Book Description
In one of the most anticipated books of the year, Lee Woodruff, along with her husband, Bob Woodruff, share their never-before-told story of romance, resilience, and survival following the tragedy that transformed their lives and gripped a nation.
In January 2006, the Woodruffs seemed to have it all–a happy marriage and four beautiful children. Lee was a public relations executive and Bob had just been named co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight. Then, while Bob was embedded with the military in Iraq, an improvised explosive device went off near the tank he was riding in. He and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were hit, and Bob suffered a traumatic brain injury that nearly killed him.
In an Instant is the frank and compelling account of how Bob and Lee’s lives came together, were blown apart, and then were miraculously put together again–and how they persevered, with grit but also with humor, through intense trauma and fear. Here are Lee’s heartfelt memories of their courtship, their travels as Bob left a law practice behind and pursued his news career and Lee her freelance business, the glorious births of her children and the challenges of motherhood.
Bob in turn recalls the moment he caught the journalism “bug” while covering Tiananmen Square for CBS News, his love of overseas assignments and his guilt about long separations from his family, and his pride at attaining the brass ring of television news–being chosen to fill the seat of the late Peter Jennings.
And, for the first time, the Woodruffs reveal the agonizing details of Bob’s terrible injuries and his remarkable recovery. We learn that Bob’s return home was not an end to the journey but the first step into a future they have learned not to fear but to be grateful for.
In an Instant is much more than the dual memoir of love and courage. It is an important, wise, and inspiring guide to coping with tragedy–and an extraordinary drama of marriage, family, war, and nation.
A percentage of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury.
Customer Reviews:
IN AN INSTANT.......2007-10-05
TOTALLY ENJOYED THE CD OF THIS BOOK. A HEARTFELT STORY OF LOVE, PAIN AND RECOVERY.
Up from the trenches.......2007-09-29
This is a story of remarkable courage and love. Medicine and therapy have come a long way, but the personal strength of one person doing the hard work, and another staying by their side, is (I believe) what brings people back to a life worth living after so tremendous a trajedy. Other books about brain trauma: The Shiloh Renewal and I'll Carry the Fork! Recovering a Life After Brain Injury
One of the best books I've ever read!.......2007-09-26
What a wonderful & informative book. I really enjoyed all of the background information. It was a very touching love story. Having gone through 3 brain surgeries myself and my daughter's brain surgery also, gave me a fraction of knowledge on the recovering brain, but the book certainly gives an abundance of information. I've always thought Bob was absolutely fantastic, but I really enjoyed Lee's side of the story. Bravo and Good bless you both Bob & Lee!!!
Interesting book.......2007-09-09
Interesting book - I read it because I was curious what had happened to Bob Woodruff after his injury, because the of the lack of information regarding his condition. It is interesting to me that insiders in the media can control what information gets out about them personally; however others are not so fortunate - their names, faces and not-so-flattering images are splashed across news screens every day.
The book was interesting, but I felt that Lee Woodruff ends up protraying herself as a selfish wife who is annoyed first at her husband's career and then annoyed at the inconvenience his injury caused their family. She describes herself several times as a "single parent" because Bob travelled so much. As a real-life single parent, this completely offended me. A single parent not only cares for their children alone, they also support them alone. A single parent is not a wife of a guy with a six-figure salary who happens to work a lot. If Lee had left these comments out, the book would have been much more palatable.
In An Instant.......2007-08-23
This book was excellent. I thoughthly enjoyed it. My sister is not reading it.
Book Description
“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.”
With these words, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland addressed the crew of the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts on the morning of October 25, 1944, off the Philippine Island of Samar. On the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet that represented the last hope of a staggering empire. All that stood between it and Douglas MacArthur’s vulnerable invasion force were the Roberts and the other small ships of a tiny American flotilla poised to charge into history.
In the tradition of the #1 New York Times bestseller
Flags of Our Fathers, James D. Hornfischer paints an unprecedented portrait of the Battle of Samar, a naval engagement unlike any other in U.S. history—and captures with unforgettable intensity the men, the strategies, and the sacrifices that turned certain defeat into a legendary victory.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
An extraordinary well done history.......2007-09-27
It is often said that teaching and learning in high school is a mile wide and an inch deep. All I ever heard and read in high school about WWII and the naval battles against the Japanese Navy in the Pacific is that the United States won the war! This book capably presents the truth that it was never quite a certainty as the battles unfolded. It is a wonderful thing to have a talented writer and researcher as Hornfischer dedicate his extraordinary talent in presenting this excellent well written definitive history of the US and Japanese naval battles near the Phillipines in October of 1944. This book is very highly recommended as an excellent and thought provoking history as well as a true testimonial to the bravery of U.S Navy personnel in battle.
Learned A Lot That Is New.......2007-09-16
I'm about two-thirds of the way through the book. Even at this point, I've learned a lot that I hadn't really appreciated before.
First of all, sometime back I read a book about the naval battle of Guadalcanal. In that battle, it seems as if all the Japanese had to do to sink one of our ships was to get just one hit on it. By the time of the Battle Off Samar, American ship building must have radically improved. Even the American ships that went down were hit literally dozens of times before finally succumbing to the inevitable. And lots of other American ships were hit but kept fighting and were still fighting at the end of the war.
