THE RAIDER: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A RENEGADE MARINE AND THE BIRTH OF U.S. SPECIAL FORCES IN WORLD WAR II by Stephen R. Platt

October 30, 2025October 30, 2025szfreiberger Biography, Chinese History, World War II Leave a comment

(Lt. Colonel Evan Carleson)

There have been many exceptional people throughout history. People who emit bravery, compassion, and genius whose impact on others is immeasurable. Many of these people have been somewhat anonymous historically. One such person was Major Evans Carleson the subject of Stephen R. Platt’s new book; THE RAIDER: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A RENEGADE MARINE AND THE BIRTH OF U.S. SPECIAL FORCES IN WORLD WAR II.

As the book title suggests Major Carleson made many important contributions as to how the American military conducts itself. A career that spanned fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the Japanese in China, the Makin Islands, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan saw him implement combat tactics that he observed and studied while watching the Chinese Communists engage Japanese forces in the 1930s. The type of fighting is framed as “guerilla warfare,” which would be developed by Carson’s battalion that would be the precursor of US Special Forces known as “the Marine Raiders.”

(Mao Zedong and Zhu De)

According to Platt, Major Evans Carleson may be the most famous figure from World War II that no one has ever heard of. He was a genuine hero whose life was full of contradictions, and he would wind up disowned by his service, pilloried as a suspected radical, and forgotten in the postwar era. Platt makes a number of astute observations, perhaps the most important being Carleson’s repeated warnings not to allow the wartime alliances in China to collapse. Today, US-Chinese relations are in part hindered by events at the end of World War II – something Carleson saw coming.

After reviewing Carleson’s early life and career Platt places his subject in China for the first time in 1927 where he would carry out his lifelong ambition to make a difference in that theater. Carleson would spend the next fifteen years observing the Communist Chinese, promoting democracy, fighting the Japanese, developing a philosophy of warfare which rested on a non-egalitarian approach to training men and leading them in combat. Carleson was a complex individual, and like many people he had his flaws as well as his strengths. On a personal level he had difficulties devoting himself to family life and was happier away from his wives and son, than trying to work on his familial relationships. On a professional level he was an excellent leader of men as his approach was to have the same experience as his men in the field which led to success on the battlefield.

(Chiang Kai-Shek)

It is obvious from the narrative that Platt has a firm command of his subject. He successfully integrates the flow of Chinese history from the late 1920s through the Second World War and the immediate post war era. Platt’s commentary and analysis dealing with Chinese Communists and Kuomintang relations, Chiang Kai-Shek’s authoritarian leadership, the strategies pursued by the Japanese and the United States are well founded and based on intensive research. This allows the reader to gain a clear picture of what Carleson faced at any given time from the “Warlord Era” in China in the late 1920s, his meetings with Communist officials, particularly Zhu De whose combat strategies became the model for what Carleson created with his Marine Raiders, and events on the ground, and other important personalities he interacted with.

Platt is accurate in his comments pertaining to the balance of power in China. He introduces the Soviet threat in the region as Joseph Stalin supplied Chiang Kai-Shek’s forces throughout the 1930s, reigning in the Chinese Communists as he wanted to develop a buffer to thwart any Japanese incursions on Russian territory. The Soviet Union financed the reign of Sun Yat-Sen and continued to do so with Chiang Kai-Shek. Stalin also forced the Communists to work with the Kuomintang and create a “United Front’ against the Japanese, a strategy that Carleson supported. Carleson’s influence on American policy toward China and Japan was enhanced because of the special relationship he developed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his son James who was his executive officer and helped create the “Marine Raiders.” A case in point is when Carleson finally learned that the US was supplying oil, weapons, and other resources to Japan to use in China, he helped convince FDR to embargo these items.

In examining Carleson’s approach to the Sino-Japanese war after he was appointed to be China’s Marine 1^st Regimental intelligence officer in 1927, Platt correctly points out that many of his views were formulated because of his closeness to Chiang Kai-Shek, a man he admired despite his authoritarian rule. Since he was getting his information from one source he seemed to follow the Kuomintang line. This will change as he is permitted to imbed himself with Communists forces fighting Japan and his “special relationship” with Zhu De who commanded Chinese Communist forces.

(Agnes Smedley)

Platt will spend an inordinate amount of time tracing his subjects ideological development and personality traits. He stresses Carleson’s need to improve. After reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas as a young man, he becomes a convert to the concept of “self-reliance,” which he intermingled with the concept of “Gung Ho,” or working together which he learned from Zhu De. He pursued a lifetime goal of educating himself and he always seemed to crave a literary career. An important source that Platt makes great use of are Carleson’s letters to his parents where he relates his beliefs concerning the China theater and his own command career which allows him to develop analysis of his subject and the world with which he was involved.

Carleson developed many important relationships during his time in China. Obviously, Zhu De was seen as a model for conducting war against the Japanese, but others like Edgar Snow greatly impacted Carleson. Snow also had access to Chinese Communists leaders and wrote RED STAR OVER CHINA and including in part using Carleson’s intelligence work that the Chinese Communists were not like they had been described in the media. He argued they were friendly, not hostile and open to democracy in the short run, but we know that was Mao Zedong’s strategy before the socialist revolution would emerge. Snow argued that they were well organized, open to an alliance with the United States, and most importantly were not in the pocket of the Soviet Union. Carleson and Snow developed an important relationship intellectually and personally and Carleson agreed with most of Snow’s conclusions.

Platt is a master of detail and is reflected in what Carleson experienced meeting Mao and observing Chinese Communist military strategies. If you explore Zhu De’s approach to training his forces, which he argued were at least as psychological and moral as it was physical, we can see how Carleson mirrored that approach. Apart from Mao and Zhu De, Platt introduces a number of different characters that impacted Carleson’ s life. One in particular is fascinating and had influence over Carleson – Agnes Smedley. Smedley was a left leaning journalist who developed a strong relationship with Carleson, in fact they fell in love with each other, but according to Platt they were never lovers.

