Steve Goddard's History Wire

Book Alert / A Fine Place to Daydream -- Racehorses, Romance and the Irish

A Fine Place to Daydream -- Racehorses, Romance and the Irish by Bill Barich, Knopf, $23, 228 pages, ISBN # 1-4000-4279-8. No index, brief bibliography, no source notes, unillustrated.

You're a sportswriter, who wrote a book about horseracing a generation ago that many consider one of the best works ever about the sport. But in middle age, you're now bored with flat track racing, the sport you once covered with such elan and, to top it off, your marriage has gone South as well. And yet you still adore the proud beasts that have been so big a part of your life.

If you're Bill Barich, you're lucky enough to fall in love with an Irish lass and discover the Irish counterpart to horseracing -- the steeplechase, in which jumping rather than speed is the paramount attribute of a winner. It is this new life that Barich portrays in his latest book, in which he describes the steeplechasing season, running from October to March, and reaching its climax at England's Cheltenham Festival, in which Brits and Micks go head to head for a week.

Book Alert / Shooting Star -- The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy

Shooting Star -- The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy, Harcourt, $22, 212 pages, ISBN #0-15-101082-X. Index, brief source notes, unillustrated.

One is tempted to be dismissive of such a slim volume, treating such an important subject. But, on reflection, the important lessons of McCarthy's brief reign of hate and fear can be learned in relatively few pages, and if the book's length means more Americans will digest those lessons, then so much the better.

For the Senate career of Wisconsin's Joseph McCarthy is a triumph of democracy, instructive and heartening at a time when invidious sources appear to be chipping at the Republic's foundation stones. In 1950, intuiting that he could work his will by exploiting public fears that communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Army, he threatened to unmask them as he waved what proved to be a bogus list of 205 commies then employed within government.

But governmental processes allow -- indeed, require -- scrutiny of such charges, which led to the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, in which Army counsel Joseph N. Welch eviscerated the Senate demagogue. It was the first major governmental crisis to be aired live on television, a medium McCarthy thought would be his friend and which turned out to be his enemy. In the end, McCarthy failed to convict a single communist, and the nation learned that the genius of the American system is its constellation of checks and balances and an active Fourth Estate, even if the press came to the task later than it should have.

Wicker, who covered national politics for The New York Times for four decades, has authored ten novels and nine nonfiction books.

Book Alert / A Death in Belmont

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger, Norton, $23.95, 266 pages. ISBN #0-393-05980-4.

Many of us grew up hearing a family folk tale, a true story with a moral or which illumined the grace or unfairness of life. In the family of Sebastian Junger, who burst upon the literary scene a decade ago with his best seller, The Perfect Storm, the folk tale occurred in 1963 in his family's lily-white suburb of Belmont, outside of Boston, where a neighbor of the Jungers had hired a black day laborer to do some work around the house. The man finished in mid-afternoon and walked out of town, attracting some notice because of his race. When police learned that the employer of the black man had been raped and murdered that afternoon, they rounded up and arrested the black laborer, who was promptly tried and convicted.

Years later, one Albert DeSalvo, confessed to raping and murdering 13 women, marking him as the infamous Boston Strangler. But steadfastly, he denied any involvement with Junger neighbor, 68-year-old Bessie Goldberg. DeSalvo was convicted and sent to prison, but later recanted his confession. What draws him into the Junger orbit is that at the time of Goldberg's murder, DeSalvo was a laborer on a work crew working on the Junger home. A chilling artifact still in Junger's possession is a photo of Junger, then a baby, with his mother, DeSalvo and another member of the work crew.

The moral, of course, is not to be quick to judge wrongdoing based on such superficialities as race. So Junger grew up believing Roy Smith, the black laborer, was wrongly convicted, but then DeSalvo recanted his own confession. Junger decided to try to get to the bottom of things.

