The British Are Coming: The War For America, Lexington To Princeton, 1775 - 1777, Atkinson - A*

                                               In June of 1773, George III traveled to Portsmouth to review the most powerful navy in the world. The thirty-five-year old king reigned over the world's most prosperous nation, the nation that had created an empire to rival Rome's. Nonetheless, there was much to worry about; Britain was deeply indebted after the Seven Years War, and America was increasingly a problem. The colonists were better educated and freer than their compatriots in Britain, they were armed to the teeth and knew how to fight, and even though their tax burden was one-fiftieth of a Britons', they were fiercely opposed to "taxation without representation." The Boston Tea Party both angered and threatened the mother country. Britain had to assert authority over the unruly colonies or risk losing the burgeoning empire.  In early 1775, Parliament voted to suppress the rebellion in Massachusetts. The Royal Navy blockaded the port of Boston. "What became known as the American Revolution was an improvised struggle between two peoples of a common heritage, now sundered by diverging values and a conflicted vision of a world to come."

                                                The colonists were not pleased and began organizing committees of public safety, drilling militias, establishing colonial legislatures and setting up a Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In the Bay Colony in particular, arms were stockpiled as the people planned for hostilities. On April 14, 1775, orders from London reached Gen. Gage in Boston "to arrest and imprison the principal actors and abettors in the provincial  legislature." Gage ordered a strike on the depots rumored to be in Concord 16 miles west of Boston. On the morning of April 19th, the British regulars started marching west, preceded in the night by William Dawes and Paul Revere alerting the countryside. The first exchange of fire at Lexington Common was to the Britains advantage. They destroyed supplies in Concord, and sent men further west where they were met by the fire of colonial minutemen. The British fell back, and began to march to Boston.  Colonists were concealed everywhere, and soon "a running gun battle began in earnest." Thousands of men were firing on the British. A sixth of the regulars who had  marched in the morning were casualties. The British rule in Massachusetts now stopped at the Boston city line.  The war for American independence had begun. The makeshift army cut off Boston and Gage decided to fight his way out. He selected the Charleston peninsula as his means and began ferrying men there on June 17th. The Yanks had already constructed entrenchments across the width of the peninsula at Bunker Hill. About 2,600 Britons attacked almost 4,000 rebels late in the day. The British carried the day, but their casualties were fully one-eighth of the total for the ensuing multi-year war. The victory was Pyrrhic and the casualty list shocked the UK. In July, the newly-named Continental Army welcomed Gen. George Washington as its new commander and the British replaced Gage with William Howe. Without any access to food on the land and loyalist fishermen repeatedly harassed by colonists, the British situation declined over the summer and into the fall. Moving the army to New York by sea appeared to be the solution.

                                              That summer, Congress sanctioned an invasion of Canada. The province, historically French and Catholic, as well as formerly allied with the Indians, was looked upon with distaste. Colonial militias under Col. Benedict Arnold had captured Ft. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, paving the way for a rag-tag army to capture Montreal. One hundred and forty-four miles to the east though, Quebec remained unconquered. A small force under Arnold had marched north through Maine to reach the St. Lawrence. An exhausted and diminished group of rebels ascended to the Plains of Abraham on Nov. 12 by the same route Wolfe had a decade-and-a-half earlier. They were reinforced by the conquerors of Montreal, but were less than 1,000 men. They were beset by smallpox and the Canadian winter, while the British were securely and comfortably defending their fortifications. The attack on the 31st of December failed within minutes and the year ended with Quebec secure in the crown's hands.

                                               The winter saw Boston besieged, with the British virtually starving and the colonists living off the fat of the land. In March, Washington maneuvered artillery to Dorchester Heights forcing Howe to plan the abandonment of the city. Loyalist families, dependents and the British army sailed for Halifax. The siege had been 333 days. The empire did not have a single port under its control from Canada to Florida. Washington turned his army south to New York where it was universally assumed the British would head next.

                                               "Despite uncertainty over whether Quebec had fallen, London worked tirelessly to assemble a rescue expedition of nine regiments that would not only liberate Canada but provide the firepower to invade New York down the Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor". In early May 1776, reinforcements arrived in Quebec. The desultory rebel siege of Quebec was  lifted and the forces at Montreal were soon retreating south. The only positive was that the British plan to invade New York from Canada had been delayed.   

                                                As expected, on June 29, 1776, over one hundred British ships appeared off Sandy Hook. Howe heavily outnumbered the defenders and had available superior water transport to whatever part of NY he wished to attack. Reinforcements kept arriving and by August, there were 387 British ships in the approaches to NY .  Before noon on Aug. 22nd, Howe landed over 15,000 men on the Brooklyn shore at Gravesend. The Battle of Long Island was the largest of the war and an outright rout of the Americans. Washington ordered Brooklyn evacuated, and under cover of darkness, ten thousand men were ferried to Manhattan. In mid-September, Howe brought thousands of men across the East River  and the Americans were soon in full retreat.

                                                The British went on the attack from Canada in early October when they descended the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain. The force of regulars, Hessians, loyalists and Indians totaled 8,000 men. The British had built a fleet to transport the men to Lake Champlain and the Americans had done the same, with the plan to engage them on the lake. Between Oct. 11 and 14, Arnold fought a retreating naval battle that managed to stop the British before they reached Ft. Ticonderoga.  The British had hoped to take Ticonderoga, and make it their winter headquarters and departure point for their spring campaign. Instead, they turned north and returned to Canada. They had won, but failed to achieve their objective. The same week, Howe moved against Washington who was sitting above Harlem Heights. A flanking movement up the East River forced 13,000 Continentals to head north to the next ridge at White Plains. Once again, Washington escaped from Howe, who had now missed two chances to end the war. Thirteen thousand British and Hessian troops attacked the Americans at White Plains.  After a day of hard fighting, the Americans moved away from their lines and Howe saw no reason to follow them north into the wilderness.  The British had left Ft. Washington in American hands and fell upon it from every side on Nov. 16. Late in the day, almost three-thousand men surrendered. The British treatment of American prisoners was horrid and within a year, two-thirds would be dead. "No American defeat in the first five years of the war would be more catastrophic, wrenching, or fatal".

                                                    "The New York campaign had ended, miserably, and New Jersey's miseries had begun. Washington and his generals had nearly lost the war several times in the last three months, through miscalculation, misfortune, imprudence, and deficient military skills."  The remnants of Washington's army fled south into New Jersey with Howe and Cornwallis in hot pursuit. In Philadelphia, members of Congress and many residents fled fearing a British attack, until it became apparent that they had stopped at New Brunswick and were deferring an offensive until the spring. Washington concluded that an offensive effort must be made and initiated his heroic crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night. The Americans completely surprised the Hessians at Trenton and carried the day. The resounding victory rejuvenated the American cause. Cornwallis counterattacked a week later and a violent second Battle of Trenton took place. Washington slipped from his grasp with a night march to Princeton in Cornwallis' rear. Again, the Americans triumphed  and marched north to Morristown, where they would winter. Cornwallis withdrew toward the coast. The British domination of New Jersey had been much briefer than anticipated. In a little over a week, the Americans had stopped the British, repulsed them and made the outcome of the war considerably less certain.

                                                        In the UK, there was anxiety and discontent about the war. For all of their success, his majesty's forces held NY and a small piece of Rhode Island. The invasion from Canada had been stopped. The rebels controlled all the territory between Albany and Savannah. The substantial  British naval forces in America could not stop the flow of material in and out of the states. Howe's management of the British effort was criticized by many, and some of his higher-ranking officers returned to England dismayed by his performance.  "The American army had not been proficient in any conventional sense. Yet an American way of war was emerging, one that stressed hit-and-run celerity, marksmanship, resilience, and sustainment from the broader population; as Washington intended, the army could claim deep emotional and moral ties to the nation it served".

                                                         I chose to read this book because I consider Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy a masterpiece. My knowledge of WWII, and my undying respect and affection for those who fought it likely has been part of my assessment. I have learned a great deal in this volume but still remain less than a fan of our War of Independence. The war was of immeasurable importance and provided the world with its first democracy steeped in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. But, the war consisted of hundreds of incredibly small-scale efforts fought between two sides with limited manpower, equipment, finances and resources. The Crown tried, but the distance and the weather impeded their supply lines. As for us, it sometimes is laughable how little the generals had to fight the war, and how often their men simply went home.  Nonetheless,  I will read the next two books in an attempt to better appreciate the era.

 











                                             

A Beautiful Blue Death, Finch - B -

                                                This delightful novel is set in 1865 in London and features Sir Charles Lenox. Charles is the proverbial second son, whose titled brother sits in Parliament while Charles is comfortably ensconced in Mayfair pursuing his intellectual curiosities. A maid of a friend is killed and Sir Charles runs an investigation parallel to that of the police. He is assisted in the investigation by his valet, Graham. Comparisons to Holmes are tempting, but Lenox is not nearly as fun and witty as the occupant of 221B Baker St. The attraction of this series is the depth and detail of the social and historical goings-on of the times. That said, it's not interesting enough for me to pursue the next book.

