ELIE WIESEL: CONFRONTING THE SILENCE by Joseph Berger

June 21, 2023szfreiberger Holocaust, Intellectual History Leave a comment

(Elie Wiesel)

Before I turn to my review of Joseph Berger’s latest work, ELIE WIESEL: CONFRONTING THE SILENCE I must put forth a disclaimer concerning the subject. First, my father’s side of the family lived north of Krakow, Poland before World War II about two hours from Auschwitz. Some were fortunate and left before the war and went to Palestine, France, and the United States. The majority did not and perished in the gas chambers. This has always brought me to an uncomfortable place having been educated in an orthodox Yeshiva in Brooklyn and grown up with children of survivors. Where was God? How could he allow his people to be slaughtered? Why didn’t he answer their prayers? After the Holocaust how could I remain a believer? In the 1970s I turned to the works of Elie Wiesel, beginning with NIGHT and continuing through most of his novels and his memoirs as they were published availing myself of the opportunity to be exposed to Wiesel’s wisdom, commentary on the horrors of the Holocaust, elements of Hasidic mysticism, Biblical portraits and other subject matter and came away with a deeper understanding of my emotions and values from a voice that was like no other. I sought answers, but to be honest on an intellectual level I remain in a quandary as to my belief system.

I consider myself very fortunate to have witnessed remarks by Wiesel in person two times during his quest to educate the American public on the dangers of racism, antisemitism, and the plight of refugees and persecuted people worldwide. First, at the Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1978, and later in 2008 at Boston University. After a twenty year gap in listening to Wiesel in public it appeared the man who the Nobel Prize Committee referred to as “a messenger to mankind,” had grown more pessimistic about the future.

Prewar view of the Transylvanian town of Sighet.

(Main square in the village of Sighet, Romania before WWII)

Berger has written a powerful biography of Wiesel exploring his tortuous experiences as a victim of the Nazi Final Solution. He delves deep into a myriad of topics within the larger scope of Wiesel’s life story and intellectual journey integrating excerpts of his memoirs, novels, works of non-fiction, speeches, articles, teaching, and countless interviews from his boyhood in Sighet, Romania to evolving into the messenger or conscience of the Holocaust. The volume is not a traditional biography as once Wiesel is liberated from Buchenwald and makes his way to France the sense of chronology largely disappears, and Berger presents a series of chapters which in part can stand alone as separate essays. The volume includes important experiences apart from Auschwitz and Buchenwald to include becoming the voice of Soviet Jewry; his involvement and key role in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, taking “Hollywood” to task for its representation of the Holocaust; confronting the Reagan administration over its visit to the Bitburg cemetery where 49 members of the SS were buried, his work championing the plight of refugees, speaking out against apartheid; the plight of the Cambodian and Vietnamese people; and indigenous people in Central America; his approach to the academic classroom and teaching; and being awarded the Nobel Prize.

Berger’s work is more of an intellectual journey that Wiesel has undertaken his entire life. He has authored a penetrating portrait which focuses on a “frail, soft-spoken writer from a village in the Carpathian Mountains” who “became such an influential presence on the world stage.” Wiesel’s writing forms the back story for themes, arguments, and inner conflict as he tries to understand God’s role in the Holocaust, anger at the allies for doing nothing in terms of refugees and bombing the camps, along with his personal struggles to come to terms with what has happened to his family and the Jewish people. What comes across is a man who pulls no punches in educating all, including American presidents, Soviet government officials over its Babi Yar Memorial and refusal to allow Jews to emigrate, Hollywood moguls for its film representation of the Holocaust, his co-religionists, leaders of other faiths and almost anyone who he came in contact with.

Elie Wiesel (right) with his wife and son during the Faith in Humankind conference, held before the opening of the USHMM, on September 18–19, 1984, in Washington, DC.

(Elie Wiesel (right) with his wife and son during the Faith in Humankind conference, held several years before the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. September 18–19, 1984, in Washington, DC.)

Berger presents Wiesel’s honesty based on a deeply emotional and evocative intellect which is present for all to see and cherish. Many of Wiesel’s feelings stand out that he dealt with his entire life; from his anger at his father’s naivete in remaining in their Romanian village, and wrestling with his relationship to God concluding, “I have never renounced my faith in God. I have risen against His justice protested His silence, and sometimes His absence, but my anger rises up within faith and not outside it,” to a life-long bitterness at western allies for their lack of action to assist victims of the Holocaust during the war.

Berger presents numerous poignant scenes particularly how the son became the father of the in the camps as Elie tried to avoid death, or Wiesel’s own relationship with his son Elisha. Further, Wiesel’s issues with the fledgling Israeli government in the late 1940s and their negative attitude toward Holocaust survivors, his frustration with the publishing world over accepting NIGHT for publication as they argued that there was no market for the Holocaust after the war, and lecturing President Jimmy Carter about aspects of faith and how it related to survivors.

At times Berger is able to unmask the lyrical nature of Wiesel’s writing particularly when speaking of visiting a Moscow Synagogue while pressuring the Kremlin over its treatment of Jews. His book, JEWS OF SILENCE went a long way in obtaining the emigration of over 250,000 Soviet Jews in the 1970s. Another event that catapulted Wiesel on the world stage was the Six Day War and the resulting Israeli victory which created a new Jewish self-concept and a proliferation of new histories, novels, and films dealing with the Holocaust. It is at this time that Wiesel began to acquire the role of spokesman for his brethren. Applying his Talmudic education, his knowledge of Hasidic mysticism, and his biblical knowledge he was perfect for the task.

(President Bill Clinton (center), Elie Wiesel (right), and Harvey Meyerhoff (left) light the eternal flame outside on the Eisenhower Plaza during the dedication ceremony of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. April 22, 1993)

Perhaps one of the most important questions people have asked Wiesel concerns his writing. When asked, Why do I write? He responds, “Perhaps in order not to go mad. Or, on the contrary, to touch the bottom of madness….Not to transmit an experience is to betray it. I owe them [the dead] my roots and my memory. I am duty-bound to serve as their emissary, transmitting the history of their disappearance, even if it disturbs, even if it brings pain. Not to do so would be to betray them, and thus myself….To wrench those victims from oblivion. To help the dead vanquish death.”

Berger’s perceptive biography presents the humanity of Wiesel as he hid a lifetime of suicidal bouts, depression, agonizing cries tinged with haunted memories of the evisceration of his home village. Miraculously, Wiesel was able to overcome these issues with the help of his wife, Marion, who was a partner in his work to educate the world and create as Diane Cole writes in her recent Wall Street Journal review of Berger’s work, “a legacy that compels us to bear witness in his absence and continue to confront the silence.”

THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE by John Boyne

June 17, 2023szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

(The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia)

All novelists who engage in historical fiction must develop their subject matter by conducting the necessary research, creating a cogent and believable story, and presenting it in a well written and engaging manner. This criteria has been easily met in John Boyne’s THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE as the author has chosen a well known topic that has already produced hundreds of historical monographs and works of fiction. What sets Boyne’s effort apart from others is a fascinating storyline and wonderful characters integrated with historical events. Some might refer to the work as Nicholas and Alexandra Volume II and criticize it for stretching the genre of historical fiction. However, the point is that it is fiction, and well done fiction as the author has accomplished in previous novels such as THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS and THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES.

The novel encompasses the period from World War I through 1981 witnessing the Russian Revolution, the reign of Joseph Stalin, World War II, to a time when cracks in the Soviet edifice begin to appear. Boyne organizes the novel around the life of Daniil Vladyavich Jachmenev (Georgy) who we first meet in his eighties as he looks back on a lifetime where he experienced the usual range of aches, pains, and failures, highlighted by his devotion to his wife, Zoya who is dying of cancer but had a rich marriage undaunted by the many hardships and tragedies they endured. The book is organized as a double narrative as Boyne begins in 1981 as Georgy visits the British Museum library where he worked for decades and provided him with a sense of security and a life of books that began when Tsar Nicholas II allowed him access to the Romanov library. From that point we turn to 1915 and the deteriorating situation in Russia and alternating historical periods that will come together in an interesting, somewhat implausible conclusion.

