of Generals
stopping by our table to speak to him, is considered at least a minor
deity himself by the leadership of today’s Corps. Hatch got an
Academy Award for short documentary in 1944 for his Tarawa filming
under fire. Then, two weeks later, I was watching a story about
Tarawa on the Military History Channel, and there was Hatch being
interviewed. I only wish I had read this book before I met him. I
learned a great deal about the combat cameramen of WWI, as expected,
but also new details about Tarawa and Iwo Jima, including the
controversy over the flag raising photo, which Hatch helped to
resolve, as one of his men shot the movie of it going up. He was also
in Nagasaki right after the war, a very interesting chapter, and made
a documentary that helped the effort to save the Marine Corps from
extinction in that post-war political fight. Hatch was not only
incredibly brave, but very resourceful and competent. This book will
be appreciated by every Marine, by WWII buffs, and by those
interested in military history, the movie industry or human courage.
The term “Greatest Generation” has been over-used, and we have
some pretty great people defending America today, but Norm Hatch is a
great Marine, and this book made me very proud to have met him and
worn the same uniform.
The
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II
Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour.
By James
D. Hornfischer
I
listened to this as an audio book in the car, and often found myself
wanting to drive around to keep it going. Hornfischer has a wonderful
ability to cover the big picture while having a fine eye for details
and individual stories. Though far less well-known than Midway, the
Battle of Samar was arguably the US Navy’s most gallant action in
WWII. Perhaps it has been glossed over because that otherwise
excellent leader, Bull Halsey, got sucked out of position, making the
sacrifice necessary. If you are interested in that conflict, in
military/navel history, or in American heroism, you won’t want to
miss this well-written book. We still have such men defending the
Republic out on the far flung battle lines, but it’s an open
question if we have enough of them to face down a crisis of WWII
magnitude. And I fear one is coming.
The
Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall
Ferguson
I
got hooked on Ferguson when a friend recommended Civilization: The
West and the Rest. I followed that up with the equally
interesting The War of the World, and I recommend both. Next
up was The Ascent of Money. It’s very different from the
others, but illuminating and I learned a great deal about how not
only money, but stocks, bonds, credit, mortgages and other financial
developments came to be—and the crucial role they play in
civilization and our current standard of living. I also learned that
a lot of the things that got us into trouble in 2008, credit default
swaps, securitized mortgages and the like, are beyond me. And that
our prosperity is not only beyond my control, but, frighteningly,
apparently beyond the control of the supposed experts making the big
decisions. I highly recommend this entertaining, well-written,
informative and, alas, unsettling book.
The
War of the World by Niall Ferguson
I
discovered Ferguson, a Scots historian now at Harvard, when a friend
introduced me to his last book, Civilization: The West and the
Rest, which I previously recommended. That led me to search out
other works by him, and I expect to read more after this one.
Ferguson is a fine writer with the ability to capture the essential
quote or detail to illuminate his point. He was going to write a WWII
book, but decided that had been done. Instead, he looked at the
violence of the 20th century, not only wars, but genocide, pogroms
and man-made famines like Stalin's that killed millions to bring
ethnic areas like the Ukraine to heel, viewing it as one long,
world-wide war. It is hard to say I liked this book, because it is
hard to like such an extensive catalog of man's inhumanity,
but I appreciated the way he drew the themes together, discussing the
causes of the violence in the bloodiest century in history. It
remains to be seen if our current century will be better, but
certainly a thorough understanding on what happened in the last one
is necessary if there is to be a change. This book is a great place
to start.
In
the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
This
is one of those books that just gets better and better, until at the
end I found myself gleaning the chapter notes for comments and
anecdotes not included in the text. This is the story of William E.
Dodd, a naive Chicago historian who became FDR's ambassador to
Germany from 1933-1937, during Hitler's rise and consolidation of
power. It's also the story of his feckless and promiscuous daughter
Martha, who had lovers ranging from a Communist diplomat from the
USSR to the head of the Gestapo. Dodd didn't fit the mold for
diplomats of the time, preferring to live simply on his salary. He
also was willing to speak out against the growing terror of the Nazi
regime, rather than keep silent to observe the diplomatic niceties.
This earned him the wrath of the foreign policy establishment, known
as the Pretty Good Club. Dodd may have been naive, but he was able to
discern that, no, indeed, we couldn't "do business" with
Hitler, and spent the last years of his life speaking out to warn
America of the danger of Nazi Germany, to the detriment of his health
and scholarship. For those who are very familiar with WWII, but not
the years that led up to it, this book will be eye opening. There are
warnings here for our times, when too many people think that great
evil cannot come on us, as it did in the 1930s. In 1934, New York
Jews held a mock trial of Hitler, to the protests of Germany. Our
government basically said, sorry, First Amendment and all that. One
wonders what the government's reaction today would be to a mock trial
of, say, Mohammad?
Must
Read: Mohammad & Charlemagne Revisited: The
History of a Controversy by Emmet Scott.
Having
read and recommended Bryan Ward-Perkins The Fall of Rome, I
was most interested to read this book, which takes aim on
Ward-Perkins. While I recommend both, this controversial update of
Henri Pirenne’s theory that it was the rise of Islam that destroyed
classical civilization in Europe is in my view the most important and
on the mark. I confess that there were tedious bits for the
non-academic at the start, but stay with them, as they are a
necessary foundation to the riveting final four chapters, the
conclusion and the epilogue, which are must-reads for those who want
to understand today’s world and the millennium-old clash between
western civilization and Islam. Basically, Scott lays out a solid
case that it was the closure of Mediterranean trade route by Muslim
raiders, and the destruction of the lowland, coastal agricultural
system that supported advanced economies, as the peoples in the south
of Europe had to retreat to defended hill top towns to escapes the
attentions of Islamic slave raiders that provided the death knell for
classical civilization. Some telling quotes from the book, which
bring to mind our present world: “Aside from the aristocrats
themselves, there were armies of bureaucrats and courtiers
surrounding the (Roman) Emperor, huge numbers of soldiers, and a vast
number of unemployed plebeians, who had to be supported by a social
security system, which the Romans named the “dole.” … With the
decline of the city as a political power, the great majority of this
population would naturally have disappeared. (PP. 80-81). (Be
carefully what you wish for, OWS!) “Under the protective shield of
Rome, the farmers, artisans, and intellectuals…had grown to despise
the calling of the soldier, and to see the defense of the country as
someone else’s business. … The civilian populations of Anatolia,
of Syria, of Egypt, and of North Africa were vast, but they were
completely unused to war. After the defeats of the Imperial forces
(by the Muslims), there existed no tradition of military training or
activity which could have facilitated independent local action
against the invaders.” (P. 172. “Islam is virtually unique among
world religions in that its primary scriptures advocate the use of
military force and its early expansion—indeed its expansion during
the first six or seven centuries of its existence—invariably
involved military conquest and the use of force.” (P.185) “…there
was continual and almost uninterrupted war between Muslims and
(European) Christians since the first attack on Sicily in 652 and
Constantinople in 674. In the great majority of these wars, the
Muslims were the aggressors. … it is estimated that between the
sixteenth and nineteenth centuries alone (Muslim pirates) captured
and enslaved in excess of a million Europeans.” (P. 187) This book
will broaden your understanding of the ancient world, the foundations
of our civilization, and the on-going clash with Islam. I rate it a
“must read.”
Civilization:
The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
A
wonderful book you should add to your reading pile. Ferguson is a
Scots historian now at Harvard. This is a terrifically researched
exploration of why a few petty squabbling states in Europe, against
all odds, came to dominate the world. The author has a great ability
to pull the illuminating fact or pertinent quote from the morass of
history. He also explores why South America, which was by far the
richer set of colonies, is now far poorer than North America. (Hint:
widespread property ownership and property rights.) Fergusson says
Western Civilization had six “killer apps” that led them to
dominate the world: competition, science, property rights, medicine,
the consumer society and the work ethic. He makes a solid case that
these six factors not only led to western dominance, but the high
standard of living in western society, pursued today by the rest of
the world. Some of the bits were worth the price of the book. Martin
Luther’s defense of publishing the Koran in order that Christians
could see “how entirely cursed, abominable and desperate a book it
is.” John Locke’s attempt to ban lawyers in Carolina. The author
proclaiming the US Constitution “the most impressive piece of
political institution building in all of history.” His note that
Tocqueville identified the essential difference between the American
and French revolutions, a preference for liberty in ours and equality
in theirs (a warning to us today). His insight that the threat to the
west comes not from radical Islam, “but from our own lack of
understanding of, and faith in, our own cultural heritage.” He
points out that Asians now work far more hours than Americans, and we
more than Europeans. That the Chinese Communists party had a report
“specifying three requirements for sustainable economic growth:
property rights as a foundation, the law as a safeguard and morality
as a support” is telling. And Ferguson’s comment that, “mass
immigration is not necessarily the solvent of a civilization, if the
migrants embrace, and are encouraged to embrace, the values of the
civilization to which they are moving” should inform our
immigration debate. And this: “”It is important to remember that
most cases of civilizational collapse are associated with fiscal
crisis as well as wars. All of the examples discussed above were
preceded by sharp imbalances between revenues and expenditures, as
well as by difficulties with financing public debt.” Are you
listening, Washington? (No, alas.) Ferguson asks if we can maintain
western civilization and western dominance. That’s an open
question. I read the hard copy, but my wife listened to it on disk in
the car. Ferguson reads the book himself, but adds in wonderful
accents on the quotes. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
Gettysburg:
Day Three by Jeffery D. Wert
I
read this fine account cover to cover on Christmas day, and will look
for more of Wert’s histories. It’s clear, informative and
well-written, using contemporary sources. Though I hold a Masters in
history and have read countless Civil War books, I learned a lot. I
highly recommend this to the Civil War buff.
My
wife and I like to use our drive time to listen to books on tape, but
finding one we both like can be a challenge. We both loved The
Zookeeper’s Wife. When the
German’s invaded Poland in 1939, much of the Warsaw Zoo was
destroyed, the animals killed or looted. But the Zookeeper and his
wife joined the Polish underground, and turned the Zoo into a refuge
for people, mostly Jews, but also members of the resistance. This is
an uplifting story of courage and compassion in the midst of horror
and inhumanity. About 300 people passed through the Zoo during the
war, and all but a few survived. There was a great quote in the book
from a Polish philosopher. If you have a secret and keep it, it is
your prisoner. If you let it slip from your tongue, you become its
prisoner. We highly recommend the book.
Carnage
and Culture by Victor Davis Hanson
Having
long been a fan of Hanson’s clear, focused political columns, often
linked in this blog, I was delighted to stumble across one of his
history books. In Carnage and Culture, Hanson considers
European and American battles against non-western forces from Salamis
to Tet. He links western military success to our institutions and
culture, including the rights afforded citizens no where but the
west, and the ability of free markets to create, innovate and build
weapon systems. Some of his quotes alone are worth the price of the
book. Referring to the flyers at Midway, many of whom sacrificed
their lives in that great victory, Hanson writes, “One wonders if
an America of suburban, video-playing Nicoles, Ashleys, and Jasons
shall ever see their like again.” He also reports that, “In the
first two years after the fall of Saigon (1975-77) there were almost
twice as many total civilian fatalities in Southeast Asia … as all
those incurred during the ten years of American involvement.” That
and his comparison of the rules of engagement in Vietnam to WWII will
especially resonate with Vietnam Vets. He also writes that
(Capitalism) is a peculiar Western practice that acknowledges the
self-interest of man and channels that greed to the production of
vast amounts of goods and services through free markets and
institutionalized guarantees of personal profit, free exchange,
deposited capital, and private property.” The economically-ignorant
OWS crowd might well wonder what they would do without credit cards,
laptops, smart phones, not to mention food and clothing, if they
destroy the system that has created a surplus of goods and freedom
from want. I highly recommend this book.
The
Pity Of War by Niall Ferguson
I
have loved everything I've read by Ferguson, so when I came across
this older history of WWI, I grabbed it. At over 400 pages, it is not
to be taken lightly, but for the history buff, it is well worth your
time. Ferguson's grandfather served through the war w2ith a Highland
regiment, and survived. Scotland had a higher casualty rate than
every county except Serbia and Turkey. This book is not so much about
the fighting as about the political, economic and morale factors that
went into it. His excellent research turns most of the conventional
wisdom of WWI on its head. He believes Germany went to war because
they felt weak, not military strong, and thought the imbalance was
growing. His review of the differing economic and financial power of
the central powers versus the allies suggests the Allies should have
won much sooner. But Germany made better use of it's resources, and
the Germans killed the allies at a much higher rate, meaning the
French and British strategy of attrition worked against them. He
suggests that Germans were not starved into defeat by the blockade
and that it wasn't war reparations but economic mismanagement that
led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic leading to the Nazis. You
cannot but help learn a great deal from this well-written volume. As
a bonus for me, I discovered the poems of Ewart Alan Mackintosh, an
officer in a Scottish regiment who was killed in 1917. " So you
were David’s father,/And he was your only son,/And the new-cut
peats are rotting/And the work is left undone,/Because of an old man
weeping,/Just an old man in pain,/For David, his son David,/That will
not come again."
Indestructible:
The Unforgettable Story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima
by Jack Lucas and D. K. Drum
Lucas'
story couldn't happen today. He was a fighter as a boy. as 14 he
enlisted in the Marines. Stationed on the east Coast, he stowed away
on a train to get to California and the fighting. On Hawaii it was
discovered he was only 15, so they side-tracked him from the
fighting. So he started his own fights, hoping that would get him
sent to combat. eventually he stowed away on a ship headed to Iwo
Jima, which by chance his cousin was on. When he revealed himself it
was too late to send him back, and he made the landing with his unit.
There he smothered two grenades with his body, pushing them into the
ash, and survived, though torn up. He was thus the youngest person in
the 20th century to earn a Medal of Honor. Interestingly, his captain
earned one as well. After the war he led an eventful life, becoming a
captain in the Army and never losing his love of fighting. This is a
book that all military buffs will love, but especially Marines.
Written
Out of History: The Forgotten Founders Who Fought Big
Government by Mike Lee
This
easy-to-read, well-researched book will introduce you to new founding
"fathers" you haven't met, like Mum Betts, a slave who sued
for freedom, and give you a different view of those you probably
think you know about, like Arron Burr. It explores a lot of the
controversies around the adoption of the US Constitution and the Bill
of Rights, and will give you a new appreciation for Americans who
championed our freedoms, federalism and checks and balances. Not to
be missed by history buffs and students of our form of government.
