The World of Yesterday (Stefan Zweig, early 1940s)

(389 pages) (passed along by Paul Jr)

Finish wasn't expected. Ended his days in South America in February 1942 (with his wife) - difficult to find a landing spot (as so many Jews experienced), cumulative burden of many difficult years and experiences during the world wars and interwar period, more factors than I can grasp.

The loss of his passport in the 1930s hit Zweig hard - like the Wandering Jews - a deep (and correct) feeling of no place to call home. Hard to imagine.

I didn't know much about him, just had very much enjoyed his novel Beware of Pity. He authored all sorts of interesting things - plays, articles - not so many novels (which I'm normally on the hunt for). Collaborated with big names for his plays. 

In the large group of Jews fully assimilated into Viennese society in early 20th century. Successes early as a writer got his name out there and he met an incredible number of famous names.  There was a lot going on in Vienna prior to World War I! He spent a lot of time abroad and particularly loved hanging out in Paris.

His works were completely banned in Germany by the Nazis. Including a libretto written for erstwhile Nazi favorite Richard Strauss.

His discussion echoed other books I've read about the momentous eras he lived through, just on a more personal level.  The golden years leading up to WWI (and disbelief that it happened). The WWI years.  The interwar years; the rise of Hitler; the seeming inevitability of WWII; incredible and increasing difficulties for Jews. That's a lot to live through. 

He was exposed to, and hung out with, an incredible concentration of high-end talent across many disciplines. Fascinating.

Company K (William March, 1933)

(260 pages)

Quick read.  Broken into very short chapters, each presented as a reminiscence of an individual (fictional) soldier. Based upon the author's WWI experiences.

Looking at the "Introduction" after reading the book (always read these after!), I learned that this was one of the first books to depict war experiences as awful and too often futile episodes from the perspective of the typically low-ranking soldier.  We've now used to that sort of presentation, but apparently Company K was groundbreaking at its time. The Red Badge of Courage as a sort of precursor from Civil War days.

It amounts to horror. I don't have reason to doubt that this was pretty much how it felt. 

Sometimes prisoners were shot. Officers made bad decisions, perhaps to preserve pride, that cost grunt lives. French villagers - sometimes sympathetic. Soldiers being supportive of, or cruel to, one another.  Encounters with Germans who could have been friends. On it goes.

The cumulative effect is powerful; it catches up with the reader.  In that way it reminded me of Kolyma Stories (highly recommended, by the way) - short snippets that just keep hitting the reader and building in effect.  Not gratuitously. Just trying to bring home what was happening for those of us who fortunately weren't there (and perhaps dilute the effect of all the pro-war propaganda stuff we are hit with). 

Something else I liked: a number of the stories are from the perspective of soldiers back home after the armistice.  The betrothed who no longer wants to marry the soldier drastically changed by his experiences.  The brother who gets all the attention after a slight wound just before the armistice (the brother who saw years of terrible action doesn't get home until a year later and by then the home front folks have moved on).

Recommended.  Gift from PJr/Nedda.

Army of Empire - The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I (George Morton-Jack, 2018)

 (528 pages)

This was very much worth reading.  Not just for the role of the Indian Army in WWI (highly interesting for various reasons if not highly affecting the outcome), but for what it reveals about British policy of the times, the evolving Indian independence movement of the times, life in the villages from which the British drew recruits, etc.

Britain continuing to rely on Indians for military personnel in the prewar years . . . but aggressively maintaining "prestige" to keep them in their place.  Also a color barrier existed - Indians were not allowed to fight against white armies anywhere in the Commonwealth (what if they succeeded?!)  Let alone become officers with any form of authority over whites.  Selection by race, not merit.

Most of the recruits were drawn from select villages in northern India; many (Afridi, Pashtun) from loosely-organized territories outside British India (these areas functioning like buffer states between British India and places like Afghanistan).  The Afridi/Pashtun types were, and definitely considered themselves to be, independent of British India - and so behaved sometimes when serving in the Indian army.

Some British Army leaders foresaw the coming conflict, and prepared even the Indian army to assist.  Thus they were in position to land Indian troops at a critical juncture of 1914 - before the trenches were developed, just as France and Britain were running out of troops to stand up against German units still trying to break through in the initial drive to Paris.  The presence of those Indian troops - even if they didn't end up with lots of fighting - was essential in plugging the weak points.  Then the Western front settled into years of trench warfare.

Some of those troops were cavalry - and used in charges in a few instances - over time they figured out how to somewhat effectively support ground troops following "softening up" bombardments.

