The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour

Book Description

The eight uneasy, dangerous months from May to December 1940, as Britain stands isolated and Germany follows its war path.

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The second volume of Churchill's Nobel-Prize winning six-part chronicle of World War II. Their "finest hour" refers to Britain that struggled alone to survive overwhelming German advantage; detailed reconstruction of the bombing of London, the Battle of Britain. Churchill, here wartime Prime Minister, incorporate contemporary documentation and his own reminiscence.

Customer Reviews:

"Victory at all Costs!"............2006-11-15

In the first half of Vol. 2, 'Their Finest Hour', Churchill covers the Battle of France. As new Prime Minister he sets up his Coalition Government to fight the 'common cause' and prepare for the War. Germany was already in France and the Western Front was under attack. The Belgian Government was striving to remain neutral and soon all was being lost in the 'deluge of disaster'. The Germans broke the Maginot line and soon the Battle of France was lost. There was the successful deliverance of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk and the preparations to defend the home front.

The second half deals with the Battle of Britain with Hitler preparing for 'Operation Sea Lion'. In order for the invasion of England to be successful, Germany first had to control the air. London and various areas were shaken but neither the spirit nor the Country destroyed. Italy was on the move, in the Mediterranean, and invading the African coast. The Battle of Britain was won and the RAF had 'Their finest Hour', but the War was far from over. This volume covers the timeline of May 10, 1940 to Jan. 5, 1941.

It should be noted and remembered that England stands in a different position militarily than France. England is a small, ancient, insular island that has withstood many centuries of assaults and attempted invasions. So when Hitler and his forces sought to make the same attempt, not only the RAF and the Royal Navy but history was standing against them. Also it wasn't just England alone that was fighting. It was also their devoted Commonwealth, Dominions and Empirical Attachments that were involved in the war. England was pulling resources from all over their Empire. For instance, Australia and New Zealand were fighting on the African coast and in Greece.

America, under FDR, was moving closer to the war with the Lend-Lease Act and Japan was watching in the wings. Hilter was changing his war direction and moving into the Eastern Front. Stalin was changing his alliance with Hitler and moving closer to Britian and the United States. The impact and weight of the World's destiny was in the balance and starting to slowly shift. Nothing was yet certain and U-Boat packs still prowled the ocean.

This is another of those 'deserves to be read' books. Churchill fills in the volume with his correspondence and hindsight. It is good to read and become acquainted with Churchill's thoughts and this fateful time, in history, so that hopefully there will be no repeating of these terrible events. Well worth adding to the Library.

Britain's first solo stand.......2006-09-12

The second volume of Churchill's history of the Second World War continues in much the same style as the first. Now Prime Minister, Churchill tells of the formidable, even overwhelming obstacles that an increasingly alone Britain faces in its struggle against Nazi Germany. He begins the narrative with France as an ally and Italy still out of the war. But, as most readers will already know, France falls and splits apart. Italy does join the war effort on the side of Germany. America and the Soviets stay out, and Britain stands more or less alone.

After the fall of France, the main topic remains the Battle of Britain, the air war fought over English skies. Nonetheless, Churchill shines his laser-like focus on all areas of the war effort. One could say he primarily covers British efforts, but to say otherwise would be absurd, as this volume covers the months when there were few other efforts to be found. Nonetheless, from his supreme vantage point in the Prime Minister's office Churchill presents as the absolute right man for the job. As in the first volume, more so even, primary source documents are included extensively and Churchill's own words at the time are allowed to show the reader not only what was happening, but also how a government dealt with it directly. Any interested reader can find countless books covering the war from a more remote narrative viewpoint and may even find clarity that sometimes does get lost in the detail here, but nowhere in easily accessed book form will anyone find this story from the top, and that remains the greatest strength of the series.

Myth-Making.......2006-08-30

This is the second volume of Churchill's war memoirs, basically covering the year 1940, particularly the fall of France, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and Churchill's attempts to coax aid from the United States and to draw that nation closer to active participation in the conflict.

