2 comments about Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A Memoir.

1. This was a very uplifting writing about surviving the deplorable and dire circumstances during WWII in a Japanese prison camp. Dr Hekking was a very remarkable man practicing medicine under such conditions. After reading this book...I have a deeper respect for veterans and survivors.
   In ending, the doctor and the Americans seemed to help each other psychologically to survive....



2. I have had the pleasure of knowing the author for going on 8 years now. His memoir of his time as a prisoner of the Japanese, building the Death Railroad, the real Bridge on the River Kwai, is riveting, and sadly the suffering of POWs is little known.
   
   In the decades since returning from the War, the author has had a distinguished career requiring excellent writing and editing skills, and this book reflects that. It's an easy read, and when you've finished it, you will most likely re-evaluate the struggles and low points of your daily routine.
   
   Lastly, the man who is the subject of the book, Dr. Henri Hekking of the Dutch Colonial Army, will instill in you a sense of awe in the medical skills he learned from native Javanese sources, and how these skills, scorned by English and American doctors, saved *so many* of the men under his care, the author included.
   
   This book adds greatly to, and dovetails with, Hornfisher's latest, and compliments Winslow's "Galloping Ghost...".

5 comments about The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of Her Father's Murder.

1. Rachel Howard tells a compelling story in "The Lost Night," a memoir that reads like an extended episode of crime documentary shows like "48 Hours Mystery." A pre-teen when her father was stabbed to death in what seemed like a botched break-in, the loss haunts Howard until she can find a way to make sense of it. Suspicion surrounds Howard's step-mother, whose brother is questioned by police, but it is eventually cold cased. As an adult, Howard investigates further, a decision which brings her back in contact with both her father's family and her dreaded step-mother (who has since married again and moved away.)
   
   The book effectively sets the scene in California's Central Valley, and Howard successfully plumbs the psychological effects of growing up without a murdered parent. She is candid about many of her struggles with men as a result of the loss, although she is slightly dreamy about her wedding and happy relationship with her husband. (This aspect of the memoir seemed overly one-sided and idealistic.) Her father's murder is never solved, but Howard does find a way to come to peace with it, including an acknowledgment of her own biases against her former step-mother, who makes a memorable reappearance in some of the book's best latter moments.
   
   What we end up learning about in "The Lost Night" is the effect of crime on those left behind, and the mysteries that remain when crimes aren't solved. Although the writing is no where near the quality of classics of the true crime genre, this is a worthy effort and worth a read.



2. Met the author at a book signing and was impresssed by her impeccable poise and story-telling ability. Then I went home and read the book. Wow. I had the same experience as the other readers. This is an excellent and poignant memoir.
   One feels the you-are-there quality of a little girl awakening in the middle of the night to see her father covered with blood on the floor. The people in her book are like characters in a Dickens novel, yet they are (were) all very real. Howard captures the cultural milieu of Merced California in the mid '80's. Her father loved Rod Stewart with a passion and the lyrics of his songs weave through the true story of a child trying to make sense of what is going on around her.
   The child matures into an adult and becomes a writer! What an awesome contribution to the memoir genre. I do hope that the killer is eventually caught.



3. This is a wonderful combination of memoir and true crime. I felt as though I realy got to know the author. Her willingness to examine the fragility of memory and adjust her conclusions accordingly made her more appealing. The change in her attitudes toward the people in her life caused me to re-examine my own feelings toward people in my life. This book is a definite addition for anyone's library.



4. Lost and Found - a past reclaimed
   
   I finished Rachel Howard's "the lost night" at 3 this morning. From the minute I cracked its spine, the pages turned themselves, inviting me to ignore every routine chore of mine: dirty dishes, daily exercise, even meals (though I did manage to go to work and feed the cat).
   
   Masterfully written, the book tells a riveting story of the murder of Rachel's father when she was only 10 years old. How she handled the loss of this beloved man, her protector and playpal, is a glimpse into how children cope with tragedy of this magnitude. The experience retrospectively defined Rachel, her relationship with her family and also with her stepmother Sherry, her father's third wife when he was murdered. Rachel, the product of divorce, was spending a few summer weeks at her father's home during this time. She was witness to his last waking minutes and remembered details that would replay themselves with increasing vividness as time went by.
   
   But memory is elusive...and selective. The author comes to realize that her memories were circumscribed by the limited frame-of-reference of a young life.
   
   What I found so compelling here is the child's perspective. I have read (and probably own!) just about every true-crime/courtroom/forensic book that exists, yet I never read such an account from a 10-year-old point-of-view. Rachel illustrates the sometimes graphic, sometimes muted terror-of-the-night children of murdered parents are heir to, their wispy and unexpressed--indeed unconscious--suspicion of significant-others, and their necessary dependencies on adults who, often not comprehending the nuances involved, believe that by trotting the kid to therapy, they absolve themselves of the pain of revisiting the circumstances themselves. In Rachel's case, her father's family remained largely silent with her about that night. They may have felt that openly speaking about the murder with someone so young would somehow legitimize it for her. In fact, their passivity had the opposite, and quite damaging, effect on a young mind hungry for assurance and validation.
   
   Palpable throughout Rachel's memoir is its raw honesty. The writing is often brutally introspective, devoid of the self-pity and lachrymose language which the author might easily --and justifiably-have indulged. She is seeking information and answers, and by the last page, I realize she has found those things, and some peace along the way.
   
