Research Books

From what i have read Grey is a very intelligent writer who really has some great nuggets of information but i wish more of his material was original instead of expanding on other's writings so often.

This is an outstanding contribution to strategic studies, a comprehensive placing of virtually all theorists and historians of war and strategy, and hugely thought-provoking. Yet Gray never forgets that practice is primary, noting the `authority of practice over theory'.

He uses Clausewitz's method, defining strategy as `the use that is made of force and the threat of force for the ends of policy': it is about objectives, effects. The nature and function of strategy and war are unchanging, though their characters change constantly. "Every war is both unique yet also similar to other wars." Strategy is in every conflict everywhere.

Tactics, by contrast, is the use of instruments of power in action. Strategy proposes; tactics dispose. "War is not `about' economics, morality, or fighting. Instead, it is about politics."

Strategy's dimension are politics, ethics, military preparations, people, technology, time, war proper. Technological changes alter the character not the nature of war: "Technology is important, but in war and strategy people matter most."

Gray analyses strategy's components, its various environments, land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Seapower, airpower and spacepower function strategically as enabling factors: a war's outcome may be decided by action at sea, in the air or in space, but all conflicts have to be finally resolved on land, where people are.

He illuminates wars from the Punic to the Boer, but focuses mainly on the 20th century's excessive amount of war experience: wars between empires, still all too possible, and wars against nations, opposed by wars for national liberation and independence. He writes, "how truly heroic is Mao's message of eventual success through the conduct of protracted revolutionary warfare." Success can mean just stopping the enemy from winning.

We can check the quality of his approach by assessing the strategic conclusions it generates, despite his overmuch reliance on histories emanating from State Department and Foreign Office. He shows that bombing Germany before defeating the Luftwaffe was a costly error. He proves that the atomic bomb did not defeat Japan in 1945; Japan was already defeated. He praises the Soviet Union's prudent and successful practice of nuclear deterrence.

This book is not light reading. A good background in 20th Century military history as well as Clausewitz is necessary to get the most from this very impressive work. So why bother? What are the uses of Neo-Clausewitzian Strategic Thought?

In the post 9-11 world there is no better way in my opinion to understand the Al Qaida threat. Professor Gray published this work in 1999, but his views and methodology remain as important as ever.

The reason for this is that the grammar of war changes (the ways we fight it, the increasingly complex "elements"), while the nature of war remains the same. Politics and political goals have always been the core reasons for the violent struggle of wills between polities which we call war. That was true in ancient times and remains true today.

Following Clausewitz and Gray I think one could make a very convincing case that Al Qaida is waging war in three forms simultaneously-- guerrilla war, terrorist war and revolutionary war which all put heavy emphasis on the political. With this in mind our MAIN weapon against Al Qaida should be our foreign (political) policy, not an emphasis on high-tech, military responses against obscure targets, the resulting "colateral" destruction only hurting our political policy and playing to the goals of our enemies. Such are the nuances of Clausewitzian strategic thought, far from the "war-as-ideal Mahdi of Mass" strawman usually portrayed by the great strategic theorist's detractors.

Of interest also are Gray's appreciation of the contributions of John R. Boyd, his untangling of the confusion surrounding the term "Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), and his comments on the little known (or understood) impact of the Second Smuts Report of 1917.

In all this book is a great work in strategic thought of high intellectual merit. Of interest also is a recent article in the Spring issue of Parameters by Gray on Asymmetrical Warfare.

Edit of 23 Feb 08 to add links. This book remains priceless & relevant.

First published in 1999, this is an original tour d-horizon that is essential to any discussion of the theory and practice of conflict in the 21st Century, to include all those discussions of the alleged Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), the need for "defense transformation", and the changing nature of civil-military relations.

I am much impressed by this book and the decades of thinking that have gone into it, and will outline below a few of its many signal contributions to the rather important questions of how one must devise and manage national power in an increasingly complex world.

First, the author is quite clear on the point that technology does not a revolution make-nor can technology dominate a national strategy. If anything-and he cites Luttwak, among others, with great regard-an excessive emphasis on technology will be very expensive, susceptible to asymmetric attack, and subversive of other elements of the national strategy that must be managed in harmony. People matter most.

Second, and this is the point that hit me hardest, it is clear that security strategy requires a holistic approach and the rather renaissance capability of managing a multiplicity of capabilities-diplomatic, economic, cultural, military, psychological, information-in a balanced manner and under the over-arching umbrella of a strategy.

Third, and consistent with the second, "war proper" is not exclusively about force of arms, but rather about achieving the national political objective by imposing one's will on another. Those that would skew their net assessments and force structure capabilities toward "real war" writ in their conventional terms are demeaning Clausewitz rather than honoring him.

Fourth, as I contemplate in this and other readings how best to achieve lasting peace and prosperity, I see implicit in all that the author puts forward, but especially in a quote from Donald Kegan, the raw fact that it is not enough for America to have a preponderance of the traditional military and economic power in the world-we must also accept the burden and responsibility of preserving the peace and responding to the complex emergencies around the globe that must inevitably undermine our stability and prosperity at home.

Fifth, it is noteworthy that of all the dimensions of strategy that are brought forward, one-time-is unique for being unimprovable. Use it or lose it. Time is a strategic dimension too little understood and consequently too little valued by Americans in particular and the Western alliance in general.

