History Books

Those skeptical about how compelling a non-fiction book can be, especially one that recounts events from nearly 70 years ago will be pleasently surprised. The author is a journalist who brings the story to life with a quick pace and paints avid picture of the setting without needless words.

I am not a World War II buff particularly, but I was thoroughly engrossed by the story; if you are then I would expect you would be swept away. The book has a great "plot" that has a pace like a novel and provides a greater character study of all those that appear in the pages. Knowing it is a true story makes it even more fun. A great read for the summer!

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

Very interesting true story of a double spy (Britain and Germany) during
WWII. After the correspondence from wartime had been released, the author pulled together thousands of details and presented a very informative behind-the-scenes look at the life of a spy on both the Nazi
and British sides of the war. A fascinating peek at wartime in both
countries, as well as the amazing life of a double spy!

Not a fast read, but a very interesting one!

A suposedly true story, but frankly it did not have much of a ring of truth about it. Certainly parts are true, but as much of the story relied on the writings of a con man, how much can one believe. It has that, after the fact ring, of the victors did nothing wrong and the vanquished did nothing right. The con man, if the story is to be trusted lived like a prince in both France, Norway, Germany and England fetted by all sides. Hmmm, Doesn't pass my litmus test.

Ah, the story of Eddie Chapman; long awaited and finally produced (actually two of them on the same day, but the thrust of "Zigzag" by Booth ruled it out for me.) I had read Masterman's "The Double-Cross System in the War from 1939 to 1945" which gave Chapman six pages, seen the movie "Triple-Cross", and wondered what the story really was. The movie bore no resemblance to the truth as usual, but finding out the truth in spy stories is always a realm where educated guess and conjecture must fill in the frustrating blanks. Chapman's story rings true in every respect and well worth the read over the 2-4 nights it provides.

Earlier reviewers have exalted or condemned Chapman, so allow me to state that essentially all spies/agents have a screw loose and a yen for danger, excitement and feeling special. They operate with governmental assistance well above the law -- a heady role that must in itself be its own reward. Few if any spies for western democracies have been justly rewarded for their endeavors, as such rewards are generally denied under the rubric of maintaining security. Most ex-agents are relegated to obscurity and penury while some are "terminated with extreme prejudice" (killed) if they are considered as security risks. In this respect, working for a totalitarian government like that in the old USSR has its rewards, as they tend to resettle ex-agents in government positions. There is something about a democracy that makes a spy untrustworthy to the public and unworthy of its respect. As such, Chapman was no exception.

Agent handlers or case officers are usually like Ryde, Chapman's last British handler -- bureaucrats playing it safe and willing to sacrifice their agents. The agents themselves are often despised for their courage and exciting lives -- things well beyond the capabilities of their handlers. In order to be successful, an agent must outwit the enemy and fend off bungled, misguided and often hostile actions by his "friendly" handlers. In Chapman's case he was under suspicion from both sides and faced dangerous situations that would have been insurmountable for a man with less larceny in his heart. That's what makes his case so extraordinary and improbable. But true.

Yes, Chapman was a cad and a career criminal, but many agents feature a dark side. So do many heroes. The difference is that the agent operates outside the law to be successful, and the best training for such activity is survival in a criminal world. Ask any under-cover police officer.

Other reviewers have made an issue about what Chapman accomplished. Few spies other than Burgess, Philby, Hollis, Alger Hiss, Ted Hall, the Rosenbergs, or Penkovskiy make a lasting difference -- even Richard Sorge's impact is disputed from the Soviet archives. Intelligence is made up from a number of small fragments or information, often obtained at great personal cost by unknown sources. And I'm not talking about a case officer like Valerie Plame who becomes a media darling without taking risks. Chapman was an real agent who risked his life repeatedly, made some contributions, and that should be enough. If the reader wants a story with great successes, he will have to look to stories of those traitors listed above who had unusual positions of access to information of particular value to another country. Not every agent saves the world, but many taken together just might. FYI, I was disappointed to see the author use the trendy term "mole", coined by John Le Carre, instead of the proper term "resident agent" that was in use until the 1970s.

With respect to the danger Chapman faced in Germany, it should be remembered that a number of individuals were constantly seeking to discredit or expose him, and if any single one of them had been successful, his life would have been forfeit after a period of torture. I suspect that none of the complaining reviewers would be willing to undertake such risks. Perhaps this is the "Mission Impossible" syndrome whereby we have become conditioned to expect truly impossible feats as requirements to hold our attention.

The author takes great pains to limit his presentation to facts that are confirmed through multiple sources rather than relying on Chapman. No doubt we all would have wanted more of the story, but with the available sources exhausted by this book, we will have to fall back on our own educated guesses and conjecture.

Read the book -- you'll learn a lot about how human intelligence is obtained or not obtained. The author does a good job of research and writing, and if the outcomes are not what we would want -- well, then, that is our problem.

The trials and tribulations of Eddie Chapman might have made an interesting story with another author, but this story was a disappointment to me. Many of the reviews mention how much this book is just like fiction but that it is a true story. If that were the case, I'd never read another spy fiction story the rest of my life. There is no excitement, no glamour, no dark secrets, no interesting double-cross-save-the-Brits-and-sink-the-Germans storyline, or even any tricks of the trade that I found engrossing. While I would not call this book tedious, I was not anxious to pick it up everyday and get into it. It was just there; just interesting enough to finish, but not the highlight of my day.

This is purely about Eddie Chapman and his love of excitement (as least it was exciting for him) and putting his life on the line into the unknown role of double spy. Unfortunately for the reader, the book concentrates on the mundane learning of various espionage antics that are never used. He was wined and dined by both sides and given anything that he wanted. But what does he really do to earn this treatment? Very little - a couple of weeks of misguidance during the V1 bombings and some misdirection about anti-submarine devices, but nothing in any detail. As this story is told, the ineptness of the German spy ring to England was interesting but hardly something that becomes a page turner.