(These Japanese prisoners were among those captured by U.S. forces on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands, shown November 5, 1942).

Carleson was exposed to Japanese military tactics in China and developed ideas as to why Japan could never be totally successful. They had the antithesis of military structure from that of Carleson. He believed the Japanese would fail because of their hierarchical military structure and were extremely vulnerable to surprise attacks and unexpected situations. He further believed that Japanese were not well trained or allowed to think and act on their own. They were more robotic in their approach when compared to Zhu De. Carleson’s positive views on Zhu De would be openly mocked by higher ups, but no matter what was said he continued to speak his mind in interviews, written articles, and reports to FDR and other officials. He would be admonished and warned not to publicize his opinions, but he never wavered by imparting his views no matter what others thought, i.e., he blamed the catastrophe of Pearl Harbor on America’s privileged officer class who lacked incentives to innovate and improve. He argued “they were fearful of any experimentation that might threaten their appearance of infallibility or diminish their prestige.” In the end his superiors had enough of his popularity, refusal to fit in, blurring the boundaries between officers and enlisted men, and idealistic politics promoting him as a means of taking his “Raiders” command away and giving it to a more conventional officer.

Platt delves into the training of the “Marine Raiders,” and the plans for different operations. The results were mixed as the landing on Makin Island, a diversion the US sought to keep supply lines open to Australia which was not a success, while the amphibious landing at Guadalcanal was seen as a victory over Japan as 488 Japanese soldiers were killed as opposed to 16 Americans – eventually the Japanese withdrew from the island. Part of Carleson’s success resides in the area of post-traumatic stress syndrome. It seems that Carleson’s raiders did not suffer from mental issues related to combat as did others. Platt points out that one-third to one-half of all US casualties were sent home because of mental trauma, while the “Marine Raiders” only had one person sent home.

World War II Battle of Saipan photographed by W. Eugene Smith 1944.

(A U.S. Marine rested behind a cart on a rubble-strewn street during the battle to take Saipan from occupying Japanese forces)

Platt has not written a hagiography of Carleson as he points out his warts. One in particular is interesting is that he would not take Japanese prisoners of war, he instructed his men to shoot them because they had no way to imprison or care for them but also revenge for what they did to Americans. On a personal level he basically abandoned his wives and his only son for his career and was seen as somewhat inflexible in dealing with higher ups in the military chain of command. Many above him felt he had become a communist because of his association with Zhu De, Agnes Smedley, and his criticisms of Chiang Kai-Shek which would follow him for the remainder of his life as his reputation was destroyed during the McCarthy era as J. Edgar Hoover kept a file on him for years.

If there are other biographies to compare Platt’s work to it would be Barbara Tuchman’s STILWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA , 1911-1945 and Neil Sheehan’s BRIGHT SHINING LIE: JOHN PAUL VANN AND AMERICA IN VIETNAM. One book provides similar reasons to Platt as to why the “United States lost China” after World War II and examines very carefully Washington’s approach to the Chinese Civil War which ended in 1949, the other tells a familiar story why the Vietnam War was such a fiasco. Platt’s work is based on strong research as he was the first historian to receive access to Carleson’s family letters, correspondence, and private journals, allowing him to develop complex personality and belief systems alongside the dramatic events of his life. The result of Platt’s efforts according to Publisher’s Weekly “is a gripping, complex study of a military romantic who mixed ruthlessness with idealism.”

(Japanese expansion in the late 19th and 20th centuries)

Alexander Rose’s review; “The Raider” Review: Evans Carleson Made the Marines Gung Ho, June 6, 2025, Wall Street Journal is dead on when he writes; “Hence Mr. Platt’s superficially disproportionate focus on Carlson and his activities in China before Pearl Harbor and the formation of the Raiders—which was really a capstone to his long fascination and relationships with the Chinese Communists and Nationalists. By the late 1930s, Carlson was regarded as the China expert at home. His reports were circulated at the cabinet level and within the most senior ranks of the Navy department; he even enjoyed a secret, direct line of communication with President Roosevelt.

Yet in some quarters there were concerns that Carlson had, to use a perhaps dated expression, gone native. He had developed a severe case of Good Cause-itis and needed to be reminded, as one analyst commented at the time, that he worked for “Uncle Samuel, not China, the Soong Dynasty, or”—referring to one of the Chinese Communist party’s forces fighting against Japan—“the 8th Route Army.”

These suspicions were not baseless. If Carlson had a weakness, it was that he associated with too many American fellow travelers and idealized the Communists, seeing them as nothing more than slightly zealous New Dealers. He told Roosevelt that Mao had assured him that agrarian revolution, one-party rule and proletarian dictatorship might be on the agenda, but only after a prolonged period of capitalist democracy to guarantee everyone’s individual freedoms..

Similarly, Carlson promoted the astoundingly corrupt Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and seems to have believed that they and the Communists would make a great team to secure China’s independence, once they ironed out a few inconsequential political differences. It was in 1944 that he finally tired of Chiang and wrote him off as a reactionary warlord. The Communist Party was the sole executor of the “welfare of the people,” he judged, and thus America’s natural friend.

One gets the impression from his reports that Carlson was often told what he wanted to hear and saw what his hosts wanted him to see. He never grasped that the insurgents’ interests rarely matched American ones, even when the two forces were temporarily allied against a common enemy. Carlson, in other words, broke the cardinal rule of being an observer: Don’t fall in love with the side you’re backing; they’re fighting a different war than you are.