Indian troops were kept in Europe for years in many instances; it seems that they were well treated by the French citizenry in particular.  This was an eye-opener as compared to treatment by the Brits.

I don't want to sound too negative toward the Brits - I think the author does a pretty balanced job on this topic - many of the Brit officers were really good about how they treated their men.  But still.

I also thought the author did a good job exploring the mixed feeling of various of the Indians serving the British.  Genuine loyalty mixed with the primary driver - serving in the Army was a pretty good job for those recruited, and they were able to help the folks back home.  The Indian independence movement didn't have all that much traction as yet - folks like Gandhi were early in the process - and folks recruited from villages into the Indian army were mostly unaware of "independence" as a concept.

While some of the Indian troops - especially those with lesser preparation - were ineffective, the author points out that the Indian army - due to action in various skirmishes or engagements around the British empire - had greater experience than many or most of its European counterparts. They were not struggling "fish out of water" as the artillery boomed - they had seen versions of this, if smaller scale. 

Something I hadn't appreciated - Indian units fought all over the world during WWI. Heavy action in Iraq.  Chasing Germans around East Africa. Gallipolli.  Palestine (including encounters with "Lawrence of Arabia" - who had unfriendly encounters with their officers).  Minor forays into Afghanistan.

Indians transferred from the Western front often were unhappy about this - they enjoyed being in France.

Significant number of Muslim soldiers - this was a touchy subject as fighting occurred in Iraq (Ottoman emperor as caliph, after all).

Lots of change among those who served outside India - they came back with different views - but still tended to remain participants in the Indian army - resentful of some of the mistreatment, but the compensation remained attractive and they had been through a lot of shared experiences alongside their white officers.  Independence movement slow to gain traction among this group.

Amritsar massacre in 1919 - mostly Indian troops firing at the order of their white officers.  Led to repressive steps.

Folks like Gandhi had supported Indians fighting in WWI based on promises that this cooperation would hasten independence after the war ended.  Disillusionment, the transition to a more confrontational (though nonviolent for Gandhi and his group) style.

The War that Ended Peace (Margaret MacMillan, 2013)

(645 pages)

Discussions of the run-up to World War I are incredibly interesting . . . but I was a little reluctant to take on this one, in part thinking it might be redundant with The Guns of August and The Proud Tower.

And it was, to some extent.

But still - a useful review, lots of analysis was fresh to me.  Good discussion about the situation in Germany, Russia, France, England, U.S., Austria-Hungary, Italy - the alliances that formed and re-formed, some of them rather unusual.

Two things that struck me most - 

One:  the way that the leaders of the various countries spoke of war as all but inevitable.  Seems unbelievable.  But it was so widely believed.

Two:  the problems of identity politics (the various nationalities) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire - did that ever sound familiar!  An ongoing problem - one certainty is that emphasizing nationality (or other identity) in resolving issues isn't going to end well.

The Great Influenza - The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (John M. Barry, 2004)

(546 pages)

Book club selection (via PJ; session held (via Zoom) January 10, 2021).

Timely re-read of a very good book first read in 2013, here's what I wrote then.

Notes from this time:

• Consistently states that masks do not work.  2018 updated afterword misses the mark on work from home. Feels there is a last mile problem. Otherwise, seems pretty accurate.
• Interesting that no one can come up with a cure for influenza.
• We run into Jon Snow on page 27.
• Woodrow Wilson, propaganda, getting the country into war, and then total war.
• The press as an accomplice of government.
• Armies and plagues; the extent to which World War I drove the outcome here. Troop movements within the US and around the world. The need to suppress information. Spanish flu!
• India with 20 million deaths, yet barely a ripple of notice.

A Soldier of the Great War (Mark Helprin, 1991)

(860 pages)

Premise a bit implausible - that this 70+ year old (the protagonist, Alessandro Giuliani) could walk overnight x kilometers alongside a kid he just met.  And I didn't love those parts of the book as much as when the author switched to just describing Alessandro's life and adventures (fortunately, that was most of the book).  (Mentioning this upfront but it's not a major problem - I'd definitely recommend this book.)

There are early passages that seem to be just floating out there, but author does a really good job of tying things together - sometimes with aspects I had forgotten over the course of hundreds of pages.

Quite a few fantasy touches - protagonist gets into multiple amazing situations, survives incredible dangers, meets one elite person after the next; the whole Orfeo (he of the blessed sap) story line.

As a youngster - encounter with Austrian soldiers, princess (and her fat relative), gondola ride with stricken orchestra member; horsemanship and the neighbor's daughter; mountaineering with Rafi. The lawyer Giuliani (his father)  Loves the family garden.

