The Simple Sounds of Freedom : The True Story of the Only Soldier to Fight for Both America and the Soviet Union in World War II

Book Description

One of the most amazing stories of World War II is also likely to be among the last.

As the twentieth century closed, the veterans of its defining war passed away at a rate of a thousand per day. Fortunately, D Day paratrooper Joseph Beyrle met author Thomas H. Taylor in time to record The Simple Sounds of Freedom, the true story of the first American paratrooper to land in Normandy and the only soldier to fight for both the United States and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany.

It is a story of battle, followed by a succession of captures, escapes, recaptures, and re-escapes, then battle once more, in the final months of fighting on the Eastern Front. For these unique experiences, both President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin honored Joe Beyrle on the fiftieth anniversary of V-E Day.

Beyrle did not strive to be a part of history, but history kept visiting him. Twice before the invasion he parachuted into Normandy, bearing gold for the French resistance. D Day resulted in his capture, and he was mistaken for a German line-crosser—a soldier who had, in fact, died in the attempt. Eventually Joe was held under guard at the American embassy in Moscow, suspected of being a Nazi assassin.

Fingerprints saved him, confirming that he’d been wounded five times, and that he bore a safe-conduct pass written by Marshal Zhukov after the Wehrmacht wrested Joe, at gunpoint, from execution by the Gestapo. In the ruins of Warsaw his life was saved again, this time by Polish nuns. Some of Joe’s story is in his own words—a voice that will be among the last and best we hear firsthand from World War II.

Customer Reviews:

amerikanski tovarisch!.......2003-12-31

Several years ago I read parts of Joe Beyrle's memoir, translated into Russian for the gazette Sovietskaya Zhizn'. "The Simple Sounds of Freedom" contains Joe's entire memoir and his exciting biography by Thomas Taylor. Mr. Taylor, a veteran and historian of the 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles", is the perfect choice to tell Joe's story. Joe Beyrle was a small-town boy in 1942, gung-ho to prove the patriotism of his German-American family. He joined the Screaming Eagle "Currahees", and made a couple of harrowing jumps into occupied France to aid the Resistance. That was in preparation for the big day, D Day. Alas, Joe was captured almost as he touched ground in Normandy and missed his chance to fight. He survived beatings upon arrival at a POW camp, only to experience a most painful sight: the bullet-riddled body of his beloved CO, Robert Wolverton, hanging from a tree. Laughing guards were using the slain Currahee for bayonet practice. Later escaping, Joe was caught, tortured, and interned in a notorious concentration camp, Stalag 111-C. There he saw miserable Soviet prisoners, segregated, starved, freezing, worked to death. There was little the American krieges could do for them, except throw some bread over their fence on occasion. Again, Joe plotted escape, and finally succeeded, although two of his buddies perished in the attempt. In his emaciated condition, trapped behind enemy lines, Joe hoped to be rescued by the advancing Red Army. Meanwhile, at home in Muskegon, his family had received word of their son's "death in action" and were grieving his supposed loss. These events are interwoven in the book with the overall campaign of the 101st Airborne. Several chapters do not deal with Joe's story at all, but with his Currahee comrades' accomplishments during this crucial period of the War. I found this did not distract in the least from the biography; in fact, made it all the more interesting. And Thomas' macho style of prose quite enhances his patriotic pride in his Division! It is not until the last third of the book that Joe meets the Soviet column. Commanding the Sherman tank battalion was a Russian woman whose "five-syllable name was unpronouncable." Joe called her by her rank, "Major", and joined the infantry attached to her own tank. His new comrades called him "Yo", and came to appreciate his skill in demolitions. Major led from the front, which meant Joe got plenty of combat action. He accompanied her all the way to the banks of the Oder, prepared to go through the meatgrinder at her side, into Berlin. But then he was wounded, and had to be evacuated to Moscow. Fifty years later, he would be decorated by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin as the only American soldier to fight for both the USA and the USSR. And he would think about Major and wonder how many of her battalion survived. "Proshchai tovarisch!" he writes. "If she is still alive, I'd go to Russia just to see her -- my major, my CO, my second Wolverton -- who was a woman." I enjoy books about World War ll, but this one touched me in a special way. Today Joe is retired, a veteran of the fast-dwindling Greatest Generation, my parents' generation, who fought Hitler. Ironically, the new generation of 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles fight on against another foe which faced the Soviet army... in Afghanistan.

