Amazon.com

Noted for his excellent structural explanation of the Third Reich's political culture in The Hitler Myth, eminent historian Ian Kershaw shifts approach in this innovative biography of the Nazi tyrant. The first of a two-volume study, Hubris is far from a simple rehearsal of "great man" history, impressively exploring the historical forces that transformed a shiftless Austrian daydreamer into a dictator with immense power.

In his forthright introduction, Kershaw acknowledges that, as a committed social historian, he did not include biography in his original intellectual plans. However, his "growing preoccupation" with the structures of Nazi domination pushed him toward questions about Hitler's place and considerable authority within that system. He argues that the sources for Hitler's power must be sought not only in the dictator's actions but also (and more importantly) in the social circumstances of a nation that allowed him to overstep all institutional and moral barriers. In a comprehensive treatment of Hitler's life and times up through the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, Kershaw draws from documents recently made available from Russian archives and benefits from a rigorous source criticism that has discredited many records formerly understood to be reliable. Hubris thus supplants Alan Bullock's classic Hitler: A Study in Tyranny as the definitive account of a man who, with characteristic smugness, indicated that it was a divinely inspired history that made him: "I go with the certainty of a sleep walker along a path laid out for me by Providence." Kershaw's penetrating analysis of how such a certain path could emerge from the dire circumstances of post World War I Germany is the abiding strength of Hubris. --James Highfill ... Read more

Reviews (54)

A Landmark Biography
Biographies of Adolf Hitler are commonplace, but the first volume of Kershaw's new effort is well worth the read. Kershaw gets past the myths of Hitler to present a detailed, encyclopedic examination of his early life and rise to power. He manages the neat trick of remaining relatively dispassionate and objective about Hitler's political evolution. Kershaw also takes other historians to task for their assertion that Hitler was an energetic genius, revealing that much of the time Hitler was lazy and slothful and could not be bothered to pay attention to matters that did not intrigue him. The one downside of the book is that, in refusing to indulge the Hitler mythos, Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris can be a bit dry in stretches. Still, it's worth it to see this new interpretation of Hitler's life and career.

Outstanding biography of Adolf Hitler.
Mr Kershaw has written a very engrossing study of Hitler's personal and political lives. The book is very well written - accessible to the general reader, but with a wealth of footnotes for those who would like to dig deeper on their own.

Kershaw has done an admirable job in trying to get at the truth of the events of Hitler's life - not an easy task with so many layers of myth obscuring the subject. One example is the time that Hitler spent in Vienna before the First World War. Using primary and secondary sources, Kershaw paints a detailed picture of Hitler's years in Vienna - a picture that is often at odds with Hitler's own version as published in Mein Kampf.

This book is an authoritative examination of Hitler's "formative years", the creation of the Nazi Party and Hitler's rise to absolute power. I am looking forward to the publication of the second volume.

No Hubris Without Complicity
It probably goes without saying that every American citizen should read at least one critical biography of Adolf Hitler over the course of a lifetime. It is hard to conceive of anyone who has influenced American life, foreign policy, and human sensitivities more than Hitler in our own times. There are past and prospective readers of this work who fought the War that he essentially started and fueled, and very few American families are untouched by his legacy of destruction.

Given his place in history, detested as that may be, it would be hard to cite a better biographical sketch of Der Fuhrer than that of Professor Ian Kershaw of the University of Sheffield in England. We all know that Hitler was bad. Kershaw takes us for a two-volume excursion that explains, as well as anyone can, how he became bad and how his evil was allowed to ferment, verily to thrive, when others in power could have squashed him.

The first volume traces Hitler's life up to and including the German reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1937, a daring but bloodless military foray that left both the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations in tatters. One might suspect that Hitler's flaunting of international law might have been halted midstream by the appropriate checks and balances of German government, business, the military and popular opinion. Obviously, this did not happen. The genius of this volume, in my view, is Kershaw's penetrating analysis of the national conditions of German life and politics that carried Hitler's agenda to fruition, at ultimately terrible cost.

Alois Schicklgruber changed his name to Alois Hitler in 1876, thirteen years before the birth of his son Adolf in 1889. [Heil Schicklgruber?] There are hints in "Mein Kampf" and other sources that Adolf Hitler's overbearing mother was unable to protect him from his father's physical outbursts of anger, though materially the family was comfortable. His secondary school reports describe him as an unmotivated underachiever, and he seems to have left formal schooling with enthusiasm only for history. In his late teens and early adult years Hitler lived an existence described by Kershaw as "parasitic idleness," drawing from inheritances and fancying himself an artist. In actuality he was refused admission on multiple occasions to institutes of advanced artistic training.

When his money ran out, Hitler gravitated to Vienna and painted postcards. He was something of a beer hall bum who worked only enough to survive in a public shelter and pontificate with other down and outers on issues of the day. Kershaw describes in vivid detail the social and political currents of Austria at the time. Nostalgic/apocalyptic pan-Germanic dreams, anti-Semitism, quirky eugenics theories, an uneven economy, and general frustration with ineffectual bureaucratic government led to the rise of energetic but scattered right wing political movements prior to World War I. Bombarded by but very congenial to such influences, Hitler's political philosophy of German preeminence began to form, and the outbreak of international hostilities seemed to galvanize and energize him.

Hitler volunteered for military service in Munich [though legally he was required to do so in Austria and barely escaped prison.] He served primarily as a messenger to the front lines, an unglamorous but respectable tour of duty, and at one point he was temporarily blinded in the line of duty. After hostilities ceased, a thoroughly demoralized Hitler was ordered to work as a teacher in a program to indoctrinate German soldiers to the dangers of Bolshevism, now a major threat to Germany's east in the wake of the Russian Revolution. In actuality such indoctrination was a closet rallying of German nationalism in the military under the restrictions of Versailles. Hitler surprised himself, and many of his influential superiors, with his rhetorical prowess. Throwing his lot with the German Workers Party, a collection of right wing militarists/socialists, Hitler gained national recognition as a spokesman of discontent with the economy and post war shame. His message was hardly unique, though-72 other such parties crowded for influence.

In 1921 he became his own party's leader, and in this capacity led a 1923 ill-timed and poorly conceived revolt against the sitting Reich government known today as the "Beer Hall Putsch" [named for its place of proclamation, not conception.] Kershaw examines the Putsch as a prime example of the way that Hitler himself was used by discontented men of influence from a variety of interest groups. By rights the Putsch should have cost Hitler his life-a treasonous act that killed several. But before a sympathetic judge, Hitler used his trial-with the judge's compliance-as a national podium to articulate his vision of a reformed and restored Germany. Here he broke ahead of the pack of other like-minded rivals for national influence. He received a ludicrously brief prison sentence in quarters that allowed him to write, receive and entertain guests, and continue to expand his political influence. After release, he was banned from speaking for a time [outdoors!] Any chance to beard the lion by the state was now lost forever.

Hitler's nationalist party, easily the loudest of Germany's political parties in the early 1930's, never captured more than a third of the popular vote, but on January 30, 1933, with Hindenburg's government in crisis, Hitler himself wrangled the position of Chancellor, second only to Hindenburg. Upon Hindenburg's death in 1934 he seized full control of the government, with the help of extensive street violence and a propaganda machine second to none. Immensely popular with the masses, he embraced wholesale rearmament and survived the resulting economic upheaval by the dramatic Rhineland venture.

Kershaw discusses Hitler's notorious anti-Semitism at considerable length, though at the conclusion of this first volume there are no clear indications of the genocide that lie ahead. Hitler spoke of segregation and exportation of Jews in private and public addresses and diplomatic meetings through 1937. The death camps, with many other horrors, were not in focus just yet.

