Germany Books

I'm biased. I got a copy of Jeffrey Forgeng's translation of the I.33 manuscript (the oldest extant work on swordsmanship)about five years ago and have been working with it ever since. Even so, I was astounded at the beauty and clarity of the lovely colour plates, reproduced here at amazing resolution.

I.33 occupies a special place in fencing history, demonstrating the sophistication of swordsmanship at this early date (1300AD). It shows a marvelous system of sword and buckler play, every bit as subtle as any later fencing system (and why wouldn't it? medieval swordsmen's lives depended on their skill with a sword, so of course their skill was highly developed).

This is an excellent translation of a key work in the history of swordsmanship. It is not a how-to book though an accompanying one exists (Written by Paul Wagner and myself). Anyone interested in western swordsmanship, the history of movement or of teaching methodology, or simply interested in a fine piece of artwork from the late 13th century needs this book on their shelves.

Stephen Hand
Author of Medieval Sword and Shield:
The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33

I've spent the last 5 weeks pouring over this book and I love it. But I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. You'll have to learn to visualise guards and counters and run all the various permutations through your head (unless you have a sparring partner) from a set of medieval illustrations with all the usual flaws of perspective that you might expect. Once you start to connect the reality of sword & buckler fighting to the unusual stylistic elements of the drawings, a whole world of insight will be opened up to you.

Before tackling this book, I'd suggest you find out about "invitation", "counter-timing" and "inside and outside lines". I'd suggest you read Guy Windsor's "A Swordsman's Companion" as it has some of the most elegant descriptions of fighting principles I've ever read. And perhaps read some DiGrassi to learn about buckler shadows (if my memory serves me right).

I'd also highly recommend you read Wagner & Hand's interpretation of the I.33 manuscript (Medieval Sword & Shield) at the same time.

Royal Armouries MS I.33 is the oldest illustrated fencing manual in existence, which makes this book valuable to students of European Medieval martial arts for that reason alone. However, it also has the distinctions of describing an interesting non-military style of fencing, is beautifully illustrated in the style of illuminated religious manuscripts, and depicts priests and women fencers! Because of the 8.5 x 11 glossy, color plates, this book is expensive, but I think it is worth it for the reasons cited above.

The translator, Dr. Jeffrey Forgeng, has been working in the field for decades and his introductory material and footnotes are exhaustive and provide a lot of information on the context of the Medieval German fencing tradition that are not in print anywhere else.

Understand, however, that this is a facsimile and translation of a manuscript, it is not a how-to book on medieval sword fighting. The how-to book on this system is Paul Wagner & Stephen Hand's "Medieval Sword and Shield: The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33" also published by Chivalry Bookshelf.

No serious library of books on European Medieval martial arts is complete without this book.

Memoirs is an easy to read account of a girl growing up in Berlin during WWII. The book includes contemporary news sources, song lyrics, recipes, and other interesting information about that time. A good read for those interested in women's history.

Memoirs of a 1000-year-old woman is a compelling account of life in berlin during WWII. The author provides a wealth of fascinating information about life in Nazi Germany. By taking the perspective of an ordinary girl growing up in berlin, the author enables the reader to imagine what it would have been like to live at that time and place and gain an understanding of the psyche of the people of WWII berlin. Memoirs is an important historical and sociological text that will be of great interest to readers.

Memoirs of a 1000 Year Old Woman is a book that should be read by everyone. It details everyday life in Nazi Germany through the eyes of a young girl. Ms. McBride meticulously takes us through her day-to-day activities with careful attention to detail. We see what life was like for the ordinary citizen, caught up in the maelstrom of war.The author relates the problems of living with rationing, bombing raids, restrictions imposed by the government, etc. Ms. McBride's courage, strength, humor, and independence shine through the pages. This book is a wonderful historical record of the times. I highly recommend it!

I bought the hardback edition which is/was a lot more expensive - wish I had waited! Actually, it matters not a jot; this book is great value, regardless of cost.

