February 27, 1933 was the night of the Reichstag fire and arguably, the end of German democracy and the Weimar Republic. The next day, the Cabinet approved and President von Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree giving the Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, dictatorial powers to fight a communist conspiracy. The Germany of Weimar had been a bastion of freedom, electoral rights, flourishing arts, creative music and theater, manufacturing and science. But, all of those positives eventually failed. "The Nazis were a response to an overwhelming triumph of global liberal capitalism at the end of the Great War." The war had cost the country the lives of 2 million men and saddled it with reparations and economic chaos. Not enough people were willing to move on and attempt to rejoin the world community.
Germany was met with abdication, armistice and revolution in November, 1918. "The German Army was stabbed in the back" was a statement made by von Hindenburg to an investigative committee in 1919. It would be the battle cry of the right for decades. It was a theme Hitler picked up when he began his public speaking career in Munich. The 1923 Beer Hall Putsch brought Hitler fame and afforded him the opportunity to write Mein Kampf. In the second half of the decade, Germany successfully negotiated a treaty to establish its borders, joined the League of Nations and restructured its debt. Its role as pariah began to fade. Domestically though, the country was falling apart."Divisions, increasingly bitter, increasingly irreconcilable, in matters of politics, religion, social class, occupation and region, were the hallmarks of the Weimar Republic." The Communists were opposed to the Social Democrats and the Nazis and vice versa. Everyone had militias that fought with the police. There was a distinct urban/rural divide capped by an antipathy for Berlin around the country. Insurgencies on the right and left, as well as the military and big business wished to either eliminate or emasculate the Reichstag. The structure of the Reichstag allowed parties seats based on their percentage of the vote in national elections. This led to multiple parties unable to form governing coalitions because of their inherent tribalism and inability to consider compromise.
Elections in 1930 gave the Nazis 107 seats with 18.3% of the vote, up from 12 seats and 2.6% two years earlier. They had made a major inroad into the centrist Protestant parties, whose voters feared communism. Germany had the largest Communist party outside of the USSR. It followed Stalin's instructions and German stability was not one of his goals. Hitler realized that he might achieve power through legitimate electoral means. The Depression played into his hands. Germany was still struggling with reparations, making the global world order their enemy. Throw in the antipathy toward the 80,000 eastern European Jews who had settled in the country after the Great War as fuel for the Nazi fire. The Depression deepened so in 1931 that Germans were going hungry and comparing circumstances to the war years. The dysfunctional system led to endless elections, and in 1931, the Nazis moved up to 230 seats. Emboldened by their success, Hitler unleashed the SA and planned to use his Reichstag seats to impeach von Hindenburg. "The intransigencies of Germany's political parties, especially the right-wingers, and several years of miscalculation by President Hindenburg, Brining, Schleicher and Papen, had thrown German politics into a full-blown crisis. The Nazis knew they could not come to power against the establishment. But, neither could the establishment go on without the Nazi's." Hitler would not accept any offers for a coalition government without him as Chancellor. Everyone kept trying solutions, but Hindenburg, who viewed the "Austrian private" as perhaps qualified to be the postal minister, refused. He eventually gave in and offered the position to Hitler on Jan.30, 1933. It took Hitler and the Nazis the next eighteen months, until von Hindenburg's death, to consolidate their power and lead Germany and much of Europe into the abyss.
This is a very interesting book and a fascinating reminder once again about how determined minorities can take over countries and impose their will on others. The author, by focusing on the global order and a populist pushback, draws the obvious comparison to the 21st century in Europe and America. The stumbling block for me to thoroughly enjoying this has been the Constitution of the Weimar Republic. I do not wish for more explanation of it because I'm not sure it would have helped me wrap my mind around the process and the problems.
12.31.2018
12.29.2018
Rome: A History In Seven Sackings, Kneale - B
The seven sackings of the subtitle are the Gauls, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Normans, Hapsburgs, French and Nazis. In the year 387 BC, about 10 miles north of the city, an army of the Republic, less than 10,000 men, prepared for an attack by the Gauls. Although the Romans were organized and disciplined, they fell before the savage ferocity of the invaders. The Gauls soon descended on a city that was home to about 25,000 people. According to Livy, whom the author suggests simply synthesized tales and myths into history, the Romans defended the city, and bought their freedom from the marauders for 1,000 pounds of gold. Afterward, they built a new wall and reorganized the army.
Rome reigned supreme for over seven centuries until the 4th century AD. The Visigoths in 378 crushed a Roman army at Adrianople and killed the Emperor Valens. Led by Alaric, they sacked Athens, and proceeded to lay waste to northern Italy. Alaric headed south and in November, 408, a horde of 150,000, a fifth of them warriors, appeared outside the gates of Rome. The city that Alaric approached was much changed from its heyday in the 2nd century. It was half its size, with about 800,000 residents. It was not as rich as it once had been after centuries of internecine warfare and endless defense of the realm. Most of the Temples were abandoned because of the ascent of Christianity. Trade, prosperity, and wealth were all a fraction of what they were in the past. Surrounded, the city began to starve. The Goths were bought off, but it was only a matter of time because they entered the city two years later. As they were Christians, it is believed their three days in the city were not a classic rampage and sacking. Most of the city's great buildings and monuments survived but Rome did lose half its population.
One hundred and twenty-seven years later, Ostrogoths would do much greater damage than their cousins had. The last western Emperor had quietly retired in 476. The Ostrogoth, Theodoric, took over as king and ruled for decades, but a succession issue led to the Eastern Emperor Justinian sending an army to Italy. While the Gothic leader was in the north, Count Belisarius led a Roman army into the city. Rome was a fraction of her former self, occupied in the sixth century by only tens of thousands. The Ostrogoths vastly outnumbered Belisarius and began a siege by cutting off food and water to the city. The Goths broke it off after a year and Belisarius returned to the east. A new Gothic leader returned stronger and wiser and entered the city in 546. This time, the Goths truly sacked Rome and brought it low. It was emptied and deserted. The Goths faded away and the city slowly came back to life. It was a diminished place, but slowly recovering under the tutelage of the new potentates, the Popes. Later, when the Muslims overran Jerusalem, it became the first city of Christendom.
In 1077, King Henry IV of Germany, Burgundy and Italy came to Italy to prostrate himself before Pope Gregory VII. "Four years later, in May 1081, King Henry appeared outside Rome at the head of an army, keen to enjoy a little revenge." After decades of corruption and moral failure, the papacy was assumed by Gregory who intended to reform the church, if not the continent. He had clashed with Henry, but Henry strengthened his base in Germany and marched south desirous of a papal coronation. Henry wasn't very well prepared and immediately disengaged. His on again, off again campaign finally succeeded and three years later when he was crowned Emperor in March, 1084.The Romans had repudiated Gregory and locked him away. He had requested help from his ally, Robert Guiscard, the Norman leader in the south of Italy. As the Germans left, the Normans entered and returned Gregory to St. Peter's, but in the confusion, substantial parts of the city burned. Gregory was compelled to leave for the south with Guiscard. As it always had, the city recovered.
Clement VII, a Medici allied to the Emperor Charles V became pope in 1523. Clement was a pious man hopeful of leading a reform as Martin Luther was stirring up the Christian world. When Charles, who was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, was offended by Clement's dalliance with Francis I of France, he sent an army to depose the pope. The city in the 16th century had retained its cosmopolitan feel, was up to a population of 80,000 and had a Jewish community of 2,000. Although St. Peter's was being reconstructed, the Vatican was on the way to becoming the largest palace in Europe. Still protected by a wall, the city withstood the beginning of the Imperial siege. However, the army of 20,000 was soon inside the walls and unleashed the most vicious thrashing the city had ever seen. There were at least three full days of rape, pillage and plunder. Neither the clergy nor church property was spared. Plague struck the city and still, the soldiers stayed for ten months. They extracted every ducat they could find. Yet, in the ever-shifting world of Imperial and Italian politics, six years later, Clement crowned Charles Holy Roman Emperor.
The revolutions of 1848 swept the continent and triumphed in Italy in February, 1849 with the establishment of a new Roman Republic under the leadership of Italian patriots, Mazzini and Garibaldi. The previous fall, the pope had sought sanctuary with the conservative King of Naples. The forces of reaction recovered from the tumult and desired to place Pius IX back on the throne. It was a French army that came to Rome that spring to reinstate the pope and still any discussion of a unified Italy. The army breached the defenses on April 30. Pius and his cardinals sought revenge and absolute control. The Papal States had but two decades before unification ended the Church's days as a temporal power. When the time came and the Pope was limited to ruling Vatican City, Pius declared himself and his successors infallible in matters of religion.
In July of 1943, the Fascist Grand Council stripped Mussolini of his power and appointed King Emanuele as commander-in-chief. The king promptly removed Mussolini from office and arrested him a week later. In September, Hitler's soldiers, knowing full well that the Italian assurances about continuing the war were not believable, occupied the Eternal City, once again home to a million-and-a-half people. The German occupation was an immediate threat to the the thousands of Allied pilots in hiding and the city's Jews. The first roundup was in October and 1,000 of Rome's 12,000 Jews were on their way to Auschwitz. As winter approached, food became scarce and a curfew kept Romans in, even on Christmas Eve. To the west, a battle was raging after the Allies landed at Anzio. When the Germans staged equipment in the city, the Allies bombed it, creating a huge antipathy to them. In March, the Germans massacred 335 men and boys in retaliation for a partisan attack on a small SS unit. The Allied breakthrough seemed to take forever, but finally materialized in May. The Americans were soon pouring into Rome. Once again, Rome had survived.
This is a unique and interesting way to tell the story of a city. I suspect anyone who ever took a Latin course, or took an Ancient Roman course or Medieval Europe course, or anyone who has ever visited Rome, would enjoy this book.
Rome reigned supreme for over seven centuries until the 4th century AD. The Visigoths in 378 crushed a Roman army at Adrianople and killed the Emperor Valens. Led by Alaric, they sacked Athens, and proceeded to lay waste to northern Italy. Alaric headed south and in November, 408, a horde of 150,000, a fifth of them warriors, appeared outside the gates of Rome. The city that Alaric approached was much changed from its heyday in the 2nd century. It was half its size, with about 800,000 residents. It was not as rich as it once had been after centuries of internecine warfare and endless defense of the realm. Most of the Temples were abandoned because of the ascent of Christianity. Trade, prosperity, and wealth were all a fraction of what they were in the past. Surrounded, the city began to starve. The Goths were bought off, but it was only a matter of time because they entered the city two years later. As they were Christians, it is believed their three days in the city were not a classic rampage and sacking. Most of the city's great buildings and monuments survived but Rome did lose half its population.
One hundred and twenty-seven years later, Ostrogoths would do much greater damage than their cousins had. The last western Emperor had quietly retired in 476. The Ostrogoth, Theodoric, took over as king and ruled for decades, but a succession issue led to the Eastern Emperor Justinian sending an army to Italy. While the Gothic leader was in the north, Count Belisarius led a Roman army into the city. Rome was a fraction of her former self, occupied in the sixth century by only tens of thousands. The Ostrogoths vastly outnumbered Belisarius and began a siege by cutting off food and water to the city. The Goths broke it off after a year and Belisarius returned to the east. A new Gothic leader returned stronger and wiser and entered the city in 546. This time, the Goths truly sacked Rome and brought it low. It was emptied and deserted. The Goths faded away and the city slowly came back to life. It was a diminished place, but slowly recovering under the tutelage of the new potentates, the Popes. Later, when the Muslims overran Jerusalem, it became the first city of Christendom.
In 1077, King Henry IV of Germany, Burgundy and Italy came to Italy to prostrate himself before Pope Gregory VII. "Four years later, in May 1081, King Henry appeared outside Rome at the head of an army, keen to enjoy a little revenge." After decades of corruption and moral failure, the papacy was assumed by Gregory who intended to reform the church, if not the continent. He had clashed with Henry, but Henry strengthened his base in Germany and marched south desirous of a papal coronation. Henry wasn't very well prepared and immediately disengaged. His on again, off again campaign finally succeeded and three years later when he was crowned Emperor in March, 1084.The Romans had repudiated Gregory and locked him away. He had requested help from his ally, Robert Guiscard, the Norman leader in the south of Italy. As the Germans left, the Normans entered and returned Gregory to St. Peter's, but in the confusion, substantial parts of the city burned. Gregory was compelled to leave for the south with Guiscard. As it always had, the city recovered.
Clement VII, a Medici allied to the Emperor Charles V became pope in 1523. Clement was a pious man hopeful of leading a reform as Martin Luther was stirring up the Christian world. When Charles, who was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, was offended by Clement's dalliance with Francis I of France, he sent an army to depose the pope. The city in the 16th century had retained its cosmopolitan feel, was up to a population of 80,000 and had a Jewish community of 2,000. Although St. Peter's was being reconstructed, the Vatican was on the way to becoming the largest palace in Europe. Still protected by a wall, the city withstood the beginning of the Imperial siege. However, the army of 20,000 was soon inside the walls and unleashed the most vicious thrashing the city had ever seen. There were at least three full days of rape, pillage and plunder. Neither the clergy nor church property was spared. Plague struck the city and still, the soldiers stayed for ten months. They extracted every ducat they could find. Yet, in the ever-shifting world of Imperial and Italian politics, six years later, Clement crowned Charles Holy Roman Emperor.
