5 comments about Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire (Modern Library Paperbacks).

1. I was never a biography fan until this book. Foreman does a dazzling job of bringing Georgiana to life. I could read this book over and over again!



2. if some one told me what really happen 18th century upper crust i would not believe them.money,sex,adultery,hidden preganacy,lesbianism,royality,gambling and drug addiction.fashion theather social scandals,politics,betrayal, blackmail and war.it's a soap opera that really happen.even a evil bestfriend who bears two childern by georgina husband is through in.this book is addictive.i didn't put it down till last page.



3. I was wanting more of a historical novel but this book reads more like a text book. Almost every page has notes at the bottom of the page, this makes for very "choppy" reading. Interesting subject but not a cozy read. I had to make myself finish the book.



4. I am currently obsessed with Jane Austen, came across a glowing review of "Georgiana: Duchess..." in the New Yorker, and couldn't resist reading this story of Regency England. Unlike Austen's heroines, the Duchess has a very dark side - she's a gambler, adulteress, liar, drug addict...I found myself wanting her to be happy (and to win against the evil Bess) in spite of (or because of?) these qualities. In the end, her charisma, beauty, fashion, gentleness, vulnerability, wit, privilege, and political engagement endear her.
   
   I loved the book, the story, the characters, the history, and the politics. Unlike some other reviewers, I found Foreman's writing incredibly engaging and easy to read.



5. Foreman writes a good biography firmly grounded in academic research but lucid and readable for the nonacademic reader. She suffers slightly from a bias towards her subject - which she admits herself in her introduction - but overall a solid work. I'll look forward to more by this author.

5 comments about Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography.

1. Adolf Hitler: The definitive biography. John Toland, 1976.
   This biography forms a very interesting historical narrative. It presents a lively account of the smoldering resentment and visceral hatred of Jews and Bolsheviks that consumed the mind of the subject individual. Based on archival records, unpublished diaries, notes, memoirs and recorded interviews with over 250 former participants, John Toland provides a masterful compilation of the major events, speeches, conversations, decisions and their consequences that marked the career of Adolf Hitler. As a youth, he drifted aimlessly in Vienna. By 1914, he became ecstatic about volunteering for military service. About the end of the Great War, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack. At that point, about half way through his life, he heard "supernatural voices" summoning him to enter politics and save Germany. In a meteoric rise to supreme power as leader of the National Socialist (Nazi) party, he became a fanatical dictator. The Fatherland, The Fuhrer, Lebensraum (implying aggressive Germanic territorial expansion)are key words here. He galvanized the populace into frenzied support of his governing policies; then embarked on total war that soon reached global proportions. Early territorial conquests accompanied by an unprecedented slaughter of countless millions constituted Hitler"s "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem as he saw it. After the fortunes of war had turned irrevocably against him he married his mistress in a bunker in Berlin. Two days later they both committed suicide. As Toland puts it: "The flag fell where he fell and when he died so did National Socialism and the Thousand Year Reich. Because of this his beloved Germany lay in ruins".



2. 
   An interesting and well writen historical work .Toland tells it lik it was with no embelishments . Amasing how one man could lead a nation into the depravity of the worst human abuse the world has ever seen .



3. I got this book after spending a holiday in Austria, I wanted to know about Austria's most famous son... what was his childhood like, what made him tick and how did he overwhelm so many people. This is a BRILLIANT book. I haven't read any other history books since school and I can't put this down. It's a very long book but I'm flying through it because it's just so interesting. Toland manages to convey this crazy period in Europe's history in such an exciting way. I highly recommend it to anyone who is even vaguely interested in Hitler or WWII.



4. If you own only one biography of Adolf Hitler, this is the one to own. It covers his life from his birth, through the abusive years with his father, through the loss of his mother, his years years as a aspiring artist in Vienna, his service in the first world war, his joining and making the Nazi Party into a powerful political party, the beer hall putsch, his time in jail, his seizure of power, his iron fist rule over Germnay, the war and finally his death.
   Very through, in-depth and its a pleasure to read for the chapters are broken into smaller sub-sections so you can read for 10-15 minutes or for hours if you want. Excellent biography of the sometimes genius, sometimes lucky and mostly insane fuhrer of Nazi Germany.



5. This is a must buy for history buffs and those fascinated by deranged leaders of other nations. Very Very in-depth. I would recommend this book to anyone.

3 comments about Shakespeare's Wife.

1. Once again, I've read a biography about a historical figure that the author seems to know very little or nothing about. My impression while reading this "biography" was that the author's real intent was to write her own opinions about Shakespeare's plays under the disguise of calling her work a biography about his wife. There are many comparisons to Mrs. Shakespeare's wife from his plays, but nothing is fact. There are too many "maybes" to call this a biography about Shakespeare's wife. The author's true strength comes in recounting the lives of women during Shakespeare's time, but there again, nothing is certain about what Ann did or did not do. Was he present at the birth and deaths of his children? The assumption that it was possible is not enough for me. What his feelings may have been about the death of his son is not enough for me. I find the sections on literary comparisons tedious; the sections on the lives of women at the time are fascinating. That the author is very knowledgeable about English history and Shakespeare is unquestionable, but that the author has hard historical facts about his wife is questionable.



