Beach Haven

​Bibliography
Rumsfeld, Donald. 2018. When the Center Held: Gerald Ford and the Rescue of the American Presidency. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, New Delhi: Free Press.

Review by Michael Beach

As one might surmise by the title, this book is Donald Rumsfeld’s homage to Gerald Ford. When I first saw the title, being this was likely a political book, I assumed ‘the center’ was a reference to a centrist political position. That was an incorrect assumption. Gerald Ford played college football in Michigan in his younger days. His position was that of the center. This player hikes the ball to the quarterback, then holds the line of large opponents attempting to get past him to tackle the quarterback.

Rumsfeld recounts Ford’s lifetime of service in the military and in politics. He describes his calm demeaner and plain speaking that some took as weakness, but for Rumsfeld, political players in Ford’s day mistakenly underestimated him.

The culmination of the book, and Gerald Ford’s political career, was about his service as vice-president to Richard Nixon. Ford was not the first vice-president to Nixon. He replaced a scandal-ridden Spiro Agnew. This meant that Gerald Ford was not elected to the position. Nixon also made it clear to Ford that he was not his first pick to replace Agnew. After taking office, the Watergate scandal became widely known and led to Nixon’s resignation. Ford found himself moving from an unelected vice-president, to an unelected president.

One of his first acts was to pardon President Nixon. Rumsfeld recounts the Ford administration policies and the historical fallout. Then he reviews the election where Ford actually ran but lost to Jimmy Carter. Rumsfeld recounts likely reasons for Carter’s win. His obvious assumption is that Ford suffered from guilt by his association with Nixon.

Like any political history work, one should consider the perspective of the author who was a Ford administration insider. He also later served with President George W. Bush.  Despite some reflexive influence on the part of Rumsfeld, for those of us who remember the period, the book rings true. 

Bibliography
​Stark, Peter. 2018. Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Review by Michael Beach

Like so many who interest themselves in the Revolutionary War period of United States history, I find biographies on the ‘founding fathers’ fascinating. Washington may be considered the quintessential example. In this work, Peter Stark takes the reader through George Washington’s immediate ancestry and his own childhood. The work then transitions through his colonial experiences, his love interests, and his decision to embark on a military career.

In his early military experiences, Stark makes an argument for Washington’s role in reigniting war between England and France. In what is called either The Seven Years War or The French and Indian War, Washington does learn some harsh lessons and is directly involved in a number of battles. Aside from his hardening as a wartime leader, Washington is keenly interested in becoming an officer in the regular British army. Time and again he is snubbed, along with all American militia. When the war ended, he resigned in frustration and begins his career as a plantation owner. This snubbing comes back to haunt the British years later when the future General Washington directly confronts some of his previous peers and superiors as part of the revolution. This particular work does not take us beyond his resignation and settling into Mount Vernon.

Stark shares excerpts of correspondences to, from, and about Washington that give insight into his early mistakes and how he begins to mature. Stark also shares his romantic interest in a married member of the Fairfax family. Eventually he realizes the pointlessness of the pursuit and his relationship with Martha comes into play. Peter Stark makes it clear that it is not so clear about George’s romantic inclinations toward Martha. His motivation may have been as much financial and cultural as romantic. In either case, the two become an early ‘power couple’.

Peter Stark writes this history in an engaging format that keeps the story moving along. I personally take all histories with a grain of salt, but Stark includes a significant number of contemporary sources, including Washington’s own writings. The content rings true and is probably as close to reality as is possible. 
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Bibliography
​Skagg, Ricky, and Eddie Dean. 2013. Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music. New York: itbooks.

Review by Michael Beach
 
This work is an autobiography by well-known bluegrass and country artist, Ricky Skaggs. He grew up in Kentucky inspiring the title. Skaggs became famous among the bluegrass crowd as he grew into young adulthood. Later he gained larger audiences as he moved into country music, winning many awards. His most famous hits came in the 1980s. Eventually he was able to become independent of record labels, create his own label, and return to his bluegrass roots.

