War and Politics Books

The book is well researched and is interesting reading. It's amazing to see the same political arguements in 1934 as in 2008. They were using class warfare in 1934 same as now.

I was given this book as a Christmas present. I had read McCullough's 1776 and John Adams and had enjoyed them both (although I was disappointed in the brevity of 1776). Still this book (Truman) stayed on my shelf gathering dust for over six months. I was initially overwhelmed with its length and afraid to tackle it (I had failed with Vidal's Lincoln and didn't want to repeat that result). I finally screwed my courage and cracked it open.

Although the first 50 pages or so weren't extremely engrossing, after that the book quickly captivated me. I didn't know much about Harry Truman, and what I did know led me to believe that he was a fairly average president. What I learned is that he was an amazing overachiever who, when faced with the weight of the world, was at his best. McCullough really brought the man to life, and although Mr. Truman did some things that none of us would be proud of, McCullough didn't provide excuses for Harry - he did explain possible causes for Truman's behavior.

After reading this book, you can't help but feeling that the United States was extremely fortunate to have Truman in the nation's highest office, and you can't help but wish you could have met the man.

I wholeheartedly recommend the book as a must read.

"Truman" is a much praised book and deservedly so. There is hardly a need for another review, in addition to the 280 already posted here, so I will be brief.

Above all, it is superbly readable, as entertaining as a good novel. I experienced a sense of regret having finished it today.

It is a clear and balanced portrait of a leader and a wonderful study of understated, firm and steady leadership.

I would rate it as essential reading for anyone wanting to understand key aspects of the world since WWII and which continue to influence events today.

I consider myself a fan of history (I like it, but don't know enough and mis-remember even more). David McCullough's books bring to life the stories of our country (and events) in a compelling manner that makes you want more. I eagerly look forward to each of his well researched and "human" look at what has helped shape the U.S. to where we are today. Each of these should be required reading for middle school & high school students - the conversations they create will bring benefits for our future generations. This is even more true for the biographies as he develops the person which helps explain the why - and not just the what happened. Bravo Mr. McCullough, very well done indeed.

This is quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read. And I do my fair share of reading. Don't let the size of the book scare you either. Its worth putting the time into. David McCullough writes in a readable manner. None of that academic reading stuff that gives you headaches. Listen, if you are even considering buying it you probably already have a little interest in this topic. Do yourself a favor. Buy this book. You can thank me later. Oh, and...Harry is my new hero.

Chasing Ghosts is an honest and powerful account of Reickhoff's experience in Iraq. While it's tough reading at points, I think it is good for us to recognize the reality of what we're asking the men and women of our armed forces to do for this country every day.

It took a lot of courage for Reickhoff to write this book and my hat goes off to him for doing it; and for the important work he's doing for veterans every day now.

Rieckhoff is a well-spoken and thoughtful individual who, in this memoir of his service as part of the occupying force in Iraq, takes the reader on his journey from intelligent inductee to Generation Kill to intelligent advocate for peace. It's a good terse read with very little fluff or filler, and is required text for anyone wanting a soldier's perspective on the invasion and occupation.

As someone who has read a large amount of literature concerning the current state of international affairs, specifically in the "War on Terror" and as a hopeful future officer in the United States Army, I found Paul Rieckhoff's account of his time as a platoon leader in Iraq to be not only well-written, but helpful and insightful. From the accounts of under-equipped Guard units, to the sometimes seemingly trivial nature of the Rules Of Engagement, the book paints a quite vivid, and scarily what I imagine to be accurate, picture of the face of America's first gander at twenty-first century warfare.
Though I found parts of the read to be erie in nature, and though the book provokes questions and doubts about our great nation's leadership and decision-makers, it in no way influenced me to give up joining the military. Rieckhoff has made it clear that the country's leadership is quite questionable, and in part of his writing acknowledges the fact that a new generation of veterans will soon be stepping into the political realm.

Chasing Ghosts deserves to be read.

This was a great book and an easy read as it kept you engaged and intrigued. Enjoy!

Personally I am not a big reader of books. However, with a brother in his 3rd tour in Iraq and growing up in a military family and having known Paul as a simple aquaintance in high school, I was excited to check out his book. Not many people from our high school make it into the public eye like Paul has. From the moment I picked up the book I was hooked. It is a powerful and inspiring account of a true and rare American patriot. A patriot who knows what his beliefs are and who is willing to put his life on the line to defend those beliefs. It stirred up a lot of emotions from laughter, tears, and in the end a belief that our soldiers are true heros. I would definately recommend this to anyone and do. Congratulations Paul and look forward to following your inspring career in the years ahead.

Without a doubt, the greatest narrative ever written on The War Between the States. Anything else is just fluff. 'The Longest Night' and 'Battle Cry of Freedom' don't even come close.

I was initially intimiated about the prospect of launching into just one volume of Foote's narrative and so I made the mistake of buying only the first book -- I should have bought all three volumes at the start! It takes about 50 - 100 pages to get into Foote's style of writing, and at times he turns a quirky phrase from the '60's (1860's), but this is enjoyable reading, bar none. If there was ever a way to learn the history of the American Civil War, this would be the way to do it.

I've spent nearly a year making my way through the three volumes, sometimes on airplanes, some of it as 5 - 6 pages before going to sleep. My biggest regret is there is no Vol. 4. I will miss Mr. Foote. The richness of detail and the descriptive character achieved by Foote makes you feel as though he lived in the period and knew many of the characters personally. You will come away with vivid and lasting impressions of Lincoln, Grant, Davis, Lee, Johnson, Jackson, McClelland, Custer, Semmes, Porter, Sherman, Sheridan, and countless others who defined these years. The series is not a dry recitation of facts and figures, but a storytelling of the war with enough statistics to provide a sense of scale.

Imagine the year is 1899 and you are a young man or lady of 12 or 13, sitting with your aging uncle who had lived and fought through the major battles of a war on the verge of being forgotten. He shares with you his remembrances and vast knowledge of what happened on the major battlefields and political stage (and behind it) during the war. He is a master story teller. You are enthralled and look forward to each evening's session. That's what Foote offers to the reader.

