Book Description
The First Inside Account of the Mafia
In the 1960s a disgruntled soldier in New York's Genovese Crime Family decided to spill his guts. His name was Joseph Valachi. Daring to break the Mob's code of silence for the first time, Valachi detailed the organization of organized crimefrom the capos, or bosses, of every Family, to the hit men who "clipped" rivals and turncoats. With a phenomenal memory for names, dates, addresses, phone numbers -- and where the bodies were buried -- Joe Valachi provided the chilling facts that led to the arrest and conviction of America's major crime figures.
The rest is history.
Never again would the Mob be protected by secrecy. For the Mafia, Valachi's name would become synonymous with betrayal. But his stunning exposÉ. broke the back of America's Cosa Nostra and stands I today as the classic about America's Mob, a fascinat ing tale of power and terror, big money, crime ... and murder.
Customer Reviews:
Organized Crime by a Harlem Hoodlum.......2007-02-27
Joe Valachi, aka "Joe Cago" was a racketeer from East Harlem where trouble would breed daily on the streets of 1st Ave. For a New York guy, it was very interesting to read this book, and notice all the similar streets in Harlem and in the Bronx as well. This book definitely takes you back to another era (one that you will never see again). I found it interesting to read about how Valachi got into trouble with someone, and then had to squash a beef, switch into another crew for fear of retaliation, etc... It portrayed some different views that you just don't see in a lot of books. *You realize that you're getting a 1st hand account of someone who was around organized crime figures (and was in fact - one of those figures himself).
I like the fact that this book displays how mob life is not all what you see in the movies: it's not people making all kinds of money and living the high life. For others like Joe Valachi - there are tough times when you're broke, in jail, or just not getting along with certain people (to the point where it may hurt your street credit). Realize that when your status is scarred in this particular circle, you may wind up dead...
There were some rare things mentioned in this book too - where Valachi stated he never abused someone who owed him money. He was a loan shark that didn't believe in raising his hand. He would rather solve the problem in a more business-like manner. There was mention of all the stoolpigeons being held in Westchester County Jail. I didn't realize how many rats there were at that time. It goes to show you that informants were always present, not just what you read in the papers today.
This book was a nice easy read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading about a true story of someone growing up on the other side of the tracks where the only education a kid can get is in the street!
Shopping experience report.......2007-01-10
Although I have not yet read the book I was completely satisfied with the Amazon experience with respect to the purchase. I have made numerous purchases from Amazon over the years and have never been disappointed.
A must for all organized crime readers.......2006-09-14
If you are at all interested in reading about the mafia this is certainly the place to begin. Valachi was there from the beginning, he was in fact a made man in order to swell the ranks in preparation for the war that essentially created the cosa nostra as we know it. Once in he adopted the Cosa Nostra as his true family and lived the life of those violent brethren.
This is in fact, essentially, a history and a biography all in one, so it is a bit hard to inject emotion into it as the previous reader complained about. Read it as a history, not as a book of fiction, and you will go into it with the right mindframe. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed reading this as I didn't have much of a background knowledge of the mafia other than names. Without knowing it much of what I knew from watching fictionalized movies all stemmed from this book and what was revealed.
At times you wonder if Valachi was just some crazy man that made everything up and was an avid reader of crimes (a la the Benet confessor, John Mark Karr), but the detail is way too in depth. All one can do is believe it as true, which makes this book all the more interesting. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone curious about the Cosa Nostra as this is certainly the place to begin.
5 stars.
Boring, unnecessary.......2006-08-17
This book may have broken ground when it was written in the mid-60's, but now it reads like a who's who of the old mob. It's written as a chronology of events, not an interesting story. There's no description and no emotion brought into the story, simply "this is what happened, this is what happened next." Did not enjoy it.
Great Book!.......2006-03-24
This is a good book for anyone interested in the mob or mafia. It's not alot of flair and doesn't feel trumpt up,it's just the story of one gangsters life.
