Must.Read.Non.Fiction (library, irony, novel, cover)

[Escort Rider]

For anyone interested in World War II, British writer Max Hastings is outstanding. I especially like his "Retribution", which covers the final two years of the Pacific War.

[burdell]

I Could Never Be So Lucky Again _____ Gen. 'Jimmy' Doolittle's autobiography. Great man! Good read!


A Hostage To Fortune _____ Noted aviation writer Ernest K. Gann's autobiography. The man had a fascinating life, from stints in the entertainment industry, being in the Rhineland in 1936 when Hitler's troops marched in, to being a player inthe early days of the airline industry.

[southwest88]

The secret war : spies, ciphers, and guerrillas 1939-1945 / Max Hastings, c2016, Harper, 940.5485 HAST.

Subjects

• World War, 1939-1945 -- Secret service.
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements.
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Cryptography.
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Electronic intelligence.
• Intelligence service -- History -- 20th century.
• Espionage -- History -- 20th century.
• Bletchley Park (Milton Keynes, England) -- History.

Notes

• Before the deluge. Seekers after truth ; The British: gentlemen and players ; The Russians: temples of espionage -- The storm breaks. The "fiction flood" ; Shadowing Canaris -- Miracles take a little longer: Bletchley. "Tips" and "cillis" ; Flirting with America -- The dogs that barked. "Lucy's" people ; Sorge's warnings ; The orchestra plays ; The deaf man in the Kremlin -- Divine winds. Mrs Ferguson's tea set ; The Japanese ; The man who won Midway -- Muddling and groping: the Russians at war. Centre mobilises ; The end of Sorge ; The second source ; Gourevitch takes a train -- Britain's secret war machine. The sharp end ; The brain ; At sea -- 'Mars': the bloodiest deception. Gehlen ; "Agent Max" -- The orchestra's last concert -- Guerrilla. Resisters and raiders ; SOE -- Hoover's G-men, Donovan's wild men. Adventurers ; Ivory towers ; Allen Dulles: talking to Germans -- Russia's partisans: terrorising both sides -- Islands in the storm. The Abwehr's Irish *** ; No man's land -- A little help from their friends. "It stinks, but somebody has to do it" ; American traitors -- The knowledge factories. Agents ; The jewel of sources ; Production lines ; Infernal machines -- 'Blunderhead': the English patient -- Eclipse of the Abwehr. Hitler's Bletchleys ; "Cicero" ; The fantasists ; The "good" Nazi -- Battlefields. Wielding the Ultra wand ; Suicide spies ; Tarnished triumph -- Black widows, few white knights. Fighting Japan ; Fighting each other ; The enemy: groping in the dark -- 'Enormoz' -- Decoding victory.
• "First published in a different form in the United Kingdom in 2015"--Title page verso.

Summary

• An examination of one of the most important yet underexplored aspects of World War II --intelligence--shows how espionage successes and failures by the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany, and Japan influenced the course of the war and its final outcome.

Length xxvii, 610 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : index

An excellent book - an overview & assessment of USSR, UK, US, German, Japan & other intel operations. Pluses & minuses, nets, codes, radio, radar, spies. Very comprehensive.

[southwest88]

The big truck that went by : how the world came to save Haiti and left behind a disaster / Jonathan M. Katz, c2013, Palgrave Macmillan, 363.34 KATZ 2013.

Subjects

• Earthquake relief -- Haiti.
• Disaster relief -- Haiti.
• Haiti Earthquake, Haiti, 2010.
• Economic assistance, American -- Haiti.
• Humanitarian assistance, American -- Haiti.
• Haiti -- Economic conditions -- 21st century.
• Haiti -- Politics and government -- 21st century.

Notes

• The end -- Love theme from Titanic -- Blan and Nèg -- The Crossroads In Louisville -- Spoiled corn -- Bon Dola -- The governor -- "When I get older" -- Sugar Land Miracle falls -- Face to face -- A gut feeling -- Cardboard palace -- All together now -- Memwa.

Summary

• An assessment of how Haiti has fared after the 2010 earthquake reveals how the country continues to suffer from poverty, illness, and a broken infrastructure, assessing the factors that prevent aid from reaching people in need.

Length

• 306 pages, [8] pages of plates : maps, index

Very good. Katz is a journalist, spent 2 years in Haiti, learned some Creole & the culture, then the earthquake hit. He stayed on for another year. Pres. Clinton, Sean Penn, the Haitian government, elites, World NGOs & UN & IMF, UN troops, cholera, infrastructure.

[southwest88]

Balance : the economics of great powers from ancient Rome to modern America / Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, c2013, Simon & Schuster, 330.9 HUBB 2013.

Subjects

• Economics -- Political aspects.
• Political science -- Economic aspects.
• Balance of power -- Economic aspects.
• Economic history -- Political aspects.

Summary

• A quarter century after Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane present a bold, sweeping account of why powerful nations and civilizations break down under the heavy burden of economic imbalance. Introducing a profound new measure of economic power, Balance traces the triumphs and mistakes of imperial Britain, the paradox of superstate California, the long collapse of Rome, and the limits of the Japanese model of growth. Most importantly, Hubbard and Kane compare the twenty-first-century United States to the empires of old and challenge Americans to address the real problems of our country's dysfunctional fiscal imbalance. If there is not a new economics and politics of balance, they show that there will be an inevitable demise ahead.

