BLL Book Reviews - June 2017

Brewster Ladies Library, 1822 Main Street, Brewster, MA 02631

In this issue… Teacup (Picture Book for 4-8 year-olds) by Rebecca Young and Illustrated by Matt Ottley (Nori Morganstein) We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America by Charles Peters (Susan Carr) A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order by Richard Haass (Doug Wilcock) Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Jim Mills) We Meant Well; How I Helped Lose The Battle For The Hearts and Minds Of The Iraqi People by Peter Van Boren (Don Boink) Democracy: A Case Study by David A. Moss (Doug Wilcock) The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finked (Jim Mills) Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat by Giles Milton (Don Boink) Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry (Don Boink) The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, The Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley (Jim Mills) The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944 – 1945 by James D Hornfischer (Don Boink) But What If We Are Wrong: Thinking About The Present As If It Were The Past by Chuck Klosterman (Don Boink)

Teacup (Dial Books, 2016) (Picture Book for 4-8 year-olds) by Rebecca Young and Illustrated by Matt Ottley reviewed by: Nori Morganstein, Youth Services Librarian/Assistant Director

Teacup is a surreal story for readers who like tales of adventure. It’s the story of a boy who takes off on a boat in search of a new home. He travels across the ocean looking for a speck on the horizon. All he takes with him is a small bag and a teacup with some earth in it from where he used to play. He has good days out on the ocean and bad. He passes dolphins, giant waves, darkness, whales, and storm clouds. At one point, the earth in his teacup begins to grow. After a little time, a whole tree grows out of his boat. The book ends with him on an island, his new home, where he is eventually joined by a girl with a tree in her boat, and a broken eggcup. This is the kind of book that will have children wondering what is real. Is the boy dreaming or is he really in the ocean? The book never really answers that question. It’s up to the reader to decide. It’s a great book to broach the concept of fiction versus nonfiction. Is it possible for trees to grow in a canoe? What would the boy really need to survive so long on the ocean? For slightly older readers, the book can also work as a great way to start discussing metaphor and symbolism. What might the tree represent? Why does the girl have a broken cup too? On the surface, this is a book of an adventure or journey and any child can appreciate that. But, it also works as a good book to start talking about things beneath the surface. The best part of the book is the illustrations. This is a beautiful book. The ocean looks real. The artist clearly spent a lot of time on the ocean. And the opening pages (and front cover) look like Breakwater Beach in Brewster at low tide. This is a book for beach goers, and ocean lovers, and I can see a lot of children here relating to the pictures they see. Some illustrations look like photographs. And others look more surreal. There’s one page where the water is so clear, it looks like the clouds in the sky are also in the water (and not just reflected there), and it looks like whales are swimming in the clouds. This book can work for a wide range of ages. Adults would appreciate the artwork. Children would love the adventure story. And older kids would love a deeper discussion brought on by the dream-like atmosphere. This would make it perfect for a bedtime story read to more than one child. I also highly recommend it to ocean lovers and dreamers.

1 of 10 We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America (April 2017) by Charles Peters reviewed Susan Carr