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THE VALACHI PAPERS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HXNJQ2 |
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The Valachi Papers
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H933MG |
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The Valachi Papers
Peter Maas
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GS7VVW |
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The Valachi Papers
Maas. Peter
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000K1UWXE |
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The Valachi Papers
Peter Maas
Manufacturer: Panther
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000OEADA4 |
Book Description
Efforts to understand the impact of the Vietnam War on America began soon after it ended, and they continue to the present day. In After Vietnam four distinguished scholars focus on different elements of the war's legacy, while one of the major architects of the conflict, former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara, contributes a final chapter pondering foreign policy issues of the twenty-first century.
In the book's opening chapter, Charles E. Neu explains how the Vietnam War changed Americans' sense of themselves: challenging widely-held national myths, the war brought frustration, disillusionment, and a weakening of Americans' sense of their past and vision for the future. Brian Balogh argues that Vietnam became such a powerful metaphor for turmoil and decline that it obscured other forces that brought about fundamental changes in government and society. George C. Herring examines the postwar American military, which became nearly obsessed with preventing "another Vietnam." Robert K. Brigham explores the effects of the war on the Vietnamese, as aging revolutionary leaders relied on appeals to "revolutionary heroism" to justify the communist party's monopoly on political power. Finally, Robert S. McNamara, aware of the magnitude of his errors and burdened by the war's destructiveness, draws lessons from his experience with the aim of preventing wars in the future.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent review........2004-03-01
This is a very good but brief review of the Vietnam War and its legacies. The editor has brought together five people who were directly or indirectly involved in the war including McNamara.
The authors discussed how the war changed the way America saw itself and the world. The war also nudged the military system to dramatically change its ways in order to better adapt to different modalities of warfare. It divided the nation and forced people to question the credibility of the executive branch.
On the other hand, the Hanoi government, which promoted a cult of leadership solidarity during the war failed to bring in new blood to the party after 1975. Inability to adapt to the complexities of running a country during peacetime caused severe economic problems as well as charges of corruption. Harsh criticisms and even rebellions from the people, members of the party, and Buddhists occured as a result but were violently suppressed. Failure to break the cult of leadership solidarity will prevent Vietnam country to move forward.
State-of-the-Art Vietnam War Scholarship.......2000-12-22
Twenty-five years after the United States' war in Vietnam ended, the conflict continues to fascinate. As a result, this slim volume edited by Charles Neu, Professor of History at Brown University, is most valuable. It contains only five essays, but they cover a broad spectrum of issues, from the effect of the Vietnam War on American society to an assessment of the impact on the conflict on the American military to a former Secretary of Defense's "reflections" on the war and related topics. This book sheds considerable light on the most controversial foreign war in American history.
Professor Neu's opening essay sets the tone: "The legacy of the Vietnam War is an unending topic." According to Neu, the Vietnam War transformed the U.S. in various ways, including "weakening all of those Cold War assumptions that had crystallized in the late 1940s and guided American leaders through the late 1960s" and "hasten[ing] the decline of the old foreign policy establishment." The war also challenged the "belief in national righteousness and providential destiny." For combat soldiers, according to Neu: "As the war went on, the confusion deepened and old myths dissolved." In World War II, American soldiers "generally had been hailed as liberators;" in Vietnam, the peasantry was wary, if not hostile. Neu implies that this contributed to break downs in discipline, the worst of which occurred in My Lai in 1968, when 400 civilians, including women and children were killed by American troops. In concluding, Neu writes: "Most Americans sensed that the nation had entered a new era after Vietnam, one that was filled with divisions, uncertainties, and moral confusion, both at home and abroad."
The essay written by Brian Balogh. Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia, examines the war's "domestic legacy." Balogh observes that "Vietnam shattered the myth of American invincibility" and explains: "Innocence and omnipotence lost shattered the perception of American exceptionalism." In discussing "the power of the Vietnam metaphor," Balogh asserts: "Vietnam became the cause of many of America's problems." In Balogh's view, Hollywood's treatment of Vietnam as a metaphor "contributed to the impression that the war was behind everything - or at least everything bad - that was happening to America." According to Balogh: "The war and the movement against it seemed to devour every other concern." Balogh concludes: "Metaphors are bad for history" because they are "emotional shorthand that obscures complex causal relationships."
