Europe Books

NOT MY TURN TO DIE: MEMOIRS OF A BROKEN CHILDHOOD IN BOSNIA tells of the author's struggle for life in 1996, just after the end of the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, when the then-17-year-old faced the man who had tried to kill his grandfather and terrorized his family during the war - a man who had been a former family friend. From his childhood pre-war to his internment, freedom, and eventual healing, NOT MY TURN TO DIE will find its place in any general-interest library.

If anyone can "enjoy" a book about suffering and war, Savo's book is a must read. His experience is haunting and his message about rising above revenge and moving on shows a maturity beyond his years. He is a brilliant young man, who was able to rise above a horrible situation that most of us will never truly understand. He has influenced so many lives with this work and is becoming one of our future leaders of peace.

The book was short, straight forward and profound. Almost like a long NYT or LA Times article, which reports and steers away from editorializing. Knowing what little I know of the Serbian/Bosnia Muslim war, I think one could have easily switched the nationalities as both groups foisted misery and atrocity on one another. Just like the American and Vietnam war...like any war. The main message I get from Savo was that in the context of war and armed conflict there are 1) very bad sadistic people, 2) very good, kind and brave people and 3) apathetic cowardly people. It is obvious that if there were many times more good people and less of the other two there would be less atrocity and murder. Let us hope the message of the book isn't muffled too much by the lingering hatred and distrust on both sides. Bravo Savo! You have restored the faith in your generation that you, collectively, have much to offer the world. From his book I get the message that we must counter hatred, revenge and murder with reconciliation and the brave heartedness that goes into doing so. More reasoning and forgiveness and fewer guns and killing will be the only pathway to more peace in the world.

Mr. Heleta's story is a great book for anyone trying to understand the tangled web of the war in the former Yugoslavia. His story is filled with sadness and despair, yet in those tragic times, Mr. Heleta has found courage to share his story and to make a difference in this world sometimes filled with turmoil. I recommend this book to anyone learning about the former Yugoslavia, war, or looking for inspiration. Thank you to the author for sharing your experiences.

This is possibly the best book there is,about Bosnian war, it is completely unbiased and sincere. I looked for ways to explain my feelings about the whole situation and Savo couln't have done a better job, he's given me words for unexplained feelings.
I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good read, not just to people that experienced the same thing. It is just amazing, and humbling.

It is always difficult and challenging to pick up what is regarded as a classic and read through it in a naive manner, not as a specialist but as an amateur who just wants to learn. There are always surprises.
In contrast to the looser Herodotus, his near contemporary, Thucydides sought to record an "objective truth" of the great war between Athens and Sparta, in the 5C BC. He consulted multiple sources and carefully judged what to include and what not to include, ito establish an idea of what really happened. While some of the forms, such as elaborately made-up speeches as a study in rhetoric, differ from what we would do today, he set a new standard for accuracy. THe result is a work of genius, the first serious attempt at writing history rather than merely storytelling.

Reading this is not always fun. There are long sections that are lists of occurences, with references to individuals who appear and disappear without followup. But there are also penetrating analyses of remarkable characters, such as Perikles, Alcibiades, and other great generals, who became reference points to the present day. Thucydides also broached the subject of political science as history - how institutions actually functioned - in new ways, with demonstrations of how the unleashing of passions led to their corruption or distortion. Finally, there are chilling sections with timeless insight in human conduct in war, with the full horror of the breakdown of all order and law.

THis translation is also sufficintely readable, far better than the turbid one I first read in college. THucydides is quite eloquent in this version.

Recommended as one of the great classics of Western literature. It is a work of genius so great that it is still relevant and vivid.

I used this book for an introductory History class. It is a great supplement to the study of the Greek periods. It has a nice glossory in the back for unusual terms, as well as helpful maps. Some of the text is a bit dry, but the reading is not very difficult.

The history of the Peloponnesian is a brilliant account of a classic war that began as a preemptive attack on Athens by Sparta to prevent the domination of the Greeks by the Athenians. The war began in the year 427 BC and ended 27 years later with the defeat of Athens by Sparta. This history however is only up to the 21st year of the war. Although there are several translations of the work I selected the translation by Thomas Hobbes the 17th century philosopher. It is the first done in the English language. Thucydides was a soldier on the Athenian side which in a sense puts a lie to the common notion that it is the winners of war who write history. The war was finally won by Sparta, powerful on land, and an oligarchy with a communal outlook on life defeating Athens with the strongest navy in the world, and a democracy with an individualistic outlook on life. Ironically it is Sparta's eventual mastery of the sea that defeated the Athenians. Whether or not this bodes ill for America remains to be seen. History is not over.

Thucydides relates not only the battles of the war in some detail describing tactics and the individuals involved, but also the strategy and the politics. There is intrigue, treason, broken alliances, and hubris. The winners of a battle rarely show mercy and treason is dealt with harshly with often entire towns put to the sword or enslaved. Among the combatants there is respect for the strong and contempt for the weak. Truces are often held to bury the dead because the dead are respected by all.

