Graduate Oregon State University and Northern Illinois University,
Former City Manager, Corporate Vice President, General Contractor, Non-Profit Project Manager, occasional free lance writer and photographer for the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Francis Spufford (Author, received the 2017 Desmond Elliot Prize and Costa Book Award for “Golden Hill”, the author’s first novel.)
Francis Spufford captures a listener’s interest in “Golden Hill” with the idea of an Englishman sailing from London to New York City in 1746. New York City has a population of maybe 20,000, while London is a city of 630,000 to 740,000. What would a young Englishman with a 1,000-pound Bill-of-Exchange want in traveling from London to New York city? In today’s dollars 1,000 pounds would be over $127,000. The hero’s reason for leaving London for New York is not given until the end of Spufford’s story.
This is New York city in the 18th century. One could walk around the city in a day with its circumference less than a square mile.
This is a fascinating beginning to a story that gets bogged down by too many incidents that are mystifying until the last chapters of the book. The incidents are relevant to what it must have been like in 1746 but some listeners will become impatient for answers that could have been explained earlier.
New York City in 1746 is a mecca for protestants from many parts of the world. Spufford implies many New Yorkers are Dutch, a prominent ethnic group in wealthy New York.
Spufford’s hero is found to have a deep understanding of the theatre and its impact on an audience if an actor’s parts are well played. He attends a bad play that has an actress who, in spite of her poor lines, shows talent he recognizes. His appreciation of her acting leads to an unforeseen tragedy. This becomes a clue to the traveler’s perception of others and how unintended consequences impact one’s life. He seems to walk through life as though the City of New York is his stage. He plays his part, but his acting chops end with a mixed review.
Spufford’s hero appears to be accepted by the influential citizens of the city. At least, until it appears the Bill-of-Exhange is not going to be honored. The hero is thrown into debtors’ prison.
Debtors’ prison is an interesting place to write about. Spufford reflects on its barbarity in a confrontation with a fellow prisoner. The Bill of Exchange is eventually honored, and the hero is released. The next chapters address the repatriation of the hero to the Poo Bahs of the town and a woman of interest becomes more enamored with the traveler. The profile of the woman is somewhat unbelievable because of her implied business influence in a time when women have even less power than today.
The hero attends a party set up by leading members of the city that is, in part, to apologize for his mistreatment and to carry out whatever his mission is in the city. An interesting historical point of the apology is that America is primarily a barter system of exchange. Even though the traveler’s security is in English pound sterling, any negotiation for exchange is in goods, not cash. This is fine for the traveler’s purpose, but it reflects a point in American history that is often forgotten. There is no full faith and credit of a bank with gold or some other form of value to back-up American currency.
An interesting point Spufford reminds listeners of is the American’ anti-Catholic sentiment of the time.
One realizes how important Protestantism is in the foundation of America. The hero is almost killed by a mob that believes the traveler is a papist. Some historians have noted Protestantism is one of the deepest biases of early American citizens.
The reason for the hero’s appearance in New York is explained at last. To avoid discouragement of listeners, the purpose of the hero’s journey is not disclosed. “Golden Hill” is an interesting commentary on the tenor of an historic time, and it reveals some founding principles that trouble America to this day. The criticism of Spufford’s story is that it is too clever by half with a denouement too long in its revelation.
Gorbachev freed the Russian economy and Putin capitalized on that freedom. However, both reached beyond their grasp and damaged Russia’s standing in the world.
A History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev
By: Mark Steinberg, The Great Courses
Narrated by:Mark Steinberg
Mark David Steinberg (History Professor at University of Illinois specializing in the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Russia.)
Professor Mark Steinberg’s history of Russia is an informative tour of Russian history that gives some context to the perplexing, contradictory, and murderous behavior of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Though Steinberg’s history focuses on Tsarist Russia, a little research reveals why Putin argues Ukraine is historically a part of Russia.
Russia is an ancient nation that reaches back to the year 862.
The northern and southern lands were combined in 882 by Prince Oleg of Novgorod upon the seizure of Kiev in what is today the capital of Ukraine. Kiev becomes the capital of the combined lands. Eastern Christian religion is adopted from the Byzantine Empire by Russia in 988. Upon the Mongol invasion in 1237-1240, Russia’s size diminishes, and Russia’s capital moves to Moscow.
The first leader to be titled Tsar of Russia is Ivan the Terrible in 1547.
Ivan IV (Called Ivan the Terrible’s visage is forensically reconstructed by Mikhail Gerasimov)
Ukraine emerges as a nation in the mid-18th century, but large portions of the country remain under the control of Russia.
It is not until 1991, that Ukraine’s independence is recognized by America, Poland, and Canada.
Steinberg’s history addresses the time of Peter the Great through Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. What one hears from the lectures is the vacillation of Russian leadership from Europeanization to de-Europeanization. The primary interest of non-aristocratic Russians is in the political principle of socialism.
Autocracy is a common thread in Steinberg’s history of Russia. However, beginning with Peter the Great, that thread is frayed by changes that modernize Russian government management of its citizens. It remains autocratic but recognizes the country is behind Europe in its economic and cultural improvement.
Tsar Peter the Great (As Tsar from 1682 to 1721, Pyotr I Alekseyevich leads Russia as a harsh autocrat with the goal of defeating Ottoman and Swedish control of the Sea of Azov and the Baltic.
Steinberg explains Peter the Great’s objective is to create a new Russia by replacing its traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with enlightened public policies. He plans to modernize Russia by promoting education and industrialization. His objective is to emulate and compete with European modernization. The Russian Academy of Science and Saint Petersburg State University are founded in 1724. Peter the Great creates a governing Senate in 1711 and other institutions to improve the administration of the Russian autocracy.