I was expecting to learn more of the British Intelligence and how they handled the intricacies of the double spy. Other stories that I have read have shown the British to be light years ahead of everyone in this business, but you get only a glimpse of their thinking; almost as if it is tangential to the plot. There could have been some interesting detail on the alluded to, but never really divulged nervousness at the wireless. The reader never gets a feel for the danger involved. The story is too vague.

Eddie Chapman was a pawn used by both England and Germany and really never did anything that can be gleaned from this book for either party except to put a feather in each "spymaster's" cap for their respective governments. There are other acts of sabotage by other agents that are mentioned in the book, but basically nothing interesting is from the main character.

It seems that Chapman's life consisted of living in one hamlet after another while he was "trained" (with at least one woman in both England and in Norway) with one group of spymasters in one country or another for most of the book.

The author did a nice job with the description of what was happening in Norway with the Nazi occupation, but again you are left wanting more details and that was one chapter.

I guess I expected more thrills and danger. This was like a spy club for singles. The Germans are portrayed as totally bubbling idiots in almost all phases of the book. The politics of the situation were not very well explained. There is quite a bit of haggling over whether Chapman was a good spy or a counter intelligence spy by the German authorities, but the author doesn't go into any detail of the decision process.

It seems to me that this is a book about an small time crook that attempted to throw himself into anything that was life-threatening with the rewards of a romp in the sack and as much money as he could get. It does make for somewhat interesting reading, but I can't help but feel that the book was written with a movie in mind; it has that vague and incomplete feel that a movie book has.

came on time and in good condition! And very inexpensive compared to about 15 dollars at the book store!

Aptly named, this is a stunning story of courage, strength and perseverance. Good medicine for a nation of whiners.

This account of Shackelton's expedition to Antarctic is a read like no other. I could not put this book down,nor could I believe the constitution each person on the crew had to continue forth under such insurmountable odds. The author, Lansing has provided a compelling book. His research of events are smoothly seamed together captivating the reader. Even if ones interest usually doesn't lean toward the topic of explorer, I promise you this book will consume you. Its message is especially good for any of us who may be feeling "overwhelmed" by what our lives are tossing our way... you will be giving thanks at the comforts you have by comparison to this expeditions minimal articles to provide their continued existence. As another reviewer mentioned, buy the hard or soft-cover not paperback version as these include all of Hurley's photographs which are essential to this book-seeing is believing and you won't believe what this photographer captured. Enjoy, you will share the events of this book over and over with many.

The true story of Shackleton's exploration is an amazing testament into the power of strong leadership. Shackleton's leadership skills helped the entire crew to overcome seemingly impossible circumstances to achieve the end goal. This book chronicles a life lesson for all of us to know and understand. Although parts of it are hard for the non-seaworthy to understand, the book is still a good read. I found it hard to put down.

The extraordinary record of Ernest Shackleton and his company of the "Endurance". They set out for the South Pole, but their shp was caught in pack ice, and eventually destroyed. Read how Shacckleton and a few members of his crew set out in one of the ship's boats to find rescue for the remaining men. Courage and loyalty in the extreme.

The beauty of this book is that so many letters, reviews, interviews etc. about/by so many artists are conveniently gathered in one place. On the whole, there isn't anything in here that you can't find elsewhere, such as in biographies of the individual artists. For example the letters contained in the opening section on "Post-Impressionism" from both Cezanne and Van Gogh are included in just about every biography on them.

The over-riding reason for buying this book is that so many are collected together. So, even for an artist that you might not like enough to go out and buy their biography, atleast you get an insight in to their thoughts/motives etc. In some cases this may spark your interest in a previously less favoured artist and appreciate their works from a new perspective.

Chipp covers all the main "isms" of modern art from Post-Impressionism (Cezanne) onwards. Each movement opens with a treatise detailing the main theories/artists/concepts/techniques that made it unique. This is followed by a comprehensive selection of articles/letters/interviews etc. concerning the main players i.e. the section of Expressionism includes writings from Nolde, Kandinsky, Kokoschka, Kirchner, Marc, Klee and Beckmann. One of my favourite pieces is by Stuart Davis. He's responding to a critic's recent review..."in your review you speak of your enthusiasm for my work and call me a "swell American painter". This attitude on your part I heartily approve, but you further state that my style is French and that if Picasso had never lived I would have had to think out a style of my own. Now is that nice Mr. McBride?" and off Davis goes in his defence. Superb.

Rather than reading about these various "isms" via the well meaning but often biased views of a expert art historian, here you get the views from the artists themselves.

For any art historians dealing with the modern art period this book has to be essential. And for general appreciators of art, as well as artists themselves, this book contains a wealth of information, and pays dividends to both intense study or just random browsing.

Since it's first publication in 1968 this book has formed the foundation of any respectable art library. I just checked the bibliography of more recent books on art history - this book is referenced extensively. In my opinion, if anyone is looking for an interesting and enjoyable introduction to the world of "Modern Art" they could do a lot worse than start here. And given the way that any one "ism" owes it's existence to the "isms" that came before it*, this almost reads like a novel.

*Regardless of Dali's utterances about Surrealism being a unique movement, unfounded by anything that came before, just go and have a look at the works of Hieronymous Bosch to see that wasn't the case.

Recommended!

Even if you are not interested in the arts but simply in thought process- I think you will find this book very interesting. You could say this is the history of modern art without pictures (although there are some pictures)- bringing the reader facinating insights into how different types of artists came to their philosophies of art, and of course, the world. Documented through personal letters, manifestos, and articles, the varity of different thoughts and beliefs catapolts just what art can be. To me it shows that art is a never ending universe of ideas- all connecting but all very individual just the same.

I just wanted to respond to the person before me. It sounds like contemporary art is way over your head. Please do not waist our time with long reviews about things you clearly do not understand.

