Product Description
Never before has the history of the air war on the Eastern Front been written in such depth, in such detail, and so carefully balanced between both sides. The air war on the Eastern Front in World War II was history's largest and longest air campaign. Nevertheless, it has been one of the least known and least understood chapters of aviation history. This is because prior to the release of the Black Cross/Red Star series, publications on this immense subject have been based on material taken almost exclusively from the German side. Black Cross/Red Star, presented in several photo-laden volumes, has evolved as the most complete and detailed series ever published on the air war on the Eastern Front. Volume 3, Everything for Stalingrad covers the German summer offensive in 1942; the subsequent fierce air battles over the Caucasus; the Luftwaffe's onslaught on Convoy PQ-17; the hard air war over the Central and Northern combat zones, when the Soviets launched their relief offensives in the summer and fall of 1942; and, mainly, the huge Air Battle over Stalingrad. This volume contains a large number of photos along with 37 high-quality aircraft color profiles by Claes Sundin.
Customer Reviews:
Impressive and Valuable Book.......2007-06-06
The series "Black Cross Red Star" is a milestone in many respects. If you are interested of the air war over the Eastern Front these books are goldmines of information and contain many fabulous photos.
All books in the series are also well-balanced in the perspective as they have been made by specialists on both the German and Soviet air forces.
In this third volume the air war over Stalingrad and the Caucasus is highlighted. But unlike most other books on the Eastern Front this does not mean that the northernmost sector, over Murmansk, is forgotten. On the contrary the authors report extensively on this plus also on special female pilot detachments of the Soviets and the last great German successes, over Leningrad and Rzhev.
Being an author myself I am in awe at the amount of research that Christer Bergström and his friends have done. They have not spared themselves, that's for sure.
Finally I wish to stress that the photos, maps, paintings and lists are in themselves reason enough to acquire these books.
A Wealth of Information Previously Unknown in the West.......2007-02-08
Sub-Title: Everything for Stalingrad
This series of books, now in it's third volume (out of I believe four total) is a breakthrough in the description of the air war in the eastern front. For the first time we here in the west have been able to take advantage of the information being released out of the former Soviet Union. In this volume, the information is just about evenly balanced between information from the German and the Soviet sides in the battles. This includes not only the text, but also the pictures.
I didn't count them, but this book probably has about 200 pictures. You get the feeling that just about every type of plane flown by both sides. This includes more Me-109 variants than you can imagine as well as the Soviet and American planes such as P-39's, P-40's and B-25's given to the Soviets as part of Lend Lease.
The sub-title referring to Stalingrad shouldn't be taken as meaning the book is only about Stalingrad. It spends a lot of time talking about the battles around Leningrad, and has a quite complete description of the air attacks on convoy PQ-17.
This is a large format book, printed and bound using high quality materials.
Black Cross Red Star volume 3.......2007-02-07
This is the best volume so far of this series. A fast reading and excellent discription of the air war around Leningrad. The best was the portion of the book in the Caucasus air war. The description of the battle around Stalingrad was good but only gave one side of the description from either side in details many times about incidents.Christer Berstrom as always gives a very interesting view of the air war in the Arctic. I still believe it's one of the best descriptions so far to come of this aspect of the war in Russia. This seems to be winning team working on these volumes. Now I'm waiting for volume 4 to finish the story for this campaign in the south. Check out Vlad Antipov's book on "Dragon's On Bird Wings" for further reading of the southern air war from a Russian fighter regiment's view of Stalingrad and the war in the south.
Book Description
Your Passport to the Universe
The night sky is alive with many wonders--distant planets, vast star clusters, glowing nebulae, and expansive galaxies, all waiting to be explored. Let respected astronomy writer Philip Harrington introduce you to the universe in Star Watch, a complete beginner's guide to locating, observing, and understanding these celestial objects. You'll start by identifying the surface features of the Moon, the banded cloud tops of Jupiter, the stunning rings of Saturn, and other members of our solar system. Then you'll venture out beyond our solar system, where you'll learn tips and tricks for finding outstanding deep-sky objects from stars to galaxies, including the entire Messier catalog--a primary goal of every serious beginner.
Star Watch features a detailed physical description of each target, including size, distance, and structure, as well as concise directions for locating the objects, handy finder charts, hints on the best times to view each object, and descriptions of what you'll really see through a small telescope or binoculars and with the naked eye.
Star Watch will transport you to the farthest depths of space--and return you as a well-traveled, experienced stargazer.
Customer Reviews:
Essential tool.......2007-09-23
As others have said, this is not a glossy, colorful coffee-table book. In fact, you won't find any color pictures in this book at all. Just lots of black and white text and drawings. And yet, I have found this book to be one of the most useful astronomy guides. Why? Two main reasons.
First of all, the star charts. The author shows you how to "star-hop" from a bright star to an obscure deep sky object, which makes finding it so much easier. He also includes textual directions on how to find the object, step by step, star by star.
Second reason is expectations. As the owner of a 6" telescope, I used to be disappointed when I first started this hobby that the views of deep sky objects weren't as fabulous as I had expected from seeing colorful pictures of nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters. Frequently these items seemed like just fuzzy, ghostly grayish images to me. Well, as this book explains, that's how they look to most of us with medium (6" to 8" telescopes). And to the naked eye they will never look as colorful as they do in photographs. This book rates objects by how they would look in binoculars, small telescopes of 3" to 5", and medium telescopes of 6" to 8". He'll also tell you how easy or hard it is to find every object, and what you can expect to see in each type of instrument. He also includes his own sketches of how some of these objects look through his 8" reflector. Often they look not much better than how I see them in my 6" reflector, which is a great comfort.
Excellent book for amateur astronomers - it will tell you exactly how to find the most interesting objects and what to expect to see once you do find them, depending on what instrument you're using.
It Goes With a Telescope or Binoculars........2007-02-12
The book has a big list of things you can see with only a pair of binoculars. So I gave the nerds both binoculars and a telescope.
Very good book.
excuse me, a beginner's book?.......2006-01-23
Maybe I am even less talented than I thought, maybe I am just downright stupid, maybe problem is in my expectations, as I expected something more visual and less technical.. but this book is not a beginner's book. I bought a telescope for my son this xmas, and I wanted to know what the heck we are looking at once skies clear over Croatia. This book will not serve that purpose. IF I WERE an astronomy / physics anthusiast (NEVER!), THEN this book would have been a beginner's book.
Starwatch.......2006-01-15
I used this book for my beginning astronomy class I took online and it was very user friendly and the information is quite understandable. I really liked this book and the information it entails. Enjoy this book
Harrington's Star Watch Shines.......2005-08-20
An excellent beginner's book or a back-to-basics guide for expeienced observers, Harrington meticulously lays-out the celestial sphere and ways to find and enjoy it's wonders.
This patient step by step approach not only teaches the fundamentals and skills of stargazing, but calibrates our expectation realistically regrarding what we can expect to see depending on the instrument we use and the local conditions.
Harrington selects for us 125 fascinating objects to observe
using them to develop techniques for finding and viewing.
I would recommend this work as a great primer for neophyte amateur astronomers.
Book Description
The first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders in 1936, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorized account of Mao’s life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. Out of that experience came Red Star Over China, a classic work that remains one of the most important books ever written about the birth of the Communist movement in China. This edition includes extensive notes on military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution, and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.
