Conflict Castle (petermc), 2010

The 2010 Book List

May
16. Dambusters: A Landmark Oral History by Max Arthur

April
15. Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham
14. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
13. The Glory of the Trenches by Coningsby Dawson

March
12. Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets by David Stafford
11. Clausewitz's On War: A Biography by Hew Strachan
10. With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda
09. Churchill and Secret Service by David Stafford
08. Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham

February
07. Carry On: Letters in Wartime by Coningsby Dawson
06. Churchill and America by Martin Gilbert
05. The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki
04. Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945 by Carlo D'este

January
03. The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke
02. The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorised Australia And The Southern Oceans In The First World War by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen
01. BONNIE-SUE: A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam by Marion F. Sturkey

Your topic title is awesome. I'm starring you so that I know what to pick up from the library for my history major husband, he'll be so impressed with my keen sense of choice.

Waving hello!

#2 Lynda - Thanks for the compliment. I hope you find something in next years thread (or even this year's) to recommend to that lucky man :)

#3 Cait - Waving hello right back :)

Glad to see you back, Peter! I am sure I will be stealing tons of your recommendations for the BlackHole.

Found you - you sure you have enough war categories there?! Looking forward to reading all your reviews!

Welcome back!

#6 Cushla - "...you sure you have enough war categories there?!"

You should have seen the list before I pared it down!

Not the most peaceful of threads . . . :) . . . but I've got you starred!

The most intimidating title of the challenge... You certainly keep us on our toes with nonfiction selections of the highest quality.

#9 / 10 - It might not be for everybody, but I appreciate your support and interest :)

I hope what I'm doing here is in some small way a tribute to all those who fought, suffered and died for their respective causes. They deserve to be remembered, and books help us to do that.

#11: I hope what I'm doing here is in some small way a tribute to all those who fought, suffered and died for their respective causes. They deserve to be remembered, and books help us to do that.

I understand that sentiment and read about the wars and the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement for exactly the same reason. The people deserve to be remembered.

*11/12 Amen!

Count me in, as one of your loyal band members!

Thank you :)

A very quick book question for you... I bought John Keegan's The Iraq War by accident (a lapse in a bookshop)! Have you read it, or heard anything reliable about it? It's got two terrible, terrible reviews here on LT but that just doesn't fit with his WW2 book and his reputation.

Edited to add: Merry Christmas - only 7 hours away for you now!

#16 Cushla - I'm not sure how you accidentally buy a book on the Iraq War, but there you go! ;)

I have not read Keegan's The Iraq War, but I have browsed through it's covers on the odd occasion. For an overview of Iraq history, Saddam Hussein, his regime and wars, leading up to the 2003 "Iraq War"; covering the military planning and execution of the invasion on the US and British sides, you won't regret buying this book.

Most bad reviews seem to dwell on the fact that a book called "The Iraq War" should give greater coverage of the 2003 invasion, and it's aftermath, i.e. 'the insurgency'. That it doesn't bring anything new to the table. And that Keegan fails to pursue issues in any great analytical depth. In his defence, this book was published in 2004, and tries to pack in a lot of history at only a little over 200 pages in length.

I'll look forward to your review.

Happy reading and Happy Christmas to you and your loved ones. Thanks for the enjoyment you've provided me in 2009, in both my threads and yours :)

Cushla - that remark makes me laugh. 'Accidentally buying a book' - a great line to use on my hubbie next time I walk in with 10 books and no food.

"I was really going out for milk but somehow missed the store and ended up with these instead........ Who needs milk on their cereal, anyway?

I have heard great things about Keegan - although straight military stories are not my greatest love. I do think reviews on LT can sometimes be poor indicators of excellence depending on taste and interest.

and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family, Peter. Your kids must be so excited!

#19 Karen - ...and a Very Merry Christmas to you and all your loved ones :)

Christmas this year was especially exciting for Mikey (3 years), who for the first time had some sort of concept of what Christmas meant - in the completely materialistic sense that is ;) He loved it, my wife and I loved it! Just another day for Rafe (9 months) however :) Christmas Day is not a holiday here in Japan - business as usual - but I took the day off anyway, and the four of us went to a local Vietnamese restaurant for lunch (where else?). Thanks for all your support in 2009, and here's to 2010 :)

Edit - badd spelllling

Oooh, I can't wait to see which 5 books you pick for WWI!

#21 Terri - Well, I'll finish my current WWI read in the first few days of 2010, which is the superlative The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorised The Southern Seas During The First World War by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen (currently available through Amazon UK).

Then, I'll be tackling The Devil's Chariots: The Birth & Secret Battles of the First Tanks by John Glanfield. Related to that, I have already started a WWI tanker's memoir called Life in a Tank by Richard Haigh, published in 1919.

I'm also thinking of tackling the recently released The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World by Holger H. Herwig, and The First Blitz by Neil Hanson.

In addition to those, I'm currently awaiting delivery on two orders: Stosstrupptaktik - the First Stormtroopers : German Assault Troops of the First World War by Stephen Bull, and Meetings in No Man's Land: Christmas 1914 and Fraternisation in the Great War by French historian Marc Ferro (originally published as Frères de tranchées).

That should give you some idea :)

*Heavy Sigh*

. . . from me, too.

Stop the Press!

Add, The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, to that order list. And, I really have to do something about my poor copy of The Battle of the Frontiers, Ardennes 1914 by Terence Zuber, which has been sitting neglected on the bedside table for far too long!

Talking of Zuber, I've also got a HUGE pile of articles to get through from the excellent War in History journal, covering a 10 year period, in which a spirited debate was fought over whether there really was a 'Schlieffen Plan' in WWI. Zuber claimed not, and published his thesis with Inventing the Schlieffen Plan: German War Planning, 1871-1914.

As for those "heavy sighs".... I hope you're not all coming down with something ;)

#22 I'll be interested to hear what you think of The Devil's Chariots. My son, Mr.15-next-month, is fascinated with tanks, especially after getting to ride in one on a visit to his grandmother in England. Well, it wasn't her tank, but belonged to a friend. It sounds like a very interesting book, with its focus on the development of new technology and the political maneuvering that went with it. Hmmm, maybe a birthday present....

You are KILLING me.

#25: As for those "heavy sighs".... I hope you're not all coming down with something ;)

Yea - it's called 'adding to the BlackHole already-itis.'

#26 - Thanks for dropping by. Watch this space - I plan to read and review The Devil's Chariots later this month.

You might also be interested in checking out the following books, which I have taken directly from own wishlist. These were recommended to me by a source I respect, and they may interest your son: A New Excalibur: The Development of the Tank 1909-1939 by A.J. Smithers (published 1986, but used copies are not expensive), Band of Brigands: The First Men in Tanks by Christy Campbell, Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the First Great Tank Battle by Bryn Hammond, and Tank Action in the Great War: The Moon at Fontaine by Ian Verrinder.

#27 Terri - Just to drive in the final nails on the coffin....

Also slated for reading in 2010, and related to WWI, are the following biographical books (all in my library): Lawrence of Arabia: Mirage of a Desert War by Adrian Greaves, Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari by Pat Shipman, and Siegfried Sassoon: A Study of the War Poetry by Patrick Campbell.

Unfortunately, my copy of Siegfried Sassoon: A Life by Max Egremont, is in Australia (6,000+ kms away) so I might have to wait until 2011 before tackling that one.

#28 Stasia - LOL :)

First book completed for 2010 (99% read in 2009), is BONNIE-SUE: A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam by Marion F. Sturkey. Brilliant book, highly recommended, interim comments in my last thread, formal review pending.

I already put that one in the BlackHole in 2009, so I dodged a bullet there!

Second book completed for 2010 (99% read in 2009) is The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorised Australia And The Southern Oceans In The First World War by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen. Brilliant book, highly recommended, interim comments in my last thread, formal review pending.

Hey Peter, I hope you and the family enjoyed the holidays. You're starred again.

I'll probably be adding some of the WWI books to the tbr pile, have you read Gudmundsson's Stormtroop Tactics? I have it on the shelf but haven't gotten to it yet.

I'll be interested to see what you read for the First Indochina War section. Actually I'll be interested to see what you read for all of your topics.

I am so jealous. You rave and rave about The Wolf, and it doesn't even come out here until April. You are the salt in my wounds. I don't even know why I keep you starred.

**grumbles off to start reading the other 5 million WWI books you've recommended**

#34: I am going grumbling right along with you, Terri, so at least you will have company!

#33 Mike - I'm afraid I haven't read Bruce Gudmundsson's Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918. In deciding which book to buy on the topic, it was a toss up between Gudmundsson or Bull. Two things persuaded me in the end - price, and a comment I read once which stated that Gudmundsson's book laid the foundations for Bull's. I have little doubt I'll end up with both books in my library eventually. Until then, maybe you'd consider cracking the cover on your copy sometime this year. It would be interesting to compare notes :)

As for the First Indochina War section... I had originally just had "Vietnam War" as one of my 1010 sub-challenge categories, but the more I looked into it I realised I couldn't ignore the First Indochina War and it's impact on subsequent events. So, the category was renamed.

I have two books lined up on 'The Anti-French War', and they are perhaps the two most obvious ones - Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, both by Bernard B. Fall (RIP). A number of books have been written on 'The Siege of Dien Bien Phu' (1954), and it is often parallelled with Khe Sanh in 1968. I hope to read a book specific to that battle as well during the course of this year. Any recommendations always gratefully received.

Thank you for your good wishes. It was a wonderful, albeit exhausting, holiday, and I wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow! I'd spend every day at home with these two terrors if I could...

What beautiful boys! I cannot believe how big they are getting.

I read one of Fall's books last year, VietNam Witness, and would not be averse to reading more of his books. I will be looking forward to your reviews.

#34 Terri - My sincere and most humble thanks for 'staring' me. My only desire is that I don't lead you to any disappointments.

#37 Stasia - Thank you for the compliments, and VietNam Witness noted!

Your boys are exquisite. You are very fortunate indeed.

You are fortunate, indeed, Peter! What I can't figure out is how at my house they went from looking very much like yours to looking like this in what seems like the blink of an eye!

Don't turn your back for a minute!

Really gorgeous boys you have there - what a handful. Do you have many Australian picturebooks for them or do you just read Japanese ones. I just had some fun thinking of some real dinkum classics: Koala Lou, Possum Magic, Wombat Stew, The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek, Are we there yet?.
Your reading categories are so impressive. I've got you starred again and am looking forward to your reviews this coming year. I might manage a Spanish Civil War history and a reread of Homage to Catalonia.

#39 Deborah - Thank you. I appreciate your kind words. I think we can attribute their good looks to their mother. Yesterday, my two guys briefly appeared on Japanese television. Right place, right time, in one of those hidden camera on the street type shows. I won't go into details, but I wish I was as photogenic!

#40 Marilyn - Thank you too! And thank you for sharing your own photograph. If my guys grow up to look anything like yours, I will consider myself fortunate indeed.

I read your profile and noticed that your great-great-grandparents came from Riseley in Bedfordshire. I have no links to that area, but I do have a strong interest in genealogy; having traced my family tree back to 1300. My first ancestor (as far as I can ascertain) who came to the US was a military man, who accompanied the reviled and corrupt cross-dressing Lord Cornbury (British Governor of New York and New Jersey between 1701 and 1708). I won't bore you with the full story :)

#41 Kerry - It goes without saying that you are starred as well. You were the source of so many fantastic recommendations last year - one of which, "The Wolf", I just finished. Thank you. I plan on reading the Orwell and Beevor Spanish War books in my 'Other Conflicts' category this year.

*ehon - Japanese word for 'picture book', using a combination of the Kanji 'e' meaning 'picture', and 'hon' meaning 'book'.

Review

BONNIE-SUE: A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam by Marion F. Sturkey
Heritage Press International (1997)

"Military rank, social status, and financial standing meant nothing here. We were all equal, all brothers, all proud professionals, all Marines. We gloried in our tradition, in our brotherhood, and in our sacred trust that can be broken by nothing other than death itself. Together we shared the passion, the love, the horror, the incommunicable experience of Marines at war. We lived and flew in the presence of death, but we were never more alive.

"All of us were young, with hearts and spirits touched by fire. Years later, our survival would become our victory." - p.475

---------------------------------

Marion F. Sturkey, a graduate of the MARCAD Class 43-63, was a Marine Corps H-46 pilot in Vietnam with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265 (HMM-265), attached to Marine Air Group 16 (MAG-16), at the Marble Mountain Air Facility, Da Nang; and this book is his way of honouring that squadron and those who served in it. If any reminder is needed of the dangers faced by the pilots and crews of helicopters in Vietnam, then it is in the memoriam, at the start of the book, to the 28 Marines from HMM-265 who "made the Supreme Sacrifice in the noble cause of freedom during the course of the Vietnam War".

After a brief prologue in which Sturkey recounts the history of Vietnam leading up to the Second Indochina War, the bulk of the text over the following ten chapters covers HMM-265 operations from July 1966 in Operation Hastings, to the Marine victory at the Siege of Khe Sanh in April 1968.

Utilizing "After-Action-Reports, Unit Diaries, and hundreds of records from the Marine Corps Archives", Sturkey creates a compelling chronological history of the Bonnie-Sue squadron, weaving in the stories of its pilots, crew members, and the infantry men on the ground. Part memoir, part squadron history, part popular history, part oral history, "Bonnie-Sue" suffers something of an identity crises and tries to be a little of each; yet Sturkey makes it work with his passion, engaging writing, and judicious use of resources. Marines, veterans, military buffs, historians, and lay readers, will all find something to enjoy within its 509 pages.

I highly recommend "Bonnie-Sue" and was genuinely sorry to finish it.

Chapter by chapter excerpts and summaries of "Bonnie-Sue", as well as information on other books by Marion F. Sturkey can be found at the author's website - USMC Press. Another book by a former HMM-265 pilot is 1500 Feet Over Vietnam: A Marine Helicopter Pilot's Diary by Bruce R. Lake

That sounds like a really worthwhile read, Peter. Thanks.

I have started a really good book this week The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter, which tells of the three imperial cousins and their fate - Russia, Prussia and English 'Kings'. A really excellent read, although with over 500 pages, I won't be posting for a while.

Your kids are just gorgeous. They also look like they loved being photographed.

Beautiful Boys, Peter! They're so cute that they make me want to forgive you for everything. Good job!

#44 Karen - The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One looks very interesting and I look forward to your eventual review. Thank you for your kind comments, and yes, my older boy loves the camera!

#45 Terri - Thanks :)

In my review of "Bonnie-Sue" (see #43) I give mention of Bruce Lake's book 1500 Feet Over Vietnam: A Marine Helicopter Pilot's Diary. Unfortunately, this book is out of print and prices are a little high, but for those who are interested, you can watch an April 2009 interview with the author, accessible through the HMM-265 Veterans Association website, or directly at TRUVEO.

Just found your thread. Very interesting. Regarding the Spanish Civil War, I've always found that event quite fascinating. I haven't read either the Beevor or the Orwell you mention, but both are on my shelves awaiting, and the Beevor, which I just purchased, is on my short list. Here is my rather short but, I think ( :) ), interesting library of Spanish Civil War books: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/rocketjk&tag=spanish%2Bcivil%2Bwar

Have you ever read Behind the Spanish Barricades by John Langdon-Davies? Langdon-Davies was a British journalist who went around Spain on his motorcycle during the war, writing about what he saw. His goal was to drum up popular support for the loyalists in England, hoping to put pressure on the government to come to their support. He failed in that attempt, but the book is still fascinating. War is Beautiful is also an on-the-scene memoir that was only published in 2008 because the manuscript was thought lost for decades by the author's family. It, too, is on my short TBR list.

I note that you don't have the American Revolutionary War on your list. Do you include books about that war on your "other wars" list or is it just not an area of interest to you?

Cheers, and I'll be following along this year.

Jerry

#48 Jerry - Great to have you on board.

Thank you very much for the link and your recommendations on the Langdon-Davies and Neugass books. I hadn't planned to read extensively on the Spanish Civil War this year, but those titles have certainly whetted my appetite. One other book I've been thinking of tackling is My Mission to Spain: Watching the Rehearsal for World War II (1954) by Claude Bowers, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Spain during the conflict.

As for the American Revolutionary War, I'm definitely interested, and am considering 1776 by David McCullough, and Almost A Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence by John Ferling, but have not made any firm decisions.

Ah, too many wars, too many books...

#49> Too many wars, for sure. By the way, I read 1776 and Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer one after the other and found them terrific companion pieces, as the latter picks up basically where the former leaves off, and both are very well written. I am not familiar with the Ferling book.

I second the recommendation of 1776. It is very good.

I was going to third the rec, but then I realized I don't actually own this book - must have retained a good vibe from others people's recs. Have added to own wishlist in order to correct error. Must check couch for runaway change so that can make purchase soon....

Peter - Just found you, apparently a bit late. I'm posting so I can follow more easily from here on.