Peter the Great dies unexpectedly and fails to designate an heir to the throne. Succession founders for several years with little progress toward modernization until Catherine II becomes Catherine the Great, empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.
Catherine the Great II (Born 1729, dies in 1796 at age 67.)
Catherine the Great marries the grandson of Peter the Great who died months after becoming Emperor of Russia. Catherine the Great is of the same mind as Peter the Great in modernizing Russia. New Russian cities, universities, and theatres are created by Catherine the Great. With the help of fellow nobles, Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin, and Russia’s generals of that time, Russia expands their territory and continues its Europeanization. Western philosophers like Voltaire become friends of Catherine the Great.
After Catherine the Great, her son Tsar Paul I takes control of the Russian government. Steinberg characterizes Paul I as a despotic ineffectual leader who projects an authoritarian and patriarchal image and reverses many of the liberal policies initiated by Catherine the Great. He is assassinated by the elite guards of the Russian military and his son, Alexander I, becomes Tsar.
With the rise of education, Steinberg explains the creation of what is called the “intelligensia”, a class of younger Russians interested in social change. Some were largely self-educated like Vissarion Belinsky, the son of a rural physician and Nikolai Gogol, born into the Ukranian family gentry (a class below aristocracy). Others were from the aristocratic class like Alekasndr Pushkin.
From left to right, Belinsky, Gogol, Pushkin–associated with the Russian Intelligesia in the early and mid-19th century.
Alexander I (reigned 1801-1825) is described by Steinberg as a leader of two minds that on the one hand reestablishes many of the reforms of his grandmother, Catherine the Great.
On the other hand, Steinberg suggests Alexander I resists revolutionary movements that were roiling Europe during his reign. Alexander, I joins Britain in 1805 to defeat Napoleon Bonapart. Alexander switches sides and forms an alliance with Napoleon in the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. However, in 1810, Alexander abandons Napoleon over disagreement on Polish territory. Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 is a disaster for the French and Russia gains territory in Finland and Poland.
Nicholas I (Reign 1825-1855, Grandson of Catherine the Great.)
Serfdom is a troubling social problem in Russia that is acknowledged by Catherine the Great but not resolved until after an 1861 decree for abolition by Alexander II. Though Catherine and Allexander II are not related, it is Alexander II who initiates what Catherine the Great recognized as the iniquity of Russian inequality. Though it is many years before the reality of abolition of Serfdom is truly addressed, Alexander II is the first to begin its reversal. His predecessor, Nicholas I did nothing to eliminate serfdom and in fact tried to re-establish aristocratic privilege.
Mid-day meal for peasants in 1860s Russia
Inequality in Russia, just as is true in America, remains a work in progress. Steinberg offers more detail of Russia’s drive toward modernity, but the next great change is of course the revolution of 1917. Steinberg explains Russia’s growing interest in socialism and its conflict with patriarchal rule. He notes the two major factions that wished to change the course of Russian history. One is the Bolshevik movement. The other is the Menshevik movement. But, before we get to 1917, it seems the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war is important because of its relevance to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
The last Tsar of Russia is Tsar Nicholas II. Nicholas II’s reign is from 1894 to 1917, after which his entire family is murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries.
A precursor to the 1917 revolution is the 1905 uprising of Russian citizens who are unhappy with Tsar Nicholas II’s leadership. Growing inflation, poverty and hunger, a defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, and widespread discontent lead to a revolt. A workers demonstration leads to “Bloody Sunday”. An estimated 1,000 to 4,000 Russian citizens are murdered by Russian soldiers.
Of particular interest is the loss of the Russo-Japanese war. Both Russia and Japan want warm-water ports in the Pacific Ocean. A port that served that purpose is on the Korean peninsula, either off Manchuria or Korea. Tsar Nicholas’s inept management and the superior military actions of the Japanese defeat Russia.
The relevance of that defeat is the position Putin has put the Russian government in with the invasion of Ukraine. The question is whether Ukraine will be as successful as Japan in defeating Russia. The west must ask itself whether they have a dog in this fight or let Ukraine bear the brunt of an unjust war.
The exclusiveness of being a member of Lenin’s red party undoubtedly aided the ultimate success of the revolution because it required committed enforcers to rally the Russian people.
Steinberg explains Lenin clearly understood that authoritarian force would be required for communist’ socialism to succeed. The future of the revolution became dependent on a leader like Stalin who exemplified a party member that understood the importance of authoritarian command. The test of that truth comes in 1924 when Lenin dies from a brain hemorrhage.
Joseph Stalin (1878-1953, died at age 74, ruled Russia from 1929 to 1953.)
Authoritarian leadership, with its history of competent and incompetent Russian Tsars, is not new to the Russian people. With an improved education system in the 18th century, Steinberg explains even the intelligentsia accepted authoritarian rule. Adding to Russian’ acceptance of authoritarian rule is the belief that something had to change because life in Russia during Tsar Nicholas II’s rule is abysmal for the majority of Russian people.
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022, died at age 91. Ruled the U.S.S.R. from 1985-1991 and served as President of Russia 1990-1991.)
Nearing the end of Steinberg’s lectures, the rise of glasnost with Mikhail Gorbachev is addressed. Between the death of Stalin and the rule of Gorbachev, 5 men ruled the U.S.S.R. Gorbachev wishes to keep the U.S.S.R. together but fails. His failure, in part, seems related to Steinberg’s history. Rather than glasnost, the U.S.S.R. seems to have needed a more authoritarian leader. Not in the sense of repression but in a demand to keep the U.S.S.R. together until the government’s effort at reform has time to be enacted. America had a civil war to prove it is one nation. That may have been a possibility with a more authoritarian Russian leader but that appears not to have been in the nature of Mikhail Gorbachev.