Customer Reviews:
fair.......2007-05-13
among all the books that make comments on china that been written by western people this is an fair one and good one, coz there are relatively few bias.
Informative but Naive.......2007-03-26
In 1936 U.S. journalist Edgar Snow (1905-1972) traveled to the remote hills of Shaanxi Province in order to interview Mao Zedong and the Communist insurgents at their rural base near Yan'an. Snowe wrote this book after spending months interviewing and observing Mao Zedong, Zhou En-Lai, Lin Bao, etc., plus their veteran soldiers. Readers get a bird's-eye view of the Chinese communists in the 1930's, their history, and their rugged life in the hills. Readers also see the harsh realities of impoverished Chinese peasants, plus the corrupt, incompetent, and often cruel rule of the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek. These realities led many peasants to favor Mao's insurgents, who went on to win over China in 1949. This is an interesting narrative, but one cannot overlook the author's naivety. Snow let his hosts review the manuscript, and he never sensed the potential for later problems via police state rule, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
This informative book is worth reading despite its flaws. In part because of this book Snow was charged with disloyalty in the 1950's, leading him to move from the USA to Europe. Ironically, Snow's last trip to China in 1969-1970 helped paved the way for U.S. President Nixon's 1972 visit and improved realtions between the USA and China.
An excellent look at the Chinese Civil War.......2005-12-20
For the last few decades, we Americans have had an extremely negative view of the Chinese Communist Party, and especially such now-mythical forefathers as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, whose drastic excesses and failures have led to their demonisation in Western society as mere liars, thugs, and brutish dictators. But yet, in the '30s and '40s, such men managed to overcome both the tanks and rifles of powerful Japanese war machine and the propaganda and armies of the Western-financed Nanjing government with primarily the support of the Chinease peasantry; certainly such mass support would not be easily handed to one of the dime-a-dozen bandit-kings that infested pre-1949 China. What would have driven the rural laobaixing to throw in their lot against all the power of the Kuomintang?
Snow's excellent Red Star Over China is not, as many critics seem to think, glowing puff praise of Communists. Rather, it is an in-depth, powerful explanation of the reasons for their support among both the starving poor and ethnic minorities, and an examination of how less than 200 men managed to turn this support into a mass movement powerful enough to wash both the overextended Japanese and unpopular Nationalists out of the mainland.
When Snow waxes about the moral rigor of the Red soldier and the zealous dedication of the "Little Red Devil" youth, he is not merely praising moral men, but is showing how the fanaticism of Red soldiers gave them advantages in morale and tactics the hesitant-but-well-financed KMT army could not attain. When he shows the propaganda-writing classes, it is not because Snow believes "the Red army is the fist of the poor" but because of the great importance of the Red literacy programs: the gratitude formerly-illiterate peasants felt to their teachers translated into a great respect and willingness to assist men they had once believed were "Red bandits."
Yes, under Mao great tragedies were unleashed, as his Communist zeal began to outweigh his common sense. But this book is not the story of the famines of the Great Leap Forward twenty years after Red Star Over China was writeen, nor could Snow have predicted the anarchy of the Cultural Revolution thirty years after he finished his book. This is a book about revolutionaries, not a book about the government they would later establish. And its importance as a book about revolutionaries is incredible. This is an explanation of how the world's most populous nation would fall to revolution--written by a neutral observer among the revolutionaries.
If you are of the belief that Communists are intrinsically evil and that any book finding good in them--even if to explain why they enjoyed overwhelming local popularity--you will find Red Star Over China difficult to digest. If you would prefer to think of Mao as a raving psychopathic lunatic who blundered his way into power, there are certainly other books for you to read. But if you want to see the Chinese Communist Party as it was seen by those who carried into power, you can't do any better than this, the book written by the man who watched it happen.
Regarding the Review: "A few good morsels in a bland Maoist broth".......2005-12-10
To the person who wrote the review, Alfonso Mangione, "Do you have any real knowledge of chinese history? Are you an expert on Mao Zedong?" What gives you the priviledge of ranting on and on about how Edgar Snow's interview with Mao is primarily "regurgitating his interviewees' propoganda"? Edgar Snow traveled to China to do an interview on Mao Zedong, thus, the subject of Snow's interview is Mao, and so, what is wrong with the fact that Snow published his work with Mao's personal views?
Red Star Over China is a work that should be read if one is interested in Mao, his views, and Chinese history. It is difficult to read/search accurate information on Mao in books written in English. Though Snow's work should be read with an open mind, "Red Snow Over China" brings the reader closer to the ideas and life of Mao Zedong
A Witnessed Account.......2005-09-17
Edgar Snow's "Red Star Over China" is a must for anyone, historian, political analyst, global sociologist or a scout who watches unfolding world events coming out from the Far-East and observes China's rise, and wants to understand the origins of its "Red Revolution" and its political structure since 1949.
As a self-made journalist who learned his trade in China, but remained Western all through his 13 years there, Edgar Snow witnessed first hand the impact of China's feudal rules and colonial attempts to overtake the country's resources.
Edgar Snow's accounts of the 1920's and 30's events that led to the rise of Chinese Communism were written by an innocent watcher who never abandoned his Western view but was able to make his observations through better understanding the Chinese, their culture and traditions.
And that is what makes "Red Star Over China" an important book. The ability of a man, a writer, not to be bias in his comments. Being in the midst of events and all the people that made their mark on them, Edgar Snow was able to make his points without prejudice. His opinions were influence by his own Western peers and by Chinese from a spectrum of class, thoughts, habits, ideas and affiliations. Thus making him not only a spectator but a participant.
Book Description
The Kansas City Monarchs. The Chicago American Giants. The St. Louis Stars. The Newark Eagles. The Birmingham Black Barons. The Homestead Grays. The Cuban X Giants. For over 50 years, they were the Yankees, Cardinals, and Red Sox of black baseball in America. And for over a decade beginning in the mid-1940s, umpire Bob Motley called balls and strikes for their games, earning the opportunity to work with such legends as Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays. Today, Motley is the only living Negro League arbiter, and Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars is his revealing, humorous memoir.
Customer Reviews:
Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: Umpiring in the Negro Leagues & Beyond.......2007-03-27
A must have book on baseball history, and what the Negro Leagues went through.
It's an amazing life that unfolds as you turn the pages. Hard to put down as
each chapter will leave you wanting more.
A must read!.......2007-03-26
It's great to focus on some great moments in history. Bob Motley has lived an incredible life. Well worth reading and admiring!
Memories From Behind The Plate.......2007-03-14
With a triple-play of anecdotes, humor and history, former Negro Leagues Baseball umpire Bob Motley and co-author/son Byron Motley present a unique perspective of the game from behind the plate and calling balls & strikes.
Motley, the last living umpire from NLB, worked games for more than ten years, starting in the mid-1940s. He had a flamboyant style which is captured in the photographs.
There are sections on established stars like the legendary Satchel Paige, young players who ultimately reached iconic status in Major League Baseball like Ernie Banks, Willie Mays and Henry Aaron, and trail-blazing females Connie Morgan, Toni Stone and Peanut Johnson.
"Nothing compares to the sound of an oncoming Satchel (Paige) fastball," recalls Bob Motley.
