history

To gather material for the book, Myrna and Harvey Frommer conducted over 100 interviews. Among those who contributed their personal recollections are an ex-ticket taker at Ebbets Field, a former Mr. America, a Baptist pastor, a retired garment worker, and an opera star. Their stories evoke a special place and time, a more innocent era when Brooklyn really was the world. Although that world is gone, the Frommers' book brings it all vividly back to life.

The inspiration for the Frommers' new celebratory album came about as they were traveling around the country to promote It Happened in the Catskills. They kept meeting people who, like themselves, were born and bred in Brooklyn. " We could be in places as diverse as Los Angeles, Brenham, Texas, and Canaan, New Hampshire, and invariably we's run into prople from Brooklyn. As soon as the connection was discovered, it was always the same question: What high school did you go to?, followed by memories of that special Dodger game, of trying clothes on the floor of he original Loehmann;s on Bedford Avenue, of eating the shorefront dinner at Lundy's or Nathan's franks in Coney Island, or the incomparable Ebinger's blackout cake. When we finished the Catskill book, which was filled with stories by Brooklynites, we thought it might be a good idea to apply the same interactive oral history approach to a book on Brooklyn, and try to discover what there was about life in the borough at mid-century that still exerts such a powerful pull."

I just finished the book and I enjoyed it so much. Its easy to see why
Brooklyn has been the inspriation for so many novels and movies.

It was so interesting to see how so many different ethnic groups had such
similar stories of growing up. A real shared memory .

Well this book is a treasure and I am so glad to have it.

Satisfies a persistent hunger for details about the inner workings of New York City, shared by the native and outsider alike. Frommer and Frommer have assembled a playful, interestingly arranged, and stimulating collection of extracts from oral histories. Organized topically, the comments span such issues as street life, school life, the not-so-private worlds of Brooklyn apartment dwellers, Coney Island, ethnicity, and assimilation. Over 100 voices include famous entertainers (e.g., Betty Comden, Jerry Stiller, and Marvin Kaplan), obscure teachers and school principals, and ordinary individuals. Asked to reflect on the three decades between World War II and Viet Nam, they offer comments that add up to a mosaic of the life and extraordinary times of a borough.

Cartoonists have an incredible ability to capture human situations with simple drawings and a bit of text and Bill Mauldin was one of the most unique. He is best known for his drawings of Joe and Willie, two combat veterans slogging their way through WWII. In his drawings, you see the despair, fatigue and determination of dirty, tired men who always seem able to take the next objective and move one step closer to the end of the war. Whatever they are doing, there is a perpetual slump in their shoulders, clearly demonstrating an overpowering weariness with the war and what it all means.
Mauldin was drawing from personal experience, having spent a great deal of time on the bitterly contested Italian front, particularly at the Anzio landing. The book is a combination of narrative and cartoons that he drew while in the field. To his credit, Mauldin also ran afoul of some superior officers, which fortunately did little to alter his tactics. As one of his editorial superiors told him, "If you aren't making somebody mad, you're probably not worth reading."
This is a view of the war that is not about combat as much as the deprivation that the fighting foot soldiers endured. Days of being wet, eating cold food and sleeping in water were routine for the men who fought. His description of their joy in being able to bed down covered with hay in a barn is a classic definition of a simple pleasure.
Many books have been written about World War II in Europe and more continue to be published as additional material is released from the archives of nations. This is one that will not be improved upon as it does not involve decisions made by political or military leaders. It is about the simple soldiers who fought their way across Europe and endured because they had to.

I was first introduced to Bill Mauldin by my late father who gave me his battered copy of "Up Front" that was printed in 1945. He told me when he gave it to me that it was his favorite book growing up (he was age 10-15 during World War Two) and that I should read it to better understand the human side of war. He couldn't have been more correct. I came to understand that even when the cause is noble, and the enemy leadership is evil, that war is a horrible thing, even when it is necessary.

