Germany Books

This is a perfect book for a teenager even if she or he is not a math fan; well-written, always interesting.

A C Tort

This book is great for all ages. It tells the life of Gauss while explaining his mathmatical concepts at the same time. The words are understandable for all ages and it is wonderful that somone researched his life. Tent explains his life in an entertaining manner that allows the reader to really realize his journey in life.

The Prince Of Mathematics: Carl Friedrich Gauss, knowledgeably and engagingly written by mathematics teacher M. B. W. Tent, is an in-depth and intricate story of the amazing life of a revolutionary mathematician. Based upon stories told by Gauss, The Prince Of Mathematics reveals an intimate and vivid account of an 18th century's mathematician's life. The Prince Of Mathematics is an accurate and true understanding of a man who in his time was a prolific contributor to the science of mathematics. For its educational and informative content, The Prince Of Mathematics is very highly recommended reading to all mathematics history enthusiasts, as well as those in study of cultural paradigm oriented biographical study.

This was a great overview of Gauss's life and career. I have an engineering background and used Gauss's mathematics during my college days and engineering work. This book was written so that one could read and appreciate it with a very limited understanding of algebra and trigonometry. I knew very little about Gauss's life before reading this text, and I am happy with what I learned about him.

This book gave several brief examples of how Gauss thought about math problems as a young man. For example, the author describes several mathematical problems that Gauss solved in a very unique way compared to his peers (e.g. quickly finding the sum of all integers from 1 to 100). The book contains descriptions of how a young Gauss approached and thought about his unique solutions.

Several areas of Gauss's expertise were only briefly described (e.g. his work on magnetism). I would have liked to have had more technical detail included as an appendix to the text.

Directing his book to the academic world, Proctor presented the medical and biomedical communities as the propelling forces behind Hitler's holocaust. After explaining the historical origins and context of Nazism, Proctor provided an illuminating examination of the obscure, complex role of Nazi medical science and "applied biology" in the development of Nazi public health policy and the implementation of Nazi atrocities. Proctor disclosed how the medical profession, motivated by politics and a lust for power and prestige, used science to produce knowledge to be used to the detriment and even the destruction of others. Proctor's comprehensive assessment also revealed international influences (normally erased from American history books!) and scientific "evidence" which contributed to the scientific and political views that helped shape Nazi medical culture, and political and racial policies of the Third Reich. Proctor detailed Nazi programs involving racial purification, sterilization, women's rights, euthanasia, and scientific experimentation as examples of how politics shaped the practice of science. Proctor also detailed the resistance to the onslaught of Nazism by the Association of Socialist Physicians, the most organized form of medical opposition and how German medicine might have evolved had history taken a different path. Proctor concluded with an epilogue on postwar legacies and detailed the events that occurred to those involved in the implementation of the Nazi public policies including the transition of prewar "racial hygiene" into postwar "human genetics". ("amedard" aka "djondjon")

I read this book after Peter Sichrovsky's 'Schuldig Geboren' (Born Guilty) about the offspring of noted Nazis. The connection? A whole lot of the latter were descended from Nazi doctors. Many of them were themselves in or studying medicine, and the claim was made repeatedly of the huge following of the whole medical profession for Naziism. And why not?, the Nazi doctrine itself can be rendered by the phrase 'racial hygiene'! Imagine having a whole political movement willing to empower physicians, give them their heart's delight for social prestige and influence (in funded public health measures) and eliminate a huge fraction of their competitors/rivals (Jewish doctors) to boot? But did you know that the inspiration for a lot of Hitler's measures (from anti-alcohol measures to restricted immigration, to sterilization of 'undesirables') came from the USA? Frightening how close our two systems could be.

The book is one of the best-- and not only because it is meticulously researched and written, but because it does not stint at showing that the most respected and supposedly wisest of men can, in their own folly, commit unspeakable crimes. And that science can justify these crimes. It is one of the most powerful arguments against the idea that mankind has progressed that I've read of late.

What were the scientific views of the followers of Nazism and what scientific "evidence" helped them to decide public policy? Author Robert N. Proctor does an excellent job answering these questions.

Many Americans can't understand how Germany developed a racial state in the midst of modernism. This book gives vivid insight into the mechanisms & development of fascism. The National Socialist Party didn't just happen. The machinery of the state developed under the right conditions with the help of many non-military individuals, including both professors & doctors.

Not only is this book interesting for its historical information, reading it enlightens the reader to more recent fascist development. After reading this book, you will never say it can't happen here.

This insightful text takes several perspectives in analysing the radical social engineering project known as National Socialism. Although not all of the Nazis' victims were racial 'undesirables,' all came under the boot in one way or another as a way of advancing that racial project. Wippermann and Burleigh have done an impressive job in exploring this theme, approaching it from Nazi policy to broad implementation, as well as looking at the refashioning of society by segments along Nazi lines.

The concept of the untranslatable _Volksgemeinschaft_ can be somewhat difficult to convey to students in our atomised and pluralised culture. Not only does this text provide "thick description" of this social construct, but it also supplies a useful framework for comparative analysis without resorting to useless relativising and hierarchising of suffering. Highly recommended as a classroom text for undergraduate level and above.

Techinically I was forced to read this book for a history cause I'm taking. However, instead of reading all the other source too, I read the whole thing instead of just the assignments for this book. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, this book is a must. The integration of documents and survivor's account gives the information alot of different perspective that really helps to better understand a situation that is so unimanigable.

This is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the institutionalization of National Socialist racialism. However, I must disagree that Germany was unique in this. One has only to look around to see that the United States is pursuing similar social policies under the guise of "fairness" or "tolerance" as are all the Western democracies--which should tell you something about democracy.

THE REAL ODESSA is an interesting expose of the escape of Nazi criminals into Argentina during the time of Juan Peron's reign. As a former exchange student to Argentina, an admirer of Eva Peron, and a person in the process of conversion to Judaism, it is understandable why THE REAL ODESSA would hold interest for me.

Rumors and accusations of nazism have long circled around the figure of Juan Peron, leading many to think that Peronism was simply the South American extension of the Nazi party. Books like THE REAL ODESSA are now being published to bring the truth forward. Part of that truth is that Juan Peron himself was not a Nazi and did not subscribe to any Nazi ideology. As Lawrence Levine notes in INSIDE ARGENTINA FROM PERON TO MENEM, Peron's own views and his political associations were not anti-Semitic: "Peron sought out the Jewish community in Argentina to assist in developing his policies...." Levine also notes that one of Peron's most important allies in organizing the industrial sector was Jose Ber Gerbald, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. Perhaps Robert D. Crassweller states it more succinctly in the appropriately titled PERON AND THE ENIGMAS OF ARGENTINA: "Peronism was not nazism...."

