5 comments about Capone: The Man and the Era.

1. Here is a highly readable, very entertaining, and absorbing biography of Al Capone.
   
   Bergreen digs through the decades-deep layers of myth and confusion, showing us the "real" Al Capone, a complex and apparently contradictory man.
   
   And herein lies the one problem with this book. Bergreen can't seem to make up his mind. Was Capone an evil criminal mastermind or a misunderstood victim of American cultural hypocrisy?
   
   On the one hand we read about the evil Capone. The man who without warning could fly into violent rages, beating men to death with baseball bats; a scheming sinister mastermind who plots the St. Valentines Day Massacre.
   
   Then there is the other more sympathetic Capone. A seemingly misunderstood entrepreneur, a man persecuted for striving toward his piece of the American dream. According to Bergreen, this Capone wasn't the king of the Chicago rackets. He was instead a mere figurehead, whose love of the media spotlight allowed the true rulers of prohibition-era organized crime, Johnny Torrio and Frankie La Porte, to run their evil empires of vice in the murky shadows of the Chicago underworld.
   
   If this Capone is to be believed, then Bergreen should have spent more time fleshing out this aspect of his character. The "Capone as figurehead" theory is supported by very little evidence and thus fails to convince.
   
   All that aside, this is a very good book. I found it fascinating. Bergreen does a great job of bringing the hectic, thriving, and utterly corrupt Chicago of the roaring 20's to life. Capone's time in prison is also well covered and shows us the truly pathetic side of Scarface, a lonely broken man slipping into a syphilis-induced dementia, slowly wasting away in the cold and harsh confines of Alcatraz.
   
   I highly recommend Capone: The Man and His Era. It's the kind of book you hate to see end.



2. if you're an Al fan,you're going to read this anyway no matter if it's one or five stars.When things break down as did America during the Volstead Act,a vacuum exists and a law of nature,"nature abhors a vacuum".Someone or something is going to fill it legal or illegal,in this case it was Capone.You could either sell clean booze,brewed properly or as in the case of the Chicago mobsters,clean booze and dirty booze.That is beer and whiskey products brewed properly and mixed with pure alcohol to give it more life.The customer comes back more drunk and susceptible to more errors in judgement and a chance to fleece him or her even more.It is amazing to seehow large were the "bootlegging" operations hiring master brewers from Europe and employing hundreds or (thousands)? of people.It almost seems like the beer and alcoholic beverage industry has a momentum of its own that goes beyond the issues of the legality or illegality of it.Capone compares himself to an amusement park providing the American adult of the roaring 20's with entertainment.That includes the shootouts and gang wars,real life rootin-tootin cowboy shootin'.As American as apple pie and steroids.The press eats it up. The cops don't say too much as long as the mobsters only kill each other.As a matter of fact from reading this book there were so many police and newspaper people on Capones payroll that its a wonder the IRS was ever able to capture Al.He really had great PR running a soup kitchen and loads of other charities.Real drama like a shakespeare play.And don't forget Al was a family man,kids and mass every Sunday,as well as a major community financier,even if it was mob money.Indeed sometimes the machine gunnings and violence seem like a minor glitch,like nature correcting itself.Mobster movies always have to concentrate on the violence because it wouldn't play in the theatre to have a soft spoken guy making a spaghetti dinner for his family and friends.Unless somebody ended up in the pot.Al comes off in this book a perfect gentleman and warm until "crossed" then sneaky and deadly,(really deadly)!!like a true sociopath.This book is more than a biography of Capone,it captures the chaos of the roaring twenties and the depression,with America trying to figure out who and what it is after the Great War.When moral purists,like the kind who tried to "dumb down" America with the Volstead Act,get ahold of government,this is what can happen.An important book,this one. The book is divided into 2 parts,Al's rise and then his demise when the syphillus he contracted in his late teens took over his thought processes in his late twenties.This caused major errors in judgements and all the other racketeers tried to band together, even ones from other major cities,and finally strip Al of his power. Capone however was able to circumnavigate around even these to show himself "KING" of the mobsters.Just when you think Al is finished he comes back even more influential.The IRS trial was really well dealt with and it will cause a person to somewhat lose respect for Al.It amazed me how a literal handfull of government agents were finally able to bring Capone down when he seemed like he himself was an "untouchable".The way he tries to hire high profile attorneys to weasel out,we've all seen too much of.It seems from the read on this book that Capone even with his mind altering syphillus was able to play quite well the different "shades of grey"until the IRS and other government agencies and were able to present him to the American public in basic black and white.This book gives good insight into the "cooling off" aspect of Capones crime career,showing the space between the more violent incidents,whereas alot of books keep the pace of their biographies at a "white heat"by linking at times loosely ganster activity not directly involving Capones mob.



3. This is a great book. It shows us that Capone was not only a villain, but also a man who was loved by the common people. Bergreens book is hard to put down, because of his fluid writing style. Everybody knows the story of the St Valentine's Day massacre, and that time when he beat a man to death with a baseball bat. New to me however was how he spent his days in jail and what he did after he got out of it. After his time in Alcatraz he was just a lonely man who didn't know know what he was doing because of his neurosyphilis. You kinda feel sorry for him. A great biography of the most famous man in the history of crime.



4. I had to struggle to finish this biography. After investing so much time, I felt as if I had to see it through to the finish to prove that I could read it in its entirety. It was not enjoyable largely on account of the author's chosen narrative tone.
   
   Laurence Bergreen comes across as an arrogant "Mister Know It All" type of blowhard. He does not seem especially familiar with Chicago, Illinois, where much of the action in this biography occurred, beyond superficial details. I suspect that he booked a round trip airline reservation, checked into the O'Hare Airport Hilton, went out for dinner and drinks in the suburbs and called it a day in terms of his local research.
   
