Iron Curtain

My whole life, Eastern Europe has been of interest to me.  The Soviet Union and the countries of what was called the “Eastern bloc” were the enemies of America when I was a kid.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, I got to watch those formerly oppressed peoples give democracy a try.  Thanks to serving a mission in Russia and marrying a Czech woman, the interest in Eastern Europe has never really disappeared.  Considering the state of Russia’s government today, not to mention the regressions made in Western societies toward authoritarianism, it seems the subject of oppressive regimes is still very germane to modern life.  One thing that was always pretty clear to me, even as a kid, when I imagined people across the Soviet Union being told what their jobs were being something along the lines of graduating from high school and instead of getting a diploma, you got directed to your job, the worst one in my mind was someone whose job it was to endlessly go around an office building emptying the trash cans under everyone’s desks, was that, in most cases, it was those in power who were at fault for the lack of liberty, and not the everyday people.

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 by Anne Applebaum (ISBN: 978-1-4000-9593-3) discusses just how Communist regimes came to power in Europe following World War II.  The book chronicles how the Communists came to power in Eastern Europe, focusing on Hungary, Poland, and East Germany, with a fair number of examples from Czechoslovakia and occasionally Romania.  The Communists rose to power quickly in post-war Europe through a comprehensive strategy that thoroughly encompassed the lives of the people.  This included the police, youth organizations, the media, political organizations, the arts, and the economies of the countries where the Soviet Union was victorious over Germany.  In many cases, a combination of factors worked together to make the Communist takeover work.  First, it was the Soviet Union that was in control in these areas.  Even in places where there was arguable Allied control, it was the Soviets doing the day-to-day administration, so they worked to install people and organizations that were compatible with their ideas of how things should work.  Second, there had already been strong support for Communist, socialist, and other Left-leaning ideologies before and during the war.  This only continued after the war.  Third, the activists were the ones most involved.  They were also the ones who were willing to use violence to reach their goals.  While most regular people were concerned about getting a job, rebuilding their homes and businesses, and helping their friends and families, activists were getting involved in politics, unions, youth and religious organizations, and the media.  This helped them make sure that things were done they way they wanted.  In the rare cases when there was some push-back, the activists, often with help from the police or the newly formed secret police organizations, violently quashed any dissent.  Applebaum does discuss resistance a little, but this is a short section, which seems to accurately represent the proportions of active and passive support or acquiescence to the regime and resistance.

I thought the book was interesting, but not quite as impressive as Gulag: A History, Applebaum’s impressive earlier work.  I thought the book was comprehensive, and it was nice to read about the many different areas in which the Communists operated in order to come to power.  One area I thought it might have been nice to explore further was how such a small number of people could so quickly overtake these countries.  Of the three abovementioned factors, the author focused on the third, the activists and Communist party members, but I was often left pondering how such a small fraction of the total populations got so much power so quickly.  On the other hand, that factor is probably the most relevant to today’s political climate, especially in the West.  The book should serve as a warning to those who fall to the right of socialists on the political spectrum.  If they are too slow to step up their involvement and are too willing to be cowed by the Left’s willingness to resort to violence, it won’t be too long before books about “the crushing of Western Europe” or “the crushing of North America” will be possible to publish.

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Red Scarf Girl

Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about China.  It has certainly become much more important in the later half of my lifetime than it was in the first half.  I have always wanted to visit China, especially to see the famous Great Wall, which has captivated me since I first heard about it as a little kid.  Seeing some of the major sights would also be cool.  Such a trip once almost happened, but real life ended up getting in the way, and I’ve had to file that away in the “Some Day” folder.  I have also always known China as a Communist country even though it was Russia and Eastern Europe that seemed to grab all the Communist headlines during the first part of my life.  Tiananmen Square is something I remember quite well since it was broadcast into our living room, like it was for millions around the world.  China’s recent economic ascendancy has, unfortunately, been accompanied by continued restrictions on liberty that came with the introduction of Communism in that vast country.

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang (ISBN: 978-0-06-446208-2) details one of the worst parts of China’s Communist history, the Cultural Revolution.  The book, a memoir, is told from the viewpoint of the author as the events unfolded.  Her family history included a well-to-do grandfather, a Muslim grandmother, and a father who had joined the Communist Party in its infancy when it was still illegal and then had a falling out with its leaders.  This put her at a disadvantage when Mao began the Cultural Revolution to retain his power (power struggles seem to be a fixture of Communist regimes) since her family was not considered “red” enough.  Ji-li was a true believer in Mao and the Revolution at the beginning of the book, but as things went along and friends and neighbors were denounced, goals and dreams shattered, lives ruined (or lost), and her own family affected, she came to understand that devotion to a cause or a leader should not trump one’s devotion to the truth and to one’s family.  Like many Chinese, she was later disappointed when she found out that the Cultural Revolution and all the damage it had done was not really to advance Communism, but to allow Chairman Mao to hang on to power.  Ji-li paints a descriptive picture of what life was like before the chaos, and it actually didn’t seem too bad.  When the Cultural Revolution starts, though, things change quickly and they change drastically, as all things old are thrown out.  Kids can no longer read comics, neighbors stop talking to each other and some look for ways to harm neighbors and former friends.  School is changed, favoring class status instead of merit.  Houses are ransacked, people imprisoned, beat, sometimes killed.  Hope is lost for many.  Some, like Ji-li’s father, resist heroically, never admitting to the accusations leveled falsely against him.  Life eventually settles down, but it’s never the same again, and even to a young girl, it’s obvious that there were freedoms and opportunities lost.

I found the book to be quite interesting and informative even though it is written as juvenile literature.  For those who know more about the history of China, the experience might not be the same.  I found it interesting to see so many similarities between other authoritarian regimes (I couldn’t help but remember the Taliban blowing up ancient statues in Afghanistan as I read about Chinese Red Guards destroying anything they felt like labeled “Four Olds”) and Leftist ideologies (anti-religious views and class and racial tension, for example).  It was sometimes a little jarring to read simply because the author narrated from her point of the view as the events unfolded.  This meant there is a lot of pro-Communist, even pro-Cultural Revolution sentiment expressed.  As noted, this wanes as the story progresses, but it sometimes makes one have to stop and think as one reads.  I see having to think things through and a need for analysis and evaluation as a good thing, though.  Here, the analysis of the author’s experiences leads to a greater appreciation for freedom and liberty, as well as, hopefully, a greater commitment to protect those values and to be kind to those around us.

   

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Red-handed

Corruption has been around as long as politics have been around, which seems to be pretty much since the beginning since the Old Testament is full of politics, often of the lying, sneaking, and back-stabbing variety.  As a missionary in Russia and then in a couple classes in college, though, was when I was introduced to corruption.  It didn’t seem to play a large role in the American politics that I knew from the 1980s and 1990s.  Russians, though, constantly complained about corruption, and textbooks and articles in college expanded my understanding of the scope of corruption all around the world.  Sadly, as time has gone on, corruption has continued to expand and not retract like most hope it would.

