Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter

Average customer rating:

Knitters Unite!

Unexpected

It really is okay to be crazy about knitting

So funny

Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter
Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Knitting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0740750372

Book Description

Over 50 million people in America knit. The average knitter spends between $500 and $1,700 a year on yarn, patterns, needles, and books. No longer just a fad or a hobby, knitting has advanced to a lifestyle.

Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter moves beyond instructions and patterns into the purest elements of knitting: obsession, frustration, reflection, and fun. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's humorous and poignant essays find humor in knitting an enormous afghan that requires a whopping 30 balls of wool, having a husband with size 13 feet who loves to wear hand-knit socks, and earns her "yarn harlot" title with her love of any new yarn-she'll quickly drop an old project for the fresh saucy look of a new interesting yarn.

Since the upsurge in knitting began in the early '90s, the number of women under 45 who knit has doubled. Knitting is no longer a hobby for just grandmothers-women and men of all ages are embracing this art. Describing its allure is best left to Stephanie who explains: "It is a well-known fact that knitting is a sparkling form of entertainment, as spiritual as yoga, as relaxing as a massage, and as funny as Erma Bombeck trapped in a PTA meeting."

Customer Reviews:

Knitters Unite!.......2007-10-07

This book will make you laugh out loud if you are a Knitter (that's a knitter with a capital K) or know someone who is a Knitter. Great comic relief for those of us who like to knit and use fibers as a hobby. You will see yourself or friends in each chapter. A great book to read as Stephanie knows how to describe our hobby fun in ways that are sure to make you smile and laugh. Enjoy!

Unexpected.......2007-09-13

I expected a good fun read, I didn't expect that it would be good enough to move me to tears in places. This author has a wonderful voice and I will be getting more of her books.

It really is okay to be crazy about knitting.......2007-08-30

This is a great book because it encourages all of us to not take ourselves so seriously. It is okay to laugh. I never knew there was knitting humor until I started reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I love reading her books because 1) she is crazy about yarn, 2) her stash makes mine look way too small, and 3) after the laughs, I might just pick up a tip or two about knitting.

So funny.......2007-08-11

This book is ABOUT knitting stories..not a book of patterns. I laughed out loud so many times while reading it. This is my favorite book of her's. Get it you'll laugh too.

Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter.......2007-07-09

Really well written and funny. Since I am knitter with similar passions as well, I could relate to Stephanie's quirky obsessions. A very enjoyable read!

Average customer rating:

Melt-your-heart hero
Yuck!
A great book
Very 1st book by author
Happily Ever After??

The Secret Pearl
Mary Balogh
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Regency | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books

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One Night for Love (Dell Historical Romance)
Simply Love
Irresistible
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Simply Unforgettable

ASIN: 0440242975
Release Date: 2005-11-29

Book Description

Mary Balogh has no equal when it comes to capturing the complex, irresistible passions between men and women. Her classic novel, The Secret Pearl, is one of the New York Times bestselling author’s finest–a tale of temptation and seduction, of guarded hearts and raw emotion…and of a love so powerful it will take your breath away….

He first spies her in the shadows outside a London theatre, a ravishing creature forced to barter her body to survive.

To the woman known simply as Fleur, the well-dressed gentleman with the mesmerizing eyes is an unlikely savior. And when she takes the stranger to her bed, she never expects to see him again. But then Fleur accepts a position as governess to a young girl…and is stunned to discover that her midnight lover is a powerful nobleman. As two wary hearts ignite–and the threat of scandal hovers over them–one question remains: will she be mistress or wife?

Download Description

New York Times bestselling, multi-award winning author Mary Balogh grew up in Wales, land of sea and mountains, song and legend. She brought music and a vivid imagination with her when she came to Canada to teach. There she began a second career as a writer of books that always end happily and always celebrates the power of love. There are over four million copies of her Regency romances and historical romances in print.

From the Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

Melt-your-heart hero.......2007-10-06

"If I loved you, Fleur," [Adam] said, "and knew that you loved me, I would turn heaven and earth upside down [for you]"

I found Mary Balogh's THE SECRET PEARL a chronically addictive reading experience containing the right touches of an impossible, challenging road to love and featuring tortured characters that never really leave you. Unfortunately, I thought THE SECRET PEARL needed to balance the memorable characters and heart-rending love story with better pacing, prose and settings. A majority of this 399-page paperback amounts to meandering introspection. Granted, one of the advantages of literature includes sharing the thoughts of characters but some novels (often of a romantic nature) makes the introspection and thoughts very interminably exasperating. THE SECRET PEARL contains a lot of introspection and if it weren't for the uniquely endearing characters and their plight, I probably would have found the book pretty bad. Not your typical rosy romance fare, the characters and premise alone offer a worthwhile reading experience. Although the ending wasn't bad, again I thought it resorted to amateurish introspection instead of gripping plotting or possibly a chapter or two of marital bliss. The love here is mutually giving, and it isn't just the hero giving everything.

Rarely are romance heroes as interesting or honorable as THE SECRET PEARL's Duke of Ridgeway Adam Kent, and I thought the novel belongs to him. Adam's time with the English infantry at Waterloo scarred him terribly along his face and body, so he isn't handsome by the time our heroine Isabella Fleur Bradshaw meets him. Adam is vulnerable, and harbors insecurities of his own, though it isn't belabored. After a shocking opening scene in which Adam hurts Fleur -- knowingly, for reasons that are clear from the context -- Adam's vulnerabilities and his efforts at atonement afterwards really melt your heart. Also very much unlike the last romance I read (Joyce's VOICES OF THE NIGHT), the hero Adam here astutely infers the heroine's situation, figures out her pursuers, consequently takes steps to discover her complete history, and in turn, really helps her. THE SECRET PEARL's Adam Kent is a man of action, from beginning to end. I think I'm a sucker for a romance novel in which the heroine really detests the hero all the while he's doing everything in his power to help and protect the heroine. I'm not sure why or how, but I'm ineffably drawn to a heroine's intense, unwarranted hatred for her hero (not superficially insulting, imprecating). In this respect, THE SECRET PEARL resembles Hunter's superior THE RULES OF SEDUCTION (*****) and its heroine Alexia's unwarranted enmity for her hero. Even though the title of this book refers to the heroine, I thought the hero Adam was a hidden treasure in his own right. If only this novel offered something more in terms of prose, pacing, settings, and love scenes.

