In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

Amazon.com

The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.

By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2007-09-24

I am a big skeptic when I read these types of books. I always assume the author is filling in the substantial blanks in the story with his own interpretation & fluff. I did not feel that way with this authors version of the story.

The story was really entertaining. It was a page turner that kept me up too late on work nights. I think I read the last 1/3 of it without putting it down.

Highly recommended. You will learn a lot about whaling and Nantucket, both of which I surprisingly found captivating.

A Captivating Read........2007-08-17

Knowing that this was not a fictional story added an element of intensity as I read this book. Truthfully, this would have made for good fictional reading as well. I enjoyed the character development and the way in which the story was told. I was on the edge of my seat, and looking forward to getting to the book every morning while reading this. In the Mr. Philbrick's words, "The Essex disaster is not a tale of adventure. It is a tragedy that happens to be one of the the greatest true stories ever told."

one of the best maritime disaster books I've ever read.......2007-08-13

What a fantastic story told in a fascinating way. I've read many books about maritime disasters, and this one has gone to the top of the list. Nathaniel Philbrick is a great story-teller and meticulous researcher. I'm very, very impressed.

great book!!!.......2007-08-04

Wow, this is a great book. The author is very skilled in telling historical facts and journal entries but into a story that is easy to read, full of factual informative information, and has great structure. If you like this book I would definitely suggest reading "Skeletons in the Sahara" another phenomenal book, it's not written by Nathaniel Philbrick, but also another amazing author who tells a tragic story of a crew and his captain lost at sea near Africa and the story of the few that survived.

I also bought Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower but haven't had a chance to read it yet but look forward to doing so now since i've read In the Heart of the sea.

If only I could give this six stars!!.......2007-07-10

This is a phenomenal book. I am putting it in my top five. It is that rare bit of nonfiction that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am an avid horror reader, and although technically this book doesn't fit that genre, I am making a place for it on my horror shelf. This truly is a tragedy, and the depths of Captain Pollard's misfortune is staggering. Granted he wasn't a "fishy man," but he is a character you rooted for. Chase, more captain than first mate, was the true leader. He kept an almost obsessive watch over the rations and kept his battered boat in sailing shape despite the seemingly insurmountable odds set before his crew. This is an outstanding book. Philbrick is an excellent writer. I particularly like the way he handled the explanation of starvation and the effects on the psyche. I've heard some call the section about cannibalism gruesome, and it was, but in order to understand the sheer power of this tragedy, it was tactfully and, I think, brilliantly handled in this regard by Philbrick.

Kudos to the author and kudos to the lucky reader who picks up this book!

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

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A Superb Biography
Even the biographers are leftist
The Incredible Life of a Nearly Forgotten Hero
A Splendid Enigma
Complex, but very approachable

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Kai Bird , and Martin J. Sherwin
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375726268
Release Date: 2006-04-11

Amazon.com

In American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin delve deep into J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and deliver a thorough and devastatingly sad biography of the man whose very name has come to represent the culmination of 20th century physics and the irrevocable soiling of science by governments eager to exploit its products. Rich in historical detail and personal narratives, the book paints a picture of Oppenheimer as both a controlling force and victim of the mechanisms of power.

By the time the story reaches Oppenheimer's fateful Manhattan Project work, readers have been swept along much as the project's young physicists were by fate and enormous pressure. The authors allow the scientists to speak for themselves about their reactions to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, avoiding any sort of preacherly tone while revealing the utter, horrible ambiguity of the situation. For instance, Oppenheimer wrote in a letter to a friend, "The thing had to be done," then, "Circumstances are heavy with misgiving."

Many biographies of Oppenheimer end here, with the seeds of his later pacifism sown and the dangers of mixing science with politics clearly outlined. But Bird and Sherwin devote the second half of this hefty book to what happened to Oppenheimer after the bomb. For a short time, he was lionized as the ultimate patriot by a victorious nation, but things soured as the Cold War crept forward and anti-communist witchhunts focused paranoia and anti-Semitism onto Oppenheimer, destroying his career and disillusioning him about his life's work. Devastated by the atom bomb's legacy of fear, he became a vocal and passionate opponent of the Strangelovian madness that gripped the world because of the weapons he helped develop.

Twenty-five years of research went into creating American Prometheus, and there has never been a more honest and complete biography of this tragic scientific giant. The many great ironies of Oppenheimer's life are revealed through the careful reconstruction of a wealth of records, conversations, and ideas, leaving the clearest picture yet of his life. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

Customer Reviews:

A Superb Biography.......2007-09-30

This book merited its Pulitzer Prize: the subject, Oppenheimer and the bomb, is fascinating; the scholarship is thorough; and the writing is so clear that one forgets one is reading--one sees the events of history.

I will never forget the authors' analysis of why we dropped the bombs on those two unlucky Japanese cities. Was it to save the lives of our troops and of those who would defend Japan? No, the Japanese wanted to surrender in July of 1945, and the invasion of Japan was scheduled to occur after 1 November 1945. Truman wanted to end the war before 15 August, the date Stalin had promised to declare war on Japan. Decoded diplomatic cables revealed that the Japanese were willing to surrender in July if the US relaxed its condition of "unconditional surrender." But Secretary of State James F. Byrnes of South Carolina advised Truman that the Democrats would do better in the elections of 1946 and 1948 if Truman insisted on unconditional surrender. So he dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan to win those elections.

The authors' description of Lewis Strauss's hearings was excellent.

Even the biographers are leftist.......2007-09-05

This book was engaging and well written and full of insights about the life of J Robert Oppenheimer. However, it was clear to this reader that the sympathies of the authors are far to the left. Although one could easily agree that the 1954 Oppenheimer security hearing was something of a kangaroo court, the authors treated the issue of Oppenheimer's security status as if it were a primary right (such as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) rather than a status granted by the government at its discretion. After all, why would the US Government appoint someone to be intimately associated with the development of the H-bomb who publicly and forcefully disdained the effort--whether or not the man was at the time or had been in the past a fellow-traveler? Also, all of the "nasty" characters who happened to be Republican were repeated and clearly identified as Republican but the "nasty" Democrats were simply identified by their names.