It took me three readings to absorb most of the contents; for this biography is densely written, full of fact and detail and without much prose for its own sake. Nevertheless, it is eminently readable with a flowing narrative style and in no sense is it heavy going. That it took me three readings is a (non)function of my failing intellect rather than a comment upon the authorship. Regardless of the serious nature of the subject, this book really is a "good read" in its own right.

One of this work's many strengths is that Todd paints with a very broad brush. His view encompasses the social history necessary to see the Mendelssohns against the background of their particular time and the author does a superlative job in portraying their circumstances in a largely anti-Semitic Germany. However, the focus always remains on this extraordinary musician with a creative life lived on so many levels and embracing so many artistic and intellectual pursuits. Felix Mendelssohn emerges as a rounded, developed figure and not the slightly colourless aesthete which a distorted history sometimes has chosen to portray him.

This is a scholarly, well-edited and proof-read volume; the only mistake I noticed was Wellington at Blenheim. (I'm not an American so might just as easily have put Washington at Bull Run . . !) However, from a purely personal standpoint, I should like to have had a little more information on the organ recitals given in England. Several references are made to his having performed Bach works which he so enthusiastically championed but very few English instruments (C or G compass) of the period had a pedal division enabling them to accomplish this.

In short, a totally absorbing account of the life of a fascinating member of a particularly gifted family. I thoroughly recommend it.

Felix Mendelssohn lived only thirty-eight years (Feb 1809- Nov 1847) and yet he had a profound impact on the way Art Music continues to be enjoyed in our time even if he is himself unjustly too far from the public consciousness and his musical works not, while not unperformed, are not performed nearly enough considering their musical quality and artistic merit. He was a man of prodigious genius, manifold talents, and a genuinely gracious and generous man. All rare gifts in this world.

This excellent and much needed modern biography of this most important musician was written by R. Larry Todd. The author gave the book a perfect subtitle - "A Life in Music" because Mendelssohn's whole life, since his early accomplishments as a prodigy, was devoted to composing, performing, conducting, and championing past composers such as Bach and newer young composers and performers who shared his views on the musical arts. The book makes very enjoyable reading because of the way Todd intertwines the life and the music that came out of it. Mendelssohn, like some but more than many composers, wrote and modified pieces for specific occasions and for certain performers. I found the numerous musical examples to be well chosen and illuminating. However, if you cannot read music, you can still understand what they author is saying form his clear and to the point prose.

Felix's grandfather was the famous philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his father, Abraham, was a prominent banker so Felix and extremely talented sister Fanny did not have to struggle to develop their talents. Abraham converted to Christianity and his children were raised with a Christian faith. Felix's Protestant faith was clear in his music to the day he died even though that aspect of his life is downplayed too much nowadays. Both Fanny and Felix were brilliant piano virtuosos and Felix was also a virtuoso on the organ and violin. They both composed well, but more emphasis was placed on Felix because he was the male and, from available evidence, the greater genius.

It was natural to compare Felix to Mozart, as young prodigies are too this day. In Felix's case it was a warranted comparison, even if his art was not as transcendent as Mozart's. Felix was a brilliant improviser. While every well trained keyboardist (especially organists) were expected to be able to improvise any number of pieces and styles upon provided material, or on material they made up, the kind of ability that Mendelssohn had in this area was beyond brilliant. He was not only capable of solving canons on the fly or harmonizing and making variations on a chorale, he could also turn the subject into a fugue, a double fugue, and more.

Then there is also his memory. There was a concert series where he was repeating a Schubert trio that he had performed a month earlier. However, the music for the piece was only on the stands for the string players. No problem, Mendelssohn played the piano part from memory. However, in order to not draw attention to himself and make his memory the point of the performance, he had the page turner just reach up and turn the pages of whatever was on the music rack to make it look like he was reading from the score!

He could also draw and paint beautifully. Professor Todd provides us with many beautiful samples of Mendelssohn's work and it is very beautiful. Fanny also married an artist and it was he who drew Fanny shortly before her premature death and Felix upon his death bed a few months later. Mendelssohn traveled widely. Like many other young men from wealthy families, he went on a grand tour of Europe and met many of the important people of his day, both artists and men of position in government and business. He always impressed people favorably because of his personal grace, great talents, and, well, charisma. It was a different kind of magnetism than, say, a Liszt. But Mendelssohn had it nonetheless. People were excited when he walked into a room. Musicians played better under his leadership.

