Book Description
When Bob Greene went home to central Ohio to be with his dying father, it set off a chain of events that led him to knowing his dad in a way he never had before—thanks to a quiet man who lived just a few miles away, a man who had changed the history of the world.
Greene's father—a soldier with an infantry division in World War II—often spoke of seeing the man around town. All but anonymous even in his own city, carefully maintaining his privacy, this man, Greene's father would point out to him, had "won the war." He was Paul Tibbets. At the age of twenty-nine, at the request of his country, Tibbets assembled a secret team of 1,800 American soldiers to carry out the single most violent act in the history of mankind. In 1945 Tibbets piloted a plane—which he called Enola Gay, after his mother—to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where he dropped the atomic bomb.
On the morning after the last meal he ever ate with his father, Greene went to meet Tibbets. What developed was an unlikely friendship that allowed Greene to discover things about his father, and his father's generation of soldiers, that he never fully understood before.
Duty is the story of three lives connected by history, proximity, and blood; indeed, it is many stories, intimate and achingly personal as well as deeply historic. In one soldier's memory of a mission that transformed the world—and in a son's last attempt to grasp his father's ingrained sense of honor and duty—lies a powerful tribute to the ordinary heroes of an extraordinary time in American life.
What Greene came away with is found history and found poetry—a profoundly moving work that offers a vividly new perspective on responsibility, empathy, and love. It is an exploration of and response to the concept of duty as it once was and always should be: quiet and from the heart. On every page you can hear the whisper of a generation and its children bidding each other farewell.
Customer Reviews:
Touching book.......2007-01-11
Great book, I have grown to really like Bob Greene. I have bought many of his books and and reading them as fast as I can. This book brings the people who fought WWII for us and why they did it and makes them real. I am learning to really appreciate their sacrifices.
A WONDERFUL MEMOIR AND TRIBUTE.......2005-02-18
This is a good work. As one disgruntled reviewer pointed out, this is not a history book, but rather a memoir and tribute from a son to his father and to one of the many heros of WWII. Having been raised by a father from that era, it is quite apparent to me that my relationship with my father was my no means isolated, but somewhat the norm. This work struck pretty close to home. Having spent over twenty years in the military myself, I can understand some of their thoughts, but even that cannot bridge the entire gap. Those guys looked at life differently than my generation. The author has approached the subject with great sensitivity and through his conversations with these men, I feel, has been able to understand not only them, but himself. I highly recommend this one to any father and any son. Well done Mr Greene.
A Tribute From a Son to His Father.......2003-03-26
Bob Greene has written a touching and emotion-filled book about two men who influenced the outcome of World War II; his own father and Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay. Greene's father served as an infantry soldier in Italy, while Tibbets was training his men in Wendover, Utah for a mission which would hopefully end the war.
Tibbets and Robert Greene, Sr. lived in the same town in Ohio, but had never met. Bob jr. writes about how his father would speak of Tibbets and call him "the man who won the war". While Bob jr. was back in Ohio to be with his dying father, he drew on his memories of Tibbets. Finally, Bob went to meet Tibbets. What occured was the beginning of an unlikely friendship that spanned a generation and allowed Bob to discover things about his father and his father's generation that he never understood before.
Bob found Tibbets to be a very honest and straight-forward man. There was no nonsense from him; everything was in plain terms. Tibbets talked frequently about his mission to Hiroshima on that fateful day in August, 1945. He said several times that he had no regrets for what he did and he always slept easy at night. Tibbets' stories enabled Bob to see that his father and many other men just like him also played large parts in winning the war. Tibbets never liked the phrase "the man who won the war". He was always quick to give credit to the soldiers as the real heroes, just like Robert sr.
Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the several chapters which deal with the trip to Branson, Missouri. Bob, Tibbets, Tom Ferebee (bombardier), and "Dutch" Van Kirk (navigator) took a trip to Branson over Memorial Day weekend and they were treated like conquering heroes by the public. But what impressed me was the candor and openness that these men spoke with. I learned a lot about the Hiroshima mission that I never knew before.
I found this book a little slow at the beginning, but it definitely picks up over the second half. Read this book and learn about the generation of men who won the war.
A book about a hero and a father and how much are alike.......2003-02-18
A great book about a true hero and other's worthy of the same label. A very easy and engaging read. I highly recommend this book.
A disappointment ........2003-02-14
I have seen Bob Greene on some of the news stories on TV. I like his wit and sentiment. I was prepared for a great book on the great generation that produced his and my father. I was disappointed.
