20th Century Books - Page 12

The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan

Yasmin Khan

Amazon Price: $21.90 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yale University Press Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $10.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> India -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Pakistan
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Partition of India in 1947 promised its people both political and religious freedom—through the liberation of India from British rule, and the creation of the Muslim state of Pakistan. Instead, the geographical divide brought displacement and death, and it benefited the few at the expense of the very many. Thousands of women were raped, at least one million people were killed, and ten to fifteen million were forced to leave their homes as refugees. One of the first events of decolonization in the twentieth century, Partition was also one of the most bloody.

 

In this book Yasmin Khan examines the context, execution, and aftermath of Partition, weaving together local politics and ordinary lives with the larger political forces at play. She exposes the widespread obliviousness to what Partition would entail in practice and how it would affect the populace. Drawing together fresh information from an array of sources, Khan underscores the catastrophic human cost and shows why the repercussions of Partition resound even now, some sixty years later. The book is an intelligent and timely analysis of Partition, the haste and recklessness with which it was completed, and the damaging legacy left in its wake.

 

The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times

Odd Arne Westad

Amazon Price: $17.99 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $5.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States indelibly shaped the world we live in today--especially international politics, economics, and military affairs. This volume shows how the globalization of the Cold War during the 20th century created the foundations for most of today's key international conflicts, including the "war on terror." Odd Arne Westad examines the origins and course of Third World revolutions and the ideologies that drove the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. towards interventionism. He focuses on how these interventions gave rise to resentments and resistance that, in the end, helped to topple one and to seriously challenge the other superpower. In addition, he demonstrates how these worldwide interventions determined the international and domestic framework within which political, social and cultural changes took place in such countries as China, Indonesia, Iran, Ethiopia, Angola, Cuba, and Nicaragua. According to Westad, these changes, plus the ideologies, movements and states that interventionism stirred up, constitute the real legacy of the Cold War. Odd Arne Westad is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2004 he was named head of department and co-director of the new LSE Cold War Studies Centre. Professor Westad is the author, or editor, of ten books on contemporary international history including Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946-1950 (2003) and, with Jussi Hanhimaki, The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts (2003). In addition, he is a founding editor of the journal Cold War History.

The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage

Todd Gitlin

Amazon Price: $14.28 List Price: $21.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $4.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1960s
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A memoir from a 60's revolutionary 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. Todd Gitlin's "The Sixties: Years of Hope and Days of Rage" is Gitlin's first hand account of the revolutionary air surround the 1960's. Gitlin was the president of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) until 1969. Through his book Gitlin is able to describe the feelings of social unrest and dissatisfaction among baby boomers during the 1960's. Gitlin recounts the inner workings of the SDS organization and the political infighting and offshoots which developed as some members became more radical and others became more conservative.

Gitlin's title, "Years of Hope and Days of Rage" exemplify the feelings of America's college students and generation of young adults during the 1960's. Gitlin describes the 1950's as a drab and unremarkable time when Americans were content to be materialistic and conformist. Although there were some poets, musicians, writers, and philosophers who were making headway towards social rebellion, in Gitlin's opinion, the 1950's were characterized by America's "genial deadhead" president Dwight Eisenhower.

Gitlin describes some of the inspirational figures and their contributions which began in the 1950's. He attributes much of the intellectual beginnings of rebellion to the "Beat" culture of the 1950's. Inspirational figures like James Dean and Marlon Brando in teen dramas like "Rebel Without a Cause" exemplified dissatisfied youth in the post World War II era. Jack Kerouac's poetry challenged the politics of the Cold War and made appeals for civil rights for Affican Americans. Rock n' Roll music with its African American beats and became a way for youth to rebel against their parents. An interesting insight which Gitlin contributes is the invention of MAD magazine and its contribution to the counterculture of the late 1960's Gitlin describes how MAD was one of the few publications which lampooned both mainstream culture and counterculture. In a time when people were scared by anything which was deemed to be unproductive to society or subversive, MAD magazine provided a sense of humor to the Gitlin describes his interest in politics had begun with his first year as a Harvard undergraduate, the Cuban Missile Crisis was the spark which began many of the first college campus demonstrations. Gitlin and other "New Left" students were aghast at the idea of nuclear war being waged over Cuba. They believed that the Kennedy administration had pushed the Soviets too far towards nuclear war and that Kennedy should take a softer approach towards U.S.-Soviet relations. Unwilling to engage in nuclear war at any cost, "New Left" activists were determined to change America's political and social landscape.

