No comments about Estonian War of Independence: International crisis, Interwar period, Kingdom of Italy (1861?1946), Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia, League of Nations, Italian ... Germany, Second Italo-Abyssinian War Maavägi.

1 comments about The Ethiopian Patriots: Forgotten Voices of the Italo-Abyssinian War 1935-41 (Spellmount Military Studies).

1. "The Ethiopian Patriots" is a very well done book, easy to read and rewarding. Mr. Hilton provides an excellent overview of how he came to compile the various accounts of participants in the liberation of Ethiopia from the Italians before and during the British East African Campaign of WW2. In Mr. Hilton's forward, he describes how the Mengistu era attempted to suppress the memories of Haile Selassie's fighters and how now these men and women are now repatriating their experiences for the prosperity of their country. Mr. Hilton also provides a chronological overview of the period and some excellent maps (which are often amazingly lacking or inaccurate in so many other history books. As an aside, honestly, history and geography are not antithetical disciplines, and a map listed with only the cities an author does not discuses is not very helpful; I know of few successfully marketed negative navigation systems. But I digress).
   
   After the introduction, Mr. Hilton provides about a dozen, short eyewitness accounts of the fighters with a picture of the actual veteran at the start of his or her recollections. Unfortunately, their accounts are brief but serve to tantalize the reader to learn more with numerous, partly uncovered historical gems lying just below the surface of their experiences; for example, how prominent was the role of royalty verse that of the peasants in the conflicts or how powerful was the concept of the emperor in the fighters' motivation for a free Ethiopia? The reader comes away with a good grasp of how the fighters felt about the invasion and also of their mindsets at the time. As an example, names are very important to them, reflecting the prominence of personal and blood connections in tribal and feudal societies. The pictures provided are also excellent in themselves. If a reader is interested in Ethiopian military decorations, all the fighters have their awards proudly displayed in their pictures. In my research, I often come across the un-cited Patriots Medal, but all of the fighters have this award, attesting to its authenticity. Other pictures show the Italian troops in action and an amazing layout of a battle in progress, along with period shots of the Ethiopian fighters.
   
   "The Ethiopian Patriots" is great for a reader interested in experiencing the recollections of fighters from a conflict that has receded far from the public light it once dominated, in one of the wars that lead to the great conflagration that soon consumed the world. However, unlike the Spanish Civil War or the Japanese invasion of China, the overthrow of the last Independent Christian State in Africa has recessed further into the darkness than it should and needed someone like Mr. Hilton to draw it and us back. His book offers one of the last glimpses from our disappearing WW2 veterans onto the world where they suffered and triumphed; Mr. Hilton, and the fighters he helped to interview, bring this pivotal moment in the fight to stop one form of totalitarianism, the start of WW2 and the continuance of the independence movement of Africa to bright, vivid life.
   
   "The Ethiopian Patriots" focuses on a pretty narrow section of history, so it helps to have a better understanding of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and the British East African Campaign, though this is not required pre-reading.: "Haile Selassie's War" is an excellent overview of both conflicts, very readable, though harder to find being out-of-print. "The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935-36" by Osprey Publishing is a richly illustrated resource that also provides a brief but solid overview of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

No comments about Abyssinia Crisis: International crisis, Interwar period, Kingdom of Italy (1861?1946), Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia, League of Nations, Italian Fascism, Nazi Germany, Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

1 comments about Rape of Ethiopia, 1936 (Ballantine's illustrated history of the violent century. Politics in action).

1. I read this book here , in Brazil.I'm an agronomist and I like to read books.
   About the "Rape" of Ethiopia, by fascist Italy, this book is concise and good.I read it about twenty years ago, and I still have this book.This book also has many photos, all of them B&W photos.This book is very easy to read and understand.In fact, I read all of it, in less than four hours.
   I'm not an expert about this subject.In my opinion, the main failure of this book is to be a little biased.This book isn't pro-facist.
   The main failure of this book is to almost forget, the terrible fact of this "rape" had so many supporters, outside nazi Germany and Italy.
   Really, there was some sanctions, but as this book shows, they were, all weak and only for a small period of time.
   In fact, this out of time colonial war, was the last to be did in Africa.
   At that time, we must not forget, the fact of so many famous and respected americans such as Wilbur Wright, Charles A. Lindberg, Dr. Morris Fishbein(AMA's president and jew), etc. were eugenicists.
   The support or even more, the "washing hands" for this brutal war and "rape", was enormous in USA, England and Canada.
   If you don't believe, remember the fact, that after this "rape" the sactions became over and commercial relations, between Italy and USA or England return to normal.In 1940, Winston Churchill sent a message to Mussolini, giving to him, some parts of Africa as an exchange, to Italy's neutrality in World War II.
   Even having these very small failures, this book is concise and good as an overview, about this subject.