"Everybody Loves a Winner"
The Rise

In this first of two volumes, historian Ian Kershaw portrays how a disaffected loser through diligence, and with more than a bit of good fortune, transformed himself from an embittered Veteran of World War I to a beer-hall orator, political leader, and eventually the dictator of Germany.

The prose is workmanlike, without emotion or flash. The annotations are extensive. The story is cautionary.

The Definitive Biography
There are many books that focus on the life of Adolf Hitler, but none can be compared to the work of shear perfection that is Ian Kershaw's Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. In the first volume of his Hitler biography, Kershaw addresses the key themes that led to Hitler's rise to power. The book does not begin with any preconceived notions regarding the "evil" or "inhumanity" of Hitler, but rather examines him as he was, a flesh and blood human being. Kershaw presents Hitler as a three dimensional figure. It is this balanced view that makes this book so unique. Hitler presents a full view of its namesake's story and directly challenges and refutes many misconceptions that have become part of the Hitler myth.
The author's motivation behind writing this book is also key to the overall understanding of its significance. Kershaw states that a Hitler biography had never been part of his agenda. In fact, he was extremely hesitant to even begin undertaking this venture because of the prior works of Alan Bullock and Joachim Fest. Kershaw's prior works did not focus on individuals, but rather broader social trends surrounding Hitler's acceptance and Nazism. It was the inescapable link between Hitler and Nazi Germany that finally drove Kershaw to begin his book.
Ian Kershaw's "Hitler 1889-1936 Hubris" is the first part of the greatest biography ever written on the subject of Adolf Hitler. It is the most complete and thought provoking of all the Hitler biographies. While the work can only be described as massive, at well over 800 pages, it is well worth the read. Kershaw addresses all sides of the Hitler. He looks at the figure of Hitler independently of preconceived notions. Kershaw comments on and discredits many of the numerous Hitler myths ranging from the possible Jewish origins of his grandfather, his sexual preference, and the roots of his anti-Semitism. Kershaw references the earlier works of Joachim Fest and Alan Bullock to make his descriptions of Hitler more well rounded. This book address nearly ever key element of Hitler's early life from his boyhood days in Austria to his time in the trenches of World War I and finally to his eventual rise to power through the Nazis. The book is incredibly detailed and presents the full scope of each event in Hitler's life. Kershaw also helps to place Hitler's life in the larger context of the German nation throughout the pre-1936 era.
Perhaps the most prominent theme addressed by Kershaw is Hitler's anti-Semitism. Not only is this one of the most fundamental issues to understanding Hitler, but it is also a prime example of the skill employed by Ian Kershaw in his book. I found Kershaw's theory to be well formed and the most sound of all the other material available. The book is supplemented by a diverse collection of Hitler and Nazi photographs. These photos add to the work as they depict Hitler before he would become the Fuhrer of Germany. Some of these photos, especially of his youth, are not commonly seen and offer a different look on a man whose life is frequently analyzed throughout the world. The book is skillfully written and has a great flow, which makes its length seem almost a non-factor. After reading "Hubris" one will not be able to resist diving into the second volume "Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis." Overall, you could not find a better biography of Hitler. Kershaw does not provide "shocking" new details or "sensational" accounts he simply gives the reader the facts. I highly recommend Kershaw's book for anyone interested in Nazi Germany or history in general. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

Personal Accounts from Hell
How can one describe the indescribable? In the last several years, I have read maybe a dozen and a half books on the Shoah and have been greatly impressed by many if not all of them. This narrative though, I feel, is head and shoulders above all of the other personal accounts that I have read thus far. Words to Outlive Us is a fascinating read. This, I feel, can be attributed to three things: the structure of the book(it is divided into six chapters each dealing with a particular aspect of life and death inside the Ghetto), the fascinating and in many cases heartbreaking quality of the accounts and finally, the sheer quantity of unique individual accounts. . While none of these components of the book are unique individually, put together they create an unsurpassed narrative of those Jews, who for no other reason than the fact they were Jews, suffered under the Nazis and in many cases, their Polish neighbors. This compilation is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. It is even more amazing when one takes into account the immense danger that these victims placed themselves in simply by writing of their experiences as Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
Particularly poignant I felt, were the chapters on the institutions of the Ghetto, the resistance and liberation. Through these accounts the reader is seeing day to day life and tragedies as if he or she is witnessing them personally. The reader is a witness to both the greatest acts of kindness and the most horrific acts of violence which human beings are capable of. This is, I believe, the greatest testament to the power of this collection of personal stories. My only disappointment in this book was that it wasn't double it's 440 pages.

How some fought back and why others could or would not
So often, we read accounts of the Shoah afer the fact. Not to diminish their power, but primary testimony as the events happened, understandably a rarer extant survival, speaks directly and eloquently with a visceral power. The accounts here, by a cross-section of thoughtful, self-deprecating, agonized, and bewildered observers, show why those in the ghetto were so diminished and demoralized.

Years of abuse, mental and physical, years of starving and disease and uncertainty wreaked havoc on the Jews in Warsaw. Reading these accounts, you understand how awful were the limited choices between giving in and holding out could both be. Also, what here emerges more fully is the extent to which Jews were exploited with the hopes of work permits, resettlement, visas, and hush money by informers, turncoats, bosses, and those willing or forced to collaborate. The constant anxiety underscores the bodily suffering of the ghetto's inhabitants.

Revealed here are the predicaments hundreds of thousands of people like you and me faced, nearly half-a-million crowded into an area the size of Central Park. What often has been distorted into kitsch or melodrama in later re-creations in its original context remains unforgettably eloquent.

For people who want to understand the Holocaust
I read this book after I watched the movie "The Pianist". The true accounts in this book shocked and moved me. By combining with the visual impact from the movie, I am able to relate what I read with what I watched from the movie. After reading the book, I admired the courage, the-will-to-survive, and the brilliance of the Jewish people. I suggest to people who are interested to know what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto, but who has no such background on the holocaust, watched the movie first, then read this book. It is not a dry history book. The acccounts were written by people who have superb writing skill, though they might not know themselves. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Karl Marx, whose influence on modern times has been compared to that of Jesus Christ, spent most of his lifetime in obscurity. Penniless, exiled in London, estranged from relations, and on the run from most of the police forces of Europe, his ambitions as a revolutionary were frequently thwarted, and his major writings on politics and economics remained unpublished (in some cases until after the Second World War). He has not lacked biographers, but even the most distinguished have been more interested in the evolution of his ideas than any other aspect of his life. Francis Wheen's fresh, lively, and moving biography of Marx considers the whole man--brain, beard, and the rest of his body. Unencumbered by ideological point scoring, this is a very readable, humorous, and sympathetic account. Wheen has an ear for juicy gossip and an eye for original detail. Marx comes across as a hell-raising bohemian, an intellectual bully, and a perceptive critic of capitalist chaos, but also a family man of Victorian conformity (personally vetting his daughters' suitors), Victorian ailments (carbuncles above all), and Victorian weaknesses (notably alcohol, tobacco, and, on occasion, his housekeeper). But there is great pathos, too, as Marx witnessed the deaths of four of his six children. For those readers who feel Marxism has given Marx a bad name, this is a rewarding and enlightening book. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Reviews (18)

The political genius interpreted as a pariah
This book is pretty good but I was disapointed because there was not enough on Marx's youth; there was probably about a half chapter on how he acted as a child and as a student. Robert Service's biography on Lenin covered the subject of youth in a grandoise matter; tracing Lenin's roots back a few generations. From what I have heard, Isaah Berlin's biography is the best on Marx; the strong points in this biogrpahy are as follows: Marx's adult social life, the scene in the 19th Century, Engels influence, and MArx's ideas. When I picked this book up I did not think there would be anything to do with Marx's ideas but only details about his life; If you have never read anything on Marx I would say that this book is good b/c Wheen has many excerpts from MArx's life.

