A detailed analysis of the mental state of Woodrow Wilson at the end of the First World War and his failure to get the Peace Treaty accepted by the Senate, which also brings Freud and a detective story into the mix.
I found the psychological analysis of Wilson’s state of mind both fascinating and revealing, and the explanation of how it affected his dealings with the Republican opposition intriguing. I will reread this book soon.
"A rich study of the role of personal psychology in the shaping of the new global order after World War I. So long as so much political power is concentrated in one human mind, we are all at the mercy of the next madman in the White House." -Gary J. Bass, author of The Blood Telegram
The notorious psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson, rediscovered nearly a century after it was written by Sigmund Freud and US diplomat William C. Bullitt, sheds new light on how the mental health of a controversial American president shaped world events.
A detailed and well-written narrative of France’s attempts to purge herself of Vichy guilt at the end of the Second World War and the trial of Marshal Petain, who went from venerated hero to public enemy number one.
How France came to fall in 1940 has always interested me, as has the fact that the nation accepted the Vichy regime. I found the tortured legal process through which the French prosecuted those they judged guilty of collaboration most interesting, especially when related to the ‘cancel’ movements of today.
For three weeks in July 1945 all eyes were fixed on a humid Paris, where France's disgraced former head of state was on trial, accused of masterminding a plot to overthrow democracy. Would Philippe Petain, hero of Verdun, be condemned as the traitor of Vichy?
In the terrible month of October 1940, few things were more shocking than the sight of Marshal Philippe Petain-supremely decorated hero of the First World War, now head of the French government-shaking hands with Hitler. Pausing to look at the cameras, Petain announced that France would henceforth collaborate with Germany. "This is my policy," he…
Appealing to my inner foodie, this is a brilliant deconstruction of a number of different countries’ supposed national dishes and the truth behind their real nature. I especially enjoyed the debunking of pizza!
As someone who has travelled and eaten widely, I loved the descriptions of both national character and food origins covered in the bookand found the authorial style both wry and highly readable.
Travelling from Paris to Tokyo, from Seville, Oaxaca and Naples to Istanbul, she investigates the rapid decline of France's pot-au-feu, the misconstrued beginnings of pizza, the meeting of indigenous and European lineages in mole, and the complex legacy of multi-culturalism in a meze potluck.
"Never have we been more cosmopolitan about what we eat - and yet more essentialist, locavore, and particularist." With a witty mix of anecdote and research, Anya von Bremzen reassess the fascinating role that food can play in our cultural heritage, and uncovers how as a nation's political and social identity are called into question, so…
The advent of the internal combustion engine paved the way for the development of small, petrol-engined craft in many navies of the First World War, especially those of Britain and the USA. Largely manned by dashing and daring volunteers, often from a yachting background, these little craft played a major role in coastal operations including those at Zeebrugge, Otranto, and Durazzo, as well as performing more everyday tasks such as anti-submarine and convoy escort work. Their stories, and those of their crews, are told here in detail for the first time.
