5 comments about The Avengers.

1. Cohen's story is brilliant and courageous in the way it forces the Reader to acknowledge their hypocracies with regard to terrorism. Specifically, he draws the reader to sympathize and care for Abba Kovner, but also notes that Kovner and his gang try (unsuccessfully) to poison the water supply of Germans, many innocent noncombatants, even children. In other words, these Avengers are also terrorists (if you use the current definitions).

   By exposing the grey are of terrorism/ resistance, Cohen subtly places the reader in the uncomfortable position of acknowledging a double standard between hero, terrorist and freedom fighter. While we all have to come to our own (hopefully consistent)conclusion in that regard, it takes someone like Cohen and his hero Kovener to make us realize that it is not a "cut and dry" issue.




2. The Avengers follows the life of Abba Kovner and his associates, through the horror of Nazism through attempts at revenge, and to a life in Palestine. Although I have read several books on the holocaust, I must admit, I could not bought this book down. Cohen's writing style is very engaging. Cohen makes no value judgements here; it is up to the reader to decide right and wrong. Although I think most people would have a tough time accepting what the avengers tried to do after the war, I cannot possibly judge them. I also cannot imagine living the horrors (which are spelled out in graphic detail) that these Jews went through. One is struck again and again by the brutality and sadism used by these Nazi animals.

   Although not a comforting book, I believe this book should be read by anyone with an interest in one of the most evil periods in history.




3. Rich Cohen has written an extraordinary tale of heroism and survival during the most horrendous and brutal moment in mankind's history. The tale of these three individuals, Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak and Vitka Kempner, shine through as living testimonies in the dark night of the Holocaust. You will not be able to put this book down as you race through the pages of "The Avengers." It is so well written and well documented that you wish you had 20 more books just like this one. It really is amazing how these individuals actually survived this horrible time, but they did in fact prevail and triumph against overwhelming odds. Perhaps the greatest challenge that these people faced in the end was not to end up like the monsters who had persecuted them. Rich Cohen has done an amazing and tremendous thing by writing this book, sharing with the world the incredible testimony of these three courageous individuals. After you finish reading this book, you will never think about the Holocaust in the same way.



4. I have read many books about Jewish resistance during World War II and this one is among the best I have read. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. The book covers the life of Abba Kovner, a Jewish resistance fighter from Vilna, through World War II and its aftermath. At the end of the war, Abba planned and executed acts of revenge against the Nazis. This is described in the book as well as Abba's participation in Israel's War of Independence. The book is well written and easy to read. It gives you two different pictures of Jewish suffering during the war. One picture is that of many of the Jews in the Vilna Ghetto.....one of fear and submission to the Nazi oppression. The other picture is that of Abba and his group of partisans.....one of resistance and hatred of the Nazi oppressors.



5. The Avengers may be out of print, but it's story will live on through those who are fortunate to read it. It is the true story of a small group that was part of the Jewish underground. For any of you who are not aware of the sheer bravery, the strength, the commitment, and the endurance of this band of heroes, you are in for a riveting, well written book. Don't miss this one.

5 comments about T.R.: The Last Romantic.

1. The bar is high for H.W. Brands - after a bigoraphy as nearly perfect as "The First American" we have come to expect great things. Well in "TR" we have a nearly perfect biography on Teddy Roosevelt.
   
   To me, Brands strength is his flowing style that often reads as fiction. Unfortunately that is the lone chink in "TR" it is a little choppy and not as fluid as we have come to expect.
   
   As far as the subjects matter: Teddy Roosevelt may have been the strongest personality America has produced ...ever. His life is one that reads of power, strength and an enormous drive to achieve great things. Brands is able to capture these elements of TR's life and paint a fascinating picture of a man that was born to be president (interestingly enough TR is one of the few men who ever ENJOYED being president).
   
   As a whole - I will admit that I was still a little disappointed, mainly dur to my respect for Brands. While "TR" is not to the level of "The First American" it is still better than your typical biography on Teddy Roosevelt.



2. Two of the finest historical biographies I have consumed in my lifetime have come from the pen of H.W. Brands. The work at hand on Theodore Roosevelt was published in 1997; the other, on Benjamin Franklin, in 2000. Both works pass muster for scholarly accuracy and content. What is intriguing is the author's ability to adapt style to his subject and the times. Franklin's life carries the gravitas of the building of the constitutional life of the United States of America. Roosevelt's, in contrast, bears the energy of a man who came to power as America was high on its own industrial hubris. Brands' Roosevelt is a product of the Gilded Age with the common sense to see its tarnish as well. The T.R. of this work may not be wise, but he was definitely smart.
   
   Born a sickly child to a New York family of some means in 1858, young Roosevelt almost from first consciousness set himself on the road to self-improvement. Brands suggests that one motivating factor may have been Roosevelt's regard for his father, Theodore Sr. The elder Roosevelt had been successful in business and family life, but there was one glaring omission in his resume: he had purchased his way out of the 1863 Union draft. How much this $300 gesture affected his son is a mystery, of course, but there is no denying that the young Theodore [and later, the middle-aged Theodore] would never miss a bugle call.
   
   Roosevelt's professional resume is eclectic and even eccentric. Although he was born into money, he was not so rich that he needn't work. A lawyer by profession, Roosevelt's drive and self confidence would never let him live conventionally, and he seems to have suffered from chronic "vocational crisis." For the young and the restless of his day, the two great frontiers were politics and the open West, and T.R. ventured into both.
   
   There is some irony in this, because in truth Roosevelt was not genetically suited for either. His Dakota ranching years proved to be an expensive, uncomfortable, and at times dangerous experiment that took a large bite from the family fortunes. On the other hand, he acquired the skills that would later help him corral enemies in his gilded Republican party. Dakota in many ways was the paradigm for the political Roosevelt: a man strangely out of place in a hostile environment who proved to be doggedly likeable and yet someone not to be trifled with, either.
   