#53 Daniel - It's great to have you back on board. I was getting worried that I hadn't seen you about for a while. I've checked your profile page for a link to your 2010 thread, but I can't find it! Please pop back with a link when it's up :)

A day in the life...

My copy of Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975 by A.J. Langguth, finally arrived today! I was convinced it had gotten lost in the mail - it has been so long! I guess it was just a victim of the silly season - i.e. Christmas.

I also came home today to find that our TV was wearing a fine new silver box that delivers my much needed dose of brainless entertainment in High Definition - Yippee!

Talking of Vietnam and TV, today I picked up a copy of the Oscar Winning 2004 documentary "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara".

Keeping right on with the TV theme, tonight I relaxed with another episode from "James May's Toy Stories". If you aren't aware of this fantastic 6-part series from those fabulous people at the BBC, then buy the DVD, or even better, pick up the book named (strangely enough) James May's Toy Stories (currently available at Amazon UK). You won't regret it!

Peter - I haven't really gotten going yet this year, and my profile and thread have both been sadly neglected. You can find my thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/81181

#56 Daniel - Thanks :)

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Completed: The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke. Third book for 2010 and a third high recommendation. What a great start to the year!

#36 - I'm going to try and read Stormtroop Tactics this year and I'll obviously let you know what I think. I was fortunate and found it used for less then $10.

I have Fall's Hell in a Very Small Place and VietNam Witness on the shelf, I would like to read at least one of them this year as well.

#49 - I'll add my recommendation to 1776, I haven't read Almost a Miracle but Ferling also wrote The Ascent of George Washington which was one of my top books for 2009.

#57: I read Clarke's book on Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor Ghosts, so I will definitely be up for reading The Last Campaign. Thanks for the recommendation, Peter.

#58 Mike - "...I haven't read Almost a Miracle but Ferling also wrote The Ascent of George Washington which was one of my top books for 2009."

Crikey! You're quite right! I wonder if the penny would have dropped if you hadn't pointed that out to me?

By the way, I now have copies of 1776 and Washington's Crossing, which Jerry (Message #50) recommended as good companion pieces.

#59 Stasia - I'm on the look out for Pearl Harbor Ghosts!

--------------------------

Now I've finished my daily commute read (i.e. The Last Campaign), I'm wondering what to replace it with. Right now by my side I have two very strong contenders: A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East by Patrick Tyler, and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. But, first I think I'll tackle the 700 pages that make up Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War by Carlo D'Este.

I hope you get a chance to read Pearl Harbor Ghosts, Peter. I would like to see your take on the book.

Remember Bill Bailey from that book-lover's British television comedy "Black Books"?

Well, now you can remember him from that bird-watcher-lover's British 6-part reality television show "Bill Bailey's Birdwatching Bonanza" (that's BBBB to you and me)!

Yes, he's back, pitting celebrity team against celebrity team in twitchathons, and other ornithological challenges. There's campfire banter and the beauty of rural Britain. It's showing on Sky1 and Sky1HD, and it's on now!

I'm a bird watcher, I'm a Bill Bailey fan, could this be television Nirvana?

#60 - for what it's worth, I read the beginning of Nixonland (first chapter?) some time last year and it was brilliant. I look forward to actually reading the whole thing.

I'm adding the RFK book to my wishlists. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Let me also highly recommend Nixonland, which I read last year.

Review

The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorised Australia And The Southern Oceans In The First World War by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen
William Heinemann (2009)

For 444 days, from November 1916 to February 1918, Kapitän Karl Nerger kept his ship, the German commerce raider SMS Wolf, at sea in one unbroken voyage that traversed three of the four major oceans, evading the combined allied navies of Britain, France, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. While traveling more than 64,000 miles without pulling into port, Nerger laid mine fields off several major allied ports, captured and sunk thirty ships in excess of 138,000 tons, and surpassed the feats of the celebrated raiders SMS Emden and SMS Seeadler; while languishing in relative historical obscurity.

With nearly 750 prisoners of war aboard, Nerger contended with disease, dissent, and disciplinary matters on a daily basis. An aloof figure, he ruled his ship with an iron fist that saw it achieve it's aims with just a handful of casualties. After the war, memoirs written by crew and prisoners alike, while often critical, would also pay due credit to Nerger's extraordinary seamanship, and honourable conduct. But, for all that, Nerger would meet the most ignoble of ends; beaten to death with an iron bar in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp over a pair of shoes, in the winter of 1947.

In The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorised Australia And The Southern Oceans In The First World War, authors Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen provide a compelling and well written account of the SMS Wolf's adventures from her conception to her exploits as a raider during the First World War. Utilizing memoirs, personal diaries and photographs gleaned from archives and the descendants of the ship's crew and prisoners, Guilliatt and Hohnen also create a very intimate and human story that will appeal to those who are normally put off by dry, impersonal histories. This is popular history at it's best.

Peter Hohnen was a prominent Australian lawyer and commander in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve. His great-uncle, Alexander Ross Ainsworth, was a chief engineer aboard the steamship Matunga, which was captured and sunk by the SMS Wolf in August 1917.

Richard Guilliatt is an Australia journalist who has worked as a feature writer with several major Australian newspapers, and as a freelance writer based in New York (1986-1993). In 2000 he won Australia's highest award for journalism, the Walkley Award.

#66 Wow, Peter! That sounds amazing!

Another one for my reading list . . . :)

#66: I already put that one in the BlackHole, so I do not have to add it again. Whew! Dodging book bullets is hard work.

#67 Terri - Thanks! According to Amazon this won't be available in the US until later this year, but you can get it from Amazon's UK site :)

#68 Stasia - I must admit, I'm a bit tardy with my reviews :(

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Working across the road from a bookstore is not good. Every time I venture in there, I come away with a list of books I just have to read!

Today I added Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang, and Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations, and Design of the Metro* by Mark Ovenden.

* May I just say at this point that I have never, at any time, been a trainspotter, but as a Francophile this book is pure eye-candy!

#69: Every time I venture in there, I come away with a list of books I just have to read!

I have the same problem with LT. How do you suggest we fix this difficulty?

Nice review of The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorised Australia And The Southern Oceans In The First World War. I won't be getting to that anytime soon, but glad that you enjoyed it so much.
Re - all the Churchill books that you and others have been recommending. Where or how does his 6 volume war memoir fit in?

When I worked at a library I was always coming across interesting books while scanning the returns. We had a shelf right where we worked to put books that caught our interest and it was nearly always full when I was on duty!

#66, 69 Thanks for the info, Peter. I used it to grab the library record for my wishlist! As for the book, I'll be waiting for it to show up over here . . .

#71 Kerry - Thanks again for the heads up on "The Wolf" :)

Re: Churchill's "The Second World War" - Excellent memoir. Won the Nobel Prize in 1953. Churchill focuses on the lead up to WWII, the conflict itself, and his role in it. Read the other books however for a complete biographical picture of the man and his life. Each biography has a slightly different focus - my current read (Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War) concentrates on Churchill's military career, and how it shaped his role as "warlord".

Churchill was a prolific writer. Two of his earliest books - The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898), and The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan (1899) - are still the authoritative works on these battles for Empire! Battles he took part in as a correspondent and as a young subaltern.

#72 Terri - Happy to be of help :)

I was able to put Warlord on hold at the local college library. I am so excited!

Dispatches from the bowels of Conflict Castle

- If you asked me, "Peter, what would you most like to find on a visit to a second-hand bookstore?"; I would invariably answer, "I'd most like to find a well-regarded, out of print, hard to find military memoir, that is in excellent condition and criminally underpriced. An autographed copy would be the jackpot!"

Well today I won the jackpot, and I add the Vietnam memoir Man of the River: Memoir of a Brown Water Sailor in Vietnam, 1968-1969 by Jimmy R. Bryant, SMC USN Ret., to the permanent collection.

- Also bought today, the hardback edition of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase of Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. I love quirky covers, and this has one of those half-height dustjackets revealing half of the glossy, decorated hardcovers. My favourite dustjacket design however belongs to the hardback edition of Coldest Winter: The America and the Korean War by David Halberstam.

- I haven't talked much on my threads about my love for Jazz. And while my collection of LPs and CDs is quite extensive, my library is not! Recent conversations with Kidzdoc however, had me browsing the very, very, very small (one book) English language Jazz section of my nearest bookstore today, and so I came to spend 30 minutes with Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe.

Good grief, does a sentence pass by without some expletive? Reading as many military memoirs as I have, and having worked on various Australian mine sites, swearing normally runs off my back like water off a duck's; but this was beyond the pale and it felt like forced jive, which made it worse. Agghh!

Congratulations on hitting the book jackpot today, Peter!

I enjoyed Manhunt when I read it several years ago. I would say Swanson really did his research. I hope you also enjoy the book.

I think I will skip the Miles Davis book, thank you very much.

I saw Manhunt on a table at my Mom's house the other day and almost took it. Mom's house is generally a way-station, though, so if it was on the table, someone probably put it there specifically for someone else to pick it up. If it's still there the next time, though, it's mine!

Review

The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke
Henry Holt and Co. (2008)

"I'm afraid there are guns between me and the White House" - Robert F. Kennedy (1968)

"In 1968, America was a wounded nation," opens Thurston Clarke in the prologue to his 2008 account of Robert F. Kennedy's 82-day campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States in the spring and early summer of 1968. At war in Vietnam, with inner-city riots on the home front, and "federal troops patrolling the streets of American cities for the first time since the Civil War," Kennedy promised to heal the nations moral wounds; offering "a way in which the people themselves can lead the way back to those ideals which are the source of national strength and generosity and compassion of deed."

Announcing his candidacy on March 16, "Sock it to 'em Bobby" threw himself passionately into the causes that he felt central to the "moral crises" his country had fallen into; issues of "race, poverty, and an ill-advised and unpopular war." Causes that aroused admiration and hate. As many acknowledged, those who loved him did so passionately and those who hated him did so with equal passion. Haunted by the assassination of his brother, believing that guns stood between himself and the White House, Robert Kennedy nevertheless refused to moderate his views, hide from the voters, or pander to his audiences; often admonishing them, for they "were individually responsible for what their government had done in their name in Vietnam and for what it had failed to do at home for minorities and the poor."

Deeply affected by the plight of African-Americans, Hispanics, Native American Indians, the poor and disenfranchised in modern-day America, Kennedy battled for and won their trust - a trust Kennedy did not betray, keeping their issues at the forefront of his campaign, visiting them in the ghettos and reservations, listening to their grievances without insulting them with pat answers or easy solutions. In turn they rewarded him with over 90% of the black and hispanic votes in the crucial California primary in which he narrowly triumphed over McCarthy.

Overjoyed at the result, but tired and exhausted, Kennedy addressed his ecstatic supporters in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at midnight on the 4-5th July, promising to heal the country's many divisions. Just minutes later, after Kennedy made an unexpected and uncharacteristic decision to exit via the hotel pantry, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot shocked the happy throng. Robert F. Kennedy had been shot in the head with a .22-caliber revolver at point-blank range. He died on the morning of July 6th. For many it was the death of their collective dreams and hopes for a better America.

Thurston Clarke opens his book with a deeply moving description of Kennedy's final journey as the 21-car funeral train, "its engine draped in black bunting, carried Kennedy’s body from his funeral in New York to his burial in Washington." Rivaled only by Abraham Lincoln's funeral train, "two million people would head for the tracks, wading through marshes, hiking across meadows, and slithering under fences, filling tenement balconies, clambering onto factory roofs, standing in junkyards and cemeteries, peering down from bridges, viaducts, and bluffs, placing 100,000 coins on the tracks, waving hand-lettered GOODBYE BOBBY signs, and forging a 226-mile-long chain of grief and despair."

A beautifully written, superbly researched, and powerful testament to Robert F. Kennedy's legacy; this chronological history takes us deep to the heart of that 82-day campaign. Highly recommended.

#78: Nice review, Peter!

#79 Stasia - Thank you for reading, and your kind comment. I've been tweaking this on and off most of the day. I think I'm happy with it now :)

You need to post it to the book page so I can give it a thumbs up!

#81 Stasia - How can I say no to a thumb? Review posted :)

Hey, I must've beat Stasia to it! First thumb! May there be many more thumbs to come for your wonderful review of The Last Campaign. It's already on my list, but I am definitely moving it up in priority! Our county library has it, so it will be easy for me to obtain.

#83 Terri - Shucks! Thanks :)

The thumbs just keep accruing!

Outstanding review, Peter. Even though I was only 7 when Bobby died, I have become deeply saddened by his death and what his presidency could potentially have meant for this country. Even if he hadn't become president, he would have been a strong moral voice for so many groups and individuals. I'll definitely add this to my wish list, and I may even pick it up this weekend.

I agree with you about Miles: The Autobiography. Was all that foul language really necessary, even if he did talk like that?

Oh, another "jazz" book I loved is Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray, which consists of a series of letters that these two friends sent to each other over 10-20+ years. Many of the letters have to do with the 1950s NYC jazz scene, as Ellison was living in the city; I think that Murray was mainly teaching at Tuskegee College in Alabama for most of that time. Both men were traditionalists, and preferred Ellington and Basie to Monk and Davis. Your comment about Miles' autobiography reminded me of it, as Ellison skewered Davis in at least one of his letters.

#86: I am in the 'traditionalist' camp for jazz, too, although I am trying to expand my listening in the other.

I am putting Trading Twelves in the BlackHole.

#86 Darryl - Thank you for your kind words, and I hope you do read The Last Campaign. Not being American I would never have appreciated the sentiments you expressed regarding Robert Kennedy and what his presidency could potentially have meant for America, until I read this book. Now that I have read it, I also find myself deeply saddened, and find myself wondering "what could have been?"

Thank you too for the recommendation on Trading Twelves. It goes on a short wish list I've been compiling recently, which includes not only the book you recently reviewed, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D. G. Kelley, but also Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story Between the Great Wars by William A. Shack, and the 1000-page bruiser Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now by Robert Gottlieb. As you might recall, I already have Garry Giddins' excellent Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, so I'd also like to grab his earlier Visions of Jazz: The First Century.

Today, I've been listening to my LPs: Roy Haynes Sextet (1954), Thelonious Monk's Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1 (1952), and that classic of Miles Davis' - Kind of Blue (1959).

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Thanks to everyone that thumbed my last review - I think four is a record for me :)

I read Visions of Jazz a couple of years ago. I sat with the book and as Giddins was discussing various artists, pulled up their music on Youtube. It was great!

You're quite welcome, Peter. My local Borders has is it in stock, so I'll buy The Last Campaign (and Beasts of No Nation) today or tomorrow.

Harlem in Montmartre goes immediately onto my wish list, especially since I'll almost certainly take my first trip to Paris later this year.

I don't have the "Roy Haynes Sextet" album; how is it?

I'll have to look to see what's on my iPod to determine which album to review. Oh, I may download or buy the new Robert Glasper CD, Double Booked, but I prefer to listen to an album a few times before I review it.

#90 Darryl - My Roy Haynes LP is a Japanese 1998 reissue of the 1954 French album, which is called Roy Haynes "Modern Group" on the rear cover. It's an album I've grown to like a lot! Haynes is often thought of as a sideman (having played with so many of the great names in Jazz), but his skill as a leader is too often overlooked. He ties the band together with his innovative, yet tight work on the drums, keeping the sound fresh without ever losing control. He let's Wilen and Cameron really shine in this recording, and Renaud (who actually traveled to the US for the first time that same year) is a joy to listen to on piano.

Details on this recoding can be found HERE

Thanks, Peter; I'll check out that album later this week.

I finished Visions of Jazz late last year. A very good collection of jazz essays. It's funny, despite being a huge jazz fan, former freelance jazz journalist and currently the host of a weekly jazz radio show, I've read very few books about jazz recently. Last year I did read an interesting history about the early days of San Francisco jazz called Jazz on the Barbary Coast. Harlem of the West, about the glory days of the Fillmore neighborhood in the 40s, 50s and 60s, is another very well done history of the San Francisco jazz scene that I read recently.

btw, you can hear my jazz show every Monday afternoon, 2:00 to 4:00 Pacific time, live at www.kzyx.org.

#92 Darryl - Enjoy :)

#93 Jerry - I suppose, like wine, you learn a lot more by sampling it than reading about it! That has been my basic approach to Jazz anyway. But, as a bit of a history buff, I like to indulge myself occasionally in a good book about the subjects I love.

On high rotation currently is Lee Morgan's 1957 Lee Morgan, Vol. 3 (details). Morgan enjoyed his greatest commercial success with Sidewinder in 1963, but I've always preferred this earlier effort. There honestly isn't a weak track on the set!

I might just have to add Delightfulee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan (Jazz Perspectives) by Jeffery S. McMillan, to the wish list.

Progress Report

As I work my way through Mosaic's 1995 limited 4-CD compilation box set (#162) of The Complete Blue Note Lee Morgan Fifties Sessions, I thought I'd quickly take note of where I am in my reading...

- Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham - (Currently: Page 115) What a refreshing change to see the Vietnam War from an Australian point of view*. Aussies were in Vietnam from 1962. The first unit was the "The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam" (AATTV). Initially, the specially selected officers and warrant officers were sent to train the ARVN in the use of weapons, jungle warfare, tactics and strategy; but soon found themselves leading from the front in combat roles. They were to become Australia's most decorated unit of the war, with 4 Victoria Crosses, before being pulled out in 1972.

- Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War by Carlo D'este - (Currently: Page 344) What a guy! Indefatigable is the operative word I think. Next time you read that Churchill was relegated to the political backwater between the world wars, just remember that out of office he may have been, but out of the game? No way! Holding court with some of the top military and political minds of the period, visited by European dignitaries regularly, he was the only man who was ready to lead Britain come the crises.

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* I looked up "Australia" in my recently acquired copy of Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975 by A. J. Langguth, and it rates one mention - in a list of participating countries. Australian Brigadier Ted Serong is not in the index at all! I suppose "OUR" really does mean "OUR" (i.e. America). Oh! Who is Ted Serong? From wikipedia (because it's easier to copy and paste)...

In Vietnam, as well as heading the Australian training team, Serong was appointed senior adviser on counterinsurgency to the commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, serving under General Paul D. Harkins and then General William Westmoreland. These links, forged with the US military, were to determine his future career path. When his command of the AATTV ended in 1965, he was seconded to the US State Department, essentially under the auspices of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to become senior adviser to South Vietnam's Police Field Force to develop paramilitary security, civil action and political operations.

Peter, just catching up on your thread and your review of The Last Campaign: is very moving and in itself thought provoking. I too wondered how my country would have been different had RFK survived and become elected. An absolute must for my husband's wishlist. A resounding thumbs up.

ETA: also enjoying the jazz discussion and searching iTunes for downloads. Looking forward to your review of Churchill, another fave of my hubby.

I am hoping to get hold of Warlord from the local college library soon - I put in the request for it last week. Sounds to me like it will be worth the wait!

#96 Lynda - Thank you :)

#97 Stasia - It is worth the wait! A first-class biography.

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Note: Also published in 2009, another book on Churchill as "Warlord", is Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 by Sir Max Hastings. I haven't read this volume, but it would be interesting to read a comparative review. Just from the titles I see that Carlo D'este has taken a much wider scope, covering 1874-1945, which really allows him to shed some historical insight on Churchill as Warlord during WWII.

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Personal Note: When D'este talks of Churchill carrying a sidearm in WWII, I was reminded of a diary entry made by my First Cousin (twice removed) during WWI. My cousin, who died in 1916 (posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross), was asked to take Churchill on a tour of the front lines. As they drove along in Churchill's Rolls Royce, Churchill asked him to get his revolver out from his coat pocket. My cousin wrote of it as a "beast...ready for action" :)

#98: What a great story about your cousin and Churchill! Thanks for sharing it, Peter.

I was thinking of you this morning, Peter. It's my son's 22nd birthday, and he is a fanatic about Japan. His personal hero is the director Kurosawa (sp?), and he watches Japanese movies all the time. He swears that someday he's going to learn Japanese so he can watch his movies without the subtitles. So I got him Japanese for Dummies for a birthday gift. And I told him I had a friend who lives in Japan. And it made me think of you.

PS I'll have to look into some of the Churchill books. The more I read about the times surrounding the Wars, the more I see multiple facets of him, instead of my long-held image of the man who made the Iron Curtain speech in MO. Thanks for furthering my education!

#100 Terri - How lovely. It's always nice to be thought of! And Happy Birthday to your son. I barely remember turning 22. I think at the time I was living in Perth, Western Australia, where I was taking flying lessons at Jandakot Airport.

I have about 50 Japanese textbooks in my collection, but I'm going to abstain from recommending one. Each has it's pros and cons, and will suit different people according to their temperament, needs, and interests. The best thing your son can do of course is talk to a native speaker directly. I don't have Japanese for Dummies. I hope he finds success with it :)

On Churchill - his tenure as Prime Minister during WWII, and his public persona, has largely eclipsed all else about the man. D'este's book, and other biographies, reveal just how extraordinary (demanding, self-serving, etc...) he really was during a lifetime of accomplishment!

Thanks for reading :)

I didn't know that there was a recent biography about Lee Morgan. Thanks for the info; I've added it to my wish list, and I'll probably buy it from Amazon soon. Morgan was a fabulous trumpeter and composer, but, from what I've read, he was also a junkie, pimp, and treated his wife like dirt. She fatally shot him while he was on stage at Small's Paradise (I think) in NYC in the early 1970s.

#102 Darryl - I haven't read a Lee Morgan bio, but from my understanding (and this is off the top of my head, so I don't vouch for it's 100% accuracy), Morgan's defacto (not wife), Helen More, shot him in the heart with Morgan's own pistol (which she was carrying in her pocketbook) in 1972 at Slugs - a tragically appropriate name for the bar he was in at the time.

Helen More was 10-years Morgan's senior (I think), and was actually responsible for keeping him on the straight-and-narrow while so many others were succumbing to drugs. However, Morgan had recently started seeing a very beautiful younger lady (I don't recall her name), and had been showing her off around town. Helen More was at Slugs that night to confront him about it.

Initially, Morgan made her sit at a table by herself before she confronted him a second time. Then, he turned her out of the bar, and into the snow without her coat. Incensed, she walked back in and shot him at close range. He died minutes later while she cried over him, lamenting her crime of passion; calling him "Mogie", which was her nickname for him.

As I said, this is all off the top of my head, and if anyone can correct this sequence of events, I'd be much obliged.

It was 1972. I know this because when I was working at the NPR affiliate in New Orleans, WWNO, in 1982 we were getting ready to celebrate the station's 10-year anniversary. So my co-worker and I went searching through old Downbeat Magazines (this was before the World Wide Interweb, or whatever it's called) to find out what had happened in jazz on the day our station went on the air. You guessed it. Lee Morgan shot by his live-in girlfriend at Slugs in the East Village. Needless to say, we decided not to go with that as a celebratory anniversary item.

Yes, you're right; it was Slugs, not Small's Paradise. I had read an online article about Helen More, who was disparaged by McCoy Tyner, among others, for shooting Morgan. It sounds as though she treated him far better than he did her, and that he wouldn't have been half the artist he was without her support.

BTW, my favorite albums by Lee Morgan all come from the mid 1960s: "Search for the New Land", "Tom Cat", and "The Rajah". "Search for the New Land" (1964) is one of my all time favorite Blue Note albums, and every song is fantastic, including the title track and "Mr. Kenyatta":

Mr. Kenyatta

#104 Jerry - Great anecdote. That's what music should do - remind you of times, places and people!

#106 Darryl - I should have noted that Lee Morgan was not drug free (or a saint), but I understand that Helen was a good influence on him (despite the slightly ironic fact she also killed him!). Having raked my brains, trying to remember where I gleaned all that info about him, I can now tell you - it's in the intro to a book called Hard Bop by David H. Rosenthal. I've had it a while, and think I'll move it to the top of my TBR pile! As for that biography Delightfulee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan - I've only read great reviews for it.

I have Search for the New Land, and I agree with you, it is a superb album with the great Wayne Shorter* on sax and Herbie Hancock on piano! Will pull it out tonight. These last few days I've been focused on the The Complete Blue Note Lee Morgan Fifties Sessions.

Talking of Herbie Hancock, I remember going to see him at Tokyo Jazz 2003! He had a great set, but it was Joshua Redman who blew me away! Redman's 2002 album, Elastic, became (and remains) one of my favourite CDs, although his subsequent releases have left me a little cold :(

Which reminds me... earlier we talked of Roy Haynes... If you haven't already, you should chase down a copy of Roy Haynes' Love Letters, featuring the aforementioned Joshua Redman. It was originally made for the Japanese market (Yasohachi Itoh's 88 label), but was then picked up by Columbia. It's a real treat!

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* My local second-hand record store has Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter by Michelle Mercer, which is the only biographical treatment on Shorter. It's cheap and mint condition. Might have to pick it up!

Finally received delivery on the following books....

- Stosstrupptaktik - the First Stormtroopers : German Assault Troops of the First World War by Stephen Bull
- Meetings in No Man's Land: Christmas 1914 and Fraternisation in the Great War by Marc Ferro
- Assault on Sicily: Monty and Patton at War by Ken Ford
- Spitfire: The Biography by Jonathan Glancey
- Spitfires In Japan: From Farnborough To The Far East by Cecil Bouchier

It's like Christmas!

#106 Darryl - As promised, last night I pulled out my copy of Lee Morgan's superlative Search for the New Land (Recorded: 1964), followed by John Coltrane's all-star Live at the Village Vanguard (Recorded: 1961).

I think Lee Morgan's title track "Search for the New Land" (Morgan, Shorter, Green, Hancock, Workman, Higgins), pays more than a passing nod to Coltrane's "Spiritual" (Coltrane, Dolphy, Tyner, Workman, Jones).

I picked up a copy of Warlord today at the library. I am so excited. I hope to have it read by the end of next week.

#110 Stasia - I'm so glad you're going to read it! I have my reservations about certain aspects of the book, but overall - it's a top notch read. At my current pace it looks like you'll finish the book before I do, but I look forward to comparing notes :)

#109: Interesting observation, Peter. I'll have to dig out "Live at the Village Vanguard" to refresh my memory.

After I upgraded my version of iTunes this morning I found my buried copy of Mosaic Select: Randy Weston, which I'm currently listening to. It includes an obscure but excellent album, "Randy Weston Live at the Five Spot" (1959), which features Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax and Kenny Dorham on trumpet. Good stuff!

#112> Randy Weston is wonderful. Another pianist I love is the South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim (originally known as Dollar Brand).

#113: I've heard of Ibrahim, but I don't have any recordings by him. Any recommendations?

The only Randy Weston album I have is Tanjah, and I love it!

As for Abdullah Ibrahim - Water From An Ancient Well (1985) is one of his most popular releases, and deservedly so. It's also one of the very few CDs I actually have from this 75-year old artist.

Thanks, Peter; I'll look for that album.

On a whim

Visited my library online last night, to see what I could download. Three books caught my interest. You'll be seeing these reviewed at some point during the year...

- The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister by Nonna Bannister
After fleeing Stalinist Russia to Hitler’s Germany, she was interned, saw her mother murdered in the camps, escaped a massacre of Jews shot into a pit, was nursed by Catholic nuns, and much more...

- Who And Me: The Memoir of Barry Letts, Doctor Who Producer 1969-1974 by Barry Letts
Memoirs of Berry Letts on life as the producer of Doctor Who during the Golden Age of that show - the Jon Pertwee years. Barry died in October 2009.

- Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All in Good Time (Music in American Life) by Marian McPartland
Jazz pianist and radio host Marian McPartland pays tribute to Jazz legends, with reminiscences and anecdotes.

Proust

After reading How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton, last year, I've been interested in reading the seven volumes that make up Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. Picking up the C. K. Scott Moncrieff translation of Swann's Way last year, I even (just secretly) gave it a go, but was unable to give it the right voice (if that makes any sense).

Well, a few days ago, a friend gave me his unabridged audiobook edition of Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's Way, Part 1 & 2 (Moncrieff translation), narrated by John Rowe, which run at 10h18m and 9h26m respectively. Last night, I gave it a quick lesson, and at last I've found the perfect voice - and it's not mine! Rowe brings something truly special to this book. The Audiofile Magazine Review perfectly expresses my thoughts...

"John Rowe's steady, even delivery captures the subtle shadings and the extended, overarching progress of the author's elaborate sentences.... His voice, pace, and intonations express perfectly not just the elegance and subtlety of Proust's style, but also its sureness of purpose.

I don't know when I'm going to get to this reading, but I'm looking forward to it when I do :)

That sounds great! I've been meaning to try Proust and have the de Botton book on Mt. TBR. Hope you enjoy it. :)

Hey Peter, I'm just catching up on the longer threads and I've got to tell you I've downloaded some Lee Morgan and Miles Davis from iTunes. Love to listen to them while I'm cooking dinner. Can you recommend any artists on sax?

#120> I am a big Joe Henderson fan.* Beautiful tone and always interesting. "Inner Urge," "The State of the Tenor" and "Porgy and Bess," each from a different decade, are my three favorites. From the classic Morgan/Davis era, the standard is probably Wayne Shorter. "Speak No Evil" and "The Soothsayer" are hard to top.

*I got to interview Joe Henderson in the mid-80s during my New Orleans radio days. He came out to our studio and sat with me for an hour interview (including musical interludes). A very, very nice man. Since our station had a rather meager record collection, I had brought my own copy of Inner Urge to the station for the interview. My program director, who was engineering the interview, said, "Get him to autograph it." I told him I didn't think it was professional to ask for autographs while working (an opinion I still hold). But when I went to the restroom at one point, the PD told Henderson, "He'd love you to autograph that LP, but he doesn't think it's professional to ask." So when I got back from the rest room, Joe Henderson had a big smile on his face, and he'd autographed my copy of Inner Urge. Which, needless to say, I still have.

#120 - When it comes to great sax, you can't go past some of the most legendary luminaries of the Jazz world... Parker, Rollins, Coltrane, Shorter, Dolphy, Henderson, Getz, Washington, Coleman, Hawkins, Adderley, and so on.

Go back to message #107, and you'll see me wax lyrical on saxophonist Joshua Redman. I strongly recommend his album Elastic (2002). Although, as I noted above, I haven't been thrilled by his later releases.

This morning, I had Stan Getz on - arguably one of the greatest tenor saxophone players of all time! Active from the 40s to the 80s, there are no shortage of albums to pick from, with posthumous compilations, and "lost" sessions coming out at regular intervals. One of these "lost" session albums is Bossas and Ballads: The Lost Sessions (2003), and it was to this album I was listening this morning as I got ready for work. It's the perfect late night / Sunday afternoon / dinner ambiance / background music CD.

Recorded in 1989 (2 years before his death), for A&M Records, the proposed album was shelved due to the poor market conditions for pure jazz, and in the fervour of excitement surrounding a new Latin jazz suite project - Apasionado (released in 1990). Mixed at Capitol in 2003, and released that same year, Bossas and Ballads: The Lost Sessions features Getz on tenor sax, George Mraz on bass, Victor Lewis on drums, and Kenny Barron on piano, who also composed many of the tracks in the set. During the recording Getz was suffering from liver cancer, and was sober for one of the first times in his adult life. According to many who worked with him at the time, he had also mellowed, and wasn't displaying anything of his usual Jekyll and Hyde personality. This is the work of a master at the pinnacle of his abilities.

I also love the 3-CD Stan Getz box set, The Complete Roost Recordings, despite the poor quality of the recordings - the masters were lost!

I'd say more, but I'm at work and have to run. Will pop back tonight and add some further thoughts and recommendations :)

Peter--I am reading Proust with a non-LT group. I'm halfway through vol. 2 Within a Budding Grove. This quote by Alain de Botton expresses how I feel about Proust so far:

"The Proust that has always most appealed to me is the 'intimate' Proust, by which I mean the Proust who describes small, unheroic aspects of experience that other authors rush past in their hurry to construct a plot: the sensation of linen against your cheek, the smell of hotel corridors, the appearance of the sky by the seashore. Pages are lavished on these small moments....Going on a train is something all of us do, but that most novelists have sketched only in the broadest strokes. We've all heard the train wheels beat against the rails, but it takes Proust to rescue the sound from our customary inattention, to pin it down in words that carry over the emotional charge of the original experience. The value of Proust's novel is not limited to its depiction of emotions and people akin to those in our own life, it stretches to an ability to describe these far better than we would have been able, to put a finger on perceptions that we recognize as our own but could not have formulated on our own. An effect of reading a book that has devoted attention to noticing such faint yet vital tremors is that once we've put the volume down and resumed our life, we may attend to precisely the things the author would have responded to had he or she been in our company. Our mind will be like a radar newly attuned to pick up certain objects floating through conciousness. The book will have sensitized us, stimulated our dormant antennae by evidence of its own developed sensitivity."

I hope you get a chance to read/listen to Proust soon. :)

#123 - Thanks. Alain de Botton's book is great, isn't it? If anyone in your group is listening to the John Rowe audiobooks, let me know what they think.

Thank you Jerry and Peter for your recommendations. I will explore iTunes later today and add a few to my mix.

#125 - No problems. And, as promised, I'm back with another suggestion!



As I type this I have a very special LP on the turntable that you might like to consider - Moanin' (1958) by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. If you like Lee Morgan, and the cool sounds of the tenor sax in the hands of a master, then this Hard Bop masterpiece is for you! The sax player in question is Benny Golson, who was inducted into the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame in 2009. Yes, he's 81 and still playing!

The soul meets hard bop title track "Moanin'" is one of those immortal pieces that you'll probably know, even if you've never heard of the album! Golson composed "Are You Real?", pitting trumpet against sax. Fantastic stuff! The oft-recorded Arlen/Mercer classic "Come Rain or Come Shine" is an opportunity for each of the artists to strut their stuff in a series of solos set against the simple melodic line - in order: Timmons (piano), Golson (sax), Morgan (trumpet), and Merritt (bass). And try reigning Blakey in when he lets loose in "Drum Thunder Suite".

