Europe Books

Col. North does a great job of intermixing strait facts of history with the first hand accounts of the men and women who were there. It really helps bring the historical facts to life.

I think this should be required reading for WW2 history classes, and is great reading for any history buff.

Added bonus- it comes with a great DVD.

This book does, for the war in Europe, what 'War Stories II' did for the war in the Pacific. It is an excellent,complete account. Of course, the input of actual participants only enhance this great read. Don't miss reading this one.

I am enthusiastic about the book and want the book read generally rather than on special merit. Why do I want the book read? Well, there is a whole rising generation for whom WWII is so old and far gone that they really know NOTHING about it. This book is a fine quick overview and quite readable. It doesn't get bogged down in the details of tactics, strategies, or troop movements.

What it does offer that is very inviting is what makes the TV show a success and is suggested by the title. It has the war stories of many individuals to flesh out the brief summaries of aspects of the war. These stories include regular soldiers, people who have since become famous like Senators (and Presidential hopefuls) Dole and McGovern, and Chuck Yeager. There are also stories from women, people who were children at the time, several women including a Russian woman who fought against the German, and a German pilot. As you can tell, these are not the political leader, the generals, or important commanders in the war. The events they participated in were not the key turning points of the war, generally. However, they help us understand how the war was experienced by some of the millions of individuals whose participation in it made the defeat of Hitler possible.

My hope is that young people will read this book and not only learn about the war, but will also become interested enough to move on to other books on World War II and American History. This material is easy to read and is far from being comprehensive or complete, but it does tell its stories well and can be the springboard to something more.

The book also comes with a DVD with three of the episodes of the TV show that inspired this book. Several of the stories in the book are included on the DVD. So, maybe the DVD will spark someone to then read the book.

Oliver North has a great affection for the men and women who fought to keep our country free. This book covers the European theater of World War II, and contains a multitude of stories told by those who fought in it. Sometimes it's difficult to imagine what these folks had to go through to defeat a very determined emeny, and those of us who are the inheritors of that legacy of freedom should always honor them. My own father was one of these people (although he died many years ago), and I thank him, and these others, every day for the life of liberty I, and my family, enjoy because of their sacrifices.

We are reaching a time when the members of the greatest generation, those that fought against the Nazi's and the Japanese are rapidly leaving us. It is good to see this series of stories from individuals who were there. By capturing their stories it may be possible for us to catch just a glimpse of what it must have been like to live when the country was more together than at any time before or since.

As with the other books in this series, this book presents a rather eclectic collection of stories. All services are represented. And the story tellers are as different as they can be. Bob Dole relates the day he was wounded with the 10th Mountain Division. One of the Tuskegee Airman relates the story of a 'colored' pilot during the war. Chuck Yeager tells of being hit by German cannon fire and the propeller of his airplane coming off.

This is a series of personal stories. It does not ahve the broad expanse of an integrated history, it's about real people.

Best treatment of weapons and Renaissance-era warfare !!

Bert Hall delves deep into the technological history of Renaissance warfare and demonstrates both how much and how little new technologies have changed the face of battle. It deftly combines both a technical understanding of how those technologies were made with Mr. Hall's detailed understanding of the military history of that period.

The work is primarily focussed on the effects of gunpowder and firearms, but begins in the pre-gunpowder era of the late middle ages. By demonstrating how wars in this period were waged, the author shows the reader just how little the first gunpowder technology changed the way wars were fought. In essence, he shows how commanders faced with the new technology tried to fit it into traditional roles previously occupied by the longbow and crossbow and how it did not immediately eclipse those weapons in such roles.

From there, the author goes on to show how the peculiar advantages and disadvantages of the increasingly sophisticated gunpowder technology came to revolutionize strategic and tactical thought.

It is a rare work that considers topics ranging from the way in which the differing "recipes" that existed for gunpowder vastly altered the explosive potential of the substance to the tactical innovations and battles of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. Mr. Hall handles both technological and historical matters with equal ease and effectively demonstrates how deeply the two are intertwined.

It is a tremendously engaging and enlightening work, and very well documented in its more than 800 endnotes. Perhaps surprisingly for an historical work, it was a real page-turner. When forced to set it down, I found myself counting the hours until I could get back to it. I will definitely be looking for additional books by this author.

