Silent Warriors of World War II: The Alamo Scouts Behind the Japanese Lines

Customer Reviews:

Important Part of History.......2007-09-26

This book covers a group of little known heros of WWII. While small in number it's importance to the success of the war in the Pacific cannot be measured by it's size. Their contribution cannot be in operations alone as the very existance of the group was a foundation for future units such as theirs. It could even be said that the Special Forces of today might possibly not exist had it not been for the foresight of the founder and the execution of operations of the men of The Alamo Scouts. The book is well written and with plentiful photographs. Their accompolishments are truly astounding.

Long on Training, Short on Action.......2004-07-07

This chronological review of the Alamo Scouts is interesting, but...

The story spends a great deal of time describing the organization, setup, and mission of the Alamo Scouts. Mr. Zedric does a very good job of providing this background information.

The author also does a very god job of outlining the missions performed by the Scouts and the positive impact of the Scouts on the US war effort in the Pacific. However, the book falls short by overviewing many missions, instead of detailing a few particular missions.

I would have enjoyed the book more had Mr. Zedric introduced me to 1-2 of the teams, and explored in greater detail, their efforts.

Having said that, the book is still interesting and explore's a fascinating portion of the war in the Pacific. As a result, I do want to learn more about the Phillipin campaigns.

WOW!.......2000-06-20

Read this book! Real people, real heroes. I have no idea why they haven't made a movie about these guys.

They have a record no unit on the planet can top: 106 missions in 18 months, 138 personnel (including staff, support and operators), and no wounded or killed in action.

Freaking Unbelievable! One of the more interesting anecdotes was a prayer by one of the Scouts (paraphrased): "Lord, If you don't want me to kill the enemy, don't let me see them..."

Get this book, it's history and it's not dry at all!

It has more details than I remember........1997-12-26

The story on page 240 is more clear than I remember it. I was a Gunners Mate on PT Boat 379 of Squdron 28 and have pictures of the two prisoners that Lt. Dove brought back to the boat. Also took a picture of the 39 people we rescued. Lt. Morton was our skipper. At least one part of the operation was in daylite. The "team" was made up of only two men, Lt. Dove and a Filipino Scout. We in the boat crew couldn't believe the scouts could get away with some of the operations they were on. A most fantastic group of men.

Outstanding Read! Never heard of the Alamo Scouts until now!.......1997-04-15

Silent Warriors of World War II is the amazing story of the Alamo Scouts, Sixth Army's elite commando, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering unit, which performed 106 missions behind Japanese lines in New Guinea and in the Philippines without losing a man killed or captured. The author not only informs and educates, he tells a complex story in very readable way. From the first page, the reader can picture what the Scouts look like, their personalities and their devotion to accomplishing the mission at all costs. This is not "dry" history! Zedric breathes life into the characters and puts the reader alongside the commandos in a rubber boat or deep in a tropical jungle. But the author does not embellish. He didn't need to--what the Alamo Scouts accomplished needed no embellishment. Zedric has done a masterful job in telling their story--one which should have been told years ago. A must read

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In 1744, at the height of the War of the Austrian Succession, Empress Maria Therese came to believe that the Jews of Prague were plotting against her, in league with Austria's Prussian enemies. She decided accordingly to expel every member of the city's long-established Jewish community--"a brutal sanction," Anglo-Israeli historian David Vital notes, that "would have put an entire population on to the roads of Europe to march through lands in which they were highly unlikely to be allowed to settle in search of one in which they might." Maria Therese relented eventually, but the Jews of her empire were reminded once again of their precarious position, always potential victims of a ruler's whim.

Half a century later, for the first time in European history, the Jews of France were accorded equal rights of citizenship in the wake of the revolution. From that time on, Vital writes in his encyclopedic history of Jews in early-modern Europe, secularism replaced the former hierarchy of ghetto leaders and rabbinical authority. Able to move more or less freely in the larger society, Jews no longer had to band together for protection, and in short order many of them played important roles in finance, government, and industry. Reaction to their rise was swift: with it came an increase in anti-Semitism and militant nationalism throughout Europe, opposition from both right and left. Their communities now weakened, Jews were ever more vulnerable to attacks by their enemies. These tendencies would culminate in Holocaust, a nightmare of history that, Vital shows, was decades in the making. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