Students of the New Left believed that America was too materialistic, racist, and militaristic and did not follow the principle of free speech. Gitlin describes that the New Left activists were disenfranchised by the "old liberals" and new dealers who did not have the political will to demand civil rights for African Americans and defend the rights of American communists against anti-communist conservatives. Although the election of John Kennedy had signaled the arrival of a new generation of liberal politicians, New Left activists disagreed with Kennedy's policies towards the Soviet Union and Communist containment overseas.

Gitlin's book describes the feelings which he and others felt during the 1960's. Those who had lived through the Great Depression and the World War II were content with the new wave of goods and security which the 1950's had to offer. Many for the first time had the money and resources to enroll their children in college. Gitlin claims that his generation was not content with the hypocrisy of the U.S. government's policies towards segregation and free speech. Baby boomers had been raised to believe in the ideals of the constitution and the bill of rights however, they felt that these principles were not being practiced.

Gitlin joined the SDS in 1963 and became their president shortly after joining. The SDS became heavily involved in protests for civil rights on college campuses as well as joining African American activist's demonstrations in U.S. Southern states. The SDS engaged in public debates, demonstrations and marches for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. The SDS participated in famous demonstrations at the University of California Berkley and the infamous Democratic National Convention demonstration in Chicago.

During the late 1960's, the SDS began descending into disagreement and criticism from within their own organization. Some SDS members wanted to use violence in their demonstrations; this was criticized by Gitlin and others as being too radical. The lingering question of whether or not to profess support for Soviet and Maoist style communism was raised. Some believed that the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong should be forgiven for their acts of violence against the Vietnamese people because they were committing these acts as a response to American aggression. Gitlin and others believed that it was hypocritical to not hold U.S. leaders and Vietnamese leaders to the same morale standards. Eventually, the SDS disbanded in early 1970 after different leaders of SDS offshoots like the weathermen began participating in bombings and other violent demonstrations against military and other installations.

Gitlin ends his book by describing the events which followed the disintegration of the SDS. Gitlin signals the disbanding of the SDS as the end of the true 1960's revolutionary spirit. SDS members and other revolutionaries became tired of the political infighting and the lack of cooperation from government representatives. According to Gitlin these former revolutionaries embraced new ideals and new forms of spirituality and were diluted in the popularity of the hippie movement during the early 1970's. Gitlin claims that the rising popularity of Buddhism and new religious sects like the Hare Krishnas showed that many were losing faith in the movement and were turning to a higher power or spirituality to cope.

Gitlin criticizes the absurdity of some of the radical movements which came from the late 1960's as being crazy and farcical. Gitlin gives the examples of Patti Hurst's kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army and the activities of Charles Manson's group. The use of drugs became recreational rather than a tool for philosophical and spiritual experimentation. In the end the radical movements which were aimed at changing America as a whole was broken up into single issue interest groups. Feminists, Black Power activists and anti-Vietnam demonstrators focused on their own issues of interest rather than focusing their efforts into a national movement of progress.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.

Editorial Review:

Say "the Sixties" and the images start  coming, images of a time when all authority was  defied and millions of young Americans thought they  could change the world--either through music,  drugs, and universal love or by "putting their  bodies on the line" against injustice and  war.



Todd Gitlin, the highly regarded  writer, media critic, and professor of sociology at  the University of California, Berkeley, has written  an authoritative and compelling account of this  supercharged decade--a decade he helped shape as an  early president of Students for a Democratic  Society (SDS) and an organizer of the first national  demonstration against the Vietnam war. Part  critical history, part personal memoir, part celebration,  and part meditation, this critically acclaimed  work resurrects a generation on all its glory and  tragedy.

