With the life of Samuel Seabury on the pages discribed in detail and the photos that acompany the text you can get a real feel for the man and his time. All of this against the backdrop of New York City Politics. Samuel Seabury was known in all circles as standing for the height of ethics in his time. Something lacking on todays political landscape. A facinating read that never slows page after page.

Nathan David Seabury 25 Sept 1998.

This is one of the most important books written on the Shoah.
To reply to the reviewer who wanted to know what America could have done I dont know maybe excepted boats of Jews when they tried to come to America instead of refusing to and sending them back to their eventual slaughter. Thats just one of many.

I have written my review in the form of a poem.I dedicate this poem to Arthur D. Morse:

I am Liberty. I am Columbia. I am the Mother of Exiles!

Never again will my head be bowed down in tears, My torch held low and dim. Shame on you Franklin Roosevelt for the Bloody stain on my gown, which shall Never wash off.

I am the Mother of Exiles! Suffer my children unto me and I will protect thee. Woe be unto those who commit murder and mayhem upon thee! For I will step down from my pedestal, Not with books in my hand but with a flaming sword, And my shining torch. And lead my children to freedom and safety!

Heed my words, those who choose to destroy freedom. For I am Liberty. I am Columbia. I am America!

This was a book that changed my life. It's fast and spell binding reading. An amazing drama that's only too real.

This book was a work of written art with a unique atmosphere of the years covered. This was a great depiction of the non-fictional view of 1929-1939.

Cabell Phillips' From The Crash To The Blitz 1929-39 provides ahistorical review of the period from 1929-39 in America: a time whichencompassed both the Depression and war. From changes in popular society to political and economic transitions, this provides an all-encompassing history which focuses on what it was like to live during the changing times.

This outstanding work is all the more surprising because so few people have ever heard of it.

The cynical humour, dry wit, action descriptions and characterisations make it a stand out novel that sets it apart from other navy classics such as 'The Caine Mutiny' and 'The Cruel Sea'.

Many reviewers consider this an anti-war, anti US Navy story but I consider it neither. Set in the final year of WWII it is a snapshot of a few months of one pilots military career that draws together the stresses of a lifetime of combat missions. In it you can find just about every character you have ever met in life, in business or in the military and it is this observation and detailing of characters that make the book so intriguing. The descriptions of flying and air combat are clearly drawn from personal experience so the work should be seen as semi-autobiographical, and if this is so, which character does the author play?

Goodbye To Some is highly personal it that it is written in the first person and allows the reader to come into intimate contact with the emotions of the main character. The fears, the petty jealousies, the tragedies, the love of some characters and the bitter hatred of others, the Navy system, the war - it's all there - waiting to be soaked up and experienced. Perhaps it is this intimate writing style that makes American reveiwers so nervous - and in some ways it is un-American. There is no gung-ho, flag waving, ticker tape parades; there is just the dull, leaden burden of dozens of combat missions, each one taking the main character closer to his breaking point. And the narrative doesn't actually end, it just stops at a convenient point, without fanfare and without any real drama.

To find this novel republished in hardback as a naval classic is a real gift to military buffs worldwide - an absolute must-have for every armchair (and left hand chair) pilots library. As a personal note, I have two copies of this book, the first copy is the paperback edition that have read for thirty years!

I've read a lot of memoirs and novels of WWII in the air. This is perhaps the most memorable of all I've read. What makes this book exceptional is the narrative voice--intelligent, cynical, funny and compelling. The story moves along nicely and the ending is heartbreaking to the reader though the sense one gets is that the narrator has seen so much that he is just numb to it all. I am so happy to see that this is back in print after years and years. If you are a WWII aviation buff you will enjoy this.

Long before there was M*A*S*H; long before the Hippies, there was a book that told the truth about war and flying and the human condition. This is a thrilling, humorous and educational book. It is a good read for anyone.

This book, first published in 1971, presents the life and career of Abraham Lincoln through the pages of the newspapers that covered it. This work is, therefore, essentially a biography written with multiple voices and from differing perspectives by the journalists who watched Lincoln's public life. It contains all of the virtues and vices of the reportorial profession. At times the reprinted articles are eloquent and insightful, at others they present gross inaccuracies and exaggerations. All come together to offer a complex portrait of arguably the most significant president of the American republic. Overall, they offer a fascinating representation of Abraham Lincoln and his times.

