Kansas Books

This is a solidly-written little book with good insight into the issues confronting a small congregation. The author has obviously been there, and worked through these issues with wisdom and good humor.

This book is a great resource for anyone belonging to a small church. The author discusses all the issues confronting a small church. His basic premise is that all small churches focus on church growth when they should be focusing on church health. A healthy organism will grow naturally. Unhealthy churches shouldn't expect to grow. Take care of church health first and your church will grow. He doesn't lay out a specific plan because each community is different. But he does lay out specific issues to be aware of and to deal with.

Over the last 10 or so years since the Publication of Hitler's Willing Executioners reignited the smoldering debate over the role of ideology in the prosecution of a genocidal war there have been many published books on the subject. These have accomplished their stated goals of either minimizing or arguing for the role of ideology with varying degrees of skill and hence success. Of the dozen or so that I've read thus far this one is head and shoulders above the rest. Edward B. Westermann's book is a classic in the field of Holocaust studies.

What Westermann looks at here is whether or not ideology was an important motivation for individuals in the Police Battalions to commit mass murder and how were the Uniformed police organizations structured by the Nazis to reinforce their brand of racial and political ideology. In other words he looks at the methods with which the Uniformed Police were handled by Hitler, Himmler and Daluege in order to attain THEIR ideological goals. His conclusions and research are both insightful and masterfully explained. What makes it easily read is his grasp of the human element here and his semi-chronological approach to telling the story with small subsections for the important details of issues covered. What's more, in the process of arguing for the role of ideology in the commission of genocide by the members of the organization he takes a 'from the ground up approach' do explaining it, not as Goldhagen did, assuming a racist outlook in the very blood of these men because they were german. Professor Westermann uses the entire first half of this book detailing the various efforts to creat political soldiers, as he refers to them and then in the second half goes on to describe the resulting actions taken in Poland, the Baltic states and the USSR by the men in these units.

The first chapter is devoted to the deep background of the Uniformed police and following through to the Nazi seizure of power and the party's early efforts to gain control of the police throughout Germany, starting with Prussia. Here he describes the traditions of violence within the police going back as far as the 1870's. He clearly shows an evolution of disdain and in fact hostility towards socialism and leftist politic's which were a threat to the status quo that they were to protect. This evolution became rapidly more evident during the chaos of the early Weimar years during which time the Uniformed Police and the paramilitary `Freikorps' worked together in many instances to violently put down leftist attempts to seize political power throughout Germany. The Nazi's were well aware of this general attitude, contends Westermann, and once they were in power they quickly moved to solidify the hold of right or nationalist high ranking officers by removing those who were less politically reliable.

In his second and third chapters he goes on to explain the efforts that Himmler and Daluege made to create both a militarized and ideologically trained force within the Uniformed Police(UP) that would be linked to Himmler's SS. Westerman gives example after example of military and ideological training that was the norm within Nazi Germany as well as less obvious methods of bringing about the desired change. As well as their infantry style training the men within the UP were clothed in military dress and given military style awards. Physical fitness standards were almost fanatically enforced and military pageantry was also observed. The author shows convincingly as well the effort put into putting ideological training into even the most innocent appearing recreation activities such as evening get togethers and trips to the cinema. This was in addition to actual training sessions and classes on race and global politics. He also, quite convincingly details the efforts made by Himmler to join the police with the SS both ideologically and in practical application as well.

In the second half of the book Professor Westermann focuses on the actual manifestations of the Nazi effort to reshape the police outside of German territory. He shows how the racial war in the east (Poland, the Baltic and the USSR) and the enforcement of occupation policies that followed were proof of Himmler's success in creating political soldiers who would willingly murder men, women and children in pursuit of pacifying the conquered territories. This is the key issue here. Westermann for once and for all does away with Stanley Milgram's model of unsure pawns simply accepting orders from an authority figure. He gives example after example of police volunteering for or taking initiative in mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and Slavs. He shows how in many cases although they may not have all tortured their victims, by and large they continued to volunteer to do their murderous duty and even suggest methods to make their tasks more efficient and take the initiative to include more victims than were intended in many instances. On the other hand he does not portray the majority of all German policemen as the bloodthirsty ideologues from birth that Daniel Goldhagen did with his landmark book. Rather, Professor Westermann carefully documents the myriad efforts of the Nazis over many years to create a political soldier and brother to the men of the SS and their, tragically, very successful results.

This is an absolute 'must-have' book for anyone who has an interest in the first phase of the 'Final Solution'. My one complaint, if it can be called that, is that his treatment of occupation policy was a bit brief considering the duration of time that the UP served as an occupying pacification force. Nonetheless this is an absolutely fantastic piece of work.

This is an excellent book. I would suggest reading "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" first. The role of the German Police in the Holocaust is still little known in America. Unlike the SS they were not declared a criminal organization by the allies at Nurnberg. Most of their work was done in Eastern Europe where since it was behind the "Iron Curtain" little became known of it.