Anecdotes and humor -- but a melancholy tale...
This book is chilling reading. It is difficult to put one's finger on the reason why. Perhaps because Karl Marx (1818-1883) was always a distant person - even while he lived As Marxism flickers out, Wheen takes us back in time to find the "historical Marx". A solid grounding in 19th century European history will make reading this work a lot more interesting. Wheen's book is whimsical, eclectic, comprehensive, and humorous, but it presupposes a knowledge of the 19th and 20th century European revolutionary and political history which is rapidly fading from our 21st century minds. This book dwells as much on Marx's family life as on his political life. ----Wheen's work is filled with fascinating anecdotes. It does not explain Karl Marx, but this man was so complicated that no one (including himself) may have ever understood his motivations. He was a family man, deeply devoted to his wife and six children, four of whom died before he did. (The other two who took their own lives!) On the other hand he quarreled with and was hated by scores - if not hundreds - of former friends. Karl Marx was not a likeable man. This book uncovers hundreds of gems about his life that most persons who studied "Marxism" or "Communism" would never stumble on: for example, the moves in a chess game he played in 1867 (he lost!). That he was precocious, to the point of being expelled from Prussia, France, and Belgium - each time by royal order - before he reached 30 years of age. While many are vaguely aware of Marx's friendship with Friedrich Engels, how many know that it began when Marx was 26 and Engels was 23? Or that Engels was one of only 11 persons present at Marx's funeral 37 years later! Wheen has done an excellent job on a very difficult topic!

Let us now praise famous ragamuffins!
As the reader below observed, this book was a chilling read. Marx was a very strange fellow and this reading this book felt like surveying the scene of a car accident. It hurts to continue but one finds themselves so intrigued that they can hardly stop. For my part, I disagree thoroughly with just about every idea Marx had. Still, I thought it refreshing to read a biography of the man that objectively treated Marx as human first, ragamuffin later; Unlike the brief essay on him in Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals," which is meant only to slam Marx and infuriate the reader.

I took half a star away for the a-little-less-than-constant humor (or so the author thought.) At first it was mildly amusing, probably do to its gauche inapropriateness. After the first few chapters though, it became a nuisance. How about this one? "Like another Marx, Karl did not want to belong to any club that would have him as a member." PUKE!!

The other half star is deducted for a suggestion the author makes about three-quarters through, when discussing Das Kapital. He suggests that Marx did not mean Kapital to be a work of science, but a work of ART (he means this literally, not figuratively.) His evidence? Marx refered to Kapital as his "work of art" (my guess, this is metaphor). Also, the author argues, if Marx had already summed up the themes of Kapital in a speech a few years earlier (he did), then why did he write a 1000 page tome espousing the same ideas (he did). Honestly, with flimsy evidence like that, this claim looks utterly ridiculous - not to mention likely insulting to any Marxist or person who takes Marx seriously as a thinker. Enough to cost half a star.

Otherwise, this book is an unbiased, humanistic read that plays just like a novel. Marx, of course, is a far superior character than any author could ever devise and in the end, my bet is that whether you love or hate him, you will find yourselves modifying your opinion to ambivalence as Marx (the person, not the manifesto) is much too complicated to love or hate.

Top Marx
I would not have imagined that a biography of Karl Marx could be such an entertaining and interesting read. This was. Much more has been written about the 'ism' than the man. This is a fascinating insight into his life, his poverty, his exile, his contradictions as well as his thinking.

What was most noticeable was the remarkable loyalty of Engels - friend, ghost-writer and benefactor - who even became a stranger in a strange land (Capitalism) to help finance publication of Marx's ideas, often in the face of staggering procrastination by the latter.

This is a very readable account of the life and carbunkles of one of the last century's most influential figures.

Disappointing, and deeply so
Let's write a book about Karl Marx which wants to talk about the Man, rather than simply about the Ideas. Sounds great, right? Except that in Wheen's hands, the relationship of the life to the ideas and the ideas to the life are brutally banalized.

The opportunity to write a good biography obviously presented itself, but what we have instead is some charming personal biography by a man who does not grasp the smallest part of Marx's ideas nor any meaningful engagement with Marx's political activity.

This book is so lame on the theoretical level that one would think that Wheen spent too much time reading old Stalinist schoolbooks on Marx, avoiding any actual scholarly work, such as Debord, C.J. Arthur, the journals Common Sense and Capital and Class, the work of Lukacs, Korsch, Adorno, Horkheimer, Rubin, etc. Wheen's treatment of the politics is less than worthless and mars his obviously generous sentiment towards Marx the man because Wheen simply cannot grapple with Marx as a whole human being.

Instead, we are treated to tawdry discussions of Marx's 'psychologically induced illnesses' every time deadlines came due. And these are tawdry not for being uninteresting, but because we never get a sense of the juxtaposition between Marx the researcher (who happily spent a great deal of time in the London Library system) and Marx the writer who did not simply hate deadlines, but who struggled with the content and style of each line he wrote. We never get any sense of why Marx might be the single most influential thinker of the last 150 years.

I gave it two stars because I do not see Wheen as intentionally malicious, but as merely incompetent. In a world where malicious intent and lack of scholarly scruple towards Marx seems welcome, this is not the worst book ever written on the man, but certainly not one worth reading. ... Read more

Book Description

New editions of Elspeth Huxley's stirring account of her childhood in Kenya and her novel of the destructive forces of colonization.

In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases, and discovered--the hard way--the world of the African. With an extraordinary gift for detail and a keen sense of humor, Huxley recalls her childhood on the small farm at a time when Europeans waged their fortunes on a land that was as harsh as it was beautiful. For a young girl, it was a time of adventure and freedom, and Huxley paints an unforgettable portrait of growing up among the Masai and Kikuyu people, discovering both the beauty and the terrors of the jungle, and enduring the rugged realities of the pioneer life. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

classic autobio of girl's colonial african life
strikingly similar to dineson's 'out of africa', 'flame trees' is a woman-in-colonial-africa's autobiographical memoir, written even more cleanly and elegantly, though from a girl's view. just like dineson, there's only the trace of real plot driving things along, but nonetheless the well-described observations of life on a remote african farm combined with a certain curiousity about how things will end up are compelling enough to carry this book along in a very satisfying way. if not already clear, these two books make very nice companions, and huxley also wrote a second book that's probably worth a look. &, if you start to hanker for this niche but highly worthwhile genre of rare 'adventurous great women writers of the mid-20th century' check out my listmania list.

Embers from the age of empire
This book is on the same sort of rank and the same genre as Out of Africa. A literary autobiography set in Kenya during an uncertain and enterprising colonial era before the First World War.

It's strongest elements include a deep sensitivity to the travails of animal life up against white hunters and farmers, very full accounts of the Kikuyu people and their rivalries with other Africans and it also paints a vivid portrait of pioneering planters and their servants in the shadow of the Great War.

The vantage of the book is greater than that of Out of Africa by Blixen being a less personal tale. it is a faithful, sometimes harrowing tale culled from an excellent store of memories representing times and scenes gone by. Huxley is not short on romance and tragedy.

This book is an ideal companion to those interested in the British Empire and African anthropology. For naturalists it provides breathtaking accounts of white hunters and their quarry as a retrospective commentary on man's abuse of Africa's wild heritage. Huxley writes quietly, sensitively and impartially providing philosophic insights in a heuristic and magical narrative. Always compelling, this is an important primary text.