And though I believe Mendelssohn is no less a victim of a change in taste than was J. S. Bach was in Felix's day, I know he is a great composer who deserves more attention than he gets in the current repertoire. His symphonies are of high quality, his piano and organ music has much merit, and his oratorios were highly acclaimed and widely performed even in the mid-twentieth century. His songs were often sung, and his chamber music delighted both performers and listeners. So, what changed? Personally, I believe it is our present addiction to irony and a kind of narcissistic attachment to extremes. Mendelssohn does not offer this and so doesn't speak to many people. His music is full of great craft in counterpoint and harmony; his texts are full of health, love, devotion, pride, and faith. To some nowadays he sounds a bit corny. Like all great artists, he is a mirror in which we see ourselves clearly, but think we judge the artist who is actually above our judgment. And we come off poorly if we do not appreciate his genius.

So, if Mendelssohn is "forgotten" how does he affect our approach to Art Music (Classical Music) today? Simple. He was one of the first to lead the orchestra with a baton from the front, to great positive effect. He helped in the revival of J.S. Bach including the b-minor mass and the St. Matthew Passion. His approach to editing texts for publication looked toward our current standard of printing only what the composer wrote as an "Urtext" with editorial emendations clearly marked and separate if possible. He also helped form several great orchestras and when he traveled he helped raise the level of performers all over the world. These traditions live on. Would that we honor the man who authored them.

It is true that his own tendencies toward perfectionism prevented him from ever settling on a libretto for an opera, something he had always wanted to write. However, he left us much to appreciate and it is our fault if we don't explore his works and perform it in our homes, amateur ensembles, and professional musical organizations.

There is more that I could write, but most importantly go read this excellent book and listen to the music of this great man and genius of music.

As a Mendelssohn specialist I pre-ordered this book, and have been working my way through it for the past few weeks. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who is interested in this remarkable composer and his music. It has many points to commend it for scholars(extensive recourse to important but obscure archival documents, correction of major and minor factual errors that have persisted in all the previous Mendelssohn biographies, etc.), and just as much to commend it to general readerships: it's elegantly written, well balanced, informative on contextual, musical, and biographical fronts, etc. Fanny is arguably as present in the pages of this book as she was in Mendelssohn's life. And, not least of all, it's remarkably affordable. I am a former student of Professor Todd (having gotten my Ph.D. from Duke University in 1994), but can also say that I offer these remarks without any bias other than that of being one who admires the music and life of Mendelssohn.

If this reads like an endorsement, it is. I highly recommend the
volume to all who want to know more about Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

Me 264 IS A MUST HAVE BOOK AS IT IS A MOST REFRESHING MASTERPIECE ON THE LITTLE KNOWN PSEUDO "LUFTWAFFE 1946" ASPECT OF THE WAR WHICH ALMOST HAPPENED! YES NEW YORK CITY U.S.A. WAS A TARGET IN THE EYE OF THE LUFTWAFFE EAGLE! THAT IS THIS HISTORICAL ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN & ILLUSTRATE THE TRAGIC WASTED GENIUS OF THOSE TALENTED MANY EXPLOITED BY THE THIRD REICH'S AMBITIONS IS NOT THE USUAL TYPICAL REHASH OF EXISTING MATERIAL ( & MANY STUPID OBVIOUS MISTAKES RECOPIED SO AS TO BE MADE ERRONEOUSLY "CORRECT" FACTS ) COPIED & RECOPIED BY ALL THE UNQUESTIONABLE EXPERTS THAT BE , BUT RATHER FRESH NEW RESEARCH INDEPENDENT OF WHAT ALREADY IS IN PRINT & REPRINT 1000 TIMES OVER! SO GET READY FOR SOME REALLY GREAT REICH RESEARCH READING FROM NOW ANOTHER VIOLENT CENTURY FOREVER PAST AS THIS BOOK WILL GIVE YOU CHILLS AS TO HOW REALLY CLOSE WE CAME TO BEING BOMBED IN THE 1940s! IT IS NOT OVER SO PRAY FOR PEACE BUBELA! GOD bless america! SMILE!