So, if Peronism was not nazism, why exactly did Juan Peron, as THE REAL ODESSA points out, help Nazis excape from justice? Because, as Tomas Eloy Martinez, author of SANTA EVITA, says, Peron was hoping to acquire advanced technology developed by the Germans during the war. (Martinez also notes that Evita herself played no part in any dealings with the Nazis, which I find ironic seeing as how her picture is used on the cover of THE REAL ODESSA.) Peron was not a Nazi; but he *was* a politician, and one not opposed to shady dealings at times. (And yet another confounding thing is that, as Joseph Page writes in PERON: A BIOGRAPHY, there were no concentration camps in Peron's Argentina, Peron was at heart a pacifist, and it was the military government that ousted Peron that killed tens of thousands of people.)

I recommend all of the above mentioned books in addition to THE REAL ODESSA for understanding the often perplexing and contradictory movement known as Peronism.

Superb, detailed, readable chroncicle of the Nazi-Argentina escape process, with chilling details and look-'em-in-the-eye realism.

Includes lots of "behind the robes" scoop on the Catholic Church's involvement too.

Literally a must-read for anyone with an interest, scholarly or casual, in WW II's aftermath

Everyone has heard about the myth of Odessa, the secret organization with hidden contacts intended to provide sanctuary for the worst nazi criminals after the end of the Second World War

After six of years of deep research in Argentina and Europe, Mr. Goñi shows clearly how the actual Odessa operated smuggling nazis from the Old continent to the South American secluded country, unveiling a contact network made by pro-nazi Peron Argentine government assistants, corrupted diplomats, first rescued nazi criminals with new identities back in Europe, far right Europe politicians acting as liaisons and priests of the Catholic Church in the Vatican

Every interview, record, event and character mentioned is cited with its reference source allowing the reader to delve further in every single topic of his choice

Many novels are written about the Nazi war criminals and their secrecy as a marketing tool in order to attract avid suspense readers and make run of the mill bestsellers, unlike those stories, this is an objective and factual work written as a documentary that can be used in any college course as a contemporary history text book.

Great job

I cannot remember what led me to this book but thankfully I did get to read it. And having read it am still suffering the effects. I consider this to be the sign of a great book.
While the details are many, Mr. Goni manages to relate them in a cogent and cohesive fashion - no small feat considering the depth of his research.
Less a blame game than an outright castigation of idealogues, this book is an absolute must in understanding WW2 and its aftermath.
I followed the book with a viewing of "Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie" which touches on many of the same subjects covered in the book.
Greater horror stories have never been written by man.

One way of dealing with events that bring one to a daily struggle is to tell a story, and Maria Ritter has told a fascinating story, captivating at every turn, and elucidating a period in her life that helps us all in overcoming the struggles of our own pasts. This book is one of several appearing in these days about the world of the writer's childhood. We have heard it from those who suffered through the holocaust, we have heard it from the point of view of Europe coming out of the destruction of World War II, but here is another account of one who was a child, severely wounded in the bombing of Dresden, seeking to find her past, and either forgive it to redeem it in the light of all that history has shown about the power and abuse of Hitler in Nazi Germany.
I recommend highly this journey along with its therapeutic methods to those who would follow in this journey or understand better the children of World War II.

Maria Ritter returns to Germany as an adult, and through the recollections of her early childhood, recalls the horrors and devastation brought to her homeland through the Hitler regime and the post WWII years under the communists.
With her father fighting in the German Army, her family becomes refugees from both the Russians in the east, and Allied bombs from the sky. Making numerous moves to try and ensure their safety, they go to Dresden and become victims of the firebombing in February, 1945. Dealing with the reality that her father may never return to them, her brave mother takes the initiative to escape to the west, leaving behind loved ones in the east during the post war years...and the resulting story of their escape and subsequent life is one of inspiration and encouragement. Coming to terms with much of the heartbreaking events she suffered as a young child, makes this read a heart rending and touching memorial to all the innocents who have had nothing whatsoever to do with politics and war.

This book touched me on many levels. First, it was eye opening to learn more about the effect of WWII from the prospective of a child in Germany. To learn not only about the raw experience of war itself, but the struggles and shame after the war. Issues that are complex for anyone, let alone a child who was given no explanation for what had happened. Second, it is a story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit. Third, it discusses the importance of coming to terms with the struggles of the past and learning to be at peace with them.

Maria Ritter returns to Germany as an adult, and through the recollections of her early childhood, recalls the horrors and devastation brought to her homeland through the Hitler regime and the post WWII years under the communists.
With her father fighting in the German Army, her family becomes refugees from both the Russians in the east, and Allied bombs from the sky. Making numerous moves to try and ensure their safety, they go to Dresden and become victims of the firebombing in February, 1945. Dealing with the reality that her father may never return to them, her brave mother takes the initiative to escape to the west, leaving behind loved ones in the east during the post war years...and the resulting story of their escape and subsequent life is one of inspiration and encouragement. Coming to terms with much of the heartbreaking events she suffered as a young child, makes this read a heart rending and touching memorial to all the innocents who have had nothing whatsoever to do with politics and war.

Every Jewish fanatic who thinks they know everything about Wagner's relationships w/Jews and who base their opinions on the fact that he was an anti-semite ought to read this book. Loads of stuff not previously known, at least not by me. jww

Having read many books on the life of Wagner over the years, I can safely say that this biographical sketch by Brener ranks among the best. The author is a retired attorney who is also a music and art critic. Like most of us who love Wagner's music, Brener is troubled by the composer's less than admirable traits -- his manipulation of his friends, his skipping out on debts, and particularly his anti-Semitism. How could a man who wrote some of the most moving music and insightful music dramas in Western civiilzation be such a defective human being? Brener sets out to understand Wagner the man in human perspective and succeeds admirably. He focuses mainly on Wagner's public views of "the Jews" and his private, long-standing and meaningful friendships with many individual Jews. A retired lawyer, he has done his homework, deposed all the key witnesses, and developed an argument that leaves no stone unturned. Brener makes a compelling case for Wagner as a nuanced human being rather than the black and white monster as some biographers portray him. In addition, the book is extremely well written and hard to put down. I came away with a greater appreciation of Wagner and a deeper understanding of the nature of prejudice. Highly recommended.

This is not the usual diatribe that we expect on Wagner's Antisemitism. Instead it is a biography focusing on the composer's relations with the Jews. Brener makes a sharp distinction between "the Jews" in Roman type and the same phrase in italic, the former representing Wagner's Jewish friends, the latter the Jewish community that he despised.

The main characters are Karl Tausig, Heinrich Porges, Joseph Rubinstein, and Hermann Levi--all close associates of Wagner and all Jewish. The chapters on Levi are especially revealing, a sharp challenge to orthodox opinion by such scholars as Peter Gay. The analysis of Wagner's major tract on the subject, "Judaism in Music," is adequate.

