The successful book and mini-series _Band of Brothers_ prompted a re-read of Donald R. Burgett's timeless classic: Currahee: A Screaming Eagle in Normandy. First published in 1967, Burgett was ahead of his time in paving the way for a no holes barred narrative and chilling memoir. More recent efforts will attest that there are several pit-falls awaiting the well intentioned World War II autobiographer. For example, a combat veteran's world was very small. He was rarely aware of events transpiring outside the realm of his squad or platoon. He oftentimes knew not where he was, nor was he aware of the grand strategy of which his unit was a small yet intricate part. All he knew was that he had to keep going on to victory, not so much for his country as a whole, but for his buddies who depended on him, as he relied on them for survival. Also, there is a tendency for the humorous memories to over-shadow the horrors of war in many recent accounts. The result is often a personal anecdotal approach, though significant to understanding the culture of the World War II veteran, can bore the reader quickly. Not so with Burgett's first effort. Burgett blends the anecdotal with the overall picture splendidly. He made a smart decision to have a military historian edit his manuscript and fill in the holes with facts Burgett could not possibly have known at the time. This collaboration is done with finesse, lending just enough factual military history to Burgett's personal experiences to make for a riveting read (This delicate ingredient will become more abundant in Burgett's subsequent installments). Burgett takes the reader from paratrooper training, overseas deployment, and eventual night drop into Normandy on the eve of the D-Day invasion. His attention to detail is remarkable. Every facet of training from the technical to the ironic is covered with crystal clear prose. If it were not for an injury suffered during Burgett's first qualifying jump, he would have crashed and burned with his original stick in an unfortunate training accident. Burgett's acclimation to combat appears to occur rapidly. He soon learns to think like an infantryman: is this ditch a safe place to spend the night, or does the enemy have it zeroed-in? Burgett soon learned to trust no one outside his circle of squad buddies in the second squad, second platoon of A Company, 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He would make the grateful French drink the wine and cider they happily offered their liberators first to insure it was not poisoned. Thinking three moves ahead in the game of survival became a way of life for Burgett. Burgett's re-telling of the sporadic fire fights among the hedgrows of Normandy are vital to a thorough understanding of the Airborne operations on D-Day. The reader may wonder whether the paratroopers preference for screaming frontal assaults directly into the mouths of German machine guns and deadly artillery is the result of elite combat training or youthful bravado (Burgett was only nineteen). Burgett makes no bones about his macabre desire to scalp the blond locks from a dead German soldier he felled with his M-1 Garrand. Only intense machine gun fire prevented him from performing this gruesome deed. Burgett comments on the one topic no one likes to talk about: friendly fire. Burgett tells us that not only were his comrades killed by mishaps during Allied air and artillery support missions, but also short rounds fired from ships off-shore as well. Without a doubt, Burgett's tell-it-like-was memoir will become a timeless classic. All veterans contemplating preserving their experiences to paper should consult Burgett as a model.

Burgett's memoir was initially published in 1967. It came out when most books on World War II were about generals, or not even about the fighting. Burgett's book was a reminder that war is essentially about young men trying to kill other young men and the hell of it all. I purchased this book when Bantam reissued it under the title "As Eagles Screamed." I still have that copy and have read it several times.
All I can say is that if you're picking up this book for the first time, you're in for a treat. If you've already read it, well then you know how good it is. Burgett's books are a fine companion piece to Ambrose's "Band of Brothers." In some ways, it's even better because we see the whole war through the eyes of one man who survived it's most horrible moments.

This was an outstanding book! The author tells his story with almost a "dry-biscuit matter of factness" about his experience starting with jump school in Georgia, training in the British Isles, Combat in Normandy and finally back in England recuperating from his combat wounds.

Just reading this book makes you feel like you are actually with him in combat, although of course you are not, seeing the horror of combat first hand. It goes without saying that no book or movie can ever truly describe the reality of combat but this book goes far enough to make the reader realize that combat is probably the most horrific thing a human can experience.

The book is loaded with very vivid descriptions throughout and a number of them stick in my mind: In the early morning of D-Day the author had just landed in his parachute and was on his back getting himself organized when another C-47 flew over at a very low altitude and he saw every single paratrooper jump to their deaths before their chutes even had a chance to unfurl. "They sounded like ripe pumpkins hitting the ground and bounced" quite horrifying! Another C-47 dropped all of its troopers into the English Channel. The first man out landed in waist deep water and was the only one out of his plane that lived. All of the others drowned (the paratroopers carried around 100lbs of equipment with them which no doubt took them straight to the bottom of the sea.) In another place the author describes how they saw some Germans who had just butchered a cow and put some steaks on a makeshift grill. The author and his comrades promptly killed all of them and then finished cooking the steaks and ate them themselves.

The battlefield descriptions are straight to the point and are not for the faint of heart. The author describes with brutal honesty throughout the book his entire experience.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It is an excellent read and very fast paced (I read it in a few hours cover to cover). Five stars most definently!