A timeless album, and one of the greats!

I completely agree with Peter. "Moanin'" is an absolute classic, and Bobby Timmons' soulful title track is one of the greatest songs of modern jazz, one that you won't easily get out of your head after you've heard it. This album should be in every jazz lover's collection.

#127 Darryl - Talking of Bobby Timmons and his gospel soul-jazz style, I just had to pull out The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, which was recorded at the Jazz Workshop, San Francisco, October 18 & 20, 1959; with Timmons on piano. Timmons composed the fantastic opening number on this set, "This Here". At the beginning of the track we here Adderley himself, calling this number "simultaneously a shout and a chant".

Then, out came another Adderley LP - Them Dirty Blues, recorded in New York City on February 1, 1960. Again, we have another Timmons composition in "Dat Dere", which I really like. This number was also recorded by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, in The Big Beat (1960), and by Timmons himself in his debut as a leader, This Here Is Bobby Timmons (1960) - which also features his other compositions, including "Joy Ride" (a driving up-tempo swing number). So, bugger it - I gave these two LPs a listen as well! All in all, a great night of listening. Now it's time for bed :)

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For those who don't have the LPs / CDs, you are in luck:
- YouTube: The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco - This Here
- YouTube: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Dat Dere

By the by, when it comes to Jazz musician homepages - One of the best has to that of Cannonball Adderley at The Cannonball Adderley Rendez-vous.

I think I have The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, but I don't see it on my iPod. I'll look for it shortly. I definitely don't have, and hadn't heard of Them Dirty Blues, so I'll look out for that one. I love The Big Beat, one of the best Messengers albums, along with my favorite, Free for All. "Sakeena's Vision" is my favorite song from that album, along with "Dat Dere". Hmm, I don't see This Here Is Bobby Timmons on my iPod, but I know I have it. I love its cover art!

Another version of "Dat Dere" I like is the vocal version that Oscar Brown, Jr. sings on his album Sin & Soul...and Then Some (1960).

I've gone deep into the vault, and I'm currently listening to Sonny Rollins Plus Four (1956), which features Rollins on tenor sax alongside the legendary Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quartet. I haven't listened to this for years, but I'm enjoying it as much as I did when I first bought it 25+ years ago. I'll probably review it later today or tomorrow.

I'll check out Cannonball's web site later today.

#129 Darryl - I have Sonny Rollins plus Four! But like your copy, it's been a long time between plays. Overall, Sonny Rollins features quite heavily in my LP collection.

Talking of 'great cover art', and since I'm on the subject of Rollins, might pull out Way out West (1957) tonight - the CD with the three alternative takes :)

I have not heard the vocal version of "Dat Dere", but I've been informed my father-in-law has a copy of Sin & Soul...and Then Some, so I'll grab it this weekend. He has in excess of 2,000 Jazz LPs and CDs, so he almost always has what I don't!

Wow!

J.D. Salinger (91) and Howard Zinn (87), both died on January 27th!

RIP

I knew about Salinger but had not heard about Zinn. Too bad.

Despite having just picked up a copy of Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter by Michelle Mercer, I felt like listening to some smooth / crossover jazz tonight, with those cool pop undertones that marked this 70s jazz genre - so out came Mister Magic by the great Grover Washington Jr.

I haven't listened to "Mister Magic" in many years! I'll bet that my father has the LP at home, but I know that I don't have the CD. Hmm...I think I'll listen to excerpts from it later today, to refresh my memory.

I had forgotten to mention Howard Zinn's passing on my thread, but will do so now.

Ah Peter, you have given me an extraordinary amount of artists to investigate on iTunes. I've been very busy shopping, listening, relistening and shopping again. It just occurred to me that iTunes doesn't utilize a shopping cart! I would like to add selections to a cart, delete selections etc. but it's only buy, buy, buy! Just wait till I see my credit card, I'll be singing the blues not humming jazz! I've learned I like the sound of pure instrument w/o the big band sound. Although big band has it's place, it is not what I wanted right now. I particularly like and have purchased Getz, Golson, Blakey and Cannonball Adderly really got me. That's enough to hold me for awhile. Thanks to all for the recommendations.

PS: rocket, I really enjoyed your memories at the station especially Joe Henderson's autograph.

ETA: I just now realized that there is a drop down menu to wishlist selections..........I love it!........back to iTunes

Peter, I'm struggling to keep up on here at the moment, but had to pop in and say that we have lots of Art Blakey and Lee Morgan CDs on their way from NZ - my husband is a huge jazz fan and I've grown to love both those artists. I'll have to see which ones we've got when our stuff turns up and report!

Carmenere, I've been *very* good with itunes so far (only got an ipod a few months ago) but have $40 of gift cards to spend... something tells me it's going to be addictive.

#135> Thanks! Glad you enjoyed those anecdotes. I got to meet a lot of great jazz stars during my days at that radio station. I would say that about 95% of them were very friendly, accommodating people.

#131> I had Howard Zinn for Modern History as a Boston University freshman in 1973. A giant lecture hall, and I never had a one on one conversation with him, but that was my fault (he was astoundingly accessible but I never took the time). Great class, though. At one point, some students came to him asking permission to miss class to attend a No Nukes teach-in. Zinn said, "By all means, go, but you must understand that there are some people who cannot be educated. Those people must be defeated."

Completed - Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1875-1945 by Carlo D'este
Highly readable. Recommended with caveats. Review Pending

Replacement - The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki
To quote the blurb: "'The American Way of War' is a deeply thought-provoking study of how America reached a historic crossroads and of how recent excesses of militarism and executive power may provide an opening for the redirection of national priorities."

In Progress - Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham
Currently at page 320. A recent chapter focussed on Brigadier Stuart Graham's tragic decision to lay an 11 kilometer-long minefield in Vietnam, that was nicknamed "Charley's ordinance depot" when Viet Cong lifted the M16 mines and used them against the Australians.

#138: I have not completed Warlord yet, Peter, so I am looking forward to your review. I am curious to see what your caveats are.

#139 Stasia - Very briefly (at work - naughty me!)...

D'este has written a very readable popular history book, but, due probably to space limitations (even at 700 pages of text) and intended audience, D'este...
1. does not clearly define or analyze the separation of the personal, the political, and the military Churchill;
2. pays scant attention to political issues, thereby limiting contextual understanding;
3. glosses over or does not discuss many important 'military' issues (such as atomic/nuclear research);
4. gives emphasis to WWII, to the detriment of WWI;
5. loses focus on his main thesis as he pads(?) his text with excessive Anglo and American WWII military campaign details;
6. utilizes a thematic narrative within a loose chronological time frame, lessening the impact of Churchill's important role as 'warlord' during his first month in office; and
7. often condemns people as being "naive" (the benefit of hindsight?).

Those are just some quick and ill thought out observations. I'll refine my thoughts in a more formal review.

That said - I did enjoy the book! Honest :)

When I read nonfiction I spend a lot of time in the endnotes, especially if they're good. My current read, Vietnam: The Australian War, is a case in point!

From the notes I've picked out three books I need to investigate further. I have already picked up a copy of the first one...

1. The Minefield: An Australian Tragedy in Vietnam by Greg Lockhart
"A history of the Australian minefield laid in the Phuc Tuy Province in 1967 that played havoc with Australia's military operations in Vietnam and constituted the greatest tactical blunder in Australian military history since World War Two."

2. Minefields and Miniskirts: Australian Women and the Vietnam War by Siobhan McHugh
"...tells the gripping and extraordinary real-life stories of thirty-five women who went to Vietnam as nurses, journalists, entertainers, volunteers and consular staff, along with those of wives who waited at home for their shattered husbands, fathers, brothers and sons to return."

3. The Battle of Long Tan: As Told by the Commanders by Robert Grandin
"This account of the most famous Australian battle of the Vietnam War features the recollections of the six Australian and one New Zealander commanders of the units that made up Delta Company, the Australian fighting force."

The last book on Long Tan is currently being adapted for the big screen. It is being directed (and written) by Bruce Beresford (Breaker Morant, Driving Miss Daisy), and is due for a 2011 release.

The book Minefields and Miniskirts was adapted into a successful stage play in 2005 by Terence O'Connell. If you are purchasing the book, be careful which version you are buying - the book and the script have the same title.

#140: I understand and agree with all your points.

#141: You have hit on the reason I bought Warlord for my Kindle-PC. I wanted the bibliography section!

I will be interested in your thoughts on the three books you have chosen, although I am betting I will never be able to get my hands on them.

#142 Stasia - I love bibliographies! What I love even more are annotated bibliographies. I feel that if an author has extensively read within a field to write his own book, then he is in a unique position to share his insights into the relative values (both good and bad) of the books he consulted. Unfortunately, annotated bibliographies, in anything other than books dedicated to that aim, are all too rare!

Your well thought out criticisms of D'este's Churchill book rather put me off as it seems that one cannot understand Churchill without political context, and the suggestion of sloppy construct is also off putting. Maybe, from your comments, he is providing only the well-know military events/decisions without the much more interesting political analysis/commentary?

There are literally hundreds of books out there about Churchill, some excellent, so perhaps time would be better spent elsewhere if having a choice?

#144 Karen,

"There are literally hundreds of books out there about Churchill..."

You're so right, and the fact of the matter is, you just can't fit his life into a single volume! Consider the "official" Churchill biography being written by Martin Gilbert (who took over from Churchill's son, Randolph S. Winston, after Volume 2). The biography consists of 8 volumes, with 16 companion volumes available at this time (additional volumes pending); making it the longest biography ever written (per The Guinness Book of Records).

The first volume was published in 1966, and many are now out of print and can be expensive to acquire. However, praise those wonderful people at Hillsdale College Press, the most popular volume, Volume VI, Finest Hour, will be republished in hardback in July this year. Starting in 2006, Hillsdale has set out to publish the complete 30 volume set. At $45 each for the 8 biography volumes, and $35 each for the 22 companion volumes (discounts available for sets), it packs a Churchillian wallop to the hip pocket; and as much as I'd LOVE to have them all, I couldn't afford the additional expense of the divorce that would come with them ;)

#143: I love bibliographies as well and consult them both as I am reading a book and after I have completed the text. One thing that I am very disappointed in with the Kindle-PC is that the numbers for the footnotes in each chapter are not given on it, whereas they are in the print version. What I am doing is reading a chapter and then consulting the notes for the chapter, a not-very-satisfying way of doing it. But, I did get the bibliography I wanted! lol

To Karen (Message #144), who, in response to my concerns in Message #140, asked of Warlord, "...perhaps time would be better spent elsewhere if having a choice?", I would say that if your interest primarily lies in Churchill's early military experiences and his decisions during WWI, and how these played an important role in his judgments as "Warlord" in WWII, then this is probably as fine a single-volume popular history book as any.

For a general biography, it would be hard to go past Martin Gilbert's Churchill: A Life. For multi-volume treatments (if you don't want to read the Gilbert 8-volume official biography - see Message #145), the first two books from William Manchester's "The Last Lion" trilogy - The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory covering 1874-1932, and The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone covering 1932-1940 - are widely considered to be excellent. Manchester died in 2004 before he was able to finish the third and last volume in triology, "The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965", but it is now being completed by his friend Paul Reid, and is likely due for publication in 2011.

I've just finished a novel based on the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference and noticed in the acknowledgements that the writer Mary Doria Russell found Churchill's new bodyguard, Paul Thompson's Assignment: Churchill an informative behind-the-scenes look at Churchill. 'His impressions of great men and affairs of state were fresh and bracingly irreverent.'
More directly related to the Peace Conference she recommends Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace which I think you mentioned last year.

Good luck with your plans to return to Australia - I can imagine taking a whole household to a new country is no easy task.

Kerry, I didn't know about anyone had written a book about the 1921 Cairo Conference - it's one of those 'forgotten by history' episodes.

"There was only one public official report of the conference, a speech by Churchill to the House of Commons on June 14, 1921 and it is scarcely mentioned in other sources like memoirs or newspapers..." - wikipedia

You might (or might not!) be interested to know that one of my paternal forebears (I like the anonymity of the internet, so I won't give his name) was one of those men who presided over the conference alongside Churchill - one of Churchill's "forty thieves". I have a lovely copy of a photograph showing the two men together.

This post reminds me... I should pull my finger out and take Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq‎ by Christopher Catherwood, off my wish list and put it into my cart!

Peter, that's really exciting news!! I hope planning for the move is going well. How soon is it happening?

If you slow down a bit, I might have a chance to catch up on 2 years worth of recommendations from you, so perhaps you should move countries more often.

Good luck with everything!

#147: I did not realize someone was completing Manchester's Churchill trilogy. That is great news! Thanks for the info, Peter.

Good luck with the move. The picture shows a lovely spot. I expect you will have one of those places right on the beach :) The boys would love it!

The Move sounds wonderful, exciting and exhausting! Good luck.

Review

Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1875-1945 by Carlo D'este

"We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm." - Winston S. Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill needs no introduction. In BBC polls, he has been voted as the greatest Briton of all time, and as the greatest prime minister of the 20th Century. As well as being the subject of countless books; pamphlets; dissertations; journal, newspaper and magazine articles; the Guinness Book of Records acknowledges Churchill's official biography by Martin Gilbert as the longest biography ever written. In the Annotated Bibliography of Works About Sir Winston S. Churchill, published in 2004, Curt J. Zoller lists over 650 books alone which focus on Churchill. Given the plethora of new titles, including this volume by Carlo D'este, which have appeared in recent years, and show no sign of abating, this reference already seems hopelessly out of date!

With so many books written on Churchill, what do new books hope to add to the subject. In Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, the distinguished American military historian and biographer (and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel) Carlo D'este, looks to examine Winston Churchill "through the prism of his military service as both a soldier and a warlord." From an early age Churchill's military career seemed predestined. Tracing his esteemed lineage back to the 1st Duke of Marlborough (considered by many to be the greatest British commander in history), Churchill's greatest pleasures as a child were to be found playing war games with his toy soldiers; "toy soldiers turned the current of my life" he noted many years later.

From Harrow to Sandhurst, Churchill was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars on 20 February 1895. But, what took Winston S. Churchill from there to the prime ministership of Britain? The answer perhaps lies in the estranged relationship with his father. Lord Randolph, a highly respected statesman until a political gamble ended his parliamentary career, never gave his son the affection, approval or credit that the young Churchill sought - a fact that would forever haunt Churchill, whose life might be characterised as a constant struggle to prove himself to the ghost of his father. As such, soldiering, and his work as a soldier-correspondent, became a means to an end: to gain a name for himself and thus facilitate his entry into politics.

And so, from Churchill's early life to May 1940, D'este provides a strong contextuallisation for the decisions and prejudices of Churchill as an "operational general" during his time as Britain's wartime prime minister. For this aspect alone, this book is well worth reading. However there is also much to lament, and a feeling of lost opportunity. By focusing on Churchill's military career, an integral part of what made Churchill such a great prime minister in WWII, and a source of hope to millions, i.e. his abilities as a skilled politician and statesman, goes sadly understated.

Other failings, in the eyes of this reviewer, also include the comparatively scant coverage of WWI, in favour of perhaps an excessive level of detail given to various Anglo and Anglo-American WWII military campaigns that often detract from the main thesis. As a man who paradoxically thrived as a wartime leader, yet detested the consequences of its perpetuation, it would also have been within the scope of this book to discuss Churchill's attitude to the military (political, and ethical) issues of atomic research being undertaken by both the British (i.e. MAUD) and Americans during WWII. Further, utilising a thematic narrative within a loose chronological time frame, D'este has perhaps lessened the impact of Churchill's important role as "warlord" during his first month in office, when appeasement was a very real issue; but this is a matter of personal preference.

While dedicated Churchill historians might have hoped for something with greater depth or more penetrating analysis, this engaging and well-written volume is an excellent introduction for the non-specialist looking to supplement more general biographies on the man who "saved Western civilization".

Recommended.

Great review, Peter!

Fantastic review!

Thank you Stasia and Darryl, and thank you to those of you who gave the review a thumbs up! Apparently the review even made a brief appearance in the home page "hot review" feature! (Thank you Linda for letting me know about that).

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Two new titles to add to the permanent library...

- First Blitz by Neil Hanson
Often overlooked by the Blitz of WWII, the London Blitz of 1917 in WWI, was just as terrifying as the populous faced the first ever sustained aerial wartime bombardment.

- Hell's Gate: The Battle of the Cherkassy Pocket, January to February 1944 by Douglas E. Nash
Smaller than the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk, the Battle of Cherkassy Pocket (or Korsun Pocket), holds an equally important place in the Russian and German annals of WWII.

