All That We Say Is Ours: Guujaaw and the Reawakening of the Haida Nation Review

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All That We Say Is Ours: Guujaaw and the Reawakening of the Haida Nation ReviewMy daughter-in-law sent me this book to read. It's about the people of Haida Gwaii and their determination to preserve what's theirs. Haida Gwaii is sometimes referred to as Canada's Galapagos, famous for its wild beauty. It is also the ancient home of the Haida peoples. For years they have fought for what they rightfully own.
I started the book and finished it the next day. It was so interesting, I couldn't put it down.
It was also very informative and enlightening. I gained a lot of insight into Haida culture and what they are all fighting for.
I love nature & trees and the Haida saying "Yahguudang--respect for all living things" really resonated with me. I believe we should respect the land and everything on it that we are given.
When I read the quote made by Guujaaw (president of the council of the Haida Nation and advocate) that "every tree removed erases traces of the existence of our people" it made me sad and angry that so many trees have already been cut down and logged over the past years.
I hope that all the trees that the Haida people cherish will never be cut down again and will stand tall and proud as a testament to the Haida people.All That We Say Is Ours: Guujaaw and the Reawakening of the Haida Nation Overview

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Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld, 1783-1939 Review

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Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld, 1783-1939 ReviewWith "Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-World, 1783-1939", James Belich emboldens his reputation as New Zealand's leading historian. After 25 years of deeply researching and presenting/re-presenting the emergence of Aotearoa New Zealand and its people, indigenous and colonial, and the relationships and politics of each, he turns his narrative towards the rise of the Anglo-World. He combines a grand sweep with meticulous research and a novelist's eye for lateral detail.
Belich was so successful at challenging received historical wisdom in his first book, "The New Zealand Wars" (1987) that his radical take on the 19th century conflict between the British and the Maori has become today's orthodoxy. However, Belich is not a revisionist for the sake of political correctness or provocation. "The New Zealand Wars", in which he awarded a number of pivotal battles to Maori tribes for the first time in (literally) recorded history, was first and foremost a towering feat of historical research.
Belich is a writer who does not allow the density of the subject matter to heavy his prose. This is his thesis: European settlement of the New World came in three successive waves - networks (especially of trade), empire (through conquest), and settlement; that it amounted to a `settler revolution', characterized by the spectacular growth of Anglophone peoples and culture across the globe; and that the settlers themselves were neither heroic nor especially villainous. Belich spells out how British world colonization involved four phases - incremental, explosive, decolonization, and recolonization - each shaped by identifiable social, political and economic forces. He brings forth as persuasive evidence the stories of four famed cities - New York, London, Chicago and Melbourne. (If Melbourne seems out of place, it shouldn't -- as Belich points out, Melbourne in 1890 was a mega-city, boasting a population greater than Madrid and Mexico City and, by a factor of nine, Los Angeles).
His story weaves together strands that are simultaneously riveting on their own and compelling as a whole. In his book "Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders, from Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century" Belich is at his most compelling when describing the 'protein boom' which saw Maori society grow from three figures to four then five ("Hunters & Gardeners"). (All evolutionary biologists and macroeconomists should study his story technique). In "Replenishing the Earth" Belich stretches this treatment over four great cities and the context of their nations and the world at the time. You might call this "busting out theory" and indeed you could credit Belich as a historian who is "busting out" - reimagining, transforming, reforging.
"Replenishing the Earth" is a tour de force. Belich is well known to New Zealanders as an author and television presenter. He gets standing ovations from his students, and storied prizes from academia in Great Britain. With this wide-angled and keenly-edged book, international audiences who need to know their history will enthrall at discovering a historian and writer at the peak of his investigative power and creativity.
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The Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism Review

