Everything Reviews Apart

Hey,

So for some cheery reading, let’s read books about societies coming apart at the seams!

First up: Dancin—in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason K. Stearns. I’ve had an interest in the various African conflicts for awhile now and the Congolese wars of the past two decades has been one of the real standouts. This book provides an excellent overview of what became an incredibly complex conflict. Mr. Stearns worked for a UN panel investigating Congo rebels and he has laid out this tragedy both in it’s broad strokes and subtle nuances. He points to the host of factors that lead to the conflicts and how the fires of war kept feeding themselves.

In the end, Stearns talks about what the International community can and should do. And here, I think Stearns really does a great job. Conflicts in places like the Congo can often make us throw up our hands in exasperation. Western colonialism planted a lot of the seeds for the current problems and half-hearted international attention is often mis-directed. Still, Stearns feels there are ways in which the wider world can help out the people of the Congo, despite the serious problems and he offers a number of ideas.

I really liked this book. It’s probably one of the most clear-eyed looks at what happened (and is happening) in the Congo today. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to better understand what’s going on.

The second book goes from Africa’s Great War to Europe’s. I have a bit of a fascination for the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of WWI and to get a sense of what it was like for one who lived through it, I picked up Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday. Stefan Zweig was an author and intellectual who was born in the late 1800’s in Vienna. He describes the Empire he knew and loved, his opposition to the war that destroyed it, the inter-war years in Austria, and finally the cold winds of WWII that obliterated his home. Shortly after finishing the book in 1942, with Hitler at the height of his power, Stefan and his wife (exiled to Brazil) killed themselves.

Stefan, by reason of his writing successes and pacifist leanings managed to avoid the worst deprivations of the war — he was never sent to the front, for example. But he does provide a paint a vivid portrait of the world before and after the war and his encounters with artists and intellectuals of all stripes from all over Europe. He constantly holds to an ideal of pan-European brotherhood and the desire for personal freedom and improvement. It was a very moving book and while more of an autobiography than a history story, I really enjoyed it. The parallels between Europe’s rush to war compared to our own post-9/11 actions give one a bit of pause. Even if Zweig romanticizes his world of yesterday, it’s a very appealing romance.

Later
Tom

Everything Reviews Apart

Hey,

So for some cheery reading, let’s read books about societies coming apart at the seams!

First up: Dancin—in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason K. Stearns. I’ve had an interest in the various African conflicts for awhile now and the Congolese wars of the past two decades has been one of the real standouts. This book provides an excellent overview of what became an incredibly complex conflict. Mr. Stearns worked for a UN panel investigating Congo rebels and he has laid out this tragedy both in it’s broad strokes and subtle nuances. He points to the host of factors that lead to the conflicts and how the fires of war kept feeding themselves.

In the end, Stearns talks about what the International community can and should do. And here, I think Stearns really does a great job. Conflicts in places like the Congo can often make us throw up our hands in exasperation. Western colonialism planted a lot of the seeds for the current problems and half-hearted international attention is often mis-directed. Still, Stearns feels there are ways in which the wider world can help out the people of the Congo, despite the serious problems and he offers a number of ideas.

I really liked this book. It’s probably one of the most clear-eyed looks at what happened (and is happening) in the Congo today. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to better understand what’s going on.

The second book goes from Africa’s Great War to Europe’s. I have a bit of a fascination for the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of WWI and to get a sense of what it was like for one who lived through it, I picked up Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday. Stefan Zweig was an author and intellectual who was born in the late 1800’s in Vienna. He describes the Empire he knew and loved, his opposition to the war that destroyed it, the inter-war years in Austria, and finally the cold winds of WWII that obliterated his home. Shortly after finishing the book in 1942, with Hitler at the height of his power, Stefan and his wife (exiled to Brazil) killed themselves.

Stefan, by reason of his writing successes and pacifist leanings managed to avoid the worst deprivations of the war — he was never sent to the front, for example. But he does provide a paint a vivid portrait of the world before and after the war and his encounters with artists and intellectuals of all stripes from all over Europe. He constantly holds to an ideal of pan-European brotherhood and the desire for personal freedom and improvement. It was a very moving book and while more of an autobiography than a history story, I really enjoyed it. The parallels between Europe’s rush to war compared to our own post-9/11 actions give one a bit of pause. Even if Zweig romanticizes his world of yesterday, it’s a very appealing romance.

Later
Tom