How often had I looked at a painting of Van Gough and wondered what exactly was this great man thinking when he conceived and painted such a picture. Now by reading thru this excellent book, I can claw into the mind of artists themselves.

Not only educational, but inspiring. I not only learned about each artist and what when on during their time of certain artworks, but I was able to get inside their head. The words of the artist's in their letters were captivating. I was caught up in the reading. I especially enjoyed Matisse and Kandinsky. Kandinsky is very spiritual about his writing and gives a deep explanation of colors. Anyway, it is a great read. It was required for my history course, but I enjoyed it. Not very many in my class could understand what they were reading. I guess you not only need intellect, but sophistication. I liked it!

Theater: The Lively Art
This book I need for my Literary Studies. It gives sufficient information on theater through the past 20 ages, from the Greek till today's Theater. All the photographs make it a book you'll always keep in your library.

The book was in great condition and arrived within a reasonable amount of time.

As textbooks go this is a light overview of Western Theatre Tradition. It includes a CD ROM with very little additional information. The book fails to go in depth into the historical influences that helped shape world and the theatrical tradition. It does however include landmark events in the theatre world of western europe and how it evolved into what we know today.

William Cronon's book Changes in the Land illuminates the relationship and impact the European colonial settlers had with their environment in New England. The main premise for this book is that different human cultures interact with their environment according to their cultural norms and subsequently have varying effects upon their surrounding environment as a result. Furthermore, Cronon illustrates that these effects created by humans on the environment have consequences which in turn affect the human population and its society. Ultimately he accomplishes the task of showing historically that Americans have the live it up now and pay for it later approach with the environment they live in and unfortunately most Americans still have not learned from previous mistakes with regards to the environment because they still think in terms of wastefulness instead of practical conservation. Even though the concept of Americans being wasteful with their natural resources is common knowledge today, this book truly shows the magnitude of wastefulness European colonial settlers had with their natural resources and the resulting negative consequences for the ecosystem and their own society. Changes in the Land does s superb job of highlighting the fact that this wasteful relationship that Americans have had with their environment has been ongoing since day one they set foot on the North American continent.

William Cronon definitely has the expert knowledge to write a book on the subject of environmental history. In a sense you can say his whole life has involved history and the environment. The afterword in Changes in the Land clearly shows that this book was not only a work that was initially started while he was at Yale as a graduate student, but also was influenced by his own interest of history and the environment even from his childhood. According to Cronon he was inspired as a youngster by his father who was a professor of American history at the University of Wisconsin and by growing up in an area that already had citizens aware and concerned about environmental issues. (pp. 171,173) Furthermore, Cronon's list of academic positions, writings on environmental history, and professional memberships are too numerous to account for in this small book review. Needless to say, after reading his list of lifetime accomplishments in this area on his website it is overwhelmingly clear he wrote this book from an authoritative viewpoint on the subject at hand.

Cronon accomplishes this authoritative viewpoint by juxtaposition of different perspectives and integrating evidence and information from other disciplines. Cronon initially uses the contrast of Henry Thoreau's account of the natural environment in1855 with an over two hundred years earlier account of the environment in New England by an English traveler named William Wood from 1633. Thoreau was obviously disenchanted with changes that had taken place in the environment since William Wood's day which was evident in his comment, "Is it not, a maimed and imperfect nature that I am conversant with?" (p. 4) Famous intellectuals, early naturalists, and traveler's documentation of the landscape were only some sources of evidence. Cronon also used a wide variety of other sources of information such as colonial town records from the courts and legislation, ecological data, and archeological records to build his case although he was wise enough to note that "caution is required in handling all these various forms of evidence (and nonevidence), together they provide a remarkably full portrait of ecological change in colonial New England." (p. 8) In chapters two through five he juxtaposes the European colonists' and Native Indians' society by comparing their relationship with and effect they respectively had on their environment. The general points Cronon makes, hopefully not oversimplifying too much, were firstly, Europeans viewed the natural resources of New England as commodities and the value they attached to them were based on whether or not the were valuable commodities in Europe. Secondly, Indians had a subsistence economy and moved to different locations depending on the season of the year which dictated where adequate food supplies could be found verses the Europeans who had fixed settlements in which they utilized agriculture and husbandry to generate food and eventually a profit for the excess that they cultivated. Thirdly, Indians' perspective of property was they owned the use of the resources on the land and shared the use of the resources with others where as Europeans perspective of owned property was that they owned a specific tract of land identified by clear boundaries in which the land and everything on it was owned by the individual. This comparison served to highlight the impact and consequences on the environment by European colonists due to the way the viewed land and natural resources of New England. The remainder of the book dealt with the consequences of the Europeans interaction with their environment.

Chapter five more or less made the point that due to the impact of diseases on the Indian population and the subsequent restructuring of their social and political system they needed to find a way to survive. One way to survive was to trade with the Europeans and a commodity that was valuable to the Europeans was fur. Indians participated in the decimation of animals that provided these furs and hence they got sucked into the European mercantile trade economy in which eventually they ended up trading their way of life away and the environment suffered for it in the process by losing large populations of animals. Chapters six and seven clearly illustrated the wasteful practices of European colonists with the natural resources such as timber which lead to deforestation, hotter summers, colder winters, and more floods as a consequence. The wasteful shortsighted practices of European colonists were also pervasive by the use of their non-friendly environmental agriculture and husbandry practices which only resulted in a vicious cycle of destruction with the environment they lived in. Cronon used an eyewitness account of the colonial time period to conclude his book. A Swedish traveler Peter Kalm summarized nicely the shortsighted wasteful practices of the Europeans colonists by saying "the grain fields, the meadows, the forests, the cattle, etc. are treated with equal carelessness." (p. 168) Kalm concluded that "This kind of agriculture will do for a time, but it will afterwards have bad consequences, as everyone may clearly see." (p. 169)
With that being said, Cronon did a wonderful job a presenting his case and providing evidence which made this book a very interesting read. The only downside for a reader (which is no fault of Cronon's because he is only the messenger), was the disappointing feeling and thought that this is typical behavior of humans when interacting with their environment and why don't people in general learn from their past mistakes?