The revolutions of 1848 swept the continent and triumphed in Italy in February, 1849 with the establishment of a new Roman Republic under the leadership of Italian patriots, Mazzini and Garibaldi. The previous fall, the pope had sought sanctuary with the conservative King of Naples. The forces of reaction recovered from the tumult and desired to place Pius IX back on the throne. It was a French army that came to Rome that spring to reinstate the pope and still any discussion of a unified Italy. The army breached the defenses on April 30. Pius and his cardinals sought revenge and absolute control. The Papal States had but two decades before unification ended the Church's days as a temporal power. When the time came and the Pope was limited to ruling Vatican City, Pius declared himself and his successors infallible in matters of religion.
In July of 1943, the Fascist Grand Council stripped Mussolini of his power and appointed King Emanuele as commander-in-chief. The king promptly removed Mussolini from office and arrested him a week later. In September, Hitler's soldiers, knowing full well that the Italian assurances about continuing the war were not believable, occupied the Eternal City, once again home to a million-and-a-half people. The German occupation was an immediate threat to the the thousands of Allied pilots in hiding and the city's Jews. The first roundup was in October and 1,000 of Rome's 12,000 Jews were on their way to Auschwitz. As winter approached, food became scarce and a curfew kept Romans in, even on Christmas Eve. To the west, a battle was raging after the Allies landed at Anzio. When the Germans staged equipment in the city, the Allies bombed it, creating a huge antipathy to them. In March, the Germans massacred 335 men and boys in retaliation for a partisan attack on a small SS unit. The Allied breakthrough seemed to take forever, but finally materialized in May. The Americans were soon pouring into Rome. Once again, Rome had survived.
This is a unique and interesting way to tell the story of a city. I suspect anyone who ever took a Latin course, or took an Ancient Roman course or Medieval Europe course, or anyone who has ever visited Rome, would enjoy this book.
Conan Doyle For The Defense, Fox - B
This is an interesting little piece based on a real life murder mystery that caught Doyle's eye. In 1908, a wealthy woman in Glasgow was brutally murdered and the police took the easy way out. They arrested, and eventually convicted, an unemployed immigrant, Oscar Slater, of the murder. Their primary proof was that he pawned a diamond brooch and that the victims' diamond brooch was missing. The fact that the descriptions of the two pieces of jewelry were completely different didn't enter into the equation. Two eye witnesses were pressured into identifying Slater. Of the fifteen members of the jury, nine voted to convict him. As a foreigner, Jew, gambler and low class habituate of brothels, he was the perfect scapegoat. His hanging sentence was commuted to life and he spent over twenty-years in a brutal northern Scotland prison. Twice Doyle got involved. In 1912, he read every word of the investigation and trial and wrote an 80 page booklet eviscerating the logic of the conviction. Two years later, after a top Glaswegian detective pointed out the correctness of Doyle's booklet, the case was reopened but upheld after the police closed ranks. The prisoner got a secret request out to Doyle who tried again in 1925. He teamed up with a Scottish journalist for another book. He orchestrated a public relations campaign to free Slater. The two witnesses were found and both retracted their stories. The Secretary for Scotland ordered his release. Justice was served. The interesting aspect of this book is the background on the education and life of Doyle, who was knighted and quite active in British public life.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Bassani - C
This very famous novel was written in the late 50's and is a tale of growing up Jewish in northern Italy in the 20's and 30's. The narrator, son of a doctor and Fascist party member, is enthralled by the brother and sister, Alberto and Micol, of the aristocratic Finzi-Contini family. They occupy the highest pew in synagogue, and later restore a 300 year-old Spanish synagogue for their personal use. Life becomes complicated in 1938 with the enforcement of racial laws inspired by those in Germany. That fall, the tennis club 'resigns' all the Jews and the town's young people begin to congregate at the court at the Finzi-Continis home. Tennis is played late into every evening. When winter comes, the narrator and Micol stay in touch and soon he is dreaming of her in his sleep. While she is away at school in Venice, he spends most of the winter exploring her father's extensive library of Italian literature. When she comes home for Passover, he declares his love, only to be rebuffed. She tells him they have known each other since they were children and it simply wasn't appropriate. That season's tennis gatherings are eliminated by the Fascists. Only he, Alberto, Micol and their communist friend, Giampi play on. As war approaches, the narrator fears Giampi and Micol are a couple, but is never really certain. War takes Giampi to the eastern front and the Finzi-Continis to the camps. After the war, he writes this tale after seeing their family's tomb in Ferrara.
Wretched, Ide - B
This is the third book in the Isaiah Quintabe series and a pretty good addition. The author goes out of his south central LA comfort zone and brings in some evildoers who teamed up at Abu Ghraib and whose past is haunting them. IQ's possible girlfriend seeks his help to find her mom, who just happens to be blackmailing the bad guys. The book made the NYT's top 100 books of the year, as well as Marilyn Stasio's recommended list.
12.10.2018
When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, Rosbottom - B
"Parisians retain a magical belief that the City of Light is impervious to destruction." And fortunately, not a shell fell on it before the Germans arrived in 1940. The wounds Paris would suffer would be subtle, but traumatic. Before Paris was occupied, the city was shocked by the defeat of the Army, the civilian exodus from north to south and the end of the Third Republic. The city was declared 'Open' on June 12 and the Germans marched in two days later. The early occupation had a light touch, as there was no destruction, shortages or panic. The Germans came fully prepared and ready to occupy the city. "They know where everything is" was a common refrain among the locals. Behind the occupation was a respect for a great city and a desire to show the world that they could be benign victors. This correlated well with the French embarrassment about their own collapse. The Fuhrer made a brief stop in the city, a place he long studied and admired for its beauty and architecture, and simultaneously despised for harboring communists, Jews, homosexuals and mixed-race degenerates. The city became a tourist destination for the soldiers of the Reich. As time went on though, German visitors and the 20,000 occupiers soon described a 'Stadt ohne blick' ( the city without a glance) to describe the Parisians' ability to stare right through them.
France has been unable after 75 years to sort out the true role of the Resistance during the war. The myth of its effectiveness helped absorb the pain of defeat and arguably provided France with a seat at the victors' table. The existence of the myth deferred for generations the acknowledgement of France's complicity in the Holocaust. Does the Resistance require actively resisting or merely maintaining a state of non-acceptance? Over the four years, throughout France, approximately 100,000 died fighting the Germans, although that did not have a material effect on the occupation. Yet, Ike acknowledged that in the weeks before and after Overlord, the Resistance was very helpful and hastened the success of the invaders. In Paris, resistance initially took the form of underground publications and occasional acts of violence against German officers. It was followed by a youth-driven, four-year graffiti campaign featuring V for victory with de Gaulle's Cross of Lorraine in it. After Barbarossa, French communists took to aggressive resistance and throughout the era, women and Jews were proportionately over represented as active resisters.
The Jews of Paris knew they were headed for trouble when the Germans arrived. Within weeks, the government voided all naturalizations since 1927, thus depriving thousands of their citizenship. Austrian and German Jews were immediately arrested. Individuals and businesses were required to register, and the laws prohibiting Jews from most of civil society soon followed. Galleries, luxury apartments and houses soon were confiscated. Beginning in May, 1942, yellow stars were required. The great shame of the war came on July 16,1942 when Paris' police led the roundup of 13,000 Jews, taking them to the infamous Velodrome, where they waited in deplorable conditions until deported to Drancy and then on to Auschwitz and other camps. Approximately 4500 French policemen participated in the aktion. There were 150,000 Jews in Paris, half of them were French, and the rest were refugees from around Europe. Forty thousand survived. It would be fifty years before president Jacques Chirac acknowledged the state's and society's complicity.
In 1942, Germany demanded workers for the war effort and in the next two years, 600,000 men and women went east to work. The following year saw the Resistance come under a united de Gaulle command and a serious increase in activity took place. It became apparent the Germans were losing, and the French were receiving less and less food.
Once the Allies landed in Normandy, Paris became a military conundrum for both sides. The Allies did not think it was worth taking and the Germans were reluctant to commit the manpower to hold it and the resources to feed it. De Gaulle wanted it freed by French soldiers and FDR and Churchill wanted it occupied by the Allies with de Gaulle nowhere in sight. The Germans left August 25th and the CO never really considered reducing the city to rubble, as Hitler had ordered. A French division had spun off from the main Allied advance and arrived in Paris at midnight on the 24th to the peals of the bells of Notre Dame. The next two weeks saw a convulsion of violence and retribution against Germans, collaborators and scapegoats. Summary executions became commonplace. "The events that immediately followed the departure of the Germans would mark the city and its residents indelibly as had the black years of the occupation itself." France suffered through the destruction of a significant portion of the country and a massive demographic loss in WWI. In 1940, the armies were routed and the most famous city in the world was occupied. The thirty years that framed these debacles have been almost impossible for the nation to digest or interpret. Needless to say, these years and the Occupation itself are still matters of considerable thought and anguish for a proud nation, and likely one they will struggle with for a long time.
I've enjoyed this excellent, well-written book. I prefer narratives that set out facts and seldom stray from that discourse. This is more of a free-wheeling conversation about freedom, the impact of occupation on both sides, the psychology of the the four years of occupation. My recently acquired familiarity with the city has significantly enhanced the fun of reading this book.
France has been unable after 75 years to sort out the true role of the Resistance during the war. The myth of its effectiveness helped absorb the pain of defeat and arguably provided France with a seat at the victors' table. The existence of the myth deferred for generations the acknowledgement of France's complicity in the Holocaust. Does the Resistance require actively resisting or merely maintaining a state of non-acceptance? Over the four years, throughout France, approximately 100,000 died fighting the Germans, although that did not have a material effect on the occupation. Yet, Ike acknowledged that in the weeks before and after Overlord, the Resistance was very helpful and hastened the success of the invaders. In Paris, resistance initially took the form of underground publications and occasional acts of violence against German officers. It was followed by a youth-driven, four-year graffiti campaign featuring V for victory with de Gaulle's Cross of Lorraine in it. After Barbarossa, French communists took to aggressive resistance and throughout the era, women and Jews were proportionately over represented as active resisters.
The Jews of Paris knew they were headed for trouble when the Germans arrived. Within weeks, the government voided all naturalizations since 1927, thus depriving thousands of their citizenship. Austrian and German Jews were immediately arrested. Individuals and businesses were required to register, and the laws prohibiting Jews from most of civil society soon followed. Galleries, luxury apartments and houses soon were confiscated. Beginning in May, 1942, yellow stars were required. The great shame of the war came on July 16,1942 when Paris' police led the roundup of 13,000 Jews, taking them to the infamous Velodrome, where they waited in deplorable conditions until deported to Drancy and then on to Auschwitz and other camps. Approximately 4500 French policemen participated in the aktion. There were 150,000 Jews in Paris, half of them were French, and the rest were refugees from around Europe. Forty thousand survived. It would be fifty years before president Jacques Chirac acknowledged the state's and society's complicity.
In 1942, Germany demanded workers for the war effort and in the next two years, 600,000 men and women went east to work. The following year saw the Resistance come under a united de Gaulle command and a serious increase in activity took place. It became apparent the Germans were losing, and the French were receiving less and less food.
Once the Allies landed in Normandy, Paris became a military conundrum for both sides. The Allies did not think it was worth taking and the Germans were reluctant to commit the manpower to hold it and the resources to feed it. De Gaulle wanted it freed by French soldiers and FDR and Churchill wanted it occupied by the Allies with de Gaulle nowhere in sight. The Germans left August 25th and the CO never really considered reducing the city to rubble, as Hitler had ordered. A French division had spun off from the main Allied advance and arrived in Paris at midnight on the 24th to the peals of the bells of Notre Dame. The next two weeks saw a convulsion of violence and retribution against Germans, collaborators and scapegoats. Summary executions became commonplace. "The events that immediately followed the departure of the Germans would mark the city and its residents indelibly as had the black years of the occupation itself." France suffered through the destruction of a significant portion of the country and a massive demographic loss in WWI. In 1940, the armies were routed and the most famous city in the world was occupied. The thirty years that framed these debacles have been almost impossible for the nation to digest or interpret. Needless to say, these years and the Occupation itself are still matters of considerable thought and anguish for a proud nation, and likely one they will struggle with for a long time.
I've enjoyed this excellent, well-written book. I prefer narratives that set out facts and seldom stray from that discourse. This is more of a free-wheeling conversation about freedom, the impact of occupation on both sides, the psychology of the the four years of occupation. My recently acquired familiarity with the city has significantly enhanced the fun of reading this book.
Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World, McLean - B
This brief book is about fracking and the transformation of America from a country that imported two-thirds of its oil in 2006 to a country that exported oil in 2015 and became the leading producer of natural gas in the world. Indeed, it is possible the US could become a "net exporter" by 2022. "Texas's Permian Basin, now ranks second to Saudi Arabia's legendary Ghawar oil field in production per day."
