2 comments about The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius.

1. Let me start by saying up front that it pains me to give this book a low rating, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Thanks for that, however, go to Mr. Franklin, not Ms. Chaplin. Franklin was a fascinating figure with an interesting life, and it would be difficult to write an uninteresting book about him. This book, however, is rather poorly written and at times gives the impression of trying to stretch a little information a bit too far. To me, it felt as though she decided to write a book on Franklin the scientist, found she didn't quite have enough science material to fill a book, and decided to stretch it with repetitive, somewhat pretentious interpretation which added little too the book besides pages. At points I felt as though she was trying a little too hard to keep the book from becoming a biography of Franklin, staying completely focused on the science aspect when a little information on his life in general was need to place the science in context. The writing was frequently a little clunky and tiresome.
   
   Overall, worth reading, at least if you have a specific interest in the subject, but not worth buying in hardcover.



2. THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND THE PURSUIT OF GENIUS comes from a history professor at Harvard, who shows how Franklin's evolving status as a scientific genius lends to appreciating his works and the evolution of science as a whole. There have been many biographies of Franklin over the years; but this is the first to narrow the focus on his scientific investigations and how they led to his political prominence. All of his scientific research is considered, linking science works with problem-solving at the social and political levels. New research into documents from his early career and those of his colleagues lend to a unique discussion here.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

3 comments about Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa.

1. Do you want to read a good thriller? Despite its title, "Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa" is much more than an account of a celebrated human rights attorney who was murdered in Mexico in 2001. (The government subsequently tried to pass off her death as a suicide.) This beautifully written and well-documented narrative keeps the reader in suspense: Why try to cover up an obvious murder? How were the investigators able to accomplish it? This is a love story, a history of human rights abuses in Mexico and a political analysis. If you want to read a riveting account based on a true tragedy, be sure to read this one.



2. "In Mexico, to defend human rights is to risk your life." -Digna Ochoa. And that's exactly what she did. Ironcially, she risked her life by giving a voice to her own people in her own country, unprotected by her own government, and consequently betrayed. Yet many a government official vowed that this case would not go unsolved (staple phrase in Mexico when a crime is committed). Almost 2 years later, the best they could come up with was the most ridiculous, asinine and insulting verdict I've ever read. This verdict was just as riddled with holes as the other victims mentioned in this book.
   
   I commend Linda Diebel on her arduous, and at times dangerous, investigative work to produce this book. It was through it that holes such as careless police work of not properly securing the crime scene, removal of the body only after all medical readings are taken, no possible gun powder residue, and something as simple as the chain of custody of the evidence were either discovered or brought out from under the rug.
   
   The case of Digna Ochoa is marred and disgraced with incompetence, contradictions, lies, cover up, and ultimately betrayal; things that go against Digna herself and what she stood for. Mexican officials are known to make dissenters disappear (via the army, police, security forces, and others). That explains why testimonies in Digna's case (one of many) were changed and documents mysteriously went missing. If a person who stands in their (government) way can easily be dealt with, then how hard can it be to get rid of a piece of paper?
   
   I strongly recommend this book. While the white sandy beaches of Mexico are quite real, so is the corruption, injustices, and atrocities of torturing and killing of innocent people.



3. The Mexican government's investigation into the bizarre death of Digna Ochoa, a dedicated human-rights lawyer, is set up for scrutiny in this chilling exposé. The author, Linda Diebel, founded and headed up the Toronto Star's Latin-America bureau for seven years before transferring to Washington, and was an acquaintance of Digna's.
   
   "Betrayed" presents the known facts of the case, along with statements from Digna's colleagues, friends and family, and from local police and politicians. The portrait of her that emerges is one that forces the reader to think twice about blindly accepting "official" verdicts in such controversial cases. As we learn more and more about Digna's life and passions and her eagerness to see justice done for Mexico's poorest and least privileged, the official position - that her death was a "probable suicide" - is shown to be absurd.
   
   Digna wasn't only a warrior for justice, hailed by Amnesty International and Bill Clinton and Kerry Kennedy: she was a former Dominican nun, a young woman with a new boyfriend, a loving and stubborn and headstrong daughter and sister. With the extremely-readable and well-crafted "Betrayed", Linda Diebel has given readers a portrait of a fascinating woman whose spirit burned brightly and much too briefly.

