5 comments about First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.).

1. Loung Ung does an excellent job of describing what happened to her family growing up in the killing fields of Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime. She is an excellent writer. Although her story is very tragic, it is one that we all should hear. God is truly using Loung's tragic life to create something good and meaningful. Loung is a fascinating person that I feel honored to have met within the pages of her book. Thank you for sharing your story Loung. Your book has changed my life.



2. Some people have criticized this book because they believe some small historical detail might be wrong. I say, who cares about that? The horrors that are described in this book eclipse any small misconceptions or tiny errors in fact. Cambodia's people were starved, enslaved, murdered, and robbed by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. It's a most outrageous and horrific story, but it was the truth for millions. Miss Ung did an impressive job pulling the story together into book form. My heart breaks for her family and hundreds of thousands of other families there.
   
   This should be required reading for high school students everywhere.



3. The book is very well-written. Loung Ung wrote with compassion,spirtual, and horrenic activities growing up under the Khmer Rogue regime. She experiences tortues,stravation, and execution of her parents. This book is very interesting to learn what the author went through live under a horrendous communist movement. The author wrote this book in a sense to give the reader an image on the conflict of war that is going in Cambodia. Readers would not be able to put this book down since it give the readers a hint of life growing up in the Khmer Rouge. Ung had to move from different works camps at a young age, and she experienced a hardship growing up in Cambodia during the 1974 to 1979. Between these two years, she watch baby brother died of stravation and the loss of his parent by the Khmer Rogue. Having to travel a large distance to Vietnam, Loung experience the execution of her people. The book will change your prespective of life and the mistery of what the cambodia people been through during the killing field years. Highly recommened to any type of readers.



4. When I started to read the memoir, it was very hard to put down. It is written in first person tense through the eyes of a young girl struggling through the Khmer Rouge insurgency in Cambodia. I am a 1st generation American whose mother grew up in war torn Vietnam, so I had an interest in the Southeast Asian set memoir. Now I am trying to find ones as good as this one, but set in with my mother's experiences. This book was an in depth way to learn about the people & the recent history of struggle which many Cambodian Americans no doubt have also lived through but not spoken of. It really reinforces that family and love are the most important things in life. It's a must read.



5. I read all but a couple chapters of this book on a flight across the US. It is easy reading and I could not put it down. The horrors this author went through will make the reader pause to count his blessings. I think this is a must read for anyone who is unfamiliar with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

5 comments about Survival In Auschwitz.

1. My review of this classic emphasizes matters not raised by previous reviewers, and is based upon the 1986 edition which combines SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ, THE REAWAKENING, and AFTERWORD...
   
   Levi wasn't sent to or near the gas chambers and crematoria. Instead, he was diverted into forced labor in the sub-camp of Monowitz (p. 386), some 7 km east of Auschwitz proper. Poles had to wear a large "P". German political prisoners got various privileges, such as food and clothes from home, and exemption from the dreaded "selections". (p. 183) He saw the bombed-out ruins of the Buna synthetic rubber plant. (p. 137) He predicted that, in the winter of 1944-1945, 7/10ths of the prisoners like him will die. (p. 123)
   
   The reader may not realize that western European Jews commonly looked down upon eastern European Jews as "backward". These feelings were fully reciprocated. Levi comments: "The Germans call them [the Italian Jews] `zwei linke Hande' (two left hands) and even the Polish Jews despise them as they do not speak Yiddish." (p. 49) After his release from Auschwitz, Levi ran across Polish Jews who couldn't believe that Levi was even possibly Jewish because he didn't speak Yiddish. (p. 279)
   
   Unlike most Auschwitz survivors, who traveled west, he traveled east and then south (for map, see pages 178-179). He saw for himself the victimization of the Poles: "In Katowice, and in all Poland, there was a shortage of men; the male population of working age had disappeared, prisoners in Germany and Russia, dispersed among partisan bands, massacred in battle, in the bombardments, in the reprisals, in the Lagers, in the ghettos. Poland was a country in mourning, a country of old men and widows." (p. 239)
   
   In the AFTERWORD, Levi said that, whereas the Nazi concentration camps had 90-98% mortality, the figure for Soviet concentration camps was 30% maximum (p. 389). This is incorrect. Slaves toiling in the gold mines in the Soviet Far East faced close to 100% mortality. And, of course, particular groups targeted for annihilation experienced 100% mortality, be they Jews sent to the gas chambers by the Nazis, or the Polish officers and intellectuals sent to the killing forests near Katyn by the Communists.



2. We had to read this book for a World History class I took in college. I was taking 5 classes at the time, so you can imagine how much reading I had to do on a daily basis. I read this book in ONE sitting (very unusual for me). I could not put it down! I laughed. I cried. I read it again! I recommend this book to EVERYONE!



3. Mr. Levi's ability to recount his experience with such emotional clarity allowed me to take in a piece of this dark chapter in European history that I might not have been able to otherwise, given the immensity of the horror. I look forward to reading the other two books he wrote on Auschwitz. Highly recommended.



4. Primo Levy, a twenty-four-year-old Italian Jew captured "on 13 December 1943" and imprisoned for ten months, provides a chilling, though often poetic, account of his so called life in a concentration camp, while hitting home the frustration and futility of his situation. The best way to describe his story and style is through his own words: (p 15) as they prepared the night before they were to be deported "Everyone felt this: not one of the guards, neither Italian or German, had the courage to come and see what men do when they know they have to die," of the next morning (p 16) "Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as through the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction," after the "six hundred and fifty `pieces'" were loaded "Here we received the first blows; and it was so new and senseless that we felt no pain, neither in body nor in spirit. Only a profound amazement: how can one hit a man without anger?" He is first taken to a camp of 10,000 called Buna, where prisoners work at producing rubber. After being thrown together naked with the others, showered, shaved, disinfected and relieved of all possessions, (p 26) he writes "Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man." About the time they have been settled in to the camp, they learn that they will soon be sent out for their first day of work. A French-speaking prisoner replies to their questions with (p 29) "...you are not at home, this is not a sanatorium, the only exit is by way of the Chimney." They are scheduled to work all but every other Sunday (during which they must work "on upkeep of the Lager") (p 36) "Such will be our life. Every day, according to the established rhythm...go out and come in; work, sleep and eat; fall ill, get better or die." The reader later learns (p 73) "...the Buna factory, on which the Germans were busy for four years and for which countless of us suffered and died, never produced a pound of synthetic rubber."
   
