Learning to see: A novel on Dorethea Lange, a women who revealed the true America by Elise Hooper 2019 370pages,

 Dorethy Lange a activist with a camera

She lived from 1885 to 1965

Berkley 1964  The test of friendship lies in the ability to withstand bruises and wounds.

 She had a collection of photos of  New Mexico 1935, California 1936, Texas 1938,Arkansas 1938, Arizona 1940.

1918 The story starts in San Francisco , Dorethea Nutzhorn with her friend Fronsie after graduation in NY and earning money were taking a trip across American and then onto Honolulu and beyond. Their purse with the cash was stolen. Penniless  they decided to get jobs there. Fronsie who had worked for Western Union was taken on in the local office and Dorothea a qualified photographer at a portrait studio in Nob Hill. 

Dorethea had  had, had polio so wore pants to hide her weak leg and to get a job and was asked about her limp and said she dropped a suitcase on her toe accidently. She took her mother's maiden name Lange and it was less German. She had professional lithographers in her family.

1920 Aged 24 married Maynard Dixon (a divorcee with a daughter) an artist who painted landscape scenes. Near Kenyanta, Arizona they went into see far off the main road "The Tuba City Indian School" This is a military type school run by the government to force these  kids away from their tribe to "save" from indolence and alcoholism, poverty and tubucolosis. They don't allow them to speak Navajo and teach them English and how to work. Dorothy and Maynard are shocked.
1925. They had a sons Daniel  and then John 1928

The monochromatic palette removed any disssonnce between colors that didn't match.

1925 Alfred Steiglitz's was the leading photographer, his wife was Gergia O Keefe on the East Coast her art and cubism, surrealism and modernism were the demand  not Maynards works of dessert scenary. Paul Strand exhibited photos as the Steiglitz Gallery, Dorothea with help from friends set up a portrait photo studio that attracted high class clients

1929 Start of Depression,

Albert Bender an Irish Jew successful  in insurance in SF in 1930s. Donated a collection of art to the SF Museum of Arts as well as the Irish Art Gallery. Ralph Stackpole leading SF sculpture who was involved in public works during the depression. Coit Tower project to provide employment, artist were paid to paint murals in this.

1931 Diago Raviera was  commissioned to do mural at SF Stock Exchange. His wife Frida Kohla also had a polio leg and  met Dorethea and gave her one of her long dresses.

1932 Lindberg paid out $50000 ransom to get his baby back. FDR replaces Hoover and the New Deal Begins.

So that Dorothea and Maynard could work they fostered out the children. She started taking photos of the soup kitchen lines. She was at the Embarcadero for  the May Day Parade on Bloody Thursday when 2 men were killed.

Maynard got a commission documenting  in art the Boulder Dam construction  that started in 1932 and later called the Hoover Dam he was appalled at the working conditions.

1936 San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge completed, 

1937  Golden Gate Bridge completed this was the world longest suspension bridge at the time. 

Graflex and Rollerflex and Juwel were some of the cameras she used.

Paul Taylor was an economics professor at Berkley and had articles in Survey Graphic and had seen pictures of hers at an exhibit and paid for some to be included in his article. He felt she was an artist and story teller through her pictures, Then through SERA State emergency Relief Administration he hired her as a "typist" as he was told "What do you need a photographer for"

In the Coachella Valley people were paid about 70cents a day to pick lettuce, the cheap restaurant meal she paid 65 cents for. Even 10 year old children were working here.  In the Imperial Valley they paid a kid pumping gas to make a list of the states that the cars passing came from - Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, none from Mexico. Then they learned of the Oklahoma dust storms of the past few years and the banks taking over farms there. At a camp in Sacramento Valley were malnourished kids covered with flies.

Social Security Board gave them an assignment starting in Marysville, then New Mexico. She divorced Maynard and married Paul Taylor.

