History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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.

The War Complex: World War II in Our Time

Average customer rating:

elegant and original
Shameful
The Holocaust of War Complex?
Relevant book for our times

The War Complex: World War II in Our Time
Marianna Torgovnick
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226808556

Book Description

The recent dedication of the World War II memorial and the sixtieth-anniversary commemoration of D-Day remind us of the hold that World War II still has over America's sense of itself. But the selective process of memory has radically shaped our picture of the conflict. Why else, for instance, was a 1995 Smithsonian exhibition on Hiroshima that was to include photographs of the first atomic bomb victims, along with their testimonials, considered so controversial? And why do we so readily remember the civilian bombings of Britain but not those of Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo?

Marianna Torgovnick argues that we have lived, since the end of World War II, under the power of a war complex—a set of repressed ideas and impulses that stems from our unresolved attitudes toward the technological acceleration of mass death. This complex has led to gaps and hesitations in public discourse about atrocities committed during the war itself. And it remains an enduring wartime consciousness, one most recently animated on September 11.

Showing how different events from World War II became prominent in American cultural memory while others went forgotten or remain hidden in plain sight, The War Complex moves deftly from war films and historical works to television specials and popular magazines to define the image and influence of World War II in our time. Torgovnick also explores the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the emotional legacy of the Holocaust, and the treatment of World War II's missing history by writers such as W. G. Sebald to reveal the unease we feel at our dependence on those who hold the power of total war. Thinking anew, then, about how we account for war to each other and ourselves, Torgovnick ultimately, and movingly, shows how these anxieties and fears have prepared us to think about September 11 and our current war in Iraq.

Customer Reviews:

elegant and original.......2005-10-05

THE WAR COMPLEX is a wonderful book--disturbing and illuminating, historicallly rich and politically timely. It begins with a startling and sweeping observation: the history of the twentieth century is a history of almost continuous war; "modernity" is virtually always "wartime"; and the accelerated violence of World War II, directed against military and civilian populations alike, is the centerpiece of our shared past. To understand the modern mind, then, we have to understand how it has been transformed by exposure to mass killing. We have to remember not only the storming of beaches and the liberation of capitals, but also the concentration camps, the firebombing of homes, the eradication of whole cities by atomic bombs.

One problem, of course, is that we remember World War II too much. It is invoked, for instance, as a justification for more war, as when politicians and media depicted 9/11 as a repetition of Pearl Harbor--at attack on America that demanded an old-fashioned, full-scale military response. Violence, experienced and remembered, begets violence. This is a symptom of what Torgovnick cals "wartime consciousness": overexposed to mass death, we organize the world according to antagonisms. It's always "us against them."

Torgovnick's daring and imaginative undertaking, in THE WAR COMPLEX, is to try to think her way through and out of "wartime consciousness." Some hawks and dullards will complain that the book is too personal, too meditative, that it turns to the imagination and the study of art when war is a matter of politics, when mass death is a matter of statistics. They will miss the point. When wartime is all the time, when our societies and our minds are built to be combat-ready, moving beyond these dominant patterns requires some unorthodox thinking. Therefore THE WAR COMPLEX considers, for example, "the kind of imaginative projections that novels can provide, their opening up of a space based on social realities, but not determined by them." And therefore, in her unconventional book--moving elegantly among the spheres of history and psychology, politics and the arts--Torgovnick adopts a personal, sometimes even confessional mode of writing. It's the opposite of self-indulgence. It's an effort to discover some grounds of "identification," some pattern of human connection beyond wartime.

Shameful.......2005-08-18

Unfortunately, this "book" is not a very enlightening read !!. Fortunately, I didn't buy the book, it was checked out of our university library. I found it difficult finishing this drivel. On too many occasions Torgovnick states her unsound opinion as absolute fact. She proceeds to mistakenly develop her point of view on the basis of that egregious erroneous opinion . (Big error there!!) Her conclusions usually are drawn on nefarious and/or abnormal rational that border on the absurd. Very close to being out of touch with reality!! All in all, it appears the dictum "publish or parish" got the upper hand for this professor