After the oil shortages of the 1970's, Congress encouraged the search for natural gas and oil from unconventional sources. This led to an aggressive company, Chesapeake Energy, pursuing horizontal drilling and fracturing technologies in older fields in east Texas. Other companies were soon pursuing opportunities in the Bakken Field in North Dakota, as well as the Permian in west Texas. The fracking firms tended to be run by either wildcatters or people with a wildcatting style, and analysis showed they were spending more than they took in. They were exploring and living on the cheap money available after the 2008 recession. In late 2014, Saudi Arabia and OPEC took a shot across the bow of the frackers by allowing the price of oil to drop and by early 2016, it was $26 per barrel. It was estimated that the cost of an extracted barrel for the frackers was twice that. The shale boom appeared to be over. But it wasn't. An endless supply of cheap capital and truly creative approach to the drilling took the breakeven down to a point where shale would be competitive.
At the end of the day, it is west Texas, the Permian Basin below Midland and the surrounding area, the home of boom and bust for a century, that is the major contributor to our geo-strategic turnaround. It was producing 1 million bd in 2010 and is expected to reach 4 million bd soon. Russia and Saudi Arabia average a bit over 10 million bd. We could be at 17 in five years. However, in an industry known for booms and busts and endless course corrections, nothing is assured. Fracked wells drop down in production much quicker than traditional ones. The flow of capital is not guaranteed either because many of these companies are not cash-flow positive. Other uncertainties are that, as a nation, we have no energy policy other than bringing back coal. Beggaring Russia and Saudi Arabia could backfire, and pushing China into world leadership in renewables raises another set of issues. Even if we achieve independence, we will still be part of a world market and will likely continue to spend $50B per year to defend the Gulf because Europe and Japan are allies and we'd prefer that neither China nor Russia take over. In the end, the success shale business will depend on its profitability.
After the oil shortages of the 1970's, Congress encouraged the search for natural gas and oil from unconventional sources. This led to an aggressive company, Chesapeake Energy, pursuing horizontal drilling and fracturing technologies in older fields in east Texas. Other companies were soon pursuing opportunities in the Bakken Field in North Dakota, as well as the Permian in west Texas. The fracking firms tended to be run by either wildcatters or people with a wildcatting style, and analysis showed they were spending more than they took in. They were exploring and living on the cheap money available after the 2008 recession. In late 2014, Saudi Arabia and OPEC took a shot across the bow of the frackers by allowing the price of oil to drop and by early 2016, it was $26 per barrel. It was estimated that the cost of an extracted barrel for the frackers was twice that. The shale boom appeared to be over. But it wasn't. An endless supply of cheap capital and truly creative approach to the drilling took the breakeven down to a point where shale would be competitive.
At the end of the day, it is west Texas, the Permian Basin below Midland and the surrounding area, the home of boom and bust for a century, that is the major contributor to our geo-strategic turnaround. It was producing 1 million bd in 2010 and is expected to reach 4 million bd soon. Russia and Saudi Arabia average a bit over 10 million bd. We could be at 17 in five years. However, in an industry known for booms and busts and endless course corrections, nothing is assured. Fracked wells drop down in production much quicker than traditional ones. The flow of capital is not guaranteed either because many of these companies are not cash-flow positive. Other uncertainties are that, as a nation, we have no energy policy other than bringing back coal. Beggaring Russia and Saudi Arabia could backfire, and pushing China into world leadership in renewables raises another set of issues. Even if we achieve independence, we will still be part of a world market and will likely continue to spend $50B per year to defend the Gulf because Europe and Japan are allies and we'd prefer that neither China nor Russia take over. In the end, the success shale business will depend on its profitability.
The Fire Witness, Kepler - B +
This is the third book by Kepler about fictional Swedish detective Joona Linna that I've read in six months. The suspension from active service is still on and Joona totally ignores the investigating services as he pursues the truth with absolute Javert-like conviction. His boss asks him to consult on a case hundreds of miles from Stockholm. There are two murders at a group home and Joona is convinced the conclusions of the local cops are wrong. Off we go on another page turner. My only complaint with theses books is that they could be 400 pps. instead of 500 .
The City of Crows, Womersley - C
This well-reviewed historical novel is set in Paris in the late 1670's and somehow manages to be both occasionally delightful, as well as way too weird. The author has a flair for describing a far-off place and time with insight and perceptive detail. However, the lead characters, a magician just released from the galleys, and a peasant woman convinced she is a sorceress, are just not the right vehicles to tell a tale of that time. Some of the characters in the book were real life denizens of the Parisian underworld of abortionists, magicians, conjurers and charlatans.
11.26.2018
Crashed: How A Decade Of Financial Crises Remade The World, Tooze - A*
Adam Tooze is an acclaimed economic historian and professor at Columbia University. This tome has been labeled the authoritative work on the Great Recession. He refers to it as 'The First Crisis of the Global Age'. It was a global catastrophe, but with significant American causation. The contention of the book is that the responses to the crisis are central to understanding how the liberal democracy consensus has deteriorated. To do that, we must explore the economics of what happened. We will see an interconnectedness that makes the concept of the nation state seem an anachronism, but it was the central bank of one country that literally saved the world from financial collapse. Yet, it was the same central bank's almost zero interest rate after the dot.com bubble and 9/11 that created the vast liquidity that fostered the crisis. In contrast to the successful US response to the Great Recession, the EU totally mismanaged its subsequent debt crisis. The world's problems appeared to be resolved by 2012, but then reemerged as globalization strengthened issues of inequality and opportunity into "a comprehensive political and geopolitical crisis."
Early in the second Bush term, a Brookings Institute colloquium articulated concern about the rising US fiscal deficit being absorbed by foreign investors, particularly, China. It was a particular concern when combined with the trade deficit. However, it would not be this imbalance that led to a global crisis, but an old-fashioned bout of Wall Street excess. The story of the real estate bubble is quite familiar. Expanding home ownership was encouraged and easy credit was available. Loans of limited quality were packaged, securitized, and sold, while everyone's house values went up and up. "The subprime mortgage boom of the 2000s led to a financial crisis because hundreds of billions of private label MBS' were stockpiled on the balance sheets of the mortgage originators and securitizers themselves." By 2007, a handful of private investors and institutions were shorting the real estate boom. As America's financial system fell apart in the fall of 2008, Europeans confidently asserted that it was the failure of the laissez-faire philosophy of regulation and assured themselves that they were immune. They did not realize how much capital the subprime boom had sucked into the US or that although they did not speak English, their investment banks did. London was as complicit as Wall Street and all of the continent's banks were players. Additionally, the EU had a built in problem because of the incomplete nature of the currency union. They had allowed Greece join and, then watched its tax revenue to collapse to the point where it could not service its national debt. The early 2000s saw egregious real estate booms in Europe, especially in Spain and Ireland. Lurking on the periphery were all of the new members of the union. Former satellites of the USSR, as well as former republics, were now part of an expanded Europe. They hadn't participated in any of the aggressive financial activities of the decade. But they were funded by all of the excess liquidity in the system. The crisis may have originated in the Anglo-Saxon economies, but the pain and consequences were spread far and wide.
The liquidity crunch began in 2007 in Europe when banks started failing because they could not roll over their short term fundings. The following year, Bear Stearns was absorbed by JPMorgan when they faced a crunch. Lehman filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15 when it could not meet creditors' collateral calls. A day after Lehman, AIG was hours away from failing, and the Reserve Fund notified the Fed it was about to 'break the buck'. Every investment bank in the world was on the cusp. It was more than Wall Street and the City that were in pain. The collapse of available credit stalled economies everywhere and shattered the personal fortunes of many around the world. In the US, nine million families lost their homes, over 20 trillion dollars of wealth disappeared and the largest mass migration since the Depression took place. Worldwide job losses have been estimated at 35 million. Ben Bernanke has said that September and October of 2008 were worse than anything in the Great Depression. The world of 1929 had not been as coordinated as it is now. "The speed and force of the avalanche was unprecedented." The decisions that were made that staunched the bleeding were made by the Fed chair, Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner. "Bailout battles were fought in the US, Iceland, Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, the Benelux, and Switzerland." The US solved its problem quickly, but the political cost separated the Republican managerial elite from the party's right wing base. After bailing out FreddieMac and FannieMae over Republican opposition, Paulson and Bernanke were not willing to ask Congress again for a new authorization for Lehman. It was immediately apparent that they underestimated the Lehman failure. The next day, facing what was labeled "an extinction level event", they offered Fed credit to AIG. Realizing that they were still looking at extinction, Paulson and Bernanke asked Congress for a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. It failed in the House. TARP passed the second time it came before Congress. Paulson and Bernanke insisted the nine largest banks take a capital infusion of $125B. A month later, Citi required another $20B, as did BofA, who was strong-armed into completing its acquisition of Merrill. The incoming Obama team was prepared to be fully supportive of government intervention to solve the problems of the financial markets.
The crisis in Europe reflected the interconnectedness of their markets with the US, but their political system did not grasp this, and was not capable of solving the problem. Both Sarkozy and Merkel repeatedly criticized the Anglo-Saxons and stood in the way of coordinated European action. The US Fed, without consulting Congress, became the lender of last resort in Europe. It worked "hand in glove with the European mega banks to unwind the transatlantic balance sheet." The Fed lent dollars to the ECB, the Bank of England, the National Bank of Switzerland and the Scandinavian national banks, who in turn funneled it to their banks. Additionally, the Fed lent to fourteen banks in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. It was also necessary for the IMF to step up in the former Soviet states. Two countries that did not receive help from the Fed were Russia and China. Russia suffered from a collapse in oil prices and the ubiquitous liquidity challenge. The state intervened, but Putin exacted a price from the oligarchs. He demanded they contribute and clawed back some of their excesses for the state. China had not participated in any of the financial hi jinks but suffered significant consequences as the largest holder of US debt and the US' largest trading partner. The state responded with a spending program that was the largest stimulus package in world history. Indeed the Russian, Chinese and emerging market actions made the derisory actions in Europe look laughable, as the only western stimulus that was worth the name was in the US. The Obama stimulus and the Fed's initiation of Qualitative Easing were, on top of the TARP, all that the American political system could tolerate. Unfortunately for the future, there was no program or solution for the millions with underwater mortgages. The Obama administration turned to the banks and successfully put "the American banking system on a forced road to recovery." After years of crisis, the American banks, with aggressive government support, were alive, well and sufficiently capitalized. That was not true of Europe.
After the largess of 2008, stepping back to prudent fiscal and monetary policies became the theme on both sides of the Atlantic. But in Europe, Ireland had guaranteed its banks' liabilities, and in Greece, the decline in tourism meant that the national debt could not be serviced. A return to normalcy was not in the cards. French and German banks were the largest holders of EU sovereign debt and each country's leaders had diametrically opposed philosophies about how to handle a debt crisis. The Germans wanted haircuts on the debt of troubled nations. The French wanted to refinance them. The US weighed in, and the outcome was an EU/IMF/ECB (the troika) program labelled here as 'extend and pretend'. But it failed to satisfy the markets and by May 2010 the world appeared ready to spin out of control again. Greece was being analogized to Lehman. The troika came back with more money and stabilized the markets, but at the price of more Greek austerity. Fear of debt contagion spread strict budgeting around the world. The entire G-20 committed to halving their respective budget deficits in three years. When Ireland teetered, they too slashed expenditures further. By 2011, it was evident that the extend and pretend of the previous year had failed. The US insisted on more refinancing and the troika accommodated. Europe argued, modified, made deals, ousted irresponsible leaders and still it was necessary, in early 2012, to go to the G-20 and ask for $300-400B of IMF funding. The US, China and Brazil refused. Europe had still not addressed the instabilities in their sovereign bond markets or their banks' need to recapitalize. That spring, Greece's debt was reduced by a fifth and the debt that remained was now held by the European Financial Stability Fund, the ECB and the IMF. In May, voters fed up with austerity turned out the governments in Greece, Spain and France and pushed hard to the left even in Germany. However, the crisis in Europe ended when Mario Draghi, ECB president assured the world that the ECB "was ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro." Markets calmed and yields dropped. The eurozone collapsing was no longer on everyone's lips. "The eurozone was saved by its belated Americanization." Obama's reelection and Bernanke's QE3 on top of Draghi's speech righted the world. All appeared resolved.
The year 2013 saw income inequality come to the fore as an issue in America. Over the previous forty years, productivity increased bu 80% but wages by about half as much. The wealth created was flowing to those at the top, and that was even more true during the very slow recovery since 2008. It was not just globalization and technological change that led to inequality. To some extent, the deck was stacked; the government worked for the elite. This concept had been accelerated in America's consciousness by the fallout from 2008, and would become the issue of the next presidential election cycle. The Tea Party and its Congressional hard-liners opposed anything the government, and in particular Obama, tried to accomplish on this or any front. Meanwhile in Europe, Russia appeared to be in a death spiral after its 2014 invasion of the Crimea led to severe sanctions and the price of oil collapsed, only to be saved the following year by a helping hand from China. In Greece, the economy deteriorated further when 400,000 of its best educated and most capable emigrated because of round after round of German imposed austerity. A leftist government was prepared to leave the EU if more austerity was all it could offer. The IMF acknowledged publicly that extend and pretend was hopeless. Yet, again, the 2015 Greek compromise was more of the same. The next crisis for Europe would not be financial, but political. Right wing governments were elected in the UK and Poland, right wing extremist politicians were gaining strength.