   His rise through the Republican Party was the antithesis of, say, that of McKinley or Harding, or even his dear friend Henry Cabot Lodge. Put briefly, he was so loud and so popular that party leaders virtually had to hold their noses and swallow hard. Brands' description of Roosevelt's nomination to the vice-presidency sounds for all the world like the tale of a middle manager being booted upstairs because no one could work with him. Roosevelt in the executive branch was bearable; it was, after all, a McKinley universe.
   
   McKinley, sadly, departed the scene sooner than anyone expected. And yet, for his seven-plus years in the White House, Roosevelt must have felt as if he was still in the McKinley orbit. He was not totally unlike his young relative Franklin Roosevelt in terms of political fortunes: electorally untouchable, professionally anathema. In the case of T.R., he captured the great electoral middle ground with rhetoric that decried the trusts and the excesses of big business, on the one hand, and radicalism on the other. He would easily have captured the 1908 election had he kept his mouth shut, but he felt compelled to honor his public remarks made years earlier that he believed his completion of McKinley's term should constitute his own first term as well.
   
   Roosevelt's executive strength lie in national defense and foreign policy. He had long been a disciple of the Alfred Thayer Mann school of strong navies, and it is not surprising that the Panama Canal is one of his legacies. The canal's strategic importance in two subsequent world wars has dulled Americans to the memory of Roosevelt's Caribbean chicanery in making it possible. In T.R.'s defense it can be said that he was probably as knowledgeable of world politics as any president of his era and very much a realist on matters of American military capabilities.
   
   His understanding of Emperor Wilhelm and the deteriorating European alignment probably made his retirement extremely difficult, and he seems to have been rather unsatisfied with his progress of effecting the "Square Deal" for American workers. Much of this frustration was projected onto his anointed successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt's treatment of Taft as described by Brands is morally repugnant, and one is hard pressed to feel much sympathy for Roosevelt's political derailing in 1912.
   
   The complexity of Roosevelt's affections for Taft might come as a surprise to those who subscribe to Henry Adams' description of T.R. as "pure act." In truth, Roosevelt's psyche and the complexities of his personal life deserve and receive substantial attention. Consider, for example, his conjugal life. After a brief infatuation with Edith Carow, Roosevelt was smitten by her friend Alice Lee and eventually married her. In letters to his friends Roosevelt described his life with Alice as unimaginably happy. What he could not have foreseen was Alice's untimely death in childbirth. The reader must make what he will of Roosevelt's behavior in his grief, as he gave away baby Alice to relatives until he was well established in his second marriage to the runner-up Edith. It was Edith, hardly naïve to the realities of the situation, who bore the next five of Roosevelt's children.
   
   Roosevelt's record as a husband and father was mixed. One winces at his absences and hunting trips. On the other hand, he professed and lived a fined tuned moral stance toward marital fidelity and parenting. Whether his longtime wife Edith ever felt she had received a "Square Deal"....



3. This book was HW Brands' first book-length biography. He tackled a challenging subject and succeeded marvelously. The thing about Teddy Roosevelt is that he would be a fascinating character even if he had not become President.
   
   To fit Roosevelt's life into a single volume extended the book to 800+ pages (paperback), but well worth the read. This life deserves it. TR's maniacal energy pulses through the book. TR was a true polymath as well as a 'man of action'. He charges through the book and a towering public career with 'dee-lightful' gusto. An extreme example: he gave a speech in Milwaukee despite still bleeding from a gunshot received that same day. Roosevelt's biggest political mistake came when he announced that he would not run for second full term (He did so because he had served nearly all of McKinley's term). As a result he was out of office at the age of 50!
   
   At the same time his private life revealed a darkness. Stunned by the early death of his father when he was a youth and then by the deaths of his first wife and mother on the same night when he was at Harvard, Roosevelt seems to have never recovered emotionally. After the latter event, he left for the Dakotas and his cowboy period leaving his infant daughter (the redoubtable Alice Roosevelt Longworth) behind. The child, whose mother died two days after her birth, was virtually ignored by Roosevelt. Near the end of his life his youngest son dies in World War One and TR is crushed.
   
   Brands makes extensive use of Roosevelt's personal letters to tell the story of this amazing life. Highly recommended.



4. I grew up being a fan of Theodore Roosevelt. His energy, unabased patriotism, and concern for the people all attracted me. As time went on and I learned more of him that admiration slowly receded. Nowadays, I can admire his energy but his patriotism I realise was over the line, border line jingoism. His 'concern' for the people caused him to ignore and reinterpert the Constitution in ways favorably to actions he wanted to take.
   
   That said, Mr. Brands has not done a particularly interesting book. The style of writing is breezy and almost tabloid in style. Details are often lacking and opinions are injected without indentifing themselves as such. In stark contrast to Theodore Rex by Mr. Morris, this book seems to be a lightweight. Little concern is apparent in Mr. Brands writings concerneing the damage TR was doing to both the nation and Constitution with his cavaliar attitude in governing the nation. If you want to know about TR's decision making at critical junctions in history or indepth background to such, this is not the book for you. Mr. Morris' book is far better then this Hollywood style tome.
   
   At best this book might be a TR primer, for sure it is not the best book on the subject.



5. I am very pleased to add this book by Brands to my T.R.collection. He gave me more insight to Roosevelt's life as a man, a husband, a father and a President. A very good, informative read.

5 comments about Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride.

1. Michael Wallis offers a book - "Billy the Kid" - to prove not much is known about Billy the Kid. The Kid (name not certain, Wallis says) was dead before he was 22. There usually is little enough to say even about the greatest in our histories from the years of childhood and adolescence. There is not much factual to say about The Kid. Anyway, no one was watching him closely or chronicling his deeds.
   
   What is known is not sensational. Even The Kid's murders do not rival the records laid out by Charlie Starkweather or Charles Manson.
   
   Wallis introduces a score or more of men (mostly) who associated with The Kid, or knew of him. His account becomes a maze of names for one-dimensional characters.
   
   Reviewers agree Wallis' account probably is the most factual in print.



