Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President /Book Review

Candice Millard (Author)
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (September 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385526261
ISBN-13: 978-0385526265
Genre :Biographies & Memoirs,  History

Description

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.

But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in tur­moil. The unhinged assassin’s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect. As his con­dition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet.

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic will stand alongside The Devil in the White City and The Professor and the Madman as a classic of narrative history.

Editorial Reviews

"Fascinating......Gripping.....Stunning....has a much bigger scope than the events surrounding Garfield’s slow, lingering death. It is the haunting tale of how a man who never meant to seek the presidency found himself swept into the White House. . . . Ms. Millard shows the Garfield legacy to be much more important than most of her readers knew it to be."  --The New York Times

“Sparklingly alive…[Millard] brings to life a moment in the nation’s history when access to the president was easy, politics bitter, and medical knowledge slight.  Under Millard’s pen, it’s hard to imagine its being better told.”  --Publishers Weekly

Praise
“Historian Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic is first-rate history, political intrigue, and a true-crime story all rolled into one. Millard is masterful at capturing the zeitgeist of America during the 1880s, when President James Garfield was assassinated. An epic must-read!”
—Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior

“In this brilliant and riveting work, Candice Millard demonstrates the power of narrative nonfiction. Through exhaustive research and flawless storytelling, she has brought to life one of the most harrowing and fascinating sagas in American history—a saga filled with political intrigue, a mad assassin, and a frantic scientific struggle to save the life of a noble president. This is a book that is impossible to put down.”
—David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z

“Candice Millard has done it again: She’s turned the sometimes stodgy realm of presidential history on its head with a gripping tale of high danger and stoic endurance, a tale that had nearly completely vanished from public memory. What an exceptional man and what an exciting era Millard has brought to elegant life on the page! After reading Destiny of the Republic, you’ll never think of James A. Garfield as a ‘minor’ president again—and you’ll despise anew our national penchant for hatching madmen who snuff out greatness in its prime.”  —Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail

“In President Garfield’s assassination, Candice Millard has rediscovered one of the great forgotten stories in American history. Millard has turned Garfield’s story into a crackling tale of suspense and a panoramic picture of a fascinating but forgotten era. If you enjoy reading about Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, you will find this book riveting.”
—Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Most Famous Man in America

“As she did in The River of Doubt, Candice Millard has written another riveting narrative, this time about a long-neglected but remarkable president, James A. Garfield, who was shot by a deranged office seeker just a few weeks after he assumed the presidency. What happens next is detailed in the accomplished book. Just as Millard put us deep in the Amazon with Teddy Roosevelt, she has skillfully allowed us to share this traumatic moment.”  —Ken Burns

Reader's Review
E. Budvis (Caifornia, USA)
"Destiny" is a superbly written, fast-paced book that provides an interesting insight to a forgotten piece of American history. It provides enough information to evoke the time and place of events and accurately depict what happened, without becoming bogged done in unnecessary detail. "Destiny" would be a perfect book for a long plane trip.

In "Destiny" you'll read about the insanity of the assassin Charles Guiteau. If you're familair with American assassins, you'll recognize elements of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, Mark David Chapman, and John Hinkley. His delusions of grandeur cause him to achieve some level of infamy even before the murder. He then caps his wretched career by the assassination for reasons that rank with shooting the President to impress Jody Foster.

The other antagonist is the medical establishment epitomized by Garfield's treating physician, Dr. Bliss. Bliss and the American medical establishment rejected the Dr. Lister's work on antiseptic surgery practices because the were unwilling to examine their ideas. That arrogance/ignorance cost Garfield his life.

Finally, I'm fairly sure that this is first time many of us are introduced to President Garfield in depth. That's a shame. Most of us just know him as one of the other two Presidents who were assassinated or one of those interchangeable late 19th century bearded Presidents. It turns out, however, that although he was adamant about civil rights, he was also respected in the South. Could decades of civil rights struggles have been avoided and resolved more peacfully? We'll never know. That makes Garfield's assassination a tragedy for America, just as much as it was for his family that loved this great man

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What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes/Book Review

Karl Marlantes (Author)

Hardcover: 272 pages

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1 edition (August 30, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0802119921

ISBN-13: 978-0802119926

Genre :  History ,  Biographies & Memoirs

“Wrenchingly honest. . . Digging as deeply into his own life as he does into the larger sociological and moral issues, Marlantes presents a riveting, powerfully written account of how, after being taught to kill, he learned to deal with the aftermath.”—Publishers Weekly

