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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Trumpism Around the World: A Review of Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since former Pres. Trump’s election to the presidency in 2016, there have been a ton of books written regarding our current political moment. While many have of these books have been directed straight at former Pres. Trump, many others address Trumpism more tangentially, trying to explain the political and cultural forces that have made his rise possible. While these are valuable books about American politics, they fail to take into account that the rise of the extreme right is a global issue. In this book, not only does Mr. Applebaum provide an invaluable look at this global phenomenon, she also offers a different way to look at how these political forces are aided and abetted, and she offers a personal story of loss friendships that sound very familiar to many readers today.

As a historian of the Soviet era who is married to a Polish politician, Ms. Applebaum is well placed to comment on the rise of the extreme right in Europe and America.  She specifically devotes time to the nations of the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Poland, and Hungary in her analysis and even American readers who are only familiar with the rise of Trumpism will get chills at how familiar much of the rhetoric is in these countries.  Indeed, you could take the essence of former Pres. Trump’s “America First” message and adapt it to any one of these countries and the politicians trying to lead these extreme political movements.  Thus, Ms. Applebaum makes a very strong case that the rise of extreme right political movements is cause for global concern.

One of the more valuable aspects of this book is that she doesn’t focus all of her energy on the leaders of these movements, like Donald Trump of Victor Orban.  Instead, much of her attention is focused on middling politicians and intellectuals who aid and abet their rise whom she calls clercs.  She sets up this argument in an explicit contrast to Hannah Arendt’s own analysis on totalitarianism in such classic works as The Banality of Evil.  In this book, Ms. Applebaum argues that these clercs are not just “following orders” like German citizens were under Nazism.  Instead, whether out of jealousy, thwarted ambition, sheer opportunism, or all of these things, these clercs provide the intellectual and political framework for the rise of extreme right politicians.  It’s an intriguing look at our current political moment as well as a great critique of a famous political theory.

What makes Ms. Applebaum’s analysis of present day clercs intriguing though is that she is not examining them not just as an academic from afar.  As a self-proclaimed center-right Reaganite, Ms. Applebaum has known and met many of these clercs.  Some of them were her very good friends.  Thus, she is not just speaking as an academic, she is speaking from personal experience seeing many of her friends succumb to the allure of extreme right politics.  Her shock at seeing so many of her friends, who were staunch anti-communists and prominent politicians who took part in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, fall for propaganda, misinformation, and lies, or even propagate them, is evident.  So too is her personal pain at losing these friends.  This is both the book’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness.  While her personal experience with many of these clercs aids this book, her pain is also palpable and at times she can’t stop herself from criticizing her former friends and the people they surround themselves with rather harshly.  Granted, much of that criticism may be warranted, but this book does lurch from time to time into a screed of personal betrayal. 

In conclusion, while there are plenty of Trump books or Trump-adjacent books out there, this is one of the few of those books that offers a truly global perspective.  She may indulge in some rather harsh criticism, but Ms. Applebaum speaks as both an academic with unimpeachable credentials as well as from personal experience.  If you’re still interested in reading Trump or Trump-adjacent books, I would highly recommend this book 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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Peace in a Troubled Land?: A Review of Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sectarian wars are notoriously violent and notoriously difficult to narrate due to the climate of fear that can pervade a society long after the conflict has officially ended. The Troubles, the period of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland from the lates 1960s to the late 1990s, is no exception, especially since the conflict has never been fully resolved and many of its participants are still alive. Thus, any history of this conflict is bound to be difficult to document in its entirety. This book, however, relying on interviews with both participants and victims alike, gives readers a pretty darn comprehensive history that also acts as a meditation on how fragile post-conflict societies can be without an accompanying truth and reconciliation process.

Starting in the late 1960s with civil rights protests by Northern Irish Catholics, Mr. Keefe shows how peaceful demonstrators were violently opposed by Northern Irish Protestants, which led to radicalization and sectarian violence for decades.  At the very heart of this history though is a mystery: the disappearance of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, who was abducted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in December 1972.  Jean McConville’s disappearance was just one of many such incidents in this conflict that left over three thousand people dead.  It is also the story of key figures in the IRA: Gerry Adams, the IRA brigade commander turned politician; Dolours Price, one of the famous Price sisters who took part in the peaceful protests, but soon became radicalized and violent; and Brendan Hughes, one of the best known IRA street fighters of this period. Each one of these characters gets an incredible amount of attention and are presented as very nuanced characters in their own right.  

