Journals Books

This book is not as compelling as "Incest", but it's still Anais: still burning, still feeling, still wholly human, with all flaws and wishy-washiness included. But again, I warn away people who may not be down with heavily sexual content. If you are, though...

"This is not a lie. I was starting to tell lies and struck a truth! Very often I tell lies that are deeply true."
-Anais Nin, January 17, 1937

Diary opening with a visit to New York accompanying Dr Otto Rank. Searches for release from Rank. Back to Paris, Henry, Hugh, and to find Gonzalo More. Desriptions of interior worlds built for Hugh, Gonzalo, and Henry. Beautiful. Houseboat on the Seine, "Nanankepichu", Villa Seurat, Louveciennes.

As follower of Anais' Diaries (expurgated or not) and her novels I would like to express my admiration and my curiosity for her amazing literature and her rare personality, motivated again by "Fire". I believe that Anais was able to enjoy sex simultaneously with several men, each one of them however, playing an appropriate , no transferable, role: Hugh (husband),Joaquin Nin (father-lover),Eduardo Sanchez (cousin-brother), Henry Miller (friend-lover), Gonzalo More (lover-friend) and others. Occidental society usually attribute this promiscuous behavior only to men.As Anais shows, this may happen also among ladies, perhaps more often than accepted . Indeed, these "faults" may be heavily damned and punished by society when perpetrated by ladies. Probably Anais was the first woman , brave and courageous enough , to describe her own experiences and feelings about eroticism and sensuality written from a female point of view. Actually, looking at her inner mirror she describes herself with delicacy , ever avoiding disgusting pornography. I believe that Anais spent her life searching a Big One Love . As a result she found many "Love" and many Lovers . The sum of them never reached totality. Her Love was her fantasy and her invention, hence endless and inaccessible. On the other hand, in this and other books Anais masterly present unknown, almost domestic features and characteristic of the personality of several men and ladies who were outstanding representatives in art, literature, theatre, politics as Neruda, Alberti, Dali, Allendy, Rank, Gore and others.

Anais Nin was raised a devout Catholic and to earn her family's love she was expected to be demure, self-sacrificing, hard-working, and chaste. When her father abandoned the family she assumed, as children sometimes do, that he had left because she wasn't "good" enough. She played the role of "good girl" for twenty years in response. Then all hell broke loose.

What I believe is different about FIRE is that it reveals Anais's explorations and experiementation with her inner "bad girl" in a way that she had only just begun in HENRY AND JUNE and INCEST. In it she is still married to Hugh and involved with Henry Miller, but in FIRE she has a relationship with the famous analyst Otto Rank that takes some treacherous twists and turns. Her writing is as wonderful as ever. For the Nin fan, this diary is yet another must-read.

I have not read this book, but for the uninformed, the Dadent and Sons company, has been selling products-including stock for the hives, and queen bees, for a very long time. I contacted them in the early 70's. their catalog was very informative.

I don't know which dadent he is, but I would not easily doubt whatever is in this book.

Great beginning book for those new to the hobby and a grand refresher for those a little more experienced. Fine work.

From what kind of hives, how to care for the bees, how to select them, gather the honey and winter them - this book has everything you will ever need to know. I happen to have the 8th edition, 1930, and is as detailed as the newer editions.

Not too sexy, but has all the right stuff. This book is a timeless guide to modern-day beekeeping. The pictures are a little dated, and black-white, but the information is sound and professionally written. This book left me feeling well educated and confident. And at this price, it's a deal!

I have just read The Flats by Leo Byrne. I was struck by the detail in his recollections. The story transports the reader back to Dublin in the rare oul times and as an Irish person myself, I felt such an affinity to the man and the story.
Leo has a style of writing which captures the Irish 'way' and his book had me experiencing a range of emotions both happy and sad. The details in The Flats are meticulous and the memories he recalls in the book, the people, the customs, the streets of Dublin etc are now remembered forever by a true son of Ireland in an authentic Irish way. A story-teller of renown that's Leo Byrne. Buy this book you won't be disappointed.

The Flats is a charming glimpse into every day life in Ireland during the 40's and 50s. Often, I've seen books and movies criticised as portraying Ireland as we think it is not as it really is. This is a gentle, loving look at the apartments in Dublin and the ebb and flow of people during a kinder, gentler time. Dubliners have their own Dublinesque patter, Dublin roots in the sons and daughters, and supposedly they never lose their accent not matter where they have been transplanted. The

Irish have ways that centre heavily upon the family, neighbours, traditions and beliefs that are ages old.

Leo Byrne was born in Dublin in 1937, at Hollis Street Hospital, just a short walk from "the Flats" - the Perse House Flats. In 1959, he moved across the Pond to New York, eventually finding his way to California. He served in the American army. After retirement, he spent time at women's shelters, dressing as a leprechaun, to bring cheer and a wee taste of Eire to the Yanks. Even though he was transplanted, his heart fondly recalls his days in the Flats and it's reflected in his writing. His joy of life, his love for his native land comes through in each tale of this collection.

It's a perfect gift for that transplanted child of Eire or that person who feel Ireland calls to their soul. His thoughts cover holidays, personal hygiene, swimming in the Liffey, courting, trash handling and even a ghostly tale. An absolute must for anyone interested in Ireland.