Yuck!.......2007-10-05

I'm sorry, many people enjoyed this book but the beginning ruined it for me. I don't think any male is as oblivious as he appeared to be of her situation. All that he did could not make up for the way he violated her. I still have the book but will never open the cover again!

A great book.......2007-08-28

I will admit that I was apprehensive about reading this book after reading some on of 2 and 3 star reviews but they got it wrong. The book is a page turner. From the very beginning, you are drawn into the characters and understanding what has shaped their personalities.

Fleur and Adam met under life shaping circumstances, Fleur motivated by desperation and facing poverty, Adam by loneliness, anger and despair at his fate of having a loveless marriage. Despite the overwhelming odds as there lives become more entwined love begins to grow between them.

Contrary to some of the reviews I found Adam to be a very strong hero not the milksop that I was led to believe. To be able to deal with Sybil's infidelities and expressed love for his brother. Granted he may have been a bit too self-less when in those circumstances he could have been more into self gratification but we are shown that his actions are grounded in his love for his daughter and even to an extent in a non-sexual way for Sybil.

While I agree that Fleur's fears were a bit much and continued for too long, it did not greatly detract from what is overall a very good story.

Very 1st book by author.......2007-07-14

I enjoyed this book very much. The plot is very different from most of the books I have read but honestly I really enjoyed. The characters were strong and engaging, I hated that the hero was married, and then his wife turned out to be such a b****!

The story moved along and the characters jumped out at you, I fell in love with the hero. The heroine I am not so sure about, she took forever to figure out that she loved the hero and that irritated the heck out of me! But all in all it was an excellent book all the details were explained and tidied up nicely.

Happily Ever After??.......2007-05-30

After reading Simply Love and seeing the premise of this book, they looked quite similar but I have to give credit to Mary Balogh for being able to create two totally different novels with the same type of hero. I really hated the fact that Adam so so spineless when it came to his wife but I felt it came across as if he just didn't have enough emotionally to give to her anymore, even though he tried. As for Fleur, I enjoyed her character although I wish I had seen a little more of her alluding to the fact that she loved him sooner, it was a large jump.

The story was a good one though and I really enjoyed reading this one. The only downside was how she put the side characters away very neatly.

I felt that both Adam and Fleur deserved happiness and it was so well written that you could feel the pain when they were saying goodbye.

I was a little off after some of Mary's 'slightly' books but I really do enjoy her style and will pick up some additional titles from her.

Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor

Average customer rating:

An excellent account
Clearing up the confusion - finally
A Davis Strike
Lighning Strikes Very Late (Chapter 21 in fact)
Lightning Strike : The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor

Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor
Donald A. Davis
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Aviation | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K And Other Japanese Attempts to Bomb America in World War II

ASIN: 0312309066
Release Date: 2005-02-24

Book Description

This is the story of the fighter mission that changed World War II. It is the true story of the man behind Pearl Harbor---Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto---and the courageous young American fliers who flew the million-to-one suicide mission that shot him down.Yamamoto was a cigar-smoking, poker-playing, English-speaking, Harvard-educated expert on America, and that intimate knowledge served him well as architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next sixteen months, this military genius, beloved by the Japanese people, lived up to his prediction that he would run wild in the Pacific Ocean. He was unable, however, to deal the fatal blow needed to knock America out of the war, and the shaken United States began its march to victory on the bloody island of Guadalcanal.Donald A. Davis meticulously tracks Yamamoto's eventual rendezvous with death. After American code-breakers learned that the admiral would be vulnerable for a few hours, a desperate attempt was launched to bring him down. What was essentially a suicide mission fell to a handful of colorful and expendable U.S. Army pilots from Guadalcanal's battered "Cactus Air Force": Mississippian John Mitchell, after flunking the West Point entrance exam, entered the army as a buck private. Though not a "natural" as an aviator, he eventually became the highest-scoring army ace on Guadalcanal and the leader of the Yamamoto attack. Rex Barber grew up in the Oregon countryside and was the oldest surviving son in a tightly knit churchgoing family. A few weeks shy of his college graduation in 1940, the quiet Barber enlisted in the U.S. Army. "I'm going to be President of the United States," Tom Lanphier once told a friend. Lanphier was the son of a legendary fighter squadron commander and a dazzling storyteller. He viewed his chance at hero status as the start of a promising political career. December 7, 1941, found Besby Holmes on a Pearl Harbor airstrip, firing his .45 handgun at Japanese fighters. He couldn't get airborne in time to make a serious difference, but his chance would come. Tall and darkly handsome, Ray Hine used the call sign "Heathcliffe" because he resembled the brooding hero of Wuthering Heights. He was transferred to Guadalcanal just in time to participate in the Yamamoto mission---a mission from which he would never return.They flew the longest over-water fighter mission ever and ambushed and killed Yamamoto. After his death, the Japanese never won another major naval battle. But the victorious American pilots seemed cursed by the samurai spirit of the admiral and were tormented for the rest of their lives by what happened that day. Davis paints unforgettable personal portraits of men in combat and unravels a military mystery that has been covered up at the highest levels of government since the end of the war.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent account .......2007-02-05

Gripping, it hard to put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed this book that was obviously well researched.

Clearing up the confusion - finally.......2005-12-20

Donald Davis, in his book Lightning Strike, has made an effort to clarify the historical record by providing details that demonstrate, once and for all, who was responsible for shooting down the bomber that carried Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over Bougainville in April 1943.

Much of the book focuses on events leading up to the mission to find & shoot down Yamamoto's aircraft. This first portion of the book introduces the members of the strike team that was responsible for intercepting & destroying the target.

Tom Lanphier, one of the pilots on the mission, claimed that he was solely responsible for shooting down the aircraft carrying Yamamoto, but Davis brings forth the new evidence that was not available to contemporary historians immediately following the war demonstrating that Lanphier not only did not shoot down Yamamoto's plane by himself, but probably had no involvement whatsoever in shooting down the aircraft.

