Peter Andreas

A rather fascinating premise to this book, that the US is in large part built on smuggling, from the beginning of the nation and before. And still. And it is isn't all a bad thing. Written in a watered down academic style (each chapter has a thesis, an argument and a conclusion) but the writing style makes up for that unexpected formality. And the binding is falling apart, but okay. Touches on many critical junctures in US history and the part that smuggling played. Glad I took the time to read it.… (mehr)

This is a book about a complicated, deep and enduring bond between a mother who searched for the revolution in South America in the 1960's-1980's and her son. Peter was abducted by his mother Carol after losing custody of him and from 5-11 years old moved from country to country in Carol's hope that she could find a place where justice and equality prevailed.

After I finished Rebel Mother I thought about all the ways that mother and son were alike. They were passionate, adventurous, and able to easily fit into different cultures and had the ability to keep their wits about them even in danger. But more importantly, Peter and Carol had a vast and deep connection to each other because Carol loved her son and Peter loved his mother. He loved her through danger, poverty, disease and poor choices in men and rotten parenting. Her firm and loving commitment to him kept them together even when it all seemed untenable. For me, having lived through much at that time, I know how close the revolution seemed and how wild and wonderful and scary and dangerous this time was. Carol fascinated me due to her fierceness, rock-bottom commitment for fairness and justice and of course, to her son. Her need to change the unquestioned contract of becoming a 1950's traditional wife and mother led to hard consequences and choices as it often does. And both mother and son had to live with that.

In many ways the epilogue is where Peter Andreas moves from actor to observer as he examines the impact of his childhood. There were many losses including, and most importantly, having a distant relationship to his father with no access to the safety and stability that he could provide. What I love about this section is that the author writes about his mother as a fully realized person not just as a son stuck in childhood who cannot see his mother for who she is. That can be hard to do.

Peter did not become a radical and his mother saw it as a betrayal. She wanted to have her sons follow and keep her revolutionary commitments and was sad and sometimes bitter that they did not. He discovered this by reading her journals after her death. It is the beauty of the book that Peter did keep her commitment. They are not the same but they are similar. Peter cares about justice, equality and border crossings, international economies. He also did this by writing a beautiful tribute to a complicated woman with tenderness and clarity.

Thank you to Edelweiss for allowing me to review this book.… (mehr)

SMUGGLER NATION: How Illicit Trade Made America, Peter Andreas,Oxford University Press, February 14, 2013, 472 pages, Hardcover, $29.95, 978-0-19-974688-0.

Really? America was made through smuggling and other illicit trades? Peter Andreas presents a fascinating view of history in his book SMUGGLER NATION. His purpose is to tell how smuggling and the endless quest to police it have made and continued to remake America through our present day.

Perhaps a shocker to many Americans, this compelling narrative is backed up with extensive research and the writer’s skillful logical well planned chronology of events. From the early days of our nascent nation smuggling was inherent in its growth. Beginning with the infamous triangular trade routes to the recent history of drug smuggling, arms smuggling and human smuggling, the evidence is certainly convincing. The author puzzles together the history of America which unfolds with captivating high adventure drama. Andreas pens a historical narrative of violence, crime, war, greed, corruption and that is a storyboard for an action big screen movie. For example, he documents the stories of smuggling guns and supplies for the American Revolution, smuggling and busting through blockades during the American Civil War and the smuggling of industrial technology from Europe. Astor, Brown, Hancock names of some of the first successful and often multi-millionaire merchants were smugglers or relied on illicit trade to gain advantage.

The author notes the irony. “that a country made of smuggling has now become the world’s leading anti-smuggling crusader.”

SMUGGLER NATION is a remarkably candid history, naked in fact without cover-up, that will undoubtedly stimulate discussion and reflection. Peter Andreas excites his readers with an unexpected and atypical history.

Wisteria Leigh
February 14, 2013

DISCLOSURE: A free kindle version of this book was made available by Net Galley for review.… (mehr)