Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization | Nicholson Baker

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization | Nicholson Baker | Fabulous

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Human Smoke: The B...

	Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization Nicholson Baker Simon & Schuster, 2008 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 63 reviews view larger image
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A Bitter Pill for Many

America's war-making has been borrowing from the moral capital of WWII for some time now. So much so, that an official myth has emerged-- namely, that our side represented unmitigated good, whiie the Axis represented unmitigated evil. Now there's little in Baker's book that would alter that unmitigated picture of Hitler's Third Reich; but there's plenty that alters the contrast between the heads of state. As a result and contrary to the official picture, Churchill and Roosevelt come across as neither so innocent nor so blameless, after all. In fact, based on the historical record that Baker fills in, Churchill comes across as pretty much a bloody-minded sadist, willing to sacrifice the last European to defeat his Nazi antagonist, while Roosevelt looks like a war-making Machiavellian, at best. Thus the contrast is not so much between good and evil in policy-making, but between degrees of blameworthiness. Hitler may have been the one to come up with the infamous Final Solution, yet neither London nor Washington cared enough to follow through on other options available.

Perhaps the bitterest pill for Americans is the lead-up to Pearl Harbor. Popular history usually begins with the attack. Little attention is paid to events leading up to it. Nothing is pointed out about the US oil embargo against Japan nor the arming of the Chinese government, each of which was viewed by Tokyo as a strategically hostile act. If Roosevelt truly desired peace in the Pacific, these steps should have been viewed as extremely counterproductive. But then, given the overall priorities of the London-Washington alliance, the attack came as something of a simplifying godsend. Those well-meaning Americans who can hardly conceive of our head of state resorting to such ruthless power politics should keep in mind the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 and the notorious WMD pretext of 2003. The next time we're told some foreign despot is the new Hitler, two questions should be asked. Is there also a new Churchill willing to sacrifice every last innocent in pursuit of dubious victory, and is there a new Roosevelt who sweet-talks us with peace while manuevering for war.

Baker has performed a genuine public service for all those who can get past the initial shock.

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Fabulous

The author has assembled short newspaper articles from the 1930's and 1940's to provide a more personal view of the history that led up to WWII. This approach has resulted in a deeply moving book. Highly recommended. Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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