An admirable and useful addition to the history of World War II.
How global conflict made a world of outcasts.
Churchill and Roosevelt had signed the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, promoting a robust defense for free trade and promising national self-determination. However, not all of the charter’s consequences were intended. The more conventional aspects of this study focus on the three main theaters of war: El Alamein, Guadalcanal, and the Battle for Stalingrad—the latter accounting for 10% of all battlefield deaths during the entire war. The less conventional aspect leaves the exclusively military story not so much ignored as supplemented. Cultures that were previously almost unknown to each other fought side by side or clashed—often, both. With the exception of continental Europe, most action was overseas, with over 1 million men at sea. One sixth of the American population was mobilized, and in addition to producing munitions, battleships (one per week), and B-52s (one per hour), they changed the sheer speed and scale of warfare. The enormous shipyards in Richmond, California, drew migrants from the South, and with them, the lingering heritage of Jim Crow. Recruits needed dental care and education. Literacy rates were surprisingly low. “The war effort nationalized America’s race problem,” writes Fritzsche, a University of Illinois historian. The Japanese invasion of Singapore led to the collapse of Burma and added fuel to the “quit India” campaign. The British Empire, home to a quarter of the world’s population, began to seem contingent rather than inevitable. Fritzsche tells of the effects of war in South Africa, the Philippines, and China. Along with India, China suffered famine as a result of prioritizing military rather than civilian provisioning. Back in Europe, those beneath the bombings were left homeless and destitute. Jews were evicted and deported. Mass labor shortages pressed occupied territories into slave labor, promoting increased resistance. Migration becomes the main thesis of the book. Certainties and political structures crumble, Fritzsche argues, when everyone is from somewhere else.
An admirable and useful addition to the history of World War II.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781541603219
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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