Brener is a good writer with a refined sense of tone and wit. He knows the primary literature backwards and forwards. His mastery of the secondary sources seems less secure but still sufficient for his purposes. Obviously he has visited most of the places he discusses, for his descriptions of them (both then and now) are vivid.

His theme is summed up in a concise sentence that concludes his preface: "I do not beleive that, at the deeper levels, the man who created Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and Der Ring des Nibelungen could possibly have been the monster that so many have painted." He proves his point well.

I enjoyed this book and learned much from it. I recommend it wholeheartedly to fellow Wagnerians.

Despite a few notable exceptions, Milton Brener's Richard Wagner and the Jews is nearly the only book that deals fairly with the famed opera composer's anti-Semitism; and as such, this book is a welcome corrective to some of the more shrill anti-Wagner screeds of the last few decades. Brener does not intend to excuse Wagner; he merely comes closer than most in explaining him.

Besides being probably the greatest artist who ever lived, Wagner was also a bundle of contradictions. However, this bundle of contradictions never seemed to be able to realize that he was just that. Indeed, Wagner did possess anti-Semitic attitudes, but his anti-Semitism was of a different stripe than that espoused by the Nazis. Wagner called for Jewish assimilation within the German population, which certainly did not conform with later Nazi policy. Like many a 19th-Century anti-Semite, Wagner seems to have seen Jewishness as almost an abstract, metaphysical concept. Of course, that does not excuse him. He did indeed say vile things about Jews, and he needs to be held accountable for those attitudes, but to simply (and wrongly) call him a proto-Nazi is not only intellectually dishonest, it wrongly stains the reputation of an artist who created stupendous, deeply human works-of-art.

As Brener also points out, there is nothing inherently anti-Semitic in any of Wagner's great works of art. Unfortunately, some writers, such as Robert Gutman, seem to have a compulsion to find even the most tenuous, implausible Anti-Semitic connections in Wagner's work. It is simply impossible to find such links. There is not the slightest overt connection to anti-Semitism in any of Wagner's works, and if there are any such covert links, then one would have had to have entered the composer's mind to see them. Wagner's many genuine friendships with Jews complicate Gutman's position even more.

This is simply a fabulous book. And, along with The Darker Side of Genius and The Ring of Myths, it is also the most responsible volume available that deals specifically with Wagner's most famous character flaw.

Also included, as an appendix, is the composer's infamous essay, "Judaism in Music". While the essay is bitter and paranoid, it is helpful for a frame of reference to the preceding 300 pages. Needless to say, I find Wagner's argument that Jews are incapable of generating higher culture to be utterly worthless. Schoenberg & Mahler (and many other Jewish artists) obviously dismantle that argument, and as for Wagner's claim that Jews are incapable of high art because they are "rootless", we only need to look at Aaron Copland, a man of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, who used Appalachian & Mexican melodies and rhythms to create incredible works of art.

As a 54 year old librarian and writer, I was amazed at the author's ability to maintain the voice of an 11 year old narrator and tell the story and grow the characters. This is an easy-to-read book and very charming. It must have taken the author years to write because it reads like not-reading, like you are standing there watching the characters live.

Highly recommended!

This was a wonderful story of forbidden friendship, and how love develops between an uncle and his orphaned nephew and what it can do to their relationship. The orphan went from almost nothing to everything he could dream of.The book was very interesting all the way through, and had an ending that made me want to cry almost. The book is well written for all ages.

If you are into mysteries you will love this book. I could not stop reading it. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did! 5th grade

I am an eighth grader at Lucille Erwin Middle School and I have recently completed the book, "The Robber and Me". I fell in love with this book. It literally became impossible for me to put it down! I was so intrigued with Josef Holub's style of writing because of the way it incorporated passion, mystery, drama, and comedy. This book needs to be on your "must read" list, because it is incredibly dazzling!

Robert Schumann (b. June 8 1810, d. July 29 1856) Herald of a New Poetic Age, by: John Daverio. Published 1997 by Oxford University Press, Inc. (I bought it on 21 January 2000)

Twice I read this book and I must say I enjoyed all the chapters. But was there any LOVE between Clara and Brahms? Was there any intercourse after Robert's gone? I have chosen the following excerpts that are of particular interest to me ...............

Forced by a hand injury to abandon a career as a pianist, RS went on to become one of the world's great composers.......... Brahms in a letter of January 1873 wrote ""The remembrance of Schumann is sacred to me. I will always take this noble pure artist as my model""
Antinomy: A contradiction between two statements that seem equally reasonable

P 4: ""It is easy to write a Schumann biography because Schumann wrote it himself. It is difficult to write a Schumann biography because the modern biographer must chart the composer's relationships to his complicated and contradictory social surroundings"" Karl Laux. - There is wealth of biographical material -travel notes, diaries maintained with some regularity from January 1827 to early 1854. - Households account books with entries extending from early October 1837 to 23 February 1854 - that is to just four days before Schumann's suicide attempt ... marriage diaries jointly kept by Clara from Sept 1840

P 6 From late March 1833 to July 1836 Schumann did not keep diary. He was an ardent bibliophile - Someone who loves (and usually collects) books.

P. 7: Hermeneutic; (Interpretive or explanatory) challenges posed by Schumann's diaries - his works poured forth at the behest of mysterious voices from the beyond ...his works are mosaic-like assembly of fragmentary ideas, suggesting a kind of composition-as-planned-improvisation that finds its sources in his earliest experience at the keyboard.

P 8: His family's special repository of letters - the so called Familienkassette - which itself suffered severe water damage as a result of the 1945 bombing of Dresden and survives only because Boetticher had the foresight to microfilm much of the collection at Dresdener Landesbibliothek in 1938.
Clara Schumann and Brahms transmitted in the old collected edition- Breitkopf & Hartel 1881-93 - Schumann's thorough engagements with the music.

P 9: Literature held a place in Schumann's creative life comparable to that of philosophy in Wagner's. As a youth of 15 read with his friends- particularly all of Schiller's dramas - and as paterfamilias of 43 reread -in some cases for the fourth or fifth time- his favorite Jean Paul novels (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter - 21 March 1763- 14 November 1815)

P 10: Schumann's interpretation of life and art in his works - they comingle here more thoroughly than with any other 19th. Century composers - Music as confession- wrote of his favorite author ""In all his works Jean Paul mirrors himself, but always as two persons ......"and as a more mature journalist said of Liszt ""His own life is situated in his music"" ""Strictly speaking, a sheet of music was for Schubert what for others was a diary"" ...... The Variations on the Sehnsuchtwalzer - Yearning Waltz - in turn demonstrate a continued engagement with the musical idol of Schumann's youth: Franz Schubert. P 107
Copious references from the letters can be marshaled to support the view that many of the piano works from the 1830s..... were bound up with conflicts over Schumann's troubled suit for Clara's hand.
Schumann's suicide attempt, in February 1854, and its immediate aftermath. Biographical narrative and value judgment go hand in hand, for Schumann's works are thus reduced to a therapeutic means of warding off impending madness. To be sure, composing may have been a form of therapy (therapy!!) for Schumann - it probably is for most composers-.
Brahms said "'Schumann went one way, Wagner another, and I a third"" Schumann's era comes from a period of transition from faith in philosophical idealism to resigned embrace of political realism. His music comes between the youthful bloom of Weber and the autumnal reflection of Brahms.