1937 The SF News published the "Harvest Gypsies" a weekly series by John Steinbeck with her photo's illustrating it. Many politicians objected to these and she lost her job while the pictures belonged to the government. Near Nipomo at a pea picking camp her very iconic picture was taken.  The Steinbeck's articles were published as a book with her photos

In the south she documented Negro sharecroppers and segregation laws.

1939 John Steinbeck published "Grapes of Wrath" When Dorethea published  her photos album "American Exodus"  she asked him to write a forward but he refused. Later when John Ford made the movie of "Grapes of Wrath "he made scenes directly from her photos without acknowledging her.

Her work was no longer attracting attention as the press was filled with news of  Hitler. 

1941 She received the Guggenheim Award .  1941 December Pearl Harbour attack.

1942 With the Japanese Relocation men that arrived  from the Dust Bowl ten years earlier were buying up Japanese farms and barely paying. The War Relocation Authority got her to document this in Taforan , San Bruno, Stockton, Saint Anita, Turlock. The Colonel at Manzanar got the WRA to fire her and  conviscated the photos and   negatives.  Ansel Adam was sent by the War Office to document the industry ports and factories going up north of Oakland for the war effort, he also documented the Japanese Relocation Camps the way the government wanted  them portrayed. Dorothy took pictures of these towns documenting the "Warm Bed" hotels where people rented the same beds at different work shifts. 

1957 She taught at the California School of Fine Arts and also published material documenting Ireland.

The book ends when she is ill and has been invited to give an exhibition at the MoMO Museum in NY. Her impounded pictures at Manzanar  she received back from Washington but warned not to publish. She tells her son Dan who helps her with this project .The reason she neglected her children to do her work, was that  she saw herself  not an artist but an "activist." The exhibition was put on 3 months after her death.

The Napoleon of Crime The Life and times of Master Thief by Ben Macintyre 1997. 350pg

 Sherlock Holmes, art, wealth  crime and respectability of the Victorian age  22/4/20

A private detective company the Pinkertons left an archive of their records and the author found one dated 1902 on Adam Worth and his crimes of half a century. His wife never knew of how he was getting money. He moved from pickpocketing "smatter hauler" to safecracking, forgery, jewel theft and highway robbery.

He is portrayed in Sherlock Holmes as Professor Moriarty an art collector,

1844 from eastern Germany his Jewish parents arrived in Cambridge, Mass. and his father set up a tailor shop. Living in this university city in poverty he was able to observes the life style extreme wealth. Henry Adams would have been studying there in 1850s. Henry James described Boston as the most socially divided city, the Anglophile Brahmins.

He went to NY where he worked for a big company as a store clerk and joined the army for the civil war

1862 fought in the Battle of Bull Run and 1864 in the Battle of Wilderness and was buried as dead. He signed up to another regiment and got a bounty again a few times.

Alan Pinkerton a Scot founded the detective agency in Chicago in 1850 and his brother William a contemporary of Worth. Their symbol was an unblinking eye with the motto "The Eye that Never Sleeps" this lead to the term "Private Eye."

1928 Herbert Asbury wrote "The Gangs of New York"

1864 sentenced to three years at Sing Sing for stealing packages from an Adams Express truck. He worked breaking rocks and learned to use nitroglycerine.. Most criminals are not intelligent and big drinkers, not Worth and because he was small he never resorted to violence he never had a pistol. Mam Mandelbaum was the leading fence in NY. thus gender was no barrier to criminal success.

 He rented a store next to the Boylston National bank and drilled into the Strong Room and left the country via Philadelphia. The bonds and securities his lawyer returned to via the police for the discount which was the normal method. Worth and Ballard in Liverpool joined up with Kitty. 1876 Adam Worth alias Henry J Raymond. They robbed the largest pawn shop in Liverpool and the 3 fled to Paris where after  the Franco Prussian War and siege was an enticing venue for crooks.

1871th Communards were crushed by the government and more than 20000 were killed.  They opened the American Bar and had illegal gambling upstairs. It was patronized by Americans and English especially crooks.

