Europe Books

The Ramage's text is considered the standard in its field, and I purchased it on recommendation of my son, who teaches Art History. In my case I wanted to learn about Etruscan and Roman art in preparation for a planned trip to Italy. The book is well-written and has very clear illustrations, and I anticipate extra enjoyment of my vacation next Spring from having learned about this important cultural history.

I'm taking a Roman Art Course and it's an excellent text to start, great images and easy to understand information. I thought it was not going to be in the perfect conditions it came. I feel very satisfied :D

I wanted to refresh on a Roman Art History course I took in college, because I'll be going to Italy soon and wanted to remember all the great things I learned in that class. I found this book and it is identical to the book I study years ago. I'm extremely excited I've found this book. And it has brought back all those things I have forgotten about the history of Art is Roman.

"Roman Art" is easily one of the best art history books I have ever read. What really sets it apart is the writing style - rather than being dry and stuffy, the language is very clear, understandable, and *gasp* engaging! Be warned, the pictures are primarily black and white, but many of the objects covered, being marble statues and buildings, have no need for color. Those items that are printed in color, like wall paintings, are items that really benefit from it. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in Roman art, and even to those who aren't - I had no real interest in Roman art when I used "Roman Art" in an art history class, but this book has made it one of my favorite subjects.

This book is an absolute gem! It is thorough and very educational yet quite readable and even entertaining. The text is paired with brilliant photos that make the topic come to life. Even while cramming for a test, this book made my study time less boring and even enjoyable!
A must for anyone interested in the topic of Roman art - provides a solid foundation.

Just adding my voice to all the positive reviews. I've tried reading other books on ancient Rome and found them to be dry and academic. Hooper presents the history as a history of people, as another reviewer has said, and that makes it much more readable. He gives personalities to the main characters and renders for us the atmosphere and class tensions that surround major events and clashes. He tells where he gets his information and even reviews his sources as strong on some points, weak on others. Finally, it is well-written. Hooper knows his material and knows how to make it interesting. Having said all that, this is not an encyclopedic source book. If you need to know specific facts about a certain period of ancient Rome, then the dry, academic works are where you should start. Roman Realities is a book for those who really want to get a sense of what Rome was like- its people, its politics and its social dynamics.

I read Roman Realities for a class that I had to take for Roman History, although we only touched on a few of the earlier aspects of the book, it is still a great book just to read, even if it wasn't assigned for a class! If you have any intrest to learn about the Rome in any way, go ahead and get this book!

The late Dr. Hooper's terse style is like the Romans he tells of: to the point, shorn of excess, straightforward. The tone of the book matches the expression of the bust of Caracalla that adorns the cover: gravitas personified. He spends more time on the Republic than on the Empire, and breaks off during the Civil Wars for a chapter on Latin letters and poetry (a subject taken again in his "Roman Letters"). Hooper covers all the highlights in highly readable fashion. A fine general/introductory book on the subject, written in magistral fashion. -Lloyd Conway

Although I keep myself busy reading investment publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Forbes and BusinessWeek (since I am a financial writer), I also spend my spare time reading about ancient history, particularly the Greeks and Romans. I've tried to get a handle on Egypt but without much success. Among the authors I have read are Michael Grant and Finley Hooper. For the most part, I have not found Michael Grant a very scintillating read-although he does have one fascinating book on Caesar that is read by Nelson Runger for Recorded Books. He knows the territory, but he is not much of a writer. By contrast, the late Finley Hooper has only two books that I am familiar with: Greek Realities and Roman Realities.

Roman Realities is a gem of a book. If I were cast ashore on a desert island, it is one of the 10 books I would hope got washed ashore with me. Dr. Hooper is a superb writer, whose style is crisp and eminently readable. In addition, he focuses on the people more than trends and how the people lived. For my money, people are the key to history. His chapter on Julius Caesar is one of the best summaries of this important figure in Roman history.

If you are intent on reading further about the Romans, Dr. Hooper provides an outstanding list of books to delve into. He also has a detailed index, which some books do not have. There are also plenty of illustrations and helpful maps.

I have read this book at least twice and intend to read it again. All told, I have about 75 books on ancient history, but this one stands out like a beacon. There is simply nothing of a negative nature that I could possible find.

