Paul HamReseñas

A fascinating account of the buildup and background to the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan and the aftermath. A lot of research obviously went into this book, and although I have read accounts before, those were mainly to do with the horrendous experiences of the survivors. This book makes it very clear exactly what drove the handful of men who controlled the entire Japanese war machine, and their lack of concern with one exception - a man who was always overruled - for the ordinary people. They were just cannon fodder or expected to live off starvation rations - a lot of children died of malnutrition - while labouring to demolish buildings and create firebreaks in the cities which by then were experiencing devastating icendiary bombing raids by the US airforce. Even children as young as 12 were conscripted while the mindless propaganda continued to insist that Japan was winning the war. As long as these civilians 'died with honour', that was all that mattered to those who ruled over them.

Behind the scenes, the heads of the military were resistant to the increasing conviction of the civilian members of the government that a peace had to be brokered - but the stumbling block was the US insistence on unconditional surrender. The Emperor had to be preserved and this had not been guaranteed. The book documents the peace 'feelers' these top officials put out, through various channels, the chief one being via the ambassador to the Soviet Union who was expected to convince the Russian goverment to be the mediator of an end to the war despite the - unusual for the time - blunt and determined attempts by that ambassador to explain to his superiors that the Russians had no interest in doing that and were in fact building up to break their agreement with Japan. The strange system of government in Japan at the time - where the Emperor was literally a living god but was also rarely expected to voice his own opinion and where, if he said that Japan should surrender, it would be seen as influence from corrupt officials who would then be fair game for assassination - meant that despite crippling losses and a mounting death toll from the conventional bombing, there was no will among the military or their leaders to cease fighting.

Contrary to the impression which has been given by the US government since the end of WWII, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are shown in the book to be of no consequence to the Japanese rulers. The chief reason for their finally agreeing to surrender was that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan and was invading Japanese conquered territory in China. It was useful as an excuse - the Emperor for one used this in his broadcast to the general population that it was to save them from a cruel new weapon, but in his broadcast to the remnant of the Japanese fighting forces, he didn't mention it - in that, the reason given was that the Soviet Union had declared war and there was no point fighting such an overwhelmingly superior force. The author shows that the Japanese would most likely have surrendered without the dropping of atomic weapons, certainly without Nagasaki being bombed, and could have been induced to give up due to the blockade which had starved the country of all raw materials and fuel and food supplies. The decision had already been made in the US government not to invade, even before the atomic bomb had been tested, so there certainly was no saving of huge numbers of American lives as the public have always been told despite the few dissenting voices.

After the war, the US officials clamped down on news of radiation sickness and confiscated the documentation of Japanese doctors who tried to research it, as well as refusing to hand over any medical supplies to those desperately struggling medical professionals. At the same time, with inducements of food - or sweets to children - they induced Japanese who had felt the effects of the bomb or its aftermath to submit to tests, and did not provide any treatment. The whole attitude was one of extreme callousness. I had read about this before, but here it forms part of the continuous narrative of self serving and self deceiving attitudes among certain men in power in the occupation forces. Some did speak out, but reports were hushed up and so on.

In general, this is an illuminating book which raises moral questions such as how is it possible for countries which prided themselves on being Christian and democratic to inflict such horrendous suffering on a civilian population - commencing with the carpet bombing with incendiaries and high explosives and culminating in nuclear holocaust. As Ham shows, the Allies had condemned the barbaric treatment of prisoners and those conquered by Germany and Japan, and yet in effect had sunk to the same level. The only thing that holds this book back from a 5 star rating for me is that it is very focused on the US role in the Pacific and does not even acknowledge that the Royal Navy had a role in the Pacific war, which is an attitude shown in Hollywood portrayals for some years. A small acknowledgement of the British contribution in WWII would have provided a little balance.

Short summary of the pre-war situation focusing on the belligerence of all parties while simultaneously professing the inevitability of the coming conflict. At once gearing war machines up for a fight they look forward to and feeling victimized by circumstance as if bound by the ties of fate to fight.

Stutt bók um aðdraganda fyrri heimsstyrjaldar. Ham einbeitir sér að árinu 1913 og dregur fram sjónarmið og ummæli almennings og ráðamanna helstu stórþjóða í Evrópu um að stríð sé ekki bara líklegt heldur æskilegt og nauðsynlegt. Hann gagnrýnir og hrekur í raun seinni tíma ummæli þessara sömu aðila að stríðið hafi verið óumflýjanlegt og að þeir hafi verið leiksoppar örlaganna eða að stríðið hafi einungis verið Þýskalandi og Austurríska-Ungverska keisaradæminu að kenna. Ágætis rannsókn á hinni flóknu atburðarrás sem leiddi síðar til eins mesta hryllings síðustu aldar.