2. I wanted to like this book. The author, with his subtitle and thesis ("The Endless Ride") implies that he's going to look into not only Billy himself, but his myth and legend. Instead, what we have here is a lengthy biography replete with guesswork and innuendo, and lots of padding, some of it vaguely worthwhile, some of it not, really.
   
   Billy was an interesting character, if only because of how little is known about him, and how many people have been almost hypnotized by his mythical persona. I was hoping that the book would concentrate on this aspect of his life: instead, it spends most of its words discussing the life and the possible origins of Billy. The author is well-versed in the story of Billy's life, and in the circumstances of his fame and death. He's also very conversant in the various rumors, stories, and theories about Billy's origins and roots. That's all very well and good, but beyond that there isn't much here, to be honest. For one thing, the book isn't as long as it appears. The publisher used pulpy paper, which makes a 328-page book look longer. They put a picture at the front of each chapter, and inserted a large picture section in the middle of the book. With chapter breaks (which result in blank pages frequently) and other devices, this book isn't really that long.
   
   Much of what's in the book isn't directly related to Billy anyway. Imagine my horror when in the first pages I ran across a reference to America's "love affair with guns," turned to the bibliography, and discovered Michael Bellesiles' book "Arming America" in it. For those who aren't aware, Bellesiles was the darling of the gun control set when he released "Arming America" in 2001, right up until it turned out he'd fabricated or distorted much of the evidence for his thesis, which identified a large conspiracy among 19th-Century gun manufacturers to fabricate a "frontier myth" which would include settlers who carried guns, when (according to Bellesiles) everyone went unarmed in the frontier era. Anyway, Bellesiles lost his job teaching at Emory University, and the Bancroft Prize his book won was revoked, the first time that's ever happened. No historian, including most of the liberals who were supporters of his, takes him seriously any more. Unfortunately, Wallis appears not to have gotten the memo.
   
   The PC angle of the book turns out, in the end, to be not quite as bad as you'd think. Wallis uses Bellesiles for context, but when he discusses the Lincoln County War, he becomes much more common-sense-oriented. He basically thinks that the whole war was between two groups of greedy oligarchs who used the various gunmen as pawns in a deadly game of Monopoly. That might not be a completely fair opinion, to those who have a side they root for in reading the history of the war, but it's always been closer to my opinion than anything else I've read. I don't think it particularly PC: the author makes it clear that both sides engaged in back-shooting, skullduggery, and general viciousness.
   
   I generally enjoyed this book, within limits. I wish the author had been a little less interested in injecting his 21st-Century politics into a biography of a 19th-Century person. It also could be a bit better organized. There's a lengthy passage at the beginning where the author discusses Billy's origins, and then later in the book there's a chapter where the author skips back and discusses the possibility of Billy being part Mexican-American. All, or most, of this would have probably been better-placed in an appendix. Frankly, you wonder what the point to the publication of this book was: there's almost nothing here, that I could see, that's not contained in Utley's book. That being said, this isn't necessarily a bad book. Recommended, but only guardedly.



3. Henry McCarty/Billy Antrim/William Bonney/Billy the Kid is biographized here, in an OK attempt to weed out the myth surrounding this very young man's very violent life.
   
   Wallis spends much time talking about what isn't likely to be true and bemoaning the lack of verifiable information about the life and actions of his subject, and not enough time talking about those verifiable facts.
   
   Wallis does place The Kid in the context of his place (a fluent Spanish-speaker who loved and was well loved by the Hispanics of his stomping grounds, Wallis mentions but is ambivalent about recent research that suggests that The Kid may have been part-Hispanic) and time (in the Lincoln County War in which he was just one participant of hundreds but the only one convicted, Wallis believes The Kid was--intentionally or otherwise--made the fall guy for the political and business interests who "won" the "war"). However, the last two years of The Kid's life, when Wallas says "William Bonney's activities can be documented week by week and sometimes daily," are accorded a bare 30 pages out of a 250-page book with lots of images and white space.
   
   So, Mr. Wallis, if you can document your subject's activities on a daily basis, in a biography in which you claim to separate the fact from the myth and constantly bemoan the lack of fact, one not use the ones you have to the fullest?
   
   See also my review of Lucky Billy a new fictionalized account of Billy the Kid by novelist John Vernon, which I found perhaps better at capturing the person at the core of the legend than was Wallis's biography.



4. This book presents the most detailed record of the Kid's background-family origins, early life, locales, and influences on his behavior that I have ever read. Michael Wallis is a master at presenting "the whole story" plus the many photos of the characters in the Lincoln County War, from the Robert G. McCubbin collection add tremendously to the story. This is a very good book, enjoyable to read, and presents a detailed, factual picture of the subject.



5. Michael Wallis does a great job in placing Henry McCarty aka Henry Antrim aka Kid Antrim aka William H. Bonney aka Billy the Kid into his proper context. Here is a young and slight boy who is literate and most importantly alone, making his way in the world. He becomes fluent in Spanish and practiced in gun craft, horse-riding, and gambling. Inspite of a livid earlier review, post Civil War America had created conditions where available weapons, unavailable justice, and the pain/callousness of the Civil War made using guns a regular way of settling disputes.
   
   Wallis deals with the overall political situation in New Mexico: Republican (at least for convenience) Masonic Anglos upending the existing land grants to Hispanics--the corrupt sutler/US Army connection that became the rationale of the Dolan-Murphy enterprise and the target of John Tunstall and Alexander McSween's greed and ambition.
   
   Billy is thrust into all of this and at the end of the Lincoln County War, he becomes the survivor and the scapegoat for the losing side. An offered pardon disappears and in the end, only his death can satisfy the winners. As Wallis details, his end in a bedroom at Pete Maxwell's ranch becomes the beginning of the legend.
   
   My only beef with the author is that three card monte is a confidence game, not a gambling game, although both 2 card and 4 card monte were played at that time. Not anymore because casinos would risk too much money in a game that like faro, has virtually even odds for the house vs. the players. Still that is small potatoes for the way Wallis has taken the work of others and made his story in many ways, new again.

