Reviews Written By: A1FDX34BXFXNS8provided by Amazon.com |
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 | The Golem | |
 | "EXPRESSIONIST MASTERPIECE" | 2008-07-21 |
| The Golem - the legendary artificial man of the Jewish Quarter in Prague -is actually a minor personage in this short novel, sometimes seen, sometimes felt, but never the stuff of Frankenstein's monster. "The Golem" is, rather, a dreamlike account of life in this colorful setting at the turn of the last century, with the theme being the contrasts among Athanasius Pernath, the strange Gentile gem-cutter; Aaron Wassertrum, the malevolent junkdealer; Schemajah Hillel, the learned Registrar; and their friends, relatives and acquaintances. Events unfold in squalid rented rooms, cafes and, at the end, jail, but mostly in Pernath's mind - his perceptions of what swirls around him. The last chapter is an unexpected gem. Expressionism was an early 20th century movement in literature (Kafka, Meyrink, Eugene O'Neill), painting (Munch, Kandinsky, Chagall), film (Nosferatu, The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) and other media, which viewed the world with distorted subjectivity. It was an appropriate school for perhaps the most destructive period in history. If you appreciate Kafka - as I do - you will appreciate this novel. | ||
 | Breakheart Pass | |
 | "WHO'S WHO?" | 2008-01-17 |
| This picture goes to show what can be accomplished with a first-rate script and actors, even if it's low budget! The premise is similar to that of Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and the original and remake,
"(The) Narrow Margin," namely who is the hero and who is the villain in the boxing ring-like confines of a train in motion. And no obscenities or shower scenes - which others use to mask a picture's vacuities! Aging baby boomers will be pleased to know that Mr. Bronson celebrated his 55th birthday the year he made this movie. | ||
 | Diagnosis: Impossible : The Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne | |
 | "FAIR" | 2008-01-04 |
| The challenge of the impossible crime story is to keep it from seeming too contrived and here is where this collection falls - alas - short
(especially "The Problem of the Lobster Shack"). ("The Problem of the Locked Caboose" also seems to swipe a page from "Study in Scarlet" concerning one of its clues). "The Problem of Cell 16" quite openly compares itself to the famous Jacques Futrelle story about an escape from cell 13 and indeed Mr. Futrelle's Thinking Machine problems are the best in the genre. | ||
 | The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes, ISBN 0679736603 | |
| "OUTSTANDING" | 2007-01-03 |
| This magesterial account corrects disinformational histories turned out by apologists for the Bolsheviks - for example: 1). Lenin was not an unwavering proponent of his creed. At one time, around the turn of the last century, he advocated socialism by the electoral process (Russian opponents of the czars had seen the success of the German socialists in elections and largely abandoned their attempt to overthrow the regime by terror). He reverted, however, to the most extreme blood-lust of the People's Will - except that even these assassins had, as their goal, a Constituent Assembly. Lenin wanted a dictatorship. 2). Lenin succeeded because of his organizational skills and his cunning in political infighting and - most of all - because the majority, democratic socialists had an obsessive fear of a counter-revolution by the monarchists. Time and gain, they hesitated when they could have crushed the Bolsheviks. Most of them could not see that a red czardom was in the offing and represented the true counterrevolution. 3).The Revolution took place in February, 1917, and devolved into a rule-by-fiat under Kerensky. The event of October, 1917, was a COUP D'ETAT - a seizure of the key urban loci of communications, transportation and finance by a handful of armed men. The Bolsheviks at the time accounted for fewer than 30,000 - out of a nation of more than 100 million! Most were professional revolutionaries - self-styled intellectuals (although many, like Lenin, were not really educated in anything but politics). Perhaps they most resembled the campus Marxists of today's USA! Fewer than 10% of industrial workers or of the Russian military supported them and, when they did need military intervention, the Bolsheviks frequently had nobody but the Latvian Rifles (30,000-35,000 - not even Russians!) 