   Therese Hercher



5. William Grimes has always been one of my favorite NY Times reviewers. Although he tends to be negative, when he waxes effusive, I take notice. When I saw this....
   ------
   "As a memoirist, she succeeds BRILLIANTLY. "The Lost Night" is ENTHRALLING, a skillfully narrated story that begins as a tale of detection but quickly becomes something more."
   --William Grimes, NEW YORK TIMES
   
   I figured I'd take a chance. Well, it's been sitting on my nightstand for 6-months now and damn if it's not enthralling. Although I was hoping for a bit of a who-done-it, I couldn't put it down. The descriptions of the messed-up Central Valley(to put it delicately)were terrific. With some sex, drugs, and even some 80s Rod Stewart in the mix, for good measure, it was a joy to read.

5 comments about Horses Don't Fly: A Memoir of World War I.

1. One of the wittiest memoirs of any era I have ever read. An often bust your gut funny read from a true turn of the century Forrest Gump who grows up to be a war hero. My most common thoughts as I read this wonderful prose was "I wish I had been born back then." Family, courage, honesty, loyalty, and right from wrong all mattered; and all issues were black and white. Libby goes from cowboy private to fighter ace, endures the utter stupidity that is WWI, yet keeps a sense of humor and fast becomes someone you wish you had personally known and called a friend. Do you think Uncle Sam would let you "trial run" an aerial combat mission today to see if you have the "right stuff" to be a pilot or aerial observer?



2. Frederick Libby's HORSES DON'T FLY is the author's autobiographical account of his life from his birth in 1892 to 1918. His mother having died shortly before his fourth birthday, Libby was raised on his father's Colorado ranch with an older brother. Fred became a "cowboy" in the most authentic sense of the word, working on his family's ranch as well as others in the Southwest. Training wild horses to become cow ponies was his much sought after specialty. Then, tiring of hard life on the range at age twenty, he has the vague notion of settling in a warm and more lazy environment, such as Tahiti. However, he gets sidetracked to Canada where, at the outbreak of World War I, he's seduced into enlisting into a motor transport unit of the Canadian Army with the promise of travel and regular pay. By the end of 1917, Libby is a commissioned officer in Britain's Royal Flying Corps, having logged more than 350 hours of combat flight time over the trenches of the Western Front, and with 24 confirmed downed enemy planes to his credit.

   The book contains no indication when Libby penned his memoirs. The style indicates somewhat of a detached perspective, which is perhaps evidence that the author wrote many years after the fact when memory had smoothed over the emotional highs and lows of his early years. But, no matter. Libby comes across as that sort of young hero that most Americans, I trust, would like to see representing their country overseas, or anywhere. He's conscientious, unflappable, brave, modest, hard working, honest, honorable and loyal. Indeed, his only vices seem to have been, as a cowboy, foolish gambling, and, while as an RFC pilot, a weakness for the British Army's regular rum ration. Girls are only mentioned as reserving their best for the lads in uniform. I suspect that Libby's wilder youthful indiscretions became lost in the retelling. In any case, the chief attraction of HORSES DON'T FLY, besides the personality of Libby himself, are the insights the reader gains into the hard life of a cowboy, and the early years of military aviation when warplanes could be either "pushers" (rear-mounted propeller) or "tractors" (front-mounted propeller), and both pilots and observer-gunners were exposed to the elements and the enemy in open cockpits with neither seatbelts nor those little packages of salted peanuts. Libby himself was personally awarded the Military Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace for gallantry in action.

   To Captain Frederick Libby, long dead since 1970, honor is due.




3. Libby's story does not compare to the biography of Eddie Richenbacher, "Fighting the Flying Circus." You really get a sense of what the fight was like from Richenbacer, while so many of the details are glossed over by Libby. Libby's story starts out very slowly, picks up when he becomes an observer and pilot, and just peters out when he rejoins the United States military. We are left with lots of unanswered questions--why did he survive so long when most died in a couple of weeks, what did he think when his squadren was literally completely replaced every few weeks, etc. There is no introspection--no emotional side to this book. We do know that he likes to drink, but he is not a deep thinker--loyality and friendship are important driving components of how he makes his decisions. There is a feel to the book like it has been rewritten and the juicy (emotional) parts removed. The book was interesting but very limited if you are looking for information about that time. Read Richenbacher's book for a much better understanding of that time.



4. The other reviewers have it right--a very good book. There is a slow start when we learn about his youth, and he masters the family business of horses. The story really picks up when he joins the Canadian military and then the Royal Flying Corps in France. Frederick Libby is not a deep thinker--he believes in friendship and loyality--he doesn't spend much time worrying about the why of war. He is spontaneous in his response to situations rather than thinking things through. His clear writing gives us a sense of what life was like, but I do not understand why he survived and most of the aviators did not. If I liked this book, then why did I give it only 3-stars? The book has been over-edited and has a feel as though a lot of the life has been rewritten out of it. I want to know more about Libby's experiences, and I feel a bit cheated. Another reason for 3-stars is that the story starts slow, peaks in the middle, and goes back to a slow and finally a disjointed end when he returns to the United States and health problems end his military career. Libby lives for another 50 years, and we are given a very simplified version by his granddaughter which grabs my interest but doesn't deliver more than generalities. A search of the internet does not find any more information about Libby's life. This book whets your appetite for more knowledge about this time when aviators believed they were knights, and the internet has a huge amount of information on this subject.



5. This story is not about horses, or flying. It's about one thing: character. In Frederick Libby's autobiography the reader sees the story of a young man born in Colorado before the turn of the last century. He grows up learning the family business, mainly horse breaking and cattle ranching. The early chapters are a bit juvenile in their telling but this is only a reflection of his retelling of childhood events. The narration becomes more sophisticated as he recounts later years, but always maintains a simple frontier charm.