Overall, in my opinion, the book was very good. The characteristic that I liked most was that it was written in first person. It is the actual account in Gause's words of what happened. If the story had been fiction, it would not have been as enjoyable. It would have been unfair to all the brave soldiers who actually fought in the war to make up a story such as this. However, since the story was real, it gave me a lot of respect for everything that Gause had to go through. He was so brave and so determined. Many people never would have even thought of risking the 3,200-mile voyage to Australia. Gause never gave up, though, even when all hope seemed lost and it did not look like the trip could get any worse. Another characteristic that made the book enjoyable was that it was easy to read. The book used short sentences and simple words. Gause was writing everything in his log, so he did not need long elaborate sentences, or have the time to write them. The book also teaches many lessons. Whenever I look at a challenge that I'm facing, I will realize that maybe it really is not so bad after all. Chances are, I will not be running from the Japanese in a leaky boat like Gause was. The book helps me to put my own problems in perspective. Never, ever, give up. It also teaches the value of friendship. Without the support that Gause and Osborne gave to each other, they never would have made it to Australia. They had their disagreements, but they always managed to settle them. It was very important that they were able to communicate with each other. The book also it gave a real feel for how hard the journey was. There was not anything covering up the hardships. Many times Gause wrote about how bad the conditions were and how he had been overly optimistic right from the beginning. Nothing was done to try and "sugar-coat" the story. Gause was just telling it as it was.

I couldn't put down this book. As a World War II history buff, and having lived in the Philippines as a young child, I was fascinated with Rocky Gause's escape from the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in 1942.

Gause attributed his successful escape to the Filippinos who helped him along the way. He acknowledged their courage and sacrifice in not only helping him, but in fighting for freedom. I have always considered Filippinos to be the friendliest people in the world. No doubt, their willingness to help soldiers like Gause stems from wonderful and powerful attribute.

I hope that more people read this book. Gause's record, along with the history of the Philippines in World War II, is one that needs to be heard.

The dynamic account of perhaps the most incredible escape of World War II is told in an American patriot's own words. The courage and bravery exhibited by "Rocky" Gause and his companion are underscored by the dramatic directness and understatement of the narrative, taken from the actual diary of this epic escape over thousands of miles of Japanese-controlled Pacific waters. This book stands as a beautiful testament to all the heroes, both living and dead, of World War II.

Unless you're a real military history buff, reading about battle isn't as fascinating as one might think. I love history - particularly World War Two - so I was excited to read Ambrose's book, particularly in light of the HBO miniseries. For the first 150 or so pages, I found the book compelling not just as history but as a vivid account of the human spirit and resiliency under extreme conditions. Unfortunately, my interest started to wane at the halfway point as Ambrose lays on thick the American patriotic chest-thumping. While America certainly helped bring WW2 to a close, this book portrays the British as a bunch of disorganized . (A common characteristic I've found in American literature written about the era.) The British withstood the Nazis for two years before America came in. To portray them as anything less than heroes does them a severe disservice and fatally taints what should have been an enlightening read.

Based on the first two episodes of HBO's miniseries adaptation, in this case, I recommend skipping the book in favor of the movie where, rather ironically, the role of Winters, unquestionably Easy Company's most stalwart hero, is brilliantly played by a Brit.

Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose, is the story of E (Easy) Company of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II. It's a very personal account, as Ambrose conducted numerous interviews with the surviving members of the company and uses those interviews to imbue a sense of closeness to the action and the men who went into that action. It's a very effective book, though it does seem to be "history lite." I'm not really sure why, because Ambrose has obviously done a lot of research in producing this story. Perhaps it is because it's not a typical history book with documentation from all over the place. Instead, he seems to have used only a couple of sources besides the men of Easy themselves. Then again, is that a bad thing? Personally, I don't think so, at least not in this case. Ambrose is not attempting to write a history of World War II. He's writing the story of a group of men who formed relationships and bonds that would carry them through the rest of their lives.

I found this book fascinating. Most of the history books I have read have been very abstract, telling about the moving of units and what they did and how successful they were in battle. They always have some personal angles involved, either talking about letters written home, or some personal stories of valor. Ultimately, though, they are about the battles themselves. These books can be very interesting.

Band of Brothers tells us everything about a group of men and how they fought. We get to laugh with them, we get to see the horrors that they have seen. We also get to see the incompetence that sometimes becomes prevalent in wartime. Ambrose doesn't pull any punches, and neither do the men of Easy to whom he spoke. They are very outspoken about the people they didn't like. Not just people, but also nationalities. One thing to keep in mind when reading this book is that the only impression of nationalities that these men had were when they were going through territory, wondering whether or not they would be running into enemy fire at any time. Some people of these nationalities may take offense at some of the statements in this book. One fault with it is that Ambrose doesn't really make clear whether or not these feelings are just the feelings of the men at the time, or if these feelings have stayed with the men ever since.