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The Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism ReviewI just read this book and recommend it highly. While it could have used some better editing it tells a bunch of stories that could be the basis for a series of great movies like Defiance. The Amazon product description makes the point about the books exploration of the distinctiveness of the Minsk experience, where a history of relatively low levels of Antisemitism in Belarussia (low for Eastern Europe that is) was reinforced by an egalitarian and overtly anti-Antisemitic Soviet ideology to create the basis for a multi-ethnic resistance movement with broad support from the population as a whole and active support for Jews by ordinary Belarusians and the Belarussian partisan movement which had Jews in its leadership, Jews in its fighting organizations and Jewish fighting units. Some 10,000 Jews were therefore able to escape from the Minsk Ghetto and join the Partisans. Epstein points out the sharp contrast between the situation in Belarussia and those in Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine where Jews found little outside support and sometimes great hostility. She provides overwhelming evidence for her thesis. She also follow up on the wartime resistance story with the postwar denigration of the Minsk resistance and the persecution of its leaders by a Belarussian Communist Party leadership that wanted to cover up the fact that they had fled from the Germans and made no preparations for the creation of an underground resistance. The resistance was only honored at the end of the 1950s after the deStalinization campaign and only then were some of its leaders released from the Gulag. All in all an inspiring and sobering tale.
StanThe Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism Overview

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Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972 (Modern Southeast Asia Series) Review

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Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972 (Modern Southeast Asia Series) ReviewI got up at 5:30 a.m. so I could read two hours more before heading to the office. This is one of the greatest military books ever published, and certainly the most unique of its genre. While having all the elements of a thriller, this book appeals most to those who still wonder how decisions were made in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Readaers who have only a casual interest in the war will discover the prologue interesting, but probably will find too many details in the text to hold their interest. The book lifts the veil from more than one story, which is basically how General Abrams saw the war unfolding from his personal perspective. There are other stories too about how various players interpreted their responsibilities, not always in sync with the boss. Until now, I've never understood how our leadership in Saigon reacted to Harriman's negotiations in Paris. They were not impressed! Nor have I appreciated why the NVA bases in Cambodia and Laos were so pivotal to Hanoi's plans for a war of attrition. The key players were more attuned to the psychological implications than I believed earlier. And they were more sensitive to media reports than I suspected. What comes out of this book more than anything else is the genius and candor of Gen Abrams. His irreverent quips and incisive asides are truly priceless. Sorley's selections include ample evidence that our military and civilian leadership held the sacrifices of the South Vietnamese in high regard. We have yet to see evidence that our allies in Iraq are capable of similar competence, but this book, as much as anything else, makes a strong case that weak allies cannot be saved by US power alone. Gen Abrams' contribution is that he put more emphasis on strengthening the infrastructure of South Vietnam than his predeccessor who apparently believed Hanoi would withdraw from the war if punished severely. This book is more than the equivalent of having a tape recorder in Napoleon's tent, because it exposes the character of America's best leadership in its finest and most difficult hour.Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972 (Modern Southeast Asia Series) Overview

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Jerusalem's Traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the Fall of Judea Review

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Jerusalem's Traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the Fall of Judea ReviewThis is great reading! I found myself unable to put It down! It is the story of Josephus and his writings on the first century jewish war. It tells of the sige and destruction of jerusalem and what was the causes leading to It. Josephus was considered a traitor, and there are question's about his version, but It Is the only version we have. Still It Is a valuable narrative because It tells of the political situation and factions, In first century judea and author covers this well. I wish there would have been a little more Infromation on masada, but I still enjoyed It anyway.Jerusalem's Traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the Fall of Judea Overview

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Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics (Cambridge Essential Histories) Review

