This superb book is a complex, multifaceted story that is part history, part legal analysis and part family memoir. The author is a noted British legal scholar. The unifying theme of the book is a city called Lemberg, Lvov, Lwow, and now, Lviv, in Ukraine. It saw a multitude of sovereignty and name changes in the last century. (Austro-Hungarian Empire; Russian Empire; Ukrainian Peoples Republic; Poland; German General Government of Poland; USSR; Ukraine). It was home to two legal theorists, Hersch Lauterpracht and Rafael Lempkin, who established the concepts of crimes against humanity and genocide. It was the city from which Hans Frank, Hitler's lawyer and leader of the General Government, made a speech about ridding Galicia of Jews; it also was the author's grandfather's place of birth and the city to which Sands was invited to lecture in 2010, prompting the journey that led to this book.
Leon Bucholtz, the author's grandfather, was born in Lemberg, Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1904. Within days of the start of WWI, his older brother was killed and his father died soon thereafter. He, his mother and younger sister moved to Vienna where his older, married sister was raising a family. Although Leon lived into his 90's and Sands knew his grandfather reasonably well, Leon had never mentioned anything about his family life in Vienna. Leon married Rita in 1937 and they had a daughter a year later. Austria expelled the young family and they moved to Paris. They survived the war with papers forged by the underground. In Vienna, their remaining relatives were sent to Auschwitz and Lemberg's 3500 Jews were taken to the woods and shot in March, 1943.
Hersch Lauterpracht was born in Zolkiew, just outside Lemberg, in 1897. He attended Lemberg University, where he studied law. He was finishing his education as WWI ended and Galicia, along with much of what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, disintegrated. He began to study the rights of individuals within a state. He moved to Vienna and continued his education, before marrying and moving to London. He received multiple Doctorates from LSE and was appointed to a professorship at Cambridge just before the start of WWII. He was an internationally recognized legal theorist. He travelled to America, where he met with Attorney-General Robert Jackson and Associate Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. He authored The Bill of Rights of Man and worked on the British War Crimes Committee. Lauterpracht's special area of interest was the individual as a victim and when Jackson was struggling to establish the framework for Nuremberg, Lauterpracht suggested the phrase 'crimes against humanity' as the basis of prosecuting Nazi atrocities. It was adopted, became part of the indictment and a precept of international law.
Rafael Lemkin was born in what is now Belarus in 1900. He also studied law at the same University in Lemberg. He became fascinated by the murder of the Armenians by the Turks in 1915-16. Upon graduation, he became a public prosecutor in Warsaw. When the war began, he fled north and east into the USSR, from which he managed to obtain a visa for Sweden. There he had access to and studied the legal documents, decrees and actions of the orderly Germans as they dehumanized the Jews and other untermenschen throughout Europe. He received an offer from Duke University and travelled to America via the USSR and the Pacific. He achieved some notoriety in Washington and coined the word 'genocide' in a 1943 publication. Both crimes against humanity and genocide were terms used in the final indictments at Nuremberg.
Hans Frank was born in 1900, met Hitler in 1925 and was appointed Bavarian Minister of Justice in 1933. He was part of the German legal system's relentless deprivation of human rights imposed upon many, but primarily the Jews. When Germany occupied Poland in 1939, the western areas were incorporated into the Reich and most of the country became part of Frank's General Government, which he described as a colony and its 11.5 million citizens as slaves. The governed territory expanded east after Barbarossa and 2.5 million of Europe's Jews were in his hands. After the Wannsee Conference, he welcomed the opportunity to host the final solution. Most of the major killing camps were in the General Government. When the Russians came in 1945, Frank fled to Bavaria, where he was captured by the Americans in May.
At Nuremberg, Lauterpracht was part of the British prosecution team. Frank was one of the men in the dock and declared himself not guilty. "The judges were presented with novel legal arguments and unparalleled, ghastly evidence." During the presentation of his defense, Hans Frank acknowledged a collective responsibility among the Reich's leadership. He and many of his colleagues were hung on Oct. 16, 1946.
The Nuremberg Trial led to the General Assembly of the UN taking action and furthering the creation of new international laws. It adopted The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It also affirmed that crimes against humanity were part of international law. Two young men from an obscure school deep in eastern Europe became scholars and refugees in the west, where they had a lasting impact on the laws that govern mankind. Today, there is an International Court of Justice in the Hague and the ideas of Lauterpracht and Lemkin are acknowledged as universal standards of conduct.
The title refers to the street in Zolkiev where Lauterpracht grew up on one end and Sands' great-grandmother on the other.
12.27.2016
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
Thanks to my very special granddaughter, Eloise Fairchild, for letting me check this book out of her personal library. I suspect I last borrowed it from the Linden Boulevard branch of the Queensborough Public Library sometime in the late 1950's.
Buck, a 140-pound St. Bernard, was kidnapped and taken to the Yukon Territories, where he first experienced snow and was put in a harness. He quickly adapted to the cold northland and became the strongest dog in the pack. Buck becomes the leader of the pack after a vicious fight with the ill-tempered Spitz. After further adventures, Buck was rescued from some incompetent owners by Thornton, a man of the wilderness with an excellent understanding of dogs. While Thornton mines for gold, Buck begins to explore the forest and socializes with a local timber wolf. Eventually, Buck joins the wolves and answers the call of the wild.
The Call of the Wild was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1903. It established London as a recognized writer and was thrice made into a movie. The fact that it is still in print over a century later is testament to its place in American literature.
Buck, a 140-pound St. Bernard, was kidnapped and taken to the Yukon Territories, where he first experienced snow and was put in a harness. He quickly adapted to the cold northland and became the strongest dog in the pack. Buck becomes the leader of the pack after a vicious fight with the ill-tempered Spitz. After further adventures, Buck was rescued from some incompetent owners by Thornton, a man of the wilderness with an excellent understanding of dogs. While Thornton mines for gold, Buck begins to explore the forest and socializes with a local timber wolf. Eventually, Buck joins the wolves and answers the call of the wild.
The Call of the Wild was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1903. It established London as a recognized writer and was thrice made into a movie. The fact that it is still in print over a century later is testament to its place in American literature.
12.22.2016
Hitchcock, Ackroyd - B -
He was born in London in 1899, raised in a world of strict Catholicism and developed an abiding interest in the work of Edgar Alan Poe. His first job in the business was as an illustrator. Soon, he was a director. By his 30th birthday, he had moved on to talkies and was the "wunderkind of British cinema". At 40, he moved to Hollywood, where he achieved artistic and financial success. He worked initially for David O. Selznick, but prospered in the 50's and 60's as the studio system broke down and he could contract his services to whomever he wished. He wanted and usually achieved complete and total independence. As no one was particularly interested in 'Psycho', he wound up owning 60% and made $15m in 1960.
He, apparently, was as odd as his public image. Ackroyd is one of my favorite writers and here, he takes a bit of a leap trying to sort out and assess Hitch's odd, if not very odd, relationships with women. Ackroyd suggests it was a strict, sexually repressive Catholic bringing that led to an almost chaste marriage with career partner, Alma Reville, the mother of his only child, Patricia. He was obsessed with his leading ladies, particularly Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly. He was so intense with Tippi Hedren that he purportedly ruined her career for her refusal of his advances. He would fail any and all modern tests of harassment by endlessly focusing on sexual innuendo in the workplace. He sounds like a very weird, fat, asexual in appearance, little man, who happened to make some of the most memorable movies of the century. He died in 1980.
He, apparently, was as odd as his public image. Ackroyd is one of my favorite writers and here, he takes a bit of a leap trying to sort out and assess Hitch's odd, if not very odd, relationships with women. Ackroyd suggests it was a strict, sexually repressive Catholic bringing that led to an almost chaste marriage with career partner, Alma Reville, the mother of his only child, Patricia. He was obsessed with his leading ladies, particularly Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly. He was so intense with Tippi Hedren that he purportedly ruined her career for her refusal of his advances. He would fail any and all modern tests of harassment by endlessly focusing on sexual innuendo in the workplace. He sounds like a very weird, fat, asexual in appearance, little man, who happened to make some of the most memorable movies of the century. He died in 1980.
12.20.2016
The Boys In The Boat: Nine Americans And Their Epic Quest For Gold At The 1936 Olympics, Brown - B +
This multi-year bestseller (134 weeks and counting) is the story of the crew from the University of Washington that represented the US and won the Berlin Olympics in 1936. And the fact that our crew was the college team that won the trials and not an all-star team is an interesting takeaway from this book. (Today, an all-star team trains and competes together for years). The previous two Olympic golds were won by the University of California, Berkeley. They raced a-60-foot long, 24-inch-wide lightweight shell, with eight foot long oars, propelling a ton of weight for two miles. It may be the most demanding sport engaged in by man or woman. It is the equivalent of two back-to-back basketball games - in six minutes. It requires the exchange of oxygen at a rate comparable to a racing thoroughbred. "Pain is part and parcel of the deal."
One hundred and seventy-five young men tried out for the 1933 freshmen team. At the end of the fall semester, on Nov. 30, the crews were announced. They won their first real test in the annual May race against Cal and then went east and handily won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta in June. The Washington freshmen boat was heralded around the country. As hard as it is to fathom, crew was one of the most followed sports in America. Every major paper covered the sport, and the big races were radio broadcast from coast to coast. A year later, they were the number one varsity boat, as sophomores, and beat Cal in the regatta on Cal's home waters. However, they were demoted to the j.v. boat for the IRA race, which was held every year in Poughkeepsie. Confounding their coach, they won handily and the varsity boat came in third. When the Washington varsity oarsmen turned out in the fall of 1935, Coach Ulbrickson told them it was every man for himself. He'd pick the 9 men for the varsity boat and he expected to take them to Berlin. They trained through a brutal, cold, wet, windy winter on the water. In March, the crew was selected; in April, they beat Cal; in June, they won the IRA at Poughkeepsie; and at Princeton in July, they won the trials. That evening, the American Olympic Committee told them they'd have to pay their own way; they had to raise $5,000 immediately or Penn, the second place finisher, would gladly go in their stead. The committeeman who advised them of this just happened to be the Chair of the Pennsylvania Athletic Association. The city of Seattle and the entire state raised the money quickly and they were on their way. In the preliminaries, they crushed all comers and broke the Olympic record. The Olympics being the Olympics, the European heads of the committee gave the Americans the worst lane, the one exposed to the most wind, and, in Ulbrickson's opinion, a two-length penalty. The only Olympic sport that garnered more world-wide attention than rowing was track and field. On August 14th, in front of Hitler and Leni Riefensthal's cameras, and millions of Americans listening on the radio, they got in their boat at about 6 PM. Their stroke oarsman was so ill they practically had to carry him. At 500 meters to the finish, they were a full length behind the Germans and Italians. In a photo-finish, their heart rates at an estimated 200 beats per minute, they won by .6 seconds. They were undefeated and never lost a race. All nine and their coach are in Rowing's hall of fame.
They rowed the 'Husky Clipper' every ten years at a reunion, and for the last time in 1986. Today, the boat hangs in a shell house on campus and every year, the freshman crew orientation takes place just below it.
The story of the boat is interspersed with the personal story of Joe Rantz, the #7 oarsman. It was not an easy ride from Spokane to fame. Born in 1914, he lost his mother at three and was let out by his father at 10 in the hardscrabble town of Squim. He pretty much looked after himself from that point on. He stayed where he could, worked for nickels and dimes, learned many useful skills in small town Washington, and was smart enough to go to the University. During his college years, he lived in the basement of the YMCA where he was a janitor. One summer, he handled a sledgehammer, hanging in a harness dangling over a precipice for 75 cents an hour, to help build the Grand Coulee Dam. Later in life, he used his engineering degree at Boeing for 35 years.
As is always the case with those of that generation, one is struck by their gracious, steadfast approach to depression, war and life's many challenges. Many thanks to Dr. George Todd for sending this excellent book to me for Christmas.
One hundred and seventy-five young men tried out for the 1933 freshmen team. At the end of the fall semester, on Nov. 30, the crews were announced. They won their first real test in the annual May race against Cal and then went east and handily won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta in June. The Washington freshmen boat was heralded around the country. As hard as it is to fathom, crew was one of the most followed sports in America. Every major paper covered the sport, and the big races were radio broadcast from coast to coast. A year later, they were the number one varsity boat, as sophomores, and beat Cal in the regatta on Cal's home waters. However, they were demoted to the j.v. boat for the IRA race, which was held every year in Poughkeepsie. Confounding their coach, they won handily and the varsity boat came in third. When the Washington varsity oarsmen turned out in the fall of 1935, Coach Ulbrickson told them it was every man for himself. He'd pick the 9 men for the varsity boat and he expected to take them to Berlin. They trained through a brutal, cold, wet, windy winter on the water. In March, the crew was selected; in April, they beat Cal; in June, they won the IRA at Poughkeepsie; and at Princeton in July, they won the trials. That evening, the American Olympic Committee told them they'd have to pay their own way; they had to raise $5,000 immediately or Penn, the second place finisher, would gladly go in their stead. The committeeman who advised them of this just happened to be the Chair of the Pennsylvania Athletic Association. The city of Seattle and the entire state raised the money quickly and they were on their way. In the preliminaries, they crushed all comers and broke the Olympic record. The Olympics being the Olympics, the European heads of the committee gave the Americans the worst lane, the one exposed to the most wind, and, in Ulbrickson's opinion, a two-length penalty. The only Olympic sport that garnered more world-wide attention than rowing was track and field. On August 14th, in front of Hitler and Leni Riefensthal's cameras, and millions of Americans listening on the radio, they got in their boat at about 6 PM. Their stroke oarsman was so ill they practically had to carry him. At 500 meters to the finish, they were a full length behind the Germans and Italians. In a photo-finish, their heart rates at an estimated 200 beats per minute, they won by .6 seconds. They were undefeated and never lost a race. All nine and their coach are in Rowing's hall of fame.
They rowed the 'Husky Clipper' every ten years at a reunion, and for the last time in 1986. Today, the boat hangs in a shell house on campus and every year, the freshman crew orientation takes place just below it.
