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Peter Libra
Since Aug 23, 1999
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Working class myself. Love books- good books. Through recomendations by various Freepers, I have purchased a goodly number of them. I doubt I would have heard of them otherwise. One mention every so often, might be appropriate.
e New Dealers' War.
F.D.R. And The War Within World War II.
Thomas Fleming:Basic Books 2001.
The struggle to get rid of Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944, by the inner echelon of the Democratic Party, indicates how that party has changed. FDR was coming up for a fourth term. He indicated that the democratic procedures should be followed. Wallace would have to present himself at the convention. The successful nominee was Harry S Truman. Wallace too radical of a socialist. Fifty years too early for him. The photograph of President Roosevelt, forced to go in an open vehicle,this in a cold November rain to dispel any doubts about his fitness, will haunt you. Five hours of a freezing rain soaked hell.
The chapter titled "Shaking Hands With Murder" (P.318-322) is a precursor of what Senator Joe McCarthy fought against over 8 years later. The infiltration of traitors. A picture is drawn with skill and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions. That is of the three leaders. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. My own take is that the two men were sitting beside an ogre. Neither man ever admitted that they were completely taken by this man- Joseph Stalin. They both quietly knew he would annex large parts of Europe. To their shame, some of it was the territory of their own allies.
It should be added in defence of FDR, that the State Department had so many informants to Moscow, that Stalin knew everything that Roosevelt was going to do. Just released (May 2009) is the PBS/BBC documentary, "WW2, Behind Closed Doors, Stalin The Nazis And The West", England was rife with the same type informers to Stalin. Parts of it follow closely Thomas Fleming's history of that era. FDR was also a badly ailing man, the last thing he needed was long distance travel. He went to Yalta, Russia in February 1945,to meet with Churchill and Stalin. He died in April, back in America two months later.
Blacklisted By History
The Untold Story Of Senator Joe McCarthy.
And His Fight Against America's Enemies.
M.Stanton Evans.
Crown Forum. New York 2007.
A superbly researched book. Again and again, the perfidy of the liberal press and politicians is shown. Yes, McCarthy was abrasive, yes, he did make errors.
A patriot and proven out by actual records, not just the innuendo which the detractors of McCarty have fine tuned. The copies of once secret memoranda with hundreds of names by various agencies, not McCarthy, tell the tale. Yet, the liberals still use him as a bogeyman. They have not got the common decency to re-evaluate that time and it's ramifications. Recently (2008) Senator Biden used McCarthy's name in relation to the "black list" of Hollywood actors/writers. It has been pointed out that McCarthy had virtually nothing to do with HUAC. They were the committee that went after the Hollywood Left. McCarthy went after the Army. One of his army targets finally admitted he passed classified information to the Soviet - and he is 91 years old(2008). He was another darling of the left at the time, just as was Alger Hiss.
The lesson here is that the detractors of McCarthy still have not changed. Even as late as April 2009, the figures of McCarthy supposedly claiming 205 Communists in the State Department, at Wheeling WV.in 1950, is being quoted. It was 57 persons; McCarthy's 57 persons quoted in the Denver Post with those figures in a headline, a few days later.
12th August 09. Glenn Beck (an unlikely figure) weighed in on the late Senator McCarthy. He observed the fallacy believed by most Americans regarding HUAC and Joseph McCarthy. Not Joe's thing. Glenn Beck mentioned the ominous disapearance of pertinent documents.I would presume documents that might exonerate Joe. Even to this day skullduggery with White House documents, re smuggling out documents by a hitherto impeccable official.
Another gem.
Blue Highways (A Journey Into America).
William Least Heat-Moon.
Back Bay Books/Little Brown & Company.
Hatchet Book Group USA. First published 1982.
A little oddysey on a budget, a true story on travelling the back roads of America. The author seems to be indicating that persons in small town America have arrived at an acceptance of whom they are and are essentially- for the most part are quite happy. The photographs prove that the author did indeed take those highways. Some of them are grainy, but their informality makes them a quiet joy in many respects. I had chanced into one town that he visited. Shelby, Montana. I to the Mint Bar and he to the Oil City Bar. I was shown the revolver with flat nosed bullets that was kept behind the bar. The bell for the Dempsey-Gibbons fight was there- painted gold. Shades of 1925. That America cannot and must not ever disappear.
The Dog Of The South.
Charles Portis.
The Overlook Press.
Woodstock and New York.
Reprinted 2007.
Fiction.
The cover is of a bus coming towards the viewer. Shrouded in mist. Catches a moment of loneliness. Overlook Press took a chance and reprinted the Portis books, mostly not reprinted for over 15 years or so. More readers should be aware of Arkansas resident Charles Portis writings.