It didn't take long for me to be pleasantly surprised at the high level of scholarship and clearly presented facts, the sort of writing all too often lacking from this area of history. As the author notes, many technology historians, military historians, and arms and armor writers propagate continuing myths and assumptions that can't be supported when the facts are examined closely. Here, Hall does the topic justice and it is clear he did his homework. The chapter discussing the technology of gunpowder was especially interesting, and supports his case for the reasons firearms developed as they did. I recommend a trip to the Metropolitan Museum in New York to have a look at their firearms, where many aspects of his discussion will further illuminate the items on display.

1.000 words could be not enough to praise this book. Bert Hall produced a long needed work that will remain a foundation-stone in military technology of the black powder era.

This book presents a serious, unbiased and well documented view on gunpowder-technology origins and evolution and its real significance in medieval and Renaissance land warfare. However, only the projectile weapons have a good coverage, and warfare (and use of gunpowder) at sea is almost totally forgotten! If its title reflected its contents this book would get SIX stars from me.

This was a book that changed my life. It's fast and spell binding reading. An amazing drama that's only too real.

This is one of the most important books written on the Shoah.
To reply to the reviewer who wanted to know what America could have done I dont know maybe excepted boats of Jews when they tried to come to America instead of refusing to and sending them back to their eventual slaughter. Thats just one of many.

I had read suggestions over the years that the Roosevelt (FDR) Administration had a weak and obstructionist policy towards the plight of the Jews in Europe in the years leading up to WWII. Unfortunately, I let this book sit on the bookshelf for nearly twenty years before I got around to reading it. I was appalled at the extent of US governmental indifference and interference! One of the major problems facing the Jews who could sense the imminent danger in Germany was that of finding some place to move to. Most of the Western world did not want to accept them as refugees and especially in the numbers that were materializing. As the grandson of an immigrant, I had written a term paper on the US immigration policy with apparrent pride when I was in junior high school. I understood the various quota systems that favored North Western Europeans and heavily discriminated against those of other races. I had understood the reasons that it took two of my grandfather's brothers so long to immigrate here. I understood why many immigrants went to Canada instead (including the fact that Canada is a fine country). I had understood the laws requiring that persons coming to this country needed to provide proof that they would be able to provide for their own support once they got here. However, Arthur Morse gave examples after examples of how all of the existing immigration laws were twisted, tightened and squeezed to keep the Jewish refugees from finding a new home here. We were just another country that left them to fend helplessly for themselves in Nazi Germany. "While Six Million Died" is a difficult book to read for an American. It is a reminder of the anti-semitism that generations after the Holocaust find hard to understand. At best Americans can say that their government's behavior at the time wasn't any worse than that of other governments. The shame is that it wasn't any better either. America has faced its' disgrace over its' past racism and the scandal of the Japanese internment camps. However, I have not noticed much ado about the issues that Morse raises in "While Six Million Died". That is why this is such an important book to read.

This volume tells of how the USA and Britain during World War II, were not only apathetic to the fate of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, but actually obstructed all efforts to save them.
The book explores the questions:
What did the rest of the world, in particular the United States and Great Britain, know about the Nazi plans for the annihilation of the Jews?
What was their reaction to this knowledge?
After it was learned from a German industrialist, and relayed by the representative in Switzerland of the World Jewish Congress, Gerhardt Riegner, of the plans by the Nazis to exterminate European Jewry (and after well over a million Jewish men, women and children had already been butchered , Czech exile Ernest Frischer urged the Allies urged the Allies to ease the blockade of Nazi-occupied Europe so that relief supplies could reach occupied Europe, and proposed that the International Red Cross supply food parcels to ghettos and concentration camps as it did prisoner of war camps. He asked that Jewish children be evacuated from German-occupied territories.
It was debated but no action in this regard was taken.

By January 1943, new evidence had come to light about Nazi mass murder. Riegner provided the American State Department a detrailed 4 page description of Nazi atrocities.
It was reported that the Nazis were killing six thousand Jews each day in Poland.
A 'Stop Hitler Now' Rally was organized by Rabbi Stephen Wise at Madison Square Gardens on March 1, 1943.Chaim Weizmann, President of the Jewish Agency for Palestine stated that "The world can no longer plead that the ghastly facts are unknown and uncomfirmed. At this moment expressions of sympathy without accompanying attempts to launch acts become a hollow mockery in the ears of the dying. The democracies have a clear duty before them. Let them negotiate with Germany through the neutral countries concerning the possible release of the Jews in the occupied countries. Let havens be designated in the vast territories of the United Nations which will give sanctuary to those fleeing from imminent murder. Let the gates of Palestine be opened...the Jewish community of Palestine will welcome with joy and and thanksgiving all delivered from Nazi hands".
Due to violent Arab opposition to Jews entering Palestine, the British closed the gates of the Palestine Mandate and turned back thousands of Jews fleeing Hitler back to the Nazi ovens.
The British announced that there would be no Jewish immigration into the ancient Jewish homeland "unless the Arabs are prepared to acquiesce in it.". They were not, and so millions of Jews who could have been saved died.

