The New York Times Living History World War Ii

Download The New York Times Living History World War Ii full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online The New York Times Living History World War Ii ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

The New York Times Living History: World War II

Author : Douglas Brinkley
Publisher : Times Books
ISBN 13 : 1466869836
Total Pages : 730 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The New York Times Living History: World War II by : Douglas Brinkley

Download or read book The New York Times Living History: World War II written by Douglas Brinkley and published by Times Books. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 730 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II comes alive through the public records and private accounts of the day... We have long relied on historians to sift through the debris of the past and piece together narratives to shape our understanding of events. But it is in the letters, diaries, speeches, song lyrics, newspaper articles, and government papers that history truly comes alive. In The New York Times Living History: World War II: The Allied Counteroffensive, 1942-1945 eminent historian Douglas Brinkley has carefully chosen the critical documents that bring to life the days of the war from the first Allied counteroffensive to the US military formation of the European Theater of Operations (ETO) to V-J Day. His selections span the momentous, such as Eisenhower's address to the troops in preparation for D-Day and Hirohito's surrender on Japanese radio, to the intimate and the obscure. Readers will find one of Tokyo Rose's broadcasts, letters from soldiers on the eve of battle, Ernie Pyle's dispatches from Sicily, and Truman's diary entries in which he wrestles with the decision to drop the A-bomb. Each primary document is accompanied by a relevant piece of New York Times reporting from the period and original text explaining the historical significance of the event in the war's progress. News photos and other images add a strong visual component to this vivid re-creation of history.

Looking for the Good War

Author : Elizabeth D. Samet
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374716129
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Looking for the Good War by : Elizabeth D. Samet

Download or read book Looking for the Good War written by Elizabeth D. Samet and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A remarkable book, from its title and subtitle to its last words . . . A stirring indictment of American sentimentality about war.” —Robert G. Kaiser, The Washington Post In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans—all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States’ “exceptional” history and destiny. Samet finds the war's ambivalent legacy in some of its most heavily mythologized figures: the war correspondent epitomized by Ernie Pyle, the character of the erstwhile G.I. turned either cop or criminal in the pulp fiction and feature films of the late 1940s, the disaffected Civil War veteran who looms so large on the screen in the Cold War Western, and the resurgent military hero of the post-Vietnam period. Taken together, these figures reveal key elements of postwar attitudes toward violence, liberty, and nation—attitudes that have shaped domestic and foreign policy and that respond in various ways to various assumptions about national identity and purpose established or affirmed by World War II. As the United States reassesses its roles in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the time has come to rethink our national mythology: the way that World War II shaped our sense of national destiny, our beliefs about the use of American military force throughout the world, and our inability to accept the realities of the twenty-first century’s decades of devastating conflict.

NEW YORK TIMES COMPLETE WORLD WAR II

Author : The New York Times
Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal
ISBN 13 : 0316393975
Total Pages : 1455 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (163 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis NEW YORK TIMES COMPLETE WORLD WAR II by : The New York Times

Download or read book NEW YORK TIMES COMPLETE WORLD WAR II written by The New York Times and published by Black Dog & Leventhal. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 1455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experience the history, politics, and tragedy of World War II as you've never seen it before with original, often firsthand daily reportage of The New York Times, our country's newspaper of record. The Times' complete coverage of World War II is now available for the first time in this unique package. Hundreds of the most riveting articles from the archives of the Times including firsthand accounts of major events and little-known anecdotes have been selected for inclusion in The New York Times: The Complete World War II. The book covers the biggest battles of the war, from the Battle of the Bulge to the Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as moving stories from the home front and profiles of noted leaders and heroes such as Winston Churchill and George Patton. A respected World War II historian and writer, editor Richard Overy guides readers through the articles, putting the events into historical context. The enclosed DVD-ROM gives access to more day-by-day coverage of World War II in The New York Times -- from the invasion of Poland to V-J day with access to over 98,000 articles. Beautifully designed and illustrated with hundreds of maps and historical photographs, it's the perfect gift for any war, politics, or history buff.