This book is divided into three parts and while Jean McConville’s disappearance takes center stage in the first and third parts, it almost completely disappears from the second part.  This is not actually a bad thing as to understand her disappearance you have to understand the history of the Troubles as well.  The mystery also serves an important function in part three as it allows the author and the reader to meditate upon the long-term consequences of a conflict that has never been fully resolved, nor has there ever been a true reconciliation process as has been seen in such societies such as post-Apartheid South Africa.  The past very much lives on in the present, so much so that former participants are still being charged and people who talk even today are at risk of being murdered.  Thus, justice has never been fully delivered in an even-handed manner.  This offers lessons for societies in the future coming out of periods of intensely violent sectarian conflict.

This was an incredible read.  The characters, history, and mystery are all written about with a level of nuance and empathy that is often lacking in many nonfiction books.  Mr. Keefe does not shy from narrating the complexities of the Troubles and is miraculously able to wrestle a comprehensive narrative into this book that is both coherent and detailed.  There are even moments of pulse-pounding action and suspense, particularly in part two.  This is not a dry history book, but one that puts you into the heart of the Troubles.  It is also not afraid to ask a fundamental question any post-conflict society must answer: what hope is there for long-lasting peace if there is little or no accompanying justice?  Both the history and this question will stick with me for a long time.

Overall, this is an outstanding book and may be one of the best nonfiction books published in awhile.  Whether you are interested in post-conflict societies in general or in the Troubles in particular, this is one book you should not fail to pick up.

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Crying Out for Freedom from the Other Side of American History: A Review of An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

America has a long history of promoting democracy and human rights, but also denying those basic rights to African-Americans and Latinx people. While there are a lot of histories that look at the history of both African-Americans and Latinx people as oppressed groups, nearly all of them treat each group separately. While there is great value in doing so, it does leave out the ways in which both groups supported each other’s fight for freedom and democratic rights and also implicitly perpetuates the false narrative that these two groups’ struggles are distinct from each other. In this incredible examination of American history from the point of view of both groups, Dr. Ortiz links both of their struggles for freedom and shows how America has too often been on the wrong side of history and freedom not just in America, but in its dealings with the Americas too.

As part of Beacon Press’s ReVisioning America series, which also has published such great books as An Indigenous People’s History of the United States and A Queer History of the United States for Young Readers, the goal of this book is to reexamine American history through a different lens.  Too often American history has been filtered through a predominately White POV that emphasizes our country’s many high points while only giving a superficial examination of America’s racist and oppressive past.  Dr. Ortiz tosses that White narrative out the window and focuses instead on the perspective of African-Americans and Latinx people.  The result is not the flattering picture most Americans already know.  African-Americans were enslaved for a good chunk of American history and faced exploitation, legalized segregation, and mass violence after the Civil War.  Latinx people in America, though never enslaved, also were exploited, segregated, and murdered by White Americans too, along with being deported unjustly when labor conditions were poor.  Thus, American history through this perspective is dark, oppressive, and never in keeping with the high ideals we claim to have founded this country on.  

The greatest value of this book though is not in treating African-Americans and Latinx groups as separate, but linking these two groups’ history and showing how each group at their best have supported each other’s struggles for freedom and basic human rights both at home and abroad.  Dr. Ortiz does a fantastic job of cataloging how African-Americans paid attention to and supported the revolutions in the Americas, drawing inspiration from them for their own early freedom struggles.  He also shows how Latinx people abroad supported African-American’s struggles for freedom in Antebellum America.  And once this book moves beyond the Mexican-American War and the Civil War, Dr. Ortiz catalogs the important contributions both groups made to the advancement of civil rights and labor rights in the 20th and 21st centuries.  It is fair to say that without both groups working both separately and together, American history would be tragically different.

Though Dr. Ortiz’s book is great, it is not perfect.  In the first few chapters, the narrative balance between both groups is tilted more towards coverage of African-Americans.  Granted, these chapters deal with pre-Civil War America, so the plight of African-Americans should take center stage at this point.  Also, once we get past the Civil War, Latinx people become a larger part of the narrative and the oppressive system of racial capitalism begins to grind both groups.  Thus, the narrative begins to balance out and Dr. Ortiz’s book starts firing on all cylinders.  Still, I wish he could’ve maintained a better narrative balance from the very beginning.

Too often the voices of African-Americans and Latinx people have been silenced or disbelieved.  The great value of a book like this is that it offers a counter-narrative to the simplistically naive story Americans are used to and acts as a clarion call for America to live up to its highest ideals of liberty and equality for all, as both African-Americans and Latinx people have been demanding from the very beginning.  Americans of all races, colors, and creeds should read this book along with other books in this series, repent, and resolve to justly apply our founding principles to all people in our country and abroad.