The books have some flaws -- a lack of maps, no program of players, ambiguous chapterization, shifting time lines and locations. While there are large scale maps inside the covers to convey the flow of the entire war, there are not enough maps for the individual battles. You must dog ear those map pages for reference. I'm not a history buff, so I constantly had to keep asking myself "who was that general?" as Foote leaves one theater of the war and then returns to it several chapters later. A suggestion -- get an index card and each time you meet a major player, write the name, side, title and use the card as a book mark. The problem with shifting time lines and locations is unavoidable in such a vast work. Foote generally does a good job to tying overlapping periods to each other, but you need to keep alert on our own.

There are few books I would ever consider reading again, but these will stay on my bookshelf for just that possibility.

I found this a very through account of a momentous part of American history full of detail and knowlegeable details.For any student or some like me curious about the history of the American Civil War I recommend these books.

I am about half way through and find these volumes excellent. They not only address the battles fought, but also address the political climate how people from the North and the South felt about the war, their leaders etc. It is interesting to be made aware of the annimosity that existed toward the "press." It is also interesting to hear how the press on either side was willing to print information that may prove detrimental to military activity and probably help to contribute to the many deaths experienced on both sides. And I mean the southern press printing about the movements of southern forces and the northern press printing about troop movements of the northern armies. Also, it comes across to me that Foote presents a relatively fair and unbaised narrative of both the North and the South. Excellent reading especailly for you history buffs. However, be ready to have fun trying to keep track of all the different generals etc. It is a little like alphabet soup.

I wanted an objective account of the civil war and an objective description of the battles, but Foote's three volume books is anything but objective. He is an engaging writer and, as another reviewer points out, brings the characters back to life, but Foote makes confederate thugs like Stonewall Jackson look like lovable, eccentric and courageous heroes. He portrays the confederate soldiers as poor, under-equipped soldiers full of valour, but then paints the union soldiers as over-equipped soldiers, lacking in courage and drive, who are there only for the experience and who pillage civilian homes when they go into southern towns (see the battle at Federicksburg for an example).

I note another reviewer commenting that Foote's view is not apparent in the books, but to me it is very clear he is rooting for the confederates. For example, on page 19 of the second volume, he writes "Texas was decontaminated" and the only bluecoats were Magruder's prisoner (this was about Magruder winning the battle at Galveston for the confederates). Only those in support of the confederate would say that Texas was decontaminated when Magruder won. If the writer was objective, that phrase "Texas was decontaminated" would not have been inserted. It's not even necessary!!

There is also a little too much detail. I can do without how many men are in each division and how many men were killed, wounded or captured.

I do not intend to read all three volumes because of his pro-confederate tone. It was a struggle to finish the first volume without wanting to throw the book at something (I am not pro-union, just anti-confederate). I am reading the second volume only so I can read about Stonewall Jackson's death. I am not sure how Foote has portrayed his death, but I'm sure with his pro-confederate feeling, it will be a glorious death!!! To me, Stonewall is a hypocritical thug and murderer and I will delight in reading about his death, however, glorious it might be to Foote.

I came across this book thanks to two things. One being that it was recommended by another Iraq war author (David Bellavia). The second being that it was on my Kindle recommended reading list. I must admit that at something like 400 pages I expected it to drag on and become convaluted at times. This is not the case at all here. Mr. West does an amazing job of pacing out the book and describing the hellish combat that the Marines faced. He also analyses the political climate and assigns the blame for the unnecessary violence where it appropriately belongs. Kudos Mr. West on a tour de force, we need more authors of your caliber in this genre.

People might be sick and tired of Iraq, but this is an excellent recounting of the battle of Fallujah in 2004 and a detailed analysis of the decisions that led to so many problems in that region.

West zooms in on the street-by-street fighting between the Marines and the insurgents, and these scenes have visceral intensity. You are there with the soldiers as bullets ricochet, RPG rounds careen through alleyways and bodies crumple with mortal wounds. Then West zooms back out to recount the meetings between the politicians, generals and religious leaders whose decisions determine the course of the Fallujuh fighting even more than the actions of the soliders on the ground.

In many ways, Fallujah is a microcosm of the war in Iraq. Misunderstood by the press and public alike, this book studies how countless acts of Marine bravery and heroism were offset by political infighting and dithering within the Bush administration and in the upper echelons of military command. It is at once tragic, exciting, frustrating and mind-boggling.

"After the mutilation of the four contractors in Fallujah in April 2004, the White House and high officials reacted emotionally by ordering a full attack on the city." The same could be said about our government's decision to go to war after 9/11 and Osama bin Laden's escape. One major questionable decision put everyone involved in an impossible situation thereafter. Especially with too many cooks in the kitchen.

Whether you are for, against or just plain frustrated by the war in Iraq, this is a compelling read. I was up until 2:00am each night until I finished it. You will not be disappointed. You will also gain further appreciation for the pressure the principal decisions makers faced, for the soldiers who fought in those streets and for Bing West's reportage.

This is a must read for anyone that wants to really know what it is like and what happened in Fallujah. The next time you see a Marine after reading this, you will thank them for signing up.

I must admit I was not looking for this book when I got it, I stumbled upon it and man am I glad I did. The book is not only a great story of the incredible bravery that our armed forces show every day, but also a great lesson (at least for me) on how military decisions are affected by politics and news coverage. The book is very even handed and leave outs all of the usual "our military and our president never make a mistake and it is the liberal media who is to blame for every thing" crap that dogs other military books. Not that after finishing this book you will not be left wondering how in the world the American press does not find a way to report the heroism that is displayed by these troops every day. I know for me I better understand why when the news harps on "Abu Graib" events (which needed to be told to prevent it from happening again) the troops on the ground feel shafted because they just spent the day risking their lives to save their buddies or patching up an insurgent who was just 1 minute ago trying to kill them. I do now understand their frustration in being lumped in with a few idiots who do something wrong when they are doing such heroic things everyday.