The defeat of France and the need for US aid was really a consequence of the lack of preparedness for war discussed by Churchill in volume 1 of the series. Churchill was clear that US involvement on the side of the Western Allies would be a major factor in the defeat of Germany (particularly as no-one at the time could predict precisely when Hitler would attack the Soviet Union). These considerations make this a somewhat troublesome volume because it reflects and perhaps contributed towards some of the more prevalent myths and half-myths regarding this period of history: such misinterpretations have entered the collective British psyche almost as Gospel.

The first such one is the "triumph" of Dunkirk and France's responsibility for the military collapse in 1940. True, Dunkirk was an amazing achievement in the face of great adversity, but as Churchill points out, the British as well as the French were culpable for the defeat. The French were in overall charge, but the British failed to be as active as they should have been in planning the defence of the West, and the size of the BEF was small compared to the effort made in 1914. The magnificent effort to save the BEF and the rhetoric around it, necessary to raise morale at the time no doubt, have masked the collective responsibility for the disaster.

The myth that Britain "stood alone" has also become deeply rooted. Of course, it was not true - Britain at one and the same time had the largest territorial empire the world had known, yet was "alone". One must remember that the Viceroy of India had declared war on behalf of millions of Indians. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand troops were in Britain in 1940 as well as exiled European troops. This is not of course to denegrate the courage and effort of the British, but the myth is powerful - at its worst producing an insular arrogance which manifests itself still. Even Churchill's terminology is confused: at various times he refers to the "British", "the British race", "the British Empire", and "the British Commonwealth of Nations".

Interesting too is Churchill's criticism of Soviet policy: a country whose impatience later in the war over the lack of a second front masked the fact that it had formed an alliance with Germany in 1939.

Perhaps for the reasons above, this is a more problematic read than Volume 1. Nonetheless it's beautifully written and very interesting - not least because once again it reads as a fascinating period piece.

G Rodgers

The Finest (but last) Days of the Aristocracy.......2005-04-30

Americans have a warped view of history, and little understanding of the role of aristocracy and class in history--our own or Britain's. Churchill was a card carrying member of the aristocracy; one of the small group of men who ran England up to, and through, World War II. Their Finest Hour is an amazing documentation of the very height, and at the same time, end, of the all powerful aristocracy in England.

Churchill's second volume of his Six Volume history of the Second World War begins with May, 1940, as the German army is rolling through Luxembourg and Belgium (both clinging to their neutrality right up to the minute the German tanks crossed the border), toward a woefully unprepared France (still reliant upon the Maginot Line, which in turn depended on Luxembourg and Belgium neutrality.

Churchill has just assumed the post of Prime Minister, after having spent the prior year (and several before that) as an outsider bemoaning the refusal of Britain (and France) to prepare to meet the rising German threat. Those years of exile are the subject of volume one.

The present volume focuses on the extraordinary difficulties Churchill and others in the British government faced once the war actually began. Once France was forced to surrender, Germany was left in what most of us think of as continental Europe without any enemies. It had allied itself with fascist Italy, made peace with Stalin, conquered Poland and France, neutralized Spain, and occupied Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands.

In this sense, Britain stood alone. There was a very real risk that Germany could invade and conquer Britain in the Summer and early Fall of 1940. The German bombing of London was increasingly effective, and the British army was in total disarray, having just been forced to abandon France, leaving most of its equipment behind. Just how worried Churchill was comes through clearly and terrifyingly in this volume. Had Germany succeeded, the world might look very different today--the Second World War would have been transformed into a truly intercontinental war, with Asia and Europe allied against North America.

Of course, Britain was not really "Alone." Greece and Turkey were firm allies; Bulgaria and Yugoslavia stood against Hitler and Italy; and Britain controlled most of what we today think of as the third world--from Gibraltar at the southern tip of Europe, to Egypt, to South Africa, India, Malaysia and Burma, and Australia. Only by adopting a firmly eurocentric view of the world (which Churchill clearly had) can he title this volume "Alone."