Sixth, it merits comment that the author, perhaps the greatest authority on Clausewitz in this era, clarifies the fact that the "trinity" is less about people, government, and an army, than about primordial violence, hatred, and enmity (the people); chance and probability on the battlefield, most akin to a game of cards (the army); and instrumental rationality (the government)-and that these are not fixed isolated elements, but interpenetrate one another and interact in changing ways over time and space.

Seventh, the author devotes an entire chapter to "Strategic Culture as Context" and this is most helpful, particularly in so far as it brings forward the weakness of the American strategic culture, notably a pre-disposition to isolationism and to technical solutions in the abstract. Perhaps more importantly, a good strategic culture with inferior weapons can defeat a weak strategic culture with an abundance of technology and economic power.

Eighth, and finally, the author courageously takes on the issue of small wars and other savage violence, seeking to demonstrate that grand strategy applies equally well to the savage criminal and warlord parasites that Ralph Peters has noted are not susceptible to our traditional legal and military conventions. While he does not succeed (and notes in passing that Clausewitz's own largest weakness was a failure to catalogue the enemy and the dialog with the enemy as a major factor in strategic success and failure), the coverage is acceptable in making three key points:

1) small wars and sub-national conflicts are generally not resolved decisively at the irregular level-conventional forces are required at some point;

2) special operations forces have a role to play but lack a strategic context (that is to say, current political and military leaders have no appreciation for the strategic value of special operations forces); and

3) small wars and non-traditional threats-asymmetrical threats-must be taken seriously and co-equally with symmetrical regular conflicts.

At the end of the day, this erudite scholar finds common cause with gutter warrior Ralph Peters and gang-warfare iconoclast Martin Van Crevald by concluding his book with a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "In the Computer Age we will live by the law of the Stone Age: the man with the bigger club is right. But we pretend this isn't so. We don't notice or even suspect it-why surely our morality progresses together with our civilization."

See also (and also my lists):

The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century
Beyond Declaring Victory and Coming Home: The Challenges of Peace and Stability Operations
Security Studies for the 21st Century
War, Peace, and Victory Strategy and Statecraft for The Next Century
Strategy: Process, Content, Context: An International Perspective
War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations
Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, Revised and Enlarged Edition
Race to the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty-First Century Warfare (International Series on Materials Science and Technology)
On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War
The Systems View of the World: A Holistic Vision for Our Time (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences)

This book on molecular spectroscopy should be on the bookshelf of every practicing molecular spectroscopist and every post graduate student working in molecular spectroscopy. It complements the classic books of Herzberg in that it gives a virtually complete account of all the theory required for the interpretation of gas phase molecular spectra. The writing is clear and the book covers the subject comprehensively. Bunker and Jensen have done a great job of making a complex subject accessible.

This book authored by P. R. Bunker & P. Jensen is the second edition of the well known book on molecular spectroscopy by Phil Bunker and it is considerably larger than the first edition (probably 50% larger). I feel that anyone interested in theoretical molecular spectroscopy should have this book within easy reach. It is a very important addition to the textbooks by Herzberg and covers the entire field of theoretical molecular spectroscopy in a very lucid and clear manner. I particularly enjoyed the chapters devoted to develop the molecular Hamiltonian in detail and to show how successive approximations can be used in solving it. It makes you love spectroscopy. Indispensable.

This book is THE place to learn the modern approach to symmetry in molecular spectroscopy. The clear presentation of the Molecular Symmetry Group and how it is to be used alone make this book an essential item for any molecular spectroscopist. This work, however, does much more than that - deriving the molecular Hamiltonian, the descriptions and symmetry properties of the basis sets used at various levels of approximation, the symmetry rules for interactions, transitions, etc. etc. Clearly presented this book is an enormously enhanced and expanded (by 50%) version of the first edition. There is no other work which covers this ground - and few if any works in this field that have the same breadth and clarity. My recommendation is: You can't do without it!

Molecular Symmetry and Spectroscopy by P. R. Bunker and Per Jensen is a very much enlarged second edition of Bunker's classic text; the book has now grown into a rather complete account of the theory necessary to understand high resolution molecular spectra. As such it represents a welcome update and complement to Herzberg's textbooks. The writing is remarkably lucid, and in the space of the first three chapters the Molecular Symmetry Group is very clearly introduced. The body of the text explains how this group is related to the Molecular Point Group (which is of much more limited usefulness) and how it should be applied in all areas of the subject. In this way the entire subject is covered. Early chapters cover `The Molecular Hamiltonian and its Symmetry' (Chapter 7), `Nuclear Spin Statistics' (Chapter 8), and `The Born-Oppenheimer Approximation and the Electronic Wavefunctions' (Chapter 9). Later chapters cover a wide range of topics. Particularly impressive are the chapters on interactions (Chapter 13), intensities (Chapter 14), Nonrigid Molecules (Chapter 15), and Weakly Bound Cluster Molecules (Chapter 16). This impressive book is a must for anybody who wishes to study molecular spectroscopy, both as an introductory text and as a companion in the laboratory.

About the Book

In the past few decades we have learned a great deal about proteins and nucleic acids, the molecular building blocks of all biological systems. This knowledge is being applied in many branches of medicine. The goal of this book is to show its impact on our view of mental illness and its treatment.