This leftist tendency by the authors is a blemish on what otherwise would have been one of the most enjoyable books I have read in years and certainly one of the best I have read on this remarkable period in American history. But, then, I guess it is difficult for authors not to identify and sympathize with their subject, especially since most who came in contact with Oppenheimer during his life seemed also to have succumbed to his spell.

The Incredible Life of a Nearly Forgotten Hero.......2007-08-31

Before my grandfather handed me this book I had no idea Oppenheimer ever existed. Nothing from school, other books, or TV. Now, I feel as though I've met him. As I read this book I felt his anger, sadness, pain, and joy.

I had no knowledge of this man, and I don't think any is needed before reading this book. It's also about much more than Oppenheimer. Knowing about his life gave me a VERY different view of the American Communists of the thirties, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, McCarthism, the Cold War, and the US government as a whole.

Within this book America isn't that sparkly clean America I thought it was. America makes mistakes just like all of us and I believe it's incredibly important the citizens are told more than just the nice version of history. When Oppenheimer challenged this nice version, the backlash nearly destroyed him.

Buy this book, borrow it, just read it. This book contains forgotten history every American needs to know.

A Splendid Enigma.......2007-08-09

There was a time when scientists where revered in the same way that athletes, entertainers, and celebrities are today. The first half of the 20th century was a time of great scientific and technological development and achievement. Despite global struggles with depression, war and ideological strife, the promise of a bright future delivered by brilliant men in universities and laboratories, offered a vision of a brave new world. The dark side of this lay in man's own capacity for self-destruction if ethics and morals failed to keep pace with scientific advancement. Would the new frontiers of science create a new Eden, or would it destroy the fruits of civilization? Specifically, would the unleashed power of the atom bring peace and abundance, or would it foster terror among the nations of the world?

AMERICAN PROMOTHEUS: THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER chronicles the life and times of the splendid enigma - Oppie - the brilliant physicist who became a shepherd of geniuses. These were the members of the team at Los Alamos who created the atomic bomb - the weapon that ended World War II and brought "peace" to the world in a blinding flash of radioactivity.

The authors, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin have collaborated in this Pulitzer Prize winning exploration of "Oppie" in a level of detail not previously seen in previous biographies. From Oppenheimer's early life to his years as a student and prodigy, internationally renowned academic to the Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project and its cold war aftermath, the authors provide a telling multi-textural portrait of a man both loved and hated by fellow scientists, politicians, and ethicists. The consequences of his intellectual curiosity and affinity of communistic ideals in the early years of the Cold War amidst the shameful paranoia of McCarthyism provide an insight into the man's human frailties as well as his intellectual strengths. The revocation of Oppenheimer's security clearance amidst such political turmoil sheds light on a controversial period in American history.

The book is well researched and documented. The narrative flows well, despite some repetition in chapters devoted to Oppenheimer's 1930s political activities. It is a compelling and comprehensive biography of one of the most elusive personalities in American and World History.

Complex, but very approachable.......2007-06-30

This is an extremely well-written, engaging, and engrossing tale of an equally complex and brilliant man. The degree of his humanness -- unapologetically raw; the degree of his metal abilities -- virtually unmatched. A great read for any fan of science, mathematics, or the history of science. You won't be able to put it down once you start it.

Average customer rating:

PONDEROUS
Outstanding
A Good Book to Snuggle With for A Great and Long Reading [88][16][T]
Human nature doesn't change
One of the great American novels.

An American Tragedy (Signet Classics)
Theodore Dreiser
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451527704
Release Date: 2000-08-08

Book Description

The classic depiction of the harsh realities of American life, the dark side of the American Dream, and one man's doomed pursuit of love and success...

"Mr. Dreiser is not imitative and belongs to no school. He is at heart a mysticist and a fatalist, though using the realistic method. He is, on the evidence of this novel alone, a power."-The New York Times Book Review

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"Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is nothing less than what it purports to be -- the harrowing story of a weak-willed young man who destroys himself, a villain who is also victim of the values of a deceptive, materialistic society. Dreiser patterned the story of Clyde Griffiths on a real-life murder that took place in 1906, a charming young social climber who killed his pregnant young girlfriend in order to romance a rich girl who had begun to notice him. A powerful murder story, An American Tragedy is much more than that. For Dreiser pours his own dark yearnings into the character of Clyde Griffiths, while grimly charting the young man's pitiful rise and fall as he pursues empty ambitions to wealth, power and satisfaction. The Indiana-born novelist Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) has never been a dashing or romantic figure in American literature, and he has no Pulitzer or Nobel Prize to signal his importance. His big, rugged novels were shocking in their day -- unapologetic in their sexual candor, antagonistic to the norms of conventional morality and organized religion, often banned or suppressed -- and challenging still to readers. Yet the brooding force of his writing casts a deep shadow across modern American letters. At his best, in An American Tragedy, Dreiser examines the flip side of The American Dream in a gathering storm of a story that develops with a power echoing Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment. Inspired by the novels of Balzac and the ideas of Spenser and Freud, Dreiser became one of America's greatest naturalist writers, and An American Tragedy retains its rocky intensity and its devastating view of American longing almost a century later. "

Customer Reviews:

PONDEROUS.......2007-09-24

Wow, what a ponderous read! I know this was the era of yellow journalism and sensationalistic literature, but OMIGOD, this could've been reduced to 1/3 its length with the removal of superfluous adjectives!