Ironically, his book is no more conclusive than The Perfect Storm, which dealt necessarily with conjecture, since no one survived to tell the tale. At the time Junger investigated the Belmont murder, all material witnesses likewise were dead. So his verdict again is couched in a sea of "could be"s.

What redeems the book ultimately is Junger's gift for gripping narrative, as he profiles at great length both Smith and DeSalvo. Smith, raised in the South, was a drifter, continually in trouble with the law, although he had not committed sex crimes. DeSalvo, by contrast, was a family man, although not with an unblemished record. In prison, Smith seemingly reformed, becoming a model prisoner, who was paroled ironically only days before he died of lung cancer. DeSalvo was brutally bludgeoned in his sleep, presumably by another prisoner.

It's doubtful whether the tale, as inconclusive as it is, would merit publication if it were written by a mediocre writer. But so gifted is Junger as a storyteller, it truly keeps the reader at the edge of his seat.

Out in Paperback / Marriage, A History -- How Love Conquered Marriage

Marriage, A History -- How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, Penguin, $16, 432 pages, ISBN #0-14-303667-X. Index, 100 pages of source notes, no bibliography, unillustrated.

This is probably the most comprehensive book about the institution of marriage you'll ever read -- love's role in it, then and now; how marriage varies from culture to culture and over the centuries. Its scope is best illustrated by some representative chapter titles: "The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love," "From Yoke Mates to Soul Mates: Emergence of the Love Match and the Male Provider Marriage," "'A Heaving Volcano': Beneath the Surface of Victorian Marriage," "The Era of Ozzie and Harriet: The Long Decade of 'Traditional Marriage'' and "Uncharted Territory: How the Transformation of Marriage is Changing Our Lives."

Willie Mays Is The Best -- Just Ask Him

"Humility is not one of Willie Mays' strong suits," reports The Los Angeles Times.

"In a taped interview to be shown on Bob Costas' HBO show Tuesday, Costas asks Mays: 'Have you ever seen anybody as a contemporary? Have you ever seen anybody who [made you say]: 'That guy is as good or better than me?'

"Says Mays: 'I can't. You name one and I'll tell you no. Just name one. Anybody.'"

Costas: "Barry Bonds?"

Mays: "No. Barry couldn't throw with me. He might not have been able to run with me. Let's give him hitting, since he hit 73 [in 2001]. Don't think I can hit 73 home runs. I give him that. But what else?"

Lesson From Vietnam: Don't Cut And Run?

David Gelernter, writing in The Weekly Standard, takes liberals to task for suggesting an analogy between Iraq and Vietnam:

"Not long ago Richard Cohen of the Washington Post wrote a column about Iraq headlined 'As in Vietnam, dereliction of duty all over again.' The Vietnam analogy has been part of the Iraq war story since the fighting started (in fact, since before it started). The Bush administration often deals with its critics by ignoring them. This time it can't. Too much rides on the president looking these critics in the eye and telling them: Damned right this is Vietnam all over again. Only this time we will not get scared and walk out in the middle. This time we will stand fast, and repair a piece of the American psyche that has been damaged and hurting ever since we ran from Vietnam in disgrace way back in April 1975.

"Of course any citizen is welcome to criticize the conduct of any war--tactfully, without giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Maybe we are doing things all wrong in Iraq. But those who launch the Vietnam analogy at the administration are lobbing heavy artillery for a different reason. They are predicting (with obnoxious schadenfreude) that Iraq will turn out like Vietnam in the end: We will proclaim ourselves beaten, give up, and go home. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we will do the intelligent and humane thing and surrender."

Book Alert / Chances Are -- Adventures in Probability

Chances Are -- Adventures in Probability by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan, Viking, $26.95, 336 pages, ISBN #0-670-03487-8. Index, no bibliography or source notes, Charts, graphs, formulae sprinkled through text.