Macaulay the history of Britain ( Victorian) is a history of progress. Thomas Gainsborough painted  the Duchess of Devonshire in 1763, 1783 and the 1787 painting became an icon of feminity. Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey 1891 comes from this idea. Ostrich feathers as fashion also, She also sat for Reynolds, Romney and Rowlandson. Diana Princess of Whales is one of her  descendants. She was portrayed  in School for Scandal 1777 by Sheridan. Worth stole the painting and 25 years later hegot William Pinterton as the middle man in returning it from a "long dead thief" getting Worth a large reward for it. Pinterton became Worth's protector.Pinkerton died in 1923 at the age of 77 leaving 15 million $. 

Robert Anderson a Scotland Yard detective named him the Napoleon of the criminal world. Crimes all over he world were planned in his luxurious home, where he yearned for respectability and was the prototype to Jay Gadsby. 

The Victorians were the first to publish pornography on an industrial scale. The indulgent lifestyle of the period was shown by Edward VII as the Crown Prince. Adam Worth was the exception to the rule that no crook ever made money.

1875 Pinkertons posse hunted the James Brothers ending in a fiasco killing the family but not Jesse James. He was also in the Pennsylvania coal strikes. 

1870 Roger Tishbourne vanished and an East End  butcher came in 1880 and claimed to be him and was recognised by the mother and lived in luxury till she died. R.L.Stevenson novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is based on this.

1880 from Port Elizabeth, S.Africa  as a highwayman attempted to rob the mail stage coach but it was defended by Boer guards. The next time he cut the river crossing barge delaying the coach by 8 hours and as the ship from  already left he then stole the diamonds from the PO safe and returned with them via the East Coast to Italy.

In Liege Belgium where nothing was well protected he robbed a mail coach and ended up in jail for 5 years in that time and released in 1897, Curtin one of his gang became friendly with his young wife and managed to lay his hand on  all Worths assets, and his wife ended up in an asylum. Worths 2 children were sent to his brother John in NY,

Marm Mandelbaum was the leading fence in NY and ran a pub and would sell of all thieves stolen goods for years eventually she had to flee Canada with as many millions as she could carry.

JP Morgan the banker was known as the Napoleon of Wall Street and had used the US Civil war to make money. Both he and Worth bought respect with other peoples money, were greedy ,vain and megalomaniacs. Morgan supported moral causes but was a leading  philanderer. He now bought up the "Duchess" painting. Henry James in the novel The Outcry describes how weathy American's were buying up British art and culture.  Morgan's Hyde Park residence later became Joseph Kennedy and later President Kennedy's home.

Adam Worth died aged 56 of "chronic habit of intemperance" he had believed he could steal respect.

1994 the painting was bought up by the Devonshire family and returned to Chatsworth.

Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson 478pg 2017

  Britain Occupied Europe and the Brotherhood that Helped turn the tide of war.

Lynne Olson is an excellent story teller and very readable***** 2/3/19  Kindle 

After seeing the Polish resistance museum in London I found this book interesting
Prime Minister Disraeli declared that now that Britain mastered  the sea she had "outgrown the continent of Europe." Britain as  an island nation was never comfortable with alliances and had great prejudges against foreigners.
In May June 1940 in less than a month the UK became haven for 6 governments occupied by Hitler.  Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway ,Holland, Belgium  and Luxembourg as well as self appointed de Gaulle of France.
We find that hundreds of Poles played a critical role in winning the war but the war was shown as a American. British, Soviet triumph.
The role BBC played. Till Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain the radio represented Britain which meant the policy of the Prime Minister.  Ed Murrow's broadcast back to the US told the truth.  He convinced the BBC to let the public have the facts of the defeat so that when there is a victory BBC will be credible. Later hundreds of coded messages were sent over open radio to the different undergrounds group on open radio. The Dutch queen, Norwegian king and de Gaul all spoke on BBC.
Up to 1939 Britain had no conscription
The cooperation in London of all the exile governments planted the seed of European unification after the war.  Britain reverted to her aloofness but eventually joined the EEC in 1973.

