Brent

A Heart Wrenching but Important Book

Reviewed: 12-21-23

Popular recollection of WWII atrocities among westerners focuses almost solely on Nazi depravity. While this was thoroughly earned by Hitler's regime, it has largely been forgotten how the Japanese militarist regime during WWII was equally brutal and equally prolific in its barbarity. This escapes western historical memory partly because these atrocities were perpetrated on civilian populations in east Asia (especially China), which has/had fewer cultural connections to the median American citizen, and partly because of cold-war policies to quickly reconcile and insulate Japan against communism by post-war US presidents. These factors have contributed to a general contemporary sense of Japan's victimhood in WWII, rather than a fully realistic reckoning of its culpability, similarly as the Lost Cause mythology among many American Southerners in regard to the American Civil War.

While contemporary Japanese society in no way bears responsibility for the actions of its forbearers 2 or 3 generations ago, it is nevertheless important for us all to take an open and honest view of history: what happened, how, and why. This book does that for an important aspect of WWII that is not widely remembered but should be: the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Chinese mainland. To be honest, this is perhaps the most difficult book I have ever read. The harrowing accounts of pain and suffering endured by the people of Nanking during this dark episode of history is not for the faint of heart. However, Just as we owe it to the slaughtered Jews of Europe to understand what they went through during the holocaust, I think we owe it to the Chinese people to try and understand the extent of what they went through as well. By the time you get through this book, it becomes clear that a separate holocaust of unbelievable magnitude was also perpetrated by the Japanese army in East Asia as well.

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Pre-Columbian N/S America is FASCINATING!!!...

Reviewed: 12-21-23

In a nutshell, relatively little of what you thought you knew about the new world (pre-European contact) is true. And the truth---as understood by the worlds most accomplished experts in Anthropology, Archaeology, History, and Biological Sciences---is ten times more interesting than you ever imagined. You also learn from this book how much of an important influence pre-Columbian societies in the western hemisphere have on the modern world up to today.

I can't say enough about how amazing this book is. Its author meticulously documents where the ideas come from in scholarly research, and he often takes time to explain to the reader the various (sometimes conflicting) perspectives held by experts, and how those perspectives evolved over time. Charles C Mann's writing is the gold standard for what popular science should be. READ THIS BOOK!

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Leaves you feeling drained and empty.

Reviewed: 04-20-21

The idea of the book was fascinating, but the narration and characters were overdone and unlikeable. I wanted to like them, but they were irritating. The ending was lonely and unfulfilling.

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it was beautiful and amazing totally recommend it

Reviewed: 04-01-21

loved it so so so much it is my new favorite book it is amazing how the story works I just loved it

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the oscars

Reviewed: 12-29-20

the oscars. I have been comforted, but the only one who has a great day and I am a very nice, and the last time. . I have been comforted, but the only one who has a great day and I am a very nice, and the last time. . I have been comforted, but the only one who has

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All I want to do now is move to Savannah and bake

Reviewed: 09-18-19

The narrator was insanely good! Her accents and delivery kept me in the story so well that I found myself crying and laughing while working out.

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Hamilton is a VERY interesting guy!

Reviewed: 09-14-19

You have to include this book in your reading list if you want to get a well rounded understanding of the founding of America!

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A Lincolnesque, Quintessential American Man

Reviewed: 06-12-19

This is a great book that everyone who wants to understand America (both past and present) should read. The author doesn't have any political agenda, but his careful, thorough telling of US Grant's life story corrects a lot of half-truths and mis-understandings of our history that come out of the "Lost Cause" narrative. Grant's military career during the Civil War was a nearly unbroken stream of crucial successes against major obstacles. While Robert E Lee gets most of the popular attention as the premier American general during the Civil war, one stark contrast between them really stands out. While Lee never attempted an invasion into enemy-held territory that didn't result in a disastrous defeat (i.e., Antietem and Gettysburg), Grant never attempted an invasion into enemy-held territory that failed to result in a major Union victory (e.g., Forts Henry/Donnelson, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Petersburg/Richmond). The other Major contrast between Lee and Grant that stands out is that while the former was a brilliant battlefield commander, he had no mind at all for large-scale strategy. Grant, on the other hand, was both a brilliant battlefield commander and a brilliant war strategist, coordinating the efforts of multiple armies and a navy simultaneously across an entire theater of war.

The second half of the book also largely resurrects Grant's presidential reputation, highlighting his successes in foreign policy and exploring his forgotten (though well-deserved) role as the foremost protector of African American civil rights between Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B Johnson. Popular myth today (largely proceeding from the "Lost Cause" narrative) holds that Grant's two terms were disastrous for America, being an uninterrupted series of corruption scandals, and Chernow openly covers these blights on Grant's record in depth. However, this incorrect view fails to recognize that the post-Civil War American economy was expanding in scope and complexity at rates previously unthinkable, meaning that a certain level of growing pains would have been inevitable for any president at the time. However, perhaps the best rebuttal to the myth of Grant's "disastrous" presidency was the fact that he was the front-runner for the 1880 republican presidential nomination, four years after the end of his second term. If not for betrayals by some of his close political friends in 1880, who defected to promote their own unlikely candidacies, Grant would likely have been the first president to serve more than 2 terms, rather than FDR.

What I most appreciated about the book though was how much attention it payed to character development. US Grant was more or less an ordinary, middle-class American man who rose to greatness through force of character and will, after being written off by many for not looking the part. His life, like Lincoln's, is a quintessential American story of how one's fate and one's standing in society should ideally be decided by individual substance rather than by high birth.

Major kudos to Chernow for a job well done. You have to read this book!

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1 person found this helpful

A staple of our family Christmas tradition

Reviewed: 12-28-18

We absolutely love this book. the author and narrator do so well at capturing the perspective and voice of a child while making profound observations about life and people in general. I would put this right up there with A Christmas Carol for re-centering your holiday celebration on what matters most about Christmas.

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ONE OF THE GIANTS ON WHOSE SHOULDERS WE NOW STAND

Reviewed: 09-05-18

This is one of the best books on American history that I have read yet. FD was a man of absolutely towering intellect and soul. his account of his life will benefit ANYONE wishing to think of themselves as historically literate Americans. Everyone knows in their mind that slavery was wrong, but FD's personal telling of how it touched his life that add a spiritual and emotional depth to that understanding that cannot be gained elsewhere. It will dispel many myths about the past that still exist among Northerners and Southerners alike. I believe we cannot move on from our troubled past until we understand it better, and this book is an essential part of that journey.

With no formal education at all, FD shows tremendous aptitude as a philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, economist, and theologian. As a professional economist myself, I now believe FD was certainly one of the most gifted social scientists of his time though he is not recognized as such.

I feel I have profoundly benefitted from the perspective this book offers, and I encourage all to read it carefully.

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