P 13: Schumann's hopes for a career as virtuoso pianist, dashed in the autumn 1831 by the realization that his lame finger would not allow for it, run parallel with an intense preoccupation with literature; both factors coalesce in his engaging review of Chopin's virtuoso variations on Mozart's ""La ci darem la mano""
Johannes Brahms: German Composer- Romantic period (May 7, 1833 - April 3, 1897)
Frederic Chopin: Polish/French Composer and Virtuoso Pianist of the Romantic period (March 1, 1810 - October 17. 1849)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: German Composer of the Classical era (27 January 1756 - 5 December 1791)
P14: The "New Germans"- Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner - and the ""Academic Classicists""- Schumann, Brahms, that raged so furiously in the second half of the 19th Century.

P 16: A dimming of the composer's genius was already apparent at the end of the 1840s (For some early critics) in works such as the opera Genoveva. By the beginning of the following decade, Theodor Uhlig (Musician, song writer and composer 1822-1853 and close friend to R. Wagner) would find signs in the A-Minor Sonata for piano, op.105, that idiosyncrasy (A behavioral attribute that is distinctive and peculiar to an individual) had given way to musical mannerism such as obsessive repetitions and curious mixtures of the bizarre and commonplace........By Schumann own account, the theme of his last set of keyboard variation was dictated to him ""by the angels"".

P 17: Indeed, anyone who scans Schumann's last diary entries (on the trip to Hannover in late January 1854) for signs of mental decay will be disappointed.... Likewise, an unbiased look at the late music will disclose qualities too frequently overlooked: a heightened intensity of expression, a rigorous limitation of thematic materials, and a visionary pre-figuration of features associated with later composers including Bruckner, Reger and even Schoenberg........Only a composer in full command of his or her rational powers can realize the consequences of this interdependence (principal themes in music) of variety and unity. Robert Schumann was such a composer - until February 1854.

P 18: Cycles of keyboard pieces from the 1830s and the songs of 1840 have contributed to a view of Schumann as a sentimental lyricist - Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche

P 19: Liszt found further proof of Schumann's modernity in the later works for chorus and orchestra, elevation from musical craftsman to tone poet...... has literary culture ... the musician as intellectual....for a new modern bourgeois.... 1840 as the culmination of Schumann creative life.... He was many things - a progressive, a tone poet, a bourgeois intellectual, and a classicist, a lover of the bizarre and enigmatic..... He was a master of transforming one genre into another, without our being able to pin-point where one leaves off and the other begins... the notion that music should be imbued with the same intellectual substance as literature....Schumann developed this conviction while he was still a teenager; he held to it until the end of his career
P 20-25: Passed his early years in a milieu conducive to the pursuit of literary studies. Father: A book dealer. Lexicographer (A compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language)
Schumann a firm believer of Enlightenment: ""What binds the German people together is literature"".
When his mother contracted typhus (he was 3??) ... separation anxiety that fed into the composer's later depressive condition....later learned Latin, French and Greek.
His diploma awarded March 15/1828 testifies to a graduation ""With Honor"" he was convinced as a teenager that he would eventually become a famous man. (Ref his friend Emil Flechsig)
As a gymnasiast (A student in a school for students intermediate between elementary school and college; usually grades 9 to 12), Schumann had read the classical tragedians and Horace in the original Greek and Latin and no later than 1825 he began to make metric translations of Anacreon, Homer and Sophocles.

P 26-30: Diary 1827; His father succumbed to a nervous disorder on 10 August 1826, and his 19 year old sister Emilie - whose death, perhaps from suicide - probably occurred the same time. At once pained by these losses but joyful over the possibility of union with Liddy, Schumann gives utterances to the feelings of guilt that naturally arose from the emotional discrepancy ""Can the outer being mourn, if the inner being perhaps rejoices? Or is the inner mourning a condition for outer mourning?"" ""Is it not horrid enough ... to be robbed of a father? Why shouldn't one try to forget pain through joy? Why not be jolly in jolly company?
....peering into the pages of his diaries, there is a sense that Schumann was writing to be read not just by him, but by others....
Another factor probably contributed to Schumann's turn to song in the summer of 1827 and 1828: his encounter with Agnes Carus; an attractive woman 8 years his senior and reportedly a gifted singer. Her husband Dr. Ernst August Carus was a nephew of Karl Erdmann Carus, a merchant in whose home Schumann was a regular guest. It was here during the spring of 1827 that he first met the young Frau Dr. Carus and in all probability promptly became enamored of her, though whether or not their contact tipped the balance in favor of Schumann's decision on musical career it is difficult to say..... early songs...."My Songs"" diary 14/8/1828 - ""were intended as an actual reproduction of my inner self; but no human being can present something exactly as the genius creates it; even she (Agnes Carus) sang the most beautiful passages badly and didn't understand me"" .............we know of thirteen songs .....(June, July, and August 1828)

P 34- 39: "" at 18, my mother's wished to study Law; my own still vaguely formed intent, to devote myself entirely to music""
Friederich Wiek (piano teacher) played a major role in Schumann's professional and personal life. Schumann loved Franz Shubert's music; Schumann was thrown into such an agitated state by the news of Schubert's death on 19 November 1828.... Sobbing the whole night....
His roommate Flechsig's description(P 35): Schumann puffed at a cigar (while composing) but since smoke got into his eyes, he pressed it upwards with his mouth as far as would go (Like Puccini), at the same time casting his eyes downwards in a squint, so that he made the strangest grimace all the while...and grew into a singularly handsome fellow who bore his attire well, and was a thoroughly noble character, chaste and pure as a vestal virgin (A chaste woman)...was reveling in Jean Paul (poet) and Schubert. Each figure in turn providing him with a model for his own creative endeavors.
As late as 1853 we find him rereading - often aloud and in collaboration with Clara - the novels of his youthful idol. Reading of novel-Titan... (Schumann diaries bear reflective influence from Jean Paul's novels!!!)... important to read P36....when he visited Jean Paul's widow, writing to Rosen from Leipzig on June 5 1828 Schumann felt compelled to observe ""If the whole world read Jean Paul, it would certainly be better, but unhappier place - he's often brought me to madness, but rainbow of peace and of human spirit always hovers delicately over all the tears, while the heart is wondrously elevated and tenderly transfigured""
Jean Paul (b 21 March 1763, d.14 November 1825) - best known for his humorous stories and novels - was also the writer who brought up more metaphors (A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity) than any other. Schumann in his diary "" I've often asked myself where I might be had I not gotten to know Jean Paul; yet he seems on the one hand to be interwoven with my inner being, as if I had earlier premonition of him""

