OUTLANDER

The book “Outlander” is the first in an eight-book series written by Ms. Diana Gabaldon.  My wife and I luckily stumbled upon the NETFLIX series some time ago, trying desperately to keep occupied during the COVID-19 “lockdown”.  We also grew extremely weary with horrible news on just about every aspect of modern-day life in America including the pandemic.  We were hoping NETFLIX might provide some form of relief, if not comic relief.  We were not disappointed in the least.

My grandfather always told me to put my money on the jockey and not the race horse.  With this being the case, let’s look at the author of Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon.

DIANA GABALDON:

She was born on January 11 in 1952 in Arizona, where she grew up with her sister and parents.

She was the founding editor of Science Software Quarterly in 1984 while employed at the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University. During her time there, Diana wrote a number of software reviews and technical articles as well as popular-science articles and comic books for Walt Disney. Diana was also a professor with an expertise in scientific compilation at the same university for over a decade – a job she later left to write full-time.

Mrs. Gabaldon is married with three children, one being a son who is also a fantasy writer and is well known for writing Aeons’ Gate series.  The apple does not fall far from the tree.

She began writing Outlander in 1988 – without telling her husband – after seeing a rerun episode of Doctor Who which was titled The War Games.

One of the Doctor’s companions, a Scot from 1745, provided the initial inspiration for her main male character James Fraser and for the novel’s mid-18trh century Scotland setting.

But Diana Gabaldon has also revealed that her husband also served for inspiration for her leading man Jamie.

The author was introduced to literary agent Perry Knowlton after she posted an excerpt from the unfinished Outlander online. From there she went on to sign a deal for a trilogy – later to become a nine book long series.

The first book was published in 1991, and went on to sell more than twenty-eight (28) million copies and has been translated into thirty-nine (39) languages.

But did you know that the book was published under the name Cross Stitch in the UK? American publishers changed the name to Outlander in the US to make the novel sound more exciting.

When her second novel was finished, Diana Gabaldon quit her job at Arizona State University to become a full-time writer.  With the success she has had, who would blame her?

THE BOOK:

The heroine of the book is Mrs. Claire Randall and throughout the book she is forced to lead a double life.  She has a husband in one century and a husband living two hundred (200) years in the past.  The book is classified as science fiction for this reason.  There are other books written about time travel but this one, in my opinion, is one of the very best because the history of Scotland during that time period, the location of certain structures, the Highland landscape, certain kings and rulers, and the medical profession are very real and accurately portrayed.  I would frequently go online to look up events and places named in the book to see if they were fact or fiction. There was an ample sprinkling of both which made the book even more enjoyable.

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband for a second honeymoon.  Claire and Frank Randall were married only two (2) years before the outbreak of WWII.  Frank was an intelligence officer for England during the war and Claire was a nurse primarily stationed in what we would call a MASH unit in France.  After the war, they decided to take a second honeymoon.  While visiting the Scottish Highlands, she innocently touches a boulder in one ancient stone circle that populate the British Isles.  Suddenly, she is a Sassenach-an “outlander”- in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans.  This occurs in 1743.   She is hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand at all.  Her destiny is soon inextricably intertwined with the Clan MacKenzie.  The clan is located at Castle Leoch.  She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life.  This is where she meets James or Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior.  That’s about all it takes for the passion of their relationship to tear her between the fidelity of her husband in the 19^th century and the dashing warrior living in 1743. Frank Randall is a college professor and Jamie Fraser is a warrior. Two very differing personality types. Frank is reserved and greatly conservative and Jamie is “damn the torpedoes-full steam ahead”.

CONCLUSION:

This is a fascinating book BUT, it’s a long read. Six hundred and twenty-seven (627) pages, because of the detail Mrs. Gabaldon puts into each chapter and paragraph.  She uses details like Leonardo described and sketched the human body.  Very precise.  She takes her time.  I can certainly recommend “Outlander” and I can promise I will read all books in the series, if nothing else, to see how closely they compare with the NETFLIX presentation.  GREAT READ.

THE WORLD—A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

THE WORLD—A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

I have just completed reading the book mentioned above.  Mr.  Richard Haass does a marvelous job in giving the reader a very quick but extremely concise history lesson, both past and present.  He is NOT judgmental or condemning but informative and simply provides history in a factual manner.