2. Greer is well known as a significant feminist writer (The Female Eunuch) and general social critic. She also holds a doctorate in English literature and enjoys a less generally known reputation as a competent literary scholar. She has a long-standing interest in Shakespeare and his works. Here she takes on a difficult task: Telling the story of Ann Hathaway's life and her marriage to Shakespeare.
   
   Hard facts about Shakespeare himself are notoriously few, but there are far fewer about Hathaway. During their lifetimes few if any people kept personal journals or diaries, letters were few and seldom contained personal revelations (for one thing, paper was quite expensive and there was no public mail). So collections of private and personal papers of any kind are simply not available, making it practically impossible to gain insight into the inner world of even public figures of the time, let alone ordinary people such as Hathaway or that "common player" Shakespeare himself. This is a monumental problem facing all who seek to portray the life of anyone who lived before relatively recent times.
   
   Authors are driven to public records of various kinds such as court and tax records, deeds, church records, wills, charters and the like which they then supplement with more or less informed inference and, very often, speculation. Biographers of Shakespeare have done this for years (indeed for centuries) and in the process have created a very unfavorable portrait of Hathaway. She is the older and unscrupulous man-hunter who traps young Will into marriage. She contributes nothing to his life, much less to his work, and he must abandon her to realize his creative destiny. There is no hard evidence for any of this and Greer sets out to challenge it.
   
   Greer, of course, is also constrained by a lack of hard facts, even more so because Hathaway's life left fewer traces in the records. To build her picture of Hathaway, Greer examines the records of Stratford and other relevant environs to build a picture of the sorts of lives led by women like Hathaway (and by their men) in their contemporary social context. The effort is multi-layered, deeply informed and occasionally compelling as Greer creates a rich picture of the common life of the time.
   
   Greer argues strongly that, except for Shakespeare's unusually young age, Hathaway's marriage was not unusual in its time, that Hathaway and her clan were probably a step up for the Shakespeares, that Hathaway was neither ugly nor a shrew, that she did not drive Shakespeare away and that there was probably love between Ann and Will, at least initially. In addition, Hathaway made a living for herself and children in Stratford while Shakespeare was in London or on the road and repaired and kept up the ramshackle house (New Place) that Shakespeare bought. She was also almost certainly literate. In fact, Greer argues, Shakespeare probably wrote one of the sonnets (No. 145) for her and possibly others as well. Hathaway may also have played the pivotal roll in the publication of the First Folio.
   
   Greer's point, as I take it, is that a "good" Ann Hathaway is at least as readily inferred from the limited evidence as is the "bad" Ann Hathaway of tradition. This point she amply demonstrates, with some strictures on the biases and carelessness of traditional biographers along the way. Greer's arguments are strong and based on great knowledge of the time and its culture and (to me at least) are persuasive. In the end, however, Greer's position too is circumstantial. Given the state of the evidence, I doubt that more is possible.
   
   A final word: This is a good and deeply learned book, unusually so for a book intended for the general reader. It is well and clearly written, with great attention to, and respect for, evidence. It is careful in its inferences. It is neither wild nor flashy and it does not "read like a novel." It requires time and attention but will repay them.



3. This book, ostensibly about Ann Hathaway Shakespeare (1556-1623), is packed with fascinating research, but a lot of it is not about Ann directly, and some of the connections are a bit tenuous. Because of this, I found it a difficult book to get into; but having finished it, I think it was worth the effort--it is important, provocative, and very informative, especially about the lives of Stratford women who were peers and contemporaries of Ann. It also sheds a little light on the mysterious woman who was Shakespeare's wife.
   
   Greer aims to rescue Ann Hathaway from the traditional view that she coerced William Shakespeare into marrying her, that he consequently left her and the children to seek his fortune in London, and that he ultimately slighted her in his will. Greer examines the evidence (or lack thereof) for each of these points, and advances (sometimes many) alternative interpretations, often based on meticulous details about similar women.
   
   Against the first point, Greer persuasively argues that Ann didn't entrap Shakespeare by pregnancy, but rather he wooed her, although Ann had "good reason to resist Will's advances: he was too young; he had been trained to no trade that we know of, and his family, having nursed pretensions beyond their means, had run into serious financial trouble." He probably stood to gain more from the match that she did: "Will was certainly young and witty, possibly handsome, but he had nothing else to offer the kind of girl, who, as a sober, industrious, patient, frugal wife, would help him repair his family's ruined fortunes." The young lovers probably weren't forced into marriage, but instead followed the tradition of handfasting (a family wedding ceremony), then consummating the union, and upon pregnancy going to church to solemnize the marriage. By the end of Elizabeth I's reign, the Anglican church would have (mostly) ended this practice, but handfasting was still common in 1582, as borne out by the examples and statistics that Greer musters.
   