Leo Byrne tells a great story ,I nearly had my own hand out for the slap from the teacher.The fright of a young boy in an inner city school comes across as does the first job and the sheer joy of the first big pay packet.
The pictures alone are worth the price of this book.I did shed a tear or two at his sheer love of his country and his people.For a man a long way from home for a long time he hasn't forgotten his roots.There has been many books written by Irish authors and Mister Byrne is up there with the best of them.Anyone that can make you laugh and cry at the same time are truly gifted.
My only question is where is the sequel???

Most unusual account of a young lad growing up in Dublin Ireland, vivid merories and wonderfull childhood experiences both sad, humorous, and overall a happy enviroment. Woderfully memorized and documented to the last page.
Mary Yvonne, housewife

Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology About Black Southerners is an informative text that introduces the reader to an ignored, overlooked, and often times denied chapter in the history of the War Between the States. The editors have compiled a collection of modern essays, period news articles, obituaries, personal recollections, and Confederate records that provide readers an opportunity to either educate themselves or to pursue further exploration of the role that African Americans played in the Confederacy. The anthology includes sections that 1) deal primarily with the actual historical events, 2) sociological and anthropological studies concerning the social structure when the conflict occurred (providing the reader with a basic understanding of the times that purely historical texts often lack), and 3) personal remembrances that give the reader insight into the actual thoughts of those African Americans who worked with or for the Confederacy. The book is imminently readable and its format permits the reader to continue through the text as written at his leisure or to concentrate upon records, historical texts, or contemporary musings if he wishes. Two aspects of the work created a great impression upon this reviewer. The first aspect is the objectivity of the text. While the potential for a biased point of view is great in subject matter of this sort, the editors did an excellent job of presenting all aspects of African-American Southern involvement in the conflict. The records that were presented reflected the nature of the contributions of both slaves and freemen and numerous references were made to individuals who served in both sides of the conflict. Additionally, there were no obvious attempts at apologia for the reasons behind African-American participation in the Confederacy. The editors again were objective in their selection of source materials and where conclusions are drawn by either contributors, past historians, or participants; the editors let those conclusions stand. Moreover, in records or lengthy discourses that required editing, the editors summarised the passages without loss of factual information. Secondly, an extensive reference is made available to the reader who chooses to pursue additional information on the topic. This resource includes a description and page number of each particular relevant reference, for which this reviewer was particular grateful. This reviewer highly recommends Forgotten Confederates to any student of the Civil War, students of sociology or African American studies, or any reader with an interest in the more obscure details of the American Civil War as an excellent introduction to the role that African Americans played in the Confederate States.

I had no idea so many black soldiers fought for the South.Some were really body servants, others were quartermasters and cooks and others were flat out real soldiers. This is a piece of history that has been totally left out of the history books. This is the only book of it's kind that I know of so if you are a black or Civil War history buff you must add this one to your collection.

Mr. Barrow has written a most extraordinary book on some of the most noble, yet sadly forgotten, defenders of the Confederacy - the Black Confederates. He offers a quite insightful look of their service throughout the War For Southern Independence. Some of the personal accounts of these brave men of colour are wonderful, leaving us to question the bigotry of those who use revisionist tactics in portraying the War For Southern Independence. I believe the unfortunate & temporarily successful block of the racist organisation NAACP against a proposed monument in the Commonwealth of Virginia, that was to have been erected to the memory of the thousands upon thousand of blacks who wore the grey & butternut & bore the Saint Andrew's Cross of the Southern Confederacy, is such an example.

The common conception of black Southerners in the Civil War has described a people unified by their opposition to the Confederacy and resisting the Southern war effort, either passively and actively.
This view can only be maintained by ignoring a mass of research material that strongly suggests that black opinion, like other opinion, was represented across the spectrum, and was strongly influenced by sectional, local, and family loyalties which have largely disappeared in the modern world, but which were of paramount importance in the nineteenth century. Many blacks, free and slave, in fact, considered themselves Southerners first and blacks second, and served the Southern cause enthusiastically.
This unconventional view is supported here by a wealth of clippings, rosters, memoirs, photos, archival records, and other data to convincingly demonstrate that the matter is more complex than the simplifiers of history would have it, and to show that the actual record of the black Southerner leaves no firm ground for those who would cite his experiences for modern political purposes.
(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Fortune: The Art Of Covering Business is a compendium of cover art drawn from past issues of Fortune magazine in celebration of its 70th anniversary. These covers are reproduced in full color and span the magazine from 1930 to 1950. Informatively enhanced with a Foreword by John Huey and an Historical Essay by Daniel Okrent, Fortune: The Art Of Covering Business is a welcome celebration drawing from a spectrum of artistic talents who provided visual symbols of America's burgeoning industrial society on the cover of one of the nation's most influential and prestigious magazines.

Henry Luce, the cofounder of Time Magazine, decided to launch Fortune after the market crash in 1929. He priced it at a dollar a copy (about ten dollars in today's currency value), and set out to make it the best possible magazine.

In the publisher's eyes (as taken from an advertising brochure), American business "has importance -- even majesty -- so the magazine . . . will look and feel important -- even majestic." " . . . [E]very page will be a work of art." Luce went on to say, "[T]he new magazine will be as beautiful as exists in the United States. If possible, the undisputed most beautiful."

Early staff members often later became famous poets and authors (such as Archibald MacLeish and James Agee) who worked just enough to earn a living, and then went back to their poetry. Luce found it easier to teach poets about business than to teach those who knew about business how to write.

The essays contain many rewarding stories. One of the best is how Thomas Maitland Cleland designed the first cover by sketching it upside down on a tablecloth in a speakeasy for the editor, Parker Lloyd-Smith. The original tablecloth, complete with drawing, is still mountained in the Time-Life building.