The U.S.S.R. dissolves in 1991. Since that dissolution, Russia has occupied some of the eastern territory of Ukraine and Crimea.
Though Steinberg does not fully address Vladimir Putin in his history of Russia, he sets the table for understanding why a reader/listener might think there is no way out for Vladimir Putin. The history Steinberg suggests Putin in one sense is the perfect transitional leader of the territorially reduced Russia. The firm hand of a secret police officer, with 16 years’ experience as a former KGB agent, and a position as Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg’s seems an apt formula for success for a future President of Russia. Putin did well in his first years as President of Russia but seems to have made a career, if not life ending, error in his invasion of Ukraine.
Steinberg illustrates how Russia’s leaders range from enlightened to repressive managers of government. At different times in history, that management style served Russia’s economy and citizens, sometimes well and sometimes poorly. It is up to Russian citizens to decide which government actions and leaders best serves their needs.
From a western perspective, both Gorbachev and Putin served Russia well.
Anton Chekhov in 1989 (Author, 1860-1904, physician and philanthropist.)
Most societies in the 1800s have variations of the same story. However, one recognizes there are societal remainders that carry through to modern times. Anton Chekhov’s short stories tell much of what is evident in today’s Russia just as stories of the wild west is in today’s America. In both Russian and American history (as well as most of the world), women are considered the inferiors of men. Children were generally seen as a burden until they could take responsibility for work that had to be done. Rarely did women work outside the home except as servants to families with means to pay for their work. In the 1800s, both Russia and America had a gap between the rich and poor.
Chekov’s first story is of a young woman who is characterized as beautiful, vivacious, and promiscuous.
She chooses or is seduced by a man who is not her husband. She is caught in an embrace with this man by her husband who berates her for her flirtations. The cuckolding suiter offers 100,000 rubles to allow the husband’s wife to divorce him and leave her husband to marry the alleged seducer. The husband agrees but at a price of 150,000 rubles. This is an example of two transgressions. One, a human being treated as property and two, a woman having a right to choose how she wishes to live her life. Just as in most of the world today, this Russian story shows women being treated as unequal to men.
Uneducated Americans and Russians in the 1800s took advantage of the environments in which they lived. One of Chekov’s stories addresses a peasant who removes a nut from a railroad track because he needed a weight for his fishing line. He is taken to court for removing the nut because there were incidents of derailment from peasants who took several nuts from railroad track bolts for not only a single fishing line but for nets used for the same purpose. American killing of bison for sport is a similar ignorance that reduced a major resource for food and protective clothing of native Americans.
Serfdom in Russian history is long and sustained as a social and economic reality.
What Chekov’s short stories tell listeners is that though there are similarities, there are differences. Serfdom never takes hold in America, but its consequence extends into the mid 19th century despite Czar Alexander’s decree to eliminate it and Catherine the Great’s effort to end it. Even with the Alexander’s decree, serfdom remains a law until 1861 with its true abolition only begun during Catherine’s reign. Of course, America’s tragic faults are black slavery and Indian displacement with consequences that extend into today’s century.
Because serfdom did not take hold in America, the growth of capitalism created economic opportunities not available in mid-19th century Russia.
American capitalism is a two-edged sword that undermines the ideals of equality by denying equal opportunity for all. An underclass exists in both Russia and America, but Russia’s underclass suffers from slower economic growth as well as discrimination.
Though economic growth is turbocharged by capitalism it creates an underclass based on easily identifiable racial, ethnic, and sexual differences.
Social position in Russia came through military experience and promotion, or in association with unique opportunities offered to peasants by wealthy landowners. Capitalism had little place in Chekov’s mid-19th century history of Russia. What mattered to Russian citizens is social hierarchy. This seems evident even in today’s Russian kleptocracy.
In almost every Chekov story, heavy drinking is a common part of Russian men’s, if not women’s, lives.
Reasons for the Russian tradition of drinking may be related to the economic, or socio/political environment but its tradition is evident in today’s Russia. Not that alcoholism is not a problem in America, but in Russia alcohol seems an ever-present libation in all political and social recollections of modern events.
Wealth grows as a societal leveling influence in America while Chekov shows wealth only reinforces societal separation in Russia.
He tells a story of a woman actress that makes more money than her husband. The husband sees that reversal as a challenge to his ability rather than a benefit to his family. The husband acts like a petulant child when his wife is awakened late in the night by his drunken arrival in which he rants about money needed to start a business that has little prospect of success.
As with all short stories of an era, there is much to be learned about a nation’s cultural roots. Most of Chekov’s stories in this first folio are well written and informative. One will find them entertaining and interesting, maybe even enlightening.
Ha Jin is the pen name of Jin Xuefei (born in 1956, a Chinese-American poet and novelist. Graduated from Brandeis University with an MA and PhD.)
Ha Jin’s book, “Waiting”, reminds one of our misogynistic world.
“Waiting” may be a true story or a mix of truth and fiction. The last chapter infers it is a part of Ha Jin’s life during Mao’s reign in the late 1960s as leader of China.
Ha Jin is the pen name of Jin Xuefei, a Chinese American poet and novelist. Jin’s father was a military officer in China. At 13, Jin joined the “People’s Liberation Army” during the Cultural Revolution in China. He left the army at nineteen to earn a bachelor’s degree in English at Heilongjiang University and a master’s degree in Anglo-American literature at another Chinese university. He went on to Brandies University to extend his education.
As is noted in the last chapter of “Waiting”, Ha Jin receives a scholarship to Brandeis University which is interestingly the author’s destination in America. He chooses to emigrate after Tiananmen Square’s Massacre in 1989. Of course, this is long after Mao’s cultural revolution between 1966 and the early 70s, i.e., the time of Ha Jin’s story in “Waiting” and the time of the author’s experience in the “People’s Liberation Army”.