Red-handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win by Peter Schweizer (ISBN: 978-0-06-306114-9) chronicles corruption among American elites as it pertains to China.  The book shows how many facets of American society are compromised because of their deep, corrupt financial ties to China.  Both major political parties (already for decades) have been selling out to China along with big business, the green lobby, the American entertainment industry, and even America’s sports leagues.  While the Clintons and the Bidens headline the political corruption, the Bushes and Mitch McConnell are also exposed.  Politicians and diplomats consistently use their time in office to make connections with high-ranking Chinese, then cash in on public service, brokering Chinese access to American halls of power.  Some, like the Clintons, Bidens, and McConnells, don’t even bother waiting until they’re out of office.  The worst part about it from an American security standpoint is that many of the deals involve dual-use technologies, defense industry, and hi-tech products that, when protected, protect America’s edge and advantage in the world.  The NBA has sold out to China for the billions of dollars it can make there.  In turn, players, coaches, executives, and even fans are prevented from expressing certain views.  The same holds true for Hollywood, where anti-American messages are de jour, but the studios must walk on eggshells when it comes to China, Taiwan, and Tibet.  A short section at the end talks about what can be done and passes out a little praise to the few to whom it is due.  Ultimately, American political discourse is constrained, and American national interests are subjugated to a country that does not, according to the statements of its own leaders, believe in a positive-sum game, but a zero-sum game, and it’s willing to do what it takes to be the one on top.

The book was very interesting and worth one’s time.  Schweizer is a long-time crusader against corruption in government and has written a number of tomes on the subject, including Clinton Cash.  Schweizer is not political in his writing or research: all sides are fair game, and this was particularly evident in this book.  I also appreciated the look beyond politics and into the culture and business worlds, which play a major role in American life and in American politics.  Politics in America would not be what they are if it wasn’t for the way those on top in the cultural and business worlds acted.  The book is well researched (the scores of pages of endnotes point to this), although all the names and figures can seem a little convoluted at times.  If one reads for the overarching points, this does not inhibit the reading experience.  The facts and figures are there for those who want the minutiae, though.  The other strong point of the book was that it explained what some of the risks are from this corruption, which helps us understand the immediacy of the concern.  The prescriptions at the end seemed realistic, although maybe too little, too late.

 

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Seven Miracles That Saved America

Although the 1980s brought about the fall of the Soviet Union and its empire in Eastern Europe, as well as the decline of many of its proxies elsewhere in the world), that was not until the tail end of that wild decade.  The first nine years had a world very clearly defined by the West, led by the United States of America, and the Communists, led by the Soviet Union.  America’s special role in the world was well understood by almost everyone in the world.  Later, this came to be called “American exceptionalism,” but at the time, it was simply known as “America.”  This America was built on a firm foundation of inspired men from Columbus to the great president of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan.  In between, there were the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, and the Greatest Generation.

Seven Miracles That Saved America: Why They Matter and Why We Should Have Hope (ISBN: 978-1-60641-144-5) by Chris and Ted Stewart explores singular events and unique people in American history that, had things unfolded even slightly differently, could have resulted in a vastly different America.  All of these events and people hinge on such a fine line that it is easy to see that they were influenced by God.  The miracles that the authors review in detail are the following: Columbus and Columbus’s discoveries, Jamestown, a summer fog during the Revolutionary War, the advent of the American Constitution, Abraham Lincoln and the battle of Gettysburg, the battle of Midway, and Ronald Reagan and how the assassination attempt against him failed by less than one inch (just a little bit more and the bullet kills him).  Each one of the miracles is reviewed in detail by the authors and the scene is set through some historical fiction.  At the end of each section, the authors ask some questions that invite the reader to think about what would have happened in each of these situations had things — and usually it’s quite an exhaustive list of things — turned out even slightly different.  For example, with the foggy morning during the Revolutionary War that allowed American troops to withdraw and regroup without suffering losses, it really was a question of a few hours and things could have been vastly different.  The same could be said about the battle of Midway.  There, it really was more like minutes since one of the pilots flying and trying to locate Japanese fleet only had minutes before needing to return to base without running out of fuel.  At the last possible minute, though, he spotted the Japanese ships, and that allowed the Americans to attack first, which proved critical in the battle, along with other decisions and rare direct hits during the bombing runs.  The point being made is that there were just too many decisions at so many different points along the way that for those who recognize that God has a role in human existence, these events were miraculous and they resulted in an exceptional country that has long been a light on a hill.

The book was an interesting read and presented some things that I was either not very familiar with or, in the case of the foggy day during the Revolutionary War, had not heard of at all.  I liked the detailed reviews of the events and people, which helped make the case that the events really were miraculous.  I think the case was presented effectively.  I found the concluding chapter, where the authors proposed that God’s intervention in the past likely meant God would intervene in the future to also be sound analysis, especially as it was paired with God’s discussion with Abraham about preserving the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorra as long as even a few righteous remained there.  What I found to be less interesting was the historical fiction (not one of my favorite genres to begin with, admittedly) that was used as a scene setter.  It seemed to me that it was there simply to make this more of a book-length affair, and I think it would have been possible to find solid, historical material to fill in a lot of the space taken by the fictionalized accounts.  A shorter book would have also been acceptable as I believe the points were adequately made.  In any case, it was a great reminder of America’s exceptionalism and of our individual responsibilities to help keep it that way by being part of the righteous that God is willing to preserve.

 

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Saints: No Unhallowed Hand

Salt Lake City, Utah, is home to an interesting state park that is currently called This Is the Place Heritage Park.  I remember it as This Is the Place State Park.  It is home to a grand monument to Brigham Young, the Mormon pioneers, and other explorers of the early American West.  The rest of the park is a number of reconstructed early pioneer homes, outbuildings, and buildings such as a blacksmith’s shop, a general store, and other buildings typical of frontier towns.  As a kid, the thing that attracted me most to the park was that they sold candy in the general store, there were farm animals to see, and there were a few things that kids could do, such as give combing wool a try (it was much more difficult than it looked).  I had little appreciation for the pioneers that the park and monument were originally meant to honor (“originally” is a key word because now it’s billed as a “living history museum” and they’ve even added that old, traditional pioneer facility, the splash pad).

Saints: No Unhallowed Hand (ISBN: 978-1-62972-648-9) is the second volume of a multi-volume history published by the Church itself.  This volume follows the Church’s exodus from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley.  It tells the story of the wagon trains and hand cart companies that forged the Mormon Trail.  The Church was forging into new territory as well, as Brigham Young became the second president of the Church and the second prophet of this era.  In addition to trekking across the North American plains, the Church was expanding internationally, with missionaries taking the message of the restored gospel to Europe, South Africa, and the islands of the Pacific.  Missionary work didn’t always go so well, and there were plenty of other locations, like Southeast Asia, where missions resulted in extremely few converts.  The book also chronicles the early Church’s struggles with the American government.  After the lack of concern the federal government showed the Church when Missouri’s official position was persecution, most Church members were wary of the U.S. government.  Brigham Young and his successors were wary, but also saw the wisdom of working toward a reconciled position.  This led to things like the Mormon Battalion and helped influence Church members’ thinking as some later struggled to accept the end of polygamy.  A major theme in the book was the construction of temples.  They required great sacrifice, but also resulted in great blessings.  

The book is written in the same way as the first volume in the series, so there were no surprises this time with formatting, style, or anything like that.  I probably enjoyed reading this volume a little more than the first one because I am less familiar with the early missionary efforts and the stories of Church members across Europe and the Pacific.  I thought most of the stories were good: interesting and something one can learn from.  The book dealt in depth with polygamy, which was never something I struggled with, but I know it’s a question that many, both inside and outside the Church have.  The book touched on the Mountain Meadow massacre in a way that I thought presented a good level of detail and the level to which Church members were involved.  The stories of faith and sacrifice were what made the book a worthwhile read, though, teaching of their importance and the attendant blessings they bring to our lives.

