Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, And The Descent Into Total War, Scott - A*

         "Truman and Hirohito: a former farmer and a socially awkward monarch. Upon the shoulders of this unlikely pair rested the fate of two nations and millions of lives." The unassuming and virtually unknown Truman became president on the afternoon of April 12th. Twelve days later, the Secretary of War briefed him on the Manhattan Project. Throughout the spring, planning for completion of the weapon continued, training for the delivery of the heavy bombs was conducted, and the targeting of cities analyzed.

         That spring, Japan's 44-year-old emperor sat in his palace and brooded as the city of Tokyo burned around him. The nation was being battered on every front, the war was obviously lost, and, most importantly, the people were giving up as they slowly starved to death. The very first firebombing of Tokyo in March killed 100,000, destroyed 260,000 buildings, and left a million homeless.

         Truman had to find the best way to end the war, and end it with the fewest American casualties. Gen. Marshall wanted to invade the home islands, and Adm. King preferred a blockade. Gen. LeMay thought that firebombing the cities would lead to surrender. On June 18th, the JCS recommended an invasion by 766,700 Americans, and Truman agreed. The same day, Hirohito met with the military council and told them that they needed to find a way to end the war.

         The president traveled to Potsdam, Germany, to meet Churchill and Stalin. He wanted the USSR to keep its promise to enter the war against Japan. On July 16th, at 5:30 a.m. in New Mexico, the US successfully tested the first atomic bomb. When someone observed that the war was over, Gen. Groves said, "After we drop two bombs on Japan." 

          Ongoing intelligence intercepts indicated Japan would fight and not accept unconditional surrender. Faced with the success of the bomb's test and fearing innumerable American casualties, Truman made the decision to drop the bomb at some point between July 22nd and 24th while in Potsdam. A final ultimatum, which used the phrase "the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces," not of the country itself, was ignored by Japan. The die was cast, and the focus turned from Washington and Potsdam to Tinian, the home of the 509th Composite Group.

         On August 6th, thirty-year-old Col. Paul Tibbets took off in a specially modified B-29 carrying the 9,700-pound bomb. Tibbets had flown the 8th Air Force's first raid over France three years earlier. The bombardier released the Little Boy at 9:14 a.m. The airmen could see the mushroom cloud from 400 miles away.

            The president learned of the news in the middle of his Atlantic crossing; he announced the results to the jubilant crew of the Augusta. A prepared press release was issued in Washington. It said that Japan would be totally destroyed. In Tokyo, there was confusion as the army downplayed the bomb and the emperor demanded peace. On Tinian, Fat Man was prepared for August 9th, and it was released over Nagasaki at 11:58 a.m.

         Even the news of the second bomb did not convince the cabinet to surrender, and Hirohito agreed to meet them at midnight. After two and a half more hours of debate, they finally asked the emperor his thoughts. He stood. "I have given serious thought to the situation prevailing at home and abroad and have concluded that continuing the war can only mean destruction for the nation and a prolonging of bloodshed and cruelty in the world. It goes without saying that it is unbearable for me to see the brave fighting men of Japan disarmed. It is equally unbearable that others who have rendered me devoted service should now be punished as instigators of war. Nevertheless, the time has come that we must bear the unbearable."

         The following morning, Radio Tokyo broadcast an acceptance of terms but asked for a retention of the emperor's prerogatives. The US responded that the emperor would be "subject to" the supreme commander. The army and navy chiefs went to the palace and stated that they did not wish to surrender. There was fear in the city that junior officers would rebel and even kidnap Hirohito. On the 14th, he again told the military's leaders to surrender, and that he would address the nation by radio, stating the war was over. At that point, the senior leaders bowed to his command. The army chief asserted, "No officer in the Imperial Army will disobey the emperor's command." Hirohito recorded his speech that night. Hirohito's broadcast was made to the nation at noon on the 15th. The people of Japan had never heard his voice, as he told them they were accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Japan had lost, the war was over, and he directed the armed forces to surrender and sign all required documents presented by the Allies.

          For eight decades, the question of the necessity of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been debated. Those opposed speak to the inhumanity of it all, and argue that Japan would have surrendered anyway. Proponents say the attack on Pearl Harbor, the brutalities inflicted on the Bataan Death March, along with their horrific occupation of much of eastern Asia for four years justified the punishment inflicted. Furthermore, there were 900,000 men preparing to defend Kyushu in the expected November 1945 invasion. The Department of War manufactured 500,000 Purple Hearts that were never awarded. I personally believe the saving of American lives and the immediate cessation of hostilities justified Truman's decision. This is a brilliant, and highly recommended, history book.

Murder At The Hotel Orient, Ranelli - B -

         This is a delightful, charming, but somewhat lengthy and complex, mystery about a couple found dead in their hotel suite in today's Vienna. The Orient is a real-life love hotel, where rooms have been rented either overnight or in four-hour blocks since late in the Habsburg era. It features Sterling Lockwood, the sexy, mysterious American concierge and keeper of secrets. She helps the police because a murder in a place where everyone pays in cash and uses aliases is uniquely challenging, and she is a suspect simply because she was the only other person with access to the suite. Sterling also does not mind keeping her own past under wraps. Everyone in the Orient's world is extraordinarily circumspect and considerably disreputable. The investigation leads to innumerable twists and turns amongst Vienna's low lives before the surprising conclusion is reached. The consensus seems to be too cute for its own good.

The Silver Fish, - B -

         This spy thriller is set in Accra, Ghana. The overarching plot line is the rivalry between the US and China for control of the oil and internet in Africa. There are two parallel stories, one involving an American journalist, Dani, and the goings-on of two CIA men, Ford and Billy. Dani is a down-and-out journalist looking for a story, and she finds it. She uncovers the corruption of a relationship between the Chinese and some Ghanaian politicians. The Yanks are trying to turn a Ghanaian double into finding out more about the Chinese construction of a closed net that would avoid all American interference. The lines cross in a confusing, very bloody, and unsatisfying finale. The author is an intelligence professional who is a bit preachy about the security services.

I Spy, Kemp - B

        This is an intriguing, very brief spy thriller focused more on motherhood than tradecraft. After her romantic partner and fellow spy was murdered, pregnant Kendall retreated to a hopefully secure hidden life raising Rosie. When faced with a murderous threat, Ken calls in her former employer, a private security firm, to help, and they usher her back to London. She settles into a normal routine until it falls apart. Fun.

The Keeper, French - B+

          This novel is extraordinary. The author's ability to use dialogue is so authentic that you feel as if you're sitting in a pub in a small western Ireland farm town. Much more importantly, she plumbs the depths of the community's closeness and the extraordinary cliquishness of the rural Irish. She attributes the people's inability to tackle personal issues directly and their tendency to do things indirectly as a consequence of being oppressed and occupied by the English for centuries. But more than anything else, French tells a tale that strikes fear in you as you watch the powerful oppress, threaten, and intimidate the ordinary folks of Ardnakelty.

        The plot features Cal Hooper, a retired cop from Chicago, Lena, young Trey Reddy, Mart, Noreen, and the characters introduced in the previous two books. A young woman dies in a coroner-ruled suicide after she felt threatened by the local laird, Tommy Moynihan. The town falls apart before truth pulls it back onto its foundation. A must-read

Sick Puppy, Hiaasen - B

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          In this episode, the Florida contagion/leech/horse's ass is a lobbyist, Palmer Stoat. He has a habit of despoiling his daily world with trash, and the state with his greasy work on behalf of developers. He's also a philandering drunk with alcohol and hooker problems. He attracts the attention of a reckless young trust fund baby who loves the environment and deplores all he sees Stoat do. Twilly Spree begins to destroy Stoat's world by kidnapping his dog and hanging out with his wife, Desie.

          Thus the stage is set for the battle over the development of Toad Island. Aided by Skink, Twilly prevails, and we are entertained by two Russian bimbos fixed up to look like Barbies and hooked on rhino horn powder, a Rastafarian pornographer, Twilly burying Stoat's convertible under a pile of garbage, hijinks with tractors on the island that leave a few dead, the usual cast of Florida sleaze bags, and a finale on an illegal exotic game farm featuring a rhino charge that gets both the developer and the lobbyist in his way. Just another very good set of laughs.

Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War, Rogoyska - B -

         "The Hotel Lutetia is a Paris institution, the only grand hotel on the city's bohemian Left Bank." Starting in 1933, the capital cities of Europe began receiving thousands fleeing the new Nazi regime. "The roll call of those forced out of Germany in those early days reads like the guest list of a particularly distinguished university conference." Because the Lutetia is on the Left Bank, it attracted a more cerebral clientele. Authors, artists, and dancers predominated. But the French had no particular love for Germans or Jews and were not very accommodating. The hotel, on the other hand, welcomed all and was considered the "Switzerland of Paris" for its acceptance of diversity. A new French government led by Socialist Leon Blum issued identification certificates to all German refugees. However, the new optimism was short-lived because of the Spanish Civil War, the Anschluss, and Munich. The Soviets allied with Germany, and WWII began.

         The Germans arrived on June 14, 1940, and occupied all the fine hotels on the Right Bank. Soon thereafter, the Abwehr requisitioned the Lutetia and converted it into a headquarters. They conducted their counterintelligence work until early 1944, when Himmler absorbed all of their functions. The staff treated the invaders as guests and reveled in the fact that the manager hid all of the hotel's great wines from the Germans. Germany's invasion of the USSR altered the dynamics of the occupation, as the communists turned to sabotage and the city's Jews were rounded up. The year 1942 saw the French police help the Germans send away more of the city's Jews. Between 1942 and 1944, 75,000 Jews, mostly foreigners, were deported. After Stalingrad and the successful Allied bombings and invasion of Italy, it was obvious to all but die-hard Nazis that Germany would lose. After D-Day, the Germans in Paris waited, and on August 14, the last occupier left the Lutetia.

