The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books)

Book Description

The collapse of both sets of Arab-Israeli negotiations in 2000 led not only to recrimination and bloodshed, with the outbreak of the second intifada, but to the creation of a new myth. Syrian and Palestinian intransigence was blamed for the current disastrous state of affairs, as both parties rejected a "generous" peace offering from the Israelis that would have brought peace to the region.

The Truth About Camp David shatters that myth. Based on the riveting, eyewitness accounts of more than forty direct participants involved in the latest rounds of Arab-Israeli negotiations, including the Camp David 2000 summit, former federal investigator-turned-investigative journalist Clayton E. Swisher provides a compelling counter-narrative to the commonly accepted history. The Truth About Camp David details the tragic inner workings of the Clinton Administration's negotiating mayhem, their eleventh hour blunders and miscalculations, and their concluding decision to end the Oslo process with blame and disengagement. It is not only a fascinating historical look at Middle East politics on the brink of disaster, but a revelatory portrait of how all-too-human American political considerations helped facilitate the present crisis.

Customer Reviews:

An Outsider Intrudes on the Insiders' Story Lines.......2007-07-30

Swisher's book is a unique resource based on extensive interviews with first-hand participants in the Camp David meetings of 2000, written up by someone who is willing to change his mind when he hears the evidence. The book illustrates how the American summits with Syria early in 2000 led to Camp David, and it goes on to show how the Camp-David process led to the violence that followed the Wailing-Wall provocation.

As regards Camp David itself, the information presented to Swisher detailed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israeli positions on the issues as well as the Americans' management of the summit.

The PLO position had several elements. The PLO had already dropped their demand to recover land from the Israelis' 1948 conquests, but they wanted the associated ethnic cleansing (see Ilan Pappe's "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," available on Amazon.com) to be recognized in terms of a "right of return," which would be exercised primarily through Israeli reparations rather than Arab population movements. However, the PLO continued to reject the additional loss of land from the conquests of 1967, although minor territorial adjustments were possible in an overall agreement (the UN Security Council position).

The Israeli position, led by Netanyahu and Sharansky (although they were not present at Camp David), was to keep all conquests, admit no guilt, and expand colonization. However, the Israelis were interested in reducing Arab demands, so they asked Clinton to hold a summit to try to get the PLO to change their positions.

The opposing positions described above would not have justified holding a summit, so Clinton told Arafat untruthfully that he had heard from the Israelis that they would accept something close to the Arab position, at least on the 1967 territorial conquests. This claim lacked credibility, among other reasons because Clinton had said the same thing to the Syrians earlier in 2000 and that had been shown not to be truthful. But the PLO agreed to come to the summit to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt and to see what could be done.

At the summit, Clinton's offers to the PLO left any right of return up to Israeli discretion and divided Israel's 1967 territorial conquests into three parts. One part would be annexed by Israel: Jerusalem and western border areas. A second part would be kept by Israel until the Israelis agreed to give it back: the Jordanian border. A third part would be shared: Arabs would administer a large number of bantustans honeycombed by Israeli roads, settlements, and military installations (see Jimmy Carter's "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," available on Amazon.com).

Clinton explored with the PLO how much territory they would give up in the different categories and pressured them to give up more. When he heard any concession, he would relay it to the Israelis, who said that in principle the concessions weren't sufficient and reiterated that as a practical matter any discussions with the PLO were American and not Israeli.

When the PLO rejected Clinton's proposals, Clinton accused them of turning down offers that were "generous" in the sense that the offers went further than the Netanyahu-Sharansky position of offering nothing. This was how the summit ended.

The descriptions Swisher collected regarding the Americans' role found that they were unprofessional: poorly prepared, biased, wracked by internal dissension, and even administratively inept, which prevented issues from being clarified. Swisher describes the contrast between this and President Carter's management of the 1970s' successful Camp David discussions.

Regarding Jerusalem in particular, the proposals to give the Israelis close military control over Arab access elicited emotional responses from the Arabs, mirroring the Netanyahu-Sharansky rejectionism on the Israeli side. Swisher illustrates how Sharon's subsequent visit to the Wailing Wall drew on the opportunity this emotionalism provided to initiate more Israeli military action. (Although Swisher does not note it, this is a good example of the provocation policy described by Israeli Prime Minister Sharett in his diaries: see Livia Rokach's "Israel's Sacred Terrorism," available on Amazon.com.)