For a time, Carlson’s views held sway in the U.S.—he was a popular, progressive figure immediately after the war and was set to run for the U.S. Senate representing California—but his career soon began to go wrong. A heart attack ended his political ambitions, and in his final years he was castigated as a “red in the bed.” He died a disappointed man, as his illusions shattered against the hard rocks of reality. But American understandings of China have often been founded, or have foundered, on self-deception, both before Carlson’s time, and since.”

(Lt. Colonel Evan Carleson after Makin Island raid)

THE ZORG: A TALE OF GREED AND MURDER THAT INSPIRED THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY by Siddharth Kara

October 23, 2025October 23, 2025szfreiberger Uncategorized Leave a comment

(Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in Charleston, British Province of South Carolina)

As the current administration guts the Department of Education, coerces universities to adhere to what they think should be taught in classes, and pressures public schools to rewrite their curriculum to reflect its view of history it is important to examine books that tell the truth about history as opposed to a fantasy that makes certain elements in our society feel better. Banning books, censorship, and curtailing funding is no way to examine our past – something from which we should learn! Just because someone write or says something that is critical of American history does not mean it did not happen or is a threat in our current environment. Remembering our past is a precursor to the present and is a necessity and must be carefully examined as we should learn not to repeat previous errors. It is in this context that Siddharth Kara’s latest book, THE ZORG: A TALE OF GREED AND MURDER THAT INSPIRED THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY must be explored.

Kara’s narrative history portrays his subject with compassion, and accuracy based on exceptional research depicting the harsh realities of the 18^th century slave trade involving Africa, the Caribbean, and the American colonies providing lessons we should never ignore. This may come across to some as “wok,” but history is something that should never be dismissed or degraded.

A painting entitled "The Slave Ship" by J. M. W. Turner. In the background, the sun shines through a storm while large waves hit the sides of a sailing ship. In the foreground, enslaved Africans are drowning in the water, while others are being eaten by large fish.

(The Slave Ship (1840), J. M. W. Turner‘s representation of the mass killing of enslaved people, inspired by the Zong killings)

The narrative that Kara presents reads as a work of fiction, but it is not. It is a work that is based on fact and presents an accurate picture of the events he describes. Each chapter ends with a hint of what is to come next. Each important observation is related to what will take place in the future and how it will affect his storyline. Kara provides a very detailed history of the Zorg and its ill-fated voyage, describing in mesmerizing detail the story’s evolution as it embarked on a violent Atlantic crossing. A British privateer captured the Zorg during the Anglo-Dutch War in early 1781, and the ship would sail from the Gold Coast of Africa to Kingston, Jamaica, with its ‘etween deck’ loaded with 442 slaves, including women and children, and a small crew which was not sufficient to care for them. Even the Captain was problematical, a former slave ship surgeon, who had little navigational experience, hired by a rich Liverpool slave merchant.

There are a number of important characters that garner the author’s attention. First, Luke Collingwood, Captain of the Zorg and a former slave ship physician who must have been considered competent since his mortality rate for the crew and slaves was considered below average, however he was not trained in navigation and would become a disastrous choice. William Gregson, underwrote the cost of the Zorg and was considered one of Liverpool’s most prominent slave merchants. James Kelsall, was second in command to Collingwood on the Zorg, and was the only knowledgeable navigator apart from the captain. Robert Stubbs, one of the British governors for the Company of Merchants Trading for Africa (CMTA) was a scoundrel who sold slaves, pocketed the profit, and made decisions out of avarice that would end up in disaster. He was eventually fired but wound up on the Zorg as it made its way to Jamaica. William Llewellin, the captain of the British privateer, Alert, who captured the Zorg, which at the time had 120 slaves. He would capture the Dutch slaving ship, Eendracht, and would add its 124 slaves to the Zorg. Richard Hanley, one of the leading slave captains in Liverpool. John Roberts, another CMTA governor who clashed with Stubbs. Amoonay Coomah, the Ashante King who sold his people into slavery. Olaudah Equiano, captured by slave traders at age eleven, he survived the two Middle Passages having been shipped to shipped to Virginia, served as an officer’s slave on British battle ships. In 1766 he would buy his freedom and later would play an important role in trying to free slaves. Lastly, Granville Sharp who early in career witnessed a scene were a black teenager was beaten, sold, and kidnapped and was outraged. Sharp would work to gain the teenager’s freedom and spend his remaining career as an abolitionist developing arguments against slavery. In addition, Kara introduces a series of English abolitionists who assiduously to end the slave trade in the late 18^th and early 19^th century.

(The Zorg, a replica)

Kara provides excellent background for the reader to gain a true understanding of what life was like on a slave ship. He points to the difficulties in staffing a ship’s crew. It was a daunting task since men new that Guinea voyages had high mortality rates, offered poor wages, required to complete unpleasant tasks, including guarding and feeding hundreds of captive slaves. Many of the crew hired were impressed or had to work off debts acquired while they were drunk. Most crews that were hired were not experienced enough for a successful voyage.

Kara offers a useful description of the British slave infrastructure in Africa, i.e., forts, factories, supply networks, the dungeons slaves were kept in, and the personalities or governors who were in charge. It is eye opening because the of the horrors the Africans faced even before they were forced to board the slave ships. He makes a series of insightful observations. One of the most important is that once Africans were forced into a dungeon or on to a slave ship they had no concept of what was about to happen to them. The dungeon the British built was indicative of the horrors that awaited the Africans. It was built below the Cape Coast Castle designed to house over 1,000 Africans at a time. Kara introduces Ottobah Cugoano who has written a biographical account of his experience in the dungeon, and his Atlantic crossing on a slave ship. Years later, after obtaining his freedom he would become an important voice in England’s abolitionist movement.