The fact that Germany began the design of large bombers with the intent of bombing the United States, serving as recon for U-Boats, or bombing beyond the Ural mountains is well known. There were a hald dozen or so projects underway to design and build such an airplane. Of these, the Messerschmitt Me 264 was the most advanced, the most tested (70+ flights), and the one closest to being ready to put into production.

Had the Germans bombed New York City, the effect would probably be similar to that of the Japanese after the Doolittle raid, that is, putting a lot more effort in creating a stronger air force at home, and generally beefing up anti aircraft defenses.

But the planes were never built. The Me 264 reached the stage of having one flying prototype, but by then the Germans had had enough. All aircraft production was put into fighters to defend against the Allied bomber campaign.

This book details the construction of the Me 264, as well as having chapters on competitive aircraft, the German Atomic Bomb project, and the political aspects of the decision to discontinue the effort of building the plane. This is a very well researched book on a subject that has only been hinted at before.

If you have a strong interest in this unique German aircraft (only one was ever completed), then you'll want to own this book. I have waited many years for such a volume to appear in print and at last it has. You will NOT be disappointed with it.

The authors give us a technically detailed and comprehensive description of the Me 264's genesis, development, construction, flight testing and ultimate destruction at the hands of Allied bombers. They also provide extensive background history on the Luftwaffe's efforts to produce a long-range strategic bomber fleet, the personalities involved in those efforts and the reasons why it eventually all came to naught.

Competing designs for the "Amerika Bomber" project (such as the Junkers Ju 290 and 390, Heinkel He 177 and Blohm & Voss Bv 222) are reviewed as well as brief mention of Italian plans to strike New York using the four-engined Cant Z.511 floatplane, the SM.95 land plane and the three-engined Piaggio P.23R.

The book is profusely illustrated with large-format close-up photos of the Me 264 V 1 under construction and undergoing flight evaluation, factory design plans, 3-view renderings of the proposed swept wing version (using a combination of piston engines and turbo-jets) and includes interesting sidebars on the BMW 801 engine, the British recon flight confirming the plane's existence to the Allies and on Messerschmitt test pilot Karl Baur who flew the Me 264 at least thirty times.

Well-researched and consistently absorbing to read, this book will serve as an excellent reference work on the Me 264 for both the WWII military aircraft enthusiast and modeler. Robert Forsyth and Eddie Creek deserve kudos for sharing their extensive knowledge of this elegant-looking aircraft and removing it from undeserved obscurity.

Michael returns home to Germany from the front lines of both Russian and French battle-fields and begins studying at a university where he meets Hertha Holk, whom he describes as "a beautiful woman! Blondish-brown hair, silky soft, in a heavy knot on the back of that wonderful neck...she peers deamily out a window...suddenly, she turns around to me, and I look into a pair of large, grayish-green enigmas." His writing style paints visionary & emotional pictures in the reader's mind; "Hertha Holk: I read the name in her notebook. How much closer just a name brings us. We are no longer strangers even though we have not exchanged a single word."

Throughout the novel, it is Goebbels himself I picture in Michael's place; when he and Hertha exchange their first kiss, as the two talk repeatedly about politics & philosophy...and their powerful love for each other, as he watches a seeming prototype of Hitler speak, when he meets & befriends young Gustav Adolf on an island vacation, as he debates with his friend Ivan Vienurovsky & best friend Richard, when he flies into a rage & destroys a play he's written after Hertha leaves him, and as he toils away in a worker's pit. The last 1/3 of the novel is absent Hertha Holk (a character who's inspiration was Goebbels' real-life true love, Anka Stalherm), and I found myself wishing her return. The only downside of this book is the anti-Semitism in some diary entries, which I'd much rather read in Goebbels' WWII essays. The polemics stick out like sore thumbs perhaps because the book was completed before Goebbels joined the NSDAP and it later saw many revisions to include the Nazi philosophy as well as Hertha Holk's minor emotional turmoil, before actually being picked up by a publisher and mass-produced.