The book is an easy read & certainly does provide new insights into the 60+ year old controversy over who was responsible for ending Yamamoto's involvement in World War II.

I would change only a couple of things about the book - the first is very minor: at the conclusion of the book, Davis tells us that Rex T. Barber was responsible for the destruction of Yamamoto's bomber, but then he ends the book by writing "In 2004...Rex Barber deserved 100 percent credit for shooting down Admiral Yamamoto. The resolution was accompanied by legislation to clear the path for Congress to finally award Barber the Medal of Honor." Unfortunately, he does not tell the reader whether or not the deserved medal was ever awarded (as it turns out, the legislation was still pending as of the publication date of the book). The 2nd thing I would change is a little more significant - I would have changed the length of the book by removing some of the pre-mission background information about the members of the strike team. The details presented make for interesting reading, but (in my opinion), don't really add to the understanding of the mission itself. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for an understanding of what happened to Admiral Yamamoto on that fateful day.

A Davis Strike.......2005-11-03

A fine history of not only the mission to kill Yamamoto, but also of the Pacific theater during WWII. A fantastic overview for people like me who have read little of the history involved, and knew nothing of the plan to kill the Japanese top admiral. A colorful account of the characters, a whodunit of the mission strike, and an explaination of the secrecy involved in mission and why. I loved this book, and would reccomend it to anyone new to the flying aces of WWII.

Lighning Strikes Very Late (Chapter 21 in fact).......2005-10-03

If you bought this book expecting to read about the secret P-38 mission to kill the Admiral who planned Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, you'd be sadly disappointed - at least until somewhere around page 220. By then, you might have concluded that the book is really a history of World War II as fought in the Pacific, for the book is written in much the same vein as one might write about Abraham Lincoln's assassination by starting with the Confederate's firing on Fort Sumter and working his way up. Or, as Jack Nicholson's character in the movie "As Good As It Gets" might say, "I'm drowning here and you're describing the water."

That's not to say that this isn't a good book. It's a very good book, but it sure takes a long time to get to the subject of the book as advertised on the dust cover. In fact, I wanted to downgrade it because to took so long to get to the meat of the subject, but I just couldn't do it.

Starting with Chapter 21 on page 226 the book is just too interesting, too intriguing, too engrossing, and a little too maddening. After reading these pages you'll be able to decide for yourself who really shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; the shameless, politically connected self-promoter who wrote the after-action report or the flier who returned from the mission with 104 bullet holes in his plane and chunks of Yamamoto's bomber stuck in his wings. (Shades of the John F. Kerry/Swift Boat Veterans controversy) I just have to give it five stars. But, if you're not really interested in the buildup to the mission, you can always skip the first 20 chapters.

Lightning Strike : The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor.......2005-09-01

This was a gift for a World War 2 Navy CPO. He knew of the story but the details in the book were excellent, filing in the gaps.

Wedge: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11--How the Secret War between the FBI and CIA Has Endangered National Security

Average customer rating:

A Clash of Cultures
Interesting Material; Sloppy Update
One of those books you know no one will read
Pogo Lives at FBI--We Are Our Own Worst Enemies
Secret History with a Definite Point of View

Wedge: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11--How the Secret War between the FBI and CIA Has Endangered National Security
Mark Riebling
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Espionage | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

ASIN: 0743245997

Book Description

Prophetic when first published, even more relevant now, Wedge is the classic, definitive story of the secret war America has waged against itself.

Based on scores of interviews with former spies and thousands of declassified documents, Wedge reveals and re-creates -- battle by battle, bungle by bungle -- the epic clash that has made America uniquely vulnerable to its enemies. For more than six decades, the opposed and overlapping missions of the FBI and CIA -- and the rival personalities of cops and spies -- have caused fistfights and turf tangles, breakdowns and cover-ups, public scandals and tragic deaths.

A grand panorama of dramatic episodes, peopled by picaresque secret agents from Ian Fleming to Oliver North, Wedge is both a journey and a warning. From Pearl Harbor, McCarthyism, and the plots to kill Castro through the JFK assassination, Watergate, and Iran Contra down to the Aldrich Ames affair, Robert Hanssen's treachery, and the hunt for Al Qaeda -- Wedge shows the price America has paid for its failure to resolve the conflict between law enforcement and intelligence.

Gripping and authoritative -- and updated with an important new epilogue, carrying the action through to September 11, 2001 -- Wedge is the only book about the schism that has informed nearly every major blunder in American espionage.

Customer Reviews:

A Clash of Cultures.......2007-02-27

Within the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) it is scarcely a secret that there has always been a strong undercurrent of rivalry between the FBI and CIA (and its predecessor the Office of Strategic Services, OSS). This book throws a good deal of light on that rivalry and the institutional cultures that foster it. Mark Riebling appears to provide a fair and accurate assessment of origins and history of this rivalry.

As the book makes clear, the FBI is a premier law enforcement agency whose culture emphasizes development of legal evidence through systematic investigations to be used in obtaining court convections of malefactors. The Bureau has never considered research and analysis as essential to this mission. Because of this, the FBI has always been very much square peg in the round hole of the IC.

CIA by contrast has a culture based on the collection of information (which not at all the same as legal evidence) and its transformation by research and analysis into knowledge which can guide and inform decision makers. This is indeed the principal function of all members of the IC, saving the FBI. In the absence of a strong national intelligence authority, which has been vainly sought after since the Pearl Harbor, these cultural differences have been allowed to fester and as the book claims weaken the U.S. national security establishment. (The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is only the latest in a long history of fruitlessly trying to build a functioning national intelligence authority).

The book concentrates on the CIA-FBI rivalries that come to the fore in the complex areas of counter-intelligence (CI) and counter-terrorism (CT) where foreign and domestic boundaries tend to converge and law enforcement and intelligence priorities cross repeatedly. It is discouraging to read over and over how efforts to create central and coordinated CI and CT programs have been thwarted by this institutional rivalry between CIA and the FBI. The book also makes clear that the FBI is NOT the villain of this rivalry and that the cultures of the principal members of the IC predisposes them not only to withhold cooperation from that odd man out ,the FBI, but from each other as well.