Praises

“Karl Marlantes has written a staggeringly beautiful book on combat—what it feels like, what the consequences are and above all, what society must do to understand it. In my eyes he has become the preeminent literary voice on war of our generation. He is a natural storyteller and a deeply profound thinker who not only illuminates war for civilians, but also offers a kind of spiritual guidance to veterans themselves. As this generation of warriors comes home, they will be enormously helped by what Marlantes has written—I’m sure he will literally save lives.”—Sebastian Junger

“To say that this book is brilliant is an understatement—Marlantes is the absolute master of taking the psyche of the combat veteran and translating it into words that the civilian or non-veteran can understand. I have read many, many books on war and this is the first time that I've ever read exactly what the combat veteran thinks and feels—nothing I have ever read before has hit home in my heart like this book.”—Gunnery Sergeant Terence D’Alesandro, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, U.S. Marine Corps

“What It Is Like to Go to War can be read as both a letter to young warriors and as a catalyzing call for change. But this is not a book about politics; it is about humanity. Using his own experiences to provide context, Marlantes advances, with startling openness, a revolutionary strategy to preserve the humanity of those who fight for our nation and to honor the humanity of those they kill.”—Rebecca Joines Schinsky, Shelf Awareness

“What It Is Like to Go to War is a courageous, noble and intelligent grapple with myth, history, and spirituality that beautifully elevates the cultural conversation on the role of the military in today’s world. It is an emotional, honest, and affecting primer for all Americans on war and the national psyche, and we ignore this book at our own peril.”—Ed Conklin, Chaucer’s Books, Santa Barbara

Review

Into the mind of a warrior

By  James Korsmo  (Moorhead, MN USA)

In this reflective memoir, Karl Marlantes, writer of the widely acclaimed Vietnam War book Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, takes a probing look at his own experiences of going to war, and of coming home again. Because it is more of a series of reflections than a continuous narrative, I will review it in kind, with some impressions and appreciations. First, Marlantes' book is honest, sometimes brutally so. And I think this is one of the keys that makes it work. The reader gets the distinct impression that he has carefully worked and reworked his memories until they come out as honestly and completely as possible. Even though at times this means recounting memories of his own brutalities in war. But along with these sometimes tortured memories come candid memories of his own emotions, impressions, and motivations that help bring the experience of war to life. They also guarantee that war isn't glorified, and neither is the warrior. Instead, we meet the brutality along with the valor.

A second impression one gets is that these are carefully analyzed reflections. He has quite obviously held his own experiences, indeed his own person, under the light of careful scrutiny. This means the narratives and accounts he relates are thick descriptions of events, filled out with his own psychological analysis about not only what he and those around him experienced but why. And this also means he often extends his reflections beyond his own experiences, through an analysis of why, to a discussion of what we might constructively draw from them. One key example that comes up repeatedly in the book is the experience of coming home. He recounts many of the difficulties of going from a life-or-death struggle in the jungles of Vietnam, where you are dealing death in a god-like fashion, to being rapidly transported via helicopter and airplane, back to your family and friends in everyday society in a matter of hours. And that jarring transition is made without reflection, significant preparation, or guidance. He recommends greatly increasing the debriefing and processing time for returning veterans, both before and after they come home. At one point he recommends returning to the WWII practice of returning home by ship: "We should have had time to talk with our buddies about what we had all shared" (150). And he says so much more about this key issue of reintegration and the need for acceptance, especially dealing with the challenges of returning from Vietnam to a country that didn't appreciate his service or the battle he was sent to fight. This important and timely issue alone makes the book a compelling and worthwhile read, and has given me renewed respect and concern for our current crop of returning vets.

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Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda/Book Review

Eric Schmitt (Author) & Thom Shanker (Author)

Publisher: Times Books; 1 edition (August 16, 2011)

Language: English

ASIN: B004SHEJLM

DESCRIPTION

Inside the Pentagon's secretive and revolutionary new strategy to fight terrorism--and its game-changing effects in the Middle East and at home

In the years following the 9/11 attacks, the United States waged a "war on terror" that sought to defeat Al Qaeda through brute force. But it soon became clear that this strategy was not working, and by 2005 the Pentagon began looking for a new way.

In Counterstrike, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker of The New York Times tell the story of how a group of analysts within the military, at spy agencies, and in law enforcement has fashioned an innovative and effective new strategy to fight terrorism, unbeknownst to most Americans and in sharp contrast to the cowboy slogans that characterized the U.S. government's public posture. Adapting themes from classic Cold War deterrence theory, these strategists have expanded the field of battle in order to disrupt jihadist networks in ever more creative ways.

