Berlin

I just finished listening to the audio version of Antony Beevor’s Berlin and it was quite an exceptional book.  It’s simply amazing that anyone, Russians, Poles, or Germans, soldier or civilians could have lived through such a repeated and brutal set of circumstances.

There are no ‘heros’ in this book.  The Russians, like a horde of ravaging army ants, strip Eastern Europe and Germany bare of everything of value.  The soldiers, barely controllable by their officers, loot, rape and brutalize almost everyone they come across, regardless if they were supporters or victims of the Nazis.

The Germans were, well, they were the Germans.  Mostly happy to look the other way as long as the cities being destroyed and civilians being abused were in other countries, they found ‘religion’ only when they felt Ivan breathing down their necks, if then.  Far too many fought to the last in defense of an insane ideology.

And yet, there are amazing stories of struggle against incredible odds and perseverance in the face of sould crushing horror.  The struggle of German soldiers, knowing that defeat was inevitable, trying to get themselves and refugees across the Elbe to surrender to the Americans.  Russians, knowing the war was tantilizingly close to being over and yet still throwing themselves against an entrenched enemy as if they were at the gates of Moscow.

It’s an incredibly grim story but one well worth hearing.

The book was read by Sean Barrett who has a brilliant voice, loaded with gravitas.  I’ve also heard him read some Henning Mankell mysteries and he does an equally good job with those.

America according to Peter Kalm

I just started reading Peter Kalm’s Travels in North America.  In 1747, Kalm was sent by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to find and bring back plants from the new world which could be cultivated in the cold Swedish climate.  He took advantage of his opportunity to observe and document almost every aspect of his travels throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Canada.  As a result, his book reads a lot like an 18th century blog with a wonderful hodge podge of descriptions and facts about colonial America.  Since there’s no central narrative Kalm is free to talk about Indian burial rites in one passage and then switch to the price of firewood in Philadelphia and the reader, if they so choose, may open the book and read at random.

Perhaps because he wasn’t on a specific government mission like Lewis and Clark (and wasn’t crazy as a bedbug like Lewis) I am finding Kalm’s work more interesting.  He seemed to approach his travels as an opportunity to describe America to a readership back in Europe that still knew virtually nothing about the land or the people (including, perhaps, many former countrymen) and so needed descriptions about virtually everything.

It also provides a glimpse about European (or at least Scandinavian) perceptions about life in the mid-18th century.  For example:

[Americans] do not attain to such an age as the Europeans, and it is an almost unheard of thing that a person born in this country lives to be eighty or ninety years of age.

How long were Europeans living in 1750s?  I was always under the impression that life expectancy was rather short.  Apparently all those old geezers were getting busy as well…

[American] women cease bearing children sooner than in Europe.  They seldom or never have children after they are forty or forty-five years old and some leave off in their thirties.

Wow…apparently the biological clock was ticking much slower back then.

Some recommendations

I just finished listening to the audio version of A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  I’ve seen the book at my local Borders or Barnes and Nobles for years but just assumed it would be a generic fantasy book and so turned up my nose at it.

Obviously, I didn’t get the memo.

A long (over 30 hours in the audio version) and complex story (there are at least 5 major narratives and more ‘minor’ characters than you can shake a stick at) is read by a phenominal actor who manages to give all the characters distinctive voices and styles of speech to tell them apart.

I’m sure the book works well in written form but I found the combination of Mr. Dotrice’s reading as well as the pacing of the story to be perfectly suited for oral presentation.  In fact, several times I imagined the experience might be pretty close to that experienced by listeners to some of the epic tales in pre-literate or early literate societies.

Now is a good time to check out this series since it looks like HBO will be coming out with a series about the book around the end of the year.

On a completely different note, I just watched the first two episodes of the HBO series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  I’m not generally a fan of crime shows (I get it…life in the city is grim, murderers, junkies and psychos are everywhere, every crime gets solved and every detective worth their salt is cynical, hard nosed and has a heart of gold) but this is fun and its nice to see a show that gives a view of Africa that doesn’t focus on war, death and dispair.

Monday hodgepodge

On the personal front…

I seem to be intent on injuring my back on a semi-annual basis.  This time at least I was doing something manly and cutting down a tree that was ominously leaning over my neighbors property.  Despite a hair raising moment when I briefly had to consider if I would be better off buying him a new roof or just fleeing the country the tree came down without incident.  Why I thought I could move a huge section of the offending tree by myself is a mystery but my back clearly let me know that it was not amused.

After forty years I can no longer claim to be a lawn cutting virgin.  I was trapped into mowing my new lawn.  Fortunately, it’s relatively small so it was over quickly but I remain cautious about the lawn mower taking on a life of its own and running amok.  I shall keep the beast on a short leash.

