Review of "Threshold of Empire and The Battle for Manila 1898-1899," by James H. Nelson

 Review of

Threshold of Empire and The Battle for Manila 1898-1899, by James H. Nelson, ISBN 1884570712

Five out of five

Account of a much understudied event

 There have been many significant and trajectory changing events in the history of the United States and they are generally covered in the K-12 history curriculum. One event that is generally not given the historical attention that it is due is the war between the United States and Spain in 1898 to 1899.

 It was a very short and hugely successful war in the sense that the Spanish forces were quickly and totally defeated. The American victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay was arguably one of the most one-sided naval victory in the history of naval warfare. The Spanish had 9 vessels sunk with only one American ship damaged. There were nine American wounded compared to 77 Spanish dead and 271 wounded. Spanish power in Asia was destroyed forever.

 However, the key outcome of the war was the fact that America became a colonial and global power. The Spanish islands in the Caribbean were taken over, which was a logical, nearshoring  extension of American power. However, the acquisition of the Philippines, thousands of miles from the American west coast and a gateway to Asia, was something unexpected. Before the war, very few Americans could have located the Philippines on a globe. Once the decision was made to make the Philippines an American possession, the United States became a major player in Asian affairs. It can be argued that it was the initial event spawning the rivalry between the United States and Japan.

 This dramatic change and the fact that American military forces had to defeat an indigenous guerrilla force fighting for independence is something that is not given the examination that it should. American forces engaged in some very ruthless actions in subduing their opponents.

 This book is a significant addition to the history of a watershed event in American history. It is an accurate rendition of the unusual events that led to a Spanish defeat and the rise of a new colonial power that expanded its territory thousands of miles beyond its previous borders.

Review of "The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club," Nick Spark Productions

 Review of

The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, Nick Spark Productions DVD

Five out of five stars

Great story of what should be an aviation star

 For most people, their knowledge of female aviation pioneers begins and ends with Amelia Earhart. While Earhart accomplished many things, including having an expert public relations group, she was not the best female pilot of her time. There were other women that were better pilots, and even more daring. One of those women went by the name of Pancho Barnes.

 Born Florence Leontine Lowe and into wealth, her adult life began rather traditionally when she married a minister and established a traditional home. However, after a sojourn in Mexico where she passed as a man and became involved with leftist revolutionaries, she adopted the name “Pancho.” It was a fitting choice, for she was quite revolutionary in her breaking of sexist norms.

 Pancho was such an intuitive pilot that she soloed after only six hours of instruction. She was so talented that she became a movie stunt pilot, flying with and among the most daring flyers. The work was dangerous and one of the major contributions she made was the formation of the Associated Motion Picture Pilots union that standardized pay scales and working conditions.

 Pancho broke Amelia Earhart’s speed record and after going broke at the onset of the Depression, she bought land adjacent to Muroc Field, where new planes were being tested. She created the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a dude ranch that catered to the pilots that were flying the planes. Three of the pilots that knew her well were Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Yeager and Jimmy Doolittle. Clips of comments from Aldrin and Yeager appear on this video.

 Her dynamic and revolutionary personality are captured in this video, as well as the conflicts she had with a specific Air Force commander. Her ranch house burned down under mysterious circumstances, and she had to face down trumped up charges that her ranch was a site of organized debauchery.

 Spoken of with reverence by some of the best pilots the United States has ever produced, the sheer dynamism of Pancho Barnes is captured in this video. While this is a documentary, it will be clear to all who view it that her life should be the subject of a feature film. She was a legend in her time and should be a legend for all time in the aviation industry.

Review of "The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence," by Paul Davies

 Review of

The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence, by Paul Davies, ISBN 9780547133249

Five out of five stars

Plausible answers to the basic questions regarding life outside Earth

 Decades ago, I graduated with majors in biology, chemistry and mathematics. Since that time, I have read and understood many books and articles about life and intelligence outside Earth. It is a rare occasion when I encounter anything that presents a previously unencountered perspective on alien life.

 Davies opens with the rather unintuitive thread that the search for alien life should begin on Earth. He is correct in stating that most microscopic species have not been identified and catalogued, so there is a significant possibility that species could be discovered whose metabolic pathways place them outside what is considered the standard zoological tree of Earth based organisms. For example, carbohydrates and proteins with a structure different from the fundamental handedness of terrestrial organisms.

