The Shipwreck of a Nation: Germany: An Inside View

Review

Seeking to provide a “rundown of the derangements” (5) present in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler, The Shipwreck of a Nation: Germany: An Inside View by H. Peter Nennhaus explains how events such as the invasion of Poland and the Holocaust without legitimizing them. It’s apologetic without being apologist, and makes for a fascinating perspective of World War II, especially to American readers with almost exclusive access to the Allied point of view.

Part memoir and part sociological exploration of the German mindset as fascism began to extend its influence across the nation, The Shipwreck of a Nation admits that Hitler’s “rapid recovery of economic vitality, of social peace, and of national self-esteem” (20) led to his appeal and support among the populace. This trust, combined with an exploitation of inherent German patriotism, eventually led him to commit the later atrocities against “the voiceless and defenseless Jews” (22) and other minorities. Nennhaus was only a child during the advent of Nazism, and confesses his juvenile admiration of the soldiers – his brothers included – who faught under Hitler’s orders. Though Nennhaus eventually matures into understanding the grisly reality of the Hitler regime, he nevertheless remains loyal and loving towards his family as the travesties of war befall their home. It fully humanizes the men participating in the struggle without condoning the dictator who forced them into combat – an extremely difficult task that Nennhaus thankfully pulls off.

I consider books such as this essential reading for scholars, historians, and politicians. Without first person accounts of the way things were, it would be near impossible to understand exactly how dictators get away with carrying out mass genocide right under their constituents’ watch. By understanding the attitudes and beliefs of the people that eventually allow dictators such as Hitler to rise to power and commit shocking acts of violence and dehumanization, we arm ourselves with the knowledge to perhaps prevent such things from occurring in the future. I admire Nennhaus’s forthrightness and honesty about his experiences as a child – and eventually, as a proud member of the Hitler Youth – in The Shipwreck of a Nation, as it is a valuable tool in the fight to stamp out racism, fascism, and genocide in societies across the globe.

Bibliographic Information

Nennhaus, H. Peter. The Shipwreck of a Nation: Germany: An Inside View. Colorado: Outskirts, 2009.

Further Reading

Prior to reading The Shipwreck of a Nation, my intake of World War II literature was almost purely from the perspectives of Holocaust victims and survivors both real and fictitious, save for highly unsettling excerpts from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in history classes. H. Peter Nennhaus’s book actually has more in common with Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot than Holocaust literature or disturbing Nazi treatises. Both explore how fascists sieze the loyalties of their people and manipulate them to achieve their own ends. The only difference is that Nennhaus witnessed the horrors of the tragic extreme, murderous end of the spectrum firsthand.

~Riot

Dodo: A Brief History

Review

As befitting an odd, eccentric-looking bird, painter Errol Fuller presents the scholarly research of Dodo: A Brief History in a manner that is unusual for a work of academic interest. Its pages are laden with so many maps, photographs, drawings, and paintings that it gives the appearance of an easily-dismissed coffee table book that values style over substance. Fortunately, that is not the case.

Though Fuller technically writes outside his profession - as stated previously, he is a painter – his research is as well-compiled, thoughtful, and detailed as any other natural historian. All first-hand accounts of the iconic “gigantic, flightless pigeon” (25) that can be found in the journals of the seventeenth-century Dutch explorers and settlers are presented here. Though many are of questionable accuracy, Fuller includes them anyways -but he is savvy enough to separate his source material into those that have been proven true or highly likely, those whose veracity is still in question, and those that are undoubtedly false. For example, it is near impossible to disprove that a combination of evolution in an environment free of predators and excessive human meddling directly led to the species’s extinction. Scientists and naturalists accept this as fact, and therefore so does Fuller. Issues considering the etymology of the name dodo are given equal consideration, but none are accepted as canonical. This pragmatism characterizes the book as a whole and gives it a sense of overall objectivism.

