Book Description
A riveting memoir from the Navy doctor praised as "Hero, M.D." on the cover of Newsweek.
Cdr. Richard Jadick's story is one of the most extraordinary to come out of the war in Iraq. At thirty-eight, the last place the Navy doctor was expected to be was on the front lines. He was too old to be called up, but not too old to volunteer. In November 2004, with the military reeling from an acute doctor shortage, Jadick chose to accompany the First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment (the "1/8") to Iraq. During the Battle of Fallujah, Jadick and his team worked tirelessly and courageously around the clock to save their troops in the worst street fighting Americans had faced since Vietnam. It is estimated that without Jadick at the front, the Marines would have lost an additional thirty men. Of the hundreds of men he treated, only one died after reaching a hospital. This is the inspiring story of his decision to enter into the fray, a fascinating glimpse into wartime triage, and a compelling account of courage under fire.
Customer Reviews:
But Enough About Me..........2007-09-20
Having read the compelling Newsweek article that became the catalyst for the book, I was expecting much more than what was finally produced. As another reviewer mentioned, too much of the book was spent on CDR Jadick's personal history and trite stories about everyday life downrange. (Though the latrine story was pretty doggone funny...)
Perhaps it's difficult to produce a tome about one aspect of one battle - but others have managed. Those who have, however, are usually historians and not docs.
A bad book review should be understood for what it is. A book review. This is not a criticism of the author's valor or medical skill, which is worthy of every accolade that's been bestowed.
Mediocre at best.......2007-08-16
Does not deserve to share a shelf with medical accomplishments such as Atul Gawande's Better or Complications. The book is filled with trite sentences and tainted with the robotic marine mentality. Slow and reads like you yourself are in hell.
You are there in the Minds and Hearts........2007-07-16
Feel the heat, taste the dust, squint in the sun while horror is delivered to you on the hour.
A Jewel of a Novel.......2007-07-01
having been in the Navy I found this book a fine read. His explanation of the Marine/Navy world was perfect. Corpmen are always highly respected by all. Beyond that it shows the great men and women and their beliefs toward our wonderful country. Soemtimes when we see the faults by politicians and others and we wonder how we will make it as a country all we have to do is look toward the fine men and women that serve us and our country. Let our hearts go out and let us in the future be ready to help them in all they will need.
On Call In Hell by Cdr. Richard Jadick.......2007-06-25
The book was riveting...hard to put down. I read it in two days, mainly because I wanted to experience what Marines and Navy Corpsmen experience in combat, and I certainly did and then some. My son's heroic rescue on Thanksgiving Day, 2004 was clearly documented, as was his death in combat the next day. Kudos to the corpsmen who literally go through the gates of hell to rescue a wounded Marine!
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public; this is, as the New York Review of Books said, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available."
Download Description
Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public; this is, as the New York Review of Books said, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available."
Customer Reviews:
Great description of events!!.......2007-08-23
This book is great so far. I'm only 4 chapters into it, but I enjoy reading it a lot. It really paints a picture of the accounts involved at Auschwitz. I read this book just before I go to bed and I have a hard time putting it down. If you've read any of the other books I have and enjoyed them and you enjoy reading about real life events, this book is for you!!
The factory of death........2007-04-07
The author was the prison doctor/pathologist for the Auschwitz facility. He did the autopsies on dead prison inmates under the demented Dr. Mengle.
This book is a disturbing story. As part of his duties, he also was a member of the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners that disposed of and burned the remains of the bodies killed in the gas chambers. The author was asked to do some terrible things. He revived a gas chamber child, only to find a German guard later shooting her. He examined two cripples and fed them, only to do an autospy on them later in the day. These are very disturbing stories and show the try crime of the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews.
I think the forward puts the author under some focus. The author participated in the Nazi's plans for genocide. He saved his skin while others perished. Better to do as the 12th Sonderkommando did. Fight the people that were killing them. This shows the crimes of the Nazis during the war years.
must-read.......2006-12-29
This author skillfully recounts his mind-blowing, horrifying experience as the doctor of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando. He describes the terrible events that occurred during his time at the camp, but also tells about the kindness his fellow prisoners exhibited toward one another in a group effort for survival. It's a riveting tale.
