Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia, Eisenberg - A*

            This Bancroft Prize winning history "takes as its subject the Nixon administration's conduct of the war in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and the resulting diplomacy with the Soviet Union and China." It reverses the familiar belief that the war was shaped by Cold War considerations, which impacted his three predecessors, but not Nixon. If the best and the brightest in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations failed intellectually, in the Nixon administration, failure was a matter of selective, wishful thinking.

           In March 1968, Nixon said "I pledge to you that new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific." With talks in Paris progressing just before the election, Nixon contacted the South Vietnamese to assure them he would get them a better deal if they didn't accept LBJ's proposal. Johnson and Dirksen agreed that what Nixon had done was "treasonous," but they could do nothing because LBJ had obtained the information illegally. Nixon came into office knowing that the strength of the anti-war movement would be important in the mid-terms, and that protecting himself politically was his number one concern. Mel Laird, Defense Secretary, began withdrawing troops and labelling his action 'Vietnamization.' This notwithstanding the fact that the administration had conclusively concluded that the ARVN could not stand on its own two feet. Kissinger was concerned that Vietnamization would ease pressure on the North to settle, and the Pentagon opposed any troop reductions. There was no obvious path to a satisfactory strategic conclusion. Annoyed at the North for rocket attacks on the DMZ, Nixon authorized bombing in neutral Cambodia. The peace and anti-draft movements picked up steam in the face of the fact that Nixon seemed to be escalating the war*. On October 15, two million Americans participated in the Vietnam War Moratorium. Nixon made the best speech of his life on November 3rd rallying the 'peace with honor' believers, and successfully halting tv coverage of the second Moratorium on Nov. 15-16. 

          The new year saw the administration significantly ratchet up the existing policy of bombing Laos because the Ho Chi Minh Trail veered into the country. Massive use of B-52's killed thousands and depopulated the Plain of Jars, home to a million Laotians. Because the NVA and the NLF used Cambodia as a sanctuary, the JCS and the president initiated an invasion at the end of April. Kissinger told the Senate majority leader that Cambodia had requested military help. This was a complete fabrication. He and the president continued to lie to the press, the public, Congress, and the Cabinet. American and SVN ground forces, aided by US air support, entered Cambodia, and after a lengthy halt, the USAF resumed bombing Hanoi. Around the country, college campuses exploded in outrage. At Kent State, four students were murdered by the National Guard. Higher education in the US shut down. In Cambodia, the combination of excessive bombing and atrocities by the ARVN began a destabilization of the country that would lead to a deadly civil war. Nixon declared the operation a success, although the North Vietnamese had moved away from the border and controlled 40% of the country. Throughout the year, both Nixon and Kissinger worked back channel approaches to Dobrynin and Gromyko hoping for Soviet help in negotiating with Hanoi. None was forthcoming. Nixon frequently contrasted our clean cut boys over there against the long hair bums at home. The year 1970 saw the soldiers in Vietnam smoking weed, growing their hair, wearing non-uniform clothes, refusing to fight, and occasionally 'fragging' overzealous officers. At home, the Vietnam Veterans Against the  War publicized the atrocities of murdering civilians, calling in artillery to destroy villages as a game, raping indiscriminately, burning hooches, dousing people with white phosphorous to watch them burn, and throwing prisoners out of helicopters.  

        The year 1971 would see one of the largest operations of the war. Lam Son 719 was the South Vietnamese lead incursion into Laos. It went well for a bit, but the NVA stopped the southerners after two weeks. Soon the NVA was pounding the ARVN troops and at least 30 American planes had been shot down. Airlifted into their objective 26 miles into Laos, the ARVN was momentarily triumphant until Prime Minister Thieu pulled them out after three days. It was a rout categorized by the Pentagon as "an evacuation proceeding according to plan." "Lam Son 719 would prove to be the turning point in the American war, signaling the end of the administration's optimism." Nixon and Kissinger had deluded themselves into thinking the ARVN could cover the American drawdown of troops. Two years into his presidency, Nixon's strategy was in tatters.

         In spring the Vietnam Veterans Against the War arrived in Washington, along with Gold Star Mothers and WWII veterans. Navy Lt. John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and eloquently damned the war and those who lied to America about it. The Mothers returned their son's medals, and awards. A WWII veteran played taps for his son, and hundreds of veterans threw their medals over a fence in front of the capitol. Nixon's ratings plummeted. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators followed the next month. In June, The New York Times began publishing the top secret Pentagon Papers, proving to the world that the Johnson administration had consistently lied about the rationale for the war and what was actually happening in Asia. The war was so unpopular that Congress was regularly getting closer to voting to shut it down. 

           Nixon and Kissinger were hoping for some foreign policy breakthrough to shift America's focus away from Vietnam. That summer, Zhou invited Kissinger to China, and he visited in June and October. An agreement was made to invite Nixon to China, but there was no help offered on changing Hanoi's negotiating positions. The possibility of reducing tensions with the Soviets was also explored, and a USSR summit was also planned for 1972. Two summits, an election, and a North Vietnamese escalation appeared to be the agenda for 1972.

           Nixon went to Beijing in February, met with Mao and Zhou, was seen exchanging toasts in the Great hall, and accomplished "a public relations windfall exceeding all expectations." When asked why we were still in Vietnam if 'containing' China was no longer a strategic imperative, the president said that we could not look weak.

           "It would be another month before thousands of North Vietnamese troops began pouring into the  south." The ARVN again failed to fight. "Nixon was beside himself. After so many years of careful planning and billions of dollars, how could this be happening? He had always ignored the naysayers, domestic and foreign, who had argued that pacifying  South Vietnam was a doomed project because the local insurgents and their North Vietnamese allies would never give up no matter how intense the American firepower." Hoping he could get the Soviets to rein in the North, Nixon ordered the saturation bombing of Haiphong and Hanoi. The NYT said "The United States is the most  dangerous and destructive power in the world. Only a fool or a madman could believe that more bombing will bring peace."   After a few weeks, MACV was concerned that the South would fall, as the South's soldiers deserted en masse. Nixon's response was to increase bombing the North. In May, he spent a week in Moscow reveling in his role as an international statesman.  By every measure, the Moscow summit was a success but there was no Soviet help forthcoming in Vietnam. 

            Fortunately for the White House, the NVA invasion of the South had stalled, and there were only 39,000 American non-combatants left in country. Finally, both China and the USSR urged the North to be more flexible in their negotiations with the US. Both sides dropped their most intransigent positions. The US would leave, our prisoners would be returned and there would be a cease-fire in place. For the North, they accepted the fact that they could defeat the South later. But without the consent of the Thieu government, the deal faltered. When the North insisted the US stick to the understanding, the US resumed B-52 raids in the north. Virtually the entire world expressed their outrage with comparisons to Nazi atrocities and Allied bombing excesses of WWII being made. The Chineses strongly encouraged the North to work out a settlement. The US and North Vietnam came to an accord at the end of January, 1973. "Although reluctant to admit it...for Nixon and Kissinger, the Paris Peace Agreement was never about peace. It was about getting US prisoners home, withdrawing the troops, and establishing interim processes that could persuade domestic adversaries that their pursuit of the war...had yielded something positive." For America, the war in Vietnam was finally over. Needless to say, a magnificent book.

        

         

*Nixon's first year in office saw the death of five young men from my parish: Mickey McGovern, John Dixon, Kenny Cummings, Jerry Paulsen, and Doug Brustman.

Matterhorn, Reich - B

                  This is a classic page turner involving the CIA v. the SVR, a Russian mole, a traitorous American born marine of Russian extraction, his best friend whose grandfather, dad, daughter, and son are either USMC or CIA,  a beautiful mysterious Israeli diplomat/agent in love with the US agent,  a Russian who betrays the Rodina in love with an American, a scientist prepping WMD, reckless driving, deceit, revenge, murder, mayhem, alpinists, technological wizards, and all set in beautiful Switzerland. Get ready for the beach - a one day read. 

The Retreat, Rambaud - B+

                   "In June 1812, with more than 500,000 men, Napoleon crossed the Niemen and entered Russia." After three months of 'scorched earth,' the Grand Armee arrived in Moscow. They'd already lost tens of thousands. The city was empty; so were the granaries. Napoleon had hoped to sit down with the Tsar and sign a peace treaty. All the French could do was take out their frustrations on the city. However, it is likely that the fires that destroyed the city were set  by the Russians. Napoleon believed he had the option of marching to St. Petersburg or staying the winter and obtaining supplies from Poland. Neither option was realistic as the city continued to burn, killing people and horses while wolves roamed Moscow's streets. Slowly, the Russians began a guerrilla warfare campaign in the city and along the supply lines. They ambushed and killed an increasing number of the invaders. 