Another realization was the awful damage 16-inch naval guns do to the human body when they hit a ship and explode. The mental picture I used to have of WW II naval warfare was antiseptic. Yes, guys died -- but I saw it as ever so much cleaner than the awfulness of land warfare. The author of the book has descriptions of what the results were. Naval guns were far bigger than anything in land warfare. The biggest shell for field artillery was about the size of a football. In the Navy, the plentiful six- and eight-inch guns had shells as big as a five footballs. And the 16" (or 18" for two of the Japanese Navy's "super" battleships") were as big as a garbage can and weighed as much as a Volkswagen. When they exploded, huge chunks of the sides of ships would be opened up like a tuna can even though it was inch-thick steel. The effect on the human body was even more devastating. Guys were literally ripped apart and sometimes whole compartments of guys were ripped apart so badly that one guy couldn't be identified from another. It was, literally, like an explosion in a meat locker. Never again will I think that naval warfare was antiseptic. (This is also something of a warning that if you read the book you're going to get all those descriptions too. If you don't think you can stomach it, then you'll either have to skip over those sections or skip the book.)
The book also follows the survivors of the ships that went down as they bobbed in the water waiting for rescue. Their time in the water was made more troubling by the fact that they were constantly being circled by sharks. It was their "good fortune" to be covered with bunker oil from the sunken ships that apparently acted both as a shark repellent and a sun block. But, unlike every other book I've read or movie I've seen, the whole story of a naval battle isn't over when the shooting stops. And, it isn't easy to spot guys in the water with a whole ocean to look at. It was also interesting how, despite the desperate situation they were all in, they all worked to help the wounded among them first. (Unlike the movie warriors who are all fight, the tenderness displayed to the worse off among them is remarkable.)
This is a great book for anyone wanting to know what World War II naval warfare was really like.
Also, there are a lot of maps that help to follow ship movements.
Great book, but..........2007-09-14
I enjoyed the book and the heroism of the sailors and airmen who fought the battle has seldom been equaled. However, the whole reason they were in this terrible position to begin with was poor decision making and poor communication from the higher levels, esp Halsey. I found that after a while that fact made the book a bit depressing for me. It seems obvious that such a powerful Japanese fleet should have been given more respect (watched closely, etc.) since Halsey knew it was in the area.
Gene's review of Tin Can Sailors.......2007-09-13
A very good narrative with human interest about an important naval engagement of the WWII. How the US Navy reacted to an almost impossible situation that seemed hopeless. Read his other book about the sailors of the USS Houston who sank and survived to help build the highway in the jungle which included the Bridge over the River Quai. He is a very good author!
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.......2007-09-13
Having served on 3 destroyers (Tin Cans) 1952-1965, two of the Fletchers, this book brought back many memories, both good and bad, of those years of service and sailing on those ships. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found it difficlut to put down. There are so many heroic stories to be told that have not been revealed, and so many more that will never be told, but I thank this author for telling this one.
Kenneth E. Irons
Average customer rating:
- Making the World Safe for Democracy?
- Goodbye to Graves Books
- Warning! Heavily Edited Version
- An Accurate and Entertaining View on an English Soldier's Perspective During the First World War
- Very interesting, but long in spots
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Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography (Anchor Books)
Robert Graves
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ASIN: 0385093306
Release Date: 1958-02-01 |
Amazon.com
The quintessential memoir of the generation of Englishmen who suffered in World War I is among the bitterest autobiographies ever written. Robert Graves's stripped-to-the-bone prose seethes with contempt for his class, his country, his military superiors, and the civilians who mindlessly cheered the carnage from the safety of home. His portrait of the stupidity and petty cruelties endemic in England's elite schools is almost as scathing as his depiction of trench warfare. Nothing could equal Graves's bone-chilling litany of meaningless death, horrific encounters with gruesomely decaying corpses, and even more appalling confrontations with the callousness and arrogance of the military command. Yet this scarifying book is consistently enthralling. Graves is a superb storyteller, and there's clearly something liberating about burning all your bridges at 34 (his age when Good-Bye to All That was first published in 1929). He conveys that feeling of exhilaration to his readers in a pell-mell rush of words that remains supremely lucid. Better known as a poet, historical novelist, and critic, Graves in this one work seems more like an English Hemingway, paring his prose to the minimum and eschewing all editorializing because it would bring him down to the level of the phrase- and war-mongers he despises. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
In this autobiography, first published in 1929, poet Robert Graves traces the monumental and universal loss of innocence that occurred as a result of the First World War. Written after the war and as he was leaving his birthplace, he thought, forever, Good-Bye to All That bids farewell not only to England and his English family and friends, but also to a way of life. Tracing his upbringing from his solidly middle-class Victorian childhood through his entry into the war at age twenty-one as a patriotic captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, this dramatic, poignant, often wry autobiography goes on to depict the horrors and disillusionment of the Great War, from life in the trenches and the loss of dear friends, to the stupidity of government bureaucracy and the absurdity of English class stratification. Paul Fussell has hailed it as ""the best memoir of the First World War"" and has written the introduction to this new edition that marks the eightieth anniversary of the end of the war. An enormous success when it was first issued, it continues to find new readers in the thousands each year and has earned its designation as a true classic.