Interesting Material; Sloppy Update.......2006-10-23

Mark Riebling's The Wedge is a very comprehensive review of the historic animosity between what we now call the CIA and the FBI, though the split precedes even the creation of the current CIA. As could have been predicted in this book, an intelligence "czar" - the Director of National Intelligence - has finally been appointed to try to make these two organizations put aside their organizational cultures and work together for the national good. In a nutshell, the "wedge" between the CIA and FBI has always been the "law"; the FBI's need to enforce it (often in a partisan fashion), and the CIA's charter to break it (usually in other countries, but often in our own.) And when an irresistable force meets an immovable object ...

Riebling throws light (new or old light, I'm not sure) on subjects as diverse as the disaster at Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, and Iran/Contra, even though his somewhat pro-FBI spin detracts from some of the impact of his claims. Worse, though, is the poor updating of the book, first published in 1994, with an afterword added in 2002. The index is atrocious; for example, mentioning NSA traitor Pelton in the book's text, but not including his name in the index. Likewise, Riebling's claims that the Glomar Explorer totally failed in its effort to pull up a Russian submarine from the depths of the Pacific Ocean are undone by the CIA itself admiting that it not only pulled up part of the submarine but filmed the burial at sea of the bodies of Russian sailors who died in that sub's sinking. (They even turned film of the event over to the Russians and you can watch the film on Goodge video.)

What this book is, then, is a pretty slap-dash updating of a volume that was excellent for its time, but is now just a rehashing old news for new profit.

One of those books you know no one will read.......2006-01-13

This is one of those books you know people in high places should read, but of course they never will. If they actually do, they of course will be thwarted in their efforts to implement any corrections that are pointed out by the book, because the institutional forces that are involved are way too powerful, and way to attached to their perks and spheres of power to shift any, even for reasons of National Security.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was essentially the creature, or creation anyway, of J. Edgar Hoover, who was the director of the Bureau for a record 46 years (a record not likely to ever be broken). Hoover built up the organization from an obscure office in the Department of Justice into a behemoth that ran down the "moto-bandits" of the 20's and early 30's (Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machinegun Kelly) and then helped put the East Coast mob into retreat, at least temporarily, in the mid-30's. By then he'd become powerful enough that he felt his power and authority should be expanded.

One of the directions in which he wished to extend his power was toward political dissent and disloyalty in the U.S. Hoover himself was apparently pretty apolitical, at least as far as partisan Republican vs. Democrat issues were concerned, but he was very disturbed by Communist influence, and possible Nazi influence, in the U.S., and he apparently felt that he should be in charge of rooting out the elements of these philosophies that were in the U.S.

Tied up with this was the issue of espionage. For a while, Hoover had a clear field, but when the U.S. entered World War II, his FBI, clearly a law enforcement agency trained to catch criminals, wasn't very good at catching spies. Worse, their focus was on *catching* them, as opposed to feeding them bad information, for instance, or following them to see who they led authorities to. Hoover's own mindset, stubbornly provincial and conservative, ruled out the Bureau learning how to do these things: instead, he doggedly persisted in attempts to control how enemy agents were dealt with, who actually dealt with them, and most importantly, who got the credit.

By the time the Office of Strategic Services was formed in 1942, the lines were already pretty clearly drawn. Hoover would oppose any expansion of intelligence capability outside of the Bureau itself, and doggedly continue to try and expand his power vis a vis intelligence matters. When he died 30 years later, he was still trying.

The first half of this book lays out the problems this created when the U.S. first tried to deal with the threat of the Nazis, and later with the Communists. Hoover's death didn't end the bureaucratic rivalry that had sprung up: by then the institutional memory of the CIA and FBI was too strong to be killed off by the absence of one individual. The rest of the book deals with the post-Hoover era, with the last chapter and an epilogue added on later, which outline the current difficulties in the War on Terror.

The author lays all of this out in considerable detail, and frankly at times it makes for pretty horrifying reading. All the way back in the beginning, Hoover absent-mindedly filed away the message the Nazis sent double-agent Dusko Popov asking him for ship dispositions and locations, torpedo net positions, and other very suggestive things regarding Pearl Harbor. When the attack actually occurred, Popov was in South America. The first report of the attack that he heard only gave note of it, and he was elated, figuring that with the information he had given the U.S. we must have won a terrific victory. He was later outraged to discover we didn't use the information. Hoover, apparently, didn't trust or like traitors, even those who betrayed our enemies.

There is one proviso with a book like this. *All* intelligence books written about recent history are somewhat problematic, in that the author tends to discover information about the *failures* of intelligence. Successes, if properly conducted, remain out of sight of the public. This book is probably especially prone to that, given that the subject is implicitly a failure, or series of failures, in intelligence. That being said, the author certainly had a lot of material to report, and regardless of any successes, there's enough here to make your hair stand on end. The book is somewhat dated, too: the main narrative finishes just as the first President Bush leaves office to be replaced by Bill Clinton, and the epilogue/afterward are frankly inadequate to deal with the issues facing us today. I would have much preferred it if the author had added another hundred pages, instead of the 20 or so that are tacked onto the end of this edition. He does mention constraints of space, so perhaps the publisher is to blame.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in current affairs or the current intelligence failures in the U.S.

Pogo Lives at FBI--We Are Our Own Worst Enemies.......2003-06-19

Although I know the CIA better than I do the FBI, I have spent time in the past ten years with law enforcement officers from over 40 countries including the US, and the bottom line is that the FBI bureaucracy (Supervisory Special Agents and the politically-motivated upper tiers of FBI management) are a worse threat to US security than individual terrorist groups, for the simple reason that as long as the FBI leadership remains in denial, in secret, and ineffective, the entirety of our homeland defense is incapacitated.

The earlier version of this book focused on the decades of historical enmity between CIA and FBI--in the early years, Edgar J. Hoover was clearly to blame for a culture of hostility between the two agencies and between the FBI and military intelligence--in one instance he actually suppressed early knowledge of Japanese intentions on Pearl Harbor obtained from a German agent tasked to fulfill their targeting requirements.

In later years the CIA took on more responsibility for shutting out the FBI, consistently refusing to brief them in to either internal counterintelligence failures, or foreign operations with a strong domestic counterintelligence matter.