The Far Empty, Scott - B

                                               "The Big Bend of the Rio Grande was outlaw country. Always has been, always will be." This fabulous novel, by a former federal agent, has this wide open place as a central character. The Texas side of the Trans-Pecos is more than 31,000 square miles. Big Bend county "was 10,000 miles of pure emptiness."  It is the author's ability to evoke the vastness, danger and loneliness of this no-man's land in the drug wars that makes this a special story. In the emptiness was a fictional town dominated by a mean-spirited SOB of a sheriff who had his way with everyone, killed as he wished and was the center of a federal investigation. This is a great, fun read. Once again, thanks Wendell.

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story Of The Settlers Who Brought The American Ideal West, McCullough - B

                                                The Treaty of Paris awarded the new nation all that Britain claimed east of the Mississippi. The territories north and west of the Ohio that would become the Northwest Territory had not a single road or settlement in 1787. New England war veterans to whom vague promises of land in Ohio had been made formed the Ohio Company to buy land from Congress and negotiate the terms governing the territory. Representing the company was the Rev. Manasseh Cutler. That summer, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, establishing the governance structure for the future  states in the territory, emphasizing the importance of freedom of religion and public education, and selling a million and a half acres of land for millions of dollars to the Ohio Company. Slavery and involuntary servitude were prohibited. Led by Rufus Putnam, forty-eight pioneers set out for the Ohio from Massachusetts in late 1787. In western Pennsylvania, they built a small flotilla and set off on the Youghiogheny River. In April, they arrived at the junction of the Ohio and the Muskingum, where they began clearing the land. Others joined them and soon Marietta was growing all around them. The initial peace with the local Indians faded as more and more settlers crowded the area. In early 1791, fourteen settlers were massacred 30 miles north of Marietta. Putnam requested help from President Washington, and General St. Clair was tasked with insuring the safety of the colony. He led a rag-tag group of miscreants into northern Ohio. St. Clair was so plagued by gout that he was carried on a litter and had no idea what to expect.  On the morning of Nov. 4, hundreds of Indians attacked St. Clair's camp and routed the Americans, who were soon in a panicked desperate retreat.  St. Clair's Defeat was comparable to Braddock's decades earlier and included 623 dead. A year later, a better trained, equipped and led army crushed the Indians in Ohio. As the new century approached, the settlements in the valley increased and Marietta became a ship building center. In 1803, Ohio was admitted to the union and by 1810, would have almost a quarter of a million population. After the War of 1812, the Ohio River became the American highway to the west. The commitment to education in the Ordinance was fulfilled by the creation of Ohio University,  the establishment of public schools throughout the state and the founding of Marietta College. By the middle of the century, the men and women who had founded the first settlement in the Territory were gone. They had fulfilled the charter's commitment to freedom of religion when an RC church and a Jewish synagogue opened in Marietta in the 1850's, and had left behind a state that then had 2 million citizens.

Careless Love, Robinson - B +

                                               This is the latest (25th) featuring DCI Banks at the Eastvale constabulary. The book is perfect by almost every measure. There is a solid plot, wonderful pacing and a bit less of the old Alan Banks attitude.  There are two seemingly unrelated murders in Eastvale and a 3rd one in Leeds that leads to a cross-jurisdictional task force looking into all three. The connection is a young woman who makes 'introductions'. Well done as always.

How To Hide An Empire: A History Of The Greater United States, Immerwahr - B -

                                               This is the story of the Greater US that lived, and lives, beyond the lower 48, which the author refers to as the 'logo map'.  The territories have never really received much attention in the history books and are often thought of as foreign. Yet, they were part of our country. The Greater US peaked in WWII, at which point the US backed away from acquiring colonies and territories. Our power has since been exercised through the post-war rules that we wrote, and the 800 + overseas bases we use to project military power.
                                                The Constitution gives  Congress the power to make the laws that govern the territories of the US and to admit new states to the Union. The first such law was the Northwest Ordinance in 1794. It outlined the governance of the territory and stipulated  how a state could join the Union. For the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson opted to have the new and vast distances governed by the military. By the middle of the 19th century, settlers were pouring west and it became evident that the US would be a continental entity. The Indians, decimated to probably 10% of their original pre-Columbian population, were easily pushed aside.  The first time the US expanded overseas was prompted by a shortage of fertilizer for crops. We annexed 92 Pacific and Caribbean islands for their guano deposits. When the frontier closed in 1890, seeking out colonies from others became the objective of many. The most obvious target was the Spanish Empire and the loudest drum-banger was Teddy Roosevelt. Soon, the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico were American territories and Cuba was under American military occupation. Hawaii was annexed. They were all now part of America, but were their citizens Americans? The Supreme Court concluded they were subjects, not citizens. When the Filipinos learned they were to be subject to US military occupation, they began their war for independence. It would take Washington fourteen years to suppress the Filipinos, and it did it with extremes of violence and racial animosity. Puerto Rico welcomed the Yanquis with open arms and high hopes. When their expectation of statehood never materialized, they sought statehood or independence. Neither would come. The defining principle of governing the far-flung empire was always race. The new Americans were not white, and would never be treated as if they were. Enthusiasm for empire faded, particularly as the Depression wore down the US and the world. In 1936, the Philippines were granted a limited form of commonwealth on the road to freedom. The World War deferred freedom for the Filipinos, but sent massive amounts of money and G.I.'s to Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.
                                               By the end of the war, the US had over 2,000 overseas bases. There was discussion of America expanding, even admitting the Philippines and Japan as states. Instead, the US began to shed territories. The world's colonies were freed and the US led the way in the Philippines. The leash was loosened in the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. Hawaii and Alaska were slated for statehood, but both were considered non-white and in the US Senate, there was concern about "half-breeds". Truman was for statehood in 1948, but it would take over a decade for Congress to go along. Puerto Rico, overpopulated and very poor, seemed unable to decide whether it wished to be independent or a US state. Instead, it became a self-governing commonwealth that attracted significant mainland investment. It was apparent that colonization was no longer politically acceptable, and was no longer necessary to gain access to desired commodities. Rubber, for instance, the most important commodity needed to fight WWII could be made in a chemical lab. Advances in transportation and communication furthered the de-colonization trend. Today, the empire lives on in our extensive network of overseas bases.

The Lost Man, Harper - B +

                                                This astonishing novel is set in the Australian outback, which is probably the most compelling character in the book. To live there is to live in constant danger because the heat can and does kill quickly.  It is behind the death of Cameron Bright;  that is unless there was human intervention that made him walk away from his well-stocked Land Rover. The Brights had been running cattle out there for over forty years. Nathan, the oldest brother, was somewhat estranged and Bub, the youngest, was at best little or no help. Cameron's death threw the family into a crisis, and sorting out what happened brought Nathan back into the fold.

Educated: A Memoir, Westover - B

                                                There is no doubt about the courage and strength of will the author exhibited in her voyage from abject rural poverty in Idaho to BYU, to a Masters and a Doctorate at Cambridge and a fellowship at Harvard. The book has been universally praised. Nonetheless, it has not been an easy read  because of the horrible way her family treated her. It's difficult to imagine such verbal and physical abuse in what was purportedly a religious household. It's equally hard to understand how no one in America had standing to intervene in such a sordid tale. Tara did not even know her birthday when her mother got her a birth certificate at age nine. Her father was a deranged survivalist in southern Idaho, a Mormon extremist awaiting the end of days and the abomination the Illuminati would bring to the world. His children did not go to school or to doctors or dentists. He worked them in a scrapyard and nearly killed them in his safety be damned approach. Tara was operating a crane when she took the ACT's at 16. She was able to get into, and go to, BYU. She was overwhelmed by the noise, and was a complete babe-in-the-woods functioning in normal society. Nonetheless, she succeeded, graduated with honors and received a scholarship to Cambridge, England. In England, as in Provo, her life consisted of learning, growing and experiencing the world interspersed with trips home to revisit the surreal world of her family, where the violence and delusion continued. Her parents visited her at Harvard in an attempt to reconvert her to the righteous path. She was wiling to submit in order to earn back their love, but refused her father's  priesthood blessing.  She was shunned, returned to Cambridge and received her Doctorate. After a few attempts at reconciliation, she moved permanently away from her family and her history.

The Burglar, Perry - B

                                                Elle is a 24 year-old burglar in the pricier neighborhoods of LA. Her cover is that she is a runner and there is nothing out of place when she cases neighborhoods and houses as she is jogging by. One day she stumbles upon a naked menage-a-trois, each with a bullet in the head. She finds a camera and steals the recording. Unfortunately, the security company has cameras everywhere because the homeowner was a gallery owner and had many valuable paintings in his house. Soon, she is the prey. This fits the beach-read description to a tee. Great fun.

As Long As We Both Shall Live, Chaney - B

                                                Murder, mayhem and more murder, all from a woman's perspective. Marie can't stand Matt, who has often betrayed her, and eventually she does something about it. There's a fall from a cliff in a Colorado park, but is it Marie or Matt's new girlfriend, Riley? Who exactly planned it? Matt and Marie are a couple from hell and an absolute joy to read about. Great summer read - great whodunit.