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Plodding through Communism's Fall: A Review of Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The fall of the Soviet Union is a watershed moment in the history of the 20th century and is often viewed by the West as a triumphant moment. But what about the people of the Soviet Union who lived through it? Svetlana Alexievich attempts to gives voice to the ordinary Russians and people living under the Soviets in this book and, many times, offers compelling oral testimony about what the end of communism looked like on the inside, but too often is unbearably slow and lacking in any meaningful context to help a Western reader orient themselves.

If you are living in the West, especially in the United States, before you pick up this book you should keep in mind that you are definitely not the intended audience.  This was written in Russian for Russian-speaking people.  Throughout the book there are references to Soviet political and cultural icons many of whom are incredibly obscure to a Western audience.  They are so obscure in fact that this book is littered with footnotes from the editor explaining who this person was.  Normally, footnotes are not a problem, but there are so many here that it may make it difficult for a Western reader to fully immerse themselves in this world.

Another thing to keep in mind about this book is that it is an oral history and one that is quite unlike any other oral history you may have read before.  In most oral histories, the author will interject some narrative and context behind the person who is speaking, maybe even a little biography of the person and their background.  Ms. Alexievich forgoes all of that in favor of letting the speaker completely speak for themselves.  She never mentions what questions she asked to get such responses from her subjects and only rarely jumps in with with some italicized narrative throughout the book.  Reading this book is the equivalent of reading a series of longwinded interviews with the interviewer almost entirely scrubbed out of the story.  

This refusal to inject herself into the book’s narrative can be both a blessing and a curse.  With some of her most interesting subjects, such as those who were either in the Kremlin or were apart of some of the critical moments, such as the August 1991 putsch in Moscow or the demonstrations against President Lukashenko in Belarus.  These were some of the best and most dramatic parts of this book.  However, a lot of this book does not center around these key historical events.  Thus, many of the interviews have this searching quality to it with people asking what did it all mean?  What did Soviets fight for in the Second World War if communism would just end?  Is the capitalist system that replaced it any better?  For a Russian-speaking reader, there may be some identification with these pondering, but for a Western reader with little love for the Soviet Union, not so much.  Thus again, Western readers may have trouble sympathizing with some of the subjects in this book.  

Then there are the purely ordinary Soviets just trying to live their lives in a new world.  Again some of these stories are interesting, but others are so melodramatic as to be almost a parody of life in Russia.  There are copious stories about alcohol abuse and domestic violence throughout this book and particularly in the second half.  Indeed, almost no marriage in this book doesn’t include alcoholism or domestic abuse or both.  The first few tales are interesting, but the ninth or tenth time it is told become repetitive and maudlin.  None of this is helped by the glacial space of this book.  Many of the chapters are unbearably slow, tedious reading.  This is not a book you should pick up for a quick breezy read as you should expect to sink a lot of time into reading it.

Ultimately, this book is a very mixed bag.  Some stories are incredibly fascinating and dramatic, especially the ones that link up with key historical moments.  But many other are incredibly slow, plodding stories with very little narrative meat for people to orient or attach themselves to.  If you are someone who is already familiar with this period in Russian history or already have your head soaked in the tales of ordinary modern life in Russia and the former Soviet states, you might find this book rather interesting.  However, if you’ve never learned about the fall of the Soviet Union and want to do so, read something else like The Future is History by Masha Gessen first before picking this book up.  

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The American Sphinx Speaks: A Review of Thomas Jefferson's Writings from the Library of America

Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters by Thomas Jefferson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia, is one of the more elusive Founding Father’s to pin down. Like Benjamin Franklin, he was a polymath with a deep interest in the many scientific undertakings of his age and was a consummate, though reluctant (at least according to himself), politician. At times he could be seemingly all over the place. What this book of Jefferson’s public papers and letters does is let readers peer more deeply into his mind and soul than the many biographies written of him since his death, but at the cost of creating one extremely long volume.

This book is divided into several parts including: an autobiography he wrote for his children and grandchildren; his “Summary View of the Rights of British America”, which was a prototype of the Declaration of Independence; his famous “Notes on the State of Virginia”; his public papers, letters, addresses and replies; and finally the private letters he wrote throughout his life.  By examining all of these together, one can really get the sense of Jefferson was as a person and where he stood on the key issues of the day.  Though some historians have painted Jefferson as a bit of a political opportunist and an enigma, by allowing Jefferson’s writings to speak for themselves one can see that he was a man of principle and resolve with a keen interest in advancing the sciences.  Not everything Jefferson wrote down or said will jive well with a modern audience, particularly his views on African-Americans and African colonization.  Still, for better or worse, much of America’s identity as a democratic nation comes from Jefferson’s writings and politics.

