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.
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