All in all, it's a surprisingly good read (written mostly in a diary form--it is said to be taken largely from Goebbels' own personal diaries of 1919 & 1920, which no longer exist), perhaps because it bears many similarities to Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther," with fairly well developed characters, and an ending that sounds cliched if you're told it before-hand, but pulls at your gut once you've read it for yourself. An excellent addition to any WWII history class, and highly recommended to those interested in what was truly the 'roaring 20s'--the 20s in Germany.

This book is written by the young Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who was later destined to become minister of Propaganda, among other things, in the German Third Reich of 1933-45. The book is written in the form of a diary, from the start as the young Michael returns home to Germany from the trenches of WW1 until the end which finds Michael as a miner. The book is supposedly very autobiographical, and it has a very genuine feeling throughout, so I don't doubt this at all. Granted, I have not yet read his famous diaries or the biography of Goebbels from David Irving, but I guess I know enough of him from before to find this very interesting.

The young Michael is struggling in his feelings about the new decadent Weimar republic, and the general zeitgeist of this new "Germany". He both loves and abhors it, but as the German nationalist that he is, he yearns to awaken both himself and his fellow countrymen to a revolution against the modern "spirit". He attends university, where he meets Hertha, his future girlfriend. She is from a bourgeois family, so they both love and misunderstand each other. The book really puts emphasis on the "socialist" in "national socialist", and it is very interesting to see how radical the early NS really were. Granted, they more or less betrayed this early radicalism later on, but it makes an interesting contrast between life and teaching. The book also shows Goebbels ambivalent views on communism, pan-Slavism, matriarchal influences and so on. The book is a bit excessively influenced by the cult of motherhood, but I guess Dr. Goebbels was a bit of a ladies man. The book also has some very striking quotes to offer us;

P. 73; "That is the horror of it; a wall of arrogance, property and education stands between the upper and lower classes. We no longer understand one another. We are not a nation, we are two partisan camps embroiled in a fierce feud. That is why we became a plaything in the hands of the powers that rule the world. When upper and lower classes are one, the earth will be ours."

P. 121; "This is what the Fatherland should be like some day. Everyone not equal, but all of us brothers."

So even though it is a bit slow in the start, you really feel for Michael and his struggle. I highly recommend you spend two hours or so in the company of Michael, I suspect you will not regret it. 5 stars.

Not only could he play the piano like Beethoven. Dr Goebbels, was a great writer, poet, Philosopher, mystic, and artist. The ending brought tears to my eyes. Goebbels is one of the greatest geniuses of all time, almost as misunderstood as Billy the Kid. This is the best book I have ever read, and I read much more than most avid readers, mostly non fiction books, because I will not read fiction unless it is writing of the highest quality, not the crap most peole like.

It is difficult to believe that this book was written by someone whose native language was not English, because it flows so well and its rhetoric is firmly on the ground of American English (and Kuehn discusses this in the book). A very engaging account of a young man's coming of age during the rise of Hitler as a "Mischling," or one who had one Jewish parent, and how he slipped through the cracks of the German bureaucracy--up to a point. This autobiographical work has all the suspense of a murder mystery, and follows the author's life up until the time he forsakes a successful writing/editing career in Germany for a new life in America in the 1950s. I loved it!

I am a student at a local high school, and after learning about WWII and the horrendous accounts of the Holocaust I read this book to continue to feed the growing hunger of interest for the topic. Mixed Blessings by Heinz Kuehn is a fantastically written and EXTREMELY interesting account of a half-Jewish young man in a Nazi Germany. From the explanation of his intriguing family to the force and hardship of being a drafted Jew, this book can make the toughest of the tough realize how hard life truly was and, at times, force them to break down and cry. Seeing an actual person going through such hateful treatment just blows my mind. I recommend fully to anyone who has a heart or an interest in WWII: READ THIS CAPTIVATING AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN NOVEL!

The author came to adulthood in Germany in the late 1930s, but because his mother was Jewish he was not allowed in the German Army, so he was a civilain during most of the war. He himself was Catholic and his account of the life he led is extraordinarily interesting. I found this book utterly absorbing and one of the very best books I have read in a long time.