How did a young man who wanted to be an artist end up one of the most reviled, evil men of recent history? As a mother, I have often wondered what horrible mistakes his family must have made to raise a son that ordered the deaths of millions of people. It turns out the answer really isn't as simple as a bad childhood or abuse or whatever go-to reason we might ascribe to it today. Paul Ham's book on the youth and young adulthood of Adolph Hitler is well researched and points out some pivotal times in the creation of a monster.

The book not only includes information about Hitler's upbringing and young life, but also the history of politics and social upheaval in Germany, Austria and Europe at the time. All of those historical elements set the scene for Hitler to develop into the dictator he became. His life moving from soldier to revolutionary to political leader to dictator is fascinating and sad at the same time. I wonder what would have become of Hitler had he been accepted into art school as a young man, instead of being rejected? In the end, I guess it really doesn't matter what "might have been'' as history can't be changed. But it is thought provoking to think that one or two small changes in this man's life might have prevented the deaths of millions across Europe.

Ham obviously put much research and thought into his book. He did say that tracing facts about family lineage and youth of the Fuhrer is difficult because many of the records were destroyed by the Nazi party so they could build him up as a perfect leader. They created lies and propaganda to cover up the illegitimacy and questionable background of one of his parents and anything deemed less than stellar in his background. The author does not present Hitler in a totally negative light. He shares the good and bad that he discovered about Hitler as a young man. He was not born totally evil. He morphed into it over years. And, as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

All in all, a very interesting book and I learned a lot that I didn't know. It is a hard subject to read about as I had family members who fought in the war, and extended family in Germany who were killed. I read the book in small doses....when it got to be too much, I would take a break and come back after a rest from it. As a mother I'm glad I read this book. It shows that the sum of a man's adult decisions do not necessarily stem from his upbringing, but as a total of his life experiences, environment, outside influences and other factors. I can't imagine what it would be like to be the parent of a evil, murderous person. Hitler's mother died in 1907 way before her son killed anyone. I'm glad that she never knew what her little boy would grow up to become. And, I'm sorry that little boy ended up the way he did. Nobody is born evil. It's unfortunate that he made the life choices that he did. Not out of concern for him.....but for the millions of people that he had murdered. My family members....and the family of so many, many others. Sad.

Great book! Very well documented. The facts are presented in an interesting fashion without becoming dry, tedious or repetitive as some non-fiction books can be. I'm definitely going to read more non-fiction by this author!

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Pegasus Books/W.W. Norton via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I had hoped this would be more about Hitler's early years; these are dealt with quite rapidly, and the focus is on his formative experiences in WW1 and how he got into politics and rose in the ranks. It ends in 1924, as 35-yr old Hitler is releasedon the world from jail after a derisorily short sentence for the violent Beer Hall Putsch.
Well researched history; the author highlights the stand-out inconsistencies and stupidity of Hitler's manifesto (the fact that Aryans were a Vedic deity-worshipping Indo-Iranian people being one. The ridiculous scapegoating of the Jews- less than 1`% of population- for Germany's every ill, another.) He notes how Hiter's early feelings for Jews werent particularly hate-driven at all; and puts the whole evil mess down to the trashed economy of post WW1 Germany.
In the epilogue, Ham tries to bring in modern day politics, arguing that an unequal society is a breeding ground for further such characters to rise in power.
Not a bad book, though one feels a sense of relief at shutting it and getting away from this evil character.

1913: The Eve of War by Paul Ham sets the European stage for the start of WWI. Ham is the author of several books on 20th Century war, politics, and diplomacy. He has written several on the time period including the previously reviewed 1914: The Year the World Ended.

Europe was a happy place. Economic growth, new products and production contributed to an established middle class. There was stability. It has been ninety-eight years since the last continent wide war, and over forty years since any of the powers faced off in a war. Art, music, and leisure time made this a golden time.

Ham looks into the events that caused the war and tells that it is much more complex, and even a bit more absurd than what we came to believe. We all heard the blame placed on alliances and the assassination of the Arch Duke. These are simple answers that do not reflect the complexity of the situation. Alliances do not lead to war. Anyone who has lived through the Cold War recognizes that NATO and the Warsaw Pact kept the war cold. The Archduke was not liked at home or abroad. Emporer Franz Joseph is credited as thanking God for bringing order to his house after the assassination. No leaders from any of the powers attended the funeral. The Emporer, although shaken by the news of the assassination returned to the capital, but quickly resumed his vacation.