The twentieth century has seen both the greatest triumph of Jewish history and its greatest tragedy: the birth of the nation of Israel, and the state-sponsored genocide of the Holocaust. A People Apart is the first study to examine the role played by the Jews themselves, across the whole of Europe, during the century and a half leading up to these events. David Vital explores the Jews' troubled relationship with Europe, documenting the struggles of this 'nation without a territory' to establish a place for itself within an increasingly polarized and nationalist continent. He examines the clash within the Jewish community between politically neutral traditionalists and a new group of activists, whose unprecedented demands for national and political self-determination were stimulated both by increasing civil emancipation and the mounting effort to drive the Jews out of Europe altogether. Controversially, Professor Vital concludes that the history of the Jewish people was indeed in crucial respects although certainly not all of their own making; at times by their own autonomous action and choice; at others by inaction and default. This powerful and stimulating new analysis represents a watershed in our understanding of the history of the Jews in Europe.

Customer Reviews:

A Seminal Work.......2000-08-24

A fantastic book, full of ideas, that will be rewarding even for readers who know quite a bit about Jewish History. Most histories of the Jews in Europe, even those written by Jews, are written from a Eurocentric (Christian) viewpoint, looking at the Jews from the outside. This book is from a Jewish point of view, and makes no apologies. Does anyone remember what happened to the Jews in Europe, and not just during the Third Reich?

This is a demanding book, Vital likes long sentences, but doesn't waste words. Anyone who reads this book will be in a position to think more clearly about the position of the Jews in history and of minorities in the Western world. I wish every intelligent person would read this book.

Another biased treatment of Jewish diaspora history.......2000-03-27

I picked up Mr. Vital's book in the hope of finding in it a balanced, scholarly treatment of the much-misunderstood subject of Polish-Jewish relations from the late 19th century up to 1939. Unfortunately, "A People Apart" only repeats the old, ethnocentric, anti-Polish sentiments without even the slightest attempt at objectivity.

One of the most glaring examples of this partisan attitude is the fragment regarding the "pogrom" in Lvov in November 1918 (p.738). There exists a large literature on the subject in Polish, which presents a completely different picture; Mr. Vital supports his scathing condemnation of the Poles with a single quote from a propaganda brochure written by a Jewish author in French!

This selective attitude toward the sources is very visible in the bibliography. Although Mr. Vital's discussion of Polish Jewry takes several hundred pages, and the quoted publications number close to 500, I could find there just one(!) text in Polish, and even this one only tangentially related to the subject. If this was done because of the linguistic difficulties for the non-Polish reader, why quote dozens of works in Hebrew? In any case, Polish authors writing in French or English didn't fare much better (four or five references).

All in all, Mr. Vital's book, although rather monumental in scope, is quite parochial in perspective.

Very Readable.......1999-12-06

I enjoyed this book in spite of the above review. In fact I was so enthralled I read it in a very short time. The reader should be warned that it is far from a complete history of the Jews in that time period. The author focuses almost entirely on political Jewish nationalism, Jewish socialism, and Zionism. I think that although most European Jews at the time were traditional or orthodox, those that assimilated were a very diverse lot politically, culturally, and socially. Really the book touches on only a small minority of Jews. Mr. Vital's focus and the book's title would have one think otherwise. With those caveats in mind I highly recommend this book.

Very Readable.......1999-12-06

Unreadable.......1999-08-31

You have eliminated the review I submitted. You obviously don't want the truth. This book is interesting but it is written so badly and so ponderously that no one will want to make the effort to finish it, as I have.

A People Apart: A Political History of the Jews in Europe 1789-1939 (Oxford History of Modern Europe)

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Unsurpassed Concinnity
Powerful and depressing

A People Apart: A Political History of the Jews in Europe 1789-1939 (Oxford History of Modern Europe)
David Vital
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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History of the Jews in Modern Times

ASIN: 0199246815

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Unsurpassed Concinnity.......2006-06-03

David Vital begins his history at the moment in time when the relative unity of European Jewish life and identity began to unravel and fragment under internal and external pressures. He traces the various political trajectories down which different Jewish communities and groups travelled with unique elegance. He also, however, provides a more coherent grand narrative, drawing attention to the many ways in which European Jews, East and West, knew a common experience in their interaction with gentile society. Vital regards the modern Jewish experience in Europe as a long process of extrusion and ostracism, a drawn-out rearguard action by Continentals against initial overtures towards emancipation. He describes this process with unsurpassed concinnity. He also intimates his view of Zionism as the proper, dignified, and perhaps only communal response to European repudiation. His intimate sympathy for the subject matter does not hinder Vital from imparting criticism of the varied Jewish leadership, Zionists included, with regards to, above all, their woefully disorganized and disunited efforts to save themselves from what was ultimately a common fate. Some may find Vital's dense and quirky language difficult, but there is a certain artistic flair to the prose as a result.

