Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire, Stark - B +

                                           This absolutely amazing story is about Astor's attempt to do nothing less than establish a new colony, maybe even a country, on the west coast of the American wilderness. His goal was to build an emporium to trade furs across the Pacific to China.  Astor was already wealthy and successful when he brought the idea to Jefferson, whose astonishing response was to offer his pledge of "every reasonable patronage and facility in the power of the Executive". Later Jefferson wrote, "I view your undertaking as the germ of a great, free and independent empire on that side of our continent and that liberty and self government spreading from that side as well as this side, will ensure their complete establishment over the whole"  Astor's commercial ambitions were astounding and Jefferson was attempting to advance what took almost forty years of history to accomplish.  All ventures, great/small, public/private, commercial/not-for-profit require capable managers and a certain amount of luck.  Unfortunately for this great task, Astor had neither. His key personnel were French- Canadian and Scottish furriers and voyageurs and like all outdoors men of the era, they were free thinkers, men of spirit and independence. He chose a strict disciplinarian Navy officer, Jonathan Thorn, in 1810, to sail them from NYC to the mouth of the Columbia River.  Thorn makes Bligh look enlightened. At one point, one of the Scots pulled two pistols and pointed them at Thorn, just to get him to return to the Falklands, where they had stopped for water, in order to avoid leaving half of the insubordinate furriers behind. Thorn lost eight men simply trying to find his way across the sandbar at the mouth of the Columbia. They landed and founded Astoria. For the Overland Party, Astor chose a young businessman, Wilson Hunt, to recruit and lead a team of experienced outdoors men to the Columbia. They left St. Louis in the summer of 1811 and headed up the Missouri on the trail of Lewis and Clarke. Their relatively slow pace left little room for safety in case matters did not go perfectly. One thousand seventy-five miles upriver, after innumerable tales of Blackfeet violence, the Overland Party left the Missouri and headed west on foot and horse. All in all, the decision appears to have been eminently reasonable. Hunt did a superb job and by October, the team was west of the Tetons and what is today Jackson Hole, WY. They assumed they were at the headwaters of the Columbia, but they were hundreds of miles further away from the Pacific than they believed. On  Oct. 11, they dropped their canoes into the Snake River, which proved to be a challenge for even the experienced voyageurs. A canoe here and there were lost, and on the 10th day, they lost a cargo, all its contents and suffered the party's first casualty. A scouting party advanced and discovered the river was too steep to navigate safely.  They had left their horses 300 miles  upriver, had lost a significant amount of supplies, and had to proceed on foot with winter  approaching. Hunt divided the fifty-man enterprise in to four teams, who all set off independently of each other.  A month later, he found one of the teams starving and lost in what was (and is) the deepest canyon in North America. A Shoshone tribe helped them get through the winter.  In the meantime, Thorn sailed north to initiate trading with Indians on today's Vancouver Island. He insulted them so badly that they took his ship and killed every man on board. In Feb. 1812, Hunt and the remains of the Overlanders made it to Astoria.  Then a supply ship from NYC arrived and Astoria was back in business. Hunt re-organized the operation and soon there were eight different trading parties heading inland seeking furs.  But, the War of 1812 led to a quick turn of events. Remember that almost all of the trading specialists were either Canadian or Scotch.  Notice of the war arrived in the hands of men of the Northwest Company who demanded Astoria's furs at bargain prices, before the Royal Navy arrived. Hunt was away, discord prevailed, 200 days of rain per year was unravelling many, Astor's second relief ship foundered off Hawaii, and the men in the mountains were being killed by the Indians.  In the end, the Americans gave up. The Royal Navy soon arrived and raised the Union Jack over Astoria.  So ended this astonishing story. Some have surmised that if Astoria had  fully succeeded, the British Canadians may never have had a claim to the lands bordering the Pacific.  As it turns out, the Overland Party had discovered the Oregon trail, assuring the US a portion of the Pacific coastline.
                                    This has been an enjoyable book and I thank Kathy Blair for the recommendation. Astor died the wealthiest man in America. Economists have calculated he was the 4th wealthiest in our history. An heir died on the Titanic and his last direct male heir died in 1959. At that point, the Vincent Astor Foundation was established and directed to give all of its money away in twenty-five years. I've never wondered why the famous hotel was called the Waldorf Astoria; John Jacob Astor was born in the German town of Waldorff.

Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times, Lethbridge - C

                                              As an ardent fan of 'Downton Abbey',  I couldn't pass this one up, but throughout the reading of the book, I wished I had. There's a table of contents, chapters and a structure, but I must admit I struggled finding a theme or any sense of continuity.  Perhaps it is that my acuity has been dampened by pain pills as I recover from a skiing mishap, but I don't think that's the case. The author simply strings together endless anecdotes about those above and below the stairs and it's difficult to to piece together anything resembling a 'history' as promised in the sub-title.  Thus, I find myself trying to compare the stories here (it is very well researched) with Downton, and the conclusion I've come to is that Julian Fellowes did an amazing amount of quality work putting the show together. I suspect it's not that hard to draw up Robert, Lady Mary or the Dowager. His Mr. Carson, though, is a masterpiece, who perfectly represents and epitomizes the whole system.  He is the conscience of the house, the enforcer of appropriateness, the one with an exceptional knowledge of all that is important, the rock upon which Grantham rests.  By the turn of the 20th century, domestic service was the single largest category of employment in Great Britain. Indeed, on the eve of the Great War, there were 1.6 million servants in Britain.   A 1911 law requiring master and servant to contribute to a medical insurance system (Lloyd George's version of Obamacare), the war itself and significant post-war death and transfer taxes signaled the beginning of the end for the old landed gentry system - there was simply too much pressure for matters to continue as they had. At Downton, we see the staff slightly reduced,  economies and efficiencies introduced into the farming operation and some of the land about to be parceled off for development. The Depression and the ongoing globalization of agriculture continued the assault, and by the beginning of WW2, only 4.8% of the nation's households employed live-in help. "The war struck the final blow to the life of the English great houses, their upholding of traditions whose source and purpose had been long forgotten."   I did not manage to finish the chapters that outlined a late 20th century quasi- return to the past.  Globalization, immigration from throughout the Commonwealth,  and the massive influx of wealth into the City has recreated a world of upstairs and downstairs. I doubt Mr. Carson, though, is being emulated in this new era.

In The Kingdom Of Ice: The Grand And Terrible Voyage Of The USS Jeannette, Sides -B

                                               My library is filled with tales of the various Polar quests, the Grail of the late 19th/early 20th century.   The early efforts were in the north and thus, most of the really bad science is associated with pursuits of the North Pole.  There were many crackpot theories about open warm waters around the North Pole.  There was a general consensus that there was no permanent ice cap, but rather open seas. This was because there were thermal openings in the far north and also warm underwater streams that surfaced near the Pole. How and why mankind dreamed up this poppycock is hard to fathom. Starting with the famous English expedition under Franklin in 1845, it was not warm water but scurvy, cannibalism, freezing death, delirium and total disappearance from the face of the earth that seemed to be the last word on everyone who headed north. This book is about the first American expedition, one dreamed up and funded by the NY Herald and Gordon Bennett, its eccentric publisher.     ( Bennett would do anything for a story - he's the man who sent Stanley to Africa to find Livingston).  Under the command of Capt. George W. DeLong, the US Arctic Expedition sailed from San Francisco  on July 8, 1879.  By September DeLong was icebound at only 78 degrees north. He began to doubt that there was anything encouraging over the horizon.  Well over a year-and-a-half later, in May 1881, the cry 'land ho' was heard.  The DeLong Archipelago had been discovered in the East Siberian Sea, about a third of the way from the Russian coast to the Pole.  A month later, the ice finally prevailed and sunk the Jeannette. As the 33 men went onto the ice, they had achieved a first in polar exploration - the crew had not lost a single man in almost two years and two long Arctic winters.  Nonetheless, they were a thousand miles from the Siberian coast. In July, they discovered a reasonably- sized island that provided them with the opportunity to eat fresh food and equip their three longboats for a run to the south.  A month later, they made it to an island that DeLong's charts indicated was only 100 miles from land. The three boats were separated in a gale; DeLong came ashore on Sept 17,1881 in the marshy delta of the Lena River. Miraculously, they had travelled a thousand miles over ice and occasional open seas. A second boat had also made it.  In the end, DeLong did not survive but 13 men were able to return to the US.  Their story is certainly one of courage, endurance and superb leadership.  The Antarctic explorers came later and were better informed and equipped. The books about Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen are invariably very good reading. For my money though, 'The Last Place On Earth' by Huntford is the best Polar book of them all. It's so good there's even a BBC/Masterpiece production of the same name.

