Product Description
`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.
Customer Reviews:
Check and see.......2007-06-21
I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.
Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22
Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.
Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05
We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
The Russians:
Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
The Westerners:
Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
The Chinese:
Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
The Arabs:
Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
The Divinity:
Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09
After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30
If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?
Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.
Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..
Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.
Book Description
In these fourteen essays, Andr Aciman, one of the most poignant stylists of his generation, dissects the experience of loss, moving from his force departure from Alexandria as a teenager, through his brief stay in Europe, and finally to the home he's made (and half invented) on Manhattan's Upper West Side.AUTHORBIO: Andr Aciman was born in Alexandria, raised in Egypt, Italy, and France, and educated at Harvard. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times, The New Republic, and Commentary, he teaches literature at Bard and lives in Manhattan with his wife and three children.
Customer Reviews:
Inward bound.......2007-07-26
André Aciman's collection of essays on place and nostalgia is as absolutely gorgeously written as his superb family memoir OUT OF EGYPT, and covers the amazing array of places he's lived and left: Alexandria (first and foremost), Rome, Paris, and New York, with side visits to sites important to his sense of himself, Illiers-Combray (Proust's village) and Bethelhem. At his best, Aciman is funny, incisive and extraordinarily clever; his best essays involve sites where he can focus more on other people than just himself, and he can allow his wit and empathy to emerge. Since his topic is always nostalgia here, it is inevitable that much of his critical focus should be himself (as he points out repeatedly and intelligently, the urge towards nostalgia is always as much a yearning for one's self and one's memories as it is for a particular place). There are times, however, when his interest in his self tends more towards a carefully nurtured narcissism than an incisive self-critique and when you want to roll your eyes at the insufferably precious delight with which he can regard himself.
a stylist of the first order.......2007-04-10
Andre Aciman is our contemporary Proust--the same elegance, the same penetrating eye, the same love for memory and its cinematic clarities.
mediocre, banal and self-righteous.......2001-12-11
I found Mr.Aciman's essays suffering from a infatuation with his own self-righteousness. Preachy, bigoted and too often innacurate, he bakes a quite dull mixture of bloated prose and shallow, prejuciced view about many subjects one suspects he knows little or nothing about. The books distils the grandiose retorique of cocktail-party chatter and leaves the reader with a sad sense of having wasted his own time. My advice would be to seriously check it out at a public library before devoting time and money to this thing. Life's too short for this kind of drivel.
Residues of Exile.......2000-09-01
Andre Aciman is an astoundingly gifted writer. When I first read his memoir "Out of Egypt" five years ago, I was amazed by its wit and wisdom, its precious and seamless blend of irony and deep feeling. Having followed his career in writing ever since, I am thrilled by the recent publication of "False Papers," a magnificent compilation of fourteen of his best essays from the past few years. These pieces can be seen as a kind of sequel to "Out of Egypt," an extension of its central theme of exile in new, often unexpected directions. In "Out of Egypt" Aciman vividly reminisced about his childhood years in Alexandria up to their dismal end, when amid the virulent anti-Semitism of Nasser's Egypt he and his family were expelled. The essays of "False Papers," by contrast, pertain more to the intellectual and emotional residues of exile-in particular the "confused, back-and-forth, up-and-around" way of thinking, remembering, desiring, and relating to oneself and to others that exile seems to foster. Aciman writes poignantly but analyzes ruthlessly: he may be one of the most introspective of current writers, and at a time when memoirs and confessions line the shelves, but refreshingly, he is also one of the least self-indulgent and complacent. Complexity does not faze him. He excels at finding a concrete metaphor, typically from far afield, to convey some paradox of memory or desire: for instance, his surprisingly apt use of the financial term "arbitrage" to illustrate how one might "firm up the present...by experiencing it from the future as a moment in the past," much like an arbitrageur might trade securities in different markets to benefit from different prices. He can qualify thoughts and impressions without diluting them into a muddle, and even, occasionally, cast doubt on the relevance of his most reliable figures and tropes-to wit, exile-without sacrificing any of his writing's underlying pathos. Few, in short, can match Aciman when it comes to a grasp of the fitful economy of the soul, and even fewer could hope to write about it so deftly and affectingly.