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Escape and Sophie Scholl

I have visited concentration camps in Germany a couple times.  Each time, it has seemed incomprehensible that such atrocities were actually carried out.  As I have witnessed extremist ideologies gain greater acceptance throughout my lifetime, I have come to appreciate the lessons taught by the preserved concentration camps even more.  They are memorials to what happens when we put aside basic individual rights and liberties.  They serve as a stark warning about what happens when societies continue down the slippery slope of denying rights to others in the name of a greater good.  When I first visited the concentration camps, I did not have children, but by the time of my second visit, I did.  That made the lessons of the past a little more emotional since the National Socialists in Germany did not spare children from the horrors of the camps.

Escape: Children of the Holocaust by Allan Zullo (ISBN: 978-0-545-09929-5) and Sophie Scholl: Die Weiße Rose by Achim Seiffarth (ISBN: 978-3-12-556024-6) are books written for young people (junior high kids seemed to be the target audience), but present some of the stories of Nazi Germany that are good for readers of any age to know.   Zullo’s book told the story of about a dozen Jewish children and their survival of the Holocaust.  The stories were varied and all captivating.  They usually started with the pre-war life of the kids or, at least, their life under Hitler when it still wasn’t too crazy.  This allowed for the reader to see how quickly things went downhill.  Inevitably, before long, families were separated, people were in ghettos or concentration camps, and life would never be the same again as kids were forced to grow up quickly and learned that the adult world wasn’t all it was cracked up to be since it induced a lot of pain, suffering, and cruelty.  The kids in Zullo’s book all displayed incredible levels of resiliency, though, scraping by and taking advantage of what was few chances and opportunities were given them, such as a truck taking workers to another camp with a sympathetic guard who was known to let one or two people at a time make a run for it.  The stories, which are of those who survived, do not glass over the fact that the survivors of the ghettos and camps were in the vast minority, and it is sobering to read of all the friends and family these survivors lost.  Seiffarth’s book is written for learners of German, but although relatively simply written, still does a great job presenting a fascinating story.  Sophie Scholl was a young woman who went from teenager to college student during the Nazi rise to power.  Originally a believer in what Hitler was doing, as she came closer to adulthood, she saw the errors intrinsic to nationalist socialism.  Following the lead of her older brother, an activist in the underground resistance, her religious father, who could not abide the unfair treatment of Jews and others oppressed by the regime, and a college professor who encouraged free thinking and debate even when it was unpopular, Sophie joined the resistance, helping to distribute anti-Nazi flyers.  Her efforts helped present what was an unpopular opinion to the masses, especially as she helped found resistance cells among young people in cities outside her hometown.  Eventually, the Nazi regime caught up to her, her brother, others in their circle, including their professor, and they were executed.

As stated above, while both books are juvenile literature, they are quality works.  I enjoyed trying to stretch my knowledge of German, the native language of my grandparents and other ancestors who have a story or two of their own involving the Nazi authorities.  The stories in Escape easily kept my attention, told interesting details, and were from a variety of people, such as those from Germany proper as well as from occupied territories.  This variety gave more flavor and a nice, broad overview of what are certainly not isolated incidents.  I thought Sophie Scholl was also a nice overview that provided sufficient detail to be informative and yet not get bogged down.  I had seen a movie on her a few years ago, but this book gave me some new information and was, I thought, better (I always think that about books relative to movies, though).  Both of these books present an interesting and accurate picture of what life was like under the Nazis — for Jews in the first and for conscientious Germans in the other.  They remind us what we should be fighting to avoid, even if it’s only a step or two in that direction, and the kind of people we should be striving to be, even if that striving leads to unpopular positions, ostracization, and, possibly, the ultimate sacrifice.  Liberty — for ourselves and for others — is worth those things.

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Stasiland

When I was a kid, there were two countries split by Communism: Korea and Germany.  Germany was always a country of great interest to me since my grandparents came from Germany.  Although East Germany was part of the Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc, it didn’t regularly make headlines like the Soviet Union did (or, at least, not ones that a kid like me heard about).  I knew it was oppressive and that people tried to get out.  The movie Night Crossing, about a couple families’ daring escape from East Germany in a hot air balloon, was one of my favorites.  I first saw it thanks to the Disney Sunday Night Movie (or some similar title), which we had recorded on VHS and watched more than once.  The escape was harrowing and courageous, and I couldn’t believe that there was a country that was so intent on controlling its own people.  Even though I was so young, I thought the reunification of Germany was a really cool event.

Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder (ISBN: 978-1-84708-355-7) is a book written in a journalistic style that tells a variety of stories from East Germany: former Stasi, dissidents, people who tried to escape, and just regular people.  The book, because of its style, also followed the author’s journey through East Germany and dealing with the psychological damage being so close to it dealt her.  The people interviewed included a woman who was not political at all, but one day, found herself close to the border, saw a possibility, and went for it.  She was caught, imprisoned, and forever scarred by the traumatic experience.  She later married a guy who was punished for an escape attempt simply because he swam out toward a boat that was Swedish while at an East German beach.  Endless trouble from the state eventually killed him.  Another was a neighbor of the author, a rock musician who was famous throughout the country.  Eventually, the authorities decided he and his group were just too much, though, and they were informed they no longer existed.  The state disbanded the group.  One of the most heart-rending stories came thanks to a woman who essentially traded her freedom for that of others.  She and her husband had a very sick baby that was being treated in a West German hospital because the East Germans didn’t have the right medicines and abilities.  The parents were only allowed a couple visits, and never together, in an effort to prevent defection.  Later, the parents prepared to make an escape attempt via a tunnel.  The Stasi, East Germany’s brutal secret police, found out about the tunnel, though, and the escape attempt was called off.  That didn’t prevent the parents of the sick boy from being persecuted.  Eventually, the mother was told she could go to the West and see her son, but there were conditions.  One of the conditions would’ve sold out some of the others who had been involved in the escape attempt.  In an amazing act of heroism, she didn’t give in.  The boy grew up in the West under the care of nurses and doctors.  The interviews with the former Stasi were less exciting.  Most seemed to lament, in one way or another, the passing of the former East Germany and the power, authority, and privilege many of them had, usually at the expense of others.  The reunification wasn’t kind to everyone, resulting, in some cases, in increased crime and poverty for those who struggled to adapt to the new order.

The book was interesting, but also disappointing in some ways.  The stories about the former East Germans were great.  Funder found a variety of people, a nice cross-section of society that helped present a fuller picture for the reader.  The stories from those who were oppressed and persecuted or who had resisted in some way were both exhilarating and depressing.  They fought, but often it cost them dearly.  A few of the stories were genuinely inspiring.  Some of the more logistical or mechanical stuff involved was also interesting from a strictly historical point of view.  The book was disappointing because of the inclusion of so much of Funder’s journey.  Even some of the more gripping stories were told from the author’s first-person point of view, which I thought greatly detracted from the book and its potentially strong message.  The author was affected by the stories and people she came in contact with in a profound way that impacted her psychologically.  She had to come to grips with that, and the reader is taken along for part of that journey.  Finally, the book, although almost twenty years old, succumbs to that odd rule of modern publishing in which publishers seem to think that if a word doesn’t use the F-word a few times, people won’t take it seriously.  Although prevalent in today’s society, I find that it detracts from literature that is trying to be serious.

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The Gates of Europe

Ukraine has, ever since my mission, been of at least some interest to me.  As a kid, there was no such place.  Ukraine was part of the USSR, which most Americans referred to as the Soviet Union or simply Russia.  Once Communism fell apart (there’s a lesson there for those who care to see it), Ukraine became its own country.  Most Americans refered to it as “the Ukraine,” but that, someone decided, carried Russian imperialist overtones, so now it’s just Ukraine.  The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl probably put Ukraine on the map for most people, myself included.  Later, I met a few Ukrainians or people of Ukrainian ethnicity as a missionary and then after my mission.  One I remember particularly well was a guy named Valery Pruss, who I met on the streets of Kolpino while a missionary.  The way my last name was transliterated into Russian on my missionary name tag and the way his last name was spelled were identical.  He couldn’t believe someone had the same last name as him, so he even pulled out his passport to prove to me we were somehow distant cousins.  After a few minutes on the street, he became on of the thousands of people one talks to on a mission for only a few minutes, but his name and his Ukrainian ethnicity have stuck with me.  Since the end of my mission, I’ve been lucky enough to visit Ukraine a few times.  I enjoyed those visits and hope I might have similar opportunities in the future.

