An important contribution to World War II literature.
An exhaustive history examines one of the most significant battles of World War II.
The extraordinary battle in Hosingen, Luxembourg, between American and German troops remains sadly neglected, despite being one of the most significant engagements of the war, according to the author. When the 110th Infantry Regiment set up camp in the town, its purpose was largely to rest, and the unit was pleased to find Hosingen relatively unscathed by the war and hospitable. But Hitler, preparing for a massive resurgence of his battered army, set his sights on Bastogne, the way to which cut right through Hosingen. The Americans established a defensive position, and in December 1944, fought the Luftwaffe for nearly three days despite being greatly outnumbered and inadequately equipped. Hosingen was considered to be so strategically significant, Gen. Troy H. Middleton and Gen. Norman D. Cota ordered the men to “Hold at all costs!” American soldiers fought bravely against a force of 5,000 and ultimately wounded or killed 2,000. Nonetheless, on Dec. 18, the regiment, out of both ammunition and food and encircled by the enemy, had no choice but to surrender. This is the second book by Flynn (Unforgettable: The Biography of Capt. Thomas J. Flynn, 2011), and her father figures prominently in this one as well, since he was the executive officer of K Company during the defense of Hosingen. The prose is reliably limpid, and the author’s command of both historical context and tactical maneuvering is stunning. While a scrupulously researched study, the book possesses cinematic power, unfolding more like a work of fiction than an arid catalog of the past. Many of the men who surrendered suffered terribly at the hands of their captors, and the author covers this as well, providing the perspectives of eight prisoners of war. Sometimes the reader may feel crushed under the weight of so much minutiae—Flynn even provides lists of casualties by name—but the action is vividly described, making up for any information overload. The volume also includes a wealth of black-and-white photos and appendices that include newspaper articles from January 1945. This is history at its best: thoughtful, rigorous, and dramatically presented without embellishment.
An important contribution to World War II literature.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5172-6833-6
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A timely and impassioned argument for social justice.
Profound contrasts in policing and incarceration reveal disparate Americas.
MSNBC host and editor at large of the Nation, Hayes (Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, 2013, etc.) expands the investigation of inequality begun in his previous book by focusing on law and order. Offering a persuasive analysis, he distinguishes between the Nation, inhabited by the “affluent, white, elite,” and the Colony, largely urban, poor, “overwhelmingly black and brown” but increasingly including working-class whites. The criminal justice system, argues Hayes, is vastly different for each: “One (the Nation) is the kind of policing regime you expect in a democracy; the other (the Colony) is the kind you expect in an occupied land.” In the Colony, “real democratic accountability is lacking and police behave like occupying soldiers in restive and dangerous territory.” Law enforcement, as noted by law professor Seth Stoughton, takes a “warrior worldview” in which “officers are locked in intermittent and unpredictable combat with unknown but highly lethal enemies.” Acknowledging that America has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, Hayes traces the country’s history of punishment to the experience of European settlers who, “outnumbered and afraid,” responded with violence. Between 1993 and 2014, although the crime rate declined significantly, most Americans feel that crime has increased and therefore support aggressive police action. Furthermore, although most crime occurs intraracially, the Nation believes that the Colony is a constant, insidious threat; unmistakably, “we have moved the object of our concern from crime to criminals, from acts to essences.” Among other rich democracies, ours is the only one with the death penalty. Whereas in Europe, humane treatment has been widely instituted, in the U.S., perpetrators are treated as unredeemable. “The American justice system is all about wrath and punishment,” the author asserts. Arguing for the erasure of borders between Nation and Colony, Hayes admits, regretfully, that such change might fundamentally alter the comfortable sense of order that he, and other members of the Nation, prizes.
A timely and impassioned argument for social justice.Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-393-25422-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
An educational and inspiring biography of seminal American innovators.
A charmingly pared-down life of the “boys” that grounds their dream of flight in decent character and work ethic.
There is a quiet, stoical awe to the accomplishments of these two unprepossessing Ohio brothers in this fluently rendered, skillfully focused study by two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning and two-time National Book Award–winning historian McCullough (The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 2011, etc.). The author begins with a brief yet lively depiction of the Wright home dynamic: reeling from the death of their mother from tuberculosis in 1889, the three children at home, Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine, had to tend house, as their father, an itinerant preacher, was frequently absent. McCullough highlights the intellectual stimulation that fed these bookish, creative, close-knit siblings. Wilbur was the most gifted, yet his parents’ dreams of Yale fizzled after a hockey accident left the boy with a mangled jaw and broken teeth. The boys first exhibited their mechanical genius in their print shop and then in their bicycle shop, which allowed them the income and space upstairs for machine-shop invention. Dreams of flight were reawakened by reading accounts by Otto Lilienthal and other learned treatises and, specifically, watching how birds flew. Wilbur’s dogged writing to experts such as civil engineer Octave Chanute and the Smithsonian Institute provided advice and response, as others had long been preoccupied by controlled flight. Testing their first experimental glider took the Wrights over several seasons to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to experiment with their “wing warping” methods. There, the strange, isolated locals marveled at these most “workingest boys,” and the brothers continually reworked and repaired at every step. McCullough marvels at their success despite a lack of college education, technical training, “friends in high places” or “financial backers”—they were just boys obsessed by a dream and determined to make it reality.
An educational and inspiring biography of seminal American innovators.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-2874-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
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