About
Howard David Epstein is a Commercial Lawyer and Author
Spending his entire working life as a commercial lawyer, but with a wide-range of other legal work from which he saw the full extent of human behaviour and misbehaviour, Howard learned the difference between cynicism and honest criticism.
Through all Howard’s work runs one three-ply thread: research, thorough research and more research.
Further, he does not kid himself that there is one truth to be unearthed, but accepts that some stories are more cogent, more credible and more accurate than others. Those inform his works – fiction and non-fiction – that he likes to relate and explain: the ones that will withstand exploration and challenge.
Traumatised Nation: How America Got to be So Violent
Traumatised Nation
How America Got to be so Violent
This is a major work of non-fiction, detailing the twenty main traumas that the American nation underwent in the 80 years between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Credit Crunch of 2009, explaining the problem that America has with guns.
Howard’s conclusion that it is a matter of gun culture – and not gun control – that has led to America uniquely suffering from gun crime. Finally, he sets out a practical plan of action for reducing rampage-killings, increasingly the curse of American society.
The Compartmentalist
The Compartmentalist
Dominic is a City solicitor for whom everything is going right until, just as he gets his luckiest break, his whole life starts to go wrong.
There is tragedy in his past but he has developed his own coping mechanism: every trauma and issue is compartmentalised — locked away in its own box, unless and until he has the need to open it. There is also his Pandora’s Box, which has remained unopened for many years, until he is almost driven to suicide. Thanks to his new-found love, he surmounts his challenges, but not without several ordeals on the way.
This is a story of our times with current themes of cyber crime, #MeToo allegations, marriage breakdown, and sexual harassment claims, all leading to an unexpected dénouement.
The Nazi Who Saved America
The Nazi Who Saved America: Von Braun, JFK and the Sputniks
This is a work of historical fiction, but by careful research the story is faithful to the main events and the central non-fictitious actors. It tells how the father of Western rocketry, Wernher von Braun, the Nazi scientist who rained V2 rockets on London, was taken to America at the end of WWII – and was then ignored until the Soviet Sputniks were launched. When President Kennedy made it America’s ambition to overtake Russia in the Space Race, von Braun acted to put a man on the moon within eight years, thus redeeming his reputation and that of American technology.
ISRAEL
AT SEVENTY-FIVE
- In Weizmann's image
In this work, Howard’s aim is to throw a spotlight on Weizmann’s vital, essential, crucial and, yes, indispensable contributions to the birth and life of one of the most remarkable and successful countries of the modern world.
When, in 1915, at the height of WWI, Britain was running short of acetone, an essential ingredient of cordite used for explosives and propellants, Weizmann had the answer: his synthetic acetone! His chemistry saved the day and led to the Balfour Declaration. But it was his chemistry with people also that led to three further essential diplomatic achievements necessary for the birth of the State of Israel in 1948.
How, the reader will ask, could one man have had the right answers at the right time and in the right place? Do you believe in miracles? You might when you have read this book.
Despoil The Child: A Short Global History of the Abasement Abduction and Deportation of Children
DESPOIL THE CHILD:
A Short Global History of the Abasement, Abduction and Deportation of Children
This largely untold story starts with the case of Great Britain, which transported some 350,000 of its children to its colonies over a span of almost 400 years. Howard explains how a practice that started with a king wishing to clear London streets of indigent infants, and continued as a matter of trade, was worked up by Victorian do-gooders and always had British Empire-building at its heart – but showing no heart for the children who were trafficked until the 1960s.
No Genius: Hitler’s Fatal Mistakes
This is a work of non-fiction and currently a work in progress.
On 25 June 1940, a triumphant Adolf Hitler toured Paris in his massive, opulent, open-top Mercedes-Benz 770 staff car, undoubtedly gloating at his achievement in defeating France in a matter of 44 days. There were several photo-opportunities, both in and out of the car. Famously, he was photographed from the Le Trocadero gardens, with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop. At his feet lay the former City of Light — lugubrious, silent and vanquished. There, too, lay the whole of Europe, supine, impotent and at Hitler’s mercy – had he but had any.
This book charts Germany’s descent from superpower in 1914 to pariah state in 1945, largely through the unforced errors of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was for a time thought by many – not least himself – to be a military genius. The book, however, considers Hitler’s fatal errors that brought Germany to its knees, Europe to complete destruction and Hitler to suicide.
This book is a work in progress, but available for download for under £1, and registration on the waiting list to buy the whole book when finished.
Traumatised Nation: How America Got to be so Violent is a major work of non-fiction, showing how twenty national traumas in the 80 years between the Wall Street Crash and the Credit Crunch led to the American nation’s addiction to guns and gun violence. Howard suggests ways to reduce rampage killings by looking at the issue as one not of gun control but gun culture.
The Compartmentalist:
Dominic is a City solicitor for whom everything is going right until, just as he gets his luckiest break, his whole life starts to go wrong.
There is tragedy in his past, but he has developed his own coping mechanism: every trauma and issue is compartmentalised — locked away in its own box, unless and until he has the need to open it.
The Nazi Who Saved America is a historical novel that tells the story of German rocket genius, Wernher von Braun, who redeemed his WWII Nazi reputation and that of post-War American technology by putting a man on the moon within eight years of JFK making that America’s ambition.
Israel at Seventy-Five: In Weizmann’s image is the story of scientist Chaim Weizmann, who saved the British Empire from defeat in the First World War and secured the promise of the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland after an absence of two thousand years. Weizmann achieved four more diplomatic achievements without which Israel would not have come into being.