Reviews (111)

This will have you in awe.
Hampton Sides has written a very readable classic.Ghost Soldiers gives a blow by blow account of the rescue of the remaining Allied (mostly US) prisoners from the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan, Philippines.The smallest details are noted, many of which are harrowing.What the POWs went through during their three years of captivity after the fall of Bataan will shock you although readers who are familiar with WWII will know what I mean.The highs and lows of man's character are laid out for all to see in this book and you can't help but be moved.
Better Than The Movie
Hampton Sides' telling of the rescue of 500 POWS, survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March, by U.S. Army Rangers in the Philippines during the waning days of World War II is an outstanding job of reportage. Sides tells the story from the eyes of the rescued and their rescuers, building suspense that wasn't always present in the The Great Raid, the film adaptation of his story. As a working journalist for more than 30 years, I know I good story when I read one, and this one falls into that category.

another story that needs telling
When I was a kid, my father and uncles spoke with reverence of those who were on the Bataan Death March.These men who were heroes in my eyes regarded the Bataan guys as REAL heroes.They described the march as the most horrible treatment ever received by US military personel.Only recently have I really begun reading books about the Pacific war, and I stumbled over this one after seeing the trailer for the movie.I'm really glad I found it
Read more

Subjects:  1. Cabanatuan    2. Campaigns    3. Concentration camps    4. History    5. History - Military / War    6. Military    7. Military - Strategy    8. Military - United States    9. Military - World War II    10. Philippines    11. Regimental histories    12. United States    13. World War, 1939-1945    14. History / Military / World War II   

Subjects:  1. Civilization    2. Dictionaries    3. History    4. History - General History    5. Intellectual life    6. Philosophy    7. Reference    8. World - General    9. History of ideas, intellectual history   

Subjects:  1. Architectural & Industrial    2. Architecture    3. City planning    4. History - General    5. New York    6. New York (State)    7. Planning    8. Public, Commercial, or Industrial Buildings    9. U.S. Architecture - General    10. Urban renewal    11. Architecture / Planning   

Reviews (9)

Death before being dishonored.
An important and imperative work. Investigative journalisim at its best under trying circumstances. American at its core, in that it gets a tough and dirty job done. Not with the help of government, but despite it.In this Reagan era of privitizaton/trust the market place, we have a choice: trust Bush or the dollar.How could you lose?Thebook opens and closes with Col. Ted Westhusing, the definition of his alma mater, WEST POINT: DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY. Third in his class, plus a doctor of philosophy, and an exemplary record of war/peace service. Yet he met his nemesis: Iraq. For in Iraq he found a war of privitization that had nothing what so ever to do with DUTY, HONOR, or COUNTRY.It was simply about the money, or at best, cronyism.Whether it was murder or suicide, his last communication was in writing and I paraphrase, " I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. No more. I cannot support corrupt, money hungry contractors, nor work for commanders only intersested in themselves. I came to serve honorably and I feel dishonored.Why serve when you cannot accomplish the mission, when you no longer believe in the cause, when your every effort and breath is met with lies, lack of support and selfishness.Life needs trust". So what comes around goes around.When a government is "elected" that produces Iraqs and Katrinas then you get the government you deserve.Col. Ted Westhusing desevered better. We, the citizenry could count on him.But in the end, he could not count on us. This book needs to be read and passed on by word of mouth.I wouln't count on the privitized mainstream press.I think there are about a total of four papers left that still have a investigative journalism department.After all, it is all about the bottom line. The Money. Highly recommended!!!!!

Bush and Friends Strike Again!
A free and democratic Iraq was supposed to become an oasis.The U.S. has committed over $30 billion to rebuild Iraq - more than the $2.4 billion (inflation-adjusted) spent on Germany after WWII, and far more than the $2 billion originally planned to rebuild Iraq.In addition, over 500 contractor employees have died trying to make Iraq a better place.Goals were rarely set, and even less often met.Yet, after three years of rebuilding, Iraqis have less power in their homes than under Saddam, oil production is about 20% below pre-Saddam days, outbreaks of easily preventable diseases like hepatitis occur for lack of clean drinking water, and thousands of Iraqis have died in sectarian conflict.
Reader make up their own mind
Blood Money is a dramatic, persuasive and meticulous work. It would be better without the biased innuendos found throughout, such as VP Chaney somehow benefiting through the government contracts with his old company, Haliburton Oil. No proof of this is offered.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Economic Conditions    2. Economic aspects    3. Equipment and supplies    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. International Relations (Specific Aspects)    6. International Relations - General    7. Iraq War, 2003-    8. Military Expenditures    9. Moral and ethical aspects    10. Petroleum    11. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    12. Political Science    13. Politics / Current Events    14. Politics/International Relations    15. United States    16. 21st century    17. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    18. Current Events / General    19. Iraq    20. USA    21. War & defence operations   

