Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent as usual!, September 18, 2002
This review is from: World War II: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today : 1930 to September 11, 2001 (Uncle Eric Book) (Paperback)
Richard Maybury is a great author! With the companion volume World War I, Maybury will give you a new perspective on wars and history. Filled with facts of interest rarely mentioned elsewhere--P. T. Barnum's source for his sideshow foreigners, the advanced German spearpoint backed by horse drawn carts, the comparison of civilian murders by the Axis versus that of the Allies, the end of the war in the Pacific and the reason for the use of the atomic bomb, the remarkably successful Swiss policy, etc, etc.--"Uncle Eric" writes succinctly and in a way to be understood. Highly, highly recommended!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mary Mueller is prejudiced, October 19, 2004
This review is from: World War II: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today : 1930 to September 11, 2001 (Uncle Eric Book) (Paperback)
Before I bought this book, I read librarian Mary Mueller's original review of it. I was particularly interested in her comment (which has since been removed from her review), "He makes numerous other outrageous claims, which he supports with historical scholarship that is questionable at best...."
So I found her contact information at the school where she works and emailed her about her comment, asking her what she meant about the author's "questionable" scholarship. She wrote back saying, "Maybury uses sources that could best be described as fringe, and they are not sources that are published by mainstream publishers or university presses."
Well, I bought the book anyway, and I learned that Ms Mueller's remarks were highly prejudiced. Maybury's sources were researchers who had combed through U.S. Government records released under the Freedom of Information Act. In other words, in Ms. Mueller's view, the U.S. Government's records can't be trusted because they're neither "mainstream" nor "university." What a crock!
Interestingly enough, after I bought the book, I revisited Amazon and found that Ms. Mueller had changed her review, removing the damning passage and replacing it with a broad-based rejection of Maybury's political viewpoint. At least she realized that she was wrong then. Too bad she doesn't realize she's wrong now, too!
The Uncle Eric books are generally good, and the viewpoint they provide is desperately needed in this country. My only complaint is that they're very repetitive, often duplicating the same arguments verbatim. It's as if the author simply copied-and-pasted whole sections of previous paragraphs and chapters. I'd have given the book five stars instead of four if the author hadn't resorted to this dumbing down tactic.
Still, this book is well-worth reading.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking back at history without blinkers, June 29, 2006
This review is from: World War II: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today : 1930 to September 11, 2001 (Uncle Eric Book) (Paperback)
In this book, Richard Maybury attempts to present a point of view of historical events which are linked to the rise of Nazi Germany and later, World War II. Without condoning his excesses in any way, Maybury shows that it was the political circumstances of the times that created the egregious nature of the Hitler that we know. And the same circumstances that led to the making of a Hitler, are present in today's society in good measure. And that we are to be forewarned by hindsight.
Certainly Hitler was no angel. However, as Maybury shows, neither were Winston Churchill or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In order to contain Hitler, they ended up siding with Stalin, who was one of the worst murderers in human history, displaying clearly through actual facts and figures, exactly who was responsible for more lives lost. Maybury debunks the widely accepted theory that Hitler was the only megalomaniac the world has ever known and that the Allies (the proverbial good guys) were forced to do what they did (carpet bombing) in order to extinguish him in the larger interest of the world. He shows that the number of civilian lives lost on account of Allied activity in Germany, was in fact, far greater. He goes on to show that the Allied military machinery was so much more precise, so much more well- oiled and so much more powerful. This point is illustrated by using the analogy of a wolf against a lion. The wolf (in this case it is Hitler) can have the initial advantage over a sleeping lion (the Allies), but never, a final victory.
Besides putting across a totally new and refreshingly original perspective on historical events, Maybury makes some interesting conjectures. One question, for instance, Japan was ready to surrender after Hiroshima. Was the Nagasaki bomb needed? Why was it deployed? Another question is about Pearl Harbour. Was it planned (by the Americans)? Did the Japanese walk into a trap? What was the real motive of the Allied powers? World Domination? All these questions are increasingly valid today.
Of course, all the conjectures need not be valid, and our so called heroes, leaders and statesmen (no women, unfortunately) possibly had a little more greatness or courage in them than Maybury gives them credit for. However, isn't it high time that the widely accepted version of history and historical events presented in school textbooks is publicly questioned, so that these legendary figures are not made into the kind of idols which they are made out to be?
Read this book with an open mind. It will make you think. It will shatter a few illusions. But you will feel the stench of truth.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
