Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, Ackroyd- B

                                               Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 at the age of eighteen. He married his late brother's wife, Katherine of Aragon, and began his reign with a full treasury and the goodwill of his people. However, like most of his predecessors, he longed for triumph on the continent. "He looked upon France as a prize to be taken. War was not only for pleasure; it was dynastic duty."  His advisor Cardinal Wolsey, both the King's Chancellor and the Papal Legate, helped garner for Henry the title Defender of the Faith by coordinating a response to Luther's Ninety-Five Thesis.  However, it was not religion or conquest that obsessed  Henry. His overwhelming need was for a male heir, as Katherine's only child to survive was the Princess Mary.  No woman had ever held the throne and Henry did not wish to risk his dynasty on the chance the country would accept one. Katherine was aging and he needed an alternative. He found that alternative in Anne Boleyn and turned the world upside down in order to put her on the throne. The Pope would not annul his marriage, ejecting Henry's argument that the Book of Leviticus proscribed a man marrying his brother's widow. Wolsey's failure on this front led his arrest and dismissal.  Henry simply replaced the Pope with himself as leader of the Church of England. The die was cast for the Protestant Reformation in England. A later historian called Henry's action the foundation of the independent nation-state. "The Act in Restraint of Appeals declared that all ecclesiastical cases should be determined within England itself with no reference to any supposed higher authority: this meant that the matter of the king's separation would be adjudicated in London and Canterbury rather than in Rome. The Act has been described as the most important statute of the sixteenth century, for it was the one that effectively destroyed the polity of the Middle Ages."  The Church would prove to be a tremendous source of wealth for the crown as Henry confiscated the monasteries and scattered their personnel.  It is estimated that the transfer of land to the crown from the control of the church, the monasteries, the friaries and nunneries, was the largest since the Norman invasion. "Within three years the life of ten centuries was utterly destroyed."
                                                 Anne became queen in 1533 and gave birth later that year to Elizabeth.  Within three years,  she was accused (with some likelihood of truth per the author) of adultery and treason and she was off to the Tower on her way to a beheading. Jane Seymour replaced her and in 1537 gave birth to Edward. She died twelve days afterwards.  Anne of Cleves was married to Henry for six months. She was followed by Katherine Howard, a woman half the king's age, whose confirmed adultery led her to the chopping block.  In his 55th year, in January 1547, Henry departed this world leaving his sixth wife, Katherine Parr and Edward, Mary and Elizabeth to succeed him.  Although the succession was established, Henry's religious inheritance was somewhat ambiguous.  His interest in reform ended when he usurped the Pope's power and took the Church's money.  He personally preferred Catholicism, but he had undermined it and had opened the way toward Protestantism.  Edward's Regents pushed very hard to lay the ground rules for a Protestant nation and fully succeeded. "It can in fact be argued that most of the defining elements of the Protestant creed and practice were formulated during the reign of Edward VI; Elizabeth I merely tinkered with them." Edward died at 15 and, unfortunately for the peace of the realm, was succeed by Mary, the staunchest advocate of the old faith in England.  Many of the nobility and the populace welcomed a return to the tried and true faith.  Although Mary was no tougher on the opposition than her father or sister, she became known as 'Bloody Mary'. She even had Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and architect of English Protestantism, burned at the stake. Her marriage to a Spanish prince was extremely unsettling amongst her people. Her death in late 1558 lead to Elizabeth's assumption of royal power and the beginning of a successful 44 year reign.
                                              Elizabeth restored the Protestant liturgy. "The nation had changed its faith four times in twenty years, and the time had come for an end to innovation. She never allowed anyone to meddle with the order she had established and, with a brief period of interregnum in the 17th century, it has remained largely unchanged ever since." Implementing the final end of Roman Catholicism was a never-ending effort and one of the issues that dominated her reign.  The succession was also in the forefront of everyone's mind for decades. She was a wary, cautious person, determined to not have to share her throne with a husband, suffer the risks of child birth or  being supplanted by a male heir.  She proclaimed she was married to her country and and so she remained for her entire reign.  To her credit, she eschewed foreign wars and overseas entanglements. England was a generally peaceful and prosperous kingdom during her reign.  The over half-a-century of contretemps between England and the Catholic powers of Europe, France, Spain and the Papacy came to a boil when Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587. The following year, the greatest Armada ever seen sailed from Spain, intent on returning the true faith to England. The royal standard had as its motto 'Rise up, oh Lord, and avenge Thy cause'.  The English thumped their enemies, thus raising Elizabeth to the heights of acclaim and success. England became a dominant sea power. "The papal curse had been lifted in the most striking possible manner."  In 1603, Good Queen Bess passed away. She had, on her death bed, approved of the crown passing to James VI of Scotland
                                            A book about the Tudors is a bit of a challenge because of their amazing familiarity and pervasive presence in modern Anglo-American culture.  Between Alison Weir's 8 history books, Hilary Mantel's two recent novels,  'A Man For  All Seasons', many Masterpiece Theatre mini-series, the 'Tudors' on Showtime,  innumerable movies featuring Henry or Elizabeth, and the ubiquitous painting of Henry by Holbein - they are alive, well and with us.  The other problem in this book, at least for me, is the endless theological disputes. I understand that a book  about major religious upheaval must deal with religious issues. Whether it is about transubstantiation, vestments, the Book of Common Prayer, excommunication, the rise of Puritanism or the latest  doctrinal disputes, I find it all trifling. That said, I'm ready for the next volume.

The Whites, Price - B +

                                               This novel is an absolutely superb cop story about the NYPD. The main character is Billy Graves, son of a noted policeman. After twenty plus years,  he is the only one of  five cops who started and worked together back in the 90's still on the Job. His crew consists of Yasmeen,  a private security officer; Whelan, a drunk working as a superintendent in run-down buildings;  Pavlicek, a wealthy real-estate developer; and Redman, a mortician.  Lurking in the background is another active duty cop, a younger man, Milton Ramos, who grew up in the same building as Billy's wife, Carmen.  Early in his career, Billy had shot a man and the bullet went through him  killing, an innocent kid. Billy wound up on the wrong end of a massive publicity circus. Although he was as high as a kite when he pulled the trigger, that fact was never more than asserted or guessed at. He lost his first wife because of this event, but his friends and colleagues stood by him. To a great extent, one of the main sub-plots here is the fierce loyalty that is created amongst police. In this novel, Billy supervises the night shift in Manhattan, and notices that all of a sudden, their 'whites' are dying mysteriously.  A 'white' is the one that got away, the cold-blooded murderer who slipped through the cracks and haunts a cop sometimes for the rest of their life. While trying to sort all of this out, Billy's family is targeted. As it turns out, Carmen is Milton's 'white' because as a 15-year-old, she intentionally gave his brother's apartment number to some guys, who happened to be very bad. All in all, this is a wonderful read, one where you feel as if you are in the middle of a very scary NYC.

Eben Kruge, Adams - B

                                               This novella is an imagining of how Charles Dickens was inspired to write 'A Christmas Carol'.  Dickens and his wife took a 5-month-long trip to America in 1842. Near the end of his trip, he stopped off at the West Point Hotel. Here, he dined with the manager who mentioned a local who had recently been transformed for the better. He decides to investigate and meets Eben Kruge, Esq.  The previous Christmas eve, Kruge had buried his wicked uncle and business partner. He tells Dickens of a midnight visit from the ghost of his uncle, a visitation from his once-betrothed, Abigail, and his renunciation of his parsimonious, wicked ways. He states that he had been "the illegitimate offspring of his uncle's avarice." In the closing chapters, he spreads his generosity far and wide. A pleased Dickens renews his trip and two years later, publishes his perhaps most famous and best loved work.

The Train To Crystal City: FDR'S Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II, Russell - C, Inc.

                                                For many in America, it was not a good war.  This is a story that goes beyond the internment of the Japanese on the west coast and deals with the wholesale incarceration of, not just the Japanese, but also Italians, Germans and even Latin Americans. Crystal City, thirty miles from the Mexican border in Texas, was opened in 1942 for the purpose of reuniting families with immigrants who'd been arrested and imprisoned as enemy aliens. Not only were American residents incarcerated, but the US had coordinated anti-Axis plans and protocols with all of the Latin American countries, except Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico. The Latin Americans arrested their Axis citizens and shipped many of them to the US.  Their assets were confiscated, and when they arrived in the US, on American troop ships, they were arrested for 'illegal entry'.  By the middle of the war, Crystal City was filled with German, Japanese, Italian and Latin American families.
                                                Unfortunately, there are too many threads running through this book and the camp for the telling of a coherent story. The incarcerated Germans consisted of those supporting the fatherland and those desirous of being Americans. All were part of a US plan to exchange Germans for US POW's. Along with the parents, the camp was filled with American-born minors. There were six German-American exchanges, including one in January 1945. One Cleveland-based construction engineer was arrested, incarcerated, sent to Crystal City, and repatriated to Germany, where the SS beat and imprisoned him. On the Japanese side of the ledger (why some families were sent to Crystal City instead of the west coast camps wasn't apparent to me although, I did start skimming), the major issue was issei v nisei. The immigrant Japanese ( under the Asian Exclusion Act, they could not become citizens) fully supported the Empire and their children did not. The American born-nisei fought in the 442nd Regiment, the most decorated in the war.  Although I do not think the book was up to the challenge, it does depict some fascinating personal stories. Throughout it all, the appalling lack of fair, decent, humane, equitable or American treatment of those considered aliens and their families is frightening and embarrassing. In the 80's, the US apologized to its Japanese-American internees and paid compensation.

