Hide Your Children: Exposing the Marxists behind the Attack on America’s Kids by Liz Wheeler (ISBN: 978-1-68451-391-8) provides a look at how the education system has deteriorated further since the 1980s. The book starts with an overview of just who the Marxists the subtitle is talking about and then gives specific examples of how attacks on the nuclear family, endless accusations of racism, critical theory, queer theory, and attacks on homeschool, a proxy for attacks on personal responsibility and liberty, fit into the Marxist program meant to destroy society. Each chapter gives some history of where the modern Marxist threat originated and, using specific examples, how it became more mainstream than it ever should have. The historic sections are followed by a discussion of how it is today and the threat that presents to America, a country built on the idea that it survives only if the people who inhabit it are a moral people. The book ends with a chapter providing some suggestions on how to change the tide and fight back against the Marxist wave that has overpowered our educational system since it’s much easier to change the minds of the impressionable young than older people more set in their ways. The author’s suggestions include fighting the culture war, working to ban critical theory from public institutions, homeschooling whenever possible, fighting for school choice, working against ESG and DEI, remembering that local politics have an outlandishly large impact on our lives, returning to religion, and protecting the innocence of our children. Finally, there were some appendices with the Constitution and papal encyclicals that discussed the dangers of Communism.Looking back on my time in school, I can see some of the early beginnings of what was discussed in the book. I remember having lessons on self-esteem in fifth grade. The discussions about just what constitutes a put-down are exactly the kind of thing that gets rolled into social-emotional learning in the mid-2020s. Homeschooling was a great experience for me that taught a lot about personal responsibility and putting forth the effort to better one’s own life. That was the ultimate message of the book, but it also presented a good picture of what some of the problems with the modern American education system and how much of what is taught is at odds with the liberty needed to be self-sufficient. One interesting undercurrent of the book was Wheeler’s belief that while religion was key to containing Marxism, Catholicism was the preferred route. The appendices included two very long papal encyclicals, both of which accurately described Communism as a problem, but were also inclined to support organized labor a rather fuzzy concept of how to deal with poverty. The descriptive portion of the book was its strongest and make it worth reading. The prescriptive part was fine, with ideas that were good, but left me wanting more specifics (something that would improve many books about politics).
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The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen, and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II by Judith M. Heiman (ISBN: 978-0-15-101434-7) tells a fascinating story from the Pacific. As the Allies tried to claw their way toward Japan, while a ground invasion was still a potential plan, territory in what is now Indonesia was of strategic importance to the belligerents. Japan held what was then referred to as Borneo because of its oil reserves. The Allies wanted to cut that off. During a bombing mission against Japanese forces and industry in Borneo, a few U.S. planes were shot down. The occupants of one met death, either in the wreck or at the hands of the Japanese. Two other planes, though, had survivors who avoided capture. While this was initially thanks mostly to good luck, later capture was avoided because of the efforts of the natives, some of whom were formerly formidable headhunting tribes. The case of characters involved Malaysians, various highland jungle tribes, and the Americans. Later, Australian forces joined made it to the jungle and helped the natives fight the Japanese and the Americans get home. In the six months between the downed planes and the exfiltrations, though, the natives and the Malay helped the Americans avoid detection by the Japanese. They provided the Americans with hiding places, food, and taught them some of their ways to help make survival in the jungle a little easier. It wasn’t easy and involved sickness, insects, leeches, and injury, but the downed American soldiers eventually made it back home. In fighting the Japanese and keeping them off the Americans’ trail, the natives brought back their age-old tradition of headhunting. It might not have been exactly the same since it was revitalized out of necessity, but it served its purpose and aided in keeping the Japanese out of the interior jungles.