The Holocaust of War Complex?.......2005-08-02

The book was interesting as a study in writing style. The title of the book does not cover the military industrial establishment or tease out how real WWII combat vets feel about our current politico-military juggernaut. While reading I couldn't help but think this is an English Prof showing me how conscious she is of her own consciousness. Unfortunately the book is a big digresson about the holocaust and Adolf Eichman's role as person who was a functionary and organized the logistics of killing millions Jews. R.J. Lifton has already clearly described bureaucratic distancing from killing in modern techno-war. So what's new? The book does not contain any information about the current military industrial establishment and its influence on U.S, politics and the relationship to the war in Iraq if there is one. Go to a book store and read the brief conclusion.

Relevant book for our times.......2005-06-04

World War II holds a unique place of privilege in the American, and Allied, historical imagination. It was the war of the greatest generation; the uncontroversial war, the just war; the last war when good and evil were clearly delineated in the minds of Americans. World War II is the shorthand reference used to evoke moral high ground and uncomplicated patriotism.
History is written by the victors, as the adage goes, with all that implies of selectivity of memory. Which history, and which war, one chooses to invoke, is a matter of politics. For instance, before the American invasion of Iraq in 2002, both opponents and proponents resorted to analogies to earlier conflicts to serve their argument. For opponents, the specter of the quagmire of Vietnam was raised, with its searing images of civilian suffering. For proponents, WWII was relentlessly presented as the glorious model, with Pearl Harbor and Munich the ready references.
But the legacy of World War II may not be as uncomplicated or as controversial as we choose to remember it in America and much of Western Europe. In "The War Complex", Duke professor Marianna Torgovnick explores the images of D-Day, the media spectacle of the Eichmann trial, the emotional legacy of the Holocaust, Hiroshima and the A-bomb, to discover how the selective process of memory still shapes our picture of the conflict and of subsequent conflicts, including the response to September 11th.
Torgovnik examines the narratives of D-Day, and how they played into the image that Americans want to see of themselves: "good versus evil, American multiculturalism (within limits, since racial segregation was still in place) versus the homogenous racial Ûbermensch or `Jap,' citizen soldiers fighting a necessary war against the forces of totalitarianism, us versus them." She argues that our carefully constructed cultural memory of war, and the cumulative state of mind called wartime consciousness, persisted well beyond the end of hostilities right through the Cold War and remained ready to be reanimated after September 11.
"The war on terrorism...promises an indefinite prolongation of wartime states of mind. That prolongation suggests one strong reason why you should read this book. `The War Complex' probes the cost of sustained wartime consciousness on a society and a culture, which are more than military." That is only one argument for the relevance and timeliness of this insightful, wide-ranging study that balances solid scholarship with lively, accessible writing. Torgovnik brilliantly combines history, psychology of war, memoir, and imaginative literature, to expose the construction of the war complex and to imagine a way out based on an ethics of identification

PENALTY STRIKE: The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander 1943-45 (Soviet Memories of War)

Average customer rating:

Excellent Account of a Red Army Penal Battalion at War
Excellent reference about a fairly obscure topic
The Only WWII Red Army Memoir on Punishment Units
Rssential for any researching the Soviet military experience during the second world war.
worth it for EF junkies

PENALTY STRIKE: The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander 1943-45 (Soviet Memories of War)
Alexander Pyl'cyn
Manufacturer: Helion and Company Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1874622639

Book Description

The focus of this book are the author's vivid memories of service as a company commander in a Red Army officers' penal battalion on the Eastern Front 1944-45.

During this time, he and his unit participated in the 1944 Soviet summer offensive Operation 'Bagration', the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the final assault on Berlin.

The stories of penal companies and battalions in the Red Army gave birth to legends about men who rushed to the attack across minefields against German machine-guns with one rifle per three men. The author of this book knows from his own experience what a penal battalion is. A common threat during the war, "I will send you to a penal battalion!" meant nothing to him. He was there.