The story of the boat is interspersed with the personal story of Joe Rantz, the #7 oarsman. It was not an easy ride from Spokane to fame. Born in 1914, he lost his mother at three and was let out by his father at 10 in the hardscrabble town of Squim. He pretty much looked after himself from that point on. He stayed where he could, worked for nickels and dimes, learned many useful skills in small town Washington, and was smart enough to go to the University. During his college years, he lived in the basement of the YMCA where he was a janitor. One summer, he handled a sledgehammer, hanging in a harness dangling over a precipice for 75 cents an hour, to help build the Grand Coulee Dam. Later in life, he used his engineering degree at Boeing for 35 years.
As is always the case with those of that generation, one is struck by their gracious, steadfast approach to depression, war and life's many challenges. Many thanks to Dr. George Todd for sending this excellent book to me for Christmas.
12.18.2016
Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the War of America Independence, Daughan - B+
This book is an excellent military history of the Revolution. The author's opening comments are that the British plan to sever the colonies by conquering the Hudson Valley, thus isolating New England, was flawed. Everyone fighting the war, and historians right up through Admiral Mahan a hundred years later, also agreed with British strategy. The flaw is the distance between New York and Canada and the length of the NE coastline. It was much more than the Royal Navy could have blockaded. I've always thought that the concept made no sense for the same reason. Montreal is 375 miles from NYC, and Quebec City, where the British were actually headquartered, was another 100 plus miles further east. It's brutally cold in the winter, and at the time, the whole distance was wilderness.
Fed up with the colonist's many and varied successful acts of insurrection in 1775, including Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill, George III and his first Minister, Lord North, declared war on the colonies. On June 30, 1776, a hundred and ten British vessels arrived in NY harbor. Hundreds more were to follow. The British expected meaningful support from loyalists throughout the NY region and in the deep south. The eventual lack of loyalist support doomed the Hudson River strategy. The navy would have needed collaborators to effectively hold the lengthy distance to Albany. They would never receive any help. However, the British did get off to a spectacular start by invading Brooklyn, defeating the Americans and trapping Washington in Brooklyn Heights in late August. With the East River patrolled behind the Americans, the British ground commander, General Howe, thought he had the war won. Howe's brother and overall commander, Lord Admiral Howe, also thought it was over and didn't patrol the river. Washington and 9500 men, their equipment and horses, escaped across the river in one night. Two months later, they abandoned Manhattan, fled to Westchester and eventually, New Jersey. Further north, the British couldn't even make it to Lake Champlain from Canada.There would be no severing of the colonies in 1776.
For the new year, London directed the Howe's to capture Philadelphia by land, force the Delaware River and then meet General Burgoyne, who would descend from Canada. When Howe learned that Burgoyne had already passed Ft. Ticonderoga and was less than 100 miles from Albany in early July, he headed to Philadelphia by sea. Washington confronted Howe at Brandywine Creek in Delaware. Howe won, but Washington again escaped. The British entered the capital on Sept. 26. Meanwhile, Burgoyne was stalled in New York as the American forces grew and grew. He was stopped at Bennington, crossed to the west side of the Hudson at Saratoga, and engaged an army under Horatio Gates, winning the first round but losing the second. In October, Burgoyne surrendered. Both of the Howe's resigned. Seventeen seventy-seven was another failure for the British.
At that point, the French entered the war on the side of the Americans, leading the King to order the army to withdraw from Philadelphia and return to New York. America was now secondary to saving the lucrative sugar colonies of the Indies from the French. "London was once again expecting the theatre commander to reclaim the colonies without providing the necessary troops or naval support." It was a year of moves, counter- moves, marches and almosts, but nothing strategic came to pass. By the end of 1778, both the British and French navies were in the Indies.
Desultory activity was the case again in 1779 as the British took Savannah and eyed Charleston, which was handed to them in early 1780 by equally incompetent army and navy officers. Charleston, however, was not the beginning of the King's new southern strategy. Cornwallis floundered, incited the south to guerrilla warfare, and marched his shrinking forces into Virginia in 1781. Although reinforced, Cornwallis had no real plan or strategy and allowed himself to be trapped at Yorktown. The French had fought a British relief force to a standstill off Cape Henry, Virginia, assuring that there was no saving Cornwallis. The Yorktown surrender came on Oct.19, 1881. The British would no longer take offensive actions in America. They hoped for peace without independence. The Americans would not stay in the empire. The Treaty of Paris granted America full independence and generous borders.
For NY, home to the British occupation and a Tory stronghold, it was a bitter blow. Tens of thousands dispossessed Tories left for Canada. Evacuation Day came on Nov. 25, 1783. It was celebrated in NY until 1916.
The outlines of this story are familiar to all of us; Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown. And therein lies an issue. Much went on in the beginning of the American Revolution and not much in the four years after 1777. The indifferent lack of support Congress and the states gave to Washington was appalling. It's a wonder he and the army didn't march on Philadelphia and toss them out. We 'Remember LaFayette', but seldom do American books state that without the French navy and vast amount of funds, it would have been much harder, if not impossible, to thwart the British. The whole British strategy appears ridiculous. How an army and navy stationed in NY were to be moving up and down thousands of miles of coast in the age of sail makes one wonder if they had maps in London. Add to the indifferent strategy, unenthusiastic and incompetent commanders, the worst being Gen. Henry Clinton, the man who succeeded Gen. Howe. I had known that the British were cruel to the prisoners, but not as depraved as they were. Of 30,000 men held in NY, fully 18,000 died of abuse and starvation. Only 7,000 continentals were killed in combat. The war was unnecessary and inflicted on both countries because of George III's stubbornness. The British were incompetent, dismissive, arrogant, cruel and deserved to lose the war and the colonies. Funny that we all appreciate the language, literature, culture and legal system as much as we do. Great book.
Fed up with the colonist's many and varied successful acts of insurrection in 1775, including Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill, George III and his first Minister, Lord North, declared war on the colonies. On June 30, 1776, a hundred and ten British vessels arrived in NY harbor. Hundreds more were to follow. The British expected meaningful support from loyalists throughout the NY region and in the deep south. The eventual lack of loyalist support doomed the Hudson River strategy. The navy would have needed collaborators to effectively hold the lengthy distance to Albany. They would never receive any help. However, the British did get off to a spectacular start by invading Brooklyn, defeating the Americans and trapping Washington in Brooklyn Heights in late August. With the East River patrolled behind the Americans, the British ground commander, General Howe, thought he had the war won. Howe's brother and overall commander, Lord Admiral Howe, also thought it was over and didn't patrol the river. Washington and 9500 men, their equipment and horses, escaped across the river in one night. Two months later, they abandoned Manhattan, fled to Westchester and eventually, New Jersey. Further north, the British couldn't even make it to Lake Champlain from Canada.There would be no severing of the colonies in 1776.
For the new year, London directed the Howe's to capture Philadelphia by land, force the Delaware River and then meet General Burgoyne, who would descend from Canada. When Howe learned that Burgoyne had already passed Ft. Ticonderoga and was less than 100 miles from Albany in early July, he headed to Philadelphia by sea. Washington confronted Howe at Brandywine Creek in Delaware. Howe won, but Washington again escaped. The British entered the capital on Sept. 26. Meanwhile, Burgoyne was stalled in New York as the American forces grew and grew. He was stopped at Bennington, crossed to the west side of the Hudson at Saratoga, and engaged an army under Horatio Gates, winning the first round but losing the second. In October, Burgoyne surrendered. Both of the Howe's resigned. Seventeen seventy-seven was another failure for the British.
At that point, the French entered the war on the side of the Americans, leading the King to order the army to withdraw from Philadelphia and return to New York. America was now secondary to saving the lucrative sugar colonies of the Indies from the French. "London was once again expecting the theatre commander to reclaim the colonies without providing the necessary troops or naval support." It was a year of moves, counter- moves, marches and almosts, but nothing strategic came to pass. By the end of 1778, both the British and French navies were in the Indies.
Desultory activity was the case again in 1779 as the British took Savannah and eyed Charleston, which was handed to them in early 1780 by equally incompetent army and navy officers. Charleston, however, was not the beginning of the King's new southern strategy. Cornwallis floundered, incited the south to guerrilla warfare, and marched his shrinking forces into Virginia in 1781. Although reinforced, Cornwallis had no real plan or strategy and allowed himself to be trapped at Yorktown. The French had fought a British relief force to a standstill off Cape Henry, Virginia, assuring that there was no saving Cornwallis. The Yorktown surrender came on Oct.19, 1881. The British would no longer take offensive actions in America. They hoped for peace without independence. The Americans would not stay in the empire. The Treaty of Paris granted America full independence and generous borders.
For NY, home to the British occupation and a Tory stronghold, it was a bitter blow. Tens of thousands dispossessed Tories left for Canada. Evacuation Day came on Nov. 25, 1783. It was celebrated in NY until 1916.
The outlines of this story are familiar to all of us; Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown. And therein lies an issue. Much went on in the beginning of the American Revolution and not much in the four years after 1777. The indifferent lack of support Congress and the states gave to Washington was appalling. It's a wonder he and the army didn't march on Philadelphia and toss them out. We 'Remember LaFayette', but seldom do American books state that without the French navy and vast amount of funds, it would have been much harder, if not impossible, to thwart the British. The whole British strategy appears ridiculous. How an army and navy stationed in NY were to be moving up and down thousands of miles of coast in the age of sail makes one wonder if they had maps in London. Add to the indifferent strategy, unenthusiastic and incompetent commanders, the worst being Gen. Henry Clinton, the man who succeeded Gen. Howe. I had known that the British were cruel to the prisoners, but not as depraved as they were. Of 30,000 men held in NY, fully 18,000 died of abuse and starvation. Only 7,000 continentals were killed in combat. The war was unnecessary and inflicted on both countries because of George III's stubbornness. The British were incompetent, dismissive, arrogant, cruel and deserved to lose the war and the colonies. Funny that we all appreciate the language, literature, culture and legal system as much as we do. Great book.
12.16.2016
Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe, Matzen - B +
Jimmy Stewart grew up in mildly prosperous circumstances in a smalltown in western Pennsylvania. On both sides of his family, the men had fought in all of America's wars back to the Revolution. The other abiding influence in his life was a total and absolute fascination with flight. He graduated from Princeton at 24 in 1932 and tried his hand on Broadway. Two years later, the 6'4", 135-pound Stewart was off to Hollywood with an MGM contract. He was a prodigious ladies man from day one, and soon was a full-blown movie star. In March of 1941, just after winning an Oscar, he pushed to be drafted when his number came up and he had been deferred because of his weight. Once in, he had to fight for pilot training because of his age. He was a training officer for over a year and finally, made it to England in late 1943.
Kiel was the target on his first mission on Dec.13, 1943. As the squadron commander, Stewart flew in the co-pilot seat on the eight-hour round trip missions. They went up every second or third day on flights that were frightening, freezing and totally exhausting. He had to write the 'letters home' to the families of his men when a plane went down. The planes themselves were capable of falling out of the sky for no apparent reason and were considered extremely difficult to fly. Indeed, the word 'wrestle' is frequently used to describe handling the B-24. Throughout the first four months of 1944, the Luftwaffe was still wreaking havoc on the British and American invaders. Getting to 25 missions was still considered unlikely. Stewart had 10 missions by February. One of the things that rattled him was his role in 'The Mortal Storm', the film that led to MGM being banned in Germany. If he were ever captured, they would have a filed day in the propaganda ministry. He was considered very good, cool, calm, collected and 'lucky' in his role as a squadron leader. His superiors concerned about his 'visibility', even though he kept his head down eschewed the press and any publicity. He was promoted to group ops officer in a different group and was now on the ground a bit more often. By mid-summer, now Lt. Col. Stewart was again promoted and flying became less frequently. The Luftwaffe was pretty much gone at this stage and the summer weather made flying slightly easier. On March 21, 1945, Col. Stewart flew for the last time as Wing Commander. The op was a close-run thing as they were bombing the field where the Germans had their jet fighter planes. and when it was over, Stewart was spent. Hap Arnold told him he needn't fly any more and he welcomed the respite. On August 1, he stepped off the HMS Queen Mary in NY harbor. His war was over.
"He was thirty-seven, looked fifty and his career as a Hollywood romantic figure was over." He returned to LA, but was completely at sea; stressed out, feeling as if it all was unimportant, yet he needed to work. Equally at a loss for what to do with himself was former Army Col. Frank Capra. He approached Stewart with a movie based on a short story called 'The Greatest Gift.' Running down the street in a very hot Encino, California in June of 1946 yelling "Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls", Jimmy Stewart knew he could carry on.
I have always liked Jimmy Stewart. Probably my earliest recollection of him is as Charles Lindbergh. I remember reading in his obituary in 1997 that as a nine-year-old, he lay in bed in Indiana, Pennsylvania listening to the reports of Lucky Lindy. I thought how serendipitous. On a Friday night in the late 70's, stressed out after a hard week and with my family asleep, I came upon 'It's A Wonderful Life'. This was before it had made its legendary comeback. I was mesmerized and felt as if I had stumbled upon one of the finest movies I had ever seen. I still love the film. I knew Stewart had flown in the war. I didn't know just how hard he had fought. In truth, anyone who flew over Europe in a B -17 or a B-24 had a hard war. The planes were rudimentary, the conditions were horrible and with flak and enemy fighters all around, death was capricious, random and very near each and every day. God bless the 'Greatest Generation'.
Kiel was the target on his first mission on Dec.13, 1943. As the squadron commander, Stewart flew in the co-pilot seat on the eight-hour round trip missions. They went up every second or third day on flights that were frightening, freezing and totally exhausting. He had to write the 'letters home' to the families of his men when a plane went down. The planes themselves were capable of falling out of the sky for no apparent reason and were considered extremely difficult to fly. Indeed, the word 'wrestle' is frequently used to describe handling the B-24. Throughout the first four months of 1944, the Luftwaffe was still wreaking havoc on the British and American invaders. Getting to 25 missions was still considered unlikely. Stewart had 10 missions by February. One of the things that rattled him was his role in 'The Mortal Storm', the film that led to MGM being banned in Germany. If he were ever captured, they would have a filed day in the propaganda ministry. He was considered very good, cool, calm, collected and 'lucky' in his role as a squadron leader. His superiors concerned about his 'visibility', even though he kept his head down eschewed the press and any publicity. He was promoted to group ops officer in a different group and was now on the ground a bit more often. By mid-summer, now Lt. Col. Stewart was again promoted and flying became less frequently. The Luftwaffe was pretty much gone at this stage and the summer weather made flying slightly easier. On March 21, 1945, Col. Stewart flew for the last time as Wing Commander. The op was a close-run thing as they were bombing the field where the Germans had their jet fighter planes. and when it was over, Stewart was spent. Hap Arnold told him he needn't fly any more and he welcomed the respite. On August 1, he stepped off the HMS Queen Mary in NY harbor. His war was over.