5 comments about Gentleman Revolutionary : Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution.

1. I was really looking forward to reading this book. I am a nut for anything to do with the American Revolution. I'd read Brookhiser's short, concise bio on George Washington and enjoyed it very much.
   I was so disappointed with this book. Just looking at the cover and reading the blurbs made me expect too much I guess.
   Morris was known for 3 things: losing his leg, writing the Constitution, and scoring with the ladies. How could his life be turned into a snoozefest?
   Maybe it's the writing...I just finished reading Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton bigoraphy, which is 3 times longer than this Morris bio. It was absolutely riveting. I was sorry when I finished it; I just did not want it to end. I could not finish the Morris book fast enough; I ended up skipping pages here and there to get to Morris; he seems to be missing in his own biography. Brookhiser gave me no sense as to the kind of man Gouverneur Morris really was.
   Very disappointing!



2. 
   This is the most misleading of books. The title would have you believe Gouverneur Morris wrote the Constitution. A few more founding Fathers naturally participated. However, Morris was Chairman of the Committee on Style which means Morris was primarily responsible for making printed sense out of the legal mumbo jumbo. He did this and did it well to include the Preamble, no mean feat. But he certainly did not write the Constitution as Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Nor did Morris himself ever claim to. If Morris did write the Constitution, as Richard Brookheiser claims in the title, why did Brookheiser spend less that 10% of the book reporting on what this work is purportedly all about, the Constitution and Morris' participation therein?
   
   Aside from being misleading, this book just also happens to be very poorly written. It is cluttered and confusing. It is a shame the author does not give the reader a better opportunity to know Morris. Morris lived and participated in some of the Nation's most formative times. If the author had given his subject more attention, if he had said more about who Morris was and how he interacted with the events of his time, then this could have been a slam bang winner, a blockbuster of a fine work. Instead, the best thing that can be said is that it is a very cursory survey of the times in which Morris lived.
   
   Mercifully, it is short.



3. After reading "Gentleman revolutionary", I found I wanted more on the life of Gouverneur Morris. Brookeiser's book just seemed to go by so darn quickly. But, I did, indeed, enjoy it.
   
   I find that we Americans have spent so much time venerating our top five Founders (Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin and Madison/Adams tied for fifth) that we forget that it took hundreds of "founders" in that same era to midwife the country.
   
   What about Pinckney, John Jay, Winthrop, Richard Heny Lee, and, yes, Gouverneur Morris? There are so many more that it would be impossible to mention them all in this short review.
   
   At least, Brookhiser gave us a taste of a seldom-discussed Founder with this short bio. Even though Brookhieser obviously loves his subject, which in some reviewers leads to problematic reporting, it is chock full of interesting if not salacious tidbits. ( He married a woman accused of murder, was quite the ladies man, and even some sources claim Morris to be a deist though he was officially an Episcopalian)
   
   Anyway, I hope to see Brookhiser do more on the Founders who are not household names.



4. "Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens and let them vote. Are they property? Why then is no other property included?" "The admission of slaves into the representation when fairly explained comes to this: that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina who goes to the coast of Africa and, in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity, tears away his fellow creatures from their dearest connections and damns them to the most cruel bondages, shall have more votes in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey who views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice." This voice during the American Constitutional Convention belonged to Gouverneur (his mother's maiden name) Morris. "Morris spoke 173 times at the Convention, more often than any other member, despite the fact that he missed all of June (while Madison, who attended every session spoke 161 times).
   
   So it wasn't very surprising when, on 8 September 1786, the convention selected a five man committee which in turn gave Morris, of of its members, the task of putting together a draft based on all the previous proceedings that summer. Four days later Morris produced a clear, simple document avoiding legislative repetitions as far as possible; in one instance drafting down 23 articles from the Committee of Detail into a much more concise 7. And he also wrote this which ought sound familiar: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Thank Morris for the coinage of "We the People." Convention drafts previously referred to "We the People of the states." A most important distinction. Brookhiser: "When Gouverneur Morris changed 'We the people of the states' into 'We the people,' he created a phrase that would ring throughout American history, defining every American as part of a single whole. Those three words may be his greatest legacy."
   
