The War's Long Shadow : the Second World War and its Aftermath : China, Russia, Britain, America / Bradley F. Smith

Argues that the social, economic, and political upheavals that culminated in World War II brought about a redistribution of power that has shaped the post-war countries

Smith contends that most of the diplomatic phenomena of the postwar era are "the natural consequence" of the dynamics of the war itself. The wartime experiences of China, Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States are here recounted in terms of the way postwar patterns were set. The author argues that while China fell into economic and political chaos after 1945, and Britain slumped to the second or third rank, a "greater awareness of international relations" led the Soviet Union and the U.S. to accept as necessary some of the obligations of international power. He discusses how the Korean War undermined the stabilizing trend of the years 194849, with American militarization forcing the Soviets into an armaments program of their own, thus beginning a series of arms races that continue to this day. This leisurely historical meditation preaches to the already converted. Smith is the author of The Shadow Warriors.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Smith's ( The Road to Nuremberg) main thesis seems to be that historians have heretofore ignored the enormous impact that the social, political, and economic upheavals of World War II had on the postwar world, having been blinded by ideological differences or at least affected by a myopic nationalism. Smith maintains that he has corrected this shortcoming, placing the international arena of the 1940s into its proper historical sequence. Though his claim is absurd, on the simplest level Smith's version of history is quite readable. He covers the United States, USSR, Germany, and Britain. His book is filled with odd and interesting statistics (e.g., he reminds us that 85 percent of German casualties were suffered on the Eastern front). Despite these tidbits, the book cannot be recommended for its value as history. Jeff Northrup, Birmingham P.L., Ala.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.