The chapter entitled “Coffles” is an important one as it describes the process by which Africans were either seized by Europeans or sold by Ashante tribal leaders into the slave trade from the interior of the Gold Coast. The inhuman treatment was abhorrent as they marched over 150 miles to the coast with little food and water. Once again they did not know where they were going and what awaited them. To highlight this experience Kara develops the name, Kojo to replicate what an African experienced. Kojo would march for six months as part of this process. Later, he would be forced onto the Zorg and along with the other 442 slaves who would be branded to show ownership.

As Kara writes, “it is impossible to know what emotions the Africans experienced as they passed through the ‘door of no return.’ Was it anxiety, dread, anger, bitterness, hopelessness…perhaps even relief to be out of the dungeon? Most Africans from the inland regions had never seen the ocean before. What impact might first sight of the infinite blue have had on them? Many surely feared they were heading for their doom.

Once Collingswood, Stubbs, and Kelsall overstuffed the Zorg with 442 slaves it was a disaster waiting to happen because the ship’s capacity was around 250. The expected two month “Middle Passage” with a crew of 17 was clearly insufficient to care for their cargo. In addition, supplies would not cover their needs. Once the ship departed for Jamaica on September 7, 1781, a nightmare of dysentery would permeate the ‘etween deck’, the crew would also suffer from scurvy, measles, typhus, measles, and malaria in steerage, as did the captain in his cabin. Kara places the blame clearly; poor planning, a lack of organization and administration led to a shortage of supplies, particularly water, and to exacerbate the situation those in charge of the voyage made numerous navigational errors. The key event occurred when Collingwood became so ill he could not continue in command. He appointed his friend Stubbs, who had experience navigating slave ships, but had not done so in sixteen years, instead of the first mate Mr. Kelsall, who probably would have made better decisions and saved a significant number of lives.

Desperation set in as scurvy became rampant. Kara describes the step by step physical and mental deterioration of the crew and cargo on a ship commanded by Stubbs, who was considered a passenger, in addition to the myriad of poor decisions which would result in disaster. To solve the problem of disease and overcrowding a consensus was reached to throw away large numbers of slaves overboard. By November 29, 1781, 122 individuals were tossed off the ship. Mostly women and children providing sharks with a culinary treat as they were shoved out of a window in the captain’s cabin. Kara is correct that this action was a result of hoping to save enough slaves to recoup as much of a profit as possible once they reached Jamaica, Another possibility was to collect insurance payments for the lost freight! When the Zorg arrived in Jamaica on December 22, 1781, only 208 slaves remained, after roughly 224 slaves were thrown overboard. A year later William Gregsonn would file an insurance claim of 30 pounds per head lost, arguing an ominous situation left the crew with no choice but to throw Africans overboard.

(Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade. From an Abstract of Evidence delivered before a select committee of the House of Commons in 1790 and 1791)

Kara describes the legal battle once the insurers refused to pay as Gregson sued the insurance company in February 1783. The court found for the ship owner resulting in an appeal with England’s Chief Justice believing that the deaths were caused by the crews incompetence, Gregson would withdraw the suit. Finally, Granville Sharpe would publicize the case as a means of forcing the government to abolish the slave trade.

The Zorg reflects a remarkable work of history despite the lack of sources. The author does his best poring over what is available at the Royal African Company’s materials and has reproduced some key documents that highlight his narrative. The most historically important one is an anonymous letter sent to the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser which Kara reprints in full which would light a fire under abolitionist efforts in England that would not be extinguished until all slaves were free. The author should also be commended for integrating the 1783 court transcripts into the narrative which went along way to present the true facts pertaining to the events on the Zorg. Kara’s contribution to the historical record concerning anti-slave movement cannot be denied as he has written a sophisticated account reflecting his moral compass.

(Enslaved Africans in chains marched to the East coast of Africa by Arab slavers)

OUT OF THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO: MEMOIR OF A FORMER YUGOSLAV by Jasna Levinger-Goy

October 17, 2025October 17, 2025szfreiberger Balkans, European History, Yugoslav Civil War Leave a comment

(Smoke rises from the Jajce barracks Tuesday after it was hit by artillery fired by the Yugoslav Army from the hills surrounding Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. Army artillery pounded Sarajevo on Tuesday, May 5, 1992 leaving the city cloaked in flames and smoke and its streets strewn with corpses)

A few weeks ago, my wife and I drove from Dubrovnik, Croatia to Sarajevo, Bosnia after spending a few hours in Mostar. We observed remaining damage from the war for the homeland, a.k.a. the Yugoslav Civil War, and many signs of repairs and rebuilding. The city of Sarajevo which suffered the longest siege in Europe since Stalingrad came across as a vibrant urban area that seems well on its way in recovering from a war highlighted by ethnic cleansing , unfathomable cruelty, and enormous destruction, and random death. There are many exceptional historical works recounting and analyzing the breakup of Yugoslavia and the four separate conflicts that followed, including; the 1991-1992 war between Serbia and Croatia; the 1992 war between Serbs and Muslims; the 1993 war between Croats and Muslims in Bosnia; lastly, the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo.

The horrors of these wars may have receded in the historical memory, however for most of those affected the scars remain as depicted in Jasna Levinger-Goy’s memoir of being on the front lines in Sarajevo in her at times, gut wrenching book, OUT OF THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO: MEMOIR OF A FORMER YUGOSLAV.

