Europe Books

This is one of the most fun books of history you will ever be lucky enough to read. It covers some aspects of 17th Century French history, with the greatest proportion of the book centered on Louis XIV and his court, although there are chapters on the peasantry and the brutality of the galleys.

I personally enjoyed the essays on court etiquette because it was so ludicrous. Louis convinced the nobility of France to give up their private armies to live in tiny attic bedrooms at Versailles and fight over who got to sit in an armchair and who had to sit on a stool. Human nature never changes--in the 21st century people fight to achieve status by buying the correct Manolo Blahnik shoes and the right Hermes carry all.

The chapter on female education alone is worth the price of admission. Louis and Mme. de Maintenon established a school for the daughters of impoverished aristocrats, and as a result reformed education for upper class females throughout France.

As other reviewers have said, this is history in the grand manner and most enjoyable.

The wealth of detail in W.H. Lewis' book The Splendid Century is incredible, but even more incredible is Lewis' ability to see the forest and the trees, to intelligently distinguish between what is useful and what is irrelevant and to leave the reader with a definite impression of Louis XIV's France.

Like his brother, C.S., Warren Lewis has that stereotyped but still very real and precious commodity of English commonsense. His good-humored rationality flavors the book but not to the detriment of the subject. Lewis was, afterall, writing about Louis XIV's France, not 20th century England. As with all the best historians, Lewis has the ability to see the world from outside the ideologies and pressures of the present. More than once, he cautions the reader against applying current century thinking to a 17th century problem or event.

But tone is where Lewis excels. Personable without being chatty, humorous without being sarcastic, A Splendid Century is amazingly relaxing to read, especially allowing for the subject matter and Lewis' fact-filled prose.

Recommendation: Buy it.

So much of what you read about the France of Louis 14th is based on the memoirs of Courtiers, to whom Versailles was the centre of the universe. In many ways that was true. Louis built Versilles to be the new heart of France. One where *he* ruled absoultley to the glorie of France.

However, this book covers much more than Versilles. You get to see what the majority of France was like during the period outside the court. Why the country was loathed by all courtiers, the real definition of a stinking Paris. How to get caught out at dinner for wrong ettiqute. Why you *didn't* want to end up on the Galleys and what your chances of education would have been like.

The author makes it clear that it is hard to make generalisations about this period in France, but he does his best to give us examples of the confusion and differences people experienced during the period.

If you think our taxes are bad today. Read this book and thank your lucky stars you aren't living in 17th cent France.

All in all this is a very enlightening read and highly recommended to anybody who wants a real glimpse of what the *real* France was like under Louis 14th.

W.H. Lewis wrote this famous book (dedicated to his brother C.S.) in 1953, but it has stood the test of time very well and provides an excellent introduction to the history of France during the reign of Louis XIV. "The Splendid Century" is history in the grand manner, written in the style of Trevelyan, Runciman and Roy Porter. The erudition is everywhere apparent, but it is worn lightly and the story is told in fluent prose enlivened by the odd flash of sly humour.

As the author points out in the introduction, the book might have been better titled "Some Aspects of Life in the Reign of Louis XIV;" rather than present a sequential narrative, Lewis chose to structure the book as a series of essays on particular aspects. There are chapters on the king and his court, the religious situation, the organisation of the army and the state of the peasantry. Among the unexpected pleasures of the book are the chapters on sea voyages, the world of the galleys and the education of women. A surprising omission, however, is a discussion of Colbert and his attempts at administrative reform. Nevertheless, this is a fine work of history that can be strongly recommended.

Mr.W.H.Lewis, brother of Mr.C.S., projects his fondness for the 17th century with bravado in The Splendid Century. The word splendid, derived from the latin for "illuminated", allows the reader to understand his thesis of the Grand Siecle without turning a page, by simply judging the book by its cover. Here is a profoundly pious Christian man composing some of the most glorious prose about a controvertial subject and succeeding where so many others have failed.

By not limiting himself to Versailles Mr.Lewis creates honesty. But he does not stop there, he remains true to the popular understanding. The Sun King's world brought to life.

Frasier is quite a writer - best in others of his works where he can use his talented imagination. And as a reporter of his own exploits in Burma during the war, his ability is outstanding (one should read "Quartered Safe Out Here").
However, here in "Steel Bonnets" his hands are tied by tiresome reality and a remove of 400 years. Fraser admits this book is not a primer or even a text for college study, but it is a recount of his research and written with nostalgic favor since he comes from the border area himself. Mr. Fraser has great pride in his background and home, and he repeats the stories as faithfully as anyone could. The problem with "Bonnets" is that it hasn't much of a story.
In the first six pages of the book all to be said is done; the remainder is elaboration on who, when and where. Bandits raid other people's farms and towns, burning, stealing, killing, etc.. Generations of upwards to thirty families continue this insanity until Scotland is joined to England in about 1605 or so with James VI and I.
IF you ARE related to "border riding" English/Scots - (especially if named Graham, Johnstone, Maxwell or Armstrong, Kerr, Hume, Elliot or Nixon) then the book is well worth a look.