   There are numerous errors throughout the book, but some of the essential facts about Capone are otherwise correct. I would not recommend this book to anyone interested in learning anything about Capone's associates and competitiors in the gang wars. Bergreen's treatment of these figures is fairly stereotypical and uninformative if not entirely incorrect. He did not seem to think it was important enough to do all of his homework.
   
   If you read this marginal book it is possible that you will learn something about Al Capone in a composite sort of way, but why bother? There are more informative books available from other biographers on the same subject that make for better reading. Quite a few topics are neglected in Bergreen's text, so he takes the position that the only important aspects of the Capone story worth addressing are the ones that he has covered. When Bergreen has a point to make be prepared to have the proposition hammered upon over and over again.
   
   There is some totally off the wall material in the book about Capone becoming a cocaine addict that seems highly speculative and largely unsubstantiated. How long could a hop head survive as the leader of a major criminal enterprise in an era when drug use was considered the epitome of moral bankruptcy? Bergreen does not explain how Capone hid his habit from his criminal associates.
   
   Whenever Capone behaves violently by murdering someone or ordering others to carry out a hit, Bergreen puts it down to the progressive nature of Capone's syphilitic condition or cocaine abuse. While Capone contracted the disease and ultimately died of its ravages, it seems far fetched to suggest that it impaired him each and every time that he went into a tirade or committed a killing. Syphilis has three distinct stages and its fatal consequences can be latent for decades before the disease becomes active. Capone could not have survived as a crime boss if he was suffering from active dementia while leading the Outfit.
   
   A substantial amount of time is spent on Capone's estranged older brother who left the family, changed his last name to "Hart" and became a Prohibition Agent in Nebraska. This material has been published before, but Bergreen keeps pushing the subject over and over again. It is somewhat akin to finding lengthy digressions about Ted Williams in a biography of Babe Ruth. Yes, they both had a few things in common and both played for the Boston Red Sox, but little else transpired between the two men. After awhile I began to wonder if the author would return to the actual subject of his biography? It is correct to include "Two Gun Hart," but his importance is inflated. Capone seemed to have virtually no relationship with his elder brother, so even by way of contrast the inclusion of this material seems to be so much surplusage. I suspect that Hart's children may have been among the few Capone relatives willing to be interviewed by Bergreen.
   
   Similarly, Bergreen segues into another extended detour by recounting the career of Elliot Ness. This goes on ad nauseum and I began to wonder if the writer forgot who the subject of his biography was supposed to be. He prattles on about Ness becoming an alcoholic and a philanderer. The problem is that none of these events in Cleveland relate back to the prosecution of Capone more than a decade earlier. A short summary would have been adequate.
   
   There are a few mildly interesting anecdotes about Capone as told by people who met him in passing. Much of this is trivial. The fact that Capone was a generous tipper does not necessarily absolve him of his many crimes. These asides are amusing, but how much insight can a golf caddy really provide?
   
   This book does not actually succeed in providing much in terms of describing Capone's era. If you are seriously interested in learning about Capone and Chicago, you owe it to yourself to read some other books.



5. This is a great novel. "Not so hot" in the sense that the author almost discredits Capone for how he really was. This is the first indepth reading about Capone, but it is very detailed. I am telling you , if you want to read only one book about Capone, then read this one. You will never have to read another book about him because this one is jammed packed. His life from start to finish. This book will change how you view Big Al, and show just how the media has glorified Al and the Untouchables. It has great tidbits about Torrio, Ness, Yale and anyone else involved in Capone and that era. I definitely recommend it. It is a long read though and can get tedious after a while. I suggest if you are anything like me, to read it in halves. The book is broken into 2 parts basically. The rise and the descent. No complaints on this one.

5 comments about From Ashes to Life: My Memories of the Holocaust.

1. As a child in Hamburg, Germany, Celia Landau led a cultured and privileged life. Her father Benjamin had a study full of books and frequently entertained renowned visitors, including philosopher Martin Buber and Rabbi Paul Holzer. This began to unravel when the Nazis came to power. In the summer of 1934, the family traveled to a German spa in Bad Schwartau. As their visit ended, the spa's owner gleefully announced that Hitler would deal with the Jews. The next fall, nine-year-old Celia's grades began to falter as former school friends labeled her "Drechtjude." In 1937, the family were forced out of their condominium at Hohe Weide 25. In October, 1938, her father was carted to prison, then deported to Dachau. In February 1941, a Gestapo agent deliver his "ashes" in a cigar box.

   Eight months later, Celia, now 16, was deported with her mother Sala and sister Karin to Lodz. Here they shared an unheated room on Zgierska Street with Julie and Julius Eichengreen and five others. As the vast majority of Jews were shipped like cattle from Lodz, the couple made Celia promise, if ever she went to New York, to find their son, who had left Europe years earlier. On July 13, 1942, Celia's starving and sick mother Sala died.

   Before being herself deported to Auschwitz in August 1944, Celia starved and scraped to survive, and lost her sister Karin as well. Her one friend from that period, Elli Sabin, traveled with her in the final transport from Lodz to new horrors. Here she came face to face with the dreaded Dr. Mengele, slaved for some months in an outdoor construction site at the Neuengamme subcamp and in the Blom and Foss Shipyards. In October, she was transferred to Arbeitslager Sasel. Here, to gain access to important files, she promised to transfer her family's house in Altona-Luna Park outside Hamburg to an SS guard. The ploy worked, and she memorized the names and addressed of 42 Nazi guards.