Washington's
Crossing by David Hackett Fisher
My
wife and I maximize our drive time by listening to books on tape, and
this was the latest. Washington's Crossing is an entertaining,
informative and well-written account of the American Revolution in
the pivotal years of 1776-77. Though I have an MEd in history and
have been a Revolutionary War buff since my teens (which I some days
think were just after the Revolution), I learned a great deal from
this book, especially about the "forage war" which took
place after Trenton and Princeton, and took as great a toll on the
British and Hessians in a serious of small actions as a major victory
over them would have done. This book will educate you about the war,
stir your patriotism, and remind you what a fine thing these men
passed to us through their courage, sacrifice and dedication. And it
will burnish your admiration for the Father of our Country. It
remains to be seen if we can pass this Republic intact to future
generations. But Washington's Crossing will inspire you to
keep fighting.
Manstein:
Hitler's Greatest General by British Major General Mungo
Melvin
General
Melvin obviously set out to write the definitive biography of
Manstein and in my view has succeeded. This will now be the standard
work on Manstein, against which all others will be judged. At over
500 pages, it is for the serious historian or the dedicated
WWII/Military History buff, not the casual reader looking to pass a
few hours. Given the complexity of the Eastern Front, the inclusion
of clear, easy to understand maps is a plus. Melvin has both the
professional ability to understand and judge Manstein’s decisions,
and a fine ability to clearly convey them to the reader, even to
readers like myself who never commanded anything larger than a 3-man
radio relay team. Melvin clearly admires Manstein’s operational
genius, but pulls no punches on the Field Marshal’s willingness to
turn a blind eye to Nazi terror to protect his own career. Like so
many German officers, Manstein was not a Nazi, but made his peace
with them, a peace that led to atrocities in his area, for which he
was convicted of war crimes in 1948. He fought Hitler on operational
decisions, but not on moral ones, and felt he could not join the
attempt on Hitler’s life without betraying his troops who were
fighting the Russians. It is interesting that many in Britain opposed
the prosecution of Manstein, and no less a figure than Churchill made
a token contribution to his defense. The reader is left to wonder if,
raised in the Prussian military tradition, you would have sacrificed
career and perhaps family and life to oppose Hitler’s murderous
policies. Some did, Manstein did not. We can only hope we would have
acted differently in the same circumstances.
The
Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization by
Bryan Ward-Perkins
The
Fall of Rome was recommended to me
by a friend who had read my book, The
Coming Collapse of the American Republic: and what you can do to
prevent it. Dr. Ward-Perkins has
done truth and scholarship a service with this short book, doubtless
at some discomfort in modern academia. He is scrupulous in research
and in not going beyond the extant evidence, but he dispels the PC
notion that Romans welcomed the barbarians and together they
fairly-peacefully transformed Europe—presumably laying the
foundation for today’s early-retirement, high-vacation E-utopia. I
have a master’s in history, but am far more of a dilettante than a
scholar in the field, so I found the fact-base focus on the
distribution of high-quality Roman pot shards as opposed to infantry
tactics in key battles a bit dry. But Dr. Ward-Perkins draws many
compelling factors together. His description (p136) of how
specialization contributed to the collapse of living standards and
population when the decline and fall forced people to a localized,
subsistence economy was frightening. Most Americans are ill-prepared
to survive in such a world, where our highly-compensated, specialized
skills will be of little use, and I fear that it may well be coming.
But, as he points out in his chilling closing, people in the late
Roman Republic could no more imagine that things wouldn’t go on
forever as they always had, than most citizens of the West can today.
Both Europe and America have been invaded, if you will, by people
from—in the PC phrase—less complex cultures. While they carry no
battle axes (unless sold to them by the ATF, I suppose), neither are
they met by the Legion’s shield-wall, short swords and pila. I
suspect that Dr. Ward-Perkins looked on the recent riots in Britain
and realized that the UK, Europe and America have created homegrown
Visigoths and Vandals in our cities. I fear this is not so much an
interesting book about the past as a picture of our future.
Never
Without Heroes by Lawrence C. Vetter
A
fine history of the Marine Third Recon Battalion in Vietnam by an
officer who served with recon and led patrols. This book is
well-written, with a lot of attention to personal details, from the
heroic to the humorous...to the tragic. The men of Third Recon earned
four Medals of Honor, 13 Navy Crosses, 72 Silver Stars, and numerous
Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts. They took many casualties and
inflicted many more on a tough, professional enemy. The book had a
personal note for me, an account of a rocket attack I was on the
receiving end of in July of 1967, with details I didn't know. As a
Radio Relay Team Chief, I was lucky enough to be in a much safer
billet with Regt. HQ than these guys, but this book made me proud to
have worn the same uniform. It will be appreciated by all Marines,
everyone interested in military history or small unit operations, and
those who appreciate human courage.
Noble
Warrior: The Life and Times of Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, USMC
Readers
of my blog will know that I read a lot of books. Because I choose
carefully, I recommend about half of them to other folks. This is the
best book I have read in at least a year, probably longer. It’s an
autobiography, but because the General wisely selected two competent
co-authors/researchers to assist, it has a much wider perspective
than usual, and is free of the self-aggrandizement too common in
memoirs. Marines, Vietnam vets, and military history buffs will be
enthralled by the account of Captain Livingston leading his beloved
Echo Company of 2/4 (the Magnificent Bastards) in a bayonet charge at
the battle of Dai Do, a fight that arguably saved the Dong Ha Combat
Base from being overrun, thus giving a great strategic and political
victory to the Communists. His was one of two Medals of Honor earned
in the battle. Anyone who thinks the fighting in Vietnam was less
intense than in other wars, or the troops less courageous, should
read this book and be educated out of their error. For anyone
interested in the dynamics of leadership, General Livingston could
bottle and sell the stuff by the case. Then-Captain Livingston was a
self-admitted “hard ass,” insisting on physical training even in
the field, and grooming standards and combat training when “resting”
in “rear areas.” (Marines will understand why I put those things
in quotes.) He is the kind of officer the troops grumble about until
they have been in and survived combat. Then they respect and love him
forever. The many interesting sidebars with comments from his troops,
peers and commanding officers, which greatly add to the book, make it
clear how respected and beloved General Livingston was and is by his
brother Marines. General Livingston gives full credit to his troops
and superiors, a trait of modesty that seems to come with America’s
highest decoration for valor. They all say they wear it for their
comrades, and the General is no different. There is strikingly little
of the “I-I-I-I” in this book you hear so often in the speeches
of politicians safely in Washington, sending better men and women to
war, and taking credit for their victories. The book has several
additional value-added bonuses. General Livingston played a major
role in the final evacuation of Saigon, interesting and bitter
reading for any vet. He was involved in fighting the Communist
insurgency in the Philippines, and probably narrowly escaped
assignation. He served as an officer and in a civilian capacity in
New Orleans, and has important insights into the tragedy that befell
that city during Katrina. Lastly, his comments on the current
military and political situation, and concerns for the future, should
be read by all serving officers, but more importantly by
policy-makers in Washington. Marines like me, who were fortunate
enough not to be assigned to rifle companies in Vietnam, will always
wonder if we could have measured up to be one of Jim Livingston’s
Marines. Perhaps, if he “kicked us in the ass” (his phrase)
enough, but we will never know. The phony veterans who keep popping
up, and the many who never darkened a recruiting office door to try
to serve, they do know, and must, as Shakespeare said, “hold their
manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with” Livingston at
Dai Do. Every Marine who reads this book will be proud to have worn
the same uniform as General Livingston.
Strength
& Honor by Terry L. Garlock
This
excellent book was recommended to me by my friend and fellow Marine
Vietnam vet "Del" Del Vecchio, whose story is first in the
book. I regret it took so long to work it's way to the top of my
reading pile. It's a wonderful collection of individual stories from
vets, all with the clear ring of truth, that should be read by every
Vietnam vet and the people who care about them, but everyone who
wants to know what that war was truly like and by anyone interested
in the realities of combat. Vets should be warned this book will
arouse a great deal of emotion: laughter, grief, pride and, yes,
anger. There is a terrific piece by a B-52 pilot. Having watched an
Arc Light strike east of Khe Sanh, I appreciated learning how they
were delivered. Garlock was a chopper pilot, and the book is heavy
towards chopper stories, but I have no problem with that. Everyone
who served in Vietnam has a special place in their hearts for the
helicopter crews we depended on. WWII may have been the greatest
generation, but America needs to know how great the generation they
sent to Vietnam was--and those who mistreated vets on their return
deserve to live in shame. There are many more stories out there that
deserved to be collected and known.
A
World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester
We
listen to books on tape (or CD now) in the car, to increase our
reading time. My wife and I both just finished this on a trip. It's a
terrific, well-written overview of that age, with lots of detail
about the intramural warfare and murders of Christian by Christian
over blasphemy and apostasy and doctrine, much like some other
religion we can't mention does today. Great coverage on Magellan's
voyage and how it changed the world. We both recommend it. I've loved
everything I've read by Manchester, including his WWII Marine memoir,
Goodbye Darkness.
Shade
it Black by Jess Goodell
A
friend sent me an autographed copy of “Shade it Black,” which I
read in a day. As a Marine Vietnam Veteran (of no particular
distinction), I have to say that Jess Goodell is a better Marine than
I am, because she bravely performed a duty I don’t believe I could
have done, working in Mortuary Affairs and dealing every day with the
horrific dead of modern combat. That duty wounded her as deeply as
any veteran who lost a limb, but it was a wound unseen and largely
unacknowledged. I would not recommend this book to someone of fragile
sensibilities. PTSD is very real and very painful. Unfortunately,
because it is not a visible wound, it is also possible to fake it, as
detailed in the great book about phony Vietnam vets, “Stolen
Valor,” which I highly recommend. And agencies or providers in the
money flow have no incentive to expose the fakes, which means they
suck up resources needed by veterans like Goodell. Cash flow is
probably why the CDC and the VA have such a different estimate of
real PTSD among Vietnam veterans, and why so many groups raising
money put out inflated phony claims of the suicide rate among Vietnam
vets. Having in the past sent several hundred dollars to a woman
Marine I knew to escape from an abusive marriage (she paid back every
penny), I was disappointed to read that Goodell’s comrades offered
her so little support after she left the Corps. This book may also
make you rethink the politically-correct idea that women can be
injected into the macho male environment of combat without adverse
conditions. Thank you, Jess, for your service to our Corps, to your
fellow Marines and to our Republic. Semper Fidelis
Semper
Cool by Barry Fixler
A
friend sent me a copy of Semper Cool, and I read it in 24
hours. It made me proud to be a Marine, and to have served in the
same regiment as Cpl. Fixler, the 26th Marines--though I was lucky
enough to be with HQ and to rotate home from Khe Sanh in September of
67, before things got bad. All Marines will appreciate Barry Fixler's
no-BS account, but so will anyone who wants to know what it was
really like at the sharp end, warts and all. Too many memoirs make
the writer sound like Rambo. Fixler's has the ring of truth, of a
fine combat Marine doing a tough job, making mistakes, and coming
through. Be warned there are gritty accounts of both the horrors of
battle, and the excesses of young warriors on leave. And the language
is what you would expect of men in combat, not suitable for polite
company. There's a lot of humor, too, the kind of stories only a
Marine could tell. You won't regret buying this book for many
reasons. I was especially pleased to see he was donating his
royalties to a charity to help vets as I am doing with my book,
Collapse. I hope he gets the sales he deserves.
Road
of 10,000 Pains: The Destruction of the 2nd NVA Division by the U.S.
Marines, 1967 by Otto J. Lehrack
If
you want to know what close infantry combat was like in Vietnam, this
oral history of the bloodiest campaign of the war will tell you.
Because it jumps from points of view, it’s not great for
reconstructing what happened when. But it’s superb for sharing in
what the grunts went through. This took place when I was mostly
in-country, but I was safely elsewhere, thankfully.
Brute--the
Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine by Robert Coram
This
is a terrific biography of the man it calls, with justification, "the
most important officer in the history of the United States Marine
Corps." Brute Krulak was my commanding general when I was on
Okinawa and in Vietnam, though, thankfully, Cpl. Hall never did
anything brave or disastrous enough to come to his attention. We all
knew he was a demanding perfectionist, a brilliant thinker and very
short--God help the Marine who looked down at him during an
inspection. Are you interested in WWII? It was Brute who pushed
development of the Higgins boat, which Ike said won the war. Brute
was the driving force behind the "Chowder Society" which
saved not only the Marine Corps, but prevented the imposition of a
military strongman who reported only to the president, a threat to
American democracy. Korea? Brute told the Army that a Marine brigade
could sail in five days, when the Army was being pushed back--and
delivered, saving the Pusan Perimeter. He was high in the councils
planning the Inchon landing for Macarthur, and pioneered helicopters
and vertical envelopment, a revolutionary tactic the Army would adopt
from him for Vietnam. He developed the strategy of protecting
villagers with CAP units and was the only senior general to tell
Lyndon Johnson his and Westmoreland's strategy was failing--which
cost him a fourth star and the position of Commandant of the
Corps--which his son would later hold. Nor does the book neglect
Brute's hero-size flaws. The only glaring error I noted was the
author saying the Marines lost more men on Iwo Jima than the
Japanese. We took more casualties--30,000 to 22,000. But most of the
22,000 were dead, while the Marines and Navy personnel had about
6,800 killed. That's still a horrible butcher's bill, but not more
than the enemy paid in "lost." Still, Coram is a fine
writer--I finished the book in two days. And I highly recommend it.
A
Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry
Schweikart and Michael Allen
I
found this book when looking for a one-volume US history to recommend
as part of my “Reading List for the Educated Voter.” (Linked
below) At 830 pages, this book takes a time investment, but is well
worth it, if you haven’t reviewed US History since college. Or
never. It’s a good book to buy for you high school and college
students—if you can get them to read it! I have a Masters in
History and read history for pleasure, so I picked up many small
details I consider to be errors in fact, which hopefully will be
corrected in future editions. But they didn’t impact the broad
conclusions. The authors are academic historians, and do not gloss
over the bad patches, such as slavery and the treatment of the
indigenous population (what we used to call “Indians” before PC
took hold.) On the other hand, the book was free of the Marxist cant
and genuflections to leftist chimeras so prevalent on campus today.
They do an excellent job of achieving balance, for example,
criticizing FDR for depression-extending economic policies while
praising his wartime leadership and diplomacy. Certainly the last
chapter on the Bush presidency and the War on Terror will be disputed
by the left, but it brings balance to the narrative they push in a
sycophantic media. The book is well written and clear, not difficult
to understand, which is a benefit. You can read the mixed reviews on
Amazon for more details—you’ll be able to discern the world views
of the writers!
Sowing
the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East By
John Keay.