The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1942-1945: The Allied Counteroffensive

Author : Douglas Brinkley
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780805072471
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (724 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1942-1945: The Allied Counteroffensive by : Douglas Brinkley

Download or read book The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1942-1945: The Allied Counteroffensive written by Douglas Brinkley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2004-01-08 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II comes alive through the public records and private accounts of the day. Eminent historian Brinkley has carefully chosen the critical documents that bring to life the days of the war from the first Allied counteroffensive to V-J Day.

Victory City

Author : John Strausbaugh
Publisher : Twelve
ISBN 13 : 1455567469
Total Pages : 549 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (555 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Victory City by : John Strausbaugh

Download or read book Victory City written by John Strausbaugh and published by Twelve. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From John Strausbaugh, author of City of Sedition and The Village, comes the definitive history of Gotham during the World War II era. New York City during World War II wasn't just a place of servicemen, politicians, heroes, G.I. Joes and Rosie the Riveters, but also of quislings and saboteurs; of Nazi, Fascist, and Communist sympathizers; of war protesters and conscientious objectors; of gangsters and hookers and profiteers; of latchkey kids and bobby-soxers, poets and painters, atomic scientists and atomic spies. While the war launched and leveled nations, spurred economic growth, and saw the rise and fall of global Fascism, New York City would eventually emerge as the new capital of the world. From the Gilded Age to VJ-Day, an array of fascinating New Yorkers rose to fame, from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Langston Hughes to Joe Louis, to Robert Moses and Joe DiMaggio. In Victory City, John Strausbaugh returns to tell the story of New York City's war years with the same richness, depth, and nuance he brought to his previous books, City of Sedition and The Village, providing readers with a groundbreaking new look into the greatest city on earth during the most transformative -- and costliest -- war in human history.

The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1939-1942: The Axis Assault

Author : Douglas Brinkley
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780805072464
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (724 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1939-1942: The Axis Assault by : Douglas Brinkley

Download or read book The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1939-1942: The Axis Assault written by Douglas Brinkley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-10 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing a new series where history comes alive in riveting documents and images of great events as they occurred. This first volume recounts the moves and decisions of the axis group from 1939-1942 during World War II. 75 illustrations.

With the Old Breed

Author : E.B. Sledge
Publisher : Presidio Press
ISBN 13 : 0891419195
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (914 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis With the Old Breed by : E.B. Sledge

Download or read book With the Old Breed written by E.B. Sledge and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2007-09-25 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Eugene Sledge became more than a legend with his memoir, With The Old Breed. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific—the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary—into terms we mortals can grasp.”—Tom Hanks NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With the Old Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-century battles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitive oral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge’s acclaimed first-person account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns to thrill, edify, and inspire a new generation. An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such heroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of the war’s famous 1st Marine Division—3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill—and came to love—his fellow man. “In all the literature on the Second World War, there is not a more honest, realistic or moving memoir than Eugene Sledge’s. This is the real deal, the real war: unvarnished, brutal, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals’ safe accounts of—not the ‘good war’—but the worst war ever.”—Ken Burns

Over Here!

Author : Lorraine B. Diehl
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061968242
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (619 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Over Here! by : Lorraine B. Diehl