   He writes about the typical prisoner (p 90) "They crowd my memory with their faceless presences, and if I could enclose all the evil of our time in one image, I would choose this image which is familiar to me: an emaciated man, with head drooped and shoulders curved, on whose face and in whose eyes not a trace of a thought could be seen." Fortunately, Mr. Levy qualifies to work in a chemical laboratory, which results in an improvement in his living conditions. Yet the usual worries remained, especially (p 126) the "selections" (those chosen to be exterminated) "the percentage was seven percent of the whole camp." He writes as 1944 comes to a close, after almost a year in captivity (p 143-144) about his thoughts on life only twelve months before, "...the future stood before me as a great treasure. Today the only thing left of the life of those days is what one needs to suffer hunger and cold: I am not even alive enough to know how to kill myself." Eventually, the camp is evacuated. Mr. Levy lives on to provide a wealth of wonderful writing to the world, then dies in 1987 at the age of sixty-seven, falling three storeys from a building to his death (either accidentally or intentionally). Also good, Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Night by Elle Wiesel.



5. Primo Levi was an Italian Jew arrested for anti-Fascist resistance in 1944 and sent to the camps of Auschwitz. His short, vivid portrayal of the horrors of the Nazi camps there, the depravity of human nature and the extremes that the human psyche can endure, makes for a lasting literary contribution. Not sermonizing about theology or lecturing about good and evil, this bare-bones account nonetheless has dramatic questions for those interested in human nature, the holocaust, and evil. Very fleetingly does he comment on religion (the problem of theodicy is never made as clear as in Elie Wiesel's Night), but he certainly has captured some of the horrible drama of the Nazi death camps.

5 comments about A Time it Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties.

1. I got plenty of information about this order. When it was slightly delayed, I was informed, as well as when it shipped. I was very impressed with the service.



2. This book of pictures was a wonderful walk down memory lane for me. At 16 I was to join the Kennedy campaign as a volunteer after the California primary. On the morning I was to depart, my parents woke me with the news of his shooting. This book, however, reminded me of the promise unfulfilled Robert Kennedy represented--how much better we would have been as a people, as a country, as a government had he been president in 1969 instead of Richard Nixon.



3. it's photgraphs of the campain are stunning the brief narrative gives a true sense of sumer 1968



4. This book and its images were all the more gripping having been an observer at the time. The photos and the words provide an image of a nation trying to be the sum of its promise, only to be plunged into a tragic self assessment after the assassination.
   It is paramount, 40 years later, that we take the opportunity to remember how far we have come. This book reminds us that we can do better, that we must do better, that we are better.



5. Bought this for my dad for father's day. Great pictures of a memorable time in history with a visonary who lost his light too soon!

5 comments about My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me.

1. This well-written expose of Guantanamo Bay puts a human face on the prisoners that are incarcerated there. The shameful detention of 'enemy combatants' in miserable conditions by the US government, in some cases for years without a trial, needs to be better known.



2. In this book My Guantánamo Diary the author shows why in an election year, we citizens have to know what our government is doing. Mahvish Khan is an American born lawyer, which I hope people remember.
   
   She is not an enemy of the United States, but such a lover of the United States Constitution, which I wish more supporters of the Bush administration were. She even notes that when she first went to Guantánamo even she assumed she would be meeting terrorists.
   
   The author also is a very positive person so please don't assume the book is all gloom and doom. As an American I found the book to be a wonderful insight into how far we have come since Washington was President, to a place I personally don't like.
   
   The book will or should make you ask yourself if you were arrested, how long do you think you should be held without contact with a lawyer or visits from family? And the author also shares that those men who have been freed after six or more years of arrest, because they were not guilty, do not have hatred toward the American citizen. Would you be as gracious if you were in their shoes?
   
   The book also reminded me that George Washington wrote in a March 24, 1784, letter to his aide Tench Tilghman, saying that Muslims should be hired. Thomas Jefferson owned and read the Quran. Muslims have been in America since the early 1700's.



3. I am very much enjoying reading this book. Mahvish Khan gives the forbidding nature of Gitmo a human face, portraying the human sides of these faceless detainees and those working on their cases.



4. The author is an American born of Afghan immigrants. Her Father became a successful cardiologist and her Mother became the director of neonatology. Mahvish grew up caught in between the realities of two worlds... her parent's restrictive, conservative, old world disciplines, and her longing for a bit more of the looser American way. She graduated from the University Of Michigan and then attended law school at the University Of Miami. In 2005 while in law school, "she was studying the federal torture statues and how policy makers had cleverly circumvented legal principles in creating the military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where prisoners in the "war on terror" could be held indefinitely without being charged with any crime." Mahvish felt the pain of September 11th as an American... "But also understood the need to invade Afghanistan and destroy the Taliban and al-Qaeda. But I also felt the suffering of the Afghans, when hundreds of Afghan men were rounded up and thrust into the black hole of detention at Guantanamo." This led her to volunteer to become an interpreter between volunteer lawyers and the detainees. And this leads to the core of this heart-breaking... heart-warming... educational odyssey... into what is really going on in Guantanamo, and the horrifying abuse in route to there .
   
   In an attempt to convey to potential readers, the "delicate" power in the words and meaning communicated by the author in this book... I feel it would be helpful to share with you how it affected me. I am an honorably discharged Viet Nam era Veteran, who has always felt very strongly that America was losing a lot more of our precious American lives in battle, because we seem to be the only country that adheres to true "RULES OF ENGAGEMENT". While other countries entire military plans are built around suicide bombers blowing up and murdering innocent civilians, women and children... our soldiers literally have to call lawyers from the battlefield before they make their next move! But here is where this wonderful young woman EDUCATED ME like no newscast or newspaper was able to do. She so perfectly "straddled" both sides of the ethnic line between her heritage and her birthright.
   
   What I learned made me both mad and disappointed in the lack of legal "equality-of-justice" to other human beings. Believe me... I know there are some pretty despicable characters at Gitmo... but there are also innocent men who were snatched out of their families... out of their jobs... out of their countries. I also know that in every jail and prison in the world everyone says they're "innocent", and as one of the volunteer lawyers at Gitmo said: regarding the "face of evil... how normal it looks, how so many of the men who perpetrated some of the worst crimes in history - Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot - had been men who appeared perfectly ordinary, who were kind to children and dogs."
   
