Living On Lightning Review

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(More customer reviews)I really enjoyed Don Green's adventure story about a strong, daring man's challenges and triumphs to stay safe in a hazardous profession, to perform worthwhile work that truly served the public, and to make a living for his family. The dangerous profession of lineman is described in sometimes hair-raising (!) detail, which I found quite interesting as it was clear enough to understand.
I also liked the overall sense of historical context... this wasn't just one family's tale but a spotlight on them amid the very difficult time of the 1930's depression. The humor sprinkled throughout sealed the deal; this book is a real keeper!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Renee


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When twenty-five-year-old Emmett Green, his wife, and baby are forced off their Oregon farm in 1932 by a rent increase they can't afford, it sets off a chain of events in which Emmett becomes a lineman working on live power lines at up to 120,000-volts in Eastern Washington.At such high voltages, electricity can jump through the air out of the sizzling, crackling wires like lightning and kill anyone who gets too close.Attracted by the high pay and steady work, which were rare job benefits during the 1930's, Emmett continues working as a lineman in spite of the danger.This story is set in the high-tension time before much of today's safety equipment and procedures were developed for line work, and one in three linemen were killed on the job.During his adventures in this job, Emmett narrowly escapes being killed.Working in windstorms, freezing winter cold, and scorching summer heat, he finds himself constantly stalked by death, and he is not certain that he will survive.His plight is no different from that of the other linemen, and there is a close brotherhood between them as they face these hardships and dangers together.In spite of the adventure, danger and tension in the story, some hilarious situations result from interactions between men in the line crew, and between Emmett and members of his family.Emmett's wife urges him to get a safer job, and he ventures into other jobs in heavy electrical industries.However, these also prove to have their dangers.After some hair-raising adventures in these jobs, Emmett returns to line work.He has a final accident that ends his career as a lineman, but surprisingly puts him into a position to fulfill his lifetime goals.This story is a work of fiction, but it is based on the real-life experiences of the main characters.Two of the older linemen who have reviewed it said that some of the narrow escapes in the story are similar to ones they have experienced themselves.

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The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945 (Clarendon Paperbacks) Review

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(More customer reviews)Gellately's research radically alters our understanding of how the secret police operated in Nazi Germany, as well as in the German Democratic Republic and elsewhere. Essentially, Gellately is challenging the notion that the Gestapo was omnipotent, i.e. there was an agent on every corner who provided the regime with all the information it needed. By looking at remaining files in the area of Wurzburg, Gellately found that only a small number of total agents were available to cover a relatively large area. He concludes that even if those agents worked all day and all night, they still would not be able to accumulate the type and amount of information that they did. So, if there was not a Gestapo agent on every corner, how was the regime able to detect the smallest signs of non-compliance and how could they enforce their racial policies? Gellately suggests that the key factor was the willingness of Germans to provide the authorities with information about alleged criminal activities. In fact, most cases began with denunciations or self-policing. In other words, the Gestapo was reactive, not proactive. Gellately suggests that without this cooperation, the Gestapo would have been far less efficient and successful. So just why did the Germans denounce each other? Gellately found that motives were usually quite petty. One had to worry about being denounced by former lovers, business competitors, jealous neighbours, and so on. In fact, Nazi officials tried to put the brakes on the denunciations. In a nutshell, Gellately is suggesting that the secret to the success of the Gestapo was not that it had an agent on every corner, but that the population was so willing to denounce each other for personal gain. The result was an environment of self-policing. There was a Gestapo agent on every police corner, but just in the minds of the German people. But according to Bentham's theory about pan-optic society, that was enough. Germans behaved because they thought they were being watched, whether they were or not was neither here nor there. Gellately's work suggests that there are a lot of problems with the notion of a totalitarian regime. Total control is not only impossible, but not necessary in even the most notorious regimes. Far from being a regime which depended completely on terror and compulsion, the Nazis appear to have been successful largely because of public participation. The only shortcoming is that Gellately's evidence is drawn from one set of files from one part of Germany. We have to assume that the results here would be similar if not identical to other areas, even though we have no evidence from those other areas. Gellately is aware of this and it is beyond his control since most Gestapo files were completely destroyed. This book is a must read for German and Holocaust historians.

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How was the Gestapo able to detect the smallest signs of non-compliance with Nazi doctrines--especially "crimes" pertaining to the private spheres of social, family, and sexual life?How could the police enforce policies such as those designed to isolate Jews, or the foreign workers brought to Germany after 1939, with such apparent ease? Addressing these questions, Gellately argues that the key factor in the successful enforcement of Nazi racial policy was the willingness of German citizens to provide authorities with information about suspected "criminality." He demonstrates that without some degree of popular participation in the operation of institutions such as the Gestapo, the regime would have been seriously hampered in the "realization of the unthinkable," not only inside Germany but also in many of the occupied countries.Offering an intriguing examination of the everyday operations of the Gestapo and the product of extensive archival research, this incisive study surveys the experiences of areas across Germany, drawing out national, local, and regional implications.

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