Just Finished Reading: Istanbul – Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk (FP: 2005) [333pp] 

On reading this interesting memoir by the Nobel Prize winning Turkish author I was pleased that I had read a history of modern Istanbul beforehand. This is, however, no criticism of this work. The previous history of the city gave me a good – indeed excellent – foundation to understand the deeper context that pervaded this work. The author was born in Istanbul in 1952 (around the time that the previous history book ended its narrative) so grew up in a city in the midst of change – from ancient to modern, from East to West, from religious to secular. It's not surprising that such a transition moulded and transformed the other into someone, in effect, living between two worlds and being nostalgic for a world that had been ‘lost’ (and was indeed crumbling or actively burning down around him) whilst struggling to exist in an officially sanctioned modern western looking world that was unfamiliar to him. It's odd how the official focus was very much directed at the west as an icon to look up to and emulate whilst the countries, and cities, rich Ottoman history was officially ignored, sidelined and sometimes actually denigrated. I think that would confuse anyone – never mind a sensitive soul searching for himself whilst walking the streets of an ancient city full of a rich culture from across an extensive fallen empire. I wasn’t at all surprised that his first impulse was to paint in order to reflect what he saw every day on his youthful wanderings. 

This was a memoir of painful honesty. The common theme throughout was the deep melancholy he felt growing up in a place that had not only seemed to forget its own history but had effectively been ordered to do so. Looking back was frowned upon. Wanting to look back, needing to look back to make sense of things was questionable and quite possibly disloyal. The only way to face was forwards and westwards. The authors quest for who he was and where he fitted into the grand scheme of things – especially within a Turkish historical context – was complicated (to say the least!) by his families emotional and financial slow-motion collapse throughout his young life. Despite being born into a moderately wealthy family (from money accumulated by his grandfather) his father continued to make bad financial decisions throughout his life bleeding money and slowly impoverishing the extended family. On top of this the authors father was often away from home and all too often with women other than his wife. This added complication was woven into the narrative almost as a microcosm of the city itself as it progressively crumbled, collapsed and was neglected into picturesque rubble. 

Apart from the often-beautiful writing (you can certainly tell why he won the Nobel Prize for Literature) the thing that I really liked about this book was the many photographs scattered throughout the text. Many of them were good and quite a few were simply excellent – sometimes breathtakingly so. I was MOST impressed. This book gives a great feel to the city of the author’s birth. He makes it seem exotic and familiar, dilapidated and picturesque, crowded and abandoned, timeless and ephemeral. I found it quite haunting. I look forward to reading more by this author and will likely be returning to him later in the year. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in the liminal spaces – in more ways than one - between the west and the exotic east. 

Translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely

Just Finished Reading: Midnight at the Pera Palace – The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King (FP: 2014) [378pp] 

It must have been quite THE shock. Not only was the Ottoman empire defeated in the Great War but was about to be dismembered by the victorious western powers. The only fly in the ointment (or possibly yoghurt) was the young Turk – Mustafa Kemal (later known as Ataturk). Opposed to both the crumbling and corrupt Ottoman dynasty AND the Allies now occupying Istanbul he had his own ideas for the future of Turkey, but first he would have to save his new nation state. The ancient enemy, Greece, had already begun its advance into Turkish territory and needed to be stopped. After much bloody fighting it was and Kemal could now negotiate from a position of strength. Both unwilling and unable to fight another war so soon after the Great one, the Allies and Turks agreed on boundaries and the future ethnic make-up of both previously Ottoman occupied territory Turkey was giving up as well as territory it was taking full control of prompting a massive compulsory move of peoples. Istanbul was dead centre of the ensuing chaos, refugee crisis, modernisation decrees, and the transformation of a deceased Muslim empire into a secular western facing nation state.  

My usual focus of attention, and the zones I know most about, are Europe (including the UK) and North America. My ‘knowledge’ of other areas particularly Africa and South America is, at best, scant. Likewise, my ‘knowledge’ of Asia beyond the Ancient World is hazy to say the least so it was good to look at the birth of a modern near-Asian nation entering the modern world from the end of WW1 to the beginning of the Cold War. Interestingly, the author chose a unique lens through which to view the rapid and radical change which occurred in Turkey/Istanbul during this period – a hotel called the Pera Palace. Looking at the people who stayed there – including (briefly) people like Leon Trotsky! - together with diplomats, spies, journalists, authors and many others. Tales from that exotic city reminded me of Second World War Lisbon (FULL of spies), Cold War Berlin (FULL of Spies) and Hollywood Casablanca (FULL of refugees). I hadn’t realised just how many Russians ended up there after the 1917 Revolution and Civil War that followed nor how important a node it was for the post-WW2 transit of European Jews to the Holy Land. Fascinating stuff! 

As you can tell I learnt a LOT from this excellent history and look forward to reading anything else the author has produced – his works on Odessa and The Black Sea definitely interest me. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the regions RICH history. 

[Odd side note: Midnight at the Pera Palace is a Turkish time travel historical drama television series directed by Emre Şahin starring Hazal Kaya, Tansu Biçer, Selahattin Paşalı and James Chalmers. The show was released on Netflix on March 3, 2022, with the first season consisting of 8 episodes. Centered around the real-life Pera Palace Hotel, the series was inspired by the 2014 historical non-fiction book Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King. The series was renewed for a second season, which aired on September 12, 2024. How WEIRD is THAT?] 

Just Finished Reading: Twilight Cities – Lost Capitals of the Mediterranean by Katherine Pangonis (FP: 2023) [254pp] 

Whenever we think of ancient Mediterranean cities our minds quickly go to the Big 3 – Rome, Athens and Alexandria. But what of the others? Those cities that rivalled the Big 3 or simply pre-dated them. What of them? What are THEIR histories and where are they now – apart from largely forgotten. This is their tale. 