The British also rejected the idea of a Jewish parachute unit from Palestine to rescue Jews in Europe, as they were afraid this would advance Jewish Nationhood in the Land of Israel.
The USA refused entry to many Jewish refugees, including a consignment of ten thousand Jewish children, because of domestic objection to Jewish immigration. There was no objection however to the refuge in the USA of thousands of British children, from the German blitz of Britain.

Australia, with it's vast unsettled spaces, announced at the Evian Conference of 1938, that 'As we have no real racial problem we are not desirous of importing one."
Refuges were suggested in such places as the Dominican Republic, Mindanao, British Guiana, the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Angola.
It all came to nothing.
The proposal, by Dr Weizmann, for the Allies to bombing the gas chambers and furnaces in the death camps was rejected after it was opposed by the Soviets.
And a deal offered by Eichmann to exchange hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives for ten thousand trucks was also rejected.
The Ghetto Fighters House, a kibbutz in Israel founded by survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto published the Vittel Diary by Itzhak Katznelson whose recurring theme was apathy in the face of Nazi murder:
"Sure enough, the nations did not interfere, nor did they they warn the murderers, never a murmur. It was as if the leaders of the nations were afraid the killings might stop."
The Allied powers could have saved millions of Jews and chose not to.
Great Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union bare some responsibility for the Holocaust.
The Jews realized that only their own state and army could save Jewish lives, and citizens of countries that did not lift a finger to save Jewish lives have no right to condemn Israel in any way for saving her children against those who would murder them.

I have written my review in the form of a poem.I dedicate this poem to Arthur D. Morse:

I am Liberty. I am Columbia. I am the Mother of Exiles!

Never again will my head be bowed down in tears, My torch held low and dim. Shame on you Franklin Roosevelt for the Bloody stain on my gown, which shall Never wash off.

I am the Mother of Exiles! Suffer my children unto me and I will protect thee. Woe be unto those who commit murder and mayhem upon thee! For I will step down from my pedestal, Not with books in my hand but with a flaming sword, And my shining torch. And lead my children to freedom and safety!

Heed my words, those who choose to destroy freedom. For I am Liberty. I am Columbia. I am America!

I have finally finished Book Two! It was amazing! A story where I learned from it and still enjoyed reading, unlike a text book! =] but here it is!I love the adventures Rascal and his gang gets into! First they are "looking for freedom", then they are out in the Enchanted Forest! Now, as they are still in the Forest, the great Prehistoric Cat takes them through the Doors of the Ages. And they visit Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe! Wow! Some adventures! I wish I could be Rascal and his gang!

~Anna Roztocil, 12 yrs.
Caledonia, NY USA

Great book for any cat lover

author of "Hobo Finds A Home"

I enjoyed the coming of age stories in book one, but I was a little at a loss to know how book two could build on those tales.

Book two turned out to take off in totally unexpected directions: The cats leave Catanada for time-space adventures in ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages. Upon returning home, they have a Home Alone adventure with some burglars that's most entertaining.

The two historical tales swish on your attention like a cat's tail through constant action and learning. I was astonished to see how much educational information the author was able to impart without being preachy or talking down to young readers. Ancient Egypt looks into the veneration of cats, unusual animals and insects, the problems with rodents around the Pharaoh's granaries and superstitious beliefs about cats. The Medieval tale addresses the Black Death, politics at court and other superstitious beliefs while adding its own unusual animal.

The final story about the "cat-foiled burglars" is pure humor. If my daughter had read this book at age 8, the house would have been filled with gales of laughter.

The only drawback to this delightful book is that there's something wrong with the typesetting. Sentences truncate mid-line and start up again on the next line. It's annoying, but if you think of it as a joke . . . it'll add to your enjoyment.

Very nice!

This book is great. I liked it more than the Book 1 Why Some Cats are Rascals, Book 1. It is made of three parts. In first part the cats have a lot of adventures in Sahara desert. Very interesting. It kept me reading until I finished it. I liked most the third part of the book. The part is titled Cats Alone. It is sooooo funny! The owners leave the cats alone at home. The thieves come to rob the house and the cats are fighting with them. It is like the movie Home Alone, except that it is more funny. I loved it.

I hope to get Book 3 for Christmas

BoB

I have read many books, and this is one of the best
I can't wait for the next book from this author.