Unlike Homer's Illiad written about one thousand years earlier Thucydides does not mention the gods as having a say in the outcome of the war. While religion is a factor it is not a determining factor in the conduct and outcome of the war. One could argue that Thucydides is a secular account of history whereas Homer is a more religious account.

Thucydides should be mandatory reading and study for all white males between the ages of 16 and 18 of above average IQ. The History will prepares them for war and instill in them the desire and willingness to defeat the enemy. It teaches contempt for the enemy which is a valuable attitude in war. Pericles funeral oration to the Athenians is the most inspiring and most moving speech ever given. The resemblance of this speech to the Gettysburg address is obvious and leads one to conclude that if Pericles could inspire Abraham Lincoln in his thinking then Thucydides' History did so likewise and influenced the strategy and the eventual outcome of the Civil War including the period of reconstruction. The contrast between the Spartan outlook on life and that of the Athenians to the adversaries in all subsequent wars up to the present war on terror is striking indeed. There are lessons still to be learned from the Peloponnesian War and woe to those that fail to learn these lessons.

The greatest of all Greek historians was the Athenian general Thucydides (455-400 B.C.E.). Thucydides' classic work, "History Of The Peloponnesian War", provides us with the historical framework for 5th century Greece, a golden age of intellectual achievement and creativity rarely equaled in human history. This history is by far the best account of the bitter war between Athens and Sparta as well as the only surviving contemporary record of the rise of the Athenian empire. Thucydides as a master storyteller does not just cover the battle scenes; he records the great political speeches of Pericles, leader of Athens, and Lysander leader of Sparta with great acumen. He is recognized as the first historian to actually go and get eyewitness accounts, visit battlefieilds and research documents and records. This work took him over 20 years and it shows!

The lessons he teaches about imperial over reaching and unreasonable peace settlements are prescient today as they were during his times. President Woodrow Wilson, read this book on his voyage across the Atlantic to the Versailles Peace Conference and vociferously fought the other Allies in making unreasonable demands of the Germans. Wilson learned the dangers that the world would be placed in by backing the Germans into a corner politically and economically from Thucydides book.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history. I also recommend you read it with David Cartwright's "A Historical Commentary On Thucydides."

No book has kept me up at night or occupied my thoughts in the past decade more than Thucydides. The story told here is stunningly and disturbingly relevant for any American. Sparta vs Athens seems an allegory for the conflict between traditional America, of our first hundred years or so, and modern, progressive America from about 1900 onward. Its no allegory of course, and the realization that history repeats itself gives the work an importance that no book can match.

I recall in college taking one of those Intellectual History survey courses required of incoming freshman. We were all assigned to read Perikles funeral oration as an example of how like our society Athens was and of course, how noble that likeness made the two societies. We weren't, of course, assigned the entire book, just the oration out of context. When I finally got around to reading Thucydides years later, I thought back to that course and wanted my tuition money back!

Read the original text. Political writers and propagandists of all stripes make reference to Thucydides to give weight to their views. Don't trust their interpretations. Read for yourself and decide. Skip the commentaries and translations and go right to page one of the text.

This is one of the finest books I have read in a long time. Believe it or not, I heard about it from a Q and A with the actress Natalie Portman who recommended the book. The writer tells the history of the relationship between the Jewish population and their neighbors and German governnment. It ends in 1933, and points out ways in which the Jews tried to assimilate but were never able to please their government enough. It opened my eyes to 200 years of life before Hitler and how he was a cog in the machinery of the sickness of anti semitism. There are many personal examples of characters, their brilliance and fortitude to always try to "make things work" between them and their government. It is a heartbreaking book but one which should be read for Jews and Christians alike.

Amos Elon opens this book describing Moses Mendelsohn, a German philosopher's entry as an impoverished and uneducated teen into Berlin through a gate reserved for "swine, oxen and Jews," and ends it by describing how a famous Jewish writer left Berlin by train just hours ahead of the Gestapo.

Between these bookends you'll find the history of the German Enlightenment, the general acceptance and tolerance that Jews came to enjoy in Germany, of the significant role that Jews played in Germany's cultural, scientific, political and business worlds, and of the assimilation process that led to the specific identity of being a German Jew, and of most tragic suffering. What a pity!

It is the privilige of the victor to write history; most English-language histories of Germany's Jews to a greater or lesser degree approach their story through the prism of Anglo-American history, and adopt some of the prejudices and justifications of Anglo-American historians sometimes becoming but recitations of trusims. Not so this book, which is far more sophisticated. Without excusing that which ought never have happened, Elon clearly symapathisizes with the German people, and does not, for example, only describe the depths of the racial hatred to which they sunk, but also describes how barely 30 years before, they were far and away the most tolerant and least racist nation in history. Would that this were better known.