A remarkable word picture of various kinds of Americans that existed- maybe still do, in the 1970's. A little more is owed here. Ray Midge goes on an oddysey to get his errant wife back. She has absconded with her ex-husband (what a character he is) Midge gets as far as the then British Honduras. His little excursions into the bar scene and picking up a Dr Reo Symes; his knowledge of various automobiles, and how to fix em' are a classic. We learn of hotel life in Belize, British Honduras. Wife Norma is quite a gal. Flighty but lovable.
The laconic statement at the end of this book, beats most laconic statements I have ever read.
One of the most fascinating and well researched books, which the author took six years to finalise is:
Heir Not Apparent.
Suzanne Finstad.
Texas Monthly Press.
Austin, Texas.
Copyright: Suzanne Finstad 1984.
The search for Howard Hughes Jr. Those associated with his family. This to identify and separate claimants to the Hughes immense fortune- he did not leave a proven will. The hunt for any offspring of Hughes uncles and aunts was on. It, at the same time of indicating an incredible and expensive genealogical search, is a picture of an old-fashioned day and time. The author deals in a professional, yet kindly approach to her subjects, those living and those long departed. From Judge Felix T Hughes (1838-1926) to Actress Terry Moore (still attractive in her fifties).
The photographs are a gem. The young woman with whom Hughes father nearly married, is shown. She could hold her own with the modern day beautiful iconic women . Even more interesting are some of the women of another era. Hughes uncle, Rupert Hughes,(1872-1956), married a younger woman, Adelaide Bissell Manola. Her mother was the famed Marion Manola, a light opera star. (Marion Elixia Martin (1863-1914). Marion Manola's flamboyance and problems would make a whole book. The lives of a glamorous Aunt, Greta Hughes (Jeanne Greta, opera singer) and Agnes Hedge Hughes with her eight men friends, reveal a tangled web of romances gone sour- pity. The researchers had to dig into the past of these ladies to find if there were any concealed offspring. Anyone that can get a used copy will not regret it.
O Rugged Land of Gold.
Martha Martin.
Set in the gold rush days. Numerous reprints. Later reprint
Alaska Vanessa Press, 1989.
Said by one critic, this is a combination of experiences and imagination. A beautiful idea by any standards. Written as a journal.
Author born in Alaska and an accomplished woman who graduated in Alaska. Admirers of Governor Palin will relish this account of an indomitable woman, left to fend for herself. The author lived until 80 years and is interred in Alaska. This is the only book, that I and my liberal spouse shared together, of these choices of mine. I should mention her approval of one book. More because it could be read as a rebuttal to hard and fast beliefs within the Christian religion. That book was "The Golden Rooms" by Vardis Fisher.
The Invincible Quest.
>The Life Of Richard Milhous Nixon.
Conrad Black.
McClelland & Stewart Ltd. Toronto, Ontario.
2007.
I must confess I have not yet done this book anything like near justice. A work not to be taken lightly. Just as the picture of President Roosevelt in an open touring car in the rain, just before his final election stands out, so does one picture of Richard Nixon. He is bowling ten pin and has the style. I am advised by a Freeper to purchase "Silent Coup" the story of the plot to dethrone Richard Nixon. This I am in the process of doing. It is out of print at this time.
Now I digress. I hope the author is released to serve his term in Canada. The two American border patrol men be released to their families. My two New Year wishes.
Thanks! (Jan 19th 2009)
May 18th 2009. Appeal granted to Supreme Court hearing for Conrad Black. Can only hope here for his release.
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler
Robert Payne
Praeger Publishers Inc.
New York and Washington 1973.
The life of Hitler is well known to me as regarding WW2. Much gone over. What is fascinating is the genealogy of Hitler. The hard scrabble years in Vienna, the grind and despair of unemployment. Further sinking because of improper nutrition. That he could not have turned this to compassion for his fellow human beings is the world's tragedy. Ironically, the history of the Waldviertel, Lower Austria, where Hitler's ancestry evolves, is that likely between three and four different racial groups occupied that area over hundreds of years.
The account of the poor peasant woman, Maria Anna Schicklgruber (born 1795)and her being left with an illegitimate child at over forty years of age, makes one think about the lot of these poor peasant women of the Waldviertel. The mystery concerning the man who married her in 1842, one Johann Georg Hiedler,(born 1792), will likely never come to light. Her son did not use the surname Hiedler, during the marriage of Maria. He was still Alois Schicklgruber,( 1837-1903),well after both step father and natural mother had died. Suddenly changed his name at 39 years of age, brought about by a forged birth certificate. This can be guessed at. Even then, a clerk mispelled Heidler as Hitler ,when he transcribed the record. Now a respected customs official, Alois wanted it to be known he was of legitimate marriage. Alois(Shicklgruber)Hitler was Adolf Hitler's father; his son from a third marriage.