Some of the famous cover artists included Diego Rivera and Fernande Leger. In those days, the cover was independent of the stories in the issue. The cover was simply to attract attention and to encourage thought. If you remember early Saturday Evening Post covers by Norman Rockwell, you will get the idea.

By 1948, the vision changed. Luce wanted Fortune professionalized. The new concept was for "a magazine with a mission . . . to assist in the successful development of American business enterprise at home and abroad." By 1950, the artful covers were gone.

Now I must admit here that I found the covers displayed to be primarily of interest as reflecting social attitudes toward business. So I found these images to be like Monet's Gare St. Lazare, except without the appeal of Monet's technique. Frankly, the art did not move me or appeal to me except for one Leger cover. Perhaps the art will speak more to you. I graded the book down one star accordingly.

A value to me in this book was stopping to think about how much business has changed in the last 71 years, since Fortune was founded. That was "before Social Security, . . . the sitdown strikes of the thirties, . . . the creation of the SEC." " . . . [D]isclosure requirements for public companies were virtually nonexistent." As a result, companies didn't tell anybody anything. So it was a pretty bold idea to write about business. Contrast that with out information overload of data about every possible business and economic angle. What a difference!

How much time do you spend obtaining business information now? How can that be reduced while increasing your effectiveness? Perhaps, like the Fortune art, you can get an overview that will connect with what needs to be done . . . and found a great American business in the process like Fortune Magazine did.

When was the last time a bunch of 20-somethings started a new business that featured art and majesty, as Luce and his colleagues did? Aren't we overdue for some quality again?

Take in the big picture!

The history of business can be seen through the covers of Fortune magazine. One can see how business has changed from 1930 to 1950 month by month. The art work is excellent and is a historcial reference of economic and industrial changes in North America and the world. There is some interesting reading, as well.

Fortune magazine, for many years, had the luxury of using eye-catching graphics on its covers unrelated to the contents inside. This rather unusual arrangement was because most copies were on subscription to the folks who ran the nation's business and any newsstand sales were a bonus. The fact that it did not have to use its cover to compete with other magazines for sales allowed the various Art Editors to go for great illustrations from the leading graphic artists of the day.

All the covers from the first issue in February 1930 to December 1950 are shown in this lovely designed and printed book, either one to a page or four to a page (I felt the four to a page ones could have been a little bigger) and each year starts on a page with a few news items and some stats about business. The magazine's owner Henry Luce chose Tom Cleland to art edit the first issue and he came up with a rather ugly format for the covers, a double frame devise, the logo was in one and the illustration in another, I think this heavy framing design rather spoils the early covers and fortunately by 1942 it was dropped.

Daniel Okrent explains in his short introduction that cover artists were chosen for their creativity, some of the best graphic artists commissioned included Fred Ludekens, Erik Nitsche, A M Cassandre, Joseph Binder, George Gusti, John Atherton and Lester Beal. Although artists from the fine arts were also used, such as Ben Shahn, Fernand Leger, Charles Sheeler and Diego Rivera I don't think these covers work as well because their work is not suited to the constraints of commercial graphics.

By 1950 Fortune, now a very successful business monthly and making Henry Luce even richer, changed its editorial focus into a magazine that Luce said should "...assist in the successful development of American business enterprise at home and abroad." Covers now had to work harder as other business weeklies and monthlies all competed for the CEO's time and the luxury of a stunning cover image for its own sake had gone. This lovely book shows you the best of Fortune covers.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

There is no question that Colonel Kingseed has captured the spirit and essance of Capt. Joe Dawson and has provided the reader with personal insights that are properly spaced to elevate this book to one of the best books written on World War II. Every American should read this book and give thanks to men like Joe Dawson and his company of men that gave more than any of us who were not there, cannot even remotely appreciate their achievments.
It is also a credit to Colonel Kingseed that he had the foresight to see the importance of having this story told and get permission from Capt. Dawson to publish some very personal letters to his family for all of us to read. The eloquence that Dawson was able to write in some of the most trying times during the war could be the best memoir that I have read!
With the quality of this book now available for all to read, I cannot wait until the Major Winters book is released.

This book is a splendid addition to the library of anyone interested in World War II. Joe Dawson was an inspiring member of "The Greatest Generation" and his story is vividly told here in his own words and the descriptions of Cole Kingseed.

The letters Dawson sent home reveal the tremendous strains and demands placed on a small unit infantry commander. In "From Omaha Beach to Dawson's Ridge" we find a courageous, reflective and compassionate young soldier from Texas who reacts quickly, professionally and humanely under the most adverse and crucial conditions.

The First Infantry Division was constantly thrust into intense fighting and harrowing situations. Dawson shares his most personal thoughts before and after the Big Red One's engagements from North Africa, Sicily, Normandy and the bloody road to Germany. Kingseed adds key perspective along the way.

Joe Dawson's hunger for mail from home should encourage anyone who has a loved on in harm's way to pick up a pen and start writing to them now.

This country has truly been blessed by the likes of so many wonderful veterans like Joe Dawson and so many other brave World War II veterans. We are fortunate that Cole Kingseed discovered and published this treasure from Joe Dawson. I can't wait to read Kingseed's forthcoming book written with Dick Winters of "Band of Brothers" fame.

Capt. Dawson was was the company CO of G Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Regimental Combat Team, of the Big Red One. He went into Omaha Beach at H-Hour, D-Day. He was the first off of his LCVP, followed by his communications sergeant and his company clerk. Then an artillery shell struck the boat, wiping out the remaining thirty-three men. That was Omaha.