Germany occupied Norway but the government and gold and merchant marine got away. Norway had been at peace for over a century and was neutral during WW1.  Haakon had offered to send a warship to rescue Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1917.  Germany depended on Swedish iron and Churchill wanted to stop this. In 1940 British ships stared laying mines on the Norwegian coast. Willy Brandt lived 7 years in Norway and fled to Sweden. British troops were sent to Norway and captured the port of Narvik and drove the Germans backs later Britain was stunned when Chamberlain announced the evacuation of British troops because they were needed at home. Norsk Hydro - all their heavy water was bought by IG Farben  Norsk Hydro factory had to be destroyed by a secret force.

Belgium under Albert I in 1914 halted the German advance in the battle of the Yser which gave the allies controle of key ports then. Leopold was an Eton boy who had military training and build a strong army despite his government, he understood the dangers of a weak country but kept neutrality.  But it was Belguim forces that kept the Germans at bay while the British evacuated Dunkirk.  When Churchill took over to fortify his position after all the disasters the blame was pinned only the allies who did not defend themselves.

Belgium Leopold III his first wife Astrid was Swedish and popular but in 1941 he married a Flemish girl while imprisoned in Germany. He was forced to abdicate and his brother Charles became regent to his son Baudouin.  The king cannot marry a Walloon or a Flemish.

Nobody expected the German breakthrough on the Meuse. Dunkirk is considered a British victory but French forces at Lille helped the British forces keep the Germans at bay.  More than 100 000 French soldiers were evacuated also but this was only a British afterthought. The French government fled Paris making no arrangement for it's defence and total chaos on the way south.  De Gaulle said that Petain and Weygand planned to arrest him, and got help to escape to London. A Vichy court sentence him to death for treason. Reynaud had legally handed overpower to Petain who was now the legitimate government.
  French scientists escaped. France is interesting it had about 22000 collaborators. Under Vichy the Germans had full cooperation and Petain did the Nazi work for them. Surprisingly French living already in England supported him. It took a long time for the Marquis to get it act together and de Gaul was unknown and building up a French army outside France. The attack against Vichy Dakar failed.  In France the underground slowly started spreading newspapers.
When the American started succeeding in North Africa the feeling of defeat in France shifted and then the Germans took over ruling Vichy directly.
When the war started going badly in Russia, it did not end in 6 weeks Germany started taking slave labour to work in armaments in Germany. At this stage  Jean Moulin   arrived at de Gaul with information about how to contact the Marqui and its set up. A high % of Jews were involved in this, and the ordinary people who were not involved gave a lot of support.
Roosevelt wanted to set up an American military government but de Gaule came in and wanted to be in charge. With the Paris uprising Eisenhower.,got a message that he must enter Paris quickly as Hitler wanted it destroyed it, while de Gaul was worried that the French communists would take over. The German general Dietrich von Choltitzl   did not carry out Hitler's instruction and destroy Paris.

1831 The Netherland had been offered permanent neutrality The Netherland rescued Paul Kruger during the Boer War and gave Kaiser Wilhelm II asylum in 1918.

Wilhelmina fled the Germans on a British ship and wanted to make a stand with the Dutch army in Zealand but the British never allowed her to return. Hollands gold was also taken out to the US.
The whole operation in the Netherlands was a total disaster as the first spies arrived were caught and messages sent back in their name. The operators in London were amateurs and even though a key code was not used they just kept cooperating and the Abwehr who called this Engelspeil collected more than 50 agents and all weapons delivered. After this the Dutch government in exile got involved and it became secure. Young people were now being rounded up to be slave labour  in Germany and so many people were hiding that this basically set up an underground system to protect them. Queen Wilhelmina returned to the liberated part of Holland before Germany capitulated and became a Queen of the people.

King Harkon of Norway had an English  wife Queen Maud and Edward 7 was his uncle. He arrived in England with over 1400 soldiers and 1000 sailors more followed.  The Norwegen navy and merchant navy took instruction from BBC came to Britain and they were requisition for the war.
Norway was still occupied at the end of the war and free Norwegian soldiers moved into take over running the country as the King Harken returned.