Until recently, few people have been thinking about the connections between molecules and mental illness, because to do this requires familiarity with two very different intellectual and professional traditions. Myopportunity to combine them came during my postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 1960 and 1963. When I arrived at NIH, I had completed medical school and was thinking of embarking on a career in psychiatry. But I also wanted to learn more about fundamental biology by working in a laboratory. At NIH I met Gordon Tomkins, who was deeply committed to relating basic science to medicine and had founded a department to achieve this goal. Gordon was bursting with knowledge and enthusiasm about the infant field of molecular biology and was convinced that it would ultimately explain almost everything (which, to me, meant even psychiatry).

To provide a taste of molecular biology, Gordon arranged for me to become the second postdoctoral fellow in the then tiny laboratory of Mar-shall Nirenberg. I began there immediately before Marshall`s discovery that a synthetic nucleic acid, called poly U, could act as an artificial genetic message. Within months I became an industrious student of poly U, while Marshall went on to work with other synthetic nucleic acids, ultimately deciphering the genetic code by which nucleic acid sequences are translated into the language of proteins. It was obvious to me, and to everyone else, that Marshall`s work was monumental; and within a few years it was honored with a Nobel prize. The experience was an extraordinarily exciting introduction to the laboratory, and supported Gordon`s belief that, if you study things at the molecular level, anything is possible. I was hooked.

After a year in Gordon`s laboratory in which I began to use molecular techniques to study the mechanism for storing memories in the brain, I went on to psychiatric training and have worked in both psychiatry and basic biological sciences ever since. Although the integration of these fields has progressed more slowly than I would have liked, the pace is picking up. This book is designed to provide enough essential information about biology and psychiatry for readers unfamiliar with both fields to appreciate how they are coming together.

In writing this book I have been greatly aided by the advice of many colleagues and friends and have enjoyed the benefit of working with an extraordinary group of professionals at Scientific American Library. Two people I wish to single out for special thanks are my editor, Sonia Deviatory, and my assistant Anne Poirier, who each made invaluable contributions. My daughters Elizabeth and Jessica, both more comfortable with words than with molecules, were often my target audience. "Recapitulation (in Verse)" is especially for them. I hope you like it too.

Dr. Barondes makes an incredibly complex subject easy to understand. He packs a great deal of information into a few, well illustrated pages. The book starts in the history of neurology, then explains the structure of neurons and goes on to describe the different brain chemicals and how they work on a molecular level.

Because of its clarity, this book would make an excellent textbook for teaching neurochemistry and its interactions with the mind.

I asked a doctor I respected to recommend a book which was a short synopsis of the biochemical basis of Psychiatry and he said, "Amazon - up on Amazon". He was right.

The book contained some "extras" I hadn't anticipated. It is written by a Psychiatry Department Chairman (Samuel H. Barondes) and was definitely intended to cover the highlights and future of the field.

"Molecules and Mental Illness" is a phenomenal book but it should better be titled "Overview and Future of Modern Psychiatry for Those Having a Background in Science".

It is unfortunate that young doctors these days have no familiarity with the magazine, "Scientific American" for this would be a fine read for senior medical students considering Psychiatry as a specialty, for residents in Psychiatry to be reminded of the scientific, cellular and molecular basis of what they are practicing, or for more senior doctors needing a refresher course or needing an overview of the field.

Starting with an overview of the history of biological psychiatry then gross and molecular genetics, the next third of the book has to do with macro- and micro- biology with great emphasis on neuronal membrane and different receptors, eventually covering known interactions of drugs with the membrane and across a synapse.

The next third of the book delves into the major mental illnesses (schizophrenia, mania and depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder) along with their diagnostic criteria, genetics, and drug therapies (there is scant mention of electroconvulsive therapy and psychotherapy).

This book is loaded with color reproductions of paintings, of chromosomes, of neurons (cross-section intracellular, synaptically, as conductors of electrical signals), of the biochemistry of the nervous system (i.e., membrane dynamics), charts, graphs, etc., etc., etc. It is replete with schematics of relevant molecules (legal and illegal).

The Table of Contents is short, sweet and to the point.

The book itself is concise and readable but comprehensive.

Curiously, the book ends with a "Recapitulation (In Verse)", four subsections: Freud, Drugs, Genes, Stories.

"Since understanding molecules
That drive us to insanity
Provides a giant window on
The nature of humanity."

I recommend it highly to science-oriented persons and to physicians. At its price, it is a "bargain" book.

This book would be ideal for Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.

The text is too enjoyable!! I was hooked! I am a medical graduate interested in Psychiatry and Genetics. This book is now my "bible"! THANK YOU SIR Barondes...thank you for giving me more passion for the field and inspiration for contributing to science in the future. If the Gods are on my side I will meet you someday. Salaam. Hussain

Hi, I was surprised but pleased to have recv'd. this book in ample time and the book was in very good shape for a 2nd hand book. Besides the wait, everything was good. Thanks!

If you are caring for a loved one with dementia, you MUST read this book ASAP! It is such a learning process to be able to care, communicate and incorporate activities for dementia patients, but Dr. Camp guides you and shows you the way. And once you understand his brilliant methods, you'll be amazed that they make so much sense and they are really so simple. His methods will save you sanity!

Dr. Camp has been a welcomed guest on my Internet radio program, Coping with Caregiving, and I always enjoy learning his creative techniques and tips. Take advantage of his many years of research and experience and don't miss this book!

Jacqueline Marcell, Author, Elder Rage.