File:Nicholas-and-Alexandra-the-romanovs-12206241-581-725.jpg

(Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra)

Georgy’s amazing life carries him from a small village in Kashin, Russia to St. Petersburg and the Winter Palace as he is appointed the guardian of the Tsarevitch, Alexei after achieving heroic status by inadvertently stopping a bullet meant for the Tsar’s uncle and commander of Russian forces during WWI. He will develop a relationship with one of the royal daughters as he is ensconced in the royal palaces with the Romanov family. Boyne maintains his pace as he shifts the locus of the story to London during the German air blitz where he works at the British Museum library and lives with his wife, Zoya, and daughter Arina.

Boyne possesses an excellent command of world history as he weaves major events and characters throughout the novel. The author presents insightful historical and personal observations especially dealing with the hypocrisy of Romanov rule during WWI as the Russian upper class maintains their lifestyle as the situation on the war front rapidly deteriorates. Boyne does an exceptional job creating dialogue which he invents but seems real, i.e.; conversations between Nicholas II and Georgy, and conversations between Rasputin and Georgy.

(Rasputin)

Georgy and Zoya are forced to escape the Bolsheviks in the early 1920s beginning a lifelong desire to return to St. Petersburg, a wish that seems would never be unfulfilled. These feelings are among the many poignant experiences depicted throughout the novel. Among these include certain characters like Rachel Anderson, a lonely English woman who becomes a surrogate grandmother to Arina, earlier as Georgy develops a relationship with Anastasia, a royal daughter, or how Georgy treats Zoya who suffers from a deep depression for most of their marriage. Boyne is a wonderful storyteller and creator of numerous characters. One who stands out is Mr. Tweed or perhaps his name is Mr. Jones who works for the British War Office during WWII who recruits Georgy as a translator. Throughout the novel Georgy and Zoya consider themselves refugees despite the fact they spent five years in Paris and over twenty in London. They had to cope with suspicious neighbors, co-workers and others on a daily basis because of their accents. This led to an insular life as they tried to remain isolated from the larger society, which was difficult, particularly hiding in the Underground tunnels which served as a shelter from German bombing during WWII.

(Nicholas II and his wife, Empress Aleksandra (far right), with their four daughters and son. The tsar was forced to abdicate in 1917 and he and his family were shot and stabbed to death by Bolshevik troops, in 1918, before their bodies were doused in acid and dumped into a mine shaft.)

Boyne expertly conveys the mood of his characters throughout be it the Russian Imperial family during WWI, Georgy and Zoya who constantly fear being identified and captured by the Bolsheviks, and how they react when their daughter is killed in a car accident and the driver responsible tries to apologize.

Many important historical characters play a major role in the novel including the mad monk, Rasputin; the hated German princess, Alexandra, the Tsarina of Russia; Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia; and even Winston Churchill and Vladimir Lenin will make appearances. Georgy’s role in events involving these characters is presented seamlessly applying the memories of Georgy and Zoya.

The expanse of the novel is intriguing as Boyne carries the reader from place to place through diverse historical periods. The ending of the novel is a bit far fetched, as are many scenes in the book, however, it remains a wonderful fictional rendition of history. Despite this the reader is left with high quality fiction, and a spellbinding, passionate story as he brings a fresh eye to important historical events and characters. I highly recommend Boyne’s work and I expect to enjoy many of his other historical efforts especially his latest, ALL THE BROKEN PLACES.

(The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia)

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND: THE KLU KLUX KLAN’S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED THEM by Timothy Egan

June 6, 2023June 6, 2023szfreiberger American cultural history, American Political History, American Social History Leave a comment

( David C. Stephenson)

Today, we live in an America beset by racist groups who over the last decade seem to have been accepted by a significant element of society. The anti-Semitic murders at a Pittsburgh synagogue and the murder of George Floyd are just two examples in a world where white supremacists and extremists engage in attacks against Jews, Blacks, Muslims, the LGBT community, Asians, and Hispanics seemingly on a daily basis. If that was not bad enough, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the ACLU, and other civil rights organizations violence against minorities is on the rise along with malevolent threats against what racists see as “the other” in our society, while many politicians, including an ex-president grant these groups legitimacy through their public support and commentary. For some this period is an aberration in our history, however, the historical record does not support that conclusion.

One of the more interesting historical examples is the 1920s – the Jazz Age, a period which witnessed the height of a uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their region of support was not the south, but the heartland and the west. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants and would do anything to block these groups from entering the United States and achieving the American dream. The group was led by a charismatic charlatan named D. C. Stephenson. This era with its focus on the KKK and its “Grand Dragon” is the subject of Timothy Egan’s latest book, A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND: THE KLU KLUX KLAN’S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED THEM. Egan, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Winner has written a number of excellent monographs including, THE WORST HARD TIME describing the depression and THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN which deals with the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. In his latest work he has produced a riveting historical thriller which deals with one of the darkest periods in American history. The period under discussion is highlighted by a cunning con man and his supporters and the woman who stopped them. The narrative evokes deep emotions as it reflects a deeper concern that we are now inside an even more dangerous period of racial hatred and violence.

(Wesley Hiram Evans)

Egan immediately lays out the problem in his introduction as in the 1920s the KKK controlled three state governorships including Indiana which Stephenson ruled as an autocrat, and a number of mayor’s offices nationwide. In addition, the KKK had its own 30,000 man legally deputized police force, and the state of Indiana passed the world’s first eugenic sterilization law, something that Adolf Hitler noticed and studied. In the South whites wiped out Black voting rights and imposed Jim Crow laws absolving government from supporting equal rights and was supported by a Supreme Court with only one justice dissenting. Lastly, the KKK claimed fifteen US senators and 75 House members to impact Congress.

As in all of Egan’s works A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND is deeply researched and reflects the author’s command of the material. From the outset Egan argues that the KKK problem began at the conclusion of the Civil War with its foundation in Tennessee under the leadership of the defeated Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest who unleashed a reign of terror throughout the south after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the accession of Andrew Johnson to the presidency who was an out and out racist. Lynchings, murders, violence rampaged throughout the south until General Ulysses S. Grant assumed the presidency and by 1872 he had crushed the Klan and Forrest disbanded it.

The Klan would rise again with a slightly different agenda beginning in 1921 sending recruiters throughout the Midwest providing employment for D. C. Stephenson was living in the segregated city of Evansville, IN with the hope of expanding the organization in the north. Stephenson would soon move on to Indianapolis, a city Egan describes along with other midwestern cities and states as having become racially unhinged following WWI. People were fed racist lies and religious bigotry with no basis in fact by the Klan under the leadership of Stephenson, who Egan describes as a “drunk and a fraud, a bootlegger and a blackmailer,” a rapist and a man prone to lies, violence, using bribery to achieve his aims. He left a family behind in rags and distress who he refused to support.

(Madge Oberholtzer)

Egan explores Stephenson’s life and beliefs in detail and concludes he was nothing more than a huckster who traded in racial theories that were demeaning and dangerous. He would help reconstruct the KKK in part as a business investment that eventually would make him a millionaire. Egan lays out Stephenson’s strategy and the resulting machinations which would allow him to take over the state of Indiana leading to his view that “I am the law” which he would use as a basis for his actions. He would help spread KKK doctrine to Texas, Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as his ultimate goal was to use the Klan as a vehicle to take over the federal government and gain the presidency. Egan carefully develops the theme that racial hatred was not a southern phenomenon, but a northern one as membership in the Klan in the Midwest was rapidly expanding throughout the early 1920s. This expansion was due to the Klan’s rejection of modernism and a belief the world was spinning too fast and the threat of the “other,” southern European, Russian, and Italian immigrants who were mostly Jews and Catholics were a threat to what they viewed as the traditional American way of life.