2 comments about Emilie Du Chatelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment.

1. 
   Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet wrote her last lover, the younger army officer Jean François de Saint-Lambert, this self-confident statement (" 'My exterior is always the image of my heart.' ") about herself. In Judith P. Zinsser's biography of this extraordinary eighteenth-century woman, the marquise does appear to have lived her high-born, offbeat, and accomplished forty-two years very much that way.
   
   Judith P. Zinsser's softcover Emilie Du Châtelet : Daring Genius of the Enlightenment (previously published in hardcover with the title La Dame d'Esprit) is a meticulously researched biography that traces Du Châtelet's "unorthodox intellectual pursuits" as well as her family life, her life in the courts of French and Polish kings and queens, and her too public (and often mocked and derided) extramarital life, mainly with the reknown Voltaire.
   
   The exact nature of Du Châtelet's early education isn't known, but after her marriage and several children (of whom only two survived into adulthood), the marquise sought tutors for herself. They, and a great deal of reading taught her geometry, physics, even calculus. Living with Voltaire provided her with cerebral stimulation, some early guidance and the opportunity to collaborate on literary pieces and, to her greater interest, scientific papers.
   
   As time went on, Du Châtelet became more and more independent of opinion; Voltaire, edgily teasing, called her " 'Emilia Neutonia'" in part because of one of their disagreements about physics: whether Newton's definition of "force, the modern concept of 'momentum'," was correct. Du Châtelet favored Leibniz's formula (basically, kinetic energy) instead, and she wrote as much in her Institutions de physique (Lessons in Physics), a book in which she tackled, among other big topics: space, time, and matter. This book was published`in 1740, when she was thirty-four. She wrote other scientific works, often considered derivative by her contemporaries and future generations, but which contained her own unique syntheses and conclusions. Her greatest project, on which she labored mightily during her final pregnancy but which was not published until years after her death, was a translation of Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. It remains the only French language translation in use.
   
   Zinsser sedulously recreates the life and times of Du Châtelet with a historian's scruples. Often direct documentation of Du Châtelet's particulars aren't in the record. For example, no letters between Du Châtelet and Voltaire have survived -- at least none known. And there are precious few personal facts of Du Châtelet's childhood. So, Zinsser makes due with phrases such as "she may have" and "perhaps she." The reader garners a great deal of knowledge about the conventions, the styles, the economic realities, and the class structure, but the threadbare sections in Du Châtelet's personal history cannot be denied. As a result, Emilie Du Châtelet : Daring Genius of the Enlightenment contains a sense of detachment and uncertainty that a biography would rather not have to bear. However, as a vigilant historian, Zinsser wisely simply acknowledges the gaps in the evidence and discusses possibilities.
   
   The marquise's lingering reputation marked her as a woman given to flightiness, airs, and too-public sexual freedom...perhaps because she -- as she said -- lived so her exterior reflected her heart. Her intellectual prowess got tamped down in the silts of time. Perhaps now, Du Châtelet's legacy can be evaluated in a more balanced manner. Perhaps now, her contributions of the mind can be truly appreciated.



2. This is a book written by a serious historian and it shows. Emilie Du Chatelet was vibrant, sensuous and so brilliant it makes my brain hurt. Unfortunately, this book isn't really about her - it's about the men in her life. Because so little of her personal correspondence has survived or been discovered we are left with a picture drawn from a reflection. Even so much the light of her personage shines through. Ms. Zinzzer is a thorough researcher and an excellent academic. However, unless we have the luck of discovering an unknown trove of personal information (letters, diaries, etc.), the very nature of De Chatelet makes her almost more suited as a base for a novel of historical fiction filled with passion and life than for a dry tome of names and dates.

5 comments about Edison: A Life of Invention.

1. I was given this book for a writing project and dutifully plowed through it over the Christmas holidays. Overall, I must say that it was an absolutely excellent holiday book as well as chock full of useful ideas for my scholarly purposes. This is an extremely difficult balance to strike and Israel has done it better than I thought possible - I was prepared for a long dry slog and instead found a great and exciting story.

   Edison, Israel argues, was not just a lone little-educated tinkerer of genius as he is often portrayed, but the creator of the prototype for the modern corporate research lab - he knew how to find talent, how to organize it to get the most out of people, and how to beat the competition by both speed and in the creation of entire new systems of technology. He also knew how to manipulate the media and build on his fame, creating a myth to which he had to live up. That being said, he had a pitch-perfect intuitive sense not only of potential new markets, but of how to create technical solutions to exploit them. He learned from his failures and strove to apply his less-successful inventions elsewhere, often to great effect. Taken together, this was true business genius and Israel explains it all succinctly, including the exposure of Edison's many weaknesses in management and his financial affairs and his many flops (such as the mining experiments that nearly bankrupted him). Furthermore, the basics of his major inventions - improvements to the telegraph and telephone, the light bulb, commerical electricity generation systems, to mention a few - are covered with competence, always with an eye to the management of it all and what it took, all of which are of great use. This adds up to a masterpiece of scholarship and popular writing in my view, crossing a plethora of disciplines in very readable prose and at a good pace of storytelling.

   However, there are many things that make this a challenging read and in some ways disappointing. Even though I know a lot about science and engineering from my own writing, I found the many passages explaining the nuts and bolts of his inventions hard to follow and ultimately rather dry. If the reader is not interested in these highly technical details, he can skim them without losing the narrative thread. Moreover, Edison as a person does not always come thru, though really he was his work and not much else. You also do not learn much about the fate of his enterprises or even his personal financial fortune after his death, which is also a part of his legacy that should be explored. Finally, Israel addresses somewhat rarified questions in the concluding chapter regarding whether Edison was a "scientist" and how industrial research was changing (developing specialties that required far more education than inventors of Edison's "heroic invention" epoch) to make the emergence of generalist, self-taught inventors like him far more difficult and with limited horizons; while I enjoyed this a great deal, it is of limited interest to those who were never steeped in "science policy."