Perhaps I loved this book because I agreed with many (OK, all) of the author’s conclusions. Maybe I loved it because he covered the stories of my lifetime. Or possibly it appealed to me because he was able to look back and admit to the times when he was wrong. Charles Peters is a lawyer and journalist who spent most of his 60 year career in Washington, DC. He helped found the Peace Corps and was the founder and long time editor of The Washington Monthly. He is the author of several books, including How Washington Really Works. In the forward of We Do Our Part, Jon Meacham refers to Peters as Vox Clamatis in Deserto (a voice crying in the wilderness) beseeching us “to heed the better angels of our nature.” Peters starts his book in the early 1930s when America was in the depths of the depression. Many people were down and out and before FDR put his plans in place, many people survived through the generosity of others. Peters’ mother used to feed hungry people who came to her door. His friends’ mothers did the same. The same spirit was in evident through WWII, the 50s, and the 60s started with John Kennedy’s “Ask what you can do for your country”. “Indeed, the spirit that problems could be overcome seemed to grip the country.” However, by the end of the decade, Martin Luther King and Bobbie Kennedy had been assassinated, we were into the Vietnam War, demonstrations were happening in cities and on college campuses. But, according to Peters, “Part of the motivation was an idealistic concern with stopping the war, but it was coupled with something less admirable, a desire to evade the draft and let someone else do the fighting and dying… part of a growing class separation.” And in 1979 Jimmy Carter, made an address to the country where he warned about “selfishness and self- absorption.” A malaise was settling in. One change is especially important as we witness the stalemate occurring in Washington, today. “In the New Deal, almost no one entered public service with the idea of cashing in on that service when they left…And the numbers of those who, whatever their motivation for entering government, left it to make more money continued to grow, soaring from the twenty whom Cabell Phillips was able to name in 1946 to thousands during the administration of George W. Bush. They would become lobbyists or work inside corporations or law firms to formulate strategies for dealing with Congress and executive branch agencies.” Peters tells of many other changes: the amalgamation of most of the nation’s wealth in the hands of very few, the growth of a luxury economy, the power of the NRA, excesses of the war on crime, gerrymandering, Reagan’s deregulation, and recently the effort by the Republican Party to do anything to make Democrats fail. These and many other efforts have brought about a concentration on money and stagnation of the governmental process. Peters highlights the people of these years, 1930 to 2017 who played a role and made a difference. He includes the high mucky-mucks and the lowly, the honorable and the not so. In spite of all these depressing trends, Peters offers hope…not a quick fix… but hope. The Democrats have realized their massive error of leaving the worker out of the picture. People have emerged from the shadows since Trump was elected, marching and protesting. The example of California’s turning pro-education and pro- immigrant, an example for other states. The central theme would be “reducing the role of money in politics” and encouraging public service, not eating from the public trough…so to speak. His book is a description of the times, but also, a call for action. Another thing to like about Peters…His hopeful outlook. “Having witnessed the wonders of the Roosevelt era, I know what the American people are capable of.” One could label this book a simplistic look at the times or his painting with a very broad brush. For instance, the attempt to avoid conscription wasn’t unique to the Vietnam War. It was a common event for a reluctant soldier to pay his way out of service during the Civil War. Or we can’t assume that politics has been exempt from lobbying, sweetheart deals, bribery and even worse, up until the 70s and 80s. Yet, Peters’ idealism and appeal to our heeding the better angels of our nature, should not be ignored. Indeed, what else can turn the tide?

2 of 10 A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order by Richard Haass reviewed by Doug Wilcock

Dr. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, shies away from the word chaos, instead choosing disarray to describe how he sees the state of the world and the U.S. role in that world. Absent the certainty of major power confrontation that characterized the Cold War, Haass feels that American foreign policy has largely failed to comprehend the new world order that features multiple actors, regional grievances and conflicts, and interests not neatly contained within sovereign states. As he points out, in many cases the principal actors are not nations, but rather loose amalgamations formed to promote a particular interest. Haass even includes NGO's like the Gates Foundation and Doctors without Borders as major actors in this drama, a drama that he refers to as a world of distributed power, a world in which measurable power such as the overwhelming military power of the United States is not the same as the relevant power that can be brought to bear on a particular situation. Richard Haass is a right of center globalist. He would choose to call himself a realist and, among the post- World War II presidents, he seems most enamored of George H. W. Bush's foreign policy. He feels that there is an inherent tension between the realists and what he calls the Wilsonian idealist camp, a camp into which he places Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. Haass calls this split the most enduring fault line in American foreign policy. Haass begins the book with a brief history of foreign policy so that the reader has a clear understanding of the context in which foreign policy is enacted. He touches on a number of topics like the 1815 Congress of Vienna and the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that he deems important milestones in diplomacy. The latter he regards as especially important as establishing order between countries but not dictating what goes on within those countries. He feels that the spirit of the Westphalian model came out in the 19th century Concert of Europe that emphasized order over equality and stability over justice. This is the foundation of Haass's realism but, as he explains, this is now simply too narrow a view of the contemporary world. He chooses to update this realism with what he calls sovereign obligation. He devotes about twenty-five pages to sovereign obligation so it is not an easy concept to explain in a sentence or two. However, two examples might give an indication of what that entails. Choices have to be made in foreign policy and the benefits and costs of those choices have to be weighed. Haass feels that George H.W. Bush was correct in not responding when China cracked down on protesters in Tiananmen Square, suggesting that responding strongly would have set back other elements in this bilateral relationship. By contrast, he suggests that the Obama administration response to the sequence of events in Egypt (the ouster of Mubarak, the election that brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power, and the subsequent coup that led to General el-Sisi becoming president) was vacillating and uncertain. The result was that other Middle Eastern allies like Saudi Arabia distrusted American resolve. Haass suggests that the world has come to accept that realism is respect for borders. When that respect is breached, as in Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait or Russia grabbing , the world responds either militarily or with financial sanctions. Sovereign obligation is trickier; it is easy to get wrong. A prime example is Libya where humanitarian intervention sought to protect the Libyan people from the Gadhafi regime. However, the results of this action were problematic in that humanitarian intervention morphed into regime change. This unfortunately puts dictators like North Korea's Kim on notice as to potential consequences for his own regime. Haass points out that elections should not be equated with democracy. In the absence of checks and balances and a strong constitution, elections can have anti-democratic outcomes. He instead gives a number of reforms that he regards as prerequisites to democracy: reduce corruption, give increased opportunity for girls and women, allow space for civil society, promote educational reform that moves away from rote learning and toward critical thinking, and reform the economy to reduce the role of government and the energy sector. Haass does talk about the United States, the domestic problems it faces, and the consequences for foreign policy. Chief among them in his view is the level of federal debt. It has the potential to hamstring foreign policy, especially if those holding the debt are in fundamental disagreement with American aims. His solution is for faster economic growth. Having recently read Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth, I am skeptical that this will happen. Despite that, Haass makes a compelling case that the level of American indebtedness is a corrosive element that must be dealt with. While what Haass has to say may or may not strike a resonant chord, he has made a strong case for a supple, nuanced foreign policy. The easier bipolar world of the Cold War is gone; a multi-polar world is upon us. Countries we view as rivals in one context may be partners in another (think of China in regard to North Korea). Haass urges us to be thoughtful in how we view foreign policy, suggesting that we not reach for the easy option without thinking deeply of the consequences. If creative diplomacy prevented the Cold War becoming a hot war, even more creative diplomacy is required for the world we face. Richard Haass has done us a great favor by laying out a road map for how we can achieve a peaceful, stable, healthy world.

