Ordinary Men

Ordinary Men by Christopher R Browning

HarperPerennial, 1993

223 pages

Non-fiction; WWII; Holocaust

This is a very different book than what I usually post about but I wanted to share it because it is a good book and very interesting.

On the one hand, this is a fairly easy book to read: no boring theory, no difficult words, no long paragraphs, or meandering digressions.

On the other hand, it is incredibly hard to read because it is about how "ordinary men" are transformed into killers. The book recounts them killing defenseless people. Less than 500 men are responsible for the deaths of at least 83,000 Jews. They directly shot approximately 38,000 and put 45,000 on trains to death camps.

Another difficult section is how some men asked to be excused from the shooting, which their superiors allowed because there were so many other men who were prepared to kill! Eventually almost every man who was part of that battalion participated directly in the killing. And of course all helped to round up and clear out the ghettoes so that the trains.

Another interesting point is that these men were older and thus could remember a Germany before Hitler. They did not grow up under his regime and were mostly not part of the Nazi Party.

Basically this is a devastating book but very interesting and asking us to consider how people come to this point.

A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

HarperPerennial, 2003

688 pages

Genre: History; Non-fiction

Summary: "America's story from the point of view of--and in the words of--America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers." (from back cover)

Why I Read It: Well my focus is American history for my major so one would expect that I would read this but this was assigned for a class because Zinn recently died and this is such an important book to the study of history.

Thoughts: This book starts right out saying how it is going to be different than the history you learned in high school. You know Christopher Columbus, that guy who get a day off for and who discovered America? Yeah, he basically started a genocide on the Indians living in the Americas. And that is never really mentioned; instead he is celebrated for his vision and will. So Zinn's purpose is to bring stories such as this to the forefront-those who are celebrated and maybe shouldn't be? For example, did you know about Andrew Jackson's brutal treatment of American Indians? (Well I did because I despise him and have a lot of problems with him but a lot of people don't). What about socialist movements in the 1920s? Obviously the word "socialist" is a trigger word for many people but what do you seriously know about them? Besides deconstructing some of the American myths, Zinn also highlights underreported movements such as various labor protests.

One flaw, which he acknowledges, is the lack of discussion regarding Latino/a and queer movements (I read this for a college course and this came up). Obviously he can't cover everything but this is called a people's history so by excluding some people, what does that say to them when they're already excluded from traditional narratives?

Overall: It may seem like I really loved the book but I really didn't: 3 out of 5. So long and dense and boring. Not my cup of tea. But most of the people in my class loved it and got a lot out of it.