George Herring, Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, focuses on the Vietnam War's "profound impact on a once-proud U.S. military establishment." Herring quotes an expert on military affairs that, as early as 1971, there was "a state of approaching collapse." According to Herring, the symptoms included "the hippie-like appearance of GIs in the field," rising AWOL and desertion rates, an "epidemic of `fragging' incidents," skyrocketing drug abuse, and mounting racial tensions. The reason, according to Herring was that "servicemen brought with them to Vietnam and other military posts the drug problems and racial tensions that wracked the United States," but he also acknowledges, as any honest critic must, that: "The way the war was fought contributed decisively to the military breakdown." One study blamed "the managerial revolution instituted at the Pentagon by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara" for the services' "focus on what could be quantified rather than the more abstract and elusive concept of leadership." According to Herring: "Within ten years of the fall of Saigon, a full-scale military resurgence was under way, and, by the mid-1980s, "the military had rebuilt itself...[but] fears of another Vietnam still haunted its leaders." In particular, in Herring's view, "senior military leaders "brought from Vietnam a keen sense of the limits of public tolerance for a protracted war." Herring writes, that the Persian Gulf War was "more about Vietnam than about Kuwait, oil, and Iraq." According to Herring: "The nation's smashing and stunningly easy victory in the Persian Gulf War seemed for many Americans - military and civilian - a long-awaited vindication." Herring concludes: "The legacy of Vietnam for the military has thus been enormous."
Utilizing Vietnamese-language sources, Robert Brigham, Associate Professor of History at Vassar College, writes about politics in postwar Vietnam. According to Brigham, the Vietnamese Communist Party created "national heroes out of those who sacrificed for the revolution," and the "pantheon of champions" included Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap. At the same time, a new constitution was adopted in 1980, which created a Council of State, and, according to Brigham, this "institutionalized the [Vietnamese Communist Party's] commitment to shared power." (Brigham quotes an editor that, "[d]uring the tension of the war all decision-making was concentrated in the hands of a few men and they had become over-confident.") According to Brigham's, post-war Vietnamese society has treated the war leaders as revolutionary heroes, but their methods of governing have been dramatically altered.
Robert McNamara is the only non-academic contributor to this volume, but his perspective is worthwhile. For instance, one of his conclusions is that the "United States should never apply its economic, political, or military power other than in a multilateral context," except in the event of a "direct threat to the security" of the U.S. McNamara explains that this is the "lesson we should have learned in Vietnam: external military force has only a limited capacity to facilitate the process of nation building." I found McNamara's wide-ranging essay intelligent and well-meaning, but it addressed issues beyond Vietnam, and I suspect that some readers will join McNamara's critics (and there remain many of them) in holding that anything he has to say, except in abject apology for being the architect of U.S. Vietnam policy, is not welcomed.
These essays are selective, addressing only some of the important historical issues emanating from the Vietnam War, but the perspectives offered by Neu, Balogh, and Herring, in particular, add substance to the ongoing debate. Together, they demonstrate that the legacies of this conflict are many and complex, both in the United States and Vietnam.
Book Description
In Walking Ghosts, Steven Dudley, a journalist who lived in Columbia for five years, expertly chronicles the life and death of the Patriotic Union (UP), the party established by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest guerrilla group. Through stories of the politicians, drug kingpins, revolutionaries, and mercenaries who play key roles in Colombia's civil strife, Dudley maps out the complicated and murderous absurdity that is present-day Colombia, where daily life has devastating consequences: 30,000 murders per year, 75 political assassinations per week, 10 kidnappings a day. As the conflict gets bloodier, international pressure and influence mounts: Worried about the FARC's strength and its role in the drug trade, the United States has sent close to three billion dollars in aid to help the Colombian government fight the FARC.