There are diamond gems like NLB players were the first to wear batting helmets. Willie Wells wore an old coal miner's hat to the plate because he was tired of getting hit in the head with errant - or aimed - pitches.
As enjoyable as Ron Luciano's The Umpire Strikes Back, the Motleys show that one of the game's most famous arbiters also oversaw a wealth of great memories that makes for a great read.
Ruling over Monarchs, etc........2007-03-09
I absolutely love this book. I happen to know the author, and that makes it even more special to me.
Customer Reviews:
Selección de dobles.......2007-06-17
La parte principal del libro sin duda es la selección de estrellas dobles del WDS, con los datos en tablas. Están agrupadas por constelación y ordenadas por ascensión recta. Incluye las constelaciones de ambos hemisferios, tanto Norte como Sur. Al comienzo del libro aparece una rápida introducción al mundo de las estrellas dobles y su observación, así como unos mapas básicos de búsqueda de un par de sistemas (el libro no incluye cartas de búsqueda, unicamente los datos de cada estrella)
Entre los datos elegantemente tabulados están las coordendas del sistema, la designación, año de la última medición (incluye mediciones recientes), ángulo de posición, separación, magnitudes, espectro, estatus (doble física u óptica, si es conocido) y una columna especialmente interesante para los observadores visuales: comentarios observacionales sobre cada doble (que incluyen la apertura del instrumento y los aumentos utilizados)
Los datos están bien presentados y son buenos. Tienen algunos errores o desactualizaciones que arrastra desde el WDS, como no tener los datos de las magntudes fotométricas más recientes, o para un sistema de más de dos componentes (AB y AC por ejemplo), en ciertas ocasiones, tener una magnitud dada para la estrella A cuando se muestra los datos de AB e inmediatamente debajo, al mostrar los datos AC, la estrella A aparece con otra magnitud difrente a la de la fila superior, AB. Hay varios ejemplos así.
En definitiva, es un buen libro, recomendable para los que gustan de observar estrellas dobles o los que deseen incluir algunas al planear sus noches de observación. La selección es buena y la cantidad es suficiente para estar entretenido un buen tiempo.
Double Stars for Small Telescopes.......2006-11-07
This clearly written book covers the basic information needed to understand the attraction double and multiple stars has to the amateur astronomer and most importantly, how to find them.
Reading the introduction, you realize that the author has an excellent understanding of her subject matter that communicates well to the reader. This shows in her ability to explain and keep my attention (no easy task). Her explanations and examples kept my interest and made me want to start observing immediately. The charts and graphs included illustrate very well the technical aspects of observing with detailed descriptions of the many subtle colors of the stars as they appear to the eye through the telescope. The explanations illustrate how stars are measured by magnitude, color, temperature and separation. A handy chart is printed on how far apart the stars will be separated in various scopes by their aperture.
Four constellations are illustrated labeling the binary stars by season to help you get started right away. An easy to understand legend in front of the first catalog page helps to locate your target and where to look. The catalog is organized by constellations. With each star you are given the right, assent ion, declination, name, year, position angle, separation, magnitude, spectral type, status and observers comments. Most comments, made by contributing astronomers, include the aperture and power of the telescope used.
If you have setting circles on your scope or better yet, a "go to" scope, it makes finding the stars are a snap. Otherwise you need a good atlas and plenty of patience.
Sissy Hass gives us one more pleasure for the use of our scopes in observing the unlimited joys and beauty of our universe. This is a reference book I will keep close by for one of those leisurely nights where I am not rushed to find some other object before it moves out of sight. Where every night is Christmas with the multi-colored lights of a Yule-tide tree.
Book reviewed by Jack Fox, Richmond Astronomical Society
A Double Star Book at Last.......2006-07-05
I liked the observations of various astronomers and the practical knowledge the book offers and the lack of academic theory you get in some books when all you want to do is observe.
Great!
Always useful information, but cheaply presented.......2006-07-03
Having made viewing many of the double stars in the Struve catalogue my annual observing goal for some time, I was happy to hear of this book becoming available. While generally pleased with it, I was disappointed in the final product for several reasons.
First, in this day and age, how can any book obviously designed to be used at the telescope not be bound in a manner so that it will lay flat when opened, preferably spiral-bound?
Second, there are almost no charts whatsoever, just four very basic constellation line drawings showing 15 of the more famous double stars. Surely some monthly charts illustrating in some manner the bright or showpiece doubles could not have been too difficult to include. I have drawn my own from the WDS catalogue data for years. If you have a modern "Go To" scope where coords can be entered and the telescope slews itself to the right point, or at least have digital setting circles, the book will be simple to use. For those without, you'll have to starhop on your own with other charts to the coordinate listings.
Finally, my copy arrived directly from Sky Publishing in a weak padded envelope with no protection and had about four inches of the corner permanently bent from being crushed in transit.
The observing descriptions of the double stars draw from Sissy Haas' own notes, notes from other observers, and from classic handbooks by Webb and Smyth. These are excellent overall and provide a sense of the observing experience far beyond what any robotic reading and sorting of the catalogue data can provide.
I wish there was a 3½ star rating. I gave it 4 in large measure because of the observing comments. Please, PLEASE Sky Publishing, do these "Stargazing Series" publications justice and give them a proper binding and more "meat" than just a listing of digital catalogue data.
Customer Reviews:
All-Star Coolbook.......2000-04-23
I really enjoyed this cookbook, not only because of the recipes, but also the way it was designed. You can look up individual dishes in the back, most of which are creative spins on favorite meals, or you can browse by your favorite sport (as I did). Because of the variety of athletes who contributed, the range of recipes goes from traditional "American" fair like Mickey Mantle's Country Fried Steak to Jaromir Jagr's Czech dish, Chicken Paprikash. I recommend this cookbook no matter what your kitchen skills because none of the dishes are overly complex (though some are far more difficult than others)and there is something for everyone. As an added bonus, proceeds for the book go to the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and the Women's Sports Foundation. Helping two great causes for buying an excellent cookbook (with some great kitchen shots of the athletes).
Book Description
Until now, Hollywood's political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the nightmare of the Red Scare. But Ronald and Allis Radosh show that the real drama of that era lay in the story of the movie stars, directors and especially screenwriters who joined the Communist Party or traveled in its orbit, and made the Party the focus of their political and social lives. The authors' most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America, and their own treatment by the Communist Party. Abandoned by their old CP allies, they faced the Blacklist alone.
Download Description
Using material from the papers of Dalton Trumbo, Dore Schary, Melvyn Douglas and other Hollywood insiders, Ronald and Allis Radosh trace the growth of the Communist Party from the 1920s, when stars like Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx toured the Soviet Union and came back converted, through the 1930s and the war years, when the Party achieved critical mass in Hollywood. The Radoshes' most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, while others were lionizing them as blameless victims of a vicious blacklist, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America and their treatment by the Communist Party. Red Star over Hollywood opens up the cells and discussion groups that defined Hollywood radicalism.