Though this volume does a great job of letting Jefferson speak for himself, it is WAY too long.  At 1600 pages, this is one of the longest books in the Library of America’s collection and is equal in size to a standard copy of the Bible.  Though I had planned on finishing this in a month, it took me over six weeks to read this book from cover to cover.  There is an opportunity though for Library of America to rectify this by splitting Jefferson’s writings into two volumes, as they have done with other presidents such as John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt.  About half of the book is made up of Jefferson’s autobiography and public addresses and papers.  The other half are Jefferson’s private letters.  Library of America could split this into two volumes between his public and private papers and may even make more room for more of Jefferson’s private letters, which were some of the most interesting and accessible reads.  As it stands right now though, this volume is better used as a reference for lay readers rather than something to be read from cover to cover.

Like other Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson left behind a legacy of liberty, but also of contradictions.  As America continues to strive to live up to its founding ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, looking back on how the founding generation both succeeded and failed at the same endeavor will be immensely educational and hopeful.  Though some may struggle to make it through this volume, there is real value in reading and understanding the thoughts and actions of Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers.  I recommend this book to people interested in learning about Jefferson first hand and are willing to devote time and effort to do so.

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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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Tragedy Upon Tragedy: A Review of Assad or We Burn the Country

Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Of all the tragic events that became known collectively as the Arab Spring, the Syrian Civil War is perhaps the most tragic, the most well known, and the least understood. For one brief, shining moment, it appeared that a new Middle East was possible free of dictatorships and terror. Syria seemed on the brink of change only for its ruthless dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to deem survival worth any cost, event the lives of thousands of his own people, millions of refugees, and a resurgence of Islamic extremist terror groups across the region and the world. In this detailed account, Mr. Dagher takes his reader into the inner sanctum of the Assad regime, the protest movement, the international community, and the rebellion to give one of the most complete accounts of the Syrian regime, its origins, and the series of events that led to such a brutal civil war.

To fully understand the conflict, Mr. Dagher takes the reader all the way back to the origins of the modern Syrian state and the rise of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father and the dictator of Syrian from the 1970s until his death in 2000. Sadly, the roots of Syria's trouble lie in the lies and fears that make up the Assad regime from the very beginning, with a foundation soaked in blood as Haze also ruthlessly put down challenges to his rule too. All throughout, Mr. Dagher follows the Tlass clan starting with Mustafa Tlass and then his son Manaf as they assist the Assads' rise to power. Through the Tlass', and Manaf especially, we get a clearer picture of the inner workings of the regime and how duplicitous and ruthless Bashar and others were in deciding to violently suppress peaceful protestors as the Arab Spring reaches Syria. Because of Bashar's choice to stay in power at all costs, Syria soon devolves into a morass of blood and death with international powers either looking on rousing the Syrian people to further their own agendas. It's a tragedy that only gets more tragic as it goes along.

This book really helped clarify what was always a complicated topic for me. Mr. Dagher never wavers from pointing nearly all of the blame at Bashar al-Assad, but he also makes sure to point figures at all the international figures who looked on or actively assisted the Assad regime slaughter its own people. The only thing I have against this book is that the narrative begins to lose steam once (view spoiler)[Manaf defects to the West and it becomes clear that the West is not interested in using him to replace Bashar, as was his hope (hide spoiler)]. From that point on, the end seems inevitable, but the tragedies continue to pile on top of each other.

The Syrian Civil War is one of the greatest tragedies of the Arab Spring and the 21st century so far. With moral clarity and inside information, Mr. Dagher has written an account that should not be missed.

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Everything is Better: A Review of Factfulness

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The news seems to always be filled with bad news. Even without the threat of COVID-19, the news is littered with stories of violence, illness, and death. While this may be a more dramatic story, it unfortunately hides the major story of the last 50+ years: that on nearly every indicator (health, education, the economy, etc.) the world has made an extraordinary amount of progress. Enter Hans Rosling and this wonderful book to correct the misperceptions of the affluent "West".

This book could've easily fallen into a trap of pure humanistic triumphalism, but Mr. Rosling has done more than just list a series of good news items that are routinely missed. He also challenges our preconceived notions about why things are terrible in the world and addresses why we think that way too. At the same time, each chapter is filled with strategies about how one can reorient their mind and try to think of the world both positively and rightly.

