An Unfinished Season, Just - B+

         This is a superb novel set in Chicago and the North Shore in the summer of 1954. Nineteen-year-old Wils Ravan is bored, headed to the University of Chicago in the fall, going to a lot of debutante balls, and working for the summer at an afternoon tabloid about to fold. He learns the ways of the world at the paper, and falls madly for Aurora Brule at night. The fun part of this book is the description of life in Lake Forest, a Lake Forest I've never known, one filled with debs thinking about the East Coast girls schools', dads who are doctors and lawyers, young men back from prep schools and everyone going to the local country club. At one of the parties that summer, one of the moms tells Wils they don't have his paper in the house because they "wouldn't want the maid to see it." He goes on to describe the Winnetka to Lake Forest world as a separate rift valley in the midwest.  Equally fascinating are the descriptions of the city at that time and the line, "Chicago itself had a nineteenth-century identity: a noisy unlovely city of iron and concrete, a city on the grab, fundamentally lawless, its days spent chasing money and its nights spending it.."

        The author was a third-generation newspaperman who attended a private prep school in Lake Forest, and later was one of Ben Bradlee's first hires at the Post. The book was a Pulitzer finalist two decades ago.

Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution, Woods - A*

        "The Revolutionary era was the most creative period of Constitutionalism in American history and one of the most creative in Western history." Without a common ancestry, America had to create its nationhood from its documents, and uniquely for the times, they retained much of what was said and debated for posterity.

         The disagreement over taxation after the French and Indian War led to an assessment in Britain and America of the meaning of empire. In the colonies, two-thirds of the white men had the vote; in Britain, the number was one-sixth. The colonists thought that they should be able to vote on whether they were taxed. Parliament argued that all Britons were virtually represented. The colonists argued that Parliament could regulate trade, but not tax them, while the British asserted that Parliament held supreme sovereign sway over the empire. The Americans countered that they were not subject to Parliament, but to the king. Soon they were arguing against the king's tyranny. And it was the king's tyranny that drew Jefferson's ire in the Declaration of Independence.

       More important than the Federal constitution of 1787 were the state ones that preceded it. Almost everything we think of as uniquely American was in the state constitutions created during the war. The goal of the state constitutions was to eliminate tyranny. Eight states completed their work in 1776 alone. Fearful of the power exercised by kings, the states reined in the power given to their governors.  They required (unlike England) that no one could be a member of the legislative and executive branches simultaneously. Again unlike the mother country, the constitutions had to be written and specific. Thus, in America, there was a distinction between matters that were legal and those that were constitutional. Whereas in the UK, the only distinction was between what is legal and what is illegal.

        There was no great desire to go beyond the Articles of Confederation because 18th century political thought held that republics must be small and have a population of like people. The new nation was much too big. The Articles were no more than a "firm league of friendship" between 13 sovereign states.  What led to the creation of a centralized nation state? There was no one dramatic event, but rather a compilation of issues in the commercial arena. Businessmen wanted protection from the British mercantile system and felt there was a need to levy tariffs. The Confederation Congress could not raise taxes and needed money to pay its war debts and to ransom mariners kidnapped by the Barbary pirates. There was no one to evict British troops who lingered in Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego. The western and southern borders were not secure. Also, there was an excess of democracy as states elected tradesmen and others not as well educated as their predecessors, and these "middling men" began to provide relief for debtors, and otherwise not respect property rights. They had a too-parochial focus. It was time for gentlemen to be in charge again.  There was a consensus to meet and revise the Articles.  Madison saw an opportunity, and with a few like-minded colleagues, went to Philadelphia in 1787 with bigger plans. Madison's Virginia Plan became the template for discussion. Because the plan severely diminished the status of the states, it was met a vigorous dissent.  Hamilton then proposed such a strong central government that his suggestion made the Virginia plan seem moderate in comparison.  A month later, a compromise providing for equal representation in the Senate helped keep the process moving, but it was viewed by Madison as a catastrophic mistake. In the end, the Constitution that was adopted was a series of compromises.

