Moving Towards Zion: A Review of The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2: Belonging, 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

The Story of the Jews Volume Two: Belonging: 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The recent surge of anti-semitism in Europe and America has been heart breaking, especially when that anti-semitism led to violence at a Pittsburgh synagogue by a white supremacist terrorist in 2018. Sadly, Jewish history is fraught with such tragedies, even before you get to the Holocaust under the Nazis. But Jewish history is far more than these senseless tragedies. In this second volume to his planned trilogy, historian Simon Schama traces the history of the Jewish people from the Renaissance to the dawn of the 20th century, laying out in dense detail their many triumphs and tragedies and their persistence in the face of unbelievable hardships.

Starting right where he left off in volume one, Mr. Schama details how the constant attacks on the Jewish people forced them to adapt and migrate multiple times.  What is interesting is that the beginning and end of this narrative are bookended by messianic movements that led Jews to try to migrate out of Europe and into Palestine.  The earliest attempts were not always successful, but the last one detailed by Mr. Schama leads readers into the beginning of the Zionist movement, which will lead to the creation of the modern state of Israel in the 20th century.  It was fascinating to see how Jewish people could be just as susceptible to messianic movements and false messiahs in the same way that Christians of this period could.  It seems looking forward to a better world and trying to proactively bring it about is not exclusive to any single religious group.

Though the descriptions of anti-semitic assaults are difficult to read, Mr. Schama does a great job of walking his readers through it and drawing a subtle line from the attempts at forced conversions and the creation of the ghettos in the 16th century, and the nationalistic anti-semitism of 19th century Germany, which would be supercharged by the Nazis later.  Yet, in the midst of these terrible trials, Mr. Schama also paints several portraits of fascinating characters in Jewish history.  People like Shabbetai Zevi, Moses Mendelssohn, Uriah Levy, and so many others are absolutely fascinating in this book.  Also, Mr. Schama’s details about the rise of Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Kabbalah Judaism are interesting too.

Another great aspect of this book is how Mr. Schama describes how the age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution promised to amicably assimilate Jews into the wider European culture, but it was a promise that was never fully realized.  As soon as France and other nations offered a hand, once Jewish groups tried to take it, they would find that it was almost always filled with empty promises.  The failure of the Enlightenment’s assimilation promises, combined with a new and virulent form of anti-semitism by the late 19th century, creates the historical backdrop for the forming of the Zionist movement.

However, this is not an easy book to get through.  This book is stuffed to the brim with details and stories that it implores you to read it slowly.  Skipping or speed-reading a single paragraph means that you will inevitably miss important details and get lost pretty quickly.  This is, without question, one of the densest history books I have ever read. In fact it is denser than his previous volume.  Do not start this book expecting to get through it quickly.  I did, and I ended up having to pause my reading or slow it down considerably just to get through it all.

Overall, this is a fascinating book, but one that is incredibly dense and begs its readers to chew on it slowly, rather than to rush through.  I look forward to reading Mr. Schama’s third volume and hope that it will be released sooner rather than later.

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An Empress to be Remembered: A Review of Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The economic and political rise of China since the late 1970s has been one of the key historic trends of the last several decades. What is interesting though about China’s rise is that this is not the first time China has recovered from disastrous economic and political management to become a powerhouse in international affairs. In the middle of the 19th century, China had been humiliated in a war with foreign powers, but new leadership arose to lead China out of the middle ages and into the modern era. This wonderful biography is about the most important figure responsible for China’s first move towards modernity, the Empress Dowager Cixi, and why she should be considered in the same league as other great women world leaders like Elizabeth I of England or Catherine the Great of Russia.

Cixi was one of Emperor Xianfeng’s numerous concubines, but she possessed a keen intellect and an open-mindedness that far outpaced anyone leading China at the time.  When she gives birth to the Emperor’s only legitimate male heirs, she is thrust from back of the Emperor’s harem into the forefront of the court’s favored women.  When the First Opium War and the subsequent death of the Emperor soon afterwards leads to her young child becoming the next emperor, Cixi seizes her chance to launch a palace coup, removing from power the arch conservatives who had so disastrously run the empire, and begins a near five decade rule over China that sees the modernization of the country’s economy, military, and politics.  Though there were stumbles along the way, by the time of Cixi’s untimely death in 1908, China is on the verge of becoming a constitutional monarchy with limited civil liberties and voting rights for the average Chinese citizen.  Sadly, she did not live long enough to fully implement these political reforms and that failure would lead to the political turmoil that would engulf China for the next several decades.