Customer Reviews:
Making the World Safe for Democracy?.......2007-07-15
This account by Robert Graves is one of the better personal journals I have read concerning the Great War. The very fact that Graves is in almost at the beginning of the conflict / situation of Trench warfare make this a very valuable work. Because he is an accomplished writer, it flows and reads very well. There are no sections of the book that lag. You will absolutely gain some insight to the way that the officers and men behaved and especially appreciate his commentary on French citizens caught in the middle of the conflict, individual soldiers that have some sembelance of a brain versus the moronic mass, and how much stupidity there is in military conduct based on previous experiences in war, not realizing that this was a new and different sort of conflict, yet trying to constantly apply outdated and dangerous methods in attack. One such crazy result of it is that officers had a high casualty rate. Why? Well, you could always identify them in the field of battle. They were the guys carrying a pistol and swagger stick versus a rifle. Easy pickings to say the least and you would think they would learn and make adjustments accordingly but tragically the practice continued. Anyway, a great book. Well worth your time and small investment to a window on another era by a first hand witness.
Goodbye to Graves Books.......2007-02-26
Good descriptive text of WWI in the trenches and on the way to them, but other than that, not a particularly well-written book. Graves's 'better than thou' attitude sours what could have been a masterpiece if written by somebody with a heart. A bitter story by a bitter man who should have stuck to his poetry.
Warning! Heavily Edited Version.......2007-01-13
This is the edition that Graves edited to all Jesus hell! I've seen excerpts of the unedited version and THAT is the book to aim for, though you have to find it through an antiquarian book peddler and the cheapest edition I could find cost $300. Rats. But hopefully perhaps an electronic edition of the original will somehow find its' way to the internet one day.
What is left is still an excellent read. Concerning the up to that date unprecedented rate of slaughter and the technological changes of modern warfare that made it so, his way is understatement which I believe made it that much more impactful. I like this man's mind - I like him. It would have been very interesting to corner him by a fire with a bottle of good sherry and to let him expound on the Latin or WWI or poetry, or perhaps Hebrew mythology.
Speaking of Hebrew mythology, he wrote a wonderful wonderful book on it, a treatise really on the book of Genesis. If you have any interest whatsover in religion, etymology or anthropology, please read this book - it is wonderful! Just google or "amazon" Graves and Hebrew myths and you will find it.
I have his "White Goddess", but have not read it yet.
An Accurate and Entertaining View on an English Soldier's Perspective During the First World War.......2006-11-11
The first half of the book is rather dry, yet don't let it hold you back! The second half of the book deals with his actual involvement with the war, as opposed to his education and prior background. The book is somewhat of a love story as well as a view on war, but his depictions of events are quite honest and astutely accurate. His views are quite contrasted with Ernst Junger, who wrote "Storm of Steel" and was a German soldier. However, for an English perspective, this is the best book by far that I have encountered!
Very interesting, but long in spots.......2006-10-17
Before reading this book, I knew little about WWI. I saw it recommended somewhere and ordered it from our library. I'm not sure which issue it was. Anyway, it was very interesting and well written. I learned a lot about the way gas was used in WWI.
I found myself amazed that the author kept going back to the trenches when he could have avoided that duty. Actually, I got a little frustrated with him too!
About two-thirds of the way through it became a bit of a slog to finish, but overall, I highly recommend it.
Book Description
Europe in 1618 was riven between Protestants and Catholics, Bourbon and Hapsburg--as well as empires, kingdoms, and countless principalities. After angry Protestants tossed three representatives of the Holy Roman Empire out the window of the royal castle in Prague, world war spread from Bohemia with relentless abandon, drawing powers from Spain to Sweden into a nightmarish world of famine, disease, and seemingly unstoppable destruction.
Customer Reviews:
One of the great books of the 20th century.......2007-06-26
I have had this book high on my reading list for over 40 years now, ever since a took a course in German Baroque literature as an undergraduate. It is far better than I had imagined, both in style and content. My only regret is that I didn't get around to reading it 40 years ago.
A Panoramic and Poltically Sophisticated History.......2007-04-20
For the English-language reader Wedgwood's book, which has been in print for over sixty years, is still an excellent introduction and synoptic narrative of this lengthy and turbulent period of European history. It gives brief and judicious biographical sketches of the major political and military actors of three generations: The principal antagonists at the outset -- Ferdinand II of Austria and Frederick V, Elector Palatine; the condottieri-style generals - Spinola, von Mansfeld, Tilly, Wallenstein, Piccolomini, Christian of Halberstadt, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, the duc d'Enghien (Conde); the contentious minor rulers -- Maximilian V of Bavaria, Johann Georg of Saxony; the northern monarchs -- Christian IV of Denmark and Gustavus Adophus of Sweden (and his daughter Christina and prime minister, Oxenstierna); the "spoiler", Cardinal Richelieu; the new Emperor Ferdinand III and his cousin, the warlord Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand of Spain; and many others. This book is written in a traditional English historian's prose style that is clear, eloquent and totally lacking the jargon of concurrent and later social and economic histories, while still covering these aspects of the period. In spite of some reviewers' claims of a "Protestant bias" in her interpretation, the author seems extremely fair when assessing responsibility for the long-running disaster of the war, taking the position that it was the self-serving political interests of the participants (dynasties, rulers, generals and paymasters) that kept the war going at the expense of the social and economic welfare of the vast majority of inhabitants of Germany and Bohemia.