(A 7-year-old girl who was wounded minutes before by mortar shrapnel cries as she is helped into the emergency room of a Sarajevo hospital on August 3, 1992)

The author was born and educated in Sarajevo, in addition to the United States and England. She taught at Sarajevo and Novi Sad Universities and later moved to England during the Bosnian Civil War. Levinger-Goy grew up in a non-religious middle class Jewish family in Sarajevo with parents who survived the Holocaust. During the war 9,000 out of 12,000 Sarajevo Jews perished. Her parents believed in what communism promised and readily accepted the concept of a unified Yugoslavian identity. The author, a non-religious Jew had no issue accepting a life in a socialist country. However, as the years passed Levinger-Goy realized that after ignoring her Jewish origins it took a civil war and fleeing her home for her to accept Judaism as part of her identity. She admitted to herself that her Yugoslav identity was an artificial construct and after registering as a refugee in 1992 in Belgrade her Judaism was brought home to her.

In explaining the origins of the war, she points to the socio-political fabric of Bosnia and Herzegovina as always being extremely complicated, remaining so today. The touchstone of the war came as different political parties emerged by 1991 representing different ethnic groups. One of those parties was led by Radovan Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb former politician who served as the president of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Under Karadzic the Serb Democratic Party withdrew its representatives from the Bosnian Assembly and set up a Serb National Assembly in Banja Luka. President Alija Izetbegovic reacted on March 3, 1992, proclaiming the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly a coalition of Croats and Muslims.

(One of 110 children at an orphanage in war-torn Sarajevo looks out from his crib on July 26, 1992. Many of the children lost their parents during the war)

As storm clouds appeared, the author, like many, was mostly in denial. She convinced herself that the coming war had nothing to do with her – it involved Serbs, Croats, and Muslims which she was none of. She realized that in a multi-ethnic country, a unified ideology based on a single-ethnic values were impossible. A war based on ethnic domination and power was the result. One of her primary concerns was the condition of her father who was dying of bone cancer. This would be played out throughout the memoir particularly trying to decide to leave Sarajevo once the war was ongoing and escape to Belgrade. The overriding theme of Levinger-Goy’s memoir is that of identity. First, latching on to her Jewish background to acquire food and an escape, second, she thought of herself as a teacher and academic, lastly, she was not a member of any of the fighting groups. At the outset she thought she could maintain her profession and who she thought she was, later she would realize how naive she was. In the end after living in Belgrade and London she described her new identity as a “British traditional secular Jew of Yugoslav origins!

As the fighting progressed it became eerie to be out on the streets with shelling and snipers to avoid constant trips to the shelter in the cellar of her building, then sheltering on the first floor, later in her family’s apartment. Streets were unsafe, but the author clung to teaching, finding food, and staying in touch with friends and relatives. She would become immune to bullets around her – her existence seems to decline in value, except for doing what was best for her parents. The author would go from indifference to denial, to delusions and the final reality that they must leave Sarajevo as walking on glass and cement fragments everywhere was the norm.

Jasna Levinger-Goy - Registered Counsellor

(the author)

Sarajevo was surrounded by three impenetrable belts made up of different ethnic militias who made sure no one could come or leave the city. Levinger-Goy spends a great deal of time recounting the daily struggle of life in the besieged city. The crowded cellar, the constant shelling and sniper’s bullets, the search for food and medical care, and the psychological impact on Sarajevo’s residents who were powerless to deal with the randomness of death. After a while the struggle to survive would become the norm as did the fears everyone experienced. Fears they had to overcome on a daily basis.

Perhaps the most evocative chapter in the book is entitled, “Blind Denial,” as the author describes the decision making process and the actual move to leave Sarajevo and travel along the dangerous road to reach Belgrade. High on her list was her father’s health and her mother’s mental state. Reflecting everyone’s desperation she agreed to a marriage of conveniences with the son of a friend in order for him to take advantage of her Jewish identity so he could escape. It is interesting that the Jews and their Jewish Community Center seemed to be in a better position than others in the city – something that feels antithetical to history.

Levinger-Goy’s work will change after leaving Sarajevo she concentrated on family, friends, and survival in Belgrade and eventually London. She morphs into a philosopher as her commentary focuses on the positives and negatives of the human condition. She spends a great deal of time ruminating on the life of a refugee and how people reacted to and treated them. Interestingly, in Belgrade, which she viewed as the capital of her country she was treated as a refugee. It was difficult for her to accept that her country, Yugoslavia, no longer existed.

My only suggestion for the author is that I wished she had spent more time on what life was like inside the siege of Sarajevo. I realize for her it lasted months, but for others it was years. An inside account portraying more of the daily existence was warranted. Over half the book is devoted to her time after the siege focusing on her relationships, her battles dealing with depression, surviving on charity which she abhorred, and her personal demons as she tried to acclimate to a new culture. At times, the book is rather poignant, particularly as she talks about her marriage to the love of her life. A marriage which was sadly cut short when her husband, Ned passed away suddenly. The book is insightful, and its conclusion provides the reader with the hope that Levinger-Goy has overcome her demons and can life as much of a fruitful live as possible in the years she has remaining.

(A Muslim militiaman covers the body of a person killed yesterday during fierce fighting between the Muslim militia and the Yugoslav federal army in central Sarajevo on Sunday, May 3, 1992. Bosnian officials and the Yugoslav army bargained Sunday over the release of President Alija Izetbegovic from military custody)

CIRCLE OF DAYS by Ken Follett

October 12, 2025szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

After being a fan of Ken Follett for decades and enamored with his Kingsbridge series which explored England’s development from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century I couldn’t wait to read a historical novel that offered a story of the neolithic British Isles and the creation of the Stonehenge monument. Follett’s latest effort, CIRCLE OF DAYS is per his usual rather long, about 700 pages, and it appears very inviting. However, I must say I am a little disappointed in the novel. It is well written, it reflects a tremendous amount of research, and has a number of defined plot lines, but at times it seems simplistic, formulaic, and created doubts whether I should have continued reading it.

