Book Description
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s
Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s
The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.
For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.
But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.
No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.
Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.
Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of
Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
CHAPTER ONE
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
Brielle, New Jersey, September 1991
Bill Nagle's life changed the day a fisherman sat beside him in a ramshackle bar and told him about a mystery he had found lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Against his better judgment, that fisherman promised to tell Nagle how to find it. The men agreed to meet the next day on the rickety wooden pier that led to Nagle's boat, the Seeker, a vessel Nagle had built to chase possibility. But when the appointed time came, the fisherman was not there. Nagle paced back and forth, careful not to plunge through the pier where its wooden planks had rotted away. He had lived much of his life on the Atlantic, and he knew when worlds were about to shift. Usually, that happened before a storm or when a man's boat broke. Today, however, he knew it was going to happen when the fisherman handed him a scrap of paper, a hand-scrawled set of numbers that would lead to the sunken mystery. Nagle looked into the distance for the fisherman. He saw no one. The salt air blew against the small seashore town of Brielle, tilting the dockside boats and spraying the Atlantic into Nagle's eyes. When the mist died down he looked again. This time, he saw the fisherman approaching, a small square of paper crumpled in his hands. The fisherman looked worried. Like Nagle, he had lived on the ocean, and he also knew when a man's life was about to change.
In the whispers of approaching autumn, Brielle's rouge is blown away and what remains is the real Brielle, the locals' Brielle. This small seashore town on the central New Jersey coast is the place where the boat captains and fishermen live, where convenience store owners stay open to serve neighbors, where fifth graders can repair scallop dredges. This is where the hangers-on and wannabes and also-rans and once-greats keep believing in the sea. In Brielle, when the customers leave, the town's lines show, and they are the kind grooved by the thin dif
Customer Reviews:
You Feel Like You Are There.......2007-10-05
Others have gone into detail about this book, and it is true. This book combines a mystery worthy of a Sherlock Holmes novel with the details of technical diving and written in such a gripping manner that it could be a work of pop fiction (not in a negative way, just that it flows so well and put together so well that it could have been made up, if that makes sense.)
And the author does a great job of not leaving you "hanging" with an abrupt ending.
Highly recommended and has set the bar for other books in this genre.
J ohn Sutphen MD, ex navy diver /submarine medical officer .......2007-09-21
Tantallizing and heart pounding tale based on incredibly researched information about u boats and diving with an accurate, simple description of practical diving, diving medicine and physiology.
Compulsion to know the answer........2007-09-13
A fascinating saga about 2 deep sea divers and their 6 year odyssey to uncover the identity of a sunken German U boat. A captivating story, and you'll learn a lot about deep sea diving.
Deep Thrills.......2007-09-05
An absorbing account of the discovery and identification by veteran divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of a sunken Nazi U-boat 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Kurson skillfully weaves together several threads into a very readable narrative, including the evolution of Chatterton and Kohler's rivalry-turned-friendship, the technical hazards of exploring a mangled wreck in 230 feet of water, and the duo's maddening, seven-year long ordeal to obtain positive evidence -- both on the wreck and in official but flawed US and German naval records -- of the boat's identity. As the tale draws to a close, Kurson also draws a moving portrait of the U-boat's crew, who went to sea in the final days of the war and knew that they likely would not return alive.
I started diving when the final pieces of this mystery were falling into place, and can remember following the story of New Jersey's mystery U-boat in the papers. However, none of those articles was anywhere as involving as Kurson's account, which I devoured in four days. Sure, there's some overheated prose here and there ("in a shipwreck, where every danger is first cousin to every other, a diver's desparation makes an open house of his bad situation."), but that's a minor strike against this otherwise excellent and comprehensive work.
Rare Intimate Journey To The Shadows.......2007-08-28
Sometimes the flaws make a thing so much more than perfection could ever achieve. The imperfections in this literary account of the exploration of a WWII submarine discovered in 1991 off the Coast of New Jersey are well documented. Those imperfections didn't bother me.
I was facinated by the detailed account of the personalities of the divers in "Shadow." Its easy to identify a future SCUBA diver - someone who is comfortable putting their face under water. Even better, because it will sometimes trump the 'face' test, is whether a person's curiosity is so intense that they are able to project their consciousness entirely onto something outside of themselves to the virtual exclusion of other thoughts. Divers want to investigate, explore, see something extraordinary, find out whats under that rock, go someplace very few people have been, find something unique, etc. The experience is so strong, you may forget to be worried about all the risks.
My enjoyment of "Shadow" was absolutely enhanced by my experience as a diver who is both Nitrox and advanced open water certified. I have never gone deeper than 110 ft - The U-boat 85, off of Nags Head, North Carolina, which is 20ft shallower than the recreational diving limit of 130 ft. So far, I've never wanted to see anything deeper, but I suspect I'll pass. Surface light begins to diminish rapidly. It usually gets alot colder.
At the depths routinely visitied by the divers in this book, 230 ft., nitrogen narcosis is an inevitability, and helium mixes carry their own risks. Water pressure increases to seven times what it is at the surface. Just when you need all your mental faculties and judgement, you can be assured they will be impared to an extent that cannot be anticipated from dive to dive. Even more frightening is that getting to the surface to resolve any problems that may arise (my mask came off once at 80 ft), must now include a life-saving decompression stop. When you head for the surface with less than 30 minutes of air for your stop, you're in trouble.
Diving can put you face to face with three realities that I don't sense as readily on land: 1.) the incredible spiritual beauty of the natural world, 2.) how alone we really are (I've never felt more alone than those very few times I've dived without a buddy), 3.) Death is always hiding within convenient reach.
The insatiable curiosity of the two lead characters, Chatterton and Kohler, also drives them above the water, as they travel to Europe to learn as much as they can about the submarine and its crew. There was no 'gold' involved, just an incredible mystery to solve.
"Shadow" was one of those books I read in one sitting (I missed dinner). I would compare it to Krakauer's works in power and drama, if not as well written. But again, in a way the rough nature of the text enhanced the story, as if I was sitting across the table from the author.
NOTE TO FELLOW DIVERS: After reading this book I have found my goal for my diving trips next summer - get my "Rescue Diver" certification.
NOTE TO THOSE PEOPLE trying to get young men (ages 9-15) into reading - I know of two young men who hated to read until they picked up this book. Not that they love reading now, but the 'no trespassing' sign is now down in front of the library.
Average customer rating:
- Nazis in Newark: do the ends justify the means?
- "Ex-Newarker's Reaction to 'Nazis In Newark" "
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Nazis in Newark
Warren Grover
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
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Customer Reviews:
Nazis in Newark: do the ends justify the means?.......2004-03-04
This book is well-researched, well-written and well argued, but at its core the author's message is immoral. He glorifies the use of Jewish gangsters to beat up Nazi sympathizers in Newark during the 1930s. He also defends a wide range of government actions which denied these Nazi sympathizers their First Amendment rights.
It would be one thing if the Jewish gangsters were defending the Jewish community in Newark from Nazi abuse and harassment, but the author provides no evidence of this. Rather the Jewish gangsters, who called themselves the Minutemen, went out of their way to attack Nazi meetings and beat up the participants. I guess you could call these attacks pre-emptive, but Grover fails to show that the Jewish community was in danger of immanent attack. The author seems to believe that the mere presence of Nazis in public justified the use of violence against them. As obnoxious as Nazis were and are, that is a dangerous notion.
In making these thugs into heroes, Grover ignores that they were largely immunized from the consequences of their actions. Despite their flagrant use of violence, they always escaped serious punishment. Why? Because they were under the protection of a Jewish crime boss, who fixed things with the authorities. You call that heroism?