Churchill and the rest of his government were able to move seamlessly into power, and immediately take control of this world wide empire precisely because of the peculiarly insular class system that ruled Britain. Even as an outsider, Churchill clearly had full access to all of the centers of power. He could not bend and shape them, but he was fully in the loop. Personal relationships and lifelong associations meant that he regularly met with leaders at all levels of the power structure--including most importantly (but by no means exclusively) top politicians and naval personnel. This sort of access by "losing" politicians in the United States today is unimaginable. Can anyone seriously envision Bush allowing the head of the CIA to meet regularly with Howard Dean to review the intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

The only weakness in this volume is Churchill's over reliance on his own contemporaneous telegrams and memos. he was absolutely prolific, apparently having dictated dozens of multi-page memos daily--yet still finding time to run the government. While fascinating historically, they really are bureaucratic memos. The first volume, by relying more on narration and less on historical documents, allowed Churchill greater reign to his incredible skill with the English language. Here, long sections read like just what they are--official documents written in haste, for the historical record.

That said, his brilliant use of words shines through. The most stirring passage is toward the end--his eulogy in November, 1940, for Neville Chamberlain, who more than anyone was responsible for "appeasing" Hitler. Rather than lapse into "I told you so", he marshals some of the most stirring words ever written to praise Chamberlain; urging history to judge him on the strength of his character rather than the results of his actions, which are subject to the fickleness of history.

In sum, this is a remarkable book, chronicling a remarkable time in history, written by a remarkable man who played a central roll in events. I can think of no other book by anyone at anytime which brings together all three of these elements--and is well written!

The Finest of the Series.......2004-02-04

After reading this book, you truly begin to see how narrow minded the average American perception of World War II really is. Not to discount the magnificant American battles such as the landing at Normandy or the Battle for Midway, but the Battle for Britain was absolutely the finest display of honor and courage throughout the entire war. This tiny island and it's courageous people stood alone and stood tall against not only the behemoth Nazi-German menace, but at the same time fought the Mussolini in northern Africa and awaited the Japanese onslaught in their Australasian colonies. It's an absolutely inspiring work, and it's an absolute sin that American schools don't teach the story of how the British people shined so brightly during their darkest hour.

Average customer rating:

Very Good Book!
CONVEYS THE IMMEDIACY OF LIFE IN WARTIME BRITAIN, 1940
Behind the scenes of the battle
Truly their finest hour....
Excellent book on understanding what Britian went through

Finest Hour : The Battle of Britain
Phil Craig , and Tim Clayton
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of B
The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II
Fighter Boys: The Battle of Britain, 1940
First Light
A Summer Bright and Terrible: Winston Churchill, Lord Dowding, Radar, and the Impossible Triumph of the Battle of Britain

ASIN: 0684869314

Amazon.com

A defeated, retreating British Expeditionary Force, the miraculous evacuation at Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the evacuation to America and the Blitz--you couldn't make the story of 1940 dull if you tried. But even the best material has to be threaded into a manageable narrative, and Tim Clayton and Phil Craig don't disappoint. Finest Hour is never less than engaging, and frequently does rather better. On the jacket blurb, Clayton and Craig seem keen to establish their bona-fides as heavyweight historians and claim to have uncovered a "fresh and controversial" account of the political intrigues and betrayals of the period. There's actually nothing really controversial on offer--at least nothing that hasn't been aired elsewhere. If this comes as a disappointment to the authors, it needn't to the reader, because we are left with something just as, if not more, valuable, namely, an accessible layperson's ride through the political and military maneuverings.