Customer Reviews:
An important analysis filling many gaps........2006-12-11
The Hollywood Blacklist is a story which has long been perpetuated by the film industry into popular culture, but RED STAR OVER HOLLYWOOD: THE FILM COLONY'S LONG ROMANCE WITH THE LEFT takes a different approach then most, documenting the large number of movie stars who did join the Communist Party and as a result had an impact on filmmaking trends. Material from the papers of Dalton Trumbo and other Hollywood insiders examine the concurrent growth of Communism through the 1930s and war years and the growing numbers of film greats who joined, experienced inner party disagreements, and influenced the industry as a whole. It's the first book to examine the discussion groups and members who helped define and promote Hollywood radicalism and makes for an important analysis filling many gaps.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Exceptional and Educational.......2006-08-09
Over the years I have read many books on the Red Scare in Hollywood and could never quite understand the attraction to communism. This book does the best job of describing the issues, the attraction to communism and documentation of actual plans by the communist party concerning their intent to influence films. In reading many past books, the authors never quite expressed WHY they were communists. In fact, many of the books never mentioned whether they were incorrectly persecuted or whether they actually were members of communist party. This book provides documentation and reasoning by none other than Dalton Trumbo, one of the leading communists in Hollywood and the screenwriter partially responsible for breaking the blacklist. And in the end, he disavowed his former communist party and their teachings.
But this book will not be without controversy as the authors are known as right-wing Republicans. While I am in the middle of the political spectrum leaning slightly to the left, I find their account very believable and documented sufficiently to overcome any perceived bias. The significance of this book to me from reading Ring Lardner's famous "I'd Hate Myself in the Morning" to watching Woody Allen's "The Front" and FINALLY getting a closing answer is overwhelming. I no longer feel the need to explore why Americans chose to follow another government's agenda to the potential detriment of our country. However, I do not fault these people for their initial attraction to communism and frankly, I don't view communism as wrong: it's just a different government method some choose. For myself, I remain quite satisfied with democracy, EVEN in these trying times. Rather, the attraction to communism was clearly a byproduct of the recent depression as well as the growth of fascism. I can live with that reasoning.
This is an exceptional book if you have any interest in the 50s, movies, or communism. In closing, I must comment on the complete disrespect shown to Elia Kazen on receipt of his lifetime achievement award some years ago when Nick Nolte and others refused to applaud or acknowledge this award. I suggest they read this book. The Red Scare was a horrible period but Freedom of Speech needs only go so far when supporting a government with intent to overthrow our own. I strongly recommend this book.
Is it a witch-hunt if the witches are real?.......2006-03-14
While George Clooney was simultaneously thumping his chest and patting his back for how he and his "community" are proudly out of touch with mainstream America, I was engaged in the rather more edifying exercise of reading this great new book by Ronald and Allis Radosh. For readers with an interest in the context of the culture-clash between the "Hollywood elite" and the poor benighted people who buy movie tickets and DVDs, this book is an excellent resource.
I say the "context" of the clash because this is a look at history, and a serious research work too. This is not a book that details the fashionable Leftist obsessions of Clooney, Streisand, Penn, and the rest, and therefore may be less satisfying to some readers than other recent books that address current names and controversies more directly. Instead, "Red Star Over Hollywood" digs deep into something far more serious and sinister ("sinister" comes from the Latin word for "left," by the way): the film colony's infiltration by agents of the Comintern, dedicated partisans of Stalin, and other actors, directors, writers, and executives eager to use the power of film to promote socialism in the United States.
As Clooney's speech -- and even more so, his movie -- make clear, modern Hollywood's sense of itself is built to a large degree on the legend of its heroic stand against "McCarthyism" and the blacklist (that's what makes Clooney's self-congratulation so laughable -- does anyone in Hollywood *defend* McCarthy?). But the Radoshes demonstrate not only that there really were communists in positions of influence (in other words, the witch-hunt turned up real witches), but that there was also a strong and active anti-communist Left in Hollywood. Even more than the relatively small number of conservatives in Hollywood, it was this anti-communist Left that was in the most direct conflict with the Stalinists, their apologists, and their dupes, particularly before and during World War II.
All of this is important information, but it's when they turn to their discussion of HUAC and the blacklist in the postwar period that the authors most directly confront Hollywood's defining myth. Far from the usual pop-psychology analysis of the deranged and sweaty McCarthy (and why do so few people seem to notice that *Senator* Joe McCarthy had nothing to do with the *House* Committee on Un-American Activities?) the authors have gone in-depth in committee records, and also into the backgrounds of the people from Hollywood who came before the committee. It's certainly easier to issue blanket denunciations of McCarthy and his ilk than to sift through pages and pages of dusty documents. Ronald and Allis Radosh are to be commended for doing the latter.
It's because this book is so heavily researched -- so filled with names, dates, and places -- that I note again that it may not be to everyone's taste. It is, I repeat, a work of history. It notably lacks the rhetorical sledgehammer blows of, say, an Ann Coulter book, and so doesn't have the fist-pumping, take-that-you-commie excitement value some readers derive from more polemical works. But those books seem to disappear as soon as they fall off the bestseller lists. This, on the other hand, is a book that deserves to be around for a long, long time.
Hollywood's Darkest Hour, the Years of the Blacklist........2006-01-01
This book has the same title as a pamphlet series on Communism written by Oliver Carlson and, though the authors claim to have used recently released records of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, I would expect it to have derived mainly from this "Red Star Over Hollywood" series. "The Red Decades of the 1930s and 1940s, and the equal and opposite anti-Communist reaction of the 1950s, became Hollywood's Great Moment on the American Political Stage."
The studios had collaborated with the McCarthyites to ruin the lives of many talented people with the blacklist of "alleged" Communists in Hollywood. If you read THE GILDING OF THE BLACKLIST by James Lardner, son of Ring, Jr., the truth will show that it just wasn't that simple. Lonnie Lardner was on WSM T.V. in Nashville for some time and is a relative of those involved.
Would you believe the accuracy of calling these names as members of ICASSP which they label "the latest Communist group" after the end of the war: Ethel Barrymore, Van Wyck Brooks, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Harold Ickes, James Roosevelt, Fredric March, Eddie Cantor, Charles Boyer, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Charles Laughton, and Robert Young? In a 1945 'Time' magazine article: "Frank Sinatra is one of its hardest-workest speakers. It can call on Gypsy Rose Lee to bare her navel and William Rose Benet to write a script. Lena Horne will sing at any rally, and Walter Huston will recite the Gettysburg Address." At one of their rallies in Madison Square Garden, they "were entertained by Bert Lahr, Joe E. Lewis, Myrna Loy, and Ethel Merman."
When "Stalin announced the start of a new Cold War by proclaiming the United States the world's principal and most dangerous enemy," the seeds for Joseph McCarthy were planted to call a spade a spade, to destroy reputations of not only the Hollywood elite but high-ranking government employees as well. The stars, I think, were tricked into what they did best: entertain.
The assumptions in this book leave a black mark on their careers and memory. If you don't know for a fact that a rumor about a celebrity is not just so much gossip, it is best left unsaid and unprinted. Some parts of this book can cause as much harm as the false claims of McCarthy -- after the fact. These people they named cannot clear their names, which is a dirty shame; most if not all are dead now. Today, it is possible to get anything in print -- if you know the right people, "fiction" claiming to be factual (non-fiction).