   "As Jefferson immortalized the Continental Congress's view of first principles, so Morris had applied his finish to the Constitutional Convention's view of fundamental law. And he defended it later. Consider when Republicans "proposed a bill to disband the new federal courts" in 1801, notwithstanding that the Constitution provided for federal judges and expressly stated that such judges were not to be removed during good behavior. Argued an incredulous and sarcastic Morris at the time: "[Y]ou shall not take the man from the office, but you may take the office from the man; you shall not throw him overboard, but you may sink his boat under him; you shall not put him to death, but you may take away his life."
   
   The man who witnessed the French Revolution up close and personal (being a minister to France between 1792 & 1794, and resident in Europe until December 1798---see Melanie Randolph Miller's Envoy to the Terror: Gouverneur Morris and the French Revolution) knew a thing or two about the importance of power remaining balanced, or at least subject to some checks. Though Morris did have some sympathy for the predicament the Jeffersonians, in Morris's view, faced: "Time...seems about to disclose the awful secret that commerce and domestic slavery are mortal foes; and, bound together, one must destroy the other. I cannot blame Southern gentlemen for striving to put down commerce, because commerce, if it survives, will, I think, put them down...."
   
   "Morris did not leave his country on paper," however. Besides his work on the American Constitution and his historically important published diary impressions from those tumultuous years he spent in France, "Morris performed two special services as a public man." In addition to the above Morris also "worked to plan a canal that should make it bloom. A handful of other men might have buffed the Constitution almost as smoothly, but he was the one who did it; a handful of New Yorkers pushed for the Erie Canal---he was one of the most eloquent and energetic. For the rest, he gave many hours of intelligent and industrious labor as a New Yorker, a financier, and a diplomat;" as well as having been a member of the Continental Congress, and one who was instrumental in reviving the Continental Army's supplies after visiting GW at Valley Forge and recognizing the urgent need for such. (The details of many such efforts, I ought point out, are not especially delved into by Mr. Brookhiser in this somewhat short book---inclining this reader to regret not having at least considered some of the more substantive examinations of Gouverneur Morris' life before choosing this one).
   
   With an injured arm and one leg, Morris evinced those who believed (as he did, in these words) "that the happiest mortals are those who have been taught, through some sad experience, the value of this world's goods." Like Hamilton, who came from nothing Morris was one who refused, in Mr. Brookhiser's words, "to be satisfied with airy ideals or soothing phrases" thanks, in part, "on the hard things each had seen in his life." (Interestingly, Morris delivered the eulogy at Hamilton's actual funeral in NY; and before that, gave the eulogy, also in NY, upon Washington's death.)
   
   Postscript: Should you find yourself in Morrisania, or on Morris Avenue, or anywhere in the Morris Park section of the Bronx Borough of New York, perhaps even stopping at the Morris Park Bakery, pause a moment to reflect on the more important legacies of this founding father. In addition, a few blocks north and east of 138th Street and Brook Avenue (roughly the middle of where in the Bronx that Morris's estate Morrisania once could be found) stands St. Ann's Church where this founding father now rests. (07Jun) Cheers



5. I wasn't overly interested in reading about Mr. Morris until a used book store clerk recommended it. I had just finished reading a book on Thomas Paine and wasn't feeling overly charitable toward Mr. Morris. But there are truly 2 sides to every story as I discovered. I enjoyed the book, finishing it in 3 or 4 evenings after work. For as thin as it is, it gave a good account of his life without overly obsessing about any particular events. Although not an in depth study, it was truly enjoyable nonetheless.

1 comments about Revolutionary Lives: Anna Strunsky & William English Walling.

1. Boylan has carefully documented both the public and private lives of two almost forgotten socialists of the early 20th century. His book is well written and makes for entertaining reading as well as fine scholarship of an overlooked era in American politics.

2 comments about The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia.