I’ve
recommended this before, but given what is going on there, if you and
Obama and Clinton haven’t read it, now might be a good time. A
broad look at an area we will be engaged with for a long time. This
is an excellent one-volume history of the Middle East, from 1890
through the Suez crisis in 1956, with an epilog to bring us up to
date. The catalog of crime and invasion, contention, execution and
insurrection, siege and betrayal of Hashemite vs. Wahhabi, Sunni vs.
Shia vs. Kurd vs. Turk, Allies vs. Ottomans, Britain vs. France,
Zionists vs. Muslims, and other groups great and small would give a
tourist pause, never mind a diplomat or soldier.
The
Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925. By Herbert
G. Gutman
This
well researched and extensively documented history, published in
1976, presents a far more positive and uplifting view of black people
living under the evil of slavery than the current standard, and in my
view condescending and racist view of blacks, then and now, and that
today's pathologies in the black community are a result of slavery,
which destroyed the black family. Unfortunately, despite extensive,
data-driven research, it has failed to change the national
understanding of slavery and blacks. I think this is because there is
great political value to the race-baiters and big-government
politicians in keeping the majority of black people convinced they
are eternally the victims of the legacy of slavery, and can only
depend on government programs and special preferences to get ahead or
even get by, because slavery has left them unable to compete with
whites. It must be said that Professor Gutman's research is often
presented at tedious length, and the history buff, as opposed to the
working historian, may want to skip the extensive pages of
genealogies created from plantation and Freedmen's Bureau records he
uses to hammer home his points. But Gutman conclusively demonstrates
that, despite the evils of families being broken up by sale of a
partner or child, the vast majority of slaves lived in dual
headed-households, that a large majority formed long lasting
marriages, that they formed kin networks across plantation lines
(similar to west African kin networks), that a majority of slave
children were named by their parents, often for a relative, living or
dead, and that a great many adopted surnames before the end of
slavery, often unknown to the slave-owner and not based on his name.
He also demonstrates that slaves had their own culture, that was not
imitative of planter culture as often assumed. For example, in slave
culture, marrying blood cousins was taboo, while it was widely
practiced among the elite white planter class. Most slaves were not
promiscuous, living in the moment, unable to form personal bonds
because of slavery, as too many think today. They were a resilient
and adaptable people in the face of great headship and evil. Blacks,
Gutman's research shows, had a stronger family structure in 1866 than
Americans of any color have today. Most telling, the vast majority of
slave children grew up in dual-headed households, despite the breakup
of many families by sale. And when death or sale broke up a
household, the children were very often taken in and raised by kin or
friends, despite how little they had. Contrast that with today where
70% of black babies, about 50% of Latino babies and about 30% of
white babies are now non-marital births (and growing every
year--whites are catching up), which is highly correlated with
poverty, poor education and behavioral problems. Despite the
extensive tables, the book also contains countless personal and
inspiring stories from the records and letters that would make you
weep. The one that stuck in my mind was a petition of recently-freed
slaves to the Freedmen's Bureau, asking for help dealing with the
white landowners (who weren't inclined to be over-generous with
workers they used to "own"!). These former slaves wrote
that, "We are a working class of people." Would they
consider contemporary Americans, black or white, a "Working
class of people"? One wonders if the blacks folks in slavery or
immediately after abolition would not feel contempt for our culture
today for squandering what they longed and labored to hard to obtain.
American
Freedom, American Slavery: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia by Edmund
S. Morgan
Published
in 1975, this well-written history of the Virginia colony from
Jamestown to the
Revolution
and the foundations of American slavery is straightforward and very
readable. It explores the historical contradiction between slavery
and the struggle for freedom. The revolution was led military and
politically by Virginia slaveholders. At that time, 40% of slaves in
the colonies were in Virginia. The Virginia colony was hardly the
bucolic paradise some might imagine. Mortality was high, corruption
rampant, life difficult and the large men oppressed the small men.
Early labor was provided by indentured servants, whose lot was little
better than slaves. They were beaten, sometimes fatally, though
probably not as bad as slaves. Their contracts could be sold, and
investing in them, as later in slave, was highly profitable. They
were better off in that their contracts could expire if they lived,
and they became free, but the planters sought every excuse to have
the Council extend the contracts for some violation, often trivial.
Morgan made me glad that my great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great grandfather, John Hall, emigrated not to Virginia, but
to Massachusetts in 1630, where he became one of the "First
Comers" in Yarmouth on Cape Cod and lived into his 90s. Some
interesting takes from the book that sound current: In the 1600s, the
Virginia Assembly complained that an act of parliament affecting
their trade was the result of avaricious men "whose sickle has
been over long in our harvest." I laughed out loud--nothing
changes. Government is still where "avaricious men" go to
put their sickle in your harvest. Other good quotes: "Men with
guns are not as easily exploited as men without them." p. 240.
"(People) wanted an end to fruitless government expenditures.
Much of their tax money, they suspected, was going to line the
pockets of a pack of public officials. ... they wanted a public
accounting of public funds--they wanted specifically to be told what
their taxes were paying for." P.276-277. " But (John) Locke
made it clear to Englishmen that the legislature must be supreme and
that the executive must be limited by the laws that the legislative
branch enacted." P.347. "Firearms were great levelers, and
the use of them by ordinary men against established authority was in
itself enough to generate leveling thoughts." This book is well
worth reading.
Leatherneck
Legends: Conversations with the Marine Corps Old Breed by
Col. Dick Camp USMC (Ret).
I
just finished Leatherneck Legends: Conversations with the Marine
Corps Old Breed by Col. Dick Camp USMC (Ret). (Col. Camp is a
distinguished combat Marine himself, and a terrific writer.) Part
memoir, part history, the book follows five Marine icons from WWI
through Vietnam, in their own words, from interviews, histories and
their writings. They are Lem Shepherd, Roy Geiger, Eddie Craig, Ray
Davis and Bob Barrow. While this is well-plowed ground for those
interested in Marine or military history, there were a lot of new
details and stories that made it a great read.
This
is a short (175 pages), very readable account of the life of this
American Icon. As a history buff, I didn't learn a lot knew, but it
was a great refresher. It will be especially valuable to the
individual who doesn't know a lot about Lincoln. my only disagreement
is that I thought Keneally was too harsh on Meade. Yes he was too
cautious after Gettysburg, and missed a chance to destroy Lee--but
his army had suffered a lot as well. And on that field, he stopped
Lee, something no other general had done to that point.
This
well-researched history, presented in a very readable style, will
delight and military history buff. It is the story of not only the
Zulus, but all of the peoples of Southern Africa, and the back ground
for much of today's troubles in that area. Full of fascinating
details, it is a story of towering personalities, on all sides, with
all the flaws of such people. It details great bravery--and great
stupidity. Containing the best accounts I have read of the British
defeat as Isandlwana
and the heroic defense of Rorke's Drift, it also covers other, less
well known engagements. With rifles against spears the British
defeats appear to be the results of poor tactical leadership and
judgment on the spot. If the British were the aggressors, the Zulus
had a lot of unappealing characteristics. Zulu kings would have
people selected at random for trivial offenses and executed on the
spot to impress visitors with their power. It's a long history, but
well worth reading.
Texans
Guns And History. By Col. Charles Askins
Written
in a folksy, story-telling style, this is an entertaining tale of
Texas Rangers, Indians, lawmen, killers, rustlers, and gunslingers
that will be an enjoyable history for those who like westerns. It
starts with the rangers in the 1870s and ends with Bonnie and Clyde.
First published in 1970, the author lacked the benefit of political
correctness and multiculturalism. For example, instead of calling the
Indians "Native Americans," he calls them savages, because
when they took prisoners, white, Hispanic or Indian, they amused
themselves torturing the men to death over a period of days. The
women were repeatedly raped. If they withstood that, and were
attractive enough, they might be kept as slaves, otherwise they met
the same fate. I mean who are we to judge their culture? When you
don't have cable, the best entertainment around is listening to
another human scream his lungs out as you slowly peel the skin from
his body with a knife. The book has lots of reports of shootouts.
The
Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, An
Englishman's World by Robert
Lacey and Danny
Danziger
My
bride and I are listening to this fascinating short history on CD in
the car. Very interesting facts. Folks in 1000 were more advanced
than we credit. A lot of the things developed then are still strong
influences on our world. The book does dwell a bit on the disastrous
reign of my ancestor, Ethelred II, the Unready. The epithet “unready”
is derived from unraed, meaning “bad counsel” or “no
counsel,” a puns on his name, which means “noble counsel.” Ah,
well, we can't all have Robert the Bruce in the linage.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/193946/Ethelred-II
The
Passing of Armies: An Account Of The Final Campaign Of The Army Of
The Potomac. By Joshua
Chamberlain
A
book I recently read had a section on Chamberlain, reminding me of
this wonderful book I read a while back. History buffs will know
Chamberlain as the CO of the 20th Maine, who held Little round Top on
the left of the union line the second day at Gettysburg. He finished
the war as a Major General, and was selected by Grant to receive the
Confederate surrender at Appomattox. His order to his troops to
render a salute to the surrendering rebels is credited with starting
the healing process. This book is a fine account of the end of the
war. But it is worth reading to savor Chamberlain's use of the
English language. reading it, I felt like an uneducated bumpkin (no
comment, please, unless you can write like this). I recommend this
both for the interesting history and the writing by a great American.
The
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice
Millard
This
is a terrific book. Not only will you learn things about Roosevelt,
but also many interesting things about the Amazon Rain Forest (the PC
term today for jungle). From reading bios of TR, I knew that he had
taken an exploration trip to Brazil after he lost the 2012
presidential race as a third party candidate, but i had no idea that
it was so harrowing. That he survived at all was a miracle--one more
bad break, mistake or accident and his bones would be lost in the
jungle. There is much to admire in his selflessness, fortitude and
tenacity, but in this case his leadership was lacking. He allowed
incompetents to plan the trip and changed the trip at the last minute
to a much riskier area. You can delegate authority, but not
responsibility. Having delegated responsibility for logistics, he
should have supervised to be sure the tasks were properly carried
out. Finding out when it's too late to turn back that they were
missing much needed supplies resulted in a major fustercluck. The
book is well written, educational and entertaining, but frustrating
as much trouble could have been avoided with decent planning.
Puller
Chronicles Volume 1: Secrets and Mysteries of the Greatest Marine's
Heroic Ancestral Faith by Meriwether
Ball
I
would recommend this book to Marines of strong Christian faith.
Meriwether bell has set out to document both LtGen. Puller's
genealogy, but the foundations of his faith. This is not a combat
story, but explores aspects of Puller not included in Jon Hoffman's
definitive biography,
Chesty:
The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC. I
didn't think I had much to learn in this area, but I was wrong. The
book contains not only interesting details, but at least one major
surprise. Bell's light, almost breezy style makes this a book you can
comfortably read in an evening. I look forward to Book II. ~Bob
George
Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American
Revolution by Brian
Kilmeade and, Don
Yaeger
This
is a short, well written and well researched history of a fascinating
but little known piece of the Revolution. I have been a Revolutionary
War buff since early teens and had never heard of the Culper Ring.
The book is easy to read and will hold your interest. It also has
details about Nathan hale and about Arnold's treachery.
Last
Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines' Finest Hour in Vietnam by Gregg
Jones
This
terrific account of Khe Sanh was given to me by a Marine friend who
was with Combined Action Company Oscar and went through the
siege--he's mentioned in the book twice by name. (I was TAD to CAC-O
with a Radio Relay Team in August and early September, 67, but
rotated home, so fortunately missed the siege.) I would take
exception to the title; "Last Stand" implies a Little
Bighorn outcome. Perhaps, "Victorious Stand..." would have
been more accurate. But I loved everything else about the book, not
least because I know or know of many of the participants. It covers
the big picture, but also fine accounts of combat at the individual,
squad and platoon level. It will bring home the war in a personal and
realistic way. It is not to be missed by military history buffs and
those who want a better understanding of combat in Vietnam.
Seven
Days in January: With the 6th SS-Mountain Division in Operation
NORDWIND by Wolf T. Zoepf
This
is an exceptionally well- balanced history by an author who was an
Officer in the SS Division involved. I picked it up because, despite
me extensive reading on WWII, it covered a battle I knew nothing
about. It will be of most interest to military historians and
military professionals, plus anyone who participated in the battle.
These groups will appreciative the numerous detailed maps of the
American and German positions and attacks. The lessons of the book
are already well known, but it strongly reinforces them. If you have
complete control of the air, and/or far better logistics and supplies
and/or far batter command and control communications--as the
Americans did--you win. But it also demonstrates that
professionalism, fighting spirit and morale can create some parity
with power.
What
Now, Lieutenant?: Leadership Forged from Events in Vietnam, Desert
Storm and Beyond by Richard Neal
This
is a fine memoir is by an excellent Marine who rose from Lieutenant
to four-star General in the Corps. "What Now, Lieutenant"
refers to the leadership lessons he highlights from his career. I
never had the privilege to serve under General Neal, and I regret
that, as my Marine service was at the same time as part of his. This
book will be of interest especially to Marines, but also by any
military types interested in leadership or by history buffs, as it
has some interesting inside stories of the events he participated in,
at the company level in hot action in Vietnam and at the theater
leadership level in Dessert Story.
Miscellaneous
The
Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis--and How to
Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sasse
This
book should be read by everyone, but I think it’s a “must read”
for parents, educators and policy makers. (For folks 15 to 25 too,
but how to get them to read it?) Though Sasse is a Republican
senator, it is not a political book. Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary
Clinton’s running mate, said, “The book is practical, helpful and
conversational. I wish it had been written 20 years ago.” We’ve
all bemoaned the lack of resiliency in todays “emerging adults,”
like the story of the two female college students who discovering a
mouse in their apartment and called the police. And after the police
trapped it, the girls went to therapy! Sasse goes through all of that
snowflake mentality and puts the blame where it belongs, not on
“millennial slackers,” but on the parents and educators who took
the toughness out of life. Sasse offers a lot of solutions. (Though I
very much fear it is too late to save the country.) It starts with
hooking kids on reading, and not junk, but enough serious non-fiction
to expand their horizons. I was fortunate in that I developed a love
of reading very early. I still remember books I received for
Christmas in junior high. How I’m almost 72 and read a book a
week…and have shelves of unread books waiting, mostly history (I
have a master’s in it, probably why I like Sasse so much.). If
there is a weakness in Sasse’s book, it is that a lot of his
solutions, like encouraging international travel while in school,
work for the affluent upper middle class. The single mom who’s
feeding the kids fried baloney and is two months behind on the rent
isn’t thinking about how to send the kids to France. But there is a
route open to them to develop into adults: military service, the
tougher the better. And, yes, it doesn’t work for everyone, what
does? And the services are being undermined by the PC wave, meaning
the results won’t be as strong as 20 or 40 years ago. Perhaps the
military didn’t occur to Sasse because he didn’t serve and can’t
imagine his kids doing so. But these “emerging adults” need to
develop a work ethic, resiliency, tenacity and self-discipline, to
learn to take responsibility for their actions and to focus on the
mission, on getting the job down. I got that at Parris Island in 1964
from my Marine Corps Drill Instructors Sgt. E. Owens, Jr, Sgt. M. P.