Fuller does not reject his artistic background in the least, and uses it to his advantage in a manner that adds dimension and interest to the book. He deconstructs the popular and accepted image of the dodo as a morbidly obese mass of feathers, stating that while most descriptions of the bird almost never include any indication of slenderness, it was likely lighter than commonly believed. Many second- and third-person paintings and drawings likely used overstuffed, poorly taxidermed specimens as models, and Fuller notes what characteristics reveal the context in which the artists met their subjects. He depicts the dodo from a kaleidoscope of possibilities and perspectives, discussing its evolutionary biology and place within pop culture with equal expertise and aplomb. As the title implies, the book is brief, puffed up to 180 pages with considerable amounts of artwork, maps, and photographs of the dodos’ tropical island home. But each one contributes something significant to Fuller’s text, they are not included to frivolously inflate the book. He ultimately strikes a perfectly pedantic synthesis of intelligent writing and relevant visuals.

Bibliographical Information

Fuller, Erroll. Dodo: A Brief History. Minneapolis: Rizzoli International Publications, Incorporated, 2003.

Further Reading

Hm. I don’t think I have read a book that covers the same ground as Dodo: A Brief History before. What about you out there in I Read Burning Leaves Land? Any suggestions?

~Riot

Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back

Review

Drawing from subjects beyond the dinner table, Ann Vileisis’s Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back is an exhaustive study into the trends that shaped American diets. Her research is impressively thorough and compellingly supports the book’s main thesis – that Americans have gradually “lost awareness of how eating fits our human selves into the broader natural world” (246) and how learning to understand and comprehend aspects of food production and safety will contribute to figuring out how to “find a way to live better on Earth and, finally, to eat well” (246).

She opens the book with a chapter following the day-to-day culinary exploits of an eighteenth century housewife named Martha Ballard. This woman’s journals and writings reveal an intimate connection with the plants and animals who fed her family and friends. She knew the exact age, weight, and health status of the lambs she’d serve, and planted, hand-picked, and cleaned the accompanying vegetables – sometimes so fresh they still crawled with insects and spiders from the garden when brought inside. Vileisis follows a logical, chronological structure for the rest of the book, pulling in information from both primary and secondary sources originating from a broad spectrum of topics. Not only does she explore how obvious advances and changes in farming, science, industry, and advertising contributed to the eventual disconnect between the populace and their food sources, but she also takes factors such as politics, big business, and social movements like feminism into consideration as well.

Vileisis is a consummate researcher, incorporating information from nothing but reliable and reputable sources. As a result, her main point that Americans need to educate themselves on the source and status of their foods is made viable and provocative. She argues that such knowledge will lead to healthier eating habits as more and more people grow to understand the possible dangers and health hazards of DDT, artificial hormones, and misleading advertising. And with scientific evidence to back up her claims, Vileisis lends credibility to her arguments. Her prose comes off as dry and pedantic on occasion, but she writes in a manner that those outside any of the fields researched can still follow.

Bibliographic Information

Vileisis, Ann. Kitchen Literacy : How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back. New York: Island Press, 2007.

Further Reading

Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back can hardly be considered a piece of whistle-blowing journalism and research that will blow the lid off the food industry. However, the spirit of works such as Upton Sinclair’s seminal The Jungle and Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation is present in her vision for a more honest and healthy relationship between food suppliers and consumers. Those interested in the history of food without any sort of sociopolitical statements behind it would enjoy Mark Kurlansky’s delightful books Salt: A World History and Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World.

~Riot

The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed

Review

Though written from the perspective of an American expatriat, Michael Meyer’s The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed provides a compassionate glimpse into the lives of those residing in Beijing’s poor hutong neighborhoods while the city prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Hutong literally means a narrow alleyway or street, but refers to the neighborhoods which utilize them as well. Meyer first moved to the dilapidated hutong community of Dazhalan in 2005 and began volunteering at the local school, Coal Lane Elementary, as an English teacher. Some of his most profound observations on the consequences and reactions towards beautification and gentrification projects juxtapose the opinions of the students and their parents.