Of course they didn't land where they intended, but began the war where they landed. They were among the first ashore, among the first to move off the beach, among the first to scale the ridge behind the beach and start cleaning out the German defenders firing down on the beach. They fought across France and into Germany.

Five months later Company G spent thirty nine days defending a ridge along the outskirts of Eilendorf, Germany that has gone down in the history of the Big Red One as Dawson's Ridge.

This book was put together by Col. CC Kingseed, former chief of military history at West Point, from the letters Capt. Dawson wrote home. It is a tale of the very best of small unit leadership.

This is a well written memoir with excerpts from letters home and a wealth of information about the combat experiences of Captain Dawson. He was very articulate and had a keen eye for observing the details and emotional struggles around him (as well as his own inner moral struggles with the war he was fighting). If you're looking for remembrances of D-Day and the fighting in Normandy, as well as a part of the campaign in N.W. Europe that has not previously been published, I highly recommend this book.

an excellent book written by one of the greatest preachers of all time; if you are a fan of the early evangelical movement or just want to understand it better this book is for you.

This book is absolutely priceless on several levels. First of all, we have Whitefield's daily journals covering the prime years of his life and the ones that go right the heart of the Great Awakening, the series of transatlantic revivals that took place from 1735-1745. You read of the powerful movings of the Spirit through his preaching, the tremendous response of the multitudes, and the fascinating one on one conversations Whitefield had with seekers and cynics. It is a fantastic document validating all of the things that transpired during those years of religious fervor.

The journals are also a valuable resource on Whitefield's personal life: His heartaches, his concerns, his desire to build a schoolhouse for blacks, his desire to see kids come to Christ, and his heartfelt gratitude for those who gave him room and board.

We read of his friendships with Ben Franklin, Jonathan and Sara Edwards, Gilbert Tennant and William Tennant, and many others. We read of his almost workaholic tendencies, his frequent bouts of weakness and illness, and his desire to live a hundred lives of service for Christ.

May I also add how impressed I was with how Whitefield's writing style is so saturated in scripture. Reading his journal was almost like reading an extension of the book of Acts!

The book starts out with his own life story and conversion testimony, and then goes right into the Great Awakening years. Buy this book and be enthralled at how God worked in Whitefield's life, and be encouraged with what God can do in your life.

This book contains Rev. George Whitefields letters from the year 1737 through 1741. Origonally published in the 1700's, this is an accurate reprint of the origonal. Written in the old english language, this ends up not being a hinderance, but an asset, as you concentrate on the words, translating them in you mind to modern english. It is very interesting

I wish more great Christians had kept journals. Reading about someone's struggles in a biography sometimes seems a little too broad; lots of emotion is distilled down to a few pages. Reading about the day-by day-successes and failures of great Christians is much more realistic, far easier to apply in my own walk with God.

This is the four-year journal of George Whitefield, considered one of the co-founders, along with John Wesley, of the Methodists, outstanding open-air preacher, and one of Christ's greatest soldiers. Whitefield's labors for the Lord are a great encouragement to me, as well as a gentle reminder of how little I myself do. And there is a wealth of historical information here as well. One really gets a feel for what a trans-Atlantic crossing was like, and there is considerable information on life in colonial America.

Pricey, but well worth it.

Most people know Whittaker Chambers as the former Communist spy who gave testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In the process, he blew the cover of fellow agent, Alger Hiss, a high-ranking official in FDR's State Department.

That was in 1948. Even in recent times, with evidence by now thoroughly convincing, liberal Democrats have refused to believe that Hiss, a left-wing icon, was a traitor. In the introduction to this book, Milton Hindus writes that their lack of contrition makes relevant Chambers's work, some of which is collected for the first time in this anthology of journalism. For a wider view of Chambers, outside the famous case depicted in Witness, one can turn to these articles, reviews, and stories written between 1931 and 1959.

The chronological arrangement of the pieces allows the reader to see the progress Chambers made from his revolutionary fiction for The New Masses, through his authoritative anti-Communism as an editor at Time, to the mature conservatism he composed for National Review from his farm in Maryland late in life. In all there is a steady introspection and honesty. He was that rare thing, Hindus reminds us - his own man.

There is also a good bit of variety: reviews of Ayn Rand, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and George Santayana; a prophetic short story about the rise of Russian imperialism; a history of western culture; and a moving piece about the resistance of Maryland farmers to the intrusion of bureaucrats from the Department of Agriculture.

The review of Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged, is particularly devastating. Chambers found this popular book to be less a novel than a political tract in which Rand presented a melodrama meant to depict the world's problems, then, in the sort of authoritarianism she denounced, set herself up as that world's savior. Chambers criticized Rand's inability to see shades of grey. In effect, the review drew a line between conservatism and libertarianism, with Chambers and Rand at opposite poles, a line just as sharp as the one Chambers often drew between Christianity and Communism.

In leaving the Communist Party, Chambers was convinced that he was joining history's losing side. It should not surprise us that the word "witness" in Greek also means "martyr," for in Chambers work there is more than a hint of martyrdom. At times his gloomy pessimism about the fate of the West trips his logic, causing not so much a leap of faith but a jump to a conclusion.

Yet I believe that Ghosts On The Roof still has something to offer: for the craftsmanship of its fine prose; for the challenging breadth of its world view; and for a perspective on the central political and moral events of the twentieth century, a perspective based not on theory but on experience, on having felt these conflicts in his bones.