No comments about The Ethiopian Crisis, Touchstone of Appeasement?.

No comments about Days of emperor and clown;: The Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936, (Crossroads of world history series).

5 comments about Cry Wolf.

1. I have been reading this man's books since I was 14. I have never read one that wasn't excellent but two are far above the rest, this one and Hungry as the Sea. This book has something for everyone. The story is compelling, gripping, and stands the test of time. Anyone reading this now will still want to know how the people in Africa are doing today. Beware, if you read this book you will become hooked on this man's writing, I did and 24 years later I can't wait for each new one he writes.



2. I have no hesitation in giving this African adventure five stars! An American adventurer in Ethiopia in the late 1930s guides a caravan of armoured cars into the interior to escape the advancing Italians. Highly recommended!
   
   Also highly recommended is "Sands of the Kalahari," by William Mulvilhill.
   The Sands of Kalahari



3. I have read Wilbur Smith's books since I was 15 years old and I always admired his works and writing style. Thus, this book was a natural choice since it combines a good adventure with an interesting historical background. This is an awesome read right from page #1. Cry Wolf is a magnificent and moving novel, albeit a little drawn out at some places, brilliantly portraying the limitations of choices in the eventuality of an inevitability. The tragic war of Ethiopians in 1936 is very well depicted and the Italian characters are also well developed. The actions of the armoured cars are hair raising and the description of the African nature really magnificent, from a man who is a keen lover of that continent and has spent many years there. The last climactic battles are really awesome and gruelling and the finale leaves a bitter taste of realism. You will be surprised by the brutality of both sides, since the author does not paint the Ethiopians in idyllic colours but as the savages they really were. An un-polished gem that comes highly recommended.



4. Absolutely great read. I discovered Wilbur Smith just last year. I love the historical settings and his knowledge of the military hardware of the era in which he is writing.
   
   I found the story to be quite gripping and had me sitting up late at night (when I should have been sleeping). In short it is a great read!
   
   Stories like this are timeless - war, heroism, love and lust. They make great ingredients in the hands of an author like Wilbur Smith.
   
   Just sit back, and let yourself get carry away. You will absolutely love the trip.



5. This is a heartwarming tale of a disadvantaged and impovershed people fighting against insurmontable odds. My only criticism in this book is that it doesn't give you the ending to the story. All that we see is that the army survives but don't know that the Ethopians actually do triumph over the Italians in the end. I think that would have been a good footnote by the author at the end of the book.

4 comments about The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935-36 (Men-at-Arms).

1. This book's main attraction is the color pictures. For some people, pictures are their main concern. This book covers a lot in the uniforms. Finding a book about the fascist Italy's uniforms are quite rare. I am pleased with this book. If more books (especially with color pictures) about the Italian military is available, than people who are interested in fascist Italy would be pleased.



2. The Italian invasion of Abyssinia is a welcome title to an unjustifiably neglected part of pre-WW II history. Indeed, the Italian invasion destroyed the League of Nations and continued the pattern of ongoing conflicts since end of the First World war that would soon engulf the world in a new world war.
   The Italians eventually won but even a rather underdeveloped African country like Ethopia was able to acquit itself rather well and that should've sent omnious signals to the victors, Instead the victory nurtured an illusion of military superiority. Yet World War Two would showed, Italian armed forces were themselves inadequate when it battled European armies.
   David Nicholle's book does an admirable survey of the events that led to Mussolini's decision to invade that country as well as the organization, weapons and uniforms of both sides....
   The real jewel are the colour plates as well as their textual descriptions. They're superb and really contribute to the modeler's, re-enactor's and collector's knowledge of the uniforms and equipment of that conflict.
   I recommend the book beccause it covers an almost forgotten conflict during the interwar period though not as highly due to the redundacy of information that is found in the companion miniseries on the Italian army.