Excellent Writing.......2003-03-08

"The Simple Sounds Of Freedom" by Thomas H. Taylor, Random House, New York 2002. The title of the book is derived from President Clinton's speech in France on the fiftieth anniversary of D Day.

This is a biography of Joe Beyrle but the book is also a record of praise for the 101st Airborne. Joe Beyrle, from Michigan, was part of the 101st Airborne when that division dropped into Normandy on D-Day, 1944. He was captured, escaped, capture again and shipped off to a German POW camp. After one escape, he is captured in Berlin, the capital city of the Third Reich; he is tortured by Gestapo. Joe is rescued from the Gestapo by the German Army, the Wehrmacht, of all people, who claim him as their prisoner. They were following bureaucratic procedures, a common trait in Nazi Germany. After regaining his strength, Joe Beyrle again escapes, and this time, he is close enough to reach the relative safety of Soviet lines. After identifying himself as an American, Joe decides to stay with the Soviet armored column in order to kill Germans. Thus, he fights on both the Western and Eastern fronts in Europe in 1944-1945, fulfilling the sub-title of the book, "...Only Soldier to Fight For Both America and the Soviet Union in World War II".

As a 101st Airborne combat veteran himself, the author was capable of an excellent job of bonding with Joe Beyrle, so as to produce an almost personal memoir direct from the Joe's memories. At times, it was difficult to distinguish between Beyrle and Taylor. At other times, particularly in Chapter Sixteen, entitled, "Bastogne", it was evident that it was all Thomas Taylor writing in praise of the division he loves, the 101st. From the viewpoint of a biography of Joe Beyrle, such chapters were unnecessary, but their presence rounds out the story and makes a better history of the time. By the way, the photo collection in the book shows Joe Beyrle aging in a remarkably similar fashion to the character of Private Ryan in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan".

A Most Interesting Story.......2003-02-01

I found the story of Joe Beyrle to be almost unbelieveable. How could one person go through so much. I was very anxious to read the book, because I once knew who he was from work. I worked at Brunswick Corporation in Muskegon, as did he. I knew that he was a prisoner of war, and that he had been reported killed in action. However, I didn't know that whole story until now. Many of the comments about Muskegon as familiar to me. Also, I once met his parents, as I am friends with his niece.

Thomas Taylor is an excellent writer. He knows how to make the story interesting, and provides much detail. Even though many of the incidents in the story are not pleasant, they are a part of history. He depicts World War II as brutal and horrible. Let us hope that it never happens again.

Wonderful Story.......2002-11-07

An amazing story! Joe Beyrle completely inspires me, never have i heard such an amazing tail based on such an extraordinary person. We should all be thankful that Joe is on our side.

This is a must read as it's the most satisfying book i've read in years. How Tom Taylor put this mans story in to words is beyond me.....very well done!

Curahee all over again!.......2002-11-05

This is the fascinating story of Joe Beyrle of the 101st Airborne Division Screaming Eagles in WWII, written by Thomas Taylor, a Vietnam era Screaming Eagle and the son of the commanding general of the 101st in WWII. Beyrle jumped into Normandy on D-Day and was captured by the Germans. He escapes and is re-captured several times before he joins a Soviet armored unit and fights the Nazis until the end of the war. This is the story of his suffering and triumph over adversity in many situations and circumstances.
It is an inspiring tale of survival and the human quest for freedom. This book is a page turner and I highly recommend it to all.

Simple Story Of A Soldier: Life And Service in the 2d Mississippi Infantry

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Simple Story Of A Soldier: Life And Service in the 2d Mississippi Infantry
Samuel W. Hankins
Manufacturer: Fire Ant Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Military & Spies | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0817351574

Book Description

In her luminous inquiry into the intricate connections among work, place, and people, Frieda Knobloch explores the lives of two Rocky Mountain botanists, Aven Nelson (1859-1952) and Ruth Ashton Nelson (1896-1987). Aven was a professor of botany at the University of Wyoming for many years; Ruth compiled field guides to Rocky Mountain plants and wrote articles on botany for magazines. The two met and married when Aven was in his seventies and Ruth was in her mid thirties, and they developed a symbiotic partnership that joined work and play, learning and companionship. Into this relatively straightforward reconstruction of two lives Knobloch blends the history of her own life as a scholar and an amateur naturalist, her own journal entries, and her letters written to Ruth to create a transformative environmental auto/biography.