Not only is it a (brief) history of German Jewry, but also a brief history of German culture, politics and science. Elon believes that the Social-Democrats were far too weak, disorganized, and confused to have been able to maintain law and order during the Weimar Republic, and that the more conservative parties, which largely were extensions of churches, were too tied down by their religious affiliations to have been able to provide effective government. This, he believes, meant that the only form of government that could have saved Germany from the horrors that came to be would have been a military dictatorship. Expecting the Germans to smoothly transition from centuries of monarchic rule to a democracy during the depths of the Great Depression was not realistic. Democracies cannot exist without citizens who think for themselves, monarchies often raise people to follow orders without question. This is an interesting idea, and not what one hears from the sort of historians who write that the horrors arose because people weren't nice enough.

This is a hugely informative and highly moving book that is history sine ira et studio, history at its very best. I heartily recommend this book.

This book is truly one of a kind. It's detail and clarity is unprecedented and its topic very engaging as Elon does an amazing job in taking his readers through the 200-year journey and labyrinth of a mostly unexplored period of Jewish history. Awesome! Truly the best thing since sliced bread. Besides being a fabulous historical treatise, it answers many questions.......many many questions and problems and does it so wholesomely and so didactically and flawlessly.

My hat is off to you, Mr. Elon. I am silenced by the great amount of awe and respect I now harbor toward you. Thank You!

One of the best history books I read (and I read quite a few):
Well written, the past comes to life and what's more important you start to live it as if you don't know the future. One of the biggest problems in reading history is the fact you know "the answers" a privilege people don't have when they actually live and take decisions. This book gives you the feeling as if you almost are there with out knowing how things will eventually turn out.
Side bonus: a look in to the best of European culture of the 19th century.
A key for understanding lots of current issues, it will also help to understand the desires and nightmares of Jews in Israel today.

The book is very well written, and the author has a great talent for storytelling. It is almost like reading a novel, this is achieved without affecting the academic value of the work.

The book is referred to as the history of Jews in Germany between 1743 and 1933, in reality it is the history of intellectual jews in those years. There is little mention of poor jews, and for the most concentrates on the people who would have left a larger mark and legacy: mainly intellectuals. There is also some mention of how jews in neighboring countries lived.

I highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the subject.

excellent photographs of collection of royal family of england ,from1840-1940.some of the pictures i've seen before ,but there are alot of new one's not seen before.

This is an excellent resource as well as enjoyable reading and viewing. Queen Victoria had a large, illustrious family. This book not only humanizes and personalizes the many family members, it also helps to make sense of the extended family connections - particularly with the included family trees in the back of the book.

I have perused through this book many times, and have recently given one to a friend, who absolutely loved it. This is not a history book that will just sit on a shelf. It is a required addition to anyone interested in the history of Queen Victoria and the Eurpoean monarchies.

Absolutely remarkable. Charlotte Zeepvat takes the reader into the lives of Queen Victoria and her family with the amazing photographs, both candid and formal. The pictures are rare. They are well organized and have excellent captions. Zeepvat is a great writer/historian and I recommend her books to all.

for those interested in royalty. While some of these photos can be found in many different books, some of them I've seen for the first time. Queen Victoria's decendants are so numerous and belong to so many different royal houses. Definitely a worthwhile purchase!

There are certain photos that I simply expect to see when perusing volumes about European royalty. However, upon receiving Zeepvat's book, I was thrilled to find so many rarely seen photos of some of the more obscure descendants of the "Grandmother of Europe." If you're a royalty buff like I am, you can spend hours immersed in this marvelous book and its detailed family trees.

This is an excellent history book. Even though I was had to read the book in many sittings, I never lost the train of thought of the author.

My only criticism is that I really wanted to learn more about Peter the Great and how he built St. Petersburg. I felt the book was lacking in this very important aspect of the history of Russia

Book was very easy reading and well organized. One of the best history books I have read.

if you want to no about the early to last romanov's and russia history this book is for you.this writer leave nothing out.

W. Bruce Lincoln's history of the 300 years of Romanov rule in Russia (1613-1917) is easily his most readable account of Russian history. While Professor Lincoln's research is meticulous as ever, in this volume he has to cover far more ground than in his other more focused histories and thus he avoids some of the digressions that he normally might allow himself. The result is a superb one-volume history of the Tsars and Tsarinas who determined Russia's development from a minor principality into the largest empire on earth.

The Romanovs consists of four parts: Muscovite beginnings (1613-1689), the Rise of an Empire (1689-1796), Empire Triumphant (1796-1894) and the Last Emperor (1894-1917). The first three parts each consist of several chapters, with the first covering biographical details of the Tsars and Tsarinas in that period, followed by chapters on political and cultural changes in that period. There are only two significant problems with what is otherwise a superb presentation: a non-chronological methodology and a lack of a single supporting map of Romanov domains (there are two maps of St Petersburg's layout). In the first case, Lincoln tends to keep coming back to Tsars in subsequent chapters on culture, politics, etc which is very confusing. Indeed, he seems in a rush to plow through the biographies of the Tsars, then revisit their cultural accomplishments, then come back again and discuss their political accomplishments, and then maybe discuss a few scandals or wars. As for the lack of maps, it makes it extremely difficult for the reader to evaluate the territorial expansions of the various Romanov rulers or Russia's growth over three centuries.