John Slatter, CFA

Dr Hooper does an excellent job on Roman Realities. He not only does a fine job in outlining the history of Rome's transition from Republic to Empire but he also highlights the price of that empire. The inability of the Romans to adjust to the changes that hegemony brought about contained the seeds of its own destruction.

Hoopers narrative is clear and concise and is easily understood by students or laymen. As is pointed out in an excellent review below it is a bit outdated in some areas but its analysis is so well done that few books published on the empire today can match this wonderful book. The reflection on the causes of the fall of Rome are worth the price of the book itself.

Reading Hooper brings to light that fact that much of Roman history is a foreshadowing of the realities empires in every era face.

This is a great map of the city on water resistance paper. Will be with us while spending time in Venice. Have marked on it the location of items we wish to visit. We also have the Rome Rough Guide Map that we are taking on our trip.

The book filled in and added some supplemental information. The book was not used as much as planned as sufficient information was also available via the internet and the local residents.

I spent six days in Venice in April of 2006. After using the
excellent Rough Guide map of Barcelona, I purchase Rough Guide
maps when ever they are published for my destination. What I love
about these maps is that they are complete, accurate and very
tough. You can carry them around in your pocket, bend them and
sweat on them and they still remain as usable as ever.

You cannot get lost in Venice in the sense that you don't know
how to get back to somewhere familiar because there is always
a waterbus stop nearby that you can take to some place you know.
But the twisty pedestrian streets can be very confusing, ending
in canals, so it can be difficult to get from place to place
or to find a place you want to go to. For this you want the
Rough Guide map. I walked all over Venice, including some off
the beaten track areas where I saw very few tourists.

In summary: for Venice my advice is get a wasterbus pass for the
days you are in Venice and get the Rough Guide map. Oh, and
unless you like crowds and higher costs, don't stay in San Marco.

This was a great map! If you want to go anywhere in Venice other than the Rialto bridge or St. mark's square, you will need a map. I put this map through hell, folding it every which way and even dropping it in a rain puddle - oops :) the map stood up to my abuse perfectly and was great for getting us around. we didn't have to find the TI to get a map, and i liked it way better than the nice map our hotel gave us. I highly recommend this map and will use others when we travel!

I can't even count how many times we used it on our trip to Venice, because Venice is one of those cities that once you go off the main streets, you will get lost without a map.

I love that it's rip-proof and water-proof, because I've used other maps and hate when they get worn from folding and un-folding. And since we'll be going to Berlin soon, I ordered the Rough Guide Berlin Map.

It had every street in Venice on it, which when you're navigating your way back to a main street or canal it totally helpful.

This is a quality production. The photos and the descriptions are fantastic. I found myself pouring a glass of scotch from whichever region I was reading that night, ie. Islay, Speyside, etc, and enjoying the dram more than usual.

A couple of years ago I was blessed by being given one of the best, if not the best job in the world. "Brand Ambassador" for one of the finest and best known Scotch Whisky Brands. After an all too brief trip to Scotland, I have dedicated most of my free time to reading everything about Scotland and her Whiskies that I can get my hands on.
Mr. Jackson's wonderfully poetic description of the land that now owns my heart has served to make a return trip much more than a wish.
I so loved this book that I made a gift of it to the library of Cardhu Distillery.
Thank you Mr. Jackson for making Scotland come alive to Whisky lovers everywhere.
Slainte bha
Charles Swett

This book was purchased along with MJ's 5th Edition Whisky guide. I found it an excellent read while enjoying a nice glass of single malt. The pictures are beautiful and MJ's commentary make me want to visit Scotland and tour the distilleries myself.

An excellent book about my favourite all time drink! That's how I would describe this well written, beautifully photographed and intricate journey through Scotland, describing its whiskies.

Working together, Jackson and Wright have put together a combined piece of verbal and photographic artwork. The information provided is very educational, but enjoyable, with historic and technical information entwined with Jackson's fireside conversational style making this a pleasure to read. I can't reproduce the photography but I can give you a sample of the style of writing from page 63:

"After I had breathed the air of early Christianity and Celtic myth, the journey back was slow. It was not just the two hours' drive from Fionnphort to Tobermory, the main town of Mull, but also the otherworldliness of the landscape."