Suspicion, distrust, and prestige had more to do than anything else. There more than ample opportunities to stop the war before it started, but no one put forth the effort. Instead everyone planned for war. Railroads made mobilization quicker and also prevented a negotiation period from mobilization to the firing of shots. Once the troops boarded the trains, there was no turning back. Ham makes sense of and explains the complex events that lead to a very preventable war.

1914: The Year the World Ended by Paul Ham is a a lead up to the start of WWI. Ham earned his master's in economics from the London School of Economics. He worked as business and investment journalist in London and later as the Australian correspondent to The London Sunday Times. Ham has since became a historian specializing in 20th century war, politics, and diplomacy. His other books have received critical acclaim in Australia and Britain. In 2014, his book Hiroshima Nagasaki will be published in the United States. 1914 will be released in Australia this year for the 100th year anniversary of World War I.

I am extremely happy to receive an advanced copy of this book. Australian publications for review are hard to come by in the United States and I am grateful for this one. World War I has always been a favorite historical topic of mine. It setup the world I grew up in. I am also thankful for the Australians who served and for the country that, unlike the US, still considers WWI an important event in its history.

1914 a very detailed history of the events leading to war. In every history I read, I pick up a few new pieces of information or see ideas expanded upon. A few of the many points brought out are will be covered in this review. Mobilization of troops was, in the past, considered nor necessarily a prelude to war but more so saber rattling. The years leading up to the war, that changed. By 1914 mobilization was considered an act of war. The change that made this happen was railroads. Railroads allowed for the rapid deployment of troops to neighboring counties' borders. Mobilization now became an immediate threat. There was now no lag time from mobilization to invasion.

Alliances and neutrality played a major role in the war, as everyone who has taken a world history class already knows. It is not so much the alliances that caused the problem but the players. Germany takes the lion's share of the blame for the war. The Kaiser did agree to support Austria-Hungary in the event of attack from Russia, but never thought Austria-Hungary would drag Germany into war. The Kaiser thought Serbia was humiliated in their reply to Austria-Hungary and thought the matter was settled with honor. He promptly went on vacation. Franz Josef reaction to the assassination is not what was expected. He did not allow his son to be buried in the family vault or invite foreign heads of state to the funeral. He was not interested in going to war, but others forced his hand.

The Ottoman Empire was called the Sick Old Man of Europe during the war, but Austria-Hungary was not far behind. Ham describes the Hapsburgs not as Emperors, but landlords. There was no real unity in the country: several languages, several nationalities with the only common thread being lines drawn on a map putting them all in the same country. There was nothing to rally behind. Evidence of this becomes clear in Austria-Hungary failed miserably in its attempt to subdue Serbia. In fact most of the war history concerns German aggression and the Western Front. The entire premise for the war, the retaliation for the assassination, all gets pushed aside in history.

1914 is an excellent political and diplomatic history of the events leading up the the war. Ham highlights some lesser known points and downplays others like the German naval build up. I received what I was looking for in this book a view of the lead up to the war from a source other than the American perspective. The book is well written and easy to follow. The documentation is outstanding taking up nearly a quarter of the book. This is an remarkable history and recommended to anyone who can get a copy.

Honestly, I was expecting to rate this book higher than I did. I don't feel like there's a lot out there about Hitler's formative years and the environment that shaped him into a genocidal megalomaniac; or, if there is, I haven't found it yet (part of this is due to Nazi censors, who went through and tried to get rid of all evidence that contracted the man and myth that Hitler portrayed to the German people). And the author did present a good deal of information that was new to me.

My main problem with the book was that the author editorialized way too much in the text. I never felt like I could immerse myself in the history that the book covered; instead, the author insisted upon injecting his own thoughts about things, some only tangentially related to Hitler, in what felt like every other paragraph. One example: the author felt the need to denigrate Hitler's vegetarianism and made an aside comment about how poor Hitler's plate must have looked compared to his dining companions', which were loaded with slabs of meat (gross). I was much more interested in learning how Hitler could reconcile the beliefs that he obviously held that influenced him to becoming a vegetarian with the ones that made him think exterminating the Jewish people was acceptable (not to be found in this book, unfortunately).

The epilogue tries to tie Hitler's early life to the current political environment. He's obviously trying to make the book relevant to today's interests, but it automatically puts the book into a more "current events" position than an enduring historical text. In ten years, this book is going to feel incredibly dated and old.

If you can get through the author's attempts to continually insert himself and his opinions and beliefs into the book, it's a decent book.

