Book Description
In 1945, many Europeans still heated with coal, cooled their food with ice, and lacked indoor plumbing. Today, things could hardly be more different. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. The European Economy since 1945 is a broad, accessible, forthright account of the extraordinary development of Europe's economy since the end of World War II. Barry Eichengreen argues that the continent's history has been critical to its economic performance, and that it will continue to be so going forward.
Challenging standard views that basic economic forces were behind postwar Europe's success, Eichengreen shows how Western Europe in particular inherited a set of institutions singularly well suited to the economic circumstances that reigned for almost three decades. Economic growth was facilitated by solidarity-centered trade unions, cohesive employers' associations, and growth-minded governments--all legacies of Europe's earlier history. For example, these institutions worked together to mobilize savings, finance investment, and stabilize wages.
However, this inheritance of economic and social institutions that was the solution until around 1973--when Europe had to switch from growth based on brute-force investment and the acquisition of known technologies to growth based on increased efficiency and innovation--then became the problem.
Thus, the key questions for the future are whether Europe and its constituent nations can now adapt their institutions to the needs of a globalized knowledge economy, and whether in doing so, the continent's distinctive history will be an obstacle or an asset.
Amazon.com
World War II may have ended in 1945, but according to historian Tony Judt, the conflict's epilogue lasted for nearly the rest of the century. Calling 1945-1989 "an interim age," Judt examines what happened on each side of the Iron Curtain, with the West nervously inching forward while the East endured the "peace of the prison yard" until the fall of Communism in 1989 signaled their chance to progress. Though he proposes no grand, overarching theory of the postwar period, Judt's massive work covers the broad strokes as well as the fine details of the years 1945 to 2005. No one book (even at nearly a thousand pages) could fully encompass this complex period, but Postwar comes close, and is impressive for its scope, synthesis, clarity, and narrative cohesion.
Judt treats the entire continent as a whole, providing equal coverage of social changes, economic forces, and cultural shifts in western and eastern Europe. He offers a county-by-county analysis of how each Eastern nation shed Communism and traces the rise of the European Union, looking at what it represents both economically and ideologically. Along with the dealings between European nations, he also covers Europe's conflicted relationship with the United States, which learned much different lessons from World War II than did Europe. In particular, he studies the success of the Marshall Plan and the way the West both appreciated and resented the help, for acceptance of it reminded them of their diminished place in the world. No impartial observer, Judt offers his judgments and opinions throughout the book in an attempt to instruct as well as inform. If a moral lesson is to come from World War II, Judt writes, "then it will have to be taught afresh with each passing generation. 'European Union' may be an answer to history, but it can never be a substitute." This book would be an excellent place to start that lesson. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review
Almost a decade in the making , this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the worldÂ's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.
* A Time and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
* Maps, photos, and cartoons throughout
Customer Reviews:
Good start, expectedly mediocre ending.......2007-09-30
Having grown up in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, I appreciate the author's attempt at reviewing a chapter of European history that even to Europeans is often set aside. If the immediate years after the war are not looked at carefully in Europe, so much less are they taught in the US where most people may now be familiar with the Marshall plan and little else.
As such the beginning is very interesting. There are a few annoyances such as the consistent use of a particular transitional phrase. Briefly, the author discusses an issue in a country during a set period (such as labor movement in France in the sixties) and then looks at the same issue in another country. The problem is that the author consistently uses the same transitional phrase. It looks something like:
In (country A) (restate thesis of the above few pages). The same could (or could not) be said of (country B). It takes a few moments to find an example of this - see Page 429 - ...Kadar's Hungary-'the best barracks int he laager'-was much envied, though only fitfully emulated. The second model, Tito's Yougoslavia had managed to avoid the problems of its neighbors...
This approach is repeated endlessly throughout the book. While analyzing each issue country by country is easy for the author from an organizational standpoint, it prevents the author from going deeper into cross national patterns. While not a weakness per se, this literary device gets distracting especially when one reads the book as I did - in just a handful of sittings.