When get to wartime - stories of varied venues [northern Italy version of trench/front lines; dealing with deserters in two distinct ways; military prison; alpine maneuvering; POW], mostly areas that I've read much less about, so that part is interesting.

The kinds of conversations held by folks facing near-certain death; how they think of what might lie on the other side (or not); will I be remembered?  Author does a good job on this.

Author's technique of not writing scenes all the way to a conclusion - just giving the reader enough to know what's going to happen and leaving it to imagination - then picking up the story line - this really works well, I liked it.  Though he probably should have used the technique in the last half dozen pages.

Plenty of memorable characters - I liked Strassnitzky - the pacifist field marshal.  A general on the winter line charged with sending the Italian troops up towards Innsbruck - does a great job talking about the absurdity of what they were doing.

Alessandro's life gives a vehicle for the author to meditate on the nature of religious faith, the nature of love - for family-of-origin, for war buddies, for wife and child - of course there are no hard answers to any of this, but he offers lovely, thought-provoking things about these topics.

Proust-type touches - how memory of important people and events stays with us; also Alessandro's training in aesthetics - seeing beauty, linking to works of art. Significant chunks of the story line revolve around a couple art works; interesting.

Goodbye to All That (Robert Graves, 1929 (using 1957 text))

(360 pages)

Essentially an autobiography of early part of author's life, though includes elements not originally written to be used as such.  I don't know much about Graves, he was a very well-known poet and author.

By far the best part is the WWI discussion (also longest - book is much worthwhile just for this).

Starts with early family life; then author experiences English schoolboy life as someone who didn't fit in well.  Rules/traditions in those days - stifling.  Then gets into military and finds a lot of the same.  (Not wired for military, but WWI breaks out just as graduating.)

Endless connections via family, school, military.  The incredibly small world of Brit upper class.  I keep thinking that this connectedness was a big factor in sustaining Brit ascendancy - idea-sharing, common values - small island with outsized influence for a very long time.

Develops close relationship with George Mallory, they go climbing; he is best man at author's wedding.

German relatives - visits in prewar, later they are fighting on the opposite side; this connection leads to some suspicions during the war.

Front line/trench discussions really good.  I've also read a lot about this where it's part of a larger narrative in a novel (Parade's End, for example) or an overall history of the war (for example, this one by John Keegan); Graves's approach is different, effective - diary-style, where no compulsion to sacrifice details to a larger story arc.  Reminds of the wonderful Isaac Babel military diary-sketches (also in that the writer isn't a military-type, at all).

Exciting times in front lines but he also has quite a few other roles in the military - training, supply stuff - some in England, some back of the front lines - assigned there because of wounds, and also because of what they then called neurasthenia - his nerves were shot.  These discussions also interesting, in part because I've seen less of them.

As war winds down, Spanish flu kills mother-in-law; he travels on train with it.  That discussion is interesting in these COVID-19 days.

Socialism seems attractive after the war, which made some sense at the time.

Recounts interactions with Wilfred Owen and a lot of poets I don't know, Thomas Hardy, T.E. Lawrence - I found myself not so interested in his reminiscences of meet-ups with famous folk.

Other postwar stuff - married, four kids, Oxford degree, takes a teaching position in Egypt.

Ends at age 33; epilogue reports that he lived in Majorca quite a bit; remarried and had four more children.

Three Comrades (Erich Maria Remarque, 1936)

(480 pages)

Book club selection (via Chris; session held (via Zoom) 24 April 2020).

Hadn't read this since 2011 (description here); I liked it even better this time around.

a favorite love story; cf'd to PJ - author got it right - the uncertainty in the early going, the mystery, the girl-part, the "that's sufficient" part
_______________

a favorite buddy story - the scene where Otto hands the pill to Robbie; the scene where Robbie thinks to contact Koster when needing help at the seashore; fundraising in what had to be a painful way
________________

WWI endlessly interesting in part because the soldiers had such a mind-blowing experience.  of course it's hard to compare from war to war - but the jump in firepower and technology (gas, planes, etc.) relative to what soldiers were familiar with, and how tactics were used - not sure what would be like this.  and they hadn't seen newsreels or really anything that would prepare visually.

survivors then come back to Weimar situation . . . after all the sacrifice and suffering (including home front folks like Pat) - no jobs, no hope

demagogues arise per usual
_________________

the spare writing style works for me - similar to All Quiet OTWF

Magic Mountain - sanitarium scenes

Paris 1919 - Six Months That Changed The World (Margaret MacMillan, 2001)

(624 pages)

Interesting and useful review of the Paris peace conference following World War I.  Many, many threads that lead to conflicts in the run-up to WW2 and in numerous cases thereafter.  Easy to criticize what happened here, but the book gives a good idea of the difficulties the participants faced.