For forty years the accepted establishment view of Whittaker Chambers was that of a fat, rumpled weirdo, obsessed, presumably for some kind of degenerate sexual reasons, with the destruction of Alger Hiss, a man who was in every way his better. Even the publication and excellent sales of his extraordinary memoir, Witness, could not erase that caricature from the minds of the elites. I remember a PBS miniseries about the Hiss case, which must date from the late 70's or early 80's (I checked; it looks like it was, fittingly, broadcast in 1984), which portrayed Hiss as a victim, if not an outright innocent. But then the pendulum began to swing :

-First came the 1978 publication of Allen Weinstein's authoritative book, Perjury : The Hiss-Chambers Case, which convinced most of the holdouts of the guilt of Alger Hiss.

-Then, in 1984, Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

-Five years later came this collection of the journalism of Whittaker Chambers, Ghosts on the Roof, which began the process of restoring his literary reputation.

-The fall of the Soviet Union unleashed a flood of government secrets from both US and Russian files which exposed both the extent and success of Soviet efforts to penetrate the US government, media and Hollywood in the 30's & 40's and peace groups in the subsequent decades.

-In 1995, the VENONA intercepts were revealed, with their decoded messages confirming that the Rosenbergs and Hiss, among others, had been Soviet agents.

-Finally, the publication in 1997 of the first serious biography, Whittaker Chambers : A Biography by Sam Tanenhaus, and the truly bizarre moment on Meet the Press when Clinton CIA nominee Tony Lake could not bring himself to declare Alger Hiss guilty, even fifty years after the fact, forced a major re-examination of Chambers, his legacy, and the legacy of those who were simply unable to accept his charges no matter the evidence (like Lake and like CNN in their Cold War series).

After all of that, it is perhaps now possible to contemplate Chambers the writer in a somewhat more neutral, less partisan, light. This collection includes everything from political essays to reflections on the Hiss case to movie and book reviews to a set of historical essays on Western Culture written for LIFE. Among the best pieces are a review of Finnegans Wake and a tribute to Joyce on his death; a review of the movie version of Grapes of Wrath, which Henry Luce said was the best film review ever published in TIME; a really scathing review of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged; and the prophetic title essay.

...

The outstanding piece though may well be the one that Teachout chose for the title. Ghosts on the Roof ran in TIME on March 5, 1945, shortly after the Yalta Conference, when the Allies were still basking in the glow of having cooperated to defeat Hitler. With admirable foresight, Chambers pricked this gonfalon bubble. The essay fantasizes that the ghosts of Nicholas and Alexandra and the other murdered Romanovs descend upon the roof of the Livadia Palace at Yalta to watch the goings-on. There they meet Clio, the Muse of History, who has likewise come to observe the Big Three Conference. When History expresses her surprise at finding the Romanovs there, they reveal that they have become fans of Stalin and have converted to Marxism, actually Stalinism. The Tsar and Tsarina explain that Stalin is achieving conquests which even Peter the Great never dared and now come Britain and America as virtual supplicants, unwittingly giving him the opportunity to grab more land in the East in exchange for entering the war with Japan. They share the Marxist belief that in the years following the war, England and the U.S. will collapse because of the internal contradictions of capitalism. Clio tells them that this will not happen, that the years to come will see a conflict between two opposing faiths, leading to "more wars, more revolutions, greater proscriptions, bloodshed and human misery." The Tsarina asks why she does not intervene to avert this, and Clio answers that humans never learn from History and :

Besides, I must leave something for my sister, Melpomene to work on.

Melpomene, Clio's sister, is the Muse of Tragedy. Here, years before he became embroiled in the Hiss case, long before the Cold War started, before the Atomic Age had even dawned, is Whittaker Chambers warning the West of the future it faces and forecasting it uncannily.

These essays, and the many others included here, make for really interesting reading. They reveal Chambers to be both a gifted and a prescient writer. His opinions on the Arts stand up extremely well. His assessments of political situations were as much forty years ahead of their time; particularly perceptive in this regard is one ("Soviet Strategy in the Middle East" [National Review October 26, 1957]) in which he predicted how the Soviets would foster Arab radicalism in the Middle East. All in all, the book serves to add depth and heft to a man who spent almost half a century as a caricature, who was more an undeserving victim of Anti-Anti-Communism than any of those who were blacklisted were "victims" of Anti-Communism. It is altogether fitting that the 20th Century, which Chambers did so much to redeem, ended with his reputation ascendant and those of his opponents in rapid decline.

GRADE : A

This is an excellent anthology of Whittaker Chambers' writings from his moonlighting as a communist journalist to the period after his fall out with the Reds. He follows his subsequent migration to Time and his days penning for the National Review. If you've read and enjoyed his autobiography, Witness, than you will probably enjoy this book.

Read this for graduate American history course. This book is a compendium of Chamber's writing as a Communist, for Time Magazine, and finally for National Review. He is a wonderful prose writer, as you will learn in the short bio below. He was uniquely qualified to write about the struggle between the U.S. and Communism during the Cold War as well. He foresaw the giveaway of Eastern Europe at the Yalta conference in his essay "Ghosts on the Roof." His historical essays are prescient as well. Chamber's was one of the most underestimated figures in the 20th century.