"Nationalism and xenophobia were the common denominators from the challengers from the Right." In June 2016, the UK narrowly voted for Brexit. In the US, the Republican candidate "promised to fight for the neglected, ignored and abandoned..the forgotten man and woman.. Americanism not globalism will be our credo." When elected, he announced he was withdrawing from NAFTA, and denounced the EU and NATO.
Since 2007, the scale of the financial crisis has placed democratic politics and capitalist governance under a great strain. Party alliances around the world are being reconfigured. In some countries, the moderates have been eliminated. Brexit has hamstrung the Tories. The GOP can win elections but "is incapable of legislating or cooperating effectively in government." The author closes with a comparison between 2008 and 1914. "How does a great moderation end? How do huge risks build up that are little understood and barely controllable? How do the tectonic shifts in the global order unload in sudden earthquakes? Who is to blame for the ensuing human induced man made disaster? Is the uneven and combined development of global capitalism the driver of all instability? How do the passions of popular politics shape elite decision making? Can we achieve perpetual stability and peace? These are the questions we have asked about 1914 for the last hundred years. It is not by accident that their analogues are also the questions we ask about 2008 and its aftermath. They are the questions that haunt the great crisis of modernity."
I submit my observations here quite humbly. There is a great deal about the dismal science I do not comprehend. There were entire chapters in this book where I did not make a single note. It wasn't just the trilateral repos or the single tranche open market operations that befuddled, but the big picture as well. I remain unclear about Greece. Why they were allowed in the EU and why they were allowed to stay? Apparently the political imperative of continental unification is the reason. But, how and why the leaders of Europe would spend so much time, money and political capital to extend and pretend is beyond me. Angela Merkel comes off as a real heavy in this book and the austerity imposed on the Greeks by the Germans is hard to fathom.
Nonetheless Tooze is probably the best expositor of economic history I've ever come across. He brilliantly ties the overlapping issues around the world together and I for one feel much better informed about what transpired. I remember thinking in 2008 that this was a 10-20 year problem and I believe we are still in the middle of the problems created by the Great Recession. I don't disagree with the author's contention that the response on the right is correlated to all of the problems created by the cross-Atlantic elites, but I do not think he connects the dots well enough in the last fifth of the book. I believe he drifts from superb economic history into somewhat banal assessments of the political results. That said - this is a must read!
Early in the second Bush term, a Brookings Institute colloquium articulated concern about the rising US fiscal deficit being absorbed by foreign investors, particularly, China. It was a particular concern when combined with the trade deficit. However, it would not be this imbalance that led to a global crisis, but an old-fashioned bout of Wall Street excess. The story of the real estate bubble is quite familiar. Expanding home ownership was encouraged and easy credit was available. Loans of limited quality were packaged, securitized, and sold, while everyone's house values went up and up. "The subprime mortgage boom of the 2000s led to a financial crisis because hundreds of billions of private label MBS' were stockpiled on the balance sheets of the mortgage originators and securitizers themselves." By 2007, a handful of private investors and institutions were shorting the real estate boom. As America's financial system fell apart in the fall of 2008, Europeans confidently asserted that it was the failure of the laissez-faire philosophy of regulation and assured themselves that they were immune. They did not realize how much capital the subprime boom had sucked into the US or that although they did not speak English, their investment banks did. London was as complicit as Wall Street and all of the continent's banks were players. Additionally, the EU had a built in problem because of the incomplete nature of the currency union. They had allowed Greece join and, then watched its tax revenue to collapse to the point where it could not service its national debt. The early 2000s saw egregious real estate booms in Europe, especially in Spain and Ireland. Lurking on the periphery were all of the new members of the union. Former satellites of the USSR, as well as former republics, were now part of an expanded Europe. They hadn't participated in any of the aggressive financial activities of the decade. But they were funded by all of the excess liquidity in the system. The crisis may have originated in the Anglo-Saxon economies, but the pain and consequences were spread far and wide.
The liquidity crunch began in 2007 in Europe when banks started failing because they could not roll over their short term fundings. The following year, Bear Stearns was absorbed by JPMorgan when they faced a crunch. Lehman filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15 when it could not meet creditors' collateral calls. A day after Lehman, AIG was hours away from failing, and the Reserve Fund notified the Fed it was about to 'break the buck'. Every investment bank in the world was on the cusp. It was more than Wall Street and the City that were in pain. The collapse of available credit stalled economies everywhere and shattered the personal fortunes of many around the world. In the US, nine million families lost their homes, over 20 trillion dollars of wealth disappeared and the largest mass migration since the Depression took place. Worldwide job losses have been estimated at 35 million. Ben Bernanke has said that September and October of 2008 were worse than anything in the Great Depression. The world of 1929 had not been as coordinated as it is now. "The speed and force of the avalanche was unprecedented." The decisions that were made that staunched the bleeding were made by the Fed chair, Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner. "Bailout battles were fought in the US, Iceland, Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, the Benelux, and Switzerland." The US solved its problem quickly, but the political cost separated the Republican managerial elite from the party's right wing base. After bailing out FreddieMac and FannieMae over Republican opposition, Paulson and Bernanke were not willing to ask Congress again for a new authorization for Lehman. It was immediately apparent that they underestimated the Lehman failure. The next day, facing what was labeled "an extinction level event", they offered Fed credit to AIG. Realizing that they were still looking at extinction, Paulson and Bernanke asked Congress for a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. It failed in the House. TARP passed the second time it came before Congress. Paulson and Bernanke insisted the nine largest banks take a capital infusion of $125B. A month later, Citi required another $20B, as did BofA, who was strong-armed into completing its acquisition of Merrill. The incoming Obama team was prepared to be fully supportive of government intervention to solve the problems of the financial markets.
The crisis in Europe reflected the interconnectedness of their markets with the US, but their political system did not grasp this, and was not capable of solving the problem. Both Sarkozy and Merkel repeatedly criticized the Anglo-Saxons and stood in the way of coordinated European action. The US Fed, without consulting Congress, became the lender of last resort in Europe. It worked "hand in glove with the European mega banks to unwind the transatlantic balance sheet." The Fed lent dollars to the ECB, the Bank of England, the National Bank of Switzerland and the Scandinavian national banks, who in turn funneled it to their banks. Additionally, the Fed lent to fourteen banks in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. It was also necessary for the IMF to step up in the former Soviet states. Two countries that did not receive help from the Fed were Russia and China. Russia suffered from a collapse in oil prices and the ubiquitous liquidity challenge. The state intervened, but Putin exacted a price from the oligarchs. He demanded they contribute and clawed back some of their excesses for the state. China had not participated in any of the financial hi jinks but suffered significant consequences as the largest holder of US debt and the US' largest trading partner. The state responded with a spending program that was the largest stimulus package in world history. Indeed the Russian, Chinese and emerging market actions made the derisory actions in Europe look laughable, as the only western stimulus that was worth the name was in the US. The Obama stimulus and the Fed's initiation of Qualitative Easing were, on top of the TARP, all that the American political system could tolerate. Unfortunately for the future, there was no program or solution for the millions with underwater mortgages. The Obama administration turned to the banks and successfully put "the American banking system on a forced road to recovery." After years of crisis, the American banks, with aggressive government support, were alive, well and sufficiently capitalized. That was not true of Europe.
After the largess of 2008, stepping back to prudent fiscal and monetary policies became the theme on both sides of the Atlantic. But in Europe, Ireland had guaranteed its banks' liabilities, and in Greece, the decline in tourism meant that the national debt could not be serviced. A return to normalcy was not in the cards. French and German banks were the largest holders of EU sovereign debt and each country's leaders had diametrically opposed philosophies about how to handle a debt crisis. The Germans wanted haircuts on the debt of troubled nations. The French wanted to refinance them. The US weighed in, and the outcome was an EU/IMF/ECB (the troika) program labelled here as 'extend and pretend'. But it failed to satisfy the markets and by May 2010 the world appeared ready to spin out of control again. Greece was being analogized to Lehman. The troika came back with more money and stabilized the markets, but at the price of more Greek austerity. Fear of debt contagion spread strict budgeting around the world. The entire G-20 committed to halving their respective budget deficits in three years. When Ireland teetered, they too slashed expenditures further. By 2011, it was evident that the extend and pretend of the previous year had failed. The US insisted on more refinancing and the troika accommodated. Europe argued, modified, made deals, ousted irresponsible leaders and still it was necessary, in early 2012, to go to the G-20 and ask for $300-400B of IMF funding. The US, China and Brazil refused. Europe had still not addressed the instabilities in their sovereign bond markets or their banks' need to recapitalize. That spring, Greece's debt was reduced by a fifth and the debt that remained was now held by the European Financial Stability Fund, the ECB and the IMF. In May, voters fed up with austerity turned out the governments in Greece, Spain and France and pushed hard to the left even in Germany. However, the crisis in Europe ended when Mario Draghi, ECB president assured the world that the ECB "was ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro." Markets calmed and yields dropped. The eurozone collapsing was no longer on everyone's lips. "The eurozone was saved by its belated Americanization." Obama's reelection and Bernanke's QE3 on top of Draghi's speech righted the world. All appeared resolved.
The year 2013 saw income inequality come to the fore as an issue in America. Over the previous forty years, productivity increased bu 80% but wages by about half as much. The wealth created was flowing to those at the top, and that was even more true during the very slow recovery since 2008. It was not just globalization and technological change that led to inequality. To some extent, the deck was stacked; the government worked for the elite. This concept had been accelerated in America's consciousness by the fallout from 2008, and would become the issue of the next presidential election cycle. The Tea Party and its Congressional hard-liners opposed anything the government, and in particular Obama, tried to accomplish on this or any front. Meanwhile in Europe, Russia appeared to be in a death spiral after its 2014 invasion of the Crimea led to severe sanctions and the price of oil collapsed, only to be saved the following year by a helping hand from China. In Greece, the economy deteriorated further when 400,000 of its best educated and most capable emigrated because of round after round of German imposed austerity. A leftist government was prepared to leave the EU if more austerity was all it could offer. The IMF acknowledged publicly that extend and pretend was hopeless. Yet, again, the 2015 Greek compromise was more of the same. The next crisis for Europe would not be financial, but political. Right wing governments were elected in the UK and Poland, right wing extremist politicians were gaining strength.
"Nationalism and xenophobia were the common denominators from the challengers from the Right." In June 2016, the UK narrowly voted for Brexit. In the US, the Republican candidate "promised to fight for the neglected, ignored and abandoned..the forgotten man and woman.. Americanism not globalism will be our credo." When elected, he announced he was withdrawing from NAFTA, and denounced the EU and NATO.
Since 2007, the scale of the financial crisis has placed democratic politics and capitalist governance under a great strain. Party alliances around the world are being reconfigured. In some countries, the moderates have been eliminated. Brexit has hamstrung the Tories. The GOP can win elections but "is incapable of legislating or cooperating effectively in government." The author closes with a comparison between 2008 and 1914. "How does a great moderation end? How do huge risks build up that are little understood and barely controllable? How do the tectonic shifts in the global order unload in sudden earthquakes? Who is to blame for the ensuing human induced man made disaster? Is the uneven and combined development of global capitalism the driver of all instability? How do the passions of popular politics shape elite decision making? Can we achieve perpetual stability and peace? These are the questions we have asked about 1914 for the last hundred years. It is not by accident that their analogues are also the questions we ask about 2008 and its aftermath. They are the questions that haunt the great crisis of modernity."
I submit my observations here quite humbly. There is a great deal about the dismal science I do not comprehend. There were entire chapters in this book where I did not make a single note. It wasn't just the trilateral repos or the single tranche open market operations that befuddled, but the big picture as well. I remain unclear about Greece. Why they were allowed in the EU and why they were allowed to stay? Apparently the political imperative of continental unification is the reason. But, how and why the leaders of Europe would spend so much time, money and political capital to extend and pretend is beyond me. Angela Merkel comes off as a real heavy in this book and the austerity imposed on the Greeks by the Germans is hard to fathom.
Nonetheless Tooze is probably the best expositor of economic history I've ever come across. He brilliantly ties the overlapping issues around the world together and I for one feel much better informed about what transpired. I remember thinking in 2008 that this was a 10-20 year problem and I believe we are still in the middle of the problems created by the Great Recession. I don't disagree with the author's contention that the response on the right is correlated to all of the problems created by the cross-Atlantic elites, but I do not think he connects the dots well enough in the last fifth of the book. I believe he drifts from superb economic history into somewhat banal assessments of the political results. That said - this is a must read!
