5 comments about General Lee: A Biography of Robert E. Lee.

1. from the prospective that it does include personal letters from Lee. The recounting of the campaigns is prefunctory though Fitzhugh does come down heavily on Longstreet and eagerly takes up the cudgel for the Gettysburg-wasn't-Lee's-fault crowd.



2. As a the great-great-great-great grandson of Robert W. Lee and his slave/mistress Ophelia, I thought this book provided a profound insight into the life of the man who led the Army of Northen Virginia to so many improbable victories.



3. I am a student of the civil war, and I've made most of my studies from Actual Memoirs of the event. I figured that I'd rather take the word of the people who were actually there than 3rd person commentary. I've read Grant, Sheridan, J.B. Gordon, E.P. Alexander, and of course, Sam Watkins, Frank Wilkeson, and Berry Benson, to name some of the best. Regrettably, Robert Lee died before he could record his own personal reminiscences. Through my desire to read about him in the same way I'd read about other participants of the war, I found this book-and I figured that Fitzhugh Lee's biography would be as near as I could get to the famed General, for Fitzhugh Lee was not only a Relative of the famed General's, but a General himself in the War of the Rebellion. Half way through the book, I felt thoroughly betrayed. After the first 70 pages, the book becomes the most average of monologues about the movements of troops during the civil war. The only difference between this book and the memoirs of certain other officers engaged in the same battles is the Fitzhugh Starts his recitations with, "General Lee's Order were that...", and has less maps, that usually ease the strain of describing obscure movements.
   I will say, though, that the author does spend at least a quarter of the book On the life of R.E. Lee outside of the civil war- the first 70 pages focusing on his Lineage, his training at West point, and his engagements in Mexico, and the Last 20 on his Presidency at Washington-Lee College. Also, sparsely placed throughout the book, Fitzhugh makes use of General Lee's personal correspondance with his wife and family. I would have appreciated seeing more of that, but people 150 years late to the party can't be choosers. Of the Author's style, it is mostly factual, highly romantic(though nothing like Gordon's memoir), and at times he makes allusions and references that let you know he's highly intelligent. This Book doesn't make any in-depth study of General Lee, and mostly considers his character to be untouchable....



4. ...read and enjoyed this book. Being the recently acknowledged illegitimate child of General Lee, I agree that it is a worthy book.



5. I found this book to be wonderful. I used it in a research report and it was very helpful. It stood out among the other hundreds of Lee biographies

5 comments about RED ROAD FROM STALINGRAD: Recollections of a Soviet Infantryman.

1. I enjoyed this book. Better yet, "I'm sorry I finished this book." I read this before I went to sleep every night. I could have gone on reading it right up to the present. NOTE: it didn't go on to April 13, 2007. There is a very human and humble quality to this book which I appreciated. I have read the German accounts of the various battles and got a better appreciation of the hardships. Is this the difference between "winner" and "loser" I don't know? Maybe you do?



2. This is an excellent account of the war as seen by a mortarman attached to a Soviet infantry division. It is very moving to read of the hardships Abdulin and his comrades experienced in this most brutal of wars. I was particularly struck by one story, in which the author and his friends feel overjoyed to immerse themselves in human excrement in an old latrine that had been forgotten and covered by snow. Compared to the -50 degree temperatures they had experienced, the feces were like a warm blanket. This really brings home just how unfathomably horrible the Eastern Front could be. Abdulin also gives us a view of the take-no-prisoners mindset that characterized both sides on the Eastern Front. He boasts of an incident where he and his men shoot several wounded Germans after overrunning their positions. As anyone who has studied the Eastern Front knows, this was an unfortunate, but common, practice on both sides. It makes the reader hope quite fervently that war will never reach this level of cruelty again. It should also be remembered that it already has, many times even if on a smaller scale, since the last shot rang out in Berlin.



3. A series of new World War II memoirs by soldiers of the Red Army provide fresh and valuable insights into the Soviet armed forces of the Great Patriotic War. Readers will find Mansur Abdulin's "Red Road From Stalingrad" among the best written, compelling and moving works recently published.
   
   Abdulin reminds us that Ivan, the Red Army soldier, was a living, breathing being, who cherished life as much as his counterparts in the West and who was willing to defend his family and his homeland fanatically and lay down his life dearly for all that he loved. This stands in stark contract to the myth of the Soviet soldier - savage, unfeeling, and following orders unquestioningly - embedded in the military culture of the West by the officers of the defeated Wehrmacht seeking to exploit the growing rift between the West and the Soviet Union after the war.
   