Bill Mauldin, who died recently, was a national treasure. His characters Willy and Joe (themselves a national treasure) form the crux of his cartoons from that era, and they embodied everyman in the heroes of the war. For his work he eventually won a Pulitzer prize. Mauldin claimed to be more of a cartoonist than a writer, but the writing is, in my opinion, at least the equal of the cartoons. For people who have never been exposed to the human level, front line realities of war, this book is vital for understanding the men who fight for the freedoms we enjoy.

This is a wonderful book, and I wish that every high school student was required to read it when they studied World War Two in Europe. I am so glad to see it back in print. While I cherish the copy that my Dad gave me many years ago it is now very fragile. I am grateful to have a new copy to thumb through on my bookshelf. If you read any one book this year on World War Two, this has to be it. It will make you proud to be an American, and proud of the men who fought for freedom sixty years ago.

Bill Mauldin died yesterday. And so passes a hero's hero, a man who let the dogfaces (and the Marines and sailors, too) know that somebody appreciated and understood them. Mauldin's talent for the politcal cartoon was without peer. And since he was an ordinary GI himself, his insight, dark humor, and typically American irreverance for authority were beyond compare. His famous Willie and Joe were the prototypes for the heros heralded in books about the "Greatest Generation" five decades later. And Mauldin's writing is equal to his drawing. Should anyone today want to learn about World War II, they should be handed a copy of "Up Front" and told, "Read this first." A couple of years ago, Time Magazine selected their Person of the Twentieth Century and chose Albert Einstein. However, the late Stephen Ambrose argued that the choice should have been "GI Joe." I'll not only agree with that, but think that the Time cover should have featured Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe.

Jess Oppenheimer, who was a producer of I Love Lucy and wrote many classic episodes, has produced a very enjoyable and engaging behind the scenes look at one of the greatest television shows ever. He provides a lot of insider tidbits on the production of the show and working with the cast. This book would be enjoyed by any fan of the series or of television's golden age. Very entertaining.

"Laughs, Luck...and Lucy" is written by Jess Oppenheimer andhis son, Gregg Oppenheimer. Jess Oppenheimer worked formany of the legends of old time radio, including Fanny Brice, Fred Astaire, and Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy. This book tells of Mr. Oppenheimer's career in writing radio scripts, and specifically deals with his writing for Lucille Ball. He wrote first for her when she performed in "My Favorite Husband," and then he tells about his creation of "I Love Lucy," the television series starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Mr. Oppenheimer not only created the idea for the series, he was also the head writer and producer of the program. Because of his unique inside perspective, Mr. Oppenheimer is able to provide information about Lucy and Desi that no one else could. There are a few things that make this book absolutely unique... Several appendices are included in the book which are very interesting. The first appendix shows an actual script (complete with hand-written changes) that was used during the production of "My Favorite Husband." But, what makes this book fascinating is the fact that a 65-minute audio CD is included, composed of twelve different tracks. The first track is a recording of the presentation of the script for "My Favorite Husband" included in Appendix A of the book. Another real plus for this book is the number of photographs that are included. The photos provide another dimension to this richly-composed book. This book is not only informative, it is very entertaining! Anyone who has ever seen an episode of "I Love Lucy" will want to own this book. It now occupies a prominent place in our family library. "Laughs, Luck...and Lucy" will be read and re-read many times in our home.

The best "Lucy" book yet. Aside from providing amazing insight into the "I Love Lucy" show and behind the scenes, this book also makes the reader feel as if he has been right along side Jess Oppenheimer throughout all of his fascinating experiences in San Francisco and early Hollywood. By the time I finished the book, I felt like I was saying good-bye to an old friend. Laugh out loud funny and impossible to put down, the book is brilliantly written and feels like a hilarious conversation with a genious.

This is absolutely the best alternate history series that I have ever read- you not only end up caring about the characters, but you want become part of the action. When they say that this series "reads like a bullet" they are not exagerating. Any author that can get me to zip through five or six hundred pages in two or three days is doing something right.

