As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, Bauer - C+

                                               This story was written in the mid-fifties in W. Germany and is about Lt. Clemens Forell, a Wehrmacht officer with the most unique post-war experience I have ever read about.  The Soviets imprisoned, in the Gulag, those POWs who survived the war.  Those who lived were not freed until after Stalin died in 1953. Forell chose a different option; he walked thousands of miles over three years on the road from Siberia to Bavaria.
                                               He left a camp near the Bering Straits in eastern Siberia in October of 1949. He was aided by a physician who had stashed gear for his own effort, but realized he was terminally ill.  Although reasonably well-equipped, it was not possible to do without help from people along the way. The first two groups to help were reindeer herders who lived a nomadic life and were not inclined to cooperate with the authorities. They were followed by three Russian Gulag escapees, and then a tribe of Yakut dog breeders.  As he was preparing to cross the border into Mongolia, a German who had been stuck in Siberia since WW1 suggested that he head west and gave him some names of people to seek in the Urals. He was eventually helped by an Armenian Jew, and was ultimately taken into Iran by smugglers in 1952.  It took months for him to convince them he was not a Communist spy.  The book was re-published because a movie was made of this story in 2001.

A Brief History of Slavery, Black - C+

                                        This a very dry, almost academic, summary of slavery that points out that slavery has been part of the human experience since before recorded time. It is mentioned in the Old Testament and was part of life in Ancient Egypt, Israel, Japan, China, Greece and Rome.  Agrarian societies needed labor and  right up until the Industrial Revolution, there was slavery almost everywhere on earth.  Because there is so little information available on slavery in Asia and Africa, this book focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade over the 400 years between 1500 and 1900.  During that time, an estimated 12.5 million Africans were transported to the New World in approximately 35,000 voyages.  Nonetheless, it is believed that the Arab-driven trans-Sahara, trans-Red Sea and trans-Indian Ocean slave trade exceeded that number.  All of this was done with the connivance of those Africans who sold their brethren to the foreigners.  In Eastern Europe, serfdom, a system of forced labor based on hereditary bondage, prevailed.
                                        The Portuguese initiated the first trans-Atlantic traffic from the west coast of Africa to Brazil. The Spanish quickly followed as their presence in the hemisphere wreaked havoc on the native populations and created a demand for slaves. In the 18th Century, the success of the plantation systems, which provided tobacco, sugar and coffee to Europe hastened the trans-Atlantic activity. The inability of the white indentured servant to provide the requisite labor pool in the Chesapeake region led to the introduction of African slaves to British North America. Between, 1700 and 1763, the number grew from 20,000 to 300,000 in what became the US.
                                        In London in 1787, The Society For The Abolition of Slavery was started by Quakers, who began the moral crusade that brought down the "peculiar institution". The British banned the slave trade and in 1833, abolished slavery in the Empire. They vigorously tried to remove it from the high seas and by the middle of the century, the Royal Navy had 35 ships cruising off the African coast.  When the states of Latin America threw off their Spanish yoke, they too abolished slavery. America followed and the last major slave economy to abolish it was Brazil in 1888. Although banned and abolished, slavery exists in different forms today. The author points out that indentured bondage and horrible living conditions exist throughout the world. He even suggests that it is possible to characterize the N. Korean state as a perpetuator of slavery. The legacy of slavery challenges the world still.

The English Girl, Silva - B++

                                         This is the thirteenth book in the Gabriel Allon series that just keeps getting better and better.  Allon is the Israeli master assassin, who'd rather be an art restorer, and who first worked for the Mossad avenging the Munich Olympic massacre.  He is a complex character, the only son of Holocaust survivors,  a reluctant, yet terribly skilled agent. Silva has him slated for the Chief's job, which in all likelihood extends the series a decade or so. At some point a sixty-year-old can't be a field agent. In this book, he is requested by his English friends to try and find the PM's kidnapped mistress. He fails in his efforts, but decides to re-consider the whole operation a month or so later. He unearths a unique, diabolical Russian connection and off we go on a great, exciting operation that plays out between London and Moscow. Silva is now the second writer I've read this year who claims that the Cold War is back on and who has Russia's President playing an active role in international intrigue.  He also writes with great conviction in support of the state of Israel, while writing wonderful thrillers.