This book is the best Holocaust book I've read.......2006-11-26
This account of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando is the best memoir I have read to date. It was very easy to pick up and read, and was nearly impossible to put down. Dr. Nyiszli is very factual, and gives careful testimony to his time spent in hell. I feel that I've learned more from this one book than I have in all the others I've read combined (as well as my college Holocaust class). Miklos Nyiszli is a hero for bringing this record into the public sphere.
Auschwitz:A Doctor's Eyewitness Account.......2006-10-26
As someone who has read many first-hand Auschwitz accounts, I found this the best. It is a rare look into the everyday functions of a systematic genocide; finely written to include the most interesting information. Also, it includes a personal look into the personality and brutal workings of Dr. Mengele from a viewpoint that no other account can offer.
Book Description
A brilliant analysis and history of the crucial role that German doctors played in Nazi genocide.
Customer Reviews:
"Physician, Heal Thyself" The Nazi Doctor and the Holocaust.......2005-05-24
In this detailed and well-researched account, psychologist Robert J. Lifton chronicles the Holocaust from a unique perspective: the role played by Nazi medical doctors. In doing so he explains the Nazi philosophy that formed the basis for mass murder: the necessity to heal the ills of German society by eliminating all its corrupting influences. Healing was and is the raison d'etre for the medical profession. Doctors were thus compelled to become killers in the application of this all encompassing "cure."
Lifton traces the evolution of the Holocaust beginning with the "euthanasia" projects of the 30's. Anyone incapable of being a productive member of society was consided, "life unworthy of life" and euthanized. Initially this was confined to the mentally challenged and the old/infirmed. Later even severely wounded German soldiers were not spared. Execution technology perfected here formed the basis for the mass executions conducted later.
Lifton interviews many physicians in this work including some former Nazi's and many Jewish doctors forced to work at Auschwitz. Here, the inner conflicts of persons trained to heal but actively involved in killing reached its apex. Reactions varied from the cold, view of inmates as "laboratory rats" and nothing more by Josef Mengele, to the tortured acceptance of the necessity of doing his duty of Eduard Wirths. Coping mechanisms included sending others to do the "dirty work" when possible, excessive use of alcohol, and in some cases, suicide. Still, the work went on, despite any internal contradictions.
This is the first work I have seen that explained the Nazi philosophy and its impact on the Holocaust. Because it was the stated goal of National Socialism to cleanse German society of all its ills, the participation of healers was essential. The Nazi's never wavered in this twisted belief. Would the Holocaust have occurred without the doctor's participation? Undoubtedly, yes! However doe's this excuse their participation? You the reader must decide. A great read. Five stars!!
Harold Y. Grooms
In our own time..........2005-03-14
This book is relevant to our nation and society in the present time. With the Terry Schiavo case in the forefront of the news, one can only reflect on the position of the courts, and the doctors, in Germany in the 1930's. The book carefully shows the slippery slope which can confront a society that fails to protect the least among us. It is not a book about another place and another time. It is a book about us, in our own time. Strongly recommended that one reads this with open eyes and and open heart to the decisions we make today.
Robert W. Smith, MD, MBA
Fascinating.......2005-01-11
This is a fascinating look not only at what the Nazi doctors did during the reign of the Third Reich but also how they perceived what they were doing and the legislative precedents that culminated in the general acceptance of medicalised killing by many German doctors.
The book is easy to read. Whilst it is a factual account, it still flows with the continuity of a novel making it hard to put down.
Informative and fascinating. Well worth a read and makes you realise the importance of global medical ethical debate as its absence in pre-war Germany, most certainly contributed to the precedents that allowed legalised genocide.
Fascinating insight into the darkness of war........2003-12-22
Fascinating looks at the psychological make up of some of the most infamous people who, in absolute hatred of Jews and other so called undesirables, committed unforgivable crimes against humanity during the Second World War. The author gives a good case study of each of these doctors, and attempts to give an explanation as to why they believed their experiments were in the name of medical research. Chilling but real.
Not deep enough.......2003-07-20
This book is based on direct interviews with a number of Nazi Doctors, but rarely quotes from them. It covers a wide range of issues, but delves deeply into few of them.