                    After five weeks, the French left. They were encumbered by the loot that each and every one of them tried to cart back to Paris. "Overloaded fugitives began to be seen jettisoning their surplus booty, scattering bags of pearls, icons, weapons and rolls of cloth along the road..." Men, beasts, and entire carriages were sucked into the marshes as it began to snow and the Cossacks raided. "They were in no danger of losing their way: they just had to follow the trail of hundreds of naked, frozen corpses, male and female, lying on the ice, the burnt carriages and the mutilated horses that stained the pink snow." When Smolensk offered no respite, the emperor went ahead to Minsk. The remnants of the army were slowly destroyed by the weather and the lack of food.  When the Cossacks captured soldiers or civilians, they stripped them naked and forced them to march until they dropped. The hastily constructed pontoon bridges collapsed and thrust all into the freezing rivers. When he reached Poland, Napoleon commandeered a sleigh and left for Paris, which he reached on December 17. "Behind, far behind, the remnants of what was once an imposing army and now numbered a few thousand beggars at most were drawing near to the Niemen." 

                 This a tour de force - an historical novel at its very best, one that vividly depicts the hell on the earth the retreat was.

Napoleon's Exile, Rambaud - B

                 In 1813, the allies closed in on Paris. Every conceivable group was ready for life after Napoleon, but it was the royalist supporters of Louis XVIII who would prevail. The armies of Russia, Austria, and Prussia entered the city, as did their monarchs. As his armies deserted or were captured, Napoleon offered up a regency by his wife for his infant son if he abdicated. The allies refused, and Napoleon abdicated unconditionally. He waited at Fontainebleau for their decision as his entourage slowly slipped away. He was being sent to Elba. The ride south to the coast saw him cheered and threatened. After five days at sea, he arrived in May 1814 at "a block of jagged black rocks." He was well-received and began the process of governing the island, which was soon buzzing with activities intended to improve the economy. Napoleon was trying to turn a "sleepy sub-prefecture" into "an operatic principality" overnight. Towards year end, word reached the island that there was unhappiness in France at the return of the Bourbons, and the grasping clergy. Many whispered desirously of the Emperor's return. Bored, frustrated by the failure of France  to pay the agreed upon annuity, concerned about rumors from the Congress of Vienna that Talleyrand was plotting to send him to St. Helena's, and intrigued by the unpopularity of Louis XVIII, Napoleon set sail, returned to France and was back in Paris on March 20th. This trilogy is excellent, although I believe the first two were a bit better than this one.

City In Ruins, Winslow - B+

                     For Danny Ryan, his past is never past. Not- withstanding his status as a very important player and casino/hotel owner in Las Vegas, there are those who remember that he was a mobster in Rhode Island not that long ago. An FBI agent wants payback for killing her crooked lover, a Christian on the Nevada Gaming Board sees him as the perfect target upon which to build her career, and some of the old mobsters are still capable of popping up. Things go sideways with a Detroit mobster and a rival to such an extent that Danny almost loses his son and his  girlfriend. It even requires Danny to get his hands dirty again to solve matters. In a magnificent epilogue, we learn that the boy Ian, who was an infant when Danny left R.I., is now the mid-thirties CEO of one of the largest hotel empires in the world and Danny has peacefully passed away. Sadly, the author, who has six books on this blog, is retiring and this is his final work.

In The Morning I'll Be Gone, McKinty - B+

       A new boss quickly concludes that Duffy is too much trouble. and before you know it, he's fitted up for something he didn't do and offered his pension and a severance if he goes quietly. He accepts the offer and spends nine months at home listening to music, drinking, and smoking weed. MI-5 offers him full reinstatement if he can help them find a former classmate now in the IRA and badly wanted by the entire United Kingdom. While searching through Dermot McCann's family and acquaintances, he befriends Dermot's former mother-in-law when he solves the mystery of her youngest daughter's murder. Tipped to Dermot's whereabouts, Sean saves the life of the PM and receives full reinstatement.

The Real Hoosiers: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops, McCallum - B

            In 1927,  Indianapolis opened Crispus Attucks High School. It was during the era that the KKK dominated Indiana politics. The objective was to remove all children of color and isolate them in a segregated school. Attucks was a very good school and it also had a pretty good basketball team. The Robertson's moved to Indianapolis from Tennessee in 1942. Indianapolis was the most segregated city in the north. The Robertson's lived in an unheated tarpaper shack with an outdoor privy. Oscar's brother, Flap, was three years older and played for the first Attucks team to rise to prominence. Oscar made the varsity team as a sophomore in 1953. Attucks appeared in the state semi-final against the most legendary team in state history, Milan. Milan had only 73 boys in the entire school. They beat Attucks and went on to beat Muncie in the finals as immortalized in the film 'Hoosiers. From the first game of the '54-'55 season, it was obvious that the Crispus Attucks Tigers were going to be special. They began a two year run that saw them go 62-1, and put Black basketball front and center in Indiana. A loss in February did not prevent them from facing an all-Black Roosevelt in the final. Attucks won by a blowout. They were the first Indianapolis and the first Black team to win a state title. A year later, they were undefeated on the way to their second crown in a row. Oscar was Indiana's 'Mr. Basketball.' He finished his high school career by leading Indiana over Kentucky in their annual All-Star game.

        The Big O distinguished himself as a pro by taking on the presidency of the Players Association, testifying before Congress, fighting for the players pension plan, and acting as the named plaintiff in an anti-trust action against the league. He was a man committed to justice for players. He also was one of the greatest to ever play the game. This book details the racism that haunted the state that was home to the KuKlux Klan and also provides an excellent history of Hoosier basketball.

The Hundred year's War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, Khalidi - B

              The author is a highly-regarded professor at Columbia University, and the scion of a family of Jerusalem-based scholars going back generations. Indeed, an ancestor warned Theodor Herzl, founder of Zionism, that the objective of settling in Palestine would never succeed because there were indigenous people already there. Herzl, who visited Palestine once, ignored the warning. Herzl believed that the poor people of Palestine should be dispersed elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire. "Starting after World War I, the dismantling of the indigenous Palestinian society was set in motion by the large-scale immigration of European Jewish settlers supported by the newly established British Mandate authorities, who helped them build the autonomous structure of a Zionist para-state." The premise of this book is that"the modern history of Palestine can best be understood in these terms: as a colonial war waged against the indigenous population..."

             Arabs, Christians, and Jews lived amicably in Palestine as subjects of the Ottoman Empire. World War I brought hundreds of thousands of deaths through conscription, starvation and plague. After 400 years of Ottoman sovereignty , Palestine was occupied by a European power, one which had previously approved the creation "of a national home for the Jewish people."  Anti-Zionist riots took place in the 1920's. Throughout the Muslim world, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq achieved independence - but not Palestine. The League of Nations confirmed the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration in 1922, and the Jewish Agency was granted quasi-governmental status. "The British treated the Palestinians with the same contemptuous condescension they lavished on the subject peoples from Hong Kong to Jamaica." The Jewish population grew after the rise of Nazism in 1933 bringing educated, skilled people and their wealth to Palestine. The Palestinians reacted violently in 1936 with a six-month general strike that led to a three year revolt, that required 100,000 British troops to quell. By the beginning of WWII, the die was cast. Palestine was on the road to becoming Israel.

               After the war, the US backed the Zionist cause.  The UN, led by America and the USSR, voted to create a Jewish state in late 1947.  The following May, Israel declared its independence,  and the US immediately recognized the new country. In the ensuing fighting, 80% of the Arabs lost their homes and 720,000 became refugees. "The ethnic cleansing of the Arab-inhabited areas of the country" transformed Palestine into Israel. The approximately  160,000 Palestinians who remained lost their land and homes and were subject to martial law for the next two decades. Almost a decade later, in 1956, when Israel, Britain and France attacked Egypt, the Israelis took advantage of the opportunity to wreak violence once again on the local Arabs.

                 In a mere six days in 1967, Israel destroyed three air forces and armies, and occupied the Sinai, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. The Six-Day War saw the United States fully supportive of Israel. In response, there was a reemergence of Palestinian nationalism throughout the diaspora. The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PLO and Fatah appeared in the late sixties. Their ascent vastly complicated the politics of the Middle East. The front line states, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria wanted to contain them, but the Palestinians engaged in disruptive terroristic activities. Israel and Jordan, backed by the US pushed back. Indeed in September of 1970, Jordan expelled the PLO. The US helped Syria attack the PLO in 1976.

                        In pursuit of the PLO, Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. There were 50,000 casualties before a cease fire was declared after ten weeks. Thomas Friedman described the Israeli bombing as "indiscriminate" before the NYT editors removed the offending characterization.  The US fully supported and supplied the offensive. Having provoked the Israelis with constant acts of terror, the PLO "found itself bereft of support from many of its traditional allies." The PLO left Lebanon for half a dozen Arab countries. Israel occupied Beirut, even though it had promised not to.  Afterwards, the Israeli judiciary castigated the country's leaders for the needless state sponsored massacres that took place in the Palestinian refugee camps. 

                       An unintended consequence of 1982 was a resurgence of nationalism in the Occupied Territories that led to the Intifada (uprising) in late 1987. It was a spontaneous "bottom up campaign of resistance," and led to worldwide sympathy and support for the two-state solution. A serious attempt to solve the Palestine problem was made by Jim Baker, who had a healthy skepticism of the Israelis, but it failed after Clinton defeated Bush in 1992. At Oslo, Israel agreed to the return of the PLO to the Occupied Territories, and a limited role for the Palestine Authority. However, virtually nothing had  changed for the better in the day to day life of the Palestinians. Indeed, matters deteriorated as travel between Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza became more restricted. The Second Intifada erupted in 2000. This century has seen an uptick in violence after Hamas took over Gaza and has been sporadically fighting with the IDF for years. Obama made an attempt at forcing Israel's hand in peace talks, but was unable to overcome America's traditional support for Israel.