3 of 10 Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow reviewed by Jim Mills

Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton was first published in 2004 and was a best seller at that time. In 2017 with the phenomenal success of Hamilton the musical on Broadway, Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton is once again on the New York Times’ Best Seller’s list. Hamilton, one of the leading founding fathers of our nation was not born in the land that was to become the United States. In the mid-1750s, Hamilton was born under impoverished conditions on the Caribbean island of Nevis. Due to the stringent divorce laws at the time, his parents were not married. The conditions of his birth were used repeatedly by Hamilton’s opponents over the years to attack him. Despite his origins, Hamilton’s drive and intelligence was to raise him to a dominant position in the American Revolutionary War and in the creation of the Constitution and the form of our early government and society. In the early 1770s Hamilton, recognized for his outstanding abilities was given an opportunity to attend school in pre-revolutionary America. Just prior to the War he was a student in New York City at an King’s College, now Columbia University. When the war started Hamilton wanted to participate and ended up as a principal aide to General Washington. Fiercely desiring a field command, he was held back by Washington who greatly valued his advice and support in his headquarters. Just prior to the final battle of the War at Yorktown, Hamilton finally got his wish and demonstrated his courage and ability in combat. With the war over Hamilton was named as a Congressmen from New York under the existing Articles of Confederation. Realizing the severe shortcomings of the US Government operations under the terms of Confederation, Hamilton became one of the prime movers in the drive to hold a convention that created the Constitution in 1787. He along with James Madison and George Washington were instrumental in creating the document that is so central to the future operation of our government. During the protracted ratification process, where each of the states were holding conventions to ratify the new Constitution, Hamilton, Madison and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers, a collection of essays that outlined the factors so important to providing good government. These Papers were designed to promote State acceptance of the new Constitution. As the author states Hamilton “ lived, in theory and practice, every syllable of the Constitution. For that reason, historian Clinton Rossiter insisted that Hamilton’s ‘works and words have been more consequential than those of any other American in shaping the Constitution under which we live.’” In 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as the first President, eleven of the thirteen states had ratified the constitution. Rhode Island and were soon to follow. President Washington was faced with an essentially blank slate in creating a new government at the start of his first term, there was no precedent. His selection of Cabinet officers was crucial, particularly the appointment of Alexander Hamilton as the Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton essentially created the U.S Banking and Finance system from scratch introducing a new currency. The conflict between the interests of the primarily agricultural southern states and the more industrial states of the North made Hamilton’s job more demanding. As Washington’s first term progressed the divisions in the country became more prominent and congealed into two competing parties the Federalists (Adams, Hamilton, Washington) and the Democrat-Republicans (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe). In this divide the author has concluded that Hamilton was a very major force in creating the dynamism that has propelled America to prominence. On the other hand he doesn’t think too much about Thomas Jefferson who he discredits at many points in the text. In 1795 Hamilton resigned as Secretary of the Treasury and returned to private life as an attorney in New York. In the late 1790s tensions with post-revolutionary France led to the re-establishment of an Army and Hamilton was given a leading role in the new Army as a Major General, second only to George Washington. By 1800 a return to normal relations with France led the Congress to withhold funds from the Army and ended Hamilton’s military role. Hamilton who had an influential role in the Washington administration did not have a role with President Adams. With the 1800 election Jefferson became President and the Federalists were out of power. The following year Hamilton’s oldest son, Philip, was killed in a duel in part defending attacks on his father. That same year Hamilton was one of the founders of the N. Y. Evening Post, which is the oldest continually published paper in the U. S. This early era in politics, like many subsequent ones, was characterized by open hatred and demonization of opponents. Hamilton, a very aggressive individual, was, at times, despised by many of his contemporaries including Jefferson, Adams, Madison and Monroe, four of our first five Presidents. Only Washington held Hamilton in high esteem and it was under his leadership that Hamilton flourished. Hamilton came close to being involved in duels numerous times before his fatal encounter with Aaron Burr in 1804. Vice President Aaron Burr took exception to statements that Hamilton had made about him after Burr had lost his bid to become Governor of New York. A sequence of events led to the famous confrontation in Weehawken, N.J across the Hudson River from new York. The Jersey side of the Hudson had become a popular site for duels, since they (continued next page)