Moving back and forth smoothly between different voices and forms, Knobloch makes a strong case for the ways in which the interests and pleasures—what she calls the matters of the heart—that motivate researchers shape the knowledge they produce. With a paradigm-breaking, cross-disciplinary combination of scholarly craft and literary nonfiction, she has written a prose poem dedicated to the nature of work and the work of nature.

Botanical Companions is a bold and lively reworking of academic genres that will intrigue readers interested in environmental history, ecocriticism, cultural studies, American studies, and the natural history of the Rocky Mountain West.

Customer Reviews:

roots that bind and limbs that touch.......2006-02-01

The trunk of this book is the unlikely marriage of two botanists, one in his 70s and the wife in her 30s. This raises the question of what binds people together. The answer is plants. Aven Nelson was one of the most distinguished botanists of the American West, doing major exploring at the end of the 19th century when the romantic Humboldtian natural history explorer tradition was still alive. But the relationship of Aven and Ruth is only the starting point for a book of ruminations on questions of larger bindings, most importantly what binds people to a place or to the Earth as a whole. The Nelsons were on the fringe of the academic world, but they had a much richer natural realm than the botanists headquartered in botanical capitals like Columbia University in New York City. Aven Nelson expressed his priorities as "the lives of men and women shall be fuller and richer because they have touched hands as it were wih a few of the lovable creations and creatures of the great uiverse." The author, Frieda Knobloch, a westerner herself, interweaves the Nelson's story with her own experiences and reflections on what binds her to the Nelsons and to the land. This book portrays science as very much an affair of the heart, of people obsessed with things they love, of imperfect people and institutions, but finally as something that has crucial things to teach the human race about living on Earth. The form of the book is very unusual, blending sections of letters, journals, biographical links, theory, and personal meditations. It's all great food for the imagination.

Book Description

This manual, written for healthcare professionals, explores the pros and cons of a wide range of currently practiced rehabilitation methods, and includes tests, illustrated exercises, and worksheets for evaluating patients.

Customer Reviews:

The opinions of one disappointed reader.......2006-07-07

This book unfortunately is an accurate representation of how profoundly irresponsible is the field of spinal reabilitation physical therapy. The author should know that you can't correct for the blatantly bad medicine that many many spine surgeons practice. Almost in passing she states that many of the procedures performed by these surgeons are of questionable value, lacking any evidence based support. As an example, with over 300,000 spinal fusion surgeries performed a year in the US, each surgery costing from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars--well you do the math it comes to 9 to 15 billion dollars and that's just for one procedure- fusions- which lack scientific support. It would have made much more sense to write a book recounting the effects on the patients of these inexcusable and mostly scientifically unsupportable surgeries, along with appropriate PT protocols that can be used to optimise patient function and wellbeing. But then with that sort of a book she might have been out of a job. When will the physical therapy profession begin to refuse to remain under the control of a medical profession that understands little about physical therapy only paying lip service to its true value. For me the profession has alot of growing up to do with regards to refusing to participate in procedures that are mostly performed out of greed,ignorance to scientific best evidence, as well as disregard for the well being of the patients. On another note one could not even use this book as a manual for implementing rehab protocols, as much of the information presented was too vague to be of much practical value. So even if one accepts the premise that the procedures presented are preformed for scientifically surportable reasons, still the book fails to fulfill its title promise. I hope that these criticisms are taken with a positive view of how the world of spinal rehab could become. Sometimes it is better to state that the emperor has no clothes rather than participate in a corrupt and morally inexcusable system. Respectfully, George Fett,MD