(President Calvin Coolidge)

Aside from Stephenson there are a number of important historical figures that Egan introduces. Henry Ford, the catalyst for the rise in anti-Semitism through his newspaper the Dearborn Independent which had a circulation of over one million and the use of his wealth. Patrick O’Donnell, bravely stood against the Klan using his newspaper, Tolerance to spread the truth about their beliefs and the danger they presented. Hiram Wesley Evans, former Imperial Wizard who eventually shared leadership of the Klan with Stephenson and later had a falling out with him. Daisy Douglas Barr, a Quaker preacher who held a broad vision of White Supremacy and worked to develop a role for women in the Klan. President Calvin Coolidge who did nothing to offset the Klan’s popularity and used it for his personal political benefit. Governor Edwin Jackson and Senator James Watson both from Indiana owed their political success to Stephenson.

Egan’s narrative is in two parts. First he developed the strategies and actions of the Klan from 1920-1925. The author drills deeply into Klan ideology and the personalities that spread their beliefs. He points to numerous historical examples from the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, the acceptance of eugenics as science to justify Klan actions, Klan control of state legislatures to implement their programs, events designed to attract more members and reinforce their beliefs and goals, and the lack of response by state and federal officials to the violence against Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants. Egan will then shift his story to that of the events of March 1925 and introduce a series of new characters, the most important of which is Madge Oberholtzer, the manager of the Indiana Young People’s Reading Circle, a special section of the Indiana Department of Public Instruction. When she heard rumors that her job and program were about to be eliminated because of budget cuts she turned to Stephenson who she felt had the political power to assist her. Stephenson would take a shine to her which in the end resulted in a brutal rape and the death of Oberholtzer.

Egan explores the events that led to Oberholtzer’s rape and murder and the trial that followed. He introduces Asa Smith, Oberholtzer’s lawyer, and Will Remy, an unassuming prosecutor for Marion County, IN, both of whom wanted to destroy Stephenson and cut the Klan down to size. Egan’s descriptions are disturbing because of the violence involved and the political system that Stephenson sought to manipulate to obtain his acquittal at a time when there were between two and five million Klan members nationwide.

(Prosecutor William Henderson Remy and jury that convicted Stephenson))

Egan writes with adept authority with an eye toward disconcerting detail as a White Protestant racial movement sought to take advantage of the historical racial animus that has existed in the United States from its outset. Jeff Shesol’s New York Times book review of April 2, 2023, encompasses how deeply the Klan became ingrained in American society; “It offered a more expansive set of resentments, providing more points of entry for aggrieved white Protestants. Racial purists were armed with the so-called science of eugenics and stoked with fears of being replaced by “insane, diseased” Catholics and Jews. Moral purists and traditionalists were called from the pulpit to wage war against modernity — enlisting in K.K.K. vice squads that beat adulterers and smashed up speakeasies. But the Klan did more, in this period, than raise the fiery cross. For a startlingly large number of Americans, Egan writes, the Klan “gave meaning, shape and purpose to the days.” It was possible to do your shopping at Klan-approved stores and cook Klan-approved recipes, to enroll your sons in the Junior K.K.K. and daughters in the Tri-K Klub, and to spend evenings singing Klan songs by the piano. The K.K.K., in later parlance, was an ecosystem. “Folks got their news from editors loyal to the Klan,” Egan explains, or from a disinformation network that spread lies with speed. Corruption kept the enterprise running and growing: The police and politicians were bribed; businesses owned by Jews, Catholics or Blacks were shaken down; leaders and recruiters — including pastors — got a cut of initiation fees, dues and robe sales.”

Egan’s main theme that Oberholtzer’s death and Stephenson’s conviction stopped the Klan before it could take over America goes a bit too far. Granted, it was a major reason why the Klan’s membership rapidly declined within a few years of the trial, but more importantly was the graft and public hypocrisy reflected in the rot exhibited by Klan leadership and organization played more of a role in its regression. In addition, there were other actors who were emboldened to take on the Klan including Black editors, Jewish and Catholic groups which all contributed to the weakening and loss of influence by the Klan.

Despite Egan’s overemphasis of Oberholtzer’s role in the narrative the book is clearly written, well supported, and an addictive read. Anyone with interest in understanding the rise and fall of the Klan, and perhaps the rise of White Supremacy today should take the time to read Egan’s work – it will be eye opening.

CITY OF DREAMS by Don Winslow

May 31, 2023szfreiberger Mystery/Thrillers 2 Comments

(Providence, RI)

There is no novelist that can compare with Don Winslow’s novels that deal with the drug cartels and organized crime, their operations, what it was like to be inside these murderous organizations, and what it was like to try and end their reign of drug induced terror. If you have read Winslow’s cartel trilogy; THE POWER OF THE DOG, THE CARTEL, and THE BORDER then you have experienced the depth of the author’s knowledge of the drug trade in well-written, deeply insightful, and carefully crafted works. Winslow is the author of twenty-three bestsellers, many of which have been made into films. His latest is the Danny Ryan trilogy which begins with CITY ON FIRE followed by his latest work, CITY OF DREAMS where we become reacquainted with Mr. Ryan who is now on the run from the FBI, the Mob, and the police as he tries to create a new life for himself in California. The crime fiction genre has no shortage of memorable mob sagas by such practitioners as Mario Puzo, James Ellroy, and Dennis Lehane. With its large cast of memorable characters and low-key allusions to classical literature, in CITY OF DREAMS Winslow provides incontrovertible evidence that he is part of this elite group, and perhaps is the best among them with his wit, erudition, and riveting approach to storytelling.

Winslow begins the novel describing the end of an organized crime war between the Irish and Italian mobs for control of the New England market, circa 1988. The Murphy’s, which Danny Ryan belonged to, lost the war to the Moretti family, and Ryan and his crew are driving south on I95 trying to escape the feds, the cops, and most of all the Moretti’s. Peter Moretti had set up the Murphy gang and they fell for what appeared to be an effective drug heist, but it backfired resulting with Ryan and his crew on the run and Moretti trying to recover millions of lost drugs.

The novel’s plot centers on Ryan who, when push came to shove, dumped $2 million worth of heroin into the ocean and killed a dirty FBI agent named Phil Jardine. The problem for Ryan is that the FBI’s national sub director for organized crime, Reggie Moneta was Jardine’s lover and she wants revenge against Ryan no matter the cost. For Ryan, who winds up in San Diego and later Las Vegas life is hard. Right before he left Providence, RI his wife Terri died of cancer. Further, his father the old leader of the Murphy gang, suffers from dementia and is institutionalized. Ryan also has a young son Ian and is broke.

Winslow’s story presents the dysfunctional nature of mob families. The Moretti’s are a case in point as Peter and Paul Moretti, brothers, do their best to make the other look bad. As the novel unfolds one gumba is screwing another’s wife, one of the gambas daughters commits suicide, and all are looking for the next drug deal that will set them up for life. Interestingly, one of the affairs is between Peter Moretti and Cassandra Murphy even as their families are trying to kill each other.

