Virus Hunter: A Biography from American Medical History

On Wednesday evening, about 10 members of the History Book Club met at the Kensington Row Bookshop to discuss Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World by C. J. Peters and Mark Olshaker. Dr. Peters is the virus hunter of the title and Mark Olshanker is a professional writer.

The interest of the club was triggered by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa; Dr. Peters is a world expert on that disease, and was the man in charge of the effort to contain an Ebola epidemic in monkeys that occurred in Reston, Virginia in 1989.

We owe special thanks to Eli and Al, the owners of the bookshop. The shop was closed this week, but opened Wednesday evening especially so that the book clubs could meet as regularly scheduled.

The meeting began with an unusually long discussion of possible future books to be read and discussed. These are all described with links to obtain more detailed information on the club's blog. There was special interest in two topics:

• California history, since we had not read about that state in the past and its history is quite different than that of other regions of the USA. We were especially interested in Father Junipero Serra, a founding father of the state who is to be formally declared a saint during the visit to the United States by Pope Francis in September. (This will be the first such ceremony ever conducted in the United States, and is likely to be a topic of conversation and debate.)
• The history of the United States as a sea power in the 19th century. It has been suggested that the oceans were an important frontier for Americans before the opening of western lands. Again, this is a topic that the club has not explored in the past, but is one quite important to the nation's commercial, military and scientific history.

Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever

A member who had been a health planner began this portion of the discussion when he described having been asked to identify a consultant to the USAID mission in Bolivia many years ago. The consultant was to lead an assessment of that country's health sector. The purpose of the assessment was to form the basis for a consideration of a possible health sector development loan. Our member was asked to find a U.S. citizen who was a medical doctor, with a post doctoral public health degree, strong writing and public speaking skills in English, fluent Spanish, who had worked in Bolivia, and who if possible spoke either Aymara or Quechua. After a week of work three qualified candidates were identified. There was an aside at this point on the huge personnel resources of this country, where such requirements can be routinely fulfilled. Dr. Robert Lebow was selected for the job. 

What makes that anecdote relevant is that Dr. Lebow also appears importantly in our book. Dr. Lebow had been a Peace Corps physician assigned to Bolivia, and he learned of several cases of hemorrhagic fever that had occurred in Cochabama. Viral hemorrhagic fevers had been of interest to the international health community since they had been discovered in Korea during the Korean War, where they had been a threat to American troops. An Argentinian Hemorrhagic Fever had attracted further notice, especially because it proved highly contagious and highly lethal; one team sent to investigate an outbreak had had every member infected and killed by the disease. Lebow recognized that the outbreak in the middle altitude of Bolivia was unlikely to have come from the same rodent reservoir as that in lowland Argentina. He called for help from the NIH Middle America Research Unit (MARU) in Panama; MARU sent Dr. C. J. Peters to do an epidemiological investigation of the outbreak.

Dr. Peters had exceptional training. An outstanding record as an undergraduate led to medical school at Johns Hopkins University (one of the best in the world), After internship he did a residency in immunology, and then worked as an NIH virologist at the MARU under one of the world's experts for some five years. If you think about it, this was about a decade and a half of higher education and specialized training preparing him for the work he was to do during the rest of a long career.

A Bolivian physician friend of Bob LeBow's had agreed to do an autopsy on one of the victims of the outbreak. Tragically, an accident had occurred during the autopsy, and the man was infected and came down with the disease.

At that point in the discussion, our health planner intervened to describe a visit to a hospital in Cochabama that he had made with an official of the Bolivian Ministry of Health. Several anecdotes served to make it clear to other club members that such a hospital could not adequately care for the man suffering from hemorrhagic fever, nor indeed could it protect its own staff from being infected were they to provide such care.

Lebow and Peters agreed that they would care for the man themselves. That meant rotating 12 hour shifts, each working alone under conditions of considerable personal risk. They did so until the patient died. These two men were physicians who cared deeply for their patients, not just public health officers or scientists, and they had put their own lives at risk. We club members considered them to be heroes.

One of the club members who had read this section of the book late in the evening while in bed reported that she had been so disturbed by the described events that she had needed to put the book down, get up, and watch television for an hour to regain her composure.

Virus Hunters

We discussed the small cadre of highly trained and skilled men who go to the ends of the earth, to the most dangerous of places dealing with the most dangerous diseases to find new threats to mankind and to learn how to deal with them. C. J. Peters is prototypical, but there are others.

A member briefly described the work of Dr, Robert Shope, a Virologist who was on the faculty at Yale for decades and eventually went to a university in Texas. "He helped discover hundreds of viruses, conducting investigations in Malaysia as an Army medical officer and in Brazil for the Rockefeller Foundation. At Yale, he led or participated in investigations of Rift Valley fever, Lassa fever, Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever and other diseases......Dr. Shope also built the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, a collection of some 5,000 samples."

A reference center is an important tool, helping virologists identify the viruses that they isolate from human patients or animals. Such collections also help illuminate the genetic relationships among viruses. Discovering that a new virus is genetically related to known viruses can suggest how contagious it may be, how it is transmitted, how lethal it may be, and even how to deal with it.

Dr. Shope was also one of the editors of a major report issued by the National Academies of Science, Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States (1992). The Spanish Flu that was associated with World War I was such an emergent disease; it killed 50 million to 100 million people world wide. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is from another emergent virus, and its slow-motion epidemic appears comparably lethal to mankind.

One of the points made in our group is that viruses mutate, and the strains of a virus newly arrived in humans may evolve quickly; it is possible for emergent diseases to become more contagious, more deadly, or both. Such mutation has been one of the threats of the Ebola virus. It is an RNA virus, likely to mutate more often than DNA viruses. The more people that are infected, the more opportunities for the evolution of more dangerous strains of the virus. The current epidemic which for the first time infected more than a handful of people, thus threatened to be the site for evolution of an even worse Ebola disease agent that the current strain.

The point of Emerging Infections was that a global epidemiological surveillance system that was capable of quickly detecting an emerging infection and limiting its spread is of direct value to the United States as well as to all other countries. Some advances have been made in achieving such a system (SARS was mentioned), but it has not yet come near to perfection.

Virus hunters like Drs. Peters and Shope are the first line of defense against emerging viral diseases. There are not many of them, but we were surprised that there were any at all. They are very highly trained, they risk their lives in their work, they travel to the ends of the earth often living in the roughest circumstances, they work in evil locations such as bat caves and infectious disease wards, they must sometimes wear uncomfortable protective gear, and they are paid only modest government salaries. A member who had been a school counselor told us that he had regularly been surprised by students choosing careers that to the outsider seemed most unattractive.

The Reston Ebola Outbreak

Reston Virus

Ebola broke out in 1989 in a facility being used to quarantine monkeys in Reston Virginai. It was caused by a filovirus similar to the species of Ebola that cause human disease, but apparently several humans who handled monkeys were infected but did not become sick. It was not the same Ebola species that has ravaged African nations. Initially it was thought to be more dangerous to humans than it eventually proved to be and there was great anxiety among those dealing with the disease.

We were struck by the good fortune that the outbreak occurred near Ft. Detrick in Maryland. Dr. Peters was assigned there, and the Army's research facility there had one of the only staffs in the nation capable of dealing with an Ebola virus outbreak. It also had unique physical facilities needed to deal with the outbreak.

One member of our team noted that accidents seem to happen more frequently than one might expect among people handling such dangerous disease agents. A member recalled a (long ago) job as a bartender, noting that cuts were common in that job, even though everyone knew that handling broken glass was a common hazard of the work. Another member, one who had once worked in a military blood bank, added that he too had found accidents there more common than one would expect.

