This is a beast of a book at about 900 pages but I am proud to have made it through.
The relationships drawn by the author between the psychological impact of the war on European people, the subsequent birth of social democracy (as opposed to comunism or conservatism) and the resulting differencs between European political thought and American political thought is quite enlightening. As are the authors descriptions of the period between 1945 and 1955 when cold war communism was being born, the cold war battle lines were being drawn and there was still widespread persecution of Jews and other minorities.
It is a challenging book to make it through becuase it is so filled with facts, figures and arguments but it is rewarding to have read a book like this. I would recommend it.
2 comments:
Damn. There is no way I will be able to read this book, unless I'm stuck on a desert island with it (in which case, I'd probably be totally psyched to have it). It sounds like a worthwhile read. Those post WWII structures are still with us today and it would be very helpful to have a deeper understanding of them.
Nice work. This sounds like an exellent and worthwhile read. I think I'll have to save it for 2006 though.
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