The First Major: The Inside Story Of The 2016 Ryder Cup, Feinstein - B +

                                                Ryder Cup history changed in the late 20th century when the Europeans started to win and consistently pummelled the Americans. In 1977, Jack Nicklaus had suggested that continentals be added to the traditional British and Irish team because the competitive balance was out of whack. By the time the Euros charged back on Sunday after being down 10-6 at Medinah in 2012, it felt like America would never win again. The Americans had failed a captain they truly adored, Davis Love. Next, they would head to Scotland under a captain no one really knew. Everyone respected Tom Watson, but he was anywhere from 20-40 years older than his players and perceived as a bit old school. It didn't help that the senior member of the team, Phil Mickelson, had very strong opinions about the Cup, was certain that Watson was the wrong choice, and had not been quiet about it. The US lost convincingly and Mickelson took down Watson in the post-match press conference.  Phil had suggested that more player input was necessary and the PGA listened. They formed a task force, and the task force concluded that Davis Love should repeat as captain. The stage was set for Hazeltine.
                                              On Friday morning, on the back of the tee, was Arnie's bag from the 1975 Ryder Cup at Laurel Valley. The first group teed off at 7:35 a.m. By noon, the US was up 4-0. The Euros turned it around in the afternoon to make it 5-3 for the US. Ryder Cups are unique in the sport of golf because it is the only time a man who competes always on his own becomes part of a team. Working and playing together comes naturally to some and not so much to others. All of the players always describe it as the most difficult and stressful experiences of their careers. They literally shiver in the their shoes. Victory is inspiring; defeat totally demoralizing. The captains are under tremendous pressure because they have to prepare the team and make difficult decisions on Friday and Saturday. In each of the four sessions, only 8 of the teams 12 players actually play. Deciding who to pair with who, who to rest, who to switch and keeping everyone posted on his thinking is the hardest part of the captain's job. Winning puts you on a pedestal; losing places you in golf history's dustbin. Love and Darren Clarke were under the gun more than the players. The US was up 9 1/2-6 1/2 on Saturday night. They were half-a-point off Medinah, but felt ready to avenge their failure four years before.
                                               Sunday opened with each side's number ones McIlroy v. Reed. Each sunk birdie putts on number eight of over 25 feet and fist bumped to the roar of the crowd. Reed's birdie on 18 won one of the greatest Ryder Cup matches ever. Mickelson and Garcia halved a 19 birdie match. The final score was 17-11. That night, the Euros joined the Americans and drank into the wee hours. Recommended to all. Thanks again, Wendell.
                                           

Where The Crawdads Sing, Owen - B +

                                               I join everyone else in America praising and lauding this book. The life of Kya Clark, the 'Marsh Girl', involves abandonment by her family at six. She deals with the challenges of living alone,  utterly lonely, in a primitive state in the 1950's and 1960's in North Carolina's Great Dismal Swamp. The fact that she triumphs and we have a happy ending is a pure delight.

Bearskin, McLaughlin - B

                                                Last year, this book won the Edgar Award for a debut mystery novel.  Rice Moore is on the run from the Sinola cartel and has found a nice gig as a mountain topcaretaker in Virginia. He watches over some land in a preservation trust and can go weeks without talking to or seeing a soul. Unfortunately, poaching bears for body parts is an issue he faces, and one thing leading to another involves him with the local police. He knows the second his name is in the system, someone back in Arizona will find out where he is. He begins his preparations and is ready when the avenger shows up. Classic beach read material.

The Secret Lovers, McCarry - B +

                                                This is the third book by this author I've read this year. It was written in 1976 and is set in 1960-1961. It is a story about the operation to publish a smuggled Russian novel with the potential to rock the world.  I'm not certain if the author, named Kamensky, is based on Pasternak, or Solzhenitsyn, although I'm leaning toward Pasternak's. Because a German courier died smuggling out the book, all are concerned that the western services have been compromised and the mole hunt is on in full force.  The CIA tasks Paul Christopher to use his contacts in the Parisian White Russian community to have the novel published. Word leaks out and soon the Soviets are rolling up the courier network and Kamensky is dead. Christopher's life is further complicated by the fact that his one year old marriage is falling apart. The traitor turns out to be a long-term agency asset, an important part of the French resistance during the war, but who the KBG has been blackmailing since the Spanish Civil War.
                                                 For those inclined, these three are worth the effort, but not in the order published. I'd recommend they be read in the order of the timeframe they cover: Miernik, Lovers and Tears.

Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, Griswold - B +

                                                This book has just won the Pulitzer. Amity and Prosperity, PA lie just north of the West Virginia line, due south of Pittsburgh in Washington County. From 2005 to 2015, the fracking revolution prospered in southwestern PA.  It was not virgin territory for its lands and streams were laced with the detritus of a century of oil, gas and coal extraction residue. Fracking in PA has become a great political, Republican v. Democratic, rich v. poor, urban v. rural point of contention. This is the story of one family and the consequences of fracking on their lives.
                                                  Stacey Haney, a nurse at Washington Hospital, lived with her son, Harley, and her daughter, Paige. She owned eight acres of land near Amity and signed a lease with Range Resources in the waning days of 2008. Soon, hundreds of trucks passing each day wrecked the roads, and bridges, destroyed the house's foundation, and filled her house with dirt. In late 2009, a well on the next farm pumped over 3 million gallons of water and chemicals and 4 million clay pellets into the earth. Soon thereafter, her seventh grade son became seriously ill. A toxic pond of chemical sludge up on the rig site began to reek. Their pets began to die and Harley was diagnosed with arsenic poisoning.  Range  replaced their well water with trucked in potable water that made a major difference in all their lives. But they were far from healthy and Stacey began to worry about what they were breathing,  just 1,000 yards downwind from the sludge pond. She arranged for a series of extensive blood and urine tests. Among other toxins, they all had glycol in their bodies in alarming amounts.
                                                   In the spring of 2011, Stacey engaged a local Washington PA law firm and moved out of her house. She and Paige moved in with her parents in Amity. She had Harley stay with her boyfriend in Eighty-Four. He was so ill that the physician said he had to be beyond a
 10-mile radius of their home. Stacey's neighbor sued the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection to try to compel them to do their job and the attorneys began to prepare for the much larger job of suing Range Resources on behalf of a number of the locals. John and Kendra Smith, the husband and wife team representing the plaintiffs, were soon spending an extraordinary amount of time and effort on the case. As the Haney's all continued with varying and different ailments, the Smith's filed Haney v. Range in May, 2012. They cast a wide net, suing Range, the suppliers of every component in the process, water test labs, and individual executives. Concurrent with the Haney case was their writ of mandamus directed at the DEP and a lawsuit that successfully had most of a law passed to assist the drillers declared unconstitutional. The suit dragged on as the defendants relied on the time-honored corporate defense of wearing down the plaintiffs and their lawyers. In June of 2014, a chink in the defendant's armor appeared when the industry friendly DEP fined Range $4.15 million for five leaking waste ponds, one of which was the one next to the Haney's home. It proved to be the highpoint of the battle with Range. The grind went on and on and reached an undisclosed settlement in early 2018 that left the plaintiffs dejected.  Obviously, this is a well-written, excellent book, but one without the requisite positive ending. The deceit evidenced by the industry in this instance and the willingness of government to look away and do anything for jobs and tax revenue is quite discouraging.                                             
                                                 
                                               

Europe: A Natural History, Flannery - B-

                                               Europe is described as less a continent and more "an appendix-an island ringed peninsula projecting into the Atlantic from the western end of Eurasia". It emerged about 100 million years ago.  Salamanders, newts and toads, all of which still live in Europe, first appeared at this time. These amphibians survived the nuclear winter caused by the meteorite strike 65 million years ago that killed every creature on earth larger than a few kilograms. The shape of today's Europe emerged about 50 million years ago.  Around about 34 million years ago, Europe and North America were connected by a land bridge. The first songbirds entered the continent 25 million years ago. "By the end of the Miocene about five million years ago, mountain-building, dramatic drops in temperature and lowering sea levels had created a Europe that was topographically broadly similar to the Europe of today."  From 2.6 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago, ice dominated Europe.  It is believed that a slight variation in the Earth's orbit caused the changes. Sea levels were 120-150 meters below today's. Britain was connected to the continent. Permafrost extended as far south as Provence. Approximately 400,000 years ago, Neanderthals came to Europe. They later would exist side-by-side with modern humans, with whom they share 99.7% of their DNA. There were probably never more than 70,000 Neanderthals at any point in time, and by 39,000 years ago, they were gone. Although humans had existed in Africa for hundreds of thousands of years, homo sapiens came to Europe as the Neanderthal was passing, although there was an overlap and a sharing of genes. It is believed the hybrid human with as much as 6% Neanderthal DNA* dominated the continent until 14,000 years ago. The arrival of humans on the continent meant the extinction of all the Megafauna already there, including the wooly mammoth about 10,000 yeas ago. Thirteen-thousand years ago, the population of Europe is believed to have been 410,000 and would have expanded from there because of animal husbandry, agriculture and the stabilization of the climate, i.e. the end of the Ice Age. As the population expanded throughout the continent, humans caused the extinction of all large mammals, leaving only the bison and moose to survive (barely and with considerable help) to today. Over the centuries, Asians on horses and invaders from the steppes spread throughout Europe. In time, every patch of ground was under the suzerainty of mankind. With Europeans discovering the sea route to America and sailing into Asia, a new era was begun. They began their role as colonizers of the planet. The French philosopher Montaigne summed up the consequences, "So many godly cities ransacked; so many nations destroyed and made desolate; so infinite millions of harmless people of all sexes, states, and ages massacred, ravaged, and put to the sword; and the richest , the fairest, and the best part of the world topsy-turvied, ruined, and defaced for the traffic of pearls and pepper." After a millennium of war on the continent, post-WW2 Europe is a more tranquil place and one where native indigenous wildlife are returning. There are more bears and wolves in Europe than in America. Today's continent is focused on taking better care of itself, after centuries of industrialization.
                                               The book is well-written, but let's face, it's also very boring. For me, the Montaigne quote above has been worth the effort.