   But here's what I learned from this book, and feel must be done, so some of the tarnish can be cleansed from America's name: Lawyers must be assigned immediately to any "enemy combatants" arrested. There must be a time limit as to how long someone can be held without a trial or evidence. (Due to most cases involved at Gitmo being international in scope, the period does need to be much longer than a normal case in America... but no one should be allowed to be kept in such de-humanizing conditions for five years without a trial and conviction.) All sexually demeaning atrocities, such as being made to stand or lay naked for extended times should be outlawed. Rape and sexual perversion (imagine me having to state this in America!) should be outlawed and perpetrators should face heavy jail time themselves. Prisoners should be allowed to have writing supplies and receive mail on a timely basis. (Not holding up letters for a year or more.) AND HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POLICY THAT SHOULD BE CHANGED IMMEDIATELY: **UNLESS IT IS A HIGH RANKING ENEMY SUCH AS BIN LADEN, ETC. STOP THE POLICY OF PAYING REWARDS FOR TURNING PEOPLE IN!
   
   *** HERE'S WHY ** "Many of the men insisted that they they'd been sold to the United States. During the war after September 11th, the U.S. military air-dropped thousands of leaflets across Afghanistan promising between $5,000.00 and $25,000.00 to anyone who would turn in members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Considering that the per capita income in Afghanistan in 2006 was $300.00 or 82 cents a day, that's like hitting the jackpot. The median income for each American household was $26,036.00 in 2006. If a bounty system of equal proportions were offered to Americans, it would be worth $2.17 MILLION. The average American and the average Afghan would have to work for eighty-three years to make that kind of money." Pakistani's and Afghan's who had a grudge against a neighbor were turning people in... getting the reward... and the poor soul who was "fingered" spent years and years in the hell that was constructed at Gitmo. One of these unfortunate men had gotten into an argument with a worker that was supposed to connect water to his house and didn't. They got into a fight, and the worker turned the homeowner in, and he wound up spending over three years in the bowels of Gitmo hell. "THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD) has said it was unaware of any sort of bounty being paid for the prisoners." **YET INCLUDED IN THIS BOOK ARE TWO PICTURES OF THE LEAFLETS THAT WERE DISPERSED ALL OVER PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN! "Pakistani president Musharraf even bragged about it in his memoir, "In The Line Of Fire": "We have earned bounties totaling millions of dollars, he wrote, admitting that his agents had handed over 369 men to the U.S. military in exchange for CIA "prize money". According to Amnesty International reports, two-thirds of the men who landed in Guantanamo were picked up in Pakistan, where many were "groomed" in local jails to grow out their beards and look more like Taliban before being sold to the U.S. military.
   
   It is a FACT that most of the prisoners being held in Gitmo were never on a battlefield. If this book can make such a big impression on this patriotic veteran... I can't wait to see the effect it will have on people who don't start out with as hard core beliefs as I did. One of the biggest goals of every book ever written is to educate... and this book has sure as hell educated me!



5. Listening to the author talk about the detainees in very flowing terms (she would even let them babysit her kids), I cannot but wonder how naive the author must be.
   
   Of course I believe that the detainees should be tried speedily, however to speak of all of them as innocent is ridiculous and betrays a lack of understanding of the dangerous world out there.

5 comments about The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate.

1. James Rosen has written the defining biography of the Watergate era. This incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched book is worthy of a Pulitzer. Rosen's writing is eloquent, informative, and impossible to put down. His observations are spot on. Reading this reminds me very much of the late David Halberstam who was one of America's greatest authors. This book is a must have for any political junkie. Mitchell was a truly fascinating character who was without question one of the most brilliant political minds of the twentieth century. Anyone who could take Richard Nixon who had self imploded politically, and get him elected twice to the White House is worthy of serious study. Rosen has written a brilliant book about an fascinating character.



2. This is a heavily detailed book on John Mitchell and Watergate. Not a page turner, but interesting particularly if you lived through that era. It will give you a different perspective on many of the principal characters.



3. 'The Strong Man: John Mitchell & The Secrets of Watergate'
   
   With, `The Strong Man', James Rosen makes a remarkable contribution to Watergate literature. This one and only in depth look at John Mitchell, perhaps the most important figure of the Watergate-era, succeeds not only in it's deep historical insights, but demystification of long held assumptions of this turbulent time in America.
   
   This book organizes, with great skill, the several scandals surrounding the Nixon presidency, including Vesco, ITT, The Chennault Affair and obviously Watergate. By segregating these stories and breaking down the context of each with great care, the roles individual actors played and the aggregate scandalizing effect is elucidated as never before in the denouement of Watergate prosecution. Mr. Rosen's research of these events is absolutely superb, his descriptions easy to follow, illuminating in it's `warts and all coverage' and an overall romp of a fun read.
   
   `The Strong Man' should be read by anyone even remotely interested in the `60's and `70's, especially the Nixon presidency. The insightful conclusions the author arrives at are magnificently well thought out and will be an eye opener to even the most ardent fan of the Watergate era. The prose is smart and incisive; the story gripping and funny; the contribution immense. In addition to the skillful writing, `The Strong Man' was clearly well edited and to be enjoyed by any fan of contemporary American history.
   
   - JC



4. I am still reading the book and I find it fascinating. I like the way James Rosen writes.



5. James Rosen has tackled an interesting subject. John Mitchell's role in the Nixon administration ordinarily is glossed over. He's characterized (or caricatured) as a hard-line conservative, law and order guy. Rosen brings him to life. His descriptions of Mitchell's softer side and of his relationship with his second wife, Martha, are illuminating.
   
   Rosen could have used a tougher editor, however. He repeatedly de-emphasizes Mitchell's role in the abuses of the Nixon administration. He lets Mitchell off the hook for his own abuses of power, giving Mitchell the benefit of every doubt and highlighting any exculpatory evidence. It's a slanted portrayal, and obviously so.
   
   The editor also might have helped eliminate some of the self-congratulation that Rosen engages in, citing repeatedly his use of unpublished notes from HR Haldeman and other recently declassified or released sources. While those sources are important, Rosen reminds the reader ad nauseum that only he is looking at these events with those sources at hand. At best, it's distracting; at worst, it's further evidence of his interest in redeeming John Mitchell in the face of strong evidence that he did commit crimes -- or at the very least looked away while others committed crimes.
   