There are scenes that you remember for years- compared with many books these days that you can't remember after a few months.... The idea of Union Soldiers transplanted to an alien world and taking an oath to carry on Mr. Lincoln's war until an entire enslaved planet is free still chokes me up. There are scenes like a brigade strength force forced to form a giant square on an open plain and fighting to the last man (while singing the Battle Hymm of the Republic) that you don't forget. Or a Republic airship sweeping down to rescue Hans and his Zulu and Chin comrades from worse than certain death....powerful images. As for the villians,well, the "Moon Feast" is my definition for evil.

Oh yes, it is also comforting to think that the real life 35th Maine and 44th New York didn't simply dround like rats, but went on to unite Russians, Romans, Chinese, Vikings, Zulus, etc. under the flag of the Republic....

My only real criticism is that if you have any experience in industry and engineering then the speed at which the Yankees manage to industrialise a pre-industrial society (and go into mass production) will drive you nuts!

By the way, this isn't the final book of the series. _Down to the Sea_ brings the Battle of Midway to Keane and the Republic. With any luck Forstchen will bring us even more....

Forstchen has truly created something that far surpasses anything that has come before and probably set the golden standard for the genre. Drake, Pournelle, Stirling, Niven, Saberhagen, and Forstchen's other books do not come close to this series. Rickety aerosteamers and land and sea ironclads, as primitive as they are, somehow have a superior eloquence in conveying the drama of war over the sophisticated spaceships, supersonic planes, or lasers which have up to this decade been the staple of other military science fiction. This concluding chapter itself is a true microcosm of what fans and admirers have come to expect from the series. While this means incredible battles, tense political interplay, fierce confrontations of personality and fate, surprising twists, and some heavy references to the importance of logistics, technology, and strategy, the book also carries with it some of the faults of the series; namely, the inconsistency with the characters' names begs for some coherent editorialism. True to form, Fortschen changes the Rus orthodox priest's name from Casmar to Casmir! At the end of the book one of the character's name is reshuffled in a pretty blatant mistake though it only happens once. I won't risk giving anything away, but readers will see it when they get there. However, as the series has always done, the tremendous story more than makes up for these annoyances. The conclusion to all the important threads is not COMPLETELY detailed, but the book does present a definitive conclusion to the Bantag War and the answer to humanity's future existence or extinction. By the end of the book readers will know which side won the war, what species will dominate the planet, and what the very GENERAL implications for the future of the Republic will be, so longtime readers need not despair on that account. I would have preferred a highly detailed account of the next 100 to 1000 years like one reviewer requested, but as it is, the last chapter which wraps things up is satisfying enough. Beyond that, Forstchen seems to have indicated that he is through with the Lost Regiment, and I commend him for letting this terrific series run its course and ending it with the dignity and the treatment it deserves. The new use for the aerosteamers in battle is some of the most exciting stuff I've read since the rocket barrage at Hispania or Timokin's charge at Rocky Hill! We've all wanted to see the humans on the offensive and wondering how much longer the Republic could hold out under the strain of constant war and here are the answers. This is the worthy conclusion I was looking for.

Oh, and the maps were very helpful.

Let me tell you this is one of the, if not the best series, I've ever read. It's fast paced, hard hitting, accurate account of a take no prisoners, no holds bared, battle for survial just blew me away. The advances through the stages of both technilogical and tatical warfare of 75 or more year squeezed into less than 15 years is consice and beleivable. I'm somewhat of a war buff and this series is like a dream come true. On top of that he left the door wide open to continue the series without missing a beat. The Uplift Wars, The Foundation series, or even the Armour series lacks its simplisity and strength. I may not have the greatest grammer in the world, but I know what I like and this series I loved.

There are dozens of books about the Holocaust - and other horrible tragedies man has perpetrated on his fellow man before and since. Where many of these dehumanize the victims by focusing on the specifics of the crimes, this book is alive and all human.

