1 comments about The Sky Suspended: A Fighter Pilot's Story.

1. The Sky Suspended: A Fighter Pilot's Story is the remarkable and memorable autobiography of Jim Bailey, who in the summer of 1939 while a 19-year old student at Oxford University felt strongly that war between England and Germany was inevitable. That was when he signed up to become a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force. Baily flew British fighter planes in aerial combat missions that ranged from the Battle of Britain, through the action at Gibraltar, and the Anzio beach-heads, to the landing in the South of France. One of the true heroes for which Winston Churchill was to acknowledge with his famous declaration that never had "so many owed so much to so few", The Sky Suspended is the true life story of heroism, survival against the odds, and a remembering of so many that did not make it through -- but to whom so much is owed to that generation of young men by all of the generations that follow. This special large printed edition of The Sky Suspended is a great read, and a welcome addition to the growing library of World War II memoirs and biographies.

No comments about FORGOTTEN STONEWALL OF THE WEST.

3 comments about Piloto: Migrant Worker to Jet Pilot.

1. I heard Hank Cervantes speak at a reunion of the famed "Bloody 100th" Bomb Group and was so impressed I went out and got this book. It was just as impressive. What an incredible story! A child of migrant workers, growing up in the harshest condiditons imaginable, dreams of something beyond the farm fields. He stays in school, works hard and eventually is accepted into pilot training during WWII. He has to put up with bigotry and racism at every turn, yet something in him won't let him give in or up. Eventually he achieves ranking and position few Hispanics in the military have. Besides being a great story teller, Cervantes is also a great role model for youth--minority and otherwise. Then to top it all off, the book is filled with details about B-17s, B-47s and the B-58 Hustler--a perfect read for an ol' aviation buff like me. This one should be in every school library in the country. Read it!



2. Piloto: Migrant Worker To Jet Pilot by Henry Cervantes is his personal story of being a Mexican-American pilot who proudly served the United States Air Force. An engaging and candid memoir of what it was like to be a Latino in a life-or-death field dominated by Caucasians, Piloto offers the reader a firsthand witness of one man's transformation in while serving in the Air Force both during and after World War II. Piloto is a unique and welcome contribution to American Military and Aviation History collections.



3. I once worked for Hank Cervantes when he was at the Defense Contract Administration Services Region Headquarters in Los Angeles. I remember seeing the photo of his damaged B-17 on the wall in his office and asking him about it. I was amazed even more when he told me the story behind the photo.
   
   He was a delight to work with and his book revealed things about him that I never knew. After reading his very personal account of the struggles and odds he overcame to become a success, it made me admire him all the more.
   
   I highly commend this book to anyone who is faced with seemingly unsolvable challenges. It will inspire you to keep plugging no matter what the odds.
   
   Thanks Hank and Congratulations on a Great Book!
   
   Chuck Robuck
   Newcastle, CA

No comments about Caring Warrior Gen. Louis Menetrey.

1 comments about OUR CHANCES WERE ZERO: The Daring Escape by two German POW's from India in 1942.

1. interesting book, as many escape storys are by english escaping in europe. worth a read even if your not a "WWII escape" fan.
   Although you don't get to feel you know the two guys as well as in sinilar books.

5 comments about Vespasian.

1. There is no fault to be had with Levick's attention to detail, or her painstaking research. Where Vespasian falls flat, however, is in style and organization. Levick eschews the narrative, and spurns a chronological approach to her subject. She chooses instead a subject-oriented organization; not bad in and of itself (Michael Grant largely pulls that off in The Severans), but her dry style and over-attention to obscure details and constant quarrels with other scholars make the absence of a narrative approach nearly fatal.

   Levick also buries any hint of her own voice or feelings. Obviously, she must have a keen interest in Vespasian to have invested such a large amount of work in the book. Yet none of her interest comes through. Contrast that with historians such as Norwich, Tuchman, or Runciman - a passion for their subject shines through each of their works. The best historians set out with the mindset, "This is a fascinating era of history, and I'm going to show my readers why they should think so, too." Levick seems to have other priorities.

   Perhaps academics can appreciate Levick's work (and perhaps the Italian translation is more gripping); for the amateur, however, looking for an enjoyable, educational foray into Imperial Rome, Levick's Vespasian is best avoided.




2. This book is better termed a history of the Flavians rather than a biography of Vespasian. Despite a glowing review (in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review), I have reservations about the achievement of Barbara Levick in writing this book.

   I was looking forward "Vespasian" since, until now, there has been no biography in English about this emperor. Aside from a history of his reign, I was hoping this new book would provide some insight into Vespasian's personality and his relations with Titus and Domitian. To an extent, Professor Levick fulfilled this expectation but not on the level I was hoping. For example, I was interested in a broader assessment of the fortunes of the Flavians, particularly their rise under Caligula and Claudius and Vespasian's fall from grace. I would have liked more about Titus' education with Britannicus and his presumed presence at the poisoning of Claudius' son. I think the latter instance is pure Flavian propaganda.