4 of 10 had a quasi-legal status and were usually conducted in secret. Hamilton died the day after the duel and Burr ended up wandering about the world as a wanted and desolate man dying in N Y in 1836. Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, having lost a son and a husband to dueling, lived for another 50 years after his death, even managing to meet President Millard Fillmore when she lived in Washington in the 1850s. There is a tendency for biographers to identify with their subjects and to view them in a better light than other historians. Chernow summarizes Hamilton’s contributions: “Bankrupt when Hamilton took office, the United States now enjoyed a credit rating equal that of any European nation. He had laid the foundation for liberal democracy and capitalism and helped to transform the role of the president from passive administrator to active policy maker, creating the institutional scaffolding for America’s future emergence as a great power. …. Hamilton’s achievements were never matched because he was present at the government’s inception, when he could draw on a blank slate. If Washington was the father of his country, and Madison was the father of the Constitution, then Alexander Hamilton was surely the father of the American government.” Another source of strong praise for Hamilton came from the fourth Chief Justice, John Marshall. As Chernow noted: “…Marshall pronounced Hamilton ‘the greatest man (or one of the greatest men) that had ever appeared in the United States.’ Marshall considered Hamilton and Washington, the two indispensable founders…” Alexander Hamilton is a ponderous read, at 731 pages a major reading commitment, but such biographies give the reader a better insight into the basic character of an individual than other available options.

We Meant Well; How I Helped Lose The Battle For The Hearts and Minds Of The Iraqi People by Peter Van Boren reviewed by Don Boink

From the publishers weekly review the comment “shocking and darkly hilarious… With lyrical prose and biting wit this book reveals the devastating arrogance of imperial ambition and folly”. Peter Van Boren served in the State Department Forensic Service for more than 20 years his assignments were all over the world. His book covers the years he spent in Iraq as the leader of a State Department Provisional Reconstruction team. With great insight he describes the pointless projects and bureaucratic bumbling and lack of strategic direction. We (taxpayers) bought all these projects, and more, in a plan more expensive than the Marshall Plan. In 262 pages he describes, chapter by chapter, what he experienced and attempted to make more effective. The basis for the "project" were ideas formulated for the purpose of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people by persons totally ignorant of what the situation was and how to correct it. My recollection of the Iraqi war, during the infamous Bush – Cheney - Rumsfeld, administration is that beside being a terrible idea the war was, to be to begin with, the most inadequately researched event ever. We were engaged in a war already in Afghanistan that we seemed to be winning. The rationale behind the pivot to Iraq based, on trumped up excuses of weapons of mass destruction, threatening to the US, was bad enough. Once we were in Iraq, and occupying the country, we had no plan for the aftermath. Appointing a Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by Paul Bremer, an attempt was made to establish order. For whatever reason it was thought necessary to destroy the existing Ba'ath organization. Under Hussein it was necessary to belong to the Ba'ath Party in order to get any kind of a job, so almost everyone joined. That work included the Army and the entire civilian civic structure. Bremer therefore decided to fire all Ba'ath party members and disband the entire army. This brilliant endeavor immediately created chaos and civil collapse. Our military was too undermanned to assume the necessary control functions and merely stood by as riots and pillaging took place. The military forces were not welcomed as heroes and liberators as expected. Instead the invasion laid the foundation for the insurrection that evolved into the ISIS of today That's my own conclusion as to how things went. A more informed analysis I’m sure would provide many nuances. In any event it amazes me that our country has survived the entire loss, and the enormous loss in blood and treasure.