Starting in Tyre (Lebanon), home port of the Phoenician traders of early antiquity the author moves to their most famous settlement – Carthage (Tunisia), now a rather underappreciated part of the capital Tunis. From there we move to the much fought over strategic port of Syracuse (Sicily), site of encounters between the Carthaginians and Romans during the three Punic Wars that made Rome the Mediterranean super-power of the period. On then to Ravenna (Italy) which had a very varied history including, for a short period, being the capital of the western Roman Empire itself. Finally, we visit Antioch (Turkey) so recently [at time of the book’s publication] virtually destroyed in a massive earthquake. 

Whilst certainly being aware of the history of Carthage and most especially the series of wars between it and Rome I was initially unaware of the other places beyond their names and rough locations. Needless to say, I learnt a LOT here. Although the history of the region is dominated by Rome, Greece and Egypt – often for very good reasons – there was much more going on here. The other cities and other empires were not just bit-players in the well-known stories of the Big 3, but players in and of themselves. Missing them out not only leaves the other, more well-known, players without either foundation or motivation for their actions but diminishes the rich cultural environment of the ancient world of which they were part. This informative book revives that importance and left me with a greater appreciation of the interplay of these cities in the history of the region itself. One thing I particularly liked was how the author put each city into its historical context, often bringing things up to the present as she visited each site and talked to the locals about their own histories. This certainly whet my interest to dig deeper into the non-Big 3 cities/states/empires. So, more to come. Recommended to anyone interested in the ancient world and looking beyond the Roman Empire.

Oh, and a shout-out to a quite lovely cover - which is why I spotted it to begin with! 

Just Finished Reading: 24 Hours in Ancient Rome – A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There by Philip Matyszak (FP: 2017) [253pp] 

History is written by the victors and, by and large, historical documents are written by (and about) the rich, powerful and educated. So, its unsurprising that most – but not all – historical writing centres on the rich and shameless. The fact that this book focuses on people at street level – in the main – therefore made this doubly interesting. 

Going through a typical day, hour by hour, the author takes slices of the lives of night watchmen, prostitutes, slaves on their way to market to buy food, bakers producing the daily bread for the city, farmers bringing in their crops to feed the hungry mob, gladiators ‘moonlighting’ as bodyguards and leg-breakers, Vestal virgins gathering water from a sacred well, lawyers offering advice to busy magistrates and so on... 

My favourite insight was during a dinner party given by the wife of an up-and-coming merchant. One of his guests, invited because of his entertaining story-telling ability and who is only apparently well-travelled, is roundly ridiculed by a spice trader who has indeed been all over the Mediterranean and even as far east as the west coast of India in his search for the much sort after and very profitable condiment pepper. It is all too often assumed that ancient peoples stayed close to home and inevitably knew little or nothing of the world much beyond their borders. Nothing could be further from the truth. Certainly not everyone travelled long distances, but a surprising number did so – either for conquest (I’m looking at YOU Alexander), pleasure, exploration or trade. Rome traded with half the world and a great deal of its silver ended up in India and points east in its never-ending search for spices. Romans, and indeed Greeks, travelled FAR beyond the Mediterranean basin to the far north of Europe and Britain, beyond Egypt into the Middle East and, as did the spice trader here to India. They knew about China and were certain that the world was much bigger than the Empire. European coins as well as European genes spread across the known and the ‘unknown’ world. 

This was a fast, fun and informative read. It was nice to step out of the palace and into the street (but watch where you walk and what you step in), to see the markets, schools and law courts, to hear the traders shout their wares and smell the cooking in people's houses. Recommended if you have an interest in the Ancient World or Rome in particular.    

Just Finished Reading: Shadowlands – A Journey Through Lost Britain by Matthew Green (FP: 2022) [300pp] 

Have you ever looked over an old map and seen places, villages, towns or even cities that you don’t recognise, that you haven’t even heard of before? You wonder exactly what that means. Was the early cartographer mistaken, relying on poor information or maybe making things up, like “here be dragons”? Or maybe they changed their names over time for some reason. Because places don’t just disappear into thin air, right? Well, apparently, they do – kind of. 

It’s easy to look at a modern map and imagine that places have ‘always’ been there. Many towns and cities across the world are at the very least centuries old and some go back millennia. But as places are founded and become settled, other places fail or fall into disuse for a whole host of reasons. These are the places, across Britain, that the author seeks out in this intriguing and well written narrative. Running from ancient times to the present and from the furthest north to the south coast, the author explores the remains of a city abandoned in the early Middle Ages due to shifting power structures, a port city engulfed by the sea, a village abandoned after the Great Plague, a city that literally fell off a cliff, an abandoned island too remote to sustain itself, towns bought up by the Ministry of Defence (or the War Office at the time) and used for live fire Army exercises and a village inundated by a controversial reservoir scheme. 

Although they were all interesting in their own way, I particularly found the Army ranges and the submerged Welsh village of particular interest. The Ministry of Defence owns great swathes of land across Britain and uses some of them – as in the examples within these pages – to recreate parts of Europe (prior to D-Day), parts of Eastern Europe (during the Cold War) and parts of the Middle East (to train for deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq). It must be MOST bizarre to drive around a corner in the English countryside (as the author found out) and be presented with a highly accurate facsimile of downtown Fallujah. The last example in the book of the Welsh village was honestly heart-breaking. A small farming community being essentially removed – with little real opportunity to resist – in order to supply Liverpool with water for its industries and growing population by the building of a dam and the flooding of their valley. 

Overall, this was a fascinating and often very human story of change, decline and abandonment. It shows clearly that things – cities! - thought of as permanent are nothing of the kind. Things change, populations move, decline, cliffs collapse, estuaries change direction or block up with silt, environments become unliveable. Eventually towns fade, from maps and from memories. They enter the shadowlands. Definitely a look at an overlooked part of British history. Definitely recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: Islands of Abandonment – Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn (FP: 2021) [330pp] 

What happens when people leave, when they abandon a place never to return? With abandoned industrial sites, ex-war zones, urban retreat, industrial accidents and much else in mind the author of this intriguing and honestly beautifully written book tries her best to answer that question. 