11.20.2018
The Shetland Bus, Howarth - B
This is an excellent book written soon after WWII by the naval officer who was the executive officer of the British operation that shuttled men and supplies into Norway. They were 185 miles from the nearest point on the Norwegian coast, approximately 24 hours away in fair weather. They only operated in the winter because of their need to sail when it was dark. There was a 50 mile limit off the coast where the Germans allowed fishing. Thus, the danger was aerial discovery somewhere between the 50 mile mark and the Shetlands. Almost all of the sailors were volunteer Norwegian fishermen. The structure of the Shetlands Navy led to endless challenges. The Norwegians were not amenable to any kind of military discipline and the officers in charge were not allowed to sail with them. The powers that be couldn't understand the necessity for a light touch, and round and round it went for years. They sailed 50-70 foot boats with crews of three or four in some of the roughest waters in the world. The depiction of sailing in winter hurricanes with 100 mph winds is harrowing and downright scary. I suspect being a northern fisherman requires more courage than I can fathom, and doubly so in wartime. Their success led to increased German patrolling, which when combined with restrictions on diesel fuel almost shut down fishing in Norway. Without the cover of being amongst thousands in the fishing fleet, the operation slowed considerably. They finished the war on an upswing when the US gave them three sub-chasers, affording them the opportunity to continue their mission. The author concludes that they helped the Norwegian resistance and helped foster support for the government-in-exile.
11.10.2018
West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride Of The Pony Express, DeFelice - B
The Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Company was founded in 1860 by Russell, Majors & Waddell, a company on the threshold of becoming a western freighting and delivery empire. It was known as the Pony and it delivered mail and telegraph messages for a period of only 18 months. It never made a penny and was created for the publicity it would garner and would, hopefully, earn the owners the $1M contract to take mail by coach to California. It could move information from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento in ten days. Each rider rode about seventy miles of the 1750-mile trail. He changed horses at way stations every 10 or 15 miles. The job paid $50 per month plus room and board. The help wanted ad allegedly said: "Wanted. Young , skinny, wiry fellas not over eighteen. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred." Although there were Indians and horse thieves about, the greatest danger the drivers faced was from the weather. Division One of the ride ended at Ft. Kearny. Then the route followed the N. Platte River across what is now western Nebraska and eastern Colorado up to Ft. Laramie. From there, the trail, which paralleled the Oregon Trail, went west through Wyoming and through the South Pass. Twenty-miles wide, the pass afforded a route through the Rockies neither exceedingly cold nor warm. Slightly south and a bit of a descent from the mountains was a city two miles wide. Salt Lake City was the only urban way station on the route west. Now the riders were in the desert. It stretched over 500 miles and rose over two thousand feet to Virginia City before the riders entered the Sierras, where a substantial way station was above Lake Tahoe. The Pony added a few days to its schedule in the winter, although it was a miracle they got through at all. The highest point on the trail in the Sierras was over 9,000 feet. The news reaching California of Lincoln's election took six days and sixteen hours from St. Joe. Meanwhile, in Washington, one of the firm's partners was accused of defrauding Congress, but escaped on a technicality. War was imminent, the mail contract was awarded, and the company got a piece of the action, but turned the running of the Pony over to Wells Fargo. On Oct. 24, 1861 the final telegraph link connecting east to west was completed and the Pony went out of business. There had been 308 runs and only one lost mailbag.
This is a fun, brief book that is a tour of the west, discussing people who were along the way. For example there are sections on the famous, like Bill Cody, Kit Carson and Jim Bridger, various discourses on states, rivers and quite a bit on the Mormons and plenty of people we've never heard of. The theme, though, is the ride in November, 1860 carrying west the news of Lincoln's election. Side trips into national politics are also here. I think this would be enjoyed by serious students of the west.
This is a fun, brief book that is a tour of the west, discussing people who were along the way. For example there are sections on the famous, like Bill Cody, Kit Carson and Jim Bridger, various discourses on states, rivers and quite a bit on the Mormons and plenty of people we've never heard of. The theme, though, is the ride in November, 1860 carrying west the news of Lincoln's election. Side trips into national politics are also here. I think this would be enjoyed by serious students of the west.
11.06.2018
Dark Sacred Night, Connelly - B +
Bosch acknowledges an age of 69 in this one, an age at which it's not easy being a detective, retired from LAPD and a part-timer for SFPD. So, Connelly comes up with a brilliant idea - this is the first Bosch and Ballard novel. We met Renee Ballard two years ago when Connelly introduced her. She's a tough-as-nails detective who has been banished to the 'late show', the midnight to 8 shift. They team up on a cold case Harry is working and she also helps Harry big time on a case he has in the Valley. They agree to work together in the future, she as the insider and he as sort of a silent partner on the outside. We thus have a platform to run with for quite a few more years.
Past Tense, Child - B +
This one got off to a very slow start, and I felt, that Reacher was a bit aggressive in his first instance or two of remonstrating with those who have strayed. He spends his time in and around a small town in NH where his dad grew up. Of course, there are all sorts of complex issues and bad guys that need his attention. He masterfully solves the problems and sticks out his thumb for San Diego.
The Reckoning, Grisham - B-
He can tell a story better than anyone else. Arguably, he is the best of our generation. Once again, he magically transports us to the countryside and court rooms of rural Mississippi. But he throws curves and spends a significant portion of the book in a flashback to WWII combat in the Philippines. And he finishes with his usual flurry - but this time it's simply not much fun. A John Grisham book is always a page turner and that is the case here.
11.01.2018
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, Macintyre- A*
This is the story of Oleg Gordievsky, KGB rezident in London, and British spy. Born in 1938, he was the second son of an agent in the KGB. The agency recruited him in 1961. During his first overseas posting, in Copenhagen, the doubts he had about the system blossomed. On his second posting in the same city, he was recruited and committed to MI-6. Oleg proceeded to provide Britain with massive amounts of quality intelligence material. One stumbling block in his career was the collapse of his marriage to a fellow KGB employee and his love affair with another. He divorced upon his return to Moscow and was assigned a dead-end job. After learning his fourth language, English, he was rehabilitated and assigned an overseas post. With his new wife and two infant daughters in tow, he went to London. The early 80's saw a Soviet reaction of fear and paranoia in response to Reagan's bluster, and Yuri Andropov became convinced that the US was planning a first strike. Oleg's input that the former head of the KGB was serious was the first instance of his intelligence being shared by the UK with the US. He was providing the British with gold, and in order to help him, they provided him with chickenfeed to turn back to Moscow. One of the few people on the American side who knew about Oleg was Aldrich Ames. In November 1983, the USSR viewed the NATO winter war games involving 40,000 troops as the first step in the impending nuclear war. Again, Gordievsky advised MI-6 that the Soviets were serious. Alarmed at the Soviets' anxiety, both the UK and US toned down their rhetoric and sought a thaw in relations. Oleg was promoted to rezident in London in 1985 just before Ames offered his services to Moscow. The man he replaced in London thought he was a mole and told Moscow so. Either Oleg's name or position was reported by Ames. Soon thereafter, he was recalled to Moscow. He was drugged, interrogated and told he was demoted and that the KGB knew he had betrayed the USSR. Instead of being taken to the Lubyanka basement, he was sent home and told to take a vacation. He concluded that he was a dead man, but the sentence was delayed because they wouldn't kill a KGB colonel without better proof. He signaled a request for extraction and a long planned operation was begun. It required and received final approval from Margaret Thatcher. On a Friday afternoon, Oleg left his apartment and made his way to an overnight train to Leningrad. There, he changed trains and headed to the Finland border. In Moscow, the head of station, a Viscount, later an Earl and head of MI-6, and his wife, began a long car ride to the same border. Their cover was that they were taking her to a doctor in Helsinki. After his second train, Oleg rode a bus the last two hours to the rendezvous point. Meanwhile the embassy car was bracketed front and rear by KGB agents on the road from Leningrad to Finland. The Brits outraced the Soviets, picked up their man, drove north through Finland to Norway, a NATO ally, and pulled off one of the great intelligence coups of the Cold War. In the west, Gordievsky's knowledge was so valuable that CIA Director Casey spent hours with him in order to prep Reagan for his first meeting with Gorbachev. Oleg met with every western intelligence agency and met Thatcher at Chequers and Reagan at the White House. Although his wife and daughters joined him after six years, the marriage was over and both parties moved on. Gordievsky lives quietly today on a nondescript suburban street, but under 24 hour protection. The order to execute him still stands. LeCarre could not outdo this true story with one of his novel. It's fabulous.
10.29.2018
1983: Reagan, Andropov And A World On The Brink, Downing - B +
This book tells the fascinating story of the year 1983, when the Soviets became convinced the US was about to launch a first strike. For most of the two decades after the Cuban Missile Crisis, both sides knew that they had time to assess an incoming strike and adopt the appropriate response. Mutually assured destruction allowed for an uneasy peace. However, the introduction of short range and submarine launched missiles reduced the time from launch to landing to 6 minutes. Both countries became painfully aware that they really did not have ample time to measure a retaliatory strike. Reagan made bellicose speeches labeling the Soviet Union an 'evil empire' and Yuri Andropov, a particularly paranoid and new General Secretary, was unable to distinguish between policy and bombast in America. The year opened with Andropov demanding of the KGB extensive efforts to observe and report steps toward a nuclear attack. He asked for agents to report the number of lights on in government buildings, to ascertain if leaders were out of town or away from their standard posts, to see if hospitals were preparing for a surge in casualties -- an endless list of absurd idiosyncratic items from which he, as a former KGB Chairman, could determine if America was about to attack. Most of the stations around the world were bemused by the request, concluded it was absurd but fed back doggerel to keep Moscow off their backs. The Strategic Defense Initiative shook the Soviet leadership to their core. They knew they did not have the technology to match whatever the US came up with. The US aggressively pursued psychology operations (PSYOPS) whereby they would send a swarm of planes toward a Soviet border and then pull away at the last minute. We were spending money on rearming, and trying to put the USSR on edge. For all of the noise Reagan made though, he sincerely was frightened by the thought of a nuclear war and dreamed of disarmament. "False alarms were frighteningly common throughout the Cold War. There were accidents, technical failures, computer malfunctions and human errors galore." In August, a Korean Airline plane went 365 miles off course, entered Soviet airspace and was shot down. The Kremlin first denied it had happened and then labeled it a spy flight. Reagan called it a terrorist activity. A month later, a Soviet major who had helped design and install a new computer warning system and happened to be on duty on a night when the computers asserted that the US was attacking, realized it was a false alarm, and literally saved the world by not fighting back. October saw 241 US marines killed in their barracks in Lebanon by a suicide bomber, and the US went on a heightened security level. Both sides were anxiously looking at the other. Complicating matters was that the 69-year-old Yuri Andropov was dying of kidney failure.
That fall, matters came to a head. NATO began its annual war games and one of the first steps was airlifting 19,000 US combat soldiers to West Germany. It was followed by a communications exercise, called Able Archer, which in essence was a rehearsal for the release of nuclear weapons. The Soviets knew that their invasion plans were cloaked under the cover of war games and assumed the west was up to the real thing. As realistic war game communications were heard by the Soviets, they concluded an attack was imminent. On Nov. 6, Moscow Centre advised all posts that an attack would transpire in 7-10 days. The NATO planners then changed their communication codes and the whole exercise went 'black' to the Soviets. They were rattled. Responding to the crisis was a man no longer capable of going to the office. Andropov, growing frailer by the day, was not at the Kremlin, but was ensconced in the Kuntsevo Clinic just outside of Moscow. The military was mobilizing and, for the first time in a generation, did not help with the autumnal harvest. The day the NATO codes changed, Nov. 8, saw the Soviet nuclear missile system on the highest alert level possible. Fighter planes in East Germany and Czechoslovakia were on strip alert: i.e., on the runway, fueled, motors running and ready to take off. Fortunately a Soviet source, Topaz, deep inside NATO headquarters reported that nothing was going on. The Soviets stepped back, Able Archer was over and the normal procedures of the Cold War prevailed.
Only afterwards did the west realize how close it had been to all out war. No one in the west believed that the Soviets could think them capable of such egregious behavior as a first strike. A well placed British spy in London convinced his handlers that the Soviets were petrified of Reagan. Thatcher grasped the issue and eventually Reagan did too. He was concerned about nuclear war and began to tone things down. The year 1984 saw the brief rule of Konstantin Chernenko, another doddering, ill and old Bolshevik, who was succeeded in early 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Over the next few years, Reagan and Gorbachev were able to overcome Reagan's commitment to SDI and sign the INF Treaty, which removed intermediate range missiles from Europe. It was a high-water mark in US-USSR relations. Gorbachev fully realized that the USSR could no longer afford the Cold War and its ongoing occupation of Eastern Europe. He continued to reform, reduce armaments, decrease military expenditures and saw the Berlin Wall fall in November, 1989. The remains of Stalin's monolithic communism were gone. Two years later, the Soviet Union was dissolved.
This is a superbly written, eye-opener of a book. Many believe that November 1983, not October 1962, was when the Cold War came the closest to mutual destruction.
That fall, matters came to a head. NATO began its annual war games and one of the first steps was airlifting 19,000 US combat soldiers to West Germany. It was followed by a communications exercise, called Able Archer, which in essence was a rehearsal for the release of nuclear weapons. The Soviets knew that their invasion plans were cloaked under the cover of war games and assumed the west was up to the real thing. As realistic war game communications were heard by the Soviets, they concluded an attack was imminent. On Nov. 6, Moscow Centre advised all posts that an attack would transpire in 7-10 days. The NATO planners then changed their communication codes and the whole exercise went 'black' to the Soviets. They were rattled. Responding to the crisis was a man no longer capable of going to the office. Andropov, growing frailer by the day, was not at the Kremlin, but was ensconced in the Kuntsevo Clinic just outside of Moscow. The military was mobilizing and, for the first time in a generation, did not help with the autumnal harvest. The day the NATO codes changed, Nov. 8, saw the Soviet nuclear missile system on the highest alert level possible. Fighter planes in East Germany and Czechoslovakia were on strip alert: i.e., on the runway, fueled, motors running and ready to take off. Fortunately a Soviet source, Topaz, deep inside NATO headquarters reported that nothing was going on. The Soviets stepped back, Able Archer was over and the normal procedures of the Cold War prevailed.