The “People’s Liberation Army” was created as a teaching body for Mao Zedong Thought.
“Waiting” is about a 23-year-old nurse in the Peoples Liberation Army that falls in love with a doctor named Ha Jin, who is already married with a daughter who lives with her mother. The mother and daughter live in a village away from Ha Jin while he serves in Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Ha Jin may be viewed by a reader/listener as either a strong moral character or a weak “go along to get along” Maoist survivor.
Ha Jin either chooses or is compelled by the influence of the 23-year-old nurse to seek a divorce from his wife. Ha Jin takes 20 years of numerous appeals (the “Wait”) for the Chinese judicial system to finally approve the divorce.
During those 20 years, he and the nurse have no sexual relationship. In that time, the nurse is raped by a soldier who had befriended Ha Jin. The rape is unreported for the same reason many rapes are not reported today. The nurse does not believe the authorities will believe her story. The nurse tells Ha Jin of the rape. Ha Jin tries to convince her to tell the authorities. She refuses and Ha Jin reconciles himself to an understanding of her position and blames himself for what happened. As has been reported by other women who have been raped, the nurse feels guilt for the rape even though she said no and fought the rapist.
Ha Jin continues to pursue a divorce from his wife. His wife, despite Ha Jin’s numerous appeals for divorce, stands by her husband and cares for their daughter throughout the 20 years of their pending divorce. She finally agrees and Ha Jin is free to marry the nurse.
Ha Jin agrees to pay his ex-wife a monthly fee as a part of his obligation to her for their years of marriage. Ha Jin grows to love his daughter and wishes to help her succeed in life.
The nurse, at the time of marriage, is now in her early forties. She becomes pregnant and twin boys are born. The delivery is premature, but the boys are born healthy. Their fate is undisclosed. The relationship between the father and the nurse deteriorates for reasons that seem related to the hardship of the birth and a growing animosity of the nurse toward her husband.
The nurse suggests Ha Jin visit his ex-wife and daughter to see how they are doing. Ha Jin visits appears to realize he has made many mistakes in his life, not the least of which is the pursuit of a divorce and his failing marriage to the nurse.
The story ends with Ha Jin leaving China and becoming a professor at Brandies University in the United States. The listener is left to ponder which of these personalities, the husband, or the nurse and ex-wife are the strongest mental and physical humans in this battle of the sexes. At the very least, what is clear in “Waiting” is that misogyny is a multicultural reality.
The demographics of life demand better care of the human population and the environment. Power, whether from individual wealth or ruling authority, needs to be refocused on service.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Narrated by:Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer (Author, Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” channels a movement for economic change around the world. Capitalism and socialism are evolving in similar ways to respond to the world’s ecological crises. Neither economic system is capable of dealing with the crises because of the governing weaknesses of their evolution. Capitalism, like socialism, is driven by human nature’s self-interests. With capitalism, unbridled self-interest views individual wealth as a measure of success. Socialism views unbridled power as a measure of success. Neither freedom of capitalism nor the power exercised in socialism will stop earths’ despoliation.
Kimmerer tries to convince listeners to recognize their self-interest is in caring for the ecology of earth and its environmental and human diversity.
This is not a new argument. Sir David Attenborough, Jonnie Hughes, Joseph Marshall III, Charles Mann, Barry Lopez and others make similar arguments. Even though they may be right, human’ interest in balancing ecology and diversity will only happen with governance that is neither purely capitalist nor purely socialist.
At times, Kimmerer’s solutions are too mystical and spiritual. Some of her tales will dispirit listeners. On the other hand, some of the mythology she writes about is entertaining, if not actionable.
The character of “Windigo” is a representation of the weakness of capitalism and its extremity that entails the growth of greed. Her tales of the creation of humanity reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.
What Kimmerer offers listener’s is contemplation, if not realistic solutions for earth’s despoilation.
What is wrong with capitalism and/or socialism that can be corrected to stop earth’s deterioration? It is in a middle way where money and power are not ends in themselves but tools for improvement. Service to all species of life is an objective that can only be achieved with money and power. A cultural shift is required to understand what can be done. There needs to be a shift from manufacturing and industrial growth to a service-based economy. With the advent of technology, particularly A.I. that shift is happening.
INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ON A BAD DAY IN BEJING,, CHINA
Homelessness, hunger, disease, natural disasters, pollution, mental dysfunction, failing public education, racial and religious discrimination are all solvable problems in the world. Money and power are the tools that can be used to solve those problems, but it requires the will of governments to manage those tools to focus on service to society, not manufacture of things that do not conserve the environment. This is evident in the too-long story written by Kimmerer. There is an element of irony in her book because that is what her Indian heritage practiced hundreds of years ago. Indian tribes had no need for money, but their Chiefs used their power to care for land and its diversity that served their people’s needs.
Money has become synonymous with power in both capitalist and socialist economies.
Even Indian societies in America have adopted that reality with the building of Casinos. What is missing is how that power is being used. Kimmerer explains power should be used to serve the earth’s rebirth and the needs of all life. The obvious point is that without earth’s rebirth, human society ends. The future of the world is dependent on service, not manufacturing. The demographics of life demand better care of the human population and the environment. That job can be fulfilled with a reorientation of the world’s economic rewards and punishments. Power, whether from individual wealth or ruling authority, needs to be refocused on service.
Sandeep Jauhar (Author, Cardiovascular Physician, opinion writer for The New York Times.)
“Heart” is a history of cardiovascular medicine, personalized by Sandeep Jauhar, a cardiovascular physician. Jauhar’s history of cardiovascular medicine is not for squeamish listeners. It is a personalized account of advances in cardiovascular medicine by a physician whose personal life is interwoven with the ravishes of heart disease. Jauhar addresses the history of heart ailments, his family, his patients, and physician/inventors who advanced the treatment of heart disease.