The descriptions of the action are just incredible. Never before have I seen war from this perspective. While I have seen graphic descriptions of combat before, this story takes the reader to a much deeper level. We get to see the fear and the determination of these soldiers, the comradeship that forms among them. We get to see individual episodes of action in each battle, we see friends die, we see true heroism, and how situations can get messed up in an instant. We also get to see the foibles of the men, how some of them got drunk at every opportunity, how they dealt with war and what it did to them. It truly is remarkable.

One other thing that is missing in this book, to an extent, is a sense of context to these events. Ambrose does provide this occasionally, especially when talking about Market Garden and the plight of the British paratroopers in the city of Arnhem, but he's not always successful in doing this. I wasn't expecting long passages about what was going on elsewhere, but there are times in this book where the action seems very isolated from the war around the men. It's a very narrow view, and while it is understandable since this isn't a history of the war, it does make the actions of Easy seem a little removed.

There are few maps in the book, but they do the job. They are at the front of the book, and they consist of a map of northern France and England, a close-up map of Utah Beach (the beach behind which Easy dropped on D-Day), a close up view of Market Garden, and close-up view of Bastogne. They do the job, letting you follow a bit of the action. I don't know if it would have been possible, but it would have been nice to see some maps of the cities involved in the battles, so we could get a sense of what the men of Easy were doing in each battle. But again, that may not have been possible, so I won't hold it against Ambrose.

I really liked the chapter talking about the men after the war. I felt it really solidified the relationship that the reader has with these men. You have spent the rest of the book getting to know these men and seeing the horrors of war with them, and now you get to find out "the rest of the story." It adds the perfect climax to the book, and reinforces the feeling that this is a personal history of a group of men and not a history of warfare. Some of the fates are tragic, but most of them just got on with their lives. It was nice to see.

Ultimately, this is a very valuable book for anybody who likes reading about warfare. It adds a very personal touch to the whole thing. There aren't long descriptions of blood and guts, but you do see just enough to feel the tension along with these men. I feel like I know these men, and I'm proud to know them. They put their lives on the line for freedom, and they did it willingly and without question. They didn't like it, but they did it anyway. Seeing their story told in such a manner was a wonderful experience. So what if it's history lite? It's a valuable story and it's wonderfully told. That's all that matters.

I liked the HBO miniseries based on this book, Band of Brothers thats why I choose this book to read for my reading book in English. Band of Brothers is an entertaining and worthwhile read. The author Stephen Ambrose writes of personal accounts from the paratroopers of E Company into a gripping story of the war in the European theater. Ambrose's writing style is very easy to read, and he does a very good job of individualizing the huge cast of characters, and he sets his story within the context of the greater conflict.
All of these factors makes the book essential reading for prople like me who watched the HBO miniseries. The miniseries is great movie, but the the miniseries doesnt cover close to as much detail as Ambrose does in the book. Reading the after watching the miniseries, helped me in understanding the characters better and it helped me understand what was happening better. Also, the book gives you a better understanding of why certain objectives were so critical to the war. I thought that reading the book enhanced the experience of watching the miniseries.

Whether you loved the film "Saving Private Ryan" or hated it, there is no doubt that it had a major cultural impact in reviving public interest in WWII. As a huge military history buff, I have not seen such a wonderful cornucopia of new and re-released books on a single subject, WWII, since the big Civil War craze that followed the success of Ken Burns' documentary.

Like that Civil War craze, the current popular interest in WWII has seen the release of some truly great books, some mediocre ones, and just plain wasted pulp. "Citizen Soldiers" fits somewhere in between great and mediocre. It is well-written, has some terrific stories, and provides a nice introduction to people who are new to the field of military history.

The problem with the book is Ambrose. Ambrose has become the unofficial "WWII expert" in American popular culture. His name will be seen on the forwards of new WWII books. His face and pleasant voice used for documentaries or interviews. He has, in fact, become the WWII equivilent to the Civil War craze's Shelby Foote. Ambrose is a good writer; but an average historian. "Citizen Soldiers" is nothing more than a collection of secondary source material and the recollections of old veterans. Interesting reading to be sure; but lazily researched history. Also Ambrose's jingoism and hero worship(especially of Eisenhower which is seen in virtually all of his WWII books) can get a little tiresome, especially knowing that he is a professional historian and not a novelist turned amateur historian like Foote. If a reader really wants to know what it was like to be a combat soldier in the ETO check out "Company Commander" by Charles MacDonald or "The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo" by Glover Johns. Both of these books were written by combat veterans less than five years after the war. Also both were used heavily as source material for "Citizen Soldiers." Johns' book is, unfortunatly, out of print, but available through many libraries. MacDonald's book, though, was just recently reprinted- thank you, Steven Speilberg.