Mustang Designer: Edgar Schmued And The P-51 is the complete story behind the development and deployment of one of the most famous fighter aircraft of World War II. Beginning with the choosing of fighter designs in the formative years of 1935 to 1939 covering P-30 to P-50 craft, author Ray Wagner presents the birth of the Mustang in 1940 as designed by Ed Schmued and North American Aviation. The various incarnations and variations of the Mustang are followed up to and including the early jet age years of 1945 to 1952 and the Northrop Aviation launch of a new fighter. A highly recommended design and development history, Mustang Designer is enhanced for the aviation enthusiast and military buff with an appendix, notes, glossary, bibliography and index.

This is an excellent book, and serves as both a biography about Edgar Schmued and a history of the engineering work behind the P-51 and several other aircraft. Schmued led the design team that created the P-51. It does not cover all of the details behind the development of the P-51, leaving out the politics of how the USAAF finally adopted this half British aircraft. The best part of this book is that it is possible to see how closely the North American engineers worked with the test pilots and field reports; it was this tightly coupled engineering culture which responded quickly to every input, every flaw, that enabled the P-51 Mustang to reach perfection first and beat out its rivals.

Another book "P-51 Mustang: Development of the Long Range Escort Fighter" covers the bigger picture of the USAAF's overall search for a better fighter plane. This book very much complements "Mustang Designer" and should be read to get the full flavor of what happened with the P-51's development. For example, "P-51 Mustang" talks about the role of Colonel Thomas Hitchcock in championing the P-51 with the Roosevelt administration at a time when some in the USAAF brass were trying to kill it (an upper crust polo player, he had direct connections to the Roosevelt administration), but fails to mention Hitchcock's ultimate fate. "Mustang Designer" mentions almost in passing that Hitchcock was killed while test flying a P-51D on April 18, 1944, but does not go into the details of how crucial he was to the adoption of the P-51 by the USAAF.

One reviewer complained about the lack of information about Schmued's use of conical sections in designing the curves of the airplane. There is a half-page description of Schmued's use of conical sections on the P-51 - page 57, which does explain the principles, if not the details of what Schmued did.

"Mustang Designer" does clear up some urban legends about the P-51. It was the British who started the myth that the P-51 was designed by a German who had worked for Messerschmitt.

Schmued was indeed a German-Austrian, with an Austrian citizenship until he immigrated to the U.S. by way of Brazil. He was sponsored to come to the United States through his excellent work for General Motors in Brazil (immigration rules were extremely strict at that time - he was one of 794 people with Austrian citizenships admitted in the 1929 quota) and went straight to work for Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America, which was an aircraft company that was owned by General Motors and based in New Jersey. He joined North American Aviation when it was reorganized as an aircraft manufacturer. Schmued never worked for Messerschmitt; he did work for Fokker, but, despite its name, this was a wholly American owned company that happened to have Dutchman Anthony Fokker as its head.

The book goes on with details about the later problems with the F-82 (the USAF forced North American to use a two-stage supercharger Allison V-1710, which was an engineering flop, instead of the Packard-Merlin engine). Schmued also had a hand in the designs of the F-86 and F-100, but the exact details of what he did are not spelled out in this book. Schmued left North American in 1952, after Dutch Kindelberger became ill and started to devolve power to Lee Atwater, with whom Schmued disagreed intensely (the intensity of this disagreement is seen by the fact that Schmued was just three years shy of being fully invested in a pension from North American when he left - as a result, he received no pension from North American).

This book does not talk about the post-Schmued, post-Kindelberger years at North American, but they were mostly filled with a series of aircraft designs that never made it into production. The F-100 would be the last fighter plane that North American would produce. Schmued would leave North American before the F-100 flew (he lost a final dispute over changes to the design of the F-100), and it is clear from the subsequent prolonged teething problems of the F-100 that North American sorely missed Schmued's troubleshooting genius.

With Kindelberger and Schmued gone, the excellent engineering culture of North American seemed to wither under the mediocre stewardship of Lee Atwater. North American went into the space business, but this would culminate in the disastrous fire that killed the Apollo 1 astronauts in 1967. The negative backlash from that disaster (North American had built the command module that caught fire) ultimately forced North American to merge with Rockwell, which then buried this once famous name completely. (This later period of North American's history is not covered in this book).