"He was thirty-seven, looked fifty and his career as a Hollywood romantic figure was over." He returned to LA, but was completely at sea; stressed out, feeling as if it all was unimportant, yet he needed to work. Equally at a loss for what to do with himself was former Army Col. Frank Capra. He approached Stewart with a movie based on a short story called 'The Greatest Gift.' Running down the street in a very hot Encino, California in June of 1946 yelling "Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls", Jimmy Stewart knew he could carry on.
I have always liked Jimmy Stewart. Probably my earliest recollection of him is as Charles Lindbergh. I remember reading in his obituary in 1997 that as a nine-year-old, he lay in bed in Indiana, Pennsylvania listening to the reports of Lucky Lindy. I thought how serendipitous. On a Friday night in the late 70's, stressed out after a hard week and with my family asleep, I came upon 'It's A Wonderful Life'. This was before it had made its legendary comeback. I was mesmerized and felt as if I had stumbled upon one of the finest movies I had ever seen. I still love the film. I knew Stewart had flown in the war. I didn't know just how hard he had fought. In truth, anyone who flew over Europe in a B -17 or a B-24 had a hard war. The planes were rudimentary, the conditions were horrible and with flak and enemy fighters all around, death was capricious, random and very near each and every day. God bless the 'Greatest Generation'.
A Rage For Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, Worth - C +
This book is on many year-end must-read lists, perhaps because it handles the Arab Spring succinctly (i.e. in 222 pages). As much as I love brevity, I am not convinced that it is worth the kudos it has received. The author suggests that the events of the Arab Spring were not a beginning. They were simply the end of the strongman era that had dominated the middle east since the end of WW2. Within days of the self-immolation suicide of the Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian dictator, Ben Ali, fled. Within a week, the Mubarak regime was on the rocks. On the eighteenth day of the protests, Mubarak resigned. The members of the Muslim Brotherhood were let out of jail, organized and began their plan to win an election. In Libya, Benghazi erupted and Qaddafi was on the run. His counter moves were met with an Arab League-approved NATO no-fly zone. After a nasty civil war, Qaddafi was murdered by the rebels. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, Libya continued to drift as warlords controlled different parts of the country.
The push back against Syrian strongman Assad quickly turned into Sunni v. Shia (Assad and his ruling clique are Alawites, a Shia sect), and has been going downhill since the spring of 2011. It descended into extreme violence in a Rubik's cube chaos of Iranians, Hezbollah, Kurds, and zealots from around the world all fighting each other on behalf of distant powers and different local factions.
"Most Arab dictators have been corrupt and manipulative, but Yemen's ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, brought these traits to a whole new level of cynicism and mastery." Yemen was barely a step up from medieval tribalism. Al-Qaeda emerged from the disarray. Yemen too, quickly descended into a Shia-Sunni proxy war.
The most powerful, largest and coherent civilian entity in Egypt was the Muslim Brotherhood. Organized in the post WW2 era, suppressed for decades and easy victors in the elections less than a year after Mubarak's ouster. They overplayed their Islamist hand, added a touch of authoritarianism, and the following year there was a 'second revolution'. With broad based support, the military ousted Mohamed Morsi and took over. Abdel Sisi, a former intelligence chief, was in charge as much as Nasser, Sadat or Mubarak had ever been. Egypt had reverted to form.
ISIS came about when the US left Iraq and the Shiite President al-Maliki purged the Sunni from leadership positions. They made the strategic decision to go 'savage' in an effort to eliminate all opposition. ISIS proclaimed a new Caliphate and drew fighters from around the world into a never-never land between Syria and Iraq.
Only in Tunisia, the least Arabic and most European of the states in N. Africa, did the center hold. The Islamists and secularists agreed on a constitution and a sharing of power. Each side was led by a very old man and the question is whether the peace can hold.
This is an adequate book. The author spends way too much, indeed, almost all of his time, on stories of a few different families in each country. Yes, it is a way of telling of the depths of despair and terrible experiences that are part and parcel of religious civil wars, but it's hardly great exposition or analysis. Indeed, I don't think the book accomplishes its stated objective of reporting the consequences of the Spring. There are 3 pages in the second half of the book that mention Yemen, and then a few comments in the epilogue about the Saudi invasion. The long section on Syria is only about one jihadist who changed his mind and returned home to Jordan. Again in the epilogue, he tackles the current mess involving a US-led coalition bombing ISIS and the Russians on the ground supporting Assad.
The people of the Middle East sought citizenship and a future. "But they ran headlong into the seventh century..." This feels very much like a slapdash effort. Indeed, I am reminded that in the prologue, Worth points out that much of the book is previous pieces from the Times.
The push back against Syrian strongman Assad quickly turned into Sunni v. Shia (Assad and his ruling clique are Alawites, a Shia sect), and has been going downhill since the spring of 2011. It descended into extreme violence in a Rubik's cube chaos of Iranians, Hezbollah, Kurds, and zealots from around the world all fighting each other on behalf of distant powers and different local factions.
"Most Arab dictators have been corrupt and manipulative, but Yemen's ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, brought these traits to a whole new level of cynicism and mastery." Yemen was barely a step up from medieval tribalism. Al-Qaeda emerged from the disarray. Yemen too, quickly descended into a Shia-Sunni proxy war.
The most powerful, largest and coherent civilian entity in Egypt was the Muslim Brotherhood. Organized in the post WW2 era, suppressed for decades and easy victors in the elections less than a year after Mubarak's ouster. They overplayed their Islamist hand, added a touch of authoritarianism, and the following year there was a 'second revolution'. With broad based support, the military ousted Mohamed Morsi and took over. Abdel Sisi, a former intelligence chief, was in charge as much as Nasser, Sadat or Mubarak had ever been. Egypt had reverted to form.
ISIS came about when the US left Iraq and the Shiite President al-Maliki purged the Sunni from leadership positions. They made the strategic decision to go 'savage' in an effort to eliminate all opposition. ISIS proclaimed a new Caliphate and drew fighters from around the world into a never-never land between Syria and Iraq.
Only in Tunisia, the least Arabic and most European of the states in N. Africa, did the center hold. The Islamists and secularists agreed on a constitution and a sharing of power. Each side was led by a very old man and the question is whether the peace can hold.
This is an adequate book. The author spends way too much, indeed, almost all of his time, on stories of a few different families in each country. Yes, it is a way of telling of the depths of despair and terrible experiences that are part and parcel of religious civil wars, but it's hardly great exposition or analysis. Indeed, I don't think the book accomplishes its stated objective of reporting the consequences of the Spring. There are 3 pages in the second half of the book that mention Yemen, and then a few comments in the epilogue about the Saudi invasion. The long section on Syria is only about one jihadist who changed his mind and returned home to Jordan. Again in the epilogue, he tackles the current mess involving a US-led coalition bombing ISIS and the Russians on the ground supporting Assad.
The people of the Middle East sought citizenship and a future. "But they ran headlong into the seventh century..." This feels very much like a slapdash effort. Indeed, I am reminded that in the prologue, Worth points out that much of the book is previous pieces from the Times.
The Infidel Stain, Carter - B
This is the second book in a series about Captain William Avery and his colleague, Jeremiah Blake. Earlier, we saw them in Calcutta, in a novel that painted a vivid picture of the British East India Company in its waning days about a decade before direct rule, the era known as the Raj. It is now a few years later in London in the early 1840's, and they are engaged by Lord Allington, a noted philanthropist, to conduct an inquiry into the suspicious deaths of two printers engaged in some 19th century pornography. The background to the inquiry is the struggle between the landed gentry, the nascent manufacturers, and the rural and urban poor. Britain had enacted some reforms in 1832, but they hardly deserved to be called democratic as still less than 1 in 20 men could vote.
In the capital, as opposed to the plains of India, Jemmy Blake appears more and more like Sherlock Holmes. He has an indulgent landlady, dresses haphazardly, has all sorts of street connections, can sort out any problem, is inclined to disguises, and a rather serious opium habit. Avery is not handy with his words, but he is quick with his fists in a rougher era in London, and is about as slow as Dr. Watson ever was. In the end, the murder mysteries are resolved in a manner I would best characterize as indifferent. The import takeaway is on the Chartist movement. They submitted 3.3 million signatures to Parliament in an attempt to expand suffrage. The toffs ignored them.
In the capital, as opposed to the plains of India, Jemmy Blake appears more and more like Sherlock Holmes. He has an indulgent landlady, dresses haphazardly, has all sorts of street connections, can sort out any problem, is inclined to disguises, and a rather serious opium habit. Avery is not handy with his words, but he is quick with his fists in a rougher era in London, and is about as slow as Dr. Watson ever was. In the end, the murder mysteries are resolved in a manner I would best characterize as indifferent. The import takeaway is on the Chartist movement. They submitted 3.3 million signatures to Parliament in an attempt to expand suffrage. The toffs ignored them.
Exposure, Dunmore - B
This is a fascinating novel set in 1960 in London. If I had to pick a word to describe it, it would be 'anxious'. Giles is an aging functionary at the Admiralty office who spies for the Soviets. One night, he falls down the stairs at home after taking photos of a top secret file. He's drunk, badly hurt, and terribly anxious about that file, now in his study and not at work. He calls Simon, a lackluster underling who dutifully goes and picks up the file and gets very worried. Simon doesn't know what to do. His wife finds the file, buries it in the backyard, and now spends all of her time fretting about her future and that of her three children, as Simon has been dragged off to gaol. Giles' boss is desperate to find the file. It is clear that Simon has been framed, but there's no way for him to prove it. Things work out in the end in an unlikely and barely believable sequence of events. At least though, they work out the way they should.
12.08.2016
City Of Secrets, O'Nan - B +
This is a superb, brief, historical novel set in post-war Jerusalem. Our lead character is Brand, a Latvian Jew who had somehow survived, and is now a taxi driver and a member of Haganah. "He wasn't weak enough to kill himself, but wasn't strong enough to stop wanting to." Throughout Palestine, the Jews waged a relentless, guerrilla war of terror against the British. Brand, who lost his wife, parents and siblings during the Holocaust loses his lover during the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel. He's seen enough of war and violence. He leaves Jerusalem and heads to Haifa, where he can ship out, as his merchant seaman's paper are actually in order.
11.29.2016
An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy, Levinson - B
The reviews of this book attracted me because its theme is a conclusion that my amateur reading of history for the last half century has led me to. I have thought for some time that the expectations of almost everyone in this country, regardless of age, class, education or background are predicated on the illusion of the boom from the post-war era. It was temporary, and that is this author's premise. And quite depressingly, he asserts that the boom is not going to come back.
The author cites the quarter century from 1948 to 1973 as a time when the world economy expanded faster than ever before or since. In 1973, the average income per person around the world leaped 4.5%. "The almost universal feeling of prosperity quickly faded." The primary reason was a slowing down of productivity, without which economies and living standards do not improve. Theorists and politicians of every stripe have offered solutions, none of which have worked. Perhaps governments and central bankers can't fine tune economies. As this came to pass, most wealthy societies turned right and no longer saw collective solutions to problems. "Political leaders frequently understate the connection between large global trends and the individuals' well-being, first so they don't seem hapless while in power and second so they can blame the incumbents for economic troubles while in opposition." "As the Golden Age became a memory, so did the boundless optimism of an era of good times for all."
At the end of the war, 2 million mules plowed US farms and one in 175 Japanese homes had a telephone. By the mid-70's you could cross the Atlantic on a super-sonic plane in less than four hours. The US -funded Marshall Plan in 1948 jump-started the economies of the free world. Part of the reason for the beginning of the boom was pent up demand after almost twenty-years of depression and war. Millions moving from farms to factories was equally critical. It seemed as if labor, capital and government were together marching toward the future. Trade barriers fell, infrastructure was modernized, education became more universal and productivity doubled in the US, tripled in Europe and quadrupled in Japan. Capitalism and economic planning seemed to have created a new world.
The Seventies brought some new challenges to that prosperity. A US-based rise in inflation spread around the world because of the Bretton Woods system. Environmentalism raised its head for the first time and many, many people and nations began to reconsider just how they profited from the planet. Exchange rates became unglued after the US abandoned the gold standard in early 1973. The Yom Kippur War in October led to an almost doubling of the price of oil and an embargo on Israel's supporters. Add in the above-mentioned productivity decline (which this author cannot ascribe to anything in particular), and the party was over.
The mid to late seventies saw two defining changes. The first was the Japanese onslaught in almost very manufacturing sector that wreaked havoc throughout industrial Europe and America. Globalization had begun. The governmental response were protectionism, tariffs, and quotas, all of which raised the cost of living in the US and Europe by protecting failing businesses. The west's first and truly effective response was deregulation in energy, telecommunication, transport and finance. Better and better technology now came into play. Economic growth would no longer be driven by the massive industries of old. "The era of well-paid factory jobs for all was over; in the new economy, value would come from innovation, design, and marketing, not from the physical process of turning raw materials into finished goods."
As matters deteriorated, reducing the welfare state was not an option and in many countries tax burdens rose to provide continued support. This led to the swing to the right embodied by Kohl, Thatcher and Reagan. Thatcher's privatization of British industry moved 650,000 workers from state-subsidized jobs to the private sector and ushered in the UK's transformation to a service economy. She is deemed to have reversed Britain's slide, but to have only barely set it on an upward trend. In late 1979, in the US, Paul Volcker, Fed Chair, shifted the focus from monetary supply to bank reserves and saw interest rates skyrocket. Two years later, the Fed Funds rate was over 20%, the economy was in free fall and Ronald Reagan initiated a small tax cut, while borrowing heavily to increase the size of the navy. In August of 1982, Wall Street concluded that inflation had been contained and the great bull market in stocks and bonds began. The Reagan Revolution tamed inflation (thanks to the Democrat Paul Volcker) but made little difference to the well-being of the common man. "What the Reagan Revolution could not do was restore the broad improvement in living standards that Americans expected." Referring to the leaders of the eighties, the author states, "When it came to restoring the sense of economic security that had vanished along with cheap oil, their efforts were no more effectual than those of the less market-oriented politicians they drove from office."