Overall, I am glad I stuck with the book, but it should not have taken almost halfway through to really foster my interest. Perhaps it is the names that Follett chooses as you must write them down to remember them from Pia, to Joia, to Han, to Stam, to Troon, to Bez, to Gida, to Dee etc. etc., you get my drift. To make sense of these characters I had to create a chart in order to keep everything sensible. Perhaps a list of characters with a brief bio of each in the front of the novel is called for. Further, the dichotomy of herders vs. farmers is clear, with farmers being misogynistic believing they own their women who have few rights, and herders who treat their women with respect and allow them to freely make decisions. Farmers are presented as controlling and manipulative, and herders are communal, exhibiting a great deal of empathy, I found this dichotomy difficult to digest. To say the least the novel is a mixed bag with a storyline that appears artificial at times as we witness a plan to turn a wooden monument into one of stone, but to Follett’s credit around page 350 he begins to pull the story together with a more in depth plotline and stronger character development.

(Straightening a leaning stone at Stonehenge in 1901) –

The story has a number of storylines, but at first, Follett presents his version of what life was like in England during the Neolithic period by inviting the reader into a primitive society and culture and delving into the trials and tribulations that people of that period dealt with on a daily basis. Follett explores how people survived either as farmers, herders, flint miners, woodsmen, and priestesses. We witness the hatred and eventual violence due to the inherent differences between approaches to life that people take. A useful example is how Yana, who is a part of the farmer society faces the death of her husband Olin, leaving only her daughter and herself to work their farm during an intense drought. According to custom she must take a new husband within a year, but because of the “Main Man” Troon she is ordered to find a new husband within seven days. Troon demands she marry his son Stam who is half Yana’s age. As the story develops Pia, who is in love with a herder named Han, and upon learning she is pregnant escapes the farmer compound and runs away with Han. Eventually she is recaptured, and Han is murdered by Stam who in the end will be burned alive by the woodlanders led by a man named Bez. You can see that this is difficult to follow, but it works in the end.

The key storylines revolve around the following. First, an endless drought affects everyone with food rationing, famine, death, and conflict as its by present throughout most of the novel. Second, the role of the priestesses focusing on a character named Joia who joined the priesthood at a young age and became a rival of the head priestess, Ello. It is her goal to replace the wooden monument that is the center of faith with a stone monument that would withstand whatever the elements would bring. Her ally in this effort is a carpenter/builder named Seft who is the key to the engineering problem that confronts those who want a stone monument. Third, there is the constant conflict between farmers and herders and their allies that emerges. Lastly, the personality conflicts and belief issues among major characters that drive the novel.

(1906)

In terms of being specific the novel comes down to a conflict between Joia, the head priestess, and Troon who is head of the farmers and sees himself as the “Main Man.” Joia pulls out all stops in trying to move humongous stones across the Great Valley in order to rebuild the wooden monument. Troon and his “thugs” do all they can to prevent this. Follett turns to a detailed approach in the last third of the book in describing this conflict. For Joia it is a means of recovering from the drought and the losses as the Midsummer rites attendance and trade declines. For Troon, his own Farmer’s Summer Rites attraction has declined as the popularity of a stone monument takes off. Fearing the loss of revenue and his attempt to be the leader of all in the Great Valley he does his utmost to sabotage Joia’s plans. In addition to Troon’s machinations, Joia faces internal opposition from certain elders led by Scagga, a jealous individual who resents the power of a woman.

(Experts believe Stonehenge was originally a circle of bluestone pillars)

The key to enjoying this somewhat simplified tale is to surrender to it as soon as possible because the story will mature and eventually keep your interest. Action dominates each page as conflict is riff, and characters have their own agenda. Their key is Joia, the priestess who is obsessed with replacing the wooden monument with one made of stone that eventually becomes Stonehenge. She and the other priestesses believe that the monument is the key to date-keeping, the Midsummer fair, and religious rites. The problem is how to transport the gigantic stones in a time before wagons and harnesses to the monument site. This conundrum dominates the third of the novel.

Follett does a workmanlike job creating a society from the 2500 BC period. He provides useful insights on a regular basis and as a fan of the author, though not his best work, I would recommend his work to others who have the same loyalty as I do. Relax, and immerse yourself into another world, long forgotten and a story that has a fairytale ending.

A photo of Stonehenge with plains in the background

CROATIA: A HISTORY FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY by Marcus Tanner

October 2, 2025szfreiberger Balkans Leave a comment

I have always been fascinated by the History of the Balkans since I was in graduate school, studying European diplomatic history. There I came across Otto von Bismarck’s 1888 commentary that a future European war would be sparked by a conflict in the Balkans, referring to the region as a powder keg. Two of his most notable quotes illustrate his apprehension: “One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans;” and the “whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.” Obviously, Bismarck was correct based on the events of June 28, 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand while visiting Sarajevo which led to the outbreak of World War I.

My interest in the region has not waned over the decades, particularly with the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s. Last year my wife and I worked with a wonderful guide on a trip to Portugal and Spain who was from Zagreb. After two weeks of travel and conversation we agreed that a visit to Croatia and other Balkan areas would be a wonderful agenda. Fast forward, my wife and I traveled to Croatia, Sarajevo, and Trieste. Before leaving for our journey due to my inquisitive nature (there is a Freudian term which I will not use) I picked up a copy of Marcus Tanner’s informative book, CROATIA: A HISTORY FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY which was first published in 1997 and has gone through four printings. The original edition was the first history of Croatia written by an Anglo-Saxon author and is important because of its coverage of Croatian history from Medieval times through its transformation into a modern state with membership in the European Union and NATO. Tanner, a former reporter for London’s Independent newspaper who covered the Yugoslav wars, authored the book to fill in the gaps in understanding the former Yugoslavia and in his view Croatia deserved to be studied separately.

