communists earth-grey photographs extraordinary

books:

Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony

4 reviews
Paul Ginsborg

Verso, 2004

Italy is very close to home
The author of this book knows how to dramatizize politics. "...something important is happening in Italy, potentially quite sinister, and the seeming normality of life serves to mask it very well." If only it were just a fiction. "Silvio Berlsconi" is a great book on the current state of democracy in Italy, the kind of "modern democracy" heralded by Berlusconi's media empire. If the dictators of ...

Enough to Make a Cat Laugh

5 reviews
Deric Longden

Transworld Publishers, 1997

Laughed 'til I cried....more please
Here in Australia people love their cats. They care for them. Most have them desexed. Take em to the vet if they are sick, etc, but i find that those who have a real relationship with them are very few. Deric has the ability to bridge the gap between human and animal, to see the personality under the fur coat. Working in an animal shelter and adopting out hundreds of cats and thousands of ...

Austerity Britain, 1945-1951

6 reviews
David Kynaston

Walker & Company, 2008

Rich treatment of austerity
Written for a British eye more than for an American, this American learned a stronger respect for the people of Britain for the way they won the war and then won back their share of industry and prosperity. Having won a glorious victory, within hours the victorious citizens of the country that sustained almost six years of war following on a prolonged depression realized that the trials of war ...

A Nation Lost And Found: 1936 America Remembered by Ordinary and Extraordinary People

5 reviews

Tallfellow Press, 2002

An Evocative Book
Consisting of vignettes contributed by people both famous and unknown, A Nation Lost and Found describes life in America in 1936. Some contributions are taken from WPA interviews (from the 30s) and reflect the speakers' then current lives and concerns; most are remembrances produced for this book. The vignettes are loosely organized in sections such as, "Politics," " The Holocaust," "Daily Life," ...

Haile Selassie's War

5 reviews
Anthony Mockler

Olive Branch Press, 2002

Too Bad It's Out Of Print
This is probably one of the best war histories ever written. Mockler's superb book outlines the causes, actions and consequences of the Italo-Ethiopian conflict from Italy's first (foiled) attempt at conquest in 1896 at Adowa to Haile Selassie's final overthrow in the early 1970s by a military junta. Mockler was exceedingly fortunate to have interviewed some of the people who appear in his book. ...

My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt's Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962

4 reviews
Eleanor Roosevelt

Da Capo Press, 2001

Historical, political, personal
My favorite way to learn about history is through the voice of a person who lived in that time. Often, however, the most readable first-person narratives leave something to be desired in breadth, since a single real person cannot be everywhere and have opinions on everything. Unless, it seems, that person is Eleanor Roosevelt. Her voice in her 'My Day' columns is authoritative, compassionate, ...

Most secret war

5 reviews
R. V Jones

Hodder and Stoughton, 1981

Required (and fascinating, enjoyable) reading and re-reading
Everything I have read by Jones so far has been 5-star. He is lucid, literate, articulate, has much to tell and tells it unpretentiously and clinically, but without sacrificing anything in passion or wit. He is in no way a braggart or poseur, but does not let inappropriate modesty inhibit his telling of what is to be told. His warmth and humour leaven the narrative and add to the ...

Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume: 1936-1942

8 reviews

Chronicle Books, 1998

Simpy beautiful
I ordered this quite a long time, and don't understand what took me so long in reviewing it. As others have said, this book is amazing. The photographs are simply timeless and beautiful. I can't quite describe the vibe that it captures or conveys, but I found myself somewhat saddened by the book. The pictures kind of struck a whole "Dead Poet's Socitey," "Carpe Diem" mood with me. At the ...

The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917-1936

3 reviews
Mark Solomon

University Press of Mississippi, 1998

Black nationalism and the early days of the CPUSA
Taking advantage of archival material, Mark Solomon has written what might be the definitive history of the CPUSA's involvement in the black struggle during the period of the party's formation to the beginning of the popular front turn. ("The Cry was Unity: Communists and African Americans 1917-1936," U. of Mississippi). Solomon is emeritus professor at Simmons College and a member of the ...

Holocaust Journey

11 reviews
Martin Gilbert

Columbia University Press, 1997

A Rich Vitamin Supplement
Although reading Martin Gilbert's book will do no harm if you are just beginning to study the Holocaust, it will certainly be more difficult to appreciate. What you are buying in this book is a detailed travel journal, not meat-and-potatoes Holocaust history. It is a rich vitamin supplement of insights and prepared readings delivered during a 1996 excursion which Gilbert and his students took to ...