In the closing chapter, Levinson again returns to the productivity theme. It boomed, then slowed down and no one knows why. He acknowledges that the micro-processor provided a temporary increase in productivity in the 90's, but has not established a long-term trend. He closes with a quote from Paul Samuelson. "The third quarter of the Twentieth Century was a golden age of economic progress. It surpassed any reasoned expectation. And we are not likely to see its equivalent soon again."
The author cites the quarter century from 1948 to 1973 as a time when the world economy expanded faster than ever before or since. In 1973, the average income per person around the world leaped 4.5%. "The almost universal feeling of prosperity quickly faded." The primary reason was a slowing down of productivity, without which economies and living standards do not improve. Theorists and politicians of every stripe have offered solutions, none of which have worked. Perhaps governments and central bankers can't fine tune economies. As this came to pass, most wealthy societies turned right and no longer saw collective solutions to problems. "Political leaders frequently understate the connection between large global trends and the individuals' well-being, first so they don't seem hapless while in power and second so they can blame the incumbents for economic troubles while in opposition." "As the Golden Age became a memory, so did the boundless optimism of an era of good times for all."
At the end of the war, 2 million mules plowed US farms and one in 175 Japanese homes had a telephone. By the mid-70's you could cross the Atlantic on a super-sonic plane in less than four hours. The US -funded Marshall Plan in 1948 jump-started the economies of the free world. Part of the reason for the beginning of the boom was pent up demand after almost twenty-years of depression and war. Millions moving from farms to factories was equally critical. It seemed as if labor, capital and government were together marching toward the future. Trade barriers fell, infrastructure was modernized, education became more universal and productivity doubled in the US, tripled in Europe and quadrupled in Japan. Capitalism and economic planning seemed to have created a new world.
The Seventies brought some new challenges to that prosperity. A US-based rise in inflation spread around the world because of the Bretton Woods system. Environmentalism raised its head for the first time and many, many people and nations began to reconsider just how they profited from the planet. Exchange rates became unglued after the US abandoned the gold standard in early 1973. The Yom Kippur War in October led to an almost doubling of the price of oil and an embargo on Israel's supporters. Add in the above-mentioned productivity decline (which this author cannot ascribe to anything in particular), and the party was over.
The mid to late seventies saw two defining changes. The first was the Japanese onslaught in almost very manufacturing sector that wreaked havoc throughout industrial Europe and America. Globalization had begun. The governmental response were protectionism, tariffs, and quotas, all of which raised the cost of living in the US and Europe by protecting failing businesses. The west's first and truly effective response was deregulation in energy, telecommunication, transport and finance. Better and better technology now came into play. Economic growth would no longer be driven by the massive industries of old. "The era of well-paid factory jobs for all was over; in the new economy, value would come from innovation, design, and marketing, not from the physical process of turning raw materials into finished goods."
As matters deteriorated, reducing the welfare state was not an option and in many countries tax burdens rose to provide continued support. This led to the swing to the right embodied by Kohl, Thatcher and Reagan. Thatcher's privatization of British industry moved 650,000 workers from state-subsidized jobs to the private sector and ushered in the UK's transformation to a service economy. She is deemed to have reversed Britain's slide, but to have only barely set it on an upward trend. In late 1979, in the US, Paul Volcker, Fed Chair, shifted the focus from monetary supply to bank reserves and saw interest rates skyrocket. Two years later, the Fed Funds rate was over 20%, the economy was in free fall and Ronald Reagan initiated a small tax cut, while borrowing heavily to increase the size of the navy. In August of 1982, Wall Street concluded that inflation had been contained and the great bull market in stocks and bonds began. The Reagan Revolution tamed inflation (thanks to the Democrat Paul Volcker) but made little difference to the well-being of the common man. "What the Reagan Revolution could not do was restore the broad improvement in living standards that Americans expected." Referring to the leaders of the eighties, the author states, "When it came to restoring the sense of economic security that had vanished along with cheap oil, their efforts were no more effectual than those of the less market-oriented politicians they drove from office."
In the closing chapter, Levinson again returns to the productivity theme. It boomed, then slowed down and no one knows why. He acknowledges that the micro-processor provided a temporary increase in productivity in the 90's, but has not established a long-term trend. He closes with a quote from Paul Samuelson. "The third quarter of the Twentieth Century was a golden age of economic progress. It surpassed any reasoned expectation. And we are not likely to see its equivalent soon again."
11.26.2016
Blood In The Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 And Its Legacy, Thompson - A*
This is the history of the most important prison riot in US history. Much of the information has been accessed by a historian's good fortune, as NYS keeps most of it under lock, key and classified designation. I suspect his book is going to win a lot of awards - it is a masterpiece. The NYT reviewer refers to it as "a superb work of history." That said, it is a long tough slog, not because of the writing, which is excellent, but the topic, which is flat out horrible.
The State Correctional Facility at Attica was understaffed, the correction officers (COs) were not trained, and they were severely underpaid. The inmates were overcrowded, virtually starved, provided with a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap per month, underpaid for their work, uncertain of the rules as inconsistency of enforcement was rife, allowed parole only if they had a job, seldom visited because of the distance from NYC, unable to communicate with common-law relations, proscribed from writing or receiving letters in Spanish, unable to read almost all outside material, free to listen only to three local am stations, completely lacked access to medical or dental services - essentially hopeless. Conditions were and had been horrible. Add into the mix a new black militancy among the prisoners and a power structure that felt obliged to suppress and fight them, and you had a burgeoning problem. "Warden Mancusi viewed prisoner activism as the work of black militant troublemakers who needed to be watched with particular care and shut up the minute they spoke out."
The summer of 1971 saw increased militancy. Riots had taken place in NYC and at nearby Auburn. Standing pat was Rockefeller's new man in charge, Russell G. Oswald, a wannabe reformer put on the defensive upon taking over the NYS system. The prisoners at Attica had sent a petition to Oswald. He told the men he would consider their requests to improve life at the prison. But, after the Attica Liberation Faction had wrote to the Commissioner, the guards began to strictly and brutally enforce all the rules. On the morning of Sept. 9, a combination of fear, confusion, change of routine and general sense of anxiety led to violence in A Tunnel and a full scale riot within minutes. Although there was no plan for a response to a riot, the COs and the State Police were able to re-take half of the cell blocks by noon. About half of the prisoners, approximately 1300 men, gathered in the Yard of Cell Block D and began to organize themselves.
Oswald arrived and immediately prohibited a violent re-taking. He was in the Yard by 4 pm. His primary concern was the well-being of the 40 hostages. He acceded to the demand that tv, newspapermen and outside observers be allowed into the prison. Ironically, it was only the presence of the outsiders that kept those clamoring to attack at bay. Outside the prison, the families of the hostages, local police and state troopers, as well as COs from around the region, gathered, waited, and were primed for revenge. The whole concept of observers turned into a circus within twenty-four hours. There were dozens in the prison including rabble-rousers and outsiders more radical than the inmates. Among the more notable observers were William Kunstler, Tom Wicker, Congressman Herman Badillo and State Senators John Dunne and Arthur Eve. Oswald spent a meaningful amount of time with the prisoners and agreed to the majority of their demands. However, the ongoing sticking point was amnesty, and unbeknownst to all inside, the forces of revenge were marshaling in Rocky's office. It was an era of law and order and the Governor could not be seen as lacking. Matters became more complex on the third night when Bobby Seale showed up to stir the pot and the officer hurt in the riot by the inmates, William Quinn, died. "By Saturday night, no one...thought that this standoff could continue much longer. Someone, somewhere was going to break." Discussions continued on Sunday but the prisoners wanted amnesty and the state would not budge. By 7 pm Sunday, Oswald had given up. Both the State Police and the Corrections Dept. left the planning and implementation of the recovery of the prison in relatively low-level hands, which the author suggests was a case of Rockefeller deliberately distancing himself from whatever the consequences would be.
On the morning of the 13th, the troopers who were readying the attack were characterized by a National Guardsmen standing by as "haggard" and "exhausted". They had had zero training in an action such as this, and had never handled the rifles given them. Those rifles were loaded with particularly destructive ammunition. The men were unfamiliar with gas masks, which would impede their ability to communicate. They were not instructed on how to accept a surrender, or what to do after they stormed the yard. No one had even recorded the serial numbers of the rifles distributed. Many were also armed with personal handguns. It was a classic snafu ready to happen. At about 9:40 am, a helicopter dropped cs gas on the Yard. The troopers followed and unleashed all they had, firing indiscriminately, often with intent to kill. One-hundrd and twenty-eight men were shot, nine hostages were dead, as were 29 inmates. The author, undoubtedly correctly, attributed the massacre to racial ferocity and animosity.
The State began spinning immediately, attributing all of the hostage deaths to the prisoners, who had purportedly slit their throats. The truth was that all but one had been shot. Throughout the day and the first night, the COs tortured and beat the inmates and Warden Mancusi denied them medical attention. It would take days and outsider's efforts to force the State to allow the wounded men medical care. As the first weeks passed, interest in what had happened grew and it became apparent that the state's coverup would fail, notwithstanding the public assertions of Rockefeller, Agnew and Nixon that organized militancy was behind the riot.
The Governor eventually assigned the Organized Crime Task Force to look into Attica. This commission became known as the Fischer/Simonetti Commission and was charged with assigning criminal responsibility. In December of 1972, Simonetti indicted sixty-three prisoners for 1289 crimes, which included the death of William Quinn as well as three prisoners who were murdered by their fellow inmates. The grand jury did not indict a single trooper or CO in the three dozen shooting deaths. Aligned against the state was the Attica Brothers Legal Defense (ABLD). It was more of a loosely organized movement than an entity, but it was able to change the trials' venue from Attica to Buffalo. The state lost the first two cases, but won the trial for murder of the guard, William Quinn, even though the evidence was patently fraudulent. The next trial for two murders of inmates was lost by the state. In the third trial, the state allowed a man to plead to 'time served' and not acknowledge his guilt. By late 1975, the state's prosecutorial record was a total failure and someone inside the prosecution team went public as a whistleblower. That attorney's actions led to more newspaper stories, a lengthy report, another commission and a Special Asst. Attorney General assigned to reconsider everything. In 1976, all cases except one against an inmate for murder were dismissed. The only indicted CO also had his case dismissed. At the end of the year, Gov. Carey pardoned or granted clemency to all inmates and attempted to "close the book" five years after the riot. Millions and millions had been spent and millions of pages of reports, affidavits, grand jury and trial testimony produced. But the truth was buried far from the public view.
Soon thereafter, the civil lawsuits began. It would take two decades for some semblance of justice to be provided. In January of 1991, a federal court in Buffalo, in a class action lawsuit, determined that the inmates civil rights had been violated during the retaking. The Judge in charge delayed the penalty stage of the trial for another five years. Big Black Smith, the lead plaintiff, did not have a chance to testify about his torture until June, 1997. After a day of deliberation, the jury awarded Smith $4,000,000. Smith's damage case was the strongest. Next the plaintiffs presented Frank Brosig's story, believed to be an average Attica case, and he was awarded $75,000. At that point, the state decided to appeal the original liability case, because they now knew they could be on the hook to the 1200 surviving inmates. In 1999, the Second Circuit reversed the liability judgement. It had been almost thirty years since the riot
The senior judge for the Western District took over the matter and forced the state (by now, Gov. Pataki after Mario Cuomo had refused to settle for 8 years) to pay $12m. The state never admitted guilt. Judge Telesca allowed every man to recount his story and thus place on the record the full saga of what had happened at Attica. The inmates and their lawyers were finally paid. The last chapter of the Attica tale is the pursuit of damages on behalf of the hostages, the families of the slain hostages and the now forty-year old-daughter of the slain guard, William Quinn. However, having previously received some monies from the workers comp funds, they were precluded from any other remedy. One woman had accepted $36 per week until her daughter turned 16 after being told by the state's lawyers they would be provided for for life. The FVOA ( Forgotten Victims of Attica) only had a political option and once again, a commission was authorized by Gov. Pataki. Hearings were held over the summer of 2002 and once again, the only thing that outweighed the depth of the damages suffered was the perfidy of the state. In January of 2005, the state agreed to $12m of damages - the same amount previously granted to the inmates. However, the state parceled out the money over six years, without interest.
Although, starting in 1973 NYS led the way with meaningful prison reform, it also led the nation into the era of mandatory minimum sentencing and the criminalization of previously civil matters. In 1996, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act, severely restricting prisoners' access to federal courts. The incarceration rates around the country skyrocketed after Attica. NYS had 12,500 prisoners in 1971 and 72,600 by 1999. Both Congress and President Obama have begun to reverse this process. Nonetheless, we still lead the world in the percentage of our population incarcerated.
The author clearly takes the side of the inmates and relentlessly, in a manner reminiscent of Robert Caro, pours it on against the state. Although there seem to be points in the narrative where she is more than sympathetic to the inmates' activities, including brutal criminal acts, history has shown that the state treated the inmates horribly, viciously and indifferently murdered them and the hostages during the assault. It covered it up and cheated throughout all the legal proceedings and follow-up. I am reminded of the Kerner Commission referring to the events at the 1968 Democratic Convention as a "police riot." This is much more egregious government activity. I also cannot escape pop culture's most famous reference, as far as I know, to the riot, i.e. Al Pacino riling up the Brooklyn crowd with "Attica, Attica" in 'Dog Day Afternoon'. This is a great history book and one of the most powerful stories I've ever read.
The State Correctional Facility at Attica was understaffed, the correction officers (COs) were not trained, and they were severely underpaid. The inmates were overcrowded, virtually starved, provided with a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap per month, underpaid for their work, uncertain of the rules as inconsistency of enforcement was rife, allowed parole only if they had a job, seldom visited because of the distance from NYC, unable to communicate with common-law relations, proscribed from writing or receiving letters in Spanish, unable to read almost all outside material, free to listen only to three local am stations, completely lacked access to medical or dental services - essentially hopeless. Conditions were and had been horrible. Add into the mix a new black militancy among the prisoners and a power structure that felt obliged to suppress and fight them, and you had a burgeoning problem. "Warden Mancusi viewed prisoner activism as the work of black militant troublemakers who needed to be watched with particular care and shut up the minute they spoke out."