Overall, Tanner describes an area that for centuries has been rife with conflict and external threats. Croatian history is disjointed and experienced many attempts to bring cohesion which usually resulted in failure. The author begins with a chapter on the early Croatian kings exploring how the area was first settled in the seventh century, highlighting its relationship with the Papacy and conflict with Slavs and Hungarians, culminating in the Pacta Conventa in 1102.

Tanner describes how the Hungarians would split the kingdom into north and south. The north was treated as an appendage of Hungary, and the south had its own kingdom. Croatia would be ruled as part of the kingdom of Hungary, and Habsburgs until the end of World War I. However, before Habsburg rule that lasted until the end of the Great War took effect the Dalmatian coast experienced a great deal of political conflict and economic competition among its towns and cities exhibiting a great deal of jealousy between themselves as well as Dubrovnik, which emerged as a dominant commercial center.

Aside from internal conflict the region also faced tremendous external threats especially from Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Tanner explains Venetian interest along the Dalmatian coast which was focused on the area between Zadar and Dubrovnik. In addition, the Croats were confronted by the Mongols who were beaten back by the Hungarian army in 1241. A century later the Ottoman Turks began to take hold of the region and slowly made their way through the Balkan peninsula seizing Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and by the 1490s it was Hungary and Croatia’s turn at the Battle of Kosovo in 1493; though the fighting continued into the 16^th century. With the accession of Suleyman the Magnificent, the greatest of the Ottoman Sultan in 1521, the remainder of Croatia began to fall in the 1520s. As Hungary withered away the Croatian nobles turned to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor who was more interested in crushing Martin Luther.

(View historical footage and photographs surrounding Gavrilo Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand)

Tanner’s monograph is very detailed, and the reader has to pay careful attention to the myriad of names, places, and analysis that is presented. At times, the writing is a bit dense, but that goes with the detail presented. Once Tanner reaches the late 1800s his prose becomes crisper, and my interest piqued as the information is more easily digested as the writing seems to become more fluid. Despite any drawbacks, Tanner does a good job explaining the intricacies of Ottoman inroads into Croatia. One must realize the Croatia of today was split into three parts in the 16^th century; Croatia to the north, Venitia along the Dalmatian coast; and Dubrovnik. Each was treated differently by the Turks. Tanner explains the relationship among the diverse groups in the region and concludes that the Croatians were willing to accept Habsburg suzerainty, while Venitia and Dubrovnik were not. The high water mark for the Ottoman Empire in the region was the 1590s, then their interest began to slowly recede.

Tanner is spot on as he describes Ottoman rule over Croatia as “an unmitigated disaster with no redeeming characteristics.” Croatia was Catholic and the Turks had not forgotten the Crusades which led to the almost complete destruction of civilized life, the burning of towns, villages, and the mass flight of peasants. As they laid waste to the countryside their persecution of Roman Catholics was intense and forced many Catholics to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy as the Turks allowed it to become part of the Millet System which granted a measure of religious autonomy. By the early 17^th century, the two main noble dynasties in Croatia were defeated and from that point on there was no one to rally Croat nationalism.

count josip jelačić von bužim, 1801 – 1859, also spelled jellachich, jellačić or jellasics. ban of croatia, slavonia and dalmatia, austrian general - josip jelačić stock illustrations

(Josip Jelacic)

Tanner is once again correct as he points to the failure of the Ottoman attempt to conquer Vienna as a watershed moment in Central European and Balkan history. It would lead to the end of Turkish control over most of Croatia as the Sultan’s Grand Vizier, Kara Musrtafa tried to renew the tradition of conquest but was unable to defeat the largely unprepared Viennese. The failure was due to the combined army of Poles, Austrians, Bavarians, Germans, and Saxons under the leadership of Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland. It was as a result of this defeat that the Ottoman Empire earned the nickname, “the sick man of Europe.” In 1699 the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty resigning any claims to Hungary or Croatia.

Tanner points to a number of historical figures that greatly impacted Croatian history. One of these individuals is Josip Jelacic, an officer in the Austrian army during the Revolutions of 1848 as well as the Ban of Croatia, another is another 19^th century Croatian Ante Starcevic, a politician and writer who believed in self-determination for the Croatian people. He wanted a separate Croatian state, not unification with other southern Slavic states, and came to be known as “the father of the nation.” By the late 19^th century other individuals emerged as dominant politicians like Charles Khuen-Hedervary, the Ban of Croatia who tried to Magyarize his country. As we approach World War I Hungary and Habsburg’s discredit themselves in the eyes of Croatians with their political machinations and in 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia Herzegovina. What follows are the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, a rehearsal for the world war that was to follow. The impact of World War I on the Balkans was significant as the nation of Yugoslavia emerged in Paris with the Treaty of Versailles. From this point on the narrative picks up in intensity but Tanner should devote more time to the events leading up to war, the war itself, and the role of the Croats in Paris after the war.

Tanner succinctly recounts the diplomatic intrigues that produced a unified state in the Balkans and argues that Croats favored the creation of the new country. A constitutional monarchy emerges, but constant ethnic tensions dominate the 1920s as Serbs wanted a centralized state, and Croats favored a federal structure. These issues would dominate the remainder of the 20^th century as Croatia opposed unification, favoring regional autonomy.

(Ante Pavelic)

The dominant Croatian politician of the period was Ante Pavelic who created the Ustashe Croatian Liberation Movement in 1929. He would come under the protection of Benito Mussolini who allowed him to train his own fascist fighting force in Italy. Pavelic spent the 1930s in and out of prison, but his movement continued to expand. By March 1940 under his leadership Yugoslavia would join the Axis powers as Pavelic morphed into the dictator of the Croatian state. To acquire credibility among the Croatian people Tanner points to the support of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepanic, an extremely controversial historical figure. Here Tanner goes into depth concerning the transformation of a Palevic supporter to saving Jews from perishing and being nominated as a “Righteous Christian” after the war.