You will also get from this book an understanding how dangerous a news organization which only panders to its audience to push a premeditated message with out reporting the full truth, like Al Jazerra repeatedly does. Which leaves you better understanding the danger that Fox News really is to our own country. When a news organization trusted by so many people repeatedly distorts the truth or only report things that push it's agenda it is dangerous for us all.

This book brings a full 360 degree view of the Fallujah battles, the break down in communications, the mistakes of non-military making military decisions, and the mistakes of the military making diplomatic and political decisions. In this respect this book is truly unique and a great read.

This book is a very good book about the battle. I served with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during this battle during Operation Phantom Fury. After returning home and seeing this book I immediately bought it. When you are on the ground even with a high level of information there are still things you don't understand and this book explained some of the things I still didn't understand even after being in the middle of the battle. Now I know where the incoming was coming in when 9th Communications Battalion took the 17 casualties in one mortar attack. Great job Bing and Semper Fi.

I read this book last semester for a Criminal Justice class and it is amazing. It opened my eyes to exactly how wrong the war on drugs is. This book is my #1 recommended book. If more people would read it I think we'd finally be able to find our way out of this fruitless war.

Q: What is the difference between the Prohibition and America's war on drugs? Mike Gray's overall answer is "very little," but the one glaring difference is that when Prohibition failed, the country repealed the Constitutional Amendment which had created it. Alcohol use remained at about the same level before, during and after the Prohibition years, but the murder, official corruption and gang battles that accompanied official proscription came and went. DRUG CRAZY analyzes the upshot of that distinction and its enormous worldwide effects. The U.S. led anti-drug effort has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars in enforcement efforts alone, not to mention the cost of prisons, imprisonment and court proceedings and has succeeded in creating an international drug consortium with an annual income higher than the U.S. defense budget. Thousands of innocent bystanders have died in sprays of automatic fire and bomb blasts. It has made pot easier to get than alcohol for most American teens and brought Colombian, Bolivian and Mexican democracy to the brink of collapse. Damningly, Gray reports that every refereed study since the 1890s has suggested that marijuana is harmless and that the opiates and cocaine are no more dangerous than alcohol (perhaps less). Even the infamous "crack babies" we heard about for a few years turned out to be an unsubstantiated myth. In every country where legalization and controlled prescriptive availability of harder drugs has been tried, addiction rates remained stable or fell, crime decreased and most addicts proceeded to live normal workaday lives. The U.S. has forced other countries to quit such programs through fiscal pressure and outright lies, insisting that all adopt our abolitionist stance. We have managed to export violence, crack cocaine, corruption and other benefits to numerous other nations along with our failed policy. At the same time, and to make matters worse, the nature of enforcement has become a defacto racist effort. Cocaine in Wall Street boardrooms is harder to see than crack runners on Main Street and while whites are the disproportionate users of illegal drugs, blacks are the disproportionate arrestees. In this country, one in four black males is either in prison, under probation or on parole, mostly as a result of drug or drug related crimes. Small wonder, as the author points out, that blacks think O.J. Simpson was framed: it is their daily experience. Police routinely lie in court to make drug charges stick. (Since private deals between consenting parties are very hard to actually witness, when police claim that a perpetrator dropped a bag or in some other way made evidence visible it is understood by judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and defendants that it is "acceptable" false testimony to cover an illegal search. So perjury is permitted in the name of enforcement.) Amazingly, the whole morass of current drug problems and policies could be eliminated with the stroke of a pen. Minus prohibition the drug cartels would be defunded. If prices fell, many farmers would find other crops more appealing. If currently illegal substances were distributed by prescription or through state-licensed stores, kids would be infrequently exposed. (How many pushers are selling beer in front of your local elementary school these days?) Mike Gray has brought his story telling skill (The China Syndrome and other screenplays) and his investigative/documentary bent (American Revolution and The Murder of Fred Hampton) to bear on an urgent national and international problem. His recommendations and observations are difficult to refute and his is a well considered voice in a growing debate which affects us all. Even now, the genie released when California and Arizona approved medical marijuana use is being clumsily stuffed back in the bottle by Federal mandate, disenfranchising voters and creating a rising uproar. As former U.S. Attorney General Elliott Richardson observes: "Anyone who thinks the war on drugs is succeeding should read this book. It shifts the burden of proof from the critics of existing policy to its defenders."

This is one of the best books I've read on the drug war to date (and I've read a bunch). The book carefully went through the origins, history, and effects of the drug war in a captivating and easy to follow manner. When finished, the reader will be left with an iron-clad indictment of the drug war which has covered all angles. This really is one of the most comprehensive and well written books on the drug war, and I highly recommend it.

When it became clear that the medicines called opiates were highly addictive and caused health problems, they were dealt with as nicotine and alcohol are dealt with today. There were honest and realistic public service messages warning of the dangers of opiates, and there was medical help that greatly limited the damage they did to the individual and which had a chance of eliminating his or her addiction. These methods worked, and where they are applied they work today. Then in the second decade of the twentieth century the country took a nose-dive into authoritarian attitudes and corruption, and people got the strange idea that you could eliminate a practice you didn't like simply by passing a law against it. Alcohol, and the opiates were completely banned, as was marijuana which was now designated a "drug" because of its association with minority groups. Alcohol use, which had always hovered between widespread and universal, had been declining but now became more common than ever before. Worse, the alcoholic drinks that were taken became much harder and not being regulated they might contain enough alcohol to be dangerous. Worse still, an untold number of criminals were created, crime of all kinds increased radically, organized crime came to control whole districts and corruption reached heights never seen before. "Public service messages" regarding what were now illegal "drugs" became simple expressions of hatred having very little to do with the "drugs" they were about, and everyone actually familiar with those "drugs" knew it. Medical treatment by doctors who were actually trying to help their paitents was declared illegal, and a number of doctors went to prison. The lives of opiate addicts had usually been no worse than the lives of nicotine addicts, but now those lives became impossible. Addicts could no longer hold jobs raise children or do anything else but concentrate on their addiction. Current "rehabilitation" for opiate addicts is an expression of hatred for those addicts and makes no attempt to help them. It mostly consists of telling them they are evil it they don't break their habits, and for those addicted to opiates or nicotine, breaking the habit altogether is usually not possible. Opiate use had always been an insignificant phenomenon nationwide, and in the early part of the century when it was being dealt with intelligently, it was declining. But then the hate laws were passed, and now a measurable percentage of the population is addicted and condemed to ruined, useless lives, organized crime is more powerful now than at any time in history, and whole countries like Columbia are completely dominated by corruption-- as are large sections of others like the United States and Mexico. None of this needed to happen. The things we call "drugs" were handled intelligently at the beginning of the twentieth century or were never a problem in the first place. If realistic laws were passed, the worst of the damage would be fixed very quickly since it is directly caused by bad laws. The rest of the damage would take a decade to undo, but if we begin treating the opiates as we treat nicotine and alcohol we will gradually undo it.
I think that is a pretty good thumbnail of what Mike Grey had to say, and he is completely right. Everyone in the country should read this book. Our real addiction is to hatred.