It purports to be a pyschological insight into why the Nazi doctors did what they did, and how the psychological mechanisms worked that allowed them to operate. Though Lifton is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, I didn't find his explanations particularly insightful. He repeats a few key ideas often, without going into how these mechanisms work. Instead, he fills the book with detail of what they did.
On balance, it added little to my understanding of the subject. The detail of what the Nazi Doctors did is readily available elsewhere.
I was hoping to find first hand accounts, of which very little was included, and psychological insights. Perhaps it would have been more useful if he had covered fewer people and situations in more depth, with more analysis.
He actually spoke to these people, but the book mostly reads as drily as any history book.
Disappointing.
Book Description
limited 1,000 copy edition reprint of an extremely scarce memoir only previously published in England, and published by Aberdeen Bookstore. This is a story of Stalingrad seldom talked about. Dibold relates his experiences in Stalingrad during the battle, and the utter helplessness he felt as the casualties were so high and in conditions so appalling with little or no medical supplies. Then after capture Dibold remained in Stalingrad and in conditions that are beyond comprehension. Part of the time he was in the huge underground Timoshenko bunker the Russians built. Often working in complete darkness in narrow corridors crammed full of injured soldiers, Dibold again was in a position of being able to offer little in comfort. The lice were atrocious, Dibold talks of scooping them from injured abdomen, the stench unfathomable, and the black tarry walls dripping with stench from the condensation of steam coming from wounds. Tyhpus was rampant. Even after the last shot was fired in Stalingrad, things were far from over for Dibold. He words aren't minced, and he tells of the finest and darkest of human behavior during these times, only 1000 copies printed, bound in full cloth using an exact copy of original dust jacket published originally in 1958!
Customer Reviews:
A Well Deserve Penance!.......2006-07-31
As an historian and avid reader who purchases dozens of books each year and who researches each purchase beforehand, I rarely have cause to be disappointed in the books I buy. This book, however, was a major exception. I found it less than compelling reading; poorly written, disjointed, confusing and certainly not worth the purchase price.
Also, I found that the author's underlying theme of his own martyrdom and that of his fellow German prisoners in Soviet Prisoner of War camps, irritated me tremendously. Indeed, the book's full title, "Doctor at Stalingrad. The Passion of a Captivity" says a great deal about the image the author wished to create.
One wonders about his piety and those of his fellow soldiers when the German armed forces were running rampant over the Soviet Union, exterminating Jews and Slavs, razing cities, and starving the population of the Soviet Union. German historians have now made it very clear that the German army played a major role, alongside the SS, in the large-scale atrocities committed throughout Soviet Russia. Indeed, most of the prisoner of war camps, in which some millions of Soviet POWs died, were run by the German army. And thus it is hard to pity Hans Dibold or his comrades taken prisoner after the German Sixth Army's debacle at Stalingrad.
Yes, life in Soviet POW camps was terrible, a virtual hell, but Dibold and his colleagues were only reaping the hate-filled whirlwind they had sown. And unlike millions of Red Army soldiers who fell captive to the Germans, Hans Dibold survived. Had the Red Army not defeated the Third Reich in battles such as Stalingrad, Hitler's Wehrmact would have exterminated a good part of the Soviet population, while enslaving the rest. And it would have been virtually impossible, without the hundreds of Wehrmact divisions tied down by the Soviet Army, for the remainder of the Allies to invade and liberate Europe.
Rather than buy this book readers would do better to turn to some of the new histories and Red Army memoirs of the Eastern Front in World War II. Most are much better written and a great deal more compelling, honest and insightful than this book.
A rare view of the war.......2005-11-10
This is one of the rare first hand accounts of the fall of Stalingrad and the end of the German 6th Army. This first rate book was produced with a very high quality binding and with great care given to the choice of paper used as a reproduction. Limited numbers of these books have been printed.
A Ghastly Reality.......2003-04-27
This book is a great read and an account that portrays what it was like to fall into Russian captivity after the German surrender at Stalingrad. Be warned, this book is not for the faint hearted as the author descibes the appalling and ghastly conditions experienced as he remained in Stalingrad with the worst cases of the sick and wounded. The author creates a picture of the 'living dead' as the remnants of the Sixth Army waste away with starvation and diease as he and his fellow doctors work unrelentlessly to keep them alive. This is no easy task considering the doctors are suffering under the same conditions as that of the other German prisoners, conditions of a cruel Russian winter, no adequate warm clothing and shelter and near to nothing in way of food and medical supplies. Incredibly the author bears no grudges againsnt the Russians and at times shows them with a compassion and in a more favourable light than some of the German prisoners.
