THE PERSIAN by David McCloskey

November 12, 2025szfreiberger Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

(A view of the cityscape in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025).

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the arrival of the mullahs at the head of Iran’s attempt at theocracy relations with the United States have been fraught with hatred. Over the years wars, assassinations, terrorism, computer related attacks, spying, kidnappings, a nuclear deal and its revocation, and economic sanctions have been the norm. Today Iran finds itself at a crossroad. Its Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is eighty-six years old and nearing the end of his reign, and as Karim Sadjadpour writes in his November/December 2025 issue of Foreign Affairs, “The Autumn of the Ayatollahs” the twelve day war last June laid bare the fragility of the system he built. Israel bombed Iranian urban centers and military installations, allowing the United States to drop fourteen bunker busting bombs on their nuclear sites. Tehran’s ideological bravado and its inability to protect its borders along with the defeat of its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas has reduced its threat to the region.

Apart from the succession problem Iran faces a choice of how to prioritize its nuclear program, but with no negotiations, oversight, or concrete knowledge of Tehran’s stock of nuclear material another war with Israel seems inevitable. Despite Donald Trump’s insistence that the United States “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, officials and analysts are less sanguine. Iran may have been weakened, but it has not become irrelevant. As the rhetoric between Iran and the Trump administration ratchets up it is clear that the Tehran government suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of Israel and the United States. The Iranian economy continues in a freefall, and the regime remains in power through coercion and threats. In this domestic and diplomatic climate, a novel that reflects the current forceful environment should attract a strong readership. THE PERSIAN by former CIA analyst and best-selling author David McCloskey, fits that need as the author takes readers deep into the shadow war between Iran and Israel and plays out a scenario that is quite plausible.

Aerial view of Tehran, with the Alborz mountain range, Iran

(Aerial view of Tehran, with the Alborz mountain range in the background)

McCloskey begins the novel describing the assassination of Abbas Shabani, an Iranian scientist who was an expert on drone-cladding, making drones invisible. The murder was carried out by a woman using a joystick at a Mossad site near Tel Aviv. The operation continues Israeli policy of killing anyone it believes is a threat to the Jewish state engaging in any component of Iran’s nuclear preparation – a policy that is accurate in fiction as well as the real world. McCloskey immediately shifts to an Iranian interrogation room where Kamran (Kam) Esfahani, a Persian Jewish dentist. Kam, the main character and narrator of this taut political thriller, is counting down the days until he has enough money to leave Sweden for sunny California. The interrogation allows Kam to rewrite and rework his confession over a three year period enabling the author to recount his novel through Kam’s acknowledgement of being part of a plot that killed Ismail Qaani, a member of the Qods Force, Unit 840. The group is run by Colonel Jaffer Ghorbani whose reason for being created is to kill Jews. Kam had been recruited by Arik Glitzman, head of the Mossad’s Caesarea Division, who offered to pay him a fortune to sow chaos in Iran. Trading the monotony of dentistry for the perils of espionage, he runs a sham dental practice in Tehran as a cover for smuggling weapons and conducting surveillance. McCloskey offers a wonderful description of Glitzman which is emblematic of his character development as the head of the elite team within the Caesarea Division of Mossad is described as “Napoleonic, short and paunchy with a thatch of black hair and a round face bright with a wide smile. There was fun in his eyes and if they had not belonged to a secret servant of the state…they might have belonged to a magician, or a kindergarten teacher.”

In addition to using Kam’s voice to relate a major part of the story, McCloskey organizes the novel by repeatedly shifting back and forth in time and location as he organizes his chapters. A key character who appears often is Roya Shabani who witnessed the assassination of her husband and seeks revenge against Israel. She will be given that opportunity as part of Ghorbani’s unit, initially carrying out low level tasks. Soon her immediate superior, Hossein Moghaddam, a Qods Operation Officer, who falls for her carries out an assassination of Meir Ben-Ami, Arik Glitzman’s deputy reflecting the real world that Israeli and Iranian intelligence regularly engage in.

An aerial shot of the Stockholm City Hall in Sweden

(Stockholm, Sweden)

McCloskey’s CIA background and research allow him to portray assassinations, the use of technology for spy craft, recruitment of assets, and organizing operations in such a realistic manner heighten the reader’s immersion into the novel. In an NPR interview which took place on “All Things Considered” program on September 29, 2025, McCloskey admits that as a former CIA analyst who has been posted throughout the Middle East he is able to draw upon a great deal of inside knowledge in creating his characters and present them as authentically as possible. The authenticity of his characters and storyline is enhanced as his novel must pass through CIA censors and at times he is amazed as to what the “Publication Review Board” allowed to remain in the book. In a sense the book itself is prewritten as the actions of Iranian and Israeli intelligence officials and agents create the bones of an insane spy novel.