Finally these same gangsters were running protection rackets, corrupting unions and breaking strikes. And you can be sure that most of the victims of their criminal behavior were Jews. They were also used to prevent a rally in support of union organizing in Newark, lead by legendary socialist leader Norman Thomas, who, of course, was an enemy of anti-Semitism.
That Grover has no problem with this, as long as the Minutemen were beating up Nazis too, shows misplaced loyalties.
Still, it is an interesting book and a good read.
"Ex-Newarker's Reaction to 'Nazis In Newark" ".......2003-07-26
A masterfully written and meticulously researched
history of Nazi sympathizers in the Newark NJ area during the era from Hitler's rise to power until the start of World War 2, and the reactions and efforts of Newark's then large Jewish community to deal with the Hitler-sympathizers.
The book also contains the story of the Newark Third Ward legendary "Minutemen" ... youthful Newark Jewish musclemen, mobsters, and ex-boxers who broke up Newark-area Nazi rallies, cracked heads, and otherwise disrupted and made life miserable for the Hitler-followers.
The author, Warren Grover, is a native Newarker and Jewish community leader, as well as a Newark historian who relied on scores of interviews and insider sources who makes the reader feel like he or she is there as part of the action.
A book for all ex Newarkers and those with an interest in Newark
or Newark-Jewish history, and not to be missed.
-- Nat Bodian
Product Description
I'M STAYING WITH MY BOYS... is a first-hand look inside the life of one of the greatest heroes of the greatest generation. Sgt. John Basilone was lauded by General Douglas MacArthur as ...A ONE MAN ARMY and awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic defense of a vital airfield early in World War 2. It was the turning point of the war and Basilones foxhole was the site of the turning point in that battle. Distinctive among military biographies, the story is narrated by Sgt. Basilone himself allowing readers to experience the development of Johnny Basilone, the aimless youth, into Gunnery Sergeant MANILA JOHN Basilone, the clear-eyed warrior, undefeated light-heavyweight boxer and nationally revered war hero. This publication is the only family-authorized biography. The story is woven with surprising personal details such as Sgt. Basilones uncanny premonitions. Three times he confided to his family unlikely visions of his future. All three times the visions came to pass - including the final one that foretold his death. In spite of his final revelation, and true to his unwavering dedication to his men, he returned to battle and was killed on the beach at Iwo Jima - an emotional true story
Customer Reviews:
A MUST READ ! ! !.......2005-09-15
My friend loaned me this book to read and I must say that it gave me a new found appreciation of what those men and women did for us in WWII. This book was very easy to read, and should be included in the curriculum of every Recent American History course taught in High School or College. I HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy of this book. I have already purchased a copy for myself after reading my friends copy.
It sounds so prophetic.......2005-01-26
He knew he was going to die, and he just kept on fighting. He never abandoned his marines and thats just what he should have done. Its how the writer makes this so real that is so inspiring, not that his deeds werent great, but there have probably been thousands who have done just what he did, they just werent famous. But overall this is a good book. I like how it takes us to a time when being "patriotic" didnt get us arrested or sued.
A must read.......2005-01-06
Wonderfully moving and well written insight into a true American hero. It is a must read for all patriotic Americans and almost a responsiblity for us all to be aware of one of the US Marine's best.
Excellent.......2004-10-25
If you are interested in a personal story of WWII, then this is an excellent book. Rather than getting into the details of the conflicts this book focuses on the personal story of John Basilone - one of the handful of true American Heroes from WWII.
Written in the first person with an ample dose of personal details from his family, this book truly brings Manilla John back to life for many. I've been studying WWII for only 10 years and have read my share of the technical assessments of the important battles in WWII. This book stands out in my mind because it puts the reader in touch with the qualities of America's best young men and women of the 1940's; selflessness, courage, a supreme sense of duty, and in Basilon's case, a supreme sense of destiny.
Highly recommended for anyone with a passing interest in WWII, or for anyone who wants to learn about what made America's young people "tick" 60 years ago.
An Extraordinary Biography and Full Frontal View of War.......2004-08-28
Author and Film Producer Jim Prosser has created a richly detailed, raptly written, devastatingly powerful book about the life of American War hero John Basilone. This book is especially pungent at this time in history because it revives a lost tradition of the country's view of maritime heroism. Since the atrocities of the Vietnam mistake to the present harrowing details of a similar (or worse) war in Iraq the concept of war is now very much in a negative light. Even the words 'war hero' seem an oxymoron, so strident are the feelings about America's latest aggressions. But to appreciate this fine book requires a return to the mindset of the US during World War II when not only was Europe under the vile threat of Hitler and Mussolini, but the Japanese warriors were annihilating China, Korea, and ultimately the Philippines in the mission to own the Pacific Ocean. And even in those early years the threat seemed frightening but distant until the Japanese successfully decimate the US Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941. That incident unified the country, creating a fighting force and support system at home that eventually resulted in the defeat of the massive evil outside the borders of the USA.
Given that atmosphere of over a half century ago, author Proser has created one of the most convincing portraits of a military hero in literature. And the intensively researched and detailed approach results in a biography that fully restores the ambience of WW II. John Basilone was a nice Italian boy form Raritan, New Jersey, a lad who quit school to follow his recurring visions. He caddied for Japanese businessmen at a country club, seeing in his prophetic mind that at some day he would be at war with Japan. After trying multiple jobs he finally enlists in the Army, makes the best of boot camp by gambling and boxing, and is shipped to the Philippines where he spent time waiting, boxing (becoming a champion nicknamed Manila John), running a little bar with his Island sweetheart, and finally returning home. Frustrated once again with the boredom of work and the embarrassment of not having finished his education, Basilone finally returns to the military by signing on with the USMC, trains hard at Quantico, Cuba, and other US training camp swamps, and finally is shipped to Guadalcanal where his brilliance and dedication to his commanding officer ("Chesty" Puller) through one of the most devastating battles in the Pacific arena earned him not only the respect of his men, but also the Medal of Honor - the highest commendation offered by his country. Returning home form this mission he ride the waves of adulation form the American people, hobnobs with movies stars, sells War Bonds, and falls in love, only to be shipped out once again to the Pacific where he is killed in action in the battle for Iwo Jima.
The amazing (that is, ONE of the amazing) aspect of this book is that Proser has elected to write it in the first person of John Basilone. Everything is told as Basilone perceives it, lives, feels, and survives it. Rarely has a story been written with such clarity and perception: we truly feel that Basilone has written his memoirs. The language of the period is exactly right, the descriptions of the various battles and conditions of being a soldier under tremendously adverse conditions are vivid, and the soldiers' mentality of being in the thick of war are written with such bulls-eye focus that no matter what the reader's opinion of War might be, this book makes it all understandable form the point of view of the soldiers who fought. Some of the battle passages are tough to read: "On October 23, a light tank and infantry attack across the mouth of the Matanikau ran right into the teeth of Vandegrift's defenses. It was chewed up in short order with over 600 Japs killed, many of them trapped in a jungle clearing where US tanks just drove over them instead of wasting ammunition. They ground the poor bastards up like sausage under the tank treads until the entire clearing was covered in gore and left to rot in the sun." And a soldier's impressions: "We all heard a lot about the bravery of the Japanese soldier before we got on the island. They were supposed to be the most fearless warriors ever to fight. But I kept thinking what kind of bravery it was that sent them, one after the other, right into the same guns that mowed down dozens before them. I don't know if that was bravery. I don't know what it was. Either they were crazy or they just didn't care. So I didn't care either. They weren't even men anymore. They were dumb animals who wanted me dead and had killed all my friends."