   The Judean War is related as a recitation of the facts with little elaboration. We do not get a full picture of Titus's role in the war. He was an inexperienced commander and showed this in more than a few mistakes he made. If Vespasian allowed him the glory of capturing Jerusalem he made sure that his son has a seasoned professional to advise him: Tiberius Julius Alexander. Titus' pivotal role was in handling the delicate negotiations between the parties involved in the Flavian rebellion met with scant attention. Without his traveling from person to person, Vespasian's rebellion would never have happened. The role Queen Berenice in these negotiations is not brought up. Since her brother, Agrippa II, was in Rome until after the Flavian rebellion began, and she was romantically involved with Titus it would have been interesting to have more insight into her role.

   A discussion about Nerva from Professor Levick is sorely wanting. He is briefly mentioned, which I think is odd for such a pivotal Flavian supporter. I would like to know her ideas about his mysterious contribution to the Flavian cause that earned him an ordinary consulship with Vespasian, the only consulship he did not share with Titus.

   The best parts of the book for me were the last two chapters (Vespasian and His Sons and Conclusion) where Professor Levick brilliantly sums up the Flavians and their impact on history. However, Vespasian does not emerge from this book as a flesh-and-blood personality. Some of the chapters, particularly Restoration of the Roman World, which deals with events in every part of the empire, would have benefited by adding headings in the text. This would provide easy access to the information. I was perturbed over Professor Levick's shorthand in referring to ancient sources. The Annals of Tacitus, for example, are abbreviated TA and the notes are crowded. The source is not immediately identifiable and I wish more intuitive abbreviations were used.

   I cannot agree with other reviewers that Professor Levick selects "boring" emperors. Tiberius and Claudius were anything but boring, and their reigns were pivotal in the history of the principate. I think that there is room for another biography of Vespasian, written in the form of a true life of the subject, and including chapters dealing with the state of the empire, army, art and literature. Ms. Levick's book is not the last word on her subject.




3. I have read all of Barbara Levick's works and find them consistently dry, ponderous and distorted with one-sided theses. To be fair, the work is well researched and intricate, yet is at the same time lacking the spark of fascination so characteristic of Roman history but so difficult to describe. Because a book is devoid of imagination, spirit and narrative for an emphasis on sheer exegesis does not neccesarily make that work particularly "scholarly": in fact, it makes that work boring. More's the pity for Roman studies.



4. The previous half dozen reader reviews of this book (mostly lukewarm) have fallen into two catagories: quibbles by other period specialists and complaints from those who wish Levick would try to impart some readability to her scholarship. Of course the specialists beg to differ, that's what specialists do. No two would ever make the same choices in attempting to capture the same complex period. Those who assert that this book is very "dry" are right, but those who dub it "boring" have missed the point. Try to find another booklength biography of Vespasian in English! If one wants to learn about this man, this is an essential book and for that reason it deserves more than three stars. Levick is a scholar emerita. We can regret that she did not learn her craft in an era when some historians recognize the value of writing for a wider audience than the tiny circle of their fellow cognoscenti, but we do her wrong if we fail to credit her with writing a work that is the first of its kind.



5. I am incredulous that one reviewer would term Caligula, Claudius, and Vespasian as "boring." There are dozens and dozens of boring Emperors. But these guys? Caligula, dressing up as a Pharoh (or a woman) and parading the streets of Rome with a fake falling-off beard. Claudius, proclaimed Emperor by the Praetorian Guards as a joke--that backfired. Except for his choice of wives, such as his niece Agrippina (too bad about that. It gave the world Nero. Oh, and Messalina, the party girl!) he did rather well. And Vespasian himself, who would have thought! He brought stability to the empire, paid off the debts, put a tax on urine, and got to sleep with Antonia Caenis as well. These guys were anything but boring. And given the paucity of solid stuff on Vespasian, I'll take what I can get.

No comments about My Experiences of the War between France and Germany: Volume 2.

No comments about Sword and Olive Branch: Oliver Otis Howard (The North's Civil War, No. 9).

1 comments about Reminds Me of the Time: Vietnam 1968.

1. This is a must read for all Vietnam veterans. The author captures the day to day activities of Vietnam in a very real human way. Don't look for heavy battles or bitter fighting because it isn't in this book. What is in this book is a very accurate description of the often tedious life of a soldier caught in strange land in a frustrating war. At the end of this book you feel like you know the author and you've found a new friend.

No comments about My Experiences of the War between France and Germany: Volume 1.