Over three hundred years ago, a Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire built a bridge at the small village of Visegrad in modern day Bosnia.  At the time, the Ottoman Empire was near its peak and the bridge was s symbol of the power of the Empire.  Ivo Andric, a Serbo-Croat, grew up in the area; he learned the tales and history of the bridge, how it was built, how it was a meeting place for not only the Ottomans, but also the Christians and Jewish leaders of the area.  He traces its history through a series of stories spanning the centuries, capturing the mindset, problems and changes over the three hundred years.

A massive (just over 700 pages) history of the naval battles between the United Kingdom and France during the time of Napoleon.  It is an adventure story which spans the world as sea battles from India to the English Channel impact Napoleon’s campaigns from Egypt to Moscow.

Histories of war are often told from the viewpoint of grand strategies, major military or political leaders or combat personnel.  Seldom do we get a view of the war from the ground level as experienced by non-combatants; we somehow seem to believe that their lives go on with a feel of normality, even in occupied territories.  In this book we find how a woman, living in an occupied land managed to not only lead a life, but to defy the occupiers and at great risk to herself, feed prisoners of war while at the same time hurting the occupiers war effort.

For years, Albert Seaton’s “Battle for Moscow” has been the gold standard for reviews of that famous and brutal battle. This work is a welcome addition to any library on the subject as it is lighter and raises several points which are worth examining. Michael Jones uses eyewitness accounts of actions to bring a personal touch which was missing from Seaton’s and thus the reader is drawn not so much by the technical aspect of the battle as by the personal.

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.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was well known during his life (and for centuries afterwards until the decline of a classical education), for his work as an advocate and speaker during dangerous times in Rome as it moved from a weak Republic, through Dictatorship and into the beginnings of the Empire.  Why do we know so much about Cicero?  Mostly because so much of his legal and philosophical writings survived through the ages, much of it written by himself, naturally putting himself in the best of lights.  He loved to write about himself so much that he managed to write two biographies of himself (sounds like a certain President we know) concentrating on the one major accomplishment, his actions in putting down the Cataline conspiracies.

Vicious Indian Fighter, Slave trader and owner, duelist, adulterer, devoted husband (to the woman he stole from another), General, Andrew Jackson had all of the traits to make him one of the most disliked and by many, respected Presidents of our country.  He was, a man of his time and location; born in what was the frontier, his drive and energy, plus his sense of honor drove him to fight a duel on the slightest pretext, but often over the defense of a woman’s honor. Despised by the East Coast elite who had run the nation since it’s founding, he represented a challenge too that elite and also represented the fact that the United States was going to grow outside of the ideals of the old elite.

This was the first Glasnost biography to come out of the then Soviet Union using many new resources and archives.  The author, the son of an agrarian specialist who was purged in 1937, went on, despite his questionable background, to become a Colonel General of the Soviet Army. Dedicated to his profession, he was shocked by the 1956 denunciation of Stalin by Khrushchev and began to gather material for this book at this time.  In addition to early access to archives, the author also was able to speak to many individuals who were associated with Stalin; although Stalin did not have any close relationships after the suicide of his second wife, these individuals were able to provide tidbits of information about Stalin’s habits, techniques, etc.

Although I enjoyed this novel, it was not up to the standard of some of his other works (When Nietzsche Wept, etc.).  Addressing the philosophy of Schopenhauer, who is often called the “pessimistic German” in the form of a novel is difficult, for unlike other philosophers, it would be difficult to apply Schopenhauer’s view of life and do anything other than commit suicide (in my view).  Schopenhauer’s outlook on life reflected his life experience; brilliant, yet rude, self-centered, dogmatic and ill at ease in society and rejected by the two “loves” of his life, he lived a life alone, unloved and unloving.  Any attempt by anyone to reach out to him was viewed with the utmost suspicion and mistrust, even to the point of rejecting the advice of his publicist who suggested his changing the overly long and non-descript title of his works.  It was not until late in his life that he was “discovered” and when that happened, financial security was his for the first time in his life.  As often happens, that security did impact his life and he became moderately more sociable, etc.  He strongly influenced European intellectual thought, unfortunately not for the best.

Mr. Bradley has written a number of excellent histories, including Flyboys and Flags of our Fathers.  This volume covers the interesting history between the United States and China, from the time of the Yankee Clippers through the “opening of China” by President Nixon.  In this book he unveils many interesting facts such as:

• That much of the money of the Eastern Establishment was made selling opium to the Chinese.  In fact, the fortune that propelled Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the White House was based on the illegal trade of opium.
• The fabled “China Lobby” which helped to guide our Asia policy was based on an idealized vision of the average Chinese peasant wanting to be an American, believing in democracy and wanting to have a nice house with a beautiful lawn, etc.
• That due to the “China Lobby”, the U.S. spent billions to prop up the corrupt regime of Chiang Kai-shek and that he and his circle were responsible for the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars while not contributing to the war against Japan
• Finally, that U.S. Presidents, from Teddy Roosevelt to FDR to Truman were fooled by the Chinese, the “China Lobby” and their own ignorance of the world into believing that they could remake China into a western democracy.