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy (ISBN: 978-0-465-09486-8) provides a brief but comprehensive survey of the history of Ukraine.  The main point is that a unique Ukrainian identity exists and has always existed (this reminded me of a similar book on Bosnia).  The secondary point is that constant turmoil and political turnover have prevented that identity from really blossoming.  Plokhy starts his history with ancient Greeks almost 1,000 years before Christ.  They emigrated to the region in search of natural resources.  There were local tribes in the area, but Greek culture exerted a strong influence on the region, a concept that would remain important as Greece turned to Christianity and Greek missionaries spread Christianity, baptizing Rus (the name of the polity from which modern-day Russia derives its name) in 988, when Grand Prince Vladimir and his subjects in Kiev accepted Orthodox Christianity.  Rus survived the Mongolian hordes and the Ottoman empire, only later to become part of various incarnations of Polish, Lithuanian, and Austo-Hungarian empires.  That brought Catholicism into the mix.  Throughout the myriad invaders and empires, there were nationalist uprisings that also started to cement a uniquely Ukrainian identity in the people.  As time went on and as empires fell in the XIX and XX century, Ukrainians worried less and less about their neighbors’ religious identity and started viewing themselves, in part because of language, but also because of common imperial enemies or shared economic and political ideals, as Ukrainians.  The Soviets, although generally dismissive of nationalism, encouraged it at times in Ukraine, and that helped further the national identity, as did the struggles of the people against Stalinism’s famine or Communist oppression.  The book ends with the Orange Revolution, continuing the thread of Ukraine continuing to solidify its own identity by fighting against outside influence.

In large part because the topic is somewhat unfamiliar, I found the book interesting, although not riveting.  Unlike a lot of modern history, this book does not “read like a novel,” as the endorsements always try to claim.  This is old-fashioned history with lots and lots of names, dates, and places.  Some of that will go over readers’ heads unless they are supremely familiar with the map of eastern Europe stretching from the Baltic Sea down to Athens, Greece, and from Austria in the west to Moscow in the east.  The heavy dose of dry history, though, does not detract from the book’s theme, and, in fact, often adds to it through the secondary stream of incessant turbulence in the region.  The history of Ukraine would be a lot more stable had there been fewer individuals, nations, tribes, and political movements involved.  I think understanding some of the history of the region helps explain the current situation in Ukraine, where national identity is firm, but like firm Jell-O® and not like set cement.  There is room for things to sway and maybe change shape.  Russia and the West vie for influence, sometimes violently.  Ukraine is very much a flashpoint on the borderlands of Europe and the Orient, where things remain fluid long after the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Communists have departed, similar to Balkan countries like Romania and the countries of the former Yugoslavia.  Ukraine’s slowly gelling identity will likely hold it together.  The book is a good reminder that history is worth knowing since it influences thoughts and actions today.

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The Catcher in the Rye

In high school, I avoided reading most of the literature we were assigned.  I found a lot of it dull (somehow, I found MacBeth to be rather interesting) and the discussions we had in class about the books even duller.  Without spending a single cent on CliffsNotes (easily half of the high school used the study guides as replacements for doing the actual reading assignmetns), I managed As in my English classes and passed the AP exam, which helped me avoid having to take English classes in college.  Oddly, when I deiced studying Russian in addition to computer science was a good idea in college, I took a Russian literature (the books were English translations, though) class.  I remember that the non-AP English class had to read the Grapes of Wrath my senior year.  That sounded horrible, and I was glad I didn’t have to do that.

I am not sure if the Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (ISBN: 978-0-316-76917-4) was assigned reading for the regular English class, but it certainly wasn’t for the AP English class, so I never had to read it in high school.  The main character in the book, Holden Caulfield, though, is in high school (well, technically, he’s just been expelled from yet another fancy boarding school), and is struggling with much of what teenagers often contend with, such as a fear of growing up, struggles with making or keeping friends, troubles with figuring out one’s identity, and depression.  The main character is the narrator of the story, which is really just a his train-of-consciousness re-telling of about three days of his life, starting with his having been kicked out of school right before Christmas break, and how he deals with that.  He introduces the reader to some of his teachers, his roommates and dormmates, his sister, a friend from back home, and a few other people he runs into as he tries to avoid going home before he’s supposed to show up at home for Christmas break.  He expresses a lot of negativity for the world and for the people he has contact with, usually because they come across to him as fake.  His rare moments of joy come from his little sister and from other little kids he runs into since they are still innocent and present to the world just who they are, not trying to hide anything or be something they’re not.  He tells his sister that his dream job would be to be a “catcher in the rye,” saving kids running in a rye field toward a cliff from falling off the edge, which is a metaphor for helping people preserve their innocence and lack of “phoniness” (one of his favorite words).

The book was an interesting one, although I would say I had to really push through the first third or so before I felt like had any sense at all of what this kid was about.  His rich, privileged background, combined with his emo outlook and New York street-tough bravado was foreign, complex, and rather off-putting.  Another reason I felt like the book was a slog at times was the insane amount of profane language, easily a dozen profanities per page.  There was also a healthy dose of vulgarity thrown in.  Were this a book a movie script in the 1980s or early 1990s, it would’ve got an R rating.  These days, it probably pulls off a PG-13.  There was also a lot of substance abuse and a handful of sexual references as well as other suggestive scenes.  All of this made me wonder why this book is so commonly assigned in high schools.  The protagonist is a high schooler, but Salinger himself noted that he wrote the novel for an adult audience, and the content is definitely only, as they say, “for mature audiences only.”  I thought the themes explored in the book were interesting, and were things, especially the one about phoniness, even I, now far removed from my teenage years, could relate to in one way or another, and I understand the kind of character the author wanted to portray, but I thought the final product was over the top and detracted from the message of the story.  Remembering my impressionable teenage years, it would’ve been very distracting, and I’m glad I wasn’t exposed to it then.

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Tower of Secrets

I’m not a big movie watcher, so I’ve never seen a Bond movie and pulp fiction rarely interests me (admittedly, I’ve read the original Bourne books — and liked them better than the movies, of course), but I know that bad-guy Russians, usually affiliated with the KGB play a role in at least some of those movies and a lot of fictional spy thrillers.  It, of course, fits well with the Cold War that wasn’t so much a motif through the 1980s, but real life.  It’s an easy way to capture people’s imaginations and draw them into a story.  What has always been even more intriguing than those stories, though, is real life.  I remember Cuban and Eastern European athletes defecting during international competitions and thought that was brave of them.  Movies like Night Crossing regular people defecting had an even larger impact on me.  These people knew the value of freedom and were willing to risk their lives for it.

Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller by Victor Sheymov (ISBN: 978-0-9858930-4-0) is a story more in line with stories of regular people defecting than athletes, but Sheymov wasn’t exactly a regular guy.  He was an officer in one of the Soviet security agencies, the same KGB that was the subject of so much Western fiction.  The KGB he describes in the book often sounds much more like what one imagines working in the IRS or some other boring bureaucratic organization would be like, but he also talks about the things the KGB is more famous for.  Sheymov described his life abroad as an employee of the Soviet Union, working to protect the Soviets’ state secrets and he described his life at home in the Soviet Union.  I found both of them to be rather interesting portrayals of life.  He tells of both the good and the bad, lending an air of credibility to the work.  Eventually, Sheymov and his wife start to question the system they live in.  This is especially shocking to Sheymov himself because he works as part of the system and some of his initial resistance to going against that system is the result of the privilege it has afforded him and his family.  Finally, though, they come to the realization that whatever positives they get from the communist system don’t outweigh the negatives for themselves, their daughter, and for people around them.  The USSR was pretty locked down, though, especially for someone working for the government.  Sheymov and his wife cooked up a plan to get out, but had to make contact with a Western intelligence agency to make that work.  He chose the Americans and ran a risky operation by himself while on a business trip to Poland, where he disguised himself, hopped out a bathroom window, walked into the American embassy, and then returned to his comrades.  Sometime later, more disguises, a train journey, riding in a car with false spaces under the back seats, and smugglers all played a role in getting the Sheymovs to the West.

I enjoyed reading the book.  I found a few similarities to Next Stop Execution: some good descriptions of everyday Soviet life that grounded the book and made it interesting for those of us who weren’t there and some of the discussions about working for what was the world’s most feared intelligence service were neat to read.  I also found the authors’ egoism to be similar.  This book also suffers from being self-published, so there are more than a handful of typos, which can be kind of distracting.  The story of getting that first contact with the Americans set up and then the plan to get the Sheymovs out of the USSR, though, was gripping stuff and well worth the read.  Just like the book’s subtitle promises, it was just like a good story and less like a memoir.  Sheymov’s discussion of his ideological change was also very interesting and it involved various aspects of life.  He accurately noted that communism promised security and justice, but did so at a great price: freedom, both economic and intellectual.  He also grappled with the knowledge that communism has killed many thousands of people, oddly, in the name of equality.  Socialism, in the end, is built for preventing others from succeeding instead of helping people achieve.  These accurate criticisms of socialism and communism are extremely relevant today and serve as the most powerful of Sheymov’s fun and educational book.

   

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Книга Мормона

This year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used the Book of Mormon as the text, in conjunction with the relatively new Come, Follow Me manual, for Sunday school lessons.  The Book of Mormon has always been a part of my life since I’m a life-long member of the Church, and I have come to know that it never hurts to re-read this book, which is aptly described by its subtitle, “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.”  Since it’s been almost twenty years since I finished by mission, which I served in St. Petersburg, Russia, I thought it would be fitting to read the Russian translation of the book.  It’s gone through a few updates since I read it as a missionary, so there would be a little bit of a new feel to it for me (my version was dated March 24th, 2015).

 
While I normally try to summarize the book or provide highlights and some of the author’s main points, that seemed a little less useful for a book of scripture, but since part of the impetus behind reading it in Russian was to help maintain (re-gain?) at least a semblance of Russian-language skills, I thought I would hearken back to my mission days and try to give the same type of overview of the Книга Мормона that we gave as missionaries when doing what we called street contacting, simply walking up to people, asking if they’d give us a few minutes of their time, and then explaining who we were and what, in generic terms, our message was.  If people were willing to listen for a few minutes, we usually had a chance to talk about the Book of Mormon, which was new and unique for upwards of 90% of the people with whom we spoke.  Most missionaries, myself included, liked to use the illustrations included at the front of the book.  We typically told people we met that the Book of Mormon was a book of scripture, the same as the Bible is a book of scripture, that testified of Jesus Christ.  It was written by ancient prophets, starting with a man named Lehi, who left Jerusalem and moved to the American continent.  The book recorded the history and prophecies of Lehi’s descendants, culminating in a visit to these people by the resurrected Savior, where He taught His gospel and performed miracles just as He had done in Jerusalem.  This record was compiled by another ancient prophet, named Mormon, and buried, later to come forth, with God’s help, through a modern-day prophet named Joseph Smith.  The book ends with a promise that if we ask God about its truthfulness, He will answer us.

I will first note that I am a huge fan of how this edition of the Book of Mormon in Russian uses the Russian letter Ё (yo).  While most literate Russians don’t need it printed, and there’s some debate among linguists about its status, learners of Russian are helped immensely by the letter.  I would’ve loved having it in the Book of Mormon as a missionary (as it was, I always added the two dots over the E when it was required by hand in my copy as a missionary).  The new translation, though, didn’t always leave me as satisfied.  I found that they strayed from some Biblical phrasings or other more staid expressions in favor of more literal translations (which has been done with other languages, too), likely in an attempt to make the scriptures more accessible to the modern, younger reader.  Finally, there were a few translations, as usual, where having a native English speaker who knows Russian well as a proofreader would’ve helped.  None of those imperfections reduce the truth of the book, of course.  As stated above, it’s never bad to re-read the Book of Mormon.  Even though I know very well how the stories go and what the main lessons are, the book is inspiring almost every time I pick it up.  Like the Bible, the Book of Mormon is full of eternal truths and principles that apply to our lives even though the situations we encounter are continually changing and the world around us is always fluid.  At the end of the book, Moroni’s promise continues to deliver.  Moroni notes that we can know the truth of all things through the Holy Ghost, and I have put that to the test repeatedly, both about the Book of Mormon and about other Church- and doctrine-related questions.  My belief in God, in the scriptures, and in the Church have repeatedly been strengthened, often as a result of my questions, and I can state, just as I did twenty years ago at the end of the quick overview given to so many people on the streets of St. Petersburg, I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God!

   

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Democracy in America

I have always appreciated what America’s Founders did.  George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Nathan Hale, and others were childhood heroes of mine (and remain so today).  They were people that sacrificed much, in some cases their lives, for liberty.  They did so with a lot of uncertainty swirling around them.  They knew they were fighting for the right thing, freedom, but there were so many questions about whether or not the revolution would be won, then whether or not their new country would survive, and whether or not the untried system of government they set up in the U.S. Constitution would work or not.  Would such a government be able to protect the rights of its citizenry?  In other countries, many were anxiously watching to see how the American experiment would turn out.  Many in Great Britain hoped it would fail.  Others watched with hope or out of curiosity.

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (ISBN: 978-0-553-21464-2) are the results of the aristocrat’s observations of the fledgling United States.  He and a companion were assigned by the French government to learn about the prison system in the U.S., which they did, but de Tocqueville came home with extensive notes on all aspects of life in America and wrote about the unique American take on democracy, a subject that was always of interest to de Tocqueville.  The book consists of two volumes and does, in fact, cover just about every aspect of American life.  The author’s discussion includes the following non-exhaustive list of topics: socio-economic upward mobility, sense of community, belief in God, history of the American Indians (especially interesting to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since de Tocqueville’s sources point to all the Indian languages coming from one source), the arm of Providence in the American founding, religion as the foundation of morality, the importance of a judiciary that can be recalled (impeached), the inability of a central power (government) to control every aspect of its citizenry’s lives, centralization’s tendency to promote stagnation, government’s purpose being to secure the welfare of the people and not to establish order and regularity, executive authority’s tendency to abuse power, the negatives of re-elecction being a possibility for politicians, the importance of sound men being appointed to the Supreme Court because of the court’s inherent power, the dangers of political parties (de Tocqueville shared this observation with many of America’s Founders), freedom of the press working best when the media is characterized by a wide variety in sources, the role of individualism and how politics work best when one does not look to the government for solutions of one’s problems, government is a necessary evil, laws’ tendency to prevent wealth, the importance of a strong middle class, lawyers’ negative impact on society, how when one loses one’s religion, one tends to try to take it from others, the pursuit of happiness, the importance of common foundations for society and community to exist, and the relative importance of freedom relative to the opinion of others. 