   While a young man traveling through Canada in 1914 he volunteers for the Canadian army when war breaks out in Europe. He joins as a truck driver even though he has never driven a car before. He ships out to france and spends a cold wet year ferrying supplies to the frontlines. But through it all he maintains a positive outlook and high admiration of the boys in the trenches. After a year of driving he volunteers for the Royal Flying Corps as a observer (gunner). So this American who volunteered with the Canadians ends up with British flying as an observer/gunner/photographer against the deadly German flyers. He later earns his pilot rating and ends up as a squad leader. The desciptions of battles, some of the only first person accounts of the flying war, are intense but not sensationalized. He never glorifies war and tries to give some account of the hardship experienced by the men in the trenches.

   The entire narrative shows Captain Libby as a man devoted to those he works with. Whether it is cattle hands in the American west or the officers of the RFC he shows that once he is committed to something he stays with it. The fact that he was barely twenty years old when this started shows how the youth of the time rose to the challenge of the day. Several time during the book He says that he does not know what they are fighting for. However, a man who gives his word to a group of men and sees it through to the end knows exactly what he is fighting for.

4 comments about The Genius of Robert E. Lee.

1. Al Kaltman has assembled an interesting and refreshing book about issues General Lee faced during his entire life. More of the documented letters featuring opinions and Lee offered others during his military adventures through Mexico and the Civil War are intriguing. Kaltman takes Lee's approach to subjects on managing people or conflicts and offers advice on how to handle similar circumstances in business and personal life situations. This book is rather a quick read as topics such as preparing one's self, taking command, continuous improvement and the winning image are just a few of many that are featured.

   This book is one you can jump from chapter to chapter on and not read from start to finish if you wanted as it deals with leadership approaches for various subjects. This book I recommend to anyone involved in business be it a salesperson or manager looking to better themselves with great thought. Also it can be a book one could keep with them at work as a helpful guide to reflect back on for insight on how to deal with situations that arise. Lee's style of handling issues is usually the correct and friendly non-confrontational approach which many could benefit from reading. On another side of this great book, Lee's failures or mistakes are also covered and Lee offers his thoughts on how he should have handled things differently.




2. Obviously, Kaltman found in Lee's management strategies and tactics relevance to the contemporary business world. The book's subtitle reveals Kaltman's primary theme: "Leadership lessons for the outgunned, outnumbered, and underfinanced." That is probably true of almost all of the companies now struggling to survive. The material is carefully organized within 11 chapters which correspond in chronological sequence with the various stages of Lee's career. Kaltman has identified 260 specific "Lessons" each of which he summarizes within an appropriate context and is accompanied by a Lee quotation, followed by a brief "Advice" mini-commentary. Unlike so many other books which purport to draw such correlations between the battlefield and the marketplace (e.g. The Military Genius of Daffy Duck), this one is sensible. Granted, many of the "Lessons" are rather obvious and much of the "Advice" is somewhat simplistic. However, the content is quite substantial. I think this would be an excellent gift for someone about to begin or who has only recently begun a business career. Here are Kaltman's concluding comments: "Robert E. Lee led armies in battle, helped reconcile a people to their defeat, and built a great educational institution. Lee never worried about his legacy; he focused on the job at hand. He believed that our legacy is the work we do to improve the human condition and bring about better times: "We may not see them but our children will, and we will live over again in them." You may also wish to check out Kaltman's Cigars, Whiskey & Winning: Leadership Lessons from Ulysses S. Grant, Crocker's Robert E. Lee on Leadership, and Hilton's Leadership Lessons from Robert E. Lee: Tips, Tactics, and Strategies for Leaders and Managers.



3. I never read a book in this style before. It is not a history of Lee, but a list of lessons illustrated by events in his career.

   The lessons are laid out chronologically in Lee's career. They highlight as much about his strengths as his weaknesses. More importantly for me, they give an insight into the Civil War that is uniquely from the perspective of General Lee.

   This is a book that can appeal to Civil War readers, or it can appeal to those interested in Management.

   It is an easy read, I like the style, and it is a book that you can stop and start as you like. No need to plough through it all in one go.




4. Al Kaltman has done us a great favor by writing, "The Genius of Robert E. Lee." His subtitle grabbed my attention immediately, "Leadership Lessons for the Outgunned, Outnumbered, and Underfinanced." Kaltman divides his work on leadership based on the chronology of Lee's life giving the reader 260 brief vignettes delving into the personal and professional life of this great American. The 260 entries gives the busy reader a kind-of "daily devotional" Monday through Friday for all 52 weeks of a single year. Also helpful is Kaltman's use of putting Lee's actual words in italics in each entry. The index at the conclusion of the work is also a helpful feature for quick and easy subject referencing. Kaltman brings a wealth of information together smoothly, from the idiosyncrasies of the man, and the historial events of the time, to the present day realities of leadership and management in the workplace. Students of Lee, Civil War enthusiasts, and the corporate leaders of today's business environment can all benefit from delving into Kaltman's treasure chest of thoughts, ideas, and principles gleaned from the fasinating life of this great man in history. For anyone who's ever felt like they were outgunned in life, or outnumbered in the cut-throat competition of the 21st century business world, Kaltman's work will introduce you to the genius of a man who was overwhelmed militarily, but who was never conquered in life or in the lasting legacy of leadership that he left to us all.

5 comments about Joshua Chamberlain: The Soldier and the Man.