Martin, and Sgt. W. H. Harris., and because of them, I’ve had a
long, successful and happy life. They are still hiring. With that
addition, I still highly recommend Sasse’s book.
Man's
Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
This
wonderful book was recommended to me by my 17-year-old granddaughter,
Britnye, who read it for school. My congratulations to her for
reading and recommending such a serious, important work, and to her
teacher for assigning it. It was first published in 1945, the year
before I was born, and 12 million copies have been printed in 24
languages. Many people I mention it to have already read it…where
was I? Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist living in Vienna when he was
arrested by the Nazis. He could have fled to America before that, but
stayed to help his elderly parents. They died in the camps, as did
his first wife. He had almost completed his book on logotherapy, but
it was taken from him along with everything when he was sent to
Auschwitz. He survived four different concentration camps. While
Freud held that man seeks pleasure and Adler that man seeks power or
control, logotherapy holds that people seek meaning in their lives.
Frankl recounts his time in the horror of the camps and noticed that
those who gave up, who had no goal to live for, died, while many of
those who did have such a goal still found meaning in life and often
survived. Of course, a twist of fate could kill you in the camps
anyway. I believe what Frankl says. In my books, “Advice for my
Granddaughter” and its companion, “Advice for Boys,”
I write that the secret of happiness is to find something you care
about more than yourself, be it your family, your church, your work,
rescuing dogs or people, your country or the US Marines. I think that
is another way to say you must find meaning. Frankl writes that
people cannot find happiness, they mush find meaning in their lives
and then happiness ensues. My favorite quote in the book is, “I
recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be
supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”
Frankl believes that much drug and alcohol addiction come about
because the addicts have not found meaning in their lives. I wish
more people, especially teens and young adults, would read this short
volume.
Language
in Thought and Action: Fifth Edition by S.I.
Hayakawa (Author), Alan
R. Hayakawa (Author), Robert
MacNeil (Introduction)
This
excellent book was referred to me by my friend who is a retired USMC
Colonel. Because Hayakawa was a conservative US Senator, I fear some
will pass the book by because of the political divide. This would be
a their loss. According to Wiki, Hayakawa was "a linguist,
psychologist, semanticist,
teacher, and writer." This book is non-political, in fact there
is much that progressives would approve of. From the preface: "The
original version of this book, Language in Action, was in many
respects a response to the dangers of propaganda, especially as
exemplified in Adolf Hitler's success in persuading millions to share
his maniacal and destructive views. It was my conviction then, as it
remains now, that we need a habitually critical attitude toward
language--our own as well as that of others--both to provide for our
personal well-being, and to ensure that we will function adequately
as citizens. Hitler is gone, but if the majority of our fellow
citizens are more susceptible to slogans of fear and race hatred than
those of respect and peaceful accommodation among human beings, our
political liberties remain at the mercy of any eloquent and
unscrupulous demagogue." And, "The basic ethical assumption
of semantics, analogous to the assumption in medicine that health is
preferable to illness, is that cooperation is preferable to
conflict."
He
clearly explains the difference between reports, inferences and
judgments. He goes into the uses of purr-words and snarl-words, and
details how what should be "reports" are often slanted into
judgments. Some other quotes, "It will be the basic assumption
of this book that widespread intraspecific cooperation through the
use of language is the fundamental mechanism of human survival."
And, "Today the full resources of advertising agencies,
public-relations experts, radio, television, and slanted news stories
are brought to bear in order to influence our decisions in election
campaigns, especially presidential elections." (Published in
1990 before the Internet! But he didn't have much good to say about
TV.) And," If we can get deeply into our consciousness the
principle that no word ever has the same meaning twice, we will
develop the habit of automatically examining contexts, and this
enables us to understand better what others are saying."
I
wish I had read this book 45 years ago. It would have made me a
better senator, and better speaker and a better writer. In my view,
it should be read by every reporter, every broadcaster, every
politician, every writer and all who rely on clear communication in
their lives.
Semantics
and Communication by John C. Condon
This
excellent and informative book was recommended to me by a friend, a
retired Colonel of Marines. The third and, I assume the last edition
was published in 1985. While a 2017 edition taking into account
language changes in the last 30 years would be interesting, I would
assume Mr. Condon is longer with us, as the first edition was in
1966. Nevertheless, this book is both interesting and value. It makes
you think about word choice and communication styles. Two quotes from
the book I thought were real keepers, "When the person, be he
scholar or average person, speaks with unswerving faith in his
generalization, he has abandoned the attitude of caution that
characterize the scientist at work...the words "ever" and
"always" do not appear in the vocabulary of the scientist."
and "Adhering to official policies, fitting each unique case
into a fixed set of categories, the bureaucrat is spared the
necessity of coming up with fresh ideas." This book will be of
special value to the writer, the professional communicator and to
those in the mental health disciplines, as it deals with the
intersection of words and psychology. I highly recommend it.
Quiet:
The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan
Cain
This
excellent, well-written and researched book should be read by
parents, teachers, business owners and hiring authorities. I read it
for a book club I belong too. At first I thought "Oh no, another
victim group. I should feel guilty for oppressing introverts with my
extrovert privilege." But its not really like that, though it
discusses how America in particular pays homage to the "extrovert
ideal." It delves into the research on introverts and goes into
what they bring to the table in any institution. As with most things,
we need both types. And the lines are not strictly drawn. But we need
to take advantage of introverted characteristics. Interestingly, I
was considered an introvert in grade school, became a little more
flamboyant, though not part of the "in group" in high
school and since the Marines qualify as an extrovert. I'm an ENTJ, I
had a successful ten-year career as a state senator, I enjoy public
speaking and seek opportunities, and I was a successful association
executive which meant constant interaction with a great many people.
But I could also provide a list that would make you identify me as an
introvert. I was chess champ of my community college and played first
board for the chess team, I read at least a book a week, mostly
non-fiction, I write, and have published 12 books including two of
poetry, I spend a lot of time on the computer, and I'm very cautious
about money. I like to think I'm also a thoughtful person. And I'm
married to an ISTJ on the Myers-Briggs. This book explores all these
things and helps you understand the different aspects of your
temperament. For parents or teachers of introverted children it's a
must-read.
Craig
& Fred: A Marine, A Stray Dog, and How They Rescued Each Other
by Craig Grossi
This
is an enjoyable, easy to read book with an important message about a
positive attitude. It is the story of a Marine combat veteran of
Afghanistan, a stray dog the Marines named Fred, and how Craig
rescued him and had him shipped home from the war. It is also the
story of their journey together after coming come, Craig’s struggle
with PTSD and how they changed each other’s lives. It will be of
special interest, of course, to Marines like myself, animal lovers
and those interested in PSTD, but is worth reading by everyone.
Pride
and Discipline: The Hallmarks of a United States Marine.
By Colonel
Donald J. Myers USMC (Ret)
This
terrific book will be of great interest to Marines and to anyone
interested in the military. But it should also be read by anyone who
leads (manages) people, as the lessons are valuable in any setting.
Col. Myers commanded the Recruit Training Regiment at Marine Corps
Boot Camp, Parris Island, SC from 1982 to 1984. He presents the
lessons learned, and details the changes in recruit training that
took place on his watch. Many are common sense--which is all too
uncommon in large organizations, military or civilian. Under his
direction, the recruit attrition rate decreased, while DI burnout and
the number of DIs relieved for abuse went down. There is no question
that PI produced higher quality Marines under his tenure than when I
graduated from PI on election day, November 3, 1964. (With one
possible exception!) The training is certainly better, and no one
could ask more of the Marines in the war on Terror. Most would say
that the DIs are better too, though it's hard for me to imagine
betters DIs than Sgt. Owens, Sgt. Martin and Sgt. Harris, who have
shaped my life for 50 years, and who are in my thoughts daily. I hope
the CMC makes this book required reading for Officers, NCO and
especially DIs at both Parris Island and MCRD, San Diego.
The
Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right
Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good
Life by Charles
Murray
This
wonderful book was given to me by my friend Chuck to read in the
hospital, which I did in under two days, despite time out to be poked
by various healthcare professionals. Its major drawback is that it
was published in 2014, and I really needed it in 1969. This is the
perfect gift for your college students or recent graduates, provided
they are literate and can read and comprehend above the newspaper
level, which has dropped from 8th grade reading in recent years
to The Little Engine That Could level. It assumes the
reader is in his/her twenties, bright and looking to get ahead. There
are pretty much three sections, one on developing a successful
career, one on becoming a great writer, which I wish I had read 25
years ago, and a final one on having a good life. There was little I
disagree with, and I’m probably wrong where I do. I highly
recommend this book.
Firearm
Fundamentals: How to be a safe and confident shooter. By
Gary L. Behr, CPC
By a
stroke of good fortune of the kind that comes to those of us who have
led a blameless life, I ran into the author at a local shooting
range. The talk tuned to books, and he mentioned this one, so I
ordered a copy. It was a terrific find and a great buy. not only is
it packed to the gunwales with information, but with links or
addresses for more gun information that you could absorb in a couple
of years. I picked up several pieces of new information, and
refreshed on things I was taught 50 years ago at Parris Island. You
can skip those areas that don't currently interest you--hunting and
the shotgun section for me--and keep the whole thing as a reference.
There was great information on gun myths, protecting yourself in a
confrontation, legal risks, and a very solid emphasis on gun safety.
I got the version with the WI gun laws in it--a handy reference. I
think it will be valuable to experienced shooters, even more so to
new ones--or someone thinking of buying their first gun. I highly
recommend it.
The
Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success
by Andy
Andrews
This
book was recommended to me by my excellent Physical Therapist, Jim
Carlson, at the Madison VA. Jim is one of the key people who has kept
me alive (so far) and something of a Renaissance Man--both an athlete
(why he's a PT I suppose) and a well-read intellectual. So when he
talks, I listen. The book would classify as self-help, I suppose, but
it is written like a novel, in an easy, flowing style. The
protagonist made me want to slap him by page four. But he is in a car
accident and, presumably in a coma, travels back in time to meet wise
historical figures, each of whom gives him a tenet toward having a
successful life. I had to agree with the wisdom. I think I've done
well with six of them, which may account for my career success. (I do
have a problem with the one on forgiveness; as a Marine I want to
destroy my enemy, raze his cities and salt the land so nothing will
grow there. Then talk about forgiveness. But I don't say that's
right.) I plan to give a copy of this book as a Christmas present and
a teen version, The Young Traveler's Gift to my granddaughter. (She
doesn't read my blog, so mum's the word. I think most readers will
benefit from it. A caveat--it has a religious base, so Christians and
Jews will like it more than proselytizing secular humanists.
Economics
and politics
Another
must-read book from Thomas Sowell. This short (126 page) volume
should be required reading to run for office, any office, and for
government policy makers. Alas, those who need it most probably won’t
read it. And, as Sowell points out, humans have a great ability to
ignore facts to preserve their preferred visions. Sowell grew up in a
poor black family in NC, was supporting himself by the age of 17, and
worked his way to a PhD in economics. Thus, he is unafraid to
research and write about racial issues that would get a white
academics drummed off campus and is unafraid to discuss uncomfortable
facts. He has dozens of books in print. His “Basic Economics” is
used as a text book around the world, having been translated into
several languages. In this book, he destroys both the hard left’s
view that disparities in outcomes are always caused by discrimination
and the alt-right’s view that they are caused by a lack of
capability in minority populations. He reports, for example, that the
same black students who are failing in regular public schools are
excelling in many charter schools. His discussion of the “income
gap” between the top 20% and the lowest 20% is particularly
interesting. The media acts as if people stayed in the same quintile
all their lives. He reports that 95% of the people who were at one
time in the bottom group rise out of it, while a great many people
are in the top 20% only a few years. I started out in the bottom,
making $38 a week when I was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, and
$12k there the first year. For the last ten years of my 31-year
career as an association executive, I was in the top 20%. But when I
retired due to pulmonary fibrosis to have a lung transplant, we fell
out of it. I now make $24,000 a year working PT. If you read only one
book this year, this should be it.
Must
Read: The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret
Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by
Michael
Pillsbury
This
is a terrific but frightening book, well written and well documented.
China places a very high strategic value on deception and making us
believe they are weak and have no intentions of surpassing the US. He
cites a Chinese proverb from the Warring States period that China's
military and civilian leaders often use: Wai
ru, nei fa--"On the outside, be
benevolent. On the inside, be ruthless." He believes that all
recent presidents--Republican as well as Democrat, have been fooled
by the benevolent outside, as have most China experts, himself
included until he started reading things he wasn't supposed to read.
The book details how China has stolen technology and IP, built up
it's cyber-attack forces, developed "Assassin's Mace"
asymmetric weapons to counter our much more expensive weapons, and is
working on all fronts to replace us. The military buildup, in their
strategic thinking comes last, so as not to alert the "old
Hegemon" to their intentions. Very scary read by one of the US
government's leading China Experts for about 40 years. Pillsbury
speaks and reads Mandarin, and has had access to top Chinese leaders,
hawks as well as moderates, and Chinese defectors, as well as obscure
books and documents that most westerners never get to see. In my
80-page 2011 book, The Coming
Collapse of the American Republic, I
cite the rise of China as a military and industrial power as one of
four trends that if not reversed, will lead to the collapse of
America. Pillsbury convinces me that I didn't go far enough. You
should read this book--and send a copy, or at least a recommendation,
to your favorite presidential candidate.
Advice
to War Presidents by Angelo Codevilla
If
they would read it, I'd be delighted to buy copies of this
well-researched book for President Obama, Secretary Clinton and all
the GOP Contenders. It's a must read for officials and everyone
interested in foreign policy. it can hardly be described as a liberal
or conservative book. Dr. Codevilla eviscerates all sides for their
blunders and lack of seriousness: Bush and the "Neo-cons,"
the CIA, Kissinger and the "Realists," and every liberal
internationalist from Wilson on. After reading it you will never
again put complete faith in what the CIA or FBI says it "knows."
He uses historical examples from ancient Greece to the War of Terror
to illustrate his points. There is something here to offend every
viewpoint. Some Quotes: "For European Governments and the U.S.