Heart disease remains the top medical cause of death according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other statistical agencies.
Jauhar notes the heart is a critical organ of the human body, but its essential function is as a pump for blood. It is a muscle. With its contraction, blood carries the nutrients and oxygen of life to organs of the body. When that pump malfunctions or stops, life is in jeopardy. Jauhar’s history of the “Heart” recounts advances in medical treatment for the heart’s repair and maintenance.
There are several reasons why Jauhar’s history is difficult for listeners to hear.
Many of the most important advances in cardiology are dependent on animal experimentation before human application. To animal lovers, the thought that animals, whether they have awareness or not, are used to test pacemakers, heart transplants, and human drug treatments for heart ailment. Their earts are stopped and restarted. Animals die from tests being run by doctors and clinicians searching for answers and treatments for heart disease and other medical maladies. The human reason for this method of research poses the question–who would want sons, daughters, or parents treated without tests for the unknown consequences of experimental drug treatments and physical interventions?
Descriptions of pain and anxiety of heart disease symptoms are explained with details that may scare listeners who have been diagnosed with heart disease.
The balance between living and dying, pain and nothingness, is a constant presence in conversations between physician and patient. Stories of individual patient and mass casualty events are a part of Jauhar’s history of “Heart” disease and treatment.
Jauhar views major advances for heart disease treatment are near their end in the 21st century.
Jauhar offers many stories showing how research and great inventions have mitigated the consequences of heart disease. The key to that observation is that inventions and interventions mitigate but do not cure the disease.
Jauhar explains an abnormal heartbeat called an arrhythmia led to the invention of an implanted mechanical electrical conduction system to automatically shock the heart when an arrhythmia occurs in a patient. The shock can be painful. However, without that shock, an arrhythmia stops the flow of blood to vital organs which may lead to death or disability. The idea of the shock creates anxiety in some patients that can induce further arrhythmia which repeats the shock. Jauhar reports one patient asks to have the implant removed because of its repeating shocks. Jauhar notes the patient dies soon after the removal of the implant.
Three-dimensional echocardiography has significantly improved diagnosis of cholesterol build-up in blood vessels that can be mitigated with drugs. Statins have been shown to reduce high cholesterol. As with any drug therapy, there are unintended consequences when something new is introduced to one’s blood stream. Muscle pain, digestive problems, and mental fuzziness can be side effects from statin treatment. As one grows older, the first two may be manageable but with age who wants to be fuzzy headed. Clarity of thought seems more and more a sadly missed luxury as we age.
Jauhar notes better diet and exercise, and no smoking are important benefits to those who have hereditary heart disease. Jauhar suggests anger management and quieting one’s thoughts through meditation offers benefits to those who suffer from heart disease. Don’t get mad and don’t try to get even because both aggravate the heart muscle.
Jauhar explains a number of inventions have led to short- and long-term treatments for cardiovascular diseases. From the example of stab wounds to congenital heart malfunction, the medical profession has invented machines that can take over the hearts’ function during surgery. More time for operation on the heart is provided to the surgeon with the use of the artificial heart pumping machines.
Christian Barnard (Resident surgeon at Grotte Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, S. Africa, Born 1922. Died 2001.)
Heart transplantation’s history is reviewed by Jauhar. The first heart transplantation was by Christiaan Barnard in 1967. The patient lived for 18 days after the surgery. The average life span for a heart transplant has risen to 10 years but the supply of healthy human hearts limits its potential. Jauhar notes the Jarvik-7, named after its inventor, is the first mechanical heart pump but its refinement has failed to repeat the success of human heart transplants. Its practical use has been limited to short term use for time to find donated hearts and extend patients’ lives during surgery.
Jauhar tells of his experience in New York on 9/11. It is a horrific story told by many writers but not with any more stomach-turning clarity than that which a participating doctor imparts.
Jauhar ends his book with the loss of his mother who may have died from a heart attack. He suggests there are other conditions that may have led to her death, but his point seems to be–live as healthy a life as you can because death is a part of every life, and fulfillment is in one’s health.
A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology
By: Toby Wilkinson
Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
Toby Wilkinson (English Egyptologist and academic, former Fellow at Christ’s College Cambridge.)
Toby Wilkinson writes an enlightening introduction to ancient Egypt and its meaning for today’s Egyptians. The pre-modern age of Egypt reaches back to 3,200 or 3150 BCE with only southern Africa, China, and Mesopotamia appearing to have older artifacts discovered by archeologists. Long before Greek and Roman civilizations spread their beliefs around the Mediterranean and Africa, Egypt created dynasties that ruled large portions of the middle east.
Egypt’s ancient stories had been in plain sight for over 4000 years. Wilkinson notes it is not until the 19th century that Egyptian hieroglyphics are recognized as a written language. That language comes from a combination of pictures, symbols, and signs that represent words and sounds that tell the story of an estimated 170 pharaohs.
Hieroglyphics were initially presumed to be pictorial representations rather than words that tell the story of ancient Egypt. (A little independent research shows written language’ remnants have been found for older civilizations in Africa, China, and Mesopotamia. One wonders what cultural stories have been lost in their histories. Some ancient written documents are found in China but less in Africa and Mesopotamia.)
Sir Flinders Petrie uncovers the Merneptah Stele in 1896 in Thebes. The Stele is a 10-foot slab, presently exhibited in a Berlin, Germany museum. It reveals the name Merneptah, a pharaoh who reigned from 1218 to 1203 BCE.
Narmer is the most ancient Pharoh identified in a hieroglyph. His reign is estimated to have been between 3273 and 2987 BCE. These are the language hieroglyphs identifying Narmer as the first known Pharoh.