This very necessary book fills a large gap in dementia activities care. The activities are very helpful to stimulating demented adults and build their self-esteem.

Of course! It makes complete sense. These activities have woken up the minds of the people I work with who can no longer keep up with "regular" programing. It is success every time. I love it, a great book for anyone who work with dementia of any type!

I am a screenwriter. And I find that Vladimir Propp's structure works great for my stories. Have a look at it and try to apply it to any modern movie:

1.. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);
2.. An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'go to this place');
3.. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);
4.. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);
5.. The villain gains information about the victim;
6.. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);
7.. Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;
8.. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);
9.. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);
10.. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;
11.. Hero leaves home;
12.. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13.. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);
14.. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15.. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16.. Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17.. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18.. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19.. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revivied, captive freed);
20.. Hero returns;
21.. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22.. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23.. Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;
24.. False hero presents unfounded claims;
25.. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26.. Task is resolved;
27.. Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28.. False hero or villain is exposed;
29.. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
30.. Villain is punished;
31.. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

This structure works for many stories and films. I do recommed the book for any writer and screenwriter especially for those who write modern fairy tales. It's a must!

This is the first work to systematically characterize and describe a corpus of folktales. It includes a list of possible plot twists, in their correct chronological order for any story, and numerous examples from actual Russian fairy tales. This translation in particular reads well and makes a point of not departing from the text's literal meaning in any significant way. I would highly recommend this work for anyone interested in folktales or oral literature in general.

This is an attempt to work out the underlying structural patterns (types of characters, what they do, how they are ordered) of Russian folktales, based on classic collections made in the nineteenth-century. If you are fortunate enough to have read a large collection of such stories -- preferably in translation, not "retold by ..." -- you will soon see the point of Propp's argument. Other European, and some non-European, traditions provide an almost equally good starting point, although the examples often are not so close as to be immediately convincing. Ideally, "Morphology of the Folktale" would be bound with at least a selection of the Russian folktales Propp analyzes, but this does not seem likely to happen.

Taken by itself, however, Propp's exploration is going to seem both dry and confusing. Try to imagine a book about the five-act structure of Shakespeare's tragedies being read by someone who had never seen or read a play before, and you may understand the problem.

Although Propp's exposition sometimes seems labored, he presents a convincing case that at least some oral prose narratives are built up of a stock of situations and events which can be slightly reordered, multiplied, and otherwise complicated, but amount to a "language" (a vocabulary, grammar, and syntax) of story-telling. This puts a new light on the problem of the distribution of folktales, and how they develop variants, two of the great issues of folklore studies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Despite its origins in a single body of oral literature, Propp's methods have been applied to other literature with known or suspected oral roots, sometimes with slightly contradictory results. I know of at least two different Proppian analyses of "Beowulf," for example. This is due at least in part to Propp's attempt to introduce fine divisions between similar plot elements, which, again, seem to work better with his source material than with other groups of stories. (And "Beowulf" has long been recognized to include elements later found in European fairy tales, so the possibility of applying Propp's structures was more intriguing than revolutionary.)

In "Feud in the Icelandic Saga" (1983), Jesse Byock reviewed efforts to apply Propp's methods to the Sagas of the Icelanders, another body of prose literature supposed to be grounded in oral techniques. He argued that a different approach is needed to their formally realistic stories about personalities, and the functioning of society; which does not diminish the validity of Propp's approach to the wonder-tale.

This seminal work is essential for an understanding of structuralist theory and the theory of folklore. It differs from the psychological view of the folktale in its descriptive ability. This theory is based on objective description and sytagmatic conjunction and complementation. Because of that, it is more applicable and flexible than any psychological dissection. Also, two people will reach roughly the same conclusions with this method- something impossible with a psychological approach. This is excellent for anyone interested in attacking the down and dirty working parts of a narrative.

Anyone living in the Chicago area in the 1950s frightfully remembers the disappearance of these young girls, and the horror on the day their bodies were found. Tamara Shaffer has produced an excellent work covering all aspects of the story, including many details never revealed to the press. She takes you back to the neighborhoods and the people of that day as if these many years never passed. There is a chilling and eerie feeling as you read this book, and view the never before seen photos. Knowing that this crime was never solved leaves one pondering all the facts presented by Shaffer's thorough investigation.

Rarely can a writer combine a baffling who-done-it with such a vivid restoration of time and place, which qualifies Tamara Shaffer's Murder Gone Cold as nothing less than a masterpiece. In the absence of CNN or Fox or even an effective network of television news, the killing of Barbara and Patricia Grimes in 1956 attracted only fleeting attention outside Chicago, as had the previous Schuessler-Peterson murders or that of Judith Mae Anderson a few months later. All were young, none were solved, and the city escaped what today would have made it a minor "murder capital" during an era otherwise deemed peaceful. The author, then also in her teens and living in a quiet middleclass neighborhood only ten blocks from the Grimes Sisters, rode the same buses and street cars and frequented the same stores and theaters. After years of research she now takes us back to the scene of that crime and into an age hardly remembered by many and not known to most.

Three days after the 1956 Christmas celebration, fifteen year old Barbara Grimes and her twelve year old sister, Patricia, left their Chicago home to see an Elvis Presley movie. They never returned. Barely a month later, after a nationwide manhunt and appeals from Presley himself, their frozen corpses were found near Willow Springs. Both girls had been sexually assaulted. Parents who were already living under a cloud of fear brought on by the recent murders of the Schuessler brothers and their friend Bobby Peterson were thrown into new depths of anxiety and terror by the Grimes slaying.

