Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Concise Life, Rohl - B

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

The Invisible Hand, Jevons - B

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

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

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

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

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

The Lady From Zagreb, Kerr - B -

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

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

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

All The Old Knives, Steinhauer - B +

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

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

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

Leaving Berlin, Kanon - B

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

Sashenka, Montefiore - B

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

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

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

The Betrayers, Bezmozgis - B

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

The Marco Effect, Adler-Olsen, C

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

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

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

The Forgotten Girls, Blaedel - B

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Augustus, Williams - B

                                               This novel was the National Book Award Winner in 1974.  I've been on and off about Rome, its history and extraordinary accomplishments over the years. My early interest stemmed from four years of Latin in high school.  I believe Gibson's 'Decline and Fall' is one of the greatest books ever written. That a political entity could endure (in theory and in two different capitals) from it's mythic founding in the 8th century B.C. to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 has always fascinated me. Somewhere along the way though, the endless and barbaric infighting among consuls, senators, triumvirates, generals, sons, adopted sons etc. turned me away. The approach Williams takes in this book is one I've not seen before, although I am certainly aware of the novels by Robert Graves. It is Augustus's story told through letters from and to many of his contemporaries, friends and enemies. Some of the characters depicted are real and many fictitious. I don't know enough about the era to know how much of the history is accurate. The book takes us from Augustus' adoption by Julius Caesar, his return to Italy to begin his revenge against Caesar's assassins and victory over Brutus and Cassius at Phillipi. The approach  provides a feel for the history and the people and thoughts behind it all. After defeating Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (which I did not realize was a naval battle), Augustus returned to Rome as ruler of the known world at the age of 33. The novel then turns to domestic affairs, where women were to be bartered for like beads in a bazaar.  To preserve his dynasty, Octavius Augustus marries his beloved daughter Julia to Marcellus, Marcus Agrippa and Claudius, all before she is thirty.  Personal lives among the elite were part of the political process, and because of her infidelities and liaisons with intriguers, Julia is banished for life. In his dying days, Augustus reflects upon the most important aspect of his rule - no Roman had fought another within the confines of the Empire in forty years.  Books do not generally win awards without deserving them and this is no exception. Thanks to Greg and Karen Weiss.

Driving Honda: Inside The World's Most Innovative Car Company, Rothfeder - C, Inc.

                                               I think I read just about every book ever written about my clients at GM and Chrysler from the mid-80's to the mid-00's and  I also read 'The Machine That Changed The World' about Toyota's lean manufacturing system in the 90's.  'Machine' remains the best book about the automotive industry that I have read. This book could be sub-titled "how Honda and Toyota differ".  The difference is meaningful. It describes Toyota as a structured, rigid and top-down company where there is a plan, program or system for everything. Yes, Toyota receives feedback from the factory floor but everything is done the Toyota way. In contrast, at Honda the goal is established and then a very flat, decentralized system, staffed from top to bottom with 'gear heads', achieves the goal. And the accomplishments have been many: largest motorcycle company in the world only a decade after establishment; first automobile engine to meet new 1970's EPA requirements while the industry was saying it couldn't be done; first successful foreign auto plant in the US (Marysville, Ohio in 1982); first company to manufacture in China; etc. etc.  Nonetheless, I had trouble with the structure of the book which uses sequential chapters based on some of Soichiro Honda's unique philosophies.  That said, I loved my Honda Accord and Acura RL (both over 10 years old and running like new).  Honda was the third foreigner and first Japanese to be admitted to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit in 1989.

All The Light We Cannot See, Doerr - B +

                                               This novel was a National Book Award Finalist in 2014. It is a finely-drawn tale of two young people whose paths cross in St. Malo, France in August 1944.  St. Malo was a fortress city at the mouth of the Rance River that was bypassed by the Allies for two months. However, the Allies finally decided to bomb on August 7th.
                                               We first meet Werner a decade before in an orphanage in the Ruhr Valley where he discovers a skill for fixing radios.  His talents afford him the opportunity to avoid the mines, where his father died. He is sent to technical training school. Marie is the blind daughter of the chief locksmith of the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Her father teaches her how to navigate the world by constructing miniatures of her environment and then escorting her from place to place until the real world is as familiar as the miniatures she has committed to  memory.  Werner is so skilled that at school he is able to plan, design and build a machine to triangulate radio waves and find illicit radio activity.  His superiors doctor his paperwork to call him up for Wehrmacht duty at sixteen. Marie's father is charged with protecting a very important diamond. The Director of the Museum has three redundant copies made and sends four of his direct reports off to different parts of the country to confuse the Germans, who assign a jeweler to track down the diamond which Marie's dad has secreted inside her miniature of St. Malo.  After the bombing, Werner escapes from a cellar where he has spent almost six days awaiting death.  Marie is on the sixth floor of her family's home in a hidden attic while the jeweler is trying to find her.
                                                This is a fine book, that is not too easy to read and very challenging to outline.  In the interest of those who will read it,  I have not detailed the consequence of Werner and Marie's meeting, nor the post-war epilogue.  Great books invest you in their characters and bring you to places and times you've never been to. This one adds a deft touch of human insight and emotion. It deserves all the attention it has received.