The actions of Pavelic’s Ustashe during the war would scar Croatia to this day as Pavelic modeled his reign, racial ideas, and militarism on Nazi Germany resulting in the death of about 80,000 people (20,000 of which were children) in concentration camps, the most famous of which was Jasenovac, Croatia’s most notorious camp which I visited during my trip. As with other subjects, Tanner devotes a paragraph to the camp. Pavelic was a firm believer in ethnic cleansing and during the war for the homeland in the 1990s the Serbs accused Croatia of following the program Pavelic laid down decades before.

Tanner seems more comfortable analyzing events after World War II focusing on the rise of Josip Broz Tito who led a partisan movement that defeated the Ustashe. Tito would assume power after the war, setting up his own brand of socialism with a foreign policy that played off the United States and the Soviet Union. Tanner explores this period but does not provide the depth of analysis that is needed in discussing the 1948 split between Tito and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin which was highlighted by extreme vitriolic accusations, one must remember that Tito’s partisans liberated Yugoslavia, not the Russians which was the case in most of Eastern Europe. Tito would institute his own brand of communism and during his reign allowed more and more private enterprise. However, Tito brooked no opposition and ruled with a heavy hand which was the only way Yugoslavia remained united. A.J.P. Taylor, the noted British historian, explained Tito’s success as his ability to rule over different nations by playing them off against one another and controlling their nationalist hostilities.” The problem delineated by CIA report warned in the early 1970s that once Tito passed from the scene the Balkans would deteriorate into civil war.

Yugoslav President Marshal Josip Broz Ti

(Josp Broz Tito)

Tito will die in 1980, and Tanner carefully outlines the deterioration of the Yugoslav experiment which resulted in a number of wars in the 1990s. The two men who dominated the period in the Balkans was Franjo Tudjman, a former communist whose platform rested on Croatian nationalism and by the mid-1990s would prove the most successful Croatian politician of the 20^th century. His main adversary was Slobodan Milosevic, a Serbian nationalist who rose to power in Serbia who believed in the creation of a “Greater Serbia” by uniting all Serbs. The fact that tens of thousands of Serbs lived within the borders of other Yugoslav republics was a problem he would try to overcome.

From Tanner’s narrative it is clear that Serbia was responsible for instigating the blood and carnage that tore Yugoslavia apart. Tanner expertly details Slovenian and Croatian independence announced in 1991 and the war that ensued. Many argue that the Yugoslav Civil War was less a bloodletting of one state against another and more like a series of wars that was conducted with mini-civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia. My own view parallels Tanner’s that a series of separate wars took place once Milosevic used the civil war within Croatia as an excuse to redraw the borders of Yugoslavia. Further once the bloodletting ensued the European community and the United States were rather feckless in trying to control and end the fighting. Milosevic pursued what he called a “cleansing of the terrain” of non-Serb elements in Croatia and Bosnia, and Tanner does his best to disentangle the complexity of the fighting and the failure of European diplomacy. Further, after speaking with people in Croatia, the war should not be called, the Yugoslav Civil War, more accurately it should be described as the War for the Homeland.

(Archbishop of Zagreb Aloysius Stepinac)

It is clear that the first war was fought between Serbia and Croatia in 1991 and 1992 and Tudjman seemed to sacrifice a quarter of Croatian territory, i.e.; half of Slavonia and the Dalmatian coast excluding Dubrovnik to the Serbs. However, Milosevic’s hunger for a Greater Serbia and the atrocities that ensued particularly in Vukovar led German Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich-Genscher to manipulate the situation allowing Croatia to emerge victorious with Tudjman emerging as a hero for the Croatian people, but at an unbelievable cost. For Zagreb, it was insidious and horrible for the Croatian people as 6,651 died, 13,700 went missing, 35 settlements raised to the ground, 210,000 houses destroyed…….. People described to me what the war was like and how the Croatian people suffered.

(Slobodan Milosevic)

The second war of the period was the situation in Bosnia in early 1992 between Serbs and Muslims. Within a few weeks of the fighting Serbia controlled 70% of Bosnia and after repeated atrocities against the Muslim community the United Nations voted sanctions, finally the Clinton administration and its European allies employed an arms embargo against the Muslims which Tanner does not really explain. Further, the siege of Sarajevo receives a cursory mention which is a mistake. The siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica deserved detailed exploration.

By April 1993, a third war ensued with Croat-Muslim fighting in Bosnia. Croat actions angered the United States and Germany who helped bring the fighting to an end. In discussing the conflict Tanner presents an interesting comparison of Tudjman and Milosevic which is worth exploring. Finally, the Clinton Administration pushed for peace through the work of Richard Holbrook to produce the Dayton Accords in 1995, but yet again Tanner only provides a cursory mention of the diplomacy that ended the third war. The final war takes place as the 1990s ends in Kosovo whose detail is beyond the scope of Tanner’s narrative.

(Franjo Tudjman)

Tanner’s effort is the first of its kind since the end of communism and the rise of Croatia. Tanner’s work is essential reading for anyone interested in Croatian history, despite the fact that his coverage of the pre-18^th century is not as well written and dynamic as the periods that follow. In addition, the book rests on research in mostly secondary sources and there is little evidence of the use of primary materials. However, I found the book a wonderful companion as I explored Croatia, the Dalmatian coast, and Sarajevo and it appears now that Croatia is a member of the European Union and NATO it has tremendous potential for the future.