   In the first months of his invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler's Wehrmacht inflicted catastrophic losses on Stalin's Red Army, causing many to wonder how it was Russia managed to survive. By December 1941, or only six months after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army had lost 177 divisions, comprising some five million men, including almost three and a half million, which had been captured by the Germans. Gone too were tens of thousands of combat aircraft, tanks and artillery pieces. Abdulin's book makes it clear that by 1942 Russia's strategic situation was already stabilizing, although much hard fighting and further defeats lay ahead. Still, in 1942 and 1943 Soviet Russia and the Red Army were fighting to survive a Wehrmacht bent on nothing less than the complete annihilation and enslavement of the Jews and Slavs and winning Lebensraum [living space] for Hitler's Third Reich. Liberation of the wide expanses of the Soviet Union captured by the Germans seemed a distant hope in 1942. It was only through the heroic efforts of tens of millions of Red Army soldiers like Mansur Abdulin that Hitler and the Wehrmacht found only defeat in Russia.
   
   Born a Tartar in central Siberia in 1925, at a time when the newborn Soviet state was suffering from prolonged famine and disease, Abdulin experienced a hard childhood. "My mother would sometimes get hysterical from constant starvation and despair, screaming madly," he remembers. Abdulin went to work at a young age as a miner alongside his father. In June 1942 he volunteered to fight for the Red Army. After completing his course at the Tashkent Infantry School, he fought as mortar man on the Stalingrad Front during the Soviet counter-offensive, which crushed Field Marshal Paulus' Sixth German Army in the city between November 1942 and January 1943, killing and capturing hundreds of thousands of German and Romanian soldiers. Later, in July 1943, Abdulin took part in the battle of Kursk, where the Red Army held its ground against an unprecedented German onslaught led by Hitler's most elite divisions and supported by hundreds of new Tiger and Panther tanks. The Wehrmacht and the German panzer force were gutted during the battle and the Red Army followed up with a stinging counteroffensive, which hurled the Germans back across the Steppes all the way to the banks of the Dnieper River. It was there that Abudlin was seriously wounded.
   
   Throughout his book Abdulin describes the small delights as well as the agonies of being a soldier in the Red Army during the war. "It was a great joy for us to receive a letter, a note, or a parcel from home," he writes. "Also, in each box containing shells, bombs or cartridges, we found pleasant surprises: a piece of paper bearing the address of an unknown girl, so that we could write her, or tobacco pouches filled with makhorka [strong Russian tobacco]." These small joys, however, were overshadowed by the death of friends and family, which dogged every Red Army soldier with each step westward. "I cried, like women cry, beside the dead boy of their beloved," admits Abdulin, poetically, as only a Russian can, on the death of a close friend in January 1943. "I howled, like little children howl, when they are greatly and unfairly offended by someone." The author also details the atrocities uncovered by Red Army soldiers as they advanced westward, liberating Russian villages and towns. "We entered a concentration camp for Soviet prisoners. Some of the men were on the verge of death; they were speedily evacuated to hospital," he remembers. "Several thousand corpses were stacked in an open field. One horror followed another. How can I survive this nightmare? If a bullet doesn't find me, surely I'll lose my mind..." Indeed. In all, more than three million of the almost five million Soviet prisoners held by the Wehrmacht died in such camps during the course of the war. Such atrocities fed Ivan's hatred for the Germans, prompting the Soviet solder to attack even more attack fanatically and defend even more tenaciously than before. More ominously, such massacres also fed Ivan's thirst for revenge. The author admits that at one point he ordered the execution of more than two hundred German prisoners held by his unit. "By nature I am a tender and sensitive person," writes the author. "I was never a hooligan or a brawler. But when I went to war I wanted to destroy the Fritzes; `Kill or be killed.' This was my message to the newcomers. I was consumed by the idea that while alive, I would have my revenge on the Germans in advance: for I never expected to survive that slaughter."
   
   In January 1943, Abdulin's 293rd Rifle Division was redesignated the 66th Guards Rifle Division for its role in the battle of Stalingrad. "Fighting for our Soviet Motherland against the German invaders, the 293rd Rifle Division proved to be a model of bravery, courage, discipline and order," noted the order signed by Joseph Stalin, designating the unit an elite formation. "Engaged in continuous combat...the division inflicted heavy casualties on the Fascist forces and with its shattering blows destroyed enemy manpower and equipment, mercilessly crushing the German invaders." Abdulin was one of the fortunate few to have survived the war. Having done his part to defeat Hitler's armies, he returned to his work as a miner. He lives in retirement near Orenburg in the Urals, one of Russia's Greatest Generation.



4. Overall this is a pretty good book. It shows the very hard life of a Soviet soldier in WWII. One does, however, have reason to question the accuracy of the author's memory. For example, he tells us that just prior to the battle of Kursk he and other veterans told inexperienced soldiers about the strengths and weakness of various German tanks, including the Ferdinand. Since that particular tank made its debut at Kursk, his claim is hard to believe.



5. If the reader approaches this memoir as literature, he'll learn quickly enough that Red Road from Stalingrad is no War and Peace - hence my three-star rating.
   
   BUT - if the reader is interested in real history, in raw "data", in developing a feel for what it took to beat into pulp the greatest Army the world has ever seen, this book and its ilk are invaluable resources: the simple records of simple men.

2 comments about Garibaldi: Citizen of the World: A Biography.