What the author has done in the aftermath of 9-11 is update the book and make it even more relevant to every citizen and every elected official and every bureaucrat. The earlier edition made me very angry about how the senior FBI bureaucracy can sacrifice the national interest at the altar of its own selfish agenda of self-preservation and aggrandizement--from Special Agent Rowley to Special Agent Robert Wright, the FBI leadership consistently spends more time censoring and punishing its own people for honesty, than it does chasing terrorists. This new improved edition should make every citizen, every voter angry, and they should instruct their elected representatives that the time has come for a National Security Act that finally reforms national foreign intelligence, military intelligence, and law enforcement intelligence, and in passing, creates the homeland security intelligence act to create a federated system of state and local intelligence and counterintelligence cadres that operate under the jurisdiction of governors and mayors rather than the federal government.

Pogo had it right: we have met the enemy and he is us.

Secret History with a Definite Point of View.......2002-11-09

This is an audacious, exhaustive, highly original book. I think it's fair to say that Riebling is somewhat biased toward the CIA and against the FBI, although perhaps not without some very good reasons (for instance, FBI diretcor J. Edgar Hoover clearly didn't understand counterintelligence; also, the FBI refused to do intelligence analysis).

Riebling also takes a somewhat revisionist approach to the Cold War, implying in many places that the secret measures taken againt communist sympathizers by our government weren't that extreme, and noting that they were in fact more modest than those taken by Jefferson, Madison, et. al. against suspected British sympathizers in the early decades of the Republic.

There's a besetting contrarian current or draft in this work, which sometimes Riebling rides to great heights of interpretation (e.g., on KGB deception ops), but which sometimes blows him into dead-ends where the key data is still classified.

The book is rich in detail. There is tradecraft detail here one finds nowhere else -- e.g., Nazi spies' use of butterfly trays to smuggle microdots; the story of Project WALNUT, CIA's first foray into the computerization of its records; a fistfight between FBI agents and CIA officers over custody of a Soviet defector in a Washington, DC restaurant.

There are long stretches where one feels riveted as in the best spy novels. The material on Ian Fleming and the influence of the "James Bond" ethos is especially well done.

Expertly handled too is the vast amount of original mateiral on the colorful and controversial CIA spycatcher James Jesus Angleton, whose approach is explained with patience and precision. Riebling clearly had access to many who worked closely with Angleton, including FBI liaison officer Sam Papich, and as a result there is a sureness of touch where other writers have played false notes.

Book Description

At Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked, Ed Layton knew exactly what had gone wrong as he watched the bombs and torpedoes wipe out the U.S. Pacific Fleet. But he kept those secrets to himself for forty-three years—until the government released half a million classified documents from its intelligence archives. Finally free to tell his story, the retired admiral published his revelations in this memoir in 1985 to worldwide attention. It is the first book by a top-ranking American naval officer to describe how Japan had managed to inflict such damage. Layton names those who knew about the Japanese intentions, how they acquired their knowledge, and how they misused it. He speaks with unique authority. An intelligence officer, he was responsible for keeping Admiral Nimitz informed about Japan's strategic objectives, capabilities, and intended operations.

This blow-by-blow account of a war within a war describes admirals fighting admirals while civilian officials in Washington vied for power and turf and disregarded the national interest. It tells of a secret deal between Roosevelt and Churchill that called for preemptive air raids on the Japanese homeland and how this deterrent strategy failed. It is also the first book to detail the background of the secret radio intelligence war against Japan and to break the story of how Washington repeated its blunders of Pearl Harbor and almost lost the crucial Battle of Midway. Calling the shots as he saw them, Layton writes in salty, unvarnished prose but thoroughly documents his revelations.

Customer Reviews:

A 'Must Read' for Anyone Interested In Pearl/Midway.......2006-05-16

As the Fleet Intellegence Officer of Admirals Kimmel and Nimitz Edwin Layton was in a unique position to see and to understand what was going on regarding the battles at Pearl Harbor and Midway. This welcome reprint to the 1985 book has to be considered one of the more definitive books of the couple of hundred on the subjects.

Layton was a language officer stationed in Japan before the war to learn Japanese. He followed Japan and the Japanese developments closely. He was at Pearl before the attack and remained there throughout the war. He was on the Missouri at the Japanese surrender.

There are a series of revisionist history books that propose such things as Roosevelt and Churchill conspiring to let the Japanese attack at Pears. Yes there is evidence that we had some intelligence pointing to the Japanese attack. But you have to look carefully at how much material there was, how many messages had been intercepted, how few had been translated and you come up with the basic understanding that it just hadn't been put together. A lot like the situation with 9/11, Monday morning quarterbacking is much easier than being in the midst of the game.

Layton was there, he knew what Kimmel and Short knew, indeed he had briefed them with the material on hand. Could they have been better prepared, yes, Layton says, if Admiral Richmond K. Turner had forwarded the information. But like any inter-departmental power struggle, Turner held the information to himself.

I was also surprised by the relatively little animosity shown towards the Redman brothers who bounced Rochefort and Safford out. Indeed Layton points out that the do it themselves style of Rochefort and Safford probably wouldn't have done a very good job of managing the Navy Radio Intelligence activities that grew to almost 8,500 people by the end of the war.

All in all, a must read for anyone interested in what happened at Pearl and Midway.

Navy coverup for their Pearl Harbor incompetence.......2004-03-24

And I was there.
This is a great book by one who was there, Adm Layton. He was Adm Kimmels intelligence officer at Pearl Harbor.
He shows how the incompetence of the Navy in Washington led to the surprise attack at Pearl, by the Navy, specifically adm Stark and Kelly Turner, not giving Pearl the vital information they had about Jap intentions, but refused to give Pearl. The Navy also had 2 intelligence groups fighting for the information, and control, evaluating, and dissemination of the information. This too sabotaged the intelligence efforts, and does to this day.
Gen Marshall is also responsible for the debacle. He was reprimanded, but Roosevelt set aside the Congressional verdict on him.
Kimmel was judged not guilty of any wrongdoing by the Navy, but found derelict by Congress, a tragic miscarriage of justice, due to lies under testimony by Stark, and Turner.

The Redmon brothers are faulted too for ousting the most brilliant Navy intelligence officer, Rochefort, who correctly guessed the time and location of the Midway battle.

