Synopses & Reviews
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 and#147;reeducationand#8221; 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 Burumaand#8217;s own fatherand#8217;s story. Seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Holland, he spent much of the war in Berlin as a laborer, and by warand#8217;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 and#147;normalcyand#8221; stand in many ways for his generationand#8217;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.
Review
Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books: and#8220;Year Zeroand#8230;covers a great deal of history without minimizing the complexity of the events and the issues. It is well written and researched, full of little-known facts and incisive political analysis. What makes it unique among hundreds of other works written about this period is that it gives an overview of the effects of the war and liberation, not only in Europe, but also in Asiaand#8230; A stirring account of the year in which the world woke up to the horror of what had just occurred andand#8212;while some new horrors were being committedand#8212;began to reflect on how to make sure that it never happens again.and#8221;
Adam Hochschild, The New York Times Book Review:
and#8220;Ian Burumaand#8217;s lively new history, Year Zero, is about the various ways in which the aftermath of the Good War turned out badly for many people, and splendidly for some who didnand#8217;t deserve it. It is enriched by his knowledge of six languages, a sense of personal connection to the era (his Dutch father was a forced laborer in Berlin) and his understanding of this period from a book he wrote two decades ago that is still worth reading, The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan.and#8221;
Wall Street Journal:
and#8220;[Buruma is] one of those rare historian-humanists who bridge East and Westand#8230;Year Zero has a down-to-earth grandeur. Through an array of brief, evocative human portraits and poignant descriptions of events around the globe he hints, rather than going into numbing detail or philosophical discourse, at the dimensions of suffering, the depth of moral confusion and in the end the nascent hope that 1945 entailedand#8230;Year Zero is a remarkable book, not because it breaks new ground, but in its combination of magnificence and modesty.and#8221;
The Economist:
and#8220;[Buruma] displays a fine grasp of the warand#8217;s scope and aftermath. Little conventional wisdom survives Mr. Burumaand#8217;s astringent prose. Perhaps his most important insight is that the war was not a neat conflict between two sides. The victors included villains, and the vanquished were not all Nazis. On many frontsand#8212;notably Yugoslaviaand#8212;many sides were at warand#8230;Many of the consequences of victory were grim. Normality returned in the decades that followed thanks to the grit and determination of those who pushed on past the horrors of 1945. Mr. Burumaand#8217;s book honours their efforts.and#8221;
Financial Times:
and#8220;Elegant and humaneand#8230;As generations with few memories of the second world war come of age in Europe and Asia, this luminous book will remind them of the importance of what Buruma terms and#8216;mental surgeonsand#8217;, the politicians and warriors who reconstructed two continents left in rubble.and#8221;
The New Yorker:
and#8220;[A] very human history of and#8216;postwar 1945.and#8217;and#8221;
Smithsonian Magazine:
"[Buruma] makes a compelling case that many of the modern triumphs and traumas yet to come took root in this fateful year of retribution, revenge, suffering and healing."
The Daily Beast:
and#8220;After total war with millions dead and the Shoah comes what? That is the question that propels critic and historian Ian Burumaand#8217;s panoramic history of 1945. It is a personal story for Buruma, inspired by his own fatherand#8217;s experience of the war and its aftermath, but with Burumaand#8217;s sharp and careful eye it becomes a window into understanding all the years since then.and#8221;
Lucas Wittmann, The Daily Beast:
and#8220;Iand#8217;ve spent countless hours reading about trenches, tank battles, and dogfights, but no book had yet captured what came after all that as superbly as Ian Buruma does in Year Zero: A History of 1945. This book will change the way you think about the postwar era, i.e. ours.and#8221;
Publishers Weekly (starred):
and#8220;Rooted in first-person accountsand#8212;most notably, the author's own father, a Dutch student forced into labor by the Nazisand#8212;Buruma's compelling book manages to be simultaneously global in its scope and utterly human in its concerns.and#8221;
Kirkus Reviews:
and#8220;[An] insightful meditation on the worldand#8217;s emergence from the wreckage of World War II. Buruma offers a vivid portrayal of the first steps toward normalcy in human affairs amid the ruins of Europe and Asiaand#8230;Authoritative, illuminating.and#8221;
Booklist:
"In 1945, the war ended, but a new world began. Taken and destroyed cities were transformed; the liberated celebrated; scores were settled; people starved; justice was and was not meted out; soldiers and refugees came home; suffering ended, or continued, or began anew. An eclectic scholar who has written on religion, democracy, and war, Buruma presents a panoramic view of a global transformation and emphasizes common themes: exultation, hunger, revenge, homecoming, renewed confidence. Though there was great cause for pessimism, many of the institutions established in the immediate postwar periodand#8212;the United Nations, the modern European welfare state, the international criminal-justice systemand#8212;reflected profound optimism that remains unmatched. Burumaand#8217;s facility with Asian history lends this selection a particularly internationalized perspective. But it is the story of his fatherand#8212;a Dutch man who returned home in 1945 after being forced into factory labor by the Nazisand#8212;that sews the various pieces together and provides a moving personal touch."