   After William went away to London, but before he became successful, Ann must have supported herself and her children, probably by brewing ale, curing bacon, and baking bread, with perhaps some haberdashery on the side. She may also have been instrumental in the brilliant match of their eldest, Susanna, to the physician John Hall. Greer suggests that a condition of the match may well have been making Susanna the sole heiress of William Shakespeare's estate. If so, then Will leaving Ann only the "second best bed" in his will would not be a slight, as it is usually interpreted. Aside from the bed (which was probably their marriage bed and quite valuable) and a possible dower right of one-third of the estate, Ann would have been able to choose things from their personal effects before his death. Some of Will's papers, revisions of the plays and so forth, were conceivably among those things; and Ann (probably literate, as Greer argues early in the book) could have been an important part of the First Folio project.
   
   In the process of rehabilitating Ann, Greer sometimes goes too far, I think, in the other direction, disparaging Ann's husband (and some of his biographers, like Stephen Greenblatt). In addition to the often sarcastic references to "the Bard" and "the bardolators," she reverses the usual interpretation of his leaving Stratford as escaping his wife:
   "Ann Shakespeare could have been confident of her ability to support herself and her children, but not if she had also to deal with a layabout husband good for nothing but spinning verses . . . When the chance arose to send him off to London in the train of some dignitary or filling in for someone in a group of players, she could well have jumped at it and sent him south with her blessing."
   
   In spite of the shortcomings of her book, Germaine Greer should be applauded for this fascinating and important study about the woman who was Shakespeare's wife.

5 comments about The Madness of Mary Lincoln.

1. the book is chock full of information about the lady but also about her
   lesser know role as a mother and wife. it is concise and has many unknown
   facts about her personal life and her social life. for people who enjoy
   learning the "off" parts of our countries history and it's players, this
   is a good read.



2. Although I have read a few books on Lincoln, I was unaware that his wife Mary was committed to an insane asylum in 1875 (ten years after her husband's assassination) by her only living child, Robert. In those days, she had to have a trial to be declared insane, and the whole matter was kept relatively private. But once committed, with Robert appointed as her conservator, Mary started agitating to be released and to resume control over her finances--she was a compulsive spender, that being part of her illness. She enlisted the aid of a brilliant couple, the Bradwells, with Mr. being a judge and Mrs. having been trained as a lawyer who was not admitted to the bar because she was a woman. They took up her cause and went to the press, eventually forcing her premature release into the care of her sister in Illinois. But Mary was not a well woman; she made a suicide attempt when her trial was just over and later acquired a pistol and was threatening to kill Robert. By today's standards, she was clearly "a threat to self and others" when she was committed and even after her release.
   
   In the publicity that ensued, there was controversy over whether Robert was a loving son who had done his best to obtain the highest possible care for his mother or an avaricious heir who wanted to seize control over her and her money. Emerson goes to primary sources and does a beautiful job of proving the former, portraying Robert as a Victorian man to whom the idea of "duty" was paramount, despite great personal cost to himself. He returned her finances back to Mary, $8K to the good, which was a huge sum of money in those days. And he permitted her release to appease her, ever knowing that should something catastrophic occur, all responsibility and liability for that would rest on his shoulders.
   
   But, to me as a psychologist, the best part of the book was its effort to put a more formal and modern diagnosis on Mary's "madness." The author did a tremendous job of collecting contemporaneous accounts of her behavior and symptoms, and then in an appendix he asks a psychiatrist to render his opinion. The verdict? Bipolar Disorder with delusions and hallucinations, and personality traits that reflected paranoid, histrionic, narcissistic, and borderline tendencies--with a tinge of Post-Traumatic Stess Disorder (PTSD) as well. While it is always tricky to "retrofit" modern criteria to a person long dead who was not examined with those standards at the time, there is abundant evidence here to support his case. All in all, this was a psychological and historical narrative that was well worth the read.



3. This was an incredibly well researched work. New material gave the feeling that the reader was part of the rollercoaster life of Mary Lincoln.



4. This is one of the weakest books I have ever read on either of the Lincolns, and comes across largely as a toss-off result of his research on Robert T. Lincoln and his unbelievable (and seemingly wasted) discovery of previously unknown MTL letters. Emerson completely ignores the vast scholarship on Abraham Lincoln's own mental illness, citing the exceptional work "Lincoln's Melancholy," but mentions nothing of his own severe depression. He completely dismisses the well-documented historical fact of women being committed to institutions against their will or need, particularly after being widowed, and there is no gender analysis of the public or medical response to Mary Lincoln's erratic behavior. And even if she were, as Emerson claims, suffering from bipolar disorder, that hardly qualified her as "insane" or requiring hospitalization. Few women could have suffered as many tragic losses as she did - not the least of which was having her husband murdered as he sat beside her - and withstood it with complete strength and equanimity.
   Worst of all seems to be the zero-sum value judgment Emerson seems to need to draw in order to redeem the negative reputation of R.T. Lincoln as a son - there is no nuance in either character's behavior; M.T. Lincoln is completely nuts and therefore malicious, while R.T. Lincoln is the perfect understanding son trying to do what is best for his mother. Good history rarely ignores so many valuable sources or lacks any degree of nuance. This book unfortunately does both.



5. I found this book to lend key insight into the troubled mind of an often-misunderstood woman. I also found her relationship with Abraham Lincoln to be anything but "normal." She was actually his second choice among her own sisters, and it appears theirs was a relationship fraught with extreme highs and lows, not always attributable solely to her flaws.
   