Aspects of McCloskey’s novel weigh heavily on the real world of espionage as the author delves into the fact that Israel was at a disadvantage in the world of espionage since it did not have diplomatic relations with the countries that surround her in the Arab world – it did not have embassies to hide intelligence officers who could carry out its operations. As a result, operational teams are cobbled together, surged to where they are needed, and disbanded when the operation is completed. Israel has to create different types of cover than the United States, United Kingdom and others because of this disadvantage and it amazes how successful they are when the playing field is not level.

Dagestan, where the Samur flows into the Caspian sea

(Caspien Sea)

McCloskey is very successful in creating multiple storylines as he goes back and forth between time periods and locations. A major shift occurs when the kidnapping of a target fails as somehow he is murdered. This causes Glitzman to change his plans on the fly resulting in Roya becoming a major focus of the novel. Her evolution from the spouse of a scientist to an espionage asset is fascinating as is that of Kam. The author does an exceptional job tracing Kam’s progression from an unsuccessful Iranian Jewish dentist raised in Sweden into a reluctant and fearful spy into someone who becomes devoted to his mission. The explanation that is offered makes sense as Kam develops his own feelings of revenge toward Iran and its agents who kicked his family out of the country, for decades has laid siege to the country of Israel and wants to eradicate its entire population. The problem is that his mission will result in his capture and the reader must wait until the last page to learn the entire truth bound up in his confession.

(Evin Prison’s main entrance)

The author’s goal in the book, which was already written before the war of last summer, was to go beneath that kind of overt conflict and get to the heart of the shadow war between Israel and Iran. After reading THE PERSIAN it is clear that he accomplishes his goal completely as his characters must survive in a world of intrigue, paranoia, and what appears to be a world of endless violent retribution.

(Tehran, Iran)

ANNAPOLIS GOES TO WAR: THE NAVAL ACADEMY CLASS OF 1940 AND ITS TRIAL BY FIRE IN WORLD WAR II by. Craig L. Symonds

November 8, 2025szfreiberger Biography, Military History, World War II Leave a comment

Aerial view of U.S. Naval Academy looking Northeast. U.S. Naval Air Station, Anacostia, Washington, D.C.

(An aerial view of the U.S. Naval Academy, looking northeast, mid-1930s)

In the tradition of Robert Timberg’s THE NIGHTINGALE’S SONG, Bill Murphy, Jr.’s IN A TIME OF WAR: THE PROUD AND PERILOUS JOURNEY OF WEST POINT CLASS 0F 2002, Rick Atkinson’s THE LONG GRAY LINE: THE AMERICAN JOURNEY OF WEST POINT CLASS OF 1966 and Joseph Waugh’s THE CLASS OF 1846 FROM WEST POINT TO APPOMATTOX: STONEWALL JACKSON, GEORGE MCCLELLAN, AND THEIR BROTHERS, Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy, Craig L. Symonds latest book, ANNAPOLIS GOES TO WAR: THE NAVAL ACADEMY CLASS OF 1940 AND ITS TRIAL BY FIRE IN WORLD WAR II examines the graduates of one of our service academies and how they were educated, trained, and adapted to warfare. Symonds, who has taught naval history for thirty years and has authored numerous books that include THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY, NIMITZ AT WAR, LINCOLN AND HIS ADMIRALS, and OPERATION NEPTUNE has produced a poignant and disturbing story of how the Annapolis Class of 1940 experienced personal growth, pain, loss, and dedication as they participated in many noteworthy battles in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II.

The class of 1940 consisted of 456 men out of the 750 who graduated , though not everyone received a commission. Of those who did, 401 became Navy Ensigns, and 25 became Second Lieutenants in the US Marine Corps. They arrived at Annapolis as Adolf Hitler ordered the seizure of the Rhineland, the Spanish Civil War was beginning, the Japanese had already seized Manchuria, Mussolini forces were ensconced in Abyssinia, and Stalin had instituted his purges. Despite these events most of the plebes were more concerned with how they would survive the naval academy for the next four years. Symonds follows in detail a number of members of the class who would experience four transformative years, followed by four more hard years in the cauldron of war. The end result was that 76 graduates of the “forties” as the Class of 1940 was known would perish in the war, the highest death rate of any class from either Annapolis or West Point.