Reviews (6)

A great and sordid tale
This is a greeat and depressing book. I documents how America is a country of many laws and little enforcement. Believe it. That the book was trashed as anti-Semetic in The NY Times Sunday Book Review only makes it a more important read (The dolt Times reviewer reviewer had a tribal agenda and comes from self-admitted mob affiliated tax cheat family should be all you need to know about that review)
HOPING FOR AN UPDATE
This book tells how Sidney Korshak and other mob fronts moved from Chicago to Las Vegas and Southern California in the 1940's.Using such notorious hangouts as the Bistro and City National Bank in Beverly Hills, some of which are still as sinister as ever, they gained influence in unions, business, and politics at the local and even national and international level.
Worth the wait?
It's 490 years since Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia, a model for any society desiring to live rightly.The Utopians had little interest in money or the false pleasures of jewelry and high fashion.They disdained gambling and the pursuit of "empty and worthless honors," and anybody arrogant enough to run for public office could never gain it.The legal profession was absolutely banned, as was private property.Everybody worked for the greater good of all.There was no "conspiracy of the rich," in which a few preyed on the many and amassed wealth through crooked schemes.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. California    5. Chicago    6. Illinois    7. Lawyers    8. Lawyers & Judges    9. Organized Crime    10. True Crime / Espionage    11. United States    12. History / United States / 20th Century   

Reviews (68)

Powerful and problematic...
As a journalist, Robert Fisk has a reputation which precedes him, but one might still mistake this title for a history.It isn't.Fisk has authored an extended op-ed that is disturbing, infuriating, perplexing and, clearly, ideologically driven.That he brings to light abhorrent images of senseless death, destruction, and unending futility is, in itself, deeply influential, but this reportage is tinged by a bias that introduces fallacy, non sequitur, contradiction, willful omission, defamation, and conspiracy theory.
Excellent but Overwhelming
Mr. Fisk presents a point of view seldom seen in the US. He questions the wisdom of trying to spread Western-style democracy in countries that in some cases are not really countries at all (e.g., Iraq), an opinion that is a total anathema in the US. What, democracy is not the best form of government? Only if the country can really do democracy.
Through a lens darkly
Fisk's book is a massive conpendium of personal experiences, historical insight, and philosophic discourse from a reporter of the Middle East who has seen it all.Well written and, despite the length, the book is engrossing- filled with information not only of the mega-history of the region, but of the individuals drawn within the tempests of Islam's conflict with the West.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. 21st century    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History, Military    6. History: World    7. International Relations - General    8. Middle East    9. Middle East - General    10. Middle East - History - 20th Century    11. Military - General    12. War And Peace    13. War and society    14. Current Events / Political   

Reviews (3)

Now this is a real Revelation
I have read some of Revelations. I could never bring myself to finish it. Unlike the Old Testament with its wonderfull stories of human trials and tribulations Revelations is page after page of hate and revenge. It never fit in with the rest of the Bible and it doesn't. This courages work brings to light the reasons why.
AN ENGROSSING, CONTROVERSIAL LOOK INTO THE ORIGINS OF ESCHATOLOGY!
Three and a Half Engrossing Stars!!
Cuts Through Evangelical Fundamentalist Garbage..
I happened to come across this tasty volume by accident and found myself up half the night sucked into its pages.The author covers all aspects of Revelations and does an exhaustive, yet entertaining critique of the stories aka metaphors contained therein.For End of the World Enthusiasts and Conspiracy Buffs, some of your paranoia will dissipate. For die hards, forget it.They'll believe what they want to believe.For Evangelicals and Fundamentalist Yahoos, you might just lose some steam.This book has something for everyone. It's an intelligent cultural study of a book in the Bible that's been bandied about for centuries.There will be no absolutes when you get to the end.But you will have learned what all the fuss is about.Sure to tick off more than a few know it all holier than thou folks for its bold candor.Maybe that's why I like it so much. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bible - CriticismInterpretation - New Testament    2. Christianity    3. Christianity - History - General    4. Christianity - Theology - Eschatology    5. End of the world    6. Eschatology    7. General    8. History    9. History - General History    10. History of doctrines    11. New Testament Commentary    12. Religion    13. Religious aspects    14. World - General    15. History / General   