Indispensable.......2003-10-13

Rehabilitation Protocols for Surgical and Nonsurgical Procedures meets the challenge of providing techniques, as well as responding to the demand for accountability in the current dynamic healthcare environment. The research for the book has also tested the proposed spine protocols' acceptance among other spine practitioners in the East Texas region, and across the United States. During the past eight years, these protocols have been presented to many spine physicians and rehabilitation specialists to utilize and critique, the results of which are presented within these pages. McFarland and Burkhart have a combined experience of more than fifty years as physical therapy practitioners. Dr. Danielson, as well as the physicians at NeuroCare Network and the East Texas Neurologic Institute, has continued to support efforts in this area. These protocols have provided guidelines for referring surgical and nonsurgical patients for therapy, resulting in the development of a foundation for therapy experience that has generated new ideas for rehabilitation and care.
The American Back Society has contributed to this work as well, with the efforts of Executive Director Dr. Aubrey Swartz and current President Dr. Philip Greenman particularly instrumental. They have supported the development of these protocols since the early phases, extending the work throughout the ABS's worldwide membership through conferences and publications and sponsoring surveys for further research in the rehabilitation realm. Their combined efforts, Dr. Danielson's support, and the research of the authors have culminated with the publication of this book.

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** RIP - OFF !!! **

Burger Menu Blast

a perfect gift for a summer weekend

Perfect for a Busy Mother or Grandmother

Bergers never seemed so appealing

Burgers Every Way: 100 Recipes Using Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Fish, and Vegetables
Emily Haft Bloom
Manufacturer: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Meats | Meat, Poultry & Seafood | Cooking by Ingredient | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Barbecuing & Grilling | Outdoor Cooking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Build A Better Burger: Celebrating Sutter Home's Annual Search for America's Best Burgers

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Gourmet Burger, The

The Great Big Burger Book: 100 New and Classic Recipes for Mouthwatering Burgers Every Day Every Way

ASIN: 158479352X

Book Description

Americans are bonkers for burgers, eating about 38 billion annually. From fast-food beginnings at diners and drive-ins, where they were served with the mandatory fries and shake, hamburgers have risen to the ranks of haute cuisine, and now appear on the menus of the poshest dining rooms stuffed with foie gras and black truffles. Today's burger can be tailored to any taste. Besides the classic beef patty, Burgers Every Way offers such delectable variations as Grilled Ground Lamb with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce on Toasted Whole Wheat Pita, Pan-Fried Smoked Trout with Horseradish Mayo and Jicama Carrot Slaw on a Poppy Seed Bun, and that ever popular kid favorite, the Pizza Burger. To accompany the different burgers, the book includes recipes for tasty condiments and side dishes such as Monster Fries, Vegetable Chips, Pineapple Chutney, Peanut Sauce, and Mango Slushies.

With recipes for burgers made from veal, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, vegetables, and, of course, beef, Burgers Every Way celebrates the iconic sandwich in all its ground-up, char-grilled glory.

Customer Reviews:

** RIP - OFF !!! **.......2006-03-24

this book is ok, but it's a weak ripoff of The Great Big Burger Book, which is also 100 recipes, all kinds of meat and fish, etc but the first one is a much better book, easier to reproduce.

Burger Menu Blast.......2004-05-24

What is so nice about this offering is that each recipe has a suggested menu including drink, which is really unique. All the fixings are included and go so well. There is also great color photos as well as prep and equipment, etc.

It is organized by major burger ingredient, i.e. beef, lamb, seafood, poultry, etc.

Standouts include: "Curry in a Hurry Burgers" "Blue Bird Burgers" (chicken with blue cheese with a delicious Blue Onion Sauce) Mediterranean Burgers (with figs and lamb and saffron and Saffron Sauce) Tropical Swordfish Burgers.

There is even a great Kid-Friendly Section, knowing that kids can be picky eaters at times in their lives.

One hundred ideas to spice up the burger life of any cook.

a perfect gift for a summer weekend.......2004-05-24

I brought a copy of this book to a friend's house at the beach and he used it countless times in one weekend. We made lamb burgers, salmon burgers, mango smoothies, iced tea, three pepper slaw, corn relish and even that heavenly dessert burger which was a perfect end to a summer bbq. The menus make planning a meal a no-brainer, from appetizers to condiments. This book is lovely to look at, easy to use and the only book you need for the beach house! I will bring it to every summer party or weekend away this summer. Substantial enough to be a gift but practical too. Heartily recommended for the amateur and the pro.

Perfect for a Busy Mother or Grandmother.......2004-04-27

Unfussy, practical, easy to use & to cook from. Down to earth recipes. A whole meal plan in one unit. Side dishes make the meal. Drinks a plus. Anyone can do these meals. A summer grill bonanza. Good for a weekend gift idea.

