American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, Hochschild - A*

                 This "is a story of how a war supposedly fought to make the world safe for democracy became the the excuse for a war against democracy at home." "The toxic currents of racism, nativism, Red-baiting, and contempt for the rule of law have long flowed through American life. Never was this raw underside of our nation's life more revealingly on display than from 1917 to 1921." "Although the government first used the war in Europe to justify the ferocity at home, the repression continued, and in some ways grew worse, in the several years after the fighting ended..." 

                A month after Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson asked Congress for a Declaration of War. It would be a "war to make the world safe for democracy." 

                 The army set up a bureau to spy on Americans. Anything less than absolute fealty was problematic if not treasonous. Congress passed the inappropriately-named Espionage Act which criminalized opposition to the war. The Postmaster General had the ability to censor newspapers by not allowing them to be mailed. The War Dept. censored books in the country's libraries. The day the Draft Law was signed, federal agents arrested anarchist Emma Goldman for publishing anti-draft leaflets. A trial two weeks later led to a conviction and a two year prison sentence. The militant wing of the labor movement was also targeted. In Arizona, 1156 IWW strikers at a copper mine were put on trains, sent two days away and told not to return. Civil liberties apparently did not exist in war time. A filmmaker went to jail for 3 years for a negative depiction of George III at a time when we were allies of the UK. People were tarred and feathered for not buying war bonds. A famous labor activist in Butte was lynched. In September, agents of the Bureau of Investigation (predecessor to the FBI) raided 48 IWW offices, took away all their files and documents, and arrested 166 men for violating the Espionage Act. Adding fuel to the fire of fear and paranoia, in November the Bolsheviks took over Russia. Conscientious objectors were often treated so badly in prison that many died. Lynching of Blacks in the South accelerated. The year 1918 saw the passage of the Sedition Act, a set of laws strengthening the Espionage Act. In Chicago, a noted businessman found the American Protective League, a vigilante organization that worked with the Bureau of Investigation. Civilians with no legitimate policing power but wearing badges conducted a series of raids seeking out draft evaders.* They checked the draft cards of men in public places and raided Wrigley Field. The Boston Symphony's German born Swiss conductor was imprisoned when someone claimed he was radioing to U-boats in the Atlantic. A trial of 97 Wobblies before Judge Landis saw all convicted on all counts after an hour of jury deliberations. He handed out over 800 years of sentences. The IWW was decimated, and never recovered. The former presidential candidate for the Socialist party, Eugene Debs, was a widely admired man of great integrity. When he said that the people never got a say in war declarations, he too was arrested. At this trial, he said "men are fit for something better than cannon fodder and slavery." He was sentenced to ten years in jail. The fighting finally stopped in November. "At home, the worst was yet to come." 

                   Many hoped that those imprisoned in the year-and-a-half of war would be pardoned. Instead, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act. Raging inflation in the US added 50% to the price of food leading to widespread discontent. Factories ceased arms production and laid off workers. Hundreds of thousands went on strike. The continuing success of the Bolsheviks in Russia generated ongoing Red scares throughout the world. In June 1919, bombs were exploded in multiple east coast cities. One of the bombs was at the house of Attorney General Palmer. The DOJ set up a Radical Division and named J. Edgar Hoover as its head. America engaged in a full-scale Red scare. The government had a free hand deporting non-citizens and it pursued that course vigorously in the fall of 1919. Emma Goldman was one of the first to go. Ironically, the deportation center and holding pens were on Ellis Island. Throughout the winter, the so-called 'Palmer Raids' were led by Hoover, who supervised the arrest of thousands around the country. It is estimated that 10,000 were arrested in what one historian called "the greatest single violation of civil liberties in American history." As Hoover and Palmer hoovered up everyone they could find, they ran into an unexpected surprise. Deportation orders required the signature of the Dept. of Labor, and the leadership of the department fell to a man who was unabashedly progressive.  Lewis Post not only opposed the indiscriminate arrests, he had been a founder of the NAACP. In the six weeks he was interim secretary, he derailed 80% of Palmer and Hoover's planned deportations. Palmer, who was now seeking the Democratic nomination, told the nation that there would be mass assassinations on May Day. When no communist uprising took place, cracks appeared in the Red scare movement. When the Senate attempted to impeach Post, he wittily ran circles around them citing the unconstitutionality of the raids. Soon, jurists and law professors were criticizing Hoover and Palmer for acting like a "mob" by violating people's rights. The Democrats rejected Palmer's extremism, and the Republicans did the same by not nominating Gen. Leonard Wood, a vocal proponent of 'Americanism.'

