Nathan Raab

The thing that struck me first about this book is that this dealer in letters, recordings, ephemera needed to have a ghost writer to help him with the book. No bookdeale be caught dead using a ghost writer, or especially, admitting to using a ghost writer. It reminds me of Hollywood memoirs where the basically illiterate or, at most, seim-illiterate, are made to look smarter and more insightful. On reading the book I can see why he chose to have help. Mr. Raab is all about his and his father's image, expounding over and over about the Raab intuitive blink, an instant ability to discern the important, historical, from the mundane. The anecdotes are very good and there is no question that the Raab's are good at their profession, I'm just not sure how much of his gigantic ego can be swallowed. Like antiques roadshow, it is easy for me to imagine that at least some of the "finds" have been set up or embellished to make the Raab's look especially smart. But are they as prescient as they would have us believe? This book follows certain patterns one finds in most memoirs by book or autograph delaers, such as "other dealers do thses gray area things, but i nver would". or I found that the document was worth more than we thought so I gladly gave the original vendor an extra payment". The long and short of it is that Raab is so self-centered that he actually thinks he is making history, not just uncovering it.… (altro)

I’m not quite sure what to make of this book. On one hand it’s fascinating, and on the other it’s really annoying.

Let’s start with the annoying. There is no “hunt” for history here as it’s mainly anecdotes around artifacts and documents that are either offered to the author’s company, or found in auction catalogs. It’s also so self-congratulatory as to tend towards being creepily narcissistic. And the practice of dropping in mentions of how much money items were sold for seems to undermine them as historical artifacts by making them seem to be just opportunities for commercial profit.

Yet anyone who has bought or sold any sort of collectible will find much to recognize here.

And the historical stories behind the documents discussed provide some fascinating insights into some of the lesser known corners of history (albeit a very American focused one).… (altro)

The Hunt For History by Nathan Raab. This nerd loves history, and this book was just amazing! Nathan Raab is the president of the Raab Collection, a dealer of historical artifacts. He is what I would call a treasure hunter. In this book he details some of his most exciting finds! He is essentially living the show Antiques Roadshow! Letters from Churchill, Einstein and recordings from Air Force One after Kennedy had been assassinated. And those are just a few of his finds! I loved reading this book and did not want it to end!! A book about history and told in such a way that you don't even realize you are learning!! I will definitely buy this book! 5⭐… (altro)

Each of the nineteen chapters tells how the author and/or his father recovered an artifact relevant to an event or aspect of U. S. or European history. The only chapter of interest to me concerned the audio tape between the ground and Air Force One as it flew the body of President Kennedy back to Washington. The author alludes to conspiracy theories without providing context. The only context I know of is the preautopsy autopsy or body alteration theory posited by David S. Lifton in his book "Best Evidence", the idea being that the best evidence of an assassination conspiracy is the body of the victim itself. The theory holds that the body's wounds were altered before the autopsy was performed to make it appear that multiple gunmen rather than a lone gunman fired the shots.
The only things Rabb and Barr tell us are that the original tape (and any copies) are missing; that it was four hours in length; that the tape extant at the Lyndon Johnson Library is one hour and thirty-eight minutes in length; and that newly recovered tape is two hours and twenty minutes in length. Since they go no further than that I would assume there are no smoking guns in the additional forty-two minutes but then again neither Rabb or Barr appear to have the background to recognize a smoking gun in this case. Perhaps at this point it is best just to say that there is no incontrovertible evidence of a smoking gun that would gob smack the general public.
I believe the flight was from Love Field to Andrews Air Force Base, what today is a two hour and fifty minute flight. Has jet travel sped up that much in the last fifty-seven years? I doubt it. There may have been a lot of waiting around for a judge to swear LBJ in, etc. Conversely the recording may have been voice activated and the 2:20 tape condensed the 4:00 flight. Gregarious pilots are distracted pilots and the funereal circumstances don't encourage loquaciousness anyway. It seems the authors didn't care enough to delve into it.… (altro)