Today I'm posting another set of "Honorable Mentions" from my files, with short reviews or summaries, and another five books included together in the list. Here we go!
Book Review: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (2016). J. D. Vance.
This notable book from the year Donald Trump won the presidency (which book was also made into a movie in 2020 by Ron Howard) is an autobiographical look at the injuries of culture and upbringing in the "hillbilly" part of American society, that is, white, Scots-Irish, and Appalachian, by someone who survived it and moved beyond it.
It described the travails of white working class culture and family life from the inside, in a piece of remarkably moving and eloquent writing, which was received with rave reviews at a time when America was struggling to understand the rage and irrational behavior of Trump’s animated base of white rural supporters.
The author and hero of the story seemed a decent and likable sort, who prevailed against the odds, and who obviously valued family, served his country honorably as a Marine in Iraq, then went to college at Ohio State University, succeeded there, was accepted into and made his way through Yale Law School, and ended up with a loving wife and a highly-paid job in venture capital finance.
The real tragedy of the story comes in the aftermath to the book, when after a brief flirtation with the Never Trumpers in the Republican Party, Vance threw in his lot with Donald Trump, racist politics, and dark money billionaires, in his current quest for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio.
If his answer to “what does the white underclass need to succeed?” is to oppress minorities, encourage racism, suppress voting, support authoritarianism and rob the poor for the benefit of the ultra-rich, he obviously didn’t learn anything noble or helpful from his own journey. The book is still recommended; the author, at least in his quest for a future in our national politics, not so much.
Book Review: The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History (2017). Steven Talty.
The Black Hand is a history and biography of Joseph Petrosino, a famous early 20th century Italian-American New York City detective, and his war against the Sicilian "Black Hand Society" of extortionists, bombers and kidnappers, in the broader context of American antipathy to new Italian immigrants.
This inspiring true tale of crime-fighting and political battles within the Italian-American immigrant community was a previously unknown chapter of American history for me, and it explores the roots of the Italian Mafia story in the United States. Apparently Al Capone was a graduate of the Black Hand organization, among other well-known Mafia mobsters of a slightly later and more famous era. Recommended.
Book Review: Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood that Helped Turn the Tide of War (2018). Lynne Olson.
This is a World War II history of how England became the "last hope" for all the European countries conquered and occupied by Germany during the war, whose governments and fighters contributed to keeping the dream of freedom, and victory over the Axis alive while in exile in Britain.
It contains many interesting tidbits of the national stories of the Nazi-occupied countries and their people, and how their relationships to Britain developed and changed during the war years.
Lynne Olson is a very readable popular historian and writer. She has written several other worthwhile histories of other aspects of World War II as well. Recommended.
Book Review: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire. A 500 year history (2017). Brad Anderson.
Fantasyland is a funny, well-researched history of how America, from the days of its earliest settlers, has been a unique experiment in wishful thinking, fantasy, individual nuttiness, crackpot religious ideas combined with wild entertainment, mass susceptibility to bunkum and conspiracy theories, and the generalized conflation of individual personal belief and emotional feelings with objective fact that led us to the age of Trump.
In short, in the author’s view, what we're seeing now isn't new in American history -- it's a logical outcome of the entire American experience since the earliest days of white settler colonies in North America. That’s perhaps a contrarian view, given the past six years of listening to news commentators saying “We’re in uncharted territory now”, but Anderson makes an amusing and entertaining case for his proposition. Recommended.
Book Review: Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel (2017). Robert Gandt.
This is a very enlightening history of the beginnings of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in the 1948 War of Independence, and the World War II veteran pilots from all over the world who volunteered to smuggle planes and weapons, and fly them into combat for the newly-formed nation.
The author details a number of clandestine operations that had to succeed against impossible odds for Israel to evade international restrictions on military sales to the region, and the many pilots from previously (and recently) warring nations who volunteered to smuggle planes and fly them in combat for Israel, whether out of idealism, boredom, or the simple need to find meaning and a purpose again in continuing to be fighter pilots at war.
Robert Gandt has written several other good histories as well. He’s definitely an author whose other books are worth checking out. Recommended.
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