      By the time of the convention, most northern states had banned slavery, and the Northwest Ordinance, promulgated that year by the Confederation Congress, prohibited the expansion of slavery in the states that would eventually emerge there. Madison believed the institution was dying and did not wish to address it. However, in order to keep Georgia and South Carolina from leaving, the notorious three-fifths compromise was adopted.

       The judiciary of the colonial era was subject to the the executive. It was neither esteemed nor independent. The establishment of an independent judiciary came about as a response to the excessive democracy mentioned above. State legislatures enacted dubious and unfair laws. Once again, some reining in was required. The rationale for judicial review was that sovereignty rested in the people. Hamilton argued that government was subject to wishes of the people.  Judicial review, if an act was inconsistent with the people's constitution, did not raise the judiciary above the legislature. Rather, it was the appropriate method of weighing the laws passed by Congress. Many, including Jefferson, thought that interpreting the constitution was not solely within the purview of the courts. Marshall brilliantly resolved the issue in 1803 in 'Marbury v. Madison' so subtlety in the Court's favor that virtually no one realized what he had done. Thirty years later, Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The Courts of Justice are the visible organs by which the legal profession is enabled to control the democracy."

         A special thanks to Greg Weiss for insisting I read this.

      

Aurore, Hurley - C

       This novel is set in 1943 and features Billy Angell, a Brighton-raised Flight Sergeant in the RAF.  After the completion of his 30 missions over Germany, he is offered a job by MI5. If he completes it, his war is over. He is sent to France, where he is expected to leak a fabrication to confuse the Germans about where the Allied landing will be. Madame Helene Lafosse is chosen as the person to receive the story because she is close to Bjorn Klimt, a colonel in the Abwehr. The seed is planted and the misleading information is under consideration. Billy's job is done, but soon, he and Helene are in custody; Billy is sent to Dachau, Helene to Ravensbruck, and Klimt is in trouble too.  Only Billy survives.

The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics, Breyer

         This book is an essay on "the importance of public acceptance in safeguarding the role of the judiciary." The publics willingness to follow and respect the Supreme Court's decisions is a habit developed over the past 200+ years. One the concept of unelected judges overruling elected officials works is that the Court minimizes cases likely to provoke strong disagreements. "The public now expects Presidents to accept decisions of the Court, including those that are politically controversial."

          Political considerations impact Court decisions. During WWII, the Court supported the internment of Japanese-Americans when Justice Black pointed out that Roosevelt had to run the war, not them. In the 1950's, the Court delayed for a decade addressing interracial marriage bans in order to allow 'Brown v. Board of Education' to become accepted. That said, the Court is not per se a political institution, and must not be perceived as such. Preventing the further politicization of legal issues is very important to the future of the Court. One way the Court avoids politicizing issues is to seek to address narrow statutory interpretations rather than making a broad, sweeping constitutional assertion.

           The cases on freedom of religion, speech and the right to abortion are the ones that garner most of the attention from the public and the media. Here, the judges try to find the ultimate end that the Constitution values. What is the 'spirit' the Constitution is addressing? In 'Brown', it was not just the equal protection clause, but "an affirmation of justice itself." We must remember that the "Constitution itself seeks to establish a workable democracy, to protect basic human rights, and to help hold together a highly diverse society..."

            Going forward our society must educate its populace in the rule of law, the importance of the courts, and the structure of our government;  that populace must participate in its community. "Trust in the Court...requires knowledge, it requires understanding, it requires engagement, it requires work, work, work on the part of all citizens."

               This is an excellent read and a very brief restatement of public remarks that Justice Breyer has made. I recommend it to all, and am not presumptuous enough to even think of grading it.