This book has been broken up with the chapters as follows: Overture; The Islands; The East; Coda; Directory of distilleries; Glossary, Index and Acknowledgements. I liked the maps each section had that showed where distilleries were either operating, operating with visitor centre, mothballed or operating intermittently; or closed. This information would come in handy if you are planning on visiting the areas yourself.

`Scotland and its Whiskies' is the perfect gift for that special person who has everything (including you!). It is an informative and enjoyable read; while pleasing the eye at the same time.

I got hooked on single malt scotches a few years ago--not hooked in an AA "higher power" sense--but hooked on sipping and savoring Balvenie, Oban, Cragganmore, and others.

As an adoptee who recently learned of his Scottish heritage, this handsome book with its lovely pictures of the highland countryside makes me proud. The Scottish have given the world the telephone (Graham Bell), the bicycle (Dunlop), the game of golf (St. Andrew's), cloning (Wilmut), penicillin (Fleming), and capitalism (Adam Smith)...not to mention some fabulous hooch

Our author is a foremost specialist on the subject of single malts discussing the subtle differences based on barrel-wood and mineral earth that make each scotch unique to its region. Besides, with someone like Michael Jackson says a 12 year old is tastier than a 16 year old, you better believe him.

A slightly different perspective makes this novella unique. The thread of a soldier on the eastern front in the cold Russian winter is a common one but this time it is based on the memoirs of an Italian. A good and quick read.

very spontaneous and genuine story, of young people catapulted across Europe for no reason, and still performing their duties and trying to be human. you can rely feel the soldiers pain and the bitter russian winter with the words used by the author.

Mario Rigoni Stern's slim memoir of his World War Two experiences sheds light on the effective destruction of the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano (CSIR) in Russia, which is perhaps one of the lesser-known events of the Eastern Front and of the entire war itself. As a personal narrative, Stern's view is from the ground and he offers little or no strategic view of how these events came to pass. This however, adds to the book because as a grunt--even in a position roughly equivalent to an American platoon sergeant of today--he wouldn't have had much access to or inclination to see the war in such a manner.

Plenty of combat abounds through the short tale. Particularly once Stern and his fellows realize the entire front is collapsing and that they're caught in a "bag," slang for encirclement by the Soviets, the fighting becomes fierce. It is interesting to read the accounts of Italians, Germans, Hungarians and other taking part together in desperate attacks to break out of the Axis Powers' first epic disaster on the Eastern Front.

Throughout the book courses one vein of thought that is ever-present in Stern and his soldiers: survival. "Shall we ever get home?" one soldier asks of Stern every time he sees him. "Which direction is Italy in?" others asks from the middle of the frozen steppes. And as the situation deteriorates during the long retreat westwards, Stern constantly commands and reminds the men to "always stick together." Alas, as these memoirs always illustrate, many do not make it home.

A short but good work covering the Italian experience in World War Two, Stern tells his tale of the Italian Army's fortunes as seen and lived through by one of its peasant and elite Alpini soldiers.

I am shocked to find the great many people who are unaware of Mussollinni's ill-fated pursuit of glory in the east. His broken dreams left many Italian families orphaned and widowed. This well written account of the brutality of combat on the Eastern front is a fine addition to any WW2 eastern front library. It is well written and fascinating.

The words in the title are those of one of the author's close comrades-in-arms in the Tridentina Division, which had been attached to the Italian 8th Army on the western bank of the Don in 1942. In December of that year, the Romanians on the left flank of the Tridentines buckled under a strong Soviet offensive, and the Italians found themselves suddenly enveloped. Ordered to withdraw on 19 December, the Italians, along with Romanian and Hungarian remnants and remnants of the German 298th Infantry Division, marched west through icy wind, snowstorms and heavy drifts in an attempt to break out of the pocket. Sergeant in the Snow is a vivid first-person account of the story of this macabre odyssey up to the climactic Battle of Nikolajewka on 26 January 1943 and its aftermath.