A really good review. Thanks for taking the time out of your extra busy life.
Back to #149 - I'm always interested to hear of people's interactions with the historical figures like that. What a neat memento - I have a small number of postcards/photos sent by my greatuncles from Egypt and Palestine during WW1 including the camels at the Sphinx photo. My late father-in-law was in the Palmach with Rabin and his nickname was Big Isaac and Rabin's was Little Isaac!

Wow! Did you ever meet Yitzhak Rabin? Your father-in-law and him must have shared certain qualities to be given those nicknames. I'm fascinated to hear about Rabin's nickname, so thank you! As you'll be aware, the Palmach and the Australians worked together on several occasions, although I'm patchy on the details. Will have to dig deeper on that one.

Thanks :)

#152 Stasia - A great resource for all things Churchillian is The Churchill Centre. Older issues of their quarterly publication "Finest Hour" are available for download in PDF format. Apart from containing many great articles, excerpts from William Manchester's final volume of the Churchill biography can be found in issues 109 & 123.

-----------------------------

Another recent book, which deals with Churchill, as well as Stalin, FDR, and the complexities of geopolitics, is Yalta: The Price of Peace by S. M. Plokhy. I was looking at this book today, and it looks excellent. Another recent book on Yalta, is "Yalta 1945: Europe and America at the Crossroads" by Fraser J. Harbutt.

Peter - echoing above, great review. I've enjoyed following all your thoughts on this and all the extra info on Churchill resources. All my info comes from one little book, not even 500 pages: Churchill: The Unruly Giant by Norman Rose.

#160: Thanks for mentioning The Churchill Centre, Peter. I will check it out!

#161 Daniel - Thanks for dropping by :)

I haven't read the Norman Rose book you mention. How did you find it?

On the subject of Norman Rose. His recent book A Senseless, Squalid War: Voice from Palestine; 1890s to 1948 (which was originally, and misleadingly, entitled A Senseless, Squalid War: Voice from Palestine; 1945-1948), is on my wish list.

The title: "A Senseless, Squalid War", comes from a speech Churchill gave to the House of Commons in March 1947, and it is vintage Churchill through and through (bold text mine)...

"Then there is Palestine: £82 million since the Socialist Government came into power squandered in Palestine, and 100,000 Englishmen now kept away from their homes and work, for the sake of a senseless, squalid war with the Jews in order to give Palestine to the Arabs, or God knows who. "Scuttle," everywhere, is the order of the day—Egypt, India, Burma. One thing at all costs we must preserve: the right to get ourselves world-mocked and world-hated over Palestine, at a cost of £82 million."

Churchill speeches, recorded by Hansard, can make great reading!

Peter - I think it was gift, but I don't remember. I read it almost ten years ago. In my reading log I have brief summaries (see the comments in my library). For that book it's: "Insane, egotistical bastard of a hero... who came along at the right time." ;)

Hey Peter, do you know anything about Meeting at Potsdam by Charles L. Mee? I found it and bought it at a local library sale last month.

#164 Daniel - "Insane, egotistical bastard of a hero... who came along at the right time." - Oh, yes... I think that sums him up very well!

#165 Jerry - I only know what I've read in reviews, and that's not too favorable!

#165 Jerry - I only know what I've read in reviews, and that's not too favorable!

Poorly written, historically inaccurate or both?

#167 Jerry - As I understand it, in the origins of the Cold War historiography, Mee's book is firmly in the Post-Revisionist's camp, which was quite normal for the time in which it was published - 1975 (at the tail end of the Revisionist / New Left period). And (apparently), Mee throws objectivity all but out the window in order to advance his point; but focusing on anecdotes and personalities to create what, people readily admit, is a highly readable and entertaining novelistic-style book.

So few books have been written on Potsdam, that there is little to choose from. I hope you enjoy it. I'll look forward to hearing your views. I would like to read it myself one day.

As I steadily reach the tail end of Eugene Jarecki's superb The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men and a Republic in Peril, my mind turns toward a replacement. I have Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson, which ties in very well with Jarecki's book, but I thought I'd spend a bit more time with Churchill instead, in Martin Gilbert's Churchill and America.

#169: I own Churchill and America, but have not read it yet - I really like Martin Gilbert and own several of his. I look forward to your comments, Peter.

#168> "And (apparently), Mee throws objectivity all but out the window in order to advance his point;"

So what would the Post-Revisionist point about the Potsdam conference that Mee advances be?

#170 Stasia - I was looking forward to your review of "Warlord" last Sunday, but didn't see it. This Sunday?

#171 Jerry - I won't comment anymore on Mee's book, as I haven't read it and can only relate the impressions I have gathered from reading the reviews of others.

-----------------------

A bit of fun

From my current read on the Australian perspective of the Vietnam War.

A popular song at the time, sung by bar girls in Vietnam of Australian soldiers, and sung to the tune "Nick, Nack, Paddywack, Give the dog a bone"...

Uc-dai-loi , Cheap Charlie,
He no buy me Saigon Tea
Saigon Tea cost many, many P,
Uc-dai-loi he Cheap Charlie

Uc-dai-loi , Cheap Charlie,
He no give me MPC,
MPC cost many, many P,
Uc-dai-loi he Cheap Charlie,

Uc-dai-loi , Cheap Charlie,
He no go to bed with me,
For it cost him many, many P,
Uc-dai-loi he Cheap Charlie,

Uc-dai-loi , Cheap Charlie,
Make me give him one for free,
Mamma-san go crook on me,
Uc-dai-loi he Cheap Charlie,

Uc-dai-loi , Cheap Charlie,
He give baby-san to me,
Baby-san cost many, many P,
Uc-dai-loi he Cheap Charlie,

Uc-dai-loi , Cheap Charlie,
He go home across the sea,
He leave baby san with me
Uc-dai-loi he Cheap Charlie

Translation Notes:
Uc-dai-loi - Viet for Australian (literally 'men from the south'; pronounced 'ook da loy')
Cheap Charlie - Stingy
Saigon Tea - Tea sold at a high price; bought by the soldier for the girl
P - Piastre (local currency)
MPC - Military Payment Certificate

#172> Peter, it's just that I don't know that this means:

"As I understand it, in the origins of the Cold War historiography, Mee's book is firmly in the Post-Revisionist's camp,"

I don't know what the "Post-Revisionist camp" is and how being firmly in that camp might affect a book about Potsdam.

#173 Jerry - While the conference at Yalta was important, it was perhaps the Potsdam Conference that represented the first real step in the origins of the Cold War. In writing of the Cold War and its origins, historians have not always been objective, writing in accorrdance to factors such as personal politics, patriotism, social trends, etc...

These histories have been divided according to how the historians have apportioned blame for the causes of the Cold War. These categories are:

* Traditionalists / Orthodox - blame the USSR
* Revisionists / New Left - blame the USA
* Post-Revisionists - blame the USSR and the USA

These camps of thought followed a basic chronological trend (i.e. 50s > 60s > 70s). Since the opening of Russian archives in 1991, there can also be said to be a "Post-1991" camp as well. There may also be overlaps between the different camps.

The long and the short of it is - objectivity or subjectivity?

I hope this helps.

#172: I doubt I will have Warlord done this week either. Too many library books getting in the way. I am about halfway through at this point.

Errrr, no such thing as objective history. Not that I seek it out, I would try to suss out where a historian is coming from and often but not always read books written by historians who share my biases. Though I wouldn't at all rule out reading a historical work by someone with different biasses, I would just want to work out what those were.

I wouldn't have understood the term "Revisionist" either but guessed some of it from your mention of the "New Left". I was brought up by pro-China Maoists/New Leftists and when I was a small child in the 1970s relations between China and the Soviet Union were a bit acrimonious.

#176 - Errrr, no such thing as objective history.

Of course! And by "objectivity" I mean the ideal of objectivity (an area in which philosophical debates abound, in which I am not qualified to partake). I think the key point here is degree of subjectivity, and how the historian picks and chooses (omits) data, as well as presents that data, to convince the reader to his point of view.

From my hard drive, I just pulled up a paper written in 1994 by a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, who, on the subject of objectivity in history, stated...

"Objective interpretations are those which best meet rational criteria of accuracy, comprehensiveness, consistency, progressiveness, fruitfulness, and openness. Finally, the nature of our being in the world is shown to give us a good reason to regard such objective interpretations as moving towards a regulative ideal of truth.

Thanks for dropping by :)

Well, I did know what the term "revisionist" means: in general, I take this to be people who wish to revise the understanding or interpretation of historical events based on whatever new perspectives (or prejudices) become transcendent at a particular moment. Usually, in my experience, "revisionist" is used in a perjoritive sense. I just didn't know how the concept played itself out in terms of the Potsdam conference.

Hey Peter,
Great review of Warlord.

I know what you mean about being busy, it seems like it never ends and I'm not moving my family to another continent. Enjoy the beach when you get there. Have your wife and boys ever lived in Australia or will this be their first time?

Into my hands today falls The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

This is a BBC Audiobooks America production, presenting (for the first time!) a full unabridged reading of all seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senatorial race; with Richard Dreyfuss as Douglas and David Strathairn as Lincoln.

It's 14 CDs, and 16h10m in length. Goodness knows when I'm going to fit this little lot in!

Found an interesting REVIEW HERE.

Born Today - Margot Betti Frank (1926-1945)

No diary of the WWII era, or of a single holocaust victim, has probably been read more than the diary of Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank. In fact, in 1999, Time Magazine named Anne Frank one of the heroes and icons of the 20th century in their list of The Most Important People of the Century.

Overshadowed, but not forgotten, is her sister Margot Betti Frank, who was born on this day - February 16th, 1926 - and who died at the age of 19 of typhus in March 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Germany; just days before her sister Anne.

Anne wrote that Margot also kept a diary, but unfortunately it was never found and has been forever lost to posterity. However, letters written by both sisters to pen pals in the United States were published in Searching for Anne Frank: Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa (2003) by Susan Goldman Rubin.

Children's Books



Move over Bo, there's another top political dog vying for children's book fame. Abby the Labrador, together with (in a show of true Australian diplomacy) fellow Lodge resident, Jasper the cat, have featured in their debut 24-page adventure, Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle (link).

But, unlike Bo's books, this release was actually penned by their very own master - Australia's 26th and incumbent Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. Rudd's good friend Rhys Muldoon (Australian actor, writer, director, and host of the popular children's television show Play School) is credited as co-author.

If only more world leaders wrote children's books! Wouldn't the world be a better place?

Good on ya Ruddy!

Peter - thanks for all the info on Churchillia!

I am interested to hear about the completion of Manchester's third Churchill book posthumously. If I remember rightly, the first two were published for many years ago, now? Martin Gilbert certainly is a prolific writer - his output is tremendous, although I have yet to read any of his works.

In regards to Anne Frank, I just finished an excellent biography by Francine Prose about Frank and the evolution of the diary, as well as the post-war impact, etc. It is called Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. It was a very readable and well constructed work.

All the very best with your move to Aussieland. Are you heading to a big city? A bit of a culture change from Japan, for sure.

Your review of the Churchill book is masterful. Thanks.

#184 Karen -

"If I remember rightly, the first two were published for many years ago, now?"

- Yes. Volume 1, Visions of Glory, 1874–1932 was published in 1983; and volume 2, Alone, 1932–1940, in 1988.

"Martin Gilbert certainly is a prolific writer - his output is tremendous, although I have yet to read any of his works."

- I have not counted the sum of his books, but they would certainly fill a small bookcase! His Churchill and America is quite excellent, and has whetted my appetite to read more of his work (not least his "official" biography of Churchill). I already have his 2006 book Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction.

"I just finished an excellent biography by Francine Prose about Frank and the evolution of the diary..."

- I have perused this book at my local bookstore and am keen to read it myself.

"Your review..."

- Thank you very much for your kind words; and for taking the time to comment.

More on Churchill

* I have recently obtained a copy of Churchill and Secret Service by David Stafford. Having thoroughly enjoyed Stafford's Endgame, 1945: The Missing Final Chapter of World War II (reviewed), I'm looking forward to tackling this book soon.

* In Churchill and America, Martin Gilbert relates an amusing anecdote of a meeting between Churchill (WSC) and his American namesake, the novelist Winston Churchill (1871-1947); in which WSC suggested that the novelist enter politics so that one day there might concurrently be one Winston Churchill as President of the USA and one as Prime Minister of England. The novelist Churchill subsequently did enter politics and tried, unsuccessfully, to become Governor of New Hampshire; after which he retired from politics. (See note below)

* Churchill's books have become an immensely collectible commodity, especially first editions, and it is interesting to browse the selections on offer from antiquarian booksellers who specialize in Churchill, such as The Churchill Book Specialist, and of course "the world's only Winston Churchill bookshop" - Chartwell Booksellers in New York (check out the latest catalogue).

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Note: Such was the confusion between the statesman and novelist, that in correspondence between the two men, WSC suggested that to avoid any further problems he would sign his name with the initial "S". Further similarities - both men served in the military, and both were accomplished painters - but then again so did, and so was, Hitler ;)

Review

The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki

Eugene Jurecki's Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary "Why We Fight" was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17th, 2005, exactly 44 years after Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his famous farewell radio and television address; in which he warned his fellow Americans to "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."

"The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist," Eisenhower cautioned. "We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted." The 34th President was not alone in his concerns. The commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the nation's first president, George Washington, in his own farewell address in 1796, also warned of "overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty..."

In "Why We Fight", Eugene Jarecki explored the power of the military-industrial complex and its growing influence on policy. In his thought-provoking The American Way of War, Jarecki has tackled these themes at greater depth. Without the time restrictions and compromises inherent in entertaining a film-going audience, Jarecki notes Eisenhower's original intention to use the phrase "military-industrial-congressional complex" in his farewell speech, and delivers a "penetrating and revelatory inquiry into how forces within the American political, economic, and military systems have come to undermine the carefully crafted structure of our republic - upsetting its balance of powers, vastly strengthening the hand of the president in taking the nation to war, and imperiling the workings of American democracy."

Step by step, from America's founding fathers, to FDR, to George W. Bush; from the McCollum Memo, to the dropping of Atomic weapons on Japan, to the 1947 National Security Act, to the Patriot Act and the policies on torture after 9/11; Jarecki underlines what Alexander Hamilton stated was "the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority," and that "nations the most attached to liberty ... resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights."

A compelling and important book, that will not be without its critics, depending on their own political leanings and beliefs.

Hey, Peter. I saw "Why We Fight" for the first time just last month. Thought it very well done. I will have to look for this book, now.

btw, Don't know if you saw it, but my review of Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/2129216/book/54741415

Best,
Jerry

#188 Jerry - I've ordered a copy of "Why We Fight" and hope to see it sooner rather than later. A documentary that I have recently acquired is the 1989 "Four Hours in My Lai", which links to my Vietnam reading this year. On the recently seen list, I have "Churchill" (2002) which is part of the series made for the "Great Briton" BBC poll, written and hosted by the late British Labour politician Mo Mowlam (1949-2005).

Thanks for the link to the Beevor review. I'll stop by this afternoon, when I have a few scheduled minutes of peace, and read it through. You know, I picked up a book the other day on the "battle for Spain", but I'm damned if I can remember the title. I'll check when I get home tonight...

The American Way of War sounds interesting. Onto the wishlist! Great review!

ETA to try to fix touchstone

I am with Terri about The American Way of War. It does sound interesting.

I read a book on the My Lai massacre last year. I will have to see if I can find a copy of the documentary to which you are referring.

Thanks people! The American Way of War (hardcover) is currently a "bargain book" at Amazon, at under $6.00. Although, you can also pick it up new through Amazon Marketplace at under $3.00! You lucky Americans!

Stasia - I'll watch that My Lai documentary tonight. Despite no Australian's being involved in the massacre, the event did compound the growing antiwar sentiment in Australia, and the diggers suffered terribly on their return - often publicly abused as "baby-killers" from a majority that had, only a few years before, enthusiastically supported the war and those, who through the luck of a draw, had been called upon to serve their country.

#188 Jerry - Great review on The Battle for Spain. Thumbs up from me.

#192: I read the book Four Hours in My Lai last year. I have no idea if it is in any way related to the documentary, though.

#194 Stasia - The television documentary "Four hours in My Lai" was broadcast as part of the First Tuesday television series (Yorkshire Television, UK) in 1989. It was produced by Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim, and directed by Kevin Sim. (source)

The book Four hours in My Lai was written as a companion to this documentary by its producers.

Ah, OK. Thanks for the information, Peter. I will have to investigate whether there is an online source for the documentary. I would like to watch it.

ETA: I found the documentary available on Youtube.

Ditto on The Battle for Spain book - I admire Anthony Beevor and have this book waiting for me.

Thanks for your detailed answers, Peter, and I apologize for being so nosy. '

I obviously have a lot more to read wrt Churchill. Fascinating he had an American namesake - I wonder how 'related' they were - although his mom was American, she wasn't a Churchill.

Great review on the American Way of War - I wish I was more motivated to read about American politics, but alas I am not. Thumbs up from me!!