     

Finisterre, Hurley - B

       This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel set in the year 1944. There are two parallel stories that intersect at the end of the book. The best story is that of Kapitan Stefan Portisch, an honored and very successful submariner, whose ship founders off the Spanish coast and is destroyed on its rocky shore. He survives and is nursed back to health by a Spanish woman, Eva. Eventually, the Civil Guards, accompanied by Germans take him in, and the Germans accuse him of desertion. They offer him a firing squad in the morning, or a chance to live by spinning a tale to the British. He tells the tale after the British send him to London. After extensive vetting, they tell him they want the truth, or else. On the other side of the world, Hector Gomez is an FBI agent seconded to the Los Alamos project under the guise of being an army lieutenant. His primary role is providing feedback to Washington because Hoover is livid over the FBI being excluded from a role in the Manhattan project. Gomez unearths a German attempt to frighten the US into believing one of the scientists is leaking to Germany. The tale Portisch told the British was part of the same subterfuge. The Afterword states that each and every person in the book was real, and tells what they did after the war.

Echoland, Moore - C +

         This novel is set in Dublin in the summer of 1940.  Neutrality meant that the Irish were afraid of invasions by both the Germans and the British. The focus is on two young army intelligence officers surveilling a German couple likely engaged in espionage.  They stumble upon a plot involving a minister of the government negotiating with the Germans to purchase rifles that the British army left at Dunkirk. Ireland's tortured history with the English, and their own fractious divisions swirl around the lieutenants, Duggan and Gifford, like the mists that frequently shroud the city. It's pretty thin gruel. The only interesting takeaway is that the UK was so anxious that summer that they tried to tease the republic away from neutrality with a rather non-specific offer to reunite the six counties in the north.

The Rise And Fall Of Osama Bin Laden, Bergen - B

        "There was nothing inevitable about bin Laden's transformation over the course of decades from a quiet, humble, religious young man into the leader of a global terrorist network who was intent on killing thousands of civilians." This is an attempt to tell how this happened.

        He was born in 1957, the 18th son of a wealthy father, the owner of the leading construction company in Saudi America. Unlike his secular, fun-loving, pro-American siblings, he tended toward religious Islamism in his teens. By the time he was 21, he was "a fully fledged religious zealot." The transformative event of his life came when the infidel Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. While continuing to work in the family business, he began to give substantial amounts, $250,000-$300,000 per year, to support jihad in Afghanistan. In 1986, he moved to Peshwar to oversee the Arab force he was building up. When his troops held off a Soviet attack, he became a war hero throughout the Arab world.  By the time the Soviets left, he was widely revered.  He decided that the flame of jihad should spread elsewhere. In 1991, he moved to Sudan, became a member of the Saudi opposition, supported terrorists in Yemen and Somalia, and started to build his anti-American terror network, al-Qaeda. He also ran multiple businesses for the Saudi Binladin Group. His criticism of the royal family led to the loss of his Saudi citizenship and, as his family business relied on the monarchy, they expelled him too and froze his assets.

        With American troops in Saudi Arabia and then in Somalia, he decided he had to strike at America and drive it out of the Middle East. His radicalism led the Sudanese to force him to leave, and in 1996 he was back to Afghanistan. He declared war on the US (only a few Americans knew), and worked out arrangements with the Taliban to stay outside of Kandahar, where he continued to build his organization. He teamed up with Mohammed al-Zawahiri, a noted Egyptian cleric, declared his desire to kill American soldiers and citizens, and told western interviewers that a black day was soon coming for America. On August 7, 1998, the US embassy in Nairobi was obliterated by a massive truck bomb. A few minutes later, a less powerful bomb went off in front of the embassy in Tanzania. The US now knew who bin Laden was, and the CIA began to pursue him. However, at no point were the full resources of the US applied to bin Laden. The attack on the USS Cole came in October, 2000. There was no US response to the Cole attack from the fading Clinton administration. Throughout 2001, there were those in the intelligence community very concerned about bin Laden, but those concerns never cracked the agenda of the new administration.  September 11th changed America and much of the world.