This book is the definitive history of the riding families -- the Border Reviers. It is a long scholarly look into the nature of these complex and determined families that does not pass judgment or apply modern values in the assessment of their history and deeds. This is not for the casusal reader. It uses a fair amount of old English spellings and can be an effort to decifer at times. However Fraser MacDonald combines this along with his natural story telling ability to make you feel as if you are on a foray across the border and it keeps you coming back for more. If you are a student of Border history or are lucky enough to have one of the riding names, make the effort to read this book. It has no equal in its treatment of the subject.

Until England and Scotland were united under a single king in March 1603, the border between them was, unsurprisingly, a natural place for strife and disorder. The two countries had been at war intermittently for centuries, and many armies had passed back and forth across the border counties. Fraser's history covers the last hundred years of the border, from 1503 to 1603, a period during which the decayed (and astonishingly corrupt) administration could never cope with the local gangs -- known as "reivers" -- who terrorized the district with cattle theft, murder, and arson.

The book is very well-organized. Fraser starts with a few pages on the long historical background, then takes about half the book to cover the reivers by topic: chapters on arms and armour; on reiving technique; on the key families and their alliances; on cross-border relations; on the administrative structure. Fraser gives a lot of details, and plenty of quotes from the original sources (with the original spellings!).

This painstaking coverage sets up the second half of the book perfectly: one hundred and forty pages that cover the history of the border chronologically through the sixteenth century. With the details in hand, the second half is easy to follow and put in context; the writing is also clear and entertaining.

The last section of the book details the uncompromising way in which King James I destroyed the reivers in a few short years after 1603. It is a startlingly bloodthirsty story: Fraser includes quotes from blanket pardons that King James issued to some of his enforcers, which essentially say "whatever murders you did, I'm sure it was in a good cause, and you're absolved".

There are separate chapters on some of the most famous events, notably the raid on Carlisle Castle that freed Kinmont Willie. Fraser is at some pains to dispel the romantic ideas that cling to stories of the borderers -- as he points out, they were essentially a Mafia, with little of Robin Hood about them. It's clear, though, that he finds their adventurousness and style endearing and fascinating; and he writes about them so well that you are likely to feel the same way.

MacDonald Fraser brings to the history of the Anglo-Scots border reivers all the exuberance and attention to detail that made his name in the Flashman novels. Readers looking for more gloriously politically-incorrect adventures from the Victorian age won't find them here, but this book does repay the extra effort needed from the reader. The Steel Bonnets is the most entertaining yet informative serious works of history I have read.
The story of the Anglo-Scots border is a complex and a bloody one. MacDonald Fraser manages to understand, without condoning, the hard men who fought and died, rode and raided across the border between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. He untangles the knotted threads of their family ties and feuds and reveals their part in the wider relations between England and Scotland prior to the union of the Crowns in 1603. He dives into the dusty depths of the written records and brings them back to us red in tooth and claw.
At a time when the border between England and Scotland looks as though it may become an international, rather than a domestic border once more, this book should be of relevence to all with an interest in and love of these two nations.

I was born in Carlisle, England. The second big town of the border area other than Berwick. My father is from Longtown, Cumbria which is right next to the debateable land and I have the last name of Crozier. This book was like reading about my own history and explained a whole lot of things about my home town and the people I grew up with. Just in my neighborhood, there were Armstrongs, Taylors, Littles, Nixons, Grahams and many other Reiver names.
This is a very scholarly book and exceptionally well written. The author must have done an incredible amount of research to put this together. I read it twice, the second time noting how many references to Croziers(Crosers) there were. My father's family name is in there 26 times. Along with the Armstrongs, Nixons and Eliots, we were considered the worst of the worst of the reivers. Maybe not something to be proud of, but interesting. According to my mother(God rest her soul)her paternal grandfather was the illegitmate son of the Duke of Buccleugh(you'll hear a lot about the Scotts of Buccleugh, many of whom had the same name of Walter, including the famous one), so I have Reiver blood from there too. Fascinating book especially if you have a surname that might go back to that part of the world and those times.
What I have written here is just a taste of the whole book. A little heavy going at times, but so good that I have read it twice already and now use it as a research tool.

After reading "Don't Ever Tell"-Kathy's Story by Kathy O'Beirne and "The God Squad" by Paddy Doyle, I felt the need to inform myself further on the subject of absolute corruption and power in the Industrial Schools in Ireland. "Suffer the Little Children" gave me all the information, and more, on the shocking, shameful, collective sadism practiced in Industrial Schools, orphanages, convents and reformatory schools where different religious orders carried out dehumanising brutality and savagery on innocent little children who were placed in the institutions either through the Courts or the parents themselves to be looked after by the religious and to receive an education.
This book gives us the history of such institutions in the UK and Eire but concentrates on the Irish scene where they continued to exist up to the 1970's. It is well written and a most revealing exposé of a very dark, sick side of Irish history. It also includes personal testimonies which make the book even more gripping as they exemplify and confirm vividly the revelations of such an appaling system.
It also discloses the indifference and conspiracy of silence on an official level which brings to mind Molière's words "It's not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable". And for bad history not to repeat itself, we must keep informed. This book is a must read.