1. It is fitting that this work was written by a native Italian, whose command of the language as mother tongue would not only give the author access to more material, but also to understand the nuances of the original documentation and their context in the larger culture. Garibaldi is one of the rare larger than life figures whose impact on modern Italy is the stuff of legend. Less well known is the influence he had on the larger European community, prefiguring in many ways, and like many others, today's European Union. The book is readable, although the translation into English seems stretched at times, but well worth the effort. Organized into 24 chapters and an epilog, the book includes an extensive bibliography, most of which cites material in Italian.



2. While this is a lively history of a hero's life, the appeal of the book is lessened by the akward translation from the original Italian. Still, a worthy book.

2 comments about Subcommander Marcos: The Man and the Mask.

1. Nick Henck's biography of Subcommander Marcos is much more than a description of the man's life so far - remember, he's not dead yet! It is an exploration of the Zapatista movement and its significance for 21st century Mexican and Latin American politics. Moreover, Henck demonstrates that, although Marcos is not indigenous to Chiapas himself, his life and work holds important lessons for contemporary indigenous peoples struggling for recognition and respect all over the world.
   
   This book traces Marcos's life from his early days in Mexico City as a child, then student and academic, through his involvement in leftist politics, his move to the Lacandon jungle, his stewardship of the EZLN, and his leadership of the resistance struggle in Chiapas. Marcos is important because he was able, first, to lead a successful armed uprising against an established, corrupt, and dictatorial regime - one that has an important alliance with the United States - and, second, by his skillful use of modern communications he prevented the regime from retaliating with maximum military force. Marcos is, therefore, both a worthy successor in the tradition of Bolivar, Che and Castro, as well as a new type of Latin American revolutionary. In this way, Henck shows that his example provides tremendous optimism for independence movements all over the world, but particularly in Latin America.
   
   This book is surely the definitive work in English on Subcommander Marcos and the EZLN, and is an important contribution to the literature on Latin American revolutionary movements. As such, and as both a challenge and a request to Professor Henck, I hope that he will use this opportunity to develop his research to write more on leaders of contemporary Latin American resistance movements - including Hugo Chavez - in order that we can learn more about this important challenge to the current neo-liberal orthodoxy.



2. "We Are All Marcos Now"
   Subcommander Marcos and the Politics of Zapatismo
   
   Review of Nick Henck, Subcommander Marcos: The Man and the Mask (Duke, 2007), 499 pp.
   
   Robert Ovetz, Ph.D.
   
   The Zapatistas are widely credited with launching the anti-globalization movement on New Year's day 1994, the first day the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect. What is less known is that in doing so the Zapatistas created a new model that has made taking up arms compatible with simultaneously taking up the cause of grassroots democracy, a paradoxical phenomenon vividly illustrated by Nick Henck in his fascinating new book Subcommander Marcos: The Man and the Mask.
   
   When I interviewed Subcommander Marcos and reported for CNN on the uprising on that day in San Cristobal de las Casas, it appeared as if they had emerged overnight, a spontaneous rupture in the supposed political calm of Mexico and the emerging web of a restructured global system. Nothing could be further from the historical record, a record Hick Henck, associate professor of law at Keio University in Japan, recounts and examines with exhaustive thoroughness and insight. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN or Zapatista) uprising was no spontaneous rebellion, but a model of revolutionary armed struggle refashioned by local indigenous communities facing the terror of local violent greedy landholders and corrupt local and state officials.
   
   While never having met Marcos, Henck's biography carefully explores countless published interviews, communiques, media reports, web postings, and the two other existing published books about Marcos. Although a biography, Henck's focus is informed by his passion to understand the movement of Zapatismo from the perspective of the man who has become a charismatic, even sexy, icon of the rebellion. Subcommander Marcos makes a convincing case that Zapatismo transformed not only the global movement challenging to "neo-liberalism" and globalization but how the movement was organized.
   
   Despite preparing for guerrilla warfare in the jungles and countryside for 10 long years, after a mere 12 days of conflict in 1994 the Zapatistas agilely transformed themselves from an "army of liberation" into a facilitator of mass mobilization of what they call "civil society". That they were eventually successful in achieving significant progress towards three major objectives in less than a decade has remained the backstory to coverage about the enigmatic and secretive masked pipe brandishing icon Subcommander Marcos. The Zapatista uprising put indigenous issues center-stage with the Mexican media and public for the first time, with an indigenous rights bill being debated in both chambers of the Mexican Congress. This debate led to the passage of a watered down version of the San Andres Accords between the Zapatistas, its civil society allies and the government as a constitutional amendment. Although it is impressive that the government would amend the constitution in response to the Zapatista movement, the amendment has not lived up to claims that it expanded the rights of Mexico's indigenous peoples. The amendment also did not reverse NAFTA's rescinding of Article 27 of the constitution, which prohibited the privatization of communal ejido land, and some indigenous groups even consider it to be unconstitutional. Lastly, the Zapatistas were one of the primary forces that contributed to the end of the PRI's seven decades of one party rule.
   