Entertaining and tedious, both
I enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book, but after awhile found all the tiny details tedious. Every noun has six adjectives.

My basic quibble is that it is supposedly from the point of view of a seven year old child, but her thoughts and observations are those of an adult. Is this Huxley remembering at age 46, or is this supposed to be what a seven-year old observed?

At one moment we have a child, playing in the yard with chameleons and the next a child who understands the love affairs of adults.

Well, that's the problem with a memoire that tries to be a novel, and fails, I might add.

I've read it 3 times (once aloud) and seen the movie twice
What a wonderful book, a wonderful writer, a wonderful world, at least from the child's point of view. Growing up in Kenya, the only child of would-be coffee plantation owners among the Kikuyu tribesmen, Elspeth Huxley comes of age is an unimaginable world which comes to an abrupt end as war begins.

Extraordinary!
The African landscape and the people in "The Flame Trees of Thika" became so real to me that I grieved when the book ended. Six-year-old Elspeth Huxley's parents and friends became my parents and friends. Elspeth said of Tilly, her perfectionist mother, "it was the details others might not notice that destroyed her, the pleasure of achievement." However Robin, Elspeth's idealistic father, "as a rule, had his mind on distant greater matters always much more promising and congenial than those closer at hand."
Other notable characters included Elspeth's neighbors the beautiful, Lattice and her formal husband, Hereward, the kindly Ian, their house guest, who was in love with Lattice; Juma, their Swahili cook, Sammy their Masai/Kikuyu headman and Njombo, the Kikuju laborer's spokesman.
Huxley has the rare ability to understand and convey the culture and viewpoint of both the European colonial settlers and the Kikuyu and Masai people. The materialistic Europeans were critical of the nomadic Kikuyus who do not aspire to change, tame, possess or improve the countryside. The Kikuya, in turn, were mystified at the white man's sense of property ownership and the concept of theft. For the Kikuyu helping yourself to the possessions of the white man "was no more robbing than to take the honey from wild bees."
At the heart of the story is the beauty and the challenge of life in Africa in the early 20th Century. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Lots of information but - yawn - hard work to get to it.
Turgid. There is no question this book is based on genuine and scholarly research. But the ordinary but informed reader is better leaving this one to the academicians.

Comprehensive and Detailed - an Existensialist Must Read.
Bair works really hard at making it clear that Sartre and De Beauvoir were two sides of the same coin. Larger than life as always but deeply and painfully human too. Despite the eventual demise of their "professional" relationship, and the eventual move of Sartre to study Flaubert and De Beauvior to her feminist crusade, the two are inextricably linked. Did she really have as much control (specially in the end) over Sartre and his life? We will never know. What Bair does though is succeed in making her human more than all of De Beauvior's work ever could. Despite the fact that De Beauvior and Sartre are larger than life, and they always will be, Bair makes her subject - human, vulnerable and understandable. It is comprehensive and exhaustive journey (despite whatever errors there might be), one worth taking at any junction in the readers Existential journey.

Bad book!
According to Claude Lanzmann there are several major errors which do occur in Bairs book, and basically it's gives a rotten and unworthy presentation of de Beauvoirs life and work.

/Leah Greber

Complete
Really, this book was a page-turner, a book of facts so well-written it made one want to know more, more, more, even when the knowing was almost painful out of de Beauvoir empathy. I wanted to read it as a companion to de Beauvoir's autobiographical series and was particularly grateful to Bair for pointing out incidents in which de Beauvoir "guilded the lily" when she recounted her own life. De Beauvoir's autobiography and this make perfect companions for a study on auto/biography and its subjectivication. (Also see Silent Woman by Janet Malcom.)

I had read previous biographical material on de Beauvoir, but none I ever felt was so complete, and helped me to know her so well. I strongly recommend this as history, literary criticism, psychology and philosophy.

Too repetitive, lacks analysis of her works and her ideology
The value of this biography is that it adds new facts andcorrects some of SdB's own mis- representations of her life. But it'stoo repetitive, often concentrating on insignficant chronologies of her trips, etc. Lacks sufficient explanation of the stultifying catholic education she rejected early in her life (was it guilt-inducing jansenistic sexophobia, the doctrine of a caring God, etc) or of the basic existentialist tenets which guided her life, such as the self-creating life project, absolute responsiblity for choices, etc. Badly in need of a final summing up chapter listing and analyzing the very disparate opinions about the contradictions and import of this amazing woman, eg was it unfathomable tenderness or simply self-delusion that enabled her to transform the ecstasy she felt with Nelson Algren into the sublimest and most poignant love affair? In many aspects of her life SdB could be a example for many women, but after reading this book one is still left wondering how and why. ... Read more

Book Description

"This masterpiece of history and biography turns the real-life adventures of Burton into a riveting tale...The last great word on the last great explorer of the colonial age." -Wall Street Journal.

A New York Times best seller when it was first published, Rice's biography is the gripping story of a fierce, magnetic, and brilliant man whose real-life accomplishments are the stuff of legend. Rice retraces Burton's steps as the first European adventurer to search for the source of the Nile; to enter, disguised, the forbidden cities of Mecca and Medina; and to travel through remote stretches of India, the Near East, and Africa. From his spying exploits to his startling literary accomplishments (the discovery and translation of the Kama Sutra and his seventeen-volume translation of Arabian Nights), Burton was an engrossing, larger-than-life Victorian figure, and Rice's splendid biography lays open a portrayal as dramatic, complicated, and compelling as the man himself. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Great research, poor writing
Very well researched, this book reads more like a textbook than a literary piece. One would expect more from an author of 20+ books, though laying out the vast amount of information Edward Rice has gathered is no easy task. Albeit we should pay tribute to his concern for accuracy and discussing different accounts of Burton's life, the reader is easily distracted by too many details and the author's constant digression. But if you're patient enough to get through, you'll be fascinated by the adventures of Sir Richard Burton and his erudition. A geographer, explorer, linguist, writer, soldier, diplomat and a spy, he traveled through four continents, describing in immeasurable detail the cultures, traditions and places he experienced.

Burton lived a remarkable life and this is the definitive account. If you want to go deep into his life and adventures this is the book to get. But if you're looking for some light reading or entertaining adventures, search somewhere else.

The Definitive Biography...
This is by far one of the best biographies I've read in recent times. Not only is the subject matter astonishing, capturing the life of one of the most exciting figures of the 19th century, the author focuses on the man's profuse writings, thankfully leaving out the once fashionable psychoanalytic approach of interpretation when writing biography. This is the third life history I've read on Richard Burton, and it's certainly the finest written and the most thorough.

Those of you, who are not familiar with R.F. Burton, are in for a thrilling reading experience. This man, probably more so than Byron himself, is the archetypal Byronic figure of the age: a linguist, (29 languages and numerous dialects), scholar of eastern literature and religion, particularly the mystical arm of Islam, Sufi; a practicing mystic; explorer of Africa (co-discoverer of the source of the Nile); a secret agent working for her majesty during England's acquisition of India's wealth, known to historians as 'The Great Game'. He was also one of the first white men, who made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, and as Rice argues, Burton was and continued to be a practicing Muslim, therefore his pilgrimage was deeply religious as well as a journey of danger and adventure. Burton was dashing, an expert swordsman and horseman, and a prolific writer, poet and translator who rank as one of the best of his time.

Burton is known to most as one of the scholars who brought 'The Arabian Nights' to the West...he heard a lot of the tales through the Persian oral tradition; memorized them in their original language, and sat around many a camp fire in the desert, re-telling these wonderful stories to anyone who would listen. Burton was a storyteller in the truest sense. But 'The Arabian Nights' only scratches the surface of his many translations from eastern literature - 'The Kama Sutra of Vatsyaya' and 'The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology', to name an infamous few...