The book really goes downhill when the author gets to recent history - i.e. the transition from communism to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Like most left-leaning liberal historians, the author gives too much credit to their hero, Misha Gorbachev. In doing so, the author makes some (almost) laughable statements. For example, he claims that Gorbachev's attempts at finding a "third way" between communism and capitalism were doomed and upon realizing this and he allowed the transition from communism to democracy as the sole alternative. This is boulderdash as the "third way" exists in many places throughout the world. One obvious example is China which has implemented a working capitalist market while retaining communist authoritarian control over the populace. Garbo wanted exactly this - to stay in power while introducing elements of capitalism. In order for this to succeed in Europe as it has in Asia all that needed to happen was cooperation from the world's capitalist markets. It is this support and cooperation that allowed China to adapt itself. What prevented Eastern and Central Europe from becoming a totalitarian state is not Gorbachev but rather national opposition movements. In Poland especially this meant the Catholic Church. In places that had no pro-democracy movements, the "third way" of authoritarian capitalism established itself just fine. It's not even necessary to look to Asia to find examples of this, Belarus and for a while Ukraine both settled into "the third way" of capitalist reforms coupled with repression almost as a reflex. In whatever way local communists cooperated in the dismantling of communism they did so not because of their inner greatness but because they saw the transition period as the best way to enrich themselves through shady deals in public property.
Lastly, in the Epilogue, the author writes about Europe's collective forgetting of the atrocities of the Holocaust. Of course, every conquered nation cooperated to some degree with the Nazis in their pursuit of Jews and other Nazi-chosen "undesirables." Extremely annoyingly (page 808) the author equates Poland's guilt over the Holocaust with that of Austria (of all places!) In support of this he provides one example of religiously motivated violence in Poland - the pogrom in Jedwabne as told by Gross's "Neighbors". Of course he fails to mention that many of the claims of Gross's work were subsequently debunked (such as the number of victims or the presence and active role of German security forces). This is particularly strange as the author praises the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, but then proceeds to ignore its findings.
Lastly, even though the author spends a significant portion of the book on the transition from communism to democracy he discusses Pope John Paul II only a handful of times. At the very least he could have discussed the Papal visits to Poland (all of which had an enormous impact on the anti-communist movement) or the attempt at the Pope's life. Again, the Pope's contribution, along with that of the US, was at least as important as Gorbachev's.
All and all, a worthwhile read, but don't expect a literary masterpiece. Nor is this without obvious bias.
A brilliant work of European history........2007-08-10
This book was a Christmas present to my husband, a history major in college and he has written this review.
A brilliant work of European History since 1945. It should be mandatory reading for all members or candidates for the U.S. Congress. It might change U.S. foreign relations. Mr. Judt has done an incredible job of treating state affairs of each European country during the decades. He does superior work of tracing themes of the various eras from East and West Europe. He makes readers realize that U.S. foreign policy did not dominate Europe from 1945 to 2005. This is not a fast read. It stimulates so many refletions.
Where we come from.......2007-07-31
This book is a very good read, not least for providing rich context on much of this American's life experience. I was born in 1952 and now feel as though I understand film noir, existentialism, the academic enamorment with French critical theory, and the very common tendency among intellectuals to feel as though they should admire Communism in the face of the evidence, as well as the reaction to most of these from the right, in much more contextual depth than I have heretofore. The book's implicit theory of politics balances personalities and ideologies, and allows for a view that zooms in on local events in sharp detail and back out to Cold War strategies, without jarring.
And all of that is introduction to the later chapters on post-Communist Europe. Here there is less sense of focused history and more of unfolding the present, but bringing out more of the reasons than newspaper and journal articles can provide.
An impressive tome.......2007-07-28
Caution: this book is not for the faint of heart or the faint of butt. It looks long, and is actually even longer: the text is packed in very densely, with very small margins and thin paper. However, it is fascinating enough to overcome the initial "it'll take me years to finish this!" gut reaction. Very informative, very meaty.
Postwar History of Europe, T. Judt.......2007-07-05
The subject of the book is Europe since the end of WWII. Such large scale histories are interesting because, although they can't possibly describe all important events, they can provide a better understanding of a certain period from the perspective emphasized by the author, e.g. economic, social, military etc.
My concern is that the range of perspectives this book focuses on is unusually broad and, at the same time, the author's opinions, even on very controversial issues, are not sufficiently elaborated upon. This has the effect of giving the impression of one-sidedness and subjectivity.