The Empress Dowager could not have found a better modern biographer to tell her story.  Ms. Chang has used scores of archives from China, Japan, and elsewhere to not only tell Cixi’s story, but to also dispel some of the myths that have developed since her death that has portrayed her as an arch conservative who stood in the way of China’s progress.  Ms. Chang argues that not only is this narrative false, but that Cixi was the main reason why China advanced into modernity during her rule.  Ms. Chang also offers a very sympathetic picture of the Empress Dowager.  Cixi is portrayed as being open-minded and eager for discussion and consensus amongst her advisors (up to a point) and, though she could be opposed to adopting some reforms, she could be persuaded to change her mind.  At the time of Cixi’s death, some western admirers were comparing her to other great female leaders, and Ms. Chang does not seem to dispute that.  

Ms. Chang does not airbrush Cixi’s faults though.  She does give an extensive account of Cixi’s role in the Boxer Rebellion, which led to a catastrophic war with foreign powers.  There, Ms. Chang notes how stubborn Cixi could be and how disastrous her decisions ended up being, though it did help to bolster her image amongst the people and paved the way for even greater reforms in the last years of her life.

It is a shame that more people, particularly in the West, do not know about the Empress Dowager Cixi, but this book does is a perfect biography to help raise her historical profile and introduce her to a Western audience.  It is detailed, well-researched, and does a lot to dispel certain myths about her rule.  If you are looking for a great biography about great female world leaders, I highly recommend this one to you.

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Where Do We Go Now?: A Review of Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No event in recent history has been as disruptive to the world as the COVID-19 pandemic that, as of this writing, is still ongoing. Millions have died and millions more have been infected by this disease. In the United States, the number of deaths from COVID are comparable to the number of combat deaths during the Civil War. And the recession caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns is on a par with the 2008 financial crises that we had only just recovered from. Much has been laid bare by this once in a century catastrophe, but fortunately Mr. Zakaria has written a fabulously book to guide us through this pandemic and look forward beyond our current crisis to see what the world may look like afterwards.

Best known for his book The Post-American World and his Sunday international news show on CNN, Mr. Zakaria is the right man to take a global perspective on this pandemic.  But, rather than disprove the central theses of globalization and relative American decline, Mr. Zakaria argues in this book that the pandemic proves both the necessity of globalization and America’s continued to decline.  He even goes beyond that to reveal how important quality government is to daily living, the need for two-way dialogue between experts and average citizens, and the overwhelming necessity for global cooperation.  All of these “lessons” are very well backed up by statistics and figures from an incredibly wide variety of authoritative sources.  And yet, despite all the overwhelming citations, Mr. Zakaria’s writing style is both engaging and easy-to-follow.  Both experts and laymen should be able to pick up this book and learn something.

The only drawback of this book is how outdated some of the information is.  Published in October 2020, some events have accelerated since then.  The COVID vaccine was still in development, though close to completion, when this book went to press and, of course, the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol had not  happened yet either.  Though this book in hindsight is quite prescient, I do hope Mr. Zakaria does update this book when it comes out in paperback.

Overall, though only slightly out of date, this is one of the best books to examine these current times and try to project into the future.  Though the pandemic has scarred nearly all of us, this book can help us make sense of this current crisis and what is necessary to build back better in the future.  I highly recommend this book to both policy wonks and laymen alike.

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Deep Crisis: A Review of War on Peace by Ronan Farrow

 

War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Despite its role in shaping the post-war liberal world order, American diplomacy is at a crossroads. With the end of the Cold War, the State Department and its dedicated diplomats have had their work maligned by politicians of both parties and their budgets slashed by a skeptical, even hostile, Congress and Executive branch. The hollowing out of the State Department under Pres. Trump and his two Secretaries of State, Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, is just an acceleration of trends that have been in place for decades now. In this wonderful and critical read, Mr. Farrow use both his own personal experience in the State Department as well as hundreds of interviews, including with all the living Secretaries of State from Henry Kissinger to Rex Tillerson, to chart American diplomacy's declining reliance by policy makers at the highest level. It also charts the disastrous consequences of America's hand over of diplomacy to the military and is a not-so subtle plea for reinvestment in American world leadership and diplomacy.

Before Mr. Farrow was writing articles about Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault allegations that would launch both the #MeToo movement and Mr. Farrow's own reputation into the journalistic stratosphere, he was a young Foreign Service Officer under legendary diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who negotiated the famous Dayton Accords ending the war in Bosnia in the 1990s and died tragically while trying to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan under Pres. Obama. The first half of the book is Mr. Farrow's eyewitness account of Mr. Holbrooke's Afghanistan negotiations and its unrealized potential. He makes a compelling case that, had Mr. Holbrooke lived and the Obama administration given more support to his efforts, the U.S. could have negotiated a deal with the Taliban and exited the conflict instead of being militarily bogged down for nearly two decades now. The rest of the book is a charting of how years of budget cuts and neglect has allowed the military to dominate spaces in foreign policy normally reserved for the military and how that has contributed to endless military confrontations and violence. Mr. Farrow also charts how the Trump administration's total lack of interest in diplomacy under Sec. of State Rex Tillerson has accelerated these trends. Though the book was published in 2018 and, thus, does not include Mike Pompeo's tenure nor the Trump administration's overtures to North Korea nor Pres. Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal has not happened yet, the picture Mr. Farrow paints in this book is one of American diplomacy and world leadership in a state of deep crisis.