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

Anna Funder

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Granta UK Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $8.68

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Stories of life in the GDR, the real-life Orwellian state 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

When author George Orwell wrote Animal Farm and 1984 he wrote of the contemporary and future 'proletarian' dictatorships. The German Democratic Republic, more than any other state before or since, came the nearest to a state of perfected and complete absolute control over its citizens' lives. The author of Stasiland, Anna Funder, has done a suberb job of revivifying this state in her readers' minds through the personal stories of the GDR's inhabitants. I got this book for Christmas and had it read in three days, so good I never wanted to put it down.

The book's chapters trace the lives of various GDR citizens, both those being oppressed and the Stasi personnel charged with terrifying the GDR's people into abject submission. In Soviet Russia there was one KGB agent for every 5830 people, in Nazi Germany one Gestapo agent for every 2000 people, but in the GDR there was one Stasi - or full-time informer - FOR EVERY 63 PERSONS (see p. 57)!

Funder hears shocking tales of personal tragedy, bizarre - but true - stories of GDR logic, and personal justifications from ex-Stasi men themselves. One 15-year-old girl singlehandedly, without any prior planning(!), almost manages to escape over the Berlin Wall, getting within a couple meters of freedom. Another family is permanently separated from their seriously ill son for his first five years of life. And one woman's personal and career life is ruined when she refuses to submit to ideological control.

The author also interviews some famous GDR personalities, such as musician Klaus Renft, the evil-spirited Karl Von Schnitzler, and Hagen Koch (who literally wrote the plan for the wall). She also interviews the puzzle people trying to piece back together the shredded Stasi files. And she also meets with Stasi agents, who for one reason or another, decided to join the 'dark side'.

As I was reading the book, I couldn't help but become absolutely convinced that, despite the very publicized efforts of the German gov't to piece back together the Stasi files, in fact, German (and all other Eastern European) CURRENT LEADERS WANT TO COMPLETELY OBLITERATE EVIDENCE OF THEIR OWN CRIMES DURING THE COMMUNIST REGIMES. The fact of the matter is that many of the former communist elite are still in power now and are using all their gov't influence to ensure they are never, EVER going to be outed! So, in reality, many of them have gotten away with murder and look set to lead comfortable lives into retirement. Many times throughout the book I sensed a continuing cover-up and obfuscation by former Stasi men.

The German government's extremely feeble, half-hearted attempt to reassemble the Stasi files with a staff of 30 or so persons is an absolute farce! Funder calculates it will take them over 300 years to reassemble the files at this rate. With a budget in the billions of euros, it becomes patently obvious the German government's objective is to NOT reassemble the incriminating files. A person might even believe that the Stasi File Authority is headed by a person, Herr Raillard, who is secretly charged by gov't leaders with eliminating any damning evidence that is actually found. This isn't a surprise, as it is the same across the entire former Communist bloc.

This is a great book with a wonderfully direct, realistic writing style. I hope Ms. Funder writes a sequel to the book. I would have liked to have seen some photos too, though. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in life in Eastern Europe.

Editorial Review:

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their fellow citizens, there are thousands of captivating stories. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany. She meets Miriam, who as a 16-year-old might have started World War III; she visits the man who painted the line which became the Berlin Wall; and she gets drunk with the legendary "Mik Jegger" of the east, once declared by the authorities to his face to "no longer to exist." Each enthralling story depicts what it's like to live in Berlin as the city knits itself back together—or fails to. This is a history full of emotion, attitude, and complexity.

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Jud Newborn, Annette Dumbach

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oneworld Publications Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $6.54

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A very powerful and memorable book 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

SOPHIE SCHOLL & THE WHITE ROSE is, essentially, about the finest aspects of human nature. The White Rose members' integrity and their compassion for their fellow Germans and, more surprisingly, for the Jewish population who had endured years of prejudice and oppression followed by vicious persecution is very impressive.