      Pres. Bush signed a Memorandum of Notification turning the CIA into a para-military organization authorized to hunt and kill bin Laden. The closest the US came was that December when we bombed his environs at Tora Bora. Bin Laden and two of his sons escaped. He was on the run in Pakistan until he alighted in Abbottabad in 2005.  The US spent years diligently looking for him and was able to eventually find him because the CIA had extracted the name of one of his two bodyguards during innumerable interrogations. The CIA found the compound in 2010. On May 1, 2011, Navy Seals descended on bin Laden's compound and killed bin Laden, two bodyguards, bin Laden's son Khalid,  and a bodyguard's wife.

    The depth of the US response to 9/11 assured that a repeat of what had happened would not take place. One example is the US 'no fly' list which grew from 16 to forty-thousand by the time of bin Laden's death.  Bin Laden also failed as he expected the US to leave the Middle East, just as it had left Lebanon, Yemen, and Somalia after tactical setbacks. Instead the opposite took place.  This is a concise, well-written book, but one that adds little to the existing narrative. If you've read The Looming Tower, or Stephen Coll's books on Afghanistan, you're way ahead.

      

Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife of Musical Estates, Forde - B, Inc.

              There are hundreds of artists and estates mentioned in this book, but the story is dominated by the person whose estate has been prospering for longer than he was alive - Elvis. "It [Elvis' estate] has birthed what we can consider to be the industrialization of estate management and many others have taken what it has achieved and run with it." The King left all of his assets in trust for his daughter with his dad as executor. Col. Parker convinced Vernon to extend his management and his 50% cut. This, notwithstanding the fact that four years earlier Parker had sold the royalties for all of Elvis' work to RCA for $5.4M. Priscilla took over when Vernon died in 1979, and the Tennessee probate court vitiated Parker's deal and dismissed him. Priscilla built a highly professional team with the goal of building value, as Elvis' profligacy had left his affairs in an appalling state. First up, and the cornerstone of the estate's success, was opening Graceland to the public, and four decades later it still attracts 500,000 visitors per year. 

             The key to a peaceful and prosperous financial afterlife is proper estate planning, and needless to say, most musicians do not attend to that responsibility.  From those dying young like Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, to those living long into adulthood - Aretha Franklin, John Denver and Prince - the lack of planning leads to never ending uncertainty. Those set forth as having excellent estate plans were Frank Sinatra, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie.

            Another challenge in this arena is who's who?  Many stars had multiple wives, children acknowledged and unknown. The poster child on this topic is James Brown. Fifteen years after his death, the irrevocable trust set up to help poor kids in South Carolina hadn't paid out a penny, while his fourth wife whose marriage may or may not have been valid, battled his kids. Only lawyers were doing well. And on the topic of lawyers doing well, the bank that was appointed executor of Prince's estate pulls down $125,000 per month, and dozens of lawyers are feasting. The estate of Jimi Hendrix, who died young without children or a spouse was still a battleground amongst various relatives almost half-a-century after Jimi stopped jamming.

           This topic is one I've always been fascinated by, thus making my inability to complete it quite disappointing. By definition, something like this will cast its stories far and wide, but as I have said many times here, I cannot follow books with disjointed narratives. An explanation of the different rights and a legal parsing of the components of music creation, as well as the length of royalty rights here and in the UK, probably would've helped.

The Great Mistake, Lee - C

                  This is an odd novel about someone who should be very well-known in NYC, but is not. Andrew Green, who was murdered in 1903, at the age of 83 was known as  the father of New York. He was a very successful lawyer, law partner of Governor Samuel Tilden, and the man behind the Metropolitan Museum, the Natural History Museum, Central Park and the 1898 merger of Brooklyn into the city of New York. The novel hints at a homosexual relationship between Green and Tilden.  His murder was a case of mistaken identity, front page news and of interest to his good friend, President Roosevelt. Notwithstanding my disinterest, the critics loved it.

The Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders That Stunned Victorian England, Kavanugh - B-

     The 1880's saw the first viable stirrings of an Irish effort to overthrow the feudal system of land ownership that had been oppressing the indigenous Irish for centuries. Ironically, it was led by a Protestant landlord, Charles Stewart Parnell, MP. In response to a famine in the western counties, Parnell established the Land League.  The League encouraged the Irish to withold rents and developed a system of boycotts that garnered the attention of Westminster. The Crown's response was to banish the League, and indict Parnell and 13 others for inciting violence. After the prosecution floundered, Gladstone suspended thirty-six Irish MPs. Parliament passed a Coercion Act targeting the Irish for engaging in civil disobedience, and under its terms, Gladstone had Parnelll arrested again. 

   The constabulary in Dublin began to hear rumors of impending violence, sponsored by Irish-Americans, against English officeholders. Unbeknownst to the police, an assassins group, the Irish Invincibles, had been formed and high on their list was Wiliam Forster, Chief Secretary of Ireland. The spring in 1882 saw Gladstone and Parnell reach a rapprochement. Parnell was released from jail and headed to London for further discussions. On the evening of May 6th, Thomas Burke, Forster's assistant, and Lord Cavendish, who was in Dublin to succeed Forster, were walking in Phoenix Park in the heart of Dublin. They were murdered by Joe Brady and Tim Kelly. The following day local papers reported that they had been executed on orders of the Irish Invincibles. 

  As Gladstone had appointed Cavendish, the husband of his wife's niece, to help him bring a settlement to Ireland, the assassination was viewed as a disaster by all but the Irish republicans. Parnell was so despondent that he offered to resign from Parliament. It took until the following January for the police to find an informer willing to testify against the Invincibles. James Carey turned state's evidence in exchange for a grant of leniency. The trial began in April, although many of the plotters were in New York. Justice was swift and five Invincibles were hung at Kilmainham Jail in May and June.  Carey was trundled off to South Africa and met an assassin's bullet on the trip. The man who shot him, Pat O'Donnell, was, in turn, returned to England, tried and hung.

  The republicans have honored the Invincibles and O'Donnell as Irish heroes. Gladstone's last attempt to create home rule for Ireland faltered in 1886 and Parliament reverted to hostility toward the Irish. The Irish party in Parliament fell apart when Parnell was named as a respondent in the divorce of his long-time paramour, Kitty O'Shea. Soon thereafter, the forty-five-year-old Parnell died of heart failure. Gladstone's fourth premiership in the 1890's was brief. A Home Rule Bill would not pass until 1914, and even then, its implementation was deferred because of the outbreak of war.

  

Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead - B

      Ray Carney owns a furniture store on 125th St. in the year 1959. He "was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked, in practice and ambition." That was the case until his loopy cousin Freddy was the wheelman for a major hotel stickup, and told his buddies that Ray could fence their stolen jewelry. The truth is Ray has very limited experience fencing jewelry and would rather sell you a sectional. Somehow, he's now part of a gang, and when Miami Joe decides to keep the loot and starts knocking off his colleagues, Ray's life takes a turn for the worse. Fortunately one of his dad's buddies, Pepper, shoots Joe in Rays showroom, the body goes to Mount Morris Park, Harlem's sort of private cemetery in a city park, and soon, life returns to normal. A few years later things are going well for Ray. He's expanded the store and one of his friends suggests he join a local business club. One of the pillars of the Harlem establishment suggests that $500 will put Ray at the front of the line. When Ray is nonetheless rejected, he asks Willie Duke for a refund. Willie asks his secretary to call the cops. Ray works some magic and a few months later, Willie has to do a bunk after a series of pics of him with a hooker make it to the local Harlem papers.  Payback is even sweeter because one of Willie's fleeced investors is Ray's pain-in-the-ass father-in-law.  In 1964, Ray achieves his life-long dream. He moves his family to Riverside Drive. One last time Freddy gets him involved in something he shouldn't have. This time it costs his cousin his life, but Ray stays just far enough away to come out of it ahead.

    The author is a revered expositor of the Black experience in America and does a fine job again. Plus, it's always a blast to read about NYC in its ever-changing ways and to follow a character like Ray who had a fondness for Rheingold and Chock Full o'Nuts.