   Initially a tad (no pun intended) eccentric, the horrors she experienced ultimately served to unravel her. Seeing her husband and children die before her very eyes was simply too much, leading to her confinement in a "home," by her loving son Thomas. As is frequently the case in these matters, she felt that Thomas, a good and worthy man, had betrayed her and spent the remainder of her days vilifying him.
   
   The writing is clear, though a bit plodding at times. An historian's fascination with minutiae sometimes clouds the narrative flow, particularly for the casual reader.
   
   Nevertheless, there is much to learn here, and much to recommend this woman's sad tale.

5 comments about Young Men and Fire.

1. Any book that I spend a great deal of time checking maps and names, to see who survived, has hooked me. This did. The horror has caused much thought. Check out the song "Cold Missouri Water"



2. In 1949, sixteen "smokejumpers" were dropped in the remote Gates of the Mountains wilderness in Montana to fight what seemed to be a routine wildfire. Within an hour 13 of them were dead, consumed in a horrific conflagration. MacLean, a college professor and former firefighter himself, became obsessed with the case, and when he retired he spent every summer investigating the tragedy and piecing together what really happened that day in Mann Gulch.
   
   MacLean says that the job of a storyteller is to transform catastrophe into tragedy -- to analyze the series of small screw-ups that lead to disaster and make sense of them. As you go on this journey into the fire with MacLean, you really can't wait to see what he learns next. And when he brings the survivors back to Mann Gulch, he and they discover the limits of what can really be learned and understood in the face of the implacable forces of nature.
   
   MacLean never finished the book. When he died at age 87, his kids recognized the book's quality and had it edited and published. There are some overly literary metaphors from the pen of this former English professor that he might have left out if he had had the chance to look over his own work. This is a really petty matter in the face of the book's overall quality.
   
   In the hands of an ordinary writer and thinker, you might say "Good if you want to know about firefighters," or disasters, or Montana. But this book is so thoughtful about the realities of man as part of nature that it transcends the Mann Gulch tragedy and becomes much more. I'd recommend it to any person of intelligence.
   
   Reviewer: Liz Clare, co-author of "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark"



3. I was fascinated by this riveting story. The second by second race for survival was amazingly documented. The confusion, physical strength, and wisdom displayed by the men involved was inspiring and yet insufficient to ensure their survival. Maclean brings the story to life. His interviews with the survivors shed facts and details that could not have otherwise been included in the book. As a FF who studies FF fatalities and near miss incidents, the book provided thought provoking information. Ultimately, it's a story of survival and death for a group of young men. Definetly worth the time and $.



4. This book was special to us since my husband as a young man lived in Montana near the Mann Gulch Fire. So this book is a "keeper".



5. This true story by the author of A River Runs Through It tells the events surrounding the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949. A good portion focuses on the smokejumpers (paratrooping firefighters)13 out of 16 of which perished in the fire.
   
   In those days, the smokejumping program was very new having been introduced within the past 8 to 10 years. The men had to be between the ages of 18 and 30, single, and in superb physical condition. The main tools they carried were a shovel and something called a Pulaski which is a combination ax and hoe built into one. They utilized these tools to dig fire lines, and fell trees ahead of the fire so as to reduce the amount of fuel and prevent it jumping from one tree to the next.
   
   When dropped from the plane onto the ground by the fire, a foreman would be in charge of the crew as they fought the fire. In the instance of the Mann Gulch fire in Montana, the fire started out as a fairly decent sized fire. It then progressed into what is known as a "blowup." This occurred as a result of a combination of factors such as fuel type, moisture, incline of terrain, and wind.
   
   It quickly got out of control and the crew had to run for their lives. Occasionally, in a blowup a vortex of fire will be formed which will sweep across a vast area burning everything in its path. It looks and functions like a tornado. I recently talked with a man who used to be a farmer and he indicated that when they burned fields to prepare them for future seasons a fire vortex would sometimes occur. He said it was an awesome and amazing sight to behold.
   
   During the blowup it was not possible for the majority of the men to outrun the fire and they perished mainly from suffocation due to lack of oxygen. The foreman saw this happening and created a secondary fire to try to create a burned out place which would provide shelter from the main fire. Unfortunately, amidst the confusion of the fire, the men did not understand the foreman and thought he had gone crazy to be lighting a second fire. He did survive but all but 2 others did not.
   
   A secondary portion of the book analyzes the various components of the fire, what caused it, and some of the science behind fire. Maclean spent around 12 years researching the book, gathering documents, interviewing the 2 remaining survivors and returning to the site of the fire. He was well equipped to tell the story having spent time as a forest fire fighter in his younger years before going on to be a literature professor and writer. The book was masterfully written but slightly meticulous at times. It is the type of story that would make a very dramatic movie if a studio were interested in producing it.

5 comments about Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.