Skaggs is honest about how others helped him on his musical path. He also speaks to his failed first marriage. He wrestles with his decisions to shift from bluegrass to popular country music. He was soundly criticized by bluegrass purists, and he shared some of their sentiment. Yet his struggles with this musical categorization he also points out to how the much larger stage allowed him to introduce new audiences to the old songs and styles. Throughout the book he also speaks to his specific version of Christianity. The larger popular venues also allowed him to share some of that part of himself. Record company executives and producers pushed back at him, worried that approach might cause damage to record sales.

Record sales dropped off as he began to tire of the road and commercialism’s demands. He was in a place in life where he was less dependent on those pressures, eventually leaving the traditional business route. Skaggs began making income by becoming a producer for other artists. With the freedom to create whatever music he wanted, Skaggs returned to his bluegrass routes.

Eventually, Ricky Skaggs became a staple at the Grand Ol’ Opry. He still is. Many famous artists have included him in duets and other productions in their own recordings. I have heard a number of famous artists attribute Skaggs with helping them return to the music they love most after wandering through more popular music. I like pretty much everything I’ve heard from Skaggs. I learned of him during his more popular years of country music, but also really enjoy his more traditional music including both bluegrass and gospel. I read this book as a tale about how Skaggs became what he is through the combination of his own character, and how he was shaped by family, religion and the music business. Like all of us, he is a product of both nature and nurture. His music both influenced and was influenced by many others.
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Bibliography
Ramsdell, Mike. 2006. A Train to Potevka: An American Spy in Russia. Layton: Zhivago Press.

Review by Michael Beach
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This book is an autobiographical sketch of some experiences of a CIA operative working in Russia in the waning years of the Soviet Union. Mike Ramsdell speaks of his early training days in the agency and how his unit was betrayed by another trainee with whom Ramsdell had a friendship. He tells of his bringing up in northern Utah, his marriage and divorce brought on in part by how much he was away on assignments.

The main story of the book is how his unit in Russia was attempting to turn an official into an asset for the CIA. It goes wrong and his unit is told to bug out. That is, the others in his unit are sent to the relative safety of Moscow. Ramsdell is left alone to finish sanitizing the various locations the group of American spies were using. He is eventually ordered to take a train to a safe house in the far away village of Potevka. Before he can make his get away, Ramsdell is attacked by local thugs. He escapes the assassination attempt, but barely. He is beaten and seriously injured. In this rough condition he gets on the train in a lot of pain. It’s the slow train that stops often with the lowest class ticket. He ruminates about his life and what seems to him like abandonment by the agency. As he slept, another passenger steels what little food he had, leaving him to travel for days hungry and bloodied.

Eventually he arrives only to find the safe house empty and with no food. Eventually villagers help him, but not at first. He speaks of how the local people have little for themselves because of the bad policies of the Soviet government. Several times he is stalked by wolves that at one point keep him from walking from the house to the outhouse to relieve himself. After a long stay in the bitter cold and deprivation that included Christmas, he eventually makes his way to rescue and a return to the United States.

Throughout the ordeal, Ramsdell was sustained by his memory of his relationship with his son and a coworker who later becomes his girlfriend and future wife. He wrote to them and imagined future times together. He also considered his own perspective about God and his faith. The humbling experiences at first caused him to question, but then he was drawn closer to God and found his faith growing.

The story is an interesting mix of spy thriller, introspection, and social commentary with a religious connection. Since I lived part of my life in northern Utah, I was familiar with the places he describes. I also made two work-related trips to far eastern Siberia, but after the fall of the Soviet Union. I can see his perspective offering praise and sympathy to the Russian people while questioning their government as well as our own.
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Bibliography
​Fromm, E. (1966). Marx's Concept of Man. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.