This book is often touted as being must-read stuff for political scientists, historians, and those interested in early American politics or history.  It lived up to its billing and, in my view, more.  This edition that I read is a mass-market paperback, so tiny print and over 1,000 pages.  It never felt like slogging through even with the old-fashioned language and heavy subject matter.  The book was fascinating.  I made a dozen pages of notes with quotations from the book.  As mentioned above, it touched on just about every aspect of American political life and made a few trips off to the side to talk about some of the social aspects of America, too.  What was particularly interesting was the book’s relevance to today.  The Founders live large in American life not only because they founded a country, but because that country remains today, having withstood almost 250 years, which isn’t too bad for an experiment.  It helps that the experiment was divinely inspired, but it’s not too shabby, nonetheless.  The book’s relevance is heightened because of the adroit commentary provided by de Tocqueville.  It’s not just observations, but also analysis.  I noticed that I didn’t always agree with the analysis provided, but I usually did.  De Tocqueville’s analysis more often than not seemed to agree with a more traditional American approach to government: small, local, by and for the people, and based on a belief in God.  Maybe it was easier for him to see since he wasn’t an American and had less of a stake in it, but de Tocqueville noted on a few occasions in the book that he thought much of the American governmental experiment would be wise to apply elsewhere, even in spite of his self-described Leftist beliefs.  We today would be wise to heed such advice.

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Just Mercy

I don’t remember when I first heard about modern executions, but at some point as a kid, probably around ten years old, I remember a prisoner on death row in Utah being executed.  It was all over the news because, as I recall, there were protests against the death penalty.  I remember seeing crowds lined up around the fence of the prison with signs and everything.  The death penalty has been around since the beginning of time, so I have always been interested in the arguments some people make against it.  Easily the most compelling is that of wrongful conviction.  Widely accepted studies claim that between 1 and 5% of all trials result in wrongful conviction, which seems unfair, especially if one of those wrongful convictions leads to the death penalty.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (ISBN: 978-0-8129-8496-5) tells the story of the author’s lifelong crusade to provide justice for people whom he believes were treated unfairly by the courts in America.  The reader gets a brief history of Stevenson’s life before founding his non-profit law project, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), and then a detailed look at the case of Walter McMillian, a man who was wrongfully accused (let along wrongfully convicted).  Along the way, Stevenson provides a few details of other cases he and his project was working on.  Like the McMillian case, most of the cases involve people who were possibly wrongfully accused or convicted, those who were mentally disabled, and those whose defense had been ineffective (for various reasons, but usually, per Stevenson, because the defendant did not have enough money to pay for effective counsel).  He also spends a solid chapter discussing his efforts to prevent juveniles from being sentenced to life in prison (“death in prison” as he calls it) and from being dealt with by the adult criminal justice system.  The McMillian case also had a racial element to it, which is likely unsurprising since it happened in Alabama in the early 1980s.  After a girl was murdered and the local police couldn’t identify a culprit, they found a convenient suspect in McMillian, a black man who was known in some circles to have had an affair with a white woman.  For most whites in the South in the early 1980s, that was still culturally unacceptable.  Eventually, McMillian was convicted on very shaky testimony and put on death row.  When Stevenson got around to working his case (“got around” since Stevenson took it upon himself to look into just about every death row case), he found many legal holes and worked tirelessly to overturn the conviction.  It took years, but he eventually succeeded, overcoming general police incompetence, racist feelings, and legal precedent, something that is always hard to deal with in the American justice system.  Stevenson notes, in his conclusion to the book, that as he’s worked these cases, he’s learned about justice and mercy.  It’s not just the people in prisons (there rightfully or wrongfully) that are, in some way, “broken,” but that we all are, and that when we recognize that, we are more prepared to show mercy to the broken around us.

The book is informative and really makes the reader think (two important qualities in books).  Crime and the criminal justice system are an interesting topic to learn about, even if one has never really been involved (the closest I’ve ever been is explaining to a judge that the 90 m.p.h. I was accused of driving was patently false, although I would freely admit to driving 75 m.p.h. in a 65-m.p.h. zone; he believed me, thankfully, and the fine I had to pay was quartered).  McMillian’s story is quite gripping, and the book is well worth a read.  Some of the other stories Stevenson brings up are also interesting, but given the lack of detail and attention paid to them, they waver between being a decent supporting cast and being a distraction.  The points made in the supporting stories about the struggles those with mental incapacities have in getting a fair trial are well worth exploring, but need a more extensive treatment.  Arguably the largest point made by the book is that poor people are often hung out to dry when it comes to adequate representation in court.  Stevenson’s book does not make public defenders look good at all.  They are repeatedly shown to be petty and lazy.  My guess is that is an unfair characterization of all of them, although there is no reason to doubt his description in the specific cases he mentions.  Another subject brought up is rehabilitation for those who get out of prison, which seems like a pretty universal thing people should be able to rally around.  In discussing legal questions, it’s always worth hearing the other side, and this book doesn’t do that.  There is no discussion of how, in cases with mentally competent adults, by simply not committing crimes (or, in cases where things aren’t legal crimes, but are against God’s commandments), the majority of these situations could be avoided.  I also found it somewhat disingenuous to have a lawyer talking about applying the law fairly since it is unscrupulous lawyers (Stevenson seems to be an honest one) who use legal tricks and loopholes to keep those who are actually guilty out of prison or free from other consequences.  The justice system, like anything done by the government, is a one-size-fits-all thing, so when too many people are seen getting off the hook, the pendulum swings the other way with minimal sentencing requirements and other harsh penalties.  Finally, racism is also brought up a couple times in the book, and in a few cases mentioned, it seems to have played a negative role, and there is no reason to not believe Stevenson’s account.  I am old enough to remember some people saying interracial relationships were to be avoided (by the time I was a teenager, this sentiment had either died out or was not something people chose to talk about, but in circles I ran in, I believe it to be the former and, certainly, those of my generation did not hold those views), so the McMillian story has a very real air about it.  At the very end of the book, Stevenson strayed into the world of social justice, but it seemed to be a small part of the message, and one I hope stays in the background because it pales in comparison to the message Stevenson, maybe unwittingly, presents, which is that individuals who are free to make their own decisions and who are willing to love their neighbor and sacrifice their time and efforts provide the greatest good.  There was a powerful story in the book where Stevenson helped a black guy who had a troubled childhood and then committed a violent crime.  During prison visits, Stevenson met a prison officer who was quite antagonistic toward Stevenson and, based on some of his tattoos and bumper stickers, harbored at least some racist beliefs.  Stevenson didn’t openly confront this man, and once the warden had to escort the prisoner to trial and heard about his troubled childhood in the foster care system, mellowed greatly, even getting the prisoner a favorite treat, likely against prison rules because the guard found something in common with the prisoner: a troubled childhood in dysfunctional foster homes (dysfunctional homes are a constant in the book, but not an issue that gets discussed).  I thought the story fit Stevenson’s message about all of us being broken in one way or another and our cognizance of that opening us to being more merciful toward others as powerful as anything in the book.  

   

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Next Stop Execution

If one spends very much time doing anything connected to Russia, the topic of spies will undoubtedly come up.  As one who was born before the Cold War had ended and as one who served a church mission in Russia, Russian spies are something I’ve often heard about.  On my mission, I served in the mission office for a while.  Missionaries who were serving in the city of Kaliningrad (I, sadly, have never been able to visit that intriguing place) once sent the office a copy of an editorial cartoon published in a local newspaper that depicted missionaries for our church asking local Russians about missiles.  Thanks to the Cold War, all Americans knew there was a vast intelligence complex in Russia, bent on suppressing dissent in Russia and recruiting spies abroad.  It seems that the American news has often dealt with the topic, too, thanks to traitors like Robert Hannsen and Edward Snowden or people that catch the media’s attention like Anna Chapman.  There have been a few Russians willing to help the West, though, even if we seem to not hear as much about them.