1. Maurine Beasley, Henry R. Beasley, and Holly C. Shulman have produced an outstanding reference work on Eleanor Roosevelt. They have enlisted an array of distinguished authors to write about every aspect of Mrs. Roosevelt's life, and the result is a fascinating collection of essays that range from her impact on the institution of the First Lady to the many social causes that she championed. Well illustrated and comprehensive in its coverage, the book is rewarding for the insights it provides into one of the most important women in American history and is simply an excellent reading experience on its own terms. This is a volume that belongs in every school and public library that wants to provide a lively, reliable, and perceptive introduction to the life and career of the First Lady of the World, as Mrs. Roosevelt was known. Anyone interested in Eleanor Roosevelt will also want to own this book.



2. The first thing that should be said about The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia is that it is a "good read." You can open it anywhere and read fascinating information about Eleanor Roosevelt's life, friends, family, work, and political causes. You can follow the asterisks in the text to related entries, or you can read successive entries, learning serially and serendipitously about Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, ER's social secretary who became romantically involved with FDR; ER's friend Rose Schneiderman, a Polish immigrant who became one of the most important labor leaders of the twentieth century; the scholarly debate over ER's sexuality; and Alfred Smith, Democratic presidential nominee in 1928. Everyone who was active in the progressive movement is here, as well as political organizations, foreign leaders, and discussions of such topics as television, the anti-lynching movement, birth control, the democratic party, ER's biographers, and the United Nations. Most especially, the amazing fullness of Eleanor Roosevelt's life is here. Small wonder that Hillary Clinton wanted to talk to her when she became first lady.

5 comments about Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator.

1. Given the time this individual has served in the US Senate, I expected to come away with new insights into the legislative process, and other truths of governing from the perspective of a senior Senator. I was disappointed and now feel my expectations were much too high. This work was nothing more than an unworthy condensation of everything we've heard on "60 Minutes" or the national news every night for a number of years. No new insights, no memorable thoughts, no persuasive and careful analysis and certainly no powerful conclusions. Senator Hatch's discussion of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings seemed nothing less than self-aggrandizing. The Senator's unnecessary tirade against a disgraced former President was unnecessary and, I think, below the station of a true Statesman. Recommendation: If you must read, borrow a copy; otherwise, pass on this one.



2. I admire Orrin Hatch, and was thrilled when I stumbled (literally) across this book during a Christmas shopping excursion. The most interesting parts were Orrin reflecting on his decision to run for Senate, and the process of that campaign. Also interesting was the Clarence Thomas confirmation and the resulting controversy. Far less interesting were his long tangents on the Labor bills and others that I'm too lazy to recall. I love politics, and enjoyed this book a decent amount... but I fail to see how anybody who isn't both a diehard conservative and a political junkie would be able to finish this book. It can be pretty tedious at times. That being said, Mr. Hatch is a great American and I salute him.



3. What a book! This book is funny and captivating - A real page-turner. Hatch writes at a level that readers can enjoy. He assumes that you are a legislative novice and takes the time to explain the players and the environment in a non-dry fashion. He has a great sense of humor, shows wit and has a phenomenal storytelling manner. If I seem as though I am trumpeting this book, I am. I truly came away smiling and didn't feel as if conquering the next page was going to be an arduous task. This book is political, without being political. A Democrat can read the book just as joyfully as a Republican because Hatch is not pushing an agenda, unlike Goldberg's Biased, but rather is telling the reader the "how" of his career, and less of the "why you should be a republican." --- All I can say is that I enjoyed it, and there is no reason you wouldn't also.



4. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning a little about how Congress works. Not everyone who spends a lot of time reading about American politics will find this book very informative, but for someone casually interested or for a young adult, this will be an excellent read.

   Hatch describes how a Senator goes about passing or defeating legislation. Particularly interesting is his description of the defeat of labor law reform in 1977.

   Senator Hatch comes across as very reasonable throughout his book. His description of his friendship with Ted Kennedy is an excellent example of how and why professionals should be able to work together and even be friends even if they choose to disagree about topics they hold to be important.