RICHARD HAASS:

Dr. Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the preeminent independent, nonpartisan organization in the United States dedicated to the study of American foreign policy. An experienced diplomat and policymaker, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State from 2001 until 2003, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Dr. Haass served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and was the U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. He was also special assistant to President George H.W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1989 to 1993. A recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal, the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, and the Tipperary International Peace Award, he is the author or editor of fifteen books, including the best-selling A World in Disarray. A Rhodes scholar, he holds a BA from Oberlin College and both master and doctor of philosophy degrees from Oxford University. He has received honorary degrees from Central College, Colgate University, Franklin & Marshall College, Georgetown University, Hamilton College, Miami Dade College, and Oberlin College.

THE BOOK:

The World—A Brief Introduction is designed to provide readers of any age and experience with the essential background and building blocks they need to make sense of this complicated and interconnected world. Mr. Haass indicates in the very first part of the book the very real fact that our schools seem to be failing at fully preparing students in history, both past and present.   This book will empower the reader in managing the flood of daily news. Readers will become more informed, discerning citizens, better able to arrive at sound, independent judgments. While it is impossible to predict what the next crisis will be or where it will originate, those who read The World will have what they need to understand its basics and the principal choices for how to respond.

In short, this book will make readers more globally literate and put them in a position to make sense of this era. Global literacy–knowing how the world works–is a must, as what goes on outside a country matters enormously to what happens inside. Although the United States is bordered by two oceans, those oceans are not moats. And the so-called Vegas rule–what happens there stays there–does not apply in today’s world to anyone anywhere. U.S. foreign policy is uniquely American, but the world Americans seek to shape is not. Globalization can be both good and bad, but it is not something that individuals or countries can opt out of. Even if we want to ignore the world, it will not ignore us. The choice we face is how to respond.

I would like now to give you several facts from Dr. Haass’s book that will indicate the level of detail presented and some flavor for the discourse:

• A recent survey of over eleven hundred (1100) American colleges and universities found that only seventeen percent (17%) require students to take courses in U.S. government or history, while only three percent (3%) require them to take course work in economics.
• One survey of the top American colleges and universities showed that less than one-third required history majors to take a single course in U.S. government.
• Approximately one-third of Americans who graduate from high school do not attend any college and only forty percent (40%) do achieve a degree.
• During WWI, as many as two hundred thousand (200,000) British forces were killed or wounded in a single campaign.  This was the battle for the Gallipoli peninsula.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact were structured to provide communication between countries and to preclude additional strife and war in Western and East Europe.
• No religion claims a majority of the world’s people. Nearly one-third of the world’s population is Christian (close to two point three billion).  One point eight billion people are Muslims.  Just over one billion are Hindus, nearly five hundred thousand are Buddhists and approximately fifteen million are Jewish.  More than one billion claim no religion at all.
• The Middle-East and North Africa have fifty-three percent (53%) of the world’s oil reserves.  The Middle-East and North Africa have forty-five percent (45%) of the world’s natural gas reserves.
• Africa has four hundred and five million people living on less than two U.S. dollars per day. South Asia, two hundred and twelve million, East Asia forth-seven million, the Americas, twenty-six million, Middle East and North Africa, fifteen million, Central Asia, five million and Europe, four million.  Less than two dollars per day.
• The Americas leads the world in homicides with sixteen point two (16.2) per 100,000 people.  These are 2017 statistics.
• A significant number of terrorist attacks occurred in 2017 with Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines being the most troubled.
• In looking at the stockpile of nuclear warheads: Russia has 4,330, the U.S. has 3,800, France has 300, the UK has 215.  There are five others with nuclear capabilities.
• Over one percent (1%) of the world’s population has been displaced due to war, economic conditions, crime, and environmental conditions.
• The U.S. dollar is the most widely held reserve currency.
• In looking at the human development index considering 1.) Education, 2.) Income and 3.) Life expectancy, the United States is number thirteen on the list with Norway ranking at ninety-five point three (95.3%).
• Over five hundred thousand (500,000) Syrians have lost their lives and a majority of the population have been made homeless as a result of the conflict in Syria.  The Syrian government has played a major role in that horrible number.

I could go on from there with many more examples from Dr. Haass’s book but you get the picture—now buy and read the book.  Dr. Haass has fifty-six pages of notes and sources he has consulted during research for this book.   He has the numbers.