   In March 1945, Celia Landau was again transferred, this time to Bergen-Belsen, the disease-ridden camp where Anne Frank and her sister died of Typhus. Fortunately for Laudau, a month later, the camp was liberated, on April 15, 1945. Here she told a British major of her exploit, and was swiftly introduced to Lieutenant-Colonel J.H. Tilling, of Britain's War Crimes Investigations unit. When friends Elli, Hela Dimand and Sabina Zarecki corroborated her story, the British swiftly transferred Celia Landau to Hanover Germany, where she helped bring 17 Nazis to justice.

   Her assistance to the British War Crimes unit gave Celia new opportunities. What she did with them is but one of the things that makes this book fascinating. This is the story of an extraordinary woman who sought revenge only through her own good deeds.

   The one thing missing from this book is what gave her the courage to go on. Alyssa A. Lappen




2. How Cecelia (aka Lucille) survived is beyond imagination. What determination.



3. I was extremely impressed with this book. The author decribes in detail her life before anti-semitism and how it started to change. Her story is emotional and touching.

   She was born Celia Landau and changed her name to Lucille. She and her sister Karin were the products of a very close knit family completely torn apart by the Third Reich. Her father gets sent off to a labor camp and a year later they are delivered a box of what supposedly contains his ashes. Eventually Celia, Karin and mother are sent to the Lodz ghetto where surviving is difficult and their mother eventually dies of starvation. Celia's account of this is very sad and moving. She then tells a story of a tender love affair with Szaja in the ghetto, and befriends an elderly couple named Jules and Julius who ironically after liberation, she winds up marrying their son when she moves to New York.

   She and her sister Karin are then sent to Auschwitz. Poor Karin is so devastated and having trouble surviving day to day after losing both her parents. Celia's heart is again broken when Karin is not chosen in the selection and is loaded up into a truck and never seen again.

   Celia is only weeks away from death when Auschwitz gets liberated. She goes into detail her life after the camps including her testimony during war crimes trials that helped put many of the SS in prison.

   She also tells her experiences of going back to Europe in 1991 for the first time since she left. The hostility and indifference against Jews was still alive.

   This book is highly recommended. Well written.




4. This is a very well written personal story about this most awful period in our world's history.



5. I had a hard time putting this book down. Eichengreen does a good job of telling her story - it wasn't confusing and I didn't come away with a lot of unanswered questions. Obviously someone who didn't experience the Holocaust first hand will never fully appreciate or understand it, but I feel like I gained some insight into through this book.

5 comments about The Cure D'Ars : St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney.

1. The definitive life, based on the official "Process of Beatification and Canonization," and thus totally factual and documented. Of humble education and assigned to a forgotten farmers' village, he attracted the whole world to Ars and was proclaimed "Patron Saint of Parish Priests" in 1929. Ate one meal a day, slept only a few hours a night, heard confessions up to 17 hours a day, converted thousands. His body remains incorrupt. A grace-filled story of total love of God!



2. "In the span of nearly 50 years of priesthood, what is still the most important and most sacred moment for me is the celebration of the Eucharist. My awareness of celebrating in persona Christi at the altar prevails. Never in the course of these years have I failed to celebrate the Most Holy Sacrifice. If this has occurred, it has been due entirely to reasons independent of my will. Holy Mass is the absolute center of my life and of every day of my life. It is at the heart of the theology of the priesthood, a theology I learned not so much from text books as from living examples of holy priests. First and foremost, from the holy Cure of Ars, Jean Marie Vianney. Still today I remember his biography written by Fr. Trochu, which literally overwhelmed me."  (English text of the address given at the International Symposium on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Conciliar Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis on Friday, October 27, 1995. Text acquired from L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly English Edition.) Text can also be viewed at the Vatican web site.



3. What makes this such an amazing and enthralling book is not just the unbelievable life of this humble priest---but the quotes and thoughts of those around him; many impressions from those who knew and worked with him, etc...It also documents extremely well the historical backdrop of France in the eighteenth century; what was going on at the time; how the Church was persecuted, innocent priests guillotined by the savage Revolution; how the Church had to go underground. It was forbidden to say Mass and any priest doing so was punished; families harboring priests were likewise punished. It is a well-documented thorough portrait of a most remarkable saint placed in a historical context. It is engrossing, fascinating and inspiring.



4. Often books about saints are so full of fanciful musings and imaginings that it is difficult to decode fact from fiction. This book is based on the research proceedings and interviews of witnesses for the canonization of St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney. The book examines the life of the saint through the eyes of those who lived and interacted with him on a daily basis and recounts stories based on theirs shared experiences of the man. The author presents the reader with documented accounts much like what one would hear from witnesses recounting events that had taken place in a court of law. This gives the book a certain authenticity. Clearly, the author has a tremendous amount of respect for the Cure d'Ars but I think that it is the result of what he has uncovered in the collected documents of the saint's life rather than the musings of a man who out of an admiration for a saint, whose life is documented only through fanciful stories based on hearsay or legends, has written a text that is difficult to accept because of the lack of evidence for what is being presented. I would recommend this book because it is well written, balanced and accessible to most readers. I also find that you will get of fairly clear picture of who the Cure of Ars was, how he lived and what he accomplished over the course of his relatively long life. He was truly a remarkable man!



5. This is the best biography of Vianney I have read. It is tough going at times, partly due to its length and partly due to its tendency to be repetitious, but it is well worth the time in order to learn more about the personality and life of this exemplary priest.

4 comments about Workbooks from the Spanish School 1948-1951.