What impressed me most about Burton was his alarming intellectual curiousity, his exhaustive industry as a recorder of foreign cultures. While other 'gentleman' of his time would rather murder the wildlife to take back to their drawing rooms, to then hang on their walls, Burton preferred to sketch and write about the places and people he came across in his travels to then share with the rest of us. He was an incessant scribbler. The man's thirst for life was daunting and this magnetic soul ensured he did not waste a minute of it...

Edward Rice's ~Captain Sir Richard Frances Burton~ is the definitive biography.

Fascinating, and riveting.
Rice's treatment of Burton's life is extraordinary, and the definitive biography of this man's many lives. If this were a novel the reader would find the narrative impossible. All the more to admire in this biography of one of the most unlikely, curious, and talented characters of the nineteenth century.

Drier than the Sind
I read this book back-to-back with "The Unequalled Self", Claire Tomalin's biography of the 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys. There is little connecting the two other than they are both biographies of interesting historical figures. But whereas Tomalin's book magnificently brings Pepys to life, Rice's biography of Sir Richard does a good job of mummifying his subject. That he manages to write such a sullen and lumbering screed about one of the most romantic and dashing figures of the 19th century--and surely a model for Ian Fleming's James Bond?--is remarkable. Much should have been left out, not least numerous tangential chapters on secondary characters and esoteric subjects of little interest to the casual reader. The story only becomes interesting when Burton departs for Mecca, and that's over one-hundred pages in. I was also frustrated by the photographs and sketches reproduced in the book, which are of too poor quality to be of interest or use. Maps would have been a much better idea - despite having a relatively good grasp of georgraphy I frequently lost track of Burton's peregrinations. In sum, I would probably give this book four or five stars if I was an academic searching for a historically balanced tome on Burton. But if you are a casual reader, and someone who wants to be excited and inspired by Burton's life, look elsewhere.

First-class biography
What an excellent read! Price's narrative and research are wonderful. This book deserves a prominent place in the library of anyone interseted in African/Middle-eastern history. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

It's like "Chicken Soup" for your head...
As someone that grew up listening to Paul Harvey on the radio it was pure bliss to find his "The Rest of the Story..." vignettes compiled and published.

Betch ya can't read just one! ... Read more

Reviews (9)

An Intriguing Woman
Catherine thhe Great, the little teenage Princess who came from germanic heritage, developed into a scheming, pitiless, yet loving ruler. The author takes us through her development with wonderful descriptions of those times. One can compare her reign in Russia with the development of the American Revolution and be astonished at the paths of the two nations. It is well worth reading and helps us understand the Russia of that time and of later times.

I love this book
This is a book about a woman who wasn't perfect but had great intentions and made the best of her situation. I admire Catherine the Great immensely

Great book of a women who knew what she wanted
The daughter of a minor German prince, it almost easy to imagine Catherine the Great came to the throne by accident. But Catherine had a mission. Almost from the day she was chosen to be the wife of Grand Duke Peter, Catherine set her sights on greater power. She suceeded, some say by murdering her own husband, Tsar Peter III.

Catherine lead the Russians in the battle for the Crimea, eventually winning the region for the empire. The book also goes extensively into the many loves of Catherine. But short of using them to define who the Tsarina was, Troyat treats them as the diversion that Catherine saw them as.

Catherine saw herself as a liberal monarch. In fact, she regularly corresponded with Volraire and Diderot. But in the end, Catherine's main accomplishment was the maintain the power of the monarchy.

Great Book
This is a skillfully written story of a great Russian Czarina. This biography reads like a novel and keeps the reader's attention to the very end. This is one of the few historic books on Russia written by a non-Russian author that paints an honest and accurate picture of the Russian life and politics of that period. I recommend this book to everyone interested in history, intrigue and romance.

Awesome book
I read this book for a school project, expecting it to be boring. But the way the book was written made it really easy to understand. I like the author, and I think this is his best work. This is a great way to get information, or to just read for fun. I reccomend this book to everyone! (but watch out for the Russian names! ) ... Read more

Book Description

In all its glittering splendor and decadence, here is the uncensored story of a family bred for glory, and destined for tragedy.

The jewel in the crown of Europe's lush Cote D'Azur, the fiercely independent principality of Monaco gleams like a diamond above the Mediterranean. This playground of the rich and beautiful reached its zenith with Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and their three children-- until Grace's tragic death in 1982. As the myth began to crumble, scandal rocked Monaco in every way, from its institutions to its image to the royal family itself. Now, through searching interviews with family members, personal friends, and long-time courtiers, the intimate, shocking truths about Monaco are explored in vivid detail, including:

* The ancient Curse of the Grimaldis and its legacy of misfortune
* The never-before-told story of Princess Grace's abortion before she married Prince Rainier
* New details about Princess Grace on the night before she died, and her death in a Monaco hospital
* The alleged secret plot to destroy Princess Stephanie's marriage
* The appalling rumors about the death of Stefano Casiraghi, Princess Caroline's second husband
* The wild love life of Prince Albert and the rumors that haunt him

With eight pages of dramatic photos!
... Read more

Reviews (11)

A terrific read. Riveting.
I've long been intrigued by the Grimaldis of Monaco and trying to seperate fact from fiction. Therefore I was delighted to read about a new book on the subject and expected the usual fluff and conjecture that passes for many biographies.After buying the Royal House of Monaco I sat down and found I could not put it down.Glatt's in-depth study of Monaco after the death of Princess Grace gives a new insight into the principality and made me see for the first time the immeasurable effect the American film star had.The book is written clearly and consisely and really gives the reader a picture of Rainier and his children that scrapes away the tabloid headlines. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the real story of fairytale Monaco and Glatt must have hit a real nerve as I read that the Grimaldis unsuccessfully tried to stop its publication in the U.S.

Couldn't put it down
For those who feel the Brits have the dysfunctional royal family from hell, this book about the Grimaldis of Monaco will be an eye-opener. It covers Grace's marriage to Rainier--an unhappy sham of a marriage contrived to boost Monaco's economy, ending with Grace's tragic death due to a stroke while driving. Roughly half of the book covers the three troubled children, Caroline, Albert, and Stephanie, who are, to put it politely, a handful. We follow the two daughters through their teenage rebellions, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, troubled marriages, and (in Stephanie's case) drug problem; one cannot help but sympathize with their troubled parents and the heartbreak they've experienced watching their daughters destroy their lives. The sole son, Albert, is the most responsible of the three siblings, but even he is still 'sowing wild oats' at an age when he should be thinking about creating an heir to the throne. It's a gossipy sort of book--not an academic tome--but readers with some familiarity with Princess Grace will be fascinated.

"Royals" without the lies
John Glatt pens a more truthful version of "The Royals," with less favoritism and more fact. Admittedly this isn't the British royal family (who have provided us with entertainment for many years) but a lesser-known (and no less juicy) dynasty, the Grimaldi's of Monaco.

Monaco first came to attention when Prince Rainier married the film star Grace Kelly, who brought glamor and modernity to the teeny little country. Grace's past -- involving multiple love affairs -- was swept out of sight as she ascended to the glamorous -- and severely stress-inducing -- position of princess, wife and mother. Rarely happy in her long and paparazzi-studded marriage, she nevertheless gave it her darndest and died tragically and suddenly when she was starting to find fulfillment again.