   All in all, highest recommendation. It is a great achievement and will stand as one of the definitive biographies of this great and difficult man.




2. Reading this book has been an experience for me. I wanted to find out more about the life of one of America's most famous inventors, and this book has helped me along the way, so I give it credit for that. However, I have felt like I am trudging into a mighty windstorm, reaching deep into my soul to plunge each forward step as I slowly turn the pages in this book. There are pockets of enlightenment throughout the book, but it really is a relaying of facts about Edison's life, which is technically what a biography should do, but this book does not come alive in my hands like others have.
   
   To be fair, I did accomplish my goal of learning more about this great man. I learned that a lot his inventions were a result of not just great intellect, but of great work ethic and stick-to-it-iveness. Also, one of his greatest contributions was a corporate model for delegating work among his subordinates. The speed of the development of his inventions was the key, as several other inventors were working on similar ideas at the same time.
   
   Anyway, I recommend the book as a good introduction to the life of Tom, but I am sure that there is a book out there that will give you the same enlightenment without making you feel as though you've crawled on your hands and knees through the Sahara, with a canteen full of lukewarm water that leaks at a very slow rate.



3. I've always been interested in reading the biographies of famous inventors. Edison was one I knew little about, so I purchased this book. It is very interesting and takes you through his entire life. You see how Edison begins as a skilled telegraph operator. But he is not content with the status quo, he is always improving what he is working with. But he is also a businessman and gets his ideas patented, and forms partnerships and businesses to profit from them.
   
   The book also includes many pictures form different periods in his life. If you are interested in Edison, this is a great book.



4. This book is very authoritive and well researched, and even more important is that it provides end notes for the reader to verify the author's assertions. If you want a quick overview of Edison's life or just the highlights, this is not the book for you; but if you need to know the man, this is the best book I've read. Paul Israel presents Edison's achievments and failures, in inventions, human relationships and finances in a dispassionate manner.



5. I liked this book a great deal. You should consider that this is not a fictional story, and is the very essence of a research work.
   
   Great insights about his life, religious views, and his business of invention. Well treated subject and a great read.

5 comments about Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, World War II, and the Long Journey Home.

1. With the title of Chapter 40, the author asks the reader "Is that the story you expected to hear?" My honest assessment is 'No'. Much as the author, my father passed away suddenly. I was only 19 at the time, so he and I had not yet formed a father-son relationship at the adult level. It's a totally different relationship than that of a child and father, and one I truly regret missing out on.
   
   In the end, what the author does not know about his father hurts this story. Yes, it's a nice tribute, but the mix of fact and fiction just does not work for me. I realize that every historical piece written has to take some liberties with dialogue and peripheral characters, but this book just does not always have a ring of authenticity to it.
   
   That said, the story of Gene Moore is a sad one. Many of us have had childhood dreams that have been shattered, but Gene's experience is so tough because he actually possessed the talent to do what he loved. Many of us don't get as close to our dreams as Gene, but his was within his grasp and then slipped away. With that background, I wanted more true storyline and less fiction. Whether it was available in this situation or not is irrelevant, but in the end, the book suffers.
   
   I applaud the author for devoting time and effort to write a tribute to his father, but it never quite touched me the way I thought it would. The author can count me among the readers bothered by the Elroy Face passage at the end. Whether a connection is intended or not, the storyline certainly pulls the reader in that direction. In the end, since the 'facts' in the book do not allow the dots to be connected that way, the meeting with Face simply muddles the fact/fiction problem further.



2. This book was a gift from my son who appreciates and shares my love for sports and history. Gary Moore's entertaining tribute to his father is a wartime story of humanity at its best and triumphing over life's obstacles.
   
   I discovered my late father was involved in the capture of U-505, and this book re-connected me with my brothers and gave us better insight about our "greatest generation". I hope my son enjoys this story as much as I did.



3. I loved this book. Two of my favorite subjects are baseball and World War II, so this book was perfect for me. I have also been in the submarine U505 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, so that made the story even more interesting to me. I was also one of the people that incorrectly assumed that the character of Ray Laws was actually Elroy Face, but I apparently was far from alone in making that assumption. I am eagerly anticipating the movie and hope they get started on it soon.



4. Only someone who is an ardent student of the intricacies of our national pastime and has a passionate love affair with the game, beyond just being sports entertainment, can truly appreciate the devastation Gene Moore must have felt upon learning his dream of playing major league baseball had been shattered, and the impact it had on the rest of his life. But Playing With The Enemy captures that emotion for everyone. This is not only a story of a baseball player. It's a war story, a human interest story, and above all, a love story. And just when you think you have it figured out, you don't.
   
   This story is so incredible on so many fronts, it would seem it surely must be a figment of someone's imagination. But, as is stated in the acknowledgments, life really can be stranger than fiction.
   
   Playing With The Enemy may well be the best book I've ever purchased, and would recommended it to anyone. It promises to inspire us all about relationships we hold dear, and that life is so fleeting that we all need to grasp it while we can.
   
   Tim



5. I began reading this book with excitement because it was written about a man from Sesser. I grew up in Southern Illinois about 30 minutes north of Sesser, and recently moved here. I excitedly began to identify with places in the book. Maple Hill Cemetery, Bruno's, Mulberry and Matthew street. All of that is what first drew me in. Then the story came to life. It could have been set anywhere in small town American when things were hard. The young man playing ball, for love of the game, and all of the things that are pure about it. I began the book from a friend on Friday afternoon and couldn't put it down until I finished it on Saturday. The stories brought to life a town, a war, a person, and the era. I have already sent my copy to a friend to share what I learned. I am buying more to share with my dad, grandpa, and friends. This book should be read by anyone who has ever missed out on a dream. I am thankful that Gene went after his. Thank you to Gary Moore for sharing the story of his father and the hopes of small town.

2 comments about William Penn and the Quaker Legacy (Library of American Biography Series) (Library of American Biography).