1. this book doesn't expose how truely evil che was. i'll allways remember his evil laugh while being tortured, i was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape during the revolution



2. This book is a quick and easy read. Obviously I am not a researcher and don't have time to fact check everything here. My sense was that most of what the author was recounting was true. It is probably true that in the end Che was a pompous, vain, ignoble wanker trying to pass himself off as the savior of the third world. It is probably also true that directly or indirectly he was responsible for the deaths of thousands, most of whom did not deserve it by any yardstick, revolutionary or otherwise.
   The delivery of these facts and anecdotes is so dripping with sarcasm and hatred that it takes away somewhat from being able to see it as a serious work. The author frequently references with disdain those who have written biographies, citing the references usually come from pro-revolution types who are anything but objective. Unfortunately, this work is so full of passion itself that while probably mostly true and accurate that it defeats his desire to be taken as seriously as other works. I would love to see a book that objectively and impassionately takes these events he describes and fleshes it out with more detail and perhaps a more sober attitude.
   I do have to admit that his lampooning of the Hollywood libertards regarding Che is hilarious. I gave this book three stars because I think it should have been more. That said, I did enjoy it and think it serves well as educational entertainment.



3. Hollywood, the mainstream media, university professors and America-haters idolize him as a humanitarian freedom fighter. In reality, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was nothing more than a sadistic, cold-blooded mass murderer. Fontova documents the truth about this power-hungry terrorist and the "useful idiots" who idolize him.



4. This book exposes difference between the real man and the media image on the t-shirt, the gap between fact and New York Times, the real events against the wanna-be tat were (and still are) Che Guevara.
   He will live forever on the t-shirt, and whoever reads
   Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him will do something with that t-shirt besides wear it.



5. This is a very well written book, full of documented facts. It exposes the real che, who was nothing more than a murderer, not a romantic idealist as he has been presented. It should be mandatory reading in all schools.

5 comments about A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary.

1. Despite all of my attentions paid to the history of man's cruelty to man,
   (and women), over the course of the past few decades, I have never exper-
   ienced a more poignant accounting of same than that which "A Woman in Berlin" had to offer. The author's physical survival and psychological victory over the most tragic circumstances imaginable is a testament to the power of applied intellect in the face of mindless savagery. Truly, this literary work is a wonderful testament to the strength of the female spirit and the durability of a pure human sole.



2. An intelligent, resilient, compassionate, resourceful woman chose to keep a diary during the dark days of the end of World War II in desolate, bombed-out Berlin, when the Soviet Red Army's `liberation' of the city included the rape of an estimated 100,000 German women, including the author herself. She chose to remain anonymous, and also shielded the identities of most of the fellow Germans around her.
   
   The attitudes of the `Ivans' who arrived in Berlin ranged from the ruthless bullies who gang-raped German women from age 14 to 74 at one extreme, to the older, more senior, more refined Red Army officers who treated the German vanquished with respect and even compassion. Alcohol consumption by the Red Army was a catalyst for rape, pillaging and destruction. The Nazis consciously left behind stores of alcohol, believing that an inebriated Red Army would be a less effective fighting force. The Nazis clearly failed to realize that the alcohol would fuel a wave of revenge and violence against its own female civilians.
   
   The author and most Berliners were without water, electricity and decent food for weeks on end. Red Army soldiers would wander in and out of the Germans' apartments, at all hours of the day and night, stealing whatever they wanted, grabbing and abusing the women, and defecating everywhere, indoors and out.
   
   On the one hand, the Germans realized that they had this abuse coming to them, after the Nazi atrocities. "Our German calamity has a bitter taste - of repulsion, sickness, insanity, unlike anything in history" (page 257). On the other hand, the Germans fear and resent their liberators, who force them to work twelve hour days dismantling factories for shipment to Russia, with the only compensation being meager food rations. Out of hunger, many German women succumbed to the offer of food from the Red Army soldiers, in exchange for sleeping with them.
   
   Despite living amid rubble and a largely hostile occupying army, the Berliners were remarkably calm and organized. Certainly there was looting by locals, and skirmishes in queues for water and food, but by and large the vanquished cooperated with one another. As the author wrote, she wanted to get busy in a constructive way, re-connect with herself spiritually, try to return to a normal life, to whatever extent that was possible. Berliners were mindful that they would no longer be masters of their own realm; rumors flew around that Germany was going to be converted into one huge field of potatoes. Berliners lived with discomfort and uncertainty during this period.
   
   Gender roles were turned upside down at the end of the war. Erstwhile pompous Nazi men were now either dead, or emaciated and humiliated prisoners of war, or deserters in hiding, or elderly, hapless and hopeless as they watched or listened to their wives and daughters being raped. By contrast, the women took a lead role in cleaning up the ruined city, forming work crews to remove rubble.
   
   Antony Beevor, author of "The Fall of Berlin 1945", states of "A Woman in Berlin" "... this book is one of the most important personal accounts ever written about the effects of war and defeat." I share his admiration for this book, and recommend it highly.



3. This diary is a chilling first-hand account of a German woman's horrific ordeal under the occupation of the Red Army in 1945 Berlin. The main reality of that occupation was, of course, rape- brutal, nightly gang rape of every German female that could be caught- no matter her age, infirmity or physical appearance. The dustjacket blurb was incorrect when it said that this diary details the "...shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject." The Germans never behaved like this in conquered cities, nor did the Americans or British or French. In its almost unbelievable scale- an estimated 2 million victims- the rape of the eastern German women is an event unprecedented in Western history, even in our modern, crime-ridden hellholes of "diversity". Certainly, the idea of a whole population being violated was something that hadn't been seen since ancient times. That's why those who recorded their experience of the horror, like this anonymous author, can tell us something new and unique about humanity- specifically women: about the depths to which we can sink and the resilience with which we can survive.
   