Outstanding.......2007-01-15

This is the ultimate "be careful what you wish for" novel as Clyde Griffiths, trapped in a detested situation of his own making, concludes that his only path out involves murder; but when he can't go through with it in a final demonstration of his "weakness," his intended victim dies anyway by accident - only to bring down upon Clyde a conviction for "murder" and a reservation with the electric chair. Clyde's dream is the classic American one of rising above one's lowly position to a higher status, but he is frustrated at every turn. He takes a mistress, the poor factory girl Roberta Alden, at about the same time he befriends rich society girl Sondra Finchley; he learns that Roberta is pregnant just as Sondra declares her love for him. He feels trapped with Roberta with no way out, until he schemes to take her to an isolated lake and drown her. In one of the most famous scenes in American literature, Clyde is unable to complete his plans while in the boat with Roberta - only she somehow falls overboard and drowns anyway. Clyde is frozen by the spectacle of her drowning and is unable to act. A long trial ensues in which perhaps the real American tragedy is revealed: Sondra's wealth protects her from ever having to get involved with Clyde's proceedings. This long novel (perhaps too long) is fascinating in so many ways, with the ironies behind Clyde's hopes, dreams, actions, and fate so dramatically and honestly detailed by Dreiser, that, as one critic said, it's "a great work worthy of a permanent place in any list of milestones of modern fiction."

As with all Library of America editions, this edition of Dreiser's masterpiece is definitive and constructed to last a lifetime.

A Good Book to Snuggle With for A Great and Long Reading [88][16][T].......2007-01-12

Before the advent of television or other amenities which distract one from the often requisite silence to snuggle down to a novel, books included extraordinary detail and covered entire lives of protagonists. Dickens, Fielding, Dostoevsky, and others of their respective generations could swaddle the reader with incredibly well versed novels of lengths which today's readers may find either offensive or oppressive.

Dreiser belongs with such a crowd. In this novel, we commence with little boy Clyde Griffiths and read about him until he becomes the gas-chambered Griffiths. We learn all about his love of women, love of money, and how those two loves collide with his Judeo-Christian instincts - leading to the devastation of his and his friends' lives.

Engrossing and beautifully written, this book enraptures the reader who loves to read and reads out of love. Griffiths' life bestows weaknesses similar to modern cinema's Ned Racine (William Hurt in Body Heat) or Frank Chambers (John Garfield in Postman Always Rings Twice). Women: can't live with them, can't live without them.

If your attention span is guided by television's addicting ADHD-like compressed "mini-series" quickness, and only fast paced composition can keep your attention, this book is not for you. If you wish to snuggle beneath a blanket during the winter or bath beneath the sun's rays in the summer "with a good book" that could last the entire vacation, this would be a very good choice.

Human nature doesn't change.......2006-10-23

It's very rare that I will read a book strictly on the strength of the author's name. Theodore Dreiser's works captivate me with the same intensity that Anne Rice and J.K. Rowling elicit in their own legion of admirers. For me, Dreiser has yet to disappoint: "Sister Carrie", "Jennie Gerhardt", "The Genius", and "American Tragedy" never fail to evoke strong identification with the main characters.

I won't go into the plot of "American Tragedy" here: read other reviews if you're looking for spoilers. What I will say is that it's one of Dreiser's finest achievements. He never merely tells the story of one protagonist struggling against the odds to win the money, the girl, salvation, whatever the issue at stake is. He also holds the society that the character lives in up to scrutiny, shining a harsh light on prejudices, unfair mores, and inconsistent applications of justice.

The tragic drama of Clyde Griffiths and Roberta Alden, although set in the 1920s, could have transpired just as easily in modern times. Premarital sex, waning passion, the destruction of one former love to facilitate access to another deemed more desirable: these dark themes are prevalent today as well. Society may change, but human nature doesn't, and in focusing his work on the intricacies and cruelties of human nature, Dreiser has created a timeless book.

In my opinion, Dreiser has never had an equal, nor a successor.

One of the great American novels........2006-10-20

An American Tragedy is a lengthy novel, this addition at just under 900 pages, but it's a rewarding mental and emotional experience. It read quickly for me - I had trouble putting it down once I pushed past the first couple hundred pages. Dreiser's novel follows the life of Clyde Griffiths, an ambitious young man in pursuit of the American dream. It is a life of struggles, first to overcome his birth and gain social and material status, then for his own life, sold in the process of the first. The author deals with deftly with powerful and confusing emotions - lust, love, greed, shame - presenting in Clyde a sympathetic and interesting character, victim or villain. In such, Dreiser purposefully and effectively seeks out some of the dark underbelly of American culture and society's drive for status and success. Perhaps the tragedy is that the story begins and ends in much the same way. The life of Clyde Griffiths is forgotten, swept away in the heavy rush of mass and progress. Dreiser's novel, on the other hand, will not be forgotten. It's certainly one of the great American novels, well worth the read.

The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy

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A Great Book! A Must Read!!
One Mine Fire, Two Books
The Human Face of an Ecological Disaster
Well-Written -- and Outrageous
The Day the Earth Caved In:An American Mining Tragedy by Joan Quigley

The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy
Joan Quigley
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400061806
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Book Description

The Day the Earth Caved In is an unprecedented and riveting account of the nation’s worst mine fire, beginning on Valentine’s Day, 1981, when twelve-year-old Todd Domboski plunged through the earth in his grandmother’s backyard in Centralia, Pennsylvania. In astonishing detail, award-winning journalist Joan Quigley, the granddaughter of Centralia miners, ushers readers into the dramatic world of the underground blaze——from the media circus and back-room deal-making spawned in the wake of Todd’s sudden disappearance, to the inner lives of every day Centralians who fought a government that wouldn’t listen.

Drawing on interviews with key participants and exclusive new research, Quigley paints unforgettable portraits of Centralia and its residents, from Tom Larkin, the short-order cook and ex-hippie who rallied the activists, to Helen Womer, a bank teller who galvanized the opposition, denying the fire’s existence even as toxic fumes invaded her home. Here, too, we see the failures of major
political and government figures, from Centralia’s congressman, “Dapper” Dan Flood, a former actor who later resigned in the wake of corruption allegations, to James Watt, a former lawyer-lobbyist for the mining industry, who became President Reagan’s controversial interior secretary.

