Night Manager

purchased after watching the recent BBC series of the same name - there is a lot more context and background than is possible in a TV show - also the ending in the (original) book is more plausible. Gripping story, and a most enjoyable work from the old master

Ordered this after watching the series on TV. Loved these characters and enjoyed the book as although it followed some of the plot there were enough differences to keep my attention. First time I've read le Carre....hooked now!

Well written and informative.

I found it particularly valuable that Einsenhower does not take sides politically and as a result I found "Intervention" to be all the more compelling.

Candidly, I believe this was one war we really had no business being involved in.

In almost a century of historical perspective the U.S. "invasion" of Mexico might seem like a minor skirmish made famous because of the army's first use of aircraft in combat. It gave fame to the American general, Black Jack Pershing, and it turned a hero of the Revolution, Pancho Villa, into a bandit. All because of politics.
Shifting powers in Mexico required a delicate balancing act from Washington, and many doubted that Wilson could handle the situation. He had appointed an avowed pacifist as his Secretary of War, and when Villa crossed the border at Columbus, New Mexico to secure arms and ammunition, journalists waited for the new Secretary to stumble. But he passed over many senior officers to select Pershing who gathered a force in rapid order (including Lt. George Patton who pulled strings to serve Pershing).
In the first half of his book, Roosevelt reviews significant events in the beginning of the Mexican Revolution to give us a foundation for what happens when Villa is chased by U.S. troops. At times, Roosevelt includes some trivial actions to give a human face to this history (that seemed unnecessary to me), but such details make for intriguing reading, especially the ones that involved U.S. politics.
Ironically, Pershing's aerial "power' proved of little use. While combat planes in Europe were evolving rapidly at the time, the Army's "flying Jennys" could do little except help with communications because of their limited distance and altitude.
A good review of the Mexican Revolution with the second half examining the U.S. Intervention in detail.
eschusky.com

This is the story of the United States interventions into Mexico in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Eisenhower tells the story as a narrative without evaluation or moralizing and delivers a pleasantly readable history that moves along well without bogging down in details, yet does tell the story that at times goes down to the personal level of the participants. Most histories of this period confine themselves to the Pershing expedition, but this book also thoroughly examines the American seizure of Veracruz in 1914, probably one of the provocative and ill-considered military operations ever undertaken by the US against our neighbor to the south. Strongly recommended for those with interests in military and international history.

This is another fascinating and complex spy story by the master, le Carre. Some of the esoteric political shenanigans are a bit hard to follow, unless you are British, I think.However, overall it's a page turner, with heroes and villains at every turn.

Well researched and presented entertainingly. Eisenhower reserves judgement on questionable decisions but appropriately presents each side of many of the factors and decisions affecting the conflict.

Great book for an introduction to the subject! It does a good job of covering the topic with plenty of good historical context and in the framework of the political machinations of the time. John Eisenhower writes in a smooth and easy-to-read style, and he throws in personal experiences of some of those who lived (and died) through some of these events, to keep it personal and interesting. I highly recommend this book for the history-lover who wants to learn about this particular time of Mexican-American relations.

Tedious. What was an intriguing story gets unnecessarily caught up in excessive asides and the authors infatuation with clever British quips. The resulting tedious interplay and confusion achieves the rarity of making the TV series more enjoyable and suspenseful than the book.