Powerful and depressing.......2006-02-25

Can a one-volume History of the Jews in Modern Times add anything significantly new to the many similar books that have already been published? This book certainly does. In the first place, it contains quite a number of facts that I had not found in any other history. The footnotes show that Professor Vital, who has lived for most of his life in Israel, has drawn extensively on research published in Hebrew and not yet translated into English. In the second place, although the book has a narrative framework, it is infused by a consistent vision and interpretation of the history of that time which is as powerful and all-embracing as it is depressing.

As the title implies, Vital's view is that the Jews have throughout this time been a people apart, not only in Eastern and Central Europe, but even in the liberal West. The emancipation project throughout Europe is presented as one that was never primarily motivated by a feeling of justice, but by the perception that the states granting emancipation would benefit thereby. Everywhere Jews laboured under the feeling that what the State had granted, it could take away; everywhere therefore the Jews felt that they had to ingratiate themselves with the State - even the Zionists often felt this; and perhaps the only exception was the Bund, which specifically opposed the State as Jews and as Socialists. Vital explains the escalation in Russia from state harassment to the state-inspired murderous ferocity after 1906 to the perception of the Right that the Jews had at last dared to organize themselves to fight back against the Autocracy.

In Vital's interpretation, the Jews of England and France were terrified of crossing their governments on behalf of Jews elsewhere. When, as in the Damascus Case, they seem to have been an effective pressure group for their co-religionists, it was largely because their interests and the interests of their governments coincided. Once governments felt that they had done "enough" in protesting to anti-semitic regimes about their illiberal policies, Jewish representative organizations became cautious in pressing them to do more, lest their own patriotism were called into question. Typically, in France Jewish congregations offered up prayers for the health of Alexander III while that Tsar, allied to France, was presiding over the harassment of their co-religionists through the May Laws. In 1933 the British Board of Deputies and the French Consistoire even refused to be identified with the campaign to boycott goods from Nazi German: a hint from the Home Secretary that the British Government regarded the boycott as undesirable was quite sufficient. When the World Jewish Congress was being prepared in September 1933, the Board of Deputies, the Alliance and the Hilfsverein all refused to attend in case they gave "substance" to the antisemites' claim that there was such a thing as powerful International Jewry. All this bespeaks an awareness that, so far from there being a "symbiosis", the Jews throughout Europe felt insecure as a People Apart. The book ends with the impotence of the Jews at the Evian Conference of July 1938: the liberal democracies refused to accept significant number of refugees from Nazi Germany. The Evian Conference "confirmed the general disposition to edge the Jews out of the international political arena into which they had so very recently (historically speaking) gained admission. Evian signalled the onset of the final stage of the process by which the long march of the Jews of Europe to legal emancipation and social acceptance had first been arrested and was now, corners of the western world apart, being rapidly reversed."

There is of course an extensive treatment of the sufferings of the Jews in Russia and in the successor states after the First World War. The gloom of this book in unrelieved. Vital obviously felt that the enormous achievements of the Jews once they had been emancipated had so little bearing on his theme that they do not figure in his book at all.

One must also add that Vital's editors at the OUP should have taken more trouble: the index, though long, is inadequate; footnotes referring back to earlier passages give chapters but not page numbers. Above all the style of the book is quite dreadful: immensely long and ponderous sentences and sententiously expressed reflections made this reviewer feel that sometimes he was wading through treacle. But the effort is worth it.