These movies are some they call Communist or about Communism: 'Mission to Moscow' from a book by Joseph Davies, published three weeks after Pearl Harbor (described as Stalinist propoganda; 'Tender Comrade,' from a book by Patrick McGilligan; 'Salt of the Earth;' 'Cloak and Dagger' written by Ring Lardner, Jr.; 'Action in the North Atlantic' and Hangmen Also Die' both in 1943; 'North Star,' 'Song of Russia,' and 'Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.' More recent films include 'The Way We Were,' 'The Front,' 'Marathon Man,' 'The house on Carroll Street,' 'Fellow Traveler,' 'The Majestic,' and 'One of the Hollywood Ten.'
This book goes on to slander stars of today who have different political views from the authors, those they call 'activists.' Being an outspoken activist in America today is not the same as being a Communist! Ronald and Allis Radosh choose controversial subjects which can't be proven either way. This book is a great disappointment and should be approached in the manner of "Consider the Source." Peter Collier, a writer and their editor on this parable, should have been listed as co-author, as he went over it tooth-and-nail (line by line) and edited out what he didn't want included. Who knows what he may have added? Ronald has written another book about COMMIES; Allis, one about a consumer activist, which makes them experts on this subject.
Exploding myths about Red Hollywood.......2005-09-24
Remember the Hollywood blacklist? The Hollywood Ten? I'll bet you know a lot about these events even if you weren't alive in the 1950s. That's because Tinseltown has a vested interest in keeping the memory of this era alive. It was the era of the Red Scare, of Senator Joseph McCarthy waving his infamous list of communist subversives during a speech in West Virginia. It was the time of congressional investigations, a time when invoking the Fifth Amendment might keep you safe from a contempt charge but would make you look guilty as sin in the public eye. For a select few the McCarthy era was a time of great fear, and no one feared this witch-hunt against communism more than Hollywood. Why? Because, despite the mountains of claims to the contrary that have emerged over the years, the movie industry oozed communists. There were so many Reds in Hollywood that they should have renamed the town Little Moscow. Yet even today, you won't hear about this truth in the media. You will, however, get the skinny on what really went on if you pick up a copy of Ronald Radosh's "Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance with the Left."
Talk about exploding myths! Radosh's book, which he co-wrote with his wife Allis, cuts through the layers of denial and presents us with an ugly picture of the real Hollywood of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Vladimir Lenin, the little pipsqueak who brought the nightmare of Marxism to the Soviet Union back in the early part of the twentieth century, had a soft spot for film and theater. He believed that the best way to spread communism around the globe was through movies and plays. This is exactly what the Kremlin crowd set out to accomplish in the following decades. They managed to gain converts to their cause--men who later became movers and shakers like Budd Schulberg, Joseph Losey, and Maurice Rapf--by allowing them to work closely with the Soviet film industry. Once these people came back to the United States, they spread their plague to others with the help of party apparatchiks Willi Munzenberg, V.J. Jerome, and John Howard Lawson. In no time at all, writes Radosh, a branch of the communist party flourished in Hollywood. So many big names signed on that newcomers to the industry, in an attempt to make contacts and find work, had to become communists or fellow travelers themselves.
The Hollywood branch of the communist party worked to increase their membership and influence in several ways. One of the most successful methods involved the tried and true "United Frontism" and "Popular Front" techniques, or the forming of organizations that on the surface embraced popular progressive causes to lure in unsuspecting liberals while maintaining strong communist control behind the scenes. Radosh reveals that the concerns many people had about the rise of National Socialist Germany in the 1930s helped increase membership, although the party's propensity to change direction, oftentimes overnight according to directives issued from the Kremlin, tended to alienate many members. Also off putting was the heavy-handed discipline that could fall on an unsuspecting member at any time. Albert Maltz, for example, discovered the inflexibility of the party when he wrote an article deemed "revisionist" by the upper hierarchy. His very public refutation of his article left little doubt about the strong-arm tactics used behind the scenes. Despite the ugliness the Hollywood Reds occasionally displayed, they were somewhat successful in spreading their propaganda through films like "Mission to Moscow," "The Spanish Earth," and "The North Star." Congressional investigations threw some of these dupes in the slammer, and silenced a few more, but many never repudiated their warped views.
I enjoyed Radosh's book, the first one of his I've had the chance to read. The author and his spouse obviously know what they're talking about and, since Ronald Radosh himself was a communist for many years, he understands how these groups think and act. "Red Star Over Hollywood" occasionally suffers from dry prose and a bewildering number of groups and individuals, but the authors always manage to bring the book back up to speed by throwing in some great anecdotes. For instance, the part where we learn about Ronald Reagan (at the time a liberal) and his buddy William Holden crashing a communist get together in an attempt to inject some common sense into the proceedings is great fun to read about. Reagan got up and started talking only to find himself under verbal attack for some forty minutes. God bless him! The account of Albert Maltz's forced rehabilitation is absolutely chilling, a sobering tale that hints at the violent tendencies inherent in communism. Arguably the best part of the book, however, involves the long, strange trip writer Dalton Trumbo took from the time of his blacklisting to his repudiation of the communist party later in life. So many intriguing stories pop up in the book that the actual creation of the blacklist takes a backseat.
I have one recommendation and one warning to those readers about to attempt the book. In the case of the former, if you're not very familiar with this time period, read a background history of the Red Scare first. Doing so will assist you in learning the context for what happens here and help you learn the basics about a few of the groups and personalities associated with the blacklist. In the case of the latter, the topic is so huge that Radosh doesn't have the space to cover many of the important Reds. There is almost nothing here about Lillian Hellman or Dashiell Hammett, for example, and both of those individuals had a lot to do with the influence of communism in film and books. Nevertheless, this book is well worth your time. Read it and remember it the next time Hollywood releases yet another "we were innocent" propaganda piece.
Book Description
This is the extraordinary story of Vasily B. Emelianenko, the veteran pilot of one of the Soviet Union's most contradictory planes of WWII - the I1-2. This heavily armored aircraft was practically unrivalled in terms of fire power, but it was slow to maneuver and an easy target for fighters. I1-2 had to attack enemy flak columns at extremely low altitudes, which led to enormous tolls both in equipment and personnel. It is no wonder then that, having flown eighty combat sorties against the Germans, Emelianenko was awarded the highest decoration - the Hero of the Soviet Union. He went on to complete a total of ninety-two sorties. His plane was shot down three times, and on each occasion he managed to pilot the damaged aircraft home, demonstrating remarkable resilience and bravery in the face of terrifying odds. Emelianenko's vivid memoirs provide a rare insight into the reality of fighting over the Eastern Front and the tactics of the Red Army Air Force. With remarkable clarity, he recalls what it was like to come face to face with a skilled, deadly and increasingly desperate enemy. Hair-raising encounters with fighters, forced landings on enemy territory, and the death of friends are all brought dramatically and movingly to life in this rare first-hand account.
Customer Reviews:
Homegrown technology and homegrown heroes.......2007-05-23
In unpretentious verse, the author matter-of-factly sets out the course of the air war across the Kuban and Ukraine in World War Two. You see clearly in these pages why pilots in Eastern Europe - be they Soviet or German - suffered the war's highest casualty rates, perhaps second only to penal battalions. At times you feel you're flying in formation with Sturmovik pilots, chasing or being chased by Messerschmidts. The author merely suggests the fear - and does it with great modesty. The book also gives a good feel for the camaraderie in Soviet Air Force, which blossomed regardless of national origin or religion, and supports the notion that the esprit de corps of the Soviet military quickly bounced back after initial disasters. The book also touches on improvements in aircraft technology and in battle tactics, and suggests that Moscow's priority was directed almost entirely to war machines over creature comforts, as where some pilots, for example, had trousers sewn from parachutes, and scrounged for food from the local population - despite having air-to-ground rockets at their disposal.