To a person born during the days of Vietnam, living through the end of the Cold War, with a father in the military, I still can't help but wonder how it was that the Citizen Soldiers of World War II did so much so effortlessly. The stories presented in Citizen Soldiers defy the imagination, and can really bring to life the situations that had to be confronted and defeated by the U.S. Army following D-Day in Europe. I have met many veterans of the war, and still I return to Ambrose's offering for more detail and explanation. Every issue of the vast spectacle of war is included, such as the all-important logistical problems faced and conquered by military planners to the desperation fo a Christmas at the front line. It is easy to understand from this book why talking about the war is hard for many; the only problem is that those who saw it are fading away too quickly. Reading this book may ive you an understanding, a very good comprehension of what was faced, but readers would still benefit from finding a veteran themselves, and starting with a grateful "Thank you" for doing what was described here. After this book, I have since gone on to read all of Stephen Amrose's works possible, and am still drawn back to this one at least once a year. This was a great, eye-opening read for a history teacher who thought he had a pretty good idea of what had happened. I gave myself too much credit- this book has given me much more of an idea, and is well worth the time taken to read it.

This well-written book is easy to read and well worth reading from several aspects.
First, of course, is the detailed and highly anecdotal recounting of what it was like to be a front-line American soldier in Europe during WWII, while reminding the reader that the only way to truly know what it was like is to have actually been there.
He goes beyond this with cogent accounts of the soldiers' training, leadership, tactics and strategy -- how each battle and campaign fit into the big picture. He gives praise and criticism where he feels it is due -- sometimes both to the same person (Patton and Montgomery, for examples). Ambrose always explains his reasoning -- WHY something was right, or wrong.
The interested reader can draw lessons in management from the many accounts of effective and ineffective leadership.
Sadly, Ambrose recounts everything that was ineffective about the "Replacement Depot" system of putting poorly-trained soldiers into combat "cold" on an individual basis. Yet this is what the Army did in Vietnam also.
Through the individual, Ambrose also steps back and looks at societies as a whole. Americans came as liberators of Europe, but African American U.S. soldiers back home could not eat in public diners, while captured German POWS could.
As another reviewer notes, while the jacket blurb says "Ambrose shows that free men fight better than slaves," that is NOT the point of this book -- and is not something Ambrose argues.
Ambrose's conclusion: In the words of a GI, "We were miserable and cold and exhausted most of the time, we were all scared to death.... But we were young and strong then, possessed of the marvelous resilience of youth, and for all the misery and fear and the hating every moment of it the war was a great, if always terrifying, adventure. Not a man among us would want to go through it again, but we are all proud of having been so severely tested and found adequate...."

Like other Ambrose books that I have read, Undaunted Courage is well written and researched. It tells the tell of Lewis and Clarks' great adventure across the USA. I have not read much of anything about this epic adventure before finishing this book, so I expected to learn a lot from one of America's best historians- I was not disappointed.

You get some great insight into what America was like in the early 1800s. America was full of great promise (the pioneer spirit, the land of opportunity, etc), but we also faced some serious problems (treatment of blacks, indians, woman, etc). One of the great ironies of the book is that some of the people who help Lewis and Clark to fulfill their mission, are treated the worst by the pair. Makes you wonder how such highly educated men (to include President Jefferson) could be so wrong about certain things, yet inspire others to accomplish great deeds.

Ambrose is a great storyteller, one of the best. His passion runs deep for this subject, so he gets long winded (as many other reviewers have noted) at times in the narrative. I think that is my main complaint about the book. Ambrose takes forever to get the explorers across the country, but returns them in a whirlwind. The book would have been better served if Ambrose took a more balanced approach to the expeditions timeline, giving equal weight to both parts of the trip.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the cross-country adventure of Lewis and Clark. If you are ignorant about the subject, like I was (I thought it was just the pair with their female indian guide for most the trip), you will gain greater insight into one of America's truly historic events. Lastly, this book will make you appreciate many of the advancements we have made since then (i.e- transportation and communication systems), although it may also make you want to spend more time enjoying the wonderful outdoor parks of America.

This book is inimitable Stephen Ambrose. Like all of his books, he turned this book of history into his story --- a nonfiction adventure story. Stephen E. Ambrose actually evolved into what can be called a nonfiction novelist. Starting with historical facts, he blended-in a judicious amount of hyperbole, added a pinch of sensationalism, and came up with a new metamorphosis called creative history that was very successful at holding a reader's attention. There are now other authors (including yours truly) who do the same, but, Ambrose was the first and the best. "Undaunted Courage" is yet another book in a long line of his books that shows he knew how to inform by perfecting the knack of making history interesting. He shall be missed.

Ambrose's books are all excellent. Well written and expertly documented. This one is no exception. He traces the steps of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their famous journey across the wild America continent in the early 1800's. Much of his narrative is based on Lewis & Clark's own journals, but the story is told in Ambrose's indomitable style that will keep you turning the pages to the finish. You will get some special insight into the relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and how that effected the outcome of history. The book is highly entertaining and interesting to read. Ambrose is by far on the best historical writers alive today and his work should be required reading in every classroom. As for his supposed pro-America bias, some readers claim to detect, I don't understand how that detracts from his work. That he admires the men and women, who fought for and founded our country and shows them in a fair & proper perspective, makes his accounts more creditable, not less. Read the book! It's Great.