1. It is an excellent reference book, the drawings show the movements very well, all riders should have it and use it. It is a delight to read!
   I have already bought six of them and given them away as presents, to colleagues, students and friends.
   You will not be dissapointed, I am sure of that!



2. If you are a dressage trainer or instructor this book is required reading to consider yourself educated in dressage.



3. This book is not an easy read, especially the biography chapters, but contains a wealth of information when used as intended, as a daily workbook. Open to any page in the "workbook" chapters, and you will find something of value.



4. This book is beautifully produced and edited, with a fascinating collection of photographs. We owe much to Harris' nephew Robert Sherman for understanding and for preserving valuable knowledge. As one of the other reviewers points out, it is an outstanding volume for one's own library or as a gift. But let me indicate exactly why this is the case.
   
   1a) This volume is an important technical work in its own right. Its drawings are in the order from Harris' notebooks and not a rider's "curriculum," so the savvy reader might make a custom index for items of specific interest. The Spanish School notes are wide-ranging, from exercises basic to riding a green horse to setting up a flying change (don't try this one without a truly supple horse that can execute a flawless passade - not passage! - in canter - see Sections 23, 32 & 53). One updated answer you can take into the technical portion of the book is the reason for the importance of tempo (strides per minute), as this was one issue that Mr. Harris did not fully resolve in 1948-51. An examination of frames of equine gaits plus data from dressage gaits shows that dressage horses use only a fraction of the gaits and tempos available to horses, and these are in the slower range of strides per minute. Milton Hildebrand's article on this is in the journal Science (1965), forming one important pillar of understanding the relation of tempo to dressage gaits. The rhythm (order and timing of leg motions within walk, trot, canter) in those slower tempos is what enables the transitions between the dressage gaits. Dressage transitions, which are the most frequently ridden movement in dressage, must be fluent, level, prompt. Hasty or quick tempos exclude them from the needed step order in a stride, precisely because the legs in the start gait must be shifted to the new pattern in the end gait: and this requires nearly two seconds - much more demanding of ground contact time (aerobic demands on big muscles!) than just scooting from one gait to the next. So dressage transitions are completely dependent on tempo. Curiously, very little has been published on dressage transitions BioMechanical Riding and Dressage: A Rider's Atlas, and this volume has that problem. However, its discussion of passage/piaffe transitions is very clear on the aids for that High School movement.
   1b) Harris' notes are focused on correct position of the rider, the position that unifies rider and horse, enabling clear communication between partners. Look carefully at Harris' diagrams for the aids, because they form an unambiguous set of motions for safe, balanced riding.
   
   2) Biographical material is relevant not only to the personal and intellectual development of Riding Master Charles Harris, but offers historical windows into the general social order of the Continent and of England in the 20th century. The transfer of true knowledge (in the scientific sense of verifiable, repeatable and data-dependent) is at the mercy of personality conflicts and of institutional inflexibility. Thus Francois Robichon de la Gueriniere's observation more than two centuries ago about the lack of truly fine riders. This multifaceted problem persists in our era and a portion of it is nicely chronicled in this book.
   
   3) Charles Harris' recollections are outstanding and straightforward, especially refreshing in an era of twaddle, pop-psych advice about riding and general departure from biomechanically correct classical equitation (by this I mean equitation in general, not only dressage). A couple of brief examples should whet your appetite for the whole repast of this volume. On what to eat before a longe session (Section 54): "Diet is important for earnest riders . . . avoid eating anything fatty or greasy until after you finish the lesson." Toast/bread and jam illustrated. And from the biographical section pages (38-9) comes the reason for the Classical Seat (survival through balance). ". . . that holiday in Switzerland. They had a festival . . . a kind of pre-hunting festival where they all go crackers on horses between two points fifteen or twenty miles apart. [?Hubertusjagd] I get on the horse and the Swiss officers (on theirs) and off we start. Now the first thing I see is a bloody drop of about eight foot in front of me, a little stream. I thought 'Bloody ____, what's this? We've gone off on a bloody split _____ gallop. . . . I can do this. . . . I'm on a horse. I'm in control. I'm not doing anything.' Some of the riders are tumbling off, some are hanging round their horses' necks. Some horses are falling . . . I just sit there like the Duke of Rhubarb." Harris attributes his survival of this potentially lethal four hour adventure correctly to his year on the longe at the Spanish School learning to balance without stirrups or reins. Get the book, as there are even niftier accounts on its pages! And there is enough information in his notes so, if you are a kinesthetically aware person, you just might be able to ride like the Duke (or Duchess) of Rhubarb.
   
   4) It is a companion volume to these other outstanding works:
   Because Charles Harris roomed with Spanish School Director Aloys Podhajsky in exchange for giving lessons in English, Podhajsky's plus his will provide additional pleasant years of reading. The Spanish School is, in its turn, is historically inspired by the masterwork by Francois Robichon De La Gueriniere translated by Tracy Boucher (you can also find this in the original French). Finally, centuries of safe riding are aptly founded on Dom Duarte's 15th century masterpiece the or "How to ride well in any saddle" (the answer: a calm, alert mental state needed for any rider to be safe). This jewel of horsemanship has been issued in English under the title by Antonio Franco Preto and Steven Muhlberger. These books will give you a hint of a unique art passed forward through centuries in the companionship and touch between two species.
   
   OK, you may be spending serious money on these volumes (all available on Amazon), but they are classics in the formal sense of durable knowledge. Eat your toast and jam and ride with joy.

5 comments about The Right Stuff.

