A tremendous and timely history lesson for our age.
A sweeping study of the “bipolar” struggle between the two superpowers that moved from ideological conflict to permanent military confrontation.
In astute, thematic chapters, Bancroft Award–winning historian Westad (U.S.–Asia Relations/Harvard Univ.; Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750, 2012, etc.) offers an excellent sense of the ideological conflicts fulminating since the late 19th century that formed the crux of the Cold War. The forces of modernity that were rapidly and profoundly transforming society in Europe and America were also creating vast swaths of human misery, and socialism and communism rose to support “the ordinary men and women who were being thrown into capitalism’s centrifuge.” Proceeding chronologically, the author shows how these movements of workers joined other campaigns—e.g., women’s rights and anti-colonialism—to present a challenge to the rise of American power in the 20th century. Thus the “sharpening of the ideological divide between capitalism and its critics” found its momentum from one world war to the next, as the U.S. strove to “make the world safe for democracy” at the same time Russia expanded in a different, revolutionary direction. Westad emphasizes that the generation that shaped the Cold War was the same caught in the nightmare of World War I, and both struggles contained the same elements: “fear, uncertainty, the need for something to believe in, and the demand to create a better world.” This is an enormous story, and the author tackles it with admirable clarity and elegance, effectively laying out the positions of the two superpowers and their essential distrust of the other. From the “iron curtain” speech of Winston Churchill, “loss” of China to the Communists, tragedy of the Korean War, process of decolonization in Africa and Latin America, and the “age of Brezhnev” and Nixon in Beijing, Westad moves methodically through the stages of the Cold War. One of the essential themes is continually sounded: why, in the end, the Western model proved more attractive than that of the Soviets.
A tremendous and timely history lesson for our age.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-465-05493-0
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
HISTORY | MODERN | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
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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