Another tragic aftermath of Pearl, was the loss of Wake Island. Kimmel had a carrier task force sailing to resupply and relieve the garrision that was under attack by the Japs. This would have surprised the Japs and could have sunk many Jap ships, saved Wake Island, and kept open the supply lines to the Phillipines. Unfortunaely, Kimmel was relieved, and Adm Pye replaced him Pye lost his nerve and cancelled the mission.

MacArthur is noted, as being in charge of the Phillipines, and being under orders to attack Formosa with his B17's when Pearl was attacked. He had a 9 hour warning after Pearl had been attacked, and had been told to attack. It was not until years after this book was published that the records of why Mac did nothing in the Phillipines were found. He was paid $650,000 by Pres Quezon of the Phillipines to do nothing, as he wanted to be neutral. MacArthur lost the Phillipines, a far more important strategic outpost than Pearl, as well as half the B17's we had, and 1/5 of our fighters, on the ground, just as what happened at Pearl, only 9 hours later, after he had multiple phone calls from Washington to attack the Japs.

The battle of Guadalcanal and other Pacific battles is also gone into in some detail
It was Nimitz, not Mac Arthur that devised the island hopping idea.
A great book by a hero who was there.

A Codebreaker's Analysis of Pearl Harbor and Midway.......2003-07-14

Edwin T. Layton served as Fleet Intelligence Officer for Admirals Kimmel and Nimitz. He, along with the other members of station Hypo, were assigned the task of breaking into Japan's secret codes, especially their JN-25 cypher. Through exhausting efforts by its members, they were finaly able to penetrate enough of the JN-25 code to make reasonable assumptions as to what the Japanese navy was planning. "Magic" was the term used for the intercept and decryption of these secret codes.

However, no decoding was actually done at Pearl Harbor, because there was no "Purple" decoding machine there. All intercepts had to be sent to Washinton for decryption, and Hawaii relied on Washington for their information. Layton's thesis is that Pearl Harbor was denied vital intelligence which, if issued in a timely fashion, could have alerted Pearl Harbor to the impending attack which occurred on December 7, 1941. Although I agree with some of his thesis, I also believe that the Pearl Harbor commanders made terrible mistakes of their own which also contributed to the unpreparedness of Pearl Harbor.

One message that Washington failed to send Pearl Harbor which I believe, along with Layton, could have alerted the fleet to the attack was the so-called "bomb plot" message. In a nutshell, this message divided Pearl Harbor into several sections and placed ships in each section; almost like laying an invisible grid over the harbor. Of all the messages that Pearl Harbor failed to receive, this was probably the most important.

However, with this stated, I also believe that the commanders made grievous errors of their own. On November 27, 1941, a "war warning" message was sent to both commanders at Pearl Harbor. Both seemed perplexed and unsure of the course of action to be taken. Why was this? Both Admiral Kimmel and General Short were high ranking members of the military, yet they both dragged their feet when they received this message. Short simply ordered defense against sabotage instead of ordering an all-out alert, while Kimmel failed to order any further long-range patrols, plus he didn't order the battle force to sea. They seemed incapable of making any independent judgement of their own. Instead, they needed to be told directly what to do. These omissions are unforgivable.

Inter-service rivalry also played a role in the failure. As pointed out by Layton, there was very little inter-service cooperation or sharing of messages, so most of the time, one usually didn't know what the other was doing. Further, during the Midway operation, a rivalry betwen station Hypo and the Washington-based intelligence unit nearly cost us the battle, but fortunately, Layton and commander Joe Rochefort were able to convince Nimitz that Hypo, not Washington, was correct.

I thought this was a good book, but I disagree with Layton's assertion that Kimmel and Short were scapegoats and had no clue what was happening. Granted, there was some intelligence that was definitely denied to them, but they should have been able to interpret events on ther own, namely the war warning message. This book is a good counter-argument to other works, such as "At Dawn We Slept". The information about the battle of Midway is especially interesting, plus the story of the codebreaking activities was well-done.

A real eye opener!.......2002-04-29

Before you jump on some revisionist books about Pearl Harbor, like Stinnet's Day of Deceipt, you should get it from the horses mouth! Layton, et al, tell a little known side of the war in the pacific. His opinions of some famous naval personalities like Stark and R.K. Turner will really have you thinking about how war is run when powerful, ambitious officers are running the show. It's a shame that lives had to be wasted while the U.S. got its act together to finally win the war in the pacific, but Layton's tale will give you a new perspective and supports much of what was previously written, like Prang's "At Dawn We Slept", about the debacle of Pearl Harbor and the genius that followed at Midway. Buy it!

CONCISELY.......2001-05-23

First and major portion of book covering Pearl Harbor is excellent. However, after Layton's death, the book was continued from his notes and descriptions of campaigns after Pearl Harbor suffer in quality by comparison.

Average customer rating:

a quick painless window into how the other side thinks...
Pediatric Surgery Secrets

Pediatric Surgery Secrets
Philip L. Glick , Richard Pearl , Michael S. Irish , and Michael G. Caty
Manufacturer: Hanley & Belfus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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ASIN: 156053317X

Book Description

A concise, yet complete clinical reference on pediatric surgery in the engaging and highly practical question-and-answer format of The Secrets Series®. In 80 chapters, the authors present authoritative, practical coverage that will appeal to pediatric and general surgeons as well as pediatricians and primary care physicians.