Despite these two flaws, the Romanovs is a delightful read for anyone with a scholarly interest in Russian imperial history. Perhaps the three most significant rulers that Lincoln assesses are Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Nicholas II. Most histories tend to elevate Peter to hero status, but Lincoln's evaluation is more mixed. While Peter gets great credit for pushing Russia to modernize, the costs he incurred may have been too great. In particular, Lincoln questions Peter's obsession with building his capital on totally unsuitable terrain; the fact that the Russians were able to eventually succeed in constructing Peter's dream capital often disguises the fact that the human and financial losses were exorbitantly wasteful. The reader will be left to ponder the question that if Peter had built his capital elsewhere, Russia's development might have been much less painful. As for Catherine, Lincoln prefers to minimize the scandal and corruption associated with her court and view this as the golden age of Russian cultural development. Finally, Nicholas II appears as even more of a fatalistic dolt bent on self-destruction than he did in Lincoln's previous books. In sum, The Romanovs provides a solid and very readable account of Russia's development under the Tsars and Tsarinas.

A genuinely great book. Lincoln certainly could write, and make
all those old Russians seem really interesting. As Lincoln's
former students (including me) know, his lectures were tediously
boring, so that makes the books all the more remarkable.

In my book, "Astronomical Symbols on Ancient and Medieval Coins", I devote an entire chapter to the eighth Crusade. The political events of the time, the celestial omens that were seen in the heavens and depicted on coinage of Louis IX and that of his brother Charles of Anjou, combined with the influence of Charles of Anjou on Louis IX, all came together as the basis for the decision by Louis IX to land at the Bay of Tunis for his final crusade.

As part of my research, I read numerous books on the history of the period, and I found that Runciman's book, "The Sicilian Vespers," was especially useful. There were many items of interest in his book that added to my understanding of the history of that time.

Marshall Faintich

Sir Runciman once again delivers informative historical narrative that is thorough and equally entertaining. The political intrigue of the 13th century, involving virtually all of the Mediterranean powers, provide just the detail needed to grasp the causes and affects of the Vespers revolution. Sir Runciman deftly weaves the varied characters and their roles together into the story that pulls the reader in and keeps their attention. There are a confusing array of political players in the drama but Sir Runciman's story-telling style helps avoid confusion and makes the intricate connections required to better understand the period. Very well done and a wonderful addition to any library.

Herein, outstanding British historian Runciman explains in considerable and fascinating detail the story of the Sicilian Vespers, and its profound impact on the history of Christendom. What comes across most dramatically to this reader in Runciman's wonderful account is the love of intrigue and political striving of the 13th century Papacy. Here, we see the several Popes of the period acting as petty Italian Princes in their attemtps to further their own secular power. And the upshot of these attempts came to be a profound weakening of the unity of Western Christendom that ultimately fructified into the Reformation of the 16th century.

Another amazing aspect of the story Runciman herein records is the stunning skill and subtlety of Byzantine diplomacy. At the time, the Byzantine, or Later Roman, Empire was yet reeling from the devastation of the hideous Fourth Crusade. And, yet with little remaining military power at their hands, the Byzantines managed to avert what would have been another disasterous Western "crusade" from destroying Constantinople. Here we see also a natural alliance forming between Aragon, later Spain, and the Orthodox East. One could make a good case that this was also the natural alliance that so frustrated Napoleon's design, when he was harried by guerrila warfare in Spain, and by Holy Russia's Biblically courageous defense of Mother Russia.

We strongly recommend Sir Steven Runciman's excellent work to all who would understand this very important, but little discussed, background to modern European history. God bless.

What an excellent history. It's a careful, economical but thorough recounting of events among a huge array of far-flung characters. It's not difficult to read, but rereading helps fix the cast in the mind. (The index is excellent, but a list of characters would have been helpful, although that sort of user-friendliness would definitely have been at odds with the book's Cambridge gestalt.) Sir Steven is very sparing of analysis and conjecture, so that when he does essay a mild synthesizing comment, it is all the more powerful and organic, having grown from the "objective" account and selections of incident. His final thesis -- that the medieval papacy foundered during this period due to its cautious, conscious decision to eschew centralized surrogate command (through the Hohestaufen empire) in favor of decentralized partitioning (the original balkanization) that fed and inculcated a nationalism that was ultimately much more debilitating to papal power -- is both startling and inevitable. Besides the masterful overarching view of European history, the book also is fascinating and illuminating about Sicily in particular, and its polyglot zealotry.

