For nearly eighty years, Dreiser’s novel, written in 1900, was only available in a basically censored version.  The Pennsylvania Edition goes back to his original manuscript and presents this tale of a young woman, on her own, and the two men who love her as the author intended.  Why was this American classic not published in its original form? Because Dreiser’s wife and his friend Arthur Henry, along with the publisher, felt it was filled with too much sex and was too dark.  With that in mind, the reader of this version must remember that the novel was written in 1900 and given our norms of today, seeking the lurid sexuality which was censored (by the author at the instance of the publisher, his wife and friend) will be hard pressed to find anything to stimulate the senses.

This excellent novel will give the reader an excellent idea of Chicago in 1900; a time of rapid growth and opportunity, when job seekers with no skills could find work which would give them some skills, when many of those same workers could be exploited by their employers and a time of a strict moral code.  In this time, two men love a young woman who gradually learns the ways of the world.  One of the men will leave and survive, the other will be destroyed.  In effect, this is the American version of a novel by Balzac or Zola who so outraged the staid establishment of their time.  Even though the United States has a First Amendment and did not have a national censor as in France, given the time, the novel in its original form would have created a major furor.

The characters are well developed, and one can sense the emotions as they progress through the novel.  I first read this novel forty years ago and probably once a decade, I re-read it, picking up more from each reading.  It is though, a melancholy book and the reader should be prepared at the end, to set the novel aside and put one’s emotions back in order.  You will also find that the human condition has not changed very much over the past one hundred plus years.

There was a time when the question of the future of Jews in Europe did not depend on government sanctions, actions or anti-Semitism.  The real question was if within a few generations the Hebrew race and religion would simply die out through a low birth rate and assimilation.  As terrible as it is to believe, the Final Solution of Hitler and the Third Reich led to a rebirth of the Jews as they were able for the first time in 2,000 years to have and create, after WWII, a state of their own. 

“As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X.  Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or in the better case, what A, B and C shall do for X…What I want to do is to look up C.  I want to show you what manner of man he is.  I call him the Forgotten Man.  Perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct.  The is the man who never is thought of… He works, he votes, generally he pays-but he always pays…  William Graham Sumner, Yale University, 1883

Perhaps no Civil War General is surrounded by more controversy than Nathan Bedford Forrest and yet his life and campaigns are to a large extent ignored or lightly skipped over as they are lost in the large battles of that conflict. This book, written by a man of the South, is pro-Forrest and yet, it is difficult to refute most of the history as told when reviewed against other contemporary and non-contemporary accounts. 

This is an interesting environmental book in that you do not want to slit your own throat after reading four pages; in fact, you can come away feeling that we are not on the eve of destruction, that progress is being made and that we have the ability to continue on a positive path.  For this alone, Shellenberger will be shunned by the majority of environmentalist.  That however, would be a mistake for his CV is excellent; he was a Time magazine “Hero of the Environment”, winner of the Green Book Award from the Stevens Institute of Technology’s Center for Science Writings in 2008  and an invited expert to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  More than that, he has traveled extensively, lived, and worked in some of the poorest part of the globe, attempting to balance the environment and the material progress of the poor.  Finally, he is, (be prepared), pro-nuclear and has managed to set up his office in the heart of Berkeley!

For a week in late May 1941, the eyes and attention of the British Admiralty and the German Kriegsmarine were focused on the North Sea as the German battleship Bismarck, was attempting to break out on a raiding mission in the Atlantic.  After sinking the pride of the British nave, HMS Hood, Bismarck turned its attention of the Prince of Wales and swiftly caused such damage that the British ship had to run for its life.  Unfortunately for the Bismarck, she was also hit and was badly leaking oil and taking on water.  What followed for the next three days has been the subject of books and movies for over fifty years.  The author was a gunnery officer on the Bismarck and was one of 115 survivors (out of a crew of 2,200).  His story is a firsthand description from “the other side” about a battle that was almost preordained-in my opinion- to failure.

This book was the only one written by Boleslaw (as he was known) and covers the time when he served in a Polish cavalry unit, fighting for the Russians during WWI.  Based on his experiences covers a short time from the beginning of the Russian Revolution when the Russian army began to break up through the forces of defeat, starvation, useless slaughter and Communist propaganda.  His unit (there were similar units fighting for the Germans and Austrians), then decided that their oath to the Czar was null and void and they attempted to reach fellow Polish units across the front lines. 

About every ten years or so I go on a Civil War binge and this binge has started with this excellent book by two fine military historians.  Murray is professor emeritus of history at Ohio State University and his many books closely examine the changes in military thinking and tactics as well as the culture of both the military and their society in which they exist.  Hsieh is associate professor of history at the United State Naval Academy.  Together they have created a fine work that not only gives the details on the various campaigns, but the strengths and weaknesses of commanders down to the regimental level as well as how both the North and the South responded to the size, scope and technology of the Civil War battlefield.

General Longstreet served as Robert E. Lee’s solid right hand, commanding the First Corps. of the Confederate Army during most of the Civil war.  A strong believer in states rights (but not necessarily slavery) before the war, afterwards he was a strong Republican, believing that having been defeated during the war, the Southern states needed to work to be fully accepted back into the Union.  His post war political beliefs earned him the scorn of many Southerners, especially the old ruling class which hoped (and succeed) to place themselves back in power.

Having visited Istanbul several times, I was looking forward to this book which had received positive reviews from several national sources.  I must admit however, that my expectations were not met.  It might be that the author attempts to cover too much of history in this sever hundred plus page tome.  Starting at 800,000 BC-no, I am not kidding- Ms. Hughes provides us with information on the earliest settlements, how drastic weather created the area, etc.  While that is of interest to a certain group, the three main areas of concentration are the time from Severus and Constantine, the Byzantine and of course, the time of the Ottomans.