Editor Herbert Mitgang makes clear that the individual articles reprinted in this collection should never be considered objective accounts of Lincoln's activities. Instead, the newspapers of that era were overtly partisan. Even a relatively small city like Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois, had two newspapers, one ardently supportive of Lincoln and the Republicans, the other rabidly hostile. And both reported the same events in strikingly different ways. Readers see repeatedly in this collection the differing reportage of events in Lincoln's life. For instance, accounts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates are sensationalized toward one side or the other depending on the political allegiance of the newspaper reporting them. Mitgang appropriately notes that these reports "presented history in the rough" (p. xxiv).

While this collection ranges across the life of Abraham Lincoln, well over two-thirds of the work is devoted to his presidential career and the Union's victory in the Civil War against the Confederacy. Almost every major military action is discussed in some detail, but more importantly the role of Lincoln in reshaping the nation with the abolition of slavery receives considered attention. The struggles to maintain a ruling coalition and to manage both the radicals of Lincoln's own party and the peace Democrats enter the discussion. Of course, the assassination of Lincoln and succession of his vice president to the oval office gains attention.

This is a marvelous entrée for students into the primary sources of history. Newspapers have shaped our understanding of political events since the birth of the nation and this collection goes far toward illuminating the career or Abraham Lincoln. The reports and opinions of journalists show a person and a time in both its ambiguity and complexity. Its availability in this paperback reprint provides excellent grist for students.

This book discusses the FBI's program of targeting authors as possibly subversive to the USA-- authors such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, EB White (Charlotte's Web) and others. It also discusses how the FBI tried pressuring the American Library Assn into maintaining reading lists of its patrons but the Assn refused. Some universities do this and have been doing it. This book a frightening account of an agency with broad police powers and the capability of labelling anyone as an enemy of the state for expressing ideas.

I am intensely interested in Franklin D. Roosevelt and his times, so I figured this book on a little-explored aspect of his career couldn't miss. Colorful characters straight out of "Guys and Dolls" rub elbows with the patrician Roosevelt in this account of the transition between the free-wheeling era of Tammany Hall to the do-gooder era of the New Deal. Too bad that author Mitgang lacks any sense of story-telling ability. The organization of the book is sloppy and confusing and robs the story of any drama. The humorous aspects fall flat. Great idea for a book, but the execution is a misfire.

Mitgang's presentation of the scandals involving NY Mayor Jimmy Walker, leading up to the Seabury Commission investigations and Walker's removal from office by then NY Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, offers a story that should be captivating. The personalities involved were among the major American political figures of their time. Walker's precipitous fall from power was one of the major political events of the era. But I laid down the book feeling that I had somehow been presented the story, but only at the most superficial level. Perhaps I should have known better given the book's brief length. But Mitgang has a good reputation as a journalist, and I expected more. For example, none of the major actors is presented with much depth at all. Their motivations are not explored in sufficient degree. The implications of FDR's action in this case for his Presidency are not explored. Walker's failure to run again for the mayoralty--if for no other reason than self-vindication--is not analyzed. Some major political figures--including former Governor Al Smith and succeeding Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia--are given what might be walk-on parts or cameo roles, if this were a movie, despite the fact that they were clearly major power brokers at the time. All in all, this book is a reasonable BASIC introduction to the story, but left me wanting more. It is hardly history; it is more a narration.

This thin book is a quick, breezy read. It shines a spotlight on an interesting time in American life -- the tail end of the Roaring 20s and the onset of the Great Depression -- and the long-cherished "spoils" system of municipal government.

Many larger-than-life characters are here: FDR, Jimmy Walker, Fiorello LaGuardia, Al Smith. Smith's metamorphosis from trail-blazing liberal to the anti-Roosevelt in four short years was particularly eye-opening for me. (In school, they only taught us about the "Happy Warrior"of 1928, conveniently foregoing the not-so-happy iteration of 1932 and beyond.) I was also struck by the enmity toward the pre-presidential FDR which was evident in many quarters.