AFTER BEING LINKED, DOUBLE-CLICK SPEAKER ARROW

This is a wonderful book ... I will say that over and over, because it will go on my shelf for the duration ... [Lieut. Dassen's] journey from life with a Communist mother in Germany, to the rank of an intelligence officer under Hitler, to the United States and his discovery of the virtues of social democracy, is not only fascinating as a story but a cautionary tale ... Split Creek is essentially a history of western thought ... how it has influenced political and military history, especially in our own country ... I've been watching Blum's work for a long time, many years in fact, and this book really suggests to me that he's right on top of his game. This is the book I've been expecting him to write ... he did it, and I totally recommend this book to anybody listening.

Split Creek: War Novel of the Deep West is a beautifully written book ... The plot is very thrilling, very witty ... It's a romp through history. It's a tremendous amount of fun to read. And it's also a history lesson ... I've never seen a novel that has so much research behind it, and I find it very fascinating ... I'd like to see this book become a textbook because the themes are the great themes of the twentieth century ... Communism, and fascism, and what happened after the Second World War. And nuclear weapons. It's a very exciting book.

... there he sits, [Prof.] Friedrich Dassen in his 70s, a survivor reflecting on past decisions with an air of dignity. At the heart of his beliefs exists a fundamental law of political identity that transcends national boundaries: "To preserve a world in which a curious mind may articulate truths that threaten power." ... And it is freedom that Split Creek celebrates. This novel is a detailed exploration of private conflict in public war, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

[An] audacious, challenging, often outrageous novel ... If you want a book that makes you laugh, weep, and especially think — try ... Split Creek: War Novel of the Deep West.

For those who enjoy war novels with drama, "star-crossed romance," and politics, Split Creek [is] a fantastic pick ... exceedingly well-written.

From the Foreword to Split Creek

The long, complex journey that [Lieut.] Dassen takes in his route to citizenship entitles him to stand up against the son whose attitudes resonate with past horrors. Thor is the dark side of America, various incarnations of which we have seen in the past decade; and Dassen's denunciation of him, coming from a man who espouses the enlightenment and a rational humanism, is meant in some sense to cleanse America itself of its grave errors. Bud drinks to his daughter's unborn child who will "lead us from the Morass" and "forge the New Order," and when we finally encounter this phony messiah I suspect we are meant to see in him a version of right-wing religious fanaticism that seriously threatens American freedom. In contending with his son as he contended with his fatherland, Dassen becomes the advocate of the best that America might be.