Only afterwards did the west realize how close it had been to all out war. No one in the west believed that the Soviets could think them capable of such egregious behavior as a first strike. A well placed British spy in London convinced his handlers that the Soviets were petrified of Reagan. Thatcher grasped the issue and eventually Reagan did too. He was concerned about nuclear war and began to tone things down. The year 1984 saw the brief rule of Konstantin Chernenko, another doddering, ill and old Bolshevik, who was succeeded in early 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Over the next few years, Reagan and Gorbachev were able to overcome Reagan's commitment to SDI and sign the INF Treaty, which removed intermediate range missiles from Europe. It was a high-water mark in US-USSR relations. Gorbachev fully realized that the USSR could no longer afford the Cold War and its ongoing occupation of Eastern Europe. He continued to reform, reduce armaments, decrease military expenditures and saw the Berlin Wall fall in November, 1989. The remains of Stalin's monolithic communism were gone. Two years later, the Soviet Union was dissolved.
This is a superbly written, eye-opener of a book. Many believe that November 1983, not October 1962, was when the Cold War came the closest to mutual destruction.
The Order Of The Day, Vuillard - B-
This is a whimsical, speculative novel that won the 2017 Prix Goncourt, which I can only assume is awarded for beautiful, fanciful writing and not coherent storytelling. There are two vignettes about Nazi Germany that are not to my eye connected in any way.
The first is the story of the complicity of 24 of Germany's industrial leaders in the rise to absolute power of the Nazi's. The names are familiar: Krupp, Siemens, Opel, Schacht, Quandt and Reuter are the more famous of the group. They met with Herman Goering and Adolf Hitler on February 20, 1933, just weeks after Hitler had became Chancellor. The upcoming March elections for the Reichstag were the opportunity to overcome communism and end the wishy-washy ideas of the Weimar Republic. To obtain a majority though, the Nazis needed money, and money they received. In the penultimate chapter of the book, we see Gustav Krupp as an addled old man haunted by the ghosts of the workers who have died in his factories.
The scene shifts to the Anschluss in March, 1938. The right-wing, fascist-sympathetic Arthur von Schuschnigg was Chancellor of Austria for years until summoned to Berchtesgaden by the former Austrian corporal from Braunau. There he was berated and verbally beaten into submission. Arthur Seyss-Inquart replaced him and 'asked' for German help. The Reich's occupation of Austria ensued, but was an exercise in folly, as most of the tanks were in such bad shape that they had to be put on trains to get them to Vienna. The inability of Germany to project power only next door did not stymie the enthusiasm of the local Nazis, nor preclude their immediate abuse of the local Jews. Hitler addressed the enthusiastic crowds from the Schoenbrunn Palace.
"And there stands History, a reasonable goddess, a frozen statue in the middle of the town square. Dried bunches of peonies are her annual tribute; her daily gratuity, bread crumbs for the birds."
The first is the story of the complicity of 24 of Germany's industrial leaders in the rise to absolute power of the Nazi's. The names are familiar: Krupp, Siemens, Opel, Schacht, Quandt and Reuter are the more famous of the group. They met with Herman Goering and Adolf Hitler on February 20, 1933, just weeks after Hitler had became Chancellor. The upcoming March elections for the Reichstag were the opportunity to overcome communism and end the wishy-washy ideas of the Weimar Republic. To obtain a majority though, the Nazis needed money, and money they received. In the penultimate chapter of the book, we see Gustav Krupp as an addled old man haunted by the ghosts of the workers who have died in his factories.
The scene shifts to the Anschluss in March, 1938. The right-wing, fascist-sympathetic Arthur von Schuschnigg was Chancellor of Austria for years until summoned to Berchtesgaden by the former Austrian corporal from Braunau. There he was berated and verbally beaten into submission. Arthur Seyss-Inquart replaced him and 'asked' for German help. The Reich's occupation of Austria ensued, but was an exercise in folly, as most of the tanks were in such bad shape that they had to be put on trains to get them to Vienna. The inability of Germany to project power only next door did not stymie the enthusiasm of the local Nazis, nor preclude their immediate abuse of the local Jews. Hitler addressed the enthusiastic crowds from the Schoenbrunn Palace.
"And there stands History, a reasonable goddess, a frozen statue in the middle of the town square. Dried bunches of peonies are her annual tribute; her daily gratuity, bread crumbs for the birds."
The Swede, Karjel - B -
This is the first book in a developing series involving Ernst Grip, a Security Agent in Sweden. The FBI asks for assistance in interviewing a terrorism suspect, whom they believe may be Swedish. Grip spends a considerable time at a CIA rendition site in the Indian Ocean. As he has some matters in his recent past that might be of some interest to US authorities, he is very careful and ultimately concerned when two disparate inquiries are about to find some commonalities.
10.16.2018
Dominion: The History Of England From The Battle Of Waterloo To Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Ackroyd- C
The defeat of Napoleon brought seventeen new colonies, but not prosperity; a general depression of six years ensued. The population grew from 11 to 21 million in the forty years after the war. To survive or succeed, pluck, discipline, "determination, hardness, energy, persistency, thoroughness and inflexibility", the virtues of the coming Victorian era, were required. The year 1815 saw riots over the price of corn and the following year over unemployment. "The spirit of French revolt was abroad." George III was on the throne, but the country was ruled by the Prince of Wales, whom Wellington described "as the worst man I ever fell in with..." A Cotton Factory Act in 1819 prohibited children under 9 from working, thus marking the first time the government "had turned its face against unchecked laissez-faire in the workings of the economy." The 1820's saw reform in the air. The government supported freedom in South America and began to consider legalizing trade unions. April, 1829 saw the extension of the vote to Roman Catholics, and a few years later, a Reform Bill was enacted. It was a far cry from universal male suffrage (the nation still had but 652,000 voters), but it did afford representation for the great cities of the nation. It empowered the middle class and enhanced the structures of the political parties. Commons may have been improved, but Lords still reigned supreme. 1833 saw the abolition of slavery throughout the empire. The first decades of the century had seen the introduction of the steam engine, the laying of rail lines and the rapid industrialization of the country. The entire century, though, would be dominated by the 'Irish Question', which was on one hand forever undefinable and yet, capable of felling government after government. Another defining aspect of the kingdom was unparalleled urban poverty and filth, along with the depravity of conditions in the factories, but, to a much greater degree, the horror in the coal mines. To the west lay an island of paupers, two million of whom starved to death in the 1840's. That government should act to mitigate starvation had not occurred to anyone. As the politics of the country struggled with the ongoing conflicts between the rich and poor, the economy continued to grow and grow, year over year. The factories were now closed on Saturday afternoons, thus affording their workers leisure time.
The war in the Crimean Peninsula intervened in the peace of the era and, although mostly remembered for Tennyson's poetry and Florence Nightingale's ministrations, it saw the first examples of the impact of industrialization on the ancient art of war. Too many Britons died in an inconsequential effort that lacked finality and the management of the army was condemned as incompetent. Three years later, in 1857, the Indians erupted in violence against their occupiers, leading to the end of the rule of the East India Company and the establishment of the sub-continent as a crown colony.
Gladstone became PM in 1868 after another expansion of the electorate and began to undertake meaningful change. The colonies became part of the confederation that would ultimately be known as the Commonwealth. He disestablished the Church of Ireland. Public education blossomed throughout the country. The secret ballot was confirmed. Religious tests for universities were abolished. Mines were regulated. Imprisonment for debt was reduced. Government, courts and the civil service were reformed. Gladstone, however, continued to butt heads with the monarch, who had withdrawn unto herself for so long after Albert's death that there was concern for the well-being of the institution. When her son survived typhoid, ten years after her consort had succumbed to it, and she avoided another Fenian assassination attempt, she was so happy that she rejoined public life and once again became the mother of the nation. Gladstone was succeeded in 1874 by Disraeli, who had Victoria crowned Empress of India and who finessed the acquisition of the Suez Canal. Gladstone was back in 1880. Starting in that decade, and for the next thirty-years, the issue Irish Home Rule would dominate British domestic politics. Trade unionism finally gained ground in the waning decades of the century, which closed with the country engaged in a trying slog of a war in South Africa in which England was humiliated. As for the eponymous Victoria, she and the era ended on January 22, 1901. She had been queen for over sixty-three years.
I have enjoyed every book in this series. So it has been a disappointment to labor through the focus here on domestic politics. This was an era that saw Britain dominate the world, create the wealthiest country in history; indeed, achieve a national apogee of unparalleled success, and this volume is bogged down in the endless intricacies of political gamesmanship.
The war in the Crimean Peninsula intervened in the peace of the era and, although mostly remembered for Tennyson's poetry and Florence Nightingale's ministrations, it saw the first examples of the impact of industrialization on the ancient art of war. Too many Britons died in an inconsequential effort that lacked finality and the management of the army was condemned as incompetent. Three years later, in 1857, the Indians erupted in violence against their occupiers, leading to the end of the rule of the East India Company and the establishment of the sub-continent as a crown colony.
Gladstone became PM in 1868 after another expansion of the electorate and began to undertake meaningful change. The colonies became part of the confederation that would ultimately be known as the Commonwealth. He disestablished the Church of Ireland. Public education blossomed throughout the country. The secret ballot was confirmed. Religious tests for universities were abolished. Mines were regulated. Imprisonment for debt was reduced. Government, courts and the civil service were reformed. Gladstone, however, continued to butt heads with the monarch, who had withdrawn unto herself for so long after Albert's death that there was concern for the well-being of the institution. When her son survived typhoid, ten years after her consort had succumbed to it, and she avoided another Fenian assassination attempt, she was so happy that she rejoined public life and once again became the mother of the nation. Gladstone was succeeded in 1874 by Disraeli, who had Victoria crowned Empress of India and who finessed the acquisition of the Suez Canal. Gladstone was back in 1880. Starting in that decade, and for the next thirty-years, the issue Irish Home Rule would dominate British domestic politics. Trade unionism finally gained ground in the waning decades of the century, which closed with the country engaged in a trying slog of a war in South Africa in which England was humiliated. As for the eponymous Victoria, she and the era ended on January 22, 1901. She had been queen for over sixty-three years.
I have enjoyed every book in this series. So it has been a disappointment to labor through the focus here on domestic politics. This was an era that saw Britain dominate the world, create the wealthiest country in history; indeed, achieve a national apogee of unparalleled success, and this volume is bogged down in the endless intricacies of political gamesmanship.
10.09.2018
The Nightmare, Kepler - B
This is the second superb book in the Linna series. Joona, along with a team from the security services, tracks down a merciless killer for hire. The evildoer behind all of this is an international arms merchant with a penchant for Paganini. The author observes that there are 29 million bullets manufactured every day on this planet. I've always known that the five permanent member of the UN Security Council are the largest merchants of weapons in the world. Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden round out he nefarious nine.
10.07.2018
Chasing Hillary; Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling, Chozick - B
Amy Chozick was the NYT reporter assigned to the 2016 Clinton campaign. She and the Travelers "made it through 577 days of the most noxious, soul-crushing presidential campaign in modern history." They thought they had covered the election of the FWP (first woman president). The author had covered Hillary's 2008 campaign for the Journal and was assigned by the Times to Hillary full-time in the summer of 2013. Unknown to the author, "Bill and Hillary both believed the paper was out to get them" because a Times reporter was the first to unearth the White River project that eventually led to Bill's travails with Ken Starr. The author's personal opponents were 'The Guys' (Hired Gun Guy, '08 Guy, Original Guy, Policy Guy, Brown Loafers Guy, Outsider Guy), the HRC media/pr team, who didn't particularly like her, reporters or the NYT. Chozick quickly ran afoul of The Guys after a few stories slighted the Clinton's. Even before HRC announced for the presidency, the paper of record was severely on the outs, and Chozick was persona non grata with the family. When Hillary's email debacle was unearthed, the Times ran very thorough coverage, further displeasing the Clinton's. The author's relentless witticisms are exemplified by her referring to the matter as Emailghazi. The email debacle haunted the campaign until the end and was an endless source of contention between the campaign and the journalists. The author also reminds us that HRC never quite articulated why she was running and Brooklyn (campaign HQ) never found a compelling theme or slogan. Neither I'm With Her nor Fighting For Us ever resonated like Feel The Bern, Make America Great Again, or for that matter, All The Way With LBJ. Iowa meant that the Travelers, most of whom were women finally got a campaign bus. "But by the time women reporters dominated Hillary's press corps, Twitter and live streaming and a female candidate who had zero interest in having a relationship with the press vastly diminished the campaign bus's place in the media ecosystem." An ongoing bone of contention between Hillary and the press was her refusal to have a plane that she would share with the Travelers. She broke with tradition by having a small plane and leaving the press to find its own way. HRC won Iowa by less than a point, and quite frankly, won by a coin toss in a handful of caucuses; the Guys and the family went nuts when the author referred to it as a psychological setback. Crushed in New Hampshire, Hillary moved on to the south where she won in SC and eventually locked up the nomination, vanquishing Bernie and his Boys. The general would prove to be a new ballgame. After Trump called Bill Clinton a rapist, HRC responded by saying Trump was unfit. "Hillary was still following the Romney playbook, not realizing she was the Romney in the race." A few New York pols told the campaign that they came out with boxing gloves on and Trump had a knife and a broken Coca-Cola bottle. In September, the Travelers finally achieved their primary goal - assigned seats on the campaign plane, which had an H on the tail and the phrase Stronger Together on the body. Hillary won all three debates, but it didn't really matter "because people just wanted to blow shit up." Thirteen days before the election, the FBI re-opened the email investigation because of the contemptible conduct of Anthony Weiner on a computer shared with his wife. Reading the last pages of this book is a shocking reminder of how everyone considered the matter a foregone conclusion in Clinton's behalf right up until the fateful night. First, Florida; then, Pennsylvania. "The most beautiful party I'd ever been to, a multicultural bouquet featuring the FWP, was starting to feel like a mass funeral." Chozick, like millions, was crushed by the outcome and cried the next day sitting in her cubicle at the Times.