This is a wonderful book filled with great charts and figures. A few of them have to be walked through by the author, but once you see where the data is pointing after the first few chapters, it is easier to predict where the other sets of data are pointing. What is most invaluable is how Mr. Rosling tries to make his reader drop the typical "West vs. the Rest" or "Us vs. Them" mentality and instead think of the world as on four different economic levels. This allows one to see the incredible progress the world has made in closing so many gaps on so many levels. Today, most people in the world do not live in extreme poverty, though it still exists. And that brings up another great point about this book, which is Mr. Rosling's use of maxims to illustrate his points. One of his most memorable is to think of the state of the world as "bad, but getting better." It's a little more complicated than that though, but I do not want to spoil anything for you.

One thing I will say about this book is that at times he seems to bash on the media a bit too much. Granted, Mr. Rosling does humbly admit that he is probably too harsh on the media, but it still stands out. Also, this is not a book that I would read alone. This is a book that demands to be read and discussed with other people so that you don't just tuck all these facts away into your brain and carry on. The good news about that though is that this is a very accessible book. Both experts and lay readers should have no problem sifting through the data presented in this book.

Whether you are looking for a respite from all of the doom-and-gloom news about COVID-19 or not, this is a book that you should read to better understand just how much better things are in the world today. I highly recommend this book to all readers, not just those interested in current affairs.

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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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Turning Point: A Review of All the Shah's Men

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup & the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When it comes to understanding the modern Middle East and why it is the way it is, there are a number of dates and events that are key to it, such as the end of World War I and the Sykes-Picot agreement, the beginning of the U.S.-Saudi relationship during World War II, and the creation of modern Israel as a Jewish state. In this wonderful book of history, Mr. Kinzer makes an excellent case for why we should consider the 1953 coup that overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran.

Despite this book's short length, it is full of so much information. First, it is an incredibly fascinating look at the history of Iran up to the mid-twentieth century, including both the religious and political spheres. There was so much information about Zoroastrianism, Islam, British imperialism, democracy and fundamentalism that I would love to pick up a more comprehensive book on Iran's history in the future. It seems genuinely fascinating. This book is also a great spy thriller. The very first chapter starts with the U.S.'s first attempt to overthrow Mossadegh in August of 1953 and quickly reveals the ins and outs of the coup. Though you know the terrible consequences Mossadegh's downfall will lead to, you can't help but turn the page to learn how everything comes together for the coup plotters.

While I give this book five stars, it is not a perfect book. The upside of starting the book with the first failed coup attempt is that it whets your appetite for the story, but it has a significant downside of making the end of the book feel rather rushed. There are 12 chapters, plus a preface and an epilogue, and after that first chapter you get 9 chapters of backstory afterwards. Thus, once the second and successful coup attempt happens in chapter 11, it all felt so quick that I had trouble figuring out what exactly was going on. I suppose that's how it felt to everyone involved too, but it does give the reader a sense of whiplash at how quickly everything ends.

Overall, for anyone who is interested in learning more about the modern Middle East, especially now that tensions between Iran and the U.S. are elevated once again, this book is a must read. Along with Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present, Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, and Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, this is a must read book.

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"Don't You Forget About Me": A Review of The Korean War: A History

The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Korean War is often, and rightfully, called "the forgotten war." Bracketed by World War II and the Vietnam War in American history, few Americans know anything about this war in which 3 million Koreans several thousand Americans died. Often what they do know is pretty basic: the North invaded the South, America and its UN allies intervened and pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel all the way to the Yalu River, until communist China intervened and pushed the war back into a stalemate along the 38th parallel. However, in this revisionist work, Bruce Cumings puts more flesh and bones on this otherwise bare bones tale and emphasizes both its importance in American history why it has never really ended, and how it was just as dirty as the war dirty war in Indochina that would succeed it.

For those of you looking for a straight historical narrative of the Korean War, this book probably won't tickle that itch. The first chapter gives the standard story of the war, with a few relatively unknown details thrown in to flesh things out a little, but then hops around different topics for the rest of this book. This allows Mr. Cumings to talk about the darker side of this war that rarely makes it into America's headlines: how the roots of the war go back to, and are much more deeply intertwined with, the Japanese occupation of Korea, not the immediate Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States; how the South Korean regime of dictator Syngman Rhee was just as brutal, and possibly more so, than communist North Korea; how American forces too often stood by as South Korean forces massacred real and suspected communists; and just how the American air war was to the North Korean people and economy. It is a sobering look at a part of our history that is too easily swept under the rug simply because South Korea eventually developed into a vibrant democracy, because we didn't lose the Korean War (though we didn't necessarily win it either), and because the Vietnam War looms so much larger in the American psyche than the Korean War does. Mr. Cumings makes a passionate and nuanced plea for remembering and understanding this war.