Schmued, on the other hand, would go on to work for Northrop, and would help revive the flagging engineering designs of that company by designing the F-5. Ironically, the person who would hire him was Oliver Echols, the general in the USAAF who had played a semi-antagonistic role against the P-51 during its early days (Echols's role against the P-51 is described in the book "P-51 Mustang").

Also not mentioned in this book is the fact that Schmued's F-5 design would evolve into Northrop's YF-17, which then became the F-18, the Navy's current all-purpose and ONLY fighter plane (now that the F-14s have all been chopped up to keep Iran from obtaining parts for their remaining F-14s).

Overall this is an extremely valuable book for understanding the history of the P-51, F-82, F-100, North American Aviation, the F-5, and the man behind all of those success stories, Edgar Schmued.

Amazon has four listings for various other printings of this book:

0517088207 Random House 1992 (hardcover)

0517567938 Crown 1st edition 1990 (hardcover)

B000KRITOC Orion Books 1990 (hardcover)

B000QRPVEC Orion books 1991 (hardcover)

All of these are out of print, and so this paperback reprint by Smithsonian Institute Press is the most readily available.

the history of conic sections at North American Aviation (NAA). NAA was using conics in '32, Schmued was (at the least) an enthusiastic supporter of conics, and his P-51 Mustang was the first aircraft to be completely defined by conics.

Roy A. Liming worked with Schmued to mathematically analyze the Mustang's shapes, tangents and curvatures. Schmued wrote an introduction to Liming and Hartley's series of articles for Aero Digest explaining the use of conics. These articles (along with the success of the Mustang) showed that NAA was ahead of it's time during WWII.

My 8 year old daughter and I loved this story set around a grand old observatory in Hamburg, Germany. Following the children Elizabeth, Jonathan, and Peter as they tried to locate the missing notebooks of long deceased Professor Vollrath was great fun. Over a period of about a week, this was my daughter's bedtime story and she was eager to go to bed to hear it. We both found ourselves trying to figure out the meaning of the mysterious three dots clue left by the professor, and the significance of the strange goings-on at the Observatory at night. The backdrop of astronomers doing their work on the "Big Refractor", and of the old castle nearby, made a great setting for a mystery. After we finished the story, my daughter declared it was her favorite book. We highly recommend this book to young people who enjoy a good mystery, especially when such youthful sleuths are involved!

Mrs. Rosellini has written two other great books in this series (The Puzzle in the Portrait and Mystery of the Ancient Coins), but in my opinion this is her best one yet. Kids can read these books by themselves or with an adult. The two main characters, Elizabeth and Jonathon Pollack, travel to Germany in this book and find a mystery involving long lost scientific notes, some interesting characters, a spooky abandoned observatory, and an old stone castle. Elizabeth and Jonathon meet a new friend in this book, a German boy named Peter, who is a little bossy but very funny. Together the three of them solve the case and become good friends along the way.

Mrs. Rosellini's books are all very good because they are filled with lots of details based on true events in her family's lives, and because you never know what is going to happen next. Her books also teach kids about keeping histories of their own families. I give all of her books two thumbs up and recommend them to any kid with a sense of imagination and adventure. I liked these books so much that I gave copies to my friends for Christmas gifts, and I also gave copies to my teacher and to the school library. I hope you'll pick Mrs. Rosellini's books to enjoy and share with your family and friends, too.

This, the third instalment in the Hidden Treasure series, finds my favorite sister and brother ace detectives in Hamburg, Germany, with their parents. They dust off their German, make themselves comfortable and encounter not only a new "hystery" to be solved but meet a new partner, Peter, a slightly over the top German version of themselves. Their enthusiasm and determination is contagious; these kids would rather get to the bottom of a puzzle developing right in front of them than watch TV. The action is ratcheted up a notch and for the first time I felt that their investigation put them close to a criminal if not evil element. But where scientific minds and professional investigators gave up and ran out of ideas, this young crew solves a real puzzle that matters to many people. Bravo Eleanor Rosellini!