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Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics (Cambridge Essential Histories) ReviewRead this for graduate American history course. John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have collaborated and written the definitive book on six of America's espionage trials of the early Cold War era. The historical authority that this book enjoys is due not only to the use of trial transcripts and to primary and secondary sources, but its real authority comes from three sources that have been unavailable to scholars in some instances for over forty years. To draw an accurate picture of the magnitude of espionage conducted in the United States at the behest of the Soviet Union, the authors have used FBI files on the subject which were only made available in the 1980's. In addition, in 1995 the U.S. government made public about 3,000 decoded messages that were sent between Soviet consulates in the U.S. and Moscow from 1943 to 1946. These were messages that U.S. code breakers deciphered under a project named "Venona." Finally, the authors were able to corroborate much of their information from Soviet intelligence officers who defected and gave information to intelligence services in the West, as well as KGB archives that were made available after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All of this information was used by the authors to write, in a very entertaining style, an accurate account of six espionage trials and how they affected American politics for decades.
Besides the factual accounts of the six espionage trials and information on the unlawful activity of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), in this book the authors illuminated another important lesson, especially for historians. By writing about the conduct, outcome, and historical interpretation of the espionage trials and the "red scare" that swept across the U.S. at the start of the Cold War, the authors astutely showed how historical interpretation of the subject had come full circle in fifty years. Newspaper headlines were replete with reports of Communist spies being ferreted out of government agencies in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Many Americans were riveted by and fearful of two of the more famous cases--the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg atomic spy trial and the Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers State Department spy case. Both cases engendered strong reactions from both conservatives who supported the government against the Rosenbergs and supported Chambers against Hiss, and liberals who saw overzealous prosecution by the government especially against Ethel Rosenberg and Hiss. Even after Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed and Hiss was found guilty, public opinion seemed to stay the same until after the Watergate era; a time in which many Americans perceived abuses of power by the American government and doubted the veracity of both the FBI and CIA. In the case of Alger Hiss, he was winning the public's opinion by this time mainly because Richard Nixon, who was instrumental in attacking Hiss in congressional hearings, was discredited by his role in the Watergate cover up and his eventual resignation from the presidency. However, the authors showed how inside of fifty years public opinion came full circle back to recognizing that the Rosenbergs and Hiss were truly Communists who spied on behalf of the Soviets, through the release of the "Venona" messages and information from Soviet intelligence archives released in the 1990's.
Another relevant point that the authors made in their book was in reference to the conduct of the CPUSA. Many Americans came to believe that the CPUSA should have been banned in the U.S. after Senator McCarthy spearheaded the congressional hearings against Americans who were sympathetic to Communism. Although Senator McCarthy would ultimately be accused of conducting a witch-hunt, especially against people in the film industry, the authors prove with the "Venona" messages and Soviet archival documentation that the CPUSA was working at the behest of the Soviet government. The authors conclude their book with an admonition about the CPUSA. "In the late 1940's and early 1950's, the internal threat posed by the American Communist Party, both as a subversive political force and an auxiliary to Soviet espionage, loomed large" (239). Thus, if it were not proper under the constitution to ban the CPUSA, at a minimum, it should have been required to register as an agent of a foreign government.
Another prescient point that the authors made, which is relevant to the current war against terrorism today, was the extraordinary burden the government was under to protect its intelligence-gathering sources while prosecuting espionage cases. Although the government had clear evidence from the "Venona" messages, and illegal FBI wiretap operations that hundreds of Americans were engaged in espionage against the U. S., it was not at liberty to bring most of these traitors to trial. The government was unwilling to divulge the "Venona" source in court, which it would have had to do under the laws at that time to bring others to trial. In addition, illegal wiretaps would obviously be inadmissible in court. The government had to be satisfied that they would be able to interview these people, and if they did not cooperate with the government, they would at least lose their security clearances, resulting in the loss of their government jobs. The authors drew another parallel between the early Cold War era and the conduct of the war against terrorism today. The early Cold War spies were motivated by ideology and not money, just like today's terrorists. They were true believers in the Communist ideology, which is a major reason why so many were unwilling to cooperate with the government by turning over the names of other people they knew were spying for the Soviets in the U.S. Their ideological beliefs made them more dangerous because they were willing to have their lives ruined and go to their graves rather than divulge information. Thus, for all of the aforementioned reasons, Haynes and Klehr's book is a valuable keystone to anyone trying to understand the early Cold War era.
As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.
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The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi (Oxford Oral History Series) Review

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The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi (Oxford Oral History Series) ReviewThe excellent book focuses on the East German (the GDR) domestic spy agency (the Stasi) in two relatively rural districts. Based on surviving files and extensive interviews, the book provides an illuminating account of how the Stasi functioned. The book's vivid stories give life to the dry statistic that the Stasi had a hundred miles of files on 6,000,000 citizens.
In contrast to many recent studies of East Germany, Professor Bruce leans toward the "totalitarian" approach to East Germany, noting that although total totalitarianism is hardly possible, the goal of the Stasi was to know as much as possible about as many citizens as possible. Although most East Germans did not suffer the fear of midnight knocks on the door, everyone knew that the Stasi was there (even if they did not know the true extent of its activities), and such knowledge influenced their behavior. And more than enough people's lives were diminished (or ended) by the Stasi's activities. His book is also a useful reminder that bad memories often fade faster than good ones. In 1990, 72.6% of East Germans thought that there was "complete surveillance" in the GDR. In 1995, only 42% did (p. 9). This book is good evidence that the 1990 statistic is the one to believe.
To my mind, Professor Bruce concludes by trying too hard to make contemporary parallels, and in his last sentence quotes a phrase "attributed to Mark Twain": "To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I'm pretty sure that is not an accurate attribution. I can't find anyone who gives a traceable reference, and the almost always reliable "Yale Book of Quotations" attributes it to Abraham Maslow.
But those are quibbles. If you want a lively account of how the Stasi affected life in East Germany, read this.The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi (Oxford Oral History Series) Overview

