No comments about From the Cannon's Mouth: The Civil War Letters of General Alpheus S. Williams.

5 comments about Torpedoed: An American Businessman's True Story of Secrets, Betrayal, Imprisonment in Russia, and the Battle to.

1. This book looks like mystery but not like honest and
   serious story.Authors described everything too primitive and without
   proper proofs.



2. I read books cover-to-cover, good or bad. Good books because I can't stop, bad books because of my morbid fascination that such junk gets published. That being said, I cannot finish this book.

   If Ed Pope was not spying, the Russians should have locked him up for profound manifestation of delusions of grandeur. This guy has an extraordinary ego ... . When I get the stomach to finish this book, I want to go back and count the number of times Ed declares himself "right" when everyone else was wrong.

   Did our military really approve 126 top-secret clearances for this guy? If so, this issue raises serious questions about our national security. I suspect the navy was as sick of Ed as you will be (if you buy this book), and to pacify his passion for intrigue, declared any trivial tidbit of knowledge Ed possessed as "top secret."

   I'll bet most of Ed's 'security clearances' were bestowed in this manner: "Oh, and by the way Ed, divulge to no one the location of your parking spot or the number of pens in your pocket protector ... that's top secret information." Further, I'll bet as soon as Ed obtained these 'clearances' he showed his coworkers where his car was located, and emptied the contents of his geek-badge, just so he could admonish them to take the information to their graves.

   On second thought ... go ahead and buy this book. Misery loves company.




3. An incredibly poorly written book, chock full of inconsistencies and contradictions. I forced myself to finish it, which was not as painful as Pope's prison experience, but....

   Mr. Pope makes the point many times that he knew he was dealing on the edge of legality. Indeed, he blames some of his troubles on his associate, Kiely, for having brought into Russia "papers that I had pleaded with him to leave at home" [p 124]. Well, Pope says he knew he was being watched, he tells us he knew his hotel phone was bugged and he made that plea in a phone call from Moscow to Kiely in the US. So why the surprise??

   To illustrate his point that Putin is a bum, he accuses him of making cheap election promises [sound familiar?] to reschedule London and Paris Club debt [p. 85]. But Putin can't do that; Russia is the debtor!

   He knows some of his cellmates are government stooges and yet cites their statements to support his understandable anger at the Rusian government.

   The Pope story tells us something about Russian bureacracy and its vestigial military industrial complex. Let's hope it does not tell us much about our own bureaucracies.
   
   Sorry, Captain Ed, but having lived in Moscow for almost seven years and having read most of the books dealing with Russia since Gorbachov, I have to recommend putting yours at the bottom of anyone's reading list.




4. It is apparent from the beginning that Edmond Pope felt he was something special from being retired from the Navy and founding a company which specialized in projects related to propulsion through water. It appeared that he felt with all the Navy top secret clearances, they alone should be sufficient for obtaining information from those in Russia willing to sell. He knew about the danger of obtaining the information and how his room was bugged and, this was a risky international business he was in. It seems through his narration, nothing came as a surprise to him when whe was held over in the beginning. His ordeal in the prison showed that he had undergone suffient Navy training not to break him completely. By all accounts his wife was very instrumental in getting public attention to his captivity. The most obvious thing that came out of this writing, was that no where could he convince anyone until he was captive for nearly three months for help either from Penn State where he was wroking for or from our government representatives. It was expecially evident, our most highly impressive Pennsylvania State Senators Arlen Spector or Rick Santorum, who representated him gave no reponse to his wife when she requested their help. Only after he was well on his way of getting a pardon from the Russian president, did Spector or Santorum get on the bandwagon behind Pope. I guess it shows that they only play when things are in a positive mode. The book was very interesting and written well and held your attention throughout.



5. I met this man in person. The ordeals he went thru, its just insane. But he made the best of his time in purgatory.
   This is another example of burachcy.
   For those of you who dont have a clue how the world really is
   please read this book.

No comments about Soldier, Surgeon, Scholar: The Memoirs of William Henry Corbusier, 1844-1930.

1 comments about Fifth Army Field Surgeon.

1. Fifth Army Field Surgeon is a stirring account of one US Army surgeon
   through three major WW II campaigns. Notable is the treatment of a guerilla-like operation to remove a wounded German intelligence officer from among swarming German combat troops in Italy.
   The operation was long shrouded from view by security classification protocols. Col. Shafiroff was
   surely a character member of Tom Brokaw's 'Greatest Generation."
   Review: Rush Robinett, US Navy WW II

No comments about Plantation Mistress on the Eve on the Civil War: The Diary of Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard, 1860-1861 (Women's Diaries and Letters of the South).

No comments about My Bit: A Lancashire Fusilier at War 1914-18.

3 comments about May I Quote You, General Lee: Observations and Utterances of the South's Great Generals (May I Quote You--?,).

1. If you are looking for a reference book on quotes from past leaders or if you just need inspiration from these leaders, this is the book for you. My husband is in the military and he uses examples from this book frequently, along with a lesson in history that corresponds and I also have given a copy of this book to my father-in-law. He is a civil war buff and he loved my husband's book. I highly recommend this book to historians, students and people who are just interested in the civil war and the heroes of the south.



2. You'll love this book. It has some of Lee's most famous quotes, as well as some obscure ones.

   Lee has many quotes of wisdom as well. This is entirely quotes, not a story.

   I bought two copies, one for me, and one for a gift.




3. Good but this book has been done many times, just not in one volume.

No comments about Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings.

No comments about The Flower of Chivalry: Bertrand du Guesclin and the Hundred Years War.

No comments about A Divided Heart: Letters of Sally Baxter Hampton, 1853-1862.