The Cambridge Concise History of Switzerland, Church and Head - C

                         While recently driving through Confederation Helvetia, I wondered about how it all came about and found the answers here, albeit in a dry, academic tome. The authors emphasize that a myth of community is the Swiss national link, as the country has never had a common language, and since the Reformation has had serious religious divisions. That 'community' developed in the Alps, where the north/south valleys were a key trade route that led to a higher degree of urbanization than elsewhere in Europe. Additionally, the cooperative nature of pastoralism established stronger, cohesive farming communities. Thus, the cities and farms in their mountain isolation were better able to resist those wishing to impose power and control from the outside.  A 1291 Confederation of three cantons grew to nine after a 1386 defeat of an invading Hapsburg army.  Even though deeply divided by the Reformation, the Swiss never took to arms and maintained their neutrality during the Thirty Years War. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia established  Swiss independence within the Holy Roman Empire. The Swiss began to prosper and accumulate wealth because they did not have to fund a military. Indeed, they profited by hiring out their famous mercenaries. Prosperity and credit afforded them the opportunity to be early participants in the industrial revolution. By the end of the nineteenth century, Switzerland was a centralized, democratic state that had one of the highest per capita GDP's in Europe. Neutrality came with a heavy price in WW2.  They were surrounded by the Axis and at one point had to mobilize half-a-million men as the Germans were considering invasion. Their generally cooperative economic policies with the Germans led to some serious disagreements with the US, who had frozen their NY gold reserves. Post-war Switzerland prospered as a bridge between east and west. Since 1989,  the challenge the Swiss have faced has been from a strongly centralizing European Union. How to participate in Europe, while preserving their unique identity, is the issue of today and tomorrow.

Mason's Retreat, Tilghman - B

                                         This novel is the 1996 book that led to 'The Right Hand Shore', last year's prequel, reviewed here in April.  Although this book also deals with the uniqueness of the Eastern Shore, it is more a novel of a family's slow disintegration.  Edward Mason is the last of his family to own Mason's Retreat, a vast farm in the family for three centuries. He reluctantly moves his wife and two sons there in 1936, after his business in England falters.  Edward is indifferent, but everyone else falls for the old place and his oldest son, Sebastien, works diligently and learns how to manage the farm. When Edward returns to England to resurrect his business,  Edith, Sebastien and the youngest, Simon, stay behind and all prosper without him.  On the eve of the war, Edward returns to reclaim his wife, who has strayed from their marriage, and to bring the family to England with him. His efforts lead to a stunning tragedy. I think these two books are worth the effort and I'd recommend reading this one first.

Masaryk Station, Downing - B+

                                         This is the sixth novel in the John Russell/Station series.  Russell is an Anglo-American journalist living in Berlin when the series starts in 1939. He's trying to hold together a complicated personal life that involves an ex-wife married to a high-ranking German, a son in the Hitler Youth and a girlfriend who is a noted actress. The first five novels have a Berlin train station as the title; this one though is named after one in Prague. Over the years, Russell has pulled off an incredible and improbable survival act as a part-time espionage agent who works for both the USSR and the USA.  This novel is set in 1948, just as the Iron Curtain falls over Czechoslovakia and the airlift is beginning in Berlin.  The plots are a bit too complicated and intricate, but the background is historical storytelling at its best. You can see the rubble in Berlin, feel the desperation in Prague and the indifference in Vienna.  There's a superb depiction of uranium mining in E. Germany, as well as information about the creation of the new Deutschmark. Russell is a former communist and watches an old friend fall apart as he slowly realizes that Stalin's Europe is not exactly what they had hoped for.  It's not all one-sided though as Downing takes the Allies and the R.C. Church to task for their complicity in running the rat-line that helped thousands of evildoers escape Europe.