                 Harding began to release prisoners, and at year end, released Eugene Debs. He went so far as to say that he wished he hadn't voted for the war as senator, and that Debs was right for opposing it. The most impactful consequence of the excesses of the era was the passage in 1924 of the Reed-Johnson Act limiting immigration to the nations of northern Europe through a quota system that cut off people from eastern and southern Europe, Latin America and Asia. For forty years, there was minimal immigration to the US. Adolf Hitler applauded the new law. "The Socialist Party would never recover from the mass mailings...The IWW was similarly shattered." Many states adopted criminal syndicalism laws to restrain organized labor. America returned to right-wing extremism in the early '50's and again in 2017, when a man whose father had been arrested in Queens in 1927 while wearing a KKK white hood, became president. "America's version of democracy is far from perfect, and every generation or two we learn anew just how fragile it can be." It will require "a vigilant respect for civil rights and constitutional safeguards, to save ourselves from ever slipping back into the darkness again."

               

*The First World War had a higher ratio of draft resistance than did Vietnam half-a-century later.

No Plan B, Child & Child - B

               Jack NMI Reacher observes a woman murdered in Colorado, and attempts to hold the murderer accountable. He fights off two men who get away, winds up looking into the details and ascertains that the source of the crime is in Mississippi. He heads east to Winson, MS, home of a private prison that is at the center of a web of criminals. They specialize in selling inmates for body parts to a nefarious provider of organs for black market transplants. Reacher sorts it out with insights, panache, and an awful lot of kicking ass. This may be the last that the two brothers co-author. That would make next years the first that Andrew pens on his own. I cannot remember a Reacher book that had two parallel stories that came weakly together with the main plot line at the end of the book. My guess is that the series carries on with a slight drop off.

Electric October: Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes Of Fame That lasted Forever, Cook - B +

                    The 1947 World Series was the first ever to be televised and featured a few immortals, including Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson.  This book however, focuses on six men forgotten to all but baseball historians: Cookie Lavagetto, Al Gionfriddo and the Dodgers manager,  Burt Shotton;  Bill Bevens, Snuffy Stirnweiss and the Yankees manager, Bucky Harris. All six were big league journeymen. Harris, however, had the distinction of winning the World Series as the Senators' player-manger in his twenties. 

                   The Yankees clinched earlier than Brooklyn. When the Dodgers won, NY was ready for another subway series. The Yankees were an 11-5 favorite. The Yanks led the AL in hits, homers, R.B.I.'s and ERA. The Dodgers led in stolen bases and walks. There were 73,365 people at the Stadium for the first game. The game was broadcast on television in NY, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady. The Yankees took the first two. The Dodgers won game 3. In game 4, Bill Bevens carried a no-hitter into the 9th and had two men out with a runner on first and Gionfriddo on second. The man on first had been put on by intentional walk after Gionfriddo had stolen second.  Shotton sent Lavagetto to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Cookie knocked one off the right field wall for a walk-off double. Red Barber said it led to "the biggest explosion of noise in the history of Brooklyn." The next day, Lavagetto struck out to finish game 5. The Series moved back to the Bronx. The Dodgers took game 6 when Gionfriddo stole a homer from DiMaggio with a catch in left field that Joe said was the best ever made against him.  Game 7 was on Oct. 6. The Yanks easily coasted to a 5-2 win for their 11th World Series victory.

               Lavagetto, Gianfriddo and Bevens were gone before the next opening day. They hacked around the minors for years. Snuffy Stirnweiss who had the best average in the Series played for a few more years. After retirement, he died in a train wreck at he age of thirty-eight. Harris and Shotton were soon elsewhere. Shotton went back to Florida and Harris managed the Senators for a third time. Cookie Lavagetto replaced Harris in Washington in the mid-50's. He stayed in the game until he retied as a coach in 1967. Decades later, Bucky Harris made it to the Hall of Fame. Bill Bevens spent the rest of his life wishing he had that one pitch back. Lavagetto and Gionfriddo were feted for their heroics until the day they died. This is one of the finest baseball books I've ever read. Thanks to Carl Kreitler for the recommendation.