The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact With Stalin, 1939-1941, Moorhouse - B +

                                               It was not just the world that was totally shocked by the famous pact, it was each country's populace and military staffs. The Germans had spent the 30's vilifying the Soviets. For the communists, Germany, the most industrialized country in the west, was always assumed to be the place where their philosophy would take root and defeat capitalism and the bourgeoisie.  However, both Hitler and Stalin saw meaningful benefits to the pact. Hitler was annoyed that  the British and French had delayed him from moving on Prague, and then guaranteed Poland's integrity.  Having a temporary understanding in the east would help him move in the west. As for Stalin, he was afraid the British and French were trying to engineer a war to the death between Germany and the USSR. Also, the German offer of territory and non-belligerence was particularly timely as the Soviets and Japan were engaged in serious skirmishes in Asia. Within days of the pact, war broke out, Poland was divided between the two signatories and the murder of the country's elite began. "Measures adopted against the racial enemy in one half of Poland were virtually indistinguishable from those applied to the class enemy in the other."  Hitler started moving Germans into the desirable sections of western Poland and  began the importation of what would eventually be over a million laborers into the Reich. Stalin sent tens of thousands of Poles off to Siberia and Kazakhstan, murdered almost all of Poland's officer corps at Katyn, and began to absorb the Baltic states.  He had a free hand to then initiate the Winter War against Finland. Less than a year after the pact, Hitler and Stalin had achieved all that they could have imagined. Stalin had recovered everything that Russia had lost in WWI and more, and Hitler had chased the British from the continent and marched into Paris.  The first significant crack in the relationship came when the Soviets took Bessarabia from Romania. Hitler was quite angered because there had been no mention of this in the allocation of spheres of influence.  In November of 1940, Molotov and Ribbentrop sat down again, this time in Berlin.  No progress was made on any topic and the Germans became further alarmed when it became apparent that the Soviets were desirous of  expanding further into the Baltic and the Balkans. On Dec.18, 1940, the Fuhrer ordered the planning for an invasion of Russia.  Soviet intelligence advised Stalin within a week that the attack would come in March.
                                                         This is a well-written and enlightening read. It's a good book.  That said, it felt at times as if the author was struggling with the the story from the end of 1939 until Barbarossa on June 22, 1941. Almost all of the action took place hard on the signing of the pact. Then, it was just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Any reader of 'Mein Kampf' could tell you the Reich was not going to ally itself with the USSR for long.  Interestingly, the anniversary of the signing, August 23rd, has become known in Europe as the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Naziism and is commemorated across central and eastern Europe.

The Astronaut Wives Club, Koppel - B -

                                               For people of a certain age, the names Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper and Slayton bring back powerful memories of a simpler, perhaps even more glorious, time.  The Mercury 7 Astronauts were gods in their day. Here though, the names are not Alan, Gus, John, Scott, Wally, Gordo or Deke, but Louise, Betty, Annie, Rene, Jo, Trudy and Marge.  The woman too were on the cover of 'Life'. They lunched at the White House and met Jackie.  Because they were in charge of the home front, the book also deals with the economics of their lives and that, I found interesting.' Life' was accorded special access and was the only media allowed in their homes during their husband's flights. For the access, 'Life' paid $500,000 per year or $71,428 per family. Those  were huge, life changing numbers in 1959. For the men, GM offered them the opportunity to test Corvettes - for a dollar per year. When they all moved to Texas when the Johnson Space Center opened, they got new houses for a song. For seven military families, the Mercury program was a game-changer.
                                              The 'New Nine' were followed by the 'Next Nineteen' as NASA geared up for Gemini and Apollo.  Life, though, became more complicated for the men and the wives. The flights were much, much longer.   It was now weeks of stress and tension rather than hours. The famous Gemini 1 fire took the lives of Grissom, Chafee and White. More and more of the wives drank as their husbands, if ever at home, were often distracted.  And as time went on, the 'Cape Cookies' took their toll.  From a program you could not get into unless you had a solid marriage, only seven couples survived from the 35 that were in the Mercury 7, New Nine,  and the Next Nineteen.  The Astronaut Wives Club survives to this day and many of the woman have remained close and still try very hard to help each other. They shared a uniquely American and exclusive experience.

The Narrow Road To The Deep North, Flanagan - B +

                                              This novel won the Booker for 2013. It is the story of Col. Dorrigo Evans, physician to some of the 22,000 Australians captured when Singapore fell to the Empire of Japan in February 1942.  A third of them died constructing the Siam-Burma Railway. Locomotive C 5631, the first to transverse the 400 + kilometer Death Railway is enshrined at Yaksuni, along with 1068 war criminals, some of whom worked as overseers of the Aussies.  Allied POWs were but small fraction, as somewhere between 100,000 - 200,000 died during the construction. This is as apt a description of unspeakable horror and filth as I have come across. Starvation, ringworm, dysentery, pellagra, cholera, beri-beri, malaria and vicious treatment were the lot of the British and Empire troops, for whom the loss of a boot was a fatal event. Evans tended to their care, faced the Japanese with verve and became the legendary 'Big Fella' to his men. Most importantly, he survived.  As the war passed further and further into the continent's collective memory, he became more and more important and eventually, lionized.