         The year after liberation, the hotel received a new kind of guest—returning displaced persons. The Ministry of Prisoners, Deportees, and Refugees began its work. When they realized how sick "the missing" were, they requisitioned the Lutetia, and it became the main repatriation center. When the first trains arrived in April 1945, the lice-ridden skeletons stepped onto the platform, and the welcomers broke down in tears. The average returnee weighed 106 pounds and needed time to recover. By the first of September, the last deportees left the Lutetia.

        The survivors struggled with momentous issues. For many, living until liberation was what drove them, and they could not make the transition. For the rest, families and friends were gone, lives were disrupted by an experience that absolutely no one else could comprehend. For those sent away by their fellow Frenchmen, de Gaulle's narrative of national resistance did not reasonate. Later in the century, France began to deal with its collaboration and acknowledged its failure. The Lutetia was remodeled in 2018, and today is once again a grand luxury hotel.

The Tree of Light and Flowers, Perry - B+

          Jane Whitefield is a happily married new mother living in the Buffalo suburbs when a sixteen-year-old runaway appears at her door. In her prior life, she helped those unjustly accused or in fear of the powerful disappear into a new life. Katie is not old enough to make it on her own, and Jane takes her in to act as a nanny to newborn May. At about the same time, the Russian mob, which has been looking for her for years, springs Magda from a women's prison and tasks her with finding Jane. We are treated to a brilliant tale of cat and mouse, and attack and counterattack. It is a fitting finale to a long-running series whose author has just passed away.

The Haj, Uris - B-

         This novel is a vast, sweeping, panoramic look at Palestine in the first half of the 20th century. Although there are Turks, Bedouin Arabs, Hashemites, French, Christians, and British, this is the story of the contest between the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs. We see it through the eyes of Ibrahim, Muktar of Tabah, and Gideon Asch, Secretary of a neighboring Kibbutz. In the 1920s, the Kibbutzim prospered, clearing swamps and making the desert flower while the Arabs looked on. As the war approached, the British cut off Jewish immigration out of concern over Arab opposition. After the war, Ibrahim understood that the stories of the death camps would lead to more Jews coming to Palestine, even if the British were trying to keep them out. When the UN announced the partition of Palestine in late 1947, the British announced they were leaving on May 14, 1948. The Arabs raged and declared their intention to finish Hitler's work. When the fighting began, Arab leaders encouraged their people to depart while they defeated the Israelis. Ibrahim had no desire to leave his village, but soon the violence was all around. His old friend, Gideon, helped his family escape, but Ibrahim suffered the loss of not only his home, but his identity and all of his history. The residents of Tabah were horrified by the conditions on the roads,  and the refugee camps, sinks of dependency and despair. When Ibrahim's oldest, Kemal, was killed, he was made a martyr for the cause. The camps further demoralized Ibrahim. When his daughter Nada sought to be more than another hidden Muslim woman, he committed the ultimate horror while defending the family's honor.

           This four-decade-old novel was criticized for being too pro-Israeli. It puts the onus on the Arab leadership for their people's flight and ignores the Israelis' role. I believe it aptly depicts the hatred on both sides, a hatred that will allow this eighty-year-old conflict to continue indefinitely. It has been decades since I've read a Michener or Uris treatise that covers vast topics and multiple generations. I don't think I'll be rushing back to the genre.

A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Hapsburg Empire, Wawro - B+

          "This book is about Austria-Hungary's fatal degeneration and its impact on European civilization." It charts the decline of the empire after 1866, when it lost its last major war. "Austria-Hungary's anxieties and pretension as a fading great power were a chief cause of the war, and these same qualities were also the source of its defeat."

          "Austria's weakness emanated from its quarreling, disaffected nationalities." Before the losses in wars against France in 1859 and Germany in 1866, Austria was considered a great power on par with England, France, and Russia. Afterwards, it was at best a Balkan power. The empire was too far-flung and ethnically diversified to be manageable. Franz-Joseph chose war for reasons of honor in 1859, 1866, and 1914, when he "would have been far better served by some face-saving deal short of war." Prussia's crushing victory at Koniggratz, followed by German unification, shocked Europe. The next year, the emperor consented to the dual monarchy to be known as Austria-Hungary. Hungary did not pay a proportional share of taxes and obstructed Vienna at every turn. They would not approve army budgets as the empire continued to slip as a world power. This would have massive repercussions in 1914, when the Dual Monarchy would be outgunned and outclassed by its rivals. "Hungary was dragging the Habsburg empire over a cliff."

         After Russia's humiliating defeat in Asia in 1905, it turned to the west and sought to expand its influence in the Slavic world at the expense of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. And to the south of Austria-Hungary stood Serbia, a nation desirous of uniting the ten million Slavs on the Balkan Peninsula under their flag. While Serbia flexed its muscles, Vienna refused to face the new world of massed professional militaries with modern weapons moved to the fronts on new railway systems. In 1912, Russia organized the Balkan League of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece to collectively evict Turkey from Europe and share the spoils. Austria stood by and watched their intended sphere of influence fade away. "Vienna had lost most of its freedom of movement as a great power. There was no domestic consensus on foreign policy and the budget was a billion crowns in deficit." The old emperor was as dotty as ever. Chief of Staff Conrad believed that their remaining purpose was "to go under honorably."

         The Black Hand was hoping for an opportunity to deliver a blow to Austria that would provoke war between the empire and Serbia. Knowing that Franz Ferdinand would be visiting Sarajevo in June, they trained three Bosnian Serbs to assassinate him. The archduke and his wife were killed on the 28th. The reaction in Vienna was "Krieg, Krieg, Krieg." Germany thought this was the ideal issue to provoke a wider war wherein they would deal with the Entente for good. The Kaiser, readying for his annual Nordic cruise, gave a blank check to back Austria if it went to war with Serbia. Amazingly, Conrad went on a three-week vacation with his mistress. The German Military Attaché could not even ascertain Vienna's intentions about allocating divisions between fighting Serbia and Russia. Serbia mobilized while Austria dithered. They did not mobilize until after the ultimatum they delivered was declined. Berlin was ready for war by the first week of August.

         Neither the empire nor its Chief of Staff were ready. Germany expected Vienna to defend against Serbia, and more importantly, Russia. Germany estimated it would take six weeks to defeat France, and Austria had to hold the Russians back until the Germans were finished in the west. Completely ignoring the German plans and without even telling Berlin, Conrad sent 40% of the army to Serbia after a month to deploy. Poorly trained and equipped and lacking any motivation, the empire's troops were routed in Serbia.

          Russian Poland protruded into the west from the body of the Russian Empire. It was south of East Prussia and north of Galicia, with Warsaw about equidistant from each. Russia surprised the Germanic allies with its rapid mobilization. Germany was encouraging Austria to attack and relieve them of potential Russian pressure. Conrad ordered his equally unready eastern army to march a hundred miles through the Galician heat and dust to reach the border. They then used fifty-year-old infantry tactics and attacked the Russians in skirmish lines. They were crushed. Although Austria prevailed in a three-day battle at Krasnik, they were ultimately overwhelmed by superior manpower, which benefited from excellent artillery support. By the end of August, the Austrian offensive was over. September saw a rout at Lemberg and Rawa-Ruska. "The war in the east was barely three weeks old and Conrad had lost a third of the Austro-Hungarian army."

         A second attempt to invade Serbia followed. It met the same fate as the August attack. Once again, the only planning was to try again and see if it worked. It did not. Ill-prepared, the army crossed the Drina from Bosnia into Serbia, ran into mountainous terrain, and were soundly defeated by battle-hardened veterans defending their homeland. Austria-Hungary was astounded and befuddled as another 40,000 men fell for naught.

         "Austro-Hungarian floundering in Galicia and the tumultuous retreat struck the Germans dumb with amazement." In a month, the empire had lost 500,000 men and seemed to have given up. The Central Powers were in deathly fear of Russia. Berlin concluded that direct assistance to Austria was necessary. The Tsar, under pressure from a reeling France and England, ordered his armies to attack Germany. After three days, the Russian attack petered out. Stymied in France, Germany decided to do more than hold back Russia; it decided to attack. The offensive was successful, and they almost reached Warsaw before they were stopped. "The monstrous war the Austrians and Germans had welcomed in July was spinning out of control, and the Central Powers, hardly on speaking terms, were in grave danger of losing it."

          Austria amassed equipment, supplies, and men to attack Serbia, which was weakening after the Balkan Wars and the previous Austrian attacks. This time, the empire's soldiers reached and occupied Belgrade. Serbia counterattacked, and the Austrian army disintegrated. The army did not retreat—it fled in complete disarray. Instead of punishing the uppity Serbs, the empire was humiliated by its lack of planning, incompetent commanders, and the massive casualties. For all intents and purposes, the Austro-Hungarian armies were finished.

         Both sides prepared to attack as soon as possible in the east. Russia had twice as many men on the front, but less than a fifth even had a rifle. They came at the Austrians relentlessly and constantly. They committed their men to frontal attacks. The empire's soldiers had no motivation to fight, walked away daily, and in one instance, 1,850 of a 2,000-man Czech unit deserted to surrender and become prisoners in one night. Most of the connected career officers, and all of the high command, relaxed in a sumptuous palace miles from the front. Conrad was known to spend hours relaxing with newspapers. Having lost a million men in 1914, Austria-Hungary lost another 800,000 defending the Carpathians in early 1915. Three-quarters of the casualties were due to illnesses caused by exposure. "Beaten too many times to count, the Dual Monarchy had lost whatever respect it commanded from its subjects and neighbors, and lost any semblance of cohesion or, for that matter, sovereignty. Its days on the earth were numbered."