Wilkinson’s history reinforces the idea of written language’s importance to Arab culture. Of course, the most renown hieroglyphic message is on the Rosetta Stone which is an administrative decree written in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. As is true of many ancient Egyptian artifacts, the stone is not in Egypt but in London which becomes a growing objection by modern Egyptians.
Pierre Bouchard, one of Bonaparte’s soldiers, found the Rosetta Stone at a fort near Rosetta overlooking the Mediterranean. When Napoleon is defeated in 1801, the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria gave the British the right to take the Rossetta Stone to England. (Presently shown in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
Thomas Young (1773-1829, British polymath and scientist who researched the physiology of light and contributed to later scientists, like Einstein, on the principle of light as a wave.)
The value of the stone is in its opening to a translation of ancient Egyptian language and history. Dr. Thomas Young, a storied English polymath, examines the stone to analyze its meaning. Though Young did not recognize it as a language, his initial research confirmed earlier research by a French Egyptologist named Jean-Francois Champollion. Later, Champollion discovered hieroglyphics are actually an Egyptian language drawn from different written languages. With that realization, a history of Egypt becomes open to the world. The names of former Pharaohs, some of their beliefs, acts, and dates of rule become known.
Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac (1790-1832, died at the age of 41, French philologist.)
Around 1205 BCE , the word “Israel” is shown in Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is during the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah of Egypt’s 19th dynasty, the successor to Ramses II. The inference is that Israel was a political entity far back in the ancient history of the middle east.
John Gardner Wilkinson, English traveler, writer and pioneer Egyptologist from 1797-1875 “Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians” published in 1837. He was knighted in 1839 as the first distinguished British Egyptologist. (Interestingly, though the same last name as the author, they are not believed to be related.)
An interesting point noted by Wilkinson is that Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion in 1798 is a critical turning point in research and knowledge of ancient Egypt. Bonaparte’s purported reason for Egypt’s invasion is to protect French trade interests and to undermine Britain’s access to India and the East Indies.
Having traveled to Egypt in 2019, we visited the fort in which the Rosetta Stone was found. The fort is on the Mediterranean in the city of Rashid, sometimes referred to as Rosetta, or el-Rashid, a port city where the Nile flows into the Mediterranean.
Champollion becomes the curator of the Egyptian collection at the Louvre in 1826 and returns to Egypt in 1828 on an archeological expedition to become the chair of Egyptian antiquities at the College of France in 1831. Champollion writes a dictionary for hieroglyphic translation and a “Primer of the Hieroglyphic System of the Ancient Egyptians”.
The Louvre today with its pyramid addition at its entrance is a reminder of France’s role in revealing ancient Egypt’s history.
After Young and Champollion’s great discoveries about hieroglyphs, the reign of Muhammed Ali becomes a particular interest of Wilkinson’s history of Egypt between 1805 and 1848. The relationship between France and Egypt during Ali’s reign, with the help of hieroglyphs’ research of Champollion, much of Egypt’s history is discovered.
Toby Wilkinson notes Muhammad Ali (1769-1849) was an Ottoman Turkish military leader who became the pasha and viceroy of Egypt in 1805 with world recognition in 1842.
Pasha Ali modernizes Egypt with advertent, as well as inadvertent, help of France and England. In 1827, Ali sends two giraffes as gifts to France. In 1830, France invades Algeria which Ali views as a threat to his rule. Ali responds by building up Egypt’s military. Ali wages war against the Ottoman Empire (from which he came) to capture Constantinople in 1840. Europe intervenes and brokers a peace in 1842 by making Ali and his descendants recognized hereditary rulers of Egypt and Sudan. Ali uses his newly recognized independence by France and England to modernize Egypt.
Ali is considered the founder of modern Egypt. He and his heirs rule Egypt until 1952. Ali introduced many reforms to modernize Egypt’s economy, society, and military. He added to Egypt’s territory with the invasion of Syria, Arabia, Sudan and Anatolia but his rise to power is halted by a coalition of Britain, France, Russia, and Austria between 1840 and ’41. Ali had become a threat to the balance of power in Europe. The coalition offers heredity rule of Egypt and Sudan to Ali to cease his aggressive action against what was then part of the Ottoman Empire. Ali rules until his death in 1849 when his grandson, Abbas I, becomes ruler of Egypt and Sudan.
Abas I, ruled from 1848-1854. He undid much of what Muhammed Ali had done to modernize Egypt. Some historians suggest Abas plundered Egypt and Sudan and allowed the infrastructure of Egypt to decay.
Before Ali’s death, he manages to create a new class of Egyptians by abolishing a feudal land system with a redistribution of land to former peasants. Cotton and sugarcane become major Egyptian exports. Ali reforms the military and creates a modern army and navy along European lines. He encourages industrialization with education of the young in a secular school system.
The fort in which the Rosetta Stone was found.
Jean-Francois Champollion becomes world famous for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. He finds hieroglyphics are an amalgamated pictorial and Coptic language that reveals the history and rulers of ancient Egypt. Thomas Young, an English polymath contributes to the translation of hieroglyphics but concedes its fundamental revelations to Champollion. Wilkinson’s fundamental point is that Napoleon opens the door to Egyptology, the scientific study of ancient Egypt.
The French philologist Jean-Francois Champollion accompanies Napoleon in the 1798 invasion of Egypt.
There are many names of French, English, German, and American researchers introduced by Atkinson. Some of the most important are (left to right) Jean-Francois Champollion, Thomas Young, Sir Flinders Petrie, Karl Richard Lepsius, and Howard Carter.