State Department, calling a conference is the 'school solution' to
any problem." (P-86) " Today as ever, in public life as in
private, leaving no favor unrewarded and no offense unpunished
is the key to respect and a rule of life that you neglect at your
risk." (P-159) "nor are the shopping malls and college
campuses that characterize modern American 'consumer society' apt to
produce the human capital of soldiers any more than of people to make
and fix things. America's producers and soldiers come from the less
favored parts of the economy, while the uncalloused hands and
undisciplined habits at its apex are as foreign to making and fixing
as fighting." There were things that made me uncomfortable and
that I disagree with, but I'm willing to concede that the author has
both more experience and has thought more deeply that I have about
the subject. This is a book that will challenge your viewpoints and
make you defend them. It may, and should, change your views of both
war and statecraft. I highly recommend this book.
I
learned more from this book than any other book I have ever read--and
I had economics in high school and it was covered in my college
political science classes. Sowell is not only brilliant, but writes
well for the average reader.
Dr.
Williams, like Dr. Thomas Sowell, grew up poor and black (Williams in
the Philadelphia projects) to become a nationally-known economist.
They both have put a lot of focus on the intersection of economics,
race and culture. This well researched and documented book contains
his data-driven conclusions on the subject, and details how
government interventions, sold as benign, have too often
disadvantaged blacks and other minorities, while protecting white
racists in unions and in the trades and professions. It also offers
alternate possibilities for what is seen as racism which are thought
provoking. I highly recommend it.
Race
and Culture: A World View. By Thomas Sowell
The
challenges of race and culture that confront us are not unique
to America. Again, Sowell’s excellent research and pertinent
examples put these problems into perspective. You will come away with
a better understanding and new view of these issues.
Up
From The Projects by Walter
Williams
The
autobiography of economist Walter Williams, PhD. A short book that I
finished in two nights, despite three business conference calls. Well
worth reading. William grew up poor and black in a Philadelphia
housing project, has become a leading educator, economist, columnist
and opponent of racism. That would be the liberal racism that says we
need lower admission standards and lower grading standards for
blacks, because they are mentally challenged and can’t compete with
whites. An inspiring story.
Book Recommendation: White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele
Steele
is what an intellectual ought to be; a deep thinker who does not just
parrot pablum spoon fed to him. He is also a fine write with a great
command of the language. His accounts of growing up under Jim Crow
racism (he was a bat boy for a white team, but couldn’t travel with
them as the other stadiums didn’t let “coloreds” in) plus his
accounts of being a black radical on campus and working in
“anti-poverty” programs in East Saint Louis (where he saw the
body of one of his good students outside a convenience store), give
his writing on the subject an authority that people living in gated
communities will never have. This “must read” book is his answer
to the current situation, which he believes (rightly I thing) is
devastating for both blacks and whites. He recounts being patronized
by a white liberal professor who assumed he didn’t need to state
his opinions because she knew them because he was black. Some
of the quotes I particularly liked: “One of the delights of
Marxian-tinged ideas for the young is the unearned sense of
superiority they grant.” “I didn’t know it at the time, but it
was my first experience of how group identity can take the place of
accomplishment as a source of individual
esteem.” “When you give a racial preference to the child of two
black professionals with advanced degrees and six-figure incomes—as
entree to a university that has not discriminated against blacks in
more than 60 years—then you are clearly implying an inherent and
irremediable black inferiority.”
Civilization
and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History
by Lee
Harris
I
can't recommend this book highly enough. It's only 218 pages, but
it's not light reading. It delves into the philosophy and history of
how civilized values like tolerance developed. He points out that
there will always be utterly ruthless groups--it's a powerful
tool--seeking to impose some fantasy ideology such as Fascism,
Nazism, Communism or Jihadism and thus destroy civilization. "Hagel's
point is that violence is inevitable once people set out to reshape
the world according to their own ideals--ideals that turn out to be
nothing more than a kind on intellectual make-believe. The resultant
complex is a fantasy ideology, one in which those promoting this
complex will stop at nothing simply because they have convinced
themselves that they--and they alone--have been chosen to advance the
ideals they hold dear." P-141. Not an easy read, but an
important one.
They
Say We Are Infidels: On the Run from ISIS with Persecuted Christians
in the Middle East by Mindy Belz
Mindy
Belz is a fine writer and editor who has traveled extensively in Iraq
and the Middle East, and has reported fearlessly on the persecution
and genocide of Christians that has been taking place. She has the
kind of courage you would hope for in front-line combat troops and a
passion for the persecuted. In this book she reports events that our
government and the mainstream media have ignored through their desire
to placate Muslims or not appear "Islamophobic." It is a
must read for anyone who cares about the challenges facing believing
Christians in that area, or anyone hoping to see peace come to it.
I
can't believe this terrific book, published in 2001, and written
mostly as a series of essays between back to 1995, has just come to
my attention. But everything I read suggests that not only is this
still the situation throughout Britain, the US and Western
Civilization, but has grown worse, not better since he wrote. It was
written by Dr. Anthony Daniels under the penname Theodore Dalrymple,
probably to protect his hospital, patients and career. From 1990 to
2005, he worked as a doctor and psychiatrist in a prison and a public
hospital in a slum in Birmingham, England. This book is a catalog of
horrors, but is very entertaining thanks to Daniels' incisive wit and
penetrating insights into the causes of their wide-spread misery. I
do not know how you can read this and not conclude that either
Daniel's is lying about what he witnessed, or that Britain and the
west is doomed to collapse, chaos and barbarism. I believe we are
losing civilization. He makes the point that in the US, racists often
attribute the pathologies of the black underclass--non-marital
births, drugs, violence, domestic violence, serial relationships,
crime and a cultural disdain for education that destroys the hopes of
those who might escape from the situation through self
improvement--to race. but in Britain, the underclass with the same
pathologies are overwhelmingly white, native-born British people,
most of whom cannot tell you when the Second World War took place, or
multiply 7X8. (US racists need not be smug anyway--both the Hispanic
and white underclass here are catching up, and have enough pathology
to ruin the country if every black person suddenly adopted middle
class values and work ethics.) In fact. immigrant kids from India in
Daniel's city usually do better in school and life. But there is a
growing underclass among immigrants, abetted by authorities who are
afraid to intervene for fear of being charged with racism, or, if
they are minorities themselves, of being Uncle Tom's aiding the white
oppressor. He details the sickening story of a little girl tortured
to death whose case was pushed off by social workers and doctors who
viewed her situation as part of her equally-valid culture. In another
case, he recommended a suicidal young immigrant be put in a
psychiatric hospital. His family would have none of it, and accused
Daniels of racism, threatening to hold a disruptive demonstration in
his hospital. Two weeks later the boy hanged himself. This book is
not to be missed.
Written
under the pen name Theodore
Dalrymple, whose great book Life
at the Bottom I consider a must-read. In The New Vichy
Syndrome, British Psychiatrist Anthony Daniels turns his
penetrating insights and eviscerating wit to Europe, including the
Muslim problem, the European Union and the general "miserabilist"
world view of modern Europeans. He draws the surprising conclusion
that the growth of the Muslim population is not a threat unless
Europe allows it to be, by defending the values of their societies
against the minority of Islamists and not protecting the majority of
Muslims who want to live peacefully in a modern society from the
violent ones. Of course, he recognizes that the will to defend
values--or values themselves--may not be present in most Europeans
today, but he says the Muslim problem is a problem in us, due to a
lack of courage. The misearbilist (his fine word) world view adopted
by too many of his fellow Europeans he traces back to the devastating
history of the conflicts in the 20th century and the los by Europe of
world leadership--or even importance. Europeans went from being proud
of their history and accomplishments to being contemptuous of it.
Daniels finds both unremitting positive or negative views of the past
equally in error; balance is needed. On the EU, he heaps contempt.
Take this quote about EU bureaucrats: "You can spot a feeder at
the European trough... a mile off: having for a long time viewed the
world exclusively through the window of an official limousine, having
lunched and dined heavily for many years (never at his own expense,
of course), and having developed a special langue de bois in
which streams of grammatically formed verbiage are carefully studded
with words of positive connotation that makes it difficult to argue
against him, he has developed the gray, immobile, slab-faced
countenance of members of the former Soviet Politburo. Alas, it seems
there are a large number of volunteers--mainly mediocrities, of
course--for this kind of life. It seems to them eminently preferable
to earning a living." Could we not write the same about many of
the parasites living off us in Washington? He has equally harsh
words for many politicians, Americans included. This book is well
worth reading.
Another
terrific collection of essays by Dr. Anthony Daniels, the British
psychiatrist who uses the pen name Dalrymple, published in 2008. He
turns his biting wit and insights to the culture in Britain, and by
default, western civilization. In the first section, he reviews the
impact on the culture of famous writers from Johnson to Ibsen. I'ts
quite interesting, but the second section on politics and culture is
not to be missed. I will link to some of the essays, like the one
below, when I can find them on line. A quote from the Preface: "The
United States is not immune from the collapse of confidence that
underlies the deep British Malaise. It is as plentifully supplied as
Britain with intellectuals who indulge in cultural self-doubt, more
from a desire to present themselves to their peers as broad-minded
than from any love of truth or wisdom."
Anything
Goes by Theodore Dalrymple
Another
incisive collection of essays on culture, politics and the passing
scene by British Psychiatrist Anthony Daniels, writing as Theodore
Dalrymple. Every one is worth reading, and some are "must
reads." I've linked to a few on line in the blog, (see below.)
Daniel's wit is endless entertaining, his use of language always
sends me to the dictionary, and he never fails to make you think (if
that's within your capacity, of course). Some quotes: (Political
Correctness) is the attempt to reform thought by making certain
things unsayable; it is also the conspicuous, not to say
intimidating, display of virtue (conceived of as the public espousal
of the 'correct,' which is to say 'progressive' views) by means of a
purified vocabulary and abstract human sentiment. To contradict such
sentiment, or not to use such vocabulary, is to put yourself outside
the pale of civilized men (or should I say 'persons?'). (P47) "The
first thing to remember is that freedom and democracy are not
necessarily the same thing at all. A people may easily vote into
power a government that wishes to massacre part of the population."
(P67) "Illusion and disillusion spring eternal in the human
heart." (P157). I received three Dalrymple books for Christmas,
a wonderful gift. (Available in Kindle edition too.)
This
well-written, entertaining and very funny book was written by a
British Bobby, PC Stuart Davidson, formerly of the Staffordshire
Police, about 'Newtown'
(actually Burton
upon Trent). He had to do
his blog, on which this book and a sequel Wasting
More Police Time, are based, under a
pen name to protect his job. Eventually the brass figured out who he
was, but by then he had had a job line up in Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, where he
is a much happier cop.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_David_Copperfield).
It was recommended by British psychiatrist Anthony Daniels (writing
as Theodore Dalrymple). Daniels was carrying a copy when he ran into
two plainclothes officers. They told him it was a great book. He
asked how much was true. "Every word," they replied. This
is policing in progressive Britain, where the Bobbies spend 90% of
their time doing paperwork to CYA senior officers, filing
administrative "detections," and enforcing political
correctness, diversity and multiculturalism. The rest they get to
spend catching bad guy who get slapped on the wrist or ever in
preventing crime. It is a cautionary tale for us. Well worth your
time.
Must
Read: The
Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.
By Jonathan
Haidt
I
suppose the best compliment is that throughout this insightful and
well-written book, I kept wishing the author was present so I could
discuss, and often argue points with him. (And I suppose he was glad
to be far away.) To be fair, many of the points I wanted to argue he
addressed and resolved further on. Haidt is a self-described
left-wing academic and atheist, though of Jewish heritage. He is a
Kerry and Obama supporter, a bias he is very open about and
references throughout this work. But he is also an intellectually
honest man and—so rare on today’s campuses—open to diversity of
thought, the only kind of diversity that really matters. A “Moral
Psychologist,” Haidt makes a very solid academic research effort to
understand the moral foundations of both conservative and liberal
political thought, as well as why religion is important in human
societies. The book held my interest throughout, and will be of great
value to thinkers on both the right and the left of our political
divide, who will gain understanding of why they hold the views they
do, and why others hold different views. Shouters and haters, not so
much. Read through the reviews on Amazon. This book is well worth
your time.
Questioning
Islam: Tough Questions & Honest Answers About the Muslim
Religion. By Peter
Townsend
Townsend
does an excellent job of research using the authoritative versions of
the Qur'an, the strongest of the Hadiths and the biography of
Mohammad accepted as authoritative by most Muslim scholars. For those
who don't know, the Hadiths are the traditions of Mohammad and his
companions which Islamic scholars say are essential to understand and
practice Islam. Sunnis and Shi'a accept different ones as being the
strongest, but for example, the Muslim declaration of faith (There is
no god but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet, and the other four
"Pillars of Islam" are in the Hadiths, not the Qur'an. He
also uses archeological evidence and other writings from the time of
Mohammad and of the Hadiths (like the Qur'an, written down decades,
often centuries, after Mohammad died) to question must of Islam
history and teaching. He tends to use both superlatives ("Jaw
Dropping" revelation) and slightly pejorative language (Muslim
apologists) which I think do not strengthen the book. Nevertheless,
this is well worth reading and will give you a strong background in
both Islamic history and the claims of the Muslim religion. ~Bob
This
short (45 page) book is an easy read and an excellent introduction to
Shari'a Law. Many people talk about Shari'a, but few have any
knowledge of what it calls for, as witness the cognitively-challenged
folks who say it is compatible with the US Constitution. Of course,
Shari'a varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, a leading cause of
early death among Muslims who can't agree. But it is drawn from the
Qur'an and Hadiths. Everywhere there are groups seeking, often by
violent means, to implement more strict versions. Fully implemented,
it includes executing gays and Muslims who leave Islam, stoning women
accused of adultery, wife beating, polygamy, child marriage and
slavery following Mohammad's "perfect example," and women
or infidels as second class citizens without the rights of male
Muslims. his is a quick way to familiarize you with what the main
schools of Islamic teaching call for in society. Shari'a is a
theocratic system of government--Islam recognizes and tolerates no
"separation of mosque and state." Worth reading.
Introduced
to the concepts of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations by my high
school economics teacher, Ben Mark, I set out to read it. "You
won't finish it," Mr. Mark predicted. As in so much else, Ben
was right. I never have. So when I came across this book by the great
political humorist, P.J. O'Rourke, I grabbed it. It is terrific. Not
only do you get an explanation of Smith's basic concepts, but it is
full of the pointed wit that O'Rourke is famous for, so you get
entertained as well as educated. Smith's key concept is that the
prosperity of nations depends on three things: division of labor,
pursuit of self interest and free trade, both external and
internal--and that government often limits prosperity by blocking
these. It's as true today as it was then. Some quotes from the book:
""The desire for power pushes a man, Smith wrote, to 'the
highest degree of arrogance,...to erect his own judgment into the
supreme standard of right and wrong...to fancy himself the only wise
and worthy man in the commonwealth.' Smith managed to describe not
only Barbara Streisand, but everyone in the world of politics."