Runciman's writing is absolutely amazing in this volume which treats of Europe in the mid-to-late thirteenth century. I devoured this book in a matter of days, fascinated as I am with Sicilian history and culture. Runciman gives a fantastic view of the Kingdom of Sicily after the fall of "The Kingdom in the Sun", or the Norman Kingdom based in Palermo. From the benevolent king William the Good to the villanous Charles of Anjou, Runciman presents all of those occurances which led up to the Sicilian Vespers, or the systematic destruction of French power over the Sicilians on Easter Monday, 1282. A must-read for all those interested in the history of Europe in this era.

Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk have written such a deep, touching story in "The Sidewalk Artist". It is so poetic, it brings tears to this reader's eyes. The book presents the life story of a Renaissance artist into the modern world where a young tourist named Tulia meets and is instantly inrigued with a sidewalk artist and finds herself falling in love. Their tale intermingles with the book Tulia is attempting to write during her travels through France and Italy. Slowly, the truth begins to reveal itself about the artist and the secret he hides. Everyone who has a romantic bone in his or her body should not miss this one!

I loved the book as soon as I opened it. The authors have their e-mail address in the book, and you can also download beautiful pictures of areas where the story took place. The book is based on real historical figures and is set in beautiful European settings, past and present.

The book is engrossing, emotional and beautiful.

I highly recommend it.

The Sidewalk Artist is a beautifully written book and is very atmospheric.

The book really is two stories but it is really one love story that surpasses time and I did work out the plot when I was half way through I was not tempted to give up as I was hoping I was wrong !

It is not a book I would normally buy but I did enjoy it. Definitely a lovely Summer read. My only complaint is I would have liked it to be a bit longer !

The Sidewalk Artist is a beautifully written book and is very atmospheric.

The book really is two stories but it is really one love story that surpasses time. I did work out the plot when I was half way through, however I was not tempted to give up as I was hoping I was wrong !

It is not a book I would normally buy but I did enjoy it. Definitely a lovely Summer read. My only complaint is I would have liked it to be a bit longer !

Whenever I hear a book labeled a "romance", I instantly think of bodice rippers. As I am not a fan of this genre, attaching "romance" to a book makes me wary and that's too bad, as I love a really well done romance. Fortunately, there are books like this that prove that romance can be a very literary topic.

Tulia Rose heads off to Europe for some time away from what has become a fractured relationship. She's a woman who seems to be standing still in her life. Though she is happy with her job, the pay is low and there is no real opportunity to go any further than where she is. The aforementioned relationship is with a man who makes a great deal of money and so one of the central conflicts here is not only the slow death of their romance but also the more practical question of how Tulia is to survive if she is to go it alone. This is a complex issue and one that undoubtedly leads many people to stay with partners with whom they are really ill suited. I thought the authors handled this particular plot thread in a thoughtful manner.

While in Europe, Tulia meets a very mysterious sidewalk artist who causes her to drastically change her plans. Though he is sensitive and handsome and though Tulia finds herself drawn to him, he is also rather cagey and her reaction to his reticence is very realistic. She finds herself having to choose between what her heart and her head are telling her. Though she finds herself falling for him, her growing feelings for him are tempered by periodic bursts of uncertainty as to whether he is sincere and even whether he could, in fact, be dangerous. Really, all love is like this in that we must all ultimately make a choice as to whether or not we will allow ourselves to become vulnerable enough to care for someone. Tulia wants to believe in love but has found herself disappointed in the past and so while her caution is certainly advisable, it also says a lot about how she has been hurt in the past.

Woven within Tulia's story is a fictional account of the artist Raphael and the woman he loved, which Tulia writes after the story comes to her in bits and pieces during dreams. His is a cautionary tale about taking love for granted rather than seizing every opportunity for happiness. The more Tulia writes the tale, the more unsettling it becomes because it seems so vivid to her. It is here that the mystical elements of the novel come into play and Buonaguro and Kirk have created a book that has fantastical elements that are so sensitively written that, however implausible, they don't seem silly.

This is a well-written memoir which covers a great deal of World War Two combat flying and ranks among the best books on that theatre of war that I've read -- and believe me, I've read an awful lot of them. The writing style is simple yet evocative and we quickly move from the author's training days to the moment when he first meets an enemy plane in combat. What I particularly appreciated about the book was the focus on Anderson's family and the stresses they suffered and the continual reference to the brutality of war and the number of the author's flying colleagues who died. The World War Two reminiscences end about two-thirds of the way through the book and then we have to wade through perhaps too much about his post-war experiences as a test pilot, a desk-bound bureaucrat and then a commander in the Vietnam war. But do buy the book for the World Wat Two material alone, which is excellent.

