Book Review: TO END ALL WARS: A STORY OF LOYALTY AND REBELLION,1914 -1918 (2011) (AA)

by Adam Hochschild

This is a very special (MUST READ) book that talks about just some of the lunacy that went into the fighting of the World War I.  ( I heard it from the CD's that I borrowed from the local library). It takes place during the end of the monarchy era in Europe.  In fact, it helped end that era.  It aso discusses, in detail, the social upheaval that was taking place in England at that time.  Downton Abby just gives you the light side of that struggle.

From Other Reviewers:  

WWI was supposed to be the “war to end all wars.” Over four long years, nations around the globe were sucked into the tempest, and millions of men died on the battlefields. To this day, the war stands as one of history’s most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation.

To End All Wars focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war’s critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Many of these dissenters were thrown in jail for their opposition to the war, from a future Nobel Prize winner to an editor behind bars who distributed a clandestine newspaper on toilet paper. These critics were sometimes intimately connected to their enemy hawks: one of Britain’s most prominent women pacifist campaigners had a brother who was commander in chief on the Western Front. Two well-known sisters split so bitterly over the war that they ended up publishing newspapers that attacked each other.

As Adam Hochschild brings the Great War to life as never before, he forces us to confront the big questions: Why did so many nations get so swept up in the violence? Why couldn’t cooler heads prevail? And can we ever avoid repeating history?

"This is the kind of investigatory history Hochschild pulls off like no one else . . . Hochschild is a master at chronicling how prevailing cultural opinion is formed and, less frequently, how it's challenged." — Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

"Hochschild brings fresh drama to the story and explores it in provocative ways . . . Exemplary in all respects." — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

"Superb . . . Brilliantly written and reads like a novel . . . [Hochschild] gives us yet another absorbing chronicle of the redeeming power of protest." — Minneapolis Star Tribune

Stage Play Review:  THE BOOK OF MORMON (2013)  DDD

I usually don't review live theater plays , but this play required special attention.  IT WAS HORRID. A formula play that had the token gays, blacks, weakling men, ugly vulgar curse words and references to parts of men's and women's genitalia that were there only to shock the audience . . . and all the other stuff that you would find in the average low end sitcom including unfunny jokes.

It essentially attempts to ridicule the Mormon practice of sending naive young male missionaries to all parts of the world to spread the word of the positive elements of their belief system.  But it could just as well ridiculed Jews, Christians that believe in the New Testament, Hindus, Buddhists, et.al.  Despicable.

The only redeeming aspect of the play was that the staging, music and dancing and singing were good.

From the NY POST

. . . . Throughout the evening, we get colorfully cartoonish peeks into the origins and tenets of Mormonism. No wonder it was the most successful faith to come out of the United States: Prophet Joseph Smith originated an action-packed saga, which the show places on the same continuum as “Star Trek,” “Star Wars” and the Disney universe.

So, yes, you can read a very clever subtext into “The Book of Mormon,” but you can also relax and enjoy the avalanche of filthy gags, butt jokes and wickedly catchy show tunes. These last incorporate everything from squealing guitar riffs to jazz-hand tap, and range from mock-inspirational ballads to Meat Loaf-style epics, . . . .

THE REICH UNDERGROUND (2004) C

From Netflix:

This documentary is about the Third Reich's secret massive underground tunnel system. Most tunnels were designed to house armament factories that were being smashed (when they were above ground) by allied bombing. 

As the war ended, the tunnels were still being constructed by zillions of slave laborers deported from concentration camps. Most of the laborers died.
Depicts the absolute lunacy of the German regime and their complacent population.

Also describes the V2 missile effort led by Werner VonBraun. All of the missiles were manufactured in tunnels by slave laborers. HE HAD TO KNOW ABOUT IT. And then after the wars end, we welcomed him and his associates into the US of A so we could use his technology to enhance our military capability.

Wonderful, loving, feeling species . . . these homo sapiens.