Author Mike Gray tackles the failed drug war in this book and effectively shows how the present war has many similarities to alcohol prohibition in early part of the twentieth century. Gray begins his discussion of the subject of drugs by taking the reader back to 1925, in the city of Chicago, during the height of the nightmare of prohibition. Gangs ruled the streets. The air was filled with the smell of cheap booze and the sound of gunfire. Police were defenseless to the total chaos going on all around them. They simply could not stop the manufacture and consumption of alcohol. There was too much money to be made by selling this "forbidden fruit". There was no possible way that this "war" on alcohol could ever be won.

Does this sound familiar? It should, because the same thing is going on right now. The government's failed attempt to eliminate alcohol is now being attempted a second time with the war on drugs. These laws are discussed in the book with a history lesson on the various court rulings and congressional decisions that led to the present prohibitions on drugs. These laws have some of their roots in the U.S. Congress. According to the book, marijuana itself became illegal as the result of a lie told to congress by Fred Vinson, a man who would later become the U.S. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Vinson was sitting in a congressional hearing one day, just before congress was about to vote on whether or not marijuana should be made illegal. The American Medical Association knew of the benefits of marijuana in medical treatments, and was strongly against such a law. But when Vinson was questioned by congress, he lied and said that the AMA backed the proposed law 100 percent to make marijuana illegal. This was enough to help push the law through congress. Vinson's lie, coupled with the onslaught of government propaganda against marijuana, marked the beginning of America's second nightmare with prohibition.

The lying and deception by government cooled off a bit during the 1940 to 1960 period. But then, the lying and deception continued when President Nixon decided to revive the anti- drug crusade, in part to cover- up his own problems with Vietnam and Watergate. George Bush then escalated the damage even more by scaring the public into backing his anti- drug package and his "get tough" policies against drug dealers and drug users. Gray talks about these and other political maneuvers; why they happened and the true motives behind these so- called "moral" crusaders.

The present- day situation looks pretty bleak. Gray points out that the United States is now the largest jailer in the world with roughly half of all prisoners being non- violent drug offenders. We have also corrupted our police officers, with many of them actively taking part in the drug trade; cutting special deals, accepting bribes, etc, because of the allure of easy money. Respect for law enforcement is low, and violent criminals have been allowed early release to make way for non- violent drug offenders, thanks to mandatory minimum sentences.

This book is an easily manageable length: about 198 pages and fairly easy to read. There are a total of eleven chapters and two appendices. Appendix "A" details the changes in the U.S. murder rate, showing how it peaked during alcohol prohibition and during the present- day drug prohibition. It also shows graphs depicting the U.S. prison population and the Federal Drug budget. And to give the book some balance, Appendix "B" contains a listing of activist organizations, both pro- drug war and anti- drug war, along with a brief description of each and their respective websites.

As Mike Gray points out, the War on Drugs is one of America's greatest failures. Gray never specifically condemns the war. He wrote this book as a means to educate the reader on the motives behind drug prohibition and the reasons that politicians continue to fight a losing battle when they know that the war is not winnable. Gray never resorts to name calling or any form of moral persuasion. He really doesn't need to. He lets the facts speak for themselves, illustrating the endless problems created by a war of prohibition and why it is so important to stop this insanity once and for all.

There is a grave threat to the integrity of the legal system and to the core values of our society: The destruction of due process of law in the family courts, a malady that has now reached epidemic proportions throughout the Anglosphere.

Of all the scandalous behavior of the Left, perhaps none is so underreported as the systematic destruction of marriage and the family that is now practiced by the governmental divorce and child-custody machinery. This industry and the travesties it has perpetrated are summarized proficiently in the book, "Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family" by Stephen Baskerville, a professor of political science at Patrick Henry College.

Declares Baskerville:

"This book is about our unwillingness to confront the most destructive and dangerous injustice in our society today: the systematic seizure of children by government officials and the criminalization of their parents. A parent today who has committed no legal infraction can have his (or sometimes her) parenthood and relationship with his children criminalized entirely through the actions of others in ways that are completely beyond his control. [The book] focuses largely on fathers and divorce, because these are the ones most commonly involved."

The attack on fathers has been facilitated by the myth that they are abandoning their children in droves, at which point they become "deadbeats," and must be tracked down by government officials seeking justice for the forlorn wives and children. Nothing could be further from the truth, writes Baskerville:

"The myth of the deadbeat dad has already been discredited conclusively by Sanford Braver and other scholars. We have already seen that Braver is one of many social scientists who have found that few married fathers voluntarily abandon their children. Beyond this, Braver has also shown that little scientific basis exists for claims that large numbers of fathers are not paying child support. Braver found that government claims of nonpayment were derived not from any compiled database or hard figures but entirely from surveys of custodial parents. In other words, the Census Bureau simply asked mothers what they were receiving....Fathers overwhelmingly do pay court-ordered child support when they are employed, often at enormous personal sacrifice."