The summer of 1971 saw increased militancy. Riots had taken place in NYC and at nearby Auburn. Standing pat was Rockefeller's new man in charge, Russell G. Oswald, a wannabe reformer put on the defensive upon taking over the NYS system. The prisoners at Attica had sent a petition to Oswald. He told the men he would consider their requests to improve life at the prison. But, after the Attica Liberation Faction had wrote to the Commissioner, the guards began to strictly and brutally enforce all the rules. On the morning of Sept. 9, a combination of fear, confusion, change of routine and general sense of anxiety led to violence in A Tunnel and a full scale riot within minutes. Although there was no plan for a response to a riot, the COs and the State Police were able to re-take half of the cell blocks by noon. About half of the prisoners, approximately 1300 men, gathered in the Yard of Cell Block D and began to organize themselves.
Oswald arrived and immediately prohibited a violent re-taking. He was in the Yard by 4 pm. His primary concern was the well-being of the 40 hostages. He acceded to the demand that tv, newspapermen and outside observers be allowed into the prison. Ironically, it was only the presence of the outsiders that kept those clamoring to attack at bay. Outside the prison, the families of the hostages, local police and state troopers, as well as COs from around the region, gathered, waited, and were primed for revenge. The whole concept of observers turned into a circus within twenty-four hours. There were dozens in the prison including rabble-rousers and outsiders more radical than the inmates. Among the more notable observers were William Kunstler, Tom Wicker, Congressman Herman Badillo and State Senators John Dunne and Arthur Eve. Oswald spent a meaningful amount of time with the prisoners and agreed to the majority of their demands. However, the ongoing sticking point was amnesty, and unbeknownst to all inside, the forces of revenge were marshaling in Rocky's office. It was an era of law and order and the Governor could not be seen as lacking. Matters became more complex on the third night when Bobby Seale showed up to stir the pot and the officer hurt in the riot by the inmates, William Quinn, died. "By Saturday night, no one...thought that this standoff could continue much longer. Someone, somewhere was going to break." Discussions continued on Sunday but the prisoners wanted amnesty and the state would not budge. By 7 pm Sunday, Oswald had given up. Both the State Police and the Corrections Dept. left the planning and implementation of the recovery of the prison in relatively low-level hands, which the author suggests was a case of Rockefeller deliberately distancing himself from whatever the consequences would be.
On the morning of the 13th, the troopers who were readying the attack were characterized by a National Guardsmen standing by as "haggard" and "exhausted". They had had zero training in an action such as this, and had never handled the rifles given them. Those rifles were loaded with particularly destructive ammunition. The men were unfamiliar with gas masks, which would impede their ability to communicate. They were not instructed on how to accept a surrender, or what to do after they stormed the yard. No one had even recorded the serial numbers of the rifles distributed. Many were also armed with personal handguns. It was a classic snafu ready to happen. At about 9:40 am, a helicopter dropped cs gas on the Yard. The troopers followed and unleashed all they had, firing indiscriminately, often with intent to kill. One-hundrd and twenty-eight men were shot, nine hostages were dead, as were 29 inmates. The author, undoubtedly correctly, attributed the massacre to racial ferocity and animosity.
The State began spinning immediately, attributing all of the hostage deaths to the prisoners, who had purportedly slit their throats. The truth was that all but one had been shot. Throughout the day and the first night, the COs tortured and beat the inmates and Warden Mancusi denied them medical attention. It would take days and outsider's efforts to force the State to allow the wounded men medical care. As the first weeks passed, interest in what had happened grew and it became apparent that the state's coverup would fail, notwithstanding the public assertions of Rockefeller, Agnew and Nixon that organized militancy was behind the riot.
The Governor eventually assigned the Organized Crime Task Force to look into Attica. This commission became known as the Fischer/Simonetti Commission and was charged with assigning criminal responsibility. In December of 1972, Simonetti indicted sixty-three prisoners for 1289 crimes, which included the death of William Quinn as well as three prisoners who were murdered by their fellow inmates. The grand jury did not indict a single trooper or CO in the three dozen shooting deaths. Aligned against the state was the Attica Brothers Legal Defense (ABLD). It was more of a loosely organized movement than an entity, but it was able to change the trials' venue from Attica to Buffalo. The state lost the first two cases, but won the trial for murder of the guard, William Quinn, even though the evidence was patently fraudulent. The next trial for two murders of inmates was lost by the state. In the third trial, the state allowed a man to plead to 'time served' and not acknowledge his guilt. By late 1975, the state's prosecutorial record was a total failure and someone inside the prosecution team went public as a whistleblower. That attorney's actions led to more newspaper stories, a lengthy report, another commission and a Special Asst. Attorney General assigned to reconsider everything. In 1976, all cases except one against an inmate for murder were dismissed. The only indicted CO also had his case dismissed. At the end of the year, Gov. Carey pardoned or granted clemency to all inmates and attempted to "close the book" five years after the riot. Millions and millions had been spent and millions of pages of reports, affidavits, grand jury and trial testimony produced. But the truth was buried far from the public view.
Soon thereafter, the civil lawsuits began. It would take two decades for some semblance of justice to be provided. In January of 1991, a federal court in Buffalo, in a class action lawsuit, determined that the inmates civil rights had been violated during the retaking. The Judge in charge delayed the penalty stage of the trial for another five years. Big Black Smith, the lead plaintiff, did not have a chance to testify about his torture until June, 1997. After a day of deliberation, the jury awarded Smith $4,000,000. Smith's damage case was the strongest. Next the plaintiffs presented Frank Brosig's story, believed to be an average Attica case, and he was awarded $75,000. At that point, the state decided to appeal the original liability case, because they now knew they could be on the hook to the 1200 surviving inmates. In 1999, the Second Circuit reversed the liability judgement. It had been almost thirty years since the riot
The senior judge for the Western District took over the matter and forced the state (by now, Gov. Pataki after Mario Cuomo had refused to settle for 8 years) to pay $12m. The state never admitted guilt. Judge Telesca allowed every man to recount his story and thus place on the record the full saga of what had happened at Attica. The inmates and their lawyers were finally paid. The last chapter of the Attica tale is the pursuit of damages on behalf of the hostages, the families of the slain hostages and the now forty-year old-daughter of the slain guard, William Quinn. However, having previously received some monies from the workers comp funds, they were precluded from any other remedy. One woman had accepted $36 per week until her daughter turned 16 after being told by the state's lawyers they would be provided for for life. The FVOA ( Forgotten Victims of Attica) only had a political option and once again, a commission was authorized by Gov. Pataki. Hearings were held over the summer of 2002 and once again, the only thing that outweighed the depth of the damages suffered was the perfidy of the state. In January of 2005, the state agreed to $12m of damages - the same amount previously granted to the inmates. However, the state parceled out the money over six years, without interest.
Although, starting in 1973 NYS led the way with meaningful prison reform, it also led the nation into the era of mandatory minimum sentencing and the criminalization of previously civil matters. In 1996, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act, severely restricting prisoners' access to federal courts. The incarceration rates around the country skyrocketed after Attica. NYS had 12,500 prisoners in 1971 and 72,600 by 1999. Both Congress and President Obama have begun to reverse this process. Nonetheless, we still lead the world in the percentage of our population incarcerated.
The author clearly takes the side of the inmates and relentlessly, in a manner reminiscent of Robert Caro, pours it on against the state. Although there seem to be points in the narrative where she is more than sympathetic to the inmates' activities, including brutal criminal acts, history has shown that the state treated the inmates horribly, viciously and indifferently murdered them and the hostages during the assault. It covered it up and cheated throughout all the legal proceedings and follow-up. I am reminded of the Kerner Commission referring to the events at the 1968 Democratic Convention as a "police riot." This is much more egregious government activity. I also cannot escape pop culture's most famous reference, as far as I know, to the riot, i.e. Al Pacino riling up the Brooklyn crowd with "Attica, Attica" in 'Dog Day Afternoon'. This is a great history book and one of the most powerful stories I've ever read.
Europe In Autumn, Hutchinson - B
This fascinating novel is a traditional spy/thriller with an interesting wrinkle - it's set a few decades in the future, after Europe has closed its borders because of a drift to the right compounded by the Xian Flu, which has taken 30 million lives. The continent keeps spawning more "progressively smaller and crazier nation-states." Our protagonist is Rudi, an Estonian chef working in Krakow and recruited to be part of Les Coureurs, a sort of a supra-national messenger service. His travels, travails and adventures take us from Krakow to Silesia to Potsdam, back to Estonia, then to London and finally to a game preserve near the Belarus - Poland border. It's the first book in the Fractured Europe series, of which there are three so far. It's a delightful diverting bit of fun.
11.15.2016
The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the LA Dodgers, Leahy - B -
At the dawn of the decade, baseball ruled the world of sports in America, a domination that was decades old and seemingly in place forever. The NFL and the NBA were the minor leagues. Baseball changed in the sixties and the focus of this book is on seven of the core players of the Dodgers teams that went to three World Series in four years and won two of them - Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski and Lou Johnson. The truth be told though, this book is not really about the 1960's or the Los Angeles Dodgers. This book is about the most legendary Dodger of all-time, number 32, Sandy Koufax.
Wills made it to the bigs in 1959 after eight years of race-baiting torture in the minors, having worked his way up from the D League. The MVP of the 1962 season had few friends on the team but was close to Sandy Koufax. They screened each other's hate mail, as being either black or Jewish wasn't particularly popular. The Brooklyn-born Koufax had joined the team as a 19-year-old 'bonus baby' in 1955. If bonus babies were sent to the minors, there was a chance another team could poach them. So, Koufax rode the pine in Brooklyn and LA and never got to learn his craft in the minors. The first half of his brief career was a struggle, but he blossomed into a star in 1962 and started game one at Yankee Stadium in the '63 Series. He struck out 15, a Series record, and took his first steps towards baseball immortality. Followed by Drysdale and Roebuck, he pitched game four of the first sweep of the Yankees since 1922.
Tommy Davis, a Brooklyn born and raised center fielder, was a star on the same team, while Dick Tracewski was a light hitting utility infielder from rural Pennsylvania. Joining them at Vero Beach in 1964 were two college graduates, first baseman Wes Parker from USC and catcher Jeff Torborg from Rutgers. The 1964 season saw the beginning of the end for Koufax's majestic left arm. He was in pain and struggling. Unlike today, that meant he was not rested to conserve the future, but rather over-used to assure current usefulness. It was not unusual for the Dodgers to pitch him on two days rest. By August, his season was over. A month later, LA would close a losing season in sixth place.
The Dodgers bounced back in 1965 even though Tommy Davis broke an ankle early in the season. He was replaced by journeyman Lou Johnson, a black man who swung ferociously at the ball because it was 'white'. Unlike all the black men on the Dodgers, Johnson didn't just roll with prejudice, he fought back, particularly with the racist locals at Vero Beach. The author had the good fortune to be at Chavez Ravine the night of Sept. 9th, 1965. Sandy Koufax's perfect game was viewed by a select few because O'Malley did not allow home games to be televised. In a pennant race for the ages, the Giants ran off a 14 game winning streak and the Dodgers won 15 of their last 16. Koufax pitched 335 innings. He started game 7 against the Twins on two days rest and notched his second shutout in three days. He had won a game 7 on the road and did it on a day he did not have his curveball. He pitched almost all fastballs.
One of the overriding themes of this book is how deceptive and mean-spirited GM Buzzie Bavasi was on behalf of the tight-fisted Walter O'Malley. Bavasi was in charge of annual salary 'negotiations' during which he insulted, intimidated and abused the men of one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled. Whether it was the mighty Koufax or the lowly Tracewski, Bavasi had in his back pocket baseball's reserve clause. If you wanted to play professional baseball, you played for the team that signed you and did so until you retired or they traded you. Not even Koufax, the 1963 Cy Young winner, World Series and regular season MVP had any leverage at all. The smiling, affable O'Malley was pulling in over two million in attendance every year, with a big league payroll of about $500,000. The author refers to his position as morally indefensible. After the performance of Drysdale and Koufax in 1965, Bavasi and O'Malley still thought it was business as usual.
The two pitchers held out 'together' and skipped spring training. The Dodgers buckled and paid Drysdale $110,000 and Koufax $125,000. That same spring, Marvin Miller started making his rounds and by the end of the season was the Executive Director of the Major League Players Association. Baseball was about to change. Koufax had already made up his mind. He was only thirty but he knew 1966 would have to be his final season. His arthritis was debilitating and he couldn't go on. He is the only pitcher to win the Cy Young in his final season and led the league in ERA, wins and strikeouts. However, the team was exhausted and barely won the pennant in the second game of a last day double header. Everyone was looking past the Series to a mandated month long, eighteen game trip to Japan with a $4000 pay day attached. O'Malley let Koufax and Drysdale and a few others out, but there had been an implied threat ; go, or run the risk of being traded. They were swept by the Orioles in the World Series, and shut out in the last three games. Maury Wills was so badly hurt that after four games in Japan, he left and returned to the US. In November, Koufax retired and O'Malley retaliated against Wills by sending him to Pittsburgh. It was over.
The players moved on, as did the franchise. The were, and still are one of the most valuable sports brands in the world. Drysdale became a Dodger announcer and died in his mid-fifties. Although feelings were rubbed raw at the end of their careers, both Maury Wills and Sandy Koufax remain regulars at spring training and at Chavez Ravine. As this was 'my' baseball team as a kid, I've enjoyed this.
Wills made it to the bigs in 1959 after eight years of race-baiting torture in the minors, having worked his way up from the D League. The MVP of the 1962 season had few friends on the team but was close to Sandy Koufax. They screened each other's hate mail, as being either black or Jewish wasn't particularly popular. The Brooklyn-born Koufax had joined the team as a 19-year-old 'bonus baby' in 1955. If bonus babies were sent to the minors, there was a chance another team could poach them. So, Koufax rode the pine in Brooklyn and LA and never got to learn his craft in the minors. The first half of his brief career was a struggle, but he blossomed into a star in 1962 and started game one at Yankee Stadium in the '63 Series. He struck out 15, a Series record, and took his first steps towards baseball immortality. Followed by Drysdale and Roebuck, he pitched game four of the first sweep of the Yankees since 1922.
Tommy Davis, a Brooklyn born and raised center fielder, was a star on the same team, while Dick Tracewski was a light hitting utility infielder from rural Pennsylvania. Joining them at Vero Beach in 1964 were two college graduates, first baseman Wes Parker from USC and catcher Jeff Torborg from Rutgers. The 1964 season saw the beginning of the end for Koufax's majestic left arm. He was in pain and struggling. Unlike today, that meant he was not rested to conserve the future, but rather over-used to assure current usefulness. It was not unusual for the Dodgers to pitch him on two days rest. By August, his season was over. A month later, LA would close a losing season in sixth place.