Download or read book Over Here! written by Lorraine B. Diehl and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-02-27 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wonderfully nostalgic and inspiring look at the center of the home front during World War II—New York City More than any other place, New York was the center of action on the home front during World War II. As Hitler came to power in Germany, American Nazis goose-stepped in Yorkville on the Upper East Side, while recently arrived Jewish émigrés found refuge on the Upper West Side. When America joined the fight, enlisted men heading for battle in Europe or the Pacific streamed through Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station. The Brooklyn Navy Yard refitted ships, and Times Square overflowed with soldiers and sailors enjoying some much-needed R & R. German U-boats attacked convoys leaving New York Harbor. Silhouetted against the gleaming skyline, ships were easy prey—debris and even bodies washed up on Long Island beaches—until the city rallied under a stringently imposed dim-out. From Rockefeller Center's Victory Gardens and Manhattan's swanky nightclubs to metal-scrap drives and carless streets, Over Here! captures the excitement, trepidation, and bustle of this legendary city during wartime. Filled with the reminiscences of ordinary and famous New Yorkers, including Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters, and Angela Lansbury, and rich in surprising detail—from Macy's blackout boutique to Mickey Mouse gas masks for kids—this engaging look back is an illuminating tour of New York on the front lines of the home front.

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days

Author : Rebecca Donner
Publisher : Canongate Books
ISBN 13 : 1786892200
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (868 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by : Rebecca Donner

Download or read book All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days written by Rebecca Donner and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2021-08-05 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SELECTED AS A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK Born and raised in America, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six and living in Germany when she witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. She began holding secret meetings in her apartment, forming a small band of political activists set on helping Jews escape, denouncing Hitler and calling for revolution. When the Second World War began, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. In this astonishing work of non-fiction, Harnack’s great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on extensive archival research, fusing elements of biography, political thriller and scholarly detective story to tell a powerful, epic tale of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history.

War: How Conflict Shaped Us

Author : Margaret MacMillan
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1984856146
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis War: How Conflict Shaped Us by : Margaret MacMillan

Download or read book War: How Conflict Shaped Us written by Margaret MacMillan and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is peace an aberration? The New York Times bestselling author of Paris 1919 offers a provocative view of war as an essential component of humanity. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW “Margaret MacMillan has produced another seminal work. . . . She is right that we must, more than ever, think about war. And she has shown us how in this brilliant, elegantly written book.”—H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World The instinct to fight may be innate in human nature, but war—organized violence—comes with organized society. War has shaped humanity’s history, its social and political institutions, its values and ideas. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, and some of our greatest cultural treasures reflect the glory and the misery of war. War is an uncomfortable and challenging subject not least because it brings out both the vilest and the noblest aspects of humanity. Margaret MacMillan looks at the ways in which war has influenced human society and how, in turn, changes in political organization, technology, or ideologies have affected how and why we fight. War: How Conflict Shaped Us explores such much-debated and controversial questions as: When did war first start? Does human nature doom us to fight one another? Why has war been described as the most organized of all human activities? Why are warriors almost always men? Is war ever within our control? Drawing on lessons from wars throughout the past, from classical history to the present day, MacMillan reveals the many faces of war—the way it has determined our past, our future, our views of the world, and our very conception of ourselves.

The Year of Peril

Author : Tracy Campbell
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300252838
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Year of Peril by : Tracy Campbell

Download or read book The Year of Peril written by Tracy Campbell and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating chronicle of how the character of American society revealed itself under the duress of World War II The Second World War exists in the American historical imagination as a time of unity and optimism. In 1942, however, after a series of defeats in the Pacific and the struggle to establish a beachhead on the European front, America seemed to be on the brink of defeat and was beginning to splinter from within. Exploring this precarious moment, Tracy Campbell paints a portrait of the deep social, economic, and political fault lines that pitted factions of citizens against each other in the post–Pearl Harbor era, even as the nation mobilized, government†‘aided industrial infrastructure blossomed, and parents sent their sons off to war. This captivating look at how American society responded to the greatest stress experienced since the Civil War reveals the various ways, both good and bad, that the trauma of 1942 forced Americans to redefine their relationship with democracy in ways that continue to affect us today.