Author Tamara Shaffer was sixteen years old when Barbara and Patricia Grimes were killed, and her own memories of the dread that pervaded Chicago in the aftermath make "Murder Gone Cold" a memoir as well as a murder story. She offers a solid documentation of the unsolved case from the moment the girls leave their home on South Damen Avenue right up until the present time, when she discusses the fate of the key players in the tragedy and mentions that Kenneth Hansen, currently serving 300 years for the Schuessler-Peterson murders, was questioned about the Grimes case during the 1990s. She even injects a paranormal perspective by describing how people near the area where the bodies were discovered report hearing car doors slam and tires squeal during a hasty retreat... only no car can be seen. It's not often that a True Crime manuscript can mention hauntings and get away with it, but these supernatural undertones don't detract from this book's credibility. After all, the Grimes murders haunted Chicagoans for years.

This is a very overdue book about the most mysterious disappearance of these two girls back in 1956. Tamara Shaffer has done her research in her book and it clearly shows it. The author takes us back to the years when Chicago's children freely walked their neighborhood and neighbors looked out for one another.
Barbara and Patricia went out to the movies one evening like all the other children. Except, this time they didn't return home. Numerous sightings of the girls were reported to the police. Elvis, the girls icon during those times, even released a public statement asking the girls to go home to ease their mothers worries.
Then one cold January day, their lifeless nude bodies were found in a ditch, along German Churuch Road. Since, jurisdiction was an issue and politics played a role, could this case have slipped through the cracks?
Tamara Shaffer takes us through the events and brings to light on information that could possibly play a role on solving this case.

This book is written as if it is just a murder story and it can be read almost as a summer beach book for it's entertainment value. But, it is really one of the most important and clearest history lessons of the 20th Century. Briefly, it tells the story of a man who literally devoted his entire life to the goal of trying to save the millions of his fellow citizens who were starving as a result of the Stalin's collectivization of farms and the enormous crop failures that followed. A man who was personally picked by Stalin because of his devotion to Russia and his fellowman to save the Russian economy and to lead Russia to scientific glory by developing new crops. Unfortunately for Nikolai, he was educated as a scientist, and he understood the nature of Mendelian Inheritance and thus the importance of collecting variant plants and cross-breeding them as was being done in Europe and the USA to create higher yield crops. Nikolai, in spite of his support from Stalin; having a massive number of institute scientists devoted to the task; and his personal devotion to the scientific work could promise only to accomplish his goals in 7-14 years. This allowed T.D. Lysenko, an anti-intellectual, self-promoting snake oil salesman, who promised he could produce far superior crops in just one year to gain Stalin's support. Here comes the history lesson. At T.D. Lysenko's urging scientists who `believed in' Mendelian genetics were declared political enemies by Stalin and sent to the gulag prisons in mass. The `teaching' of Mendelian Genetics as well as the practice of cross breeding to produce new stains of crops was outlawed. Yes, even textbooks and journals from the West were censored or banned outright. The politicians had decided that the science of genetics was heretical. (Can anyone spot the connection to that time in history and the current attempts to politically force evolution out of the classroom or failing that to force the teaching of creationism in or at least to force the newest 'anti-intellectual idea' called intelligent design upon students in the USA?) Well, it doesn't take much knowledge of the Russia of this 21st Century to realize that they have still not recovered from the politically motivated control of science that ended well over 50 years ago. Thirty years of bad education destroyed so many generations of potential scientists that the Russian academics still have not caught up to the West in crop production. They were essentially totally left out of the "Century of Genetics" that ended with the human genome project. This is clearly much more than just a murder story. Yes, Nikolai was sent to prison where he was tortured and starved to death within blocks of his wife and family who had no idea where he was. The reason that I give the book only a B plus is because the really good murder story is told very well but the extremely valuable history lesson was only a subplot. I would suggest that one read "The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko" as a companion book to this one for the full picture.The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century

Science is a wonderfully self-checking system. If science has data and explanations, it does not matter what governments think, or religions, or even a majority of people. Science isn't out to please partisans or appease dictators; when governments have insisted that science support particular explanations, the result has not been good for science or for government. The supreme example of this was Josef Stalin's support, on political principle, of the self-taught botanical quack named Trofim Lysenko. The disgrace of the Lysenko affair is well known; less well known is Lysenko's scientific rival, Nikolai Vavilov, whom Stalin and Lysenko arranged to be arrested and purged, and whose ideas were scrubbed from Soviet science until rationality resumed. Just what science and the Soviet Union and the world lost is told in the fascinating _The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century_ (Simon & Schuster) by Peter Pringle, a British journalist and longtime Russia watcher. The story is a human one, however, and deeply tragic; Pringle has produced a clear and sympathetic biography of Vavilov, while also summarizing some complicated history and science.