To mount a secret campaign against the Third Reich, a totalitarian regime of insidious oppression and unbelievable brutality against both the German people and its conquered populations, takes amazing courage.

But to face up to that regime on an intensely personal level, without hesitation or - apparently - regret, fully aware of the consequences, is simply awesome. And it awes me that most of the White Rose members were students like myself! This is a very memorable book with a powerful message.

Editorial Review:

From beginning to end, the captivating story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose is an uplifting and enlightening account of the largely untold story of German resistance to the Third Reich. With details of Scholl's arrest and trial before Hitler's Hanging Judge, and Roland Freisler including the leaflets that the White Rose circulated throughout the German population, this volume is an invaluable addition to World War II literature. And it is a fascinating window into human spirit.

The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912

Thomas Pakenham

List Price: $32.00 By: Random House Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $3.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Africa -> General
Subjects -> History -> Africa -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Dark Continent's Darkest Chapter 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

It would be an understatement to write that Thomas Pakenham embraced an ambitious project in crafting a comprehensive, single-volume history of the European colonization of Africa over the course of some four decades a century ago. Few authors could have succeeded after having bitten off so much. Fewer still could have made it accessible to the layman and an immensely enjoyable read at that. Pakenham is the rare talent able to pull off such a feat.

The story Pakenham tells involves countless actors, but at the center of the great conquest from beginning to end is the Belgian King Leopold, whose imperial actions, clothed in the righteous language of development and humanitarianism, did more than anyone else to spur on the exploration and exploitation of Africa. As Pakenham describes him, "Leopold was a Coburg millionaire, a constitutional monarch malgre lui, a throwback from the age of absolutism, with the brain of a Wall Street financier and the hide of an African rhinoceros." From his ostentatious palace at Laeken, Leopold kept a close eye on developments in the exploration of Africa and saw in it his great opportunity to make a fortune, all in the name of the "3 Cs": Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization.

The "3 Cs" served as the foundation for most European imperialist of the time - Henry Stanley, his rival Pierre Brazza, Sir George Goldie, Frederick Lugard and others. A twenty-first century cynic could argue that the European intervention in Africa was motivated by capitalist greed, pure and simple. But Pakenham argues that a genuine desire to help the continent develop through the guiding light of Christianity was a central and perhaps the most important motivating factor in the decision to engage in African adventures by key elements in London, Paris and elsewhere. That said, commerce provided the extra pull that made large-scale action inevitable. After the early reports from Livingstone, himself a genuine and sincere Christian humanitarian, Africa captured the fascination of Europe with the potential of untold riches in this last unexplored frontier on earth. Indeed, the early years of "the Scramble" resembled a stock market bubble as investors rushed in motivated primarily by the fear of losing out by dithering on the sidelines.

One of the more surprising aspects of European colonialism in Africa, especially the British in the early years of the Scramble, is how much they conquered with such little direct government investment. London frequently leveraged private enterprise to do the heavy lifting on the ground and direct foreign investment to develop the local infrastructure. Companies were given charters by London and had the exclusive right to make their fortunes under the protective flag of the British Empire. The most notable examples were Sir George Goldie's Royal Niger Company that exploited the trade in modern day Nigeria and Cecil Rhodes' various enterprises mining diamonds and gold in the republics of South Africa.

The difficult part about Pakenham's "Scramble" is that there are so many actors over so many decades operating on so many fronts that it is a challenge to keep everything straight - Isandlwana, Adowa, Majuba, Khartoum, Fashoda, Omdurman, etc. But Pakenham's prose is so engaging that the reader becomes absorbed and presses on.

In sum, "The Scramble for Africa" is a delightful read and a great overview of an unprecedented exercise in foreign domination and exploitation, the legacy of which we very much live with today. Much of the material is presented at a high level. For instance, Pakenham has also authored an authoritative 500-page history of the Boer War, an event that is covered in "The Scramble" in a mere 25-page chapter late in the book. So those with an interest in specific episodes of African colonialism will be better served with more focused works, but no other book will piece all the parts together so well.