He was a platoon commander and later a commander of an officers' penal company. He was a senior lieutenant having a degraded regiment commander as a second-in-command. He and his company had to carry out the most difficult and dangerous operations in order to break through the enemy defenses. With more than 80% of the men lost his company succeeded in completing their missions. The horrors of war, the hand-to-hand fights with a desperately struggling enemy are described in this book along with a story of a strong feeling between the young officer and a hospital nurse Rita. Thanks to Alexander Rita was appointed a nurse in the penal battalion. She saved dozens of soldiers, carrying them from the battlefield under enemy fire. It was Rita who saved Alexander Pyl'cyn from death, when he was badly wounded near Berlin. She became his wife in the last months of the war. The author is brilliant at detailing the way of life and personal relations in the war. In this horrible slaughter cowardice and treason went side by side with friendship and heroism. In these inhuman conditions people remained as they were: they lived, they laughed, they loved.

Key sales points: High-quality memoirs from Soviet soldiers who served on the Eastern Front are rare - rarer still are firsthand accounts of the Red Army's penal battalions / The author's intense and exciting style produces a fluid and highly-readable account of the brutal reality of war in the East during its most bitter final phase / Includes the author's experiences during the storming of Berlin 1945, and his battlefield romance with Rita, the battalion's nurse, and his future wife.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Account of a Red Army Penal Battalion at War.......2007-03-25

As a lieutenant, the author in December 1943 was assigned to lead a platoon in a Red Army "Officer Penal Battalion". He describes the organization, training, equipment of his battalion, and the personalities he recalls, in great and fascinating detail. Essentially, Officer Penal Battalions were shock troops used to infiltrate through or breach holes in German defensive lines. The "Officer Prisoners" fought to redeem their honor and freedom after being arrested and convicted of crimes against the State. If the officer prisoners survived and fought with honor, they were often freed and reinstated to officer status, depending on the personality and quirks of the commander of the army to which the penal battalion was attached. The author was not a convicted offender; he was part of the cadre assigned to lead this unit into combat. As a platoon leader, his deputy in one battle was a lieutenant colonel who had commanded an infantry regiment with distinction before running afoul of the State. He freely admits his unit sometimes captured, interrogated, and executed German prisoners of war, because when operating behind enemy lines in his words, "What else could we do?" This is a harsh book on the nature of close in infantry combat and the soldiers who wage it. Mercy is an alien concept when you are outnumbered and slugging it out with pistol, submachine gun, grenades, and entrenching tool against German soldiers at night inside an enemy trench. Readers interested in Soviet accounts of the infantryman's war during the last years of WWII will find this one of the best books on the subject. The author tells a candid story, one chock full of fascinating details and chilling memories, quite well. Heroism, cowardice, and luck fill the pages. This book is so well written, one can almost smell the cordite and hear the sounds of the advancing German assault guns as the author and his comrades fight like lions to repulse counterattack after counterattack in the Narev Bridgehead, October 1944.

Excellent reference about a fairly obscure topic.......2007-01-24

This book was written by a man who experienced life in a penal unit firsthand, and offers a unique perspective. He debunks several misconceptions about such units, while simultaneously providing an excellent account of daily life as an officer leading a unit of Shtrafniks. Pyl'cyn displays great personal bravery on a number of occasions. The only downside to this book is that, as the memoir of a junior officer, it does not give a big-picture perspective of the role of penal units in the war. I think it would be greatly aided by a companion piece written as a scholarly study of such units.

The Only WWII Red Army Memoir on Punishment Units.......2006-12-11

This interesting and insightful book is the only War World II memoir written by an officer of the Soviet Army's World War II penal or punishment formations.

Some 422,700 Red Army soldiers served in punishment battalions during World War II. Few survived service in such formations, which one specialist of the Soviet Army described as "forlorn," "deadly," and "soul destroying."

Alexander Pyl'cyn served as a platoon commmander and deputy commander of the 8th Independent Penal Battalion. He and his battalion fought in Byelorussia, Poland and Germany, ending the war in Berlin. Wounded three times during the war, Pyl'cyn's description of life and death in a penal battalion is powerful. He and his company carried out the most difficult and dangerous missions on any sector to which they were assigned and were frequently in the lead of Red Army breakthroughs of the German lines. Suffering casualty rates of some 80 percent, he and his men usually accomplished their mission.