It’s clear in this work that Erich Fromm is a Marx apologist, or maybe better said advocate. There is a portion of the work that deals with Fromm’s biography who forwent his Jewish roots for an atheistic position in the Marxist tradition. The main body of this book is a translation of some of Marx’s economic and philosophic manuscripts. These were translated by T.B. Bottomore of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Fromm comments on those works and offers separately statements about Marx that were published by family and colleagues who knew him.

Perhaps the point Fromm puts the most effort into within his arguments is how one cannot judge Marx’s ideas by the applications that resulted in government systems such as in Russia, China, or Cuba. What makes that position difficult for this reviewer is that as one reads the actual words of Marx, these particular examples certainly line up philosophically. The actual economic policies each has adopted vary some, but not so much as Fromm tries to express. He tries to show how the Soviets for example distory Marxian theory. Though he makes some reasoned arguments, he really does not directly show examples where such philosophies differ so much as individual policy application when the practical use of Marxist theories prove unworkable in real life. Such positions seem less to support Marx’s specific views as they stand for evidence to counter his views. Fromm’s focus tends to be about Marx’s humanist views and his arguments against religion, even any sort of religious belief. His support for secularism goes beyond secular government and reaches into secularism within the lives of individuals.

The other argument Erich Fromm tends to point to is about western ignorance of the basic tenants of Marxist views. Indeed, most Americans I would think do not have a deep understanding of the Marxist political and philosophical sophistry. Even someone like me with only a cursory study could not claim the sort of insights a Marxist scholar might. On the other hand, most do have some idea of the overarching differences between a Communist and capitalist system, even if the variations of socialism and communism might be lost on many of us.
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If one has an academic curiosity to understand some Marxist philosophical arguments there are some insights her, but take it with a grain of salt. It’s clear Fromm has a specific position so his reasonings are guided by that position.

 

Bibliography
​Rowe, P. (2022). Vacuuming in the Nude and Other Ways to get Attention. Forefront Books.

Review by Michael Beach

The title to this book is misleading, on purpose. Peggy Rowe is mother to Mike Rowe. He’s a TV host, narrator and podcaster among other things. You might know him for shows like Dirty Jobs or Deadliest Catch. I listen to his podcast The Way I Heard It regularly. That’s where I’ve come to know about his mother Peggy and her books. She is a regular on the podcast and is hilarious.

Peggy Rowe is the author in question here, not Mike. She has been writing her entire life with some success, but mostly in local papers or specialty publications like articles in horse magazines. The point of this book was to look at her writing journey and eventual book publication. Her first published book didn’t happen until into her retirement years. This work is about the frustration, rejection, and eventual success in getting to publication. She has published three books. This one is her third. All three have been on the New York Times best sellers list. If the others are as good as Vacuuming, I’m tempted to read them. It’s full of humorous stories about her love-hate relationship with writing, family anecdotes, and perspective on growing older. Rowe includes some of her earlier short stories within the chapters, most of which are snippets of real-life experiences.
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She gives a realistic perspective on people following their dreams. In her case it’s about writing. That idealism gets tampered in a few places as well. Success requires talent and persistence, and not just desire. She shows talent to be sure, but also notes mistakes made along the way. 

 

Bibliography
​Churchill, Winston S. 1948. The Second World War: The Gathering Storm. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company.
 
This is one volume in a series written by the former British Prime Minister. I only have this particular book and not the entire series. This is a personal memoir, and as such depicts events either within his direct experience as he recalls them, or related events as he came to understand them through others. Churchill directly shares in appendices copies of documents that he refers to such as letters, official transcripts, or published government forms. Comparing his earlier works on his experiences during WWI, in this case he claims more authoritative views. “I am perhaps the only man who has passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high Cabinet office. Whereas, however, in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate posts, I was for more than five years in the second struggle with Germany the Head of His Majesty’s Government. I write, therefore, from a different standpoint and with more authority than was possible in my earlier books” (Churchill 1948, iii).