Of all the ideas - the main thought for me - and one that strikes me more strongly than ever - the profound perniciousness of Wilson's ballyhooed notion of "self-determination" as promoted in his "Fourteen Points."  Plenty of folks recognized the danger even then.  What did it ever mean?  That any group that can somehow identify as ethnic, or "a people" - should get its own territorial state?  That any such majority in a given territory decides (and too bad for the minority)?  The concept was hopeless yet stirred up nationalist/ethnic hopes - and hatreds - around the world.  Of course not the only contributing factor to this trend - but I think a major one.

[A thought experiment (if off-topic a bit):  had the war affected US territories - should Arizona and California be returned to Mexico? to Spain?  to Native Americans?  Take a vote based on whoever currently resided there?  Include folks who had been relocated out?  Etc.]

Far better if politicians had devoted their energies to exhorting citizens to accept territorial designations, and then get along with each other within them.  That would have left plenty enough problems to work out - but would have set a better tone than the nationalist/ethnic battling and cleansing that rather naturally followed throughout the balance of the 20th century (and to this day).  One example among so many:  sounds like the Kurds had never thought of themselves as a people, or wanting a territory - until 1919; remains an issue in 2017.

A classic example of territorial confusion:  how to handle a situation like Poland?  What about the Balkans?  Way too much movement of way too many peoples over way too many centuries for "self-determination" to have any practical use as a guiding principle.  A political slogan for which anyone could fill in the desired meaning (see "sustainability," "diversity," "New Deal", "Fair Deal", "Hope and Change," "MAGA" etc.)

By coincidence, today I saw that yet another paper on this theme was recently published, per this link.  Wilson's slogan, and mischief, not likely to be undone.

The second major thought - the overwhelming difficulties facing the big three negotiators (or four, given that Italy was a token presence).  Setting borders around the world - literally.  With only so much knowledge.  And only so much time (the big three had pretty demanding day jobs!)  And domestic political constraints.  And exhausted victor countries/lack of resources to enforce anything.  Hard enough in western Europe - but consider eastern and central Europe; the Middle East; Africa; Balkans - impossible complexity, few good answers.  US had some resources but withdrew from the stage.

Wilson always seems profoundly annoying - the archetype progressive - an arrogant know-it-all, busy-body, telling everyone else how they should behave.

German provisions harsh; if not a major cause of the events leading up to WW2, the treaty certainly provided a major excuse/talking point for Hitler-types.

So many decisions that reverberate in international disputes to this day.

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (Barbara Tuchman, 1966)

(531 pages)

Unusual structure -Tuchman provides eight lengthy essays on various topics affecting England, France, Germany, Russia and the US in the two decades leading up to World War I.  The essays are related but not all that closely connected.  She writes really well.  I'd highly recommend.

Partly because - in addition to giving all kinds of perspective on that era - so much resonates with today.  Concerns about expanding the franchise - what would happen with additional voters, many less interested or informed than the limited group previously able to vote - will they vote themselves unaffordable benefits, fall for demagoguery, etc.?  Violence from the left, justified in various ways.

She doesn't believe - and shows - that the prewar "Le Belle Epoque" was nearly as great, or orderly, as nostalgia later recalled it.  So many making the exact error today when looking back at the 1950s.

The eight essays:

"The Patricians" - upper-crust England faces changes.

"The Idea and the Deed" - very good background on Anarchism - no interest in government; Proudhon, Bakunin; bomb-throwing (with consequences discussed at length in this book for the Balkans, also in this book for Russia; Joseph Conrad's excellent novel version here).  Gave me a little idea of where these folks fit in.

"End of a Dream" - the US builds up its navy, goes into Cuba and the Philippines - over the strong objection of those who felt this betrayed founding principles.  This is where Puerto Rico became ensnared.  Isolationism wasn't dead, but severely chipped away at - unfortunately.  I didn't know much about this story line.

"Give Me Combat" - France coping with the Dreyfus affair - added a lot of useful context to items recently read - more detail on the effect on French society.  Trump Derangement Syndrome resonates.  Multiple newspapers and viewpoints - unabashedly partisan - seems better than today's fake veneer of objectivity.

"The Steady Drummer" - discussion of Hague peace conferences.  Genuine fears emerging of mechanized warfare.  But the nations don't change course.

"Neroism is in the Air" - much discussion about German culture, primarily through Richard Strauss - also Nietzsche; a tale of rising militarism.  German intellectuals withdrawal tracing to 1848 failures and disappointments.