To give an example that is quite prominent in the book: concerning the conflict(s) in Yugoslavia during the 90's, the book gives a solid account of the Serbian crimes as they became widely known by the media, but it does not attempt to illuminate the motives and concerns behind the policies leading up to these crimes. This does not mean that, if some of these underlying concerns had a real basis, the crimes would be in the least bit excused, but such a analysis would have offered the reader a better insight into this important part of post-WWII European history.
In particular, the analysis of the Yugoslav conflict fails to account for atrocities against Serbians and which would seem to confirm that some of the Serbian concerns (as opposed to the way by which they addressed them) were justified: e.g. the deportation of the entire Serbian population from Krajina in Croatia or the terrorist activities of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Some of that is mentioned in the book, but only in passing and with an emotional detachment which is very different from the appropriately passionate denunciations of the Serbian crimes.
Such problems would probably not have arisen if the events discussed had been analyzed from a narrower perspective or a more extended argumentation had been provided in support of the author's interpretation.
In the same vein, the reference to the facts underlying some of the author's conclusions is too minimal and even the statement of the conclusions themselves is too telegraphic to be clear. Complex issues Europe has been trying to address for years, including things as disparate as the reform of the financial structures of EU, or Turkey's difficulty to genuinely adopt Western values about human rights and dealing with its History, are often brushed upon without any special explanation leaving the reader with only a vaguest idea of the nature of the problem and of the author's view.
In summary, the breadth of the material covered made it hard for the book to live up to the expectations for a careful and enlightening analysis of post-war European history.
Book Description
Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust. Avner Offer argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of novelty. His approach draws on economics and social science, makes use of the latest cognitive research, and provides a detailed and reasoned critique of modern consumer society, especially the assumption that freedom of choice necessarily maximizes individual and social well-being. The book falls into three parts. Part one analyses the ways in which economic resources map on to human welfare, why choice is so intractable, and how commitment to people and institutions is sustained. It argues that choice is constrained by prior obligation and reciprocity. The second section then applies these conceptual arguments to comparative empirical studies of advertising, of eating and obesity, and of the production and acquisition of appliances and automobiles. Finally, in part three, Offer investigates social and personal relations in the USA and Britain, including inter-personal regard, the rewards and reversals of status, the social and psychological costs of inequality, and the challenges posed to heterosexual love and to parenthood by the rise of affluence.
Customer Reviews:
Wealth of information and insightful interpretation.......2007-03-08
The great American vaudeville singer Sophie Tucker remarked, "I've been rich and I've been poor---and believe me, rich is better." This book, which documents in great detail and insight the vast growth in per capita income in the United States and Britain (with some attention to other countries) over the past century, contrasts Sophie Tucker's widely shared sentiment with the carefully researched fact that people are getting richer, but they are not getting happier. What, asks Offer, accounts for this curious situation?
An earlier generation answered this question by noting that being richer involves both having more than before, and having more than others. If relative status is important but absolute wealth is not, argued Robert Frank (1985), then when everyone becomes richer, average well-being will not increase. Indeed, this had been the common view (although with numerous dissenters), since James Duesenbury's famous "ratchet effect" explanation of the macroeconomic consumption to income ratio (Duesenberry, 1949) and the similar view of Modigliani (1949). While relative status is clearly important for some individuals, there is no convincing evidence that it of great importance to most individuals. Certainly many individuals are eager to become a smaller frog in a larger pond by moving to a richer community, and the rate of migration from poor to rich countries is hardly favorable to the relative status hypothesis. Moreover this "hedonic treadmill" explanation ran afoul of the data in a brilliant study by Brickman et al. (1978). They found that large exogenously-generated changes in material circumstances, such as winning the lottery or becoming handicapped through accident exhibit little difference in subjective well-being even several months thereafter. The general implication of this line of research is that some people are happy and some are unhappy, and changes in wealth position has little long run effect on their subjective well-being.
Offer appears basically to accept this position (although he is quick to stress that insightfully interpreting the Modern Condition is not his forté9), updating it using information from several recent studies that find that poverty, divorce and unemployment have major negative impact on personal well-being, and there is a small but significant positive slope to the income and well-being relationship even above the poverty line, both within and across countries, especially when objective measures of well-being are used (mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, major incidence of mental illness, infant mortality, and the like).