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5 of 10 Democracy: A Case Study by David A. Moss reviewed by Doug Wilcock

We may, perhaps rightly, believe that we are living in an era that will see the end of the democratic principles on which this country was founded, that the partisan split in evidence on many issues will rend the fabric of the nation. "Don't think this era is unique," David Moss, historian in the business school at Harvard might say, "we've been in this position before." As Moss explains, the default position for democracy may be bitter partisan division and that division may be indicative of the health of the democracy, not of its imminent collapse. Moss suggests that there is more to democracy than broad suffrage, majority rule, and a constitution. "Equally necessary … is a vibrant spirit of political engagement among the people themselves that yields productive conflict in the marketplace of ideas, presumably along the lines that Madison envisioned." The key question or issue that arises from this is whether the conflict between ideas will be productive or destructive. Clearly, the political climate leading up to the Civil War was destructive, but Moss reminds us that there have been similarly contentious times and issues in our history where profound differences led to productive outcomes. The book is organized into nineteen chapters. Each of the chapters is, in the spirit of the Harvard Business School where Moss teaches, a case study of a particularly contentious issue. Moss's method is to introduce a question and then, in a roughly thirty-page chapter, give the background to and historical evolution of that question. He invites the reader to think deeply about the issue in question and, based on the evidence presented, render her or his judgment as to how the issue should be resolved. A very nice feature of the book is that the resolution and any subsequent changes are placed in an appendix to the nineteen cases. The cases are drawn from the entire spectrum of our democratic experience. Case 1 deals with the making of the Constitution and whether it should include a federal negative giving the federal government the power to veto any law passed by a state legislature. Isn't it ironic that today we seem to deal with the mirror image of this issue as states try to decide how or whether to defy federal law in immigrant removal cases? Case 19 is, not surprisingly because of its controversial nature, the Citizens United case. For that case, unlike any of the others, Moss simply chooses to give extensive excerpts from Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion and from John Paul Stevens' minority dissent, suggesting that the history and consequences of that decision are yet to be fully realized. Ironically, in addition to Citizens United, history may still be in the making as the case involving an equal rights amendment (Case 17) took another turn recently with the vote to adopt in Nevada. Not surprisingly given Moss's background as a business historian, economics issues work their way through many of the cases. One issue that seemingly won't go away is how a banking system should be structured in a capitalist democracy. In Case 2 Moss introduces us to a decision Washington had to make over whether to concur with or veto a national bank bill, weighing the advocacy of Hamilton on one side and Jefferson on the other. Less than 50 years later, Case 4 addresses the issue of banking rules in New York state as to whether "free" banks should be allowed to exist. This case comes shortly after the expiration of the charter of the 2nd National Bank and in the midst of the Panic of 1837, a period in which species (gold) redemption was suspended by the banks. Banking again becomes the issue in Case 15 that looks at the early 1930's Pecora hearings about banking and bank practices leading up to the Depression, and whether a bank's operation as a commercial bank was in conflict with its role as an investment bank, the dual roles that reappeared as a major factor in the recession of 2008. Case 18 closes the banking thread with a detailed examination of the Federal Reserve and its role as an independent force guiding the economy, thus tying together the Case 1 issue Washington faced and the Case 15 Pecora hearings. There are numerous chapters about the relationship between the state and federal governments. Moss chooses the issue of Cherokee removal from Georgia as an early exemplar of this conflict. In Case 10, "An Australian ballot for California?", he looks closely at the right to vote, who gets to vote and under what conditions that voting will take place. In a similar vein Moss chooses to look at a Virginia murder case in which an all white jury convicts two black teens of killing a white man. Was Virginia denying the teens equal protection by not selecting a jury of their peers and could Virginia judges be indicted under the Civil Rights Act of 1875 for their selection of all-white juries? Some of the cases Moss chooses are pretty well known, others obscure. But he has chosen a range of issues to highlight how conflict and intense feeling, the Civil War excepted, have made the democracy stronger. It is reassuring to be reminded of this as we address issues that are potentially democracy threatening. For anyone interested in how our democracy evolved over more than two hundred years, this is an excellent book. David Moss, by using the case study method, has written in a format that will challenge the reader to think deeply about how a democracy functions.