"Transfer of Power" - discussion of a topic I've wondered about - what process transitioned from aristocrats to more "modern" politics and parties?  Labour didn't exist as a party - Liberals prevail in 1906 with a few Labour seats; Liberal party on its way to oblivion.  More voters.  More literacy - more involvement - more perceived to be at stake - voters understanding that they can vote stuff for themselves.  Liberal disenchantment/disillusionment with Democracy, Enlightenment-style progress.  Rise of the mob.  Myth of rational voter.  The "transfer of power" in England, "not a mere political transfer from the in-party to the outs but one more profound, to a new class."

"The Death of Jaurès," - discussion of the birth of socialism - the splits among those expecting capitalism to fail (Marxian prediction) and those wanting to participate in the government and pursue changes via that route.

Parade's End (Ford Madox Ford, 1924-1928)

This is a remarkable book - worthy of the acclaim.  My only exposure had been the recent TV miniseries - which was entertaining enough - but per usual the book works differently, better.

Actually it's four separate novels; 906 pages in my edition:

--Some Do Not . . . (1924)
--No More Parades (1925)
--A Man Could Stand Up -- (1926)
--The Last Post (1928)

Large canvas in hands of skilled writer = fine results.

Something I found effective:  Ford varies his writing styles . . . sometimes it made me think of Joyce as in this, but Ford's method never struck me in the show-off way as it feels with Joyce.  Over a long book, Ford reveals details in unexpected ways that build interest, changes the tempo, creates empathy with lead characters.  You end up really wanting things to go well for them, which makes the ending quite tense.

Sylvia Tietjens - an amazing character - took skill to develop.

Author's ability to give glimpses of "what it felt like" in widely varying venues:

--WWI - especially from the perspective of folks (like Christopher Tietjens) not really designed to be there - death, shelling, bureaucracy
--Brit aristocracy
--Brit aristocracy in a changing time
--intensity and confusion of forming a romantic relationship in such difficult circumstances
--Brit bureaucracy
--the world of a younger son in Brit aristocracy
--even the world of folks working for the Tietjens family

Characters/threads
--Christopher Tietjens
--Valentine Wannop; her writer-mother
--Groby Great Tree
--MacMaster (Scottish non-aristocrat, makes good) and his wife
--Mark Tietjens
--England - London, countryside

The overall theme of course is "change" - many write about WWI this way - not sure any do it more effectively.

A thought on "change" during those years:  Thomas Hardy's striking book was written in 1895, and the relationship as described between Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead created a sensation  - compare to Christopher Tietjens and Valentine Wannop (or Mark Tietjens and Marie Leonie, for that matter).  Just one more area (if an incredibly important one) where things had changed, a lot, and quickly.

Beware of Pity (Stefan Zweig, 1939)

I liked this book very much.  I keep hearing references to Zweig but never have read any of his works.  Wanted to learn something about this as I try to develop a better feel for eastern-central Europe.  I find that this is Zweig's only novel.

Protagonist is an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer stationed in a rather dreary post pretty far removed from cities; he is invited to a party at the home of a rich local landowner.  Much enjoys the change of scenery; asks the host's daughter for a dance but learns she is crippled; this creates an unpleasant scene.  But he is welcomed back to the house very shortly thereafter; tries to be helpful; it turns out badly.  Actions based on pity certainly can be dangerous.

Dr. Condor is treating the invalid.  The landowner (father of the invalid) has quite a story of his own.  Protagonist enlists for WWI and becomes a hero (though that isn't a direct part of the plot line).

Interesting beginning to end, usually compelling, very much worthwhile.  (Which is particularly appreciated as I recently seem to be encountering a higher percentage of mundane books than usual . . .)

The Daughters of Mars (Thomas Keneally, 2012)

Had seen favorable reviews when this was published in 2012.  And I liked it.  Two sisters are raised in Australian back country; older one goes to Sydney to work; they aren't terribly close.  But both volunteer for service during WWI recruitment drive.

So essentially this provides a very different take on WWI - perspective of Australian nurses who train in Egypt, serve on a hospital ship off Gallipoli (and then on the nearby island of Lemnos), and then make their way up to France.  The older sister (Naomi) ends up working in an Australian-run hospital in northern France, while the younger sister (Sally) works closer to the front (including stints at clearing stations).  They are in service all the way up to the end (including "Spanish" flu outbreak (which was quite interestingly discussed here)).

Not too much detail about medical stuff, but it does help give an idea about the challenges of 1915-era medical efforts running up against industrial killing.  Amazing to think of the doctors and nurses that faced this stuff endlessly, year in and year out.