After reading "Why Some Cats are Rascals" Book1, it is almost impossible for one not to fall in love with the characters.
Yes I love this series. Hoping for a book3 and more.
That's awesome! Rascal is great :))

Janet from Arizona

Wings, Women, and War by Reina Pennington was a delightfully quick read. There is a lot of research and in depth coverage that is very informative. At the same time you laugh at stories of Liliia Litviak's fur collar and flowers and stand amazed at her combat exploits. The book exposes you to the lives of many women volunteers and their transformation from civilians to military pilots, navigators, armorers, mechanics, and commanders. There is no propaganda. Just pure facts based upon interviews of participators and archives. No matter what your politics, or issues with women in combat, you will find yourself captivated and surprised by many discoveries.

I recently had the occasion to read Dr. Reina Pennington's book, Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. It was required reading for a masters program I am completing. I had my doubts about the value of this book based on many prior textbook experiences. I was extremely surprised with this one.

The book was part of a class on race, gender and sexuality issues in the military. My male sensitivities and defenses were heightened when first opening this book, but my curiosity convinced me to proceed (as well as the required reading part!). It convinced me that gender issues are important when it comes to studying things military. Dr. Pennington gave a face to and personified the women warriors and their male counterparts in the air force of the Soviet Union during World War II. This is something she accomplished while at the same time supporting her academic theoretical work this book represents. The book reads like a novel and draws the reader in to its stories about these very brave and determined Russian women. The stories are often funny; very funny. It proved to me that Russians during the war were people just like us in their humanity.

If you are unconvinced of women as warriors or want to understand something about how the Soviet Union treated women, recruited women and encounter their successes and their failures, then this book is what you need.

Dr. Pennington provides a remarkable bibliography including archival materials, correspondence and personal interviews. She spent time in Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union when war time documents and records became available. One thing that you might not find answered or answered to your satisfaction is the fundamental question about why the Soviets allowed women into combat. Like all the other belligerents involved in the war, the Soviets resisted this at first. Just like the others the Soviets dismantled their women warriors after the war. If it were not for scholastic efforts like Dr. Pennington's the efforts of women like Evgeniia Prokhorova and Liliia Latviak would be forever forgotten.

I read this book cover to cover on Friday (in the office, door shut, looking very busy). Living with WW 2 aviation everyday through the collection of fighter aircraft we restore and fly in England, it is easy to become a little blasé about the way people lived their extraordinary lives in that time. This book hauled me right up by the collar all over again.

It is remarkable - the pages turn as easily as reading the most engrossing novel and yet this is clearly a thoroughly researched review of these womens' history. I am utterly impressed. To communicate passion for a subject while speaking with such authority - the authority that can only come with knowing and understanding a subject as well as Pennington does - is so rare.

Having read almost every single book available in the narrow field that covers these Soviet women, I belive this book sets the new benchmark.

If only history could always be communicated like this!

For most Americans World War II is John Wayne, Tom Hanks, D-Day, and Pearl Harbor. The plucky British gave a hand now and then and the ungrateful French needed us once more to pull their goose-fat from the fire. Oh yes, it snowed a lot on the Eastern Front. Yet, more than a cursory examination of the Second World War shows even first year history students that the Atlantic Theatre was very much a Russo-German War, with the Western Front playing a secondary role. The Russian story of the Great Patriotic War has not imprinted itself on the American popular imagination. Even less known is the role played in that great struggle by Russia's women.

Over 800,000 women served their Motherland in World War II, nearly 200,000 of them decorated. 89 of those women eventually received Russia's highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union. Reina Pennington's book tells the story of Russia's airwomen during World War II with the passion of a best selling novel. Yet, the well documented footnotes and thorough Appendix attest to the research that has gone into this scholarly work.

Pennington's book focuses on three female regiments formed by Soviet hero, Marina Raskova, but also gives insight into women who served in mostly male regiments. She provides a gripping account that will satisfy those hearing about the USSR's airwomen for the first time, as well as adding new information about command struggles within the fighter regiment.

The story of 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, staffed through the entire war completely with women pilots, navigators, mechanics and commanding officers, makes any current debates about the suitability of women in combat seem like a convocation of the flat earth society. These women settled that debate long ago. Pennington quotes Soviet test pilot and HSU Mark Gallai on what it was like for the women bombers to fly their missions in the outdated biplanes to which they were assigned:

"It means coming under fire from anti-aircraft weapons of every calibre...it means enemy night fighters, blinding searchlights and often bad weather, too; low cloud, fog, snow, ice, and gales that throw a light aircraft from one wingtip to the other...all this in a Po-2, which is small, slow and as easily set alight as a match."