That these two men, Bernat and Fritz, were able to overcome their past and become friends is as moving a story as any you'll find. More than anything, I came away feeling that it is possible to move beyond our historic differences and hatreds. Its a warm, human, and hopeful message. Perhaps there's hope for Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Rwanda...and for all of us.

An Uncommon Friendship is a book telling a compelling story about how two youths took opposite paths to an eventual mature friendship that overcame unbelievable odds. Bernie Rosner, a Hungarian Jew, who as a youth survived the horrors of concentration camps and Fritz Tuback whose father was a German Army officer followed those unlikely experiences to a succesful if uncommon friendship. The young experiences of both Bernie and Fritz are told in a single voice by Fritz. The distinct routes that each took through a horrible, trying time in history makes for a most interesting and absorbing book.

In a world with a lot of open wounds in need of healing, "An Uncommon Friendship" helps bridge former sins and ongoing roots of bitterness to establish a world pregnant with new beginnings--every day. This book shows that other options are possible beyond the labels of cultural bigotry. When properly understood and appropriated, understanding and forgiveness are seldom far apart in life-giving relationships.

Recently we came in contact with a person who has such a high disregard for Germans. If only they knew and understood the rich heritage German culture has also given as a gift to the New World of new beginnings.

When are you ever going to see a great hero playing himself in his greatest moments? If "Saving Private Ryan" was too gory for you, here's a movie that shows the glory and pain of WWII, but without the gore. If your grade-school kids want to know about the soldiers of WWII without them having nightmares, have them see this film. Audie Murphy is great in this role -- even though it is his story, it becomes the story of ALL the soldiers (although Audie does have the best moments). The fight scenes are gripping, and it really does feel 'real' rather than 'staged'. I would also recommend that you read Audie Murphy's book of the same name to get the whole story. Definitely Audie Murphy was the greatest U.S. soldier in the 20th Century!

I first read this book as a young man before entering high school. The book and Audie Murphy became a symbol of not only what one man can do, but what one man can stir in the friends and comrades around him.

Murphy's acts, thoughts, and efforts described in this book make him an absolute hero not only during the war, but should be displayed for generations to come as a man that believed in our country and the American Cause. It is the ideals that he fought for, and the American people that he believed in that make this book a must read for all types of people that would want to feel good about the United States of America and to be personaly uplifted and moved by the challenges that this soldier endured and overcame.

I have to say that after I saw this movie, I was a little embarassed that I had never heard of Audie Murphy before, especially since I'm 37 years old. This guy epitomizes the term "war hero" and his story needs to be retold. I'd love to see this remade so that more generations of people would know about him. The current version was great, especially because Audie plays himself. A must watch, especially for anyone who doesn't know anything about him.

This beautiful coffee-table companion is a must for anyone who has seen, and appreciates, Spielberg's superb film. The book chronicles the making of the movie from boot camp, to the construction of Ramelle, to the actual shoot. The behind the scenes photos and interviews with various actors and crew members only serve to enrich what is a truly amazing film-going experience.

You want to read a book about war, about a movie and a mission, the mission of Steven Spielberg, you have to read this book cause of its great story, its great photographs and its creator Steven Spielberg and its great players Tom Hanks and the others!!!! It's worth the money!!! (And don't forget to watch the movie!!!)

I think Spielberg's a genius. There, I've said it. He takes simple men, surely John Miller, Captain, 2nd Ranger Battalion is just that, a simple man, and paints a canvas of such detail of Armageddon, putting these simple men all over the painting. Hell. The end of the world. Good versus evil. Call it what you may. "I'm a history teacher," he says in the movie in one extraordinarily tense scene. "I teach history in a small high school in Pennsylvania. . . .when I'm done here I don't know if I can go back to it."

I'm reminded of another 'simple man' that came from Pennsylvania in novel lore. Lieutenant Harry Brubaker, the lawyer who flies F-9 Panther Jets in Michner's brief story about the carnage in Korea, 'Bridges at To Ko Ri.'