                   Reconciling the needs and desires of two peoples connected to the same place and upholding the ideals of democracy appears to be beyond anyone's vision. The Trump administration reversed  American policies by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. It also negotiated with the Gulf States to recognize Israel and completely ignored the Palestinians. It is only the fact that the plight of the Palestinians is very important to the vast majority of Arabs that keeps the issue alive, and resolving it favorably with due consideration of Palestinian rights is not on the horizon.

                   The essence of this book is that Israel has never had the moral high ground that we in the US believed they occupied. Indeed, "complaisant American public opinion" is a foundation of the state of Israel. I've read three reviews of this book. The one somewhat critical was in the NYTimes, and it doesn't disagree, but describes the author's hope for a resolution recognizing the Palestinians as "fanciful." As for me, I think the author makes a compelling case against the British for deeming it within their remit to tell the rest of the world how to live and for completely dismissing the Palestinians; against the Israelis for intending to eliminate the Palestinians from their world and for their extensive use of violence; and against the US for supporting and supplying the Israeli war machine.

 

One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History And Threatens Our Democracy, Erdozain - B

               Lyndon Johnson's National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence recommended that the 24 million handguns then in the US be reduced, by licensing, to 2.4 million. Today, there are over 200 million handguns in America.

             "There is no mystery to the Second Amendment.  The mystery is how one part of America convinced itself that privately held guns are the foundation of democracy, and how everyone else was bullied into acquiescence." "The norms of today are not the norms of American history or the values of the founders." The Myth of the Law-Abiding Citizen says that guns keep us safe from bad people. However, studies have shown that 84% of deaths are "altercation homicides" that is, those between friends or family. It has also been proven that homicide rates increase when gun density rises.  States allowing concealed carry saw increases in murder rates after the laws' enactments. Reagan's support for the NRA led to assault rifles, high capacity magazines and "constitutional carry."

              The fear of standing armies led to the Constitution's granting to Congress the power "to raise armies." The result  was the 2nd Amendment which clearly referenced a collective duty in a states militia that gave rise to the right to bear arms. Under the common law and well into the 19th century in America, merely carrying a threatening weapon in public was a crime. However, the Civil War created a gun culture by the manufacture of millions of weapons, and the training of young men to use them. The second half of the century legitimized violence by vigilantes, and by anyone fighting the Indians, as the west was tamed.

             Handguns were sold everywhere and were widespread in the early 20th century. New York passed a law criminalizing possession of a handguns, and the American Bar Association recommended a national ban on the manufacture and sale of handguns. The NRA loudly protested that the reforms were an attack on white America, a guns were needed to deal with the vipers arriving on every boat from Europe. FDR tried twice to pass gun control legislation, but failed both times.

            John Kennedy was assassinated by a man who made a mail order purchase of a rifle with a coupon from the NRA magazine, 'American Rifleman.' Riots ensued the following year, and in 1966, America saw its first mass murder at the University of Texas. An attempt to regulate weapons ran into the gun lobby and the NRA. A majority of the country believed in gun reform, but the volume of letters and telegrams that members of Congress received were overwhelmingly from the gun supporters. The 1968 law that passed was labelled by the Washington Post as a "crimp in the mail order business." It was close to meaningless. Richard Nixon hated guns and thought that no American should own a handgun. His successors viewed matters differently. For Reagan, life was a struggle against the evils of communism, and whether you were an individual or a nation, it was essential to be armed to fight the evildoers.  He promoted a bill of rights for gun owners. In the 1990's, a bill banning assault rifles passed, but it had a sunset provision. After the Columbine slaughter, Tom DeLay said it was the result of a "godless society." The NRA achieved its greatest victory in 2008when the Supreme Court issued its verdict in Heller, which was a "substitution of the mythology of the gun culture for the truth of the Second Amendment." Antonin Scalia twisted and contorted English and American history to convert the concept of a collective militia into an individuals right to own weapons without government regulation. Thus, we all live in fear ofpersonal violence and our grandchildren practice "active shooter drills." This is an excellent read.

Custer's Trials: A Life On The Frontier Of A New America, Stiles - B

                   This Pulitzer winning biography attempts to tell Custer's story as he lived it, and not as a prelude to "the march to the Little Bighorn." The hope is "to explain why his celebrity, and notoriety, spanned both the Civil War and the years on the frontier, resting on neither exclusively but incorporating both."

                   The son of a blacksmith, he received the coveted appointment to West Point in 1857. He was never much of a cadet and was constantly on report. "He laughed in class, threw snowballs, and lobbed bread across the mess hall." In his fourth year, he watched as state after state seceded and his classmates from the south left. Although he was sympathetic and close to the southerners, he "stood firm for the Union." He graduated last in his class, and was court-martialed soon after for allowing two cadets under his supervision to fight each other. He was found guilty, but not punished and was off to Washington. He actually made it to Bull Run but missed the battle, and joined Phil Kearney's staff. He saw his first action during the Peninsula Campaign. He was assigned to an engineering battalion, scouted the enemy from 1,000 feet in a balloon, and excelled in a number of skirmishes. He drew the attention of McClellan and joined his staff. He performed with considerable bravery and came to idolize Little Mac, who despised Lincoln, and Stanton, and hated the Black man. When McClellan was relieved, Custer felt that the "Abolitionist radicals had stabbed him in the back."

                  After Antietam, he spent the winter home in Monroe, Michigan. The following April, he was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. The politically well-connected Custer was appointed Brigadier General in June. He led four cavalry regiments from Michigan. On the third day of Gettysburg, Lee attacked in the center with infantry and sent Jeb Stuart's cavalry around the Union right to attack from the rear. The Michigan Brigade stood athwart their path. Custer personally led a charge that stopped the Confederate cavalry. He made a material contribution to the Union victory, and was now a nationally-recognized hero.

                 On Feb. 9, 1864, he married Libbie Bacon before 300 people in Monroe, Michigan. Two months later, Grant changed the leadership of the Cavalry and Phil Sheridan in charge. At Yellow Tavern during the Wilderness Campaign, one of Custer's men shot and killed Jeb Stuart. Custer quickly became Phil Sheridan's favorite. Custer continued to throw himself into every battle and every charge with unparalleled effort, panache, and the utmost of luck. He had innumerable horses shot out under him and was hit by at least three bullets, fortunately spent out and lacking in lethality. In the fall, Sheridan was tasked with expelling Jubal Early from the Shenandoah Valley. Custer again excelled and was elevated from "Union hero to national icon." Twenty-five year old Major General Custer finished the war at Appomattox. He had entered it as the lowest 2nd Lt. "His energy, tactical skill, and courage" had propelled him to the top. 

                 "As peace began, all that was self-absorbed and self-destructive in Custer bubbled to the surface again." Sheridan assigned Custer to an administrative post in Texas. His command was a total failure, as he could not adjust to peacetime, was inconsistent, temperamental, and such an over the top disciplinarian that complaints reached Grant. He stole a valuable horse, lied to the authorities, and evidenced a complete disregard for the freed slaves. His time in the south was brief, as he was mustered out of the army in January, 1866. Later in the year, he was afforded the opportunity to return to the army as a Lt. Col. at Ft. Riley, Kansas. A year later, he was court-martialed at Ft. Leavenworth for being AWOL, the abusive treatment of government horses, and the extrajudicial execution of men under his command. He had left his assignment at Ft. Wallace to ride over 200 miles to see Libbie, with whom he had been quarreling over what is generally assumed to be an extra-marital affair on his part.  He was found guilty on all three counts. He was suspended for a year, but returned to duty with the support of Grant and Sheridan. In November of 1868, Sheridan sent Custer south into Indian Territory in pursuit of a band of Cheyenne warriors. With 800 men of the 7th Cavalry charging to the tune 'Gary Owen,' Custer led his first charge in years on a Cheyenne camp. Although many women and children were captured as hostages, a great many also perished in the dawn attack. No warriors survived the morning. It was the first army victory over the southern Cheyenne, and many surrendered and came to the camps. Sheridan was once again very happy with his favorite cavalry officer.

                 A long leave and a brief, unsuccessful attempt to become a financier in NY was followed by an unpleasant tour in Kentucky, where federal troops were maintaining the peace between the races. By March of 1873, he was back in the Dakota Territories. The army's role was to "escort the surveyors from the Northern Pacific Railroad, protecting them from Sioux attacks." His efforts that summer were again successful as he managed and fought well. The following summer, he headed for the Black Hills. Many hoped he would find gold because it would lead to a vast influx of whites, provoking the northern Plains Indians into their Armageddon. Gold was discovered.