                                              This book is also a nuanced study of memory and memories. For the Japanese, it is  conflicted memories.  They built the railway for the Emperor in record time.  The fact that men who had surrendered and were no longer worthy of respect died is an understandable consequence of the task. To be punished by the Allies for doing their job was incomprehensible to the guards.  But the memory that dominates the book is of Dorry Evans' love for Amy, the young wife of his uncle and unquestionably the love of his life. They spent much of the summer of 1941 together - he, a training officer in the Army and she, the mistress of the family inn in Adelaide.  It was wild, passionate, senseless and unforgettable. It carried him through his long imprisonment. It helped him be the man he was expected to be. It hounded him through his long post-war marriage and career. He believed her dead until he saw her in Sydney in the mid-60's, but could not say a word as she walked by. Would he have been a better man with her? Or, was the memory of her more important?

                                              The Times reviewer points out that Flanagan spent a great deal of time talking to his father who was a POW survivor who lived to 98. Without him, he could not have provided the details about the smell of the cholera hut, the horrible stories that are revealed, and the generally remarkable detail that make this such an extraordinary tale.  That said, the Booker award praised as a "novel of love and war." It is both, and it is very good.

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, Macintyre - B +

                                                As all of the files are still classified, this is an attempt to tell the Philby story through the prism of his friends and the upper-class concept of friendship. Kim Philby, Nicholas Elliott, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross and Donald Maclean were all well-educated Englishmen, members of MI6, MI5, or the Foreign Office.  Elliott didn't work for Moscow and was Philby's closest friend and colleague. The rest are forever known to history as 'the Cambridge Five', all traitors. Philby was born in India, the son of a brilliant, eccentric scholar who converted to Islam and became an advisor to Ibn Saud.  A communist by the time he left university, Philby was like many facing the nihilism and threats of fascism for whom USSR seemed to offer an alternative. He became their dedicated and devoted agent, feeding Moscow Center everything he came across at MI6. He specialized in counter-intelligence during the war, before being assigned to Istanbul, and then the ultimate post: Washington. His material was so good that at times the Soviets didn't believe him. They thought he was a double agent feeding them falsehoods. But he kept providing such excellent intelligence that they eventually realized he was a gold mine. In particular, while in Washington, he was able to let them know everything the British and American services were trying to do to crack the Eastern bloc. He caused innumerable deaths, especially among  the emigres who so often were the people acting as infiltrators and spies. Tipped by Philby, Burgess and Maclean defected to Moscow in May 1951. Thus began his own eventual downfall. Both the CIA and MI5 had their doubts about  Philby. The CIA said he could never return to the US and intelligence sharing would be ended if Philby stayed on. MI5 also concluded he was guilty. His standing within the English upper class initially protected him.  It simply was incomprehensible that a gentleman would lie. Nonetheless, MI6 eventually sacked him.  However, most of MI6 believed him to be innocent and MI5 and 6 engaged in a five-year-long battle over Philby. In the end, the old boy network, with Elliott taking the lead, prevailed. Philby was in from the cold and back at MI6 as an agent with the cover of a journalist in Beirut.  A few years later he was riding high with a new wife, re-engaged with the Soviets and treasured by the British, as the new Beirut Station Chief was his good friend, Nicholas Elliott.  However, by 1963 the noose was tightening  as a Soviet defector and an old English friend he had tried to recruit in the 30's provided damning information to MI5. By then Elliott was back in London and he was sent out to confront Philby.  He did and they spent four days verbally dueling, parrying, and Kim Philby gave up most of the ghost. He confessed to a lot but not all that he had done, and he let Elliott infer that he would take up his offer of amnesty in exchange for truthfulness. Instead, he did a 'fade' and wound up in Moscow.  For those on both sides of the Atlantic who had trusted him, it was a devastating turn of events.  He lived another twenty-five years bored and drunk, received the Order of Lenin and was given a grand funeral with a KGB honor guard.  Elliott issued a press release praising him, in an attempt to get the Russians to think he had duped them.  The game never ends.

                                                This is a fun, interesting read. I do think Macintyre succeeds in his exposition of the friendships amongst the upper class. The concept that someone who clubbed at Whites couldn't betray his country is so very, very English.  I would also be remiss if I did not point out that the author is being somewhat cute with the title.  The very beginning of the book points out that 'Friends' is slang for members of the intelligence services.