First, the book is disjointed. It goes from sentiment to sentiment, and then reverts back again. In his talks with General Paul Tidbitts, I thought he kept dwelling on the same emotions of a hard military decision. That decision was made long ago, and why keep hammering away at it. Bob, just get over it. The U.S. had to bomb Japan to spare the lives of American soldiers and sailors.
Another problem I have with this book is its lack of history. It tells a little of the history of his father, some of Tidbitts, and then a little on the Doolittle Raiders. Other than that, it is pure sentiment, repeated again and again. For a 300 page book, this could have been cut to 80 pages. I read this book, and it was a disappointment. If one wants to remember the Greatest Generation, read something from Ambrose.
Book Description
The concept of fatherlessness has emerged at the center of debates over welfare, poverty, sexuality, divorce, family values, and "racial disorder." Do children need fathers? Do mothers need husbands? Should we celebrate or grieve the loss (or transformation) of fatherhood? This collection brings together the voices of nine highly diverse scholars to reflect on the culturally and politically charged concept of "fatherlessness" and to illustrate the deep and dramatic divisions that constitute public debate on this issue. No other book offers the range of perspectives on the issue of father absence--from conservative to radical feminist--that is presented by this one.
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Family Men: Middle-Class Fatherhood in Industrializing America
Shawn Johansen
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0415917875 |
Book Description
The image of the cold and distant Victorian patriarch, whose domestic roles were limited to those of provider and disciplinarian, is one that still dominates the way we think about nineteenth-century fatherhood. In Family Men, Shawn Johansen reveals that this myth has very little to do with the complex domestic lives these men actually led. Fathers routinely engaged in numerous domestic chores, cared for children, and took a far more active role in parenting then previously thought. Using a rich selection of personal writings, Johansen resurrects the voices of nineteenth-century fathers, uncovering how their feelings during childbirth, their views on education and religion, the ways their relationship to their children changed as they both grew older, and their attitudes toward many other domestic matters. Family Men is a sophisticated and compelling addition to the growing literature on the history of masculinity and the family.
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- Jonathan Johnson: upinmichigan.org review
- The evocative prose of a poet
- Beautiful, Insightful, Moving Memoir
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Hannah and the Mountain: Notes toward a Wilderness Fatherhood (American Lives)
Jonathan Johnson
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Pig and I
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Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer
ASIN: 0803226012 |
Book Description
Longing for a home in big, wild country that would keep them passionate and young, Jonathan Johnson and his wife, Amy, set out to build a log cabin on his family’s land in a remote and beautiful corner of Idaho. But what began as a doable dream for the two of them suddenly looks quite different when, on their first morning in the cabin—without electricity, a telephone, running water, or real windows—the couple learn that Amy is pregnant.
In this lyrical and intimate chronicle of making a home the hard way, Johnson describes the competing joys and anxieties of preparing for fatherhood in a setting as challenging as it is promising: a paradise of mythic snowfalls and warming wood stoves and elk tracks at the front door, but also a place where vision, and even struggle and compromise, are not always enough. Hannah and the Mountain tells a rare and delicate story of two people exploring the unmapped territories of loss and grief and finding solace and grace in the mountains. It offers the reader an unforgettable portrait of a couple growing up, learning nature’s hard and beautiful lessons, and discovering a love of place and each other strong and wild enough to renew them and be carried into the future
Customer Reviews:
Jonathan Johnson: upinmichigan.org review.......2006-04-03
Jonathan Johnson, Hannah and the Mountain
reviewed by Jacob Powers
It is difficult to find a text that gives balance between nature and family. Granted, each genre holds its own, but to find a book that discusses both the love of the wilderness and the love of family is rare. Fortunately Jonathan Johnson, with his memoir Hannah and the Mountain, has successfully done just that.
Johnson's narrative at first focuses on his goal to renovate a cabin owned by his extended family for over forty years for him and his wife, Amy, in the Idaho wilderness: "[We] came to the mountains because our adult lives were rushing toward us and we wanted to go out and meet those lives in a place that would keep us young and free and filled with passion. After years of school we were ready to settle into the long story of home." This feeling of home quickly takes a step forward when Jonathan and Amy discover that she is pregnant with their first child. Now, with the combination of extensive renovations and the limited amounts of resources to do so, the intent to form a home suitable to raise his future child in quickly takes off. Yet Johnson does it all in hope-hope that his firstborn will experience the beauty and awe of the wilderness that he and his wife adore.