The situation in research involving disease agents is getting safer. Today there are four levels of research laboratories defined, and the U.S. does not fund research unless it is to be conducted in a lab with a sufficient safety rating to assure the security of the research.

In 1989 there was only one level 4 lab in the country, but fortunately it was in Ft. Detrick. That is the level designed to deal with highly contagious, potentially lethal disease agents for which there are no known treatments. That is what is still appropriate for handling the Ebola virus.

We discussed the fact that the thicket of regulations designed to protect the public from health risks also creates barriers to the conduct of the biomedical research that might really protect the public. Virus Hunter is especially good at explaining how this phenomenon worked in the Reston Ebola outbreak. There were different regulations in Virginia and Maryland. There were different federal regulations for use of non-human primates in medical research and for quarantine of imported animals. The federal Center for Disease Control had to be involved as there was a national threat to public health. The Department of Defense had its own regulations. Dr. Peters and his collaborators had to deal with them all and with the officers each employed to enforce its specific regulations.

Some members of our club found it shocking that the ultimate control of the outbreak was achieved by killing all of the hundreds of monkeys in the facility -- healthy as well as sick. This was a terrible job! Monkeys are smart and quickly realized that they were in danger; they are tough and fought for their lives. Many of the cages in the facility (which was a quarantine facility, not a research facility) did not allow immobilization of the monkeys. The people were working in protective suits that were hot, uncomfortable, and limited their mobility. The workers feared that if bitten they might come down with a potential fatal disease. Even disposal of the bodies created problems -- were they potential sources of lethal human infection?

That led us into a discussion of the complexity of rules for the ethical treatment of animals involved in research. For example, there are different rules for treatment of laboratory animals than for livestock, and still different rules for wild animals. The rules for treatment of non-human primates recognize that they are intelligent and much like humans.

That part of the discussion was ended with an unanswerable comment: We thought of a researcher carefully assuring that the cows involved in his research (research funded by the Department of Agriculture, with protocols approved by his university) are treated humanely. Would he then go out and enjoying a steak dinner?

Where Are They Now?

Dr. Robert Lebow continued for many years to consult in the field of international health, but his main interest became a community health service he created in Idaho. He built it into "a $9.3 million a year operation, treating more than 18,000 patients in 10 locations.....(I)n 1998 and 1999 he was (also) president of Physicians for a National Health Program." He published a book, Health Care Meltdown: Confronting the Myths and Fixing our Ailing System. Tragically, he was disabled by an accident riding his bicycle to work in 2003, and died that same year.

Dr. Robert Shope suffered a major pulmonary disease of unknown origin; he died in 2004 as a result of complications from a lung transplant carried out to treat that disease.

Dr. C. J. Peters is still active, and is one of the experts called upon to help deal with the current Ebola epidemic.

Measles

The current outbreak of measles in the United States (after it had been eradicated following the 1971 introduction of the measles-mumps-rubella - MMR - vaccine) led us to a disbelieving discussion. We wondered how highly educated people were denying their children immunization, based apparently on a discredited article published years ago. There has even been a report of a "measles party" -- parents of a child who had contracted measles invited their friends who had children who had not been immunized to bring them so that they too could contract the disease; these parents apparently preferred to immunize their kids by giving them the dangerous disease rather than the safe vaccine. It was pointed out that in 2012, there were some 150,000 deaths from measles in the world, since mass immunization has not been possible in many parts of Asia and Africa.

A member pointed out that German measles (also known as rubella) was a real danger to pregnant women, causing many unwanted abortions prior to the general availability of rubella immunization.

Another member reported having contracted mumps as an adult prior to the availability of the MMR vaccine. He wound up hospitalized with a dangerous complication. Mumps too is a dangerous disease.

That member who had suffered an attack of shingles strongly recommend adult immunization against shingles. It was noted that the vaccine does not offer 100 percent protection and that shingles may recur, but reduction of the likelihood of an attack is still worthwhile. However, another member mentioned that she had a chronic medical condition that precluded her taking the vaccine.

The bottom line of this portion of the discussion was that while vaccines are generally safe, some vaccines are dangerous for some people. While vaccines are one of the most important advances in public health, one should always consult with one's physician before being vaccinated. One should not follow medical advice about so important a matter from untrained people.

Ebola in West Africa

We concluded the discussion with a review of the current information about the Ebola epidemic in three African countries -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There have been nearly 23,000 reported cases, of which nearly 13,000 have been confirmed by laboratory tests. There have been more than 9000 deaths.

While at one time there were 1000 or more new cases being reported a week, in January 100 cases or less were being reported per week. That reduction has led to a change in the response strategy. Now emphasis must be placed on maintaining the effort, identifying every contact, quarantining contacts when possible, isolating the infected and eliminating every last case.

We discussed why the incidence had fallen off. In part this was because community behavior had changed, and people were avoiding the contacts that earlier had led to the high contagion rate. In part the change in behavior was due to the impact of public health messages, in part to people spontaneously choosing to avoid Ebola victims, and in part it was due to the officials sending burial teams in protective gear to bury the Ebola dead rather than leaving that task to family and community members.

During this epidemic, it was learned that people sick with Ebola hemorrhagic fever were more likely to infect others later rather than earlier in the course of the disease. Early case identification and hospitalization therefore seems to have had a significant benefit in reducing the spread of the disease.

We noted that people who recovered from Ebola had gained an immunity, and young recovered people were playing an important role in caring for the many Ebola orphans -- children who are sometimes shunned by relatives who might otherwise care for them but fear that they may still carry the disease.

The U.S. troops who had played an important role in building facilities to help the countries deal with the epidemic are now largely back in the United States. The USA is still supporting some 10,000 people in West Africa working to end the epidemic, most of them Africans. There are more than 200 U.S. Center for Disease Control staff there contributing to the epidemiological efforts.

The world still has few remedies to help a patient survive Ebola hemorrhagic fever. A member brought in an article from the Washington Post that described the difficulties of testing new treatments that have emerged for the disease; there is only a waning numbers of patients on whom to do the tests. She also brought in an article from the same source that described three potential vaccines, two of which have entered testing; the completion of those trials is also questioned.

Final Comments

Looking back, the discussion  was wide ranging, focusing on topic about which we would like to know more. These topics ranged from the history of the parts of the United States with Hispanic backgrounds, to the role of Americans at sea, to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and how its division influences the region today, and indeed to medical history.

The Book Club has not focused on American medical history in any depth in the past, and this week we focused on one story from that history, especially as seen through the biography of one man, C. J. Peters. It is the story of the scientifically trained experts who contribute to our knowledge of infectious diseases.

Many historians of medicine believe that a century ago a visit to a doctor was more likely to result in harm to the patient than medical benefit. That century has seen unprecedented advances in medicine and a corresponding dramatic increase in life expectancy in the USA. Much of the improvement has been achieved through the prevention and treatment of communicable diseases -- notably the development of vaccines, antibiotics and antivirals (as well as other drugs treat some communicable diseases).

On the other hand, the 20th century saw the Spanish flu and HIV/AIDS pandemics and many epidemics. Moreover, the benefits of modern medicine have still not fully penetrated to the ends of the earth. Experts believe that new disease agents will emerge, probably in these under-served areas, with the potential to cause new pandemics.

The virus hunters have been in the vanguard of the public health movements. They remain the front line defense against emerging viral diseases. They are a special breed, often heroic. The History Book Club members present enjoyed beginning to learn about these heroes and their work.

Below are President Obama's recent speech on American leadership in the Ebola response (which was distributed via the club blog) and two posts related to the book by one of our members on his own blog.