This is a very good piece of work. Cronon manages to keep all possible biases aside. He attributes ecological changes or problems to both natives and colonists. However, he argues that English Colonists were responsible for the greatest amount of damage. It was not a 200 page book on Europe ruined America but a well written analysis on European, in particular England, ways of life and how they dramatically altered the face of America. Natives and Europeans has two completely different ideas of property, life, etc. Without criticizing the English he shows how the English colonists ideas of agriculture changed the face of New England. It was not a thirst for destruction but a way of life or agriculture that Europeans worked with for 2-3000 years. Cronon does a good job showing how English recognized the problem, although little was done to fix it, and attempted to find solutions. It was a well balanced piece of work and narrated from a neutral perspective.

This text was assigned as part of a college history course. As part of my initial reading I found the text to be wordy, indirect and a little overly complicated. However, after reviewing the test for an essay it became far more easily to take meaningful information from. Cronon does an excellent job explaining the transition of Indian culture and society. He also does a very good job of explaining the complex interaction between Indians and European settlers and the American wilderness. In my opinion Cronon focuses on capitalism and the transitions towards capitialism and Indian society. Overall a good history read, very applicable to American history.

This is not so much a book about New England per se as on how ecology should mould our understanding of history. For too long historians have ignored the ecological/environmental dimension to history, especially colonial history; and Cronon's book is one among a number of path-breaking works that serves to redress the balance.

As Cronon convincingly argues, the strength of ecological analysis in writing history lies in its ability to uncover processes and long-term changes which might otherwise remain invisible. Indeed, ecological change is used throughout the book as a window through which to uncover the complex long-term changes wrought by the arrival of the puritans to New England since the seventeenth century. The full impact of European colonisation cannot be understood apart from the new relationship they established with the New England ecosystem though their commoditisation of resources and their involvement in the international capitalist economy, both of which greatly impacted the land and its previous inhabitants, the Indians. These changes were cultural as much as they were simply environmental or economic: the arrival of the pig, for one, was bound in a cultural relationship to, among other things, the fence, the dandelion, and a very special definition of property.

Of course, the book also offers up fascinating insights into the changing New England landscape from 1600 to 1800. It corrects misconceptions about an unchanging primeval forest before the arrival of the Europeans, or of Indians as passive agents in subsequent changes wrought. It also establishes the origins of the environmental problems in the region such as deforestation, soil erosion, and resultant climate changes - the legacy of which we still live with today.

If this book interests you, so should other landmark studies on ecological or environmental history, such as Alfred Crosby's `Ecological Imperialism' or Donald Worster's `Dust Bowl'.

William Cronon's book was a seminal effort in 1983 that established a new way of thinking about history. It has stood the test of time. The book describes the modes and manner of the ecological impacts that English settlers had on the New England landscape in the colonial era. Some impacts were intentional, others not so much. For example, by the time first permanent settlements were established beginning at Plymouth in 1620, many Indian villages had already been devastated by European diseases (Europeans, especially fishermen had been frequenting the New England fisheries for decades).

The English settlers brought the English methods of farming, new concepts of property, and a market economy that overwhelmed the tribes and transformed the landscape. Forests were cleared, beaver were over-hunted, fences erected, new and domesticated animals and plants were introduced.

An added bonus in this 20th anniversary edition is a delightful afterword by the author reflecting on the book and how it came to be only through repeated serendipity. An added bonus for Wisconsin readers are his reflections on growing up in Madison as the son of a UW history professor and how those experiences shaped his professional life.

Cronon sagely instructs us to asks 'how so Alien a Then could have become so familiar a Now'. Changes in the Land also wrought changes in the way we think.

Not an easy book to read, but well worth the effort. Understanding the evidence and arguments for evolution requires effort and thought, whereas believing in invisible and untestable gods is easy, which is why most people choose the latter. Dawkins explains clearly why evolution is the best, indeed the only rational explanation for life as it exists on Earth (other than the FSM, of course. Arrrr!)

The book has been given so many praises from so many prestigious persons & media; hence may be a good book to read. But from my point of view, the author is as completely hypnotized by "Materialism" as the so-called creationists are so hypnotized by "God" the Father. I wonder why scientists do not try to put every life on a horizontal line instead of putting Mankind on the top of a tree! It is very dangerous for intelligent Mankind to fall from the top
Great Britain is a very interesting country in the point that she is the mother country of both Darwinism and the Society for Psychical Research. We lost Prof. Ian Stevenson last year (in 2007), who was the president of the SPR for 1989. Obvious truth is that: (1) if Prof. Stevenson's compiled data plus the official document of a Japanese boy "Katsugoro (in 1810)" of "reincarnation" is true, then all theories based on materialism surely fail, (2) if only a fraction of those compiled files include the truth, then the same will be concluded, (3) if "the missing 21 grams" of Dr. Duncan MacDougall (in 1907) cannot be refuted scientifically, then the same will be concluded.
That is, all our current scientific theories are sitting on the top of several big bombs, which might shatter all these materialistic ideas.

This book is another fine effort by Richard Dawkins to explain how the complexity of life can be explained by evolution including natural selection. He uses his usual detailed, but laymen type of explanation to explore how various attributes of animals (and man) have come about.

The books closing chapters deal with some of the other theories that exist to try to explain the diversity of life. He does not take a highbrow approach. He explains the core beliefs and concepts of the theories and then using their own words, shows how they can not explain it as well as the theory of evolution can.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a good discussion of evolution. You will not find an atheist arguing here. You will find a scientist who knows his field and wants you to understand it as well.