I was inspired to buy this Kindle Single after reading favourable reviews of Paul Ham’s book [b:1914: The Year the World Ended|18580198|1914 The Year the World Ended|Paul Ham|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1380004649s/18580198.jpg|26315354]. The Australian author wrote this book prior to 1914 being released so I'll forgive the duplication of a few chapters.
The centenary of the Great War lead to several titles bring released on the origins of the Great War (a topic upon which it is difficult to say much that is new). Most notably there has been Sean Mcmeekin's [b:July 1914: Countdown to War|15843081|July 1914 Countdown to War|Sean McMeekin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352794956s/15843081.jpg|21585366] and more controversially [b:The Russian Origins of the First World War|11819948|The Russian Origins of the First World War|Sean McMeekin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328044838s/11819948.jpg|16774331], Margaret McMillan’s [b:The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914|17345257|The War That Ended Peace The Road To 1914|Margaret MacMillan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364251068s/17345257.jpg|24084426] and Christopher Clark’s [b:The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914|18669169|The Sleepwalkers How Europe Went to War in 1914|Christopher Clark|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1384804367s/18669169.jpg|21905061]. Paul Ham freely acknowledges the abundance of material on this endlessly fascinating topic, however promises a fresh approach as he promises to treat the objective of his study as “to reach the core of the onion, the heart of its being, by peeling away many ‘narrative skins’: layers of misperception, blinkered plans, propaganda, paranoia and plain lies”.
The extended essay format of the Kindle Single is conducive to a well argued but concise treatment of this complex topic. Ham does a good job of avoiding the perils of hindsight as he treats all of the participants with equality.
Unlike other authors he puts Germany’s ambitions and militarist outlook well into context, balancing them with those of the other European powers. He describes how “a spirit of vengeance permeated French society in 1913”, how Britain persistently feared the rise of Germany and the way that warmongers in Russia believed “the whole nation must accustom itself to the idea that we arm ourselves for a war of annihilation against the Germans”.
He pricks the “belle epoque” as an exaggerated phenomenon, often used to contrast the artistic revolution with the events that followed. Ham argues that “the flowering of artistic and literary genius had little direct influence on the people in power or the man in the street”. Instead governments and more importantly the military leaderships were all assuming war was coming. Their intricate war plans acted as a self fulfilling prophecy. This was bolstered by growing rail networks which made massive industrially powered mobilisations possible.
So war was on the minds of those in power - virtually an assumption. Ham writes that the outbreak of war in 1914 couldn't have been a surprise to anyone in power. Part Two of the book explores how war was “willed”. Ham argues that although obvious factors such as the Anglo German naval race, the Balkan wars, Russia’s growing military strength and Britain's lack of apparent commitment (leading Germany to gamble that she might remain neutral) were important, less tangible factors were “immeasurably influential". He describes an intense anti German feeling in Britain, and conversely a feeling of deliberate and persistent exclusion from influence in Germany. He also highlights the importance of the conflict between Russia’s visions of power in the Balkan and Constantinople with Austrian interests. The Balkan wars were crucial - they “entrenched the powers of Europe and delineated the belligerent and their allies”.
Another factor Ham highlights is the desire for war amongst the young, the future warriors. Fuelled by Social Darwinian beliefs in the importance of a nation being strong, a longing for war was exalted. Politicians played their game dangerously. “Sheer laziness, unintelligence and inability to concentrate were common”.
Ham concludes his book by looking at the governments of Europe at the end of 1913. He convincingly argues that they were expecting, indeed almost willing war. With loaded arsenals and plans for war carefully considered Ham makes a strong argument for the weight of intentions supporting war. In the end the assassination of Franz Ferdinand provided the excuse for Austria to manufacture a small war with Serbia “knowing it risked a Europe-wide catastrophe”.
Ham’s book is a well written synthesis of current scholarship. He convincingly rejects a “sleepwalking” to war thesis, arguing that all parties willingly adopted their plans, antipathy towards each other and acceptance that war was an inevitability and natural element of policy. I look forward to reading [b:1914: The Year the World Ended|18580198|1914 The Year the World Ended|Paul Ham|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1380004649s/18580198.jpg|26315354].

A note on the books formatting: regrettably the publisher did not insert the footnotes as links (i.e the reader needs to go to the end of the book and find the relevant reference number manually. Hopefully this will be rectified in an update.

This is a beautifully presented book and whilst it is extremely sad that Yoko Moriwaki lost her life at such an early age the day the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, I'm not sure about the book's appeal, especially for students. The start is too slow with a number of people talking about their memories of Yoko and the diary entries themselves are very simple, repetitive and often boring. What makes the book, in my opinion, are the photos of Yoko, the explanatory text throughout the book by editor, Paul Ham, expanding the reader's knowledge of certain events and living conditions at the time, and the final diary entry written by Yoko's father when he returned from the war two years later only to find that his daughter had passed away. Overall, a disappointing read.