As we’ve seen before with the emergence of volcanic islands it doesn’t take long before seeds arrive, insects drop out of the sky and nature begins a long and sometimes arduous process of reabsorption. Exactly the same process takes place in environments abandoned, for a whole host of reasons, by humans. Industrial sites – once a veritable hive of activity – can close almost overnight after a much sought after substance is exhausted. Leaving behind infrastructure too expensive to remove, to say nothing of potentially toxic waste areas, nature can take its time coming back. Lichens and plants hardened to extreme conditions arrive first and it isn’t long before other plants, insects and animals arrive. Even in highly toxic environments like around the Chernobyl site nature finds a way.  

Somewhat less toxic, at least in the physical, chemical, sense are areas abandoned after or because of conflict. One such is the zone created between Greek and Turkish occupied Cyprus. Sometimes only a few metres apart, in other places the ‘dead’ zone can be a kilometre or more deep. Fenced off and compete with warning signs this has prevented (most) human occupation since the shooting stopped. With broken windows, open doors and collapsing roofs the area is, slowly, taking on a surreal and other worldly appearance. The city of Detroit has this in spades. Known simply as ‘the Blight’ (a Sci-Fi post-apocalypse phrase if I’ve ever heard one) it is caused by rapid depopulation and the inability of local authorities to ‘pull back’ gracefully from earlier urban expansionism. Whole blocks, as well as the odd house or three, have been abandoned to time and the elements to decay on their own, on natures, schedule. 

One of the most interesting places the author visited, and one I need to find out much more about, is the Zone Rouge around the city of Verdun. When the Great War ended, it was decided to leave much of the devastation to its own devices. SO much explosive had been used and the ground was SO contaminated that it was swiftly agreed that the expense of reclamation wasn’t worth the cost whilst other farming areas could, at least theoretically, recover. It took a long time for nature to come back in this zone and there are still some areas – described in a spooky almost horrific manner – where nothing can live, not even the most extreme of the extremophiles. These ‘dead zones’ are truly awe inspiring for all of the wrong reasons. 

As usual, I picked up this volume because it ‘looked interesting’. I was most definitely not disappointed. Not only does the author write in a beautiful manner (I can’t really describe it otherwise), she’s also brave enough to travel to some of these zones – a few of which would definitely give me second or indeed third thoughts! - and report back what she saw. On top of this there’s a lot of discussion of what exactly we’re doing to our planet, our effects on nature and other life forms, our effect on the climate and how it's going to (inevitably) bite us in the ass and much else besides. She has some interesting guides to some of the zones – the ones she doesn’t ‘invade’ on her own (without official permission) - with their own stories of retreat, decay and regrowth. It is, as you might imagine, a fascinating subject especially when we consider both climate-based mass-migration and the abandonment of areas in the future due to population decline. One particular interesting thing was the fact that SO much agricultural land has been abandoned over the last 50 years that regrowth has actually made a significant impact on the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere thereby slowing down Global Warming. I’ll definitely be picking up her previous book – a completely different topic: tracing her family history back to the original colonisation of Australia. Highly recommended and one of the highlights of the year.   

A great video from one of my favourite YouTubers....

Just Finished Reading: L. A. Noir – The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City by John Buntin (FP: 2014) [343pp] 

Los Angeles was growing – FAST. On the back of it something else was growing too, just as fast if not faster – Crime. What wasn’t growing, much to the frustration of the Police Commissioner and much to the delight of certain elements, was the size of the Los Angeles Police Department. Compared to places like New York the ratio of police to citizen was starting to look pitiful. But what made it worse was the budget – something else not growing nearly as fast as required. Not only was the LAPD understaffed it was underpaid with new officers earning less than refuse collectors. It came as no surprise that a significant number of the LAPD was ‘on the take’ and not just the guys on the street. Something needed to be done and someone with the power and the balls to do it needed appointing to the role. That man was William H Parker. Seen by some as a self-obsessed bully and by others as the city’s saviour he was determined to root out corruption and clamp down on the growing crime epidemic sweeping the city. Opposing him was the city’s underground, Organised Crime and the politicians in City Hall. The fight for the soul of the City of Angels was about to begin. 

Like most everyone else, I’ve grown up with images of LA from movies and cop shows (some of which are mentioned in this often-fascinating book) but knew little if anything about the reality of the situation. No more! Unsurprisingly, quite a few of what I’d picked up from Noir cinema and shows like Dragnet actually had a reasonably firm basis in reality – most especially when they focused on corruption, police violence and racism and, probably most importantly, political interference. I know it shouldn’t have confused me as much as it did, but I found myself constantly shaking my head over the poor funding the police department received – no matter the real or perceived demands – as well as the demands from the commercial sector that ‘too much policing’ was ‘bad for business’, by which they normally meant gambling of course. With the in-roads made by Organised Crime the amount of money sloshing around – especially in City Hall – was astounding and, no doubt, contributed to the Police Departments underfunding and the slow-walking of modernisation efforts. Again, it was surprising just how long proper training – in Police College rather than ‘on the job’ - took to bed in properly as well as obvious improvements such as radios in patrol cars.  

Although not exactly an ‘eye-opener’ this was an interesting and often fascinating look at the inside of the LAPD in its formative years from the 1930’s and into the early 1990’s. I was certainly much more aware of some of the later events talked about here, but I still recognised a scattering of names from the 1940’s and 50’s too. Apparently made into the TV Series ‘Mob City’ (which I don’t think I’ve ever heard of) this is a recommended read for anyone interested in US Organised Crime or the City of Angels herself. More to come on both subjects.        