Previous blog posts:

• Dr. Peters: Virus Hunter
• On the Modeling of Ebola and Epidemics

Possible Books for April 2015

Woman reading (c.1912). Karl Alexander Wilke

"And she is the reader

who browses the shelf

and looks for new worlds

but finds herself.”

Laura Purdie Salas

Perhaps it is time for the club again to read some North American History. Here are some books that you might consider:

Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father by Steven W. Hackel.  352 pages, 4.1 stars. Father Serra has been called the most important man in California history. He established a chain of missions through the state three centuries ago that completely changed the lives of its Indians. The Spanish heritage is marked in place names: San Diego, Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francico. Steven W. Hackel’s groundbreaking biography is the first to remove Serra from the realm of polemic and place him within the currents of history. Here is an article on Serra that mentions the book. Here is a brief article by author Hackel on Father Serra. Here is a video news report triggered by the Pope's recent announcement that Father Serra is to be recognized as a saint; Hackel is included as an expert. Selected for May 2015

Bridges

Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge by Kevin Starr. 224 pages, 3.8 stars. Kevin’s Starr’s Golden Gate is a brilliant and passionate telling of the history of the bridge itself, and a recounting of the rich and peculiar history of the California experience. The Golden Gate is a grand public work, a symbol and a very real bridge, a magnet for both postcard photographs and suicides. In this compact but comprehensive narrative, Starr unfolds the hidden-in-plain sight meaning of the Golden Gate, putting it in its place among classic works of art. Here is the New York Times review of the book. Here is a video with author Starr talking about the bridge.

The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge by Guy Talese. 208 pages, 4 stars.  Towards the end of 1964, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge—linking the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island with New Jersey—was completed. It remains an engineering marvel almost forty years later—at 13,700 feet (more than two and a half miles), it is still the longest suspension bridge in the United States and the sixth longest in the world. This is a reissue of Talese's 50 year old book on the construction of the bridge. Here is a review of the book. Here is a long video interview of the author about the book.

Americans on the Oceans

You might want to read this one page brief from the State Department's Historian on origin of U.S. interest insea power in the 1890s, especially as it was influenced by Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power upon History.

Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America by Eric Jay Dolin. 512 page (342 of text), 4.6 stars.  A Los Angeles Times Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007; A Boston Globe Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007; Amazon.com Editors pick as one of the 10 best history books of 2007; Winner of the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, given by the North American Society for Oceanic History. Here is the New York Times review of the book. Here is a video with Dolin describing the book. One of final four in History Book Club voting.

Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick. 480 pages (364 pages of text), 4.4 stars. America's first frontier was not the West; it was the sea. Philbrick writes about one of the most ambitious voyages of discovery the Western world has ever seen -- the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838 to 1842. Here is the New York Times review of the book. Here is a long video with Philbrick discussing the expedition. Selected for April 2015

George Washington's Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea by James Nelson. Paperback seems to be out of print, but available from secondary sellers, hardcover affordable. 320 pages, 4.7 stars. From the author of the critically acclaimed Benedict Arnold's Navy, here is the story of how America's first commander-in-chief--whose previous military experience had been entirely on land--nursed the fledgling American Revolution through a season of stalemate by sending troops to sea. 2009 recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for excellence in naval literature. Here is a review of the book.

Atlantic Kingdom: Americas Contest with Cunard in the Age of Sail and Steam  by John Butler (local author). 280 pages, unrated.  Atlantic Kingdom pays tribute to the Americans who challenged Cunard, the shipping company that held a monopoly on North Atlantic trade routes in the nineteenth century. In an era when civilization first grappled with large-scale technology and creative industries promised a new standard of living, competition for control over maritime trade was fierce. Cornelius Vanderbilt and P. T. Barnum were among those who battled like mythical gods for control of their domains. These titans of the Atlantic left behind them a wreckage of human lives, lost ships, and squandered fortunes in their failed bids for supremacy of the seas. Here is a review of the book.

Other American History

William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic by Alan Taylor. (427 pages of text), 4.6 stars. Winner of the Bancroft, Beveridge and Pulitzer prizes, this book presents the story of two men, William Cooper and his son, the novelist James Fenimore Cooper, who embodied the contradictions that divided America in the early years of the Republic. Taylor shows how Americans resolved their revolution through the creation of new social forms and new stories that evolved with the expansion of our frontier. Read a review of the book in the Smithsonian magazine. Here is a C-Span video of Alan Taylor's presentation of the book. One of final four in History Book Club voting.

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner. 448 pages (336 pages of text), 4.6 stars. Winner of the Pulitzer, Bancroft, and Lincoln Prizes. this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln's lifelong engagement with the nation's critical issue: American slavery. A master historian, Eric Foner draws Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance. We see Lincoln, a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigating the dynamic politics of antislavery, secession, and civil war. Lincoln's greatness emerges from his capacity for moral and political growth. Here is the New York Times review of the book. Here is a long video of the C-Span interview of Eric Foner on the book.

Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman by Robert L. O'Connell. 4.3 out of 5 stars, 432 pages of which about 350 are text. Sherman is best known as a Civil War General, but his service began in the Seminole War in Florida, and continued after the Civil War as Commanding General of the Army during the Indian Wars when he took responsibility for the safety of the transcontinental railways. This book is described as less a military history of his campaigns (although the Washington Post liked the description of the March to the Sea) than a biography of a complicated man and his development as a military expert. Here is a review of the book in The Economist magazine.

The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War by Don H. Doyle. 4.1 stars, 400 pages. The book is not yet available in paperback but the hardback edition is affordable and available used. Author Doyle explains that the Civil War was viewed abroad as part of a much larger struggle for democracy that spanned the Atlantic Ocean, and had begun with the American and French Revolutions. Foreign observers held widely divergent views on the war—from radicals such as Karl Marx and Giuseppe Garibaldi who called on the North to fight for liberty and equality, to aristocratic monarchists, who hoped that the collapse of the Union would strike a death blow against democratic movements on both sides of the Atlantic. Nowhere were these monarchist dreams more ominous than in Mexico, where Napoleon III sought to implement his Grand Design for a Latin Catholic empire that would thwart the spread of Anglo-Saxon democracy and use the Confederacy as a buffer state. Here is a review of the book from The Economist magazine. Here is a video interview with the author on the book.

Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown. The paperback is to be published March 1, but the book has been available in hardback for some time. 416 pages (338 pages of text), 4.5 stars. Winner of the Hawley Prize, the Beverage Award and 4 other prizes. Brown tells the extraordinary stories of Richland, Washington and Ozersk, Russia-the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium. To contain secrets, American and Soviet leaders created plutopias--communities of nuclear families living in highly-subsidized, limited-access atomic cities. Fully employed and medically monitored, the residents of Richland and Ozersk enjoyed all the pleasures of consumer society, while nearby, migrants, prisoners, and soldiers were banned from plutopia--they lived in temporary "staging grounds" and often performed the most dangerous work at the plant. Here is a review of the book. Here is a long C-Span video of Kate Brown describing the book to a Baltimore audience,

Some Other Books That Were Mentioned Last Meeting

Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent by Larry Berman. 336 pages, 4.1 stars.

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by 
Jung Chang. 464 pages (374 pages of text), 4.3 stars.

The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moises Naim. 320 pages, 3.9 stars.

British Upper Class Soviet Agents: Ben Macintyres Book

15 people participated in a lively discussion of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre at the always hospitable Kensington Row Bookshop. The meeting, as usual, was held from 7:30 to 9:30 on the second Wednesday of the month (January 14th). Prior to the meeting, club members were provided with a link to the review of the book in the New York Times.

Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt were recruited as Soviet spies during their education at Cambridge University in the 1930s. All later held important positions in the British government while continuing to serve as Soviet spies. The book covers the pre-war, World War II, and early Cold War period. Kim Philby was perhaps the most effective spy in modern history, over time serving as a senior officer in the British MI6, as the MI6 liaison with the CIA in Washington, and eventually-- even after he fell under suspicion left the service and was rehired -- as an MI6 field operative in the Middle East. Eventually Burgess, Maclean and Philby all defected to seek asylum in Moscow.

Ben Macintyre's book poses two questions:

• What kind of man was Philby that he could live such a double life for so long? 
• How was it that the British Intelligence service could be so penetrated for so long (and how could that penetration not be discovered by the CIA)?

It is important to underline that there have been a great many books on spies and spycraft, many focusing on that related to World War II and the Cold War. Indeed, the History Book Club read The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant in 2010. During the meeting 

Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent by Larry Berman was also mentioned. Macintyre wisely avoided dealing with too much in this single book, focusing specifically on what he takes to be key relationships critical to the success of Philby's Soviet spying.

Clockwise: Anthony Blunt,
Donald Maclean, Kim Philby,
Guy Burgess

Macintyre stresses the relationship between Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliott, and to a lesser degree that between Philby and the American, James Angleton (who became head of CIA counterintelligence); both Elliott and Angleton are depicted as protecting Philby, or at least not giving credence to the accumulating evidence against him. The book portrays MI6 as run by members of a narrow British upper class who attended expensive public (read private if you are a Yank) schools and elite universities and whose families knew each other; these posh folk could not believe a member of their class would betray their country. Elliott was a little younger than Philby, and began their long relationship admiring Philby's journalistic career. Angleton had been educated in England, and shared many of the English upper class attitudes. Philby maintained long term social friendships with Elliott and Angleton, making it still more difficult for them to believe him a Soviet agent.

Macintyre's answer about Philby as a man was perhaps less than convincing to the members of the club, and they in turn offered a number of hypotheses.

The British Class Structure

The British class structure is hard for members of the book club (Americans all) to fully understand. There has long been a clear delineation between the upper classes and the working class. Entry to key government posts apparently was often achieved through family connections or through the recommendations of faculty at expensive public schools or elite universities to upper class officers of the relevant government agency. Indeed, vetting for sensitive posts was often simply based on the candidates coming from a "good family", or by informally asking a mutual acquaintance about the candidate.

The men who occupied the key positions in the foreign ministry and MI6 tended to belong to clubs, and those clubs limited membership to the upper classes. Belonging to the right club was a ticket to entry into the agency elite. Some of the government business was conducted in the facilities of these clubs.

Kim Philby was clearly a member of the British upper class. His father, St. John Philby was a distinguished British orientalist. As mentioned above, Kim Philby went to the "right schools". We were impressed that even after a long career as a Soviet spy, he was greatly concerned with assuring that his two sons also were educated in the right English public schools. Even when he was living in Moscow, married to a Russian citizen, teaching new Soviet spies, and honored by Russians as a distinguished former Soviet agent, the Russians regarded him as a British gentleman.

Nicholas Elliott's father had been a Don at Cambridge and was the headmaster at Eton. Nicholas too was educated at a public school and Cambridge, and he too was very upper class.

Nicholas Elliott

We noted that the OSS -- created in significant part on the model of British intelligence -- and later the CIA both recruited from Ivy League colleges. Often those who would run American intelligence were recruited by personal contacts, especially with a recruiter asking an acquaintance on an Ivy League faculty if he had some good student who might be right for a job in intelligence.

We noted that MI5, the British counterpart to the FBI in terms of its role in combating foreign spies at home, had tended to recruit from the police, and was thereby less of a bastion of the upper class. So too, we noted that the FBI in Philby's day recruited heavily from lawyers and accountants (we thought less so today) and thus was socially different than the OSS or CIA.

The British informal process for vetting candidates for the diplomatic and intelligence services seems likely to have played a role allowing the Cambridge ring of Soviet spies to gain entry. Perhaps the upper class disdain for the more proletarian staff of MI5 played a role in the Soviet moles' continued success. It does seem likely that the upper class men running British intelligence found it hard to conceive of members of their class betraying the country, their class and their friends as double agents. (And there seems to have been a closing of the ranks to protect colleagues from criticisms by others.)

As an aside, a member asked when the United States became paranoid about communist infiltration in U.S. institutions. A couple of people related high school experiences in which they had been interrogated by their school's Vice Principals after expressing liberal ideas in class. A long term teacher in the group told us that the large majority of reports to school principals of such "un-American activity" in fact come from other students. We briefly noted that the Rosenberg's were tried, found guilty and executed at the beginning of the Cold War (the execution took place in 1953). That was a unique event, and might mark an early maximum in the paranoia about communism and communist subversion,

How Important Was Philby's Intelligence to the USSR?

The group chatted briefly about the importance of the intelligence supplied to the Soviet Union by Philby. Given that he achieved important posts in MI6 and was passing a lot of information to his Soviet handler, we assumed that in that role he was an important agent. He had access to some of the Bletchly Park decryptions of German coded messages, and can be assumed to have passed them on as well; we judged that that intelligence was very important, especially when it concerned military movements on the German-Soviet front. When Philby was liaison to the CIA he must have had access both to information the British were sharing with the USA, and to information that the USA was sharing with the UK; this would also have been passed to his Soviet handlers. Indeed, that his intelligence was eventually routed directly to Stalin implies that it was very important indeed.

The Advantages of a "Ruling Class"

A member of the club suggested that there was an advantage that the British had relying on an upper class, trained from childhood to rule. The public schools and elite universities deliberately trained their students to take important roles in public life as adults. (We did not mention it, but the members of the upper class also tended to have responsibility early in their careers and rapid promotions; they were thus trained to ultimately accept very great responsibility by the end of their careers.)

In the past, the officers of the British foreign office or MI6 might find themselves serving during their careers in several different countries with the same counterparts from allied or competitor countries, thereby forming long term relationships with those counterparts. (A member described a U.S. and a Soviet intelligence agent that she understood personally to have formed such a relationship.) Ultimately -- later in his career upon achieving very senior rank -- a British government officer might know his foreign counterparts (who had also achieved senior rank) quite well and be well positioned to deal with them. Thus the system worked well, and perhaps there is little comparable in modern government.

What Kind of Man Was Kim Philby?

The key characters in this book were all trained intelligence officers, who presumably were trained on how to deceive others. The British agents of the Soviet government were all successful deceiving their closest friends and colleagues in English and American intelligence agencies for many years. Philby gave a famous press conference in which he totally deceived the press and public. We assumed that memoirs or interviews given after the double agents defected were likely to suffer from normal memory lapses as well as to have been self-serving. Angleton is know ultimately to have burned the extensive contemporaneous notes he made following his Washington luncheon meetings with Philby. Others who were interviewed about the spies may also have been less than accurate in their accounts. Thus author Macintyre was at a huge disadvantage trying to discover motivations of his subjects. 

One of the club members mentioned that Macintyre sometimes gave details about  Philby's motives or even physical "tells" from which motives and emotions might be inferred. Macintyre could not have been sure of these things; while he references sources, the sources could not have been both that specific and reliable. Still we recognized that the use of that narative device by the author made the book more interesting for the reader.

In retrospect there were clues in their character that could have alerted the British and American governments to the dangers these men posed. It seems clear that many of these characters were heavy drinkers. (The book suggested that increasingly heavy drinking may have been a response to the stress of spying and especially the role of double agent, but it was noted that many people similarly become heavier drinkers over time without any such stress.) Just before he defected to Russia, Burgess was drinking to great excess; we recalled one dinner party when he roomed with Philby in Washington in which his drunken comments about a fellow guests breasts caused her and her husband to take great offense. 