"Smith: 'The man of system...is apt to be very wise in his own
conceit, and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own
ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest
deviation from any part of it...he seems to imagine that he can
arrange the different members of great society with as much ease as
the hand arranges the pieces on a chessboard.' PJ: Barbed wire always
seems to be needed to keep the chessmen on their squares." Smith
called universities, "the sanctuaries in which exploded systems
and obsolete prejudices found shelter and protection, after they had
been hunted out of every other corner of the earth." Smith on
debt: "When national debts have once been accumulated to a
certain degree, there is scare, I believe, a single instance of them
having been fairly and completely paid." This is just a sample.
I highly recommend this book.
Dr.
Sowell looks at the history and integration in to American life of
several ethnic groups, such as Jews, Germans, Irish, Mexicans,
blacks, etc., as well as the intersection of the cultures they
brought with them and the cultures they developed in America.
Published in 1981, much of the data has been outdated by demographic
and immigration changes, but his insights into these issues are
timeless. For example, his research indicate that the eastern
European Jews were the most destitute and illiterate of the immigrant
groups, and scored low on IQ tests, leading commentators to say that
the idea of the Jew as intelligent was a myth. Of course, now they
are among the most economically and academically successful of ethnic
groups in America, with IQs, college degrees and percentage holding
professional jobs far above the national average. Based on
contemporary thinking of progressives, this must be because these
poor, literate Jews discriminated against native white Christians to
get ahead of the rest of us!
Applied
Economics by Dr. Thomas
Sowell
Also
excellent, though not as comprehensive as Basic
Economics. Sowell is an
internationally-known economist, with updates from recent events in
politics and the economy. It’s written for the general public, so
is easy to read and understand, but is very helpful on understanding
why things have happened as they have—or will happen. I think
you’ll find the 50 pages on the economics of healthcare worth the
price. The sections on the housing crisis, the economics of slavery
and the economics of discrimination were also quite interesting.
Sowell preaches “Stag Two” thinking, pushing readers to think
beyond the immediate to the longer term effects of political and
economic decisions.
Excerpt:
Despite the subtitle, this is a book about class, not race. The
author is looking at a lot of data that suggested the upper class
that runs the country, which he calls the Narrow Elite and the Broad
Elite, is increasingly wealthy, increasingly takes in both liberals
and conservatives with high IQs and is increasingly isolated from the
experience of the rest of America. He focuses on whites because that
Narrow Elite is overwhelmingly white. He also focuses on the white
lower class, so the comparison will not be between a white upper
class and a minority lower class. He looks at a lot of data
suggesting the white lower class is being destroyed by several
trends: decreasing industriousness and ability to hold jobs among
males, decreasing participation in civic organizations or churches,
decreasing marriage rates, decreasing rates of trust and
neighborliness, and sharply escalating non-marital birth rates, all
trends that suggest the destruction of both happiness for these folks
and what he calls the "American Project." Interestingly,
after detailing the rolling disaster that is over-taking the white
lower class, he presents data that suggest the minority lower class
is not much different, contrary to what many might expect. This
reinforces my long-held belief that race doesn't matter, culture
matters a great deal. I do not think this is a "liberal" or
a "Conservative" book. He says he is neither, but is a
libertarian, rare among social scientists. He carefully points out in
what I think is a balanced way how liberals or conservatives might
draw differing interpretations from the data than he does. Most
frightening for me is that the short book I published a year ago, The
Coming Collapse of the American Republic, does not include
America coming apart along class lines--his title thesis--among the
top four problems facing our country. Add this log to the staggering
camel's back.
I've
ordered copies of this book to give as gifts; it has over 2,000
5-star reviews on Amazon. Dr. Carson, a brilliant neurosurgeon, has
long been prominent in the medical world. Recently he burst into the
political world when he was invited to speak at the National Prayer
Breakfast. He refused to let Obama's handlers read (and presumably
censor) his speech in advance. His criticism of Obamacare made him an
instant darling of conservatives, and calls for "Carson for
President" began to be heard. But Carson is, or was as of the
writing of this book, a long-time independent, and he condemns the
behavior of both parties. He is clearly a fiscal conservative who
believes in limited government and self-reliance. But his views on
many social issues such as immigration, healthcare, racism and the
safety net might take some of the shine off his luster for social
conservatives. Never having held public office, he also has what I
think is a charmingly-naive faith in the power of logic, common sense
and morality to move politicians to work to solve problems for the
common good. Speaking as a former five-term state senator, in
politics, if it wins the next election, it's moral and common sense
to do it, for both sides. An example is his statement that if more
anti-Nazi Germans would have spoken out against Hitler, the holocaust
could have been avoided. but those who did, like Hans and Sophia
Scholl, were executed. Likewise, he says as do many that the moderate
Muslims need to speak out against the jihadists. But, again, every
day moderates who speak out are murdered. It's why a man with a six
shot revolver can often hold off an unarmed crowd of a hundred--he
can't kill them all, but no one wants to be the first to rush him.
Never-the-less, I would vote for Dr. Carson for public office given
the chance, even though I would disagree on some policy issues. He
projects an ethical basis and a deep religious conviction, which are
attested to by his works, and there is no doubt that his intellect
and work ethic is in the 99th percentile. His story is moving. Like
Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, Carson grew up in abject poverty,
in his case in the Detroit and Boston Ghettos, where his mother, who
was functionally illiterate worked menial jobs to put food on the
table, but insisted on a solid education for Carson and his brother.
She made the boys read and write reports on two books a week, which
they never realized she couldn't read. For a treat, she'd save enough
money to take them to the fair--enough to get in, that is. There was
no money to ride the rides or buy an ice cream cone. Carson, blessed
with that intellect and work ethic, overcame poverty and racism to
become very wealthy from his surgery, books, and public speaking. He
and his wife Candy have funded the Carson Scholars Program, which
offers an opportunity to get better educations to kids with the
intellectual potential but not the funds. He has a new book out, One
Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future, which I look
forward to reading. Carson on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson
Machiavelli
on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are As Timely And
Important Today As Five Centuries Ago
by Michael
A. Ledeen
Michael
Ledeen is a terrific commentator and policy analyst whose work I link
to in my Old Jarhead blog from time to time. Thus when I recently
stumbled across this book, I grabbed it. It was written at the end of
the Clinton era, so the “current examples” are a few years old,
but cover lots of depredations worth remembering. If you haven’t
read Machiavelli’s The Prince, you should do so for its own
sake, as well as to better understand this fine book on leadership in
the real world. I first read The Prince in 1970 or 71 when it
was assigned in a government class on Modern Political Thought at
U-Mass by a brilliant political science professor from Pakistan. He
asked, “What qualities does Machiavelli recommend a prince have,
that you wouldn’t want in a US President?” Then as each of the
starry-eyed U-Mass students put forth objections, he eviscerated
them. Lovely stuff. This would have been of great value for leaders
to read in the run-up to the 2008 fiscal crisis. Ledeen quotes Allan
H. Meltzer’s “Moral Hazard Goes Global”: “Where [there are]
guarantees that some or all of an institution’s losses will be
shifted to taxpayers…while gains will be kept by the institution’s
owners, the institution will be led to take excessive risks.” Boy,
did we pay for not understanding that, from Fannie Mae where Jim
Johnson and Frank Raines got rich off our wallets to the
too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks that we bailed out. This is well
worth reading.
I
was picking up a copy of Walter William's excellent Race and
Economics in Half Price Books, and stumbled over
this Sowell book, a twofer! This is a collection of Sowell's pre-2006
columns, which he felt had enduring relevance. they are organized by
topic: cultural issues, political issues, economic issues, racial
issues, etc. Everyone is worth reading for his insight and ability to
communicate clearly. But, like Georg4 Orwell's barnyard communists,
"some animals are more equal than others." You won't regret
the time spent reading these gems.
Lords
of the Levee: The Story of Bathhouse John and Hinky Dink.
By Llyod Wendt, Herman Kogan and Bette Jore.
This
book published in 1943 was reissued a few years ago. It's a
fascinating political history of two early Chicago "Community
Organizers," Democrat First Ward Aldermen John Coughlin and Mike
Kenna, in the late 19th and early 20th century. If you want to
understand how Chicago Way politics became as they are today, this is
a great place to start--and excellent entertainment as well. Vote
fraud (50 cents per vote was the going price to pay "floaters"
to come into the ward and vote multiple times), corruption and
legislative vote selling (called "boodling" by the press),
protection payoffs from gambling and bawdy houses to fund the
Democrat machine--it's all here. In those days, it was out in the
open. Now they try to keep it hidden from feds and the press, which
still does weekly stories that would turn our stomachs, except those
of us who live in Cook County have become inured to corruption
stories. We read them, complain, and forget. And one-party rule goes
on. This was the age of "reform" Governor John Peter
Altgelt (the "Eagle that is Forgotten" of Vachel Lindsay's
poem), William Jennings Bryan (Coughlin and Kenna were "free
silver" men), Big Bill Thompson, TR and at end of the story, Al
Capone. If you have an interest in politics, history and/or Chicago,
you'll want to read this book.
White
Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Race Riots to America By
Colin
Flaherty
Kindle
Edition:
Eric
Holder, America’s first black attorney general, famously said the
United States was “a nation of cowards” on matters of race,
because most people won’t talk openly about racial matters.
(Perhaps “Eric Withholder” would be a better name, as he
continues to stonewall Congress over releasing documents about his
department’s “Fast and Furious” program which killed hundreds
of Mexicans and two US Agents.) To refute Holder, comes now the brave
Colin Flaherty, with this book about black on white violence in
America. Do not expect his reward to be a medal for bravery from the
DOJ for discussing these matters. So far, his reward has been to be
vilified as a racist, the usual fate of anyone who candidly discusses
race without agreeing 100% with the progressive meme on race. I fear
he is likely to suffer worse, from IRS audits to violence.
Ali
suffered genital mutilation as a child, was sent to an arranged
marriage, escaped to Holland, became a citizen and a member of
parliament. She risked her life to make a movie exposing Muslim
mistreatment of women; the producer, Theo van Gogh was murdered on
the street by a Muslim for the movie. Of course, this made her
anathema to the left, who think that not paying for birth control for
yuppie college students is a "War on Women," but excuse
murder, oppression, stoning and other barbarous treatment of women by
Muslims because "all cultures are equally valid." Ali is a
real feminist. This is inspiring.
I
have never bought a diamond. When I married late in life, at age 46,
I explained to my bride that the Scottish tradition was for a silver
antique Luchenbooth Brooch. This saved our now-joint finances many
thousands of dollars, and, since she had a nice diamond ring from her
mother (for which people doubtless give me credit), she was fine with
that. Having read this book, I’m very glad. It details the Diamond
War in Sierra Leone. Frankly, there wasn’t much to choose between
the horrors of the rebels, the horrors of the government troops, and
the horrors of the UN “peacekeepers.” Would you buy that pretty
stone if you knew that people were murdered, people had their hands
cut off in the terror campaign, children were forced to become child
soldiers or prostitutes, and the country was destroyed, all to
control the diamond mines, and the criminal smuggling—many
thousands of them? Diamonds not only funded arms for these groups,
they funded al Qaeda, providing them a ready source of laundered,
easily moved and converted wealth to carry out attacks on us. In
addition to helping fund terror, you probably paid too much if you
bought a diamond. The book goes into the history of the diamond
industry, and how De Beers controls the market, manipulates prices
and created the myth that a man should expect to pay two month’s
salary for an engagement ring. (So propose only when you are out of
work.) De Beers also is famous for “A Diamond is Forever.” So,
alas, is amputation, as thousands of beggars in Freeport can attest.
A political-thriller movie of the same title was apparently based on
the book—I have not seen it. The author, a journalist, takes George
Bush to task for intervening in Iraq, but not Sierra Leona. It is
difficult for me to see what national interests we had there, and the
world would have accused us of wanting to trade Blood for Diamonds
instead of Blood for Oil, regardless of our motives. (We won in
Iraq—at least temporarily—but that oil thing hasn’t worked out
so well.) Still, I highly recommend this book.
Ameritopia:
The Unmaking of America by Mark Levin
With
Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin established himself as a major
current political thinker, able to convey complicated concepts in
clear, concise language. Therefore, I was looking forward to finding
the time to read Ameritopia. It did not disappoint, and should
be required reading for anyone to serve in public office, not in
place of, but in addition to Liberty and Tyranny. Levin reviews
utopian political thought, from Plato to Marx, and contrasts it with
the political thought of Locke, Montesquieu and de Tocqueville, which
are so foundational to our limited government Republic. Levin
demonstrates with frightening precision how far the Republic has
strayed from the principals that guaranteed our freedom and
prosperity. I wish I had this book when I was wading through these
writers while majoring in political science at the University of
Massachusetts, though many of my professors were ivory tower utopian
statists. Some of the quotes are gems. From Montesquieu: "When
legislative power is united with executive power in a single person
or a simple body of magistracy, there is no liberty, because one can
fear that the same monarch or senate that makes tyrannical laws will
execute them tyrannically. Nor is there liberty if the power of
judging is not separate from legislative power and from executive
power." One immediately thinks of Czars, Executive Orders,
ignoring Congress on the War Powers Act, and the attack on the
Supreme Court. Levin points out that, "America has become a
society in which the people are wise enough to select their own
leaders, but too incompetent to choose the right lightbulb."
Indeed.
Gross
National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America--and How We Can
Get More of It. By Arthur
C. Brooks
Excerpt:
I heard the author speak at a conference a few years ago, was very
impressed, and bought the book. But I proceeded to let it get buried
in the reading pile under history, economic and political books.
Thankfully, I finally read it—it’s a terrific book. Brooks is an
economist and academic, and this book is data driven by population
surveys, both in the US and around the world. He draws conclusions
from the data, which you may not like. People wedded to a viewpoint
that cannot be moved by data, left or right, are likely to hate it.
There are many surprises here. Brooks looks at the data on what makes
people happy or unhappy: religion, political views, marriage, jobs,
incomes, charitable involvement, and so on, across demographic
groups. This should be read especially by policy makers who might do
well to understand what is likely to preserve and increase national
happiness. My own take, which I put on my Old Jarhead Blog, has
always been, “With all due respect to Tom Jefferson, ‘pursuing
happiness’ doesn’t work. But if you commit yourself to things you
care about more than yourself, such as family, job, non-profit cause,
church or temple, community, or service to your country, happiness
will find you.” Nothing here changed my mind on that point, though
the data surprised me in some areas as they did Brooks. Arthur C.