Like Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action, The Day the Earth Caved In is a seminal investigation of individual rights, corporate privilege, and governmental indifference to the powerless. Exposing facts in prose that reads like fiction, Quigley shows us what happens to a small community when disaster strikes, and what it means to call someplace home.

Praise for The Day the Earth Caved In:

"Her scene-by-scene narrative reads like fiction but inspires outrage in the muckraking tradition of Lincoln Steffens and Rachel Carson.”
—The New York Times

"[A]s a piece of explanatory journalism, The Day The Earth Caved In shines."
—Washington Post Book World

“It is quite a story.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“First rate research and journalism combing to tell a sad, often infuriating tale.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“ Quigley’s riveting account of the nation’s most devastating mine fire will change the way you think about so-called natural disasters, and the emotions we attach to the places we call home. This is an extraordinary book.” — Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy

“Quigley’s tale is a real-life epic of brutally indifferent government, greedy corporations and the unlikely heroes who fight for their basic human rights. It's all here; made in America. You'll feel enraged to know the truth of what happened in our mountains and proud of your fellow Americans who took on Goliath."
— John Passacantando, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA

“If you can imagine a book that combines the gritty dignity of How Green Was My Valley with the muckraking of Silent Spring, then you have some sense of this deeply affecting work.”
— Samuel G. Freedman, author of Upon This Rock

“Joan Quigley, the granddaughter of coal miners, has combined meticulous reporting and personal passion to bring us this important book — one that illuminates an underground blaze that many corporate and government officials sought to smother and conceal.”
— Gay Talese, author of A Writer’s Life

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book! A Must Read!! .......2007-08-24

Joan Quigley has done magnificent research in this book that captures the essence of the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region. This story is a tragety and shoes the ineptness of government to protect the people it was ment to protect. This is a must read!The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy

One Mine Fire, Two Books.......2007-08-24

I first found out about the underground coal mine fire at Centralia PA and the devastation of the town above it while surfing the Web, looking for information about urban ruins. The photos I saw on various websites were eerie: where a small town once stood there was now only streets and sidewalks. A sliver of a dwelling that had once been part of a string of row houses stood alone, propped up on either side by brick chimney-like buttresses that provided the support that other dwellings, now torn down, once gave. Steam rose from cracks in a twisted and abandoned highway or from patches of scorched earth surrounded by dead vegetation. While these photos were very creepy and intriguing, I didn't stop to read much about the story of Centralia; I was on a quest to find out more about abandoned sites closer to my home in New York State's Hudson Valley region that I have seen for myself and visited: the Lente house, Bannerman's Island Arsenal, and the Cornish Estate.

Years later but a few weeks ago I happened across the last five minutes of a segment on C-SPAN's Book TV that caught my attention. Joan Quigley, author of "The Day the Earth Caved In" was talking about the Centralia mine fire. From the little bit I saw of the show it was clear that there was much more to the Centralia story than what I gathered from the photos on the Web. I eagerly wrote down the name of the book and its author so that the next time I visited Amazon I could order it. After adding the book to my shopping cart, Amazon suggested that I also might want to check out David DeKok's "Unseen Danger", an earlier volume on the same subject. I ordered both.

As chance would have it, "Unseen Danger" arrived about a week before "The Day the Earth Caved In" and now, having read both books, I'm glad it did. I have a busy life and don't have a lot of time to read but I found Mr. DeKok's telling of the story so compelling that I neglected a lot of my duties around the house to make time for it. I took it to work and read it on my lunch and dinner breaks. I stayed up into the early morning hours, far longer than I should have, to finish it in a couple of days instead of the weeks it usually takes me to read a book.

As the blurb quoted on the cover from the New York Times Book Review states, there are "enough bureaucratic villains [in this story] to fill a Dickens novel." I would add that there were some Centralian citizens (especially one infuriatingly obnoxious homeowner in particular who I kept hoping would disappear into a subsidence) and the local Catholic church (who should have also suffered the same fate) who deserved to be included in that category as well. This is a story of missed opportunities, inter-governmental squabbles, denial of the present realities and local feuds all working together to turn the lives of the residents of this beleaguered town into a living hell. Mr. DeKok does a fine job of telling the story and it is obvious that he put a tremendous amount of effort into researching it and a lot of detective work into trying to separate fact from fiction, especially when it comes to the matter of how the mine fire got started in the first place. He paints a clear and terrifying picture of what the residents who were most effected by the danger had to go through before they got some relief, and the unconscionable indifference that government officials showed to the plight of their constituents in order to protect their own political behinds. The cast of characters in "Unseen Danger" is large and varied and includes the above mentioned villains and a few heroes too. The attention to detail is astounding and makes for extremely compelling reading.

However, in my opinion, the book is not without its flaws. While the above mentioned attention to detail is most welcome, at times it can be confusing, especially when trying to picture the relative locations of the events. Three small maps are included in the paperback edition that I read; one showing where Centralia is located in relation to large East Coast cities, a local map indicating local landmarks and some street names along with the locations of the fire's origin and the site of one especially scary event, and a third map that indicates where the fire hot spots were located in 1983. These graphics are only helpful in a minimal way and don't go far enough toward clarification.

Photographs appear at the start of each chapter and there are a few in the bodies of the chapters. In terms of graphic clarity (not subject matter) all leave much to be desired and in many cases they are of such poor quality as to be useless. They have the appearance of being photocopies of photocopies of photocopies and are of such high contrast that the very features that they were intended to illustrate have become invisible. I do not blame Mr. DeKok for this - his publisher should have done a better job. As for the type of photos included, there are many of Centralians effected by the fire, some of the government workers who had to deal with the situation on almost a daily basis, one of the fire itself, and many of the government figures involved. However there is one glaring omission: aside from the cover photo which is obscured by the bold lettering of the book's title there are no pictures of the town, either as it was at the beginning of the story, during, or after. For those, one must go to the various websites dedicated to the subject.