Bergers never seemed so appealing.......2004-04-16

Bergers Every Way opened a whole new world for me. I was never a "berger" lover, but after reading this new cook book by Emily Haft Bloom I can't wait to try each one. The text is witty, the photography beautiful, and the whole package is very appealing. My hats off to the author.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Resource for Aspiring Trainers!

Great How To Manual for Dog Trainers

Written for Everyone to Understand

Required Reading for People Considering Dog Training as a Career

Up and Running

So You Want to be a Dog Trainer (2nd edition)
Nicole Wilde
Manufacturer: Phantom Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Training | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

It's Not the Dogs, It's the People! A Dog Trainer's Guide to Training Humans

One on One: A Dog Trainer's Guide to Private Training

Don't Shoot the Dog!

Excel-Erated Learning: Explaining in Plain English How Dogs Learn and How Best to Teach Them

The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way to Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs

ASIN: 0966772687

Product Description

Your step-by-step guide to becoming a professional dog trainer! Advice, tips and insider secrets are presented in an easy-to-follow, down-to-earth manner; it's like having a professional trainer sit down for a helpful chat! Topics include what it's really like to train dogs--and their owners; financial feasibility of different types of training; how to get an education; how to set up your business and advertise; tools and products you should not be without; teaching group classes; teaching in-home lessons; phone tips; safety tips; trainer etiquette. This revised second edition features a brand new section on web advertising, expanded sections on education, tools and products, and an expanded Resources section. This book is required reading in many train-the-trainer courses and is recommended by the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource for Aspiring Trainers!.......2007-05-12

This is an excellent source, full of useful advice on the ins and outs of putting together a dog training business. It does not go into training techniques, so you'll definitely need other books on methodology along with this one, which is strictly business. I think she's a bit conservative in her advice, which is probably necessary to publish and avoid liability. However, it can be a little discouraging to think that ALL OF THAT is necessary - just realize, it may not be. But it certainly has EVERYTHING you need!

Great How To Manual for Dog Trainers.......2006-06-09

Way to go, Nicole! She explains the business of dog training in a useful way! It explains some of the nuts and bolts of building a dog-training business as well as some useful manners and practical ethics.

Written for Everyone to Understand.......2006-03-11

Down to earth.. easy to follow.. lots of great information, reference & direction. A must read for anyone looking at training as a profession or just wanting to read a great book on the how too's. She writes in a logical down to earth fashion with humor. I loved this book.

Required Reading for People Considering Dog Training as a Career.......2005-08-22

This book was helpful in the sense that it puts all of the considerations in black and white. If you think you have thought of everything, I'll bet you find something in this book that may have slipped your mind.

I like Nicole's matter-of-fact approach. Her writing style makes this book an easy read.

Up and Running.......2005-07-23

I found this book very helpful,it explained the pitfalls of group training and one on one training,I am already a dog trainer but after i had read the book I changed a few things.

Your Pet Isn't Sick: He Just Wants You to Think So

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Your Pet Isn't Sick: He Just Wants You to Think So
Herbert Tanzer
Manufacturer: Wharton Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Veterinary Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Animal Husbandry | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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The Nature of Animal Healing : The Definitive Holistic Medicine Guide to Caring for Your Dog and Cat

ASIN: 1569121001

So You Want a Dog?: Questionable Answers to Your Questions About Doggie Ownership

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You'll learn and have fun
To share with young people who clamor for a puppy

So You Want a Dog?: Questionable Answers to Your Questions About Doggie Ownership
Dick Hafer
Manufacturer: Doral Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Book Description

One of the funniest books about dog ownership to come down the pike. All but the more stone-faced of the dog fanciers will get a chuckle out of these cartoons.

Customer Reviews:

You'll learn and have fun.......2003-07-07

This is a classic book on dogs. Hafer runs through all the steps you'll ever need to choose a dog, and he does it with a sense of humor that will make you laugh out loud as I did on a flight recently. Those sitting close to me thought I was nuts.

The book starts out telling you all the things that go into selecting a dog. Then Hafer introduces the various breeds and their finer points, their often humorous characteristics and how they behave in a family enviornment. He covers breeding, training and just about anything you would want to know about dogs but with a great sense of humor. I have ordered several for gifts for my dog owning friends. You will too.