The two sisters are pretty strong characters, but I didn't think the author romanticized what this was all about.

Medical personnel were critical players here, but quite naturally they tend to be overlooked by the historians and novelists in favor of other aspects of the war (though Hemingway did address the topic quite famously here).

Making this book all the more worthwhile.

The Great Influenza - The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (John M. Barry, 2004)

The editor could (and should) have done a bit of chopping here and there (starting with the title:  does he really need "great," "epic," and "deadliest"?), but overall this is very much worth reading.  The author focuses on the intersection of two story lines:  (1) the bringing of "modern" (or "German," if you will) medicine to the U.S. in the decades leading up to WWI; and (2) the incredible influenza outbreak in the dying days of WWI, along with related efforts to fight it.

I wish I had read Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith just after this book (rather than just before).  Lewis's novel would have had a lot more meaning.  This author explains how Lewis built the novel around contemporary events, including a cigarette relating to researcher Paul Lewis.  Amazing overlaps.  Including issues like anxious-to-publish institute leadership in conflict with go-slow, meticulous researchers.

Some thoughts about story line one:

1.  U.S. med schools were in the dark ages well into second half of 19th century (and, in many cases, early 20th century).  John Hopkins University as an unlikely pioneering institution in Baltimore.  Rockefeller Institute in NYC develops.  And others.

2.  Prior to the new standards - med school professors earn fees by tuition - which means pandering to (rather than challenging) students.  No or few autopsies.  No research or labs in almost all cases.  Generally no requirement for an undergraduate degree as a condition of admission.  Graduates often saw their first patients after graduation.  1910 Flexnor Report is catalyst for change.

3.  Author devotes a lot of time to mini-biographies of key players.  Not entirely sure why - no one came up with a "cure" for this influenza, it just had to play itself out - ongoing mutations regress virulence to the mean, or something.

As to the flu itself:

1.  Appeared to commence in at army setting in Kansas.  Overcrowded barracks and constant transfers enabled the spread in a way that wouldn't have happened in peacetime.

2.  Astonishing worldwide spread - especially with the far more virulent phase 2.  20 million deaths in India alone?

3.  Interesting discussions of the way these diseases mutate and flow within and among different population centers - quite reminiscent of this book.  Isolated populations get wrecked - limited antibody development.

4.  Killed young, healthy folks (flu normally attacks the young and old) - antibody system went into overdrive.

5.  Staggering death tolls, staggering effect on cities.  Oxygen deprivation created a deep blueness in corpses that caused folks to call this a recurrence of the black death.  And there were horse-drawn carts in US cities with calls to "bring out your dead" - amazing in 20th century.

6.  Disaster in Philadelphia.

7.  176 of 300 "Eskimos" dead in Nome when a relief ship arrived.  85%+ death tolls in surrounding villages.  Grisly scenes where half-wild dogs devoured corpses when the few surviving natives were too weak to fight them off.  (As I understand it, this had nothing to do with the 1925 Balto serum run - that involved a later diphtheria outbreak.)

8.  The amazing-ness of flu and why outbreaks will continue.  How it doesn't need continuous access to a large human population - can nestle in bird or pig or whatever populations and then jump to humans in new forms.

Another thing:  this story brought home the pervasiveness of the repressive environment during WWI - Wilson wanted, and got, a total war environment.  Sedition Act - amazing.  Buy war bonds - or else.  Shut up - or else.  The frightening know-it-all-ness of Wilson and the Progressive movement - hooray for experts and top-down control! (Unfortunately, that part doesn't seem to change much.)

The flu became known as the "Spanish Flu" because Spanish newspapers - printed in a neutral country - actually reported on the disease.  It had been rampant elsewhere for a long time, but censors in combatant countries suppressed the news.

Author thinks Wilson was affected by this flu during critical portions of Versailles negotiations during which Wilson seemed to fold on long-held principles;others have attributed to Wilson's weakening to some other disease.  In any event he never was very healthy thereafter.  (#1 adviser Colonel House already was out of commission prior to Versailles via the flu.)

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 . . . "

All Our Worldly Goods - a Novel of Love Between the Wars (Irene Nemirovsky, 1947 (translated 2008))

This is my favorite of Nemirovsky's works so far (see here and here for comparison; the first link also discusses a bit of Nemirovsky's extremely interesting back story).

The translator explains that the title carries a different meaning in French - less materialistic in weight than the English words.

The story line follows generations of a family resident in northern France - a town where the German army swept through in both WWI and WWII.  One son (later a soldier in WWI) breaks off the engagement to the wealthy fiancee preferred by his industrialist grandfather and instead marries for love; he is cut out of the family business (though things come full circle).  His son is drawn into WWII fighting.