Ms. Quigley's book generally does not suffer from these kind of setbacks. Even before her Prologue we are provided with a nearly full page map which clearly indicates street names, locations of local landmarks, locations of the principal character's homes, indications of the sites and scope of efforts to stop the fires, and a distance scale to help us better grasp the relative proximities of the places and events described. I wish I had this map while I was reading "Unseen Danger", it would have increased my appreciation of that book all the more. "The Day the Earth Caved In" contains eight pages of black and white photographs, all well reproduced, including one of the authors' grandparents row home from 1984, and one taken in 2000 of a tourist observing a cloud of vapor emanating from a non-descript area in the woods, as well as photos of mine workings from the 1880's and pictures of some of the people central to her telling of the story. As with "Unseen Danger" wide angle photos of the town before and after are absent and their inclusion would have helped drive home the immense scope of this catastrophe. Again, one has to search the Internet to find those kind of pictures.

While David DeKok relates the Centralia story by presenting an almost day by day account of the events that occurred he does not get inside the heads of the principals too deeply. He doesn't have to - anyone who has an atom of imagination can empathize or sympathize with the horrors that these people must have been through. But what left me scratching my head in bewilderment after I finished his book was why the Centralians were so reluctant to leave their homes and flee the danger. I suppose this is because I was born and raised in New York City and have moved to new homes five times since I left my parents house - once because the dangers of living in a loft on NY's Lower East Side became too much to bear. It wasn't until a few days ago while discussing the matter with a co-worker who grew up in a small town in upstate New York (population about 2000) that I really began to understand what made Centralians want to cling to their homesteads so tenaciously. Joan Quigley, by telling her version of the story through the eyes, histories and emotions of a few of the key players attempts to explain that sense of attachment, but is only partially successful. Ironically enough, it is DeKok's sparse explanation that comes closest to what my co-worker told me and what I've observed since moving from NYC to a small town: that many people living in small towns are fearful of the outside world and are much more likely to cling to surroundings that are much more familiar and therefore comforting.

Quigley's device of presenting the story by delving into the personal histories and feelings of her selected subjects is a welcome supplement to the mine fire disaster story as told by DeKok but ultimately it falls short in conveying just how desperately dangerous their situation was. At times I got the impression that she feels that the personal relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children or neighbors and neighbors is the interesting part of the story and the mine fire and its dangers were just a backdrop to that soap opera. Major events, like one man's close encounter with death by carbon monoxide poisoning while asleep in his bedroom and the circumstances leading up to it are described in great detail in "Unseen Danger" while Ms. Quigley mentions it almost in passing, preferring to more often dwell on what clothes a person was wearing. (What bearing does who wore what color pants suit on a particular day have on the story at hand? Inexplicably, these kind of observations appear far too frequently.) This is generally indicative of both authors approach to their subjects.

Similarly, Mr. DeKok tends to speak with authority and presumably understanding on technical matters while Ms. Quigley shows some lack of comprehension. For example, at one point she states that oxygen was the fuel that kept the mine fires burning. Just for the record: coal is the fuel that is consumed by the fire while oxygen needs to be present for oxidation - burning - to occur; oxygen in and of itself does not burn. This is elementary Junior High school science. While I realize that the point Ms. Quigley was trying to make was that some scientists proposed that if the mine fire were to be deprived of oxygen then it might go out, it is this misunderstanding of basic physics that influences me to trust Mr. DeKok's opinions over hers.

One rare instance where Ms. Quigley's narrative excels over Mr. DeKok's is in her scathing indictment of the Reagan administration and of the local Catholic church, an institution highly revered and trusted in Centralia, who let their parishioners down as shamefully and grievously as the government had. Mr. DeKok also criticizes these institutions, but instead mostly relies on the method he employs when dealing with other facets of the story, that of letting the facts speak for themselves. Ms. Quigley does this as well, however, she goes one step further on this one point by including examples of government official's blunders not cited in "Unseen Danger", in particular those of the lunatic James Watt (who was Secretary of the Interior near the end of the story) whose public statements were so insane that President Reagan gladly accepted his resignation, and none too soon: after Watt left office he was indicted on charges of influence peddling. None of this information about Watt was in "Unseen Danger" and I strongly feel it should have been.

Both books tell pretty much the same story (though from different perspectives and not equally as well), but one disagreement between the two is about how the fire started in the first place. In my opinion Mr. DeKok presents a far more plausible explanation, citing specific evidence in chapter 3 of his book while Ms. Quigley covers the subject in an author's note at the end of hers. While she states that her research provides strong evidence for her version of the events, she reveals very few specifics of it and appears to rely heavily on the testimony of residents living near the ignition site, claiming that they had no reason to lie. I view this claim with a lot of skepticism. Her own depiction of the character of the Centralia residents (especially some who lived near the dump) leads me to conclude otherwise. Also, Ms. Quigley seems to overlook one gigantic 500 pound gorilla in the room: Why would the town dump be set on fire if it was already burning? It seems painfully obvious to me that they wouldn't. In any case, the cause of the fire is only one part of the story and either scenario would have led to the same result.

If one is interested in reading about this subject my advice is to get both of these books. Read "Unseen Fire" first (it is by far the better of the two because in part it tells the horrific story in much more frightening detail) but keep "The Day The Earth Caved In" handy so you can refer to its superior map. Then read Ms. Quigley's book as a supplement, to flesh out some of the characters involved and to learn a handful of interesting but not necessarily essential facts that were left out of Mr. DeKok's. Some may find her more personally intimate and emotional method of storytelling preferable to DeKok's somewhat dry, fact based delivery but I for one did not. For as much as I enjoyed "The Day The Earth Caved In" on a certain level I think I did so because I already knew the facts ahead of time. Much to her credit, Ms. Quigley invoked in me even more sympathy for the people she chose to focus on than I had before, (at least those who were deserving of it,) especially one young couple's story of being pulled apart because of wanting different things out of life, which paralleled my own personal experience. However, I feel that this concentration on the private lives of a select few takes too much attention away from exploring and understanding the broader picture of governmental incompetence that any one of us could fall victim to under similar unfortunate circumstances.

