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 enlarge | Author: Nicholson Baker
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 129911
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 1416567844
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5311
EAN: 9781416567844
ASIN: 1416567844
Publication Date: March 11, 2008
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Condition: Good Condition: may have light corner bends, scuff marks, wear to dust cover, etc. 100% of your purchase supports Goodwill Industries of San Diego County
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Brave, If Irritating, Work May 7, 2008
16 out of 22 found this review helpful
I am a tremendous fan of Nicholson Baker. I find him to be one of the best prose stylists in America today. I find his work to be eminently readable--absorbing, subtly subversive, sometimes irritating, certainly entertaining. Even when I disagree with him, whether that be the conclusions he draws in his non-fiction or some outrageousness in his fiction, I love to read him.
Human Smoke joins Baker's oeuvre as one of his best pieces of non-fiction. In it, he gives us a different perspective on the lead-up and first years of World War II. Essentially, it is his desire to show us how the Allies, Churchill and Roosevelt, in particular, brought on the war, committed atrocities and enabled the Nazis and Japanese to commit their atrocities. For example, the British engaged in haphazard bombing in Europe forcing the Luftwaffe to start the Battle of Britain while Roosevelt gave the Chinese planes and crews and positioned the Pacific fleet to egg on the Japanese, knowing in advance Pearl Harbor would be attacked, drawing us into the war just as he wished.
In point of fact, almost no one in this book comes off well. The pacifists look rather pathetic as they are dragged off to jail while Gandhi encourages people to stand and be slaughtered rather than defend themselves. Jews and non-Jews alike seem in denial about what is going on in Nazi-controlled territories. The only people who come off half-way decent are ones you wouldn't expect: people like Herbert Hoover who works to relieve the suffering of children in Europe, and Hitler who constantly seems to be pushing for peace treaties, responding to provocation and pushing Jews to emigrate.
Now, though much of what Baker is reporting is true, he is, of course, rather selective in his reporting. And I didn't walk away from this book changing my feelings about Churchill, Roosevelt, or Hitler, for that matter. Much of what Baker talks about in this book are things with which I was already familiar. Still, it is good to be reminded of the fact that in big historical events like this, there is always more going on than meets the eye. Politicians, no matter how decent, are playing deep, complex games that even they can probably not fully articulate.
And when it comes right down to it, Baker writes so well. I love the structure of this book. It reads and in some ways appears on the page as a series of telegrams. Each "message" is dated and comes across as pure reportage based, as it is, on sources from the time. As we all know, primary sources such as newspapers and letters can be as deceiving and self-serving as any other form of media but it still makes for wonderful reading.
Baker takes a series risk with this book. The Allies in World War II were the "Greatest Generation" and taking them to task does not seem like a wise road to popularity. On the other hand, those people not automatically turned off by Baker's premise will find a lot of interest here. My respect for people is rarely swayed by knowing that they are flawed, human, and products of their time. If you are the same, I recommend this book to you.
An incredible and inciteful look at important history. May 5, 2008
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
This telling of the story of the buildup to our involvement in World War Two is unique and opens up the mind to an understanding of the men and ideas behind World War II. It also reveals the utter hypocrisy that underlies most wars. There were no good guys. Just the bad guys fighting each other. As one historian has put it, "World War Two was a lie versus a half truth", and I think he was being generous. Most importantly, it did not have to happen. This book is a must. I've dog eared and written so many notes in mine I need to buy another one to loan out.
Is war ever necessary? April 30, 2008
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
The title of Baker's book comes from one of Hitler's "restive but compliant generals," Franz Halder. Imprisoned at Auschwitz at the end of the war, Halder saw "flakes of smoke blow into his cell. Human smoke, he called it."
And therein lies the problem and the challenge for Baker, who dedicates his book to the war's hardworking pacifists. "They failed, but they were right," says Baker. But how does he illustrate that this "good war" was no such thing? That there is never any such thing as a good war?
The book is a massive project, though less than 500 pages long. Working from newspaper accounts, speeches, memoirs, letters, diaries and some secondary sources like the books of Martin Gilbert, a British-Jewish historian and official biographer of Churchill, Baker has organized a chronological assemblage of events and reactions leading up to WWII and ending in December 1941 after the US entered the war. There are 70 pages of source notes.
Some entries are only a paragraph or two; others are several pages. A kaleidoscope of viewpoints, the book creates strong impressions of those behind the war, especially Churchill, Hitler and FDR, and those (unlike its leaders) who suffered.
Readers will be familiar with much - casual, widespread anti-Semitism, Roosevelt's desire to get the US into the war, Churchill's determination to win at all costs, Japanese atrocities in China, Hitler's rabid racism. But the building detail and the personal context of many of the pieces creates a strong emotional involvement and a grim, suspense-like tension.
The overall feeling is one of growing momentum but all along the way there are moments when, maybe, things could have been different. Sparks of resistance, reluctant armies, voices counseling reason. The leaders' pronouncements, in contrast, are designed to inflame.
But as Baker creates a feeling of sadness and sympathy for all those civilians Churchill ruthlessly, passionately, consigned to bombs or starvation (he believed civilian suffering would hasten the war's end) the quotes from Hitler and his henchmen are so awful it is difficult to see how even Gandhi could prescribe nonviolence.
From the earliest days Hitler makes it clear his intention is world domination. " `There should be only three major powers in the world' Hitler said. ` the British Empire, the Americas, and the German Empire of the future.' " This was 1934.
Hitler's intent to rid Germany of Jews - through fantasy euphemisms of deportation to Africa, Palestine, Madagascar and the Dominican Republic - gave rise to a constant foment of increasing hatred, culminating in "the final solution."
In 1938 Gandhi wrote, " `My sympathies are all with the Jews. If ever there could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified.' " But there could never be a justifiable war. Gandhi counseled Germany's Jews to passive resistance, unto death.
In 1941 the commander of Auschwitz calmly describes the first gassing of 900 naked Russian prisoners who thought they were to be deloused. Later, he wrote, " `I must even admit that this gassing set my mind at rest,' he said, `for the mass extermination of the Jews was to start soon, and at the time neither Eichmann nor I was certain as to how these mass killings were to be carried out.' "
Churchill's bloodthirsty ruthlessness is scary - from the first glory is a more important concept to him than human life. Reflecting on Britain at the brink of war: " `There was a white glow, overpowering, sublime, which ran through our island from end to end.' " No wonder the Brits got rid of him the minute the war was over.
But none of the leaders, dispassionately disposing of civilian and military lives, can hold a candle to Hitler's monstrousness. In the end, Baker convinces this reader that war is always horrible and never moral and the people should guard themselves against emotional manipulation and hold their leaders to account. However, some wars, however horrible, are necessary.
 He used Wikipedia to check facts? April 30, 2008
14 out of 53 found this review helpful
He used Wikipedia to check facts and yet he wants to be taken seriously as an author of non-fiction? Oh my!
 A different view. April 27, 2008
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
An insightful, provocative look at World War II, the lead up to it and its horrific ending. The writing is terse. Facts and data are presented without editorializing to great effect. My concept of what transpired during those years has been changed significantly.
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