Stalin didn't like genetics, preferring older ideas of inheritance which would support how one generation could suffer but bring forth a stronger generation, bourgeois could produce Bolshevik. Nikolai Vavilov was born in Moscow in 1887, and went on to study in Cambridge where he got a strong education in the newly-rediscovered ideas of Mendel. From 1916 to 1933 he made expeditions to five continents, hunting up lost specimens and seeds. There was danger, natural and man-made, in such exploits, but he was an inspiring figure, a sort of Indiana Jones, delighting in the work and full of infectious enthusiasm. He had Lenin's support, but Lenin died in 1924. Stalin preferred the "barefoot scientist" Lysenko, who was an uneducated peasant with the knack for self-salesmanship, and promises that he could "educate" wheat to make an Eden of Russia's wastelands. Stalin was impressed, and eventually Lysenko was in charge of Vavilov and all of Vavilov's research facilities. Lysenko denounced Vavilov as a purveyor of Mendelism, and under the cover of the start of WWII, Stalin's secret police made their arrest; Vavilov had international contacts and there would have been an uproar during peacetime. He died three years after his arrest, of malnutrition; he had tried to harness real science against famine, and starvation got him in the end. It was a tragic end, a terrible waste of an extraordinary mind.

After Stalin's death in 1953, Lysenko managed to gain power under Khrushchev, but after Khrushchev was ousted, Lysenko's skills in self-promotion failed, as science simply passed him by. His damage, however, to the academic discipline of genetics was to wound science in the Soviet Union for decades, and since his own theories were nonsense, they contributed nothing to the improvement of Soviet agriculture. The persecution of Vavilov and his theories might be said to have contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union, because the Communists wound up importing grain and other farm products even from the capitalists in the U.S. Vavilov got posthumous recognition, and is highly esteemed in his homeland, with his seed bank being a priceless resource that is even more valuable than in his day because of loss of plant diversity. Pringle tells this great, sad story with clarity and passion. He never explicitly makes the connection to our own times or society, but even now funding for education and research on topics of sexuality, global warming, or evolution are tied to what is politically correct. Science doesn't have all the answers, but it has answers, and we let political or religious whims overrun them at our peril.

Nikolai Vavilov was born in 1887, son of a prominent Moscow merchant. He was educated as a plant breeder, using the recently re-discovered work of Gregory Mendel about how inherited traits were passed from generation to generation - elevating plant breeding to the status of a science. By combining plants with desirable qualities, plant breeders could create superior seeds - seeds that were more resistant to disease, produced higher yields, consumed less water, and required shorter growing seasons.

In order to do his work, Vavilov believed he needed easy access to a wide variety of seeds. He devoted his life to creating a seed bank, personally going on expeditions all over the world. In the process, he earned the reputation of being a tireless worker, brilliant organizer, and superb scientist. At a young age, he became the head of a major agency in Moscow, dedicated to improving and overhauling Russian agriculture. Then along came Stalin.

Like many other accomplished citizens from Russia, Vavilov became a victim of one of Stalin's purges. He came from a wealthy family, was not a communist, and was friendly with some of Stalin's enemies. He was arrested in 1940, charged with serious crimes that were fabricated; then was tortured, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death by firing squad. Later, his sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison, but his jailors starved him to death in 1943. This book flows like a novel and documents his story and that of his nemesis, Lysenko, who captured Stalin's fancy but ruined Russian agriculture for a whole generation.

Vavilov spent his whole life experimenting with seeds. His innovations brought about huge strides in knowledge that could, at least theoretically, eliminate world hunger. In reading this account, I was struck with the serendipity factor that causes one scientist to be remembered over another. The young Charles Darwin was captivated by the way species changed over time. Newton dealt with gravity, planetary motion, physics, and calculus. Einstein's theories refined and modified Newton's work. Maxwell discovered electromagnetic fields and documented them mathematically. Madame Curie made significant discoveries about radiation. Bohr and Schrodinger developed quantum theory. Each of these scientists has attracted biographers. The story in this book suggests they probably didn't work any harder or more intelligently than Vavilov, yet they are all much better known. What they (perhaps accidentally) spent their lives studying, for whatever reason, was deemed more worthy of renown than the science of improving agriculture through genetics. Also to his credit, Vavilov appears to have had more positive attributes and fewer of the negatives than most, if not all, of the above. This is a guy you would like to be around.

Anyway, "The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov" is a fascinating read about a remarkable man who stood out as one of the best scientists of his generation - highly recommended.

Until Peter Pringle's brilliant new book, only a few specialists in the west knew anything about Nikolai Vavilov. Yet every visit to every grocery store, to every farm market, to every harvested plant and animal in the world owed a huge debt to a person who, ironically enough, was starved to death by Stalin in 1943. Pringle uses his own vast experience as a correspondent in Russia to gain access to many of the people who knew about, or worked with Vavilov. He also was given access to a vast collection of personal correspondence and photographs that flesh out the characters involved. The work is written in rich, detailed and at times emotional prose. This book will be enjoyed by anyone who wonders how politics can influence science, scientists, science policy and the rest of us as the consumers of science. The book is about the past but - unfortunately - the content is very relevant to today.

I did not grow up in Detroit, and unfortunately I have never visited Detroit. I lived most of my life in Greece, apart from the time that I went to college in NJ, and had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with my Greek-American relatives. Thus, I became very interested in the subject of Greek migration to the USA.
Mr. Georgakas has written a very interesting book, showing how Greeks have both "resisted" and incorporated American culture, and how they have struggled to keep their national identity afloat.
He also describes how a young man like him, can overcome the fanaticism of identity, and open his eyes to the American reality of the 50s and 60s.

Again, it is a very interesting book, and through its pages the reader can understand quite a few things about Greek Americans, and understand their struggle and incorporation in society.