.....A watchmaker is still a watchmaker, and is presumably still making a watch that works. But whenever we don't understand something in our world, we say that there is no God. We profess to be intelligent beings but we think we know all there is to know, particularly as it concerns God. Sorry, folks, we don't know everything. And when we don't, just say so, don't say there is no God when you really do not know one way or the other. Every time we wonder "why", we say oh God would not do it that way. We would do it this way. We constantly substitute our judgments and viewpoints re what we think God should do. We are not God. So Mr Dawkins is in a field in which he knows absolutely nothing (re the existence or non-existence of a Supreme Being. Neither Dawkins nor anyone else is ever in a position to definitively state that there is no God. But we say it anyway, in our ignorance. Oh well :)

It is not a stretch of the imagination to claim that scientific evidence
supports the idea of a design in Nature. The real argument is not over
the presence of design but over the source of the design. Is it the random, ignorant, process of mutation and natural selection esposed by
Dawkin`s or the work of an Intelligent Designer.After a full assessment
of Dawkin`s book, I opt for the latter.I find it remarkable how often
the creativity we find in nature is so similar to human design-albeit,
Nature`s are usually more exquisite , optimal, or efficient.

Roth is still a great prose stylist. And the passages on Newark were brilliant. But for a historical novel, the history is way off. The radicalism is cartoonish or worse. Other writers have tackled this fascinating subject (the 60's radicals and what became of them) and done a much better job - Marge Piercy, for one.

Amer pastoral

In this novel, Roth's alter ego Nathan Zuckerman ("Skip") returns to his beloved northern New Jersey--in this case, Newark, during the halcyon days of the 40's and 50's. Back then, Newark was a thriving city of immigrants, many of them Jewish, who worked harder than we can possibly imagine today, but indeed caught the golden ring and realized the American Dream. Growing up, Skip lived in an innocent world of sports and school, worshipping the magical Swede, so-called because this blond god didn't look Jewish. Swede was an athlete and hero, and a look or a kind word from him was enough to send a young boy to Cloud 9. Swede grows up to live out a Jewish version of the American fantasy--he marries Miss New Jersey, buys the old stone mansion of his dreams, has a daughter, and lives the life of an upper middle class WASP. But it all turns into nightmare as daughter Merry grows up and gets caught up in the turmoil of the 60's.

Many consider "American Pastoral" Roth's masterpiece, and it won a Pulitzer. But as a Roth fan, I was disappointed. Was this story merely Skip's imagining of what had happened in the Swede's life? I tended to think so, which might explain the lack of immediacy I felt as I read. Too much of the second half of the book consists of Zuckerman's imaginings of the obsessions in Swede's mind as his personal American dream turns into a hellish nightmare. I felt as if I was going round and round in this poor guy's brain, never to escape. No doubt that's what Roth wanted to convey, but I found it wearing. I find other works of Roth far more compelling, "The Plot Against America" The Plot Against America and "The Human Stain" The Human Stain: A Novel among them. If you felt the same as I did about "Pastoral" don't give up on Roth; try these others.

This book gives me the sense that works by successful authors, once they're beyond a certain point in their career, just aren't edited before publication. American Pastoral reads as though Roth dictated it in one sitting. He frequently loses himself in unrestrained reveries and ends up repeating passages verbatim, backtracking through his thoughts, hoping for renewed inspiration or to regain the thread of his story.

Roth casts a conservative glance back at the 60s, looking for somewhere to place the blame for the revolutionary upheaval of the era, and though there are hints of classical tragedy in his story, Roth's links between the minuscule failures of a father and the dissolution of his society are unconvincing. His main character, "The Swede" is a conformist, Jewish jock who will only appeal to those who confuse athletic prowess with character. Roth infuses him with hackneyed greatest generation virtues and announces early on that the character will do nothing but suffer for them. The Swede is unwitting to the point of being witless, and that combined with Roth's unsympathetic caricature of radicalism left me with a bitter, Forrest Gump aftertaste. In general, the characters serve as little more than a lattice for Roth to weave lush descriptions of New Jersey around.

I put up with Roth's mensch and maenads up to the very end, afraid that I would miss some masterful stroke that would redeem such a mess. Rarely have I been so relieved to finish a book, though I have to give it to Roth that his voice alone can sustain a story. That's all that was there.

Have you ever known someone who, for example, has just gone through a bad break-up, and out of kindness you sit there for hours as you listen to the person's obsessive, often irrational ranting on one overemphasized detail blamed for the break-up when you only want to slap the person back to their senses? That's how I felt reading "American Pastoral." You might say that's the point -- trying to capture the obsessive mindset of someone enduring such a tragedy which felt kind of silly to be honest -- but it didn't work for me. This was a short story filled out with repetitive inner monologue and description so intrusive at times and both so rambling that it went on to the point Roth would stick a break in and restart the scene because even he knew there's no chance anybody could remember what the scene was about. I just wanted to slap him until he understands that we need more than that, even if it's not a plot-driven story! And the huge blocks of text didn't help. Doesn't Roth know that not breaking dialogue exchanges onto separate lines stopped being "in" like 50 years ago? For that, as well as what to me were bland characters I couldn't sympathize with, no spine or structure, and no resolution, I have to question whether Roth knows how to write for a modern audience. It's no surprise that, as inexplicanly critically acclaimed as this book is, it hasn't been adapted into a film and probably never will be: it's simply not entertaining and I don't feel like I took anything away from it besides a desire to avoid Roth at all costs from now on. So why did I read it then, when the book was so frustratingly dull I felt I could die? Like a lot of people writing negative reviews, I was duped into it by its Pulitzer Prize sticker.

Meet the ideal American golden boy, Swede, an all-star, perfectly moral glove-making icon who has everything: wealth, health, and talent. Swede has quaint American dreams: a beauty pageant wife, an oak tree with a tire swing, and a healthy, beaming child to swing on it. His dream is sullied, however, when that child -- a stuttering girl named Merry (irony!) -- turns into a political terrorist who goes around bombing post offices. What do you do when your hopes are torn between idealistic paternal love on the one hand, and irrational rage on the other?