(Class of 1940 graduation from the US Naval Academy, June 6, 1940)

Symonds begins his narrative by introducing members of the new class and their socio-economic makeup. What is interesting to note is their diverse backgrounds, the reasons they wanted to attend the academy, and how they achieved their admission. Some were from privileged classes in terms of wealth who used their families political connections to gain an appointment. Others saw it as a free education as their families could not afford college tuition as the depression continued to impact Americans throughout the 1930s. A few saw it as a dream come true from the time they witnessed naval destroyers or cruisers at harbor when they were young men. Curiously, of the new appointees, only one was black, and one was Filipino. Symonds explores the plebes’ daily schedule that could be summed up as “reveille, formation, breakfast, class, lunch, athletics, dinner, study, lights out, repeat!”

The author does an excellent job integrating world events as he relates the experiences of his subjects. He provides important aspects of events, in depth analysis, and the possible impact of what had transpired outside the “Naval Academy bubble” on its newest class. A good example is Symonds discussion of the 1936 Army-Navy game which Navy was victorious by a score of 7-0 and the growing partnership developing between Japan and Germany which the following year would result in the anti-Comintern Pact, and the Panay Incident the following year when the Japanese attacked a US gun boat on the Yangtze River. By September 1939, the fall of Warsaw provoked a growing interest on the part of the “forties” as they could imagine war on the horizon and their renewed commitment to their training resulted.

The USS Arizona (BB ) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Decth

(USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941)

The narrative reflects how racist American society was during this period. Aside from racial makeup of the class, their behavior toward certain staff members of the academy was indicative of American values. For example, the “forties” would pay janitors 25 cents a week to sweep their rooms and make their bunks. They would also refer to them as “mokes” which translated to “colored corridor boy!”

Symonds intimate detail is impressive and reflects how intrusive academy regulations could be. The navy had a regulation that men could not marry until they served two years as commissioned officers at sea. Those who secretly married were dismissed from the academy and lost their commissions. However, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the losses the United States suffered in the Pacific the need for more naval officers was acute and the regulation was changed, and men no longer had to wait two years to marry. But again, if they did so before the change was implemented they were dismissed. It did result in a number of the class of 1940 getting married before they shipped out.

(USS Yorktown at sea in the Pacific)

Symonds does not devote much detail on the last three years the Class of 1940 spent at Annapolis. After about a third of the book discussing the ”forties” he jumps to graduation as the situation in Europe, England, and the Atlantic deteriorates as the Nazis become even more aggressive. Upon graduation 50 men are assigned to aircraft carriers, 167 are assigned to battleships, and another 101 are assigned to cruisers. Others transfer to the Marine Corps, submarines, and aviation services. At this time, the Atlantic was more dangerous than the Pacific as German U boats sought to cut off American shipments to England. President Roosevelt would gain passage of the Lend Lease program which expanded the navy’s role in the Atlantic. As US ships conducted search patrols as far as the Azores the navy became more engaged in an undeclared war against the Germans and naval preparation and operations increased and the training of the members of the Class of 1940 was put to use.

By September 1941 it became clear the US navy was increasingly escorting allied convoys in the Atlantic and active combat resulted as the USS Kearny was hit by a German torpedo and the USS Reuben James was sunk. Symonds as he does with the course of the growing conflict explains correctly that Hitler was careful not to push naval confrontation with the United States at this time because he wanted to defeat the Soviet Union which Germany had invaded in June 1941. The US would continue to increase its convoy role in bringing aid to England in the Atlantic, at the same time Roosevelt ratcheted up sanctions against the Japanese in the Pacific which would ultimately lead to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Symonds description of the attack on Pearl Harbor reflects the standard account of events. What makes it more personal for the reader is how the author integrates the experiences of Class of 1940 graduates. Men like Irving Davenport and Sideny Sherwin served on the USS Oklahoma which was sunk resulting in 429 deaths. Dave Davison was the Officer of the Day on the USS Arizona as was Virgil Gex who made up two the seven “forties” with the over 1000 men who did not survive the attack. Others from the Class of 1940 like Nick Nicholson was the Officer of the Day on the USS California as were a number of others. Symonds stories of those who survived and those who did not reflect the heroism and personal sacrifice so many men experienced on December 7^th.

(Photo Robert Kaufman, 97, has of the Japanese surrender ceremony, which ended the U.S.’ involvement in World War II. Kaufman is one of the few remaining Naval Academy 1940 graduates).

