Fred Krome's blog

New Books

Just obtained two new titles for my collection.  The first, Scott Stephenson, The Final Battle I am reviewing for a history journal.   So far (one chpater in) it is very interesting.  Glad the journal editor is letting me review it as this is the sort of title I like for my personal library, but cannot aford to buy a copy.

 

The Final Battle: Soldiers of the Western Front and the German Revolution of 1918 (Studies in the So

Scott Stephenson

The second book is by Graydon (Jack) Tunstall, and old friend I have not seen in years.  He spoke at UC yesterday and his book is literally just out.  Since they were selling it at discount it was a steal, although in this case the regular price is not exorbitant.  Jack's book looks a neglected aspect of World War I, the Carpathian Winter campaign of 1915.  More soldiers were killed or wounded here than at Verdun or the Somme.  Jack was a visiting professor at UC when I was still a grad student and I remeember him telling me he wanted to write this book.  As he said yesterday, it only took about 15 years. My response: It's the finishing that counts.

 

Blood on the Snow: The Carpathian Winter War of 1915 (Modern War Studies)

Graydon A. Tunstall

 

History of Conspiracy Theories

Studying the history of Antisemitism provides a fascinating window into paranoid world views.  To the Antisemite the world operates on two levels, the one we see, where the "official" explanation of what and why is actually only a cover for the REAL explanation, which is that events are being controled by a nefarious force that is working the levers of history.  You can have paranoid fanatasies without being an Antisemite, or holding Antisemitic views (I know, sounds like a distinction without a difference, but more on that another time), but the majority of conspiracies involve some use of Antisemitic imagery, you only have to look hard enough to find them.

 

I just finished reading several books that help explain ho conpiracy theories dominant certain forms of public discourse (for example, the 9/11 Truth movement or Truthers and the ever present Israel Lobby obession).  David Aaronovitch's Voodoo Histories is a fascinating journey into the mid set of conspiracy theories, as well as forms of pseudo-science, and historical denial.  What's really scary is how pervasive some of these ideas are, AND how they all tie in together with Antisemitic fantasies.

 

Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History

David Aaronovitch

Nick Cohen's What's Left takes the reader onto a journey into how the left, particularly in Britain, can align itself with illiberal elements, such as Jihadists and Islamists, all in the name of Anti-Imperialism and Ant-Racism.  Along the way he does a very nice job (as in thorough) of demolishing some of the more absurd trends in academia.  Lately I've noticed that some of my sane and rational colleagues, who normally would accept the notion that something like Women's rights are universal, will literally have a brain meltdown if they even think they are on the same side as George W. Bush on this issue, and start ranting.  I personally am no fan of W.  I do, however, believe that some things are true even if George W. Bush says them.  So yes, when Dubya says he thinks women's rights are universal, I agree with him.

 

 

What's Left?: How the Left Lost Its Way

Nick Cohen

On another level if you want to see someone pull a lot of these ideas together watch this lecture by Christopher Hitchens.  I read and watch Hitchens no because I agree with him on everything.  In fact in this lecture, given in honor of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, I think he uses one or two straw men to knock down.  His argument, however, about the centrality of Antisemitism to conpiracy ideas is very persuasive.

Christopher Hitchens on Antisemitism

 

Back to Book Blogging

Ok, been a LONG time getting back to this, but between my own book project, a prolonged family crisis, and I can't even remember what else, I think I have a legitimate excuse for not talking about books for a while.

I am having to think about text books much further in advance these days.  New Federal legislation requires that when registration for classes opens students HAVE to know what books are assigned (title, author, ISBN).  In principle I have no problem with with this as maybe this will help students make more intelligent selections on courses (as in "yuck, I don't want to read that book so I won't waste a space by signing up for that course).  The major problem is that we have to plan MONTHS in advance and sometimes I have not even decided on the final form of a class.  For example, textbooks for the Winter 2001 quarter are due about six months prior to the class beginning.  A number of university departments, such as English, do not even have classes staffed for the Fall 2010 quarter, so naturally no textbook decisions are final.  I can safely say that 100% of American universities will NOT be 100% compliant with this new law.