In the vast majority of cases, it is the wife who initiates the divorce proceedings. She is encouraged in this action by the regime of "no-fault" divorce. The old concept of marriage as a contract has broken down; today, the flimsiest, most whimsical reasons can be offered as justification--if justification is even needed.

Once this machinery is set in motion, the deck is stacked against the father. In the blink of an eye, he can be evicted from his home, forbidden from seeing his children, have his assets seized, his wages garnished, and he can be assessed huge fees--all without due process of law. Though not even charged with committing a crime, he is presumed guilty. Many of the proceedings are held without his knowledge or presence, and he cannot cross-examine witnesses.

In a macabre recitation, Baskerville shows how each amendment in the Bill of Rights is being systematically violated, with no appeal. For example:

"The Fourth Amendment protects the 'right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures'. Yet as we have seen, parents suspected of no legal wrongdoing and who have given no grounds or agreement for divorce are routinely ordered without warrants to surrender not only their children but personal diaries, notebooks, correspondence, financial records, and other documents. Those unwilling or unable to produce the demanded documents can be fined, ordered to pay attorneys' fees, and summarily incarcerated. We have also seen that fathers are regularly interrogated behind closed doors about intimate family matters most parents would not normally discuss with strangers, such as conversations with their children and spouse, and they can be jailed for failing to answer....In shades of Soviet psychiatry, citizens who refuse to submit to this inquisition--and even those who do not--can be ordered to undergo a 'mental evaluation'."

The divorce and child-custody apparatus has grown to enormous proportions. It is a veritable industry, with judges, lawyers, social workers, collection agencies, therapists, psychiatrists, caseworkers, and researchers making their living from the ever-expanding pie. The enforcement effort employs thousands of agents who have a degree of authority and immunity that is unthinkable for ordinary police and law enforcement agencies. It has become an independent fiefdom, with no oversight and little scrutiny, with an entrenched interest in generating more divorce, more restraining orders, more mental evaluations, and more outrageously inflated child-support payments (commonly approaching or exceeding the income of the victim).

Another myth deconstructed by Baskerville is that fathers commonly commit child abuse, incest, and wife-beating. In reality, this is rare. Mothers are more likely to use violence on fathers, and children are most subjected to abuse in single-parent households headed by a woman.

After describing in gory detail the horrors of the family-law system (backed up, I might add, by reams of studies and testimony), Baskerville turns his attention to the culprits, those whose ideology has resulted in one of the grossest perversions of justice in American (and British, and Canadian) history. There are several culprits, but towering above them all are the feminists, who have carved out this untouchable empire for the purpose of destroying fatherhood and the nuclear family.

A key buzzword used by advocates of this ideology is "for the children." This is the clarion call behind the incessant demand to insert the power of the state into the deepest recesses of the private lives of the citizenry. Children are used, in the most cynical fashion, to attain political ends. This has reached the highest echelons of America's Leftist establishment:

"The philosophy of turning children over to state control and denying a sphere of family privacy is succinctly conveyed in Hillary Clinton's aphorism, 'There is no such thing as other people's children.' Hillary rejects the notion that 'families are private, nonpolitical units whose interests subsume those of children' and believes instead in 'the status of children as political beings.' Commenting on these passages and others like them, the late Barbara Olson wrote, 'For Hillary, children are the levers by which one forces social change'."

Overall, "Taken Into Custody" is a balanced, non-emotional, well-written, and copiously footnoted exposé. The only sour note, I would say, are several odd forays into macro-level political analysis, such as the perplexing statement that "it is perhaps a legacy of the Enlightenment that today both liberals and conservatives seem to worship at the altar of the meritocracy." The author would have been better advised to confine the scope of the work to his area of expertise, in which his competence is duly impressive.

In any case, the book is a must-read for understanding the nature and scope of this insidious attack on a key foundation of Western society.

Hopefully, many young men will read this book and decide not to get married (which is Baskerville's actual advice to them). The book should also offer edification to older guys who already made that decision..they can feel vindicated. Of coure any "marriage strike" will also further the ultimate goal of ideological feminism, that is, a utopia in which men and women are completely isolated from each other. The question is, which arm of totalitarianism will gain ultimate highest power..feminist ideologues, or the State? Or perhaps a State controlled by feminist ideologues? I shudder to think.

About this time, 20 years ago I filed for divorce from my wife of
7 years. At that time I worked as a Chief Electrician at the Fulton
County Courthouse where my divorce would be held. I knew most of the
Superior and State Court Judges on a personal basis; but, I did not
know how most judges handled divorce cases so I went to Kim Warden
who handled abused kids and abused women to ask her opinion of the
judge who would handle my case.

As best I remember, this is what Ms. Warden said: "Your divorce has
been assigned to Superior Court Judge Ralph Hicks? Good luck. While
Hicks has tried to mitigate the horrendous way Child Support payments
is handled in Fulton County by creating 'The Fulton County Child Support
Receiver's Office, Hicks is extremely biased against men. For example:

"Bill, if you were a combination of Jesus Christ and Santa Claus and
you wife were a Convicted prostitute, a Convicted drug user and a Convicted child abuser and you and her both wanted custody of your child? You, Mr. Claus would have a 50-50 chance that you would get
custody. I suggest you try to get Judge Hicks recused from your case;
but, don't cite bias against men as your reason. Be creative."

Drat! My wife was not a convicted drug user, etc..., so I was creative
in my attempt before any hearings to get Hicks recused and have an out
of county Judge who did not know me to handle my case.

My first attorney refused to file a Motion to Recuse! (Should have
dismissed this attorney right then and there. Unfortunately, 1st
attorney eventually stabbed me in the back; but, that's another story.)

Judge Hicks lived down to Ms. Warden's low opinon---and then some.

Long story short, it took over 3 years to get my divorce here in Georgia. Judge Hicks finally, FINALLY, recused himself after charges
of incompetence were made against him in YR 2 of my divorce. My case was then heard by 4 other judges.