To share with young people who clamor for a puppy.......2003-05-22

So You Want A Dog?: Questionable Answers To Your Questions About Doggie Ownership is an tongue-in-cheek introduction to the basics of dog ownerships, presented in quite simple terms and heavily illustrated with cartoon-style pictures. Yet the information is as reliable and extremely practical, as it is humorously presented and enjoyable to read. So You Want A Dog? is ideal reading to share with young people who clamor for a puppy and very highly recommended for aspiring or practicing dog owners of all ages and backgrounds.

So You Think You Want To Be A Dog Musher

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So You Think You Want To Be A Dog Musher
Al York
Manufacturer: Dudgeon Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Iditarod & Dog-Sledding | Winter Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000730BTA

Book Description

Cover to cover Judy Martin covers it all in The Creative Pattern Book. You'll get 27 complete and guaranteed accurate patterns from the world's foremost quilt pattern designer. From the first idea to the last quilting stitch, everything you need is right there in front of you in this colorful volume. Each pattern gives you a big color photo, yardage AND fat quarters, color-coded rotary instructions, at-a-glance quilt requirements, whole quilt diagrams, quilting diagrams, exploded block diagrams, full-size quilting motifs, cutting icons, cross references, pattern ratings, style and color discussion, and clearly written directions.

As if all that is not enough, Judy discusses her sources of inspiration and offers practical tips for each quilt. She points out the best ideas to be gleaned from each quilt so you can begin to take your own quilts to the next level.

Imagine a great quilt book. Now crank that up a notch, and you will come close to The Creative Pattern Book. It is definitely not your ordinary quilt book. It has more pages, more color, more bed-size quilts, more ideas, more fun, more how-tos, and more thorough patterns than the usual quilt book. In short, it has more of everything you want in a quilt pattern book.

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Not just edible, but ornamental too

The Gardener's Handbook of Edible Plants
Rosalind Creasy
Manufacturer: Random House, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Gardening | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0871567598
Release Date: 1986-09-12

Customer Reviews:

Not just edible, but ornamental too.......2001-02-21

This is a guide, in three parts, to more than 130 plants that are not only edible but ornamental too.

Part One is an encyclopedia whose entries give a thumbnail sketch of a single plant or a related group of plants, tell the zones where it will grow, estimate the effort needed to grow it, tell its uses in the kitchen and the landscape and give information about buying, growing and preserving it.

Part Two gives the special information you need to know to get your plants started and keep them growing well. It discusses composting and pruning, watering, fertilizing and pest control.

Part Three lists 225 edible plants, includes an annotated list of nurseries where you can get them and gives sources of information about organizations, periodicals and so forth.

The book has handsome pen and ink illustrations, a good glossary and a quite useful annotated bibliography.

Average customer rating:
Gardener's Handbook of Edible Plants
Rosalind Creasy
Manufacturer: Sierra Club Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NP0I54

Average customer rating:

Superb Description of a Dictator's Spinmastery

Stalin's Purges: Numbers Alone Do Not Tell the Story

Paper trail to nowhere

Stalin's Last Crime

Interesting and Detailed Examination of Stalinist Terror

Stalin's Last Crime : The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953

Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000F6Z4TQ

Book Description

A new investigation, based on previously unseen KGB documents, reveals the startling truth behind Stalin's last great conspiracy.

On January 13, 1953, a stunned world learned that a vast conspiracy had been unmasked among Jewish doctors in the USSR to murder Kremlin leaders. Mass arrests quickly followed. The Doctors' Plot, as this alleged scheme came to be called, was Stalin's last crime.

In the fifty years since Stalin's death many myths have grown up about the Doctors' Plot. Did Stalin himself invent the conspiracy against the Jewish doctors or was it engineered by subordinates who wished to eliminate Kremlin rivals? Did Stalin intend a purge of all Jews from Moscow, Leningrad, and other major cities, which might lead to a Soviet Holocaust? How was this plot related to the cold war then dividing Europe, and the hot war in Korea? Finally, was the Doctors' Plot connected with Stalin's fortuitous death?

Brent and Naumov have explored an astounding arra of previously unknown, top-secret documents from the KGB, the presidential archives, and other state and party archives in order to probe the mechanism of on of Stalin's greatest intrigues -- and to tell for the first time the incredible full story of the Doctors' Plot.