                 On May 18, 1876, Custer led all twelve regiments of the 7th Cavalry out of Ft. Abraham Lincoln and headed west toward  what was expected to be the final fight of the war with the Sioux.  In the aftermath of June 25th*, the army convened a hearing at the Palmer House in Chicago. The two officers generally believed to have not executed their orders that day, Reno and Benteen, clearly perjured themselves in an attempt to avoid condemnation. The inquiry did not reprimand either man, and concluded that the number of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors was so unusually high that day, and the fact that they chose to stand and fight a pitched battle, condemned Custer and his men to death. "But Custer as glory-obsessed, arrogant fool emerged as the persistent narrative." It held then and does so today. That narrative fails in one important regard: "his performance in battle, the one field in which he displayed consistent good judgment and self-possession. From the Civil War through his two battles on the Yellowstone, he proved decisive, not reckless; shrewd,  not foolish." Probably the most insightful chronicler declared, "The simplest answer, usually overlooked, is that the army lost largely because the Indians won."

                      Libbie struggled financially, but eventually wrote  successful books that elevated her position. She invested well and lived on Park Avenue when she died in 1933.

                      Custer was arrogant, delusional, a psychopathic liar, and simply not a stand-up fella. But he was extraordinarily brave, very lucky in battle and a brilliant intuitive tactician. Much of what I have read over the years has focused on his time in the west. I had no idea how much he contributed in the Civil War. Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan appreciated and approved of his battlefield skills. He may not have the reputation that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had in those first few days of July, but he was damned close. 

*Custer's two younger brothers, a nephew and his sister's husband were with him at the Little Bighorn.

I Hear Sirens In the Street, McKinley - B+

             Belfast's D.I. Sean Duffy gets caught up in a very odd murder. He and his team find a body, and the corpse's tattoos indicate he's American. Some research brings them to a dark corner of the county occupied by people who hate the 'peelers' so much they won't even talk to them. Duffy takes a week off and goes to the US to do some digging. He's on the right path, and that path indicates that the deceased was a US agent looking into John DeLorean and his car company. Duffy's right, but he pays a price for bucking the establishment. Busted to sergeant in uniform and back on the mean streets.

Absolution, McDermott - B

         Patricia Riordan Kelly is a born and bred New York Irish Catholic, a recent grad of Marymount and the new wife of  Peter Kelly. They are in Saigon in the early sixties where Peter, an engineer for Esso, is working for the CIA. Patricia recalls their time there in a long letter to the daughter of the woman who befriended her when they were young wives in Vietnam. It is a fascinating exploration of what it was like before everything changed for women. The expectation was to marry young and be a handmaiden to your husband's career. In this instance, Patricia had numerous miscarriages and no live births, the novel plumbs the depths of misery that she went through. And, it is a brilliant review of being Irish Catholic in that era. As an Irishwoman born in Brooklyn in the early 1950's, and educated in the parochial school system in Nassau, the author completely nails it.

The Fields, Young - B+

                       This is a superb police procedural set in Black Hawk County, Iowa and featuring recently promoted Sergeant Riley Fisher. In the midst of a gubernatorial election with the issue of big agribusiness v. family farmer dominating the state, Riley faces a serial killer. The first victim is a friend of hers from childhood through high school. The county is in such a state of anxiety that the Sheriff calls in the FBI. The plot thickens when it becomes apparent that the governor is behind some serious hijinks. The ending is bit of a stumble, but this still is a very good read.

Original Sins, Young - B

        Riley Fisher is in Des Moines and now working for the FBI. There are some weird political issues in the small satellite office, but Riley stays focused on the return of a serial killer in the capital, and the hatred directed at the state's first woman governor. She and a local police officer pull off the uncovering and arrest of some very bad people. This is a bit too close to its predecessor in its plotting for me.

Ilium, Carpenter - D

                    Highly acclaimed balderdash. A young Englishwoman is recruited by the CIA to help set up an assassination. Why she is recruited and how she helped is never explained. "Psychological thriller" - not that I can see.

The Holocaust: An Unfinished History, Stone - B+

                       "The ubiquity of collaboration across Europe, driven by a coincidence of wants between the Nazi's ideological driven aspiration to rid the world of Jews and the desire of many nation-states' leaders to create ethnically homogenous populations, means we need to stop thinking of the Holocaust as a solely German project." The ideology of anti-semitism had its apogee in Germany, but it was a "shared framework, a consensus" easily taken up by others. The French, Romanians and Croatians, in particular, embraced the destruction of their Jewish citizens. The majority of the murdered Jews were not killed in death camps, but face to face by gunmen, or starved or worked to death throughout the continent. For the few who survived in Europe, May 1945 did not end their troubles, as they faced pogroms in Hungary and Poland, and were in displaced persons camps for years. "And finally, we need to understand the ways in which the after-effects of the Holocaust shaped the postwar years and continue to be felt today."  This excellent history, thus, is a retelling of the familiar with a broadened context and expanded view of the events of the Shoah.    

                      The Nazis,  particularly Adolf Hitler, viewed the Versailles Diktat and all of the pain and humiliation that followed as having been caused by international Jewry. Thus, anti-semitism became the root of the Nazi creed. There were attempts to dress up Nazi racial theories in scientific robes, but for the true believers, it was never more than pure hatred of the Jews and the adulation of Aryan superiority.  Immediately upon assuming power, the Nazis moved against the Jews, and in the years before the war began, they reduced the prosperous Jewish community to "abject destitution" and "removed them from the majority of the population's sense of obligation, morality, and civility."  The initial boycotts, job losses, and random violence were followed by the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived Jews of German citizenship. They were prohibited from having any sexual relationships with Aryans,  they could not act as a physician to an Aryan, they lost their rights at university, and they began to lose their businesses to Aryanization. All of these actions required the complicit consent of a broad swath of society. Kristallnacht escalated the violence with 177 synagogues burned, thousands of businesses destroyed and 3,000 sent to concentration camps. If any Jew in Germany was unsure of the intentions of the regime, The Night of Broken Glass clarified how matters stood. Tens of thousands more left Germany. By September of 1939, fully half of the country's Jewish population had left since Hitler's rise. 

                   In January 1939, Hitler said - "Today I will be a prophet again and say, if international finance Jewry in and outside Europe succeeds in plunging nations into another world war, then the end result ... will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe." When Germany invaded Poland, it began the systemic murder of the country's elites and leaders. On occasion, an entire Jewish community would be slaughtered, but most Jews were rounded up and placed in heavily-policed ghettos. Poland's Jews were warehoused in the ghettos with the intent of sending them east of the Urals when the circumstances allowed. Although the ghettos were created well before the decision to murder their inhabitants, conditions were such that 500,000 Polish Jews died in the ghettos.

                Bolshevism in the USSR had to be destroyed because it was through Bolshevism that the Jews were attempting to destroy Germany. "What changed in 1941 was the overall conception of a genocidal plan rather than a more limited policy..." Nazi Germany transitioned from ghettoization to face to face killings in the western USSR, to a continental plan of extermination in a little over a year. The SS Einsatzgruppen who accompanied the Wehrmacht into the Soviet Union killed 1.5 million Jews. Between the fall of 1941 and the spring of 1942, Hitler gave the order to implement the Final Solution. In March 1942, 80% of the Holocaust victims were still alive. A year later, 80% were dead. The murders in the USSR were almost all assisted by locals who enthusiastically aided the Germans. Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Byelorussians, and Ukrainians were all handmaidens to the Nazis. To the west in Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, and Moldova, "indigenous fascist regimes" were indiscriminately killing Jews. "For the victims of these murderous policies...the result was disastrous. By that point, the Nazi's Final Solution was in place, and Jews across Europe were marked for death. For the different Jewish populations actually to be captured, deported and murdered, however, required a high degree of collaboration across the continent...The precise path of genocide differed from place to place, but in the end the outcome was the same."

                      From Norway to Crete, individuals, organizations, and entire countries collaborated with the Nazis to help rid the continent of Jews. In the Netherlands where 75% of the Jews were killed, the civil service cooperated throughout with the occupiers. The Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944 which was followed by the deportation of almost half a million Jews to Auschwitz could not have happened without the support of the Hungarian police. Only 25% of France's Jews were deported, but the 1942 internments at the Velodrome and Drancy required extensive local help. Croatia and Slovakia were so fervently anti-semitic that they pre-empted the Germans and began murdering their Jews before the SS became involved. In Romania, Antonescu fully embraced the fascist ideology and killed thousands. "It is clearly the case that without the support of millions of non-Germans (or Austrians) across Europe, the pace of the Holocaust would have been slower and its extent less comprehensive."

                    "In late 1943 and early 1944, the killing rate at Birkenau, as the Nazis realized that placing ideology above labour made little sense now, given the parlous state of the war economy..." Several hundred thousand Jewish lives were saved when they were put into slave labour camps.  Thousands upon thousands received only a deferment as the camps were extremely brutal, inhumane operations. As the Allies closed in, hundreds of thousands died in death marches, as the Nazis attempted to hide their atrocities. For the Jews of Eastern Europe, the end of hostilities offered nothing but uncertainty in DP camps. Their homes and families were no more. They could or would not return to Poland or Hungary. One American observer sent to Europe by the president observed that the Jews were under lock and key in camps and guarded by soldiers. The only difference was that "we do not exterminate them." Although some DP's stayed in Europe, most went to either Israel or America.

