Beach Haven

Bibliography
​Churchill, Winston S. 1948. The Second World War: The Gathering Storm. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company.
 
This is one volume in a series written by the former British Prime Minister. I only have this particular book and not the entire series. This is a personal memoir, and as such depicts events either within his direct experience as he recalls them, or related events as he came to understand them through others. Churchill directly shares in appendices copies of documents that he refers to such as letters, official transcripts, or published government forms. Comparing his earlier works on his experiences during WWI, in this case he claims more authoritative views. “I am perhaps the only man who has passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high Cabinet office. Whereas, however, in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate posts, I was for more than five years in the second struggle with Germany the Head of His Majesty’s Government. I write, therefore, from a different standpoint and with more authority than was possible in my earlier books” (Churchill 1948, iii).

The period covered begins in the immediate aftermath of WWI in which Churchill makes the argument that the seeds of WWII were sown between 1919 and 1929 by the victors of the first war by how they set treaties and requirements heaped on the German government. He shares some of the warning signs missed as political unrest in Germany grew, and complacency in both the UK and France did also. Often Churchill as a member of the Cabinet or Parliament was ignored or countered when he would share concerns coming to him through intelligence reports or other means. Given the assumed military size differences between the French and German armies, any aggression was thought to be easily quelled. Yet, as Hitler took power, a warning in itself, he was also building military equipment and growing the ranks of the army and navy. All of this was in violation of the imposed treaties, and many in allied authority simply did not believe it was really happening until it was too late.

For a casual history consumer like me, there was much I didn’t know about how events flowed. In particular I found the section on Hitler’s excuses for moving against Austria particularly foreboding. One can take the rhetoric of Hitler about ethnically German people in Austria, or the need to defend Germany against western or Russian aggression and shift the time and circumstance to today. Recent justification by Vladimir Putin as concerning the Ukraine are pretty much word for word the arguments used by Hitler in his eventual advancements in Austria, then eastern Europe. Serendipitously, I happen to be going through this portion of the book as Russia’s aggression in the Ukraine was beginning, and the similarities were uncanny.

This is an insightful historical work by someone who had a great deal to do with how things went. One can question any sort of memoire for accuracy, or for subjectivity, but then again, the same can be said no matter the historical author even when the work is not autobiographical.
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Bibliography
​Heilbron, J. L. (1996). The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science. Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press.
 
Max Planck was a contemporary of Albert Einstein. They knew each other and worked on projects together in their respective roles in the physics community in Germany before WWI and in the interwar years. Plank provided some theoretical ideas that helped Einstein work out his special and general theories of relativity. Unlike Einstein, and many other of their colleagues, Planck was not Jewish. As Hitler’s Nazi party came into power, Germany’s scientists had to decide. Would they continue in Germany and serve ‘from the inside’, making the best they could of it? Would they stay and risk whatever the Nazis decided about their fate? Would they leave Germany and continue to pursue their scientific careers elsewhere? How vocal should they become, supportive of the new regime, publicly opposed it, or stay relatively quiet about political issues. Einstein left for America and became very vocal about his opposition to Hitler’s government. Plank decided to stay in Germany and continue his scientific leadership role.

For Planck, his decision, he said afterwards, was not to support Hitler, but to try to preserve German science and scientist from within. He encouraged Jewish scientists to remain in Germany as WWII approached. He also worked to shield them from policies that would put their positions and their lives at risk. Eventually he failed at both. In fact, he was even pressured to be openly supportive of Hitler’s government. On one occasion he attended a public meeting about the German scientific industry. It’s not clear how much pressure was placed on him, but he attended dressed in Nazi regalia and joined the crowd at the end in the Nazi salute, visibly mouthing a “Heil Hitler” as the meeting closed.
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German science, at least in the field of quantum mechanics, we often at the forefront of advancement. During WWII, theoretical lost to practical weapons creation. Most of the best minds left Germany so the field suffered even more from a sort of ‘brain drain’. Heilbron concludes, “Planck remained in office largely from a sense of duty owed not to individuals, certainly not to the state, but to the institutions of German science he served” (Heilbron, 1996, p. 207). Others noted by Heilbron thought of Planck more as a coward, or worse, a sympathizer. Perhaps his motivation is impossible to know for sure, even by Planck himself, yet his actions are unavoidable. In attempting to maintain status quo while everything was changing around him, his own standing and Germany’s as well were permanently damaged in the 1930s and 1940s. Nations that benefited by the emigration of German scientists are still world scientific leaders, especially in quantum mechanics.