Yet, these women, averaging 5-15 flights a night(more in the winter, less in the summer), surviving on 2-4 hours of sleep a day for four years, managed to fly over 24,000 sorties, drop 23,000 tons of bombs, and account for 23 Hero of the Soviet Union awards.

Up to this point English language readers interested in the heroic stories of these women have had the excellent works of Kazimiera Cottam ("Women in Air War," "Women in War and Resistance")and the interesting interviews conducted by Anne Noggle ("A Dance with Death"). Yet, as important as these works are, none attempts to tell the story of Soviet airwomen as a complete narrative. Pennington weaves the individual tales of these women into a fabric that is compelling in its humanity. Hers is the story of ordinary women in extraordinary times who achieved what today seems impossible. They gave the full measure of their devotion in a valiant fight that deserves to be known. Reina Pennington's "Wings, Women, & War" does honor and justice to the stories of these women.

This is an important book which dispells the usual misconceptions about women in combat in general and Soviet airwomen's contribution in particular. The chapter on Soviet women fighter pilots is especially valuable. Through personal interaction with several surviving former members of the 586th Fighter Regiment, especially its second permanent commander Aleksandr Gridnev, Pennington has gained a lot of inside knowledge pertaining to this regiment, the most controversial of the three combat units formed by Marina Raskova, the "Soviet Amelia Earhart." This reader was surprised to encounter six misspelled Russian and Ukrainian place names in the book. In addition, the name of the first chief of staff in the 125th "M.M. Raskova" Borisov Dive Bomber Regiment has been rendered as "Militsiya Kazarinova" instead of "Militsa Kazarinova." However, these misspellings can still be corrected using an errata slip affixed to the inside of the back cover of the book.

WITNESSES OF WAR: CHILDREN'S LIVES UNDER THE NAZIS is a riveting, involving survey which uses original material from children's schoolwork, diaries, letters from evacuation camps and more to recreate the child perception and experience during the war. Many of these children had to take over when parents couldn't: their stories provide a different perspective on the effects of life under the Nazis, and should be added to the chronicles of any serious Holocaust representation.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book was one of many I have read about Nazi inhumanity. The difference is that this one was centered on children. I was so astonished to read about the cruel and inhumane way the Nazis treated their own children that did not "conform" to the current political climate. My question, after reading this book is, are the traits that the German people seem to have had during the Nazi period part of the human condition, or part of Europe, or part of the first part of the 20th century, or what?? Is it in all of us to act and react as the people described in this book? This book is a MUST READ for anyone trying to understand the authoritarian, parochial and nationalistic actions of the Nazis and all Germans during the third reich.

Mr. Stargardt brilliantly explores how Nazi rule affected the lives of children of all nationalities in wartime Europe during WWII. Through extensive research, the author shows how children thought and acted when faced with horrific experiences. Great historical writing and not a dull paragraph therein.

As has become more recently of common knowledge, thousands of minor German Jews left Germany to spend the war, and in many cases the rest of their lives, in Great Britain and elsewhere with foster families, and at times, in group homes. This was the subject of an award-winning documentary recently.

The other side of this story--the story of German and other youths and the course of the war on their developemnt and life histories has almost been a subject of PC silence, lest the "suffering" of Germans or children of Nazis be considered with versimilitude. This book proves these issues must be discussed and considered--they affect geopolitics today as much as they did in the 1930s and 1940s until the German reunification.

Some of the issues invovled--protecting young Germans from the young "criminal element"--those youngsters being the seeds of the Third Reich post-war. Also important became protecting children during the RAF by night and USAAF by day bombing of German cities. As H. Goering said early in the war, should Berline be bombed, "you can call me Meier." Well, by 1940, some people were doing just so--quietly.

Nicholas Stargardt uses his excellent understanding of German to bring as a truly deep and unique perspective into the young lives of children in the Reich, reminding us that FORTY PERCENT of men born in German in 1920 were dead by 1945. This is even more astounding than the currently fashionable debate about the incendiary bombing and casualties at Dresden.

I believe it is long overdue that the effects of the war on Germans as well as the millions of Jews, Christians, Sinti and Roman, criminals, and enemies of the state be considered worthy of scholarly study. I also feel this book has set a standard to meet--including some of the most revealing photographs of childrens' art and children DOING art that I have yet seen. A masterpiece of scholarship!

