"The festivities to mark July Fourth begin at a gentle pace in the small towns and cities along the coast of upper New England. The area is steeped in history, and many of its celebrations are rooted in tradition..."

The story begins with flags and ends with fireworks. This is a story in photographs. Each page of photographs is illustrated with stories of what is going on in New England on the Fourth of July.

"July Fourth is a unique time for American. Solemn memories of the past and deeply held convictions about the spirit of our country mix with the ingredients of a grand party."

First people come together for an early morning breakfast, then they watch parades and go outside and have fun. Kids eat strawberry-rhubarb pie and lobster. Some of the visitors go to the beach and others go to the grounds of Strawbery Banke, in Portsmouth where there is a living museum that shows what life was like during the Revolutionary War era. Here you can see mock battles.

Further up the coast, the seafaring traditions are celebrated. In the early evening young and old gather for contra dancing and as the day gives way to night everyone anticipates the firework displays.

The firework pictures are a fitting close to America's birthday party.

I thought Whoever Fights Monsters was terrible. Amateurishly written, no depth in discussing the subject, and a self aggrandizing attitude on Mr. Ressler's part. I Have Lived In The Monster is all of that...times 100! Worse yet, throughout this book Ressler came across to me as an apologist for these serial killers. A recurring theme is that it's not their fault that they are the way they are, someone made them that way, executing them would be wrong, we need to show them compassion, study them, and figure out how to make their minds right. Ressler's ego trip is far more potent in this book. He aggrandizes himself in barely 200 pages as opposed to his previous outing which took 300 or so. This was written in a very slipshod, sloppy way. I got the impression that maybe he'd just bought a house, boat, etc. and needed a quick influx of cash. I hope it was worth it, because I have an even lower opinion of him than before and I will not buy another one of his books.

Yes, he does have an ego the size of Texas and sometimes the constant references to his own superiority draws your attention from the stories he's telling, but even so the book is interesting and well worth buying. The interviews with Gacey and Dahlmer are both chilling and interesting. They bring these men beyond being monsters and nightmares and turns them into reality. For anyone interested in reading a book that doesn't thrive on blood but rather explores and explains the mind of some serial killers, this book is a must

I learned a lot that I had not known about the Gacy and Dahmer cases. This book is well written with self-contained chapters on some of the worst cases of serial murder. If the author is self-aggrandizing I did not pick it up. He has justifiable reasons to be proud of his work. Many killers will kill no more because of his and others work. It must take an incredible amount of character and emotional strength to work these cases without going crazy or falling into a suicidal depression. My only criticism is that I am completely uninterested in any professional rivalry between Douglas, Ressler or any others. Both have done good work.

Four stars with a fifth added to raise the review average which, IMHO, is too low for this book.

A perfect example of "you can't judge a book by its cover..." The title, dust jacket and description appear intriguing. However, this is just a conventional summary of various technologies used in WWII, already widely reported elsewhere. To add to the pile of mistakes already reported in other reviews, the author mentions W.R. Whitney of G.E. as a "well-known physicist"--actually he was a chemist. Don't bother with this book...

This book was a real disappointment. Contributes nothing that anyone reasonably familiar with WWII technology would not already know. Full of irritating errors, inaccuracies and omissions. For instance, there is no mention of the ignored radar detection of the incoming Pearl Harbor air raid and its lessons, the dramatic defenses of the Anzio beachhead and the Remagen bridge by radar-directed artillery, the ordeal of the radar picket ships at Okinawa? Not a word. You think there might be a chapter on The Manhattan Project? There is none. Shachtman even gets the story of the defense of London against the V-1 bombs completely wrong.

Tries to tell the story following loose biographical lines of scientists but it does not hang together. Little tactical or strategic insight.

The inaccuracies are rampant and annoying. Examples: Shachtman calls the famous British Chain Home radar system "Home Chain". In referring to a number of Japanese radar pioneers he names half surname-first Western style and the other half family-name first, Japanese style. How about two mistakes in the same sentence? "The Phillips company of Einthoven, Holland" How about "the Philips company of Eindhoven, Holland", which is by the way very much still in business.

All in all, this book is a waste of time. There are much better books on the subject.

"Terrors And Marvels" by Tom Shachtman, sub-titled "How Science and Technology Changed the Character and Outcome of World War II".
HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.

This book attempts too much. The author attempted a more or less complete history of technology development and its impact in all the warring nations of World War II. The resultant volume is almost an Anglophile book, emphasizing more the war between the Western Allies and the Nazis. History is not only the material being included but also by whatever is excluded; Shachtman tends to include the efforts and counter-measures of the Anglo-Americans against the Germans. Often excluded are the successes in the Pacific Theatre. For example, at the commencement of hostilities, the Japanese Imperial Navy had an advantage in night fighting over the American navy. When radar was introduced to American ships, night fighting advantage swung to the Americans. This important story is not really covered in this book. In a similar fashion, the struggle for air superiority in the Pacific was a major technological success for the Americans. The Mitsubishi Zero fighter permitted Japan to dominate the early war in the Pacific. Then, the efforts of Grumman Aviation, Long Island, NY, as an example, in developing the Wildcat countered the advantage of the Japanese Zero. This story would be enough for a book in itself. On page 111, Shachtman notes that the Dutch government ordered "...its two radar experts to flee to Great Britain". Why not give the names of these two Dutchmen? And why not edit out the in fighting in England where one Englishman was made a lord and the other was insulted? Who cares? The major technological advance and change from marvel into a terror was, of course, the development of the atomic bomb. This effort has been documented so well in other books, that the author does not pay enough attention (in my opinion) to the success of the Manhattan Project and the use of the A-bomb.

I found this book difficult to read. The book is generally in chronological order, but the author uses "white spaces" as the simple expedient to signal a subject change. This results in the reader's attention being focused on a subject, and then, in the next paragraph, you have jumped from guided missile rocketry to the Katyn Forest massacre of Polish officers by the Soviets. (p. 227). With all due respect, in a work where any one of the interesting technological subjects could fill the entire book, why bring in something as unrelated to the theme as Katyn Forest?

The book would benefit from one more editing review. Besides moving the port of Antwerp back to Belgium (see the other Amazon reviews), the editor could look at some other pages:
...Page 211: High Frequency Direction Finder: the author calls HFDF a "radar". High Frequency Direction Finder was NOT a radar, but rather a technique to obtain range and bearing on a source of RF transmission. If two vessels could obtain range and bearing on a submarine transmitting, then, by triangulation, it was possible to determine the sub's position. Technological incorrect to call HFDF "radar".
..Page 234: Author uses "...1500 valves in 'Colossus'" ... when else where in the book (see Raytheon) he employs the American term, "vacuum tube". Need to be consistent.
Page 254: Error: "would not to use it against third parties" should read "...would not use it against...".

Five stars for the content and attempt to bring so much history into one book. One star for mistakes that would not be acceptable on an MA thesis. Average: three stars.