Let me say to begin with that I greatly admired Paul Ham's books on Hiroshima and Sandokan. So I came to 1914, The Year The World Ended, in some anticipation. But left somewhat disappointed particularly with the first half of the book, mainly because Ham seems to fall between two stools in the approach he wants to take to the build up to the War and its first 6 months. He doesn't want to go into too much detail - and happily and usefully draws the readers' attention to more in depth studies of key themes and moments in the build up to war - but draws vast generalised conclusions with insufficient evidence about quite complex threads of events (which is why, after all, the detailed studies exist). So at times, his analysis feels trite and trivial

His conclusions are basically (no risk of a spoiler here) that

1. From the turn of the century, if not before, the ruling classes of Europe were looking for a good, cleansing war, to restore old certainties of society
2. That Germany bears the brunt of the blame for War actually breaking out, through the issuing of the famous "blank cheque" to Austria Hungary, but also by hopeless misinterpreting Britain's position and deliberately misconstruing Russian mobilisation
3. Austrla Hungary bears a lot of blame too; some blame can be attributed to Russia, particularly the Tsar basically surrendering control of his government to the military
4. British procrastination didn't help. The French were essentially blameless

Ham does us a service by debunking the "sleepwalker" theory of Christopher Clark. No, the military men in Germany, Austria Hungary and Russia anyway, knew exactly what they were doing. They simply didn't understand the consequences of their actions. As such, the war can be put down to incompetence on a mass scale

Once the war gets going, Ham is on surer ground. He is excellent on German war crimes in Belgium, the Marne and the build up to, and first iterations of trench warfare. He uses the diaries of participants to particularly good effect here. But as the Eastern Front engages, he seems to lose interest. Tannenburg and associated battles are casually glossed over with references to other writers work. Its really the Western Front that is his key interest.

There is a good and moving afterword. But overall I was left feeling that this book did little to advance specialist interest but wasn't really a useful overview for the general reader either. A shame, because clearly a lot of work has gone into it and Ham is not scared of a point of view.

This is the best book on the subject I've read yet, a superbly researched and absorbing narrative. I particularly like how Ham alternates between the American and Japanese perspectives. He effectively shatters the popularly held belief that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified because they ended World War II in the Pacific without a costly invasion of Japan’s home islands. Ham further convincingly argues that the bombings played no role at all in the surrender of Japan, that it was rather Japan's feared entry of the Soviet Union into the war made real that was the deciding factor. A skillful, comprehensive, provocative, and challenging work of history.

I purchased Ham’s tome because I have long held a genuine sense that I really did not have my head around the complexities of the Japanese bombing. Coming from my perspective, driven not least by exhaustive readings of the theology of Jürgen Moltmann, that the world changed dreadfully on July 16, 1945, when the obscenely named Trinity was detonated in the New Mexico desert, I realized I simply did not know enough about the circumstances and mindset that led up to its dark successors, Little Boy and Fat Man. Here was a chance to rectify the black hole in my knowledge pool.

What an outstanding resource Paul Ham has provided. No one-eyed the USA can do no wrong reader will agree – or probably even persevere, but to this reader it seemed that Ham skillfully negotiates pitfalls of doctrinaire anti-Americanism, blind pacifism, and plastic militarism with overwhelming skill. Few figures in the tragic narrative of preparation for, delivery of, and aftermath to Hiroshima and Nagasaki come out of the narrative unscathed, yet simultaneously few emerge as unambivalent villains. Ham has no sympathy for after the event hanky-wringers (Oppenheimer, for example) or Ramboesque opportunists (LeMay, though not responsible for nuclear warfare, Groves, who was), nor tries to exonerate the Japanese from a vile period of sub-human cruelty. Certainly, as others have noticed, Ham is of the opinion that a militaristic nose-thumbing at the emerging Soviet superpower underscores the saga and its aftermath, but he does not ultimately claim there can be nor ever could have been a naïve return of the nuclear genie to her bottle. Truman comes out of the narrative badly, but Ham’s case is well presented. If heroes emerge from the chronicle it is the survivors, those hibakusha maimed beyond belief who dared to rise from the ashes of their respective cities and live again, those who like Tagashi Nagai spent their every last ounce of life force trying to ameliorate the plight of the dying and the grieving, those who strove to build a just Japan.

