General Interestto historians and also those that do
not fit any of the listed categories
These have all recieved casahistoria 5 star reviews.
Scroll down the page to read about them and the other 5***** ers!!!
Kindle only in US
David Olusoga, Casper Erichsen: The
Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial
Roots of Nazism.
Olusoga and Erichsen's book is really in two parts. The first tells
the story of German colonialism in South West Africa, showing how
German policy towards the native Herero and Nama peoples developed
into one of genocide. In chapters that are crucial reading to all
who seek to understand the motives behind 19th century colonialism
and imperialism the authors show how a philosophy of white racial
supremacy emerged out of the ideas of Charles Darwin and was put
into practice. Survival of the fittest becomes justification for
white dominance over "inferior" indigenous peoples and genocide an
acceptable option. This process is shown though as not just a German
process and the German experience is placed in a global context:
with British colonists in Tasmania, the US frontier wars, the
Argentine wars of the desert all showing the same features.
In the German genocide against Herero and Nama we read of
extermination orders, forced labour and concentration camps designed
to kill off indigenous peoples who were articulate, politically able
and well resourced, but ultimately doomed as the Kaiser's troops
introduce a policy of "absolute terror and cruelty... by shedding
rivers of blood and money" (General von Trotha) in which the
missionary churches were actively complicit.
This alone is a story that needs telling widely, but the second part
of the work shows the significance of this colonial experience for
future nazism. The colonies first Governor was the father of Hermann
Göring, the uniform of the SA was that of the Wilhelm II's brown
shirted colonial army. More significantly, the colonial period saw
the emergence of the pseudo science of eugenics and the legal
framework to protect the purity of German settlers from racial
contamination. Terms appear that are to be more infamously used
later: Rassenschande (Racial shame), Rassenreinheit (Racial purity).
Interracial marriage is made illegal. This was all to make the
colony racially safe for emigration for a Volk that needed
Lebensraum (living space) to expand into and escape population
pressure at home. In the final chapters Olusoga and Erichsen
skillfully show how these ideas survive the collapse of 1918 and
become a core element of the politics of the right. Hitler uses his
Landsberg imprisonment to read much of the work on race that emerged
out of the Wilhelmine colonial experience. After 1933 races
considered impure, German Jews and Gypsies, are subjected to the
treatment first employed in South West Africa: Nuremberg Laws to end
racial mixing; control and internment in concentration camps, forced
labour, extermination. One chilling story is that of the 400
"Rhineland Bastards", children fathered by French colonial troops
occupying the Rhineland after 1918. By 1937 all are sterilised.
There is a final twist in the argument. Hitler's war, it is argued,
was ultimately one for colonial Lebensraum in the east. The German
treatment of the eastern populations and Red Army was different to
the western conflict as Hitler considered the eastern peoples to be
similar to uncivilised indigenous colonial peoples. Fighting was
more brutal, civilians were treated with even less regard. Necessary
he believed to ensure Lebensaum and civilisation. The nazis compared
this push East to how Wilhelm's troops had fought the Herero, or the
British the Sudanese & Tasmanians, the US the Native Indians, or the
Argentines with the tribes of the south.
Thought provoking, this is an important, thorough and well written
work. It ranks with Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost" as an
indictment of European colonialism but develops its arguments beyond
normally considered confines to place the events of a short-lived
German colony in a far wider context.
A couple of final points: In the US this is only available as a
Kindle download (sign of things to come?), my copy had a few minor
issues with proof reading: several wrongly spelt German terms, but
most crucially the map was missing...... Jan '11 (*****)
Robert Service: Trotsky: A Biography
The first thing that needs saying is that despite its 500 pages plus
footnotes this is not a heavy write, full of the dialectics of
marxism/leninism/trotskyism/stalinism and all the shades in between
that the period produced. This will probably disappoint the
theoreticans and activists of the left hoping for new insights into
Trotsky. Rather it is an attempt to provide a readable account of
who was undoubtedly one of the leading figures of the Russian
Revolution, if not the key individual in its immediate survival.
Service has produced a narrative, as it says on the tin, "a
biography". No more, no less. So we get his family, early
background, exile (Siberia), more exile (Britain), return in 1905,
more exile (Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, USA), return in
1917 - revolution - civil war - struggle inside the post Lenin
party, banishment, exile (Turkey, Norway and finally Mexico); his
assassination comes abruptly and without much fanfare.
In between all this Service weaves in his relations with the other
revolutionaries and builds up the character of this itinerant
revolutionary amongst the key stages in his passage through life.