Customer Reviews:

a quick painless window into how the other side thinks..........2006-09-25

Helps you understand the "them"

Pediatric Surgery Secrets.......2000-03-30

Lots of great info in the style of the other secrets books

Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family

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Very Touching and Powerful
Pearl was a mixed white, not a "black"
Searching a Lost Branch of the Family
Neil Henry's Journey
From An Old Seattle Friend

Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family
Neil Henry
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black
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ASIN: 0520227301

Book Description

Pearl's Secret is a remarkable autobiography and family story that combines elements of history, investigative reporting, and personal narrative in a riveting, true-to-life mystery. In it, Neil Henry--a black professor of journalism and former award-winning correspondent for the Washington Post--sets out to piece together the murky details of his family's past. His search for the white branch of his family becomes a deeply personal odyssey, one in which Henry deploys all of his journalistic skills to uncover the paper trail that leads to blood relations who have lived for more than a century on the opposite side of the color line. At the same time Henry gives a powerful and vivid account of his black family's rise to success over the twentieth century. Throughout the course of this gripping story the author reflects on the part that racism and racial ignorance have played in his daily life--from his boyhood in largely white Seattle to his current role as a parent and educator in California.
The contemporary debate over the significance of Thomas Jefferson's longtime romantic relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings, and recent DNA evidence that points to his role as the father of black descendants, have revealed the importance and volatility of the issue of dual-race legacies in American society. As Henry uncovers the dramatic history of his great-great-grandfather--a white English immigrant who fought as a Confederate officer in the Civil War, found success during Reconstruction as a Louisiana plantation owner, and enjoyed a long love affair with Henry's great-great-grandmother, a freed black slave--he grapples with an unsettling ambivalence about what he is trying to do. His straightforward, honest voice conveys both the pain and the exhilaration that his revelations bring him about himself, his family, and our society. In the book's stunning climax, the author finally meets his white kin, hears their own remarkable story of survival in America, and discovers a great deal about both the sting of racial prejudice as it is woven into the fabric of the nation, and his own proud identity as a teacher, father, and black American.

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Customer Reviews:

Very Touching and Powerful.......2004-06-12

I really enjoyed following Neil Henry on his search for "the other side" of his family tree. This book has a real suspenseful edge to it as well as profound, touching and painful aspects.There is so much here. History lesson,sociological study,detective story,love story ...it's all here, and very well done.

Pearl was a mixed white, not a "black".......2003-11-25

Ironically, Pearl's Secret leads one to question most of the "mulatto elite" or "pass for black" values the author holds dear. Neil Henry claims that his quadroon great-grandmother, Pearl was "proud" to be "black." However, her life story tells of a woman who "walked" the color line, even in Jim Crow St. Louis. Pearl took "white" lovers and did not behave the way a "respectable" light-skinned credit to the "Negro race" was supposed to behave. Pearl's "secret" was that she kept in touch with her "pure" white family in Louisiana after moving to St. Louis. She was afraid to tell her "Negro" family about it because she feared ridicule. As every good, black-identified "mulatto elite" person knows, "white" genes are to be cherished as a source of beauty, intelligence and "good" hair, but "white" people are to be rejected as "the enemy." That is why imposing a "black" identity on people who do not look "black" is racist and pathological.
Neil Henry tells of a trip he took to Greece in which Greeks started speaking to him in their native tongue because he "looked Greek" to them. Neil relates this tale with typical "mulatto elite" astonishment at being assigned a "superior" identity. He can't get over it. Henry's family is nearly all "mulatto elite" or mixed to varying degrees, with typical "mulatto elite" values. Young Neil must be the best student in school in order to prove to "whites" that "blacks" aren't inferior. He must be "proud" of his [black] "race," while cherishing light skin and "good" hair. He must consider himself indisputably "black" even though he seems to have nothing in common with the "real" black kids. His culture is too "white" for them. He denies the contradictions of his "black" public identity and his mixed-race reality.
Finally, it must be noted that Neil Henry (professor of journalism at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley), is a gatekeeper of official knowledge on "race." He must KNOW that, legally, the "one drop rule" has no status or power. He must KNOW that the obvious "black" ancestry of his Latino, North African and Arab students and colleagues proves that. His book is designed to perpetuate the "one drop" lie and frighten people into a "black" identity they don't want and which doesn't suit them in the least.

Searching a Lost Branch of the Family.......2002-07-12

Fascinating story. The author, who is black, allows us with full sincerity into his heart and soul. Being middle-class white myself, I believe I know how other middle-class white people think because of our shared experiences. But blacks have lived other experiences. This book gave me a peek into the middle-class black world. For that I thank the author.
Reading how the author spent frustrating hours researching and searching for his genealogical past in different towns and states, and in archival and governmental departments was tickling. He showed me step by step how he got ever closer and closer to his goal of finding this lost branch of the family. Throwing in as a monkey wrench the fact that the branch he spotlighted was white whose patriarch disowned his child (the author's ancestor) during the slave days because she was ½-black made for a very interesting read. I recommend this book for all, esp. whites.
It's written in a simple open style except when he goes off on his black-politics tangents. But even that helped illuminate his inner workings. I have black acquaintances who hold the same hypersensitive political beliefs. But nevertheless I found that these tangents took away from the unity of the book. It could be argued that there are two books here under one cover: one is a fascinating story on finding a lost branch of the family, a black man finding his white kin; and the other is on impersonal racial politics. I skipped thru the politics. But it's OK, the first half was well worth the price. Also, I found that at times the author spent too much time on some of his immediate family who really had little to do with the book. Perhaps if he had delved more into his own experience as a black man in a white world rather then relating his parents' experiences in the Jim Crow era. But thankfully the story always got back to the struggle within the black author himself , of his anger, and of his conflicting black and (largely unknown) white heritage.
When the author finally made first contact with his contemporary (white) distant cousins, who were indeed vaguely aware of a black half-aunt from a few generations back, and after so many intervening generations of lost contact, and after so many steps of unending research, well, it was very moving. It was very deeply moving. Even a Klansman or a Black Panther would've been moved by this story of reunion of black and white in the same family. I couldn't put the book down,. What an adventure in closing the circle that spanned over a century. I hope the story didn't just end where the book did.

Neil Henry's Journey.......2002-06-03

This is a splendid book on many levels for the historian, genealogist, or anyone who just likes a spellbinding story. For Mr. Henry tells a fascinating story of discovery. Mr. Henry
not only reveals the various paths he trod to find his other family--but reveals many insights into black/white relations and how they change, black/black relations within and outside black neighborhoods, and, in snippets, gives hints on how we all can get our act together to make this a better country for all Americans.
I was absolutely mesmerized by this book and highly recommend it.