   It appears that for Henck the transformation of the Zapatistas into Zapatismo is of much greater significance than either the story of the former professor turned revolutionary cell leader Subcommander Marcos or their ability to change government policy and provoke a political realignment. After a few years of being ignored in the jungles the handful of FLN (Forces of National Liberation or Fuerzas Liberacion Nacional) members who composed the cell in Chiapas found the locals were sympathetic to calls to pick up arms in self-defense against the theft of their lands by rancher death squads. But the indigenous only really responded to their calls to organize and arm themselves when Marcos and his compatriots realized that "in order to survive we had to translate ourselves using a different code...this language constructed itself from the bottom upwards." (p. 94)
   
   This was no abstract rhetorical exercise but took on tangible dimensions for those who joined, especially among women. As Henck so fascinatingly details, once local young indigenous women discovered that joining the Zapatistas protected them from being raped and forced marriages, they began to join in droves. (p. 100-101) And as the Zapatistas gained a few allies in assorted villages those allies used their family relationships and status in their communities to literally open the tap to a rush of recruits.
   
   As Marcos so deftly recognized, after years of futile effort the number of recruits exploded from only a few dozen members to thousands in just a matter of a few months when they finally surrendered to the needs of the local communities and "decided it would be better to do what they said." (p. 135)
   
   Whether this sudden change in fortunes for the EZLN was catalyzed by Marcos's own innate skill of organizing or something that was thrust upon him from below is less important than Marcos's own flexibility in recognizing the need to break with his own inflexible model of insurgent politics. Eventually, the EZLN formally broke off from the increasingly irrelevant and inactive FLN.
   
   The shift from a military to political strategy resulted in a shift in the man we know as Marcos. As Henck explains, "Marcos abandoned his own personal dreams of becoming a revolutionary guerrilla hero and, reacting to the general public's response to the uprising, began to explore an alternative role for both himself and the movement. He and the EZLN had been gearing themselves for a decade toward a predominantly military role. Now, almost overnight, they opted instead for a predominantly political one. Few politicians and military men have abandoned so rapidly a course of action pursued so intensely, for so long, at such a high personal cost to adapt, revise, and reject their strategies when faced with the dawning realization that they were obsolete." (p. 224)
   
   This internal shift in Marcos's thinking makes Henck's book invaluable less as a biography than as a case study of the emergence and evolution of a new political model, one in which a marginalized top down political organization is reformulated by those it aspires to lead to being led by them. In this process of self-organization from below the movement's objectives become indistinguishable from the model they choose to organize themselves. As a result the EZLN transformed itself from vanguard to facilitator of a horizontal political project of movement building and decentralizing and de-evolving power to local autonomous communities.
   
   Soon after the ending of actual fighting, the EZLN became the framework for building a national movement of movements to challenge the neo-conservative restructuring forced upon Mexico by the PRI and NAFTA. The EZLN and its network of allies soon began organizing frequent Encuentros (or "encounters") and nationwide tours to accompany numerous rounds of negotiations with the government. These efforts were facilitated by the charismatic Marcos becoming an irresistible media spectacle that could at once attract vast national and international media coverage and attention and facilitate a bridge across the diversity of interests among its allies in civil society.
   
   Under the emblem of Subcommander Marcos, the EZLN gave birth to a new radical democracy that at once built a national movement to challenge the global capitalist agenda while linking up to the movement as a support network to defend its project of de-evolving political power to local autonomous cooperatively run villages.
   
   Ever able to read political forces of change and adapt, Marcos early on recognized the shift taking place: "What other guerrilla force has agreed to sit down and dialogue only fifty days after having taken up arms? What other guerrilla force has appealed, not to the proletariat as the historical vanguard, but to the civic society that struggles for democracy? What other guerrilla force has stepped aside in order not to interfere in the electoral process? What other guerrilla force has convened a national democratic movement, civic and peaceful, so that armed struggle becomes useless? What other guerrilla force asks its bases of support about what it should do before doing it? What other guerrilla force has struggled to achieve a democratic space and not take power? What other guerrilla force has relied more on words than bullets?" (p. 235)
   
   The answers to these questions are less important than the fact that they were being asked by the nominal leader of an armed guerilla "army of national liberation." Merely asking these questions underlined a gradual shift of autonomous politics from the margins to the center of the methodology and strategies of the global resistance, anti-war, social justice and environmental movements that have blossomed over the past 13 years. Self-organized, de-centralized, bottom up, and horizontally organized movements, networks, affinity groups and campaigns have achieved a new level of respect, legitimacy and power since the emergence of Zapatismo. These models are exemplified by the higher profile anti-WTO/IMF/World Bank and environmental justice movements, the massive growth of the World Social Forum and less obviously the indie music, microcinema and freecycling movements to name just a few. We have Zapatismo to thank for the re-emergence of what some now call "horizontalism" since 1994.
   