"Penalty Strike" is not an easy read, though it is very well written. The text is dense and packed full of people, places, and battles. Still, the author manages to clearly and powerfully convey to the reader what it meant to be a Soviet soldier on the Eastern Front in World War. II. And many parts of the story are moving, especially when dealing with close friends killed in battle or Pyl'cyn's courtship with a Red Army nurse, whom he later married.

Those interested in the Red Army or the Eastern Front in World War II will find this book an important contribution to the literature.

Rssential for any researching the Soviet military experience during the second world war........2006-11-07

Alexander V. Pyl'cyn's PENALTY STRIKE: THE MEMOIRS OF A RED ARMY PENAL COMPANY COMMANDER, 1943-45 is also essential reading for any who would understand the WW2 experience from the Soviet participant's viewpoint: again a participant's vivid memories are plumbed: this time from a company commander's viewpoint. The author and his unit participated in the 1944 soviet summer offensive program and the final assault on Berlin: his accounts of penal companies and battalions offer vivid insights into the foundations of a penal battalion's operations. Both are essential for any researching the Soviet military experience during the second world war.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

worth it for EF junkies .......2006-05-04

I have read the Russian version of the book - it is reasonably well written memoir which dispels a whole lot of legend about Soviet penal units (big bad commissars with revolvers shooting every one at the slightest hint of fear, sanding people without the weapons in battle etc). Well worth the money.

Lieutenant Ramsey's War: From Horse Soldier to Guerrilla Commander (Memories of War)

Average customer rating:

Humanizes the sacrifices and tragedies of war
Knew Ramsay well
A riveting story of life on the run.
A Truly Heroic Man
LOYALTY, PATRIOTISM, HEROISM and UNSELFISH DEVOTION

Lieutenant Ramsey's War: From Horse Soldier to Guerrilla Commander (Memories of War)
Edwin Price Ramsey , and Stephen J. Rivele
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1574887378

Book Description

After the fall of the Philippines in 1942 - and after leading the last horse cavalry charge in U.S. history - Ed Ramsey refused to surrender. Instead, he joined the Filipino resistance and rose to command more than 40,000 guerrillas. The Japanese put the elusive American leader at the top of their death list. Rejecting the opportunity to escape, Ramsey withstood unimaginable fear, pain, and loss for three long years. Lieutenant Ramsey's War chronicles a remarkable true story of courage and perseverance.

Customer Reviews:

Humanizes the sacrifices and tragedies of war.......2006-07-30

Col. Ramsey, on foot in the junlges of the Philippines, with only the help of the kind Philippine people----puts war in human terms and visions I can relate to. People suffer with death, starvation, torn off body parts, and disease. Horrible. As a teacher I may use this book to tap into my student's 'schema,' or mental map, to help them visulize the realities of war as being the dreadful scarifice it is, rather that some sort of unreal view of war as a "star wars" game.

Knew Ramsay well.......2006-04-24

From 1960-64 I worked with Ramsay almost daily as a member of the US Embassy in Tokyo while he was VP for Hughes Aircraft in Tokyo. Hughes and two other US companies were bidding on a large joint US/Japan air weapons control project that Hughes in 1963 won. During this time he never once mentioned his guerrila activites during WW II except except a for small clue when he got for my wife and me a Visa during a visit by him to the PI Embassy to visit Clark after the PI govt had refused them through regular channels. During the visit to Clark I asked a number of citizens if they had heard of Ed Ramsay and with little exception they said he was a National Hero. After reading a summary of Lt Ramsay's War in the Readeer's Digest I obtained the un-abridged version and agree with the comments of others about his disclipine and dedication to his country he exhibited in setting up and operating a highly effective guerilla force in the Philippines at great risk to himself and those that worked with him. The book has now been republished and is well worth reading.
Bill Millis

A riveting story of life on the run........2004-01-04

This book describes what barely can be described. The hardships, the fear, the exhaustion, the hunger, the brutality, the uncertainty of ones fate. It's all right here, and all are apt descriptions of the life of Lt. Ramsey from the fall of Bataan until the time in 1945 that Gen MacArthur returned to liberate the Phillipines.