Tragedy, however, ensues as the memoir (which reads a lot like a novel) quickly disintegrates from its optimistic dreams into the harsh realities of a complicated pregnancy. The baby is carried too low, putting pressure on and stretching the lower uterus, threatening a premature birth: "Amy'd been having pains low in her abdomen all along...the hope was that the pains were the result of these problems, not the contractions that could be causing the problems." Yet all hope is not lost as Johnson guides the reader through his and his wife's pains and grief towards a strong anticipation that they will be able to tame their dreams again: "We've got our little cabin on land I've come to think of as an extension of my own body...that will be more than enough for Amy and me to build a life on. I will not create sorrows in a life where sorrows find me on their own."
While most of the themes and settings in the book take place Idaho, many are reflective of Michigan's landscape as well. Johnson writes of Marquette where both he and Amy grew up several times throughout. There are also moments where he and his wife consider where they would rather have the baby-in their own formed home in the Idaho wilderness, or back in Marquette where their parents and past lives are. But what stands out the most is Johnson's connection with a past friend and writer, Mac, who experiences the death of his sixteen year old son when he died in an accident on the icy roads just outside of Marquette. It is in this moment of the book where Johnson connects his own experiences of a possible future father with the tragic loss that Mac experiences: "Odds are that being a father will forever be like walking on the thick crust on top of four feet of snow in the cold, February sunlight." As the memoir progresses, it becomes apparent that the love and fear of family cannot simply be contained within the borders of our own state or within Johnson's past life. Michigan may be where Johnson grew up, but Idaho is where his home and life is now.
Although the story is one that has been heard before, it is Johnson's heavy experience in the poetic realm and ability to capture emotions of joy and distress that makes Hannah and the Mountain stand out amongst others. With an interwoven reflection between the lyrical love of the wilderness with the preferable avoidance of the busy city life, Johnson paints a landscape that is powerful and unforgettable. Yet what lies in the foreground of Johnson's affection of the wilderness is that irreplaceable love and desire he has for family itself-"If any of us are ever saved, whatever that might mean, we aren't saved by the stories we create for ourselves to inhabit; we are saved by our loves." For Johnson, it is the family that makes the life; the rest is replaceable.
___
Jacob Powers is a senior at Grand Valley State University, graduating in the winter of 2006 with a degree in Creative Writing and a minor in English. After graduating, he plans to take a year off and then apply to graduate programs.
The evocative prose of a poet.......2005-12-06
Jonathan Johnston writes with the evocative prose of a poet. He tells the story of his path toward fatherhood and toward the fulfillment of his childhood dream of building his family's cabin home in the mountains of Idaho. He does so with passion and care. The reader sees clearly the autumn twilight as it fills the fields and sees the full moonlight come spilling through the windows of the cabin. On these beautifully written pages the reader learns of the profound love Johathan and his wife Amy share. It is a book I shall love giving so others might come to know this incredible author.
Beautiful, Insightful, Moving Memoir .......2005-04-08
I am a former student of Jonathan's...in fact, I am one of the students who sat on the lawns of the Western PA College during his Nature in Lit class that he mentions in the book. That was six years ago and I have been a fan of his work ever since.
This memoir is beautifuly crafted as only a poet-turned-prose writer could do. He weaves the story of building his home, following his dreams, and starting a family in a touching and compelling fashion. The reader relates to the joy and hope of the young couple and feel their pain in times of trouble. This is not a memoir that serves to glorify the life of the author, but rather, it serves as a connection to each of us who are in pursuit of identity (be it individual or family or whatever else)and who are all on the journey through life.
This is a beautiful work. I have never cried so hard over the pages of a book before. Johnson has been couragous and honest in his prose which makes it such an inspiring read.
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The Fatherhood of God and the Victorian Family: The Social Gospel in America
Janet Forsythe Fishburn
Manufacturer: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 080060671X |
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ICPSR
Ralph LaRossa
Manufacturer: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0006QZJM2 |
Book Description
During its darkest hour Switzerland was surrounded by aggressive fascist armies, with no allies within reach, its politicians quavering, and its people beginning to lose hope of retaining their freedom. General Henri Guisan stepped into this miasma of growing despair. In July 1940, he assembled the entire Swiss officer corps at the Rutli Meadow, the spot where pike-wielding herdsmen had formed the Swiss Confederation in 1291. Invoking the spirit of their medieval forebears, he informed his officers that Switzerland would fight back against any invader, and if they ran out of ammunition they would use the bayonet. Switzerland, he declared, would never surrender. Guisan lit a torch that would guide the Continent's only remaining democracy until the end of the war. The key to his military strategy was shifting the main strength of the Swiss Army to the Alps. This controversial policy conceded population centers but it also negated German superiority in armor and aircraft. If the Nazis invaded they would only open a bleeding sore that they would not be able to close. Though the Wehrmacht drew up numerous invasion plans, it never took the gamble. As a military man who became the spiritual leader of his country, Guisan was a rarity in the history of democratic nations. His guidance, along with the Swiss system of universal male conscription, meant that the Germans, had they invaded, would have been fighting not just an army but a people. This definitive biography of General Guisan not only describes a man of great complexity and courage, but a fascinating aspect of World War II.