   It's a solid read for anyone interested in Watergate and the Nixon administration, but it has flaws, too.

5 comments about Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam.

1. On Tuesday, June 24th, we met Rabbi David Dalin at the Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Florida, where he was introducing his new book: Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam.
   
   His presentation was excellent, detailing how in 1921, Haj Amin al-Husseini became the mufti of Jerusalem. After some research we learned that the word "mufti" means: (a) a Muslim jurist expert in the religious law, or (b) in the Ottoman Empire, a deputy of the chief Muslim legal adviser to the Sultan.
   
   Mr. Husseini, a most eminent and influential Islamic leader in the Middle East helped foment enmity against Jews in the region and in 1937 joined Nazi Germany because they shared a common enemy, the Jews. Mr. Husseini was seen by Hitler as an honorary Aryan.
   
   While Hitler had written racial inferiority remarks about the Muslims in his book "Mein Kampf," Hitler liked Mr. Husseini's looks, his "blond hair, red beard, and blue eyes, appeared to have been an exception." The cover of the book surfaces a photo that the author explained was hard to obtain, it is of a photograph taken of the mufti with the fuehrer himself, Adolf Hitler.
   
   The book details how Al-Husseini recruits thousands of Muslims in Europe to fight for the Waffen-SS, his protests about allowing Jews to move into Palestine, prevent the escape of Jewish children from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, who accompanied by 400 adults were to enter Palestine in exchange for the release of twenty thousand German prisoners of war.
   
   At some point, Al-Husseini "organized the dispatch of five parachuters to Palestine with ten containers of a toxin to poison Tel Aviv's water system. Fortunately, they were caught near Jericho before they could carry out their mission."
   
   One of the most horrific details provided by the author is that al-Husseini was instrumental in the implementation of the "Final-Solution" used by Germans to eliminate millions of Jewish lives. "In a radio broadcast from Berlin on September 21, 1944, al-Husseini spoke of the 11 million Jews" of the world, a fact that he could have only known because of his participation in their elimination. As far as the world knew, the figure was closer to 17 million.
   
   At the end of World War II, he left to live in France and later moved to Egypt, where he received a hero's welcome, developing relationships with the likes of Saddam Hussein's uncle, General Khairallah Talfah, Yasser Arafat, and his writings served to inspire terrorist groups, such as the Hamas, Hezbollah and others, hard at work to destroy the United States and Israel.
   
   A statement that has immense value to us is that we must learn from history if we are to prevent it from repeating in the future. At the end of the session, the audience asked many questions, but in particular I was rather interested on the mention of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion because I had heard of these before, but was not sure of what they meant, so we asked:
   
   1. What are "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?" His answer:
   
   a. A czarist forgery, a fraudulent anti-Semitic write up, widely distributed throughout Palestine that alleges without proof that the Jewish people conspired on a plot to take hold of power, of a desire of world domination.
   
   Well, I got home and read the book, simply excellent. It was a pleasure to meet the author, to have the opportunity to get my book autographed and to learn more about how the seeds planted by Hitler have produced so much evil, for he is also responsible for inspiring the likes of Castro... and many other dictators.
   
   Don't miss this book!



2. This is an important and timely book. In order to understand the roots of modern Middle Eastern anti-semitism and the rise of radical Islamic violence it is essential to know this almost forgotten part of history. It should come as no surprise to find that it has its roots in the connection between the early 20th Century mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler himself.
   
   This book is a must-read for a better grasp on this history and also to appreciate the surprising political naivete by members of the British civil administration of Palestine. By choosing a a thoroughly unsuitable and unqualified leader for Jerusalem's Muslims, the British set the scene for much of today's Middle-Eastern turmoil.



3. This book helped me understand how the hatred and violence of today's fundamentalist Muslims really got started and has gained momentum over the last 100 years. Just like skinheads and Arian fanatics continue to propogate Hitler's form of "terrorism", the Mufti of Jerusalem wrote the playbook now followed by the fanatics who rule Hamas, al Qaeda, et. al.
   
   An important book that uncovers and exposes where it all began.



4. Haj Amin al-Husseini was named the mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 and that was the beginning of a lifetime of murder, violence, and an outright loathing of all Jewish people anywhere on earth. Husseini's idol was none other than Adolph Hitler, and Husseini arranged a face to face meeting with the Fuhrer in Germany on November 28, 1941. Husseini offered to align the Arab countries with Hitler during World War II, because he told Hitler, they had the exact same enemies, in Britain, the western world, and of course the Jews. Husseini marveled at Hitler's final solution of ridding Europe of all Jews... and wanted to implement the same plans in the Middle-East... including... he hoped... to open some concentration camps in the Middle-East. If the Nazi's couldn't get the concentration camps there fast enough, he begged the Nazi's to at least bomb locations with Jewish civilians. "He hoped to lead a holy war of Islam in alliance with Germany, a jihad that would result in the extermination of the Jews." "Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world." As the mufti of Jerusalem he put posters up all over the city stating: "KILL THE JEWS: THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT FOR KILLING JEWS." He also had all his preachers "advise their flock that "he who kills a Jew is assured a place in the next world."
   
   The author's take the reader in a detailed AND TOTALLY DOCUMENTED historical trip, from Husseini's birth in the late 1890's, to his death in 1974 and beyond... all the way to the present. In addition to the horrific pogroms and Holocaust... what will shock the potential readers... is that all the hatred, murderous activities, and false propaganda, that the mufti created sixty to eighty years ago, is still the core of today's anti-Semitism and terrorist mantra's in the Middle-East. He is truly "THE FATHER OF RADICAL ISLAMIC anti-Semitism and political terrorism as we know it today."
   
   I think most readers will be amazed at all the "infamous" historical characters that Husseini influenced, ranging from a young Saddam Hussein, whose Uncle was a trusted friend and confidant, Mussolini, Nazi's Heinrich Himmler and Adolph Eichmann, and of course Hitler. A young Yasser Arafat was a relative, and was taken under the mufti's wing, and eventually became the leader of Fatah, and to his dying day... stated that Husseini was his idol. The reader will be presented with shocking details such as that, future international peace award winner Anwar Sadat, was a spy for the Nazi's during World War II, and when Hitler died "Sadat published a letter in the Egyptian weekly "Al-Mussawar", addressed posthumously to Hitler, in which he expressed sorrow over the defeat of the Third Reich, and haled Hitler as the "immortal" leader of Germany."
   