One Summer: America, 1927, Bryson - C

                                                This somewhat confusing book is a tour of America during the remarkable summer of 1927.   What I found totally befuddling is the Table of Contents, which set forth the division of the book into four parts; Lindbergh, the Babe, the President, and the Anarchists. It is always a delight to revisit Lucky Lindy's amazing feat of derring-do. Its scale and importance are hard to fathom in today's connected world. His flight was called the most significant event since the Resurrection. The French gave him the Legion d'Honneur, and in America, a mania swept the nation. "Proposals were put forth to exempt him from paying taxes for life, to name a star or planet after him, to install him in the Cabinet as the permanent head of a new aviation department and to make May 21 a national holiday. He was given a lifetime pass to all major league baseball games everywhere. In Minnesota. a proposal was made to rename the state Lindberghia.' In NY, between 4-5 million turned out for his ticker-tape parade. He was the most famous person on the planet for quite some time. However, after recounting the Lindbergh feat, the book loses its moorings and meanders, almost pointlessly, through vastly disparate events and themes. He covers the momentous season Babe Ruth and the Yankees had, along with Prohibition, the Mississippi flood, the broad career of Herbert Hoover, the rise of J. Edgar Hoover, the downfall of Al Capone, skyscrapers, international finance, the strange Presidency of 'Silent Cal', the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, the KKK, Mt. Rushmore, Henry Ford's anti-Semitic magazine 'The Dearborn Independent', the Dempsey-Tunney fight, Hollywood and a lot more. He is a talented writer and the 20's, particularly 1927, are fascinating. But, it's impossible to read a book when you have no idea what could be on the next page.

The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy and King - The Five Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea, Borneman - B +

                                               Thanks to Wendell Erwin for recommending  this excellent group biography of the only four men to ever wear five stars in the Navy.  They all graduated from Annapolis around the turn of the century ( Leahy-'97, King-'01, Halsey-'04 and Nimitz-'05) and saw early duty in America's burgeoning Navy. Halsey and Leahy both met the young Asst. Navy Secretary, Franklin Roosevelt; Leahy and FDR became fast friends. All four participated in the Navy's convoying activities in our very limited WW1 naval actions and their year-and-a-half at war demonstrated that submarines and naval air power threatened the primacy of battleships. The inter-war years saw downsizing, naval disarmament treaties and the on-going questioning of the relevancy of the battleship.  Nimitz and King went into submarines and King then qualified as a naval aviator. Halsey was a destroyer man and the older Leahy was appointed CNO.  He used his Washington time to hone his political skills and bolster his relationship with FDR.  When Leahy retired in 1939, the President assured him he would be back "if we ever have a war".  On Dec. 7, 1941, Leahy was on a mission to Vichy, King in command of the Atlantic fleet, Nimitz head of personnel in Washington, and Halsey sailing to Oahu after dropping off planes at Wake Island.
                                               Ernest King was returned to Washington and made Fleet Admiral and commander of the entire US Navy.  Chester Nimitz was sent to Pearl and made CINCPAC and told to stay there until the war was won.  The attack on Pearl Harbor is remembered as a disaster of the highest order, but the author points out that it was the aging battleships that were sunk.  The oil storage facilities and the submarine base were unscathed and the three carriers were at sea.  We struck back at Coral Sea and most importantly, at Midway.  Bill Leahy was recalled to active duty in July and appointed the Presidents personal military advisor and the Chairman of the JCS. Bill Halsey had launched Doolittle's Raid but had missed Midway because of an illness, and had told the June 1942 graduating Annapolis class that he was "going back to the Pacific where he intended to personally have a crack at those yellow-bellied sons of bitches and their carriers."  Halsey whose oft-quoted mantra was "kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs" also had the personal skills to be the one person in the Navy who could work well with MacArthur, and together they lead the charge across the Pacific.  Victory piled on victory and soon the end was in sight. Congress authorized the granting of five-star rank for four men in  the Army and Navy in Dec. 1944. In sequence, they went to Leahy, King, Nimitz and Halsey, and, for the Army to Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower and Arnold. The power to award a fifth star lapsed at the end of hostilities plus six months.
                                             The most important take away for me in this book was Frank Leahy's role as key advisor to both FDR and Truman. The author contends that for most of Roosevelt's final year, Leahy operated as an almost de facto President - indeed he labels a chapter 'Interim President'.  Nor was I  aware that he stayed on as Chairman of the JCS for another four years under Truman.  The author refers to his role as a combined National Security Advisor/JCS Chair/Chief of Staff.  That is a remarkably long time for one individual to be at the center of such momentous events.  The other thought that crossed my mind thinking about the men who made the strategic decisions on both sides in the war is the changes they saw in their lifetimes. Whether Allied or Axis,  they were born in an era without electricity, telephone or  radio and finished their careers in the atomic era. This is a very, very good book.

                                 

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, McKeon - B +

                                               This is a very good book about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It tells the story from the perspective of a boy from a local family; a surgeon assigned to work the debacle;  his ex-wife, a worker at a Moscow factory; and her nephew.  Artyom is a thirteen year old boy who lived 10 kilometers from the disaster. The  day after the meltdown he, his mother and sister are shipped off to the Minsk area and settled in a vast warehouse. Later on, they are assigned their own hut. They find his dad in a hospital. He and the other men had stayed behind to help clean up their village. His reward months later is a horrible, horrible death from radiation poisoning. Grigory, a Moscow doctor, is tasked to work at the site and is kept on overseeing the declining health of the evacuees. For months on end, he performs surgeries, previously unimagined, on those whose lives and bodies have been transformed. Within months, he succumbs. Maria survives in the slowly crumbling Soviet structure that is dying in the era of glasnost and perestroika.  She manages to assister nephew Yevgeni on a trajectory to worldwide success as a pianist.
                                                As always, the sheer stupidity and inane unfairness of the Soviet system screams out for mockery, derision and elimination. It's a solid reminder that almost all that the Bolshies wrought was a colossal mess.