                 In the immediate aftermath of the war, "the genocide of the Jews was not understood or was overlooked." The passage of time, particularly the end of the Cold War, brought a Holocaust consciousness to the fore. The key events were Eichmann's trial in 1961-2, the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial in 1963-65, the television show 'The Holocaust' in 1978, 'Schindler's List' in 1993, and the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1995.  In the twenty-first century, the Holocaust's memory has been distorted by those who twist and refute history for their own purposes. The most glaring example is Poland, where it is now a crime to suggest that the Poles betrayed its Jews. The official line in Poland now is that Poles uniformly helped their Jewish neighbors from the Nazis. There are other examples of denial popping up regularly around the world. The author is the Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at the University of London. The two core themes here are the diversity of the methods of killing and the breath of the collaboration throughout the continent.

                       

                                                                            

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, Woo - B+

                       This is the remarkable story of William and Ellen Craft, slaves who traveled to the north and eventually to England in their pursuit of freedom. They became celebrities on the lecture circuit for defying the Fugitive Slave Act. "At heart, this is an American love story-not in the fairy tale sense, but an enduring relationship between a man and a woman, a couple and a country."

                       They departed their home in Macon on the morning of Dec. 20, 1848. Ellen was three-quarters white with light hair and easily passed as a sickly young white man, with an arm in a sling. William had been apprenticed to a carpenter and had managed to save $150. The Savannah train was a short walk from their home. The train pulled away with Ellen in first class and William in the Negro section. They arrived later that day, and embarked on a steamer that evening. The next day in Charleston,  Ellen purchased tickets for herself, as William Johnson, and for her slave for Philadelphia. Another steamer took them to Wilmington, where they boarded a train. The trip north entailed the constant changing of trains, but the journey continued, and they found themselves in the nation's capitol. They headed to the "most dangerous slaveport of their journey," Baltimore, where they had their closest call when an official would not let them proceed until Mr. Johnson could prove his ownership of the slave. Fortunately, an impatient crowd moved all of the passengers forward. On Christmas Eve, they arrived in Philadelphia.

                     They were welcomed by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, and all marveled at the courage and genius behind their 1,000 mile escape. However, they moved on to Boston, which was considered a safer place because of its distance from the Mason-Dixon Line and the unlikelihood of the Fugitive Slave Act being enforced. They agreed to speak publicly about their experiences as slaves and their journey to freedom. Soon, their story was front page news in the north. They spent the spring of 1849 traveling and lecturing throughout New England. That summer, they settled in Boston's Black community. William opened a furniture repair store and Ellen used her sewing skills as an upholsterer. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was enhanced leading thousands to leave for Canada. The Crafts decided to stay in Boston. Many in the city said they would never allow the slave catchers to take away their residents, but there were people "from Macon en route to Boston, with Ellen and William in their sights." The slave catchers obtained a warrant from Federal Court, but had difficulty finding help to execute it. Hundreds of Negroes took to the streets with placards lambasting 'Kidnappers and Slave Catchers' in an attempt to thwart the southerners. While people threw eggs at the slave catchers, the local police arrested them three times. Although the people of Boston were doing their all to stop enforcement of the FSA, the federal government took steps to arrest the Crafts. They quickly left for Maine, then sailed to Canada, and were soon on their way to Liverpool.

                    William and Ellen immediately hit the lecture circuit and began to build a normal life in a free society. The lived in the UK for almost two decades and had five children there. Ellen was active in the London Emancipation Committee, the Women's Suffrage Organization, and the British and Foreign Freedmen's Association. In 1860, they published 'Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery.' In 1868, they returned to Georgia. They attempted to start a farm cooperative for freed slaves but it failed after a few years. They lived out their lives in Charleston where Ellen died in 1891 and William in 1900. Although their children and grandchildren lived as successful educators, activists, and lawyers, William and Ellen's story faded away. But their escape and activism is an extraordinary story. "They pushed not only themselves and each other, but also the nation - and the world - to reach for better." The book is good --the Craft's story is extraordinary.

 

The Missing Corpse, Bannalec - B

                      Here, Commissaire Georges Dupin faces a double murder. Both men were from Scotland and in Brittany for the day. As per the course in this series, we are immersed in a unique aspect of life in Brittany, and in this novel it's oyster farming. Add in Druid rites and beach sand theft before Dupin's team wraps up the murderers. To add to his success, he learns from his Breton to the core administrative assistant that his great-grandfather was from Brittany.

All The Queen's Spies, Clements - B

                      It is 1583, and the Queen and Walsingham conspire to exile Dee to the continent where they expect him to travel to Prague and spy on the Emperor Rudolf. It is Rudolf's toleration of non-Catholics that may keep him away from any plans by the French and Spanish to restore Romanism in England. Dee and his party are able to distract the Emperor by appealing to his interests in the occult. Although these books are based in fact and are quite creative, I suspect I will not follow up when the next one is published.

The Mystery Guest, Prose - B

                      Another death at the Regency Grand, and this time Molly the Maid  handed the poisoned tea to the deceased as he began a presentation in the hotel's ballroom. The police once again suspect her, but she brilliantly solves the murder on her own. This series is nice, but not much more.

The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America, Schulman - B

                       This is the story of the German-Jews who came to America in the 19th century and founded some of the country's greatest financial institutions. Almost all of them came here impoverished. Indeed, their empires "were born out of rickety wooden carts and bulging canvas rucksacks." 

                       Eighteen-year-old Joseph Seligman arrived in NY in 1837 with the equivalent of $100 sewed into his trousers. He succeeded as a peddler, brought his siblings to New York, and opened an import business in lower Manhattan. A decade later, Henry, Emmanuel, and Mayer Lehmann opened a dry goods store in Alabama. Lehman Brothers branched into financing the cotton trade. As the country grew, so did both firms. The Seligmans opened a successful business in San Francisco, and the Lehman's opened an office in New York. Both families profited during the Civil War, provisioning and financing both sides. "The Civil War seeded vast fortunes that would grow vaster still in the Gilded Age to come."  Jacob Schiff, son of a wealthy Frankfurt family, arrived in New York in 1865, and within two years opened his own brokerage firm. A month later, Kuhn & Loeb opened.  Marcus Goldman moved to NY from Philadelphia and opened his own financial firm.  After the Panic of 1873 during which Jacob Schiff's firm disbanded, he joined Kuhn Loeb. By the end of the decade, Schiff and Seligman were two of the most prominent financiers on Wall Street. The new Hayes administration turned to both firms to lead the underwriting that would retire most of the country's Civil War debt. At the height of his power and at the age of 60, Joseph Seligman was the first of the German-Jewish titans to die. 

                     Jacob Schiff ascended to Seligman's position as the preeminent Jewish banker in the country. He joined civic boards, was instrumental in integrating NYC  schools, and encouraged the city to focus on underground railways, not elevated lines.  He spent the next forty years as the leading philanthropist of Jewish causes.  In 1881, the Russian Empire began punishing its Jews, falsely blaming them for the assassination of the Tsar. Over the next thirty years, two million would immigrate to America. Schiff marshaled the resources of the Jewish community to assist them.  He orchestrated one of the most encompassing and far-reaching act of private generosity for a broad class of people in American history. 

                   In the 1890's, two members of the Hamburg based banking dynasty M M Warburg married into NY banking families, one to Frieda Schiff and one to Nina Loeb. Otto Kahn married the daughter of a Kuhn Loeb partner as well. The Goldman and Sachs families also combined through marriage. 

                   Jacob Schiff was at the apogee of his career. He and Otto Kahn succeeded in reorganizing the Union Pacific RR, which JP Morgan believed was beyond repair. Jacob's distaste for Russia led him to finance Japan during its war with the Russian Empire. His efforts were so well appreciated that when he went to Japan, he was presented with the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor Meiji. The family and firm name still resonate in Japan a century later.  Upon his return to the states, he was faced with increasingly anti-business acts by the Roosevelt administration and the burgeoning Panic of 1907. JP Morgan almost singlehandedly pulled the country out of the crisis, paving the way at long last for the US to establish a central bank seven years later.

                   Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers began to partner together in bringing IPO's to the fore starting with United Cigar and Sears Roebuck, and most successfully with FW Woolworth and Co.

                   As the twentieth century progressed, first under Roosevelt, and then under Wilson, the excesses of the Gilded Age, which had built many Yankee and Jewish fortunes came under attack by the Progressives. Nonetheless, the Wall Streeters collaborated with the government in the creation of the Federal Reserve System and Paul Warburg was the first appointment to the Federal Reserve Board that Wilson made. WWI presented major conflicts for those who still identified as German, particularly Jacob Schiff and Henry Goldman. Czarist Russia on the side of the Allies was a particularly trying point for Schiff, who personally subscribed to loans supporting the German war effort. He also contributed generously to aid for Jews in the Eastern European war zones and in Palestine. As Wall Street began to finance the Allied effort, Schiff's insistence on neutrality hurt both Kuhn Loeb's reputation and profits. The firm fully supported the war after America joined the Allies, but it had lost, and would not recover, its preeminent position as one of the leading American investment banks. Similarly, Henry Goldman hurt his firm by doing business with the Central Powers early in the war. In 1917, Henry withdrew from Goldman Sachs.  Many younger members of the Jewish families worked hard for the war effort;  Herbert Lehman,  Jimmy Warburg, and his cousin Freddy all were commissioned officers stationed stateside. Bobbie Lehman was an officer in France. Members of  the different families were engaged in raising money for Liberty Bonds, and every conceivable relief group imaginable. The fragmented German-Jewish community had, in the end, supported the American effort.