Lt. Ramsey (who was promotoed to Lt. Colonel over the course of his service in the jungle) was a very important leader of the resistance. He personally exchanged a few messages over the radio with MacArthur himself, and it was years before Ramsey even knew that MacArthur was getting his messages, as he went without radio contact for the first two years of the war.

Many of Ramsey's fellow resistance leaders, some of them officers he served with, or under, prior to the war, were captured, tortured, and beheaded. Informants were everywhere, and every move was a risk. Yet Ramsey never sat still, and his years were spent traveling, at great risk, throughout the Phillipines and organizing the resistance. Many close calls with the Kempa-tei, the Japanese secret police, followed. Ramsey eventually became the most wanted man on the island, after many of his fellow leaders were captured. He eventually went on to command a force of 40,000 resistance fighters.

The leader of the Kempa-tei, General Baba, personally conducted many of the raids and had a picture of Ramsey on his desk. Many times Ramsey was only yards from Japanese troops.

Of course, when this all started, Ramsey had no clue how to wage guerrilla war. But he learned, through trial and error, and it is amazing that he even survived the war. If that isn't enough, this is a man who survived having his appendix removed in the jungle by a doctor who had no morphine to numb the pain!

This is the kind of stuff Hollywood needs to make movies about. Instead we are stuck with the same dumbed down, recycled nonsense that apparently someone finds entertaining. And sadly the exploits of this true American hero go largely unknown by the majority of this country. I'm glad I am no longer one of them.

A Truly Heroic Man.......2002-10-20

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in World War II. It tells the story of the real heroes of Bataan, the men who refused to surrender but went into the mountains to continue the war against the Japanese. Lieutenant Edwin Price Ramsey should have been awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines.

...

LOYALTY, PATRIOTISM, HEROISM and UNSELFISH DEVOTION.......2001-06-01

Those words barely begin to speak of the sacrifices Lt. Edwin Price Ramsey gave for his fellow countrymen, the war effort against the Japanese in the Philippines, the behind the scenes guerilla movement, and the Honor he bestowed upon the United States of America through his actions and his command. This gentlemanly young officer went from the glory of Army Polo into the depths of an unsuspected Hell in a matter of months to become well known as the leader of the very last Cavalry Charge in United States Army History for which the Distinguished Service Cross was bestowed upon him, at the age of 24!

This in-depth bio eloquently traces the Lieutenants' life from childhood to the end of WWII. His remarkable true story has more twists than a licorice stick as well as plenty of eye filling emotional sledge hammers.

Book Description

For the Germans and Austrians, memorializing the Holocaust has required public recognition of their crimes; for the Jews, it has required public expression of their suffering. As James Young brilliantly demonstrates, each monument is charged with the often highly problematic struggle between collective memory and national self-image, self-interest, and the aspiration toward a future. Through the memorials and monuments, Young illuminates the process whereby the meaning of the Holocaust continues to be redefined in each new generation in Europe, Israel, and America. This richly illustrated book is a groundbreaking study of the fusion of Holocaust memory and public art in contemporary life.

Customer Reviews:

Memory as monuments.......2004-03-29

After having read this book for my historical anthropology class, I was completely taken by its broad-based approach to analyzing monuments and the histories they possess. To fully appreciate this book, the difference between 'history' and 'the past' must be understood. 'The past' is everything that has already happened. As soon as a second passes, the past has been constructed simulatenously the world over. History, on the other hand, is how people, cultures, governments, etc. choose to present sections of the past. History is a section of the past that is magnified and often made to represent the entire past despite its fragmented recounting. Young does an excellent job of showing how four different countries recall the same events (the holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto uprising, among others) with different and unique results, demonstrating how 'history' differs from 'the past'; each history is a different retelling of a country's perception of 'the past'. He analyzes these methods of remembrance through monuments and the outcome is an excellent analysis of how memory is constructed and interpreted and how personal experience shapes and influences one's perspective on the past, thus influencing their perception of history. The book is well written with many pictures and historical tidbits to place monuments in their proper context (although, after reading the book, you come to realize that monuments have no true proper context). I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the holocaust, theory of history, art history, or cultural studies. Excellent book.

