Book Review: The End: Hitler’s Germany: 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw

Title: The End: Hitler’s Germany: 1944-1945
Author: Ian Kershaw
Publisher: Allen Lane, Penguin Books
ISBN: 978-0-713-99716-3
Genre: Non-Fiction
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

I had never read a single book by Ian Kershaw before “The End”. To be honest, none of his works ever fascinated me and even if they did sometimes, I could not get myself to read them because of my basic preconception: They would be highly pedantic, but I was proved wrong when I picked up The End and could not let go till I had finished reading it.

The End: Hitler’s Germany: 1944-1945 is a clear indication by the title as to what kind of a book this will be. It is about the End days of Hitler’s Germany and how his soldiers and army were still not willing to give up till the very end, despite being fully aware of how this was going to end for them.

A lot has been written on this topic. Almost every World War II historian has made it a point to document and publish the Nazi Regime, and yet something about this book is unique. The very thought and idea of how Hitler’s imagery and perception was so engrained in his regime that even though he was broken man, they fought on regardless, almost unwilling to believe that their demi-god had met his fate – that of ruin.

All this while, as his empire was falling, Hitler tried keeping things normal. From postal service to magazine publication to the day-to-day living – nothing changed. A mask had to be kept on. Ian Kershaw attempts to explore the idea of German people to go down with the regime. He touches upon the structure and mentality of the “charismatic rule” which I personally found very intriguing throughout the book.

Ian Kershaw is an authority on the Third Reich with all that he has written on the topic. Like I said I haven’t read a book by him earlier, however The End has been written with great depth and intensity. Sir Ian Kershaw also focuses on The End as seen through the eyes of commoners – the Germans who instilled all faith in Adolf.

The End closes with the surrender and defeat of Germany. Hitler as well know committed suicide and no one even knew for days on. Civilians suffered and so did soldiers. Everything came to a standstill and despite this earlier Germany continued to fight.

I will not forget this book for a long time because of the kind of impact it had on me. Hitler’s regime ended and the consequences prior and post that were paid by all – especially innocent people. The book did not seem dense or a heavy read to me all. In fact at one point I wished it would not end so soon. A must read for all History lovers.

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Book Review: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Title: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Author: Joshua Foer
Publisher: Allen Lane, Penguin Books
ISBN: 978-1846140297
Genre: Non-Fiction
PP: 320 pages
Price: £14.99
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

I wasn’t expecting great things from this book, since I’m the kind of person who tends to abandon popular science titles halfway through. But it gripped me from the start, probably because the facts are assembled along the spine of a well-written and absorbing narrative of self-discovery.

When science journalist Foer covers the US Memory Championship he’s torn between wonder and pity for the socially challenged, geeky competitors. Surely they can’t be normal people? We’ve all heard of savants who can perform superhuman feats of memory, but as he gets talking to these mental athletes (as they prefer to be described), they all say that it’s a skill anyone is capable of learning, given sufficient commitment to practice several hours a week.

When the young English memory champion Ben Cooke offers to tutor him, Foer agrees to test the hypothesis that within a year a regular guy like him can improve his memory sufficiently to compete in the US Memory Championship – and that’s where things get really interesting. Cooke trains him in the “Memory Palace” technique, a time-honoured strategy to make random memories stick by turning them into vivid (sometimes rude) images and locating them in various locations in a building that exists inside the mind. It sounds flaky, but the point behind the device is that we are hard-wired to remember the physical details of our environments better than strings of intellectual information.

And it has a long and venerable history, covered by Foer in one of the book’s most interesting chapters. We have numerous modern devices to store information for us, but that wasn’t always so. At one time, when books were scarce and expensive, humanity’s ability to retain and pass on knowledge depended almost entirely on remembering it by heart, and in the ancient world a person was judged by their ability to be a good memorizer. We’re tapping into an inborn, universal mental ability that has been neglected for generations.

This is a fascinating journey through the arcane circuit of the super-memorizers of the world circuit, a tale of personal determination and triumph, a quest to discover what words like “ordinary” really mean. Foer talks with some interesting people along the way – Tony Buzan (whom he admires but distrusts, without quite knowing why), ‘Brainman’ Daniel Tammett and, most heartbreaking, an elderly American man who can’t remember anything that happened to him since he was twenty years old, and exists in an eternal present. Whilst this isn’t a self-help book that will take you through strategies to improve your own memory (try Tony Buzan for that), it does challenge us to rethink our assumptions and consider how concentrated effort can improve human performance in multiple areas. It worked for Foer (he won the 2006 US Memory Championship) and even for me – I built my own little memory palace and can remember my car registration number at last – I just think of a bee outside my front door, then a kangaroo, then the flat where I used to live…

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Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Book Review: Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven

Title: Pakistan: A Hard Country
Author: Anatol Lieven
Publisher: Allen Lane, Penguin Books
ISBN: 978-1846144578
Genre: Non-Fiction
PP: 576 pages
Price: Rs. 599
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Every country has two facets. The public and the private. It is but of course the private that one is most after – the eagerness to know more and be able to make sense of it. Pakistan as a country has been quite mysterious. Like a detective novel enticing the reader and arousing almost all senses. That is Pakistan for you. It has become important for probably all the wrong reasons and yet one doesn’t know the true country. This book is one of the many who attempt to know Pakistan and go beyond what is visible to the eye,.

If I had to review the book `Pakistan: A Hard Country’ in one line I would say it is brilliant. The book is well researched, informative, insightful, but most of all for a country that finds itself often in headline news for the wrong reasons, empathetic.

Pakistan is an enigma for even its own citizens. Mr Lieven loosens the knot of this enigma one thread at a time. Lieven has spent many years in the country and the region as a journalist. The network, knowledge and understanding he has assembled is evident each page of the book. What is more, he explains the country not just to western readers. His analysis opens new space for Pakistani readers too. The book is written with that empathy and insight. It makes you often wonder about Pakistan and India (parallels will be drawn) and how the two countries have grown since Independence and the fate of the two.

Lieven leads the reader through an apparent chaotic labyrinth that for many defines Pakistan. Step by step, he picks up each strand of the country’s many facets: its politics, social structure, economy and security to weave a narrative that explains a country and its many problems. Pakistan’s apparent follies no longer remain unique to the country. Its rent seeking and insensitive elite has its counterparts in many countries around the world. Its citizens’ penchant to put the blame for all of the country’s problems on foreign governments and their inability to own up to responsibility too is not unusual. Lieven contextualizes Pakistani attitudes in its social structure. He dedicates chapters to each of Pakistan’s four provinces. They reveal a country diverse in many ways and yet integrated by common values and shared insecurities.
Among all these currents, Lieven leaves the reader reassured.

Despite many natural disasters and challenges resulting from the follies of its governing class, the Pakistani people retain their heads above water. Through hope and surprising self-belief, the larger Pakistani population not only survives, but also believes in a better country for their children. Lieven feels that the country is too important to be given the capricious treatment it has so often received from its allies. The focus on Afghanistan must not detract from Pakistan’s centrality. There will be no stability in the region without progress in Pakistan. Any military adventure against the country would not just be counterproductive. It may be a catastrophe.

Lieven’s lucid prose is alive with details of personal anecdotes that enrich and strengthen his narrative. Perhaps the definitive work on Pakistan and one to be read by all those interested in the country and the region.