Being there . . . . on the evening of December 24 th or the morning of the 25 th as a gift-giver ofany number of McFarland’s newly published books as ideal companions for the recipient’spersonal library. There can hardly be a corner in literature the continuingly popular companyhasn’t explored, searched, and found appropriate authors for. Today, its bravery of designing,then publishing, books of small sales promise not only astonish competitors, but also attractsequally resolute researcher-authors. McFarland’s infinite number of titles, like those of fellow-colleague publishers, Casemate, Osprey, Schiffer, and Naval Institute Press, testify to its sunny,spirited ethic of “Costs be damned – GET THOSE SUBJECTS PRINTED AND PUBLICIZED!”. Now,you can satisfy your buff’s insatiable desire to be widely read, unobtrusively well-informed, andopen-eyed imaginative, by considering at least the two titles below if gift-giving to a military orAmerican west aficionado. As the implacable gift giver, you are, expect to be lauded fordiligently having fed, if purchased, the receiver’s lively curiosity about all aspects of Prohibitionin America during the early 1920s, and, 20 years later, World War II in the Pacific Dutch EastIndies, the troops, and their places of battle. His or her wonderful sense of history will demandhe or she do so. . . . .FOR THOSE WHO POSSESS A RARE SENSE OF HISTORY, TWO NEW BOOKS AWAIT WITH ALL THEFRESHNESS OF FIRST DISCOVERY – – Thank you again, McFarland Publishing CompanyReviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNeviFor the World War II enthusiast, “THE DUTCH NAVAL AIR FORCE AGAINST JAPAN – – TheDefense of the Netherlands East Indies, 1941 – 1942”, by Tom Womack. McFarland & Company,Inc., Publishers: 2006, reprinted 2022, 206 pages, 7”x10”, sc; $29.95. Visit,www.mcfarlandpub.com.Like virtually every country in the Far East, 7 December 1941 opened a new theater of war inthe Pacific. For the oil-rich islands of the Dutch East Indies, the Japanese High Command figuredit would require six bitter months of fighting to seize all. Despite the courage and bravery of theislanders, and the Allies who rushed to their aid and defense, it took the enemy less than 48hours to conquer all. The Dutch, with their Naval Air Force on Marine Luchtvaart Dienst (MLD),made a significant, and often overlooked, contribution to the Allied effort. With their 175aircraft, the MLD in Southeast Asia outnumbered American and British naval air reconnaissanceforces combined. Three months of intense fighting left the Dutch bereft of thousands of navalpersonnel and over 80% of their aircraft.This extraordinary, rare history, believe it or not, is the first of its kind in detailing the actionsof the MLD during the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies. Beginning with a lookat the origins of the MLD, the book provides an overview of the force, including an analysis ofits aircraft, equipment, personnel, and training. Author Tom Womack’s final chapters cover theMLD’s ill-fated attempts of evacuation from the island battleground, while reviewing the MLD’sperformance when stationed there. Excellent appendices contain such information as Alliedand Japanese aircraft specifications, squadron tables of organization, and MLD bases and operational areas. The result is by far the most comprehensive English-language account of theAllied naval air war in the Netherland East Indies. This book is exceedingly crammed withinformation hitherto unavailable for the normal WWII armchair strategist. Hence, Tom hascontributed enormously, not only to the military literature of Japan at war in the southernPacific between 1941 and 1945, but also to the breath of our knowledge and understanding thefighting that took place in the Pacific’s often inaccessible corners.In “PROHIBITION and BOOTLEGGING in the AMERICAN WEST”, by Jeremy Agnew. McFarland& Company, Inc., Publishers: 2022, 220 paged, 6”x9”, sc; $39.95. Visit www.mcfarlandpub.com .,we have been provided a rarely researched and narrated story of what it was all about. DuringProhibition’s short life, every other American was writing or reading about it. Here, thankfully,Jeremy Agnew, a biomedical electronics consultant, chronicles how Prohibition was imposed byeager temperance movement organizers who sought to shape public behavior throughalcoholic beverage control. The success of the reformers’ efforts resulted in the establishmentof the National Prohibition in America Organization from 1920 to 1933.“The history of Prohibition”, writes Jeremy, “is frequently told through the lens of crime andviolence in Chicago and other major East Coast cities. Often neglected are the effects ofProhibition on the Western part of the United States. My history includes stories ranging fromserious to quirky while providing an entertaining account of how misguided efforts resulted innumerous unintended consequences.”The postcard on the book jacket cover is dated 1899 and shows how Nogales was literallydivided into two towns. The International Border ran through the middle of the photograph,with the “dry” United States side in Arizona on the right and the wet side in Mexico on the left.Some saloons were built straddling the border and patrons could enjoy either soft drinks orhard liquor, depending on which end of the saloon they were drinking in! Thanks, Jeremy. Greatresearch; better than great writing; and, noting that the cover photo is from your personal
collection, the obvious question is when will you compose an illustrated history of Prohibition?