The book shifts focus after Grace's death in a car accident, to her three *ahem* spirited children: Caroline, who married one playboy after another, got pregnant out of wedlock, and once burst out of her top at a club, then had to shift into the social position that her mother left vacant. Albert, a playboy himself, who played around with one woman after another but wouldn't make even a vestige of commitment--even to one ex-girlfriend who had his baby, Tamara Rotolo. Stephanie, who shocked Monaco with her wild antics, drug use, explicit singing career and wild modelling career, bodyguard live-in boyfriend, and humiliating divorce after marrying said boyfriend.

Sound like a tabloid? Well, that's a royal family for you. Fortunately, Glatt doesn't speculate on the inner thoughts of the Grimaldi family (said to be under a curse from a witch raped by a Grimaldi) but allows their actions to speak alone. His writing style is pleasant to read, and gives us insights that other biographers apparently didn't get. I especially enjoyed the interviews with Cassini (Grace's ex-fiancee) Robyns who wrote a steamy biography but edited it at Grace's request, excerpts from members of the Grimaldi family, and from people who knew/know them.

This is hardly flawless. He describes Grace as a devout/militant Catholic, yet chronicles love affairs (with men married and single), an abortion, astrology beliefs, etc. Sorry, these are not the actions of a "militant" Catholic, though admittedly it is possible that she confessed these to a priest (something we will never know). He does occasionally linger on stuff that is more than we want to know, but it does give us a good look at the Grimaldis.

Stephanie, Caroline and Albert have already been in the spotlight, tabloidwise, so I suppose Glatt felt that there was no real reason to sugarcoat things. Rainier gets away the easiest, for though he was unfaithful to Grace during their marriage, very little space is given to it (as compared to Albert's girlfriends, Stephanie's partying days, etc).

In recent years the Grimaldis seem to have calmed down, but this book is nevertheless a heckuva read. If you liked the Royals but didn't like the made-up parts, try this book on for size.

Not bad, as far as it goes
Make no mistake, this is a book by a journalist, not a historian, and it reads that way. If that's what you're looking for going in, this will most likely satisfy your curiosity.

Although the subtitle mentions the Grimaldi 'dynasty,' 70 percent or so of the book is about the, um, 'complex' personal lives of Princesses Caroline and Stephanie and Prince Albert, the three children of Rainier and Grace. There's little effort to put the dynasty or the principality in more than the immediate historical context, and although Rainier is frequently described as an absolute monarch or even 'Europe's last dictator' (which isn't even true), matters of state take a distinct back seat to the 'glamour, tragedy, and scandal.'

This is too bad. One of the most interesting assertions in the whole book was a comment from one of Glatt's sources to the effect that the Grimaldis were not becoming tawdry, but rather had always BEEN tawdry, and had hidden that fact behind a false front of elegance while Princess Grace was alive. I don't know if that's true or not: Glatt unfortunately lets the statement pass almost unanalyzed.

Glatt is to be commended, at least, for the variety of his sources, including several who (at least according to Glatt himself) had never spoken on the record before. While the book frequently reads like an extended essay in People magazine, Glatt avoids the temptation of acting omniscient about his subjects' thoughts and motivations. When they act inexplicably (which is disturbingly often), he says so. Glatt's tone is respectful and polite, but he didn't pull his punches. As someone who only paid cursory attention to the Grimaldis, I think I have a better understanding (and a lower opinion) of them as a result of this book.

A worthwhile read, all in all, for monarchy fans whose interests lie more in the personal than the political, the contemporary rather than the historical.

Behind the Palace Walls
This book gives us a glimpse into the private lives of the most glamourous royals of all, the Grimaldis. Ever since Princess Grace entered the shores of Monaco the world was never the same. ... Read more

Book Description

In Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, acclaimed historian Frederic Spotts presents a startling reassessment of Hitler's aims and motivations. Spotts, whose Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival received rave reviews on both sides of the ocean-The New York Times said "Spotts is sane, trustworthy and continuously absorbing"-convincingly demonstrates that Hitler did not think of himself as a politician, but as an artist, and that he essentially bewitched the German public with his rhetoric, ceremonies, and rallies, instilling in them a sense of national pride and unity, as well as a fanatical devotion to himself. At the same time, Spotts argues, Hitler's obsession with the arts led him to impose his personal taste and standards on music, painting, architecture, and even stage design.

Unlike the traditional biographical view that Hitler was an "unperson," who had no life outside of politics, Spotts shows that Hitler's interest in the arts was as intense as his racism and his argument is punctuated with photographs and illustrations, including reproductions of Hitler's watercolors and drawings from his 1925 sketchbook. The book offers the first full analysis of Hitler's own work as a painter, as well as of his art collection. It also treats the entire range of his personal interests: from architecture, painting, symphony, opera, and sculpture, to the German autobahn system and the development of the Volkswagen.

A riveting and highly original work, Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics provides a key to an understanding of the Third Reich which has, until now, been missing from biographies and studies of the arts in the Third Reich, as well as from political and military studies of Hitler. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A Tremendous Achievement
This is the book that I wanted to write. That having been said, I think Mr. Spotts did a considerably better job of it that I ever could. It is impossible to begin to understand Adolf Hitler without understanding his aesthetic approach to the world as he wanted it to be. Usually, histories and biographies of Hitler dismiss his interest in art as either sub-bourgeois sentimentality or propaganda-oriented. This book is intelligent enough not to take either of these tacks, and as a result delivers an exhaustive and meaningful account of how Hitler was, ultimately, an artist who achieved political power.

I wrote an initial paper on the subject in college (imagine how popular that was), but my thesis centered primarily on Hitler's hopes for his art career and the psychological issues underlying his artistic preferences. This book addresses the former, but not the latter, I think quite rightly. What Spotts does, which I would never have been able to do, is exhaustively examine Hitler's work schedules and attendance at specific meetings and events, not to mention budget allocations. This establishes without question the priorities he put on various components of the arts, versus politics or even the business of fighting the war.

Spotts is mostly objective, or mildly condemnatory. This makes for a more focused read.

I think this is the only book I have ever seen on Amazon.com where all the reviews are five stars. It absolutely deserves it.

A revelation. A very important book.
I had never previously read books that dealt with Hitler or World War II before reading this one. Like every other Baby Boomer, I've seen enough films and TV shows to write my own WWII movie that most people would probably find credible. What we know of the war is about the fighting, the arrests of those pronounced "undesirable" by the Nazis, children denouncing their parents to the authorities, the concentration camps, etc. The Germany that Hitler presented to his people was a forward-looking state of culture and enlightenment, the acme of modern civilization. People want to believe the best about themselves. Hitler had an instinctive sense of theatre, a passion for ritual, and the desire to make everyone in the entire world subservient to him, as well as the power to squelch all opposition. In some ways, he was visionary. The Volkswagen was mostly his idea. (It was created to justify his building of the Autobahn, which is still one of the wonders of modern Germany.) But he wanted everyone to have HIS taste. Only his taste was acceptable. Everything else was either kitsch or decadent. Disagreement meant losing one's job in most cases or, in some extreme cases, a one-way ticket to Auschwitz. Of course, the most troubling aspect of Hitler was how he could have gotten so many people to go along with him. For me this book explains it. I think this is an important book that made me see things from a different perspective. Parts of the book made me drop my jaw. "Awesome" is an overused word, but it really is the applicable term here. The author made me extremely interested in a subject that basically had little appeal for me. I want to do a lot more reading about this subject now. Spotts' book is a knockout. It gets five stars from me.

Amazing
An amazing read. I have read a lot about Mr.Hitler and the National Socialist Movement, and I have see references to Mr. Hitler's artistic bends. However to see all of it in a single book..AMAZING. Nothing can take away the horror of 1933-1944 in Germany and Europe, but to think that the whole purpose, in the eyes of the dictator was to create beauty. Adolf Hitler wanted to create a world of absolute German neo-classical art and society. In and of itself, not a bad goal, but not an achieveable goal, and espscially in the way it was attempted!
An amazing new angle at the often flat and one sided person of Adolf Hitler.