The author’s expertise as a naval historian dominates and enhances the monograph. His views are supported by years of research and familiarity with primary and secondary materials. Symonds relies on letters, diaries, family archives, and interviews to augment his portrayal of events and the role of the members of the Class of 1940. One example in particular stands out as he relates General Douglas MacArthur’s fears that building defenses and stockpiling food on Bataan would appear defeatist to Japan. He convinced Washington to allow him to defend all of Luzon, including Manila once the Japanese attacked. This was a grave error as the Japanese landed on Luzon on December 22 and MacArthur was forced to move his headquarters from Bataan to the small, fortified island of Corregidor. Allied forces would surrender on April 7, 1942, after fierce fighting and “Sparky” Campo, the lone Filipino in the Class of 1940 was able to escape by executing a bold torpedo attack against Japanese destroyers.

By 1942 the Class of 1940 was in the thick of combat as convoy escorts became the primary function of the Atlantic fleet. Despite tremendous losses it was decisive for the war effort because of the American ability to build new ships and filling the need to increase protection for the convoys . This increase in American shipping created the need for more naval officers which tapped a number of the 1940 Class’s members. They would fill many new staff positions; engineering, torpedo and gunnery officers, in addition to executive officers on smaller craft.

Symonds describes the difficulty and danger faced by the navy in convoying across the Atlantic. The author provides the speed and size of the convoys, their strategy designed to avoid U boats, even the inability to sleep and eat due to conditions caused by storms and high seas. Symonds zeros in on the USS Buck and USS Bristol as he relates the dangers and anxiety that naval personnel faced. The situation became even more difficult as the US began supplying lend lease aid to the Soviet Union as convoys had to transit the Arctic Ocean around northern Norway where the Nazis had an air base in their attempts to reach the Barent Sea. It became even more difficult as losses caused Roosevelt to suspend certain shipping to Russia which fed Joseph Stalin’s paranoia about the allies using Moscow as a vehicle to defeat the Nazis and at the same time destroy his country. This paranoia and anger against London and Washington would fester and cause difficulties throughout the war and even contributed to the cause of the Cold War after 1945.

(Midshipmen go aboard the battleship Texas (BB-35) near Annapolis on 8 June 1940)

Symonds’ topic is vast because of the geography of the war. His narrative encompasses the Atlantic and Pacific theaters but also devotes his coverage to the Mediterranean theater. What stands out is the convoy support in the Atlantic which suffered tremendous losses of material and lives as we tried to supply our allies. In the Pacific, the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal dominate as the Japanese zeroed in on the USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier at the battle of Midway at the end of May 1942. Luckily, they could not zero in on other carriers, the USS Hornet and USS Enterprise. By chance, the officer on deck was Lt. Junior Grade Peck Greenbacker of the Class of 1940 who was at the center of the storm and eventually the Yorktown could not be saved as it was repeatedly hit by Japanese torpedoes. At Guadalcanal, the US Navy suffered its worst defeat in its history as it lost the USS Quincy killing 370, the USS Vincennes with the loss of 322 men in early August 1942. In addition, more ships were lost and the death total encompassing all losses included a number from the Class of 1942 as class members were involved throughout the battles. So many ships were sunk in the waters off Guadalcanal that it soon earned the nickname, “Ironbottom Sound.”

(Midshipmen holystone the deck of the USS Missouri (BB-63) during their summer training cruise)

In the Mediterranean Operation Torch became Roosevelt’s response to domestic pressure and Winston Churchill to finally take it to the Nazis. Symonds fittingly points out that General George C. Marshall feared diverting assets to North Africa would cause a postponement of any landing in France in 1943, which in the end was the result. The main obstacle to Torch was the French Vichy destroyer, Jean Bart in Casablanca Harbor. Lt. Warren Walker’s USS Massachusetts and his compatriots were able to take out the ship allowing General George Patton’s troops to invade Morocco in November 1942, and later, Walker was involved with the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa’s heavy guns which assisted allied troops as they landed at Utah Beach on D-Day. Another sailor associated with the Class of 1940 was Sam Edelsein who in early July 1943 was sent to the Mediterranean on the eve of the invasion of Sicily to supervise the installation of SG radar sets on Admiral Richard Connolly’s flagship, the USS Biscayne. Edelstein would oversee the acquisition and dissemination of radar intelligence throughout the invasion.

ANNAPOLIS GOES TO WAR is a well written account of the lives of the Class of 1940, and their contribution to the war effort. Based on impressive research his narrative encompasses the vast geography of the naval battles of World War II and in the end is an acknowledgement and salute to those who gave their lives and those who contributed to victory.

United States Naval Academy Annapolis Maryland

(U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD)

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.