Rigoni's memoir is at once urgent, tragic, heroic and poetic. He relays the essence of the Italian spirit, so different from that of the stern and disciplined Germans, and recounts in flowing narrative and earthy dialogue exactly what it was like to march, hungry and exhausted, over 300 miles in the Russian winter. Rigoni divides his memoir into two parts: (1) the Strongpoint, wherein he tells the story of his division's struggle to repulse Soviet thrusts on the Don, and (2) the Bag, wherein he tells the story of the breakout from the pocket (the bag). As mentioned above, the climax of the action, and there is plenty of that here, takes place on the memorable 26th of January when the Italians and Germans defeat, at terrible cost, three Soviet divisions at Nikolajewka and finally break out of the encirclement: "My men hesitate, hold back, one or two of them are already wounded, and I shout: 'Come on.' I too hesitate a bit, but we're in it now, whatever happens."

In the midst of battle chaos and the fog of war at Nikolajewka, one of those inexplicable and mysterious episodes occurs when the famished Rigoni enters an isba only to find a group of Russian soldiers there: "They're armed. With the red stars on their caps. My rifle's in my hand. I look at them, turned to stone. They're eating round a table, taking the food with a wooden spoon from a common bowl. And they look at me with their spoons held in mid-air....There are also some women. One takes a plate, fills it with milk and meal and offers it to me with a spoon from the common bowl....No one breathes a word. The only sound is of the spoon in my plate; and of each of my mouthfuls....The Russian soldiers watch me go out, without moving."

Kudos to Northwestern University Press for bringing this remarkable book to light again. Unfortunately, the book is small and the print small, too. The translator's grammar and mechanics are somewhat archaic, and there is the glaring, almost unforgivable, absence of any maps. Dialogue should be rendered in alternating paragraphs as each character speaks, thus reducing the possibility of the reader's being confused. Although there are some footnotes along the way, this excellent memoir would certainly benefit from a thorough re-edit to include many more. In spite of these publishing flaws, The Sergeant in the Snow is a far better memoir than Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier and as good as Bidermann's In Deadly Combat. Highly recommended.

I loved this book! JC Villar is a wonderful writer; I felt as though I was right there with him to the extent that I could almost visualize some of the places he describes. He manages to impart a deep knowledge of the history and culture without being pedantic - he just casually slips it in. And his asides are hilarious! If you enjoy Bill Bryson, you'll love this book. Can't wait to read about more of JC Villar's travels and adventures.

The Seventh Wonder is part solid history book and part entertaining travel chronicle. This book details the author's expedition to rediscover the world's seven ancient wonders: the Colossus of Rhodes, the Tomb of King Mausolus, the Temple of Diana, the Statue of Zeus, The Great Pyramids, the Lighthouse of Pharos, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The author took a three week vacation to locate and stand at the original locations of each of these ancient masterpieces. Though all but The Great Pyramids stood in forgotten ruin, the author's only regret at the end of his trip was that due to the war in Iraq he could not visit and verify the seventh wonder, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Seventh Wonder contained the perfect blend of background information about the purpose, construction, and stories surrounding each ancient wonder with the author's travel experiences while in Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. It's such a shame that structures that defined such hope, culture, and the life energy of so many peoples could crumble into disrepair, ruin, and the locations lost in time. Despite this, I think that an expedition to rediscover these sites would be an amazing journey. Until, I can book my own tour, The Seventh Wonder is a great alternative.

I actually went on the Egypt leg of the trip with the author, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well this book was written and how damn funny it is. Some of our misadventures on the trip made me so mad, the author and I did not speak for five years.

In any case, Juan mixes history with a generous slab of humor and sprinkles it liberally with his superb wit to produce a fantastic falafel of a travelogue. A few good stories were left out like the guy at the bazaar who begged us to buy two King Tut paperweights or his child would not get the kidney transplant. (feigned urgency is a common sales tactic). The GPS coordinates are a nice touch as are the cross references to relevant books to learn more about this topic or that.

This is certainly a book worth having just in case these seven wonders get blown to smithereens in the current WAR OF TERROR (oops, I mean war ON terror)... if things continue down the current path, we may never get to enjoy these wonders again. Oh well, it'll all be for a good cause. Like driving SUVs...