His relations with his entrepreneurial peasant father, the emergence
of his obvious gifts as orator and writer (Service compares him in
this respect with Winston Churchill), his role in the party schisms
before 1917 and his apparent inability to win close, trusting
friends within the party as a consequence of his arrogance and
perceptions of self righteousness.
He gets closest perhaps to Lenin after mid 1917. But then of course
Lenin dies and the bottom falls out of Trotsky's political world.
Service shows clearly the misjudgements of Trotsky in this period -
again down to arrogance. Stalin is despised and fatally underated as
uncouth, brutal (this from the man who showed so little compassion
to opponents in the civil war - even if they were card carrying
communists), a non intellectual. as a result Trotsky is forced into
exile again.
In reality Trotsky is remembered for his role in a mere 7 year
period, 1917-24, of Russian history. The key events of this period
are told clearly - but with Trotsky as the focus: in Oct/Nov, at
Brest litovsk waiting for a German revolution, criss crossing the
old tsarist Empire on his battle train to win the civil war, another
example of politician turned highly professional (and brutal)
military commander. This tends to reduce his influence on other
internal policies, giving space to Stalin and also allowing the
other Bolshevik leaders to fear him as a new Bonaparte: heir to a
revolution and the head of an army.
Implicit throughout the second part of the biography is a comparison
with Stalin, and the question: what if Trotsky had succeeded Lenin
rather than Stalin? Unfortunately, despite all Trotsky wrote so
eloquently about from outside the Soviet Union there would have been
little difference. Trotsky had already shown he could ignore legal
niceties and be ruthless when dealing with perceived opponents. His
campaigns showed he had little inclination to spare the wealthier,
kulak peasants. Nor despite later protestations in exile was he a
believer in proletarian democracy. In reality Stalin's 5 Year Plans
drew heavily from Trotsky's post NEP ideas. As for foreign
involvement Trotsky was little concerned with foreign nations where
Russian (revolutionary) interests were threatened shown by his
keenness to go to war with Poland. The final chapter is a little
more explicit in drawing out this depressing conclusion.
Perhaps the pace of change would have been slower, but little else
would have been different.
The book is easily structured for students. Clear chapters on
specific periods issues lend itself easily for dipping in and out of
to get info. One especially valuable chapter is on his Jewishness.
It does not figure prominently according to Service but for one key
aspect: he argues that Trotsky believed despite not being a
practicing Jew, he would still be seen as such by a Russia that was
still highly antisemitic. He could never lead Russia as he would not
be respected because of his Jewish background. This prevented him
placing himself in a key leadership role until it was too late.
Trotsky deserves a new biography. The worthy Isaac Deutscher bio of
fifty years ago that launched the thousands of 60's and 70's
radicals is in need of supplementing by a post Soviet Union
approach. For the radicals this biography will unhappily remove a
great deal of the gloss, but for students of today it will get rid
of much of the dross (especially on the internet) that has followed
in the wake of the man who more than anyone else made the Russian
Revolution happen. Lenin lead the revolution, Stalin made the
revolutionary state a confident superpower that controlled half of
Europe. But it was Trotsky who masterminded the events of
October/November and enabled it to survive its birth, but in true
Soviet fashion, at considerable human cost. July '10 (*****)
Tim Butcher: Blood
River – A Journey Into Africa’s Broken Heart
Tim
Butcher was Africa correspondent for the UK's Daily Telegraph when
he decided to follow Stanley's route of 1874-77 down the Congo from
central Africa to the Atlantic. Butcher's story is both riveting and
depressing. Riveting as he writes well of his travels and is able to
punctuate his story with relevant historical outlines of a regions
past and with well chosen and revealing interviews (he is a
journalist after all) with local individuals.
However it is also a depressing tale of a country which, in
Butcher's words is not underdeveloped, but is un-developing. It is
clear that it's post Stanley colonial period under the Belgians was
far from pleasant but even the limited gains of this period have
vanished in the post-colonial chaos largely instigated not just by
ex colonial powers and African neighbours keen to control the
Congo's vast resources, but also by a failure of indigenous
leadership which has appeared happier to exploit rather than govern
the peoples of the Congo. To me it seemed, to use the parallels of
the continent just across the ocean, that the Congo has resources &
potential like Brazil, but the self-destructive politics of late
19th century Paraguay.
On a personal level Butcher's trip appears a unique event. The Congo
no longer has cross country links – by road or river. Cities, towns
and settlements survive on their own in isolation, retreating into
the bush when trouble comes, as it often has. The United Nations has
a tenuous presence, often providing the only sense of order, but
even then this appears to be restricted to isolated key towns.