When the Germans took the Sudetenland many Czech soldiers and pilots left the country, many joined up in Poland
Reinhard Heidrich assassination was the result of Stalin request for something to be done in that area. The reprisal was so harsh the Czech underground was so ruined that they could not sabotage military production there.

The Poles defending Poland killed 16000 Germans and wounded 30000. The Poles were distrusted because of their defeat the Czechs were scorned as they did not fight. Most Polish flyers were battle hardened against the Germans
After the Katyn massacre was revealed Stalin cut off links to the Polish government and asked Churchill to do the same.  Churchill was worried that after Russia had got back her territory she would leave the rest of the work to the West. Russia had informed Churchill  that she was taking part of Polish territory. The Polish underground had helped both Britain and Russia but they would not benefit from this.

 General Sikorsky crashed  in a RAF plane as it took off from Gibraltar.  That was the end of Poland's chances as he was the only figure of influence of world leaders and who could keep the factions united. Stalin certainly wanted to get rid of him and Philbi was the agent in that area, a later enquire found that there was not enough security at the airport. The General after him Mikolajczyk  gave instructions to the Polish underground not to rise up against the Germans but we saw the failed Warsaw uprising. George Keenen informed the West that Stalin wanted Poland lock, stock and barrel.

With Dunkirk Britain had less than a tenth of the army that Germany had. 85000 Poles were amongst the fighters in France 20 000 of them got to England and another 8000 airman.  There were about 5000 Czechs 1000 of them were airmen.
Von Halban and Kowarski came to Britain and set up an atomic reactor research program that later went to the US and became the Manhattan project.
In the Battle of Britain 20% of pilots were not British and half of them came from the British Commonwealth. The Polish squadron 303 were the most skilled pilots of all. When the Germans decided that the airfields were destroyed and they now could start against the cities before invasion this gave the airfields time to recover.

The electrifying Fall of Rainbow City :Spectacle and the Assassination at the 1901 World's Fair by Margaret Creighton 2016 274pg

Assassination of President McKinley 1901  and US social history of that time  14/4/20