Many environmentalists and progressive egalitarians accept this view on the basis of personal observation, using it to suggest alternatives to GDP growth and redistribution towards the poor. But, the hedonic treadmill is deeply counter-intuitive. People make great sacrifices to achieve financial security and to assure their children with the fruits of material progress, and upon serious introspection, few will affirm that the benefits are either relative or short-lived. Personally, I have been poor and did not like it, and I am now comfortably well-off, and I like it quite a bit---every day and every little luxury (such as sitting here overlooking the Danube writing this book review on a first-class laptop, every keystroke of which gives me great pleasure, and which plays whatever enchanting music happens to be my current whim, over an Internet connection, using a music service that I---and millions of others---can afford a subscription). Moreover, subjective well-being is very important, but the fact is that neither I nor my wife, nor my son, would be alive today if it were not for modern amenities (in this case, medical services).
Offer explains the hedonic treadmill (the term is due to Brickman and Campbell (1971), and is not used by Offer) using modern behavioral economics. Because of the common tendency to prefer small short-term rewards to large long-term rewards, we do not know how to turn the vast increases in material wealth that has come to us into real well-being (Ainslie, 1975, Elster, 1979, Loewenstein and Hoch, 1991, Laibson, 1997, Oswald, 1997, O'Donoghue and Rabin, 1999). The "challenge of affluence" is, according to Offer, the problem of learning to dealing with affluence in a manner that turns material comfort into human self-actualization. Observing the antics of (a highly visible but unknown fraction of) the newly rich, with their obscene displays of opulence, their vulgar tastes, their substance addictions and broken families, and their corrupted children does indeed remind one of the prejudices of "old wealth" that has had a few generations to adjust to material comforts against the base aspirations and untutored behavior of"new wealth." Perhaps, then, there is a hope for the affluent societies after all.
Unfortunately, there is no known science of self-actualization, so my remarks on the topic must perforce flow from observation and introspection (it is little solice to be reminded that Hume, Locke, Shakespeare, Voltaire, and their like, relied almost exclusively on such forms of knowledge). I recall my concern for such issues in writing my Ph.D. dissertation some forty years ago, the head quote of which was from the jazz pianist Mose Allison, who wrote "things are getting better and better. It's people I'm worried about." I took my inspiration from the Karl Marx of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, which precede his development of historical materialism, and reflect the Zeitgeist of Hegel and Feuerbach (Marx, 1959). My interpretation of Marx's argument was that human nature (Marx used the term Gattungswesen---species-being) consists in several capacities, physical, psychomotor, cognitive, affective, aesthetic, and spiritual, and well-being consisted in the full development of these personal capacities. While a high level of material affluence is not an absolute prerequisite to such personal development, for those of use lacking an innately saintly character, it surely helps. Goods, services, and leisure, in this view, are merely instruments that facilitate the growth of personal capacities, and the cardinal sin of life in the affluent society is to "fetishize" commodities in the vain belief that they represent a direct route to self-fulfillment: what you cannot be, your money can buy for you. The correct position, I believe, is that what you are not, your money can help you become---a far more engaging, yet optimistic, take on the challenge of affluence. I developed this theme in several articles (Gintis 1972a,b 1974). The theme has been developed in an extremely powerful manner by Nobel prize economist Amartya Sen (1985).
Does affluence lead to the demand for the development of personal capacities, or to the deepening of commodity fetishism? The picture is not uniform. While there is no doubt but that American and British workers trade off income for job quality and leisure, they appear to do so at a lesser rate than their European counterparts. Indeed as Offer notes (p. 324), family work hours have reversed their long-term downward trend in the United States and has been increasing in recent years, in large part due to increase female labor market participation. Of course, both work hours and leisure have increased for American families due to the prevalence of labor-saving technology in the home and the movement of health care, food preparation, and education from the home to the market. Moreover, the quality of jobs has doubtless improved with the shift from unskilled manual labor to skilled white collar labor, and many individuals consider their work experience as a positive contribution to their well-being, much as our hunter-gatherer forebears did, with a joy that perhaps was confined to a small minority in the long diaspora between life in the Pleistocene and life in modern, technologically advanced, society. On the other hand, there is nothing quite as revolting as a statistic reported in The Economist several months back that 80% of French college students aspire to a career of lifetime security as functionaries in the French government bureaucracy. Such a career may be self-actualizing for a fraction of French youth, but my insight into human nature judges 80% as an order of magnitude too high.