A Fine Summer's Day, Todd - B

                                               In this almost twenty-year old series, the author decided to try a prequel. It is the summer of 1914 and Ian Rutledge is arduously pursuing a very challenging case in the face of a total lack of support, if not hostility, from his immediate superior. I thought the book two years ago was not up to par. And I find that this one is not as strong as one would hope. The case is complex and intriguing. The problem is that Jean, the woman Ian proposes to, is a vacuous airhead. She is the daughter of a retired general who is called back to duty in light of what transpires on the continent. She encourages Ian to enlist so that he may see glory as an officer.  The last chapter is set on Boxing Day, 1914, after Ian has finished his training. It is certainly apparent that there is no glory to be had in this war. The fickle Jean articulates her change of heart.  The greatness of this series is the despair of post-war England in the aftermath of the slaughter in the trenches. I view this prequel as just a filler and one that doesn't shed much light on Rutledge's development.

Waterloo: The History Of Four Days, Three Armies, And Three Battles, Cornwell - B +

                                                Napoleon traveled from Elba to Paris in the spring of 1815, gathering support and returning as Emperor to the acclaim of his people and the dismay of the again-deposed Bourbons.  Knowing he was outnumbered, he headed north with 125,000 men to face Blucher with 120,000 and Wellington with 92,000. He had to act decisively before Russsia and Austria could mobilize. On the 16th, Napoleon attacked the Prussians, who constituted the left of the Allied armies, at Ligny.  He defeated but did not destroy them.  Five miles west, Marshal Ney attacked the British-Dutch at Quatre-Bras, but the Allies prevailed and held the junction road.  Saturday the 17th was a day of lost opportunities for the French, who could have trapped Wellington at Quatre-Bras had they attacked. They let him slip away a few miles to the north. Dawn on the 18th saw the British-Dutch at Mont St Jean astride the road to Brussels and the Prussians waiting in support 12 miles to the east.
                                                 The author  makes a comparison to Agincourt as the favored French (at Waterloo they had much more experienced and reliable soldiers), also had to attack over a muddy field. That challenged their artillery, as it limited their  maneuverability, and they couldn't bounce their shells, which was a common early 19th century practice.  He also emphasizes that Wellington took advantage of the reverse side of the hill on the battlefield.  The French were on a crest overlooking a small valley and the British were on the 'reverse side' across the way.  Napoleon delayed until late morning, waiting for the ground to dry, and began his attack on his left. The chateau at Hougoumont, a virtually impregnable set of buildings surrounded by wall and hedges, held fast as the French hurled thousands of men at it.  The Emperor then turned to the Allied center.  Although his artillery made a lot of noise and smoke, it did not inflict significant casualties. By 1PM, he could see the Prussians about six miles away and approaching. He sent 18,000 infantrymen into Wellington's middle. d'Erlons corps reached the crest of the hill when heavy cavalry counter-attacked and sent them back across the valley.  Later in the afternoon, 9,000 cavalrymen attacked 20,000 infantrymen aligned in squares which were impervious to attack. Horses would swerve away from the bayonets of the first and second line and were slaughtered by the muskets of the back lines. The French attacked perhaps as many as a dozen times over two afternoon hours. Throughout the entire day, Wellington rode all along the lines, exposed to fire that killed many of his aides, yet managing, leading, observing and further embellishing his already legendary career.
                                                 "Sometime during the massacre of the French horsemen guns sounded far off to the East."  The Prussians were coming.  By now, it was after six, although there were still hours of sunshine left. The French finally moved up their artillery and began to take a fearful toll on the Allies. "All along the ridge there was death and mutilation."  As the Prussians entered the fray, Napoleon played his last card. He ordered his undefeated Immortals, the Imperial Guard, forward. They crested the ridge, began to deploy in a line and were met with blistering fire by the British. "And when they broke, so did the hopes of France."
                                                  Many have written about Waterloo, including  noted novelists of the 19th century, Stendahl and Hugo.  This is the author's first book of non-fiction and I suspect it is his skill as a novelist that brings this book to life. The weekend before the 200th anniversary, a reviewer in the Financial Times praised it as the best book ever on the battle.



                                                 

Foundations: The History Of England From Its Earliest Beginnings To The Tudors, Ackroyd - A*

                                               This is the first of a planned six volume history of England. As Peter Ackroyd is one of my all time favorites, I've decided to undertake the venture. The word Britain was first used by a Greek traveller in 325 BC. The island was extensively engaged in trade with the continent when Caesar invaded in  55 BC. A hundred years later, the actual 40 year-conquest of England was begun by Claudius. "England's ports, its metals, its taxes helped to sustain the vast engine of Roman commerce." Britain was a breadbasket for the Empire.  By the time the Roman military withdrew in the early 5th century, Christianity had been established south of Hadrian's Wall.  The next invaders were the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes, who over the course of centuries gained the upper hand in England.  The disparate kingdoms of England came together to respond to an external threat when the Vikings arrived on the scene in 790. "In 865, a great host of Danes descended on east Anglia." The areas of the Danelaw in eastern England became the most prosperous in the land.  By the end of the millennium, England was an established society with prosperous cities, with shire boundaries that would last until the 19th century and a feudal system wherein obligations and responsibilities were fully defined.
                                               William, duke of Normandy, felt slighted when the crown of the King of the English went to Harald in 1066 and he invaded.  He prevailed at Hastings and then terrorized London before he was crowned on Christmas day.  He extended his power and began the lengthy, acrimonious contest with the Church over sovereignty. He took the position that only he, and not the Pope, could appoint the bishops of England. The Conqueror was succeeded by two sons, a grandson and a  great-grandson, Henry II in 1154.  Henry's father was Geoffrey of Anjou or Geoffrey Plantagenet.  He was, thus, the first of  more than 300 years of Plantagenet kings. "It was said the family was the scion of Satan himself." Henry II will be forever known as the king who appointed his close friend and Chancellor as Archbishop of Canterbury.  Thomas Beckett did not prove to be as compliant as Henry had wished. After six years of bickering over their respective powers, Beckett ex-communicated the Archbishop of York, sending Henry into a rage, during which he muttered his desire to be "rid of this turbulent priest".  Beckett's death forced Henry to cede power to the Church.  Although it is his battles with the Archbishop that he is most remembered for, his reign also saw the expansion of the common law and the laying of the foundation of the English legal system.  His sons, Richard I and John I, were known for their endless, rapacious taxing and for squeezing every last penny out of their subjects, a series of abuses that led to the Magna Carta in 1215. John also lost most of the French land that his Norman and Angevin inheritance carried and, upon his death, a chronicler of the day said, "Hell felt herself defiled by his admission."  The 13th century saw the reigns of Henry III, for half-a-century, and then Edward I, during which the barons, the new Parliament and the monarchy continued their on going struggle for power, wealth and control. The reign of Edward II saw humiliating defeat at Bannockburn and a three-year Great Famine before he was deposed by his Queen, Isabella, and replaced by his son.
                                                 The inherent tension between the ruled and the ruler was rivaled by a greater one between the kings of England and France. From the time of the Conqueror,  the English monarchs were dukes of Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, Gascony or some combination thereof. Thus, they were vassals of the French king and holders of land on the continent.  Phillip of Valois and Edward III began the Hundred Years War and the author suggests that it continued until Waterloo. Edward III was victorious in 1346 at Crecy, the first of the three famous, yet meaningless, English victories in France that were generally attributed to the merits of the English longbow.  Two years later,  the Black Plague arrived. Over the next thirty years, it returned three more times. The population of England was reduced by a third to a half. It would take 400 years to recover. Nonetheless, the fabric of society held.  In 1356, Edward's son, the Black Prince, not only prevailed when outnumbered at Poitiers, but also captured the French king and held him in London for ransom.  A temporary peace followed. Two decades later both Henry III and his son, died leaving the crown in 1277 to ten year old Richard II who reigned for over twenty years before being deposed by his cousin, the Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV, thus establishing the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenets.
                                                 His son, Henry V, reopened the Hundred Years War and achieved immortal fame at Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day, Oct. 24, 1415.  He was honored and acclaimed throughout England, but his parliament and barons knew that campaigning in France was expensive business. His success led to his marriage to Katherine Valois, the King's daughter, and an agreement that any son would be acclaimed king of both countries.  He died in August, 1422 leaving an 8-month-old heir. Although Henry V's success in France proved to be of no lasting value, his reign is considered a time in which the nation was established in the popular mind, the language became dominant while both French and Latin fell from common usage, and the Church of England  began to distance itself somewhat from Rome.  It was becoming "this blessed realm."  Unfortunately, Henry VI grew to be an ineffectual king, one who lost whatever was left to the English in France and who had a surfeit of uncles and cousins looking over his shoulder. The contretemps between him and the the Duke of York would lead to the War of the Roses. Over matched, the Lancaster's enlisted the help of Owen Tudor, the King's half brother (Henry V's widow had married a Welsh courtier).  Round one of the thirty-year civil war, which would entail a dozen bloody battles, went to the rebels, as the Duke of York was crowned king as Edward IV.  He was cursed with two malcontent brothers, the first the duke of Clarence, who he had murdered in the Tower and the second, Richard Duke of Gloucester.  Edward died at 40, leaving as his oldest a fourteen-year-old who would be king for only 88 days. Gloucester imprisoned the king and his younger brother (the Princes) in the Tower and was proclaimed as Richard III.  In the summer of 1485, he died at Bosworth Field and Henry Tudor became Henry VII. The crown had repeatedly changed hands through violence, and the new king was no more than a usurper who had to ask the Pope to legitimize his rule.  He married his oldest daughter to the king of Scotland, thus calming centuries of conflict and abandoned the Plantagenet obsession of interfering on the continent.  He died without debt and passed on his throne without controversy.  Henry XIII became king in 1509.
                                               Ackroyd sums up by stating that throughout it all, "below the surface of events lies a deep, and almost geological, calm." "Unlike the provinces and sub-kingdoms of France or of Spain, or the fissiparous states and duchies of Europe, or of the city-states of Italy, England was all of a piece." "Continuity, rather than change, is the measure of the country."  This is a wonderful book and very helpful in organizing the medieval era for me. Although an Irish-American, I must confess that I am an unabashed Anglophile and thoroughly enjoyed this volume.