   Throughout Henck's Subcommander Marcos its is hard to avoid asking the inevitable question of "why a biography?." Despite all the glittering stardom for Marcos, his mask and pipe, the success of Zapatista movement is about far more than the man behind the mask. Even as he was "outted" as former UAM professor Rafael Guillén, his own identity no longer mattered. Like the similarly masked hero "V" in the film "V for Vendetta", Marcos had become the anonymous face of those who dreamed of justice and flirted with the forbidden thoughts of escaping to the jungles and picking up a gun to get it. In Mexico at least, where millions answered his calls to mobilize against military repression, it was a dream shared by too many for either the PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party or Partido Revolucionario Institucional) or its successor the PAN (the National Action Party or Partido Acción Nacional) or needless to say the Zapatista's "ally" the PRD (the Party of the Democratic Revolution or Partido de la Revolución Democrática) as well to ignore. As Henck generously concludes, "Marcos's charisma served a higher cause than his own ego; it elevated the Zapatista struggle from a localized indigenous uprising to an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to neo-liberalism." (p. 239)
   
   If there is one failing in Henck's biography is it exactly how Marcos was able to translate the hopes and aspirations of the indigenous led Zapatistas into an effective digital media campaign at the dawn of the internet age. Henck provides us with little to envision how Marcos's skillful use of the internet and relationships to Mexican and international celebrities and elites could have possibly emanated from the remote EZLN jungle camps and low tech impoverished indigenous villages. But then again, that could be because it is a safely guarded secret tactic held closely to the chests of the Zapatistas. Despite the obvious need for secrecy, my insatiable craving to know how the EZLN not only crafted their message but actually got it into the right hands to build the national and international recognition and support that repeatedly halted the onslaught of the Mexican military and brought them back to the negotiating table has not been satisfied. For that one must turn elsewhere such as the writings of theorist Harry Cleaver for insights into the workings of the Zapatismo media machine.
   
   For all my biases as the reportedly first journalist to break the story of the Zapatista's new year's uprising for the English language media , Henck's Subcommander Marcos is less a biography than an enlightening case study of how one of the possibly most influential political movements of the 21th century was born, faultered and was then rejuvenated by those it sought to lead. Subcommander Marcos convincingly demonstrates that Zapatismo has created a new model in which taking up arms may finally no longer be incompatible with simultaneously taking up the cause of autonomy and democracy. This book has arrived just in time, when the anti-globalization movement appears to have run out of steam precisely because it has failed to provide a visionary model of the future in the present.
   
   [Robert Ovetz, PhD is an adjunct instructor of political science at College of Marin and of sociology at Cañada College in California.]

2 comments about John M. Schofield and the Politics of Generalship (Civil War America).

1. This is truly a wonderful book. I have always maintained an interest in civil military relations, but until I read this book, I never truly understood the importance of this topic. I am currently a student in a Graduate degree program, and I can't express how often this book touches on our day to day studies. In fact, I can pull something from this book on almost any topic. In fact, I think I'll recommed that our professor make it mandatory reading. I hope he'll agree!!
   Dan Saumur, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas



2. John Schofield was one of those young men who managed to graduate from West Point just before the start of the Civil War. When the war began, like many others, he quickly became a general officer. Unlike many others, he retained this rank for the rest of his very long career. He held administrative and battlefield commands during the war, was Secretary of War, superintended West Point, and eventually became commanding general. Yet, he is almost unknown outside the circle of civil war experts and even within that group is not a major subject of research. This book will fill that gap. It is copiously detailed and covers every aspect of Schofield's career. The book centers on Schofield's negotiation of the politics of the military life. However, the author provides an opbjective and appropriately critical discussion of Schofield's role in the Atlanta/Franklin/Nashville campaigns. Schofield's personal virtues and flaws are also analyzed. As the book deals with army administration, army/congressional relationships, and politics, it is not a quick read. However, if you are willing to devote the time needed to carefully read this book, you will come away with a good understanding of the role of this interesting and important officer.

No comments about Pearl Harbor Countdown: Admiral James O. Richardson.

5 comments about Vera Brittain: Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics).

1. I tried hard to like this book, but finally I just couldn't manage to. And I should admit that I "only" read 386 pp before finally giving up. I am an avid reader of both memoirs and history fm the world wars, but I'm 64 years old and life is far too short and filled with too many really enjoyable books for me to continue slogging through this dreary tome. While I know that Testament is an important text in the history of both feminism and the WWI era, I found the book to be incredibly slow and "overly romantic" in tone. The language was simply too flowery, ornate and dated to hold my interest (it was a great book to fall asleep over); and the so-called "love story" element was just a little too unbelievable in its chasteness and altruism. In fact I seriously wondered about the fiance's sexual leanings. Was he really heterosexual, or ...? I probably better just shut up. I just couldn't finish the book, certainly not ANOTHER 300-plus pages, that's for sure. I gave it the old "college try," but I'm giving it back to the women and the historians.