Proser very cleverly weaves snippets of Iwo Jima from the opening of the book to its finish, which in an act of brilliance makes the whole story more pungent in retrospect. There is little doubt the Sgt. John Basilone was an extraordinary soldier and military hero along with the thousands of others who lost their lives in the incomprehensibly vast WW II. I think this is a very important book that everyone should read, and I say that as a pacifist, as a Vietnam Veteran convinced that war on any level is simply not an option. This book is vastly important, well written, and contains a story and moment of history we all should face and incorporate. And perhaps then we can all better empathize with soldiers form throughout history to the very present. Recommended without reservation!
Product Description
In the Preface Mae W. Allen writes, "What this history is will be quickly apparent to anyone reading it. We have quite simply gathered from books, from newspapers, from people who remember, and even from children who have asked questions and recorded the answers all the stories, factual or fictional, that committee members could collect and preserve.
Because someone reading a book always knows more, we must point out that this history is not complete. Because someone else reading what we have presented is sure to feel that he knows better, we hasten to say that we are fallible. If errors occur, they will be admitted freely. The people who spot them and have authentic corrections should make their superior information known at once to our chairman.
Because our contributions have come from many sources, there will be some duplications. There will even be some contradictions. It is our hope that readers will be stirred to discussions and that difference of opinion will shed light on disputed subjects.
A somewhat similar book published years hence may then be more complete, more accurate, or better organized. Here we have made only a beginninga concrete effort to discover and to preserve knowledge of our areafact or legendwhich the celebration of our Bicentennial Year brought to our attention, material which we considered too precious to remain forever oral or eternally filed away where access is difficult.
The recipe book, 'Once Upon A Time, Good Things from Long Ago' (for which we are indebted to Miss Frances Blackwood), has been repeated here in its entirety so that it may enjoy the merited benefit of a hard cover.
May each reader find in this book something to enjoy, something of his roots, something to clear up a mystery, something of which he can be proudas a citizen of Alloway Township, an old and honorable community.
Book Description
The story of the boardwalk town Bruce Springsteen made famous-and a quintessential portrait of small-town American democracy.
When Bruce Springsteen called his first album Greetings from Asbury Park, he introduced a generation of fans to a fallen seaside resort town that came to represent working-class American life. But behind this archetypal small-town landscape lies a complicated past.
Starting with the town's founding as a religious promised land, music journalist and poet Daniel Wolff plots a course through 130 years of entwined social and musical history, touching on John Philip Sousa, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, and Frankie Lymon on the way to the town Bruce was born to run from. Out of the details of local history-the boardwalk in the Gilded Age; the celebrities who passed through, from Stephen Crane to Martin Luther King; sensational murder trials; the birth of Mob control; and a devastating mid-century "race riot"-emerges a universal story of one small town's fortunes. Told with grace and full of fascinating detail, Daniel Wolff's tour across thirteen decades of the Fourth of July in Asbury Park captures all the allure and heartbreak of the American dream reduced to blight and decay, with gentrification as the one hope for a return to its glory days.
Customer Reviews:
OFFENSIVE ,POLITICALLY CORRECT TRASH.......2007-05-07
I am offended by this book.
It is politically correct,which in itself is a turn-off,but the author,Daniel Wolff,seems neither to understand the history of Asbury Park,nor appreciate the fact that that history CANNOT be viewed through a politically correct microscope.
To begin with Asbury Park,as well as nearby Ocean Grove were begun as strictly conservative religious communities...Wolff either does not understand the importance of this fact,or is himself offended by its implications.Furthermore,both communities were begun not as public,but as PRIVATE communities.Absbury park,unlike Ocean Grove,was not wholly owned by the Methodist church but was,instead,owned and operated by one man,james Bradey,himself a strict Methodist ...
To understand Asbury Park and not understand that THINGS WERE VERY VERY DIFFERENT IN THE 19th century is to not understand anything at all...Wolff seems intent upon grafting 21st century values and thinking upon a 19th century canvas,something that just does not work..
Take,for example,the problems caused by the black population of that time,who neither owned any property in Asbury Park,nor even lived within that communities borders..These people were,for the most part,employed as "menials",i.e.porters,cooks,maids and suchlike...It was a time when the sort of equality that is commonplace today was NOT commonplace..And Asbury Park,like any other BUSINESS VENTURE,depended upon a monied customer base in order to both thrive and expand...and in the 19th century that monied customer base,like it or not,was white,AND not a little bit bigoted against blacks..Sure,by today's standards such behaviour would not be tolerated,but it is apparent that Wolff does not understand that 1880 is not 2007,and that what today would not be tolerated in 1880,1890,1900,ect was both tolerated and commonplace.So instead of understanding this fact,and writing about Asbury Park AS IT WAS,Wolff instead makes his focus the fact that blacks,who were employed at various businesses in Asbury Park were nonetheless not wanted as paying customers whose presence tended to deter the monied white from coming there..
Wolff celebrates defiance..Instead of appreciating that the 19th century,for the most part was a far different,more conservative place that almost anywhere is today,he istead tends to deride the values that were prevailing and glorify the critics..One of these was author Stephen Crane,famous for the novel"The Red Badge of Courage"but,at that time,a relentless critic of everything Brady's Asbury Park represented..Most people who came to Asbury Park at that time had little problem with theprevailing atmosphere of conservative,religiously oriented standards(otherwise how could either Asbury Park of nearby Ocean Grove thrive,as they most certainly did?)but Wolff chooses to ignore this fact and instead zero in on the rebels,like Crane,who apparently felt that it was his job to spit on the status Quo..
Throughout the book Wolff makes the saga of Asbury Park one great big "civil rights"saga..Which,of course,it was not...Further,Wolff fails to understand why Asbury Park became the washed up slum that,until only recently,it was..Like it or not,the monied interests,both in terms of capital and the tourist trade,were largely dominated by whites who deserted Asbury Park when other more"exclusive"getaways presented themselves(in the more modern era of automobile and airplane travel),leaving the town largely to its black population,under which like every other big city in New Jersey,quickly degenerated into a slum...
Does this sound a tad bigoted?Maybe,but bigoted or not the fact remains that when whites fled the inner-cities and the old shore resort towns,the new black majorities there no longer attracted tourists or industry..
Wolff fails to understand that tourists WITH MONEY do not have to go to places like Asbury Park...They do not have to mingle,on an equal basis,with those whom they employ to cut thier hair or shine thier shoes..Sure,in a"perfect"world everyone would not only be"equal"but accepting and considerate towards everyone else,but unless you have been living with your eyes and ears closed,ours has never been a perfect world,not today,and certainly not in the 19th century,which was Asbury Park's heyday...So Wolff,failing to understand reality,instead paints his word-picture of Asbury Park in strokes that have little in common with reality..
Another one of Wolff's heroic figures is Bruce Springsteen..Wolff celebrates Springsteen's lyrics about the working man,and all of the rest of his contrived twaddle,as if the songs that have made it possible for Springsteen to enjoy a lifestyle far removed from just about anyone he ever encountered in Asbury Park somehow has meaning with regard to the city itself..Surely if Springsteen's lyrics did have any real relevance to the real Asbury Park,then Springsteen himself would still be living there..Instead he lives(at least part of the time)in Rumson,new jersey,the sort of rich beach community,populated mainly by rich whites like himself,that,in his book,Wolff so denigrates...