Camp David II - Re-visited.......2006-03-13

I think what happened at Camp David II is somewhere between this book and Dennis Ross' book (missing peace). I liked the interviews and the more neutral narrative tone compared to other books on this topic.

Highly recommended for any American who wants to know what happened........2006-02-21

This book presents detailed, eye-witness accounts from all sides of the US/Israeli peace negotiations with the Syrians and Palestinians during the latter part of the Clinton administration. This is not a particularly well written book, it is clear that Mr. Swisher is still developing his craft, but it is invaluable to learn what really took place in these discussions. The text is repetitive at times, and could probably have been cut by 20%. There are other areas where detail is oddly lacking. This is a five star book for content, but only a three star book in terms of language/grammar. I've given it five to balance out some of the negative reviews. This is an important and timely book that will shatter some of the myths associated with the US role in the `peace process'.

The conventional wisdom in the US is that the US and Israel offered the Palestinians 90% of what they wanted, and were rejected. The conclusion is that since this offer was rejected, they have no partner for peace. The reality is considerably more complex. This book examines in detail, with accounts taken from participants on all sides, what was in fact offered to the Palestinians and why they rejected this offer. I challenge any reader who believes this conventional wisdom to read this book. Some of the negative reviewers below make very good points vis-a-vis Palestinian terrorism, Arafat's role in the second intifada, right of return, etc., but they miss the key issue of this book. To understand why the negociations failed and why the offer was rejected by Arafat, one must understand EXACTLY what was offered to the Palestinians. As described in great detail in this book, the Palestinians were offered far less than true statehood by the US and Israelis. They would have had a state in name (with a flag, an anthem, etc.), but the Palestinian state would be economically and politically subservient to Israel. They would not control their borders or their economy, their country would be divided by Israeli-only roads, and they would have a capital in a suburb of Jerusalem. This was not a process from which (from a US/Israeli perspective) a viable, independent, free Palestinian state would be formed, but one in which the Palestinians would accept Israeli political, economic, and military domination. Arafat quite rightly rejected this.

The second, and perhaps more chilling, aspect of this book is how the line dividing US and Israeli interests among the highest levels of the US government has almost totally disappeared. Why is Dennis Ross, a man described as more pro-Israel than the Israeli delegation and a servant of AIPAC, representing the US in these negociations? Surely there must have been someone who was slightly less one-sided in the State Department to take the role that Dennis Ross was thrust into?

A significant fraction (roughly 1/3) of the book deals with the Syrian/Israeli peace process, the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, and the death of President Assad. The main point of interest in these discussions is that Israel could have peace tomorrow with Syria if the Golan Height were returned in toto.

Overall, this is a detailed, factual, balanced account of the US/Israeli peace negociations with the Palestinians and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in this issue. I look forward to reading more from Mr. Swisher.

a nice try.......2005-11-07

Though he interviewed many people and has done conciderable research, it is clear he has little understanding of the Middle East.
He has a score to settle, maybe with himself, but too many people seem prone to this on this topic...alas. There seems to be quite a mistery surrounding the author. He was not part of the negotiating team, nor present in any respect to the negotiations. He seems to have lied to many of the people he interviewed as to the intent of his work. And the whole issue of Gabe Ross working covertly for his father on capital hill while 18 and a mail clerk seems just plain stupid.
It is a worth while read for some of the facts and opinions, not all groundless, but over all one should not attempt to 'understand' the process of Final Status Negotiations through this book

Some intereting facts, but often twisted to suit author's aims.......2005-08-31

Like most great diplomatic moments, successes and failures alike, decades will pass before anything approaching a full history of the Camp David debacle can appear. Even then, disagreements on the apportionment of blame will likely continue on for decades after. Given the wide interest in the Israeli-Arab conflict and the complex nature of the negotiations, new works exploring the crucial climax at Camp David remain welcome. Some dismiss Mr. Swisher's work because he was not in fact part of the negotiating team, but instead was responsible at Camp David only for negotiations. That seems to me unfair. Clayton Swisher clearly did considerable "leg work" to prepare this text; sadly both his rather obvious bias and almost juvenile desire to settle scores renders what could have been an important work at best suspect.