The Boys From Biloxi, Grisham - B

                 The boys are Keith Rudy and Hugh Marcos. Their grandparents were part of the Croatian migration to the Gulf coast. When their dads came back from WWII, they pursued different approaches to the American dream. Lance Marcos opted for a life of crime, focusing on booze, gambling and prostitution. Jesse Rudy chose the law and and was eventually elected DA. The boys were close growing up but drifted apart as their careers diverged, as each followed in their fathers footsteps. Jesse Rudy sent Lance to Parchman Prison. Soon thereafter, he was killed  when a bomb went off in his office. Keith was appointed his successor and went after  the Marcos gang with a vengeance, eventually sending his old buddy to death row. Good, but not as good as Grisham in his prime. 

Death of A Rainmaker, Loewenstein - B+

               This is an intriguing police procedural set in rural Oklahoma at the height of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. A flim flam man who is selling the town his rainmaking skills, is murdered in the middle of a dust storm less than 24 hours after he arrives in town. The sheriff begins the search, and with some unwelcome advice from his wife, eventually finds his man. What makes this novel special though is the character development and the amazing background on just how horrible it was at that time. These are the Okies, those who fell upon such hard times that they up and left, many heading west. This is the first in a series. The author acknowledges being inspired by 'The Worst Hard Time,' which is the only book on this blog to which I added a picture, of a dust storm, when I read it last year.

Funeral Train, Loewenstein - B

                        The follow-up is set a few months later, at Christmas 1935. A train is derailed just outside of Vermillion and over a dozen die. The inquiries are headed up by local Sheriff Temple Jennings, and a detective from the railroad. The night of the crash, a local woman is murdered not far from the scene. The two events might be related. The ensuing investigation confirms that they are. The first in the series did a better job of evoking the Depression than this one which seemed  focused on the investigation.

Sisters In Resistance: How A German Spy, A Banker's Wife, and Mussolini's Daughter Outwitted the Nazis, Mazzeo - B

             "This is a story of how people who, finding themselves on the wrong path in the middle of their life's journey, discover the courage to change and to wrestle with the darkness and the reckoning that follows." At the core of the story is the efforts three woman made to protect the diaries of Galeazzo Ciano, married to the Duce's daughter Edda, and Foreign Minister. Ciano's diaries were used as proof at Nuremberg and remain an important first person account of the intentions of the leaders of the Reich. 

             Ciano was an aristocratic playboy appointed to his position in 1936. He wanted no part of the German alliance, and was opposed to the war. He kept Mussolini neutral until May, 1940. In early 1943, aware that Ciano had reached out tothe Americans, Mussolini fired him. In 1937, Ciano had begun a diary which he kept up until that point. Being a man who talked too much, he had not kept his diary secret. Both Hitler and Mussolini knew of its existence and knew that both men and their parties would be exposed and embarrassed by it.

            In July, the king removed Mussolini from office. The new PM, Pietro Badoglio, despised Ciano and stopped him from leaving Italy. Edda Ciano asked the Germans for help and they offered to fly the family to Spain and on to S. America. Before leaving Rome, Edda hid the diaries knowing full well that both dictators wanted them and that they might be a future bargaining chip. The Germans  put the Ciano family on a plane and flew them to Munich. Soon thereafter, Italy changed sides, and Hitler put Mussolini  in charge of a puppet state in the north of Italy. He sent Ciano back to Italy and Mussolini imprisoned him. Hilde Beetz, Ciano's interpreter, confidant and occasional lover negotiated a deal with her superiors in the German security forces. In exchange for those portions of the diaries incriminating Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, Ciano would be released from jail. Ciano delivered the diaries and was double-crossed by the Germans. 

           Hilde then assisted Edda in her escape from the SS, and friends helped Edda cross the Swiss border. She was free and had most of the remaining diaries with her. She wrote to Hitler and her father demanding the release of Ciano, or she would publish the diaries. The response was immediate. Ciano was convicted of treason and forthwith executed. The Gestapo, to the extent it could act surreptitiously, scoured Switzerland for Edda and the diaries. The Swiss had Edda stashed away first in a convent, and next in an insane asylum. As 1944 advanced, the diaries caught the attention of the US War Dept. and Allen Dulles, the OSS man in Switzerland. They assumed the diaries could be helpful for the planned Nuremberg trials. Frances de Chollet, American wife of a Swiss banker, was tasked with befriending Edda, who was unsure of how to make the diaries public. It took months to convince her, but Dulles did, and the OSS photographed 1,000 pages at de Chollet's residence in January, 1945. That summer, Dulles hand the translated version to Justice Jackson at Nuremberg. There was damning evidence against von Ribbentrop and Kaltenbrunner. Edda returned to Italy, where she was tried for her support of the regime and sentenced to two years of house arrest. Frances de Chollet returned to private life. When the Americans came to arrest Hilde Beetz as a Nazi and a spy, she surprised them. While translating the diaries that the Germans had, she had made copies and offered them to the US. She was soon working for the CIA. Rumors continued to fly after the war about 'missing' pieces of the Ciano diaries. This has been enlightening. Thanks to Kathy Blair for the recommendation.