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Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock Review

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Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock ReviewIn TOM AND JACK, Henry Adams, one of the creative contributors to the documentary Ken Burns' America: Thomas Hart Benton, takes a close look at the influence of Thomas Hart Benton on perhaps the greatest American artist of the twentieth century, Jackson Pollock. In this rich and insightful dual portrait, Adams first must rehabilitate Benton's reputation as a prolific, dynamic, and socially progressive realist who rose to fame as a WPA mural painter. Adams looks at Benton's expatriate experiences in Paris, the influence of the now forgotten school of Synchromism on his sense of dynamism, and examines Benton's eventual decline (dismissal really) in the eyes of fellow artists and east coast intellectuals. As a teacher at the Art Students League in New York, Benton enjoyed being an iconoclastic influence on his mostly male students. Pollock and Pollock's brothers, also artists, were part of this group. Although Benton and Pollock were quite different in many ways (Benton was quite learned and well read while Pollock was inarticulate, if not exactly illiterate), they were both highly driven artists who never really felt themselves to be artworld insiders. Adams is at his best when analysing the men's artwork, but he is equally comfortable exploring the psychology of their relationship. Since Pollock spent a good deal of time in psychotherapy, Adams's marshalling of Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytical theories as practiced in mid-century America is not out of place, and his presentation of Pollock's relatiohip with Benton and Benton's wife Rita as classically Oedipal is convincing.
In the first part of the book, Adams reveals the abstraction within Benton's realistic paintings; in the second part, he exposes the figurative and orderly elements hidden in Pollock's masterpieces. "It's telling," Adams writes, "that Pollock considered Einstein and Freud the two most important figures of modern times: one delved into the structure of the universe, the other into the structure of the unconscious. The power of Pollock's great drip paintings is that they seem to explore both these mysterious realms" (p. 324).
The book contains 16 pages of color reproductions, but I found it helpful to also consult Ellen Landau's Jackson Pollock, with its exquisite color plates of all of Pollock's major works. (I couldn't find anything comparable for Benton.) TOM and JACK also helped me to better understand Ed Harris's well-made but often elliptical film Pollock. Adams packs a lot into his 400-page dual biography. Its scholarship is well-considered and never bogs down the narrative; TOM AND JACK is a book I'm sure I'll return to again and again as I continue to study and enjoy the work of these two great American artists.Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock Overview

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American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 Review

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American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 ReviewA dispassionate, scholarly look at what happened in North America to its native peoples when the Europeans arrived. The book spans 1500 to 1850, the latter being essentially before the American Civil War. It concentrates on events inside the present day United States. You should be aware that there is little coverage of Mexico and the Canadas. Lest you think this restrictive, remember that we are still referring to a span of 350 years and the US. Given this vast field in time and space, the book does not claim comprehensiveness. What it does have are chapters on numerous aspects of the encounters. Intermarriage, religion, trading, disease and, of course, war and the forced relocation of the few survivors.
There is coverage not just of the eastern seaboard, with the well known incidents at Plymouth and the selling of Manhattan. Also presented are chapters on the Spanish incursions and settlements in the South West. The chapters strive to go beyond the stereotypical, marginal roles played by the natives in standard histories. You can get some understanding of the intricacies of their societies and the range of their dealings with the Europeans. There is, though, a continual frustration; which is not the fault of the authors. The written records we have are overwhelmingly those left by the settlers. We can only wonder now at what was never recorded directly by the natives, and which has been irretrievably forsaken to the nameless dust of history.American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 Overview

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The Quest for the Cure: The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines Review