Fritz Stern:
and#8220;A brilliant recreation of that decisive year of victory and defeat, chaos and humiliation, concentrating on peoples, not states. Gripping, poignant and unsparing, Year Zero is worthy of its author in being at home in both Europe and Asia. It is a book at once deeply empathetic and utterly fair, marked by wisdom and great knowledge; the often personal tone inspired by the fate of his father, a Dutchman forced into German labor camps. In the face of so much horror, it is an astounding effort at deep comprehension. A superb book, splendidly written.and#8221;
Review
Smithsonian Magazine: "[Buruma] makes a compelling case that many of the modern triumphs and traumas yet to come took root in this fateful year of retribution, revenge, suffering and healing."
Kirkus Reviews:
and#8220;[An] insightful meditation on the worldand#8217;s emergence from the wreckage of World War II. Buruma offers a vivid portrayal of the first steps toward normalcy in human affairs amid the ruins of Europe and Asiaand#8230;Authoritative, illuminating.and#8221;
Fritz Stern:
and#8220;A brilliant recreation of that decisive year of victory and defeat, chaos and humiliation, concentrating on peoples, not states. Gripping, poignant and unsparing, Year Zero is worthy of its author in being at home in both Europe and Asia. It is a book at once deeply empathetic and utterly fair, marked by wisdom and great knowledge; the often personal tone inspired by the fate of his father, a Dutchman forced into German labor camps. In the face of so much horror, it is an astounding effort at deep comprehension. A superb book, splendidly written.and#8221;
Michael Ignatieff:
and#8220;Year Zero is the founding moment of the modern era. Ian Burumaand#8217;s history of that moment is vivid, compassionate and compelling. Buruma weaves together a tapestry of vital themes: the exultation and sexual liberation that came with victory, the vindictive settling of scores that came with defeat and the longing for a world of peace, justice and human rights after the horror of total war. His story takes in the world: from Holland to Japan, and his heroes and heroines are the ordinary men and women who picked up the pieces of a broken world and put it back together for their children and grandchildren. We are their heirs and Buruma does our parents and grandparents justice in this magnificent history.and#8221;
Sir Ian Kershaw:
and#8220;A graphic accountand#8212;well-researched,and#160; splendidly constructed and stylishly writtenand#8212;of the hinge year of the twentieth century, of its horrors, hopes, illusions and roots of troubles to come. Altogether compellingand#8212;a fine achievement.and#8221;
Sir Brian Urquhart:
and#8220;Ian Buruma gives a heart-wrenching account of the horrors, the unimaginable cruelties, and the sheer stupidities of the last months of World War II, and the attempts to deal with them in the first months of peace. Even after nearly seventy years, parts of his book are still almost unbearable to read. Burumaand#8217;s Dutch father improbably survived Nazi forced labor in Berlin, under allied air attack, until the German surrender; this book reflects an intimacy with the familiar dread of the forces of evil that never goes completely away.and#8221;
Synopsis
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 Burumas own fathers story. Seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Holland, he spent much of the war in Berlin as a laborer, and by wars 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 generations 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.
Synopsis
From the acclaimed author of The King's Mother and Bosworth 1485
a fascinating look at ten days that changed the course of history
On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin. But victory over the Nazi regime was not celebrated in western Europe until May 8. Why did a peace agreement take so much time? How did this messy, complicated conflict coalesce into its unlikely endgame?
After Hitler shines a light on ten fascinating days after that infamous suicide that changed the course of the twentieth century. Combining exhaustive research with masterfully paced storytelling, Michael Jones recounts the Führers frantic last stand; the devious maneuverings of his handpicked successor, Karl Dönitz; the grudging respect Joseph Stalin had for Churchill and FDR, as well as his distrust of Harry Truman; the bold negotiating by General Dwight D. Eisenhower that hastened Germanys surrender but drew the ire of the Kremlin; the journalist who almost scuttled the ceasefire; and the thousands of ordinary British, American and Russian soldiers caught in the swells of history, from the Red Armys march on Berlin to the liberation of the Nazis remaining concentration camps. Through it all, Jones traces the shifting loyalties between East and West that sowed the seeds of the Cold War, and nearly unraveled the Grand Alliance.
In this gripping, eloquent, and even-handed narrative, the spring of 1945 comes alivea fascinating time when nothing was certain, and every second mattered
INCLUDES PHOTOS
About the Author
Michael Jones is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and member of the British Commission for Military History. He is the author of eight previous books, including, most recently The Kings Grave: The Search for Richard III; The Kings Mother, his highly praised biography of Margaret Beaufort, which was shortlisted for the Whitfield Prize; and Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle, regarded as a seminal work on Richard III and the battle of Bosworth.