What Are You Reading

[jamespowers]

The Rise and Decline of Liberalism by Thomas P. Neill, Ph. D. Quite a journey through time and thought.

 

[HadleyH]

"Road to Mecca" ? may be?

I do like Michael Savage.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Not Peace But A Sword," by newspaperman Vincent Sheean. Published in June 1939, this is an emotional look at conditions in post-Munich/pre-Danzig Europe -- focusing not on the manipulations of statesmen or the preening of generals, but on the lives and fears of ordinary people caught up in the maelstrom of events beyond their control. Sheean was an uncompromising foe of the Munich Agreement, and this book was intended as a stark warning to Americans of what was to be the result. Needless to say, it was immediately banned in much of Europe.

 

[jamespowers]

"Road to Mecca" ? may be?

I do like Michael Savage.

That is Countdown to Mecca. You won't believe the ending. :eeek:

 

[HadleyH]

That is Countdown to Mecca. You won't believe the ending. :eeek:

I couldn't remember the name, yes, that's the book! Thank you James!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Wow! I never knew that Michael Savage wrote a novel. I do have some of his other books.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Secret Armies: The New Technique of Nazi Warfare," another of journalist John L. Spivak's investigative exposes. Published in 1939, here Spivak takes a look at the activities of Nazi agents thruout the Western Hemisphere thru the latter half of the 1930s. While the widespread influence of Nazi espionage in the United States is reasonably well-known, the activities of Hitler's agents elsewhere is less documented. Spivak goes in depth in discussing Nazi influence in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru, and there are some interesting revelations, not the least of which is the involvement of American "Reverend" Gerald B. Winrod with Fascist intrigue in Mexico. Winrod, a jackleg fundamentalist preacher from Kansas, had long been involved with anti-Semitic activities in the midwest, but Spivak here presents convincing evidence that he was closely tied to Nazi espionage south of the border, from where he had broadcast back to the US from a "border blaster" Mexican radio station. As with his Coughlin book, Spivak supports his case with photostatic copies of relevant documentation.

As a side note, Winrod's son Gordon took over the family business in the 1960s, and was a prominent and violent figure in modern fascist/neo-Nazi/anti-Semitic/"Christian Identity" movement circles until he went to prison in the 1990s for kidnapping his own grandchildren.

 

[jamespowers]

"Secret Armies: The New Technique of Nazi Warfare," another of journalist John L. Spivak's investigative exposes. Published in 1939, here Spivak takes a look at the activities of Nazi agents thruout the Western Hemisphere thru the latter half of the 1930s. While the widespread influence of Nazi espionage in the United States is reasonably well-known, the activities of Hitler's agents elsewhere is less documented. Spivak goes in depth in discussing Nazi influence in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru, and there are some interesting revelations, not the least of which is the involvement of American "Reverend" Gerald B. Winrod with Fascist intrigue in Mexico. Winrod, a jackleg fundamentalist preacher from Kansas, had long been involved with anti-Semitic activities in the midwest, but Spivak here presents convincing evidence that he was closely tied to Nazi espionage south of the border, from where he had broadcast back to the US from a "border blaster" Mexican radio station. As with his Coughlin book, Spivak supports his case with photostatic copies of relevant documentation.

As a side note, Winrod's son Gordon took over the family business in the 1960s, and was a prominent and violent figure in modern fascist/neo-Nazi/anti-Semitic/"Christian Identity" movement circles until he went to prison in the 1990s for kidnapping his own grandchildren.

With Spivak as well as any other author, you have to consider where they come from. A communist writer is not going to have anything good to say about religion and would in fact want to subjugate it.
He was such and ideolog that in his 1967 autobiography; he described how the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact temporarily shook his faith in the Soviet Union as the guardian of "radical ideals" until he decided that the Soviet Union's survival justified it. :doh: He was quite an accomplished apologist. lol lol

I would say that he was, in fact, seditious when in 1930, in a case known as the "Whalen Papers," Spivak used his position as a journalist on behalf of the Soviet Union. When documents detailing Soviet propaganada efforts came into the possession of the New York City Police Department, Spivak quickly demonstrated they were forgeries. Only years later, when the soviet union fell, did it transpire that the documents were supplied by the Soviets so that Spivak, alert to the scheme, could discredit them and thereby undermine Congressional efforts to investigate Communist propaganda in the United States. This from the Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda 2004:doh:

 

[AmateisGal]

Former ABC/CBS news correspondent Hattie Kauffman's memoir, Falling Into Place. I had the privilege of meeting her on Friday when she came to speak in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Standing Bear Breakfast.

 

[LizzieMaine]

With Spivak as well as any other author, you have to consider where they come from. A communist writer is not going to have anything good to say about religion and would in fact want to subjugate it.

I don't think any professing Christian, let alone a commie, could have anything good to say about "The Reverend" Winrod, a man who taught and perpetuated the idea that Jews feasted on the blood of sacrificed Gentile babies. He was, with the possible exception of Gerald Lucifer KKKodfish Smith, the most repulsive denizen of the prewar Fascist right, not just politically but as a human being.

His boy Gordon is an even more disturbing piece of work, but his affiliation with the "Christian Identity" movement is very interesting -- one of the American founders of that movement was none other than William J. Cameron, a close confidant and personal radio spokesman of none other than Henry Ford. That movement is still very much active down to this day, promoting the idea that white Aryans are the true Israel of God. Wheels within wheels within wheels.

