I purchased this particular book, since the entire book talks about the village my ancestors lived in. They left in 1853 to emigrate to America. No one in my family has been able to ever find any information regarding this village.

This book is simply a delight for me to read. Opening a window to the past: finding how my ancestors lived; their beautiful surroundings; with very interesting information how Oberschopfheim came into being; with it's developments through out the centuries.

I am also interested very much in WWII history. It is a very interesting to see how the Nazi's influenced such a small village. This question has always been in my mind, and now I have an insight into the WWII atmosphere, created by the Nazi's.

Since I have been searhing for information on Oberschopfheim, the discovery of this book has been an answer to a prayer for me. Once, I was about to give up with my search, but now I feel like a have a real understanding of the passage of time in the village. I am so grateful for such a wonderful book!!!

Either way, if your approach is getting information of this particular village, or for an insight into the impact of the Nazi's, this is a wonderfully written book.

My thanks go out to Mr Rinderle, and Mr. Norling!

Walter Rinderle (Vincennes University) and Bernard Norling (Notre Dame) have written one of the most conscientious possible reconstructions of life in a small Catholic town of 2,800 gnarled and busy souls before, during and after the period of Nazi power (1933-1945). The town is Oberschopfheim located in southwest Baden and the joint authors depict all aspects of the daily life, toil and vital interests of the town's citizens.

The book is based on the Oberschopfheim archives which "contained copies of correspondence sent and received and detailed information about such matters as agriculture, local government, the manifold endeavors and concerns of the church, the distribution of welfare, community discord, and the activities of the politice. The pastor, village officials, and ordinary citizens alike were generously cooperative." (p. 3) It is one of the most level-headed books about the whole period.

Here, for example, you have an account of the town's voting patterns in one of the elections. "The ingrained political responses of Oberschopfheimers likewise offered little to comfort the Nazis. In many German villages, both Catholic and Protestant, clerical influence on the voting habits of church members was so effective that it was sometimes positively embarrassing, producing results that approached in predictability those in post-1945 Communist states. In most elections in the 1920s only about half of the eligible voters in Oberschopfheim had bothered to go to the polls. Of those more than 80 percent routinely obeyed the pastor and voted for the Center (Catholic) party, thereby earning for themselves the sobriquet, "black nest of reaction." (pp. 95-96).

Here is another. "Contemporary Anglo-Saxon, especially American, writer frequently distort the history of people who live under any authoritarian regime because they assume that democracy is the natural, normal form of government anywhere, that the mass of 'normal' people everywhere admire and desire it, and that any deviation from it is some sort of civil disease of 'problem' requiring diagnosis. If one begins merely by noting the historical record-that some form of absolutism has been the usual mode of government at most times and places and that democratic experiments have generally been short-lived historically-then fascism does not appears to be a social sickness but only another variant of authoritarianism. At once, all sorts of human conduct in Nazi Germany and elsewhere becomes demystified. By focusing relentlessly on the most bizarre features of Nazi ideology and the most base cruelties of Nazi practice it is easy to forget that for the ordinary nonpolitical person day-to-day life in some authoritarian society does not differ markedly from that in a democracy. One must be wary of exchanging political opinions with others, to be sure, and a prudent individual should not attract attention to himself. One should also be careful to obey the law, since authoritarian regimes are usually less lenient to transgressors than are democracies. But these are not especially onerous restrictions to most conventional, nonideological persons. Even under the most strident despotism more of the time of judges and courts is spent dealing with taxes, licenses, applications, civil lawsuits, thievery, public drunkenness, brawling, and marital discord than with the persecution or enslavement of political dissidents." (pp. 133-134) Highly recommended.

I have read this book from a very personal view. Many events and persons that are described in the book I have heard from my parents. Many Informations of the history of my home-village I've heard the first time. Unfortunately the book is written in English. The content of the book merits also readers who are not able to read the book in English.

As a high school history teacher, I found this book a fascinating and practical explanation of how to read and study history. Norling begins his book with convincing arguments for why history should be studied at all. He continues by outlining the many different "theories" of history (Great Men, Great Ideas, etc.)and comes to the accurate conclusion first stated by Carl Gustavson, that the only law of history is the law of multiple causation. Throughout his book are many interesting examples from the pages of history to illustrate the points he makes. He concludes with a practical chapter on how to write a term paper for history class. I would love to use this book to teach an AP course.