It's just a very nice story in many ways.  And brings alive, a bit differently than other discussions, some of the reasons why the French just couldn't have been all that excited about ramping up to fight the Germans in 1940.  WWI fought mostly on French soil, with horrific casualties; partial mobilizations less than 20 years later; here come the Germans again - unimaginable.  French citizens who were say 25 when WWI ended were just 46 or 47 when the WWII invasion occurred - how must that have felt?

As in Suite Francaise, interesting scenes when French towns evacuated ahead of the advancing German army.

Quick read, worthwhile, the author is a good observer

Doctor Faustus - The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend (Thomas Mann, 1947)

Not sure what I felt like after reading this.  I think it was extraordinary.  I think I like Thomas Mann an awful lot, at least based on this book, and also on this book.  I don't know much about Mann, what critics think, etc.  Maybe it's better that way.

This was an adaptation of the famous Faust tale; a story long prominent among Germans, particularly in relation to this work by Goethe.

It reminded me of The Magic Mountain in many respects - long discussions among characters, long book, long sequences with little or minor action - yet compelling throughout.

A "friend" of a famous (fictional, of course) German composer - Adrian Leverkuhn - is writing Leverkuhn's story.  Leverkuhn makes a Faustian bargain so as to be able to compose wondrous musical works.  Or does he?

Mann goes into long discussions of the nature of music and composition throughout the book - this was highly interesting to me - being long close to classical music, yet almost entirely ignorant on theory and composition.  An example:  Mann does this effectively through the character of Leverkuhn's teacher in Eisersachern - the lectures, the individual discussions - intrinsically interesting separate from the story.  Lots of references to Beethoven's 9th - the Ode to Joy, including chorus - a note of hope after all the turmoil in Beethoven's earlier works - how Leverkuhn's final composition is a sort of answer to the turn taken in Beethoven's 9th.  This element of the book was very thought-provoking, if not always directly pertaining to the plot line.

Leverkuhn studied theology before turning to music . . . interesting discussion by a theology department professor about good and evil - how a complete world needs both - how freedom granted by God would mean living in compliance - so would not a truer use of one's God-gifted freedom be noncompliance?  Or what?  This is all part of the set-up for the Faustian bargain.  If there was one.

Theology, demonology, music.

Leverkuhn 's friend is writing the story over a course of years during WWII . . . regularly updating on the course of events in WWII; these run in parallel with elements of the underlying story, which took place in the years surrounding WWI.

And of course there is political allegory here - Germany as making a Faustian bargain with Hitler - I rather expected this to be the extent of the book, but there is far more going on.

Interesting political discussion among the narrator and some acquaintances in the Nazi years - consensus forming that truth can, and should, be sacrificed to the community's needs - it's a longish discussion that I'm not capturing here, but resonated in a troublesome way with the orthodoxy/political correctness prevalent in the US these days.  Don't be too truthful, it might be uncomfortable.  The myth of the community.

Leverkuhn's musical breakthrough is modeled on Schoenberg's 12-tone work (which I know nothing about).

This was very good.  I need to spend more time with it.

The First World War (John Keegan, 1998)

I've recently been going into some specific facets of WWI (such as this very good work); I very much liked the pictorial version of this book as described here; so I decided to take up the narrative version as a bit of a review and recap.  Much worthwhile.  Keegan writes really well.  And he is charmingly supportive of his native country (England).

Something good about this book:  more focus on the Eastern front (and Italy).  Typically not emphasized in WWI stuff I've read so far.  Russia laboring away for three long years before communists cut out - I had the impression Russia had pretty much checked out after Tannenbaum - not so.

Then there's just the overall amazing-ness- that a war like his could happen in a prosperous Europe with so much in common across all of these countries - culture, religion, business ties, travel (including tourism now involving, for the first time, the middle and lower classes).  Not sure how to measure but the connectedness across Europe might have been stronger than even today, given interposition of the Iron Curtain and separate (and dramatically different) development paths for decades.  100 years later - these folks have been EU partners in one form or the other, admittedly with varying degrees of success, for decades already!  Why were they killing one another so vigorously, so recently?

The German naval build-up was a very, very real factor in reducing England's choices.

Have read elsewhere about Sarajevo, the interlocking alliances, the inevitability of mobilization; that Germany believed it needed to act quickly.

That WWII is not a separate war at all!  The more one reads, the clearer it is that WWII was merely a continuation of WWI.

Have read elsewhere of the futility of frontal assaults in the trenches.  Of Verdun, the Somme, Ypres, etc.  The breathtaking, shocking casualties - simply unbelievable - yet they kept at it for years.  How, how did this happen??