   The author admits to the expected feelings of shame and uncleanness, but in the jungle existence of defeated Berlin, those feelings paled next to the necessity for survival. Rape was a risk one had to run in the search for food, and shame was a feeling one could suppress when prostituting oneself to a single Russian officer meant protection and sustenance. There was a unique solace found in the collective nature of the violation, which helped the women cope, commiserate and recover. They were able to talk about it openly and matter-of-factly. When the author visited a friend for the first time since the occupation, her first words of greeting were, "How many times were you raped?" Men at the front could easily understand how gallows humor and callousness help a soldier deal with the barbarities of war, but the men couldn't understand the similar way their women were dealing with the experience of rape. When the author let her returning fiance read her diaries, and told him about her and her neighbors' experiences, he exploded: "'You've all turned into a bunch of shameless b*tches, every one of you in this building. Don't you realize?' He grimaced in disgust. 'It's horrible being around you. You've lost all sense of measure.'" The relationship between the sexes was altered. The author writes that the women of Berlin viewed their defeated men with pity and scorn, as the weaker sex which needed protecting since they had so obviously failed at protecting their women. The long term effects can only be imagined.
   
   The attitudes of both men and women were surprising. For fear of antagonizing the Russians, the German men made no attempt to defend their women, and the women were in agreement with that decision, in the interests of everyone's physical survival. I have to admit that, like the author's befuddled fiance, such modern and pragmatic attitudes seem strange to me. It's one thing to cope with life's tragedies stoically; it's another to embrace masochism and submissiveness. I was surprised at some of the self-flagellating and apathetic attitudes expressed by the author and her neighbors in this book. She records her neighbors as saying things like "We can't complain. We brought it on ourselves" and "We shouldn't look at what happened too personally". She reacts with utter equanimity when a German Communist (one of many degenerates who crawled out of the woodwork in the days after the Russian takeover) speculates with glee that the German people will be nationally exterminated and the people scattered to the four corners of the USSR as slave labor.
   
   Maybe such impassivity was just a natural reaction to all the suffering the people had gone through. Maybe the decadence and degeneracy of the Weimar Republic and modern Western society had not been effectively extirpated by 12 years of Nazi propaganda. Maye Goethe (or maybe it was Nietzsche) was right with his metaphor of Germans as pigeons (when they're up they crap on your head; when they're down they eat out of your hand). Maybe Hitler was right when he said, to justify his scorched earth policy in the last days, that only the weak would survive the war. In any case, this diary describes the birth of a new German people: defeated, passive and self-hating. They survived, but only to be colonized, physically and mentally. Perhaps some day nature will take its course and their nation will throw off the spiritual shackles imposed on them in 1945.



4. I'm a history buff and I relish reading history from first hand accounts. And especially when it's a perspective from the other sex. This is a fantastic journal from a first rate, insightful writer. I got this book two days ago and could not put it down until her last journal entry. I immediately gave it to my wife for her to read. Women throughout history have always been the spoils of conquering armys and this is a vivid first hand account. Berlin is the most fasinating city from a continent that dominated the worlds attention through most of the last 300 years. I've visited a good deal of Europe and unlike Paris or London you still feel the embers smoldering. Between the suffering of two World Wars, one being lead by a lunatic Austrian artist, and Russia's Iron curtain dropping down literally acoss thier front yards, it is amazing the people of Berlin have managed to withstand the onslought. And to rise to such an economic and cultural capitol as it is today, is amazing to say the least. Reading this lady's journal is a testiment to why Berliners and Berlin have been so resilient. A must Read.



5. I have read some of the negative reviews which question the diary's authenticity, but I have to say that I found it often reads like a stream of consciousness, as we would expect from a diary. It is not a cold recitation of the events following the fall of Berlin, but incorporates her thoughts and feelings during those days. That said, critics still argue that she did not give us enough personal information about herself. However, if she was indeed a journalist, it is understandable and it seems more probable that she would focus on the details around her rather than on herself.
   I highly recommend this diary; it is a haunting account of survival and the endurance of the human spirit.

5 comments about Dreams Of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood.

1. Ms. Mernissi states that "The frontier is in the mind of the powerful", and that "...looking for the frontier has become my life's occupation. Anxiety eats at me whenever I cannot situate the geometric line organizing my powerlessness." This book is a very moving first-hand account of the secluded life of a young girl, born into a prosperous family in Fez in the 1940s. She is confined in a harem, which in this case consists of the women and children of an extended family, imprisoned behind walls and a guarded gate for their own protection in an occupied city. "When Allah created the earth, said Father, he separated men from women, and put a sea between Muslims and Christians for a reason. Harmony exists when each group respects the prescribed limits of the other. Trespassing leads only to sorrow and unhappiness. But women dreamed of trespassing all the time. The world beyond the gate was their obsession."
   