It's obvious that Philip Roth, when writing AMERICAN PASTORAL, had The Great Gatsby in mind. The themes are almost the same, even if the execution is a tad different. Charles Baxter, in his book of essays, The Art of Subtext, states that when you have an obssessive and mentally unhinged central character, it is best to have a narrator who can view things from the outside. Moby Dick has Ishmael. THE GREAT GATSBY has Nick Carraway. AMERICAN PASTORAL has Skip Zuckerman.

Wait a minute. No, it doesn't.

One of the greatest flaws of Roth's Pulitzer Prize winning novel is that Roth wisely takes up the utensil of the buffering narrator, only to immediately discard it. Skip begins the Swede's story, telling the tale of disillusionment from a distance, but then Skip disappears and never comes back. The result is jarring and uneven. And, even worse, it serves to underscore every other unnecessary element to the book.

My guess is that this novel won the Pulitzer for two reasons. First, the prize was more in honor of Roth's body of work than in response to this particular tome. Second, the book, in spite of its glaring flaws, is unmistakably authentic and pure. Roth's writing is clear and unblinking, and every detail is so well-fitted, it reads like the script to a documentary.

Unfortunately, this wholesale honesty also kills the book. Roth's PASTORAL is about five times the size of Fitzgerald's GATSBY, but it is only 1/10th as powerful. Roth is not trying to tell any kind of linear, plot-driven tale. This is very much an analysis of American culture, it is a 423 page question about the nature of love and ideals, it is a portrait of a God-Among-Men who must find the wherewithal to deal with the Hellish Spawn he has given rise to.

The idea is brilliant, and if it weren't for the excruciating and maddening amount of detail and despair in the novel, there'd be a lot here worth poring over. Unfortunately, Roth spends so much time authenticating his novel with extraneous facts and mullings that there is far too much to wade through before you actually get to the good bits. Swede despairs and whines and bites his nails for pages and pages and pages while people lie to him, take advantage of him, and listen to him explain every single facet of glove making.

Never before have I felt so much like slapping every single character in a book. Halfway through the novel I bemoaned the loss of Skip. Where was this dull but at least relatable and grounded narrator that had begun the story? Nowhere to be found. Instead, there is Swede, wondering, over and over, what's to be done. What's to be done?

And guess what's to be done? Nothing at all. At the start of the novel you learn that the Swede has a new family, a new wife, new kids, a new direction. He has fashioned, finally, at least a semblance of the American dream, a mask to cover his first failed attempt. The bulk of the novel is about that failed attempt, but you NEVER learn the steps or details that engendered that massive change from Disasterous Daughter to New Fake Life. This is a change that you would imagine would be worth examining, this is a process that is at least as interesting as the destruction that preceeded it. Roth, it seems, disagrees with that.

Endings are hard, hard stuff, even for Pulitzer Prize winners, but this is the weakest of the weak endings. Most good books end in two ways. They either simply fold off the conflict and close the curtains, or they pass the story off to the reader to finish for themselves. Roth opts for the latter, hoping that the mountains of ruminating malarky that preceded it will be enough to encourage some serious consideration. It doesn't work. Instead, it feels like an aborted cop-out, a cheap parting shot, a record having its stylus ripped angrily across the grooves.

All wind and no sails, AMERICAN PASTORAL is moving on several levels, but those levels push against each other, so that no movement happens at all. Read it for the beautiful prose, but expect the last page to be the literary equivalent of having a door slammed in your face. And then maybe you will do as I did: cry out for Skip to help make sense of it all.

This is an excellent book that should be read by anyone curious about present-day China and the economic juggernaut that they have become. The author looks at their situation not from the macro side (the big picture - China's economy is thus and thus, growing from this to that in X amount of time, etc.) but rather he looks at it from the micro side: through the stories of everyday folks who are working in this new economy, many of whom he knows very well. Some lived through the Cultural Revolution and have a lot of baggage left over from that experience, while others were born after all of that and have grown up in the post-Mao era when China finally woke up and embraced capitalism (in its own way). It is one of the best examples of narrative non-fiction that I have read, and was hard to put down.

I really loved Peter Hessler's Rivertown and found Oracle Bones just as enjoyable. The author's style of writing is original and surprising, at unexpected points of his books. I studied in Taiwan in the mid-70's and found Peter Hessler's descriptions of the Chinese to be very similar to my own experiences. I get the feeling that there are others who are finding his writing just as enjoyable - a few days ago I was in the Denver airport and saw a copy of The New Yorker with his article about the Olympics listed at the top. He is a wonderful writer and anyone picking up this book will finish it knowing quite a bit more than he did before starting it.

I've read it before going to sleep and more than a few times it made stay up later than I wanted. The book is well written, without artful gimmicks (it doesn't try hard to be literary), but also without the cliches and boring turns of phrases one sees in modern 'reporting'.
The book weaves the past and the present. The past appears in the form of the oracle bones that belonged to the Shang dynasty. Hessler talks to old scholars, people who dedicated their lives to the study of ancient Chinese history; he finds out how their lives were affected by the Communists and ruminates on the importance of writing for Chinese culture.
The 'present' part of the book looks at ordinary people and the way they lead their lives in this fast-changing society. Hessler is clearly aware that this is not a free society, but he doesn't hit you over the head with it: instead, what he cares about is these people - their stories, aspirations, dreams. Some of them are former students and friends, and he doesn't shy away from getting involved in their lives.
All in all a pleasure to read.

I brought this book with me when I moved to Shanghai, China and eventually got around to reading after 2 months of living here. I have previously studied many of the topics he had touch base upon in his book, from the history of oracle bones, to the current politics (such as Xinjiang's struggle for independence). I even took a class once (ancient history of china) where a professor had criticized the book for being misinformed on its information regarding the oracle bones. All this considered, I kept an open mind when reading Mr. Hessler's novel and ended up enjoying it greatly.