1. On the back cover of this book, a review states: "Chamberlain's fans may not like everything Longacre says, but they will find this a significant contribution to the scholarship on the Maine General." I'll admit to being an unabashed Chamberlain (JLC) "fan," but the main problem I have with this book is not so much with what Longacre says as it is with how he says it. While reading chapter after chapter, I became sick of Longacre's inclusion of what I'll call "unsympathetic insinuations," that is, his incessant habit of interjecting his own (rarely positive) opinions and conclusions when ascribing JLC's motives for numerous significant events in his life and career. Longacre never seems to miss an opportunity to paint Chamberlain as an self-aggrandizing, opportunistic, personal promoter; or to find fault with those authors whose works are more flattering to the subject. I have read several more worthwhile studies of JLC that I would recommend to the reader ahead of this work. They include: Soul of the Lion: A Biography of General Joshua L. Chamberlain, by Willard M. Wallace, 1960, reprinted by Stan Clark Military Books, Gettysburg, PA, 1991; In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War, by Alice Rains Trulock, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 1992; and The Twentieth Maine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War, by John J. Pullen, Morningside House, Inc., Dayton, OH, 1991. In my view, all of these present a more honest and forthright biography than this sometimes sanctimonious, often-times backbiting diatribe which has been unleashed against one of the most noteworthy and commendable wartime heroes in the history of the United States. Am I a "fan" of JLC? You bet. Is this book "a significant contribution to the scholarship on the Maine General?" I don't think so. If you want to read a work about JLC which comes across strongly as an attempt to take down "the hero of Gettysburg" a peg or two in the eyes of the reader, then buy this book. If not, I suggest you look elsewhere for a better chronicle of "Joshua Chamberlain: The Soldier and the Man."



2. The biggest problem with this biography was the minimal amount of time and pages devoted to Chamberlain during the 50 years he lived after the Civil War, thus rendering Longacre's subtitle "The Soldier and the Man" to be misleading at best. I wanted to know more about how Chamberlain's Civil War experiences shaped his four terms as governor of Maine, presidency of Bowdoin, and numerous businesses he was involved in. Those experiences and topics were barely covered and with superficial analysis.
   
   The second major problem was a shortage of information -- about Fannie Chamberlain (Didn't she write any letters?), Tom Chamberlain, Joshua Chamberlain's actual speeches and articles, etc. The Civil War was unquestionably important, but not the only thing in his long life.
   
   And the book suffered from too much psychological speculation based on the author's opinion and from typos and printing errors.
   
   Overall, I was obviously disappointed and wouldn't recommend this book. I am continuing to look for a better, more comprehensive Chamberlain biography.



3. This book really should have been called 100 Reasons Why Ellis Spear Hated Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Another person commented that this book is like reading a National Enquirer account of a person's life. This book is a prime example of how our modern society has become obsessed with tearing down celebrity figures simply because they are celebrities. Chamberlain was not a man without flaw but the author interjects quite a few sniping opinions in a book that should have been written objectively. I don't buy biographies to read what the author thinks of the person -- I buy biographies to read a detailed but objective account of the person.
   
   Why the author uses Ellis Spear as a primary source over and over again, I just don't understand. Why the author attacks Fanny Chamberlain as a woman and wife, I don't understand. Fanny was a flawed person as well but she was not solely responsible for their marital troubles and I'm very tired of reading about her as a cold-hearted villain.
   
   The one good point about this book is it introduces some new material and it points out that Chamberlain suffered from bouts of depression, something I haven't seen many Chamberlain biographers do.
   
   However, if you want a more accurate picture of Chamberlain and the 20th, I recommend sticking to John Pullen. If you're looking for a more accurate picture of Fanny and Lawrence as a couple, I recommend sticking to Diane Monroe Smith. Both manage to write about the Chamberlains without interjecting so many personal opinions.



4. This book is an unfortunate and biased view of the personal and military life of Joshua Chamberlain. The book is presented in a typically 21st Century journalistic fashion that seeks to over-scrutinize and under-source faults of a 19th Century person to make him "more human". This book is filled with many "statements" from various accounts that suggest many of Chamberlains actions and deeds were embellished and/or fictionalized, often simply on one persons say so or on more that a few occasions, a non-specific hint, rumor or innuendo.
   This is not to suggest that Chamberlain was not a man without fault, just that in this authors eyes, little of what Chamberlain says or does is given any credibility, especially if refuted by any other source, no matter how weak. His only test for credibility is the mere existence of any question of events, actions, comments, etc. The fact is - Chamberlain was human; time, technology and points of view limit our ability to really know or believe every minute detail and every person who conflicted anything related to Chamberlains life, except apparently to Longacre who like many in the various vehicles of today's media seeps bias with less regard for truth and more for digging dirt. The broad strokes of Chamberlain's life suggests a noble, educated, respected and occasionally heroic life. This book is an unnecessary and weak effort in throwing mud at what a majority of authors and public felt was an good and honorable man. The world and our nation wants and needs heroes and heroines. Which ones would survive the microscopic moral compass of todays media? What value exists in always tearing them down?
   
   Pass on this book.



