An excellent study by a thorough chronicler that adds considerably to the historical record.
A fresh, well-documented look at the Nazi-Soviet invasion and partition of Poland in September 1939, rejecting both “the Nazi mythology of an easy Blitzkrieg victory” and “the Soviet lie that the Red Army never invaded at all.”
An accomplished British historian of World War II, Moorhouse delves deeply into this five-week opening to the larger conflict, showing how it presaged the horrors to come. The author notes how this campaign—during which Hitler restoked the animosity between Poland and Germany through a series of fabricated border skirmishes and plunged headlong into invasion to quell Polish “terror” and defend German “honor”—is too often overlooked in WWII histories. Just as he did in his previous book, The Devil’s Alliance: Hitler's Pact With Stalin, 1939-1941 (2014), Moorhouse refreshingly looks beyond the chronicles of the victors, clearly portraying the shameful lack of action on the parts of Britain and France to come to the defense of the country it had sworn to defend as well as the ongoing Soviet efforts to disguise its subsequent invasion as some kind of “humanitarian intervention.” The fact is that Hitler and Stalin had already agreed to divide the country via a German-Soviet nonaggression pact, which would have essentially wiped Poland off the map. While the British and French vowed to protect the country if attacked, they were in no military position to do so and hoped, futilely, that by threatening war, Germany would back down. What the author demonstrates splendidly is the tenacity of the Polish resistance and bravery in the face of the Nazi onslaught, a spirit inculcated through centuries of invasion and occupation. This was not an easy annexation, as the Nazis had hoped. Moreover, as Moorhouse ably shows, the overwhelming air power and targeting of noncombatants, as well as racial murder and revenge, foreshadowed later atrocities.
An excellent study by a thorough chronicler that adds considerably to the historical record. (16-page insert; 10 maps)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-465-09538-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Harari delivers yet another tour de force.
A highly instructive exploration of “current affairs and…the immediate future of human societies.”
Having produced an international bestseller about human origins (Sapiens, 2015, etc.) and avoided the sophomore jinx writing about our destiny (Homo Deus, 2017), Harari (History/Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) proves that he has not lost his touch, casting a brilliantly insightful eye on today’s myriad crises, from Trump to terrorism, Brexit to big data. As the author emphasizes, “humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers, or equations, and the simpler the story, the better. Every person, group, and nation has its own tales and myths.” Three grand stories once predicted the future. World War II eliminated the fascist story but stimulated communism for a few decades until its collapse. The liberal story—think democracy, free markets, and globalism—reigned supreme for a decade until the 20th-century nasties—dictators, populists, and nationalists—came back in style. They promote jingoism over international cooperation, vilify the opposition, demonize immigrants and rival nations, and then win elections. “A bit like the Soviet elites in the 1980s,” writes Harari, “liberals don’t understand how history deviates from its preordained course, and they lack an alternative prism through which to interpret reality.” The author certainly understands, and in 21 painfully astute essays, he delivers his take on where our increasingly “post-truth” world is headed. Human ingenuity, which enables us to control the outside world, may soon re-engineer our insides, extend life, and guide our thoughts. Science-fiction movies get the future wrong, if only because they have happy endings. Most readers will find Harari’s narrative deliciously reasonable, including his explanation of the stories (not actually true but rational) of those who elect dictators, populists, and nationalists. His remedies for wildly disruptive technology (biotech, infotech) and its consequences (climate change, mass unemployment) ring true, provided nations act with more good sense than they have shown throughout history.
Harari delivers yet another tour de force.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-51217-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
From independent historian Beevor (coauthor, Paris After the Liberation, 1994, etc.), a meticulously researched and gripping account of the horrific battle that culminated in the collapse of Adolf Hitler’s blitzkrieg offensive in Russia, and ultimately ordained German defeat in WWII. In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, with a vast surprise attack comprising three large army groups, a quick defeat of the Red Army seemed probable if not inevitable: Germany’s massive blitzkrieg style of war had quickly subjugated Poland and France. But, as Beevor makes clear, Hitler never prepared his army adequately for war with the Russian behemoth, and the blitzkrieg petered out as the Russian winter closed in. Hitler delayed the attack on Moscow, and by the early spring of 1942, when General Friedrich Wilhelm Paulus assumed command of the Sixth Army, the combination of surprise and terror on which the Nazis had depended was lost. Despite strategic victories along the way, the objective, Stalingrad, proved elusive, and after Paulus’s repeated sanguinary assaults against the city proved ineffective, his position became a trap for thousands of German troops, few of whom survived the battle or the rigors of the Soviet gulag. Beevor is evenhanded in his treatment of the two sides: By contrasting the German and Soviet points of view, he conveys the experiences of Axis generals and fighting men (who comprised thousands of Romanian, Hungarian, and disaffected Russians as well as Germans) in the midst of a total war, and those of Soviet soldiers, who had to fear the NKVD and SMERSH, the Soviet intelligence services, as much as the Nazis. A painstakingly thorough study that will become a standard work on the battle of Stalingrad. (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection/History Book Club main selection)
Pub Date: July 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-87095-1
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
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