Kitchener's groups - units from single towns in England, inexperienced, predictable (at least in hindsight) devastation for particular towns.

How easy it is to criticize the commanders - and they probably deserve most of it - Keegan does note the paramount importance of real time communications in a complex, fluid situation, and how the persistent failure of that factor - placed alongside the industrial killing apparatus - limited commanders and contributed to the slaughter.  Commanders could not obtain information, communicate decisions, accomplish anything once battle was joined.

The courage, the sacrifice, the slaughter.  Today's cynicism - much stemming from WWI - hadn't yet set in.  It has now, with a deserved vengeance.

America's entry - the mass of numbers - men and equipment - Germany spent, Austria worthless per usual.

"But then the First World War is a mystery.  Its origins are mysterious.  So is its course.  Why did a prosperous continent, at the height of its success as a source and agent of global wealth and power and at one of the peaks of its intellectual and cultural achievement, choose to risk all it had won for itself and all it offered to the world in the lottery of a vicious and local internecine conflict?  Why, when the hope of bringing the conflict to a quick and decisive conclusion was everywhere dashed to the ground within months of its outbreak, did the combatants decide nevertheless to persist in their military effort, to mobilize for total war and eventually to commit the totality of their young manhood to mutual and existentially pointless slaughter?"

Why, indeed?

Everything about this is simply fascinating, and so disheartening.  I will keep reading about it.

Dreadnought - Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (Robert K. Massie, 1991)

Robert Massie writes history in a way that comes across as great stories.  I previously had the good fortune to read Nicholas and Alexandra and his biography of Peter the Great.  This one - very good, though I think unnecessarily long - over the 900 pages, I think he devoted too much space to biographical details of too many figures in England and Germany in these days.

But the book is still entirely worth reading (I coped by just blowing through the parts that provided more detail than I wanted).  And there is a very real benefit to all the biographical detail - it gives some sort of glimpse into the human side of the key figures involved in the naval build-up that preceded World War I.

The early part of the book gets into the familial ties between Britain and Germany.  We all remember that Kaiser Wilhelm was Queen Victoria's grandson (and therefore the nephew and cousin of the two kings that succeeded Victoria prior to World War I).  And that Victoria herself had a German mother.  But going through the detail underscored the tight personal relationships.  (And something like this extended across most of the remaining courts.)  Amazing that they could end up at war.

The early part also discussed Bismark.  The hopes for liberal parliamentary in the combined Germany - certainly this seemed to be the prevailing desire in 1848.  Bismark embodied conservative Prussian values, very different - the combined Germany he created focused power in Chancellor and Kaiser.  Wilhlem's father's premature death may have ended the last hopes for liberal parliament; Bismark et al had cultivated Wilhelm to be conservative.  


Wilhelm's interest in building a German navy - shared by Tirpitz - Wilhelm's interest probably based on experiences in England.  Germany as a rising power with large population, positioned to dominate Europe.  But weak sea access, and subordinate to British navy for colonies, etc.  Wilhelm didn't want this to continue, England - as a sea power - couldn't permit Germany to approach its fleet sizes.  A true arms race.

Jackie Fisher - interesting admiral - British navy changes dramatically to embrace new technologies.  It was not easy to achieve change - no big naval engagements for a century, so often dealing with obsolete wooden ships where the focus was on cleaning the decks.  Leading to "dreadnoughts" - fast, heavily armored, massive guns - a whole new game.  How to pay for them?

The name "Dreadnought" seems inspired in connection with these awful vessels of destruction - vaguely terrifying - the motto for the original dreadnought was "Fear God - and Dread Naught".  Because these ships were designed such that they didn't need to fear anything (remember, there were no attack planes in existence at the time).

England sees a need for something it traditionally resisted - some form of continental alliance - mostly due to Germany's growing strength, including strength at sea.  Many efforts to reach an understanding with Germany; but it ends up being with France and Russia.

A young Winston Churchill taking over the navy in the last years before the war.

The events following the assassination in Sarajevo - many, many opportunities for the leaders to head off the war.  German generals emphatically believing that Germany was surrounded, that the Slavs were regaining strength and needed to be dealt with "now"; manipulating, at least somewhat, the political leadership.  The Schlieffen plan to attack through Belgium and how this ultimately brought England into the war. The lamps going out all over Europe.

I wonder how it could have been worse if England had stayed out of the war.  Seems Germany could then have delivered the planned knockout blow in France.  Would that have been worse than WWI as it unfolded (including aftermath such as WWII, disaster in eastern Europe, etc.)?