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The Quest for the Cure: The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines ReviewDrawing heavily from his research & academic backgrounds, Stockwell provides an informative account on drug discovery challenges and ongoing/potential approaches to address them. For a reader with medical background, this is an excellent read while a general reader will struggle with the details. (3.5*)
(Review adapted from my blog; free advance copy provided by the publisher)
At the very outset, Stockwell provides a succinct explanation of why drug discovery is far more challenging than what one may imagine - by focusing on the actual mechanics of "small drug molecules" and proteins involved in disease progression. (A reader can easily grasp this complexity when Stockwell highlights that only 2% of the proteins are now considered "druggable" and the generally risk-averse scientists typically tend to focus only on this minority due to commercial considerations.) The discussion on how drugs actually work may be of interest to the average reader. He then describes (with various examples) various drug discovery mechanisms and a history of cancer drugs. The role of luck in discoveries, of course, is well known...but through these discussions, one gets to appreciate not only the role of luck but also of perseverance and a systematic approach to design experiments. A subsequent chapter on the author's entrepreneurial experience provides some insights on the potential of studying combinations of approved drugs - but the narration is too focused on the company history, a reader is likely to be distracted.
The second part starts with an introduction to promising emerging techniques of drug discovery including structure-based designs, virtual screening, and fragment-based screening. He discusses the origin and potential of these techniques (sometimes a bit too detailed for an average reader), including aspects related to protein-protein interactions and emergence of personalized medicine. Then, the discussion takes on a far more technical density highlighting protein redactions, tagging and libraries for complex structures, biologics and some suggestions that border mostly on policies than technological issues.
One of the main issues with the book is it is not clear who the intended audience is and what level of details is expected of them. The narration (first-person account) appears to alternate between targeting students/new researchers and experienced peers, with a generous autobiographical component in between. This mosaic of narrative tones is very demanding on the reader and oftentimes tangential to the central themes. An average reader with a cursory knowledge about drug chemistry will likely gain from the first part of the book in understanding the complexities of drug development and also various background (very technical) of some of the classes of drugs and some better known biotech companies. The second part is likely to be beneficial for students of this field or those in the drug development ecosystem.
Perhaps, it is a reflection of the complexity of the topic - despite the best efforts of the author to make it accessible to a wider audience; the book is unlikely to sustain the interest of a reader with a non-medical background. The constant intertwining of autobiographical narration, historical vignettes of key personalities and the scientific research being discussed makes for a very challenging read... but well worth it for someone in this field by providing a realistic assessment of the potential for new drug discoveries. (3.5*)The Quest for the Cure: The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines Overview

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Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World Review

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Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World Review"join the Club" provides some much needed thinking for Social Workers and others interested in making a difference - especially in such difficult economic and anti-social policy times.
Ms. Rosenburg has explored a number of social problems, both domestic and international and explored how the "social cure," peer pressure as she defines it, can make positive changes. Domestically, the exploration of both teen smoking prevention and study groups for Calculus provide brilliant reporting. The use of professional thinking in marketing to engage teens is particularly helpful, and similar ideas to engage youth in political opposition to corporate manipulation in consumerism, worker exploitation, etc. spring easily to mind.
The international examples are also strong, with powerful stories in Indian, grass-roots health care, the empowerment of women and political action. She also examines the probable peer pressure factors in the success of micro-loans.
While for this reader the overly-long section on the use of groups in a protestant, suburban, mega-church doesn't measure up to the other stories - this book is good food for thought for advocates everywhere.Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World Overview

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The Chronology of the Old Testament Review

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The Chronology of the Old Testament ReviewWhile the other reviewer is correct, that printing the charts is quite difficult without the proper tools, the wealth of information included in this volume are worth twice the price even without printed charts. Some of the problems solved in this book I had been looking at for years without a feasible solution. Some of the problems solved, I didn't even know were problems.
Dr. Thomas has degrees in mathematics, geology, chemistry and education. He is an ex-evolutionist. He relies on the King James Version of the Bible, and the texts from which it was translated. Highly recommended for anyone who is beginning to doubt the veracity of God's Word.The Chronology of the Old Testament Overview

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Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam Review