WILLI GAUTSCHI is the author of numerous works, including "The National Strike of 1918" and "Lenin as an Emigrant in Switzerland." Having retired from teaching history at the University of Zurich, he currently lives in Baden.
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Sailor King: The Life of King William IV
Tom Pocock
Manufacturer: Trafalgar Square
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1856190757 |
Customer Reviews:
OK, but there are better options in this genre.......2007-02-14
I devour all books in the people-befriending-animals genre, especially ones where birds are concerned. While this one satisfied me by and large, I would just like to provide a tiny bit of criticism.
I didn't care for the two episodes of the author's allowing Arnie, the wild bird she rehabilitates, to drink alcohol. Once, to the point of drunkenness. !!! This easily could have resulted in the bird's death. Obviously.
I also didn't care for the author's apparent heavy smoking in the presence of Arnie as well as her cats. The obvious second-hand smoke issues aside, she mentions numerous episodes of the bird "playing" with cigarette butts in her ashtray. I just shudder to think how much "fun" the bird would have had if it had ingested some tobacco, or worse yet, gotten burned by a butt that wasn't fully extinguished.
Nonetheless, the book was mostly enjoyable and I would ultimately recommend it. I'd say C+ or maybe B- depending on my mood.
If you enjoyed this book, or even if you didn't, I would recommend Chris Chester's "Providence of a Sparrow" -- a memoir of a bird friendship that is glorious. Also, "That Quail, Robert" far outshines "Arnie"...
Darling!.......2004-06-06
This is based on a true story. Margarete, who considered herself a typical grandmother, ran across a downed baby bird in her flower patch. She tried to put the bird back in the nest as a helpful soul, but that didn't work. She tried several times, describing her attempts to reach the nest by roof and ladder like a gymnastics move - remember, this is a grandmother. Each time she completed the task only to find the bird back in the flower patch down below. When she decided to raise the bird herself, it was of course only going to be temporary.
This is a wonderful story of love and compassion, of companionship and triumph. Arnie the starling ended up being the thread that held many stories together in Margarete's life. A war bride from Munich, Margarete lived in Texas where she had run a pet clinic, among other things. She moved to Cape Cod with Arnie by the end of the tale, having had many adventures along the way. Margerete even shared the rejection letter from the Tonight Show. Maybe they didn't believe Arnie the starling could talk? "Good," was Arnie's reply.
Arnie never did return to the wild, preferring the company of Margarete and her other animals, human food to wild offerings, and, of course, there would be no one to talk to out there! This is a lovely story, a touching story, one for kids and adults.
Amazing!.......2001-01-30
It is the heartwarming story of a lady and her bird. Brings tears to the eyes! Superbly written! A great biography for any one who even remotely likes animals!
Bravo!.......1999-11-29
Heartwarming story about a remarkable woman and the wild bird that captivated her heart.
Heartwarming!.......1999-09-15
I found this charming book in a used bookstore when I visited my father in Texas. Sorry to see it out of print. A real treasure that is fun to read and very poignant.
Product Description
Four novels condensed into one volume.
Product Description
Reader's Diges Condensed Books Volume 2, 1984
Books:
- Fabric, Form and Flat Pattern Cutting
- Family and Social Policy in Japan: Anthropological Approaches (Contemporary Japanese Society)
- FAQs All about DHEA (Freqently Asked Questions)
- Felicidad De Mexico
- Feminist Parenting: Struggles, Triumphs & Comic Interludes
- Frameworks for Studying Families
- Getting a Life: America's Challenge to Grow Up
- Getting in the Gap: Making Conscious Contact with God Through Meditation (Book with CD)
- Helping Your Child Cope with Depression and Suicidal Thoughts (The Jossey-Bass Psychology Series)
- Household Hints for Upstairs, Downstairs and All Around the House
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