2. Vera Brittain (1893-1970) was raised as the daughter of a mill owner in the north of England. She was an intellectual who dreamed of majoring in English Literature at Oxford University's Somerville College for Women. In the post-World War I period Vera would return to Oxford taking a second in History and later winning a Master's degree.
   The first third of this book deals with Vera's autobiographical description of her raising in a conservative Edwardian home. She was close to her brother Edward; fell in love with poet Roland Leighton and enjoyed poetry. She and her generation were not ready for the horrific reality of the war which would kill over 10 million people.
   During the war Vera temporarily dropped out of Oxford to serve as a
   V.A.D. (a volunteer nurse). She would serve in London, Malta and France.
   She would minster to German Prisoners of War as well as serving with distinction. Vera's beloved Roland was killed in battle as was her brother Edward who fell in the last summer of the war. Vera was seared by these overwhelming tragedies. And yet she went on with her life serving with bravery.
   As the war ended she returned to Oxford becoming a feminist and pacifist. She lectured all over England on behalf of the League of Nations Union. Vera married a World War I veteran who became an academic.
   Vera would write over 25 books becoming a beloved and popular author in her native England.
   This is a long book over 600 densely printed pages. It is also one of the best books about non-combat, civilian life ever written about the war. Many of the scenes in which Vera is serving as a nurse are graphic and touch the human heart with the sadness and tragic loss of a bright generation of young Europeans. This book has become a modern classic which should be required reading in any course on World War I. Several years ago it was broadcast in a miniseries by BBC appearing on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. This is a book which will remain lodged in your memory. Do your self a favor and purchase a copy soon!



3. I clearly am in a minority here but I did not like this book. A peer of other notable young British writers like Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, Britton's book stands out among the male writers of the period as giving a woman's view of the war. The problem, at least for me, is that Britton is so over come with bitterness that she flogs the reader with it from the start.
   
   An early feminist Britton had strong views and supported her male friends and family going off to the First World War but as they fell to the german guns she, like many of her generation, became disillusioned. This is understandable but in writing her book, Britton cannot set aside her bitterness and it makes the reading ponderous and heavy. For example noting a fete in her early childhood and the bunting and flags put out she says "If only I knew then it was all meaningless." we are taken from a little girl's views to a bitter adult in the blink of an eye and it just gets too much.
   
   By comparrison the autobiography of Robert Graves, Goodby to All That, starts out with the childish illusions being enjoyed as a child and slowly the bitterness slips into the writer's world view as he matures and is exposed to the horrors of the war. this is far more subtle and easier to read, meaning you are guided to the ponit he wants you to reach, instead of trying to bludgeon you into the mindset as Britton does.



4. The word "classic" gets thrown around a lot these days. Many so-called "modern classics" are not that important, but "Testament of Youth" deserves this reprint as a Penguin Classic. Brittain tells of her early life in the north of England between 1893 and the start of World War I in 1914 in beautifully clear prose, and her clarity of thought and powers of observation make the bulk of the book, dealing with the war's impact on her, painfully vivid without ever lapsing into self-pity. Like too many others of her generation (and the next and the next) Vera Brittain learned almost unimaginable lessons about life and her own inner strength. To that extent, "Testament of Youth" can serve as both example and inspiration.
   
   Vera Brittain came from an upper-middle-class background shared by millions of young women in late Victorian England. One thing that made her different was her great intellectual curiosity and determination to escape a truly suffocating existence that few of today's Western women can easily imagine. What made her like most citizens of the time (and of later times)was her complete ignorance of the meaning of "war." Patriotism, her social conscience, and a desire to take part in the bigger world led her to volunteer as a nursing sister with the British Army. Her grueling hospital experiences were a revelation to her. Her personal losses are even more powerfully revealing of the human condition. Brittain was a "survivor" in every sense of the word.
   
   "Testament of Youth" is just as fresh and moving today as it was when it was written 75 years ago and Vera Brittain tells a story that must be told and retold to each generation. For every reader who finds the book "too long" by current standards (its almost 700 pages), there will be two who wish they could follow the author even further. But even if you find yourself skipping ahead, particularly in the early part, you will not be able to forget Vera Brittain or her story. "Testament of Youth" is one of the great autobiographies of the past 100 years.



5. This is a fascinating, insightful book that it would behoove many of us modern folk to read. Learn about the harder times of the past, while sipping latte in a comfy chair. You'll be thankful for today's comforts -- and today's modern attitudes towards the capabilities and intelligence of women -- after you read what it was like for one woman early in the 20th century. Simply a great book.

2 comments about Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register (Shades of Blue and Gray).

1. If you are looking for an authentic rendering of Confederate Army Colonels who served in the American Civil War, 1861-1865, this publication is the last word. From Robert Haden Abercrombie to Leon Toll von Zinken, the1583 officers who ended their careers as colonels each have a paragraph which includes birth information, education, service, post war activities and date and place of death.
   
   Listed as appendices are 429 regularly appointed Confederate generals who had served as colonels in the Confederate army or who had been colonels in a "state" army, a full list of those who served a colonel in state armies, and at last, a list of those officers who were called "colonels."
   