This is perhaps one of the best and most accessible books to date on the current state of affairs in American foreign policy. Mr. Farrow's research and interviews are incredibly thorough and he has a journalist's nose for a great story. I greatly enjoyed this book and my only critique is that it needs an updated edition in 2021 now that Joe Biden is the President-elect and the full story of the Trump administration's approach to foreign policy can be fully told. Foreign policy is just one of many areas that need to be rebuilt in the future Biden administration and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in foreign policy and and America's continued role as a world leader.

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All Roads Lead to China?: A Review of The New Silk Roads

The New Silk Roads: The New Asia and the Remaking of the World Order by Peter Frankopan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There has been a plethora of books about China and it's economic and political rise in the early 21st century such as Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos and Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century by Orville Schell. However, too few of those books look at China in its regional context. That is a serious oversight considering China's Road and Belt Initiative that was announced a few years ago. In this valiant attempt to try to look at the vast Eurasian land mass and try to divine the tea leaves, Peter Frankopan, author of the acclaimed history The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, does just that.

Looking at the economic rise of China and the relative disarray in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Frankopan makes the argument that the balance of economic and political power is shifting back from the West to the East. This is not a new argument to anyone even remotely familiar with recent international affairs, but the key insight Mr. Frankopan brings to the table is looking at the region as a whole and how China's influence runs deep for both good and ill. Mr. Frankopan even briefly expands his scope in several places to China's growing influence in Africa and Latin America & Caribbean regions. Pointing to China's extension of trade and loans to these regions, especially in it's drive to knit together a new "Silk Road", China's rise is unmistakably the biggest geopolitical question for all nations today.

Though China is the main topic of this book, it is not the only one. Mr. Frankopan gives special attention to Russia and, in particular, Iran, going so far as to name all three countries as the most important ones in the region. Examining the pitfalls and promises of each country, one is left with the conclusion that the major changes in world politics will be coming out of Eurasia and not the West in the next decades.

That said, the fact that this book is rather slim, the topic is so vast and so messy, means that this book has a bit of a messy feel at times. The first chapter reads like an IR tourist's checklist of wonders that China and the region are pledging to our achieving. The first pages are not the most nuanced appraisal of the region, but Mr. Frankopan's analysis get's more nuanced as it goes along. Furthermore, while each of the chapters suggest some kind of overarching theme in each, it does not always turn out that way. Perhaps a narrative device, like a small story that branched off into the analyses Mr. Frankopan wished to convey, would've helped to focus the attention of this book.

Still, Mr. Frankopan has done a tremendous job in trying to cover so much ground in so few pages, and he mostly succeeds. This updated edition feels especially relevant, though the COVID-19 outbreak may require some reappraisals once the crisis is over. To anyone interested in Eurasia in general, China in particular, and the West's response, I highly recommend this book.

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Thinking Through Changing Times: A Review of Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood

Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire by Matthew W. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oftentimes historians and scholars are called upon to interpret the past, but they cannot always divorce themselves from the present. In this work of intense academic rigor, Matthew King explores the life and work of Zava Damdin, a Mongolian Buddhist monk at the turn of the 20th century living through China and Inner Asia's turn from the Qing era to socialism.

I must start this review off by noting that this is an academic work, which means that Prof. King uses the specialized language of his field of study to relay this story. As such, not only can this book be rather impenetrable to the layman, but it already assumes that the reader knows something of the history of this period in Chinese and Inner Asian history. It covers over the last decades of the Qing dynasty's reign over China and it's reshaping into the short-lived Republic of China. At the same time, Russia was also transforming from Tsarism to communism and Buddhist communities, like Zava Damdin's, would be targeted and purged during and shortly after his death. But Prof. King doesn't focus too much on this. Instead, this is more of an intellectual history showing how Damdin's major works, particularly The Golden Book, took shape over the course of his life. Damdin was an incredibly learned scholar and Prof. King does a tremendous job of showing how influential his works were back then and still are today. Even the present Dalai Lama has been known to teach from Zava Damdin's works. Prof. King also shows how Zava Damdin tried to cope with Inner Asia's turn towards socialism and the persecution that was only just beginning. Like many conservatives in rapidly changing times, Zava Damdin clung to his traditional upbringing in Buddhist scholasticism, even writing some pointed criticisms of the Western worldview that were beginning to be expounded by other Buddhist scholars during his final years.

This is not a work that should be approached lightly. Nor is it one that should be approached on it's own as I found myself wishing throughout that I knew more about this time and place, or that Prof. King would give more background to this work. Though the academic language used throughout is difficult, for those of you who are interested in the changes affecting Asia at the beginning of the 20th century, this is a great work to complement your studies. The layman though might struggle with this though

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