         For the rest of the war, Germany oversaw the empire's efforts and continually bailed them out on every front. Austria-Hungary had a chance to leave the war in 1917-18 under Emperor Karl, but the Kaiser hauled him back in line. Wilson had initially spoken of reorganizing the empire, and then vowed to dismember it. "The monarchy had come in with a bang—vanquishing the Turks and saving Christendom—went out with a whimper. Of all the many miscalculations of this uniquely catastrophic war, Austro-Hungarian decision making in 1914 was the most reprehensible. The Great War has earned a dark place in our historical map, and Vienna, no less than Berlin, was the heart of darkness."

         Geoffrey Wawro is one of my favorite historians, and one uniquely motivated to write this story. Just before the Great War, all four of his grandparents left Galicia and sailed to Ellis Island. He tells a shocking story. The perfidy of Hungary is seldom detailed elsewhere. And the fighting saw some of the most mindless incompetence conceivable on the part of those making decisions. Whether they were in Vienna or St. Petersburg, it was delusional and idiotic to think uneducated peasants could go to war without training and equipment. These men wore civilian clothing, were often drunk, had no rifles or food, faked illness, and were left unburied. None of the masters understood what was going on and had no idea about what to do. "Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too."

Lightning Beneath The Sea: The Race to Wire the World and the Dawn of the Information Age, Tabor - B

         "The laying of the Atlantic Cable far exceeded anything in the annals of science and engineering and changed life around the globe." The challenges appeared insurmountable, and Cyrus Field, a NYC businessman, assembled a scientific "dream team" to tackle "cable, oceans, ships, and telegraphy," the mission-critical aspects of the project. "The cable changed life on earth, and its progeny make life probable in ours." Even today, Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft spend billions to build and maintain underwater cables.

           In 1854, Field was approached with an idea about a cable from NY to Nova Scotia, and thought that a cable from Canada to the UK made more sense. The idea gained traction in the public arena because it was believed that rapid trans-Atlantic communication would lead to a more peaceful world. Field recruited the two most capable men of the century to work with him. Samuel Morse was already a household name, but not so Lt. Matthew Maury of the US Naval Observatory. Maury was the world's leading expert on currents and ocean floor topography. He also signed on Peter Cooper, scientific genius and one of the wealthiest men in America.

           The first step was to lay cable across the 65-mile strait connecting Newfoundland to the mainland. In a gale, the cable snapped, and Field sailed home. The following year, they accomplished the laying of the cable. Knowing that the British were expert at laying cable and had the deepest pockets, Field went to London in 1856. He received significant financial support, and, of equal import, better ideas to build a cable. He returned to America and received the full support of the US government. The American and British ships began to lay cable off Ireland in August 1857. After laying 380 miles of cable, it snapped and plunged 12,500 feet to the bottom. Field immediately began to plan for an expedition the following year. On June 10, 1858, they sailed again. Six hundred and fifty miles west of Portsmouth, they encountered a hundred-year storm. Soon thereafter, the cable snapped again. Field needed all of his skills to convince his backers to give him one more chance. The third time was a charm, as they successfully transmitted from Ireland to Newfoundland in August. It was a massive accomplishment, and Cyrus Field was heralded as a hero around the world. However, within days, the transmissions stopped.

           Although many on both sides of the Atlantic still believed in the possibility of success, many did not. Competition arose, particularly in the UK and even in Russia. Samuel Morse walked away. Field's warehouse in Manhattan burned down, and then, in the panic of 1860, his business went bankrupt. The war followed, and funding dried up. But Field never, ever gave up and began to rally support on both sides of the Atlantic. Another attempt was organized in 1865 with stronger cable, better-equipped ships, and a wealth of experience in the management of the process. Once again, at the midpoint in the Atlantic, the cable broke. This time, though, the consensus was that they were close and would achieve their goal the following year. On June 30, 1866, the Great Eastern sailed with a new set of improved equipment. On July 27th, they reached Newfoundland, and the world erupted in joy.

           By the time of Field's death in 1892, there were ten trans-Atlantic cables. Today, there are more than 600 fiber-optic cables crossing the Atlantic. Ninety-eight percent of the world's data travels by cable, not satellite. As for Cyrus Field and his international fame, he died broke and mostly forgotten. This is an enlightening and absorbing story.

Lazar, Biedermann - B

           This heralded novel by a young German in his early twenties tells a story of the von Lazars, Hungarian nobility torn asunder by the 20th century. Lajos is born around the fin de siècle and joins his six-year-old sister, Ilona, in the vast, unhappy household. Before the war, their mother, Maria, quietly takes her own life. Their heartless father, Sandor, sends them to boarding school while he drinks his way through the oblivion of the Empire and his world. When the old baron dies, Lajos and his young wife, Lily, move into the manor and take control of the family's business. Success allows Lajos, Lily, and their children to buy a second home in Budapest. Fear of Hitler forces Ilona and her Jewish husband to leave Berlin and alight on the Danube as well. After the Anschluss, they manage to escape to Switzerland.

           Just before the war begins, Lajos and Lily's son, Pista, falls in love with a Jewish girl, Matilda. Matilda's mom quashes the puppy love as fast as she can. The war begins, and Lajos is summoned to the army. Most of his responsibilities are organizational, and he never even leaves home, but works in Pécs near the manor house. In 1944, he rounds up and ships off the local Jews. With the Russians approaching, the family begins to walk west. The Russians pass through on the way to Budapest, and the family returns to the manor house. That summer, Lajos and Pista go to Budapest, and Pista learns that Matilda had been shot by the Arrow Cross.

          In 1948, their house, land, and possessions become "property of the state." A few years later, after settling into office jobs and an apartment in Budapest, they are again dispossessed and moved east to a farm. In 1953, they are allowed to return to the city, but Lajos struggles to maintain any enthusiasm for life. A few years later, Pista is in love with Kati, and his younger sister, Eva, falls for revolutionary writer Akos. In late 1956, the Soviets invade. Leaving their parents in Budapest, Pista and Eva flee to Yugoslavia before their journey ends in Zurich

Hunter, Bidinotto - B

         This is an interesting novel published about fifteen years ago. There are two sequels. Dylan Hunter is a journalist busy exposing the troubling truth behind some prison early-release programs that ignore crimes committed before someone turned 18, as well as the fact that many cases are pleaded down. He takes matters into his own hands and exacts fatal vengeance in the middle of the night.

         Along the way, he meets and falls in love with Annie Woods, who tells him she's an insurance investigator. She actually works for the CIA. When the authorities begin closing in on him, he rescues Annie and another CIA operative from a dangerous man holding them captive in Annie's house. The CIA secures him a pass from the local authorities, and he and Annie leave Washington, D.C., and head to his family's cabin in Pennsylvania.

Ransom, Silva - B

        Gabriel and Chiara are summering at their home in Cornwall when the local billionaire, Edward Knight, asks for his help. His much younger wife, Alice, is missing in Spain. Gabriel begins working with the local police, who believe she was murdered. Gabriel suspects she was kidnapped and soon is handling the negotiations. It all falls apart when a desperate Knight wires the money, and Alice is not returned. A few weeks later, Scotland Yard gets in touch and tells Gabriel they believe Edward is behind it all. Gabriel disagrees, concludes it was Alice, and finds her in an alpine cottage. She tells him that Edward was getting his financing from Moscow and that she needed a way out, so she designed the entire scheme. Allon brings her to MI6 and sets in motion a classic operation to catch the Russians.

         The two sections of this book lead to different conclusions. The half devoted to the ransom makes you ask, "Why bother?" On the other hand, the chase through Europe and the political/terrorism phase of the book are a blast. Still, you come back to the fact that, over the course of this series, Silva has aged Gabriel. He was a young man when he avenged Munich. Now he's an old man. It's inescapable in reality, and it should be in fiction as well.

Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered A Quarter of Humanity, Dikotter

       The Communist Party of China did not dominate the revolution or the war with Japan but instead played a de minimis role in society and the fighting in order to survive until 1945.

        Lenin believed that revolution could only be accomplished by professional cadres advancing the dictatorship of the proletariat to replace capitalism with communism. "Revolution was war, violence its very foundation." Moscow encouraged its followers in Beijing to foster Bolshevism. The CCP was founded in July 1921. The decade saw a contest develop between the Communists and the Nationalists for control of the revolution. It was a time of violent factionalism and chaos. Stalin ordered the creation of a Red Army, which began murdering its opponents. As the Nationalists prevailed in the field, the CCP turned to raiding, looting, and terror. Their actions were analogous to the banditry of the warlords. Their main source of revenue was "plunder and ransom."

        By the end of 1931, the CCP was on the verge of collapse. Its soviets were troubled, chaotic, and violent. Mao controlled the largest, Jiangxi, the capital of communist China. The Jiangxi Soviet ultimately failed after it was defeated by Chiang's Nationalists. The Long March ensued in October 1934.

         The Communists headed west, away from the coastal regions and into the mountains. Within a month, the Red Army had lost half of its effective strength as Chiang's troops hounded their every step. A year later, Mao led his 8,000 survivors to Yan'an after traveling 6,200 miles. The CCP was reduced to a total national membership of 40,000. "Their message of proletarian uprising against capitalism, despite fifteen years of relentless agitation funded by Moscow, had failed to find much of a reception among the workers in any of the country's many towns and cities." Nonetheless, Moscow continued to fund the CCP and provide advisors to help communism survive.