This book is an excellent introduction to the creation of "Political Soldiers" and an excellent argument for not doing so in a democracy. This is one of those books that upon finishing it, you will find it will lead you down a lot of different reading roads in the search of more information.

Kansas (a series of 8 books, theme: Celebrate the States) is a nice little piece (140 pages) of nonfiction on the State of Kansas. Small and concise, it covers a lot of ground for its size. Sharp and well-written (author - Ruth Bjorklund) it presents many of the highlights that make Kansas such an interesting state. I was especially intrigued with the mention of Monument Rocks (near Oakley) and the post rock fences in central Kansas. All in all, it's a good read for those interested in history and the background of the state.

Kansas displays a writing technique, which is concise, but yet not so that it doesn't allow the author's comments to create a side line interest to over ride any thoughts of becoming bored by reading historical nonfiction.

It certainly does the job of describing Kansas from its beginning to the present day.

Kansas Bootleggers presents a criminological view of Kansas during prohibition. It is written in that, "good ol'e boy style," only a history buff could appreciate. The author writes about a time and subject which is not unfamiliar to him. I reccomend this book to anybody interested in criminal justice, Kansas, prohibition, or drinking grain alcohol.

Being a resident of Southeast Kansas, I really enjoyed this book. It told tales that were very interesting and fun to read. This book should be mandatory for all Southeast Kansans!!

I was curious to know what the secret was, yet afraid to find out. If horror ever needed a wake up call, this book has sucessfully done it. I recommend this book to anyone who's into horror and looking for a good read.This book breathes new life into the horror genre.

Great Book!! I was looking for a new kind of horror story.
The story was fresh and alluring. I couldn't put the book down.
Once you start reading this book, finishing it is a must! I couldn't get enough of this book. This book takes you to another world. A world, I woudn't mind paying to take a tour of. I hope Kansas Rae write a part two to this book. I know some director is ready to turn this book into a movie, and when they do; I will be the first person in line to buy a ticket. The book, Keep The secret Alive is a good read!

Ralph Voss's A Life of William Inge is a superb biography with impeccable balance between academic integrity and compassion for the subject. The work is that of a superior scholar who is a relentless detective. Dr. Voss has written a candid and painfully honest analysis of the complex and secretive Inge . Every last scrap of information has been unearthed in compiling the bibliography for this book. A less able author might have been tempted to exploit the anguish of Inge's tortured sexuality to construct a tawdry narrative concentrating on his personal life to the exclusion of an examination of his creative genius and contribution to American drama. Instead, Voss opted to explore all aspects of Inge's damaged psyche and in the process has simultaneously compiled an accurate and fascinating glimpse of post World War II middle class American morality.
The illusive, perplexing Inge was not an easy subject. A Life of William Inge belongs on the shelf of any person interested in the history of the stage, and is absolutely a must buy, gotta have book, for those attempting to write biographies. Not only is it the ultimate standard for combining flawless research skills with a compelling narrative, it's an exquisitely objective account of a lonely troubled man who went from winning the Pulitzer Prize to taking his own life.

Within reading the first few pages of this well researched and illuminating biography of one of America's finest playwrights, it becomes obvious that author Ralph Voss is first and formost a major fan of William Inge, the bard of Kansas. That is always a prerequisite for embarking on a biographical journey. However, Voss' fandom does get in his way frequently as he unsuccessfully confuses is goal: is he a fan or a critic. This is really a small matter as the book does provide a fascinating insight into William Inge, a man whose private nature makes him a shadowy enigma at best.

Even almost thirty years after his death, Voss (writing in 1988), finds it very difficult to focus on Inge's personal life. The book doesn't provide as effective an insight into the writing process or into the man's inter workings as say Leverich's recent biography of Tennessee Williams has. This is due in no small part to the simple but important fact most of Inge's surviving friends and family didn't really know him.

This leaves Voss with little choice but to focus on the work.

Voss makes it apparent that reading a biography of Inge is ultimately anti climatic as the thin layer of fiction in his work barely covers its ultimately autobiographical quality. Anyone who has read, watched or produced Inge's work will immediately recognize the forms, characters and language and situations relfected in his life. Voss proves most successful in drawing, enhancing and exploring those connections. This holds especially as the older,increasingly cynical and bitter Inge attempts to answer his critics (especially Robert Brustein!) and create plays reflective of the volatile 1960's and early 1970's. His latter plays failed perhaps because Inge tried to write outside of his strengths. Watching his bittersweet portraits of midwestern life crumble to dark and violent scenes of depravity really does fill the reader with a sense of sadness and loss. William Inge, like many great artists, decomposed in front of an audience.