Schmitt and Shanker take readers deep into this theater of war, as ground troops, intelligence operatives, and top executive branch officials have worked together to redefine and restrict the geography available for Al Qaeda to operate in. They also show how these new counterterrorism strategies, adopted under George W. Bush and expanded under Barack Obama, were successfully employed in planning and carrying out the dramatic May 2011 raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed.

Filled with startling revelations about how our national security is being managed, Counterstrike will change the way Americans think about the ongoing struggle with violent radical extremism.

PRAISES

"This eye-opening account of how the U.S. government has vastly upgraded its counterterrorism efforts since Sept. 11 reminds readers that while the threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates persists, so does the American will to strike back."—Joshua Sinai, The Washington Times

"In Counterstrike, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, reporters for the New York Times, warn that another catastrophic terrorist event is inevitable, but their behind-the-scenes account of the evolution of U.S. counterterrorism strategy gives officials the highest marks… Counterstrike is a glowing portrayal of the American intelligence community."— Robert D. Crews, San Francisco Chronicle

"The book [Counterstrike] sheds light on offensive U.S. cyber operations almost never discussed by U.S. officials."—Bloomberg.com

"New York Times correspondents Schmitt and Shanker review events after 9/11, focusing on government and military counterterrorism experts who convinced administration ideologues to switch gears… [A] reassuring argument that, after an expensive and massive effort, terrorism seems on the decline."—Kirkus Reviews

"A remarkable detective story by two of the nation’s best reporters. With meticulous research and fine storytelling, Counterstrike reveals who, what, when, where, and why in describing the long campaign by the United States government to demolish Al Qaeda and ultimately to kill Osama bin Laden."--Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Army at Dawn

"Counterstrike lays bare the provocative new ideas that are driving the war on terrorism. Generals often talk about changing the hearts and minds of people in faraway lands, but Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker reveal the importance of changing the hearts and minds of America’s defense strategists. This is a groundbreaking intellectual history that is also a great read."--Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill

"Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker dig deep to tell the story of the covert campaign to defeat Al Qaeda, from the CIA to the Pentagon. Counterstrike is a richly reported work that is a seminal account of the battle between America and Al Qaeda since 9/11."--Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda

"Filled with amazing characters and details, Counterstrike traces the evolution of America’s strategy for stopping the next attack. It’s a fascinating story and a great read, too."--Dexter Filkins, author of The Forever War

"Counterstrike scores a direct hit. Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, two of America’s most respected national security correspondents, provide pathbreaking reporting on and incisive analysis of the secret war against Al Qaeda after 9/11. This cogent history of America’s elusive search for a strategy – essential reading for specialists and concerned citizens alike – should inform our national debate on how best to counter this most urgent threat."-- Lee H. Hamilton, former congressman and co-chair of the 9/11 Commission

"Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker have written a brilliant and important account of America’s battle with Al Qaeda. It is an exceptional work in that it truly addresses strategic issues and not just the tactical fight. There are critical insights and recommendations provided in this book that make it a must-read for all those who want to understand how we must deal with this complex threat."--General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC

REVIEW

Authors Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker give a wide-ranging and engrossing look at our secretive and expansive efforts to fight a new type of war against terror in the days following 9/11. When the Bush administration was caught off guard by a deep strike at the heart of some of America's most treasured institutions by the evil Osama bin Laden and his forces, the administration was pushed into a change of direction in both collating and sharing internal intelligence between revitalized/reorganized agencies, sometime unconventionally, and in fighting the major terrorist enemy of Al Qaeda and its offshoots that extended far beyond what had begun in the Clinton administration. When we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, this new type of war was 'templated' over conventional war on the battlefield, from the highest levels to the lowest combat units. The authors trace the rise of an interesting cast of characters, thru 3 presidential administrations, who changed the approach from "kill or capture" of high valued targets in Al Qaeda to a new overall approach that has even expanded our philosophy of nuclear war to include the WMD implications of the war on terrorism, as in the case of Bush's National Security Presidential Directive 46. The many successes and frustrations of the Bush administration were handed over to the Obama administration and its own particular strategy, ultimately leading to the killing of the top man in Al Qaeda and the further expansion of the continuing war on terror from countries such as beleaguered Pakistan to our own efforts on US soil to prevent attacks and contain internal threats. While the book sometimes dwells at length on the backgrounds of unfamiliar but colorful terror-fighting personalities involved in the Bush and Obama administrations and doesn't fully connect the dots about incidents that have come to light in recent years, the authors unearth an awesome amount of new information (such the "Two + Seven" strike at Al Qaeda leadership and the stunning "Taji" and "Sinjar" intelligence treasure troves in Iraq) that makes this book both an eminently worthwhile read that adds significantly to our store of knowledge and shows us where we are headed in the future of the war on terror. Clearly, the anti-terror pace and successes of the Bush and Obama administrations may surprise many readers. Highly Recommended.