   Throughout the book she illustrates the ongoing attempts of her mother and grandmother to discover the outside world, establish their individual identity, and exercise some tiny bit of control over their own lives. Her mother listens to radio Cairo when the men are out of the house, and despite her mother-in-law's disapproval, embroiders birds on her clothes instead of traditional patterns. Although her mother is barred from attending literacy classes by a vote of the leading men of the family, Fatima and her cousins are allowed to attend public school when the country's religious leaders vote to support women's education and schools are opened to female students. Suddenly the outside world is open to her, but she still feels powerless. Her Aunt Habiba provides liberating advice: "It is not enough to reject this courtyard - you need to have a vision of the meadows with which you want to replace it." Fatima must now discover her unique, personal dream, the vision that would give her direction and light. This is a radical change: she is not just a daughter and future wife and mother, she is also an individual with unique and valuable gifts to share with the world.



2. I read this after returning from Morocco. The insight into what life used to be like for most women enriched my understanding of the culture which I found fascinating. I'd spoken with several women while in the country who are "liberated" but heard none of the story of the lives of women who adhere to the old traditions. I saw many others who still live behind closed walls. This is the story of the latter group's growing up years that I couldn't have gotten otherwise.



3. I couldn't help but fall asleep whilst reading this book. I only was able to go through about a little over a half, mostly because I was required to read it. Generally, the book is about a middle eastern girl living in a Harem and surrounded by the conflicting Western Power, the French Army. Lots of battles with tradition and western cultures, and primarily about the rift between men and women. So you're in for a subtle yet quite obvious gender conflict, which was in my opinion awfully sexist (I know it's from the view of a woman but that doesn't take away from the fact that she explicitly tries to write as if she were a child again with "innocence" yet fails because of her mature agenda). The author, Mernissi, spends about 10-15 pages per chapter driveling on about the most useless facts or coincidences. Just when you think she's reaching her point and finally bear fruit, it's the start of a new chapter and another take on a topic or segment of her life that is completely irrelevant.



4. The book was great and interesting. Amazon sent it very quick.



5. I found this book to be entertaining, educational, inspirational and thought provoking all at once. I personally and Americans in general are largely confused and misinformed about the concept of the harem and how the women in them lived; and it is no wonder or surprise that we are! It seems that even within the high walls and locked gates of the harem the residents cannot agree on the subject! What is a harem? Is it a den of iniquity? A commune? A brothel? A prison? An extended family? A refuge?
   
   Told from the perspective of a 6-9 year old girl growing up in a domestic harem in Morocco in the late 1940s, this book has a freshness and naiveté that only a child can muster as she ponders her place in her home, society, and the world at large.
   
   Her observations of the world around her are uncensored, and guide the reader to a greater understanding not only of other cultures and other women, but of our relationships and ourselves. Only a child has the innocent courage to stand up and say, "The Emperor has no clothes!"
   
   As I learned about another world, I began also to draw parallels to may own life and current times. Changing laws does not grant freedom to individuals. Here in America we have all the freedoms that these women were deprived of and fought for, and yet in many cases we remain trapped- prisoners of our fears, our habits, our insecurities, and our weaknesses.
   
   In this book I found lots of hope and inspiration, reminding me of many ways to experience freedom inwardly- without the necessity of changing outward circumstances.
   © 2006 Shahina

5 comments about The Romanovs: the Final Chapter.

1. In this book, the author totally convinces the reader that the Romanovs were indeed murdered and their bones positively identified through scientific means. The author also proves to the reader that Anna Anderson, who posed as the duchess Anastasia, was an impostor. There is also some interesting information on living Romanov heirs who believe that the monarchy will be reestablished in Russia. I would recommend this book to those interested in Russian history.



2. This book begins with the execution of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.
   From there the author recounts the latter-day effort, abetted by DNA testing, to find and identify the remains of the victims. And he discusses at great length the women, particularly the one known as Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the Tsar's youngest daughter. The remains of the Tsar's son and one daughter, whose identity is disputed, were never found -- hence the Anastasia legend.
   This is a true-life mystery story in the finest tradition. My only quibble is that significant portions of this work first appeared in the New Yorker magazine, where they obviously were subjected to that publication's procrustean editing process. Other portions of the book escaped the condescending, self-conscious editing that characterizes so much of the New Yorker's non-fiction. There is one author but two styles. See whether you can detect the dividing line.



3. This is a book you expected Massie to write.....since Nicholas & Alexandra was written in (I think) 1969, an update since 1991 was critical. It gives you an idea what was being discovered in DNA research and proving the bones found were who they were. Its a book a Romanov observer should have, or at least read to glean the information from. Worth it, for sure.



4. Massie is a master historian and storyteller, and this book is nearly impossible to put down. Though reading Massie's prequel, 'Nicholas and Alexandra', is not essential to understandng 'The Romanovs: The Final Chapter', it is highy recommended. Beginning with the murder of the Romanov family, then moving to the discovery and exhumation of their remains, forensic and DNA analysis and the ensuing religious and political debate over their disposition and burial, Massie weaves an accurate historical narrative that reads like the finest detective thriller. Throughout, he carefully explains-in laymen's terminology-basic aspects of genetics, DNA analysis and forensic medicine. The true identity of 'Anastasia' claimant Anna Anderson is finally revealed in this book through a careful analysis of her life and the historical and genetic evidence. A wonderful read, and extremely informative-highly recommended!



