Winston Churchill once said that the wars of men would be much worse than the wars of kings, which is the premise of this excellent history of the change in European warfare as a result of the French Revolution.  Yes, the religious wars were terrible, as was the Thirty Years War, but to a large extent, the worst excesses of those wars (the slaughter of civilians) were the result of local conditions and not the policies of the engaged.  Indeed, the ethos of the pre-Revolution wars was based on the mores of the aristocrats who were able to move from the audience chamber (or boudoir) to the battlefield and back with ease.  Wars were largely wars of movement and position, for as Maurice de Saxe believed, a good General could spend his entire career successfully if he never had to actually fight a battle.

In May, 1945, Germany was a nation destroyed; the entire infrastructure from trains, to electricity to running water lay in ruins; the political system founded on the principals of National Socialism lay shattered as millions of Germans fled the advancing Red Army and the military was suffering the greatest losses of the war, up to 450,000 dead in one month.  The lack of fuel, ammunition and transportation meant that the Wehrmacht was doomed to fight with rifles and machine guns against thousands of tanks and planes on each theater. Despite these terrible realities, the German killers who had operated in the East were let loose on the German population and through intimidation and executions, they drove the population onward to the very end.  Finally, when the war did end, millions of former slave laborers were free from their guards and took to the streets.  Even with the best of intentions, they were driven to violence in the simple act of eating as there was no organization for their care.  And, many were filled with a hatred of all things German after seeing their countries and their families, not to mention their own personal experiences at the hands of the “Master Race”.

When we think of WWII in the Pacific, we tend to think of the great naval battles which involved mighty navies in ship to ship gun duels and epic air battles over many thousands of miles of ocean.  Yes, we remember some of the islands on which so much blood was shed, but for Americans, it seemed to be a great conflict between two great navies.

I had great expectations for this book as the role of women in ancient Rome is sadly underrepresented or understood.  Unfortunately, this book did not quite come up to snuff; it was aimed more at the academic in that if you do not have a basic command of Latin, or a good Latin to English dictionary handy, or, if you do not have a basic understanding of Roman history and society, the book will fall short of your expectations.  In fact, it seems to me that the author was trying to burnish his academic credentials by writing this book.

History has hundreds of examples of Kings, Princes, politicians, etc. who have trusted advisors, brothers, sons, etc. who turned against them and created civil wars, havoc, mass murder, etc.  In my reading of history, I cannot think of an example of a loyal and dutiful helper to a ruler who matches Marcus Agrippa.  A friend of a youthful Octavian (before his formal adoption by J. Caesar), Agrippa remained loyal to Augustus all of his life, providing excellent advice and strong administrative skills, being a successful General and Admiral (a rarity among Romans), as well as personally honest and generous.  His building program not only in Rome but across the Empire provided the average man with free baths, libraries and theaters.

History has hundreds of examples of Kings, Princes, politicians, etc. who have trusted advisors, brothers, sons, etc. who turned against them and created civil wars, havoc, mass murder, etc.  In my reading of history, I cannot think of an example of a loyal and dutiful helper to a ruler who matches Marcus Agrippa.  A friend of a youthful Octavian (before his formal adoption by J. Caesar), Agrippa remained loyal to Augustus all of his life, providing excellent advice and strong administrative skills, being a successful General and Admiral (a rarity among Romans), as well as personally honest and generous.  His building program not only in Rome but across the Empire provided the average man with free baths, libraries and theaters.

From 1932-45, millions of individuals were slaughtered by Hitler and Stalin in pre-war Eastern Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine, and modern-day Belarus.  Although we tend to think of the nearly six million Jews who were murdered, other ethnic groups suffered in huge numbers as the policy of collectivization was applied and as the Nazi and Soviet armies occupied the same area one after another bringing with them their ideologies, economic theories and security concerns. The numbers are staggering, especially when on realizes that the numbers involved were very often accomplished on a one on one basis.  The deaths were not the result of vast bombing raids or clouds of poison gas but were rather individuals methodically executing people one after another, day in and day out.

What is the truth behind Gorbachev?  Was he a reformer who believed that the Soviet system could be changed internally or a man who willingly overthrew the system he had grown up and worked for all his life when he saw it could not be reformed?  Who supported his rise to power and what did they see in him?  Were he and his wife so close given their public image? 

I have found in reading memoirs and novels of World War I that they vary in attitude from country to country.  There are few Italian novels/memoirs as most of the army was made up of peasants who were illiterate, while the British are mixed between the officers and enlisted men.  While the British enlisted man is fully capable of discussing the horrors of trench warfare, on the whole they reflect an attitude of respect for their immediate officers (due in large part to the accepted class structure) and a belief that their cause was valid.  On the other side, even the darkest German book reflects the deep bond held between the men during the most trying times.

Although The Bridge Over the Drina is Ivo Andric’s best know novel, Bosnian Chronicle is certainly his longest, running just over five hundred pages in this edition.  Being such a long novel and covering a dark, remote area of Bosnia, it can be a tedious read.  The story centers around a newly appointed French Counsel during the early years of Napoleon’s successes, through the fall of Napoleon.  During this time, the French Counsel attends to the normal duties of his time; gathering information (spying) on Austrian actions in the area, paying bribes to local corrupt (is that redundant?) Ottoman officials designed to hinder the efforts of his Austrian counterpart and trying to influence the local Ottoman Pasha for the area.