But the point is Spielberg tells us that they were all simple men and we don't believe him at first. We keep looking for Arnie Schwarznegger or Chuck Norris or The Rock. But they are and were normal guys, guys from Brooklyn New York and Brooklyn Michigan. Guys from towns you never heard of in Iowa, where Jimmy Ryan and his brothers came from. Just guys in the greatest carnage the world ever knew. And Spielberg shows us what they did. They changed the world.

The five Sullivan brothers all went down with their ship in the middle of the war and after that the powers that be would not commit one brother in a theater of combat where another brother was also serving in harm's way. So here, one of Jimmy Ryan's brothers is killed in the Pacific and one brother is killed in Anzio Beach. And Sean Ryan is killed in the landing at Omaha Beach. And Captain John Miller and a squad of men he picks are asked to find him to send him home.

A wonderful book to compliment a movie that should be preserved forever about an ubelievable body of men and women. "Was I a good man," asks James Ryan 50 years later? My Dad asked me the same question a few years ago. Five stars is not enough. Larry Scantlebury.

I first encountered this extraordinary history back in the early '70s as a medieval student and then again some years ago beyond study and therefore with considerably more money-at least compared to a student-and I was able to purchase this wonderful set.

I freely admit not having read the three volumes cover to cover but have parachuted in to various topics within the span of information covered by the set and I can attest to the brilliance of Runciman's writing. He represents the best of historical writing in that he is the undoubted master of his sources and their subject matter but he can also convey the extraordinary complexity of these centuries in a writing style that is at once understandable and also colourful. To my mind he is the best of the best because, as undoubted master of his subject, he is also able to tease out and convey the human interest, the drama and the wrenching saddness of all that was the Crusades.

Steven Runciman has transcended history as few other historians of any time have been able to do. He has imbued the structure of history with the richness of a night at the opera or theatre-the reader is presented with the panoply of humanness at every turn and I believe this is the true mark of a master's hand.

This book, often published as three volumes is the definitive history of the crusades. It is at once a tremendously entertaining and gripping story, and an academically accurate account that stimulates one to further enquiry. His account is so alive it is as if one was reading events unfolding in a newspaper day by day and the destruction of Constantinople was only yesterday.

Runciman tells the story of the West's response to the fall of Jerusalem to the Arabs, and their unexpected success in reconquering it. Throughout the story the Christian west, the Byzantine Empire, and the Arab world are painted with all their good and bad points.

No one comes out of this story without fault, but Runciman points out that there was a tremendous invigoration of western civilization through its contact with the Byzantine and Arab world. The short lived Kingdom of Jerusalem became in a way an experiment in East-West civilization that ultimately was destroyed by the arrival of later crusaders whose enthusiasm for attacking the Arabs (with whom the earlier crusaders had learned to live in relative peace) was not matched by their numbers or competence. Runciman notes that Arab distrust of the West had its roots in this time.

A great introduction to Byzantine, Arabic, or Latin history. See also the work of JJ Norwich on Byzantium and the Normans in Sicily

This second volume of Steven Runciman's three-volume history of the crusades is a masterful piece of scholarship and historiography. If all historians read Runciman's History of the Crusades and learned of his style, there would be fewer complaints from readers that histories are dry, crusty stories.

Indeed, Runciman artfully weaves several elements such as the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the zenith of Byzantium and the ascension of the Turkish power in the persons of Zenghi, Nur ed-din and Saladin powerful, gripping narrative that brings the rogues and heroes of the crusades to life. Runciman skillfully explains the court intrigues behind the scenes in the crusader kingdom and fiefdoms, the delicate balance of power between Byzantium and the Frankish east and the Turks and the rivalry between Turkish clans and leaders.