Just Finished Reading: The Blood of Free Men – The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg (FP: 2012) [280pp] 

Covering much the same timeframe as well as the same overall events as my last Liberation book, the focus of this interesting volume was quite different. Although the major players highlighted in the previous book are still mentioned – if only sometimes in passing like General Eisenhower – they are very much in the background here. Even De Gaulle gets a bit-part role with the focus mainly on him trying to control events as well as control the major Resistance groups headed by the Communists. Despite the fact of the German occupation of the city, it was the danger of a Communist take-over before the Allies arrived in force that was foremost on De Gaulle’s mind, and he made great efforts to ensure that this did not happen. Both the British and especially the Americans concurred and, despite loud protestations from Resistance elements inside Paris, steadfastly refused to air-drop any weapons to Resistance units. A re-run of the 1871 Paris Commune as well as the death and destruction which followed was very much in the minds of those who knew their history and did not want to repeat it.  

Most interestingly, I found, was the almost total side-lining of the ‘hero’ of the previous book – the cities German military commander Dietrich von Choltitz. In the previous book it was he how saved Paris for the world largely because of his reluctance to destroy one of the treasures of Europe (if not the world) on the say so of a madman. Here we have a very different interpretation and a very different portrait of a man. Here, the author highlights the reluctance of von Choltitz to act partially for purely practical reasons – he wanted the bridges to remain intact so that German units outside Paris could still retreat over them towards the East and home. Other, very practical, reasons prevented him for organising any widespread demolition – the lack of sufficient explosives as well as the lack of sufficiently experienced demolition experts. There was only so much he could do with so little. When pressure was applied from his superiors it was already too late – Paris was rising and von Choltitz had missed the opportunity to reduce the city to rubble. 

So, if the major players barely got a mention who or what was this interesting book about. Simply it was about the group (or rather groups) that where surprisingly side-lined in the previous book – the Resistance and people of Paris itself. After the false hope of D-Day for instant Liberation had passed, the local Resistance units in and around Paris accepted the order to ‘stand down’ until the Allies broke through the German defences and had already approached the capital. As the weeks went by the Resistance grew frustrated (and ambitious) and wanted to both strike at the hated Occupiers and the Collaborators in their midst. Further they wanted to liberate themselves – in large part to give themselves a place at the future political table – in effect restoring their honour after so long in the shadows. Eventually, when no Allied tanks had arrived despite months passing by the Resistance decided to rise and take the city themselves. It was not going to be an easy fight, but their actions certainly concentrated the minds of all involved. The Free French forces outside the city insisted on rushing to their aid and, eventually, the Americans agreed. The German forces inside the city, who were still much stronger than any Resistance forces ranged against them, saw the writing on the wall (all too literally) and decided to wait until captured by the Allies rather than either fight or surrender to Resistance fights or civilians. Meanwhile, the Collaborators either made hasty deals with the future administration, fought on the streets and hoped for some kind of atonement bonus or fled Paris with as much as they could carry and with or without their German ‘friends’. 

This was a very interesting compliment to my previous Liberation read and really brought home that two views of a rather narrow subject can end up have a very different focus. After reading both of them, especially so closely together, I think I have a much more rounded and nuanced view of the Liberation of Paris. Definitely recommended. Further down the line, although not any time soon, I have one more book on the subject that goes up to 1949 so, hopefully, dealing with a lot of the aftermath of both the Occupation and Liberation. But that’s in the future...

Just Finished Reading: The Liberation of Paris – How Eisenhower, De Gaulle, and Von Choltitz Saved the City of Light by Jean Edward Smith (FP: 2019) [205pp] 

When the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches on 6th June 1944 the citizens of Paris celebrated. Soon, they thought, their ordeal would finally be over. Within days, they thought, they’d be free. The Resistance units especially where itching and ready, despite their lack of weapons, to act. But as days turned to weeks and still no column of Allied tanks approached celebration and hope turned to confusion and despair. The question on everyone’s lips: where are they? 

The problem was far from simple. Firstly, the German resistance to Allied advances was tougher than anyone expected. Despite the Allies having effective air supremacy, German units were generally far more experienced that their Allied opponents. Then there was the matter of logistics. With most of the ports either in enemy hands or heavily damaged it was difficult to keep Allied units fully supplied. Together with the unfamiliarity with the problems of fighting in bocage country with its sunken roads and dense hedges progress, at least at first, was painfully slow. Only with the long-awaited US breakout did things become more fluid, and the problem of Paris could even be discussed. The Free French Forces (technically) under General De Gaulle were naturally eager to liberate their capital city for a host of reasons. Their American overlords, who supplied all their equipment and who were above them in the Allied chain of command, had other ideas. It was only when it became obvious that Paris was open and would fall with the minimum of effort on the part of the Allies was its liberation even contemplated. Within the city itself tension between Resistance units and the German occupiers began to reach new heights. Under orders to destroy the city if it looked like holding it was no longer an option Von Choltitz needed to juggle his duty, fear for his family back in Germany if he didn’t comply, the need to keep the bridges intact to allow German units outside Paris to retreat in good order and his place in History if he left Paris in ruins. August 1944 was going to be a hot one. 

Yet again, I knew of the Liberation of Paris in general terms but wasn’t fully aware of the details. I didn’t know that, at least originally, the Allies (or actually the Americans) had no intention of liberating Paris but had intended to by-pass it thereby forcing the German occupiers either to flee or surrender to follow up forces. The Americans were well aware of the logistical nightmare of feeding the city which would just add to their already existing logistical problems. But I think one of the most interesting characters in the whole series of events was Von Choltitz – the German military commander of Paris and the region surrounding the city. I’m not sure if I’d heard of him before, but he seemed – at least in this narrative – to have been central to saving Paris from unforgivable destruction. Interesting, when he was finally captured by the advanced Allied units he was spat on by the French citizens (and the officer standing next to him shot and killed) yet, on his death, had a French military honour guard at his funeral. As you might imagine from the subtitle, the focus of this excellent history is on the three main players – Von Choltitz, De Gaulle and Eisenhower – with the Resistance getting a lot less attention than maybe they should have, but I’ll have more to say about that next week! Overall, I learnt a LOT from this book, and I’ll be looking out for more from this author in future. If, like me, you had a passing appreciation of the events surrounding the Liberation and wanted to know more than I can certainly recommend this to you. But what I did learn from later reading – and no doubt more reading to come – things are not always so cut and dried as they’re made out to be so it's best to get more than one opinion/perspective on a subject. More to come.  