A must read book
Absolutely compelling. No other writer can dissect the great paradox as much as Spotts. Hitler, being an artist whose role was to create, killed and annihilated Jews for the sake of Aryan supremacy. Hitler psychologically manipulated people by showing massive shows and major productions (with all the lighting effects) similar to all the processions and religious practices done by the church. People looked up to him as if they were experiencing epiphany.

Hitler was a great fan of the arts. He loved the opera, theater and spent most of his time on how Berlin could be a perfect city for all his architectural ambitions. He was a product of all his artistic frustrations that stemmed when he was rejected in the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He commissioned people to take care of Munich so that it would be the center of the arts and remove the title from its Vienese rival. Certainly, avoiding anything that is modern and jewish.

Spotts took a lot of references especially from Mein Kampf. This book is a must read to understand the psychology why Hitler succumbed to his own good intentions and to his end.

Cyanide Capsules Are Available At The Door...
Do we really need another book about "Der Fuhrer"? Surprisingly, if the book is this one, the answer is yes. Because this book looks at Hitler from a different angle- one that is pretty much unknown to the layperson: this book is about the "sensitive," "artistic," and "cultivated" Hitler. As you might expect when using such words in connection with Hitler, contradictions abound. The man who could weep while listening to the music of Wagner is the same man who, the moment he came to power, fired or drove into exile musicians and artists he didn't approve of: Jews, Bolsheviks, Modernists, etc. On the other hand, if he liked you personally and thought you were talented, he would sometimes look the other way- he supported, or at least didn't harass, several people who were Jewish or who disagreed with him politically. Some of you may have winced when I used the word "cultivated" in connection with Hitler. But, consider the following: he was very well read (and had a tremendous, possibly photographic, memory); he was a competent, though unimaginative, artist- he could draw and paint as well as your average art school student (and he was completely self-taught); he knew a tremendous amount about the operas of Wagner, and was a good judge of opera singers; he was knowledgeable about architecture, could make architectural sketches, and could intelligently discuss technical aspects of the craft, etc. Having said that, we must remember the flip-side- Hitler was very narrowminded. His love of art was pretty much limited to 19th century German Romantics and some of the painters of the Italian Renaissance. He thought all modern art- which for him started with the Impressionists- was trash, and decadent to boot. He loved opera, but only Wagner and Puccini. He didn't much care for other music- he wasn't really enthusiastic about Beethoven, Mozart, etc. He couldn't stand Brahms, although he eventually did develop a taste for Bruckner. He thought modern music, with its dissonances and atonality, was horrible. In architecture, he admired the Greeks and Romans- but in his building plans for the Third Reich everything had to be magnified to colossal size to awe people. Glass and steel structures left him cold, although he grudgingly realized he'd have to agree to build skyscrapers if only to show that National Socialist Germany could outdo America. Surprisingly, Hitler generally liked his culture "neat." He didn't want political messages- he wanted high-quality, beautiful, soul-elevating art/music/sculpture. Of course, he would tell you what qualified as high-quality, beautiful, and soul-elevating. It may seem odd, but Hitler was embarrassed by the crudity of his Nazi cronies. The vast majority of them had no interest in art, music and sculpture. They'd be dragged, although only silently kicking and screaming, to Bayreuth for the yearly dose of Wagner. They'd fall asleep and start to snore. No wonder the Little Corporal preferred the company of artists, musicians and sculptors. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that the man who wanted "art" with no political content- "art" that elevated people and helped them to get away from the problems, big and small, of everyday life, succeeded in politicizing culture to an unprecedented degree. This book is a brilliant achievement by Mr. Spotts. It forces us to look at Hitler not as a ranting, foaming-at-the-mouth, caricature, but as a fellow human being with, dare I say it, some positive qualities. Yes, the devil is given his due.....but Mr. Spotts never forgets who or what he is dealing with. Why did I give this review the title I did? Mr. Spotts mentions that it was agreed that, when the end of the "Thousand Year Reich" was at hand, the Berlin Philharmonic would add Bruckner's Fourth Symphony to the programme. On the night of April 13th, 1945, the symphony was finally played. As people filed out of the concert hall afterwards, Hitler Youth were in the lobby, hawking cyanide capsules to interested takers. Poor Bruckner probably turned over in his grave. ... Read more

Book Description

In a story that is both of its time and timeless, Evan I. Schwartz tells a tale of genius and greed, innocence and deceit, and corporate arrogance versus independent brilliance. In other words, the very qualities that have made this country -- for better or for worse -- what it is.

Many men have laid claim to the title "The Father of Television" but Philo T. Farnsworth is the true genius behind what may be the most influential invention of our time. Farnsworth may have ended up a footnote in history, yet he was the first to demonstrate an electronic process for scanning, transmitting and receiving moving images, a discovery that changed the way we live.

Growing up on a small farm in Idaho, Farnsworth was fascinated by anything scientific, especially the newest thing on the market -- radio. Wouldn't it be even more miraculous to project images along with the sound? Driven by his obsession, Farnsworth found a local philanthropist willing to fund his dream. By the age of twenty, in 1926, Farnsworth was operating his own laboratory above a garage in San Francisco and filing his first patent applications. The resulting publicity brought him to the attention of David Sarnoff, the celebrated founder of the NBC radio network, whose own RCA laboratories soon began investigating -- without much success -- a way to transmit a moving image. Determined to control television the way he monopolized radio -- by owning all the royalty producing patents--Sarnoff, from the lofty heights of his office in a New York skyscraper, devised a plan to steal credit for Farnsworth's designs.

Vividly written, and based on original research, including interviews with surviving members of the Farnsworth family The Last Lone Inventor is the story of the epic struggle between two equally passionate adversaries and how their clash symbolized a turning point in the culture of creativity.

Reviews (9)

Great story, but misses a few important relevancies
I loved this book, the story of yet another unsung hero, the lone wolf pioneer, oblivious to the world's thieves, fighting to realize a dream, then getting ripped off for it at the moment of success. Ask yourself: who invented the lightbulb, the telephone, the radio, the airplane? You know the answer. (It might not actually be fully correct, but you can certainly come up with an appropriate name.) Now, who invented television? That is, the means of converting a moving image into a stream of electrons. Stumped? Some people know the names of Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth, but not many. This book is the extremely fascinating story of Philo T. Farnsworth (what a name!) and how one man, David Sarnoff, succeeded in placing in the mind of the public the idea that television was created by him, as the leader of RCA/NBC. Zworykin worked for Sarnoff, and between the two totally ripped off the ideas and even the patents behind the creation of TV. While Farnsworth did receive a minimal amount of credit and some money during his life, in the end his name was buried as far as the public was concerned.

Unfortunately, the author seems oblivious to the fact of similar rip-offs occurring right amongst some of the minor characters of the story, in particular Edison AND Marconi stealing, and trying to keep Tesla from receiving, the credit he deserved for lighting and radio discoveries. Everyone has their own axe to grind, but the fact is if you dig deep enough, there are probably stories like this surrounding every great technological advance.

Anyway, if you at all like the genre, this book is bound to become a classic for you. It's also a great cautionary tale regarding the weaknesses of the patent system as practiced in the USA.

An engaging, quick, entertaining read
More party conversation facts that you can expect to collect from 99/100 other books. A great story, well told. Professionally and rigorously researched. Fun to read.

