A Flying Chinese-American W.A.S.P. in WWII

 Ankeny, Susan Tate.  American Flygirl.  New York: Citadel Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9780806542829

In World War II, the United States had a big problem.  They were growing the Army Air Corp, churning out planes by the thousands, but they needed pilots to get planes from the factories to the air units.  Male pilots were needed overseas, so was born the Women Airforce Service Pilots program which trained women to fly the military aircraft across the country.  In American Flygirl, Susan Ankeny tells the story of Hazel Ying Lee, the first female Chinese-American to obtain her pilot's license and train as a member of  W.A.S.P. 

 

Hazel Ying Lee grew up in Portland's (OR) Chinatown facing all the "normal" racism of the time, but she had a dream of flying.  In 1932, she managed to get a job running an elevator to pay for flying lessons and obtained her private pilot's license.  She later joined the Chinese Flying School to train for lying in China against the Japanese.  But when she arrived in China in 1933, she was not accepted in the Chinese Air Force.  She did manage to fly commercial aircraft and served a a security guard at a Chinese air force base.  Then in 1934, she moved back to the United States to work with the Universal Trading Corporation getting war supplies for China.

 

In December 1942, Hazel heard about an opportunity to fly.  Jackie Cochran had made a deal with General "Hap" Arnold to allow women to be trained to fly military planes in noncombat roles, specifically from factories to exit points or permanent units.  Hazel joined the fourth training class in 1943 - the first class that trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.  After learning to fly the Army way, Hazel and the other member of her class joined the Ferry Command to fly military aircraft all over the country.  They flew B-17s, B-29s, P-51, P-47s, and P-40s along with A-24s.  Hazel was flying a P-63 Kingcobra from New York to Seattle in November 1944 when her plane was struck by another plane while landing in Great Falls (MT).  Both planes burst in flames and crashed.  Hazel died two days later due to her injuries.  

In American Flygirl, Susan Ankeny provides a life history of Hazel Ying Lee in historical context while also providing an interesting look at the training that Hazel and other members of W.A.S.P. received.  If you are interested flying, female aviation or the WWII home front, this is a book for you!

Diving on 12 wrecks!

Gibbins, David.  A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 

         2024.  ISBN: 9781250325372

Who is not intrigued at exploring a shipwreck?  Come on, there might be treasure!  Or at least very cool stuff, right?  Well, David Gibbins, an archeologist and diver, strongly believes that the stuff found in a shipwreck reflects the trade history and economic environment at the time the ship went down.  In A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, he provides the reader a chance to explore that history.

The first shipwreck was found in Dover during a excavation below the road.  This boat was used to trade across the Channel during the middle of the Bronze age (about 1550 B.C.).  The next shipwreck comes from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey from the time of Tutankhamun or Nefertiti based on a gold scarab found in the wreck.  Also in the wreck were copper and tin ingots, jars of terebinth resin, glass ingots, various Cypriot dining dishes, and ivory from elephants and hippopotamus.  The third wreck was also off of Turkey, but on the Aegean coast and dated to be from the classical age of Greece.  The wreck had 196 wine amphoras and associated drinking-ware. 

Wreck number four was a cargo ship with olive oil and fish sauce from A.D. 200 during the reign of Septimius Severus off the coast of Sicily right near where the author's grandfather had landed in WWII.  Wreck number five was also off the coast of Sicily filled with prefabricated marble elements for a church sent out from Constantinople by Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century A.D.  For wreck number six, the reader travels to Indonesia to explore a wreck that could have been featured in the tales of Sinbad the Sailor.  The wreck had 57,000 Tang Dynasty Chinese bowls created for export to Abbasid Persia along with other cargo.

 

Next David Gibbins uses several Norse ships found in scattered locations to talk about the trade, explorations, and conquests made by the Vikings that culminated in the invasion of England in 1066 A.D.  Wreck number eight looks at the sinking (1545 A.D.) and recovery of The Mary Rose, King Henry the VIII's flagship.  Wreck number nine has Gibbins diving on the Mullion Pin Wreck (1667 - Santo Christo de Castello) off Cornwall and discussing the cargo lost in that wreck which included lost paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, thousands of brass clothing pins, spices, hides, and other trade goods.

 

Wreck number ten was The Royal Anne Galley (1721) which sank off Lizards Peninsula in Cornwall while conveying the new governor of Barbados and then off to pursue pirates such as Bartholomew Roberts.   Wreck number eleven has Gibbins returning to Canada to dive on the HMS Terror which sank in 1848 as part of the John Franklin expedition disaster.  Wreck number 12 covers the story of SS Gairsoppa which was sunk in 1941 by a U-Boat while carrying 17 tons of silver from India to Great Britain.

In each chapter of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, David Gibbins provides the reader a chance to experience the thrill of undersea exploration while providing a context for the wreck and its place in world history.  So read this title and find out for yourself!

Textbooks - Misinformation or Disinformation?

 Loewen, James W. and Nate Powell.  Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaption.  New York: 

            The New Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9781620977033

 

How well do you remember your elementary, junior high, and high school history textbooks?  Were you ever confused because facts did not seem to be in the right order or contradicted each other?  If so, get hold of this graphic adaptation of James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me and find out what has been missing in all those textbooks!

 

Over the course of twelve chapters Loewen dissects the problems he has identified in a variety of textbooks.  One of the first issues he raises is the sheer amount of facts that are poured into students' brains and the sheer size of the textbooks (18 most popular textbooks he examined averaged 975 pages)!  Then there is the fact that most textbooks have an agenda that is focused on telling a heroic story of American history, not a balanced telling.  The role and status of Christopher Columbus is explored in its own chapter as is the First Thanksgiving.  Loewn spends two chapters looking at the invisibility of racism and antiracism in textbooks (think Gone with the Wind, John Brown, and Abraham Lincoln).  Then there is a exploration of The Land of Opportunity trope in textbooks, a look at how the concept of the Federal government is taught, and two chapters that discuss the avoidance of the Vietnam War and the recent past in textbooks.  Loewen and Powell finish out the book by looking at how history could and should be taught in textbooks.  In the afterword, Powell discusses how he and Loewen created a format with the  author breaking the fourth wall by talking directly to the reader in a fashion that makes the reader a participant, not just an observer.  

 

If you ever questioned your school textbooks, Lies My Teacher Told Me could be the answer you are looking for!  You might not agree with everything in this book, but this is a book that everyone should read and discuss.