The last judge, a woman named Frank Hull, wouldn't put up with my
wife's attorney's shenanigans, reduced my child support from $850 per
month to $700 for one child and quickly granted me a divorce after
Judge Hull threatened my wife that she might reduce child custory
payments even further and, maybe, grant me sole custody.

During these 3+ years of monetary and judicial agony, I joined Fathers
Are Parents Too and Children's Rights Council of Georgia. If I thought
I'd had it bad, a goodly number these members had divorces that made
mine look like a cake walk. Both these groups really helped me
cope and I will be forever grateful.

Sincerely!
Bill Bryan
EducationChoiceActivist at yahoo dot com

"America's kids (K-12) can have Olympic Quality Education at
Low, low Wal-Mart prices if the kid's' parents could send
their kids to Public, Private or Parochial Schools (K-12) using
taxpayer funded vouchers."

Quality Education for Kids, Empowerment for Parents, and
SAVE AMERICA!

Stephen Baskerville has written a detailed and fully documented expose of how the family court system has grown into a frightening and destructive system of corruption, terror, and unchecked governmental power. It is a must read for all Americans, professionals, journalists, and politicians. You cannot walk away from this book without the disturbing feeling that America is slipping away from all of us.

Awesome and factually backed up.

Have you ever read a book that you just can't put down? Well, this book is beyond that. Everyone I talk to that has read it or is reading it just has to put it down, very often, due to the shocking thought provoking nature of presenting the truth in the most believable way. Great job, Dr. Baskerville!

Dr. Baskerville sees that the real root of the war on dads (which is the war on families and society) isn't just selfish feminism, media and our "learning" institutions, or even just the barrage of parasitic greedy attorneys, judges and all their "full court" of hangers-on who profit immensely and gain unlimited power from this. It has become government at the center and root of destroying the family, and all of our rights, for these same reasons. Our forefathers warned us often that this would happen every generation/20 years, lest we be aware and prevent it.


Becoming aware can sometimes be tricky when attractive hysteria prevails so strongly. The healthy, intact traditional family is indeed the number one enemy of government becoming in total control, put above the citizens and thus decaying into corruption. People will readily support family-destroying lies and anti-male/father hysteria propaganda if it has been warped into "protecting" women and children. People have always supported hysteria propaganda and lies when they are craftily twisted around to look so important and good. But supporting anti-father agenda and hysteria isn't just hurting but is destroying women badly too, and especially children. After all, that's what government generated hysteria is all about, milking the masses, not just one group. Remember, where there's hysteria, there's fire, for all!

Like Dr. Baskerville points out - fathers are the weakest link to taking down the whole family, not just dad. It's ironic that while fathers are the weakest link to destroying the family, that they are also in fact the keystone and guardians of not just the family, but the keystone and guardians of any healthy society. The true patriarchy puts the family, the group and society before themselves. This isn't what you hear in the news or at school? This is what has always built and preserved healthy families and society. We'd still be in the stone age without this selflessness which feminists and government have discovered in men and fathers and have now exploited for only their own interests and "good." They use this to get men and fathers to help destroy themselves and take themselves down as protectors of society and family, against abuse and evil. Anything to prove they are not guilty of all the horrid atrocities which men and fathers are falsely, rampantly and hysterically accused of.

Fathers are the most important part of protecting and keeping families and children most protected and intact, from being ravaged by the many wolves in sheep's clothing. This includes fatherhood's main rival to truth, equality and justice for all (government). The classic signature of all totalitarian governments is to cleverly pretend to be putting up a valiant fight for these good things while doing the opposite. This is also the selfish radical feminist agenda, "Me first and only; it's all about ME, me milking you and everyone around me with my drama, while I pretend and dramatize doing the exact opposite."

Many just don't fully understand (they will benefit greatly from this book too) that it's not that fathers have abandoned their children or are bad, abusive and any more evil than mothers are. Government and their hangers-on would like you to believe dads are bad, more risky and suspect or guilty, until they can prove their innocence, which isn't even allowed anyway. These lies and hysteria just help them do more business than ever, and look like the good guys while raping and pillaging you and your family, and of course the whole village. They easily do this with the fully support of a largely happily ignorant village itself, because they can hysterically point the finger at those they have set up as villains.

Thanks for helping "our" government "help" us all so very much: Hillary, Obama, McCain, Pres. Bush, legislators on both "sides," governors, AG's, prosecutors and so very many "friends" of the family - very attractive wolves in sheep's clothing. There is little if any distinction between republicans and democrats when it comes to this subject and a few others.

Dr. Baskerville documents and backs up what he writes in this book. And, thanks for the quote from Dickens in the opening of chapter 1:

"The one great principle of the ... law is to make business for itself."

- Charles Dickens, "Bleak House"

This is a very informative book and a must read for anyone interested in understanding why the Bush administration is so prone to launching wars in the oil-rich Middle East region. The author, a renowned economist, is very knowledgeable about the economics and domestic politics that support such warmongering efforts. He identifies the pro-Israel Neocon movement and its alliance with the lunatics of the religious Right as important forces in the push toward involving the U.S. in wars abroad. The military-industrial complex and the strategic importance of Middle East oil are represented by Vice President Dick Cheney in the Bush administration, and are also prime movers of war.

Probably the most original part of this book is its chronology of empires and how Western civilization started its ascendency after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This chapter (chap. 16) is worth buying the book in itself. The author's style is direct and pulls no punches. An excellent book.

As an amateur student of American foreign policy, I am appalled by the wave of anti-americanism it has generated over the last few years. The policy of systematically meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, especially in the Middle East, has been most counter-productive.

There is no doubt that unbridled interventionism, often done illegally and under murky influences, is the root cause of why there is so much anti-americanism around the world. And case in point is the gratuitous violence imposed on some Muslim countries, i.e. Iraq and Palestine. This is creating tons of resentment all over the Muslim world, turning many to hatred and some to terrorism.