The legacy of Egypt’s ancient civilization awakened a nationalist fervor among Egyptians that expelled French, English, German, and American Egyptologists that contributed knowledge of Egypt’s ancient history but confiscated many ancient Egyptian artifacts. Wilkinson argues Tutankhamen’s discovery triggered change in Egyptian nationalism. As a result of Carter’s surprising 1922 discovery of Tutankhamen’s burial site in the Valley of the Kings, Tutankhamen became a rallying cry for Egyptian independence and recognition. Whether it was the trigger for Egyptian pride in their heritage or not is somewhat irrelevant. The truth of Wilkinson’s history is that ancient Egypt was one of the great nations of the world that may once again rise to prominence.
Ali Smith is a good writer of interesting stories if one judges this audiobook as an example of her skill. However, to this reviewer, the dissection of Smith’s intent spoils its entertainment value.
Ali Smith (Scottish Author, playwright, academic, journalist.
Ali Smith has written several books and plays, mostly fiction with one nonfiction titled “Shire”. In 2014, she is awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (A prestigious UK Prize for fiction), and the Costa Book Award (also a UK award) for “How to Be Both”.
For this audiobook listener, “How to Be Both” is a difficult book to grasp.
It is two stories separated by eight centuries. The two stories are written from the perspective of a camera and what is categorized as “eyes”. Smith has the book published in two ways, i.e., with the first of the stories to be a photograph of “life” and the second, presumably, “life” as it happens. One can read either story first. The audiobook version of this listen is the camera version first. The two stories are related to each other. Camera takes place in the 21st century while “eyes” is in the 15th century.
The book is a little too clever. Both stories are well written, but each is entertaining on its own.
The tie between the two stories is about living lives, the inevitability of death, and the heart break of loss from death of those we love. The themes are viewed as a camera’s picture in one story and evolving events in the other. The tie between the stories is the loss of a mother who views a painting with her daughter, Georgia, by a 15th century painter, Francesco del Cossa. Georgia’s mother dies soon after seeing the painting with her daughter. The story of the painter’s life is part of its relevance. The painter’s talent is undervalued by his own standard just as Georgia seems undervalued by her 21st century belief about herself.
Georgia, like del Cossa, is tutored by an insightful and intelligent person (her mother) just as the artist is trained by a talented and aged painter of the 15th century. Georgia promises a great intellect just as del Cossa is eventually recognized as a great painter by his contemporaries.
“Triumph of Venus” by Francesco del Cossa.
There are many parallels one might draw in the two stories, but it is tiresome to contemplate what they are, and trying to ferret them out will make some reader/listeners quit this review, let alone the audiobook. Ali Smith is a good writer of interesting stories if one judges this audiobook as an example of her skill. However, to this reviewer, dissection of Smith’s intent spoils its entertainment value.
Addiction is a terrifying and destructive disease that requires an addicted person’s self-understanding and their wish to break its cycle of destruction.
Leslie Jamison (American Author, Harvard graduate, Professor of non-fiction writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.)
Leslie Jamison’s memoir is a personal and intimate account of her struggle with addiction and recovery. Jamison recalls her life in an upper middle-class family, interrupted by her parent’s divorce when she is eleven years old. Jamison chooses or is compelled to become an addict. A listener will use the experience of their own lives to argue whether addiction is a choice or environmental predilection.
To some, the course of one’s life is a matter of choice. Others believe life is ordained by a supreme being or fate, something beyond one’s control.
Still others believe life is just a matter of luck and circumstance. The examples of Jamison’s life prove nothing but tell the truth of her own addiction. If one is an addict in recovery, Jamison’s story may give one hope. On the other hand, her life is not your life, her education and intelligence are not yours, nor are her financial circumstances and environment. What one will get out of “The Recovering” is a jarringly truthful perception of Jamison’s experience of the world.
What Jamison shows is addiction is an equal opportunity victimizer, wherever it comes from and whatever its cause.
Jamison refers to the addiction of Amy Winehouse whose song alludes to addiction by saying “No, No, Know” that capsulizes what addiction meant to Winehouse. Jamison reveals what addiction and “Recovering” means to her after years of “…Recovering”.
Amy Winehouse (Famous English singer and songwriter, 1983-2011, died at age 27 from alcohol poisoning.)
Jamison explains addiction is numbing. When one becomes an addict, one is always recovering. Jamison reveals sexual relationships in her years as an alcoholic are sometimes good and desired, sometimes bad and endured. The bad and endured times are an implied condition of her drunkenness. Addiction is lonely. Addiction liberates. Addiction infects. Addiction kills. Addiction is a subject for a writer to write about.
The last chapters of Jamison book are about “The Recovering”. It begins with the chapter titled “Shame”.
Jamison explains working at a bakery in Iowa is an important part of her recovery because of its routine. At that time, Jamison notes her relationship with Dave, a man who becomes an essential partner in her life. These are shown as two fundamental reasons for her drive to become sober.
Dave has his own strengths and weaknesses like any person who chooses to commit themselves to a relationship. Jamison shows her insecurity by secretly peeking at his cell phone to find he is flirting with another woman. The flirtation implies infidelity, which is possible, even in committed relationships. Dave resents the implication, but no person is likely to deny their sexuality. Despite his denial of denial, Dave sticks with her through her beginning struggle for sobriety. A reader/listener realizes how important that personal support is to an addict’s recovery.
“The Recovery” becomes tedious in its remaining chapters for those who have not experienced addiction. However, Jamison’s memoir is a well-reasoned and detailed explanation of why punishment as treatment for addiction is a waste of time and money. Only personal relationships, social, and medical help for the addicted offer a chance for addicts to recover.
Jamison’s book is a condemnation of the “War on Drugs”.
Addiction is a terrifying and destructive disease that requires an addicted person’s self-understanding and the public’s support to break its cycle of destruction. Jamison explains recovery begins with wanting to break addiction’s cycle, but implies the addicted will only succeed with help and commitment of others. In Jamison’s case it is with the help of her then partner, Alcoholics Anonymous, and her commitment to be sober.