Voss does admit that perhaps while Inge was not a great playwright in the sense he did not revolutionize the form as Brecht, Beckett, Odets, Williams, Miller and Wilder did, he did possess an uncanny ability to capture realistic dialouge.

Inge's sepia toned portraits of midwestern manners and life have been overshadowed by the canon of Williams, Miller and O'Neil to be sure. Voss makes the successful case that Inge stands as a proud equal to the more illuminary authors of America's rich dramatic tradition.

A fine read well worth the time and effort about a fine literary artist desperately in need of rediscovering. Even if it doesn't know whether it is a biography or critical evaluation.

Along with Jian Chen 1994 book on what drew Communist China into the Korean conflict, Prof. Zhang's book provides valuable insights on how Mao and the PLA "volunteer" army conducts its warfare against the much better equipped U.S. military. Red China paid a very high price to defend the North Koreans, and Prof. Chen explores the root motivation for this "sacrifice." Prof. Zhang's book focuses on the how of the war, from the Chinese view point. Working with previously classified Chinese documents, the book details how Mao and his military commanders (led by Peng Te-huai, who was purged three years after the Armstice) differed on the strategies and tactics, with Mao coming across as an incompetent bureaucrat who placed zero value on the lives of his soldiers. While there are many mistakes in this book concerning the movements of the U.S. forces (likely because Prof. Zhang is quoting from Chinese military memos -- but it would have been nice if he caught them and corrected them), this book is a must-read for every American who has not forgotten the Forgotten War and the hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties.

Shu Guang Zhang provides an in depth perspective to the Chinese motivation for intervention in the Korean War, and a critical analysis of the strategy employed. Much can be learned of the battlefield strategy and political machinations of this most formitable foe, including the tactics of both the battlefield and the negotiation table.

This is a briskly paced overview of one hundred years' worth of presidents, from McKinley to Clinton (with a very brief mention of George W. Bush). That Gould starts with McKinley is notable, for historians have tended to place the origins of the modern presidency with his successor, Theodore Roosevelt. In tracing the development of the presidency as an institution, Gould follows a handful of key themes: (1) the rise of mass media and its effects on the presidency; (2) the rise of continual campaigning; (3) problem-ridden second terms; and (4) the decline of parties and its consequences. Only the fourth receives unsatisfactory treatment: Gould mentions it as a theme and never really follows up on it, and while parties as nominating and institutional forces may have declined with the spread of primaries, they surely play a larger role in today's polarized political atmosphere.

Each president is assessed, and except for the somewhat unique argument for McKinley, the analyses are not surprising. Gould, for the most part, agrees with other historians' assessments. Not enough time has lapsed since Clinton, and the chapter he gets is weak; Gould opted to focus on the scandals and controversies. Most interesting of all, perhaps, is Gould's conclusion that the modern presidency is ill-equipped to deal with the problems of this century.

Overall, a solid overview of the presidency.

This book is both erudite and accessible, and it's an excellent survey of the modern Presidency, which Gould, a respected University of Texas historian, points out has been transformed in roughly the past hundred years from an intimate, folksy, at times nearly one-man operation into an unwieldy, unworkable, and dangerously out-of-touch apparatus that has far less to do with running the country than it does with raising cash, making meaningless appearances and feeding the media, and getting re-elected to a Constitutionally-allowed (and historically-mandated) second term that in most cases is a failure compared with the first term. (Can you think of a President since Franklin Roosevelt whose second term was more successful than the first?)

Other reviewers of this book have pointed out that Gould's position on the evolution of the presidency is a paradox, since in order to be effective, the modern president must be a master of the perpetual campaign, and yet the perpetual campaign is what Gould believes is the bane of the presidency, transforming it into a position of celebrity and spectacle rather than one of leadership and policy. However, that is a paradox that needs to be examined more deeply in a philosophical context; this book is a survey, not a political science text, and Gould gets points for raising the paradox, which is a provocative one, in the first place.

The book is full of anecdotes and lucid detail about the modern presidents, along with Gould's snappy and precise evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of each, and the factors in the broader political culture of each man's term in office that changed the presidency forever. He is not particularly partisan in his political stance; he has good and bad to say about each president. There are many surprises in this short but rewarding book, and there are excellent suggestions for further reading at the back.

A really good cozy mystery series that takes place in a small quaint town in Kansas. Picasso has opened a gourmet restaurant in this unusual setting and the townsfolk are loving it. Po and her gang of quilters are fans of Picasso's. A plump, little man with a gorgeous wife. His wife Laurel is found dead in the water and they're not sure if she slipped or it was foul play.....you figure it out. So the sloughing begins. With all the quaint shops, the loveable characters and a good mystery, you will find this another charming book in the series.