The author is funny as hell and intersperses the story with her personal tale, replete with being broke in NYC, having no idea what she was doing, her iPhone app reminding her monthly"your fertile window is closing", and the endless goings-on, the drinking, the affairs, the egos, and the games on the campaign trail. This is a must read for anyone who voted Democratic, has a sense of humor and accepts that the Clinton campaign was one of the worst managed and least inspired in history. As a life long Times reader, I just totally loved learning what the vitamin pages are.
The author is funny as hell and intersperses the story with her personal tale, replete with being broke in NYC, having no idea what she was doing, her iPhone app reminding her monthly"your fertile window is closing", and the endless goings-on, the drinking, the affairs, the egos, and the games on the campaign trail. This is a must read for anyone who voted Democratic, has a sense of humor and accepts that the Clinton campaign was one of the worst managed and least inspired in history. As a life long Times reader, I just totally loved learning what the vitamin pages are.
10.02.2018
Nixonland: The Rise Of A President And The Fracturing Of America, Perlstein - B +
This tome, weighing in at 748 pages, is the second in the author's tetralogy on the ascension of the right and the end of the liberal democratic consensus in America. He tells the "story in four sections, corresponding to four elections: 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1972. Nixon's story is the engine of the narrative. His character-his own overwhelming angers, anxieties, and resentments in the face of the 1960's chaos-sparks the combustion." In 1964, voters voted Democratic to avoid "civilizational chaos." In 1972, and for the same reason, they voted Republican. The term 'Nixonland' was coined by John Kenneth Galbraith and Adlai Stevenson in 1956. It "is the America where two separate and irreconcilable sets of apocalyptic fears coexist in the minds of two separate and irreconcilable groups of Americans."
The story begins with the Watts riots in LA in August, 1965. America watched a major city go up in flames. The violence associated with the south had spread north in a country where two-thirds of Republicans proclaimed themselves conservative. Johnson's brief presidency had already seen a civil rights act, a voting rights act, immigration reform, health care for the elderly, a war on poverty and a crushing Congressional majority to accompany the president's electoral triumph. LBJ seemed unassailable, yet unashamedly plying the Republican circuit pining for a comeback was Richard Nixon. He had won his first election in 1946 by viciously attacking a sitting congressman and smeared his way into the senate four years later. After Ike chose him, he became V-P at thirty-nine. His years as Ike's number two had some ups and downs, but he lost elections in 1960 and 1962. His famous 1962 "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" press conference was the supposed end of the line. But he never gave up and never stopped campaigning. In 1966, the former actor turned politico, Ronald Reagan, ran for governor in California by stoking right-wing fears and anxieties. He struck the same chords as Goldwater, but in a more affable style. Throughout that year, America's apparent peaceful consensus continued to collapse as the war in Vietnam generated increasing opposition and racial antagonisms flared. Racial tensions in the north caused some of the Great Society's traditional supporters to begin to have doubts. The author pegs August 1966 as the point in time when the party of Lincoln turned from a century of support for the negro to the party that offered white people safety in their homes and schools from the Democratic forces of integration. On election day, there was a Republican rout across the nation at every level of government.
In December, LBJ began the saturation bombing of North Vietnam. "By the beginning of 1967, the war in Vietnam had ended America's consensus for good." Johnson began cutting back his domestic programs and sought a tax surcharge to pay for the war. Society splintered over the war. Students on the coasts marched against the war. Students in the heartland founded 'Up With People.' The Federal Reserve chairman and 300 business leaders published an open letter opposing the war in the Wall Street Journal. Martin Luther King began to actively oppose the war. While not running, Nixon organized the team that would put him in the White House, took international trips, sniped at LBJ and stayed above the fray. Once again, the summer brought full-scale riots in Newark, Harlem and Detroit. Johnson raged at the hundreds of thousands marching on Washington as the fissures in the party grew to the point that replacing LBJ became the objective of the left. Westmoreland came to Washington and declared "there was light at the end of the tunnel" and Gene McCarthy filed in four primaries. The opening calamity of 1968, a year of endless misfortune, was the Tet Offensive. Walter Cronkite closed his report on Tet with "It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." For all intents and purposes, it was over - it just would take almost five more painful years. McCarthy stunned Johnson in New Hampshire, leading the President to announce two weeks later that he would not seek re-election. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of citizens thought crime and lawlessness the most important domestic issue. Bobby joined the fray in March. One symbol of how divided America was was Martin Luther King. He was adored by millions and simultaneously the most hated man in the country. His murder in April led to nationwide rioting, bringing America to its knees. The campaign went on with Humphrey now the Democratic establishment candidate, George Wallace joining the fray as an independent and Rockefeller, encouraged by LBJ, attempting to stop Nixon. June saw RFK murdered after winning the California primary and it seemed as if the world had spun out of control. Nixon held off the challengers at the convention in Miami Beach and the Democrats self-immolated in Chicago. Humphrey was nominated while Richard Daley's police participated in what was later called "a police riot" by "preserving disorder" while the "whole world" watched. Juan Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their hands in the black power salute in Mexico City and Nixon began his smooth and slick Roger Ailes television production campaign for law and order on behalf of the silent majority. In addition, he garnered anti-war votes with his "secret plan to end the war". On November 8 with a plurality in the popular vote of .7%, Nixon was elected and became the first president since 1849 to enter the White House without a majority in either house.
Nonetheless, he promised to be conciliatory and the first few months of 1969 were quiet, almost tranquil. Below the surface, the seeds of Nixon's downfall were being sown. Leaks led to the wiretapping of NSC staff members, Secretary of Defense Laird and a handful of reporters. By the fall, the "secret plan" appeared to be escalation and opposition to the war continued to grow. Casualties were down from 1968, but almost a thousand Americans per month were being killed. White House detectives fruitlessly sought out the communist backers of the Vietnam Moratorium on Oct. 15. Nixon introduced 'Vietnamization' to the public in a November speech, stated his opposition to the war, said we would "win the peace" and finished the year with excellent approval numbers. In May of the new year, Nixon increased the tempo of the bombing and announced an invasion of Cambodia. All hell broke loose. After days of rioting at Kent State, Ohio National guardsmen shot into a crowd of students and killed four on May 4th. ROTC buildings were aflame across the country. A total of 488 colleges were shut down. Over a hundred thousand marched on Washington. On Wall Street, hard-hat construction workers broke up an anti-war demonstration and the White House saw an opportunity. Blue collar workers, the backbone of the Democratic party, were angry and felt disenfranchised and disrespected. Perhaps, cultural issues would move them to vote Republican. The person who would lead the charge in the 1970 elections with endless alliterations and mean-spirited anger would be V. P. Spiro Agnew. Clandestine and under the counter fund raising was ratcheted up. Pointing out that these were perilous times and that we needed to find out who was behind the youth of America's desire to destroy our society, Nixon authorized black bag ops, illegal surveillance and wire taps, IRS inquiries and endless harassment of one of his most visible enemies, Jane Fonda. By "campaigning against hippies", Nixon went after conservative Democrats and hoped to expand the Republican vote in the south. It did not work; they still were the minority in both houses. Now anxious about 1972, Nixon convinced himself he had to save America from complete collapse and concluded he would do anything to be re-elected.
In the new year, "The American army was collapsing in the field." Soldiers were refusing to fight, protesting and ignoring their officers. Vietnam returnees "were the fastest growing segment of the antiwar movement." The Vietnam Veterans Against The War staged dramatic and effective public protests in April in Washington, while Nixon released Calley out on his own recognizance after his murder conviction. Navy Lt. John Kerry testified before Sen. Fulbright's committee and asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake". Polls showed that two-thirds of the nation thought Vietnam a mistake and that Muskie had a slight lead for the presidency. The June 13 front page of the Times juxtaposed a picture of Tricia Nixon's wedding and the explosive first publication of the Pentagon Papers. Decades of lies and hypocrisy were exposed. Nixon proposed searching the archives to find the information that showed FDR knew of Pearl Harbor beforehand; Haldeman suggested they sort out if JFK knew the specifics of the Bay of Pigs in advance when Nixon remembered that he believed there were files at the Brookings Institute that showed that the Kennedy's had ordered the assassination of the Diems. "Get in and get those files" led to the hiring of Howard Hunt and the birth of the Plumbers. In early 1972, Nixon took a step on the world stage that cemented his presidency as historic and virtually assured his re-election: he went to Peking and met with Chou-En Lai and Chairman Mao. Meanwhile, back home, his ratfucker crew sabotaged Sen. Muskie's campaign and the White House worked to help George Wallace run as a Democrat, not on a third party ticket. In Florida, Donald Segretti continued the sabotage and used dirty tricks against Humphrey, McCarthy, Lindsay and continued to ratfuck Muskie. Nixon's dream was the Democrats "scratching each others' eyes out" and he realized it when George Wallace crushed all comers. Primary season rolled on and soon it became apparent that they would get the opponent they wanted - McGovern. On the night of June 16-17, five men, including someone on the staff of CREEP were arrested at the Watergate. John Mitchell issued a denial that held the truth back, but did not stop the young Woodward and Bernstein from pursuing it. When the Democrats met in Miami, they obliged the President by continuing to scratch each others' eyes out in one of the messiest conventions in US history. The AFL-CIO did not endorse a candidate after George Meany announced that "the party had been taken over by people named Jack who looked like Jills and smelled like johns." Vietnamization had meaningfully reduced the American foot soldiers in the war, but the air war continued unabated. Nixon and Kissinger's strategy was to bomb and keep bombing in order to keep the South Vietnamese government alive until after the election. All they cared for was the proverbial decent interval. In October, Kissinger falsely announced that "peace was at hand." Nixon absolutely crushed McGovern, but once again lacked coattails as the opposition held both houses of Congress.
This an extraordinary book, amazingly thorough in its detail and painfully adept at reminding us just how hate-filled the times were. And as we know, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." "Americans are not trying to kill one another anymore.......this war has ratcheted down considerably. But it still simmers on." Nixon left behind two Americas. On one side, you have those who call themselves patriots, values voters and people of faith who feel looked down upon by the condescending liberals. On the other side you have the cosmopolitan professionals who see the first group as the "unwitting dupes of the feckless elites who exploit sentimental pieties to aggrandize their wealth, start wars, ruin lives." "How did Nixonland end? It did not end yet."
The story begins with the Watts riots in LA in August, 1965. America watched a major city go up in flames. The violence associated with the south had spread north in a country where two-thirds of Republicans proclaimed themselves conservative. Johnson's brief presidency had already seen a civil rights act, a voting rights act, immigration reform, health care for the elderly, a war on poverty and a crushing Congressional majority to accompany the president's electoral triumph. LBJ seemed unassailable, yet unashamedly plying the Republican circuit pining for a comeback was Richard Nixon. He had won his first election in 1946 by viciously attacking a sitting congressman and smeared his way into the senate four years later. After Ike chose him, he became V-P at thirty-nine. His years as Ike's number two had some ups and downs, but he lost elections in 1960 and 1962. His famous 1962 "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" press conference was the supposed end of the line. But he never gave up and never stopped campaigning. In 1966, the former actor turned politico, Ronald Reagan, ran for governor in California by stoking right-wing fears and anxieties. He struck the same chords as Goldwater, but in a more affable style. Throughout that year, America's apparent peaceful consensus continued to collapse as the war in Vietnam generated increasing opposition and racial antagonisms flared. Racial tensions in the north caused some of the Great Society's traditional supporters to begin to have doubts. The author pegs August 1966 as the point in time when the party of Lincoln turned from a century of support for the negro to the party that offered white people safety in their homes and schools from the Democratic forces of integration. On election day, there was a Republican rout across the nation at every level of government.