Those, like myself, who have already read and enjoyed Aciman's essays on their first appearance in print will want to own a book that brings them all together. Those who have not are to be envied the opportunity to read them in "False Papers" for the first time.
These essays will haunt you.......2000-08-03
I found myself thinking of these essays throughout the day. The writing is beautiful and brilliant. Aciman explores the meaning of memory, and the poignancy of nostalgia. They are sad, and sweet, and their power will stay with you for a long, long time.
Customer Reviews:
A True Story--Life and Death Gamble.......2001-05-31
This book gripped me from start to finish. Melson draws you in to this suspenseful story using the voices of his mother and father to narrate this unbelievable tale of a young couple, baby in tow, outwitting the Nazis and surviving the holocaust while posing as a Count and Countess! I can't believe it's true. A must for anyone interested in WWII, or in a great love story for that matter...
A True Story--Life and Death Gamble.......2001-05-31
This book gripped me from start to finish. Melson draws you in to this suspenseful story using the voices of his mother and father to narrate this unbelievable tale of a young couple, baby in tow, outwitting the Nazis and surviving the holocaust while posing as a Count and Countess! I can't believe it's true. A must for anyone interested in WWII, or in a great love story for that matter...
False Papers and the Search for Idenity.......2000-10-26
Many books have been written about the holocaust both by impartial observers and intimate survivors. False Papers: Deception and Survival in the Holocaust by Robert Melson will stand out among them because it is more than observation and personal reflection-it is a psychological study of a young man's search for identity and meaning in a world that keeps changing the rules.
False Papers tells the story of the Melson (Mendelsohn) family's escape from the Nazi ovens by posing as Polish royalty, a feat they are able to accomplish because Nina Melson, the author's mother, was able to buy false papers. What is unique about their life during the war was that they not only lived openly among the Gestapo, but also became quite friendly with their neighbors. The story of their deception and survival as told through the eyes of Nina, Willy (the author's father) and Bobi (the author's reflections through his own youthful memory) is compelling enough to keep the reader involved in the book. This is only one dimension of the book-an incredibly true adventure story.
Bt there is another important dimension to the book that cannot, and must not, be overlooked: the search on the part of the author-first as young Bobi and later as American Bob-for his true identity in a world that is constantly changing for him. First he knows himself as Count Boguslaw Zamojski the Catholic; after the war as Bobi Melson the Jew until he is enrolled in Le Rosey, an exclusive Swiss prep school, when he must again become Catholic; next to America where he settles in New York as a young Jewish immigrant; then against his deepest wishes he is dragged to Japan where his father has set up a sewing machine factory. Each time young Melson must learn to survive and question "Who am I this time?". Fortunately, he is clever enough to pick up environmental clues to guide his behavior and survival, but the reader feels his sense of pain as he struggles to find his true self.
What makes this a deeply probing psychological exploration of one's search for identity is Melson's ability to step back from the action to view his family dynamics-his father's struggle with his compulsive need for adoration, his mother's deepening depression and her inappropriate use of the young Bobi as her personal confidant, and the parent's obsession with appearances.
It is in the Epilogue that everything comes together. We are told about the deaths of Willy and Nina, how Bobi becomes Robert the MIT PhD, and how Robert finally realizes who he is. The reader feels at peace at the end of the journey.
Of all the writers on the holocaust, his writing style is closest to that of Primo Levi. However, there is a difference: Levi always keeps the cool distance of a scientist in his descriptions of behavior and events while Melson uses warm, personal description of the behavioral scientist that he is. It is a must reading for those who want to know more about the holocaust, family dynamics or a young man's search for self. No matter what your reason is, False Papers: Deception and Survival in the Holocaust is a book you will read, reread, and pass on to others.
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- Asking some hard questions
- Asking some hard questions
|
Misguided Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility (Hobart Paper, 142)
David Henderson
Manufacturer: Inst of Economic Affairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0255365101 |
Book Description
The doctrine of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) now enjoys widespread support. Companies are enjoined not simply to seek profit but to demonstrate their 'corporate citizenship' by working with a range of stakeholders to further environmental and social as well as economic goals. Pressures for such behaviour have come from NGOs but have been taken up by academics, other commentators and multinational enterprises themselves.