Mr. Swisher's book follows on the heels of Dennis Ross's interesting "The Missing Peace" and, given Mr. Ross's direct involvement in the negotiations; no one could be blamed for looking at other works as well. However, Mr. Swisher spends much of his time looking to lay the blame at Mr. Ross's feet, even when he makes claims that others at Camp David, many more central then Mr. Swisher directly contradict his statements. Much for example is made in this work of Mr. Ross's change of "municipal Jerusalem" to "greater Jerusalem" in a draft as if this caused the breakdown of the agreement. Unfortunately, Ross's change in fact was a return to an earlier draft after being changed by Robert Malley, a member of the US team and now often a talking head representing the Palestinian point of view, who made the alteration without consulting any of the parties. Malley has never denied this. Moreover, days would pass before the negotiations actually broke down.

Swisher's target, perhaps seeking to sell books by putting forward a contradictory point of view, shifts the blame wherever he can to Israel and the US negotiating team. While such an effort might well be reasonable, Mr. Swisher often twists facts, making excuses for Palestinian gaffs while blowing minor facts out of all proportion. For example, Mr. Swisher brushes aside the days lost when Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian team insisted that Jews had no historic link to Jerusalem or the Temple Mound -- a position farcical on its face -- as mere posturing. However, he never mentions that such ideas, undermining the Jewish people very claim to the Land, serve only to inflame the parties and make agreement almost impossible. Nor does Swisher ever consider the Palestinians failure to negotiate in good faith, treating every Israeli offer simply as a new base line, rather than offering any proposals of their own. Again, even Robert Malley concedes that this disingenuous strategy by the Palestinians likely doomed Camp David from the start.

Swisher's dismissal of all Israeli concerns reaches a crescendo when he simply casts aside as silly Israel's interest and the Palestinian's refusal of any compromise for the so-called "right of return," or the claim that all Palestinian who left the area of modern Israel and all their descendants must have a right immigrate to Israel, a right held by no other people. As to the simple fact that this would lead to the destruction of the Jewish State and that the Palestinians are thus expecting Israel to commit national suicide, on this problem Mr. Swisher remains silent.

Lastly, one cannot help but marvel at Mr. Swisher's odd coverage of the events after Camp David. That Yasser Arafat led a bloody war against Israel rather than offering an alternative proposal for peace is dismissed. Mr. Swisher combs through events searching for, magnifying, and twisting any event that will make Israel look bad, while at the same time minimizing or even ignoring the waves of suicide terrorists who have murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians in cold blood. Mr. Swisher even parrots points of Palestinian propaganda so thoroughly disproved that even Palestinian leaders no longer mention them, such as the claim of massacres during Israeli operations in Jenin, which exhaustive study long ago proved to be nothing more than a fabrication.

Curiosity will cause readers to ask why Mr. Swisher takes this extremely biased view. Fortunately, he lays out his rather simplistic point of view at the very beginning of the book by writing the following, "The primary reason for Arab and Muslim anger against America has been and remains unbridled support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians." Again, one can only muse as to why Mr. Swisher does not take Osama bin Laden at his word when he spoke shortly after 9/11 that his hatred manifests from the presence of American Christian soldiers in the heart of Islamic holy lands like Saudi Arabia and later Iraq. Surely neither the bombings in Madrid or more recently in London had anything to do with Israel, but it seems for Mr. Swisher's simplistic world view, it is at the door step of the Jewish state where all blame is to be laid.

The Truth about Camp David: the Untold Story about the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process.(Book Review) : An article from: Middle East Policy

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The Truth about Camp David: the Untold Story about the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process.(Book Review) : An article from: Middle East Policy
Charles D. Smith
Manufacturer: Middle East Policy Council
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000ALO5UK
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Middle East Policy, published by Middle East Policy Council on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 3224 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Truth about Camp David: the Untold Story about the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process.(Book Review)
Author: Charles D. Smith
Publication: Middle East Policy (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Middle East Policy Council
Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Page: 156(5)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

When Hitler announced that the result of the war in Europe would be "the complete annihilation of the Jews," he did so in 1942, not only in public, but before an enormous crowd in Berlin. The Allies heard, but astonishingly, they did not listen. Why?