There are a few rare instances in American history when a court case grips the passions of its citizens and serves to define people's political or social beliefs based on which side they believed was in the right. The Sacco and Vanzetti case of the 1920's, the Rosenberg espionage trials of the 1950's, and the O. J. Simpson case of the 1990's were to some extent examples of this phenomena. However, the Hiss perjury trials of 1949-50 were the epitome of this phenomenon, and helped to create a divide between liberals and conservatives in American politics that is still evident to this day. During the Cold War era, one could easily identify the political persuasion of a person simply by asking them whether Hiss or Chambers had told the truth. Simply put, the innocence of Alger Hiss was embraced by liberals. If Hiss, a well respected New Deal advocate and important Roosevelt administration member, had actually been an American Communist spying for the Soviets since the 1930's, then a whole mass of conservative accusations would gain legitimacy, and all of FDR's New Deal programs and his foreign policy decisions at the Yalta Conference would become suspect. In addition, Hiss' guilt would call into question security breaches in the Truman administration, which was already being besieged by questions of "Who lost China." It is against this historical backdrop, that Whittaker Chambers wrote his autobiography Witness. His purpose was to make the first serious explanation of his life and motivations, he became one of America's most contentious figures in the last half of the twentieth-century, Whittaker Chambers.

Chambers' early life is an excellent insight into his psychological profile. Born Vivian Jay Chambers on April 1, 1901, (April Fools Day), he came from a middle-class family of meager means. Add to the mix a father who was bisexual and spent much time away from home, a mother who was paranoid, a grandmother who was insane, and his brother Richard who committed suicide, it is no wonder that you have the formula for a man who developed into a tormented soul and was generally estranged from the world and the people around him. In fact, throughout the book, Chambers illuminates his theme, which is to examine his tormented life at key junctures; such as, when he joined and left the Communist party, when he became a reluctant informer against Alger Hiss. Chambers, who attended Long Island's South Side High School, showed himself to be academically brilliant and an exceptional writer. His parents had big dreams for their son's future. Chambers had dreams too but they did not involve college. Being too young to fight in World War II, he decided to run away with a friend to see the world. They bummed around and worked their way to New Orleans--a city he fell in love with. "Chambers had discovered life as Hugo described it, a kind of prison, harsh and cruel, but lit from within by tender sentiment and from without by sudden shafts of illumination." After a few months of life on the seedy side and running out of money, he returned home and changed his name to Charles Whittaker but went by Whittaker, and within six months entered Columbia University.

A new world was opened to Chambers at Columbia with which he became enamored. He took English composition with Mark Van Doren, who later in life became a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Van Doren quickly saw in Chambers a very talented writer and later remarked that he was the best writer among his undergraduate students in the 1920's. Chambers especially enjoyed the friendship of fellow students, mostly Jewish, whom he found brilliant such as Lionel Trilling, Meyer Schapiro, and Mortimer J. Adler to name a few. "It was the ernste Menschen" (serious men) "who shaped Chamber's idea, never altered, of the intellectual life." However, academic bliss was not to be for Chambers. He ran afoul of the school administration for a play that he wrote which was deemed profane, and thus became despondent and quit going to class--eventually dropping out and never finishing his university education. He tried to travel to the Soviet Union to help build a new nation on the advice of Van Doren, but he only made it to Germany before returning home. He took a job at the New York Public Library which fed his autodidactic nature, and he started to consort with many women. It is at this stage in Chambers' life in 1925, that he joined the 16,000 member Communist Party of the United States, (CPUSA). "So much the better. He was used to being outnumbered. He had at last found his church."

Chambers paints a portrait of a man who dove into his new life as a Communist with a religious fervor. Chambers became a much-respected writer for several party newspapers, which brought him to the attention of party apparatchiks in 1932. Chambers also met Esther Shemitz a Socialist, and they married in 1931. It was after his marriage that he accepted an assignment to go underground and actively spy for the Party. He was made the courier of the "Ware cell" in Washington D.C., whose mission was to pass sensitive information from Communist party members who had infiltrated various departments of the U. S. government to Boris Bykov, a Soviet intelligence agent. One of the best-placed spies in the "Ware cell" who provided information to Chambers, then using the alias George Crosley, was Alger Hiss. However, Chambers became so disillusioned by Stalin's purges and his nonaggression pact with Hitler, that in 1938, he quit the party. Fearing for his life and his family's safety, Chambers turned informer and confessed all of his activities to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle, Jr., who forwarded his notes of the meeting to the FBI, which did not follow up on the case until several years later. In addition, an old friend recommended Chambers for a job at Time magazine, which he was elated to have since he was broke. Chambers' literary acumen and zeal for any new project he took on, propelled him to become one of Time's top editors in the 1940's. The magazine's owner Henry Luce said, "Chambers was the best writer Time ever employed." While a writer and editor at Time, Chambers became a most vociferous anti-Communist.

Soon after Stalin reneged on his Yalta Conference promises, a conference that Alger Hiss played a key role in for the State Department, the U. S. government finally moved to ferret out Communist infiltrators in the government. The FBI finally conducted extensive interviews with Chambers. This led to Chambers becoming a government informant in one of America's most dramatic congressional hearings and court cases of the twentieth-century. Chambers' denouncement of Alger Hiss was a stinging indictment of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, since it cast doubt on American liberals' willingness to conduct espionage investigations during the war years. The contrast between Hiss and Chambers could not be starker. Hiss was a Harvard graduate with impeccable looks and a sterling reputation as a government servant. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. His character references included Justice Felix Frankfurter, and John Foster Dulles, who was to become Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration. Chambers was an overweight plain looking man who did not dress well, a self-confessed Communist and government informant. Chambers does a good job of retelling the facts of the perjury case and his testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), as well as his extensive cooperation and long and friendly relationship with Richard Nixon. One finds that Chambers is very revealing of his own motivations in his critically acclaimed autobiography Witness, which was written in 1952 after the Hiss perjury trial.

