Human Smoke

[Dave Monroe]

Human Smoke
The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
By Nicholson Baker

[...]

Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of
the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s.
Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented
sources—including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches,
memoirs, and diaries—the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated
moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses
of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the
gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.

[...]

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Human-Smoke/Nicholson-Baker/9781416572466

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
is a 2008 book by Nicholson Baker about World War II. The book
questions the commonly held belief that the Allies wanted to avoid the
war at all costs but were forced into action by Hitler's unrelenting
crusade. It consists largely of official government transcripts,
newspaper articles and other documents from the time with Baker
interjecting commentary only occasionally. Baker cites documents that
suggest that the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom
were provoking Germany and Japan into war and that the leaders of
those two nations had ulterior motives for participating. Baker
dedicates the book to American and British pacifists of the time who,
in the book's epilogue, he states had it right all along: “They
failed, but they were right.”

[...]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Smoke
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