4). Allied landings in Archangel and Murmansk, beginning in 1918, were made not as an attempt to overthrow the Bolsheviks, but as a means of preventing German or Finnish seizure of these ports and the military stockpiles there. The landings were made upon invitation of the Soviets. (Later Communist charges were that this was "internal meddling" and anti-Bolshevik - but only Churchill and the German General Staff were truly far-sighted enough to advocate that!) 5). Bolshevik efforts to stage similar coups in western Europe and to eliminate their domestic enemies by mass murder commenced in the earliest stages of their rule - with Lenin as the instigator. My only negative comments - 1). the sometimes professorial writing style - outling things for the class ("there were two reasons for this...") 2). a little too much antipathy for the Germans. Versailles was not less rapacious than Brest-Litovsk and certainly not "mild" - it stripped Germany of German-populated territories and imposed tremendous economic burdens. Brest-Litovsk created the same Russia that we have today, by divesting the Russian Empire of non-Russian nations (Baltic States, Poland, Finland, the Ukraine, Caucasus). 3). A minor item, but Hermann Rauschning's account of his private conversations with Hitler is cited. This memoire was shown in the 1980's to be fictional. Overall, a great work and a boon, in translation, to Russians seeking the truth of their history. Readers wanting the complete panorama may obtain "Russian Under the Old Regime" and "Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime" by the same author - a hero of our times! | ||
 | The Reformation | |
 | "Reformation without theology" | 2007-01-03 |
| The author's sole mention of the Book of Concord (1580) is to describe it as "another of history's jokes." (The Book of Concord is a collection of theological writings which resolved outstanding disputes and thereby represents definitive Lutheranism). You may disagree with this compendium or with Aquinas's Summa Theologiae or Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, but all three were undoubtedly the product of earnest and learned men of God and to dismiss them with a sneer is not the sign of a Christian scholar. | ||
 | Know Your Poisonous Plants | |
| "EXCELLENT REFERENCE WORK" | 2006-09-25 |
| This 99-page work is invaluable for the naturalist, the practicing physician and - as in my case - a pathologist who uses it as a resource for presenting second-year lectures at a medical school. Each poisonous plant is given a fine one page monograph, which describes the morphology, poisonous parts, symptoms of intoxication and other information, together with a monocolor drawing(s). What amazed me was that the author is described on the back cover as former elementary school teacher who became a professional author of fiction and nonfiction; she did not have a formal biological background, but acquired this knowledge by self-motivated research. It is an outstanding accomplishment. (Drawings are excllent also - done by another lady). | ||
 | Johnny Horton - Legend | |
| "Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico!" | 2006-08-26 |
| We have some immgrants at my place of employment who are unfamiliar with the Battle of New Orleans and, dang it, Johnny Horton is as good a place as any to introduce them! "Sink the Bismarck" is not on this CD, but if you're a German, as I am, you won't miss that at all. | ||
 | The Buccaneer | |
| "Ah, the battle scene!" | 2006-08-25 |
| This is one instance where both the original film in the thirties and the modern one are excellent - especially, in both the battle scene. It is easy to critique these movies for historical inaccuracies, but the gist is right on the money. This was a major and a meaningful victory for the United States and January 8th was a national holiday until the time of the Civil War. This last victory confirmed the US as a truly independent nation - our "Second War of Independence" - whereas beforehand the Europeans had ignored international law in dealings with us. See Robin Reilly's The British at the Gates - although the battle was fought after the signing of the peace treaty, the treaty was deliberated worded so the Brits could keep N.O. for a naval station, if they had won. They hesitated after landing because of an audacious (i.e., courageous) assault by the citizens of the city; their artillery, before the main attack, was blown to pieces by American guns; and their own assault - by Wellington's Heroes - was stopped cold by a collection of militiamen, Indians, civilians - and pirates. (Aside: one British author on the subject was miffed because an American had described Pakenham's wife, on board ship, being horrified on seeing his body returned in a barrel of rum - "Pakenham was not married!" Yes.... but it was his mistress who was horrified!) Watch the movie and be proud again to be an American! | ||
 | Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites | |
| "MORE LESSON THAN ONE" | 2006-08-05 |
| Aside from the excellent synopses of each man's life and term in office, this book provides insight into how this nation regards its Chief Executive. Contrast the modest burial sites of James Monroe and the two Adams with the imperial settings of the modern age! Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis - one of the largest in the world - has a fascinating spot - it is possible to stand between the graves of President Benjamin Harrison and author Booth Tarkington, and look up the hill to the grave of James Whitcomb Riley, the Hoosier poet. Incidentally, President Harrison's epitaph has an unintentionally amusing line - something like "Statesman, Yet Friend of Truth." Obtain a map from the cemetery office to find this site. (John Dillinger is in the same cemetery, as is Thomas Marshall, Wilson's Vice-President and the man who uttered the comment, during an overblown Senate debate, that what this country really needs is a good 5 cent cigar). PS The title of this book comes from the line, "Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?" Obvious answer: General Grant. Correct Answer: General and Mrs. Grant. | ||
 | Arrowsmith | |
| "AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL" | 2006-07-19 |
| Lewis, in Arrowsmith, drew on his family's medical connections (his father, grandfather, older brother and an uncle were all physicians); his boyhood home in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, also served as his father's office, so he must have seen plenty of medicine in action. As others have described, we see the career of a man from boyhood to his early forties, as he transforms from general practitioner to research bacteriologist. Observations: 1). the character types described in medical school (students and faculty), small city medical practice and research facility are uncannily true to form (my experience as physician), more so than can be attributed solely to hearing about it from one's relatives or informants (in Lewis's case, Dr. Morris Fishbein and bacteriologist/science writer Paul de Kruif) - a mark of Lewis's genius as an author. 2). Sinclair Lewis, as usual, has a tin ear for colloquial dialogue. 3). Arrowsmith is doomed, in each of his employments, by his perfectionism - others, who know better how to compromise, urge him to stay on and even how to do it, but his usual response is "I'm licked!" and on to the next. His one true interest - bacteriological research - endures and grows and eventually pushes any humanity out of his life. Even his penultimate experience in combatting plague on a West Indian island is regretted, not for the death of his loyal wife, but because he compromised the scientific method in how he administered the bacteriophage therapy. In the end, his second wife and son are turned away for a monastic-like life in the wilds. 4). If this is an heroic character - and Lewis is on record as saying he thought so - then it says something about the author. There seems to be a lot of Sinclair Lewis in Martin Arrowsmith - both keen, but heartless, observers - and indeed, there are several parallels between the two - the weakness Arrowsmith has for the bottle at various stages, his scorn for religion and its practitioners, and his womanizing, for example. (Lewis was an alcoholic and was twice divorced). Lewis elsewhere has been described as a proto-feminist, but any sympathy he has for the female gender is a little like Marx's sympathy for the working class - more in theory than in practice (which may be said about feminism in general). The truly pathetic character in this novel is Dr. Arrowsmith's first wife, who sacrifices her own life and sticks to him in spite of his selfishness - and who winds up buried in a backyard on some fetid Caribbean island. Lewis and his hero both seem to try to develop some sympathy for her, without much success. 5). Lewis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, but refused it. Evidence is that at least part of the basis for this was that he was miffed over the failure of Main Street and Babbitt to win it. | ||
 | Two Years Before the Mast : A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Modern Library Classics) | |
| "THROUGH ANOTHER'S EYES" | 2006-04-22 |