Burgess was gay, and apparently had many sexual partners. Philby's first wife was a communist, and he was known to have had an affair with the wife of a friend as well as several marriages.

What was Philby's motivation to spy for the Soviets? Was he simply ideologically committed? Perhaps. It was also suggested that his motivation may have changed over time. As a university student of history and economics in the Depression he may have concluded that something was seriously wrong with capitalism; many of his contemporaries did. He might have come to believe that socialism or communism was a superior alternative to capitalism. During his time in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, he may have concluded that the Nazis and Fascists were the greatest threat and thus that support for the Spanish socialists and communists was important. We wondered why, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was announced, Philby did not abandon communism as so many contemporary western communists did. A decision to help the Soviets once the Nazis and Britain were at war was more comprehensible, since without successful American and Soviet allies the British were likely to lose the war. Eventually Philby may have been so deeply involved and so handled by Soviet intelligence agents that he had little alternative but to continue as a double agent. However, all of this is pure supposition.

We noted that the alliance of the four fellow Soviet spies lasted for years. These friends from their university days with common experience as foreign agents in their own government may have provided mutual support helpful to the maintenance of their duplicitous roles. We noted, however, that Anthony Blunt eventually appears to have ceased spying for the Soviets.

It was also suggested that the comradery of men who had served together in dangerous circumstances during wartime may have helped form bonds which sustain them in their common devotion to the Soviet cause.

Philby as a British agent, early in the Cold War, helped train anti-communist insurgents who were intended to overthrow the Communist government of Albania; indeed he was on the boat that took them to Albania. As a Soviet Agent he informed his handlers of the attempt to overthrow that government, leading to the capture and death of most of the insurgents. Of course, Philby must have known that his espionage had led to the discovery, capture and death of many allied agents prior, but the Albanian situation was direct and personal; what kind of man would do that? One answer is that the Americans and British were training and inserting insurgents to kill others; those who make a career of covert sabotage must accept the deaths that they cause as part of the job. Philby was surrounded by colleagues who took such treachery as a standard part of their jobs,

It was noted that the CIA employs more PhD social scientists than any other organization in the USA; they tend to fill desk jobs as intelligence analysts, rather than field jobs running agents to sabotage governments; intelligence analysts and field agents tend to be different kinds of people. While Philby served in desk jobs, he was recruited by both Soviet and British intelligence to run agents in the field. He seems likely to have had the kind of matter of fact attitude that this would imply. This too is consistent with early reports from his university days that he was not deeply interested in the ethics and deeper implications of the historical behavior he was studying..

We thought that Kim Philby might be one of those people who deliberately seek to take risks; he certainly did lead a risky life. We understood that there are some soldiers who seek out battle and find a return to peace to be difficult, that there are people who seek out careers in the most dangerous form of policing, such as drug enforcement work. Race car drivers, sky divers, and those who participate in dangerous sports may also exemplify such risk seekers. Philby sought out dangerous work in Austria, then in Spain during its Civil War, then in France as it was being invaded by Germany; he worked as a double agent when exposure would have resulted in disgrace and jail and when his handlers were sequentially executed as under suspicion of lack of loyalty to the USSR. He continued to work in the middle east when that was one of the most dangerous regions in the world. That pattern fits a man who wanted and perhaps even needed to experience risk in his life.

The Book Did Not Deal in Depth With the Soviets

A member said that she felt that a major failure of the book was that it did not deal well with Russian/Soviet sources. Macintyre did not mine the Venona project files for relevant information on Philby and the other Soviet agents of his circle. The files that became available from Moscow through defectors or at the end of the Cold War might also have been reviewed. There were a number of very capable Soviet agents who handled the British agents and their reports might have shed a great deal of light on the subjects of this book.

Do We Get the Full Story from the U.S. Press?

Having immersed ourselves discussing duplicity for a while, a member asked if we ever get "the full story" in the American media, or are critical aspects of events held back? Certainly a great deal of information is withheld by the government under the government secrecy acts.

Another member, one who had spent a long career in a major network newsroom, told us about the deterioration of foreign news by U.S. media due to cutbacks in funding for the news bureaus. His network has closed many of its foreign offices, depending instead on stringers to cover unfolding events. Thus, for example, there is no on-site network foreign reporter covering southern Africa, and a huge area of Africa is covered by only a few stringers. The only news broadcast by the network from the region tends to be that of armed conflict, and then only if the United States is somehow involved.

It was suggested that we now have other sources in addition to U.S. media. One member described watching RT (Russia Today) news, and finding it gave quite a different slant on its stories than U.S. media. We not only have television news from several countries available on our TVs (BBC, France24, Al Jazeera, etc.) but the Internet makes newspapers from other countries available online. While foreign language ability is required to read most foreign papers online, most major cities have at least one English language paper  available via the Internet. When questioned, a half dozen of the members present reported having used a foreign news source in the last week.

Did Philby Defect or Was He Allowed to Defect?

Kim Philby was separated from British intelligence after his career was tarnished by the defection of Burgess and MacLean. However, he was rehired as an agent working out of Beirut and working in the Middle East under cover as a journalist. He again came under suspicion at that time, and was interrogated by Nicholas Elliott. A club member asked, why was that interrogation limited to only the time before 1949? Was it to assure that the British government was not embarrassed even more before the CIA and FBI? Was it to protect Elliott's own career?

Why were the Soviets able to extract Philby from Beirut? Elliott interrupted his interrogation, announcing he was traveling and instead hiding in the city. Philby might have been taken to England for detailed questioning. Indeed, why was Philby not assassinated? We postulated that it was much more convenient to MI6 to have him living in Moscow than being fully interrogated by British and allied intelligence officers the west. A public trial in London might have been a public relations disaster for MI6 and would have made the British officials involved look very bad indeed. It was suggested that it was likely that the British had allowed him to escape -- as escape made with the help of the Soviet intelligence service.

On Current Movies

The current movie, The Imitation Game, rather naturally came up in discussion as it deals with the breaking of the German codes by the British during World War II. That led to a fulsome condemnation of the film by a computer professional in the group. He was offended by the many inaccuracies in the film's depiction of the breaking of the enigma code. He was even more offended by the movie's depiction of Alan Turing, finding it demeaned a very important mathematician and founding father of the field of computer science. Turing was in our member's opinion a far better rounded person than the film depicts.

That led to comments about another movie nominated for a 2014 Academy Award -- Selma. The film rewrites a number of the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. It seems that the King estate sold the copyright of the speeches. When the movie's producers approached the current owners of those rights, there were apparently quoted a price for using them in the film (with the exception of the "I Have a Dream" speech which was to be free); the producers chose not to pay that price, but rather to write a script in which alternatives were given which did not infringe upon the copyrights. We were not amused by the choice.

Prior to the meeting, members were informed that Cambridge Spies, a BBC television series, is available on DVD. The DVD also contains supporting materials. Well acted, the series is dramatic rather than factual, but perhaps helps the viewer to understand the environment that these spies lived in as young men.

One member then asked who owns the copyright to what members say in the Book Club meetings. Since the meetings are not recorded, the issue may never arise in practice. (I suppose the author of anything written about the club, such as this blog, owns copyright to what he/she writes. If so, the reader is free to use this post.)

Final Comments

Several people attending had a deep interest in intelligence agencies and had read a great deal about the subject. That knowledge enlivened the discussion.

Generally, people liked the book. That is not surprising since the book has received strong ratings from many readers and has been listed as among the best books published in 2014.

One member noted that he very much liked the questions raised by author Macintyre, and he had enjoyed thinking about those issues. He was not certain that even after reading the book he really understood the personalities and motivations of the characters nor the aspects of the intelligence agencies that allowed double agents to survive for extended periods, but he was willing to live with that uncertainty.