This second novel concerns the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, its place in the three-volume set is critical in that Runciman articulates a few of his his theories concerning the lessons learned from the crusades, and they are difficult to refute. Runciman of particular relevance to contemporary foreign policy in that region, Runciman notices that the politically fractious Turks discovered a unifying force in the presence of the alien Franks, which became a focal point in the development of a pan-Turkish/Muslin identity and a nexus for action. Also, Runciman argues that first-generation crusaders acclimated to local political and cultural customs and could have co-existed to some degree with the Turks and Muslims had it not been for the brash crusaders that arrived after the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and viewed the situation in more stark, black-and-white terms. Runciman also holds that the Latins could have made more effective use of Byzantium in formulating policy for the east rather than competing with it in some instances and altogether ignoring it in others. Finally, while Runciman assumes that the triumph of Islam in the crusades was an inevitability (mostly due to the policies chosen by the petty nobles that arrived in the east after the first crusade to aggrandize rather than consolidate crusader power) there were shrewd, far-sighted individuals and more of these distinguished men could have stemmed the tide a bit longer. In other words, qualities such as leadership and "the vision thing" are timeless.

Eugenia Ginzburg, a highly educated and patriotic communist in 1930's Soviet Union, was falsely accused on a preposterous charge of counter-revolutionary terrorism and sentenced to ten years imprisonment that included horrible periods of solitary confinement and eventually labor in the infamous Siberian gulag archipelago made famous by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The utter senselessness, depravity, and human waste of these years are almost impossible to imagine, but Ginzburg's intricate descriptions of interrogation, prison life, and Siberian work camps make the reader shudder with bone-chilling cold and despair. This book should be forced reading for apologists of communism and the old Soviet Union. It eloquently, but shockingly, makes obvious why tyrannical power (in this case, Josef Stalin) is humankind's greatest evil and, without intending to do so, explains why (now) Russia is a nation tormented by its past and struggling to find a respectable path for its future. This book is not, however, a political commentary. It is at its core a heart-wrenching account of a very courageous woman who lost her husband, children, citizenship, and freedom to the paranoia and criminal evil of Stalin and communism. Throughout Ginzburg's tale, though, shines her indefatigable spirit. I read this book in only three sittings and the only complaint I had was its abrupt ending in the middle of her confinement. Ginzburg takes up the rest of her story in "Within the Whirlwind," which really should be volume two of this novel

This is a response to the review "UNIMAGINABLE EVIL OF COMMUNISM" and the reviewer's blatant ignorance, condemning "apologists of communism." Apparantly this reviewer knows nothing at all about communism, nor what it is. The whole point is that true communism was never tried in the Soviet Union. To force everything evil done in the Soviet Union under the blanket of communism is irresponsible, rather foolish, and just plain false. A close reading of this book will bring forth Ginzburg's true feelings about communism, which will surprise you given the hardships she suffered... which makes me question whether that reviewer read the book at all.

I recieved my copy of this book and started to read it and I read it with one hand as I prepared dinner, cleaned up, got the kids off to bed, and decluttered the house. I made some tea and continued to read. At about midnight the phone rang-- my husband had to go in very late to help someone-- and I just about had a heart attact as I stammered into the phone, "Oh G--, who is this?"

The book is THAT rivetting and THAT real.

AS the other critiques indicate, this is about a women's arrest with trumped up charges that only got worse, and her survival in the gulags. I felt like I connected with her because she is a mother and a professor. She lost her profession and her children in the blinking of an eye. I couldn't read it without checking on my own children and thanking God that we live in a place that is not like what hers was. You realise that there was little way of surviving for someone who wanted to play sanely and defend herself in an insane system. When she was in isolation, I felt like I was there with her. She doesn't write in a frilly, dramatic manner; she writes with a simple, clear voice. She isn't asking the reader to feel sorry for her because she is only telling her story.

I think the most movingpoint of the book was when she was in a camp helping out in the kitchen and she found out that one of her early accusers was in the camp and dying. Another prisoner came in and asked for rations as he was sharing with this man and she was about to tell him to relay to the dying man that Eugenia Semyonovna sent them to him, but then she stopped herself, "How could I poison this man's last meal?"