Dark Hours, Connelly - B+

        At this stage, the Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch team is led by Ballard. Harry's role is completely back-up. Renee is working a case involving serial rapists when she picks up a random New Year's Eve murder. She runs with the murder, knowing full well that she'll be off the case once the holiday weekend is over. She figures out that Harry had an unsolved case that may be connected. He also provides guidance on the the rape case. Eventually, she is so off base with her hierarchial bosses that she quits just before she nails the rapists. She and Harry have a loose agreement for her to join him as a PI. The story closes with the Chief of Police asking her back. With Harry sitting in his house on the hill, Ballard back on the force, and Maddie in the police academy, Connelly can run this for as long as he lives. There are few, if any, better. 

Man On Edge, Hawksley - B-

                The Rake Ozenna story continues a few years later. He is called in to help a shadowy former Congressman who works for the US to uncover and stop the perfidy of a rogue Russian admiral. Once again, we have a plotline and a setting that are both nonsensical. The presidents of America and Russia arrange a spontaneous summit off the Russian/Norwegian coastline in the Arctic Sea on a private yacht. Endless twists, turns and a stupendous body count are a preview to the last minute staving off of a torpedo blowing up the yacht and everyone on board. Comical, but I came back.

Innovation: The History of England Vol. VI, Ackroyd - B

               The  20th century opened with the UK in crisis after the frustrations and failures of the Boer Wars. An army not up to the usual standards barely defeated a guerrilla insurgency, while opening concentration camps in which thousands of civilians died. No longer did the populace believe that the empire was bringing prosperity and civilization to the world; they realized that the empire was primarily exploitive. The UK's economic dominance was fading, with its share of worldwide manufacturing dropping from 30% in the 1870's to 10% thirty years later.  The rise of Germany, in conjunction with England's slow decline, was an ongoing cause for concern. As the Germans spent more and more on its armies and navies, the kingdom had to respond. The UK also faced many domestic challenges including worker demands for a safer and better life, strikes, women's suffrage, parliamentary reform, class struggles, increased duties on the aristocracy, the health and welfare of the poor and an agricultural depression. But there was no greater challenge to the foundation of the British state than that of Ireland. England's dominion over Ireland was without the consent of the people who wanted home rule. The Liberals introduced their third attempt at a Home Rule Bill in 1912 and were met with fierce Tory opposition. Indeed, the Tory leader suggested that, if necessary, violence in the streets would stop the bill if it passed. The Unionists in the four northeastern counties of Ireland would never submit to Dublin rule, nor would their Tory supporters approve of their being subjugated to Catholics. A bill passed in 1914, but was not implemented because of the impending war.

             The UK declared war on Germany in August. The war was an unmitigated catastrophe for all of Europe's participants.  Kitchener's volunteers only army was supplemented when conscription was introduced in 1916. That spring saw the famous Easter Rising in Dublin, which was a complete failure and led to the imposition of martial law. Although the rebels failed, they stirred the emotions of an Irish populace that had been meekly waiting for home rule. The endless slaughter on the western front began to sap morale across the country, as it was perceived to be a case of the upper class sending their underlings to doom. The war that historians later called the catastrophe that begat all the later catastrophes ended in November, 1918. Peace and victory were met with recession, a vast national debt, and a reemergence of the Irish question. In 1919, Ireland declared its independence. The IRA began to wage guerrilla war against the occupiers. Lloyd George recruited unemployed veterans to 'police' Ireland and the Black and Tans proceeded to hunt down and execute the rebels. Martial law was proclaimed. At the urging of the King, the PM offered dominion status to the Irish Free State and for the six counties in the north, to continue in the UK. A year of civil war followed as many in Ireland wanted total independence. In the end though, the Irish reluctantly accepted the terms offered.

