Fascinating and Frightening

A fascinating collection of brief articles, arranged in chronological order, covering the years leading up to WWII and the first part of the war. Most articles are drawn from either a contemporary account, or the memoirs of a contemporary observer--and most deal with topics, events, or aspects of key personalities that deviate from the received narrative of the years in question--generally from an anti-war perspective. Yes, the selection process for the information presented was biased; but that is, in fact, the whole point of the book--to offer the reader a view of these events, firmly rooted in fact, that differs from the version we're generally familiar with. The book also functions as an introduction to quite a number of interesting memoirs--many written by some less well-known participants--that could keep a reader of history and biography busy for some time. ( )

A very interesting look at "The Beginnings of World War II", as the sub-title says.

The style is unusual. It's a collection of snippets of information, quotes, anecdotes, etc, in chronological order. Most are just a paragraph or two; few are longer than one page.

While it's not an anti-war book per se, it does appear to concentrate on things which make the reader question the justification ofr World War II. It is very selective and misses out much that might support the war, but in my view that is justified as the accepted myths of the war are well known and widely publicised. The counter arguments have received very little attention elsewhere, so this is a welcome attempt to redress the balance. It contains some classic quotes.

Far from being a clear cut case of good chaps v evil blokes, the book raises complexities and ambiguities. These include the ambuguity of all nations towards the Jews; the strong feeling by many that Communism was the greatest of all enemies; the pervasive influence of the arms industry; the games that all the great powers were playing; and much more.

All in all, an excellent book, and a valuable resource for those who wish to explore non-violent solutions to conflict. ( )

Consisting of nothing but one paragraph snippets, the work purports to take the reader from the end of World War I to just after then entry of the US into World War II in December 1941. A great deal of what is related is repeated from contemporary sources, particluarly the NY Times.

Given the format, the writing the tilted a bit to the sensational, and given the author's biases doubtless displayed a bit more prominently than was deserved the thoughts and efforts of pacifists during the period. By the last I mean they were decidedly fringe views, yet Baker gives them more prominence and protrays them as being a bit more prominent than deserved.

Churchill is uniformly villifed, Roosevelt as well, though probably not to the same extent. Other than that there were some interesting tidbits about the US cheerfully sailing oil tankers by Japan AFTER the embargo was in place for the USSR. Ditto the bits about Japanese efforts to spread plague via dropping poisioned food. Neither of these facts had ever crossed my radar before. I'm inclined to doubt the sloppy hero worship some of whom pass for conservatives send Churchill's way, yet I also cannot but think the characterization here is fair.

As an absolute aside and apropos of nothing, I was a bit irritated to see the library of my alma mater, the University of New Hampshire, referred to as, well, "the University of New Hampshire Library," in the afterward. In my day it was always called the "Dimond Library." And yet, there's next to no reference to that name on the current library website. So, while my irritation is legitimate, the object of it was not. Can't blame Baker for that one, it appears. ( )

A fascinating and sad account of the beginning of World War II and some efforts to avoid this war. It appears that the production of arms and profit was one of the main concern rather than peace. Another was the hatred of Jews. ( )