2 comments about Crusader: The Hell-Raising Police Career of Detective David Durk.

1. David Durk is a crusader in the best and worse sense of the word. He relentlessly fought for justice, despite the apathy and corruption of the New York City Police Department. For his noble efforts, he was rewarded with a partial pension, a long list of powerful enemies and an exile in upstate New York. It is a travesty that someone who devotes his life to helping people would receieve such horrible treatment himself. This book made me angry and sad but also hopeful that someone like David Durk exists to fight the system. I hope one day he wins out.



2. David Durk did not fit in the NYPD of the sixties and seventies from the start. A tall, wiry, Jewish college graduate-- it never quite seemed that Durk was going to be a typical cop; and he wasn't. Durk was to be a true Crusader, along with his acolyte and friend, Patrolman Frank Serpico, Durk the Idealist would go on to expose the massive amounts of corruption that lay undisturbed, rife within the NYPD. Durk's obsessive love of the truth and his equally obsessive love of policing led these dramatic changes. The NYPD is less corrupt today than it was thirty years ago, and we have David Durk to thank for that. This book retells, in startling detail, the methods which Durk employed to achieve his goal; to rid the NYPD of corruption.

No comments about Seven Versions of an Australian Badland.

5 comments about Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (Vintage).

1. "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" was a very interesting and informative book. I have only now discovered how controversial von Braun's life was from these Amazon reviews as well as from this book. While this may be sad commentary on my narrow view as an engineer, I always admired von Braun despite knowing that he worked for the wrong side during the war. Before I really get into the fray let me just say that this book appeared scholarly, well written and should be read by admirers and critics of von Braun.
   
   I felt this book contained almost too much detail, and often found myself "speed reading" over certain details of his family life but never those concerning his controversial life. I believe this fine book was the result of a fairly unbiased point of view and find myself agreeing with the book's closing remarks.
   
   I was also very saddened to read that great efforts were made by his influential friends to convince federal authorities to award his life's work with some grand gesture. It was further saddening to learn that several figures in government circles having the power to influence this decision refused to do so because of his early work in Germany. It is only clear to me now that von Braun was never completely forgiven for developing the V-2, and only permitted to use his talent for our side during the cold war. Perhaps he should have been greatful for that alone, but I believe he wished for much more.
   
   When he was finally awarded a great civilian medal for his technical and managerial accomplishments (by President Carter), the man who received this hard won gesture was a fragment of his former self. He was described by friends as a "skelton wrapped in skin" while enduring relentless pain under the equivalent of hospice care. Of course, camp workers were denied anything like hospital care, but I really feel he paid the ultimate price we all must, and with what I believe was a heavy heart. He must have understood full well that he was never forgiven for his early work and probably never would be. He ultimately suffered a painful and protracted death of cancer.
   
   As an individual inspired by von Braun's accomplishments I think he made as great an impact on the history of space and rocket research as one person could possibly accomplish. He had a grand vision of man's future in space, and shared that vision with all of us brilliantly. We were made a part of his dream and I believe the country remembers how special those days were as we closed in on the moon. The price he was willing to pay to accomplish his personal goals for that future supported war efforts in two countries and pushed the barriers of technology. That, in part, is the reason the author calls him the Faust of 20th century. He is acknowledged by everyone to have been a compelling public speaker, a talented engineer and an excellent manager, but I think he was also a very great American.



2. Neufeld inadvertently provides evidence that the Apollo moon landings were a hoax. Chapter 15 describes an absurdly misorganized, disorganized and impossible schedule that reduces the actual time to build and test hardware to a mere five years. Piled atop the emerging anomalies of impossible moon footprints absent moisture binder, suicidal moon rover wheelbase for 1/6th gravity, persistent lack of information regarding the workings of nickel porous plate water sublimators, ridiculously small fuel tank for the 10,000 lb. LM ascent vehicle required to climb 60 miles to 4000mph, silence and absence of ESA SMART-1 lunar survey photos that don't reveal Apollo landing sites, etc., Neufeld's book would be better if it honestly explored Von Braun's masterful ability to lie both to Hitler and the American people while ironically serving them thus to fulfill their eager delusions.



3. ...''Nazi, schmazi''. Said Wherner von Braun. ''WHERE THE R0CKETS G0 UP, WH0 KN0WS WHERE THEY C0ME D0WN, THAT'S N0T MY DEPARTMENT!!!''



4. Sadly this is the same old BS against the German people, written I would guess, by a Jew or a self-hating German. Don't take my word for it, look for yourself. Here we have a book that purports to be a definitive work but is just full of unsubstantiated speculation from the author. Just look at page 145 for example: "Recent research has demonstrated that the mass shootings of Jews in the East were widely known among the German populace." Now, I'm no Holocaust denier, but to say this kind of thing is just irresponsible. What "research" is he talking about? He doesn't say. Does the author really believe that the average citizen had access to this kind of information? He admits that listening to foreign radio was "dangerous" but what he should have said that if you were caught you could be killed. And who have believed BBC radio anyway? Did any of our guys believe Tokyo Rose? How many average citizens went to check up on their local Japanese concentration camp during WW2? No one who wanted stay out of a camp themselves, that's who! Do I know what is going on right now in Cuba? Or in CIA camps in Poland? No I don't, and neither do you. The same was true with the German people, and I'm tired shabby "research" from people like this guy. I want my money back!