Would that this volume could be on the reading list of every final year secondary school curriculum (and the reading list of every undergraduate curriculum, from physics to theology, sociology to economics). Ham’s writing is extraordinarily compulsive, and the torrid tale he tells, and the exhaustive research he utilizes to corroborate his case, ensures that no reader could digest his work while believing that a nuclear arsenal can save or redeem the world. Sadly the world that was born on the day Trinity exploded has not in any temporal sense been redeemed: referring to the Dr Strangelove figure Dr Edward Teller, Ham observes (ruefully, it seems) “posterity had judged him and the exponents of MAD [mutually assured destruction], partly correct, insofar as mankind had avoided a nuclear war through the assurance of mutual annihilation; that does not mean, of course, that it will not happen, and the dire uncertainty and immense expenditure of maintaining the balance of mutually assured death has turned the minds of enlightened leaders to the policy of nuclear disarmament.” (468). As he glances into a post Nagasaki world, a post Bay of Pigs world, a post Berlin Wall world, Ham observes that it was in the end economic, not military forces that drove the Soviet bravado to its knees and that there is no guarantee that a tin pot state (my words, not Ham’s) or rampant nationalistic or religious fundamentalist breakaway group will not detonate nuclear winter.

The author's insistence that this book presents the "real" story of the atomic bombings seems to indicate that the true story hasn't been told before. That isn't even true from a revisionist perspective. The argument that the bombings were unnecessary have been made before. The author really don't cover any new territory in that regard. Probably the only good feature of this book is the detail he gives in focusing on the victims of the bombs. The suffering caused by the bombings is not in dispute. I would not recommend this to anyone who was looking for the story of the bombings. This is only the "real" story for those who really like revisionist history.½

I bought this e-book, not realizing that it was a "Kindle Single" and thinking that it would have something meaningful to say about the origins of World War I. Unfortunately. it pretty much just rehashed what I already knew and relied way too much on Niall Ferguson as a source. I think, in honor of the hundred year anniversary of this tragic war, I should just go re-read Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August This book was a huge disappointment.

A very detailed account of the events leading from the fall of Singapore to the brutal Sandokan death marches. The Sandokan marches were less well known to me than other Japanese / Formosan wartime atrocities, and the author thinks they hav been generally obscured. Paul Ham has attempted to set that to right, with a great piece of scholarship that covers all there is to be known about the British and Australian prisoners on Borneo, the Japanese and Formosan perpetrators, and crucially the many locals who worked heroically to undermine the Japanese, often at the cost of their own lives. Its an important story, engagingly and often heart wrenchingly told. Some of the ordeals that the prisoners went through really defy description and certainly defy comprehension.

My only criticism is that, so anxious is Ham to give each of the fallen their place in the story and the recognition they have lost, that sometimes the thread of the narrative is broken in favour of individual biographies; but Ham can be forgiven for that. He also is a little harsh on Allied command, at least somewhat aware of the fate of the captured who basically leave them to it. But as he himself argues, there was little strategic importance to Borneo and many calls on scare resources - and the prisoners themselves didnt seem to expect anything other than the long drawn out death the vast majority received

An important, harrowing book, that deserves a wide readership½

Popular history of the events leading to the war in Europe in 1914. Chilling stuff. Such arrant foolishness in so many leaders leading to massive loss of life and damage to those that survived. Those leaders, in Ham's words, were not fit nor trained to be leaders, but were bred to be there. One positive outcome of the war was to remove hereditary monarchies from any role in government throughout Europe. Sadly, other mental pygmies, in politics and the military continue to be a threat to the world.
Read January 2014.

A little longer and more detailed than I would have liked, but convincingly takes on one of the great historical questions - was the use of the bomb justified. It's terribly complex and still being vigorously argued, this is probably the best introduction. As an Australian Paul Ham seems to have a clear uninvolved eye. For many Americans even raising the question is enough to raise blood pressure, so this is not something for the patriot, but it is a sober and objective account that raises many questions. The myth of the 1 million Americans saved by the bomb is dismantled as after-the-fact justification by Truman, which says a lot about an attempt to rewrite history. Ultimately, I think the bomb was more about American projection of power during the final days of the war, and for that we should not be surprised except by the horror of how many paid the terrible price. I used to believe the bomb was what ended the war, now I don't believe so, it was a side-show of that war but laid the groundwork of the next.

An exhaustive, horrifying, terrific work of history and journalism. Paul Ham has written an incredibly comprehensive book about the dropping of the atomic bombs. Virtually any question you have will be answered somewhere in the course of the book.

Ham's primary objectives seem to be relating events from the perspective of everyday Japanese people, and thoughtfully examining some of the accepted hisotrical narratives (justifications) put out by the allies before, during, and after the bombs.

On both counts, the book is tremendously successful. Ham compiles interviews, first hand testimony, diary entries, journalism and other reports into a formidable bank of evidence - most of it damning.

Married to this is a heart-breaking description of life in war-time Japan, and the violent chaos experienced by residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Be warned: This is not a book for the faint-hearted. Ham describes the aftermath of the bomb in great detail, and the hellscape he conjures - filled with dying children and innocent civilians - is very disturbing.