Bibliography
​Cronon, W. (1991). Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company.
 
In this work, William Cronon examines various boundary topics between human environments and ‘nature’. In reality, what today many people think of as natural spaces are really a human-made environments that differ from other human-made environments. For Cronon, Chicago and its markets, driven by the farms of the Midwest and transportation networks formed between them, are simply parts of a larger socio-economic system. “Although this book takes Chicago and the Great West as its immediate focus, its broader ambition is to explore century-old economic and ecological transformations that have continued to affect all of North America and the rest of the world besides” (Cronon, 1991, p. xvi).

The initial incentive to ‘tame’ the land through displacement of indigenous flora, fauna, and people in favor of European style farming was for local economic value. As Chicago began to transform first it’s ports, then the rivers through canal creation, and finally overland transport through a network of railroads, its leaders also increased a financial hold over farmers and competing cities through a number of cooperatives. The Chicago Board of Trade helped solidify definitions of grain quality types and associated monetary values. Similar pricing and quality controls expanded to beef and pork. By becoming the de facto ‘middle man’ between farmers and large markets along the east coast of the US, many of Chicago’s business leaders, and seedier elements as well, grew very wealthy. Tactics such as downgrading quality ratings when paying farmers, then mixing grains to claim higher quality when selling to large markets were common place.

​William Cronon’s work is a story of boundary definition. Wilderness and farm, rural and urban, buyer and seller, controller and controlled, these are the sort of boundaries explored in the book. In each case, human invention (technical or sociological) define the metamorphosis from what one might call ‘nature’ to what today is more about ‘human nature’. Cronon calls the former ‘first nature’ and the human created version ‘second nature’. 

BibliographyHughes, T. P. (1983). Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
 
Electrical power and ‘modern’ society are often linked in many ways. Areas of the world not using electricity may be seen as ‘backward’. Even in the U.S. these days there is much debate about movement from fossil fuels to sustainable electricity for more parts of technology. Many Americans would be lost if they had to go 24 hours without access to their electrically powered cell phones and computers. There are plenty who might argue the opposite, that ever-changing technology, at least communications technology, tends to isolate us more than bring us together. Where electricity prevails, time has less meaning. Any activity can be lighted at any time of the day. Sleep patterns also tend to be altered in societies with electrification. For example, despite changing daylight hours throughout the year people will likely keep the same work schedule. Students may be accustomed to all-night cramming sessions the night before a big test. Many people fall asleep to the musings of late-night comics. Before electrification, circadian rhythms tended to be primarily timed with the rising and setting of the sun.

In this work, Thomas Hughes shares historical events as electrical power was harnessed from the early days of Edison and Tesla. He pays attention to expansion of electrical technology within the United State, particularly in Chicago and California. He further reviews electrification in London and Berlin. Hughes also comments on how electricity and society affected each other in these four cities. Students of technology and society will recognize these topics. Technology transfer refers to the spread of ideas and invention beyond national borders. He looks at critical problems in advancing technology, sometimes referred to as reverse salients. Hughes examines social conflict and its affect on electrification. This includes personal rivalries among inventors, as well as companies attempting to grow within each of the cities examined. Technological momentum and the effects of World War I (both advancing and inhibiting electrical growth) offer an interesting take. Many scientists and technologists continued to share information despite the war, though others were prohibited. Berlin, for example, was somewhat isolated from others during the war, but war needs caused the German government to channel funds into electrical power for manufacturing of weapons and munitions. Unlike World War II, there was little air bombardment beyond the front lines, so industry by and large remained intact.

Thomas Hughes does not discuss electrification in eastern or southern societies. Perhaps this is a function of scale. One can only put so much into a book. Perhaps it is because he feels these particular cities are similar enough to point to socio-technical trends that perhaps would be different in other societies. Even among the focus histories he has included, there are significant differences as noted in his work. For example, each of the histories show different political and economic contexts. As a result, electrical power generation and transmission grew in very different ways. Standardization was difficult in some locations and centrally managed in others. By looking at the growth of a single technology, Hughes is able to expose the co-production (even co-dependence) of these societies and electricity.
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