This is a thought provoking, educational, sacrilegious, hysterically funny, and practical travel guide. Or is it a study of historically significant architecture, the cultures that built it and the effect of those people and their construction on society thereafter, infused with GPS coordinates, cuisine commentary, bathroom humor and international pickup lines. I just finished reading the book twice in two days and cannot figure out if I was more entertained or enlightened. I'm motivated to trace the author's footsteps, avoid his pitfalls (literally), and capture the real life Indiana Jones experience of which the author wrote. Come to think about it, I did have that experience from my couch. The writing is first rate without being condescending. The book reads as fast and easy as a supermarket tabloid, which initially conceals the author's intelligence, the vast research that he must have done, and his knowledge of history. The author's fabulous sense of humor and insightful commentary on society and religion never make history books or travel guides, which therefore makes this book ultimately unclassifiable, with the exception of a great thought provoking book from which to simultaneously learn and laugh.

This is an engaging, well-written travel book. I loved all the details about the destinations,the history about the wonders and their links to contemporary society.

The research is superb and thorough; I loved the idea of including GPS coordinates.

I highly recomnend this book to travelers and history fans.

Every descriptive word is poured out with honesty and passion. The author's flare and supreme knowledge of the language allows the reader to relive his fascinating journey with tears of saddness and joy!

In the beginning of the book, the author gives us a marvelous glimpse of the world he knew and loved as a child. He makes us feel also the pain that he felt during the times when he witnessed his father's violent behavior heaped against his mother.
The details of the indoctrination of the Italian youth into the Fascist ideology should be an eye opener for all of us.
In addition, the author offers us a clear and painful look at the reality of war and its wretched consequences, and he does that skillfully, sometimes using humor to tone down the pain.
It is evident, however, that from the first chapter of the book to the last,the author considers his mother the true heroine of the book. Her faith, her inner-strength, her courage and her selfless attitude are beautifully manifested with filial devotion and sometimes with poetic flair.
Cione is an unknown name in the world of writing. I suggest that you buy "Sicily On My Mind", and when you finish reading it you will ask yourself: "Why not?"

Boy, does this guy know how to write!
It's like riding a roller coaster of intense emotions: the moving, the humorous, the dramatic, the poetic. The author's mother comes through as a remarkable human being, whose love, faith and compassion are vividly woven throughout the book in a remarkable fashion.
The sections about the author's indoctrination into Fascism and the painful events of the war, are also painted with vivid strokes worthy of a masterful painter.
Pick it up and read it. You'll love it!

I am a history buff and "Sicily On My Mind" offered me the opportunity to learn some insightful details about the indoctrination of the Italian youth under Fascism, as well as some painful aspects of W.W.II.
The author related his youthful experiences in Sicily, from puberty up to his 21st year of age with a delightful style which oftentimes reads like poetry.
Joseph Cione is a marvelous storyteller.Page after page, he kept my interest alive to a point that I could not put the book down.I read the entire book in one evening!
I hope there will be a sequel to it. Will the author write one? Pleeeease!

I live in Buenos Aires now, but I used live in Sicily during the same time that the author did.
I found the author's accounts of his life under Fascism and World War II accurate and fascinating.
The author's command of the language and writing style are outstanding, considering that English is not his native language. Cione has shown to be a remarkable storyteller.I hope he continues to write more books like this one.

This is one of three books written by Aline Griffith Romanos about her adventures as a undercover spy during WW II in Spain. It is excellent! I first read the book 25 years ago, have read them all more than once, recommended all three books to many, and have heard only high praise for the series. They are fun, well written, and real page turners!

I have purchased 4 books by Aline Romanos. I absolutely love them. The fact that there is truth behind the story and that she really was an upper-class lady as well as a spy excites me. I find myself wishing I lived an adventurous life. She has a talent when it comes to recreating her life and exploits. I could not put it down!

Fascinating. My daughter is reading "The Spy Who Wore Red" and finds it fascinating as well.

I can only echo the words of the previous reviewers! Countess Aline's books (...Wore Red, ...Went Dancing - so far!) are compelling, and I was truly absorbed from beginning to end! When I finished the first, I couldn't wait to start the second - and now I'm impatient to get the third - "...Wore Silk" - from my sister! I had to keep reminding myself that she would NOT be killed, as she was alive to write these books! And her ability to manage the pertepual romantic current with no "smut" is impressive! Her description of "masculine hands," the brush of lips on her ear, or the mention of leg-to-leg contact during the tango says it all! But beyond that, she teaches so much about Spanish customs and culture, from the attraction of bull fighting to how on earth they manage the high combs and mantillas, to daily routine, meal times, siesta - she never stops. How can this remarkable strong female hero be of the same generation as my mother?