David Henderson examines the CSR doctrine, subjecting it to fundamental ciriticisms. In this controversial text he argues that, far from being harmless, its adoption threatens prosperity in poor countries as well as rich. It is likely to reduce competition and economic freedom and to undermine the market economy.
Customer Reviews:
Asking some hard questions.......2003-01-18
Henderson's text is penetrating analysis of the global corporate social responsibility (CSR) push. With alarming ease Henderson questions some of the very basic tenets of CSR.
If you are in the CSR industry, you must read this book and be able to tackle Henderson's hard-headed critique.
Asking some hard questions.......2003-01-18
Henderson's text is penetrating analysis of the global corporate social responsibility (CSR) push. With alarming ease Henderson questions some of the very basic tenets of CSR.
If you are in the CSR industry, you must read this book and be able to tackle Henderson's hard-headed critique.
Average customer rating:
- A Refreshingly Different Perspective from a Surviving Polish Jew
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A Private War: Surviving in Poland on False Papers, 1941-1945
Bruno Shatyn
Manufacturer: Wayne State University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0814317758 |
Customer Reviews:
A Refreshingly Different Perspective from a Surviving Polish Jew.......2007-03-14
In his preface, Oscar E. Swan describes prewar Polish Jewry without the usual anti-Polish bias: "In the United States, with its tradition of rapid cultural assimilation, it may be difficult for the reader to imagine the tremendous gulf separating Polish and Jewish society in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s...there were the `Litvak" Jews, recently arrived from the east and speaking little or no Polish, and the Orthodox Jews, who had kept their own dress, language, customs, religion, and schools, resisting even a modicum of accommodation to the prevailing culture. Despite the inevitable sharp social tensions created by such a situation in this fiercely Catholic country during the economic hard times of the 1930s, and despite anti-Jewish sentiment, demonstrations, and clashes at the universities, in labor unions, and in other areas of public life--often enough fomented by the Nationalist element among Polish politicians--most urban Jews in Poland before the war lived in peace and relative prosperity." (pp. xxi-xxii).
In the Foreword, British historian Norman Davies adds: "In the era of Nationalism, there were Poles of the National Democratic persuasion who treated all Poland's ethnic minorities, including the Jews, with undisguised hostility, just as there were growing numbers of Jews of the Zionist persuasion who treated Poland as a country fit only to turn their backs on...it would also be inaccurate to suggest that Poland ever experienced the same level of pathological racism which has reigned at various times in neighboring Germany or Russia." (p. viii).
Shatyn describes the prewar Litvaks, some of whom had migrated westward to his native Krakow (Cracow), as follows: "...for the most part they were wholesalers, supplying goods either to local stores or to shops in the many small towns in the countryside. They engaged trained bookkeepers to keep their books for tax purposes, but in addition they all carried in their pockets little notebooks in which their actual accounts were kept, accounts different from those found in the bookkeepers' neat ledgers. The information in those little books was entered in a Hebrew script, legible only to them. They were excellent tradesmen, and, universal opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, they never cheated or swindled, though they drove a hard bargain." (pp. 101-102). The reader can understand how the Poles, even if not openly exploited, naturally resented being the generation-after-generation recipients of these hard bargains. BTW, isn't tax evasion a form of swindle, and isn't defrauding the Polish government also a defrauding of the Polish nation?
Bruno Shatyn (Szatyn, Schatten) was an atypical Polish Jew who, speaking fluent Polish and lacking Semitic features, survived the Nazi occupation in the open. His entire work is remarkably free of Polonophobia, and at no time does he become so Judeocentric as to ignore Polish martyrdom. For instance, he gives an eyewitness account of the slaughter of defenseless Polish civilian refugees by strafing German planes in 1939 (p. 116).
Shatyn points out that most Polish Jews scoffed at the notion that the conquering Germans would exterminate them (p. 133, 163). This further undermines the fear-of-Nazi-extermination justification for the extensive 1939 Jewish-Soviet collaboration. Furthermore, the Jewish pro-German mental inertia persisted well after the beginning of the mass extermination of Jews: "Who could believe that these proper, upright, hard-working people would commit mass murder? Even now, when we know that it is true, we still can't get used to the idea." (p. 194).