We learn of a half brother of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), also named Alois Hitler.(born 1882) from Alois Hitler's second marriage. A rogue and a scamp. He emmigrated to England as a young man. He married a comely Irish girl, Bridget Dowling. Returned to Germany and was there during Hitler's regime. His own son, Patrick Hitler born in Liverpool, England in 1911. Patrick served in the U.S. Navy in WW2, changed his name first though. This has fiction beaten.
A family tree is provided and makes some interesting reading. Robert Payne has to introduce his book with a burst of invective against Hitler. Smart move. Lest someone claim he tries to humanize the whole man. No, but up to and including Vienna about 1913, Payne does get to who the man was originally.
One could blame power to an extent. What power does to some people!
Authority and Delinquency.
A study in the Psychology of Power.
Alex Comfort.
Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1950.
Sphere Books 1970.
"Even less different from overt criminals are those latent criminals,high in office, whom society venerates as it's chiefs".
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909).
Curiously enough, this absolutely well footnoted work on the personalities of those who attain power, was ignored in the Comfort obituary.
Alex Comfort later wrote a sex guide on the joys of sex. This was his monument, according to virtually every obituary . Yet, this investigative work, which can be used by the socialistic left and the right leaning conservative reader, names names. Hitler and Stalin of course, with a hint at Winston Churchill's role at the siege of Sidney St. My favourite entry credited to Ranyard West.
"Political power offers superb platforms to the unconscious play actor from childhood - to shout defiance at erstwhile school-fellows whose hands are no longer able to reach out and twist his arm,to prove the prizeman in yet one more test, to hurl yet more fiends down to hell before the final reckoning comes, to scoff at still more nannies and greybeards"
Comfort quotes Ranyard West: Psychology and World Order. Penguin Books 1945.
Why Orwell Matters
Christopher Hitchens.
Basic Books
New York. 2002.
Another Freeper recomendation. Hitchens boldly quotes and is quite fair to some of Orwell's critics, no nitpicking. Then he demolishes them, but giving credit where credit is due. I notice that a brief attention is given to writer George Gissing(1857-1903). The sordid tragedy of this talented man and deepest, darkest London, has me off on more research. One of the amusing things about Mr Hitchens, is on his depreciation of Orwell's distaste for overt homosexuals. Orwell did not hate, he was simply bothered by their incursions in various London Hotels. He did not need them and they used to bother people with their approaches. He was reflecting a moderate view as opposed to working class views of the day. Hitchens tries to use the "new and enlightened" present day views to judge Orwell- somewhat naive, still Hitchens grew up in a different era. He has no idea of prevailing attitudes in Orwell's time, re homosexualtity. I will have more to say about this otherwise valuable little book later.
The Forsaken Army.
Heinrich Gerlach.
Cassell Military Books. 2007.
Reprinted by many different publishers. One of the greatest soldiers stories ever written. Gerlach was in Von Paulus Sixth Army at Stalingrad. He was a prisoner of the Russians for five years. They tore up his notes. Put aside the differences of the Allies and the enemy - and you can do this. Then read about the hated SS killing those who retreated. Though a loyal German as such, this man does not like Nazis.
Hoodwinked
How Intellectual Hucksters Have Highjacked American Culture.
Jack Cashill.
Nelson Current Books.
2005.
From the brutal, mindless slaying of Officer Danny Faulkner by Mumia in Philadelphia and including the slaying of the FBI agents by Pelletier, Cashill gets to the subject of the pervidious leftists. The lies, the obfuscations, the martyrdom of wicked men to include accounts of "indisputable" yet slanted beliefs held by some of the public. Dealing with the absolute vile twisting, by Hollywood of the Scopes trial. "Inherit The Wind". (The trial about evolution in Tennessee, 1925). Thinly disguised, it is perversion of the facts, that seem almost like that of the very devil himself. The devil that is Hollywood.
The Testament of Man
Vardis Fisher
Paperback:Pyramid Books.
Reprints are numerous.
My memory has reverted back in time to one of America's least known authors, considering his incredibly fine work. I will catch up and buy via used books on various outlets. My liberal spouse recalled how we both enjoyed "The Golden Rooms". Fisher endevours to bring about the understanding of how Homo Sapiens evolved from a brutal, unthinking survivalist origin, to the development of a conscience unique to mankind . Though I believe Mr Fisher took an atheistic view, I hold it that the Christian religion has it right. Just that things took a certain time.
The Declaration Of Independence
And The Constitution Of The United States.
(my copy) Penguin Books.
New York. London. Toronto. Victoria (Australia). Edition 1995.
Needs no introduction.