Although I am not familiar with this new edition (and Grafton's introduction) I emphasize that any reissuing of this book should have a brief scholarly introduction which supplies more details on the constitutional arrangements and crises of the Holy Roman Empire during the sixteenth century, with a special emphasis on the composition of the Bohemian estates and the conflicts between the estates and the Habsburg king-emperors. The extent and internal organization of "the Bohemian crown lands" should also be outlined. A succinct review of the political status of Lutheranism, Calvinism, the Bohemian Brethren, and other Protestant confessions throughout all of Europe around the year 1600 and a note on how their status had altered by 1700 would also be useful in "setting the stage" for the events of 1618 and understanding the relgious-denomination consequences of the war.
The author supplies sufficient details on the major battles, but this is not a work of military history. As Wedgwood knows, battles were only significant in the larger view as a result of their political consequences. And it is in the elucidation of the underlying politics of the war (including how political prospects shifted with the waxing and waning of military fortunes) that Wedgwood excels. In her analysis of the general European situation at the outset of the war she proposes that there were three sets of forces which underlay and drove contemporary events. Each was a source of conflict and each might cross-cut the others, complicating the declared interests and objectives of the dynasties and nations involved. In brief, the forces were: (a) Religion, with three major competing factions (Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist; she notes that the conflict between the latter two forms of Protestantism was often as extreme as it was between each of them and the Roman Catholic Church). (b) Nationalism (French, German, Czech, etc.), which was a new force on the scene, crystallizing the idea that political entities might be defined by nationality (which here equals some combination of ethnicity and native language) rather than conceived of as polyglot territorial agglomerations brought about by dynastic interests. (c) Monarchic-constitutional issues, which were especially complicated and ambiguous within the "constitutional" grouping of major and minor powers known as The Holy Roman Empire (HRE).
The constitutional problem was twofold. Within the small arenas of developing nation states and the yet smaller ones of traditional rulerships throughout Europe (duchies, counties, "free-city" areas ruled by town councils and mayors) contests over the basis and extent of the rulers' powers and privileges were taking place. Aristocrats, oligarchs and merchants had traditional corporate bodies (estates) reluctant to cede their own powers (taxation, the organization of military service) to a central authority. The same conflict was also being played out on the larger scale of the Hly Roman Epire, that loose grouping of special obligations and exemptions which was the final residue of an earlier system of vassalage binding together the elected Emperor (who had been a Habsburg for several centuries) and the smaller rulerships of Central Europe. The religious reforms, rebellions and wars of the sixteenth century had produced a system that appeared to resolve some of the potential problems through the won privilege of cujus regio, eius religio ("whoever rules, his religion [is the religion of the ruled area]"). In the year of the war's inception, 1618, this new balance was very fragile, comprising four Catholic and three Protestant imperial Electors. In Germany the special arrangements regulating relationships between the Emperor (resident in Vienna or Prague) and local rulers and guaranteeing a great deal of political autonomy to the locals, especially the Protestant Electors, had been somewhat codified by the Augsburg Treaty of 1555, and were known as the "German Liberties". These would prove to be especially important to the three Protestant Electors at the outset of the war.
In the developing continental war one could be pro- or anti-Habsburg based on any one of the above factors or any combination of two or three of them. For example, a Catholic ruler (including the papacy) might seek Protestant allies in order to combat Habsburg territorial expansion in his direction or to combat constitutional changes in the Empire which affected his position adversely. Or a Protestant power might accept the Habsburg "program" in any given case because it did not wish to disturb constitutional arrangements that were to its advantage (this characterization is apt for Saxony and Brandenburg during the first twelve years of the war.)
As Wedgwood notes, all three considerations (religion, nationality, constitutional relations) could be and were used cynically to advance the positions and interests of individual rulers and factions. From the point of view of rationality or predictability, political choices and commitments were often self-contradictory (e.g., a Catholic power supporting a Protestant venture; a German Liberties party accepting occupation by the army of a foreign power, etc.) or temporary expedients that made the overall European situation more chaotic. The war began locally in Bohemia, but its complications and consequences radiated outward as far west as Spain and England (even farther, to the Caribbean naval theater), as far north as Sweden and northeast to Poland, as far south as Italy and southeast as Transylvania; in other words, it was a European continental war with global impact.
When the war broke out in 1618 it was over the Habsburg violation of a "constitutional guarantee" of religious freedom in Bohemia (the concessions stated in Rudolf II's Letter of Majesty). And here is where individual personalities and beliefs played an important role. Ferdinand II, who had knowingly violated the terms of the Letter soon after being selected by the Bohemian Diet as King (and therefore the first in precedence of the HRE Electors) was determined not only to expand the political powers of the Habsburg dynasty in Bohemia and elsewhere, he was firmly committed to the goals of the Catholic Counter-Reformation (i.e., re-Catholicizing all of the areas within the HRE which had become Protestant during the last one hundred years). When he was deposed by a special convention of the Bohemian estates (the defenestration of his deputies in Prague being the signal event of this deposition), the crown of Bohemia was offered to the Elector of the (Rhineland) Palatinate, Frederick V, who considered himself a champion of the Protestant cause. The religious zeal of these two antagonists led to extreme fixed positions at the very outset of the war.