Anyway, I have actually started thinking about some books to utilize for class.  I just received this new textbook on World War II from Oxford University Press. Let's be fair, any book whose title is Annihilation has something to recoomend it.

Annihilation: A Global Military History of World War II

Thomas Zeiler

Zeiler's major point is that during the war each of the belligerents passed, at some point, into a philosophy that required the absolute destruction of their enemies ability to wage war.  This was the minimum  requirement for victory.  In order to destroy the enemy you had to not only annihilate his combat arm, but degrad the civilian infrastructure that supported the military.  In an age of total war their is no seperation between home front and war front.  Taken to its logical conclusion, saturation bombing by all sides makes sense.

What is good about the book is that Zeiler does not turn to facile generalizations of moral equivalency.  While an argument can be made for or against the mass bombings of German cities, which I think Zeiler could spend a bit more time deconstructing, no valid military purpose could justify Nazi atrocities against civilians, nor could the Holocaust be explained as a rational military decision.

It is a common thread among historians that "amateurs talk tactics, while professionals discuss logisitics."  While there is a great deal of truth in this, our students want to hear about strategies, tactics, and battles.  What I like about this book is how it balances these together.  Unless another, better book comes along, and I am waiting on a new one from Cambridge University Press, I plan on assigning this one.

Semi-Profound Thought of the Evening

Been Thinking about the Short Story The Appointment in Samarra as retold by W. Somerset Maugham

 

The Speaker is Death

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. 

The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. 

Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? 

That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

Semi-Deep Thought

Opening remarks from a Meeting in 2002 on the significance of archival collections to documenting the Holocaust:

What is the difference between God and historians?

God cannot change the past but can predict the future.

Historians cannot predict the future but can change the past.

 

Marty's Hops and Vines open in College Hill!

Need to get out of the house for a drink and quick bite for a reasonable price?  Check out Marty's, a full service wine and beer store with a great selection of wine and craft beers (including a beer cave) but that is not all...it is a full service Wine and Beer bar. House wines are, get this, $3 a glass and draft beer is $6. It is a lovely spot, comfortable and fits the bill for those cabin fever days. If you don't like the offerings at the bar, feel free to pick a bottle from the store, and they will serve it to you for a $5 corking fee. 

 

For us College Hillians it is a great addition to our neighborhood, and it beats the heck out of going to Hyde Park or Mt Adams to sample some nice wine.  Fred and I have gone numerous times, it is a great neighborhood place and was pretty full everytime we went. It is located near the corner of North Bend Road and Hamilton, about 4 doors down from College Hill Coffee Company. Please go and support our local business, and let us know how you liked it!

Claire's Latest Book Review: The Scratch of A Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America

To say that the fall quarter of graduate school was trying is a gross understatement. Not only was my job becoming more stressful and time consuming, but my class was on historical methodology, and I have found that watching grass grow is more fun than a class on historical theory. That being said, it was awhile before I could de-zone and read what I enjoy, and this book is one outstanding example of fine historical writing, unlike the mediocre and incomprensible books I was forced to read last quarter. Well,OK,  enough of that and on with the review....

The Scratch of A Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America by Colin G. Calloway is a remarkable book in many ways. Calloway’s focus is on the social changes wrought on North America after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, and he masterfully blends the experiences and required adaptations of not only the British, Spanish, and French colonists but also the Indian population. The Treaty of Paris brought momentous societal change, for more territory changed hands as a result of this treaty than any other international agreement, before or since.  Writing about the eighteenth century, the historian Frances Parkman noted that with  “a scratch of a pen” King Louis XV of France and George III of Great Britain discarded and disposed of “continents that they had never seen, and could scarcely imagine”. The treaty set into motion events that would ultimately lead to the American Revoloution, and a subsequent Treaty of Paris in 1783. Events such as Pontiac’s Rebellion, which Calloway characterized as the first American War of Independence and the subsequent Paxton Boys uprising took the conflicts between Indians and settlers from one based on land acquistion to a race war, fought on both sides with near equal ferocity. Noether Indian Christians nor frontier women and children were spared in this war of attempted annihilation.