P 40-45: Ref to Schumann's epistolary novel Bernard von Nontelliers.... (Written in the form of or carried on by letters or correspondence - "an endless sequence of epistolary love affairs".... there is a rich allusion to the favored themes of his beloved Jean Paul ... also Schumann's reading of Jean Paul's autobiography but also to the writer's idiosyncratic style - Peculiar to the individual- "we all have our own idiosyncratic gestures"; "Michelangelo's highly idiosyncratic style of painting"
""Music is poetry elevated to a higher power, spirits speak the language of poetry, but the angels communicate in tones"" P 43. """tones are higher words"" ""Schubert's variations are thus the composed novel that Goethe has yet to write"" ...the same line of thinking ""why shouldn't there be such a thing as an opera without text? Now that would be most certainly dramatic. There's much for you in Shakespeare"".......Schubert is equated with Goethe but also with Novalis.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: (28 August 1749 - 22 March 1832) German Writer. George Eliot called him ""Germany's greatest man of letters...and the last true polymath to walk the earth....
Novalis: Pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg (May 2, 1772 - March 25, 1801) an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism...

P46-54: By late August 1828 Schumann was spending much time in the company of Caruses and his piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck. Through whom he gained access to Leipzig's elite musical circles, and at whose home he came into contact with his teacher's daughter Clara - b. September 13, 1819 d. May 20, 1896) at nine years old a burgeoning concert pianist.
Admiration for Schubert and Jean Paul.... Dedicated to his brothers, Eduard and Carl and Julius, the VIII Polonaises ... op III [WoO20}. Also he was obviously taken by his Jean Paulian blend of "melancholy and enchantment"' see page 510 number-114

P 55-60:Topken, a friend of Schumann, wrote of his friend in a probable allusion to Schumann's use of the finger-strengthening device (cigar mechanism) as he calls it in his diary that perhaps brought on but certainly exacerbated the `'numbness'' in the third finger of his right hand, a complained registered in late 1830..........
Late Dec 1829...He records the largely adultery views (Extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes with marriage relations-adultery is often cited as grounds for divorce") of his playing voiced by 21 individuals ... `'your piano playing is extraordinary....'' P 58.
Self-analysis "" Schumann is the young man I've loved and observed for a long time. I would like to portray his soul, but I don't know it completely. ... He possesses talent for many things and unusual individual traits distinguish him from the common horde...His temperament is melancholic because there in the power of feeling expresses itself more strongly that the power of observation; hence is more subjectivity ((Judgment based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts)) than objectivity ((Judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices)) in his judgments and creative work ...He has a lively memory and recollective faculty. Acumen, intellection, and wit are no so strongly developed....He is more inclined to artistic activity than to speculation....excellent in music and poetry - but not a musical genius - his talent as musician and poet are at the same level"" P 60/1....

P 61- 68: To change his studies from Law to Piano, he had to receive his mother's consent.

P 69: in a letter to his mother he wrote ""you can have no conception of Wieck's enthusiasm, his judgment and his insights into art., but when it comes to his or Clara's interest, he is like a wild boor (A crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement).........Wieck was careless in attending to his student's specific technical problems (???) And, if we read the subtext, more concerned with the furtherance of his daughter Clara's career, Wieck had grown curiously indifferent to Schumann's progress "........ P 69.
See Schumann's comments taken as anti-Semitic - re his one-time mentor - Probst - stands so much taller than Wieck, who gawks (Look with amazement; look stupidly) longingly at the Alps from which the former has already descended - He tries to hide his stinginess (A lack of generosity; a general unwillingness to part with money) .... But his greed has contaminated all his thoughts. Little by little, Jewishness has insinuated itself even into his facial features""....P 69

P 79-93: ...more direct evidences for a link between novel and poetic cycle keyboard.... Butterflies............ ""let each listener to catch the butterflies for himself, allowing their colorful play to glitter in a sunny hour....P. 86 When Clara played the work "Papillion's' in late May 1832, the assembled guests, ""incapable of grasping the rapid alteration of the pieces, looked at one another in amazement"" P. 87 Kant's views ""music was more enjoyment than culture"" after all Schumann was probably of a different opinion "music was an agent for the transmission of transcendental ideas"" i.e. Existing outside of or not in accordance with nature..

P 105-118: Schumann continued to work on his G-minor symphony - certainly on the last movement and perhaps also on the second and third as well - 1833 - , the first movement of which was rendered but only with limited success, at Clara's ""grand concert"" of 29 April at the Gewandhaus ..""His richest and most active period"" Unfortunately, this period was hampered by the suspension of his diaries for much of the four-year period between March 1833 and October 1837. But he went along with some record on his daily activities...
1833 Schumann was attacked by Malarial fever.... Recovery slowed by persistent and heavy drinking, his brother Julius died (28) of Tuberculosis. The death of his favorite sister-in-law, Rosalie, a victim of the same disease from which Schumann was slowly recovering, took him over the edge... 1833 was the first of neurotic spell.... Characterized by onslaught of anxiety and depression.... "" I was seized by an idée fixe: fear of going mad"" 17-18 October 1833....

P. 119- 130: Chronological History of Music.... Very interesting P 120....divides three-thousand-year span into ten periods .....(Read them)...the tenth period "marks the summit of art"" in figures such as Beethoven and Schubert...whose works present the fulfillment of the aspirations of previous ages... Music history is thus construed not only as a succession of great men, but also as the logical progression of stylistic trends embodied in their works...""Cheerfulness, repose, grace, the characteristics of the artworks of antiquity, are also those of Mozart's school. Just as the Greeks gave their thundering Zeus a cheerful expression, so too does Mozart restrain his lightning bolts"" P 121...
As a writer on music critiques: In the Introduction to the 1854 collected edition of his writings, he provides a succinct rationale for the strategy ""In order to express different points of view on artistic matters, it seemed appropriate to invent contrasting artist-characters of whom Florestan and Eusebius were the most important with master Raro occupying a mediating position between them"" P 127. Madness????