3. As the back cover suggests, the books in the Men-at-Arms series are not history books in the normal sense, but rather cover the uniforms, equipment and organization of various military forces of the past and present from around the world. In covering the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (or Abyssinia, as it was known until modern times) this book sheds light on the forces that fought this largely forgotten war.
   
   While not a history book per se, is most certainly a good addition for anyone studying the conflict -- where else will you find an illustration of the Camel-Mounted Artillery of the Italian colonial forces that fought in Somalia?



4. As always with Osprey, a great collection of illustrations and interpretations. The book also has good background of the war and some fascinating information regarding the organization of both the Abyssinian and Italian armies. This is a very valuable book for anyone reading about this chapter in African history or about the conflicts which preceded WWII.

3 comments about Waugh in Abyssinia (From Our Own Correspondent).

1. Today there are only two copies available on Amazon used books! What a great book. Only 169 pages, but a wonderful insight into the leadin to the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (not long before WWII) and thru to the early period of the consolidation of the Italian victory.
   The super justly famous Evelyn Waugh created, in this book, a tremendously educational outline and insight into a whole period, and parts of it are so witty that tears of laughter were running down my face several times.
   
   Interestingly, to me at least, the original purchaser of the copy I got evidently did so in 1986, in Nairobi. I have a feeling it is not available at your local newsstand, but if I knew how good it is and didn't already have it.. I'd sure be looking for it.



2. I agree with the other reviewer of this book that much of Evelyn Waugh's travel writing, at least in the 1930s when he was at his sharpest as a writer, was among the best in English in the twentieth century (comparable to Robert Byron and Peter Fleming), and that this title is at the top of the Waugh list. Readers should know, however, that there is a very inexpensive anthology of all of Waugh's travel writings available from amazon: Waugh Abroad (ISBN 1400040760). It is in hardcover in the Everyman series and amazon sells it new for less than $ 20. I may be overlooking something, but the anthology seems to be a far better choice: Evelyn Waugh went lots of places and wrote brilliantly about many, including but not limited to Ethiopia.



3. I thought 'Waugh in Abyssinia' is one of the worst books ever written about Ethiopia by outsiders. From the content, one can easily see that Waugh was disposed favorably towards Fascist Italy and was constantly annoyed that Ethiopians did not treat him the way he was used to be treated in other colonized countries.
   
   He himself says that he is irritated by the average Ethiopian person who thinks he is equal to anyone in the world. Even if one considers that this was written during World War II, I find it difficult to forgive this guy for thinking so blatantly in a racist manner. The book is just a reflection of his frustration. I find it difficult that European readers continue to admire this guy.
   
   Frankly, I consider the money I spent on the book as a total waste.

5 comments about Scoop.

1. Evelyn Waugh's send-up of the newspaper business, and where in other novels he could be bitterly satirical, here he's wildly farcical and broadly comical. William Boot, a nature writer for the DAILY BEAST, ("Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole" is given as an example of his "high-class style" of writing), is mistaken for the novelist John Boot and is sent to the African country of Ishmaelia. Here he encounters other journalists, many of them American, who are all looking for the scoop that will make them famous. Boot meets and falls in love with a woman named Kachen, and immediately the naïve Boot is in over his head romantically. But it's she who slips Boot the news about a planned coup d'etat, and the simple-minded journalist scoops everyone and eventually comes home a hero. Of course the wrong Boot (John) is given knighthood and the book ends, after additional mistaken identities are made, with everything being righted and Boot (William) going back to writing his innocuous nature articles, none the worse (or better) for wear. Waugh's humor is bright and airy, very reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse, who is actually alluded to at one point in the story. Lots and lots of laughs from beginning to end.



2. Heady and incredibly fun, this 1930s' look at the curious animal known as "foreign correspondent" is one hilarious read. Much of the book is tongue and cheek and a bitch-slap to the world of competitive newspapers (far more important then than now).
   
   The story centers around a hapless rural-life columnist for a London newspaper, who is mistaken for someone else and sent to Africa to report on the bloody conflict in a fictional country (which predicts, a bit, the reality of the 1960s). He is bunked down with a gaggle of correspondents from competing papers, each determined to get the scoop and win appaluse back in England. The comraderie, back-stabbing, misinformation and one-upsmanship is all just a vodka swallow away from how journalism really works.
   
   The reporters make up so much of their stories that when our hero actually gets a real hot one, he is told that -- even though it is true -- he can't file it because the fictional version was discredited the day before. If you can follow that sentence, you will love "Scoop."