Cities of Empire: The British Colonies and the Creation of the Urban World, Hunt - B +

                                               The author posits that the great gift of the Empire, its true legacy, is urbanism. "This book seeks to explore the imperial story through the urban form and its material culture: ten cities telling the story of the British Empire."  Commerce was the thread that started to bind the disparately structured (joint stock companies, royal governors, local legislatures, individual patentees) colonies into something resembling a system. The concept of Empire  "became much more regularly employed as trade fostered some sense of shared interest and political community across Britain's congeries of territories."
                                               It was "a mercantilist consortium of mutual commercial advantage". However, all of the shared interests, beliefs, convictions, and unifying Protestantism could not survive the imposition of some modest taxes on the Bostonians. The first English city in America became the 'cradle of liberty' and led the march toward the disassembling of the first Empire.  When the 13 Colonies left, the West Indies and the sugar trade replaced them in import. Centered in Bridgetown, Barbados, the sugar trade was built upon the foundation of human slavery, a foundation that supported "opulent profits".  "The staggering returns from the West Indies colonies funded the acceleration of the British Empire, the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the Royal Navy."  The author asserts that the harbors, ports, docks, wharves, warehouses, ships, sailors, merchants, and financiers  that we associate with a burgeoning London and Liverpool all stemmed from the slave-driven sugar trade, which was much more profitable than the troubling United States had been. The Revolutions in America and France "forced Ireland to change from uncomfortable colony into a component part of the British Isles".  The transformation from "problem to partner" took place in Dublin. And, it is the construction of Georgian Dublin, well-planned, thorough and grand, at the height of the Protestant Ascendancy in the late 18th century, that tied the city to the Empire.  In 1800, Ireland became part of the UK, no longer a separate kingdom or colony, but an integral part of the mother country. The Irish joined the Scots as foot soldiers of the Empire.
                                                 "Much more than Boston, fetid Bridgetown or familiar Dublin, the British fell in love with Cape Town." It was the axis of the Empire's pivot to the east.  Its purpose was to help secure  British domination of India and ensure the demise of the French colonial competition. The British took the Cape in 1795 from the Dutch for a very simple strategic reason: revolutionary France had invaded Holland. As a crossroads, cape Town was an extraordinarily diverse city. Muslims, Catholics, Hindus, and every branch of Protestantism  worshipped and lived side by side. No race was predominant. It connected east and west and it was from the Cape, in 1798, that Richard Wellesley, older brother of the future Duke of Wellington and Governor-General of India set sail for Calcutta. A generation earlier, in 1773, Parliament began the six-decade process of first diminishing and later eliminating the East India Company's monopoly, and began to exert control through the new office of the Governor-General.  The Raj would be headquartered in Calcutta until its early-twentieth century removal to New Delhi. Anxious about French influences, Wellesley undertook the "establishment of dominion over the Indian subcontinent and witnessed the beginnings of the projection of British  military and maritime power into the Middle East and south-east Asia." He built up Calcutta, which proved to be a springboard for next leap east, to China.  By the mid-19th century, religion as a prime motivator had been long replaced by mercantile aggrandizement.  The move into China was driven by the desire to peddle opium, not Anglicanism. "Hong Kong would be the resplendent if uneasy monument to the global reach of the British Empire and to British imperialism at the height of its ideological self-confidence."  Hong Kong and the chant of free trade were the vise with which the British opened up the Middle Kingdom.
                                                "A second revolution of rail and steam was rolling across the Empire ........industry and mass production would change the function of imperial cities.........the dirty, smoggy city of Bombay would come to take the colonial mantle from the Fragrant Harbor of Hong Kong."  It was a city in a hurry, a city focused on making money and believed "to embody the Victorian spirit of progress." "In Bombay the British Empire would build a monument to its own modernity."  And the monument that rose the highest was the Victoria Terminus, a train station to rival any in Europe, still in use and featured in 'Slumdog Millionaire".
                                                 Melbourne is cited as a city that embraced a concept of Empire based on race. The white colonies of Canada, New Zealand and Australia viewed their relationship with Britain as a partnership amongst the Anglo-Saxon tribe.  In New Delhi, the Empire peaked and it is where the Raj ended and the sun began to set.  August 15, 1947 was Independence Day in India - perhaps it  was best that Churchill had lost 10 Downing Street the year before.  Hunt closes with Liverpool, once the second richest city of the Empire, the city that had commanded global trade since the 1700's and in 1981, so bereft of hope, that riots there led to the first use of CS gas by the police on mainland Britain. The end of empire meant the collapse of trade and catastrophe for Liverpool.  A key driver of 19th century globalization become a 20th century victim, as trade moved to the eastern British cities, closer to the other EU countries.  By the 1990's, "Liverpool was Britain's Detroit, a city that had died through its own irrelevance to the modern economy." Today, matters have come full circle - Chinese investment is regenerating the Merseyside.
                                                 This is a very good book that tells the story of the Empire in fascinating, insightful vignettes; a superb and creative way to depict the history of the Empire upon which the sun never set. I'm not convinced he makes his case about urbanism, but that certainly doesn't detract from the history told here.  This is a great book for those who are intrigued by the British and all of their accomplishments (and failures) overseas.