The Storm of War

Author : Andrew Roberts
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062079476
Total Pages : 800 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Storm of War by : Andrew Roberts

Download or read book The Storm of War written by Andrew Roberts and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-05-17 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Gripping. . . . splendid history. A brilliantly clear and accessible account of the war in all its theaters. Roberts’s prose is unerringly precise and strikingly vivid. It is hard to imagine a better-told military history of World War II.” –New York Times Book Review Andrew Roberts's acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic conflict. From the western front to North Africa, from the Baltic to the Far East, he tells the story of the war—the grand strategy and the individual experience, the brutality and the heroism—as never before. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, The Storm of War illuminates the war's principal actors, revealing how their decisions shaped the course of the conflict. Along the way, Roberts presents tales of the many lesser-known individuals whose experiences form a panoply of the courage and self-sacrifice, as well as the depravity and cruelty, of the Second World War.

The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1942-1945: The Allied Counteroffensive

Author : Douglas Brinkley
Publisher : Times Books
ISBN 13 : 9780805072471
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (724 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1942-1945: The Allied Counteroffensive by : Douglas Brinkley

Download or read book The New York Times Living History: World War II, 1942-1945: The Allied Counteroffensive written by Douglas Brinkley and published by Times Books. This book was released on 2004-01-08 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II comes alive through the public records and private accounts of the day We have long relied on historians to sift through the debris of the past and piece together narratives to shape our understanding of events. But it is in the letters, diaries, speeches, song lyrics, newspaper articles, and government papers that history truly comes alive. Eminent historian Douglas Brinkley has carefully chosen the critical documents that bring to life the days of the war from the first Allied counteroffensive to V-J Day. His selections span the momentous, such as Eisenhower’s address to the troops in preparation for D-Day or Hirohito’s surrender on Japanese radio, to the intimate and the obscure. Readers will find one of Tokyo Rose’s broadcasts, letters from soldiers on the eve of battle, Ernie Pyle’s dispatches from Sicily, and Truman’s diary entries in which he wrestles with the decision to drop the A-bomb. Each primary document is accompanied by a relevant piece of New York Times reporting from the period and original text explaining the historical significance of the event in the war’s progress. News photos and other images add a strong visual component to this vivid re-creation of history.

The New York Times Living History: World War II: The Axis Assault, 1939-1942

Author : Douglas Brinkley
Publisher : Times Books
ISBN 13 : 1466869828
Total Pages : 638 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The New York Times Living History: World War II: The Axis Assault, 1939-1942 by : Douglas Brinkley

Download or read book The New York Times Living History: World War II: The Axis Assault, 1939-1942 written by Douglas Brinkley and published by Times Books. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing a new series where history comes alive in riveting documents and images of great events as they occurred. We have long relied on historians to sift through the debris of history and piece together narratives to shape our understanding of events. But it is in the letters, diaries, speeches, song lyrics, newspaper articles, and government papers that history comes alive. The New York Times Living History books reinvigorate history by presenting the actual documents and images of the day. For the volume World War II: The Axis Assault, 1939-1942 eminent historian Douglas Brinkley has carefully chosen fifty critical documents that chart the Axis's grip over Europe and the Pacific--such as Churchill's Blood and Toil speech and the text of the Atlantic Charter. Readers will find FDR's cables to Japan in the hours before Pearl Harbor, Edward R. Murrow's broadcast during the Blitz, an American G.I.'s last message from Corregidor, and a Dutch boy's diary recounting Germany's invasion. Each primary document is accompanied by New York Times reporting or commentary from the period and original text illuminating their historical significance. News photos and other images add a strong visual component to this vivid re-creation of history.

