Highly recommended by Curtis Yarvin. Snippets told in a strictly chronological order that together shall tell the tale, I presume, of ww2.

5574. Human Smoke The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, by Nicholson Baker (read 7 Aug 2018 re-read 25 Nov 2022) This 2008 book relates events leading to the start of World Was II, up through 1941. It emphasizes the evils of the Nazis re the Jews and the statements and acts of the the British and Americans as to what they will do to the Nazis and the Japanese and the people they rule. The author delights in quoting those who vigorously wanted to make the people as well as their leaders suffer, seeming to imply that only opposition to the actual wrongdoers should be imposed and those who who simply lived in the enemy countries should not suffer for their leaders' evilness. I found the accounts of events of interest and so the book was easy to read, even though the viewpoint of the author often struck me as impractical. ( I read this book in 2018 and re-reading it now was an inadvertence..) ( )

This chronological collection of anecdotes documenting the lead-up into WWII adds up to a profound argument for pacifism. What emerges is not a Good War of Allies vs Axis but rather a global tragedy brought about by warmongers on all sides--Hitler's crazed aggression is joined by the distressingly Cheneyesque lies and manipulations of Churchill and even FDR.

There's the failure of the allies to allow more Jewish emigration out of Germany before it was too late, the multi-year British naval blockade to starve Germany and then occupied Europe, the American naval oil embargo on Japan and military collaboration with Japan's enemy China, FDR's decision to leave the entire American fleet holed up at Pearl Harbor despite numerous warnings that a Japanese attack was inevitable, and much more. There are also sane and reasonable pacifist voices, notably Gandhi, the American congresswoman Jeannette Rankin and numerous relief societies--even Herbert Hoover, who argued against the food embargos, sounds a note of humanity.

My one gripe is that the book wholly consists of discrete chunks, usually just a paragraph or so long, which are separated by far too much white space--probably half the paper surface in the paperback edition is blank. Seems like a waste and making the book about 40% bigger and heavier than it need be. ( )

Rather than attributing some undisclosed motivation to the author, I'd suggest that Human Smoke is more of an history for the thinking person. Hardly an history in the official historic sense, primarily because the narrative is almost entirely organic, Human Smoke presents you with the relevant facts insofar as Nicholson Baker sees it (which, in my view, seems reasonably holistic and nonpartisan). The entire reading follows a chronological timeline of newspaper articles, diary entries, official memoranda, steno'd dialogues, radio announcements, and propaganda leaflets beginning in 1914 through to the end of 1941, just after US entry into the war.

The organic history is a reflection of reality. It's confusing, it's hard to determine who was right and who was wrong and, to me, that's the point. Reality isn't a nice intuitive story written for the screen nor does it resemble the cadence of a nice work of fiction or fairytale. The organic history is the substance of reality which enables the reader to discern the significance of events for themselves (not in the absolute sense, but merely the history to which the reader is most attuned). History is never so simple or definitive, however, it ironically offers us countless examples where one institution or another sought to convince the world otherwise. For all of that, Human Smoke is worth a read. ( )

ZERO stars, actually, but there is no way to indicate that and I don't want anyone to think I didn't leave a rating!

This is the most maddening, dishonest book I have perhaps ever read--especially considering the importance of the subject. From a world of possible texts, Baker selects those that best demonize the British, such as accounts of apparently every bomb that missed its target, and leaves out essential facts, such as the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria and the Hitler-Stalin pact, to somehow hint that Britain and America were mostly responsible for the length and horrors of WW2, including the Holocaust, which could have just been avoided by accepting peace with Germany and Japan.

A case in point: I'm disturbed at Baker's sections that describe China and Japan. They give the impression that somehow China was provoking Japan by having American assistance, by buying planes, etc. What is totally missing from Baker's book is that Japan had already invaded and occupied part of China--Manchuria--in 1932 and created the puppet state of Manchukuo (nominally ruled by Pu Yi, the now-grown Last Emperor as you may recall from the Bertolucci film). Therefore, it isn't any surprise that China might be a bit wary and looking to defend itself against the expansionist Japanese. To his credit, Baker does include the Japanese Rape of Nanking (Nanjing), but without the proper context, the truth of what happened is missing.

Context is a big issue throughout the book. This is not to say that it doesn't contain some interesting parts and some truth. I'm assuming that each entry is at least accurate in its depiction, so it lets us see what was being said by a variety of observers, including Western pacifists, a very naive Mahatma Gandhi, and people within the territory of the German Reich. Certainly, the sections that deal with Franklin Roosevelt's anti-Semitism are well-founded. And Baker loves to point out every folly of Winston Churchill, such as his initial admiration for Mussolini and Hitler. Churchill indeed got a lot wrong, but in the end, he helped save Britain and Western Civilization, as a much better book, Erik Larson's "The Splendid and the Vile" demonstrates. By any account, however, the Western indifference to the plight of the Jews that Baker highlights is appalling.

There is a second unforgivable omission: As he describes the lead-up to the German invasion of Poland, Baker totally neglects to mention the pact between Hitler and Stalin to divide the country up! I certainly hope no one is reading this book as their first introduction to World War II. Their understanding would be hopelessly muddled. Later, he mentions that Hitler talks about going to war against the Soviet Union because it is a potential ally of Britain--again without pointing out that up until the Nazi invasion, the Soviet Union was a nominal ally of Germany!

Ideally, one should separate politics from literature. Baker can be an interesting author; "The Mezzanine" is a classic of small details, for instance. But "Human Smoke" is such a treacherous, despicable pack of lies that I wouldn't be able to read anything else he has written with any amount of objectivity. ( )