#196 Stasia - I just finished watching "Four Hours in My Lai". It is a powerful film. Since it's been more than 20 years since its release in 1989, here is brief update on two of the documentary's subjects. Varnado Simpson, who was suffering severe PTSD due to his part in the massacre, had (to that point in time) attempted suicide three times. In May 1997 (aged 48) he succeeded with a shotgun blast to the head. William Calley apologised for his role in the massacre in a speech to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus in 2009. Calley was the only person who was ever convicted of murder at My Lai and was sentenced to life imprisonment of hard labor at Fort Leavenworth. He served only three and a half years of house arrest.

#197 Karen - Thanks for the kind response to my review and the thumb! As for being nosey - no problem. On the American Winston Churchill - there was no relationship between the two men. Primarily an historical and political novelist, the American Churchill was very popular in American in his day and published one work of non-fiction (I think), entitled "A Traveller in War-Time"; a series of journalistic articles written of his travels in Great Britain and France during WWI. As for the British statesman - he only wrote one work of fiction, which was Savrola (1899). If you have some spare cash, you can still buy first edition copies.

#198: I watched the documentary on Youtube. I suspected Simpson was going to succeed at suicide given his determination to do so. Calley's apology to the Kiwanis Club makes no sense to me at all. I knew he was the only one convicted of anything regarding the My Lai massacre, a travesty of justice if ever there was one.

Thanks for the info, Peter.

Hi Peter

Congratulations on yet another hot review (listed on this morning's home page.)

#199 Stasia - On why the Kiwanis Club. By the by, how well did the book compliment the documentary?

#200 Linda - At last... one that actually stayed up long enough for me to see it too ;)

Thank you to everyone who thought my review of The American Way of War was worth thumbing :)

#201: The documentary puts more of a 'face' on the people involved if you know what I mean, than the book does, but the book goes into greater detail about the tragedy itself. I recommend you give the book a try.

#189 Jerry - Further to my post above, that book on the civil war in Spain that I recently picked up, is To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist Revolution of 1936 (1994) by Murray Bookchin. It's a short book at just 69 pages, containing two essays, which compliments his earlier work, The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years, 1868-1936.

The book is also available, in it's entirety, online HERE.

I plan on reading and reviewing this book within the next few weeks.

Great review of The American Way of War, Peter.

Thanks Darryl - I wrote it while listening to one of Horace Silver's early albums: the 10-inch LP (BLP 5058) Horace Silver Quintet, Vol. 1 (1954). If I have a favourite jazz period, it would have to be Hard Bop, of which Horace Silver was one of the pioneers.

Right. I'm a big fan of Horace Silver, and I have this album. My very first jazz album was Song For My Father by The Horace Silver Quintet, after I first heard the title track in the early 80s.

My favorite jazz period is the late 1950s to the mid 1960s, and there are several albums from 1964, including Song For My Father, which I especially like: Tom Cat by Lee Morgan, Empyrean Isles by Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and Crescent, Free for All by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Speak No Evil and Juju by Wayne Shorter, In 'N Out and Inner Urge by Joe Henderson, Out to Lunch by Eric Dolphy, and Matador by Grant Green.

Piero Scaruffi has put together an excellent selection of the The Best Jazz Albums of the 1960's.

Tonight's Rhetorical Jazz Trivia Question:
Q: What jazz standard formed the base for Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", and Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing"?

A: One of the great albums, and apparently one of 17 essential Hard Bop recordings!

Will have to double check my albums, I think I'm missing some of the ones on your list. I know I've got the Shorter, Morgan, Blakey, and Hancock albums. I've never been a Dolphy man; free jazz / avant-garde - call it what you will!

Thanks for the Scaruffi link. Need to study that!

Which album?

"Song For My Father" - title track of "Song For My Father" of course :)

Cool lists. From that era, I played a track from Miles Davis' Sorcerer (with Shorter, Hancock, et. al.) on my radio show today (Every Monday from 2 to 4 PM Pacific at www.kzyx.org. End of commercial. Hope you don't mind.) Played some Benny Carter and Stanley Turrentine, as well ("Blue Riff" from the 1960 Blue Note album, Blue Hour ) I also hit a lot of excellent new releases.

I do love Eric Dolphy. An acquired taste, but very rewarding in my book. Personal preference only, of course.

#210 Jerry - As much as I would love to tune in and listen to your show online, I can't :(

Unfortunately, 2-4 pm Monday Pacific Time (US) = 7-9 am Tuesday Japan Time. And 7 am is the time I always start work!

I'll forgive you the Dolphy thing ;)

Progress Report

* This morning I finished Churchill and America. An excellent look at Churchill and his relationship with America throughout his seemingly indefatigable life. Official biographer Martin Gilbert accounts for each and every visit Churchill made to the USA, and quotes extensively from his many private letters and telegrams.

* Just started Churchill and Secret Service by David Stafford. Gilbert mentions two books by name in the main text of his book Churchill and America, and this is one of them. The other is Truman by David McCullough, which I have and plan to read later this year, together with FDR by Jean Edward Smith.

* Also reading a collection of WWI letters written by the Anglo-American novelist Coningsby Dawson, to his family while serving at the front in France, as an officer in the Canadian Field Artillery. The book, Carry On: Letters in Wartime, was published in 1917.

* About 630 pages into Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham. Only about 50 pages to go, but I'll be really sad to finish this one. It's that good, covering almost every aspect of Australia's experience, right down to the influx of boat people to Australia after 1975.

I read McCullough's book on Truman a few years ago. It is very good, Peter.

#209> btw, I spent all day (and most of the night) on Tuesday writing liner notes for a San Francisco-based band called Horace-Scope that is, basically, a Horace Silver tribute band. It's a sextet made of up some very good local musicians, led by Jaz Sawyer, who, among his many other experiences, was drummer in Abbey Lincoln's touring band for a good while. Jaz has hired me for one thing and another a couple of times before. A very good drummer and interesting fellow.

#214 Jerry - Thanks. You've had me googling Jaz Sawyer, and he looks like someone worth following up on!

Recent & Imminent Releases

Some recent and imminent releases on the book front that have caught my interest...

Churchill's Empire: The World that Made Him and the World He Made by Richard Toye
- In this new contribution (February 2010) to the vast amount of literature on Churchill, Richard Toye examines Churchill's very important relationship to the "Empire". For a review, read What Winston Really Wanted by Piers Brendon, from the Literary Review.

Hitler's Foreign Policy 1933-1939: The Road to World War II by Gerhard L. Weinberg
- Originally released in two volumes: The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933-36 (1970), and The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937-1939 (1980). This thousand-page updated and revised edition in paperback (2009), has been republished by Enigma Books.

Manstein: Hitler's Greatest General by Mungo Melvin
- Seems like 2010 is Manstein's year, with the imminent release (April 2010) of Mungo Melvin's biography and the English translation (March 2010) of Benoit Lemay's Erich von Manstein : Le stratège de Hitler. Working in collaboration with the Manstein family, Melvin's book has been billed as "The first proper biography of Germany's most controversial military hero." Those averse to heavy military biographies might be more interested in Osprey Publishing's upcoming (May 2010) 64-page Erich Von Manstein.

The Battle of Britain by James Holland
- James Holland has signed off on his new book on the Battle of Britain, perhaps the most famous air battle in military history; and Amazon UK has a May 2010 release date on both the hard and soft cover versions. Holland has taken a slightly different approach to his retelling of the battle, as can be read in his blog entry, New Battle of Britain Book Signed Off.

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Note: All release dates are taken from Amazon UK. Dates for the USA and other countries may differ.

Regarding Hitler's Foreign Policy, have you ever read the memoir of Sir Nevile Henderson, the British Ambassador to Berlin in the years leading up to the war? It's called Failure of a Mission: Berlin 1937-1939. Henderson was a supporter of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. I own this memoir and have read it. Extremely interesting first hand information about what it was like trying to negotiate with the Nazi leaders.

Here is a link to a commentary about a biography (Appeasing Hitler: The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson, 1937-1939. By Peter Neville) written about Henderson and published in 2000. The article appeared in The Historian Magazine in 2003: http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LHNR6MSLJDJnGpxF9Mm42MXYzhtp...

#217 Jerry - Failure Of A Mission: Berlin 1937-1939 is one of many books that I have in PDF format - a scan of the original 1940 edition. As I don't list digital copies on LT, this does not appear on searches of my library. I have not read it in its entirety, and until I get myself one of those newfangled e-readers, I probably won't.

I feel I must mention at this point that Eric Phipps, who Henderson replaced as Ambassador, also kept a diary during his term in Berlin from 1933 to 1937. It was published in 2008, as Our Man in Berlin: The Diary of Sir Eric Phipps, 1933-1937 edited by Gaynor Johnson. Unfortunately the prices of this and the Peter Neville book you mentioned are a little outside my budget. Thanks for the link by the way :)

Two books I plan on rereading this year that deal with Third Reich policy and diplomacy (although not appeasement), are Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe by Mark Mazower, and The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze. These are both superb books, and contain far too much to take in on one reading.

As usual, there are so many great books on your thread! I have Mazower's books Salonica to read, but it's big and I'm slow. Hitler's Empire sounds great.

Add me to the Horace Silver fanclub. Rocketjk, that sounds like a great project.

I've been following the jazz discussion here and can't resist chiming in -- Song for My Father is one of my all-time favorites.

The memory is a little fuzzy -- I'm remembering back 30 years to my college days, so I worry that I may be mixing up two different class sessions. But I spent a little time at Berklee College of Music. I have a recollection of a jazz arranging or composition class where we analyzed Song for My Father -- and the overhead projector transparencies used in class had been made from the original handwritten charts from the recording session -- which were in the college library/archive, I believe. Way cool!

#219 Cushla - I look forward to reading your review of Salonica; I've only read good words about it. He is certainly an excellent writer; while reading Hitler's Empire I was so impressed that I immediately ordered his book Inside Hitler's Greece. I'm also very interested in taking a look at his most recent work, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations.

#220 Terri - Thank you. I love anecdotes like this :)

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Top 10 - 1918

Finished today Carry On: Letters in Wartime (1917) by Coningsby Dawson, which, in the category of war books, was a top ten bestseller in both 1917 and 1918. In 1918, Dawson also had two other books in the top ten, with The Glory of the Trenches, and "Out to Win: The Story of America in France". I am currently reading The Glory of the Trenches (1918).

The full list of top ten war books in 1918 were...

1. My Four Years in Germany by James W. Gerard

2. The Glory of the Trenches by Coningsby Dawson

3. Over the Top by Arthur Guy Empey

4. A Minstrel in France by Harry Lauder

5. Private Peat by Harold R. Peat

6. Outwitting the Hun by Lieut. Pat O'Brien

7. Face to Face with Kaiserism by James W. Gerard

8. Carry On: Letters in Wartime by Coningsby Dawson

9. Out to Win by Coningsby Dawson

10. Under Fire by Henri Barbusse

All of these books are in the public domain and can be downloaded free. I have the full set and plan to read them during the course of the year.

#221: Peter, I clicked on Carry On: Letters in Wartime to see about where I could download it from, but nothing came up. Could you tell me where I might find it? Are the other books you listed available from the same source?

#222 Stasia - All you need is: Internet Archive. I'm sure you can take it from there :)

Thanks, Peter!

Interesting list!

Regarding World War One books, you might be interested Memoirs of a Blue Puttee: the Newfoundland Regiment in World War One.

At the time of WWI, Newfoundland had not yet become part of Canada, but was still more or less an English colony. At any rate, the Blue Puttees were worn only by the original members of the regiment that went over to Europe near the beginning of the war. They were close to entirely wiped out in the horrific (and futile) battle of Beaumont-Hamel.

These memoirs were written by A.J. Stacey, a regiment member who survived that battle because he was a regiment runner and therefore didn't have to "go over the top" with his brethren. The book consists of Stacey's diary, as edited by his daughter, Jean Edwards Stacey, who also added some very good commentary around the diary entries to add historical context.

There is also a fictional account of this regiment called No Man's Land by Kevin Major.

Picked up this book when my wife and I were vacationing in Newfoundland several years ago.

#220 Terri - In return for that anecdote, I thought you might appreciate this extract (p.48) from the book Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965 by David H. Rosenthal. In this extract, Rosenthal quotes from the article "Michael Ullman On Jazz: Horace Silver," The New Republic - July 8 & 15, 1978.

"Later, in the 1960s, Silver recorded "Song for My Father" (Cantiga para men pai), his most commercially successful tune, covered by James Brown among others. ...Silver described the composition's genesis: "My dad through the years had always said to me, 'Why don't you take some of this Portuguese folk music and put it into jazz?' I never could see it. To me it always seemed corny - because I was born here into American music, whether it be jazz or whatever. But there is a feeling there: there's something there that's valid. I didn't really get in tune with that feeling until I was invited by Sergio Mendes to his house in Rio de Janeiro. I went to see Carnival and went around to different places he was playing and sat in, and I was fascinated by the musical capabilities of some of the young musicians down there. They were all into this bossa nova thing, which as you know was greatly inspired by our American jazz. I got turned onto that beat. So I got back to New York and I said, 'I'll try to write a tune using that rhythm.' I started fooling around and I came up with the melody and I realized the melody I came up with was akin to Cape Verdean - like something my dad would play. That was 'Song for My Father.'"

#226 Jerry - Thank you for that recommendation. I am alway thrilled to add another book to the wish list!

On the topic of WWI, memoirs, and letters - I recently purchased a book based on the recommendation of someone I trust (and who is currently holding that book for me in the UK). Namely, For Love and Courage by E.W. Hermon.

"Lt Colonel E.W. Hermon died in a hail of bullets on the 9th April 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras, leading his men of the 24th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers into the attack," reads the blurb. Hermon was a prolific letter writer, and as a Battalion Commander was not subject to the same rules of censorship as the common soldier. Writing some 600 letters home in his last two years alone, this selection, starting in 1914, was edited by his granddaughter Anne Nason "with the guidance and historical advice of James Holland."

James Holland? There's one tick - I like James Holland! I also like Richard Holmes, who wrote (second tick) "A remarkable set of letters from a man who had much to live for to a wife he loved greatly. This is easily one of the best First World War books I have read, and paints a poignant picture of a vanished age."

Have I ever mentioned that I'm also reading University Physics with Modern Physics (12th Edition) by Hugh D. Young, Roger A. Freedman, and Lewis Ford?

Don't expect a review however - it's just to keep my hand in :)

Terence Zuber is Back!

Military historian Terence Zuber is nothing if not controversial. His books and articles have caused many a WWI historian to reevaluate long held "truths", and have generated spirited debate in journals, lecture halls, and forums. Some of these books include Inventing the Schlieffen Plan, The Battle of the Frontiers, Ardennes 1914, and now The Mons Myth: A Reevaluation of the Battle, published in February 2010 by History Press. I've ordered my copy :)

Details on Zuber, this book, and on all his publications to date, can be found at his website Terence Zuber.com

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Note: These books may not be for the casual reader, and certainly do not fit the mold of narrative or popular histories.

I've read Under Fire years ago, at the urging of my A-level history teacher, I didn't realise that it had been written/published pretty much at the time of the events described. I own the book and would like to reread it some time.

The other books sound a lot more patriotic, dare I say jingoistic, than I remember Under Fire being.

#231 - I think "jingoistic" is a word that could be applied to some of these. I will certainly deal with that in my review of "Carry On". Stay tuned....

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Trivia

The word "jingoism" comes to us via the 17th century euphemism for "by Jesus", in the form of "by Jingo".

More specifically, it derives from "Macdermott's War Song" (also known as the "Jingo Song"), written and composed by G. W. Hunt, and made famous by the popular music-hall singer, G. H. Macdermott; after the surrender of Plevna to Russia during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), which opened the road to Constantinople.

The chorus of this song (perhaps first performed in May 1877) reads...

We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do...
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!
We've fought the Bear before... and while we're Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople...

You can read the complete lyrics, and download audio files, HERE.

Singers like Macdermott were in many ways the social commentators of their day. Thus, it was no surprise that a parody of this song arose in 1878 after the controversial decision was made to send 7000 Indian troops to Malta to supplement British forces to counter Russian threats to Turkey....

We don't want to fight;
But, by Jingo, if we do,
We won't go to the front ourselves,
But we'll send the mild Hindoo.

The Jingo Song, and versions of it, were resurrected to raise support for the war in 1914.

#227 Thanks for the excerpt, Peter!

Is Hard Bop a book that you would recommend? Sounds promising!

#233 Terri - So far, my reading of Hard Bop has been via the index, rather than cover to cover. But yes, I like what I have read and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to people interested in Hard Bop jazz.

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Progress Report

I have now finished Vietnam: The Australian War. Superb book! Highly recommended :)

Taking its place, is Man of the River: Memoir of a Brown Water Sailor in Vietnam, 1968-1969 by Jimmy R. Bryant. (I talked about how I came across this book in Message #75)

Two thirds the way through Churchill and Secret Service by David Stafford, and one third the way into The Glory of the Trenches by Coningsby Dawson.