Nathan Bomey (Author, reporter at Axios, former writer for USA Today and the Detroit Free Press.)
Why is Detroit’s bankruptcy relevant to any American who does not live or plan to live in Detroit? The answer is–Nathan Bomey’s history of Detroit’s “…Bankruptcy…” defines American Democracy.
The story of Detroit’s bankruptcy exemplifies American Democracy’s strengths and weaknesses.
American Democracy’s strength is shown by Detroit’s recovery from bankruptcy in less than a year and a half. On the one hand, Democracy’s weakness is shown by the arrest of its corrupt Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, who is convicted for racketeering and theft that results in a 28-year prison sentence. (Compounding that weakness is the oft indicted and vilified American President, Donald Trump, who commutes Kilpatrick’s sentence after 7 years of his 28-year sentence.)
Kwame Kilpatrick (Mayor of Detroit 2002-2008.)
Detroit’s debt reaches back to Coleman Young’s tenure as Mayor of Detroit; not because of theft or malfeasance but because of the desire of the mayor to make Detroit better. Coleman is characterized as a polarizing figure whose combativeness endeared him to blacks but riled some white Detroit residents. Some suggest Young is unfairly judged by his detractors.
Coleman Young (Mayor of Detroit 1974-1993, Born in 1918, Died in 1997 at the age of 79.)
Young was the first African American to lead a major American city (the fifth largest city in America at that time). He completed a number of public works like the Renaissance Center, the Detroit People Mover, and the Joe Louis Arena.
The Americans pictured below come from many different walks of life, with Republicans, Democrats, Independents, racial, religious, and ethnic differences. They are charged with a responsibility to heal broken promises between American citizens and their local government. The following pictures are only a partial list of “movers and shakers” showing the diversity of Americans who martialed settlement of an $18 billion dollar debt to achieve the goal of getting Detroit out of bankruptcy.
U.S. BANKRUPTCY JUDGE STEVEN RHODESMARIAM NOLAND, PRES. OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION U.S. DIST.JUDGE GERALD ROSENGOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN RICK SNYDERKEVYN ORR, BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY APPT. BY GOVERNOR SNYDERRIP RAPSON, PRES. OF THE KRSGE FOUNDATIONANDY DILLON,MICHIGAN TREASURERGRAHAM BEAL,DIRECTOR OF THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTSALBERTO IBARGüEN, PRESIDENT OF THE KNIGHT FOUNDATIONSHIRLEY LIGHTSEY, PRES. OF THE DETORIT RETIRED CITY EMPLOYEESHEATHER LENNOX LEAD JONES DAY BANKRUPCY LAWYERDARREN WALKER 10TH PRES.OF THE FORD FOUNDATION
The city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 18, 2013, with a city approved plan on November 7, 2014. That plan paves the way for its exit from bankruptcy. Chapter 9 is a form of bankruptcy that only applies to American local governments because of their continuing responsibility for public service while declaring bankruptcy. It is similar to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but a local government’s reorganization requires a state-appointed oversight board to review actions by the reorganized government body. The difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 9 is that Chapter 11 eliminates an enterprise while Chapter 9 leaves a government jurisdiction in place because of its continuing public responsibilities (the provision for the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens).
Bomey’s history infers no one could have done more than the middle-aged attorney, Kevin Orr, in his management of the Detroit bankruptcy. Orr is a successful bankruptcy attorney in the Jones Day legal firm who agrees to leave the firm to manage Detroit’s fiscal crises through what promises to be a complicated and difficult bankruptcy. Orr’s ability to gain support of the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder is the beginning of a partnership to save the motor city. These two men set the table for a “…Resurrected” Detroit.
DETROIT
Chapter 9 is a complicated process because it involves so many assets and liabilities that have to be reconciled while continuing care for local government’s citizens. This is the job taken by Kevin Orr. In addition to a city’s physical assets and their maintenance, Orr is the responsible managing agent for Detroit’s underfunded and poorly staffed services. Both working and retired employees of Detroit expect to be paid for present and past work for the city. The money needed to carry out that responsibility requires everyone to take a financial “haircut”. The magnitude of responsibilities in a city of 639,000 residents and thousands of pension-dependent former employees seems impossible. All of Detroit’s citizens and pensioners are at the mercy of a judicial system and Orr’s administration, over which they have no control and limited influence. Bomey explains how Orr’s impossible task is systematically accomplished with the help of Americans coming from nearly every ethnic, religious, and racial category in America.
Settlement of Detroit’s bankruptcy is approved by U.S. Bankruptcy judge Steve W. Rhodes on November 12, 2014.
The city would receive $194.8 million from the state of Michigan over a period of 10 years to help fund the city’s pension system. (a bail out approved by the Governor, Rick Snyder)
The city would issue $1.28 billion in bonds to pay off its creditors. (Pennies on the dollar.)
The city would transfer control of its water and sewer department to a regional authority .
The city would create a nine-member financial review commission to oversee its finances for at least 13 years.
The Detroit Art Collection would remain intact without jeopardizing an estimated value of over a billion dollars.
The settlement is no bed of roses for past and present Detroit employees or for investors and banks that financed Detroit’s former mishandling of government business. Pensions were cut by 4.5% with eliminated future cost-of-living adjustments and steep reductions in medical coverage for citizens who are the least likely to be able to afford an income reduction. Both UBS and Bank of America had to right off much of their loans to Detroit. Bond holders had to settle for pennies on the dollar.
Bomey’s history of the Detroit bankruptcy shows human freedom, within the framework of rule-of-law, releases the great strength of human diversity and creativity. Without freedom, diversity, and creativity Bomey shows how and why governments fail, i.e., either sooner or later. That is the lesson of Bomey’s history of “Detroit Resurrected”.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 