The Girl On The Train, Hawkins - C +

                                                This is a very intriguing read, one told from a very unique perspective. The narrator    ( Rachel, the girl of the title) is one totally f.....ed up, delusional, drunk, needy voyeur who watches people from a train and makes up tales about their lives. One problem is that one of the families on Blenheim Rd. is her ex-husband, his wife and daughter.  Another person is an unfaithful wife who goes missing on the same night Rachel is in the neighborhood and blacks out for hours.  For three hundred relentless pages, Rachel makes a total fool of herself, continuously lying to all, trying to see her ex, and interfering in the murder investigation by getting close to the victim's husband and psychologist.  The ending is creative enough to make this a bestseller, but it doesn't cut it for me.

Gangsterland, Goldberg - B

                                               This is a very good read and, yet, one very difficult to characterize. It's not a laugh-out -loud, but rather a dry, witty, dark chronicle about Sal Cupertino, a  Chicago-based hit man for the mob. Sal is at the top of the pyramid in his chosen profession when he makes a mistake and the mob determines he is too capable to dispose of. So, they recycle him in LasVegas as a Rabbi. As the author is Jewish, one assumes he can take such liberties, as the now-Rabbi David Cohen combines a life of tending to his flock and doing the mob's bidding in his free time.  However, the responsibilities of the particular temple and its related funeral home are not what one associates with a religious life. Indeed, it is a mob front and one very close to being exposed. This is the authors first book and I believe he flubs the ending.

The Fall Of The Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, Rogan - A *

                                               August 1914 found the Ottoman Empire in disarray.  In the 25 years prior to the war, it had lost 40% of its territory. It had been ruled, more or less, by a triumvirate of Young Turks since 1908 and was besieged on the west by the Balkan powers that they had once ruled. They feared that their co-religionists in the south were hoping for Arab independence. In the east, the Catholic Armenians wanted their own homeland, and just past them were the Russians, who wanted Constantinople. They needed an ally and a lot of help. They allied with Germany and joined the war in November. "Many in the German high command believed that the Ottomans' greatest contribution would come less from the Turkish army than from the internal uprisings Ottoman military action might provoke among Muslims under French colonial rule in North Africa, under the British in Egypt and India, and under the Russians in the Caucasus and Central Asia."  Believed incapable of defending thousands of miles of borders, they were attacked on all fronts. The Russians prevailed in the Caucasus. The British captured Basra and stopped an Ottoman advance on the Suez Canal.  The British and French tried to capture Constantinople by running the Bosporus in late April, 1915. They lost four capital ships, a third of the eastern Mediterranean fleet.  Next, they tried a land advance through the Gallipoli peninsula and successfully landed 50,000 men. However, the Turks vigorously defended their homeland and Kitchner was required to substantially reinforce the effort.  In the end, the Turks' defense was too much.  Each side had half-a-million casualties. The victory strengthened the Central Powers because Bulgaria joined them, thus creating a rail connections between Central Europe and Constantinople. German equipment and material flowed to the Ottomans.
                                               Meanwhile tragedy unfolded in the east. The Armenians were in the proverbial middle. Their homeland was equally divided between the two Empires, but their loyalty was with the Russians. They were considered disloyal fifth-columnists by the Ottoman government.  Although there is no smoking gun, the author states "Ottoman documents and contemporary memoirs suggest the top three Young Turk officials made key decisions initiating the annihilation of the Armenian community of Turkey between February and March 1915." Deportations led to rumored revolt led to the arrest in Istanbul of the Armenian elite led to actual revolt led to violent suppression and ultimately genocide. There is no consensus on the total killed, the numbers ranging from 750,000 to 1.5 million.
                                               The British efforts in Mesopotamia were conducted under the auspices of the Indian government and initially met with failure. After a disastrous defeat at Kut, just south of Baghdad, the Indian Army captured the famed city.  To the west, British efforts were focused on supporting and encouraging an Arab revolt. They had to promise Arab independence after the war in order to achieve their revolt against the Ottomans. Unknown to the Arabs, the promise excluded the British protectorate over the Persian Gulf provinces and French ambitions in the Levant. "So began the fateful link between the Hashemite revolt in Arabia and the British campaign in Palestine that, between them, would ultimately spell the downfall of the Ottoman Empire."  By the end of 1917, Jerusalem fell and, once again, the British promise was further diluted. The Balfour Declaration stated there would be a Jewish homeland in Palestine.  The last year of the war started well for the Ottomans. Russia withdrew from the war and, returned three former provinces to them. Allenby had to transfer 60,000 men to France, resulting in repeated failures to advance east from Jerusalem.  Instead, the British and Arabs headed north and crushed the Turks on their way to Damascus. By the end of October, the Empire signed an armistice agreement with the UK.
                                             "Caught between the conflicting demands of the victorious powers and Turkish nationalists, the Ottomans ultimately fell more as a result of the terms of the peace than of the magnitude of their defeat."  The Young Turk leaders fled to Berlin while a military tribunal sentenced 18 of them to death for the Armenian genocide. Armenians tracked down and assassinated ten of the eighteen.  The Allies stripped the Empire of its Arab provinces and reduced the Turkish homeland significantly. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the general who had won at Gallipoli, rejected the treaty, deposed the Sultan and pushed the Allies out of the country. He renegotiated the treaty, thus creating the modern state with himself as president. "The Ottoman front, with its Asian battlefield and global soldiers, turned Europe's Great War into the First World War. And in the Middle East more than any part of the world, the legacies of the Great War continue to be felt down to the present day."

Five, Archer - B

                                               This police thriller is set in Salzburg, Austria. The main character is Bea, a policewoman, recently divorced and struggling with her responsibilities to her job and her two children.  She can be very focused and, in this debut novel, Bea is presented with a real mind-bender. A serial killer leaves clues for and taunts the police. The clues are based on the outdoor hobby/game of geo-caching, which is hunting for items hidden in the forest utilizing GPS specifics and written tips. The end is never remotely evident. It's a classic 'beach' read.

Midnight At The Pera Palace: The Birth Of Modern Istanbul, King - B

                                                The Pera was the grand hotel one stayed at before or after taking the Orient Express. "During the interwar years, the Pera Palace was not only the place where transients and newcomers began their reinvention. But for wave after wave of refugees, migrants and exiles, the storied old hotel was a symbol of the transition from a past age to a new one - a place that embodied the ties between the East and West, between empire and republic, and between nostalgia and experiment in the only place on earth to have been the epicenter of Christendom and global Islam." Both the hotel and the new train terminal came late in the 19th century as the diplomatic world awaited the demise of 'the old man of Europe'.  It came with a war that ended with an Allied occupation of Constantinople. It was the only capital city of the central powers that was occupied. British, French, Italian and even Greek troops were involved. In less than a year, a resistance and revolution began under Mustafa Kemal, who was elected president at the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. The peace treaty dismembered the  empire but left the sultan on the throne.  He voluntarily abdicated and lived out his life on the Italian Riviera. "The dynasty of the House of Osman, which had governed an empire for more than six hundred years and had commanded Istanbul for four hundred sixty-nine, was no more." By 1923, the Allies were gone and the Republic established.  The forced expulsion/exchange of a million-and-a-half Turks and Greeks made the country more rural, Turkic and Muslim. Also known as Ataturk, Kemal ruled until his death in 1938. He relentlessly pushed his modernizing agenda of better education, national identification with their Turk heritage, sectarianism at all costs, disestablishment of the Muslim faith, conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum, banishment of the Caliph, synchronizing Turkey's erratic system of keeping time with Europe's, and establishment of equal legal rights for women. Istanbul was the home of 1932's Miss Universe.
                                              WW2 came perilously close, but both sides honored Turkey's declaration of neutrality.  That, however, did not prevent Istanbul from becoming one of the major locales of diplomacy, intrigue and spying.  More than a quarter of the Jews who made it to Palestine during the war came through Istanbul.  Rather late in the game, in February of 1945, Turkey declared war on its former ally, Germany.  Turkey joined NATO in 1952, flirted with the EU and has recently turned back toward Islam. The author clearly pines for the days when it was a much more diverse place. Throughout the narrative, he weaves into the story the role of the Pera, which stood at the commercial and social center of the city. It still stands and has been recently renovated by a firm from Dubai. All in all, this is an interesting read about one of the world's more fascinating cities.