The Dodgers bounced back in 1965 even though Tommy Davis broke an ankle early in the season. He was replaced by journeyman Lou Johnson, a black man who swung ferociously at the ball because it was 'white'. Unlike all the black men on the Dodgers, Johnson didn't just roll with prejudice, he fought back, particularly with the racist locals at Vero Beach. The author had the good fortune to be at Chavez Ravine the night of Sept. 9th, 1965. Sandy Koufax's perfect game was viewed by a select few because O'Malley did not allow home games to be televised. In a pennant race for the ages, the Giants ran off a 14 game winning streak and the Dodgers won 15 of their last 16. Koufax pitched 335 innings. He started game 7 against the Twins on two days rest and notched his second shutout in three days. He had won a game 7 on the road and did it on a day he did not have his curveball. He pitched almost all fastballs.
One of the overriding themes of this book is how deceptive and mean-spirited GM Buzzie Bavasi was on behalf of the tight-fisted Walter O'Malley. Bavasi was in charge of annual salary 'negotiations' during which he insulted, intimidated and abused the men of one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled. Whether it was the mighty Koufax or the lowly Tracewski, Bavasi had in his back pocket baseball's reserve clause. If you wanted to play professional baseball, you played for the team that signed you and did so until you retired or they traded you. Not even Koufax, the 1963 Cy Young winner, World Series and regular season MVP had any leverage at all. The smiling, affable O'Malley was pulling in over two million in attendance every year, with a big league payroll of about $500,000. The author refers to his position as morally indefensible. After the performance of Drysdale and Koufax in 1965, Bavasi and O'Malley still thought it was business as usual.
The two pitchers held out 'together' and skipped spring training. The Dodgers buckled and paid Drysdale $110,000 and Koufax $125,000. That same spring, Marvin Miller started making his rounds and by the end of the season was the Executive Director of the Major League Players Association. Baseball was about to change. Koufax had already made up his mind. He was only thirty but he knew 1966 would have to be his final season. His arthritis was debilitating and he couldn't go on. He is the only pitcher to win the Cy Young in his final season and led the league in ERA, wins and strikeouts. However, the team was exhausted and barely won the pennant in the second game of a last day double header. Everyone was looking past the Series to a mandated month long, eighteen game trip to Japan with a $4000 pay day attached. O'Malley let Koufax and Drysdale and a few others out, but there had been an implied threat ; go, or run the risk of being traded. They were swept by the Orioles in the World Series, and shut out in the last three games. Maury Wills was so badly hurt that after four games in Japan, he left and returned to the US. In November, Koufax retired and O'Malley retaliated against Wills by sending him to Pittsburgh. It was over.
The players moved on, as did the franchise. The were, and still are one of the most valuable sports brands in the world. Drysdale became a Dodger announcer and died in his mid-fifties. Although feelings were rubbed raw at the end of their careers, both Maury Wills and Sandy Koufax remain regulars at spring training and at Chavez Ravine. As this was 'my' baseball team as a kid, I've enjoyed this.
11.11.2016
Revolution: The History Of England From The Glorious Revolution To Waterloo, Ackroyd - B
This, volume four of a wonderful history of England, opens with the succession of William of Orange, who brought to the throne in 1789 a detestation of France, who he had been fighting for over a decade and with whom he initiated a nine-year war that, on and off, would continue for over a century. The parallel theme of the book is the sorting out of power between the monarchy and Parliament, which had granted William a crown with considerable limitations, the antithesis of divine right. 'William's War' required financing, and Parliament created the world's first national bank when it passed The Bank of England Act. The establishment of the Bank of England is considered one of the seminal acts of the age, and was the financial foundation upon which England's ability to wage continual war and later build an empire was established.
Anne, the last Stuart, succeeded in 1702 and Parliament had already decreed that the crown would later pass to the Protestant House of Hanover. England and Scotland soon agreed to an Act of Union. Adam Smith later attributed the 1707 decision to the economics of creating the largest free trade area in the world. "In effect the treaty created a single sovereignty between the nations and a single parliament, including Scottish representatives, but it also preserved the Kirk, Scottish law and Scottish local administration." Soon thereafter, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ushered in an era of peace, established Great Britain as a world power and, a year later, the Protestant succession was forever assured when George I took the throne.
The 18th century saw a blossoming of growth that propelled England to its position as the world's leading country. Commerce began to boom, trade grew, the nascent industrial revolution began, towns around the country became cities, merchants became esteemed members of society, schools and hospitals were built, and the professions flourished. The fuel for these massive societal changes was something that England had an abundance of - coal. The UK had more coal than any nation in Europe, and a system that allowed its unfettered usage and deployment. Newspapers and magazines carried advertisements for consumer goods created by Joseph Wedgwood and many others. In 1776, Adam Smith introduced the world to the invisible hand of the marketplace in 'Wealth of Nations', setting forth ideas that would dominate social and economic thought for a century. There were many downsides though to industrialization and urbanization. Gin was mother's milk to many of the poor and a true curse upon society. There were 8,659 gin shops operating in London at mid-century. The Gin Act's attempt to restrain consumption led to riots. Only a crop failure that led to price increases slowed down gin's conquest of the city. As coal ash filled the sky and the waters, and as people flocked to the growing urban centers, there many more problems would follow.
Robert Walpole had managed the Commons and the government of George II by diligently pursuing peace. Not so the Great Commoner, William Pitt. Seventeen fifty-six saw the Seven Years War start because of conflicts in North America, and soon it spread around the world. "Pitt had a vision of England and of the nation's destiny, bound not by the narrow frontiers of Europe but by the global trading empire that would ensure the nation's commercial and naval supremacy." The Prussians defeated the French in Silesia and the British defeated them in Africa, India, Canada and the Indies as the decade closed. In the fall of 1760, George III began his sixty years on the throne. England did not have an imperial policy, but after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, it had an empire and the songs 'Rule Britannia' and 'God Save The King'. Matters quickly came a cropper. To pay for the war and future defense of the colonies in America, Parliament imposed taxes. After the Tea Party, the British punished the Bostonians, who pushed back, and soon there were shots heard around the world and revolution. The King and his ministers were convinced that they were entitled to tax and rule their colonies. There were many in the UK, particularly those underrepresented in Parliament or not represented at all, who agreed there should be no taxation without representation. American victory was assured after the victory at Saratoga garnered the support of France and Spain. In January of 1783, "Britain acknowledged the thirteen United states to be free, independent and sovereign". It was generally concluded that "it was better to trade with the Americans than attempt to rule them, and this salutary lesson became the single most important principle of the second British Empire.." It was much better to have a string of trading posts that "would be guarded by the navy in the world's first maritime empire."
It was industrialization, in conjunction with trade, that propelled the UK to the forefront of the world in every conceivable calculation of wealth and success. The steam engine harnessed 'power' for the first time and the English rocketed into the future. They created firsts in just about all manufactured goods and led the world in iron and steel production, textiles, food processing, brewing - everything. Why England? As mentioned above, England had abundant natural resources. The non-Anglican dissenters, particularly the Quakers and Methodists, had limited career opportunities and pursued the new opportunities with a vengeance. The government made no attempt to regulate or control the process. Capitalism was running unconstrained.
Revolutionary France declared war on the UK in early 1793 and the two nations would be at war, with a brief truce, until June 1815. The war would enshrine Nelson and Wellington in the pantheon of English immortals. Peace made the UK "the foremost power in terms of territory, and its empire included Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Australia and the Caribbean. It ruled, therefore, a large proportion of the earth's surface". Nonetheless, an exhausted nation, ruled by a King who had finally slipped into dementia in 1810, faced major political challenges in Ireland, cries for parliamentary reform, and the consequences of industrialization. That said the UK's greatest century was to follow.
Anne, the last Stuart, succeeded in 1702 and Parliament had already decreed that the crown would later pass to the Protestant House of Hanover. England and Scotland soon agreed to an Act of Union. Adam Smith later attributed the 1707 decision to the economics of creating the largest free trade area in the world. "In effect the treaty created a single sovereignty between the nations and a single parliament, including Scottish representatives, but it also preserved the Kirk, Scottish law and Scottish local administration." Soon thereafter, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ushered in an era of peace, established Great Britain as a world power and, a year later, the Protestant succession was forever assured when George I took the throne.
The 18th century saw a blossoming of growth that propelled England to its position as the world's leading country. Commerce began to boom, trade grew, the nascent industrial revolution began, towns around the country became cities, merchants became esteemed members of society, schools and hospitals were built, and the professions flourished. The fuel for these massive societal changes was something that England had an abundance of - coal. The UK had more coal than any nation in Europe, and a system that allowed its unfettered usage and deployment. Newspapers and magazines carried advertisements for consumer goods created by Joseph Wedgwood and many others. In 1776, Adam Smith introduced the world to the invisible hand of the marketplace in 'Wealth of Nations', setting forth ideas that would dominate social and economic thought for a century. There were many downsides though to industrialization and urbanization. Gin was mother's milk to many of the poor and a true curse upon society. There were 8,659 gin shops operating in London at mid-century. The Gin Act's attempt to restrain consumption led to riots. Only a crop failure that led to price increases slowed down gin's conquest of the city. As coal ash filled the sky and the waters, and as people flocked to the growing urban centers, there many more problems would follow.
Robert Walpole had managed the Commons and the government of George II by diligently pursuing peace. Not so the Great Commoner, William Pitt. Seventeen fifty-six saw the Seven Years War start because of conflicts in North America, and soon it spread around the world. "Pitt had a vision of England and of the nation's destiny, bound not by the narrow frontiers of Europe but by the global trading empire that would ensure the nation's commercial and naval supremacy." The Prussians defeated the French in Silesia and the British defeated them in Africa, India, Canada and the Indies as the decade closed. In the fall of 1760, George III began his sixty years on the throne. England did not have an imperial policy, but after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, it had an empire and the songs 'Rule Britannia' and 'God Save The King'. Matters quickly came a cropper. To pay for the war and future defense of the colonies in America, Parliament imposed taxes. After the Tea Party, the British punished the Bostonians, who pushed back, and soon there were shots heard around the world and revolution. The King and his ministers were convinced that they were entitled to tax and rule their colonies. There were many in the UK, particularly those underrepresented in Parliament or not represented at all, who agreed there should be no taxation without representation. American victory was assured after the victory at Saratoga garnered the support of France and Spain. In January of 1783, "Britain acknowledged the thirteen United states to be free, independent and sovereign". It was generally concluded that "it was better to trade with the Americans than attempt to rule them, and this salutary lesson became the single most important principle of the second British Empire.." It was much better to have a string of trading posts that "would be guarded by the navy in the world's first maritime empire."
It was industrialization, in conjunction with trade, that propelled the UK to the forefront of the world in every conceivable calculation of wealth and success. The steam engine harnessed 'power' for the first time and the English rocketed into the future. They created firsts in just about all manufactured goods and led the world in iron and steel production, textiles, food processing, brewing - everything. Why England? As mentioned above, England had abundant natural resources. The non-Anglican dissenters, particularly the Quakers and Methodists, had limited career opportunities and pursued the new opportunities with a vengeance. The government made no attempt to regulate or control the process. Capitalism was running unconstrained.
Revolutionary France declared war on the UK in early 1793 and the two nations would be at war, with a brief truce, until June 1815. The war would enshrine Nelson and Wellington in the pantheon of English immortals. Peace made the UK "the foremost power in terms of territory, and its empire included Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Australia and the Caribbean. It ruled, therefore, a large proportion of the earth's surface". Nonetheless, an exhausted nation, ruled by a King who had finally slipped into dementia in 1810, faced major political challenges in Ireland, cries for parliamentary reform, and the consequences of industrialization. That said the UK's greatest century was to follow.
Night School, Child - B
This Reacher goes back in time to the end of his Army career, specifically 1997. I wonder if we will be seeing more of this from Lee Child. He gives up Jack's year of birth, 1962, placing Reacher deep into the AARP crowd. How long can a guy in his mid-fifties live Jack's rogue, revenger lifestyle. In this one, Jack is assigned to an NSC joint-op involving the CIA and FBI in a hunt for Muslim terrorists in Hamburg. Throw in some ultra-nationalist Germans and there's plenty of muck for Jack to straighten out. There's probably a lot more deduction than force here - but, as usual, a great and timely escape.
11.08.2016
The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Connelly - B +
The author, who is now 60 and Harry, who is old enough to have fought in Vietnam (but I can't quite piece together how late in that war), both get better with age. Harry is completely finished with the LAPD, doing some P.I. work, and a volunteer reserve officer with a small LA area jurisdiction police department. He winds up working a very interesting private case involving a missing heir as well as a tough case for the San Fernando PD. His insights save the day, and more importantly, Connelly's skills now tell great stories without some of the frightening background that was featured in the earlier books. Connelly worked the police beat for the L.A. Times and paints an always sublime picture of the city.
10.29.2016
The Whistler, Grisham - B +
The reviewers are saying that Grisham is back on his form. I've never felt that he stumbled, although the book from two years ago was weaker than most. That said, he continues his marvelous career of entertaining us with legal thrillers. This time we have a heroine who works for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. Of course there is way more involved than a crooked judge: disbarred lawyers, an embittered court reporter, bad cops, hit men, a mastermind and a slew of Indians some very bad, some good, and their Casino, the source of a lot of cash and a lot of trouble. Perhaps, the best thing though, is that the bad guys always get hoisted on their own petards and the good guys win (often with a cash reward).
10.24.2016
The Invention Of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom To Putin's War, Ostrovsky - C
The book tells the story of how Russia has evolved into a mirror of the old USSR. The author, a Cambridge PhD. and native Russian states that "old fashioned nationalism in neo-Stalinist garb" has taken over the Russian Federation. It is a disheartening tale and he lays much of the responsibility at the feet of the media: the journalists, editors and television executives in charge of the "message". Russia has long been a society where language and communication are the foundations of power. The western-like media of the 1990's slowly became part of the establishment. The first thing Putin did was to take control of television, and it is through the visual medium that he controls the state today.