The author’s writing is serious, witty, and extremely entertaining. His characters’ experiences are fodder for Winslow’s sarcasm and somewhat perverted view of human nature that permeates the novel. It is clear the FBI and the mob want Ryan dead, but the former head of the CIA and currently a Georgetown University professor, Evan Penner wants him alive, which allows Winslow to introduce a number of characters that help create varied plot twists. There is Brent Harris, a former student of Penner who is a DEA agent with the Southwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force. He will track Ryan down in Las Vegas and convince or blackmail him into doing his bidding against the Baja Cartel and its leader Domingo Abbarca. Other important characters include Madeline McKay, Ryan’s mother who has done very well financially as a courtesan to feds, cabinet members, judges and other officials as a “high class courtesan,” who has morphed into a “dotting” grandmother.” Celia Moretti who hates her husband Peter is screwing Vinnie Calfo who will eventually become head of the crime family. Lastly, Reggie Moneta who is obsessed with killing Ryan even when she is told by higher ups to stand down telling associates she “wants Ryan delivered like KFC. In a bag or in a box.”

Perhaps the most entertaining section of the book is the author’s insight into the Hollywood film industry, particularly comments that show how “the Hollywood film industry and the criminal class intersect.” It centers on two members of Ryan’s crew, “the Alter boys,” Kevin Coombs and Sean South who weasel and threaten their way onto the set of a film about the New England mob as “consultants.” The film entitled, “Providence” has a “Danny Ryan type figure” and when the “Alter boys” want a larger stake in the film the producer pushes them away resulting in negative happenings on the set. Eventually Ryan is contacted to reign in his crew, invests in the film himself, and meets its star Diane Carson, just out of rehab.

The result of all of the machinations Winslow introduces is a continuing drug war involving the FBI carrying out an off-book operation against a Mexican cartel, a continuing war with the remnants of the Murphy and Moretti crime families, Danny Ryan seemingly working with the feds to survive, and a Hollywood film, resulting in a fascinating plot as Ryan falls in love with a Hollywood starlet. The progression of Ryan’s life involves numerous twists and turns, the result of which makes for a sweeping tale of family, revenge, and survival as he confronts the reality of what he hopes his life will turn out to be.

(Las Vegas, NV)

As Maureen Corrigan writes in her April 27, 2023, review in the Washington Post, ”before journey’s end, Danny will also be hunted down by a Mexican cartel run by a psychopath named Popeye Abbarca, whose men will comb roadside motels and bars, thirsting for Danny’s blood and that of his kin. Though inflected with occasional reflections on the absurdity of the human condition, “City of Dreams” is no picaresque; instead, as his many fans have come to expect from Winslow, this latest novel in a projected trilogy is unrelentingly tough, tense and violent. Distinct from its predecessor, “City on Fire,” in the geographical sweep of its story, “City of Dreams” reads like one long breathless drag race between Danny and his many enemies on the all-American road to Nowhere.”

By the end of the new novel, Danny and the few friends he has left are on the run again, setting the stage for the trilogy’s upcoming conclusion, CITY IN RUINS.

(Providence, RI)

INDEPENDENCE SQUARE by Martin Cruz Smith

May 28, 2023szfreiberger Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

Independence Monument in Kyiv. View from drone

(Independence Square, Kyiv, Ukraine)

Without a doubt Martin Cruz Smith is a master of the international thriller. His Detective Arkady Renko series is exceptional in plot development, writing style, and a character who combines wit, sarcasm, and self-deprecation. With the war in Ukraine in its 15^th month, Smith tackles some of the background for Putin’s illegal invasion in his 10^th iteration of the Renko series.

What separates Smith from others who practice the “thriller” genre is his ability to offer important and accurate insights into contemporary Russia in his novels. His expertise as a Kremlin observer was readily apparent in his previous works including; GORKY PARK, STALIN’S GHOST, THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA, WOLVES EAT DOGS, POLAR STAR, and RED SQUARE as they are in his newest novel, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE.

The title of the book would have one believe that the story took place in Kyiv during the 2014 Orange Revolution that occurred before Putin’s seizure of Crimea. The Russian autocrats’ actions were a result of a corrupt election that produced an emotional reaction by the Ukrainian people who demonstrated against a corrupt election in Maidan Square, the precursor to Independence Square. The Orange Revolution would have a profound effect on the way Ukrainians perceived themselves and their national identity. For the first thirteen years of independence, the political, cultural, social, and economic boundaries between Ukraine and Russia had remained blurred. Most people on both sides of the border continued to regard the fates of the two notionally separate countries as inextricably intertwined. This changed dramatically in 2014 when millions of Ukrainians mobilized in defense of free elections.

Crimea is an autonomous region in Ukraine. The Crimean population has shown much stronger support for Russia than Ukrainians in Kiev and the West. Map by Jerome Cookson, National Geographic

Putin would go on to try and Russify Crimea after the invasion and his illegal annexation of the region. His goal was to secure what he argued was illegally given to Ukraine decades before and was the home of the Russian fleet at Sevastopol. Further, it provided him with the opportunity to ethnically cleanse Crimea of the Tartars much like Joseph Stalin did towards the end of World War II. This background permeates the novel and provides an understanding as to what motivated Putin.

Smith’s work revolves around the Democracy Forum, an organization that opposes Putin’s tyrannical rule. Further, applying character dialogue, Smith explains oligarchic corruption, the origin of Putin’s personal wealth, and the Kremlin’s fraudulent regime. Further, the author introduces a series of characters, some new and some from previous novels. Of course, Arkady Renko dominates the story as he tries to solve three murders and determine how they are linked together. Tatiana, his ex-lover who he has still not gotten over as she left for Kyiv on assignment for the New York Times without telling him. New characters include Lenoid Lebedev, the leader of the Forum for Democracy, Fydor Abakov, head of the rackets in Moscow asks Renko to locate his daughter Karina who appears to be a Forum for Democracy member and has gone missing, Uzeir Osamanov, a friend of Lebedev and his daughter Elena, another Forum for Democracy supporter, Alex Levin a computer hacker, and lastly, the Werewolves, a biker gang that comes across as Putin’s “Hell’s Angels.”

The author has created an intricate plot involving three murders. Renko is dispatched to solve the first, but that will lead to two more deaths and travel from Moscow to Kyiv, to Sevastopol. For Renko old and new demons emerge. First, he will come across his former lover in Kyiv, second, he is not sure of Karina’s loyalties, third he learns that he has contracted Parkinson’s disease which he tries to deal with as he conducts his investigations. Interestingly, there is an autobiographical element to Renko’s health as the author has been diagnosed with the same disease.

Distant view of new Crimean bridge in Kerch strait

(Kerch Bridge)

Smith conveys the corruption of the Russian state very carefully. The most useful example he points to is the Kerch Bridge that links Crimea to the Russian mainland. One of Putin’s St. Petersburg thugs Konstantine Novak is a governor in Crimea and was in charge of building the bridge. The bridge cost billions of rubles and as with any major project kickbacks were standard adding to Putin’s wealth. In addition, Novak will take a share of the proceeds for himself, not a smart thing to do under Putin.

Renko remains the archetype of an honest cop working for a corrupt regime who, despite the roadblocks he must deal with, usually emerges as a stronger person. Smith has delivered another solid work of international crime thriller and I recommend it to Smith’s fan base and to those who have never tackled one of his novels.

(Independence Square, Kyiv, Ukraine)

THE OLD LION: A NOVEL OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT by Jeff Shaara

May 26, 2023szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

Medal of Honor Recipient Theodore Roosevelt

(Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt)

When ranking American presidents Theodore Roosevelt is usually positioned among the top five in American history. His life is fascinating as a number of biographies highlight. Probably the most impactful is Edmund Morris’ biographic trilogy among many others. Roosevelt’s life reflects a weak child growing up in New York City who overcame his physical limitations who thrived on being physically fit; a career that included being New York City Police Commissioner, Governor of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and the presidency. Along the way he evolved into a central figure in the Spanish-American War and a committed naturalist and conservationist. After his political career ended his exploits continued as he engaged in sustained travel and continued his writing centering on history and nature. Clearly, a full life.