Red Nile: A Biography Of The Worlds Greatest River, Twigger - B -, Inc.

                                               Red is for all the bloodshed along its extraordinary length: 4175 miles. If the Thames were as long, it would flow into the Arabian Sea. The White Nile flows out of Lake Victoria and provides 95% of the water in the river in the winter and the Blue, which is further north and west flowing out of Ethiopia, 85% in the summer. It was the Nile River valley that was the exit from Africa used by the first homo sapiens to head north.  And it was along its annually flooded banks that civilization began.  Those banks remained untamed until the last century and were the foundation of the ancient world's largest source of wealth. Wealth attracts predators, first the Greeks and later, the Romans. "There is every reason to believe that the Roman rule of Egypt, from 45 BC until the arrival of the Arabs in the seventh century, was an effective pillaging of the country from which it never really recovered." The Arabs brought a new religion, created the modern city of Cairo and introduced a tremendous amount of new knowledge to the world. They maintained much of Greek culture and brought it to the west, and they developed medical, astronomical and scientific skills centuries before the Europeans.  Finding the source of the Nile became the ambition of generations of Europeans.  The Blue Nile's source was discovered by a Jesuit missionary, Pedro Paez, in 1621. The White Nile was a bit tougher, as it lay deep in the dark continent. The first failed attempt that we know of was by  centurions sent by Nero in the first century AD. It was not found until 1937, by a German explorer, Dr. Burkhardt Waldecker. The dream of damming the river was partially accomplished by Muhammad Ali in the 19th century, furthered by the British in the early 20th century and finalized by Nasser in  1970.
                                               I find it very hard to finish a book written in the stream of consciousness mode. When a section of a book mentions Herodotus, Napoleon, Agatha Christie and Anwar Sadat, I call it a day. Nonetheless, there's a ton of fascinating information in this book.

One Night In Winter, Montefiore - B +

                                              This is the second novel in this blog this year by the noted historian Simon Montefiore. This one is set in 1945 and is based on a true story.  A group of students (ages 6-18) who attend a special school in Moscow for the children of the elite are arrested.  Their crime was a clandestine worship of Pushkin and a juvenile passion for romanticism. The organs of the state keep them at the Lubyanka and  build a mountain out of a mole hill. The master of all deception, the one whose name is never mentioned, follows the case with particular interest and uses the children to test and diminish the parents. It's a very well done novel and includes details that only someone who wrote 'Stalin: The Court Of The Red Tsar' could dream up. It reminds me of a resolution I made years ago. I swore I would avoid anything to do with the Bolsheviks, particularly of the Stalin era, because of the sheer pain of reading of the deceit, dishonesty, and evil that dominated their perverse world. I'll continue to try to avoid them.

The Long Way Home, Penny - C

                                               This the tenth book in the series. By now, Gamache and his wife are retired and living comfortably in Three Pines. One of their neighbors, Peter Morrow, was asked by his wife to leave and to come back exactly in a year so they could assess where their marriage stood. Clara had usurped Peter's role as the most famous painter in Canada and he had not reacted well. His failure to return leads to a search by the now private citizen and former Chief of the Surete, Homicide Division for Quebec Province.  The search meanders through the area east of Montreal along the St. Lawrence and delves deep into the Canadian art scene. It involves revenge and a long-distance murder utilizing a toxic substance. For whatever reason, this one didn't work for me. I believe I'll call it a day on this series.

The Wright Brothers, McCullough - B +

                                             They were the third and fourth sons of a Protestant minister, Wilbur older than Orville by four years.  They first sold and repaired bicycles and then began to hand-build their own model. To say they were handy would be an understatement.  They could build or repair anything. Wilbur initiated the study of aerodynamics and the pursuit of a flying machine.  They sought a locale to test their first glider and were steered to the Outer Banks by the Weather Service. They were off to Kitty Hawk in the fall of 1900, back the following year and again in 1902. Their third glider was a success. "They knew they had solved the problem of flight and more. They had acquired the knowledge and skill to fly. They could soar, they could float, they could dive and rise, circle and glide and land, all with assurance. Now they had only to build a motor." With the help of Charlie Taylor, their shop assistant, they built a 156-lb. 4-cylinder motor with an aluminum block from Alcoa from scratch. On Dec.17, 1903 the Wright Flyer completed four flights. As successful as they were, it would take almost five years more for them to achieve the recognition, fame, honor and wealth that you would expect from their accomplishments. On August 8, 1908, Wilbur flew the Flyer III in Le Mans, France for only two minutes and two miles, considerably less than they had flown in Ohio. The difference this time was that it was in public before a startled press and government officials. Their place in history was assured. Orville followed up with proving flights on behalf of the Army at Ft. Myers, VA.  Feted on both sides of the Atlantic, they spent their next few years endlessly demonstrating their plane to the people of America and Europe.  They incorporated and later sold their airplane manufacturing business, sued many including Glenn Curtiss, a competitor,  for patent infringement and won every lawsuit they were ever involved in. They fought off all who laid claim to their preeminence as the first aviators. They never married. Wilbur died at 45 in 1912 and Orville at 77 in 1948.  When Ohio born and raised Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, he carried a swatch of the muslin from the wing of their 1903 glider. This is a wonderful American story, set at a time now long ago and told by one of the best.

Preparation For The Next Life, Lish - B

                                               This novel has received rave reviews and wound up on my list because it is set in a community that I once lived and worked in - Flushing, NY.  Northern Queens and the end of the #7 Line were never anything special, but forty years ago it certainly was middle-class.  Today it is dominated by various Asian immigrant groups and is known as Flu-Shing.  I have walked through it, but never sensed the desperation of life that is set forth here. Everyone is hustling everyone else with an almost incomprehensible ruthlessness. It is life lived in primal fear and total poverty. It is a zero-sum game that almost feels like life on the savannah. A woman from Uighur in the US illegally falls in love with an American who has just done three tours in Iraq. She is totally broke and is trying as hard as possible to get ahead of the financial curve by working for less than the minimum wage in food joints/restaurants/markets etc. He is so spaced out-on 5 different prescription meds for his war wounds, depression, nightmares and schizophrenia that he seldom knows what day it is. They inquire at the City Clerk's Office on the procedure to marry. Hope for them recedes when the son of the nightmarish Irish couple he rents the cellar from for $400 per month returns from ten years in jail. Jimmy is a miserable angry shite and you know something bad is going to happen. It does. But, Zou Lei is as tough as nails and embodies every single character trait for which we honor and praise immigrants as such an important part of our history. I, for one, hope that all of those who are as different from us as our ancestors were from mainstream America a century and a half ago continue to come here, work their fannies off and make it in America.  Queens County is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse place in the world. This street-level view of poverty and - I hate to repeat the word - utter desperation is an eye-opener.  It's not for all, but is for those with an affection for NY, the knowledge that our ancestors were once in this boat, and a sympathy for those on the bottom.

The Deluge: The Great War, America And the Remaking Of The Global Order, 1916 -1931, Tooze- B

                                               This fascinating book is a study of how the US came to dominate the world. The book covers the decade-and-half from the time the US entered the world stage with its entry into WW1 up until it became the last country to fall to the Great Depression.  It is a thoughtful, considerate, and wide-ranging academic treatise. "Mapping the emergence of this new order of power is the central aim of this book." It also addresses how the liberal world order established in the early 1920's came apart, and how the imminent dominance of the US impelled Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Hirohito to take such radical steps to establish themselves before they lost all room to maneuver. "By common agreement, the new world order had three major facets - moral authority backed by military power and economic supremacy."  By preaching the moral supremacy of democracy, Wilson broke down the firewall between domestic politics and foreign affairs, thus revolutionizing the balance of power politics of previous centuries.  "If the idea of reordering the world around a single power bloc and a common set of liberal, 'Western' values seemed like a radical historical departure, this is precisely what made the outcome of WW1 so dramatic." He contends that the Western Powers lost their grip in the 20's because the US failed to cooperate with the British, French, Germans and Japanese to stabilize the world economy and assure the collective security.
                                             Although Wall Street had financed the Entente from the beginning, Wilson was firmly neutral and as opposed to Britain's naval reach and continuing imperial aspirations as he was of German aggression. He hoped for a negotiated peace without a winner, but with the US as the acknowledged indispensable power and world leader.  In a January 1917 speech, he spoke directly to the people of Europe in a plea for peace, and in response, an increasingly desperate German high command unleashed unlimited submarine warfare.  With no other choice, the US joined the Allies, but only as an 'associate'. Throughout 1917, significant changes took place in Europe. Russia revolted and withdrew from the war. In Germany, opposition to the war led to a breakdown of the Empire's political structure as the Reichstag and the military government were in constant opposition. The Entente powers prevailed in 1918 as Germany collapsed because of Americas economic muscle and their political cohesiveness. In Britain and France, the political class offered expanded democratic opportunities to their people in exchange for their popular support.  Lloyd George loosened the strings,  gave a seat at the table to the major commonwealth nations and "secured the foundations of the empire as a key pillar in the emerging, world order."  In the final months of the war and into the winter of 1918-19, Wilson was more concerned about the French and British empires interfering with his vision of the future than he was about the fine points of finishing off the Germans. He was desirous of a League of Nations in which the US would stand astride the world as its acknowledged financier, conscience and leader. With his 14 Points encapsulated in the Armistice and praise from all over the world, he expected to succeed in Paris.
                                            As we well know, he did not, as Clemenceau was intent to exact his revenge and he did.  Germany was disarmed, it's forces pushed back from the French border, the Rhineland demilitarized and occupied and the Saar's coal committed to France under a complex League of Nations administration. War guilt was assigned to the Germans and the reparations came in much higher than Germany anticipated or could pay. The author points out that there was a theoretical possibility of a restoration of the pre-world order if, as Keynes suggested, the reparations were manageable and America cancelled it's debts.  Lloyd George upped the reparations and Wilson wouldn't dream of forgiveness. Realistically, it took a second and more massive conflagration before statesmen became that forward thinking. Wilson, characterized here as fickle, arrogant, inflexible and inconsistent, would not compromise with the Senate on Article X of the treaty on collective security.  Felled by a stroke as the nation faced a red scare, violent union-management relations, inflation followed by deflation and recession, Wilson and America left the world stage.
                                           "Layer by layer, piece by piece, issue by issue, the Entente coalition had disintegrated. The price that the collapse of this great democratic alliance would exact defies estimation."  The author asserts that our return to ongoing involvement in the daily affairs of the world would have surprised Wilson, whose view was much more conservative than the worldview  FDR/Truman/Ike implemented. He also makes the case that our involvement is a must - that disengagement is not an option for the USA.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Kolbert - B +