   "Confederate Colonels" will stand tall in the book shelves containing Ezra Warner's "Generals in Blue" and "Generals in Gray" and Bruce S. Allardice own "More Generals in Gray." The research is astounding!
   
   Bruce S. Allardice is Adjunct Professor at South Suburban College and Moraine Valley Community College in Illinois. He is a resident of Des Plaines, Illinois.
   
   Richard N. Larsen
   Reviewer



2. This book is a must for anyone interested in the subject of Confederate colonels. It is similar to the books "Generals in Gray" and "More Generals in Gray", and makes a nice companion to these two volumes.
   
   The biographies, arranged in alphabetical order, include the basic information about the individual: dates of birth and death; marriages; occupations; and trivia. Most of the data pertains to the colonel's service in the Confederate Army. Surprisingly, some of these colonels have never had any biographical sketches written about them until now. As with any book of this type, a few errors can be found, but the research is otherwise solid.
   
   "Confederate Colonels" represents a tremendous amount of work, and the author deserves a lot of credit.

3 comments about Combat Medic: World War II.

1. I am not a WWII buff and I normally do not read medical memoirs, perhaps because I was an ER nurse for many years. I read this book more or less for background information for a novel I am writing. But it immediately became more than research material for me. Dr. John Kerner's story is both poignant and unpretentious. As I read the book I found myself wanting to know this man and now, at the end I feel perhaps I do. As a writer I was impressed by his honesty and his natural voice. As a retired RN I was impressed by the doctor's humility. And as a woman I have to say I loved all the references to the women who were a part of his life (especially his brief affair with the Red Cross volunteer!)I recommend this book to any one of any age who enjoys candid accounts of real people who have done remarkable things.



2. An interesting look at WW2 from the inside by a man who unexpectedly was there. From the invasion on thru the battles, Kerner keeps your interest by relating his experiences as well as his observations. The section where he delivers the baby of a young French woman near the battle field will keep your interest right to the end. Should be on everyone's gift list.



3. Combat Medic: World War II is a fascinating memoir by John A. Kerner, M.D. His medical school training as an OB/GYN only in one instance stood him in good stead as a doctor whose ultimate assignment took him from D-Day plus 1 at Omaha Beach, through the Battle of the Bulge, finally ending with the Army of Occupation in Germany. When he signed up for the Army, he thought he'd be assigned to a stateside hospital delivering babies for Army dependents. He never even got as far back from the front as a field hospital. He was up with the troops for the whole time, and he has two Bronze Stars to show for it.
   
   I met John and his wife, Gwen, on a tour through Northern Spain in 2000. He's a fascinating man, although older than I. At the time he was thinking of writing his memoir. For posterity's sake I'm glad he did. While he's not a Stephan Ambrose, he tells it like it was, down and dirty, being there, a true hero of the greatest generation. I really enjoyed reading his book, having known the man. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in first person accounts of what it was really like trying to save lives while cold, wet, and in the mud with a lot of unfriendly German infantrymen trying keep you from doing your job by making you keep your head (and other parts) down.

1 comments about Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men Who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-42 (Stackpole Military History Series).

1. Ask anyone to name a German general, and the response most likely will be: Rommel -- The Desert Fox.
   
   Erwin Rommel's famous North African campaign is one of the most studied aspects of the Second World War. However, veteran World War II history writer, Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. knows that the legendary Field Marshall Rommel was not the only interesting officer in the Panzer Army Africa and has written a unique book that gives a voice to his top-notch subordinates.
   
   Mr. Mitcham introduces the reader to a gallery of mini-portraits of Rommel's men painted to accompany his broad canvas of battlefield narratives. His biographies add new color to the previous monochrome look of the Panzer Army Africa, out shown by the brilliance of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel -- until now.
   
   The author admires the accomplishments of Rommel and he offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes history of Rommel's army. The book is born out of the desire to breath life into the names that reported to the Desert Fox.
   
   What would it be like take orders from the Desert Fox? Mr. Mitcham shows us how Rommel was very demanding of his officers, bullying them when they did not meet his expectations. His 5th Light Division commander, Johannes Striech was accused of being, too slow, lacking boldness and imagination. After failing to seize Tobruk, then retreating without orders, Rommel had seen enough of Striech and his chief subordinate, Olbricht. Both were relieved of their commands -- Their careers effectively over.
   
   The next commander of 5th Light Division, Johann Theodor von Ravenstein's record showed excellent drive and accomplishment. Of note, he was highly decorated for ambushing and routing a French battalion with only 16 men. He was awarded the Knights Cross for overrunning the French 9th Army HQ, capturing 50 French officers. Even Rommel could admire this man.
   
   After a spectacular attack on the British armored forces in Operation Battleaxe, Rommel called Ravenstein one of his most brilliant generals. During Operation Crusader, "Ravenstein earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first German general to be captured in the second world war," when his car was ambushed by three New Zealanders. Ravenstein's adventures were not over yet. An Italian bomber torpedoed the ship carrying Ravenstein to Alexandria. Fortunately, he was plucked from the sea by a British corvette and taken to Egypt.
   