Hope that nothing like this ever happens in your town.

The Human Face of an Ecological Disaster.......2007-08-17

It might be a scene from a horror movie, but it really happened to seventh grader Todd Domboski in 1981 in the small town Centralia in the Pennsylvania mountains. Todd was crossing a neighbor's backyard when hell opened up below, a steaming fissure of mud that began swallowing him. He was in deep to the knees, then to the waist, then to the neck, and his struggles did nothing. There were roaring gases coming out of the pit, and he knew he was going to die. A friend, however, heard his screams, and was able to put a hand down and pull Todd out. Todd was covered in hot mud but was otherwise unharmed. His story is the start of _The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy_ (Random House) by Joan Quigley, a story of a peculiar but not isolated coal mining disaster. There were a dozen other underground fires in abandoned coal mines in Pennsylvania alone, and almost three hundred nationwide, but the Centralia fire was the most serious, destroying the little former mining town and all but emptying it. Quigley's book gives a brief history of mining in the area and describes the geology of underground coal fires, and particularly describes the governmental and industrial neglect that allowed this fire to fester for decades. Quinton pays particular attention to the citizens of the town, faced with a living horror story, at risk for having their homes filled with poisonous gas or sucked into the mud but still torn by devotion to the town many of them had grown up in.

In 1962, something on fire was discarded within the garbage dump near the Odd Fellows Cemetery at the edge of Centralia, and it ignited the coal vein that fed into a colliery that had been abandoned in 1931. When the fire started, officials estimated that $30,000 for excavations would put it out, but there was a delay in finding the agency that might provide the money, the first of decades of delay that allowed the fire to grow. Once the story of Todd almost dying in the fire came out, though, there was more activity. Quigley tells this amazing story impartially and neutrally, but inevitably among all the indifferent or ineffective officials who peeked into the matter, there is one particular villain. James Watt was Ronald Reagan's Interior secretary under the "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" philosophy, which in the case of Centralia meant that Watt withheld federal solutions and insisted that the fire was Pennsylvania's problem. Watt blandly declared at one point that there was "no threat to the health and safety" of Centralia's citizens who had a fire burning beneath them and carbon monoxide and methane spewing into their homes; he maintained that the fire would eventually burn itself out. A final solution of buying out the residents and moving them was supported with regret by most of the town's citizens, but much of Quigley's story has to do with those who could not bring themselves to consider leaving, even as steam holes punched through and as children became sick with inhaling the fire's poisons. The activists who pressed the government to relocate the citizens hated the prospect of having to give Centralia up, but saw no other solution for the toxic town. They were opposed by citizens that resisted any buyout and who wanted to keep the town intact; there was polarization, ill-feeling, and even the throwing of a Molotov cocktail. National media attention to the conflagration and to the conflict of the citizens increased pressure and may have done more harm than good.

Centralia still exists as a locale, of course, but many of its houses and other buildings have been demolished. A dozen or so people still try to live there, but any real town is gone. If there is any silver lining to this sad story told with genuine sympathy for all of Centralia's citizens, it is that at least some officials have learned that underground coal fires must be fought immediately upon their discovery. Tourists come to see what used to be Centralia and want to see a fire, but it is far below the surface right now. James Watt was right when he predicted the blaze would burn itself out, but whether this will be in a decade or in a century, no one can say.

Well-Written -- and Outrageous.......2007-08-14

Joan Quigley does a masterful job of telling the story of Centralia, Pennsylvania -- its people, a mining disaster, and then and what has to count as one of most egregious cases of government's failure to respond to an environmental calamity. The outrage multiplies with each passing year, and each new disclosure, and Quigley maintains a pitch-perfect pace throughout. Along the way you get a vivid portrait of a depressing place, and its almost heroic residents. Highly recommended.

The Day the Earth Caved In:An American Mining Tragedy by Joan Quigley.......2007-07-24

The book was very interesting, I used to drive thru Centralia to reach Selinsgrove. The book describes the town to a "T", I remember the cracked ground where the smoke was pouring out. It's a shame the people were treated so rotten by the Government.

Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports

Average customer rating:

Great reading
More descriptive than anything.
Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports
Aircraft Accident Analysis
TRAPPED IN THE MIDDLE

Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports
Robert Sumwalt , and Jim Walters
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0071351493

Book Description

Fascinating and factual accounts of the world’s most recent and compelling crashes

Industry insiders James Walters and Robert Sumwalt, trained aviation accident investigators and commercial airline pilots, offer expert analyses of notable and recent aircraft accidents in this eye-opening, lesson-filled case file. Culled from final reports issued by military and foreign government investigations, as well as additional research and resources, Aircraft Accident Analysis tells the final and full tales of doomed flights that stopped the world cold in their wake.

Technical accuracy and details, presented in layman’s language, help to clarify:

• Major accidents from commercial, military, and general aviation flights
• Pilot backgrounds and flight histories
• Chronology of events leading to each accident
• Description of aviation investigation process
• Insight into NTSB, military, and foreign government findings
• Resulting recommendations, requirements, and policy changes
• Preview summaries of accidents too recent for final reports are also highlighted.

Readable, authoritative, and complete, Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports is at once an important reference tool and a riveting, what-went-wrong look at air safety for everyone who flies.

Featured final and preview reports include:

U.S. Air Force, U.S Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Jessica Dubroff, Cheyenne, Wyoming
Valujet Airlines 592, Everglades, Florida
American Airlines 955, Cali, Columbia
John Denver, Pacific Grove, California
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Carrollton, Georgia
US Air 427, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
TWA 800, Long Island, New York
Delta Air Lines, LaGuardia Airport, New York
John F. Kennedy, Jr., Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

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Customer Reviews:

Great reading.......2007-01-05

I really enjoyed reading this detailed account of aviation mishaps. As a former pilot, I am fascinated with the causes of aircraft accidents. It is amazing how even the most experienced pilots can make fatal mistakes. This book on aircraft mishaps gives a very detailed account of each accident and the investigation. The pictures and graphics let you see how the accident happened and how it sometimes could have been avoided. If you like CSI, you would love this book.