Death of the Black-Haired Girl, Stone - B

                                               The Times reviewer refers to this short novel as a "Hawthorne-like allegory and a sure-footed psychological thriller."  It is a fine read, particularly for those with a penchant for New England colleges or some fine NYC Irish Catholic guilt, remorse and blue-collar alcoholism.  The setting is a college campus, where a married professor is having an affair with, Maud,  a black-haired beauty from Queens. He breaks it off when he finds out his wife is pregnant and she drunkenly confronts him late at night on a busy street with fatal, accidental consequences.  Her failing city cop father struggles with the Church, which is very unwilling to bury her with her mother because Maud had written an incendiary article condemning the Church's vitriolic attacks on the abortion clinic near the college. All in all, a solid read.

In Love and War, Preston - C +

                                               This is one of those interesting little novels that make the best of/notable lists at years end. Esmond Lowndes is banished to Florence in 1937 for being caught at Oxford in bed his with buddy.  His dad is the fictional number two to Oswald Mosley in the British Union of Fascists. Esmond is sent to the continent to establish a radio station for English speaking right wingers.  While there, he observes Europe's slow descent into the abyss and, after it starts, he tries to fend for his Jewish assistant, Ada, with whom he has fallen in love.  With little enthusiasm, he continues his Fascist broadcasts, thus avoiding internment.  Facing expulsion, Esmond and Ada seclude themselves in a villa in the country, doing occasional jobs for the resistance. In the summer of 1943, Italy withdraws from the war, Ada is pregnant and the world is full of hope. That hope is quickly shattered when Germany occupies Florence in August.  As the Germans and Italian Fascists escalate their attacks on the leftists and the Jews, the resistance matches their violence. Soon, assassinations, bombings and raids are the reaction to  each train to the north.  Esmond loses Ada to the Nazis, and immediately thereafter killing becomes easy, second nature.  Captured and tortured, he manages to propel himself and Carita, the obnoxious fascist oppressor of Florence, out a window to their death.                                                                                                                                                                         This is a well-written, craftily created tale that provides a bit of insight into the German occupation of northern Italy  after Italy surrendered.  As I've intimated recently, I don't do well with WW2 novels, perhaps because the history itself is so peerless.
                                           
                                             

Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies over America on 9/ 11, Spnecer - B +

                                               Thanks to Tim Farrell and Marcella for this recommendation.  We tend to focus on what happened in the hijacked planes and on the ground that terrible day.  This absolutely remarkable book tells  what happened at the FAA, at the American and United Airline Operations Centers, at various military bases, at the numerous air-traffic-control centers whose professionals who dealt with the unfolding disaster and in particular, it tells about the pilots and crews of the thousands of planes in the air that morning.  I'm not terribly sentimental about much that's happened in my lifetime, but I felt proud to be an American as I read this book. It's hard to imagine any other people handling their jobs that day as well as all the folks in this book.
                                               The book has the pace of a thriller and is filled with information I was never aware of or thought about. There were 400 planes over the Atlantic. A Delta flight was "thought' to be hijacked and treated very carefully over Cleveland. One United flight that never took off from LaGuardia had four Arabs in first class - they left the airport and were never identified.  All the flights from Asia had to go somewhere else - thank God for the Canadians. Totally unprepared for anything like this,  the FAA was able to clear US airspace and by noon, the military controlled the skies.  It's a superb book and a great story.

The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, The CIA, and the Battle Over a Banned Book, Finn and Couvee - B

                                               Published in 1957 after a decade in the making, 'Dr. Zhivago' was awarded the Nobel Prize.  The 1965 movie received 5 Academy Awards.  The remarkable first and only novel by a 65-year-old poet, Boris Pasternak, rocked the world.  That he had survived until the thaw after Stalin's death was a surprise. "Through much of his life, Pasternak assisted people imprisoned or impoverished by the regime." He never towed the Soviet line, but in the early thirties had penned a note of sympathy at the time of the death of the dictator's wife. It is presumed that is what saved him.  Pasternak passed the novel to an Italian communist publisher in 1956. The KGB found out after the fact and began its campaign to stop the publication of the book.  For a year and a half, the Soviets tried their heavy-handed, clumsy best to stop publication, but it came in late 1957. A year later, the CIA sponsored Russian edition was distributed at the Brussels World Fair and soon later, the Nobel followed. A drumbeat of condemnation rained down on Pasternak in Soviet papers and on tv and radio.  He was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers.  Under intense pressure, he withdrew his joyful acceptance and rejected the Nobel Prize.  He penned a letter of apology to Khruschev, pleading to not be expelled from Russia.  As the book grew in worldwide popularity, he was excised from Soviet society, and died in May of 1960 at the age of 70. He was intestate and there followed thirty-years of "unseemly struggles" over his affairs. In 1989 in Stockholm, his son Yevgeny accepted the the gold medal for the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature.