5. Being a Civil War fanatic and scholar I had a tremendous interest in Joshua L. Chamberlain, and most of that interest is from the Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg. I took this book from the perspective that I knew nothing of Chamberlain. I found Edward Longacre's biography well written and well researched even if his main source of material was Spears memoirs. Longacre dispels many myths of Chamberlain and presents facts to show perhaps a different perspective of the man's career. Sure, Longacre agrees that Chamberlain was a terrific and courageous soldier, arguably one of the best in the union army. But he also understands that JLC had his flaws and can be criticized for being selfish at times. I think the average reader plants the image of Chamberlain from "Gettysburg" or Killer Angels in their brain as they read the book, and that is whythe reviews are mostly poor ones. We must remember that anything Chamberlain wrote after 1865 about the War should be taken for some inaccuracies. Longacre is right that Chamberlain is a romanticizer and prefers the good story over the correct one. I assume Longacre made some mistakes and for that I took a star away but I truly enjoyed this book because it didn't portray Chamberlain as a godly hero but rather as an incredible human being.

5 comments about Patton And Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century.

1. Although the book is called Patton and Rommel it really is less one book detailing and comparing two of the most famous generals of the Second World War, than it is two biographies, riffled together in one cover.
   It also seems to put far more emphasis on Rommel than Patton rather than treat them as equals. In each man's case it details their lives, experiences and their struggles with the development of mobile warfare following the stalemate of the First World War's trenches. But still the two lives do not interact. In reality the two warriors never faced each other across a battlefield but the author does not draw parallels or conclusions. He merely trots out the lives to be displayed on the pages and lets the reader make his or her conclusions.
   
   In telling Rommel's story Showalter details how Rommel could support Hitler without being a Nazi. He explores Rommel's infamous lack of knowledge in using a staff or logistics in an overall theme of the German army and the development of Rommel's near fatal hubris. While exploring Rommel's success in the western desert he in detail pulls down the popular alternate history theory that Germany could have won the war by invading Russia via Palestine.
   
   With Patton he details Patton's family history and his early growth and development in the prewar, contact ladened army and how Patton's personality and married into wealth gave him opportunities and access a less wealthy officer would have missed. The reader is given an explanation for the army's way to choose commanders during the war that leads away from the common view that it was a prejudice against `loose cannon' Patton.
   
   One serious weakness is the fact there is almost no real explanation as to the mental unraveling of Patton from a social butterfly in his early days who was put forward as a scholar and poster boy of the charming army officer to the infamous image of a man who in effect could shoot himself in the foot with this mouth and became viewed by commanders as someone who has to be handled. There is a brief reference to a fall while playing polo and a mid life crisis but otherwise what could be viewed as the single most intriguing element of Patton's life is just passed over with an all too familiar litany of his missteps in his later career.
   
   For the book itself, the editing is bad, this NOT the author's fault but several typos make the reader pause to think "what was that?" There are virtually no footnotes and no bibliography. To guide the reader to see what Showalter's sources were.
   
   Visually the book is very weak. There are no maps. OK we can probably all find France and Germany and Italy on a map but it might help to have a more up close view of parts of Africa where much of the fighting takes place, or Lorraine where Patton's army bogged down or the Italian passes where young Rommel first won his spurs.
   There are no photos apart from the half face shots on the cover. So one is left to wonder what young Rommel looked like with his Blue Max or young socialite Patton who invariably is otherwise imaged like George C Scott. Both generals were popular with reporters and national PR machines and so there is no dearth of material.
   
   The author says he does not want to be academic but approachable; however he often throws out terms in Latin or French that the reader may well not know. "It was retiarus against secutor" springs to mind.
   
   Overall for the reader who did not know anything about the Generals apart from the old movies and odd documentary, this is a good introduction. It spells out the lives and explores and explodes some of the myths around each man but for more experienced scholars it is weak with the author neither drawing conclusions himself or inviting the reader to do so. There is little enough explanation why the two names are together in one book since they are not compared or contrasted. The book could have as easily been Patton and Hodges or Rommel and Kesselring for all the principal subjects are related within the text.



2. You can see in these 420 pages the author deep knowledge of the history of World War II and a book that provide the right level of information in narrating the lives of two great generals of this war. Both these generals, as you will see, had very different backgrounds, different ways of commands and personalities and it is inevitable to have more sympathy with one them after reading the book. To be a General is a huge responsability which requires several characteristics depending on the job or task, that general will execute. What I admire about Rommel was his previous experience in World War I and for Patton, his knowledge of history and his sense of humor. Patton was an old fashioned soldier, a romantic warrior, with an undoubtedly very peculiar personality. Rommel was an exceptional leader and Feldmarschall that could not flank Hitler's lunatic ideas, finally paying with his life.
   I just have one complain with the book, and it is the absolutely lack of maps or bibliography, at least in the paperback. Despite the later, this is a book to recommend.



3. Several others have already commented on the curious and total lack of maps and photos. How can you have a book on battles and omit maps? Plus, the textual descriptions of key battles, like El Alamein, Tobruk, Kasserine Pass and the Allied invasion of Sicily are good but abbreviated. You can find far more detailed accounts elsewhere. For example, there are numerous books devoted to El Alamein or the Battle of the Bulge. Still, Showalter must be clearly aware that his book adds little new to the existing accounts of the battles it describes. Perhaps this was the reason for the omission of maps?
   
   The purported value of the book is in its comparison of the experiences and, to some extent, the personalities and motivations of Patton and Rommel. Here, other reviewers have also remarked that this is quite a hard task. But Showalter seems to have done a reasonable job, including, I presume, interviews with Manfred Rommel, the general's son.
   