Earlier this month, with two men on base, Boston Red Sox second baseman Mark Loretta strode to the plate in the 9th inning. For the opposing pitcher, Loretta, who had hit three home runs all last season, appeared to be an easy bet to ground out, so the pitcher didn't pitch to him as carefully as he would a superstar. So when the ball sailed over the heart of the plate, Loretta connected and knocked it far out of the park, scoring a "walk-off" home run (for the uninitiated, a hit that wins the game.)

In explaining this anomaly, a sportscaster said the event was "against the odds," a term he knew baseball fans love to savor and contemplate. We expect Alex Rodriguez or Barry Bonds to notch the big hit, but part of what makes baseball so much fun to watch is the unexpected. The principle is the same in history or gambling or politics, as Peter Bernstein described in his book, Against the Gods, a decade ago.

Now a new book follows up on that theme, examining how chance rules our lives and, to some extent, how we can game the system. Two professors range far afield in examining the role of probability in such diverse fields as medicine, magic, military strategy and the law.

The Kaplans' work spends a good deal of time on insurance, for instance, a field begun by international traders, to spread the risk of one ship sinking or being pirated. They range back to Roman times, examine the creation of actuarial tables, and tell the story of the Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo. And while it's not the most comfortable of concepts to contemplate, they help us forecast our own mortality as well.

Laotian Temple from 1500s Unearthed

According to SiliconValley.com, "The remains of a centuries-old temple, along with thousands of historical artifacts, have been uncovered in and around the Lao capital during excavations for the upgrade of a major road, a newspaper said Wednesday.

"Lao archaeologists believe the temple Vat Yotkeo dates back to the 1548-1571 rule of King Sai Setthathirat, the Vientiane Times said. Fittingly, the ruins have been found on what is now called Setthathirat road. The temple was destroyed by the Thais, who burned and pillaged Vientiane in 1828. In addition to the temple, archaeologists have also unearthed about 10,000 artifacts, including a stone ax that could be 4,000 years old, the paper said.

"The artifacts were found during an archaeological survey ahead of the upgrade of national route No. 1 which runs through Vientiane from the airport to the Friendship Bridge, which spans the Mekong River frontier with Thailand. The Japanese, who are behind the road project, are giving high priority to the survey before potentially damaging construction work begins."

New Item: Dolly Parton and Elvis

"In a new television commercial promoting Tennessee tourism, a dashing young Elvis Presley drives his red convertible Corvette Stingray in a clip from his 1967 film Clambake," reports the Associated Press. "But this time, the bouffant blonde riding shotgun has a familiar Appalachian twang. Through digital wizardry, it's Dolly Parton who's sitting aside the King of rock 'n' roll."

"It's like a dream team for Tennessee tourism," said Susan Whitaker, the state's tourism development commissioner.

"I've played a lot of stages over the years but there's one I never get tired of that's set for a great time day or night - Tennessee," Parton says before an announcer chimes in over scenes of Graceland, the Great Smoky Mountains and several other Tennessee attractions."

Book Alert / Modigliani -- A Life

Modigliani -- A Life by Jeffrey Meyers, Harcourt, $27, 239 pages, ISBN #0-15-101178-8. Index, bibliography, source notes, generous grouping of b&w images.

We're all the richer that Modigliani, during his tragically short life of 35 years, didn't simply ape an artistic movement such as Cubism or Futurism but, instead, forged his own distinctive style. But it certainly didn't make for a materially enriching life, ensuring that he would die in poverty, alongside a pregnant mistress, who would do herself and their unborn child in the day after his death.

As accessible as Modigliani's work seems today, the sad irony is that he was a "commercial and critical failure in his lifetime." Not that Modigliani had an irredeemably miserable life -- he was buoyed by friendships with the greatest painters of his day -- Picasso, Utrillo and Brancusi, for example -- and, as an attractive young man, engaged in affairs with celebrated beauties. But in the end, he suffered through addictions to hashish and absinthe and, finally, succumbed to tuberculosis.