Editorial Review:

In 1880 the continent of Africa was largely unexplored by Europeans. Less than thirty years later, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained unconquered by them. The rest - 10 million square miles with 110 million bewildered new subjects - had been carved up by five European powers (and one extraordinary individual) in the name of Commerce, Christianity, 'Civilization' and Conquest. The Scramble for Africa is the first full-scale study of that extraordinary episode in history.

The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

Rick Atkinson

Amazon Price: $11.56 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Holt Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $2.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Military -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

By far the best book I have ever read 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is one excellent book. It is a must read for people who have been in the military and for that fact, anyone and everyone. This book starts with the Class of 1966 as the enter Westpoint. They start out as freshmen (I believe the term was plebes), the book takes the readers through the trials and tribulations of each of the main characters as they endure that first year. As the book progresses on you get to know each of the main characters as they experience school, romance, hard times, easy times, sad times and happy times. The book continues as they graduate from school and enter Vietnam. You experience the horror of war and the bond the forms with soldiers in combat. After Vietnam the reader will continue to follow the characters as they experience life after Vietnam. I was acutally hoping the book would not end. Being in the military I can relate to much of what the book was about. I highly suggest the book to anyone.

Editorial Review:

The first trade paperback edition of the New York Times best-seller about West Point's Class of 1966, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Atkinson.

This is the story of the twenty-five-year adventure of the generation of officers who fought in Vietnam. With novelistic detail, Atkinson tells the story of West Point's Class of 1966 primarily through the experiences of three classmates and the women they loved--from the boisterous cadet years and youthful romances to the fires of Vietnam, where dozens of their classmates died and hundreds more grew disillusioned, to the hard peace and family adjustments that followed. The rich cast of characters includes Douglas MacArthur, William Westmoreland, and a score of other memorable figures. The West Point Class of 1966 straddled a fault line in American history, and Rick Atkinson's masterly book speaks for a generation of American men and women about innocence, patriotism, and the price we pay for our dreams.

The Painted Word

Tom Wolfe

List Price: $17.95 By: Blackstone Audiobooks Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $34.20

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> 20th Century
Subjects -> History -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"The Painted Word" by Tom Wolfe 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

A Review of Tom Wolfe's "The Painted Word"

Tom Wolfe's rhetoric is at times overpowering but like beautifully complicated music (Bach?) it is a symphony for both the brain and the heart. Wolfe is saying that as art loses its goal to communicate it becomes lousy art, if art at all. He implies that "art for art's sake" is a false concept, and I agree with him. He attacks pretentiousness in both artist and art lover and correctly labels it a game.

Wolfe's title is a word play in two respects. (1) The modernists invent their genres and make them more important that the art itself. (2) Art must have a subject, just as a sentence must have a subject.

The phrase "Art for art's sake" can be used in an adjectival way meaning devotion, obsession, degree of love for the activity of art, and that's fine with me. But there must be more to art than excited devotees. Otherwise, every fanatic, let alone every hard working man who loves his job, would be a creator of art in some form or another. And the crudeness of our world, albeit with beauty scattered about here and there, tells us that is not the case. Of course, beauty and tenderness can exist and not be art. For art does not become art simply because someone says it is.

Much modern art is good and beautiful and meaningful in its dealings with color and form. And a painting might indeed deal solely with color and form, and not with reality. For they are legitimate subjects. On the other hand, an artist's desire to bamboozle is not enough. I love some modern art, and some not, the same as with the other genres. So when is modern art a thing I can accept? When it communicates a subject, even form and color alone; and when it is honest and makes no claims that are not there.