             The 1920's was a decade of economic, political and social turmoil. The kingdom's place in the world was slipping, the empire was fraying and the bitterness over the slaughter in the trenches continued. A general strike was declared in 1926. An attempt at Keynesian economics couldn't muster enough support. The coup de grace came with the market crash in 1929, followed by a worldwide depression.  By taking the pound off the gold standard, the country set the stage for a reduction in interest rates and a decrease in the costs of imports. For many, a recovery was underway. However, unemployment continued for the lower classes, who referred to the 30's as 'the devils decade'. The UK generally supported the League of Nations, focused on its empire, and took a hands-off approach to the rising of fascism on the continent. After all, the larger threat was always communism. When Italy attacked in northern Africa, the League sought sanctions, but Baldwin demurred, and King George, fearful of another continental bloodbath, supported the PM. Baldwin was followed by Chamberlain whose policy of trying to appease Hitler failed. September 1939 saw Europe once again facing the abyss. The war was a challenge for the UK, but one that was met with pluck, aplomb and bravery. Churchill led the country in its finest hour, and with Russia and America on his side, triumph followed. 

         The June 1945 election turned out Churchill and opted for Labour's platform of a new welfare state. The nation was in a state of "material haemorrhage." Austerity Britain followed with rationing that lasted almost a decade. The crowning achievement of Labour's tenure was the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948.  As Britain struggled, it saw the empire begin to vanish. Most important was India, which achieved independence in 1947. Palestine was left to its own devices the same year. The Mau Mau's rebelled in Kenya. The failure of Eden's foreign policy when Nasser took over the Suez Canal in 1956 highlighted the UK's impotence on the world stage. 

        England's status in the world took a turn for the better in the 60's thanks to the Beatles, Stones, the Who and the Kinks. The author suggests that there was so little to do for youngsters growing up in the 50's that playing your own music was one of the few creative outlets. The government of Harold Wilson vastly expanded educational opportunities affording opportunity for the less well off. Wembley in 1966 was the highpoint of the decade for sports fans, as the host country defeated Germany for a victory in the World Cup. The following decade saw Heath at 10 Downing Street, where he was met with a fusillade of labor woes. A miners strike opened 1972, only to be followed by a docker's strike that led to the first of four declarations of a state of emergency. Oil shortages and a ramping up of inflation came next. Inflation soon dropped the value of the pound to the point that reserves were so low that the government had to borrow from the IMF. The emboldened unions pushed for wages because of the relentless rise in prices, but the country couldn't afford to pay them. All came to a head in the 1979 election that brought in the country's first and only female PM.

      The Thatcher revolution would not juggle "incompatible priorities," but rather it would crush inflation, the power of the national unions, and reduce taxes. Industry was privatized and home ownership rose. Thatcher unleashed a "capitalist revolution." She reclaimed the kingdom's pride in the 1982 Falklands War. She made the first overtures to Gorbachev. Her tenure began to come apart in the late 80's as the party struggled with the forthcoming adoption of a common currency in the EU. She resigned in 1990 and viewed her actions as not overturning the postwar settlement, but rather "had withdrawn it to frontiers of the feasible." She was succeeded by Major, who sided with the US in the First Gulf War and signed the Maastricht Treaty further integrating Europe. The Tories had pegged the pound to the Deutschmark and interest rates rose because of  German unification. That led to a 1992 run on the pound that was the first crack in the foundation of Tory rule. The following year, the PM announced that Charles and Diana were separating. Throughout the decade, troubles with the IRA, EU issues, immigration, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia battered the ruling party. May of 1997 saw the end of an eighteen year Tory run with the introduction of the Blair ministry and Cool Britannia. A few months later, the nation, indeed the world, was shocked by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The decade closed with the adoption of the Good Friday Accords, a step in the right direction hopefully pointing toward a resolution of the kingdom's most intractable issue. The Millennium Dome was built and the twentieth century came to an end. "It may be that as the millennium progresses, the English will recover what was once their glory - a capacity for awe."