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Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam ReviewI grew up during the Vietnam War. I was seven years old when General William Westmoreland was sent to Vietnam by LBJ to take charge of things there. I was eleven when he lost his job and by then, had lost us the war. Vietnam was in the news the entire time, on TV, in the paper, in Time Magazine - as was Westmoreland's iconic chin. Being the son of military parents I'd early gotten the history bug and I was fascinated by what was taking place over in Southeast Asia, even if I didn't understand it well. As I grew older, and things over there grew worse, I began to wonder how we could possibly lose such a war (as I thought it was) against such a small country.
Lewis Sorely's "Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam" will tell you how. Sorely has the credentials for this book. He is himself a graduate of West Point. He served in Vietnam. He even served in the office of the Army Chief of Staff, General William C. Westmoreland, and taught at West Point. This isn't just a book by some journalist trying to get at the bottom of things. Sorely has been "at the bottom of things" and he has done the leg work over a period of years, talking to 175 people in his search for the events he here recounts.
Sorely makes a point of stating at the outset his premise: that we need to understand Westmoreland in order to understand what happened in Vietnam. And so he begins at the beginning, with Westmoreland's childhood and early experiences, his pre-war service in the field artillery at Fort Sill, then Hawaii, and finally with the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Bragg. He then follows the aggressive young officer through his WWII service in North Africa, Sicily, and Europe and important early connections he made with such important figures at General Maxwell, "who rose to far greater prominence," writes Sorely, "and became Westmoreland's principal mentor and patron."
After the war, Westmoreland shifted to Airborne duty and served under General James Gavin in the 82nd Airborne Division, first as regimental commander and then division chie of staff. Two years into the Korean War Westmoreland was made Commanding Officer of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team and was promoted to brigadier general. Apparently, this was Westmoreland's niche. Worely writes that Westermoreland "would describe command of the 187th as 'the most satisfying experience of my military service.'" It was apparently also the position for which he was most qualified. After the war, he served briefly in the Pentagon before being given divisional command - the 101st Airborne Division.
From reading Worely's book, you could (and should) walk away with the conviction that had Westmoreland remained a divisional commander he would be differently remembered today. But he was made Superintendent of West Point, a posting for which he was manifestly unqualified, before being selected by LBJ from a list of four officers to take command of U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. In the end, Maxwell Taylor, his old protege, got Westmoreland the job. One general tried to stop it. Brigadier General Amos "Joe" Jordan, who knew Westmoreland well and said it would be a "grave mistake" to appoint him. "He is spit and polish, two up and one back. This is a counterinsurgency war, and he would have no idea of how to deal with it."
And he didn't, but he got the job anyway.
Incredibly, nobody apparently had any idea how to deal with it. Worse, he met with General Douglas MacArthur, who gave some terrible advice that Westmoreland took to heart: treat the South Vietnamese officers you will be advising "as you did your cadets" (!) and "Do not overlook the possibility that in order to defeat the guerrilla you may have to resort to a scorched earth policy."
You can probably see where this is all going already. Westmoreland, writes Sorely, "Surprisingly, or perhaps not...did not meet with Lyndon Johnson before heading out to Vietnam."
I almost wept reading that. And you will likely feel like doing a lot of weeping as you read on. I won't try to recount Westmoreland's Vietnam service here. Suffice it to say that he comes out as a man entirely out of his depth, lacking imagination, unable to think outside the box - and remember, we're talking a counterinsurgency war here, not the Normandy beaches. You wonder how Westmoreland kept his job for so long as you read. And you begin to have your questions about how we could lose the war answered in ways you probably would not prefer.
Westmoreland seems by the end a sad and pathetic figure, but worse is the untold suffering caused in a war that was mismanaged from the very beginning. The blame falls squarely on General William C. Westmoreland. The American people were deceived; the Vietnamese people were betrayed, and both deserved better. But if Westmoreland was to blame, how much more to blame the U.S. government and military who perpetuated a system that allowed an utter incompetent to rise to high command and remain there long enough to lose a war.
"Westmoreland" is a sobering read, and a very good one. Highly recommended.Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam Overview

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The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America Review