Although this a book of much suffering, death and dispair, it is also a book of survival and shows the grim results of war and how man can endure such terrible conditions. Conditions of living in darkness in the Timoshenko bunker with condensation dripping off the walls, thousands of lice and rampant diseases of typhus, dysentery, scurvy to name a few and of course starvation. These conditions destroyed the soul and will to live of many. Those that survived had the ultimate courage and faith in mankind but would be tormented mentally or physically for the rest of their lives for what they experienced.
A special thankyou should go to the publishers Aberdeen Books for reprinting this rare and tragic account of life after the battle of Stalingrad. This is an essential read.
Book Description
Before the movie, this is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O'Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth.
The doctors who worked in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) during the Korean War were well trained but, like most soldiers sent to fight a war, too young for the job. In the words of the author, "a few flipped their lids, but most of them just raised hell, in a variety of ways and degrees."
For fans of the movie and the series alike, here is the original version of that perfectly corrupt football game, those martini-laced mornings and sexual escapades, and that unforgettable foray into assisted if incompleted suicide--all as funny and poignant now as they were before they became a part of America's culture and heart.
Customer Reviews:
great book made into a great movie.......2007-08-03
This book is a great compliment to the movie. It goes into some of the detail for those who have unanswered questions about parts of the movie. Read the whole book in one sitting.
the 4077th.......2006-11-06
The book differs greatly from the movie and even moreso from the televison serires that followed it. Even so it is a very worthwhile read.
mash: a novel about three army doctors.......2006-11-03
enjoyed this with the rest of the mash series
Far and Away Better than the Movie or the TV Series.......2006-04-26
I read M.A.S.H. years ago and still pull it off the shelf for a good laugh. It is better than the movie--which I also love--and totally different than the TV series.
It is also NOT by Richard Hooker; that is a pen name for W.C. Heinz and H. Richard Hornberger M.D. Heinz was originally a sports writer and became a war correspondent during WWII. His collection of WWII pieces was published as When We Were One: Stories of World War II.
Not so good, but recommended anyway.......2006-04-09
It needs to be said: people give Richard Hooker's M*A*S*H high ratings because it's nifty to read the source material for such a long-lived and successful franchise. In fact, on that basis alone, I recommend it (though with plenty of reservations). But this is also a novel that has been greatly overshadowed by all of that which it has spawned (I suspect many would be surprised to discover that it had been a novel at all). In order to be fair all around, Hooker's novel has to be divorced from its cousins in the visual media-at least for the moment-and considered on its own merits.
And, unfortunately, considered on those merits, it isn't very good. One does not have to be an elitist to marvel that those who came after were able to sculpt an Academy Award-winning film and a successful eleven-year television series from what is a very unrefined piece of stone indeed. The novel has little plot to speak of: essentially, surgeon Hawkeye Pierce is drafted, serves his stint in Korea, passes the time by pulling a variety of stunts, and leaves for home. If there's a message, a moral, or any kind of point to be taken away from the novel, I confess that it escapes me. The book really isn't an antiwar polemic except perhaps in its depiction of high-ranking officers as buffoons, which is hardly original. Likewise, if the purpose is to entertain us with the disparity between the characters' antics and the rigid structure of the U.S. military, goofy behavior in the service is nothing new as entertainment (I can think of three movies just starring Cary Grant that handle it better than Hooker's novel).
There are no motivations for the characters' actions; the dialogue is stilted; nothing connects the various episodes. While none of these would automatically make this a bad novel (novels are often good precisely because they refuse to take our expectations into account), the books premise is itself extremely flimsy and cannot support any further weaknesses. The most telling analogy I can muster is the "Police Academy" films-not in substance but in structure. Consider the bulk of the scenes in a Police Academy film; most are skits or pranks with little or no connection to the story and could be shuffled and recombined in nearly any order without affecting the plot of the film. The same is true of the chapters in M*A*S*H, where we just don't get the sense that we are going anywhere.