Tremblay's book offers a way out of this circular dilemma: Apply to the Muslim world the same treatment given to the Communist world with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. As he puts it (p. 152-53), the Helsinki Accords, signed by 33 Eastern and Western European countries, the United States, and Canada, played a fundamental role in opening up the communist bloc to liberty, freedom and reforms. I doubt that bombs would have brought the same result.

Former President Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the Helsinki Accords opened the door to reforms that would not have taken place otherwise. Why can we not adopt a similar approach with the Muslim world, instead of jumping all the time on the war wagon? This is a well-written and well-researched book. It is highly recommended.

People who want a condensed introduction on how the Bush administration walked into a quagmire in Iraq should read "The New American Empire". I don't agree with all of Tremblay's arguments, but in my opinion he hits the nail on the head when he identifies the real reasons why Bush II invaded Iraq, i.e oil, Israel, military bases and domestic politics. By the way, the same scenario seems to be repeating itself with Iran, with the same deception about the real reasons for intimidating Iran.

So, even if you do not agree with everything the author has to say, this book is worth a ton of newspapers articles or hours of TV reporting. The chapters on `Oil' and on the `History of Empires' are worth buying this book.

Among the many books written on the Iraq war and the Bush administration's fixation with militarism, this book by economist Tremblay is one of the most readable and most informative.

The fact that George W. Bush was planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' in that country, even before he took power in January 2001, should make people pause and think. So should the Neocon blueprint for a complete American take-over of the Middle East ("Rebuilding America's Defenses"), drafted in Sept. 2001, by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush and Lewis Libby.

Now that Iraq is a mess, that thousands and thousands of people have been killed, and hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted, the American people are entitled to know the real reasons why the Bush administration launched an illegal war of aggression against Iraq, with no provocation but with a lot of bad faith. All the official reasons have been proven false. After reading this book, one knows the real reasons behind one of the most foolish enterprises ever undertaken by a U.S. government abroad. I have learned a lot also from prof.
Tremblay's new blog: http://www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com/blog.

The truth shall set you free!

Dr. Tremblay is right on target with his assessment of the direction the U.S. is heading, along with his critiques of the politicians we have in this country. It is amazing that more people don't "see through" the false facades these people present to the public, and that so many people believe the lies doled out to unsuspecting voters! I would recommend this book as a very timely read....particularly in view of the upcoming 2008 Presidential Elections

I had an original post WWII copy of this book and gave it away when I moved from W.Va..... Boy, was that ever a mistake!!!! I needed a copy for an event here honoring the Veterans, and so I was very pleased to see this one in print..... Bill looks at war from the dogface's perspective, and I'm quite sure there's a Bill Mauldin in Iraq somewhere.... but he's tied to the Internet and I'm not sure if we'll get good pen and ink sketches outta him now..... Bill had the way of seeing the ironic, the humerous, and the just plain sorry, in the average G.I.'s battle to survive....... I'd recommend it to school teachers for a look at WWII (AND I'd hustle up some of the last survivors... that first hand look isn't going to be with us much longer).............the Students would actuall LEARN something useful!!!

I am very satisfied with my purchase.The book itself is a pleasure to look at.The drawings are just as funny as I found them as a kid.The writing itself is new to me,but superb.It will allways be among my favourit books.Again marvellous

Indispensable depiction of the face of the Second World War. War and the pity of war. The humour is in the pity.

It's a gift, the ability to draw, to have perspective, to create, to be able to portray human misery as humor, for a reader to see the image and words and turn to laughter. Bill Mauldin had this gift that gained prominence in a time of war where talents rise to their greatest heights or sink to their lowest depths.

Truth is portrayed in humor or the humor isn't funny. Sergeant Bill Mauldin, an infantryman, barely twenty, and serving in Italy picks up a pencil and anything he can draw on, and begins to sketch two characters named Willy and Joe, two, brave, disheveled, irreverent, likeable and crusty infantry soldiers that give meaning to the names infantrymen were referred to as: ground-pounders, dogfaces, legs, and grunts. Mauldin portrays their grim and grimy existence with fatalistic pictures and captions--or grunts. One called "Breakfast in Bed" finds one of them waking up under a cow's utters, or the one where both are in a rain-filled foxhole and Willie touches Joe's shoulder saying, "Joe, yesterday ya saved my life an' I swore I'd pay ya back. Here's my last pair o' dry socks," or with rain pelting down on a scrawny dog facing the opening of their make-shift shelter, one of them says: "Let'im in. I wanna see a critter I kin feel sorry fer." My all-time favorite is a drunk German staggering toward a hidden Willie and Joe, holding a bottle of schnapps, unaware that he is wandering into American lines: "Don't startle `im, Joe. It's almost full."

These cartoons show the comradeship that soldiers developed for each other that would last a lifetime. Each man knew each other better than his own family or spouse ever would, and they could see the good and the bad in everything. They would carry a wounded lieutenant back to safety because he wasn't a "salutin' demon," or curse the Germans as vile, evil Nazis for scuttling a large keg of cognac before their retreat. These soldiers were miserable without being despondent. They were scared without being cowardly. They complained about their predicaments, but carried out their mission as American soldiers always do--attacking silently. The viewer cannot help but feeling empathy and admiration for soldiers who sometimes spent thirty months "in the line."

Mauldin goes further than just making us laugh at the miserable existence of two men trying to stay alive. His real success is that his humor defines the very best and most humane in the human character when it is engaged in its most destructive behavior. It is also timeless. Seventy years later, civilians and servicemen can still see the gallows humor in Willie and Joe's death-defying predicaments.

"Up Front" is Mauldin's account, of what he was doing when he created a particular drawing, why he made sure to include medics, engineers, chaplains, and even Tommies. The writing is matter of fact, well-written, and interesting, but without fascination. That was saved for the cartoons. The author is explaining each one in his text. It's the drawings and the captions that make this book a winner and a conversation piece.

Bill Mauldin died January 22, 2003. Willie and Joe occupying a foxhole filled with water and several cubic feet of complaints, live on.