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The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America ReviewScott Weidensaul takes us back to the true frontier, The First Frontier, where lands east of the Hudson and Delaware were hotly contested for two centuries before the American Revolution. People who laid claim to the eastern seaboard came with ambiguous motives from unimaginably different cultures and lands. Although cohabiting the land, they communicated poorly and remained estranged. This peerlessly researched book opens our eyes to a violent time in the history of America of which most of us are uninformed. One would think that as time went by, civil co-habitation would occur, but the author tells us, "Far from being a cordial melting pot, the frontier was becoming an increasingly fractious mishmash."
Part One entrenches us in the various cultures of these early inhabitants of eastern America. Part Two describes the 17th century expansion of the American colonies around Chesapeake Bay and New England, resulting in hatred, fear and bloodshed. Part Three is the story of the farther frontier, the Pennsylvania backcountry, where today a marker proclaiming the site of the first Amish settlement reminds us of the ghosts of that time.
Interesting details from the book include:
- 90% of America's native people lost their lives from foreign disease not long after European colonists arrived.
- A white woman released from Native American captivity returned home to write the first American bestseller. Mary Rowlandson was the first female writer to publish in North America.
- Brickmaker, Thomas Duston, had to choose between saving his bedridden wife or his children from the Indians.
- Commercial slave trading boomed on both sides in the 1700s.
- The scrupulous honesty of William Penn earned subsequent respect from the Lenape tribe.
- Fur traders regularly married into Indian society to gain access to their wives' connections.
- A daughter held captive for a decade recognized her real mother only after hearing her sing an old German hymn.
Although at times plodding, this is first-rate storytelling. The fascinating tales of individuals involved in the clash are interwoven with disturbing accounts of violence and war. The time the reader invests in this time period long left fallow by historians' pens pays first-rate educational dividends.
The detail in The First Frontier can be daunting to the casual reader. Not for the faint of heart, the book accurately describes the many atrocities of the times. The book is intended to instruct and inform, not to entertain. The payoff for one truly interested in America's beginnings is intellectually rewarding to one willing to spend time in its pages. Copious notes attest to the exhaustive research poured into the book. Highly recommended.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through Netgalley graciously provided the review copy.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of CrestmontThe First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America Overview

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Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal Review

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Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal ReviewFirst, the recommendation: If you read naval history books, or a WWII history buff, this is a must-read book. Hornfischer has captured the full scope of the Navy's action at Guadalcanal, within the larger picture of the whole campaign. It's a big story.
WWII buffs know Guadalcanal as the pivotal campaign where the Allies fought Japan from an offensive posture to a defensive one. Less well understood is that the US Navy made the first effective use of electronically directed fire at Guadalcanal. This created an immediate advantage for the Allies, and helped win the campaign, but stubbornness and lack of understanding of the new technology prevented it from being used to the fullest extent. Until Guadalcanal, navies still steamed in lines, attempting to "cross the T". After Guadalcanal, they started to understand how radar changed everything. This is just one of the many sub-plots that Hornfischer successfully weaves into his big picture.
The Guadalcanal campaign lasted six months. It's all here: every battle and every ship. It even feels like every shell is also here, as Hornfischer describes the damage caused by each ship's battery of 5 inch through 16 inch guns. You really get a sense of the pressure the Navy was under as each ship was sunk (including carriers, battleships, cruisers and 25 destroyers!) or retired from battle due to damage. In the end, after tremendous losses on both sides, the Japanese quit the struggle. Their ship and aircraft losses had been similar to those of the Allies, but theirs were irreplaceable, while the Allies were just starting to ramp up production of ships, aircraft, soldiers, sailors & aircrews.
Highly recommended.
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Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity among the Indians of Northwestern California Review