6 of 10 The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel reviewed by Jim Mills

The North Pond region of Maine about 20 miles north of the state’s capitol, Augusta, is a summer resort area and is very quiet during the rest of the year. For several decades this quiet rural area was subjected to periodic burglaries. These thefts always occurred in stores or cabins that were unoccupied at the time and the goods taken could be classified as necessities. Over this period there were no clues leading to the apprehension of the perpetrator or perpetrators. Rumors were rife that there was a hermit in the area but his site was never found. In the Spring of 2013 an alarm went off in the middle of the night at the Pine Tree Camp dining hall on North Pond. A nearby Forest Warden was awakened and quickly made his way to the Camp and spotted an intruder in the building. When he emerged, a middle aged man was arrested. He was very open about his thefts through the years and his story was a most compelling one. In 1987 Christopher Knight had just graduated from high school in nearby Albion, ME., about an hour’s drive away. Without any warning he suddenly vanished. His family (2 parents, four brothers and a sister) never reported his disappearance. After several months wandering as far as Florida, Knight returned to Maine and settled down to a 27 year existence in the woods within walking distance of North Pond and the community around the Pine Tree Camp. Within an extremely dense portion of the woods Knight established his camp and over the next several decades expanded that base with items that he periodically pilfered from the neighboring community. His camouflaging of the site and his extreme care in his exploits meant that he could continue his activities unhindered over the next several decades. He did take a few radios so he was able to keep abreast of world events. The victims of his thefts took numerous precautions such as additional locks and motion detectors to no avail. The story of Christopher Knight is one that is very hard to comprehend. Living alone in the open for such a long period of time in an area with savage winters and temperatures that frequently drop below zero for prolonged periods. One item that he would stock up on prior to each winter was propane tanks that he would use to melt snow for drinking water. He was always careful to minimize damages during his break-ins and would so cleverly cover his tracks that the residents often would not realize that a theft had taken place. He would avoid going out on his exploits when there was snow on the ground, which was a significant portion of the year in Maine, to avoid leaving a visible track. The author found Knight to be a very intelligent, clever man and very well read. One of the items that he frequently stole were books, particularly fine literature. His overriding personality characteristic was extreme introversion bordering on autism. His disdain for society and meeting others was so pronounced that he could live by himself for 27 years and never feel any need for any companionship. Only once during this period did he meet another person. A hiker on a trail and his only greeting was “Hi”. He usually kept himself well shaven and clean so any chance encounter with another would not have seemed suspicious. The author met with Knight a number of times while he was in prison, which lasted for 7 months. He was placed in a parole status for a couple of years and abided by the parole terms precisely. At the time of this book’s publishing, he was gradually and extremely reluctantly adapting to life within society. The author spends a portion of the book discussing the lives of hermits in the past and he sees Knight’s experience as a real outlier in human experience. Most individuals dread a solitary existence and the use of it in criminal punishment frequently destroys the person involved. The Stranger in the Woods is a fascinating read and is a little less than 200 pages in length and comes with the strongest recommendation from this reviewer. A fascinating story of human behavior

Christopher Knight and his Twenty-Seven Year Maine Encampment

7 of 10 Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat by Giles Milton reviewed by Don Boink