 This is an approach that has real possibilities and that can be done without leaving Earth and is something that I have not seen so logically put forward before. A concerted effort to identify and categorize microorganisms found throughout the Earth will have strong scientific and commercial value, even if no unusual results are discovered.

 Another thread that Davies covers in detail is the reality that carbon-based intelligence may only be a transient phenomenon. There are strong reasons to believe that humans will soon create machines with high intelligence and the ability to expand and reproduce, quickly rendering humans obsolete and uncompetitive. A plausible case can be made for the premise that such machines are the logical end result of natural selection. With the ability to intellectually grow and adapt, have nearly unlimited memory, and the ability to grow replacement parts for every component, such machines could be considered the pinnacle of the evolutionary tree. Furthermore, such societies may exist throughout the galaxy.

 I enjoyed this book immensely. Without having to postulate any technology such as warp speed or matter transporters, Davies develops arguments regarding why societies with large sizes could be created and continue to expand. If these machines could function for tens of thousands of years, then sub-light speeds become less of an obstacle in the management of a civilization. While it is clear that not all of what Davies postulates is true, it is a good bet that some of it either exists or will someday.

Review of "The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless," by John D. Barrow

Review of

The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, by John D. Barrow, ISBN 1400032245

Five out of five stars

Infinity for the masses

 The concept of infinity is both simple and extremely difficult to comprehend. That is because there are in fact so many ways the fundamental concept can be applied. The idea that there is no largest natural number is easy to understand. Nearly everyone can comprehend that one can continue to add one to positive integers with no possible ending. If it is explained the proper way, then it is also easy to comprehend that one can take the average of two numbers and get a third between them. By repeating the process, the concept of an infinite number of decimal numbers can also be understood.

 The concepts of being able to match up the positive integers and the positive whole numbers so that there are an “equal” number of elements in both sets, where one is inside the other is where some people start to get lost. The continuation to transfinite numbers with hierarchies of infinity is a difficult, but not impossible concept to grasp.

 The place where the concept of infinity really becomes difficult, even for mathematicians and people who study the universe is when the question arises whether the universe is finite or infinite in both breadth and in time. There is now little doubt that the universe as we know it began with what is called the Big Bang. In other words, elapsed time can definitively be traced back to a point where the universe popped into existence and has expanded at a great rate since then. No known laws can take us back before the Big Bang and we do not yet have enough information to determine what the ultimate fate of the universe will be.

 Barrow covers these topics in ways that are as understandable as possible for people that have not engaged in deep study of the concepts. The book is both a fun as well as informative read. All readers will come away with more knowledge about the many types of mathematical infinity as well as the current understanding of the properties of the universe and the various options for how it will evolve.

Review of "Praying For Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family’s Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers," by Thomas Oliphant

 

Review of

Praying For Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family’s Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, by Thomas Oliphant, ISBN 0312317611

Five out of five stars

Baseball and so much more

 This book contains many different threads; all tied together by a love of the Brooklyn  Dodgers and the void that remained when they moved to California. It is largely an autobiography of Oliphant in his early years growing up in a small apartment, attending school, engaged in youth and school activities and being devoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers. His father was stationed in the South Pacific in World War II and operated on land. Like so many that slogged through the humid jungle, he came down with serious cases of tropical diseases.

 Increasingly finding it difficult to carry out his work as a freelance writer, his father reached the point where he could no longer earn a living. This put a severe strain on the family finances, yet as Oliphant emphatically states, he never felt deprived.

 Intertwined with the story of his life is the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers, with a focus on their ability to win pennants and lose in the World Series to the New York Yankees. Often in incredible ways. No history of the Dodgers would be complete without some detailed coverage of Branch Rickey and his move to sign Jackie Robinson and integrate baseball.

 No sports book is complete without some form of “big game at the end,” and that happens here as well. That event is the 1955 World Series, when the Dodgers were finally able to defeat the Yankees, touching of celebrations throughout Brooklyn. Oliphant does a superb job in intertwining his life, the characteristics of the Brooklyn populace and explaining the background of the Dodger team in the first half of the decade of the fifties. He covers the reasons for the departure of the Dodgers, pointing out that attendance at Ebbets Field had declined and it was a dilapidated structure by the time the Dodgers left. Oliphant even does a bit to come to the defense of Walter O’Malley.