American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune, Steinmetz - C

                 "This book seeks to explain Jay Gould and his under appreciated - and aggressively maligned - role in the country's transformative economic expansion of the nineteenth century. Only the strictures of conscience, rather than law and regulation, governed the participants. That left the unscrupulous free to self-deal, fix prices, trade on inside information, lie to investors, and manipulate stock prices. In New York, men in top hats, abetted by corrupt politicians, snatched your life savings."

                 He was born Jason Gould in 1836. As a teenager, he developed surveying skills and ran a successful mapping business.  When he was twenty, he opened a tannery. Realizing that merchants and traders made more money than he could running a tannery, he headed for Manhattan. He became a stock broker and  worked harder than everyone else. He and his colleague Jim Fisk finagled their way into positions with the Erie RR. On the cusp of bankruptcy, Erie raised money in London, and Gould manipulated his own company's stock in a bear raid, keeping the company away from Cornelius Vanderbilt. And made a fortune in the process. He then turned his attention to gold and orchestrated a devastating 'Black Friday.' He used futures to control half of the private gold in NY. The price began to rise. Others shorted it. Gould sent Fisk to the Gold Exchange where he loudly acquired more, while Gould had a dozen small brokers selling his positions. The Panic of 1873 sent the country into a five year depression. Gould took advantage of the fallen prices and purchased the Union Pacific RR. He later purchased the Kansas Pacific RR, and by the early 1880's, he controlled one-ninth of the mileage in the US. He also formed a telegraph company that took over Western Union. The Panic of 1884 caught Gould overextended, but he put all of his available money into the Missouri Pacific RR which had extensive short positions owned by his enemies. The stock soared and he was once again very, very rich. He announced he would trade no more and would simply mange his businesses. He slowed down and at the age of 52 was diagnosed with tuberculosis. His life unravelled quickly. He was weak, lost a considerable amount of weight, and lost his beloved wife, Ellie. He died in December, 1892.

                 His estate was an astounding $65M. The author suggests that had he lived longer, he likely would have done what Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Carnegie did, i.e. created philanthropic entities that would have whitewashed his reputation. He is mostly forgotten now, but "he accelerated productivity as much as any contemporary and, in doing so, improved the lives of most Americans." Mark Twain and Charles Francis Adams thought him the devil incarnate. "He lied. He cheated. He stole. But he was so good at what he did, so intelligent in the execution, and such a clean, kind, and industrious family man that, try as you might, you can't hate him properly." I believe scoundrel fits better than rascal.

                  

The Fourth Protocol, Forsyth - B

             About two months ago, I read a really good Cold War novel. It reminded me what a  great genre it was, and I sought out another. This is a forty year old one written by one of the masters of the era. The Fourth Protocol was part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and prohibited the introduction of nuclear devices into another country. The setting is the mid-80's when London realizes they have a mole on their hands.  MI5 tracks down the traitor and his controller. When the traitor is confronted, he agrees to try and feed false material to the Soviets in exchange for some leniency. Simultaneously, Moscow is desperate to meddle in a UK election and targets a disruption of Thatcher's second campaign for re-election. The plan is to explode a small nuclear device near an American base, and create an anti-war movement capable of thrusting Labor to an electoral victory. As is always the case, there are plots within plots and more. The operation fails when an incompetent courier is observed and MI5 easily rolls up the whole project. It turns out the courier was sent by someone hoping to insure the failure of the operation, thus causing his boss to fail and be retired. Oh, the good old days.

Knife Creek Doiron - B +

                Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch stumbles upon the corpse of an infant and duly calls in the appropriate authorities. Later that day, he stops by a house nearby and senses something is amiss. One of the two woman at the house has been missing for four years and presumed dead. Mike and the police engage in a long game of cat and mouse with the mastermind behind the kidnapping. Mike is promoted to the position of Investigator as a reward for his determination and skill.

Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack Of World War II, Hastings - B

                  This is the story of one of the most famous events of the war, one well known in 1943 because of its daring success, and better known a decade later when featured in a major motion picture. In 1943, both the US and the UK were bringing the war to Germany through their bombing operations over Europe. Within Britain's Bomber Command,  there were those who wanted to saturate cities and those who pined for military/industrial targets. One target identified early in the war was the Mohne Dam, which supplied the Ruhr Valley. The RAF researched the possibilities, and an eccentric designer named Barnes Wallis created a bouncing bomb that theoretically could destroy the Mohne Dam. The bombs were 7500 pounds, and modifications to strengthen the Avro-Lancaster bomber were required. Mid-May was the optimum time because the dams would at their highest capacity. Bomber Command selected Guy Gibson, twenty-four, as commander of Operation Chastise. He recruited the 617th Squadron and began a seven week training program of very low level flying. This operation was to be conducted at a few hundred feet above ground, as opposed to the usual 15,000. A month before the planned attack, Wallis and Vickers had yet to come up with a bomb that worked. They eventually settled on a cylindrical bomb to be dropped from 60 feet, 410 yards from the dams, from a plane flying 210-220 mph.

                 On the morning of May 16,  the 133 men of the squadron were finally briefed on  their targets. After a special meal of bacon and eggs, the men climbed into the nineteen planes at 2030 GMT. They flew the entire way below 500 feet. A little after midnight, the first five attackers bombed the Mohne Dam. Two bombs sunk, one bounced over, and two hit the dam, and the Mohne was breached. The next target was the Eder Dam and the fifth and final bomb punched a hole in it. The third target, an earthen dam at Sorpe,  could not be damaged. Indeed, it still stands today. Eight planes did not return to England. On the ground, somewhere between 1300 and 1500 people died, half slave laborers and POW's. Germany's war making capacity was diminished, but far from crippled. The Mohne was repaired by the fall.

                Operation Chastise was widely praised and hailed in the UK and the US. Gibson received the Victoria Cross and every officer a DSO.  Wallis received a CBE and long after the war was knighted. The airmen were less fortunate. Only a quarter of those who returned that fateful night survived the war. Although Gibson was feted in the UK, Canada and the US, he managed to get back into bombers, and died over Europe in September of 1944. In the 1955, film the Dam Busters Wallis and Gibson were played by Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd.

They Come At Knight, Angoe - B

                      In the second in the series, most of the action takes place in Ghana. The Knight's are there to enjoy a vacation before a major social event celebrating the success of the Tribe. Nena's sister, Elin, ascertains that someone is running a very sophisticated fraud agains the Tribe, siphoning off money and likely preparing to oust Noble Knight. The traitors kidnap Nena, she manages to escape and protect her father from an assassination attempt made while he is speaking to the Tribe's Council. As is so often the case with debut thrillers, the second is a cut below its predecessor. Nonetheless, the fun continues.

Killers Of A Certain Age, Rayburn - B

          Natalie, Helen, Billie and May Alice are sixtyish and on their retirement cruise. All expenses were paid for by their employer, the Museum, a handy name for an organization of assassins. After 40 years of work, the four friends were ready to pack it in. But they noticed a younger colleague working as a member of the crew and realized he was likely there to take them out. They act first, and return to the  US on the run. They learn that an order is out for them, one based on a foolish pack of lies and they go into action to rectify the injustice of it all. A bit of fun. 

Her Name Is Knight, Angoe - B +

               Aninyeh is the teenage daughter of a tribal chief when a warlord comes to their village in Ghana. Her mother, father, and brothers are murdered. She is gang- raped before she is sold into slavery. A year later, she has escaped her prison in the basement of a Parisian home and is living rough. She helps a woman who has been cornered by two thugs and that woman takes her home to London. Aninyeh is renamed Nana Knight and introduced to the family business. Her new parents are senior members of the Tribe, an international association of Africans working to free Africa of neo-colonial exploitation and to help Africans everywhere. One part of the Tribe is responsible for dispatching enemies of Africa. Nena becomes an excellent assassin, residing in Miami and enjoying life as a successful young professional. In a diabolical plot turn, three of the men who were in the village the night her family was murdered cross her path. Revenge is hers. The plotting is a bit contrived, but this book is an absolute blast. Luckily, it's the beginning of a series.