This book is trash..It has no idea what reality represents,either way back when,in the 19th century,or now,in the politically correct 21st century..Springsteen,wolff's anti-hero from Asbury Park,may sing about the disenfranchised,but like the white people of that long ago Asbury Park,he doesn't live among them..
How not to run a city.......2007-04-14
Not a Bruce Springsteen bio or critique and not advertised as one, 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land by Daniel Wolff fits its eponymus title exactly.
Please excuse any hubris - it is not intended - but you will enjoy this book a lot more if you have an aquaintance and familiarity with Asbury (the only name by which it was referred). And, while my title aptly describes what this book addressses, I have to admit to being stunned by the history author Wolff presents.
Key to that is the knowledge that Asbury Park did not develop as city through what I'll call natural means. There was no influx of population that arrived and, other time, established roots and the attendant need for a municipal structure to meet public needs. Instead, it was the creation of a individual who in this day and age would be called a fundamentalist Christian but was profit-minded enough that he wanted to work on Sundays.
The creation was named Asbury Park after noted Methodist Francis Asbury and its mission, if you will, was to provide beach-related services to the quasi-rich. This is did with notable success to its customer-base while providing virtually nothing to the population that worked there. Its municipal government was based on the premise of "of the influencial, for the wealthy, supported by the down-trodden." This precept cannot be better depicted than by the fact that the blacks who worked in the city's nyriiad hotels and business not only lived literally on the wrong side of the railway tracks but also lived in an area not incorporated into the city until the 20th Century so that the administration did not have to provide services to them.
The Administrations also subscribed to the "no honor among thieves" doctrine by engaging in perpetual internicine warfare among themselves to win the mayoralty and patronage dispensations. But, irregardless of whomsoever was in power, there was adherence to the notion that public funds were - after appropriate skimming - only to be spent on the tourists. This left the city with an elegant ocean facing facade backed by a rotting infrastructure.
With the advent of cheap airfare in the 1960s, tourists ceased to come to the Jersey Shore, choosing instead sites in the Caribbean and Mexico. With the slowdown in revenue, the city collapsed inwardly and, by the 1970/1980 period devolved into the Beruit cum Baghdad appearance it has to this day.
Wolff portrays this history in a clear, concise fashion and does name the names and cite the crimes. His appraisals are scrupulously honest and fair. He points out that the tendency to fortget anything more than, say, five blocks from the boardwalk was not limited by race, color, creed or place of national origin; in a way, he provces that corruption is the best example of diversity.
All in all, an excellent book. It broke my heart to read it.
Down the Shore.......2005-10-26
This book is a great resource. As a person who grew up "down the shore" adjacent to Asbury Park, I've learned a tremendous amount about the area's history. Interesting read with a great level of detail and chapter notes. I had borrowed it from the library but wanted my own copy to add to my shore book collection.
Who knew? .......2005-10-22
Who knew that the history of a town that I had never heard of in New Jersey would yield such an interesting read? The town is set up in such a way that it resembles some of the seedy racist behaviors that all of us would like to believe don't exist anymore but need to come to terms with.
There is plenty of talk about Springsteen, but there is also plenty of well-researched information on the rest of the love-to-hate-'em characters in the town.
A revelation on every page.......2005-10-16
I am a Jersey kid by birth. I graduated high school the same year as Bruce Springsteen, but about 50 miles away. It might as well have been 5 million miles.
As a kid, there were family trips to the boardwalk at Asbury Park. When I was in high school, there were concerts at Convention Hall. I even dated a girl who's family spent part of the summer in Ocean Grove, but that's a story for another time. To me, Asbury Park was the length and breadth of the beach and boardwalk.
It was obvious, even to an infrequent visitor like me, that the city was in terrible decline, but it took this book to explain how and why that happened, and, at the same time, place that experience within a much larger context.
The stresses caused by the fundamental dichotomies that Asbury Park was built on are the same ones that challenge much of the U.S. Religion and commerce, racial conflict, the strengths and weaknesses of machine politics, even the tug-of-war of fantasy and reality, they are all in Asbury Park's history, and they are all around us, wherever we are. Those conflicts all took a terrible toll on Asbury Park, just as they all take a toll everywhere.
In this book, Daniel Wolff tells us the history of a small place, and in the telling, illuminates larger truths. It is no coincidence that Springsteen's fame grew as he found ways to express his universal themes without tying them to a specific place and time. In his own way, Daniel Wolfe lets us see how and why that happened.
As serious as the subject matter is, the book is written in a deftly lighthanded style that makes reading it a completely enjoyable event. Don't miss it.
Book Description
Negatives Expose Positive Images
A photographer's daughter preserved her father's archive of hundreds of black and white negatives. The Images are of a media neglected population of people living in Asbury Park, New Jersey's West Side. She shares her memories about the people and places captured in the photographs that were taken almost seventy years ago.
The Author/Photographer Madonna Carter Jackson has selected over 200 photographs that document the varied influences, innumerous contributions of social, civic, and community pride. You will see an amazing visual display of pictures from the 1940's through 1980, some of streets and avenues that no longer exist in the one square mile town on the Jersey coast. Readers of all ages will enjoy and relate to the reminiscing and will without a doubt, have memories of their own sparked by the display of nostalgia regardless of where they live. African American's sought to find a better life during this period, and you will be able to see life being lived lovely through this pictorial journey as seen through the camera lens of Joseph A. Carter, Sr. (1917-1980)
Amazon.com
The author of four volumes of verse, Peter Balakian writes with the precision of a poet and the lyricism of a privileged suburban child in 1950s New Jersey. He is shadowed by his relatives' carefully guarded memories of past trauma: the brutal Turkish extermination in 1915 of more than a million Armenians, including most of his maternal grandmother's family. Balakian seamlessly interweaves personal and historical material to depict one young man's reclamation of his heritage and to scathingly indict the political forces that conspired to sweep under the rug the 20th century's first genocide.
Book Description
The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia and immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced--the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians in 1915, including many of Balakian's relatives, in the century's first genocide.
In elegant, moving prose,
Black Dog of Fate charts Balakian's growth and personal awakening to the facts of his family's history and the horrifying aftermath of the Turkish government's continued campaign to cover up one of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity. In unearthing the secrets of a family's past and how they affect its present, Black Dog of Fate gives fresh meaning to the story of what it means to be an American.
Customer Reviews:
Sad story, but a real one.......2006-12-20
The story of the author's grandmother is the same as the story my grandmother told me. Yes, her entire family was killed by the Turks. As a small child, I attended the Armenain school where all of us would compare stories as to how our grandparents survived the death marches. It is a very nice story that tells about history, a history that is kept hidden for many political reasons. Until the world fully ackhowledges what happened to the Armenians, and punishes the Turks, many more genocides and attorcities will take place. After all, if the Turks can get away with the torture, killing, rapes, and genocide (while countries such as the United States let them get away with it), then other similar regimes will committ similar attorcities.
I storngly recommend this book.
"Black Dogof Fate" Is a Fuzzy Grey Beast at Best .......2005-05-24
Peter Balakian's book, "Black Dog of Fate," tries to be too many things
and sadly fails at many of them. In essence, it is an attempt to tell a
sort of Armenian-American story which I find not overly interesting or
compelling. I wish the author had done a bit more in-depth work to learn
about his people and their rich heritage before embarking to represent it
or explain it or share it with non-Armenians, for he has much more to absorb
and understand himself first. I find the Armenianness in this book to be
tentative, unengaged and unconvincing. Pity, since the author seems to
have a lot of passion in his pursuit of other aspects of his life such as
football, the Yankees, modern poetry, and exposing Turkish attempts to
buy (among others) Princeton professors to act as mouthpieces giving
legitimacy to their vile historical revisionism, practiced by the
"modern" Turkish state and its organs.