From An Old Seattle Friend.......2001-11-10

I was shocked when Neil jumped up and angrily walked away from me saying that I was a racist. It was 1970 and Neil Henry and I were sitting with a group of friends in Franklin High School's library before the start of school. We often were together whether we were in math. class, playing chess, or basketball. Neil Henry is an old friend of mine who I haven't seen since high school, and reading his book brought back many memories. This one memory of him depicts the struggles that he must have felt about his own identity. "Pearl's Secret" tells an incredible and spiritually uplifting story of his victory to gain a hidden truth of his family that was his own identity. His life tells of a extremely capable young man who wanders through the world in search of something he isn't completely aware of himself. It is a story that many of us spend our lives dealing with in our own ways. Neil's strength and courage is his reward. That morning over thirty years ago when I felt I had hurt a good friend is now brought to light for me. I'm sorry Neil, and thank you.

Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor

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A Story of a Proposal to Bomb Japan First

Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Alan Armstrong
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1592289134

Book Description

The untold story of a secret planthat would have prevented Pearl Harbor—and maybe even World War II.

Could a plan to bomb Japan and destroy Japanese supply lines, communications, and staging areas in China have averted the horrendous and devastating attack on Pearl Harbor? On July 23, 1941—some five months before Pearl Harbor—President Franklin Delano Roosevelt endorsed a plan calling for the United States to provide China with 150 manned bombers and 350 fighter planes to wreak havoc on Japan’s growing presence in China. “Joint Board Plan 335” had been proposed to Roosevelt and his cabinet by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek; Dr. T. V. Soong, China’s special envoy to the United States; and Captain Claire Lee Chennault, a retired Air Corps pilot now in the employ of Chiang. Such a preemptive strike on Japanese interests had been under discussion for several months. Although initially blocked by General George C. Marshall, the plan was resurrected in the spring of 1941. So why, then, was it never employed?
First, there were the practical reasons: Not yet fully recovered from the Great Depression, millions of Americans were more concerned about domestic issues than foreign policy. Roosevelt and his cabinet feared political fallout from Chiang’s proposed international intrigue, to say nothing of facing Winston Churchill’s wrath by diverting airplanes from Britain. Then there were also ethical concerns over the definite civilian casualties the air strike would inflict. Could Roosevelt justify bombing raids when the U.S. and Japan were officially at peace? Chiang and Chennault argued that their plan would serve as a moral quid pro quo to an adversary that had been bombing and slaughtering millions of Chinese civilians for three years. The raids, Chennault insisted, would forestall Japanese expansion into Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines.
Painstakingly researched and colorfully written, Preemptive Strike offers a seldom-seen glimpse of the political and moral pressures brought to bear on Roosevelt’s prewar cabinet. It is sure to prompt debate, as much as the decision to use this wartime strategy does today.

Customer Reviews:

A Story of a Proposal to Bomb Japan First.......2006-07-07

A fun book that plays 'what if' with Claire Chennault, the Flying Tigers and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The basic concept being discussed was a proposal made by China to increase the American aviation presence in China from a hundred P-40's to 350 fighters and 150 bombers. This force was to be used to bomb Japanese forces in China and perhaps even in Japan. There was apparently some discussion, even some acceptance of the proposal in the United States.

Needless to say, this didn't come to pass, and for a lot of reasons. One problem was the availability of the bombers. As of October 17, 1941 there were 83 B-17s in the United States and another 31 overseas. Hap Arnold and George Marshall were not going to be easy to persuade to give up these planes (and the next 36 to come off of Boeing's assembly line) to a retired Army Captain (Chennault) off in China.

Another point worth mentioning is that the generally held view of the capability of a few heavy bombers to significantly change the outcome of a war was much higher before they really started bombing. It wasn't too long after this that England was doing 1,000 plane raids with planes that carried 3-4 times as many bombs as the B-17.

One of the really strong points of this book is the interplay among the powers that be in Washington. While the plan was being considered, this was the time when Roosevelt was winning an election on the theme that he kept us out of war. A preemptive strike on Japan would probably have been politically worse then than Iraq is now. And the presumption that this might have deterred the Japanese from the attack on Pearl is a bit of a stretch. The reaction of the Japanese to the Doolittle raids was to attack Midway.

Great fun read.

Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Contribution to the Japanese Attack

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Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Contribution to the Japanese Attack
U.S.N., ret., Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald
Manufacturer: Devin-adair Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000H3U9II

Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War

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The Seminal Work Toward a True Understanding of Pearl Harbor.
pearl harbor no suprise.

Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War
George Morgenstern
Manufacturer: Inst for Historical Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0939484382

Customer Reviews:

The Seminal Work Toward a True Understanding of Pearl Harbor........2007-06-20

This text, with a 1946 copyright and published as a hardcover in 1947 (Devin-Adair), has now been released as a 50th Anniversary Edition in 1991 (Institute of Historical Review).

It remains today, in 2007, a quintessential source for any Pearl Harbor cognoscente. Facts is facts.

To be appreciated is that Morgenstern's effort is prior to almost all other Pearl Harbor works and is largely based on the flurry of "official" investigations and their findings which took place in the 1940s.

There are today obviously a number of revisions needed to this book based on the more recent research. For example, the efforts of authors such as Toland (e.g., Seaman "Z" and the Dutch officer Ranneft), Stinnett and Wilford (extensive use of FOIA materials on IJN codes and radio intelligence), and the far newer work of Victor (e.g., FDR ordered the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii, ordered Stark to begin the ABCD talks, ordered convoying in the Atlantic, ordered Hull to give the Japanese the ten-point ultimatum, whereabouts of FDR and War Cabinet the night of 12.6.41, foreknowledge that Germany would declare war on the US, ..., etc.) reveal much that Morgenstern did not uncover. But, such is the role of historical pursuit.

Of particular interest are his conclusions as presented in Chapter Twenty - "Who Was Guilty?" The ending sentences are : " ... The people were told that acts which were equivalent to war were intended to keep the nation out of war. Constitutional processes existed only to be circumvented, until finally the war-making power of Congress was reduced to the act of ratifying an accomplished fact."

This text makes so clear the obvious. And, for Americans, this, given their past history of wars since WWII, should be thought about.

pearl harbor no suprise........2000-02-18

this book not only shows that roosevelt"s war cabinet knew about the impending attack on pearl harbor but actually invited and provoked japan to attack via diplomatic and economic sanctions.this book exposes deceit at the highest level of govt.a must read!excellent.

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