For security reasons, Shatyn tried to avoid those who knew him. Realizing that his Polish friends wouldn't betray him, he feared that they may divulge his Jewishness through some indiscretion or under Gestapo torture (p. 186). As for the szmalcowniki (blackmailers), he recognized the fact that these extortionists were marginal members of Polish society and that their acts were criminal rather than anti-Semitic in nature: "...the scum of society, the sort of person who, discovering that someone was a Jew, blackmailed the victim to his last penny and then, when he was penniless, denounced the unfortunate to the police, in full confidence that he would be eliminated and, with him, all evidence of the informer's crime." (p. 186). Shatyn also feared the Gestapo-serving Jewish informers, who made the rounds looking for fugitive Jews (pp. 186-187, 195).
On two different occasions, when the Germans were parading and/or humiliating the Jews before killing them, Shatyn wrote: "The Poles lined the sidewalks, looking on in absolute silence, as though frozen in place." (p. 42). Also: "Poles gathered on the sidewalks, incredulous, some crossing themselves at this monstrous sight." (p. 121). These accounts further contradict the selectively-chosen ones, by Jan Tomasz Gross, of Poles rejoicing at Jewish suffering. And, unlike Gross, Shatyn recognized the efficacy of the German-imposed death penalty in the deterrence of Polish aid to Jews (p. 48, 178, 186).
Shatyn provides intriguing details about his monitoring of German trains and skillfully deductions of their cargo and its implications (p. 223). Some rather imaginative Polonophobes have maliciously asserted that the Nazis built their extermination camps on Polish soil because the Poles would tolerate, if not welcome, them. That the German herrenvolk would consult the defeated Polish untermenschen is preposterous on its face! As a further irony, the Germans attempted to keep the camps secret from Poles. Shatyn reports that Polish conductors were removed from the death trains as they neared the camps, to be replaced by the SS and their Ukrainian and Baltic collaborators (p. 21). During their journeys, the train windows were barred, and no one was permitted near them (p. 224), though the weak moans of the victims could be heard in the fields.
Finally, Jews weren't the only scapegoats. The Germans also adopted a blame-the-victim mentality against Poles for Germany's misfortunes, notably after Stalingrad: "They claimed that everything was the fault of the verfluchte Polen--had it not been for their resistance to the German invasion in September 1939, this war which was now threatening to destroy the Reich would never have started." (p. 227).
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False Papers (Survivors)
Stewart Ross
Manufacturer: Hodder Wayland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0750238720 |
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- A good diversion.
- Preposterous Plot
- Best Book of the Summer
- Below Average Predictable Characters and Very Unlikely Plot
- Ridiculous Plot and Cardboard Characters
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The Patriots Club (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper))
Christopher Reich
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ASIN: 037543383X
Release Date: 2005-07-26 |
Book Description
Thomas Bolden grew up on the streets, his childhood a blur of fragmented memories. But now he’s managed to put his past behind him, find the woman he wants to share his life with, and carve out a successful career on Wall Street. Until, in the blink of an eye, his world is turned upside down. A bizarre kidnapping sends him fleeing for his life, his face everywhere on the TV news, and a violent, shadowy organization is framing him for crimes he did not commit.
Desperately trying to get back to where he was just a day before, Bolden must re-learn the survival skills of his hardscrabble boyhood. But as Bolden–with just eleven dollars in his pocket and hunters all around him–survives one violent, harrowing hour after another, he makes a series of startling discoveries: about a mysterious woman wanted for murder…about an astounding secret rooted in history, among the country’s Founding Fathers and families…about a conspiracy lurking in the darkest corners of corporate America–and a deadly plan that only he can stop. And in the process, maybe Bolden will also find out who he really is....
Furiously paced, filled with brilliantly drawn characters from politicians to patriots, from Wall Street players to
battle-hardened cops, The Patriots Club is vintage Reich: brilliant, breathtaking, and impossible to put down until the final unforgettable page is turned.
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Christopher Reich was born in Tokyo in 1961. A graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, he worked in Switzerland before returning to the United States to pursue a career as a novelist. The bestselling author of four other acclaimed novels, Numbered Account, The Runner, The First Billion, and The Devil’s Banker, he lives in California with his wife and children.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A good diversion........2007-01-06
I found this book enjoyable. The story was plotted and executed well. The main character was able to do a lot of implausible things like escape from professional soldiers, avoid gunshots and things like that, but that is the norm for a lot of these types of novels. There were a couple of characters that could have been developed further and interacted more, Guilfoyle and Franciscus, which would have made it more interesting. I guess the author's point was to make a statement that the industrial-military complex controls the world.
