Of considerable interest to students of modern European history and the Roosevelt era.
Broad-ranging study of the role of ambassadors in conveying information about the rise of Europe’s totalitarian regimes in the 1930s and early ’40s.
In a useful addition to the literature on the beginning of World War II, McKean, the former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, observes that in Franklin Roosevelt’s time, there was no formally established federal post called “national security adviser.” Instead, to monitor developments in Europe in a time of clear peril to the international order, Roosevelt assembled a body of advisers who shared with him “a set of commonalities, distinct for each man,” and dispatched them as his ambassadors. Some weren’t exactly top of their class, and a few had a complicated relationship with FDR—Joseph Kennedy, for example, who was committed to isolationism even as he served as ambassador to the U.K. The ambassador to Italy, Breckenridge Long, was, like Roosevelt, a blue blood. Enthusiastic for fascism, Long “was inordinately impressed by Mussolini.” Meanwhile, the ambassador to Germany, born outside the usual moneyed Ivy League pedigree of State Department officials, was willing to be schooled in what the American consul in Berlin considered “the limitless depth of Hitler’s evil.” All of his intelligence channels eventually led Roosevelt away from a certain wariness over international involvement to a certainty that America would be enveloped in a European war, and on the side of Britain and France. For all that, writes McKean, Roosevelt was overly cautious on at least one matter. “Despite the intensifying anti-Jewish persecution in Germany in the 1930s, he refused to condemn the Nazi government,” adding that while Roosevelt surely could have done more to admit Jewish refugees to the U.S., he left policy matters on the subject to Long, “a narrow-minded bigot and anti-Semite.” That Roosevelt was reluctant to act, McKean writes damningly, was his foremost failure as president.
Of considerable interest to students of modern European history and the Roosevelt era.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-20696-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.
A timely distilled version of the powerful report on racism in the U.S.
Created by Lyndon Johnson’s executive order in 1967, the Kerner Commission was convened in response to inner-city riots in cities like Newark and Detroit, and its findings have renewed relevance in the wake of the George Floyd verdict and other recent police brutality cases. The report, named for Otto Kerner, the chairman of the commission and then governor of Illinois, explored the systemic reasons why an “apocalyptic fury” broke out that summer even in the wake of the passage of significant civil rights and voting acts—a response with striking echoes in recent events across the country. In this edited and contextualized version, New Yorker staff writer Cobb, with the assistance of Guariglia, capably demonstrates the continued relevance and prescience of the commission’s findings on institutionalized discriminatory policies in housing, education, employment, and the media. The commission was not the first to address racial violence in the century, and it would not be the last, but the bipartisan group of 11 members—including two Blacks and one woman—was impressively thorough in its investigation of the complex overarching social and economic issues at play. “The members were not seeking to understand a singular incident of disorder,” writes Cobb, “but the phenomenon of rioting itself.” Johnson wanted to know what happened, why it happened, and what could be done so it doesn’t happen “again and again.” Of course, it has happened again and again, and many of the report’s recommendations remain unimplemented. This version of the landmark report features a superb introduction by Cobb and a closing section of frequently asked questions—e.g., “How come nothing has been done about these problems?” The book contains plenty of fodder for crucial national conversations and many excellent ideas for much-needed reforms that could be put into place now.
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-892-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A solid work of investigation that, while treading well-covered ground, offers plenty of surprises.
An account of the last gasps of the Trump administration, completing a trilogy begun with Fear (2018) and Rage (2020).
One of Woodward and fellow Washington Post reporter Costa’s most memorable revelations comes right away: Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling his counterpart in Beijing to assure him that even after Jan. 6 and what Milley saw as an unmistakable attempt at a coup d’état, he would keep Trump from picking a war with China. This depiction has earned much attention on the talking-heads news channels, but more significant is its follow-up: Milley did so because he was concerned that Trump “might still be looking for what Milley called a ‘Reichstag moment.’ ” Milley emerges as a stalwart protector of the Constitution who constantly courted Trump’s ire and yet somehow survived without being fired. No less concerned about Trump’s erratic behavior was Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the House, who studied the psychiatric literature for a big takeaway: “Do not humiliate Trump in public. Humiliating a narcissist risked real danger, a frantic lashing out if he felt threatened or criticized.” Losing the 2020 election was one such humiliation, and Woodward and Costa closely track the trajectory of Trump’s reaction, from depression to howling rage to the stubborn belief that the election was rigged. There are a few other modest revelations in the book, including the fact that Trump loyalist William Barr warned him that the electorate didn’t like him. “They just think you’re a fucking asshole,” Barr told his boss. That was true enough, and the civil war that the authors recount among various offices in the White House and government reveals that Trump’s people were only ever tentatively his. All the same, the authors note, having drawn on scores of “deep background” interviews, Trump still has his base, still intends vengeance by way of a comeback, and still constitutes the peril of their title.
A solid work of investigation that, while treading well-covered ground, offers plenty of surprises.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982182-91-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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