To tackle Theodore Roosevelt as a subject of historical fiction is quite an undertaking. However, novelist Jeff Shaara was undaunted and committed to the task resulting in his eighteenth historical novel, THE OLD LION: A NOVEL OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Shaara originally made his mark authoring GODS AND GENERALS and THE LAST FULL MEASURE, which are the prequel and sequel to his father’s award winning novel, THE KILLER ANGELS. Among his novels are topics that include the American Revolution, the Mexican War, the Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean War and his latest which he is about to complete on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Edith Roosevelt, First Lady stock photo.

(First Lady, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt)

Choosing Roosevelt as the focus of his novel created a dilemma. How does an author pick and choose areas of concentration in such a rich life when the book is not supposed to be a traditional biography? Shaara has done so with ease and class as he delves into important public and private aspects of the former Rough Rider.

Shaara begins the novel pointing to two important components of Roosevelt’s development, his battle with asthma and his relationship with his father. Both provide the key motivations developing physically as Alfred Adler, an important Neo-Freudian has written that individuals who suffer from a self-perceived inferiority complex strive their entire lives to achieve superiority to overcome it. In Roosevelt’s case his lungs and his father’s encouragement and acting as a role model for his son allowed him to develop “the strenuous life,” which led to his obsession with natural history and his love of nature.

Throughout the book, Shaara formulates a Roosevelt that is never far from his need for adventure and his naturalist education. Shaara picks and chooses very carefully scenes from his protagonist’s life. Each segment is well written, and it allows the reader to develop an intimate relationship with future “Bull Moose.” Shaara does not provide a writer’s note, a la Steve Berry, which would explain his sources and what he considers fact and fiction. Doing so would greatly enhance the reader’s experience and trust in the material presented.

Shaara’s tool in organizing the novel is a series of interviews conducted by New York Times reporter Hermann Hagedorn which took place at the end of December 1918 which allows Roosevelt to look back on his life and fill in gaps that are not fully developed by the author. Shaara uses the interviews as a bridge between the time Roosevelt left for the Dakotas in 1887 and his experiences in the war with Spain in 1898. Shaara focuses on his family and career and his commitment to reform – rooting out corruption as Civil Service Commissioner, New York City Police Commissioner, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

(Kermit Roosevelt)

The structure of the novel is effective with Hagedorn’s interviews filling in the gaps. At first Roosevelt’s constant battle with asthma and his relationship with his father is stressed. Shaara moves on to a section, perhaps his best dealing with Roosevelt’s commitment to ranching and living in the Dakota Badlands as a vehicle to decompress after the deaths of his mother and his first wife Alice within a twenty-four hour period. The section highlights his relationship with “real” cowboys and cattle ranchers and the difficulties of running a successful cattle business. This is followed with a detailed discussion of events leading to and the actual fighting of the Spanish-American War which turned Roosevelt into a hero and a viable candidate for high office. Shaara moves on to an exploration of Roosevelt’s rise to the Vice Presidency and Presidency once William McKinley is assassinated and implementing a progressive agenda. Shaara’s last section brings the novel to a close. Entitled “The Old Lion,” the author again employs Hagedorn to ferret out of Roosevelt his reactions to The Treaty of Portsmouth, taking the Panama Canal, difficulties with William Howard Taft, escaping assassination, and dangerous sojourns to Africa and the Amazon where he almost perishes.

Shaara’s Roosevelt is a dichotomy. He employs his effusive personality and energy to his legislative agenda as President. His “Square Deal” includes a reform agenda which mostly passes Congress and encompasses issues of improving working conditions, controlling trusts, and race. It is interesting to read his views dealing with non-white Americans and trying to improve their lot, and at the same time engaging in a foreign policy based on Social Darwinism. Foremost, Shaara’s Roosevelt is an egoist which he balances with great empathy for others especially members of his Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War for which a great deal of respect and trust for him by his men is reciprocated.

The book is clearly not a complete biography in novel form as Shaara stresses certain aspects of Roosevelt’s life. The two most important components are his family whose credit goes to his childhood companion Edith Crow who becomes his second wife and his children. Second is his commitment to the environment developing nature preserves, national parks, and conservation. A wonderful book that encompasses this aspect of Roosevelt’s life is historian Douglas Brinkley’s mammoth work; THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR: THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE CRUSADE FOR AMERICA.

Against the backdrop of the Wild West, San Juan Hill and the jungles of Brazil, the White House appeared to be less satisfying for Roosevelt. Perhaps this explains why the sections of the novel that follow his presidency read more like straightforward and familiar history. Many of the details and events in this section are nevertheless significant and lively. We see Roosevelt confront racism in Congress after meeting with Booker T. Washington at the White House, we learn how the term “Speak softly and carry a big stick” evolved and we discover the origin of teddy bears. The novel, if that is a correct characterization of Shaara’s work, is thoughtfully written and provides many insights into the most energetic and effusive person who dominated his presidency and the time period in which he lived.

THE 14TH COLONY by Steve Berry

May 18, 2023May 18, 2023szfreiberger Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

Reading a new Steve Berry novel is like visiting an old friend. No matter the plot line the reader immediately reaches a comfort level with the knowledge that the author is a master of historical fiction who has the ability to capture your attention and take you for an educationally thrilling ride. He has the ability to create believable scenarios involving new and returning characters performing in a pseudo-historical thriller at a high level. In the eleventh iteration of his Cotton Malone series, THE 14^TH COLONY Berry meets expectations by producing a searing plot that evolves slowly and more importantly developing a realistic storyline which could have actually taken place.

Berry begins the novel with the June 7, 1982, meeting between Pope John Paul and President Ronald Reagan at the Vatican. The topic was Poland and the threats and oppression meted out by the Soviet Union. At the time the Kremlin’s hold over its Eastern European neighbor was weakening even as they tried to crush the Solidarity labor movement which emanated from Gdansk. The two men had recently survived assassination attempts, one by a man obsessed with a Hollywood actress, and one by a Bulgarian assassin in the pay of Moscow. The two men spoke in conspiratorial tones to undo the February 1945 Yalta Agreements concerning Poland and help diminish Soviet control of its Eastern European satellites. Reagan’s approach was a massive Pentagon rearmament which he knew the Soviets could not afford and the goal was to have them spend themselves into oblivion. Berry’s description of the meeting and other historical events throughout the book relies on a certain amount of conjecture, but also a solid grounding in historical accuracy, which he clearly explains in his writer’s note at the end of the book.

(St. John’s Church, Washington, DC)

The scene swiftly shifts to the present day with a Russian surveillance plane flying over Lake Baikal in southern Siberia with Cotton Malone aboard which will soon be brought down by a SAM missile. Berry lays out Malone’s mission which was to learn about the machinations of a former KGB agent, Alexsandr Zorin and Vadim Belchenko, an old archivist for the KGB’s First Directorate. The agenda of the two men was clear – revenge against the United States for the destruction of the Soviet Union. Zorin, in particular, was apoplectic about events from 1989-1991 when he moved to southern Siberia where he was joined by like-minded people setting up their own community. It appears that the Kremlin was split between hardliners who supported a mission against the United States and those who did not.

Berry reintroduces a number of important characters from previous novels. Stephanie Nell, the head of the Justice Department’s Magellan Billet has been fired as a new president is about to replace Danny Daniels. Cassiopeia Vitt, Malone’s former lover, whose relationship redevelops throughout the novel. Luke Daniels, a Malone protégé and nephew to President Daniels also plays a major role. New characters aside from Zorin and Belchenko include SVR agent, Nikolai Osin who had requested American help and lays out for Nell what she is up against in the closing hours of her time in office. Jamie Kelly, an American who spied for the Soviet Union for decades and had in his possession important intelligence information. A number of officials from the Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal society created by General Henry Knox, our first Minister of War after the American Revolution to look after revolutionary officer’s interests, even after the army was dissolved. Zorin’s girlfriend and SVR agent, Anya Pedrova, plays a limited role as do a number of others. Berry also includes historical figures like Pope John Paul, Ronald Reagan, and former KGB head and Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov.