Ever since the movie .."The Magdalene Sisters" and Frank McCourt's book..."Angela's Ashes", Plus the fact that I am a quarter Irish and love Ireland and her people, I find I want to know more and more about her people and the TRUTH of how they have suffered yet have remained strong and vital and are proud and have given much to our world today!(England should be ashamed of what they have done for far too long, too!)
This book tells an awful story about the horrors of little children treated so badly for years and years. I know sadly that these wrongs can never really be righted for these victims or the words, "I am sorry" will erase the pain in their hearts, but I do hope eyes are open now and this cannot happen ever again to anyone....especially to children...no matter what country they come from and no matter what their color or race. Bless the children and keep them safe!! God bless Ireland...
Linda Steffey

This book is one of true meaning an excellent written book, which show's the through Ireland. This books explains the mentality of the religious and states minds. Truly deeply sad book but very much worth the read. This book is excellent in the sense of giving true awareness to the Irish state.
Highly recommended.

This book is comprehensive and deeply moving. I could not put it down. I was disgusted and angry by the end of it. I am ashamed to be Irish and ashamed to be Catholic. How this could have gone on for so long with no help for these children is beyond words. If there is a hell, then open arms to all those sick and sadistic Brothers and Nuns, all of whom were operating in the name of God....! How dare they call themselves charitable and merciful. They are some of the most vile human beings in existence. Between that and the sex scandal in America, the Catholic Church owes many people an apology and some sort of restitution. For shame the Church still chooses to cover up it's misuse of power. If the Nuns and Priests and Brothers were not so sexually frustrated, maybe they wouldn't be so evil. Sorry to vent so strongly. After reading this book, you will feel the same way. Also read Do Penance or Perish, but not as good as this book. Thank you.

This book presents a portrait of 20th century Ireland that will debunk any nostalgic or sentimental view of the so called 'Emerald Isle'. No shamrocks and leprecauns in this book, but a history of cruelty, abuse and power. It tells the story of how Irish children were incarcerated in huge numbers throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in reformatory and industrial schools which were managed by the Catholic Church. Based on detailed historical research and interspersed with gut-wrenching first hand accounts of survivors of these institutions, it shows how an alliance between a power hungry Catholic Church and an indifferent Irish State resulted in the incarceration of the children of the poor. Rather than helping poor families, Church and State removed these children to bleak institutions where large numbers were sexually and physically abused and tortured by their Christian carers. I don't think that I will ever think about the Catholic Church and Ireland in the same way ever again. Anger, saddness, frustration, disbelief, but above all anger - why did this happen? I experienced all these emotions when reading this book. If you want to really understand Irish society, this book is essential and harrowing reading.

I was a bit surprised to see that a paperback would sell for so much, $35?! But as I was determined to learn Swedish, and the reviews were good, so I went for it. Glad I did! I'm on chapter 5 so far, and doing good. The only thing I'm having trouble with is the plural form (though not the book's fault; there just aren't any completely set rules for determining the correct form, it's mostly memorization). Each chapter begins with a short story in Swedish, and a vocab list is included shortly after. It also includes in parenthesis which group each noun belongs to (en or ett). I find it helpful to highlight each different noun according to it's gender (I do blue for "ett" and orange for "en", but that's up to you). It then moves on to key grammar points, and what I love the most are the exercises at the end of each chapter. The last having to translate a paragraph into Swedish (and everything you need to know for how to do this is talked about, so it isn't hard, and you're like, "hey, I can really do this!"). And at the end of the book there are several short stories, each a few pages long. Which is nice to have something "real" to read once you've mastered a decent amount of Swedish.

And since there's no CD included with this, I would recommend the Teach Yourself series Swedish version for pronunciation (comes with CDs). I'd also advice getting Åke Viberg's "Swedish: Essential's of Grammar". I especially find it helpful with my issues of the plural definite and indefinite forms, but it pretty much covers any trouble you may have.

This is a great little grammar-reader, demanding in its exercises, informative in its cultural pieces. One has the sense that the lessons build on each other carefully, and that the most has been done with the pages at the authors' disposal. You finish the book with an intermediate level of Swedish, which allows you to read a simple newspaper article without too much difficulty, generate decent sentences that will help you get around, and pretty much understand people speaking at a natural pace.

This book uses the classic method of teaching language: introduce a reading passage that might occur in the real world, then translate the vocabulary used in the passage and explain the grammar so that the student will understand the passage.