   Fans of Clinton and opponents of some Republican nominees to the Supreme Court may find this book tiresome in parts. But a liberal who wishes to read the point of view of someone who disagrees on these issues will enjoy this book because of Hatch's reasonable, thoughtful approach. Conservatives will, of course, enjoy this book and may consider giving this book to as a gift to provide a good example to young adult readers.

   petervtamas@mail.com




5. First things first....I am not an Orrin Hatch fan, I don't live in his state, and I have never really paid him much attention. Ultra-conservative friends of mine have always thought he was the greatest however. When I saw this book (75% off mind you) I couldn't resist seeing what he had to say.
   
   My wife and I began reading this book aloud to one another on a long cross country trip. Both of us are moderate conservatives and we wanted to see what the far right was thinking. On several occasions during this book we found ourselves pondering deep philosophical issues and wrestling with our emotions regarding a myriad of subjects (stem cell research is most vivid in my memory).
   
   Yes Senator Hatch does glance over some issues that were major black eyes to the GOP, instead opting for more words on democratic blunders (of course he would, as this is to be expected). In the end, I found myself unable to disagree with Senator Hatch's position on nearly all the issues he presents in the book -- something I know I will not be able to say after reading Clinton's book.
   
   In short, this is a very thought provoking book which is excellently written. Senator Hatch shows guts and a surprising sense of humor. If you want to take some time and learn about the inner working of government, this is a very readable, insightful book.

3 comments about Jack Ward Thomas: The Journals of a Forest Service Chief.

1. In the summer of 1986, Jack Ward Thomas began keeping a journal. "This will be a journal of random thoughts," he wrote. "My purpose is unknown to me, but I feel a compulsion to begin. Perhaps it will serve as a tickler of memory for the book I intend to write, but of course never will."

   This first book from Jack Ward Thomas is sure to open the eyes of those who think they know how policy and management decisions affecting the nation's forests are made. Though Thomas has authored well over 400 publications, mostly on wildlife conservation, perhaps the most valuable thing he's written is the set of journals he started eighteen years ago - the book he intended to write.

   As Chief of the Forest Service, Thomas is quick to give credit to those he respects, particularly his agency employees in the field. But he doesn't shy from battle, and his assessments of some political appointees in Washington and certain members of Congress are brutal.

   Thomas was drafted into the chief's job shortly after Clinton took office, and he took the helm of the agency with typical fortitude - and the naiveté of a researcher thrust into the political cauldron that is Washington DC.

   "We don't just manage land," he wrote, "we're supposed to be leaders. Conservation leaders. Leaders in protecting and improving the land."

   Statements like that surprised some of the people in Washington, but certainly didn't surprise his longtime friends and colleagues. Thomas had been talking about and writing about conservation for most of his life. And the cream of that conservation writing is in his journals.

   This book offers not only insight into the mind and heart of a naturalist, but also a perspective on the politics of natural resource management through the eyes of one of this country's finest conservationists. His writings clarify many of the environmental issues we face today: protecting obscure but endangered species, dealing with wildfire and wildfire fatalities, balancing resource needs against the need to preserve, and the development of policies to address forest health.

   This book's a treasure, and will be a valuable addition to the collections of those who care about natural resources management.




2. For those of us who lived through the strife and conflict of the 1990's inside the United States Forest Service, or outside looking in, these journals are a rare epiphany that remind us that hope lives in darkness.
   
   Jack Ward Thomas, the first politically appointed Chief since the first Chief, Gifford Pinchot (a Teddy Roosevelt appointee in 1905) takes us on his very personal journey as he grows from wildlife biologist to agency statesman in a few short years. Along the way he stumbles and wanders, siezes triumph and faces tragedy, and crosses the finish line with grace and understanding.
   
   The politics of natural resource and environmental policy are often ugly, frustrating, arcane. Thomas' lights a candle with often astonishing revelations about people - he names names - that can be highly entertaining and insightful. With humor and pathos he deconstructs the key events of the age and explains his rationale for highly controversial decisions clearly and in real time.
   
   Thomas was a career scientist whose identity and loyalty was to his profession before events in the Clinton White House landed him on the fourth floor in the corner office in the old Auditor's Building on the Mall in Washington, just a few hundred yards from the Washington Monument, in the seat of Forest Service power. His grasp of the breadth and depth of what he would come to correctly identify as the sacred calling of being Chief was slight, but his willingness to tell the story of his transformation was strong and this he did honestly, openly, and often delightfully.
   
