32
Academy
index – but the authors do take
pride in their region: “Here in the Low
Country we know that the four seasons
are actually deer, dove, duck, and turkey.
At the Academy [yes, they give work-
shops] we will teach you how to roast a
pig in your backyard, as well as how to
preserve excess bounty from the garden.”
Roasting a pig, by the way, requires an
all-night vigil and the instruction to “hy-
drate the pig with an apple-cider vinegar-
based mop sauce every time you crack
open a new beer.”
Each recipe is introduced by a short,
whimsical essay, but the instructions
themselves are straightforward, with very
few esoteric ingredients required (they
do tell you where to find pomegranate
molasses for your Cleopatra’s lamb salad)
and a minimum of nonsense.
As the title tells us, this book is about
how to behave as much as about prepar-
ing candied bacon or a proper champagne
cocktail. The authors extend their advice
beyond mealtime into proper behavior for
hosts and guests. “Nobody really wants pets
or children as houseguests,” they inform
us, “although no host is actually going to
tell you that.” They also happily recognize
that the finer points of etiquette evolve in a
modern era. But while the placement of des-
sert forks can now be a matter of opinion,
the placement of elbows at the table is not.
The
Academy Handbook
never has to
enter your kitchen for you to enjoy and
learn from it, but you will eventually want
to put it to use. Before you start working
your way into its offerings, however, take
note of the deans’ most important advice:
“You only need to know how to cook one
or two things – you just need to cook them
better than anyone else does.”
Operation Paperclip:
The Secret Intelligence
Program that Brought
Nazi Scientists to
America
by Annie Jacobsen ’85
Back Bay Books,
624 pages, $18
Reviewed by Hannah MacBride
If we study history to learn from it, then
Annie Jacobsen has given us a lot to learn.
REVIEWS
The Charleston
Academy of Domestic
Pursuits: A Handbook
of Etiquette with Recipes
by Suzanne Pollak ’74
and Lee Manigault
Stewart, Tabori & Chang:
New York, 216 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Michael Matros
Just as you might visit Downton Abbey
on a Sunday evening, consider setting
aside some time in another citadel of cul-
ture, with a stopover in the Low Country
of South Carolina and
The Charleston
Academy of Domestic Pursuits: A Hand-
book of Etiquette with Recipes
.
Don’t buy the e-book version of this
guide to the good life; you’ll want to ex-
perience the pleasures of the volume’s
heavy and elegant paper, its inviting
typography, and the simple and amusing
illustrations by Tania Lee. You may want
to hold and read through all the advice of
the two self-styled “Deans of the Acad-
emy” before opening the book within the
inevitable spatters of the kitchen, where
you may later want to attempt its “dove
with jalape
ñ
o and bacon” and “hash browns
in duck fat & cream.”
Please do not let indulgent recipe titles
such as these prevent your requesting
the
Academy Handbook
for your birthday.
Throughout their book, the deans main-
tain an extended pretense of cultural and
gastronomic superiority, but their hearts
extend to anyone wanting to extend her
(their audience is fairly gender specific)
comfort in creating good food, serving it
in a congenial, civilized setting, and under-
standing how possible it is to host a brunch,
cocktail, or dinner party for a few or a few
dozen guests. Elegance, they emphasize, is
best accomplished in a state of happiness.
Through its dozens of printings, the
classic regional cookbook
Charleston
Receipts
has introduced Low Country
cuisine to thousands of kitchens over
the years and remains a primary intro-
duction to the region’s culinary heritage.
The
Academy Handbook
does not attempt
to replace it – no recipes require you to
decapitate a live “cooter” in order to make
turtle soup, as you’ll find in
Charleston
Receipts
, and okra does not appear in the
The author of the
New York Times
best-
seller
Area 51
now offers her readers the
exceptional and painful story of
Operation
Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program
that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
.
The title, combined with a concise and
damning prologue, summarize the story:
How a large group of former Nazi scientists
were courted by the United States in an
effort to capitalize on the technical ad-
vances they had made in Germany. These
scientists and their families were given
jobs, housing, and, eventually, American
citizenship. Some made great contributions
to American science.
Through meticulously researched
details, Jacobsen weaves information
culled from once-classified documents,
oral histories, exclusive interviews, and
personal correspondence into a chilling
tale of science gone mad. Each of the 21
“Paperclip” scientists on whom she
focuses was an ardent Nazi implicated
in – and some convicted of – heinous
war crimes, including the use of concen-
tration camp prisoners as test subjects
and slaves. Seven doctors hired were
involved in “mercy killings” or medical
murder crimes.
How did this happen? Jacobsen does
an excellent job bringing to life the fear-
ful and harried post-WWII climate that
made Operation Paperclip possible. These
scientists may have been Nazis, but they
weren’t communists. They may have com-
mitted awful crimes, but their research
helped give the United States a technical
edge in the arms and space races. Many
of the scientists – and the government
agents who worked with them – denied
their affiliations with the Nazi party. Those
who admitted their crimes believed that
they were guiltless because “extreme times
call for extreme measures.” The U.S. gov-
ernment, at least in the case of Operation
Paperclip, seemed to agree with them.
Like any skilled writer, Jacobsen leaves
her readers with more questions than
answers: Is all fair in love and war? Is
science – or the scientists who practice it
– amoral? Do the ends justify the means?
Prepare to open up Pandora’s box when
you open this book.