I’m listening to the audio version of A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin and it is very good.  I had soured on fantasy books as generally being a bit formulaic but this one doesn’t give you good characters and multiple interesting plots.  The audio version has a phenomenal reader that makes me think I’d be missing something by reading this versus listening to it.

The gang and the community

I just finished listening to the audio version of ‘Gang Leader for a Day‘ by Sudhir Venkatesh.  The book has so much to recommend it, it’s hard to know where to start.  To begin with the reader is simply brilliant, giving voice to the wide range of characters and delivering the intensity of the content.  My only quibble is the lame bass beat that begins and ends each section of the book.  It tends to play over the first seconds of the reader and is a bit annoying but overall isn’t a deal-breaker.

The content of the book is the real winner however.  Venkatesh spend six years conducting research in the Robert Taylor projects of Chicago during the early 1990s.  During his time there, he became intimately acquainted with the underground economy with the guide of a local gang leader.

For anyone interested in the issue of street gangs this book really should be required reading.  Too often, street gangs are portrayed as one dimensional characters who do little other than sell drugs and conduct drive by shootings.  Venkatesh describes how the gang both preyed and protected the local population.  Local authorities esentially abondoned the residents of Robert Taylor to their own devices and the gang stepped in to provide some sort of order.

The gang then, perhaps intentionally, got the local population to accept their leadership as legitimate which is, I think, one of the key points about gangs that often is overlooked by law enfocement.  Usually, when law enforcement completes a gang investigation it ends with the arrest of some of it’s members and considers it a success if the gang’s ability to conduct it’s criminal activity is disrupted.  In situations like those described by Venkatesh, however, it’s easy to see how such an investigation could lead to a population more at risk then before.  After all, the law enforcement resources that were dedicated to the investigation get pulled out to put out the next fire.  The residents are left with the same dearth of services and the inattention of local government and, in addition, are seen as vulnerable territory by rival gangs.

That’s one of the big reasons why big arrests of criminal networks tend not to solve crime problems.  If we could eliminate the Coca-Cola company today would millions of people stop drinking soda or would Pepsi and others just move in and absorb their market share?  How about if we did nothing further to hinder the drinking of soft drinks?  That’s essentially what we do with many of our gang investigations today (although they’re rarely lucky enough to take out the biggest company in the field…usually it’s just the local Nehi distributor)

The story is loaded with more ideas that deserve to be explored.  How gang members see themselves, the community in which they live/work and the world at large.  How various groups of the residents self organize in order to provide protection and resources.  How the authorities (both corrupt and non-corrupt) interact with the projects.

In fact, I’m going to have to buy the hard copy in order to reread it.

Recommendation roundup

Somehow I’ve been burning though books and audio content at an alarming rate and it seemed a good time to review them so I can relegate them to the nether realms for all eternity.

McMafia by Misha Glenny.  Glenny describes how several organized crime networks took advantage of the spread of privatization, deregulation and collapse of the Soviet Union to become transnational organizations.  Glenny certainly writes in an engaging style and there’s bound to something here about organized crime that you didn’t know before you cracked open the book but I was left a bit unsatisfied after reading it.  The book seemed to be lacking any sort of central narrative to tie it all together and so felt a bit like a collection of stories.  I also felt that his desire to describe examples from every part of the world left some of the chapters a bit short.  It does have a nice section of recommendations for further reading which is particularly valuable if you want more detail on any of the subjects.  Glenny clearly has a good grasp of his subject material and his ability to utilize sources in other languages enriched his work but I can’t help feeling that he’s got much more to say.  Overall, I’d recommend it for a good general introduction to the subject but not perfect.

Drawing the Line by Steven Wise.  Resisting the ‘cookoo for cocoa puffs‘ element of the animal rights movement (yes, I mean you Ingrid Newkirk and Jerry Vlassik) Wise, a lawyer, attempts to develop a logical argument in favor of animal rights.  He argues for a ’scale of practical autonomy’ which would grant rights to animals based upon their intelligence and ability to act with intentionality.  So, contrary to the assertions of those who would like to discredit the movement, mollusks and houseflies wouldn’t be granted rights because they exhibit no evidence that they have any sense of self or acts intentionally.  Clearly however, many animals (like chimpanzees or even Shiloh) have feelings, intentionality and some sort of sense of self and in these cases Wise argues for some sorts of limited rights (much like a child is granted some rights but not the ability to vote, bring a case to court, etc.).  Wise identifies those rights as ‘liberty rights’ and they would guarantee the protected against exploitation and harm (again, similar to a child).

