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I purchased these two delightfully enlightening books at a book store recently for the grand sum indicated in the title, and couldn't wait to delve into the interesting research contained within their pages. As it turns out, I would graciously pay much more for each in hardback as permanent members of my personal and ever expanding library.
The first, "Hiroshima - The World's Bomb" exposes facts surrounding not just the Manhattan Project, but the similar nuclear ambitions in Russia, Germany, and Japan; albeit also exposing the dilemmas faced by each nation in their quest to split the atom in a weaponised fashion. It addresses the moral quandaries faced by those in positions of power, the scientists, the spies, and the military industrialists who pushed for its use. More than anything, it acutely pursues a multi-faceted perspective of before and after viewpoints on the bomb's potential and consequences. In my opinion, it should be mandatory reading for high school students in every nation of the world. Few of us of this generation or those of the past can fathom the world as it existed post WWI through the few years of the beginning of the Cold War. This book digs deep into the facts of what was occurring in each of the warring nations, from the perspective of high-ranking leaders, intellectuals, and politicians down to the lowliest forgotten civilians who became casualties of either the war or time itself. It analyzes prominent political ideologies that, for better or worse, drove the war machines which still influence the opinions of every educated and living person alive today. In the end, I felt a greater sense of introspection towards the indoctrination I had been exposed to in my young and formative years, especially anxieties I experience growing up during the Cold War within walking distance of one of the primary targets of Communist Russian nuclear missiles. I also found myself deeply empathetic to the plight of those whose lives were permanently changed in the millionth of a nanosecond when critical mass was achieved over the New Mexico desert, and then regretfully more so over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The sad reality of the bombs usage is that if history has taught us anything it is that peace and security are as fleeting and fragile as life itself. Nations today are still driven by political, secular, and religious ideologies and the fanatical madmen who feel frightfully supreme when given the power to achieve from afar what they cannot and wouldn't dare to fathom first-hand. With the fall of the USSR in 1989, I slowly began to let go of the fears instilled in my psyche as a child of a nuclear holocaust, but in reality, the doomsday clock is set symbolically at five minutes to midnight, far closer than even during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the proliferation of nuclear technology continually being sought by rogue nations and the reemergence of Soviet aggression, I am fearful that one day soon and with little or no warning, the clock will strike twelve, as it has twice before.
The second, "The Man Who Loved China," of course, appealed to me if for no other reason than the vanity of my egotistic view of myself being this man. After a mere page or two, I surrendered to a far greater lover of China and one whose name is prominently put forth by most of the intellectual communities of China, as well as other western nations as being the genius who uncovered and exposed the truths of Chinese civilization. China had indeed been preeminently ahead of the west in many areas, particularly as it related to science, before somewhere falling far behind after the middle kingdom period. The story itself it of the often bizarre and eccentric genius Joseph Needham, his love triangle with his wife and Chinese lover who helped him learn Chinese. This passion for the language later led him to China, and once there, he began to unravel Chinese history and scientific advancement and revealed in to the Western world over the rest of his life in the form of seven volumes totally over three million words. Inasmuch as I can see the love of a woman driving a man over a precipice, I can say from experience, that she was also catharsis for change within his perspective of how he viewed the greater world around him. This type of story, though not exactly the ideal love story, is one I can appreciate because I can feel his urgency to uncover the unknown aspects of the entire culture which influenced the woman who had so completely captured his heart.
The author of the story presents it in a very stellar and precise narrative form and yet balances it beautifully with descriptive prose indicative of that belonging to a master storyteller. After reading the book, I sought out the author on youtube and watched several presentations he made over this book, as well as others I will soon purchase, to include: "The Meaning of Everything," " The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary," and "The Fracture Zone: A Return To The Balkans." I found myself mesmerized, as I had previously with author, Frank McCourt, in that as much as I adored the story, to listen to the author discuss the same material, it opens the material along an entirely new level, because you garner a deeper understanding through witty quips, sarcastic innuendo, and other tantalizing tidbits previously unmentioned or added for the purpose of building background. I cannot wait to search out these books and others by the same author to feed my voracious appetite for words laid out beautifully on the printed page.