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1956

Name: 1956
Author: Simon Hall
ISBN: 978-1-68177-205-9

THE WORLD IN REVOLT

by Simon Hall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 2016

An impressive history of a year’s political tensions, necessarily limited in focus but still sweeping and in-depth.

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A year of dramatic changes around the world.

Taking an ambitious, panoramic view of a single year, Hall (American History/Univ. of Leeds; Rethinking the American Anti-War Movement, 2011, etc.) examines major events in postwar Europe, America, Africa, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East. Although the choice of 1956 is necessarily arbitrary, the author makes a strong case for its significance in capturing “the contradictions of the decade” that played out as liberation movements in some areas and repression in others. In Poland and Hungary, populations rose up against communist oppression; in the U.S., racial violence erupted over efforts to desegregate buses and integrate the University of Alabama. Escorted by police officers and a college dean, the first black student was pelted with “rocks, eggs, mud balls and curses,” leaving her “overcome with terror.” Also during this time, major colonial powers faced the ends of their empires: France tried to suppress uprisings in Algeria, while Britain cracked down on Cyprus but granted independence to Ghana. Flexing their muscles, France and Britain signed an agreement with Israel to launch a war to overthrow Egyptian president Gamel Abdal Nasser, undermining Eisenhower’s efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the Suez Canal crisis. A surprising speech by Nikita Khrushchev, denouncing Stalin, softened the rhetoric of the Cold War. Hall’s focus is almost exclusively political: he devotes only one chapter to cultural eruptions such as rock ’n’ roll, which was condemned as “cannibalistic and tribalistic” and stoked public fears about “errant sexual behavior.” Elvis Presley appeared on TV, evoking “a storm” of criticism; the city of Santa Cruz banned rock ’n’ roll at public gatherings. Hall sees the music as “one manifestation of a wider cultural and generational revolt” that included poet Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and playwright John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger. Contemporary newspaper reports give the author’s month-by-month narrative a vivid, you-are-there quality.

An impressive history of a year’s political tensions, necessarily limited in focus but still sweeping and in-depth.

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-68177-205-9

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: June 7, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016

Categories:

HISTORY | MODERN | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
THREE REVOLUTIONS
by Simon Hall

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN DAYS IN HARLEM
by Simon Hall

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MANDATE OF HEAVEN

A NEW GENERATION OF ENTREPRENEURS, DISSIDENTS, BOHEMIANS, AND TECHNOCRATS LAYS CLAIM TO CHINA'S FUTURE

by Orville Schell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

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The latest in a splendid series by Schell (Discos and Democracy, 1988, etc.), extending over 20 years and tracking momentous changes in the world's most populous country. Beginning almost where he left off in his last book, Schell describes the events at Tiananmen Square and their aftermath. The square has long been both a symbol of the power of successive regimes as well as a traditional site at which dissent was expressed. The demonstrations, which extended far beyond a rarefied group of students, journalists, and intellectuals, soon began to involve the urban proletariat, the very vanguard of the revolution. Deng Xiaoping, having crushed their dissent with great brutality, concluded that only economic development would save the regime. Deng is the latest in the line of Chinese reformers who have believed that China could borrow the technology and managerial methods of the West without affecting Chinese culture and values. For the moment, says Schell, the middle class has struck a Faustian bargain with the Communist Party, forgoing political confrontation while economic liberalization continues. ``By 1991,'' Schell notes, ``almost nobody in China was taking Marxism seriously.'' But the country presents the paradox of almost wild capitalist enthusiasm (with strange elements, including the success of a $1,500 limited edition Mao watch with diamond- and sapphire-studded gold casing) and a Stalinist security apparatus that presides over labor camps with 1020 million prisoners. China is now, Schell writes, irrevocably part of the world economic system, but he does not venture to predict the outcome. Schell doesn't give as immediate a sense of life in China as do Kristof and WuDunn in China Wakes (p. 826), nor has he travelled as widely, but he brings great analytical power and understanding to one of the most important political stories of our time. (Author tour)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-671-70132-0

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
MY OLD HOME
by Orville Schell

- BOOK REVIEW
WEALTH AND POWER
by Orville Schell ; John Delury

- BOOK REVIEW
VIRTUAL TIBET
by Orville Schell

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FLESH AND STONE

THE BODY AND THE CITY IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION

by Richard Sennett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

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An expansive history of Western civilization's evolving conception of the human body and that concept's influence on the erection of cities. Sennett (Sociology/New York Univ.; The Conscience of the Eye, 1991, etc.) argues that the homogenization of contemporary culture is aided and abetted by the failure of modern architecture and urban planning to accommodate the physical and sensory needs of the human body. This is more than mere postmodern sterility to Sennett. He sees this failing as an extension of the ``enduring problem'' of Western civilization: the inability or refusal of those with the power to build cities to honor ``the dignity of the body and diversity of human bodies.'' From Pericles' Athens to Robert Moses's New York, Sennett incorporates discussions of sexuality, religion, politics, medicine, and economics into a historical grand tour of great cities whose buildings, streets, and public squares elevated the status of the ruling elite and diminished that of common citizens. Along the way, we find out how it felt to witness an execution by guillotine in revolutionary Paris, attend a Roman banquet, and observe a trial in ancient Greece, where courtrooms reflected the demands of a participatory democracy—three-foot-high walls and a jury box big enough for the minimum 201 jurors. Though Sennett ably surveys the ideological landscapes of the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, these quotidian revelations are what enliven the book. By exposing the principles of individualism and personal comfort that form the most fundamental assumptions of 20th-century consumer culture, Sennett reminds modern readers that they trade a great deal for comfort—namely their engagement with one another. In so doing, he debunks the myth that the evolution of cities has been one of unfettered progress, or that progress is synonymous with improvement. Passionate, exhaustively researched, and original. (Photos and maps, not seen)