He then highlights several animals (honeybees, a parrot, dog, dolphins, elephant, orangutans, gorillas and his child) and suggests where each would fall on his practical autonomy scale.  I do wish he would have taken the case of bacteria or a mosquito to demonstrate animals falling along the entire range of his scale.  Ultimately, Wise’s scale is arbitrary but at least it’s a starting point for some discussion.  The book was published back in 2002 and, unfortunately, I’m not seeing much in the way of debate on these ideas.  Instead, everyone wants to focus on the nut cases which dilutes the whole argument.

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik.  I’m totally sold on this series.  After all, what more could you want.  Napoleonic warfare with dragons.  Everything is better with dragons.  The worst thing I can say about these books is that I devour them in a couple days and have to wait an interminable amount of time for the next book.  It won’t go down as a classic in western literature but it is a fun read and one can imagine the possiblities if these books ever make it to the big screen.

She does an admirable job of fitting dragons into an otherwise normal world and describing, through the first four books, how the cultures of Europe, China, Africa and the Ottomans would adjust to the existence of such creatures.

This History of Rome Podcast.  Mike Duncan does an admirable job of bringing the history of Rome to you in nice sized bits.  He’s loosened up a bit lately as he’s (I assuming) getting more comfortable with the podcasting format and the series gets continually better.

If you like ancient history, go check out 12 Byzantine Rulers as well.

Underwood & Flinch Mike Bennett is podcasting his new novel.  How this guy is unpublished is beyond me.  His current novel (which he promises to be massive) is a vampire story.  He has the best podcast voice I’ve heard and does a brilliant job of acting the roles.  This guy loves what he does and does it well.  I’d also recommend his other work.  You won’t be sorry.

Daily Buddhism.  Brian Schell does yeoman work in making Buddhism easy to understand and approachable to an American audience.  I’m still catching up on achieved episodes but if you’re a bit put off by all of the mumbo jumbo of other approaches to Buddhism or intimidated by the alienness of some of the other practitioners, you should check this one out.

Saga

I just finished this fantastic book by Jeff Janoda who took one of the Icelandic Sagas (specifically the Eyrbyggja Saga) and fleshed out the characters and plot to make it more palatable for us 21st century types.  The story reminded me a great deal of a tragedy in the Shakesperean tradition where you have people of power to think they can shape their own destiny yet find that fate takes them down paths they could never have imagined (usually to terrible consequences).

He tackles the difficult problem of explaining the numerous traditions and beliefs that ruled 10th century Iceland without drowning the reader in exposition or watering down the concepts to the point where the setting becomes generic.  Most of the concepts are placed in a glossary in the back with the list of the dramatis personae in the front.  In no time even the most unfamiliar names and similar sounding characters distinguish themselves as separate entities (not easy when you’ve got characters named Thorfinn, Thorgils, Thorleif, Thormod, Thorodd, and Thorolf).

Usually, books I finish either are given away because I know I’ll never crack them open again or they might go back on the shelf with the intention to enjoy them again after the passage of time erases all but the general flow of the story.  Rarely, I’ll finish one and want to start right back at the beginning because I enjoyed the story so much and Saga easily fell into that category.

I’m not sure what (if anything) the author is working on next (his website is maddeningly out of date) but a sequel or retelling of another one of the stories would certainly worth while.  Unfortunately, too many examples of literature that are cornerstones of our (or other) civilizations are being lost because they just aren’t accessible to the general population  (the Iliad, Odessey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, etc., etc. etc.) but work like this can really help to make such works relevant to new audiences.

More than gulash

Twelve Days:  The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.   I’m a sucker for lost cause stories and this one has just the right mix of heroism and treachery. I was familiar with the broad outlines of the story but there are more than enough interesting details to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The author does approach the story from an unabashedly pro-Hungarian point of view and so doesn’t just reserve his criticism for only the evil Soviet overlords.  The United States, United Nations and others also feel the author’s sting.

I haven’t been able to find the reference but I once heard a lecturer who said that there was something about Western civilization which seems to glorify battles against the odds, even if they end in failure (such as Thermopylae, Rorke’s Drift, or the Alamo).  This book fits well into that category, and makes the story compelling, even though you know the tragic ending.

Books reviews

I just finished reading/listening to the books above and they made an interesting trilogy.  Legacy of Ashes was a phenomenal book which traced the history of the CIA from its origins until 2007.  I found it particularly interesting how, from its very inception, the agency was characterized as one that saw any sort of control (from the President, congress, or the constitution) as interference.  The inability of the agency to voluntarily stay within the limits of its charter raises serious questions about the wisdom of having a secret agency whose central function requires deceit and subversion in an open democracy.