The explanations after each passage explain the elements of the Swedish language by showing how the vocabulary and grammar combine to form sentences in Swedish. The nouns are usually shown with the definite and indefinite article, and the when the conjugated verb forms are defined, the infinitives are also provided so the reader knows the infinitive form and can begin to see which verbs are regular and which are irregular.

This textbook moves very smoothly from the basic elements of the Swedish language - nouns, definite and indefinite articles, general forms of infinitives - to the more complicated grammatical elements such as dependent clauses and relative pronouns. The technical details of the grammar are always clearly explained, and the reader never feels that significanat grammatical concepts are overlooked or skipped. Having the grammar explained in the real-life context of the reading passages makes it easier to use and remember.

A good companion book to this grammar reader would be "201 Swedish Verbs Conjugated in all the Tenses." As the reader moves through the textbook, the companion verb book will quickly show how Swedish forms compound tenses such as the present perfect and conditional perfect. Using the verb book also helps the reader quickly see the word order in dependent clauses.

One last note. Although the grammar is defined very well, it would be very helpful to have more examples illustrating the Swedish grammar and then translating these examples into English to reinforce the grammatical ideas and to help build vocabulary.

Overall an excellent book based on a solid approach to language acquisition. If you know the contents of this book, you will probably know 90 percent of all grammatical structures you will encounter in real-world situations, and will have a good start on the vocabulary. Buy this text along with "201 Swedish Verbs" and enjoy.

My girlfriend is swedish and I have decided to learn the language to the best of my abilities so that she can't speak to people behind my back.

On a more serious note, I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning this beautiful language. The lessons are straightforward and you will be surprised just how much you have learned, even by lesson 6! Even my girlfriend is impressed with the ease that I am learning swedish, and she knows 12 languages!

If I had to recommend only one book to people that want to learn the swedish language, this would be it. It can be a little dated at times, but only occasionally. You'll be glad that you spent a few extra dollars for it. I know that I am.

This is a great book for learning Swedish but you had better be up on your grammar terms to use it. It's more like elementary swedish grammar for the college english student. The great things about it are that it lists noun declensions and verb conjugations when it gives you new words. It also teaches you swedish culture as you work through the lessons and translate paragraphs. The worst things about it are there are no answers to the questions! How are you suppose to know when you're messing up? Also, it is dated in places. It hasn't been updated since 1980. I'm lucky that I have a swedish friend to help guide me through the lessons. There is also very little to help you with Swedish pronunciation. The book pretty much expects that you'll have access to language lab thus only passes briefly over information on it. I definitely feel the book is worth the money. It has a wealth of information but I don't think a beginner can use this book by itself to learn the language. Unless you only intend to write it and not speak it.

Loved the book!! it is easy to use especially for first time visitors who are not familiar with all of the different rail systems in the SBO. I stayed in Wengen for 4 days and used the book often to decide which trip to conduct and also how to easily find and navigate the cable cars, gondolas and hiking paths. The book was especially helpful since the weather was a bit overcast in the higher altitudes and we chose to go down into Interlakin for a day trip, which the book covers as well. Bravo to the authors and thank you for making my Swiss Bernese Oberland visit one of the best vacations I have had in a long time.

This book is not what I expected, but that could be my fault.
It is quite thin, and has trip suggestions in trains, boats etc.

I didn't want to rate it, because I didn't read all of it, only took a glance to verify that I will have no use in it, since I was hiking in swiss.
So the 3 stars are from walker point of view.

Very detailed information with lots of pictures, but in a compact form. If you are spending any time in the Bernese Oberland area of Switzerland, this book will greatly simplify your experience and help you decide what to do when you get there. Written by authors who have been visiting the area for 30 years! Highly recommended.

I've been to Switzerland on 4 trips for a total of about 6
weeks, mainly in the Bernese Oberland. I have not yet found
a better book for the first time visitor to this area. Even
though I've been there several times I still find it
worthwhile. There are no specifics on hotels or restaurants,
just on sights. They choose 10 trips and 4 excursions, and I
can think of other choices but not better choices; most are my favorites. The trips are from a half day to one day, depending
on what variations you choose; the excursions require a full
day. There are also some other suggestions and information on
Swiss tourist offices and websites, which I would also recommend
that you email and/or visit when you are in the area. Basic information includes food & drink, transportation, etc.

We were in Switzerland this summer and I highly recommend this guide for anyone who will be in the Bernese Oberland area in Switzerland. It is very well written and the maps are very helpful. Wengen, a small swiss village 45 minutes from Interlaken is very beautiful and we could have easily missed that had it not been for this book.

Want to do a little time traveling with dinner? This book will take you back two thousand years. Ms. Giacosa starts with a few chapters of historical background, followed by the meat of the book - essentially Apicius for modern cooks.

The recipes are presented in a three-part form - first, the original Latin, then a literal translation of the original, then her adaptation and modernization. In some cases, she also describes a modern dish, usually from Italy, that may be related to the Roman version.