The author wrote this book late in life as a tribute to all the friends who never returned from combat missions - that is, most of his friends. The book is a simple, easy read and you learn a great deal about the Eastern Front, and serves as an admirable companion piece to something like Catherine Merridale's Ivan's War, which explores everyday life in the Soviet infantry.
One Soviet Pilot's War in the Skies Over Russia.......2006-08-04
"Red Star Against the Swastika" is an extremely well written and compelling story, told for the first time.
The book is one of a series of new World War II memoirs by Red Army soldiers and airmen, which provide fresh and valuable insights into the Soviet armed forces of the Great Patriotic War. It remind us that Ivan, the Red Army soldier, was a living, breathing being, who cherished life as much as his counterparts in the West and who was willing to defend his family and his homeland fanatically and lay down his life dearly for all that he loved.
In "Red Star Against the Swastika" Il-2 Shturmovik pilot Vasily Emelianenko remembers his own war against the German Luftwaffe in the skies over Soviet Russia. Developed before the Second World War for the Soviet Air Force, the Il-2 was the first plane optimized for all ground attack and close air support missions. With an armored pilot's compartment, including specially armored glass, and equipped with multiple heavy machineguns and later cannon, the Il-2 played a major role in the Red Army's defeat of the Wehrmacht in Russia.
Emelianenko flew 92 sorties against the Germans, including 80 combat missions. Shot down three times, he always managed to reach home safely, once after another pilot in his squadron landed his own Sturmovik under fire to rescue Emelianenko. For his courage and successful completion of a number of critical missions, the author was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, Soviet Russia's highest award.
"Red Star Against the Swastika" reminds us of the tremendous sacrifices made by Red Army soldiers and airmen to stop the Germans, even when the odds were stacked against them. "After the first weeks of the war our troops did not have enough fighters and anti-aircraft guns left," writes Emelianenko. "Consequently, squadrons flew their attacks without any cover. German aircraft had complete superiority in the air. Soviet military pilots had to pay tremendous prices, and a very few of those who began the war in summer 1941 lasted until victory came."
But, fortunately, the battle did not always go the Wehrmacht's way, and time after time, the Red Army managed to catch the Germans by surprise: "Approaching Bobruysk the Shturmoviks were flying very low. Anti-aircraft guns began to fire....The leader turned and launched the attack. Missiles hit the row of [German] bombers and exploded, tracer bullets shredded the wings with black crosses....Junkers and Messerschmitts ready for operational flights blazed up. Our aircraft came in time and did not allow the enemy planes to take off!"
By 1943 the tide of battle had shifted and the resurgent Red Army seized the strategic offensive, never to lose it again. "In the fierce cruel struggle we managed to crush the enemy that brought war to our land," remembers Emelianenko, "and there is my part of strain, blood and sweat in it." Indeed. In four years of combat, the author's ground attack aircraft division lost 717 men. Two hundred of those were from the 7th Guards Ground Attack Aircraft Regiment, Emelianenko's unit.
Victory thus came at a horrendous price. By the end of the Second World War, Soviet Russia had lost some 27 million people in the war, including ten million soldiers, sailors and airmen killed. And those that survived were changed forever: "Few people lived through the war without deep scars on their bodies and on their hearts," admits the author.
Emelianenko concludes his story with the following words; "My friends said to me then: 'Those who were killed must live in a book. People myst know about them. And write the truth only!' I have done my best."
Loved it.......2006-01-28
One of the best memoirs I've read about the war. The stories in this memoir are at times very moving. The missions they had to accomplish, the sacrifices made (a pilot rams his plane into a column of German tanks and trucks), the lives lost whether to the enemy or by mere accident are incredible. The editing job on the book was quite poor, again and again I found grammatical mistakes on many pages. Yet that shouldn't take away from the great stories that this author was kind enough to share. If one wants to understand what really went on, in this war to the death on the Eastern Front, specifically in the skies, you will not be disappointed in this book. At the end is a helpful list of those pilots who were MIA and KIA throughout the war, the sheer volume of losses is impressive. Few survived the war, yet even so they flew on mission after mission and struggled to get to the front whether from rear area services or from hospitals after being wounded. One pilot who lost both his legs trained to fly again, but in the end was rejected. Another returned to lead a regiment but perished in an accident. As much as you will be presented with death in this book you will never get used to the fact that again and again someone will not return from a mission or will be seen diving toward the ground in a burning plane.
Boring through flak and fighters. . . Cheers for the IL-2s!.......2006-01-08
The Germans Lanser called it the Butcher Bird;a Luftwaffe pilot coined the term Panzerflieger---flying tank---to describe this incredibly tough as nails fighter bomber. The Soviet IL-2s and the heroic pilots and crews who flew them at low level through the tracers and bursting shells of sharp-shooting Flak gunners deserve the West's admiration for the important and often decisive role they played in tearing the guts out of the Wehrmacht in Russia. Now you can read a book about it by someone who was there. Vasily Emelianenko flew IL-2s with his comrades in the 7th Guards Regiment, 230th Kuban Ground-Attack Division. Unlike most Russian wartime memoirs, this one isn't dripping with love for the Communist Party. It's simply a pilot's story of his experiences and the experiences of his comrades, many of whom fell victim to flak and fighter attack, in the desperate life and death struggle waged in the East from 1941-45. Shot down numerous times, often behind enemy lines, Vasily used all his piloting and survival skills to emerge alive and victorious in the war. He is not a braggart and has no difficulties explaining what he did right or wrong in combat. The end of the book includes a list of all the 7th Guard Regiment's pilot losses,which alone is worth the price of the book. I salute Vasily's service and courage from afar. Thank you for your service in the war to defeat Hitler's Germany.
Not so much a combat memoir as a personal memoir.......2006-01-04
It's a good book, but it's not going to teach you anything about flying, combat tactics, or Russian air force procedures. The combat stories in the book are quite limited, and not much detail. In this respect, I was disappointed.
However, as a document of day-to-day life as a pilot, and surviving the war, it is excellent.
You do get a feel for the way the pilots and ground crews viewed the war (and their chances); what it was like to receive the endlessly catastrophic battle reports in the early days; and, life as a combat pilot in rough fields, rough weather, and rough living conditions.
It was interesting to see through eyes of one of the participants. The endless repetition of pilots and gunners being lost gives the reader an inkling of the incredible losses the Soviets endured, and just how lucky the author was to be one of those survivors.
The bottom line, this is a more personal view of wartime life as a pilot, and not so much a combat memoir. But, it is well worth reading.