Last Witnesses

Author : Svetlana Alexievich
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0399588779
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Last Witnesses by : Svetlana Alexievich

Download or read book Last Witnesses written by Svetlana Alexievich and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A masterpiece” (The Guardian) from the Nobel Prize–winning writer, an oral history of children’s experiences in World War II across Russia NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST For more than three decades, Svetlana Alexievich has been the memory and conscience of the twentieth century. When the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions . . . a history of the soul.” Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style, Last Witnesses is Alexievich’s collection of the memories of those who were children during World War II. They had sometimes been soldiers as well as witnesses, and their generation grew up with the trauma of the war deeply embedded—a trauma that would change the course of the Russian nation. Collectively, this symphony of children’s stories, filled with the everyday details of life in combat, reveals an altogether unprecedented view of the war. Alexievich gives voice to those whose memories have been lost in the official narratives, uncovering a powerful, hidden history from the personal and private experiences of individuals. Translated by the renowned Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Last Witnesses is a powerful and poignant account of the central conflict of the twentieth century, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human side of war. Praise for Last Witnesses “There is a special sort of clear-eyed humility to [Alexievich’s] reporting.”—The Guardian “A bracing reminder of the enduring power of the written word to testify to pain like no other medium. . . . Children survive, they grow up, and they do not forget. They are the first and last witnesses.”—The New Republic “A profound triumph.”—The Big Issue “[Alexievich] excavates and briefly gives prominence to demolished lives and eradicated communities. . . . It is impossible not to turn the page, impossible not to wonder whom we next might meet, impossible not to think differently about children caught in conflict.”—The Washington Post

The Darkest Hour

Author : Caroline Tung Richmond
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0545801281
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (458 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Darkest Hour by : Caroline Tung Richmond

Download or read book The Darkest Hour written by Caroline Tung Richmond and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My name is Lucie Blaise.I am sixteen years old.I have many aliases, but I am none of the girls you see.What I am is the newest recruit of Covert Ops.And we are here to take down Hitler.After the Nazis killed my brother on the North African front, I volunteered at the Office of Strategic Services in Washington to do my part for the war effort. Only instead of a desk job at the OSS, I was tapped to join the Clandestine Operations--a secret espionage and sabotage organization of girls. Six months ago, I was deployed to German-occupied France to gather intelligence and eliminate Nazi targets.My current mission: Track down and interrogate a Nazi traitor about a weapon that threatens to wipe out all of Western Europe. Then find and dismantle the weapon before Hitler detonates it. But the deeper I investigate, the more danger I'm in. Because the fate of the free world hangs in the balance, and trusting the wrong person could cause millions of lives to be lost. Including my own.

Year Zero

Author : Ian Buruma
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143125974
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Year Zero by : Ian Buruma

Download or read book Year Zero written by Ian Buruma and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A marvelous global history of the pivotal year 1945 as a new world emerged from the ruins of World War II Year Zero is a landmark reckoning with the great drama that ensued after war came to an end in 1945. One world had ended and a new, uncertain one was beginning. Regime change had come on a global scale: across Asia (including China, Korea, Indochina, and the Philippines, and of course Japan) and all of continental Europe. Out of the often vicious power struggles that ensued emerged the modern world as we know it. In human terms, the scale of transformation is almost impossible to imagine. Great cities around the world lay in ruins, their populations decimated, displaced, starving. Harsh revenge was meted out on a wide scale, and the ground was laid for much horror to come. At the same time, in the wake of unspeakable loss, the euphoria of the liberated was extraordinary, and the revelry unprecedented. The postwar years gave rise to the European welfare state, the United Nations, decolonization, Japanese pacifism, and the European Union. Social, cultural, and political “reeducation” was imposed on vanquished by victors on a scale that also had no historical precedent. Much that was done was ill advised, but in hindsight, as Ian Buruma shows us, these efforts were in fact relatively enlightened, humane, and effective. A poignant grace note throughout this history is Buruma’s own father’s story. Seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Holland, he spent much of the war in Berlin as a laborer, and by war’s end was literally hiding in the rubble of a flattened city, having barely managed to survive starvation rations, Allied bombing, and Soviet shock troops when the end came. His journey home and attempted reentry into “normalcy” stand in many ways for his generation’s experience. A work of enormous range and stirring human drama, conjuring both the Asian and European theaters with equal fluency, Year Zero is a book that Ian Buruma is perhaps uniquely positioned to write. It is surely his masterpiece.