It seems to be all the rage these days to elevate personal histories and
family testimonials into the realm of fiction and novels. The "I" and "we"
and "us" occupy center stage and the reader is invited to enjoy the
intimacy that must surely be in place via this artifice. But is it realy?
Since in order to make this legitimate, the writer must distance himself,
at least initially, from all this old world exotica, and like the reader,
question their validity or relevance in present day North American
society. What are all these old world, old fashioned ghosts and traditions?,
is the first cry of writer and reader alike, only, ofcourse, to be followed
by a sharp bank turn where the writer steers the satisfied and in-place
reader towards the opposite viewpoint wherein *this* culture and *this*
lifestyle become suspect in light of some tentative spotting of cultural
wealth that has been traded in or abandoned in order to swim swiftly towards
materialistic, memory-free, self-redefining, "comfort" seeking and buying
mores.
In the Balakian tale, one encounters suburbia instead of substance,
worldly goods acquisition instead of deep roots that steady the soul,
immediate family and relatives running away from their true identities either
towards surrealism, the abstract and unemotional, or else towards medicine,
respectability and detachment. Young Balakian observes but never
understands "the grandmother" for she is shielded culturally from being
able to reach him by her very offsprings who can not and will not instill
the Armenian identity he will eventually seek but never quite find. Their
crime is self-denial and a march to the tune of America's mixmaster
piper. "Be unlike your past and your future will be brighter," seems to be
what America promises, at the very least. The intermediate generation listens
and adopts this credo and Peter is left to find out but never quite
understand just what cost his ancestors have paid to remain Armenian and
to preserve our culture before the final denials on New Jersey pateos while
enjoying, as if to serve sweet irony, full course Armenian meals and the
mixing aromas of delicacies from the old country every Sunday.
Peter is lost alright, but as the book sadly shows, he remains lost.
Paraphrasing or quoting Ambassador Morgenthau does not an Armenian genocide
expert make. Personal family testimonials of the Turkish atrocities does
not a genocide history make (For that, read Vahakn Dadrian's "The History
of the Armenian Genocide" Berghahn Books, 1995). Episodic accounts can be
dismissed by the Turks as hear-say and as mere isolated incidents, leading
to more harm than good (for if better evidence existed, the arguement
goes, why would anyone resort to such flimsy fare?). For the story to have
worked, for the story to have *really* worked, as I would have liked it to,
Balakian's life and lifestyle would have had to have changed
significantly and his child rearing practices would have had to reflect
it, and his relationship with his wife who, like him, is not leading a strongly
Armenian existence, would have had to have changed, solidifying his roots,
celebrating his new found identity, and nurturing the metamorphosis by
sustained community involvment and grass roots movement participation
which, alas, never appear on the pages of this book. How else to explain
the lack of a turning around of the tide of assimilation to which Balakian
is a grand personal witness, except that the transition has not occured?
The ship of Armenianness sails by Balakian. He is finally aware enough to
be able to identify the ship and wave it goodbye and write about it, but
not resolved enough to climb aboard. That is how the book fails and that is
how his story fails. This is a story of assimilation and loss with a bit of
mid stream self awareness thrown in. For a real story of an Armenian
finding his roots and letting them take root in his own life and future,
read Mark Arax's book, "In my Father's Name (Simon & Schuster, 1996),"
where the transition is real and the early youth of disaffection is
replaced by a profound adoption of our essence revealed in exquisite
frankness and power by Mark Arax. One can only hope that Balakian's
partial reorientation towards our culture and traditions and essence will
somehow continue and that some day he will wish to live with a more meaningful
attachment to our cause and needs than merely as an able observer (not
withstanding his laudible actions as an April 24th -- Armenian genocide
commemoration speaker and an exposer of Turkish infiltration in the US
academic arena by buying spokesmen turned professors who mascarade as
unbiased researchers). This criticism I direct to the predecessor of this
genre of American Armenian writing first and to Balakian second. I speak
here of "passage to Ararat" by Michael Arlen (Hungry Mind republication,
1996) where a disinterested soit-disant Armenian goes to Armenia in the
70's and by the end of the short trip is somewhat more closely touched by
this strange people's woes and dreams. Too little, too late, and always
detached, is all I can say to these meagre displays of ethnic or cultural
reorientation. Much more needs to be absorbed before the essence is
transmitted to future generations to take and behold.
However, I remain hopeful that future transformatory stories and ethnic
identity survival stories *will be* written which will show that the tide
of assimilation and cultural abandonment are not the only outcome of this
experiment of transplanting peoples and cultures to this continent we
proudly call our home.
"AFTER LONG SILENCE".......2004-12-07
'Speech after long silence; it is right...'-William Butler Yeats
I have had this line from Yeats' poem in my mind as I've been reflecting on the contents of this book by Peter Balakian written in 1997. (This book was rated one of the best books of 1997 by the LA Times, Publisher's weekly and Library Journal.) I've read about Armenian history as I made many acquaintances of Armenians in the Boston area where I lived. I've put off reading this book because I thought the information would not be new since I've read The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, Balakian's 2003 book The Burning Tigris, and Bat Ye'Or's book Islam and Dhimmitude. However, I loved this book even though some of the same information is found in The Burning Tigris. This book is different however. The Burning Tigris is history, The Black Dog of Fate is personal history of great relevance for today. It's a memoir of not only Balakian's life, but also his family's life during his lifetime and their past before he was born. The book is divided into 6 sections. The first three are devoted to his grandmother, his mother, his father. The last 3 cover his gradual understanding of his ancestors' trials and tribulations, their ancient history. Armenia was the first nation to embrace christianity as their official religion in the third century. An editor of Josephus notes that an early church father and mystic, Moses Chorensis, wrote that a tribe of jews designated Bagratidae migrated to Armenia during the time of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, the time of the destruction of Solomon's temple in 586 B.C. Although his family never talked about the genocide, he became curious by the very circumstances of his family. He never knew his grandfathers. He later comes to realize that his grandfathers suffered the common fate of many Armenian men during the Great War (WWI). The turkish gendarmes in charge of "protecting" the Armenians during their forced march routinely shot Armenian men in the back of the head killing them instantly. Other Armenian men attempted to disguise themselves as women to foil the Turks' bloody target practice. When his father suggested to him that he do a school report on Armenia, he chose to write about Turkey because he could not find any information about Armenia.
His fondest memories were of his grandmother telling him stories which began with the Armenian "djamangeen gar oo chagar", in English, there was and there wasn't. One of her stories was an Armenian parable about a poor woman and her black dog offering to God probably modeled after Christ's parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Her stories are similar to any immigrant to America from their old, peasant countries. Peter Balakian was a second generation American; his parents were adamant that their children live as Americans, yet their Armenian culture is distinctive and is not totally erased by embracing the American one. Many Americans should be able to relate to this in some way since nearly all of our ancestors were immigrants at some time.
Peter Balakian is an English Professor at Colgate University, his aunt at Columbia University, both of whom also write poetry. Being able to write about history and making it interesting is not an easy task; I was impressed by his writing in The Burning Tigris, he kept my attention the whole time. I highly recommend this book and I highly recommend this book for book clubs in that the subject matter is very relevant to today, Armenia's history instructive in so many ways.