5. For a period ranging from about 1950 until 1970, Werhner von Braun was the face of space exploration, an articulate spokesman who also brilliantly orchestrated the huge Saturn rocket program.
   
   Yet the Von Braun who occupies the pages of Michael Neufeld's book is an often passive figure. A space dreamer who grasped the opportunity to work for the nascent Nazi war machine as a way to advance his hopes for rocket research. The man who managed to bring the V-2 rocket from nothing to full production, yet acquiesced in the use of concentration camp workers to bring that production about. Even as a driving force in the U.S. space program, von Braun rarely issued commands, preferring to arrive at a consensus among his Huntsville colleagues.
   
   Neufeld does not shy from tying von Braun to the attrocities at the Dora Mittleworks yet leaves you convinced he was not actively involved in them. Instead, he turned a blind eye to the practices while he focused on his overarching goal -- to produce a rocket and fly to the stars.
   
   Though hardly soft of von Braun, Neufeld stops short of labelling von Braun a war criminal. "He only wanted to go into space," he writes, quoting the common refrains. And Neufeld wisely notes that the United States entered its own Faustian bargain by embracing the Peenemunde team to advance its own "amoral concepts of the national good". So for that matter, did the Soviets. As the old saying goes: Our Germans were better than their Germans.
   
   This is Neufeld's second book on the V-2 and the Peenemunde team, following his earlier "The Rocket and The Reich," which focused more on German motivations for staring and pursuing the V-2 program and the internal politics that surrounded that program. This shows in the writing. The parts dealing with Germany and the V-2 program are very strong but Neufeld slips at times on some aspects of the U.S. space program. He has von Braun bidding on the Hubble Space Telescope in 1963. At best, that was only a paper study, the central thesis of which evolved into Hubble 20 years later. Ironically, the Hubble contract was eventually won by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, the very center von Braun was competing with in 1963.
   
   There are still questions worth exploring on this period of space history.Were the Paperclip scientists purged in 1973 due to emerging reports about their Nazi involvement? Neufeld doesn't think so; Huntsville had developed an aging workforce as von Braun attempted to preserve his team. NASA eventually remedied this through massive retrenchments. Yet the timing still seems suspicious.
   
   And study is needed of ongoing American space work prior to the arrival of von Braun's rocket team and how these diverse concepts eventually coalesced. The U.S. began studying the concept of reconnaissance satellites in the lates 1940s and U.S. rocket designers in California often derided the Huntsville team's products as "bridge construction." The Californian' light, cutting edge design have primacy in today's space arena yet the Germans' sturdy designs got us to the Moon and rarely failed. Von Braun, it turns out, was not a fan of the space shuttle.

1 comments about Want Some Aggro?: The True Story of West Ham's First Guv'nors.

1. As if we need another book about violence?
   Get a life and go out one night in your town centre - kids are killing kids!
   This book is all Watch With Mother meets Jackanory.
   If you've read one Cass Pennant book, you've no need to read anymore - not that you'd want to ... Charles Dickens he ain't.
   What with Charles Haughtry on the front cover. A right couple o' Charlies, they make.
   Same ol' same ol'.
   Millwall, West Ham, then maybe Portsmouth (in that order); we all know where the so called hard men of football violence come from.
   Not for real football fans - and quite frankly Bermondsey ruled the roost, not Bethnal Green.
   A lot of poetic license has been used to pep up most of Smiffy's stories - and a fair share of Tom Peppering too.
   What is it about East Londoners and their obsession with telling all - no wonder `Bertie' Smalls and most other London supergrasses come from that manor.
   Mile Eng Mob? Bunch o' crowd punchers more like.

No comments about Dutch Schultz: The Brazen Beer Baron of New York (Amazing Stories).

5 comments about Pinochet: The Politics of Torture (Fast Track).

1. This book begins well enough in the description of Augusto Pinochet. The first two chapters describe his early family life along with his reluctant decision to join the junta plotting the overthrow of the Allende government. The last two chapters then go into unproven killing, torture, and drug and weapons trafficing. The author tries to give us a picture of a dictator that knew everything going on in Chile. I am not sure that is the case. I do know this dictatorship in the process of overthrowing the legal Marxist government killed 3,000-4,000 people. That is a fact. I am sure torture and killings were part of the plan to stay in power. I am unsure whether they were systemic, as they are in Castro's Cuba.
   I don't believe this is a balanced view on Pinochet's Chile. I believe there is much truth in this book, but also stories that don't pass the muster of honest reporting.