* today's percentage of  neanderthal DNA in the modern European is just over 2%

Warlight, Ondaatje - C

                                                Once again, the attraction of one of last year's notable books has eluded me.  This is a story told by a teenage, and then a decade or so older, man. His mother was a noted SOE agent during and after the war.  Abandoned and left with protectors, he and his sister live apparently aimless lives in London. His sister despises their mother; he idolizes her. After retiring, 'Viola' partially reconciles with her son and waits in the lonely English countryside for the revenge from the continent that she knows is coming. 

Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors From Augustus To Constantine, Strauss - B +

                                               My fascination for ancient Rome quickened in high school when four years of  Latin added the literature through which we know so much of its history. Rome, more or less and in one shape or another, survived as a continual entity for over two millenia. The author has chosen to write about the ten most important emperors at the height of the empire's majesty. It is the era after conquest and expansion when the great accomplishments and construction took place, when the Rome that we can still physically see was built and the foundations of European civilization were laid.
                                               Julius Caesar appointed as his successor and posthumously adopted Octavian, his young 19 year old great nephew. Facing the powerful Marc Antony, Octavian  defeated Antony in battle and then invited him to join in a sharing of power. When Antony left and collaborated with Cleopatra, the forces of Octavian prevailed in 32 BC, making him the most powerful person in the world. He ended decades of civil war and ushered in an era of peace and tranquility as Augustus. He ruled for another 45 years. Trade flourished and the Mediterranean world prospered during the Pax Romana. He spread power away from the city of Rome and around the empire. He 'globalized' the empire and took its culture to Britain and Iraq. He converted Rome from a city of bricks to one of marble. Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Livy became famous under his rule. In his last decade, he adopted his wife Livia's son from her first marriage, Tiberius. He died peacefully in bed in the year 14.
                                               Tiberius was a soldier handed a difficult political job and succeeding a newly proclaimed god. He maintained the monarchy he inherited, yet did so with a tyrannical touch. His most important contribution was to officially end the centuries of expansion. He had fought in central Europe for decades and knew there was no reward for crossing either the Rhine or the Danube. Nor did he wish to expand the army beyond the three hundred thousand men it took to defend the far flung borders.  Instead of expanding the empire, he managed it. He failed in selecting his successor as the infamous Caligula followed him to the throne in 37.
                                              We turn next to Nero, who was on the throne when the Great Fire destroyed most of the city in 64. He used the fire as an opportunity to dramatically rebuild the city, but is remembered as a sort of mad autocrat who was insecure, vain and a madman who ordered his own mother's death. He was a populist who provided the people with the finest entertainment and games in the long history of the empire but callously executed anyone who annoyed him. His debauched life and managerial incompetence led to a revolt against his rule. His suicide meant the end of rule by the noble house of Caesar.
                                               Vespasian "was the equal of the great generals of old in everything but his greed." Upon Nero's death, there was fighting on the borders and even within the empire. There was a scramble for power which Vespasian won as he founded a new dynasty. The spring board for success was his suppression of the revolt in Judea. It was commemorated by construction in Rome, the most magnificent of which was the Colosseum. He democratized the ruling of the empire by creating a true meritocracy not reliant on the blue bloods of the senatorial class. After Nero's extravagances, he restored the empire's finances. He was a soldier-statesman who succeeded as emperor. He died in 69.
                                              Trajan was neither royal nor  Italian, but a shrewdly political general who became emperor in 98. He spent half of his time as emperor in the field with the army fighting and defending the borders. His greatest successes were in Dacia, modern Romania. It took a third of the army, 100,000 men, to succeed in the rough terrain, and the campaign captured 360,000 pounds of gold and three times as much silver. He was the only emperor to expand  boundaries and he used the booty to entertain the people and the senate and to build in the center of Rome. Peace and prosperity followed for decades. Some scholars believe that the 2nd century achieved a GDP that was not matched until the 17th century in the Netherlands.The climate was perfect and it is believed the population peaked somewhere between 50 and 70 million. The empire stretched from London to Beirut. Trajan died while campaigning in the middle east. He was the first emperor to die outside of Rome and did so without naming an heir.
                                               He was succeeded by his cousin Hadrian, known as the Greek and to history as the most travelled emperor ever. From Britain to Syria and everywhere in between, he went on horseback or by ship. He was charming, brilliant, a successful campaigner, and a firm believer in consolidating the empire, building up its finances and avoiding war. He focused on the east where he believed the future of the empire rested. He established and often built up a fixed defensive border. Although flawed, he left "the empire peaceful, prosperous and more open" and at its historical peak.
                                               Marcus Aurelius is known as the philosopher and his book, 'Meditations', is still widely read. To the extent western culture idealizes the philosopher-king, it is Aurelius who epitomized its ideals. He was committed to justice and goodness, steered clear of cruelty and sought compromise. "He made duty his lodestar." His strength of character was a necessity as the empire was attacked on all sides and suffered a major epidemic.
                                               Septimius Severus assumed the throne in 197, after a four year civil war. He was from Africa and founded a dynasty based in the middle east. "The House of Severus was the Roman army, and the army was the house of Severus." Like those before him, he succeeded at war and built temples and arches at home. He died campaigning against the Scots, and his son, Caracalla, followed him. Caracalla campaigned far and wide and is known for adopting a law in 212 that extended Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire. He was assassinated in 217.  Severus Alexander continued the dynasty as an emperor-soldier to 235, when he was assassinated. "Violence began to spiral out of control in Severan Rome."
                                              I have long been troubled by the perpetual violence that haunted regime change in Rome that now became constant war, thus making the political failures overwhelmingly more the story than the glory of Rome. Diocletian, a career soldier and the only emperor to abdicate, grew up an impoverished resident of the Balkans. He ruled for twenty-one years, ending the crisis of the third century wherein twenty men ruled in the fifty years preceding his ascension and the empire was attacked on all fronts.  Rome had almost collapsed. Diocletian established the foundation for the future of the empire. "He reorganized the Roman Empire and, in a real sense saved it." He was proclaimed emperor in 284 by fellow soldiers on an eastern campaign. He added a co-emperor in the west, while he stayed in the more prosperous east. Each man was seconded by a Caesar and all four, all poor soldiers from the Balkans, ruled the empire in harmony. After their battles were won and they turned to the management of the empire, they decided to punish non-Roman religions, turning against the Manicheans and the Christians, who were particularly persecuted for a decade.  He retired in 305 to his homeland in present day Croatia. He had had more impact on the empire than anyone since Augustus. The east-west division was established and Rome was no longer the center of the universe. "In retrospect, the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine amounted to one common enterprise to reform and thus save Rome."
                                                Constantine's conversion to Christianity "changed the world." "He was a soldier, a statesman, a builder, ruthless, single-minded, ambitious, power hungry, brilliant, subtle, spiritual, violent, an administrator, a public relations genius, and a visionary. Constantine was one of history's great success stories." He prevailed in the west, but only after years of fighting. After his victory at the Milvian Bridge outside of Rome in 312, he announced he was a Christian and began the slow process of converting the empire as well. It took another decade for him to defeat his eastern counterpart and reign supreme. He closed pagan temples, confiscated their wealth and built churches. He elevated the status of bishops, made divorce more difficult, abolished crucifixion and made Sunday the sabbath. He concluded that the empire required an eastern capital and built Constantinople on the site of Byzantium.  He died in 337. By the end of the century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
                                                 The success of Rome, particularly the acknowledgement here that it probably took 1500 years to equal the quality of life in the second century, has always fascinated me. When you combine that, with the longevity of at least the name Rome for over two thousand years as a political entity, you have one of our great histories, and one worth returning to.
                   