Meyer refrains from passing judgement or condemnation on the Chinese government, instead presenting the stories of hutong residents and their fear of displacement. In spite of reparations, many residents and business owners share their mixed feelings on the possibility of their beloved community being slated for razing literally overnight. They want to see their city thrive and impress on an international level, but struggle with how to eke out a living and adjust to an unfamiliar environment. The following quote by a man referred to only as “Old Zhang’s son” (72) best summarizes their collective plight:

“‘You have to understand something very clearly. The problem isn’t that the city is developing. That is a good thing. And the problem isn’t that the government is bad. The government is actually very good. We are all patriotic here. The problem is that the entire process isn’t transparent. The only ones with the eyes are the district government and its development company.’” (72)

The quote comes from a Spring Festival celebration just days before Old Zang’s house is to be demolished. His story resonates with the experiences and anxieties of The Widow, Recycler Wang, Mr. Han, Ms. Zhu, and the others who wrestle between their devotion to civic pride and their sense of self-preservation. They understand their government’s desires, but have difficulty coping with the fear that one morning they could wake up and discover the non-negotiable order to vacate homes and businesses. Meyer presents is friends’ experiences with sympathy and genuine concern for their well-being, though for many such as Ms. Zhu, relocation ultimately leads to better opportunities.

The worries of the community’s adult population contrast with those of the students of Coal Lane Elementary where Meyer volunteers as an English teacher. They adore the Olympic mascots and care more about their education than the fate of their neighborhood. But it is their eagerness that is most compelling – even those who are insistant of their own ignorance push themselves towards more favorable grades. In the end, the children represent the whole of Beijing’s populace in the wake of reconstruction. They must eventually accept their fate as their fate and work hard towards something hopefully better in the face of hardships.

Bibliographic Information

Meyer, Michael. The Last Days of Old Beijing : Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed. Boston: Walker & Company, 2008.

Further Reading

I have not read much about Chinese history or culture, sadly. Much of what I know comes from either history class or listening to my friends’ experiences in the country. Do any of you out there have some good recommendations?

~Riot

Salt: A World History

It may be easy for what few readers I have (You guys are out there, right?) to get used to frequent updates, but while they’ll be coming at a rapid-fire pace for the moment it’s not exactly indicative of things to come. Right now, I’m living as a refugee in the first world, displaced by Hurricane Ike until some flood waters blocking my route home finally decide it’s best to recede. All I can really do at the moment is read, and as a result reviews will be posted quicker than what will eventually become the norm. Hopefully the glut of posts will at least give you an idea as to how I intend to run things around here, and I’m doing my best to offer up a bit of variety up front as well.

But you aren’t here to read about me, you’re here to read about reading. And so you shall.

—

Review

A few people who saw me reading Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History commented on how the history of a few mundane compounds could possibly warrant a 449-page book, much less a 449-page book that’s actually worth reading. I can certainly understand their skepticism. But having read Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World many years ago on the recommendation of a geography teacher, I had faith that he could write an intelligent, engaging history of one of civilization’s most essential compounds.

And, as expected, Kurlansky brings the same insight and extensive research present in Cod to Salt. Both books share the same goal of exposing how small, seemingly insignificant everyday edibles have, in fact, changed the entire course of human civilization. In Salt, he traipses through a stunning series of contintents and time periods, from the gunpowder and fireworks of ancient China to the creation of Tabasco sauce on Avery Island and all spaces and eras in between and beyond. The staggering amount of information presented – and Kurlansky leaves almost no possible angle unexplored - can be overwhelming at times, especially considering he occasionally makes large leaps between locations and time frames between successive chapters. But it is highly effective in presenting how the world’s only edible rock, one frequently taken for granted, has led humanity to not only stimulate economic growth and forever change the culinary arts, but further the fields of geology, technology, and medicine (among others) as well.

None of this could have been accomplished, however, if Kurlansky didn’t present his history in a rich, sparkling prose. If the research and materials were in the possession of a less experienced writer, then I doubt that Salt would carry as much intrigue as it does. The detailed, picturesque descriptions of different lands and different times evoke enough curiousity and imagery to propel readers forward through the facts presented. Kurlansky even includes recipes and anecdotes as primary sources, breaking the generally pedantic tone of the book with more universal sensibilities.

Bibliographical Information

Kurlansky, Mark. Salt : A World History. New York: Penguin, 2003.

Further Reading

Admittedly, Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World is the only book I’ve read thus far which covers similar subject matter in a similar manner. It was just as delightful and interesting a read as Salt, so interested readers will likely enjoy both.

~Riot