nonfiction

“A magnificent, controversial re-examination
of the role of American business in winning WWII.”
from freedom’s forge
FREEDOM’S FORGE
How American
Business Built the
Arsenal of Democracy
that Won World War II
Herman, Arthur
Random House (432 pp.)
$28.00 | May 8, 2012
978-1-4000-6964-4
It’s not often that a historian comes
up with a fresh approach to an absolutely
critical element of the Allied victory in World War II, but Pulitzer
finalist Herman (Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed
an Empire and Forged Our Age, 2009, etc.) has done just that.
The author argues powerfully against the conventional wisdom
that America’s rearmament took place under the guidance of
a competent federal government that brought business and labor
together for the country’s defense. To the dismay of New Dealers
who had hoped to use the war to bring business under government
control, the production of the flood of war materiel that drowned
the Axis was achieved by the voluntary cooperation of businesses
driven as much by the profit motive as by patriotism, solving problems
through their own ingenuity rather than waiting for government
directives. The physical and organizational challenges were
overwhelming. The production of sufficient familiar armaments
required expanding existing moribund plants and constructing new
ones, then manufacturing new machine tools and organizing their
use to maximize efficiency. Doing the same for enormously complex
new weapons, in particular the B-29 bomber with 40,000 different
parts made by 1,400 subcontractors, was an even more staggering
task, exacerbated by materials shortages and recalcitrant labor
unions. A story resting on the statistics of industrial production runs
a constant risk of lapsing into tedium, but Herman’s account never
falters. He carries it off in engaging style by centering this sweeping
narrative on the efforts of two colorful business leaders, Henry
Kaiser and William Knudsen, who led the struggle to produce ships,
planes and arms for Britain and then for America in a war that many
had persisted in believing wasn’t coming.
A magnificent, controversial re-examination of the role
of American business in winning WWII.
BORN TO BATTLE
Grant and Forrest—
Shiloh, Vicksburg,
and Chattanooga
Hurst, Jack
Basic (512 pp.)
$29.99 | Jun. 1, 2012
978-0-465-02018-8
A lively narrative of the Civil War’s Western
theatre, too often overshadowed by the
better known armies and battles in the East.
Historian Hurst (Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign
That Decided the Civil War, 2007, etc.) continues the work he
began in Men of Fire, following the careers of Ulysses S. Grant and
Nathan Bedford Forrest from Shiloh to the defense of Chattanooga.
These biographies appear together in support of his thesis
that both generals were of working-class origin but “Northern
inclusiveness permitted the rise of Grant...while Southern insularity
predestined the Confederacy to squander the brilliance of
Forrest, whose fertile brain and vicious valor might have helped
fashion an opposite outcome.” This appears to be a stretch, however;
it is not clear that given greater command, Forrest could
have done more to turn the Union tide. Further, Grant was a
West Point graduate, while Forrest was a nearly unlettered former
slave trader who spoke “primitive English.” These differences
would have been significant in any officer class, but Forrest
nevertheless achieved the rank of major general. He appears here
as a brilliant, determined, crude and insubordinate warrior, chafing
under snubs from the aristocratic Gen. Braxton Bragg, who
considered him “nothing more than a good raider” despite his
spectacular exploits against superior forces. Grant, the stolid
but surprisingly resourceful commander, suffered under similar
prejudices on the part of his superior, Gen. Henry Halleck, but
ultimately brought Halleck around through battlefield success
and their shared opposition to the scheming politician Gen. John
McClernand. Hurst amply illuminates the misery visited upon
Tennessee and Mississippi as the armies moved back and forth
across the land, along with the backbiting, blunders and inflated
egos that abounded in both armies.
Particularly recommended for fans of the controversial
Forrest. (22 b/w illustrations; 7 maps)
SQUEEZE THIS!
A Cultural History of the
Accordion in America
Jacobson, Marion
Univ. of Illinois (304 pp.)
$29.95 | Apr. 1, 2012
978-0-252-03675-0
A solid, readable academic inquiry
into accordion technology and culture,
showing how the instrument has adapted
to changing times and trends.
This book holds plenty of interest for those who love
accordion music, not merely academics who study the instrument
or musicians who play it. (The author is both.) What
Jacobson terms a “biography of the accordion” traces the
development and popular appeal of an instrument that could
function as a whole band, is much less expensive and more
portable than a piano, followed the immigration patterns of
Italians and Eastern Europeans and flourished in the American
cities where they clustered, was all but killed by rock ’n’
roll, yet has found new life in a variety of different contexts.