Calloway adroitly lays out the conflict between the colonists, loyal British subjects such as George Washington,and the British colonial administration who act as a check against unbridled expansion by settlers into the Indian territories. Washington, like many of these colonists are burdened with huge debts, and the new Western territiories are potential sources of income desperately needed. This clash, combined with the new taxation policies aimed at paying for the French and Indian War, help propel a colonial revolution that severs the North American colonies from the British Empire.

However, these are just a few of the focuses of Calloway’s work. He details the conflicts among the Acadians of Louisiana, the Spanish settlers in Florida and outlines how many of these colonial administrations had to adjust to a new reality in the Americas. A wonderful book that reads easily, it addresses in many ways a neglected part of British and French, and subsequently American colonial history. I highly recommend it.

The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (Pivotal Moments in American Hist

Colin G. Calloway

Claire and Joe at the Reindog Parade, Mt. Adams (2009)

Veterans Day 2009

Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, to commemorate the ending of hostilities in 1918.  The Great War (World War I, the First World War) did not officially come to an end on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, which is probably why we never called this Treaty Day, but most of the fighting ended, at least for twenty years. 

Although my father did not fight in the Great War he did serve two tours in Vietnam and had just completed his twenty-fifth year in the Army, and was recently promoted to full colonel, when he died at age 46.  So on Veterans day I remember my dad, and think of this part of a poem from World War I.

 

For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon 

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Some book thoughts

Well I should be grading papers, but in an effort to avoid it for a few more minutes, I thought I would talk about books. I am also getting to know my new laptop, so I will justify this as a practice session.

As I have mentioned, ad nauseum I suspect, I am fortunate to be in a job were my passion (books, ideas, and writing) is also my vocation.  I am further fortunate in having reached a stage where I periodically get to request books to review (either for publication in a scholarly journal or consider for class use).  Over the past few years I've found that World War I (or First World War) studies are among the most dynamic of fields.  I suspect that reviewing books, and teaching bother world wars and the Holocaust warps my mind a bit, but since my contact with reality is always shaky, I don't worry about it too much.  So having said that, some recent additions to the library that are worth reading:

Roger Chickering is one of my favorite historians whom I've never met.  His work on Germany is well written, conceptually sound, and deeply researched.  One of his most recent book is a case study of Freiburg, the "most beautiful place in Germany" as it liked ot bill itself. 

 

The Great War and Urban Life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914-1918 (Studies in the Social and Cultural His

Roger Chickering

One of the fundamental questions asked about Germany during the Great War, is how it held out for so longer, despite food shortages and depeleted manpower reserves.  Chickering's book helps us understand this issue through a case study of one city during the war.  He demonstrates that the vertical alliance between ruler and ruled (some call this the social contract) held in Frieburg until the summer of 1918.  When it disentigrated, however, it went quickly. 

Jay Winter, another favorite, has also done some really innovative writing on the war.  His collaborative work, where he serves as editor and contributor, is consistently of a high quality.  Whereas volume 0ne of the Capital Cities at War was highly quantitative and theoretical, volume 2, which I reviewed, was much more ecclectic in apprach, and I thought more useful to the student of history.

 

Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin 1914-1919, Volume 2: A Cultural History (Studies in the

  What I liked about these essays is that they helped me understand where the wartime experience coould be compared, and where circumstances dictated complete differences in conditions.  For example, Berlin was never threatened by invading Armies (like Paris), or bombed (like London), but was a central hub for troop movements, like the other cities.

...and now for something completely off this topic.  I recently acquired Keith Thomas's latest book. The Ends of Life, when I was in England.  It reminded me of one of the most provocative books I read in grad school.  Religion and the Decline of Magic is not an easy read, but it is a fascinating look at the world view of England during a time of transition from Medieval Christianity to the modern world. It may take time to plow through, but it was well worth it. 

 

Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century E

Keith Thomas