None of that is to suggest that the novel be avoided; as I said, the book is best considered as a part of the early fossil record of a franchise that is still strong over thirty-five years later. It's certainly interesting to see what has worked its way into the film and TV versions (though of course the later seasons altered the original framework beyond recognition). A lot of the book's elements showed up in the first season (the characters of Spearchucker and Ugly John, the taking up of a collection to send Ho-Jon to school in the U.S.-though he never seems to get there) and were abandoned soon after, and some things were altered immediately (get this: in the book, Hawkeye is married and has children). The book is a useful cultural document, and it is on those grounds, not aesthetic ones, that I recommend it.
Book Description
Nancy Snow, a former USIA employee, examines how American propaganda efforts and covert operations are expanding more rapidly today than at any time in U.S. history, as the Bush administration attempts to increase U.S. dominance by curbing dissent and controlling opinion.
Customer Reviews:
A collection of leftist cliches. Thank God I bought this used........2007-08-31
What a piece of work Ms. Snow is. On one one hand, she trumpets Freedom of the Press as part of her "favorite psalm (page 12)," and on the other harkens the deregulation of the media that took place in 2003 (page 15) as some sort of plot to institute mind control. Does it take a mere three pages for liberal doublethink to occur? For Ms. Snow, apparently it does.
Snow attempts to wax eloquently about a post-911 antiwar speech given by Howard Zinn (whom she calls a "rock star" and whom I call "a Marxist who never met a communist dictatorship he didn't like") and then goes on with some drivel about "street-taking protests." All this before she even begins to address propaganda, which is the stated purpose of the book.
As far as I can tell (what with Snow's muddled thinking and admiration for French marxists) China, the former USSR and the United States were all big propaganda blocs prior to our victory over Communism. Now that the USSR is gone (and I'm sure leftists like Snow are still mourning the fall of the Wall) the U.S. and China are the only propagandists on the bloc... and she's not sure about China. Apparently because the mass media actually on occasion repeats the President's statements in a non-critical way and fails to be hypercritical at every turn (which I would argue is no longer the case at the moment) then it must be considered to be the same as a state-run media. the fact that the media is not daily screaming at the top of its lungs that we are involved in an unjust war and we should pull out now, today even, bothers Snow quite a bit. She wants the media to put out HER brand of propaganda!
Disagreeing with the Left, by the way, is interfering with the free speech rights. I get that all the time. Dissent is only good when leftists are the dissenters. She particularly took to task the freedom to call someone a "traitor" who is, in fact, working against the interests on the United States of America.
Aside from this rather poor reasoning Snow's twist on the nature of the 911 attackers is rather sickening, as is any attempted justification of those infamous mass murderers. I no more care about their warped view of the world than I do Mengele's, Himmler's, Stalin's or Idi Amin's.
If you want to see how convoluted post-Cold War and post-911 marxist thinking can be, then knock yourself out. Buy this book.
"Information War" illuminates failure within the system.......2005-02-04
"Information War" illuminates the Bush administration's control of information in the post-9/11 era. Though it has been over three years since that event, the propaganda machine is still in full swing. Snow highlights the attack on people's intelligence via scare tactics, the vilification of anyone who disagrees with Bush policies, and the unqualified folks put in charge of selling America and its policies to the world.
There is also a history of propaganda to show how a pacifist United States was drummed into a warmongering and blood-thirsty country during World War I. In other words, what Bush and his cronies do isn't new, it's part of a grand American tradition. Empires need propaganda to keep free thought at bay. Just look at Nazi Germany. Snow does.
The comparison is frightening. So, what do we do when the ad manager for Uncle Ben's rice tries to sell America to Arab countries? And what do we do when even the mainstream media is pressured to censor itself? We cannot trust the mainstream anymore (if we ever could), especially when it is so conservatively skewed. Nancy Snow provides the clarion call for all with a mind to speak up.
At this time, perhaps more than ever since this is a nuclear age, it is important to have research out there that tells it like it is about the policies of this country. Information control is not a good thing, especially for the so-called leader of the free world. The truth must be hard to take, but considering the non-stop lies of the Bush administration, Snow knows it will be difficult to understand. Give "Information War" a spin with an open mind, and find yourself edified.
Then take some action.