1. This book is one of the best accounts of, indeed any scene, I have ever read. Wolfe, with his half academic half layman writing style, explores the men and indeed the whole phenomenon, that was the American space program in the 50ies and 60ies. In a delightful manner he gets to the heart of what makes the people involved "tick", and does a great job in bringing their feelings and through to the reader. The reader can truly emerge him/herself in this exciting world of fast planes, fast cars, hope, fear and glory.
   
   The only thing "wrong" with this book is that it is too short. I would've loved to see 50-75 more pages telling more about the "aftermath", as it were, but that is merely because the book was such a jolly good read to begin with. And, I must add, I'm not even interested in planes, speed or space programs or indeed American history.
   
   Highest possible recommendation.



2. As a 'random' book to pick up and read, I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of information provided in this book. I also enjoyed the writing style. Excellent excellent, must-read book!



3. Bang! Zoom! Pow!
   
   If you like prose that crackles like sparklers in your eyes, and tells a good story besides, then Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", about the Mercury 7 spaceflight program of the early 1960s, is for you.
   
   Published in 1979, back when the U.S. was the world's laughing stock and "malaise" was the operative word from the White House, "The Right Stuff" calls to mind with equal degrees of snark and awe a time when real heroes walked the earth and flew beyond and around it. Men, yes, but heroes, too. Wolfe never lets go of the human element, in fact, the best thing "The Right Stuff" has going for it.
   
   As a non-fiction novel, it has its limitations, too. Wolfe doesn't make up quotes, he hardly quotes the seven Mercury astronauts at the center of the story, except for flight transcripts and press conferences where their words are public record. But he doesn't seem to channel theirs or anyone else's voices, except Wolfe's own.
   
   Beginning with the book's title, he uses a lot of terms to capture what the early U.S. space program, and the test flights on experimental jets leading up to it, were really about. Terms like "the great ziggurat" "flying & drinking and drinking & driving", "true brother", "the mighty integral", often in caps, get a lot of use even though there's no sign anyone ever used them or even thought them up before Wolfe did.
   
   There's an overall tone of omnipotence that feels smug and gets in the way: Never mind what was going through John Glenn's mind when he was wondering if Friendship 7's heat shield had burned up on atmospheric reentry - here's what he REALLY MUST have thought!
   
   But the book is so entertaining, it really compensates for Wolfe's excesses. The astronauts were not breaking new ground; everything they did the Soviets did too, except sooner and for longer durations. But they were putting their lives on the line as investments toward a larger purpose, an achievement no other country has matched in close to 40 years, landing on the moon. And they were also disproving the notion that Americans after World War II were doomed to failure, that "our boys always botch it" mentality which hung over the country at the time (and which by 1979 was back with a vengeance).
   
   Sharp, funny, and full of graspable insights (the riders of the first Mercury capsules had as much control over their craft as does a Ferris-wheel rider), "The Right Stuff" may settle for entertainment over enlightenment, but it is very entertaining.



4. In the years following WWII and Korea as the military graduated to fighter jets a certain hierarchy of talent developed. At the top of the pyramid were those in "flight test," where pilots with a certain indefinable something went to push the limits of the newest and most advanced jets. Landing several tons of metal atop a heaving and pitching aircraft carrier in the dark of night or "hanging your hide on the outside of the envelope" in experimental jets is a dangerous profession requiring what Mr. Wolfe calls "the Right Stuff." From Chuck Yeager, the first to exceed the speed of sound (Mach 1), to John Glenn and the other Mercury astronauts, few possess this right or "righteous stuff," and many are "left behind" on the climb up that pyramid. Mr. Wolfe introduces us to those who had it and some who died lacking it, as well as the competition of the "Space Race" of the 60s, and does so with a very distinct style that conveys the attitude of those who possessed it. The missions of the Mercury astronauts are covered in particular detail and sort of form the pinnacle of this story, from the enormous egos of some to the petty jealousies and politics that played out behind the perfect facade Life Magazine presented to the nation.
   
   In fact, the most singular aspect of this book for me would be the style with which it is written, dripping with the huge egos and arrogance of the pilots. Theirs is a dangerous job with few monetary rewards, requiring them to sacrifice family life and comfort, but carrying a thrill few people will ever experience. This, Mr. Wolfe explains, results in a feeling of superiority which he portrays excellently with his writing. And he conveys this attitude with certain phrases he uses repeatedly throughout, such as the "right stuff" or "flying & drinking, and drinking & driving," or the "Friend of Widows and Orphans," etc. It becomes a kind of shorthand for the concepts within the fraternity of pilots and their families. It's very interesting to learn of the lives and successes and defeats, particularly Chuck Yeager and John Glenn. But it is also this style which began to wear on me after a while - on the one hand the story is incredibly interesting, but on the other I got really tired of reading it and couldn't wait to just be done with the book. Also, the language of the book is pretty coarse, and hardly a page goes by that doesn't have several profanities or vulgarities, so be forewarned if you're bothered by that. But a fascinating story nonetheless and I can't wait to watch the movie now.



5. The Right Stuff is essential reading for any student of post-war western popular history whether or not you are interested in aviation and the space-race. Even if you dont hold with the concept of 'top three' books and the like, once you have read this, it will always come to mind when you are put on the spot and have to name your favourites.

5 comments about Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man.