The period covered begins in the immediate aftermath of WWI in which Churchill makes the argument that the seeds of WWII were sown between 1919 and 1929 by the victors of the first war by how they set treaties and requirements heaped on the German government. He shares some of the warning signs missed as political unrest in Germany grew, and complacency in both the UK and France did also. Often Churchill as a member of the Cabinet or Parliament was ignored or countered when he would share concerns coming to him through intelligence reports or other means. Given the assumed military size differences between the French and German armies, any aggression was thought to be easily quelled. Yet, as Hitler took power, a warning in itself, he was also building military equipment and growing the ranks of the army and navy. All of this was in violation of the imposed treaties, and many in allied authority simply did not believe it was really happening until it was too late.

For a casual history consumer like me, there was much I didn’t know about how events flowed. In particular I found the section on Hitler’s excuses for moving against Austria particularly foreboding. One can take the rhetoric of Hitler about ethnically German people in Austria, or the need to defend Germany against western or Russian aggression and shift the time and circumstance to today. Recent justification by Vladimir Putin as concerning the Ukraine are pretty much word for word the arguments used by Hitler in his eventual advancements in Austria, then eastern Europe. Serendipitously, I happen to be going through this portion of the book as Russia’s aggression in the Ukraine was beginning, and the similarities were uncanny.

This is an insightful historical work by someone who had a great deal to do with how things went. One can question any sort of memoire for accuracy, or for subjectivity, but then again, the same can be said no matter the historical author even when the work is not autobiographical.
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Bibliography
​Heilbron, J. L. (1996). The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science. Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press.
 
Max Planck was a contemporary of Albert Einstein. They knew each other and worked on projects together in their respective roles in the physics community in Germany before WWI and in the interwar years. Plank provided some theoretical ideas that helped Einstein work out his special and general theories of relativity. Unlike Einstein, and many other of their colleagues, Planck was not Jewish. As Hitler’s Nazi party came into power, Germany’s scientists had to decide. Would they continue in Germany and serve ‘from the inside’, making the best they could of it? Would they stay and risk whatever the Nazis decided about their fate? Would they leave Germany and continue to pursue their scientific careers elsewhere? How vocal should they become, supportive of the new regime, publicly opposed it, or stay relatively quiet about political issues. Einstein left for America and became very vocal about his opposition to Hitler’s government. Plank decided to stay in Germany and continue his scientific leadership role.

For Planck, his decision, he said afterwards, was not to support Hitler, but to try to preserve German science and scientist from within. He encouraged Jewish scientists to remain in Germany as WWII approached. He also worked to shield them from policies that would put their positions and their lives at risk. Eventually he failed at both. In fact, he was even pressured to be openly supportive of Hitler’s government. On one occasion he attended a public meeting about the German scientific industry. It’s not clear how much pressure was placed on him, but he attended dressed in Nazi regalia and joined the crowd at the end in the Nazi salute, visibly mouthing a “Heil Hitler” as the meeting closed.
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German science, at least in the field of quantum mechanics, we often at the forefront of advancement. During WWII, theoretical lost to practical weapons creation. Most of the best minds left Germany so the field suffered even more from a sort of ‘brain drain’. Heilbron concludes, “Planck remained in office largely from a sense of duty owed not to individuals, certainly not to the state, but to the institutions of German science he served” (Heilbron, 1996, p. 207). Others noted by Heilbron thought of Planck more as a coward, or worse, a sympathizer. Perhaps his motivation is impossible to know for sure, even by Planck himself, yet his actions are unavoidable. In attempting to maintain status quo while everything was changing around him, his own standing and Germany’s as well were permanently damaged in the 1930s and 1940s. Nations that benefited by the emigration of German scientists are still world scientific leaders, especially in quantum mechanics.

Payne, Stanley G., and Jesus Palacios. 2014. Franco: A Personal and Political Biography. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Francisco Franco rose to power just prior to World War II. He became a de facto dictator in Spain until his death in 1975. His rule was nationalist, and took on the trappings of Hitler’s Nazi party, but instead of exterminating Jews, Spain under Franco protected them. Spain did not become engaged in Hitler’s European war at any scale. Hitler sent little help to Spain, and Spain committed few troops to Hitler’s campaigns. In a way, the two nationalist governments kept out of each other’s way.
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Franco came up through the military ranks quicker than his peers. When political strife that led to the Spanish civil war intensified, his extended family were on both sides. His brother was a famous military pilot but became anti-regal or pro-socialist during the civil war. Francisco Franco remained loyal to the traditional government, then the republican leadership until it began to crumble just before the civil war began.