   But at least for me, there were a few new snippets that I have not found in other texts. First was the deliberate decision by the US to restrict the size of the army to 90 divisions. In part because the navy and marines have to be built up to fight the Pacific war. But also, this let the US arm as heavily as possible those army divisions. So the US took advantage of its industrial prowess, to minimise its casualties. Fair enough. But in many other accounts of the war, I've never run into mention of this 90 division limit. I'm not saying it's a secret. Undoubtedly, there must be books mentioning it; perhaps even the official histories of the US army. Still it's surprising to know. Especially because Showalter asserts that one consequence was that after Normandy, Eisenhower was restricted in how aggressively he could march across Europe. Whereas with more troops, he might have been able to attack earlier into Germany.
   
   Another useful insight was about how Patton and Rommel were regarded after the war, by the militaries of the US and West Germany. Books on World War 2 tend to end their accounts shortly after the end of the war, naturally. So it was interesting to read that ironically, Patton was more highly regarded than Rommel by the Bundeswehr. While the reverse tended to be true in the US. Typically, it is not easy to get any detailed accounts of the Bundeswehr, written in English. Partly because peacetime militaries generate less interest than wartime. But perhaps also because the Bundeswehr deliberately kept a low profile after the war, to discourage militarism. So Showalter's descriptions of Bundeswehr assessments, if accurate, are quite interesting and fill a gap in the general knowledge.



4. I bought this book at an airport bookstore, and really enjoyed it. For those that don't have the time to read full biographies of Patton and Rommell, this is the book for you. If you've already read separate biographies of the two, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book.



5. This is not a bad book if you realize what it really is: a nice light-reading history. This is not for those who already have dozens of books about these two men. It is a book for those who haven't read much history, but would like to get a nice introduction to these two great generals. For that, it's a really good book.
   
   I found that the author of this book seems to favor Rommel over Patton. Whereas Rommel is depicted as a competent professional soldier, Patton is often depicted as someone who is more concerned with his career and rank rather than military issues. The author paints Patton as a man on the verge of mental breakdown, and as a bit of a whiner. If you're a Patton fan, you might want to avoid this book.

5 comments about Abandoned on Bataan: One Man's Story of Survival.

1. So many people today do not fully understad the sacrafice and the struggle our parents and grandparents endured for the sake of freedom. We take it all for granted. Abandoned on Bataan tells of a small town Texas boys view of a horrible war. The will to survive and their struggles are an inspiration. The horrible acts of their captors should never be forgotten. Our unwillingness to get involved in the beginning, our thoughts that it's not our problem, should be a reminder. We must never forget the past, or those brave men and women who sacraficed all.



2. In today's world, war is something of a video game. We watch it on the television, in the movies, and even pretend to stage our own battles over the internet. Modern day combat as seen in the Middle East proves this even more. With high tech equipment and more resources, we have left ourselves at somewhat of a disadvantage psychologically from past wars. As Americans, many of us have become weak to the thought of paying the ultimate price for freedom. In Oliver `Red' Allen's book, Abandoned on Bataan, we read his memoirs of survival as a prisoner-of-war under Japanese control. Allen tells the story of his own personal tragedy along with the stories of other Americans stuck in "hell." The battle cry of the Bataan prisoners-of-war says it all:
   "We're the battling bastards of Bataan,
   No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,
   No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces,
   No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces.
   ...And nobody gives a damn!"
   
   Allen does not attempt to put together a bashing attack towards the Japanese, nor does he give the history of Bataan or World War II. He simply gives the reader a summary of one man's experience as a prisoner-of-war during the Bataan Death March and subsequent captivity. His vivid descriptions of the march along with daily accounts allow the harsh realities of war to be felt by anyone who reads his words.
   Allen gives an extensively detailed account of life as a POW under Japanese control. His depictions of daily life spent in Japanese custody are absolutely bone chilling. Some passages left me almost weeping with emotions that I thought were reserved for personal tragedies. One particular incident in the book concerned Allen's appearance before a senior Japanese officer. He was in trouble and had to stand at attention until he was excused; this treatment went on for hours. Already undernourished and overworked, Allen's body was on the verge of shutting down. After several hours, he was told to leave and go back to work. The Japanese officer left but later sent an interpreter back to find Allen still standing at attention. The young American prisoner was so numb with pain he could not move and had to remain in that position until pushed over by the guard. Even though atrocities like this occurred to the author, he still seemed to stay level-headed. Never during my reading did he seem to show hatred towards his captors, which is incredible given the conditions he had to endure.
   I consider Abandoned on Bataan one of the best books I have ever read about this era. After reading the book, persons come away with a greater appreciation of our life today and the freedoms we enjoy. Allen's positive attitude, even in the worst of situations, stands as a shining example for all. I would recommend this book without any reservation for those who want to know more about this painful episode from America's past.



3. "Abandoned on Bataan" is the detailed memoirs of Oliver Allen, one of may American soldiers left behind on the Bataan peninsula during World War II. Most people with even a basic knowledge of the history of the war in the Pacific know of the Bataan death march and the condition of the people when they were rescued from camps in China and Japan. What we generally don't know much about is what happened between those events. Oliver Allen's story fills in that detail with his personal experiences. He details the treatment received (including the rare instances of kindness shown by individual soldiers), the daily life in the camp, the work details, the health conditions, and the eventual liberation. It is a story of strength in the darkest hours of human travesty, it is a story of surviving, and it is a story of winning against all odds. For those with an interest in history and in particular an interest in Bataan or the war in the Pacific in general it is a highly recommended read.