   Did he do everything right? Hardly. But neither was he deserving of condemnation. If anything he stepped up to the plate in the face of far worse alternatives and tried to do the right thing, acknowledging his own innocense and failures, coming of age and successes, and in the event creating a personal and agency political history that is both very well written and very compelling.
   
   Expect to be up in the wee hours of the night when you open this book. These journals are a must read for anyone who hopes to understand the politics of the environment being played out right now and for serious and casual students of government policy in public land management.



3. Come on. This is nothing but self-hagiography from the very guy who consigned the Northern Spotted Owl to extinction. Stump justification from a biostitute.
   
   Nowhere does one find any remorse over his decision to push the RESUMPTION of old growth logging after it was stopped by an Injunction issued by a courageous Reagan judge who noted that continued liquidation of the centuries-old trees was the death knell for the owls - the Indicator Species for the health of the entire Ancient Forest ecosystem.
   
   Spin it how he may, Thomas' and Clinton's Option 9 Northwest Forest Plan has indeed led to a crash of owl populations. The "scientist" pushed a voodoo science plan that actually called for the loss of 1% of the owls per year for fifty years with the wishful thinking that after 50 years, the owls would rebound as the stumplands of today will become habitat then.
   
   Of course over 50% are already gone after just 13 years! And, that puts the species past the point of no return even if 50-year-old trees could replace centuries-old ones as habitat.
   
   The very reason it's called Option 9 was because the eight original options the array of scientists charged to solve the issue came up with did not cut enough to satisfy Thomas' real bosses in the timber industry. So, the scientists were sequestered in a hotel until they came up with a more rapacious option (conveniently, no mention of that episode appears). Some science!
   
   This is awful George Tenet-style self-justifying revisionism, pure and simple. At least Robert MacNamara apologized in his similar attempt to reclaim his reputation.

1 comments about Breaking New Ground.

1. Incredible story of a difficult struggle to gather support for the creation of our national forests. I learned that people don't change. It is ironic that the book covers how over 100 years ago, many miners, land developers were so violently opposed to any land being protected-I see the same thing happening today with sprawl.

   A MUST READ. It made me really feel fortunate that we have our national forests to enjoy because we almost didn't. I had trouble putting this book down. It is very long, but oh so good if you have any interest in conservation.

2 comments about Hitler and Geli.

1. Don't bother with this idiotically poorly researched book. I counted 71 errors in all. The author has no basic understanding of Hitler, Geli, Munich politics of the 1920's or anything else connected to Nazism. Hitler was obviously evil and abnormal in most areas of his life. He was not abnormal sexually, even if most authors want to claim this in order to sell their books. The author ignores research and interviews with many women on the 1920's who had relationships with Hitler that claim he was normal. He obviously doesn't know about the extensive interviews conducted with Stefan Lorant, who *saw* Hitler picking up women in Munich and later interviewed them. Their verdict? Hitler was a dud in the sack, but he was never a pervert. The author also claims (erronesouly) that Hitler was "impotent." Really? He relies upont he bogus Langer work for this absurd contention and ignores, conveniently, the first-person proof from Eva Braun that Hitler was not impotent. He continually relies on discredited sources, who were motivated by political pique to claim Hitler was abnormal sexually. People like Rauschning, Gregor Strasser, Renate Mueller, etc. These may seem like trivial points, but for historical accuracy, they are important. This is pablum trash, written by a man who did virtually no research into the complexities of Hitler.