Think about this the next time you put on a pair of dry socks, and marvel at the simple pleasure of just how good they feel.



May 26, 2008 Memorial Day (observed)

In Memory of the Fallen and all our Gold Star Mothers--especially today.

Of course, this is not a novel. It's a collection of cartoons as they appeared in the Armed Services newspaper Stars and Stripes. The cartoon began to appear in 1944 as the invasion of Europe was underway and millions of Allied troops were fighting their way through Italy and France and into the heart of the third reich.
After a few false starts, Mauldin settled on two characters, Willie and Joe-infantry men. Willie and Joe (who were barely distinguishable from each other) were concerned with all the things that veterans said concerned them during the war. Lousy food was as much of a concern as enemy artillery, fear of cold, wet feet as annoying as the fear of death.
The cartoons, and Mauldin's self-effacing recollections together form a kind of narrative that is at once immensely personal and deeply historical. Mauldin was a pioneer. It was ten years before Cornelius Ryan The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Dayturned personal narratives into history and almost forty before Ken Burns came along.The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
Mauldin was, in effect, the only war reporter who was relatively uncensored. Since his cartoons carried no strategic information, his only worry was the military's possible perception that he might be lowering troop morale with his swipes at the brass and the rear-echelon. Fortunately, some American sensibility that 'it's good to laugh at the boss even if the boss is us' prevailed.

Up Front was one of the few books that my parents kept by their bedside. This is the book that helped the post-war generation remember the war as it was fought by the men who did the hard work. A quiet masterpiece.

Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG: A Novel

Andrew Lubin is a true combat correspondent. He wasn't staying at a hotel in downtown Baghdad - he was out in the field with Charlie Battery during some of the fiercest fighting in the early stages of the War in Iraq. "Charlie Battery" offers us a first hand look at the USMC by a military historian and journalist who goes where the Marines go. This is must have for anyone reading about the War on Terror. It's on my bookshelf and is an award winning book. An easy 5 star selection. From one combat vet to another - thanks Prof. Lubin for accurately telling the Marine's story!

Patrick J. McLaughlin, Author of "No Atheists in Foxholes - Prayers and Reflections From the Front"

This book lives in the heart of what it means to be a Marine -- and what it means to those who love a Marine. Ambitious author Andrew Lubin divides his attention between four perspectives -- the Marine Corps, the course of the early stages of the Iraq War, the impact of the experience on the young men of Charlie Battery -- and the emotions of their relatives.

In many ways, "Charlie Battery" is like all war stories. Bored boys decide to become warriors. They join the service of their choice. They train. They gain confidence. They bond. War is declared. They prepare for battle -- both mentally and physically. They travel to distant, forlorn places. They wait. They attack. There are set-backs and mistakes. Some die. They either succeed or not. They come home -- both proud of what they've achieved and saddened by what they've seen. It's a well-known saga. Unfortunately, it's a story that's evergreen.

This author writes with great affection about the Marine Corps. He is uniquely qualified for the task. Both his mother and father were Marines -- and now, as "Charlie Battery" opens, his son Philip has joined the Corps just in time to participate in the invasion of Iraq. Andrew Lubin paints a portrait of the US Marine Corps as an organization focused on being the best trained and most ferocious fighters in the world. They are proud to be "the point of the spear" -- and eager to take on all missions impossible their country requires. "Charlie Battery" forces the reader to close his/her eyes and remember generation after generation of determined Marines throwing themselves into battle -- from Tripoli to Belleau Wood to Iwo Jima to the Chosin Reservoir to Vietnam, the Gulf War and Iraq -- it's both a horrifying and comforting thought.

In more tender interludes, Andrew Lubin, the father, emerges to talk about his beloved boy turned Marine. We hear about Phil's friends and fellow battery team members. We see the tears of mothers and sweethearts. We admire the grit of wives long used to the rigors of Marine Corps family life. We hear of how important contact from home is to those waiting to hear whether or not they will be going into battle soon. We wonder how we would have felt if they were our children or husbands waiting behind the Line of Departure the night before the invasion.

Lubin's fourth focus is the "what happened" side of things. He follows the activities of Phil and his friends from the time they are called back to their duty station at Camp LeJeune. He describes their incessant training, their long cruise to the Middle East, and their dismay at their temporary home at Camp Shouf -- a Kuwaiti desert aggregation point. As the moment approaches, he shows the members of Charlie Battery as they transition from restless young men, fond of playing with aggressive desert critters, to grim Marines primed for the job to come. In the most visceral scene of the book, the chaplain stands among his charges the night before they cross the LoD playing "Amazing Grace" on his bagpipes.

The invasion, the Battle of Nasariyah, the Jessica Lynch story, the rest of Charlie Battery's activities in Iraq, their return to Kuwait and the long way home are told in a patchwork quilt manner -- based on research, and interviews with the men and their families -- and letters and emails.

"Charlie Battery" is a big busy book squeezed into 194 pages. It includes maps and photos and "where everyone is now" vignettes. If you are into military history, Lubin describes the course of the invasion and the circumstances behind each move associated with "Charlie Battery." If you have a loved one in the service, you will empathize with the relatives of the young men of "Charlie Battery." If you are a fan of the USMC, you certainly want to read this one. If you are a veteran, you will mourn the fact that war is still necessary -- and that our children must step forward to sort out the problems of an ever more complicated world.

This book is a great read. It is well written and flows well. Keeps your interest throuhout.
This narrative gives you good information and insights into what is happening over there. One of the few books that gives you the perspective of the actual soldiers.
I look forward to more books from Mr. Lubin

This was a great book detailing Marine Artillery. There are very few books out about artillery and as an artilleryman I thought it was an accurate account for those who have not been around a battery. It is a must read for all military and military enthusiasts.

This is a great read from the beginning to the end. I especially enjoyed the perspectives from both the Marines abroad as well as the family and friends back home. It was a nice touch adding the messages sent home.

Great detailed account of the preparation and deployment of this fin