John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, in their book Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials That Shaped American Politics, written in 2006, proved that their was a preponderance of evidence showing that Hiss was a Communist and did commit espionage against the U. S. government. Hiss was not charged with espionage because the statute of limitations protected him. The first Hiss perjury case ended in a hung jury. The second ended on January 20, 1950 with his conviction on two counts of perjury and a sentence to serve five years in jail--he only served forty-four months. Hiss went to his grave denying the charges against him. Haynes and Klehr wrote that he gained much sympathy with the political left again in the wake of the Watergate scandal claiming, "that a government conspiracy had forged evidence and coerced false testimony against him."

Although Chambers was vindicated by Hiss's conviction, he entered into a self-imposed exile on his farm in Maryland. However, for the rest of his life Chambers was visited by a small coterie of friends with whom he enjoyed lengthy discussions about world affairs. "Still convinced he had left the winning side for the losing one, Chambers foretold a global Communist victory. Gloomy as his predictions sounded, he was not devoid of hope." He believed that the primary way the West could defeat Communism was with morality and religion and not militarily. Needing to earn money, Chambers went back to what he did best. He wrote his autobiography Witness, which occupied the top of the New York Times best seller list for several months in 1952, and gave him the financial security he desired. More importantly, Witness was an anti-Communist manifesto that for Chambers described, "a struggle between the force of two irreconcilable faiths--Communism and Christianity." Witness was a powerful exposé of Communist activity in America and changed the life of one future president, Ronald Reagan. Reagan remarked that Witness was his favorite book and pointed to, "Witness as the book that would shape his political outlook." In 1984, President Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The other person of note that Witness made a huge impression on was William F. Buckley, Jr., who befriended Chambers and offered him the position of senior editor of his fledgling conservative magazine National Review. Both men maintained a very friendly relationship up to Chamber's death in 1961. Though Chambers would write articles for the National Review, he turned Buckley's offer down due to his poor health and his growing reluctance of the tactics that the political right was using--especially those of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Near the end of his life, Chambers became friendly with another former Communist and imminent writer, Arthur Koestler. Koestler wrote of Chambers upon receiving news of his death: "I always felt that Whittaker was the most misunderstood person of our time. When he testified he knowingly committed moral suicide to atone for the guilt of our generation. The witness is gone, the testimony will stand."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

This book is by far the best! I am using it for my third child. It has more space and info than most other record books...you won't be disappointed. And I love all the graphics and scriptures! SUPER.

This is a really neat baby book! Bright colors and neat questions & categories to fill in on each page. Most pages also have designated areas to attach specific photos that go with the theme of the page. It would make a great gift for any baby shower, as the recipient could easily use both this book and a traditional baby book (where you can store thicker items like baby teeth, etc.) Your son or daughter will love to look at this book and learn about how they were created by God even before they were born.

This is the best baby's first year book I found! The Bible verses on every page are wonderful; as you go through the book, adding pictures and writing in all the special moments, the verses are a great encouragement and a reminder of what a blessing your little baby really is. The book covers so many events and snapshots of a baby's first year, you really need to take the time to look through it before the birth of your baby, because if you don't keep up with it as the months go by, you'll forget nice details about your baby's first year. The graphics are the best and not cheesy (as in other books I've seen). This is a book I am giving to all new parents. A definite must have!

This book is wonderful tool in making the memories last. Definately, a Mommy Must-Have--there are to many moments that are unforgettable. This book helps you preserve all the "firsts."

I have to say that this isn't a 5-star work because of the writing, the criterion I normally use when dishing out parts of galaxies. It's because I think the book should be read by anyone wanting to gain a glimmer of understanding into what became one of the most powerfully focused minds in the last century. Regardless of the pros and cons of Goebells being allowed to retain even honorary posthumous citizenship of an Earth he seemed bent on destroying, it is enlightening to read the words he set down. Obviously they were never intended to be seen by the likes of you or me, let alone those in power, who later had a chance to peruse them at their leisure. If only the good (sic) doctor had known.

Anyway, following this gentleman of uncertain disposition down the path to what must have been close to madness (he must have had to stave madness off quite madly) and what was, an untimely death (in more ways than one), is an exercise that all students of human nature will finally be glad they chose to do. After all, he was only a man, like you and me, and I think that comes through quite plainly in his own words.

Dr. Joseph Goebbels was one of the most influentual and feared persons in the Third Reich. With strong influence on Hitler he managed to control virtually every important activity in the Reich. His diary undoubtably shows an extremely unscrupulous man, prepared to risk anything to achieve his beliefs (the tributes that are usually linked to Machiavelli could find even more proper place here). But he has done his homework well. He brilliantly understood the meaning of propaganda and its real influence on masses and he devised the methods to use it to all extent. We can read from his point of view how he was sailing in the dangerous seas of internal and international affairs and though his style of writing and thinking are not very nice due to his immense mental brutallity, we must admit that he was very succesful at what he was doing. Pure efficiency. It is very nice to learn something about a man who wrote history not so far ago, although it could be deadly for many among us. The understanding of his thought and point of view allows us to see the WWII in somehow another perspective. It must prepare us for actions to prevent such events from happening in the future.