What I wanted out of this book was not really what I got. I wanted a personal memoir filled with interesting anectdotes, recountings of battles the author fought in and guerilla operations, in short: adventure. Perhaps you will think that a little bloodthristy of me, but it is what I bought the book for.

However, I found these things to be few and far between. There are a trifling amount of these kinds of episodes, but mostly Ray Hunt and his ghost writer gloss over these points of interest (for me, anyway) to comment on generalities of guerilla life in the Philippines and "to set the record straight." Though this was the first book I have read on guerilla operations in the Philippines, it quickly became clear that there are several camps with opposing views about what really happened during the war among US/Filipino guerilla forces, and each tries to get its version of events to be taken as history. Mr Hunt makes an effort to give his side of the story throughout the book from mostly personal information, so in this respect I think he did a good job.

He also takes the opportunity to unapologetically wax patriotic. He is unflinching in his thoughts that the US and MacArthur are always doing right, a tone which sometimes was too strong for me to take seriously. At one point he claims that the best thing for the Philippines after the war would have been to make it "the 49th state,"(this was before Hawaii and Alaska were admitted) presumably because America was and is the best thing going anywhere.

In short, this book is not one of men in battle and the hardships they undergo. It is one man's first person view of a seemingly ongoing argument about this particular bit of history, as well as providing a wealth of general background on the subject. I suspect that there are other, better books to buy on all these categories, and would recommend this book only to those who are deeply interested and want to read everything they can find on it.

The Philippines' role as a major battleground in World War II must not be forgotten. Thus, Ray Hunt and Bernard Norling provide an important service in "Behind Japanese Lines: An American Guerrilla in the Philippines." The story of American servicemen fighting as guerillas during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines is an amazing one. Hunt's personal experience is just one of many such riveting experiences.

"Behind Japanese Lines" provides the reader with a vivid portrayal of Mr. Hunt's three-year ordeal as a guerilla on the island of Luzon, an ordeal he did not expect to survive. It also contains detailed analysis of the history of the Philippines and its complex relationship with the United States. The only drawback is that Mr. Hunt's narrative is abruptly and inconveniently interrupted by such analysis, presumably by Mr. Norling.

Importantly, Mr. Hunt gives much regard to the Filipino people, who suffered so much during the war. With their help and sacrifice, he was able to stay alive and fight to help liberate the Philippines. Very few other people of any nation gave so much in fighting for freedom during the war.

Also, Mr. Hunt is honest in his account of guerilla life. It was anything but easy, as rival guerilla gangs fought each other almost as often as they fought the Japanese. Even American guerillas fell under the spell of a near-anarchy situation and over-stepped their bounds. But such were the circumstances, and guerillas did what they could to survive. In any event, Japan's conduct in the Philippines was far worse than that of the guerillas.

All in all, the book is a good read and contributes much in the way of the history of the Philippines in World War II. Another similar book worth reading is "Lieutenant Ramsey's War: From Horse Soldier to Guerrilla Commander," by Edwin P. Ramsey and Stephen J. Rivele.

This book is one of those excellent works by the University Press of Kentucky. They publish a great number of WW II personal narratives concerning the more obscure activities and less known theatres. I recall one written by a bandsman, the only one such I ever saw.
This review is based on the 1988 Pocket Book newstand edition of the 1986 hardback original.
The book is well written, quite thorough, and extensively sourced and noted, in contrast to many such works in which all that is set down about the author is in the blurb on the cover. There is also a handy map of Central Luzon printed on the inside back cover, a really great idea so that one can easily find it. Why don't other publishers do that? There is also a very useful index which covers not just personal names, as do so many, but has also subject listings to various topics.
As contrasted to the original book published during WW II, with the title "American Guerilla in the Phillipines", this one does not whitewash the dirty and brutal aspects of the war and its aftermath. All in all, a very interesting and well written work which deserves a place on the shelves of Spec Ops, "grunt" history, and personal narrative collections.

This is an inspiring and truly compelling account of events as told by Col. Sam Grashio. I was at once shocked, proud and amazed at what was chronicled in this book I would recommend this book to anyone looking to find the actual truth about events that took place in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Col. Grashio writes from memory and therefore a few sketchy areas are encountered, but overall he does an excellent job of detailing times, places and people. Read it, remember, and never forget.