Augustus, Williams - B

                                               This novel was the National Book Award Winner in 1974.  I've been on and off about Rome, its history and extraordinary accomplishments over the years. My early interest stemmed from four years of Latin in high school.  I believe Gibson's 'Decline and Fall' is one of the greatest books ever written. That a political entity could endure (in theory and in two different capitals) from it's mythic founding in the 8th century B.C. to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 has always fascinated me. Somewhere along the way though, the endless and barbaric infighting among consuls, senators, triumvirates, generals, sons, adopted sons etc. turned me away. The approach Williams takes in this book is one I've not seen before, although I am certainly aware of the novels by Robert Graves. It is Augustus's story told through letters from and to many of his contemporaries, friends and enemies. Some of the characters depicted are real and many fictitious. I don't know enough about the era to know how much of the history is accurate. The book takes us from Augustus' adoption by Julius Caesar, his return to Italy to begin his revenge against Caesar's assassins and victory over Brutus and Cassius at Phillipi. The approach  provides a feel for the history and the people and thoughts behind it all. After defeating Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (which I did not realize was a naval battle), Augustus returned to Rome as ruler of the known world at the age of 33. The novel then turns to domestic affairs, where women were to be bartered for like beads in a bazaar.  To preserve his dynasty, Octavius Augustus marries his beloved daughter Julia to Marcellus, Marcus Agrippa and Claudius, all before she is thirty.  Personal lives among the elite were part of the political process, and because of her infidelities and liaisons with intriguers, Julia is banished for life. In his dying days, Augustus reflects upon the most important aspect of his rule - no Roman had fought another within the confines of the Empire in forty years.  Books do not generally win awards without deserving them and this is no exception. Thanks to Greg and Karen Weiss.

Driving Honda: Inside The World's Most Innovative Car Company, Rothfeder - C, Inc.

                                               I think I read just about every book ever written about my clients at GM and Chrysler from the mid-80's to the mid-00's and  I also read 'The Machine That Changed The World' about Toyota's lean manufacturing system in the 90's.  'Machine' remains the best book about the automotive industry that I have read. This book could be sub-titled "how Honda and Toyota differ".  The difference is meaningful. It describes Toyota as a structured, rigid and top-down company where there is a plan, program or system for everything. Yes, Toyota receives feedback from the factory floor but everything is done the Toyota way. In contrast, at Honda the goal is established and then a very flat, decentralized system, staffed from top to bottom with 'gear heads', achieves the goal. And the accomplishments have been many: largest motorcycle company in the world only a decade after establishment; first automobile engine to meet new 1970's EPA requirements while the industry was saying it couldn't be done; first successful foreign auto plant in the US (Marysville, Ohio in 1982); first company to manufacture in China; etc. etc.  Nonetheless, I had trouble with the structure of the book which uses sequential chapters based on some of Soichiro Honda's unique philosophies.  That said, I loved my Honda Accord and Acura RL (both over 10 years old and running like new).  Honda was the third foreigner and first Japanese to be admitted to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit in 1989.