The originals normally don't give amounts or cooking instructions, so the modernized version is only one possible interpretation. (So, feel free to adjust them to your taste - the Romans probably would have.) As another reviewer pointed out, readers who are nervous about anything more exotic than cheeseburgers should stay away, but my family liked a lot of these reconstructions. Pork with apples, tuna with dates, asparagus patina (a patina is like a frittata, basically, though some of the patinas are more like quiche), carrots in cumin sauce... Some are complicated, but many are very simple - the best one I've tried so far is the sauce for tuna: Pepper, oregano, mint, onion, a bit of vinegar, and oil. This is DELICIOUS over cold broiled tuna steak.

Fun and fascinating!

I checked a copy of "A Taste of Ancient Rome" out from my university library to prepare a menu for a "real" toga party in 2003. The food was a huge hit with my friends - we had the stewed apricots, the roasted meat, the green beans with cumin and I can't even remember what all else.

It took me five years, but I liked the cookbook so much that I've finally purchased my own copy. I'm not a cookbook buyer in general, but I liked that this one had a balance of interesting history and recipes I could make.

I am in a historical re-creation group, but I don't generally do food/cooking research. I found it perfectly suitable to my needs, but can't speak to it from a serious researcher's point of view. It feels more like the result of a serious researcher's work. Which is to say: this isn't a primary source, and if you're used to working at that level, there may be details missing that you'd like to see.

But as someone who just wanted to cook a tasty Roman meal, I found this well worth the price.

From eggs to fruit, this book on Roman cooking gives us the recipes, in both Latin and English, updated to fit modern tastes and modern ingredients. Some spices and herbs, frankly, no longer exist, but the author does her best to select the best replacements. But she does not end there? No, she also gives us the history of dining in Rome. Her book gives us a lot about dining, trade and preparation. She really fills out the background behind the food.

This book seems to be a great way to gain an understanding of the cuisine of Old Rome. The first section is an introduction in which the reader has a lot of the peripheral detail explained as a preparation for getting into the recipes. I've just stayed with one or two of the simpler items for now but perhaps I shall present a feast fit for Lucullus in the not too distant future.

I bought "A Taste of Ancient Rome" more out of historical interest than out of any real desire to prepare foods in the Roman style. One day, though, I ended up being given six frozen mallard ducks, and one of the recipes in this book, Duck with Turnips, caught my eye. I tried it, and it was absolutely amazing. Since that day I've prepared over half of the recipes in this book, and I've found most of them to be delicious, easy to prepare, and economical.

One of the more enjoyable facets of international cooking is seeing how cooks from different cultures meld flavours in a way most of us in North America would never think of. The recipes in this book contain many combinations that would seem to us to be insane. Duck with turnips? Cream of wheat or spelt with a ham bone? Cantaloupe with garlic and pepper? Tuna steak with dates? These blends sounds very bizarre, but they all work, and work well.

The writer has included a few recipes which couldn't be prepared in our time (such as the recipe calling for parrot!) simply to show the decadence of first-century Rome. But what surprised me the most about the other recipes is how many of them are absolutely accessible to the modern chef. One reason for this is the fact that the ingredients unfamiliar to us can for the most part be easily substituted with ingredients we have on hand. Apparently, even some Romans (Pliny the Elder, for instance) hated garum and substituted salt, so it's not inauthentic for us to do so. Another reason is simply that we still eat many of the foods the Romans did. Although they didn't have pasta, tomatoes, potatoes, soy, corn, or any of the other foods borrowed from the Far East or the New World, they did have most of the meats, fruits, nuts, and vegetables we eat on a daily basis.

That said, this book is not for everybody. There seems to be a subset of North Americans who eat nothing but conventional, middle-of-the-road food and who have no interest in anything the least bit unusual or new. If you shop for all your groceries at Wal-Mart, if you turn down any food that isn't aggressively conservative as being weird, foreign, or disgusting, and if TGIFridays or Appleby's is your idea of a really good restaurant, you probably won't enjoy this book. However, if you are able to go beyond your food comfort level and especially if you're interested in how people ate 2,000 years ago, A Taste of Ancient Rome might be for you.

At first, it didn't look that good, but after I started to read it, it got really, really good. I think my Mom would like this book too. (By Katrina, age 8.)

Rose and Lila are mad at their parents for making them stay with Far Nana. But Far Nana has a doll hospital...and a secret! She can hear doll's thoughts and stories!

Anya got Tatiana for her birthday. But when she and the Lolov family have to leave, she makes friends with Katia, a girl who's steerage. Anya is warned never to go down to the steerage place...or she could have her eye turned inside out with a buttonhook! Will Anya ever get to Uncle Elias's house now?

This book is exciting because it tells what really happened when the Jews were persecuted in Russia. I especially liked the part where the children snuck up to their grandmother's attic when they weren't allowed to.