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The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945/Book Review

Ian Kershaw (Author)

Hardcover: 592 pages

Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (September 8, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1594203148

ISBN-13: 978-1594203145

Editorial Reviews

"Kershaw's comprehensive research, measured prose, and commonsense insight combine in a mesmerizing explanation of how and why Nazi Germany chose self-annihilation."

-Publishers Weekly

"[A]superb examination of the final defeat of Hitler's tyranny...an excellent portrait of the regime's death throes."

-Booklist

"This is an astonishing story well told by the reigning English-speaking master of Third Reich history...A carefully considered and powerfully told saga."

-Kirkus

Description

From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II.

Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Even in the near-apocalyptic final months, when the war was plainly lost, the Nazis refused to sue for peace. Historically, this is extremely rare.

Drawing on original testimony from ordinary Germans and arch-Nazis alike, award-winning historian Ian Kershaw explores this fascinating question in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the German capitulation in May 1945. Hitler, desperate to avoid a repeat of the "disgraceful" German surrender in 1918, was of course critical to the Third Reich's fanatical determination, but his power was sustained only because those below him were unable, or unwilling, to challenge it. Even as the military situation grew increasingly hopeless, Wehrmacht generals fought on, their orders largely obeyed, and the regime continued its ruthless persecution of Jews, prisoners, and foreign workers. Beneath the hail of allied bombing, German society maintained some semblance of normalcy in the very last months of the war. The Berlin Philharmonic even performed on April 12, 1945, less than three weeks before Hitler's suicide.

As Kershaw shows, the structure of Hitler's "charismatic rule" created a powerful negative bond between him and the Nazi leadership- they had no future without him, and so their fates were inextricably tied. Terror also helped the Third Reich maintain its grip on power as the regime began to wage war not only on its ideologically defined enemies but also on the German people themselves. Yet even as each month brought fresh horrors for civilians, popular support for the regime remained linked to a patriotic support of Germany and a terrible fear of the enemy closing in.

Based on prodigious new research, Kershaw's The End is a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.

Review

When Extremists Rule the Government,

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA)

Historian Ian Kershaw has written a very well researched account of World War II from the time of the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life in July of 1944 through the post Germany surrender in May of 1945. Kershaw attempts to answer the question why the Germans chose the course of action they did when the war was hopelessly lost.

The big four below Hitler were Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and Albert Speer each responsible for their own area of "expertise." Each province or region had its own governor referred to as a gauleiter that ruled with an iron fist over their specific area. Oaths were required to follow Hitler under all circumstances.

This is a book on pain and suffering, and Author Kershaw relates in considerable detail the hardships ordinary Germans suffered when they were being squeezed in by the Americans and British from the west and the Russians from the east with capitulation to the west preferable to surrender to the Soviets.

Hitler's underlings stressed the importance of dying in battle to surrender to the enemy while they, themselves, often were planning their own exit from Germany. A few die hard loyalists such as Admiral Karl Donitz and Joseph Goebbels remained loyal to their Fuhrer to the end. I found it interesting to see the rivalry and even outright hatred some of Hitler's henchmen had for each other. Martin Bormann was able to create a misunderstanding between Hitler and Hermann Goring that caused Goring's ouster from the party.

Hitler's popularity was waning even though an individual faced execution if caught expressing negative views. The German populace was sick of war and wondered where these so-called "miracle weapons" were that were supposed to deliver them from the enemy. Many also claimed ignorance regarding atrocities that had taken place such as the concentration and extermination camps that existed. They didn't mind producing weapons in the early stages of the war as long as those weapons rained down on the enemy, but it was another story when their own historic cities were being destroyed in retaliation.

I found it interesting that author Kershaw pointed out that had the Claus von Stauffenberg bomb attempt on Hitler's life in July of 1944 succeeded, and a peace treaty signed one-half of the German soldiers who died in the war would have lived. This, of course, assumes the treaty would have been agreed on by both fronts attacking from the east and the west.

This book aptly illustrates what can happen when extremists take hold of a country with government degraded and replaced by those with an agenda suited to their own selfish interests.

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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann/Book Review

Charles C. Mann (Author)

Hardcover: 560 pages

Publisher: Knopf (August 9, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0307265722

ISBN-13: 978-0307265722

Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches

Description

From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs.

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.

The Columbian Exchange, as researchers call it, is the reason there are tomatoes in Italy, oranges in Florida, chocolates in Switzerland, and chili peppers in Thailand. More important, creatures the colonists knew nothing about hitched along for the ride. Earthworms, mosquitoes, and cockroaches; honeybees, dandelions, and African grasses; bacteria, fungi, and viruses; rats of every description—all of them rushed like eager tourists into lands that had never seen their like before, changing lives and landscapes across the planet.