                                               This is a book that was on almost all of last year's notable lists and earlier this year won the Pulitzer for General Non-Fiction.  Our world has seen five mass extinction events and the author points out that we are in the midst of a sixth. I was fascinated to learn that it wasn't until the 19th century that science realized that prior species had become extinct. There was no place in the scientific mindset to comprehend the concept until Georges Cuvier, of the French Natural History Museum, proposed it as the answer to all of the odd fossils that no one could explain. Science came to grips with the concept of extinction and is busy working on the causation and consequences of the first five, of which the meteor-driven 'nuclear winter' is the best known.
                                              While writing this book, the author travelled the world to study the current cycle of events. She started in Panama, where the collapse of the world's frog population has been documented and studied. She has seen where the last Great Auk died in Iceland about one-hundred and fifty years ago. It will come as no surprise that  the change agent initiating the collapse of innumerable species is the planet's most successful mammal - us. And it is not just the consequence of the Industrial Revolution that is at issue here. It is our mobility that has spread disease and destruction throughout the world since we 'left Africa'.  The extinctions are accelerating because of the consequences of almost two hundred years of burning fossil fuels and spewing 365 metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere, which is increasing temperatures and, more importantly, changing the ph factor of the world's oceans.  Whether it is the oceans' coral reefs which appear to be in their last decades or the large herbivores of a shrinking forest, the extinction is ongoing and undeniable. Some wonder if we will follow. Others are confident that we'll figure it out. Either way, this is a superb read.

The Edge Of The World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe, Pye - B-

                                               The author, an Englishman, takes the position that the impact the Mediterranean cultures had on the development of Europe has been well-documented. He argues that the the North Sea cultures are equally important and presents his case. The Frisians, predecessors of the Dutch, were traders, sailors and masters of the watery marshes along the coast, and we're the first to re-introduce and mint silver coins in the 8th century.  Venerable Bede, an English monk, is famous for his 8th century publication of 'The History Of The Church In England', the establishment of the system of dating from A.D. (Anno Dominus), and systematizing the date for Easter.  He studied the tides and the moon's effect on the same and may have discerned that the earth was round.  He is credited, along with the Irish, for spreading books and writings far and wide. The Vikings were raiders, slavers and pillagers who sailed to Vinland in North America, Iceland, Greenland, deep into Russia,  south to Constantinople and as far north as the White Sea. They developed a compass and knew the earth was not flat because when one sailed away from shore, the land fell from sight.  Though they came bringing hell on earth, the Vikings started to settle and in particular, founded towns in Ireland. Limerick, Wexford, Cork, Waterford were settled by the raiders, as was their capital, Dublin. The Dutch were the first society to engage in extensive, if not near universal, realignment of their land through dikes, storm sewers, sluices and  water  pumps.  Although I believe he wanders too far and wide in his discourse (over half of the chapter called 'Science' is about the Mongols), he closes with a few compelling points. The Hanseatic League was the first time merchants gained an upper hand vis-a-vis whoever was governing their various cities. He then draws a straight line to the  Dutch, their extraordinary and sophisticated trading, the Dutch East India Company, share ownership and of course, capitalism.  I do not know enough to know if he makes his case and he does tend to wander. Thus, my enthusiasm is somewhat limited.

Red Eagles, Downing - C +

                                              Downing has written a series that Ive followed and I automatically downloaded this. After I finished, I realized it was his first book from the 1980's. It is a WW2 novel in which a Soviet deception of a German agent in the US leads to a German/Soviet mission to steal uranium that is being transported from Tennessee  to New Mexico. The mission succeeds. The book does not.

Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Concise Life, Rohl - B

                                              I long ago concluded that 'Willy' was one of the worst monarchs in the long history of European incompetence, a delusional disaster whose arrogance, militarism, hatred of England, and insecurity was a significant reason the first half of the 20th century turned Europe into a charnel house.  Recent scholarship has raised the concept that all of Europe, particularly the Serbs and Russians, were equally at fault.  Thus, I decided to check this out - after all, it's only 193 pages.  Indeed, it was that same recent scholarship that led  the author to "miniaturize" his 4,000-page, three-volume biography, and he begs to disagree. He gets right to the point in the introduction. "Kaiser Wilhelm II, imperious, impulsive, imbued with the antiquated notions of the divine right of kings and of Prussia/Germany's God-given trajectory to greatness, while at the same time insecure and hyper-sensitive to perceived slights to his imperial dignity or his dynastic mission, was arguably the very last person who should have been entrusted with the immense powers of the Hohenzollern military monarchy at such a critical juncture in Germany's and Europe's history."  He was the oldest of Queen Victoria's grand children, the son of her daughter Victoria and Crown Prince Frederick. He was breech-born and his left arm was disabled at birth. His mother couldn't stand his deformity and treated him very, very badly. He grew up to despise her English liberalism. Wilhelm was Kaiser at only 29, because his father died of laryngeal cancer only a few months after Wilhelm I died at 90. His ideas and attitudes were a throwback to the 18th century and his first major failure was the dismissal from office of Bismarck, who had managed Germany's awkward constitutional system which had an elected legislature with budgetary powers and ministers appointed by the Kaiser. Without the Iron Chancellor, Willy consolidated more and more power in the military. Whereas Bismarck knew Germany had reached the limits of its size in Europe and worked for peace, Willy wanted to dominate the continent and was ready to go to war to accomplish that.  Throughout the quarter century from Bismarck's dismissal to the guns of August, the Kaiser provoked crisis after crisis, by ill-advised off-the-cuff comments, letters not cleared by the Foreign Office, bombastic interviews with newspapermen, and intervention in diplomatic protocol.  Many, many people in Germany and around Europe wondered out loud if he was off his rocker. Delusional to the end, he approved of Hitler's Chancellorship and asked the Fuhrer to bring him back and make him the Kaiser again. He relished the success of the Wehrmacht in 1939 and 1940 saying that they were his boys now grown to generals who were conquering Europe. He died a few weeks before Barbarossa.
                                           Two years ago as I walked around Berlin, it occurred to me that the Germans won - just not how they intended to win. They are the 4th largest economy in the world, clearly the leaders of Europe, and Berlin will be the 21st century capital of the continent. It was all so unnecessary and, hopefully, as some have observed, at least in Europe, war is no longer a policy option.
                                         

The Invisible Hand, Jevons - B

                                            The invisible hand, of course, refers to Adam Smith in this interesting novel written about an economist, by two economists. This book is the fourth in a series, the first of which was published in the 70's. One writer is a Professor at U.Va. and the other at Trinity University in Texas. Their protagonist is Prof. Henry Spearman at Harvard who occasionally solves mysteries by applying economic logic to the case.  The second book, published  in the 80's, holds the distinction of being the first mystery novel published by a University Press (MIT).  The books are apparently so good that they are sometimes used as assigned supplementary reading in college econ courses.  In this one (the first in twenty years) Spearman wins the Nobel and winds up as a visiting Nobel Professor for a semester at a fictitious school in San Antonio. He decides to teach a course on Art and Economics just as the University's rising star artist-in-residence is murdered a few weeks after 5 of his paintings were stolen.  The solution is not that complicated or even interesting, but the lectures, theories and enthusiasm for the 'dismal science' is fun and I'll likely track down the first three.