Given the other major conflict hovering in the background -- the Spanish Habsburg determination to recover the now Protestant area of the Netherlands which had become the successful and defiant (Dutch) United Provinces - the war soon became international. While the entry of France and then Denmark followed by Sweden, into the war during the 1620's changed its nature and extended its duration, Wedgwood concentrates much of her analysis on the behavior of the two Protestant Electors, Johann Georg of Saxony and Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg and one Catholic ruler, Maximilian of Bavaria. It is her contention throughout the book that Johann Georg and Maximilian in particular could have prevented the war's spread and forced Ferdinand into a compromise very early in the course of events that acquired their own dynamism once they got out of hand. Despite their religious differences these two were always strong "German Liberties" proponents, and each had the same view of the Austrian Habsburg rulers: they should be kept for the broader protections they offered, but kept in place with respect to encroachments on the traditional rights of local rulers. In the end both of these rulers survived the lengthy war in spite of numerous diplomatic and military reversals (Saxony switched sides and joined the Swedes for several years, while Maximilian's position was constantly and secretly supported by his nominal enemies, the French, as their potential foot in the Habsburg camp.) Wedgwood believes that the price of their survival was far too costly for the rest of Germany.
Wedgwood's gloss on the changing nature of the conflict is that by the year 1635 the war had become one of great-power politics, and that the earlier religious and ideological causes were losing their ability to motivate the antagonists. Her summary of the changes emphasizes the following:
(a) Religion had discredited itself as a plausible source of political programs and a legitimate cause for war. Religion was becoming more interiorized and private, and losing ground philosophically and ethically to the new prestige of empirical and applied science (this was the era of Galileo and Kepler, with Descartes, Harvey, Hook, Newton, Huygens, etc. on the near horizon; a time of laboratory science and scientific societies.) As the basis of a political program religion was viewed cynically by those who saw the devastation it had brought about.
(b) For thinking men, nationalism began to fill the emotional void in public life left by the withdrawal of religion as the underlying motive for political and cultural action. This was very obvious in France, but even true of Ferdinand III, for whom the new main cause was the construction of an Austrian-based hereditary monarchy whose additional obligations as the Holy Roman Imperial protector of far-flung German Catholics were no longer perceived as worthwhile. In the minds of both Germans and Austrian Habsburgs the Holy Roman Empire was becoming an honorific entity with ambiguous and weak political commitments in Germany. The Elbe-North German-Pomeranian ideal empire of Wallenstein was never again revived as a dynastic program. Austria began to move south and east (toward Italy, Croatia, and Hungary) in its expansionist aims.
(c) The control of immense polyglot, multi-religious, mercenary armies and their huge camp followings had become a pressing matter of concern for all of the political authorities that hired them - they were neither religious nor national in their motives and aims and were in fact independent "mobile states" unto themselves, cynical and rapacious and often as dangerous to their paymasters as to their foes; whenever their immediate prospects for pay and maintenance looked bad, they changed sides. The most successful mercenary generals had become mini-sovereigns. Officers were all "out for themselves" and for their troops (rather than for the cause or nation of their paymaster), since without troop loyalty they had no means of personal advancement -- the most famous commanders, Ernst von Mansfeld, Wallenstein, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, the Swedish general Wrangel, all expected (and some received) grants of territory and titles of nobility as their rewards for service. The "national" armies of conscripts that came to the fore in the 18th century was the answer to this problem.
The pace of the war wound down during its last five years (although there were several major battles fought even then), which was a period of extended negotiatons in Münster and Osnabrück, with the "final treaty" being signed late in 1648. For the next five years a series of conferences met at Nürnberg to implement and enforce the peace treaty and to deal with difficult problems raised by demobilizing huge armies. Many of the loans of this period, which were raised to cover the demobilization costs, were not paid off for a century. Individual rulers such as Charles of Lorraine and the Duke of Savoy (who got nothing from the treaty) refused to vacate various fortresses for five or six years, but the war did not break out again. France and Spain continued at war with each other, but not in Germany. Numerous soldiers, especially officers, went into mercenary service all over Europe. Others took to the hills as professional bandits - for the next 20 years merchants traveled through certain parts of Germany and Bohemia in armed caravans.
Wedgwood accepts the more recent (1900-1930's) historical estimate that the population of the Imperial German lands (excluding Alsace and the Netherlands) dropped from about 21 million in 1618 to 13 million in 1648. The number of dislocated people was also substantial. While she acknowledges that the number of towns and villages destroyed and other "infrastructural" and economic losses were very large, she feels that all contemporary sources (e.g., the pamphlet literature of the next 100 years) exaggerated local losses, since all parties in the war continued to seek indemnities and restitution. The free peasantry benefited briefly, since landowners were desperate for manpower to restore their estates - prices fell while wages rose for a number of years, which increased the standard of living of peasants and artisans. But within a decade of the peace treaty the landowning gentry was pleading with Imperial, royal and local rulers to impose legal restrictions which would re-create bonded, serf-like conditions for peasants. Town councils now became pawns and bureaucrats of the dynastic courts of their rulers and also implemented restrictive legislations on peasants (e.g., prohibitions against mobility, domestic industry, and household craft production -- a trend which later historians refer to as "neo-serfdom"). Class stratification was as rigid as it was before the war started. There was a new, large class of mobile petty nobles and gentry seeking court-backed military and bureaucratic appointments, at the expense of town and peasant taxpayers.