4. Lest we forget the horror that is war.

   Standing, as we are, on the cusp of what historians will call the Second Gulf War, the world is confronted once again with the terrors and brutality that warfare stirs in the human psyche. Each of our living generations carries distinct and vivid imagery of what those horrors are. The further back in time our collective memories stretch, the more brutal warfare becomes. Tragically, as our technology has advanced, our ability to wage a lightning war -- an antiseptic Blitzkrieg if you will -- has become so profound that the youngest of our generations have forgotten, or never learned, just how terrible war can be. In a world where our most recent conflicts have seen more friendly fire casualties than deaths attributable to combat, to be captured, tortured, and deprived of basic human necessities is now something of an anachronism to Americans in the 21st century.

   To counter our fading memories, Oliver Craig Allen, with the help of his wife Mildred Faye Allen, has given us one man's perspective of the grim realities faced by thousands of American prisoners of war during World War II ' many of whom never returned home alive. The Allen's do not attempt to tell the sweeping and rich history of American combat in the Pacific during the war, nor have they put together a comprehensive history of Bataan, the Death March or even of the unit in which Red Allen served. Rather, this is a story of survival in the face of almost unimaginable brutality at the hands of Japanese captors. Throughout the story, the reader is met head-on with Allen's completely honest assessment of himself, not as a hero or otherwise notable figure but as a simple young man who ended up in a terrible situation from which there was little hope of escape. Allen's gritty determination and tenacious will to survive is perhaps the most salient feature in this work which traces Red Allen from the years prior to his enlistment through his freedom from captivity and to his return to life as a civilian deeply affected by his experiences in combat and captivity.

   Among the many prominent facets of this work is Allen's depiction of the ever-present fog of confusion and chaos that surrounded the battle for the Philippines and life as a captive of the Japanese. This story does an exceptional job in painting a clear picture of the fall of the Philippines and the abandonment of our armed forces thereafter. As a stand-alone memoir, Abandoned on Bataan is a good read about a terrible time. It is also valuable as a component in the larger story of the hell that was life as a prisoner of war under a Japanese captor with only the vaguest regard for individual dignity and human life.




5. One man's story of survival, as told to Mildred Allen. A teenage American GI recounts his years (1941-1945) of starvation, torture & germ warfare as a prisoner of war of the Japanese Empire in the Philippines & Manchuria.

   ABANDONED ON BATAAN isn't about great generals or mighty battles, it is much, much more important, for it is about the survival of human dignity, compassion & hope against all odds. Yes, Red Allen ponders on the differences between cultures. Yes, his perspective of his captors is all-American, his point-of-view, however, is both prosaic & honest.

   Yearning to become a pilot, teenager Oliver Allen answers the call to duty as the storms of war rumble over Europe & China. Unable to attain his dream of flying planes, he enlists anyway & is immediately shipped to the West Coast, on to Hawaii & then across the Pacific to the Philippine Islands into the maw of the Japanese advance.

   That Red Allen survives is due as much to the simplicity & hardscrabble of his Texas childhood during the Great Depression as to the ebullience of his youth, not to mention pure damn luck!

   Embedded in this memoir is history as well as a mystery. What were the reasons the world went to war in Europe & in Asia, & what were the feathers the POWs found in their Red Cross packages & parcels from home?

   ABANDONED ON BATAAN is an astonishing read. Profoundly modest, detailed & authentic. Time & time again, this prototypical survivor has the opportunity to dwell on self-pity & whine about horrific injustices visited upon him & his fellow POWs, however, he rarely does so, to his credit. It's the story that counts & the Allens have written a riveting memoir.

3 comments about Grace Hopper: Admiral Of The Cyber Sea (Library of Naval Biography).

1. Grace Hopper's contributions to computing were very impressive - I knew that before reading this book because I was a COBOL programmer. Nonetheless, "Admiral of the Cyber Sea" provided a very informative and interesting biography of this lady. It was also interesting to learn of the signal achievements of her siblings - reminding me of President Eisenhower, one of many "stars" in his household.
   
   Born in 1906, Grace Hopper graduated from Vassar, and got a PhD in mathematics from Yale in 1933. She married in '43, and divorced 15 years later. During WWII she followed her grandfather (an admiral) and joined the Navy - WAVES division. At that time she wrote programs for the Mark I computer housed in Harvard - focus was on ballistic trajectories, and accomplished at the speed of 3 operations/second. The Mark I was an electro-mechanical giant - 50' long, 8' tall, and 8' deep, with 3 million wire connections and weighing about 5 tons, and only having 72 words of storage.
   
   The term "Bug" came about when the Mark II was stopped by a relay failure - a moth had been trapped inside one of the relays. The moth was fished out, and taped to the computer's log book.
   
   Hopper then went to work on compiler development, having foreseen their potential for drastically reducing programming efforts while reducing "bugs." Retired from the Navy Reserve in 1966 as a Commander.
   
   However, the Navy soon realized it needed Hopper's continue service, and brought her back. She was impatient with bureaucracy - and displayed it with a clock that ran backwards and a Jolly Roger flag on her desk. One might suspect that Hopper would be one wedded to the "big iron" computers of her day - however, she early on saw the potential and value of microcomputers, and for networking minis.
   
   Commodore Hopper received her new rank (equivalent to today's Rear Admiral) in 1983 at a White House ceremony attended by President Reagan. Retirement took place 12/86 on the deck of the U.S.S. Constitution - the Navy's oldest commissioned ship. The very next day civilian Hopper, twice retired from the Navy, reported for full-time work at DEC.
   
   Grace Hopper died in 1992 at the age of 80, having worked and given almost daily speeches cross-country until the prior Summer. Truly an inspirational achiever!