More descriptive than anything........2006-09-18

This is a great book, if you want to expand your knowledge on Air Accidents, being a novice or professional you will enjoy it.

Ane of my favorites book of this year.

Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports.......2006-03-20

It was exactly what it stated it would be. Perfect Service. Thank you!!

Bree Whittle

Aircraft Accident Analysis.......2006-02-23

A very interesting book providing a wealth of information on some well known aircraft accidents. I was especially interested in the commercial jet aircraft accident reports.

TRAPPED IN THE MIDDLE.......2001-08-07

It is very hard to get an interesting book about aircraft accidents without, at the same time, getting "yellow" in the analysis.

Clearly, the author tried to be serious but the final result is precisely what the title says: A lot of final reports...without further analysis. It should have been interesting having a more general analysis (similar to books by Perrow or Reason) instead of being satisfied with the analysis included in every report.

Average customer rating:

Churchill comes full circle

The End

The abrupt conclusion leaves unanswered questions

Winni; as he was known to the British during WW11

Missing the point

The Second World War, Volume 6: Triumph and Tragedy
Winston S. Churchill
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Second World War, Volume 5: Closing the Ring

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ASIN: 0395410606

Book Description

From the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 the Second World War had only fourteen months to run. This final volume of the account covers events right up to the unconditional surrender of Japan. Churchill's six-volume history of World War II - the definitive work, remarkable both for its sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, universally acknowledged as a magnificent historical reconstruction and an enduring work of literature.

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The end of World War II, the crushing of Germany and the devastating bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.and the entrance into an uneasy and clouded peace as Churchill is dismissed from his office and the Allies embark upon a tragic, misguided and atomic-haunted Cold War. The concluding volume of Churchill's great chronicle of the War which was responsible for his winning the Noble Prize in Literature.

Customer Reviews:

Churchill comes full circle.......2007-08-13

Volume 6 "Triumph and Tragedy" covers the time frame of June 6, 1944 to July 26, 1945 and closes Churchill's account. The war is moving towards its' climax as the Allies land and push forward towards Paris and then on towards Berlin. Failure in Italy to pursue the Germans was reached as `Anvil', Riviera landing Southern France, reduced troop strength and was one of the factors that change the future of Poland and the rest of the Balkans. The Moscow conference has Churchill and Stalin discussing percentages of influence. At Quebec Churchill was very anxious to forestall the Russians in certain area of Central Europe. Unfortunately Churchill's influence consisted mainly in a warning voice. He was caught between a rock and a hard spot as he tries to appease Stalin and also not to sever England's life line with FDR and America. Yalta brought hopes and promises to a war weary world. Perhaps if Roosevelt had lived maybe these could have been achieved but his death left many agreements open ended and unfulfilled. Truman steps into office and the problems of `Unconditional Surrender' surface as surrender with Germany and Japan becomes eminent. Poland, one of the main reason for England's entering the War, is once again on stage for their sacrifice. The future of Europe and the World is being decided and the Cold War stands in the wings.

Churchill's and England's influence has waned. Even as Potsdam was failing all he can find is a concerned voice. England was deep in debt and tired of War. With Germany surrendering, there was no more desire to fight another battle especially with Russia. The Atomic bomb is dropped on Japan's two cities and Churchill finds that he has been voted out of office. On July 26, 1945 he bids farewell to the Nation that he served and steps out of what he considered as an unfinished office. He states that the "power to shape the future would be denied him". He wished he could have stayed to help with the needed peace but out of office all he could do was speak. He was not to return again for another 6 years and by then it was to late for another coalition government.

This is an important volume and series in understanding a great deal about WWII history and the start of the Cold War. The volume is well name. Victory blocked Nazism and then unleashed the power of the atom. The World would never again be the same. Old fears were replaced with new ones and national hegemony reared its' ugly head. The peace that Churchill wanted was not to be. Well worth reading and adding to the history shelf.

The End.......2007-05-10

This is the final volume of Churchill's war memoires, telling the story of the war from D-Day until its conclusion. The ending is somewhat curtailed due to the fact that the Conservatives lost the 1945 General Election, with the result that Churchill ceased to be Prime Minister before the end of the war with Japan.

Churchill's account is at its best when he relates the problems with the fate of Greece and Poland, also when he tells of the deteriorating relationships with the USSR. What does become apparent is that Great Britain was by now a part-player in the end of the war, tolerated at the top table only because of her efforts in the war. The country, and its influence, was near exhaustion.

The problems with Churchill's previous volumes persist in this one. For example, an inadequate account of the bombing campaign: Dresden is dealt with in one sentence, and the assessment of the campaign as a whole is brief and uneasy. The Final Solution is accorded the briefest of mentions. The development of the atom bomb is hardly referred to until the success of the first test explosion.

These "faults" do not detract totally from the interesting parts of the book. But what is already good could have been far better. In the end, all six volumes are a fascinating account of the war from one of its key figures.

G Rodgers

The abrupt conclusion leaves unanswered questions.......2007-01-08

The sixth and final volume of Churchill's Second World War sees us through from D Day to victory. While the progression of the war itself is covered in much the same fashion as the first five volumes, it is here more than anywhere that Churchill starts looking forward to the post war world and the final disposition of power in Europe. Well before the actual end of the conflict, with victory certain, we see how the Soviet Union began closing off its regions of control from Allied scrutiny despite all efforts at openness and fairness from Britain and America. In particular, the Polish question weighed heavily on Churchill's mind and he devotes several chapters entirely to that problem. We see that Poland was the standard example of how Communist puppet governments were set up behind closed doors, while Stalin maintained an entirely straight face in claiming only a desire for peace and security. Churchill ends by noting the irony that as the war closed it was thought that The United States would possibly serve as a political buffer between the British and Soviet governments.