My mom first gave me this book to read back when I was in high school. I recently picked it up again at the library to take with me on vacation - and was once again drawn into this amazing - and real life - mystery. In fact, I enjoyed the book so much I almost didn't want to leave my hotel room until I finished it (which didn't make my brothers too happy)! Aline weaves mystery and international intrigue with a jet-setting lifestyle as she hob-nobs with the likes of Liz Taylor and Audrey Hepburn while trying to solve a mystery that's haunted her for 20 years! I'm just starting her next book, "The Spy Wore Silk" and reccommend that anyone who loves a good mystery (and don't we all?) should check out Aline's books. They're absolutely addictive, and, in this case, that's a good thing.

Reading this book gives one insight not only on Stalin but also on the political system that he constructed around his personality. Its effects are still being felt in today's Russia--much of Stalin's struggle with his identity and place in the world was and still is mirrored by the Russian state itself. Tucker is a masterful storyteller; one comes away with a great sense of both the historical moment and the political weight of the subject matter. This book should still be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the Russian political system.

Tucker's careful storytelling hews to historical facts and grippingly narrates Stalin's creeping domination of the Soviet idea. This book is complete. A must read for all interested in recent Russian history.

This is an excellent biography of Stalin, the middle book in a proposed trilogy. Tucker weaves events in the Soviet Union around the twisted, paranoid personality of Joseph Stalin, former seminary student. What I found to be the most intriguing was how every time Stalin changed his mind about something, everyone had to fall in line or risk being labeled a "wrecker" or "counter-revolutionary." Stalin was not particularly brilliant, and he was not Lenin's choice as a successor, but he had a genius for bureacratic maneuvering that put him in the powerful position that he held for years. For all his paranoia and all the damage he did to Russia, it is amazing that someone didn't actually knock him off. It is a chilling reflection on how obsequious even the best of us can be when motivated by fear.

Over the years, I have read a number of books on Stalin, some good and some awful and I am convinced that this book, along with Professor Tucker's other work, "Stalin as a Revolutionary" is the best work on this subject (Adam Ulam's work would be the best one volume study of Stalin).

What sets this book apart from the others is Tucker's first rate understanding of Stalin and the world in which he operated. Only someone as stubborn as Stalin could have imagined he was creating paradise on earth while at the same establishing one of the most hellish regime's in world history and Tucker captures him in all of his evil. Even though he is a widely respected actademic, Tucker writes in such a way as to make this 20th century monster understandable to expert and beginner alike.

The only complaint that I have is that Tucker has yet to follow through with the next part of Stalin's career. It seems to be truism of late that no one can complete a multi-volume work on one of the leaders of World War II. Kenneth Davis was unsuccessful in his magnificent FDR biography as was William Manchester in his attempt to capture Churchill in his series of books on the great prime minister. I am only hoping that wealth of material that has become available with the fall of communism and the Soviet Union does not hamper Professor Tucker's efforts.

Neither Stalin, the collectivization crisis, nor the terror suffer from a dearth of good and serious studies. Yet despite the crowded field, Tucker's "Stalin in Power" is by far the best treatment of all three complex events. No other book sets out as credible, well-researched and well considered a theory of the workings of Stalin's mind. The great challenge presented by the Soviet thirties is the comprehension of the real logic behind what appears from the outside as mass irrationality. Most writers' personal models of depth and social psychology are inadequate to the task. Tucker succeeds, by a significant margin.

while this is clearly based on true experience, it is hard to believe that such a professional account was written by jan karski himself. marvelous as it is, it is also a piece of propaganda for the polish government in exile. is there any information out there about a possible ghost writer or 'collaborator'?

In Story of a Secret State, Jan Karski recounts his work with the Polish Underground during WWII. The book was fascinating overall, though I found a few short sections to be overly detailed and a bit dry. Impressively, Jan speaks of his own heroic actions without sounding boastful. I especially enjoyed the his depiction of all the brave people who helped him carry out his work. Karski's account of his visits to the Warsaw ghetto and the death camp surely benefitted from his precise description, making the events horrifically real. I highly recommend this book to all.