Customer Reviews:

Superb Description of a Dictator's Spinmastery.......2004-02-23

As someone familiar with Russian history, I enjoyed this book. Among others, it debunks the myth that Stalin was weak and out of touch at the time of his death. The fact is he was clearly in control up until the time he died. Reading this book also raises more questions than it seems to answer. For example, how does this plot fuse with his foreign policy? The military? Was this strictly an internal affair or actually a prelude to Nuclear War with the United States? Although beyond the scope of this book, the reader was left wondering how Khruschev, Beria, Malenkov, et al worked out power arrangements after Stalin's death. We know, of course, that Beria was shot in December 1953; but what formed the BASIS for each person's power in what was clearly a lawless state?

Stalin's Purges: Numbers Alone Do Not Tell the Story.......2003-12-07

When the Second World War was over in 1945, First Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin seemed to be at a personal peak of power. Despite monumental losses of dead Russian soldiers and civilians, Stalin had led Russia to a victory over Hitler and National Socialism that left him in control not only in Russia but of all of Eastern Europe as well. Further, because of his earlier purges in the late 30's, there was no one left to challenge him either within the Communist party or outside it. Yet, in STALIN'S LAST CRIME, Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov picture a Stalin who, by the time of his death in 1953, was far from the omnipotent ruler that most Russians assumed he was. Brent and Naumov present Stalin as a man who could not change to match changing times. When the war in Europe was over, Russia was not the insular country it had been just ten years earlier. An increasing number of Russians had an equally increasing contact with Western, and hence, democratic ideas and values. The horrors of the war reaffirmed in the collected minds of Russians of the need for a legitimate government that followed its rule of law. The once all consuming fear of Stalin had diluted to the point where some of his less visionary peers would dare to contemplate in the pages of PRAVDA no less of who would follow Stalin once he was dead. Finally, there was Stalin's health, which by the late 1940's had regressed to the point that his Politburo comrades might legitimately wonder about the line of succession. Stalin took note of all this and was determined to turn back the clock to 1937 when he could purge millions of his countrymen merely by snapping his fingers. But by 1949, he could not do so. He needed more, and the so-called plot of the Jewish doctors allowed him to crank up the old machinery that would spin out huge nets to catch anyone whom Stalin suspected needed killing.

Much of the first half of STALIN'S LAST CRIME is a minute examination of the death of a party comrade, A. A. Zhdanov, who unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and was ordered to recuperate at Valdai, a health resort for members of the Soviet political elite. Zhdanov died there, and Stalin saw in his death the first filmy web of a plot that he knew would ultimately ensnare at least as many as he purged in the 1930's. Brent and Naumov progress from Zhdanov's death to blaming that death on a cabal of Jewish doctors. From there, they detail how Stalin began laying traps for nearly the entire leadership of the Soviet Secret Police, the MGB. Hundreds of high-ranking MGB officers were purged. Thousands of Jews were rounded up and shot or sent to a gulag. Clearly, Brent and Naumov portray a Russia that was only in the first stage of Stalinist immolation. Yet, when Stalin died, the entire apparatus of destruction came to a thankful halt. Russian society returned to a business as usual routine. The gloomy concluding chapters of STALIN'S LAST CRIME suggest that the monstrous vision of a bloody thug leader does not necessarily end with the death of that leader. In fact, many of the inner circle of Stalin's closest comrades were themselves arrested and shot by Stalin's successor, Nikita Khruschev, who decided that to hold onto power might require a Stalinist approach to housecleaning: a new broom must sweep most thoroughly every generation or so. Stalin's own virulent form of anti-semitism as suggested by Brent's and Naumov's subtitle: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, well indicates that for Stalin at least, recycling Soviet anti-semitism must always give way to creating demons that only he could vanquish.

Paper trail to nowhere.......2003-11-22

For all its admirably meticulous documentation, this book does not pierce the mystery of the Doctors Plot. For all the correspondence, interrogation transcripts and memos excavated from the Soviet archives, one archive remains forever closed: Stalin's implacably bloody mind.

Brent and Naumov chillingly recreate the omni-paranoiac climate among the Soviet leadership in the late Stalin era. These people had survived wildly irrational purges in the Thirties, but they best of all knew on what shaky ground they stood. Any hint of independence, any perceived threat to Stalin's dominance, could land them in the execution cellars.