My Carrier War: The Life and Times of a Naval Aviator in WWII (Hellgate Memories Series)

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A Gripping Human Story of a Carrier Pilot
Absorbing story of one man's coming of age in a time of war
A Must Read
A patriots story
Transports the reader back to a time of war and danger

My Carrier War: The Life and Times of a Naval Aviator in WWII (Hellgate Memories Series)
Norman E. Berg
Manufacturer: Hellgate Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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An Ace of the Eighth: An American Fighter Pilot's Air War in Europe
Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater
Mustang Ace: Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot
First Light
George Preddy, Top Mustang Ace

ASIN: 1555716199

Book Description

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Three days later, a young Navy pilot-in-training won his wings and found himself flying torpedo planes against enemy targets in the Pacific.

From his days as a Naval aviation cadet aboard the "Yellow Peril" biplane trainer, to his first bombing runs on Guadalcanal, to his life aboard an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific, Norman Berg offers a fast-paced narrative filled with humor and meticulous attention to detail. Much more than a simple WWII memoir, this story goes beyond the action of battle to explore the author's innermost conflicts and chronicles one young couple's wartime struggle to balance love, duty, and commitment.

Customer Reviews:

A Gripping Human Story of a Carrier Pilot.......2003-04-15

I just finished reading My Carrier War by Norman E.Berg. It is an absorbing and interesting page-turner. Mr. Berg's memories of his WW II experience offer a gripping picture of what it took to be a naval pilot in 1941 and beyond, as well as the human story of a young husband and father who faced combat as leader and participant.

This account offers an in-depth variety of information and illumination, regardless of the interest of any particular reader. It's about learning to fly, about learning to be a naval pilot, about the characteristics of warplanes, about flying from an aircraft carrier, about life at sea, about falling in love, about making a personal life in the midst of war, about separation from your loved ones, about dropping torpedos and divebombing, about comradship, about U.S. strategy in winning the south pacific, and about humanity in a time of war.

Beyond the details, this writer knits the story together in an engaging way. There is no tedium in this book, nor is it a superficial recitation of dry history. It offers a timeless lesson in facing personal challenges and prevailing. The book is interestingly illustrated with photographs and maps. It is a satisfying read.

Absorbing story of one man's coming of age in a time of war.......2002-08-29

This chronicle is a rich tapestry of war time action woven against a background of a boy's transformation into manhood through duty, love, and acceptance of personal limitations. Norman Berg brings his combat missions alive with gripping vividness of detail. But it is the comparatively economical passges on his subjective experiences that give this book its poignancy. Staying the course in war and sixty years of reflection have added the tincture of a profound sense of fate to this writer's ink. It makes this memoir shine.

A Must Read.......2002-08-22

I couldn't put it down. As someone who was born after WWII, I was able to appreciate better the time period where we all went through this difficult period. May we never have to do that again. Thank you Mr. Berg for a well written book and am looking forward to seeing it in movie form.

A patriots story.......2002-02-28

Capt. Berg tells the true story of patriotisms conflict with his new family life and how he conquered his fears to serve two long flying tours in the Pacific war during the early and darkest hours of the war that affected and changed not only America but the entire world. Berg is one of the "Greatest Generation" and we are lucky to hear his story in his own words spoken from the cockpit of his torpedo bomber . I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. A Great Story. Eugene A. Olsen, Capt. USMM (ret)

Transports the reader back to a time of war and danger.......2001-12-14

My Carrier War: The Life And Times Of A Naval Aviator In WW II is a gripping memoir of Norman E. Berg, who was a pilot-in-training and earned his wings three days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. In addition to recounting harrowing battles, My Carrier War also explores the author's inner conflicts and chronicles a young couple's efforts to balance military duty with commitment and love. Black-and-white photographs illustrate the powerful, evocative text. A memoir so strong it transports the reader back to a time of war, danger, and uncertainty, when the fate of America and the world was at stake, My Carrier War is a very welcome contribution to the growing library of World War II memoirs and autobiographies.

Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars

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Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars
George L. Mosse
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195071395

Book Description

At the outbreak of the First World War, an entire generation of young men charged into battle for what they believed was a glorious cause. Over the next four years, that cause claimed the lives of some 13 million soldiers--more than twice the number killed in all the major wars from 1790 to 1914. But despite this devastating toll, the memory of the war was not, predominantly, of the grim reality of its trench warfare and battlefield carnage. What was most remembered by the war's participants was its sacredness and the martyrdom of those who had died for the greater glory of the fatherland. War, and the sanctification of it, is the subject of this pioneering work by well-known European historian George L. Mosse. Fallen Soldiers offers a profound analysis of what he calls the Myth of the War Experience--a vision of war that masks its horror, consecrates its memory, and ultimately justifies its purpose. Beginning with the Napoleonic wars, Mosse traces the origins of this myth and its symbols, and examines the role of war volunteers in creating and perpetuating it. But it was not until World War I, when Europeans confronted mass death on an unprecedented scale, that the myth gained its widest currency. Indeed, as Mosse makes clear, the need to find a higher meaning in the war became a national obsession. Focusing on Germany, with examples from England, France, and Italy, Mosse demonstrates how these nations--through memorials, monuments, and military cemeteries honoring the dead as martyrs--glorified the war and fostered a popular acceptance of it. He shows how the war was further promoted through a process of trivialization in which war toys and souvenirs, as well as postcards like those picturing the Easter Bunny on the Western Front, softened the war's image in the public mind. The Great War ended in 1918, but the Myth of the War Experience continued, achieving its most ruthless political effect in Germany in the interwar years. There the glorified notion of war played into the militant politics of the Nazi party, fueling the belligerent nationalism that led to World War II. But that cataclysm would ultimately shatter the myth, and in exploring the postwar years, Mosse reveals the extent to which the view of death in war, and war in general, was finally changed. In so doing, he completes what is likely to become one of the classic studies of modern war and the complex, often disturbing nature of human perception and memory.

One Sunny Day: A Child's Memories of Hiroshima (Dreamcatcher)

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One Sunny Day: A Child's Memories of Hiroshima (Dreamcatcher)
Hideko Tamura Snider
Manufacturer: Open Court Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812693272

The War in the Empty Air: Victims, Perpetrators, And Postwar Germans

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A fresh, thoughtful look at the World War II historical narrative
Current German Thinking of World War II

The War in the Empty Air: Victims, Perpetrators, And Postwar Germans
Dagmar Barnouw
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0253346517

Book Description

"This book will provoke intellectually, ideologically, and emotionally loaded responses in the U.S., Germany, and Israel. Barnouw's critique of the 'enduringly narrow post-Holocaust perspective on German guilt and the ensuing fixation on German remorse' questions taboos that the political and cultural elites in those three countries would rather leave alone. . . . [Barnouw] makes us understand why the maintenance of a privileged memory of the Nazi period and World War II may not survive much longer." ---Manfred Henningsen, University of Hawai'i

Sixty years after the defeat of the Nazis and the discovery of Auschwitz, the impact of WWII on the German people remains a subject that is difficult to broach in public discourse. The experiences of Germans civilians were little studied, as if the memories of the defeated were not deserving of preservation.

In Germany 1945, an examination of Allied photography of postwar Germany, Dagmar Barnouw demonstrated one of the means by which the victors sought to impose the burden of responsibility for World War II and the Holocaust on the German people as a whole. Now, in The War in the Empty Air, she demonstrates how deeply that narrative took hold and the silence it imposed. In Germany, the reemergence of memories of wartime suffering is being met with intense public debate. In the United States, the recent translation and publication of Crabwalk by Guenter Grass and The Natural History of Destruction by W. G. Sebald offer evidence that these submerged memories are surfacing.

Taking account of these developments, Barnouw examines this debate about the validity and importance of German memories of war and the events that have occasioned it. Steering her path between the notions of "victim" and "perpetrator," Barnouw seeks a place where acknowledgment of both the horror of Auschwitz and the suffering of the non-Jewish Germans can, together, create a more complete historical remembrance for postwar generations.