Balkins Road Trip Map: Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro

THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER by Joseph Finder

September 11, 2025szfreiberger Espionage, Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

(View of the Kremlin from across the Moskva River, 2012)

In 1963, Jimmy Soul sang; “If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife, for my personal point of view get an ugly girl to marry you…….” This advice is very prescient for Paul Brightman, alias Grant Anderson in Joseph Finder’s latest spell binding novel, THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER. Brightman, an analyst and investor at Aquinnah Capital in Manhattan marries a photographer named Tatiyana Belkin. It turns out she is the daughter of Russian oligarch, Arkady Galkin who runs AGF, a financial investment firm, also in New York City. From the outset, Finder has hooked the reader as he has done in his sixteen previous suspense novels.

The author starts the novel rather placidly, but within a few pages a violent scene plays itself out as Grant Anderson, a boat builder is aboard his friend Lyle Bourdeaux’s boat substituting for him to lead a fishing excursion for a customer named Frederick Newman. We soon learn that Newman was sent by a Russian oligarch to kill him. Anderson turns the tide on Newman and after escaping Newman’s grip and gun, feeds him to the sharks. It turns out that Anderson is not who he appears to be, having arrived in Derryfield, New Hampshire five years earlier and learned the boat building trade from “Old Man Casey,” and becomes involved with a teacher named Sarah Harrison. But Anderson has a past, with a different name, and a few hours later two Russian thugs come to his house and kill his friend Alec Wood, a local policeman. The FBI immediately becomes involved, and Anderson finds himself on the run from two divergent groups.

(The superyacht Amadea in Coronado, Calif., on June 27, 2022)

Finder organizes his novel by alternating between the past and the present over a six year period as he engages in sudden shifts in time. “It’s Finder’s very effective method of ramping up threat and suspense. The revelations of modern espionage here—like ‘the only uncrackable safe is one that no one can find to crack’—come in quick bursts of surprise, seasoned by a gently sardonic viewpoint.” He takes the reader back and introduces Paul Brightman who has a successful career and a rising star on Wall Street until he meets Tatiyana Belkin who he immediately falls in love with, unbeknownst to him she is the daughter of a Russian oligarch who appears to work for the Kremlin. Soon Aquinnah Capital goes under, and Arkady Galkin offers Brightman a job tripling his pay. He will be approached by Mark Addison, an FBI agent who investigated Russian oligarchs and how they laundered their money and convinces Brightman to engage in aspects of spy craft for the government. Brightman is in a quandary; he loves Tatiyana whom he marries but finds himself investigating his father in law.

It is easy to see where this is going. Brightman takes on a new identity, that of Grant Anderson to escape Galkin’s revenge. The novel moves quickly from scene to scene as first Anderson is on the run, and we are filled with further background pertaining to his real identity. Finder keeps the reader on the edge of his seat as each scene unfolds. However, at times the author makes assumptions without enough detailed explanation. For example, when Brightman is first approached by Addison to engage in “dirty work” for the FBI he agrees almost without question, not weighing the possible risks enough and how it would impact his personal life.

(Author, Joseph Finder)

Finder’s description of the life of a Russian oligarch is fascinating and provides the reader a great deal of insight as to how they conduct their businesses and private life. As Finder relates in a January 28, 2025, interview on NPR; “It is real. It is real. But, you know, what’s interesting about these oligarchs is that they are billionaires. They own sports teams. They are also patrons of the art in the U.S. They are sort of – I call them the new Medicis. And they are – and were, I should say – princes of the realm, princes of capitalism, in a sense, until the war in Ukraine began. And then they were persona non grata. They – overnight, they were forced out of the country. And this transformation – going from being somebody that you wanted on the board of your museum or your hospital or your university to someone who you wouldn’t acknowledge was, to me, humanly fascinating, and it made this an interesting story to tell.”

Another interesting aspect of the novel that Finder develops is how easily a person can disappear in the digital age. The novel relates that the secret these days is to find a small town where they don’t have CCTV cameras and to live a life based on cash. Do not open a bank account. Or if you open a bank account, don’t earn any interest. The key is not to pay taxes, because once the IRS learns who you are they are very good at tracking you down. Further, Brightman/Anderson is able to employ many of the skills his “off the grid father” taught him. It is clear that Finder has conducted a great deal of research to make his story authentic.

Sometimes the novel becomes a bit complicated, but in the end all plot lines come neatly together in this ever surprising plot as Paul will have to unravel a decades-old conspiracy that involves the highest members of government. This is not a novel about espionage as such; it has more to do with how espionage is being financed. It is, if you can believe the story, whose ending is not predictable, but in the end rather convincing in true Finder style.

(The Kremlin)

HOTEL UKRAINE by Martin Cruz Smith

September 4, 2025szfreiberger Espionage, Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

PHOTO: Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.

(Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. Ukrainian troops are finding brutalized bodies and widespread destruction in the suburbs of Kyiv, sparking new calls for a war crimes investigation and sanctions against Russia)

On February 24, 2022, the Russian military following the orders of Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine. The Russian autocrat believed his forces would take Kyiv in short order. However, as in most wars things did not go as planned as the Ukrainian army stopped any advance on their capital and as Russian forces receded they committed numerous savage atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. Fast forward three and a half years the war continues with no end in sight as it appears that Putin has no desire for peace as evidenced by his meeting with President Trump two weeks ago and the failed diplomacy that followed. This summer Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities has increased and there does not seem to be an end in sight. The ongoing war in Ukraine serves as a backdrop to Martin Cruz Smith’s eleventh and final installment of his Arkady Renko novels entitled HOTEL UKRAINE.

This map shows the locations of known Russian military strikes and ground attacks inside Ukraine after Russia announced a military invasion of Ukraine. The information is current as of March 1, 2022 at 11 a.m. eastern time.

In previous novels we learn that Renko, Smith’s Moscow based investigator suffers from Parkinson’s disease and his symptoms have grown worse. At the outset of the novel, we find Renko in Pushkinskya Square among Russian citizens demonstrating against the invasion of Ukraine. Renko meets his son Zhenya who is arrested for shouting anti-war slogans, and he is grabbed by the police and arrested. This will be the first instance in the novel that Smith mirrors actual events as he is charged with using an illegal word, “war,” as Russian authorities refer to events in Ukraine as a Special Military Operation.

The next day Renko is assigned by Prosecutor General Zurin to investigate the murder of Alexei Kazasky, one of twelve Deputy Ministers of Defense who was killed at the Hotel Ukraine. Almost immediately Renko is reintroduced to a former lover, Marina Makarova, an FSB agent who wants to pin the murder on Yuri Blokhin, a second class advisor at the Ukrainian embassy who turns out to be an SBU agent (equivalent to an FSB agent). Renko’s investigation proves Blokhin is being set up and an angry Makarova is forced to release him. She wants to control the investigation and eventually gets Renko removed from the case by outing him to his superiors that he suffers from Parkinsons.

There are a number of interesting characters that are introduced particularly Renko’s son Zhenya’s friends and compatriots in opposing the war, Misha and Margarita who are members of the Black Army – a group of hacker activists who do their best to educate the Russian public as to the truth of the war in Ukraine. They research the truth and put it out on social media, attack Russian websites, for example, ministries, links, infrastructure and businesses like Gazprom, in addition to doing the same to Putin’s ally, Belarus.

(Martin Cruz Smith)

As the novel progresses more and more Smith integrates real events and people into his story. A case in point is Lev Volkov, a former Spetsnaz soldier who fought in the first Chechen war. Volkov founded a private army called the 1812 Group which fought in Crimea in 2014. The group is funded and armed by Putin and Smith recounts their activities particularly in Central Africa and Mali as they take over mine complexes and control the extraction of valuable resources. Volkov was an oligarch, warlord, and political operator who mirrors the real life Victor Prigozhin and his Wagner Group who engaged in the same activities in Africa and was used by Putin as a surrogate army in Ukraine until Putin’s “former cook” went too far and perished in a plane crash. There are other examples of the real war portrayed including the role of sanctions and its economic impact on Russian society, the shortages that develop especially medicines to treat Parkinson’s etc.

The novel takes a major turn as Renko after viewing a thumb drive that hackers make available to suspects that the murder of Kazasky is linked to a suspect who was in Bucha and used a similar weapon to commit atrocities as was used to kill the former defense functionary. Renko’s girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, an investigative reporter for the New York Times convinces Renko to go to Bucha to explore the possibility that what he saw on the thumb drive is the key to solving the murder. The problem is that Renko has been put on leave and was ordered to stand down.

Renko himself realizes that his Parkinsons have slowed him down, but he is intrigued by the case. It is interesting that the author suffered from Parkinsons for over thirty years and on July 11, at the age of 82 he succumbed to the disease almost to the day that his last Renko novel was released. Renko and Tatiana go to Bucha avoiding the problems caused by the war and arrive “going the long way around” from Athens to Warsaw to Ukraine.