And yet, I can't help but feel that, like the war it brings to light, will do nothing more than to create a stalemate in the American reader's mind. While many of the facts and figures Mr. Cumings brings to light may be revelatory, even damning, to many Americans, because this book forgoes a chronological structure, it fails to successfully mesh the unknown dark side of the war with what Americans already do know about the war. A more straightforward analysis of the war, similar to other standard military histories out there, with all of the revelations Mr. Cumings brings to light, would've had a much greater impact. Instead, like many other revisionist histories, this book lists off a litany of wrongs that Americans should feel bad about, forcing the reader to either assume a knee-jerk defensive position or not. For a book that begs for understanding and nuance regarding the war, the baseball bat approach this book takes does not lend itself to such an understanding of the ar.

Despite that, this book is an important work about a forgotten war. While it may be nothing more than a supplemental read to other histories of the war, such as The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam, it is a necessary supplemental read that all American history buffs should read.

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"The Horror": A Review of King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The colonial period in Africa is little known and little understood by Americans today, and yet that history is so pivotal to the creation of international human rights organizations that it should be better known and celebrated. In this meticulous work, Mr. Hochschild tells the devastating story of the Congo Free State, ruled by a tyrant, disguised in the veneer of constitutional monarchy and humanitarianism, with tools of terror that eerily prefigures the genocidal atrocities of the 20th century.

Starting with the story of how King Leopold II of Belgium deftly maneuvered both domestic and foreign politics in order to secure a colony under his direct control, Mr. Hochschild shows how the Congo Free State was always a colony of exploitation, built on the back of brutalized African slaves. The cast of characters is incredibly diverse, with such historical monsters as Henry Morton Stanley and León Rom (the latter of whom was probably one of the inspirations for Joseph Conrad's character, Mr. Kurtz, in Heart of Darkness), and brave men who risked much, including their lives, to tell the world of the atrocities happening in the Congo. Among these heroes include such people as George Washington Williams, E.D. Morel, and Roger Casement. One voice that is missing though, which Mr. Hochschild points out repeatedly, is the voice of the Africans themselves. Too few of their testimonies are recorded for posterity from this period. However, Mr. Hochschild does a tremendous job of trying to bring in their voices whenever he can.

Oftentimes, the atrocities are hard to read about. Africans were enslaved, mutilated, and massacred for a long time and, in spite of the successes of the international protest movement at the turn of the 20th century, several brutal colonial practices continued up to Congo's independence and even beyond. And yet, the international protest movement that Morel and others led would prefigure our conceptions of international human rights in the 20th and 21st centuries. One of the great things about this book is that Mr. Hochschild doesn't sugarcoat the truth, but it does mean that younger readers may want to wait a little bit before tackling such a heavy topic.

One thing I did not like about this book is how the details of how exactly the Congo Free State was initially operated and developed were not there. At one point, it appears that Henry Morton Stanley is setting the colony up in King Leopold's name, and then the next moment all the killings begin. This may be because of my quick reading of the first chapters, but I feel like there are a few steps between "Let's set up a colony" to "Let's enslave and murder everyone" that are missing here.

For anyone interested in world history, the history of colonialism in Africa, or the history of international human rights, this is an essential read. In its explicit condemnation of colonialism, it reminds us that we should never turn our backs on the cries of suffering around the world and work to end human rights abuses wherever they may happen.

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Review: The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The United States of America was first forged in the fires of the American Revolution. The War for Independence is where the American experiment in self-government truly begins. But, aside from the key moments in the first years of the Revolution, few Americans know how the war was fought and won. There have been some books that have focused on a particular battle or person during the Revolution, but too few authors have attempted to take a more comprehensive look at the entire war. This book from the author of the Liberation Trilogy, which charted America fighting in the European Theater during World War II, rectifies that with an incredibly thorough look at the first two years of the American Revolution.

The first thing that should strike readers about this book is just how balanced it is. Rather than just focus the Americans, which is easy to do, Mr. Atkinson has done an incredible amount of research on the British side of the war, even accessing papers from King George III that had not been previously made public or even catalogued by the British government. This incredible amount of research gives a sympathetic light to both the Americans and the British and shows that, while British had far greater resources at hand than the Americans, the war effort on the British end wasn't smooth sailing either. It also gives a certain amount of balance and credence to the book, especially when Mr. Atkinson talks about how it was mostly rabid American patriots, not the British, who destroyed Norfolk, VA, in 1776 (though the British did do some damage too).