I TOO GREW UP IN DETROIT, ONLY A MILE OR SO FROM WHERE THE AUTHOR GREW UP AND I WENT TO THE SAME JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS. ONE BIG DIFFERENCE: I GREW UP WASP NOT GREEK, SO MY MEMORIES OF DETROIT IN THE 50'S ARE SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT THAN THE AUTHORS. FROM THIS BOOK I LEARNED ABOUT ANOTHER SIDE OF EAST SIDE DETROIT. THE BOOK IS INSIGHTFUL AND ADDED GREATLY TO MY KNOWLEDGE OF GREEK CULTURE AND THE MAKEUP OF DETROIT IN THE 50'S.

As a young teen, I remember going to Detroit's Greektown to walk up and down Monroe Avenue and the side streets, too. Mr. Georgakas has written an intimate and finely drawn picture of what life was like as a first generation American. He points out the social formalities, levels of politeness, and the fine sense of moral behavior expected of those first generations. Georgakas has also contributed many articles to the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora which comment on the historical and sociological aspects of a very interesting ethnic subculture. No, it was not like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" because the real subculture had strong fathers and mothers who vigilantly protected the virtues of all their children. Greek Americans were told to achieve and esteem education. Those early fathers were proud to have their offspring, male and female,obtain a college education. So much of Georgakas book brought many past sentiments to mind and added to the pleasure of reading. I would recommend this to those who wish to revisit the earliest era of Greeks arriving and living in America.

My Detroit is a fascinating, entertaining and informative book. The author, Dan Georgakas, describes life in Detroit during the first 26 years of his life as he grew to adulthood in mid 20th century America. As a result, he provides a slice of Detroit history told from a young person's unique point of view. In the first part of the book, he describes growing up in vibrant and ethnically mixed east Detroit, focusing on school years and his youthful social life. The latter pages cover Georgakas's college days and early work experiences as a high school teacher. The reader comes to see that, in his early years, the author was somewhat of a contrarian to the prevailing norm. He reveals, "As I proceeded through college, I found myself drawn to individuals and organizations highly critical of many American norms. Even in literary matters I was usually attracted to writers who were out of favor." This was a period when student unrest was prevalent in many U.S. colleges.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Detroit was the powerhouse of the automobile industry. The city was thriving economically, artistically and industrially. The State of Michigan was also in a dynamic growth period: its universities were expanding; super highways were under construction; and businesses were growing rapidly. Incredibly, within a few years Detroit fell into an economic dive and lost about half of its population. By 1950 the automobile industry was led, not by the auto pioneers, but by hired managers. These so called "whiz kids" proceeded to set in motion the ruin not only of the automobile industry, but other private and governmental institutions as a result of their myopic, misplaced practices. My Detroit reveals the actions that led toward the tragic decline. Georgakas believes that the decline would have been avoided if the city's business, labor, education and government leaders had implemented more enlightened policies. The author, however, has not lost hope for a Detroit renaissance. He writes, "Greek mythology offers the hope that a resplendent phoenix can arise from the most uncompromising ashes. I hope fervently for a Detroit phoenix." On a recent visit to Detroit, this review writer observed hopeful signs of a renaissance.

Dan Georgakas's questioning mind makes the history he presents unique, original and interesting. Refreshingly, My Detroit is not a rehash of conventional thinking.

I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

A must have for writers looking to explore the world of American Indians through Academia. This book makes a great place to start for any writers outside the world of the American Indian because it informs from the perspective necessary to invoke change in the poorly and mainly Euroview of the American experience. The essays are insightful and informative and I found the bibliographies at the ends of each chapter a gift that only research freaks like me could enjoy. Thanks for the direction and how about a Volume 2?

Professor Mihesuah does an excellent job, as writer and editor, promoting a new model for American Indian studies, one more cognizant that the scientific/historical assumptions of the academy are themselves culturally loaded against a just understanding and representation of American Indians. Personally, I think this is true of much modern culture as well; one reason academics have such a hard time figuring out what to do with (and how to talk about) rock and roll, for instance, is that it doesn't quite fit the categories western civilization has developed so far. This is a fine collection of essays, one that should be required reading for all PhD candidates in the humanities.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. The book addressed the issue of disrespecting the oral tradition of American Indian cultures by writing about them. This is something that has concerned me, especially as I look into continuing my studies through a PhD program.

Aside from the excellent job Professor Mihesuah does (both as writer and editor) in presenting the case for creating a different model for understanding American Indian history and culture, the essays here offer a much needed balance to academic presumptions about the primacy of scientific (as it were) fact. Should be required reading for all Ph.D. candidates in the humanities.

J. A. Rogers was an excellent historian and the greatest historian I've ever read. He gives information that no other historian has ever published in any book. Not only would the information shock you, the pictures will shock you as well. Example: pages 83-91, 94-107 (pictures of the Black-a-Moors of European noble families). J. A. Rogers goes into uncharted unexplored territory about the issue of race, including genetics, who was the first race, racial superiority and inferiority, and interracial mixing throughout human history. He also gives info not even white historians here in America have talked about. (Example; in his book "Sex and Race Vol. 1", page 87 he has a painting by French painter Jean Paul Laurens of the "Black" Roman Emperor Honorius). Especially, the pictures of the "Black" a.k.a. "Negroid" photographs of the Black Madonnas, Black Christs, Black Messiahs, Black Krishnas, and Black Buddhas. J. A. Rogers even mentions the lost manuscript of Flavious Josephus titled Halosis on page 40 of Rogers' book which Josephus describes Jesus as "...a man of simple appearance mature age, dark skin, with little hair...". These are just a few of the many facts J. A. Rogers gives in his works. Another awesome book he wrote is "100 Amazing Facts About The Negro" and the masterpiece "Sex and Race, Vol 1, II, & III" Even "Nature Knows No Color-Line" is a master work, an examination of world history at it's finest. Rogers is indeed a master historian who deserves more attention and credit.