P 131-139: Art and life are perhaps more closely interwoven in Schumann's music than in that of any other composer of the nineteenth century. His Piano music in the middle and later 1830s, much of it bound up with the young woman whom he fell passionately and irrevocably in love during the latter half of 1835: Clara Wieck. To his teacher, Heinrich Dorn, in a letter ""Certainly much in my music embodies, and indeed can only be understood against the background of the battle that Clara cost me. She was practically the sole motivation for the Concert {sans Orchestre op. 14}, the Sonata {op. 11}, the Davidsbundlertanze, Kreisleriana, and the Novelletten. The Kinderscenen op 15 and Fantasie op. 17 belongs in the same list.......October 1835 and June 1836 respectively, can be coordinated with two factors: non-stop editorial work.....and emotional upheavals occasioned by the enforced separation of Robert and Clara just weeks after they declared their mutual love in December 1835.......
Schumann endeavors to make his works more appealing to the `dilettante'' circles for which it was intended... (By early 1840) P 138

P. 182-196: Returned from Zwickau to Leipzig on 14 April 1839...... a storm of greater magnitude was brewing. Writing from Paris on 9 April, Clara informed Schumann of her discovery of a clandestine correspondence between her friend Emilie List and Wieck, who was threatening to disinherit her, confiscate her earnings, and initiate a lawsuit against the lovers unless Clara promised to break off all relations with Schumann.. P 182 ... Wieck began to whistle a somewhat different tune, implying that his consent would be forthcoming contingent upon Schumann's ability to ensure Clara a ""worry-free future""... Clara begged her father passionately for his approval of her marriage to ""the best of men"" and assuring him that her love for Schumann was ""hardly a passing whim""... ""every man has his peculiarities: should one therefore reject him? Don't you believe that I am aware of Robert's shortcomings? Yet I also know his virtues"" also her conditions that Schumann should earn more money.... P 183 ""Unbelievable vile behavior on Wieck's actions (need for more money and securities). I could hate him to the point of madness"" Schumann summed it up...

P 203-218: Schumann's engagement with his compositions (of lieder)... In early December 1840, he took obvious pride in reporting his annual earnings - actual and projected... He demonstrates the potential of music for the transmission of ideas; it's potential, in other words, as a literary art....

P 219-221: By the fall of 1840 Schumann himself was anxious to tackle ""new artistic forms"" - his thoughts had already turned to string quartet and opera in the summer of 1839 and the winter of 1840, respectively. .... Early in the next month, Clara raised the possibility of a Parisian tour, but Schumann would hear nothing of t until first completing a piano concerto and a symphony. Within a year, he had made important contributions to both genres. As for the trip to Paris, it never took place.....

P 222- 226: Settling into Marriage - and Symphonic Composition...To judge from the diaries, the first year of the Schumanns marriage passed with a relative minimum of emotional upset, Their hearts, Schumann wrote in April 1841, were ""ever clear and bright and full of love .... This too is inscribed in my music"""...Only Clara's father, whose libelous charges against his son-in-law earned him 18 days in prison, was a source of consternation.... P 224....

P 227-241: A few days after Clara's 22nd birthday Schumann queried: ""What might I offer her apart from my own artistic endeavors?"" and then went on to list them: the publication of the Ruckert lieder (op 37), the appearance of the printed parts for the First Symphony, and the completion of the D-minor symphony. The last-named of Schumann's birthday gifts turns out to be a dual-natured offering, its gestures of emulation countered by a desire to outdo Clara in the area of motive integration. Is it too much to suggest that Schumann felt compelled to clear imaginative space for himself not only in relation to Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, but also as regards his composer-pianist wife? P.241

P. 242-246: The Chamber Music..... The first crisis in Schumann's married life occurred in 1842, the year during which he would extend his conquest of the principal musical genres into the realm of chamber music.

P. 246-266: ""I love Mozart dearly"" Schumann wrote in a diary entry of November 1842 ""but Beethoven I worship like a god who remains forever apart, who will never become one with us"" P.252

P. 329-336: the Musical Dramatist.... Conventional wisdom has it that Schumann possessed neither the temperament nor the talent necessary for a successful career in theatre. A born lyricist (A person who writes the words for songs) with an ill-developed sense for characterization, or so we are told, Schumann could not but fail as a dramatist. In a word, Schumann dramatic music has been deemed un-dramatic. (Un-romantic???) If by ""dramatic"" we mean "stagey"" then there is no doubt some truth to the charge.......

P. 336-356: Robert and Clara suspected his (Wieck's) hand in a snide (Expressive of contempt) notice placed in a January issue of Leipzig's Signale fur die musikalische Welt: ""In nine years much has changed: the artist who was deified (Consider as a god or godlike) as Clara Wieck is ignored as Clara Schumann""
.... Schumann's placement of the 16th or the 17th century chorale into the mouths of an 8th century Catholic community is no doubt both anachronistic (Chronologically misplaced) and naturally suspect, but these incongruities (being unsuitable and inappropriate) hardly interfere with melody's function as an agent of historicity...P 350
P 434-438: Schumann's works on Latin texts with unmistakable religious connotations: the Mass op. 147 and Requiem op 148... (Interesting reviews... to read).... 1849 and late 1850

P 439-452: Municipal Music Director in Dusseldorf..... Summer 1849... Schumann resumed his song writing activities... On 12 August the Schumann's travelled to Scheveningen, a spa situated near The Hague on the Dutch coast, where Schumann again began a daily regimen of bathing, much as he had in Norderney during the summer of 1846. At first, the bath seemed to do him some good: before long he regained his appetite, slept more comfortably, took pleasure in the company of Jenny Lind and the conductor and composer Johan Verhulst, played dominos with family and friends in the evenings, and even returned to the scoring of Vom Pagen und der Konigstochter (completed in early September). P 449 Short-lived improvement in his condition... and on September 3 of ""a burning feeling in the back of the head""... P 450... Nor was Clara faring well. On 9 September she suffered a miscarriage, another remarkable parallel with the couple's experiences in Norderney.........P 450. Towards the end of the month the Schumanns discovered a new (and for us, unusual) pastime: table-turning or table-rapping (Strike sharply) the act of moving a table or producing knocking sounds without apparent physical means, ascribed to spiritual force with which the participants are thus able to communicate....Schumann voiced his astonishment over this mysterious practice in a letter to Hiller of 25 April 1853: ""Yesterday we did some table-turning for the first time. What a remarkable power. Just think. I asked for the rhythm of the first two measures of (Beethoven's) C-Minor Symphony! The table hesitated with the answer longer than usual, then finally it began... though at first quite slowly. When I said: `'but the tempo is quieter, dear table'' it raped in the correct tempo.... We were all beside ourselves with amazement to be surrounded with such wonders"" P. 452 ... some biographers have interpreted Schumann's fascination with table-turning (an article he wrote on the subject does-not survive) as a sign of impending madness, it should be noted that if the composer was mad for indulging in this party game, so too were his family and many of his friends: his personal physician and friend, Dr Hesenclever, no less than Clara's friend, the pianist Rosalie Leser, joined in with an enthusiasm, just as great as Schumann's. Even his seven-year-old daughter Julie had her own to table (""Puppentisch"")... P 452....