Lots of progress with your reading, I see. I am anxious to see how the Stafford book is.

#235 Stasia - So far, it's very good.

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Wish List

I'm adding another book to my wish list...

An Uncompromising Generation: The Leadership of the Reich Security Main Office by Michael Wildt

From the blurb...

Wildt’s study traces the intellectual evolution of key members of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) from their days as students until the end of World War II. Established in 1939, this office fused together the Gestapo, the Criminal Police, and the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) of the SS. Far from being small cogs in a big bureaucratic machine, Wildt finds that the people who made up the RSHA constructed the concepts and operated the apparatus that carried out the Holocaust.

At the center of both theory and practice of persecution and genocide in Nazi-occupied Europe, these young men of the RSHA—none of whom envisioned the systematic annihilation of the European Jews—became radicalized. How this occurred is the central question of Wildt’s book. Wildt also discusses the postwar careers of the members of the RSHA. Strikingly, he shows how the leaders of the RSHA evaded the consequences of their actions under the Nazi regime and went on to have important careers in the rebuilt West Germany.

I finally finished up Warlord tonight. Thanks for the recommendation of that one. I enjoyed it. I gave it a 4-star rating.

#237 Stasia - So glad. You know, the more I read of Churchill, the more I appreciate how much D'este managed to put in Warlord. Each of these books are indispensable in clarifying specific aspects of his amazing life. It's no wonder that Gilbert's official biography is 8 volumes, with 22 supporting volumes.

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Goodbye Fiction (almost)

Last night, I picked up my copy of the Vietnam War history Our Vietnam, just intending to read one or two pages before bed, because I had left my current read in another room. What a great book! Fifty pages later I found myself reflecting on just how much more satisfying I found non-fiction to be, and how much of an anathema fiction had become in my eyes. Specifically fiction for fiction's sake. So this morning, I purged my shelves and have given away several boxes of these discarded novels to friends!

I did, however, keep works in the genre of 'war' novel - mainly fictionalized autobiographical works such as Somme Mud or All Quiet on the Western Front, and books that have had a significant impact on popular thinking regarding war and politics, such as Under Fire. I also kept some sentimental favourites, and authors I particularly like. As Churchill once said "...you may think I'm being inconsistent, but I still have some influence here and this is my policy."

It feels good, and I have so much more shelf space!

I used to think I was an odd duck because I like nonfiction so much! Of course, I like fiction, too :)

Glad you have freed up more shelf space though, Peter. I look forward to a ton more recommendations from you!

Progress

Completed - Churchill and Secret Service by David Stafford.

Reviews on this, and several other recent books, have fallen victim to a heavier than normal work schedule, but I'll endeavor to get them up sooner rather than later. Even reading is largely restricted to my daily commute these days.

Replacing the Stafford book, is With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda. In eager anticipation of James Holland's new book The Battle of Britain: Five Months that Changed History May-October 1940, due out in May, 2010 (UK), I thought the time was right to tackle Korda's highly regarded treatment of the same legendary WWII fight for air superiority over the skies of England.

Also in progress is Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975 by A.J. Langguth. This highly readable book is largely concerned with the political story of the Vietnam War, divided into four parts: Kennedy and Ho Chi Minh; Vo Nguyen Giap and Lyndon Johnson; Nixon and Le Duc Tho; and Le Duan and Ford. Through Amazon Marketplace you can pick up copies of this book - new - for only 19 cents in the US. Bargain!

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Churchill

Hoping to tackle the following two Churchill books during the course of this year...

- Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian. by John Luckacs
Last year I enjoyed two of Luckas other Churchill books (Five Days in London: May 1940 and Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat: The Dire Warning: Churchill's First Speech as Prime Minister), so I'm hoping to be equally satisfied.

- Churchill and Finland: A Study in Anticommunism and Geopolitics by Markku Ruotsila
From the opening page... This book examines the intertwined dynamics of Churchill's anticommunist and geopolitical thought. It looks at the ways in which he attempted to use Finland as both tool and ally in the anticommunist projects of the twentieth century. Finland appeared a staunch ally in Churchill's recurring efforts to destroy or negate international communism, but the broader concerns of geopolitics and Great Power diplomacy complicated what might have been a simple task of teaming up with like-minded Finns. The resulting tensions are explored and explained in this study of comparative anticommunism based on Churchill's private papers and on additional British, Finnish and American documents.

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On a Side Note

Since the great Fiction Purge (see Message 238), I have found myself sleeping better at night. The weight of guilt I felt about neglecting so many of these "great" novels has been lifted. I'm out of the cupboard! Non-Fiction only, please!

I love your side note! lol

I'm giggling at your side note. I've done the opposite since I joined LT - am reading a lot more fiction now - but I still head to the NF section first in bookshops.

#238 - I could never do it, I need to mix Fiction and Non-Fiction up.

#236 - When you get to An Uncompromising Generation: The Leadership of the Reich Security Main Office I look forward to hearing about it, it sounds interesting.

Way back to #216 - Speaking of upcoming releases, I recently read on HNN that Max Hastings and Anthony Beevor are both working on histories of WW II, with both expected in 2012. The tbr pile never shrinks.

#243 Mike - Good to see you.

I read the Sunday Times article The battle of Hastings and Beevor, from which the HNN article is taken. How about that one million pound advance!?

To be honest, I don't know if I'll read them. When it comes to WWII, I much prefer reading more detailed accounts of specific campaigns and battles, but I suppose it's good to step back every so often and reexamine the larger picture.

I just finished Beevor's book about the Spanish Civil War. He did a great job with that one. I like the idea of reading a well-researched and well-written overview first, and then reading books with detailed accounts of specific battles/campaigns afterwards, but you may already have all the WW Two background you need.

I did the opposite with the Spanish Civil War, though. I had read several personal accounts of specific places or regiments before getting the grand overview through Beevor. To be honest, I feel like I should go back and read those other accounts again, as I only now feel like I could understand them fully.

btw, I just read the linked Sunday Times article. Maybe this is an American-centric point of view, but I wonder how much of the revitalization of interest in World War Two histories can be attributed to the works of Stephen Ambrose. I'm not speaking to the quality of his books, none of which I've read, but I know that they were very popular here in the U.S., and seem to have been at the vanguard of a lot of the revived interest in the period. Just one person's possibly faulty impression, is all.

I'm impressed with your move to ditch your fiction. I sometimes shudder when I see so many unread books lying around here, knowing I can't possibly read them all in the next couple of years, but I could never give up reading fiction.
I'm reading The Sushi Economy at the moment but so far it doesn't really address overfishing of tuna, more about how the tuna gets imported, auctioned & distributed around Tokyo etc. And the growth of the sushi industry in general. I got the book out of the library the other day when my son decided to give up eating sushi after we saw a TV programme on the overfishing of the world's resources. Is there much discussion in Japan on these issues?

#245 Jerry - You're quite correct. I've read a few general books on WWI and WWII. Most recently, the excellent Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings (my review), and they certainly have value. Now, I find myself looking for more specific and detailed accounts of those individual battles and experiences.

When it comes to other conflicts I am less familiar with, I certainly start with the more generalized books, such as with my recent Vietnam War reading. But, as I said, it's important to take a step back sometimes and reexamine the larger picture, especially if it offers new perspectives.

As to why the revival? Let me think on that one and get back to you.

Regarding Stephen Ambrose. I've read a couple of his WWII books, and enjoyed them. He's one of those authors who focuses on the human side of war. Some people criticize his work (perhaps quite rightly at times), but his work is accessible, and has probably done more to help, rather than hinder, veterans. And for that he should be applauded.

#246 Kerry - I noticed on your thread you were reading The Sushi Economy, and no, I don't think there's much discussion on the issues of overfishing (or whaling) in the general media here.

This is one of those books I should read. When I first came to Japan 10 years ago, I read every book I could lay my hands on about the country, but after living here a few years I stopped completely. That doesn't mean I have nothing more to learn (on the contrary), it's just that when you live it 24/7....

Anyway, I look forward to your review, and while I refuse to give up sashimi (or sushi), I applaud your son for taking a stand. I made my own stand a while back on a different issue, and consequently haven't eaten at a McDonald's restaurant in over 5 years!

As always, you read such incredible books. Thanks for all these wonderful reviews and descriptions. I enjoy visiting here.

#248 Linda - ...and I enjoy your visits :)

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DVD Review

Bomber Command: 60th Anniversary

In 1936 the Royal Air Force (RAF) created four commands: Bomber Command, Fighter Command, Coastal Command and Training Command.

While Fighter Command would be involved in one of the most famous and inspirational air battles in history - the Battle of Britain (the subject of my current book, With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda); Bomber Command and it's leader, "Bomber Harris", would become tainted by one the greatest wartime controversies - the bombing of civilian targets in Germany.

Thus, from Spitfires and Hurricanes, to the Halifax and Lancaster, I found myself watching the 2002 DVD "Bomber Command: 60th Anniversary", featuring two of the "finest film accounts ever made about RAF Bomber Command - 'Reaping The Whirlwind' and its sequel 'Enemy Coast Ahead'".

This DVD features "the men of Bomber Command telling their own extraordinary stories. Immensely moving, sometimes chilling, their accounts of war in the air are illustrated by the pick of authentic wartime film footage. Many of Bomber Commands's most memorable strikes - including the Amiens prison mission, the sinking of the Tirpitz and the legendary Dam-Buster raids - are covered, along with behind-the-scenes life on the bomber bases and the many different aircraft types used during the war."

Highly Recommended

#245 Jerry - I've been thinking about the "revival" point you mentioned. IMHO I think that the work of Ambrose may be more of a reflection than a cause of the revival of interest people have in WWII. Although his books, and the television adaptation of his book Band of Brothers, certainly help to perpetuate the movement. Below is an extract from an article in which Ambrose speculates on the causes; and I must say that, on the whole, I'm in agreement...

Noting the recent revival of interest in World War II, and the commensurate books, films and television projects, Ambrose attributes the phenomenon to two factors: the veterans themselves, and America’s changing attitude about its history. In the case of the veterans, he notes, "many are realizing that they don’t have much time left in the world, and many, for the first time, are willing to talk about their experiences. As young men just back from fighting, they didn’t want to think about the war. But now, they realize their grandchildren are deeply interested in hearing those stories, and if they don’t tell them, they’ll go to the grave with them."

At the same time, Ambrose believes the country is newly interested in its history, which is "something that young people, especially, didn’t want to hear about in the ‘60s and ‘70s, because of everything else going on – the civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, Vietnam. Now that 25 years later those issues aren’t at the forefront anymore, young people are aware that we’re living in the freest and richest nation that ever was, and we owe that to somebody. Where did this wealth and these liberties come from? That’s the 180-degree turn in attitude about history in this country. And World War II is the greatest event of the century that we just passed through, and the answer to some of those questions."

I might add that WWII is now in the realm of nostalgia, one of those few wars in which there were such clearly defined "good guys" and "bad guys". A clear, moral path. With the wealth of literature we are currently seeing questioning and criticizing the causes and reasons for recent military actions, I think people find some comfort in that.

Peter

Two of my family members were WWII veterans. One passed away five years ago. Sadly, as he slipped into the throes of dementia, the needle on the record was stuck in the grove of Coldicz, The Ardennes, Malmady, and across Germany. As a young man he lived in a small Pennsylvania coal town. He saw quite a bit and was changed forever by his war experiences.

My other Uncle survived the bombing of the ship The Intrepid. He is still alive, but is deeply impacted and sadly returned from the war with many psychological issues. His life was spared because he walked to the right; his ship mates walked to the left and were blown away.

Our family is very aware of the impact that this war had on small-town boys.

Peter - The first paragraph of the Ambrose article you posted makes sense to me. The second makes me a little queasy. I'm wondering whether the explosion of books on World War II was really driven by "young people." I also wonder whether young people, or whatever group of people he may actually be thinking of, really are "aware that we’re living in the freest and richest nation that ever was, and we owe that to somebody." Or, they may be aware of it, but I'm sceptical that such folks spend a whole lot of time thinking of it that way and/or that they choose their reading material thereby. What I'm saying is that I'm guessing that was more than a little bit of Ambrose projecting his own attitudes onto others.

My own suspicion is more that people are now tending to romanticize World War Two and, just as importantly, the war years in America. As I believe has been mentioned here on your thread somewhere, there is the tendency to believe that WWII was a clear-cut good vs. evil proposition, and that we were on the side of good. There is also the belief that the whole country was pulling together and that it was one for all and all for one, including everyone from the masters of industry to the common man. From my reading, I have come to the conclusion that things were not quite so simple on that score. For example, Robert E. Sherwood's Roosevelt and Hopkins, an Intimate History gives a good, in-depth look at things on that score.

Mostly I think that this great interest in the WWII era constitutes in many ways a population turning away from the confusion and rancor of the present and recent past to look at a time they feel, rightly or wrongly, was clearer and less fraught with ambivalence, and when we had an enemy we could see and understand and fight on our own terms.

Here's something else I believe: I think a big part of the whole phenomenon is the simple fact that historians by and large have become better writers or, perhaps I should say, writers who are better able to present their narratives in a manner palatable for mass consumption. I mean that in a very, very good way. I think in years gone by people got their history, recent or otherwise, from storytellers like, say, Leon Uris. Literate historical fiction, in other words. And when I read older histories, I often get the idea that the presentation of accurate historical facts was all that was required, that the authors were more or less writing for other historians and academics. But I think it's much more common now for historians to be good storytellers in addition to good researchers, and I think that's one big reason why more people are reading histories.

EDIT: Ah, and now I see that you added a paragraph containing much of what I've said here, in about a third of the words. I always have been a wordy bugger.

#252 Jerry - Sorry about the edit, I must have done it while you were writing your reply, but I'm glad to see we pretty much agree on most points. While I understand your concerns about Ambrose "projecting his own attitudes onto others," I do believe that on a subconscious level he may be right. I don't think we need necessarily articulate the question he poses so formally. I also believe in the idea that Vietnam, Civil Rights, etc..., led to a period of introspection; although I would question how long that lasted following the events described.

Are our current historians better writers? I don't know. But, yes, the narrative form (as opposed to discourse) is certainly more popular in the general market; and military historians such as Ambrose, Beevor, Stafford, Keegan, Hastings, Sloan, Irving (am I allowed to mention his name?), amongst others, have certainly helped make history more accessible to the layman.

I only wish I could express myself better, but as I'm dashing this off as quickly as possible on my laptop between appointments, I'll claim that as my excuse ;)

P.S. I have a digital copy of the Sherwood book Roosevelt and Hopkins. My copy is of the revised 1950 edition. Haven't read it yet however :)

#252: I am adding Roosevelt and Hopkins to the BlackHole.

#254> Stasia, it is long but, to me, extremely fascinating. It is a portrait of the relationship between those two men and an in-depth look inside the Roosevelt White House through the New Deal and WWII eras. Sherwood, a speech-writer for Roosevelt, was there, so while there's of course a lot of research done, many of the observations are first-hand. Because the book was written so soon after the war, the observations are fresh and, if I may, pre-mythologizing. For example, you often hear nowadays how quick and willing factory owners were to convert to war production. Sherwood describes what was actually often quite a struggle to get that done.

#255: My local library has one copy from 1948 and another from 1950. Is one better than the other, Jerry?

#256> Stasia, really, I have no clue. I can only assume that Sherwood's revisions for the 1950 edition added more and/or clearer information.

The whole book is available online here: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101970683. A quick click on "Note on Revised Edition" in the table of contents will provide Sherwood's own explanation.

For what it's worth, here is a short review of the book that appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine on the occasion of the book's republishing in 2002: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57886/philip-zelikow/roosevelt-and-hopkin....

The review refers to the revision but provides no further information about it. However, the review will make you want to read the book.

#257: I am going to pick up the 1950 version when I head to the library tonight. Thanks for the info and links, Jerry.

#258 Stasia - You can also download a PDF version of the 1950 revised edition, via the Internet Archive website (approx. 60MB).

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Progress

Completed: With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda, which might have been entitled "Dowding's Battle of Britain". An excellent book which the Wall Street Journal noted was "less about (the young pilots) and more about the foresight and tactics that won the Battle of Britain".

Replaced by: Clausewitz's on War: A Biography by Hew Strachan. This book is part of the "Books that Changed the World" series, and is under 200 pages of text. This book intends to provide an analysis of Clausewitz's On War, and its impact on past and present military conflicts, as well as diplomatic and geopolitical thinking. It is also a biography of the author Carl von Clausewitz.

#259: I appreciate the info, Peter. I went ahead and picked the book up at the library this evening.

Progress

Completed: Clausewitz's On War: A Biography by Hew Strachan

Replaced by: Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets by David Stafford

#261: I am looking forward to your thoughts on the Stafford book.

#262 Stasia - Churchill and Secret Service* was originally published in 1997 (UK) / 1998 (USA). Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets was published shortly after in 1999 (UK) / 2000 (USA). I would speculate that the second book was derived from the research done for the first book, and as such there is a degree of overlap. However, it certainly comes across as a more polished read, and if your interests are focused on the WWII era, then a much more interesting one.