1825 Erie Canal completed .
 1893 The  Chicago White City, World Colombian Exposition was a very successful financially. thus a group from Buffalo got together and raised money for another fair.  They wanted it to create new market with Latin American Republic that had become independent. and did not invite old world countries.
It was called the Pan American Exposition of Rainbow fair because of new eclectic lighting just invented. The Port of Buffalo was the most active shipping centre of the world, with the Erie Canal boom and then the railways. Buffalo was the greatest grain port and it had more asphalt roads of any city.  The  fair  was designed by NY architect John Carrare
The electricity came from hydroelectric and it used Nikola Tesla's invention of alternating current.
1900 July King Umberto1 of Italy assassinator by an Italo American anarchist.
1894 French President Carnot stabbed to death. 
There were about 10000 anarchists mostly urban working class foreigners in the US. Chicago Haymarket bombing 1896. Emma Goldman was a leading anarchist speaker.
Some of the events were put on by 45 different indigenous Indian tribes, Africans, Mexicans Hawaiians Japanese and Filipinos many of these returned home with good impressions of America. US blacks portraying the "plantation days" Frank Bostock an a vast variety of animal acts, including a Tasmanian Devil which is extinct today, Buffalo Bill Cody and Geronimo were personalities acting in shows.
William Jennings Bryan was against the active US imperialism policy.
William McKinley was 58 US president No 25 and had fought in he Battle of Antietam 1862 in the Civil War. It was his decision to go to war against Spain 1879 and take possession of Cuba and Philippines. General Mc Author senior had got the surrender of the rebel leader Emilio Aguialdo in March 1901, One of the reasons the President had a small body guard was that Congress believed this expanded the power of the President.
Samuel Gompers was head of the American Labour Federation. James G Blain was Secretary of State. McKinley was prepared to forgive the old Federates and Booker T Washington supported him despite black views.  Eliyah Root was the Secretary of War.
During a shaking hands line Leon Czolgosz alias Fred Nieman shot into the presidents stomack at point blank and was operated on before the expert surgeon came from NY he appears to be recovering but died, The autopsy showed a bullet had torn his pancreas and causing gangrene. Jim Parker a tall black man grabbed the assassin  and was a hero but authorities quietly wanted this forgotten, this upset many blacks.
Erie County court sentenced Czolgosz  to the electric chair, he did not defend himself and never said a word in the sessions that lasted 9 hours.. The concept of electricity being a great invention and a killer is discussed.
It was a period of independent women including the reporter Nellie Bly and the invention of the women bicycle gave many of them a new independence. Officials were against women driving cars.    Annie Edson Taylor an over 60 year old independent women went over the Niagara falls in a specially designed  barrel and survived to become famous. By the time Taylor died in1921 women had he vote. She was followed   by Amelia Earhart  who died flying aeroplane in 1937.
Jumbo 2 was a famous old elephant and the owner was going to electrocute him as a paid public spectacle.
 1860 Mary Lord had started the Buffalo SPCA to protect mules against bargeman cruelty, so after an outcry people got back their money and Jumbo lived longer. However President Roosevelt provided more elephant stories from his African Safari of 1908.
du Bois and other blacks after this met and formed the Niagara Movement 1905 as they objected to the way Booker T. Washington accommodation policies rather than standing up for equal rights this led to the NAACP for colored right later.
The fair was a financial  loss and Washington helped with only half a million dollars. In 1882 Grover Cleveland was mayor of Buffalo and later became Governor of NY later President.
1904 there was the Louisiana Purchase Centenary Exposition in St Louis Missouri.
1912 There was an attempt on Teddy Roosevelt's life in Wisconsin
Buffalo was one of the major industrial cities of this  period and provided employment for thousands but by the 1920 the Saint Lawrence Seaway was completed to send freighters from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. In 1965 the steel production was at its greatest but later became part of the rust belt,
 There are lots of other interesting stories in the book

Born a Crime; Stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah 2017 304pg

Trevor Noah explains Apartheid, post Apartheid South Africa   12/12/19

His mother of Xhosa extraction did a course and became a typist and rented a flat in Hillbrow was friendly with a Swiss neighbour and decided to have a kid with him, born 1984. Later moved to Jobert Park area and when he was bigger they lived at his grandmother in Soweto. His grandparent had owned a house in Sophiatown a mixed neighbourhood.  Before apartheid European missionaries provided blacks with education and a knowledgeable man is a free man. Racism has no logic about it. 
He describes how his mother schlepped him to black, mixed and white churches and he got quite an education and learned sing from that.
 He was able to learn a number of black languages and didn't know anything about white society.  Later on he was put into Maryvale Catholic school and was a advanced learner and later into HA Jack school in Johannesburg a government school. Here he was put into a mostly white class as he had high grades but opted to go to a black class as he had little in common with the white kids.
Blacks consider cats to be witches
1985 The Immorality Act was cancelled, so mixed race marriages were no longer illigal
Years later he finds that his white father live in Camps Bay, Cape Town and visits him. He discovers that Robert has collected every press cutting about Trevor.
His stepfather hears he was bullied and catches the culprit and beats he without pity when the kids father comes to complain beats him also.
We get a description of the mini bus system and that it is all run by protection godfathers, the Apartheid government did not provide services for the black so they had to solve problem within the communities. Black society had to work on the side and avoid the authorities. After apartheid this is what basically has taken over control of the whole country. rather than the government.
He finished matric at Sandringham High and then wants to make money to study. With friends that market pirated DVDs and then make selections of top tune and become disc jockeys with dancers and entertainers. He gives a description of Alexander and the vibrant life. He explains how a number of black kids got weird names including Hitler.
Under Apartheid people worked at slave wages then a minimum wage law came out causing massive unemployment.
 When he was 9 his mother married Able and when he stopped hash  went onto alcohol he was Tsonga and wanted a subservient wife. She now had a baby Andrew 9 years later Isaac was born. The cheapest food in season is mopani worms - caterpillars. Because he slept in different cars at his fathers garage he found the best to sleep in.
South Africa has 11 official languages Afrikaans English then Zulu Xhosa Tswana, Sotho, Northern Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Southern Ndebele.
If you are caught with a stolen car, it is possible that you car jacked it by murder. Colored gangsters were considered the most ruthless. The book describes men's violence against women and when they complained the police were not keen to lay charges.