A PEOPLE APART: THE JEWS IN EUROPE, 1789-1939.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life

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A PEOPLE APART: THE JEWS IN EUROPE, 1789-1939.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
William D. Rubinstein
Manufacturer: Institute on Religion and Public Life
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on December 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1608 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A PEOPLE APART: THE JEWS IN EUROPE, 1789-1939.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: William D. Rubinstein
Publication: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1999
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Page: 59

Article Type: Book Review

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A People Apart : The Jews in Europe 1789 - 1939

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A People Apart : The Jews in Europe 1789 - 1939
David Vital
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKXWHY

Amazon.com

William Wright takes on the question of nature versus nurture, examining the roles heredity and environment play in determining not only what we look like, but why some of us like coffee rather than tea or prefer cats to dogs. Wright's position is clearly in favor of genetic control of our predispositions, based on compelling evidence from various research such as the famous University of Minnesota studies of identical twins raised separately and from newer work such as that outlined in Dean Hamer's Living with Our Genes. Wright states emphatically, "The nature-nurture war is over." But he carefully avoids much of the outcry that met biologist E.O. Wilson's introduction of the principles of sociobiology by stating up front that genes aren't everything: "None of the data turned up by behavioral geneticists shows genes to be tyrannical commands, but rather nudges, sometimes strong, but more often weak."

Wright makes a strong case for genetic determinism, while carefully distancing himself from the socio-political ramifications of saying people are "born that way." He does this by showing how decades of research pointing toward genes as determiners of body and mind has been misinterpreted by groups or individuals intent on achieving their nonscientific goals. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

"Wright does his homework on behavioral genetics with the thoroughness of an academic scholar, but without the narrowness of mind and ambition that plagues the academy. Wright's devastating treatment is a refreshing smack on the point. Not only is his book well-researched and reasoned, but it is written with elegance and verve, and should capture the attention of professionals and public alike. Science reporting as good as this is as rare as it is valuable." --Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory, Rutgers

"William Wright's Born That Way is a revelation and a pleasure. Clear, witty, eminently readable, it presents the mysteries of human genetics and behavior in a way that leaves the reader enlightened, conversant and entertained. It's a most rewarding book on this elusive and fascinating topic." -- Robert Stone

"William Wright's remarkable new book makes the genes-versus-environment conundrum not only comprehensible by the non-expert, but highly entertaining and sometimes even dramatic. -- Alison Lurie

"It takes an independent writer and free spirit to tell the story straight, and thank God Wright has done it. Born That Way is ... informative, well written, and entertaining ... William Wright chronicles the strife-filled odyssey from nurturism (the human mind is a blank slate, environment is all) to the modern discipline that has uncovered the powerful influence of both heredity and environment." --Edward O. Wilson

"William Wright's Born That Way is truly impressive. It's as easy to read as it is fascinating and complex. Wright has assimilated so much research and used to present his many thought-provoking conclusions, I stand in awe. Wright is not only an excellent writer, he has a genome for enlightening, gentle humor." -- Ann Beattie

Customer Reviews:

Useful information, marred by the "professional writer" approach.......2006-09-16

I found this book worthwhile as a review of twin studies and recent work in behavioural genetics.

Unfortunately it gives the impression that Wright is a professional writer who does not understand his material all that well. For example, he treats manic depression aka bipolar disorder as if it is exactly the same thing as depression. The conditions are very different, and with quite different degrees of heritability.

It's probably a good idea to read this book with caution, always bearing in mind that Wright's interpretation of the studies he describes may not be reliable. Even so, it's a useful reference to the source studies.

An Alluring Introduction to a Blinding Science.......2005-09-13

The developing understanding of the human genome will bring us the most dramatic medical changes that humans have ever seen and this book serves as more than a solid introduction to the science which is and has been developing at a blinding pace. Psychological theory of the last 60 years has been turned on its head as biologists offer genetic evidence of inherited traits that go far beyond eye and hair color and into wild, specific intricacies that definitely will blow your mind if you haven't read other texts dealing with this exciting topic. Wright offers a comprehensive and thorough view of what has been the battlefield between behavioral geneticists and environmentalists - the conclusion, as Wright and his contemporaries see it: nature vs nurture is no longer of any consequence, but nuture operates through nature. This is a critical distinction made by Wright numerous times through the book which indicates that rather than being condemned by our genes, our understanding of them helps us eliminate the environmental attributes that also play a role in our development. Very highly recommended. If your thirst for behavioral genetics isn't sated after reading this, I recommend Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene.