When I first bought "To Fly and Fight", I expected a book mainly about World War II aviation. Instead, there was much more. Colonel Anderson has a great amount of experience in many aircraft since World War II, as well flying F-105s as the 355 TFW commander at Takhli RTAFB in Thailand in 1970. If you are a military aviation buff, this book is a must

As an avid reader of World War Two History. And being a Viet Nam Veteran; I found this book to be a most fascinating history; Of "Not Only the Man"; But his recollections of his life growing up oin Rural California in the 1930's & 1940's. His enlistment in the Army Air Corp; And his experiences in England during the war. This is "No dry" mundane slow reading military text book. Colonol Anderson, tells of his love for flying and his vivid discriptions of Europe during World War Two; Help the reader to picture what it was like for an average guy; Who has a love for flying and trying his best to stay alive in a extremly hostile environment. He does not dwell on the sadder aspects of war. But trys to explain how he learned to cope with these stressors; And still fullfill his dream of flying. He also go's to great lengths to discuss the other aircraft he had flown. His adventures in P-39's and T-6 Texans. I found his book to be non-judgemental; But very fair to all the persons good and bad that he had come to know in his life. He only briefly discusses his flying career during the Viet Nam Conflict. But then this book was not written with Viet Nam in mind solely. This book is about the man; His love of flying.

I found this book to enlightning; refreshing; funny; sad; extrordinary; And written with a smooth tempo and hums along like the engine of a P-51 Mustang. The Book and the Man are unseperable. He takes you up in his Mustang with him through his rememberences. And brings you home to the runway just as a good pilot would do today. I would recommend this book to anyone who has not only an intrest in World War Two. But an intrest in a "Great Man" who lived an extrordinary life. Fighting for all of us; Flying for all of us. This man is a "TRUE"; American Hero.

Although this book has a different feel to it than the book to which it will invariably be compared, namely Chuck Yeager's "YEAGER" autobiography, I must say it stands on its own feet without any apologies. In this book, Anderson details a life full of accomplishments and adventure.

The chapters that focus on his World War II exploits are clearly the most interesting, although his post-war adventures (including missions in Vietnam) were entertaining in their own right. My only complaint is that he did not write more about this period of his life. It seemed that Yeager's book was a bit more balanced in that he covered his career from beginning to end with an even hand. Anderson (or his publisher) chose not to do so, and that is unfortunate, for I am sure there is much to be learned from this period of his remarkable life.

Despite these minor shortcomings, this one is definitely worth a look. The beginning may be slow to some, but keep going. It is well worth it.

I found "To Fly and Fight" to be an excellent biography of man who grew up with an intense love of flying, and who fulfilled his dreams. The book chronicles his growing up in the rural foothills of Northern California, and his growing love of flying. It gives a very personal accounts of his early days days with the Army Air Corps from training to activation in England. I enjoyed the accounts of his early friendships and escapades.

The descriptions and events as a P-51 pilot flying in the ETO are first rate. The first chapter grabs hold of you and doesn't let go with his account of a high altitude duel with an ME-109. It is a classic. He describes many of his combat missions and describes his growing friendship with Chuck Yeager. The story of his final mission with Yeager is priceless.

The book also includes some revealing sections about his tedious days as a recruiter and several stints with the Pentagon to heady days as a Test Pilot at Wright Field and later at Edwards. He also gives us some excellent insights into his days as a Squadron Leader flying F-86's in Korea and a Wing Commander flying F-105's from Okinawa and Thailand during the Vietnam Conflict.

I had the opportunity recently to meet Col. Anderson and his lovely wife Ellie. We spent several hours together discussing his flying days. It was a real priviledge. He is truly a humble man but has that touch of steel of man who has lived through a lot. He is still a hearty and it's great to think of him still tearing up the skies at Air Shows flying the Old Crow along side Chuck Yeager.

I highly recommend "To Fly and Fight" to all WWII aviation enthusiasts.

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I read this book the first time when I checked it out of the public library. I loved it so much that I had to have my own copy. It is a fascinating account of how the nouvo riche in the U.S. basically bought acceptance to high society for their daughters. You can just pick it up and read sections - it's not necessary to start at the beginning and work through. Not a summer goes by that I don't pick it up!

Every time I read this book it becomes more and more interesting. Meticulously researched, with great little anecdotes and etiquette tips.
This book is a lot of fun! I especially liked the many photographs of the designer gowns (most by Worth, if you please!) that are liberally scattered throughout.
If you're ananglophile you'll want to get this one!

Those few of us who have wondered why in the world a comfortable, cosseted American girl would want to marry an Englishman and live in a cold climate in an even colder stone castle will find answers here, even if the answers aren't satisfactory to the modern ear.

Think of it: wealthy American society girls, products of generations of men and women who gave lives and fortunes to escape a Royalist society, thought it a worthy investment of their lives, loves and wealth to buy an English title in the form of a husband. It's understandable that men who have no money and are saddled with huge estates and titles with no way to support themselves "in the manner to which they have become accustomed" would search out these women. It's another matter to understand the women, especially if they were bright and energetic (like the fabled Jenny Jerome).

Of course the first women to get involved in this weird method of social climbing didn't realize what was involved. (Though why American society decided that an English title was important in the United States, especially if it could be bought with money, still escapes me.) The problems included loveless husbands who paid little attention to their wives and carried on affairs; cold and drafty castles into which Papa sank tons of money to no avail as far as comfort was concerned; families who refused to accept them in spite (or because) of the fact that they provided the money to keep the lifestyle intact; servants who often were sulky and rebellious ("but we've ALWAYS done it that way"); children they handed over to nannies. The first brides must have kept the hardships and loneliness from the succeeding generation, for the rage for English titles prevailed from the mid-19th century almost through the mid-20th century.