The Pacific War 1941 - 1945, Costello - A+*

                                         After completing Atkinson's last book, I realized it had been decades since I had read about the Pacific, and found this extraordinary 1981 publication. It is referred to in any number of websites as the best one-volume treatment of the subject,  and I heartily concur.  The author traces the conflict to the turn of the 20th century when we became a Pacific power by annexing the Philippines and the Japanese became a threat with their sneak attack at Port Arthur, Russia.  TR announced our global  ambitions by sending the  famous 'white fleet' around the world. (Interestingly, a young Lieutenant named Halsey was aboard when the fleet docked in Tokyo Bay.)  Our planners put our Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, fearing that Subic Bay in the Philippines was susceptible to Japanese attack.                        
                                         During the First World War, the Japanese took over the German islands in the mid-Pacific and announced that they would free East Asia from imperialism. The British pulled back to Singapore and our Congress refused to fund a Navy capable of projecting American power in the western Pacific.  The Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937. By 1938, the JCS acknowledged that we could not defend the Philippines and that we had a greater threat from Germany, so we shifted much of our fleet to the Atlantic.  By the time of Pearl Harbor, war was expected, but it was assumed the strike would come in the Indies, the Philippines or Russia.
                                         Pearl Harbor was followed by the invasion of the American colony of the Philippines, the capture of Singapore and Burma in February and  Rangoon and Java in March.  The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was about to be implemented. Indeed, the newspapers in Tokyo had heralded victory in the Pacific.  One mistake the Japanese made was to place all of their conquered territories under the Army's martial law. Their brutality and inhumanity assured no one would ever side with them against the imperialists.
                                        By the time Corregidor fell in May, MacArthur was in Australia, in charge of the western Pacific theater, and Nimitz was in Pearl in charge of the central Pacific.   For the next three-plus years there would be constant rivalry and tension between the two, yet King and Marshall managed it all from Washington and in the end it worked out spectacularly for the Americans and our Allies.  Our industrial capacity assured the outcome, but one of the great facilitators of our success was Ultra. Throughout the war, we knew everything the Japanese planned and consistently took advantage of that, including when we needed it the most - at Midway.
                                       Doolittle's Raid - the Coral Sea - Midway - Guadalcanal - Papua - the Bismarck Sea - the Solomons - Bougainville - Tarawa - New Britain - the Marshalls - the Admiralty Islands - Burma - Saipan -Philippines Sea - Peleliu - Luzon - Leyte Gulf - Iwo Jima - Okinowa.  Slowly but surely, over three-and-a-half years, American will-power, courage, and determination pounded the Japanese into eventual submission.
                                       As we pursued a dual strategy with Mac headed back to the Philippines and Nimitz atoll hopping, the JCS gave up on China in 1944.  Stillwell called Chiang 'peanut' and no amount of US prodding could get the Nationalists to fight. Their corruption and cowardice awaited the final coup d'etat from the Reds.
                                       By the time it was over, Mac had been appointed Supreme Commander, so the Navy insisted that the surrender be aboard ship in Tokyo Harbor. The USS Missouri was chosen because it was named after Truman's home state.  Wainwright, who had withstood four years of brutal imprisonment, was flown in to stand with the victors, under Perry's 1853 flag, thoughtfully provided by now Admiral Halsey.

Lives By Night, Lehane - B

                                         Living by night is what outlaws and gangsters, men like Joe Coughlin, do.  The nights are filled with hookers, crooked cops, bouncers and bullies in prohibition-era Boston and Tampa Bay. Coughlin, though, is a decent guy living with a wonderful Cuban wife and someone with readily understandable, almost admirable, values.  He is fair, generous, loyal, honest ( in a mobster kind of way), a team player - just someone trying to get along by getting by.  Lehane is a great storyteller and he paints a vivid picture of the era.