Next Stop Execution by Oleg Gordievsky is the account of one of those Russians.  The book is an autobiography or memoir, and takes the reader through Gordievsky’s life from his early childhood to his post-defection life in England.  He seemed to have a fairly normal childhood, although his father was somewhat enigmatic since his father worked for Stalin’s intelligence organ, the NKVD.  Gordievsky did well in school and happily joined up when the intelligence services came calling.  He enjoyed being pushed by his training and quickly assimilated to the system, including bureaucratic idiosyncrasies.  He had a talent for languages, and ended up being posted abroad, where he enjoyed life and started to get a taste for Western democracy.  Gordievsky chronicles his home life, including an unsatisfying first marriage and then a second marriage.  He explains how he had suspicions about inefficiencies in the Soviet system and outright lies about Communist doctrine early in his training since he had access to Western publications.  Those doubts didn’t lead to much until he saw the Berlin Wall go up and Czechoslovakia invaded.  After that, he decided to take action and responded positively to overtures from the British and Danish intelligence services.  Eventually, he would go on to spy for quite a while for the UK, before being outed.  He says he figured out on his own that something was about to go down since he was unexpectedly called back to Moscow from London, where he had been posted.  Gordievsky made the decision to get out of Russia then and there.  He left his wife and kids, surviving extended family, and homeland with the help of the UK via a harrowing ride to Finland.  That story includes all the stuff of movies, including being smuggled across borders in the trunk of a car.  Gordievsky’s life in the UK, he says, has been interesting, presenting information to many Western governments, but not without some sadness since his longtime separation from his second wife resulted in them splitting up.

The book was interesting and a good read.  I enjoyed reading about his childhood and schooling and probably could’ve handled more information about everyday life in the post-WWII Soviet Union.  Having lived in Russia as a missionary and having experienced everyday Russia, information expanding my views on that is always nice to have.  I enjoyed reading about some of his disdain for the processes his agencies made their employees go through.  As an American, I often participate in the time-honored tradition of complaining about bureaucracy, and it was good to see that Russians do the same.  The middle part of the book, about his work and home life, was maybe a little less interesting, and I thought a little on the egotistical side.  His philosophical evolution was interesting to read about, especially from the standpoint of current international relations.  He was intrigued by the West because of democracy and economic opportunity.  It is worth asking is we are doing all we can today to preserve those two ideals.  The final section of Gordievsky’s book, about being hunted by his own employer and his escape to freedom, was riveting, although, as mentioned above, a bit sad because of the need to leave his family behind.  That, too, though, is a lesson, not unique to this book, about the value of liberty and the need to sacrifice in order to have liberty.

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“ . . . liberty is more valuable than life.”

An unfortunate part of American history is that of slavery.  I’ve always been inspired by Founders who set up a system with an eye toward slavery’s elimination and then a president in Abraham Lincoln who was willing to stake both himself and the country on slavery’s elimination.  Every since I saw the movie Glory in junior high (they released an edited version especially for showing in schools), I’ve appreciated the blacks who risked it all and more to fight against slavery, both as soldiers and as abolitionists or runaways or simply doing what they could to sabotage the system, much as those in occupied territory might do in a war when there weren’t other options available to them.  There are many inspiring stories.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, whose pen name was Linda Brent (available for free from Google Books) is an autobiographical account of Jacobs’ life from her time as a little girl to later in life when she is an adult with adult children of her own.  She describes her life and the life of those around her, like her parents, grandmother, and siblings.  The reader also learns about the immediate household of her owner.  As she works in the house, the reader does not learn much about the lives of slaves who worked in the fields on plantations.  While Jacobs herself undergoes very little physical abuse, she describes plenty that happened to family members and acquaintances.  She did, unfortunately, receive a lot of unwanted sexual advances from her master, which she notes was a very real experience for many, if not most, female slaves.  While it seems she avoided being raped, many others were not as fortunate.  Eventually, Jacobs has children by her own choice by another white man.  That causes some awkwardness, but what it really does is cement her desire to not be a slave anymore.  She realizes that, as slaves, her children have very little to look forward to.  With this in mind, she forms and executes a plan to run away.  She does this with a little help along the way by various friends and family and by avoiding capture by hiding in swamps, on boats, and, eventually, in the attic of her grandmother’s house.  She stays there, rarely coming out, for the next seven years.  This allowed her to see her children, who lived with her grandmother.  It also made for some close calls since her master was always hoping to re-capture her.  Eventually, she secured a way to the North and lived the rest of her life there, eventually being reunited with her two children.  Nothing was simple, though, and even getting her kids with her was difficult.  Life was made more difficult by the fugitive slave law, but Jacobs had a few extremely kind and understanding people in her life that helped her along at many dangerous turns.

The book was really interesting.  I thought it presented a lot of information about the life of slaves that maybe not everyone thinks about.  Jacobs talked a lot about how slave families were ripped apart.  She talked about the sexual abuse and harassment that was widespread in the South, yet often swept under the rug by what was considered to be polite society.  She talked about the role of religion in slaves’ lives; most were religious in spite of the gross hypocrisy displayed by the whites around them.  Like so many similar stories, Jacobs displayed an incredible resiliency and deep will to fight for what was right.  She and others risked their lives for freedom.  Her story is one that is well worth remembering because it so well demonstrates the value of freedom and how we need to protect it.

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13 Hours

Benghazi, a port city in Libya, was site to a terrorist attack on American diplomatic and intelligence facilities in 2012.  Ever since that event hit the news, it has been the subject of much speculation and no less than ten U.S. Congressional inquiries.  Like many other events in today’s hyper-politicized world, the attack and the response have been politicized by both the Left and the Right.  Africa isn’t usually on my radar (although, with China’s activities there, it probably should be more of a concern to more people), but like the story told in Black Hawk Down, there are occasionally stories set on that giant continent that grab my attention.  The politics surrounding the U.S. response to the attack have been a bore, but the story of the people on the ground has made me take notice.

13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff (ISBN: 978-1-4555-8229-7) tells that story from the perspective of the contract security officers, referred to as “operators” in the book.  This small team of men was assigned to provide security to the diplomats and analysts working out of the small diplomatic facilities in Benghazi.  The book gives us a little background on each of them and then jumps right in to the fateful day when two of them, the ambassador, and a government computer specialist would die.  The security officers all had military backgrounds.  They would put that to the test when the facilities they were hired to protect came under attack.  The diplomatic compound came under attack first and was, sadly, overrun before the security officers could do much.  It was there that the U.S. ambassador and one of the IT specialists lost their lives.  As told by the security team, that may have been preventable given a quicker or a more powerful response, had more U.S. assets been able to respond in a timely fashion.  They got their truest test a little later, when the annex where they lived came under fire.  They repulsed three separate attacks, but since the third attack included mortars, two of the contractors were killed.  All, though, fought bravely, as did some of the other government employees involved.  The story presented by the author, who worked directly with the surviving team members as he wrote the book, is lively, action-packed, and keeps its distance from anything political.  The security team is presented as a few guys who were there to do their job, and like hard-working Americans everywhere, worked extremely hard and sacrificed to get the job done.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  As mentioned above, it’s fast paced and tells an interesting story.  I appreciated that it steered clear of politics.  This was the story of the security team.  It certainly had their opinions in it, and since they are all self-assured people, the opinions are strong, but they also come off as genuine people, real patriots, guys who were just trying to do their jobs.  These were dangerous, somewhat thankless jobs that most people are unwilling to take despite the good pay.  It was a quick read thanks to being drawn into the story and being able to feel oneself there with smoke in the air and bullets flying.  The security team was decorated, although not very much compared to some of the others even though they likely did more than the others, but did come across as pretty humble about that and the fact that they were just doing their job, a job they had signed up for because they believed in their country and its ideals.  I sensed some bitterness about their downed comrades and their perceived shackling when it came to just how they would’ve responded, but it didn’t bother me, probably because most people feel that way at one time or another about a supervisor or some regulations they have to deal with.  The reported dialogue was salty, as one would expect from career military and security men.  My feeling at the end, though, was that they should be held up as people worth emulating given their hard work, sacrifice, and patriotism.