   There is intriguing informative records, that every level of Arab leadership, not only read the notorious czarist "THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION", a fraudulent anti-Semitic tract alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination, (that has been proven to be a hoax of literary forgery written in 1903)... but they had it reprinted for all Arab's to read... and in addition... it was actually handed out by King's to their guests. "THE PROTOCOL'S" and "MEIN KAMPF" Hitler's "viciously anti-Semitic autobiography", are two of the top selling books in the Arab world to this day! Husseini was one of the first radical-Islamic's, that said the Holocaust never happened... and that's despite testimony at the Nuremberg trials by Nazi's, that Husseini had visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, and "urged the guards in charge of the chambers to be more diligent and efficient in their efforts." You will be dumfounded when you learn that from Husseini's time, to current day, anti-Semites in the Middle-East hand out pamphlets and write books perpetuating "THE BLOOD LIBEL ACCUSATION", routinely charging Jews with committing the ritual murder of Muslim and Christian children during the Passover holiday. The Jews are accused of using the children's blood in the unleavened bread eaten at the Passover meal." In fact during the 1950's and 1960's the regime of Egyptian president Nasser published and disseminated many works accusing Jews of this type of ritual murder. This is just a tip of the iceberg as to the educational and informative historical data provided by the author's, and this book should be read by anyone, that wants to know about the growth of radical Islam from birth to modern day.
   
   I feel an accurate summary of al-Husseini is provided by Edgar Ansel Mowrer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent: "AS A MURDERER, THIS MAN RANKS WITH THE GREAT KILLERS OF HISTORY. AS AN ENEMY OF THE UNITED NATIONS, HE WAS SURPASSED ONLY BY HITLER. IN THE EVIL OF HIS INTENTIONS, AL-HUSSEINI EQUALED HITLER."



5. I give this two stars only because there are so few books available on al-Husseini and I was glad to find something on the subject. But unfortunately, this book is a ridiculous polemic that tries to paint al-Husseini as a major figure in the Holocaust and claims that secular Arab dictators like Saddam Hussein were radical Islamists who are part of a vast terrorist conspiracy...maybe Dick Cheney was a ghost writer for this piece of fiction. Oh and speaking of fiction, one whole chapter is a crazy "what if" scenario that has the Germans defeating the British in WWII and al-Husseini leading the Holocaust in "Londonistan" where prominent U.S. Jewish figures, like Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter, are unable to escape the onrushing German army and die in concentration camps. This is just way over the top.
   
   This is not to say that al-Husseini wasn't a horrible anti-Semite and that anti-Jewish sentiment doesn't permeate much of the discourse of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the Arab side. But this book does nothing productive in terms of really addressing these problems. Frankly, it probably hurts the authors cause more than it helps it because they've turned it into a laughable caricature.

2 comments about The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics).

1. Mine is a much earlier edition of THE TWELVE CAESARS, but it's still Robert Graves translation of Suetonius' text, so it is what it is. Suetonius was apparently quite a prolific writer, with a wide variety of titles, from LIVES OF FAMOUS WHORES to METHODS OF RECKONING TIME to his credit. Outside of a few isolated fragments, however, THE TWELVE CAESARS is his only surviving work. It begins with Julius Caesar, who was Dictator but never Emperor in the true sense, continues through Nero, who was assassinated around the time of Suetonius' birth and was the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and ends with Domitian, last Emperor of the Flavian dynasty. You also get lots of helpful items included, such as family trees of the imperial families and relevant maps. Altogether, this is a very nice book.
   
   Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was a Roman of the equestrian class, born around the year 69. Little is known of his life, but his friend, Pliny the Younger, tells us that he practised law briefly, avoided politics and eventually became chief secretary to the Emperor Hadrian. His prominent position in the palace would have been extremely helpful to his writings, providing him with ready access to imperial and senatorial archives and to people who had first-hand knowledge of the events Suetonius was writing about. He uses this material well by writing more than just a dry accounting of public events. Along with the major occurrences, we are also treated to the private lives of his subjects: personal anecdotes, scandalous details, and amusing incidents that only palace intimates would have known. Suetonius presents this material in an even-handed style, avoiding any obvious personal bias and freely admitting when he tells of something that he is unable to verify. These are lively biographies that read more like soap operas than official histories.
   
   THE TWELVE CAESARS is a very readable and entertaining account of the lives of the first twelve Roman "Caesars". While it contains a wealth of valuable historical information, it is also very entertaining and quite suitable for the casual reader. Highly recommended for anybody with an interest in, or simple curiosity about, ancient Rome.



2. Don't be put off by the antiquity of this book, its a fascinating look at the tremendous heights of empirical glory and despotism that kicked off the Roman Empire. From the ravenously ambitious Julius to the brilliant government of Augustus to the mad and criminal excesses of Tiberius, Caligula and Nero, Suetonius brings the first 12 emperors to life in brilliant detail and color. This book is the perfect meeting of History Channel and tabloid, a must read for any history buff, or anyone who wants a taste of the fantastic world that was ancient Rome.

5 comments about Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.

1. Well written---engaging story. Historically comprehensive. Provides valuable insight into historical background of current Iraq conflict.



2. I have come to enjoy memoir because it is full of feeling as well as information. But Georgina Howell's biography is so full of excerpts from the letters of Gertrude Bell--the subject of this excellent book--that we get a comprehensive sense of Bell's feelings. Howell makes it clear that Bell consistently understated the difficulties in her life. It is certainly a life to know about and to be celebrated.
   
   Gertrude Bell, who died in 1926, is known as the woman behind the creation of modern Iraq. She was born into a wealthy socially conservative family and displayed her brilliance and non-conformity early on. She attended Oxford and was the first woman to attain First Class Honors in History. She traveled to Persia, began her studies of Persian language and literature in Teheran, and fell in love with a man unacceptable to her family. She returned to England, where she continued her studies, adding Arabic to the mix. Never one to live life half way, she discovered the challenge of mountain climbing and conquered several peaks in the Alps, sometimes being the first woman to do so.
   