The best book on practical behavioral genetics.......2004-08-10

William Wright does a terrific job of making a complex subject readable and readily understandable. The crux of the story revolves around Thomas Bouchard's, now famous, twin studies in Minnesota. As Wright tells the story of the remarkable similarities found between identical twins separated at birth and reunited after 20-30-40 years, one becomes stunned by the heritable clarity of traits, temperaments, abilities, intelligence, and metabolic rates and so on and so on. It's just breathtaking; so much so that's it's worth reading a second time just to make sure you didn't miss anything.

As the book progresses, Wright names the players on either side of the nature-nurture debate and what becomes clear from the outset is the astonishingly blinkered mindset of the environmentalists. Theirs is hardly a search for truth, but one of obstructing progress in order to further a socialist political agenda. Wright recounts the debates and the duels through the press, and the periodicals of the scientific community, until you're flustered with rage at the audacity of these obstructionists. Medical progress means less to these left wing scientists than the protection of their political agenda. Just amazing! It's reminiscent of the Catholic Church versus Galileo in the early 16th century. And, Wright makes it into a compelling story so easy to read, and to understand, as to make its perusal a delight.

I couldn't help seeing the same socialist obstructionist patterns in "Born That Way" as I've seen in "Constant Battles" by Leblanc re anthropology, in "Taboo" by John Entine re racial differences in athletic achievement, in Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" about free market economics vs. Socialism, in Fumento's book "the Myth of Heterosexual Aids", in Bjorn Lomborg's book "the Skeptical Environmentalist", in Charles Murray's book "Losing Ground" and Myron Magnet's book "the Dream and the Nightmare," both about the trials and failures of government policy in welfare, and in books on 30 other category's of social policy as practiced in America over the last 40 years. It's the same story of resistance that Wright found when he took it upon himself to write this excellent book about the profound debates ongoing in the nature-nurture arena.

I've enjoyed "Genome" and "Nature via Nurture" by Ridley, and "Living with our genes" by Hamer, and "The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins, but this is the book I'd recommend as the introductory read in what is becoming the biggest medical breakthrough in the history of man: the reading of the Gene String via the Human Genome project. Wow!

In a word: Fascinating!.......2000-12-28

William Wright tackles the link between genes and behavior in plain language. He makes it clear that as human beings with consciousness and choice, genes do not dictate behavior, but contribute to it. He separates the politics of the fear regarding genetic research from what we know and how we know it and how we use new information. He also discusses how researchers might avoid some methodological hazards or the accusation of fudged data (document everything!).

He says, "Most scientists take the position that knowledge is neutral, value free; the use to which it is put might be good or bad, beneficial or hurtful to society in general. First, learn as much as we can, then let society decide how new information will be used. The opponents of behavioral genetics have consistently feared such a climate of unfettered inquiry." (p. 215)

Much of this book focuses on twin studies, but Wright also describes some of the research on hormone levels and their effects. He attempts to tease out the variables of nature and nurture on specific behaviors such as intelligence, depression, and a tendency toward violence.

My reading of this book sparked a frenzy of my reading other books on twins, homosexuality, and other research on the links between genes, environment, and behavior. I highly recommend this book.

~~Joan Mazza, author of Dream Back Your Life; Dreaming Your Real Self; Things That Tick Me Off; and Exploring Your Sexual Self.

Interesting and Highly Readable.......2000-10-27

Unlike other scientific books related to psychology and behavioral genetics, Mr. Wright's book does not bog down in "techno-jargon". He does a superb job at simplifying and codifying years of legitimate scienctific research regarding the genetic nudges of behavior. Having spent years myself as a psychology graduate student combing the same research, Wright is on target. The two most interesting aspects of his book is that he actually interviewed,face to face, prominent researchers in this field. Moreover, Wright adeptly outlined the history behind this turbulent subject. He put into words what I have observed for years; that some well-educated psychologists can be blinded to convincing scientific evidence. It is courageous of Mr. Wright to actually name the researchers which might have ulterior motives not to examine the evidence with an objective eye. In the end, "Born that Way", may not be the definitive book on behavioral genetics. However, it is an outstanding reference for people who wish to know more about where psychology has been and where it will soon be grounded. I certainly recommend this book to psychology students.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Parks & Recreation, published by National Recreation and Park Association on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 798 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Creating partnerships for our public lands.(@Issue)(excerpts from David Rockefeller Jr. speeches)(Excerpt)
Publication: Parks & Recreation (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: National Recreation and Park Association
Volume: 39 Issue: 1 Page: 14(1)

Article Type: Excerpt

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