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Bankers, Singers, and Writers: Pulitzer Prize and NBCC Winners on Playaway (With a little Hank Williams thrown in for good measure.)

First things first: The correct pronunciation of "Pulitzer" (according to the folks at Columbia University who administer the Pulitzer Prize) is "PULL it sir". You may hear people saying "PEW lit sir," but those folks must be thinking of The Pew Charitable Trust or perhaps the character of Blind Pew in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (that's him as imagined by N.C. Wyeth on the artwork for the Blackstone Audio edition).

Now that we've got that cleared up... on Monday April 12, the Pulitzer Board announced the 2010 awards in Journalism, Letters, Drama, and Music. This year's winner in the History category was Liaquat Ahamed's Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, available unabridged on Playaway from Tantor Audio.

Ahamed's book is a detailed examination of the careers of four men who's names are now all but forgotten but who were at the very center of the economic crisis that became the Great Depression. The four were:  Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Emile Moreau of the Banque de France, Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Though all were brilliant and dynamic figures, Ahamed blames the out-dated thinking and ill-fated decisions of these key central bankers for plunging the world into crisis.

Ahamed uses these four figures both to try to bring the dimensions of a global economic disaster down to a more human scale and also to exemplify the different national personalities of what were at the time the world's four economic superpowers.  Also prominently featured in the book is John Maynard Keynes, who represented a completely new way of thinking about world economics and central banking.

Ahamed himself is an economist and investment manager, and, interestingly, this is his very first book. Students of history (and of our present economic dangers) will find it highly readable, and, thanks to the capable narration of Stephen Hoye, highly listenable as well.

This year in the category of music, the Pulitzer Board awarded a posthumous "Special Citation" to country music legend Hiram King "Hank" Williams. His contributions to the understanding of global economics included the hit songs, "I Wish I Had a Nickel," "The Tramp on the Street," and "Wealth Won't Save Your Soul" (not to mention "There's a Tear in My Beer").

Elsewhere in the world of literary prizes, earlier this month The National Book Critics Circle announced their annual awards for the best books of 2009 in six categories. The winner for biography was Blake Bailey's Cheever: A Life. The audiobook version, produced by Blackstone Audio and narrated by the talented and prolific Grover Gardner, is available on Playaway.

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Senior Content Strategist
Twitter: david_perrotta

Invasion of Tarawa on NPR's Morning Edition 4 Great Audio Titles About War in the Pacific

Yesterday's Morning Edition from NPR [March 22, 2010] featured a story on Major Norman Hatch, USMC (retired), who served as combat cameraman during the Marines' amphibious assault landing at Tarawa atoll in the South Pacific in November 1943.

Hatch's footage was used to make With The Marines at Tarawa, a short film that shocked the civilian public and thereby helped galvanize support for the war effort. It marked the first time that Americans had seen such graphic footage of the fighting, the wounded, and the dead.  The film won an Academy Award in 1945.

The NPR story reflects a resurgence of interest in the Pacific war, sparked in part by the current HBO 10-part miniseries, The Pacific.

I wrote about the battle of Tarawa (and the film that Hatch made possible) last November when we released Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa by Joseph H. Alexander.  Alexander's book is considered the definitive account of the Tarawa landing, which was the first major Allied assault of the Pacific War and a crucial test of the then-unproven strategy of amphibious war-fighting.  The title is a Playaway audio exclusive.

You can find my original post here. If you missed the NPR story, you can listen to it online.  The NPR site also has the complete video of With The Marines At Tarawa as well as a brief video interview with Norman Hatch from the U.S. Naval Institute's "Americans At War" series.

The U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association sponsors a "Norman Hatch Combat Photography Award."  Read their bio of the photographer here. 

And by the way, the book that served as the basis of the HBO series -- Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific by Robert Leckie -- launches on Playaway May 1, 2010. 

Other Playaway titles about the Pacific war include: 

Hero of the Pacific by James Brady -- the story of Marine Gunnery Sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone, expertly narrated by the gifted Grover Gardner.

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, available on Playaway from Recorded Books.

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Senior Content Strategist
Twitter: david_perrotta

Remembering the War in the PacificUtmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa(Playaway Exclusive)

Veteran's Day approaches, and on Nov 1 Playaway releases Utmost Savagery: the Three Days of Tarawa by Col. Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (retired).  This book is considered the definitive account of the first major amphibious assault landing of WWII -- "Operation Galvanic," the battle for the Japanese stronghold on Betio island in the Tarawa atoll (part of the Gilbert Island chain) in November 1943. 

Though horrifically bloody, the operation was an indispensable prelude to later amphibious operations -- at Normandy in 1944 and in the Pacific Theater right up until VJ Day.

Since its publication in 1995, Utmost Savagery has been included in the reading list of the U.S. Marine Commandant's Professional Reading Program.  This is the first audio version of the work, and it was produced by Playaway as part of our ongoing effort to provide all four branches of the U.S. military with relevant content in a high-quality, portable, simple and immediate format.

For those not familiar with the details of the war in the Pacific, the book offers an eye-opening account of the unprecedented scale and brutality of the fighting and the incredible valor, heroism, and sacrifice of the participants.  It's not just for "war buffs" but for any serious student of the 20th Century.

After you listen to Utmost Savagery you should take a look at With The Marines at Tarawa -- a 20-minute documentary film about the battle released in 1944 and mentioned in the book.   It's a fascinating document on many levels.  A skillfully constructed propaganda piece that accentuates the positive, the film also broke new ground by using actual combat footage, and it presented the American public with a far more graphic depiction of war than had ever before been seen.  It won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1945 and had a considerable effect on public opinion. 

The entire film can be streamed or downloaded for free from the Internet Archive.  Just go to:
     http://archive.org/details/WiththeMarinesatTarawa

It can also be streamed via YouTube in two parts:
     Part 1

     Part 2