This is an excellent study of the affect World War II had on children, both German and their oppressed contemporaries in other countries. It's certainly most poignant when discussing the Jewish children, who were the ones who bore the brunt of the evils of the Nazi regime. There were also the so-called "sub-humans" (to the Nazis), the children of Poland, Russia, Czechoslovakia and others, whose fate, in some instances, was as terrible as the Jews. It's a very sad book, but an important one for us to realize that war has a most profound affect on the youngest of us, who have no say in what occurrs around them, or in what happens to them. What impressed me the most was the feeling of "victimhood" that the German people, young and old, adopted after the War. They knew, in many cases, that the Jews were being exterminated, but it didn't appear to bother them until the war, in all its horror, reached them where they lived. I grieve for the bad things that happened to the children of both sides, but assuming the mantle of victim by the Germans really is pushing sympathy to the breaking point. I won't say that I feel that they deserved what happened to them, what intelligent person would, but there is "war guilt" that was ignored right after the war, and only in the late 60s did the country as a whole own up to its responsibility. Better late than never, I suppose.

This is a true story of the Gulag. Gustav Herling was arrested because he fled across an international boundary and the Russians suspected he was related to Hermann Goring. Of course this was crazy. At the time, Russia was allied with Germany, and Herling was fleeing the Nazis. His one and half years in a Gulag camp in the Artic north is featured in this story. He relates how prisoners were sapped of their energy and then died. The prominent theme was the hunger of the prisoners. They were slowly starved to death. Other stories relate the one or two days a year the prisoners were given off, the disgraced NKVD prisoners and their fate, and the cultural activities.

This is an interesting read. This is not for the feint of heart. Murder, rape, hunger, and the loss of humanity were what happened in the camps. Herling portrays this vividly in this book. The book blasts the system of slave labor in the Soviet Union.

The imagery in the book is not for the faint of heart. Its a brutal book - a study of the human condition when devoid of hope, set against impossible odds, and where a temporary relief from the pain may turn out to be an insufferable shock.

Its also a deeply moral book - that seeks to find answers to the most grotesque acts of depravity in the context of these acts... where a man's face cracking under the weight of boots may be the path to freedom.

A World Apart is reminiscent of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Where A Day in the Life... is defined by a mood of monotony and despair, A World Apart provides greater detail in the events defining the two year prison existence of Gustaw Herling.

The book is beautifully written and completely unsentimental. There are no lessons in the power of the human spirit. It is the men who do not cling to hope who have a chance of survival. Hope means recognizing the obliqueness of the present situation. This knowledge is what brings despair and death.

This is the most graphic account I have read of the gulags. Gustaw manages to step back from the events taking place and with out sentiment or condemnation report. Herling writes that inhumane conditions will change the behavior of those individuals affected. Some of the prisoners actions can be explained in light of this. Highly recommended.

Perhaps the best summary of this book comes from Bertrand Russell himself who wrote an introduction to the first English edition of "World Apart" in 1951: "Among the many books that I have read about experiences of the victims of the Soviet prisons and camps, the `World Apart' by Gustaw Herling impressed me the most and is best written. This book possesses very rarely seen power of simple and lively narrative and it is completely impossible to question anywhere his truthfulness."

In spite of this testimony from one of the greatest intellectuals of the XX Century, the book did not enjoy much recognition for many years. Even today, more than half a century after its publication, this masterpiece still remains in relative obscurity, save the Herling's native Poland. It is an example of a thing done by "a wrong guy at the wrong time in the wrong place". Czeslaw Milosz explained that condition somewhat like this: After the war Gustaw Herling was known more for his service in the Polish Army of Wladyslaw Anders considered at the time, especially in France and Italy, as Fascist and the book was clearly anti-Soviet. At the same time the prevailing mood, especially among the left-leaning intellectuals was decisively pro-Soviet. After all the Soviet Union was an Ally who played decisive role in the defeat of the Nazi Germany.

The true nature of the Soviet system was not fully revealed and acknowledged until the publication of Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1963) and, more importantly, "The Gulag Archipelago" (1974). Important as these works are, however, the testimony of Herling preceded them by more than a decade and it is the first, as far as I can tell, in depth account of the reality of Soviet system. Unfortunately the works by Solzhenitsyn did not do much good to redeeming this book's value. Perhaps, they even overshadowed it.