   "Ludwig Cruell was one of the best panzer commanders, not only in the Africa Korps, but in the entire German army," agues Mr. Mitcham. Cruell was a "highly competent, steady and dependable general staff officer, notes the author, and was rightly named the next commander of the Africa Korps.
   
   As we are repeatedly shown, being in the front lines, as Rommel demanded, is very risky. While directing the fighting at Sidi Rezegh, General Cruell's British-built Mammoth command vehicle suddenly seemed to be surrounded by British tanks. Benefiting from the fog of war, he sped away before the puzzled Brits could react.
   
   On May 28th, Cruell's low-flying Storch light recon aircraft was shot down. With his pilot dead, he was helpless to land from the back seat. Somehow surviving the crash, he found himself trapped in the wreckage, and was easily captured by the British.
   
   "One of the most unusual characters in the Africa Korps was Major Wilhelm Georg Bach, a Lutheran pastor," noted as Roommel's best battalion commander. Although his rank demanded respect, he was the friendliest, most relaxed German commander serving under Rommel. He was captured and taken to Egypt after the lengthly siege of his surrounded positions in Halfaya Pass.
   
   General Ravenstein, General Schimmit and Major Bach masterminded a plot to take over their Canada-bound prison ship, but were found out before they could act. For a time, the angry British even considered throwing the three ringleaders overboard. They eventually settled for solitary confinement.
   
   Of his principals, Mr. Mitcham's favorite German officer is Ernst Guenther Baade, a gentleman form the old school, believing in chivalry. "An idiosyncratic maverick, Ernst Baade definitely marched to his own drummer and soon became a legend in the Africa Korps by going into battle dressed in a Scottish kilt...In the field, he habitually wore a black beret with a tartan plaid ribbon and carried a huge claymore instead of a luger."
   
   Baade's unpredictable actions caused anger and irritation at the High Command of the Armed Forces, but it did not ruffle Rommel, who shielded him," explains Mr. Mitcham. He was credited with the masterly evacuation of the XIV Panzer Corps from Sicily.
   
   "Walter Kurt Josef Nehring was one of the best panzer commanders of World War II." Nehring's innovative 'flak front' of 88mm anti-aircraft guns stopped cold the breakthrough of powerful British Grant tanks and saved the Africa Korps at the Battle of the Gazala Line.
   
   Foreseeing the ultimate collapse of Tunis, Nehring argued for evacuation. This angered Hitler and Goebbels who denounced him as a coward and defeatist. Nehring soon found himself replaced by General Armin in Tunisia. As he had predicted, Tunis soon fell. Disparately needing generals, the Nazis redeemed Nehring, and gave him another chance to command on the Russian front and he performed magnificently, earning Swords for his Knights Cross, personally awarded by Hitler.
   
   Like most aggressive German generals, Rommel led from the front. Usually, the Chief of Staff was required to accompany Rommel on visits to the front lines, which left junior officers in charge of the HQ -- a problem when senior Italian generals tried to over-rule them.
   
   "Rommel did not make long lasting professional associations, in part because he made few close personal friendships. He also tended to physically wear out subordinates very quickly, points out Mr. Mitcham. Losses never bothered Rommel though, He believed staff could easily be replaced.
   
   The general staff could never get close to Rommel; because Hitler had planted spies in his headquarters, making him suspicious and distrustful of everyone.
   
   Mr. Mitcham claims, "Rommel was by every account a hard man for whom to work. He could be very rude to his staff and scathing to senior commanders, but never so to enlisted men or prisoners of war."
   
   If you write a book titled, "Rommel's Desert Commanders", you must have a chapter titled, "El Alamein." With Rommel very sick, and returning to Europe, his replacement as Commander of Panzer Army Africa was Georg Stumme. During the El Alamein fighting, Stumme suffered a fatal heart attack while clinging to the running board of his fleeing staff car. His body was found along the road a few hours after Hitler called Rommel to go back to Africa.
   
   Chapter IV, "The Staff" brings to life on the page other forgotten staff officers serving with Rommel, including military engineers, a reconnaissance officer, a journalist/propagandist, intelligence officers, medical officers, communication officers and signals officers.
   
   Mr. Mitcham invites you to meet 27 other commanders of the Panzer Army Africa, the Africa Korps, and the four divisions that they directed in Chapter VIII, "The Other Commanders."
   
   In writing about Rommel's subordinates, Mr. Mitcham frequently had to divert from his book's setting in the deserts of North Africa. To trace their careers, the author's narrative detoured extensively to World War I, all of Germany's fronts in World War II, even to the post war years -- something that may put off some readers.
   
   "Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men Who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-42" contains 17 maps and a gallery of 43 photographs, Mr. Mitcham's book is a quick and enjoyable read, his narrative is full of interest for students of the Africa Korps.