The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Future, Kenneally - B +

                                               This book is a romp through genetics, genealogy, DNA testing, historic memory and a sort of world-wide sociological analysis. To some extent it rambles all over the place. There were some interesting points along the way. The author is Australian ,and as we know, millions of British citizens were 'transported', many for serious crimes and equally many for nothing more sinister than stealing bread for a starving child, a la Jean Valjean in French literature.  The author's great-etc. grandfather stole a handkerchief. Those convicts stayed on after their time was done, found partners and gave birth to the modern country of Australia. However, until recently, most Australians were in denial of and not aware of their convict heritage. On Tasmania, formerly Van Diemen's Land where, according to the author, over 90% of the people are convict descendants, anyone who learned of a connection to a convict was shocked. In a bout of serious national denial and forgetfulness, the Aussies simply ignored the past of which their great-grand parents were so ashamed that they never taught their children how or why they came to the continent. Today, finding a convict in one's family tree is a point of pride for the young.  Perhaps the most shocking chapter in the book has to to do with German anti-semitism linked by geography from the 14th century to the 20th.  When the Black Death came to Europe, someone had to be blamed, and in many German cities, Jews were, with disastrous consequences for those Jewish communities.  Hatred can be passed down, but I am shocked that the cities with pogroms in the 14th century were the ones with higher incidences of anti-Jewish violence in the 1930's. Researchers have found that extreme prejudices were rarer in the more cosmopolitan cities where there had been substantial population inflows. It was in those place where there had been minimal outside influences that anti-semitism was more easily passed down.
                                              The DNA  portion of the book has some interesting tid-bits also. A thorough genetic study of the UK showed that from the time the Romans left in 400 AD until the mid-nineteenth century, very few moved or married outside of where they were born. There were interlopers, Danes and Vikings who had an impact, but they were quickly absorbed. There are seventeen distinct clusters from south of London to Cornwall to the Orkneys where everyone in the cluster is pretty much the same.  In the last decade alone, DNA testing has replaced the anthropological fossil-based guessing game about where and how mankind has evolved. The Out of Africa theory has been confirmed and the age-old question about whether or not we share DNA with the Neanderthals has been answered in the affirmative.  How and when the far reaches of the South Pacific and the Western Hemisphere were populated has been resolved.  It has even helped identify the remains of a former King of England. This certainly is an interesting read. Be prepared for a far-reaching tour.

Bad Paper: Chasing Debt From Wall Street To The Underworld, Halpern - B -

                                           Buffalo was once the sixth-largest city in America, and late in the 19th century, because of its proximity to hydro-electric power generation, it was known as 'The Electric City.' I knew it had fallen on hard times, but had no idea it had become the debt collection center of America. Thanks to this book, I've learned a few things about 'paper'. Good paper is sold by banks and other financial institutions to collection agencies. One would think that they would do what they could with the paper, wring out whatever was possible and then forget about it. Far from it.  Those first tier collection agencies (monitored by the FTC) feel like Tiffany's compared to what happens later.  After the paper is worked, incredibly, it is resold over and over to lower tier entities, where you get to the point that the chain-of-title has been corrupted.  Buffalo's skilled players, many of whom have criminal records, call plead, threaten and mislead the debtors. Remarkably, good collectors can make up to $100,000 per year, although job security can be sketchy when the entity's owner is another ex-con scouring the netherworld for paper.
                                         This era may be ending as the Great Recession threw a monkey-wrench in the never-ending expansion of credit, and entities like Chase have been so tarnished that they no longer sell paper. Also, the FTC and the new Consumer Protection Bureau are making it harder for many of these abuses to continue.

The Lady From Zagreb, Kerr - B -

                                               As mentioned previously,  the Bernie Gunther series is about a Berlin cop who somehow keeps his job through the Weimar years and, although virulently anti-Nazi, stays on at the Alexanderplatz HQ of the Criminal Police. After the war begins, he is assigned to the SD and winds up doing occasional odd jobs out-of-town for various big wigs.  I was very disappointed in the last book because Bernie  was interacting with too many real characters and was involved in investigating real wartime occurrences. It felt uncomfortable.  Here he again is involved with actual people (he is asked to go to Yugoslavia by Goebbels), but it's more of a historical novel like most of the books in the series.  And in this book, the author accomplishes what a good historical novelist should - he sheds light on topics I was only slightly familiar with and follows up with historical postscripts. He tells of the extreme hatred and violence between the Croats and Serbs and of the killing camps set up by the Ustase. He also sets part of the novel  in Switzerland, which the Nazis apparently gave consideration to invading, particularly after Italy switched sides. Interestingly, the Swiss were ready with plans to blow up the valley passes that the Wehrmacht needed to attack. The wise-cracking Kripo cop wears thin after thirteen (ten if you count the Berlin Noir trilogy as one) novels, but  I'll likely give the next one a try.

Reluctant Meister: How Germany's Past Is Shaping Its European Future, Green - C +

                                               This is a very deep, thoughtful, almost philosophical analysis of the topic. And, as one would expect, any assessment of Germany must analyze how the most sophisticated culture in Europe, if not the world, wound up at 'Stunde Null' (Zero Hour) in 1945.  The author starts with Luther and his division of responsibilities into the personal or internal issues of faith, and the public responsibility to be part of a functioning civic entity. Layer on the Thirty Years War and a devastation almost on par with 1945, and you start to move toward a society with a huge emphasis on individual responsibility to the greater whole.  When the Teutonic Knights were disbanded in 1525, many of the members settled in what would become East Prussia and their descendants became the Junker backbone of the 2nd and 3rd Reichs. He points out there was almost similar language on the topic of 'obedience' in  the oaths sworn by the Teutonic Knights and the Wehrmacht.  He also emphasizes a national sense of victim hood occasioned by the Thirty Years War, constant French invasions and Napoleon's triumphs. As Germany grew in in the 19th century, it grew as an insecure victim constantly looking over its shoulder.  One theme he explores was totally over my head. He spends chapters on German culture, discussing Beethoven, Bach, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Schiller, Brecht, the Brothers Grimm, Kant, Nietzsche, Goethe, Hegel etc. etc. and their influence on the formation of the national character.  Other than Hitler's obsession with the Ring Cycle, particularly Gotterdamerung, I'm not sure he ties it at all in.
                                                Finally, with an eighth of the book left, he turns to the question posed in the subtitle, i.e. how the past influences today. He contends that because Germany has had to deal with the mumble jumble of the Holy Roman Empire and the overlapping entities of the 19th century, it is at home and comfortable in the inherently unstructured EU, where there are different entities responsible for different aspects of European life.  Also, Germany experienced the massive struggle to integrate the GDR into the nation and thus is best equipped to work through the issues involved in the expansion of the EU east. Germany's willingness to assume responsibility for the ECB and take on the lead role in trying to preserve the Euro stem from its own success with the Deutschmark and its need to be part of the greater European community. Green loves Germany, its language, Kultur and music and believes it can lead the continent into the future.
                                             

All The Old Knives, Steinhauer - B +

                                              Olen Steinhauer, at this stage, is pretty well-known and admired for his ability to shift his method of writing thrilling spy novels. His last two were a bit complex and this one responds to that criticism.  His two principal characters are former lovers and the entire book is spent over dinner at a lovely restaurant overlooking the sea in Monterey CA. He still works for the CIA and is stopping by because he's "going to be in her neck of the woods". She bailed five years previously after the Vienna office may have contributed to an Islamic- inspired act of terrorism at the Vienna airport. Her new life  involves a husband, two children and forgetting about her old life. It appears as if someone in the Office may have called a number in Jordan that could have tipped off the terrorists about an asset the CIA had on the plane. She thinks it was him.  He wants to know why she never told anyone about the call,after she checked the logs.  Love and trust are distant memories. They both arrange back-up, which leads to some unexpected consequences and a wholly unimaginable ending.

Fear: A Novel Of World War I, Chevalier - B +

                                               Thanks to Greg Weiss for this one too.  This remarkable book was completed in 1931 by a man who went on to fame as a writer. It is easy to discern his skill in this book, which is written in the first person and presumably, is very close to his memoir.  At the age of 19 in December, 1914, Chevalier (Dartemont in the novel) was drafted and found himself at the front in Oct. 1915. His pen drips with rage and sarcasm at those who threw young Europe into the ash heap. His disdain of politicians and generals comes through in such fabulous phrasing that you could almost find a quote on every page: "And millions of men, because they believed what they were taught by emperors, legislators, and bishops in their legal codes, their manuals of instruction and their catechisms, by historians in their history books, teachers in their colleges, and decent, ordinary people in their living rooms, these millions of men form countless flocks that shepherds with officer's braids lead to the slaughterhouses, to the sound of music."  Blessed with a light series of shrapnel wounds and after never even seeing a German, never mind shooting at one, he is hospitalized, sent home and free of the war over the winter and thus, survives into 1916. He misses Verdun, and spends months doing light duty as a runner, while his regiment is stationed in the Vosges. Being a runner is exponentially safer than being on the front line, but his good luck ends in the spring 1917 offensive.  He ably describes the hell, fear and stench of those condemned to the trenches and consistently describes  the 'Poilus' as interested in one thing and one thing only - survival. There is no interest among the men for glory, for country, for heroism - there is only survival.  He makes it through 1917 and by the end of the following summer, it is clear that the 'Boche' are done in. That however does not eliminate the need for a 24 Sept 1918 offensive and Dartemont is in the 2nd wave.  They advance 15 kilometers over 11 days as the Germans, if not retreating, are certainly backtracking. Nov. 11, 1918, 11AM.  Peace!  This is an absolutely fabulous anti-war treatise. It's so good that in 1939 the government asked the author to suspend publication and he agreed.