        During the second half of the 1930s, Mao avoided large-scale battles with the Japanese and left most of the fighting to the Nationalists. The Communists instead consolidated power and increased their support in rural regions. They emerged stronger by conserving their military forces while expanding their political control. They also focused on propaganda, convincing many foreigners that they were China's patriotic defenders. This approach continued after the Republic of China declared war on the Axis powers on December 8, 1941. Mao left most of the fighting to Chiang, who was engaged alongside the Allies and receiving their support. Mao believed his forces were far enough removed from the battlefields that they would not become Japan's primary target and that the Japanese would continue to wear down Chiang and his armies. Meanwhile, the CCP worked assiduously across the countryside to build the political infrastructure that would serve it after the war. To this day, the CCP promulgates the story of its heroic battles against Japanese imperialism.

          Three days after Hiroshima, nearly one million Soviet troops stormed into Manchuria. "The unconditional surrender of Japan was met with jubilation across China, but took both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong by surprise." The Communists infiltrated the south and undermined everything the government undertook. Faced with an enemy armed by the Soviets while ruling a country devastated by years of war, Chiang accepted a cease-fire arranged by the United States. By October 1946, both sides were fighting again. The conflict dragged on as each side inflicted unspeakable horrors on the civilian populations caught in the middle and merely trying to survive.

         By the end of 1948, the prize of Manchuria belonged to the Communists, and in January 1949, the People's Liberation Army marched into Beijing. The ensuing Huaihai Campaign saw hundreds of thousands "clash in the greatest battle in Chinese history." Chiang withdrew to the south as the Communists overran the country, and the Nationalists ultimately fled to Taiwan.

         This book has been lauded for the depth of its research and its dismantling of the widely accepted view that the CCP heroically fought the Japanese oppressors. For Western readers, however, the cultural disconnect and the difficulty of keeping track of unfamiliar people and place names can make this period of Asian history especially challenging.

Slow Horses, Herron - B+

         After reading Books 2–9, I returned to the first, which provides the background on how the horses ended up at the house. As terrorists threaten to behead a young Englishman of Pakistani descent on social media, Lamb calls a meeting with Taverner. Lamb quickly susses out that the kidnapping was orchestrated by MI5 with the intention of staging a rescue and humiliating England's rising right wing. When the agent planted among the terrorists is found dead, Taverner announces that Lamb and the Slow Horses have gone rogue. If Lamb can be outfoxed, it certainly isn't by Lady Di Taverner. The horses run circles around her and make sure she ends up owing Lamb a favor.

Midnight Taxi, Gunasekera - B

         Siriwathi Perera is a 28-year-old NYC taxi driver who discovers that her fare to JFK is dead, with a knife in his chest. She is immediately arrested and calls the Sri Lankan Legal Aid lawyer she recently met. Siri and Amaya embark on a vigorous investigation to find the real killer. The charm of this book lies not in its insights into the legal system or the murder investigation, but rather in its exploration of the challenges of being the American daughter of Asian immigrants. The author is Sri Lankan, previously worked at Legal Aid, and now works with the Innocence Project.

Prague: The Heart of Europe, Paces - B -

         Prague is beloved for its beauty and, providentially, is situated in the center of Europe. It is highly regarded by poets, musicians, and intellectuals, and, after the fall of communism, became one of the most visited cities in Europe. It was also home to the murder of its Jewish population during World War II and was subjected to a brutal communist dictatorship for four decades. "This book presents the political, cultural, and social history of Prague from the ninth to the early twenty-first centuries."

         The city overlooks a bend in the Vltava River. It was first fortified in the 10th century and became a crossroads of trade and culture. Prague and the surrounding region of Bohemia became part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century. In 1346, Charles IV, King of Bohemia, was elected Holy Roman Emperor and chose Prague as his capital. "Charles's city grew larger and more beautiful during his reign. The Caroline era marked the pinnacle of medieval Prague." His son Wenceslas's reign was troubled by conflicts between Avignon and Rome and, locally, by German and Czech burghers seeking supremacy in Bohemia. A Czech priest, Jan Hus, began a reform movement focused on morality and the promotion of the Czech language. It attracted the animosity of the regime and became so popular that decades of civil war followed Hus's execution. A dynastic crisis followed, leading to the Habsburg succession in 1526. They would rule Prague, Bohemia, and the Empire for four centuries but would eventually return the imperial capital to Vienna.

         Prague experienced a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in 1618 that led to the devastating Thirty Years' War. The war spread from Bohemia to the rest of Central Europe and even drew in the French and the Swedes before it was settled by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The treaty did not extend its terms of religious toleration to Bohemia or the Austrian hereditary lands. The ensuing Protestant exile reduced Prague's population below that of Europe's great cities. Catholics and Jews slowly repopulated the city. The Enlightenment was ushered into Bohemia by Empress Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II. Their reforms "would transform Prague into a modern imperial city with free public education, a centralized state bureaucracy, and streamlined economic, religious, and legal institutions." Joseph believed religion to be a personal matter, allowed complete religious toleration, and granted peasants civil liberties. The 19th century saw the city begin to industrialize and draw people from the surrounding regions. Czech speakers began to outnumber Germans and pushed for greater Slavic rights within the empire. As Vienna weakened from repeated military defeats, Czech language and culture flourished. Yet everyone "understood that only a large empire could protect their small nation from outside threats."

         Prague entered the 20th century as a booming metropolis with 442,000 residents, more than 90 percent of whom spoke Czech. It was predominantly Catholic, with few Protestants and about 25,000 Jews. "Innovation in the arts, urban renewal, and increased political activism marked the fin de siècle." The city's limited enthusiasm for the Great War faded as battlefield defeats mounted, food shortages and rationing took hold, and refugees poured into the city. Czech independence movements arose as the empire went into free fall and declared independence in October 1918. As the capital of the First Republic, Prague vigorously "de-Austrianized," removing all things Habsburg and German, while relations among Czechs, Slovaks, and Germans throughout the country remained uneasy. The Great Depression devastated one of the world's most industrialized countries. A year before Neville Chamberlain declared "peace for our time," the founder and first president of the republic, Tomáš Masaryk, died. Three-quarters of a million Czechs queued at his bier in Prague Castle.

        The 1938 Munich Agreement allowed Hitler to occupy the German-speaking Sudetenland, bringing the First Republic to an end. Prague's Jews were able to send 669 children* to London under the Kindertransport program. In early 1939, the Germans established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Jewish property was forfeited, and the Nuremberg Laws were imposed. Although its Jewish population was decimated, the city itself remained in excellent physical condition in 1945. President Beneš returned from London and expelled nearly all of the country's Germans. Beneš died in 1948, and the communists took over the government, establishing a Stalinist dictatorship throughout the country. Led by Dubček in the 1960s, the Communist Party relinquished some of its iron-handed controls and introduced far-reaching reforms. In August 1968, Soviet tanks arrived and ended the Prague Spring. The last decades of communism were less severe, as the planned economy provided consumer goods. The city was improved, new buildings were constructed, and a metro system was built in the 1970s. As the 1980s saw the entire Warsaw Pact gradually abandon communism's dominance, it all came apart in November 1989. Havel was inaugurated President the week after Christmas.

         He denounced not only the years of communism but also the country's complicity in the Holocaust, its persecution of the Roma, and the expulsion of the Germans. The city's recovery was aided by UN funding after its designation as a World Heritage Site. In 1992, Slovakia and the Czech Republic peacefully separated. Czechia joined the European Union in 2004. The city and the nation have diligently pursued their mission of "returning to Europe" while continuing to wrestle with how to remember their controversial history. "Throughout Prague, sites of memory may blend into their surroundings, but they hold stories about the past. Plaques on buildings mark where famous artists lived. Stumbling blocks bear witness to the lives of Prague's murdered Jews. Statues of saints, German writers, and Czech musicians instruct us on who our heroes should be. They can expose fractures in collective memory, promote healing, or save historical figures from relative obscurity. The meanings of these places expand beyond their original intentions and come to represent multiple, even conflicting, moments in history."

*The children never saw their parents again, and half a century later they, their children, and grandchildren numbered 6,000.

Wolvers, Brown - B+

         Trace's family lost their grazing rights after shooting a Mexican wolf, a lobo, that was preying on their cattle, and then they lost the ranch. He was hired to kill wolves by wealthy men opposed to wolf reintroduction, hoping to create a free state in the wilds of West Texas and New Mexico. While hunting the famous wolf #111, he has the misfortune of running afoul of a somewhat philosophical wild wolf man and winds up with his leg in a bear trap. He survives but quits. He's replaced by Murdoch, who matches wits with #111 and kills her gray wolf partner. Without him, she has to protect and feed the pack on her own.  Trace meets the wolf man again, learns his name is Horn, and is told that Murdoch is likely looking for him as well as #111. Horn and Trace team up to take care of Murdoch. Horn puts an arrow in Murdoch's leg and, a few hours later, another in his chest. Horn and Trace have to outrun a forest fire to survive, and in the end, the good guys are safe, as are the good wolves. This is a blast that I've thoroughly enjoyed. It's probably not for everybody, but I am fascinated by the author's ability to see the world through the eyes of wolf #111.

Tojo: The Rise And Fall Of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General, Mauch - B+, Inc.

        "Tojo Hideki. His bristling, mustached countenance was, from the moment he led Japan into hostilities in the Pacific, the face of the nation's participation in World War II." In the postwar era, he was remembered as the man who brought war and ruin to Japan. When the Yasukuni Shrine enshrined him in the late 1970s, Hirohito never visited it again. This book is "a military biography of General Tojo," and because his career encompassed all of Japan's 20th-century rise and fall, it tells the story of the country's military and government as well.