There is a difference between paint-artists and writers in how they perceive their own art juxtaposed others, and how they assign value. Most writers move about, back and forth, and are influenced by all forms, all styles, all of history, and they are capable of learning from the past. They might read Proust one day and Joyce the next, Emily Dickinson and then Virginia Woolf, Goethe and then Vonnegut, Rushdie and then Shakespeare. Take a look at James Joyce's great novel "Ulysses." It depends on the Greek myths, a vastly different kind of writing than his own, but without Homer Joyce's novel would be less than we have now. At the very least, it would be a different novel with a different message.

An exaggeration, even if grotesque, might be characterization, and might be art. James Joyce was aware of that.

On the other hand, more than a few paint artists are bitter in their historical perceptions, hating the art outside their own genre. The Impressionists (whom I especially love) had a vigorous abhorrence for what came before them, and the abstractionists hate everything and everybody but themselves, even denying that their art has to have a subject. "Flatness" is not a subject, it is a technique. A question - why can't I pour paint onto a canvas drip by drip, like Jackson Pollock, and make art out of it? What skill, artistic or otherwise, is involved in that? And what would my spills and splashes communicate?

And then there is the world of hanger-oners and art critics who speak and write in an insane insiders' language, pretentious wanna-be-nabobs living in intellectual temples, wobbly dirty white towers, who feel compelled to tell us what to think, what to love, what to read, what to look at, what to marvel at. And if we disagree they tell us we are bourgeoisie philistines, poor brain and heart limited creatures, incapable.

Tom Wolfe has written a wonderful and humorous look at the sometimes ridiculous world of modern art. Agree with him or not, you will be entertained.

Like Tom Wolfe, I am bemused and irritated by the art reviews in The New York Times. A review of rusted pipes and broken fixtures on display at an art show pushed me over the edge. So I wrote a review of my own and sent it to them. They completely ignored me as I knew they would. My review was of my cat's litter box. Here it is -

**********

A Review of Menace in Simple Things

My love of art and my disdain for the many tortured reviews of art that I stumble across more often than is good for my mental health has led me to write a review of my own. The subject of my analysis is - to say the least - as profound as elephant dung on a Madonna, twisted plumbing, rusting scrap metal, empty white canvasses, or a crucifix inserted into a jar of human urine, objects that are taken quite seriously on the daily art pages of our great American newspapers and in their Sunday supplements. But please, do not take my subject too seriously, for my cat does enough of that for all of us.

A few days ago I happened upon my cat just as he was leaving his litter box after taking a poop. A friend was with me and as he observed my interest in the affair he asked, "You act as though you know what this is all about. I don't get it." Sensing a crisis I suggested that a search through Britannica or The New York Times Arts and Leisure Section might be helpful.

"I can do that." he said, and abruptly left me to my musings. It seemed threatening that I found myself alone with my cat's poop.

The poop seemed to be arranged in a stripped-down manner that made it appear to be on a lighted stage that integrated its various themes into an art form - if you will - that has its roots in Minimalism, and that merged the entire piece into a distinct theatricality. It seemed to have its sources in childhood, a numinous presence having the effect of a domestic twilight zone. Ordinary chunky things were combined in weird ways.

The result was a spooky, dead narrative, perhaps even an autobiographical content. Domesticity - poisoned, entrapped disrupted - was its main theme. And no artist better captured a sense of Foucault's romance with oppression than my cat. At the same time, there was room in the poop for humor, however sardonic, and a strain of poetry that would become more evident with time.

All these morphological riffs loosened up the obtuse, adamant solidity of the poop and suggested a wealth of associations - baptism, slaking thirst, warming, cooling, healing, and of precious things gone down the drain and lost.

It is important to understand the metaphorical dimensions of my cat's poop. But it is not always easy to do that. As time goes on, and the cultural climate that produced this poop moves backward, a new and grand brew of pessimism and nostalgia delivers a shock. But can it be - will it be - a heavy-handed emphasis on a more flexible medium?

Perhaps baby poop next time.

**********

I think I'll go to Macy's and buy me a white suit.