2. Folks may take umbrage with historical laxities and the author's pyschoanalytical velleities, yet I doubt any person who takes a serious interest in the creeping grips of totalitarian regimes would give much credence even to the TRUE facts of a dictator's love life, purported or otherwise.Dictators are mainly nasty folks interested in controlling others' actions and speech, and guiding nations into the depression and doom of wretched restrictions. That they may or may not go for relationships, perverse or gay or kinky or violent, is irrelevant. Hitler had a niece named Geli (from "Angelika") and took over her upbringing from a semi-impoverished Austrian town. He had a certain "Mitleid" (sympathy) with her at age 15, reminding him of his own hard days as a youth with little money or vision of how to attain a normal middle-class male dream - home, family and well-paid trade, as most of his classmates may have dreamed of. He falls in love, and here again we can only speculate: was it her vivacity, her youthful enthusiasms, and her great appreciation of all the thrills that he could bring her? A ride in a wonderful car, a new wrap, a dress, shoes, good meals with a housekeeper to handle the cleaning up, and access to opera, theater, and all kinds of evening entertainment with the upper class of Munich. This, for a small-town girl, was certainly a high-rolling ponycart ride! From my Irish village (Swinford, Co. Mayo) point of view, I can understand 100% what motivated Geli to have fun in Munich far away from her homegrown "kleine Leute" (little people) origins.Fun, fun, fun, girls wanna have fun! Even if it's through your dictator uncle, Hitler! In one way, understandable; on the other hand, how could she have been so naive, blind, deaf and dumb? Didn't others ever speak to her about the morals and habits, racial obsessions and megalomania of this lonely uncle? Was she really so sympathetic or was she simply angling, day after day, to keep the goodies flowing, just as Hitler himself was going for the power, glory and goodies of industrialists' renumerations, kickbacks, bribes and invitations to hear renowned singers, etc. Many a lover has done so in the past, and often when they're not so young and innocent as Geli!One might question indeed how a character, Geli, in her late teens, gains admissions to a medical faculty and considers seriously a biology career, associating with Munich's educated young people, studying and doing labwork full time while Uncle Adolf was out succoring industrialists and "die kleine Leute" = money and votes = "Millionen stehen hinter mir!". Somehow she never hears anything against her agitator landlord/lover/dictor/beer hall haranguer? I do wonder that Geli's intelligence and common sense is underrated in this novel. That she would in the end commit suicide is pushing it.IF the lack of freedom and happiness with Uncle Adolf started to grate, as it does for most young people, then the arguments that start to grow back at the fancy apartment are nothing surprising. So Adolf starts threatening the obvious: that she must get out, go back to Vienna, to the misery of earning a living on low working-class wages as a shopgirl. Was it this that led Geli to suicide?You decide. It's all fiction anyway, or speculatized history! Who will ever know? The author as a male might have not quite seen the clear mind of a normal girl and entangled her into his ill-gotten goodies, political spoils. Yes, yes, and yes, but still, ask yourself: would YOU have commited suicide as a result? Speaking for myself, probably not! Disappointed, bitter and angry, yes, but at that age, probably I'd just bite the bullet and get going, find a job, a new friend or two, and lots more fun for years to come.

1 comments about Pompey Elliott.

1. Along with Captain Albert Jacka and Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, Brigadier Harold `Pompey' Elliott was a household name in Australia in the 1920s for his role in the Great War. Yet today he is largely forgotten. Russ McMullin's thoroughly researched biography of Elliott goes someway to addressing this by providing us with a fascinating insight into the life, times and legacies of one of Australia's most famous fighting general.
   Elliott was born into relative poverty in rural Victoria. His father struck it rich on the gold fields of Western Australia in the early 1890s enabling a bright and promising Harold to gain a private education and a place at the University of Melbourne to study law. A keen militia member, Elliott put his studies on hold to enlist as a Private in the Boer War where he received the Distinguised Conduct Medal and a field commission. Upon his return to Australia he completed his studies and continued as a militia officer. In 1914 he was given command of the 7th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) which he led at the ANZAC landings and throughout the Gallipoli Campaign. Promoted to Brigadier in early 1916 he took charge of the 15th Infantry Brigade which he commanded until the end of the war. Elliott was a hard task master, but was loved and admired like no other Brigade Commander in France, never asking his men to go anywhere he was not prepared to go himself. Despite playing a pivotal role in key allied successes of 1918, his outspokenness and stubbornness won him few friends in the British and Australian higher Headquarters and he was overlooked for a divisional command . A slight that embittered him to the end of his life, despite his promotion in the 1920s to Major General.
   Despite a promising post-war career as a Federal Senator and as a champion of the cause of veterans following the war, the massive burden of his wartime experiences led to Elliott's gradual mental decline and to his eventual suicide in 1931. A fascinating insight into a fascinating man and the turbulent times in which he lived.