Offer's analysis makes it clear that economic research and proactive social policy may play an important role in meeting the challenge of affluence. The American public, for instance, voraciously consumes advice on living the good life, the news being full of the latest studies on proper diet, health maintenance practices, spiritual life, and management of interpersonal relations. It is likely that future improvements in the treatment of mental and physical illness will somewhat level the playing field in the capacity of individuals to live fulfilled lives, liberating the self-help books from the realm of self-survival to that of self-actualization. There has been a notable increase in research in this area (Frey and Stutzer, 2005), including the impressively thorough work of Daniel Kahneman and his co-workers (Kahneman and Krueger, 2006).
Throughout most of its history, economic theory has followed Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism. It was Bentham who opined "Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry. If the game of push-pin furnish more pleasure, it is more valuable than either. Everybody can play at push-pin: poetry and music are relished only by a few." Bentham's egalitarianism is laudable, but the alternative is that Pushkin is better than pushpin, and the uneducated are cut off from fruitful paths of self-realization by not being capable of appreciating Pushkin. Indeed, my early publications took the position that not all preferences are equal, a position advocated before me by John Stuart Mill in his opposition to Bentham's utilitarianism. Happiness, I argued in support of Mill, is as much the development of preferences as their satisfaction. What are more developed preferences? They are ones that draw more heavily on our innate capacities, physical, psychomotor, affective, cognitive, aesthetic, and spiritual. My viewpoint was considered virtually heretical at the time. I still remember the embarrassed chuckles of my fellow graduate students in Robert Dorfman's Microeconomic I class when I suggested that some tastes are better than others. I analyzed the welfare implications of preference change in a less off-hand manner in my Ph.D. dissertation (Harvard University, 1969). To my surprise (and delight) in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1970, Paul Samuelson pointedly criticized my writings on the grounds that economists should not impose their personal tastes and moral choices on others. "Just recently, says Samuelson, I was reading an article... written in blank verse...The writer was scathing on the notion of Pareto-optimality. Yet...it seemed to me that precisely in a society grown affluent...there arises an especial importance to the notion of giving people what they want." My foray into blank verse may not have panned out, but as evidence of progress in economic theory, there are probably few economists alive today that do not believe that an important contribution of the economy to well-being is the improvement of moral character and personal capacities to enjoy what life has to offer.
Offer's book covers consumption and leisure as source of personal well being, but there is strong evidence that social conditions are also important source of happiness and unhappiness. For instance, Frey and Stutzer (2000) exhibit a strong correlation between the level of political democracy and individual well-being, correcting for the effects of democracy on material wealth. However, there is some evidence that the correlation is bidirectional. There is also evidence that some minority groups who are victims of social prejudice suffer attenuated well-being. These phenomena should be included in an overall assessment of the causes of well-being.
The major innovation in Offer's analysis is his deployment of the results of behavioral research in economics and psychology towards understanding the relationship between economic growth and individual well-being. By well-being, Offer almost always means subjective well-being, and despite an excellent treatment of the relationship between health, status, and income, I would have liked and expanded treatment of the objective aspects of well-being, such as mortality and infant mortality. I suspect that Offer will be the start of a trend in economic growth research that uses behavioral measures and experiments to assess the success of various policies, and to suggest ways of transcending the human weaknesses that prevent the translation of material comforts into happiness and self-actualization.
Book Description
This highly acclaimed book offers a complete political history of East Central Europe from World War II to the present. Return to Diversity, now in its third edition, introduces a new co-author, Nancy M. Wingfield, and has been fully updated to cover events up through the 1990s. It includes an account and analysis of the developments in post-communist regimes throughout the region, addressing the transformation of each country during the first post-communist decade. It discusses coalition politics, ethnic discord, and issues of democratic development. This new edition features additional maps and extensively revised reading lists to reflect the most current scholarship in the field. Unsurpassed in scope, in depth of analysis, and in fairness and objectivity, Return to Diversity is an invaluable resource for students of this regions history and politics.