I Am Pilgrim, Hayes - B -

                                               This novel is a thriller that received very, very complimentary reviews. The author is a well-known screenwriter and this is his first book.  'Pilgrim' is the code name of a US agent of extraordinary skill who apprehends a committed Saudi terrorist. Although it qualifies as a fun read, I'm not sure it is a must read. My disappointment stems from the length (613 pps.) and the fact that the author's diversions are frequent, lengthy and in my opinion, unnecessary.

Absolute Monarchs: A History Of The Papacy, Norwich - B -

                                               John Julius Norwich is one of those great writers of wonderful histories. I've read a number of his books and thank David Brewer for recommending this one to me. In his introduction, the author states that his "task has been simply to look at what is perhaps the most astonishing social, political, and spiritual institution ever created and to give as honest, as objective, and as accurate an account of it as I possibly can."  There is little actual history to go on in the early centuries. For instance, if Peter was a rock upon which to build a church, there's no evidence of anything of the sort.  The first real mover and shaker in the church was Constantine the Great who made Christianity official in the early 4th century.  A century and a half later, by the time of Leo the Great, all temporal power had passed east. A vandalized Rome had but the Papacy left.  Another century on, Gregory the Great was able to consolidate temporal and spiritual, affording the Church the opportunity to survive and prosper as the principal institution in the diminished west.
                                               Early in the 7th century, Christianity was sundered. "The lands which had seen the origins of Christianity were all lost, never to be properly recovered. The eastern empire was hideously maimed.  Perhaps, ..it was Mohammed who made Charlemagne possible." Charles Martel stopped the Arab invasion at Tours in France in 732. It would take another 7 centuries before they were evicted from Spain. The crowning, as Emperor, of Charlemagne by Leo III on Christmas day in 800 is one of the most significant events in European history. The west once again had an Emperor - and he had been crowned by the Pope. Soon thereafter, Charles's empire withered, but the Papacy prospered.  By the turn of the millennium, a sequence of popes in loose partnership with the Holy Roman Emperors ( neither holy nor Roman, per Voltaire) expanded Christianity to Hungary, Poland and northern Germany.  Unfortunately for a united Christendom, the east and west sanctioned  the final Great Schism in 1054. Yet in the west, the Papacy was supreme in matters temporal and spiritual. In 1095, Urban II called for the Papacy's great foreign policy adventure in the middle East, the chance to save the Holy Lands from the infidel Saracens - the First Crusade. "On July 15, 1099, amid scenes of hideous carnage, the soldiers of Christ battered their way into Jerusalem, where they slaughtered all the Muslims in the city and burned all the Jews alive in the main synagogue." Thus, began Europe's two century dalliance in the Middle East.
                                                The early centuries of the millennium were dominated by a test of wills, the interminable battle for titular control of Europe between the popes and the emperors. Endlessly, the German emperors would travel to Italy to supplicate themselves, to conquer, to dominate and select popes. The source of much of the conflict was investiture: the right to appoint bishops and abbots. This struggle was over power and wealth and would manifest itself in different places for a very long time.  It led to the seven decade Avignon papacy in the 14th century.  The next century brought the Renaissance, the loss of Constantinople, the Sistine Chapel, the Spanish Inquisition and the division of the New World between Spain and Portugal.  The Reformation led by Martin Luther in 1517 further diminished the world of Roman Catholicism and led to a century and-a-half of war, now with religion as a disruptive cause. The Enlightenment opened the Church up to significant challenges, and it was followed by the severe anti-clericalism of the French Revolution and Napoleon's attempts to end the Papal States.
                                                 The Pope's role as temporal ruler was finally ended in 1871, hopefully putting behind the Holy See its history of war, dynastic intrigue, deception and conduct wholly unbecoming to its stated mission as Christ's vicar on earth.  The 20th century opened and closed with two superb modern Popes. Leo XIII tried to find and articulate a role for the Church as a standard bearer for the common man worn out by the industrial revolution, and John Paul II, the first Polish pontiff, stood firm in the battle against communism.
                                               All in all, this is a good read. I found it somewhat surprising that certain events of consequence, such as the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War or the Turks reaching the gates of Vienna are not mentioned as part of the background to this history. But, perhaps with hundreds of popes and endless fighting in Italy, there is not room for too much of the bigger picture.

Money: The Unauthorized Biography, Martin - Inc.