I enjoyed the fact that Mr. Hessler took a different route when writing this book. He focused a lot on the individual stories of Chinese citizens, while sliding in factual events, history, and culture. This made the book as enjoyable as a fiction novel. Most of the facts in the book were previously known to me, so in some ways, I was a bit disappointed (looking forward to enhance my knowledge on the region). But like I said, it was the individual people he met on his journeys through China that made the book a page-turner. I would suggest this book for anyone who has any interest in China, or just a good story about a different culture. If you are in the Asian/Chinese studies field you may find this book a little below your level. Although you may, like me, end up enjoying it for what it is, entertaining!

I enjoyed the book very much because author use his point of view to describe his journey through his students, friends and travel through out the China abut the feeling toward past, today and the future of China.

This book gives a decent picture of the current political situation of the world.

Especially w.r.t 9/11 and the ongoing clash between the west and Islam the books seems like prophecy. The author is also right on the money when he claims and explains the bloody borders of Islam and I wonder why there is any dispute about this. More analysis of how Christianity and Islam spread after conception would have been insightful. Yugoslav wars are analyzed quite well and I would like to find a refutation of this analysis by any of his political/academic rivals.

The author however does not provide an alternative to the western dependence on mid-east oil. Limited interference is fine but how to run the limping US economy?

The author seems to have a subtle sense of western cultural superiority but hides it well behind cultural relativism.


The author however laments that the west is losing its edge and that religion is fading away. Towards the end he says that to find truth is part of morality. Does he want people to find the truth but not live by it? He also gloats about the west's rule of law, secularism and individualism, some of which are frowned upon by the religious right. It seems like he is contradicting himself unless he appeals for religiousity purely for uniting the society. He claims that Christianity is one of the defining aspects of the current west while ceding that Sweden/Europe is quite non-religious. Being aware of totalitarianism of Islam he should have been careful while treading this line.

I would like to end the review with a few quotes from the book that are (sometimes painfully) true:

"The underlying problem for the west is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power."

"In civilizational conflicts, unlike idealogical ones, kin stand by their kin "(Comparing responses of EU governments to US actions against USSR and Muslims)

"Powerful societies are universalistic; weak societies are particularistic."

"In Islam god is Caesar, in China and Japan Caesar is god, in Orthodoxy god is Caesar's junior partner"

The author delivers a great future cast rarely found in the historian world. This made the book great. While there is plenty to find out about the past, I always wondered what would the greatest historians of the world think of the future. Due their meticulous attitude few of them venture to speculate on facts that are not checked and double checked. Well, Samuel Huntington, is not that kind of historian. He develops on the future of the two main civilizations and the possible results. While I found him a bit too skeptical on the US future, I admire how well he's documenting his suppositions.
The most important think I got from the book is the fact that we all belong culturally somewhere and that is not necessarily the place where we were born. The early impressions in life mark us with tremendous prejudices, bound to clash with the world outside.
While looking for this book, I stumbled on "The World Without US" - a documentary similar in topic. After checking out the trailer at the film website, I got the DVD and it was quite good. It takes the premise of "America Alone" a step farther by asking, what would happen should the US withdraw its military completely from the world? Answering a hypothetical question is hard, for any author and filmmaker, however this movie did provide an answer. Weather you agree with or not I applaud the filmmakers for going on 5 continents in their quest. Check it out also.


The World Without US - With Niall Ferguson

As an Arab-Canadian, I'm pretty much at the forefront of this so-called "clash of civilizations", and the way I see things as it stands, it seems as though there is indeed a 'clash' materializing. However, that is only a superficial gut feeling, the same feeling the respect Dr. Sam Huntington subscribed to when writing this book.

My interest in this issue started when I read John Esposito's book, Political Islam - truly a masterpiece - which picked stripped the religion of Islam bare, down to its origins, and described its evolution over time, spanning the Muhammedian era up till 9/11. He also dedicated chapters to specific issues such as the Jamaat-e-Islami group in Pakistan, the Iranian revolution and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - all these were discussed in a political and religious context. In the afterword, he mentioned how there is almost no overlap between these movements, that these were truly independent movements spawned by the circumstantial political and socioeconomic currents in the region in question. From there, he concluded that the idea of a 'clash of civilizations' is preposterous. Indeed, it's a figment of Dr. Huntington's imagination.

There are almost 1.5 billion Muslims on this planet. The Islamic world stretches from West Africa all the way down to Southeast Asia. There is absolutely no common political denominator between the Muslims in, say, Morocco and the Muslims in China, because there is a massive cultural cleft within the Islamic world (and even within the Western bloc - something Tom Freidman also missed).

I won't go into the details, refuting every claim this book makes, but my impression of this book is that it's trash. I was even slightly offended by how much generalizing and statistical abuse this Harvard graduate has managed to cram in his book. The very fact that he didn't go through the trouble of trying to analyze the Muslim World in a greater depth left me uneasy going through the last couple of pages of the book.

In the end, this is just racist propaganda by a Xenophobe, not more. It shouldn't deserve that much attention, and indeed should be pulled of the shelves of all libraries for being more of a hate speech inciter than even the holy books!

