Jules Archer (1915–2008)

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The wonder of History as a study is how much of what sounds new and apocalyptically nightmarish to you is, in fact, the latest of many iterations of the same bull. Humans seek patterns, and novelty; "this is unprecedented! and it's just like this thing that happened way back when!" sums it up.

Author Jules Archer (1915 – 2008) was a prolific popular writer on history for all ages. He grew up in New York City during show more times of great changes and the fomenting of radical opposition to the status quo. He saw, firsthand, the causes of the New Deal's legislation. He spent a lot of time in later life using the free college education that New Yorkers of sufficient academic achievements were at that time entitled to explaining the country, and history itself, to others.

This book was published first in 1973, in the soft, rotten middle of the Watergate hearings. The timing, and the subject, were chosen carefully. Remembering your history, younger-than-50s, you'll recall we as a country were in the throes of indicting and removing an actual criminal from the presidency, as well as losing a war in Asia. That war left the country with a lot of badly damaged men and no jobs for them when they returned to civilian life.

Any of this ringing some bells?

So Jules Archer, explainer extraordinaire (seriously, go look at his bibliography!), reached into his own past for an analogous passage of disastrously concatenated events and found World War I, the Bonus Army, and the very little spoken-of Businessmans' Coup of 1933. "We have been here before," said Archer, "and the country survived."

The hero of this piece is a man of whom I guarantee you have not heard. General Smedley Darlington Butler is one of those figures that appear all too seldom, the Man of Conscience whose principles are strong and whose moral compass, whether or not it's calibrated as is one's own, is clearly aligned with honor on every axis. The plotters of this heinous act of subversion as Archer details it chose exactly and precisely the wrong man to execute their plot. (Goddesses please accept our thanks that they didn't approach Douglas MacArthur!) He blew so many whistles and did so with such enormous credibility and evidence that the entire plot had to be abandoned.

Not to say the idea went away. We've seen that in our own time.

After reading this book, your illusions about this unique moment in history being absolutely the awfulest, most scum-ridden, darkest passage in the US will perforce vanish. But you'll also, I hope, read it and think, "this isn't the first time?! Holy maloley, we'd better pay attention!" Because I'm entirely sure that was the aim of Jules Archer's project in writing many explanatory books about history over many decades.

***There are links to resources for further background on many topics in this review on my blog as well as a non-affiliate link to the Kindle editionof the book for $1.99 (as of 21 May). show less

We need to understand the frailty of our civilization from reading our deeper history. Reading this before our own time's attempted coup on Jan. 6 gave me the willies. Our democracy is a work in progress, evolving from a slave holding society to an ever more inclusive one and it is ever in danger from corruption from within.

This book concerns a little known, but potentially catastrophic, incident in American history when an apparent fascist plot was uncovered, led by prominent US industrialists, to overthrow president Franklin Roosevelt in 1933-34. The plot was to have been led by retired Marine General Smedley Butler, who, however, was a patriot and a supporter of FDR and his progressive New Deal policies, and refused to be involved, instead causing the alleged plot to be investigated by the newly formed House show more Unamerican Activities Committee (which was at this stage a more balanced investigative body and not the crude right wing one it later became under Senator Joseph McCarthy). Nevertheless, it isn't clear to what extent there was a genuine plot, as opposed to arrogant boasting and flirting with the far right on the part of conservative businessmen, and later historians seem to have generally believed that there probably was not a lot of substance behind it. Butler believed it was genuine, though, and deserves credit for acting on that belief. He sounds like an interesting character and this book is largely a biography of this man, with the best part of half of the text devoted to his military career starting in the Spanish American War of 1898, chronicling his growing belief that he and his fellow marines were being used, and sacrificed, in order to protect private US economic interests, rather than the country's genuine defence needs. This stemmed from his Quaker upbringing, which still influenced him despite his successful career in the armed forces. After his exposure of the would be plot, so strong grew his hostility to the US being involved in any future war overseas, that he came to oppose FDR's attempts to temper US isolationism in light of the growing threat of fascism in Europe in the late 1930s. By the end, his ultra pacifism comes across as rather naive and simplistic, given the existential threat that Nazism posed to liberal democracy. His early death in 1940 just before the Fall of France prevented his seeing his beloved country join the war effort against the Axis, but one wonders whether he would have tempered that pacifism in light of events as the war unfolded. The book is interesting, but rather repetitive and perhaps a bit sensationalist in places, though as it was written in the early 1970s, the author was able to interview surviving participants in the events, including one of the two senators who investigated the plot. show less

Our family loves this book, and we even quote passages. We thought it would be dry and maybe boring, but Archer brings these figures to life. It started as a bedtime book, but we all wanted to hear the next story right away. The John Adams quotes in chapter 3 are priceless. This little bitty book of colonial American history unexpectedly became a family favorite!