Eight decades after Columbus, a Spaniard named Legazpi succeeded where Columbus had failed.

The New York Times Book Review

“Voltaire would have loved Charles C. Mann’s outstanding new book, 1493. In more than 500 lively pages, it not only explains the chain of events that produced those candied fruits, nuts and gardens, but also weaves their stories together into a convincing explanation of why our world is the way it is . . . Mann has managed the difficult trick of telling a complicated story in engaging and clear prose while refusing to reduce its ambiguities to slogans. He is not a professional historian, but most professionals could learn a lot from the deft way he does this . . . Most impressive of all, he manages to turn plants, germs, insects and excrement into the lead actors in his drama while still parading before us an unforgettable cast of human characters. He makes even the most unpromising-sounding subjects fascinating. I, for one, will never look at a piece of rubber in quite the same way now . . . The Columbian Exchange has shaped everything about the modern world. It brought us the plants we tend in our gardens and the pests that eat them. And as it accelerates in the 21st century, it may take both away again. If you want to understand why, read 1493.”

PRAISES

“Even the wisest readers will find many surprises here . . . Like 1491, Mann’s sequel will change worldviews.” -Bruce Watson, San Francisco Chronicle

“In the wake of his groundbreaking book 1491 Charles Mann has once again produced a brilliant and riveting work that will forever change the way we see the world. Mann shows how the ecological collision of Europe and the Americas transformed virtually every aspect of human history. Beautifully written, and packed with startling research, 1493 is a monumental achievement."

       -David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z

“In 1491 Charles Mann brilliantly described the Americas on the eve of Columbus’s voyage. Now in 1493 he tells how the world was changed forever by the movement of foods, metals, plants, people and diseases between the ‘New World’ and both Europe and China. His book is readable and well-written, based on his usual broad research, travels and interviews. A fascinating and important topic, admirably told.”

 -John Hemming, author of Tree of Rivers

REVIEW

Worms and parasites, slaves and masters, greed and commerce, tobacco and guano - all have radically shaped today's world, and continue to do so. The Columbian Exchange united, both for better and for worse, this earth in ways that Columbus could never have dreamed.

The author's writing is well organized, researched, illustrated, and annotated. Given that, it still could have been boring but it wasn't. Charles Mann kept me entertained and interested through every word, remarkable considering how much information he was able to impart in the roughly 400 pages of text. I knew bits and pieces of this story, but never the bigger picture as he was able to show me. He did this without becoming pedantic, condescending, or proselytizing. I highly recommend this book to anyone at all interested in the history and future of this planet.

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Fall of Giants by Ken Follet/Book Review

Fall of Giants: Book One of the Century Trilogy

Ken Follett (Author)

Paperback: 1000 pages

Publisher: NAL Trade; Reprint edition (August 30, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0451232577

ISBN-13: 978-0451232571

Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.9 inches

PRAISES

"Fall of Giants is a book for you to savor, one in which you can lose yourself for hours on end. It is a big book that tells a big story, but it is one you will not want to end."

-The Huffington Post

"Follett's latest work is epic in scale, meticulously researched and deftly weaves together historical fact, fictional characters and engrossing storytelling."

-The Associated Press

"Fall of Giants stands with Ken Follett's best... Fall of Giants is classic Follett. It's long - almost 1,000 pages; it's populated with hundreds of characters whose lives are intertwined; it's set on a tumultuous world stage; it's a good read....Everything in this novel is oversized, from the scope of history it covers to the characters he creates. It's a book that will suck you in, consume you for days or weeks, depending upon how quick a reader you are, then let you out the other side both entertained and educated. That's quite the feat."

-USA Today

"A dark novel, motivated by an unsparing view of human nature and a clear-eyed scrutiny of an ideal peace. It is not the least of Follett's feats that the reader finishes this near 1000-page book intrigued and wanting more."

-Chicago Sun-Times

"Follett's greatest virtue as a novelist that he has been able to bring forward a writing style he perfected in his earlier thrillers....Essentially, he's writing several interrelated books at once, without ever losing the inevitable forward impulse. And while it sounds bizarre to consider a book this huge a 'page-turner,' that's exactly what Fall of Giants is."

-The Seattle Times

Follett is particularly adept at balancing multiple storylines, patiently building a portrait of interconnected lives. And he consistently gets the physical details right... Perhaps the major reasons for the novel's ultimate success are Follett's comprehensive grasp of the historical record and his ability to integrate research into a colorful, engaging narrative."

