William Smith Map of England and Wales - History Study Group (HSG)

The Second Coming of the KKK: The Klu Klux Klan of the 1920 and the American Political System by Linda Gordan

4/20/2018

May 18, 2018

Discussion led by Michael Margolis

Extraordinary national acclaim accompanied the publication of award-winning historian Linda Gordon’s disturbing and markedly timely history of the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Dramatically challenging our preconceptions of the hooded Klansmen responsible for establishing a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South, this “second Klan” spread in states principally above the Mason-Dixon line by courting xenophobic fears surrounding the flood of immigrant “hordes” landing on American shores. “Part cautionary tale, part expose” (Washington Post), The Second Coming of the KKK “illuminates the surprising scope of the movement” (The New Yorker); the Klan attracted four-to-six-million members through secret rituals, manufactured news stories, and mass “Klonvocations” prior to its collapse in 1926?but not before its potent ideology of intolerance became part and parcel of the American tradition. A “must-read” for anyone looking to understand the current moment, The Second Coming of the KKK offers “chilling comparisons to the present day”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/books/review/linda-gordon-the-second-coming-of-the-kkk.html

https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2017/1025/The-Second-Coming-of-the-KKK-explores-the-largely-forgotten-1920s-resurgence-of-the-Klan

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/conspiracy-theories-fake-news-racism-fueling-kkks-rise--in-the-1920s/2017/12/01/07ddbba6-c99c-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bd7333dbcd03

The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour by Andrei Cherny

2/15/2018

April 19, 2018

Discussion lead by Alan Rubin

The masterfully told story of the unlikely men who came together to make the Berlin Airlift one of the great military and humanitarian successes of American history.

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, Andrei Cherny tells a remarkable story with profound implications for the world today. In the tradition of the best narrative storytellers, he brings together newly unclassified documents, unpublished letters and diaries, and fresh primary interviews to tell the story of the ill-assorted group of castoffs and second-stringers who not only saved millions of desperate people from a dire threat but changed how the world viewed the United States, and set in motion the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and to America's victory in the Cold War.

On June 24, 1948, intent on furthering its domination of Europe, the Soviet Union cut off all access to West Berlin, prepared to starve the city into submission unless the Americans abandoned it. Soviet forces hugely outnumbered the Allies', and most of America's top officials considered the situation hopeless. But not all of them.

Harry Truman, an accidental president, derided by his own party; Lucius Clay, a frustrated general, denied a combat command and relegated to the home front; Bill Tunner, a logistics expert downsized to a desk job in a corner of the Pentagon; James Forrestal, a secretary of defense beginning to mentally unravel; Hal Halvorsen, a lovesick pilot who had served far from the conflict, flying transport missions in the backwater of a global war—together these unlikely men improvised and stumbled their way into a uniquely American combination of military and moral force unprecedented in its time.

This is the forgotten foundation tale of America in the modern world, the story of when Americans learned, for the first time, how to act at the summit of world power—a masterful and exciting work of historical narrative, and one with strong resonance for our time.

In 1948, West Berliners were suffering and hungry, existing on food rations transported by trucks, trains and barges primarily by the occupying American forces. The Russians, trying to control the divided city, blockaded the transports on June 24, 1948, and American and British pilots risked their lives to airlift in 4.6 billion pounds of food and supplies until the blockade was lifted in May 1949. Pilot Hal Halvorsen won Berliners' hearts by secretly dropping his and his buddies' candy rations by parachute into the waiting hands of the city's children. In the process, says Cherny (The Next Deal ), Berliners became devoted to democracy, and Washington foreign policy and military brass learned that the Cold War needed to be won not primarily with bullets but by appealing to hearts and minds. This book could have been cut by a third for better effect; Cherny's prose and his references to 9/11 are manipulative, and his subject, particularly the nuts and bolts of the airlift, will appeal primarily to WWII buffs, who should still find much to savor in this exhaustive, often absorbing and lucid account of America's successful standoff against the Soviets.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sweet-story-berlin-candy-bomber-180965156/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen

Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals

1/31/2018

February 15, 2018

Discussion lead by Bob Rosen

The landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, brought the promise of integration to Little Rock, Arkansas, but it was hard-won for the nine black teenagers chosen to integrate Central High School in 1957. They ran a gauntlet flanked by a rampaging mob and a heavily armed Arkansas National Guard—opposition so intense that soldiers from the elite 101st Airborne Division were called in to restore order. For Melba Beals and her eight friends those steps marked their transformation into reluctant warriors—on a battlefield that helped shape the civil rights movement.

WARRIORS DON'T CRY, drawn from Melba Beals's personal diaries, is a riveting true account of her junior year at Central High—one filled with telephone threats, brigades of attacking mothers, rogue police, fireball and acid-throwing attacks, economic blackmail, and, finally, a price upon Melba's head. With the help of her English-teacher mother; her eight fellow warriors; and her gun-toting, Bible-and-Shakespeare-loving grandmother, Melba survived. And, incredibly, from a year that would hold no sweet-sixteen parties or school plays, Melba Beals emerged with indestructible faith, courage, strength, and hope.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/warriorsdontcry/summary.html
https://zinnedproject.org/materials/warriors-dont-cry-book/

McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War by Hamilton Gregory

1/31/2018

March 15, 2018

Discussion lead by Alan Metzger

In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara were desperate to find additional troops for the Vietnam War, but they feared that they would alienate middle-class voters if they drafted college boys or sent Reservists and National Guardsmen to Vietnam. So, on October 1, 1966, McNamara lowered mental standards and inducted thousands of low-IQ men.
Altogether, 354,000 of these men were taken into the Armed Forces and a large number of them were sent into combat. Many military men, including William Westmoreland, the commanding general in Vietnam, viewed McNamara’s program as a disaster. Because many of the substandard men were incompetent in combat, they endangered not only themselves but their comrades as well. Their death toll was appallingly high.
In addition to low-IQ men, tens of thousands of other substandard troops were inducted, including criminals, misfits, and men with disabilities.
This book tells the story of the men caught up in McNamara’s folly.

https://mwi.usma.edu/book-review-mcnamaras-folly/

https://youtu.be/_J2VwFDV4-g

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/04/20/mcnamaras-real-folly/81810a32-5e67-477b-90b9-00b38f19aca9/?utm_term=.aac4400f85d2

"Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War" by Lynne Olsen

12/26/2017

December 21, 2017

A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times bestselling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days

When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over continental Europe in the early days of World War II, the city of London became a refuge for the governments and armed forces of six occupied nations who escaped there to continue the fight. So, too, did General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed representative of free France.

As the only European democracy still holding out against Hitler, Britain became known to occupied countries as “Last Hope Island.” Getting there, one young emigré declared, was “like getting to heaven.”

In this epic, character-driven narrative, acclaimed historian Lynne Olson takes us back to those perilous days when the British and their European guests joined forces to combat the mightiest military force in history. Here we meet the courageous King Haakon of Norway, whose distinctive “H7” monogram became a symbol of his country’s resistance to Nazi rule, and his fiery Dutch counterpart, Queen Wilhelmina, whose antifascist radio broadcasts rallied the spirits of her defeated people. Here, too, is the Earl of Suffolk, a swashbuckling British aristocrat whose rescue of two nuclear physicists from France helped make the Manhattan Project possible.

Last Hope Island also recounts some of the Europeans’ heretofore unsung exploits that helped tilt the balance against the Axis: the crucial efforts of Polish pilots during the Battle of Britain; the vital role played by French and Polish code breakers in cracking the Germans’ reputedly indecipherable Enigma code; and the flood of top-secret intelligence about German operations—gathered by spies throughout occupied Europe—that helped ensure the success of the 1944 Allied invasion.