* The 40th anniversary issue of Finest Hour, "The Journal of Winston Churchill", listed David Stafford's Churchill and Secret Service in their top 50 books on Churchill.

The Pacific

Well, having just seen the first episode of the HBO miniseries "The Pacific", I thought I would highlight those books upon which it is based. Namely...

Primary Sources
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge
Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie

Secondary Sources
China Marine by Eugene Sledge
Iwo Jima: Red Blood, Black Sand by Chuck Tatum (Order Here)

#263: I have read Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets, so I guess that means I can skip Churchill and Secret Service. I did not realize they were essentially the same book.

#264: I read With the Old Breed back in 2008 and heartily recommend it. I thought it was terrific. Helmet for My Pillow has been in the BlackHole for at least 6 years - I just have to get my hands on a copy. After reading With the Old Breed, I immediately put China Marine in the BlackHole, but my local library does not have a copy of that one. I will have to look for the Tatum book.

#265 Stasia - If I gave you the impression that Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets and Churchill and Secret Service "were essentially the same book," then I apologize. As I said, there is, inevitably, a degree of overlap; however, much of Churchill and Secret Service covers Winston's extensive and important role in intelligence prior to, and post, WWII. For this reason alone, I think Churchill and Secret Service is a valuable book and shouldn't be ignored if you're looking for the big picture :)

Regarding Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets - The clandestine life of Juan Alberto March y Ordinas, as described by Stafford, would make for an incredible biography. Unfortunately, I can't find one in English :(

As to With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, I've had this in my library for so long that I'm really quite ashamed to say I haven't read it!

#267: OK, then I will have to look for Churchill and Secret Service as the local library does not have that one. Thanks for the clarification.

You definitely need to move With the Old Breed up the stack, Peter.

New Book

The Other Side of the Wire Volume 1: With the German XIV Reserve Corps on the Somme, September 1914 - June 1916 by Ralph J. Whitehead

I might not have time to write reviews, and I haven't been able to pick up a book in three days, but that doesn't stop me getting on the net and ordering a few :)

Of the pile currently heading my way, the only one of a military nature, and thus the only one to be added to my LT library, is "The Other Side of the Wire", Volume 1 of 2, limited to 750 copies in hardback.

Links:
- Read more about this exciting title
- A small selection of the 350 photographs

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Wish List

Hugh Trevor-Roper: The Biography by Adam Sisman

On the wish list, I have added the upcoming (UK, July 2010) biography of the controversial British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. Anyone with even a passing interest in European History, and especially Nazi Germany, can't help but have come across his name. Making The Sunday Times (UK), The hottest books of the year list, you can click on the title (above) to access the full synopsis from the publisher's website.

I have read at least one of Trevor-Roper's books (as well as one by Sisman), so I will be on the lookout for the biography. Thanks for the mention, Peter.

#270 Stasia - No problem! And thanks for reading and commenting :)

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1010 Challenge Abandoned

I knew from the very start it wasn't going to turn out well. I'm just too much of a free spirit (or a prisoner) to be restricted to a predetermined set of reading goals, even if I predetermined them! So, I'm going to stay true to the coarse I'm currently on, and stick with the Vietnam War and Churchill as my main themes for 2010. I have a large number of books on these subjects which will keep me going into the foreseeable future. The 1010 challenge is officially abandoned.

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Hurrah! More Churchill

With only two commutes worth of reading left on my current read Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets - great book by the way - I already have it's replacement waiting in the wings, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham. Having enjoyed Meacham's Pulitzer Prize winning American Lion last year, this was a no-brainer. Franklin and Winston "won The Churchill Centre's 2005 Emery Reves Award for the best book of the year on Winston Churchill (previous winners include Roy Jenkins, Sir Martin Gilbert, and William Manchester) and the William H. Colby Military Writers' Symposium's Book of the Year Award. (source)"

I can relate to your decision to abandon the 1010 challenge. I'm considering dropping my other challenges (and maybe even my group reads), except for the 75 challenge. I'm a "moody" reader, and the conflict between my moods and my goals is causing me to read LESS. (I feel I should read one thing, and want to read something else, so I wind up not reading anything.)

#271: I went to put Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship in the BlackHole and discovered it was already there. I am definitely going to have to get to it soon!

I completely understand about the 1010 challenge. I know myself well enough as a reader to know that there is no way I would pin myself down to 10 books in 10 categories :)

Progress

Completed: Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets by David Stafford
- Superb insights into the complex relationship between FDR and Churchill, utilizing recently declassified material (1990s), and busting a few popular myths along the way! Recommended.

Replaced by: American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
- Was planning on reading Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham, but decided I was close to overdosing on Churchill, having read four books already on the subject in Feb-Mar. Will return to Meacham's book directly after this.

#274: I am safe for the moment since I have already read both the Stafford and Manchester books. Whew - dodging book bullets here.

I tried to leave a message checking in on you on you profile page but for some reason I cannot. Just wanted you to know I was thinking of you. I hope all is well there.

I read Manchester's book about 20ish years ago. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

I got Manchester's book last year and on the shelf it sits.

Completed in April

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham
- While perhaps not bringing anything fundamentally new to the table, Meacham creates an engaging and personal, warts and all examination and analysis of the "epic friendship" between FDR and WSC. Winner of The Emery Reves Award in 2004; awarded by The Churchill Centre for "excellence in writing or speaking about Churchill's life and times and/or applying his precepts and values to contemporary issues among the English-Speaking Peoples."

American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
- 'Superlative' is the word that sums up William Manchester's emotive and authoritative biography of the iconic General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur. Sympathetic, but never shying away from condemnation where deserved, Manchester speaks with the authority of a respected historian, without losing the gravitas of a Pacific War veteran. Highly recommended.

The Glory of the Trenches by Coningsby Dawson
- Dawson had three books in the Publishers Weekly best seller list for "War Nonfiction" in 1918, of which "The Glory of the Trenches" was number two. Jingoistic, and unashamedly religious in its fervour, it none-the-less resonates with a fundamental truth even after 90 years. To my mind, Evelyn Waugh's conversion scene of Captain Charles Ryder in his 1945 masterpiece "Brideshead Revisited" mirror certain passages within Dawson's final pages, reflecting some of the fundamental ways in which man copes with the tragedy of war.

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Added to the Permanent Library in April

- David and Winston: How a Friendship Changed History by Robert Lloyd George (Signed)
- Winston S. Churchill, Volume III: 1914-1916 by Martin Gilbert
- Hereford World Map: Medieval World Maps and their Context edited by P.D.A. Harvey

------------------------------------

Currently Reading (Priority)

- David and Winston: How a Friendship Changed History by Robert Lloyd George
- Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands

Peter!! You are back!! Woot!!

Good to see you back Peter.

Yay, you're back!

Hooray, you're back! And posting some books that sound great . . .

ETA to add Two books added to wishlist -- and they're available at the county library!

> 279 Traitor to His Class sounds good and has gotten some positive reviews. I'll look forward to your take on it.

Looks like I should stay away more often ;)

...but life.... you know!

#284 - I'm well into Traitor to His Class and am enjoying it immensely. To this point my reading on Roosevelt has been restricted to his activities during WWII and his relationship to Churchill, so this book is finally giving me some context -the 'bigger picture' so to speak. My choice came down to a toss up between Traitor to His Class and the more recent FDR by Jean Edward Smith; I went with the former only because it was ready to hand when I was ready to start my next book. I continue to slowly read my digital copy of the excellent Roosevelt and Hopkins, and I have a few more FDR related books heading my way.

I am starting Roosevelt and Hopkins tonight. Good to know it is excellent!

#286> It is long and detailed but extremely rewarding.

Miscellanea

Political Cartoons
One of the joys of my current read, David and Winston: How a Friendship Changed History, is the sprinkling of contemporary political cartoons found within its pages; windows into the British political and social past preserved in pen and ink. Being so enamoured, I though I would alert readers to a website "dedicated to the history of British cartooning over the last two hundred years" - The British Cartoon Archive - through which you can explore "150,000 British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons," dating back to 1904.

Napoleon
Although separated by 5 generations (and about 200 years), the recent publication (2010) of a new book on the life and times of my 3rd cousin, has revived within me a long dormant interest in the Napoleonic wars. Thus, on a bid to reacquaint myself with the period, I stumbled across a website that has since had my iPod working overtime; namely, the Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast, which is a part of The Podcast Network. The most recent podcast is a thought-provoking interview with Dr Philip Dwyer, the author of Napoleon: The Path To Power (which has since become a part of my permanent library). Well worth your time!

The Hereford Mappa Mundi
The recent 4-part BBC documentary series The Beauty of Maps, held me absolutely spellbound over the Hereford Mappa Mundi, which was the subject of the first episode. Such is the power of television (and the convenience of the internet), that within half an hour of seeing the episode I had purchased the scholarly British Library publication (2006), Hereford World Map: Medieval World Maps and their Context edited by P.D.A. Harvey. It is nothing short of superb, and highly recommended.

#288: I am going to have to check out The Beauty of Maps. I became interested in maps after reading The Island of Lost Maps which led me to Lloyd Brown's The Story of Maps. I will also look for the book you recommended too, Peter. Thanks!

Peter - you can also buy (for the princely sum of 1500 dollars approx), a reproduction of the Mundi map from the Folio society, limited to 1000 copies. Wouldn't that be wonderful? It is a treasure of an artifact.

Peter, thanks for pointing out the Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast, I was looking for something to listen to once I've finished Hardcore History. I also downloaded far too much stuff from Itunes U. Now not only do I have too little time to read, I have too little time to listen to podcasts.

#289 Stasia - Another recent 'map' book is Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge and the Ordnance Survey. The author, Mike Parker, features in the "The Beauty of Maps".

#290 Karen - The Folio Society reproduction, restored and coloured to resemble the map as it would have been when new, is featured in said episode. I would dearly love to have it, together with the companion volumes, but the £745.00 price tag is too rich for me.

#291 Mike - Thanks for the pointing me towards the Hardcore History series. Now I've got something to listen to after all 54 episodes of Napoleon! One thing about the Napoleon podcasts, the presenters J. David Markham and Cameron Reilly, are unashamedly pro-Napoleon; to the point where I occasionally just have to cringe. This is why I especially enjoyed the last podcast (posted 13th Nov. 2009) with Dr Dwyer, whose opinions are more closely aligned to mine.

#292: Thanks for the mention, Peter. I will look for that one as well.

Miscellanea #2

Bill Buford
Having recently seen the excellent new BBC 2-part documentary Fat Man in a White Hat, following Bill Buford on the French culinary journey he promised us in the last pages of his bestseller Heat, I am already salivating at the thought of reading the forthcoming book (supposing there is even to be a book!). In the meantime, I quote from a New Statesman review of the show, that finishes with an amusing literary analogy...

"The simple truth is that compared to, say, the great Paul Bocuse, even the most talked-about and accomplished British chef will only ever play Alain de Botton to the Frenchman's Jean-Paul Sartre."

Waterloo
2015 will mark the 200th anniversary of Waterloo, and to mark the occasion Gareth Glover, a British military historian specialising in the editing of Napoleonic wars memoirs, has released the first book in "a projected series of no less than six volumes, one to be published each year until 2015." Entitled "The Waterloo Archive", book one - The Waterloo Archive Volume I: British Sources (link to author's website) - was published in January. This is an exciting new series, and I'm already setting my money aside for Volume II.

ANZAC
April 25th was ANZAC day; the day Australians and New Zealanders both celebrate their fellow countrymen who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of their country, freedom, and democracy. And thus the lead-up to ANZAC day is the time to release new books that celebrate their deeds. This year was particularly robust with:

Diggers and Greeks by Maria Hill
- the "ill-fated Australian campaigns in Greece and Crete during World War II... from the perspective of the Greeks."

Forgotten Anzacs: The Campaign in Greece, 1941 by Peter Ewer
- this is the paperback version of a 2008 release covering the ANZAC's campaign during the Battle for Greece (April 6 – April 30, 1941).

Sorry, Lads, but the Order Is to Go: The August Offensive, Gallipoli: 1915 by David W. Cameron
- this is the second book in a planned trilogy by David Cameron. The first book was 25 April 1915: The Day the Anzac Legend was Born. The third book will focus on the battle for Hill 60.

The ANZAC Book (3rd Ed)
- a true classic, this edition incorporates new material that was "originally rejected by the editor, official war correspondent Charles Bean, but preserved in the collections of the Memorial."

What's wrong with ANZAC?: The Militarisation of Australian History by Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds
- quote... "In this brave and controversial book, some of Australia’s leading historians dare to criticise Anzac. They show that the Anzac obsession distorts the rest of Australia’s history."

>294 petermc:: I loved Heat and, ever since seeing the comment on Wikipedia that he was working on a book about French cuisine, have been waiting eagerly for it. Yet, still no publication announcement that I've seen...

Three new additions to the library...

Letters from the Battle of Waterloo: Unpublished Correspondence by Allied Officers from the Siborne papers by Gareth Glover
- "Over 200 previously unpublished eye-witness accounts of the Waterloo campaign by Allied officers who were there. Overturns many hitherto unquestioned assumptions about the campaign." This book goes hand in hand with Waterloo Letters by H.T. Siborne (published 1891).

Operation Scipio: The 8th Army at the Battle of the Wadi-Akarit. 6th April 1943 by Barrie Barnes
- "Careful reconstruction of a crucial single day’s action by the Eighth Army based on the words of the men who fought - and won - the battle."

A Hard Way to Make a War: The Allied Campaign in Italy in the Second World War by Ian Gooderson
- "A thoughtful account of the Italian campaign which emphasises that the 'soft underbelly' of the Axis proved to be one of the hardest nuts for the Allies to crack."

I finished up Roosevelt and Hopkins the other night, Peter. Have you done with that one yet?

Also, do you know of any good books concerning the African campaign during WWII? That is one theatre of the war with which I am very unfamiliar. I picked up Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn at the library the other day, but thought I would see if you knew of any more about that area of the war.

Just dropping in to say hi.

#297 Stasia - Vis-a-vis Roosevelt and Hopkins - Ha Ha Ha.... Not even close :) How did you enjoy it?

As to Northern Africa - If I check my North Africa tag, I have the following books (in no particular order)...

An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson
- Part One of Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy," this winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History focuses on the 1942-1943 Allied invasion of North Africa.

The Desert Generals by Correlli Barnett
- Widely regarded as a classic, this book focuses on the Desert Campaign of 1940-43, by examining the role of five "commanders who successively led the Allied forces against first the Italians and then the Germans... culminating in the myth of Montgomery and the battle of Alamein, a myth that Correlli Barnett sets out to expose as ill-founded."

Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men Who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-1942 by Samuel W. Mitcham
- If the fame of the Desert Fox overshadows the achievements and roles of those men who "served Rommel as staff officers and commanders of divisions, regiments, and battalions," then Mitcham addresses the wrong in this refreshing view of the Africa Korps.

Operation Scipio: The 8th Army at the Battle of the Wadi-Akarit. 6th April 1943 by Barrie Barnes
- A detailed, hour-by-hour account of the Battle of the Wadi Akarit, Tunisa; the "last great pitched battle between the 8th Army and the old enemy, Panzer Army Africa."

The British Defence of Egypt 1935–1940: Conflict and crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean by Steven Morewood
- "This book offers a comprehensive and challenging analysis of the British defence of Egypt, primarily against fascist Italy, in the critical lead-up period to the Second World War."

Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West by George F. Howe
- Primarily focused on the role of the U.S. War Department and ground forces during Operation TORCH and the Tunisia Campaign, this is one of the 78 volumes comprising the "United States Army in World War II" series.

Together We Stand: North Africa 1942-1943: Turning the Tide in the West: Britain, America and the War in North Africa, May 1942-May 1943 by James Holland
- Covering much the same ground as Atkinson's An Army at Dawn, this book distinguishes itself in it's British perspective to the Anglo-American enterprise. A great compliment to Atkinson's work.

Tobruk by Peter FitzSimons
- Supported by British artillery, 15,000 Australians held out against Rommel for almost eight months before their relief; earning the legendary title the "Rats of Tobruk" from Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw. This book examines the history behind that title which Australians continue to use with pride.

#298 Kerry - Hi! Love the photos in your thread.

#299: I thought Roosevelt and Hopkins was terrific and understand why it won the Pulitzer.

Thanks for the list of North Africa campaign reads. I have the Atkinson book home from the library now, but have never heard of the rest. I will have to check the local library.

#300 Stasia - I've edited the list of books in message #299 to give some insight into what each book covers. There are many other books on the campaigns in North Africa, I look forward to hearing your opinions on whatever you read.

#301: I checked my local library for the titles you listed, Peter, and they had exactly 1 besides the Atkinson book which I already have from there. I will just have to venture into their card catalogue and see what I can pull from that source, I guess.

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