     The author is one of the great writers in the English language. He has done a fine service with this six volume narrative. I have rated four B, one C and one A. Interestingly, the first one, Foundations, which stretched from Roman times to the Tudors was the one I liked the most. I felt that the volumes on the 20th, and in particular the 19th, centuries bogged down in partisan political issues of no consequence to an American. That said, the series is superb.

                 

Red Traitor, Matthews - B +

                This is the second book in a series featuring a KGB colonel in the midst of potentially catastrophic events. Previously, we visited a thermonuclear testing facility, and this time we are in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis. As the author is a historian turned thriller writer, the novel is very factual and informative. The focus is on Col. Vasin, a fictional KGB officer, working to find the GRU officer feeding info to the US, and Captain Vasily Arkhipov, an actual Soviet Naval officer who likely stopped nuclear armageddon in Oct. 1962. Vasin tracks down a Soviet working for the US.  (There actually was a highly placed officer sharing information with the US who was picked up just after the crisis. He received his proverbial ounce of lead the following May.) Arkhipov is one hell of a story. He was on the first Soviet nuclear powered sub the year before when K-19 took its trial runs in the N. Atlantic. The sub was off the Greenland coast when the reactor overheated. Over a dozen men died cooling it down, and Arkhipov spent a year receiving medical treatment. He was the commander of the four diesel powered sub flotilla sent to Cuba the following fall. The subs were armed with nuclear torpedoes. When the US Navy harassed them, he opted to surface and ask Moscow for instructions rather than fire the torpedoes. After the collapse of the USSR, his wife told interviewers that he had seen the consequences of nuclear radiation in person and could not authorize the use of the weapon. Per the author, there is a conference room at Langley named for Arkhipov, who many believe stopped the world from going over the precipice.

Billy Summers, King - B+

               Billy is a hit man, hired to do a job that requires a long wait in rented office space waiting for his mark to enter a courthouse across the street. His cover is that he is a writer, and he decides to give it a whirl. His story is one of Appalachian trailer parks, a foster home and multiple tours in "the suck" with the Marines. His training as a sniper is what provided him with his current career. After he accomplishes his job, his employer doesn't pay. On his way to receive his payment and extract a bit of revenge, Billy helps a young woman, Alice, who has been been drugged, raped and left on the side of a road. They are an unlikely but intriguing pair who build a great and touching friendship.  The book is long and the first third is pretty slow, but one's patience is rewarded.

A Study In Crimson, Harris - B-

              In the besieged London of 1942, the Yard is faced with a killer replicating the methods of and copycatting Jack the Ripper, calling himself Crimson Jack.  Lestrade calls in Holmes and Watson. The author introduces the story with detailed references to the films of the 30's and 40's starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. He models his Holmes and Watson on those two. Sherlock brilliantly uncovers that Jack is actually a German spy and, somewhat uncharacteristically, Watson throttles the bad guy. It's all in good fun.

Better Off Dead, Child and Child - B

               Reacher is in Arizona headed for the west coast and the ocean. He stops to help a young woman who happens to be ex-Army Intelligence and ex-FBI. She's looking for her brother, a vet suffering from PTSD and working for a very bad man. Jack outthinks and outfights the endless list of goons working for the Lebanese evildoer headquartered close to the Mexican border. This is the second book in the transition to the author's brother. This book didn't get my usual straight through read, and maybe that's why I don't think it's up to snuff. Or, maybe, just maybe, the transition is not going to work. It'll take two more books to know.

Man On Ice, Hawksley - B-

            This thriller is borderline absurd, but kinda fun. Rake Ozenna is an Eskimo serving as a Captain in the Alaskan National Guard and a resident of miniscule Little Diomode in the Bering Sea a few miles from a larger island that is Russian. After a decade away, he returns with his American fiance, the day the the Russians come up with some nonsensical theory of why they are entitled take over the island. An international crisis of the first order is staved off by a handful of people in Washington, and of course, Rake. There are some preposterous twists and turns, but also an interesting series of intriguing insights into the life, ideas, customs and beliefs of the Eskimos on the US/Russian borderlands.