(Author, Steve Berry)

Zorin was convinced of a US plan called “Forward Pass,” supposedly agreed to by Reagan and John Paul to destroy the Soviet Union. He believed it was implemented creating chaos and allowing oligarchs to steal the resources of the Russian people and create a criminal mafia that controlled his homeland. His revenge would be based on a plan developed by Andropov in 1984 to decapitate the American government.

Berry carefully lays out his plot as Zorin’s obsession plays out. His vehicle is Andropov’s plan which was based on the location of “suitcase nuclear weapons,” or RA115s, five of which were disseminated in the early 1980s in the event of nuclear war with the US. The question was whether the weapons were still operable after twenty-five years and how would they be employed. A second plot line that rests on a good deal of historical fact is How the Society of Cincinnati’s held documents outlining an American plan to invade and seize Canada called the l 14th colony which Berry ties into Russian resentment which is left for Malone and his cohorts to dig up and solve.

Stock Photo: geography / travel, USA, politics, second war of independence, 1812, map, from 'America its history and people', Washington DC, 1944, private collection.

(War of 1812 map)

It is a race against time as intelligence showed that the Kremlin was fixated on a number of documents. First, Andropov’s plan to assassinate the American leadership; secondly the “zero amendment” which refers to the 20^th amendment of the US Constitution that deals with presidential succession, and lastly the Tallmadge Journal written by George Washington Chief of Intelligence. Andropov dies in 1984 so his plan cannot be implemented, but Zorin and company have resurrected it for the January 20, 2009, inauguration of the new president Governor Warner Scott Fox, an intelligence and foreign policy neophyte who along with other members of his new administration where skeptical about to accepting advice from a soon to be former President Daniels, Stephanie Nell, or Cotton Malone.

As in most spy thrillers time is of the essence, and it becomes a race to negate what the assassins hope to achieve. As per usual, Steve Berry has concocted an absorbing thriller in creating THE 14^TH COLONY where he explores flaws in our Constitution and the presidential succession act, the secrets (both real and made-up) of America’s oldest fraternal organization, the Society of Cincinnati, and our sometimes contentious relationship with our northern neighbor. The book engages the reader from the outset and keeps them in a vise-like grip until the conclusion of the novel. In addition to the breakneck speed, character development is just as well-developed as in previous Malone thrillers, with each character having their own set of demons as well as long held grudges that are plaguing them. Some might argue that the book is a little drawn out with the violence that is interjected, but for me it is just about right.

COLONIALISM: A MORAL RECKONING by Nigel Biggar

May 10, 2023szfreiberger British History Leave a comment

Every so often a historical monograph produces a heated debate that places the author on the defensive for his or her views. In our current world the term “wokeness” has worked its way into discussions of what should be taught and explored about our past. The general view of those who are champions of this line of reasoning is that anything that disturbs our view of the past, places whites in an unfavorable light, and explores issues such as slavery, anti-immigration, possible racism, misogyny, etc. should not be taught in our schools. This has led to book banning, violence when school boards meetings, and politicians who like to raise the woke agenda as a tool to gain or retain political power.

In this environment enters Nigel Biggar’s new book, COLONIALISM: A MORAL RECKONING which supports the idea that the British Empire was not fundamentally racist, unequal or shamelessly violent. Bigger argues the Empire had the capacity to learn from its errors and correct them. Further, as the Empire evolved it became motivated by a sense of Christian altruism intent on preparing those who they colonized to assume self-government as liberal democracies. Progressive historians are appalled by this view of history, and it is hard to classify Biggar’s argument on a wokeness scale. Should his ideas be banished because they support a thesis that most find unacceptable, or should it be taught and discussed because of its support for the positive aspects of empire, which in the case of England outweighed any negative components.

Sadly, in the United States we live in a society that is in the grip of educational experts who support the woke agenda, individuals such as Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and others who appear in the media daily offering their convoluted viewpoints. For them the College Board which oversees AP courses must adapt their curricula, i.e.; AP African Studies to avoid criticizing whites and exploring slavery. Further books that they find offensive must be banned, and if a school board does not conform to their views they are met with threats and at times violence.

(Author, Nigel Biggar)

Whether we are exploring the past by American or British historians on topics that place their perspective pasts in a positive or negative light, academic freedom and intellectual curiosity should be the gold standard of education. In both societies many feel threatened by the study of slavery, genocide against native populations, and prejudice that led to violence against non-white ethnicities. If we accept the premise of the wok curriculum our future will become distorted as we refuse to honestly evaluate our past as a means of avoiding mistakes as we prepare for the future.

Professor Biggar who possesses a Ph. D in Christian Theology from the University of Chicago finds himself in the midst of the wok debate. His new book encompasses the errors and positives as he perceives the impact of the British Empire on history. Whether you agree with his thesis or not, he deserves the right to be published and read by those who wish. Biggar’s call for a moral reappraisal of colonialism has not been met with open arms, but he argues historians have made people feel much too guilty about Britain’s colonial past. He further argues that we must recognize the good and bad related to empire and his book is an attempt to create a moral balance sheet as we study the past.

The book itself had a rocky road to publication as one publisher stalled publication for months then withdrew Biggar’s contract. Finally, when published it has entered the wokeness debate. Biggar asks eight questions which he addresses throughout the monograph:

(1) was the imperial endeavor driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate;
(2) should we speak of colonialism and slavery in the same breath, as if they were the same thing;
(3) was the British Empire essentially racist;
(4) how far was it based on the conquest of land;
(5) did it involve genocide;
(6) was it driven fundamentally by the motive of economic exploitation;
(7) since colonial government was not democratic, did that make it illegitimate; and
(8) was the empire essentiallyviolent and was its violence pervasively racist and terroristic.

Portrait of Chinese scholar and official Lin Zexu.

(Commissioner Lin Zexu)

As Biggar answers the questions he presents what seem to be reasonable arguments, though some are difficult to absorb. He begins by arguing that we should not judge the past by the present as circumstances from previous centuries often vary from our own therefore it is difficult to morally judge the past. Once Biggar explores the concept of motivations for empire he argues there was no main British motivation for empire. But, he then argues that in many cases it was a protective tool against an enemy. For example, England had no choice but to go after Spanish colonies to protect itself as Philip II sought to destroy Protestantism. If we accept Biggar’s thesis it is clear that all territory England conquered in North America and the Caribbean was due to encroachment by foreign powers like France but in reality the motivation existed apart from protection of its own territory – the motivation was profit and money be it from the fur trade, natural resources, textiles, areas to place recalcitrant citizens etc. Biggar needs to examine the concept of trade in greater detail if we are to accept his argument. One cannot tell me that the East India Company was altruistic and were not motivated by profit. Everything they did be it improving education or health rested on the bottom line profit. One can argue that native people were backward and therefore superior civilizations had the right to rule them. But as Ruth Benedict, the noted anthropologist and mentor to Margaret Meade has argued that “all cultures are equally valid, as long as they meet the needs of the existing culture.” It is clear that certain cultures are backward according to “British” standards, but does that give them the right to oppress in the name of uplifting them for profit?

Biggar does admit that “motives can be corrupted by vices, of course, and we have already seen evidence of greed and impudence. Yet some degree of moral corruption is an invariable feature of human affairs infecting even the noblest of endeavors. Moral malice or weakness is universal, but it need not be central or systematic.” The author cannot have it both ways.

