Vivid niche history.
The spectacular Ploesti raid and a surprising sequel.
Makos, prolific popular writer of books on World War II, including Devotion, An Epic Story of Heroism and Friendship (2014), devotes the first third of this latest to the planning and execution of the famous raid. In August 1943, a fleet of American B-24s flew from Africa to bomb the Ploesti oil refinery complex in Romania, a Nazi ally. Flying at treetop level to avoid German radar, they suffered heavy losses while inflicting severe damage that was quickly repaired. It was America’s first mass bomber operation of the war and produced a steady stream of accounts. By chance, Makos learned that one B-24 crashed on the estate of a British-educated Romanian princess who rescued the survivors. Investigating further, he turned up a living 97-year-old crewman who showed him a diary and referred him to families of crewmates who had preserved letters, memoirs, and interviews of their experience. Powerless, but a public figure, the princess persuaded Romania’s “iron-fisted dictator,” Ion Antonescu, that fliers captured after the raid were Romanian property and not to be turned over to the Nazis. As a result, crewmen were held in Geneva Convention-approved conditions, vastly superior to what they could expect in Germany. A year later, with Hitler clearly losing, Romania’s king, who had in effect been a prisoner of the military dictatorship since 1940, organized a coup that returned him to power. Romania switched sides; more than 1,000 Allied POWs were freed, and, once informed, the American Air Force sent a fleet of bombers from Italy to rescue them. This was a happy ending for the prisoners, if not for Romania, which became a Soviet satellite, and for the royal family, which was exiled by the victorious communists in 1947. It’s a little-known story that’s hard to resist.
Vivid niche history.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780593725276
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.
Pub Date: April 26, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2
Page Count: 513
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.
An expert on Russia delivers a crucially relevant study of a country that has been continuously “subjected to the vicissitudes of ruling ideologies.”
Wolfson History Prize winner Figes, one of the world’s leading authorities on Russian history and culture, shows how, over centuries, Russian autocrats have manipulated intertwined layers of mythology and history to suit their political and imperial purposes. Regarding current affairs, the author argues convincingly that to understand Putin’s aggressive behavior toward Ukraine and other neighboring nations, it is essential to grasp how Russia has come to see itself within the global order, especially in Asia and Europe. Figes emphasizes the intensive push and pull between concepts of East and West since the dubious founding of Kievan Rus, “the first Russian state,” circa 980. Russia’s geography meant it had few natural boundaries and was vulnerable to invasion—e.g., by the Mongols—and its mere size often required strong, central military control. It was in Moscow’s interests to increase its territorial boundaries and keep its neighbors weak, a strategy still seen today. Figes explores the growth of the “patrimonial autocracy” and examines how much of the mechanics of the country’s autocracy, bureaucracy, military structure, oligarchy, and corruption were inherited from three centuries of Mongol rule. From Peter the Great to Catherine the Great to Alexander II (the reformer who freed the serfs) and through the Bolsheviks to Stalin: In most cases, everything belonged to the state, and there were few societal institutions to check that power. “This imbalance—between a dominating state and a weak society—has shaped the course of Russian history,” writes the author in a meaningful, definitive statement. Today, Putin repudiates any hint of Westernizing influences (Peter the Great) while elevating the Eastern (Kievan Rus, the Orthodox Church). In that, he is reminiscent of Stalin, who recognized the need for patriotic fervor and national myths and symbols to unite and ensure the oppression of the masses.
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79689-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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