BUILDING AMERICA

What individuals would you say have contributed greatly, maybe the most, to our present way of life?  Now I’m talking about the modern day “captains of industry”.  Let me show you my short list of just a few.

• Bill Gates—Microsoft
• Steve Jobs—Apple
• Sergey Brin and Larry Page—Google
• Michael Dell—Dell Computers
• Mark Zuckerberg—Facebook
• Tim Berns-Lee- Creator of the Internet formerly DARPA
• Jeff Bezos—Amazon
• Bill Hewlett and David Packard—Hewlett / Packard
• Peter Theil—Creator of Pay Pal
• Elon Musk—Tesla Automotive and Space X
• Richard Branson—Virgin Atlantic

Think about it, most days we are touched by just about every invention or program they created and commercialized.  Of course, there are others, maybe many others but these names above seem to pop up time after time when we talk about what services facilitate our day-to-day lives.

Who were their predecessors?  Those people paving the way for the creativity and genius demonstrated by those above?  The History Channel published a booklet called “Building America”: The visionaries Who Transformed Our Nation. This booklet was published in 2019 and noted the following as their choices:

• Cornelius Vanderbilt
• John D. Rockefeller
• Andrew Carnegie
• J.P. Morgan
• Henry Ford

These men changed history and drove America towards greatness. These visionaries pioneered the railroad, oil, steel, finance, and auto industries that continue to this day to promote innovation and discovery.   History tells us “they waged personal wars that had public consequences, and they amassed untold wealth while many ordinary citizens suffered.”  These men were sometimes merciless in their business tactics and sometimes made efforts to bleed competitors dry and drive them into bankruptcy. They were not “touchy-feely” kind of guys.  I seriously doubt any had teddy bears and blankets when they were very young.

Cornelius Vanderbilt—When Vanderbilt was born New York City was a city of roughly thirty (30,000) thousand inhabitants and was well on its way to becoming the most important port in the world.  Transportation was a significant venture in the 19^th century, and there were abundant opportunities in that particular industry.  Vanderbilt started working as a ferry captain for the commercial steamboat service that operated between New Jersey and New York. He learned how to design steamboats, and in the late 1820s began to build his own boats and operate ferry lines around the New York region.

Vanderbilt knew that transportation was the key industry of the time, and recognized a pressing need to improve and expand America’s infrastructure.  In the 1860s, he began to acquire small railway lines operating between Chicago and New York.  He also had the foresight to recognize that a transcontinental railroad would transform the United States, slashing travel time literally by months.  His gamble paid off. By the end of the Civil War, he was the richest man in America, with a net worth of sixty-eight (68) million dollars which would be two (2) billion in today’s money.

Although Vanderbilt was the acknowledged king of the railroads, his ambition had not abated.  He wanted to construct a new railway station in the heart of New York City to bring together the Harlem line, the Hudson line, and the Central line.  That station is today called Grand Central Station.

Another great legacy was the founding and funding of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.  Today, Vanderbilt enrolls nearly thirteen thousand (13,000) students of which half are undergraduate and one-half are graduate and professional.  Vandy accepts less than ten percent (10%) of freshman applicants, making it one of the most selective universities in the country.

John D. Rockefeller—Rockefeller respected Vanderbilt and aspired to follow in his footsteps relative to participating in the developing oil industry.  A time came when Rockefeller wanted to own every refinery in the U.S.A.  Big expectations and by the time he was thirty-three he was the most powerful man in the country.  Drilling for oil was a tremendous gamble and Rockefeller was searching for a method allowing few if any risks.  He studied production processes and noted how very ineffective the processes were.  An oil rig could hit absolutely nothing or a gusher and lose one-half of the oil. He also became intrigued with the process of refining oil and realized quickly that whoever controlled the refineries controlled the industry itself.  At age twenty-four (24) he plowed all of his savings, $4,000, into building a refinery. He struggled at first but signed a contract with Vanderbilt to supply kerosene. In 1870 Rockefeller founded Standard Oil which included refineries, warehousing, barrel making and shipping.  He also was very instrumental in financing and developing pipelines to carry the oil so the existing need for rail cars was greatly reduced.   