The only ungentlemanly part is the art of . In 1939 a top-secret organization was founded in London for the purpose of plotting the destruction of Hitler's war machine. The Nazis had overrun most of Europe and the invasion of England seem to be a certainty. The English were quite unprepared for a war of such magnitude. Churchill felt that it would be vitally important to somehow slow down this German juggernaut. Thus was formed a cohort handpicked by Churchill who he called his ministry of ungentlemanly warfare. What followed was a guerrilla campaign of unprecedented mayhem. Six unusually brilliant and innovative individuals directed a small group that grew exponentially in the following years to cover many theaters of warfare across the globe. Each man was a specialist in an aspect of sabotage, from unique explosives, to silent killing. Emphasized was stealth, speed and getting a way undetected. Also part of the organization was a number of women. A group of young Welsh women who were very adept at assembling explosive devices. There was a lot of experimentation to adapt to unique situations. The regular Armed Forces hierarchy looked down on the saboteurs as thugs and underhanded. There was a special rivalry with the bomber command. They insisted that the more bombs the better. , the director of the sabotage countered that bombing was inefficient and mostly killed civilians. One instance demonstrated this point perfectly. The Renault auto plant in France was turned into a tank producer. It was decided that this was an important target to bomb. A large raid was planned. Prior to the raid planes dropped flares outlining the plant to aid the bombers. Following the night raid the photo reconnaissance showed that the civilian village next to the plant was obliterated but the tank factory was barely touched. Gubbins sent operatives to France to visit the Renault family, the owners of the plant. He convinced them that saboteurs would disable the machinery and not destroy the plan itself.With the Renaults cooperation detailed information not only enabled stealthy entrance to the plant but the location of the most important machines to disable or destroy. Parachuting the trained saboteurs into France achieved this most spectacular operation. This settled the question of which was more effective. One other of several such operations was the destruction of the heavy water facility in Norway. This was vital to the Germans developing an atom bomb. The German general sent to investigate the disaster voiced grudging admiration for the audacity of the team that accomplished such a task. I found this book to be a fascinating account of a little-known aspect of World War II. Very detailed and well-written.

Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry reviewed by Don Boink

This is a tale of the old West, 1876 to 1881. A family from Virginia is lured by stories of adventure and riches to make the trek to a western territory, not yet a state, that is to become Nebraska. They start out with their large family, servants and all that goes with it. Hardships plague them, eventually reducing the number of the survivors to the oldest daughter, her younger brother, and the father. Their hardscrabble life on a small family plot ends when the father commits suicide one day. The two remaining survivors decide to quit the farm to go to the nearest town some 30 miles away. The prospects are slim for them except that the daughter has been proposed to by the town sheriff. Nelly Courtright is assertive to a great degree. Without commitment to the sheriff she sweet talks him into hiring her brother as his assistant. It turns out she, at the tender age of 22, has already wrapped up every man in the West around her little finger. She also becomes the town’s telegrapher having been taught that skill by an uncle of hers. Things happen fast when the notorious Yazee gang of six riders comes to shoot up the town. Nellie's brother Jackson, against all odds, manages to shoot dead all six of the bandits. Nelly sees the opportunity to capitalize on the newsworthiness of this event and decides to write up the story in an extravagant prose and find a publisher. This is the beginning of their fortune. Buffalo Bill Cody is impressed with Nelly and hires her to manage his business interests because she is "organized". This leads to eventually living in Hollywood, California and a whole new string of adventures. This is a quick read full of action and enjoyable. The author is very well known especially for his novel, Lonesome Dove, which became a TV series as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner.

8 of 10 The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, The Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley reviewed by Jim Mills

The late 19th century and early 20th century was an era when the nobility of Europe and particularly of England lived extravagant lives exhibiting a wealth and leisure unknown to earlier generations. In particular Britain’s Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, led his fellow nobles in pursuing this life of conspicuous consumption and mindless ease. He led a lifestyle replete with an overindulgence in food, tobacco, and women. In particular his scandalous behavior with a variety of women while a married man in Victorian Britain led to his reputation as somewhat of a philanderer. The Prince’s behavior was the despair of his parents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In 1861, 15 years into Victoria’s reign, Prince Albert died suddenly and the Queen went into seclusion and essentially withdrew from public life for her remaining 40 years. The prince, known to the family as Bertie, loved the social life and stepped into the monarch’s role, representing the Queen at numerous functions. Victoria’s progeny had spread across the royal families of Europe. In the late 1800s, Bertie was actually the uncle of both the German Kaiser and the Russian Czar. He was able to use that position to try to counter the enmities that arose between various nations as the continent developed competing alliances as the 20th century neared. In 1888, the aged German Kaiser Wilhelm died, his son Frederick became Kaiser but only ruled for 99 days when his son became Kaiser Wilhelm II. This unfortunate even brought a basically unstable person to the throne and his enmities and unbalanced behavior was to lead to the First World War 26 years later. After the longest reign in British history, 63 years (the longest until that of the current British Sovereign), Queen Victoria died in 1901 and Bertie became King Edward VII. Edward’s reign was only to last for nine years, but during this time he was to surprise most observers with the dedication and energy that he was to apply to his royal duties. In many instances he was very helpful in supporting the British government making use of his family ties in dealing with the other nations of Europe. His high living style, particularly his heavy use of cigars, eventually caught up with him and he suffered ill health his last couple of years. When he died in 1910, Europe was well on its way to the first major war in a century. His passing left his son, George V, to deal with his wayward cousin in Germany. A war that was casually entered into in 1914 was to drag on for four years destroyed the cream of the youth in the major protagonist countries. It is an open question whether King Edward would have been able to stem the drift into war, had he lived. The Heir Apparent provides a highly readable account of this highly public life lived during a far different era. The First World War provided the death nell for the high living world of European royalty and the true start of the Modern Era.

