The Quiet Americans

"He [Peter Sichel] paused, folded his hands neatly on the table before him. "And we also didn't think about history. If we had, we would have remembered that crusades always end badly." 

Tripped

If you had asked me, I couldn't have told you what connection, if any, psychedelic drugs like LSD had with WWII. Ohler's research connects the dots. 

Nonfiction

Picked up another couple of books at my local library—Norman Ohler’s Tripped and Arthur J. Magida’s Code Name Madeleine.

Indians

 

  

"Fighting Indians provided a considerable amount of the United States' early nineteenth-century military experience, and much of that activity occurred during the Pierce years."

The Election of 1852

 Gara's opening sentence in chapter 2 had me comparing our distance from the events of WWII to the distance of Franklin Pierce's election from the American Revolution.

Free Soilers & More

Free Soilers, Barnburners, Hunkers, Whigs, Democrats...oh my! How does anyone even begin to grasp the complexities of mid-19th century American politics! Evidently Larry Gara does in his "The Presidency of Franklin Pierce."

Private Ron Beal

I really appreciate how David O'Keefe concluded his book, One Day in August, with Private Ron Beal of the Royal Regiment of Canada "In 2012, after the real reasons for the Dieppe Raid were revealed to him, he said: 'Now I can die in peace. Now I know what my friends died for.'"

Franklin Pierce

Name just one thing you can remember learning about Franklin Pierce's presidency? Right. Well, you probably have a better memory than I have, 'cause I couldn't think of a single thing when I spotted this 1991 publication on my local library's shelf. So here goes one man's attempt to rescue Pierce from almost total obscurity.

Declassified Records

Still eagerly waiting to see the full extent of what declassified records say about what actually happened at Dieppe in O'Keefe's account.

Braude & Gara

Another trek to the library, this time to pick up Mark Braude's just recently released book and, while I was there, Larry Gara's biography of Franklin Pierce, first published way back in 1991.

Order of Battle

 So what went wrong? I guess I'll only find out by reading further in O'Keefe's "One Day in August".

Dieppe

Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff: "Little did I ever think in the old days of my regular journeys of Newhaven-Dieppe, that I should have been planning as I was this morning!" - O'Keefe, One Day in August

"Red" Ryder

"Robert Ryder was a rare character in the annals of military and naval history . . . resolute, determined and courageous in battle as he was reserved, humble and self-effacing in its afterglow." -- O'Keefe, One Day in August 

Secrets

There have been reports lately that British intelligence officials maybe don't trust their American counterparts to keep secrets. Well, according to David O'Keefe's "One Day in August", there has actually been a long history of such mistrust, dating as far back to at least WWII.

Taxes

Imagine! Taxing people proportional to wealth. Outrageous! So . . . Berniesque!

The Whiskey Rebellion

Finished reading Hogeland's book last night. Heartily recommend it to anyone, but especially to those who may still think the American experiment has been nothing but glorious. George W. perhaps put inordinate trust in Alexander Hamilton, and Hamilton -- well, let's just say his handling of the excise tax and subsequent rebellion was probably not his finest moment. In our patriotic zeal, we sometimes, I think, overlook just how difficult and sometimes inglorious the march towards national sovereignty was.