'Speech after long silence; it is right...'. The Armenian genocide happened almost 100 years ago, his grandmother one of the survivors. He comes to realize that for her to have spoken openly about it was probably much to much painful for her. He finds out later from his aunts that following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her psyche was set into a tailspin. She suffered a nervous breakdown. That act of terrorism too much like the violence that she lived through. Strangely, the Turkish government today cannot come to terms with the truth about events of 1915 and goes so far as to influence governments and Ivy League Universities by contradicting the massive documentary evidence that exists confirming the atrocities and claiming that there is another side of the story that needs to be told. However, there is not much to discuss when you see mounds of bodies, women and innocent children, with an armed man capped with a blood-red pillbox hat standing right by. Strange that they cannot speak the truth, one hundred years later.
An Average Book/An Important Story.......2004-07-03
Until the end of our days, we will hurt each other for no reason. Hate our neighbors because they exist. Kill strangers without conscience. Why? Because we're barbaric? Are we naturally predisposed to evil deeds in order to keep the population boom in hand? Why in the world should I ever have to come across a story that chronicles the unknown hatred of one civilization to another? I should not have had to read this book because the reason for it written should never have happened.
Black slavery is the second-most despicable atrocity the United States has ever known. I say second-most because at least most lives of black people were spared so that this country could be built on the strength of their backs. No, the worst thing to happen to America was the inhuman treatment and near total destruction of the Native Americans.
Everybody knows the story.
No act of horror is more documented than the Jews being decimated at the hands of Nazi cavemen. Misguided into thinking that they were elite. Bombings, horrible experiments, endless gunfire, starvation, gas chambers, ovens made for cooking...people. A blight on the face of a planet replete with a history of destruction and malicious intent.
Maybe you've heard of it.
But "Black Dog Of Fate" tells another version of terror and hate. It's a story you've heard a thousand times but from the mouth of a different victim. Another voice. It very vividly tells us about the Armenian genocide, allegedly at the hands of the Turkish government. What begins as a memoir about young Balakian growing up in an Armenian family, yet doing his darnedest to stay waist-deep in the pool of Americana, becomes a quest of an adult Peter searching for his roots. The lives and deaths of his people.
To this day the Turks deny that they almost wiped out an entire civilization and I'm no one to argue here nor there. But the evidence, the painful words from those who were there, that escaped - it's like a whirlwind of torment to the ears and eyes of those who will listen and learn. But nobody knows anything about this stain on humanity because very few victims lived to tell about it and literally none of the suspects will atone for their crimes.
This is one of many novels that will endear and enlighten. My only real gripes are that it becomes a tad preachy (though it hardly cannot be) and it's two stories, two tones in the same book. It starts out a little happy-go-lucky. Somewhat light-hearted and sometimes funny for the first half. Then, things take a 180 and it's all out depressing. The entire second half of the book is killing and shooting and stealing and just plain bleak. Sometimes life has to be that way but as a reader it was a bit overwhelming.
And it's supposed to be. Lucky me. I just read it. Too many people lived it. You read it too. And talk about it. Because not enough people know.
beautiful memoir.......2003-06-17
This is a wonderful book, it made me cry, one of the best memoirs I have read and I highly recomend it.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Fans of Mary Karr's groundbreaking memoir The Liars' Club will relish the similarly funny, tough-minded tone of Helene Stapinski's recollections centering on her family's petty criminal history in the sordid precincts of Jersey City. But Stapinski is nobody's clone; her autobiography has a tart, distinctively urban Northeast flavor that will ring a bell with anyone familiar with America's aging, deteriorating cities. You can practically smell the soap suds from the local Colgate factory and the stink of the bone-rendering plant in nearby Newark; people didn't settle in Jersey City, writes Stapinski, "they settled for Jersey City ... they settled for less." She was 5 years old in 1970 when her Italian American grandfather was arrested for threatening to shoot her whole family, capping a long career that included armed robbery and beating his children. The Polish American relatives on her father's side included a bookie and an epileptic prone to fits of rage who nearly killed a sibling by breaking his back. None of this was a big deal in Jersey City, notes Stapinski, who deftly interweaves her family's story with the rancid saga of Hudson County's corrupt political machine. She fled to college in Manhattan and a career in journalism without ever really escaping the ties of blood and loyalty; her frank rendering of her mixed feelings as Jersey City was slowly upscaled reminds us what is gained and lost through gentrification. Stapinski's salty, savory account conveys the gritty, enduring legacy of Jersey City: "so tough, I was always prepared for what might come my way." --Wendy Smith
Book Description
With deadpan humor and obvious affection, Five-Finger Discount recounts the story of an unforgettable New Jersey family of swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes. In the memoir Mary Karr calls “a page-turner,” Helene Stapinski ingeniously weaves the checkered history of her hometown of Jersey City—a place known for its political corruption and industrial blight—with the tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades. Navigating a childhood of toxic waste and tough love, Stapinski tells an extraordinary tale at once heartbreaking and hysterically funny.
Customer Reviews:
I enjoyed this book.......2006-07-13
I was reading some reviews here and was surprised that they found this book "offensive", because either they knew better part of the city or Stapinski's family members stole, could not drive, drank, etc. WHY????? Haven't you stole an ashtray from downtown cafe once? Ever? Or haven't you taken a bunch of ketcup packets from fastfood joint? .. OK, all I'm saying is to lighten up a little. I think tragedies and craziness of her family are written here with great humor and affection. And who doesn't have one crazy person in their family? I could feel lump in my throat when I read the part where her daddy died. If you like to read something filled with morals and displines, then this book is not for you. But if you like to laugh and cry over real people with vivid characters, you should try this one.
I absolutely loved Five Finger Discount.......2006-06-18
Stapinski relates growing up in Jersey City in a fresh and honest way. And her recounting of the blighted history of Jersey City politics is a head-shaking hoot. As for the popularity of her opinions about JC and its denizens, well, that has no bearing on whether this book is a great read; it is.
I loved the sheer humanity of this book.
LOVED the humor of this book........2005-11-29
I've come to know and appreciate Jersey City on my own, since I became a volunteer historian at The Stanley Theatre 6 years ago. I've had to go the JC Public Library and had the pleasure of going thru the NJ Room, as well as meeting great people (Cynthia, Bruce, and Leon Yost -'Jersey Citians'(?). I've grown up in urban areas (i.e, Newark/Irvington), and now live in the suburbs in another County, but have come to appreciate Jersey City very much.
Jersey City has some wonderful historic sites, as well as areas that have been revitalized by citizens who take pride in their communities. I'm sure that the folks who've taken exception to many aspects of this book have their own arguments, that are probably even valid. But Ms. Stapinski's story is HER family story, the good, bad, and ugly.
There are wonderful Jersey City Arcadia-published books on various historical aspects, but Ms. Stapinski's personal account with "Five Finger Discount" was close to home for me, because my paternal grandfather was somewhat like her Grandpa, and my grandfather was sent to Trenton State Prison in the 1960's for illegal gambling, as well as not naming names.
I also read her "Baby Plays Around" and if nothing else, one has to admit that Ms. Stapinski's candor and raw emotion comes through in both published works.
I hope she is kidding.......2005-08-21
If I could give this book 0 stars I would. I think this portrays a horrible vision of how Jersey City was during that time period. I grew up in Jersey City during 80's early 90's. My parents spent all of their lives there. I am actually jealous when I hear about all of the fun they had during their childhood an in their 20's. They have the best stories and had the best times of their life in Jersey City. They developed close knit life long friendships with friends they met at an early age. My mother grew up in St. Al's parish and my father grew up in Our Lady of Victories parish. It did not give a true picture of Jersey City. She should have just harped on downtown which was trashy instead of bad mouthing the whole city.
This is an embarassment to people who lived there to have others who are unfamilar with Jersey City read this garbage. I highly DO NOT recommend this.
All too true.......2004-01-01
I grew up in the Greenville section of Jersey City in the 60's and 70's and I think that Helene Stapinski's depiction of Jersey City is spot-on. Not only was it a dreary and dirty place to live, it was also filled with some of the most narrow-minded, intolerant and racist people I ever had the misfortune of knowing. I attended Catholic grade school and high school there, but after graduation I moved away, and my family did the same a few years later. Despite assurances by some of my relatives that the place had changed, I went back to visit a friend who teaches at St. Peter's College and it was still the same Jersey City, complete with the same tight-faced people riding the #10 bus down Kennedy Blvd. Stapinski's book may not be popular among the locals, but her depiction is true.
Customer Reviews:
appallingly gushing and fawning.......2006-08-28
I confess that I only read two chapters of this book before I decided that it was all that I could take.
Yes, Princeton's IAS was a place where extremely talented scientists congregated. All the same, what I read of this book was almost pathetic in the degree that the author doesn't as much describe the scientists there as people, as make them out to be a variety of superheros who must be described in adulatory, even groveling terms, an insult to their memories. Nor did I learn anything new - either in terms of science or biography - from the chapters I read; even worse, it was clear to me which books some, if not many, of the passages came from.
I wouldn't recommend this book.
Very entertaining history.......2003-06-06
I'm surprised I didn't know about this book sooner. It was published in 1988 and definitely deserves to be better known.
This is one of the more enjoyable books on the history of science I've read. It details the history of the Princeton Institute for Advanced study through the lives and careers of some of its most famous scions. There are chapters on Einstein, Kurt Goedel, Oppenheimer, John von Neumann (the inventer of the electronic computer), and Ed Witten, the author of the string theory, and many others.
The book is full of amusing and fascinating details and stories about the many famous and often eccentric scientists and mathematicians who worked in its cloistered halls. For example, referring to Einstein's eventual obsession about disproving the uncertainty aspect of quantum mechanics, Oppenheimer once said, "Einstein is cuckoo." Oppenheimer once learned Greek so that he could read classic literature in the original. Upon learning that several of his fellow scientists were meeting to discuss Italian literature, he learned enough of it in a month to start reading the books. Godel developed a paranoid delusion and spent his last months refusing any food, eventually starving himself to death, having become convinced that his doctors were trying to poison him.
Before Einstein came to the U.S., there was a movement in Germany against "Jewish physics." One hundred supposed scientists joined this group and once held an anti-Einstein meeting at a large auditorium, with thousands of people in attendence. Einstein himself went to the event just to see what the whole thing was about, and finding out of course that their objections were nonsense and "absurd," as Einstein said. But it was at that point that Einstein finally decided things were getting a little too overheated in the Fatherland and he finally left for the states--their loss and our gain.
Another funny thing about Einstein was just how crazy the public went over him. They named everything from their children to their boats after him. One time Einstein visited the famous biologist J.B.S. Haldane in England, and his daughter fainted dead away at the sight of him.
The public may not have really understood much about Einstein's new ideas--light having weight, space actually being curved, and so on--but all that mattered was that Einstein understood it. He was the prophet of a new world order and would revolutionize our understanding of reality with his unique genius, and the public was practically giddy as a schoolgirl about Einstein as a result.
There are many other interesting and funny stories about the lives of these emminent thinkers in the book, but I'll leave the rest for you to read for yourself. This book is definitely worth your time and money.
Wonderful history of a rare group.......2002-05-01
A fine history of The Institute For Advanced Study, endowed as a place that would "permit a haven where scholars and scientists may regard the world and its phenomena as their laboratory without being carried off in the maelstrom of the immediate. . ."
A memorable series of oral histories / stories about the interaction of some of the 20th century's most famous theoretical physicists: Niels Bohr, Einstein, Max Planck, Lorentz, de Broglie and so many others who passed through the Institute. A fascinating look into the every day lives of some of the brightest stars in physics.
You don't need to know a thing about math or physics to enjoy this fine portrait of a fascinating group of minds at work and play.
interesting book, but the author's crassness shows..........2000-08-07
Who Got Einstein's Office offers an interesting look at Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study, the famous people that work(ed) there, as well as their work. The book seems to suggest that the tenured researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study have done their best work before they joined; That somehow at the Institute, they were isolated from a vibrant academic life, from contact with other researchers and students in their field, etc. As such, the book is definitely worth reading.
Having said that much, I feel that I should voice my indignation at the way the author depicted and presented one of the greatest lights of this century, the logician Kurt Goedel.
It's almost embarrassing to me to mention this, since Goedel's work -- profound and deep and beautiful, is what most people that remember Goedel at all remember him for. But Goedel apparently had some difficulties of an emotional and mental nature that effected his life -- from adolescence to adulthood, difficulties that the author, Ed Regis, finds the generousity to mock. In describing Goedel's relationship with his mother and the influence it had on his romantic life, Regis refers to Goedel as "Kurtele" -- a diminutive of Goedel's first name -- like turning a "Richard" into "little Dicky"... This is but an example. Regis goes to greater length to belittle Goedel and the appreciation of his work. This is beneath contempt. However bizzare and eccentric and troubled Goedel's life was, Goedel himself was its only victim. Goedel left the world precious gems of thought and changed the world of logic and mathematics forever. I think he deserves quite a bit more respect and compassion than Ed Regis afforded him.
It certainly doesn't have to be the case that if you don't respect someone you also don't understand his work. It's just ironic that the author, who refers to Goedel mockingly as "The Grand High Exalted Mystical Ruler", fails to understand even the most basic things about Goedel's work: The incompleteness result is described as "... the mathematical equivalent of the assertion that 'This statement is unprovable.'" What could be simpler? Add to this Goedel's own self-doubts, and the author now begins to wonder whether the incompleteness theorem isn't in fact a rather obvious and straightforward result.
But as the saying goes, "God is in the detail", and the author doesn't even begin to see the subtleties involved: Mathematics "talking about itself" -- Goedel numbering as a mechanism for mathematics to encode sentences about methematics, a mathematical proposition "refering to itself" -- indexicals, expessing "this" in thematics... As a consequence of "mathematics talking about itself" -- the effective computability of the provability predicate -- What Goedel did in fact is write a scanner, parser and interpreter in type theory -- all in 1931 -- twenty-something years before there were computers around, and people could write canners, parsers and interpreters for programming languages. And Goedel got them all right -- scanner, parser and interpreter -- written maticulously as recursive and primitive recursive functions. Merely envisioning these back in 1931 is a tramendous intellectual achievement.
Not having appreciated the depth of Goedel's contributions to logic, it's no wonder Regis doesn't appreciate Goedel's admirers: In describing a meeting between Rudolf Rucker and Kurt Goedel, Regis qoutes Rucker's words of appreciation of Goedel's understanding and insight into the problems he raised during their meeting: "perfect understanding", "informative laghter", ... to which Regis has to contribute: "Of course! Why not? We're not talking about talking about a man, after all, a mere mortal. We're talking about the Emperor of the Forms, the Grand High Exalted Mystical Ruler."
Well, shame on you Ed Regis!
Fascinating story of the incredible men at IAS.......1999-07-17
If you are interested in what happened in the 20th century in science, technology, and ultimately history, then you will want to know what happened at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ in the 1930s - 1950s.
The array of talent at IAS from Einstein, Von Neumman, Godel, Pauli, and Dirac present at one-time was truly breathtaking.