5. This is the so-called "sequel" to Robert Massie's masterpiece "Nicholas and Alexandra." It is an excellent book about the imprisonment and murder of Russia's last Tsar and his family. If you want to learn about this important event in Russian History, please do not waste your time with Greg King and Penny Wilson's "The Fate of the Romanovs." This book, "The Romanovs: The Final Chapter" by Robert Massie is the book you should read. It also dives into the myth of Anna Anderson and proves she was a fraud.

5 comments about Memoirs of the Second World War (An Abridgement of the Six Volumes of the Second World War).

1. `Memoirs of the Second World War' by Winston Churchill
   
   This abridged (6 volumes) edition of Churchill's WWII memoirs is as important today as it was when penned. One is left with a true sense of the thoughts passing through the Prime Minister's mind which led to the extraordinary choices he was to decide through the bulk of the `40's. I've always felt the European perspective of the war years was under appreciated in America, when after all, these were the souls who dealt with the ravages of war at their front door.
   
   Churchill's beautiful prose and detailed account of all major Allied decision making is required reading for any history, and certainly any WWII aficionado. It probably should be for all American high school students, as well. Whether or not you agree with these opinions, I definitely think you'll find a passionate, wonderfully composed piece of history in this excellent abridgement from one of history's greatest intellects.



2. This book is one of the most comprehensive I've ever read.
   
   I have a huge quantity of books about Second World War, including biographies of important people who took part in it; I can ensure this one is always within easy reach of my hands.
   Of course, you must be conscious before reading this book that it's been written by an English leader who was responsible not only for his country but for lots more and the War itself. He wrote it, based upon his documents and remembrances of those hard days.
   I didn't read the six volume set that is his thorough and complete biography, however "Memoirs of the Second Word War" is a wide-ranging book, starting in the thirties and going through all periods of war, till some time post-war.
   
   If you have a deep knowledge of WWII, might see that some facts are missing.
   In this book he does not make any mention of allies who took little but important part during those tough days. For example, he just talk about the capture of Monte Cassino , in Italy, without making any mention of Monte Castelo and Montese which resulted in prison of one entire German Division (148º Infantry) in a hard fighting, by FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force). These details however, do not take his merits away. On the contrary, Sir Winston Churchill show us others things that we, mere mortals, would not imagine that could be happen at that time, such as how dubious, distrustful and cheek Stalin was!
   He also exposes his disagreements and discussions with American allies when they had different point of views in some issues, and shows himself as a human being and not as a superman.
   
   We must be aware that, as he has said, "It must be not supposed that I expect everybody to agree with what I say", so it is a book to explain his point of view of this important event and not to please someone. Of course, you do not have to get this book as unique reference for researches or studies but as an addition to them.
   
   "Memoirs of the Second War" is a masterpiece which must be read for everyone who enjoy and study WWII.



3. Since this book was updated, there are new facts have come out about the statistics of WWII and the roles the Allies and the Axis played in it.
   That's to be expected.
   It is one sided with Churchill at times believing in his absolute right and his problems getting his view across to the Americans and the Russians.
   At times he lays too much emphasis on the fact that Britain won the war with the "help" of the Allies. And at other times he states that without the Allies Britain would have been sunk.
   As confusing and horrible as that time was, reading another book about the American side would be also helpful as we had to fight the Japanese also and it was our POW's on the defensive there. It seems to downplay the effect the Japenese had on the war which was not trivial at all.
   
   Though he seems to describe the battle of Leyete and Midway fairly well.
   It's a good read, and it's interesting to see the other "side" of the war from a great man and you won't be sorry to read it.



4. I read this good book, here in Brazil.Among the World War II great leaders, only Churchill wrote a book about that war.
   About american eugenics , race and gender relations, there isn't a single word against or about, in this big book, with more than 1,000 pages.There's some maps inside.This book isn't only about World War II, but also about the war's roots and fruits, includind about Cold War.
   This book is very biased.The Churchill's mistakes in World War II, were enormous.About France's battle in 1940, seems that Churchill was in another planet then, not as England's leader then.Ever big Churchill's or England's failure, has almost nothing or no place at all, in this book.About war production and military weapons, there's almost nothing.
   Secrets about Colossus computer and the breaking of german Enigma code machine or "purle" japanese code,were war secrets and also had no place on this book.
   Even with so many bias and other failures, this book remains good and easy to read.



5. Winston Churchill was a man of destiny, and he came to realize that, although he seldom hints at it. Without him Western Civilization would be drastically different today, for the worse.
   
   Somehow he makes the day-to-day machinations of world governments read like a suspense novel. Yet he is concise, reserved and free from hyperbole. I think this is possible because he so clearly saw the Big Picture and knew deep down what really was at stake. The story didn't need to be enhanced for those who could understand, and those who couldn't . . . oh well.
   
   This made the early decades of the Twentieth Century come alive for me. I now feel like I lived through those times.
   
   I loved the book, and I love the man!