-The Washington Post

"[Follett] meticulously reconstructs an era and leads us through the follies and occasional heroics of its protagonists real and imaginary. He is masterly in conveyers so much drama and historical information so vividly...Grippingly told, and readable to the end."

-New York Times Book Review

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

From Publishers Weekly

Using characters from different countries—Russia, Wales, England, the U.S., and Germany—and from different classes, Follett's first book in the Century trilogy provides a compelling mesh of interactions that push the story forward and allow a panoramic view of WWI's burden on five families. With over 30 hours, this audiobook would be a challenge for any narrator, but John Lee proves a solid and engaging choice. His deep voice moves through the prose smoothly and forcefully; he manipulates his tone, emphasis, and accent to develop vocal personas for the extensive cast of characters, and keeps a solid pace through the dialogue. It's a marathon performance of a mammoth book that will leave listeners eagerly anticipating the next installment.

From Booklist

After a sequence of spy thrillers, Follett burst onto the historical fiction scene in 1989 with the megahit The Pillars of the Earth, set in twelfth-century England, and nearly two decades later (having written many other novels in the meantime), he followed with a sequel, World without End. His new book inaugurates what is to be a trio of historical novels (called the Century Trilogy), and it duplicates in structure the two novels mentioned above: showcasing the lives of five families from all walks of life and involved in various ways with the issues of the day from the outbreak of WWI to the early 1920s and reflecting these issues over a broad geographical range, the families here being from Britain, the U.S., Russia, and Germany. The social range of this big, sweeping, completely enveloping novel is announced in the very first line: “On the day King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, Billy Williams went down the pit in Aberowen, Wales.” Actual historical figures populate the narrative along with fictional characters, all of whom experience in different ways war, revolution, and the fight for women’s rights.

Literature & Fiction  Historical

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Amigo (2011)/ Movie Review

Genres: Drama | History | War

Release Date:  19 August 2011 (USA)

A fictional account of events during the Philippine-American War.

Director:  John Sayles

Writer:  John Sayles

Cinematography by Lee Meily

Casts:  Chris Cooper, DJQualls,GarretDillahunt ,  Lucas Neff, Dane DeHaan, Yul Vazquez, James Parks, Bill Tangradi, Joel Torre, Stephen Taylor, Bembol Roco, Pen Medina, Ronnie Lazaro, Rio Locsin

Storyline

AMIGO, the 17th feature film from Academy Award-nominated writer-director John Sayles, stars legendary Filipino actor Joel Torre as Rafael, a village mayor caught in the murderous crossfire of the Philippine-American War. When U.S. troops occupy his village, Rafael comes under pressure from a tough-as-nails officer (Chris Cooper) to help the Americans in their hunt for Filipino guerilla fighters. But Rafael's brother (Ronnie Lazaro) is the head of the local guerillas, and considers anyone who cooperates with the Americans to be a traitor. Rafael quickly finds himself forced to make the impossible, potentially deadly decisions faced by ordinary civilians in an occupied country. A powerful drama of friendship, betrayal, romance and heartbreaking violence, AMIGO is a page torn from the untold history of the Philippines, and a mirror of today's unresolvable conflicts.

Filming Locations: Philippines

Budget:$1,200,000 (estimated) Production Co: Pinoy Pictures

Review

Fighting the Good Fight!

John Sayles is the heart and soul of independent liberal filmmaking in the U.S. and he has triumphed once again with this small scale historical drama. Impeccably cast and masterfully written, Sayles only disappoints with his budgetary mandated use of digital cinematography. The sharp bright images of the film make one long for the warm celluloid grain of his frequent camerman Haskell Wexler. The Philippine/American War has hardly been touched by Hollywood except for THE REAL GLORY (1939), a flag waving whitewash of a controversial foreign incursion. Sayles is here to set the record straight and in this ambitious tale of a village invaded by naive American soldiers, he illuminates and entertains with his typically humanistic eye for people of all cultures, and the dark imperialistic inclinations of Western democracies.