                                             







             

Only To Sleep, Osborne - B

                                                This is a delightful diversion set in 1988 and featuring a retired 72 year-old Phillip Marlowe. Pacific Mutual calls the Baja resident out of retirement to check on the veracity of a life insurance claim. He traipses all over Mexico, drinks too much, bemoans old age, oozes cynicism and concludes that there has been fraud and multiple murders committed.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster, Higginbotham - A*

                                                 This magnificent book tells the epic horror story of the Chernobyl disaster that began in Reactor Number Four near midnight on April 25, 1986.  In 1970, thirty-three year old Soviet engineer Viktor Brukhanov, was tasked with building the world's largest nuclear power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine.  Fifteen years later, he was in charge of four 1,000 megawatt reactors and thousands of workers. There was a hospital, fifteen kindergartens, a cinema, beauty parlor, yacht club and fully stocked stores in the town of Pripyat, that supported the station. The reactors had been built during what came to be known as the Era of Stagnation, and corners had been cut. The quality of the staffing had materially declined from the early days. The Chief Engineer was taking courses in nuclear power through a correspondence course. Nonetheless, Chernobyl was the pride of the USSR. Brukhanov was slated to receive the Order of Lenin on May 1, 1986.
                                               To control a nuclear reaction, create electricity and not trigger an explosion, there must be control rods, neutron moderators and a coolant to remove excess heat. Graphite/water coolant systems were the oldest, easiest, cheapest, and the default in the Soviet system. Nuclear programs derived from military projects adopted ultra-secrecy as a fundamental policy. This was true in the west but more so in the USSR. The USSR's paranoid commitment to secrecy meant that when scientists discovered design flaws in the reactors, no one was told and no steps were taken to fix the mistakes of the past. It meant sweeping matters under the rug, even when 14 men were boiled to death in one night at a plant in Balakovo, Russia.
                                                 Number Four had gone on line in 1983 without its final safety inspection, as the goal of finishing on time was more important than the required tests. Delay after delay meant that the deferred safety test finally would happen the 25th of April three years later. In order to satisfy electricity demand in the Kiev region, the test was pushed off until late in the night. The engineers began to "power down" the reactor, a step was missed and at 28 minutes after midnight, the unit powered down too quickly to 1% of its thermal capacity. Rods were pulled up and and power restored, but the coolant system was overwhelmed. The reactor was then properly shut down. Overheating led to a power surge, and within seconds, the system was at 100 times thermal capacity. Temperatures of 3000 degrees centigrade melted the protective shields, the building began to shake and at 1:24 AM, an explosion equal to 60 tons of TNT blew the reactor and its housing apart. What was left of an unshielded nuclear reactor lay exposed to the atmosphere.
                                                  The para-military firefighters stationed just outside the plant and first responders as far away as Kiev rushed to the scene. The operators attempted to put out fires and tirelessly worked to assure that the burgeoning disaster did not spread to the other three reactors. Even while those at Number Four began to fall from astronomical doses of radiation, Brukhanov and other managers failed to order an evacuation of Pripyat and its 50,000 residents because they did not believe a meltdown could occur. By the morning, the visible fires were out but the reactor was gone. "In its place was a simmering volcano of uranium fuel and graphite - a radioactive blaze that would prove all but impossible to extinguish."
                                                 Within the Soviet system, a General Radiation Alert was the maximum possible emergency, and in response, the system reacted quickly and according to plan. Specialists from around the country were mobilized to go to Chernobyl. Unfortunately, Soviet politics slowed down the decision to evacuate Pripyat. Saturday evening saw a second explosion as the core of Number Four exposed to the air turned a ruby red and sent white geysers into the night sky. The evacuation of the seriously injured and the atomgrad of Pripyat began on Sunday. Helicopter pilots began circling the reactor, hovering over it as it emitted deadly doses of radiation while soldiers dropped bags of clay, sand, lead, dolomite and boron to stop the spread of a modern nuclear nightmare.
                                                 Twenty million curies of radioactivity were alight and spreading northwest toward Scandinavia. That began to set off alarms on Sunday in Sweden. Although there was a 26 word admission of an accident announced on Monday, the USSR, notwithstanding the new era of glasnost, went into full secrecy mode.  A week into the containment effort, 4600 tons had been dropped on Reactor Four,  the radiation levels had not abated. Effort after effort, innumerable committees, heroic pilots, civil defensemen, firefighters, literally anyone who could be mobilized was thrown at the Reactor and nothing improved. The government was concerned about poisoning and evacuating the entire western half of the USSR. People began to flee Kiev. On May 8th, the water under the reactor was drained away, thus eliminating the potential of a steam explosion. Nonetheless, the fear of the reactor boring down into the earth, the hypothetical China syndrome, remained  the number one concern. At the Moscow hospital where the worst had been taken, the deaths began on May 10th.  The temperatures in Number Four were coming down, and in late May, the country began to plan to build a sarcophagus over the reactor. "By the beginning of June, the thirty-kilometer exclusion zone had become had become a radioactive battlefield encircled by a besieging army." A fifth of Kiev's population, including 363,000 children, were evacuated to the east in June.
                                             The Soviet state was quick to investigate the calamity and equally quick to assess blame. Those in high places responsible for the design of the reactors were dismissed from their jobs, all planned future reactors were cancelled, and directions were given for the modification of any reactors in service. Most of the blame was heaped on the operators, many of whom were already dead, and Viktor Brukhanov was relieved of his job and party card. Before the sarcophagus over Four could be closed, the highly radioactive debris that had been blown onto the roof of Three had to be removed. Helicopters and robots had failed. The only solution was to order men up there to sweep the waste into Four. Over three thousand men participated and accomplished the task. The general overseeing it from too proximate a location collapsed after completion. Nonetheless, Reactor One* was turned on and nuclear generated electricity flowed into the system. On Nov. 30th, Reactor Number Four was officially sealed off.
                                             In September, the official and final bodycount was announced at 31. Throughout the fall, almost 30,000 people were allowed back into Pripyat to recover personal belongings. In one of the final show trials in the USSR's long history, Brukhanov and five colleagues were tried and convicted. Penalties ran from two years in prison to ten in a penal colony. Amazingly, by the end of 1987, Reactors One, Two and Three were back up and running. And, the reactionary managers of the decaying empire continued to deny, denigrate, dismiss and blame the west for the ongoing political and economic fallout occasioned by the USSR's seventy years of incompetence and deceit. The state staggered to its knees and soon collapsed.  Over half-a-million men and women were officially designated as 'liquidators' for their role in the cleanup, and like the veterans of the The Great Patriotic War, promised lifetime medical attention. It was never provided and tens of thousands died in middle age. Around the world, nuclear projects were abandoned.
                                              Thirty years later, the exclusion zone had been reconquered by nature and had been stripped of anything of value by looters. A skeleton work force still monitors the facilities. For years after the accident, scientists explored the sarcophagus in an effort to find out what had happened and where the uranium was. They eventually concluded that the combination of materials in Number Four formed a hideous lava that came within feet of penetrating the floor of the building and entering the earth. Eventually, an international commission spread the blame for the fiasco well beyond some of the operators' mistakes and added the design of the plant and the dishonest system that pushed middle management to meet absurd goals and cut corners. By 2004, Ukraine and Belarus expanded the exclusion zone to 4,700 square kilometers. The consequences throughout Europe have been severe, with some meat and dairy products still not fit for consumption today. Because there is no one in the zone to hunt, it has become a sort of sanctuary and wildlife refuge where species prosper, and in many cases, have robustly survived the experience. Notwithstanding Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power is increasingly viewed as a viable alternative to fossil fuels and is being aggressively researched in the US and China. Financed by the European Bank of Construction and Development, the New Safe Confinement enclosed Reactor Four last year in the hope of keeping the area safe for a hundred years.
                                             Within the last month, I read an op-ed in the NYTimes extolling nuclear powered electricity as the answer to climate change. I understand that some of the minerals being researched have half-lives in the hundreds of years. But when uranium and plutonium have half-lives in the tens of thousands of years, I personally have little faith in our species' ability to safely marshal these materials for hundreds of more years, if ever.


*All three reactors were eventually put back in service, but closed down permanently by Ukraine in 2000                                           
                                             

The Miernik Dossier, McCarry - B +

                                                This is the actual first novel published by the author I recently discovered and posted about earlier this month. This one is absolutely great, and now I understand the references to LeCarre. There is so much duplicity that it's hard to follow the story. The book is in  a dossier format; it's a transcript being reviewed by the Committee consisting of reports by an American agent as well as  inputs from the British, Soviet, French,  and Sudanese agencies that partook in the attempt to subvert the efforts of the Anointed Liberation Front. It is set in 1959, and for those who believe history rhymes or repeats itself, here is the proof. We, of course, have our fingers everywhere. The British and French are interested, but peripheral, and the Russians are hip deep in sponsoring the bad guys. The scene is the Sudan; the story feels like it is from today's news, not  from sixty years ago. I suspect I will read more of McCarry's offerings.