Steven Dudley seeks to make sense of this complicated conflict by focusing on the stories of key actors in the struggle, from the earliest days to the present. He has seen the civil war up close: dead bodies; paramilitaries; guerrillas; victims; and survivors. He has witnessed political parties grappling for power by any means necessary, and he's spoken to all sides and asked the difficult questions. Fast-paced and informative, with a new afterword by the author, Walking Ghosts presents a window into a conflict likely to shape the politics of this hemisphere for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Informative, detail oriented accounts.......2004-06-23
I am on my second reading of the book, and unless you read each page three times, you will need a second reading of the book. There are a tremendous number of characters to keep track of. To his credit, Dudley does reintroduce characters in later chapters as if you've never read about them.
It's obvious this book is a rewrite of a masters thesis, but I'm not sure what Dudley was rewriting it into. It feels as if it was supposed to be (and to some extent is) a story of the authors experiences in Colombia and what he was able to reveal about the Colombian political culture. However the chapters seem to be chunks of a thesis with a new title put on and rearranged text to better fit the title. For example, the "Black Vladimir" chapter contains a great deal of information on the character, however so does the rest of the book.
Having said that, it is a great overview of the tumultuous 80's in Colombia through detailed accounts. This info is essential to understand current politics in Colombia. Also included is a cursory overview of the pre-1980 colombian political situation as well as the 90's. There is an attempt to cover politics outside of the UP, but it struck me as shallow. The 90's, for example, are glossed over for the most part. I also wish there was more information about the more current situation.
A Good Account, But . . ........2004-06-01
Overall, author Dudley has done right in laying open the running sores of the Colombian civil war to public view, a generally engrossing - and gross - account of chicanery, cynicism, and atrocity.
That said, I could not give it more than three stars because of its flawed insistence - in my opinion - of blaming the left for its own destruction in Colombia. At one point he writes of the "startling number of dead" the UP "put in the morgue." Yet the Union Patriotica did not torture, kill, or "disappear" these people, nor force the death squads to do so, and therein lays the book's flawed premise.
By his own admission, Colombia has engaged in political violence against dissidents for decades, and its 1980s death squads were willing to kill virtually anyone they disliked. The UP, then, did not have to be cynically betrayed or manipulated by the FARC to earn this lethal attention - it would have come anyway, regardless of any guerrilla politics behind the scenes. The paramilitaries were out to destroy the left, and the center; the guerrilla politics upon which Dudley lavishes so much scrutiny were a secondary factor at best, and in no way confirm the Colombian military's "analysis" or strategy.
A must read for anyone with interest in Latin America.......2004-05-08
This book is excellent, and that's coming from a jaded college student at the end of the semester. It is extremely readable, especially given that it is historical non-fiction, and very informative. It tells the story of the Unión Patriótica, a political party founded by the FARC, a Colombian guerrilla front, by telling specific people's stories to get that aspect of the controversy. For the most part the story is told chronologically, but by changing the point of view about every chapter, Dudley keeps the reader interested. His prose is light enough to be readable without losing information, and by tying in interviews, research, and stories, he justifies his leftist tone and fills many gaps in official dialogues.
Violencia y fatalismo en Colombia.......2004-03-03
Excellent! This is hardearned and very readable reportage and history. Mr.Dudley is to be commended for physically braving the treacherous terrain of Colombian politics and the guerrilla conflict there. If life is as expendable in Colombia as it appears to be, the author must have had more than a few frightening experiences. The Colombian propensity for violence is exceeded only by the fatalism necessary to endure it and, perhaps, he made use of its dubious benefits.'Walking Ghosts' is very informative: it gives an objective history of the 'elimination' of the 'Union Patriotica' reform party by government supported paramilitary death squads as well as providing a knowledgeable background and perspective on the corrupt enterprises that are the present FARC, AUC, and Colombian government and military. Mr. Dudley weaves personal histories into larger themes, in particular following some doomed and shortlived careers of UP members while not neglecting some of the tough customers of their deadly opposition. The UP was unfortunately caught in the maw of Colombia's ongoing 'violencia' as the cocaine trade expanded and forced its dynamic on Colombian politics. The FARC is portrayed as less than honorable and only marginally less married to 'violencia' in the scheme of things. One is left with few illusions and, sadly, little hope for the future of Colombia; reconciliation and forgiveness would seem hard to come by after such viciousness. Perhaps the 'fatalismo' of the Colombians could serve them in eventually effecting a peace. Again, a very well written and engaging history of a misunderstood conflict that could well involve the US military (you! your son or daughter!) in the years ahead.