Customer Reviews:
tangled history.......2007-02-23
The tangled and often bloody history of eastern Europe is updated to include events after the end of the Cold War. Rothschild writes of the conflicting influences that drove events. Like the myriad nationalisms (Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Serb, Croat...) that were often suppressed under the Warsaw Pact. During the Cold War, these could often be neglected by analysts. Yet later, some would erupt into open tension or outright conflict. The latter being the Yugoslav Wars.
The book's title alludes to this suppressed diversity of heritages and ethnicities. It also contains material about the Cold War that only became available after its end.
Still the best survey of communist Eastern Europe out there.......2001-06-14
Rothschild's _Return To Diversity_ really is an outstanding classic (easily withstanding the cliched abuse of that label!). I have yet to see a better one-volume treatment of the postwar political history of Eastern Europe. Not that Geoffrey Swain and Nigel Swain's book is bad, just that Rothschild is richer and treats each country in more detail.
Rothschild does not deal with the Baltics or other republics of the former Soviet Union. He treats Poland, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania in their respective sections in each chapter.
His introductory background chapters, one on the interwar period and an even longer one on WW II are excellent summaries, considering Rothschild has already written the classic on _East Central Europe between the Two World Wars_.
I used _Return to Diversity_ both as a student ten years ago, and recently to teach a course on the politics of Eastern Europe; I was very happy to find it still being published. Going back through it, I was amazed how consistently Rothschild treats each country on the topics of leadership politics, economic development, social relationships vis-a-vis each regime, the extent of opposition and civil society, and foreign relations. He did it so well that I was able to construct a one-page "grille" of essential, quick and dirty information to help students compare countries (after having them concentrate on two countries each).
Not only is this book perfect to catch students up on communist history in the most efficient way, I personally find it invaluable to verify basic facts and details quickly. Country specialists will, of course, need to look elsewhere for details for which surveys simply don't have the space.
The updated chapter on post-communist politics (presumably where most of Dr. Wingfield's contribution comes in) is good as far as it goes, but frankly, you'll find more thorough treatments of post-communist Eastern Europe elsewhere in more space than this volume has available.
Overall, this book is well worth the money and easily merits five stars. The style of writing may put some laypeople and students off, but the fact is that Rothschild writes very eloquently as an "old school" historian, and if it sometimes seems dry, it's because of all the information he managed to cram into it. I repeat, this book is the best survey of communist Eastern Europe out there, and will no doubt remain so for some time to come.
Book Description
He is commemorated throughout the world in museums and statuary, on street signs and in gift shops; even more prominently, Winston Churchill's monumental presence persists in shelves upon shelves of biographies and histories, dozens of which were written by Churchill himself and have been international bestsellers. While political figures are routinely the objects of intense posthumous scrutiny, few have achieved such pervasive and ongoing influence, and fewer still have so adeptly orchestrated their own place in history. Man of the Century is the often surprising story of how Winston Churchill, in the last years of his life, carefully crafted his reputation for posterity, and it reveals him as the twentieth century's pioneering, and perhaps most gifted, "spin doctor." It is also a far-ranging account not only of Churchill's continuing impact on British, American, and European politics, but also of the powerful legacy of his vision of a common destiny and heritage for English-speaking peoples around the world.
In the first book to examine the full scope of Churchill's postwar influence, John Ramsden draws on fresh material and extensive research from three continents to argue that the statesman's force of personality and romantic, imperial notion of Britain have contributed directly to many political events of the last several decades -- including American involvement in Vietnam and the role of the Anglo-American alliance in promoting and protecting a certain vision of world order. Man of the Century captures the complexities of Churchill's story and political legacy as well as the spirit and irreverent power of the statesman who became a modern legend.