                                               The mission of the author is to disprove the generally accepted theory that the concept of money evolved as a replacement for barter systems, and that it initially used commodities, such as silver and gold, for coinage. "Currency is not money. Money is the system of credit account and their clearing that currency represents."  The coins invented in the 6th century BC simply represented the agreed upon system of valuation. The magic was in agreeing on a value and adopting it into everyday life.  The Romans had a fully sophisticated, almost modern financial system that succumbed when they did. The concept of universal economic value does need governments to provide the skeletons to hold the systems in place.  In essence, "money is a social technology - a set of ideas and practices for organizing society". In the end, I was once again unable to complete a book with economics at i's heart.  Perhaps John Lennon sang all that we need to know: "that's what I waaaant".

In The Wolf's Mouth, Foulds - C +

                                               This novel came to my attention because it was highly praised by reviewers. It is the story of an Englishman, an American of Italian descent, and a Sicilian-American whose paths all cross in Sicily after  the liberation in 1943.  It is beautifully written and extraordinarily effective depicting the random violence of war.  But there is no real narrative, no particular beginning and ending, just a well-written novel.

The Silkworm, Galbraith - B

                                               I'm not sure why I fell for the second in the new series about Cormoran Strike,  J.K. Rowling's rather odd private detective.  In this one, we delve into the publishing world and the gruesome end of a crazed writer. He is 'done in' in a manner set forth in his as of yet unpublished, and obviously final book.  I'm not sure what it is about Strike, but he is not as appealing or interesting as most of the usual British investigators, public or private.  Here, he once again out foxes the police and applies some of his eccentric genius in what I have to admit is a rousing finish. The Times reviewer  (a fellow bestselling author) suggests that the series could be as successful as some of the big ones in the UK - but, I have my doubts

Ring Of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I, Watson - B +

                                            Returning to the study of  Europe in the early 20th century, one is struck by the foolhardy willingness with which monarchs, parliamentarians, statesmen, diplomats all considered all out war as a viable national policy. Here we look at 'the great seminal catastrophe'  from the perspective of the two major Central Powers. Stung by the Serbs, A-H felt war was the appropriate response, the Russians were all in in their support for the Serbs, the Germans equivocated and, very quickly, the lights went out.  In both empires, the war was considered defensive, started by the Russians and thus, a source of solidarity and determined nationalism.  We know that the Germans had a plan and they almost succeeded in the west and were deft enough to win in the east. Not so the Hapsburg armies. The Serbs repulsed them in less than a week and the Russians routed them within a month. Before the Germans turned the tide at Tannenberg, the Russians had raped, pillaged and plundered their way across East Prussia and Galicia in a manner that presaged the events of a generation later. Indeed, the author states that, between the Russians and the internecine bloodletting amongst the incredibly diverse races in the Hapsburg Crown lands, the 'bloodlands' started on this, and not the later, Eastern front.  Jews and ethnic Germans were particularly abused in the attempt to Russify the newly captured lands. "The Tsarist army's invasions in the east....offer the closest link between the the campaigns of 1914 and the genocidal horrors of the mid-twentieth century." The refugee crises that followed had differing consequences. The Germans welcomed their East Prussian neighbors and strengthened their resolve.  The Austrians deplored the hundreds of thousands Galician Jews and Ukrainians, felt put upon by their arrival and were angered that their breadbasket had been destroyed - not a positive or constructive civic response.  As the war progressed, though, it was the British who assumed the mantle of the archenemy in Germany. The blockade was, per the international rules of the era, illegal. Thus Britain's 'starvation war' grew into what the Germans were fighting.  As the war wore on, the Central powers knew they were over-matched and Germany militarized its society in order to find a strategy of survival.  Food shortages led to widespread starvation and a collapse of civic order in both empires. Then in early 1917, the Germans made the decision that guaranteed the loss of the war - they authorized unrestricted submarine warfare - and assured the US would join the Entente.  The irony of the timing of their decision is that the British were nearly bankrupt, the French as spent as they were, and most importantly, the Russians were a month away from removing the Tsar. The eventual collapse of Tsarist Russia, followed by the Bolshevik plea for peace offered Germany a chance to win prior to the American arrival changing the balance of forces. They shot their load in 1918, failed, and pretty much fell apart.  Let me set forth some of Watson's closing thoughts. "The First World War was a catastrophe for central and eastern Europe. The new republics that replaced the old,  discredited empires were themselves undermined by the war's bitter legacy. Impoverished, insecure and frequently with large, resentful minorities, most proved unstable. War had rent the fabric of their multi-ethnic societies and disastrously exacerbated racial divisions, bequeathing lasting antagonisms above all against older Jewish and new German minorities. Within a decade, there was little left of Wilson's new democratic order, for most of the east had fallen under the rule of autocratic strongmen."
                                                 As most of my reading on this topic for the past half century has been from the British or Entente perspective, this book has been an eye-opener.  It delves deeply into what was happening, what was thought and how the war was managed by the two key central powers.  Thus, I commend it to someone seeking to round out their understanding of the Great War. However, as good as this book is, I found that its lack of attention to the goings on on the fronts to be a minus.The author is writing about matters from the perspective of the two Central powers, but assumes a vast knowledge of military history by his readers.  I'd vote for some more background on the actual fighting itself.