TO MARRY AN ENGLISH LORD is a fascinating and complete look at these women and the lives they led. Illustrations showing the homes and households of the times and how they operated, fashions, maps, photographs of the women and their friends, families and husbands all combine to present the core of that particular section of society in that particular age.

The book is meticulously researched and includes a bibliography, a register of American heiresses, a suggested walking tour of the women's London and a very handy index. It's built around the stories of these women and the men who wooed and won them. Who they were, what they did and what the consequences were -- all adds up to an intriguing and fascinating read.

As the other reviewers have noted, this is a great romp through a part of American history you don't learn about in school. I read it through once and then re-read it just to savor all the little bits and pieces the authors have so generously loaded it with. If you ever wondered about all those Vanderbilts and all those Whitneys, here is your chance (from an American point of view!)to find out just how and why these ladies ended up in the postions they did- all for the love of Edward VII. I wish there were more reader-friendly books like this that make history so entertaining.

Who says that history is boring and stuffy? This well-researched book is chock full of anecdotes, pictures, and facts to make the period and the subject come to life.

This book discusses the phenomenon of the "dollar princesses": American hieresses who married into titles abroad, particularly England. Amongst them were Winston Churchill's mother; a woman who was the second-highest ranking woman in the British empire (after only the queen); and maybe the most famous of all: Consuelo Vanderbuilt, who begrudgingly became the Duchess of Marlborough in a marriage aranged by her social-climbing mother.

Written informally, with lots of pictures, this might be a great book to buy a teenager who is just transitioning into "grown-up" non-fiction, but finds most of it dry and uninteresting. It is also a must-read for anyone who plans on traveling to country-houses in England, as it gives a more accurate view of what it was like to actually have to live in one of those monstrosities! Anyone who is interested in the history of class in America, or of the British Aristocracy, would also be interested.

A marvelous book. The author is to be commended for his ability to recall these events from the vantage of so young an age at the time of occurrence. This story is little known, sometimes actively forgotten, almost always disregarded in the record of 20th century crimes against humanity. I had the privilege recently of speaking, literally for only a few minutes, at the funeral of an older man (born 1922) from Rowne--only a few miles from Adamczyk's hometown, Luck. A decade older, he tried to get to Hungary in October, 1939, failed, and was therefore a criminal for having made the attempt. His story, then, was of direct prisons rather than of being dumped by the side of the tracks. Each situation had its advantages and disadvantages. The man from Rowne was "amnestied" from Norilsk, above the Arctic Circle, in late 1941, and his story paralleled that of Adamczyk until arrival in Persia, emaciated--at 86 pounds at age 20 and suffering recurring malaria. There are a million of these stories; more should be published.

I am sitting here struggling to find the words to begin to express my love for this book. I have just spent the past twenty-six hours not putting this book down. Now, I don't know if it is the fact that my family had delt with these similar circumstances and moved to the same area of Chicago, but i have never felt so connected/transported to individuals in a book as I did with this one.

The ugliness of reality balanced with hope, faith, and love render this reader, at least, speechless. I can only thank Mr. Adamczyk for a glimpse of what my family had found to difficult, with good reason, to talk about. This book has left me with a greater understanding of World War II, the atrocities of a Communist rule, and a deeper appreciation of my Polish faith and heritage.

This book reflects the resilience of the human spirit even in the most devistating of circumstances and stands as an inspiration to reflect on the freedom we too often take for granted.

...Wow!

Simply stated, this book reiterates everything my grandpa told me about the Russians' way of life and their mentality brought on by the deceitful communist system full of oppression and anti-western propaganda. Read and you will begin to fathom the injustice inflicted upon the peoples, both Polish and Russian. It will take generations to undo the damage.

Anyone with half a brain might wonder why the Nazis are still minced to pieces in all media 60 years after the war's end, while the Soviets, with 70 years of blood on their hands, have passed quietly out of their Communist terrorism without any great international trials or severe criticisms by the Western media. Is it because the leftists still believe that "true Communism" has yet to be attempted? Well, perhaps, there are such fringe lunatics still around (in the Frisco and NYC areas).

No, the real answer lies in the deadly dealings of the Allies in WWII, in cooperating with Stalin in the Lend-lease supply of materiel, and in not condemning the murders, exile, and starvation of the Poles before Germany attacked Russia. In our all-out effort to defeat the Nazis, the USA and England cooperated in suppressing the knowledge of the 5,000 Polish officers and Polish civilians shot and buried by the Soviets in 1939, when they invaded and took over Eastern Poland. This famous massacre in the Katyn Forest was for years blamed on Hitler, when the Germans had not yet been in that side of Poland. Only when Gorbachev came to power was the murder order signed by Stalin made public - but Roosevelt knew, as did Churchill.