          He was born in Tokyo in 1884. Hideki entered the Military Preparatory School in 1899. One of the school's core principles was an absolute commitment to the emperor. He entered the Imperial War College in 1912 and graduated at the end of 1915. A deficiency in the curriculum was its focus on the army alone, particularly the infantry. The role of naval and air forces was not considered important, nor was the necessity of coordinating societal support with the government. After a brief staff assignment, Tojo spent three and a half years in Europe as part of a contingent attempting to study and understand Germany's war experience. Their key takeaways were the importance of coordinating with the artillery branch, providing better weapons for smaller infantry units, and working closely with the civilian structures supporting the army—they adopted Germany's concept of total war. Back in Tokyo, he and other like-minded staff members worked toward modernization and implementing a structure capable of managing a nation at war. They believed it was necessary to take Manchuria and Mongolia because the war machine would need their natural resources, and they came to believe that the army should lead the nation once war began.

          He was appointed commander of a regiment in Tokyo during a period of army rebelliousness and opposition to the government. He twice opposed army coups and saw his colleagues rise to the top of the army's hierarchy. Although promoted to general, Tojo wound up politically ostracized and fearful of an early retirement. While in limbo, he applauded the empire's aggressive actions in Manchukuo and supported the country's withdrawal from the League of Nations. He believed the U.S. and the U.K. were vehemently anti-Japanese because of the London and Washington Naval Conferences that imposed limits on Japan. Furthermore, Hideki believed the U.S. and the USSR were coordinating an encirclement of the country. He was transferred to the Kwantung Army in Manchukuo. He opposed the latest coup attempt in Tokyo and worked on industrializing Manchukuo. He wanted to take aggressive action against China and the USSR, and in 1937 led the prosecution of the undeclared war against China, often ignoring advice and orders from Tokyo. His success in China led to a promotion to vice army minister in 1938.

          Although I seem to be quitting more books than usual lately, I've decided I cannot go another 300 pages without finding out whether the author ever addresses the incomprehensible thinking of Japan's military elite. They had virtually no perspective outside of samurai warrior traditions. Tunnel vision would be a broader perspective than the way they looked at the world. They fought and argued among themselves like third-grade boys. There was virtually no consideration of diplomacy, and they often simply ignored orders. The author's treatment of the Rape of Nanking in only a paragraph or two was more than I could handle. Tojo was eventually tried, convicted, and hanged as a war criminal.

Stormy Weather, Hiaasen - B+

        A major hurricane hits southern Florida in this book from the '90s. Scam artists abound and begin to ply their nefarious trades.    A tourist named Max pisses off Skink by reveling in recording the destruction for his friends back in New York. Skink hauls Max off deep into the swamp. Outside the Everglades, the craziness continues. Edie, having given up on finding a Kennedy to fuck, has gone into the insurance fraud business. Augustine, who freed all the animals from his exotic zoo, is now helping (in more ways than one) Max's wife, Bonnie. Everybody, including Skink, gets together to track down the guy who beat up the girlfriend of Skink's best friend, state trooper Jim Tile. In the end, the evil-doer suffers horribly, justice is served, love blooms, and all I can do is laugh and laugh.

Storm Tide, Doiron - B-

        Mike Bowditch is on suspension and awaiting the birth of his first child. But, he senses someone very smart is ghosting him and setting him up. He can't prove a thing, and no one is interested in the imaginings of a game warden who could soon be out of a job. He investigates on his own and soon is on the track of a diabolical young man who holds a grudge - Mike had chased down his stepfather, and young Ben had wound up in the foster care system. Mike takes extraordinary risks in the pursuit and catches his man. He misses the birth of his and Stacey's son, but all is forgiven.

        All series with a singular lead character can be repetitive, and I believe this one more so than most. Part of the problem is that the books are scattered over sixteen years, but I've read them all in the last four-and-a-half. Mike takes way too many predictable risks. I hope I don't feel the same way in a year or so.

The Black Death: A Global History Of Humanity's Most Devastating Pandemic, Asbridge - B+

          The world of the mid-fourteenth century, devastated by the Black Death, was in the midst of massive change. People and goods were traded from Asia to Europe to the Middle East at an accelerating pace, at a higher volume, and on larger ships than ever before. The globalizing world was shrinking.

         It is believed the plague entered Genoa in 1347 from a ship that arrived from a trading outpost in Crimea. Russian and Muslim chroniclers recorded that the plague had struck the Golden Horde the year before. That summer, it reached Constantinople, Sicily, and Alexandria. The next year, the plague spread throughout the Mediterranean world. The meticulous Venetians maintained excellent records. To give some indication of how the disease struck, nine wills were prepared in the city in January, and 662 in May. The city lost two-thirds of its residents. The "merciless scourge" inflicted severe psychological and physical pain on those who lived to see a vastly diminished world. The records maintained in the Middle East were not as detailed as the Europeans', but many estimate that the death toll in the Muslim world was higher, likely because of the "Islamic prohibition on flight." Cairo, with 500,000 residents, was significantly larger than any city in Europe, and it "suffered the most devastating mass mortality of any population center during the Black Death." As the plague spread north into Europe, the story of death and destruction continued unrelentingly. The afflicted developed buboes in the groin area, neck, and armpits, vomited blood, and died in three days. The more populated an area, the faster it spread. Usually, the affliction of one in a family meant death to the entire household. Paris lost 80,000 of a population of 150,000. The British Isles followed the same path, as did Scandinavia, Germany, Eastern Europe, and Russia.

          "Over the course of six horrifying years, the Black Death spread across the face of the known world. The astonishing scope and scale of this pandemic were unprecedented. Never before in human history had a disease wrought such terrible suffering among so many tens of millions and across so vast an expanse of territory. By the end of 1353, the plague was subsiding, but the appalling era of sudden mass mortality and the abject horror that it engendered caused a seismic convulsion in society that brought much of the medieval world to the brink of collapse."

         The Black Death killed approximately 100 million people, scything through communities in 6–9 months and taking away half of the population. No one knew its cause or possible duration. Society abandoned the traditional rituals of mourning and funerals and simply dumped the dead in pits. Everywhere, people abandoned relatives and even children. Urban governments stopped functioning, and agricultural activities were suspended. A Tunisian observer wrote, "Civilization itself approached the point of annihilation and dissolution." Both Venice and England had such capable civil structures that they were able to recover quickly.

          Many thought "they were witnessing a world-ending catastrophe." Muslims and Catholics believed they were being punished by God, but throughout, almost all retained their faith, and Muslims continued their annual Haij. Pope Clement VI was a particularly skilled leader who modified many of the rules about confession, the last rites, and funerals in order to fit within the new paradigm. He told all Catholics who attended a special Mass that they would receive a papal indulgence reducing their time in Purgatory. Religious institutions accumulated significant funds as the dying left assets to churches, monastic orders, and hospitals. In the Muslim world, all three faiths survived peaceably. The Catholic world "did not promote the same sentiments, and the persecution of religious minorities was commonplace in the West." In Cyprus, they rounded up their Muslim slaves and butchered them all in a single afternoon. In Europe, the Jews were the wealthy people "responsible for the death of Christ." The first pogroms were in 1096 during the First Crusade. Every few generations, Europe would unleash a "frenzied barbarity" on their neighbors. Throughout the plague years and across the entirety of Europe, Jews were blamed, often on the pretense of poisoning the water, and indiscriminately murdered. Frequently, they were executed only after confessing and naming others after they had been tortured on the rack. Conveniently, their credit books showing who owed them money disappeared, along with their movable assets. Pope Clement failed in a serious effort undertaken to stop the slaughter. When the plague abated, many Jews migrated to the east. "The Black Death left the medieval world deeply scarred but not broken."

         The Tunisian historian, Ibn Khaldun, wrote twenty-five years later: "In both the East and the West humanity was visited by a destructive plague that swallowed up many of the good things and wiped them out... Civilization decreased with the decrease of mankind and the entire inhabited world changed." The world would continue to face regular plague resurgences for centuries. Nonetheless, Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia made remarkable comebacks in the 1350s. The return to some sense of normalcy was also challenged by the Little Ice Age, a century and a half of unremitting war, and the failure of the population to materially increase for over a century.

          Strategically, both the Mongol Horde and the Byzantine Empire were hastened to their ends by the plague, and the Ottomans replaced the Mamluks in the Middle East. Many European historians believe that the Church's hierarchy was so unable to respond to the crisis that it propelled the Reformation. The Black Death destroyed a world, and slowly ushered in a changing one with Europe precluded from Asia after the fall of Constantinople, and required Europe to sail into the Atlantic. This is a far-ranging, very interesting read.

Native Tongue, Hiaasen - B+

          This hysterical, laugh-out-loud novel is from the early 90s and the second in the 'Skink' series. Francis X. Kingsbury owns the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills and is in the process of further damaging the environment of North Largo Island by building a golf course. Lined up in opposition are the Mothers of the Wilderness, a very savvy PR man recently fired by Kingsbury, Skink, the FBI, and the NY mob tipped off that Kingsbury is in the Witness Protection Program, but really is the guy who testified against John Gotti. Pretty much all Francis X. has on his side is a security guy mainlining steroids through an IV and an incompetent, preppy aide. Every book of the author has me laughing every ten pages. Highlights here are kidnapped blue-tongued voles, a scientist swallowed by a killer whale, a dead killer whale, a phony snake invasion of the kingdom, a cement truck destroyed by an RPG, Robbie Racoon on TV with Willard Scott, insights into the hijinks of the staff of a major amusement park, but the star is Nina, the PR fella's girl. She works nights talking dirty on the phone. She's constantly trying out new lines, gets so good that the other girls start paying her to write for them. She succeeds and is syndicated around the country, and some of her poetry makes the 'New Yorker.' Gotta love it.