Reviews (2)

Another brilliant text from Blue Poppy
From Acupuncture Today, Sept. 2003
A Gem of Clarity
There have been other books in English elaborating the Chinese medical pattern identification and treatment of biomedically-defined diseases, but none so meticulously researched and presented as this one. The writing is organized, logical, and exceptionally clear.Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Medicine    2. Health & Fitness / Alternative Therapies    3. History    4. Medical    5. Medical / Nursing    6. Medicine, Chinese    7. Medicine, Chinese Traditional    8. Alternative Therapies    9. Diseases & disorders    10. Health & Fitness    11. Herbs    12. Therapeutic use    13. Traditional medicine & remedies   

Reviews (21)

Good effort, some disappointment
Although Karen Armstrong has made a good effort and has exhibited a wide range of overall scholarship, "The Great Transformation" was a disappointment when it came to her understanding of Ezekiel's vision. She sees the Merkava (chariot) as a "war chariot", written in response to the Babylonian exile, and as being a "terrifying, confusing vision" (Page 398). Since Ms. Armstrong's book is on the Axial Age, it would have been better for her to approach this vision from the standpoint of a meditative experience that could bring a person into the awareness of oneness. There are elements of this vision that are common to the meditative experience wherever it arises, within whatever religious tradition it takes place. Ezekiel's vision is a description of and a metaphor for this experience, and not a "war chariot." For a scholarly elucidation of this subject, Aryeh Kaplan's book "InnerSpace," Moznaim, 1990, discusses Ezekiel's vision in detail.

Thoroughly educational and fascinating
This is a very enlightening book about the development of religious traditions in China, India, Greece and Judea/Israel (and later on Arabia), from the dawn of history until the time of Mohammed.It centers on a period in each of these cultures that is called the "axial" age, which is when the most profound enlightenments occured.It's fascinating to learn the history of the development of different belief systems - both familiar and unfamiliar.

Excellent, but not for the faint of faith
Karen Armstrong is a prolific author who has gone far beyond the faith that was taught to her as an aspiring nun in the early 1960s.I've enjoyed a few of her earlier works (Through the Narrow Gate and A History of God) and I picked this up with great anticipation. I was intrigued by her assertion that a short span of history (800-200 BCE) marked a dramatic leap in the beliefs of several religions throughout the world at a time when they had limited or no contact with each other.Her writing is both gripping and persuasive and I was very impressed with the book.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - General    2. Ancient Philosophy    3. History    4. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    5. History Of Religion (General)    6. History, Ancient    7. Philosophy, Ancient    8. Religion    9. Religion - Commentaries / Reference    10. Sociology of Religion    11. Religion / History   

Editorial Review

In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Read more

Reviews (911)

Unforgettable Tale of Holocaust Horror
Beyond and essential read, Night speaks to the reader about fundamental questions at the heart of the human condition.A powerfully moving autobiography, the story of this teenager's journey through the most horrific death camps of Nazi Europe, strips away discussion of anti-semitism and hatred, to present the raw suffering of individual humans, stuck in situations beyond their control.From the establishment of a ghetto in Elie's home town of Sighet, the reader can only watch with growing horror as the young man and his family are swept up in the Holocaust.Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Gleiwitz: some of the most infamous places in modern human history, rise around Elie, as we watch him stripped of absolutely everything.The reader is swept along helplessly, as Hitler's "Final Solution" unfolds - death marches, starvation, selections, cattle-carts full of people, torture, floggings, mass-murder - and as Elie is gradually reduced to nothing more than a 'hungry stomach'.
must reading
this is a disturbing work in that it recounts a man's experience of the nazi death camps. Warning: this book will shake you up mentally, and emotionally.It is not for the faint of heart.Yet, it is a must read because of the exposure it gives to humanity at it's worst and humanity under it's worst.