P 453-459: While still at work on the Violin Concerto on 30 September (1853), Schumann received visit from a fair-haired young man from Hamburg who had been recommended to him by Joachim. A pianist and composer, his name was Johannes Brahms. Schumann at once recognized his twenty-year-old guest as a genius... (Madness!!... They say!! (???) My Q mark).... Hailing him in a letter to Joachim of 8 October 1853 as a ""young eagle"" and a ""true apostle who will inscribe revelations that many Pharisees (A member of an ancient Jewish sect noted for strict obedience to Jewish traditions)... will not un-riddle for centuries to come"" P 454
While Brahms has often been credited with inspiring the last surge in Schumann's creativity, we can now recognize this conjecture as a distortion of the facts. (See page 566 - ref 31-) "" In 1925 Martin Kreisig made a copy of the former list that is now housed in the Robert-Schumann-Haus in Zwickau. From it we learn that Schumann's music library contained about 500 titles, most of them scores, among which are represented all the major categories of compositions: Church music, Operas, Orchestral music, Instrumental chamber music, and Hausmusik (choral part songs, lieder, and piano music)..See Bischoff - Monument fur Beethoven pp 364-65,...... Still there is no denying Brahms's role in rekindling Schumann's Davidsbundler spirit. The ""Pharisees"" to whom Schumann alluded in his letter to Joachim are no doubt offspring's of the ""Philistines"" (A person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits) that he and his collaborators on the Neue Zeitschrift battled in the 1830s........ and more... Clara destroyed some of her husband's works 40 years later, as she found them unworthy of her husband's genius.. (They were a set of five Romanzen for cello and piano)???? P 455
24 November 1853, Clara and Robert embarked on a tour to the Netherlands (one month) that would prove to be a major triumph... P 457..
19 January 1854, Clara and Robert journeyed the Hannover, where Joachim served as concertmaster of the court orchestra. The next 12 days were taken up with spirited conversation among friends - Schumann and Joachim were soon joined by Brahms and another young talent, Julius Otto Grimm -and a steady stream of music making public performances of Schumann's 4th Symphony and Phantasie for violin concerto with Joachim and the court orchestra..........P 457
By February 26 (1854) Schumann was well enough to play through a sonata by the young Martin Cohn for Dietrich, but afterward worked himself into such a state of ""Joyous exaltation"" that he was bathed in sweat. Fearful he might harm Clara during the night, he demanded to be taken to an asylum. Although the physician called in to examine the overwrought composer, a Dr Boger, was able to convince him to take to his bed, he awoke the next morning in a profoundly melancholy state, murmuring ""Ah Clara, I am unworthy of your love"". After working for a time on the fair copy of his variations, he slipped undetected from the house. Rubert Becker recorded the painful climax of the tale in his diary """Schumann snuck out of his bedroom-wearing felt slippers-and headed straight for the Rhine, jumping into the river from the middle of the bridge! Luckily he was noticed at the entrance to the bridge, and indeed because he offered his handkerchief as a pledge since he had no money for the toll! Fortunately several fishermen who had been observing this odd transaction came along with the little boat, immediately after he leapt, and saved him. Once in the boat, he tried to jump into the water again, but the fishermen prevented him. The trip home must have been dreadful: he was transported by eight men and followed by a group of people (it was Carnival season) who amused themselves at his expense...."""P 458..
Clara was kept from seeing her husband upon his return, his doctors surmising that the sight of her might increase his agitation; hence she passed the next days in nervous anticipation at the home of her friend Rosalie Leser.. Nor was she informed of Schumann's attempted suicide, a desperate action motivated by numbing depression, pathological guilt (the probable cause of which we will take up later), and fears of harming his wife....P. 458 In fact she could not piece together the terrible truth until over two years later, when Schumann's wedding ring could not be located after his death. Then she remembered the contents of a note she had once found among his papers ""Dear Clara, I am going to throw my wedding ring into the Rhine; do the same with yours, and then both rings will be united"" P 458

As other reviewers have said, this is not the biography to read if you want to be titillated by the real or imagined sexual peccadillos of a great master. Instead, this is a critical biography in the best sense. John Daverio's book unfolds Schumann's life with warmth and deep respect for its subject and without undo speculation. Then it goes on to an appreciation of the music whose only failing might be a too-positive appraisal of some works that critics have formerly been cool or even hostile toward. In certain cases, though, Daverio is clearly right. Obviously a well-trained musician, perhaps he can imagine beauties that others have not found through a study of the scores, for many of the works he praises are not available in recorded form--some haven't been heard for ages, I'm sure. This includes, for example, the choral ballads from Schumann's last years. Daverio praises Das Gluck von Edenhall as the finest among them and even argues for its rehabilitation to the repertoire. Knowing Die Sangers Fluch and other examples of Schumann's late choral music, I'm somewhat skeptical. The music in these works is generally four-square and lacking in the orchestral and vocal color the master brought to earlier pieces such as Paradise und die Peri or Requiem fur Mignon. But who can say? Perhaps Das Gluck is an unknown gem that should be taken up again by choral-music groups.

The point is that Daverio listens afresh to (or imagines skillfully from the printed score) music that others have dismissed as the work of a genius in decline, and he makes an undeniable point: though Schumann's last works are uneven, they don't represent a thorough collapse of musical powers but in some cases a wholly new approach to musical problems. This is true, say, of the works for violin from the last years, the sonatas and Fantasia. They are unusual even in the context of Schumann's other chamber and concerted works but in no way suggest a diminution of compositional strength.

In his appreciation of Schumann's growth as a composer, Daverio reminds me of Joan Chissell, the eminent British Schumann scholar, whose music reviews appeared for years in the Gramophone. I recall that she was constantly revising her estimate upwards for Schumann works each time she actually heard them in recording for the first time, explaining that it was impossible to imagine from the score alone how effective they actually were. Daverio goes even farther out on a critical limb, arguing for the importance of works that haven't been played by anybody for years. And his enthusiasm is infectious, partly because his writing is so good--clean, clear, unaffected, but engaging. Besides, Daverio was clearly right about one work. His book praises Das Paradise und die Peri as a neglected classic of Romanticism. Small wonder, then, that he was chosen to write the notes for John Eliot Gardiner's marvellous recording of the same that appeared on DG a few years ago. And if you haven't heard this recording, do. It proves Daverio right beyond the slightest doubt.

If you are a Schumann lover, this carefully considered, tastefully appreciative biography should be on your bookshelf.