 

[jamespowers]

I don't think any professing Christian, let alone a commie, could have anything good to say about "The Reverend" Winrod, a man who taught and perpetuated the idea that Jews feasted on the blood of sacrificed Gentile babies. He was, with the possible exception of Gerald Lucifer KKKodfish Smith, the most repulsive denizen of the prewar Fascist right, not just politically but as a human being.

His boy Gordon is an even more disturbing piece of work, but his affiliation with the "Christian Identity" movement is very interesting -- one of the American founders of that movement was none other than William J. Cameron, a close confidant and personal radio spokesman of none other than Henry Ford. That movement is still very much active down to this day, promoting the idea that white Aryans are the true Israel of God. Wheels within wheels within wheels.

The difference being that none of them were Russian communist sympathizers being seditious to their government. They might have been fools but they were not useful idiots.

 

[LizzieMaine]

No, Gerald Winrod was a Nazi, who was formally charged with sedition in 1944 and the death of the judge in that case was the only thing that kept him from being convicted. Even your boy J. Edgar Hoover knew what he was, and who was paying his way.

Gordon Winrod is a convicted kidnapper, and vicious racist and anti-Semite who preaches "Christian Identity" theology -- a belief system that, among other things, directly influenced the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995.

I know we jerk each other's chains about this stuff, and much of it's in fun. But in all seriousness I'll take a guy who passed along information to the Russians about Ukrainain nationalists who were in league with the Nazis -- information he also provided to the FBI -- any day of the week over these two pieces of Fascist filth. And I will offer no apology whatsoever about that.

 

[jamespowers]

No, Gerald Winrod was a Nazi, who was formally charged with sedition in 1942 and the death of the judge in that case was the only thing that kept him from being convicted. Even your boy J. Edgar Hoover knew what he was, and who was paying his way.

Gordon Winrod is a convicted kidnapper, and vicious racist and anti-Semite who preaches "Christian Identity" theology -- a belief system that, among other things, directly influenced the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995.

I know we jerk each other's chains about this stuff, and much of it's in fun. But in all seriousness I'll take a guy who passed along information to the Russians about Ukrainain nationalists who were in league with the Nazis -- information he also provided to the FBI -- any day of the week over these two pieces of Fascist filth. And I will offer no apology whatsoever about that.

As Patton said: If caught between the Germans and the Russians: "I would fire in both directions."

 

[jamespowers]

Wow! I never knew that Michael Savage wrote a novel. I do have some of his other books.

This is his third novel in that series.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics," by Greg Mitchell. Written in 1992, this is an analysis of what was probably the dirtiest campaign of the twentieth century. Mitchell thoroughly documents how the Hearst and Chandler press and the Hollywood studios -- mostly MGM, under the personal supervision of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg -- colluded and conspired to sink the Sinclair "End Poverty In California" campaign thru the use of forged documents and fictitious "newsreels" which flooded the state during the summer and fall of 1934. In hindsight it was quite clear that this adventure marked the definitive moment where the Boys From Marketing realized how easy it was to game the system.

 

[Big J]

I'm reading Moby Dick again right now. I love the prose.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm reading Moby Dick again right now. I love the prose.

I recently picked up a copy of the Rockwell Kent edition, which repopularized the book in the 1930s -- the illustrations perfectly complement the prose. I had read it in high school and didn't care for it -- but Kent's images really brought the story to life.

 

[Fading Fast]

I recently picked up a copy of the Rockwell Kent edition, which repopularized the book in the 1930s -- the illustrations perfectly complement the prose. I had read it in high school and didn't care for it -- but Kent's images really brought the story to life.

It didn't thrill me in high school either and I have been wondering if I should try it now (since I see a reference to it every week) that I am, ahem, older. Have you finished it / what did you think / are you glad you reread it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've only just started -- it's my "porch book" for this summer, the one I keep out on the porch to read when I get an afternoon to myself -- but as I say, the illustrations really do help. Kent's art is really unique and dynamic.

I skipped most of the "facts about whales" stuff when I read it in high school, as I suspect most people do, and cheated by reading the "Classics Illustrated" comic book version along with the paperback we were issued. So far I appreciate it more than I did when I was sixteen, but there's still a long ways to go.

The Kent edition has had many reissues, and is still in print thru Modern Library, so it should be easy enough to latch onto a copy.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've only just started -- it's my "porch book" for this summer, the one I keep out on the porch to read when I get an afternoon to myself -- but as I say, the illustrations really do help. Kent's art is really unique and dynamic.

I skipped most of the "facts about whales" stuff when I read it in high school, as I suspect most people do, and cheated by reading the "Classics Illustrated" comic book version along with the paperback we were issued. So far I appreciate it more than I did when I was sixteen, but there's still a long ways to go.

The Kent edition has had many reissues, and is still in print thru Modern Library, so it should be easy enough to latch onto a copy.

I'm going to wait until you are done and, if you suggest the re-read is worth it, I'll hunt out an inexpensive old Kent edition.

Also, I saw this book "My First Time in Hollywood" by Cari Beauchamp in my daily Amazon email (I grumble some times when it comes in, but they do highlight some neat books I've missed) and noticed that she's written several books on Hollywood. Are you familiar with her / any of her books and do you have any thoughts on them?

Last thought, love the "porch book" concept. I do similar things as I "save" books for certain type of reading time - location, time of year, mood, etc. My favorite is to save the right book for a long train ride - between the book and looking out the window, I can spend hours being happy on a train.