“The story of the accordion after 1908 is about people who
at critical moments redefined the technology of the instrument
as well as the culture surrounding the instrument,”
writes the author. She documents the instrument’s various
image makeovers, striving for the legitimacy of high culture
while attempting to shake its associations with cheesiness,
tawdriness (the instrument of the bordello and the saloon)
and working-class ethnicity. Jacobson deservedly shines the
spotlight on a variety of accordionists: Guido Deiro, who
“experienced the most dramatic rise to success in accordion
history” and was once married to Mae West; Dick Contino,
a would-be teen idol; Myron Floren, far more of a virtuoso
than Lawrence Welk; and Frankie Yankovic, a huge crossover
recording success. Yet the author slights the likes of Clifton
Chenier and zydeco, Flaco Jimenez and conjunto, Los Lobos
and Cajun accordion music, focusing more on the less-indigenous
Brave Combo and They Might Be Giants. The “Accordions
Are In!” ad campaign for the Tiger Combo ‘Cordion
reflects the humor here that is too rare in academic writing.
A good start on a rich subject. (20-page color photo insert)
A BATTLE FOR THE
SOUL OF ISLAM
An American Muslim
Patriot’s Fight to
Save His Faith
Jasser, M. Zuhdi
Threshold Editions/Simon
& Schuster (336 pp.)
$26.00 | Jun. 5, 2012
978-1-4516-5794-4
A candid, patriotic pushback against
Muslim stereotyping by a deeply anti-Islamist Navy veteran and
physician in Arizona.
Born in 1967 to Syrian refugees in Ohio, raised in Wisconsin,
a committed conservative and founder of the American
Islamic Forum for Democracy, Jasser has been moved to speak
out by what he believes is the Muslim community’s inadequate
stand against Islamist terrorism and political tribalism. He
believes in the separation of mosque and state and is often horrified
to hear Muslim Americans assert the supremacy of the
Qur’an over the principles of the U.S. Constitution. He details
his background and family, including his unease serving in the
Navy, which was dominated by a hard-drinking, womanizing
culture while he was abstemious and chaste, according to his
religion; and his early professional tensions with his physician
father, who was overbearing, proud and disputatious. Married
in a traditional fashion to another high-achieving young Syrian
American, Jasser settled down to start a family and private
practice in Phoenix as a primary care physician, chosen as part
of his dedication to the “holistic appreciation of the patient”
urged by his Islamic faith. The attacks of 9/11 shattered his complacency,
and Jasser looks hard at the Arab responses, dictated
by what he sees as lingering effects of tribalism. He weighs the
eerie parallels between himself and the Army psychiatrist who
went on a murderous shooting spree at Fort Hood, a tragedy he
blames on Islamist ideology. Branded an “Uncle Tom Muslim,”
Jasser spoke to the House Committee on Homeland Security
against what he calls “PC blindness” to the threat. His paranoia
aside, the author draws from his father’s own translations of
the Qur’an for an intelligent reassessment of its message along
the lines of Jeffersonian democracy.
A strident call to energize Muslim Americans to promote
notions of pluralism, toleration and equal rights for women.
JOHNSON’S LIFE OF LONDON
The People Who Made the
City that Made the World
Johnson, Boris
Riverhead (336 pp.)
$27.95 | Jun. 1, 2012
978-1-59448-747-7
The mayor of London demonstrates
that understanding his city requires an
acquaintance with key historical personages,
from Alfred the Great to Keith Richards.
On the eve of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the author provides
a lively thematic guide to the city’s historical evolution as
represented by the legacy of notable Londoners, ancient and
modern, from the Romans who overran the city to the great
statesman who staunchly defended it from attack, Winston
Churchill. Johnson has served as mayor since 2008, previously
the editor of The Spectator and thus a trained, amiable journalist.
With an engaging, felicitous tone, the author obviously enjoys
offering his account of what the English have done best, from
spreading the good word in the form of the King James Bible
to parliamentary democracy and habeas corpus to the marvels
of the English language. Johnson pays tribute to numerous
illustrious Londoners, some better known than others—e.g.,
the early avenger Boudica, the first in a tradition of powerful
female leaders; a previous mayor, 15th-century financier Richard
Whittington; a fabulously inventive, now-forgotten genius
of the 17th century, Robert Hooke; eccentric civil libertarian
John Wilkes; Samuel Johnson and his lexicographic wit; saintly
nurses Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, who challenged
notions of hygiene and ventilation in the treatment of disease;
and W.T. Stead, inventor of tabloid journalism with his work
on the Pall Mall Gazette in the mid 19th century. Along the way
there are shorter bios of some incredibly important innovators
and inventors, such as Sir John Harington, godson of Queen
Elizabeth I and fashioner of the flush toilet of which she was
so fond; Beau Brummel and his now-ubiquitous men’s suit; and
Denis Johnson and his significant modifications on the bicycle
in 19th-century London.
In this amusing, rah-rah pep rally for the imminent crush
of summer tourists, the author shows that there is much
more to London than Big Ben, London Bridge and William
Shakespeare.
820 | 15 april 2012 | nonfiction | kirkusreviews.com |
| kirkusreviews.com | nonfiction | 15 april 2012 | 821