Germany and the Austrian-based monarchy and empire were totally excluded from the international competition to establish overseas colonies and from the developing "Atlantic trade". For a number of years the outlets of Germany's major rivers (Rhine, Elbe, Oder, and for Brandenburg-Prussia, Vistula) were controlled by foreign powers, reducing Germany's commercial strength. Hamburg was the exception, becoming the major maritime merchant city of the North Sea coast, at the expense of the other Hanseatic cities and the Scandinavian powers. The only medium-sized German state to emerge with positive prospects was Brandenburg, soon to become the administratively efficient and militarily powerful Prussia. The peace, while ending the "wars of religion", set the stage for a long series of "nationalistic" wars that subsumed dynastic and religious sources of conflict. France replaced the Habsburg Spanish-Austrian coalition as the menacing and tyrannical continental power willing to disturb the peace. Austria turned to the south and east and Spain lost its great power status and became an economic and cultural backwater. There was no politically or culturally unified Germany within the boundaries of the old Empire (French culture began to reign supreme) and the cosmopolitanism (its openness to outside influences) of this area during the 18th century, instead of being a source of pride over its achievements, became a source of lament for later cultural and ethnic purists of revived German nationalism.
Author's Judgment and Conclusions: In terms of responsibility for the overall disaster, Wedgwood points to the futility and self-destructiveness of sincere religious zeal in the cases of Ferdinand II and the Elector Palatine. But, from the point of view of failures of practical (and ethical) politics, she highlights the behavior of Maximilian and Johann Georg, who could have prevented the spread of the conflict in 1620 and could have brought the war to an early end in 1635 if they had agreed to work together on a "unified German program" which would have forced Imperial compromises and concessions had they both stood behind it. Between these two she sees the Saxon as the greater victim of military circumstances (pressed by the Swedish juggernaut) and therefore less culpable for the mess, while she judges the Bavarian as too subtle and too ambitious in pursuit of his own dynastic and territorial ambitions at the expense of a general settlement good for his fellow Germans, thus identifying him as the more culpable.
Beautiful in its style and concision, Wedgwood's final summary is also gloomy (as one might expect of a work completed in 1939, on the verge of World War II):
"As there was no compulsion towards a conflict which, in despite of the apparent bitterness of the parties, took so long to engage and needed so much assiduous blowing to fan the flame, so no right was vindicated by its ragged end. The war solved no problem. Its effects, both immediate and indirect, were either negative or disastrous. Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its result, it is the outstanding example in European history of meaningless conflict."
Machiavellian machinations.......2007-04-09
This is the best single-volume account of the Thirty Years War
(1618-1648). The war was very complex but Wedgwood provides singular
clarity. Other interpretations are possible, but her vision is strong
and memorable. The Machiavellian machinations are head-spinning, one has
to read carefully, the reward is a solid understanding of not only
17th C dynastic politics but how Medieval politics operated
before the rise of the nation state.
Wedgwood is an old-fashioned historian like Gibbon, retelling the events
in highly-readable prose, focused on the "great men". This can be
problematic, the Thirty Years War was more than just the decisions made
by a few elites - social, economic and other forces were at work. Her
sources are almost all 19th century. There are no new insights on the
war, it is a retelling of established views. As a political narrative it
is not only a great work of history but also literature.
Outstanding.......2007-02-22
Among the very best histories I have ever read. At the end you can actually make sense (???) of the 30 Years War
A Clear Presentation of a Tragic Historical Era.......2006-12-09
C.V. Wedgewood wrote a good historical account of a complex historical episode. Her book, titled THE THIRTY YEARS WAR, is a "classic", and those who are interested in the Thirty Years War or diplomatic history will benefit from this book. In other words, the book is "timeless."
Miss Wedgewood begins THE THIRTY YEARS WAR with a careful account of Germany during and immediately after the Reformation. This historical phase is important if readers are to understand the complexities of the Thirty years War. Of particular note is the Peace of Augsburg which the Germans agreed to in 1555. Miss Wedgewood's assesssment of these prior events is crucial to comprehending her book as well as the Thirty Years War(1618-1648). Readers should be aware the the Germans were not politically united, and historians could easily refer to Germany as the Germanies. Miss Wedgewood emphasizes this point very effectively.
Miss Wedgewood examines the political and religious status of the Germans in the early 17th. century(early 1600s). The religious and political tensions were serious, and the religious divisions between the Catholics and various Protestant sects, especially the Lutherans and Calvinists, were dangerous to say the least. Miss Wedgewood clearly informs the readers "who the players were."
The above mentioned tensions are important to further understand why "The Definistration of Prague", which occured in 1618, was such a serious diplomatic incident. The "incident" was the reason for the beginning of the Thirty Years War. In other words, this was the spark for a European and especially a German tragedy.
Readers may know that the Thrity Years War gradually began as a series of conflicts which could have ended the eventual destructive nature of this war. For example, The Happsburgs, the German Cattholics, defeated the Czech Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 which could have ended the conflict. However, the German Lutherans joined the war in 1625 only to be defeated. The Danes entered the war in 1629, and they were also defeated. The tragedy that had been incubating exploded.
In 1631, the Swedes under their king, Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632) joined the war with devestating consequences. Gustavus Adolphus was the one true religious zealot, and his religious enthusiasm only made the bloodshed far worse. He lost his life in 1632, and the Swedes lost their ruler.