The Prince of Wales - Queen Alexandra - King Edward VII

9 of 10 The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944 – 1945 by James D Hornfischer reviewed by Don Boink

"From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at High Tide, is a stirring and deeply humane account of World War II's world changing finale" – From the blurb of the book. The book Is a thoughtful, and probably, as complete an account of this final phase of the Pacific war as is possible.. For me it provides a broad picture of both the geography and strategic operations that culminated in the first ever use of atomic science in warfare. The Naval war had reached a point where it was felt necessary to establish bases in the Central Pacific from which Japan itself could be assaulted by long-range bombers. The Marianas island group of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam was chosen for this purpose. Those islands were very costly prizes. Air warfare had evolved in which large aircraft carrier task forces were employed to project our aggressive response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The vast expanse of the was the theater of cat and mouse encounters as navies battled. The book recounts the personal involvement of several participants, from raw recruits to the highest echelon of command I had a personal interest in that I served in the Navy from 1943 – 1946. The ship I was assigned to was an escort carrier, the USS Admiralty Islands, CVE 99. After hostilities had concluded naval personnel were in need of transport back home from the scattered Pacific islands. To accomplish that the “Magic Carper Fleet “ was conceived. Our ship was converted into a transport. Instead of planes the hanger deck contained bunk beds four tiers high accommodating hundreds of enlistees. Two of my voyages were to Eniwetok and Guam, the latter, one of the Marianas group. The book mentions the Magic Carpet in one sentence. The atomic bomb was flown from Tinian Island another of the Marianas groups to Hiroshima. This bomb has been a controversy ever since. To me the use was justified because, had the war continued and the home islands of Japan invaded, millions of casualties would've occurred. It was the lesser of two evils. The saga continues past the surrender to the details of the occupation of Japan. This turned out to be a remarkable phenomenon. The Japanese were surprised and grateful for the manner in which they were treated. Gen. MacArthur was appointed as supreme commander and through his compassionate administration won the admiration of all Japan. The Americans were surprised at the complete acceptance of defeat and how the Japanese cooperated in all of the demands made of them. It is a long and detailed story that anyone interested in knowing the history of the war in the Pacific would enjoy. I know I did.

But What If We Are Wrong: Thinking About The Present As If It Were The Past by Chuck Klosterman reviewed by Don Boink

This book is certainly different in approach to its subject. It is provocative, confusing, argumentative and in its own way – interesting. Not many of us indulge in the speculation that this author does. He poses questions that we think we know the answers to because we feel content that the consensus has been arrived at after due deliberation. It is not that we advocate closing the patent office (as it once was) because there is nothing more to be invented. Still we accept many things as fact. What if we are wrong! That is what is delved into here. The author is a very well-informed individual and knows a lot about many things. Nonetheless he endeavors to pose questions to people he feels know more than he does in order to see if he can get them to consider the possibility that they are wrong. Two such experts are Brian Greene, from Columbia University, a scientist in theoretical physics, and Neil Degrasse Tyson an astrophysicist and is the head of the National Museum of Natural History. His comment is, for example take the notion of gravity. It goes back 1600 years to Aristotle who philosophically explained why a stone will always drop to earth. His conclusion was that that was the natural state for the stone. It was not until Galileo found that experimentation was useful in finding answers. Long periods ensued until Newton came upon the law of gravity. That held very well until Einstein explained that gravity was really a warp in space. So it goes. 500 years from now who knows what our theory will be?. So if you can spend the time to read 262 pages of speculation on hypotheticals this is a book for you. I got a bit tired of it after about 150 pages.

10 of 10