The Eve of Destruction - How 1965 Transformed America (James T. Patterson, 2012)

Good enough - but I didn't get much new out of this.  Already pretty familiar with much of the information presented.  Very few dog-eared pages, which is not a good sign.  Very quick read.

One basic item the author clarified was that when we think of the '60s as an era of turmoil, protest, etc. - all this really started in 1965.  Pretty tame prior.

When I think back - it was a rather crazy time to be growing up - I turned nine in 1965.

Euphoria over passage of civil rights legislation and the war on poverty - with prompt onset of disillusionment.  (Not that this has broken the cycle of trying to slough off our issues to over-promising popularity contest winners, a/k/a politicians.)

The Road Back (Erich Maria Remarque, 1930)

Remarque is of course famous for this classic WWI novel; also wrote this excellent novel about life between the wars.  

“The Road Back” has a similar feel but in a different setting - moreso focused on immediate post-war years in Germany.  The novel starts in the trenches as the war winds down in 1918, and follows the protagonists as they try to cope with postwar life.

In some ways quite modern in terms of soldiers adjusting to being back home (many of the issues sound familiar in accounts of contemporary struggles); in other ways quite specific to post-WWI Germany – so that was a good combination.  

The immediate disappointment that "back home" - so eagerly anticipated - was really a place where "Life has moved on . . . it is leaving us behind almost as if we were already superfluous."  

Hard to imagine how that must have felt, especially for the few survivors that had been in the war from 1914 on.   Remarque does a good job working with the behaviors of this group - who had left civilization pretty far behind in some ways.

Interesting discussion of the readiness of the German population - including many disaffected vets - to look for solutions in socialism etc. (this was written before the rise of the Nazis).

Gift from PJr and Nedda for birthday #57.  Nice.

The Good Soldier Svejk (Jaroslav Hasek, 1923)

I had never heard of this book until reading Patrick Leigh Fermor describe his travels through central Europe in the 1930s (wonderful book, discussed here).  Fermor said reading Svejk was very helpful for him in getting a handle on Bohemia.  Fermor's recommendation - and my interest in Bohemia (based on bloodlines for my wife and children) - motivated me to track this down.  Phoenix library didn't have it; on Amazon, all I found was a pretty beat-up version stamped "Leeds Metropolitan University - DISCARDED".

I hope, for LMU's sake, that it has replaced the book.

The author died without finishing the book (though this translation runs 750 pages).  Hasek apparently was quite the colorful character.  But not as colorful as Svejk - typically described as an "everyman" caught up in a vast bureaucracy (this one being military).  It's consistently funny, and consistently observant of WWI eastern front absurdities.

Best I can tell, Svejk remains very famous in Bohemia - now 90 years later.

Part of what the reader starts to appreciate is that Bohemia - then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - later part of Czechoslovakia - now divided among successor states such as Czech Republic and Slovak Republic - has for big chunks of its history been a lesser entity within polyglot empires.  It had its proud/independent phase earlier on.  By the time of WWI, it was dragged along into conflict by its Austro-Hungarian masters, who in turn were dragged along by their German masters (I'll call them).  Leaving the Bohemians - at least those of Svejk's ilk - generally somewhat less than highly motivated to throw away their lives on eastern front battlefields while being bossed around by incompetent Austrian officers.

Svejk deals with the situation with a combination of cunning and humor (not to mention prodigious drinking capabilities).  Epic run-ins with Lieutenant Dub, a secret policeman, the good-natured Vanek (who he serves as "batman"); the ever-hungry Balloun; and plenty of others.

A useful and very different take from a soldier/common man perspective looking at WWI's eastern front.

Svejk's classic line:  "Humbly report, sir . . . "