Belton Cooper was an officer in the 3rd Armored Division, which fought its way across France and Germany in 1944-45. His job in the division was taking refurbished tanks from the repair depot to the front-line units of one Combat Command, and locating and recovering the tanks that had been knocked out. He tells you that his division, and his combat command in that division, had seen more combat than any other armored unit in the U.S. Army, and then tells you that he thinks he's seen more knocked out American tanks than any other person living. It's a believable claim.

The book has a great deal going for it. There are a number of descriptions of armored combat at the close tactical level from the last year of the war. The illustration section has some very interesting photos, including one sequence where a Pershing tank duels with a Panther, and knocks it out. In the last photo you can see the Panther's crew bailing out. There's also a good deal of information on various American tanks. Cooper hates all of them, though he thinks the Pershing was better than the previous ones. He was involved in the deployment of a SuperPershing in the last days of the war, a tank which had a better gun and extra armor on it, and he tells you of the problems that they had with it, and it's fate.

I would highly recommend this book if you're an enthusiast of WW2 or armored combat, because it's well-written and very informative. It's not War and Peace or anything, but it is full of information, and reads reasonably well.

Mr. Cooper was an ordinance officer with the 3rd Armored Division and his job was to reclaim shattered US tanks and return them to ordinance depot or other repair facilities and bring them back to action. If anyone knows the shortcomings of the Sherman tank it would be this man. His story is one of attrition, superior German tanks and SP guns being overwhelmed by the ability of American units to be resupplied with restored or new tanks. One interesting sidelight, Mr. Cooper is highly critical of Gen. George S. Patton's recommendation to build masses of Shermans rather than M-26 Pershings. The Pershing had much better protection, immensely better firepower and could have stood up to Panther and Tiger tanks much more successfuly than the Sherman. Patton thought the Sherman was more mobile but on muddy ground, the Pershing had more track width and was the quicker of the two. This is one of the best books on armored warfare and the war in the West in 1944 ever written. I highly recommend it.

Belton Y. Cooper was an ordnance officer with the 3d Armored Division in W.W. II, where his unit's central task lay in the the immediate, post-battle recovery of those knocked-out M4 Sherman's which could be repaired in the field, and the marking for the salvage teams of those 'brewed-up' M4s -- tanker speak for catastrophic battle damage resulting in fire -- which could not. Thus, Cooper bore witness to the terrible consequences of the Sherman's late-war obsolescence when faced against the Wermacht's vastly superior tanks, and the resulting tragic and disgraceful cost in American lives. ('Disgraceful', for the proposition of fielding the superbly designed M26 Pershing in large numbers well before Operation Overlord (D-Day) was foolishly rejected on the basis of the recommendations of no less an Allied general than George Patton, in late '43/early '44.)

Every bit as powerful as E.B. Sledge's memoir of his experience as a Marine in the Pacific War, ("With the Old Breed"), what lend's Cooper's book such a visceral power is his most unself-conscious and rigorous honesty in recounting his war. Like Sledge, he is obviously a very perceptive and humane individual, who trusts that each anecdote which he has judged to be most illustrative of the urgency and horror of the events which surrounded him in '44-'45, will strike home to the reader with a poignancy borne of his refusal to indulge in any of the petty embellishments which ultimately weaken the impact of the memoirs of lesser writers. Brutal honesty in a literal sense...

If you are planning a trip to Disney World you have to have this guide. It gives you tips for every area in the WDW resorts and parks. We have been several times however this guide helped expand our experience. We never has such a smooth visit. It helped with planning dining and tips to get on rides faster. Well worth the price. Also this makes great bedside reading for those times you want to think of happier times or places. Walt would be happy to know this type of book existed. Very happy with mine and plan to buy one every year we go. ------ Betty

I have been using the Birnbaum WDW books since 1995 and have always found them to be filled with accurate information. I plan our family trips totally around this book and it has proved to save us a lot of hassle and frustrations. From what the weather will be like, to what to expect in a ride, to where to find the Characters and where to share a meal with them, this book has it all. It offers a whole variety of information. I cannot stress enough how awesome this book really is. I am waiting on the Birnbaum 2000 as we have a vacation planned for Christmas '99. Disney World is a family favorite and I am so glad I have the Birnbaum Book to help me plan the most magical vacation possible every time we go! Remember too, it is the "Official Guide." There are other books out there but NONE compare to this one. If you are planning a WDW trip, don't make the mistake of doing it without Steve Birnbaum!

"Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 1997 Special 25th Anniversary Edition" advertises itself as "expert advice from the Inside Source." Those who have read previous editions of the book will find some familiar advice among its pages, but there is also plenty of new and updated information to be found, as this year's printing contains news specific to Disney World's 25th Anniversary Celebration. Included are reviews of special attractions and activities, including the Cinderella Castle Cake, the Remember the Magic parade, Returning Guest Tribute, and Illuminations 25.