Butcher was really only able to travel because of outside agencies
such as the UN from whom he hitched lifts on UN ships and aircraft.
Although there is a telling remark by one UN official who describes
him not as journalist, historian or tourist but as an "adventurer".
The real heroes are the (very few) local aid agencies, such as Care
International and International Rescue Committee, working in great
danger and difficulty and who offer both lodging and transportation
to Butcher across the Bush. At times I felt the "adventurer" in the
author was unnecessarily endangering the lives (and work) of these
people as he strove to accomplish his journey. It is noticeable that
little real help was offered by those few Congolese companies and
agencies in a position to assist.
It is clear that Stanley would still recognise the vast region if he
were to return today – that is what ultimately is most depressing to
the author, as well as the reader.
Jan '10 (*****)
Richard Holmes: The Age Of Wonder: How
The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty And Terror Of Science
My Christmas period reading has shown that Holmes' book, The Age of
Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror
of Science, well deserves the critical plaudits printed all over its
cover. This is a well integrated story of the emergence of the
modern "scientist" in the late 18th and early 19th century. Focusing
on biographies of botanist Joseph Banks, the Herschel astronomy
family and safety lamp man, Humphrey Davy this narrative shows how
(largely through the networking of Banks) a culture of science for
society rather than individual study emerges. The cast list
interwoven by Holmes is broad as well as enormous: the Montgolfiers
(a very entertaining chapter on ballooning) and explorer Mungo Park
(who I remember mainly from a stained glass window in my primary
school, close to where he grew up) but more significantly the close
relationship between the people of science and the new Romantic
literary movement. So we have the Shelleys, Southey, Coleridge and
Byron attending lectures, sampling exotic gases as well as
exchanging verses and prose with the scientists. A culture of
Romantic celebs! In terms of A level language - a genuinely synoptic
work from a master of biographical writing.
There are surprises: the emergence of Caroline Herschel as a great
scientist of note in her own right as well as the driving force
behind her two brothers. Davy is shown in a much less sympathetic
light (and is perhaps over emphasized here at the expense of more
focus on continental connections to the movement as a whole).
The book is well presented too. Apart from the usual footnotes I
liked the device of printing key supplements to the main text at the
foot of the relevant page. There is also a cast list that acts as a
good reference to the galaxy of names mentioned (and which you might
remember only vaguely from school science lessons).
Like the best of writing at the end you want to read on - about the
new wave of scientists that come through - Faraday, Babbage and the
significance of Mary Somerville. Perhaps there is scope for a follow
up to the 470 pages of tight print presented here.....
Dec' 09 (*****)
Margaret Macmillan:
Peacemakers
Margaret
Macmillans "Peacemakers" is the book I wished had been written when
I was a student (or as I covered the Peace Treaties year after year
with my examination students beginning their exam courses). It is
valuable on two levels. Firstly there is the obvious: a study of the
drafting and setting up of the Peace treaties that ended the First
World War. Macmillan writes in a clear readable manner, portraying
the key participants, Wilson, Clemenceau & Lloyd George as very
human characters, grappling with enormous issues but also showing up
their flaws. Wilson for example, spending too much time on the
creation of the League and failing to focus on the inconsistencies
of Versailles re his 14 Points (especially concerning the German
minorities left in Poland & Czechoslovakia). Equally his failure to
see the need for US all party support dooms the settlement to US
rejection.
The book also shows clearly the emergence of the Anglo-Saxon
alliance that is to develop as the 20th century progressed. Most of
all it presents the three as facing a novel situation: no real
precedents; the sudden German collapse presented no time to prepare
for the peace; the pressure of public opinion limited the freedom of
action and forced some decisions the three knew would cause future
problems. Additionally they were hemmed in by a desire to prevent
the further growth of a feared new ideology adopted by their earlier
ally – Bolshevism. It is clear the ending of World War 2 was to be
very different, much as a consequence of these 1919 issues: no big
postwar conference, no deputations from smaller nations. Rather 1945
produced a peace that the Great Powers could realistically enforce
on their own, and in their own interests.
But perhaps the real value of the book is on another level. It is an
excellent primer for the 20th century. Coverage is gloabal as
Macmillan goes into detail about the creation and future problems
not just of eastern & central Europe but also the Far and Middle
East. For Example Japan's concerns over the inclusion of a League
principle to guarantee racial equality reveal the depth of unease
the west (and especially the white Dominions) had in dealing with a
newly industrialised & strong Japan. There is also a clear
explanation of the role the Great War played in the rise of an
expansionist Japan in China which is not always dealt with in
western textbooks.