You see how a person can get to the point of loosing thier sanity then save themselves from loosing it and how many lost it and never regained it.

This expertly detailed book gives the story of Arab terrorists who took Israeli hostages during the 1972 Munich Olympics. The author does a great job of giving the fundamental reason behind the attack, as well as a detailed chronology of the events that took place subsequently. This book is even more poignant after the events of September 11th, as it shows that the world is still suffering from the plague of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism.

While I did thoroughly enjoy the book, I do disagree with the author on his reasons for the failure of the eventual rescue mission mounted by the German government. Simply, the author believes that the failure was based on anti-Semitisim by Germans, and the fact that they really did not care what happened to the Israeli athletes. However, after reading between the lines of the book, it seems to me that the failure was more the result of a lack of trained hostage rescue squads in Munich. Yet, this was 1972, and these hostage rescue squads were not commonplace in all cities. Also, it seems that the Germans went out of their way to save the athletes, given the limited resources they had. Many German officials quoted in the book seemed willing to do anything to save the Israelis as they desperatly wanted to atone for the Nazi atrocities and not stir up old anger.

Regardless of this issue, the book does a superb job of telling the tale of the first major incident of Islamic terror. It is a shame that events like this happen, but maybe by expertly chronicling them, we can learn how to prevent them in the future.

I bought this book due to the HBO documentary of the same name. Although I was not born yet, I believe this book is important in educating those of us too young to know the real history of the problems in the Middle East.

The book is about the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis, where most of the Israeli delegation were taken hostage and subsequently killed by a Palestinian group calling themselves Black September (named so because of a battle in which many Palestians were killed by Israeli's in September 1967).

Mr. Reeves has done an excellent job in researching this book, to the point that one is amazed at the almost keystone cop-like appoach made by many German officials in dealing with this problem. Obviously, they (the Germans) were facing an uphill battle dealing with a fanatical terrorist group, all in front of a worldwide audience expecting to watch sporting events pitting country against country. This said, the mistakes are many and made by many different people. In the book, there are the "hawks" and there are the "doves", then there are the Israeli's on foriegn soil trying to get their countrymen safely back home. Mr. Reeves does a great job on the background of the terrorists, giving the personal reasons for (but not justifying) the actions that they took. Great detail is given to the debacle at the airport where everyone was killed. Many questions are raised about what went down there, such as why none of the snipers were given walkie talkies to communicate with one another allowing them to discern who was going to take down who? It was this situation geon awry that made the Germans create GSG-9, their counter-terrorism unit. Mr. Reeves also touched on Operation "Wrath of God". the Isreali revenge mission to assassinate surviving members of the group. This part of the book is just as fascinating and reads like a novel. It shows the resolve of the Isreali's to seek revenge on those who did them wrong. They had there own problems though when they assassinated a suspected member of Black September, who turned out to be an innocent waiter.

All in all, the book is not "enjoyable" but is an important piece of history. One has to think of the irony that Jews would again be hostages on German soil not half a century after the Holocaust. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Middle East conflict and/or terrorism.

This is the entire story of the Munich Olympic Massacre. From the planning stages through to the exploding helicopters carrying the bound Israeli hostages, this book is a magnificent piece of research.

Black September was the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the massacre. Named for the Jordanain military actions against the Palestinians in September of 1970 (the name had nothing to do with Israel, as one reviewer erroneously stated), Black September organized the raid on the Olympic village with the assistance of an apathetic East German Secret Police Force (the Stazi). The pathetic West German police forces at first tried to help, but after a certain point many simply refused to assist.

The results were horrifying. The news event was possibly the first live-action 24 hour news event ever broadcast and changed the way crises were broadcast on television forever.

Also included in the book is the story of the Israeli Secret Service's (Mossad) Operation Wrath of God, which was the manhunt for the perpetrators of the massacre.

This book should be read in conjunction with the documentary of the same name. A+: A masterful document that will bring you to tears.