This biography is a superb survey of Schumann's life and works. Those of us who adore Schumann's music have found a great musicologist and champion in John Daverio. His insight into German Romantic music was already made stunningly clear in his previous book on 19th Century music and German Romantic Ideology. Now this book concentrates on the arch-Romantic composer who synthesized the old and the new to create a "New Way" for music. While being deeply analytical when necessary, particularly in regard to the musical works themselves, Daverio writes in a very accessible style which brings his subject quite vividly to life. And Daverio's concluding remarks are timely, beautiful and extremely touching. Just a wonderful book in every respect.

Daverio's biography of Robert Schuman eschews the hackneyed themes familiar to what he terms "psychobiography"--dwelling on the supposed interrelationship between Schumann's idiosyncratic style and his mental collapse following the composition of the marvelous "Gesange der Fruhe." Instead, he offers insight after insight into the originality of Schumann's musical (and literary) genius, especially as they inform what he terms Schumann's uniquely "literary" musical enterprise. A must read for any Schumann devotee.

This is an interesting book mostly because of the viewpoint of the author. The author is a German who does not think Rommel was all that great. And so you have the whole series of events in Africa viewed from a critical German perspective.

And as he says, Rommel was very lucky in who he had as opponents. The British were horribly led in the begining (with some notable exceptions) leading to numerous German victories.

This is not a "must read." But it is worth the time and the unique viewpoint of the author makes it quite informative.

Rommel's War in Africa is a vivid and detailed account of the fighting between the German Afrika Korps and the British 8th Army during WWII. It is really a book with two themes, one about the war itself and the other about the man behind the battles, Erwin Rommel. The writing is solidly based on accurate historical research, using interviews and archival material from both sides. It was originally written in German and then translated into "British" English, so there words here and there that surprise the American reader, e.g. Germans referring to each other as "chaps". However, this does not take away from the reader's experience at all. Heckmann was one of the first authors to step beyond the glorified myth of Rommel and consider the man as he actually was. Both his courage and ingenuity, and his vanity and miscalculations are thoroughly explored. The narrative covers the back-and-forth nature of the fighting as each side maneuvers through the desert, suffers setbacks, and deals with the challenges of supply on a remote front. In the end, Rommel is defeated in Africa, and Germany itself reaches a turning point in the war. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this theater of WWII.

I have read quite a few works on the North African campaign of World War II, and Wolf Heckmann's "Rommel's War in Africa" is one of the best. This well written book is a pleasure to read for both the casual enthusiast and a more researched reader. Heckmann thoroughly and honestly explores both sides of the war, from both the allied and axis sides, which is quite refreshing, as most works are very Anglo-orientated about North Africa. I would confidently recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about World War II.

The author uses sources and personal accounts from both sides to give the most balanced account of this interesting campaign I have ever encountered. One of the very few books on the subject to take an unbiased look at Rommel's generalship, recounting both his genius and his flaws. I cannot overemphasize how worthwhile I found this work.

Jerry Sage was one of the true American heroes, and his book gives us a close, detailed account of his experiences as one of the most notorious American POWs in Nazi Germany. Very personal and gripping, this true tale of adventure is far better than any work of fiction.

From his training as an OSS agent, to his capture (he convinced his captors that he was a downed airman -- *very* fortunate for him), to his participation in some of the best known events in POW history, this book will hold you spellbound.

One of the things that struck me the most about this story is how much he writes about his close relationship with God, and how it helped him throughout his time as a POW and the rest of his life.

There are occasional passages that move by slowly, but these are few and far between, and overall do not detract from the book. This is an extremely hard book to find at a decent price. If you can get it, do! You won't be disappointed.

Jerry Sage was one of the original members of the OSS, the pre-World War II military intelligence agency which eventually became the CIA. After America's entry into the war, Sage was captured by the Germans in North Africa (he convinced the Nazis he was actually a paratrooper--otherwise they would have shot him on the spot) and was sent to a prison camp within Germany istelf. He escaped from the camp numerous times, and aided British officers in staging the famous "Great Escape" (the Steve McQueen character in the film about that escape was based on none other than Jerry Sage).

His autobiography is a riveting account of the long years in (and occasionally out of) German captivity--and goes on to describe the even more facinating life that Sage lived after the war, working covertly behind the Iron Curtain to subvert yet another savage dictatorship.

"Sage" is difficult to find today, but it's worth the search. For those who were unlucky enough to never have met Jerry Sage, who died a few years ago, it is an unforgettable history lesson, told by a genuine American hero.

For me, it's all that... plus a reminder of a brave man whom I was proud to call a friend.

Sage describes his actions as a commando in the African theater in World War II, his subsequent imprisonment, and his escape activities. Sage consistently accepted challenges boldly, with considerable courage and cleverness. For example, when a German civilian demanded that he shows his identification papers (while he was on the lam after an escape), he coolly said: "Not for you!" When a German woman began a conversation with him that exceeded his limited German skills, he faked deafness and made a gesture indicating that a bomb blast had deafened him. The ruse worked.

While in Stalag Luft III, Sage worked as a stooge and penguin. He set up numerous diversions. When the garden in which the sand was dumped grew noticeably higher than the surrounding soil, he deftly disguised this by placing a row of stones around the garden. When a suspicious German would not leave the area, Sage made a deliberately silly request for white paint for the rocks "in order to beautify the Third Reich." Predictably, the goon walked away in disgust.

Throughout this book, Sage emphasizes his strong Christian faith. While in solitary confinement, he often recounted Scriptures from memory. Sage also experienced numerous answered prayers, some of which were spectacular. For example, when being surrounded by a dog-wielding posse during one of his escapes, he prayed for a swamp in which he could submerge himself and breathe through a straw (based on a movie he had previously seen). He fully realized that there were no swamps in that part of Germany. But he prayed, and his prayer was answered almost immediately. He came upon a body of water in which he could hide, and he did so successfully.

Sage also recounts his experiences in war-torn Poland, providing details seldom seen in the writings of non-Polish authors. Sage saw the ruins of Warsaw caused by vindictive Germans following the Warsaw Uprising, whose doom had been guaranteed by the deliberate 6-month pause of the Soviet armies at the gates of Warsaw. Sage also saw firsthand and described the forced installation of the Communist puppet regime upon Poland that occurred just as soon as the Germans had been driven out--all the result of the sellout of Poland by the USA and Britain in the events up to and including the Yalta Conference. He personally protected a group of Polish women from being raped by Russian soldiers. He saw firsthand the widespread robbery of Poles by the Russians. They took whatever of value that the Germans had not taken first. He described the Poles as very generous, as they shared things with Sage and his men even though they had very little left after the German and now Russian occupations of Poland.

If you like the movie "The Great Escape", then take the time to read this book and find out what really happened. COL Sage will tell you in his own words how he survived life in a POW camp and traveled across Europe to link up with his unit and "get back in the fight" Sage stands for all that is good in our country, and his story is truely inspirational