   Bell made three trips through the uncharted Arabian Peninsula, visiting archeological sites, carefully creating maps, and dropping in to visit sheiks in full evening wear. An important purpose of her travels was to learn about the alliances and customs of the numerous tribes. This knowledge was applied when she began working with the British government to build a unified Arabic nation after the defeat of the Germans and their allies the Turks in WWI.
   
   The unification was a struggle. Howell writes: "The army wins the territory, and the administration takes over; but in Mesopotamia the struggle to install conditions conducive to peace and eventual prosperity would prove as daunting as the battlefront itself...Arabs spoke a common language but were not a common people..." This struggle, which took place almost 100 years ago, has many similarities with the Iraq struggle today. Bell's later life was so intertwined with the founding of Iraq that the details of the political struggle cannot be left out.
   
   Howell does a splendid job of bringing the astonishing Gertrude Bell to life. Her descriptions of the often bleak landscape, the oases of sheikdoms, and the contrast of desert life with Bell's luxurious wardrobe, living style and traveling entourage enliven the biography. Fortunately for us, Bell's family and friends saved her detailed letters. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations illuminates the many centuries-old causes of the current struggle in the Middle East.
   
   by Judith Helburn
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. The author gives absolutely no insight into Gertrude Bell and just recites the itinerary of one trip after another. Bell is made out to be an obsessive cartoon character running around the map like Bugs Bunny. After climbing the Matterhorn, she mysteriously decides to expensively explore the desert -- alone. I'd really like to know more about her. Someone suggested Desert Queen" by Janet Wallach.



4. One measure of a fine book is if it captures and holds the reader's attention even if the subject is outside the reader's background and interests. This is such a book. Gertrude Bell (1868-1926)led an extraordinary life, whose many facets are captured in this superior biography. Born to a wealthy Yorkshire family, she was the first woman to receive a First Class degree in modern history from Oxford. She next took up challenging mountain climbing (my only criticism of the book is too much space is devoted to this topic). But the book's core is the period when she becomes interested in the Middle East, which the British designated as Mesopotamia and TransJordan, but which we know today as Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
   
   She mastered the pertinent languages (Turkish and of course Arabic among others), traveled all over the region between 1900 and 1914 conducting archeology research and photographing sites (many of which photos are available on the web in the Gertrude Bell Photographic Archive of Newcastle University), authored a number of books, and became well acquainted with the Bedouin tribes that roamed the area. Later she joined the British colonial administration in Baghdad, and helped (along with her friend T.E. Lawrence) foment the Arab uprising against the Turks during WWI that is the central element of the "Lawrence of Arabia" film. She argued for self-determination for this area at the Versailles Peace Conference, and even confronted Churchill on the issue when he had responsibility for colonial administration. She helped map the boundaries of what we now know as Iraq, was instrumental in selecting Faisal as its first King, and played a prominent role in the governance of the new nation. As if this was not enough, toward the end of her life (she committed suicide in 1926, probably due to advanced lung cancer) she founded the National Museum of Iraq, the same museum that the American military allowed to be ransacked during the Iraq War. She is buried in Baghdad.
   
   The book is over 400 pages in this paperback edition, but it moves along quickly as it is quite a fascinating tale. The author has included extensive notes, some excellent Bell photographs, a chronology, and a fine bibliography. A major side benefit to reading the book is that the reader learns quite a lot about the background of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, obviously topics greatly on our minds at the present. To have led such a life is amazing; to have contributed in so many ways during that life is even more so. The book Ms. Bell deserved.



5. Much has been said about the book's contents in previous reviews. What I would like to add is that the author did a masterful job with bringing history so alive. The historical facts were well researched before the book was written. Instead of presenting them in a rather factual manner Georgina Howell converted them in a gripping story which makes it hard to put the book aside. She stays humble in the back and let the protangonists speak for themselves. When reading books of popular history one often gets the impression that writers project their personalities into the stories. This is absolutely not the case with this book, except perhaps with respect to the author's interest for clothing matters which is not distracting however. The relations between Gertrude Bell and her environments are so well described that one gets literally the feeling to become part of them. This only happens with extraordinary books to which this one certainly belongs.
   
   I got interested in this book through a similar well written book by Ronald Florence on the relation between Aaron Aarohnsohn and T.E. Lawrence. Reading both books gives a good impression of the Arabist and Zionist views after the fall of the Ottoman empire. Both also demystify the role of T.E. Lawrence in shapening the Middle-East whose epic book "Seven pillars of wisdom" I find a rather boring read.

5 comments about The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game.

1. This book does seem well researched, and is lucidly written. But it claims to offer a fresh and new method for rating our Presidents, but does not, really. It is just as biased in its appraisals as any of the other stuides of this sort that have come before. If Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and his cohort lean somewhat to the left, then Felzenberg tacks just as steadily to the right. I mean: Reagan the FOURTH greatest President of all (just ahead of EISENHOWER)? Strict ahderence to conservative, supply-side monetary policy seems to guarantee a President's higher ranking than concern for human rights and social justice. And when he hints that the present Bush train wreck is an "important and transformational" presidency-- uh-oh-- We can imagine where "W" might score in subsequent volumes of Felzenberg's work.



2. The author, Alvin Felzenberg, ranks the presidents based on a Conservative agenda. The reader will not discover new or intriguing insights. For example, Felzenberg regards George W. Bush as an inspirational, big picture president and awards Bush high marks for his deft handling of the domestic economy. Felzenberg states that only when we are all dead and gone will America and the world come to appreciate the Bush administration (in light of the numerous domestic and foreign tragedies that continue to unfold, what other argument exists). Conversely, the vast majority of historians rank the Bush presidency as the worst or, at best, one of the five worst ever. Regarding the presidency of Jimmy Carter, Felzenberg refuses to credit Carter for being the only president to have negotiated a true and lasting Middle East Peace Agreement- The Camp David Peace Accord.
   Do not waste the money unless you wish to read a thoroughly predictable and biased assessment.



3. I noticed that most of the negative reviews of this book seem to come from liberals. Well you have a right to your opinion -- and by God! I have a right to mine.
   
   The presidential ratings game the Schlesingers started is so slanted toward the left as to be virtually worthless. It seems that the surest way of getting a high rating is to participate in yet another expansion of federal power.
   