The other great thing about this book is just how crystal clear Mr. Atkinson's descriptions of the battles are. Through the use of maps and amazing descriptive details, Mr. Atkinson shows just how bloody and brutal the fighting could get. His descriptions of the Battles of Bunker Hill and Princeton were particular high points. Admittedly, some of the descriptions could get a little muddled, but I think that was more my fault than Mr. Atkinson's.

What is missing from this book are some of the political details. There are very few discussions about the debates in Congress or Parliament, with only some focus given to key political leaders, like Ben Franklin, John Adams, Lord North, Lord Germain, and, of course, King George III. Indeed, there is zero talk about the debates over the Declaration of Independence. It just shows up in Washington's camp in New York one day and is read to the troops soon afterwards. This is, actually, all for the best as Mr. Atkinson's focus on the military aspects of the war, not the minutiae of revolutionary politics. Besides, there plenty of other books that talk about the politics, so Mr. Atkinson is wise to focus on the fighting instead. He does give attention to the diplomatic side though as an entire chapter is devoted to Ben Franklin's arrival in France in late 1776. It only makes up one small chapter in an otherwise large book, but I would not be surprised in Mr. Atkinson is previewing some themes in his future volumes.

Overall, this is the book on the War for Independence that I and, I assume, a lot of other military history buffs have been waiting for. It's going to be a long, hard wait for volume two of this new series and I, for one, will be waiting in eager anticipation for it.

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Architect of Victory: A Review of War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943–1945

War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943–1945 by Nigel Hamilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

FDR's true role as Commander in Chief and leader of the Allies during World War II has been shrouded for many Americans. The personal memoirs of Winston Churchill and questions of FDR's health and performance at Yalta have obscured just how vital he was to the overall outcome of the war and the shape of the postwar. Mr. Hamilton has done a great job of fleshing out FDR's World War II leadership and he concludes his three-volume biography/history superbly in this final volume.

In the previous two volumes, Hamilton's FDR comes off as a brilliant strategist and wrangler of disparate personalities. FDR asserted his authority over strategy with his military chiefs in the first volume and held Churchill's feet to the flame when it came to committing to the cross-channel invasion of France in the second volume, despite Churchill's penchant for diversionary, and disastrous, operations in the Mediterranean. This third volume shows FDR at his best once again at the Tehran conference, holding Churchill accountable and even dealing well with Marshall Stalin in their first face-to-face meetings. The cross-channel invasion gets set in stone and Churchill's desires for further Mediterranean operations are halted. This leads to the D-Day invasions and the ultimate demise of the Third Reich.

However, Hamilton is not completely blinded by FDR's brilliance. As FDR's physical health and mental acuity begin to decline in the weeks and months following the Tehran conference, Hamilton gives the most detailed descriptions of what was going on that you are likely to find. FDR was very sick and could have easily died in early 1944 were it not for the brave intervention of a junior naval officer at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and the renewed relationship between FDR and his former flame, Lucy Rutherford. Had FDR died in 1944, history and the outcome of World War II could have been very different.

In spite of the President's declining health, Hamilton makes clear that, on the most important issues, FDR was as engaged as ever. This comes through at the Yalta conference, a rather divisive moment in U.S. foreign relations history. Hamilton shows that on the key issues, such as the creation of the United Nations and securing Russian entry in the war against Japan after the fall of Germany, FDR was completely focused and in charge. However, FDR focusing his energies on these important strategic goals meant he was not as attentive to the details, which is where Yalta gets controversial. By the end of the book, Hamilton's FDR is the most exhausted person you have ever met, but he has achieved his most important goals as Commander in Chief and they cannot be undone by his death.

I love how the book was organized. Though the font is rather small, Mr. Hamilton's chapters are very short, no more than 10-pages, but usually around 5 pages. And there are a lot of chapters, 91 to be precise, so organizing one's reading of this rather dense book should be not be a problem. Furthermore, Mr. Hamilton's writing style is just as enjoyable as ever. He deftly uses repeated phrases and rhetorical questions throughout to ram home important points in the story. Thus, even if you are skimming parts of this book, you should be able to pick up on the key thoughts by taking note of those repeated phrases and rhetorical questions. I will say that, unlike the previous two volumes, Mr. Hamilton does seem to skim over far more than he did before. For example, when writing about post-Tehran FDR in early 1944, Mr. Hamilton focuses exclusively on the President's health, which is important to his overall story. However, there is a chunk of about a month and a half, roughly January and February 1944, where Hamilton says nothing about any of FDR's major decisions during that time. Mr. Hamilton also does this when he skims over the details of the 1944 presidential election as well. Admittedly, these details may not have been important to the overall story Mr. Hamilton was trying to tell, but it is noticeable nonetheless.

