New and Noteworthy - Reviews - 7 books - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2002

WEIDENFELD AND NICOLSON's 'Lives' series is now well established and we have two new titles to examine. The first is Jane Smiley's Charles Dickens ([pounds sterling]12.99). The author admits that biographies of Dickens abound and that scholars' investigations have almost given us too much information. She does not state a second factor that affects writing a short biography: one simply hasn't got room to squeeze in everything Dickens did. The solution, a wise one, is to 'evoke Dickens as he might have seemed to his contemporary audience, to friends and relatives, to intimate acquaintances, to himself, filling in the background only as he became willing to address it in his work'. As a novelist herself she brings an understanding often denied to the biographer or the academic. As she says, Dickens' novels 'shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels'. This is a most enjoyable as well as learned book which will give readers the 'growing intimacy' with Dickens which is Miss Smiley's stated aim. The sec ond new title in this series is Paul Johnson's Napoleon ([pounds sterling]12.99). Mr Johnson has never been a man to mince words and outrage has become something of his hallmark. In this biography we see a rather unattractive Napoleon, 'an opportunist who seized on the accident of the French Revolution to propel himself into supreme power'. The Bonapartist legacy includes German nationalism, total warfare, 'the secret police, large-scale professional espionage, government propaganda machines, and the faking of supposedly democratic movements, elections and plebiscites' and, in time 'the totalitarian state of the twentieth century'. Mr Johnson's passion keeps up the pace and his hostility gives him an 'angle' from which to tell his story. It remains a 'good read' and probably no less than Bonaparte deserves.

Another series that has established a good reputation for itself is the 'Profiles in Power' from LONGMAN. New releases include two titles on twentieth century statesmen. The first is John A. Thompson's Woodrow Wilson ([pounds sterling]15.99 p.b.). Like other books in this series this is not so much a biography as a study of a man who was U.S. President for eight years and who played such a large, and to many, devastating, role in European affairs during and after the Great War, Mr Thompson's aim is to 'describe and interpret the part played by Wilson in these momentous developments'. The author pays less attention to Wilson's private affairs not just because his aim is not to write a biography but because the President's private life 'had much less importance in determining his behaviour than some biographies ... have suggested'. His narrative format helps readers see how Wilson responded to and shaped the political environment of his day. The author refers to 'the flexibility with which he changed his positi on on issues' and argues that one cannot see the President's career as a single-minded attempt to 'reform human affairs in accordance with some higher, or Christian, ideal'. It was under Wilson's guidance that the United States became a great power. The price that Wilson paid was to pander to the Americans' view that their moral perspective was the best basis for this power, a legacy that has both inspired and limited America's role ever since. This is a fair and balanced study of Wilson, his strengths and weaknesses.

The second new 'profile in power' is Ronald Irving's Adenauer ([pounds sterling]16.99 p.b.), a study of Germany's most famous post-war Chancellor. The author, who has already written on Europe's Christian Democratic parties, sets out to examine to what extent Adenauer's upbringing influenced his later career. Mr Irving also pays considerable attention to Adenauer's time as Mayor of Cologne and to his war-time experiences including his imprisonment after the July plot against Hitler. Most of the book is naturally devoted to Adenauer's time as Chancellor between 1949 and 1963, to his importance in creating the Paris-Bonn (now Berlin) axis that controls the E.U. and to his work to build up the CDU. Mr Irving accepts that Adenauer sometimes exceeded the constitutional restraints on his office and was a difficult man with whom to work. But he was a man who had learnt from the past, especially the Nazi past, and his vision for a democratic Germany left a lasting mark on the new Republic. In delineating the two stra nds -- individual initiative and historical conditioning -- this is a model study.

LONGMAN has also gained considerable fame for its wide range of historical 'Companions' which have proved invaluable to undergraduates and general readers. In recent months two new titles have appeared. The first is The Longman Companion to Central and Eastern Europe since 1919 edited by Adrian Webb. Eastern Europe is here defined as those countries formerly in the Soviet bloc (but not part of the USSR) but also includes Austria, Albaula and former Yugoslavia with some reference to Greece. After a short but useful survey of the background to 1919 we have an historical chronology followed by discussions, usually in a chronological form, of government and politics, foreign policy, the economy, the environment, human statistics, culture, biographies, a glossary and a bibliographical essay. The second new title is N. J. Crowson's The Longman Companion to the Conservative Party since 1830. Despite its present sad state the Conservative party was one of the decisive forces in Victorian Britain and dominated the pol itical life of the twentieth century. This Companion gives readers information about the party's leaders, cabinets and electoral results. There are useful chronologies from 1832 to 2001, discussions on the party's organisation and the nature of the Parliamentary party, on relations between the party and various geographic regions and on the party and important aspects of British life such as trade unions or coloured immigration. Finally there is a section devoted to biographies of leading Conservatives, a glossary of useful terms and a bibliography. As with other Longman Companions this will prove a gold-mine of information for readers and researchers. Both titles are priced at [pounds sterling]19.99 paperback.