The Kensington Row Bookshop
Where the History Book Club Meets

Some Books (and films) on the Irish Revolution or the Irish Civil War

Chris sent me the following in an email. (The materials in red are my additions. I have also added links to the book page at Amazon.com and reviews of the books for your convenience.)

There are a couple of books that we might want to consider when you asked me about Irish War of Independence and Civil War books.

First of all "Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916" by Peter De Rosa is an excellent book to read, except.....It is a bit like only reading about the Boston Tea Party or the Alamo and figuring that is the whole story.  568 pages, 4.6 stars. Here is the New York Times review of the book.

Probably the most interesting book to read on the subject is Tom Barry's : Guerilla Days in Ireland: A Personal Account of the Anglo-Irish War. This was written by one of the IRA flying squad members in the late 40's and was very influential in the liberation movements of the 1950's and 1960's. Plus it is a first person history of the conflict. 242 pages, 4.8 stars. Here are some reviews of the book from GoodReads.

Tim Pat Coogan has written a few books that have been popular over the years such as: IRA: The secret history and a bio on Michael Collins. I tend to regard some of his works with a bit of scrutiny cause he tended to have good access to IRA, IRB and other Republican sources, but sometimes would write what they wanted to hear. That being said, his Michael Collins bio is pretty decent. Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland 524 pages,  4.6 out of 5 stars. Here are some reviews of the book from GoodReads.

Peter Hart is of the Canadian school that started doing research into the subject in the last decade and started reexamining the conflict and checking out some of the old myths of the war. His two books: "The IRA At War 1916 - 1923"  and his "IRA And It's Enemies" are excellent and the forefront of present day research on the conflict. They have been labeled as revisionist by certain historians who prefer the old interpretations of the war, but they are quite good and were used heavily when I was doing research at University. The real pity is that Hart died so he has been unable to defend himself against his detractors.

• The I.R.A. at War 1916-1923 290 pages, not rated at Amazon. Here is a review from Reviews in History. 
• The I.R.A. and Its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923 368 pages 3.2 out of 5 stars. Here are some reviews from GoodReads.

There are also a few good books that popped up about the war recently. Micheal Hopkinson's book: The Irish War of Independence is very good. 274 pages, 4.3 out of 5 stars but only 3 Amazon ratings. The first half of this from History Ireland reviews the book.

There are also a few books out about Michael Collins intellegence war. The Squad by T Ryle Dwyer is very good as is also James Gleason's: Bloody Sunday paint a picture of the war fought in the back ally's of Dublin for control of the intellegence war.

It is hard to find books out about the North during the time period. Also there are some on the IRA's operations in the UK at the time. I can supply some titles if any one is interested.

Recently there have been some books on the UK side of the conflict. They have been a bit of a punching bag for nationalists for years, so it is nice to have some voices from their side. British Voices from the Irish War of Independence By William Sheehan is excellent on this subject.

The true "demons" of the war, The Black and Tans have also had some interesting books that have come out about them. The famous book by Richard Bennett made the Black and Tans out to be something the akin to a British SS group. David Leason wrote a new book on the Black and Tans (also with the same title). I have only read the reviews of this book and it closely follows some of the research that I came up with while at University. The Ironic thing is that many of them stayed on with the Irish Police after the Civil War ended and helped found the modern day Garda. Certainly gives you a chance to make your own mind up about them.

Books about the Civil War are even harder to find: Hopkinson has a good book on the subject: Green Against Green. The classic on the war was Ireland's Civil War by Calton Younger. The pity was at the time it was written it was denounced as "Free State Propaganda", which was rather ironic seeing what was happening at the time (late 1960's).

• Michael Hopkinson's Green Against Green 352 pages, 3.92 stars. Here is a review from the Irish Democrat. This book was to be considered at a future meeting, but not then selected.
• Calton Younger's Ireland's Civil War (out of print, but available used) 544 pages, 4.17 stars out of 5 but only 6 GoodReads ratings. Here are some GoodReads reviews.

Movie wise there are a bunch of good ones.

Micheal Collins (Dir Neil Jordan): Excellent movie. Fast forward through the Julia Roberts bits and forgive the stuff of legend ending, and you have a great movie. The funny history boo boo is that Ned Broy who is show killed by the Tan's actually lived through both conflicts, founded the Garda, and I believed lived until the 1970's after he retired. Highly entertaining and worth watching.

Wind that shakes the Barley: (Dir Ken Loach) This is probably the best movie on the conflict. Shows a lot of the struggle and all it's warts in an unvarnished view. Must see.

Shake Hands with the Devil (1959): This is an early IRA movie. The story line is very good for it shows how organized the IRA was during the time and James Cagney's role is excellent. The American tie in is really weak and the forced love story (why oh why do all these movies have to have one?) is pretty awful. But worth watching if you can get a copy.

Rebel Heart (2001) BBC ULSTER TV movie: Actually not a bad miniseries. Covers several characters from the Dublin Uprising to the Civil War. Covers also the North during the time. A bit silly at times, a Republican fantasy, and way too much romance, but worth seeing if you can get a copy. Just don't take it too seriously.

And if you are looking for what the IRA turned into:

Odd Man Out (Dir Carol Reed) (1947); Shows the IRA during the late 40's and 50's. More into being a lot more like Jesse James and less like Che.

Possible Books for March 2015

Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine by Jeremy A. Greene. This is a book that hits an interest of our book club in local history and another interest that has been expressed in the pharmaceutical industry. Do you remember the Generic Drug scandal of the late 1980s and 1990s? Apparently all of the 30 largest U.S. manufactures of generic drugs were implicated, and five FDA employees working in the Parklawn Building (so close to where we have been meeting all these years) were sent to jail. 368 pages, only one rating. I came across the book in an interview that the author did with Kojo Nnamdi on WAMU. Here is a review of the book. Here is an interview with one of the people who was involved in the investigations. The relevant section begins on page 10 of the transcript (The 15th page of the file.) Decision: To Be Considered for a Future Meeting.

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley follows up on his book, 1453, The Holy War for Constantinople that we read in 2010. Lepanto marked the limits of Ottoman expansion by sea power. In 1912 we read Wheatcroft's The Enemy at the Gate describing the end of Ottoman expansion in Europe in the 1683 siege of Vienna (see summary of discussion). 4.8 stars, 368 pages. Here is a review of the book, and here is a video of the author describing it. Decision: This was the Runner Up

East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute by David Kang. The book focuses on the tribute system that stabilized relations among China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam from the founding of the Ming dynasty in 1368 to the start of the Opium Wars in 1841, There were relatively few wars among those countries, albeit that the Imjin War of 1592 involved half a million Japanese invaders of Korea and 160,000 Chinese and Korean defenders. 4.3 stars, 240 pages. Here is a review of the book. Here is a video of political scientist David Kang discussing modern border disputes in East Asia. Decision: Rejected for Lack of Interest

Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by Tom Holland. This is a modern account of the war between the Persians and the Greeks in the 5th century BC. 4.0 out of 5 stars, 464 pages.  Here is a review of the book. Here is a relatively long video of Holland's talk about the book. Decision: Rejected for Lack of Interest

False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by  Alan Beattie. An editor of The Financial Times, writes about how the decisions people make determine how successful countries will be in developing their economies. 3.8 out of 5 stars, 368 pages. Here is a review of the book, and a video of an interview with the author about the book. Decision: Rejected for Lack of Interest

The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire by Amira K. Bennison. Bennison places Islamic civilization in the longer trajectory of Mediterranean civilizations and sees the ‘Abbasid Empire (750–1258 CE) as the inheritor and interpreter of Graeco-Roman traditions. At its zenith the ‘Abbasid caliphate stretched over the entire Middle East and part of North Africa, and influenced Islamic regimes as far west as Spain. Bennison’s examines the politics, society, and culture of the ‘Abbasid period. 3.8 out of 5 stars, 256 pages, Here is a review of the book, and here author Bennison talks in a video on the cities of the Abbasid empire. Decision: Selected for March

I found three books in lists of the best books of 2014 that might be of interest to the History Book Club:

The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée. This is in the Amazon list of the best 100 books of all kinds. During the Cold War, the CIA embarked on a covert program to distribute books. One of the first and most successful of these cultural efforts was Dr. Zhivago, and the authors (experienced reporters) provide a detailed account of the book, its writing, and its success. 4.4 out of 5 stars, 384 pages. Here is a review of the book, and here is a C-SPAN book talk by author Finn. Decision: To Be Considered for a Future Meeting.