Leaving Berlin, Kanon - B

                                                This is the seventh novel by this book publishing executive turned author.  All are set during WW2 or in its immediate aftermath.  This one takes place in Berlin during the airlift in early 1949.  The plot gets overly complex, if not contrived at times, but offers some insight into an interesting aspect of E. Germany.  The Soviets and Germans tried hard to repatriate famous people who had opposed the Nazis and left.  The most famous was Bertold Brecht, who is an important character in this book.  The problem with anyone who returned to communism from the west or, God forbid, America is of course that they couldn't be trusted.  As this book emphasizes, totalitarianism from the east is no better than home-grown Nazism.

Sashenka, Montefiore - B

                                           This is a grand sweeping novel of  Russia covering the beginnings of the Revolution, to the horrible times of Terror,  through the end of the USSR. It covers three generations of a family and is written by a noted historian.  Montefiore's grandparents fled Tsarist Russia for Britain, and he has been highly acclaimed for his histories of the Stalin era.  This novel was very well-reviewed and is deft at providing some quality background into the winter of 1916-17 and  Stalin's pre-war Terror carried out so capably at the Lubyanka. Although he is a much better historian than novelist, his narrative of the plight of children whose parents were swept up by Beria and his henchmen is quite compelling. This book is from a few years ago and he has just published a complementary novel involving the cousins of the principal characters  here,  I intend to follow up with that a bit later in the year.

The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence And The Coming Global Disorder, Zeihan - B +

                                               I recently saw this author speak on Fareed Zakaria's GPS and downloaded this superb read.  He spends the first chapters discussing the accretion of power.  The key is access to water that allows the movement of material, whether wheat or weapons, from point A to point B without reliance on human or animal effort. He emphasizes the role of the Nile in the rise of Egypt, the Mediterranean for Rome and the Ottomans, and then the deepwater navigation that materially changed matters for the Dutch, Spanish, and English.  And of course, the one country with plenty of rivers and access to deepwater possibilities and vast oceans protecting it from enemies is the good ole USA. Blessed by geography is an understatement. As the victor in WW2, the US chose to not occupy, colonize or otherwise usurp power around the globe. Rather, we opened our markets and protected the sea lanes in order to promote free trade. The author posits that the 'Bretton Woods System' is slipping and the costs of maintaining it are wearing thin in the US.  In the next few decades,  the tsunami of retirements around the world will lead to the draw-down of capital, the scarcity of financing and a turn from the almost continuous good times of the last 70 years. It is this shrinking of available capital that will end the Bretton Woods System of US sponsored free trade and return the world to one more closely resembling a hundred years ago. Only one country is reproducing fast enough that it can survive the pressures of the next few decades and that country also has the good fortune to being very close to energy independence - once again, you know who. In this new era, our friends and allies will be countries that can also benefit us - no more being a generous, free-spending protector of others.  He suggests the first rank are the UK, Denmark, Netherlands, much of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.   In the rest of the world, he sees an aged Japan with enough wealth to access resources from North America and Russia. He sees us leaving the Middle East to its own devices - after all we won't need its oil and we'll no longer wish to provide the security system that assured where its oil went.  He is very pessimistic about Europe and thinks the euro and the EU are on the way out. The Germans will tire of carrying the rest of them.  Russia is in such demographic decline that he fears it striking out in any direction to try and maintain some worldly status;  he believes it is back into Europe  that they will roll.  On this side of the Atlantic, he sees Canada splintering and at least some of it becoming part of the US. He argues that one of the greatest threats to America is the Mexican drug wars migrating north of the border. He contends that China's geography, demographics and poor government "are enough for it to return it the fractured, self-containing mess that it has been for most of its history."  He points out that by allying with China in WW2, we eliminated all of its problems (the intrusive Japanese and European predators) and allowed it to unify and now prosper. If, for example, we pull the plug on protecting the sea lanes, every country that China's oil must pass on the way from the Persian Gulf ( India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam) is an enemy.  Our walking away from 'Bretton' destroys China. According to this author, China's Rise will be short-lived and no threat to us.
                                                   In many ways this is one of the more fascinating 'current affairs' books I've ever read. That said, it is a genre I seldom delve into. I have been asking myself the question for years why is it that we (the US) need to spend so much on our military to keep the world safe for others. Why do we have twelve carrier groups and no one else has one? Shouldn't the Chinese and Japanese pay to keep the sea lanes open to the Persian Gulf?  He certainly believes we will no longer do that because it will become  too expensive. That's music to my ears.  The whole premise of the book is that we walk away from the 'Bretton' system.  He focuses on it becoming too expensive, but does not make the case.  It's a one or two sentence assertion. Is it possible? As a retired financial person, I think it is possible.  But, for all of the reasons he believes we are immune from the world's problems, it is entirely possible that our financial system could and will continue to generate capital and continue to fund the system. There is certainly no whiff of our walking away that one can discern from either party's foreign policy in Washington. Both want to increase military spending.  The other point that he skips over is that bad actors don't often  go down quietly. Countries  like Russia and Pakistan will not slip into oblivion. They'll cause a ruckus.  That said, this is easy to read, fun, thought-provoking and highly recommended.

The Betrayers, Bezmozgis - B

                                              This is a short novel of consequence, one that received many, many awards for 2014. The central character is Baruch Kotler, an Israeli who as a young man  spent 13 years in the Soviet Gulag, after a fellow Jew betrayed him to the KGB. Now he is a world famous member of the Israeli cabinet, and one whose position on building in the West Bank led to his enemies exposing his affair with a much younger woman. Seeking a respite, he and the young Leora flee and eventually decide to spend a week in Yalta, a city where Baruch's father had taken him as a boy. Fate, though, brings him face to face with  Chaim Tankilevich, his betrayer from the early 70's. While debating guilt, innocence and many complex Russian-Jewish matters, Baruch learns that his son has disobeyed orders in the West Bank and has taken a violent, symbolic stance against the Army and the State. The author is a Canadian Jew, born in Latvia and an important young voice among the many Jewish refugees from the USSR.

The Marco Effect, Adler-Olsen, C

                                            This is the fifth Dept. Q novel in two years, and likely my last.  The author is either cranking them out too fast  or simply cannot find any consistency in his story-telling. This one is a real jumble involving: a Danish-funded African improvement program riddled with corruption; one of the program's managers has stolen $2m kroner (and he's a good guy) who the others have bumped off; a government ministry/private bank plot to rip off the program with at least three co-conspirators having a falling out and turing on each other; an African-based hit squad called into Copenhagen; and a Roma-like crime syndicate made up of old hippies;  all before we get to Marco of the title. He is a fifteen-year old street-wise bright and decent kid who has managed to slip the Roma syndicate with too much knowledge and winds up seeking out Carl from Dept. Q in an attempt to keep himself alive while half of Copenhagen is chasing him.  Carl and his crew have lost most of their intrigue and charm by now.  They muddle to a conclusion that at least gives Marco a shot at staying in Denmark

City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York, Mason - C

                                           This book tells the story of the phenomenal physical effect on the City of the Depression partnership of FDR and 'the Little Flower.'  La Guardia was elected as the Fusion candidate for mayor in 1933, just as the New Deal was starting to gain traction.  The Empire State was still the largest in the country and the City was home to 5% of the nation's population and GDP. Spending on infrastructure through the PWA was a centerpiece of the New Deal and led to construction of innumerable parks, hospitals, pools, public housing, libraries, schools, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, the Belt Pkwy, the Henry Hudson Pkwy, the expansion of the IND subway system, and La Guardia Airport.  However, WW2 changed the dynamics of Washington's relationship with the country. No longer were the states and cities the partners of the new Deal;  now it was industry and the military that appropriately received all the attention and money. When La Guardia defied his party and campaigned hard for FDR in 1940, he had been promised the War Dept.  Upon giving further reflection to La Guardia'a ability to attract so much attention, FDR forgot his assurance of a cabinet-level position.  Disappointed, overwrought and overworked, the 'Little Flower' did not shine in his 3rd term.  Roosevelt continued to talk about La Guardia being appointed a general but never really pushed the matter forward.  La Guardia died in the fall of 1947, less than two years after leaving office.   I love NYC and had high hopes for this book, but it got bogged down (at least for me) a bit much in hard-core policy and political science, rather than on the majestic construction of the era.

The Forgotten Girls, Blaedel - B

                                               This is a pretty solid Danish mystery novel built upon a long-closed failed institution for the disabled. Two young girls were abandoned by their family and reported dead of pneumonia forty years ago. When one is found dead from a fall in the woods,  a complex investigation begins and of course, finishes with most of the questions answered.