Clayton and Craig are particularly good at guiding us through the early days of Churchill's premiership. Read most populist accounts and you would imagine that the moment Churchill took office, the bulldog spirit took over and the plucky Brits stood resolute. Not so. The case for appeasement was still being made within the Cabinet up until the evacuation of Dunkirk, as Lord Halifax had a great deal of support for his conciliatory views. Bizarrely, the thing that ultimately counted against him was his title--it was felt the Upper House should not hold sway over the Commons.

Where this book excels, though, is in the quality of its eyewitness testimonies. Many books have previously used this technique of threading narrative with the first person, but few have found such eloquent speakers. Most eyewitnesses fudge the difficult bits with remarks such as "It was hell." Clayton and Craig's witnesses don't pull their punches. We hear from one Brit who shot a German officer in cold blood and had nightmares for ages afterward. We hear from the sailor who saw his gunner decapitated. We experience the stench of burnt flesh following the shelling of an ambulance. In short, we are spared nothing. It may not be comfortable reading, but it cannot be ignored. Sixty years after the men and women in these pages fought and died, there's a tendency for the rest of us to take the freedom they gave us for granted. They deserve a better memorial than a slow fading into nothingness. This book ensures they get it. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Sixty years ago, Europe lay at the feet of Adolf Hitler. Standing between Hitler and world domination was the just-appointed Prime Minister Winston Churchill...and a few hundred pilots in the Royal Air Force's Fighter Command. Defeat seemed inevitable. Instead, a legend was born. Taking its readers on a breathtaking journey from open lifeboats in North Atlantic gales to the cockpits of burning fighter planes, Finest Hour re-creates the tensions and uncertainties of the events of 1940 -- months when the fate of the world truly hung in the balance. It is a powerful account, told through the voices, diaries, letters, and memoirs of the men and women who lived and loved, fought and died, during that terrible yet ultimately triumphant year. The personal stories of these soldiers and airmen, diplomats and politicians, journalists and spies, are combined with a fresh and often controversial account of the swirling political intrigues and betrayals of the period. A testament to a year when a nation's darkest hour became its finest, Finest Hour is a singular achievement and an indispensable contribution to the literature of World War II.

Customer Reviews:

Very Good Book! .......2007-07-31

I really liked this book and it was written in great detail about the events that lead to the Battle of Britain. I guess I'm a little partial to the RAF and thought that the story could have been more about the airmen who served in the Royal Air Force. The only reason I didn't like the book is that it jumped around too much and never really focused on the Royal Air Force's other squadrons such as the Eagle Squadron. Don't get me wrong it's a great book, like I said earlier I'm a little partial to the RAF and would've like to hear more about the airmen because when people think about the Battle of Britain, that's the first thing that comes to mind.

CONVEYS THE IMMEDIACY OF LIFE IN WARTIME BRITAIN, 1940.......2007-04-11

This book covers the period May - November 1940 when Britain was in its most precarious position, struggling for its very survival.

Through diary extracts and personal interviews (from the survivors) by both authors, you get a really tangible sense of the urgency, fear, hope and danger that the British lived with during that time. Among the people profiled in this book were:

i) a British tank commander who fought against Rommel's "Ghost Division" (the 7th Panzer Division) during the spring fighting in Northern France, barely escaping capture, and later managing to escape to England

ii) an RAF fighter pilot who flew Hurricanes in France and later over England

iii) a WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) fighter controller

iv) an American journalist with connections to both Roosevelt and Churchill

v) a young sailor in the Royal Navy, who assisted in the evacuation of Allied military personnel from Dunkirk and later served in a naval task force Churchill sent to Oran to attack the surface vessels of the French Navy stationed there, so as not to allow those ships to come under German control following the French surrender.

If you are one of those readers who seeks to find a "real and human" connection with what the Second World War was like, you can't go wrong with "THE FINEST HOUR".