One can sense the frustration Churchill had as events were increasingly out of his control. By war's end Britain was decisively third ranked in terms of troops in action. After leading the only significant resistance to German war making for two full years, he found himself in disagreement with both major allies on various issues, major in the case of the Soviets and considerably less significant with regard to the U.S., but his feeling of encroaching loss is felt in this volume. Though he would later return to the Prime Minister's office, he ends the narrative as abruptly as he did his period of leadership (though he does skip ahead to the end of the Pacific war), with the great post-war questions unanswered.

Winni; as he was known to the British during WW11.......2005-03-14

I was born toward the end of world war two, and I'll never forget how this brilliant and intrepid man, through his daily, radio speaches, made the British people feel that they would never be defeated by Hitler. Winston Churchill, saw, before anyone else in England, that Germany would invade the rest of Europe and Great Britian in his iniquitous bid to conquer, control and kill millions of innocent people, without a thought of anything else but his evil ideas of what he, a mad-man, wanted at any cost.
As I grew older, my family told me more about the war. An uncle, who was in the Royal Air force, had his plane shot down and he spent nearly five years in a German P.O.W camp. My mother, when the dreaded dozzel bug bombs bombarded London day and night, had one drop very near her. She was pushing a pram with my twin sister and me in it, two older sisters were with her as she heard the engine stop and watched it fall; it was a dud and never exploded or we wouldn't be alive today. What terror she must have felt; I can not imagine. But Winston Churchill's daily radio addresses made her and so many other people gather their courage and continue on despite the very real danger of living in London.
Winston Churchill was a hero, beyond compare, to the people of Great Britain, during its time of greatest peril.
So many brave Americans went to fly for the Royal Air Force before America had entered the war. And so many of them perished -- such heros!!! To fight and die for England and freedom before they had to: brave crusaders!!
Then America also was at war with Germany and brought so much hope to the British people. They fought and so many of them died.
I read so much about this time in history. And these books, although definately not light reading, tell about a time when not only the men, but the women and even the children did whatever they could to rid this world of such evil. And so much of the braveness, the will to go on, despite everything, of the British people was because of this great man: Winston Churchill, who told them, and made them believe, every night by his radio speaches, that they could and would beat the Nazi threat.

Missing the point.......2003-11-22

I just had to add my two cents after finishing the sixth volume all of about 15 minutes ago. I ask my fellow reviewers who accuse Churchill of a completely selfish designation of "tragedy" on his loss of power in Britain to make sure they have actually read the right book; I can't see how it can be anything other than incredibly obvious that the "tragedy" he refers to is the inability of the Allies to halt Russian encroachment and lay the foundation for a peace which wouldn't be eventually and unavoidably interrupted by the potential for World War Three. This conclusion to Churchill's brilliant series is once again fantastic in scope and offers invaluable perspective. Most importantly, it is also incredibly prescient, as shown by 30 years of Cold War which we only escaped a decade ago.

Murder in the Adirondacks : An American Tragedy Revisited

Average customer rating:

Long on News, Short on True Crime....
A must read
Great for any Upstate New Yorkers
It was well researched with excellent photo layouts.

Murder in the Adirondacks : An American Tragedy Revisited
Craig Brandon
Manufacturer: North Country Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0932052584
Release Date: 1986-10-01

Product Description

This 100th anniversary edition includes a new introduction, in which the author presents the theories that he has developed since Murder in the Adirondacks was published nearly 20 years ago. The Gillette-Brown murder case from which Dreiser drew his An American Tragedy was a sensation in its day. Newsman Craig Brandon has done a remarkable job of researching the case and the family backgrounds of the two principals and, is probably more familiar with the complete story than Dreiser ever was. Yet with all this information, this new treatment reads like a novel. Accompanied with over 100 photos, Murder in the Adirondacks sheds new light on what was a "yellow Journalist's" delight in 1906. A must read for all Dreiser students.

Customer Reviews:

Long on News, Short on True Crime...........2007-09-28

Murder in the Adirondacks" tells the tale of the Gillette-Brown love triangle murder of 1906. MA is more of an historical novel than a tale of true crime. Author Brandon has a background as a newspaperman, so MA is written in the who-what-where-why-when-and how style of a hard and straight news feature. Its' strength lies in Brandon's very thorough research and the poignant photos which give full context to the story. As true crime, MA is fairly tame stuff, raising little emotion. Brandon also delves into Theodore Dreiser's "companion" novel, "An American Tragedy", and the Hollywood movie "A Place in the Sun", starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters. All the bases are certainly covered. This reviewer believes that the 4 star rating above is a tad generous, but author Brandon deserves his due for the sheer research effort he put forth. Folks from the Southern Tier/Central New York areas of Cortland-Utica-Herkimer should pounce. Those folks may wish to add a star to the rating above.

A must read.......1999-08-04

Murder in the Adirondacks:An American Tragedy Revisited is a must read. It captures and holds a readers attention while teaching them alittle bit about Central New York History. Through the book, a reader begins to "meet" the parties who were involved in this historic case, which was played out so many years ago. And then after getting to know the people, the reader is captivated by the trial and the events which surrounded Mr. Gillette's life immideatly after the verdict. All in all, a great read. I escpecially loved it as a Cortland County resident.

Great for any Upstate New Yorkers.......1999-07-08

This is a great book about the Chester Gillette murder case of 1906. Gillette took his girlfriend up to Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks and drowned her. He was later tried and executed. His story was turned into the novel 'An American Tragedy' and several movies. I am reading 'American Tragedy' now and it's interesting to see the parallels between the actual case and the fictionalized story.

It was well researched with excellent photo layouts........1999-04-19

I had thought I was well acquainted with the case but discovered many errors in my previous readings after reading this book. The author dispelled many myths about the case, but did not attempt to prove any position without solid facts. Recommend it to my fellow amateur "criminiologists."

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback