El Blogo Del Juan

For some reason around Christmas time I decided I should learn more about American history. Because of that I named a few history based books from anyone looking for Christmas ideas. This year I got 1776 by David McCullough. I have always been interested in war history going back to reading a book about the German World War II flagship Bismarck. The 2 wars I decided on learning more about were the Revolutionary war and World War I. I knew a little about the American Revolutionary war but not much more than what you what you learn in grade school.

In an odd coicendence HBO also decided to cover the Revolutionary war with their miniseries John Adams based on David McCoullough’s book John Adams. While the miniseries was based mostly around the diplomacy around the Revolutionary war 1776 is based on the battles on the Colonial “Army”.

Some books on historical subjects can read like textbooks and become very bland. McCullough does a very good job of writing 1776 as a narrative. I always have a tendency to question the authenticity of that type of writing style when there can not possibly have been accounts that go to that level of detail.

1776 follows George Washington and the other primary officers of the colonial “Army” such as Henry Knox and Nathanael Green as well as William Howe the Commander of the British Army. I say colonial “Army” in quotes because it can barely be called an army. Generally it is a tale of a woefully disorganized and under-supplied colonial army. It does a wonderful job of fighting the Santa Clausification (to use a phrase I have heard a few times lately and loved) of George Washington and portray him as a real person with faults. It is hard to read this book without realizing that the history I was taught as a child has been terribly glossed over in the spirit of “History is written by the winners”

One of the more telling anecdotes was that Washington, a model southern gentleman, would always present himself in his full dress uniform which was crafted specifically for him. Most soldiers had no uniform whatsoever and those few who did were regiments for specific colonies that were left over from fighting the French and Native Americans. Washington felt that a leader should look like a leader even though his army looked nothing like an army.

Another thing that has stuck with me from the book is that not everyone was for independence. In fact it almost seemed like those for independence were in the minority. The only region that seemed staunchly against the British was Boston and Philadelphia while New York was very pro British.

Overall 1776 was a very worthwhile read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Revolutionary war or those who led it British or Colonist. It was more than slightly jarring that it ended so abruptly at the end of 1776 with no more than a couple pages of explanations over the end of the war. I suppose I can’t argue too much though given that the title so accurately should have prepared me for it With page upon page of bibliography at the end it is hard not to be impressed with the amount of work that must have gone into it and I will seek out more David McCullough writings with the next being “Mornings on Horseback” about Teddy Roosevelt.

Vengeance is a novel by George Jonas detailing the Israeli counter intelligence department’s response to the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic games. A group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic compound and took 9 Israeli athletes hostage. All of the hostages died either in captivity or in a rescue attempt. In response to this Israel undertook a covert operation to assassinate 11 people who were believed to have masterminded or been involved with the attack. The story is told from the point of view of the team leader Avner who is regular field agent but is none the less picked to lead this mission. The story is like a movie plot but since it is supposedly true it becomes all the more fantastic. The charge of the Israeli team was to kill the men in fantastic ways, not just to gun them down on the street but to kill them when they feel secure at home or among their peers. For example one way they devise is for a telephone to explode when it is picked up. The plan is not only to take revenge but to attempt to make terrorists paranoid as well as deter and disorganize them.

The story is wildly compelling. It begins with training and background on counter intelligence and covert operations. The firearms teacher tells them they never draw their gun to threaten only to kill. Once your gun is out your cover is blown and you are useless. The only real question is if you believe that it is true. The printing of the book I read had an epilogue describing the dispute over whether or not the book is actually true. You have to wonder why someone who is this undercover decides to come out and tell his story and it goes into what is likely the motivation behind that at the end of the book.

The book reads very much as a narrative and not just a recounting of events which is always nice for books based on historical events. I watched the movie “Munich” which is the Steven Spielberg adaptation of the novel while writing this review and was only half interested in it. It does a very good job of following the story closely but for some reason it didn’t capture me as much as the book did. Generally I try to watch the movies first and then read the book that way I enjoy both but failed on this one.

Overall if you like spy like material or are interested in the Mossad and Israeli counter intelligence then this is something you won’t be disappointed in.

Normally it takes a few recommendations on something for me to take them to heart especially if I don’t know the people doing the recommending. You can find someone out there to recommend anything it seems and I had heard of Stephenson off and on over the past few years. Most of the anecdotes revolved around him and his “tech” type fictional stories. Normally I don’t read that type of fiction but finally Pete recommended Crtyptonomicon so I decided to pick it up.

The story takes place in 3 major phases, two of which take place during world war II and one that takes place in the present day. All three stories are related to the origin of the personal computer as well as where currency derives it’s value and how that could change in a digital age.. The basis of the book is a present day company attempting to set up a data haven in the Philippines to be safe from government intervention and all traffic being heavily encrypted. At the same time the other two threads take place in somewhat parallel during World War II. The characters in the two time periods are family relation usually grandfather-grandson/granddaughter though this doesn’t play much role in the story other than they are dealing with similar subject matter across the generations.

The book is in the same vein as the Da Vinci Code in that it uses actual history as the basis for a fictional story and mixes true historical facts along with those made up for the story. One of the books characters is Alan Turing who was heavily involved with breaking German Cryptography during World War II and is credited with being one of the fathers of modern computing. In regards to Turing and other true historical characters and events the issue is that it can be difficult to know what is true and what is for the sake of the story.

I would recommend this book but under the caveat of a few things. This book jumps around a lot in a Lord of the Rings style. The story consists of multiple interweaving tales and can sometimes leave a thread for long periods. This can drop you out of the story while you are hoping the story returns to one of the more interesting tales. Also, Stephenson has a tendency to venture into R rated territory from time to time and it feels very unnecessary. The sections rarely add value to the story and it feels a lot like an adolescent boy trying to write realistic stories about sex before he has any real experiences to base them on.

Cryptonomicon is an intriguing story for those interested in technology and currency. I have already begun reading Stephenson’s trilogy The Baroque Cycle and the books in that series continue along the same vein.

I asked for this book for Christmas after seeing Efraim Halevy as a guest on the Daily Show. Halevy is a former head of the Mossad and various other diplomatic positions in the Mossad and the Israeli government. I got the book with the idea that it was a collection of tales of cloak and dagger operations from what is considered by many to be the most competent intelligence service in the world. I have been interested in the subject ever since hearing about Operation Wrath of God which is supposedly the program Israel undertook in retribution for the attack on their athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. In hindsight this is ridiculous since recounting anything of that nature while he and others are still alive would be irresponsible not only to the Mossad but to the individuals who were and are a part of it. What it is a very in depth look at relations between Israel and the Arab world over the last 30+ years but with a particular focus on the 2 Gulf Wars and post 9/11.

Halevy talks in depth with the nature of peace treaties between Israel and Jordan, the ongoing issues of the Palestinians and the occupied territories and other issues that have affected Israel. The title rather than referring to covert operations actually refers to Halevy being the unseen man who was negotiating treaties behind the scenes. These treaties would then be signed by the diplomatic leaders of Israel and Arab nations would sign usually in the presence of U.S. In some instances the Israeli Prime Minister would not even know the contents of the treaty he was signing or would only find out just before.

The most relevant portions are those dealing with the current state of terrorism and the war in Iraq. Halevy takes some fairly scary viewpoints that intelligence services can not always be restrained by laws to be effective and states this to people in the American government from which his is rebuked as these would be the actions of a totalitarian government. The point is also made that the primary service for countering terrorism inside the U.S. is the FBI and it is their goal to build a case to prosecute terrorists in court rather than the stop them from carrying out their objectives. He states that the UI.S. is the only nation in the world where a single service is tasked with both those objectives.

Criticism of the American system from such a respected Intelligence service should be taken seriously since they have been dealing with these problems far longer than we have. It can’t be ignored though that the perpetrators of these crimes are major idealogical enemies of Israel and their demise would certainly be in the interest of the Mossad and Israel. Also, in the U.S. there are certain standards that we have lived by for over 200 years and we firmly believe in a persons right to trial and allowing military services to act outside the bounds of law is a dangerous area.

This book is very dry and I would not recommend it unless you have an interest in the subject matter already. There is a little talk about failed operations that made the papers but no real details so I felt the title was a little intentionally misleading. The discussion of the Iraq war and the role of the United States in the Middle East is also a strong topic that is worth reading the book for.

Next up is either The Divine Comedy or the book which the movie Munich is based on called Vengeance by George Jonas.

Well after I don’t know how long I was finally able to finish up Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins. I made the mistake however of reading some of the reviews while searching for that previous link. I will try to deliver the same things I would have had I not read them. Up until now I had never really read much about Churchill but I have heard a lot of the one liners etc… that he is attributed and those along with a pretty interesting description from my father while we were book shopping one day.. I think he said something along the lines of “He was the last great renaissance man”, so with that it got added to my 2004 Christmas list and the first week of August I finally finished it.
The book centers around the idea that everything in Winston Churchill’s life was leading up to World War II and leading Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany especially during the period after France fell and the U.S. and Russia became directly involved. Churchill rose to power in somewhat of a lackluster fashion and went on to become one of if not the greatest British Prime Ministers of the modern era.
Churchill was a politician, writer, painter and historian. He is well known for some of his alleged one liners and such although those serve almost no role in this book which was disappointing. The book does however talk a great deal about Churchill’s faults and does not gloss over his political career. He is painted as someone who required being the center of attention at all times.
One of the more satisfying aspects of the book are some of the accounts of what other people who worked with him closely. Many people have quotes along the lines of ‘It reassures me that people such as Churchill exist on this earth from time to time’. That kind of high praise and if worthy that kind of greatness is always interesting reading.
The weaker points of the book were some of the assumptions it made especially in the realm of British politics. I can only assume that the book is aimed toward a British audience because my limited knowledge of the British political system spent most of the time trying to pick up what I could. A few sidebars or inline explanation could have made the book a lot more laymen friendly but it didn’t make the book unreadable by any stretch.
While the book is fairly long it never really felt like it was too slow and as dumb as it makes me sound I really enjoyed the few glossy pages of pictures. Some of the reviews I read claimed this wasn’t a great book as the first reading about Churchill but I can only assume that was made by someone who had read something other than this first. I found it worth my time and would recommend it if you are interested in WWII history or biographies about great figures in world history.

Well since I read quite a bit and I have been looking to write a bit more on the blog I’m going to start writing some book reviews more to let all everyone know if I think others should read it. Who knows though, maybe if I start making grand statements like ” This book is a non- stop thrill ride that will leave you begging for more!” I’ll show up on a dust jacket or something. So with that…

Moneyball is a non-stop thrill ride that will leave you begging for more! Well not really but you can’t hit home runs if you don’t swing right? It’s by a guy named Michael Lewis and overall I think it’s a great book.

Moneyball is about the Oakland Athletics and their General Manager Billy Beane. The basic premise of the book is that Billy Beane came into a climate where players are evaluated based on physical attributes and the opinions of scouts rather than on statistics. Armed with this knowledge he is able to bring in Ivy League types armed with computers and statistics and identify under valued statistics such as on base percentage and slugging. Beane was able to field 100 win teams multiple years in a row with one of the smallest payrolls in the league and with mostly no name players who exhibit the stats that he has found to generate runs.

The book starts out with a little background on Beane and how he was one of the most coveted players of his draft and taken by the Mets side by side with Daryl Strawberry. He was considered a 5 tool player and scouts still swear he was the best prospect they ever saw. The problem was he had an incredible temper and couldn’t hit. The author Lewis makes the connection that this led him to not judge players solely on their “tools” but based more off their stats and their past history.

Lewis had what seemed like total access to every aspect of the personal moves of the Oakland A’s in 2002 from draft day to late season trades whether they actually happened or not. I felt the most interesting part of the book was the descriptions of conversations with other GMs in the league such as Kenny Williams of the White Sox.

Also in the book are some stories about certain players including a great story about A’s First Baseman Scott Hatterberg’s first hit and his hero Don Mattingly.

One point of contention I had with the book that while holding up Beane’s system of finding high on base players and players who walk a lot they kind of down play pitching while at that time the A’s had three of the most dominant pitchers in the American League in Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. They didn’t completely dismiss it but I felt like it was downplayed and undervalued.

Overall Moneyball is almost a must read if you are a serious baseball fan. It’s effect on baseball and on standard statistics is huge. I had heard so many people mention it I had to read the book. You see on base percentage in a lot of stat lines and more and more you hear about OPS which is on base plus slugging. As things like “sabermetrics”, which is just a term for a newer set of statistics that go beyond your standard batting average and RBIs, become popular this book is getting more notice because of it or is supporting it. Either way as a computer nerd with a passing interest in math I was amused.

Lastly if you decide to pick up the book up make sure you get the paperback which has an afterward written about a year after the book came out which is pretty much the author attempting to defend Beane from publicity created by the book. Because the book basically said that most established baseball practices were inefficient and Beane had found a better way a lot of people were not too happy with the claims Moneyball made. Perhaps most unfairly were the claims that Beane had a huge ego because he wrote a book about his winning system when in fact Beane didn’t write the book nor did he have any real knowledge into what the book was going to be about. Anyway check it out and you won’t be disappointed.