Wednesday, September 30, 2015

“Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England”, by Juliet Barker


464 pages, Little, Brown and Company, ISBN-13: 978-0316015035

If you can set aside the Hollywood and Shakespearean versions of Henry V for a few hours and immerse yourself in the details of the complete campaign in France in 1415 – starting with the ascension of the young king and running through to hints of the eventual outcomes of the war (think Joan of Arc and some rare French victories in revenge) – you will find an exhaustive and at times exhausting account of piety, intrigue, treachery, treason, courage, leadership and good, old-fashioned battlefield management in Juliet Barker’s Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England. The complex, seemingly comic (at least to most Americans, who never had to experience the lineage of kings, dukes, earls and knights) genealogy that makes Henry first King of England and then to claim his rightful place as King of France provides the first third of the book. To the uninitiated (that is, to anyone who is NOT an English historian) the people, the claims, the terms, can be bewildering…but stick with it, as it is the Big Picture that really matters. Barker provides ample details of the skill and leadership of Henry V in first convincing others of his claims, and then in convincing his parliament to fund his huge undertaking. Like a pious politician, he wins the hearts and pocketbooks of his people, forms an army, and sails for France.

First, he must take the French port of Harfleur, which he overwhelms even as his own army is wracked by dysentery. After a more protracted siege than he expected, Henry must then set off overland for Calais, which is not that far – just up the coast, really – but there is the Somme River, a mile wide at the sea, and a pestering French force stopping his river crossing. So Henry detours, even cuts away from the river, than takes advantage of an opportunity to cross. With the crossing, he sets the stage for Agincourt (or rather, “Azincourt”), as the French have taken Henry’s delays as a chance to form up between Henry and Calais. Bad fortune, stupidity, hubris, and rain do in the French almost as much as does Henry’s wise use of archers, topography, and spikes. On this second point, Henry takes the bold move to narrow the gap in the field he must cover, providing him with one final edge on this cold, muddy day. Estimates of the French strength run as high as 150,000 men, but 18,000 to 30,000 is rather more realistic; the English have 6,000 to 9,000 but, more importantly, the English have firm, clear leadership – and few knights planning to charge stupidly through the muddy field. For the French the battle is brief and disastrous, and by day’s end the heralds can see clearly the carnage. The finest of French nobility lies dead or captive by the English. Henry returns in somewhat modest triumph; credit for the victory goes to God, and he sees the French as having been punished for their sins. Agincourt takes its place as one of the most memorable battles in western history.

Barker is a thorough journalist, and she captures human elements that transcend time and tradition. Endnotes are detailed, descriptive, and numerous, but a few more maps would have helped. And expect to be periodically confused unless you understand claims to royalty.


Thursday, September 24, 2015

“Farewell Espana: The World of the Sephardim Remembered”, by Howard M. Sachar, edited by Luann Walther


464 pages, Vintage, ISBN-13: 978-0679738466

While they may number barely a million persons today (less than one-tenth of the world Jewish population) the Sephardim were the trendsetters of their people and the leaven of Mediterranean civilization altogether. In their homeland in Andalusia under Muslim rulers they were renowned prime ministers and army commanders, distinguished scientists, belletrists, and religious scholars; in Christian Spain and Provence, their translators ignited Europe’s 12th Century renaissance, their revenue agents funded the economies of Aragon and Castile, and their astronomers and navigators plotted the explorations of Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama. From the late 15th Century onward, in exile from their Spanish and Portuguese homelands, the Sephardim made their mark as viziers and intimate advisers of Ottoman sultans, as vastly esteemed physicians of Renaissance dukes and popes, and as dynamic importers and exporters in the Dutch maritime traffic.

Whether as professing Jews or converted “New Christians”, it was this protean minority that functioned as a self-contained international trading network, spanning the seas and oceans, pioneering the gem industry of Europe and the sugar and tobacco plantations of Brazil, and flourishing as merchant ship captains amid pirate-infested Caribbean waterways. Farewell Espana: The World of the Sephardim Remembered transcends conventional historical narrative. With lucidity and verve, author Howard Sachar breathes life into the leading dramatis personae of the Sephardic world: the royal counselors Samuel ibn Nagrela and Joseph Nasi, the poets Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi, the philosophers Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza, the statesmen Benjamin Disraeli and Pierre Mendes-France, the warriors Moshe Pijade and David Elazar, the fabulous charlatans David Reuveni and Shabbatai Zvi, to name but a few.