Interesting, as always!

 Punky... [grin]

Just Finished Reading: Dark Tide – The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo (FP: 2003) [238pp]

Boston Harbour, Around Noon, January 15, 1919. It started with a bang like thunder followed by what sounded like a carriage or an automobile crashing into a long fence. For the briefest of moments there was silence and then screaming. One word rang out above all others – RUN! Brief seconds before the 50 feet tall steel tank located conveniently on the harbour-side had ruptured spilling around 2.3 million gallons of molasses onto an unsuspecting populace. The 15 foot high wave moved at 35 miles an hour – far faster than anyone caught in its path could move. Minutes later around 50 people were dead, some drowning in basements, and hundreds more lay injured or maimed. Wooden buildings had been swept away and even the Boston overheard railway had buckled under the onslaught. But what had caused the tragedy? With the clean-up operation still in progress the highly respected ‘soldier-lawyer’ Hugh W Ogden was asked to get to the bottom of things, decide who was responsible for the tragic events of the January afternoon and assign compensation accordingly. Confident that he could do so in good time he told the partners of his law firm that he expected to be back in his office in six weeks. The full investigation and presentation of testimony would last much, much longer than that.

The company that owned the giant tank and had it specially built to house the molasses knew that they were on to a good thing. With the war in Europe getting ever more deadly and with the USA about to join in the need for explosives was never higher. With molasses as a major ingredient for industrial alcohol and with that as a major ingredient of a whole host of explosive substances the profits were immense – and could be maximised if the giant tank at Boston was erected on time and if it was kept as full as possible as often as possible. The onsite manager knew what was best for him and his career and pledged to ensure that both happened with expeditious speed. Unfortunately for near-by residents, mostly Italian immigrants housed in poorly maintained blocks adjacent to the harbour, the manager had little knowledge or experience of construction or the safety margins involved. Seen leaking from the moment it was constructed and a source of ‘sweetener’ for local children the only response from local management was the occasional ‘caulking’ of the seams and finally a re-paint to hide the stains of molasses dripping continually down the sides. Naturally when the tragedy unfolded the company in question denied any wrong doing or any negligence. In their ‘defence’ they proposed that the tank had been destroyed by Anarchist terrorists without a single piece of evidence to support it – apart from one rather questionable ‘eye witness’ who apparently saw ‘smoke’ rising from the tank just prior to the disaster. Other witnesses and expert testimony told quite a different story.

Apart from the leaking, visible to everyone and regularly reported, the giant tank itself had never been stress tested at anything like full capacity – even with water. The plans for the tank had never been approved or even inspected by any independently qualified engineers and the sheeting delivered from the steel company had never been checked to see if they met the specifications given to them and which had been requested by someone with no knowledge or expertise in the design or building of such tanks – and someone who had never even sought advice on the project. It was in every respect a complete shambles.

I’d never heard of this truly bizarre incident until this book popped up on my Amazon recommendations some time ago. With such a strange story I just had to buy it. I was most definitely NOT disappointed. The reporting of the incident itself, the very interesting political background behind a whole spate of bombing throughout the US at that time and the look at the investigation was riveting. Told with knowledge and gusto this was a fascinating and often heartrending tale from beginning to end which did full justice to those who were injured and killed due to this avoidable disaster. If you’re looking for something more than a little odd or just for a gripping tragic story this is definitely the book for you. Highly recommended.      

Just Finished Reading: The Berlin Wall (13 August 1961 – 9 November 1989) by Frederick Taylor (FP: 2006) [449pp]

It could not be allowed to go on for much longer. With the demarcation between East and West Berlin being noting more than a line drawn on a map there was nothing to stop thousands of citizens of the Communist East simply walking over that line and never coming back. True, it wasn’t exactly that easy for lots of reasons but there was little in the way of a barrier between the two increasingly belligerent ideological coalitions. Finally, Walter Ulbricht the Premier of East Germany got his way with an agreement with the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev – a barrier could be built to stop the ongoing ‘brain drain’ from the East to the more prosperous West Berlin. Over a holiday weekend secret plans were put into operation and barbered wire began snaking across the demarcation line. Before anyone really knew what was happening it was now much more difficult to escape to the West. In a last minute panic many people took what they thought was their last opportunity to make a break for freedom – including one very young East German soldier pictured below. Captured in a single, now iconic shot, he made the front cover of newspapers across the world as people looked on with a mixture of bemusement and horror. Over the subsequent years, until its rapid and unexpected fall 28 years later, the Berlin Wall became both a symbol of Soviet repression (and the abject failure of their system) and a magnet for those wishing to escape. Helped by radical West Berlin students who dug tunnels to well-funded organisations who worked for no higher motivation than to make serious money many still made their way West despite an ever increasing effort to make such things impossible. The Wall itself was an act of desperation and a very public admission of failure both for the Soviet system as a whole and of the East German socialist project in particular. Before the wall went up in 1961 many thousands of East Germans and other East Europeans had made it to West Berlin and thence into the waiting arms of Western societies throughout Europe and points west. The Wall was there to stop them and ultimately to protect the USSR from the siren call of capitalist freedom. In that regard it was a singular failure.