Customer Reviews:

A fresh, thoughtful look at the World War II historical narrative.......2007-09-14

Given the central role of World War II in American culture, most Americans know surprisingly little about its impact on German civilians at the end stage of the war. More, the Germans themselves, copying the American view of W.W.II as the absolutely "good, clean, just war we won" over the absolutely bad and collectively guilty Germans, have shown little interest in remembering their own war experiences. Since the Allies' goal to get rid of a criminal regime had been good, very few if any questions were asked about their means, such as the American and British fire-bombing, especially late in the war and using new and devastating technology. It is still controversial in the U.S. and in Germany to discuss the wholesale destruction of German cities and the mass killing of civilians in terms other than the richly deserved punishment of the defeated. But the extent and manner of this destruction was an important part of that arguably worst war in Western historical memory and it needs to be analyzed and remembered as such. Based on a wealth of new historical and contemporary documents, Barnouw's new book The War in the Empty Air discusses the political uses of the memory of W.W.II in their impact on the history of the German and American experience of that war. Anticipating accusations that German interest in their own memories meant disrespect for the uniqueness and centrality of the Holocaust, the German intellectual and political elites have over many decades censored them so that they only recently began to be discussed more openly. Barnouw welcomes this beginning of a more inclusive, more questioning, more historical narrative of W.W.II, not only in Germany, because it might enable more people to learn more about and from that huge human disaster that was W.W.II. Instructively, one of her topics is the invocation in the post-war era of the Good, Just W.W.II to justify America's unjust wars and war-like interventions, a prime example being the invasion of Iraq. To quote from one of the reviews at Amazon.co.uk: "Barnouw's book covers the ground thoroughly. It is a book for the thoughtful reader." Given the catastrophic situation in Iraq and the current critical interest in the politics of the Israel Lobby, it is also a very timely book.

Current German Thinking of World War II.......2006-03-13

This book is an examination of thinking about World War II from the German side. Right after the war a series of photographic essays were published by the Allies showing the concentration camps and the inhumanity shown by the Nazi's on conquered people. These images seem to have created a skeleton in the closet that in turn became difficult to discuss.

Now that sixty years have passed since the end of the war, and the integration of what were two Germanies into one, there appears to be an awakening of discussion about the war. Perhaps there will be a merging of the horror of Auschwitz with the horror of Dresden.

I notice though there is very little such discussion coming from Japan. Nothing appears to have been Japan's fault. They were going peacefully along when all of a sudden we started dropping atomic bombs on them.

The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome

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innovative research
A Masterpiece of Scholarship, a Masterpiece of Literature

The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome
Alessandro Portelli
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History (Suny Series in Oral and Public History)
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ASIN: 1403962081

Book Description

n March 24, 1944, Nazi occupation forces in Rome killed 335 unarmed civilians in retaliation for a partisan attack the day before. Alessandro Portelli has crafted an eloquent, multi-voiced oral history of the massacre, of its background and its aftermath. The moving stories of the victims, the women and children who survived and carried on, the partisans who fought the Nazis, and the common people who lived through the tragedies of the war together paint a many-hued portrait of one of the world's most richly historical cities. The Order Has Been Carried Out powerfully relates the struggles for freedom under fascism and Nazism, the battles for memory in postwar democracy, and the meanings of death and grief in modern society.

Customer Reviews:

innovative research.......2006-02-01

This path-breaking book written by a well know oral historian shows again the masterly skills of the italian historian Portelli. The book is an essay in oral history and a piece on how societies deal with a traumatized past. In a sense it is a book on the creation of historical consciousness that is constructed by the individual and by collective agencies. I recommend it to all interested in (social) memory, narratives of the past, and the cultural transformation of memory. Besides its academic skill the book is also well written and reads like a novel. The voices of survivors and witnesses become audible.

Selma Leydesdorff
professor of oral history and culture
University of Amsterdam
editor of Memory and Narratives

A Masterpiece of Scholarship, a Masterpiece of Literature.......2004-02-11

This oral history, justly awarded Italy's prestigious Premio Viareggio, is one of the finest books ever written on this subject. Whoever desires something more than a skin-deep understanding of contemporary Rome, should read Professor Portelli's landmark study of the impact of the Ardeatine Caves massacre on three generations of Romans of every social class and consequently on the very character of the Eternal City.

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