A Murder In Springtime, Walker - B+

        This is the 19th installment in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by the now-retired journalist and historian Martin Walker. Bruno remains one of the most charming, sophisticated, erudite, and philosophical policemen—if not men—in southern France.  A woman in her sixties, a nurse at a nearby nursing home, is brutally murdered.  The victim appears to have completely erased her past. There is nothing to reveal who she really was, and the vicious, deeply personal nature of the crime suggests the motive is buried in the past. As Bruno and his team dig deeper, clues begin to emerge, gradually uncovering the victim's hidden history. Along the way,  exquisite food is served, love is in the air, and modern technology solves the investigation. Justice is served in one of the best in the series.

Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and The Making of Modern Asia, Dalrymple - B++

       A century ago, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait were bound together under a single imperial banner, officially known as the Indian Empire, or more simply, the Raj. It ultimately shattered into multiple partitions. Many of these lands were protectorates, some internationally recognized and others not. Some were princely states within India that had surrendered defense and foreign policy to the empire. This is the story of how those partitions created twelve separate nations.

          In 1928, a British commission went to India to draft a new constitution. They encountered a region divided between Mahatma Gandhi’s Hindu-led movement and Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim political leadership. Further east, Burma—the largest and richest province of the Raj—felt routinely excluded from Indian politics, and a movement emerged calling for its separation. The commission ultimately recommended this separation. A few years later, London approved the separation of Burma, and also Arab Oman, from India. These changes took effect on April 1, 1937.

         In the late 1930s, India was allowed limited elections, in which Jawaharlal Nehru’s Congress Party won significant support. Plans to merge British India and the princely states into a federation were halted when World War II broke out. It would become the largest war in Asia since the Mongol invasions of China. The British Indian Army grew to 2.5 million men, but enthusiasm for Britain’s war effort was limited, as many struggled to distinguish between Nazism and imperial rule. India wanted freedom, not war.

         Jinnah increasingly argued for a separate Muslim state in northwest India. In early 1942, Japanese forces attacked Burma, causing around 600,000 Indians to flee westward. Japan conquered Burma, and most Indians were forced to leave. Religious and ethnic tensions intensified as Japanese-backed Burmese forces fought in the border regions. That same year, Britain imprisoned the Congress leaders after Gandhi demanded immediate independence, while Jinnah urged the British to remain to protect Muslim minorities from Hindu-majority rule.

         By the end of 1942, the Japanese Empire had conquered much of Southeast Asia. India was in turmoil, flooded with refugees and fearing further invasion. Bengal experienced a devastating famine that killed over a million people, and Prime Minister Churchill was heavily criticized. In late 1944, Japanese forces advanced into India and besieged Kohima. The Battle of Kohima became one of the turning points of the war in Asia, with approximately 40,000 Japanese casualties.

        At the end of the war, the Congress leaders were released from prison and returned to a transformed country. Non-violent resistance had weakened, and there was growing demand for more assertive nationalism.

         Britain was financially exhausted and even indebted to the Government of India. The subcontinent was home to Sikhs, Nagas, Pashtuns, Bengalis, Hindus, and Muslims, many of whom now demanded separate states. In early 1946, around 50,000 Indian personnel in the Royal Air Force went on strike, followed by 20,000 Royal Navy mutineers. Violence broke out in Bengal, where many Muslims demanded a separate homeland, rather than joining Jinnah’s Pakistan.

        By spring 1947, Britain’s retreat from empire resembled a rapid collapse. The government announced withdrawal from Greece, Palestine, and India. Lord Mountbatten was appointed the last Viceroy of India. His plan to partition India and create Pakistan was accepted as the least violent option for separation.

         Some provinces were given choices over their future: Assam, Sindh, and Baluchistan had to decide which country to join; Bengal and Punjab were to determine whether they would be divided along religious lines. The independence date was moved up to August 15, the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender. A massive administrative task involving the borders of the new states was attempted in only ten weeks. Still unresolved was the fate of the 565 princely states, which made up about 40 percent of the subcontinent. Most ultimately acceded to India.

        Across the region, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs became caught up in widespread communal violence. By early August, mass migration had begun. Armed militias and paramilitary groups moved through border regions. Independence came at midnight, even as borders remained unclear.

        The resulting violence was on an immense scale. Tens of millions were displaced along religious lines. Millions died, and many more suffered forced conversions and sexual violence. Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan, while Muslims in India often became targets of hostility. The Partition of British India remains one of the most significant events of the twentieth century in South Asia, shaping the identity and politics of nearly a quarter of the world’s population. By the end of the year, around 20 million people had been displaced.

        Relations between India and Pakistan were tense from the moment of their creation. Soon after independence, war broke out over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The territory had a Hindu ruler but a majority Muslim population. After its accession to India, both sides deployed regular armies, replacing earlier tribal militias. Fighting continued through 1948, with India gaining the advantage late in the year. A UN-brokered ceasefire took effect on January 1, later becoming permanent, leaving India in control of roughly two-thirds of the region, including the Kashmir Valley. The ceasefire line eventually became the Line of Control.

         Tensions also grew within Pakistan between East and West Pakistan, separated by a thousand miles and marked by a deep economic and political imbalance. The more populous East felt underrepresented in national institutions. Matters worsened after a devastating cyclone in 1970, which killed hundreds of thousands and was widely seen as poorly handled by the government.

        These tensions led to what is often called the fifth partition of the region. In March 1971, the government ignored the electoral victory of the Awami League in East Pakistan. Rising unrest led to a military crackdown, and the League declared independence. Bengali soldiers defected and formed the backbone of the resistance. India eventually intervened militarily, leading to war. Pakistan surrendered, and in exchange for 90,000 prisoners of war, recognized the independence of Bangladesh.

        Today, these countries often overlook their shared and intertwined histories. Questions of citizenship and belonging—of who is considered an outsider—continue to shape the region. India and Pakistan still maintain heavily restricted cross-border relations, limiting opportunities for many displaced families to visit ancestral homes. History, in many ways, remains very much alive.

        This account is very thorough history. The author is an Englishman who grew up in New Delhi and graduated from Oxford. His narrative links religious extremism, political fragmentation, and colonial legacy. The story also raises broader questions about whether Britain’s long imperial dominance—from Ireland to the Far East—has contributed to enduring perceptions of superiority and inequality.

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World, Thomas - B

         "So it is with all nations, big or small. The landscape imprisons the leaders, giving them fewer choices and less room to maneuver. The rules of geography, which Hannibal, Sun Tzu, and Alexander the Great all knew, still apply to today's leaders."

         Russia is a "land where power is hard to defend, and so for centuries its leaders have compensated by pushing outward. It is the land without mountains to its west." It has been attacked from the west by Poland (1605), Sweden (1708), France (1812), and Germany (1914 and 1941). "By 2004, fifteen years after 1989, every single Warsaw Pact country bar Russia was in NATO or the EU." For half a millennium, Russia has defended its flat plains by attacking outward. Thus, the policies of Vladimir Putin derive from those of Stalin, Alexander II, Catherine the Great, and Peter the Great.

         The Chinese "heartland is the political, cultural, demographic, and agricultural center of gravity" of the nation. With vast open plains to the north, the Chinese too adopted the attack-to-defend philosophy. After the humiliation of European and Japanese occupations, China today is a unified and secure country. To the north and east, sparsely populated Manchuria and Siberia pose no threats. To the south, only Vietnam has a border without natural obstructions, and the west is mountainous. Secure on land, China is building its navy to protect its sea lanes and eventually recover Taiwan, 140 miles off its coast. Access to Russian oil and gas, along with a pipeline to the Arabian Sea, may help China overcome its most significant geostrategic risk—the 500-mile-long Strait of Malacca.

         "Geography has determined that if a political entity could get to and then control the land from sea to shining sea, it would be a great power, the greatest history has ever known." The US has been truly fortunate. Otto von Bismarck once said, "God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States."

          Western Europe also has been blessed with an excellent climate, fertile soil, navigable rivers, superb harbors, and a lack of natural disasters. However, with mountains, rivers that act as boundaries, and a long history, Europe has many languages and countries. The south is not as fortunate, with more mountains, fewer arable plains, and shorter rivers. Europe's only strategic threat remains Russia, one enhanced by the flat northern plains of the continent. (Note: this book was published in 2015, long before the war in Ukraine.)

        Africa is cursed by a lack of natural harbors and rivers filled with waterfalls. The Sahara cuts it off from the Eurasian landmass, where ideas and technology were exchanged.

        The Middle East (a purely European characterization) is a thousand miles wide and two thousand miles from north to south. It is filled with mountains, deserts, rivers, fertile plains, and cities. Its center is the Arabian Desert, which is the size of France. For centuries, it was part of the Ottoman Empire, in which there were no borders or lines in the sand. After WWI, Britain and France "arbitrarily created nation-states out of people unused to living together in one region, which has not been a recipe for justice, equality, or stability." Of all the nations created, Iraq was "an unholy mess," consisting of Christians, Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. To the various Arab tribes, Zionism, supported by the US and some Europeans, added the state of Israel. The states surrounding Israel—Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria—have not welcomed or granted rights to the Palestinians who fled Israel decades ago. The failure of pan-Arab nationalism has led to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. It is an unholy mess that continues. Equally problematic is the ancient, populous, wealthy, and nuclear-armed successor to the Persian Empire, the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is very mountainous, which has defended it from intruders for thousands of years, but has also impeded the spread of its oil wealth throughout the country. Its aggressive desire to push its Shiite religion into Arabia and to destroy the state of Israel further adds tinder to the always-volatile region.