1. I am very pleased to find a book on this topic. Although his writing sometimes seems a little more aimed at college/ history students than the general public, John Moretta does a good job of drawing a full, yet succinct, picture of the man and his times. The content and the topic make this book a very worthwhile purchase.
   Besides being a valuable lesson on a significant part of our nation's history, there is much to learn from reflection on Penn's life. His journey from being a child of privilege, rejecting that heritage, embracing egalitarianism and eventually returning to a preference for privilege is a good representation of the way many people travel a full circle in their lives. His desire to both profit personally while at the same time helping others with the founding of a colony ended up benefiting others but not himself. The conflict of idealism and financial pragmatism is a dilemna countless individuals with an altruistic bent must confront as well. And there are many other valuable reflections as well.
   For more information on the founding of the Quaker movement, see "First Among Friends: George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism" by H. Larry Ingle.



2. The biography, William Penn and the Quaker Legacy by John A. Moretta recounts the life of well-known pacifist, Quaker, and creator of Pennsylvania, William Penn. Penn impacted both American and English society by being an outspoken proponent of religious freedom and for reflecting his Quaker ideals in his political decisions. Moretta's biography takes one on a journey through Penn's turbulent political, spiritual, and emotional life.
   William Penn was born in 1644, the son of a wealthy English sea captain, and lived a lonely childhood in a home with a father who was rarely present. He was put into both classical and practical schooling, however his true interest was intense reading of the Bible and pondering the Quaker messages of George Fox. As a young boy Penn became enraptured by Quaker practices and much to his father's chagrin, at age 23, he became a devoted follower. While father and son rarely understood each other, the relations his father's status allowed him to develop, like his friendship with King Charles and his brother James, would be how Penn was able to succeed throughout his life.
   Penn created a stir in England and Ireland by preaching, debating, and, after being imprisoned, writing pamphlets extolling and validating the Quaker tradition. Some of his main arguments were that one should always live and dress in a plain way, people were naturally good, and that Jesus preached the brotherhood of man, meaning no wars or arms. Penn's family status, money, and his cunning use of words managed to get him out of jail the many times that he was imprisoned by the angry puritans.
   As a young man Penn realized Quakers would never be free to worship in England and became fully dedicated to the development of a safe haven for Quakers and all other religious people in the New World. In 1676 Penn began the intense planning and negotiations for the colony which would meet many obstacles in the following decades. The colony was to be built on the idea that all men and women could own land and worship their own religion. While most of Penn's plans did not work out, one of the biggest things he accomplished was a peaceable relation with the Native Americans. Political disputes, personal debt, and constant pressure from the Crown and surrounding colonies kept William and Pennsylvania in a constant state of turmoil, having Pennsylvania's economic prosperity being one of the few things keeping the experiment alive. By 1700 Pennsylvania had become a state of 15,000 people, largely in part to internal emigration by people from other states wanting to worship freely and escape militia duty. Penn died in 1718 at the age of 73 having had two wives, numerous children, and many trials that he overcame using his prestige, support from the Friends, and his intelligence. He left the right to govern Pennsylvania, a state where people of different religions coexisted, with the Crown and gave the land to twelve people in American and England, including his wife.
   This book was full of historical detail regarding Penn's life and gave tremendous insight in to William Penn as a person rather than just what he accomplished. Bringing in Penn's attitudes to issues allowed the book to read smoothly and allowed the reader to understand Penn on a deeper level. I particularly enjoyed how Moretta would tie a lot of events back to Penn's relationships with people important to him; his father, mother, wife, children. This put in perspective that Penn was still a human being and not just a machine who was constantly working to accomplish his next great thing. However, occasionally it would quickly skip over key historical events, requiring one to do further research into the time that Penn was living. Also, perhaps to make the book a smooth read, I frequently found myself wondering the date in which something had occurred. Oftentimes I was confused as to whether it was that in one particular year a tremendous number of events occurred or if that the writer was presenting information that spanned over a number of years. Even when I looked back to pages I had already read, this never became clear to me.
   In my opinion the book made the key historical developments in Penn's life unclear because it gave a very similar amount of attention to things that seemed to be of varying importance. In that sense I wish the book had been more succinct in clearly elaborating or stating that certain events had a particularly large impact on history or Penn's life. Also, because there was so much detail about trivial events, I found the book could be repetitive and felt that the information could have been condensed.
   Moretta's book left me with a deep respect for Penn and appreciation for the fact that he had been a far from perfect person but had still done tremendous good in his life. I was confused regarding certain historical developments that had been glossed over in the book (The Glorious Revolution, the Great Fire of London, the reign of William and Mary) and was curious to research more. In regards to Penn's development of the state of Pennsylvania, I did find myself wondering how much of his endeavor was a desire for religious freedom and how much was a desire to fulfill his need to wander and quest for economic prosperity. William Penn lived a determined life full of a quest for more and attaining a deeper understanding of these has made me have a strong appreciation for his strength to persevere through the tremendous opposition he met along the way.

5 comments about Freedom from Fear and Other Writings: Revised Edition.

1. this book is very good for me to build my strength
   and power for fight against military dictatorship
   in my country. Thank you for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

   KoKoOo




2. This book really inspired me. And all the details information written in this book are 100% accurate and I was so suprised to read all those history things that I have learnt in my childhood in my country, Myanmar. I believe this is one of the books that every patriots of Burma should have.



3. This book was for me an opener into the evolution of Burma's political scene, and it proved to be a good one.

   Whilst it takes some time to get accustomed to the many abbreviations of Burma's political parties and factions, once it is gotten used to, Freedom from Fear becomes an essential book for those interested in the becoming of Aung San Suu Kyi - daughter of Burma's national hero, the late Aung San - and her process of fighting and eventually winning the support of the country she always called home depite her international influences.

   Though Freedom from Fear would be a good book to start learning about Burma's modern political history, I would suggest first reading about pre-colonial Burma to get a better grasp and understanding of the country's stand and place in Southeast Asia.