One of the things that I liked reading about was the parts of Johannesburg that I knew so well as a kid in the 1950s and later on till I left S. Africa at the end of  1976.

Anglo American Palestine Commission of 1946 Richard Crossman

Anglo American Palestine Commission of 1946  
  12/8/18

This book is both as history and tour or Eretz Israel at the time. In reading this book one can see problems that we have in the present Middle East.  He was invited into the Committee in Oct 1945. Recommendations made in April 1946 and the book was published in August 1946.

 Richard Crossman 1907 till 1974 Studied in Oxford and became a lecturer in philosophy and was later MP. He had spent a year in Germany and later he realized that all the academics he had been associated with there were Jewish. During the war he worked in propaganda against the Nazis. Was appointed to this commission as he had never said anything about the Palestine issue which he knew nothing about.  Jews of Western Europe could go back home and put their lives together but not those of Eastern. Before the War, Zionism attracted a small middle class but this group after the war it became a real Jewish expression. On the 12 members of the commission one American was a committed Zionist.
In America Judge Louis Brandeis had been a Zionist supporter. Crossman got to know a lot of important people in the Jewish community like Steven Wise as well as Loudermilk and David Horowitz.
With Rommel attacking in Africa the White paper was "necessary" as Britain did not want to upset the Arabs during the war before America and Russia entered.
The one thing that was perplexing was taking Judaism as a religious minority in the world and giving them a national state. What it the status of Jews not in the national state. He predicted the kind of anti Israel antisemitism that we have become familiar with today.
In Cairo the consular officials were not the types very aware of what was going on in the country and the British army provided protection for them. They took a train from Cairo to Jerusalem where they met with the Governors officials. We find 2 ruling classes the British with the Arabs and the Jews on the other side.
Jehuda Magnes says that the university being called Hebrew university and not Palestine university is correct,  Ben Gurion says he disagrees with his Crossman's views on Aristotle. The editor of the Palestine Post tells him about censorship which he did not know.
He meets Weitzman at Rehovot who talks to him his peaceful negotiation with the British,. but the Yishuv (Jewish community) are more militant over the White Paper. In Naharia he finds Yekke (German immigrants) culture that has disappeared from Germany and they want a peaceful solution or binational state.  He finds that all Jewish kids are getting an education but the Arabs are waiting for the government to provide it and the next generation as being left illiterate. Arab upper class did not want the peasants to get an education.
He felt that the Haganah could defeat the Arabs easily. The British could not manage to tax the wealthy Arabs while the Jewish Agency which was a state within a state was being well run. The Arabs did not like that the Jews were better off. The British civil servant were not very capable but pro Arab.
He met Golda Meyerson (Meyer) the head of the Histadrut. The Jews had set up a socialist system but many were refugees from Bolshevism and would not allow Russian influence. He met Gershon Agnon the editor or the Palestine Post
During the war the Arabs were not concerned whether Britain of the Germans won while the Yishuv helped the British setting up the Palmach which then became the Hagenah.
The commission suggested 1) revoking the white paper 2) Immediately allowing 100 000 Jewish refugees in. 3)Partition.
At the time Britain never had enough coal and were changing over to oil for their trains and were worried about access to Mideast oil. At the same time Britain knew she had to get out of Egypt.
As a result of not implementing the commissions finding immediately we see that on 17 June Night of the Bridges, Here both Hagana and Irgun blew  up all the bridges connecting Palestine rail the other countries, followed by
29 June 1946 King David Hotel attack.