My only reservation is that perhaps like the Peacemakers Macmillan
may have ignored the Germans. The full footnotes, bibliography and
listing of unpublished sources lack any in German indicating a
reliance only on what has appeared in English. Nonetheless, this is
a key resource for those beginning courses on 20th century history,
making clear the origin of what become the dominant problems and
concerns that mark out the century's progression, or in many cases,
regression.
Aug '09 (*****)
Tim Tzouliadis: The Forsaken: An American
Tragedy in Stalin's Russia
The
"Forsaken" are a small group of US citizens who move and settle in
the USSR to escape the Depression and work in a society they
believed promised more than the capitalist USA in the 1930's.
Within a couple of years all goes wrong
as they get caught up (as dangerous "spies") in the 1930s Terror.
One by one they disappear and this is where their tragedy begins.
Innocents caught in Stalin's and then the NKVD's paranoia they are
siezed off the street, tortured, forced to confess then shot or sent
to the Siberian Gulags to be worked to death and vanish without
trace. Just like the anything up to 20 million other Soviets that
Tzouliadis includes in the narrative.
What is especially appalling about
these US victims is that they are disowned totally by the US. The
Embassy ignores appeals for help (In fact it fails to even protect
its own employees from disappearance. One of its key figures in the
1930's is Kennan of the containment telegram fame. He also sees
little point in pushing to help these US citizens, who are perceived
by many in officialdom as pinks and reds linked to US unionism.The lame response of FDR himself to the
tragedy of the US citizens and the failure to perceive the true
nature of the Stalin regime helps understanding of Churchills
frustration with FDR-Stalin relations at the wartime meetings. It
also provides a wider survey of the process of arrest, horrendous
Gulag conditions, execution and disappearance during not one but
three waves of Terror including US troops seized during and after
World War II and how the process came to an end of sorts.
"The Forsaken" is a valuable addition
to the work on Stalin's Russia. Perhaps it will also start to show a
wider audience that Stalin was no better than Hitler, in all
probability much worse, in creating a society that dehumanised its
members and eliminated millions. May ‘09 (*****)
Claire Tomalin: Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
A sympathetic survey of the able administrator that naval historians of the 17th
century so admire. Yet it is the personal diarist/observer that takes centre
stage. The diaries cover barely 10 years of Pepys life but include Sex, drink,
brutal (but successful) surgery, plague, fire, music, marital conflict, the fall
of kings, corruption and courage in public life, wars, navies, public
executions, and incarceration in the Tower of London. These are all treated
clearly and methodically in themed chapters, organised in a way which would have
pleased the methodical man himself. Tomalin argues that the diaries are much
more than an account of events but are a genuine piece of literary value
displaying more than ever before the personal tensions, desires and most of all
relationships and concerns of the upwardly mobile. In this sense Pepys is
presented as a flawed but essentially caring man guilt ridden after doing
something he feels remorse for. He is shown as quite modern. Like Marlborough,
Pepys is another example of how individuals accommodate to the intriguing
question of Regime change. Tomalin shows clearly how a generation that grew up
or begun carrers under Cromwell had to accommodate themselves with the
restoration of the monarchy. Pepys never seems to lose the republicanism of his
boyhood – yet has to come to terms with rising to high office due to royal
favour. However he has the honesty to stand by his Royal patrons (unlike
Marlborough and James II) even if heir lifestyle is not to his taste and he has
to ultimately resign. It is perhaps a mark of how close you get to Pepys that
there is a genuine sense of loss when he passes away at the end. This is a real
read – impressively researched, and reading like a page turner. Jan '09 (*****)
Ronald
Wright: A short history of progress
This is a concise primer for all who want to see just how fragile human life &
society really is. Wright shows clearly just how brief our “civilised” existence
has been and also how easily it could end. He does this by looking at key
previous civilisations: Sumer, Rome, China, Mayan America and Easter Island.
Clear, sobering lessons are drawn out for us to be learned if we are not to
over-farm, pollute or destroy the present.
He concludes with an Argentine
saying: “Each night God cleans up the mess the Argentines make by day” but makes
it clear that we are now at the point where God alone cannot clean up our mess.