4. I re-read this book shortly after Aung San Suu Kyi was placed, once again, under house arrest in 2003. The daughter of the man who is referred as the founding father of Burma(today called Myanmar) - Aung San - is herself a major political figure in her country. The chapter about her father - who was assassinated when the author was two years old - is an impressive, informative, and dispassionate account of Aung San's days as a student leader and his leadership of the independence movement that established modern Burma as a nation. My own father was a foreign correspondent in Burma in the late 1940s and had covered the assassination of Aung San and his colleagues. This left me since my childhood with a deep curiosity about this period of Burmese history - and Aung San's daughter's account does not leave curious readers like myself disappointed. Most of the book is devoted to the life and times of Suu Kyi herself. It includes several articles by other writers who help readers understand how a Burmese woman rises to national prominence in a country which has known but unbroken military dictatorship for decades. This book is also about Burmese culture, religion, and language, and should be on the bookshelf on anyone who has a serious interest in this curious, wretched country of tremendous unfulfilled potential.

   If you have an interest in Burmese or Southeast Asian history, you might also consider reading Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, a historical novel which I have also reviewed on this website.




5. The best writing I've ever read ... about striving democracy in peace... I love That Woman!!!!

5 comments about Shakespeare the Thinker.

1. In this delightful book, Shakespeare the Thinker, A. D. Nuttall seeks to defend the great playwright against those who view him as just a product of his time (a view that is a strong form of Historicism). I'm a huge fan of Stephen Greenblatt, who wrote the terrific biography Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, so I was glad that Nuttall did not disagree with the nuanced New Historicism of Greenblatt and Pierre Bourdieu. Rather he agrees with them that Shakespeare interacted or "negotiated" with his milieu in a complex way, and that the "causation [was] a two-way street." Nuttall goes even further, asserting that "although knowledge of the historical genesis can on occasion illuminate a given work, the greater part of the artistic achievement of our best playwright is _internally_ generated" and that "[i]t is the product, not of his time, but of his own, unresting, creative intelligence."
   
   Shakespeare the Thinker takes the form of a well-integrated commentary on the plays--almost too well integrated, as it is hard to find discussion of a particular play just by thumbing through the book. Several plays are discussed in each chapter, which the skimpy table of contents doesn't mention (my only real gripe with the book). In a way, this is good, because much is gained by reading the book, or at least a chapter, straight through. For instance, Romeo and Juliet is followed by A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Nuttall examines some common themes and how interpretation depends on which play one believes was written first.
   
   Nuttall's new book probably won't replace Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare After All, but will complement it. His synthesis provides a nice counterpoint to her fine-grained analysis; and his (sometimes elliptical) engagement with other critical works, to her careful culling of observations from such works.
   
   Nuttall's writing is enjoyable, sprinkled with insightful references to modern pop culture--for example, Ian McEwan's Atonement, Wife Swap, Goodfellas, and Star Trek! He takes delight in language (and not just Shakespeare's), like when he's describing Katherina's response to Petruchio in the sun-moon exchange: "Turning his non-committal `say' into `know' exposes the lunacy of all this moonshine with solar clarity."
   
   What shines through, most of all, is Nuttall's admiration of Shakespeare's intellect, encapsulated in his "law": "Whatever you think of, Shakespeare will have thought of first." Fellow admirers and students of the playwright will enjoy this excellent book.
   
   Here is an expanded table of contents:
   Ch. 1. To the Death of Marlowe
   p. 25: Henry VI, parts 1-3
   45: Richard III
   56: The Comedy of Errors
   63: Two Gentlemen of Verona
   70: The Taming of the Shrew
   Comparison of Shakespeare and Marlowe.
   
   2. Learning Not to Run
   87: Love's Labour's Lost (preceded by brief discussion of Titus Andronicus)
   99: Romeo and Juliet
   119: A Midsummer Night's Dream
   
   3. The Major Histories
   133: Richard II
   150: Henry IV, parts 1 and 2; Henry V
   
   4. Stoics and Sceptics
   171: Julius Caesar
   192: Hamlet
   205: Troilus and Cressida
   
   5. Strong Women, Weaker Men
   221: Much Ado about Nothing
   226: As You Like It
   239: Twelfth Night
   247: All's Well That Ends Well
   
   6. The Moralist
   255: The Merchant of Venice
   262: Measure for Measure
   
   7. How Character May Be Formed
   277: Othello
   284: Macbeth
   290: Coriolanus
   
   8. Shrinking and Growing
   300: King Lear
   312: Timon of Athens
   321: Antony and Cleopatra
   
   9. The Last Plays
   333: Pericles and Cymbeline
   345: The Winter's Tale
   360: The Tempest



2. Nuttall who recently passed away was considered by his colleagues one of the great Shakespeare scholars of our time. I have read at least two reviews praising this book in the highest terms possible.
   Thus to my own surprise and slight disappointment I did not find myself enjoying the book as much as I had hoped.
   There are a couple of reasons for this. The title suggests that we are going to understand far more deeply, and in something like a systematic way that which Shakespeare thought on the major issues of life.
   This is not exactly what happens. Nuttall continually stresses Shakespeare's extraordinary intelligence but he never really develops lines of thought in a rich and complicated way. What he does is 'read the plays' often by seeing how they grow out of each other. He also in doing this includes a lot of extraneous information often supplying short - summaries of concepts which in many cases it might be assumed the reader of his book would have a knowledge of.
   The writing itself somehow does not flow, and feels to me ' broken up' shifting attention needlessly in a less than coherent way.
   But the writing does contain an enormous knowledge about Shakespeare. It too reveals an encylopediac knowledge of scholarly disputes which often to the general reader seem less than interesting.
   Nuttall does make a strong case for his own conception of Shakespeare as an enormously intelligent thinker, who uses a variety of literary techniques to hide himself and his own position on the question at hand. Shakespeare's long- noted multi- sidedeness, his ability to think sympathetically into and out of the positions of diverse and contradictory characters is also amply illustrated. Nuttall has a wonderful feeling for the most remarkable passages in Shakespeare, and in fact for me the most enjoyable part of the work was confronting and reading again, for instance , what Nuttall considers the greatest speech in all Literature, Antony's funeral oration for Ceasar in 'Julius Caaesar' or Gaunt's sad lament on the decline of the England he has known.
   I believe that there is much to learn for all lovers of Shakespeare in this work.
   But the kind of new depth in understanding which came with reading the great critics like Coleridge and A.C. Bradley I , perhaps mistakenly, did not find in this work.