First published in 1996, this scholarly discussion of future international relations has been a classic from the beginning and will remain so for decades to come. From among the seven most important civilizations the author selected three, which may collide in conflict. Thus, in Moslem eyes Western culture is decadent in various ways and therefore utterly unacceptable. The current resurgence of the Islamic civilization is seen as an evolution no less significant than the Reformation or Marxism, demanding society's complete overhaul, renewal and purification, a movement whose impact on history will grow as the Moslem population will soon represent thirty percent of humanity. At the same time, Islam is seen as the least tolerant of religions, as it promotes peace inside their ranks but hostility toward the infidels outside.
Similarly, in East Asia, the Confucian civilization adheres to commandments like order, discipline, hard work and abstemiousness, where the individual subordinates to the needs of the community. Alien to them is what they call the West's sanctifying of human rights. Whereas we in the West expect our value system soon to become universal, the Confucian world is convinced that "the Anglo-Saxon module is not working" and that their own standards must of necessity apply to the rest of humanity. Here, again, the impact of such convictions will be immense as the center of gravity of economic power is rapidly shifting from the West to the East.
Out of such discordance, there arise economic and political contentions and military ones cannot be ruled out. Huntington believes possible conflicts could arise from a contest between Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance and Sinic assertiveness. The spark igniting material strife, however, will most likely be generated by more prosaic crises such as the youth bulge among the unemployed, terrorism, rivalry in the search of resources such as oil, and the pervasiveness of weapons of mass destruction among those who suffer and rebel.
The main message carried forth from this study is that any military clash in the future will most likely oppose not nations but rather civilizations in what he aptly calls fault-line wars. He points to the danger that such inter-civilizational feuds will be uncompromising and almost impossible to halt.
Huntington advises the reader that cultural universalism, so engrained in the mind of the West, is ill advised and that especially includes the American tendency to be "a nanny if not even a bully" in other civilizations. We must, he says, renounce universalism of values, and instead accept diversity and seek commonalities.
Since these thoughts were first published, much has been confirmed. The power shift toward East Asia is rapidly progressing. Fault-line conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Chechnya and the Balkans have resisted or defied peacemaking efforts. Our promotion of democracy, civil rights, and individualism has been rejected elsewhere in favor of soft authoritarianism. Most importantly, perhaps, is the West's failure to observe the "abstention rule", that is, for one civilization to abstain from invading the lands of another.
Every prospective world leader should read this book at least once.

This excellent book provides the reader with a view of the world based on civilizations - past, present and future. If you cannot find time to read the entire book, read the last chapter. It describes creditable circumstances under with a third world war could ignite.

I never really enjoyed Anne Rice's novels until I read this one called
The Road to Cana. But within a short time, her powerful description of the
two young boys who were caught under the same blanket and then stoned
to death by the Jewish villagers for what one assumes was a typical love
affair a la San Francisco style.

For the first time I began to understand what the Christian path to
a more human philosophy of life was all about. With a very short novel,
she has expressed via her key characters what hate, anger, greed,
and true love are all about.

No doubt the dedication of this book to her son Christopher has
a deeper meaning that can only be appreciated after also reading some
of his novels.

I hope that the Southern "profits" like Joyce Meyers can read
this book for a better understanding of the meaning of "love thy
neighbor as thyself."

Great book. James Albertson, Morgan Hill, Calif.

2nd installment in highly attractive Anne Rice story about Jesus Christ, finds God at around age of 30 in Nazareth, where not so young anymore, Yeshua the Sinless is still struggling to discover his divinity amidst problems in his village and arrival of new Roman governor Pontius Pilate. The book is beautifully written in first person with Jesus discovering the sense of humanly love for the woman and finding the way to his destiny. 75% of the book deals with issues unknown from the Bible and is the most intriguing. The last few chapters depicting the baptism in the river Jordan, miracles on the road to Cana, and gathering of the first disciples is much more recognized to us, but still interesting. Despite deep knowledge of the bible, I am eagerly awaiting the continuation of the Jesus story expecting Anne Rice to interlace a bit of her own imagination to help a common reader to understand a possible struggle between Jesus' humanity and divinity.

When I first saw this book, I was sceptical but excited at the same time. After all, I was worried about what path Anne Rice might have taken when writing about the life of Jesus. I sought out and read "Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt" first and then this one.

Anne Rice does a great job of growing and developing the character of Yeshua bar Joseph, from a young boy unaware of the mystery and history of his birth, to a 30-year-old man, where we are when this novel opens up.

All I can say is it is very worth the read. She does a great job of interweaving the stories from the bible into her books. She really painted a terrific visual picture of what life might have been like, but, at the same time, you are seeing it through the life of an observer, a man, Jesus.

Even though we know what happens next, I can't wait to read the next one. I am so excited about it. Can't believe I have to wait!

It's amazing to me how Anne is able to bring you immediately into the life of Jesus as the narrator of this incredible book! Her exhaustive research is evident, but it doesn't interrupt the story. You truly get a sense of what this part of Jesus' life may have been like. I found myself thinking about it for days after I finished it!

Anne Rice has pulled off another well written depiction of the life of Christ. In this volume, the author imagines Jesus (Yeshua) just before he takes off on his preaching career that would change the world. Christ still struggles with his identity and over whether he can ever love in the sense of taking a wife. Meanwhile, tiny Nazerath is a place of gossip and at times mob violence. Overall the first two thirds are well written but generally not as good as Rice's original in the series. The last third or so is generally excellent as Christ undergoes the temptation in the wilderness and finally truely begins to understand he is God incarnate. One of Rice's better writing talents seems to be characterization as well as generally smooth storytelling that is able to hold my interest. As good as Lew Wallace's "Ben-Hur" or Douglas's "The Robe" were at times, they could be slow at times as well. While not yet on the level of "Quo Vadis" or Maier's "The Flames of Rome" in my opinion, I think Rice's series is well done and has potential to reach greater heights than it currently attains. I really hope she writes some more in this series and I especially want to see how she would do the Passion and Resurrection. As a person who generally likes history, I was pleased Rice alluded to the battle at the Teutonburg Forest in 9 A.D. (C.E.) though readers not interested in ancient military history might care less on that count. I am wandering about a couple of minor details in the story however.
1. People are often seen outside at night in both books. In the first century there were still some lions around parts of Judea to my knowledge and I believe leopards live in parts of Israel to this very day. And then there are the raiders Rice mentions. Would it be safe to be out late at this time?
2. Where is Peter's wife? His mother-and-law is mentioned but I don't remember any mentioning of the disciple's wife.

On the whole though, good writing and excellent characterization. I recommend it.