This book is a collection of photos, facts and figures but despite this it makes a fascinating read. Mr. Rogers writes about a taboo subject, the mixing of races, or as part of his title states "Research into the Negro Ancestry in the White Race." It is a fascinating book if somewhat stodgy and a bit pompous in places. Considering that it was written at a time when mixing white with black was illegal in many American States Mr. Rogers does a fairly good job of informing the reader of how the white-person should not be so complacent about his or her supposedly pure racial heritage. Mr. Rogers argues eloquently that race should not be an issue, and that it is humanity that counts not the colour of a person's skin. This is a good book if you want to read various anecdotes about racial mixing throughout the world both ancient and modern (modern being the 1950s when this book was published) and I would recommend it as a good but somewhat dated book on racial issues in the world.

The redoubtable J.A. Rogers, the preeminent Black historian/anthropologist of his generation. His name is synonymous with reeducation in Black America. Yes, there were other notable Blacks of erudition in Rogers's time, but what gave him an edge was his courage to uncover, in stark detail, a history that the others were either too cowardly or unqualified to address or didn't address with the same fervor as Rogers. This made him a pioneer in his field. The literary triumph of Nature knows No Color-Line, much like the author's masterpiece Sex and Race, is that although its pages abound with amazing truths about Black people, it evokes minimal friction from White people. This, in part, could be due to the unique nature of Rogers's bold examination of miscegenation as a cohesive element of race harmony, despite its historical divisive implications.

Here is a real page-turner for the conscious mind, and an eye-opener for the sleeping one. Great reading and easy on the noggin, considering the topic. The book is strewn with rare pictures (most are probably daguerreotypes) and illustrations that are so spellbounding and mysteriously intriguing, they entrance you into an intuitive realization that, while you cannot recall a previous installation of them in your mental gallery, you are somehow aware of a spiritual familiarity with them and the times from which they emerge. You actually come face-to-face with truth. Thus, through art and photographs and his restless narrative, Rogers shows Black people (and some White people) a world they never knew existed, and yet, especially as it concerns Black people; it is a world in which they prominently exist--and a world in which both people appear to coexist. He lifts the curtain on the world stage to expose Americans to the true drama behind the "play."

Nature's "color-line" dividing White and Black is certainly illusory, as only one line--a bloodline, connects humanity. But racism and discrimination are real creations of mankind, which they perpetuate through their governmental, religious, economical, political and educational systems to sustain the racial disconnect. Through this work, Rogers reminds us that Mother Nature has never established such demarcations for the human family, and has never given birth to "niggers" or slaves, but to one humanity in all its wonderful varieties.

I recommend Sex and Race, and everything else by J.A. Rogers.

This book was originally published in 1952 and then renewed in 1980. This book along with the author's three volume series "Sex and Race" are simply the best books ever written on the issue of race mixing.

The book consists of 11 chapters which are:

I. Where did the color problem originate? and why

Rogers investsigates the origin of black/white racism by looking at what has been written about black skin and black people in ancient times.

II. Color prejudice among whites and among darker peoples for their own kind.

Examples of racist beliefs in Greece, Ancient India and Europe. Numerous photos of sculptures are given along with references.

III. Negroes in Ancient Europe - Greece

The title of this chapter speaks for itself. There are numerous illustrations. The one flaw in this chapter that I found is the statement by the author that one finds the least race predudice in Europe. Maybe this was true in the 50s, but it certainly isn't true today. Iceland is perhaps the only European country with very little or no race predudice today. With the advent of immigration however, I wouldn't be surprised to see racism grow in Iceland just as it has grown in Europe since the 50s.

IV. Intermixture of whites and blacks in ancient Rome

As usual, Rogers provides numerous notes with references along with illustrations.

V. Racial intermixture in Spain and Portugal

The history of the moors in spain is discussed. It is a well known fact that the moorish scholars laid down the foundation of scientific thought in Europe.

VI. The negro as "moor" - negro ancestry in aristocratic european families

Coats of arms of eminent black English, French, Dutch, Beligian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, German and central european families is given. Many of the pictures show black people wearing jewels, crowns, and holding swords. Whatever they are wearing or doing, they are obviously people of very high status. There is no doubt that the royal family of England has blacks in their family. On the cover of the book, there is a picture of Queen Charlotte Sophia who obviously is woman of black ancestry.

VII. Mixtures of whites and blacks in Greece, Turkey, Italy and Central Europe

Pictures of the European slave market is given along with pictures of blacks in Russia, Belgium and Holland. There are also pictures German women with their interracial children. Interracial marriages in Norway and Denmark are also mentioned.

VIII. Negro ancestry in the French

IX. Negro ancestry in the Anglo-Saxon "race"

Throughout europe there are indeed many prominent people who are of black ancestry.

X. Negro ancestry in white america

XI. Some recent well-to-do mixed marriages mentioned in the press

A listing of interracial marriages (names and dates) in the US, some of which brought prison terms.