With money being no problem in his later years, Rockefeller founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, later known as the Rockefeller University of New York.

ANDREW CARNEGIE—At age twelve, Andrew Carnegie immigrated with his parents from Scotland and settled in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.  At this time, believe it or not, no one had ever used steel to build structures such as bridges and buildings. Carnegie was determined to find a way in which steel could be used for these and other purposes.  During the investigative process, he met Henry Bessemer, an English inventor who had built a device to streamline the steel-making process.   At the tender age of thirty-three (33) Carnegie was poised to make it possible to build the first bridge using steel to span the Mississippi River.  People were very skeptical of the “new” material and on the day the bridge opened, he set up a parade led by an elephant.  As the animal made its way across, people followed.

The steel industry took off and there was a new millionaire in the U.S.  As a result of his wealth, he donated one million dollars to create Carnegie Technical Schools in Pittsburg.  Carnegie merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie-Mellon University.

Mr. Carnegie also developed plans and funded Carnegie Hall in New York and for the past one hundred and twenty-five years that facility has set the standard for excellence with world-class performers. 

Andrew Carnegie went to work as a young man and was largely self-taught.  He believed access to books was essential for immigrants and ambitious citizens who wanted to educate themselves.  For this reason, he endowed his first library in his home town of Dunfermline, Scotland in the 1880s.  After that, he began to finance libraries where he had business interests or personal connections and eventually, he had libraries in most of the English-speaking world.

J.P. MORGAN— John Pierpont Morgan was born into the banking industry as a result of his fathers joining one of the world’s first investment banks.  He was one of the first generation of transatlantic bankers.  J.P. Morgan watched as Rockefeller and Carnegie created empires out of nothing and longed to do the same but Morgan needed an innovation to do the same.  Enter Mr. Thomas Edison.  Morgan understood that if Edison was successful in bringing low- cost electricity to homes and businesses, the need for kerosene and heating oil would decline.  He had the vision of understanding that electricity would revolutionize the world like fire and the invention of the wheel.  Morgan hired Edison to install electricity in his home on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  That residence turned into a laboratory for Edison’s experiments.

Edison then installed a small power plant in a shed on Morgan’s property and ran four thousand feet of wiring through the walls and ceilings of the house.  He installed four hundred light bulbs in the house, some of which were the very first manufactured.  After months of trial and error, Morgan’s home became one of the first in the world to be lit with electricity. 

Many in that era viewed electricity as magical and miraculous.  Morgan’s own father felt he was being played and electricity was merely a carnival trick but Morgan held his ground and soon electricity became a “must have” with the well-financed households.

In 1887, with the equivalent of eighty-three billion dollars in today’s money, Morgan and Edison formed the Edison Electric Illuminating Company.  This company transformed a lower Manhattan building into the world’s first commercial power station, which at the time, was a high-tech wonder filled with massive generating equipment generating electricity for thousands of homes.

J.P. Morgan wielded huge power on the unregulated stock exchange and when the economy experienced a downturn, Morgan launched a smear campaign to trigger a sell-off of all Westinghouse stock.  Westinghouse was a competing entity generating electricity as the Edison Company did.  Today, JPMorgan Chase & Company is the largest bank in the United States, and the sixth largest in the world.  This entity is the result of merging several large U.S. banking corporations, including JPMorgan & Co., Chase Manhattan Bank, and Bear Stearns.

HENRY FORD—Henry Ford was expected to take over the family farm, but at the age of sixteen he left home to worked as an apprentice machinist.  In 1891, Ford went to work at the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit.  Aside from working for Edison, he experimented with developing self-propelled vehicles.  In June of 1896 he completed the quadricycle, a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels, which were powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine.  It ran successfully although very prone to breaking down.  After several successes, Ford resigned his position at Edison Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company which later became Ford Motor Company, 

Henry Ford felt there was a much better process than building each car from the wheels up.  Rather than assembling cars one at a time, a line of workers put them together piece by piece.  This method became known as the assembly line and it changed the manufacturing industry forever.  This process demonstrated that a complicated assembly could be simplified and accomplished by minimally-trained personnel.  They had to know just one job and work that job hour after hour each day.  His assembly lines-built cars eight times faster than all competition; consequently, he could sell them at a lower price due to a reduced labor content.

Hope you enjoyed this look back in history.