1 comments about War and Mayhem: Reflections of a Viennese Physician.

1. Ernst Rodin's "War and Mayhem" is a must-read for students of the Holocaust and for anyone interested in understanding how Adolf Hitler managed to captivate and ultimately cripple Germany in the period between 1933 and 1945.

   Rodin is a mischling, or "impure" Austrian, who nevertheless gets drafted into the Wehrmacht. In "War and Mayhem," he looks back on his life and offers us two points of view that are skillfully woven together: an eyewitness account of what it was like to be a young man growing up in Vienna during Hitler's rise to power; and an analysis of the most cataclysmic period in modern history from the perspective of an adult survivor.

   Rodin's book is accessible and engaging. We follow young Ernst to school, a place he has little use for in his younger years, and to the summer swimming parks that he and his older brother sneak into because they cannot afford admission. We suffer along with him as he loses his biological father, a "ne'er-do-well" who abandons the family, and we hope, in vain, that his mother's second husband will somehow fill the void left by his biological father.

   At the same time, Rodin, a retired neurologist, now living in Utah, offers us an adult perspective on how the day-to-day events of his childhood were being played out against a much larger and unsettling screen. He captures the flavor of pre-war Vienna and offers unique insight into factors that contributed to the latent, simmering anti-Semitism of the era, anti-Semitism that boiled over so viciously after Hitler came into power. Rodin is careful to explain historical factors that led to the Anschluss and includes valuable information about Austrian clergy and politicians, whose roles in the 30's and 40's have not been well-detailed in other books written about this time period.

   As an avid reader of World War II-era non-fiction, I've read books written by Jewish authors, Christian authors, American authors, German authors. What intrigues me about "War and Mayhem" is Ernst Rodin's distinctive point of view. Rodin fought in the Werhmacht, yet was considered "less than German" because his maternal grandfather was Jewish. He suffered from anti-Semitism at school but is quite candid in his observations about how Jews in Vienna were easily targeted for mistreatment because they did little to embrace the community at large. His tone is straightforward, always honest, always enlightening.

   I recommend Ernst Rodin's "War and Mayhem" to every historian and layperson interested in reading a first-rate account of life in Vienna before and immediately after World War II. Rodin's final assessment of the events he witnessed deserves our immediate and collective attention: given the right conditions, history could easily repeat itself.

No comments about My Journey to Success: A True Story.

No comments about Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (Kaplan Classics of Medicine).

No comments about Afraid.

No comments about Life Of George Crabbe.

No comments about The Key to Lockjaw: An Autobiography.

No comments about Human Biologists in the Archives: Demography, Health, Nutrition and Genetics in Historical Populations (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology).

1 comments about The Ali Abbas Story: The Moving Story of One Boy's Struggle for Life.

1. I knew the sad story of poor ali abbas from the media..I didn't read the book yet but I'm sure it's a fascinating book..

No comments about Reflections of a Grumpy Old Physician.

2 comments about Doctor to the Front: The Recollections of Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood, 1861-1865 (Voices of the Civil War Series,).

1. This is a terrific book that discusses the life of a Confederate army surgeon. Thomas Wood wrote his "recollections" nearly twenty-one years after the war ended. Wood wrote of his adventures in the third North Carolina Regiment. He saw Chancellorsville,Gettysburg,and many others. He gives interesting biographic sketches on different members of the regiment. Wood's letters home are included in the book to make it very interesting. The medical situation was very inadequate. There was very little knowledge of sanitary laws. Wood did not truly have any medical degree,nor was he recommended by a medical school,he began to practice medicine after developing an interest in it after recovering in an army hospital.
   I enjoyed this book because Wood writes well. His detail of the battles are interesting.
   Though it may interest the historian,I think that a book like this should be enjoyed by anyone who loves a good book.
   One other book on medical history is Kate: the Journal of a Confederate Nurse by Kate Cumming.



2. Doctor To The Front: The Recollections Of Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood 1861-1865 is the latest addition to the University of Tennessee Press Voices of the Civil War Series and an outstanding contribution to Civil War studies. Military doctors labored through the smoke of battle where impossible conditions and fear of infection compelled them to resort to amputation -- an operation most often performed without painkillers. Thomas Wood's account of his wartime experiences as a Confederate Army surgeon and his recollections of those events provide the reader with a vividly narrated "window in time" to those harrowing days. Very highly recommended for personal, professional, and academic Civil War reading lists and reference collections, Doctor To The Front combines historically significant information with human interest accounts to reveal still another horrific facet of the civil war.