A stunning journalistic account of political genocide.......2004-01-16
"Walking Ghosts: Murder and Guerrilla Politics in Colombia," by Steven Dudley is a stunning journalistic account of political genocide. To this end, the author has very likely crossed a dangerous line in Colombia's Civil War and has exposed himself to enormous danger. Because by bravely documenting the links between Colombia's ruthless narco-paramilitary death squads, the Colombian armed forces, the Colombian National Police, powerful landowners and corrupt members of the two-party political establishment...he has made many bitter enemies.
This book is about the tragic rise and fall of a Colombian political party called the Patriotic Union(UP). Dudley painstakingly interviews the key political actors in the Colombian Communist Party and senior members of the FARC guerrilla organization who were responsible for the establishment of the UP. At the beginning there was much hope that the UP party could break the rigid chains of Colombia's two party system and foster a reform minded peace. However, Dudley's impeccable research demonstrates how powerful members of Colombian society were not prepared to accept a political party (that was officially sanctioned by the government) because it was sponsored by the Communist Party and a revolutionary guerrilla army (FARC).
Consequently, a sinister dirty war was conducted. The government intentionally fell silent while the Army and well-financed paramilitary death squads exterminated the UP. The body count was horrific. A total of 111 members of the UP were murdered in 1987; 276 were assasinated in 1988; and 138 were butchered in 1989. Within ten years thousands were slaughtered. The dead included UP presidential candidates, Senators, Mayors and members of Congress. Half-way through this book one will certainly question the wisdom of the Colombian government. Because by allowing the murderers to go free (97% of crimes in Colombia go unpunished)...many segments of Colombian society lost faith in the State.
This book is well written. It is hard to put down. But please be warned...the violence is brutal. Dudley objectively portrays the terrifying bloodshed inside the borders of Colombia and it is very ugly. He also diligently documents how paramilitaries brag of military and political support. Moreover, the author honestly hints how the United States $1.3 billion Plan Colombia funds may be helping paramilitary death squads led by Carlos Castano.
This is a groundbreaking book. Dudley is a former human rights worker and polished journalist who takes the moral high road to expose Colombia's dark secrets. The author sadly admits that there is not enough room in one book for all of Colombia's victims of paramilitary violence. Overall, the reader will conclude that Dudley is a dedicated journalist. He openly dares to question how the current Colombian government is audaciously trying to forgive the murderous paramilitaries (grant amnesty) and allow them to keep their drug trafficking fortunes. Without a doubt, Colombia needs a human rights truth commission like that of Peru and Guatemala to end its culture of denial and sanitize its armed forces. However, after finishing this book one will conclude that the political elites in Colombia will never allow this to happen. Highly...highly recommended.
Bert Ruiz
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Population Ecology of the Bobwhite
John L. Roseberry , and
Willard D. Klimstra
Manufacturer: Southern Illinois University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Birds
| Field Guides
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Birdwatching
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
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Ornithology
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Animal Ecology
| Ecology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
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General
| Ecology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 080931116X |
Customer Reviews:
A genuine classic.......2001-09-18
Population Ecology of the Bobwhite is the best technical treatise on bobwhites that has been written. The book provides a thorough and scholarly exposition of basic life history and management as well as a detailed, cutting-edge analysis of populations dynamics and harvest management. When I like books a lot, the books are highlighted, underlined, starred, and exclamation-pointed. My copy of Roseberry and Klimstra's book is a mess, but that's because it contains so much useful information that I have flagged in one way or another.
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- Within Reach: My Everest Story (Nonfiction)
- Women of Spirit: Stories of Courage from the Women Who Lived Them
- You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
- A Field Guide to Getting Lost
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