Behind the scenes of the battle.......2003-10-27

First of all, I wish to state that this book is good reading. But, it's not really about "The Finest Hour" as one would expect. Rather, it is the story of several people up to and including the Battle of Britain. It interweaves the experiences of Churchill and his secrataries, Roosevelt, newspaper columnists from New York, a sailor, a few fighter pilots and the women plotters who plotted the courses of the planes. The book describes their collective experiences during the invasion of France; the evacuation from Dunkirk; the child evacuations from England and so forth. Their stories are told as a series of vignettes. (If you were watching this on television, you could see each story fade to black and then a new story developing). It does make for good reading.

However, the book really does not cover the logistics, the aerial fighting during the Battle of Britain, or the tactics of battle. In that respect, I was disappointed. I think the book should have been called "Behind the Scenes of the Battle of Britain". Nevertheless, be prepared that you are not going to read about the history of the battle, but about a few peoples' experiences during the battle.

Truly their finest hour...........2002-12-26

Without a doubt, this is an excellent book. Therein, the reader will receive a view into the lives British fliers, sailors, soldiers, and civilians as well as "detached" observers, such as American journalists from the Battle of France through the Blitz.

What made this book special to me, was that I had the opportunity to learn more about the fellows of 17 Sqn. Some years ago, I had the privilege to correspond with one of the characters - Harold Arthur Cooper Bird-Wilson (known in the book as "Birdy" Bird-Wilson), DFC DSO; this book gave me a better insight to not only to his experiences, but also to those across the spectrum of British society during that time.

Excellent book on understanding what Britian went through.......2002-12-21

Very well written, very exciting. I could not put this book down. I did not know to much about World War II except what the US did. This tells me a whole new story that I never knew.

Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain Remembered

Average customer rating:

Well written and artfully laid out.

Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain Remembered
Philip Kaplan , and Richard Collier
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1558590471

Customer Reviews:

Well written and artfully laid out........1999-03-20

Not a formal history, but an attempt to convey the atmosphere and flow of the battle; it is very well done. One of a series of books in the same format, all of them worthwhile.

Their finest hour;: The story of the Battle of Britain, 1940 (Ballantine's illustrated history of World War II. Battle book, no. 2)

Average customer rating:

Their finest hour;: The story of the Battle of Britain, 1940 (Ballantine's illustrated history of World War II. Battle book, no. 2)
Edward Bishop
Manufacturer: B[allantine] B[ooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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Finest Hour The Battle of Britain
Tim and Phil Craig Clayton
Manufacturer: Simon and Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0MS74

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Finest Hour the Battle of Britain
Phil; Clayton, Tim Craig
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000X64GGK

Plassey 1757: Clive of India's Finest Hour (Praeger Illustrated Military History)

Average customer rating:

A Disappointment

Plassey 1757: Clive of India's Finest Hour (Praeger Illustrated Military History)
Peter Harrington
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Plassey was the battle which established the reputation of Clive of India. After relatively lowly beginnings as a writer in the East India Company, Clive rose to be perhaps the most important single figure in the history of British involvement in India. At Plassey on 23 June 1757 Clive's 3,500 native and East India Company troops faced an army of 50,000 under the French supported nawab Siraj-ud-daula. Having succeeded in keeping his powder dry in a torrential rainstorm which soaked the nawab's artillery, Clive's guns were able to open a murderous fire on the enemy troops as they attempted to encircle him. Siraj-ud-daula's attack was beaten off and the counter-attack which Clive launched swept the field; only the French gunners under St. Frais fought to the last. This battle decided the fate of Bengal, the nawab being assassinated a few days later and succeeded by Clive's nominee, Mir Jaffa. Clive's losses in the battle totalled only 23 men killed. Plassey was crucial because it helped to ensure British dominion over India.

Customer Reviews:

A Disappointment.......2000-01-29

This book lacks the excitement and insights that other ones showed in the campaign series. Perhaps it's because of the rather unspectacular historical engagement from both armies. The book is a straightforward and is a fairly dry account of the events leading up to the battle. The illustrations are not as good as some other ones in the series. The lack of photographs of the battlefields and geographical features of East India also contributes to the poor showing of the book.