Those planning a trip to Disney World may be tempted to leap into the information about the Tower of Terror or Alien Encounter, but some of the most valuable data in the Birnbaum's guide is contained in the chapter entitled "Getting Ready to Go." It is in this section that one can learn which are the most crowded weeks to visit Disney World, what to pack, and admission prices.

The "Getting Rea

If only all Christian apologists were as eloquent and brilliant as Chesterton. He never hides the fact, he never uses silly rhetorical tricks to try to convince you, "See, you really believe in Christianity!" as so many do. I don't agree with Chesterton on much of anything, but he at least understands his opponent's attitude better than many more simple-minded religious conservatives. (He was, in fact, good friends with George Bernard Shaw.)

The book *is* a "nightmare"; this is what its subtitle states; despite what an earlier reviewer remarked, Chesterton himself, in the book's afterword, insists that it ought to be taken that way; more importantly that's the way the narrative itself appears. All the objects, people, and backgrounds are loaded with wierd supernatural significance. The narrator's fears and desires constantly distort the world he sees around him. Of particular interest is Chesterton's peculiar skill at making everything pregnant with meaning like this. Borges picked up on this skill, and put The Man Who Was Thursday in company with Moby Dick, Vathek, and Robert Louis Stevenson's horror writings. (An example: "It was as though, at the eastern edge of the world, there is a tree that is both more and les than a tree; or, at the western edge of the world, something, perhaps a tower, whose very shape is evil.")
This is only in the loosest sense a detective story; it starts out that way, but if you insist on looking for a "whodunnit" you will be disappointed. By the end it transforms into full-fledged Christian allegory. But it never seems like a easy cop-out, the way, say, the end of C. S. Lewis' Narnia books do. Chesterton's thesis, if one can call it that, is that even a nightmare about atheism, modernity, and anarchists still has some potential to transform itself into something profound and sacred. Whether you like that or not, he gives you an intellectual run for your money. Besides which the book is worth rereading for the prose alone. Chesterton, anti-modernist that he was, was also one of the best stylists of modernist literature.

Upon finishing TMWWT, the general audience is left with a "what the devil" kind of feeling. But then he must re-read the section aptly titled "the accusuer." What infuriates many is Chesterton's jump from a detective story to something "metaphysical." The theme being developed is hardly metaphysical. It is the fundamental basis for Christian thought and perhaps a precursor to Objectivism (subtract the God). It is about the human struggle to defend one's beliefs from the onslaught of rampant relativism and general evil. It is the same task facing conservatives today. Particularly appealing was G.K's attack on intellectuals as well as his parody on the police. People who describe this as fascist, I think, are simply upset that G.K. puts the socialist at odds with the plebicite, which he truly is. But that is the genius of Chesterton

This is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre books I've ever read, and it takes more than one reading to "get it," but taking the wild ride that is this book it well worth it. This book is, in every sense of the word, a mystery -- and the mysteries it explores range from simple crime to suffering to the peace of God. Chesterton, as always, evokes laughs all along the way, from the unsettling beginning to the quite unexpected end. I could never have guessed who Sunday was.

There is much here for our entertainment and our edification. As we know, reality is frequently not what it seems -- so it is in this fantastic story. Read it, re-read it, digest it. I'll warn you in advance: it isn't easy to digest. But it's worth it.

The Hippocratic Oath at root is: "Above all, do no harm". Would that Alibek, a doctor himself, would have heeded that simple credo. This book deals with the very scary world of biological warfare, one of the two so-called "poor man's nukes" (along with chemical weapons). I remember the early modern images of biowarfare in the 70s, with soldiers wearing gas masks and protective suits, looking like invading aliens.

Of course, the basics of biological warfare have been around for a long time-the Mongols hurling plague-laden corpses over besieged city's walls, for example. At any rate, what makes biowarfare so frightening is that with today's superior technology and industrial methods, biowarfare becomes not an exception, but an actual business. Similarly, production on such a scale leads to inevitable bioweapons accidents, which Alibek ably documents. One of the most horrifying accounts is that of a Soviet scientist who gets infected by one of their superbugs, and then clinically documents the progression of his illness for as long as he can before he inevitably succumbs to a horrible, lingering death. This is the stuff of nightmares - the next time somebody sneezes near you in public, you'll shudder.

Alibek was a high-up in the former Soviet Union's bioweapons program, and from his position, he reveals much of the USSR's bioweapons program in methodical and chilling detail as only an insider can. This book makes Richard Preston's "Hot Zone" seem like a folk dance, mostly because this is intentional, whereas superbugs like Ebola are simply freaks of nature. The book gives interesting glimpses of the Soviet Union in its dying days, of a bureaucracy run by Party officials who are like feudal barons - if ever there was a doubt that the USSR wasn't actually communist (anymore than the US is actually democratic), this book should reveal it. The paranoid secrecy and unaccountable authority of the Party bureaucrats can only seem like déjà vu to American readers, in our own national security state.