Joseph A. Psarto
440-835-5179
jpsarto@juno.com

Editorial Review:

"America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek) trains his satirical eye on Modern Art in this "masterpiece" (The Washington Post)

Wolfe's style has never been more dazzling, his wit never more keen. He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. This is Tom Wolfe "at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent" (San Francisco Chronicle).

A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945

Vasily Grossman

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $8.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Journalists
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Stalingrad, Kursk, Treblinka and More 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Vasili Semenovich Grossman was a decorated Soviet military journalist best known in the West for his epic novel, Life and Fate (New York Review Books Classics). In 'A Writer at War' editors and translators Anthony Beevor (Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943), an esteemed historian and author in his own right, and Luba Vinogradova, follow Grossman's progression through the war by piecing together stories from his notebooks and writings. At times one would have liked a bit more context to be provided by Beevor, but that is a minor quibble.

Grossman, while still a loyal Communist at this point, managed to maintain a relatively objective viewpoint. He often pushed his editors to allow him to write stories they did not want written, in particular regarding the fate of the Jews in the Ukraine under German occupation and the role of the Ukrainians.

While at time the stories have to be stitched together from bits and pieces, `A Writer at War' is a gold mine and provides a rare view into the inner workings of the Soviet military and Soviet military journalism in particular. Grossman experienced the initial German onslaught and the Russian flight from it, Stalingrad, the tank battle at Kursk, and the death camps. The book includes an extensive article on the workings of the German death camp Treblinka. Earns the highest recommendation.

Editorial Review:

When the Germans invaded Russia in 1941, Vasily Grossman became a special correspondent for the Red Star, the Soviet Army's newspaper, and reported from the frontlines of the war. A Writer at War depicts in vivid detail the crushing conditions on the Eastern Front, and the lives and deaths of soldiers and civilians alike. Witnessing some of the most savage fighting of the war, Grossman saw firsthand the repeated early defeats of the Red Army, the brutal street fighting in Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk (the largest tank engagement in history), the defense of Moscow, the battles in Ukraine, the atrocities at Treblinka, and much more.

Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova have taken Grossman's raw notebooks, and fashioned them into a gripping narrative providing one of the most even-handed descriptions --at once unflinching and sensitive -- we have ever had of what Grossman called “the ruthless truth of war.”

The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991

Eric Hobsbawm

List Price: $30.00 By: Pantheon Books Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $2.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> 20th Century
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Marxist Propaganda 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 44 people found this review helpful.

This book is written by an avowed Marxist, and as such, neglects to mention the horrors of Soviet Russia. Not only that, Ol' Eric discusses how horrible capitalism is, even though it was only because of capitalism that he was able to publish this waste of paper. He does not spend much time at all on World War II, and has the gall to called Richard Nixon a horrible president (which he was) without heaping abuse upon Stalin or any other Communists. The book also glosses over most historical events and goes for the "Big Picture" of history. I hated this book. Until I read it, I actually enjoyed learning about history. Now I am not so sure.

The Age of Historical Insight 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Eric Hobsbawm is one of the best historians I have read. I have read his entire series - Age of Revolution, Capital, Empire, and Extremes. Hobsbawm goes much beyond just recouting historical events. He relates them to other disciplines like Literature, Arts, Science (yes, science and technology), architecture, and many more aspects of life.
This series starts with the French Revolution and ends with the disintegration of Soviet Union. The vast canvas painted by Hobsbawm is truly insightful. This series is particularly helpful in understanding the birth of nation states, the evolution of democracy, and the traumatic finale in the middle of the last century. Hobsbawm open acceptance of a having a 'point of view' is indeed refreshing. His Marxian approach is helpful in making sense of the events of the last 2.5 centuries.
My most important learning from Hobsbawm is that if we do not learn from the past, we will not be able to handle the future. I strongly recommend all four books as required reading for anyone who wishes to understand how we got to this point in History.

Editorial Review:

An incisive overview of the history of the twentieth century reviews the legacy of two world wars, the Depression, the end of colonialism, the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR, and the era's technological and scientific advances. 12,500 first printing.