My daughter and I loved these books. I thought it was right up there with American Doll books. Great story and great historical/educational infomation.

When Rose and Lila's parents go to Africa for a year, for their work as doctors, Rose(age 10) and Lila(age 8) must stay with their maternal grandmother, whom they hardly know. As they snoop through her house (Book 1), they soon discover that "Far Nana" has a few secrets worth knowing. "Far Nana" runs a doll hospital from her home and has the intuitive skill of listening to the stories of the dolls she repairs. She tells these stories to the girls in the first person, from the point of view of the doll. In these books, the reader is reading the ongoing story of Rose and Lila adjustments to living with their grandmother and the historical story of a doll, in a story-within-a-story format.

In "Tatiana Comes to America" the girls listen to a story about a doll who escaped Russia in 1907 during a time of violence against the Jewish people. Her family came to America to escape the persecution. Tatiana boards a ship for America with her girl, Anya. I enjoyed Tatiana's story because it was lively and and had some unexpected surprises by the end.

Overall, this book is an excellent introduction to the series and I would recommend reading it first if you are interested in this series. We see Rose and Lila say good-bye to their parents and watch them discover their grandmother's secret. The girls begin to find that there will be some good things about staying with "Far Nana", including the wonderful stories of the dolls!

The reading level on this book is for grade 3. I would not recommend it for readers under 6 years of age because the intertwining stories may be confusing. A paper doll is included with each book, which may be of interest to some readers.

This is a collection of stories that make the days leading to the Normandy invasion come back to life. It is a good companion volume for the movies "Yanks" and "The Longest Day."

General Eisenhower relieved stress by hitting an imaginary golf ball in his office; General Montgomery named his two dogs Rommel and Hitler; Churchill's wife Clementine often sent him notes signed "Love from Clemmie" with a small drawing of a cat.

Several days before the troops sailed for France, security was intense. A British soldier who knew about the invasion sneaked out of his camp and hitchhiked to see his parents and girlfriend. Along the way he bought drinks and told several American soldiers details of the coming invasion.

When he was discovered missing, a quiet but intense manhunt covered the area. He was finally found and interrogated. The American base where he had stopped was cordoned off, and the people who gave him rides were found and volunteered to stay inside their homes for several days. Later the British soldier was sentenced to ten years in prison.

A British newspaper published daily crossword puzzles, and one contained the words "Utah," "mulberry," and "Omaha," all key words describing D-Day operations. Frantic British intelligence agents interrogated the author of the puzzle, a school teacher. Years after the war it was found that his students gave him suggestions for his crossword puzzles. Utah, mulberry, and Omaha were terms that they had heard by spending time with soldiers.

In spite of extraordinary security measures, there were other leaks. Three days before the invasion, a Teletype operator practiced typing the invasion news. By mistake the news went out worldwide and was read on hundreds of radio stations.

The British people knew when the invasion was at hand. They had become accustomed to seeing lines of jeeps, trucks, and trailers laden with backpacks and equipment along the roads. The olive drab uniforms and vehicles became as ubiquitous as the green of the spring countryside. Then overnight, the crowds of GIs that had milled through the towns disappeared. After months of hearing vehicles roaring through streets and voices of soldiers that filled the shops, the towns were strangely quiet.

On the night before the invasion, General Eisenhower and his driver, Kay Summersby, watched rows of C-47 transport planes roar into the sky from an airfield outside Newbury. The planes were heading for Normandy carrying airborne troops. As Eisenhower and Summersby walked back to the car to leave, she noticed tears in his eyes.

General Rommel was celebrating his wife's birthday in Germany when he heard news that the Allies had landed at Normandy. During the drive back to France, Rommel sat impatiently in the back of his speeding car punching a gloved fist into the open palm of the other gloved hand.

this is one fascinating book which I recommend to anyone interested in WWII. Its uniqueness resides in the way the author approaches D-Day, allowing the reader to get to know how those pre D Day days were lived by civilians, soldiers, secret agents and leaders of the great assault. Now I know what Churchill did , what was on Eisenhower's mind when he decided what he decided, what de Gaulle thought and how he acted, how the germans were fooled time and time again by allied intelligence, how important secret agents work was for the success of the invasion and it also accounts for the work of many unknown heroes. A great book, a great approach of D Day.

No doubt one of my favorite books of all time.
I got this book as a birthday present a year or two again, and kept on putting it off. I don't know why, I'm interested in the war, I just didn't start it for a while. But when I got into it I knew that I'd love it. It was researched down to... well, let's just say that if it's a minute detail that happened back then, it's in the book. And you can prove it by looking at the bibliography! But the book is so emotional and intense that once you get into it there's no putting it down. I loved this book and would recommend to anyone.

David Stafford is an unusual historian. He writes analytical books that study the Second World War, mostly from the perspective of the intelligence war and the partisans. He writes clearly and intelligently, and spends most of his time analyzing the various parts of the war, and their meaning. This book, by contrast, is something that is for Stafford completely different: instead of the intelligence war, and instead of analysis, Stafford instead focuses on showing us the world or a large part of it during the ten days leading up to the D-Day invasion.