Even more disturbing is how it reveals the hollowness of our glibly received "truths" about the bomb (that it was necessary, that there was warning, that it was critical in ending the war, that there were no side-effects and little fall out). Ham combs through the historical archive to demonstrate why the allies made the bomb, and how they were determined to use it regardless of the consequences. It's thorough, convincing, and ultimately very condemnatory.

As a stylist, Ham's prose is neither too dry, nor too florid. His chapters are logical and interesting. Honestly, this was the most electrifying and emotional history book I've read for some time.

How useful and pleasant it is for you to read this book depends on where you are in your studies of World War One, and, specifically, how interested you are in its origins.

Novices in either study will be better served by any of the three general histories of the war I’m familiar with: John Keegan’s An Illustrated History of the First World War, Hew Strachan’s The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms, or Peter Hart’s The Great War. As the title hints, this is not even a history of the whole war.

However, for the intermediate student, this book is valuable. Displaying optimism and naiveté (at least in regard to American education), Ham says “every schoolchild knows the Great War was fought over … colonies, economic hegemony, nationalism, Alsace-Lorraine, Franz Ferdinand’s death and naval supremacy”, and he’s going to get us closer to a real understanding of the war’s causes. While Strachan’s book may tell you the interest rate of the third issue of Bulgarian war bonds, even he does not go into Ham’s level of detail about the Agadir and Fashoda crises and many other events and personalities. Others may talk about Germany’s infamous “blank check” to the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the latter’s ultimatum to Serbia. Ham gives you the whole documents. It may be a cliché among historians of the First World War to say it was the most complicated man-made disaster in history, but Ham makes a good case for it being true.

Ham starts in 1870 and over half the book is over before shots ring out in Belgium. He covers all the bases of war causes: imperialism, the erratic character of the Kaiser, developing technology, Germany’s fear of a strengthening Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s fear of decay, the vacillation of British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, social Darwinism, the swirling and shifting European power alliances post-Bismarck, and a whole lot more.

Ham is having none of the argument that the war was inevitable or the result of impersonal forces. Disasters don’t just happen. They are a series of events and choices, and Ham details those events and choices and who made them. Ham is out to show the responsibility of specific individuals. Two chapters in particular could stand in for the whole process. “Smash Your Telephone: Russia Mobilises” is a timetable of Russian mobilization and German responses with laziness and inattention and vagueness contributing to the disaster. Even delays of five minutes mattered. To read it is a bit like getting caught up in the Pearl Harbor movie Tora! Tora! Tora! – inevitable and inescapable doom played out in detail. The other chapter is simply an exchange amongst family members unable to stop their countries from going to war – family members who just happen to be King George V, the Kaiser, and the Tsar. Ultimately, he places blame, in descending order of culpability, on Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain, and France.

Ham is an impassioned writer not shy about making judgements. There’s nothing wrong with reminding readers that we are talking about the suffering and death of millions by highlighting some specific individuals. And there’s nothing wrong with seeking useful lessons from these events, even if just to trace an historical development back to the Great War.

It’s just that I question some of his claims on the significance of pre-war avante-garde art and that, after the war, the implicit claim that it was embraced by the public at large because it prematurely revealed truths they learned only in war or that German brutality in Belgium was a direct model for American conduct in Vietnam. And I could have done without the barely concealed sneer at the Edwardian values of “God, King and Country”. The war provided, before, during, and after, meaning in the lives of some. Some modern Westerner, besotted by the cant of international brotherhood and the disdain of nationhood, can barely conceive of a fight for blood and soil and revenge or that many more will fight for those than a secular welfare state. Indeed, socialists in Europe made that very decision on the eve of war. .

Those looking for a combat history even of 1914 will probably be disappointed in this book. Ham cheerfully refers readers to other books to get the details on the Marne or Tannenberg those he does provide rough outlines. What he does capture in the combat sections, as well as the other sections, is the emotions of the time and his characters. A chapter on the rape of Belgium – including an answering of the charge it was greatly exaggerated – is well done. His use of quotes from soldier’s letters and diaries effectively gives the feel of the war before the trenches of the Western Front are dug and the book ends. In a coda, Ham talks about the unknown soldiers, to whom the book is dedicated, of the war. Three million soldiers were listed as missing in the war, their bodies never found. But, since 2006, some remains have been identified with DNA work.

So, those seeking greater detail on the origins of the war will find this book worthwhile. Those looking for a quick, general history of the war’s beginnings and the battles of 1914 will want to look elsewhere.

