Fred V.

Awake

Revisado: 03-11-23

This book will keep you awake and make you worry about things you never dreamed of.

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Stalin Ugh

Revisado: 02-03-23

This book covers a lot of detail about Stalin and his entourage, enemies and allies. This is fine, but what is lacking is how Stalinist Russia was transformed during his long watch. That is, the policy dimension of the Soviet Union is largely absent. This author, like some others, muddies the timeline making it hard to understand cause and effect. Finally, the book pretty much reinforces the standard Stalin narrative with the standard assortment of flaws and foibles. In that sense, one doesn't really learn anything that extends the Stalin tale beyond what one already believes.

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Courts of Inquiry

Revisado: 12-19-22

More interesting and compelling than I thought. Starts off a little slow but actual testimony is riveting. I you have an interest in the Edmund Fitzgerald read this. If not, I doubt you will like it. Good book.

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The Very Coldest War

Revisado: 12-15-22

A very solid account of the Korean War and ultimately why it is still not over 72 years after it started and almost 70 years since hostilities were arrested by an Armistice that the UN administers to this day. Why the lessons of Korea were not applied in Vietnam and why LBJ didn't listen to MacArthur about not becoming involved, no, embroiled there, remain unaccounted for. One only has to ask if the US would again defend the Hermit Kingdom and if the results would be any different.

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Heaven and Earth Fade Away But He Does Not

Revisado: 12-09-22

A great book, not without flaws, but like the subject forceful and victorious. The struggle for objectivity is not won by one side or the other but by a recognition of a human dialectic and a tempered but cogent empathy for a profession easily reduced to slogans and venal emotions. This is a lesson in biography, writing and history befitting a person of enigmatic character and protean achievements.

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Fiftisch

Revisado: 11-28-22

Some very good chapters and a reasonably representative account of a misunderstood decade. But some chapters are way too long and dwell unnecessarily on social movements that cannot be adequately said to be the essence of the ten years from 1950 through 1959. The book actually ends discussing the opening salvos of the Sixties. A good book; not a great book.

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Televisionaries

Revisado: 11-10-22

First rate account of TV that gives due credit to Philo Farnsworth while intelligently including the role of David Sarnoff in making it a pillar of human communication. Great book and worth the time as it frames technological advances in terms of human beings and human aspirations.

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Network Futures

Revisado: 11-03-22

Solid informative book. It's history that has impact both now and in the years to come. Technology is not sterile and soulless; it is the expression of human aspiration and genius. It would have been nice to cover how FM and AM played their role in the advent and progress of television. However this doesn't limit the quality of the book and its powerful account of how we wind up with the communications capabilities and services we now take for granted. Bravo-Zulu.

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Strain Time

Revisado: 10-31-22

There is a lot of detail in this book. It covers multiple stretches of time and isn't really covered in chronological order. Consequently, this is not an easy read although it does have it's moments. The back end of the book is a kind of critique of Gilded Age Robber Baron Capitalism.

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Dot Dash Domination

Revisado: 10-30-22

Perhaps the most significant achievement of the 19th century, we live in a world of communication unthinkable in the 18th century. The telegraph created the world of expectations and fears that continue today. The telegraph truly changed the world in a way that is difficult to comprehend; this book helps illuminate the nature of that change and makes us not only informed but wiser. Bravo-Zulu.

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