In December, LBJ began the saturation bombing of North Vietnam. "By the beginning of 1967, the war in Vietnam had ended America's consensus for good." Johnson began cutting back his domestic programs and sought a tax surcharge to pay for the war. Society splintered over the war. Students on the coasts marched against the war. Students in the heartland founded 'Up With People.' The Federal Reserve chairman and 300 business leaders published an open letter opposing the war in the Wall Street Journal. Martin Luther King began to actively oppose the war. While not running, Nixon organized the team that would put him in the White House, took international trips, sniped at LBJ and stayed above the fray. Once again, the summer brought full-scale riots in Newark, Harlem and Detroit. Johnson raged at the hundreds of thousands marching on Washington as the fissures in the party grew to the point that replacing LBJ became the objective of the left. Westmoreland came to Washington and declared "there was light at the end of the tunnel" and Gene McCarthy filed in four primaries. The opening calamity of 1968, a year of endless misfortune, was the Tet Offensive. Walter Cronkite closed his report on Tet with "It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." For all intents and purposes, it was over - it just would take almost five more painful years. McCarthy stunned Johnson in New Hampshire, leading the President to announce two weeks later that he would not seek re-election. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of citizens thought crime and lawlessness the most important domestic issue. Bobby joined the fray in March. One symbol of how divided America was was Martin Luther King. He was adored by millions and simultaneously the most hated man in the country. His murder in April led to nationwide rioting, bringing America to its knees. The campaign went on with Humphrey now the Democratic establishment candidate, George Wallace joining the fray as an independent and Rockefeller, encouraged by LBJ, attempting to stop Nixon. June saw RFK murdered after winning the California primary and it seemed as if the world had spun out of control. Nixon held off the challengers at the convention in Miami Beach and the Democrats self-immolated in Chicago. Humphrey was nominated while Richard Daley's police participated in what was later called "a police riot" by "preserving disorder" while the "whole world" watched. Juan Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their hands in the black power salute in Mexico City and Nixon began his smooth and slick Roger Ailes television production campaign for law and order on behalf of the silent majority. In addition, he garnered anti-war votes with his "secret plan to end the war". On November 8 with a plurality in the popular vote of .7%, Nixon was elected and became the first president since 1849 to enter the White House without a majority in either house.
Nonetheless, he promised to be conciliatory and the first few months of 1969 were quiet, almost tranquil. Below the surface, the seeds of Nixon's downfall were being sown. Leaks led to the wiretapping of NSC staff members, Secretary of Defense Laird and a handful of reporters. By the fall, the "secret plan" appeared to be escalation and opposition to the war continued to grow. Casualties were down from 1968, but almost a thousand Americans per month were being killed. White House detectives fruitlessly sought out the communist backers of the Vietnam Moratorium on Oct. 15. Nixon introduced 'Vietnamization' to the public in a November speech, stated his opposition to the war, said we would "win the peace" and finished the year with excellent approval numbers. In May of the new year, Nixon increased the tempo of the bombing and announced an invasion of Cambodia. All hell broke loose. After days of rioting at Kent State, Ohio National guardsmen shot into a crowd of students and killed four on May 4th. ROTC buildings were aflame across the country. A total of 488 colleges were shut down. Over a hundred thousand marched on Washington. On Wall Street, hard-hat construction workers broke up an anti-war demonstration and the White House saw an opportunity. Blue collar workers, the backbone of the Democratic party, were angry and felt disenfranchised and disrespected. Perhaps, cultural issues would move them to vote Republican. The person who would lead the charge in the 1970 elections with endless alliterations and mean-spirited anger would be V. P. Spiro Agnew. Clandestine and under the counter fund raising was ratcheted up. Pointing out that these were perilous times and that we needed to find out who was behind the youth of America's desire to destroy our society, Nixon authorized black bag ops, illegal surveillance and wire taps, IRS inquiries and endless harassment of one of his most visible enemies, Jane Fonda. By "campaigning against hippies", Nixon went after conservative Democrats and hoped to expand the Republican vote in the south. It did not work; they still were the minority in both houses. Now anxious about 1972, Nixon convinced himself he had to save America from complete collapse and concluded he would do anything to be re-elected.
In the new year, "The American army was collapsing in the field." Soldiers were refusing to fight, protesting and ignoring their officers. Vietnam returnees "were the fastest growing segment of the antiwar movement." The Vietnam Veterans Against The War staged dramatic and effective public protests in April in Washington, while Nixon released Calley out on his own recognizance after his murder conviction. Navy Lt. John Kerry testified before Sen. Fulbright's committee and asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake". Polls showed that two-thirds of the nation thought Vietnam a mistake and that Muskie had a slight lead for the presidency. The June 13 front page of the Times juxtaposed a picture of Tricia Nixon's wedding and the explosive first publication of the Pentagon Papers. Decades of lies and hypocrisy were exposed. Nixon proposed searching the archives to find the information that showed FDR knew of Pearl Harbor beforehand; Haldeman suggested they sort out if JFK knew the specifics of the Bay of Pigs in advance when Nixon remembered that he believed there were files at the Brookings Institute that showed that the Kennedy's had ordered the assassination of the Diems. "Get in and get those files" led to the hiring of Howard Hunt and the birth of the Plumbers. In early 1972, Nixon took a step on the world stage that cemented his presidency as historic and virtually assured his re-election: he went to Peking and met with Chou-En Lai and Chairman Mao. Meanwhile, back home, his ratfucker crew sabotaged Sen. Muskie's campaign and the White House worked to help George Wallace run as a Democrat, not on a third party ticket. In Florida, Donald Segretti continued the sabotage and used dirty tricks against Humphrey, McCarthy, Lindsay and continued to ratfuck Muskie. Nixon's dream was the Democrats "scratching each others' eyes out" and he realized it when George Wallace crushed all comers. Primary season rolled on and soon it became apparent that they would get the opponent they wanted - McGovern. On the night of June 16-17, five men, including someone on the staff of CREEP were arrested at the Watergate. John Mitchell issued a denial that held the truth back, but did not stop the young Woodward and Bernstein from pursuing it. When the Democrats met in Miami, they obliged the President by continuing to scratch each others' eyes out in one of the messiest conventions in US history. The AFL-CIO did not endorse a candidate after George Meany announced that "the party had been taken over by people named Jack who looked like Jills and smelled like johns." Vietnamization had meaningfully reduced the American foot soldiers in the war, but the air war continued unabated. Nixon and Kissinger's strategy was to bomb and keep bombing in order to keep the South Vietnamese government alive until after the election. All they cared for was the proverbial decent interval. In October, Kissinger falsely announced that "peace was at hand." Nixon absolutely crushed McGovern, but once again lacked coattails as the opposition held both houses of Congress.
This an extraordinary book, amazingly thorough in its detail and painfully adept at reminding us just how hate-filled the times were. And as we know, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." "Americans are not trying to kill one another anymore.......this war has ratcheted down considerably. But it still simmers on." Nixon left behind two Americas. On one side, you have those who call themselves patriots, values voters and people of faith who feel looked down upon by the condescending liberals. On the other side you have the cosmopolitan professionals who see the first group as the "unwitting dupes of the feckless elites who exploit sentimental pieties to aggrandize their wealth, start wars, ruin lives." "How did Nixonland end? It did not end yet."
After The Monsoon, Karjel - B
This is an intriguing novel about a Swedish inspector sent to Djibouti to investigate the accidental death of a lieutenant and who is then asked to assist in the investigation of the kidnapping a wealthy Swedish family by Somali pirates. As you would expect from the central character in a burgeoning series, Ernst Grip handles both issues with aplomb and is successful. The important take away for me is the significant role of Sweden and other nations we do not associate with overseas military action. An earlier series outlined Denmark's activities in Afghanistan. Apparently, under NATO's umbrella, Nordic and other European nations have sent a meaningful number of combatants to Asia and Africa and have their own histories of deployment and the effect that has had on their countries. Part of this story, as it is part of almost every novel from Europe in the last twenty-five years, is the ongoing impact of immigration on what, in the post-war era, had been relatively homogenous societies.
9.12.2018
Into The Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, And The Sinking of El Faro, Slade - B
On the evening of September 29, 2015, the forty-year old cargo ship, El Faro, sailed from Jacksonville with a crew of 33. On the first of October, the US government's hydrophones heard an enormous thud as the ship hit the bottom three miles down. Hurricane Joaquin sank the ship just off the Bahamas as it was on the way to Puerto Rico. The National Hurricane Center had had a difficult time predicting the path of what had been Tropical Depression 11, as it was "weak, meandering and dispersed." Nonetheless, it was a full-fledged hurricane on the 30th and the captain of the ship felt he could steer a course to within 65 miles of the eye. The NHC stumbled tracking the storm and the information making it to El Faro's antiquated printer was hours old or just inaccurate. The private tracking system that the company used was often as much as nine hours late and it relied on the information reported by the government's agencies. Heading right at the storm continued to be the captain's game plan. The ship was antiquated, the crew inexperienced and unhappy, and most importantly, the captain wasn't very good. He feared for his job in a company that was poorly managed and cutting costs and people left and right. He felt he had to get to Puerto Rico on time and only reluctantly made a modest course adjustment on the evening of the 30th. The captain ignored the crew's reports and plowed ahead into what he called a low. Just before dawn, the ship listed because it had taken on water and it lost propulsion when the propeller lubrication system failed. Cargo smashing into the hull caused a significant breach and flooding. At 7:13 AM, the El Faro activated it's satellite alarm. Approximately twenty minutes later, she went down.
The search and rescue operation was hindered by the storm, and on day three, Coast Guard pilots saw two debris fields in the water. The El Faro was lost and a full scale Coast Guard and NTSB investigation ensued. US flag carriers of the size of El Faro do not sail into hurricanes and sink. It was the largest loss of life on a US ship since WWII. The voice data recorder (black box) was needed. The ship itself was found on Oct. 31. At the hearings held at that time, the ship's owner, Tote, adamantly insisted on the correctness of all their maritime procedures, inspections, and personnel policies. In August of 2016, the NTSB recovered the recorder and which contained the final 26 hours of the El Faro. The final report placed the lion's share of the blame on Captain Davidson. The ship's outdated design that was pushed beyond it's capabilities and Tote's management failures contributed. It certainly appears as if the owners and mangers of the ship allowed a man with limited skills and unlimited hubris to drive 33 people to Davy Jones' locker.
The search and rescue operation was hindered by the storm, and on day three, Coast Guard pilots saw two debris fields in the water. The El Faro was lost and a full scale Coast Guard and NTSB investigation ensued. US flag carriers of the size of El Faro do not sail into hurricanes and sink. It was the largest loss of life on a US ship since WWII. The voice data recorder (black box) was needed. The ship itself was found on Oct. 31. At the hearings held at that time, the ship's owner, Tote, adamantly insisted on the correctness of all their maritime procedures, inspections, and personnel policies. In August of 2016, the NTSB recovered the recorder and which contained the final 26 hours of the El Faro. The final report placed the lion's share of the blame on Captain Davidson. The ship's outdated design that was pushed beyond it's capabilities and Tote's management failures contributed. It certainly appears as if the owners and mangers of the ship allowed a man with limited skills and unlimited hubris to drive 33 people to Davy Jones' locker.
9.10.2018
Disappointment River: Finding and Losing The Northwest Passage, Castner - B -
"From the moment Christopher Columbus realized that he had stumbled on a new continent, rather than China, there was always a tension, among European explorers, between exploiting the riches of the New World and finding a route around it." By the late 18th century, a passage north of Canada was understood to be hopeless. But the trappers and furriers of what had been New France had moved west to the Great Lakes and beyond. At the annual rendezvous at Lake Superior, the managers of the North West Company had heard of a great river heading west from the Great Slave Lake, and in 1788 chose their youngest partner, twenty-six-year old Alexander Mackenzie, to find it. If a passage to the western ocean could be found, it would mean having direct access to the Far East, a vast market for the beaver furs that were desired around the world. From Superior, his small group traveled northwest and reached* Lake Winnipeg. They wintered on the shores of Lac-Ile-a-la-Crosse in the middle of what is now Saskatchewan. The winter was harsh and they did not venture back onto the water until June, 1789. Within a few weeks, they reached the Great Slave Lake, a massive body of water that was still iced over. After a week of waiting, they travelled to the north shore and eventually found the mouth of the river that began to course to the north and west. On open waters, canoers were able to travel 40-50 miles per day. On and on they went, further north than any white men had ever gone. Eventually, they passed through the forested lands they knew, and entered a flatter, barren place without beaver, and Mackenzie realized they were headed to the Arctic and not the Pacific. His sextant calculations confirmed they were above the Arctic Circle, but he powered on to the end. When the Deh Cho River entered the Arctic, Mackenzie could see the ice that blocked the way to the west. His search for the Northwest passage had failed. In his journal, he entered "a voyage down River Disappointment." That said, he had descended the second longest river in North America and the longest in Canada. The river had flowed just over a thousand miles from the Great Slave Lake to the sea. They were well over 2,000 miles from Lake Superior, their starting point the previous summer. Mackenzie later received fame, fortune and a knighthood for transversing the continent a dozen years before Lewis and Clark. The Deh Cho is called the Mackenzie River today.
*I am befuddled by endless portaging, which does not seem to me to presage a route to Asia.
*I am befuddled by endless portaging, which does not seem to me to presage a route to Asia.
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