Preposterous Plot.......2006-12-16
I love good conspiracy books. I like a believable super hero. The plot of this novel is absurd. The hero, Thomas Bolden, was abandoned at age 6 by his mother. She was an extreme left wing radical who had been pursued by police for participating in a bombing. Bolden grew up in foster homes and after a tough childhood worked his way up enjoying a successful Wall Street career. He is also just about Mr. Perfect. All of a sudden he is targeted by a high powered right wing group called The Patriots Club. The Club has existed and evolved since the days of George Washington. According to the author this club, which has included all Presidents,has secretly and behind the scenes determined U.S. policy since the country's inception. A master computer selects Bolden as a threat and and a bizarre kidnapping of him and his girlfriend ensues. Bolden takes on everything and everyone in his path and ultimately saves the Republic from The Evil. It was tough to get thru all this nonsense.
Best Book of the Summer .......2006-09-12
I picked up The Patriots Club after learning it had won the inaugural "Thriller" Award for Best Novel of the year bestowed by the International Thriller Writers Association. I have read all of Reich's books and enjoyed them, so I am a fan to begin with. His first novel "Numbered Account" stands among my favorite thrillers of the past decade. There is no dobut he is a talent to be reckoned with!
I'm happy to say that "The Patriots Club" was every bit as exciting and interesting as "Numbered Account." Reich does write a different kind of thriller. Namely, his stories are smart and extremely well researched, a quality I've found in writers like Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy. What Reich does better is create three dimensional characters that stick with the reader.
Enough said...I'm happy to give the Patriots Club my highest award of five stars. A thoroughly entertaining, suspenseful, and thought provoking read. Highly recommended!
Below Average Predictable Characters and Very Unlikely Plot.......2006-09-05
I bought this book as a last minute effort to quickly read something from an author I don't know as I left for a trip on an airplane.
My overall thought was that this novel had promise, but the story was way too over the top. The hero is brought into the mess for an outlandish reason, and escapes situations in unbelievable ways. There are too many different conspiracies" that are all tied in together too neatly. The "twist" at the end was almost laughable. In fact, I found myself thinking, "you're kidding me, right?" I realize this is a work of fiction, but in the end the storyline should be somewhat believable. This one wasn't even close.
I have read other comments about this author that indicate his other novels are better. Sorry, but after spending too much time reading this one, I'm not willing to take the chance on any others. I'll stick to known commodities.
Ridiculous Plot and Cardboard Characters.......2006-08-03
This is the second Christopher Reich book I've read and although I liked it slightly better than THE FIRST BILLION, I still can't recommend it.
The plot of THE PATRIOTS CLUB is fairly ridiculous. The hero of the book, 32-year old investment banker Thomas Bolden, runs afoul of a right-wing "Patriots Club." Since the beginning of its history, the foreign policy of the US has been effectively controlled by this secret club, whose members include the President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the head of the FBI, and prominent members of the media. The club tries to kill Bolden (repeatedly), and he ends up fleeing for his life.
This books starts strongly, but eventually runs out of steam. There are way too many characters in this book, and Reich keeps on shifting the perspective of the book from one character to another. As a result, most of them end up underdeveloped and one-dimensional -- the dashing hero, his loyal girlfriend, the grizzled detective, etc.
Also, the complicated conspiracy plot has so many twists and turns that it was hard for me to keep track of what was going on. Reich is a good writer, and this book is certainly readable, but I wish he would streamline his plots better.
This book is also something of a political tract. Reich obviously dislikes the right-wing, because almost every villain in this book is Republican and conservative. I have no problems with thoughtful political criticism, but Reich doesn't do that here. Instead, he pretty much caricatures the Republicans in this novel, portraying them as racist, sexist, and anti-democracy. After awhile, the political soapboxing gets rather tiresome.
In short, avoid this book. If you want a good political thriller, read David Baldacci instead.
Books:
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- Hood (King Raven Trilogy, Book 1)
- How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book)
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