Self-Referential work.......2004-12-23
Ms Snow quotes J Goebbels to the effect that the intellectual content of propaganda need not be high, then continues to demonstrate the same concerning books about propaganda. Her opus
is a sketchy collection of ultra-left agitprop, and is published by the same people who bring us N. Chomsky and Angela Davis. I give
two stars since the book has merit as an object for study. The
editing of the book is amateurish, with misspellings, mispunctuations and contains the very odd word "lookyloo".
A caustic, keen-eyed, and highly recommended "must-read".......2004-08-10
Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech, And Opinion Control Since 9-11 is a candid and disturbing look at how government and media have used spin control and propaganda to shape popular opinion and guide the nation toward a specific political agenda regardless of dissent since the September 11th attacks. Identifying common propaganda techniques such as card-stacking (selectively quoting facts in order to build a case against an opponent that ignores the whole truth of situations the facts refer to), labelling, bandwagon appeal (building support for an idea by perpetuating the sentiment that "everybody" is in favor of it) and much more, it goes on to spot these techniques used in recent quotes from individuals and spokespeople in the turbulent and often militaristic speeches since the attacks. A caustic, keen-eyed, and highly recommended "must-read" for anyone seeking to understand what is really going on underneath recent American rhetoric.
Uneven work shows the propaganda machine at work.......2004-08-02
A VERY short, extremely partisan and ultimately focusless collection of essays by a veteran of the United States Information Agency, the propaganda arm of the government during the Cold War. The USIA is now defunct, subsumed into other departments during the federal restructuring that saw the birth of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Snow is strongest when she is explaining the role and history of propaganda in international affairs. There is also a moving portrait of Rep. Barbara Lee, the sole Representative to try to hold onto Congressional control of War Powers after the Sept. 11 attacks. Congressional War Powers have been a joke since before I was born, but it's nice to see one person stand up for them. There are many other issues addressed here, but it's like a bag of potato chips; three days later, you don't remember them.
Book Description
During World War II, Mom Chung's was the place to be in San Francisco. Soldiers, movie stars, and politicians gathered at her home to socialize, to show their dedication to the Allied cause, and to express their affection for Dr. Margaret Chung (1889-1959). The first known American-born Chinese female physician, Chung established one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1920s. She also became a prominent celebrity and behind-the-scenes political broker during World War II. Chung gained national fame when she began "adopting" thousands of soldiers, sailors, and flyboys, including Ronald Reagan, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. A pioneer in both professional and political realms, Chung experimented in her personal life as well. She adopted masculine dress and had romantic relationships with other women, such as writer Elsa Gidlow and entertainer Sophie Tucker.
This is the first biography to explore Margaret Chung's remarkable and complex life. It brings alive the bohemian and queer social milieus of Hollywood and San Francisco as well as the wartime celebrity community Chung cultivated. Her life affords a rare glimpse into the possibilities of traversing racial, gender, and sexual boundaries of American society from the late Victorian era through the early Cold War period.
Customer Reviews:
A Woman Navigating Multiple, Simultaneous Boundary Lines.......2006-01-12
Dr. Wu astounds us by producing a work of biography that does something very rare in this age of standardized academic prose, she has produced an addictively readable volume. To tell the truth, even though I have lived in San Francisco for 25 years, I had never even heard of Mom Chung, but I guess if I lived here during World War II I would have been reading about her exploits every day.
One record after another, she smashed, despite the obvious disapproval of both the Chinese and white communities here. And then there's the gender thing. She adopted, as Dr. Yu shows us, a comically asexual pose, which made it humorous for hundreds of white men and women to call her "Mom," which would have implied that she had had sex when to look at her, and to survey her lack of marriage license, she had none. There's the secret!
The "fair-haired bastards" of the title were the war heroes, at first the pilots, then those who served in the Navy, then a bunch of "Kiwis" who Chung recognized for their work in the field supporting our men overseas. She attracted celebrities to her wherever she went, sort of like our own JT LeRoy in the present day. When she started out, she walked timidly, and it took a cunning and open-hearted woman like the poet Elsa Gidlow to see underneath the brim of her cloche and discover the Lesbian within. Gidlow's memoirs, from which Dr. Wu draws the story, reveal that Gidlow became Chung's patient pretty much to get that old countertransference going. And after a difficult operation, in which Gidlow nearly died, Chung finally admitted that she loved her.