In 'The Goebbles Diaries, 1942-43,' we are given a glimpse into the mind of Nazi Germany's genius of propaganda and one of Hitler's most trusted lieutenants. These diaries shed light on the Nazis view of Churchill, Stalin and all the other central figures of the era. Goebbels also tells us of the anger he and other leading Nazis felt over the defection of Italy to the allied camp, dealing with the devastating allied air raids, and the fear and anxiety over the revearses on the Eastern front. Unfortunatley, these pages don't give us as clear a view of Hitler as one would hope and passages dealing with the Holocaust are few and far between. In all, Goebbels presents himself as a champion of National Socialist ideals who is loved by Germany and respected by his enemies. What one really sees is the almost ridiculous opptimism that Goebbels held through these years of struggle. It is surprising just how firm was Goebbel's conviction that victory was certain. Those interested in the Third Reich should read Goebbel's diaries as it is a rare look into this troubled time written by one of it's greatest criminals.

In recent years, some (e. g., Yehuda Bauer, Steven T. Katz) have contended that the Jews were the only people in history to be targeted for COMPLETE extermination. Limiting oneself to the contents of this volume, consider this (December 14, 1942): "The Jewish race has prepared this war; it is the spiritual originator of the whole misfortune that has overtaken humanity. Jewry must pay for its crime just as our Fuehrer prophesied in his speech in the Reichstag: namely, by the wiping out of the Jewish race in Europe and possibly in the entire world." (pp. 243-244). The fact that the extermination of Jews would not necessarily have continued beyond Europe itself refutes the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

As late as March 7, 1942, Goebbels had still been entertaining a Final Solution that would send all European Jews to Madagascar (p. 116). In other entries, he was completely candid about the physical extermination of Jews (e. g., p. 86, 92; 243-244). However, Jews were not the only scapegoats; nor were they the only ones blamed for starting WWII. On April 17, 1943, Goebbels wrote: "... [Poles]...were the real instigators of this war...." (p. 332). After Mussolini's fall, Goebbels commented: "The plot hatched against us in Rome was backed by the monarchy, aristocracy, society, higher officers, Free Masons [Freemasons], Jews, industrialists, and clerics." (p. 445). Nor were Jews necessarily the only ones supposed to be overly powerful. On April 30, 1942, Goebbels entertained fantasies of Poles being behind the panic of the Germans of Rostock following the devastating RAF attack (p. 197).

There are veiled references to the planned extermination of Poles and other Slavs. Hitler is quoted as forbidding all sexual activity between German soldiers and Polish women (p. 95). On February 15, 1942, Goebbels commented: "...Slavs, he [Heydrich] emphasized, cannot be educated as one educates a Germanic people. One must either break them or humble them constantly." (p. 88). The first step in genocide is the denial of the humanity of those targeted. The well-known de-humanization of Jews extended to Slavs, as on January 27, 1942:"The incidents that Sepp Dietrich related to me about the Russian people in the occupied areas are simply hair-raising. They are not a people but a conglomeration of animals." (p. 52). Likewise, on March 20, 1942, Goebbels wrote: "But we, too, must realize that we shall have to fill with human beings such wide spaces in the East as we shall conquer. In geography, there can be no spaces without human beings..." (p. 139). The implication is obvious: Slavs are not human beings!

Goebbels repeatedly (p. 388, 396, 399, 456) mentions the growing successes of Polish guerilla actions (e. g., May 27, 1943: "Conditions in the General Government appear to be more than catastrophic. Every day there are attempts at assassination and acts of terror, without our authorities being able to do anything about it. The German population and our administrative officialdom seem to yield, not to say capitulate, to these conditions.")(pp. 399-400). Goebbels even probably alludes to the successful Polish Underground action in the Zamosc area (May 25, 1943): "Suddenly, however, he [Zoerner] received order for resettlement that had a very bad effect on morale. Some 50,000 Poles were to be evacuated to begin with. Our police were able to grab only 25,000; the other 25,000 joined the Partisans. It is not hard to imagine what consequences that had for the whole area. Now he was to evacuate about 190,000 more Poles. This he refused to do, and in my opinion he was right." (p. 396).

Goebbels repeatedly discusses the Katyn massacre (p. 318, 328, 336, 346, 354, 487); triumphantly claiming personal responsibility for the ensuing Soviet-Polish split (p. 346). Didn't Goebbels realize that, had Katyn never come to light, Stalin would've broken with the Polish government-in-exile on some other pretext? However, Goebbels does smell the developing sellout of Poland: (e. g., April 29, 1943: "The Poles are given a brush-off by the English and the Americans as though they were enemies.)" (p. 347). According to Lochner, the translator, Stalin had, already on February 23, 1942, claimed that the Soviets alone were doing all of the fighting (pp. 257-258). This became a mainstay of Communist propaganda and, more durably, an excuse for the west's sellout of Poland. However, the west's inability to restrain Stalin is refuted by the fact that, by this date, the US had already shipped 2,900,000 tons of material to the USSR (p. 258). As for threats of a separate peace, it went both ways. Ironically, Hitler himself had preferred a German-English separate peace over a German-Soviet one (p. 435).

Allied carpet bombing has often been second-guessed on moral and tactical grounds. In fact, the impracticality of selective targeting had been discovered early in the war. Hitler realized this (p. 190), and Goebbels added that the dislocations caused by area bombing reduce wartime productivity much more than the destruction of a munitions plant (p. 462).

The translator Lochner (p. ix), based on some of Goebbels's entries (p. 138, 142, 146, 375), contents that the Nazis intended to destroy Christianity after winning the war. Public crucifixes were removed (p. 141), and Hitler saw the Christian doctrine of redemption as insane (p. 375). Hitler also re-affirmed his support of vegetarianism (p. 188).