I have to admit, I’ve bought into the myth of the CIA as much as everyone else so it was a bit of a disappointment to hear the numerous instances where intelligence and analytical work was shoddy or took a back seat to political considerations or cowboys who decided they knew what was in the best interests of the U.S. and did their own thing.  It was that covert action, usually done with no consideration of possible consequences that has to make one wonder if we wouldn’t be better off without such an agency.

A good (semi) counter point would be Robert Baer’s See No Evil which is a brilliant description of the CIA from a covert operators point of view.  After reading his book you do kind of think that perhaps Baer (and those few like him) really does know what’s best for the country and should be allowed to just ‘get on with it’.  I’ll have to spend some time trying to reconcile those two accounts.  Both books do seem to agree, however, on the idea that the CIA is hobbled by a new wave of inexperienced analysts, agents as well as a glut of bureaucrats.

State of Denial doesn’t really tell you anything you don’t already know providing you haven’t been in a coma during the past five years.  Still, it just lets you know that the gross incompetence is a well documented fact and not just a strong suspicion.

Armed Madhouse is great because its one of those books that gives you an alternative narrative to what’s going on today in America’s political landscape.  I’m not entirely convinced that Palast is providing the best explaination for what’s been going on in America since 2001 (when a book tries to question so many closely held assumptions like this one does, it would be a big help to provide links to supporting evidence) but it does get you to think.  I found his defense of Hugo Chavez particularly interesting.

Good vs. Evil

I just finished reading The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo is best known from running the Stanford Prison Experiment in which a number of men were randomly assigned the roles of ‘prisoner’ and ‘guard’ and placed in a mock prison setting in order to see how otherwise healthy, well-adjusted, people would react.

The subtitle of the book is “Understanding How Good People Turn Evil” and Zimbardo uses the Stanford Prison Experiment to demonstrate that situations exert a great deal of influence over the actions of individuals. He then describes research (including the famous Milgram experiment) which further highlights the power of situation and authority to get people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t believe they would do. He then goes on to demonstrate how the events at Abu Ghraib mirror those of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Now, I know what you’re thinking and Zimbardo goes to great lengths to say that his argument is not an attempt to enshrine ‘excusology’ into our lives and or eliminate the concept of personal responsibility. What he does say is that despite how most of us read about the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda or lynchings in the U.S. and say that we’d never do such things the fact is that if placed in those specific situations many of us would pull that gas lever, pick up that machete or pull on that noose. As he often repeats in the book, the problem may not be (and often is not) that there are some bad apples who do evil but that there’s a bad barrel that can make virtually everyone do evil. In short, the potential is in every human being to engage in the most despicable and most heroic actions.

The implications for intelligence analysis (both in the military and law enforcement) are really amazing. Our culture is based upon the idea that situational influence plays virtually no role in individual behavior. Rather, as Zimbardo points out, virtually every aspect of our society (the medical, judicial, psychological, etc.) is based on such the assumption that all causes of behavior are dispositional (inherent personal factors like free will, genetic makeup or personality traits).   If we actually consider situational factors as motivators for specific behavior then we might consider a different set of responses to crime, terrorism or other negative behavior.

Lest you think this is all a bunch of namby-pamby, Nancy Pelosi loving, brie-eating nonsense  check this out:

Protracted popular war is best countered by winning the “hearts and minds” of the populace and separating the leaders, cadre, and combatants from the mass base through information operations, civil-military operations, economic programs, social programs, and political action. (FM 3-24)

In other words:  You win insurgencies through changing the situational factors for the population which (if successful) will make them less inclined to support your enemies.

It took the powers that be more than 3 years to figure out that while you can kill the number 3 man in Al-Qaeda, if you don’t change the environmental factors that created him you’re likely to only have a host of volunteers willing to step into his shoes.  It’s the old idea of winning ‘hearts and minds’ given scientific support.

While the DoD may have adopted this message the law enforcement community resists it strongly.  Virtually the only strategy offered to combat crime in the United States has been various schemes designed to ‘get tough’ on criminals.  Just as in our fight against Al-Qaeda however, you can arrest all the drug dealers, gang members and other criminals you want but if you maintain the same situational factors (social, economic, and cultural) you find that new ones spring up hydra-like.

There’s too much good stuff to continue in this post but I’m hoping to revisit this book in a future post and highlight some of the more revealing passages in it.

The only unfortunate part of the book is the author’s attempt to indict the Bush administration for ‘building the bad barrel’ and establishing the conditions that led to Abu-Ghraib.  It needlessly politicizes the book and, I fear, means that a lot of people might pass the book over.