                 "From the first moment of the 1920's an aura of angst and upheaval suffused American life." The US rejected the Versailles Treaty. Anti-semitism was on the rise and was led by one of America's most famous people. Henry Ford published 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' and tried to tarnish Jacob Schiff as the man who brought Bolshevism to Russia by opposing the Czar. The US passed stringent anti-immigration laws because of the influx of Jews and Italians in the early 20th century.  JP Morgan's headquarters were bombed, as was the home of the Attorney-General. The Red Scare ensued. 

                 Jacob Schiff died in September, 1920. Tens of thousands watched his casket travel from the synagogue to the cemetery.  This is an excellent book and it's very enjoyable to know a bit more of the background of the names that have dominated both the financial services world and the city of New York. Jacob Schiff, a name I only learned a few months ago in a different book, was truly an extraordinary man whose generosity was astounding.

The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, And Deception On The Eve of World War I, Brunt- B+

                       Rudolf Diesel's "engine was the most disruptive technology in history." When he went missing on a Channel crossing in Sept. 1913, there were various theories about his death. One was suicide, and another was that his enemies had arranged his demise. He was a genius and an idealist who hoped that his small and efficient engine would change the world - and it did. This is his story.

                       His family was Bavarian, but he was born in Paris on March 18, 1858. His innate curiosity was evident at an early age, when he spent his free time at a technical museum sketching all of its exhibits. War in 1870 saw the Diesel's flee to London because of the anti-German feelings spreading throughout Paris. The family sent Rudolf to Augsburg when a relative offered to board him so that he could attend school in Germany. Thanks to a few businesses centered there, the ancient city was "a hotbed for rising engineering talent." In 1875, he graduated from the Augsburg Polytechnic School with the highest grades in the school's history. He was awarded a scholarship to attend university in Munich. He studied thermodynamics and became "obsessed with engine inefficiency." Once again, he graduated with the highest grades ever.

                   He went to work for a German firm in Paris, where he met and married Louise Flasch, a German governess. Although he was working in refrigeration, he continued to be focused on building a small efficient engine that would provide opportunities in rural areas away from the big cities and their massive industrial plants. Rudolf, Louise, and their three children moved to Berlin 1890. He resigned from his job and received a patent in 1892 for the 'Process for Producing Motive Power From the Combustion of Fuels.' "What Diesel theorized was a frightening threat to the established modes of power of the day and the engineers who designed them." Rudolf obtained the support he needed to build his engine from Heinrich Buz and Friedrich Krupp, two of Germany's leading industrialists. The engine, which used compressed air instead of a flame for ignition, was revealed to the world in Feb. 1897. It was now up to the industrial world to decide the engine's uses. It soon became apparent that it would replace the steam engine as the leading propulsion mechanism in the world. Augustus Busch paid Diesel one million marks for the rights to manufacture and distribute the engine in America and Canada. The Nobel Family created a venture with Rudolf to encompass the  Russian market. He was now a wealthy man. The technology spread around the world quickly and was highly desired because it did not involve burning petroleum.  However, the "internationally networked approach of scientists that Diesel envisioned soon gave way to the proprietary, militaristic approach of independent and militaristic nations." 

                Rudolf returned to the laboratory to work with his licensees to make certain that the engine was commercially viable. He triumphed at the 1900 Paris World Fair with an 80 hp engine that ran on peanut oil, was extremely quiet and gave off virtually no emissions. Rudolf's success was a threat to the burgeoning petroleum industry in America, where the internal combustion engine was growing in popularity. At home, Wilhelm II concluded that a submarine was the best strategic weapon to compete with Britain, and that a Diesel engine was the only way to power an undersea boat. "A frenzy of development work began to advance the military application of the engine." In Augsburg, Maschinenfabrik (M.A.N.) was leading the world in engines for submarines and would build almost 600 during the Great War. They were so superior to everyone else's so that the US Navy took another twenty years to match their engines. A Danish firm built the 'Selandia,' a substantial commercial vehicle, without steam and only Diesel engines that so impressed the First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill, that he began the conversion of the Royal Navy's engines. 

             As Germany and Britain continued their manic arms race, Diesel went about his business traveling the world and working on the adoption of his engine. The year 1913 saw not only its adoption for maritime use, but also the conversion of America's railroads to Diesel engines and the first tests of the motor in an automobile. Rudolf Diesel could not have been more successful. On the night of Sept. 29, he boarded the SS Dresden to sail from Ghent to England. The next morning, a neatly folded coat and a hat were found on the deck. Rudolf was gone. The first posited theory was that his fall was accidental. Suicide was not seriously considered because he was healthy and happy. More sinister theories arose suggesting both that agents of the Kaiser or the petroleum industry disposed of him.

            The author believes that Rudolf was working with, and cooperated with, a British ruse. He deplored Prussian militarism and did not approve of the Kaiser's ambitions. Before he left home, he gifted scientific materials to a museum, and showed his son where all of his important papers were. The family quickly accepted the suicide theory. That he was working in Canada became the story for a while, until the British press stopped writing about him. The author suggests that the government suppressed the newspapers. In Canada, there was a secretive effort at the local Vickers plant that led to the successful construction of Britain's first submarines. Vickers also obtained a number of patents that were markedly more sophisticated than the skill level of its engineering department.

            This is a very good book and one worth reading, if only to better appreciate how extraordinary the man's engine was, and still is. As for Churchill spiriting him off to Canada, I'm not overwhelmed. Some of the evidence is interesting. But, it is hard to believe that one of the most famous men in the world could disappear into a shipyard in Canada without a word of it appearing for over a century.

                

Sacred Foundations: The Religious And Medieval Roots Of The European State, Gryzmala-Busse - B, Inc.

                       The Roman Catholic Church "was a transformative force" in Europe a thousand years ago. It freed itself from monarchs, "transformed the European legal order,"  and created new political concepts. The premise of this book is that "the church heavily influenced European state formation," and that the states that emerged emulated the church. The power of the church stemmed from its vast wealth as the largest landowner on the continent. The church had mastered the collection of taxes and was a vast, efficient bureaucracy with the best educated people in Europe on its staff. The church anointed emperors, was omnipresent in everyone's daily life, and controlled access to eternal salvation. This thesis conflicts with the traditional bellicist approach, which believes that the driving force behind state formation was the need to wage war. 

                     This is an extremely academic history and one that has totally befuddled me. I understand how the interaction between the states that centralized, France and England in particular, and Rome, could lead to their adoption of papal governance systems, which in turn helped them develop. On the other hand, much of the book focuses on the endless conflict between the church and the Holy Roman Empire, and the papacy's attempts to destabilize the empire. The empire, as the secular government of northern Italy, was in constant conflict with the church, its southern neighbor and ruler of the Papal States. The church, after winning from the empire the right of the College of Cardinals to elect the Pope and the Pope's right to appoint bishops and collect taxes, encouraged the clerics in the HRE to be active politically leading to a system where the church and state did not diverge. Both Italy and Germany didn't centralize until the 19th century, affording the papacy the chance to assert temporal power in central Italy. Reconciling the premise of the book with the outcomes in England, France, and Germany is beyond my abilities.

                    

The Paper Man, O'Callahan - B

                       In 1930's Vienna, Mattias Sindelar is such an extraordinary footballer that he is called 'The Paper Man'  because he shreds the opposition. He is a man about town, star of his local club team and the country's national side. He meets and falls head over heels in love with the much younger Rebekah Schein,  She eventually leaves her home in the country and moves to the capital to be near him. On the day of the Anschluss, Mattias disrespects the German football authorities after playing with and beating the national team in a friendly. He is now being watched by the Gestapo. He convinces Bekah to leave for Ireland, where she has family in Cork. He makes each and every arrangement through his innumerable contacts for her to escape through Switzerland, France, and London on the way to Ireland. She gives birth to a son, Jack, a few months after arriving, never tells Jack about his father, and dies while the boy is still a youngster. In the early 1980's, a box of his mother's possessions is handed to him when the extended family members sell the house where they took in Bekah, and where Jack was raised. His father-in-law reads all the correspondence to him and tells him of the unlikely love story and that his father was one of the most famous athletes in Europe. They travel to Vienna and meet with one of Mattias' oldest and dearest friends. He gives Jack two pictures, one of his parents blissfully enjoying each other before the world fell apart. The second is a picture of a month old baby with the notation "my boy" on the back. A touching tale.

The Devil Aspect, Russell - C

                     This is a lengthy novel set in Czechoslovakia in the mid-1930's. There are two parallel stories throughout. The primary focus is on Dr. Viktor Kosarek, a Prague psychiatrist who goes to work at a mysterious castle in the almost-medieval countryside. The castle is home to the Devil's Six, the country's worst murderers, and Kosarek attempts to plumb the depths of their psychoses using experimental drugs. Back in Prague, Det. Lukas Smolak pursues a serial killer, believed to be emulating Jack the Ripper. The police call him Leather Apron because his brutal work is reminiscent of a butcher, and butcher's wear leather aprons.  The stories merge in the end when Kosarek is determined to be the murderer in a plot twist that feels like a cheap trick, rather than a stroke of genius. I guess I failed to see the use of the words gothic and horror in some of the descriptions.