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II, Croke - B

                                               I must admit when my friend Jack Blair mentioned this to me, I wasn't very hopeful. Elephants?  However, this has turned out to be an absolute delight. Elephants were the backbone of the the transportation system used in Burma to export 90% of the world's teak in the 20's and 30's.  English and Burmese companies supervised the harvesting of the trees and the dragging of the trunks to a waterway. After WW1, Billy Williams strode into this world and became one of the finest, if not the best, elephant wallah, in the country. Asian elephants are extremely intelligent, have communication skills and respond well to caring and committed humans.  Williams was one of the most successful people working for the Burmah Teak Trading Co., was promoted and eventually married in 1932. In 1939, over half-a-million people, mostly Indians ,fled from the Japanese invaders west into India and safety. Williams led about 100 company employees and dependents on an elephant safari to safety. For the next six years, he led the Elephant Company which built over 200 bridges that ultimately helped the Empire turn the tide against Japan. He received the OBE in 1945.  This book has been a surprising pleasure.

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire, Stark - B +

                                           This absolutely amazing story is about Astor's attempt to do nothing less than establish a new colony, maybe even a country, on the west coast of the American wilderness. His goal was to build an emporium to trade furs across the Pacific to China.  Astor was already wealthy and successful when he brought the idea to Jefferson, whose astonishing response was to offer his pledge of "every reasonable patronage and facility in the power of the Executive". Later Jefferson wrote, "I view your undertaking as the germ of a great, free and independent empire on that side of our continent and that liberty and self government spreading from that side as well as this side, will ensure their complete establishment over the whole"  Astor's commercial ambitions were astounding and Jefferson was attempting to advance what took almost forty years of history to accomplish.  All ventures, great/small, public/private, commercial/not-for-profit require capable managers and a certain amount of luck.  Unfortunately for this great task, Astor had neither. His key personnel were French- Canadian and Scottish furriers and voyageurs and like all outdoors men of the era, they were free thinkers, men of spirit and independence. He chose a strict disciplinarian Navy officer, Jonathan Thorn, in 1810, to sail them from NYC to the mouth of the Columbia River.  Thorn makes Bligh look enlightened. At one point, one of the Scots pulled two pistols and pointed them at Thorn, just to get him to return to the Falklands, where they had stopped for water, in order to avoid leaving half of the insubordinate furriers behind. Thorn lost eight men simply trying to find his way across the sandbar at the mouth of the Columbia. They landed and founded Astoria. For the Overland Party, Astor chose a young businessman, Wilson Hunt, to recruit and lead a team of experienced outdoors men to the Columbia. They left St. Louis in the summer of 1811 and headed up the Missouri on the trail of Lewis and Clarke. Their relatively slow pace left little room for safety in case matters did not go perfectly. One thousand seventy-five miles upriver, after innumerable tales of Blackfeet violence, the Overland Party left the Missouri and headed west on foot and horse. All in all, the decision appears to have been eminently reasonable. Hunt did a superb job and by October, the team was west of the Tetons and what is today Jackson Hole, WY. They assumed they were at the headwaters of the Columbia, but they were hundreds of miles further away from the Pacific than they believed. On  Oct. 11, they dropped their canoes into the Snake River, which proved to be a challenge for even the experienced voyageurs. A canoe here and there were lost, and on the 10th day, they lost a cargo, all its contents and suffered the party's first casualty. A scouting party advanced and discovered the river was too steep to navigate safely.  They had left their horses 300 miles  upriver, had lost a significant amount of supplies, and had to proceed on foot with winter  approaching. Hunt divided the fifty-man enterprise in to four teams, who all set off independently of each other.  A month later, he found one of the teams starving and lost in what was (and is) the deepest canyon in North America. A Shoshone tribe helped them get through the winter.  In the meantime, Thorn sailed north to initiate trading with Indians on today's Vancouver Island. He insulted them so badly that they took his ship and killed every man on board. In Feb. 1812, Hunt and the remains of the Overlanders made it to Astoria.  Then a supply ship from NYC arrived and Astoria was back in business. Hunt re-organized the operation and soon there were eight different trading parties heading inland seeking furs.  But, the War of 1812 led to a quick turn of events. Remember that almost all of the trading specialists were either Canadian or Scotch.  Notice of the war arrived in the hands of men of the Northwest Company who demanded Astoria's furs at bargain prices, before the Royal Navy arrived. Hunt was away, discord prevailed, 200 days of rain per year was unravelling many, Astor's second relief ship foundered off Hawaii, and the men in the mountains were being killed by the Indians.  In the end, the Americans gave up. The Royal Navy soon arrived and raised the Union Jack over Astoria.  So ended this astonishing story. Some have surmised that if Astoria had  fully succeeded, the British Canadians may never have had a claim to the lands bordering the Pacific.  As it turns out, the Overland Party had discovered the Oregon trail, assuring the US a portion of the Pacific coastline.
                                    This has been an enjoyable book and I thank Kathy Blair for the recommendation. Astor died the wealthiest man in America. Economists have calculated he was the 4th wealthiest in our history. An heir died on the Titanic and his last direct male heir died in 1959. At that point, the Vincent Astor Foundation was established and directed to give all of its money away in twenty-five years. I've never wondered why the famous hotel was called the Waldorf Astoria; John Jacob Astor was born in the German town of Waldorff.

Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times, Lethbridge - C

                                              As an ardent fan of 'Downton Abbey',  I couldn't pass this one up, but throughout the reading of the book, I wished I had. There's a table of contents, chapters and a structure, but I must admit I struggled finding a theme or any sense of continuity.  Perhaps it is that my acuity has been dampened by pain pills as I recover from a skiing mishap, but I don't think that's the case. The author simply strings together endless anecdotes about those above and below the stairs and it's difficult to to piece together anything resembling a 'history' as promised in the sub-title.  Thus, I find myself trying to compare the stories here (it is very well researched) with Downton, and the conclusion I've come to is that Julian Fellowes did an amazing amount of quality work putting the show together. I suspect it's not that hard to draw up Robert, Lady Mary or the Dowager. His Mr. Carson, though, is a masterpiece, who perfectly represents and epitomizes the whole system.  He is the conscience of the house, the enforcer of appropriateness, the one with an exceptional knowledge of all that is important, the rock upon which Grantham rests.  By the turn of the 20th century, domestic service was the single largest category of employment in Great Britain. Indeed, on the eve of the Great War, there were 1.6 million servants in Britain.   A 1911 law requiring master and servant to contribute to a medical insurance system (Lloyd George's version of Obamacare), the war itself and significant post-war death and transfer taxes signaled the beginning of the end for the old landed gentry system - there was simply too much pressure for matters to continue as they had. At Downton, we see the staff slightly reduced,  economies and efficiencies introduced into the farming operation and some of the land about to be parceled off for development. The Depression and the ongoing globalization of agriculture continued the assault, and by the beginning of WW2, only 4.8% of the nation's households employed live-in help. "The war struck the final blow to the life of the English great houses, their upholding of traditions whose source and purpose had been long forgotten."   I did not manage to finish the chapters that outlined a late 20th century quasi- return to the past.  Globalization, immigration from throughout the Commonwealth,  and the massive influx of wealth into the City has recreated a world of upstairs and downstairs. I doubt Mr. Carson, though, is being emulated in this new era.

In The Kingdom Of Ice: The Grand And Terrible Voyage Of The USS Jeannette, Sides -B

                                               My library is filled with tales of the various Polar quests, the Grail of the late 19th/early 20th century.   The early efforts were in the north and thus, most of the really bad science is associated with pursuits of the North Pole.  There were many crackpot theories about open warm waters around the North Pole.  There was a general consensus that there was no permanent ice cap, but rather open seas. This was because there were thermal openings in the far north and also warm underwater streams that surfaced near the Pole. How and why mankind dreamed up this poppycock is hard to fathom. Starting with the famous English expedition under Franklin in 1845, it was not warm water but scurvy, cannibalism, freezing death, delirium and total disappearance from the face of the earth that seemed to be the last word on everyone who headed north. This book is about the first American expedition, one dreamed up and funded by the NY Herald and Gordon Bennett, its eccentric publisher.     ( Bennett would do anything for a story - he's the man who sent Stanley to Africa to find Livingston).  Under the command of Capt. George W. DeLong, the US Arctic Expedition sailed from San Francisco  on July 8, 1879.  By September DeLong was icebound at only 78 degrees north. He began to doubt that there was anything encouraging over the horizon.  Well over a year-and-a-half later, in May 1881, the cry 'land ho' was heard.  The DeLong Archipelago had been discovered in the East Siberian Sea, about a third of the way from the Russian coast to the Pole.  A month later, the ice finally prevailed and sunk the Jeannette. As the 33 men went onto the ice, they had achieved a first in polar exploration - the crew had not lost a single man in almost two years and two long Arctic winters.  Nonetheless, they were a thousand miles from the Siberian coast. In July, they discovered a reasonably- sized island that provided them with the opportunity to eat fresh food and equip their three longboats for a run to the south.  A month later, they made it to an island that DeLong's charts indicated was only 100 miles from land. The three boats were separated in a gale; DeLong came ashore on Sept 17,1881 in the marshy delta of the Lena River. Miraculously, they had travelled a thousand miles over ice and occasional open seas. A second boat had also made it.  In the end, DeLong did not survive but 13 men were able to return to the US.  Their story is certainly one of courage, endurance and superb leadership.  The Antarctic explorers came later and were better informed and equipped. The books about Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen are invariably very good reading. For my money though, 'The Last Place On Earth' by Huntford is the best Polar book of them all. It's so good there's even a BBC/Masterpiece production of the same name.