I enjoyed reading the second book on the Queen Bee Quilters. This one wasn't quite as complex as the first one, but all of the quilters are so genuine. This Quilt Bee reminds me of real quilting bees, the members are diverse, their preferences for techniques, fabrics, and colors are very different, and, of course their approach to projects vary depending on their way of starting new quilts. Our own little bee is so similar in many ways, and although every member is unique, we have so much life we have shared together that we are very close.

The previous review is right on; I would add that this book is succinct, and the prose is clear and laypersons should find it understandable. Indeed, laypeople might want to understand the problems that this 60-year-old case poses to our society now. The 9/11 attack and the subsequent Bush Administration order creating special military tribunals -- "military commissions" of the type that tried the 1942 saboteurs -- has inspired several new books on this incident. Mr. Fisher's book distinguishes itself in focusing on the legal importance of this case -- that became the Supreme Court's Ex Parte Quirin ruling. Quirin is still important case law in questions of special tribunals and wartime detention of enemy suspects. Further, and Mr. Fisher brings this out, the Bush Administration's tribunal system seems to be patterned on FDR's.

I recommend this and Louis Fisher's 2005 work, Military Tribunals and Presidential Power to those interested in post-9/11 legal issues.

REVIEWED BY PHILIP GOLD http://www.washtimes.com/books/

The Congressional Research Service, part of the Library of Congress, is filled with people who do fine work. Among the best is Louis Fisher, legal scholar and CRS senior specialist in Separation of Powers. Mr. Fisher combines a plain, effective style with a mature analytic sense. The result has been over three decades of books and studies that - blessings upon the taxpayer - actually inform and affect the real world. "Nazi Saboteurs on Trial," which Mr. Fisher intends as a prelude to his definitive history of American military tribunals, is only the latest example.
This short, meticulously researched monograph assesses one of the stranger legal escapades of World War II. The facts of the case are not in question. What matters is how the military and civilian court systems performed, the interaction of the executive and judicial branches, and whether that episode should or could serve as precedent for the trial of terrorists and other "unlawful combatants" by military means.
Mr. Fisher's answer: While such types do not and should not enjoy automatic access to the U.S. civilian court system and its protections, the use of military tribunals raises questions that cannot and should not be ignored.
The facts of the case are these.
In the 1941 "Sebold Affair," the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the help of William Sebold, a German turned American counterspy, rolled up over 30 Nazi agents. Adolf Hitler, perturbed, demanded that English-speaking saboteurs be dispatched to America, there to smash factories and railroads and Jewish-owned department stores, spread panic, and generally make themselves a nuisance. German intelligence, the Abwehr, didn't think much of the idea, but deemed it prudent to keep the Fuhrer happy.
So they went out and recruited the original Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight: eight Germans who had lived in the United States (two of them naturalized citizens), but had returned to Germany in the '30s for various reasons. None was the brightest tree in the forest; group cohesion and mutual trust might be described as negative, at best. Still, the eight were given a few weeks' training, then toted aboard two submarines.
In June, 1942, one group landed in New Jersey, the other in Florida. They came ashore in German uniforms, which would give them combatant status in case of immediate capture. They then changed into civvies, buried their tradecraft, and walked off with not much more than their ample moneybelts and orders to win one for the Fuhrer.
They were apprehended quickly, mostly because one of their number, George Dasch, called the FBI to let them know they'd arrived. Perhaps none of the men intended actually to commit any sabotage. None did. But that didn't keep six of them from the electric chair that August, and two others from life sentences.
Justice, such as it was, came swiftly and questionably. President Franklin Roosevelt, taking a grim special interest in the case, determined to try them by secret military tribunal. He appointed the members and decreed himself the sole reviewing authority. Further, the tribunal would not be a standard court martial, governed by the Articles of War and other legislation. It would be an ad hoc commission, governed by the "laws of war" (a nebulous category) and empowered to make such procedural changes as it deemed expedient.
Among them: Although civilian and military courts could not impose the death penalty for actual acts of sabotage, this tribunal could, and did, for acts that were never committed, and may never have been intended.
Clearly, this setup raised numerous questions regarding the separation of powers, military jurisdiction in time of war, and of fundamental fairness. One of the defense attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court, which effectually evaded the issue until after the executions, then issued its opinion in Ex Parte Quirin - a document that did nothing for the luster of the Court, then or since.
In essence, concludes Mr. Fisher, the Supreme Court functioned as "an arm of the executive." It reaffirmed that enemy combatants have no constitutional right of access to civilian courts; that the two citizens had forfeited their citizenship by taking up arms; and that when they took off their uniforms, they became "illegal combatants" who could have been shot out of hand, but who were graciously afforded a trial.
Finally, the Court held that it could not assess the trial itself, since that was secret.
In sum, a mixed set of precedents, ranging from common sense to dereliction of duty. And the question arises - will we be able to learn from the affair to make the handling and disposition of terrorists and other "illegal combatants" both more effective and more just?
Or will we be fortunate even to do as well?