Customer Reviews:
Mold History through the Sheer Force of Your Personality.......2006-07-17
John Ramsden wrote a book of uneven quality about Winston Churchill's legend since 1945. Ramsden clearly does not target readers with no prior, in-depth knowledge of this towering presence. In some chapters, Ramsden gets bogged down in detail that, over time, annoys readers. Ramsden should have written shorter chapters about Churchill and his relationship with countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Enumerating a large number of streets, pubs, parks, etc. named after Churchill in these different countries does not add much to the narrative. Ramsden is at his best in Part One when he focuses on the controversial personality of Churchill. Churchill understood very well that he had to write his side of the story to mold the minds of his contemporaries and remain relevant to future generations. Churchill has outshined most other memorable men and women in this enterprise. Many people around the world still want to claim a piece of Churchill by quoting him in a wide variety of settings. The ultimate power of Churchill lies in the richness of his parley and writings which can still stir emotions when reason fails to mobilize for decisive action.
Time was Wrong.......2005-07-13
Notwithstanding Time magazine's famous judgement, I think Winston Churchill was the man of the last century. So does John Ramsden, who has written a book that will be deeply appreciated by those with a lively interest in Churchill's impact on politics and culture following World War II and up to the present. The text is somewhat uneven in that the author meanders between quite keen insights on important issues, such as Churchill's role toward what became the EU, and the more dubious, such as listing the various streets named for the great man in Australia. While a first time reader on Churchill should read a good biography like that of Sir Roy Jenkins, this book will be worthy of purchase by any true acolyte of this great, and still relevant, figure of history.
A new way to look at Winston.......2005-03-16
THis is not a biography of Winston Churchill. This is something new and fascinating. Here we have a text that seeks to examine Churchill the legend, the man, the history of him and his relationship with the english speaking world since 1945. Chapters include investigations of Churchills funeral, 'operation Hope Not' and Churchill 'failure' to lose World War Two, the Finest Hour. Here we learn of Churchill's FUlton speech and also his famous relationship with America, as an honorary citizen no less.
Most interesting are chapters on Churchills relationship with Australia and Canada as well as new anecdotes about why Castro and Guliani, who agree on nothing, both are admirers of Winston. This book also examines the many biographers of Churchill, including Manchester, Gilbert and Jenkins.
THe conlusion is that Churchill is not simply the 'man of the century' but perhaps of the next one as well. This is a tour de force and every Churchill admirer must read it, in fact anyone interested in histiography or in the western egnlish speaking world since 1945 will enjoy this. Every conceivable person stars in this cast, from Isiah Berlin to Dean Acheson and Robert Menzies. The English speaking world will enjoy this book about one of its greatest champions.
A last note, the chapter on Churchill and Europe and Churchill and the Irish are extraordinary in their new takes on the British and their relationship with these two neighboors.
Seth J. Frantzman
A must for the Churchill admirer, student, or skeptic.......2003-12-06
Sir Winston Churchill had no shortage of admirers among the generation that knew, or saw, him during his Finest Hour, 1940-1941. And they have remained legion among later generations. But in the wake of the September 11 attacks, many people -- and especially many politicians in need of stirring rhetoric -- have turned to WSC again, attracted to his reputation, perhaps, more than to the strict details of his long and eventful life.
John Ramsden's fascinating book is an analysis of how Churchill's reputation was born, was consciously shaped by the man himself, and how it has evolved in the years since his death. The bulk of the analysis focuses on the five English-Speaking nations, though Europe is included as well. Another large section looks at the famous "Iron Curtain" or "Sinews of Peace" speech at Fulton, Missouri, in 1946, and how it -- precisely as WSC intended -- transformed the world's view of him from heroic-but-passé war leader to very-much-active statesman, politician, and geopolitical strategist.
A final section, which I found the most interesting, analyses many of the key Churchill biographies written over the years, from Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert's official biography, to Lord Moran, to Manchester, to Roy Jenkins' "Churchill: A Biography" (2001), which Ramsden predicts will remain "the authoritative single text for years to come" (p. 545). Ramsden also seems to have counted every Churchill memorial statue, street, pub, and park bench in the world. And while a catalog of these things could easily become tiresome, this author skillfully keeps it from doing so.