   After all, historians are biased in favor of presidents who did something they can write about. Advocates of federal restraint, like Cleveland and Coolidge, make dull copy.
   
   Let's face it -- the presidential ratings game is just that. It's less factual than the sportswriters' votes for the college football championship.
   
   Felzenberg introduces a measure of discipline by breaking the ratings into six classifications, weighted equally for the overall score.
   
   Liberals should be able to take comfort from the high rankings awarded to Truman and FDR, the latter despite a fairly tough critique of the New Deal. The author is, if anything, even more tough on Hoover, noting that many policies we associate with the New Deal started with the Republicans.
   
   The difference here is that at least some in the GOP, as embodied by Ronaldus Magnus, learned that the best thing the government can do in an economic downturn is let the market work itself out. The Democrats, on the other hand, evidently learned nothing, and still view the New Deal as a public policy triumph, when in fact it prolonged the Great Depression.
   
   The only other long depression in American history followed Andrew Jackson's demolition of the national bank. Is there a pattern here?
   
   As an unapologetic conservative, I'm a little disappointed that my all-time favorite Democrat, Grover Cleveland, didn't score higher.
   
   Actually, Felzenberg is fairly open to big-government policies, as witnessed by his ranking of Theodore Roosevelt third behind Lincoln and Washington. I don't believe that anyone had coined the phrase "big government conservative" during TR's lifetime, but it fits like a glove.
   Much as I admire TR for his undoubted patriotism and colorful personality, the really outstanding president of that era was the martyred William McKinley, who inherited the mantle of limited government from Grover Cleveland.
   
   Of course, it's all a game, and this book was written to provoke debates. Felzenberg does a vastly better job defending his ratings than any other historian I've read who attempted the same task.
   
   I don't have to agree -- just indulge me by arguing from facts and logic instead of slogans and fear, which is all the left has been offering for decades.
   
   I'm recommending this book to all my conservative friends. In fact, on the phone the other day, my friend and I were wracking our brains for the absolute worst president in American history.
   
   We both blurted out simulataneously: "Woodrow Wilson!"
   
   Actually Felzenberg gives the booby prize to James Buchanan for having allowed the War Between the States to happen.
   
   The way I figure it, Buchanan was a weakling, but slavery was such a poisonous issue that something had to break.
   
   Wilson -- the beau ideal of the sanctimonious Puritan reformer -- dragged the nation into a European war we had no business in. After victory in 1918, Wilson ensured we would lose the peace by insisting on the breakup of the Hapsburg Empire. Supposedly, this was to be done along ethnic lines, but the reality is that the Hapsburg successor states were nearly as polyglot as the "ramshackle empire" itself. The resulting power vacuum left Central Europe and the Balkans ripe for devastation by fascism, Nazism, and communism.
   
   Good going, Mr. President!



4. Admittedly biased by a personal friendship with the author, I still found this book to be not only Dr. Felzenberg's best work to date, but for a political historian, refreshingly balanced, insightful, and a easy to read.
   
   This is book is ideal for the political junkie and amateur history who tires easily with heavy tomes more focused on often insignificant historical facts instead of interpretation and analysis. While I'm sure I do not agree with all of Dr. Felzenberg's rating (I thought he was a little harsh on Richard Nixon, and was too kind to Mr. Manifest Destiny, James K. Polk, the only President who really lied to start a war), he has successfully established a new benchmark for rating Presidents as objectively as humanly possible.
   
   His greatest service, however, may be exposing the heavy biases of respected historians such as Dr. Arthur Slezinger, who clearly rated President by how they matched up against his liberal idealogy of bigger and more intrusive government. No liberal, Dr. Felzenberg nonetheless made an obvious attempt at fairness and balance in his ratings. I suspect such biased readers and historians will chafe at his high rating of Ronald Reagan and others, but I defy them to find flaws in his presentation.
   
   I strongly recommend this book to: political junkies; anyone who is interested in the history of the Presidency; and high school and college teachers looking to orient their pupils on the presidency. I especially recommend it to journalists, who by and large are ignorant of history and can't handle book above an 8th grade level (much less digest it). It was a terrific and fascinating read.



5. Reviews criticizing this book for its supposed conservative bias are off target. (For example, Lyndon Johnson, generally a conservative bete-noire, comes in for great praise for his role in civil rights.) Anyone who's read the book will know that its most original contribution is assigning credit and blame, where appropriate, to lesser-known presidents whose actions had an important impact on economic history, civil rights, etc. For example, the discussions of the civil rights accomplishments of oft-neglected presidents like Grant and Coolidge, or of the various failings of an oft-praised president like Madison, add much new to our generally facile understanding of these presidents.
   
   Of course, many readers may disagree with the author's characterizations of Reagan, which are probably the most controversial element of the book, but the sections on Reagan are neither hagiography nor polemic; they present facts in a measured fashion, and readers are free to interpret them differently than the author does. That does not detract from the overall value of this excellent and thorougly-researched book for readers of all political stripes.
   
   Finally, readers interested in US economic history will find this book a fascinating review of economic policy, especially the monetary system, from the early republic through the modern era of the Federal Reserve system.
   
   This book is highly recommended for readers of all political backgrounds. Though they may disagree with a few of the conclusions, the author's scholarship is undeniable, and Democratic-leaning readers interested in civil rights will find the book's discussion of those issues especially interesting.

5 comments about The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.

1. After 40 years of writing biographies, Robert A. Caro deserves an all time winning award in history. In 1974 he wrote the biography of Robert Moses, Big Bob the Builder in New York. It is an incredible biography. By focusing on one person, Caro succeeds in revealing the peculiarities of this particular epoch in New York. It is a detailed account of how power works in New York between 1934 and 1968. The book is about personalities, Robert Moses of course, but also about the Rockefellers, Al Smith (the governor of New York), La Guardia (mayor of NY). And the book is about building. Every student in building ought to read this book. Robert Moses was a genius in obtaining power, preserving it and ruthlessly exercising it. The resuls are dazzling. Nowadays New York shows a multitude of Moses battlefields. The high ways, the parks in and outside New York, the playgrounds, the tall apartment houses. Robert Moses, Big Bob the Builder once was a celebrity in New York,. His fall after so many years of exercising of power could be no surprise,. His legacy is in doubt. Did he neglect the possibilities of mass transport and were his investments exclusively focused on cars? Did he have solid preferences for the middle class and did he try by all means to neglect the needs of the lower class? Every builder, urban planner, politician, municipal employee, developer, student of history shoud read this book. It is a big big six star
   luuk oost
   
   [...]



