
Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist
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The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers ...
History politics

Callcorder Pro: Record Phone Calls
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Callcorder allows you to record incoming & outgoing phone calls on iPhone. Steps to record when you...

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Automatic Call Recorder: Top #1 business app in The United States, United Kingdom, Canada,...

The Flying Classroom
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A Spectator, Guardian, <Times, Independent on Sunday, Lovereading4kids and Mumsnet Book of the Year ...

Luciferian Towers by Godspeed You Black Emperor
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Luciferian Towers is a heavyweight 180gram audiophile pressing from Optimal (Germany) and comes in a...
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RacquetTune - String Tension
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Listen to your racquet and perfect your game! RacquetTune ensures that your racquet is ideally...

Dead in a Week (Forensic Instincts #7)
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What would you do if your daughter was kidnapped and given only a week to live? Lauren...
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ClareR (5955 KP) rated Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 in Books
Feb 1, 2022
The black market was also a huge earner for many German citizens: one teenager is described as having thousands of Marks worth of cigarettes in his house. Money was there to be made for the improvising, bold, German!
What probably resonated with me most, was the lot of the German woman. They had been expected to be the perfect German Female during National Socialism, then experienced a kind of social and sexual liberation after the end of the war. However, when their husbands and men returned from captivity (or just made their ways home), they found themselves being expected to revert to the stereotypical role of the housewife. But they wanted more. They wanted to continue in careers, they wanted equality, and they didn’t necessarily want to deal with broken, defeated husbands (as cruel as this may seem).
What really surprised me, was how was how former Nazi party members still worked in positions of influence, both politically and in industry - and this was the case in both East and West Germany. Even though the Allies made a point of ‘educating’ German citizens about the holocaust, National Socialists seemed to largely escape punishment and carried on with their lives. Their children may have had their doubts as to their parents innocence, and the real movement to ‘out’ the national guilt didn’t really get going until the 1960’s, but there was dissent in the 1950’s already.
I could go on. This is such an interesting book, and written so accessibly. It didn’t read at all like a dry history book, and the photos and posters from the time are well chosen and really add to the book as a whole. This isn’t just a history book for history buffs.

Bringing Apollo Home
Book
Like a lot of people, Clay Boyce led an interesting life. The difference is, he’s a natural...

RəX Regent (349 KP) rated Duck Soup (1933) in Movies
Feb 18, 2019
Here we have before you one of the most famous entries form The Marx Brothers as they made their indelible mark on Hollywood(land) and the silver screen back in the 1930’s, moving away from their Vaudeville roots to new level of immortally on celluloid.
The fifth film to credit the “The Marx Brothers”, Duck Soup in on one hand a sharply written satire on the weakness of mob mentality to willingly promote unwelcome change to their society and their willingness to follow just about any lunatic as long as they like what they hear; as well as a straight forward slapstick comedy of the time, in keeping with its music hall roots.
It is the music hall aspect of this classic which can be harder for a modern audience to take to, unless you are already disposed to this sort of rather dated humour. But as a satire, it is brilliant and still very funny over seventy years on.
Groucho Marx steals the show as Rufus T. Firefly as he leads his unwitting and possibly dimwitted fictional country of Fredonia (geddit?) to war and ultimate destruction. He is a character, whilst not in any way taking off Adolf Hitler, who was of course rising to power in Germany at this very moment, was clearly a reflection on this type of reckless and charismatic leader and as the hilarious final act demonstrates, is all too common in history and even in our present.
And the fact that Fredonia is ultimately doomed, was a coincidental foreshadowing of Nazi Germany’s fate a decade later, as well as a clear demonstration of the savvy writing.
Witty, whether it is the physical trademark Marx Brothers comedy or the sharp screenplay by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, based on the stage version of the same name, this a classic satire; whilst not being as hard hitting a s Chaplin’s works of the period, with The Great Dictator (1940) springing to mind, it still holds up and makes its point without hammering you over the head it.
So, you can just enjoy the show and/or take away the message, it is really up to you.