Biotechnology is the shotgun marriage of science and business-and biowarfare is the monstrous offspring of biotechnology itself. Alibek elaborates on efforts to gene-engineer hybrid viruses combining aspects of smallpox, plague, and/or ebola. A Frankenstein's monster if ever there was one.

The US claims to have not engaged in bioweapons research since 1969 (via a treaty banning it)-but given that the US is currently violating a 1967 accord against the weaponization of space, and that the former USSR moved forward with bioweapons in the wake of that 1969 treaty, I can't believe that our government isn't doing this kind of research, too, if only in that twisted logic of mutually-assured destruction that characterized the Cold War. To my mind, the Cold War continues - talk of the Peace Dividend lasted about two weeks, before bogeymen like narcoterrorists and Islamic fundamentalists were conjured up to justify the huge American military economy.

In fact, that's the scariest thing of all - Alibek speaks of his regretful involvement in bioweapons research, turning his medical degree on its head and using it create lethal organisms. Yet he defects to the USA after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and puts his considerable knowledge to work for bioweapons research yet again. Admittedly, he says he's working to come up with countermeasures against biowarfare, while at the same time noting that there are scientists in Russia who will most likely turn mercenary and develop similar programs in other countries. Is a defense possible? I doubt it. Its seems that if bioweapons get used on a large scale (and it doesn't take much - that's what is so scary) - humanity will pay a dear price.

My feeling with Alibek is he's a mix of Adolf Eichmann and Robert Oppenheimer. That may seem unfair, but the idea of the banality of modern evil comes readily to mind - he's not a scheming madman; rather, he's a doctor and former Communist Party bureaucrat, faithfully doing his job - just following orders, focusing narrowly on the task at hand, and not really thinking much about the larger consequences of his research. It is revealing to me that he sticks with the program in the USSR until it becomes inconvenient for him, whereupon he switches sides and continues to ply his talents, this time for different masters. I think he feels guilty for his past work, but I can't help but think that he hasn't learned his lesson.

The Cold War was used as a justification of an ongoing militarization of both the US and the USSR, each the mirror image of the other, and each using the other as a pretext for domestic social control. The USSR is gone, but the programs remain in place, and American policy itself is largely unchanged. Americans should read this book, if merely to get a sense that the only answer to biowarfare is seeking alternatives to war itself -- check out "The Conquest of War" by Harry B. Hollins, Averill L. Powers, and Mark Sommer is a good place to start. It seems the sanest response, rather than fighting fire with fire - because with bioweapons, everybody loses.

This book is worth your time, if only as a glimpse into a nightmare world not of science run amok, but science deliberately prostituted and perverted to suit the interests of nationalism, statecraft, and business, producing horrid offspring whose only purpose is to harm and hurt.

As this review is written, in October 2002, it is well to remember that Ken Alibeck first brought his revelations of the massive Soviet (and now, Russian Federation) bioweapon production to the public in his book BIOHAZARD more than two years ago. His defection to the U.S. occurred almost four years earlier.

And yet, as I travel the country to promote my own book --a fiction bioterrorist assault on the U.S. that threatens humanity itself-- I'm dumbfounded to discover that the majority of my audiences have no idea of who Ken is.

Worse, they have no conception of the horrors that he, as deputy director of Biopreparat/Vector, the massive organization the Soviet Union created to develop and mass-produce lethal viruses and other bioagents BY THE METRIC TON, has visited on today's world.

Today we live with the very real threat of a worldwide pandemic of smallpox --a disease officially eradicated in nature three decades ago-- that could be sparked by any number of rogue nations or their terrorist clients who possess the weaponized form of smallpox that Biopreparat/Vector produced.

And because that hideous form of variola virus is likely to have been genetically modified, it is entirely possible that existing smallpox vaccines (such as that being recommended for mass immunization in the U.S., Israel, Australia and elsewhere) simply will not work against it.

While I was researching my novel of bioterrorism, Final Epidemic, I met many experts in the field of national security, medicine and government. In private conversations, those who consented to be interviewed all agreed on one point: a staggering volume of bioweapons exist today, and could be released upon mankind at any time by a ruthless ideologue... or a madman.

But almost as many agreed on a second point, too: the majority of these weapons are likely to have come from Russian stocks, or to have been newly manufactured by Russian scientists formerly employed by Vector and recruited by nations such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea.

BIOHAZARD is the basic primer for how this all began, as well as a detailed indictment of those in Russia who coldly ignored both international treaties and simple respect for life in their quest for the single-cell killing machines they created.

Today, even two years after its initial publication, it remains a horrifying chronicle of cold-blooded preparation for mass murder.

By all accounts, Ken Alibeck himself is a charming individual, highly intelligent and possessed of an eloquent manner.