| As recounted by others, this is the self-told history of an American university student who went to sea, around the Horn to California and back, for two years in the late 1830's, spending several months on the California coast collecting hides. In its time, its impact was due to the revelation to the public of the hard life of the common seaman and its description of California when that land was under Mexican rule. My impressions: 1). Expect to expend some effort into "getting into" the book, as with virtually all pre-Hemingway literature (except Mark Twain). Narrative description was a forte in those days. 2). The image of going high aloft at night, in freezing weather and mountainous seas, with little sleep, while rounding the Horn, will be something you will never forget. 3). The author's description of Mexican California is also memorable. Actually, the Americans already there virtually ruled the territory - they were the ones with the ambition and energy. You will understand how San Francisco Bay could be coverted from a sparsely settled inlet to a bustling city when Dana revisited the place 24 years later. Americans ARE different. 4). One episode - the senseless lashing of two sailors by a sadistic captain - made and still makes a shocking impression. 5). Yes, there's a far amount of seafaring jargon, but as unintelligible as it may be, it contributes to the atmosphere. Don't read an abridged version. It isn't that tough. | ||
 | The Death of the USS Thresher : The Story Behind History's Deadliest Submarine Disaster | |
| "GOOD, BUT FLAWED, OVERVIEW" | 2006-03-14 |
| This is a short overview of the disaster from a leading expert in submarine operations. The chief question, of course, was the cause of the sinking. The board of inquiry at the time and subsequent discussions have identified this as probably a failure of a silver-brazed pipe, leading to the ingress of a stream of water (high pressure at this depth) and consequent electrical damage. The latter in turn led to reactor shutdown; with loss of propulsion, the submarine began to sink. Attempts to blow the ballast tanks then failed because drop in temperature of released compressed air froze and clogged strainers in this system. The book mentions this scenario (although not the fact that only a fraction of the connections were inspected after the Thresher's nine-month overhaul); however, the author choses to emphasize the lengthy time required for restarting the reactor - no wonder Rickover was incensed by this account. The last two or three chapters have frequent typos and misstatements - for example, Russian subs of the last fifteen years are referred to as "Soviet." As others have pointed out, the Navy did not follow through on its planned safety measures. But just doing the fundamentals in design and maintenance right would be significant. The description of the exploration of the sea bed and the debris from the Thresher by the bathyscaphe Trieste (which has reached depths of up to 35,000 feet) was a worthy inclusion and a revelation to this layman. | ||
 | The Interrogator: The Story of Hans Joachim Scharff Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe (Schiffer Military History) | |
| "INTRIGUING" | 2006-03-10 |
| According to the author, the key to his success was to break down the prisoner's resistance by surprising him with unexpected, inside knowledge - for example, from a photograph inadvertently shot by an airplane's gun camera or gleaned from the prisoner's personal effects. The book also describes an error made in the identifying photograph included with the false papers provided downed pilots for the purpose of evading capture in France - a German could immediately spot this as fake ID and the escapee would be picked up at leisure. A good companion book is Spycatcher, by Oresto Pinto (interrogated refugees entering Britain during WW II, in order to detect German spies). | ||
 | Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe | |
| "D.T.'s KILLED HIM." | 2006-03-09 |
| An interesting book, but tell a physician the following scenario: alcoholic is found in tavern, dressed in tattered clothes (probably sold his original suit to buy more booze), placed in a hospital where he has no further access to alcohol, then dies raving three or four days later - and he will tell you that the patient died of delerium tremens (DT's). This is the withdrawal syndrome from ethanol and three to four days is just about right for it to kick in. It has a mortality rate of 15% if not treated with IV's and medication (none of this in mid-nineteenth century). Ironically, if his friend had kept Mr. Poe drinking, he would have survived - at least temporarily. You do not need a convoluted thesis of homicide here, folks. | ||
 | The Execution of Major Andre | |
| "JUST DESERTS" | 2006-03-09 |