Their Finest Hour (The Battle of Britain)

Average customer rating:

Their Finest Hour (The Battle of Britain)
Lawrence Holland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: B000UFSE4E

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Their Finest Hour The Battle of Britain Remembered
Richard Collier Kaplan Philip
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UDTOMW

THEIR FINEST HOUR THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1940

Average customer rating:

THEIR FINEST HOUR THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1940

Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FLPEAU

Customer Reviews:

A good book for studying Scandinavia Royalty.......2006-05-13

This is a good book, particularly if you are just starting to study mordern day Scandinavia royalty as I am. Though I do wish the author could have included a bit more description on how the Bernadotte Dynasty was founded in Sweden and how the descendents of Carl Johan and Desiree continue to make their family popular and a sucess in Sweden today.

Northern Crowns: the Kings of Modern Scandinavia.......2003-04-16

This is an excellent book! It is full of important historical information, dates, names and descriptions of key figures in Royal history, and the like. If you are doing research on recent Scandinavian monarchs, this is a great place to begin! If you want to know how a Danish prince came to be the first 20th century King of Norway or how the son of a German Duke became King of Denmark, you can find out from this book. Detailed information on family relationships is included, and there are a number of highly entertaining anecdotes about several Kings in all three Scandinavian families.
The only problem I saw in this book is that it's language and grammer may sometimes be slightly intimidating; this is NOT a book for those accustomed to reading only in the vernacular. The occasional difficulty in the reading, though, is offset by the pure wealth of information offered. For a small and handleable book, it has a lot to offer. I believe it is one of the best like it on its subject.

Interesting but not great.......2002-03-18

The title may be catchy but don't expect to get a book on modern day kings like Arthur. My humanities teacher assigned this book and our first impression was something along the lines of a movie but it really wasn't. This book is just about the people and influences that make a big influence in modern day Scandanavia. I am not saying that this book was stupid and horrible because it wasn't. If you're looking for something whimsical and romantic, then keep browsing.

Book Description

This engaging and entertaining book traces the social, medical and criminal history of chloroform.

Customer Reviews:

Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion.......2003-12-26

This compact book is a spellbinding history of chloroform, from its discovery in 1831-2 to its present role in our industrial plants and our environment. It is, to my knowledge, the first and only historical survey of the famous anesthetic. The author has researched a prodigious number of sources, many of them little known. The book is written for laymen but physicians, especially anesthesiologists, will enjoy reading it and learn much from it.

The author clearly presents the controversies which surrounded chloroform from its birth on: who was its first discoverer; the debate between Boston & Edinburgh over its safety, as compared to that of ether; the medical and religious oppositions to its use in obstetrics (or even in surgery); the quarrel between the Scottish and English surgeons on its safe mode of administration; and the disputes over the mechanism of the instantaneous death that it not infrequently caused. All sides of the debates are fairly presented and soundly judged on the basis of facts gleaned in a vast literature.

The scientific and medical material is presented clearly and soberly, in a crisp, vivid, and lucid style. The author presents a fair judgment of a drug, which spared patients the horrors of the bite of the knife but could also kill with the speed of a thunderbolt.

The book also offers vivid biographic vignettes of the great pioneers of chloroform. Some of them, little known, such as Samuel Guthrie and Edward Lawrie beautifully come alive in the book.

Over the years chloroform was recommended for every physical and mental disease and the book includes many amusing stories about those medical fads. From its birth to our present days, chloroform was also used for wrongdoing & Mrs. Stratmann narrates at great length some famous criminal cases involving chloroform, which will delight every crime buff. No mystery writer could have presented with more verve and sense of suspense the stories of Adelaide Bartlett, W. Markand, Sir William Osler, WT Stead, HW Mudgett, and "Old Man" WM Rice.

Chloroform raised much clinical and scientific interest on the Continent, especially in Germany, though less so than in the UK. I hope that the author will delve more extensively with the story of chloroform in Continental Europe in her book's 2nd edition.