The Merchant of Power: Sam Insull, Thomas Edison and The Creation of the Modern Metropolis, Chasik - B

                                             
                                                This book tells the story of Samuel Insull "the premier financier-entrepreneur of his time". He was one of the richest and most powerful men in America in the 1920's and his fall from  grace was so extreme that he died an outcast in Paris in 1938. It is also a vivid reminder of how quickly the world changed in the three or four decades preceding WWI, when a world lit by fire was introduced to electricity and the great cities of the world blossomed with the majestic skylines we know today.
                                                In 1881, the young Englishman went to work in NY as secretary to Thomas Edison. He had previously worked in Edison's London office. Edison's goal was to build a power plant at Pearl St. to electrify lower Manhattan. A year later, 400 bulbs would bring light to the financial district. Edison's businesses were far-flung, disorganized and uncoordinated. Insull became their CFO, responsible for raising capital and cutting costs. The companies produced and sold power, manufactured light bulbs, wired the buildings, and built the transmission infrastructure. Soon, Edison had 300 plants around the country. Edison utilized DC which was capable of transmitting power for only a few blocks. George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla fostered AC, which by the end of the century could transmit electricity 100 miles. Edison's visions were doomed for failure. As Edison's businesses floundered, JP Morgan consolidated and refinanced them when he incorporated General Electric in 1892. The Wizard took a 14% share and retreated to his labs. Insull did not wish to work for Morgan's team, moved to Chicago and became the CEO of Chicago Edison. It was one of many small energy producers in the fastest growing city in the world. Soon, he built it into Commonwealth Edison by providing power to the city's elevated subway system, the 'L'. Electrified railways, owned and supplied by Insull, were running throughout the city and deep into the suburbs. The best known were the South and North Shore Lines. They created Chicago's suburbs and Insull built beautiful train stations in each town for his commuters. Insull's empire moved just about everyone who worked in Chicagoland and then built beaches for them to travel to on summer weekends. His companies were enlightened providers of pay and benefits well ahead of their time. There were turkeys at Christmas, work for the coloreds pouring into the north, jobs for the returning WWI vets, pensions, and educational subsidies. He sold electrical appliances to household customers. In 1925, Commonwealth Edison sold appliances that added $1.4 million to their sales income. Irons, hair curlers, electric heaters, radiators and coffeepots were the top sellers. Chicago had the highest per-capita electrical usage in the world.
                                                   In order to fend off a potential greenmail attack on his companies, Insull set up a leveraged holding company that increased significantly in value in the late 20's. Insull rid himself of Cyrus Eaton of Cleveland by paying the greenmail at the top of the market. He lived by an impeccable set of rules, never paid a bribe in Chicago and never touted his stocks. He personally guaranteed the loans for Chicago's new Civic Opera House, which opened 11 days after the market crash in 1929.  As the market swooned, Insull kept buying stock in order to continue to avoid losing control of his companies. He made a second deal with Eaton that left his companies low on cash and heavily in debt. Overly leveraged, but still running profitable companies, Insull's companies were put into receivership and he was asked to resign. He was financially impoverished and lurking on the horizon were the potential consequences of encouraging thousands of his employees and customers to buy the shares of Commonwealth Edison, People's Gas and his other companies. "With more than 600,000 people sitting on worthless stock, surely some legerdemain was involved. Insull, and his brokers, and bankers and directors would be called to account." Insull fled to Paris and on to Athens, while at home he became public enemy #1 as FDR made the utilities the bane of democracy and Insull the chief robber baron. The administration was able to bring him home and he faced a federal trial in Chicago in the same courtroom and before the same judge who had tried Al Capone. The incredibly complex trial took a month-and-a-half. The transcript alone was 9,500 pages. After a 54 day sequestration, the jurors found for all of the defendants in a matter of minutes. Everything that he and his wife owned was auctioned off at the Lyric Opera building he had built. They returned to Paris penniless. He had a heart attack entering the Metro and was buried in London.
                                                      This is a brief well-written and good book. The author is certainly sympathetic to Sam Insull, whose accomplishments were extraordinary. My conclusion, without any further research, is that he was enlightened for the era and succumbed to hubris when disaster struck in the Depression. Thanks Lauren for the gift of the book.
                                       

Tears of Autumn, McCarry - B

                                               This novel was written in the mid-70's and came to my attention in a NYTimes obit about the author. He was a former CIA agent turned writer referred to as the American Le Carre and I'd never heard of him. I do not think the praise should be heaped that high, but he wrote here a fun diversion, as any exploration of the world of the 60's seems at this long remove. Paul Christopher, an agent with a cover as a writer, believes the Vietnamese were behind the JFK assassination. It was simple payback for the killing of the Diems. He travels the world to Vietnam, Europe and Africa confirming his thesis that they enlisted the Cubans to find the unwitting and dim witted killer. Throw in the mob taking care of Jack Ruby to close the circle. As mentioned above, it stretches the mind to return to the world of the Diems, Soviets, and all African revolutionaries of the era.

The Fifth Risk, Lewis - C +

                                                This superbly written, brief book is an overview of the abysmal consequences of the Trump team's total failure to transition and manage three relatively low profile federal departments. The fifth risk of the title is 'project management', which is a widespread fear of many former managers occasioned by the incompetence and neglect of the current administration. The Bush administration prepared for and handed off their responsibilities with the utmost professionalism. The Obama administration did the same, but realized there was no one to hand off to in 2017.  Chris Christie was in charge of the transition when Trump called him in and screamed that he "wanted his fucking money" back and not wasted on transition planning. Christie's efforts were to no avail because he was fired the day after the election. When he asked Bannon why, he was told Jared. After all, Christie had put Jared's father in jail a decade earlier. The entire transition team was fired. Bannon's reaction was, "Holy fuck, this guy doesn't know anything. And, he doesn't give a shit."
                                               Both the previous two administrations sent 30-40 prepared professionals to each department the day after the election. At the Department of Energy, no one showed up for over a month. All of the top managers left on January 20th without talking to anyone on the Trump team.  The outgoing DOE Secretary was a nuclear physicist. The incoming Secretary, Rick Perry, did not know what the department did and was characterized by Trump as someone "who should be forced to take an IQ test." Most people believe the department has something to do with oil and gas, but it really is about nuclear energy. It manages the three labs, Sandia, Livermore and Los Alamos,  that are responsible for our nuclear arsenal. It works on overseas nuclear non-proliferation and on the clean up of nuclear waste in the US. It is currently trying to clean up Hanford in Washington, where two-thirds of all our plutonium was manufactured. In essence, the department deals with some of the most consequential risks the nation faces. Lewis interviewed the top 20 managers in the department and if they had been replaced, it was by someone totally unqualified, one example of whom was Eric Trump's brother-in-law.  At the Dept. of Agriculture, the story repeated itself with unknowing, young critics showing up a month after the election. Two high level appointments were a country club cabana attendant and the owner of a scented candle company.  Wilbur Ross, the new head at Commerce, was one of only three people in history to ever deceive Forbes about getting on their 400 richest list. Most people wanted to avoid it like the plague.The other two were a Saudi prince and of course,  Donald Trump. The department is mislabeled, and according to a former higher up there, it should be called Technology and Science. NOAA takes up 60% of its budget.  The man put in charge of NOAA was the former CEO of Accu Weather, the company that packaged NOAA's free weather information and charged for it. Even though NOAA  pioneered weather forecasting and is considered the best in the world, he had lobbied for it to stop dealing with the public.
                                               I'm afraid this simply is not up to the usual standards of Michael Lewis. It feels like it was haphazardly put together, and apparently it was. There are two Vanity Fair articles here along with an audiobook original.
                                               

Stalker, Kepler - B +

                                               Once again, the Swedish couple who write under the pen name of Lars Kepler have delivered another Joona Linna page turner. Stalking leads to a spree of killings and a city wide effort to find and stop a serial killer. The killer films the victims from outside their windows and later uploads and sends the film to the police as the killer enters each victim's home. Absolutely no clues emerge until a psychiatrist notices the similarities to a nine year old murder. The twists, turns, afrantic chase and a flat-out crazy surprise leads to an intriguing read. If you can handle some over the top plots and violence, this is a series worth pursuing.

Holy Ghost, Sandford - C-

                                                Notwithstanding the author's superb and prolific record as a writer, this story did not work for me. It just felt dragged out. Three friends in a dying small Minnesota town create a Marian apparition at the local RC church that propels Wheatfield  onto the national stage. The tourists restore the town's economy until someone starts shooting at them. There are some fun insights into rural life in southern Minnesota, but not enough to sustain an entire book.

Rise And Kill First: The Secret History Of Israel's Targeted Assassinations, Bergman - B-

                                               If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.
                                                    The Babylonian Talmud