I remember in 1989 watching the Berlin Wall fall and the celebrations being held on both sides. As we did so my friend turned to me and suggested we fly there to join in. Every impetuous he had not thought about any of the issues with doing so. I don’t think I had a valid passport at the time, neither of us could speak German, no doubt flight to Berlin would be packed with thousands of other people having the same thoughts and we both had work to go to. So, needless to say we didn’t end up sipping beer while dancing on the grave of the Soviet Union. Told from the Allied and Soviet occupation in 1945, through the Berlin airlift, and thence to the crumbling relations between West and East the first half of this often riveting narrative builds on the foundations of why the Wall was built in the first place. The second half of the book looked at the existence of the wall, attempts to circumvent it and the political fallout from its creation including the famous Kennedy and Reagan visits in 1963 and 1987 respectively. If you’ve ever wondered why the Berlin Wall went up and how German’s on both sides lived (and sometimes died) because of it then this is definitely the book for you. One of the highlights of the year and highly recommended.   

Just Finished Reading: The Berlin Airlift – The Relief Operation that Defined the Cold War by Barry Turner (FP: 2017) [265pp]

It was a decision made for good military reasons. The war was, in effect despite fighting still going on over bar the surrender ceremony. There was just no point racing the Soviet’s to Berlin. It would only result in more Allied dead – and for what? Agreements had already been hammered out and been confirmed (or so the Allies thought and believed) about the disposition of Germany after the armistice. Areas on influence had already been mapped out, so why rush?

When Germany finally surrendered in 1945 some American units found themselves in what was to become the Soviet Zone and pulled back to their side of the line. The Allies quickly found out that the Soviet’s where somewhat less speedy at giving up territory they had fought and died for. When British troops finally arrived in their Berlin Sectors – after roads had to be cleared of mines and bridges assured safe to cross – the Russians were already in de facto control of what remained of the city and had already removed a great deal of valuable equipment. Only with some reluctance – blamed on poor communication/bad translation and the requirement for any such move to be authorised from Moscow – did the Russians walk away from areas they had so recently pacified. The Allies quickly realised that this background obstructionism was only the start. Over the next few years the Russians made every move and every change – to say nothing of every slight improvement of conditions in Berlin – as difficult as possible. Stalin was hoping, expecting indeed, that the Allies would quickly tire of their holdings in Berlin (and then the rest of Germany) and either fall out amongst themselves or just wash their hands and leave. Frustrated at their apparent refusal to accept ‘reality on the ground’ Stalin pushed events by blockading all road, rail and canal entry into Berlin. With millions of German’s dependent on Allied deliveries of everything from food and coal to salt and steel the Soviet’s expected starvation conditions within weeks and revolt or retreat shortly after. What else could the Allies do – FLY the supplies in? The Russians (and the Germans) knew just how difficult this was and both had realised in the war that air supply just wasn’t a practical option. Stalin sat back and watched as he expected Berlin, Germany and then the rest of Europe to fall into his lap. He was going to be very, very surprised. As the first tiny shipments arrived after flying through 120 miles of Soviet airspace it looked, even to the Allied pilots, like an impossible task. But President Truman and others were determined to give it their best shot. Over the next 11 months almost 300,000 flights delivered over 2 million tons of much needed food and other supplies to that beleaguered city. It was probably, and probably still remains, the greatest logistical effort in world history.

I’d read about and been impressed by the Berlin Airlift before but I was equally impressed by this detailed (if rather short) look at the event that defined the beginning of the Cold War. Incredibly the author used the first 100 pages or so going over the background to the events – not only highlighting conditions in Europe post-1945 but also the political calculations in Washington, London and Paris as they weighed up the implications of action or inaction at this critical juncture in post-war relations with the Soviet Union. The second half of the book looked at the airlift itself and the many logistical hurdles that the Allies had to surmount without much of the technology we take for granted with air traffic control. It was truly an amazing achievement.  Told with a casual expertise and with many human stories woven into the narrative this was a fascinating read for anyone interested in the Cold War, German post-war history or even logistics itself. Definitely recommended.  

Just Finished Reading: Paris Reborn – Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City by Stephane Kirkland (FP: 2013) [292pp]

If there is one thing that History teaches – apart from the fact that we humans do not learn from History – is that things are invariably contingent. There is no Fate, no Destiny and no Plan. Bullets miss their intended target, winds change direction at just the wrong time (or just the right one), and messages are delayed, lost, misread or ignored in the heat of battle. Such things are woven into the fabric of human history and are one of the things that make predicting things such a headache. Looking back, and having a grasp of the minutiae of unfolding events, we can see that things often viewed in hindsight as inevitable are anything but – things could always have been different. This applies to individual lives, countries, battles and cities.

Paris, now rightly regarded as a world city, a city of light and one of the urban wonders of the world, was anything but in the early 19^th century. Growing organically without much in the way of planning or foresight it was starting to fall victim to its own success. Small changes had been made over time to alleviate problems here and there and opportunities to upgrade or demolish buildings had been taken in the event of fires or other disasters but it was time for something more radical. But first a vision was required and someone powerful enough to drive that vision forward. Step forward the unlikely possessor of that vision - Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of the more famous Napoléon Bonaparte we all learnt about in history class. Vision he had, but power and influence he most certainly lacked. Luckily for him (and arguably the world) he was about to be ‘used’ by a political fixer by being installed as President of France in 1848 and, after his short and undistinguished term in office, then being replaced by said ‘fixer’. Unfortunately Charles Louis had other ideas and executed a palace coup becoming Napoleon III – Emperor of the French – in 1852. Power, influence were now his along with the vision of creating a city fit for an Empire. Appointing Georges-Eugène Haussmann (later Baron Haussmann) as Prefect of the Seine to co-ordinate the project the wholesale overhaul of the city could begin.

This excellent book – a MUST read for anyone interested in either urban development or simply Paris herself – tells of the building of elegant boulevards, opera houses, government buildings, parks and gardens which transformed a mixed modernising and still medieval city into the edifice we see today. The very distinctive, iconic, architecture we see today is the product (unfortunately uncompleted) of the vision and drive of these two men along with some of the greatest urban designers and architects of the age. Paris would have looked a LOT different today without them. Many European cities had the (rather questionable) ‘advantage’ of recovering from bomb damage after WW2 which allowed them to redesign themselves into the modern age. Paris chose a different route in the mid to late 19^th century – a truly massive (and hugely expensive) programme of destruction and reconstruction on a scale that amazed and shocked many residents and visitors and, not incidentally, created many enemies for both the Emperor and his frontman Haussmann. Unfortunately for posterity the project died along with Napoleon III’s hopes in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war which he handled so badly. But much had already been achieved and much remains for us to admire and wonder about. This is a delightful exploration of the rebuilding of an imperial capital which became the envy of Europe by the end of the 19^th century. Definitely recommended for all ‘urbanophiles’ and for anyone who ever wondered why Paris looks the way it does.