         The Arctic brings us back again to Russia. The Arctic Ocean is small, but it is almost the size of Russia and one-and-a-half times the size of the US. The continental shelves "occupy more space proportionately than in any other ocean." The melting ice allows use of the Northwest Passage for a few months per year, and the Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast is open twice as long. International law gives each nation 200 miles of sovereignty, called the exclusive economic zone, over mineral rights from its shore. Russia is aggressively claiming more, building bases in the north, and moving armed forces to Murmansk. Putin has said the Arctic oilfields will be "our strategic reserve for the twenty-first century." Whether or not this becomes another Great Game remains to be seen.

         Interesting, but not compelling. I skipped the chapters on India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, and Latin America.

Clown Town, Herron - B

         In the ninth, and apparently penultimate, novel, Taverner seeks out Lamb's help. Someone has filed an anonymous complaint against her with HR, and she wants Roddy Ho to figure out who it is. Simultaneously, River goes to Oxford to meet with the academics curating his grandfather's library. He has been given a heads-up that something is missing. It turns out the two matters are related. The blackmail attempt against the Park is being carried out by the same person who stole a box disguised as a book, one that contained detailed information about a long-ago but major MI5 cock-up. Filled with the usual plots, subplots, counterplots, bureaucratic infighting, and endless manipulation, this one closes with Lamb doing what he always does—taking care of his Joes.

Wildwood, Pease - B+

         A few months after the events in Northwoods (May 25th blog post), Eli and Marge begin investigating an apparent murder when the FBI and DEA show up. Once again, the FBI agent is Alyssa Mason. The missing woman was a DEA confidential informant. After a principal in the investigation is found dead, the FBI agent is pulled from the case by higher-ups, and the investigation is declared finished. Eli manages to bring Alyssa back in because the case is far from solved. The finale is twisty, surprising, and very satisfying. Alyssa is promoted to SAIC in Chicago, and she and Eli agree to remain friends. This is a different and interesting series, with a third installment scheduled for next year.

A Scandal In Konigsberg, Clark - C

         In the 1830s, the home of Immanuel Kant "bathed in the glow of the late Enlightenment." Wilhelm Ebel was a preacher at the Old City Church, and Heinrich Diestel at the Haberberg Church. Three hundred and fifty miles to the west, in Berlin, the Minister of Culture and Religion received an accusation concerning a clique engaged in sexual promiscuity gathered around Ebel. Diestel rallied to his friend's side. Ebel had achieved a modest notoriety by helping Ida von der Groeben overcome her anxieties after losing her husband in the Napoleonic Wars. Ebel's philosophical considerations of religious dogma attracted enemies among the clergy of Königsberg. He believed he had a unique relationship with God and acted as an intermediary. The accusations against Ebel were made by the brother of a woman in Ebel's circle who had offended him by insisting on her share of the family estate.

         The Church's brief inquiry, coupled with its bias against Ebel, led it to suspend him and join the civil prosecution. The case lacked evidence and eyewitness testimony and ultimately succumbed to hysteria. Similarly, the press created lurid accounts of widespread sexual improprieties. "The official mind of the Kingdom of Prussia had composed itself against the two beleaguered clergymen." Both men were convicted, permanently suspended, and financially penalized, while Ebel was sentenced to incarceration. An appeal overturned the harshest penalties but only partially restored their reputations.

         The author posits that the two men were too liberal for an era marked by the state's consolidation of power and suppression of new ideas. Furthermore, Ebel was different. He had long hair and an effeminate manner. Their prosecutors were relatively liberal and plainly uncomfortable with him. I do not know why an eminent historian took up this story. I believe a reviewer said that he had come across it and had wanted to write about it for decades.

          Sir Christopher Clark of Cambridge University is only 66 and presumably has one or two major works still ahead of him. I read this because I thoroughly enjoyed his book 'Sleepwalkers' (August 2013 blog post). Published on the eve of the centenary of the Great War, he posited that the Russians and Serbians were chiefly at fault in 1914. A year later, Sir Max Hastings, in 'Catastrophe,' vehemently argued for the traditional interpretation (January 2014 blog post). I twice saw Hastings speak at the Pritzker Military Museum in Chicago. He tells a story of being brought to the Dover coast as a young boy and having his grandfather point to the continent. He said to young Max, "There is where the Hun will come from for the third time."

Slough House, Herron - B+

                   Diane Taverner finds herself in a pickle when she sanctions an off-the-books hit in Russia using funds provided by a group of right-wing British businessmen. At the same time, she removes the Slow Horses from MI5's record books. Somehow, the GRU concludes that the Horses are an assassination team, and two former members are killed. Threaten the Horses, and they spring into action. Lamb brilliantly plays his hand, and with a valiant effort from River, they prevail. There are quite a few loose ends, but this is another great entry in the series.

Bad Actors, Herron - B+

                Six months later, a former First Desk is asked by 10 Downing Street to try to find a missing consultant to the PM's closest adviser, a despicable man named Anthony Sparrow. For reasons unknown, Taverner tells Downing Street that the last number the missing woman, Sophie de Greer, called was Lamb's. This bald-faced lie requires the horses to get involved, and they (not Regent's Park) figure out that de Greer is probably a Russian plant. Then Sparrow vindictively manages to get Taverner suspended. Another fabulous outing,  with the hideous but hysterical Jackson Lamb pulling the strings.

A Rumor Of War, Caputo - B++

        "When we marched into the rice paddies on that damp March 1965 afternoon, we carried, along with our packs and rifles, the implicit convictions that the Viet Cong would be quickly beaten and that we were doing something altogether noble and good. We kept the packs and rifles; the convictions, we lost." Eventually, "we fought for no cause other than our own survival."

         This memoir is considered the finest written about Vietnam. Caputo was born in Chicago in 1941, raised in the suburbs, and went straight into the Marine Corps after finishing the PLC program at Loyola in 1964. After training and an infusion of "courage, loyalty, and esprit de corps," it was off to Vietnam. He "was twenty-three years old, in superb condition, and quite confident he would live forever." His brigade was the first to arrive in Vietnam and, for a month, dug in a defensive position around the Da Nang Air Base. They suffered the indignities of heat and filth in their foxholes while they waited. After almost two months, they began long-range patrols into the jungle. Dropped into an LZ, the company walked three miles to a village, where the sniper fire began. When they were flown back to base, they were exhausted and had never seen anyone to fire at.

         Thus began a pattern of flying into the bush for a day or two and then flying back to base. Their first casualty was a man with a 109-degree temperature. Slowly, the men became immune to death and suffering, and they began to hate. Their first meaningful firefight lasted 90 minutes and led to four VC dead. The company's first fatality, a 19-year-old new father, shook everyone to the core. At the end of May, Caputo was sent for training in Japan and assigned to regimental headquarters as a staff officer. Staff work took up three or four hours per day, and the rest of staff life was pure boredom. On July 1, the VC attacked the airbase. They inflicted serious damage but were held off. One of Caputo's jobs was serving as casualty officer, requiring him to view bodies, catalog injuries, and report the causes of death. The job and the nightmares aged him until he felt like an old man just hanging onto life.

          The fall monsoon season brought a new war, no longer guerrilla. Both the VC and the NVA were launching more traditional battles, and Marine losses escalated. Caputo found himself writing up ten casualties a day. By November, he was so bored that he volunteered to go back to a line company. After eight months in-country, his idealistic notions were long gone. He just couldn't do any more paperwork about the dead, and he wanted back in on the intensity of combat. In the first month, his platoon made 200 patrols. One late December day, the platoon was engaged in an intense firefight and performed excellently. Caputo was thrilled. In January, every patrol seemed to run into mines and booby traps, until a helicopter assault into a hot LZ changed the pattern. One day, after five hours of combat, he lost control of his platoon as it torched a village. In his last month, Caputo was haunted by nightmares, and his feet and lower legs were a putrid mess of sores. One night he cracked and sent his men out to capture two suspected VC. When they wound up dead, he and his men were court-martialed. He had to stay in Vietnam a few extra months before the matter was dropped. He became further embittered and came to believe the whole war effort was hopeless hypocrisy.

         A decade later, he was back as an experienced war journalist for the last days of South Vietnam. In the final month, the NVA rolled over its token opposition. He helicoptered out a day before the regime fell—one of the first Americans in-country and one of the last out. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist died earlier this month.

The Cormorant Hunt, Idov - B+

         This is the sequel to The Collaborators. For two years, Ari Falk has been hiding in Tbilisi. When a British friend of his is assassinated in Prague, the CIA mentions his name in a way that suggests he might be the killer. He's on the run again — not really, as the CIA only wanted to flush him out and talk to him. They ask him to infiltrate a Russian GRU-funded extremist group. His CIA handler, the Deputy Director of Covert Actions, Asha, is trying to find a mole on the 7th floor. Falk and Asha work together to track down and bring the evildoers to justice. This is a fine, fast-paced, one-day read.

The Collaborators, Idov - B+

         This highly praised spy novel features a CIA agent working for a counter-disinformation team in Riga. Ari Falk loses a Russian podcaster and dissident, and then his Riga team is targeted. With his professional life in ruins, he is sent to London and told to “recover” for a few weeks. At about the same time, a famous and wealthy Russian-American hedge fund manager jumps off a boat into the Sea of Cádiz. Falk skips London to begin looking into both cases, which had crisscrossed in Riga. Falk and the presumed suicide’s daughter, Maya, team up and work through it together. It’s a classic thriller with plenty of confusing rabbit holes, but still a lot of fun.