Some readers may be perplexed that the French under the leadership of Louis XIII (1610)-1643)and Cardinal Richleau (1585-1642) ended the Thirdy Wars Year on the "Protestant" side. The French saw this war as a dynastic war, and their fears of powerful Hapsburgs in their eastern and southern borders (German and Spain) posed a diplomatic threat. In other words, Louis XIII and Cardinal Richleau did not see the war as religious conflict. Miss Wedgewood handles these diplomatic complexities very well. One should not that the Catholic French financed the Swedish intervention until the French declared war on the Hapsburgs in 1635.
Miss Wedgewood treats events after 1635 very well. The war was a stalemate which caused disaster for the Germans. Neither side could pay their mercenary troops who vented their frustrations on innocent civilians commiting rape, looting, mass murder, etc. This in turn resulted in the destruction of agriculture which caused considerable famine. Miss Wedgewood's detailed examination clearly reveals the excesses of all this tragedy which could not prevented until both sides exhausted themselves.
The fact that the French used this war to exhuast their Hapsburg rivals is clear for any who reads this book. The fact that the war ended as a "quitters' peace" is also made clear. Miss Wedgewood makes a good case that the end of the Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia may have saved European Civilization. One should note that Peace of Westphalia (1648) was actually a series of treaties of the parties involved.
With some exceptions, the Thirty Years War was the last modern war in which the Europeans fought each other and thereafter tried to avoid civilian casualties. There were exceptions of course, and the fact is ironic that this book was published just before World War II erupted in 1939.
Miss Wedgewood's THE THIRTY YEARS WAR is not dated. Her thesis regarding this tragic war could be applied to most total wars. The fact that the 20th century was history's bloodiest century so far makes this book quite relevant. Her prose makes this book readable and useful. She has done detailed research, and her writing style clarifies a complex era. Her book should be on every serious history student's reading list.
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- Excellent biography and high level study of the RN of WWII
|
Churchill's Anchor
Robin Brodhurst
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0850527651 |
Book Description
Dudley Pound was Churchill's senior naval advisor during World War II. Although Pound died before the war ended, he was instrumental in the sinking of the Bismarck and had organized the basis for the victory at sea.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent biography and high level study of the RN of WWII.......2001-05-23
This is the first autobiography of Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy between July 1939 and August 1943. If you don't know the fate of the British ships ABOUKIR, HOGUE, and CRECY in August 1914, this book may not be for you. If you don't know what the difference between a battlecruiser and a battleship, skip it.
However, if you are reasonably well read about the history of the Royal Navy in the first half of the 20th century, I very much recommend this book. It provides a sound treatment of Admiral Pound entire career, an excellent commentary on high level decision making at the Admiralty during the critical defensive and first offensive phases of WWII, and good look at wartime political issues involving and dividing the Admiralty and the British government. It also provides insights into British Naval policy during WWI and during the inter-war years.
Most of the well known WWII controversies involving the Royal Navy are covered; From the botched Norwegian campaign, to the attack on the French fleet at Oran, the anti-U-boat war, the firings of Admirals North, Godfrey and Forbes, Force Z, the almost criminal withholding of British shore-based aircraft support to the navy, the channel dash by SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU, and the scattering of convoy PQ17. The author's interpretations are based on research into Admiral Pound's papers in various archives, interviews with the Pound family members, review and analysis of accounts by witnesses to wartime decision making processes at the Admiralty, and thorough study of the politics of the Royal Navy.
The author of the book, Robin Broadhurst, comes across as a Pound admirer, although he certainly is not one sided in his praise. The Broadhurst emphasizes Pound's absolute professional dedication to the Navy, and shows that he was very aggressive in training squadrons and fleets between the wars, stressing the importance of taking calculated risks even in peacetime training. These risks included training for night actions and the use of aircraft of shadow enemy formations. They helped to establish the aggressive character of the Royal Navy during WWII. Broadhurst gives Pound credit for being aware of the potential usefulness of airplanes to support the fleet as early as 1914, for being a strong advocate of expansion of the Fleet Air Arm while serving at the Admiralty in 1928, and emphasizes that he was fully aware of the Royal Navy's poor performance at anti-aircraft fire in 1939.
Broadhurst has reasonable responses to the many criticisms of Pound as First Sea Lord put forth during and after WWII. He blames Churchill more than Pound for the confusion of the Norwegian campaign, arguing that while orders from the Admiralty to ships at sea cutting across existing lines of authority may have been signed by Pound, they usually implemented Churchill's ideas.
The author emphasizes that the attack of the French fleet, although supported by Pound, was a political decision made by the War Cabinet which may well have been politically correct at the time, even if it was opposed then and later by many officers of the British Navy. He also points out that Force Z was itself a political decision - in this case a bluff, strongly opposed by Pound. As for the channel dash, Broadhurst lays the principal blame for the German escape on the RAF, and approves of Pound's refusal to risk a British capital ship in the channel to block the escape.
On the other hand, Broadhurst blames Pound's failure to properly use the intelligence information provided him for his disastrous decision regarding PQ17. In fact, according to the author, Pounds principal operational shortcomings were a failure to make proper use of Naval Intelligence and a failure to make proper use of his staff. Broadhurst argues convincingly that Pound did not delegate enough until late in his term of office, and that under the burden of overwork, sometimes simply made the wrong decisions. The author also argues that the frequency of interference in Naval operations at sea by orders from the Admiralty - whether right or wrong - created problems for many Royal Naval officers, to the point of causing some to refuse commands at sea.
