A vivid recounting of a shameful event that still resonates.
A World War II tale about how panic, fear, and xenophobia led to a drastic governmental policy in the U.K.
Drawing on copious unpublished and archival material, British journalist Parkin has produced a richly detailed history of the internment of thousands of men and women because of their German or Austrian ancestry. Many had fled to England as refugees from Nazi Germany, and the vast majority were Jewish. Though they had become productive, upstanding members of their communities, “jingoism and hatred,” stoked by the media, became justification for the new policy. “Instead of taking an enlightened lead,” writes the author, “the government now used public opinion as justification for strict measures.” Parkin focuses on Hutchinson, on the Isle of Man, which housed some 2,000 men from the time it opened in July 1940 and whose inmates included artists, musicians, fashion designers, architects, academics, and writers. “It was as if a tsunami had deposited a crowd of Europe’s prominent men onto this obscure patch of grass in the middle of the Irish Sea,” writes the author. Officials ran the camp as humanely as possible, and the inmates worked to make it a community. They gave theater and music performances, set up cafes, started a newspaper, and conducted classes, especially for the younger men whose schooling had been disrupted. Among those younger men was Peter Fleischmann, whose story exemplifies the inconsistencies—indeed, the absurdity—of the policy of internment. An orphan who had come to the U.K. on the Kindertransport, he was at first seen as no threat to national security. Nevertheless, he was later arrested, and six weeks after the camp opened, he arrived at Hutchinson. His experiences there changed the course of his future. Parkin also chronicles the policy shift that eventually freed about half of the internees by the spring of 1941. “Historical ignorance and bedrock xenophobia” led to a “panic measure” that, Parkin warns, reverberates in contemporary treatment of asylum seekers.
A vivid recounting of a shameful event that still resonates.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982178-52-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation.
A firsthand account of how the Navajo language was used to help defeat the Japanese in World War II.
At the age of 17, Nez (an English name assigned to him in kindergarten) volunteered for the Marines just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Growing up in a traditional Navajo community, he became fluent in English, his second language, in government-run boarding schools. The author writes that he wanted to serve his country and explore “the possibilities and opportunities offered out there in the larger world.” Because he was bilingual, he was one of the original 29 “code talkers” selected to develop a secret, unbreakable code based on the Navajo language, which was to be used for battlefield military communications on the Pacific front. Because the Navajo language is tonal and unwritten, it is extremely difficult for a non-native speaker to learn. The code created an alphabet based on English words such as ant for “A,” which were then translated into its Navajo equivalent. On the battlefield, Navajo code talkers would use voice transmissions over the radio, spoken in Navajo to convey secret information. Nez writes movingly about the hard-fought battles waged by the Marines to recapture Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and others, in which he and his fellow code talkers played a crucial role. He situates his wartime experiences in the context of his life before the war, growing up on a sheep farm, and after when he worked for the VA and raised a family in New Mexico. Although he had hoped to make his family proud of his wartime role, until 1968 the code was classified and he was sworn to silence. He sums up his life “as better than he could ever have expected,” and looks back with pride on the part he played in “a new, triumphant oral and written [Navajo] tradition,” his culture's contribution to victory.
A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-425-24423-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton Caliber
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.
An expert on Russia delivers a crucially relevant study of a country that has been continuously “subjected to the vicissitudes of ruling ideologies.”
Wolfson History Prize winner Figes, one of the world’s leading authorities on Russian history and culture, shows how, over centuries, Russian autocrats have manipulated intertwined layers of mythology and history to suit their political and imperial purposes. Regarding current affairs, the author argues convincingly that to understand Putin’s aggressive behavior toward Ukraine and other neighboring nations, it is essential to grasp how Russia has come to see itself within the global order, especially in Asia and Europe. Figes emphasizes the intensive push and pull between concepts of East and West since the dubious founding of Kievan Rus, “the first Russian state,” circa 980. Russia’s geography meant it had few natural boundaries and was vulnerable to invasion—e.g., by the Mongols—and its mere size often required strong, central military control. It was in Moscow’s interests to increase its territorial boundaries and keep its neighbors weak, a strategy still seen today. Figes explores the growth of the “patrimonial autocracy” and examines how much of the mechanics of the country’s autocracy, bureaucracy, military structure, oligarchy, and corruption were inherited from three centuries of Mongol rule. From Peter the Great to Catherine the Great to Alexander II (the reformer who freed the serfs) and through the Bolsheviks to Stalin: In most cases, everything belonged to the state, and there were few societal institutions to check that power. “This imbalance—between a dominating state and a weak society—has shaped the course of Russian history,” writes the author in a meaningful, definitive statement. Today, Putin repudiates any hint of Westernizing influences (Peter the Great) while elevating the Eastern (Kievan Rus, the Orthodox Church). In that, he is reminiscent of Stalin, who recognized the need for patriotic fervor and national myths and symbols to unite and ensure the oppression of the masses.
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79689-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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