Northwoods, Pease - B+

          This is a fabulous page-turner set in a small Wisconsin lake town. A teenage boy is found dead, and his girlfriend is missing. The town's small police force is struggling with the fact that its best investigator succumbed to alcoholism after two traumatic tours in Afghanistan. That investigator is Eli North, and the Sheriff is his mother, Marge. Complicating matters is a vast interstate conspiracy involving a Chicago-based drug company. That connection brings FBI agent Alyssa Mason to town. The unlikely trio saves the day, albeit with some befuddling inter-personal tension/attraction between Eli and Alyssa.This is a blast, but the nurse-practitioner author from Wisconsin fully understands and explores alcoholism, drug addiction, and bad parenting.

Moses And The Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, And The Birth Of Modern Basketball, Epplin - B

          Julius Erving made a splash in Hempstead, UMass, and Rucker Park, but he was still relatively unknown when he signed with the Virginia Squires in 1971 after his junior year in college. His talent and ambition were otherworldly, and he took the ABA by storm.  A few years later, a young Petersburg prodigy, Moses Malone, was considering skipping college and heading straight to the ABA. He shocked America by signing a million-dollar contract with the Utah Stars in 1974 right out of high school.

          Julius Erving desired to be more than an outstanding athlete; he wanted to be a role model in the mold of Jackie Robinson and Bill Russell. On the court he was “bold and fearless,” and off it he became “a dignified and accessible ambassador” for the ABA. In contrast to the league’s charming and articulate face, the new 19-year-old rookie Moses Malone barely spoke to the press.

           In the ABA’s final season, Dr. J stole the show at the Dunk Contest, won the MVP award, and led his team past Denver in the finals. When the new NBA season began, Julius was in Philadelphia and Moses in Houston. Both men had excellent years and faced each other in the Eastern Conference Finals, which Philly won in six games. Most observers viewed the NBA Finals against Portland as a clash between the undisciplined and erratic 76ers and a brilliantly structured and focused Blazers. The better-coached Blazers won in six.

          In Houston, Moses’ relentless work ethic earned him the 1979 MVP award. He pulled down 587 offensive rebounds — a number no one has come within fifty of in nearly half a century.

          After Philly flailed for a few years, an unhappy Julius Erving embraced religion and pared down his Afro. Approaching thirty, with creaky knees, he had decided he needed a reboot. The 76ers entered the 1979–80 season with team-oriented players like Bobby Jones and Mo Cheeks, now coached by Billy Cunningham. Julius had his best season since the ABA days. They beat the Celtics in the conference finals and met the Lakers for the title. Magic Johnson made history in Game 6 when he started at center and demolished Philadelphia. 

          The 1980–81 season saw Julius win the MVP award. In the conference finals he wore himself out guarding the younger Larry Bird, and the Sixers blew a 3–1 series lead, allowing Boston to reach the Finals, where they whipped Houston.

          The following year Moses won another MVP, but the Rockets’ owner had died and Malone knew he would soon become a free agent. Philadelphia beat Boston but lost to the Lakers in the Finals. For the first time since his brother’s death years earlier, Julius Erving sat in the locker room and cried.

           The Sixers knew they needed rebounding help, and were fed up with Daryl Dawkins. That summer, owner Harold Katz traded Daryl, and offered Malone a six-year, $13.2 million contract and changed the balance of power in the NBA.

          Moses deferred completely to Doc, pounded the boards, and suddenly the Sixers were beating everyone, including Boston and Los Angeles. Malone’s lack of artistry and relentless effort endeared him to Philly’s blue-collar fan base. His “metronomic reliability steadied a team prone to losing its bearings under duress.” The Sixers started 50–7 before stumbling home at 15–10. Moses was battling serious knee pain and missing games.

            A few days before the playoffs began, Moses had fluid drained from his knee and then overpowered the Knicks in the opener. It was a sweep, during which Moses scored 79 more points and grabbed 29 more rebounds than Bill Cartwright. Philadelphia then beat the Bucks in five before facing the Lakers in the Finals.

           Philly won the first two games at home, with Moses leaning on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar both nights, and took Game 3 when Malone held Kareem scoreless in the second and third quarters. Doc scored the final three baskets in Game 4 to complete the sweep. The Sixers were on top of the world.

          They flopped the following year. The nation’s attention shifted to three straight Lakers-Celtics Finals, and Philadelphia simply fell apart. The owner turned mean-spirited and traded Moses away, while Andrew Toney’s career was shortened because the team ignored his foot problems. Billy Cunningham retired with the highest winning percentage of any coach in NBA history. Doc retired in 1987. Moses played until 1995 and became the last ABA player in the league. He was one of only seven men to win three MVP awards, and Dr. J remains one of only nine men to score 30,000 professional points.

         Gotta just love Julius Erving - incredible skills and a total class act. Philly - not at all.          

Ironwood, Connelly - B+

          This is the second Catalina Island novel featuring Det. Stilwell. Stil loses two deputies in a shootout during a drug bust gone sideways at the island airport late at night. He captures one of the bad guys, but two fake ICE agents release him from jail. His suspicions run deep, and the eventual resolution ruins the careers of many important people in the LA area. He also teams up with Renee Ballard's cold case team to put another very bad man behind bars.

        Michael Connelly remains as sharp, insightful, and flat-out brilliant as he was with the first Bosch novel in 1992.

The Heart Of Europe: The Past In Poland's Present, Davies - B -

         Norman Davies is one of his generation’s most acclaimed and prolific historians. His specialty is Central Europe, with an occasional dalliance into his native England. I’m certain I’ve read three of his books, and possibly as many as five. He wrote a 1,000+ page, two-volume history of Poland in 1981 that was abridged to just under 500 pages a few years later. This is the 2001 edition of that abridgment. The story is not told in chronological order.

         Poland’s communist dictatorship was forcibly imposed by the USSR. There weren’t enough communists in Poland to run a factory, never mind a country in 1944. It was another example of alien-imposed tyranny, a Stalinist creation that lasted until 1989. However, it was never as extreme, violent, or brutal as it had been in the USSR. The Catholic Church was too strong and too deeply rooted to be oppressed completely. There were modicums of both political and economic flexibility, unlike anything in the USSR. The visit home by the newly elected Polish Pope in 1979 was psychologically uplifting and easily led to Solidarity’s rise and successful strike the following year. The regime responded with Jaruzelski’s martial law in December 1981. The suppression that followed was severe, and the economy continued its downward spiral. After almost four decades of Soviet domination, Poles stood in line for bread, their country was bankrupt, and a donee of foreign beneficence. “The essence of Poland’s modern experience was humiliation” at the behest of the Soviets.

         The only European country whose war lasted as long as Poland’s was Germany’s. For 2,078 days, the Poles fought, died, and hoped for a restoration of their freedom. “In proportion to its size, Poland incurred far more damage and casualties than any country on earth.” The two occupying powers of 1939 murdered the leadership class of the country, the Germans put the Jews in ghettos, the Soviets deported two million people to Siberia, and the Soviets murdered 4,500 Polish officers at Katyn. After Barbarossa, western Poland became the home of the camps, where nine to ten million people, half of them Jewish, were killed. When the tide turned, Poles were happy to be rid of the Germans, but deeply anxious about the Soviets. The Soviets brought their own ready-to-go Polish government with them in 1944. For two years after the war, Polish patriots flailed at the Soviet occupiers before they were defeated. When it was all over, Poland had lost significant lands to the east, eighteen percent of its population, and all for naught. They had sacrificed, fought long and hard, and were back under the Russian heel.

         When the Great War began, Poland did not exist. Ethnic Polish men were drafted into the armies of the three empires that had partitioned their country. Polish independence was adopted as an Allied war aim. By the end of the war, the lands that would become Poland were devastated and had lost fifteen percent of their population. The Second Polish Republic was created by the Treaty of Versailles and six border wars fought by the Poles. The two-year, far-ranging war with the Soviet Union saw the Red Army suffer its only defeat, and Marshal Pilsudski became a true national hero. Forming a reborn republic on the ruins of war was no easy task, and in 1926 Pilsudski took over after a military coup. The country was economically stable, the population grew, and Pilsudski tried to steer between and away from Germany and the USSR. After his 1935 death, his successors watched as Germany took over the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. The frail Second Republic was “foully murdered by two assailants acting in collusion.” The years between 1918 and 1939 would prove to be fondly remembered as the only ones between 1795 and 1989 in which Poles lived in freedom.

         The Polish republic was destroyed in 1795. “The overwhelming experience for all Poles during five long generations was one of foreign rule and political oppression.” Polish culture, language, and aspirations survived, and “When the world of the empires fell apart, the Polish idea of nation proved sufficiently mature to seize its destiny.”

         Freedom arrived almost miraculously as “a country of forty million had extracted itself from the communist morass with no violence and with relatively few conflicts.” Massive amounts of foreign debt and a moribund economy offered Jaruzelski limited elbow room to save Polish communism. Lech Walesa, while in prison, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, further diminishing the regime. In early 1989, the government began negotiations with Solidarity. The sides agreed to reverse martial law, legalize Solidarity, and allow free elections. Solidarity swept the elections, and Gorbachev announced that the Soviets would not interfere in Poland’s internal affairs. While the rest of the Eastern Bloc collapsed, Poland remained calm. Jaruzelski still controlled the army and the police, but a free market economy was emerging. In nationwide elections, the communists were swept into the dustbin of history, and Lech Walesa became president. Poland was free.

Spies and Other Gods, Wolff - C

             This novel features a senescent head of MI6 going back into the field and not doing too well. Reviewers seem to like the way it explores the institutional roles that support agents in the field, along with how boring and full of dead ends spying can be. There’s also some nice insight into inter-European bureaucratic infighting, but for me, it’s simply befuddling.