A fascinating companion to Citizens of London, Olson’s bestselling chronicle of the Anglo-American alliance, Last Hope Island recalls with vivid humanity that brief moment in time when the peoples of Europe stood together in their effort to roll back the tide of conquest and restore order to a broken continent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/books/review/last-hope-island-lynne-olson.html?mcubz=3&_r=0

http://www.historynet.com/review-last-hope-island-lynne-olson.htm

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

12/13/2017

January 18, 2018

Discussion lead by Andy Fisher

This book will be discusing the context of medical ethics and informed consent in medicine and research. There have been many reports dealing with these issues including the Nuremberg Code, The Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report. As a result of these reports and cases such as Henrietta Lacks, the Thalidomide tragedy, and the Tuskegee syphilis study, the U.S. government enacted Title 45 Code of Federal Regulations Part 46 which provides detailed guidance on informed consent and ethics in research. The Henrietta Lacks story will be discussed as part of a long history of concern for ethics in medicine and research.

http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/

http://www.lacksfamily.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

FEAR CITY New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics By Kim Phillips-Fein

10/30/2017

Discussion led by Lucy Kennedy

November 16 2017

An epic and riveting history of New York City on the edge of disaster--and an anatomy of the politics of austerity that continues to shape the world today.

When the news broke in 1975 that New York City was on the brink of fiscal collapse, few believed it was possible: how could the capital of the financial world go bankrupt? And yet the city was billions of dollars--maybe twelve, maybe fourteen, no one even really knew how much--in the red. Bankers and politicians alike seized upon the situation as evidence that social liberalism, which New York famously exemplified, was doomed to failure--and promised apocalyptic scenarios if the city didn't fire thousands of workers, freeze wages, and slash social services.

In this vivid, gripping account, historian Kim Phillips-Fein tells the remarkable story of the crisis that engulfed the city, forever transforming the largest metropolis in the United States and reshaping ideas about government throughout the country. In doing so, she brings to life a radically different New York, the legendarily decrepit city of the 1970s. Drawing on never-before-used archival sources as well as interviews with key players in the crisis, Phillips-Fein guides us through the hairpin turns and sudden reversals that brought New York City to the edge of bankruptcy--and kept it from going over. At once a sweeping history of some of the most tumultuous times in the city's past, a colorful portrait of the unwieldy mechanics of municipal government, and an origin story of the politics of austerity, Fear City is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the resurgent fiscal conservatism of today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/books/review/fear-city-new-york-fiscal-crisis-kim-phillips-fein.html?mcubz=3

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/23/fear-city-explores-how-donald-trump-exploited-the-new-york-debt-crisis-to-boost-his-own-fortune/

https://www.amazon.com/Fear-City-Fiscal-Austerity-Politics/dp/080509525X

Modern China and U.S. Relations--Two Books

10/7/2017

October 19, 2017

Discussion by Joel Wolk

Joel will be discussing the two books mentioned below. He suggests that if you are pressed for time, then read the second book of "The Thucydides's Trap". The book by Howard W. French is short at 352 pages.

Everything under the heavens: how the past helps shape China's push for global power.
by Howard W. French

From the former New York Times Asia correspondent and author of China's Second Continent, an incisive investigation of China's ideological development as it becomes an ever more aggressive player in regional and global diplomacy.

For many years after its reform and opening in 1978, China maintained an attitude of false modesty about its ambitions. That role, reports Howard French, has been set aside. China has asserted its place among the global heavyweights, revealing its plans for pan-Asian dominance by building its navy, increasing territorial claims to areas like the South China Sea, and diplomatically bullying smaller players. Underlying this attitude is a strain of thinking that casts China's present-day actions in decidedly historical terms, as the path to restoring the dynastic glory of the past. If we understand how that historical identity relates to current actions, in ways ideological, philosophical, and even legal, we can learn to forecast just what kind of global power China stands to become--and to interact wisely with a future peer.

