An exercise in raining on the Greatest Generation’s parade, best read by those who were not alive during that time.
The end of the Third Reich brought Nazi-occupied Europe a new set of troubles, maintains Hitchcock (History/Temple Univ.; The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present, 2003, etc.) in this thoroughly revisionist, middling history.
“Liberation came to Europe in a storm of destruction and death,” the author writes. As many French civilians died at D-Day as American soldiers, while German civilians were made to pay for the sins of the Nazi regime in a rain of bullets and bombs fired and dropped by men who knew full well that noncombatants would die. The cause of liberation was virtuous, Hitchcock allows, but the Allied soldiers who prosecuted it were not necessarily so. The power that liberation brought to them was sometimes manifest in episodes of drunkenness, looting, rape, murder and other untoward behavior. Some once-occupied countries fared better than others; France, for instance, soon fell under its own administration, thanks to brokering long since undertaken by Free French leader Charles de Gaulle. Others were not so fortunate, and material conditions did not always substantially improve once the Germans had gone, as in the poverty-stricken southern districts of Italy. Hitchcock points to the irony of Jim Crow: Whereas only about ten percent of all troops in the European Theater were African-American, 75 percent of soldiers executed for rape and other crimes were black. On another front, about 500,000 American soldiers had contracted venereal diseases by June 1945. Hitchcock argues that the high price of liberation was compounded by political expedience. Churchill and Roosevelt wanted self-government and freedom, but of course “Stalin did not desire to return Europe to the status quo ante bellum.” The result was still more suffering for Europeans. Hitchcock does not sufficiently allow that the liberation of Europe had its good aspects, too, not least ending Hitler’s rule.
An exercise in raining on the Greatest Generation’s parade, best read by those who were not alive during that time.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7432-7381-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
BOOK REVIEW
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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