As the title implies, there is much of the public biographical history shared by the authors. In addition, they include many details documented by various Franco family members and associates. At times, he drives history. At other times he is driven by the greater society and events surrounding him. Like many national leaders, his ideas and actions are both enigmatic, and change over time. 

Biagioli, Mario. 1993. Galileo Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
 
Mario Biagioli spends little time in this book on the specifics of the scientific arguments of Galileo Galilei, though he does touch on a few high-level positions. Instead, Biagioli depicts how Galileo uses his scientific discoveries and invention of the telescope as means to position himself within the court culture of the Medici in Florence, and later in his life in papal Rome.

One of Biagioli’s arguments has to do with how patronage was used to maintain the power of the Medici and the Pope related through to putting ideas to the test (though testing processes might have been themselves questionable at times). It makes me think about science in the theoretical vs the practical. For example, G.E.R. Lloyd in The Ambitions of Curiosity: Understanding the World of Ancient Greece and China compared Greek and Roman ideals as differences of value around knowledge. Biagioli likens a differing of ideas to duels. He argues that the disputation was more important than the outcome in that honor is maintained in the fight itself. This perspective he describes as embedded in courtier life.

Patronage might be thought of as a sort of mentorship arrangement. As I understand it, a mentor would help a scientist in terms of collaboration of ideas, like say a more experienced scientist. The patrons as Biagioli describes them I think are more like sponsors by helping to set an agenda financially, if only indirectly. The sponsor hints at ideas they are willing to pay for through a broker, and the scientist woos a sponsor by properly framing research efforts, again through a broker. The sponsor-scientist relationship is clearly symbiotic in that the stature of each is raised by the position or ideas of the other. The greater the sponsor or broker, the greater the reputation of the scientist. The more striking the ideas of the scientist, the more prestige is implied upon the broker and sponsor. Interesting, sponsors do not directly pay a scientist so as not to seem to be buying loyalty. Instead the brokers act as go-betweens, not unlike a modern agent.

It might be argued that court patrons were more interested in gaining and flexing their power (giving titles, positions, making others do "their desires", etc). Perhaps they were less interested in only helping a client financially. Maybe the mentor role of the patron was more about mentoring the client in how to navigate the life of a courtier more than mentoring how to be a scientist. At the same time, I realize that my personal perspective on mentoring is based on how we might view the idea today. Back in Galileo's time the relationship described might have been thought of more like a mentor relationship.

One interesting perspective of Biagoli was how patronage was more stable under Florentine rule by the Medici family. Once Galileo moved to Rome to seek influence in the papal court it didn’t go so well for him. In that era popes tended to be old entering office, so they didn’t tend to last long before death caused a change in dynasty. As such, courtier influence waxed and waned quickly. In Florence, Galileo only had rivals of scientific prowess. In Rome, religious rivals tended to be as steeped in dogma as they were in power and face-saving struggles. As a result, when Galileo disagreed with a powerful Jesuit, he found himself in serious jeopardy. The arguments were in part about helio-centrism, but only in part. In his old age he was forced to recant some of his findings and lost much of his scientific authority.

​Mario Biagoli depicts an interesting picture of one scientist’s attempt at personal advancement through discovery, and the system of court patronage as a tool to raise standing of both benefactor and beneficiary. He also shows how such political and personal concerns influenced scientific findings, and argues that perhaps some similar influence happens still today. I tend to agree on this latter assertion. Science in many ways is beholden to whoever holds the purse strings. Perhaps funders don’t directly decide how science happens, but they do often determine lines of research by deciding which questions to pursue.