In short though, Mr. Hamilton makes an excellent case for considering FDR to be one of America's most successful wartime and diplomatic leaders on a par with Lincoln's leadership during the Civil War. Like Lincoln, FDR was able to focus the nation's wartime and diplomatic leaders on the most essential goals of the war, while rallying the nation to a vision for the nation that stretched beyond the war itself. In Lincoln's case, it was emancipation; in FDR's case, it was the creation of a proactive America in world affairs and the creation of a stable and successful international organization to maintain the peace, the United Nations. Hamilton does a tremendous job of putting FDR in his rightful place as one of our greatest presidents and I would highly recommend this volume, and this entire series, to anyone who is interested in learning more about FDR and his leadership in World War II.

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"A Just and Lasting Peace... With All Nations:" A Review of Lincoln in the World

Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power by Kevin Peraino
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The U.S. Civil War is one of the epochal moments in history. The momentousness of the Civil War is clear domestically as it ended slavery and united the country more tightly than ever before. And yet, while its domestic importance is clear, few Americans also realize just how important the Civil War was in world history as the binding of the Union and the destruction of slavery would help pave the way towards America's rise to predominant power in the 20th century. There have been recent books, such as The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War by Don H. Doyle, that have tried to fill in this gap, but what also can get lost in this story is the role that President Abraham Lincoln played in guiding foreign policy during the period. Like FDR's role as Commander in Chief of World War II, too many historians have downplayed his role as Chief Diplomat and instead focused on his military leadership. This biography does an amazing job of filling in this gap while also being one of the most easily accessible Lincoln biographies currently available.

This book tracks Lincoln's career from little-known congressman to President of the United States by pitting Lincoln against five historical figures and the major foreign policy issues that divided them. It starts with an examination of Lincoln's nuanced opposition to the Mexican-American War against his Illinois law partner's support, William Herndon; the first struggles over foreign policy leadership between Lincoln and his new Secretary of State, William Seward; his struggle to avoid war with Great Britain and its prime minister, Lord Palmerston; the struggle over public opinion between Lincoln and Karl Marx; and the U.S.'s response to the invasion of Mexico by France's emperor, Napoleon III. Each one of these chapters provides a great vignette of Lincoln and his opponent and what exactly their thinking was on the key foreign policy issues of the Civil War. They are endlessly fascinating and Mr. Peraino does an excellent job of revealing Lincoln's role in everything. Though Lincoln may not appear to do much at times, Mr. Peraino points out that doing nothing, or strategic patience as it might be called, can be crucial in foreign affairs and is key to Lincoln's leadership in this arena. Lincoln, and his opposites, knew their objectives, but Lincoln appears to have had the clearest mind on how to achieve those objectives.

I will say that the Lincoln/Marx chapter is a little bit of a stretch. While Lincoln squared off with all of the other figures almost directly, Marx and Lincoln seem to be linked only indirectly, at best. However, Mr. Peraino's insight in this chapter is to show just how deftly Lincoln swayed international public opinion over the question of emancipation, something Marx wished he could do with his call to proletariat revolution, but never succeeded at doing in his lifetime. It may be the weakest of links, but Mr. Peraino makes it work.

Perhaps the most insightful chapter is the last where Mr. Peraino briefly (compared to the previous chapters at least) follows the diplomatic career of his personal secretary, John Hay, that would lead him to become Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. By doing so, Mr. Peraino shows just how critical Lincoln's foreign policy legacy was in shaping the United States and its role in the world for the next half century. It made me wish for a recent biography of John Hay to pick up and read. I shall have to look into that...

At a little over 300 pages in narrative length and with simple language and anecdotes, this is also one of the most accessible biographies of Lincoln available. While painting a great picture of Lincoln as a statesman, Mr. Peraino also provides good sketches of Lincoln the man as well. For anyone who has wanted to pick up a Lincoln biography, like Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln or Lincoln by David Herbert Donald, but have been too daunted by their length and detail, this is a good book to break yourself in. I still feel that there is much more to say about Lincoln the statesman, but this book is an excellent jumping off point. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Lincoln, the U.S. Civil War, and America's rise to power.

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