The language of the mystic is universal and mysticism is the universal constant running through all the world's religions, though many of the world's religions deny their mystical side. I just discovered Willigis Jager when standing in the checkout line at my local bookstore a month ago. I looked over on the shelf and there was Jager's "Search for the Meaning of Life." I loved it and then bought this book. I was delighted to see Jager use the analogy of the ocean and its waves to depict manifested existence. It's an analogy I used in my book too. The language of the mystic is, indeed, universal.

This book is a lighter treatment of the same concepts in "Search for the Meaning of Life." It's a great intro to Jager. You won't be disappointed.

The author tries to bridge the dividing gap that some religions have introduced between God and the world. We should be prepared to reconcile theology and modern science and try to give new interpretations to old untenable doctrines.
There are many ways of expressing the divine.
The real unity between religions will come from common experiences of reality, knowing that as humans we are limited in our ability to grab all its dimensions.
Faith needs to be strengthened by experience. We need to include God in our daily life. When we encounter God in this world, moral behavior will emerge naturally.
Resurrection or salvation, is presented here as an awakening to our actual essence in a transpersonal unity with God.
A book to read slowly and carefully.

This book is the next best thing to sitting down with Bishop, Zen master Jager, asking him your questions and listening to his answers. In a clear, loving style, he provides original, insightful connections between the christian mystery and the Buddhist dhamma, between science and spirituality. I have underlined sentences in almost every page. I read this book as a followup to his earlier work, "Search for the Meaning of Life", a denser, longer description of the unity underlying all mystical experience.

The third in the author's trilogy on the 1813 campaign. He covers the entire period from September to December 1813, and in addition to Leipzig itself, he covers the battles leading up to it in Sept. and early Oct, the French retreat after the battle, the sieges of the fortresses incl Danzig, Glogau, Dresden, Magdeburg and numerous others, plus coverage of the Danes in December. Leipzig dashed the dreams of a French Empire when the armies of Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Sweden converged on Napoleon and his Grande Armee. It was the greatest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, so decisive it would be called "the Battle of Nations." Smaller countries like Poland and Saxony seemed to be submerged in the titanic struggle, and the battle shaped Europe for more than a century. Napoleon at Leipzig not only covers this pivotal battle, but also the maneuvers that led up to it and the retreat that followed. At Hanau, the Bavarians learned to their dismay that Napoleon was still the master of the battlefield. The book includes the campaigns of Marshal Davout in the north, and the fate of the besieged French fortresses. From glittering field marshals to ragged Cossacks, in massive battles or small skirmishes, we see the dramatic campaign unfold. George Nafziger s intensive research into the 1813 campaign shows how the finest general of all time was bought to bay. The greatest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, and the campaign that led up to it, is thoroughly studied for the first time in English in Napoleon at Leipzig
1996, hard bound in dust jacket, 7 1/2, x 10 1/2, 384 pages, numerous illus, maps, orders of battle, notes, index.

Leipzig is the greatest and biggest battle of all Napoelonic battles ever fought. This is a shame that only G. Nafziger wrote book about this epic battle. I like this book. The maps are fine, and the descriptions of the battles, including the Battle of Leipzig, are interesting. But this book is rather for Americans and Europeans, not for the British. They are interested only in Waterloo, and Peter Hofschroer. This book is also a big stuff for all wargamers.

This is part of a 3 part series on the 1813 Campaign...Mr. Nafziger has given us a detailed and well researched account of the campaign. This thoughtful book gives the best recent account of Leipzig available in English. It is unfortunate that this decisive campaign is not the subject of more books.

For those of you unfamiliar with George Nafziger's work he is meticulous in his research and detail...if he tells you a regiment is located in a certain place at a particular time you can pretty much take it to the bank. Unlike a lot of authors, Mr. Nafziger does the research and allows the facts to dictate the direction of the book...Having no axes to grind means that the information being presented will also be more balanced than you find in a lot of books as well.

Generally when I see a book by George Nafziger in the time period that I don't own; I get it...

Michael La Vean
Fellow, International Napoleonic Society