| The negative perspective of Major Andre is supported by plenty of historical literature, especially the biographies of Benedict Arnold. Andre loathed Americans and delighted in the murder of American prisoners; he looted Benjamin Franklin's house when the British occupied Philadelphia and took time during the occupation to put on a scurrilous pageant utilizing local prostitutes. It is interesting that the incriminating papers were not exactly found in his boot, but within his sock, where he had kept them several days (!). The militiamen reduced this haughty twit to his birthday suit before finding them. | ||
 | A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours | |
| "OUTSTANDING" | 2005-12-13 |
| This little gem combines the readability of journalism (the author's teaching profession) with in-depth historical research, an unusual combination. It is a well-known subject, but here are some new perspectives: --the photo often described as Lincoln's last portrait was actually taken in February, 1865. This book shows you the real last one. --Booth didn't bore the peephole in the door to Lincoln's box or make the bar obstructing the door leading to the corridor of the boxes - that had been done some time before by or for Lincoln's guards. --Booth's illegitimacy preyed on his mind as a youth - perhaps shaping his character in a perverse way. One must wonder about the same effect in some other, modern day individuals with the same origin (Fidel Castro, Ted Bundy and a recent US President). -- Most telling are the widely varied descriptions of events by eyewitnesses. The author evaluates these and tells you the most likely version. Here is proof that circumstantial evidence (including letters, bloodstains, etc.) is often more reliable than such eyewitnesses. A minor issue - it is mentioned that the entry in Booth's diary for the day of the assassination states he cried "Sic semper" - omitting "tyrannis" - and that he may have done so because he didn't know how to spell tyrannis. It is, however, pointed out that he had asked about this spelling beforehand (so he knew it). Also, Booth was undoubtedly familiar with the 6th verse of the Confederate song, "Maryland, My Maryland," which runs "Sic semper! 'tis the proud refrain" and he might have used the shortened phrase in his diary just as an abbreviation. Incidentally, as the book states, Lincoln's wallet contained several newspaper clippings. Not mentioned is that among these were laudatory articles. Lincoln had been the subject of many cruel newspaper attacks and it is pathetic that even a great man apparently needed to know that someone approved of him. | ||
 | Martin Luther | |
| "The Best" | 2005-11-30 |
| This is the best Luther biography, within the limitations of a motion picture. It has been criticized as being "pious," but, given the subject matter, that would seem to be appropriate. It has also been criticized for being in chronological order, but then most of our lives seem to run that way! The theological issues are there - including Luther's problems with his original works-righteousness, the cupidity of the Roman hierarchy and the excesses of the Schwaermer. There are subtleties - his confessor who despairs over him and sees nothing ahead of him (Luther) but the cross. The mature Luther would have agreed wholeheartedly with that (in a different way). The current Fiennes version has too many warm and fuzzy side-themes. (Its producers were reportedly interested in making a movie that did not concentrate too much on religion (!!)). Sometimes it's a little difficult to let a motion picture assume one's imagination, especially if the actors have other baggage. Joseph Fiennes made a movie ("Killing Me Softly"), described as an "erotic thriller," the year before. (For that matter, Jennifer Jones got the lead in "The Song of Bernadotte" because she was David Selznick's paramour). The actors in the 1953 "Martin Luther" didn't have those associations. | ||
 | Luther | |
| "THE SUBJECT IS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE" | 2005-11-23 |