 Although this is largely an autobiography of Oliphant, a non-athlete, it is also a first rate sports book. The writing is superb and some significant name-dropping is done. For example, Oliphant describes his interactions with Arthur MacArthur, son of General Douglas MacArthur. He also gives his impressions of the General’s personality. This is one of the best non-fiction sports books of all time.

Review of "The First War of the United States: The Quasi War With France 1798-1801," by William J. Phalen

 Review of

The First War of the United States: The Quasi War With France 1798-1801, by William J. Phalen, ISBN 9788193759165

Five out of five stars

Covers a war rarely mentioned

 The primary great power rivalry of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was between Britain and France. France directly intervened in the American war for independence, and it seems unlikely that the United States would have won if it were not for the French help. At the time, France was a monarchy, which created issues with some Americans that were generally opposed to monarchies.

 As the United States made the initial steps to nationhood, the French did what great powers always do, they tried to manipulate events to their advantage. The reality was that the achieving of independence did not change the fundamental ties of commerce and business between the United States and Great Britain. The British also did all they could to maintain their commercial ties with their former colony. The French also felt that the United States owed them some gratitude for their assistance.

 This book covers the relationship between France and the United States in the years immediately after the American war of independence through the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams and the first year of the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Two main political parties with widely different positions were forming in the United States, and the French Revolution overthrew the monarchy and established a republic. The French republic was more aggressively warlike than the monarchy, leading to significant conflict between the United States and France.

 One amazing fact that is often lost to history is that at the time of the presidency of Washington, the United States had not a single warship to protect the country from seaborne aggression. Even though there was a very large merchant fleet. Therefore, the American navy had to literally be built from scratch.

 This is a fascinating description of the early years of the United States when the founding fathers had to govern the country and deal with foreign nations that were often hostile and manipulative. Despite some significant disagreements, those men managed to steer the country through the dangerous waters and avoid what would have been a disastrous overt war with France.

Review of "Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War," by Rodric Braithwaite

 Review of

Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War, by Rodric Braithwaite, ISBN 1400044308

Five out of five stars

When the war on the Eastern front was decided

 Although there were many large and obvious signs that Germany was about to attack the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, the Soviet leadership (Stalin) chose to ignore them. Trains bearing Soviet grain and other raw materials were on their way to Germany while the German armored units and aircraft were decimating Soviet Red Army formations. So rapid was the advance of the German forces, millions of Red Army soldiers were surrounded and captured.

 There was a great deal of debate among the German leadership as to what should be the primary goal of conquest in 1941. There were those that considered the capital city of Moscow to be the primary goal while others were in favor of maintaining the broad front.

 This book is about the near conquest of Moscow by the German forces. While other areas of the front are mentioned, the focus is on the city and how the people and the leadership responded to the crisis. What is made very clear is one of the most important historical facts. Had the Germans made a concentrated drive on Moscow, they could have taken it. Even though their forces were split, small units came within visual range of the city.

 It is fascinating to be taken within the Soviet government at a time of true existential crisis, when all of the mistakes made by Joseph Stalin were exposed. One of the most interesting historical tidbits is that when the officials went to wake Stalin after it was clear that the Germans were attacking, he thought that he was going to be arrested.

 While it is unlikely that the capture of Moscow by the Germans would have led to their victory against the Soviet Union, it is clear that without the capture of Moscow, the Germans could not win. Although it is possible there could have been a negotiated settlement like the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Soviet Union simply had too many resources available, most specifically (wo)manpower and the willingness to throw it at the Germans. The Soviet Red Army was the only military in the Second World War where significant numbers of women served in combat roles.

 This book is an important description of the most critical time during the Second World War. Had the Soviet Union not survived the onslaught of 1941, it is difficult to imagine how the Allies could have successfully invaded Europe in 1944. It is impossible to understand how the Allies won the Second World War without knowing how the Soviet Union survived the German onslaught of 1941. This book explains how it survived.