Steeped in deeply researched history as well as on-the-ground reporting, this is French at his revelatory best.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/howard-w-frenchs-everything-under-the-heavens-reviewed-the-last-empire/article34414260/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

http://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/everything-under-the-heavens-how-the-past-helps-shape-chinas-push-for-global-power-by-howard-french/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/books/review/everything-under-the-heavens-howard-french-destined-for-war-graham-allison.html?mcubz=3&_r=0

Destined for War. Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
by Graham Allison.

CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE HEADING TOWARD A WAR NEITHER WANTS. The reason is Thucydides’s Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. This phenomenon is as old as history itself. About the Peloponnesian War that devastated ancient Greece, the historian Thucydides explained: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Over the past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times. War broke out in twelve of them. Today, as an unstoppable China approaches an immovable America and both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump promise to make their countries “great again,” the seventeenth case looks grim. Unless China is willing to scale back its ambitions or Washington can accept becoming number two in the Pacific, a trade conflict, cyberattack, or accident at sea could soon escalate into all-out war.

In Destined for War, the eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison explains why Thucydides’s Trap is the best lens for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first century. Through uncanny historical parallels and war scenarios, he shows how close we are to the unthinkable. Yet, stressing that war is not inevitable, Allison also reveals how clashing powers have kept the peace in the past — and what painful steps the United States and China must take to avoid disaster today.

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/29/530617244/destined-for-war-explores-how-to-avoid-unnecessary-future-conflicts

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/are-china-and-the-united-states-headed-for-war

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puelo

8/28/2017

September 28, 2017

Discussion by Alan Rubin

The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great Boston Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Mass. A large molasses storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph killing 21 and injuring 150.

The event entered local folklore and for decades afterwards residents claimed that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood

Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses’ of 1919 by Erin McCann
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/science/boston-molasses-flood-science.html?_r=0

Although it was a mystery at the time, the metallurgical cause of the failure was related to the construction of the tank, it's composition and thickness, the construction process and the ambient air temperature--all of which resulted in a spontaneous brittle fracture.

Along with the articles and photos below, I will explain why the tank failure happened.

I received my BS and MS degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from Lehigh University. My master's thesis was on brittle fracture.

While doing my research, I came across the story of the 1919 Boston Molasses Massacre. I always remembered the trial judge's comment that there must be something unknown if expert witnesses on both sides cannot agree to the cause of the failure.

The mysteries of "brittle fracture" in plate steel was finally unraveled in the aftermath of WWII. Many of the" Liberty Ships" that were were hastily fabricated during the war either were sunk or severely damaged by spontaneous cracking. These plate failures often occurred when the ship were at anchor.

The ship's plates were welded together, a much faster process than using rivets. However, if not done properly, welding left minute metallurgical cracks which could initiate a plate failure. Plates were categorized as being a starter-plate, through-plate or end-plate for cracks. Energy absorption tests (Charpy) led to the development of safe standards which are still in use today.

Brittle fracture was the "unknown" that Judge Ogden referred to at the Boston Molasses Failure trial.

Damage to the elevated rail line and street

Two views of molasses storage tank prior to its failure.
Note its proximity to the elevated rail line, commercial buildings and water front.

Aerial map showing the molasses storage tank (blue) and it closeness to the elevated rail line, commercial and residential buildings and the bay.

Impact energy vs temperature for various carbon steels. Note that the temperature from brittle to ductile behavior changes from an abrupt transition to a more gradual one as the carbon content increases.

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

7/28/2017

August 17, 2017

Discussion by Kate Kidd

Gilbert King's Pulitzer Prize winning book is a beautifully written page turner.

In 1949, Florida’s orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day’s end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys."

https://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/black-history-month-review-of-devil-in-the-grove-by-gilbert-king/

http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/gilbert-king

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/books/gilbert-king-on-his-pulitzer-winning-devil-in-the-grove.html