Lost in Translation
The short novel Night has emotional power not only because of the dark subject matter, but because Elie Wiesel is a gifted writer who deftly reveals the spiritual and mental anguish of the main character.Generally considered autobiographical, the account follows a young man who feels he is losing not only God, but his humanity as the Nazi machine ravages Europe.The novel itself deserves 10 stars.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1928-    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. Personal Memoirs    7. Personal narratives, Jewish    8. Wiesel, Elie,    9. World War, 1939-1945    10. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts    11. Europe    12. World history: Second World War   

Reviews (3)

A Mixed Bag
It was a clever idea to ask prominent writers to imagine historical moments, but like most compilations of various authors, this book has some great articles and a few real duds.
Variety is the spice of life!
Just imagine the kind of performances you might see if renowned actors and actresses such as Nicholson, Pacino, Hepburn, Streep, Duvall, DeNiro and a cast of others were given the chance to stand up on stage and portray their favorite characters and performances. That's precisely what we have presented here with a talented cast of historians lending their personal renditions to historical accounts they are most fascinated with. Noted historians such as Remini and Ellis are joined by a cast of writers from various backgrounds that give a wealth of variety to this presentation.
Historians let their imaginations range
Given a chance to let their imaginations round out their expertise, these historians and writers flesh out the incidents in American history that most fascinate them. This is an inviting and intriguing premise for those of us who like our history served up in short dramatic narratives. And it's mostly successful, although, as with any anthology, some writers are better than others, and some pivotal events are more riveting or moving or impressive than others.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. General    3. Historiography    4. History    5. History - U.S.    6. History: American    7. United States - General    8. United States History (General)    9. History / General   

Reviews (7)

Revisionist, Questionable, Valuable, and a Starting Point

The ifs accumulate.
As if Lewis Sorley's paen to Abrams wasn't enough, now we have this doorstop of a tome. As if Vietnam was not bad enough as it was, now we have to wade through more "what might have been." Neither of these works are history, in that sense. The only thing new here is which demons to chastize this time around. The communist buhddists/bhuddist dupes (who had absolutely no reason to oppose Diem). The nefarious reporters, who twisted the truth to what end (as if the Americans who read the articles believed them). And of course lets elevate Diem, a political nonentity raised by the US through blatant electoral fraud, to sainthood right up there with Samoza, Pinochet, the Greek Generals, etc.
A Valuable Contribution to the Study of American Military History
It is certainly about time that a scholar trained in historical research takes a new look at the Vietnam War era and evaluates it on the basis of the wealth of new evidence which has become available. This new book by Dr. Mark Moyar, "Triumph Forsaken," offers a serious challenge to those of the so-called "orthodox school" of historians and commentators regarding the War itself, its justification, and its consequences. Self-described as a "revisionist" historian, Moyar provides a reassessment of the events from America's first intrusion into the Vietnam arena (mainly in the form of "advisors"), through the fateful assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, to the placement of U.S. ground forces into Vietnam by President Lyndon Johnson.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1945-1975    2. History    3. History - Military / War    4. History: American    5. Military - Vietnam War    6. United States - 20th Century    7. Vietnam    8. Vietnam War, 1961-1975    9. Asian history: Vietnam War    10. History / United States / 20th Century    11. War & defence operations    12. c 1960 to c 1970   

Subjects:  1. Jainism    2. Jewish - General    3. Judaism - History    4. Reference    5. Religion    6. Religion - Judaism    7. Jewish studies    8. Judaism    9. Reference works   

Subjects:  1. History    2. History - U.S.    3. History: American    4. United States - General    5. History / United States / General   

Editorial Review

Read more

Reviews (148)

Falling angels and rising tides
Author John Berendt doesn't tell a story, so much as paint a portrait in The City of Falling Angels-appropriate, perhaps, since the American view of Venice is so colored by art and architecture. The reader gets a protrait of a Venice that is simultaneously cosmopolitan-the playground of nobility, titled and untitled-and provincial-Berendt's Venetians are often distrustful of outsiders, and frequently resentful of the millions of tourists who throng the city, bringing traffic, environmental decay-and money. Though it was once the seat of an empire, Venice today is as much a tourist town as Las Vegas or Orlando.