In 1944, Allied reconnaissance pilots, searching out industrial targets in the area, repeatedly photographed Auschwitz. The pictures, apparently overlooked by the Allies, were routinely filed in government archives and not examined until 1979. Why?

First-hand reports on the horrors of the death camps came to the West by 1944 in the person of two escaped Auschwitz prisoners. Their testimonies, and those of subsequent escapees, were either ignored or dismissed. Why?

Despite the fact that, the same year, Churchill himself had ordered feasibility studies for air strikes on Auschwitz, the RAF not only did nothing, but eventually passed the buck to the Americans, who also did nothing. Why?

Customer Reviews:

Allied inaction in the face of genocide.......2006-08-07

In this comprehensive work , Martin Gilbert analyses how the Allied governments during World War II reacted to news about the Nazi holocaust of Europe's Jewry , especially after the truth became known about the massive death factory known as Auschwitz.

He poses the questions as to why the Allies never bombed Auschwitz , and analyses Allied lack of reaction , despite ample news of the holocaust - revealing how the allies could have - but did not- act to save millions of Jews.

The prelude to the book deals with Hitler's pledge to completely anihilate the Jews of Europe , on January 20 1942.

By 1941 , the reality of the Nazi massacre of Jews had certainly reached allied governments. On 3 May 1941 the Polish Government-in-Exile sent a formal note to the governments of allied and neutral powers describing how 'tens of thousands' had been interned in concentration camps and it went on to mention four such camps: Oswiecim (Auschwitz) , Oranieburg , , Mauthausen and Dachau as camps whose names will 'mark the most horrible pages of the annals of German bestiality.' The Polish note contained more than 200 accounts of the tortures and murders commited in the camps.

But the persecution of Jews was still not thought of as a specifically important issue. On 25 July 1941 , a Ministry of Information document "had warned British policy makers that to make the Nazi danger 'credible' to the British people it should 'not be too extreme as concentration camp stories 'repel the normal mind'"...while a certain amount of horror was needed "it must deal always with the treatment of indisputably innocent people , Not with violent political opponents and not with Jews".

In 1939 the British issued their infamous White Paper severely restricting the entry of Jews into Palestine , barring their only root of escape from Nazi terror , largely in order to appease Arab opinion .
About 500 000 Jews actually attempted to enter "Palestine" after the Shoah had begun in 1942, but were brutally turned back by the British even after news of the death camps and gas chambers had filtered back to the British. Sir Harold McMichael , British High Commisioner in Palestine telegraphed to the colonial office: " The fate of these people was tragic , but the fact remains that they where national of a country at war with Britain , proceeeding directly from enemy territory. Palestine was under no obligation towards them."
In 1942 Anthony Eden , British Foreign Secretary , refused once again to relax the restriction of Jewish immigration into Palestine claiming that turning back the ships would 'in the end be more merciful.'

British MP Eleanor Rathbone hit the nail on the head when she said: "If it had not been for the restrictions placed on immigration to Palestine in pre-war years , even before the Palestinian White Paper , imposed partly for economic reasons , and partly to please the Arabs , tens of thousands of men , women and children who now lie in bloody graves would have been among their kindred in Palestine..."
Others like Lord Cherwell also urged a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a refuge for Europe's persecuted Jews pointing out that "After the last war Arabia (as big as Western Europe) was conquered by us from the Turks and handed over to the Arabs ; it seems strange that one corner of it , the size of Wales is grudged to the Jews"
This information makes it particularly sickening to see much of the British establishment, including the British media (epitomized by the hate speech of the likes of Robert Fisk, and the BBC), politicians , academics like Tom Paulin and others, leading the international campaign to vilify and harm Israel.
They are showing the same callousness in regard to Jewish men, women and children being murdered today, as they did during the British Mandate.

Aside from the British refusal to let Jews escape to Palestine , the allies rejected taking in Jews into their own countries , claiming that they did not want to be inundated with a 'flood of refugees'.
The book documents the unceasing efforts by Zionist leaders , such as Richard Lichtheim and Chaim Weizmann , to alert the allied governments of the enormity of what was going on and to try to urge them to act to save the Jews , but they constantly fell on deaf ears.