3. That Harold Bloom sees A.D. Nuttall as his hero should be a tip-off to potential buyers of this book: it is not one for the average reader (like me).
   
   There is no doubt that the author is a scholar of the first rank. However, this book is written for his fellow scholars and those intense amateurs who have a good existing command over the full breadth of William Shakespeare's many plays.
   
   I was disappointed since the title seems to indicate there would be a more overt and accessible discussion of the thought patterns of the great playwright. Instead I entered a great forest, which as Professor Nuttall notes, "is a place to get lost in."



4. What makes this book especially valuable to me is that A.D. Nuttall brought not only a lifetime of reading and discussion of the plays, but a lifetime of seeing them performed.
   
   This book has already proven to be an excellent companion when considering a specific play (using the Index helped), especially before and after seeing a new production. The contexts and meanings of the histories so remote in time and place are especially useful.
   
   Nuttall writes with fearless precision that honors the best academic standards, yet in an almost conversational style. He writes about nearly all the plays, and his approach is variously appropriate to that particular play as well as its relationship to the others, to its "type," to Shakespeare's times and what we know about him. He does not shrink from the issues which certain plays raise for 21st century audiences: the role of women within marriage in "The Taming of the Shrew", for example. Other commentators may suggest that Kate's submission is meant ironically, but Nuttall does not take that easy escape.
   
   I'm not a Shakespeare scholar, and I don't agree with all of Nuttall's interpretations, but that's the joy of Shakespeare--the dialogue with the plays can be endless. For reference and for reading, I will be returning to "Shakespeare the Thinker."



5. After reading this excellent book, my first thought was one of admiration for Shakespeare that he can provide so much interesting material for so many. Nuttall by no means exhausted the thematic possibilities of any of the plays but found very interesting questions in all of them. But actually not everyone who writes about Shakespeare writes interesting or memorable stuff, it takes what actually is a rare combination of good education, common sense and an open, alive mind. So even though there is an astounding amount of insight in the plays, not every commentator derives and gives us something of value.
   
   I didn't agree with all his points but they are all honest questions: not self-serving and very little arguing with his colleagues. The question of The Tempest and nihilism is quite provocative. I suppose in the way that Buddhism is nihilistic, nihilism leading to transcendent joy, yes, he's right. Well, you'll read it and decide for yourself.
   
   He writes in the Coda: "The universe is indefinitely recessive to the understanding. It will not provide the thing that philosophers cannot help pursuing: the Answer." This is a very good formulation of our situation: we can't help wanting to have the conclusive view - and in fact we can't help assuming at any particular moment that we've got it already. It's natural to try to establish equilibrium. Still, for us, the truth of things comes as gnawing doubt, as a question. It's not truth but it's the accepting to entertain an opposing view, sensation, fact or feeling.
   
   These are essays provoked by long acquaintance with Shakespeare, Plato and Western thought in general. It's not an introduction to Shakespeare. It's really only for people who love these plays.

5 comments about Son of the Revolution.

1. Liang Heng's memoir accounts his experiences living in the second half of the 20th century. This book belongs in the category of "Wound Literature," books written post-1976 about the Cultural Revolution. While an enormous body of Wound Literature exists, Liang's is unique for the Western reader because it represents the perspective of a man. The book is a quick read and it does a good job of critically examining history but leaves out polemic politics.



2. A long and, at times, stressful read, but worth every beautiful word.



3. This book is what "Catcher in the Rye" is to adolescents in America...and for all backgrounds, its THE novel to read. its so real and current and applicable to one's own life. I feel the struggles of Liang Heng and his family. Its told in a way thats enjoyable yet saddening. His loneliness becomes the reader's loneliness. I read this book while going through a hard time in my life. After reading his story, I had all the strength and willpower to "struggle" as if somehow through my struggle I would build charascter and be better for it. I appreciate this book for all it is, says and the reality it created for me. Thank You Liang Heng



4. This was an excellent book that showed the effects of the 'Cultural Revolution' from the perspective of individuals. The book does not cover the movements in an overall view but keeps with the viewpoint of the individual. I think it would help to have a basic understanding of Chinese history during this era, to fully appreciate what is going on in this more detailed and finer viewpoint. Liang learns of the contradictions in this "socialist" society. He does not demonize the Chinese people but shows how they struggled in creating a new society. There are many powerful images of his personal relationships. The main theme I picked up on was how misguided policies fostered a corrupt culture that was exploited on the ground level, often by people who thought that they were doing what was best for their country.



5. This book, published in 1980, is a superbly-told personal account of one family's terrible break-up and sufferings in Changsha, China during the Cultural Revolution. The writer is a boy, later a young man, accused of belonging to a "Rightist", "Capitalist Roader" family (mother an official with the local police; father working on local newspaper). The whole family winds up scattered, with the usual misery of labor camps, "sent-down" people in the equivalent of Soviet gulags, working with "the peasants".
   
   I really enjoyed reading this book during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to remind myself that China was, and still is, very much under Communist dictatorship rule, in spite of incredible progress economically. The writing is straightforward and well-organized, and it reminded me of the very fine writing coming out now across the English-speaking press from the Chinese women who'd spent painful youths in the same period there. It seems rather rare that the men describe their time there and then, not exactly as if they've tried to forget it - no, more that they either hadn't the talent to write, or were too busy, or became busy and/or successful in order to drown out the memories of the past.
   
   Finally it became clear to me that perhaps there was some masterful editting involved, and then I realized that a teacher, his own American wife, had co-written this fantastic account of Chinese anguish and cultural destruction.
   
   No wonder! Alles klar, Ms. Shapiro! You did a great job interviewing!