The Cold, Cold Ground, McKinty - B+

                       This absolutely fabulous novel is set in Belfast in 1981. Det. Sgt. Sean Duffy is a rare bird on the RUC: he has a graduate degree in psychology and is Catholic.  His squad catches what appears to be a straight forward case. A serial killer is killing gay men, leaving notes, and provoking Duffy. The team is pleased to work on a matter that doesn't involve the Troubles until it learns that the first victim was high up in the IRA;  indeed he was in charge of internal security. Duffy speaks to various members of the IRA, follows up in the gay community, and extracts information from some of the Ulster paramilitary units. But after coming up empty, he is relieved of the case. He won't let it go, and faces MI-5 and a rogue group of Ulster assassins before matters are resolved. This a a very well done police procedural, but the real value is how in depth and insightful it is on the Troubles, when Belfast was wracked by killings, bombings, fires, strikes, explosions, and virtual outright urban warfare, all driven by centuries-old sectarian hatred. An excellent read.

Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame And The Fight For A New World 1848-1849, Clark - B

                       "In 1848, parallel political tumults broke out cross the entire continent, from Switzerland and Portugal to Wallachia and Moldovia, from Norway, Denmark and Sweden to Palermo and the Ionian Islands. This was the only truly European revolution that there has ever been."

                        The tumult of revolution was occasioned by poverty. As societies industrialized and cities became more crowded, the living conditions of the urban poor deteriorated into a hell on earth. Demographic growth helped contribute to "massive impoverishment." "An overview of Europe in the decades before the 1848 revolutions reveals a panorama of social conflicts driven by competition over every conceivable resource in a world marked by scarcity and low rates of productivity growth." A painful "international commercial-industrial crisis" followed. Food shortages led to starvation, death, and food riots. The social order was fraying.

                      "Early-to mid-nineteenth-century nationalism was above all a feeling, rather than a set of principles or arguments." A hostility to foreign rule was the common theme of nationalism. It also implied a kind of popular sovereignty as nations resided in peoples not dynasties. Europe had seen a "cascading of political upheaval" in 1830. The glorious French overthrow of its government in 1830 was followed by unrest and upheavals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Poland. "Europe would spend the next eighteen years digesting the implications of 1830." What became known as the July Revolution inspired thoughts of republicanism, and enhanced freedoms in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary. As the decade of the 1840's progressed, aggressive demands for more rights were made upon the rulers of France, Italy, and Germany.

                     The first light of revolution came in January in Palermo, Sicily. Within weeks, the Bourbon king promised a constitution. In Paris, in late February, government suppression of an assembly sent people into the streets, and up went the barricades.  Violence exploded and the man in the street quickly overran the soldiers of the regime. The French authorities could not contain an outbreak much broader and deeper than 1830. Louis Philippe, France's elected monarch, abdicated and fled. A month later, "simultaneous detonations" spread through the continent. In Vienna and Buda-Pest, demands for reform of the monarchy were made. Chancellor Metternich resigned and fled to London. "The revolution was a denunciation of certain policies and ministers, not the monarchy as such." The emperor announced that delegations from around the empire would convene and create a constitution. When a squad of soldiers attacked demonstrators in Berlin, the outrage spread through all classes of the city. The king announced the "abolition of censorship and the introduction of a constitutional system" for Prussia. The Milanese expelled their Austrian masters. In the Netherlands, the king conceded constitutional reforms before any demands were even made. There were no organized planners, nor was any one group in charge. "The revolutionaries of 1848 were not the executors of a plan, but improvisors for whom the present was an exposed frontier."

                      The revolutionaries now faced the challenge of establishing institutions to actually govern, and to do so in a democratic manner. "Across Europe, the journeys from upheaval and conflict to the quasi-stabilization of a post insurrectionary order reveal an extraordinary diversity of forms." The provisional governments that were established were "fragile." Parliaments were formed, and constitutions drafted. Emancipation in one form or another came to slaves in the colonies, women, the Roma and the Jews. "The outbreak of revolution in 1848 brought euphoria and a sense of widening horizons to Jewish communities." However, these newly found freedoms and rights would prove to be short lived. In the aftermath of the upheavals, "everything was up for grabs" and the outcomes were vastly different from country to country. France established the Second Republic, the 39 states of the German Confederation pursued freedoms of the press and assembly, but mostly just talked and debated national unification. Throughout the lands of the Habsburg there was pandemonium that could be the only result in an empire with dozens and dozens of peoples, languages, and local traditions. Hungary freed the serfs and realized independence by establishing a Diet with a light "personal" commitment to the emperor. In Galicia, the Ukrainian language was officially recognized,  Romania set up a provisional government, Denmark established a less autocratic constitutional monarchy, Sicily overthrew the Bourbons, and in northern Italy, the various city-states declared their independence from Vienna.

                    The counter-revolution that followed was "an arc as expansive and encompassing as the revolutions themselves." The first monarchy to be restored was in Naples and Palermo, where the forces of the Bourbons began to roll back the revolutionaries in May, 1848. The king abolished the institutions of independence and began to punish the rebels. Ferdinand II's retributions inspired autocrats throughout Europe. In June, the Austrian Empire struck back in Prague and bombarded the city. Austrian armed forces under Radetzky fought throughout Italy and defeated the various Italian armies, which fought bravely but were not coherently organized to the degree necessary to take on the established forces. The court in Vienna then struck at rebels in Hungary and in the Balkans. In Paris, a rightward drift in the parliament eventually led to the election of Louis Napoleon, who was known to be holding monarchist dreams. "In Berlin too, the energy of the revolution was dissipating fast." The Hohenzollern king conceded that the government was of the king and the people, but otherwise hammered home the monarchy's control. Although the revolution was being extinguished everywhere, it successfully came to the fore in Rome. The Papal State, in existence for 1100 years, saw Pope Pius IX flee because of his connection to the Austrians, guarantors of his temporal power. The ultimate force of the counter-revolution was the army of the Tsar. Russia invaded Romania and most importantly, restored imperial order in Hungary. In the end, "the transnational revolutionary networks never mustered a power capable of fending off the threat posed by the counter-revolutionary international."

                    The various restorations led to the punishment and repression of the revolutionaries and thousands were exiled. However, there was not a return to the status quo ante. There were now parliaments throughout the continent, and even in Austria, where Franz Joseph rescinded the constitution, he acknowledged "principles of equality for all citizens." There was a new moderation set by a "post-revolutionary rapprochement." Countries allowed for increased trade and encouraged economic liberalization in the pursuit of growth. France's railways entered a "golden age." The cities of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, sites of barricades and fighting, all modernized through the construction of roads, sewers, parks, and systems for the delivery of clean water. The walls that defended Vienna were torn down and the famous Ringstrasse was built. "The panorama of administrative change after 1848 suggests revolution has had a homogenizing, or Europeanizing, impact." "For generations, the question of whether these revolutions succeeded or failed" has haunted historians. What they were is "deeply consequential." Institutions and everyday life changed for the better, although universal suffrage was still decades away, and the continent would be rent by nationalism and war in the 20th century. This tome is over 700 pages of densely detailed academic history. I picked it up because the author wrote a brilliant book about the origins of the World War I a decade ago (Sleepwalkers, a 2013 blogpost). This, however, saw me peruse, skip and scan a vast amount of material.

                

Hot Springs Drive, Hunter - C

                      Jackie is a mother of four boys, exhausted, and eating to get through the day. She and her next door neighbor, Theresa, are best friends and they join a weight loss club together. Both lose the desired weight, but it is Jackie who had the furthest to go, and it is Jackie who feels totally empowered with her new, sleeker body. She begins having sex with Theresa's husband, Adam, in just about any place they can find, and in as many positions as they can dream up. When Theresa finds them, Jackie rushes home worrying about the future of her family, but everything goes to hell when her oldest kills Theresa. The families scatter and remember, and remember.

The Kind Worth Saving, Swanson - D

                       Wearying, burdensome, and confusing are the thoughts I have about this criminal procedural/thriller. Joan and Lily are very bad girls.

The Times: How The Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism, Nagournery - B +

                        This is the story of the world's greatest newspaper over the four decades from 1976 to 2016. It successfully navigated and thrived through the transformation of journalism from the time of print advertising to the digital era, and still remains the 'paper of record.'

                       The Times of the mid-1970's was run by Abe Rosenthal; Bronx raised, CCNY educated, and totally committed to the highest standard of objective journalism. He loved the Times and worked to maintain its position as the nation's premier newspaper. He and the publisher, Punch Sulzberger, changed the paper by  increasing its features on the arts and entertainment and adding more photographs. Metropolitan coverage expanded to the suburbs as people fled the city amidst its financial crisis. Sections on science, lifestyle, culture, the weekend, and entertainment were added. For all of the Times' success, Rosenthal was a bully overseeing a paranoid, unhappy newsroom. He was right of center, fearful of left-leaning politics and abhorred homosexuality. His last great contribution came on the day the Challenger exploded in 1986. He cleared the front page, allocated ten pages of the paper to the story and declared that the banner headline would be simple and to the point: 'The Shuttle Explodes.' The Challenger coverage won a Pulitzer. His mandatory retirement was sixteen months away. Rosenthal's personal life was spiraling out of control and he did not like Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., who would be replacing his dad as publisher. Punch Sulzberger relieved Rosenthal and replaced him with Max Frankel, whom he tasked with improving the paper, making it a happier place, and preparing the Times to begin using color. That said, the paper was immeasurably stronger than it had been when Rosenthal took over in 1969.