Amazon.com
Bob Buck may not be as famous as Charles Lindbergh, but he's well known among aviators for setting flight-distance records in the 1930s, flying a B-17 in the Second World War, and finally, becoming a commercial airline pilot who logged more than 2,000 trips across the Atlantic Ocean. North Star over My Shoulder is Buck's memoir of a life spent in the skies. He shares plenty of cockpit wisdom: "A copilot can make a trip or ruin it; get someone who talks too much, gripes about the company, tries to impress you, tells long and boring anecdotes, or is overly aggressive in suggesting ways to run the flight, and the taste is unpleasant." He also answers the question he says nonpilots are most likely to ask him: How do you overcome jet lag? "You don't," he says. Buck addresses offbeat subjects, too, such as what an airline pilot does when one of his first-class passengers is irate about the lack of caviar on a long trip. Readers fascinated by flight will enjoy this book, both for its historical perspective on advances in aviation ("a time no one will ever experience again") and the good advice that springs from almost every page ("sitting low tends to make you level off a little too high, while sitting up high tends to make you fly into the ground and not level off enough"). Pilots will appreciate this book, as will anybody who has ever wondered what it's like to fly a plane. --John Miller
Book Description
It is rare to find one person whose life embodies the history of an industry the way Bob Buck's life encompasses the history of commercial aviation in America. Buck first flew in the 1920s, inspired by the exploits of Charles Lindbergh. In 1930, at age sixteen, he flew solo from coast to coast, breaking the junior transcontinental speed record. In 1936 he flew nonstop from Burbank, California, to Columbus, Ohio, in a 90-horsepower Monocoupe to establish a world distance record for light airplanes. He joined Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA) as a copilot in 1937; when he retired thirty-seven years later, he had made more than 2,000 Atlantic crossings -- and his role had progressed from such tasks as retracting a DC-2's landing gear with a cockpit-based hand pump to command of a wide-body 747.
Buck's experiences go back to a time when flying was something glamorous. He flew with and learned from some true pioneers of aviation -- the courageous pilots who created the airmail service during flying's infancy. At the behest of his employer Howard Hughes, Buck spent three months flying with Tyrone Power on a trip to South America, Africa, and Europe. He flew the New York-Paris-Cairo route in the days when flight plans called for lengthy stopovers, and enjoyed all that those romantic places had to offer. He took part in a flight that circled the globe sideways (from pole to pole). He advised TWA's president on the shift to jet planes; a world expert on weather and flight, Buck used a B-17G to chase thunderstorms worldwide as part of a TWA-Air Force research project during World War II, for which he was awarded the Air Medal (as a civilian) by President Truman.
In North Star over My Shoulder, Bob Buck tells of a life spent up and over the clouds, and of the wonderful places and marvelous people who have been a part of that life. He captures the feel, taste, and smell of flying's greatest era -- how the people lived, what they did and felt, and what it was really like to be a part of the world as it grew smaller and smaller. He relates stories from his innumerable visits to Paris, the city he loves more than any other -- echoing Gertrude Stein's view that "America is my country, and Paris is my home town" -- and from his trips to the Middle East, including flights to Israel before and after it became a state. A terrific storyteller and a fascinating man, Bob Buck has turned his well-lived life into a delightful memoir for anyone who remembers when there really was something special in the air.
Download Description
"It is rare to find one person whose life embodies the history of an industry the way Bob Buck's life encompasses the history of commercial aviation in America. Buck first flew in the 1920s, inspired by the exploits of Charles Lindbergh. In 1930, at age sixteen, he flew solo from coast to coast, breaking the junior transcontinental speed record. In 1936 he flew nonstop from Burbank, California, to Columbus, Ohio, in a 90-horsepower Monocoupe to establish a world distance record for light airplanes. He joined Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA) as a copilot in 1937; when he retired thirty-seven years later, he had made more than 2,000 Atlantic crossings -- and his role had progressed from such tasks as retracting a DC-2's landing gear with a cockpit-based hand pump to command of a wide-body 747. Buck's experiences go back to a time when flying was something glamorous. He flew with and learned from some true pioneers of aviation -- the courageous pilots who created the airmail service during flying's infancy. At the behest of his employer Howard Hughes, Buck spent three months flying with Tyrone Power on a trip to South America, Africa, and Europe. He flew the New York-Paris-Cairo route in the days when flight plans called for lengthy stopovers, and enjoyed all that those romantic places had to offer. He took part in a flight that circled the globe sideways (from pole to pole). He advised TWA's president on the shift to jet planes; a world expert on weather and flight, Buck used a B-17G to chase thunderstorms worldwide as part of a TWA-Air Force research project during World War II, for which he was awarded the Air Medal (as a civilian) by President Truman. In North Star over My Shoulder, Bob Buck tells of a life spent up and over the clouds, and of the wonderful places and marvelous people who have been a part of that life.
Customer Reviews:
Very well written history of aviation as viewed by Bob Buck.......2007-10-05
I found the book to be excellent. My father spent a career in what became TWA starting with TAT a few years before Bob Buck was hired into the merged airline. In fact, my father accompanied Bob Buck on the historic Rockwell polar flight. The book was so well written that I felt like I was getting a close up look at my father's environment over the years.
What a life! I wish I had known him..........2007-07-09
As an "old" TWA hostess, I was interested in Bob Buck's experience with the airline - and was treated to some very satisfying mutual memories. I loved knowing about what it was truly like to fly the DC-2's and 3's and the differences. I always thought they were a piece of cake - not so. My first plane ride was on a DC-3 - so I was enthralled with stories about the goings-on in the cockpit. Funny, we had no fear of flying at all - just figured we'd always get there safely. Little did we know that old Bob was up in the cockpit trying to figure out whether to try to go under the storm, over it or around it - and was planning possible landing sites other than our destination! I especially loved Bob's love affair with the 707 - as I felt exactly as he did - that we were so lucky to be a part of a life-changing experience - for ourselves and every airline passenger. If you love planes, and love to fly, you'll love the story of this extraordinary man's life. I just don't believe that people today will have the opportunity to live anything like the length and breadth of this man's life.
Every one with the slightest interest in aviation will want several copies.......2007-01-03
My pilot friends are giving copies to their friends. Bob Buck tells an always fascinating, personal story covering most of the history of commercial aviation -- celebrities, people, planes, procedures, and WEATHER. Numerous photographs support the stories of this teen-age-record-holder-turned-airline-chief-pilot.
North Star over my shoulder.......2006-04-18
I always had a dream of flying my own plane and 9 years ago at age 52 I did. Now 2000 hours of constant learning flying mostly my Mooney Bravo I still am excited by soaring aloft and traveling to places new and old. Bob Buck's wonderful memoir created from me a realization of how lucky we are to have had people like Bob, those willing to explore the new frontiers and make avaition a safe and dependable resource for us all. His telling of history and his life is both informative and insipiring. I recommend this book to anyone who loves history, loves flying and wants to read about it from an expert who lived it and loves it as much as anyone. Thank you Bob Buck and may you continue to inspire all. Live long and fly high.
Better pilot than writer.......2005-05-23
No doubt Bob Buck had one of the more interesting flying lives: beginning in the 1920s and '30s, through WWII, and on to modern jets. But something about his writing style leaves me wanting more and never getting it. It's not just his occasional grammatical errors (mixing tenses, for instance); I fault his editor for those annoyances. Rather, it's his inability to fully convey the emotions of the dramatic moments he experienced. He describes events in somewhat detached tones and pale colors, concentrating more on facts and a textbook-like history, never really revealing his deeper thoughts about anything. Maybe he never had any? Being introspective myself, I prefer the Ernest K. Gann or Len Morgan or Gordon Baxter style. If you have all of their collections and want still more flying stories, then get this book.