The book focuses on various people in various walks of life who did various things during the war. The book is divided into chapters, one for each of the 10 days, the last being D-Day itself. Each of those chapters is divided into sections, each of which highlights the daily life and experiences of someone involved, directly or indirectly, in the war. They range from a Canadian infantry lieutenant and an American paratrooper to a British female code clerk, an SOE operative in France, all the way around to a Jew hiding in someone's house in France and a Norwegian resister in prison for assisting in the publication of an underground newspaper. Each of these individuals is followed through their daily lives, the soldiers preparing for the invasion, the rest wondering when it would happen.

One really unusual and interesting wrinkle that Stafford manages to incorporate is that the characters he chose to follow weren't all survivors of the events covered in the book. This involves a little harmless invention of presumed emotions and thoughts, but frankly that's overshadowed by the uniqueness of what he writes. For instance, one of the pictures in the picture section shows Sherman tanks lined up in an English village, with housewives hanging washing out to dry right next to them.

It's rather surprising that at this late date someone could write something unique on D-Day and the campaign in France. The fact remains, however, that this is a very unique book, and a very interesting one.

Most books published about D-Day give scant mention to the background of the invasion, and concentrate on the invasion itself, and its aftermath. This extremely well-written book covers the 10 days that preceeded the invasion, through the lives not only of the important political and military folks involved, but also the common people. We share the lives of paratroopers, ground troops, signal interceptors, spies, prisoners, and others, and learn about their contributions, however small, to the ultimate success of the invasion. It is writing of personal history at its best, and we do get to be informed as to what happened to these people we grew to care about after the invasion. Several of them are still alive, and they, and the multitude of others who have gone to their rest deserve our eternal gratitude for what they all did for us that glorious 6th of June, 1944.

I was required to read this book in 1973 for a history class at University of Wisconsin - Marathon campus. And I kept it all these years, even though I majored in science not history, because it was such an amazing book. I recently went to the Holocaust Museum in DC and rented the German movie "The Ninth Day" about a Nazi camp, which is excellent. So on a whim I searched Amazon to see if this book was still in print and was surprised to see the Cleere review of March '05 wondering why it wasn't required reading in colleges. Maybe it was required reading in Wisconsin because of the large German population.

Colleges might be using the Stanford Prison Project to teach the some of the same ideas in 2008. There is some crossover between the two studies on the scary, seldom acknowledged truths about humanity.

Many of the Germans who were not deluded, and who helped the Jews, were religious people. With the decline in the strength of organized religion in western culture this situation could occur more easily today. Everyone
is so distracted and overwhelmed with modern life that many people really are not paying attention.

This book describes a subtle, creeping, contagious blindness that we should all be mindful of in everyday life. In Mayer's foreword to the 1966 edition he says that the Germans basically got what they "wanted -or under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want". What happened in 1930's Germany applies to the US today, and to South America and Africa. Whenever I glance at this book on my shelf I am reminded to try to think and see clearly and, to be careful what I wish for.

It is wonderful to see so many thoughtful and incisive reviews of my father's book. A few details that might interest you: 1) None of the "unimportant Nazis" he interviewed knew he was a Jew, which he was. 2) The book wasn't published in German for years after its original publication (we spent 1951 in the small town which Milton Mayer calls "Kronenberg," where he wrote the book, which was published shortly afterwards). 3) His German was awful! And, he said, this was a great aid in the interviews he conducted: having to repeat, in simpler words, or more slowly, what they had to say, made the Germans he was interviewing feel relaxed, equal to, superior to the interviewer, and this made them speak more freely. "Sehen Sie, Herr Professor Mayer, SO war die Sache," very patiently. ("You see, THIS is how it was...").

He made one small, but dreadful mistake: There is a very common name in German, to which Milton Mayer added a suffix--because, with the suffix, it was the name of a great family friend (in fact, my boyfriend four years later) and used it fictitiously for one of the interviewees.. However: with the suffix, it's a very RARE German name, and, having given the general location and size of the town together with the rare German name, he really identified the interviewee as-our family friend-- who was quite upset. (He never told my father this, though.)

My father was always a superlative interviewer; he said as little as possible, aside from encouraging the interviewee to go on talking. If someone seemed to be avoiding a subject he was really interested in, he would repeat the name of the subject the interviewee had abandoned, and look terribly keen and respectful.

When my father was about 14, a wind blew in one of his ears while he was camping out, paralyzing one nerve in his face. For the rest of his life, he could only open, while speaking, one side of his mouth (and he had a very diabolical grin), and could never raise both eyebrows--always, he was raising one eyebrow! This gave him a very wise look, somewhat ironic at the same time, and made him appear even smarter than he was.