Later on came an intense attachment to the "last of the red hot Mamas," Sophie Tucker. Chung destroyed Tucker's letters, but Tucker carefully preserved all of Chung's little love notes and tokens--thank Goodness, for otherwise we might never have guessed the lengths to which homophobia and sexual fear drove the love affair of these two celebrities deep underground. In a way it was a perfect pose. Chung nearly built Tucker her own shrine within her lavish apartment, so that whenever Tucker decided to visit San Francisco she would be pampered like a goddess. In one letter she hopes that Tucker wears a special nightgown, and "think of me as that nightgown," getting upclose and personal with the famous Tucker body. Sophie Tucker was then coasting on a formidable heterosexual reputation, having been married and divorced thrice by the time she got involved with Mom Chung. I read a whole biography of this notorious entertainer, and the name of Mom Chung never even made it to the index.
Thank the Lord for brave historians like Tzu-Chun Wu who no longer shy away from the uncomfortable truths about their subjects. How I wish that the bruited movie of Chung's life (starring Barbara Stanwyck in Chinese makeup) had really been made, in the long ago days of Mom Chung's celebrity!
Great Bio, not so Great Historical over view.......2005-11-25
Having had to read this book for a history class I wasn't sure about whether or not I would enjoy it. But once I got an understanding of whom Mom Chung was and her importance I really wanted to read the book. I'm glad I did because Chung's story is inspirational, being the first Chinese American Female Doctor. Also Chung was a lesbian (though not 100% proved one can infer this from the evidence.) At the beginning I was inspired by Chung's strength and guts, her breaking through barriers and fighting to be successful and true to herself.(Also managing to continue fighting after several rejections.) Though by the end of her life it seems as though she lost her spunk and drive and settles into the status quo image.
The author does a great job of explaining Chung's life and actually makes the ready feel her triumphs and loses. So from a biographical point of view this is a 5 star book. From the historical point of view it's not as good. She wanted to"...provide insight into the historical transformation of American norms regarding race, gender and sexuality over the course of her lifetime..." This might have to do with Chung being such a larger than life character it is easy to get lost in her and miss the general trends and changes that happened in her lifetime.
With that being said read the book!!!
Book Description
"When I tell friends at home in Canada abut the things I have seen, they often say, 'It must be so depressing.' But my work has never felt depressing. Doctors Without Borders is an organization built to act, to make things better. Together with other volunteers and the support of millions of people around the world, we don't have to sit by helplessly and see a disaster unfold before us, wondering what on earth we can do. The gift of action is ours."
When children are caught in civil wars, when earthquakes destroy homes and villages, when AIDS and other diseases shatter families and communities - the volunteers of Doctors Without Borders are there. Their mission is simple - to bring life-saving care to the world's neediest people and to speak out when the rights of the people in their care are abused or violated.
Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders and by its volunteers as MSF, is the world's largest independent medical humanitarian relief organization. Every year, more than 3,000 MSF volunteers and 12,000 local men and women bring medical aid to people in more than 70 countries.
In Healing Our World, David Morley presents his own story and the stories of other MSFers who have volunteered in some of the most dangerous and forgotten corners of the world - the Congo, El Salvador, Chechnya, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Afghanistan, southern Africa. These are stories about healing and helping people, about making the world a better place - stories filled with sorrow and hope, anger and idealism, determination and passion.
- The words and experiences - good and bad - of MSF volunteers who come from all over the world and every walk of life.
- Information about MSF's history, how it selects its volunteers and decides where to send them.
- Includes photographs from the field.
Books:
- Oscar Wilde
- Our Lady of Pain (Edwardian Murder Mysteries)
- Power Mentoring: How Successful Mentors and Proteges Get the Most Out of Their Relationships
- Professional Dreamer: 6 Simple Steps That Turn Dreams Into Reality
- Safe Harbor (Drake Sisters, Book 5)
- Shadow Dance: A Novel
- Sir Walter Raleigh: Being a True and Vivid Account of the Life and Times of the Explorer, Soldier, Scholar, Poet, and Courtier--The Controversial Hero of the Elizabethan Age
- Spiritual Connections: How to Find Spirituality Throughout All the Relationships in Your Life
- Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II
- Teacher Man: A Memoir
Books Index
Books Home
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