Monday, November 21, 2016

Just the Facts: Book Discussion Recap from November 17

Last night, thirteen people took time off from cleaning the house, polishing the silver, cooking and freezing and stockpiling groceries to attend the book discussion. Their presence, as always, was much appreciated.

The book discussed was Dead Wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. On May 1, 1916, during the second year of World War I, after a delay of a few hours, the pride of the British commercial fleet, the Lusitania, set sail from New York City for Liverpool. A few days later, in the Irish Sea, she was sunk by the German submarine U-20, at a cost of 1200 lives. This incident, combined with others, led to the United States entry into the First World War on the allied side and the eventual defeat of the central powers. To this day, there are many questions about the sinking. Was the ship carrying munitions? What role did the three hour delay have on her unintended rendezvous with the U-20? Upon entering British waters, why wasn’t she given a destroyer escort? Why wasn’t the Lusitania warned about the submarines in British waters? What did British intelligence know and when did they know it? Did Winston Churchill want the Lusitania sunk with a large number of American casualties in order to draw the United States into the war? Why was President Wilson so adamant about American neutrality when so many American ships were being attacked? These questions and other issues along with the author’s stories of the people on the ship made for a lively and animated discussion in which everyone in the group participated. It was quite an evening.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, December 22, 2016 at 7:00 pm. The book to be discussed, The Boys in the Boat: nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, is available at the Circulation desk. All are welcome.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

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