Amazon.com
Leslie, a sweet-natured young woman with the mental age of an 8-year-old, just wanted to be friends with the high school football stars. When they invited her down into the basement rec room of a suburban home, she jumped with joy at being included. The young men raped her--with a baseball bat and a broomstick. In this vividly detailed book, Bernard Lefkowitz brings us into the daily life of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, the hometown of Tom Cruise. It's an affluent white community that values propriety, order, discretion, continuity, and a fantasy of the gentleman-athlete. Lefkowitz writes of the boys who raped Leslie: "'These Glen Ridge kids, they were pure gold, every mother's dream, every father's pride. They were not only Glen Ridge's finest, but in their perfection they belonged to all of us. They were Our Guys." What's ultimately most shocking about this crime is how ordinary it was, how predictable--how in one way or another it's happening now, all across America.
Book Description
It was a crime that captured national attention. In the idyllic suburb of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, four of the town's most popular high school athletes were accused of raping a retarded young woman while nine of their teammates watched. Everyone was riveted by the question: What went wrong in this seemingly flawless American town? In search of the answer, Bernard Lefkowitz takes the reader behind Glen Ridge's manicured facade into the shadowy basement that was the scene of the rape, into the mansions on "Millionaire's Row," into the All-American high school, and finally into the courtroom where justice itself was on trial.
Lefkowitz's sweeping narrative, informed by more than 200 interviews and six years of research, recreates a murky adolescent world that parents didn't--or wouldn't--see: a high school dominated by a band of predatory athletes; a teenage culture where girls were frequently abused and humiliated at sybaritic and destructive parties, and a town that continued to embrace its celebrity athletes--despite the havoc they created--as "our guys." But that was not only true of Glen Ridge; Lefkowitz found that the unqualified adulation the athletes received in their town was echoed in communities throughout the nation. Glen Ridge was not an aberration. The clash of cultures and values that divided Glen Ridge, Lefkowitz writes, still divides the country.
Parents, teachers, and anyone concerned with how children are raised, how their characters are formed, how boys and girls learn to treat each other, will want to read this important book.
Customer Reviews:
Brutal encounter in Glen Ridge........2007-01-27
I live less than a block away from Glen Ridge, NJ, so naturally, I was very interested to read this disturbing account describing high school jocks sexually assaulting, in a brutal manner, a retarded girl in the basement of the house where two of the perpetrators lived. I still recall reading about the incident in the news (at the time I lived in NYC), and wondering how kids could be so cruel.
In "Our Guys," Bernard Lefkowitz does an admirable job at covering some central themes surrounding the harrowing incident: i.e. the so-called alleged "consent" issue of the victim; the culpability of those who witnessed the event but did nothing to try to stop it; the ostracism of the one student who revealed what happened; the "jock culture" encouraged by Glen Ridge; the town's propensity to look the other way, and give every benefit of the doubt (and even support) "our guys," even when it was clear that something very ugly happened in that basement; the breaks that the perpetrators received from police and the Courts; the defense lawyers who attempted to portray the victim as a Lolita who was in control of the circumstances (one lawyer bizarrely repeatedly referred to boys being "magnetized" to her, and visa versa, when she developed breasts) and portray their clients as basically good kids, but "boys will be boys."
The book reads like a train wreck -- ugly and disturbing, but you can't look away. Lefkowitz, who completely convinces the reader that a crime certainly took place, isn't shy about making very definitive conclusions, which, at times, I took issue with. First, I can certainly understand the school's position in waiting until all the facts were known before taking any steps against the students in question. Let's not forget that Duke University recently came under fire for jumping to conclusions in the ongoing case involving the Lacrosse players and a stripper who initially accused three of them of rape. In the Duke case, of course, the "victims" appear to be the accused, and the perpetrator both the stripper and an overzealous, unethical prosecutor (it often just depends on what the facts eventually reveal).
Second, I don't think that Lefkowitz's attack on the "values" of the town of Glen Ridge, or the so-called "jock culture" in general, are entirely fair. The Scherzer twins and Archer Brothers, were, pure and simple, bad kids. You take away this one incident, and you would still say that. The fact that they were decent athletes and good looking may have contributed to their ability to get away what they did, but those qualities certainly don't cause one to be bad.
Third, some of things Lefkowitz describes are questionable in my mind. For instance there's a three day party at a classmate's house, where the drinking is rampant, and the students basically destroy the house. No neighbor calls the police for an entire weekend in a quiet suburb? How is that possible? A boy who repeatedly exposes himself during class and no disciplinary actions are taken? Most of the girls mentioned in the book seem to have weak characters and are completely under the spell of these boys. Where are those girls who despise these guys, as I'm sure their must have been?
Any parent of children of high school or pre-high school children will be frightened and horrified by "Our Guys." However, knowing a number of people in Glen Ridge, I can tell you that when they discuss the high school, they're proud of the academics, and athletics rarely comes up. Maybe things have changed. Or maybe Lefkowitz tended to over-exaggerate one of his central themes: that the Glen Ridge "culture" somehow created these bad kids who committed this, and other terrible acts.
A condemnation of bullying and playing favoritism.......2007-01-03
Horrific tale of the brutal 1989 gang rape of a mentally disabled teen committed by a group of New Jersey high school star athletes and a condemnation of the bullying and jock culture that spawned it.
This true story tells how the local community, the school board and the police sought to cover up and minimize their actions by demonizing the victim.
Read this one and wonder how certain people can ever sleep at night.
Gripping .......2006-11-02
A disturbing journalistic account of a gang rape of a mentally retarded girl by athletes in an upper-class New Jersey town. Bernard Lefkowitz doesn't just report the "facts" of the crime, as in many books in the "true crime" genre. He also analyzes the culture of an upper-class community to illustrate the masculine norms that fuel such crimes and hamper reporting and prosecution. Indeed, one of the most astonishing aspects of this case was that the elite circle of teenagers at the local high school all knew about the crime for many months before it was finally reported - by an African American boy who became a paraiah as a result. The book is incredibly well researched; Lefkowitz (a journalism professor at Columbia University) obviously immersed himself in the case and the community. [...]
Suburban horror.......2006-08-17
Beyond being an utterly gripping read, Bernard Lefkowitz's 'Our Guys' is an incredibly powerful indictment of the perverse cultural values that permeated Glen Ridge, New Jersey, in the late 1980s--and that continue to be America's dominant values. The bored, pampered, arrogant, sociopathic jocks (from affluent families) who gang-raped a mentally retarded schoolgirl for their amusement didn't just fall out of the sky. These evil young men were the pure products of a deranged culture that sanctifies (white) male violence, domination, winning, and hedonistic pleasures as some sort of birthright.
A shocking look at what norming sexism does.......2006-07-13
One of the boys in this case never went to trial because the victim's family and the victim herself were worn out by the process of trial and the community harassment that went with it. You see, the community sided with the good boys in the case, not with the victim---she was 'different' after all. Richie Corcoran went on to join the Army, despite his record, with the full understanding of the military. When he came home from a tour in Afghanistan to his estranged wife, he tried to kill her and her new boyfriend, and then himself. In the latter he succeeded. He was a wife beater and a rapist, and he was the product of his town and his father, who was a cop. Wonder what that guy's view of rape victims was?
"Our Guys" peels back the layers and layers of privilege that enabled these boys to abuse girls with impunity while the town said 'boys will be boys' and girls were given a choice of either submitting or desperately pretending it wasn't happened. The boys got bolder and bolder, and finally they were charged with rape. One has to wonder if there were other victims at other times. Much like the case of Greg Haidl, the sheriff's son who gang-raped an unconscious girl, this case revealed how dangerous privilege really is to women and girls.
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