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Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity among the Indians of Northwestern California ReviewOne of the most perplexing problems in the field of anthropology over the last hundred years has been the relationship between language and culture. Does language shape culture? Does culture shape language? Further, and perhaps more interesting, does language shape our cognition, effecting the very way that we see the world? Similarly, does culture shape our language in such a way that the very words, concepts, and semantic structures within a language are the direct result of the culture's physical manifestation? These questions and many others have been the subject of debate within anthropology, linguistics, psychology, and other fields of inquiry for well over a century. Out of this interdisciplinary debate, however, one theory has been of particular interest to all parties - the theory of linguistic relativity.
Developed primarily by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf (Sapir 1949; Whorf 1956), linguistic relativity originally focused on controlled comparisons between contrasting linguistic traditions and related patterns of behavior in a culture, often with an emphasis on the historical impact of cultural categories on the evolution of language. The reason that the theory has been the subject of debate for so long, however, is because of the lack of good, solid evidence to support it. Although anthropologists, indigenous scholars, and a few psychologists have long recognized the deep interconnection between language, culture, and cosmology, in-depth studies of indigenous languages and their grammatical and semantic differences has been lacking. Likewise, comparisons of different indigenous languages across similar cultural patterns has been hard to achieve. Contributing to the debate, and adding much needed data and evidence, is the recent book by Sean O'Neill: Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity Among the Indians of Northwestern California.
Approaching the principle of linguistic relativity via the works of Boas (1896/1948), Sapir (1949), and Whorf (1956), who all argued for the role of language in guiding human perception, especially in the culturally charged settings of everyday life, O'Neill's book is a data-rich, theoretically expanding contribution.
Despite centuries of intertribal contact, the Native American peoples of northwestern California have continued to speak a variety of distinct languages. At the same time, they have come to embrace a common way of life based on salmon fishing and shared religious practices. In this thought-provoking re-examination of the hypothesis of linguistic relativity, Sean O'Neill looks closely at the Hupa, Yurok, and Karuk indigenous peoples to explore the striking juxtaposition between linguistic diversity and relative cultural uniformity among their communities.
"That is, neither the language nor the culture of the region holds altogether constant as one passes from one village to the next. Instead, the variables of language and culture achieve a nearly kaleidoscopic variability throughout the area's many speech communities. Taken together, the staggering linguistic diversity and often sweeping cultural variability found throughout this area allow the variables of language, culture, and worldview to be nearly isolated as one passes from one village to another" (p. 19).
It is through this process of comparing the variables of language, culture, and worldview that O'Neill makes some interesting and important contributions. By closely examining the spatial world and the realm of time among the Karuk, Hupa, and Yurok indigenous Native Americans of northwestern California, one is able to see the subtleties associated with language and culture in a geographically close, but culturally and linguistically diverse setting.
O'Neill examines intertribal contact, multilingualism, storytelling, and historical change among the three tribes, focusing on the traditional culture of the region as it existed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He asks important historical questions at the heart of the linguistic relativity hypothesis: Have the languages in fact grown more similar as a result of contact, multilingualism, and cultural convergence? Or have they instead maintained some of their striking grammatical and semantic differences? Through comparison of the three languages, O'Neill shows that long-term contact among the tribes intensified their linguistic differences, creating unique Hupa, Yurok, and Karuk identities, including linguistic categories and cognitive processes.
If language encapsulates worldview, as the principle of linguistic relativity suggests, then this region's indigenous peoples are testament to the theory. Analyzing patterns of linguistic accommodation as seen in the semantics of space and time, grammatical classification, and specialized cultural vocabularies, O'Neill offers solid evidence in support of the theory. What is even more exciting, however, is that Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity Among the Indians of Northwestern California lends support to the inclusion of indigenous peoples and their worldview within contemporary scientific research, resource management, and policy agendas.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Peter N. Jones
Editor
http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com
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The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda Review

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The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda ReviewI worked with Special Agent Soufan just after 9/11, although I don't have insight into everything in this book, from what I've read it's an accurate summary of events. Also, Soufan was an honorable guy, great to work with.The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda Overview

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Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate Review

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Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate ReviewAlthough Henige writes cleverly, probably few laymen will choose this book as leisure reading. Likewise, few scholars (except perhaps for Henige's professional enemies and a few unfortunate graduate students) will read it all the way through without skipping pages and even whole chapters.
Henige need not worry. His book needed to be written, and his thesis is sound. "High Counters" have indeed grossly exaggerated the pre-contact population of American Indians on the basis of virtually nothing but the desire to take a currently fashionable position. Wisely, Henige reminds his readers that there are places historians cannot go because no evidence remains and that this lack of evidence can become an opportunity for wild conjecture on the part of those who have ideological axes to grind.
Of necessity whoever took on the "High Counters" had to drudge through the facts and figures to prove them misguided, and the drudging doesn't always make for engaging reading. Nevertheless, Henige ranges widely and engagingly in his series of essays, treating such profitable topics as numerical exaggerations in classical texts and even in works of imagination. Some passages are so witty I laughed out loud.Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate Overview

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