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Clinton Cash

Bill Clinton was president for two terms from 1993 to 2001, so for more than one-third of what I think of as my youth.  Clinton’s presidency was seminal (both definitions 1 and 4), and I got to watch a lot of it unfold.  Clinton’s time as president was filled with scandal, whether it be his affair with Monica Lewinsky, the Watergate real estate scandal, campaign finance controversy involving the Lincoln Bedroom, or allegations of sexual misconduct in his past.  Like Romania’s Communist dictator being overthrown, I got to watch as President Clinton was impeached.  It was interesting to watch the country split along the line of which side one was on regarding the impeachment.  As I watched, I detected a certain level of hypocrisy coming from the American Left and the media, who told Americans that much of Clinton’s conduct did not affect the job he was doing as president (which may have been true), but were then adamant that Republican politicians accused of similar or even lesser crimes resign, be impeached, or be prosecuted in court.  This approach to the way politicians conduct themselves in America changed the political landscape because the Right has often decided that fighting fire with fire has been more effective than rolling over.

Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich by Peter Schweizer (ISBN: 978-0-06-265943-9) talks more about Bill and Hillary Clinton after the Clinton presidency than during it, but the story told would not have been possible if it weren’t for Bill Clinton having held America’s highest office first.  After leaving office after eight years, the Clintons decided to stay intimately involved in politics.  Hillary was elected to the Senate, ran for president, and was secretary of state under Obama.  In the book, Schweizer chronicles how the Clintons leveraged their proximity to power to rake in piles and piles of money.  The author points out that there is nothing technically wrong about that fact.  What was so suspicious was the timing, amount, and source of much of that money.  The book carefully points out the machinations that often took place under the radar.  When certain shady businessmen wanted to get involved in the Kazakh mining business, big donations were made to the Clintons’ foundation, Bill made a high-profile visit to Kazakhstan, said some stuff that, in some ways, legitimized Kazakhstan’s dictator, and suddenly those same businessmen had a deal.  When Russia wanted in on buying American uranium and Hillary sat on a Senate committee that was involved in the approval of that plan, those involved in the deal were donating to the Clintons.  Similar actions took place when India wanted to get nuclear technology.  The Clintons had shadowy dealings in South America and in Africa.  When the Clintons were in a position to possibly affect the outcome of a decision, they and their friends seemed to benefit and America seemed to lose.  Schweizer ends his book with an appeal to those who have the legal authority to investigate these suspicious dealings.

I found the book a very interesting read.  There were times when it seemed a little heavy on dollar amounts and obscure names (people described as things like “mining royalties expert[s]” are quoted in the book), but the picture painted was fascinating.  Politicians around the world of every political persuasion engage in this type of behavior.  This is not unique to the Clintons, so it was neat to see these types of concrete examples and see how power and position can be bought and how little one’s word seems to mean to many if they can achieve power or riches.  Given the track record established by Bill while in the White House, none of the things here seemed particularly surprising, but the in-depth nature of the book added to the gravity of the seriousness of what is going on.  I was also reminded that no matter how many rules, laws, regulations, and agreements are made to fight corruption in politics, if someone’s willing to pay the right price, there’s a politician ready to wheel and deal.  The book is as much an indictment of the Clintons as it is a call to everyday citizens to vote out career politicians and take their countries back.

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In Europe’s Shadow

As a kid, I knew little about Romania.  It was connected to the famous book Dracula, which I read in high school for English sophomore year and was left unimpressed.  During the 1980s, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comenici was all the rage when the Olympics were discussed.  I was born too late to see her groundbreaking performances in 1976.  Romania was part of the Soviet bloc, so I knew it was a Communist country and an enemy to the United States, but I felt no threat from the Romanians, unlike the Soviet Russians.  In 1989, the Communist world came tumbling down, and Romania was part of that world-changing spate of events.  I very clearly remember watching on TV as Romanians take to the street waving their flag with the Communist symbol cut out of the middle, leaving a large hole.  I had to be pulled away from the TV to go to a family Christmas party.  Even as a young boy, I realized I was witnessing history in the making.

In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-year Journey through Romania and Beyond by Robert D. Kaplan (ISBN: 978-0-8129-8662-4) is a wide-ranging survey of Romanian history, focusing on the post-World War I XX century and the first decade or so of the XXI century.  Kaplan has written and traveled widely, but is somewhat of a Romanian expert.  He writes history as a travelogue, which provides an interesting narrative as he explains the history behind what is happening in modern-day Romania.  Romania’s history, long intertwined with that of the European empires and the Ottoman Empire, plays a large role in what is happening today, especially because, according to Kaplan and many of the people he interviews, the same players are in the game.  The European empires have been replaced by the European Union and Putin’s Russia.  Romanians seem to recognize that they are still a borderland between these powerful entities.  This is especially true because of Romania’s neighbors, Moldova, a place where there is a greater Russian influence and which is home to one of the many frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet sphere, and Ukraine, which recently became the latest casualty of Russia’s desire to keep things as unstable as possible on its periphery.  Kaplan paints (and “paints” is the right word as he is a masterful writer, helping the reader see themselves there with him in dingy Communist hotels or on bright, lively Central European town squares) a picture of a Romania that has progressed a long way since the exciting fall of Communism in 1989, but still recognizes that there is room for further improvement.  Kaplan’s Romania leans strongly to the West, but knows its past and is wary of the East, home to Russia, which is altogether too happy to meddle in Romanian affairs.

Although I had read Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts, I didn’t realize he was such a Romaniaphile.  The Romnia-centric material in the book made it a little dry in places, but I found myself coming back to it again and again because I found it incredibly relevant to the current events of 2020, both in the U.S. and on the international stage.  Early in the book, it was about the American experience and Kaplan’s defense of the individual.  He had seen, up close and personal, how Communism destroys the individual in favor of a mass thinking alike.  There is not room for dissent.  As a borderland, Romania has long had struggles of an ethnic nature, and while that seems to be far from the case now, the lessons are worth learning: stifle the individual, enhance the groupthinking mass, and ethnic tension is almost a given.  I also found his commentary on global culture reducing the importance of everything to be accurate.  Finally, his take on Russia was brilliant: Putin seeks instability.  Where this is instability and shadiness, Putin thrives, usually at the expense of the West.  I have long posited that Russian foreign policy was simple: instability.  He noted that although Russia used military power in Georgia and Ukraine, its political use of energy and great willingness to meddle in elections and politics made it a much greater threat, especially because those methods of fighting are harder to deal with in open, democratic societies.  The book was well written and interesting, but one that is likely more appreciated by those interested in Romania first of all and Eastern Europe and Russia second.

This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 License and is copyrighted © MMXIV John Pruess.