The USSR fell, not because of outward pressures, but because the lies that upheld the state were exposed and undermined by glasnost. The newspapers in the big cities, along with television, were partially freed when censorship was loosened after Chernobyl in 1986. As glasnost and perestroika freed up the political system but failed to put food on the shelves, the failure of Gorbachev's reforms were out front for all to see. The 1989 Party Congress was the first ever televised and featured speaker after speaker calling for the abolition of the Communist Party. Television showed the breaching of the Berlin Wall, and two years later, the arrival of tanks at the Russian White House, heralding the coup against Gorbachev. Televising Yeltsin standing on those tanks ended the coup, but since neither Yeltsin nor Gorbachev had a plan for the post-Communist era, the USSR soon ended in ignominy.
As matters fell apart in the early 1990's, America and its insidious influences were an obvious rallying point for Russian nationalists. "The disintegration of Soviet Empire was blamed on the west..." The nationalists and communists attempted a coup in late 1993 and almost succeeded. Yeltsin managed to hold them off. Soon thereafter, NTV took off as Russia's first totally free from interference news station and made a name for itself during the First Chechnya War. The people followed NTV and not the official Channel One. Knowing that a Communist election victory would put them out of business, NTV cast Yeltsin favorably in his remarkable 1996 election comeback victory. They had been backed by the oligarchs who soon started to shower the NTV journalists with cars, flats and cash. Igor Malashenko, the man who ran NTV and the man who had defeated the war party in the Kremlin and the Communists in the election, was offered the Premiership by Yeltsin. A liberal forward thinking journalist turned the succession offer down and has lived to regret his decision ever since. The job eventually went to Vladimir Putin instead.
In 1999, Chechen terror attacks in Russia's big cities propelled Putin to the top. Touring devastated buildings, he assured Russia on tv news that this would be stopped. He acceded to the Presidency on the eve of the new millennium and assured people he would restore, and make great again, the Russian state. This is what 55% of them wished to hear. Within days of his winning reelection in March 2000, NTV's offices were raided. Within a year, a new iteration of the station was his mouthpiece. Throughout his decade and-a-half at the top, he has ruled ruthlessly and always with an eye toward how it plays on television.
At the end of the day, this book is written by a Russian, and although the language is English, I suspect he targeted audience is Russian. There's way too much detail on way too many characters in the media industry. The most telling take-away for me is that the 1990's were not a time of detente that Putin later revoked. It was just a truce in the ongoing animosity toward America that is a core creed of the Russian mind.
The USSR fell, not because of outward pressures, but because the lies that upheld the state were exposed and undermined by glasnost. The newspapers in the big cities, along with television, were partially freed when censorship was loosened after Chernobyl in 1986. As glasnost and perestroika freed up the political system but failed to put food on the shelves, the failure of Gorbachev's reforms were out front for all to see. The 1989 Party Congress was the first ever televised and featured speaker after speaker calling for the abolition of the Communist Party. Television showed the breaching of the Berlin Wall, and two years later, the arrival of tanks at the Russian White House, heralding the coup against Gorbachev. Televising Yeltsin standing on those tanks ended the coup, but since neither Yeltsin nor Gorbachev had a plan for the post-Communist era, the USSR soon ended in ignominy.
As matters fell apart in the early 1990's, America and its insidious influences were an obvious rallying point for Russian nationalists. "The disintegration of Soviet Empire was blamed on the west..." The nationalists and communists attempted a coup in late 1993 and almost succeeded. Yeltsin managed to hold them off. Soon thereafter, NTV took off as Russia's first totally free from interference news station and made a name for itself during the First Chechnya War. The people followed NTV and not the official Channel One. Knowing that a Communist election victory would put them out of business, NTV cast Yeltsin favorably in his remarkable 1996 election comeback victory. They had been backed by the oligarchs who soon started to shower the NTV journalists with cars, flats and cash. Igor Malashenko, the man who ran NTV and the man who had defeated the war party in the Kremlin and the Communists in the election, was offered the Premiership by Yeltsin. A liberal forward thinking journalist turned the succession offer down and has lived to regret his decision ever since. The job eventually went to Vladimir Putin instead.
In 1999, Chechen terror attacks in Russia's big cities propelled Putin to the top. Touring devastated buildings, he assured Russia on tv news that this would be stopped. He acceded to the Presidency on the eve of the new millennium and assured people he would restore, and make great again, the Russian state. This is what 55% of them wished to hear. Within days of his winning reelection in March 2000, NTV's offices were raided. Within a year, a new iteration of the station was his mouthpiece. Throughout his decade and-a-half at the top, he has ruled ruthlessly and always with an eye toward how it plays on television.
At the end of the day, this book is written by a Russian, and although the language is English, I suspect he targeted audience is Russian. There's way too much detail on way too many characters in the media industry. The most telling take-away for me is that the 1990's were not a time of detente that Putin later revoked. It was just a truce in the ongoing animosity toward America that is a core creed of the Russian mind.
The Venice Girl, Smith - C
After all these years, Martin Cruz Smith is still at it, and this time the setting is Venice in the spring of 1945. Cenzo is a fisherman who pulls an apparently dead young woman out of the lagoon one night. However, Giulia is alive, Jewish and on the run. At his dock, an SS officer tries to grab her and Cenzo skulls the officer, disposes of his body, and all of a sudden, is hip deep in the war and managing a big problem. The plot moves to beyond unbelievable when the local fascists send Cenzo to Salo, capital of whatever is left of Mussolini's world. The few insights on the last week in Salo are the only saving graces of this novel.
10.18.2016
The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran, Cooper - B
The author tells the history of the thirty-seven year reign of the last Shah and its climactic end. He asserts that the Shah's excesses have been greatly exaggerated, that he was a force for stability and modernity. He transformed a nation, built the infrastructure of a modern country, took his people out of poverty and ignorance, created one of the most powerful militaries in the world, fostered the rights of woman and engineered the 1973 oil embargo, which transferred the wealth of the west to the oil powers of OPEC. He believes that what has transpired since his ousting is a travesty, responsible for much of the regional debacle that is the Middle-East.
Mohammad Reza Khan, son of a Cossack brigadier in the service of the Shah, was born in 1919. His father overthrew the government in 1921, appointed himself Prime Minister in 1923 and Shah a few years later. The dynasty was called Pahlavi. Mohammad attended boarding school in Switzerland while his father began the modernization of the rural and impoverished but proud Shia monarchy. He returned after five years in the west and took the throne in September, 1941, a month after an Anglo-Russian invasion led to his father's abdication. As Shah, he accepted a socialist Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq, who allied with the Shiite clergy and nationalized Britain's Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. The UK was nearly bankrupted by this turn of events and sought to overturn the decision. The Truman administration demurred. However, Eisenhower and Dulles were much more anxious and concerned about the USSR taking over Iran's oil. The Shah approved the 1953 CIA-inspired coup that deposed Mossadeq and at that point, decided to rule rather than just reign. One of his first acts was to accede to an American takeover of Iran's oil industry.
Iran's long history of Shiite clerical extremism exploded into street violence in 1963. Mohammad Shah was implementing policies of land reform and modernization of the lives of women and children and ran smack into the extremist Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Shiite radical called for demonstrations, and it took the imposition of martial law to quell the violence in the streets. Throughout the decade, the plans to improve and modernize the country, called the White Revolution, proceeded apace funded by massive amounts of oil revenue. But the unrest and opposition to the Shah's American inspired totalitarianism never wavered and in fact increased as time went on. The Shah was seen as despotic, and Khomeini as the "Iranian Che Guevara", even though his personality was that of a right wing "medieval tyrant". One of the regime's many problems was corruption in and around the extended Pahlavi family. A weak man unable to confront his siblings and their families, the Shah let it go. He surrounded himself with sycophants and lost track of the realities of the country he purportedly ruled. In 1971 as the Shah celebrated the 2500 year anniversary of the Persian state and King Cyrus the Great, Khomeini, exiled in Iraq, first called for the abolition of the monarchy for being incompatible with Islam.
The Shah led OPEC's doubling of the price of oil in response to US support of Israel in the 1973 war with Egypt. Iran's oil receipts went from approximately $4B per year to $20B, and the Shah plowed the money back into the improvements across society that were his focus. The more money put into the country, the worse matters got between the middle class and the monarchy. Fearful of westernized modernization, the people turned to traditional religion. The Shah's attempt to liberalize political life also backfired, because it exposed the corruption in and around the regime. For as many women as he educated and took out of the past, just as many took the veil.
The year 1978 was the last full one of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign. It opened on a high note with a New Year's Eve visit from the US president. Within weeks, there was a massive pushback from the clerics and the revolutionaries when the security forces published a letter criticizing Khomeini. There was blood in the streets. Those who could afford it were buying real estate in Europe and America, particularly in California. Foreign observers were torn; the US Ambassador thought he would last, and the Israeli's advised Tel Aviv to start looking for a different source of oil and to prepare to extradite the many construction workers in Iran. In August, Khomeini's revolutionaries launched full-scale riots and fire-bombings in every city in the country. Terrorism, regardless of who propagates it, is terrible, vicious and violent, but Khomeini's men were outright brutal extremists. The tactics of revolutionaries are often similar and here, by combining violence with propaganda and lies, one is reminded of the Bolsheviks in 1917. The Shah was shocked at his people's ingratitude and made slight changes to the regime that were comparable to the old cliche about shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. In September, he told his inner circle, "If my people don't want me, I won't stay by force." If I may continue the Bolshevik comparison, Khomeini was a minority within a minority. The majority of the clergy were vehemently opposed to his extremism. In November, martial law was imposed, but like every other response from the Shah, it was weak and ineffective. Inscrutable, indecisive, determined not to shed his people's blood and wracked with cancer, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Tehran for the last time on January 6, 1979.
Khomeini returned from exile and implemented the Islamic Republic. A reign of terror followed. By the middle of 1980, the Shah was dead. The Carter administration which dithered throughout the crisis and had been hampered by horrible analysis on the ground in Tehran and at the CIA was out of office within two years.
This has been an excellent read and learning experience. I should remember more about Iran and all that happened there, but I don't. The second oil shock had a major impact on finances and life in America. Interest rates were sky high, the economy was in a stall and there were lines at the gas stations. I remember the Iran Air terminal at JFK going from being packed to a ghost town in 1978.
One disappointment in this narrative is the very limited discussion about geo-political matters. The Cold War barely rates a mention. Since Iran bordered the USSR, this seems to be a bit of an oversight. Similarly, Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni competitor, is discussed only tangentially. The only review at length that I can find was in the Times. The reviewer, an Iranian journalist, feels that Cooper went too easy on the Shah and understated the severity of the security forces. Since the author does not do a very good job explaining the disconnect between a regime that poured money into a society that hated said regime, perhaps the NYT reviewer is correct.
Mohammad Reza Khan, son of a Cossack brigadier in the service of the Shah, was born in 1919. His father overthrew the government in 1921, appointed himself Prime Minister in 1923 and Shah a few years later. The dynasty was called Pahlavi. Mohammad attended boarding school in Switzerland while his father began the modernization of the rural and impoverished but proud Shia monarchy. He returned after five years in the west and took the throne in September, 1941, a month after an Anglo-Russian invasion led to his father's abdication. As Shah, he accepted a socialist Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq, who allied with the Shiite clergy and nationalized Britain's Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. The UK was nearly bankrupted by this turn of events and sought to overturn the decision. The Truman administration demurred. However, Eisenhower and Dulles were much more anxious and concerned about the USSR taking over Iran's oil. The Shah approved the 1953 CIA-inspired coup that deposed Mossadeq and at that point, decided to rule rather than just reign. One of his first acts was to accede to an American takeover of Iran's oil industry.
Iran's long history of Shiite clerical extremism exploded into street violence in 1963. Mohammad Shah was implementing policies of land reform and modernization of the lives of women and children and ran smack into the extremist Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Shiite radical called for demonstrations, and it took the imposition of martial law to quell the violence in the streets. Throughout the decade, the plans to improve and modernize the country, called the White Revolution, proceeded apace funded by massive amounts of oil revenue. But the unrest and opposition to the Shah's American inspired totalitarianism never wavered and in fact increased as time went on. The Shah was seen as despotic, and Khomeini as the "Iranian Che Guevara", even though his personality was that of a right wing "medieval tyrant". One of the regime's many problems was corruption in and around the extended Pahlavi family. A weak man unable to confront his siblings and their families, the Shah let it go. He surrounded himself with sycophants and lost track of the realities of the country he purportedly ruled. In 1971 as the Shah celebrated the 2500 year anniversary of the Persian state and King Cyrus the Great, Khomeini, exiled in Iraq, first called for the abolition of the monarchy for being incompatible with Islam.
The Shah led OPEC's doubling of the price of oil in response to US support of Israel in the 1973 war with Egypt. Iran's oil receipts went from approximately $4B per year to $20B, and the Shah plowed the money back into the improvements across society that were his focus. The more money put into the country, the worse matters got between the middle class and the monarchy. Fearful of westernized modernization, the people turned to traditional religion. The Shah's attempt to liberalize political life also backfired, because it exposed the corruption in and around the regime. For as many women as he educated and took out of the past, just as many took the veil.
The year 1978 was the last full one of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign. It opened on a high note with a New Year's Eve visit from the US president. Within weeks, there was a massive pushback from the clerics and the revolutionaries when the security forces published a letter criticizing Khomeini. There was blood in the streets. Those who could afford it were buying real estate in Europe and America, particularly in California. Foreign observers were torn; the US Ambassador thought he would last, and the Israeli's advised Tel Aviv to start looking for a different source of oil and to prepare to extradite the many construction workers in Iran. In August, Khomeini's revolutionaries launched full-scale riots and fire-bombings in every city in the country. Terrorism, regardless of who propagates it, is terrible, vicious and violent, but Khomeini's men were outright brutal extremists. The tactics of revolutionaries are often similar and here, by combining violence with propaganda and lies, one is reminded of the Bolsheviks in 1917. The Shah was shocked at his people's ingratitude and made slight changes to the regime that were comparable to the old cliche about shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. In September, he told his inner circle, "If my people don't want me, I won't stay by force." If I may continue the Bolshevik comparison, Khomeini was a minority within a minority. The majority of the clergy were vehemently opposed to his extremism. In November, martial law was imposed, but like every other response from the Shah, it was weak and ineffective. Inscrutable, indecisive, determined not to shed his people's blood and wracked with cancer, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Tehran for the last time on January 6, 1979.