| This version of a Luther biography is apt for our age, perhaps, but not of the same depth or quality as the 1953 "Luther," which utilized a British cast. It is amazing that the opportunity for a movie review is used to repeat some old, old misunderstandings and falsehoods. Luther was a human being - his last words were, far from the self-aggrandizement of which he was accused elsewhere, "We are beggars, it is true" - but he wasn't the ogre his enemies envision. He did not show "remorse" (my wife, a former nun, says that the canard in Roman circles is that he recanted on his deathbed) and he did not advocate private interpretation of Scripture (which the NT itself forbids). He thought the book of James, if read out of context, could be misleading, but it is certainly in Lutheran Bibles (for that matter, if you read the first three chapters of Romans, you'll find that the "faith alone" of Romans 1:17 evolves into "works" in chapter 2 and reverts to "faith" in chapter 3 - read it yourself for the nuances). The "alone" of "faith alone" is derived not only from this source, but from Galatians and Ephesians. Lutheranism (orthodox Christianity) did not lead to Rationalism and the Enlightenment (faith alone - not rationalism - remember?). Newman's Apologia is a long-winded justification for taking the road to Rome solely because it has been around for a long time (like Islam, perhaps). Luther's marriage to a nun (a topic of particular interest to me) can't win for losing. If he expressed his affection for her (and he did - he once said he would not take France and Venice in trade for his Katy), his opponents made him a libertine. Unfortunately for his detractors, his home life was a model for the Lutheran parsonage which remains to this day. The 1953 movie is better, however. In fact, it's even better than "The Song of Bernadotte." | ||
 | Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior | |
| "WHOM DO YOU TRUST?" | 2005-11-07 |
| Not to rehash what other reviewers have said, but this book essentially boils down to a chapter on each person profiled, with quotations from him, mixed with teasers that, when we reach the end, we will find the fount of all that is rotten in the modern world. The fount turns out to be Martin Luther. A rough and humorous quotation from Luther pertaining to his marriage is inserted as proof of Luther's carnal nature. Truly, Dr. Jones must be the only individual in the sixteenth, twentieth or twenty-first century who did not get the joke. And when I read that, the question arose as to how many preceeding quotations, from his other subjects, were misinterpreted because they were taken out of context. Scholarship ruined by blinders and a disservice to his allies. | ||
 | Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich | |
| "Fine reading, but dated" | 2005-09-29 |
| This book was my twelfth birthday present - it had just been published - and has both the easy readability and superficiality of history written by a journalist. There are better accounts now in print. The lurid descriptions of Hitler by Hermann Rauschning, cited in this book as fact,were shown in the 1980's to be fictional. Shirer's indictment of Martin Luther for anti-Semitism in Germany does not explain why the chief anti-Semites in the National Socialist regime - including Hitler and Himmler - were Roman Catholic. | ||
 | The Music Man (Special Edition) | |
| "RIVER CITY IS MASON CITY" | 2005-09-20 |
| Meredith Willson's hometown, and mine, is Mason City, Iowa. His boyhood home was across from the public library, which is a handsome and well-supplied building provided by the MacNiders (Hanford MacNider was an Army general,America First leader, former Minister to Canada, bank president and owner of a large cement plant, besides being a generous philanthropist). A block from the library is a footbridge over the creek and woods which lie behind the library. Does all of this sound familiar? Mason City has preserved Mr. Willson's home and has a museum about him and the movie downtown. It is worth seeing. Also, Meredith Willson is buried in Mason City, Iowa, not in New York City or Hollywood. The movie premiered in .... Mason City. The actors came out for the event. They put together a massed high school band and Meredith Willson led it down Federal Avenue (the main street) with a big grin and a lot of fun. You know what they played. | ||
 | Article 99 | |
| "No Laurence Olivier, but...." | 2005-08-03 |
| Not Hamlet, but does what Hamlet says a good play should do. | ||
 | The British at the Gates: The New Orleans Campaign in the War of 1812 | |
| "Outstanding" | 2005-06-29 |
| This is indeed the superior history of the Battle of New Orleans and is especially valuable for the analysis of the political stakes. In short, the British had every intention of adding this city to their collection of overseas naval bases (which eventually included Gibraltar, Capetown, Hong Kong and a failed attempt at Toulon) and had worded the peace treaty to permit this, had they succeeded in its capture. The modern claim that the battle was meaningless because it took place in the month after the signing of the treaty, is not correct. | ||
 | Captain Kidd | |
| "Underrated Gem" | 2005-06-22 |