3. Perhaps when "Scoop" was rewritten, Waugh lived his best years - 1937-1938 - in 1937 he married Laura Herbert who gave birth to their daughter Teresa Waugh in 1938.
   
   This book resonates with British farce. People's discussions seem to always be on different wavelengths. Amid these discussions where neither side appears to listen to the other, mistaken identities arise. But, when these extremely embarrassing moments are discovered, the British aristocratic self attempts to cavalierly treat these major gaffs as minor trivialities - apply bandages to hemorrhages.
   
   The spoof of "Scoop" reminds me so much of the self-deprecatory humor found in Kingsley Amis - most particularly "Lucky Jim." Everything is formal, and everything formal encounters an everyday fumble by "one of the clan." Each demands that we laugh at ourselves. And, the readers are invited to join the chuckle - which this reader often did.
   
   The plot is about a paper hiring a novice to handle a "scoop" for a red rebellion in fictitious Ishmael - where Bolshevik-mimicking rebels fight the present power which merely seeks to cash out his country in gold to whomever can provide the gold to him most expediently and abundantly. Interestingly, the British concern of this story is mesmerized by the paper's novice writer - John Boot. You have to read the story to see how John Boot is not the John Boot they thought nor the one in the end who they applaud.
   
   Unlike some other classics by Waugh - "Brideshead Revisited" or "Handful of Dust" - the protagonist and those around him are not spiraling downward to a life of everlasting disappointment. Instead, our John Boot is a goofball country bumpkin - of the British kind - whose bumbling antics lead to impressive successes. He is the original Inspector Clousseau, the original Maxwell Smart, or the original Forrest Gump. Although some perspectives may not see our John Boot to be as profoundly successful as those parties, his amateur feats do lead to the quintessential British accomplishment - knighthood.
   
   The humor in this book is probably reflective of when times were good for Waugh - before World War II. After World War II, characters' suffering - something hardly noticed in this book - become a focus in Waugh's literature. Although he is a master whose literature resounds before and after the war, this reader likes lighter reading on certain occasions and this book was a great choice for the holiday weekend.



4. Overall, I'm conflicted in my feelings for this book. On the main themes - how journalists make stories up to sell papers, how rewards and punishments are completely random with no regards to merit, and how humans are generally horrible and stupid - the book is very funny in Waugh's dryly satirical style. However, the blatant racism makes the book an uncomfortable read.
   
   The plot revolves around a reluctant British reporter sent to cover a civil war in Africa. This being Waugh, I was prepared for the sarcastically bitter political humor. I know he hates most things British; and all things Non. But still, the casual dismissal of the Africans the main character lives amongst is shocking. The Africans (and a few Arabs and Indians who wander through the story) are backdrops to the action; local color, comic relief, chess pieces for the Europeans to move around for their amusement and greed. An angry goat is attributed with more human thoughts than any of the non-European human characters. It is clear in the book that these attitudes were not at all shocking to the British in 1937; the author hardly seems aware of them.



5. "Scoop" was Evelyn Waugh's skewering of England's Fleet Street newspaper ways. Known for his wry humor and satire, Waugh presents a portrait of newspapermen who know the business too well or not well enough. Yet for all its humor, "Scoop" is somewhat of a disappointment, wandering off on tangents, with a profusion of oddities that can be difficult to follow.
   
   William Boot lives a leisurely, if bizarre, life in the country, filling his odd hours by writing articles about animals and country life for the London paper, the Daily Beast. He is mistakenly believed to be John Courtney Boot, the famous novelist, and is pressured into the job of war correspondent for the paper. Boot is sent to Ishmaelia, a country in Africa that is about to be at war, or perhaps not. Nobody seems to know what is going on or even what side they should root for. Boot, with all his inexperience, must figure out how to be a foreign war correspondent with no acutal war going on in a country more backward than his family.
   
   "Scoop" is a relatively quick-paced read, slowed down in the second section by the introduction to a plethora of newspapermen in Ishmaelia and all their idiosyncracies. There are genuine laugh-out-loud moments and Waugh does a commendable job in flaying the newspaper's business of selling paper no matter what; it doesn't matter if the story is true, as long as they get the scoop. The resolution is entirely fitting and very enjoyable for those readers who have followed every case of mistaken identity along the way.