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The Fiery Trial- Book Review

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

Eric Foner

Winner of 2011 Pulitzer Prize for history

Hardcover: 448 pages

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1St Edition edition (October 4, 2010)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0393066185

ISBN-13: 978-0393066180

From Publishers Weekly

A mixture of visionary progressivism and repugnant racism, Abraham Lincoln's attitude toward slavery is the most troubling aspect of his public life, one that gets a probing assessment in this study. Columbia historian and Bancroft Prize winner Foner (Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men) traces the complexities of Lincoln's evolving ideas about slavery and African-Americans: while he detested slavery, he also publicly rejected political and social equality for blacks, dragged his feet (critics charged) on emancipating slaves and accepting black recruits into the Union army, and floated schemes for colonizing freedmen overseas almost to war's end. Foner situates this record within a lucid, nuanced discussion of the era's turbulent racial politics; in his account Lincoln is a canny operator, cautiously navigating the racist attitudes of Northern whites, prodded--and sometimes willing to be prodded--by abolitionists and racial egalitarians pressing faster reforms. But as Foner tells it, Lincoln also embodies a society-wide transformation in consciousness, as the war's upheavals and the dynamic new roles played by African-Americans made previously unthinkable claims of freedom and equality seem inevitable. Lincoln is no paragon in Foner's searching portrait, but something more essential--a politician with an open mind and a restless conscience.

Top Review

Starred Review. Original and compelling….In the vast library on Lincoln, Foner’s book stands out as the most sensible and sensitive reading of Lincoln’s lifetime involvement with slavery and the most insightful assessment of Lincoln’s—and indeed America’s—imperative to move toward freedom lest it be lost. An essential work for all Americans. (Library Journal )

Do we need yet another book on Lincoln?... Well, yes, we do—if the book is by so richly informed a commentator as Eric Foner. Foner tackles what would seem to be an obvious topic, Lincoln and slavery, and manages to cast new light on it.... Because of his broad-ranging knowledge of the 19th century, Foner is able to provide the most thorough and judicious account of Lincoln's attitudes toward slavery that we have.  The New York Times Book Review

A well orchestrated examination of Lincoln’s changing views of slavery, bringing unforeseeable twists and a fresh sense of improbability to a familiar story. (The 2011 Pulitzer Prize Committee )

While many thousands of books deal with Lincoln and slavery, Eric Foner has written the definitive account of this crucial subject, illuminating in a highly original and profound way the interactions of race, slavery, public opinion, politics, and Lincoln's own character that led to the wholly improbable uncompensated emancipation of some four million slaves. Even seasoned historians will acquire fresh and new perspectives from reading The Fiery Trial. (David Brion Davis, author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World )

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Reluctant Hero by Michael Benfante & Dave Hollander / Book Review

Michael Benfante (Author),

Dave Hollander (Author)

Print Length: 256 pages

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (August 11, 2011)

Language: English

ASIN: B005JDD5UA

Description

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael Benfante went to work, just like he had day after day, at his office on eighty–first floor in the World Trade Center North Tower. Moments after the first plane struck, just twelve floors above him, Benfante organized his terrified employees, getting them out the office and moving down the stairwells. On his way down, he and a co–worker encountered a woman in a wheelchair on the sixty–eighth floor. Benfante, the woman and Benfante’s co–worker then embarked on a ninety–six–minute odyssey of escape—the two men carrying the woman down sixty–eight flights of stairs out of the North Tower and into an ambulance that rushed her to safety just minutes before the tower imploded.A CBS video camera caught Benfante just as he got out the building, and almost immediately, the national media came calling. Benfante sat on the couch with Oprah Winfrey, where she hailed him as a hero. Almost one year to the day after 9/11, Benfante got married and the woman in the wheelchair sat in the front row. That’s the storybook ending. But in the aftermath of 9/11, Benfante began a journey fraught with wrenching personal challenges of critical emotional and psychological depth in Reluctant Hero. Benfante shares the trappings of his public heroism, the loneliness of his private anguish, and the hope he finds for himself and for us. Because all of us—whether we were in the towers, in New York City, or someplace else—we are all 9/11 survivors.

Review

"This fast-paced, moving story of 9/11 and its aftermath presents the experience of the hard-working Benfante, who became a national hero after helping colleagues in the WTC north tower to the staircase after the building was hit and, with a coworker, carrying a wheelchair-bound woman down 68 floors to safety. . . . Benfante and journalist Hollander present an appealing story of personal and national trauma and the difficulty for the individual, and the nation, of moving forward. Showing the unhappiness behind what looked like one of the triumphant images of 9/11, this is recommended reading." --Library Journal.com

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The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough/Book Review

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

David McCullough (Author)

Description

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history. As David McCullough writes, “Not all pioneers went west.” Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, who enrolled at the Sorbonne because of a burning desire to know more about everything. There he saw black students with the same ambition he had, and when he returned home, he would become the most powerful, unyielding voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate, almost at the cost of his life.

Two staunch friends, James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse, worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Cooper writing and Morse painting what would be his masterpiece. From something he saw in France, Morse would also bring home his momentous idea for the telegraph.

Pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk from New Orleans launched his spectacular career performing in Paris at age 15. George P. A. Healy, who had almost no money and little education, took the gamble of a lifetime and with no prospects whatsoever in Paris became one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the day. His subjects included Abraham Lincoln.

Medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote home of his toil and the exhilaration in “being at the center of things” in what was then the medical capital of the world. From all they learned in Paris, Holmes and his fellow “medicals” were to exert lasting influence on the profession of medicine in the United States.

Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Henry James were all “discovering” Paris, marveling at the treasures in the Louvre, or out with the Sunday throngs strolling the city’s boulevards and gardens. “At last I have come into a dreamland,” wrote Harriet Beecher Stowe, seeking escape from the notoriety Uncle Tom’s Cabin had brought her. Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris and even more atrocious nightmare of the Commune. His vivid account in his diary of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris (drawn on here for the first time) is one readers will never forget. The genius of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the son of an immigrant shoemaker, and of painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, three of the greatest American artists ever, would flourish in Paris, inspired by the examples of brilliant French masters, and by Paris itself.

Nearly all of these Americans, whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’s phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.” The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.

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Hardcover: 576 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (May 24, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1416571760

ISBN-13: 978-1416571766

Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.7 inches

PRAISES

"An epic of ideas, as well as an exhilirating book of spells . . . This is history to be savored."

—The New York Times Book Review

“A lively and entertaining panorama. . . . By the time he shows us the triumphant Exposition Universelle in 1889, witnessed through the eyes of such characters as painters John Singer Sargent and Robert Henri, we share McCullough's enthusiasm for the city and his affection for the many Americans who improved their lives, their talent and their nation by drinking at the fountain that was Paris.”

— The Washington Post

"From a dazzling beginning that captures the thrill of arriving in Paris in 1830 to the dawn of the 20th century, McCullough chronicles the generations that came, saw and were conquered by Paris. . . . The Greater Journey will satisfy McCullough's legion of loyal fans . . . it will entice a whole new generation of Francophiles, armchair travelers and those Americans lucky enough to go to Paris before they die."

— The San Francisco Chronicle

"McCullough's skill as a storyteller is on full display. . . . The idea of telling the story of the French cultural contribution to America through the eyes of a generation of aspiring artists, writers and doctors is inspired. . . a compelling and largely untold story in American history."

—The Seattle Times

"There is not an uninteresting page here as one fascinating character after another is explored at a crucial stage of his development. . . . Wonderful, engaging writing full of delighting detail."

— Chicago Sun-Times

“McCullough’s research is staggering to perceive, and the interpretation he lends to his material is impressive to behold. . . . Expect his latest book to ascend the best-seller lists and be given a place on the year-end best lists.”

—Booklist

“For more than 40 years, David McCullough has brought the past to life in books distinguished by vigorous storytelling and vivid characterizations. . . . . McCullough again finds a slighted subject in The Greater Journey, which chronicles the adventures of Americans in Paris. . . . Wonderfully atmospheric.”

— Los Angeles Times

“McCullough has hit the historical jackpot. . . . A colorful parade of educated, Victorian-era American travelers and their life-changing experiences in Paris.”—Publishers Weekly

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The Jefferson Key: A Novel / Book Review

by Steve Berry

Description

Four United States presidents have been assassinated—in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963—each murder seemingly unrelated and separated by time.

But what if those presidents were all killed for the same reason: a clause in the United States Constitution—contained within Article 1, Section 8—that would shock Americans?

This question is what faces former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone in his latest adventure.  When a bold assassination attempt is made against President Danny Daniels in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the killing—only to find himself at dangerous odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. In their most perilous exploit yet, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt race across the nation and take to the high seas. Along the way they break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a centuries-old document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves, one powerful enough—thanks to that clause in the Constitution—to make the Commonwealth unstoppable.
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Hardcover: 480 pages

Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (May 17, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0345505514

ISBN-13: 978-0345505514

Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches

Top Reviews

“One of the most spellbinding and ingenious openings in all of thrillerdom. The cast of characters is huge but every one of them is memorable. The action is intense and masterfully choreographed. As always with Steve Berry, you’re educated about significant things while your knuckles are turning white and the pages are flying. Easily Cotton Malone’s most epic, swashbuckling adventure.” —David Baldacci

"The Constitution. . . secret codes . . . loads of history. . . AND pirates! What else does anyone need? The Jefferson Key won't just haunt your nights--it'll haunt your life. Cotton Malone is coming back to the scariest place of all: Home." —Brad Meltzer

"THE JEFFERSON KEY starts with a bang and holds the reader in its grip until the last page. Fascinating American history, up-to-the-minute politics, pulse-pounding action. This is a story Mitch Rapp would love." —Vince Flynn

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