1. This book is very well written and well worth reading. It depicts the life and the world of Zheng Dai, a well-educated bureaucrat (who did not go very high in the hierarchy but still managed to write the history of the Ming dynasty till its overthrow by the Manchus), but also many other interesting characters.
   An extract will show how much this book, though supposed to happen in the 17th century, is still very relevant today.
   "Within five years (...) this tea that Zhang and his uncle had named Snow Orchid had ousted its rivals from the conoisseurs' circles. But it was not long before unscrupulous businessmen began to market inferior teas under the Snow Orchid brand name, and those who drank it seemed not to know they were being gulled. A short time later, even the water source itself was lost. First, entrepreneurs from Shaoxing tried to use the water for wine making or else opened tea shops right by the spring itself. Next, a greedy local official tried to monopolize the spring's water for his own use and sealed it off for a while. But that increased the spring's reputation to such an extent that rowdy crowds began to gather at the shrine, demanding food, firewood and other handouts from the monks there and then brawling when they were refused. At last, to regain their earlier tranquility, the monks polluted their spring by filling it with manure, rotting bambo and the overflow from their own drains."
   Professor Spence is a great historian and we are all in his debt.



2. This book is an evocative depiction of Ming society in China through the eyes of contemporary historian Zhang Dai. It's not a history book or a biography, but rather a snapshot of life in the late Ming dynasty. Particularly fascinating are the details of everyday gentry life, particularly in its varied and colorful amusements and hobbies, such as staging plays, tea connoisseurship, how people celebrated holidays, music, boating, antique collecting, poetry, etc., and in the duties expected of gentry, such as studying for and passing the bureaucratic exams to hold office. Also very interesting were the descriptions of Zhang's various relations (grandfathers, uncles and cousins) who varied to extremes in character and revealed much about different expressions of human nature within the social norms of the times. I felt this book truly brought ancient China alive for the reader and that alone makes this book a worthwhile read.



3. According to the review by the Washington Post ,"historian Zhang Dai's long life, which began in 1597 and ended around 1680, spanned the Ming Dynasty's final, turbulent decades and its overthrow by the invading Manchus. His writings were an attempt to record a lost way of life. They include a Ming dynastic history, profiles of public figures and dreamlike sketches of scenes from his youth. Spence draws on these documents, additional research by other scholars and his deep knowledge of Ming culture to portray the inner universe of a remarkably versatile and sympathetic figure.".
   
   I have read many books by Jonathan Spence.His historical works on China in particular "Treason by the Book" are excellent.Spence said he took several years to research and write this latest work of his. Unfortunately he appears to have only scratched the surface. This is not a full biography.I finished this book knowing only sketches of Zhang Dai.In that respect i was disappointed with this book which i had earlier bought with great expectations.



4. I bought this book on a whim, partly because of interesting reviews.
   
   But once I got it, I got hooked. It is a very readable book about a man who lived in a very different culture from our own. It is organized by theme, rather than by date. That is, it is not so much a biography as a portrait of the man and his times and the culture in which he lived. There are mini-sketches of the struggle of the upper classes to pass the scholarly tests for admission to the bureaucracy (a struggle that sometimes consumed decades); of Zhang Dai's mini-adventure with a very special tea that he discovered; the role and prevalence of prostitutes in his culture; his trips to visit natural spots, shrines, and monasteries, and much more.
   
   I tend to dip into many books, but read very few cover-to-cover. This one I'm reading cover-to-cover and almost done. So on my scale of interesting-ness it rates high; much higher than I expected when I bought the book.
   
   It is a portrait of a very privileged but also a very human person. If the idea of spending a few hours with such a person appeals to you, then I think you'll enjoy this book.
   
   And if you're like I was -- only vaguely intriged -- I'd recommend that you give it a try. Give serendipity a chance to strike. :-)



5. As usual, Memories is a well researched Spence book. However, this reads more like a compilation of graduate student papers that were edited by Spence. It could also serve as a very long preface to the actual works. There are very few translated/paraphrased passages and a lot of interpretation and overview. We are told that the works themselves are huge and highly nuanced with important references to (for most western readers) obscure literary figures.
   
   The translated passages are evocative. The analysis is dry. I kept wishing for more first person memories.

5 comments about American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles.

1. Dan Sickles, the notorious scoundrel of this book's title, appears to have gotten away with so many of his sins because he was colorful, resourceful, and charming. Unfortunately for the reader, the same cannot be said of Thomas Keneally's writing. Keneally tells us what a colorful character Sickles was, but never really shows us or makes us feel it. One is left with the thought that Sickles must have been a fascinating and complex man, and the hope that someone will someday write a decent biography of him that will truly capture those qualities.
   
   Despite the fact that Sickles is best known as a Civil War general, this is not a book for Civil War buffs. Keneally's writing on the war is superficial at best, and sometimes nakedly erroneous. (He states more than once that Gen. Stonewall Jackson was shot dead at the Battle of Chancellosville, when of course, even a casual student of the war knows that the general only received a wound in the battle and lingered on for some time, dying of pneumonia while recovering from his wound.)
   
   The intended audience of this book, which is reflected in the writing style as well as content, instead appears to be those who loved following the O.J. Simpson trial in the tabloids. The bulk of the book is devoted to Dan's amorous affairs, his young wife's affair, and his murder of his wife's lover and subsequent trail and acquittal. He writes extensively and floridly on these subjects, without managing much real illumination. I must admit that I was only able to make it through the endless trial material by resorting to skimming the text. However, if you are captivated by tabloids coverage of celebrity trials, this book may suit your tastes.
   
   There were germs of interesting facts in this book. Sickles led a fascinating life, from his notorious service in the diplomatic corps, his machinations as a Tammany politician, his work to help create New York City's Central Park, and his controversial service as a Union general. For its outline of the fascinating facts of Dan Sickles' life, I give this book two stars, but because of its sadly disappointing execution, I cannot give it any more, and cannot recommend it.
   
