God's Secret Agents

Just started reading Hogge's book yesterday. Just the thing for these cold winter days and nights.

Woodrow Wilson

Finished reading Auchincloss' book. Most notable, in my opinion, were multiple references to Wilson's dream of establishing a league of nations and, especially in light of our own time, questions concerning his mental condition late into his second term.

Family of Spies

Sound familiar? Nazis. ICE. What's the difference?

"One morning, soon after Otto arrived at his office, there was a knock on the door. Several men burst through and dragged him from his chair, hustling him into a black sedan without any explanation and speeding away." 

Patriotism

"More and more he [Mark Twain] doubted the ability of the American public to exercise independent judgment and believed that most people parroted what they heard from politicians and the press. Questioning what constituted true patriotism, he grew enraged by the expression 'Our country, right or wrong!' In his notebook, he commented: 'We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had:--the individual's right to oppose both flag & country when he . . . believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; & with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.' In an unpublished essay, 'As Regards Patriotism,' he discussed the culture's frightening power to brainwash or bully people into their political beliefs and 'debase angels to men and lift men to angelship. And it can do any one of these miracles in a year -- even in six months.' -- Chernow, Mark Twain

A Woman of No Importance

It is the rare book that I read more than once. But after watching several episodes of French Village on PBS, I knew I had to revisit Sonia Purnell's account of Virginia Hall's contribution to the French Résistance during WWII. To my way of thinking, this is the only way to truly capture both the tragedy and the triumph of those terrible years in France, namely through the experiences of people like the so-called Madonna of the Mountains.

Eighteenth Amendment

I probably should have remembered this from earlier readings about the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. There were loopholes. One had to do with purchases of alcoholic beverages before ratification. For example:

"In New Orleans civic leader Walter Parker, a member of the Stratford Club, built two new wine cellars in his house, purchased a stock of more than five thousand bottles, and proceeded to dip into it daily for the next fourteen years. In Los Angeles, Charlotte Hennessy, mother of actress Mary Pickford, simply bought the entire inventory of a liquor store and hat it relocated to her basement." -- Daniel Okrent, Last Call

Jack Slade

Enjoying reading Ron Chernow's Mark Twain, including this excerpt:

"In Roughing It, he [Sam Clemens] would tell how he was intrigued by colorful legends about Jack Slade, a stagecoach agent in the Rocky Mountains, reputed to be a homicidal maniac. He wrote that Slade liked to postpone murderous vengeance against enemies 'just as a school-boy saves up a cake, and made the pleasure go as far as it would by gloating over the anticipation.' Since rumor had it that Slade had killed twenty-six people, Twain allegedly sought him out on the ninth day of his journey west, but found a quiet, affable man, not a monster. When the coffee was running out, Slade offered to refill Sam's cup instead of his own, but Sam 'politely declined. I was afraid he had not killed anybody that morning, and might be needing a diversion.'" (Chernow, p. 74)

Last Call

Something decidedly appropriate about reading Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition while enjoying a cup of tea. Curious the relationships between prohibition and abolitionism, brewers and distillers, as well as between the temperance and suffragist movements.

Operation Columba

I think there must be something about the nature of war that occasionally causes those involved to think out of the box. Ukraine's recent attack on a Russian air base using drones launched from trucks strikes me as an example. But so, too, does the idea of using pigeons (aka Columba livia) as couriers in wartime, because that's what Gordon Corera's book, Operation Columba, is about. 

During WWII, smuggling information out of Nazi occupied territories in Europe was hard, if not impossible. So some creative minds in Great Britain hit upon the idea of dropping homing pigeons into those territories to aid the process. The pigeons would be delivered by planes, resistance fighters would attach specially prepared information to tiny canisters attached to the pigeons' legs and send them on their way back across the channel where the information would be conveyed to whomever needed it the most.

Operation Columba, as it was called, evidently proved surprisingly helpful to Allied forces in numerous ways. And Corera's retelling of that story drew me in deeper and deeper, page by page, and chapter by chapter. So much so that I'm now hot on the trail of some of Corera's other books. 

Operation Whisper

The neighbors next door--how much do you really know about them? For all you know, they could be just who they say they are. On the other hand, they could be, they just might be, spies. 

Turns out, that's exactly who Morris and Lona Cohen were, operating deep under cover for years both in the United States and in Great Britain.

Very well written, Carr's book made me think twice about what motivates people to betray the very same countries to which they owed so much. 

Hitler's American Friends

There are many who believe Trump's appearance on the national stage marks a disturbing trend towards fascism in America. But as Hart points out in Hitler's American Friends, Americans have had a peculiar fascination with fascism since the 1930s. A precursor to Rachel Maddow's more recent treatment of the subject in her book Prequel, I found Hart's earlier account as readable as it is informative.

Nat Turner

 

 

Did you know that Nat Turner was a Methodist? No? Then this account of what became best known as Nat Turner's Rebellion may interest you. A little too speculative an account for my taste, but a good review, nonetheless, of this dark moment in our country's development. 

Judith

 

 

St. John the Baptist's Church, Stamford

Van der Kiste

Just finished reading Kiste's book: "In this first biography of the two monarchs for over thirty years, John Van der Kiste provides a lively and accessible account of their lives and times." -- Goodreads

William & Mary

Always interested in what people are saying about my town's namesake. Kiste's account was first published in 2003. I probably wouldn't have come across it had my local library not placed it on its recommended reading table. Curious how much influence these two had upon communities so far removed from their homelands.

False Votes

Thomas Jefferson "sketched a scenario to James Madison whereby a future president, having been defeated for reelection, refused to accept the outcome and civil war threatened, 'If once elected, and at a second or third election outvoted by one or two votes, he will pretend false votes, foul play, hold possession of the reins of government, be supported by the states voting for him, especially if they are the central ones lying in a compact body themselves and separating their opponents: and they will be aided by one nation of Europe, while the majority are aided by another.' The solution would be to restrict the president to a single term (a stricture Jefferson would ignore in 1804 when he ran for a second presidential term)." Cogliano, A Revolutionary Friendship, p. 203

Beyond the Wall

Spotted this book on the library shelf yesterday and immediately knew I had to check it out. Having traveled through East Germany (aka GDR) in the 70s, I was curious to read Hoyer's take on those days.

Executive Power

Something to think about. According to Cogliano, the Virginia's 1776 constitution sought to "diffuse and limit executive power." To wit:

"The governor would work with an eight-man Council of State, whose members served at the pleasure of the assembly. The Constitution vested executive power in the council rather than the governor, who could not call out the militia, make appointments, or grant pardons without consulting the council. The governor and council should exercise the military authority through a Board of War appointed by the House of Delegates." 

Photographers

Montague Bookmill in Montague, Massachusetts

 

Morning Tea

Just now (this afternoon) finished reading Liz Cheney's book. By far and away, the most important thing she had to say (although everything she said before led up to her statement) are her final words:

"Every one of us . . . must work and vote together to ensure that Donald Trump and those who have appeased, enabled, and collaborated with him are defeated.

This is the cause of our time."