This remarkable book takes us into the frightening world Wiesiu Adamczck, a seven-year-old boy when his father, then 47, was taken away and killed in Katyn Forest, unbeknownst to his family - Wiesiu's mother, older sister and brother. They are all packed up on trains and sent to Kazakistan, as members of a bourgeois oppresser class, they must be punished according to Soviet logic.

The writer, now a man in his 70's, is an excellent wordsmith, who doesn't stint in telling what Russian and Polish expressions mean. He dwells on his own family, his own people and the terrible consequences of the Communist regime for the people of the USSR, for the Poles, and for all nations which fell to its avarice and terror after WWII. His incredible adventures, if you want to call them that, in surviving such a deportation through the Eastern republics of the chaotic war years, into Persia and finally to England, then the USA, is a ten-year journey of incredible hardship, hunger, cold and homelessness. His mother dies, and the truth about the father is known at the end of years of hoping against hope.

What Hollywood or the BBC could do with this material! The story of the Soviet empire and all its disgusting inhumanity should be aired out thoroughly, even more so than the Nazis' philosophy. If it should take root again, woe betide the planet and the millions to be starved in the future.

This book should be mandatory reading in the US high schools, as many students will never know that non-Jewish-descended EUropeans also suffered dreadful consequences during the war.

A skewered history is often a false one, and that is slowly happening throughout the US media, in omitting the Communist side of the horrendous torture and killing from 1917-onwards.

Well, this book will make it clear: FDR knew it, as he knew that Pearl Harbor was to be bombed.

The teaching of history is often distorted by selective presentation of past events. Virtually everyone has heard of the 5-6 million Jews killed by the Germans. Few outside Polish circles have a clue about the fact that 2-3 million gentile Poles were also murdered by the Germans, and a few hundred thousand by the Soviets--first as Poland's sworn enemy and then as an "ally". While Churchill and Roosevelt were dilly-dallying with "Uncle Joe" Stalin, he was still murdering Poles and executing his plans to deprive "liberated" Poland from her rightful independence, freedom, and sovereignity. The western powers shamelessly disregarded the Atlantic Charter and betrayed the Poles--who all along had been fighting on their side on just about every front, and who had played a significant, if not decisive, role in preventing the Luftwaffe from achieving air supremacy over the English skies as a prelude to the planned German invasion (Operation Sea Lion).

This work provides an absorbing personal account of the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles by the Soviet Union following the German-Soviet conquest of Poland in 1939. Wes Adamczyk, then a boy of 7, was to lose his father in the infamous Katyn Massacre, and his entire family was uprooted and sent to a living death in Kazakhstan. He was one of the lucky few to be released and to eventually find his way to a new life in the United States. Decades later, he fulfilled his wish to visit the site of his father's murder near Smolensk, Russia.

The reader is exposed to the brutality of the Soviet police as they ransack the Adamczyk home, destroy objects related to Polish patriotism, and herd the family ("enemies of the people") into overcrowded trains for the fateful trip east. Every day becomes a battle for survival. They are near starvation. However, individual Kazakhs and Russians show friendship towards the Poles. The young Adamczyk befriends Mr. Petrovitch on a fishing boat. The moving account tells how the elderly Russian teaches the boy the truth about Communism. It is lies on top of lies on top of lies. In fact, the continued spying by the Soviet police on the captive Poles does not stem from the fact that they suspect that the Poles may escape or revolt. The spying comes from the fear that the locals may learn the truth about the outside world from the Poles--that the non-
Communist world is not rotten, and that the Soviet Union is no workers' paradise.

Nazi Germany turns against its erstwhile Soviet ally, creating a chance for the Poles, consigned to eventual death from starvation, overwork, and disease, to escape the Gulag. Negotiations "succeed" in securing the release of captive Poles. But the Soviets drag their feet, and only a fraction of still-living captive Poles end up being released. The Adamczyk family has to stage a near-escape adventure to reach Iran. The squalor of the just-freed Poles is indescribable. Thousands die right there, including Wes Adamczyk's mother--ironically just a short time after having finally left the clutches of the Soviet hell.

Tens of thousands of previously-captured Polish officers are found to be conspicuously and unexpectedly missing, and the Soviets say, "They all escaped to Manchuria". As time drags on, the Adamczyks realize the fate of their father and the remainder of the POWs. The Soviets don't admit responsibility for the Katyn Massacre until 1990. The long cover-up by western governments is little better than the decades-long Soviet one. The west needed a second coverup to cover its first coverup of the conspiracy of silence about this heinous Soviet crime.

The Adamczyks, like all surviving Poles, get a cruel blow when they learn that Roosevelt and Churchill have betrayed their faithful ally Poland by giving away eastern Poland to the Russians, and allowed a Communist puppet state to be forced on the rest of "liberated" Poland. In a sense, all of the Polish sufferings and sacrifices turn out to have been in vain. The Adamczyks, and millions of other Poles, have no home to return to. The only "happy ending" is a new life in America.