   Theo Logos



2. Read this biography and decide which still-in-the-news contemporary politician Dan Sickles most reminds you of (hint: like Dan, now a New Yorker). The personal traits they share are amazing.
   
   Here is why you should be fascinated by a biography of Dan Sickles. He was a hard core practitioner of Tammany Hall politics and mastered that machine in the 1850's. He deserves at least some credit for forming New York's Central Park through is expert lobbying and deal making. He was a Congressman and a prime example of the type of northern Democrat who was willing to support the South on slavery for the sake of keeping them in the Democrat Party. He was a notorious woman-izer who traveled with a prostitute to England on a diplomatic mission and presented her to the Queen as his wife. He was a great friend and supporter of President Buchanan. He shot and killed the son of Francis Scott Key (yes, that Francis Scott Key), in front of the White House when he learned that Key's son had been carrying on a torrid affair with his wife. His legal team included Edwin Stanton (later Lincoln's able Sec. of War) and used the first ever argument of temporary insanity to win Sickles an acquittal in the slaying. With secession, Sickles became a relentless advocate for a hard war and supporter of Lincoln. He helped raise a brigade and became a general. At Gettysburg, Sickles defied orders and moved his entire corps out in front of the Union line giving history the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield and an almost disastrous outcome on Day 2 of the battle. In that battle, Sickles had his leg shot off by a cannonball. He saved the leg, it was sent to the medical military museum in Washington (where you can still visit it today) and used to visit it regularly. He participated in séances with Mary Lincoln. After the war he was a military governor (apparently quite good and fair) of South Carolina and North Carolina. A sometime-diplomat, he married a Spanish woman after carrying on an affair with the deposed queen of Spain. He became great friends with Longstreet as they banded together to defend their miscues at Gettysburg. Head of the New York Monuments Commission, he helped spur the building of grand monuments at Gettysburg Battlefield and arguably helped convince the US Government that it ought to take over and preserve the battlefield as a park. Reelected to Congress for a single term several decades after the Civil War, he found times had changed politically. Still Tammany till the end, he was arrested in his nineties because the accounts of the New York Monuments Commission were some $27,000 short, money which he apparently pocketed.
   
   You can't make this stuff up. Its all true and should be the foundation for a great book (and a couple of great movies). Unfortunately, the killing of Barton Key and his acquittal on temporary insanity overwhelms the book. Or, more correctly, the plight of his wife Teresa overwhelms the book. Every chapter returns to his wife and Sickles' complete boorishness toward her before he found out she was cheating and complete unwillingness to let his still wife share his life at all after the murder. It is a great episode in Sickles life and it stained him for a brief time until the Civil War and Sickles incredibly strong and charming personality removed that stain from his life's adventures.
   
   But the reader is treated to repetitive and numbing descriptions of his suffering wife Teresa's domestic situation and habits throughout the book. She plainly receded in Sickles' life after the Civil War but doesn't recede in this book's telling of those chapters. Instead, she intrudes again and again to repeatedly make the author's point that she was cruelly ignored and wanted back into her husband's world. So much so that this book perhaps should have been titled "The Story of Dan and Teresa Sickles" (or maybe "The Story of Teresa and Dan Sickles"). The author's unwillingness to let go of her long after she has ceased to be a factor in Sickle's life really interferes with this book.
   
   There were also a few historical mistakes, like placing Senator Ira Harris in Lincoln's box at the assassination (it was his daughter, Clara, who was the fiancé of Major Rathbone) and having South Carolina secede in January of 1861 instead of December of 1860. These would probably only be picked up by Civil War buffs (arguably the audience which would read this because of Sickle's infamous Gettysburg excursion) but call into question the author's command of the facts.
   
   Dan Sickles is a very interesting subject for a biography. Disappointingly, the author blows what could have been a fascinating and rollicking bio with a long treatise basically dedicated to rehabilitating Sickles' wife Teresa, a woman who undoubtedly suffered because of the double standards of the time and who unfairly had her life severely constrained because of the actions and attitude of her husband Dan Sickles. But come on, we get the point. For example, I did not know Sickles had been military governor of South Carolina (with North Carolina later added to his administration) after the war. He appears to have been quite fair and just and to have protected the new freedmen from harassment. The book doesn't plumb this enough. We get some of the information but are treated to poor Teresa's lack of an invitation to join Dan Sickles in Charleston where she could reign as the General's wife over Carolinian society. The author really let his evident sympathy for Teresa overwhelm the all too fascinating portrait of a man rightly called "American Scoundrel."
   
   Interesting in parts, but broken-up with digressions on Teresa. A deserved three stars.



3. You might not have heard of Daniel Sickles, but his accomplishments were impressive. A Union general in the Civil War who served at Gettysburg (a Medal of Honor winner who lost his leg there), an intimate of Abe and Mary Lincoln, a congressman, and an ambassador, Sickles was just the sort of hero you ought to know about. Except that he was a scoundrel, too. _In American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles_ (Nan A. Talese / Anchor Books), Thomas Keneally has given a full and amusing biography of this American, non-fiction Flashman. His many transgressions were public knowledge, and yet he dressed and spoke well so that he rose to heights of power without any precipitous fall except the natural one provided by old age and death. It is a story often hilarious and sometimes horrifying, and Keneally (who will always be known for _Schindler's List_) has depicted Sickles and the mood and manners of his age in an unforgettable portrait.
   