The Battle of Bretton Woods, Steill - B-

                                         Bretton Woods is the famous 1944 conference that created the postwar financial world and gave us the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Times calls this book the "gold standard" on the topic, but acknowledges it's a bit "dense".  When you are as economics challenged as I am, the more apt characterization is that it's Greek to me.  The Allies required a system that would make certain there was no repeat of the economic evils of the 30's that were considered contributing causes to the war. The twin evils were protectionism and currency devaluations, which FDR called "economic weapons". However, the two principal creators of the new era would bring conflicting goals to the table. The Americans, particularly FDR and his Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, wanted an end to the imperial preferences that propped up the British Empire.  Furthermore, the American public and Congress agreed with Calvin Coolidge's famous comment about Europeans seeking to avoid paying their WW1 loans : "They hired the money, didn't they?" The American side was very reluctant to continue to provide men, munitions and money to prop up the Empire of a nation that didn't pay its earlier debts. We, of course, know that Winston many times had said that he did not become the Kings First Minister to dismantle the Empire.
                                        The adversaries in the two-year battle were an American I had never heard of, Harry White. He was a poor boy from Boston who scrambled to the top of the Economics profession and was the Asst. Treasury Secretary at the Bretton Woods Conference. His opponent was a man referred to by all as God, albeit playing a very weak hand. The amazing thing about Keynes is that six and a half decades after his death, a reader of financial news cannot go more than a few days without seeing his name. Actually the British hand turned out to be a dead mans hand, and the Yanks prevailed on every single issue before, at, and after the Conference. Indeed, the effort Keynes expended in the battle are generally conceded to be the reason for his death in the spring of 1946 at the age of 62. I do not believe I can accurately summarize the many issues that were contested. The primary one was currency convertibility, and the Americans clobbered the world with an insistence that the dollar was the "only gold-convertible currency".  Keynes tried for a newly created reserve currency or a floating system.  The Bretton Woods system was abandoned in 1971 and as we all acknowledge now, Keynes was correct seventy years ago and the Americans were wrong
                               .       Although I could barely (if at all) follow the economics, I still learned some interesting things about the war from this book. Churchill called Lend-Lease the "most unsordid" act of any nation. He was being polite and appreciative. America wrung every last penny out of Britain in exchange for our "loan" of materials.  We required them to sell their American assets at discount prices to the US and squeezed at every opportunity.  Truman cut it off Lend-Lease almost immediately after V-E day.  Henry Morgenthau is best remembered for his recommendation that we impose a Carthaginian peace on Germany, destroy its industry and make it an agrarian society.  Ike acknowledged to Marshall that after Goebbels played that up to the troops  the Germans fought twice as hard, clearly prolonging the war.  Perhaps Economics isn't a dismal science.

Red Sparrow, Matthews - B++

                                         The author spent 35 years in the CIA and brilliantly sets forth the new Cold War, between Russia and the US, assuring us that the old Cold War never really ended.  A certain former KGB officer from East Berlin is now President and is quite involved running the SFR, the modern KGB with a new a set  of initials.  The game is the same, the players too, but with a recently renovated ballpark.  A brilliant Russian ballerina is recruited by her uncle, trained and sent to ensnare a young American who is currently running the CIA's most valuable Russian asset.  Since I believe anyone who sees this post should read the book, I will simply say that the plot is a three dimensional, LeCarre-like chessboard.   The many expositions of tradecraft, by someone who actually did it in some very unpleasant places is the most enlightening part.  This is fun!

Deadly Virtues, Bannister - B-

                                          This is an interesting book set in an English town, wherein the police chief is lauded for having cleaned things up, with the exception of one local bad guy who always seems to slip out of his fingers.  It takes most of the book to figure out that the bad guy helped the chief arrest all of the other evildoers in exchange for his privileged protection.  When a young frightened black man is killed in jail by a local goon, an investigation into his death slowly peels back the layers of deceit and lies.  With the help of a new young woman fresh out of police school, the chief finally does his duty.

The Redeemer, Nesbo - B +

                                          I am not sure which Harry Hole police thriller this is as they are translated out of sequence and this book  takes place well ahead of a few of the recent ones.  It should be noted that they are now advertising these with Michael Connelly (creator of Harry Bosch) saying that Hole is his favorite detective.  Hole is  a fascinating man, totally dysfunctional off the job, yet the consummate pro while leading Oslo's murder squad.  His hardbitten cynicism and personal desolation is what we assume is the epitome of a troubled Scandinavian.  In this novel, a recurrent theme in all of the European series is back - the significant dislocations across the continent caused by the expansion of the EU and the opening of the borders.  Here we have a Croatian serial killer hired by a senior member of the management of Norway's Salvation Army.  Harry gets his man, the Norwegian, and lets the Croat go because the only way he could solve the case is to make a pact with the killer's mother.

Under The Radar, Hamilton - Paterson - B-

                                         This is sort of a British 'Right Stuff' filled with nostalgia for the 60's and the men who flew Vulcans for the RAF.  Vulcans were the airborne leg of the UK's nuclear capabilities.  Toss together some Soviet spying, some repressed homosexuality, a dramatic bailout from a damaged Vulcan, a lot of information about electronic counter measures and British bombing practice training and you get a nice light old-fashioned read.