In discussing slavery Biggar argues that the British should be praised for abolishing the slave trade in 1807 and slavery in general in 1834. Hurrah, but what of the 150 years of slavery that existed previously in which they were a practitioner? What of the African slave trade or the fact that slave owners were compensated for lost slaves to the tune of 20 million pounds. Interestingly, in Africa British slave traders played rival chieftains off against each other to further the trade or the fact that freed slaves were given little once they were freed, many of which stayed with masters as a means of survival. British altruism is clear as slaves had to work (or be apprenticed) for 40-45 hours per week over a six year period to be freed! Biggar seems to forget the legacy of slavery, its profitability for a century and a half, and the impact on the lives and families of slaves as they were separated at the slave auction, but as Biggar states “involvement in slavery was nothing out of the ordinary.”

A major accusation against proponents of Empire is that of racism and prejudice. Biggar argues that it was marginal as practiced by the Colonial Office and “the empire’s policies…were driven by the conviction of the basic human equality of members of all races.” There is a myriad of statements by British officials one can refer to like that of Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour that stated that it was unimaginable to equate a man from Central Africa as equal to that of a European or an American.

Biggar also argues that violence was never a major component of the Empire. I would point to the Boer War of 1899-1902 and the use of concentration camps as a tool to defeat their perceived enemy. The Opium Wars cannot be seen as nothing but violence against a government that sought to slow or eradicate the Opium trade. Commissioner Lin’s demands of 1839 may have been off putting for the British ruling class, but it was a plea, perhaps in wording that came off as superior, but it was designed to protect the Chinese people from drugs which the British used to gain a favorable balance of trade. What of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, was not that violent. Perhaps the Amritsar Massacre of April 1919 would come under the heading of extreme violence when British General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd of men, women, and children trapped in an abandoned walled garden during a Sikh festival. I would also point to the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s against British rule and oppression – the result was war crimes committed by both sides. What about the 1956 Suez War where the British attacked Egypt because Gamal Nasser, a nationalist Arab leader had the temerity to seize the Suez Canal. If one reads the comments of Prime Minister Anthony Eden and Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd at the time they are more than just tinged with racism. Biggar has been praised for setting these examples in their proper historical context, but that does not take away from the British attitude towards those who disagreed with them and their use of violence.

(Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser)

For liberal imperialists, the “backwardness of non-Europeans, justified colonialism.” Liberty and equality were the prerogatives of the privileged societal elites. In addition, Biggar implies that the Empire was acquired by a series of accidents. Once achieved it was designed to civilize the colonies, and train them for self-government. If this is so why was the period of decolonization so bloody? The bottom line is that the study of British colonialism is morally complex, so why is his thesis so simplistic? I agree with Kenan Malik’s view of Biggar’s work which appeared in the February 20, 2023, edition of The Guardian where he argues “Biggar’s real concern is not with the past but with the present. Denigrating colonialism, he claims, is an ‘important way of corroding faith in the west.’ Yet, in seeking to challenge what he regards as cartoonish views of imperial history, Biggar has produced something equally cartoonish, a politicized history that ill-serves his aim of defending ‘western values.’ After all, to rewrite the past to suit the needs of the present, and to defend people’s rights only when politically convenient, is hardly to present those values in a flattering light.”

Just remember the old joke” “Why doesn’t the sun set over the British Empire?” “Because you can’t trust the British at night!”

(The British Empire)

THERE WILL BE FIRE: MARGARET THATCHER, THE IRA, AND TWO MINUTES THAT CHANGED HISTORY by Rory Carroll

May 5, 2023szfreiberger British History, Irish History Leave a comment

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1987.

(British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher)

A few weeks ago, former President Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland in commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that mostly ended the violence of the period known as “The Troubles” that had prevailed since the 1960s. Clinton’s administration helped negotiate a multi-party agreement between most of Northern Ireland’s political parties, and the British-Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments. To this day the agreements have been held with a minimum of violence, but decades of ill-will between all sides and the January 2020 Brexit Agreement has created a series of obstacles which at times makes the situation tenuous.

For years, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its splinter groups resorted to violence to achieve an independent republic free of British rule. One of the most violent attacks occurred on October 12, 1984, with an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The attack perpetrated by the IRA is detailed in a new book by Dublin journalist Rory Carroll, THERE WILL BE FIRE: MARGARET THATCHER, THE IRA, AND TWO MINUTES THAT CHANGED HISTORY. The monograph offers an in depth account of the attempted assassination, as well as the manhunt it precipitated. Carroll’s work also presents insights into how the perpetrators behind the attack were caught.

Thatcher had been staying at the Grand Hotel in the English seaside resort of Brighton for the 1984 Conservative Party Conference when a timer bomb exploded in the early hours of October 12. While Thatcher and her Cabinet ministers escaped with their lives, five people were killed in the blast, and over thirty were injured.

(Patrick Magee)

The IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing the next day, threatening further assassination attempts in their statement: “Mrs. Thatcher will now realize that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it…..Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.”

The above quote according to Carroll rattled Thatcher who became convinced she would be successfully targeted in the future. It appears she was deeply troubled despite the aura of the “Iron Lady” that she tried to project.

At times Carroll writes like a novelist creating a political thriller. He takes the reader through each step that leads to the assassination attempt. He describes the important personalities involved, the background history that led up to the attempt to kill Thatcher, the process the IRA and it’s England Department went through in developing their strategy, the actual construction of the bomb, the explosion that destroyed the Grand Hotel, and the investigation that followed. In each instance Carroll writes clearly and is able to draw the reader’s interest as if the story were fiction, but as we know it actually occurred.

Thatcher deplored the Irish Revolution that sought a “free state.” Despite the approach by police against any Irish demonstration, treatment of prisoners, and an overall policy of discrimination, Thatcher focused on her plan to revolutionize the English economy and tried to ignore her Irish problem. Her view was that the IRA, Provos, England Department or anyone who supported the cause were criminals and should be treated as such. They were no longer political prisoners. The labeling of the IRA as “criminal” was hated by its leadership because they needed to be considered as a political problem for its own legitimacy against British colonialism.

(Gerry Adams)

The use of hunger strikes by the IRA became an effective tool to raise awareness of the cause. In October 1981 after a prison hunger strike that resulted in the death of Bobby Sands who was elected to Parliament while imprisoned, reflected public and worldwide support. Ten would starve to death and according to Carroll, Thatcher refused to budge. Three days after the hunger strike ended, the government granted de facto special status to H-Block prisoners, but it was too late as a boiling rage convulsed the republican movement. Marchs turned into riots and it “congealed into a hatred of Thatcher, a visceral, personal hatred no British leader had evoked since Oliver Cromwell centuries earlier.” For Republicans, Thatcher was a murderer and revenge was the operative word.

From this point on Carroll describes how the IRA/England Department went about trying to secure their revenge. In doing so he develops a series of mini biographies of the important characters. Of course, Thatcher is discussed from a number of angles with an analysis that takes the reader inside 10 Downing Street and her thought processes. Peter Gurney, a fifty year old “expo” of the Explosive Section of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch provides insights as to how “bomb” experts went about tracking down a given bomb and how to defuse and use it in an investigation. David Tadd, the Head of Fingerprinting at Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch plays a key role in identifying the bomber. Joe Cahill, an IRA fundraiser who successfully raised money and equipment among American Irish gangsters like Whitey Bulger and Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. He excelled at donor relations, fiscal management, and gun running. Patrick Ryan, a former Catholic priest was the linchpin of the IRA’s global supply network who laundered money and smuggled weapons that kept the Provos in business. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader who tried to develop a political strategy along with the use of violence. A prominent character who Carroll can not reach a conclusion as to his culpability for the assassination attempt. Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Reece, the Head of Sussex Criminal Investigation was in charge of capturing the bomber was out of his league as his experience was crime and domestic issues, not terrorism and bombings. Lastly, Patrick Magee, one of the IRA’s best operatives and the man who put the bomb components together, planted the bomb at the Grand Hotel, and then escaped.