                    Frankel had arrived in the US at the age of 10 when his parents fled Poland and the Nazis. He graduated from Columbia and worked at the Times his entire career. He immediately succeeded in making the newsroom a more relaxed place. One of the most important decisions he faced was the selection of a Washington bureau chief, a job he once had. Many felt that the 200 miles between NY and DC felt like 1,000 as there was a constant rivalry and in NY, they could never get over being beaten by the Post on Watergate. He appointed Craig Whitney to oversee the 65 person staff. That Whitney was the wrong man for the job became apparent in his first year, and Whitney was soon replaced by Howell Raines. In 1992, forty year old Arthur, Jr. replaced his dad as publisher of the Times. He was the fifth member of the family to hold the position. Sulzberger's first major decision was to move Raines to NY to head up the editorial page. And most importantly, he announced that he was 'platform agnostic' as the Times moved into the era of the digitization of the news. The man who succeeded Frankel as executive editor in 1994 was Joseph Lelyveld.  

               Under Lelyveld, the company began its transition to the internet. The decade also saw the Times come to grips with the changing focus of news throughout the country. It resisted reporting on rumors about Bill Clinton's extra-marital escapades until Kenneth Starr began his pursuit of the scandal with Monica Lewinsky. The Times worked diligently to uphold its traditional standards and struggled with confirming its sources at a time when news reporting was becoming instantaneous. Lelyveld would later complain that "Rosenthal had the Pentagon Papers" and he "got the semen stained dress." That said, the Starr Report and the impeachment were the most important stories during his tenure. As the decade. came to a close, the integration of the website and the newsroom continued to be a colossal, generational  struggle. 

               Sulzberger appointed Howell Raines to the top position after Raines assured him he would promote a Black man to managing editor and, he would focus on the necessary digital transformation. His first day on the job was Sept. 5, 2001. The Times tackled 9/11 with its usual thoroughness and commitment to excellence, placing sixty six stories in the next day's paper. The Times coverage of Sept. 11 won six Pulitzers. The Times had met the challenge, but Raines was pushing too hard, particularly on the Washington Bureau. The entire organization became unsettled, as Raines and the DC Bureau Chief, Jill Abramson, battled. Raines brought in two reporters to the Washington Bureau who he tasked with delving into the cascading drumbeats of war against Iraq. One was a hard charging reporter with extensive mideast experience, Judith Miller. Another reporter who Raines was enthused about was Jayson Blair, a young Black man from the DC area. Managing editor Gerald  Boyd, the Black man that Raines put in place because of the publisher's concerns about the paper being lily white, also backed the young man. Blair was required to quit for making up stories all over the country when in fact he never left his Brooklyn apartment. An internal investigation lead to a four page story in the Sunday paper acknowledging significant institutional failures. After a town hall with 600 Times professionals was a disaster, the bottom fell out, and both Raines and Boyd were given their walking papers. 

              Bill Keller was the man selected to take over. Another problem from the Raines era was the work of his protege, Judith Miller. She had reported on the Bush administration's rush to war in a generally supportive fashion. Investigations by the news staff and the new Ombudsman concluded that the Times had been "duped" and certainly had not exercised its usual editorial rigor. After Miller went to jail to protect a source who was on Cheney's staff and, who she misled her superiors about, her long career was over. The Great Recession forced the Times to do something it had never done: it laid off newsroom staff. Newspaper circulations and ad revenues began dropping at the turn of the century. The Times folded the Metropolitan section into the paper, cut its dividend and reduced pay across the board. "The Times website was a glimmer of good news in the swirl of plummeting revenues, declining readership, and layoffs that engulfed the newspaper as it struggled through the 2008 recession and the reordering of the business." The debate began about whether they could implement a paywall. The Times merged the print and digital newsrooms in 2010 and began to charge for a digital subscription the following year. 

               In 2011, Jill Abramson was appointed executive editor. Her task was more difficult than her predecessors'. The job had once been exclusively about the newspaper, but now it encompassed the Times website and ongoing coordination with the business side. She would later say that she hated the job from day one and constantly was in conflict with the executive trying to make the NYT a successful digital business. She was fired less than three years in and replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor. Baquet fully embraced the challenges of merging the print and digital sides of the Times. The Times was transformed. By the end of 2016, it would have almost two million digital subscribers. AG Sulzberger succeeded his dad as publisher in 2018. Two years later, the digital subscriptions topped 6.5 million and the print paper dropped to 374,000. 

              I have revered this paper for sixty years. It was my introduction to the world outside of blue-collar southeastern Queens. I consider it one of the most important influences in my life. I'm very happy that it has survived, and a few years ago I purchased a gift subscription for my granddaughter.

The Lost Wife, Moore - B

                       Sarah is left at an orphanage by her mother.  She grows up, and marries a violent man who she leaves in the dead of night. She travels to Minnesota in the year 1855. It is a time of desperation and crushing poverty on the frontier. She marries a physician, has two children and is living happily in the Dakota Territory where her husband takes care of the Sioux. She befriends many of the women who later protect her after she and her two children are taken captive during an uprising in 1862. Many, many whites along the frontier are murdered, and the US Army is in pursuit as the Indians travel north and west. Eventually, Sarah and her children are freed by the cavalry. The Indian warrior who had protected her and the children by claiming her as his wife is sentenced to death. He had never touched her, had acted honorably and she trys to plead his case, but fails. Because she had been close to the Indians, white society shuns her, as does her husband, who has survived the uprising. This novel is based on the true story of a white woman kidnapped for six weeks by the Sioux in 1862. She too attracted society's disdain for her empathy for the Indians.

Rock With Wings, Hillerman - C

                        Sergeant Chee is sent to relieve an ill colleague in a far corner of the reservation where a Hollywood studio is filming a horror picture in the desert. He discovers a grave and embarks on finding out if it's real or for the film. He stumbles into a murder and money laundering, all of which he happily passes off to the FBI.  Back at Ship Rock, Bernadette stops the car of a man acting suspiciously, and later finds out that he is in the witness protection program, and working for someone selling solar panels on the rez. Wonderful to get back to the Navajo Tribal Police, but as I mentioned previously, this author is not in her dad's league.

The Battle, Rambaud - B+

                          This novel is the first in a trilogy. It won the Prix Goncourt and the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Academie Francaise. It depicts Napoleon's first loss in Europe in 1809 at the Battle of Essling.

                          Vienna lies on the southwestern side of the Danube, while Essling is across the river to the east. Napoleon entered Vienna unopposed on May 13th. The soldiers of the Archduke Charles were on the east side of the river. Napoleon ordered the construction of two bridges to cross the Danube. The first, to a mid-river island, was completed in four days, and the shorter, second one, in a day. French troops immediately occupied the towns of Essling and Aspern, entrenched and awaited the Austrian attack. On the first day of battle, the Austrians sent boats filled with stones down the Danube and  were able to break up the pontoon bridge, thus taking away France's ability to reinforce the eastern bank of the river. With only 30,000 men on the battlefield, their backs to the river, and outnumbered 3:1, the French position was precarious. Austrian artillery opened up, and that was followed by five cavalry charges. The Austrians had their way the first day. Throughout the night, the French surgeons walked among the injured, marking lines with chalk on arms and legs to guide their assistants in performing amputations. For those too far gone, a chalk mark on their foreheads meant they should be allowed to die in peace. Late that night, the bridge was patched together and reinforcement crossed over. At 3 AM, the Austrians opened fire with their artillery, and an hour later attacked the French lines.

                         When the fog lifted, the French attacked and overran the first lines they met. Upriver, the Austrians floated a burning three story mill into the river and it again broke the bridge into two pieces. Once again unable to reinforce his soldiers, Napoleon ordered them to regroup in the defensive positions they had held the night before.  As the day wore on, both sides began to run out of ammunition as the casualties mounted all around. The day petered out and darkness fell. Each army sent out parties to find weapons and armor among the 40,000 dead. At midnight, Napoleon ordered a retreat. After the survivors reached the island, the bridge would be completely destroyed and the army would re-enter Vienna. Marshall Massena was the last Frenchman to leave the left bank behind. As two-thirds of the dead were Austrian, the Archduke did not pursue. Napoleon and his army recovered in Vienna. A little over a month later, he had his revenge on the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram.

                         This novel was written a quarter-of-a-century ago. However, it is based upon the copious notes that Balzac collected in the two decades immediately after the battle. He told a great many people of his intentions to write about Essling but he never did.  The author has done as excellent a job as any I have read depicting the utter randomness of the slaughter, the horror of the 19th century battlefield, and the absolutely crazed atmosphere of the hospital tents where the surgeons allotted twenty seconds for each amputation.