The Ill-Made Alliance: Anglo-Turkish Relations, 1939-1940

3 reviews
Brock Millman

McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999

The Ill-Made Alliance: Anglo-Turkish Relations, 1934-1940
Although I would not pretend to be an expert in any way on this area of history, I found Prof Millman's book provides an invaluable foundation for study in this area; set as it is during the turbulent period in the lead up to the Second World War. Easily read, the book provides the best introduction to the era for the novice but includes sufficient detail to be of use to the scholar as well. ...

The New York School: Photographs, 1936-1963

2 reviews
Jane Livingston

Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1992

Great unpublished photos by some of the greats.
This is treat for anyone interested in photography, especially in the period leading up to Winogrand, Friedlander, etc. Most of the photographs in this book, I've never seen before. Included are interesting 35mm work by Diane Arbus, some untypical Avedon, great Robert Frank's that I haven't seen published anywhere else, early Winogrand. However the really nice thing about this book is in ...

Labor's Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the CIO: 1936-55

2 reviews
Art Preis

Pathfinder Press (NY), 1964

How workers changed history
I really love this book because it shows what workers are capable of. It's a long book, but that's because there are so many great stories to tell of what working people accomplished in the 1930s and 40s. If you go by what you learn in school, you would think that anything workers ever got in this country is due to the generosity of Franklin Roosevelt. But this book shows how workers had to ...

Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers: A Social History of the Red Army, 1925-1941 (Modern War Studies)

2 reviews
Roger R. Reese

University Press Of Kansas, 1996

an excellent overview of the pre-war Red Army
Reese does maginficent job at describing the poor state of the Red Army before the Second World War. According to Reese the main reason for the defeats that the Red Army suffered during the opening phases of the Second World War was due to the lack of training prior to the German attack. Soldiers spent more time working in factories or collective farms rather than training for war. To make ...

The Appeasers

2 reviews
Martin Gilbert, Richard Gott

Phoenix Press, 2000

An Indispensable History of Failed British Diplomacy
Many students of World War II and the interval between World War I and World War II have wondered how British diplomatic policy could have been so disastrously wrong about Hitler and Nazi Germany, and how that policy could have been maintained and pursued in the face of so much evidence that Hitler was an evil, dishonest and unprincipled negotiating partner, and bent on war, despite his ...

Displaced Person: A Girl's Life in Russia, Germany, and America

2 reviews
Ella E. Schneider Hilton, Angela K. Hilton

Louisiana State University Press, 2003

This is a great book and should be made into a movie
I think this was a great book. It answers alot of unasked and unanswered questions. It also talks about the effects of war. We met the author at a time share and she gave a talk about the book. She was very interesting to listen to. My Dad read this book too. He agrees with me that she didn't leave anything out. I did wonder why I couldn't get a straight answer from distant relatives where our ...

Not the Germans Alone: A Son's Search for the Truth of Vichy

2 reviews
Isaac Levendel

Northwestern University Press, 1999

Seven year old hiddeen in Vichy France during WW II
How does it feel to be left alone as a seven year old. Your mother is taken by the authorities and your father is away in an interment camp and you are left in a cherry orchard in southern France. Isaac Levendel captures his feelings and shares them with us in his spell binding book, "Not The Germans Alone" published by Northwestern University Press (ISBN 0-8101-1663-4).. The amazing reality ...

A Time of Silence: Civil War and the Culture of Repression in Franco's Spain, 1936-1945

2 reviews

Cambridge University Press, 1998

A brilliant portrait of fascist evil
A reader may be a bit disconcerted on first reading this book. There is much talk about "discourses" and "symbolism" and "ideology" and one might conclude that we are about to read a book of cultural studies on Francoist Spain. It is not so much that cultural studies are bad as that before we talk about perceptions of an event it might be a better idea to have a clear idea of what actually ...

Eva Hesse

2 reviews
Lucy Lippard

Da Capo Press, 1992

Great document of crucial, endlessly fertile Hesse
Featured are reproductions even of artworks which no longer exist, and Lippard's commentary is always to the point. I don't dwell on the fact that Eva Hesse died young -- in fact, I'm not interested in the cult of personality which in my view only obscures the works themselves. But in at least three directions Hesse has given me plenty to think about and purely enjoy, and this book documents ...

Uniforms of the Waffen-SS, Vol. 1: Black Service Uniform, LAH Guard Uniform, SS Earth-Grey Service Uniform, ...

2 reviews
Michael D. Beaver

Schiffer Pub Ltd, 2002

A MUST HAVE book on the subject of SS uniforms
If you've been looking for a book that offers BOTH wartime photographs AND multi angle/ close up studies of uniforms from actual collections, this book (and the two other volumes from that trilogy) is EXACTLY what you need. More than just a splendid coffee table book, it is an outstanding source of information about the history/construction and regulation for each and every variety of uniform ...

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