I do have to comment on the pros and cons of the Kindle edition. Ham includes a lot of nicely detailed maps covering the Balkans, the phases of the Battle of the Marne, the Schlieffen Plan, Tannenberg, and the Western Front after trench warfare begun. However, on a regular size Kindle, some are just too small to be legible. I did not look at them on a larger Kindle or laptop, but I suspect they are legible at that size. Ham has several photos at the back of the book including of less common subjects like Schlieffen or Gavrilo Princep being hustled away after shooting the Archduke. The book also has a nice section of “searchable terms”. Since the Kindle edition has no page numbers, you simply highlight the terms you want and select the search this book option to find them in the book. (Though you can’t really use the format of names like “Asquith, Violet” as search terms.) There are also enabled links to digital archives.

There is no denying that Paul Ham is a skilled historian. His research for this book is thorough and meticulous. He has a very firm grasp of all the events that built up and eventually lead to the war and the players involved. This book is very detailed and gives a very complete explanation of the causes of World War I.

While as a history text it does succeed, in every other way this book fails. It is billed as a narrative account and it is anything but that. The book is packed full of references and quotes. This is great if you need to as a reference source for a college paper, but not so great if you just want to read it. Although there is no doubt that Mr. Ham is a skilled writer that skill is purely academic focused and not made for entertainment. The book is incredibly dense and slow to read. Not that it isn’t interesting. For hard core history fans there is good information here. The big issue is that there are more enjoyable ways to get the information.

The subjects covered in this book are far from unique. Other writers have covered the same ground and done so in a much more enjoyable fashion. When put up next to something like The Guns of August which makes many of the same points, 1914 just doesn’t hold up. Barbara Tuchman managed to give us the same information but in a truly narrative way that is significantly more readable. I didn’t find any of Ham’s conclusions unique, and many of the “myths” about the war I would never consider myths. Anyone who has enough interest in history to read this kind of book already knows that the “myths” he describes aren’t correct. People that believe in these “myths” would never read this book and if they did would never finish it.

The other big issue is that the way he tells the story comes off as pretentious. There were times when it felt like Ham went out of his way to quote French poets and Italian artists. I get that he was trying to give a feel to the way people saw the world just before the war, but it felt more like the author saying “look how smart I am.” I am sure that isn’t what he was actually doing, at least not consciously, but it came off that way all the same.

homeofreading.com/1914-the-year-the-world-ended/

The explosion of two atomic bombs over crowded civilian cities in Japan is history and is largely forgotten outside those directly affected. That these events showed the true awfulness of the nuclear age and provided the foundation for nuclear powers not wanting to be the instigator of nuclear war may or may not be the case. This is not Ham's theme. He describes the political and scientific backgrounds to the development of the Bomb, but focuses on the decision-making about if and where to use the weapon by the USA and the mind-set of the Japanese leadership and their response to the threat and then the actuality of nuclear weapons being used on their own people. No one comes out of this looking good. It is clear from Ham's research that the USA was intent on using the Bomb even when their was little to justify that it would shorten the war or prevent major Allied casualties. In Japan the leadership was looking for a way to end the war with what they called 'honour' and were clearly not affected by the threat or eventual use of the Bomb. This is a eel-written and meticulously researched history of a terrible weapon and the political drivers to build and use it. Sensational without being prurient this is a must-read to see how power can corrupt in the strangest of ways. Read it and weep.

A superb account of the events leading up to, and the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the far less successful (from a military perspective) drop on Nagasaki. Ham puts a few myths to bed - namely that the use of atomic weapons saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American servicemen. As he points out, Truman had abandoned any plans for a ground invasion a month before the Trinity tests. And anyway the Americans could have accepted the peace proposals put forward by the Japanese government for unconditional surrender whilst keeping the Emperor - which in the end they did anyone. The real reason for the bombs were mainly to end the war before the Russians got there - which is the same reason the Japanese wanted to surrender to the Americans. In fact the bombs for all their hideous destruction made little difference to the end of the war; the Japanese government riven as it was by a peace faction and a war faction, couldn't grasp that these devices were any different to conventional incendiaries except in scale, given that communications were difficult and they had seen neither the destruction nor the mushroom cloud. From a military perspective the devices were useless

Ham does a great job in describing the excitement in the build up to Little Boy, the machinations at Potsdam, the intransigence of the Japanese government, trapped in in the rigidity of protocol, the hell on earth created in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how it lingers still and of course the callousness of those who built and deployed the bombs which is hard to credit at this distance. As Ham points out, the fear came later, when the Russians exploded a device about 10 years earlier than expected.

Highly recommended½

A detailed account of the Vietnam war from an Australian perspective, this book is much more than just a collection of facts and figures. As one who has personal experience of this period in Australia's history, I have never fully appreciated the real tragedy of this conflict, until now. Paul Ham's excellent book should be required reading for all politicians, and not just in Australia.½