We can help ourselves, but only if we act now. Excellent detailed footnotes
develop the brevity of the presented arguments – and provide suggestions to a
variety of further background reading. This should be a compulsory matriculation
present for all school leavers……
Oct ´06 (*****)
Giles MacDonogh: After the Reich - from the fall of
Vienna to the Berlin Airlift Any modern writer of post war Germany who mentions the names of Hajo
Holborn and Michael Balfour in the first few pages clearly has done their
reading. This book fills in the gap left in many English language histories of
postwar central Europe: from the actual end of war and its immediate impact to
the outbreak of the Cold War. Covering not just the zones of Germany, but also
Austria and the events of German speaking Europe elsewhere - the German Reich at
its largest.The initial 100 pages or so are a harrowing account of the treatment
of the
German speakers as they were invaded, occupied, looted, raped and for the
millions in the east, moved westwards. The brutality by all concerned is
meticulously documented - too much so in places - I wanted to skip on as it was
so disturbing and relentless. The Red Army is well documented by others, less so
the proportionately greater savagery of the Czechs on the Sudetenlanders
(especially grim as MacDonogh makes clear the pre 1938 Sudetenlanders were ex
Austrians, not Germans who had been unlawfully deprived of the chance at self
determination after Versailles by a nationalist Czech regime.).
Another eyeopener is the evidence that all the allies used prisoners
of war in ways similar to Speer in his use of slave labour (and often in the
face of resultant deaths). The US was especially cynical in this matter
announcing they had released all POW's in mid 1946 when in fact they released
them to be handed over to other allies: Belgium and France, for manual work. The
USSR was still returning POW's in the mid 1950's.
The early stance of the US was surprisingly tough. Outside the Soviet
Zone, the US had and maintained the hardest stance to its prisoners and civilian
population for the first 18 months. Torture seems to have been common initially
amongst all the occupiers as they sought to do the necessary and root out
Nazi's. However MacDonogh's examples indicate a direct line of war's
dehumanisation that makes treatment of Iraqi prisoners seem minor.One issue with After the Reich
is caused by its heavy reliance on documentary sources, especially memoirs. This
had meant a skew towards recounting the experiences of the better off, in
particular the womenfolk of the German/Prussian nobility. At times this leads
perhaps to a too unconsidered appreciation of the sometime self-serving
motivation of the 1944 plotters, many of whom were close to the writers of the
memoirs used.
The final sections takes a reader swiftly but clearly through the fog
of the origins of the Cold War, only after 500 pages of the aftermath analysis
what follows has a clarity lacking in the work of many other revisionist
writers. Ultimately the emergence of the postwar west Germany is shown to be
linked closely to the creation of the European community, with Adenauer
consciously supporting a pro western & French future, even if it, as suggested,
meant sacrificing the old historic Prussian, socialist and protestant eastern,
(and at the time more slavic influenced) provinces of the old Reich.
Since the Wende, this has
been a topic occupying the history shelves of most German bookshops.
MacDonogh has done English readers a service with this account. The
underlying sentiment is that this book records the consequences of
the far greater evil perpetrated on others by the Germans - a
feeling that many of those recorded reflect, despite their misery.
It is not surprising that with the opening of the east Germans have
wished to document the period, nor is it surprising that Anglo-saxon
writers have shunned it for so long. May '06 (*****).
Adam Hochschild: King Leopold's Ghost
Read this to find out the true horror of imperialism. The
focus is on the Belgian Congo, but it indicates clearly the role played
by the other Europeans in supporting the process. Very well written, it
reads (too?) easily and also does a great service in highlighting the
role played by the few who tried to publicise the atrocities: Britons
Edmund Morel, & Roger Casement and the African American George
Washington Williams & William Sheppard. Nov '05 (*****)
N A M Rodger: Command of the Ocean.
A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815
This is the second volume in the naval history and is very valuable, not just for its account of how the Royal Navy grew into the premier seafaring force of
its time but also for placing this in a general political & economic context.
Different sections on politics and society as well as naval technology and management styles show very clearly the emergence of Britain as the key imperial power.
It reads easily and appears thoroughly researched. Hardly surprising it became a (surprising) bestseller in the UK.
I look forward to Volume 3.
Jan '06 (*****)
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Olusoga and Erichsen's book is really in two parts. The first tells
the story of German colonialism in South West Africa, showing how
German policy towards the native Herero and Nama peoples developed
into one of genocide. In chapters that are crucial reading to all
who seek to understand the motives behind 19th century colonialism
and imperialism the authors show how a philosophy of white racial
supremacy emerged out of the ideas of Charles Darwin and was put
into practice. Survival of the fittest becomes justification for
white dominance over "inferior" indigenous peoples and genocide an
acceptable option. This process is shown though as not just a German
process and the German experience is placed in a global context:
with British colonists in Tasmania, the US frontier wars, the
Argentine wars of the desert all showing the same features.
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