My sister and I occasionally exchange "Misms." Things he used to say from time to time, some inherited from his father, and others from God knows where. Here are a couple (try them; they are very effective in many convrersations):

"I left it in my other suit."
"Been to the city and seen the gaslights."

I don't think I have anything to add substantively to what has already been said in the excellent reviews, aside from these few personal details. Milton Mayer died in 1986, and is survived by several real and step children, real and step grandchildren, and two great grandchildren (at least), all of whom, like him, are pacifists.

This book will open your eyes and broaden your mind about history. Be ready to see Nazi Germany in an entire new light, and also see YOURSELF in a new, and disturbing way. You are NOT immune to their fate. Remember...."THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE" and SO DO YOU!

Mayer, a Jew on Sabbatical in post-WW-II Kronenberg, sets his goal as that of better understanding the life-story of the ordinary German under National Socialism.

As he tells the story, Nazism was not just a political system or just an ideology it was a worldview peculiarly suited for and congruent with the German Post WW-I temperament and mentality. In the aftermath of the much-hated Versailles Treaty, Nazism arrived on the scene just in time to not just conquer the minds of both little and big Germans but to overwhelm them. Mayer's phrase has described it nicely: German enthusiasm for Nazism was clearly a case of "little men-gone wild."

The true value of this book and hence Mayer's most valuable contribution has been to draw a graphic conceptual picture of how the system of Nazism worked as seen at ground level by ten ordinary Germans and from the interior of German society: To a man, they all agreed that it brought them untold economic success, bound them patriotically and politically into a coherent cultural unit, restored the nation's pride and gave all Germans renewed reasons for hope in the future.

Given this rosy and very much interior and insulated backdrop, it is no wonder there was no basis for ordinary Germans to see (or even to be able to perceive) Nazi excesses, or to see Nazism itself, as an inherently evil system until it was too late.

This was true in part because all Germans already had community permission to hate Jews. The excesses, reserved mostly for Jews, thus seemed normal and in any case were always introduced in carefully orchestrated, slowly escalating, but easily digestible bites. This was done specifically to stay below the radar of the everyday German conscience -- so as to never assault German sensibilities too abruptly. Even the most alert of Germans and the least anti-Semitic Germans were lulled to sleep by this strategy.

But more importantly, because all Germans were wedded to the Nazi worldview thorough its benefits, both tangible and intangible, there were few incentives for them to "rock the boat" by pointing to its excesses. Dissension was left for victims and outsiders to engage in. However, being identified as an outsider or as a dissenter, at a minimum, could ensure social exclusion and a slow social death; and if one were very unlucky, it could mean disappearance into a concentration camp, or even a swift bullet to the temple.

Ordinary Germans thus were willing contributors to their own self-imposed trap: They needed the community's approval on its own terms. Sometimes this meant turning a blind eye to community sanctioned criminal activity, such as was the case in the event that set off a cascading sequence of pogroms against Jews, Crystal-nacht. Ordinary Germans did not want to approve of the criminal behavior involved, but was it not the community to which they were bound that decided what was criminal and who should be rewarded and punished for community-defined criminal behavior? It is easy enough for outsiders to exaggerate the actual relationship between man and state under tyranny, but from the inside, it is always made to seem normal and seamless.

Like a thief in the night, tyranny always descends upon sleeping societies in a cloak of patriotic conformity. It attacks when one is unguarded psychologically and least wary of an assault. By the time the citizen is prepared to raise a dissenting voice, in the name of state security, his throat (and presumably his vocal cords) have already been cut and he has been rendered mute. Once the national conscience has been drugged, sedated, or put to sleep, it is difficult to reawaken it.

Since there are no political systems that are entirely insulated against criminal activity, corruption or evil, only healthy, timely, vigorous and authentic dissent can act as an antidote to the evil inherent in tyrannical political systems like Fascism and Nazism.

Without drawing too fine a distinction, it is difficult to miss the many parallels between contemporary American society and 1933-1939 German society.

Ann Coulter and her ilk should read this book: the Hard Right is among us and have taken power just as they did in Germany in the 1930's.

I'm moving to Mongolia.

I have had the pleasure of talking to the Author and he is indeed a great guy. The book is very interesting and covers areas that US History buffs that watch US history media would no know about. A born US Citizens service in the German army, .... what what is not interesting about that ? Give it a read, good stuff.

Critically acclaimed navelist Anne Tyler (The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lesssons) has red Thinking of Germany at Night by Rainulf Stelzmann. She comments: "What a time you have lived through. A dark and difficult storuy. I am grateful to you for sharing it."

The British historian and medieval mystery writer (Athelstan, Corbett, Canterbury Tales) has read "Thinking of Germany at Night" and calls it a "most fascinating book" in a letter to the author.

The eminent British historian and medieval mystery writer Dr. Paul C. Doherty has read "Thinking of Germany at Night" and calls it a "most fascinating book."

German-American Cultural Center Newsletter, Vol 4 #2 March/April 2002