Meister Frantz Schmidt of Nuremberg was for 45 years a professional executioner and personally put to death 394 individuals and tortured, flogged or disfigured many hundreds more.  But Schmidt was not a cold-hearted sadist but a man whose father was forced to be an executioner (an individual who was so low on the social scale that he could not go to mass and his children could not be educated at any of the schools).

An excellent novel which focuses on the life of Baruch Spinoza, the seventeen century thinker and philosopher who was excommunicated from the Jewish community in Amsterdam for questioning the basic precepts of the Torah, the existence of God, life after death and who had a huge impact on Goethe, Nietzsche, etc. 

This is the second novel by Yalom that I have read, and it is excellent.  Nietzsche is my favorite philosopher and if someone were to ask me how to begin understanding Nietzsche, I would recommend this novel. 

To Die for Germany, Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon by Jay W. Baird

It is easy for us today to remember the leadership of the Third Reich as almost comical characters; Hitler with his funny mustache, Goring, the fat man who wore make up and overdressed in gaudy uniforms with rings on his pudgy fingers, Goebbels with his deformed foot, etc.  It is easy to dismiss them until we remember that they were responsible for some of the greatest crimes in human history.  They led a nation that had been known for its science, philosophy, literature and music and turned it into a vast killing machine that had to be put down like a mad dog.  How was that transformation possible?  How could millions of ordinary people participate in such terrible crimes?

I first read this fine book in 2017 and with the completion of the Russian pipeline to China and more importantly directly to Germany, by passing the Ukraine and Poland, it is more timely than ever.

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.