2. the only problem with this book is that it's not very good. would people stick to reviewing it instead of launching wild political polemics ?



3. Gives a very unbiased account of Pinochets life and times. The author talks about the state terrorism of the DNIA(Chilean Intelligence) against foes at home and abroad. Probably the best unbiased literary acccount of Pinochet and his despotic military Junta.



4. Pinochet saved the country of Chile. More people suffered under the Cuban led Allende. Pinochet is the 20th century George Washington.



5. this is an excellent book to understand the nature of the act commited in Chile by Augusto Pinochet. Althought today many of his supporters try to deny the horror of Pinochet's regime the truth about the atrocities commited by the so call "chilean Libertator" are evident on this book. Pinochet's crimes include genocide,murder,Terrorism, torture, kidnaping and assasination on chilean territory and abroad.The victims of his crimes were chilean citizens and foreigners (including US citizens). This book gives an account of this dictator life and acts in a very organized way from his childhood to his arrest on London during 1998 (as an international criminal).

1 comments about Motorcycle Mania 3: Jesse James Rides.

1. In this hardcover picture book Jesse James goes somewhere to perfect his skills with copper, then he gets back to work on his Copper Chopper. Kid Rock gets his own softail WCC bike built at about the same time at Jesse's place and the two set off on a road trip to Mexico. That's about it. Lots of cool pictures which you'll like if you're into choppers and the whole Jesse James/WCC thing. Only problem with this book is that it has ALL the text right at the beginning followed by ALL the pics. A little frustrating having to read and then flip forward to look at the pics which were referred to in the text earlier. Other than that it's not really as interesting to read as "I am Jesse James", IMHO. Still, worth checking out if you're a fan.

No comments about Kathy the Cannibal.

2 comments about A Long Way Home: The Life and Adventures of the Convict Mary Bryant.

1. I found the book to be very dsconnected. Definitely full of history but lacking in continunity. Mike Walker had so many sources to use and think he used them all, but many times he lost focus of Mary Bryant and tended to give a history lecture. Very interesting and informative, just didn't care for the structure of the book and presentation of the story.



2. As one who has spent his entire life in Australia, I can't help feeling that story of the First Fleet is almost a part of me. From an early age I was fed and I absorbed the legends of poor English children transported to Botany Bay for the crime of stealing a handkerchief or a loaf of bread. Brutal guards, corrupt officials and murderous natives are used to complete the picture, and to help create an Australian ethos which is - and of course I generalise - anti-authority, anti-British and, perhaps most tragic of all, anti-Aboriginal.
   Mike Walker's work is, in that context, an important contribution to a more complete understanding of Australia, and Australians. It's also a darned good read.
   Mary Bryant (nee Broad) is stereotypical in many ways - poor Cornish fisherman's daughter, driven to petty crime, almost hanged, transported, persistent, strong - and so it goes.
   Her story moves from the stereotypical to the extraordinary as she battles all before her to return with her family to her beloved Cornwall.
   While the tale itself is remarkable, and worth the price of admission in its own right, I enjoyed the other personalities just as much. James Boswell, Arthur Phillip, Watkin Tench (or, in an hilarious error in the index, "Watkin Fench"), and Ralph Clark all come to life in a real, raw and entertaining way, thanks to Walker's style, and also to the way he has structured the book.
   "A Long Way Home" is a neat companion to Tom Kenneally's "The Commonwealth of Thieves," also published in 2005, and providing a more general account of the first four years of English settlement in what we now know as Australia.
   Walker is more tightly focused, but no less incisive and insightful. His is a book for the vaguely-interested (in Australian history) and also for the vitally-concerned. It is beautifully presented, and - I'm writing this review in early December - would make a superb Christmas for any thinking person.

1 comments about An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr..

1. Margaret Edds does a superb job of telling the story of how an innocent man, Earl Washington, was put on Virginia's death row and ended up spending 18 years in prison. I know she does a superb job because some years ago, when Washington had still not been pardoned but when things were looking hopeful, I researched this case and wrote a series of articles about it in the Culpeper News, the small-town paper in the town where Washington had been tried and convicted in January 1984.

   Edds is a professional reporter and writes like one, with very little commentary on the facts. As a result, the facts speak very powerfully for themselves. And what commentary Edds does offer I agree with. But I would quibble a bit. The main point she tries to make is that the errors made in this case were not unusual but a part of the system, that while a series of extremely lucky circumstances led to Washington's exoneration, there are likely many innocents who will never be freed. So far, I agree. But Edds also suggests that no one did anything really egregiously wrong, that everyone just did their job in a flawed system and the result was tragic.

   I beg to differ. Earl Washington was set up by the cruel and dishonest acts of the police and prosecutors. One of the policemen responsible for what happened in 1983 and 1984 is currently Sheriff of Culpeper, and Edds goes very easy on him. Read my articles and Edds' book and see what you think.

   Yes, we need to reform the system, but we also need to hold individuals responsible, and ultimately this book has that effect. A brilliant job of reporting!