The "World Apart" is an account of the real events that happened during Herling's "tenure" in the camps of Kargopole in the deep North of the Soviet Union. And the real were the people he wrote about. But this book is not merely an account of these unspeakable events. Herling goes much further. He offers his analysis of "what happened how and why". And he offers the portraits of people describing what can happen to a man under the conditions of extreme terror, cold, hunger and overwork. It is a warning to all those "homegrown moralists" who in the comforts of their secure existence in freedom feel in their rights to pass judgments on others regardless of circumstances they really know nothing about.

However horrific were the events described and however terrible was what happened to and with the people in the camps the overall "climate", if you will, of this book is not altogether gloomy. While not concealing what happened with the inmates in terms of their own behavior, Gustaw Herling refrains very consistently from passing judgments on them. The inmates were ordinary people and their misery, including sometimes complete moral disintegration and loss of dignity, was inflicted upon them and they were the victims. One cannot demand impossible from others and cannot expect something he had not proven capable of delivering himself.

But his judgment of the nature of the Soviet system itself is unmistakable and uncompromising. It is astonishing that even today while there is hardly any confusion as to the nature of the Nazism, there is still much ignorance, misunderstanding and under-appreciation for the evils of Communism, including it's most degraded Stalinist brand. "World Apart" by Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski fully deserves to be recognized as one of the most in-depth, original analysis of the nature of the Soviet system (and beyond) and is a genuine masterpiece of the literature of the XX Century. If there is a work that this book should be compared to it is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Notes from the Underground".

I first read The Gulag Archipelago when I was in middle school, and it left a lasting impression. What I hadn't realized was there were other authors who had written about the subject before Solzhenitsyn.

Herling's book is a very readable introduction to life in the GULAG; he was a prisoner for eighteen months until he was released to work as part of the war effort. Told from a first-person perspective, it's not as detailed and doesn't present as many disparate views as The Gulag Archipelago but is still very interesting and enlightening.

It's especially recommended if you're curious about the subject and don't have the patience or the time to work through Solzhenitsyn's works.

A great tool for any collector of British Army WW II military uniforms and equipment. I would be lost without it.

A great book for uniform buffs, lots of colour pictures. Plenty of equipment shown, although text is generally (as per the books title)related to uniforms. Captions are concise but to have expanded on them would have undoubtedly reduced the number of photographs in the book and as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. THE WW11 Brit uniform book.

Tremendous photographs and informative text, undoubtedly the best reference yet knocks spots of anything else on the market. Unfortunatly it is limited to Europe although this does not detract from an otherwise very good book for collectors and re-enactors. What next lads?

The work consists mostly of large format photographs of reenactors wearing original clothing and kit of the period. (Overall size of about 8 by 10 inches.) It goes much beyond anything else I have seen except the two volume set by Jean Bouchery (c.f.) and includes not just the ordinary battle dress worn by Tommy Atkins and his officers but the specialized kit of parachutists, mountain troops (cold weather gear), motorcyclists, and other unusual garb.
Many of the plates are done in the fashion of the French magazine Militaria which is a highly useful source as well.
Not only is ithis work an identification source; it also has some developmental history and organigrammes of front line tactical units.

I have literally memorized this book as I have poured over the pictures contained within attempting to gain a grasp of what items were used doing the period. The extent of detail in the pictures is astounding. My only negative critiques are that some rare items are only given a single photo (officer's valise and wire cutters/web pouch) and that the captions do not go into enough detail and background of many items. (I.E., the officer's valise, info on binoculars, and different manufacturers of clothing and web gear.) While I will DEFINATELY purchase their future volume on North Africa and SE Asia, I hope they go into more detail of non-uniform items. This book is a great gift idea and should be on the shelf of any WWII British militaria collector/historian's library.

To follow in the footsteps of Simone de Beauvoir and F. Scott Fitzgerald.... in Paris ... a how-to guide for those bent on a Gaullist literary retreat into the city that spawned many literary masterpieces. Don't forget the cigarettes, the lattes, and of course ... your French Berlitz language book.

A Writer's Paris proves inspirational, whether or not you're planning to go to Paris or if you've already visited the city where many artists go to create. Not only does Maisel describe life as a writer on a Paris sojourn, but also the activities for a writer to do for inspiration.

Substitute the places in Paris for the ones in your hometown or country you plan to visit to write. While the book has recommendations for places to stay, along with a planning checklist, information on where to go, and other resources, its content provides plenty of inspiration and ideas that work anywhere.

While the book's purpose is to encourage writers to take a Sabbatical in Paris, it also easily inspires and motivates readers to create more and writer better. Maisel happens to use Paris as the central location for the book's theme taking time-out for deep exploration for writing. Paris or no Paris -- writers can glean many things from this original book.