Two books caught my attention in the GoodReads list of the best 100 histories or biographies of 2014.

The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egyptby Kara Cooney. “This biography could only be based on conjecture and guesswork, but the addition of expertise makes it well worth reading. The author's Egyptology background provides the nitty-gritty of daily life and animates this king (at the time, there was no word for 'queen')… Cooney's detective work finally brings out the story of a great woman's reign.”—Kirkus Reviews. 4.0 out of 5 stars, 320 pages. Here is a review of the book and here is a video of a relatively long interview of the author (a UCLA professor and Discovery Channel host) that begins explaining the book. Decision: Rejected for Lack of Interest

Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman by Robert L. O'Connell. Sherman is best known as a Civil War General, but his service began in the Seminole War in Florida, and continued after the Civil War as Commanding General of the Army during the Indian Wars when he took responsibility for the safety of the transcontinental railways. This book is described as less a military history of his campaigns (although the Washington Post liked the description of the March to the Sea) than a biography of a complicated man and his development as a military expert. 4.3 out of 5 stars, 432 pages of which about 350 are text. Here is a review of the book. Decision: To Be Considered for a Future Meeting.

Hatshepsut's Temple in the Valley of the Kings

The Great Dissent -- Establishing the Rights under the 1st Amendment

Wednesday, December 10th was International Human Rights Day. The day is celebrated each year on the 10th of December, commemorating the day in 1948 on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. (Some time ago the History Book Club read A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Mary Ann Glendon, a very good book!)

Appropriate to the day, 14 members of the club met at the Kensington Row Bookshop to discuss The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind--and Changed the History of Free Speech in America by Thomas Healy.  The book focuses on Supreme Court Justice Holmes changed his views on the First Amendment -- the section of the Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of speech.

The United States during World War I made laws against espionage (1916) and sedition (1917) that included new limitations on freedom of speech. Cases under these laws eventually reached the Supreme Court and it handed down six decisions that interpreted the first amendment in terms of these laws in 1919. Justice Holmes clearly was rethinking the interpretation of the first amendment during this year, and his dissent at the end of the year is regarded as a landmark, setting forth an interpretation of the amendment that eventually became the majority opinion of a later, more liberal court. The book looks at who Holmes was, and how he came to change his opinion to become a defender of the importance of free debate on important issues. (Holmes in his opinions introduced such famous phrases as "there is no right to yell fire in a crowded theater" and the government may limit speech "only when it creates a clear and present danger".)

Before the meeting a member circulated a "background piece" for those reading the book. Before the meeting we also distributed links to Alan Dershowitz' review of the book in the New York Times Book Review. Here is also a video of Thomas Healy discussing the book.

There is a John Sturges film about Oliver Wendell Holmes from 1950, for which star Louis Calhern received an Academy Award nomination, . It is titled The Magnificent Yankee. The club members were alerted to the film prior to the meeting and one viewed it and reported that it gave a useful impression of Justice Holmes, as represented by people who would have seen him before his retirement from the Supreme Court in 1932.

"I used to say when I was young, that truth was the majority vote of that nation that could lick all others. Certainly we may expect that the received opinion about the present war will depend a good deal upon which side wins (I hope with all my soul it will be mine), and I think that the statement was correct insofar as it implied that our test of truth is a reference to either a present or an imagined future majority in favor of our view." Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. "Natural Law", The Harvard Law Review 

Who Was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.?

He was a Boston Brahmin. (Indeed, his father, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. coined the term.) One of the members recalled the tag line from John Collins Bossidy:

And this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,
And the Cabots talk only to God.

Holmes had little real emotional linkage with the vast majority of the common people. This aristocratic distancing of himself from the public was contrasted with Holmes' friend, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who also came from a distinguished family, one with considerable wealth that allowed him to grow up in an affluent environment. Brandeis, however, took a labor relations case and in conjunction with the case visited garment workers; he recognized that they shared his Jewish faith, and that apparently allowed him to form a bond of understanding with those poor and imposed upon workers.

We noted that Holmes might have had his character formed in part by his service in the Civil War. He was wounded three times in battle, the first time in the Battle of Balls Bluff (a local site known to many of our members). Once he was shot through the neck, a wound which a doctor at the scene thought would be fatal. Later in the war he suffered from a near-fatal case of dysentery. A member suggested that that early service might have led Holmes to be especially concerned with espionage and sedition in time of war and committed to the idea that the government could regulate such speech.

Holmes was a legal scholar. He studied law at Harvard after the war and in England, and clerked in an law office before going into practice himself. His book, The Common Law, has been continuously in print since 1881. He also prepared an edition of Kent's Commentaries, which served practitioners as a compendium of case law. He taught at Harvard Law School and edited the Harvard Law Review. And of course he was state Supreme Court judge for 30 years before serving 30 years on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Healy's book and the movie The Magnificent Yankee portray Holmes as an older man (he was 78 in 1919), after a long career as a lawyer, a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge, and (from 1902) a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He read a lot, especially deep and complex works (sometimes in Latin) and  loved to debate with his friends. One member suggested that he came across in these sources as someone you would like personally.

A member mentioned that the number of influential people in Holmes' time was much smaller than today; Holmes seemed to know a large fraction of them. The interlocking networks of influential people sometimes could get things done quickly. Key public intellectuals could meet face to face and discuss questions of law and constitutional interpretation.

The Interpretation of the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The First Amendment

The First Amendment does not say that any speech is legal. It was never construed to mean that the government could not regulate slander nor libel, nor that it could could not try and convict a spy for passing military secrets to the enemy.

So who decides what is legal speech and what is not? The courts do! And who decides ultimately whether a new law is permissible or whether it infringes on the right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment? The Supreme Court does. That principle was established under Chief Justice John Marshall.

One member noted that, contrary to common opinion, John Marshall was not the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; John Jay was. (Jay was, among other things, President of the Continental Congress in 1778-79, one of three authors of the Federalist papers, and a negotiator of the Treaty of Paris by which Great Britain recognized American independence. Marshall was in fact the fourth Chief Justice, serving in that role from 1801 to 1835.)

A member noted that he had looked up First Amendment cases to be surprised that there very few in the century before World War 1. However, prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition laws (which had passed during the war) reached the Supreme Court on appeal, leading to the series of six decisions in 1919 described in the book. Holmes wrote the first decision for the court sustaining a conviction and did not write his "great dissent" until the sixth. In that case he held that the public need for free discussion of ideas was sufficiently important to accept any small risk that the speech identified in the case might have been to the nation.

The group made a conversational detour to comment on the Supreme Court processes. It was noted that fewer lawyers were actually appearing before the court now than in the past; both liberal and conservative justices have indicated their preference for this change as they deal with people who better understand the court and its processes; the current cadre of lawyers appearing before the Supreme Court were described as more expert in constitutional law. Two members present described having attended hearings before the court, one as an attorney and and another as a member of the public; attorneys and the public do so under different rules.