Just Finished Reading: Les Parisiennes – How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940’s by Anne Sebba (FP: 2016) [387pp]

Even when war was declared there was no cause for alarm. Everyone knew it was coming and now, at last, it was here. Reserve troops were called up and moved to their frontline positions. The Maginot Line was occupied and all was in readiness. Then…… Nothing. No attacks, no gas, no bombs. What little panic there had been subsided and life went on as normal. Weeks passed and then weeks more. Then the Belgian border was crossed by German tanks and it started to feel real again. When the tanks crossed the French border things became very real indeed. Parisians had it seemed three options – Run, Hide or Wait. Those who could, or needed to like the Jewish refugees from previously overrun countries who knew what was coming, ran south or to the coastal ports looking for a way out. Some hid and hid valuables thinking that either the Germans would never reach Paris or would pass them by and the others – those who could not leave or chose to stay – waiting. They didn’t need to wait long.

When the first German troops marched through Paris its citizens looked on with a mixture of horror and disbelief. The country had been at war for a matter of months and invaded for a matter of weeks and their capital was already in the hands of the enemy. How long this would last, it now seemed, depended on the British and the remnants of French forces. But when the French capitulated and the British left in disarray Parisians knew that it would not be over soon. More decisions would need to be made – go on as before as much as possible, collaborate and make the best of things or resist. Once the shock had receded and the reality of the situation sunk in most people tried their best to get along despite the nightmare world they now lived in. Some, for a whole host of reasons – political or ideological sympathy, survival instincts, and financial opportunities – decided that the best thing to do was to co-operate with the invaders or, as most saw it, face facts. A minority decided that the only thing to do was resist in any way they could. At first such acts were amateurish, childish even – defacing posters, ignoring the enquiries of German soldiers, not dating them, refusing to shop in establishments who had put up ‘We Speak German’ signs in their windows. But things gradually became more violent as did the German responses. Again decisions had to be made – just how far are you willing to go to resist? Many women, especially pretty young girls who could flirt their way through roadblocks, became couriers moving messages between disparate groups and crossing the lines between Occupied France in the north and Vichy in the south. Others carried guns in prams coving by a young child or explosives sown into their long winter coats. But it was only after the invasion of Russia in 1941 that the many Communist underground cells began their operations against both German forces and the collaborators that supported them. Activity took another upward path with the operations of UK and US secret operatives again supported by resistance units and, sometimes, betrayed they those loyal to Vichy or ‘incentivised’ by the occupying forces.

As the war started to turn against the Axis powers and the liberation of France approached there were those who determined that justice would be served once the war was over. Dangerously they kept detailed diaries to ensure that those responsible for atrocities faced the consequences and that stolen articles could be traced and returned to their previous owners if they survived. It was important, if nothing else, to be able to witness what had happened during the Occupation to ensure that it would not be forgotten or, in many cases, forgiven.

This is the story of the women who, through circumstance or choice, lived in Paris before, during and after the German Occupation in WW2. As with any group of people they come in all types – from rich to poor, Left and Right, collaborator and resistant, living and dead. There are those who were, later, considered to be heroes or traitors. Some were arrested, tried and (sometimes) executed. Some (mostly men it seemed) given medals are treated as heroes whilst women (who often didn’t actively take up arms but risked their lives daily anyway) where only honoured or even recognised much later. Not so oddly it was the women who had their heads shaved for literally ‘sleeping with the enemy’ whilst similar low level ‘offences’ by men went largely unremarked. Like all history this is a complex tapestry which the author handles very well. I did roll my eyes a few times with the author’s apparent fixation on fashion – apparently looking chic was an act of resistance itself! – but generally this was an interesting read which brought real women’s lives during a terrible time into focus. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in French history or the civilian experience in WW2.  

Just Finished Reading: Parisians – As Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb (FP: 2010) [436pp]

Paris has existed as a recognised settlement since at least 52 BC when the Romans occupied the left bank of the Seine, though wisely the author of this fascinating work restricted himself to a more modern (and modest) tour of that city of light. Starting with a brief visit of the young Napoleon Bonaparte – before his became a one name only celebrity – the author parades a host of Parisians, a good number of which I had never heard of, who make up that cities history and both created the place itself and our appreciation of it. There are stories of how the last King of France and his entourage became lost in the labyrinthine streets whilst fleeing the revolution so ensuring their later capture and execution by the mob, tales of crime, betrayal and mystery kept (and lost) in the files of the Sûreté, life in the 19^th century Latin Quarter where artists, poets, authors, dancers produced some of the greatest works of art ever seen or heard whilst living on little more than cheap wine, cheap coffee and applause. There are tales of wholesale reconstruction (or destruction depending on your viewpoint) to create a modern city separated forever from its medieval past – demanded by the modernising Napoleon III and designed by the Baron Haussmann (or which more later!). There are tales of revolution and the Commune, tales of alchemy and atomic bombs, stories of the Eiffel tower and the fears that it would change the cities weather, tales of Marcel Proust and of Hitler’s whirlwind tour of the city to both disparage and steal its artwork, the nightmare of Jewish roundups and deportations, the return of De Gaulle and the snipers he faced, the activities of the Secret Army in its attempts to stop the loss of French Algeria, of student demonstrations and near destruction for the French state and life in the multi-racial high-rises surrounding the city. It is a city of a million stories with millions more untold.

