In a group of atmospheric essays written over a 40-year span, the eminent historian (The End of the Twentieth Century, 1992, etc.) reflects eloquently on his ``brushes with history'' in Europe and America. Lukacs, a native Hungarian who settled in Philadelphia in 1946, here travels across continents and decades. In pieces dating from 1954 through 1993 (some of which originally ran in the New Yorker, the New Republic, and other magazines) the author tours and reflects on Venice, Philadelphia, London, Warsaw, Budapest, and other cities. In an essay from 1965, he attends Winston Churchill's funeral and affectionately considers Churchill's life and the British Empire, both finished; in ``Cook's Continental Timetable'' (1978) he makes reading a railroad schedule seem like a romantic adventure. Lukacs often evokes the unmodern beauties of Eastern Europe, comparing them with the very different qualities of the West. In ``Easter in Warsaw'' (1981) a trip to Poland unfolds as a spiritual pilgrimage to another world, while in ``A Night at the Dresden Opera'' (1986) Lukacs contrasts the rococo aesthetics of the opera house, emblematic of the glories of a bygone Germany, with the drabness of the GDR. In ``Philadelphia'' (1958) Lukacs meditates on how the different personalities of William Penn and Benjamin Franklin shaped his adopted city and nation: ``One was the contemplative humanitarian; the other, the utilitarian eager- beaver.'' In ``Back and Forth from Home'' (1990) this chronicler of the past tells of his worries about the future: Both as an ÇmigrÇ hopeful for newly liberated Hungary and as a member of the Schuykill Township Planning Commission responsible for protecting the local environment, he calls for ``the preservation of a countryside, of a landscape, of a way of life, of a country.'' Potent, absorbing reflections on past and present.
Pub Date: June 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8262-0956-4
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Univ. of Missouri
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
Preaching to the choir, perhaps, but an invigorating sermon all the same.
Zinn-ian conspiracy theories, propounded engagingly and energetically by filmmaker and gadfly Stone and Cold War scholar Kuznick (History/American Univ.).
If you’ve read Howard Zinn—or if, like Jeff Lebowski, the Port Huron Statement is still current news for you—then you’ll have at least some of the outlines of this overstuffed argument. Premise 1: Though the United States may pretend to be a nice, cuddly sort of democracy, it’s the font of much trouble in the world. Premise 2: When, post-9/11, neocons began pondering why it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for the U.S. to become an imperial power, they were missing a train (or Great White Fleet) that had pulled out of the station long ago. Premise 3: We like European fascists better than Asian fascists, as evidenced by propaganda posters depicting our erstwhile Japanese foes as rats and vermin. Premise 4: War is a racket that benefits only the ruling class. Premise 5: JFK knew more than he had a chance to make public, and he was gunned down for his troubles. And so forth. Layered in with these richly provocative (and eminently arguable) theses are historical aperçus and data that don’t figure in most standard texts—e.g., the showdown between Bernard Baruch and Harry Truman (“in a colossal failure of presidential leadership”) that could only lead to a protracted struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for post–World War II dominance. Some familiar villains figure in as well, notably the eminently hissable Henry Kissinger and his pal Augusto Pinochet; the luster of others whom we might want to think of as good guys dims (George H.W. Bush in regard to Gorbachev), while other bad guys (George W. Bush in regard to Saddam Hussein) get worse.
Preaching to the choir, perhaps, but an invigorating sermon all the same.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1351-3
Page Count: 784
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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