Brooks is Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government
Policy at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and
Public Affairs.
The
Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts
and the Battle Against Fate. By Robert
D. Kaplan
This
is a wonderfully-written book that will make you look at a lot of
issues in a new light. It is about the intersection of geography with
history, geopolitics, national interests and power. Though I have a
master’s degree in history and am well read in the field, I also
learned a great deal about non-European history. Particularly China,
India and the Middle East, though of course in one book it could only
take a broad brush approach to these things. Unfortunately, Kaplan
gave me several new worries about the future, and I was already
pretty pessimistic. This is a high level review of geo-strategy, and
should be read by policy makers at all levels. It requires some
focus; certainly not light entertainment. The most interesting
section was the last. Kaplan argues that Mexico, with a long border
with the US, is far more important to us than Iraq, Afghanistan and
the Middle East. Given that Mexico and Central America have a rapidly
developing population—now at 50% of the United States—and a
native US birthrate below the replacement level, he argues that we
cannot afford to have Mexico become a failed narco-state on our
border. Everyone involved in the current immigration debate would do
well to read this and look at the big picture view he presents.
Leadership
Defined by Col. Don Myers, USMC (Ret)
Some
people who never served in the military will doubtless be put off by
the fact that the author is a Marine. Col. Myers draws on his
experience in the Corps for examples, but also on a successful career
as general manager of a large company and of a school for troubled
boys after he retired from the Marines. Anyone in a position of
leadership--or who aspires to one--in any organization can benefit
from the wisdom in this short, well-written book. It would certainly
be of value to executives in my field of association management, as
Myers has clearly laid out methods for getting the most out of a
team. And that's the real secret of success in any field. The book
made me regret that I never had the opportunity to serve under Col.
Myers during my time in the Corps. And that several of my bosses in
both the Marines and in the civilian world had clearly never read it.
The
Terrorist Next Door by Erick Stakelbeck
A
friend sent me this book on Friday. Bang, there went the weekend, I'm
writing this Sunday night. Erick Stakelbeck is a courageous
investigative journalist who has researched the threat of radical
Jihadism both in the United States and abroad. Armed with only a
notebook or a camera, he has met with some of the most dangerous
terror supporters in the world. And he has extensively detailed the
danger in this readable, but frightening book. In my book, The
Coming Collapse of the American Republic, I include a short
review of the Jihadist threat as one of the four existential threats
combining to destroy our country. The Terrorist Next Door is
an in-depth examination of this particular danger. Stakelbeck was
able to do the in-person investigations worldwide that were beyond my
resources. I wish I'd had his book as a resource when writing
Collapse. Radicalization and the Islamist threat are far more
wide-spread in our country, and the danger from terror-supporting
states more grave, than the politicians would have you believe. As I
write, there is one negative review on Amazon, which, because his
conclusions and facts are so well documented, has to attack
Stakelbeck personally. Because of the other challenges we face,
especially the looming financial collapse I detail in my short book,
we will be hard pressed to find the resources to deal with the
Jihadist threat, at home or abroad. Time is short, and the threat
grows unchecked every day. I urge you to read this book, to recommend
it to your friends, and to send a copy to your Congressman.
Children
of Jihad by Jared Cohen.
Cohen
was a gutsy Jewish grad student and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He
traveled to Iran, Lebanon, Syria and other Muslim countries. There he
befriends young Muslims. He reports on those meetings and their
views. This is not a one-dimensional portrait or anti-Muslim book.
The hope many of them have for a freer society and economic
opportunity, and their at least passive resistance to the theocrats
who rule them comes through. But so too does the fanaticism many have
imbibed since children. Easy read, about $10 on Amazon, not hard to
read.
Islamic
Imperialism
http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Imperialism-History-Efraim-Karsh/dp/0300122632/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307163076&sr=1-1
Excerpt:
I wish I could buy a copy for every member of Congress, the
President and the Secretary of State--and get them to read it.
Required reading for an understanding of this aspect of the
challenges facing us. Islamic Imperialism is well written and
well researched. It starts with the advent of Islamic conquests of
other peoples and brings it forward to the struggles in our current
day. It also reveals how many "Islamic" leaders used Islam
as a handy rallying point and cover for their personal ambitions. We
must find an answer to the Islamist threat if we are to survive.
Israel and Europe may be lost, and America is in the balance.
Don’t
Tell Me Words Don’t Matter by Joel Pollak
I
had this book on my shelf since I supported the author, Joel Pollak,
in his campaign for congress in 2010. In my professional view, Joel
ran a brilliant, but underfunded campaign in a hopelessly D+25
district. He’s one of those folks you meet that you know after a
few minutes are brighter than you. As a Harvard law grad, not to
mention a degree in Jewish studies from South Africa, I was more
worried about clarity and writing for a general public, but this book
is clear, easy to read (I finished in under a day), and well written.
Nor does it miss the literary touches—I especially liked “pixels
sliding across a teleprompter,” and will certainly plagiarize the
phrase sometime in the future. This is a conservative review of the
2008 election. Pollak is a conservative and was a McCain volunteer,
so conservatives will like the book more than liberals. Pollak calls
them like he sees them, and doesn’t hesitate to call out McCain’s
and Bush’s strategic, tactical and policy errors as much as those
of Obama and the left. I highly recommend this short but very
readably history of the 2008 election, and what it means for our
future.
Liberty
and Civilization: The Western Heritage.
This
short collection—I read it in under two days—has several
excellent essays each worth the price of the book.
Shakedown
by Ezra Levant
I
read this 200-page book in two evenings. While it’s about the Human
Rights Commissions in Canada and their assault on free speech, it’s
a great warning for us, since the statists want to restrict free
speech here in the name of controlling “hate speech,” as they
define it, (and have done so on university campuses). I firmly
believe if they get the power to do so, this will all happen here. As
SCOTUS nominee Kagan said, “Free Speech has to be balanced against
the societal costs.” The HRCs in Canada had never lost a hate
speech case. If you were charged, you were found guilty and punished.
Reading how they destroyed people and businesses, I’m surprised
there was not violence. They do not have to follow any rules of
evidence or due process like a real court and accept hearsay
evidence. HRC employees go on Nazi/White Supremacist websites and
make racist statements, then charge the responders with hate speech.
For one HRC, all the hate speech complaints but two have come from
one person, who is an employee, and has been awarded money for being
serially offended. I knew Canada didn’t protect free speech like we
try to do, though it’s in their charter of rights, but found the
stories in the book unbelievable. Interestingly, while they have
tried many cases of hate speech against Muslims, no case of hate
speech against a Christian has ever gone to trial. Thanks to the
Levant case and the Mark Steyn/McCalls case, covered in the book,
they are making progress in restoring the right of free speech. Among
the cases covered was the woman who couldn’t wash her hands as
required by McDonalds because she had a skin disease. For firing her,
McDonalds had to pay her $50,000 in addition to the severance and
disability she had received. Another restaurant had to pay $5k to a
woman who was fired because she had hepatitis. Never mind
Arizona—boycott Canada.
Kicking
the Sacred Cow by James P. Hogan
Is
about controversies and suppression of evidence in science, which I
have just re-read and think is a “must read.” I doubt all the
heretics and suppressed claims are true, but find it very interesting
that in supposedly “fact based” science, too often scientists who
don’t agree with the current orthodoxy are vilified, attacked and
suppressed. Climategate wasn’t the only “gate” in science.
The
Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Healthcare
by Clayton M. Christenson.
He
uses Harvard Business School models of changes in other industries
that if applied to healthcare would fix a great deal of the problems
we have. You can read about it at Amazon. I wish everyone in the
debate in Washington—both sides—would read it.
Liberty
and Tyranny by Mark Levin
It’s
short, clear and very readable. It has excellent, short explanations
of the causes of the Great Depression, the current economic meltdown
and much else, such as federalism, the Free Market, and the origins
and economic challenges of the Welfare State. Put it on the top of
your “must read” pile.
Political
Humor
If
you are a political junkie, I recommend two great collections of
political humor and stories by my Senate Floor Leader, the late Sen.
John Parker: The Fun and Laugher of Politics and If
Elected, I Promise. Both are long out of print, but you can often
find them used on Amazon.com for not much money, especially the first
one, which was published in the 1970s. No, you cannot borrow my
signed copies.
DVD
Recommendation: The Third Jihad
Though
this video is four years old, I watched it for the first time with
friends this weekend, and highly recommend it. It is by an American
Muslim, a doctor and veteran, who loves Islam. This is, as he says,
not an anti-Islam film, but a video exposing the threat to the lives
and freedoms of everyone--not the least the millions of Muslims who
are so often the victims of the extremists-- of the radical jihads
and political Islam. He is one of the few with the courage to speak
out and deserves respect and a hearing.
The
links below have recommended books as well, including an extensive
reading list on racism at the end of my essay on the subject.
Reading
list for the war on Terror
Reading
List for the Educated Voter
Racism
in America.
Fiction
This
novel was recommended in The Week news magazine by a "best
books" list contributor. I had not read anything else by the
author, Edward Jones, a Pulitzer Prize winner. It is a story of a
little-known facet of American history, Southern free black slave
owners before the Civil War and emancipation. (According to "Black
Slave Owners" by Joseph Holloway on
http://slaverebellion.org/index.php?page=the-black-slave-owners,
there were 3,000 free black slave owners in New Orleans in 1860 and
over 400 in Charleston, SC in 1830.) Americans, thanks to our
"education" system, and a media and political class vested
in creating a feeling of helpless victimhood in black Americans, tend
to believe that slavery was purely a phenomenon of whites owning
blacks for a few hundred years in the American south. In fact, as Dr.
Thomas Sowell points out in his excellent essay, "The Real
History of Slavery," every people were enslaved at some point,
most often by folks just like them, and every culture accepted
slavery and practiced it, until our much-maligned western culture
turned against it. For example, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania,
which legally abolished slavery way back in 1981, has recently agreed
with the UN to actually try to eradicate slavery. Sowell points out
that during the same period when 500,000 African slaves were brought
to what became the United States, a million white Europeans were
kidnapped into slavery in Muslim North Africa. And there are no
records of the millions of blacks taken into slavery by Muslims. I
have read that white slaves were still being sold in Cairo 20 years
after Lee surrendered to Grant. Getting a feel for this different
perspective is one reason to read this novel. But the author's ear
for dialog, eye for detail and command of the language will be the
envy of other writers and a joy to readers. He creates life stories
and a sense of place that make it had to accept that this is fiction.
You can't help but believe that "this is the way it was."
So it works on many levels. The only off-kilter note was his
assertion that blacks didn't take surnames until after emancipation,
a very small quibble. This is amply refuted, along with much of the
demeaning but politically-valuable contemporary myth of blacks as
helpless victims of slavery, in The Black Family in Slavery and
Freedom. But, like that well-researched history, this novel
presents blacks in slavery as a resilient and adaptable people coping
as best they could with a great evil, and struggling to hold family
together--doing a better job than a large percentage of Americans
today, despite far easier conditions. I highly recommend it.
Iran
Covenant by Chet Nagle
Blog
readers may recognize Chet Nagle’s name, as I often link to his
essays, ever since a fellow Marine linked me to him. When I
discovered he had a novel out, it went on my Christmas list. I took
it on a business trip last week, a mistake as I got far less sleep
than needed on a couple of nights. Nagle is a former Navel aviator
and intelligence agent in the Middle East, and it shows in the
details and his knowledge of the subject. Plus he can grab you with
his writing. This thriller is a great, but scary read, as we will
likely be facing some version of this plot in the next decade. I sent
him a critique, as he requested, but, boy I had to get picky, down to
four typos I noted, not to gush over the book. I recommend it. It
would make a great birthday gift for your Congress Critter.
The
Woolsorter’s Plague by Chet Nagle
I
was hooked up with Chet Nagle by a Marine buddy, via e-mail. Though
we’ve ever met in person. I’ve enjoyed our electronic friendship.
Nagle is the real deal, a former Naval Aviator and intel operative
for the CIA, who knows his stuff. I greatly enjoyed his first
thriller, The Iran Covenant, so I was looking forward to the
release of his new book about a terrorist attack on Washington, DC.
It more than lived up to my expectations—The Woolsorter’s
Plague is an order of magnitude better. Nagle has a fine ear for
dialog, which is a key to great novels. He has the connections to get
the fine details right. I couldn’t turn out the lights when I got
into the last few chapters of heart-pounding action. What made it so
frightening was it’s plausibility. Nagle isn’t only entertaining
readers—he is warning all of us. I think you’ll be glad you read
this one.
Chet
Nagle is a Naval Aviator, former CIA Agent, occasional contributor to
this blog and the author of two earlier thrillers about terrorism,
The Iran Covenant and The Woolsorter's Plague. Having
loved and recommended them, I ordered my copy of Lazarus Man
from Amazon as soon as it was available. I wasn't disappointed; this
is Nagle's best thriller so far, right out of tomorrow's headlines. I
don't want to say too much about the plot and give it away, but you
can read a synopsis on Amazon at the link. It starts with a
cybercrime. The high-tech bank robber is the good guy, the money
speculator he robs is the bad guy, and the former East German STASI
Colonel sent to look for him is a worse guy. The book features
non-stop action and believable characters. I mainly read non-fiction
about politics, economics and history, but like the occasional
adventure novel for relaxation. This one doesn't disappoint. The best
two words are in the title: Volume 1.
A
State of Disobedience. By Tom
Kratman
Tom
Kratman, a retired Army LtCol, has become my favorite living science
fiction author. (I have to say "living" because I have sat
at the feet of Robert Heinlein since 8th grade-, 55 years ago.)
Kratman writes military science fiction, some set in the far future
(see A Desert Called Peace) and some, as with this book, set
in the very near future. Thus, having been published in 2005, means
it is now in the near past. Never-the-less, it is still as timely as
tomorrow's headlines. Briefly, the federal government has fallen into
tyranny, with de facto suspension of freedom of the press, freedom of
speech and wide spread police powers established in federal agencies.
All for the "good of the people," of course. But one state
won't go along. A State of Disobedience explores the dichotomy
between government power and freedom. This is Kratman's first
published novel, but it bears all the touches of the master:
believable characterization, intricate plot twists and heart-pounding
action. History buffs will delight in picking out the many historical
allusions in the book. For my health, I need about nine hours of
sleep a night--and with A State of Disobedience finished, I
can start getting it again. I highly recommend this novel.