HOTEL UKRAINE brings Arkady full circle as it is a prominent location from an earlier Renko novel, GORKY PARK. A tense meeting occurs between Lev Volkov, who is tired of Tatiana’s storylines, and it is possible he will have her killed. Smith offers powerful scenes, such as when Arkady’s consciousness makes the hallucinatory transition from thinking that he’s undergoing an extreme attack of Parkinson’s, to the realization he’s been poisoned. The sequence is probably derived from Smith’s own experience, which lends a high degree of authenticity to the novel. Smith’s reality transferred to Renko, the ongoing war in Ukraine which has caused the death of over million people and has destroyed Ukrainian villages and towns all appear in a story whose end is sad as we realize will no longer have this novelist and his characters to entertain us and make us think about the realistic stories and characters he has created.

(Bags containing bodies of civilians are seen at the cemetery after being picked up from the streets before they are taken to the morgue, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, Ukraine April 4, 2022)

WALTER O’MALLEY AND THE DODGERS AND BASEBALL’S WESTERN EXPANSION by Andy McCue

September 1, 2025szfreiberger Biography, Sports Leave a comment

The iconic main entry of Ebbets Field was located at the intersection of Sullivan Place and Cedar Street (later renamed McKeever Place). (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)

(Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, NY)

As a little boy in 1956 my father took me to Ebbets Field to see the Brooklyn Dodgers play the Cincinnati Reds. We sat behind the Reds dugout, and I carefully watched men like Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson. I looked out at the green expanse, and I saw my heroes; Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese and was overwhelmed. I do not remember the final score of the game, but what I do remember 70 years later was how wonderful the experience was. I would never return again to Ebbets Field, not because my parents refused to take me, but because Walter O’Malley, a man who would be vilified and hated by the Flatbush faithful, would move the “beloved Dodgers” to the west coast. I have read a number of books on the move, the best being Neil Sullivan’s THE DODGERS MOVE WEST, but none zero in more on the man responsible for changing baseball from a conservative midsize business that resided on the east coast to a national, and then international game earning billions of dollars. The publication of Andy McCue’s exceptional biography of O’Malley and the history of the move, WALTER O’MALLEY AND THE DODGERS AND BASEBALL’S WESTERN EXPANSION fills that void.

McCue goes right to the heart of why O’Malley wanted to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles. After spending about a third of the book providing background material relating to the development of baseball and the Dodgers in particular. He integrates O’Malley’s upbringing, his early career, which was primarily focused on the law and business, even though he was involved with baseball, but with a special emphasis on real estate transactions. Further he does well integrating the machinations within the Dodger organization from the 1920s on as different factions vied for control of the ball club. What emerges are wonderful portraits of Branch Rickey, Buzzy Bavasi, and Leo Durocher, among others. But more importantly he drills down as to how O’Malley was able to acquire his controlling interest in the team. Once McCue reviews this material he goes right to the heart of why O’Malley wanted to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

Walter O’Malley’s grand baseball ballpark — Dodger Stadium — opened on April 10, 1962.

(Walter O’Malley outside of his office on the Club Level at Dodger Stadium)

In a chapter entitled “A New Stadium-Economics,” McCue outlines the state of the Dodgers in the early 1950s getting to the core of O’Malley’s concerns. One of the primary themes of the narrative is that O’Malley was a businessman foremost, and to a lesser extent, a baseball fan. By the early 1950s Brooklyn underwent a demographic and racial change especially where Ebbets Field was located. The area, known as Flatbush, was becoming less white and more diverse. Brooklyn in general experienced the same thing as between 1950 and 1957 the borough “lost 235,000 Caucasians and added 100,000 non-whites.” Brooklyn was losing population as people fled to Nassau country, Long Island, and Queens. In addition, the borough was also losing manufacturing jobs, and as a result people’s discretionary spending for baseball was drastically reduced.

At the same time Dodger attendance was on a steady decline going from 1.8 million in the late 1940s to roughly 1.1 million right before the team left for Los Angeles in 1958. This ate into the team’s profitability and O’Malley’s answer was a new ballpark. By the mid-1950s Ebbets Field was located in a neighborhood rife with vandalism, in fact New York Daily News sports reporter Dick Young stated that O’Malley had told him “the area is getting full of blacks and spics.” The ballpark itself was in bad need of refurbishing as toilets didn’t work, too many seats were behind support beams, and seating was only 32,000 compared to 70,000 at Yankee Stadium and 54,000 at the Polo Grounds. O’Malley’s solution was to build a new ballpark.