How Did Holmes Come To Change His Mind?

The book describes a series a process in which Holmes discussing a lower court decision declaring the law unconstitutional with its author, Judge Learned Hand. It mentions his conversations with Louis Brandeis (then a Harvard Law School faculty member and friend of Holmes') and other legal scholars. He read articles appearing in law journals that year relating to the constitutionality of the laws. He also read voluminously on legal theory, going deeply into books recommended by Brandeis and Harold Lasky (another Harvard Law professor and friend).

The book does not deal in much detail with the briefs prepared for the six 1st amendment cases decided in 1919, nor with the oral arguments. (A member noted that oral argument was much more extensive in those days; Holmes is portrayed in the book as listening intently to arguments and making notes for a while, but likely to fall asleep late in the process.) Author Healy, of course, was unable to discover what was said in the privacy of the discussions of the cases among the justices.

It was noted that today a Supreme Court Justice is supported by law clerks and can delegate the reading of briefs and identification of key issues to staff. That is why oral arguments are now focused on the issues that the Justices feel are critical to their decisions (and not necessarily those that the advocates want the Justices to focus on). The Justices will have already identified the issues on which they intend to make their determination in the case; they use brief oral arguments to focus on just those issues. In Holmes' day such support was not present; Holmes had young law graduates as secretaries, but their role was different and less substantive than that of modern Supreme Court clerks.

One member mentioned that the book failed to deal in much detail with the changing circumstances that might have influenced Holmes. The war ended in November 1918, so the dangers involved in speech against the war were much reduced. On the other hand, there was a scare about Bolsheviks and Anarchists (compared by members to the Red scare and McCarthyism after World War 2); people were being arrested and even deported for their views.

It was noted that the laws were enforced against people with leftist views, while people with right wing views saying equally incendiary things were not arrested. A member noted that the KKK, which limited members to white, native born, protestant men, included between one-third and one-half of all eligible Americans in the 1920s.

A member, who is a lawyer, noted that the Supreme Court tends to make decisions on narrow grounds rather than seeking to make fundamental changes in the interpretation of the Constitution. Such landmark changes do occur (as in the case discussed in this book, or in Brown vs. the Board of Education or Gideon vs. Wainwright). However, the Court seeks to wait until an issue is mature before making such landmark decisions. Perhaps Holmes' dissent was a recognition that the issue of freedom of speech was nearing maturity and was a first step in the process by which the Court eventually recognized that action in a democracy is best justified by a free and vigorous exchange in "the marketplace of ideas".

A Current Case

Elonis v. United States was argued before the Supreme Court earlier in the week, and had been the subject of an exchange of views on the History Book Club listserve. That discussion continued in person Wednesday evening (and is continuing on the listserve). The case involved statements made in social media, whether they were intended as threats, and the damage done by threats.

One of our members, a lawyer who had represented women who had been repeatedly threatened by estranged husbands, said that these threats themselves harmed her clients (and are too often followed by physical abuse), but that the threatened person seldom gets legal relief. There were several amicus briefs in Elonis v. United States calling for greater protection of people against such threats.

We discussed the issue of intent. It was mentioned that if the person posting the text were a child, mentally ill, or suffering from dementia the courts would be expected to construe that such a person would not have the mental capacity for legal intent; the words themselves do not constitute a crime.

On the other hand, it seemed clear that threatening words could in and of themselves do harm. If the author could and should have understood that such harm would result from his publishing those words, then perhaps intent to harm could and should be inferred.

A member shared his experience with a friend who was arrested, tried and convicted for the crime of conspiring to assassinate the dictator of his Latin American country. The friend was sentenced to be executed, but due to an international letter campaign, the sentence was commuted to emprisonment; when the dictator was overthrown, the friend was released from prison. Years later the friend described how, when a medical student, he had discussed the assassination with fellow students; they were indeed talking about how, when and where to kill a man; however, the friend was not sure that they ever would really have had the courage and strength of conviction to do so. Essentially, the friend himself was not sure that they really had the intent; this was somewhere between a typical student late night discussion from which nothing would follow, and a real assassination plot. Intent is hard to judge!

There was a follow up to the story. It seems that conviction for conspiracy to assassinate a dictator can be a career more, if done at the right moment. The man in question finished medical school after release from prison, rose to be a senior professor in the medical school, and eventually served for years as Minister of Health in his country.

Personal Experiences

One of (the older) members of the club described his experience giving a series of lectures on McCarthyism in the 1950s at the mid-western university where he was teaching. The school administration was very conservative, and the lectures were given at some peril to his academic career. He was surprised that some 90 people showed up for each lecture. Fortunately, there were no actual negative repercussions.

Another said the threats during the McCarthy era were real. One of his teachers, who taught poetry, lost his job and was blacklisted for his political views. It was suggested that the threat was perhaps greatest in Hollywood, where people like Dalton Trumbo and Jules Dessin were blacklisted and had to work under pseudonyms or abroad for many years.

Jules Dessin and Melina Mercuri in
Never on Sunday
also written and directed by Dessin

The member also described boarding in a student coop which was on the California Attorney General's List (of subversive organizations). That seems absurd now. However, a student belonging to the cooperative had formed "the Tibetan Brigade" to go to Tibet and fight against the Chinese invasion of that country. Not only was the Tibetan Brigade put on the list, but so too was the Berkeley student coop rooming and boarding house.

The Second Amendment

A member, noting that while there are many ways that the government is able to regulate speech in spite of the First Amendment, there seems to be such resistance to regulating gun ownership which is protected under the Second Amendment.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The Second Amendment

That comment led to a lively discussion. One member pointed out that firearms are actually regulated in many ways; the law prohibits a citizen buying a working machine gun nor a functional military rocket launcher; laws limit the right to carry a concealed weapon in many places. (The National Firearms Act of 1934 was the first national law regulating firearms. It was a reaction to the use of weapons during prohibition, especially by organized crime.)

It was suggested that the NRA has been an important force influencing the public and legislatures about the 2nd amendment. The NRA draws income from members and its publications, but also from gun manufacturers and lobbies very effectively. It was noted that the NRA was created as a post war initiative (Civil War that is) to promote marksmanship. It was thought by the founders that more young men would need that skill if there were to be a future war. It was only in the late 20th century that the NRA became so effective in opposing gun control legislation. (The NRA has informed its membership about firearms related legislation since 1934.)

That discussion of gun control has generated further comments on the club listserve since the meeting.

Other Current First Amendment Issues

With time growing short, the question was asked if there were other current 1st amendment issues. Issues related to stalking and spousal abuse, and social media were described as having been raised in a significant number of cases since 1940.

It was noted that many great books are banned from school curricula and libraries around the country. A member explained that few of those cases are litigated -- they are done by local school officials or library officials and do not come to the courts, much less to the Supreme Court.

Final Comment

Members of the club really liked this book. It generated one of the most spirited discussions in recent club history; people had to be almost pushed out of the door of the bookshop so that the owners could close up an go home. More people showed up in person for the discussion than had attended a December meeting for years -- people are busy with other things in the holiday season. The book also generated a lot of discussion on the listserve.

The book took us back to 1919 and the life of one of America/s more interesting and influential people; in many ways it was a biography. It also focused on the way in which a man in public life may come to change a long held idea, and in doing so (as a public intellectual) begin the process of changing public opinion and the law. Appropriate to International Human Rights Day, the book served as an occasion to think and discuss the right to freedom of speech.

There are comments on the book by members posted on the Internet here, here and here.