   Born in 1819, Sickles took to the law, and as a rascal, joined the other rascals of the Tammany political machine. He learned to cut financial corners, and would never be good at balancing the books, especially governmental ones. He eventually was appointed as a secretary to the American Legation in London, and took a favorite prostitute to his post instead of taking his wife; he even arranged for her to be introduced to Queen Victoria. When he was elected to Congress, he and his wife Teresa were a successful power couple, but he neglected her. Filling the void in Teresa's life came Philip Barton Key, who saw Teresa at parties, and in secret trysts in not-so-public places and at a house Key had rented for the purpose. Sickles eventually found Key on Lafayette Square and shot him. His trial was a sensation. The prosecution was poorly performed, and Sickles's hyper-competent lawyers led the jury to find him not guilty due to temporary insanity. It was the first time in American jurisprudence that such a plea resulted in acquittal. What rescued him from infamy was the Civil War. At Gettysburg Sickles made his greatest contribution. He precipitously led his men into battle, creating a controversy at the time that has continued to the present day; there are those who say his unilateral advance almost lost the battle, while others say it saved the Union. Early in the fight, however, his right leg was shattered by a cannonball. He coolly kept his cigar in his mouth (Keneally says it was "a moment of which the right sort of general could make a myth of his easy gallantry") and was carried to a field hospital where his leg was amputated.
   
   He stayed busy. He became an ambassador to Spain and began an affair with the deposed Queen Isabella II. Theresa had died of tuberculosis, and Sickles married a young lady from Isabella's court, but returned to America without her or the two children he had fathered. He had worked earnestly to develop Central Park in New York before he went to Washington, and he contrived to bring it animals for its zoo. He made his fortune on behalf of railroad stockholders by bringing down the notorious Jay Gould who had robbed them of millions. He did everything he could to ensure that his military reputation was brightly presented to posterity, and he got himself appointed as head of his state's Monuments Commission which had the task of erecting on the Gettysburg fields monuments to his own regiment and others from New York. No one should have been surprised when thousands of dollars for the commission went missing, and no one should have been surprised that there was a surge of donations from well-wishers that kept the elder Sickles from winding up in jail. When he died in 1914, he got a full hero's funeral and interment at Arlington National Cemetery. It was just as he would have wished, and this is a tale of a life lived just the way he wished, brash, impetuous, resolute, and irresponsible. There is no hero to match him.



4. If you are interested in the American Civil War, this is not the book for you. Keneally fails to understand the core audience for this book, Civil War aficionados, and is erroneous in his basic facts surrounding important events. The focus is the scandal surrounding Sickles and his young bride and not the historical events of the day.



5. AMERICAN SCOUNDREL is interesting in that it is flawed on so very many different levels.
   
   It fails as psychohistory -- Dan Sickles, a notorious womanizer, shoots down his wife's lover in front of the White House, and is judged NOT GUILTY. This simply begs for psychological introspection, but all we get is "standards were different then."
   
   It fails as the story of Dan Sickles. We never learn how he got the way he was, we never climb the money tree enough to see how he supporter his lavish lifestyle, or even the entire story of his life. We get long chapters on his wife's affair, her lover's murder, Dan's trial, and the second day at Gettysburg, but very little of anything else. The final 60 years of Dan's life are covered in less than 30 pages. The old saying goes, "There are no second acts in American lives," but this is ridiculous.
   
   And when there are horrible historical mistakes in what we already know, the rest of the historical research becomes very suspect. Stonewall Jackson did not die on the battlefield at Chancellorsville; Andrew Johnson was actually impeached.

4 comments about A Bride Goes West (Women of the West).

1. This book traces a short period in the life of a woman who came to Montana from a fairly well-to-do life in Virginia. She was young and probably not prepared for what she encountered. But it is amazing how well she did in the middle of nowhere. I was impressed with her open mindedness and interest in all things. I thought it was very well written. It leaves a lasting impression.



2. This book was an amazing true account of life in Montana when it was still being settled. The author(s) paint a vivid picture of the "new" West at the time and how men and women lived. I was surprised to learn that it was not all hardship and toil, to the contrary, there was much fun and merriment had. There's an amazing cast of colorful characters that Nannie met as a new young bride on a ranch. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves American history, the Old West, or authobiographies.



3. Although Alderson presents her story in a light and entertaining fashion, she doesn't gloss over the hardships and tragedies that accompany a homesteader in the late 19th century.



4. If you enjoy biographies about ordinary people living extraordinary lives you will love this book. I really enjoyed this book.

2 comments about Napoleon (Profiles in Power Series).

1. This is my first book on Napoleon, though not my first book on French history. Ellis' book has many good insights and seems to me well-written. He arranged his book according to themes, rather than on a timeline. This is difficult, however, for the beginner, as a basic knowledge of Napoleonic history is assumed. At the end of his book, Ellis recommends Felix Markham's "Napoleon" as a good introductory work, and I will take his advice, then perhaps reread Ellis, as I think it deserves to be read with the details of Napleon's history already in the readers mind.



2. This slender tome is an elegant overview of Napoleon's political and cultural impact on 19th Century Europe. It is not a political or cultural biography of Napoleon, but instead, a collection of essays which addresses Napoleon's roles as a soldier, statesman and patron of the arts during the first French Republic and first French Empire (1792-1815). Ellis demonstrates Napoleon's acquisition and retention of power during the first half of the book. He closes with several fine essays which show how Napoleon's power was depicted artistically and what - if any - was Napoleon's legacy to France and to Europe. This is unquestionably a book of interest to those familiar with Napoleon's career, early 19th Century European history, or both.

1 comments about The Ocean of Truth: The Story of Sir Isaac Newton.

1. I read this book to my five and nine year old and they both loved it. A well written story that is told from Newton's early childhood and on to his adult years in a way that will help young readers remember the facts of his life.

   to rem