2. I had a chance to hear Grace Hopper speak in 1970's in the early days of my own computer career. She was impressive then, and, after reading this book, I'm even more impressed by her career and her accomplishments, which were underrepresented in the 'computing history' to which I had previously been exposed. Through interviews and delving into untold amount of original source material, Ms. Williams has found MANY fascinating tidbits about Grace and the environment in which she lived and worked. For example, Grace DIDN'T invent the term computer bug. However, the interesting facts are strung together in an oft times confusing narrative - it took me much longer to read than usual. And the index didn't mention her engaging physical representation of a nanosecond. A worthwhile book, nonetheless, for those interested in computing history, and/or women who made a difference in technology.



3. I was at a coctail party at a computer show when this lady in a white Navy uniform came it. It was Grace Hopper. Someone asked her for an autograph. Admirals don't need to carry pens around, so I promptly offered her mine. And after she signed one of her business cards for him, I said that I'd like one also, so she signed another. I still have it.
   
   This all came back to me as soon as I saw this book. I picked it up, I opened it to a page where it talks about her first reporting to Howard Aiken at Harvard to work on the Mark I computer. Aiken handed her a manual and told her to write a program. Almost exactly twenty years after she was given the manual, the Army did exactly the same to me - here's a manual, here's the equasion I want solved.
   
   Even in her advanced years at the time I met her, she was still one very bright lady. This was in the very early days of the PC, and she had a basic understanding that enabled her to predict many of the things that were going to happen while the rest of were stumbling around thinking about word processing.
   
   Grace Hopper was quite a lady, and that's reflected in this book. Between 1934 and 1937 hers was the only Ph.D. in mathematics awarded to a female. It was quite a life that she led, and that too is reflected in this book. Adm. Hopper lived in a time when women didn't need to be educated, they were just going to be housewives, and they certainly weren't going to be Navy Admirals. This book is a story of one remarkable woman, but more than that it's the story of computing and of our changing times.

2 comments about Lee the Soldier.

1. It took my a long time to make it through this book, but it is well worth the time and effort. Gary Gallagher has consolidated several essays (to include his own) that describe Lee's abililty as a military commander. This approach really provides the reader with a comprehensive view of Lee on the battlefield.
   
   Two interesting things about the book. First, the authors vary greatly and include subordinates of Lee, noted Civil War historians, and modern Civil War scholars. Secondly, and not surprisingly, the opinions of these distinguished authors about Lee also vary greatly. Some view him as the true hero of the South, while others argue that he is the main reason the Confederacy lost. The result is that the reader can analyze the positions and decide for himself whether or not Lee was a good, bad, or mediocre General.
   
   If you are interested in gaining insight into Lee's role in the Civil War, then I highly recommend this book. It is worth noting that it helps if you have a fundamental understanding of the War and the sequence of battles in the East before tackling this book. Otherwise, some of the articles may be hard to follow.



2. You can't hope to understand the U.S. Civil War without coming to some kind of an understanding of Robert E. Lee. The South's preeminent commander was a larger-than-life figure in his own time, and continues to occupy a very prominent place in the American imagination. He is seen as the personification of the Southern aristocrat, the Christian gentleman, and the brilliant military commander. To some extent, all those characterizations are true; but they hardly tell the full story. The essays in this volume serve as a fine introduction to the ongoing debate about the true meaning of Robert E. Lee to us as Americans. Contributors like Douglas S. Freeman portray him as a godlike, awesome figure; revisionists like Alan T. Nolan brilliantly reexamine the traditional view, suggesting that Lee had flaws, both as a man and a commander. The most recent essays, such as Gary Gallagher's contribution, suggest that although the revisionists are to some extent correct, Lee was nevertheless a source of strength, not weakness, to the Confederacy. The debate will doubtless continue to rage, and if you want to get brought up to speed, this is the place to start.

2 comments about Grasshopper Pilot: A Memoir.

1. This book is a collection of writings by Julian Cummings and assembled into a book by his wife as he lay terminally ill in 2002. As such, the book has a number of problems: it's too short to say much; it's erratic in that some chapters have a nice amount of detail and others are just a page or two long; the writing style varies from pretty good to annoying.
   
   Most people seem to be able to write well about their own experiences, whether they are professional authors or not. You can see glimmers of that here, but it's not consistent. These wartime memoirs are best written in the first decade or two after the war. Beyond that the story just doesn't seem fresh, and parts of this book show that symptom.
   
   That said, the subject is an interesting and somewhat neglected one; although there are other books out on these small planes and their pilots they're expensive and hard to find.
   
   If you're at all curious about this aspect of WW2, you'll enjoy reading through this, but I recommend you check it out of a library or find a used copy cheap. I did not find it to be a "keeper".



2. The stories of the air war in Europe and Japan have concentrated on the stories of mighty bombers going off to bomb Germany or Japan and of sleek, fast, agile fighters defending Britain or the bombers. Bill Cummings did it differently. He flew a 'Grasshopper' the military version of the Piper Cub - 65 glorious horsepower (finally expanded to a mighty 100 hp).
   
   His story begins with being fascinated with flying as a kid and learning how to fly before WW II started. With 60+ hours of flying time, and an ROTC commission as a second lieutenant he was getting ready to put in for the air corp when a notice came down that all the officers who had sixty hours or more of private flying were to put in for flight training. Suddenly he was a military pilot.
   
   His military career took him to North Africa, Sicily, Italy and finally to the Philippines. Most of the time he flew in one plane, 'Maggie the Faithful,' 485 missions. His story is quite a different one from the usual Army 'I was there' book. He helps to fill a niche in an understudied dimension of the war.