Throughout the war the allied governments where inundated with reports of the atrocities taking place against Jews , throughout Europe but reacted with characteristic calousness such as the remark of a leading British Foreign Office official in September 1944 : "In my opinion a disproportionate amount of time of the Office is wasted on dealing with these wailing Jews..."

Eventually the report of two young Jews who had escaped Auschwitz landed on Churchill's desk and the possibility of bombing the railway lines leading to Auschwitz , and the gas chambers themselves was indeed examined . But why was the plan never carried out?

In the wake of this callous inaction , a section of the world's Jews realized that never again could their safety and survival be left up to the nations of the world alone , and that is the meaning of the State of Israel.
The survival of Israel means the prevention of any such holocaust ever happening again to the Jews.
Will the world stand by as Israel's existence is threatened by Islamic terrorists and Moslem and far-left bigots across the globe?

The indifference, the failures and the horror.......2005-10-09

This thoroughly documented and deeply disturbing book is divided into three parts. The Final Solution includes the chapters Hitler's Pledge, Warnings And Forebodings, Britain's Dilemma, Evidence And Omissions, Rescue and Refuge, Eyewitness and This Bestial Policy. Part Two: Hope And Hopelessness includes Warsaw And Bermuda, The Spread Of Nazi Power and The German Occupation Of Hungary. Part Three: Auschwitz revealed, includes inter alia, Escape From Auschwitz, Zionism At Bay, The Deportations From Hungary, The End Of Auschwitz and the Epilogue.

The book is painful to read as it chronicles the history of the Shoah from the earliest warnings of Hitler's intentions through the war, the doomed attempts of many individuals and organisations to rescue the Jews, the indifference and the excuses given by certain officials on the Allied side, and the actions, good and bad, of occupied and neutral countries. Although the book does not focus on personal experiences in the holocaust, there are some examples of unspeakable horror that the sensitive reader had best avoid.

The author ascribes the extent of the tragedy and the failure to do more as failures of imagination, of response, of intelligence, co-ordination and of sympathy. To me the most shocking revelations are those where policymakers used the excuse that they were afraid of flooding Palestine and the UK with Jewish refugees. Or maybe even worse, those who claimed that the reports coming out of Europe were exaggerated. Another incredible show of indifference was the refusal of the Allies to bomb Auschwitz, while their planes were overflying the accursed place to drop supplies on Warsaw for the Polish uprising.

Here and there one finds some glimpses of right action, for example Bulgaria, an Axis ally that nevertheless managed to protect its Jews from the worst. But overall, one is left with a feeling of utter despair at the way the events unfolded and the frustration that Zionist leaders must have endured in trying to help their doomed people. It is chilling to read how countries like Switzerland refused to accommodate refugees and how every obstacle was placed in the way of orphaned children trying to reach Israel. The world looked on and it still does. Since then, we have witnessed Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Darfur.

The book contains 16 pages of black and white plates and 20 maps. It concludes with biographical notes and a thorough index. For more information and background on the horror and the indifference, I recommend The History Of The Jews by Paul Johnson and The Contract Of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy After The Holocaust by Norman Geras. For a glimpse of the future, consult Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And The American Left by David Horowitz and The Mountains Of Israel by Norma Parrish Archbold.

Not A Unique Story .......2005-06-19

Looking into history is one of the areas that we can almost always fell we have found an absolute truth. Even if some of the facts remain hidden or just plain unknown, major events have so many other markers and road maps that historians can find the truth, even if it is narrow in scope. The truth presented in this book is that the Allies knew that Hitler's Germany was engaged in mass killings of different ethnic groups with Jews being number one on the hit list. The author spends a good deal of time detailing out his research that shows that this fact was even in the public press. What is not detailed to any great degree was what decisions lead the leaders of the Allies to prosecute the war in the manner they did. Why were these atrocities ignored or not acted on?

The author did not fully investigate this question, and to be fair it would probably be difficult given the decisions made here were by a very few people and not verbalized. The book is interesting and details a good number of facts on the topic. I did seem to pick up on a seemingly anti non Jewish bias in the book. The author examines the Allies ignoring of the mass killings, but does not try to explain what could have actually been done to stop them. Looking at the full picture of the war, there was not an easy fix for this problem if one at all. Even if air power resources would have been diverted to camps, there were many that the overall war effort would have been negatively effected. How much longer would have the overall war gone on and how many more people would have died? Even if the Allies had stopped the camps, there were still killing squads that were activity in the country side that killed almost two million people. Nothing short of a full victory would have stopped this activity.