| This has got to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. Granted that it is low,low,low budget (check out the backdrop of the sky) and Randolph Scott's "youse guys" accent does not exactly fit in Restoration England - the dialogue and Charles Laughton's leering, scheming and sneering are priceless. "Pop 'im over!" (a pirate's burial at sea). | ||
 | Captain Kidd | |
| "Underrated Gem" | 2005-06-22 |
| This has got to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. Granted that it is low,low,low budget (check out the backdrop of the sky) and Randolph Scott's "youse guys" accent does not exactly fit in Restoration England - the dialogue and Charles Laughton's leering, scheming and sneering are priceless. "Pop 'im over!" (a pirate's burial at sea). | ||
| Captain Kidd | |
| "Underrated Gem" | 2005-06-22 |
| This has got to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. Granted that it is low,low,low budget (check out the backdrop of the sky) and Randolph Scott's "youse guys" accent does not exactly fit in Restoration England - the dialogue and Charles Laughton's leering, scheming and sneering are priceless. "Pop 'im over!" (a pirate's burial at sea). | ||
| Captain Kidd | |
| "Underrated Gem" | 2005-06-22 |
| This has got to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. Granted that it is low,low,low budget (check out the backdrop of the sky) and Randolph Scott's "youse guys" accent does not exactly fit in Restoration England - the dialogue and Charles Laughton's leering, scheming and sneering are priceless. "Pop 'im over!" (a pirate's burial at sea). | ||
 | Captain Kidd | |
| "Underrated Gem" | 2005-06-22 |
| This has got to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. Granted that it is low,low,low budget (check out the backdrop of the sky) and Randolph Scott's "youse guys" accent does not exactly fit in Restoration England - the dialogue and Charles Laughton's leering, scheming and sneering are priceless. "Pop 'im over!" (a pirate's burial at sea). | ||
| Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal | |
| "Another feminist hymnal" | 2005-06-07 |
| I was in the WELS in the late eighties when our pastor clued me in to what was happening with the new hymnal - beginning with the omission of anthropos (men) from the Nicene Creed. "Blessed are the Sons of God" (391 in TLH) becomes "Blessed Are the Saints of God" (394 in CW); "Ye Sons of Men, Oh Harken" (TLH 75) becomes "Arise, O Christian People" (CW 14). "Born that man no more may die" in "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" becomes "born that we no more may die." Rugged old Martin Luther is made fitting for the ladies' brunch - in "A Mighty Fortress," the line "And take they our life, Goods, fame, child and wife" is civilized into "And do what they will (the sillies!), Hate, steal, hurt or kill..." and so on. Monosyllabic words are preferred. Fanny Crosby, a well-meaning, 19th century author of 8,000 hymns (one of which she once heard and did not recognize as hers) is included with such entries as "Take the World, But Give Me Jesus" - well-meaning, but devoid of theological content. The ELS was originally in the committee to produce this hymnal, but backed out and - with only 20,000 members - produced a much better one on their own. There's Lutheran theology here - somewhere - but it is tainted by dumbing down and by the anti-scriptural feminist movement of the late 20th century, which has given us, besides hymnals such as this, a legacy of unprecedented divorce rates. | ||
 | Francis Parkman : The Oregon Trail / The Conspiracy of Pontiac (The Library of America) | |
| "Classic History" | 2005-05-24 |
| Francis Parkman was an eccentric Harvard graduate whose life work was the struggle of the British and French for North America (although he is better known to the general reader for his youthful exploration of the West described in The Oregon Trail). He was fluent in French and was assiduous in his investigations of primary sources. He also had a gift for lyrical narration (see the last paragraph of The Conspiracy of Pontiac, which describes the fate of the "forest hero"). His perspective on the American Indian was realistic. He knew the Indian and respected him, but also realized his flaws and this has made him persona non grata among some modern circles. That's what describing an Indian village as a "motley concourse of barbarians" will do! However, the reader may learn for himself in this book the fate of the captives from the fort at Michillimackinac and that of the pathetic one-room schoolhouse in the Ohio River valley and see if the 18th century tribes did not truly have a potential for utter savagery. | ||
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