Caliphate
by Tom Kratman
I
took this scary little Science Fiction novel with me over a weekend,
visiting relatives, and stayed up very late Sunday morning finishing
it at about 4:00 am. If you like SF adventure and are worried about
the future of our world, check this one out. Kratman is a fine
writer, and it was more gripping as it went on. Set 100 years in the
future, when America has become of necessity a military empire facing
the Muslim Caliphate of Europe, it lifts from today’s headlines to
create a scary buy plausible future.
The
first of the Carrera series (se others below). Kratman is a retired
Army LtCol and a terrific author. His novels are escapism and
entertainment, but with a message for our times. I highly recommend
him.
As
readers of my Old Jarhead Blog know, my personal reading is focused
on history, politics and economics, professional reading on
management and healthcare. But sometimes I need a break, and nothing
is better for that than one of Tom Kratman's military science fiction
novels. Of course, Kratman is not entirely a "break" from
reading about politics or the military, but he is enthralling.
Carnifex is a sequel to A Desert Called Peace" and
like all good sequels, it can stand on its own. But if you haven't
read Desert, you'll be doing yourself a favor if you read it
first. Kratman is a retired Army LtCol, and one would expect his
mastery of the feel of close infantry combat to be good. But in this
book, he shows equal understanding of war at sea and in the air. His
detailed plotting and fully believable characters will hold you
through this long novel, full of the twists and turns of a global
conflict on several fronts. It is the Earth and all our problems,
including the "War on Terror," set on a distant planet,
centuries in the future. But the "War on Terror" (or
perhaps better the "War against Salafist Jihadism")
on Nova Terra is being fought by some men who are as ruthless
as hard as the terrorists in defense of family and freedom, despite
the hand-wringing of the usual collection of progressives. This is
the third Kratman novel I've read. The first was Caliphate,
which I also recommend, about the war here after a terror nuke strike
on the US. I have others waiting for when the non-fiction pile shows
a little light--or the brain needs a change of pace. One is surprised
that he can turn out novels so rapidly, at such a high quality of
writing. After reading his books, rich with his philosophy of
leadership, this old Marine would have been proud to sever under
Kratman's command. Whether I would have measured up to his standards
is another question, beyond knowing at this stage of my life. Lastly,
the Author's Afterword in Carnifex is a bonus, and worth alone
what you will pay for the book. Send it to your Congresscritter.
The
Lotus Eaters. By Tom Kratman
I
think of Kratman's Military Science Fiction and near-future military
adventure novels as a chance to escape from a focus on politics. I
continue to be amazed at his attention to detail and knowledge of the
training and logistics that go into a successful military operation.
But they really aren't. Woven through the well-constructed plots and
gripping details are thoughts on the philosophy of war and governance
that far exceed what you can get at today's university for
intellectually stimulation. But readers so inclined can ignore them
and concentrate on the story. In "The Lotus Eaters,"
Kratman starts most chapters from a book that, alas, I don't think
exists, because I want to read it. It is "Historia Filosofia
Moral" published in 466 on Terra Nova, the world Kratman has
created to refight Earth's battles. Chapter 22 starts with this quote
from this book: "Neither reason nor emotion can be taken in
excess. Reason, in itself and standing alone, is a totally inadequate
basis for maintaining a society. This is, indeed, the great flaw of
the intellectual--far more so than his obsession with sex, his
arrogance, and his selfishness--and why he is as much a danger to
society as an asset and an ornament. Reason cannot tell the typical
voter why he should not grant himself X largesse from the fisc when
the penalty will not be paid until generation Y, a century down the
road. That necessary restraint comes from an emotional commitment to
future generations, and to the culture, values and traditions of the
society of which the voter is a part. Indeed, once the practice of
robbing the fisc is well established, reason must lead the voter to
"get mine, before it's all gone.".... These excerpts are
alone worth the price of the book, but do yourself a favor and start
with the first volume of this series, "A Desert Called Peace."
~Bob
Lifted
from today's headlines, Kratman brings the woman in combat debate
into context. People advocating for "fairness" may not like
the ugly reality, as LtCol Kratman depicts it. War is not pretty and
not a game.
The
hardcover version will be released November 5th, but the Kindle
edition of this fifth installment in the "Desert of Peace"
series is available now. Neither LtCol Kratman nor Duque Carrera will
think much of my self discipline. When I get a new Kratman book, I
usually save it until I need an adrenalin and mood boost from my
non-fiction reading schedule, but I started this one the day I got
it. I plead that I'm old and unwell and wanted to be sure I finished
it--a Kratman novel is not to be missed. He started his writing
career at "great," and like a fine craftsman, gets better
with each new effort. Rather than a sequel, this book runs roughly
parallel to "The Amazon Legion," no mean literary
feat. Having tried my hand at a little fiction, and had trouble
keeping my main character's name straight, I am awed by Kratman's
ability to weave almost unlimited strands of the plot together. No
one writes better military fiction depicting the horror of close
combat. Even better, Kratman has as superb grasp of weapons
development, training and logistics, and manages to make them
integral to the story. For many military fiction writers, these
things happen by magic, like the six-gun in the B-western that fires
50 shots without reloading. Kratman's novels work as adventure
escapism, but are even better for people with the interest and G-2 to
think about the philosophy and morality of war, why people fight, and
the issues confronting our country today. If you have read "A
Desert Called Peace" and the other entries in the series,
you will get this book. If not, do yourself a favor and start with
that.
Another
terrific book in the Carrera series. Kratman is a retired Army LtCol
who writes military science fiction, with a very realistic picture of
war. In my view, he gets better with every book. But that may be
because this is the most recent I have read--I've loved everything by
him so far. If you haven't read any of the Carrera series, do
yourself a favor and start with A Desert Called Peace
by Tom
Kratman.
Well,
this is a revolting development. I haven’t finished Kratman’s
excellent A Desert Called Peace series, but got turned on to
his Countdown series, of which this is book one. Though I have
both a very good military history and an excellent political book
started, this came when I needed a little escapism. And make no
mistake, this adventure fantasy is escapism. So I started it—and
finished it without taking up the others. I’ll now have to order
the next two. Sigh. If only books came with the extra time to enjoy
them. I know, and have recommended, Kratman as a writer of wonderful
military science fiction. This book is more of a thriller, set in the
too-near future to really be called SF. It is a future that is easily
discernable from the converging lines of our deteriorating
civilization today. More and more, Kratman reminds me of my favorite
escapist novel writer, W.E.B. Griffin, in his terrific
characterization of people you’d like to know well, and people
you’d stand in a long line in the hot sun to get a shot at. But his
plotting and presentation, especially about planning and executing
military operations are, if anything, more detailed and authentic
than Griffin’s. If Griffin can be called a historical novelist,
Kratman is a future=history novelist. He understands how warriors
talk, think and act. Kratman is a retired Army LtCol, but has a
terrific grasp of all aspects of war: air, land and sea. If you want
to see what an unpleasant future will look like, and what men and
women of courage will have to do to cope with the brave new world
that’s, alas, coming, you can hardly do better than to enjoy one of
Kratman’s novels.
I
know, I usually give you recommendations on great non-fiction in
history, politics and economics. I’ll get back to it, have just
needed a little escapism lately. I was happily about a quarter into
Victor Davis Hanson’s excellent history of the Peloponnesian war, A
War Like No Other, when this book, the second in the series, came
in the mail, along with the third one. No problem, I thought, I’ll
put them in the pile and think about what’s next after Hanson. But
I was going away for the weekend, and a paperback was easier to
Countdown:
H Hour By Tom Kratman
Since
I usually recommend non-fiction history, political and economic
books, I was going to skip reviewing this novel. First, I’m a
little annoyed with Kratman, in that he doesn’t seem to be able to
write these things as fast as I can read them. He was an officer,
after all, and I expect a little more attention to my edification.
Second, I reviewed the first two books in this series, so I’m
running out of superlatives. If you read both of those, chances are
you will read this one without my recommendation. And while it can
stand alone, I recommend you read the series in order. But Kratman
does such an entertaining job of describing realistic military
violence, and has such a frightening, reality-based world view of how
civilization is collapsing as we watch, that I had to put in another
plug. In his “Afterword” (which covers ground he talked about in
his science fiction novels, but should be read by every American) he
says he is asked if he expects things will really get as bad as
depicted in these action novels of the near future. His response is
that he expects things to get much worse—that the books only depict
the early stages of what is happening to our world. I wish I didn’t
think he was right. As with his other novels, there are some running
gags, one-liners and historical and literary quotes that make the
book an especially great value.
Riding
the Red Horse [Kindle Edition]. Edited by Tom Kratman and Vox
Day
This
is a terrific collection of short military science fiction and essays
on war in the future that will be of interest to not only SF fans,
but those interested in how future conflicts might go. The collection
is edited by Vox Day and Tom Kratman, whose engrossing military
science fiction books I have recommended on my blog. It acknowledges
its debt to Jerry Pournelle's excellent There Will Be War
anthologies, and contains a story by that master. Short stories
predominate, with setting a few years to centuries in the future.
Some of the pieces I rate as "must reads," including
"Sucker Punch" and "Battlefield Lasers" by Eric
S. Raymond," "Red Waves in the South China Sea" by
James F. Dunnigan, "War Crimes" by Benjamin Cheah and Tom
Kratman's very well thought out essay, " Learning to Ride the
Red Horse: The Principles of War." The essay that hit me hardest
was " Make the Tigers Fight: Soviet Strategy in Asia,
1925-1975," by James D. Perry. I cannot tell how much of it is
based on fact and how much on informed speculation, but it was
enraging and sickening in turns. Unfortunately, the book is available
in only a Kindle edition. Being an antediluvian jarheadosaurus, I'm a
paper and ink guy, so I had to download a reader to my computer.
However, if the upcoming cataract surgery doesn't improve my reading,
I will have to think about a Kindle, despite having five shelves of
yet-to-be-read history, economic and political books plus a dozen
novels, as I understand that like my computer the Kindle will enlarge
the print. Their plan is to put out annual anthologies. My plan is to
survive to read every one.
This
terrific novel about Marines in Iraq and later at home was
recommended to me by Col. Andy Weddington and a couple of other
Marines. I believe this is the author's first novel. A Marine
Captain, he has a brilliant future as a writer. Everything here has
the ring of truth. I expect a Marine to "get" Marines, but
his great characterization extends to the Iraqis in the story,
especially their "terp." It is one of those novels where
you have trouble believing these are not real people and you want to
know more about their lives. His description of troops suffering from
PTSD after the war is deft and subtle, not heavy handed. This will
take its place in war novels with Battle Cry (WWII), Body
Count and Fields of Fire (Vietnam). I can't recommend
this tale highly enough. Anything Pitre writes I will read. ~Bob
Bonnie
and I read this fine novel for a small book group we belong to. It is
set in NW Italy in WWII during 1943-45. It is the story of Jews
behind German lines, both Italian and refugees from other countries,
of the Italian people who aided them, often at the cost of their
lives, and of the brutal partisan war against the Nazis and the
Italian fascists. It is also meticulously researched--it took her
seven years to finish it. The narrative is harshly realistic, the
characterization strong and the dialog sparkling. Russell, a
paleoanthropologist academic by training holds a PhD. This was her
third novel.
The
Weed Agency is a well written, well researched and insightful
short novel by political pundit Jim Geraghty, the author of the
excellent (and free) e-newsletter, Morning Jolt from NRO. This
is also an enjoyable and fun read, though some parts that most
readers will find hilarious I found frustrating, because as a former
five-term Massachusetts state senator, I know this is exactly how
most of the Federal and State Bureaucracies work--or don't work. City
government bureaucracies, loaded with political hacks, can be even
worse. As they say in Chicago, "We don't want nobody what nobody
sent!" This also tells you why that the government grows under
Republican control, though just a little less than under Democrats.
(I joke that I vote Republican because the Republicans are ruining
the country, but at a slower rate.) Eventually, and likely not that
far in the future, we will hit the tipping point and collapse like
the Soviet Union. Geraghty often footnotes the true life stories that
he drew upon for inspiration. I learned, for example, that here in
Wisconsin in 2004, there were 7,000 more ballots counted in Milwaukee
than the number of actual voters. This was hidden until well after
Kerry had been certified the winner here by 11,000 votes. I was a
volunteer on the Bush campaign, but missed this report by the
Milwaukee paper--hardly conservative--that came out when it no longer
mattered, along with other reports of vote fraud. This book will open
some eyes, if those who need it take the time to read it, because it
entertains while it enlightens.
Jackdaws
by Ken Follett
This
novel about a team of female SOE agents in France right before D-Day
is a realistic thriller that will keep you breathing hard with every
page. Follett is a mater story teller. The book is not for the
squeamish; it has graphic scenes of what happened when resistance
fighters fell into the hands of the Nazis. Though a work of fiction,
it is a fine tribute to the 50 female agents SOE dropped into France
during the war, 14 of who lost their lives, over a 25% casualty rate.
It is exciting, entertaining and inspiring. What more can you ask
from a novel?
Harrowing:
Five strangers. Five secrets. No refuge. No turning back by James
Aitcheson
Having
read and loved Aitcheson’s “Sword Sworn” trilogy, when I
discovered he had another novel out, I ordered it straight away (as
they say.) Sword Sworn is from the point of view of a Norman Knight
in the years after 1066. This novel is set in the same period, but
from the point of view of five English folk fleeing the Norman
harrowing of the north county, with mass destruction and death. Those
who were forced to read a bit of “Canterbury Tales” in school
will find this account to that pattern, though far more readable.
Aitcheson is a terrific writer, creating vivid images and intricate
plots. He is also a fine historian who researches his novels in
depth. I knew a fair bit about the Conquest (I have a master’s in
history) but little about the immediate years after except for the
legend of Hereward the Wake. So, his novels are both educational and
entertaining, though I would not recommend them for the squeamish
(like my wife). Given that Aitcheson is only in his 30s, I expect he
will be recognized as one of the top five historical novelists in ten
years. Since I have survived, so far, a lung transplant and will be
72 in April, I hope he also writes fast!
The
Circle by Dave Eggers
I
read this frightening novel for the “Right Book club” to which I
belong. I can’t say I enjoyed it, because it is so easy to see it
happening, and to an advocate of individual liberty, chilling. But
it’s well-written and certainly held my interest. Imagine that
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon and every social media site and
search engine are joined in one company. That can track anyone, find
anyone, monitor anyone and, if necessary, destroy anyone through the
development of vast new technologies. One of the founders sees the
danger to individual freedom and attempts to stop it by winning over
the main character. A very scary message about an all-too-possible
future.
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