Khomeini returned from exile and implemented the Islamic Republic. A reign of terror followed. By the middle of 1980, the Shah was dead. The Carter administration which dithered throughout the crisis and had been hampered by horrible analysis on the ground in Tehran and at the CIA was out of office within two years.
This has been an excellent read and learning experience. I should remember more about Iran and all that happened there, but I don't. The second oil shock had a major impact on finances and life in America. Interest rates were sky high, the economy was in a stall and there were lines at the gas stations. I remember the Iran Air terminal at JFK going from being packed to a ghost town in 1978.
One disappointment in this narrative is the very limited discussion about geo-political matters. The Cold War barely rates a mention. Since Iran bordered the USSR, this seems to be a bit of an oversight. Similarly, Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni competitor, is discussed only tangentially. The only review at length that I can find was in the Times. The reviewer, an Iranian journalist, feels that Cooper went too easy on the Shah and understated the severity of the security forces. Since the author does not do a very good job explaining the disconnect between a regime that poured money into a society that hated said regime, perhaps the NYT reviewer is correct.
10.15.2016
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven, Cleave - B-
This is a superb WW2 novel recommended to me by Dennis Grindinger. It is set in London and Malta, involves a handful of intersecting lives, the Blitz and the siege of Malta. The lead character is a young woman, daughter of an MP, fiercely independent, and terribly witty school teacher. There's a well-done telling of the evacuation of children from London and the actual bombings that haunted the city in the second year of the war. Mary North teaches the down-and-out and later serves as an ambulance driver. The book effectively conveys the anguish of being constantly bombed for the year of the Blitz. Malta was under siege for two-and-a-half years. Through the eyes of Alistair Heath, London based restorer of pictures at the Tate and somewhat reluctant artillery officer, we get a sense of what is like to starve on a rock in the middle of the sea and suffer the same incessant, endless bombing that was going on at home. Men are constantly killed, supplies are occasional and for a very, very long time, there is no end in sight. This is a fine read.
10.09.2016
Belgravia, Fellowes - C +
I did not know that the famed creator of 'Downton Abbey' was also a novelist. For reasons unremembered, I downloaded this and sincerely wish I had done my usual research. Although set in the London of the 1840's and with some pretense toward being a historical novel, it is but a soap opera. I guess I can only conclude that soaps are much more interesting on PBS than in written form.
10.03.2016
The Edge of Empire: Journey to Britannia: From the Heart of Rome to Hadrian's Wall, Riley - B
This hypothetical travelogue is told through the eyes of Julius Severus, who the Emperor Hadrian appointed as governor of Britain in AD 130. The-newly appointed were expected to leave Rome by April 1 in order to be at their new assignment around July 1. The first leg was a day-long trip to the Tiber ports on the Mediterranean. From there, his ship hugged the coast and sailed for a week to Narbonne, a port on the coast of Gaul. Overland transport brought our second century traveler to Lyon, chief city of the province. It then took approximately two weeks to reach the channel port of Boulogne, home of a Roman fleet. Crossing to Dover was a 6-8 hour sail. It took one full day to reach Londinium from the coast. London was the capital of the province and the seat of the Roman government. As Britain was a frontier province, military affairs were paramount and it was necessary to head west to Wales and north to Scotland. However, a day's ride from London, on the way to Wales, was the most Roman of towns and temples on the island. Due to the underground springs, the thermal baths in Bath were surrounded by extraordinary buildings and temples. The baths of Bath were so spectacular that they actually rivaled those in Rome. On to the west and north went Severus as he approached the true end of the earth. Hadrian's Wall stretched from coast to coast and delineated Pax Romana and all it stood for against the barbarism to the north. At this northwestern most point of the Roman Empire, Severus was approximately 2,000 miles from the Empire's eastern reaches on the Black Sea. Perhaps that is just one of the many reasons the Empire's success still fascinates us two millennia later. This is a brief and enjoyable read. It's hard to characterize: part history, travel guide, commercial treatise, cultural guidebook, social commentary and geography lesson. In any event, I feel it's been fun.
So Say The Fallen, Neville - C +
The author is from Belfast, and all of his previous half-a-dozen or so novels have dealt with the Troubles. I've viewed him a master of taut tension, the explainer of the hate between the Catholics and Protestants, a storyteller of the violence and bitterness that is Northern Ireland. Everything about this title implies that that was where he was again headed. Here though, he attempts to write a 'Crime and Punishment' about a Protestant priest who, goaded by the affections of a beautiful woman, does in her bedridden husband, a survivor of a car crash that left him a double amputee. Father McKay tortures himself until he too meets a grisly end. The last third of the book focuses on the travails of the woman detective trying to sort it all out. All in all, I guess it's not that bad, just not what I was expecting
9.28.2016
The Wolf Of Sarajevo, Palmer - B
In his third book, Palmer turns to the Balkans, specifically Bosnia-Herzegovina, a hell hole of religious and ethnic conflict decades after the Dayton Accords. The Bosnian Muslims, the Croatian Catholics and the Serbian Orthodox Christians hate each other and the fact that they are tied together in an ungovernable artificial state. The focus of the story is an attempt by the UN to broker a deal to avoid a second conflagration. Opposed are the Serbs in a province looking to create havoc and secede from B-H. The Serbian leader has turned against the deal, because he is being blackmailed. Who is blackmailing him? Whose side is the State Dept. on? Even more important - whose side is the CIA on? This is a solid read with a goodly amount of historical background provided. Whenever reading about the Balkans, their blood-soaked history going back centuries, Turk versus Christian, Hapsburgs v. Ottomans, and everybody lost in medieval superstition and hatred, I think of Bismarck. The Iron Chancellor purportedly stated that the Balkans weren't worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.
9.23.2016
Secrets of State, Palmer - B -
Obviously, I've gone straight to the author's second book. This one is set in Washington, D.C. and Mumbai (Bombay). The background information is on the conflict in Kashmir and the now almost seventy years of contretemps between India and Pakistan. A behind-the-scenes American group called the Stoics (think of a Tom Hanks or John Travolta movie about blue-blood movers and shakers in a 200-year-old organization with ulterior and evil secret motives) is planning on using a Pakistan nuclear terror incident on the sub-continent to 'snatch' the Pakistan nuclear arsenal. This one feels a bit too speculative to be truly good.
9.21.2016
The American Mission, Palmer - B +
This is the debut novel from a few years ago by a career Foreign Service officer. The book has two protagonists: Alex Baines of the State Dept. and Marie Tsiolo, a Congolese mining engineer. The setting is the Congo of about a decade ago, a country in the hands of a corrupt president and an American mining company that is totally without conscience or morals. Baines and Tsiolo save her village from Consolidated Mining's plans to strip mine an entire valley. Along the way, they join forces with a spurious CIA agent and a local warlord and oust the president in a bloodless coup.
I must admit that I pay little attention to sub-Saharan Africa and know next to nothing about all of the horror in that part of the world. This is a well-written thriller that along the way sheds some light on the conflicts as well as the culture of the region.
I must admit that I pay little attention to sub-Saharan Africa and know next to nothing about all of the horror in that part of the world. This is a well-written thriller that along the way sheds some light on the conflicts as well as the culture of the region.
9.16.2016
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Isenberg - B -
This book is about the history of class in America. It refutes the theory and founding myth that the United Sates is a classless society. The underclass has been part of our history from the beginning. English decision makers viewed the New World "as a giant rubbish heap" and the place to send their undesirables. "Expendable people -waste people- would be unloaded from England; their labor would germinate a distant wasteland." Criminals, indentured servants and lower-class discharged soldiers were more plentiful than the yeoman classes that crossed the ocean. This was less so in the Bay Colony, where many intact families migrated, but was certainly so in Virginia, Georgia and the Carolina's. Indeed, North Carolina was populated by people drifting south from Virginia and living in and around the Dismal Swamp. It is characterized as "the first white trash colony". Georgia was actually "founded as a charitable venture, designed to uplift poor families and to reform debtors". Although 1776 saw the venerable phrase that "all men are created equal", Jefferson believed and lived in a very structured world in which he was very much part of the gentry. He agreed with Washington who said "only the lower class of people should serve as foot soldiers". Class distinctions were alive, well and embedded in the new nation. As people poured into the trans-Appalachian frontier, the terms 'squatter' and 'cracker' entered the lexicon to describe the impoverished, landless settlers of the early 19th century. "Over the two decades leading up to Andrew Jackson's election as president, the squatter and cracker gradually became America's dominant poor back country breed." "From the foothills of the Appalachians into the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the nation leaned backward. The squatter was frozen in time. His primitive hut represented his underclass cage."
As the Civil War approached, the appellation 'white trash' came to apply to southerners stuck in a cycle of poverty, who were believed to have been marginalized because all the quality land was tilled by slaves. In contrast, northerners had opportunities through access to land because their soil was 'free'. The south was littered with an underclass unable to climb out of the hopelessly sordid world they lived in and looked down on by all. After the war, the term 'redneck' came into use. "It defined the rowdy and racist followers of the New South's high profile demagogues of the late 19th and early 20th centuries." The condition of the uneducated, often ill with diseases like hookworm and pellagra, white trash led to the eugenics movement, which peaked in the late 1920's. The New Deal tried to tackle poverty in the south and programs like Rural Electrification and the TVA made some headway. The Civil Rights conflicts of the 50's and 60's pitted the poor white redneck against the poor black. Orval Faubus and George Wallace played what the author calls 'the redneck card' throughout their careers. LBJ's Great Society's war on poverty attempted to tackle the similar problems of the nation's blacks and the Appalachian whites.
In the final chapters of the book, Isenberg presents the thesis she calls 'redneck chic' discussing Jimmy Carter, Tammy Faye Baker and Dolly Parton. In the 80's and 90's, "a growing chorus sought to clean up the image, to make 'redneck' a term of endearment". Like Johnson, and to some extent Carter before him, Bill Clinton epitomized the American Dream by rising from southern poverty to the pinnacle of success. However, as a member of the class of poor southerners, he was an easy target for the hatred that poured out of the conservative right. He had not the class of Reagan or Bush - a pauper had replaced princes. "Beltway reporters said they had never seen such vitriol before." Starr went after him over Lewinsky because "he had been caught in a tawdry sexual escapade suited for a trailer park". Notwithstanding the thrashing Clinton took, redneck chic survives as evidenced by innumerable reality tv shows featuring, well, rednecks.
Today, the vast amount of poor whites vote against their self-interest because the power elites have convinced them that they are unique and victims of the liberal establishment. "We are a country that imagines itself as democratic, and yet the majority has never cared for equality. " "White trash is a central, but disturbing thread in our national narrative." "They are who we are and have been a fundamental part of our history, whether we like it or not."
This book is a highly acclaimed bestseller. However, there has been some criticism. The 'Atlantic' reviewer disapproved of her failure to address poor whites outside of the deep south. Similarly, a NY Times reviewer asked about the downtrodden Asian immigrants, who were subject to similar insults and prejudice. I also have a few concerns. For the non-academic, forays into philosophy and political theory tend to dull one's attention. At times, I kept wondering where the book was going and what the point was of many chapters. I had also hoped to see this book address the evolution of the Scots-Irish in America and she barely touches the topic. In one of the more noteworthy books I have ever read, the author of 'Albion's Seed' sets out the religious, cultural, social and economic consequences of five different migrations from the United Kingdom. The fifth and largest group treated in that book are the Scots-Irish, described as border people in the UK, used to fighting and clan warfare and the backbone of the American 19th century westward settlers and the US military. In the end, Im not recommending this one.
As the Civil War approached, the appellation 'white trash' came to apply to southerners stuck in a cycle of poverty, who were believed to have been marginalized because all the quality land was tilled by slaves. In contrast, northerners had opportunities through access to land because their soil was 'free'. The south was littered with an underclass unable to climb out of the hopelessly sordid world they lived in and looked down on by all. After the war, the term 'redneck' came into use. "It defined the rowdy and racist followers of the New South's high profile demagogues of the late 19th and early 20th centuries." The condition of the uneducated, often ill with diseases like hookworm and pellagra, white trash led to the eugenics movement, which peaked in the late 1920's. The New Deal tried to tackle poverty in the south and programs like Rural Electrification and the TVA made some headway. The Civil Rights conflicts of the 50's and 60's pitted the poor white redneck against the poor black. Orval Faubus and George Wallace played what the author calls 'the redneck card' throughout their careers. LBJ's Great Society's war on poverty attempted to tackle the similar problems of the nation's blacks and the Appalachian whites.
In the final chapters of the book, Isenberg presents the thesis she calls 'redneck chic' discussing Jimmy Carter, Tammy Faye Baker and Dolly Parton. In the 80's and 90's, "a growing chorus sought to clean up the image, to make 'redneck' a term of endearment". Like Johnson, and to some extent Carter before him, Bill Clinton epitomized the American Dream by rising from southern poverty to the pinnacle of success. However, as a member of the class of poor southerners, he was an easy target for the hatred that poured out of the conservative right. He had not the class of Reagan or Bush - a pauper had replaced princes. "Beltway reporters said they had never seen such vitriol before." Starr went after him over Lewinsky because "he had been caught in a tawdry sexual escapade suited for a trailer park". Notwithstanding the thrashing Clinton took, redneck chic survives as evidenced by innumerable reality tv shows featuring, well, rednecks.
Today, the vast amount of poor whites vote against their self-interest because the power elites have convinced them that they are unique and victims of the liberal establishment. "We are a country that imagines itself as democratic, and yet the majority has never cared for equality. " "White trash is a central, but disturbing thread in our national narrative." "They are who we are and have been a fundamental part of our history, whether we like it or not."
This book is a highly acclaimed bestseller. However, there has been some criticism. The 'Atlantic' reviewer disapproved of her failure to address poor whites outside of the deep south. Similarly, a NY Times reviewer asked about the downtrodden Asian immigrants, who were subject to similar insults and prejudice. I also have a few concerns. For the non-academic, forays into philosophy and political theory tend to dull one's attention. At times, I kept wondering where the book was going and what the point was of many chapters. I had also hoped to see this book address the evolution of the Scots-Irish in America and she barely touches the topic. In one of the more noteworthy books I have ever read, the author of 'Albion's Seed' sets out the religious, cultural, social and economic consequences of five different migrations from the United Kingdom. The fifth and largest group treated in that book are the Scots-Irish, described as border people in the UK, used to fighting and clan warfare and the backbone of the American 19th century westward settlers and the US military. In the end, Im not recommending this one.
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