Sunday, October 6, 2002		Books

History of the 20th century in a capsule
Kanwalpreet

Challenge to Civilization: A History of the 20th Century (1952-1999)
by Martin Gilbert. Harper Collins, London. Pages 1072. $ 6.00

A work of great research written in a reader-friendly style, this book by Martin Gilbert helps one comprehend the happenings in the world during the last century. While going into detail about the events, occurring in America, China, the USSR, India, Sri Lanka or Vietnam, the writer makes you realise that a country may be geographically large or small, but it definitely has a positive or negative aspect on other parts of the world. It is not the size but the issues and conflicts, which may arise from a country, that have to be studied.

The book discusses America and its role in trying to shape and mould the world in this century and also the challenge from China and the defunct USSR. It is a well-known fact that America burnt its fingers in Vietnam, but through this great work we come to know the dilemma of the successive American Presidents, the attack on Vietnam and then people’s voice urging the American President to stop slaughtering their men in the war-machine. Martin Gilbert has written about the soldiers who died in Vietnam and how their death affected the popular opinion. On the other hand, he narrates gruesome killings of the common people in Vietnam and how at times they were ruthlessly left to die for the war that had stopped the people from thinking rationally.

The Communist giant China, especially its political system, has been dealt with a deft hand. The author has, of course, written in detail about Mao, but he also tells very interesting incidents about the administration under him, which used the instrument of propaganda to the hilt to expand its influence.

Each chapter is preceded with quotations of some leader or organisation, which shows the trend of that year. The facts have been taken care of and combined with incidents of that time. Be it the cold war or the break-up of the USSR, each topic has been dealt with in a very intricate manner. The topic of the nuclear arms race, how it originated and then accelerated, taking the world on the path of self-destruction, has been discussed in detail.

He also traces the breakdown of the USSR into 15 republics. Painting Gorbachev as the man who heralded the revolution and then was swept aside by the rapid sequence of events, he talks of the USSR as a giant that fell like a mighty tree, affecting the region around it. ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glasnost’ made people understand the words—renew, reinvigorate and restructure—in a completely new light.

With each chapter covering one year, the book makes it easy for a reader who wants particular information for he can easily browse through the required year. The set of photographs in the book is unique as it is not time bound. It is a chilly reminder as to how hardhearted human beings can become. For example, a photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams shows South Vietnamese police chief Brigadier Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan execute a Vietnam captive with a single pistol shot in the head in Saigon. This photograph, the author tells by quoting people, shocked people all over the world. Besides this, there are photographs of events like a soldier escaping from East Germany across the Berlin Wall, the plight of Hutu children in a refugee camp in Rwanda, the Vietnamese in their shelters at the time of bomb attacks, the Chinese soldiers reading from the Red Book, a beach near Cape town, South Africa, with a sign saying, ‘White Persons only,’ etc. In all there are 52 photographs, which certainly speak for themselves. Besides the illustrations there are maps of different countries, including the latest ones of Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina: the Dayton Agreement, etc.