Overall I found the book interesting but limited. If you are just coming to this discussion, this book gives the reader a nice overview of the "Allies Knew" field of study, but what it does not do is present the story with all the facts about the Allies position in the war. It also seems a bit self severing that the author seems to only care about this one section of the European population that was dieing when countless millions more died at the hands of Hitler and Stalin. This was a horrific period in our collective history and I hope that the end effect of this and other books like it, help to keep in focus our responsibility on stopping these atrocities in the future regardless of if they are Europeans, Africans or Asians that are being killed.

Interesting View..........2004-04-20

Martin Gilbert, who writes "Auschwitz and the Allies" illustrates a very colorful picture of what the mindset of the German leader Adolf Hitler and his military leaders in the period of World War One, all the way to the end of World War Two. Gilbert uses references to many primary sources, (mostly newspaper articles) to show his point. He uses these excerpts to show that his points can be backed with historical data. Gilbert also shows how the Allies played an important role in this process at Auschwitz.The rest of the book seems to show the lack of support from the Allies to the Jews. The book takes a look as to why the allies gave the cold shoulder to a horrific time in our past. Gilbert seems to think that the mass murder of the Jewish people took place before the Allies had enough information to steam ahead on a stop to this. He does, however, carry a very sarcastic tone in this book. He claims that many of the allied leaders looked at these stories of the horrific killing of the Jews as "customary Jewish exaggeration." Gilbert claims that the extermination of the Jews was well known in Europe. He says that the knowledge of where the people where headed was the information that kept people from stopping anything. Gilbert counters the "customary Jewish exaggeration" with "typical Nazi deception". The Nazi's deceived more people than the Jews exaggerated to. Gilbert ends his book with a summary. He says that there were two major victories in the war, and many failures. He throws the blame of ignorance on the allies, and gives the victories to the Nazi's, for their ability to nearly annihilate the Jews, and for deceiving the rest of the world. (please excuse the jumping around, this is a summary of a five page paper)

D. Roberts, something you left out.......2003-06-02

There is NO question that the hatred of the Jews existed everywhere in the large part of Europe (especially Poland and France) and in the United States. However, OF THE ALLIES, it seems that you've skipped two of the most DIRECT examples. First, of course, was FDR turning away the ship of refugees whose last hope was the USA. They all were sent back to Europe and were murdered. Much worse was the inaction of Eisenhower (under a cloak from FDR), that caused him to refuse the simple act of bombing RR bridges on the route to the camps. ... No study is complete without Roul Hilberg's "The Distruction of the European Jews" ... Perhaps Gilbert's book is better then his first, but there are SO many MUCH better books out.

The Ecology and Conservation of European Owls (UK Nature Conservation)

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The Ecology and Conservation of European Owls (UK Nature Conservation)
C.A. Galbraith , I.R. Taylor , S. Percival , and S.M. Davies
Manufacturer: Joint Nature Conservation Committee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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The Enchanting Owl
Connie Toops
Manufacturer: Airlife Publishing Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

The Owl and the Goose on the Grave/Two Short Novels (Sun and Moon Classics)

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The Owl and the Goose on the Grave/Two Short Novels (Sun and Moon Classics)
John Hawkes
Manufacturer: Sun and Moon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1557131945

Book Description

two early novels

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Owls (Voyageur Wilderness Books)
Connie Toops
Manufacturer: Voyageur Press (MN)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

A compelling introduction to twenty-five species of North American and European owls--from the elegant snowy to the majestic eagle owl.

Author and naturalist Connie Toops explores her personal and our seemingly universal fascination for this intriguing bird.

In her highly reader-friendly style, she discusses owl behavior, habitats, and natural history. We learn about hunting, their acute sense of sight and sound, courtship rituals, and chick reading. She also looks at the rehabilitation efforts so crucial to the conservation of these birds.

Twenty-six species of North American and European owls are beautifully represented with full-color portraits and action photos by some of the best contemporary wildlife photographers.