                                               "Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the western world." Stemming from the revolutionary roots of the Zionist movement, the horror of the Holocaust, and Arab animosity, Israel has felt alone in a dangerous world and comfortably reliant on targeted assassinations. The early Zionists were not reluctant to defend the pioneer settlers and they established a defense force known as the Haganah in the early 20's. They took on an aggressive posture, assassinating British officers during WWII. The Jews knew that they could rely on only themselves. In Palestine, they adopted assassination, guerilla warfare, and terrorism as tools to establish and defend the state.
                                               When Israel was established, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion set up the security forces - the Shin Bet for internal matters and the Mossad for foreign - as off the books, and beyond the reach of Parliament. They reported to him alone. Taking clandestine operations against any opponent at any level became part of the strategy of the state. In the 1950's, fedayeen sponsored by Egypt and Jordan wreaked havoc in Israel. The response was the establishment of a highly trained group under Ariel Sharon that responded and did so effectively and violently. As the intrusions continued, two high up Egyptian officers were targeted and killed in 1956. A few years later, The Mossad earned international admiration for finding and kidnapping Eichmann in Argentina. When Egypt's 'Germans' built a missile system, Mossad kidnapped and killed the lead scientist. They then proceeded to totally undermine the missile effort by subterfuge. Mossad continued to build and strengthen.
                                               In the late 1950's, two Palestinians, Yasser Arafat and Abu Jihad, formed an organization they called Fatah (later commonly referred to as the PLO) with the purpose of waging terror against the Israeli state. By the mid-60's, they were behind dozens, sometimes  hundreds, acts of violence against Israel and its citizens every year. The Israeli victory in the Six Day War did not change the dynamic of Fatah's mission or methods. They now operated in the expanded Israel behind the lines and continued to wage aggressive guerrilla war. Palestine now had a leader, and one increasingly recognized around the world. Gaza was a source of consistent PLO violence. Shin Bet teamed with the IDF and between 1968 and 1972 neutralized the PLO. Israel was now utilizing extra-judicial assassination on its own soil.  In 1968, the PLO hijacked its first plane and created a new, effective method of terrorism. Four years later, they killed  Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. The response from Mossad was immediate. They killed the PLO leader in Rome a month later. Within a year, they had killed 14 people they believed were part of the Olympic slaughter. Mossad teamed with the IDF for the first time in 1973 when they took out three of the top five leaders of the PLO in a coordinated action in Beirut. The war between Israel and the PLO continued to escalate year in and year out. The Israelis successfully stopped the PLO hijacking of a plane in Uganda with the famous Entebbe Raid. Throughout the late 70's and into the 80's the war escalated in southern Lebanon until the IDF invaded the country in 1982 and surrounded Beirut. Under pressure from the US, Israel allowed Arafat to leave Beirut and go to Tunis.  The invasion and occupation of Lebanon was a strain for the Israeli security services to such a degree that Shin Bet leadership broke every conceivable law in a cover-up of murders,  the senior leadership was removed.
                                            In 1987, the spontaneous eruption against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza that became known as the Intifada forever changed the dynamics of the Israeli - Arab struggle. Israel was no longer the David to the Arab's Goliath. The Israeli's were now the Goliath crushing the peoples of the occupied territories. Long years of arbitrary military rule and encroachment on Arab land sparked the revolt. The Israelis did not view it as an organic revolt, but as another PLO operation, particularly after Arafat claimed to have given the order for it. The Mossad and IDF were able to assassinate Abu Jihad, the PLO's number two, in Tunis, over twenty years after his assassination had been approved by Golda Meir. Soon thereafter and although both sides kept up their attempts to kill each other and the Intifada raged on, diplomatic discussions opened up in Oslo. The Oslo Accords saw the PLO and Israel recognize each other and turn the management of the occupied territories over to the Palestinian Authority.
                                             Iraq joined the list of nations that swore to destroy Israel when Saddam Hussein gained control in the 1970's. With French assistance, he began a nuclear power development program and almost immediately, his scientists began getting killed when they traveled to Europe or Egypt. Nonetheless, the Iraqis made progress and Israel began to consider bombing the Osirak reactor. In June of 1975, Israeli planes flew 600 miles to Osirak and obliterated Hussein's ambitions. He redoubled his efforts. Another nation committed to Israel's destruction rose out of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Iran sponsored Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon, and Hezbollah introduced the technique of the suicide bomb. The Israeli's invented and put to work the first drones to observe and, eventually, kill with. The endless circle of violence and retaliation continued.
                                            A second Intifada began around the turn of the century when the Arabs relentlessly tore Israel apart with suicide bombings. On and on the war of attrition, the murderous merry-go-round continued. In 2002, Israel decided to wipe out every leader of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Israelis successfully dismantled the leadership and soon thereafter, Arafat died of natural causes.  To the north, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran created what the Israeli intelligence community called the Radical Alliance.  The IDF invaded southern Lebanon but once again, failed. Hamas turned on Fatah and completely controlled Gaza. Iran was pouring money into Gaza, Hezbollah and Syria. Strategically, Israel was as threatened as it ever had been. In 2007, Mossad learned that Syria had been working on a nuclear reactor they had purchased from N. Korea six years earlier with Iranian money. Israel destroyed the facility a few months later, but did not publicize it. A joint US/Israeli action killed the number two man at Hezbollah and an IDF sniper team killed the number one general in Syria. The allies worked on stuxnet, the computer virus that destabilized Iranian centrifuges and Israel began killing Iranian scientists.
                                           The book closes with the details of a battle between the head of the Mossad and the PM. Meir Dugan quit his job because he believed Bibi Netanyahu has forsaken the Zionist dream of a Jewish democracy in the desert and replaced it with a right wing suppression of millions of Arabs in a country in which Jews would be a minority.
                                          The ending of this ridiculously long book is quite inadequate because it brings  this philosophical divide to the table in the last two pages without any preliminaries and leaves the reader hanging about the status of strategic affairs in general.  The one conclusion you come to is that the last seven decades of endless fighting is pointless.  But, the problems are  apparently incapable of resolution. Each side seems as intractable as they did in 1947.
                                           
                                             
                                             

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into The Business Of Punishment, Bauer - B +

                                                The author applied, and went to work in Louisiana as a guard for the Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison company. This, even though he had spent two years and four months in solitary a decade earlier in an Iranian prison. He ties in today's prison profit motive with slavery to make the point that incarcerating people has always been about money. Indeed, before the Civil War, seven of the eight wealthiest states in the Union were in the south. The 13th amendment prohibition against involuntary servitude or slavery states "except as punishment for a crime", thus allowing over a century and a half of prison populations in the south picking cotton, while being called nigger and subject to physical abuse.  The tradition, thoughh goes back much further in American history. A fourth of 18th century British migrants to America were convicts transported to work in the new world. In the 19th century, most states established penitentiaries and prison labor was contracted out for profit. The Louisiana convict leasing system that flourished after the Civil War had an annual death rate of 20%, only slightly below the Siberian Gulag of the 1940's. In neighboring Alabama, the majority of the men in the coal mines and steel mills were convict labor. The conditions were horrific, but the 19% mortality rate was blamed on "the debased moral condition of the negro whose systems are poisoned beyond  medical aid  by the loathsome diseases incident to the unrestrained indulgence of lust now that they are deprived of the control and care of a master."  Texas decided to run their own businesses and by the early 20th century, owned a dozen prison plantations. The last two states to use prisoner leasing were Alabama and Florida.  Prisoner leasing was followed by a new system of abuse, one necessary to improve roads in the 20th century, the chain gang. By the early 20's, 88% of Georgia's prisoners were in chain gangs. State and federal officials reported that outdoor work was good for the physical well being of the convicts and improved their character. Until the 1970's, the southern states used inmates as much as possible to supervise the other prisoners because they were free labor. The private prison system was next in a long line of abusive treatment and an attempt to hold costs down.

This book is simply shocking. I knew nothing about the institutionalizing of Jim Crow in the prison system. The brutality and harshness of it is appalling. The chapters on the author's experience are not quite as surprising and more or less what I expected.  Mixing criminals, many of them violent, with  $9 per hour guards is not a recipe for a constructive exchange. The most striking thing about CCA is that it is a for profit entity focused exclusively on making ends meet, and the place where they scrimp the most is health care. CCA is paid $34 per day per prisoner and any hospital time is profit crushing. There are innumerable examples given of the denial of medical treatment that is criminal, including two stories of pregnant woman being treated so indifferently that their infants died. After the publication of an article by the author in Mother Jones, he was threatened by CCA, but was never sued. The DOJ interviewed him as they were preparing for and dropping CCA from managing any federal prisons.  CCA has rebranded itself as Core Civic and substantially increased its federal business under Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions.  Thurgood Marshall, Jr. is on the Board of Directors.  This book is certainly not an advertisement for privatizing anything. Thanks DG for the loan of another good read.

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets First Year : Breslin - B -

                                                In the introduction, Bill Veeck says "Jimmy Breslin has written a history of the Mets, preserving for all time a remarkable tale of ineptitude, mediocrity and abject failure."                             
                                               "The Mets is a very good thing. They give everybody a job. Just like the WPA."             Billy Loes, the only pitcher in the history of baseball to be defeated in a World Series game because he lost a ground ball in the sun.

                                                Ebbets Field had  had a sign that said "Hit sign and win a suit".  The Polo Grounds, in 1962, had two signs offering the award of a boat at the end of the season. Marvelous Marv Throneberry, the Mets first baseman from landlocked Tennessee, won the prize and was advised by the League that he had to pay income taxes on the value of the boat. During the season when Marv hit a triple, and was called out, it was because he had missed both first and second base. The man considered the epitome of the team's failure had a boat he didn't need, and not the money to pay the taxes on it.
                                                Soon after the Dodgers and Giants left town, Mayor Wagner called attorney Bill Shea and asked him to start an effort to bring a NL team to town. After taking a run at the Reds, Pirates and Phillies, he decided expansion was the route. The Mets and Houston were to be the 9th and 10th teams in the league.  Joan Whitney Payson was the owner and she demanded that two men who had worked for the Yankees become Mets. Thus GM George Weiss and manager Casey Stengel joined the team.  As for players, the NL set up the expansion draft to ensure that the new teams were going to draft from a pool of unwanted old-timers and occupy the second division for years. Casey's inspiring first team speech was "We got rich owners. They got plenty of money. If anybody does any good around here, I'll see to it that we get money off the owners.  There's a lot of money around here. You got to go and get it."  They certainly did not get it. They had two pitchers who lost 20 games and gave up 192 home runs on their way to a team ERA of 5.04. They committed 210 errors. They lost their 120th game on a triple play at Wrigley. They were simply 'amazin'. The most important and closing point that Breslin makes is that they were loved, seldom booed and drew almost a million fans because they were in the NL. They appealed to the former Dodger and Giant fans who simply could never root for the Yankees. As the son of a Giant's fan who played in the Dodger minor league system and the grandson of a man who took me to Ebbetts Field in 1955, I completely get it.