Customer Reviews:
HIGH QUALITY CONTENT, POOR QUALITY PRODUCTION.......2003-10-21
LIKE SO MANY OF THE OTHER REVIEWS, THE QUALITY OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS BOOK IS SUPERB; HOWEVER, AFTER REVIEWING 17 COPIES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THE PHYSICAL PRODUCTION IS ONE OF THE POOREST I HAVE EVER SEEN. FOLDED AND CREASED PAGES PROIR TO THE PRINTING AND SMEARED PRINTING INK ON NUMEROUS PAGES LOWER THE QUALITY AND VALUE OF THIS BOOK. FOR THOSE WISHING TO COLLECT THIS SERIES: BLACK CROSS/RED STAR, VOLUME II WAS A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT COMPARED TO VOLUME I.
IF A CLEAN COPY OF VOLUME II DOES EXIST , I WOULD BE MOST INTERESTED IN PURCHASING IT, SO AS TO ADD IT TO MY COLLECTION OF VOLUME I.
THIS SERIES IS AN AMAZING WORK OF LITURATURE, AND HOPEFULLY, PRODUCTION OF THE REMANINING VOLUMES WILL NOT ENCOUNTER SUCH POOR WORKMANSHIP.
HANK PUSICH, hank_pusich2000@yahoo.com
En excellent book!.......2002-03-08
The second part in the Black Cross/Red Star series focus on the air war between january - june 1942, perhaps the least know phase of the entire air war on the eastern front.
Knowledge of the air war on the eastern front has always been scarce in the west, and has mostly been influenced by the german point of view. This is a unfortunate result of the cold war, when access to soviet sources was almost nonexistant. But the cold war is over, and the soviet archives are slowly being opened for western scholars.
This book is full of interesting information about the equipment, aircraft, tactics and pilot training of the Luftwaffe and the V-VS (Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily, Soviet Military Airforce. The included glossary is excellent!), not to mention the excellent photos and aircraft profiles.
Among the interesting information in this book are accounts of the V-VS and Luftwaffe activity during the soviet winter offensive, the airlifts at Kholm and Demyansk (with some very interesting observations the german leadership ought to have studied closer), the soviet attempt to resupply the trapped Second Assault Army at Lyuban and the air campain against Sevastopol.
The authors tries to give an impartial account on the events from the views of both sides, and I think they accomplish this task well. Few books on the war on the eastern front are so unbiased, and I have read many.
For the student of the air war in the east this book is necessary, as air, as bread.
Couldn't be better.......2002-02-19
Looking at BC/RS as a series, the overwhelming weight of reviewers rate it 5-stars. I heartily agree. The authors are gifted, analyzing the multiple factors relevant to combat and battle outcomes, then expressing their findings in an easily readable way.
The text is authoritative. To see where they got such a boggling mix of information, check the back of the book: their "Sources" fill more than 4 pages. Their approach is even-handed, it relies on facts to give an unvarnished view of true history.
Events are organized by Eastern Front combat zones with the focus on how air battles affected the outcome of major battles. As with Volume 1, the authors continue to illuminate new material and go on to dig into reasons why. A prime example is their thought-provoking chapter on the Demyansk pocket airlift.
Throughout the text, outstanding pilots of both sides get recognition for their exploits and often enough the worthy but lesser knowns also get their due.
In one respect, volume 2 improves on its predecessor -- illustrations. Photos are better. Also, fresh, hi-quality profile art of representative aircraft is abundant. Captions often add interesting detail.
A brief review can not capture all the strengths of this work which breaks new ground and does it so well. I've tried to avoid being redundant with other reviewers and recommend that interested buyers also check into other comments, including those for Volume 1.
Couldn't be better.......2002-02-19
Looking at BC/RS as a series, the overwhelming weight of reviewers rate it 5-stars. I heartily agree. The authors are gifted, analyzing the multiple factors relevant to combat and battle outcomes, then expressing their findings in an easily readable way.
The text is authoritative. To see where they got such a boggling mix of information, check the back of the book: their "Sources" fill more than 4 pages. Their approach is even-handed, it relies on facts to give an unvarnished view of true history.
Events are organized by Eastern Front combat zones with the focus on how air battles affected the outcome of major battles. As with Volume 1, the authors continue to illuminate new material and go on to dig into reasons why. A prime example is their thought-provoking chapter on the Demyansk pocket airlift.
Throughout the text, outstanding pilots of both sides get recognition for their exploits and often enough the worthy but lesser knowns also get their due.
In one respect, volume 2 improves on its predecessor -- illustrations. Photos are better. Also, fresh, hi-quality profile art of representative aircraft is abundant. Captions often add interesting detail.
A brief review can not capture all the strengths of this work which breaks new ground and does it so well. I've tried to avoid being redundant with other reviewers and recommend that interested buyers also check into other comments, including those for Volume 1.
Another wonderful volume!.......2001-11-28
I originally ordered this book in August, but delays in shipping prevented it from arriving in my hands until recently. Let me say that the wait is all the more frustrating because this is a wonderful book!
Volume 2 of Black Cross / Red Star retains the written quality of Christer Bergstrom and Andrey Mikhailov, but adds aviation color profiles done by such notables as Claes Sundin and Tom Tullis. Those in the aviation community are familiar with their excellent work.
When I reviewed Volume 1, I made comments about the quality of the maps and photos. The authors and publisher listened to reader feedback and made the necessary corrections. The maps are outstanding! No blurring and all place names are readable. This greatly assists the reader when following the myriad of battles on the Eastern Front.
The strength of Black Cross / Red Star has always been the team of Bergstrom and Mikhailov. They intermix dates, times, persons and events with first-person accounts by all protagonists. Using this formula, the numbers and facts are given a human face. Joy, triumph, sorrow and pain all lie beneath all military statistics. For every victor there is a defeated foe. The reader learns about them in their own words from diaries and interviews.
Every day, surviving veterans pass on. Books like Black Cross / Red Star will soon be the only resource by which they will be remembered.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with even a sprinkling of interest in historical aviation.
Books:
- Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
- Blindness (Harvest Book)
- Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul
- Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #3: Soul Eater (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness)
- Conflict over Convoys: Anglo-American Logistics Diplomacy in the Second World War
- Daredevil Visionaries - Frank Miller, Vol. 2
- Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta
- Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands
- Divine Interventions: True Stories of Mystery and Miracles That Change Lives
- DNS and BIND (5th Edition)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Death of a Red Heroine
- The Scent of Shadows
- Our Kind: A Novel in Stories
- Needle-Made Laces and Net Embroideries: Reticella Work, Carrickmacross Lace, Princess Lace and Other
- Possessed
- Systematics and the Fossil Record: Documenting Evolutionary Patterns
- Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Microanalysis
- Physiologia: Natural Philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian Thought
- Midas of the Wabash: A Biography of John Purdue
- Retirement Communities in Florida: A Consumer's Guide and Directory to Service-Oriented Facilities
Aviation
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Red Star Against the Swastika: The Story of a Soviet Pilot over the Eastern Front
Soviet Lend-Lease Fighter Aces of World War 2 (Aircraft of the Aces)
Sea Eagles Volume Two: Luftwaffe Anti-Shipping Units 1942-45 (Luftwaffe Colours)
More Bf109 Aces of the Russian Front (Aircraft of the Aces)
Royal Navy Aces of World War 2 (Aircraft of the Aces)