Broadhurst gives very high credit to Pound as someone who was able to manage Churchill, while still successfully fighting the Royal Navy's side when the big decisions had to be made. The title "Churchill's Anchor" reflects the authors view that Pound managed to constrain many of Churchill's wilder ideas by intelligent procrastination, while still managing to get things done.
Churchill was not Pound's only burden. Pound also had to fight off interference from several prominent figures from the World War I Royal Navy, including Admirals Keys and Dreyer, and from the upstart Churchill favorite Mountbatten. If that wasn't enough, at various time he also had to fight Admiral King of the United States Navy, Portal at the Air Ministry, Sir Arthur Harris of Bomber Command, and during much of 1942, even the hostile lobbying of the Russian Ambassador.
For fun, the author occasionally lashes out at Roskill's official history of the British Navy in World War II, especially his claim that Pound was physically unfit in 1939. Broadhurst feels that Roskill had some perceived wrongs to right which biased the official history. Along the way, he also takes a few swipes at Churchill's "Second World War" and Barnett's "Engage the Enemy More Closely". Altogether, "Churchill's Anchor" is an enjoyable and informative book for anyone with the right background.
Product Description
Raymond Aron's PEACE AND WAR - A THEORY ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS has been widely acclaimed as one of the most important books of the twentieth century. When it was first published in the United States in 1966, Stanley Hoffman called it "the most intellectually ambitious work that has ever been written about international relations." Henry A. Kissinger, reviewing it in THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, declared: "Henceforth, international theorizing will require reference to Aron...This volume is indispensable for the specialist. The general reader will pick and choose but should gain a new perspective."
It is for the general reader, who might be deterred by the original's 800 pages, that this shorter version has been prepared, with the permission and subsequent approval of the author.
Here the reader can grasp the scope of Aron's theory of international relations, the breadth of his incredible knowledge, without being over-burdened by examples and elaborations that are of primary concern to the specialist. Here is a volume of urgent importance to anyone who is concerned about the basic problems of current foreign policy and their historical background, and the desperate need to find an alternative to war as an instrument of foreign policy in a thermonuclear age.
Raymond Aron, one of the world's leading political scientists, holds a chair in sociology at the Sorbonne and has written for many leading American publications. Among his other books published in this country are CENTURY OF TOTAL WAR, THE OPIUM OF THE INTELLECTUALS, THE GREAT DEBATE and MAIN CURRENTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT.
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The Anchor War
John Westin
Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0595656056 |
Book Description
The 1991 war with Iraq is in its second day. In New York, legendary WBN anchorman Harrison Kiser is murdered by his mistress as millions watch on television. Days later, three journalists launch a desperate, rollicking, soul-searching battle to win the coveted $2.5-million-a-year anchor job. The combatants:
David Sheldon, chief Tokyo correspondent. He is handsome, sophisticated and ambitious. His wife thinks he loves WBN more than he loves her. She may be right.
Frank West, chief correspondent for WBN's primetime news magazine, "Perspective." West is rugged, aggressive and independent. His love life is a mess. He dates a fetching woman who already has a boyfriend.
Marilyn Rhodes, chief Moscow correspondent. She flies to New York and demands a shot at the job. She gets her chance—delivering the news on WBN's "Morning Magazine." She quickly discovers she is stuck in the quicksand of office politics.
It's a no-holds-barred battle for the fabulous anchor job—complete with scandals, sex, bombs and a murder mystery.
Book Description
The end of the Cold War also ended the organizing paradigm of American foreign policy since World War II, containment of Communism. How the attitudes towards American involvement abroad of opinion leaders were affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union is critical in predicting the shape of future American foreign policy. Shoon Murray investigates how American leaders' foreign policy opinions changed once they revised their views about the Soviet Union and explores what this tells us about the sources and structure of their belief system.
The end of the Cold War provides a rare opportunity to explore the causal connection between external circumstances and Americans' belief systems. While it is true that, for Americans, the denouement of the Cold War was a peaceful process, and therefore less shocking and traumatic than some past wars, the event still marked an enormous change within the international environment. If Americans' perceptions about the former Soviet Union did in fact dictate many other foreign policy beliefs then we could expect deep attitudinal change to accompany the end of the Cold War.
Murray argues that the upheavals in the international system had only limited effect on the foreign policy beliefs of American leaders and that opinion leaders have adhered to their old postures about how the United States should conduct itself in the world. Murray explains this continuity by finding a strong relationship between the domestic beliefs of leaders and their orientation toward American activities abroad. Domestic political orientation was a stronger influence on the elite's attitude toward foreign policy than the elite's image of the Soviet Union. Murray suggests that elite political actors apply the same or kindred values to circumstances at home and abroad.
This book will appeal to social scientists interested in studying elite opinion as well as students of the foreign policy process and those interested in the formation of American foreign policy in the post cold war era.
Shoon Kathleen Murray is Assistant Professor of Political Science, School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C.
Books:
- In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
- Junie B., First Grader: Dumb Bunny (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
- Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)
- Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home
- Love, Lies and Liquor (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)
- Love: What Life Is All About
- Marketing Channels (7th Edition) (Prentice Hall International Series in Marketing)
- Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
- Maximum Ride #3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (Maximum Ride)
- Metaphysical Wit
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