Length xii, 351 pages : maps, graphs, photos, index, references, chapter notes

Excellent overview, analysis of various empires. Includes call for US balanced budget amendment. I keep trying to get my head around econ - I read this hoping we'd discuss these issues during the next admin. It doesn't seem likely now, but still good info.

[southwest88]

Hero of the empire : the Boer War, a daring escape and the making of Winston Churchill / Candice Millard, c2016, Doubleday, 968.048 MILL.


Subjects

• Churchill, Winston, -- 1874-1965 -- Military leadership.
• South African War, 1899-1902 -- Participation, British.
• South African War, 1899-1902 -- Prisoners and prisons, British.

Notes

• Pushful, the younger. Death by inches ; The graven palm ; The scion ; Blowing the trumpet -- Into Africa. "Send her victorious" ; "We have now gone far enough" ; The blackest of all days ; Land of stone and scrub -- Chance. The death trap ; A pity and a blunder ; Into the lion's jaws ; Grim sullen death -- Prisoners of war. To submit, to obey, to endure ; "I regret to inform you" ; A city of the dead ; Black week ; A scheme of desperate and magnificent audacity ; "I shall go on alone" -- In the heart of enemy's country. Toujours de l'audace ; "To take my leave" ; Alone ; "Wie is daar?" ; An invisible enemy ; The light of hope ; The plan ; The red and the blue.
• "Author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt"--Dust jacket.
• Maps inside front and back covers.

Summary

• "At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British Army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him. Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape-- but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him. The story of his escape is incredible enough, but then Churchill enlisted, returned to South Africa, fought in several battles, and ultimately liberated the men with whom he had been imprisoned. Churchill would later remark that this period, "could I have seen my future, was to lay the foundations of my later life." Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters--including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi--with whom he would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect 20th century history"-- Provided by publisher.

Length

• xi, 381 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : index, chapter notes, select bibliography

Excellent reading, early Churchill & his overweening sense of destiny. Plus he never could keep his mouth shut. He apparently always had a streak of grandiosity in his daydreams? planning? Which crops up in his WWI days @ Gallipoli, & WWII - trying to shield UK & Commonwealth from undue casualties, operations in the Med, the Greek intervention, Op Market Garden, etc. Very interesting, plus background on Boers & S. Africa

[southwest88]

The Spanish language of New Mexico and southern Colorado : a linguistic atlas / Garland D. Bills, Neddy A. Vigil, c2008, U. of NM, SW 467.9789 Bill.


Subjects

• Spanish language -- Dialects -- New Mexico.
• Spanish language -- Dialects -- Colorado.
• Areal linguistics.

Notes

• Introduction -- Part 1. The study of New Mexican Spanish -- New Mexican Spanish: myths and realities -- The New Mexico-Colorado Spanish survey -- Historical overview of the Spanish language and culture in New Mexico -- Part II. The formation of traditional New Mexican Spanish -- Retentions: the peninsular origins of New Mexican Spanish -- New Spanish in a new world: maritime and Caribbean contributions to New Mexican Spanish -- Nahuatlisms: the Mexican roots of New Mexican Spanish -- Part III: The development of traditional New Mexican Spanish -- El Nuevo México: independent movements -- Uneasy alliances: the contribution of local languages -- Anglicisms: the domineering force of the Yankee tide -- Mexicanisms: the erratic influence of the homeland -- Part IV: The present and future of New Mexican Spanish -- The permanent certainty: intergenerational change -- The long goodbye: the attrition and loss of Spanish skills -- Expanding horizons: the impact of standard Spanish -- Coming full circle: the impact of recent Mexican immigration -- Conclusions: the dialects and subdialects of New Mexican Spanish.

Length

• xiv, 383 pages : maps, index

Excellent on old Spanish in NM, distribution, lexical check items, etc. A handy reference for some of the discussions of Spanish survival in the US.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by Misanthrope83

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy-John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man- John Perkins
They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby-Paul Findley

I just finished The Case for Israel by Alan M. Dershowitz.

The book gives a balanced presentation of the struggle between Israel, the Arabs and their complicit European allies. It is a miracle that any garrison state can keep most attributes of a democracy intact. Dershowitz has skillfully shown how well Israel has adhered to the rule of law, minority rights and freedoms in the face of constant suicidal warfare. I recommend the book to anyone with a serious interest in the Middle East and a willingness to think beyond the moronic chants and slogans of the college BDS movement and the toxic propaganda of the Arab nations and other anti-Semites, cranks and Holocaust deniers.

[Listener2307]

I love books written about the great age of exploration - about 1850 to about 1915.

Farthest North
King Leopold's Ghost
Into Africa (Stanley and Livingston)

[tijlover]

I just finished Area 51/An Uncensored History of America's top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen. One of these "fasten your seatbelt!" kind of books. It will help dispel all your ideas of UFO's/Aliens. Covers most of what's gone on, and is going on, at the NV Nuclear Test Site, north of Las Vegas.

Now reading Wired For War/The Robitics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, by PW Singer, a NY Times Best Seller. Another "fasten your seatbelt!" kind of book! This will give you a good idea of how far robotics have gone so far, and dangers of roboticism.