Owls offers a comprehensive review of many aspects of owl biology, a good introduction to owl folklore, a balanced outlook on conservation issues, and a beautiful collection of photos.

Also recommended: Bluebirds Forever, Hummingbirds: Jewels in Flight, Eagles: Masters of the Sky.

Amazon.com

Paul Hofmann, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, offers a fine meditation on the Vienna Woods, a tract of gladed forest five times bigger than the combined boroughs of New York, geographically the last gasp of the Alps before Austria opens onto the great central European plain. In those forests, Hofmann tells us, lie the origins of many great works of the imagination: the later symphonies of Beethoven, several Schubert sonatas, Mozart's The Magic Flute, and, most famously, Richard Strauss's 1868 opera Tales from the Vienna Woods, which instilled in the Viennese a sense that the woods had to be protected from the growing city on their fringe. Thanks to the play of art and memory, the woods thrive today; as Hofmann remarks, "No other major European capital can boast such a large and safe recreational area."

Customer Reviews:

A view of Vienna from a native........2004-04-03

I happened to pick up this book in an ebay auction after two visits there. Paul Hoffman is a Vienna native and has written
extensively about the city and his native land elsewhere. The book is unique in describing points of interest in the woods which surround Vienna on the south and west. Points of interest such as churches, monuments, restaurants, homes and palaces are described in the detail which only a native can. A good example
are facts about the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolph in the woods in 1889 which I have not found published elsewhere.
If you love Vienna, you'll love this little book.

Ticket to Latvia: A Journey from Berlin to the Baltic (Owl Traveler)

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Too much information, not enough scenes

Ticket to Latvia: A Journey from Berlin to the Baltic (Owl Traveler)
Marcus Tanner
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Co (P)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

Latvia | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805013474

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Too much information, not enough scenes.......2002-09-19

The common dictum in fiction writing is "show, don't tell." That is, to keep your reader interested, it is much more involving to "show" the scene, idea, instance, or action, than to "tell." Interestingly, I think that this dictum goes beyond fiction. I've never been much of a history buff. Part of this is because of how they teach it in our public schools--dry facts and actions, later to be regurgitated on multiple-choice tests. But history can be interesting, when it's shown rather than told. What is a story--hi-story? --but a history of what happened, is happening, or will happen? Or, to illustrate the point, remember a move from the 80s called "Teachers," starring Nick Nolte? Also appear was that crazy guy from "Soap" (Richard Mulligan?) as an escaped loony who "takes over" for the history professor. Every time you see him, he's in a new costume: Caesar, Napeleon, George Washington. He's creating dioramas in his classroom. Now, there's something to remember history through!

What does this have to do with Marcos Tanner's travelogue through Eastern Europe? I'm sure you've already guessed it. Tanner has forgotten, if he ever knew it (he's a journalist; the dictum in journalism is the pyramid structure, where the most important facts are told first, the next most important next, ad infinitum), that he needs to show us things. It's not that he doesn't do so entirely. The memories I have from this book consist of several cases of showing. But he intersperses dry-fact history among those scenes, effectively killing any momentum that he could have had. In fiction we have another term for this injection of background, history or full descriptino in the text; we call it "information dumping." It's not that Tanner doesn't know of what he speaks, but he overloads the book (at least fifty percent) with extraneous background in sections, rather than working it in with his travels.

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The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 1100-1300
Christopher Page
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

International | Ethnic & International | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0520069447

Book Description

Music and literature enjoyed a renaissance in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. That period witnessed, among other things, the rise of the troubadours and trouveres, the elaboration of Notre Dame polyphony, and the emergence of Romance.
Everywhere a new, secular spirit was coming into conflict with the older, more severe view of man and his music. It was the age of the debate between the owl and the nightingale, so called after a Middle English poem that pits the owl (the traditional asceticism of Christianity) against the nightingale (the new, more joyous and humane, social and intellectual trends of the times).
Christopher Page, one of the most original music historians, examines this continuing struggle as it was fought by monks, preachers, commentators, and many others in the great and clamorous aviary of the Christian Church. Drawing upon an astonishing range of literary evidence, much of it from rare manuscripts, he enables us to see the musical life as well as the literature of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in a new light.

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