This work is a serious book on a difficult medical subject but its fluent, crisp and vivid style makes it a delight to read. I immensely enjoyed reading it and am sure that laymen & physicians who read it will share my pleasure. I highly recommend it to both.

Ray J. Defalque,MD,MS
Prof. (Ret.) UAB School of Medicine

Highly Recommended.......2003-12-05

Meticulously researched and skilfully written, this book is a fascinating history of the use of chloroform, both medically and in less laudable pursuits. Fascinating characters crowd the pages--Samuel Guthrie, who managed to survive his own explosive experiments and become the discoverer of the controversial substance; Adelaide Bartlett, whose acquittal on the charge of murdering her husband with chloroform prompted a judge's hope that she would now "tell us how she did it"; W.T. Stead, the crusading journalist who used chloroform in his attempt to expose the Victorian trade in young girls; Dr. John Snow, whose administration of chloroform to Queen Victoria prompted that supposedly staid lady to pronounce the effect "delightful beyond measure"; and, H.H. Holmes, who holds the dubious distinction as "America's first serial killer". The clarity of Ms. Stratmann's writing, and her touches of dry wit, ensure a painless journey through what could have been a soporific topic in less-deft hands. Students of Victorian crime will be especially interested in her new research and insights into the Bartlett case. I highly recommend this book and hope that we will see more from this writer.

The Second Great Anesthetic.......2003-11-20

According to Linda Stratmann, "Descriptions and illustrations of surgery in the seventeenth to mid-nineteenth centuries are mainly a catalogue of unrelieved agonies." It is hard to disagree with this assessment. Patients were restrained on the operating table by strong orderlies and leather straps and given a cloth to bite on to help keep them quiet. Surgeons may have been skillful; they used the sharpest of knives to cut off limbs, for instance, with astonishing speed. They could not control pain except by getting it over with as quickly as possible. When the anesthetic properties of ether were discovered, it was a great boon to humanity. But Stratmann's book, _Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion_ (Sutton) details the history of the second great anesthetic. It is a dramatic rise and fall story, told with detail and a sense of broader social history.

Ether worked wonderfully well, but it had disadvantages, especially its explosiveness. James Young Simpson, an obstetrician in Edinburgh, discovered the effects of chloroform. There were no experimental standards in place, and Simpson's procedure sounds simple and dangerous: he would get samples of any substance with a "breatheable vapour, inhale them from a tumbler, and make notes of his reactions." He enlisted friends as guinea pigs as well. Four days after being knocked out by chloroform in 1847, he used it successfully on an obstetric case. Though there is a legend that ministers denounced chloroform because taking pain away from childbirth was irreligious, Stratmann has not found documentation that this is so, although Simpson did get private letters along those lines.

Despite the frivolous objections, chloroform did have its bad effects on some patients as all medicines do. There was a long and emotional argument over whether it affected the heart or the respiration after doctors finally realized that some people were dying from it. Chloroform continued to be used until newer, safer agents began to be used in the 1950s. This surprising book shows that it was not just used for anesthesia, but also for general sedation, to combat seasickness, and even as fuel for steamer boats. In addition, it was used for criminal activities like murder and robbery, but it was not very successful for these (or for many of the other proposed uses), even though they did make good lurid stories for the Victorian press. The wide range of _Chloroform_ makes it an amusing history not only of an important aspect of medical science but of the society of the time.

Book Description

This comprehensive up-to-date reference book details new tools for reducing energy costs in buildings, developing distributed generation strategies, and employing the latest security measures for any type of facility. More than 100 authorities have contributed to this work. Topics include: how integrated combined heat and power systems for buildings are being utilized, high performance buildings for sustainable design, new tools for federal energy projects, power quality solutions, measurement and verification systems and continuous commissioning, and security facilities for bio-terrorism and disaster preparedness.

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