This was definitely a reading highlight of the year. Not only does the author clearly love the city he can put you there, standing next to architects as they plan a city to dazzle the world or a student as he hurls a street cobble towards the hated CRS police as they attempt to crush a demonstration which threatens the fabric of an ordered society. You can hear the scratching of the pen that writes symphonies and the clink of cups in the street side cafes where political and cinematic arguments wash between tables. This is a book to lose yourself in. Mostly the experiences are pleasant ones even when rooms are cold and food is scarce. Some are not so pleasant with occupation and the violent suppression of political fervour. But what we are presented with, and left with once the last page is turned, in the life of a city in all its complexity and contradiction. Despite the impossibility of adequately describing the heartbeat of a vibrant metropolis between the pages of a book bereft of the sound of laughter (and gunfire) or the smell of perfume (and car exhausts) this goes a fair way to explaining exactly why Paris has maintained a spiritual pull on millions of people for centuries. Not only will you want to learn more about this city and the country it often exemplifies after reading this book you’ll want to book tickets to go there. Highly recommended for existing and, no doubt future, Francophiles.            

Just Finished (re?)-Reading: Emergence – The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software by Steven Johnson (FP: 2001) [234pp]

This is a possible re-read. I say ‘possible’ because I’m not entirely sure. I was moving a stack of books recently and came across another copy (a hardback this time) of this book that I have scant memory of. So, I either read it pre-Blog and essentially forgot about it or DNF’d it (again pre-Blog) and never actually finished it. Either way my re?-read didn’t produce any audible bells of recognition.

This is essentially about the (then new) science or idea of Emergence – that what look on the surface as orderly processes from a global, big-picture perspective are, at ground level, nothing of the sort. The classic case is the ant hill where everything seems ordered, regimented, under control. But looked at from the point of view of a single ant it’s nothing of the sort. For one thing it’s impossible for any one ant to conceive of the whole nest. It’s just too big, too complex and her brain (they’re all female of course apart from the occasional requirement for male ants once a new queen is hatched for simple impregnation) is just far too small and too simple to understand the totality. The Queen, at the centre of things, doesn’t give out daily orders – or indeed any orders – but spends her days laying eggs. The individual ants rely on signals from other ants to determine how to behave. They follow pheromone trails and count the number of other ants they encounter to decide if they’re needed here or need to be elsewhere doing something else. Their total instruction set is brief. But taken together, in their thousands, order emerges out of chaos and the nest endures. Like ant nests and bee hives so cities, brains and the (again at the time of publication) more advanced simulation games like SimCity. Each example has a limited set of comparatively simple rules and yet, when thousands (or millions) of actors use these rules – which individually look and indeed are chaotic, uncontrolled by any central agency and undirected for any overall purpose – a global order is spontaneously created and emerges into focused existence.

Of course thinking about it these ideas aren’t really that new. The ‘Invisible Hand’ of Adam Smith is I think drawing on this idea. You have individual actors with a primary directive to maximise their utility in preference to anything else. With millions of people doing just that you’d expect total chaos as everyone fights everyone else to maximise their take home. But, out of all those actions you get a (mostly!) functioning economy – large scale order from small scale chaos, in other words: Emergence. Despite the blank from my possible previous read this is a pretty good introduction to the idea/science of Emergence and gives you a good idea of how emergent properties come into being. Being now 20 years old it’s more than a little out of date and I imagine that there are more up to date introductions to the field out there. Even saying that it’s still worth a quick read if you can get hold of a copy. Interesting.

Just Finished Reading: Trans-Europe Express – Tours of a Lost Continent by Owen Hatherley (FP: 2018)

From a geographical point of view ‘Does Europe Exist?’ is not a completely ridiculous question nor is the follow up question, once that you agree that it does indeed exist, of where its borders are. A more nuanced question – from the cultural, political and architectural standpoint – is ‘Does the European City Exist?’ and, if it does, what does it look/feel like. This is the quest that the author attempts to answer in this intriguing and slightly odd book.

Is there something about urban development on the European Continent that says ‘Europe!’ if you had suddenly arrived there blindfolded by parachute? The author didn’t exactly do this (or anything close actually) but it was essentially what he was looking/asking for as he toured a number of cities and looked at their design and examples of their architecture. First he split Europe into a number of admittedly arbitrary ‘regions’ – Atlantic, Mediterranean, Central, Balkan, Baltic and North Sea. Then he picked cities from those regions as representatives and went walkabout at street level to see what’s what. To be honest there were a number of cities that I’d never really heard of or only in passing (Aarhus and Vyborg spring to mind). But the author stayed away from capitals in the main and concentrated on places with a more human scale and with some interesting history to tell (like Nicosia and the strange Fascist garden village of Arborea).

The thing that kept me turning pages in a book that was at the very edges of my comfort zone – or possibly on the edge of a new comfort zone – was both the delight of being exposed to new places and their often weird architecture and the author’s sense of humour about the whole thing. Not only was he steeped in the culture and history of the buildings he discussed but also broadened the views of the city streets to encompass how the environment they existed in came to be – from destruction in the World Wars to architectural fads and fancies to ideological and political decisions made in capitals far away. He really had a handle on the layers – historical, cultural and technological – that made up any office complex or housing project. Of course without adequate context it’s difficult enough to know exactly what you’re looking at even if it’s right in front of you – whether it’s the knowledge of where a city or the previous inhabitants of a zone got their money from or who the architect was and who he was trying (and often failing) to emulate to produce the monstrosity that is now considered to be of historic importance. All of this the author provides – and more – in spades. After reading this it would be difficult to look at an apparent simple brick wall or lamppost or municipal fountain without at least wondering why it is located just there, who designed it and why (and when) it was commissioned in the first place. What he managed to get across was that these are not just buildings or even just homes or offices, they are more than that if you can see beyond the immediate brick, stone or concrete facade. If you have an interest in urban design, architecture or European cities this is definitely the book for you. A fascinating delight. Recommended.