2. Robert Caro's biography reads like an extraordinary work of investigative journalism - damning, erudite and compelling - that surely would have been appreciated by Robert Moses had he not been the subject.
   
   It is a fascinating study of the evolution of government in New York City and Robert Moses' ability to shape laws as the "best bill drafter in Albany" and to seize upon prevailing trends and work the levers of the City, State and Federal governments to his advantage. It is during the Great Depression when Moses is able to mobilize maximum resources, largely from the Federal government, for some of his most ambitious projects.
   
   While at most times a scathing indictment of Moses and his methods, Caro does credit Moses - New York City's first Parks Commissioner - for his contributions to green spaces in the city and his creation of a premier state park system.
   
   Caro insists that judgment about Moses' legacy is premature and that one can only say New York would be a very different place without Moses. New York was indeed a very different place at the time of publication of the Power Broker; Caro has recently commented that some of Moses projects, such as the Triborough Bridge, have been a boon for city residents. Although he never cared for mass transit, it's a shame Moses couldn't come back to start work on the stalled new Penn Station.



3. I have been waiting to read this book for a very long time, and the wait was well worth it. Mr. Caro presents a massive, well-researched piece on one of New York's most influential (and controversial) public officials. I am a sucker for great detail, and so I enjoyed Caro's painstakingly detailed portrait of how a young, idealistic reformer evolved into the ruler of a huge bureaucratic empire. What Caro makes very clear is how Robert Moses became so corrupted by power (and self-importance) that he failed to grasp how his projects were not always in the public interest. Moreover, Caro paints a vivid picture of Moses' cynicism and shrewdness, and how he parlayed those into greater and greater power. For instance, Moses realized that most state legislators were political hacks who never bothered to read the fine print of the laws that they passed. He played on this to insert such fine print into legislation which made him virtual Tsar of development in both New York State and New York City. In addition, Moses was able to convince most New York politicians that he was indispensable to them, and so had them virtually eating out of his hand (i.e., his tactic of threatening to resign, unless he got 100% of what he wanted). At once fascinating and frightening as to how one man could harness such a degree of power!
   
   While Robert Moses' achievements are the main focus of this book, Mr. Caro also devotes a great deal of attention to the political situation that existed in New York during the era of Moses. In doing this, he gives readers a fine education on how New York and its municipalities were governed at that time (and in many ways, are still governed), along with an in-depth look at other contemporary political figures (i.e., Al Smith and Fiorello LaGuardia). I would equate reading this book with taking a college-level course, as you learn and think so much while reading it.
   
   On a critical note, not all of Mr. Caro's conclusions about Robert Moses are universally accepted. For instance, Mr. Caro accuses Moses of single-handedly wrecking the Bronx with the Cross Bronx Expressway. However, many people have argued that this was only one of many factors that destroyed the Bronx, and not all of these things were brought by Moses. Perhaps Mr. Caro should have given space to opposing viewpoints regarding the Moses legacy. Overall, though, I think that it is a great book: required reading for anyone interested in the development of New York during the 20th century.



4. This book, written by Robert Caro - probably the best living biographer, was his first book. It is a massive, thorough, detailed, engaging study of how one man - Robert Moses - planned, shaped and built - the modern city of New York.
   
   It is about the acquisition of power and its utilization by one man in order to bring his vision of New York City to fruition.
   
   Robert Moses - the primary subject of the book - together with the notion of power, and New York City itself as well as its residents being the other subjects - was trained in urban planning England, was a visionary, a planner, and a "Power Broker" - and thus the title, whose materials where New York City, planned, designed, built modern New York by stamping his vision in the form of new parks, spaces, roads and parkways, new neighborhoods, new subways/rail-lines, new beach and recreational facilities and areas, had an impact on the way millions of New Yorkers as well as visitors to NYC experienced NYC - experienced NYC - for decades. His shape of NYC is still shaping how humans experience reality in such city.
   
   This is a tour de force. This is a good book for those interested in New York City, local and state government politics, the modern bureaucratic / administrative aparatus of government and those who wield the helm. Whether you agree with Robert Moses vision of NYC or not, he had a tremendous impact. The impact was not limited to NYC. Seen as the expert on urban planning, his model, his vision, his views, spread throughout the entire field of modern urban planning. Thus, his impact is not just local or state. It is in fact national and international. Modern cities - the leadership of which visited or modeled their cities on NYC - where shaped by his creations.
   
   A long book. A detailed book. A hard book. But excellent, very interesting, and well worth the effort and time. Probably the prime example of what an excellent biography is and should be. It made Robert Caro, its author, into the preeminent biographer of the last several decades. It set the standard. I don't know if it has or will ever be matched.



5. Robert Caro's The Power Broker, a biography of Robert Moses, contains every attribute of a Shakespearean tragedy. Moses was brilliant, driven, an over-achiever, but possessed a deeply flawed character which aroused feelings of both esteem and disgust. Like all of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists, he was capable of both good and evil. Fully able to redeem himself, he instead moved unheedingly towards his doom. That 30+ years of unquestionable power within New York State's political, corporate, and labor elite forestalled this doom speaks to the measure of the man. Indeed, it took a Rockefeller to push him from the mountaintop.
   
   One of the best biographies I've ever read, The Power Broker's 1,163 pages artfully and suspensefully tell the tale of a man for whom the words great and ignominious qualify as adjectives. Initially an ardent reformer, Moses was increasingly corrupted by power. At the apex of this power, Moses answered to no one and ran a wide reaching web of political commissions and public authorities as his personal empire.
   
   His transition from reformer to elitist provides the backbone of Caro's epic. Once a voice for the common man, Moses eventually attained what can only be described as aristocratic contempt for the mob, the rabble, the lower echelon of economic achievement. The reader may marvel that such a powerful man was heretofore unknown to them, but the reader will certainly grow increasingly disenchanted at such a man's venality.
   
   The Power Broker is a classic deserving the attention of every student of history. Despite it's heft, it remains a page turning pleasure throughout. As such, it most assuredly merits the highest ranking I can give it: 5+ stars. Trite though the term may be, Robert Caro has authored a masterpiece.