This is no small accomplishment. People who write about Churchill are forced to deal with the sheer immensity of his life. Many respond by being prolix, or trite, or they oversimplify, or caricaturize, or fall into either blind hero-worship or equally unnuanced destructiveness. Ramsden does none of these. One way he manages this, of course, is by being fairly sparing of the details of most of WSC's life. Thus, this book will make a lot more sense to someone who already has a fairly good understanding of who the man was, what he did, and when. Another way is by filling his text with stories about, and insights into, Churchill and his contemporaries that are nearly all some combination of fascinating, entertaining, and memorable. Thus, while he's dealing with some Grand Themes, the author surrounds them with a bodyguard of anecdotes that in and of themselves almost guarantee this will be a fun read for any Churchill student or fan.
Significantly, Ramsden is not an *uncritical* admirer of Churchill, though he is clearly an admirer. The Winston we encounter here is not sugarcoated, and some of his unattractive features do come through. That and the mountainous research on display are two signs of Ramsden's chops as a historian.
Finally, as a many-year member of The Churchill Centre and its preceding organization the International Churchill Societies, I should note and commend Ramsden's coverage of this worthy organization. Far from the worshipful society of star-struck fans it is sometimes painted to be, Ramsden shows the CC to be a reputable and respectable association of clear-eyed admirers of the man of the century, warts and all.
I am always amazed at the new aspects or corners of Churchill's life and impact that people can find to write books about. This one, no question, was a book that needed to be written. And for any Churchill student or fan, it's one that needs to be read.
Average customer rating:
- This book explains why it's more myth than reality.
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The "Special Relationship": Anglo-American Relations since 1945
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0198229259 |
Book Description
Leading authorities here analyze the historic special relationship between Britain and the United States since 1945. The opening chapters trace the development of the alliance and discuss the "special relationship within the special relationship" between Churchill and Roosevelt, Eden and
Eisenhower, Macmillan and Kennedy, and Thatcher and Reagan. The contributors go beyond traditional rhetorical appeals to common language and heritage and consider the military, political, and economic links that bind the two countries.
Customer Reviews:
This book explains why it's more myth than reality........1999-11-05
The Special Relationship is romanticized, mythologized and simply assumed by far too many people. There is as much conflict as cooperation in US-UK relations in the twentieth century. The essays in this book cover the progress and the geography of US-UK relations with a sobriety that compels the reader to sit up and recognize that relations with even the closest ally are not permanent or safe from significant divergence.
Book Description
Substantially expanded and rewritten, this new edition takes into account the momentous changes since the first edition was published in 1992. With several Central European states joining the European Union, the authors set the historical context in which, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe is itself increasingly dividing into two blocks: those where democracy and pluralism appear firmly established, and those where they do not.
Book Description
This ambitious reference work charts the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context.Dual chronological and thematic coverage of the major issues enables the reader to engage with multiple perspectives on current art movements and conceptual issues, and to consider future directions in the field. Topics covered include culture wars, public space, diaspora, new technologies, the artist, identity politics, the body, poststructuralism, and visual culture. The Companion also covers debates central to contemporary art practice and theory such as those addressing formalism, the avant-garde, and the society of the spectacle.Bringing together leading cultural critics and scholars from art history and allied fields to comment on the crucial historical and theoretical issues and debates that have conditioned our understanding of the contemporary visual arts, this volume offers new approaches toward the analysis of the visual arts in general. A stellar reference work, it is written for students and scholars of contemporary visual culture, art history, and visual theory, as well as the general reader interested in the development of this interdisciplinary field.
Book Description
This brief overview provides both a chronological and a thematic analysis of European history since 1945.
Customer Reviews:
Concise but thorough.......2005-06-05
This is certainly one of the better books of its type. Wegs and Ladrech have presented history in a lively, interesting style that manages to avoid a tendency to be dull or `dry'. The book follows a logical order from the end of World War 2 and the consequent rise of the Superpowers, through to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. All important aspects of this period are covered such as economic recovery in Western Europe, the end of the Eurocentric order, the Cold War, Eastern and Western European politics, post war society and the student riots of the 1960's. The final two chapters in the book cover culture and thought in Europe and a look toward the 21st century.
In the introduction, the authors freely state they have `favoured conciseness over excessive attention to detail'. In being concise however, the authors have merely avoided excessive, over detailed prose and have not omitted essential detail. This is a work that should prove invaluable to students of this era.
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