This book was assigned for a graduate course I took in Eastern European history; I couldn't believe that any required reading could be so exciting. It is the true story of Jan Karski's experience as a messenger for the Polish underground, and it doesn't include a dull page. Karski completed several missions, was captured by the Germans, and escaped. The leaders of Poland's Jewish community, knowing that Karski was going to the West, arranged for him to disguise himself as a guard in a death camp so that he could witness the atrocities. He not only went and included his horrifying experiences in this book, he personally reported what he saw to president Roosevelt and other prominent Americans. Karski knew that the West was betraying Poland and, as a last ditch effort to influence Western policy, he wrote and published this book in 1944. It was a best seller and, I believe, a Book-of-the-month club selection. So much for not knowing about what Hitler was doing to the Jews! Do read this amazing story and, to get the full background, read the book "Karksi, How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust," by E. Thomas Wood.

This book belongs on everybody's short list of Polish and East European history. Jan Karski was a truly heroic man and is story is told in plain, straightforward langauge as the story of one man who took enormous risks to tell the story of the Holocaust. A necessary corrective to much of the polemic on the complex issue of Poles and the Nazi occupation. Not to be missed. This is the second anniversary of his death here in Washington.

Jan Karski's trip to England and the US, which warned the Allies of the Holocaust in progress, is well known. However, Karski is often incorrectly thought of as some sort of unusual moral giant who tried to save the Jews all on his own. In fact, as this book makes clear, his heroic trip was planned, ordered, and performed in the context of his active, multifaceted involvement in the Polish Underground. For example, Karski's visit to the Belzec death camp was facilitated by a rendezvous on the nearby property of a Polish farmer who was also a member of the Underground (p. 340).

Karski was involved in the defense of Poland from the first hours of WWII. A few authors (e. g. Alfred-Maurice de Zayas) have tried to deny the existence of a German fifth column during the German-Soviet conquest of Poland (September-October 1939). In actuality, Karski's very unit came under fire from members of this fifth column (p. 8). The attackers were Polish citizens of German descent.

Karski ended up in Soviet and then German captivity. He repeatedly writes of the unbelievable barbarity of both conquerors. While in a Gestapo prison, Karski slashed his wrists in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. He had feared that he might break down under the incessant torture and betray his confidants in the Polish Underground. Karski was freed by a daring commando attack by the Underground combined with a well-placed bribe of a German guard.

Karski elaborates on the forced Germanization of Poznan (pp. 78-82), something attempted unsuccessfully before under Frederick the Great and then Bismarck. The Poles were brutally expelled. Very few of the remaining Poles chose to register as Germans and thus become Volksdeutsche.

Karski (p. 132) succinctly summarizes the attitude of almost all full-blooded Poles to the Nazis: "The German occupation was never recognized by the Polish people, and there could be no doubt on this score because, in Poland alone of all the occupied countries, there never appeared anything resembling a legal or pseudo-legal body composed of Poles and collaborating with the Germans. Indeed, in all of Poland, not a single political office in the German-controlled administration was ever held by a Pole; not a single head of any province was Polish".

Jan Thomas Gross has insinuated that Poles had no Quisling because the Germans did not want any Polish Quisling. Jan Karski's personal experience with the Germans adds to the refutation to Gross' silly claim. While a captive of the dreaded Gestapo, Karski was personally approached by a high-ranking SS man (pp. 155-163) who tried to induce him to become a Polish Quisling. The SS-man promised him relief from torture, and then appealed to the hopelessness of the Polish cause and the certainty of German victory in the wake of the fall of France and the seemingly-incipient peace treaty with England. The SS-man also cited the sensibleness of all the other nations that had formed collaborationist governments under German rule and said that Poles should also, for once, come to their senses and do the same. Karski refused.

Karski visited Nazi Germany itself. He reports (p. 217) never encountering any sign of German opposition to the Nazi rule. (Of course, some developed later as Germany began to lose one battle after another, and the attempt was made to assassinate Hitler in order to save Germany's skin from increasingly certain defeat).

A certain amount of detail is given to Karski's visits with British and American leaders. It is a shame that Roosevelt made such supportive statements about Poland while, behind Karski's back, he was already selling out the Poles to the Soviet Union.