Without doubt he is a gifted scientist, as evidenced by his own personal lead role in developing a particularly lethal and persistent variety of anthrax which is still a prized part of the Russian bio-arsenal. Alibeck is reported also to be a man of conscience, as evidenced by his disillusionment and ultimate defection.

Would that his crisis of conscience had come far earlier, or at least had been shared by more of his Vector colleagues. Humanity would have been far safer that it has proven now to be.

As it is --and as BIOHAZARD so clearly shows us-- we are facing the barrel of a gun, loaded and cocked and aimed at the heart of human society by fanatics and the possibly insane.

Buy and read BIOHAZARD; if you already have, re-read it. No other book so clearly underlines the genesis of the threat facing the human species today.

Earl Merkel

You would be a fool not to be frightened by Ken Alibek's chilling depictions of the Russia bioweapons program. Alibek, the former #2 man in Biopreparat--the Russian cover for a large facet of their weapons work--defected to the United States after going there on a weapons inspection program, and his account is detailed and frightening.

The United States officially ended their biowarfare programs under Nixon, and for years most of the western world naively believed the Soviet claims that they, too, had done so. Yet under the guise of ostensibly civilian medical entities like Biopreparat, the Soviets and then Russians continued their work toward creating the world's deadliest microbes--as told here by one of those at the very top of the effort.

Himself the innovator behind the Russian's weapons-grade anthrax, Alibek saw the makings of bioweapons from his own anthrax to turlaremia (which he himself accidentally contracted), plague, smallpox, and such emerging threats as Ebola and viral encephalitis. The Soviet program became so compartmentalized that with the fall of the Soviet Union, not even those involved know the full extent of what was done or what has become of many of those working on such weapons--many of whom have been courted by North Korea, Iran, and Iraq.

Alibek left Russia in the 90's, yet even today there is admission from their government of continued work with smallpox at the viral facility of Vector (to where they illegally moved their WHO-sanctioned smallpox stores). The same individuals from the Communist regime still run a now largely-bankrupt program... who knows what horrors are even now being cooked up in their secret labs? Alibek's true tale leaves one incredibly scared as to the answer.

Why ? Simply because It's not at all about Webmastering but only about Design (few)/Development, read the TOC:
- HTML/XML
- JavaScript
- CGI/PERL
- PHP
- CSS (3rd edition)
- Apache functions

There's nothing about:
- promoting your website: reference it, ad...
- project management/deployment
- internet/intranet
- design/graphics
- internet law: think about it twice before publishing your website!
- webmaster tools: mailing lists, forums...
...

You will only learn the basics of HTML, JavaScript, CGI/PERL, PHP, CSS (3rd edition) and Apache Web Server. So It's good for an introduction about Web Design (HTML/CSS), Web Development (PHP, CGI/PERL) but I really think some other books are really meant to deal with such topics.

Webmastering is not only about knowing a few tips & tricks about Web Design & Development, HTML or JavaScript. Once the web site is designed and developped, you can't just upload it to a FTP and wait for the visitors to come, you have to promote it, to maintain it... Raise it like your own child or it will become a guttersnipe that no one will ever want to meet again after the first meeting.

I advice you to read "Webmastering for Dummies" if you want to learn the basics of Webmastering and get books like "PHP & MySQL Development", "PHP Professional", "HTML Bible" to master the programming languages of the web. Reading some books about Application Design and Usability is also a good idea,...

So after reading that book, do you really think you can become your own webmaster ?

After a nice short overview, the text dives straight into a full HTML 4 tag list, with info on browser-specific elements. Frames, tables, forms and colours are also described in a more tutorial style.

CSS and XML are introduced with similar tutorial style with references following on CSS 1 and XSL (dec 98), and the same procedure follows for Javascript 1.2 (good), CGI with Perl (ok), PHP (see below) and HTTP (a bit incomplete, but headers listed). There is then information on Apache configuration and optimisation.

I'm not sure about the PHP chapter as I ignored it; they seem to have favoured a full PHP reference but only convered using CGI with Perl - I guess this is as they have other Perl books.

I would recommend this book to webmasters, after considering the following - this book is not about _design_, as it does not cover any style or graphics issues. There is also nothing covering ASP (see _ASP In A Nutshell_) or webservers other than apache.

Get your Web development library together, and then get this book! This book is not going to teach you all the bits and pieces, but this is exactly what the cover says "A Desktop Quick Reference", and a good one at that. It saves you having to haul a bunch of books around.

The sections on HTML 4, CSS, and JavaScript are fantastic, and I would recommend the book on these alone. The HTTP section is useful for the list of header fields with pretty good descriptions for a quick reference. There is also a group of sections on Server Configuration which are handy when browsing Apache configurations.

The PHP and CGI/Perl sections are not as useful and this is why I drop a star. The "reference" part of the PHP section is simply a list of function one-liners. I tend not to use the CGI/Perl sections at all. I'm not a Perl developer, and I find I need a more comprehensive guide to help me out.

In summary, this book is most useful if you know what you are doing, but just can't remember the detail!