The trouble is, Stalin rarely confided his plans to paper, so there is no smoking gun to be found. This sheaf of documentation fleshes out what the people involved said, certainly, and when they said it. But as the authors admit, they are not really much closer to learning the purpose of the whole grim charade. We don't even get as much detail in some instances, such as the Stalin-ordered murder of the prominent Soviet theater director Solomon Mikhoels, as was available in some Soviet-era books.

The elusiveness of the authors' task is illustrated by their use of sources. In addition to the archival material, they draw material from the memoirs of Molotov, Khrushchev, and retired NKVD assassin Pavel Sudoplatov. The authors are perfectly above board about the general unreliability of these memorists, so it says something that, even with the availability of the archives, they are reduced to consulting those books.

This admirable but ultimately unsuccessful book demonstrates the enduring mystery of the evil of Stalin.

Stalin's Last Crime.......2003-09-17

Fascinating well researched subject matter but somewhat ruminative and tedious. I found that could skip through many pages and find that the same events were being described yet again.

Interesting and Detailed Examination of Stalinist Terror.......2003-08-27

This is a fine-grained look at Stalinist terror. Based on original archival research by the authors and additional new information published primarily by Russian scholars, this book is a careful examination of the so-called Doctor's Plot, the last gasp of Stalin's systematic terrorization of Soviet society. The Doctor's Plot was a conspiracy fabricated by Soviet security organizations purporting to show an organized effort to undermine the Soviet State by destroying its leadership via negligent or murderous medical care. The Plot was viewed previously as an irrational and relatively (compared to the great purges, executions, and deportations of the 20s and 30s) minor aspect of Stalinist state terror. The authors argue that the Doctors' Plot was actually the likely prelude to a planned major convulsion that would reproduce many features of the great purges of the 30s. This is impossible to prove definitively but the authors make a good case that the Doctors' Plot was developed carefully by Stalin to eventually start a series of purges and trials that would result in a large scale terrorization of Soviet society. The authors also place the Plot in the context of other important Stalinist campaigns of the period, notably the anti-Semitic actions that preceded and are to some extent coincident with the events of the Doctors' Plot. In this case, the attack would expand to involve a wholesale assault on Jewish citizens of the Soviet Union. The authors conclude that Stalin pursued this end as a means of maintaining his absolute power and that only his death in 1953 prevented terrible atrocities on a scale with the crimes of the 20s and 30s. The result probably would have been something similar to the Cultural Revolution in China.
A surprising aspect of the book is the apparent demonstration of how relatively difficult it was for Stalin to piece together the Plot. The book contains fascinating details such as Stalin's dissatisfaction with coerced confessions because they were too inconsistent to be used for credible public show trials. There are also remarkable episodes of some figures in the Soviet securiry organizations criticizing documentation of these purported crimes. As the Soviet State matured, it appears that there were expectations that Soviet justice, claimed by Stalin to be essentially perfect, had to meet some realistic and rational expectations. This type of relative resistance probably only increased Stalin's desire to unleash a major purge.
Some prior reviewers comment that this book is not smoothly written. This is a fair comment as the authors use quotations from original documents and much of the text is a very careful analysis of the signficance of the original documents. In my opinion, however, this approach enhances the value of the book. The extensive quotations give readers a very good sense of the Kafkaesque and bizarrely bureaucratic nature of Soviet repression in a way that a more conventional approach cannot accomplish.
The book includes also a discussion of Stalin's death. Following the suggestion of the American scholar Amy Wright, the authors argue that Stalin may have been poisoned by Lavrenti Beria, the out of favor former head of the security services, with the anti-coagulant warfarin. This suggestion based on the fact that Stalin died from a cerebral hemorrhage and had a gastrointestinal hemorrhage during his final illness. This is plausible but his final illness is typical of individuals dying from major hemorrhagic strokes and gastric erosions (so-called stress ulcers) are fairly common in acutely and severely ill individuals and may cause significant gastrointestinal bleeding. It is more likely that Stalin died as a consequence of years of untreated hypertension.

Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors: 1948-1953

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Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors: 1948-1953
Jonathan, & Vladimir P. Naumov Brent
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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