Quick read, and honest about the prospects of invention
Evan Schwartz has done an excellent job in creating a fast read without the depth of A Beautiful Mind, but interesting nonetheless. His subject is after all a more straightforward individual than John Nash, although Schwartz, like Sylvia Nasar, does explore some of the darker corners of Farnsworth's personality.

Schwartz refreshingly does not engage in positivistic technological whoop-de-doo about the possibility of reviving the status of the lone inventor. During the dot.com boom there was some loose talk about the possibility of the better mousetrap but it is clear that the administered world, that Farnsworth's nemesis in the book (David Sarnoff of RCA) helped to install in the 1920s, makes technological innovation, by the lone inventor, the exception and not the rule.

Schwartz also does an excellent job of balancing the two very different (yet strangely alike) personalities of Philo T. Farnsworth versus "General" Sarnoff, who more or less browbeat Dwight Eisenhower into making him a General for Sarnoff's admirable war record.

For Philo T. Farnsworth belonged more to the 1890s than the administered, corporate world of the 1920s. His name is somewhat odd in that (like Edward G. Nilges) it confesses an unbroken attachment to a family-of-origin, and a need to at one and the same time identify with a clan, yet precisely identify oneself as an individual within the clan.

Sarnoff's name is cooler-sounding and more down-to-business to the modern and indeed the administered ear, and far more than old Philo, Sarnoff was "skilled" (if that is indeed the word) in manipulating, not technical and scientific realities but his relations with his fellow men.

Farnsworth was of course no slouch in the PR department, but Sarnoff was more aware that the effect of illusion could be self-reinforcing, and that Sarnoff could USE the technology (and let others tinker with the technology), as in Schwartz' example of Sarnoff's dog and pony show at the 1939 World's Fair.

Technicians may cry foul, but the unavoidable fact that one technology builds upon another MEANS that the administered world (in Farnsworth's time, of cheap radio buff magazines, in ours, of cheap personal computers) was brought into being by social engineers *malgre lui* like Sarnoff.

But one cannot give old-fashioned credit to the Sarnoffs and the Gates when one admits this fact, and the reason for this is the inseperability of the social illusion they created, and the feeling the rest of us that we have been subtly horn-swoggled.

At the 1939 World's Fair, young David Gerlenter was very impressed by what in fact had little relationship to reality but the illusion created by the Fair urged him not only to participate in the creation of the world of "tomorrow", it also made them enthusiastically not question its ideological presumptions.

Missing, of necessity, in Evan Schwartz' quick read is another (indirect) employee of David Sarnoff, and this is my cherubic but rather gloomy old pal Theodore Adorno.

[The frequency of mention of Adorno may indicate to the unwashed a stalker-like obsession although Adorno died in 1970, or it may indicate that I am on to something Big.]

Adorno was indirectly retained at the Princeton Radio Research project in the 1930s by an RCA funded group that was charged, by Sarnoff, with making radio more high-class, and Schwartz describes Sarnoff's own tastes, which were in the lingo of the day, high-brow.

Walter Damrosch, not "Damrouch" as it is in the book, was a popular classical conductor of the 1930s and performed, as Schwartz recounts, at an RCA celebration. Sarnoff hoped that Adorno, et al., would show him how to market, over radio and possibly television, "quality" programming.

Being an intellectual cousin of Farnsworth in the very different but in fact equally demanding field of sociology, Adorno seems to have disruptively wanted to first theorize the impact of Edison's, Marconi's, and Farnsworth's creations on the listener. Adorno, in a truly pragmatic spirit, wanted to take the material basis into account, but was forestalled from doing so.

Adorno was aware, ten years before the appearance of McLuhan, that the medium, in particular its necessary limitations, might become the message. He theorized that the limitations might be necessary using, not the Aristotelean or Boolean logic familiar to a Farnsworth, but a 'dialectic' call and response logic in which we might actually demand, in the case of music reproduction, the very experience that denies, excludes, an older, and possibly richer, experience.

Of course, the engineer then and now is engaged in finding ways to satisfy demands, and not prove their mutual exclusion, which is why theoretical sociologists are scorned by engineers. But Boolean logic's possibility happens to rest on the bare possibility of knowledge, and one of Farnsworth's limitations was that this blinded him to the importance of PR over and above valid patents.

But rare indeed is the engineer with this range of vision, and as a result, engineers, in reading this book, might be subtly encouraged to POLARIZE the urban and cosmopolite world of Sarnoff versus the more down-to-earth, nuts and bolts, ham and ham sandwich world of an Edison or Farnsworth. With the result that such men grow old without grace, and the ultimate justification of the technology is biased towards destruction.

Fascinating and well-executed
For science and invention-history buffs, this is a no-brainer, but even the non-technoid layperson will find this a fascinating and fast-paced read. The author does an excellent job of presenting the key characters' development and motiviation, interspersing very fluidly the important biographical details of both Farnsworth and Sarnoff with appropriate and necessary background information on the technological evolution that eventually drew their lives together.

Schwartz achieves an entertaining balance between the social history of television and radio, the scientific minutae of the early growth of these technologies, and the personal lives of the individuals involved. Without becoming self-righteous or dogmatic, he lets the reader know where he stands on the issue of scientific integrity versus commercial exploitation, and succeeds in proving his underlying thesis that Farnsworth was truly one of the last of his breed. Finely researched and tightly written, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book.

Why can't we learn from the past?
Looking for precedence in the desktop PC operating system wars? The battle for television standard supremacy is exhibit ABC!

Similar to Microsoft's grab for OS hegemony in the 1980s and 1990s, RCA outmaneuvered archrivals AT&T, Westinghouse, Philco to capture the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of the American public. And while the battle was fought by the best minds Corporate America could muster, it was a lone inventor by the name of Philo T Farnsworth who gave RCA all it could handle on the innovation front, but was eventually outgunned by RCA honcho and master marketeer David Sarnoff, who perfectly played the courts to outlast the brilliant but business-challenged entrepreneur.

In fact, the story is reminiscent of IBM's early 1980s investigation for a PC operating system. Computer geeks might remember that at that time Digital Research's CP/M was considered the best of breed PC operating system, and Big Blue was desperate to have it power its fledgling IBM PC. IBM execs, however, couldn't get a meeting with CP/M's inventor Gary Kildall (IBM had arranged to meet him at home, but Kildall was off flying his plane, leaving his wife Dorothy to negotiate a deal but she wouldn't sign a non-disclosure agreement.). So Big Blue sought alternatives, eventually striking a deal with Microsoft for an operating system the then infant company didn't yet have rights to (which was eventually called MS-DOS). And the rest, as they say ... is history!

Sarnoff bluffed, licensed and marketed his way into the television space. Farnsworth like Kildall, was almost too bright for his own good. He thought the game would be decided by the technical merits of his product. That wasn't the case then -- nor is it now. It's not who invents the better mousetrap that wins; it's who defines, controls and spins the battle to suit his ends. It's marketing muscle not technological superiority -- as Microsoft has proven time and again.

Kildall died battered and bruised (physically and emotionally) not unlike Farnsworth who passed on as a penniless and forgotten man.

I could easily see this book turned into a major motion picture: Johnnie Depp in the Farnsworth role; Bob Hoskins as Sarnoff. But don't wait for the movie. This book is a page-turner -- you won't be disappointed. Farnsworth, like Kildall, can't be forgotten. It's books like this that guarantee he won't. ... Read more

Book Description

Wheeler Thackstons lively new translation of The Jahangirnama, co-published with the Freer/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, presents an engaging portrait of an intriguing emperor and his flourishing empire.

The Emperor Jahangir is probably best know in the West as being the father of Shahjahan, who built the Taj Mahal.His reign was one of great prosperity, and his passion for art and nature encouraged a flowering that some say rivaled