In The Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown, Philbrick - B+

                                              Notwithstanding the standard American texts, "a naval battle fought between the British and the French was largely responsible for the independence of the United States." Washington had worked for years to take advantage of France's assistance to the colonies, but the French fleet never engaged the British. They did so in 1781 in the Battle of the Chesapeake. A year later, Washington wrote "that there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United States."                 
                                             When the French entered the war, they focused their naval forces where Britain's were, and where Britain's American wealth was concentrated - in the Caribbean. In October of 1780, three different hurricanes killed over 22,000 in the tropics and the French concluded that their navy might be safer much further north the following year.  By 1780, the war was being fought exclusively in the south and there were two British armies that Washington hoped to trap with the assistance of the French. Lord Cornwallis was in North Carolina and Benedict Arnold was in Virginia. A French fleet defeated the British at the Battle of Cape Henry in March, 1781, but did not capitalize upon their victory by attacking Arnold at Portsmouth. On land, Cornwallis had decided to charge north and seek out the enemy. He boldly burned his wagons and lived off the land to make his force quicker in his pursuit of the soldiers under American Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene. Unfortunately for the UK, Cornwallis could not catch the Americans and was lured further and further into the inhospitable American interior. On March 15, the two armies fought an inconclusive battle at Guilford Courthouse where Cornwallis' army was "eviscerated" by the Americans. He retreated to Wilmington and headed north a month later. Regardless of any strategic considerations, he wanted to fight. Soon he was at Petersburg with almost seven thousand men. After five years of war, neither side had an advantage and Washington was concerned about France's commitment to the cause.
                                              Washington was hoping the French would assist him in an attack on NYC. But Adm. de Grasse decided to head for the Chesapeake, where Gen. Clinton had ordered Cornwallis to head for Yorktown. When Washington learned of the location of Cornwallis' army, he realized that the end might be near. He and Rochambeau marched south and were in Philadelphia when he learned that De Grasse had arrived in the Chesapeake with 28 ships and over 3,000 soldiers.  On Sept. 5, the French engaged the British and held them off. Unable to relieve Cornwallis by entering the bay, the British returned to NY. Outnumbered and without relief in sight, Cornwallis was also low on provisions. The British killed their horses and dumped the carcasses in the river. The British and German soldiers were packed into a small space and were pounded by the American and French artillery. Infantry began to penetrate Cornwallis' outer lines and he decided to escape across the York River at night. Rain and wind prevented the effort from succeeding and surrender became the only choice. Thus, on Oct. 17, Cornwallis sought terms and surrendered two days later on the 19th. No one knew it at the time, but the war was over. Washington returned to Newburgh and held the army together for a few more years. When the Treaty of Paris was signed, he bid his officers adieu at Fraunces Tavern in New York. He resigned his commission at Annapolis where Congress had assembled and rode home to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve in 1783.
                                           

November Road, Berney - B

                                                Thanks to Dennis Grindinger for the loan of this hardcover novel. It features Frank Guidry, a small-time New Orleans hood in the local mob. He drops off a car in Dallas a few blocks from the School Depository and realizes on November 22nd that he is in the middle of a very big problem. A few days later, he is told to go to Houston, pick up the Eldorado at a specific place and dump it in the Ship Canal. Afterwards, on his way to his hotel, he realizes just how expendable he is and  runs. He heads west on Route 66. On the way to a possible way out in Las Vegas, he runs into a housewife from Oklahoma and her two daughters, also on the run. He falls for Charlotte and starts to believe in a future together. Of course, men like Frank don't have futures, a fact that he eventually accepts. This is a classic fun beach read.

The Black Ascot, Todd - B -

                                                This is the 21st novel in the Ian Rutledge series and sadly, it is not up to par. Rutledge is tasked with looking  into a fatal motorcar accident that had taken place over a decade ago.  The cast of characters have all survived the war, some better than others, but all changed. The authors always superbly depict the England of a century ago through the eyes of the battered psyche of the shell-shocked Rutledge. They detail the impact of the war on a society that never comes to grip with the horror that consumed them.  Occasionally, they stumble with a weak mystery, and that is the case here. That said, this remains a favorite series.

Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built The Transcontinental Railroad 1863 - 1869, Ambrose - B

                                               Only winning the war and freeing the slaves were more important accomplishments for the US than the building of the Central and Union Pacific Railroads.  It required so many laborers, 15,000 for both, that only generals from the war were capable of managing such vast numbers. All of the construction materials were hauled in and it was man and animal power that conquered the mountains and distances of the world's first transcontinental railroad. The federal government sponsored the construction and pitted the railroads against each other, rewarding the one that laid the most track.
                                               The young, rambunctious nation wanted to build a railroad across the country and the need was obvious. California could be reached by wagon, horse or on foot from Missouri in six months. A trip around the Cape took longer; a traverse of Panama was quicker, but hardly fast, safe or convenient. The question was a northern, central, or southern route. California took the lead in espousing a central route and its chief engineer, Theodore Judah, planned accordingly. He organized the Central Pacific Railroad of California, raised funds and began to survey how to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains. The former Illinois Central lawyer and 1860 Republican candidate for president ran on a platform enthusiastically backing a transcontinental railroad. In July 1862, Lincoln signed the bill authorizing the Union Pacific Railroad to build from the Missouri west and the Central Pacific to build from Sacramento east. A year later, he determined that the starting point for the Union Pacific would be Omaha. Out west, the first track was laid in in 1864 in Sacramento. The CP was almost completely owned by Leland Stanford, Charlie Crocker, C.P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins (the Big Four). The UP did not lay any track until the war was over and both money and manpower were freed up. The route chosen was west from Omaha north of the Platte through Wyoming and southwest into Utah.* One of the early impediments to progress was the hostility of the plains Indians. The US Army was charged with clearing the way for the surveyors, graders and track layers.
                                                Tackling the granite walls of the Sierra Nevada's was a momentous task requiring more manpower than was available to the CP. Charlie Crocker suggested using the Chinese, notwithstanding the fact that they were universally despised, mistreated, denied every conceivable right and thought too small at 120 pounds and in general, shorter than 5 feet. They were such good workers that seven of the nine thousand CP workers at the end of 1865 were 'coolies'. The hardest work in the mountains, involving grading and tunneling with dynamite was done by the Chinese. Thirteen tunnels blasted by hand were necessary to cross the Sierras. It is generally conceded that the CP could not have been built without the Chinese.
                                                  Most of the workers on the UP were veterans, many of them Irish, and they literally charged across Nebraska in 1866. They reached the 100th meridian in October, a distance of 267 miles from Omaha. By year's end, they were at 305 miles and running a passenger service from Omaha to Kearney.  Congress adjusted the Railroad Act, allowing monies to flow earlier, and declared a race between the two companies to meet at a point to be determined later. The CP, although still in California, had laid track at over 5,000 feet above sea level.
                                                  In 1867, the UP reached Wyoming and once again, the Cheyenne and Sioux were a concern. That May, they raided, killed, stole livestock, ripped up track and even managed to derail a train. Surveyors who wandered far and wide were particularly vulnerable. The railroad continued relentlessly and reached Cheyenne by the end of the year. The UP was now 500 miles from Omaha. While the UP could do a mile per day, daily progress by the CP was sometimes measured in inches. But they achieved their triumph in November, 1867 when they pierced the eastern end of the Summit Tunnel and looked into Nevada. The following year saw a race to get as far east, or west, as possible. It was obvious that the meeting point would be somewhere in Utah and likely in 1869. The UP made it to the Wyoming-Utah border at year's end. Although still thousands of feet above sea level, the CP found flat land in Nevada and traversed it in 1868 reaching the Utah border. Because the government released cash, bonds and land to the railroads based on mileage completed, the CP was always at a disadvantage. Even though higher elevation track was paid at a higher rate, the CP struggled to lay uninterrupted track and the land it received was seldom as valuable as the land the UP was able to sell in Nebraska. The Big Four kept the CP afloat and desperately wished to push as far east as possible.
                                                    The meeting point was Promontory, Utah in May, 1869. The picture showing the two trains, covered in men and facing each other, is one of the most iconic of the century. America on the cusp of the industrial revolution was transformed. The railroad was an engineering masterpiece. Financially, the Credit Mobilier company created to construct the UP was a font of corruption, and the scandal attached to its name was the greatest of the century. The brilliant, slap-dash, brutal, corrupt and utterly visionary project was quintessentially American.


*A hundred years later, armed with every available engineering technology, the builders of I-80 took  the exact same route.

Charlesgate Confidential, Von Doviak - B

                                               This is a fabulous novel set in Boston with a story featuring related events in 1946, 1986, and 2014. The central character is the Charlesgate in the Back Bay. Built in 1891, it has been a luxury hotel, a flophouse, a women's dorm for BU, a flophouse again, an Emerson College dorm and most recently, a luxury condominium building. The starting point is a 1946 robbery of a museum that featured a few murders and paintings that have never been found. The pursuit of those paintings, suspected by all to be hidden in the Charlesgate, is the unifying thread. Throw in some Red Sox flops ('46 and '86) and you have an enjoyable read.