Topics include writing books in three weeks, taking the bad with the good, practicing the art of strolling, dealing with and appreciating the absurd, making the cafe a home, overcoming barriers, engaging your senses, and more. The writing is superb and flows lyrically with the illustrations adding the feeling of going on a journey while reading the book.

I must admit to purchasing this because Danny Gregory did some of the illustrations. That said, as I read I became intrigued with what I could learn about my own compulsion, and sometimes strong commitment, to painting. Although the star of this show seems to be Paris, the lessons about turning away from other preoccupations and just getting to it, no matter where you are, can be applied to any location. Instilling discipline in a routine, albeit one that is wrapped in time and self-permission, is a strong central message. I liked the practicality of many suggestions and the devil-may-care attitude of others.

In a rare combination of travelogue and writer's guide, Maisel speaks directly to every writer who values calm surroundings as well as a calm state of mind in order to write. Part tour guide, and part writing coach, Maisel takes the reader on the journey he promises in the subtitle.

After reading Eric's wonderful book Sleep Thinking & having my writing improve a millionfold because of it, I joined Eric's Yahoo!Group newsletter. He's talked about this book. It didn't do a "thing" for me because I really hate Paris. But his other books have helped sooo much, I keep reading his newsletter.

His latest one said:

>>When an editor buys a book from you that in her mind is in the inspirational" category, it can be decidedly hard for you to slip material into the book that is controversial and meaty.

Although A Writer's Paris is an "inspirational book," in the sense that it is meant to inspire you to go to Paris and write, I also wanted to talk about class and privilege, religious opposition to scientific thought, and other "non-inspirational" matters. I tucked in several such essays and wondered how many would make the final cut.

Some of these meaty essays made it into the book and some did not. ...

I am pleased that pieces like Privilege and the Place Vendome, Gay Mayors, and Darwin's Wife made it into the finished product.<<

To me, those "meaty essays" sound like they are talking about what Fiction is really all about.

I just wish all of them had been included.

Maybe Eric will write a "meaty essays" book someday.

I have hundreds of cookbooks and dozens which contain Jewish and Yiddish recipes. This is the only Jewish cookbook I need! I purchased the book several years ago for my friends who are Parisian Jews and were having a difficult time finding Ashkenazi cookbooks in the Paris book shops. I have since purchased copies for myself and other friends. No matter the recipe I select, it is just like my Grandmother and Great Grandmother had prepared it! My father and cousins love everything I have prepared from this book. Even the simple recipes like the lokshen kugel with schmaltz is just like Bubbe made! The explanations are wonderful and I oft times find myself reading it just for the sake of enjoyment!

Many thanks for such a superb cookbook! It has brought a bit of nostalgia to my family table.

All recipes we have tried - and we have tried many - are excellent. The directions are detailed and the results are superb. Some recipes, the Bialysrtock-Style latkes, have become our family favorites.

Did your family eat prakke, holishkes, golobtzes, huloptches, or just staffed cabbage?? Read this book and learn what this means about your family's history. This book is complete. Let me put it this way; there are 22 noodle-kugel-lokshen recipes and 7, count them, 7 recipes for chicken soup in this definitive book of classic Ash-kenazic Jewish cuisine. He includes maps of the Yiddish speaking areas of Europe and a pronunciation guide. Not only is the book filled with recipes and Yiddish aphorisms, but the author analyzes the history of the Jews through their language and cuisine. For exmaple, in his analysis of Lithuania and Northern Poland (an area known as Litteh), the popular herbs are understated dill and sorrel. Salmon and herring were the fishes used, and the starch was potato. Thus Jews from the area made the best potato kugels. But for non-potato breads, the best Jewish area was the Ukraine, which perfected black breads, challahs and bagels. Beet borsht eaters were mainly in the Ukraine, fruit soup eaters were in Litteh. Get the idea? If your gefilte fish was peppery, think Litteh; if it was sugar sweet, think Galitzia and southern Poland and Hungary. Either way... u have good cooking ahead for u with this book

This is a wonderful cookbook -- both for the recipes and for the rich cultural heritage it paints. We got this book half price a long time ago and liked it so much, we bought 8 more copies to give to friends and relatives. It's really that good.

This book doesn't have the glossy pictures or fancy covers that you often see in cookbooks these days, but the content is superb. The recipes are beautiful, and strike me as authentic. The best part of the book, though, are the stories the author writes that put the food into the context of Ashkenazi Jewish culture. As a non-Jew, I found Sternberg's stories and sidebars both fascinating and intimate. I've other books on Jewish food, and this is the only one I use regularly.