In its breadth and richness of texture, Sachar’s account sweeps to the contemporary era of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco, poignantly traces the fate of Balkan Sephardic communities during the Holocaust – and their revival in Israel. Not least of all, the author offers a tactile dimension of immediacy in his personal encounters with the storied venues and current personalities of the Sephardic world. Farewell Espana is a window opened on a glowing civilization once all but extinguished, and now flickering again into renewed creativity.


Monday, September 14, 2015

“Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936”, by David Clay Large


416 pages, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN-13: 978-0393058840

It is both disappointing and ironic that, arguably, the two most iconic symbols of the 1936 Olympic Games are Jessie Owens and Adolph Hitler. One would have to dig fairly deep to find any definitive information on the Games of the XI Olympiad, let alone realize that the Winter Games of that year were held in Germany as well, at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. What Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 does is provide a well-written and authoritative summary of the entire Olympic Games of 1936 and underscores their significance in athletics, as well as modern world history.

As with most Olympics, global politics plays a huge role as to which country is permitted to host the Games, and nowhere is this more evident than the IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) controversial decision to award Germany the 1936 Games. Still facing global condemnation for being the main aggressor in World War I, the “new” Germany – first under the Weimar Republic, who in fact was awarded the Games, and later under the Nazi regime, which inherited them – was eager to prove itself as a reformed society and regain its place as a major world power. Large delves into the fragile decision to let Germany host both the Summer and Winter Games, even though the world was well aware of the alarming rise of social repression and anti-Semitism at the hand of the Nazis (who smartly reminded the politically powerful United States of America’s own on-going racial issues). The back-and-forth debate of this period, rife with threats of boycotts, highlighted the weakness and fear of Western Europe and the obvious economic and political pull of the United States and its cranky IOC representative Avery Brundage (who also played a crucial role in awarding Munich the Games in 1972 and someone whom David Clay Large does not view very favorably at all).

While Nazi Games covers both the Summer and Winter Olympics, most of the attention is focused on the Summer Games in Berlin, designated by Hitler as the quintessential event to showcase the Nazi State to the world. The much smaller-scaled Winter Games are covered in the book, but they are portrayed more as a tune-up for the massive propaganda project being prepared for Berlin. Large details the extent of Germany’s investment toward the Olympics, economically and politically. It is quite interesting to see the efforts made to hide anti-Semitism and political/social suppression during the Games, alluding to this brief period as being the eye of the Nazi hurricane for those targeted by the Nazis. While history may dictate the Berlin Games being viewed in a negative light, Large reminds readers of its significance in terms of truly modernizing the Olympics by showcasing the first televised broadcast, using aerial photography, advanced filming techniques, sport-specific architecture, and the introduction of new sports.

The chapters devoted to actual athletic competition are more-or-less summaries with notable highlights being detailed. While the spectacular exploits of Jesse Owens gets ample coverage, Large digs deeper and provides readers with an in-depth perspective of Owens’ Olympic experience, including controversies within the American track and field delegation and Owens’ heartwarming friendship with Lutz Long, a German competitor. I found much of the coverage of the various competitions to be particularly well-written and exhilarating, as some of the competitions seem to take on a life of their own. Interesting facts and smaller storylines, such as the death toll on horses during the equestrian events or US decathlete Glenn Morris’ infatuation with filmmaker Riefenstahl are peppered throughout and add to the overall picture of the Games. Nazi Games concludes by putting the 1936 Olympics in perspective as fleeting moment of universal celebration before the world descends into a total nightmare. We learn that a significant number of the German medalists were killed in the war, including Jesse Owens’ friend Lutz Long. While World War II dictated that no Olympics would be held again for another twelve years, Germany had to wait thirty-six years before it would receive another opportunity to prove itself worthy of hosting another Olympics, only to have the ghosts of 1936 rise again.

Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 is a story about how the government of the Third Reich exploited the Olympic movement to conceal their ultimate militaristic intentions against the rest of the world. It is also a story about how the IOC willfully turned a blind eye to the marginalization and persecution of Jews and other minorities within the Third Reich by taking the word of German officials as the gospel. By accepting the whitewashed view presented by Hitler’s cronies, the members of the IOC damaged the Olympic movement by accepting racism and entrenched the marriage between the Olympics and politics that endures today; indeed, rather than learning the lesson to never trust a totalitarian government, the IOC continues to award Olympiads to some of the most vile governments on Earth, all the name of separating politics from sport, an impossibility if ever there was one.