Carroll does yeoman’s work in setting the scene for the assassination attempt, describing in detail Magee’s bomb preparation. Further he explores Thatcher’s obsession with her speech at the Conservative Party Conference at the hotel, and the actions of numerous participants at the conference and what their expectations were.

(Peter Gurney)

Carroll’s reconstruction of the bomb blast and its path through the hotel detailing the impact and damage to people and property is surreal. Carroll goes on to recreate the investigation narrowing down leads and possible evidence which led to Roy Walsh, a.k.a. Patrick Magee employing a registration card and a palm print as the key to identification.

Carroll has written a meticulous account of the Brighton bombing. According to Sean O’Hagan in his The Guardian review the book is a “deftly constructed narrative punctuated by dramatic moments that often seem determined by the fickle hand of fate as much as by rigorous planning, intelligence gathering, and dogged adherence to a cause. Elsewhere, Carroll’s prose possesses the steady, accumulative thrust of a police procedural drama, particularly as the investigation into the bombing gathers pace and the search for the perpetrator intensifies. Magee was caught after a frantic pursuit through Glasgow and served 14 years in prison before being released under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. In an interview in 2002, he said: “I regret that people were killed; I don’t regret the fact that I was involved in a struggle.”

In the end Thatcher escaped death, most probably through fate and a great deal of luck. It is interesting to ponder what might have ensued had the assassination attempt been a success. Perhaps there would be no Brexit and England would not have tilted to the right domestically and economically, but we will never know for sure.

*Sean O’Hagan. “Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll review – meticulous account of the Brighton Bombing, The Guardian, April 23, 2023.

Margaret Thatcher speaks to the press for the first time after being elected Conservative Party Leader.

(British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s press conference)

Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey by John Sayles

April 29, 2023April 29, 2023szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

(Fort Duquesne – near Pittsburgh)

If you are a fan of Ken Follet and other practitioners of well-developed historical fiction in books that weigh a great deal then screenwriter and director John Sayles’ latest work THE RENEGADE’S JOURNEY: JAMIE MacGILLIVARY is one you should seriously consider. Sayles, the author of YELLOW EARTH and A MOMENT IN THE SUN now tackles the adventures of two fictional 18^th century Scots – the main character is Jamie MacGillivary, a landless follower of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and Jenny Ferguson, a poor crofter’s daughter swept up in the avenging British against the Jacobite Rebellion. The two characters dominate and leave historical figures such as Generals George Washington, James Wolfe, Robert Monckton, James Braddock, and the Marquis de Montcalm in the background as Sayles captures the competing alliances of the mid-18^th century and the horrors of war through the trials and travails of Jamie and Jenny.

Sayles frames his novel with the Battles at Culloden in Scotland and the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, Jamie and Jenny will find themselves imprisoned under demeaning conditions and sent into indentured servitude in the English colonies. From there their lives will diverge before they come together later in the novel.

However, Sayles will first engage the reader with the details of the Battle of Culloden, a nasty confrontation that saw the British rout a Jacobite* army of Highlanders, Irish, Scots in the French service and English deserters, a rather difficult group to herd together as a formidable force. The army was created to support the claims of Bonnie Prince Charlie, so named for his boyish good looks who was the grandson of the exiled English King, James II who was removed during the Glorious Revolution and was replaced by William and Mary on the English throne. His father, James III, known as the “Old Pretender” in exile and in September 1745 his son, the would be Charles IV landed with a small army on the west coast of Scotland and with 2400 men entered Edinburgh. Within two months with 5500 men, he crossed into England and headed toward London. However, on April 16, 1746, the third son of King George II, the Duke of Cumberland defeated this rag tag army at Culloden. The “Young Pretender” would escape by ship to France where he would continue to try and recover the English crown for his father and himself.

(Bonnie Prince Charlie)

The main protagonists will find themselves in desperate situations. Jamie was wounded and survived under a pile of bodies before being captured by the Redcoats, and later by Native-Americans. He would meet Jenny, who had been beaten and raped by British soldiers as they are separately sent to the English colonies. Sayles describes Jenny’s plight as she is sent to Martinique where she is purchased by a French artillery officer, Lt. St. Cyr who will take her under his wing as his lover and friend showing off a white woman in Creole society. Later, St. Cyr is ordered to Canada to fight the British, taking Jenny with him. Jamie finds himself a slave on the Georgia plantation of Jock Crozier, a nasty individual that results in Jamie and his slave cohorts escaping, only to be captured by the Lenape tribe where he is put to work. Sayles uses Jamie as a vehicle to explain the shifting alliances in Europe as Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction to gain support for his daughter, Maria Theresa, to succeed him on the throne. At first, Frederick the Great of Prussia agrees then conquers Silesia, and the result is the beginning of the Seven Years War in Europe in 1756, a continuation of the French and Indian War in the colonies between France and England that began in 1754. The situation lends itself to Sayles’ entertaining phrasing as Native-Americans describe negotiations in Europe as “old men wearing other men’s hair while they dicker over a treaty across the great water.” (328) The key in the colonies is the Ohio Valley which the French and English desire for the Fur trade and military outposts. As English colonists in Pennsylvania and Virginia want to move west this presents the French with the opportunity to ally with Native tribes.

In telling his story Sayles has the marvelous ability to create scenes whereby it feels as if the reader has an intimate relationship with the main characters. His description of the Atlantic passage and enslavement in the Caribbean and the English colonies mirrors the historical record. It is clear that Sayles has engaged in prodigious research and travel to the sites he has written about which allow him to convey intimate details of battle, treatment of prisoners, life on a plantation, interacting with Native tribes, and how his characters experience misfortune and at times luck as Jamie realizes how lucky he is to be alive as he states, “a French invasion scuttled by storms at sea, a bullet made to cripple or kill him only passes through his flesh, the whim of a bewigged magistrate on the day before hanging – all seems more accident than design.” (243

Sayles creates a series of characters, but there are a number who are key to the story. Apart from Jamie and Jenny there is Macheod Lachlan, a bard whose mission in life is to amuse his clan brethren. His goal in life is to entertain all who come in contact with him. There is Keach, an evangelical Christian who spots the glories of God as he tries to convert everyone. Jamie’s brother Dougal, thought dead at Culloden, miraculously survives, and Ange, who develops a loving relationship with Jamie. Numerous characters come and go. Some disappear for hundreds of pages then all of a sudden reemerge.

(British Major-General James Wolfe)

Jamie must have passed through an identity crisis as at the outset of the novel he is portrayed as a Highland Scotsman fighting with the French against the British. He is captured and sold as a slave in Georgia. Later he is taken in by the Lenape Indians whose tribe he will eventually become a trusted member. Jamie’s life mirrors the wars that are described throughout. First, the British and French fight in Scotland. Then the fighting moves on to the Ohio Valley in the American colonies. As the fighting shifts across the Atlantic, both powers try to convince various Indian tribes to join their crusades. White settlers are seen by Native-Americans as squatters stealing Indian land resulting in extreme violence. Lastly, the French and British find themselves fighting different Indian tribes. As Sayles describes the many conflicts we witness guerilla and conventional warfare which at times produces modern weaponry such as long range artillery.

As the novel follows Jamie and Jenny through servitude, revolt, escape, and romantic entanglements — pawns in a deadly game other historical figures of the era appear – the devious Lord Lovat, future novelist Henry Fielding, the artist William Hogarth, a young and ambitious George Washington, the doomed General James Wolfe, and the Lenape chief feared throughout the Ohio Valley as Shingas the Terrible.

Sayles is an excellent wordsmith; however, it does take time to adapt to the Erse, a Scottish or Irish Gaelic language as well as the French phrasing which appears regularly. Sayles does this to create authenticity, but at times it detracts from the reading experience and makes it difficult at times to follow what is occurring.

*Jacobite’s were the supporters of James VII of Scotland and II of England. Jacobus is Latin for James.