(Robert Moses)

McCue delves into the role of Robert Moses, who was Long Island State Commissioner and the head of the Triborough Bridge Authority and one of the most powerful men in New York. As O’Malley pushed for a new stadium in Brooklyn, Moses became the main roadblock to his vision as he was clear that a baseball team could not use public funds set aside for slum clearance, even if it were part of a larger project that was involved in improving the neighborhood and creating public housing – throughout negotiations over the next few years, Moses would not change his mind. It is clear from McCue’s discussion; Moses did not like O’Malley, which played a major role in their talks. O’Malley tried a number of scenarios to break the impasse but got nowhere. Moses would offer the future site of Shea Stadium in Queens, but O’Malley would not leave Brooklyn. Further impacting talks were Mayor Robert Wagner who never believed that baseball was a priority.

McCue delves into the weeds as he first recounts negotiations with New York officials and then moves on to discuss talks with Los Angeles businessmen and politicians. In both cases the main issues centered on a site for a new stadium, cost of construction, taxation, infrastructure costs, leases, and ancillary aspects including mineral rights, and recreation areas and who would be responsible for paying for these items. What emerges is personality conflict as many involved had their own agendas, but if one is looking for who to blame for the move apart from O’Malley a great deal falls on the people of Brooklyn whose attendance at Dodger games declined precipitously over the previous decade.

(Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax)

One of the most important questions McCue raises is when O’Malley made up his mind to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles. There is no conclusive answer be it after the 1956 World Series, Spring Training 1957, or at some point in negotiations with New York officials. The answer to the question probably depends on your opinion of O’Malley and the process that resulted.

Once the decision was reached to move the team O’Malley’s biggest problem was where the Dodgers were going to play. Wrigley Field, which he purchased was too small with little parking, the Los Angeles Coliseum was too large, and its configuration was not conducive for baseball to the point the Rose Bowl in Pasadena was considered. The key to negotiations was the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission and Los Angeles City Council member, John Holland, who opposed the move and did his best to postpone any construction after a deal was struck with numerous lawsuits and slow walking approvals for construction.

(Los Angeles Coliseum)

One of the most interesting aspects of the process was how the Coliseum would be retrofitted for baseball – not an easy task as a new field needed to be created, more comfortable seats added, reduction in capacity by 10,000, and the cost of renovations. A key person in all aspects of the move was Harold Parraott who joined the Dodgers in 1943. Officially, he was traveling secretary, but his duties included much more as he was in charge of attendance receipts while on the road, needed to know baseball, the newspaper business, and had a knack for figures – Parrott met all of these qualifications.

McCue’s work is more than a biography. It is an intricate portrait of the Dodger owner, but it is also a unique description of the inner workings of the Dodger organization focusing on decision making relating to finally deciding to leave Brooklyn and the myriad problems that developed in Los Angeles including the economics and politics involved. The role of Buzzy Bavasi and Branch Rickey stand out as McCue takes the reader through the history of the Dodgers. But importantly, the author provides a history of Chavez Ravine, the final site for the new stadium, and all the roadblocks that were created to prevent its completion. Once the site was chosen O’Malley had to deal with a referendum on the contract with Los Angeles authorities which would produce a “holy alliance” between groups of various parochial interests who wanted to stop construction. C. Arnholt Smith, the owner of the Pacific Coast Leagues, San Diego Padres financed the opposition, and a fascinating political battle emerged led by John Holland on the conservative side, and Roz Wiener, a liberal on the Los Angeles City Council. The result that a stadium that was to cost around $10 million would rise to $16 million.

(Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA)

In the end O’Malley becomes a towering baseball figure bringing baseball to the west coast, moving his own team but convincing New York Giants owner, Horace Stoneham to move his team to San Francisco. O’Malley’s actions fostered a new sense of unity and identity for Los Angeles which had the reputation of being “72 suburbs in search of a city.” McCue presents a nuanced account showing O’Malley as a shrewd and daring businessman who saw the future of baseball differently than other owners. The narrative fosters a well-researched and even handed account of a man who could be compassionate and generous but also mean-spirited and insensitive.

Paul Dickson’s review in the April 4, 2014, Wall Street Journal captures the essence of the man and what he accomplished: “The real insight of Mr. McCue’s book is that O’Malley was a man who embraced risk and adapted well to new situations. In the late 1960s, as the players union gained in strength under the leadership of Marvin Miller, the adversaries became friends. ‘He is the one baseball owner I respect,’ said Miller. ‘O’Malley is a hard, realistic businessman who is part of this century and who does not pretend that baseball is something it isn’t.’ While other owners saw their battles with Miller and his union as a test of their manliness, O’Malley approached the fight over player salaries more practically. His negotiations with Miller were conducted with civility and what Miller termed ‘the cut-and-thrust between two New York boys—even if many of the fans in their home city still hated at least one of them.”

The Ebbets Field grandstand is packed with fans during Game 3 of the 1941 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees. (SABR-Rucker Archive)